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ACTS A N D MONUMENT S,
BY
JOHN FOXE.
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THE
ACTS AND MONUMENTS
OF
THE CHURCH;
CONTAINING THE HISTORY AND SUFFERINGS OF
THE MARTYRS:
WHEREIN IS SET FORTH AT LARGE THE WHOLE RACE AND COURSE OF THE
CHURCH, FROM THE PRIMITIVE AGE TO THESE LATER TIMIIB.
A PRELIMINxVRY DISSERTATION
OS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHUECH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
AND THE ANCIENT CHUECH OP EOME THAT THEN WAS.
/
BY JOHN FOXE.
WITH A MEMOIE OF THE AUTHOE, BY HIS SOJT.
A NEW EDITION,
WITH FIVE APPENDICES, CONTAINING
ACCOUNTS OF
THE MASSACEKS IN^ FEANCE ; THE DESTEUCTIOX OF THE SPANISH AKMADA ;
THE lEISU EEBELLION i:jf THE TEAK 1641; THE GUNPOWDER TREASON; AND A TEAOTi
SHOWING THAT THE EXECUTIONS OF PAPISTS IN QUEEN ELIZABETU's EEIGN
WEEE FOK TEEA60N, AND NOT FOE HEEESY.
THE WHOLE CAREFULLY REVISED, OORRECTED, AND CONDENSED.
BY
THE EEV. M. HOBAUT SEYMOUR, M.A.,
AUTHOR OF "a PILGRIMAGE TO ROME."
NEW YORK :
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
285 BROADWAY.
1855.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
The energies exhibited of late, by tho emissaries of the Church of Rome, for the re-estab-
lishment of her influence in this country, have loudly demanded the republication of those
works with which our forefathers withered her influence, and baSled her energies. There is
no volume in the range of our literature, that has been more effective in maintaining the
principles of the Reformation — that noblest of all achievements — than the Acts and Monu-
ments of Martyrs, by Master John Foxe. It is this conviction which has induced the pre-
sent edition of that admirable work.
When we speak of the Church of Rome, we speak of a religious, though a fatally erring
community. But when we speak of the Papacy, we allude to an ecclesiastical system, which
not only teaches such absurdities as Transubstaiitiation — such blasphemies as the Sacrifice of
the Mass — such idolatry as the Worship of Saints — and such a novelty as her Creed, but
also has elevated an Italian Bishop to the throne of an Italian Prince, who has territories, and
broad domains, and numerous subjects of his own, and placed him in such a peculiar position,
that he can bind, by solemn oaths, and demand allegiance from, a portion of the subjects of
every other prince. This man — combining in himself the offices of Priest and King — has
been raised to such a lofty pinnacle of secular authority, that he can control, punish, or re-
ward a portion of the subjects of other Princes, so as to secure to himself the service and
fealty of all those who, as members of the priesthood, possess eitber power or influence in
other states. We must not regard this as a purely spiritual power, for those persons are bound
by the most solemn oaths — not to defend the royalties of their liege sovereign, but — to de-
fend, to the utmost of their power, the usurped or pretended royalties of this Italian Bishop,
in the heart of every other state. It is a fearful, and a melancholy fact, that in our own fair
England, palmy and beautiful England — the land of the brave, and the home of the free — there
should be many hundreds of men, holding and wielding a certain influence in the land, who
have been appointed by this foreign potentate, who ought to have no authority in this realm,
and who have sworn — not to maintain the royalties of the sovereign of England, but — to
maintain the royalties of this Italian Prince.*
As loyal subjects of the sovereign of England, and as liege subjects of the King of kings,
we never can consent that this Italian Potentate should possess authority in this realm. We
feel that the experience of this nation, and the history of the world have proved, that he ex-
ercises his authority to minister to his own ambition, and to the degradation of mankind, and
that the ecclesiastical system of Rome is a mighty confederacy against the civil liberties, and
religious privileges of man. We likewise feel that the emissaries of this system have never
been very scrupulous as to the means of accomplishing their ends. It may be the darkening
• The Court of Rome has at present — A.D. 1850— above eight hundred Missionaiy Priests in England.
A
ii EDITOR'S PREFACE.
of a nation's glory, as in the time of King John of England. It may be the sundering of all
the civil ties of man, as in the history of the German emperors. It may be the massacre of
thousands, as in France, on the day of St. Bartholomew. It may be the tortures of an In-
quisition, as in the atmosphere of Spain. It may be the most terrible persecution, as in the
reign of Mary, of England. Any, and all means are alike welcome to accomplish the objects
of that church, and there is at all times an ample agency, in the Bishops, and Priests — in the
Monks and Friars of Rome. By such agency and such means the most potent Monarchs of
Europe have been humbled; the most noble Princes of Christendom have been ruined; Em-
perors have been dethroned, and Kings trampled under foot; Nations have flowed with blood,
and Kingdoms have been broken into dust — all to satiate the ambition of an Italian Priest,
who, while professing to be meek and lowly, compelled imperial potentates to kiss his feet,
and accept their crowns and kingdoms at his hands.
When we contemplate this system — though shorn of much of its power and splendour —
concentrating its energies in connexion with all the peculiar doctrines and discipline of the
Church of Eome, and endeavouring with all its powers to re-establish her influence in this
country, it is high time for every lover of religious liberty, and every friend of civil freedom
to make those efforts which seem best calculated to prevent so terrible a calamity.
The Church of Rome has never abandoned her claim to this country; and from the age of
the Reformation to the present time, she has repeated her efi'orts to re-assert that claim with
an untiring perseverance. We shall touch on the chief of those efi'orts which she has made
from time to time in this country.
In the time of good King Edward VI. the Church of England was completely emancipated
from the influence of these Italian ecclesiastics. The stately and venerable pile which had
been marred by the hand of time, was restored to its primitive beauty. Its goodly pillars,
that had been overgrown with the mould of years; and its noble arches, that had been over-
spread with many corruptions, were cleared of all that deformed them. The minions of
Priestcraft, who had made it a den of thieves, and had driven their merchandise of men's
souls within her porches, were removed, and the Church of England returned to her original
and apostolic purity. Had the life of this young and gentle Prince been spared, the religious
freedom of England had been established beyond the possibility of danger. But it was the
purpose of God to scourge this nation with a scourge of scorpions, so as to teach us to cherish
an undying hatred of the whole system of Popery, that the memory of its horrors, and its
cruelties, might live in the minds of our children, and our children's children, that so there
might be cherished among us a high and unwavering resolve that it should never again be
established in this country. Edward was taken to his rest, and Mary ascended the throne.
We know not what feminine amiabilities she may have naturally possessed, but we do know
that she surrendered herself into the hands of the Italian Priests, and they, to use the lan-
guage of our Redeemer, " made her two-fold more the child of hell than themselves."
It was on the accession of this queen that the Papacy made its first efiective eflforts to re-
establish its influence in this land; Mary, with more zeal than prudence, restored the reign
of Popery. To that reign we are to look for a true portraiture of this Italian religion, when
possessing influence in a Protestant nation. It is not by the unauthorised professions of mo-
dern members of that system, softened and attenuated for a purpose, that we are to look
for a living exhibition of its character, but we are to read the records of those times, wherein
the Papacy possessed the power of accomplishing its own purposes, and unfolding its own
characteristics. If we desire to know the fierceness of the lion, or the ferocity of the tiger,
we must view them, not with their teeth drawn, and their claws extracted, and confined
within cages of iron, but as in their native wildness they range the forest, or crouch in the
juncde. We must form our judgment of the nature of Popery, not from her present chained
and fettered state, but from the tendencies she displayed when she possessed power and in-
fluence in the nation, and could without restraint accomplish her purposes.
EDITOR'S PREFACE. lU '
The peculiar characteristic of the effort made in this reign to restore the dominion of the
Papacy was Persecution. Mary commenced her career. with a fearful abandonment of moral
principle. She pledged herself to the men of Norfolk and Suffolk, who had embraced the
principles of the Reformation, that if tliey would assist in placing her upon the throne, she
would never interfere with the Protestant principles of the nation. On this pledge she in-
duced them to take arms in her cause, and they placed her triumphantly on the throne.
Her whole reign was one continued act of perfidy to that pledge.* The system of persecu-
tion which she put in force, was the most awful exhibition of cruelty, and cold and deliberate
blood-guiltiness, that the records of our race present to us. There may have been at other
times, and in other lands, persecution as terrible and as bloody; but this continued through
the whole five years of her reign. The loftiest in the land were its martyrs, and a woman
was the perpetrator.
No rank, or virtue, or learning, gave exemption to the possessor — Cranmer, Ridley, Lati-
mer, Hooper, Farrer, — all bishops of the church, were removed from their sees — degraded
from their office — cast into prison, and finally martyred amidst the fires. Many hundreds of
Christian souls were persecuted to the death.t Two persons were publicly appointed in
every parish, to discover and inform against every Protestant who refused to conform to
Popery. They were then apprehended, examined, and, if they still refused, martyred. Many
thousands were thus compelled to fly their homes, their properties, and their country, to seek
in foreign lands a welcome that was denied them in their father-land. Among these fugi-
tives was Master John Foxe, the justly celebrated Author of this justly celebrated Work,
"The Acts and Monuments of Martyrs," wherein we have the only full and faithful narration
of the cruelty of this persecution, in which men, women, children, without regard to age or
sex, were indiscriminately martyred. Sometimes five, and sometimes ten were consumed in
one fire, and on one occasion three women were burned at one stake, and — the blood runs
cold while we write it — when one of them, under the pain of the flames, travailed with child,
and one of the multitude, more humane than the rest, rescued the new-born babe, the autho-
rities commanded it instantly to be burned with its mother! When such scenes were trans-
acted under the authority of one who was herself a woman, we may well feel that there is
an alchemy in Popery, that if it finds us angels can transform us into devils.
The death of this woman, whose only claim u2)on our respect is that, like one of old, she
was " a king's daughter," stayed the work of persecution, and thus rendered ineffectual the
first great effort of the Papacy to re-establish itself in this country. The accession of Eliza-
beth freed the Church of England from Italian influence, and settled it upon surer pillars, and
more steadfast foundations than ever.
The noble spirit of this Queen was such as became the monarch of this gallant nation, over
whose destinies she presided. When, by that act of Popish perfidy — the massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew— the streets of Paris flowed with the blood of her Protestant sons, the French
ambassador appeared at the court of Elizabeth. He looked around for the splendour and
chivalry of England. His cheek paled. The court of Elizabeth was arrayed in the deepest
mourning!
Under her reign this country stood forth the friend and protector of the reformed religion
both at home and abroad, and the grand antagonist of the Papal system. It was therefore
scarcely to be expected that with an enemy so powerful, persevering, and unscrupulous as
Popery, this country could be left in tranquillity. The second great effort for the re-estab-
lishment of the Church of Rome, unfolded a system of internal rebellion and foreign in-
vasion.
Pope Pius was pleased in A. D. 1570, for the accomplishment of this effort, to issue his
* One of the most interesting historical documents ever read, is the petition of these men of Norfolk, and
Suffolk, to the Queen's Council, in the time of persecution. It will be found at p. 913.
+ Grindal, who lived during this period, says the number was 800 ; others estimate it at half that number.
IV EDITOR'S PREFACE.
bull anathematising the Queen of Enirland, and absolving all her subjects of their oaths of
allegiance. " The nobles, subjects, and inhabitants of England," says this audacious n)ani-
festo, " who have in any way sworn to her, we declare to be absolved for ever fiom any such
oath, and from all manner of duty, allegiance, and obedience, as we do by the authority of
these presents absolve them, and do deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended right to the
kingdom, and all other things aforesaid. We command and interdict all nobles, subjects,
people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her mandates, monitions, or laws.
Those who shall act otherwise we bind under a similar sentence of anathema," &c.
This Italian Priest, not contented with thus anathematising the Queen of England, and
blasphemously assuming to absolve the people of England from their allegiance, proceeded to
two other measures that strikingly illustrate the character of the Papacy. He first sent cer-
tain Jesuits into Ireland with bulls, authorising them to raise the inhabitants of that island
in rebellion against England. They unhappily accomplished his purpose there. He then took
upon him to make over the realm of England, its crown, its revenues, and its dependencies
as a gift to Philip of Spain. There too he succeeded in inducing that prince to equip the
celebrated Armada, and prepare for an invasion of England.
Such were the means by which it was proposed to re-establish Popery in this land. Re-
bellion in Ireland — treason in England — a foreign invasion in both!
But, by the Providence of God, the rebellion in Ireland was crushed, the treason in Eng-
land baffled, and the armada of Spain destroyed. We could mourn over the fate of that gal-
lant armament, were we not acquainted with its object. The pomp of the chivalry of Spain,
the flower of all her gallant youth were there. All that high hope could expect from noble
darinf', and all that the enthusiasm of superstition could achieve, might have been expected
there. The voice of Papal infallibility had proclaimed it invincible. It walked the mighty
ocean in its pride. It spread its fluttering wings for the shores of England. But an Angel
of Heaven was moving over it unseen. The winds rushed in their fury above it. The
waves swept in their madness beneath it. There were fearless hearts before them, and mighty
arms to meet them. The chivalry of England manned her fleets, and the yeomanry of Eng-
land lined her shores; and this "invincible armada," scattered on the deep, or stranded on
our cliffs, strewed our shores with the mouldering bones of the youth of Spain.
Thus ended the second great efibrt to restore the influence of Rome in this country. Its
characteristics were rebellion and invasion — suitable precursors of the next attempt of these
Italian Priests.
The vigour of Elizabeth's government was felt even after her death. James I. received a
kin<Tdom, from which the more daring and dangerous spirits had been exiled for their trea-
sons, or had gone into banishment to escape the vengeance of the laws. Those were mem-
bers of the Church of Rome, and devotedly attached to the interests of the Papacy. They
Lad religiously believed that the Papal authority could absolve subjects of their allegiance,
and depose sovereigns from their thrones. They had held that heresy — the designation given
to the reformed faith — was sufficient to lead to a forfeiture of all rights and privileges, and
thev therefore entered eagerly into every conspiracy that was deemed likely to re-establish
the Papacy in its ancient influence in England.
These men resided chiefly in Flanders and Spain, where the members of the Order of Je-
suits were in considerable numbers and activity; Garnet, Creswell, Baldwin, Parsons, and
other celebrated Jesuits, soon obtained an ascendancy over these emigrants, and, with the
deep subtlety, and unwavering courage of their order, implicated them in endless conspiiacies.
It is to the intrigues of this remarkable class of ecclesiastics, that we owe the gunpowder-
treason, which was discovered on the eve of its consummation. They bound each of the agents
of this horrible treason, under an oath of secrecy, administered on receiving the Sacrament!
The form of the oath was, " You shall swear by the blessed Trinity, and by the Sacrament
you now propose to receive, never to disclose, directly or indirectly, by word or circumstance,
the matter which shall be proposed to you, to keep secret, nor desist from the execution
EDITOR S PREFACE. ■^
thereof, until the rest shall give you leave." There must he a frightful amount of human de-
pravity, when a number of ecclesiastics could administer the Sacrament, and swear by the
Trinity to go forward in this terrible conspiracy. It appears, likewise, that another Priest,
named Gerrhard, gave absolution of the sin to each of the agents, preparatory to the accom-
plishment of their treason. Well might that celebrated lawyer, Coke, say, " I never yet
knew a treason without a Romish Priest."
The whole design of this conspiracy was developed on the trial of the conspirators. The
written confessions of Guy Fawkes and Thomas Winter, give ample details of the mode of
accomplishment.* It was proposed to blow up, by gunpowder, the houses of Parliament,
when, at the opening of the Session, the King, with the Royal Family, the Peers, and Mem-
bers of the House of Commons, would be assembled together. By such a stroke, it was
expected that they would destroy the heads of all the principal Protestant families in the
kingdom. And then it was arranged to seize the infant daughter of the Kin", who was
then in Warwickshire, and proclaim her Queen, to educate her a Papist, and themselves to
govern the realm during her long minority.
Such were the objects of this conspiracy, and such the third great effort to re-establish the
Papacy in England. The next was of a different character.
It was made in the time of James II. Four of the sovereigns of England had successively
been Protestants; and when it might have been expected that all hope, or at least all efforts
to restore the system of Popery had been crushed for ever, an avowed Papist ascended the
throne in the person of James II., and gave new life to the hopes and energies of the emis-
saries of Rome. He was a man bigotted to his sect, and resolved to re-establish Popery on
the ruins of Protestantism. His efforts to accomplish this object were different from all that
had gone before. He proposed to encourage the growth of Popery, — not by persecution, as
in the days of Mary; for the nation would not bear it, — but by all the power of the crown
and the influence of the Court. He knew that in the then state of the nation it would not
suit his purposes to make an avowed assault upon its Protestantism, and he therefore adopted
the more gradual and insinuating instrumentality of courtly favour and royal authority.
His reign, like that of Mary, was one continued act of perfidy to promises the most
solemn. He had solemnly promised in Parliament, before he came to the throne, that he
would cherish his religious principles between himself and his God, and never permit them
to interfere with his government of the nation. He had solemnly promised, afterwards, on
opening the first Parliament of his reign, in the speech delivered on that most public occa-
sion, that he would never interfere with the religion of the Established Church. His whole
reign was an illustration how pledges the most binding, and promises the most sacred, can
all be violated, with a recklessness peculiar to the Church of Rome, whenever her interests
are involved in the results. It is as easy to stay the planets in their course, as to find a
moral tie, either of promises, or pledges, or oaths, that will bind tlie Church of Rome.
The extraordinary lengths to which this unhappy monarch was led by Father Petre, and
those other Priests to whose guidance he so implicitly committed himself, awakened the dor-
mant spirit of this nation. His measures respecting the Judges of the land, his proceedings
among the Officers of the Army, his attempts against the Universities, his attack upon the
Bishops, his claim of a dispensing power, his whole proceedings could not but compel the
nation to look to its civil liberties, and its religious freedom; and to take measures for the
preservation of the former against a Despot, and of the latter against a Papist.
The Revolution was the consequence, and thus, in the triumph of civil and relio-ious
liberty, ended the fourth great effort of the emissaries of Rome to re-establish Popery in
England.
The principles involved in the Revolution were carried out during the reign of William
* These confessions, togetlier with an account of the whole conspiracy, will be found in the Appendix to
this Edition of the Acts and Monuments.
yi EDITORS PREFACE.
III. The civil and religious institutions of the country became inseparably blended in our
National Constitution. The Protestantism of the Church of England became amalgamated
with the State and it was designed that one should be as lasting as the other. Well nigh a
century and a half has elapsed since that glorious event, and the experience of every added
year only unfolds more manifestly the wisdom of those principles on which the Kevolution
was founded.
But although a century and a half have developed the wisdom of those great principles,
and have elicited and secured the attachment of the people of England to the doctrines of the
Reformation, yet it could scarcely be expected that the intrigues of the Church of Rome
could have remained stilled and quiescent during the lapse of so many years, where the
wealth of so great a nation, and the influence of so scriptural a clkxch, were the objects to
be secured and the prize to be obtained.
The nation had scarcely settled into tranquillity after the storm of the Revolution, and
the ground-swell was not yet wholly at rest, when the intrigues of the Order of Jesuits were
brought into action in a totally new direction. That profound and subtile Order applied all
its energies to corrupt the teaching of the Church of England, by tainting the fountains of
education, by corrupting the youth at the Universities, and so making the Ministry of the
Church of England the means of her own destruction. They had already tried every
external resource; thev had tried persecution, invasion, treason, and arbitrary power, and
they had failed in all, and now they were resolved to scatter the seeds of Romanism in the
very seats of Academic learning, in the hope that they might reap in time an ample harvest,
in the Romanising spirit and principles of the Ministry of the Church herself.
This design, so analogous to the system working among us at the present day, deserves
attention in a place like this. It was exhibited in the reign of Queen Anne, and is thus
alluded to by Bishop Burnet in his " History of his own Times," Book vii., year 1712 :
" There appeared at this time an inclination in many of the Clergy to a nearer approach
to the Church of Rome. Hicks, an ill-tempered man, who was now at the head of the
Jacobite party, had in several books promoted the notion that there was a proper sacrifice
made in the eucharist, and had on many occasions studied to lessen our aversion to Popery.
The supremacy of the Crown in ecclesiastical matters, and the method in which the Refor-
mation was carried was openly condemned. One Brett had preached a sermon in several of
the pulpits of London, which he afterwards printed, in which he pressed the necessity of
priestly absolution in a strain beyond what was pretended to even in the Church of Rome.
He said, no repentance could serve without it, and affirmed that the Priest was vested with
the same power of pardoning that our Saviour himself had. A motion was made in the
lower house of Convocation to censure this, but it was so ill-supported that it was let fall.
Another conceit was taken up of the invalidity of lay-baptism, on which several books have
been written; nor was the dispute a trifling one, since by this notion, the teachers among
the Dissenters passing for laymen, this went to the rebaptising them and their congregations.
" Dodwell gave the rise to this conceit. He was a very learned man, and led a strict
life. He seemed to hunt after paradoxes in all his writings, and broached not a few. He
thought none could be saved but those who, by the sacraments, had a federal right to it, and
that these were the seals of the covenant, so that he left all who died without the sacra-
ments to the uncovenauted mercies of God; and to this he added, that none had a right to
give the sacraments but those who were commissioned to it, and these were the Apostles,
and after them Bishops and Priests ordained by them. It followed upon this, that sacra-
ments administered by others were of no value."
This movement originated at the University of Oxford, and if this account had been writ-
ten at the present day, it could not more accurately describe the analogous movement of our
times; the principles are the same, and the objects are alike. It will be the prayer of every
right-hearted friend of Protestant Christianity, that the failure of the latter may prove as
complete and perfect as that of the former.
EDITOR'S PREFACE. vU
There is something strange, even to incredulity, that such a destiny could have befallen
this church and nation, as that Romish doctrines should be preached by Protestant clergy-
men, and that Romish ceremonies should be practised in Protestant Churches; and there is
something strange, even to scorn and loathing, that men can be found who sign the articles
of the Church of England on the one hand, and the canons of the Council of Trent on the
other, publicly subscribing themselves Protestants, and receiving salaries on the faith of their
vow to teach only the doctrines of the Church of England, while they surreptitiously sub-
scribe themselves Romanists, and exert all their influence in propagating the doctrines of the
Church of Rome.
Yet strange and unnatural as is all this, it has spread widely and gone deeply among those
who have been in process of education in the Universities of England during the last fifteen
years, and has gone far to justify the most glowing anticipations of those profound and subtle
men with whom the intrigue had originated. We are now treading on the ashes that hide
the glowing lava, and the least disturbing cause may let loose the elements of ruin and deso-
ktion. The Universities have been unfaithful in being so long indifferent to the propagation
of such principles among the youth committed to their care. The Bishops have been un-
faithful in having taken no adequate pains to save the flock of Christ from those who were
leading them astray. And now he is a far-seeing Prophet who can foreshow what the end
will be.
The Church and nation are now ripening for some great and extensive change. Men's
hearts are failing for fear. Startling facts are continually occurring. Many among the
Clergy, and many among the laity have passed over to the Church of Rome, while all the
tendencies and sympathies of many that remain among us, are towards the genius and spirit
of Romanism. And the tendencies of political latitudinarianism in the councils of the nation,
and the extensive and ill-concealed Romanism of too many of the Bishops and Clergy of the
Church of England, seem almost to invite to the most audacious claims, and to justify the
•most insidious pretensions of the Court of Rome.
And there is no backwardness on the part of the Papacy. The late Bull of Pius IX. an-
nihilating, as far as a papal rescript could do so, the whole order and constitution of the
Church of England, and establishing a hierarchy under his own exclusive authority in its
stead, dividing the whole realm anew into dioceses, and appointing one Archbishop and
twelve Bishops with local authority and territorial titles, shows a full consciousness of the
state of the Church of England, and a knowledge of the fact that her long-tried Protestantism
has been for years under a process of being undermined. The conclave that counselled that
act of Papal aggression, believed that the whole fabric of the Church of England was ready
to sink into ruin, and that all that remained was for the Church of Rome to enter on pos-
session.
And no appliance is neglected, and no means unemployed to propagate the doctrines and the
discipline of Romanism among the various classes of the population. There is an unwearied
exercise of influence and an unexampled expenditure of wealth to advance the system among
us. Above eight hundred Priests of the Church of Rome have been located through the
country. These, as missionaries, either settle themselves in certain localities or move in
various directions through the land, everywhere endeavouring to disseminate their principles,
through the instrumentality of Sermons, Lectures, Tracts, &c. Their exertions have so far
succeeded, that during the last half century they have increased the number of their chapels
from about tkirti/, to more than six hundred in this island. A large number of Seminaries, or
Colleges, have been formed with the view of secu'^ing the education of our youth. And many
Nunneries and Monasteries have been established, so as to become centres for the propagation
of the whole system of Popery. The success with which their peasures of proselytism have
been crowned, has been beyond their most sanguine expectations; and the ignorance of the
}>i)pulation on one hand, and the political party to whom the emissaries of Rome have allied
themselves, on the other hand, seem to promise still more ample success to their unwearied
Vlh EDITOR S PREFACE.
exertions. They hesitate no longer to avow their expectation, that this nation will return to
the bosom of the Church of Rome.
This state of things is pregnant with the most disastrous consequences to the Protestantism
of England, and demands the mightiest efforts that Christians and Protestants can make for
the defence of our faith. They have a mighty adversary, against which they have to con-
tend, in the Church of Rome; but they have a still mightier treasure to preserve, in the true
religion established among us. It may truly be said of England, as of Israel, iu the day of
her blessedness, that she is a great and understanding nation, that there is no nation that hath
God so nigh, or to which he hath given such statutes and ordinances, that we might walk in
them, and live in them, and be a delightsome land. We have, by the Reformation, an Eng-
lish Service^ and an open Bible. We have, by the Revolution, all the religious liberty that
Christians can wish, and all the civil liberty that good subjects can desire.
Shall it be, that such matchless treasures shall be lost by our apathy? Shall it be, that by
our indifference, we shall again be doomed to come under Italian influence, blighting our
morals — withering our privileges — destroying our liberties — our homes ceasing to be happy;
and our altars ceasing to be free? Shall it be, that the souls of our children, and our chil-
dren's children, shall become the merchandise of Friars, and their morals become contaminated
by the Priests of the Confessional? Shall their birthright of an open Bible, and an Eng-
lish Service, and a freedom to think and judge for tliemselves, be taken from them by our
apathy, or neglect? It were better that the blast of death should sweep through the land,
and as of old leave the firstborn dead in every house; and that the wail of the desolate, and
the cry of the mourning should be heard on every wind, and echoed from every home, than
that a calamity so disastrous as this should befall our fatherland. Then, indeed, would the
dark spirit of Popery be traced by the fall of our fanes and the ruin of our altars; and she
would erect her throne amidst the fallen columns, the crumbling arches, and the mouldering
aisles of the Temple of Protestantism. Then, indeed, would the glory of Britain — not the
triunij)hs of her iron-hearted battalions on the battle-field, nor of her bannered masts upon
the wave — not the treasure of her gold and silver and precious stones, nor the countless
navies that waft to her shores the merchandise of the world — but her truest and her best, the
Glory of her essential Protestantism be departed; and if ever such an eclipse shall darken it,
then will " Ichaboil" be written upon her ruins, and "The glory is departed," become the
requiem of fallen England.
It is with the view of strengthening the religious principles of Protestantism, in the con-
victions of the People of England, and with the view of exhibiting fully and faithfully before
their eyes, a living portraiture of the Papacy, that this Family Edition of the Acts and Mon-
uments of Martyrs, has been published.
It is imj)ossible for a mind, candid and unprejudiced, to peruse this work and to think
otherwise of it, than that it was a noble production for its age, and an invaluable compila-
tion for any age. ^Master John Foxe, who was born in the same year that Luther com-
menced the Reformation, has collected together those scattered registries, and official docu-
ments, and original writings, respecting the Martyrs of Protestantism, which had been long
since lost to the Church, were it not for his assiduity and zeal. He had access to Diocesan
Registries, which are now h)st for ever; excepting in those extracts which he has made from
them. They give the official account of the articles charged against the Martyrs, and their
answers to the same, in public courts. He had access to some documents, as Monitions, and
Proclamations, which now are only to le found in the pages of this work; and which illus-
trate the spirit and tendencies of the times. He had access to many of the Martyrs them-
selves, and possessed their own original statements, written by their own hands, detailing the
course of their previous sufferings, and the methods of their examination. These have all
Ion" since passed away for ever, except so far as they have been preserved in these Acts and
Monuments. This is sufficient, of itself, to make the work an invaluable treasure; as an
extensive compilation of evidences, and materials for the general historian; and especially for
EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix
those who feel an interest in the confessions of those Martyrs of the Anglican Church, who were
" slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they heUl;" and whose blood proved
such prolific seed for the Cliurch of England. The greater portion of the work is a compila-
tion of these original documents. He gives them to the world as such, and exhibits no trace
of that vanity which has tempted so many to clothe original materials in more modern phraseo-
logy, so as to pass them current as their own; and sure we are, that the name of John Foxe
will live green in the memory of our children, ami our children's children, when his envious
and malicious detractors shall have passed into obliviim.
It could scarcely be expected that, in times like the present, when every effort is being
made to bring the character of our Reformers and the principles of the Reformation into con-
tempt and obloquy, a work of such immense importance as that of John Foxe, could escape
the malicious assaults of the avowed enemies of Protestant Christianity, or the insidious
efforts of the traitors now concealed in the cloistered shades of the Church of England. Those
assaults and efforts have been made, and have just thus far succeeded in proving that this
great production was not the production of absolute inspiration, — that the author, compelled
like all historians to ac(?ept the statements of others on particulars of minute or minor impor-
tance, has fallen into some slight mistakes, — mistakes so slight in their nature, and so few
in their number, that there is no historian of either times past, or times present, who has
exhibited a work of the same extent so free from errors, or so safely to be relied on in all
the grand objects which he contemplated. He lived in the times of which he wrote, and
devoted the greater portion of his work to them. He collected the official registers or ori-
ginal documents. He compiled and published them for the benefit of posterity. And the
deference, which all learned historians and all sound divines pay to his authority, is a monu-
ment to his ability, his learning, and his honesty, which will live for ever, when the very
names of his detractors wdl be utterly forgotten. The volume still remains the first, the
best, and the most certain authority for either the Historian or the Divine, in all the wide
field upon which it enters in laying open the workings of Romanism at the age of the
Reformation.
The work proposes to give a general sketch of the history of the Christian Church — a
more detailed account of the Church of England — an accurate portraiture of the rise, and pro-
gress, and genius, of the Church of Rome — and finally, the most full and ample account of
the examinations, sufferings, and martyrdoms, of those holy men of God who were the
strength and ornament of the Protestantism of this land.
The edition which we now present to the public, possesses certain peculiarities which
require to be noticed.
I. There is a large mass of official documents and forms, which, though interesting to the
writers of history, possess no interest or value for the religious, or general reader. They
seem to have been published by Foxe, more with the view of preserving them as records,
than in the expectation that they would be perused by the general reader.
A large portion of these have been omitted from this edition.
II. There is a series of narrations, from time to time introduced by the author, connected
with the superstitious credulity of the dark ages. Some of them are absurd, others are mar-
vellous. And Foxe, while he inserts them, does not hesitate to express judgment on them,
pronouncing them to be apocryphal.
These have been excluded from this edition, as calculated to injure, rather than promote
the interests of religion.
III. There is also inserted in the original work, a variety of Latin quotations, a few from
the Greek, and a number of letters and documents, also in the Latin language.
These have been removed from the present edition, as being calculated to encumber it un-
necessarily.
IV. Owing to the state of society in the age in which this work was written, there was a
coarseness of expression, and an absence of delicacy and propriety, in some of the narrations.
X EDITORS PREFACE.
wliicli render it unfit for family perusal, in the present state of society, and which have
aided much in consigning the work itself into oblivion.
All these narrations, and indelicacies, have been most carefully expunged from this edition.
V. There are many errors in the dates, embodied in the original work. Some of these
are, perhaps, the result of those mistakes into which authors of that age were very likely to
fall, in reference to more ancient history. Many of them are merely the mistakes of the
printing-press, accumulated through successive editions.
These have been carefully corrected in the present edition, so as to prevent the reader
falling into error.
These particulars present the peculiarities of this edition. The object has been, to present
the Protestant population of this land, with a family edition — one that, in point of size and
cheapness, would be accessible to all — one that could be perused without toiling through
unnecessary and uninteresting documents — and especially one that could be read with inter-
est, and advantage, in the family circle.
In endeavouring to accomplish these objects, every effort has been made to render thia
edition an available repository of all that was calculated to strengthen the religious principles
of the Reformation, in the Protestants of England, and to supply them with as much as pos-
sible, that would arm them against the principles and the practices of the Church of Rome —
thus making this edition consist of all the information that was valuable, in the original
work, and all that was likely to be available in the controversy with Rome.
Those who desire an ecclesiastical history of England, will find it here. Those who seek
for a detail of the iniquities of Popery, both abroad and at home, will not be disappointed.
The Christian, who desires examples of faithfulness unto the death, will be amply recom-
pensed in a perusal; and those who wish to obtain a practical knowledge of the controversy
with Rome, will find it one of the most useful works in our language.
In order to render the work complete, an Appendix has be§n added, containing accounts
of the massacre of St. Bartholomew — of the Spanish Armada — of the Gunpowder Treason —
of the great Rebellion of Ireland, in 1641 — all written by authors who wrote immediately
after the events which they narrate. Also an account of the executions in the reign of
Elizabeth, proving them to have been the punishment for treason, and not a persecution of
Popery.
M. HOEART SEYMOUR.
Bath, Decewher^ 1850,
k*-
\ ^u^oi^
THE LIFE
OF
MR. JOHN FOXE.
John Foxe was bom in Boston, in the county of Lin-
coln, A.D. 1517, his father and mother, being of the com-
monalty of that town, of good reputation, and in respect-
able circumstances. While young, his father died, and
his mother married again, which brought him under
the care of his step-father, with whom he dwelt during
his childhood. At an early age, he gave indications of love
of learning, which his friends well approving of, sent him
to study at Oxford. The first nurse of his more serious
Studies, was Brasen-nose College, where he was cham-
ber-fellow with Doctor Nowell, so famous a man in this
city afterwards, and dean of St. Paul's. It was there-
fore no marvel if their manners were so like in the
course of their lives, whose education and nurture in
youth was the same. The native excellence and sound-
ness of his judgment, were well seconded by the fitness
of the place; where the emulation of equals was frequent,
and where each student's proficiency was narrowly sought
into ; neither was industry wanting, which as it seldom
accompanies the greatest talents, so, where it is con-
joined, is most available. When in a short space he had
won the admiration of all, and the love of many, in re-
ward of his learning and good behaviour he was chosen
fellow of Magdalen College ; which being accounted a
principal honour in the university, and usually due to the
students of that house, was seldom, and not unless in re-
gard of singular deserts, bestowed upon any others. It
appears he gave the first indications of an early wit, to
the exercises of poetry, and wrote divers Latin comedies,
in a copious and graceful style, but somewhat lofty,
which fault of writing he left not altogether in his elder
years, though age and experience did not a little miti-
gate it. But even then he began to give earnest of what
he afterwards proved, for those first efforts of his youth
were spent only in holy histories of the bible ; nor fol-
lovved he that course long. He betook himself to the
study of divinity, with somewhat more fervency than
circumspection, and discovered himself in favour of the
Reformation, before he was known to them that main-
tained the cause, or were of ability to protect the main-
tainers of it ; whence grew his first troubles. This was
the time when Henry VIII, uncertain what course to
take, being at variance with the pope, and not resolved
in himself, thinking the affairs of the church, (then
grown to an infinite height of power and pride,) neither
in all resjiects tolerable, nor that it was necessary wholly
to a'ter them, while he desired to shew moderation in
both, prevailed in neither, obscuring an act, than which
none was of more glory since the world began, by an un-
profitable indifference. Never before were the people in
more distraction, or less security of their lives and estates,
there being in the laws such contrarieties, as no man
could tell what to take to with safety, or what to avoid.
For although the pope's supremacy had been renounced,
yet his doctrine was still retained. The first news of the
abolishing of the pope's supremacy was as prosperous as
it was welcome to the reformers ; and many joined them-
selves to them out of love to the truth, being further as-
sured of the king's intentions, by the punishment in-
flicted on some of the opposite party, and especially when
the abbies were dissolved ; nor was their hope a little
increased, when they perceived the noblemen more or
less to rise in the good opinion and favour of the king, in
proportion as they most opposed the pope's pretensions.
In the mean while the act of the Six Articles was still in
force, and if any were found guilty of the breach,
they were sure of punishment. So that as long as the
king held the middle way between his own judgment, and
the advice of his counsellors, feeding them with favours,
upon which they could build no assurance, and pleasing
himself in his own severity, fear and hope equally pre-
vailed.
But when the protectors themselves, and pillars of the
reformed religion, were taken away, the duke of Suffolk
by untimely death, the lord Cromwell by the sword, the
archbishop Cranmer and his friends borne down by those
of the contrary side ; and that neither in the laws, nor
in the protection of the peers, there was any help
remaining ; then began all things rapidly to hasten back
to their former abuses, and that with so much the more
violence, because the conquest seemed a kind of revenge.
In the universities and schools there was yet no open
change, or innovation ; I know not whether through fear,
or that they would not be followers.
This was the state of the church affairs, when Master
Foxe began attentively to seek into the substance of tho
controversy, then in agitation. He found the conten-
tion to have been of great antiquitv, and no a(;e to LtTS
XU
THE LIFE OP JOHN FOXE.
been free from some debate in the church. But those
first quarrels were rather for dominion, and increase of
territory ; the Romans, endeavouring by subtle prac-
tices, and pretext of religion to retain under the juris-
diction of a high priest the ancient honour of their city,
which by open force they could not defend. Then no
sooner did any one shew himself to ditfer from them in
point of faith, buc the hastening of his punishment pre-
vented any infection that might spread itself among
others.
Thus by their cruelty, and the patience of princes,
who suffered it, the greatest part of these dissensions
were appeased. Afterwards, the pope grown bolder by
good success, began to draw to himself all power and au-
thority, nor contented to have weakened the estate of the
Roman empire alone, now longed to be fingering the
sceptres of other princes ; and to compass his design,
spared not to violate any human or divine right ; mean-
while the clergy little impressed by the great damage done
to religion, by men of immoral life and conversation being
sometimes chosen to the papacy, by whose example
the strictness of life, used by their forefathers, was drawn
into scorn, and their poverty into disgrace. The indus-
try of the priesthood languished, and on the contrary side
ambition, riot, and avarice began to reign aaiong them.
Then at length were the practices of the churchmen
brought to light, and their delusions laid open. It was
then known why the ceremonies and rites in the church,
had been brought to that excessive multitude, namely,
that the number of the clergy might be increased to per-
form them. These of necessity were to be maintained ;
and to t'liat end were such opinions broached, as seemed
most likely to draw money from all places. Of the me-
rit of works ; of purgatory ; of the power of absolution,
and the pope's indulgences ; all which being in them-
selves false, and soon subject to decay, were thought fit
to be cemented together with that new and subtle inven-
tion of the pope's infallibility in matters of faith.
By this ingenious bond, and linking one opinion to
another, the credulity of the christians was easily en-
snared ; all this while the new forged opinions yielding
plentiful increase, and great sums of money, by a hundred
devises were screwed out of the clergy and the common
people, and came daily to the pope, and court of Rome.
I have often heard Master Foxe affirm. That the first
matter which occasioned his search into the popish doc-
trine, was, that he saw divers things in their own natures,
most repugnant to one another, thrust upon men to be
both believed at one time ; as that the same man might
in matters of faith be superior, and yet in his life and
manners inferior to all the world besides. Upon this be-
ginning, his resolution and intended obedience to that
church, was somewhat shaken, and by little and little
there followed some dislike to the rest.
His first care was to look into both the ancient and
modern history of the church ; to learn what beginning
It had ; what growth and increase : by what arts it
flourished, and by what errors it began to decline ; to
consider the causes of all those controversies which in the
mean time had sprung up, and to weigh diligently of
what moment they were, and what on either side was
advanced which was sound or erroneous.
This he performed with such diligence of study, and in
so short a time ; that before the thirtieth year of his age,
he had read over all that either the Greek or Latin fathers
had left in their writings ; the schoolmen in their dispu-
tations ; the councils in their acts ; or their consistory
in their degrees ; and had acquired no mean skill in the
Hebrew language.
By report of some who were fellow-students with him,
he used over and above his day's exercise, to bestow
whole nights at his study, or not till it were very late to
betake himself to rest. Near to the college was a grove,
wherein for the pleasantness of the place, the students
took delight to walk, and spend some idle hours for their
recreation. This place, and the dead time of the night,
had Master Foxe chosen, with solitude and darkness, to
contirm his mind; which trembled at the guilt of a new
imagination.
How many aights he watched in these solitary walks ;
what combats and wrestlings he suffered within himself;
how many heavy siglis, and sobs, and tears he poured
forth in his prayers to Almighty God ; 1 liaJ rather omit
in this discourse, than it siiould have tlie ajipearance of
ostentation. But of necessity, it was to be remejuoered,
because from heni,c sprang the first suspicion of his alien-
ated affections. For no sooner was the fame spread .loroad
of his nightly retirements, but the more understai»di.ig sort
out of their own wisdom, others according as tney .stood
inclined towards him, were apt to interpret all to the
worst sense. At length, those with whom he waa inti-
mate, being drawn into suspicion of him ; there were
some employed, who under pretence to adinuuisii him,
might observe his walks, and pry with more cuno:,ity
into his words and actions ; and there wanted :i>)t o hers
who comparing his custom:? formerly used, vvitn tiie pre-
sent course he now took, did with more bitterness aggra-
vate the act. Wl)y does he not come to churcii. so oi'ten
as in former times he hid been accustomed to ? Why
should he shun the comjjany of his equals, and refuse to
recreate himself after his wonted manner, unleK-<s lie had
felt in his mind some sudden alteration ? nor if that alter-
ation were for tlie better, would he conceal it.
Being thus reported of, surrounded with treacheries,
and by every one accused, when the matter came to
more severe scanning, and that he could neither hide
his resolution longer, nor, being a man of plain dealing,
thought fit to excuse himself by forging a lie, — by the
judgment of the college he was convicted, condemned as
a heretic, and removed froiii the house. Nevertheless
his adversaries affirmed he was favourably dealt with by
that sentence, and might have been examined for his
life, if they had not ratlier used clemency towards him
than extremity. But this wound raged worse than it
was thought it would ; his friends, upon the report of
this accident, being sorely displeased, and especially his
stepfather, who was now grown altogether implacable,
either through a real hiitred conceived against him for
this cause, or pretending himself aggrieved, that he
might now with more justice, at least with more security,
withhold from Foxe his own father's estate. Foi he
both knew it could not be safe for one publicly hated, and
in danger of the law, to seek remedy by it ; and that Foxe
was by nature so ignorant in requiting injuries, that he
would many times with much ado confess himself wronged,
even then, when he had in his hands ability of revenge.
When he was thus forsaken by his own friends, and
left naked of all human assistance, God's providence
began to shew itself, procuring him a safe refuge in the
house of a worshipful knight of Warwickshire, called
Sir Thomas Lucy, to whom he was sent for, to instruct
his children ; in which house he afterwards married a
wife, and there continued till the children arrived at
mature years, and had now no longer need of a tutor.
But the fear of the popish inquisitions hastened his
departure thence ; which now relying on the favour of
the laws, were not contented to pursue public offences,
but began also to break into the secrets of private
families.
Often would Foxe, in the later days of his life, with
much vehemence of mind, while conversing with his
friends, detest the wretched condition of that departing,
and say, That all other mischances he had pretty well
endured ; but in this case, the misery was so much the
greater, because to have borne it patiently would have
seemed unnatural ; having brought his faithful consort,
who entirely loved him, from her friends and kindred,
whose grief and tears were with all officious piety to be
comforted ; it behoved him, therefore, either to find
some speedy remedy, or, in assurance of his love, to
weep with her. For in vaiu should he shew an example
of his constancy, where she might rather suspect her
grief unregarded, than his mind unconquered with so
great calamities. He consulted, therefore, with himself
what was best to be done ; and of two ways only left,
whereby he might free himself from further inconve-
nience, he, after long deliberating whether he might
with most safety make choice of, either to go to his
wife's father, or his stepfather by marriage of his
mother.
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
xiii
His wife's father dwelt nearest, being a ci'izen of ,
Coventry, nor yet bearing any hatred towards liiiii, and
more likely to he entreated for his daughter's sake. His
stepfither was better known to him, but more susj)ecte(l
At last lie resolved to go first to his wife's f itlier, and in
the meanwhile by letters to try whether liis stepfather
would receive him or not. His stepfather's answer wa.s,
That it seemed to him a hard condition, to take oue into
his house whom he knew to be guilty, and condemned
for a cd|)ital offence ; neither was he ignorant what
hazard he should undergo in so doing ; nevertheless,
that he would shew himself a kinsman, and for that
cause neglect his own danger. If he would alter his
mind, he might come, on condition to stay as long
as himsirlf desired ; but if he could not be persuaded
to that, he should content himself with the shorter
stay, and not bring him and his mother into hazard of
their fortunes, who were ready to do any thing for his
sake.
Mr. Foxe's state was at that crisis that he thought no
condition ought to be refused ; besides, he was under-
hand advised by his mother to come, and not fear his
stepfather's severity ; for that perhaps it was needful to
write as he did, but when occasion should offer, he would
make recompence for his words with his actions. The
truth is, he had better entertainment with both of them
tlian he any way hoped for ; but so his business re-
quired, that he should rely long upon neither ; and
therefore, by often going to and fro from the one to the
other, whicii carried with it some shew of business, he
both deceived their diligence who inquired after him,
and effected that neither of them grew weary of his
company.
But, however, he by this means kept himself con-
cealed ; yet certain it is, that no time of his life passed
more unknown to posterity than that ; whether while he
did but little, which is scarce credible, or whether it
more concerned them who knew what he did, that it
should be withheld than published abroad. For his own
part he always forbore, with particular care, to speak of
that story ; lest where he had deserved so much, he
might, by extolling a small courtesy, seem rather to
Upbraid the slenderness of the requital, than to shew
himself thankful by remembering it. Afterwards he
.took his journey towards London; but from what
motive is uncertain, unless we may imagine the con-
venience of the place enticed him thither; which being
full of all classes of people, both inhabitants and stran-
gers from all places, afforded him a better opportunity,
either to conceal himself or to make known his abi-
lities, or to get acquaintance with those of like inclina-
tion.
By computation of times, I should think the chief
cause of his going thither to have been, that about that
time religion began at length a little to recover itself and
gather strength, especially about the city ; for he did
not go to London till within a few years before king
Henry departed this life ; who, as J said before, though
the kingdom were dividjd into factions, yet as long as
his youth and strength remained, so ordered the matter,
that, sometimes the power of each ))arty being equalled,
und sometimes one or other prevailing by his authority
both were retained in their obedience. But when he
grew into years, perceiving his health every day im-
paired, and that his death could not be far off, he then
began to consider with himself which side was most
trusty, and which most to be doubted; and at what age
he should expose his son to the raging hatred of the
papists, who was yet, by reason of his youth, unfit to
govern, and brought up in the discipline of a religion
which they Osposed.
He therefore, at last, resolved upon that which in
reason seemed most wholesome, and in the end proved
most fortunate ; and having put the papist officers from
their authority, by his will he appointed his son such
tutors whose love to himself he had always found
readiest, and by long trial of their fidelity thought Lkely
to continue the same to his successor. This set the
protestant religion again in safety, and the profes-
sors thereof, were thereby secured of their lives ; yet
hence no public benefit or profit was afforded them :
so that Foxe was still in as great want as before, having
already sjieiit all that either his friends had bestowed
on him, or his own daily industry had acquired.
I should here forbear to speak of a marvellous acci-
dent, and great example of God's mercy, were not the
matter so well known abroad, that it would be to no
purpose for modesty's sake to be silent.
As Mr. Foxe one day sat in St. Paul's church, ex-
hausted with long fasting, his countenance thin, and eyes
hollow, after the ghastful manner of dying men, every
one shunning a spectacle of so much horror, there came
to him one whom he never remembered to have seen
before, who, sitting by him and saluting him with much
familiarity, thrust an untold sum of money into his
hand, and bidding him be of good cheer ; he added, that
he knew not how great the misfortunes were which
o])pressed him, but suspected that it was no light
calamity. He therefore requested him to accept in
good part that small gift from his countryman, which
common courtesy had forced him to offer ; and he recom-
mended him to go and nurse himself, and take all oc-
casions to prolong his life ; and in the mean time he in-
formed him that within a few days his prospects would
be improved, and a more certain condition of livelihood
would be secured to him. Foxe could never learn who
that man was, by whose seasonable bounty, in that ex-
treme necessity, he had been relieved, though he ear-
nestly endeavoured to find him out. Some who looked
further into the event which followed that prophecy,
believed that this man came not of his own accord, but
was sent by some others, who very much desired Foxe's
safety ; and that it might perchance be through the ser-
vant's negligence, that he had suffered so much misery
before any relief had been afforded. Certain it is, that
within three days the issue seemed to make good the pre-
diction, for there was a message sent from the duchess of
Richmond, to invite him upon fair terms into her service.
It had so fallen out, not long before, that the duke of Nor-
folk, the famous warrior and most renowned general of hia
time, together with his son, the earl of Surrey, a man,
as far as may be imagined, of sincere meaning and good
understanding, was committed to custody in the Tower
of London, for what crimes is uncertain. While they
were in prison, the earl's children were sent to the
aforesaid duchess, their aunt, to be brought up and
educated : Thomas, who succeeded in the dukedom ;
Henry, who was afterwards earl of Northampton ; and
Jane,' afterwards countess of Westmoreland.
To these young lords was Foxe appointed tutor, to
instruct them both in manners and learning ; in which
charge he deceived not the expectation which the
duchess, a woman of great wisdom, had of him. For
the two sons grew to that height of proficiency in their
behaviour and scholarship, that, building in their riper
years upon this foundation, the elder, Thomas, seemed
to deserve more than the kingdom could bestow upon
him ; and the younger, Henry, came to that happiness,
that he was able to measure his fortunes, not by the
opinion of others, but by his own enjoyment.
The young lady Jane profited so wondrously in the
Greek and Latin tongues, that .she might well stand in
competition with the most learned men of that time, for
the praise of elegancy in both kinds.
There he dwelt during those golden days of felicity,
not seen for a long time before, in the last years of king
Henry's reign, and through the five years' reign of king
Edward the Sixth, (a young prince incomparably hope-
ful, who, by perfecting the work begun by his father,
surpassed all the acts of his predecessors,) till the begin-
ning of queen Mary's sovereignty; who, coming to the
crown, and turning the stream of religion, all things
again yielded to the papists' authority ; whence, not
long after, that cruel tempest proceeded, the noise
whereof hath come also to the ears of our age ; many
who suffered in that common shipwreck, swimming out
to these peaceful times, as to safe harbours of everlasting
tranquillity.
Among these Foxe made one, at that time sheltered
by the protection of the duke, his scholar ; yet not with-
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
out the observance of many, who for hatred or envy
narrowly watched him, and secretly laid wait for him.
Among these was Doctor Gardiner, bishop of Winches-
ter, who both saw something in him which he greatly
feared, and also disdained much that the heir of one of
the chiefest families in the kingdom, and nearest joined
to himself in friendship, should by his company be
depraved.
Of this man, because he was Foxe's greatest enemy, it
will not be from our purpose to speak something fur-
ther, that both their natures may the better be known.
The bishop of Winchester was a man famous in his
youth, for of his birth or parentage I have no certainty,
one that stood in the midway between good and bad;
and always as he grew older, growing worse. Industry,
wit, and eloquence, nature had bestowed on him ; his
pride, craftiness, and desire of beatina: sway, he learned
of cardinal Wolsey.
Hence his abilities qualified him for any employment,
which he managed with exceeding diligence, to gain new
honours ; and having obtained them, he then put on bold-
ness instead of industry, flattery for obedience ; and in-
stead of fidelity, deceit and compliments, and such like
frivolous fashions of the court. He was, in bearing those
honours which his virtue won to him, cruel and proud :
in regaining any that he lost, able to weary any man with
submission and humility. For in his fortunes also ap-
peared as great diversity, as in his conditions. Some
while he was pleasing to king Henry, and high in his
favour ; having by his pen maintained the king's autho-
rity against the pope : afterwards, when his prevaricating
therein was understood, he was slighted by the king, and
that he might be the less able to do hurt, stripped of his
dignity. UnderEdward VI,he was not only neglected, but
imprisoned, and underwent the reproach of a mean estate.
At length, in queen Mary's reign, he was set at liberty,
and being again restored to his former honours, he exer-
cised not so much command as tyranny : till even sick
with envy, that cardinal Pole out-shone him in dignity,
and with height of honours overshadowed his glory,
having often, but still in vain tried to cure his malady by
a cardinalship, anger at length exasperating his disease,
he pined away.
After this manner began, and ended that man, com-
mended for many excellences of mind, while he led a
private life ; but in his honours unbridled, and of no mo-
deration : well might one say, nature had made him a
worthy man, and fortune corrupted him.
Now Foxe, although he was cherished in the bosom of
a most loving duke ; yet after he saw all sorts of men
troubled for their religion's sake, some imprisoned, and
others burni ; in brief notliing on all sides, but flight,
slaughter, and gibbets ; and that the bishop of Winches-
ter was the principal incendiary of all this, who for pri-
vate respects was already his enemy ; he then began to
fear what might become of him, and to think of some
speedy way for his departure thence. As soon as the
dnlre knew his intent, gently chiding his fearfulness, he
used many words to persuade him to leave all thought of
going away ; affirming it neither agreeable to honour or
modesty, for him to suffer his tutor, so well deserving at
his hands, at any time of his life to be taken from him :
but that it should then be done, was not beseeming for
him that desired it. Let him but think with himself,
how great a burthen of hatred his scholar must needs
bear, among those who were ignorant, whether he for-
sook him of his own accord, or were forsaken by him :
yet that he entreated not to be excused from any hatred,
which might light upon him, if at least he might do it
for Foxe's advantage : but in flying, what misery would
be wanting ? banishment, poverty, contempt, and among
those which knew him not, the reproach of a runagate.
That he acknowledged was less evil than death ; but that
it was not yet come to such extremity ; neither would he
suffer it should : that he had yet wealth, and favour, and
friends, and the fortune of his house: if the mischance
prevailed further, himself would partake of the danger,
and make the destruction common : that he remembered,
with what precei)ts he had fortified his younger years ;
neitlier had he with more attention hearkened to hiii in-
structions, than he would with constancy put them in
practice ; only let him be of good courage, and so avoid
the violence of his enemies, as not to be weary of his
friend's company : that this he spake, as hoping by his
authority to prevail with him : but if that might not be
obtained, he would then further him in the course he in-
tended.
There was in the duke's speech the more credit, be-
cause it was known to proceed from the sincerity of his
heart, and a most tender good will towards him : and
Foxe now grew ashamed, not so much in that he had
done in asking leave, as that he had believed his request
might have been granted : but his modesty excused him :
his answer being, that the same care befitted not the lord
and his servant : that it was indeed for the duke's honour,
to defend his tutor from any injury ; but his own part,
to have a care, lest for his safety, the duke might incur
apparent danger, or perpetual trouble: neither that his
fear wanted ail excuse. For though he well knew the
duke could ret be drawn from his promise and good
intentions towaids him; yet was he not ignorant, that
by some wile or other, he might be circumvented and
deceived.
For even at that time was the bishop of Winchester
very intimate with the duke, relying upon the ancient
friendship he had always used to that family, by whose
credit he had increased his dignity. Thither he often
resorted, to present his service to the duke ; and at seve-
ral times desired of him, that he might see his old tutor.
At first the duke denied his request, one while alleging
his absence, another while that he was ill at ease ; still
after feigning several delays, to put him off, at length
it chanced, that Foxe (not knowing the bishop was
within the house) entered the room where the duke and he
were in discourse ; and seeing the bishop, with a shew of
bashfulness withdrew himself. The bishop, asking who
that was, the duke answered, " his physician, who was
somewhat uncourtly, as being newly come from the uni-
versity." " I like his countenance and aspect very well,"
replied the bishop, " and when occasion shall be, will
make use of him." The duke straight understood that
speech, as the messenger of some approaching danger ; and
now he himself thought it high time for Foxe no longer to
remain within the same city, or within the same see,
against the force of a crafty, and then open deceiver ;
but by all means, the bishop being sick, must be pre-
vented. From that time he caused all things necessary
for his flight, with the least noise that might be, to be
provided ; sending one of his servants before to Ipswich
haven, to hire a bark, and make ready all things needful
for the voyage : and because it seemed scarce safe for
Foxe to stay in any city, or place of resort, he chose out
the house of one of his servants, a farmer, where he
might with convenience wait a fair wind to put to sea.
Thither Foxe went as secretly as he could, taking his
wife as companion in his travels, then pregnant, but re-
solved to go with him, nor jdelding to the entreaty of
those who persuaded her to the contrary ; and as soon
as it was told him, his conijiany expected him, he nrade
haste to the port, and went on board.
Scarce had they weighed anchor, when suddenly a
boisterous vvind arose from the contrary shore, and which
caused the waves to ruge with such violence, that the
stoutest mariners began to tremble : then followed a dark
night, with continual showers, and a great niultitude of
clouds gathered together into a thick storm of ruin and
hail, which both hindered the seamen's work, and took
away all possibility to direct their course by the compass
any longer. That night, with much ado, they lay at
anchor, and as soon as the day appeared, when the tem-
pest seemed not likely to cease, they began to cast about,
and make back again to the shore : so that the tide a
little favouring them, at length with much difficulty thty
arrived in the evening at the same haven again, fro)u
whence they had loosed the day before. In the mean
while that Foxe had been at sea, a pursuivant from the
bishop of Winchester had broke open the farmer's house,
with a warrant to apprehend him, wherever he might be
found, and bring him back a jn-isoner to the city ; but
understanding he was gone already, after he had pursued
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
him even to the port, and there found that the ship he
was embarked in was yet scarce out of sight, had re-
turned back. Foxe, as soon as he came ashore, hearing
by report of the people what had passed, although the
news somewhat amazed him, yet, recollecting himself,
presently took horse, and made as if he would have left
the town ; but the same night returning, he bargained
with the master of the ship to set sail again with the first
convenience of the winds ; telling him that so his busi.
ness required, nor did he much care what shore he
landed at ; only desiring him to go forward, and not
doubt but that God would prosper so pious a work.
Whether for reward or piety's sake, the pilot took upon
liim this venturous task, and performed it accordingly;
for, loosing thence in the silence of the night, as soon
as the tide turned, though the sea was rough and the
weather blustering, within two days' time he landed
Foxe and his company in safety at Newport-Haven, on
the other side of the sea.
Whoever shall read this history, needeth not a more
evident argument to force him to acknowledge either the
certain course of providence or the uncertainty of all
human forecast ; when he may see the subtlest delibera-
tions of the wisest heads oftentimes by errors come to
no effect, often overthrown by sudden accidents, and
now and then thwarted by contrary counsels ; and that
all this is done to teach men so to use their authority, as
that the more power fortune hath conferred upon them,
so much the less they should know they are able to do
of themselves, and not despise those that are of meaner
condition. For that God regardeth all men alike, hav-
ing made them in nature equal, and distinguished them
by degrees ; not to putf up the one sort, or shame the
other, but to exercise both their modesties, or his own
justice, if they neglect their duty.
Foxe, when he had spent some days at Newport, in
refreshing himself and his company, went to Antwerp,
and from thence by easy journeys to Basil.
This city was at that time much spoken of, for the
great friendship and courtesy showed to those of the
English nation ; for which cause many famous men,
withdrawing themselves from the cruelty of the times,
had escaped out of England thither. Of these, many
were but of small fortune, who, some one way and some
another, but the most parf maintained their livelihood
by reviewing and correcting the press : this place then
surpassing all the cities of Germany for careful printing,
and abounding with diligent and wealthy men in that
profession, and preferring the industry of our men in
that employment before any of their own countrymen.
To these men Foxe joined himself, and was so much
the better liked, as, having been always inured to har-
diness, and in his youth put to the trial of his patience,
he had learned how to endure labour ; and that which
seemed the greatest misery to others — to suffer want, to
sit up late, and keep hard diet — were to him but the
sports of fortune. This perhaps may seem strange to
many, who remember Foxe to have been all his life long
but a slender-bodied man, and in his elder years some-
what sickly. But let no man compare his old age, worn
out and eaten up with cares, and by the course of nature
worn out, with the flourishing prime of his youth, which
appears to have been most healthful : whether it be, that
in those of indifferent size, an upright shape of the
limbs and members may sufficiently serve for health, or
that the mind, animated with desire of virtuous actions,
being content with its own abilities to pursue those
things it affecteth, needeth the less help from the body.
His industry may be from hence abundantly testified,
that, being so full of employment at Basil, there, never-
theless, he began to write his History of the Acts and
Monuments of the Church — a work by the title alone
seeming beyond man's belief. At first it suflBced only
to mark it out, and to draw the first lines or rudiments,
or as it were to fasten the warp to the loom ; the whole
body of the history he added and interwove with it after
he returned into his own country. First he wrote it in
Latin, and sent the copy to Basil to be printed, where
the work is still in great estimation, as also in divers
other foreign nations, but among our own countrymen it
is hardly known ; which shows that whilst we seek after
and admire strangers, we, either through carelessness
or envy, neglect our own countrymen. Shortly after,
to gratify the unlearned, he wrote it in English.
In the meanwhile the reformed religion began again
to flourish in England, and the papist faction much to
decline, by the death of queen Mary— a woman, while
she followed her own inclination, every way excellent,
and well worthy so royal parentage ; but while she
denied not any thing to some wicked counsellors, she
obtained not that praise she had otherwise deserved ; and
if she be not ill spoken of, it may be attributed to the
unwillingness of the succeeding age, to speak very freely
of princes.
The whole christian world immediately felt some be-
nefit by this change of the English government.
The neighbouring nations, now disburdened of the
exiled Englishmen, rejoiced as much for the good for-
tune of their guests, as for their own. But at home what
could be devised to assure their safety, or relieve their
distresses, which they did not sooner enjoy than pre-
sume to hope for ? They who had forsaken their houses,
were now called home. They who had suffered impri-
sonment, were now released. They who by loss of goods
were decayed, were now by gifts repaired. They who
had been thrust from places of honour, were now restored
to their former dignities. The unjust laws which had been
enacted were in the mean while abrogated, and wholesome
laws established in their places. Their minds were at
quiet. Their consciences at liberty ; all degrees at peace
among themselves, and every man's goods without dan-
ger. For in such sort did queen Elizabeth, even in the
infancy of her reign, dispose the affairs of the common-
wealth, that whatsoever the long and prosperous govern-
ment of other princes doth hardly produce in many
years, at her very first entrance all at once broke forth,
beyond the people's wish, as if some deity had diffused
itself, and poured forth felicity upon the world. Of
which incomparable, and most glorious queen, to make
mention upon any occasion, and not to supply some
further digression, let it be accounted for a capital crime
among all writers of history.
She was born of the lady Anne Boylen, whom king
Henry VIII, after his divorce from his first marriage,
took to wife. From her she received, as a princely
dowry, a true zeal for religion. As she grew older in
years, so she increased in manners, knowledge and
beauty, which as well make as beseem a princess. So
that both nature seemed to have boasted in her the mas-
ter piece of her most absolute workmanship ; and for-
tune to have raised her to as high a degree, as hope could
ever aspire to.
It made her the more capable to bear so great a for-
tune, that she at first learned to obey ; then to command,
and to use that honour first to others, which was shortly
after to be used by others to her ; having in a private
life had experience of the hatred, fatal to the successors
of great empires, yet of a nobler spirit than to return the
like upon those who were to succeed her. As soon as
she came to the kingdom, her several virtues appeared at
once in their brightest lustre ; her mind descended not
to an over-nice care of her body. The principles of her
new sovereignty were, to acquaint herself with the public
reasons of state ; to seek fit men to bear part of her
cares ; to strengthen all parts of the kingdom with faith-
ful ministers ; to know the temper and abilities of those
about her ; and to search into the strength, councils and
attempts of foreign princes ; but all these qualities, if
not well tempered, might have had, perhai)s, no long
continuance. Such therefore was her gravity, as no-
thing more pleasing. Such her severity, as nothing
more gentle ; and such her frugality, as nothing more
bountiful. Only she knew no measure, in those excel-
lencies, whose glory is founded, not in the even ballanc-
ing of different virtues ; but as it were in the throng of
illustrious actions. So was the nobility of her birth
heaped with desire of glory. Her religion was most sin-
cere, and was seconded with zeal for a holy life. But
when all these virtues brake forth into actions, what days
of happiness we then enjoyed ! What more cheerful,
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
more secure or wealthy did England see, than that four
and fi>rty years of peace ! For never did she voluntarily
j)rov<)ke any to war, and always preferred the justice of
the tjuarrci before the victory. To the Irish war, hon-
our, and shame to have lost a province, enforced her.
To the French, piety, and pity of her neighbours' dan-
ger. To the Spanisl), her own safety, and necessity com-
prehendiii]; iu itself the force of all other causes, com-
pelled her.
In the progress of this war we heard of, and saw that
which, j;er(;hance, never happened in any before. For
other nations, though they fought with mortal hatred
against each other, yet were their battles restrained to
gome certain fields and places ; but this war was so scat-
tered over all jilaces, and managed with such nobleness
of courage on both sides, that through all seas and
havens from east to west, the sun might still behold the
English and .*^panish navies fiiichting for their lives, hon-
ours, or estates. Never till then had that sea, which was
accustomed to no other command but ours, frothed with
strokes of foreign oars. Nor would a large volume con-
tain the discourse, if I should relate the number and
stateliness of ships, the strength of sea and land forces,
the sujiply of ammunition, engines, weapons, guns, and
provision of victuals belonging to that navy, which
Fhilip the Second, king of Spain, with intention to raze
out the li^nglish name, sent hither in the year 15^8. Let
this suffice, that never was any preparation by sea com-
parable to this fleet, made by any the most powerful
princes or states, tobeshewedin all therccordsofantiquity;
yet that so huge and threatening armada, swelling with
6elf-con(idence, and a presumed hope of victory, was by
the fortune of this invincible princess, even in a moment
utterly defeated.
The navies met together, for number and strength un-
equal. But the manner of the fight was to the Spaniards'
disadvantageous, because the English vessels being for
bulk much less, and lower built before, could with more
rase cast about for the wind, and immediately having dis-
charged, retire to open sea ; thereby deluding the slug-
gish and unwieldy ships of their enemies, and by level-
ling at the broadsides of the Spanish galleons, bestowing
their shot with a more certain and successful airn. To
this, our cr.ptains in the skill of sea-fight, and knowledge
of the tides, far excelled the Spanish commanders, who
now taught by the former day's experience, that they
could no way, but in a set fight bear the English encoun-
ters, casting their anchors near Calais, there expected
new forces out of Flanders, and by the goodness of their
ordnance defrnded themselves. This laid them open to
the English for the victory. For having filled some ships
with tow, pitch, brimstone, and all sorts of combustible
materials, and setting them on fire, with a favorable tide,
they drove them directly upon the enemy ; who were by
this action so exceedingly terrified, that the whole fleet,
cutting their cables as fast as they could, betook them-
selves instantly to flight. In which flight some of their
ships were burnt, some sunk, some forced to run them-
Belves on shore, some split upon the rocks, and some for
haste falling foul on their fellows, and so torn and
bruised, were taken by our soldiers. Those that escaped
best, not daring to go back the same way they came thi-
ther, with long labour both by sea and land, returned at
length into Si)ain, by the coasts of Scotland, and the is-
lands of the Orkney, through those seas, which in no
aE:e had been sailed on, but by such as were very good at
flying. \\ here so great virtues and victories met together
in one person, of necessity envy would be an attendant,
followed by hatred and treacheries ; which could not, by
this most innocent queen, be so avoided, but that her
safety was through all herlife daily endangered. Which
maketh me the rather wonder, what rare doctrine of our
adversaries this may be, for piety sake which they pre-
tend, persecuting even virtue itself, whereas (not only in
no heathen, but in none the most barbarous nation, which
doth at all acknowledge any deity) it was never thought
just to take revenge upon -virtue, even in their enemies ;
unless it be so that the indulgence of the christian reli-
gion may be so far extended, that although we are com-
manded to forgive our enemies, either they must not be
virtuous, or they must not be forgiven. But evident
enough it is, that in human afl'alrs, the desires of men are
often employed to one end, and the will of God to another.
By him was ([ueen Elizabeth protected always, from the
injuries and wicked enterprizes of her enemies, and
brought full of years to tliat honour, as to carry with her
that glory unspotted to heaven, which she obtained on
earth, envy now in vain carping at her after death, whose
cause all posterity doth patronise.
Now let us return to our history.
Master Foxe, when by his friends he understood the
happy news in England, that queen Elizabeth reigned,
and that the state of religion was sure, and likely to con-
tinue, about the end of that year, in which this was in
hand, came back to his country. So much time he had
taken to bethink himself, lest (if by any inconstancy of
the people they should grow weary of their present state)
he should again be forced to seek his fortunes abroad;
besides (his family being then increased wdth two chil-
dren) he was obliged to stay, till money might from
home be sent liim, to bear his charges in travelling. But
before he could get from thence, he was informed that
some hard speeches had passed respecting him, as if
through pride he had delayed to come, thereby seeking a
shorter and more speedy way to preferment, as being
due to him, when he should be sent for. This he knevr
to be a cast of their cutming, who themselves with all
earnestness striving for honours, feared Master Foxe,
as a man deserving, and likely to be preferred before them.
Yet he thought it not worth his labour, to make any ex-
cuse for such a crime, as would of itself come to nothing;
but equally despising injuries, and neglecting his own
right, hid himself wholly in his study. As in our bodies
it is commonly seen, that those men are more healthful,
who use moderate diet and exercise, than those who ex-
ceed in either ; so I suppose doth the case stand with
our minds, that he, who if fortune hath given him no rule
prescribeth none to himself, can hardly persist in the
soundness of his duty ; whereas he who useth modesty
in his fortunes, is always more fresh and vigorous for
any illustrious undertakings. For Master Foxe, being
for his abilities famous, and supported (as I before
shewed) with the friendship of great personages, might
with ease have attained to whatever his desires had in-
clined him ; but affecting neither riches nor authority,
the wishes of happy men, (though his deserts were equal
with any) yet was he well contented to keej) the con-
science of well-doing to liimself, and that rewards sliould
remain in the possession of others. This I neither ad-
mit, as wholly to his commendation, nor yet find fault
with, as many have done. Let us at least favour good
men so far, as to allow virtue, to choose what degree of
fortune it chooses to shine in ; or if we will needs restrain
it within certain limits, lee us do it to those who are
good with hope of reward ; as for them who are so for
no design, if their glory overwhelm us not, we shall not
need to fear their multitude.
I shall write of a life, bearing continually true and
solid fruits, but not such whereon the reader's senses
may surfeit ; where neither the rare stratagems of war
or "peace shall be related, nor any such discourses as
writers use, when they intend to captivate the ears of the
hearers. I am to speak of a life passed over without
noise, of modesty at home and abroad, of charity, con-
tempt of the world, and thirst after heavenly things ; of
unwearied labours, and all actions so performed as might
be exemplary or beneficial to others.
1 have shewed before, that Foxe first applied himself to
write the history of the church, whilst he was at Basil;
and that the reason why he did not there finish it, was,
that he might afterwards use the testimony of more wit-
nesses. This work not a little vexed the minds of the
papists. For well they saw that in vain they had shed so
much blood, and to no effect been guilty of so great
cruelty, if an account of these proceedings should be
transmitted to succeeding ages : and that the work itself
could not be taken out of men's hands, they well under-
.stood. There was therefore no other hope left, but by
charging the author with falsehood, and feigning some
cavils against him, so to lessen his credit and autboiity ;
THE LIFE OF JOH^ FOXE.
which, whilst Foxe endeavoured to remove, and take
away from hiiuself, he could not avoid it, but was obliged
to pass the lawful bounds of a history, by a new collec-
tion of matters and testimonies. And let us but by this
judge of the industry of our author, that he not only ga-
thered together so many things, as the materials of his
work, from all distances of time or places, and tlirough
all counties of the kingdom, collected the acts of both
courts, and the records of matters judged, but also alone
by a most distracted kind of diligence searched out, ex-
amined, freed even from moth-eating, and afterwards re-
duced into convenient order those things themselves,
being partly as it were rusty, and eaten out by antiquity,
partly by hatred or flattery of authors corrupted, and
partly hid in the rugged and short form of old writing.
I find by the author's own notes, that in the eleventh
year after he began to write it, the work was finished ;
and it is very probable, that the work shall live, which was
so long ill being brought forth : neither in all that time
used he the hel)) of any servant about his writing or other
business : so much doth industry employed to one pur-
pose, and gathered into itself, afford more useful as-
sistance, than being scattered, and the aiind divided into
many cares at once, though it hath never so many help-
ing hands.
Foxe, when he had for many years lefc no time free
from his study, either not at all, or not seasonably
affording himself what nature required, was at lengtti |
brought to that condition, that his natural liveliness and
vigour being spent, neither his friends nor kindred could
by sight remember him. By this means he first fell into
that withered leanness of body, in which many after-
wards saw him, never again returning to that pleasing
and cheerful countenance which he had before ; buc
when he would not be persuaded to lessen his accustomed
labours, or to lay aside his study, or to recreate himself,
which was the cause of the debility which had been
produced, the signs thereof did likewise remain.
From this time Foxe began to be much spoken of, for
a good historian ; the other virtues of his mind, as they
were less known abroad, so were overshadowed by that
which was known. Shortly after, he began also to wax
famous for other endowments, not only as a learned man,
Dut as one for his friendliness useful, and helpful to
others. But modesty will not allow me, by way of jour-
nal, to rehearse the voluntary pains he took upon him :
however, it will not be amiss, in general, to say something
of it ; and to show how, either by good advice, comfort-
able persuasions, or a charitable hand, he either relieved
the wants, or satisfied the desires of innumerable persons ;
whereupon no man's house was in those times thronged
with more clients than his. There repaired to him both
citizens and strangers, noblemen and common people of
all degrees, and almost all for the same cause ; to seek
Bome relief for a wounded conscience. At length, some
who were likewise sick in body, would needs be carried
to him ; but this, to stop rumours, he would not suffer to
be done. For, because they were brought thither, they
were by some reported to be cured.
Thus spending the day at home in such like duties,
frequently preaching abroad, and going to visit those who
were not able to come themselves to him, he both ful-
illed that, which, by the courtesy of his own disposition,
was enjoined him, and neglected not the performance of
that duty, which the office of his ministry had imposed
upon him. That little time which his friends, either
called away by other occasions, or ashamed of being too
;edious, had left free to his own disposal, he bestowed
aot in sleeping, or taking his pleasure, buc in prayer and
studying ; when he engaged in either of these exercises,
lie always retired into some private apartment, or made
use of the night's silence for secresy, unless by chance
sometimes the vehement groans he mingled with his
prayers, being heard by some that were near the place,
;ave notice how earnest he was in his devotions. For at
io time of the night could any man come to find his la-
Bours ended ; but often kath the next morning's light
jeen the last of his night's care concluded.
Now, although these things be true, yet well I know
there are many who will find fault, that I have so slightlj
passed them over ; and demand, why I produce not th«
matters themselves, as witnesses of his actions, or at
least some particular example of each kind, that they
may with more security give credit to the rest. But
many things there are which hinder me from so doing.
First, that common civility forbiddeth us, to publish
abroad that which the conscience of another hath com-
mitted to our secrecy ; and a very ill example should he
give, who should not rather by all means conceal, than
make known to the world, the secrets of private houses,
the jarrings of friends, and such private affairs in men's
lives, wliereof it may either shame, or repent them :
next, that the matters themselves, which used to be at-
tended to in the greatest privacy that might be, could by-
no means come to our knowledge ; or, if by suspicion
somewhat were gathered, and that I should instance in
one or two particulars ; yet what great assurance in the
rest, could 1 draw from hence ?
I will now bring the last argument, I know not
whether I should say, of his ability or industry ; that he,
who so wholly had given himself to please his friends,
that he had set apart no time, for his other occasions,
yet wrote so much, as it might well have been believed,
he had done nothing else.
I have here for their sakes, who may desire it, set
down the titles of those books he wrote ; which are
these — Comapdiarum libri 2. Syllogisticon. Adnionitio
ad Parliamentum. De lapsis per errorem in Ecclesiam
restituendis. Oliva Evangelica. De Christo gratis jus-
tificante. De Christo Crucifixo. Papa confutatus. Con-
tra Osorium de Justitia. Meditationes supra Apoca-
lypsiin Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum Commentarii. The
Acts and Monuments of the Church.
We are now come so far, as to be able from hence, to
give the reader a full sight at once, of the rest of Foxe's
life, which ought, I suppose, in like manner to please
them, as we see those that travel, when they have been
long tired with continual rugged ways and rough forests,
and come at length into the plain and champaigne coun-
tries, are witli the very change of soil not a little de-
lighted and refreshed.
In this (as it were) sketch of his conditions, we shall
first observe that which might well be thought the chief-
est of his virtues ; namely, a deliberate and resolved
contempt of all things, which are in greatest esteem
among men, and especially of pleasures: which disposi-
tion of his, whether inbred by nature, acquired by disci-
pline, or infused by God, did of necessity give him great
ability to perform with commendation whatever he chose
to take in hand ; there being nothing which can mislead'
the mind into errors, which would otherwise of itself
hold the right way, but what proceedeth from some plea-
sure or other ; lying in wait to entrap us in our journey.
But so did Foxe hold play with these enemies, as one
who desired not to save himself by flying, or shelter
himself in some secret place of retirement ; but by often
skirmishing, and experience in the manner of fighting,
to increase his own strength, and give to others an ex-
ample of fortitude ; using to say. That they did not great
matter, who forsook business and employments in the
world, lest they should suffer themselves to be allured
and deceived by them. For, that the things were in
themelves innocent, and then first of all grew hurtful,
when they were overvalued and pursued with avaricious
desire ; which he that can beat back when it assaileth
him, and striveth to break in upon him, is deservedly
called temperate ; but that he who was never in any
temptation, may rather seem to have been good through
want of occasion to be otherwise, than by his own
virtue.
He never therefore declined the friendship of illus-
trious personages ; not to gain honour to himself, but
that thereby he saw his commendation would be more
effectual, when he should desire favour on the behalf of
others. The money, which sometimes "Ch men offered
him, he accepted, returning it ba^^ to the poor. He
likewise frequented the tables "f his friends, not for his
own pleasure, being of " spare diet ; but from courtesy
to keep them company, and lest any should imagine, he
either feared or fled from the wrestling, and striving witb
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
voluptuous encounters, or that he thought himself, by-
being absent, better defended against the pleasures inci-
dent to eating and drinking, than by the guard of his
own moderation. In a word, so did Mr. Foxe behave
himself in those things which are accompanied by de-
lights, that certain it is, none of those who were always
in his company, can remember any speech or action of
his, which might betray the least shew of a desire for
them ; and so far was he from thirsting after honour,
riches, applause, or any outward good, that he would at
no time suffer the care of his private estate to enter his
mind, much less that it should by taking thought for his
household affairs, be overcome or drawn aside : which
either security of his, or as some called it, slothfulness in
his own fortunes, I will hereafter declare whence it pro-
ceeded. In the mean time, whilst I consider the cause
wherefore he thought all other things so contemptible,
especially since that could not be imagined to arise from
any obstinate disdainfulness, much less from a sluggish-
ness of mind ; I assure myself, it was only the love of
God, wherewith his mind was so filled, and so much de-
lighted, that he left no room, nor any affection free for
other pleasures, of his own accord separating himself
from the fashions of the world, of which he was not
otherwise incapable ; and devoting himself wholly to this
care, like one who had found an invaluable treasure, he
bent his eyes and mind upon this only, neither hoping
nor expecting any thing besides, but resolved to make
this the scope of all his wishes and desires : whereby (as
in such a case must needs happen) it so fell out, that
they who observed his mind so steadfastly fixed upon
God, and that he both spoke and did many things beyond
the opinions of an ordinarily good man, believed that he
could not be void of some divine inspiration ; and now
some began, not as a good man to honour him, but as
one sent from heaven, even to adore him, through the
folly of mankind, madly doting upon any thing, whatso-
ever their own will hath set up to be worshipped.
It will not be out of the way to add in ge-
neral what Foxe thought of the church of Rome,
and the bishop thereof, as far as they may be ga-
thered out of his speeches when, being of ripe years,
he had strengthened his judgment with much expe-
rience.
The heads of his opinions were these :
That among the christian church the Roman had
been in dignity always chief, and of most antiquity.
That it retained this dignity and preference many ages
after, by little and little, growing to greater authority,
not by consent of the people, or by any right to that
claim, but by reason of a certain inclination and custom
among men, that where any chanced to excel others,
they first began to be powerful among the rest, and at
length to exercise command over them. That the
greatest honour and authority it had was among
■these western kingdoms, which, as every one mostly
loved the christian religion, so were they by the dili-
gence and piety of the Romans most assisted ; in this
respect it had not ill deserved to be called the
mother of tiiose churches. That the occasion of so
great an increase was, that the city of Rome, being of so
ancient renown, and as it were by destiny appointed mo-
narch of the world, in all ages abounding with men
of great courage and virtne, being well peopled,
wealthy, usefully seated, and always under the emperors'
sight, easily afforded this convenience. That at the first
the christians could no where meet together with less trou-
ble, or be more plentifully provided for, or more safely con-
cealed, or, when need vvas, die with more constancy ; all
which made j)osterity greatly to admire and honour
them. That the church at first flourished rather in good
discipline, and the approved holiness of the professors,
than in abundance of riches, there being yet no loose
ness, no pi'vle or ambition found in the manners of the
clergy ; and money, servants, lands, jewels, and such
like goods, were aivijrether unknown to them ; in short,
all things were so restramod^ either by modesty in using
what they had, or contented in wanting what they
had not, as that in Rome alone teemed to be the
seat of the christian religion. All this was observed
with the greatest strictness in the times nearest to the
church's infancy ; but, in process of time, by little and
little, it be^an to be neglected and corrupted, after the
same manners as rivers, whose streams being small
and clear near their head, the farther they proceed the
larger is the channel, but with more troubled waters ; till
at length, by mixture with the sea, they become also un-
wholesome ; and though in no one place can we perceive
where they are any jot changed from their first purity;
yet may we easily enough find a great difference, if we
compare the extremes together. In the church it so fell
out, that having brought all nations to the christian
faith, after they once began to think it for the honour of
the empire, that the priests should no longer (as they
had formerly been accustomed) endure poverty, but live
in a more sumptuous way, to which purpose the
emperors granted many things to the churchmen, both as
an ornament and reward to them ; then also the priests
began, first to be taken with the love of riches, then, by
degrees, to grow wanton through abundance, and not to
care what little pains they took ; afterwards (as always
the succeeding age adds to the vice of the former) they
affected power also, which, when they had once ob-
tained, and, by the emperor's gift, received the com-
mand of the church, they gave not over, till (having cast
down the emperors, by whose bounty they had so
prevailed) they both invaded the privileges of the em-
pire, and now laid claim to both spiritual and temporal
government ; in the mean while, neglecting those rules
of religion which their predecessors had prescribed
them, neither themselves searching the scriptures, nor
permitting others to do it ; and esteeming the worship
of God to consist rather in outward devotion and pomp
of ceremonies, than in the obedience of faith. That by
this means it came to pass, that the church of Rome
(as all other immoderate empires) not only fell from that
high degree it once held, but also subverted in itself the
very substance and state of a church : nor that this
ought to seem strange, if, as the most healthful bodies
fall into sickness with most danger, so it happeneth,
that the prime of all churches should have no mean, but
either remain in the perfection of health, or become
the most dangerous enemy to it ; and that for this cause
the pope now seemed to be antichrist. That notwith-
standing the case was so plain, yet neither part ought to
lend too much belief to arguments, nor be too earnest in
hindering it, if by any moderation of men the matter
might be brought to soundness and agreement. That it
was not, perhaps, in our power to take from Rome her
ancient honour, and the opinion of her religion so fixed
already in the minds of men. That the church of Rome
had fallen by her own covetousness, ambition, and pre-
varication ; but that never any man had gone so far in
sinning, as that repentance had not reached as far. That
therefore it was fit to allow them, as a returning to re-
pentance, so some convenient means to move them to it,
and sufficient space to repent in. That it might be the
author disliked them, because a German or Frenchman,^
and not an Italian of their own nation had tohl them o :"
their errors. That there might one day among theii
own men be found some, by whose authority they should
not be ashamed to amend their faults, and with more
willingness part with their own power to procure the
peace of the whole world. That there was at least this
hope left, it might so fall out that they had no further
erred in the articles of faith than that they would not
suffer too much to be known. That the conditions of
agreement would be, first. That the pope should forsake
all those tenets, by which he gained such great sums of
money ; there being nothing whereto the people might
with more difficulty be persuaded, than that Christ, the
Saviour of the world, had instructed his church in the
way of getting money, and setting the scripttircs to sale.
Next, that he should renounce all secular jurisdiction, and
not sup])ose himself to have title, or any thing to do
with the right of princes. That, on the other side, liis
onposers should not refuse, th<ic some one man may have
the principal place of counsel and government in the
church affairs, as being a tiling which would have many
conveniences in it, when it might be done with security ;
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
neither that the Romish church, because it had once
fallen, ought to make against it ; nor that it had
first flourished to prevail for it, herein to bo pre-
ferred before any other ; but that all this «-as to be
left to the discretion of a general council of the
christians, which might be so equitable, as that neither
the power or favour of any one should be able, either
from the place of meeting, or the difference in
number of voices, to promise itself any advantage to the
injury of the rest. That, in the mean while, it would
be of great moment to the hope and speediness of
settling all controversies, if hereafter on both sides they
would give such instructions, as might cause in each
party a better hope and opinion of the other, espe-
cially that they ought to leave off that stubborn conceit,
whereby each of them, presuming itself to be the only
true church, supposeth the other excluded. For that it
were not only wicked, but also highly to the dishonour
of God, to think that he had so given his commandments
t3 mankind as that they should be turned to the
destruction of those that obey them ; which must of ne-
cessity come to pass, if when all men will not consent in
the same opinion, they who understand most shall refuse
to admit the rest ; was therefore the kingdom of heaven
reserved only for the more understanding sort, and those
that know most ? Where should then the fools of the
world be ; where should little children be, whom Christ
had set apart for himself? How much better should
we serve God by following that which was evident,
than by interpreting that which was doubtful ? How
much more probable were it, that God's mercy was so
abundant, as when men were once agreed in point of ge-
neral obedience, there should nothing else be laid to their
charge ? For, that the force of obedience was before
God so great, as thereby only all other inequalities
might be made even ; but if all were not in equal condi-
tion, that certainly with God they were best esteemed
who judged with the most modesty of others.
I will now speak of the friends of Mr. Foxe :
niiior.s; whom, I have already shewed with how great
alfection he was beloved by the duke of Norfolk, being by
his bounty maintained in his lifetime, and after his
death by tlie pension he bestowed on him, which his
son, the right honourable the earl of Suffolk, to whom
those revenues descended, out of his liberality con-
tinued.
His fortunes were increased by the lord William
Cecil, then lord treasurer, a man beyond expression ex-
cellent, whom it as much availed queen Elizabeth to
liave for her minister, as it availed the kingdom to have
Elizabeth for their queen ; and without doubt most
deserving, that in himself and in his jiosterity he should
flourish in that kingdom, which he had by his wisdom
and advice made most flourishing. He, of the queen's
pift, obtained for Mr. Foxe the rectory of Shipton, upon
no- other inducement but his public merits, and when
^Ir. Foxe delayed, and after his manner entreated leave
to excuse himself, the lord Cecil politically overcame his
liashfulness by telling him, that he neither accepted that
for an answer, nor had he deserved that the blame of Mr.
Foxe's refusing the queen's gift should be laid upon him,
as if he had been his hindrance.
To the earls of Bedford and of Warwick he was very
acceptable.
He was very intimate with sir Francis Walsingham,
secretary of state, a prudent and vieilant man, and one
who deservedly was the first that advanced the power of
the secretaryship.
The two brothers, sir Thomas Hennage and Master Mi-
chael Hennage, he sincerely loved, the first for the sweet-
ness of his behaviour, the other for his solid learning
and singular modesty of life, and though they were
each of them, in their kind, most accomplished gentle-
men, yet he was wont to say that sir Thomas Hennage
had as much as was requisite in any way to become a
complete courtier, but that Master Michael Hennage had
both all his brother in himself, and that besides of his own
■which the court had not corrupted.
To sir Drew Drury he bare likewise a strong affection,
as to a man of sincere intentions, and of great con-
stancy in all fortunes, and perhaps, the only man in
the court who continued his favour without loss of his
freedom.
Among the prelates he principally reverenced Doctor
Grindall, archbishop of Canterbury ; Doctor Elmar,
bishop of London ; and Doctor Pilkington, bishop of
Durham ; and Doctor Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, who
were his partners in banishment at Basil.
Among the writers of his time he preferred, before the
rest. Doctor Humphrey, Doctor Whiteaker, and Doctor
Fulke, with whose learning he was greatly delighted,
and esteemed it no small benefit to be again be-
loved by them.
But with none had he more familiar acquaintance
than with Master John Crowly and Master Baldwine
Collins, whose counsel he made use of in all his affairs,
especially of Master Collins, concerning whom he was
wont to say, That he knew not which had the greatest
share in him, excellence of knowledge, or modesty of
mind.
Among military men, sir Francis Drake was much
delighted with his familiarity ; whom to commend near
the times he lived in, were needless, but to commend
him to posterity, according to his merits, many volumes
would scarce suffice.
Among the citizens of London, he always found great
good will; especially with sir Thomas Gresham, sir
Thomas Roe, Alderman Bacchus, Master ismith. Master
Dale, and Master Sherington, who held him in great esti-
mation, being part of them such as had borne the liighest
places of honour in the city, and part of them merchants
of great substance.
1 pass by many, who perhaps had as great a share in
Master Foxe's friendship as any of these ; nor ouglit it
to be accounted a fault, if I either knew not, or remem-
bered not all : but this I ought not to omit, (as be-
ing the chief cause why I thought fit to mention the
above-nained worthy men) that these were they, from
whom, I before said. Master Foxe received such large
sums of money to divide among the poor : which, al-
though they did it with so much privacy, as that they
trusted not to messengers in delivering it, not regarding
any outward praise, their well-doing might procure
them, knowing the consciousness of it to be as much as
they needed to desire. Yet it was not fitting for me in
Foxe's history, to dissemble it, or to give any man occa-
sion to suppose the truth was not opened by Foxe, thougli
they themselves thought good to neglect the fruit of so
great liberality, especially since it may abundantly serve
for commendation of both him and them, that they
should be known by their own actions, and he by none
but his own.
He used always among his friends a pleasant kind of
familiarity, wherewith he seasoned the gravity and seve-
rity of his other behaviour.
Being once asked at a friend's table, what dish he de-
sired to be set up to him to begin his meal with, he an-
swered, " the last ;" which word was pleasantly taken,
as if he had meant some choicer dish, such as are usually
brought for the second course ; whereas he rather
signified the desire he had to see dinner ended, that he
might depart home.
Going abroad, by chance, he met a woman that he
knew, who, pulling a book from under her arm, and
saying, " See you not that I am going to a sermon ;"
Foxe replied, " But if you will be ruled by me, go home,
rather, for to-day you will do but Utile good at church;"
and when she asked, " At what time therefore he would
counsel her to go?" " Then," answered he, "when you
tell nobody before hand."
It happened at his own table that a gentleman there
spake somewhat too fieely against the earl of Leicester,
which, when Foxe heard, he commanded a bowl filled
with wine to be brought him, which being done r
" This bowl," said he, " was given to me by the earl of
Leicester," so stopping the gentleman in his intem-
perate speeches without reprehending him.
When a young man, a little too forward, had in pre.
sence of many, said, "That he could conceive no rea-
son in the reading of old authors, why men should so
a2
THE LIFE OF JOHN FOXE.
greatly admire them." '' No marvel indeed," replied
Foxe, " for if you could conceive the reason, you would
then admire them yourself." .
1 couia uieiitiou many anecdotes of this kind, but
that 1 will not exceed my intended limits too far. _
At length having in such actions, and such behaviour
spent out his age, being now full of years, and blessed
with friends, ere he had ijuite passed through his seven-
tieth year, (1587) he died, not through any known disease,
but through much age.
Upon the report of his death the whole city lamented,
honouring the small funeral which was rnaae for him,
with the concourse of a great multitude of people, and
in no other fashion of mourning, than as if among so
many, each man had buried his own father, or his own
brother.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND
MODERN CHURCH OF ROME.
Page
The corruptions of Rome came in gradually . . 8
Objections to this statement answered . . ib.
Particulars, wherein the ancients and modems differ 9
Papal assumptions rejected in the time of Pope
Victor 10
Also at the councils of Carthage, and subsequently ib.
Particulars in which modern popes have exceeded
their due jurisdiction . . . . . ib.
The authority of princes over popes proved from
Scripture . . . . . . .11
The same proved by the laws of man . . .12
The Constitutions of Justinian touching this . . ib.
The laws of both England and France on the same . ib.
The modern titles of the popes . . . .13
Contrary to coiincils of Nice, Carthage, &c. . . ib.
The title of " Universal Bishop" assumed by the
Greek patriarch . . , . . .15
Denounced by pope Gregory the Great . . . ib.
Whether St. Peter was Universal Bishop, examined ib.
W^hether he was head of the church . . .16
Whether he was bishop of Rome . . - . ib.
Tlie church of Rome is not the head church of
Christendom . . . . . . .17
Some questions touching the succession of St. Peter 18
Pag«
The arguments of the papists from the fathers,
examined ....... 18
The causes which led to the pre-eminence of the
church of Rome ...... 19
The arguments from analogy of temporal monar-
chies, examined . . . . . . ib.
The difference between ancient and modern Rome in
doctrine ........ 20
This proved by the Scriptures in several particulars 21
Contrariety of the doctrines of Rome to those of St.
Paul 25
This contrariety to the word of God —
On faith and justification . . . .26
On works and the law ..... ib.
On sin 27
On penance or repentance . . . . ib.
On the difference between the Law and the
Gospel 28
On free-will. 29
On invocation and adoration . . . . ib.
On the sacraments ..... ib.
On matrimony . . . . . .30
On civil government . , . . . ib.
On purgatory ib.
BOOK I.
CONTAINING
THREE HUNDRED YEARS NEXT AFTER CHRIST, WITH THE TEN PERSECUTIONS OF THE
PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
Arrangement of this work 32
Method of treating this history . . . . ib.
Opposition of the world to the kingdom of Christ . ib.
Persecutions by the Jews ..... 34
Martyrdom of St. Andrew ib.
Martyrdom of St. James 35
A.D. Persecutions by the Romans —
64. The First, under Nero . . . .35
67. Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul . ib.
94. The Second, under Domitian . . 36
97. Banishment of St. John . . . . ib.
Causes of these persecutions by the Romans, ib.
The uncertainty that exists respecting the
first bishops of Rome 37
98. The Third, under Trajan. . . . ib.
The Letter of Pliny to the Emperor . . ib.
The Emperor's answer . . . * . .38
Martyrdom of Ignatius . . . . ib.
140. The clemency of the Emperor Antonius Pius. 39
His Letter or edict respecting the Christians 39
161. The Fourth, under Marcus Aurelius . 39
Martyrdom of Polycarp . • . . ib.
Letters of the church, at Smyrna, detailing
the same ...... ib.
The Martyrs at Lyons and Vienne . .41
The Epistle of the churches, there, detail-
ing the persecution . . . . ib.
Some account of Justin, the Apologist and
martyr . ..... 42
Some account of Melito and his catalogue of
Canonical Scriptures . . . .43
193. The Fifth, under Severus . . . ib.
Some account of Origen . • . .44
Martyrdom of Irenaeus . . . . ib.
His opposition to the bishop of Rome . ib,
Tertullian ib.
Succession of the bishops of Rome . . ib
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
222.
235.
244,
249
«C7.
270.
3S4.
Character of Victor (A.D. 185)
The contest about Easter-day between the
ea-tern and western churches .
Ch'\racter of Heliogabalus
Martyrdom of Cecilia
The Sixth, under Maximinus
Baptism of the Emperor Phili])
The Seventh, under Decius
Some account of Origen .
Martyrdom of Babylas
The Persecution at Alexandria, detailed in
Dionysius ....
Account of the death of Serapion
The controversy concerning the lapsed
Some account of Novatus .
The letters of Cyprian to the persecuted
The Eighth, under Valerian
Some account of Cyprian .
Cautions respecting the writings of the fa-
thers ....
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence
Some account of Dionysius
The fate of Valerian .
The Ninth, under Aurelian
Eusebius ....
Tranquillity of the church for 44 years
Its great prosperity and consequent corrup
tion ....
The Tenth, under Diocletian
Its terrible character .
In Nicomedia
In Bohemia
In Spain ....
In Britain ....
In Alexandria
Edicts of Maximinus in brass
Page
44
ib.
45
ib.
46
ib.
ib.
ib.
47
ib.
, 49
, ib.
, ib.
50
51
ib.
ib.
52
ib.
ib.
53
54
ib.
ib.
ib.
55
ib.
56
ib.
ib.
ib.
58
A.D. Page
The pestilence ...... 58
312. Constantme proceeds to Italy . . .59
The story of the cross in the air . . . ib.
His victory ...... 60
Edict in behalf of the christians . . . ib.
Breach between Constantine and Licinius . 61
324. Deaths of Licinius and other persecutors . ib.
Particular details of certain martyrs . . ib.
Martyrdom of Alban ib.
Fabulous miracles ascribed to him . . 62
Martyrdom of Romanus . . . . ib.
Gordius . . . ,63
Menas . . . . . ib.
The forty martys, described by Basil . . 64
Martyrdom of Cyrus . . . . . ib.
Agricola and Vitalis . . ib.
Vincentius . , . . ib.
Eulalia . . . .65
Agnes .... 66
Absurd legends respecting Catherine . . ib.
Martyrdom of J ulitta . . . . . ib.
Barbara . . . . ib.
Succession of the bishops of Rome . . ib.
Council of Sienne . . . . .67
Persecution in the East under Sapor . . ib.
Martyrdom of Simeon . . . . ib.
Letter of Constantine to Sapor in behalf of
the christians . . . . . .681
Martyrdom of Marcus Arethusius . . ib.
Exposition of the 1260 days . . .69
Character of Constantine . . . .70
Constantine's prayer . . . . .71
His edicts in favour of Christianity . . 72
His command to circulate the scriptures . ib.
The alleged donation of Constantine to the
bishops of Rome disproved . . . ib.
BOOK II.
CONTAINING
THE NEXT THREE HUNDRED YEARS, WITH SUCH THINGS SPECIALLY AS HAVE
HAPPENED IN ENGLAND FROM THE TIME OF KING LUCIUS TO GREGORY, AND SO
AFTER TO THE TIME OF KING EGBERT.
180.
462.
568.
A.D.
The antiquity of the British churches
They received not the faith from Rome
Difference of their doctrines from the mo-
dern faith of Rome ....
Story of king Lucius and pope Eleutherius
Fagan and Damian .....
Troubled state of Britain ....
Arrival of the Saxons . . . . ■
Tlie establishn)ent of the Heptarchy
The British christians persecuted by Saxons
The four persecutions in Britain
596. The mission, and arrival of Austin the monk
Made archbishop of Canterbury
The synod at Austin's oak .
Opposition of the British clergy
Their destruction by Jithelfride
The conduct of Austin
The character of pope Gregory
Rise of the papacy under Boniface III.
Controversy about Easter .
The arguments and conclusion
Theodore introduces matins,
masses, Ike.
Synod at Thetford
Sixth general council at Coastantinople
616.
680.
Page
A.D.
74
707.
ib.
75
. ib.
ib.
76
ib.
747.
77
ib.
ib.
ib.
78
ib.
780.
ib.
79
. io.
. ib.
794.
. il).
. 80
. ib.
! 81
. ib.
. 82
Adelme of Malmesbury and John of Bever-
ley .......
Absurd miracles ascribed to them
Latin custom respecting Easter established
in England ......
Controversy about shaving priests
Some account of Bede ....
Synod at (;ionesho .....
Letter of archbishop Boniface exposing the
vicious lives of nuns and friars
First establishment of some popish practices
The donation of Pepin to the see of Rome .
Controversy concerning imiges .
Gregory s mass substituted for Ambrose's li-
turgy _ .
Curious mode in which this was determined
The grant of Charlemagne ....
794. Council of Frankfort, condemning images .
Proceedings of Charlemagne against images
Tlie empress Irene and the council of Nice .
Introduction of Peter's pence into England .
Abbies and nunneries now founded in Eng-
land .......
Superstition and ignorance of these times .
Succession of archbishops of Canterbury
Page
82
ib.
ib.
ib.
83
84
ib.
ib.
85
ib.
ib.
ib.
ib.
86
ib.
ib.
ib.
ib.
87
88
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
BOOK III.
CONTAINING
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE REIGN OF KING EGBERT TO THE TIME OF
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
ib.
92
ib.
A.D. Page ,
79i. Civil history of Britain . . . .89
828. Britain first called Anglia . . . . ib. !
832. Arrival of the Danes . . • . ib. j
Churches of England began to be endowed . ib. |
Swithin, bishop of Winchester . . . ib. j
Series of popes . . . . . . 90 |
Their innovations iu religion . . . ib. I
Story of pope Joan . . . . . ib,
Epistle of Haldrike in behalf of the mar-
riage of priests .....
Succession in the papacy ....
Emperors precluded from interfering in the
election of the popes ....
The causes of the Danes' invasion of Eng-
land ib.
8;0. King Alfred 93
His various contests with the Danes . . ib.
His character . . . . . .94
John Scotus . . . . . . ib.
Succession of the popes . . . .95
Degradation and restoration of pope Formosus ib.
Difficulties in the papal succession . . ib.
901. King Edward the Elder , . , .96
928. King Ethelstan 97
His law respecting tithes . . . . ib.
940. King Edmund ib.
Monks first introduced into cathedrals . ib.
Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury . . .98
Absurd legends respecting him . . . ib.
The laws of this king prove the authority of
princes then in the church . . . ib.
948, King Edwin ib.
Banishment of Dunstan . . . . ib.
959, King Edgar . . , . . . ib.
Dunstan recalled . . . . . ib.
Appointed archbishop of Canterbury . . ib.
Progress of monkery in England . . . ib.
Ancient and modern monkery contrasted . 99
Frivolous distinctions of orders . . .100
Character of king Edgar . . . . ib.
A.D.
974.
975.
973.
1016.
1017.
1036.
1039.
1043.
106C.
1067.
Page
The penance imposed on him by Dunstan . 101
His oration to the clergy . . . . ib.
King Edward the Martyr . , , . 102
Factious proceedings of Dunstan , . ib.
Monks expelled from the monasteries . . ib.
Death of the king through means of his mo-
ther 103
Succession of popes , . . , . ib.
Wicked character of pope John XII. . . ib.
His deposition from the popedom . . ib.
Otho renews the grants of Charlemagne to
the see of Rome . . ... . ib.
Pope John XIII. imprisoned . . . ib.
Pope Boniface VII. dragged through the
streets of Rome . . . . . ib.
Contests for the papacy . . . . ib.
King Ethelred 104
The Danes return to England . . . ib.
Their cruel oppression of the people . . ib.
Edmund Ironside and Canute . . . ib.
Assassination of Edmund .... 105
Proceedings of Canute . *. . . ib.
Harold ....... ib.
Hardicanute ...... ib.
King Edward the Confessor . . . 106
Visit of William duke of Normandy to Eng-
land ..,..,. ib.
King Harold II ib.
Invasion of England by duke William . . ib.
Conquest of England and death of Harold . 107
Succession of the popes . . . . ib.
Their innovations in religion . . . ib.
Schism in the papacy — three popes together ib.
Pope Victor poisoned by Hildebrand . . ib.
Another schism in the papacy . . . ib.
Violent proceedings of Hildebrand . . ib.
Council at Lateran . . . . , ib.
Opposition in England to pope Nicholas II. 108
Council at Mantua . . . . . ib.
Succession of archbishops of Canterbury . ib.
BOOK IV.
CONTAINING
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS FROM WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR TO THE TIME OP
JOHN WICKLIFFE.
A.D.
Page
109
, ib.
, ib.
, 110
. ib.
1066. William the Conqueror crowned
His violent measures with the clergy .
1070. Council of Westminster
Lanfranc visits Rome for the paU
Expences of the pall ....
Contest for primacy between York and Can-
terbury ....... ib.
Changes of some sees in England . .111
1075. Council at London . . . . . ib.
Pope Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. . • ib.
His violent proceedings . . . . ib.
Exclusion of the emperors for election of
pope 112
His extravagant claims . . . . ib.
His epistle against the marriage of priests . 113
His decree upon the same . . . . ib.
Opposition of the priests to this law . . ib.
His character drawn by cardinal Bruno . 114
He is seized and imprisoned, and again res-
cued ib.
A.D, Page
1076. Sentence of the council of Worms against
him . . .... 114
His excommunication of the emperor . . 115
1083. Sentence of council of Brixia against the
pope ....... 116
Hildebrand deposed, and again restored . ib.
Death and character of William I. . . 117
Monkish strife about the Gregorian and Sa-
lisbury choir services . . . . ib.
1087. William II. crowned . . . . ib.
His extortions against the clergy . . . ib.
Succession of popes H8
1088. Two popes together ib.
Council at Rome under Urban II. . . ib.
1095. at Claremont . . . ' . ib.
Peter the Hermit ib.
The first crusade . . . . . ib.
Opposition in England to the pope . . ib
Proceedings of pope Urban II. . . . ib.
Auselm, archbishop of Canterbury . . ib.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
1995. Contest between Anselm and William IL
The differences between tbe Greek ami Ilo
man churches . . • •
Proceedings of the council of Bayonne
Message of the pope to William IL .
Death and character of this king .
1100. Henry I
Anselm recalled . . • •
The priests in England resist the pope's de
crees against marriage
no;}. Contest between the king and Anselm .
The success of Anselm . • •
His proceedings concerning investitures
Council of Westminster
Its decrees .....
His proceedings against the marriage of
priests .....••
1106. Excommunication and death of the emperor
Henry IV
Contests of the popes with the emperors
1115. Confers between York and Canterbury for
primacy ......
1135. Stephen crowned .....
Reserves the right of bestowing spiritual
livings .....••
Excommunication by bell, book and candle
introduced ....■•
1154. Henry II ilj
Thomas a Becket archbishop of Canterbury . ib
Extent of the British empire in this reign .
The empeftjr Frederick Barbarossa
1155. Contest between Frederick I. and pope
Adrian .....••
Their letters ......
Schism between two popes
Page
A.D
. iiy
1205
. 120
1208
.121
. ib.
. ib.
. ib.
. 122
ib.
1210.
. ib.
. 12;{
. ib.
. ib.
. ib.
1213.
124
125
12(;
ib.
ib.
ib.
127
ib.
ib.
128
The pope puts his foot on the emperor's neck ib.
1164. The history of Thomas a Becket . . . 129
His contest with the king .... 130
Advice of the other bishops to Becket . 1.12
He flies the kingdom . . . . .134
He resigns his see to the pope . . . 135
Letters between the pope and the king . X'AG
Certain letters of Becket . . . .137
1169. Letters of the English bishops to Becket . 138
Letter of two cardinals respecting him . 140
Becket's return to England . . .141
1170. His death and character .... 142
Absurd miracles ascribed to him . . 143
1172. The conquest of Ireland .... 144
Penance imposed on the king . . . ib.
Contest between York and Canterbury re-
vived ....... ib.
Death and character of Henry II. . . 145
The papal form for giving a pall . . ib.
Persecutions by the pope at Tholouse . . ib.
The origin and history of the Waldenses . 146
Their doctrines opposed to popery . 147
Their persecutions ..... 148
1187. Jerusalem captured by the Saracens . . ib.
Origin of the red, white, and green crosses ib.
1189. Richard 1 149
Persecutions of the Jews in England . . ib.
The kings of England and France prepare for
a crusade . . . . . .150
Their arrival at Messina . . . . ib.
Tancred, king of Sicily . . . . ib.
1191. Conquest of Cyprus, and siege of Acre . 151
Shipwreck and imprisonment of King Ri-
chard 152
His release ... . . . ib.
1197. Fulco's conversation with king Richard . ib
Death and character of this king . . 153
1199. King John ib.
He is threatened with an interdict by the
pope ..'... ib.
Death of prince Arthur . . . ib.
1205. Contention among the monks at Canter-
bury ....... ib.
Contest in the election of an archbishop . 154
1215.
1216.
1226.
1245.
1246
Paga
The king's measures against the unruly
clergy . . . . . . . ib.
The pope appoints the archbishop Langton . ib.
The king's spirited letter to the pope . . ib.
The pope's insolent reply .... ib.
England put under interdict . . . ib.
The king's measures against the prelates . 155
The legate Pandulph in England. . . ib.
His audacious language to the king . . ib.
The poj)e excommunicates and deposes the
king ....... 155
Grants England to the king of France . ib.
The prophecy of Peter against the king . 156
The French king prepares to invadtt the realm ib.
John compelled to resign his crown to the
pope ....... ib.
John's letter of resignation . . . ib.
Council of Lateran . . . . . ib.
Decrees against heretics .... 157
Transubstantiation first decreed . . . ib.
The pope excommunicates the English barons
who demanded the Magna Charta . . ib.
The king poisoned by a monk, who was ab-
solved of the sin beforehand . . ib.
City of London permitted first to choose a
mayor ....... ib.
London Bridge rebuilt of stone . . . ib.
Henry III.
Persecution by pope Innocent III. in Alsatia 158
Origin of the Dominican and Franciscan
orders ... . . . ib.
The various orders at this age . . . 159
Prophecy of Hildegardis . . . . ib.
Origin of the Cross-bearers, or Crutched
friars .160
A treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer against the
friars ....... ib.
A complaint of the nobles of England against
the popes and their exactions . . 163
Council at Westminster, cardinal Otho . 164
Extravagant demands of the pope on England ib.
Council at London . . . . . ib.
The contests between the sees of Canterbury
and York finally settled . . . . ib.
The motive for the pope"s extravagant de-
mands ....... ib.
Opposition of the clergy of England to them ib.
Council at Lyons, at which the English com-
plain of the pope's exactions . . . ib.
The complaints of the kingdom of England
made in this council against the pope . 165
The legate's insolence at Oxford . . ib.
Crusade against earl Raymond and the city
of Tholouse . . . . . . ib.
The earl excommunicated and Tholouse be-
sieged . . . . . . .166
Perjury of the legate at Tholouse . ib.
Opposition in England to the papal (Exactions ib
Contest between pope Gregory and the people
of Rome ....... 167
Departure of the church of Rome from pri-
mitive Christianity . . . . ib.
Separation of the Greek and Roman churches 168
The ambitious assumptions of the church of
Rome . . . . . . . ib.
A list of the exactions of the popes in Eng-
land 169
The opposition of the king and nobles . 172
The king's letter to the pope . . . ib.
All papal bulls prevented entering the realm ib.
Supplication of the nobles and commons to
tiie pope ...... 173
The king's letter to the prelates respecting
his rights 174
, Advice of cardinal John Anglicus to the pope ib.
The Greeks justified in continuing separate
from Rome ...... 175
Fabulous miracle in recovery of the French
Via?- from sickness . , . . ib
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D
124«.
1249.
1250.
1261.
1263.
1274.
1303.
Page
EflTects of the pope's misconduct on the
French army and all Christendom . .176
The crusade under the French king . . ib.
William Longspath . . . . . ib.
Failure of the crusade . . . .178
Tragical history of emperor Frederick II. . ib.
His dispute with the pope . . . ib.
His letters to the king of England • .179
His peace with the Saracens . . . 180
The pope's proceedings against the emperor ib.
He promotes treason in the empire . . 181
The emperor's letter to the prelates of the
world ....... ib.
He is supported by the prelates of the empire 182
The pope in council excommunicates him . 184
The wars and contentions which followed . ib.
Death and character of Frederick 11. . IS.'i
Some bold opposers of popery appear . ib.
The blasphemous " Everlasting Gospel'' . 186
Some account of Robert Grosthead . . ib.
This bishop's fearless opposition to the pope ib.
Provisions made at Oxford against foreigners 187
The pope absolves king Henry of his oath to
those provisions ..... 188
Troubles that arose in the realm from this . ib.
The king's letter to the bishop of Hereford
against non-residence .... 189
The battle of Evesham . , . .190
Prince Edward goes against the Turks . 191
He is wounded . . . . . . ib.
He tilts in France with the earl de Chalons . ib.
Edward I.
Pope Boniface claims the kingdom of Scot-
land 192
King Edward denies the pope's claim . . ib.
His arguments in this behalf . . . ib.
Execution of William Wallace . . .193
A.D. Page
The jubilee first appointed . . . . ib.
Strife between the popes and the French king ih.
Their letters to each other . . . .194
The declaration of king Philip's notary Wil-
liam Nagareta against the pope . , ib.
The appeal of king Philip .... 19.5
1304. The po])e is imprisoned and dies . . 196
Exemption from subsidies claimed by the
clergy ....... ih.
The king's measures against them . . ib.
The epistle of Cassiodorus to the church of
England 197
1,307. Edward II.
His troubles connected with Gaveston . . 199
The order of Knights Templar suppressed . ib.
1318. The king opposes the exactions of the pope's
legates 201
Prohibition of Peter's pence . . . ib.
Contest between the emperor Lewis and
pope Clement ..... 203
Lewis poisoned by order of the pope . . ib.
Papal bull containing the privileges of the
jubilee ....... ib.
1327. Edward III.
W^ar with Scotland 204
The king invades France .... 205
1343. Letter of the king and nobles of England to
the pope ...... 206
Letters describing his victories in France . 207
13;52. The king claims the ancient right of the
crown of England to bestow benefices, &c. 209
1364. Ordinance against certain papal bulls being
admitted into England .... 210
Certain writers against popery . . . ib.
William Ockam . . . . . . ib.
Francis Petrarch . . . . .211
Succession of archbishops of Canterbury . ib
BOOK V.
CONTAINING
THE LAST THREE HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE LOOSING OUT OF SATAN.
A.D.
1360.
1363.
1370.
1376.
1378.
1.382.
Page
Examination of Rev. XX. 1 .... 212
The first dawning of Reformation . . 213
The ploughman's complaint . • . ib.
Rupescissa's prophetic parable against the
pope 215
Some account of Richard Armachanus, pri-
mate of Ireland . . . . .216
His arguments against Mendicant friars . 217
The laws of premunire .... 220
Certain authors write against popery . . 221
Mathew Paris ...... ib.
Persecutions at Mentz and Paris . . 222
Certain laws passed in this reign against the
claims of the pope . ' . . . . ib.
The statutes of the parliament of Westmin-
ster against the papal exactions . . . 223
The king s commendation of WicklifTe when
sending him to Rome .... 224
Account of John Wickliffe . . . . ib.
Cited before the bishops .... 226
Richard II ib.
The pope's letter to Oxford against Wickliffe 227
The protestation of Wickliffe
Articles in his works condemned
The archbishop of Canterbury's letter against
bim .......
Examination of Nicholas Hereford, Philip
Reppington, and John Ashton
Excommunication of Hereford and Repping-
ton .......
The alleged statute against heretics exam-
228
229
ib.
A.D. Page
Reppington and Ashton abjure WicklifFe's
doctrines . . . . . .231
1382. Wickliffe's letter to pope Urban VI. . . 232
Henry Spencer, bishop of Norwich . . ib.
The form of the jiope's absolution . . 233
Testimonial of University of Oxford in favour
of John Wickliffe (1406) . . . ib.
Sentence of council of Constance against the
doctrines of Wickliffe (1415) . . .234
Sentence against his bones — to be dug up
and burned ...... ib.
1389. History of William Swinderby, a priest . 235
His recantation . . . . . ib.
The informations laid against him . . 236
His defence ...... 237
K91. The sentence against him .... 238
History of Walter Brute . . . . ib.
His defence 239
His second defence . . . . .241
On the alleged supremacy of the pope . 242
On the absolution of the church of Rome 243
On auricular confession . . . 244
On transubstantiation . . . 246
On the priesthood . . . .247
On exorcisms and other superstitions . 2'J9
On selling masses and purgatory . 250
On Rome as the mystical Babylon . 251
1393. He submits himself to the church . . 252
Bull of pope Boniface against the Lollards . ib.
BuUof the same, addressed to kingRichard II. ib.
The royal commission against heresy . 25,3
Persecution in Leicestersliire . . . 254
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
1393.
1395.
1398.
1399.
1400.
1401.
1406.
1409.
1413.
1414.
Articles objected to the accused
Two nuns, Matilda and Margaret Caily, pe
secuted .....
Penances imposed on those who abjured
Peter Pateshul, a friar
Character of Queen Anne .
Parliament at Westminster
Twelve conclusions in favour of a reformation
posted on St. Paul's, and brought before
parliament ......
Pope Boniface IX. . . . . .
Letter of king Richard to the pope, rebuking
the schism in the papacy ....
Deposition and death of king Richard
Henry IV.
History of the martyr William Sautre, a priest
Articles objected to him and his answers
Form of degradation from his priesthood
Sentenced to be burned
His martyrdom ....
Articles exhibited on the church doors
against the king ....
Archbishop of York beheaded
History of the martyr, John Badby
Tiie statute " ex officio"
History of William Thorpe
His examination before the archbishop —
written by himself
History of John Purvey
The doctrines which he taught
Succession of popes ....
Schism in the papacy ....
Three popes at once ....
Letters of king Henry to the pope and car-
dinals ......
History of /o7m i7w*«
Origin of the troubles in Bohemia
Superstitious state of England
Archbishop's mandate for telling aves
Churches suspended for not ringing bells
Penances imposed on some persons for not
providing provender for the archbishop's
horses ......
Statutes against appeals to Rome
Other enactments in reference to church
matters ......
Henry V.
History of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cob-
ham .....
His confession of faith
His conference with the archbishop
Judgment of the clergy
His examination
His condemnation
A counterfeit abjuration
Martyrdom of Sir Roger Acton and others
Death of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of
Canterbury ......
Page
254
ih.
25r)
ib.
ib.
ib.
258
ib.
2G1
ib.
ib.
263
ib.
ib.
264
266
ib.
267
268
268
277
ib.
278
ib.
279
ib.
ib.
ib.
280
ib.
ib.
281
ih.
282
ib.
283
284
ib.
286
288
ib.
ib.
A.D. Page
The history of the Bohemians . . . 289
Proceedings against John Huss . . . ib.
His answers to the decree against the Bohe-
mians' and Wickliffe's doctrines . . 291
His excommunication and removal from
Prague . . . . . . . ib.
Story of the owl at the council at Rome . 292
1414. Council of Constance . . . ib.
Its procedure ...... ib.
Its measures for healing the schism of the
papacy 293
1415. The three popes abdicate or are deposed . ib.
Safe conduct given to John Huss . . 294
His arrival at Constance .... 295
His safe conduct violated in his imprison-
ment ....... ib.
Articles against him ..... 296
Flight of pope John XXIII. . . .297
Application of the nobles of Bohemia for the
release of John Huss .... 298
Violent proceedings of the council . . 299
He is brought before the council . . 300
The emperor's address to him . . . ib.
Articles in his writings objected against him 301
Sermon of the bishop of Londy . , . 304
The sentence of the council . . . 306
The form of his degradation . . . 307
His martyrdom ...... 308
Letter concerning the violation of the safe-
conduct .309
Certain letters of John Huss . . . ib.
1416. History of Jerome of Prague . . . 313
His abjuration ...... 314
Sentence against him .... 317
His martyrdom . . . . . ib.
Letter of fifty-four nobles of Moravia in de-
fence of John Huss and Jerome of Prague 318
Persecution in England .... 319
History of John Claydon ... ib.
His martyrdom .... 320
Archbishop's constitution against the Lol-
lards ib.
Accounts of the troubles of Robert Chapel,
a juiest 321
Persecution of certain others . . . 322
The cruel martyrdom of lord Cobham . 323
141". Election of pojie Martin V. ... 324
History of Ziska and tlie Bohemian wars . ib,
1418. Papal bull against the disrnples of Wickliffe,
Huss, and Jerome of Prague . . . 328
Address of the Bohemians to kings and
princes in behalf of the gospel . . 333
Division among the Bohemians or Taborites. 334
The Bohemians send representatives . 336
Their demands . . . . . ib.
1422. Death of Henry V 337
Succession of archbishops of Canterbury . ib.
BOOK VI.
PERTAINING
TO THE LAST THREE HUNDRED YEARS FROM THE LOOSING OUT OF SATAN.
A.D.
1422.
Page
Henry VI 338
Martyrdom of William Taylor . . . ib.
Persecution and penance of John Florence 339
Troubles of Richard Belward . . . ib.
1428. The king's letter for the arrest of William
White and others 340
Some account of William White . .341
His martyrdom, with two other priests . ib.
Penances prescribed in the bishop of Nor-
wich's letter ...... 342
Troubles of John Beverley and John Skilley ib.
History of Margery Backster . . . ib.
A.D. Page
Her fearless answers to the charges against
her 343
Troubles of many godly persons . . 344
1430. Martyrdom of Richard Hovesdon . . ib.
Troubles of Nicholas, canon of Eye . . ib.
Martyrdom of Thomas Bagley and Paul
Craw 345
History of Thomas Rhedon — a Carmelite
friar ib.
1431. The council of Basil 346
Declaration of the council against the pope .S47
1439. Election of pope Felix V 351
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
1439.
1440.
1453,
1461.
1473.
1483,
1485.
1494.
1499.
1503.
Debates concerning the Bohemians
On the communion of the cup to the laity .
Petition of the Bohemians
Epistle of ^neas Sylvius . . . .
Two popes together, Eugenius and Felix
Invention of printing . . . .
Constantinople taken by the Turks
Troubles of Reynold Peacock, bishop of
Chichester ......
A jubilee ordained in order to raise money
JEaeas Sylvius elected as pope Pius IL
Succession of the popes
Edward IV. . . .
The troubled state of the realm
Martyrdom of John Goose
The emperor Albert .
Frederick III.
Ladislaus, king of Bohemia
War throughout Europe
Exorbitant exactions of the court of Rome .
Martyrdom of John of Franconia
Examination of John of Wesalia
Origin of the rosary of Our Lady's Psalter .
Edward V. ......
Richard III
Battle of Bosworth-field . . . .
Henry VII
The emperor Maximilian ....
Opposition to popery appearing in Ger-
many, France, and England
Troubles of the godly in England
Martyrdom of Jerome Savanarola
Succession of popes . . . . .
Infamous character of pope Alexander VI.
Character of pope Julius II.
Opposition to him in the council of Turin .
History of the Turks
Mahomet
The Koran
351
352
353
354
ib.
ib.
356
ib.
357
ib.
ib.
358
35!)
.361
ib.
ib.
362
363
364
ib.
365
366
ib.
.367
ib.
368
ib.
ib.
ib.
369
ib.
ib.
370
ib.
371
ib.
A.D. Page
1300. Ottoman 372
1328. OrChanes ib.
1359. Amurath ib.
1389. Bajazet 373
Some account of Tamerlane . . ib.
1403. SoHman Calepinus .... 374
1409. MusaChelebi ib.
1413. Mahomet ib,
1421. Amurath II ib.
Some account of Huniades , . 375
1451. Mahomet II 376
Siege of Constantinople . . . 377
Siege of Belgrade .... 378
1481. Bajazet II 379
1512. Selim 1 380
1516. Solyman . ..... ib.
Siege of Vienna .... 381
Sufferings of the christians under the Turks 386
Prophecies of scriptures concerning the
Turks . - , . . .389
concerning the pope 391
The number of the beast, considered . . 392
Martyrdom of William Tylsworth and others
in Buckinghamshire .... 393
Martyrdom of John Chase of Amersham . ib.
Martyrdom of Laurence Ghest . . 394
Martyrdom of a woman at Chipping-Sodbury ib
Persecutions in Lichfield and Coventry . 395
John Picus earl of Mirandula . , 396
Succession of archbishops of Canterbury . ib.
The proud primacy of the bishops of Rome
described, (a treatise) — The man of sin . 397
The first rising of the bishops of Rome ib.
Their exaltation above kings and em-
perors . ..... 398
Image of antichrist in the temple of God 399
150 cases reserved tor the pope's dis-
pensation ..... 405
BOOK VII.
BEGINNING WITH
THE REIGN OF KING HENRY VIII.
A.D.
1509.
1511.
1514.
1517.
1518.
1519.
1521.
1516.
Henry VIII 407
Contentions among the monkish orders . ib.
Controversy concerning the immaculate con-
ception ..,,., 408
Stace of Europe at this time , , , 409
Persecution in the diocese of London . ib.
Martyrdom of William Sweeting and John
Brewster . . . . . .411
Martyrdom of John Brown . . .412
History of Richard Hunne , . , ib.
His murder in prison , , . . 414
His corpse ordered to be burned . . ib.
The inquest on the body . . . . ib.
Account of Elizabeth Stamford, and others 415
Martyrdom of John Stillman . . . 416
Thomas Man . . .417
Robert Cosin . . . ib.
Christopher Shoomaker . 418
Some account of doctor Colet . . . ib.
Progressof the gospel in England . . 419
Persecution in the diocese of Lincoln . ib.
The king's letter to the bishop of Lincoln . 420
THE REFORMATION.
The then state of the chnrch of Rome . 421
Martin Luther 422
1 he origin of his religious views . . ib.
Commencement of the Reformation . . 423
Tetzel — the Friar ib.
Erasmus' opinion of Luther's first proceed-
ings . . ib.
A.D,
1519.
1521.
1522.
1524.
1529.
1546.
1519.
Page
424
425
Luther cited to Rome
His conference with cardinal Cajetan .
Death of Maximilian, and election of
Charles V 426
Controversy between Luther and Eckius . ib.
Ulric Zuinglius ..... 427
Luther before the diet at Worms . . 428
King Henry's book against Luther . . 433
Death of pope Leo X. . . . . ib.
Election of pope Adrian VI. . . . ib.
Diet at Nuremburg . . , , , ib.
The pope admits a reformation necessary . ib.
Answers of the princes and nobles of the
Empire ...... ib.
Complaints made in the diet at Nuremburg . 436
On remission of sins for money . . ib.
On the immunities of clergy . . . ib.
On the number of holydays . . . ib.
On baptizing bells . . . . ib.
On usury ...... ib.
On licences for vicious living . . . ib.
On exactions of the clergy . . . ib.
On concubinage among the priests . . 437
Pope Clement VII ib.
Carolostad ... . . . ib.
Points of agreement between Luther and
Zuingle . . * . . . ib.
Death of Martin Luther .... 438
The history of Zuingle . . . . ib.
Reformation in Switzerland , , , ib.
Disputation at Baden .... 441
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. Page
1529. Proceedings of CEcolampadius at Basil . 441
The burning of popish images . . • 442
Proceedings of Ferdinand at Spires . . ib.
1531. Death of Zuinglius 443
Martyrdom of Henry Voes, and John Esch . ib.
Henry Sutphen . . . 444
John Clerk . . .446
John Castellne . . . 447
Form of his degradation . . . . ib.
Martyrdom of John Diazius . . . 448
Wolfgang Schuch . . 449
John Huglein . . . ib.
George Carpenter . . ib.
Leonard Keysor . . 450
A.D. Pag8
Martyrdom of Wendelmuta . . . 450
The martyrs of Germany .... 451
France .... 455
Spain .... 469
The Spanish Inquisition .... 471
The martyrs of Italy .... 472
Letter of the martyr Pomponius Algerius . 475
1560. Horrible massacre of protestants in Calabria 478
Persecutions in Provence . . . . ib.
1561. Persecution of the Waldenses
The opinions of the Waldenses
Cruelties practised on them
Invasion of their valleys
485
ib.
487
488
BOOK VIII.
CONTAINING
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AFFAIRS APPERTAINING BOTH TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL
AND CIVIL STATES.
A.D.
1519.
1528.
1529.
1530.
1531.
15.32.
1533.
Martyrs burned at Coventry . . . 500
Martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton . . ib.
Henry Forest . . .501
Martyrs burned in Edinburgh . . . ib.
Martyrdom of Thomas Harding . . ib.
Troubles .of Alice Daley and others . . 502
History of cardinal Wolsey . . . 503
The arrival of Campeggio . . . . ib.
The pomp of cardinal Wolsey . . . ib.
The capture of Rome and pope Clement . 504
The title of " Defender of the faith" . 505
Persecution by the cardinal . . . 506
The king's displeasure with him . . ib.
He is brought under premunire . . ib.
Grievances complained of against the clergy. 507
Articles against cardinal Wolsey . . ib.
His death and character .... 508
Troubles of Alderman Humphry Mummuth ib.
Martyrdom of Thomas Hitten . . . ib.
Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur . . ib.
Articles against Arthur .... 509
Bilney . . . • ib.
Dialogue between Friar Brusierd and Thos.
Bilney on images ..... 510
Recantation of Bilney . . . .511
His martyrdom ...... 513
Some account of Master Stafford . . ib.
Simon Fish . . . 514
" The supplication of the Beggars" . . ib.
Prohibition'of the New Testament in Eng-
lish - . 517
Tindal's translation of the New Testament . 518
Martyrdom of Richard Byfield . . .519
John Tewksbury . . .520
James Bainham . . . 522
His examination . . . . . . ib.
Three men hanged for burning a rood . • 523
History of /o^w Frt7A . . . .524
Some account of his doctrines . . . ib.
His examination, written by himself . . 526
His martyrdom 527
Martyrdom of Andrew Hewit . . . ib.
History of Thomas Benet .... 528
The form of his excommunication . . ib.
His examination ..... 529
Divorce of queen Catherine . . . 530
The king's oration about the marriage • 531
The queen's defence . . . . , ib.
The king is alienated from the court of
Rome ....... 533
Parliament decrees against papal exactions . ib.
Oath of the popish bishop to the pope . . 534
to the king . . ib.
Marriage with Anne Boleyne . . . ib.
1535.
1536.
1537.
A.D. Page
Birth of Queen Elizabeth .... 524
Cranmer appointed archbishop of Canterbury 535
1534. The power cf the popes abolished in England ib.
The king declared head of the church . . ib.
The university of Cambridge against the
papacy 536
Edmund Bonner against the same . . 537
Bishop Tonstal against the same . . . ib.
Letter of bishops Tonstal and Stokesley to
cardinal Pole ..... 540
Bishop Fisher and Sir T. More executed . 541
History of William Tindal .... 542
His translation of the New Testament . 543
His martyrdom . . . ... . 544
Letters of Tindal . . . . . ib.
Execution of queen Anne .... 546
General council called for Mantua . . ib.
Protestation of England against it . . ib.
The king's marriage with Lady J. Seymour . 548
Treason of some popish priests . . . ib.
Birth of prince Edward .... 549
Bonner appointed bishop of London • . ib.
His oath against the pope . . . . ib.
Articles devised by the king . . . ib.
The royal injunctions .... 550
Idolatrous images removed . . . 554
Account of friar Forrest . . . . ib.
Abbeys and monasteries suppressed . . ib.
1538. History of John Lambert . . . . ib.
His answers to the articles against him —
On marriage of priests . . . 555
On merit of works . . . . ib.
On transubstantiation . . . . ib.
On the sacraments . . . . ib.
On auricular confession . . . ib.
On sufficiency of Scripture . . . 556
On purgatory . . . . . ib.
On invocation of saints . . . ib.
On pilgrimages, &c 557
On relics ib.
On fasting ib.
On images ...... ib.
On the priesthood .... 559
On excommunication . . . . ib.
On the popes 561
His answer to Dr. Taylor's sermon . . 562
His disputation before the king . . . 563
His martyrdom ...... 564
His judgment on transubstantiation . . ib.
Martyrdom of Collins . . . 565
Cowbridge . . * . ib.
Leiton, Puttedew, and Peke 566
King Henry's protest against the council at
Mantua . . . . . . ib
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. Page
1539 Royal injunctions against certain books, &c. 5(i7
Gardiner, bishop of Winchester . . . 568
1540 The six articles 569
Objections to the six articles . . . 570
On transubstantiation . . . . ib.
Doctrines of the primitive Anglican church ib.
Epistle of the Saxon Elfrid . . . .571
The sermon of Easter. day . . . . ib.
The growth of transubstantiation . . 572
Decree of the council of Lateran in 1215 . 57.3
On half communion ib.
Contrary to antiquity . . . . ib.
to the scriptures . . . . ib.
On private masses, &c. .... 574
On the marriage of priests . . . 575
The practice of the primitive church . . ib.
Aveutine's account of this . . . ib.
Many great bishops and others married . 576
On confession ...... 577
History of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex . ib.
His favour with the pope . . . . ib.
His rise to favour with the king . . . 578
His speech to the bishops .... 580
Oration of Alisse . . . . . ib.
Zeal of Cromwell for the reformation . . 581
His fall 582
Intrigues of bishop Gardiner . . . ib.
Death of Cromwell 583
The bible translated into English . . ib.
1541. Persecution of Dr. Barnes and others . . 584
Martyrdom of Master Gerrard . . . 586
of William Jerome . . . 589
The bishops divided in their opinions . .591
Persecution on account of the six articles . 592
Martyrdom of John Porter . . . 595
An anecdote concerning a rumour of fire at
Oxford • ib.
Fifth and sixth marriages of the king . . 597
1542. Letter of the king for abolishing idolatry . ib.
Proclamation concerning white meats . . ib.
1543. Troubles at Windsor 598
of Robert Testwood . . . ib.
of Henry Filmer .... 599
Examination of John Marbeck . . . 601
Condemnation and death of these Windsor
martyrs ....... 603
Persecution at Calais ..... 604
A.D. Page
1543. Persecution of Adam Damlip . . . 'J04
of William Smith . . .605
ofDod 607
1544. The six articles mitigated . . . . ib.
The New Testament permitted to the rich,
but prohibited to the poor . . . ib.
Account of the martyrs, Kerby and Clarke . 608
Their examination . . . . . ib.
History of Anne Askew .... 609
Her first examination . . . . ib.
Her second ditto . . . . .611
Her condemnation ..... 612
Her letters to the king and the chancel-
lor 613
1546. Her confessions of faith, and martyrdom . 614
History of queen Catharine Parr . . . ib.
Her escape from the intrigues of her ene-
mies ....... 616
Bishop Gardiner's intrigues against the
reformation . . . . .617
Interview between Henry VIII. and the
French ambassador . . . . ib.
Troubles of Sir George Blage . . . 618
A proclamation against English books . . ib.
A proclamation against the great number of
holydays ...... 620
History of the persecutions in Scotland . ib.
Sentence against sir John Borthwick , . 621
History of Thomas Forrest . . . ib.
Persecution in Perth ..... 622
History of George Wishart . . . ib.
His examination ..... 623
His martyrdom ...... 626
Martyrdom of Adam Wallace . . . 627
The schism about the Paternoster . . 628
Martyrdom of Walter Mille . . • 629
His examination . . . . . ib.
Persecutions in Kent ..... 630
Extreme and unnatural cruelty of the pro-
I cess ....... 631
Protestantism in England before the time of
Luther 632
Three modes of judgment against heretics . ib.
The book of Revelation burnt, with, the mar-
tyr Stile 633
1547. The death of Henry VIII. . . . ib.
Illustration of priestcnxft in France , , ib.
BOOK IX.
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE ACTS AND EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF
KING EDWARD THE SIXTH.
A.D. Page
1547. Edward VI 635
The pious character of the king . . . ib.
His measures for reforming the church . 637
His injunctions respecting the same . . 638
1548. Letter of the council to the archbishop, for
abolishing images 639
Letter concerning communion in both kinds 640
The uniform order of Common Prayer
1549. The king's letter to bishop Bonner
Injunctions of the council to Bonner
The rebels in Devonshire .
Proceedings against bishop Bonner
His deprivation ....
The Latin service abolished
Communion table substituted for altars
Reasons for this change ...
1550.
641
642
643
644
647
655
656
ib.
656
A.D.
concerning the lady
Page
657
1550. Letters concerning the lady Mary
1551. The king's instructions concernir
Mary . 659
History of bishop Gardiner . . . 660
Articles sent to him by the council . . ib.
History of the duke of Somerset, lord pro-
tector 662
1552. His execution 66o
Disputation at Cambridge on the sacra-
ment 666
Bishop Ridley's judgment on the same . ib.
Disputation at Cambridge by Martin Bucer 668
Dialogue on the words — " This is my
body" ib.
1553. Death of Edward VI 672
The lady Mary's dialogue with Ridley . 673
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
BOOK X.
CON'TAININO
THE FIRST ENTERING OF QUEEN MARY TO THE CROWN, WITH THE ALTERATION
OF RELIGION IN THE REALM.
A.D.
1553. Queen Mary .... . .
Queen Mary appeals to the men of Suffolk .
prohibits preaching, printing,
&c
Master Bourne preaches at Paul's Cross
Persecution begins . . . . .
The queen attends the popish mass
Subverts the reformed religion
Disputation at the convocation on transub-
stantiation ......
Cranmer and Ridley, and other bishops, re-
moved .......
Bonner and others restored
1554. Commuication between lady Jane Grey and
Fecknam on faith and transubstantiation .
Death of lady Jane Grey . . . .
Bonner's letter, requiring every one to come
to confession ......
Troubles of the lady Elizabeth .
Bonner absurdly magnifies the priestly of-
fice .......
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer conveyed to
Oxford ......
Disputation at Oxford on the sacrament
Cranmer disputes . . . , .
Ridley disputes ......
Latimer disputes . . . . .
Account of these disputations by Ridley
Sentence passed ag'ainst them
Page
1)74
()7o
676
677
ib.
(578
ib.
679
684
ib.
685
687
ib.
688
689
ib.
ib.
690
692
696
699
ib.
A.D.
1554.
lo5i;
Pag«
Cranmer defends himself against certain
slanders ...... 701
Latin services again restored . . . 702
New appointments in the church . . ib.
The apology of Master Mantel . . . 70:5
Wyat clears the lady Elizabeth of the charge
against her ...... 704
Declaration of Bradford and others in prison,
on the proposed di.^putation at Cambridge 705
Lady Elizabeth committed to the Tower . 706
Queen Mary marries Philip of Spain . . 707
Images and shrines set up at St. Paul's . ib.
Bonner's violence, when the church bells
were not rung at his visitation . . 708
Story of a shiine in Lancashire . . . ib.
Bonner prohibits scriptures or writings on
the walls of churches . . . . ib.
Persons imprisoned forsellingprotestantbooks 709
Cardinal Pole lands at Dover . . . ib.
Queen Mary's supposed pregnancy . . ib.
Cardinal Pole gives absolution to all Eng-
land for its heresies . . . • 710
Bishop Hooper's letter to the persecuted
protestants . . . ' . . . ib.
Public procession to celebrate the restora-
tion of popery ..... 711
Persecution of the protestant bishops and
ministers . . . . • . ib.
Their supplication to the queen . . 712
BOOK XI.
COMPRISING
A.D.
1555.
THE HISTORY OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM AND PERSECUTION
IN THE TIME OF QUEEN MARY.
Page
713
ib.
ib.
The martyrdoms under queen Mary's reign
The history and martyrdom of John Rogers
His examination .....
History and martyrdom of Lawrence San-
ders . . . . . . .719
His letters 720
History and martyi-dom of bishop Hooper . 725
His examination and persecution . . 726
History and martyrdom of Dr. Rowland
Taylor 730
His examination and defence of the marriage
of the clergy ...... 733
Alfonsus, the king's confessor, preaches
against persecution .... 737
The form of absolution for heresy . . 738
History and martj'rdom of Thomas Tomkins ib.
History and martyrdom of William Hunter . 739
His examination ..... 740
Account of Thomas Higbed and Thomas
Causton ...... 742
Their examination ..... 743
Martyrdom of \MIliam Pygot and Stephen
Knight 744
Martyrdom of John Lawrence, priest . ib.
History and martyrdom of bishop Farrer . 745
His examination . . . . . ib.
History and martyrdom of Rawlins White . 746
The queen proposes to restore the abbey Innds 748
The pope's bull for the same arrives . . 749
History and martyrdom of George Marsh . ib.
A.D.
1555.
Page
750
, 753
, 757
ib.
7b8
760
His examination and persecution
His letters ......
History of William Branch, alias Flower
Martyrdom of J. Cardmaker and J. Warne
John Warne's confession of faith
jMartyrdom of John Simson and J. Ardeley
Bonner's proceedings against J. Tooly after
his death ......
History and martyrdom of Thomas Hawkes
His dialogue with bishop Bonner and arch-
deacon Harpsfield, &c. . . , .
A letter by him ......
Martyrdom of Thomas Watts
Articles against him, and his answers
The supposed pregnancy of queen Mary
Royal proclamation against protestant books 768
Idolatrous extracts from " Our Lady's
Matins"
Blasphemous extracts from " Our Lady's
Psalter," by Bonaventure
Three martyrs burned ....
History and martyrdom of Master John
Bradford .....
His examination ....
His conferences with different persons
His dialogue with archbishop of York and
bishop of Chichester ....
His conference with two Spanish friars
His seven reasons for denying transubstan-
tiation 780
761
762
ib.
765
766
ib.
767
769
ib.
771
772
773
777
778
779
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
xxxi
isns.
John Leaf burned with John Bradford
Letterii of John Bradford . . . .
James Trevisam buried in the fields
History of John Bland, written by himself .
His examination ......
His answers against transubstantiation
Examination of Nicholas Sheterden
His martyrdom, with others
His letters ......
Martyrdom of Margaret Polley and others .
Confession of faith of Dirick Carver
John Launder .
Martyrdom of Dirick Carver
Confession of faith of John Denley
His answers on the catholic church
on Latin masses
on images . . . .
on transubstantiation
on auricular confession .
on baptism . . . .
Examination of John Newman
The burning of six martyrs together .
Martyrdom of George Tankervil
Examination of Robert Smith
A godly letter by him . . . .
Martyrdom of Robert Samuel
A letter to the persecuted by him
Examination of Roger Coo
Martyrdom of several persons
Persecution of Robert and John Glover
A letter of Robert Glover, detailing his ex-
amination ......
Cornelius Bungey, martyr . . , .
Account of John and William Glover .
Martyrdom of William Wolsey and Robert
Pygot
History of bishops Ridley and Latimer
Their conference in prison, answering some
objections on the authority of the church
Letters of bishop Ridley . . . .
Account of master Hugli Latimer
Extracts from his letters . . . .
The bishop's prohibition of the Scriptures and
other books in English . . . .
Latimer's letter to Henry VIIL on the read-
ing of the Scriptures in English
Examination of bishop Ridley
on the pope's supremacy
of Latimer . . . .
Ridley again examined . . . .
Latimer again examined ....
Dialogue between Ridley and Brooks
Martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer
Ridley's farewell letter . . . .
lament on the change of religion
Death of Bishop Gardiner
Martyrdom of several persons
History of John Philpot ....
His fourteen examinations
Page
■80
781
78y
ib.
790
791
794
795
796
797
798
799
ib.
800
801
ib.
ib.
ib.
ib.
802
ib.
804
ib.
8or)
808
811
ib.
813
814
ib.
815
819
ib.
820
821
822
829
SX^
830
837
839
842
843
847
849
851
852
854
855
861
863
864
ib.
865
arch-
A.D
1555. His letters
1556. Seven martyrs suffering together
The articles charged against them
Account of Thomas Whittle
Bartlet Green .
Thomas Brown
John Tudson
John W^ent
Joan Lashford .
Isabel Foster
Five martyrs burned
Life and history of Thomas Cranmer,
bishop .....
He is sent to Rome about the king's divorce
His change of opinion on the sacrament
His refusal to consent to a change of succes-
sion in the crown .....
His condemnation at Oxford
His confession of the reformed faith .
The charges against him, and his answers .
His degradation . . . . .
His recantation .....
His renunciation of the same
His martyrdom ......
His letters to the queen, in which he states
his objections against popery .
His letters on papal authority
on Latin masses, &c. .
on half-communion .
on the pope's assumptions .
on transubstantiation .
Five martyrs burned .....
Six martyrs burned at Smithfield in one fire
Examination of William Tyms
Letters of the same .....
Supplication of the inhabitants of Norfolk
and Suffolk to the queen's commissioners
Six martyrs at Colchester . . . .
Martyrdom of an old cripple, and also of a
blind man ......
Three women burned at Smithfield
Martyrdom of Thomas Drowry, a blind boy
Three martyrs burned at Beccies
Persecution in Suffolk ....
Four martyrs burned at Lewes .
Eleven men and two women burned
Their confession of faith ....
Examination of Roger Bernard .
of John Fortune
An account of Julius Palmer, of the univer-
sity of Oxford ......
His examination .....
The horrid cruelty to three women, martyrs
in Guernsey ......
Martyrdom of Thomas Moor
Examination of John Jackson
Martyrdom of Joan Waste, a blind woman .
Persecution and martyrdom of many others
884
889
ib.
890
891
892
893
ib.
ib.
ib.
ib.
894
895
898
ib.
ib.
899
900
902
90.}
904
905
906
ib,
907
ib.
ib.
908
909
910
ib.
912
913
918
ib.
919
ib.
920
ib.
ib.
921
ib.
922
ib.
923
925
926
928
ib,
ib.
930
BOOK xir.
932
934
936
937
A.D.
1557.
COMPRISING
THE PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE SERVANTS OF CHRIST, FROM
IHL BEGINNING OF JANUARY 1557, AND THE FIFTH YEAR OF QUEEN MARY.
A.D.
1557. Cardinal Pole's visitation of Cambridge
The bones and books of Martin Bucer and
Paul Phagius burned ....
The oration of Master Ackworth at Cam-
bridge • ,....
Peter Martyr's wife exhumed and buried in
a dunghill, at Oxford
Matters inquired into at the visitation of tne
Universities 938
Ten martyrs burned at Canterbury
Royal commission against protestants ,
Twenty-two persons apprehended at Col-
chester ......
Their confession against transubstantiation .
Five martyrs burned in Smithfield
Three martyrs burned in Southwark .
Examination of Stephen Gratwick ,
Seven martyrs at Maidstone . ,
Page
938
939
ib.
940
941
ib.
942
943
CHRONOLOCilGAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
1557.
Page
Examination of Edmund Allen . . 944
Four men and three women burned at Can-
terbury ...... y45
The tragical treatment of Alice Benden . ib.
Examination of Mathew Plaise . . . 946
Ten martyrs burned in one fire at Lewes . ib.
The examinations of Richard Woodman,
written by himself ..... 947
Account of several martyrs . . . 954
Five men and five women burned at Col-
chester . . . . . • . 954
Their answers to their examinations . . 956
George Eagles, martyr , . . . ib.
Examination of Richard Crashfield . . 957
Martyrdom of Mrs. Lewis .... 958
The martyrs burned at Islington . . 959
Letter by R. Roth to the persecuted . . 960
Two women burned at Colchester . . 961
Martyrdom of John Noyes . . . ib.
His scriptural letter to his wife . • . ib.
Martyrdom of Cecily Ormes . . . 962
Persecutions at Lichfield .... V63
at Colchester . . . ib.
Examination of Thomas Spurdance . . ib.
Three persons burned in Sraithfield . . 964
The articles objected against them . . 965
Martyrdom of John Rough, a minister . ib.
of Margaret Mearing . . 966
of Cuthbert Simson and others 967
Royal proclamation against certain books . 969
A p. Pag,
1557. Articles objected to the protestanta assem'
bled at Islington 969
Examination of Roger Holland • , . 970
Six martyrs at Brentford .... 971
Scourging of Thomas Hinshaw, by Bonner 972
History of Richard Yeoman, curate of Hadley ib.
John Alcock . . , .973
Martyrdom of Thomas Benbridge . . ib.
Four burned at Bury St. Edmonds . . 973
Examination of Alice Driver . . . 974
Alexander Gouch, martyr . . . 975
A woman martyred at Exeter . . • ib.
Three men martyred at Bristol . . . 976
The last three martyrs in queen Mary's time ib.
Examination of Richard White . . . 977
An account of some who were whipped . ib.
The troubles of John Lithal, minister . 980
Examination of Elizabeth Young . . 981
William Wood . . , 983
Some account of the lady Elizabeth . . 984
Her arrest ...... yS.I
Committal to the Tower .... 986
Death of queen Mary .... y88
1558. Accession of queen Elizabeth . . . 989
Conference of religion at Westminster . ib.
Arguments for the public services of the
church being in the vernacular tongue . 990
Breaking up of the conference . . . 995
A brief note on the massacres in France . 996
Conclusion of the whole work . , . 997
APPENDIX I
THE MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE IN 1572.
. 998
APPENDIX II.
A BRIEF DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE GREAT PREPARATIONS MADE BY THE SPANIARDS,
AND OTHER ROMAN CATHOLICS, FOR THAT INVINCIBLE NAVY, INTENDED FOR
THE INVADING AND SURPRISING OF THE REALM OF ENGLAND, TOGETHER WITH
THEIR UTTER OVERTHROW 1015
APPENDIX HI.
CONTAINING
A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE MANNER OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE GUNPOWDER
TREASON, WITH THE EXAMINATION OF SOME OF THE PRISONERS.
. 1018
APPENDIX IV.
THE HISTORY OF THE IRISH REBELLION IN THE YEAR 1641, WHEN THE PAPISTS
ATTEMPTED TO EXTIRPATE THE PROTESTANTS IN THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.
BY SIR JOHN TEMPLE, KNT., MASTER OF THE ROLLS, AND ONE OF HIS MAJES
TY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY-COUNCIL AT THAT TIME IN IRELAND. . . lO.'Ja
A P P E N D I X V.
CONTAINING
THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND, NOT FOR RELIGION, BUT FOR TREASON. 1057
iortiut of tfje |{a{lu
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
To the True and Faithful Congregation of Christ's
Universal Church, with all and singular the Mem-
bers thereof, wheresoever congregated or dispersed,
througliout the Realm of England, a Protestation or
Petition of the Author, wishing to the same abund-
ance of all peace and tranquillity, with the speedy-
coming of Christ the Spouse, to make an end of all
mortal misery.
SoLOMOx. the peaceable prince of Israel, as we read
in the lirst Book of Kings, after he had finished the
building of the Lord's Temple (which he had seven
years in hand), made his petition to the Lord for all that
should pray in the temple, or turn their face tovrard it ;
and his request was granted, the Lord answering him, as
we read in ch. ix. 3. " I have heard thy prayer and have
hallowed this house," &c. ; although tlie infinite Majesty
of God is not to be confined within any material walls,
yet it so pleased his goodness to respect this prayer of
the king, that lie not only promised to hear them who
prayed there, but also filled the same with his own glory.
For we read, " The priests could not stand to minister,
because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had fiUed
the house of the Lord," 1 Kings viii. 11.
Upon the like trust in God's gracious goodness, if I,
a sinful wretch, not comparing my work with the building
of that temple, but yet following the zeal of the builder,
might either be so bold as to ask, or so happy as to speed,
after my seven years' labour about this Ecclesiastical
History, I would most humbly crave of Almighty God
to bestow his blessing upon the same ; that as the
prayers of them who prayed in the outward temple were
heard, so all true disposed minds which shall resort to the
reading of this history, containing the acts of God's
holy martyrs, and monuments of his church, may, by
the example of their life, faith, and doctrine, receive
some spiritual fruit to their souls, through the operation
of his grace, that it may be to the advancement of his
glory, and profit of his church, through Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen.
But as it happened in that temple of Solomon, that
all who came tliither came not to pray, but many to
prate, some to gaze and hear news, some to talk and
walk, some to buy and sell, some to carp and find fault,
and some also at the last to destroy and pull down, as
they did indeed ; (for what is in this world so strong,
but it will be impugned ? what so perfect, but it will be
abused ? so true, that will not be contradicted ? or so
circumspectly done, but wranglers will find fault ?)
Even so in writing this history, I expect that amongst
many weU disposed readers, somewasp's-nesti r otherwiU
be stirred up to buzz about my ears, so dangerous a thing
is it now-a-days, to write or do any good, but either by
flattering a man we must offend the godly, or by true
speaking procure hatred of the wicked. Of such stinging
wasps and buzzing drones I had suflScient trial in my
former edition ; who, if they had found in my book any
just cause to find fault, or upon any true ze.il of truth
had proceeded against the untruths of my history, and
had brought just proofs for the same, I 30uld right well
abide it, for God forbid but that faults, wheresoever they
be, should be detected and accused. And therefore, ac-
cusers in a commonwealth, after my mind, are of no
smaU service.
But then such accusers must beware they do not act
like the dog of whom Cicero in his oration speaks, which
being set in the capitol to frighten away thieves by night,
let the thieves alone, and barked at true men walking in
the day. To bay and bark where true faults are, is not
amiss. But to carp where no cause is ; to spy straws
in others, and leap over their own blocks ; to sweillow
camels and to strain at gnats ; to oppress truth with
lies, and to set up lies for truth ; to blaspheme the dear
martyrs of Christ, and to canonize for saints those whom
scripture would scarcely allow for good subjects ; that is
intolerable : such barking curs, if they were well served,
would be made awhile to stoop : but with these brawling
spirits I intend not at this time much to wrestle.
Wherefore, to leave them a while, till further leisure
serve me to attend upon them, thus much I thought in
the mean season, by way of protestation or petition, to
write unto you, both in general and particular, the true
members and faithful congregation of Christ's church,
wherever either congregated together or dispersed
through the whole realm of England, that for so much
as all these adversaries seek, is to do what they can, by
disciediting of this History, ivith slanders and sinister
surmises to withdraw the readers from it : this, there-
fore, shall be in few words to warn and desire all well-
minded lovers and partakers of Christ's gospel, not to
suffer yourselves to be deceived with the boastings and
hyperbolical speeches of those slandering tongues, what-
ever they have, or shall hereafter, exclaim against the
same ; but impartially deferring your judgment till truth
be tried, that you will first jjeruse, and then refuse ,•
measuring the untruths of this history, not by the scor-
ing up of their hundreds and thousands of lies which
they give out, but wisely weighing the purpose of their
doings according as you find, and so to judge of the
matter.
I allure neither one nor other to read my books ; let
everj^ man do as he pleases. If any shall think his labour
too much in reading this history, his choice is free, either
to read this or any other work. But if the fruit thereof
shall recompence the reader's trouble, then I would
wish no man so light-eared as to be carried away by any
sinister clamour of adversaries, who many times deprave
good doings, not for the faults they find, but only find
faults because they would deprave. As for me and my
history, as my purpose was to profit all and displease
none ; so if skill in any part be wanting, yet hath my
purpose been simple, and the cause no less urgent sdso,
which moved me to take this enterprise in hand.
For first to see the simple flock of Christ, especially
the unlearned sort, so miserably deluded, and all for
ignorance of history, not knowing the course of times,
and true descent of the church, it grieved me that that
part of history had been so long unsupplied in this my
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ENTITLED
country church of England. Again, considering the
multitude of chronicles and history-writers, both in Eng-
land and out of England, of whom the most part have
b?3a either monks or clients to the See of Rome, it
grieved me to behold how partially they handled their
stories. Whose diligent labour, although I cannot but
commend, in committing many things to writing not un-
fruitful to be known, nor unpleasant to be read ; yet I
lamented to see that the principal points, which chiefly
concerned the state of Christ's church, and were most
necessary to be known by all christian people, were
either altogether omitted in their monuments, or if any
mention thereof were inserted, yet all things were drawn
to the honour specially of the church of Rome, or else
to the favour of their own sect of religion. Whereby the
unlearned, hearing and reading in their writings no other
church mentioned or magnified, but only that church
which flourished in this world in riches and riot, were
led to think that no other church stood in all the earth
but only the church of Rome.
In the number of this sort of writers, besides our
monks of England (for every monastery almost had its
chronicler) I miglit also recite both Italian and other
authors, as Platina, Sabellicus, Nauclerus, Martin, An-
tony, Vincent, Onuphrius, Laziard, George Lilius, Poly-
dore Virgil, with many more, who taking upon them to
intermeddle with matters of the church, although they
express some part of the truth in matters concerning the
bishops and see of Rome, yet in suppressing another
part they play with us, as Ananias and Sapphira did
with their money, or as the painter ApeUes did, who,
painting the one lialf of Venus coming out of the sea,
left the otlier half imperfect. So these writers, while
they show us one half of the bishop of Rome, leave
the other half of him imperfect, and utterly untold. For
as they paint him on the one part glittering in wealth
and glory, in showing what succession the popes had
from the chair of St. Peter, when they first began, and
liow long they sat, what cliurches and what famous
buildings they erected, how far their possessions reached,
what laws they made, what councils they called, what
honour they received of kings and emperors, what
princes and countries they brought under their authority,
with other like stratagems of great pomp and royalty ;
so on the other side, what vices these popes brought
with them to their seat, what abominations they prac-
tised, what superstition they maintained, what idolatry
they procured, what wicked doctrine they defended con-
trary to the express word of God, to what heresies tliey
fell, into what division of sects they cut the unity of
christian religion, how some practised by simony, some
by necromancy and sorcery, some by poisoning, some
indenting with the devil to come by their papacy,
what hypocrisy was in their lives, what corruption in
their doctrine, what wars they raised, what bloodshed
they caused, what treachery they traversed against their
lords and emperors, imprisoning some, betraying some
to the templars and Saracens, in bringing others under
their feet, also in beheading some, as they did with
Frederick and Conradine, the heirs and offspring of the
house of Frederick Barbarossa, A. D. 1269. Further-
more, how mightily Almighty God hath stood against
them, how their wars never prospered against the Turks,
how the godly and learned from time to time have ever
opposed their errors, &c. Of these and a thousand
other things not one word hath been said, but all kept
as secret as in auricular confession.
When I considered this partial dealing and corrupt
handling of historians, I thought nothing more wanting
in the church than a fuU and complete history, which
being faithfully collected out of all our monastic writers,
and written monuments, sliould neither contain every
vain written fable, for that would be too much ; nor yet
leave out any thing necessary, for that would be too
little ; but with a moderate discretion taking the best of
every one, should both ease the labour of the reader
from turning over such a number of writers, and should
also open the plain truth of times lying long hid in the
obscure darkness of antiquity. Whereby all studious
readers, beholding as in a glass the stay, course, and
alteration of religion, decay of doctrine, and the contro-
versies of the church, might discern the better between
antiquity and novelty. For if the things which avefrst,
(after the rule of TertuUian) are to be preferred before
those that are later, then is the reading of history very
necessary in the church, to know what went before, and
what followed after ; and therefore, not without cause
in old authors history is called the Witness of Times,
the Light of Verity, the Life of Memory, Teacher of
Life, and Shewer of Antiquity, &c. Without the know-
ledge of which, man's life is bhnd, and soon may fall
into any kind of error, as by manifest experience we see
in these desolate times of the church, when the bishops
of Rome under colour of antiquity have turned truth
into heresy, and brought such new-found devices of
strange doctrine and religion, as in the former age of
the church were never heard of, and which are now be-
lieved, all through ignorance of times, and for lack of
true history.
For to say the truth, if times had been well searched,
or if they who wrote histories had without partiality
gone iipright between God and Baal, halting on neither
side, it might well have been found, that the most part
of all this catholic corruption intruded into the church
by the bishops of Rome, as transubstautiation, eleva-
tion and adoration of the sacrament, auricular confes-
sion, forced vows of priests not to marry, veneration of
images, private and satisfactory masses, the order of
Gregory's mass now used, the usurped authority and
supreme power of the see of Rome, with all the rest of
their ceremonies and weeds of superstition now over-
growing the church ; all these (I say) to be new nothings
lately coined in the mint of Rome, without any stamp of
antiquity, as by reading of this History shall I trust
sufliciently appear. Which history, therefore, I have
here taken in hand, that as other writers heretofore have
emj)loyed their labour to magnify the church of Rome,
so in this history there might appear to all christian
readers the image of both churches, as well of the one
as of the other ; especially of the poor, oppressed and
persecuted church of Christ. Which persecuted church
though it has bf en of long season trodden under foot
by enemies, neglected in the world, not regarded in
histories, and scarce visible or known to worldly eyes,
yet has it been the only true church of God, wherein he
has mightily wrought hitherto, in preserving the same in
all extreme distresses, continually stirring up from time
to time faithful ministers, who have always kept some
sparks of his true doctrine and religion.
Now, forasmuch as the true church of God goetli not
lightly alone, but is accompanied with some other church
of the devil to delace and malign the same, it is neces-
sary that the difference between them should be seen, and
the descent of the right church described from the apos-
tle's time, which hitherto has been lacking in most his-
tories, partly for fear, because men durst not, partly
for ignorance, because men could not discern rightly be-
tween the one and the other, who beholding the church
of Rome so visible and glorious in the eyes of all the
world, so shining in outward beauty, to bear such a port,
to carry such a train and multitude, and to stand in such
high authority, supposed the same to be the only right
catholic mother : the other, because it was not so visibly
known in the world, they thought, therefore, could not be
the true church of Christ. Wherein they were much de-
ceived : for, although the right church of God is not so
invisible in the world that none can see it, yet neither is it
so visible that every worldly eye may perceive it. For
like as is the nature of truth, so is the proper condition
of the true church, that commonly none see it, but such
only as are the members and partakers of it. And there-
fore, they who require that God's holy church should be
evident and visible to the whole world, seem to define the
great synagogue of the world, rather than the true spi-
ritual church of God.
In Christ's time,-who would have thought but that the
congregations and councils of the pharisees had been the
right church ? And yet Christ had another church in
earth besides that ; which, although it was not so mani-
fest in the sight of the world, yet it was the only tme
A PROTESTATION TO THE WHOLE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
church in the sight of God : to this church Christ refer-
red, speaking of the temple, which he would raise again
the third day. And yet, after that the Lord was risen,
he shewed not himself to the world, but only to his elect,
which were but few. The same church after that in-
creased and multiplied mightily among the Jews, yet the
Jews had not eyes to see God's church, but did perse-
cute it, till at length all their whole nation was de-
stroyed.
After the Jews, came the heathen emperors of Rome,
■who, having the whole power of the world in their hands,
did all the world could do to extinguish the name and
church of Christ ; whose violence continued the space of
three hundred years, all which time the true church of
Christ was not great in the sight of the world, but rather
was abhorred every where, and yet, notwithstanding, the
same small flock, so despised in the world, the Lord
highly regarded, and mightily preserved. For although
many of the christians suffered death, yet was their death
neither loss to them, nor detriment to the church ; but
the more they suffered, the more of their blood in-
creased.
In the time of these emperors, God raised up in this
realm of Britain, divers worthy preachers and witnesses,
as Elnanus, Meduinus, Meltivianus, Amphibolus, Al-
banus, Aaron, Julius, and others, in whose time the doc-
trine of faith, without men's traditions, was sincerely
preached. After their death and martyrdom it pleased
the Lord to provide a general quietness to his church,
whereby the number of his flock began more to increase.
In this age then followed in this land, Fastidius, Ni-
vian, Patrick, Bacchiarius, Dubricius, Congellus, Ken-
riu'c-rn, Helmotus, David, Daniel, Sampson, Elnodugus,
Asaphus, Gildas, Heulanus, Elbodus, Dinothus, Samuel,
Nivius, and many more, who governed the church of
Britain by christian doctrine a long season ; although the
, civil governors for the time were then dissolute and care-
I less (as Gildas very sharply lays to their charge), and so
at length were subdued by the Saxons.
All this while, about the space of four hundred years,
religion remained uncorrupt in Britain, and the word of
Christ was truly preached, till, about the coming of
Austin the monk, and his companions from Rome, many
of the said British preachers were slain by the Saxons.
After that Christian faith began to enter and spring
among the Saxons, after a certain Romish sort, yet, not-
withstanding somewhat more tolerable than were the
times which followed, through the diligent industry of
some godly teachers who then lived amongst them, as
Aidanus, Finianus, Coleman, archbishop of York, Bede,
John of Beverly, Alenin, Noetus, Hucharius, Serlo,
Achardus, Ealtedus, Alexander, Neckham, Negellus,
Fenallus, Alfricus, Sygeferthus, and such others, who,
thougii they erred in some few things, yet they are
not so greatly to be complained of compared with
the abuses that followed. For as yet, the error of tran-
sttbstantiatiou and elevation, with auricular confession,
Ihad not crept in for a public doctrine in Christ's church,
jas by their own Saxon sermon made by vElfric, and set
lout in this present history may appear. During which
time, although the bishops of Rome were held in some
reverence by the clergy, yet they had nothing as yet to do
in making laws touching matters of the church of Eng-
land ; but that appertained only to the kings and gover-
nors of the land, as in this history will be seen.
And thus, although the church of Rome began then to
decline from God, yet during all this time it remained in
some reasonable order, till, at length, the bishops of Rome
began to shoot up in the world, through the liberality of
cod princes, and, especially of Matilda, a noble duchess
^f Italy, who, at her death, made the pope heir of all her
fids, and endowed his see with great revenues ; then
ches begat ambition, and ambition destroyed religion, so
;hat all came to ruin. Out of this corruption sprang
'orth here in England (as did in other places) another
™ mish kind of monkery, worse than the other before,
eing much more drowned in superstition and ceremo-
'es, which was during the tenth century. Of this swarm
'ere Egbert, Aigelbert, Egwine, Boniface, Wilfred, Aga-
hon, James, Remain, Cedda, Dunstan, Oswold, Athel-
wold, Althelwine, duke of Eastangles, Lanfranc, Anselme,
and such other.
And yet in this time also, through God's providence,
the church lacked not some of better knowledge and
judgment, to weigh with the darkness of those days. For
although King Edgar, with Edward, his base son, being
seduced by Dunstan, Oswold, and other monks, was
then a great author and favourer of superstition, erecting
as many monasteries as were Sundays in the year ; yet,
notwithstanding, this continued not long, for soon after
the death of Edgar came King Ethelred, and Queen
Elfthred his mother, with Alferus, duke of Merceland,
and other peers and noble^ of the realm, who displaced
the monks again, and restored the married priests to
their old possessions and livings. Moreover, after that
followed also the Danes, who overthrew those monkish
foundations as fast as King Edgar had set them up
before.
And thus, hitherto, stood the condition of the true
church of Christ, although not without some opposition
and difficulty, yet in some mediate state ot "he truth and
verity, till the time of Pope Ilildebrand, cdled Gregory
YII., which was about the year 1080, and of Pope Inno-
cent III., in the year 1215, by whom all was turned up-
side down, all order broken, discipline dissolved, true
doctrine defaced, christian faith extinguished. Instead
whereof, was set up preaching of men's decrees, dreams
and idle traditions. And whereas before truth was free
to be disputed amongst learned men, now liberty was
turned into law, argument into authority. Whatsoever
the bishop of Rome announced, that stood for an oracle
to be received of all men, without opposition or contra-
diction ; whatever was contrary thereto, was heresy, to
be punished with faggot and flaming fire ! Then the sin-
cere faith of this English church, which held out so long,
began to quail. Then was the clear sunsliine of God's
word overshadowed with mists and darkness, appearing
like sackcloth to the people, who could neither under-
stand what they read, nor yet were permitted to read
what they could understand. In these miserable days,
as the true visible church began now to shrink, and keep
in for fear: so, up start a new sort of players, to furnish
the stage, as school-doctors, canonists, and four orders
of friars, besides other monastic sects and fraternities, of
infinite variety, which have ever since kept such an in-
fluence in the church, that none almost durst stir, neither
Caesar, king, nor subject. \\"hat they defined stood ;
what they approved, was catholic ; what they condemned
was heresy ; whomsoever they accused, few, indeed,
could save. And thus these continued, or rather
reigned in the church, the space of now fourhundred years,
and odd. During which time, although the true church
of Christ durst not openly appear in the face of the
world, being oppressed by tyranny, yet neither was it so
invisible and unknown, but by the providence of the Lord,
some remnant always remained, which not only shewed'
secret good affection to sincere doctrine, but also stood
in open defence of truth against the disordered church of
Rome.
In which catalogue, first to omit Bertram and Beren-
garius, who were before Pope Innocent III., a learned
multitude of sufficient witnesses might here be produced,
whose names are neither obscure, nor doctrine unknown :
as Joachin, abbot of Calabria ; Almeric, a learned bishop,
who was judged an heretic, for holding against images in
the time of the said Innocent; besides the martyrs of
Alsatia, of whom we read an hundred to be burned by
the said Innocent in one day, as writes Herman Mucius.
Add likewise to these, the Waldenses, or Albigenses,
which, to a great number, separated themselves from the
church of Rome. To this number also belonged Rey-
mund, earl of Tholouse, Marsilius Patavius, WiUiam de
S. Amore, Simon Tornacensis, Arnold de Nova Villa,
John Semeca, besides divers other preachers in Suevia.
standing agamsi the pope (A. D. 1440) ; Laurence, of
England, a master of Paris (A. D. 1260) ; Peter John,
a minorite, who was burned after his death (A. D. 1290);
Robert Gallus, a dominie friar (A. D. 1291) ; Robert
Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, who was called the Ham-
mer of the Romanists (A. D. 1250) ; Lord Peter do
82
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Cugneriis (A. D. 1329). To these we may add, more-
over, William Ockam, Bongratius Bergomensis, Leopold,
Andrew Laudensis, Ulric llangenor, treasurer to the
emperor ; John de Gandmio (A. D. 1330), mentioned in
the extravagants, Andreas de Castro, Buridian, Euda,diike
of Burgundy, who counselled the French king not to re-
ceive the new-found constitutions and extravagants of
tlie pope into his realm, Dante AUigerius, an Italian,
who wrote against the pope, monks, and friars, and
against the donation of Constantine (A. D. 1330.) Tau-
lerus, a German preacher; Conrad Hager, imprisoned for
preaching against the mass (A. D. 1339) ; the author of
the hook called Poenitentiarius Asini, compiled ahout the
year 1343 ; Michael Cesenas, a gray friar ; Peter de
Corbaria, with John de Poliaco, mentioned in the extra-
vagants, and condemned by the pope ; John de Castilione,
with Francis de Arcatara, who were burned about the year
of our Lord 1322 ; John Rochtaylada, otherwise called
Haybalus, with another friar, martyred about the year
1346 ; Francis Petrarch, who called Rome the whore of
Babylon, &c. (A. D. 1350) ; George Ariminensis (A. D.
13.50) ; John de Rupe Scissa, imprisoned for certain pro-
phecies against the pope (A. D. i;'i40) ; Gethard Ridder,
who also wrote against monks and friars, a book called
Lacrymae Ecclesiffi (A. D. 1350) ; Godfrid de Fontanis,
William de Landuno ; John, the monk ; Richard Arina-
chanus ; Nicolas Orem, preacher (A. D. 136"4) ; Milit-
zius, a Bohemian, who then preached that antichrist was
come, and was excommunicated for the same (A. D.
1366) ; James Misnensis ; Matthew Parisiensis, a Bo-
hemian born, and a writer against the pope (A. D. 1370);
John Montziger, rector of the university of Ulm (A. D.
1384); Nilus, archbishop of Thessalonica ; Henry de
Jota ; Henry de Hassii, &c. (A. D. 1371.)
I do but recite the principal writers and preachers in
those days. How many thousands there were which
never bowed their knees to Baal, is known to God
alone. Of whom we find in the writings of one Bru-
shius, that six and thirty citizens of Maguntia were
burned (A.D. 1390), who, following the doctrine
of the Waldenses, affirmed the pojie to be the great anti-
christ. Also Massseus records of one hundred and
forty, which, in the province of Narbon, were put to the
fire, for not receiving the decretals of Rome, besides
them that suffered at Paris, to the number of four and
twenty at one time (A.D. 1210) ; and the next year
after were four hundred burnt under the name of
heretics ; besides, also, a certain good hermit, an
Englishman, of whom mention is made in John Bacon
(Dist. 2. (iuaest. 1.), who was committed for disputing
in Paul's church against certain sacraments of the
church of Rome, A.D. 130C.
To descend now somewhat lower in drawing out the
descent of the church. What a multitude was there of
faithful witnesses in the time of John Wicklitf (A.D.
1379), as Ocliff, William Thorp, White, Purvey,
Fatshal, Pain, Gower, Chaucer, Gascoin, William
Swinderby, Walter Brute, Roger Dexter, William
Sautry, about the year 1400. John Badby (A.D.
1410), Nicholas Tailer, Richard Wagstafl', ' Michael
Scrivener, William Smith, John Henry, William Parch-
jaenar, Roger Goldsmith, with an anchoress, called
Matilda, in the city of Leicester, Lord Cobham, Sir
Roger Acton knight, John Beverley preacher, John
Husse, Jerome of Prague, a schoolmaster, with a number
of faithful Bohemians, and Thaborites not to be told ; to
whom I might also add Laurence Valla, and John
Picus, the learned Earl of Mirandula. But why do
1 stand upon recital of names, which are almost
infinite ?
Wherefore, if any one be so deceived as to think,
that the doctrine of the church of Rome (as it now
stands), is of such antiquity, and that it was never
opposed before the time of Luther and Zuinglius, let
him read these histories ; or, if he thinks the said history
not to be of sufficient credit to alter his persuasion, let
him peruse the acts and statutes of parliament passed in
this realm, and therein consider and confer the course of
times. In the 5th Richard XL (A.D. 1382), he may
read of a great number (which are there called evil
persons") going about from town to town in friezf
gowns, preaching to the people, &c. Which preachers
although the words of the statute do term them to be
dissembling persons, preaching divers sermons contain-
ing heresies and notorious errors, to the emblemishment
of christian faith, and of holy church, &c., as the words
do there pretend ; yet notwithstanding every true chris-
tian reader may conceive of those preachers to teach
no other doctrine, than now they hear their own
preachers in pulpits preach against the bishop of Rome,
and the corrupt heresies of his church.
He may also read in the 2nd Henry IV. ch;ip. 15,
(A.D. 1402), of another like company of good preachers
and faithful defenders of true doctrine against blind
heresy and error, whom, although through the corruption
of that time the words of the statute falsely term false
and perverse preachers, under dissembled holiness,
teaching in those days openly and privily new doctrines
and heretical opinions, contrary to the faith and deter-
mination of holy church, &c., yet notwithstanding who-
ever reads histories, and confers the order and descent of
times, shall understand these to be no false teachers,
but faithful witnesses of the truth, not teaching any new
doctrines contrary to the determination of holy church,
but rather shall find that church to be unholy which they
preached against, itself rather teaching heretical opinions,
contrary both to antiquity and the verity of Christ's true
catholic church.
In a letter from Henry Chichesly, Archbishop of Can-
terbury, to Pope Martin the Fifth, in the fifth year of
his popedom, (A.D. 14^2), we find mention is made of
a like number of faithful favourers and followers of
God's holy word, of whom he says " there are many
here in England infected with the heresies of Wickliff
and Husse, and without force of an army they cannot
be suppressed," &c. Whereupon the pope sent two car-
dinals to the archbishop, to cause a tenth to be gathered
of all spiritual and religious men, and the money to be laid
in the apostolic chamber ; and if that were not sufficient,
the residue to be made up of chalices, candlesticks, and
other implements of the church, &c.
Shall we need then any more witnesses to prove this
matter, when you see, so many years ago, whole armies
and multitudes thus standing against the pope ? who,
though they were then termed heretics and schismatics,
yet in that which their enemies called heresy they
served the living Lord within the ark of his true
spiritual and visible church.
And where then is the frivolous boast of the papists,
(who make so much of their painted sheath, and would
needs bear us down), that this government of the church
of Rome, which now is, has been of such an old stand-
ing, time out of mind, even from the primitive antiquity,
and that there never was any other visible church
here in earth for men to follow, besides the said only ca-
tholic mother-church of Rome .' w-hen, as we sufficiently
proved before, by the continual descent of the church till
this present time, that the church, after the doctrine which
is now reformed, is no new begun matter ; but even the old
church, continued by the providence and promise of Christ
still standing, which although it has been of late years
repressed by the tyranny of Roman bishops more than
before, yet notwithstanding it was never so oppressed,
but God ever maintained in it the truth of his gospel,
against the heresies and errors of the church of Rome,
as is to be seen more at full in this history.
Let us now proceed further in deducing this descent of
the church to the year 1501, when grievous afflictions and
bloody persecutions began to ensue upon Christ's church
for his gospel's sake, according as is described in this
history, wherein is to be seen what christian blood has
been spilt, what persecutions raised, what tyranny exer-
cised, what torments devised, vv-hat treachery used against
the poor flock and church of Christ ; in such sort that
since Christ's time greater has not been seen.
And now we come from that time (A.D. 1501),
to the year now present (A.D. 1570). In which the
full seventy years of the Babylonish captivity draws now
well to an end. Or if we reckon from the beginning of
Luther and his nersecution, then lacketh yet sixteen
THE UTILITY OF THIS HISTORY.
years. Now, what the Lord will do with this wicked
world, or what rest he will s^ive to his church after tliese
long sorrows, — he is our Father in Heaven, his will be
done on earth as seemeth best to his divine Majesty.
In the mean time let us, for our parts, with all patient
obedience, wait God's time, and glorify his holy Name,
and edify one another with all humility. And if there
cannot be an end of our disputing and contending one
against another, yet let there be a moderation in it.
And as it is the good will of our God, that Satan sho\dd
be thus let loose amongst us for a short time ; yet let
us strive in the meanwhile what we can to amend the
malice of the time with mutual humanity. Tliey tliat
are in error let them not disdain to learn ; they who
have greater talents of knowledge committed to them, let
them instruct in simplicity them that be simple. No
man lives in that commonwealth where notliingi.s amiss;
but yet because God has so placed us Englishmen here
in one commonwealth, also in one churcli, as in one
ship together; let us not mangle or divide the ship,
which being divided perishes ; but let every man serve
with diligence and discretion in his order, wherein he is
called ; let those that sit at the helm keep well the point
of the needle, to know how and whither the ship goes ;
whatever weatlier betides, the needle, well touched with
tlie stone of God's word, will never fail ; let such as
labour at the oars, start for no tempest, but do what
they can to keep from the rocks ; likewise let those who
are in inferior stations take heed that they move no
sedition nor disturbance against the rowers and mariners.
No storm is so dangerous to a ship on the sea, as dis-
cord and disorder in a commonwealth ; the countries, na-
tions, kingdoms, empires, cities, towns, and houses,
that have been dissolved by discord is so manifest in
history, that I need not spend time in rehearsing ex-
amples. The God of peace, who hath power both of
land and sea, reach forth his merciful hand to hel)) them
up that sink, to keep up them that stand, to still these
winds and surging seas of discord and contention among
us, that we, professing one Christ, may in one unity of
doctrine gather ourselves into one ark of the true church
together, where we, continuing steadfast in faith, may at
the last be conducted safely to the joyful port of our de-
sired landing-place, by his heavenly grace ! To whom,
both in heaven and earth, be all power and glory, with
his Father and the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.
THE UTILITY OF THIS H 1 S T O R Y
The world being filled with such an infinite multitude of
all kinds of hcoks, I may seem, perha])s, to take a
superfluous and needless matter in hand, at this present
time, to write such volumes, especially of histories, con-
sidering that the world is so greatly pestered, not only
with plenty thereof, but of all other treatises, that now
books seem rather to lack readers, than readers to lack
books. I doubt not but that many do both perceive, and
lament the boldness of many in these days both in writing
and printing this multitude of books ; which, to say the
truth, for my part I lament as much as any man ; and I
would therefore have no man think that I have attempted
this enterprise unadvisedly or with rashness, but rather as
one being not only doubtful, but also both bashful and
fearful within myself for setting the same abroad. For I
perceived how learned this age of ours is in reading of
books, neither could I tell what the judgment of readers
would he, to see so weak a being undertake such a
weighty enterprise, not being sufficiently furnished with
eloquence to do justice to so great a history, or sufficient
to serve for the use of tlie studious, or the delight of the
learned ; and the more I perceived ability to be wanting
in me, the less hold I felt to become a writer.
But again, on the other hand, when I weighed with
myself what memorable acts have occurred in this later
age of the church by the patient sufferings of the worthy
martyrs, I thought it not to be neglected, that so many
precious monuments worthy of being recorded and regis-
tered, should by my default be buried under darkness and
oblivion. I thought somewhat was to be said of them
for their well deserving, and something also for the
benefit which we have received by them. But above all
things, nothing did so urge me forward as the considera--
tion of the common utility which every man may plenti-
fully receive by the reading of those monuments of mar-
tyrology ; and as I have taken tliis history in hand chiefly
for the use of the English church, T have written it in that
tongue which the simple people could best understand.
Now if men commonly delight so much in other chro-
nicles which treat only on matters of ])olicy, and take
pleasure in reading the variable events of worldly afl"airs,
the stratagems of valiant captains, the terror of battle
fields, the sacking of cities, the turmoils of realms and
people ; and if men think it such a great thing in a com-
monwealth to commit to history au account of these
things, and bestow all their wit and eloquence in adorning
the same, how much more meet is it for christians to pre-
serve in remembrance the lives, acts, and doings, not of
bloody warriors, but of the mild and constant martyrs of
Christ, which serve not so much to delight the ear, as to
improve the life, to show us examples of great profit, and
to encourage men to all kind of christian godliliess ?
And first, by reading thereof, we may see a lively testi-
mony of God's mighty working in the life of man, con-
trary to the ojjinion of the atheists ; for like as one said of
Harjialus in times past, that his doings gave a lively testi-
mony against God, because he being so wicked a man,
escaped so long unpunished ; so, contrariwise, in these
men we have a much more assured and plain witness of
God, in whose lives and deaths there appeared such
manifest declarations of God's divine working, while in
such sharpness of torments we behold in them si.ich con-
stant strength above man's reach, such readiness to
answer, such patience in imprisonment, such godliness in
forgiving, such cheerfulness and courage in suffering,
besides the manifold sense and feeling of the Holy Ghost,
which they so plentifully tasted in tlieir aftiictions, as iu
reading their letters we may evidently understand : and
besides this, the mild deaths of the saints avail not a little
to the establishing of a good conscience, to teach us tlie
contemjit of the world, and to bring us to the fear cif
God: moreover, they confirm faith, increase godliness,
abate pride in prosperity, and open a hope of heavenly
comfort in adversity. For what man reading the misery
of these godly persons may not behold therein, as in a
glass, his own case, whether he be godly or godless ?
For if God gave adversity unto good men, wliat may not
the better sort expect, or the evil fear ? And as by
reading of profane histories we are made perhaps more
skilful in warlike affairs ; so by reading this we are made
better in our livings, and besides, are better prepared for
tlie like conflicts, (if by God's permission they shall
happen hereafter) more wise by their doctrine, and more
steadfast by their example.
To be brief, they declare to the world what true chris-
tian fortitude is, and what is the right way to conquer,
which stands not in the power of man, but in the hope of
the resurrection to come, and is now, I trust, at hand.
In consideration whereof, methinks I have good cause to
wish, that not only subjects, but also kings and princes.
THE UTILIIT OF THIS HISTORY.
who commonly delight in heroic stories, would diligently
peruse such monuments of martyrs, and keep them
always in sight, not only to read, but to follow, and
■would paint them upon their walls, cups, rings, and
gates. For doubtless such as these are more worthy of
lionour than an hundred Alexanders, Hectors, Scipios,
and warlike Ca;sars. And thougli the world judge pre-
posterously of things, yet with God, the true Judge, not
tliose that kill one another with a weai)on are to be
reputed, but rather they who being killed in God's
cause do retain an invincible constancy against the threats
of tyrants, and the violence of tormentors. Such as these
are indeed the true conquerors of the world, by whom we
learn true manhood, so many as fight under Christ, and
not under the world. With this valiantness did that
most mild Lamb, and invincible Lion of the tribe of Juda
first of all go before us. Of whose unspeakable fortitude
we hear tliis prophetical admiration, " Who is this,
travelling in the greatness of his strength ?" Is. l.\iii. 1.
Verily, it is the high Son of the high God, once con-
quered of the world, and yet conquering the world after
the same manner he was conquered.
All his martyrs followed in the like course to whom the
ancient church did attribute so much honour, as never
Iving or emperor could purchase in this world, with all
their images, pillars, triumphs, temples, and all their
solemn feasts ; in proof whereof we see with what admi-
ration the memory of those good martyrs was received
and kept among the ancient christians : whereby it is
manifest in what estimation the martyrs were held in
times past; with what gratulation, mirth, and general
joy the afflictions of those godly men, dying in Christ's
quarrel, were sometimes received and solemnized ; and
that not without good and reasonable cause ; for the
church did well consider how much she was beholden to
them, by whose death she understood her treasures to
increase. Now, then, if martyrs are to be compared with
martyrs, I see no cause why the martyrs of our time
deserve any less commendation, than the others in the
primitive church ; who assuredly are in no point inferior
unto them, whether we view the number of them that
Buffered, or the greatness of their torments, or their con-
stancy in dying, or consider the fruit that they brought to
the amendment of posterity, and increase of the gospel.
The primitive martyrs did water with their blood the
truth that was newly springing up ; so these later martyrs
by their deaths restored it again, being so decayed and
fiUen down. They standing in the foreward of the
tattle, did receive the first encounter and violence of
their enemies, and taught us by that means to overcome
euch tyranny ; these with like courage again, like old
beaten soldiers, did win the field in the rear of the
battle. They, like famous husbandmen of the world,
did sow the fields of the church, that first lay unmanured
and waste ; theae with the richness of their blood did
cause it to grow and fructify. Would to God the fruit
might speedily be gathered into the barn, which now only
remains to come !
Now, if we ascribe reputation to godly preachers (and
worthily) who diligently preach the gospel of Christ, when
they live notwithstanding, by the benefit of time, without
all fear of persecution ; how much more cause have we to
praise and extol such men as stoutly spend their lives for
the defence of the same ? All these premises being duly
considered, seeing we have found so famous martyrs in
this our age, let us not fail in publishing and setting forth
their doings, lest in that point we seem more unkind to
them than the writers of the primitive church were to
theirs. And though we repute not their ashes, chains,
and swords as relics ; yet let us yield thus much unto
their commemoration, to glorify the Lord in his saints,
and imitate their death (as much as we may) with like
constancy, or their lives at least with like innocency.
They offered their bodies willingly to the rough handling
of the tormentors ; and is it so great a matter then for us
to mortify our flesh, with all the members thereof ? They
neglected not only the riches and glory of the world for
the love of Christ, but also their lives ; and shall we
then make so great a stir one against another for the
transitory trifles of this world .' They continued in
patient suffering, when they had most wrong done to
them, and when their very heart's blood gushed out of
their bodies ; and yet will we not forgive our poor
brother, be the injury never so small, but are ready for
every trifling ofl'ence to seek his destruction. They
wishing well to all men, did of their own accord forgive
their persecutors ; and therefore ought we, who are now
the posterity and children of the martyrs, not to degene-
rate from their steps, but being admonished, by their
examples, if we cannot express their charity toward all
men, yet at least to imitate the same to our power and
strength. Let us give no cause of offence to any : and
if any offence be given to us, let us overcome it with
patience, forgiving and not revenging the same : and let
us not only keep our hands from shedding of blood, but
our tongues also from hurting the fame of others ; besides,
let us not shrink, if case so require, by martyrdom, or
loss of life, according to their example, to yield up the
same in the defence of the Lord's flock ; which if men
would do, there would be much less contention in the
world than now is. And thus much touching the utility
of this History.
PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS, AND THE ANCIENT
CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
Christ our Saviour, in the gospel of St. Matt. xvi. 18,
hearing the confession of Simon Peter, who acknowledged
him to be the Son of God, and perceiving the secret
hand of his Father therein, answered, and alluding to
his name, called him a rock, upon which rock he would
build his church so strong, that the gates of hell should
not prevail against it, &c. In which words three things
are to be noted. First, that Christ will have a church
in this world. Secondly, that the church should be
mightily opposed, not only by the world, but also by the
utmost strength and powers of hell. And, thirdly, that
the same church, notwithstanding the devil and all his ma-
lice, should continue. Which prophecy of Christ we see
wonderfully verified, insomuch that the whole course of
the church to this day, may seem nothing but a verifying
of this prophecy. First, that Christ set up a church,
needs no declaration. Secondly, what princes, kings,
monarchs, governors, and rulers of this world, with their
subjects publicly and privately, with all their strength and
nunning, have bent themselves against this church.
And, thirdly, how the church, notwithstanding all this,
hath yet endured and held its own. It is wondrous
to behold what storms and tempests it hath withstood ;
for the more evident declaration whereof I have written
this history, intending by the favourable aid of Christ
our Lord, not so much to delight the ears as to profit
the hearts of the godly, in perusing antiquities of ancient
vimas, to the end that the wonderful works of God, in
this church, might appear to his glory. Also that the
continuance and proceedings of the church from time to
time, being set forth in these Acts and Monuments,
may redound to the profit of the reader and edification
of christian faith.
For the better accomplishing wliereof, I have thought
good, beginning from the time of the primitive church,
and so continuing to these latter years, to run over the
whole state and course of the church in general, dividing
the whole of this history into five periods.
First, I will treat of the suffering time of the church,
which continued from the apostles' age, about three
hundred years.
Secondly, of the flourishing time of the church, which
lasted other three hundred years.
Thirdly, of the declining time of the church, which
comprehends other three hundred years ; during which
Imie althou<£h the church was much altered in ambition
and pride, rrom the simple sincerity of the primitive
time, yet in outward profession of doctrine and religion
it was something tolerable, and had some face of a church ;
nonvithstanding some corruption of doctrine, with super-
stition and hypocrisy, had even then crept in ; yet in
comparison of that which followed, it might seem as
I have said, something sufferable.
Fourthly, followed the time of antichrist, and desola-
tioa of the church, containing the space of four hundred
years ; in which time both doctrine and sincerity of life
were almost extinguished, namely, in the chief heads and
rulers of this western church, through the means of the
Roman bishops, especially counting from Gregory VII.
called Hildebrand, Innocent III. and the friars, which
crept in with him, till the time of John Wickliffe and
John Husse, during four hundred years.
Fifthly, after this time of antichrist reigning by violence
and tyranny, follows the reformation and purging of the
church of God, wherein antichrist begins to be revealed,
and to appear in his colour, and his doctrine to be detected,
the number of his church decreasing, and the number of the
true church increasing, which time has continued hitherto
about the space of two hundred and eighty years, and how
long it shaU continue more, the Lord and Governor of all
times only knoweth. In these five periods I suppose the
whole course of the church may be comprised ; which
church being universal, and dispersed through all coun-
tries, I shall not be bound to any one nation more than
another ; yet notwithstandmg, I have purposed princi-
pally to tarry upon such historical acts and records, as
most appertain to England and Scotland.
And as the church of Rome, in all these ages, has chal-
lenged to itself the supreme title, and ringleading of the
whole universal church on earth, — in writing of the
church of Christ, I cannot but partly also intermeddle
with the acts and proceedings of the church of Rome ;
for so much as the doings and orderings of all other
churches, as well here in England, as in other nations,
have for this long time chiefly depended upon tiie same.
Wherefore, as it is needful and requisite to have the
doings and orderings of the said church made manifest to
all christian congregations ; so have I framed this history,
according to that purpose. First, in a general descrip -
tion, briefly to declare the misguiding of that church,
comparing the former primitive state of the church of
Rome with these latter times of the same ; which done,
then in a more special way, to prosecute more at large
all the particulars thereof, so far as shall seem profitable
for the public instruction of all other christian churches.
In which church of Rome four things seem to me chiefly
to be considered. To wit. Title, Jurisdiction, Life, and
Doctrine. Wherein I have here to declare, first, con-
cerning the title or primacy of the church, how it first
began, and upon what occasion. Secondly, concerning
the jurisdiction and authority thereof, wliat it was, and
how far it extended. Thirdly, toucliing the disorder
of life and conversation, how inordinate it is. And,
fourthly, the form of doctrine, how superstitious and
idolatrous it has been of late ; of which four, the first
was prejudicial to all bisho])s ; the second, derogatory to
kings and emperors ; the third detestable to all men ;
the fourth, injurious to Christ.
For first, the title and style of that church was .such that
it went beyond all other churches, being called " the Holy
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
Universal Mother Cl\urch, which could not err ; and the
bishop thereof, Holy Father the Pope, Bishop Universal,
Prime of I'riests, ^^upreme head of the Universal Church,
and Vicar of Christ here in earth, which must not be
judged, havinsj all knowledge of scripture, and all laws
contained witliin the chest of his breast."
Secondly, the jurisdiction of that bishop was such,
that challenging to himself both the swords, that is, both
the keys of the scripture and the sceptre of the laity ;
lie not only subdued all bishops under him, but also
advanced himself above kings and emperors, causing
some of them to lie under liis I'tct, some to hold his
stirrup, kings to lead his horse by the bridle, some to
kiss his feet, placing and displacing empei'ors, kings,
dukes, and earls, whom and when he chose, taking upon
him to transfer the empire at his pleasure, from Greece
to France, from France to Germany, preferring and de-
posing wliom lie pleased, and confirming tiiem which were
elected. Also being emperor himself, when the throne
was vacant, pretending authority or power to invest
bishops, to give benefices, to spoil churches, to give
authority to bind and loose, to call general councils, to
judge over the same, to set up religions, to canonize
saints, to take appeals, to bind consciences, to make
laws, to dispense with the law and word of God, to de-
liver from purgatory, to command angels, &c.
Thirdly, what was the life and conversation of the
court of Rome, will be seen in this history.
Fourthly, his doctrine in like manner was tedious to
students, pernicious to men's consciences, injurious to
Christ Jesus, and contrary to itself. In laws more
divers, in volume more large, in diligence and study
more applied to, in vantage and preferment more gainful
than ever was the study and learning of the holy scrip-
ture of God.
These four points being well considered in this history,
I trust it may minister to the christian reader, suffi-
cient instruction to judge what is to be thought of
this church of Rome.
But here it is to be noted, that all these deformities
of vain title, of pretended jurisdiction, of heretical doc-
trine, of schismatical life, came not into the church of
Rome all at one time, nor sprang with tiie beginning of
the church, but with long working, and by little and
little, and came not to full jjerfection till the time, partly
of Pope Boniface III. jiartly of Pope Gregory Vil.
partly of Pope Innocent III. and finally of Pope Boni-
face VIII. ; of which four pojies, tlie ti.st brought in
the Title (A. D. ()07), which was never in such ample
wise before publicly enacted, and received i)ublicly in
the said church of Rome, the second brought in
Jurisdiction (A. D. 107;i) ; the third, which was Pope
Innocent (A. D. 1198), with his rabble of monks and
friars, and with such other bishops as succeeded him,
corrupted and obscured the sincerity of Christ's doc-
trine and manners, and, lastly. Pope Boniface VIII.
(A. D. 12!)4) ; and after him Pope Clement V.
(A. 1). i;505), besides the jurisdiction advanced before
by Pope Hildebrand, added moreover the temporal
sword to be carried before them, and that the succession
of no emperor should be sufficient and lawful, without
the pope's admission, whereby the pope's power was
brought to his full pride and perfection in the fourteenth
century. And thus came up the corruption of the
Romish church in continuance of years by degrees, and
not altogether, nor at one time.
Wherefore, whoever shall have to do with any adver-
saries, about the antiipiity or authority of the church of
Rome, let him well consider when and how, the title,
jurisdiction, and corr\ii)tion of doctrine first began in the
pope's see. And so he shall see, that the church of Rome,
as it is now governed, never descended from the primitive
age of tlie apostles. As the picture of the holy virgin is
not the holy virgin, and as a man painted on the wall is
not a man; so it is to be said of the church of Rome (the
institution and doctrine of the church of Rome I mean),
that although it has the name of the church apostolical,
and brings forth a long genealogy of outward suc-
cession from the apostles, as the Pharisees did in Ciirist's
time bringing their descent from Abraham their father ;
yet all this is in name only, and not in eflfect or matter ; for
the definition of the apostolical church neither now agrees
with this present church of Rome, nor yet the manner,
form, and institution of the Romish church, as it now
stands, had ever any succession from the primitive
church. But as Christ said of the pharisees, that they
were the children not of Abraham, but of the devil ; so
it may be answered, that tliis church of Rome now pre-
sent, with this title, jurisdiction, and doctrine now used,
cannot be fathered upon the apostles, iiur Peter, uor
Linus, but on another author, whom 1 will not here
name.
And here comes in the argument of Pighius, Hosius,
and Eccius, who, arguing for the antiquit\ and authority
of the church of Rome, reason on this minuer.
" That as an ordinary and a known church visible must
be known continually on earth, from the time of the
apostles, to which all other churches must have re-
course ;
And seeing there is no other church visible known to
have endured from the apostles' time, but only the
church of Rome ;
They conclude, therefore, that the church of Rome is
that church whereunto all other churches must have
recourse," &c.
To which I answer, that although the name of the
church and outward succession of bisliops have had
their continuance from the time of the apostles, yet the
definition and matter which makes a true apostolical
church, neither is now in the church of Rome, nor yet
the form and institution of the church now used in Rome,
was ever from the apostles, which apostles were never
authors or fathers of this title, jurisdiction, and doctrine
now taught in Rome, but rather were ever enemies to
the same.
Again, although the necessity of the church, enduring
from the apostles, may and must be granted, yet the
same necessity was not bound to any certain place or
person, but only to faith ; so that wherever, that is,
in whatever church true faith was, there was the
church of Christ. And because the true faith of Christ
must needs ever remain on earth, therefore the church
also must needs remain on earth. And God forbid that
the true faith of Christ should only remain in one city in
the world, and not in another as well. And therefore as
this true and sincere faith of Christ is not given, to re-
main fixedly in one place or city alone ; so neither is
there any one church in the world so ordained and ap-
pointed of God, that all other churches should have their
recourse unto it, for determination of their causes and
controversies.
Now, as to the authorities of the fathers in commen
dation of the church of Rome, whoever will understand
rightly their authorities must learn to make a distinction
between the church of Rome, as it v^as and as it is : for-
asmuch as the church of Rome is not the same church
now which it was then, and nothing agreeing to what it
was then, save only in outward name and place, there-
fore, by this distinction, I answer, the place of Ireueus,
Cyprian, is.c. commending the church of Rome as ca-
tholic and apostolical, and say that these speak of the
church of Rome which then was, and said not untrue,
calling it catholic and aiiostolical, for that the same
church took their ordinary succession of bish()j)s, joined
with the ordinary doctrine and institution, from the
apostles. But, s])eaking of the church of Rome which
now is, we say the said places of the fathers are not true,
neither appertain to the same ; for they neither knew the
church of Rome that now is, neither if they had, would
they ever have judged any thing therein worthy such
commendation.
Our adversaries yet more objecting against us, and
labouring for the antiquity of the Romish church, for
lack of other reasons, are driven to scanning tlie times
and years. What ? (say they) where was this church of
yours before these fifty years .' In answer, we demand
what they mean by this which they call our church ? If
they mean the ordinance and institution of doctrine and
sacraments now received by us, we affirm tliat our
church was in existence when this church of theirs was
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
not yet hatched out of the shell, nor had yet seen the
light ; that is, in the time of the apostles, in the primitive
age, in the time of Gregory I., and the old Roman
church, when as yet no universal pope was received
publicly, but repelled in Rome : nor this fulness of
plenary power yet known, nor this doctrine and abuse of
sacraments yet heard of. In witness whereof we have
the old acts and histories of ancient time to give testi-
mony with us, wherein we have sufficient matter for us
to declare the same form, usage, and institution of this
cur church as now reformed, not to be the beginning of
any new church of our own, but to be the renewing of
the old ancient church of Christ.
And where our adversaries charge us with the faith of
our fathers and godfathers, wherein we were baptized,
accusing us that we are revolted from them and their
faith, wherein we were first christened : we answer, that
we, being first baptized by our fathers and godfathers,
in water, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, the same faith wherein we were chris-
tened then, we do retain : and because our godfathers
were themselves also in the same faith, therefore they
cannot say that we have forsaken the faith of our god-
fathers. As for other points of ecclesiastical uses, and
circumstances considered, besides the principal sub-
stance of faith and baptism, if they held any thing which
receded from the doctrine and rule of Christ, therein we
now remove ourselves ; not because we would differ from
them, but because we would not with them remove from
the rule of Christ's doctrine. Neither does our baptism
bind us in all points to the opinions of them that bap-
tized us, but to the faith of him in whose name we were
baptized. For, as if a man were christened by a heretic,
the baptism, notwithstanding, were good, although the
baptizer were naught : so, if our godfathers or fathers,
which christened us, were taught any thing not conso-
nant to christian doctrine in all points, neither is our
baptism worse for that, nor are we bound to follow them
in all things, wherein they themselves did not follow the
true church of Christ.
Wherefore, as it is false, that we have renounced the
faith of our godfathers wherein we were baptized, so is it
not true, that we are removed from the church of Rome ;
but rather I say, and will prove that the church of Rome
has utterly departed from the church of Rome, according
to my former distinction. Which thing the more evi-
dently to declare, I will here compare the church of
Rome with the church of Rome ; and in a general de-
scription set forth the difference of both the churches,
that is, of both the periods of the church of Rome : to
the intent it may be seen whether we or they have most
apostatised from the church of Rome. And here, first,
1 divide the church of Rome into two distinct periods
of time ; first, of those first six hundred years which
were immediately after Christ ; and, secondly, of the
other six hundred years, which now have been in these
our later days : and so, in comparing these two to-
gether, will search out, what difference is between them.
Of which two ages and states of the Roman church, the
first I call the primitive church of Rome, the other 1
call the later church of Rome.
To begin with the order and qualities of life, I ask,
where was this church of theirs in the time of the primi-
tive church of Rome, with this pomp and pride, with
this riches and superfluity, with this worldly splendour
and name of cardinals, with this prancing dissoluteness,
with this extortion, bribing, buying, and selling of
spiritual dignities, these annates, reformations, procura-
tions, exactions, and other practices for money, this
avarice insatiable, ambition intolerable, fleshly filthiness
most detestable, barbarousness and negligence in preach-
ing, promise-breaking faithlessness, poisoning and sup-
planting one another, with such schisms and divisions in
the elections and courts of Rome for these seven hundred
years, with such extreme cruelty, maUce, and tyranny
in burning and persecuting their poor brethren to
death .'
It were too long to dwell particularly upon these
things . and if a man should detail all the schisms in the
chui-ch of Rome, to the numbej of eighteen, what a
volume would it require ? Or if here should be recorded
all that this see has burned and put to death, who would
be able to number them ? Or if all their schemes to get
money should be described, who would be able to recite
them all ? Of which the principal are reckoned at least
at fourteen or fifteen schemes.
I. For annates or vacancies of arch-bishoprics, bishop-
rics, abbacies, priories conventual, and other benefices
elective.
II. For the holding of all spiritual Hvings whatever.
III. New annates for all the same again, as often as
any one of all his spiritual livings be, or are fained to
be, not orderly come by, whereby it has chanced, divers
times, three or four annates to be paid for one benefice.
IV. For giving benefices before they fall, and many
times giving to several persons for money's sake.
V. For resignations, which in many cases the pope
challenges to be reserved to himself.
VI. For commendams.
VII. For compounding with such as be absent from
their charge.
VIII. For dispensations, so as to dispense with age,
with order, with benefices incompatible ; also for irre-
gularity, for adultery, for times of marriage, for mar-
rying in degrees forbidden, for gossips to marry, for
which in France a thousand crowns were paid to Rome
at one time, for dispensing with this canonical affinity of
gossips ; also dispensing for eating meats in times pro-
hibited.
IX. For innumerable privileges, exemptions, graces ;
for not visiting, or visiting by a proctor ; for confirma-
tions of privileges ; for transactions made upon favour of
the pope ; for exchanges of benefices, or making of pen-
sions, with such like.
X. For mandates granted by the pope, to ordinaries,
whereof every ordinary, if he have the collation or pre-
sentation often, may receive one mandate ; if he have
fifty, two mandates ; and for every mandate there comes
to the pope about twenty ducats. And yet so many are
sold, as will come buyers to pay for them.
XI. For the pope's penitentiary ; for absolution of
cases reserved to the pope ; for breaking of vows ; for
translation from one monastery to another, also from
one order to another ; for hcence to enter into certain
monasteries, to carry about altars, with many other
things of like device.
XII. For giving and granting of pardons and indul-
gences, to be read not only in public temples, but also to
be bought in private houses.
XIII. For making notaries, and prothonotaries, and
other offices of the court of Rome.
XIV. For bulls and commissions of new foundations,
or for changing the old ; for reducing regular monaste-
ries to a secular state, or for restoring them again into
the old ; and for other writs about matters in contro-
versy, that ought to be decided by the ordinary.
XV. For giving the pall to archbishops.
By reason of all which deN-ices (besides the annates) it
has been accounted from the king's records in France,
that in the time of Louis IX., the sum of two hundred
thousand crowns, were paid out of France and trans-
ported to Rome. Which sum, since that time, has been
doubled and trebled, besides annates and palls, which
altogether, of late, years, has been considered to make
the total yearly sum going out of France to the pope's
coffers, one hundred thousand crowns. Now, as to what
has been drawn besides from other kingdoms and nations,
let others conjecture.
Wherefore, if the gospel send us to the fruit to know
the tree, what is to be thought of the church of Rome,
with these fruits of hfe ? Or, if we seek the church in
length and number of years, where was then this church
of Rome with these quahties, when the church of Rome
was a persecuted, and not a persecuting church ? And
when the bishops thereof did not make martyrs, as they
now do, but were made martyrs themselves, to the number
of twenty-five, in order one after another ? Or when the
bishops thereof were elected, not by factions conspiring,
not by money or fWends makmg, as they now are, but by
the free voices of the people and of the clergy, with tha
10
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS.
consent of the emperor, and not by a few conspiring car-
dinals, closed up in a corner, as they now are.
And yet if there were no other difference in the matter,
but only corruption of life, all that, we would impute to
the common frailty of man, and charge them no farther
than we mii^ht charge ourselves. Now over and above
this deformity of life, we have to charge them m greater
points, more nearly touching the substantial ground ot
the church, as in their jurisdiction presumptuously
usurped,— in their title falsely grounded, -and in their
doctrine heretically corrupted. In all which three points
this later church of Rome hath utterly separated itself
from the nature of the ancient church of Rome, and they
have erected to themselves a new church of their own
making, usurping a jurisdiction never known before to
their ancient predecessors. For although the church of
Rome in the primitive time had its due authority, among
other patriarchal churches, over such churches as were
•within its boundary : yet the plenitude of power, spiritual
and temporal, in deposing and dispensing matters not be-
longing to the pope, in taking appeals, in giving elections,
investing in benefices, in exempting himself from obe-
dience and subjection to his ordinary magistrate, was
never received in the old Roman church.
For although Victor, bishop of Rome (A. D. 200),
went to excommunicate the Eastern churches, for the
observation of Easter day : yet neither did he proceed
therein, nor was he permitted by Ireneus to do so. And
although Boniface I., writing to the bishops of Carthage,
required of them to send their appeals to Rome, alleging
the decree of the Nicene council for his authority : the
bishops and clergy of Carthage assembling in a general
council (called the sixth council of Carthage) to the num-
ber of two hundred and seventeen bishops, after they had
perused the decrees of the Nicene council, and found no
such matter as Boniface alleged, made a decree, that none
of that country should make any appeal to that see, &c.
And what wonder if appeals were forbidden then to be
made to Rome, when here in England the kings would
not permit any to appeal to Rome, before the time of
Henry II. ? And also in France the like prohibitions
were expressly made by Louis IX. (A. D. 12()8), which
did forbid by a public instrument, all exactions of the
pope's court within that realm. Also King Philip
(A. D. 121)6) not only restrained aU sending of his sub-
jects to Rome, but also, that no money, armour, or sub-
sidy should be transported out of his kingdom. Also
King Charles V., and his son Charles VI., punished as
traitors certain persons for appealing to Rome. The like
resistance was also made in France, against the pope's
reservations, preventions, and other like practices in the
days of Pope Martin V., also when King Henry VI. in
England, and King Charles VII. in France, did both
agree with the pope, in investing and in collation of bene-
fices : j'et notwithstanding the high court of parliament
in France did not admit the same, but still maintained
the old liberty and customs of the French church. Inso-
much that when the duke of Bedford came with the king's
Letters patents to have the pope's procurations and reser-
vations admitted, the court of parliament would not agree
to the same (A. D. 1425). In the days of King Charles
VII., was set forth in France, The Pragmatic sanction,
as they call it, against the annates, reservations, expecta-
tives, and other proceedings of the popes (A. D. 14;58).
Wherefore what wonder if this jurisdiction of the pope's
tourt in excommunicating, taking appeals, and giving of
Denefices, was not used in the old church of Rome, when
m these latter days it has been so much resisted.
And what should I say of the form of elections now
ased in the church of Rome, being quite changed from
the manner of the old church of their predecessors ? For
in those ancient days, when the church remained in the
apostles only, and a few other disciples, the apostles then,
with prayer and imposition of hands, elected bishops and
ministers; ashy the apostles James was made bishop of
Jerusalem, Paul elected Titus to Crete, and Timothy to
Ephesus. Also Peter ordained Linus and Clement in
Rome, &c. After the time of the apostles, when the
church began to multiply, the election of bishops and
ministers stood in the clergy and the people, with the
consent of the chief magistrate, and so continued during
all the time of the primitive church, till the time of Con-
stantine, who (as write Platinaand Sabellicus), published
a law concerning the election of the Roman bisliop, that
he should be taken for a true bishop, whom the clergy
and people of Rome did choose and elect, without
waiting for any authority of the emperor of Constanti-
nople, or the deputy of Italy : as the custom had ever
been before that day. And here the bishops began first
to extricate their elections and their necks, a little from
the emperor's subjection. But there are many reasons,
rather to think this constitution of Constautine forged and
untrue: for it is taken out of the pope's library, a sus-
pected place, and collected by the keeper of the pope's
library, a suspected author, who carefully compiled
whatever feigned or apocryphal writings he could find in
the pope's chest of records, making any thing on his
master's side.
And as in elections, so also in judiciary power, in de-
ciding causes of faith and of discipline, the state of the
church of Rome now has no conformity with the old
Roman church. For then bishops debated all causes of
faith only by the scriptures ; and other questions of dis-
cipline, they determined by the canons, not of the pope,
but of such as were decreed by the ancient councils of the
church. Whereas now, both the rule of scripture and
sanctions of the old councils are set aside, and all things
for the most part, are decided by certain new and extra-
vagant constitutions, compiled in the pope's canon law,
and practised in his courts.
And whereas the old ordinance, as well of the common
law as of the sacred councils and institution of ancient
fathers, have given to bishops, and other prelates, also to
patrons, and doctors of ecclesiastical benefices, every one
within his own precinct and dominion, also to cathedral
churches and others, to have their free elections, dispos-
ing all ecclesiastical benefices whatever, after their own
wills, as appeareth by the first general council of France,
by the first general council of Nice (cap.fi.), by the ge-
neral council of Antioch (cap. 9). And, likewise, beside
these ancient decrees, in more later years, by Louis IX. of
France, in his constitution, made and provided by full
parliament against the pope's exactions (A. D. 1228),
in these words : " All exactions and oppressive burdens
of money, which the court of Rome hath laid upon the
church of our kingdom (whereby our said kingdom hath
been, hitherto, miserably impoverished), or hereafter shall
impose or lay upon us, we utterly discharge and forbid to be
levied or collected hereafter for any manner of cause, un-
less there come some reasonable, godly, and most urgent
and inevitable necessity ; and that also, not to be done
without the express and voluntary commandment of us,
and of the church of the same our foresaid kingdom, &c."
Now, contrary to these express decrees of general coun-
cils and constitutions, this later church of Rome, dege-
nerating from all the steps of their elders, have taken upon
them, for their own advantage, to intermeddle in dispos-
ing churches, colleges, monasteries, with the collations,
exemptions, election, goods and lands to the same be-
longing, by reason whereof have come in these impropri-
ations, first-fruits, and reservations of benefices, to the
miserable despoiling of parishes, and great decay of
Christian faith, which things among the old Roman
elders were never known.
Likewise, advowsons and pluralities of benefices were
things then as much unknown, as now they are pernicious
to the church, taking away from the flock of Christ all
free election of ministers.
AU these inconveniences, as they first came and crept
in by the pretended authority abused in this later church
of Rome : so it cannot be denied, but the later church of
Rome has taken and attributed to itself much more than
either the limits of (Jod's word do give, or stand with the
example of the old Roman church, in these three things ;
whereof, as mention has before been made, so I will briefly
recapitulate the same.
The first is this, that whatever the scripture gives and
refers, either to the whole church universally, or to every
particular church severally, this church of Rome arrogates
', to itself, absolutely aoii only, both doing injury to other
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
11
chnrclies, and also abusing the scriptures of God. For
although the scripture gives authority to bind and loose,
it limits it neither to person or place, that is, neither to
the city of Rome only, more than to other cities, nor to
the see of Peter more than to other apostles, but gives it
clearly to the church, so that wheresoever the true church
of Christ is, there is annexed power to bind and loose,
given and taken merely as from Christ, and not mediately
by the pope.
The second point wherein this present church of Rome
abuses jurisdiction, contrary to the scripture and steps of
the old Roman church, is this, it extends her authority
further and more amply, than either the warrant of the
word, or example of time will give. For although the
church of Rome has (as other particular churches have)
authority to bind and absolve, yet it has no such autho-
rity to absolve subjects from their oath, subjection, and
loyalty to their rulers and magistrates, to dispense with
perjury, to denounce remission where no earnest repent-
ance is seen before, to number remission by days and
years, to dispense with things expressly forbid;len in tlie
word, or to restrain that which the word makes free, to
burden consciences with constitutions of men, to excom-
municate for worldly matters, as for breaking of parks, for
not ringing of bells at the bishop's coming, for not bring-
ing litter for their horse, for not paying their fees and
rents, for withholding the church goods, for holding on
their prince's side in princely cases, for not going at the
pope's commandment, for not agreeing to the pope's
election in another prince's kingdom, with other such
things, more and more vain than these, &c. Again, al-
though the scripture gives leave and authority to the
bishop and church of Rome, to minister sacraments : yet
it gives no authority to make sacraments, much less to
wovuhip sacraments. And though their authority serves
to baptize men, yet it extends not to christen bells : nei-
ther have they authority by the word of God to add to
the word of God, or take from the same, to set up un-
written tenets under pain of damnation, to make other
articles of belief, to institute strange worship, otherwise
than he hath prescribed, who hath told us how he would
be worshipped, &c.
The third abuse of the pope's jurisdiction stands in
this, that as in spiritual jurisdiction they have vehemently
exceeded the bounds of scripture, so they have impu-
dently intermeddled themselves in temporal jurisdiction,
wherein they had nothing to do. Insomuch that they have
transferred their empire, they have deposed emperors,
kings, princes, rulers, and senators of Rome, and set up
others, or the same again at their pleasure ; they have
proclaimed wars, and have warred themselves. And where-
as emperors in ancient times, have dignified them with
titles, have enlarged them with donations, and have given
them confirmation, they, like ungrateful clients to such
benefactors, have afterwards stamped upon their necks,
have made them to hold their stirrups, some to hold the
bridle of their horse, and have caused them to seek their
confirmation at their hand ; moreover, they have extorted
into their own hands the power and jurisdiction of both
the swords (spiritual and temporal power), especially
since the time of Pope Gregory VII., surnamed Hilde-
brand ; which Hildebrand deposing the emperor Henry
IV., made him give attendance at his city gate. And
after him. Pope Boniface VIII. shewed himself to the
people, on the first day like a bishop, with his keys be-
fore him, and the next day in his imperial robes, and
having a naked sword carried before him, like an em-
peror (A. D. 1298.) And for so much as this inor-
dinate jurisdiction has not only been used by them, but,
also, to this day is maintained at Rome ; let us there-
fore now compare her to the old manner in times past,
meaning the primitive age of the church of the Romans.
Wherein the old bishops of Rome, as they were then
subject to their emperor, so were other bishops of other
nations in like manner subject every one to his own king
and prince, acknowledging them for their lords, and
were ordered by their authority, and obeyed their laws,
and that not only in civil causes, but also ecclesiastical.
Thus was Gregory I. (the Great), subject to Maurice,
and to Phocas, although a vricked emperor. So, also,
both pope and people of Rome took their laws of the
emperors, and submitted to them, not only in the time of
Honorius, an hundred years after Constantine the Great,
but also in the time of Marcian (A. D. 451), and to the
time of Justinian and of Charlemagne. In all which
period the imperial law did rule and bind in Rome, both
in the days of Justinian, and one hundred and fifty years
after ; whereby it may appear false, that the city of
Rome was given by Constantine to the bishop of Rome ;
for Pope Boniface I., writing to the emperor Honorius,
calls Rome the emperor's city ; and the emperor Lo-
thaire appointed magistrates and laws in Rome. More-
over, that both the bishop of Rome, and all other eccle-
siastical persons were in former times, and ought to be
subject to their emperors and lawful magistrates, in
causes as well spiritual as civil, by many evidences may
appear, taken out both of God's law, and man's law.
And first, by God's law, we have the example of godly
King David, who numbered all the priests and levites,
and disposed them into twenty-four orders or courses,
appointing them continually to serve in the ministry,
every one in his proper order and turn : which institu-
tion of the clergy also, good King Hezekiah afterwards
renewed, of whom it is written : " He did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Da-
vid his father did : he removed the high places, and
brake the images," &c. 2 Kings, xviii. 3, 4. The said He-
zekiah also reduced the priests and levites into their
orders as prescribed by David, to serve every one in his
office of ministration, 2 Chron. xxxi. 2. And this order
from David still continued till the time of Zacharias, at
the coming of Christ, who was of the course of Abia, which
was the eighth order of the priests appointed to serve
in the tabernacle, Luke i. 5. To pass over other lighter
offices, such as concerning the ordering of oblations in the
temple, and the repairing of the house of the Lord, we
find Solomon displacing Abiathar the high priest by his
kingly power, and placing Z;vdok in his stead, 1 Kings,
ii. 27. Also, his dedicating the temple of the Lord with
all the people, and blessing all the congregation of Israel,
1 Kings, viii. 55. Judas Maccabeus also elected priests,
such as, being without spot, had a zeal to the law of
the Lord, to purge the temple, which the idolatrous Gen-
tiles had before profaned, 1 Mac. iv. 42.
Also, King Alexander, writing to Jonathan, appointed
him chief priest, 1 Mac. x. 20. Demetrius ordained
Simon and Alchinus in the like office of priesthood.
Jehoshaphat likewise, set judges in the whole land ; so,
also, in Jerusalem he appointed levites and priests, and
the chief of the fathers of Israel, to have the hearing of
causes, and to minister judgment over the people,
2 Chron. xix. 8. By these and many others, is to be
seen, that kings and princes in the old time, had the
dealing in ecclesiastical matters, as in calling the people
to God's service, in cutting down groves, in destroying
images, in gathering tithes into the house of the Lord, in
dedicating the temple, in blessing the people, in casting
down the brazen serpent, in correcting and deposing
priests, in constituting the order and offices of priests, in
commanding such things as pertained to the service and
worship of God, and in punishing the contrary, &c. And
in the New Testament, what means the example of
Christ himself, both giving and teaching tribute to be
given to Caesar ? to Csesar, I say, and not to the high-
priest. "UTiat mean his words to Pilate, not denying
power to be given to him from above ?
And again, declaring the kings of nations to have do-
minion over them, and commanding his disciples not to
do so, giving us to understand the difference between the
regulation of his spiritual kingdom, and of the kingdoms
of this world, commanding all states to be subject under
the rulers and magistrates, in whose regulation is domi-
nion and subjection. Whereunto accords also the doc-
trine of St. Paul, where it is written : " Let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers," Rom.xiii. ; under
whose obedience, neither pope, cardinal, patriarch,
bishop, priest, friar nor monk, is excepted or exempted.
In like agreement with the holy apostle St. Paul, join*
also St. Peter : " Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man, whether it be the king, as supreme, or onto
12
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
governors," &c. 1 Pet. ii. 13. Let any man now judge,
whether the pope has not done open wrong to the em-
peror, in raising himself above the jurisdiction of his
lawful prince and magistrate.
And as it is proved by God's law, that all ecclesiastical
persons owe subjection to their lawful princes, in mat-
ters temporal as well as spiritual ; so no less may it
be inferred out of man's law, and the examples of the
oldest fathers. The popes' decrees and canons are full
of records, testifying how the ancient church of Rome,
not only received, but also required of the emperors,
laws and constitutions to be made, touching not only
such causes, but also such persons, as were ecclesiasti-
cal. Boniface I. bishop of Rome, sent an humble sup-
plication to the emperor, to provide some remedy against
the ambitious contentions of the clergy concerning the
bishoprick of Rome. Honorius, at his request, directed
and established a law, that none should be made bishop
of Rome through ambition, charging all ecclesiastical
ministers to cease from ambition ; appointing, moreover,
that if two were elected together, neither of them should
be taken, but the election to proceed to another, to be
chosen by a full consent of voices.
To this I add, also, the law and constitution of the
emperor Justinian, ratified and renewed afterwards in the
council of Paris, where all bishops and priests are ex-
pressly forbidden to excommunicate any man, before his
cause was known and proved to be such as the ancient
canons of the church would have him to be excommuni-
cated for. The same Justinian, moreover, in his laws
and constitutions did dispose and ordain in church mat-
ters, so as to have a determinate number of churchmen, or
clerks in churches (Const. 3). Also, concerning monaste-
riesandmonks (Const. 5). How bishops and priests should
be ordained (Const. 6). Concerningthe removing of eccle-
siastical persons from one church to another Also, that
the holy mysteries should not be done in private houses ;
so that whoever should attempt the contrary, should be
deprived (Const. 57). Moreover, concerning clerks
leaving their churches (Const. .58). Also, concerning the
order and manner of funerals (Const. 59). And that bi-
shops should not keep away from their flock (Const. (.'7).
And (Const. 123)., agreeable to the doctrine of St.
Paul, he commands all bishops and priests to sound out
their service, and to celebrate the mysteries, not in a
secret manner, but with a loud voice, so that every tiling
which was said and done, might not only be heard, but
also be understood of the faithful people, whereby it is to
be gathered, that divine prayers and service was then in
the vulgar tongue.
And as Justinian, and other emperors in those days,
had the jurisdiction and government over spiritual mat-
ters and persons, so, also, the like examples may be
brought of other kings in other countries, who had no
less authority in their kingdoms, than the emperors had
in their empire. As in France, Clovis summoned a coun-
cil of thirty-three bishops, at which thirty-three canons
were instituted concerning the government of the church.
Charlemagne called five synods, one at Mentz, the se-
cond at Rome, the third at Rhemes, the fourth at Cabi-
lone, the fifth at Arelate, where sundry ordinances were
given to the clergy, about eight hundred and ten years
after Christ. He also decreed, that only the canonical
books of scripture, and none other, should be read in the
church ; which before had also been decreed (A. D.417),
in the tliird general council of Carthage.
Moreover, he instructs and informs the bishops and
priests in the office of preaching, desiring them not to
suffer any to preach to the people any new doctrine
of their own invention, not agreeing with the word
of God ; and that they themselves will both preach such
things as lead to eternal life, and also set others to do the
same.
Also, the said kings and emperors forbade that any
freeman or citizen should enter into the monastic life,
without a license of the government having been obtain-
ed; for which they gave two reasons : first, that many
not for mere devotion, but for idleness, and avoiding the
king's wars, gave themselves to religion : for that many
were craftily circumvented and deluded by subtle covet-
ous persons, who sought to get from them what property
they had. They also forbade that any young children or
boys should be shaven, or enter into any profession with-
out the will of their parents ; and that no young maiden
should take the veil or profession of a nun, before she
came to sufficient years of discretion, so as to discern
and choose what she should follow.
Moreover, Louis the Pious, before mentioned, with his
son Lothaire, among other ecclesiastical sanctions, or-
dained a godly law, for laymen to communicate the sacra-
ment of the body and blood of the Lord ; and they also
enacted that no goods of the church should be alienated.
Louis II., the son of Lothaire, who succeeded as em-
peror and king of France, about the year 848, caused
Pope Leo IV. to be brought before him, on a charge of
treason. The pope pleaded his cause at the bar, before
the emperor, and was acquitted and released. Which
declares that popes and bishops all that time were in sub-
jection to their kings and emperors.
Moreover, Louis IX. (A. D. 1228) made a law against
the pestiferous simony in the church ; also for the main-
tenance of the liberty of the church of France, and
established a law or decree, against the new inventions,
reservations, preventions, and exactions of the court of
Rome. Philip IV. (A. D. 1303) also set forth a law,
wherein was forbidden any exaction of new tithes and
first fruits, and other unaccustomed collections to be put
upon the church of France. Charles V. (A. D. 1369)
by a law commanded that no bishops or prelates, or their
officials within his kingdom of France, should execute any
censure of suspense, or excommunication, at the pope's
commandment, over or uj)on the cities or towns, corpora-
tions, or commons of his realm. Charles VI. (A. D
1388) provided by a law, that the fruits and rents of
benefices, with other pensions, and bishops' goods that
departed, should no more be exported by the cardinals
and other officials and collectors of the pope unto Rome,
but should be brought to the king, and so restored to
them to whom they did rightly appertain.
The like may also be proved by the examples of our
kings in England, as OfFa, Egbert, Ethelwolf, Alfred,
Edgar, Canute, Edward the Confessor, William the
Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry I., Henry II., till the
time of king John and after. Whose dealing as well in
ecclesiastical cases as temporal, is sufficient to prove what
injury the popes in these latter days have done unto the
emperors, their lawful governors and magistrates ; in
usurping such power and jurisdiction over them, to whom
properly they owe subjection, contrary to the steps and
example of their ancestors, the old Roman bishops ;
although it is not to be denied, but that ecclesiastical
ministers have their power also committed unto them,
after their sort, in the Lord : yet it becomes every man
to know his own place and standing, and to keep wherein
his own precinct doth confine him, and not rashly to
break out into other men's walks. As it is not lawful
for a civil magistrate to intermeddle with a bishop's or a
preacher's function : so it was unseemingly and un-
orderly that Boniface VIII. should have had carried
before him the temporal mace and naked sword of the
emperor ; or that any pope should bear a triple crown,
or take upon him like a lord and king. WTierefore let
every man consider the compass and limitation of hia
charge, and exceed no farther.
The third point wherein the church of Rome has
departed, is in the style and title annexed to the bishop of
that see. As where he is called pope, most holy father,
vicar general, and vicar of Christ, successor of Peter,
universal bishop, prince of priests, head of the church
universal, head bishop of the world, the admiration of the
world, neither God nor man, but a thing between both,
&c., for all these terms are given to him in popish books.
Although the name pope being a Greek name, which is as
much as father, may seem more tolerable, as having been
used in the old time among oishops ; for so Austin was
called of the council of Africa, Jerome, Boniface and
others ; also Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. But that
this or any of these terms were so peculiarly applied to
the bishop of Rome, that other bishops were excluded
from the same, or that any one bishop above the rest had
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
13
the name of Oecumenical, or universal, or head, to the
derogation of other bishops, is to be found neither in his-
tories of the old time, nor in any example of the primitive
church. Before the council of Nice, it is evident that
there was no respect paid to the church of Rome, hut
every church then was ruled by lier own government, till
the year ;525. Then followed the council of Nice, where
it was decreed, that throughout the whole church, which
was now far spread over all the world, certain provinces
or precincts, to the number of four, should be appointed,
every one to have its head church, and chief bishop, who
were called metropolitan or patriarch, and had the over-
sight of such churches as did lie about him. Among
•which patriarchs or metropolitans, the bi.-liop of Rome
had the first place, the bishop of Alexandria the second,
the bishop of Antioch the third, and the bishop of Jeru-
salem was the fourth patriarch. Afterward, in the num-
ber of these patriarchs came in also the bishop of Con-
stantinople in the room of the bishop of Antioch. So
that these four or five metropolitans or patriarchs, had
their peculiar circuits and precincts especially appointed,
in such sort, as one of them sliould not deal within
another's precinct, and also that there should be among
them an equality of honour. Again, speaking of the
said patriarchs or primates, we read in the second and
third chapter of the council of Constantinople, tliat
bishops should not invade the diocese of other bishops
beyond their borders, nor confound together churches,
&c. Moreover, the old doctors for the most and best
part, do accord in one sentence, that all bishops placed
wheresoever in the church of God, are of one merit, of
like honour, and all equally successors together of the
apostles. Also, he that is the author of the book called
Dionysius Areopagita, calleth all tlie bishops of equal
order, and of like honour, &c. All this while the bishop
of Rome was a patriarch, and a metropolitan or bishop of
the first see, but no oecumenical bishop, nor head of tlie
nniversal church, nor any such matter. Insomuch, that
he, with all other bishops, was debarred from that, by a
plain decree of the council of Carthage (Can. '.VJ). "That
the bishop of the first seat shall not be called tlie prince
of priests, or the high priest, or any such thing."
And lest any here should take occasion of cavilling, to
hear him called bishop of the first seat, here is to be
expounded what is meant by the first seat, and why he
was so called : not for any dignity of the person, either
of him which succeeds, or of him whom he is said to
succeed, but only of the place wherein he sits. This is
plainly proved by the council of Chalcedon, cap. 28.
Wherein is manifestly declared the cause why the see of
Rome among all other patriarchal sees is numbered for
the first see by the ancient fathers : for, saith the council,
our forefathers did worthily attribute the chief degree of
honour to the see of old Rome, because the principal
reign or empire was in that city, &c. The same also is
confirmed by Eusebius, declaring, that the excellency of
the Roman empire did advance the popedom of the
Roman bishop above other churches. &c. He says too,
that the coimcil of Nice gave this privilege to the bishop
of Rome, that like as the king of the Romans is named
emperor above all other kings, so the bishop of the same
city of Rome should be called pope above other bishops,
&c. By these places (and many more), it appears, that
though these titles of superiority had been attributed to
the bishop of Rome, yet it remains certain, that the said
bishop received that preferment by man's law, and not by
the law of God.
As touching therefore these titles of pre-eminence, we
shall set forth and declare what history doth say in this
matter. First, we shall see what titles the bishop of
Rome takes and challenges to himself, and what is the
meaning of them. 2. When they first came in, whether
in the primitive time or not, and by whom. 3. How
tliey were first given to the Roman bishops ; that is,
whether of necessaiy duty, or voluntary devotion ; and
whether in respect of Peter, or in respect of the city, or
else of the worthiness of the bishop which sat there.
4. And if the aforesaid names were then given by certain
bishops, unto the bishop of Rome : whether all the said
names were really given. 5. Or whether they were then
received by all bishops of Rome, to whom they were
given, or whether they were refused by some. (i. And
finally, whether they ought to have been refused when
given, or not.
And first to begin with the names and titles now
claimed by and attnl)uted to the bishop of Rome, that is,
the Chief Priest of the World, the Prince of the Church,
Bishop Apostolical, the universal Head of the Church,
the Head and Bishop of the Universal Church, the Suc-
cessor of Peter, most holy Pope, Vicar of God on Earth,
neither God nor man, but a mixed thing between both ;
tlie Patriarch or Metropolitan of the Church of Rome,
the Bishop of the first See, &c. Unto which titles or
stj'les is annexed a triple crown, a triple cross, two
cross keys, a naked sword, seven-fold seals, in token of
the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Ghost, having the
plenary fulness of power, as well of temporal as spiritual
things in his hands : that all things are his, and that
all such princes as have given him any thing, have given
him but his own, having at his will and pleasure to preach
indulgences, and the cross against princes : and that the
emperor and certain other princes, ought to make to him
confession of suljject on at their coronation ; having
authority to depose, and that he has deposed emperors
and the king of France : also to absolve the subjects
from their allegiance to their princes : whom kings have
served for foot-men to lead his horse, and the emperor to
hold his stirrup ; that he may and does give power to
bishops upon the bodies of men, and has granted them
to have prisons ; without whose authority no general
council has any force ; and to whom appeals in all
manner of causes may and ought to be made. That his
decrees are equal with the decrees of the Nicene council,
and are to be observed and taken in no less force than if
they had been confirmed with the heavenly voice of St.
Peter himself. That the bishop of Rome may dispense
above the law, and of injustice make justice, in correcting
and changing laws, for he has the fulness of power.
And if the pope do lead with him innumerable souls by
flocks into hell, yet no man must presume to rebuke his
faults in this world. And, that it stands upon necessity
of salvation to believe in the primacy of the see of Rome,
and to be subject to the same, &c.
Now let us see whether these names and titles were
ever attributed to any in the primitive time of the
bishop of Rome. If our adversaries, being convicted by
plain evidence of history, and example of time, will
yield unto us (as they needs must) in part, and not in the
whole ; let us come then to the particulars, and see what
part they will defend, and derive from the ancient
custom of the primitive church, (that is, from the first
six hundred years, after Christ). First in the Council
of Nice, which was in the year 325, and in the sixth
canon of the said council, we find it so decreed : that in
every province or precinct some one church, and bishop
was appointed to have the inspection and government of
other churches about him, after the ancient custom, as
the words of the council do purport : so that the bishop
of Alexandria should have power of Libya and Pen-
tapolis in Egypt, inasmuch as the bishop of the city of
Rome has the like in the same manner. And so as also
in Antioch and in other countries, let every' church have
its due honour, and consequently that the bishop of Jeru-
salem have his due honour, so that such order be kept,
that the metropolitan cities be not defrauded of their
dignity which to them is due and proper. In this
council, and in the same sixth and seventh canons, the
bishops of Alexandria, of Rome, and of Antioch are
joined together in like manner of dignity, and there
appears no difference of honour to be therein meant ;
also there immediately follows, that no bishop should be
made without consent of their metropolitans, yea and
that the city also of Jerusalem should be under ita
metropolitan, and that the metropoUtan should have the
full power to confirm every bishop made in his province,
After this followed the sixth council of Carthage
(A. D. 420,) at which were assembled two hundred and
seventeen bishops, among whom were Augustine, Pros-
per, Orosius, and divers other famous persons. This
council continued for the space of five years, at which
14
THE DIFFERENCE BE-HVEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS.
there was great contention about the supremacy and
jurisdiction of Rome. Zosimus, the Roman bishop, had
received into the communion of the churcli without any
examination, one that came to complain to liim from
Africa, named Apiarius, a priest whom the metropolitan
with the council of Africa had worthily excommunicated.
Upon this, Zosimus, after having received and shewed
favour to Apiarius, who had appealed to him, sends to
the council his messengers, with these requests : that
Apiarius, whom he had absolved might be received of
them again, and that it might be lawful for bishops or
priests to appeal from the sentence of their metropoli-
tans, and also of the council, to the see of Rome ; that
if any priest or deacon were wrongfully excommunicated
by the bishops of their own province, it should be lawful
for them to remove the hearing and judging of their
cause to their neighbouring bishops ; and that Urban
their bishop, should either be excommunicated, or sent
to Rome, unless he would correct those things that were
to be corrected, &c. For the proof whereof, Zosimus
alleged the words (as he pretended) of the Nicene council.
The council of Carthage hearing this, and remembering
no such thing in the council of Nice, and yet not sus-
pecting the bishop of Rome, to dare wrongfully to falsify
the words of that council, writes to Zosimus, declaring
that they never read, in their common Latin copy of
the Nicene council, any such canon, yet for quietness
sake, they would observe the same until they might
procure the original copies of that council to be sent to
them from Constantinople, Alexandria, and from Antioch.
In like effect afterward they wrote to Pope Boniface I.,
who succeeded Zosimus. And thirdly, also to Celestine,
who shortly after succeeded Boniface.
In the meantime, this council sent to Atticus, patriarch
of Constantinople, and to Cyril, patriarcli of Alexandria,
for the authentic copies in Greek of the Nicene council,
which being sent unto them, and they finding in the true
originals no such canon, as the bishop of Rome had
falsely forged, they wrote a sharp letter to Celestine,
bishop of Rome, in which they styling him " brother
bishop," they declare to him, that they had perused all
the copies of the council of Nice, and could find no such
canon as he and his predecessors had falsely alleged, and
reciting the sixth canon, declared that the decrees of the
Nicene council had committed all and singular persons
ecclesiastical, as well bishops as others, unto the charge
of their metropolitans.
Wherefore they declared that it was not convenient
to bring their matters over to Rome ; neither was
it to be found in the decrees of any council that any
legates should be sent from Rome to them, to decide in
their matters. And they therefore exhorted the bishop
of Rome, not to introduce the swelling pride of the
world into the church of Christ, which church sheweth
and giveth the light of simplicity and of humility to such
as love God, &c. In these letters, moreover, it is signi-
fied tliat Apiarius, whom the bishop of Rome had ab-
solved and received to the communion of the church,
was afterwards found culpable, and therefore the council
proceeded against him, brought him to open confession
of his faults, and so enjoined him due penance for his
demerits, notwithstanding the absolution and inconside-
rate clearing of the bishop of Rome before proceeding.
In short, out of this council of Carthage these points
are to be gathered. First, that the bishops of Rome
were glad to receive such as came to them for succour.
2. That their pride was increased thereby, thinking
and seeking to have all under their subjection.
3. To the intent to allure others to seek them from
their being ready to release and acquit this A])iarius as
guiltless, although he was afterwards found culpable by
his own confession.
4. How that contrary to the acts and doings of the
Romish bishop, this council condemned him, whom the
bishop of Rome had absolved, little respecting the pro-
ceedings of the Romish church.
5. How the bishops of old time have been falsifiers of
ancient councils and writings, whereby it may be sus-
jiected, that they who were not ashamed to falsify and
corrupt the council of Nice, would not st'ck to abuse and
falsify the decretal epistles and writings of particular
bishops and doctors for their own advantage, as they
have often done.
(i. In this council, whereat Augustine was present, and
where the ])resideut Aurelius was called Papa, the bishop
of Rome was culled expressly in their letters merely
bishop of the city of Rome.
7. The dominion of this Roman patriarch, in this
council of Carthage, was cut so short, that it was neither
permitted to them of Africa to appeal over the sea to
him, nor for him to send over his legates to them for
ending their controversies. By which it may sufficiently
appear, that the bishop of Rome in those days was not
at all admitted to be the chief of all other bishops, nor
the head of the universal church of Christ on earth, &c.
8. We hear in this council, causes or reasons given,
why it is not necessary, nor yet convenient for all foreign
causes to be brought to one universal head or judge.
9. Lastly, by the said council of Carthage, we hear a
virtuous exhortation given to the bishop of Rome, that
lie would not induce the meek and humble church of
Christ to fume and swell with the pride of the world, as
has been described. In this, or in some other council of
Carthage, it was moreover provided by express law, and
also specified in the pope's decrees, that no bishop of the
first seat should be called the prince of priests, or the
chief priest, or any such like thing.
Not long before this council, there was celebrated in
Africa another council, at which also Augustine was
present, where it was decreed under pain of excommuni-
cation, that no minister or bishop should appeal over the
sea to the bishop of Rome. Whereby it may appear that
the bishop of Rome at this time was not universally
called by the term of oecumenical or universal bishop,
but bishop of the first seat ; so that if there were any
preferment therein, it was in the reverence of the place,
and not in the authority of the person.
These titles then, as Bishop, Metropolitan, the Bishop
of the first See, Primate, Patriarch, Archbishop ; that is
to say, chief bishop, or head bishop to other bishops of
his province, we deny not that they were in the old time
applied, and might be applied to the bishop of Rome, like
as the same were also applied to other patriarchs in other
chief cities and provinces.
As touching the name likewise of the high priest, or
high priesthood, neither do I deny that it has been
found in old monuments and records of ancient times :
but in such wise and sort as it has been common to
bishops indifferently, and not singularly attributed to
any one bishop or see.
And thus much as touching the name or title of high
priest, or supreme bishop. Which title as I do not deny it
to have been used in the manner and form aforesaid ; so do
I deny this title, as it is now used in Rome, to have been
used, or usually received during all the primitive time of
the church, that is, six hundred years after Christ ; after
the manner of that authority and glory, which in these
days is used and is given to the same ; until the time of
Phocas, the wicked emperor, which was after the year
608. Which title as it is too glorious for any one bishop
in the church of Christ to use : so is it not to be found
in any of the approved and most ancient writers of the
church ; namely these, Cyprian, Basil, Fulgentius,
Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Tertullian :
but rather written against by the same. And therefore
not without cause it is written and testified of Erasmus,
who speaking of the said name, denies plainly the same
to be heard of among the old writers.
The same is also to be affirmed of other presumptuous
titles of like ambition, as the Head of the Universal
Church, the Yicar of Christ in earth. Prince of Priests,
with such like : which all be new found terms, strange
to the ears of the old primitive writers and councils, and
not received openly and commonly before the time of
Boniface III., and the Emperor Phocas.
Now remains the name of the pope, which being a
word which signifies as much as father, was then used,
not as proper only to the bishop of Rome, but common
to all other bishops or personages of worthy excellency.
But now this name is so restrained and abused, that not
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
15
only is it appropriated to the bishop of Rome, but also
distinguishes the authority and pre-eminence of that
bishop alone from all other bishops, for which cause it is
now worthily come into contempt and execration.
Although it cannot be denied, but some in the primitive
time began privately to pretend to that proud and wicked
title of universal bishop, as Menna, and especially John
patriarch of Constantinople, who calling a council at
Constantinople, went about to dignify his throne by the
consent of the council, and the emperor of Constanti-
nople, and obtained the same ; as appears in the fifth
general council of Constantinople, act the first, where
Doth Menna and also John in the said council are titled
" Universal Patriarchs." Concerning which title, al-
though it was then used in Coustantinoi)le through the
sufferance of the emperors, being then willing to have
their imperial city advanced ; yet this title was not in the
city of Rome. And in Constantinople it stood in force
only by man's law. Neither the bishop of Rome, nor
any of the Western churches did acknowledge, but
rather did oppose the same : namely, Pelagius II., and
Gregory I., both bishops at that time of Rome. Pelagius
writing to aU bishops says plainly in these words, " that
no patriarch should take the name of universality at any
time, because that if any be called universal, the name
of patriarch is derogatory from all other. But let this
be far from all faithful men, to will to take that thing to
him, whereby the honour of his brethren is diminished.
Wherefore the said Pelagius charges all such bishops,
that none of them in their letters will name any patriarch
to be universal." What can be more evident than these
words of Pelagius, who was bishop of Rome next before
Gregory? (A.D. 583). In hke manner or more plainly,
and more earnestly writes also Gregory, proving that no
man ought to be called universal bisliop. With sharp
words and rebukes, detesting the same title, calling it
new, foolish, proud, perverse, wicked, profane, and
that to consent unto it, is as much as to deny the faith.
He added further and saith, that whoever goes about to
extol himself above other bishops, in so doing followeth
the act of Satan, to whom it was not sufficient to be
counted equal or like unto other angels. In his epistles
how oft does he repeat and declare the same to be directly
against the gospel, and ancient decrees of councils ;
affirming that none of his predecessors did ever usurp
to himself that style or title, and concludes that whoever
doth so, declares himself to be a forerunner of anti-
christ, &c.
But Gregory, confirming the sentence of Pelagius, had
no small conflicts about this title, both with the patri-
arch, and with the emperor of Constantinople. The
history is thus ; after John had been made a patriarch
of Constantinople, by liis flattery and hypocrisy, and had
obtained of tlie emperor to be extolled above other
bishops, with the name of universal patriarch, and that
he would write to Gregory then bishop of Rome, for his
consent concerning the same, Gregory abiding still in
his constancy, did set himself stoutly against the anti-
christian title, and would give it no place. • Gregory
perceiving the Emperor Maurice to be displeased with
him about the matter, writes to Constantina, the empress,
arguing and declaring in his letters, that the presumption
and pride of him to be universal patriarch, was both
against the rule of the gospel and decrees of the canons ;
namely, the sixth canon of the Nicene council, and the
novelty of that new found title to declare nothing else,
out that the time of antichrist was near. Upon this
Maurice, the emperor, taking displeasure with him, calls
home his soldiers from Italy, and incites the Lombards
against the Romans, who, with their king, set upon the
city of Rome, and besieged it for a whole year, Gregory,
notwithstanding, still remaining in his former constancy.
After these afflictions, Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria,
writes to Gregory, and in his letters names him universal
pope : which Gregory refuses, and answers as follows :
" Behold : in the preface of your epistle directed to
me, ye have used a word of a proud name, calling me
universal pope, which I pray your hoUness you wUl cease
hereafter to do, for that is derogated from you, what-
Boever is attributed to another more than right ana rea-
son requireth. As for me I seek not mine advancement
in words, but in manners : neither do I account that any
honour wherein the honour of my brethren I see to be
hindered : for my honour I take to be the honour of the
universal church : my honour is the whole and perfect
vigour of my brethren. Then am I honoured when to
no man is denied the due honour which to him belongeth.
For if your holiness call me universal pope, in so doing
you deny yourself to be that, which ye affirm me to be,
universal : but that God forbid. Let these words there-
fore go, which do nothing but puff up vanity, and wound
charity, &c."
It were too long to insert here all such letters of his
concerning this matter, but these shall appear more
largely hereafter in the body of the history, when we
come to the year and time of Gregory, which was well
nigh six hundred years after Christ. In the mean time
this is sufficient to declare, how the church of Rome with
the form and manner of their title of universal supre-
macy now used and maintained, has utterly swerved from
the ancient steps of the primitive church of Rome.
Now let us see what the adversary has to object again
for the title of their universality, or rather singularity.
One objection of our adversaries is this ; although (say
they) no bishop of Rome was ever called, or would be
called by the name of universal bishop, yet it follows
not, therefore, that they are not, or ought not to be heads
of the universal church. Their reason is this :
As St. Peter had the charge of the whole church com-
mitted unto him, although he were not called universal
apostle :
So no more absurd it is for the pope to be called the
head of the whole church, and to have the charge there-
of, although he be not called universal bishop, &c.
Wherein is a double untruth to be noted : first, in that
they pretend Peter to be the head, and to have the charge
of the whole church : if we take here (charge or head)
for dominion or mastership upon or above the church in
all cases judiciary, both spiritual and temporal : for the
words of the Scripture are plain, " Not as being lords
over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock,"
1 Pet. v. 3 ; and " But ye shall not be so, but he that is
greatest among you let him be as the younger, and he
that is chief as he that doth serve," Luke xxii. 26.
Again, that the church is greater, or rather the head of
Peter, it is clear, 1 Cor. iii. 22, " AU things are yours,
whether it be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world,
or death, or life, and you are Christ's, and Christ is
God's," &c. In which words the dignity of the church
no doubt is preferred above the apostles, and above
Cephas also. Moreover, as the dignity of the wife is
above the servant, so must needs the honour and worthi-
ness of the church (being the spouse of Christ) sur-
mount the state of Peter or other apostles, which be but
servants to Christ and to the church. The same Lord
that said to Peter, " Feed my sheep," said also to the
other, " Go and preach this gospel to all nations."
And he that said to Peter, " Whatsoever thou loosest,"
said also to the other, " ^^^latsoever ye remit in the
earth." Moreover, if the matter go by preaching, Paul
the apostle laboured more therein than ever did Peter
by his own confession, 1 Cor. xv. 10 ; also suffered more
for the same, 2 Cor. xi. 23 ; neither was his doctrine
less sound. Yea, and in one point he went before Peter,
and was teacher and schoolmaster unto Peter, whereas
Peter was by him justly corrected. Gal. ii. 11. Further-
more, teaching is not always nor in all things a point of
mastership, but sometimes a point of service. As if a
Frenchman should be put to an EngUshman to teach
him French, although he excels him in that kind of
knowledge ; yet it foUows not, therefore, that he has ful-
ness of power upon him, to appoint his diet, to rule his
household, to prescribe his laws, to stint his lands, and
such other. Wherefore seeing in travel of teaching, in
pains of preaching, in gifts of tongues, in largeness of
commission, in operation of miracles, in grace of voca-
tion, in receiving the Holy Ghost, in vehemency of tor-
ments, and death for Christ's name, the other apostles
were nothing inferior to Peter : why Peter then should
claim any special prerogative above the rest, I under-
16
THE DIFFERENCE BETM^EEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
fitand no cause. As, indeed, he never claimed any : but
the patrons of the apostolical see do claim that for him,
which he never claimed himself: neither if he were here,
would he less abhor it with soul and conscience than we
do now: and yet our abhorrin*; now is not for any malice
of person, or any vantage to ourselves, but only the ve-
hemency of truth, and zeal to Christ and to his Church.
Moreover, if these men would needs have Peter to be
the curate and overseer of the whole universal church
(which was too much for one man to take charge of)
and to be prince of all other apostles, then would I fain
learn of them, what means the right hand of fellowship
between Peter, Paul, and Biirnabas, mentioned Gal. ii. !».
What taking of hands is there between subjects and
their prince, in way of fellowship ? Or where fellowship
is, what mastership is there? Or, again, what state of
mastership is it like that Christ would give to Peter,
who being indeed master of all, took such little master-
ship upon himself, and that not only in inward affection,
but also in outward act ? Although I am not ignorant
that Peter in divers places of the gospel has his commenda-
tion, neitlier do I deny Peter to be worthy of the same.
But yet these words of commendation give to him no
state of superiority, or jurisdiction over all others, to
have all under his subjection.
Thev produce another argument, proving, that the
bishop of Rome was entitled the head of Christ's chuixh,
in the primitive time.
St. Peter, they argue, was called by the ancient
fathers, head of Christ's church ; — And as St. Peter was
bishop of Home : — Therefore, the bishop of Rome was
called head of the church in the old ancient time.
How c:m they prove that St. Peter, although he were
at Rome, and taught at Rome, and suffered at Rome,
yet was bishop and jjrojier ordinary of that city of
Rome ? As to the places of the fathers, to prove this,
I answer concerning Orosius, Tertullian, Cyprian,
Jerome, and Augustine, that where they speak of St.
Peter's c'.iair, or planting the faith at Rome, straight-
w'.y the papist argues thereupon, that Peter was bishop
of Rome. But that does not clearly follow. For the
of5cc of the ai>ostles was to plant the faith in all places,
and in every re^^ion, yet were they not bishops in every
region. And as for the chair, as it is no difference es-
sential that uiaketh a bishop (for so much as a doctor
may hive a chair, and yet be no bishop) so they cannot
conclude by the chair of Peter, that St. Peter was
bishop of Rome. All this proves no more, but that
Peter was at Home, and there taught the faith of Christ,
as Paul did also, and peradventure in a chair likewise :
yet we say not that Paul was therefore bishop of Rome,
but that he was there as an apostle of Christ, whether
he taught there standing on his feet, or sitting in a chair.
In the Scripture commonly the chair signifies doctrine
or judgment, as sitting also declares such as teach or
( 1 ) Barrow, of whose celebrated " Treatise of the Pope's Supre-
macy," Archbishop TiUotson saiii, "He hatli exhausted the subject
«M<1 iiatli said enough to silence this controversy for ever," has
thus expressed himself on this point.
" The discourses of those men, liave evinced that it is hard to
assign the time wlicn Peter was at Home, and that he could never
long abide tliere. For,
" The time which old tradition assi(nieth of his going to Rome,
U rejected liy divers learned men, even of the Roman party.
" He was often in other places, sometimes at Jerusalem, some-
times at Antiocli, sometimes at Babylon, sometimes at Corinth,
sometimes, probably at each of those places unto which he di-
rocteth his catholic epistles. Among which, Lpiphanius saith,
that Peter did often visit I'ontus and Bithynia.
" And that he seldom was at Rome, may well be collected from
St. Paul's writings, for he, writing at different times, one epistle
to Rome and divers epistles from Rome, as that to the Galatians —
that to the ICphesians — that to the Philippians— and that to the
Colossians and the Second to Timothy, doth never mention him
sending any salutation to him or from iimi.
" Particularly St. Peter was not there when St. Paul mention-
ing Tichicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Jlarcus and Justus, addeth,
' These alone my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, have
been a comfort unto me,' Col. iv. 11.
" He was not tliere when St. Paul said, ' At my first defence no
man stood with me, but a^^ men forsook mo,* 2 Tim. iv. 10.
" He was not there immediately before St. Paul's death, ' When
the time of his departure was at hand,' when he telleth Timothy
that ' All the brethren did salute him,' and naniiug divers of
them omitteth Peter. 2 Tim. iv. 21.
judge, whether they sit in the chair of Moses, or in the
chair of pestilence. Planting Hkewise is a word aposto-
lical, and signifies not the office of a bishop only.,
Wlierefore it is no good argument to say that he sate,
he taught, he planted at Rome, his chair and seat was at
Rome, and that, therefore, he was bishop of Rome.
As for Abdias, Ado, Optatus, and others, I answer
witli this distinction of a bishop, which is to be taken
either generally or specially. And first, generally, a
bishop is he to whomsoever the public cure and charge
of souls is committed, without any limitation of place.
And so the name of bishop is coincident with the office
of apostle, or any public pastor, doctor, or curate, of
the universal flock of Christ. And thus may Paul,
Peter, or any other of the apostles be called bisliops.
So also is Christ himself by express word called bishop
and pastor, 1 Peter ii. 2.5. And thus may Peter well be
named a bishop. But this public and general cliarge
universally over the whole, without limitation, ceased
after Christ and the apostles. For then were bishops
appointed by places and provinces, to have special over-
sight of some particular flock or province, and so to be
resident and attendant only upon the same.
The other view of this name bishop, is to be taken after
a more special sort, which is, when a person is assigned
specially to some one certain place, city, or province,
wliere he is bound to employ his office and charge, and
no where else, according to the old canons of the
apostles, and of the council of Nice. And this bishop
differing from the other, bears the name of his city or
diocese. And thus we deny that Peter the apostle was
ever bishop elected, installed, or intituled to the city
of Rome. And if Ado say that Peter was bishop of Rome
five and twenty years, until the last year of Nero, that is
easily refuted both by the scriptures and histories : for
so we understand by the declaration of St. Paul, Gal. ii. 1.
that fourteen years after his conversion, St. Paul had
Peter by the hand at Jerusalem.
Moreover, Paul witnesses that the charge apostolical
was committed to Peter over the circumcised, Gal. ii. 7,
Also, St. Paul writing to the Romans, in his salutations
to them in Rome, makes no mention of St. Peter, who,
doubtless, should not have been forgotten, if he had then
been in Rome.' Again, St. Peter dating his epistle from
Babylon, was not then at Rome.^
Furthermore, histories record that Peter was at
Pontus five years, then at Antioch seven years. How
could he then be five-and-twenty years at Rome ?
Finally, where our adversary says, that St. Peter was
there five-and-twenty years, until the last year of Nero ;
how can that stand, when St. Paul suffering under Nero
was put to death the same day twelve month, that is,
a whole year after Peter ? But especially, how agrees
this with Scripture, that Christ should make Peter an
apostle universal to walk in all the world ? " Go ye into
" Which things l)eing considered, it is not probable St. Peter
would assumi' the Episcopal Chair at Home, he being little capable
to reside there, and for that other needful affairs would have
forced him to leave so great a church destitute of their pastor.
" Had he done so, he must have given a bad example of non-
residence, a practice that would have been very ill relished in the
primitive church."
(2) It was during the life of our Author, John Fox, that the
Rhemish Testament was published, and though he little thought
that the Papists would identify Babylon with Rome, yet his
" Acts and Monuments " wire scarcely before the world, when
the Khemish Annotators — finding no evidence in the Scriptures to
prove that Peter was ever at Ronie — did actually fasten upon the
dating of his fir.-:t epistle from Babylon, and explain it as a mystir
name for Rome I
Cartwright — who was a contemporary of Fox, and wroie hit
" Confutation of the Rhemists," &:c. during the lifetime of our
Martyrologist, thus writes :
" That i'etcr sat not at Rome is confirmed in that Peter writeth
from Babylon, which to be Babylon in Chaldcii, and not in Italy,
this is an evident reason, for that this Babylon was a place o(
principal abode of the Jews, towards whom Peter's charge spe-
cially lay. Gal. ii. 7. Whereas at this time, the Jews were not
suffered to make their abode in Rome, Acts, xviii. 2. Where-
unto may be added that, writing to the dispersed Jews, and
making rehearsal of divers countries wherein they were, he leaveth
out Chaldea, which, considering the great numbers that remained
there, still after the return into Judea out of Captivity, he would
never have done, unless Chaldea were the place from whence ue
wrote his epistles.-' — Cartwright in loc. [£s.]
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OP ROME THAT THEN WAS.
17
all the world," Mark xvi. 15. ; and " ye shall be wit-
nesses unto the uttermost part of the earth," Acts i. 8.
And our papists would needs make him a sitting bishop,
and locate him at Rome. How accord tliese — apostle
and bishop — to go and to sit — to all natiom and at Rome
— together ?
Now, the second untruth in the argument is, that be-
cause Peter was the head of the church, therefore the
pope must also be the head of the church, although he
was not called universal bishop for along time. But this
we deny, yea, the matter denies itself by their own posi-
tion ; for the title of universal bishop was not received
at Rome, but refused to the time of Gregory ; then it
must necessarily be granted that the bishops of Rome,
before Gregory, had not the charge of the whole church,
neither could be admitted, by that reason, to be heads
of the church. For, as there can be no head but that which
is universal to the whole body, so none can have charge of
the whole, but he must needs be universal to all parts of
that whereof he has the charge. Wherefore, if a bishop
be he who has the charge of all souls in his diocese,
then he whose charge extends to all churches, and who
must render account for every christian soul within the
whole world, to him cannot be denied the name of a
universal bishop, having the office of a universal bishop.
Orif hebe not a universal bishop, he cannot then have the
charge of the whole, that is, of all the churches of Christ.
This word, universal, in the Greek writers, signifies that
which we in our English tongue call catholic ; yet I sup-
pose our adversaries here will not take universal in that
sense. For after that meaning, as we do not deny that
the bishops of Rome may be universal bishops, so
neither can they deny but other bishops may also be as
universal, that is, as catholic as they. But such as more
distinctly discuss this matter, define universal or ca-
tholic by three things, to wit, by time, place, and person.
So that whatever extends itself to all times, aU places,
and aU persons, that is properly universal or catholic.
And contrariwise, what is to be called universal or ca-
tnolic, reaches to all those three, comprehending all
places, times, and persons, or else it is not to be called
properly universal or catholic. And thus there are
three things which most commonly we caU catholic or
universal ; that is, the church,which is called the catholic
church ; faith, which is called the catholic faith ; a man
whom also we caU a catholic man, because these three
extend themselves so, that no time, place, nor person is
excluded. Which three conditions, if they altogether
concur in the charge of the bishop of Rome, then is it a
universal charge, and he a universal bishop ; if not,
then is his charge neither universal, nor he the head of
the church, nor yet universal bishop. For how these
three can be separated I cannot see, except they prove
t it more evidently than they have done.
And thus much to the objection of our adversaries,
I arguing, that as St. Peter, not being called universal
[apostle, was yet the head of the universal church ; so
the pope, although he was not first called universal
{bishop, had, and might have the charge of the whole
jchurch, and was the universal head of the same.
j Our adversaries, notwithstanding, do busy themselves
to prove out of Theodoret, Ireneus, Ambrose, and Augus-
itine ; that the see of Rome, having the pre-eminence and
j principality, hath been honoured above aU other churches ;
[arguing that Ireneus, Ambrose, Augustine, and Theo-
idoret affirm that the church of Rome is the chief of all
other churches ; and that therefore, the bishop and head
of tliat church is chief and head over all bishops, and head
over all other churches.
But this conclusion is to be denied, for the excellency
«f the church or place does not always argue the excel-
lency of the minister or bishop, nor yet necessarily
causes the same. For in matters of the church which
are spiritual, all pre-eminence stands upon spiritual and
inward gifts as faith, piety, learning, and godly know-
ledge, zeal and fervency in the Holy Ghost, unity of
doctrine, &c. which gifts many times may excel in a
church where the minister or bishop is inferior to
bishops or ministers of other churches. As the most
famous school in a realm has not always the most famous
schoolmaster, nor does it make him thereby more excellent
in learning than all others. So if our adversaries do
mean by this pre-eminence of the church of Rome, such
inward gifts of doctrine, faith, unity, and peace of reli-
gion ; then, I say, the excellency hereof does not arg^e
the excellency of the bishop. But here our adversaries
will reply again and say, that the pre-eminence of the
church of Rome is not meant here so much by inward
gifts and endowments belonging to a christian church,
as by outward authority and dominion over other
churches. Whereto is to be answered : what necessity
is there .' or where did our papists learn, to bring into
the spiritual church of Christ this outward form of civil
policy ? that, as the Roman emperors in times past
governed over all the world, so the Roman bishop must
have his monarchy upon the universal clergy, to make
all other churches to stoop under his subjection ? And
where then are the words of our Saviour? — " But it shall
not be so among you." If they say there must needs
be distinction of degrees in the church, and superiority
must be granted for the discipline of the church, for
quieting of schisms, for setting orders, for commencing
convocations and councils, &c. Against this superiority
we stand not, and therefore we yield to our superior
powers, kings, and princes, our due obedience, and to our
lawful governors under God of both governments, ecclesias-
tical and temporal. Also in the ecclesiastical state, we take
not away the distinction of degrees, such as are ap-
pointed by the primitive church, or by the scripture al-
lowed, as patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, ministers,
and deacons. In which degrees, as we grant diversity of
office, so we admit diversity of dignity. For, as we give
to the minister place above the deacon, to the bishop
above the minister, to the archbishop above the bishop,
so we see no cause of inequality, why one minister
should be above another minister ; one bishop in his de-
gree above another bishop, to deal in his diocese; or one
archbishop above another archbishop. And this is to
keep an order duly and truly in the church.
Now here joins the question between us and the
papists, whether the metropolitan church of Rome, with
the archbishop of the same, ought to be preferred before
other metropolitan churches and archbishops, through
universal Christendom, or not ? To the answer whereof,
if the voice of order might here be heard, it would say,
give to things that be equal and similar, equal honour ;
to things unequal and dissimilar, unequal honour, &c.
Wherefore, seeing the see of Rome is a patriarchal see,
appointed by the primitive church, and the bishop
thereof and archbishop limited within his own border-
ing churches, which the council of Nice calls suburban
churches, as other archbishops be ; he ought, therefore,
to have the honour of an archbishop and such outward pre-
eminence as is due to other archbishops. If he re-
quires more, he breaks the rule of right order, he falls into
presumption, and does wrong unto his equals ; and they
also do wrong unto themselves, who, feeding his ambi-
tion, give more to him than the rule of order requires.
For so much as they yield to him more than is his right,
so much they take from themselves. And this is
the reason why both Gregory and Pelagius reprehend
them, who gave to the archbishop of Constantinople
that which now the bishop of Rome claims to himself,
charging them with the breach of order in these words,
" Lest that while any singular thing is given to one
person, all other priests be deprived of their due honour."
And Pelagius exhorts that no priest give to any arch-
bishop the name of universal bishop, " Lest in so doing-
he take from himself his due honour, while he yields
that which is not due to another." And also in the
same epistle, " If he be called the chief universal pa-
triarch, then is the name of patriarch derogated from
others," &c. Wherefore, seeing the bishop of Rome is
an archbishop, order requires that he should have the
dignity which to archbishops is due ; whatever is added
more, is derogatory to the rest. And thus much con-
cerning distinction of degrees, and order in giving to-
every degree his place and honour.
Wherefore, even if it be admitted that the pope sits
and succeeds in the chair of Peter, and also that he is
c 2
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
the bishop of the greatest city ia the world, yet it follows
not that he should have rule and lordship over all other
bishops and churches of the world. For, first, touching
the succession of Peter, many things are to be con-
sidered : —
I. Whether Peter sat and had his chair in Rome or
not?
II. WTiether he sat there as an apostle, or as a
bishop ?
III. Wliether the sitting in the outward seat of Peter
makes successors of Peter ?
IV. Whether he sits in the chair and seat of Peter
who sits not in the doctrine of Peter ?
V. Whether the succession of Peter makes rather
an apostle than a bishop, and so we should call the
pope the apostle of Rome, and not the bishop of
Rome ?
VI. ^^^lether ecclesiastical functions ought to be
esteemed by ordinary succession of place, or by God's
secret calling and sending ?
VII. Whether it stand by scripture, that any succes-
sion at all is appointed in Christ's church, or why more
from Peter than from other apostles .-'
All which being well discussed, it would appear what
little reason the pope has to take this state upon him,
above all other churches. In the meantime this one
argument may suffice, instead of many, for our adver-
saries to answer at their convenient leisure.
All the true successors of Peter sit in the chair of the
doctrine of Peter, and other apostles uniformly, — but no
popes of tliis latter church of Rome sit in the chair
of St. Peter's and other apostles' doctrine uniformly, —
and therefore no popes of this latter church of Rome
are the true successors of Peter.
And when they have well perused this argument, and
have well compared together the doctrine taught them
by St. Peter, with the doctrine taught now by the popes,
of justitication of a christian-man, of the office of the
law, of the strength and largeness of sin, of men's
merits, of free-will, of works of supererogation, of set-
ting up images, of seven sacraments, of auricular con-
fession, of satisfaction, of sacrifice of the mass, of com-
municating under one kind, of elevating and adoring the
sacramental elements, of Latin service, of invocation, of
prohibition of meats and marriage, of vowing chastity, of
sects and rules of divers religions, of indulgences and
pardons : also of their doctrine now taught concerning
magistrates, of the fulness of power of the see of Rome,
with many other things like to these, then wLU I be glad
to hear what they shall say.
And if they would prove by Ireneus, Ambrose,
Augustine, and Theodore, the bishop of Rome to be the
chief of all bishops, because the city whereof he is
bishop, is the chief and principal above all other
«hurches, it foUoweth no more than this : —
London is the chief city in all England ; and therefore the
bishop of London is the chiefest of aU bishops in this
realm.
Which argument were derogatory to the archbishops
both of Canterbury and York.
Yea, to grant yet more to our adversaries, that these
fathers in giving principality to Rome, referred to the
succession from Peter, and not to the greatness of the
city : yet their argument will fail if it be rightly con-
sidered ; thus.
The apostolical see of Rome, having succession from
Peter, with the bishops thereof, was chief of all other
churches in the primitive time : therefore, the apostolical
see of Rome, with the bishops thereof, having suc-
cession from Peter, ought now to be the chief of all
other churches.
This might follow, if the times were like, or if suc-
cession which gave the cause of pre-eminence, were the
same now, which it was then. But now the time and suc-
cession does not correspond, for then succession was as
well in apostolical doctrine as in apostolical place. Now
the succession of apostolical doctrine has long ceased in
the apostolical see : and nothing remains but only place,
vhich is the least matter of true spiritual and apostolical
Ettccession.
Besides these objections, our adversaries object against
us examples of the primitive time of the church, testi-
monies of general councils, and opinions of ancient
writers taken out of the book of councils, and epistles
decretal, whereby their intent is to prove the foresaid
terms (of the head of the church, ruler of the church,
chief of all other priests) to be applied not only to Peter,
but also to the bishop of Rome within the compass of
the primitive time. To all which objections fully and
exactly to answer in order, would require a whole volume
by itself. In the meantime, leaving the rest to them, to
whom it more properly appertains, I answer with this
short distinction these and all such like places where
St. Peter with his successors are called head of the
church, chief of bishops, prince of the apostles, &c.
In which places this word head, chief, and prince of the
apostles, may be taken two manner of ways : to note
either dominion or else commendation. For we read
sometimes head and chief, to be words not of authority,
but of excellency, whereby is declared the chief and
worthiest among many, and not the possessor and governor
of the whole. Like as in the person of man, the head is
the principal part of the whole body, being endued with
reason, and furnished with senses, by which the whole man
is directed ; so there is derived a metaphor, that to what
man nature or condition has given the greatest excellency
of gifts, he is called head or chief. And yet he has not
always dominion or jurisdiction of the rest. So we call
in our common speec'n those, the head or chief men of the
parish, who for their riches, wisdom, or place, are most
specially noted : after hke phrase of speech we call the
head man of the inquest, him that has first place : and
yet neither of these have any dominion or jurisdiction
over the rest. In a school the chief scholar in learning,
is not therefore the master or governor of his fellows.
Neither has Cicero any title to claim subjection of all
other orators, because he is named the prince of elo-
quence ; and though Homer may be also called prince of
poets, yet poets owe not to Homer anything but fame
and praise.
And what if Peter be called and counted as head and
prince of tlie apostles, for his excellent faith, for his
divine confession, and singular affection to the Lord
Jesus : yet what right has he to challenge authority
over the apostles, or the pope after him over all other
bishops and the whole church of Christ, even though the
pope should have the like excellency of Christ's faith
which Peter had, as would to God he had.
And if our adversaries provoke us to the numbering
of testimonies, and dividing the house (speaking of the
writers and councils of the primitive age) for these tes-
timonies alleged on their side, I could recite out of the
witness of doctors, out of the examples of councils, and
practices of emperors, no less than sixty voices, much
more opposed to their assertion. But I refer it either to
them that have more leisure at this time, or else omit it
to another time, if the good pleasure of the Lord shall
be to grant me further leisure in another book to treat
thereof at large in such order, as shall appear sufficient
to prove by the doctors, general councils, examples
and histories, that the bishops of Rome, during the
first five hundred years after Christ, although for the
greatness of the empire they were somewhat more mag-
nified than the others, and therefore were sought, and
were flattered, and they did set forth themselves more
than they should ; yet by the common consent of the
churches they were stopped of their purpose, so that
by the consent of the most part, within that age, the
bishops of Rome had not this state of title, jurisdiction
and power which they now usurp, but were taken as
archbishops of equal honour, of equal merit with other
archbishops and rulers of the church. And if any pre-
ference was given to them above the rest, yet neither
was it so given by all nor by the most part ; secondly,
neither was it so given by them for any such necessity
of God's word, as did bind them thereto, nor yet so
much for respect of Peter and his succession, as for
certain other causes and respects, as may be gathered
to the number of thirteen.
I. The greatness of the city and monarchy of Rome*
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
1»
II. The authority of the emperor Constantine the
great, the first of the emperors converted to the faith, and
ruling in the same city, by whom the universal liberty
of the church was first promoted ; and the causes of
the bishops then at variance, were committed partly to
the bishop of Rome, partly to other bishops near by,
to be decided, as appears by Eusebius. (lib. 10, cap. 5.)
III. The council of Nice, which confirmed the pre-
eminence of that church to have the oversight of the
churches bordering about it.
IV. The unquiet state of the Greek church, much
troubled in those days with sects, factions, and dis-
sensions.
V. When synods were called by other metropolitans ;
then if the bishops of Rome chanced to be absent,
and their sentence to be required, by the occa-
sion thereof they began at length to take their sen-
tence for a canon or rule ecclesiastical, and to refuse
other synods, where their decree or sentence was not
required.
VI. When any common matter was in hand at other
places, whatever was done, the manner commonly
was to write to the Roman bishop for his appro-
bation for public unity and consent in Christ's
church .
VII. Also sometimes the testimony of the Roman
bishop was wont in those days also to be desired for
admitting teachers and bishops in other churches.
VIII. Their sentence was not only required,
but also often received by other bishops. And
when bishops of other provinces were at any dissen-
sion among themselves, they of their own accord
appealed to the bishop of Rome, desiring him to cite
up both parties, and to have the hearing and deciding
of the cause, as did Macarius and Hesychius send to
Julius, then bishop of Rome, &c.
IX. Certain of the Arians returning from their
Arianism, offered up and exhibited unto the bishops
of Rome their evidences of repentance, and were re-
ceived again, as Ursatius and Valens did to Julius.
(Socrat. lib. 2, cap. 24.)
X. Gratian the emperor made a law that all men
should retain that religion which Damasus, the
bishop of Rome, and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, did
hold. (Sozom. lib. 7, cap. 4.)
XI. If it happened that the bishop of Rome dis-
allowed the ordering of any minister or ministers, the
popes perceiving how diligent and ready they were to
seek their favour, and to send up their messengers to
Rome for their purgation, took thereby no little man-
ner of exaltation. (Theodoret, lib. 5, cap. 23.)
XII. The bishops of Rome had also another art-
ful practice, that in sending out their letters abroad
they were ever harping on the greatness of their
name, and of their apostolic see, and of the primacy of
St. Peter, their predecessor, and priiace of all the
apostles, &c. And this they used to do in every letter,
whensoever they wrote to any, as appeareth in all
their letters decretal, namely, in the letters of Mil-
tiades, Marcellus, and Marcus, &c.
XIII. If any of the Eastern church directed any
writing to them, wherein any signification was con-
tained of never so little reverence given unto them
(as learned men commonly use for modesty's sake)
that was taken by and by, and construed for plain
subjection and due obedience.
Thus you have the first and original grounds, by
means whereof the archbishops of the Romish see
have achieved their great kingdom over Christ's
church, first beginning the mystery of their iniquity
by that which was modestly and voluntarily given
them ; afterward by use and custom claiming it ambi-
tiously of duty and service ; and, lastly, holding fast
that which once they had got into their possession,
so that now in no case can they abide the birds to
call home their feathers again, ' which they so long
have usurped.
And thus much concerning the life, jurisdiction,
and title of the Roman bishops ; in all which (as is
declared) they, and not we, have fallen from the pri-
mitive church of Rome. To these I might also join
the manner of government, wherein the Romish
bishops have no less altered, both from the rule of scrip,
ture, and from the steps of the true church of Rome,
which government as it has been, and ought to be
only spiritual, yet has the bishop of Rome used it of
late years no otherwise than an earthly king or princa
has governed his realm and dominions, with riches,
glory, power, terror, outward strength, force, j)rison,
death, execution, laws, policies, promoting his friends
to dignities, revenging his affections, punishing and
correcting faults against his person more than other
offences committed against God, using and abusing in
all these things the word of God for his pretext and
cloak to work his worldly purpose ; whereas indeed,
the word of God ministers no such power to spiritual
persons, but such as is spiritual, according to the say-
ing of the apostle : the weapons of our warfare, are not
carnal, but spiritual ; such as serve not against flesh
and blood, nor against the weak person of man, but
against Satan and the gates of hell.
Which weapons as they are all spiritual, so ought
they, who have the dealing thereof, to be likewise
spiritual, well furnished with all such gifts and graces
of the Holy Ghost as are meet for the governance of
his spiritual church ; with wisdom and knowledge in
the scripture to instruct the ignorant, with inward in-
telligence and foresight of the crafty operations of
Satan, with power of the Spirit to resist the same,
with practice and experience of temptations, to com-
fort such as be afilicted and oppressed of Satan, with
heavenly discretion to discern spirits, and truth from
untruth, with judgment and knowledge of tongues and
learning to convict error, with zeal of God's glory,
with fervency of prayer, with patience in persecution,
with a mind contented with all cases and states inci-
dent, with tears and compassion on other men's griefs,
with stoutness and courage against proud and stout op-
pressors, with humility towards the poor and miserable,
with the counsel of the Lord Jesus by his Word and
Spirit to direct him in all things, with strength against
sin, with hatred of this world, with the gift of faith,
power of the keys in spiritual causes, as to minister the
word, the sacraments and excommunication when the
word biddeth, that the spirit may be saved, and to recon-
cile again as cause requireth, &c. These and such like
are the matters wherein consist the sinews and strength
of the church, and for true governing the same. But
contrary to these, the bishop and clergy of this later
church of Rome, under the name and pretence of Christ
and his word, have for a long time exercised nothing else
but a worldly dominion, seeking indeed their own glory,
not the glory of Christ ; the riches of this world, not the
lucre of souls ; not feeding the flock, but filling the
purse ; revenging their own wrongs, but neglecting God's
glory ; striving against man only, and killing him, but
not killing the vice nor confuting the error of man ;
strong against flesh and blood, but weak against the
devil ; stout against the simple, but meek against the
mighty ; briefly doing almost all things preposterously,
more like to secular princes than spiritual pastors of
Christ's flock, with outward forcement and fear of pun-
ishment, with prisoning, famishing, hanging, racking,
drowning, beheading, slaying, murdering, and burning,
and warring also : on the other side, with riclies and
treasures, with guard and strength of men, with courc
and cardinals, with pomp and pride about them, with their
triple crown, with the naked sword, with their ordinary
succession, with their laws and executions, their pro-
motions and preferments, their biddings and command-
ings, threatenings and revengings, &c.
In fine, to compare, therefore, the images of a
worldly kingdom, with this kingdom of the pope, there is
no difference, save only that this kingdom of the pope,
under hypocrisy, makes a face of the spiritual sword,
which is the word of God ; but in very deed doth all
things with the temporal sword, that is, with outward
force, differing not from civil and secular government ia
any respect or condition. For as in an earthly king,
dom, first there is a prince or some chief magistrate (.p>
iO
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
pointed, having dominion over his nobles and commons,
containing all his subjects under his statutes and laws;
with which laws notwithstanding he dispenses at his
pleasure ; under whom all other inferior magistrates have
their order and place appointed to rule over the subjects,
and yet to be subject under him ; so if the state and
form of the pope be well considered, we shall see it differs
nothing from the same, but only in the names of the
persons. In civil government, all subjection is referred
to one head ruler, whose authority surmounts all the rest,
and keeps them under obedience. In like manner, the
government of the popish church is committed to one
man, who, as chief steward, overseer, and ruler of Christ's
household, in his absence hath supreme power over all
churches, to direct all the affairs thereof. But here stands
the difference, in civil policy he is called a king or prince ;
here he is called a pope.
The king has next unto him his dukes and earls ; the
pope's nobility stands in his cardinals and legates, who,
though they be no dukes in name, yet in pomp and pride,
will not only give check to them, but also mate to kings
themselves, if they might be suffered, as did Theodore,
Lanfranc, Anselm, Thomas a. Becket, and so would
Thomas Wolsey have done, had not the king given him a
check betimes. In civil policy, next to dukes and earls,
followeth the order of lords, barons, knights, esquires,
gentlemen, with majors, sheriffs, constables, bailiffs,
wardens, &c. The like race is to be seen also, although
under other names, in the pope's policy ; of primates,
bishops, suffragans, provosts, deans, canons, vicars,
archdeacons, priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolyths,
exorcists, lectors, door-keepers, singsters, with other
clerks. And in the other, under wardens comes the
order of scavengers ; so neither does the pope's mo-
narchy lack his chanelrakers, to whom may well be com-
pared that rabblement of abbots, provincials, priors,
monks, and friars, with their convents and nunneries.
Moreover, from justices, judges, lawyers, sergeants,
aciorneys, which be necessary officers in the common-
wealth, what differ the pope's inquisitors, canonists,
doctors, and bachelors of the pope's law, commissaries,
officials, proctors, promoters, with such others, which
serve no less in the spiritual court, and in the consistory,
than the other do in the temporal court. Now whoever
wishes to compare the glory and magnificence of the one
with the glory of the other ; also the power of the one
with the power of the other ; and the riches of the one
with the riches of the other ; I suppose he shall see no
great odds between them both, taking the pope's king-
dom as it stood in his full ruff, and yet stands where
churches are not reformed. As for subtilty and politic
practice there is no man that is impartial that doubts,
or that hath his eyes that sees not, that the pope's
hierarchy, in holding up their state, far excelleth all the
kingdoms of worldly princes.
Thus in comparing the pope's government with civil
governments, as they disagree in little or nothing ; so in
comparing again the same with the order of scriptures,
or with the government that was in the ancient church of
Rome, we shall see no resemblance between them. As
we read in the apostles' time, all the armour of Christ's
ministers was spiritual and full of godly power against the
spiritual enemies of our salvation, governing the church
with peace, patience, humility, true knowledge of God,
the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the breastplate
of righteousness, hearty charity, sincere faith, and a good
conscience ; so after the apostles in the time of Ambrose,
by his own testimony it is to be understood, that the
armour of churchmen was then prayers and tears ; wliere
now the armour of the pope's priesthood is nothing else
but fire and sword, wherewith they keep all things under
their subjection. And here comes tlie enormous and
horrible abuse of excommunication, suspension, and in-
terdict : for many things, for which the civil magistrate
will not commit any citizen to the stocks, the pope's cen-
sure will not hesitate to commit a christian to the devil;
not to speak of other usurped dealings and doings in mat-
ers that belong to the civil sword. As in jjunishing im-
morality and adultery, in administration and probates of
testaments, in bearing civil office; cardinals to be captaiiis
in war, and rulers of regions ; bishops to be presidents
or chancellors ; priests to be stewards in great men'3
houses, or masters of mints, or clerks of the market, or
gardeners to gentlemen, &c. All which I here pass over,
referring them to the consideration of such as have more
leisure to mark the order of their doings, and so to judge
of the same with impartiality, according to the rule of
truth taught in God's word, and the public examples of
the ancient church of Christ in the primitive time.
Thus having discoursed so much concerning the man-
ner of life, title, jurisdiction, and government of the
pope's see (in all which points it is to be seen how this
later church of Rome has receded from the true ancient
church of Rome), it now remains, according to my pro-
mise, to proceed to the fourth and last point, which is
Doctrine ; wherein consists the chief matter that makes
with us and against them, so that they are not to be re-
puted for true catholics, being altered so far ; nor we
other than heretics, if we should now join with them.
For the proof of which let us examine the doctrine and
rites of the church of Rome now used, and compare them
with the teaching of the ancient catholics, that such
simple souls as have been, and yet are seduced, by the false
appearance and image of this pretended and bastardly
church, perceiving what lies within it, may be warned
in time, either to eschew the peril, if they are willing to
be instructed, or, if not, to blame none but themselves for
their own wilful destruction. And although I could here
charge the new-fangled church of the pope with seven or
eight heinous crimes, as blasphemy, idolatry, heresy, su-
perstition, absurdity, vanity, cruelty, and contradiction,
(in which it neither agrees with the old learning of their
predecessors, nor yet with themselves in sundry points),
yet I will, and dare boldly affirm, that in this doctrine of
the pope now taught in the church of Rome, there is
neither any consolation of conscience, nor salvation of
man's soul. For seeing there is no life, nor soul's health
but only in Christ, nor any promise of salvation or comfort
made, but only by faith in the Son of God : what assur-
ance can there be of perfect peace, life, or salvation, where
that which only maketh all, is made least of, and other
things which make least are the most esteemed ? For to
say the simple truth, what else is the whole course and
body of the pope's law now set forth, but a doctrine of
laws, a heap of ceremonies, teaching of traditions, a medi-
ation of merits, a foundation of new religions ? all
which avail not one jot to the justification of our souls
before the terrible judgment of God.
And, therefore, as it may be truly said that tlus doc-
trine of the pope is void of all true comfort and salvation ;
so likewise it seems that these, who addict themselves
so devoutly to the pope's learning, were never earn-
estly afflicted in conscience, never humbled in spirit,
nor broken in heart, never entered into any serious
feeling of God's judgment, nor ever felt the strength
of the law and of death. For if they had, they
should soon have seen their own weakness, and been
driven to Christ ; then should they have seen what a
horrible thing it is to appear before God the Father,
or once to think on him, as Luther saith, without
Christ. And, on the contrary side, then should they
know what a glory, what a kingdom, what liberty
and life it were to be in Christ Jesus by faith, hold-
ing their inheritance, not with the bondson of Ilagar,
but with the free son of Sarah ; by promise, and not
by the law ; by grace, and not by works ; by gift,
and not by deserving ; that God only might be praised,
and not man.
And thus were the old Romans first taught, by St.
Paul writing to the Romans. The same did Cornelius
the Roman, and the first that was baptized of all the
Gentiles, learn of St. Peter, when he received the Holy
Ghost, not by the deeds of the law, but only by
hearing the faith of Jesus preached. And in the same
doctrine, the said churi;h of the Romans con-
tinued many years, so long as they were in af-
fliction. And in the same doctrine the bishop of
Rome, with his Romans, now also should still remain,
1 if they were such ancient catholics as they pretend,
I aud would follow the old mother church of Rome,
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
21
and hold the first liquor wherewith they were first
Eeasoned. But the sweet freshness and bcent of that
liquor, and pleasant perfume, is now clean put out
through other unsavory infusions of the pope's, so
that hardly any taste or piece reniaineth of all that
primitive doctrine, which St. Paul and the other apostles
first planted among the Gentiles. And what marvel
if the Romans now in so long time have lost their
first sap, seeing the church of the Galatiaus in the very
time of St. Paul, their schoolmaster, as soon as he
turned his back a little, were almost turned from the
doctrine of faith, and had much ado to be recovered again.
Of this defection and falling away from the faith,
St. Paul expressly foretells us in his epistles both to
the Thessalonians, and also to Timothy, where he
shews that a defection shall come, and that certain
shall depart from the faith, attending to spirits of
error, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; and to know what errors
these shall be, the circumstance plainly leads us to
understand in the same place, where the apos-
tle speaks of seared consciences, forbidding men to
marry, and to eat meats ordained of God to be taken
with thanksgiving, for man's sustenance ; most evi-
dently, as with his finger, pointing out unto us the
church of Rome, which not in these points only, but
also in all other conditions is almost utterly revolted
from the pure original sincerity of that doctrine, which
St. Paul planted in the church of the Romans, and of all
other Gentiles, and of which the following is a summary.
I. The doctrine of St. Paul ascribes all our justi-
fication freely and only to faith in Christ, as to
the only means and cause whereby the merits of
Christ's passion can be applied unto us, without any
respect of work or works of the law whatever ;
Ephes. ii. 8, 9 ; and in this doctrine, the church of
the Romans was first planted.
II. The same doctrine of St. Paul, cutting off and
excluding all man's deserving, rests only upon
God's promise, and upon grace, not man's merits:
upon mercy, not man's labouring or running,
Rom. ix. 16 : upon election and calling, not man's
willing, &c.
III. The same doctrine casting down the strength
of man and his natural integrity, as they call it,
concludes all flesh under sin, and makes the same desti-
tute of the glory of God, Rom. iii. 9— 2.'5.
IV. It makes a difference between the law and
the gospel, declaring the use and end of them to be
different ; the one to kill, the other to quicken ; the
one to condemn, the other to justify ; the one to have
an end, the other to be perpetual, &c. : Rom. v. 20. ;
vii. 4. Gal. iii. 10—13.
V. The same doctrine of St. Paul, as it shews a dif-
ference between the law and the gospel, so it makes no
less difference between the righteousness of God and the
righteousness of man, abhorring the one, that is, man's
own righteousness, coming by the law and works ; and
embracing the other which God imputes freely and gra-
ciously to us for Christ his Son's sake, in whom we
believe, Philip, iii. 9. : Rom. iv. 24.
VI. It wipes away all traditions, and constitutions
of men, especially from binding of conscience, calling
them beggarly elements of this world, Gal. iv. 9. Col.
ii. 20—22.
VII. Likewise it rejects and wipes away all curious
Bubtilties, and superfluous speculations, and knows
nothing else but only Christ crucified, which is the only
object to which our faith looks, 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2.
VIII. Furthermore, as the same doctrine of St. Paul
defines all men to he transgressors by the disobedience of
one Adam, though they never touched the apple, they
cwning of his stock by nature ; so doth it prove all men
to be justified by the obedience of one, even Christ,
though they did not his obedience, they being likewise
born of him by spiritual regeneration and faith,
Rom. V. 17—19.
IX. And therefore as all men coming of Adam are
condemned m-iginally, before they grow up to commit
any sin against the law ; so all men regenerated by faith
in Christ are saved originally before they begin to do
any good work of charity, or any other good deed,
Rom. V. 18, 19.
X. The doctrine of St. Paul, considering the high
glory of a christian man's state in Christ Jesus by faith,
first sets him in a perfect peace with Almighty God,
Rom. V. 1. Secondly, exempts him from all condem-
nation, Rom. viii. 1. Thirdly, it matches him with
angels ; it equals him with saints and fellow-citizens of
heaven ; it numbers him with the household of God ;
and inherits him with Jesus Christ himself. Ephes. ii. 19.
Fourthly, it adopts him from the state of a servant, tc
the state of a son of God, crying, " Abba, Father:"
Gal. iv. 6. Fifthly, it opens to him a bold access and
entrance to the high Majesty and throne of grace,
Ephes. ii. 18 ; Heb. iv. 16. Sixthly, it subjects aU
things under him, as ministers, yea, the apostles them-
selves, in their highest office, death, life, things present,
things to come, with the whole world besides, and as-
signs him no spiritual head, but only Christ, saying,
" And you are Christ'c, and Christ is God's,"
1 Cor. iii. 23. Seventhly, it advances and sets him in
a spiritual liberty or freedom, above all terrors of spirit,
either of God's law, or man's law ; above all dreadful
fears of sin, damnation, malediction, rejection, death,
hell, or purgatory ; above all servile bondage of ceremo-
nies, men's precepts, traditions, superstitions, vices,
yokes, customs, or what else soever oppresseth and en-
tangleth the spiritual freedom of a conscience, which
Christ hath set at liberty ; and requireth, moreover, that
we walk and stand stout in that liberty whereto we
are brought with the free son of Sarah, and not suffer
ourselves any more to be clogged with any such servile
bondage ; that is to say, although we must be content to
subject our bodies to all service, and to all men, yet must
we not yield our spiritual consciences and souls as slaves
and servants, to be subject to the fear or bondage of any
thing in this world, for so much as we are made lords
and princes over all things whatsoever that can harm,
bind, or terrify us. Gal. iv. 9.
XI. The right vein of St. Paul's doctrine puts no dif-
ference nor observation in days and times. Gal. iv. 10 :
Col. ii. 16.
XII. It leaveth all meats to be indifferent, with
thanksgiving, to serve the necessity of the body, and not
the body to serve them, Col. ii. 16. 1 Tim. iv. 4.
XIII. It permits marriage without restraint or excep-
tion, lawful and also expedient for all men, having need
thereof, 1 Cor. vii. 2. Heb. xiii. 4.
XIV. It admits no sacrifice for sin, but the sacrifice of
Christ alone, and that done once for all with blood. For
without blood there is no remission of sin, which is
applied to us by faith only, and by nothing else, Heb.
ix. 22.
XV. As touching the holy communion, by the first epistle
of St. Paul to the Corinthians, xi. 23 — 26., we under-
stand, that the use then amongst them was, to have the
participation of the bread called the Lord's body, and of
the cup called the Lord's blood, administered not at an
altar, but at a plain board or table, the congregatioa
there meeting together after the time of their supper,
where not the minister alone did receive, and the other
looked on ; but the whole congregation together did
communicate with reverence and thanksgiving, not lifting
over the priest's head, nor worshipping, nor kneeling,
nor knocking their breasts ; but either sitting at the
supper, or standing after the supper.
XVI. The apostle, besides the sacramental supper,
makes mention of baptism, or washing of regeneration,
although he himself baptized but few, 1 Cor. i. 14., of
other sacraments he makes no mention.
XVII. By the same doctrine of St. Paul, no tongue is
to be used in the congregation, which is not known, and
doth not edify, 1 Cor. xiv. 2.
XVIII. The rule of St. Paul's doctrine subjects every
creature under the obedience of kings and princes, and
ordinary magistrates, ordained of God to have the sword
and authority of public government, to order and dispose
in all things not contrary to God, whatever pertaiueth to
the maintenance of the good, or to the correction of the
evil ; from whose jurisdiction there is no exemption of
22
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
Vocations or persons, whether they be ecclesiastical or
political. And therefore to this office it appertains to
preserve peace, to set things in lawful order, to preserve
christian discipline in the churcli of Christ, to remove
offences, to bridle the disobedient, to provide and procure
wholesome and faithful teachers over the people, to
maintain learning, and set up schools, to have oversight not
only of the people, but also of all ecclesiastical ministers,
to see every one to do his duty, and to remove or punish
8uch as be negligent; also to call councils and synods,
and to provide that the church goods be faithfully dis-
pensed by the hands of true dealers, to the sustenance of
the church, and of true teachers, and to the public neces-
sity of the poor, &c. Rom. xiii. 1. 4. 6., Tit. iii. 1.
XIX. Furthermore, by St. Paul's doctrine, the minis-
ters of Christ's church have their authority and armour
likewise limited to them, which armour is only spiritual
and not carnal, whereby they tight not against flesh and
blood, but against the power of darkness, error, and sin ;
against the sjiiritual seduction and craftiness in heavenly
things, against the works and proceedings of Satan the
j)rince of this world, in comforting weak consciences
against the terrors of the devil and desperation, and
finally against every thought lifted up against Christ, to
subdue every lofty thing to the subjection and power of
Christ Jesus the Son of God. Eph. vi. I'.i — 18.
Briefly to reduce the whole doctrine of St. Paul, it
consists chiefly in these five points :
First, in setting forth the grace, great love and
good will, and free promises of God the Father in Christ
Jesus his Son to mankind, who so loved the world that
he Lath given his own Son for the redemption thereof,
John iii. 16. Who gave his Son to die for us being his
enemies, Rom. v. 8. Who hath quickened us being
dead in sin, Ephes. ii. 1. Who so mercifully hath
reconciled the world to himself by his Son, and also by
his ambassadors desireth us to be reconciled unto him,
8 Cor. V. 20. Who hath given his own Son to be sin for
fcs, 2 Cor. V. 21. To be accursed for us. Gal. iii. I'.i.
Who by firm promise hath assured us of our inherit-
ance, Rom. iv. 16. Who not by the works of riglit-
eousness that we have done, but of his own mercy hath
saved us by the washing of regeneration, Tit. iii. 4.
The second point consists in preacliing and express-
ing the glorious and triumphant majesty of Christ Jesus
the Son of God, and the excellency of his glory ; who
being once dead in the infirmity of the flesh, rose again
with power, and ascending up with majesty, hath led
captivity captive, Eph. iv. 8., who sitteth and reigneth in
glory on the right hand of God in heavenly things above
all principalities, and powers, and dominions, and above
every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in the world to come, Ephes. i. 21. At whose name
every knee is to bow both in heaven and in earth, and
under the earth, and every tongue to confess our Lord
Christ Jesus to the glory of God the Father, Phil. ii. 10.
In whom and by wlunn all things are made both in
heaven and in earth, things visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or
powers, all are by him and for him created, and he is
before all, and all things consist in him who is the
head of his body the church, the beginning and first-
born from the dead, in whom dwelleth all fulness,
Col. i. 16. To whom the Father hath given all judg-
ment, and judgeth no man himself any more, John v. 22.
To whom the Father hath given all things to his hands,
John xiii. ^5. To whom the Father hath given power
over all flesh, John xvii. 2. To whom all power is given
in heaven and earth. Matt, xxviii. 18. In whom all
the promises of God are yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20.
Thirdly, he declareth the virtue of his cross and
passion, and what exceeding benefits proceed to us by
the same. By whose blood we have redemption and
remission of our sins, Ephes. i. 7. By whose stripes
we are healed, Isa. liii. 5. By whose cross all things
are made peace, both in heaven and in earth. Col. i. 20.
By whose death we are reconciled, Rom. v. 10. Wlio
hath destroyed death and brought life to light, 2 Tim.
i. 10. Who by death hath destroyed him which had
the power of death, that is, the devil, and hath delivered [
them which lived under fear of death all their life in
bondage, Heb. ii. 14. By whose obedience we are
made righteous, by whose righteousness we are justi-
fied to life, Rom. v. 18. By whose curse we are blessed,
and delivered from the curse of the law. Gal. iii. 13.
By whose blood we that once were far off, are made
near unto God, Ephes. ii. l;{. Who in one body hath
reconciled both Jews and Gentiles unto God, Ephes.
ii. 16. Who by his flesh hath taken away the division
and separation between God and us, abolishing the
law which was set against us in precepts and decrees,
Ephes. ii. 15. Who is our peace, our advocate, and
propitiation for the sins of the whole world, 1 John ii. 2.
Who was made accursed, and sin for us, that we might
be the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21.
Who is made of God for us, our wisdom, and right-
eousness, and sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor.
i. 30. By whom we have boldness and entrance with
all confidence through faith in him, Ephes. iii. 12.
Who forgiveth all our sins, and hath torn in pieces
the obligation or hand-writing, which was against us
in the law of the commandments, and hath crucified
it upon the cross, and utterly hath despatched and
abolished the same, and hath spoiled principalities and
powers, as in an open show of conquest, triumphing
over them openly in himself, Col. ii. 14. Who justi-
fieth the wicked by faith, Rom. iv. 1. In whom we
are made full and complete. Col. ii. 10., &c.
The fourth branch is, to teach us and inform us,
to whom these benefits of Christ's passion and victory
appertain, and by what means they are applied to us ,
which means is only one, that is by faith in Christ
Jesus, and no other thing. Which faith it pleases
Almighty God to accept for righteousness. And this
righteousness it is which only stands before God, and
none other, as we are plainly taught by the scriptures,
a!id especially by the doctrine of St. Paul. Which
rigliteousness thus rising from faith in Christ, St. Paul
calls the righteousness of God, where he speaks of him-
self, utterly refusing the other righteousness which is of
the law, that he might be found in him, not having his
own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteous-
ness of Christ, which is of faith, Phil. iii. 9. Again,
the apostle writing of the Jews, who sought for right-
eousness and found it not ; and also of the Gentiles,
who sought not for it, and yet found it, shews the
reason why : Because, says he, the one sought it by the
works of the law, and not knowing the righteousness of
God, and seeking to set up their own righteousness, did
not submit themselves to the righteousness which is of
God. The other, which were the Gentiles, and sought
not for it, obtained righteousness, that righteousness
which is of faith, &c., Rom. ix. 30. Also in another
place of the same epistle, St. Paul writing of this right-
eous«iess which cometh of faith, calls it the righteous-
ness of God, in these words : "whom God hath set forth
for a propitiation by faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God," Rom. iii. 25. By
which righteousness it is evident that St. Paul means
the righteousness of faith, which Almighty God now
reveals and makes manifest by the preaching of the gospeJ.
Wilt thou see yet more plainly this righteousness of
God, how it is taken in St. Paul for the righteousness
of faith, and therefore is called the righteousness of
God, because it is imputed only of God to faith, and not
deserved of man ? In the same epistle to the Romans
and in the third chapter, his words are manifest :
" the righteousness of God," says he, " is by faith
of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that
believe," &c., Rom. iii. 22.
Wherefore whosoever studies to be accepted with God,
and to be found righteous in his sight, let him learn
diligently by the doctrine of St. Paul to make a dif-
ference as far as from heaven to earth, between the
righteousness of works, and the righteousness of faith :
and bring no other means for his justification, or for the
remission of his sins, but only faith apprehending the body
or person of Christ Jesus crucified. For as there is no
way into the house but by the door, so is there no
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
£3
coming to God but by Christ alone, which is by faith.
And as the mortal body, without bodily sustenance of
bread and drink, cannot but perish, so the spiritual soul
of man hath no other refreshing but only by faith in the
body and blood of Christ, whereby to be saved. With
this faith the idolatrous Gentiles apprehended Jesus
Christ, and received thereby ^ighteousnes'^ Cornelius,
(the tirst baptized Roman), so soon as he heard Peter
preach Christ, received straightway the Holy Ghost,
Acts X. 44. Peter himself confessed, and for his con-
fession had the keys of heaven, Matt. xvi. 19. Zaccheus
received the person of Christ into his house, and withal
received salvation both to him and his whole household,
Luke xix. 9. What a sinner was Mary, who had in
her no less than seven devils, and yet because she set
her heart and affection upon that person, many sins
were forgiven her, Luke vii. 47. The right hand thief,
how far was he from all works of the law, and yet by
faith he entered justified into Paradise the same day
with Christ, Luke xxiii. 43. In like manner, although
the poor publican came to the church with less holiness
after the law, yet he went home to his house more
justified than the pharisee with all his works, and all by
reason of faith, Luke xviii. 14. The parable of the
prodigal son which was lost, yet revived again ; also of
the lost piece of silver; and of the lost sheep which went
astray and was found again ; what do these declare, but
that that which is lost by the law is to be recovered by faith
and grace ? Luke xv. 11. And how often do we read in
the gospels : Thy faith hath saved thee, &c. Jesus
seeing their faith, &c. He that believeth in me, I will
raise him up at the last day, &c. Believe also in me,
&c. He that believeth in me hath everlasting life, &c.
Without me ye can do nothing, &c. He that is in me,
&c. He that loveth me, &c. He that heareth me, &c.
He that abideth in me, &c. He that receiveth me, &c.
Unless ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood, &c. That
they may receive forgiveness of sins by faith that is in me,
&c. To him give all the prophets witness, that through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive re-
mission of sins, &c. He that believeth and is baptized,
&c. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also, and greater than these, &c. Luke xviii. 42.
Matt. ix. 2. John vi. 40. John xiv. 1. John iii. 'M.
John XV. 5. John xv. 4. John i. 12. John v. 5,'i.
Acts xxvi. 18. Acts X. 4;^. Markx\d. 16. John xiv. 12.
And likewise in the writings of St. Paul, how often do
we hear the name of Christ almost in every third or
fourth line, where he still repeateth : In Christ Jesus, —
by Christ Jesus, — through Jesus Christ our Lord, &c.
Who believe in him, &c. All who believe in him, &c.
Belie\'ing on him, in him, in his name, in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. Believe, saith St. Paul to
the jailor, on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved and thy house, &c.. Acts xvi. 'M.
Thus then thou seest, as the passion of Christ is the
only efficient or personal cause immediate of our salva-
tion ; so is faith the only instrumental or mean cause
that makes the merits of Christ available. For as the
passion of Christ serves to none but such as do believe ;
60 neither does faith (as it is only a bare quality or
action in man's mind) itself justify, unless it be directed
to the body of Christ crucified as to his object, of whom
if receives all his virtue. And therefore, these two must
always jointly concur together, faith, and Christ Jesus
crucified. As for example, when the children of Israel
were bid of Moses to look up to the brazen serpent ;
neither could the serpent have helped them, except they
had looked up, nor yet their looking up have profited
them, unless they had directed their e)^es upon the
serpent, as the only object for them to behold. So our
faith directed to the body of Jesus our Saviour, is the
only means whereby Christ's merits are applied to us,
and we are justified before God, according to the doctrine
of St. Paul, who, in express words defining to us what
this faith is, and how it justifies, saith, " if thou shalt con-
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved," &c. Rom. x. 9. Besides this, whatever
actioa or quality there is in maa, either hope, charity, or
any other kind of faith and believing, be it never so true,
except it apprehend this object which is the body of
Christ the Son of God, it serves not to justification.
And that is the cause why we add this particle (only)
to faith, and say that onli/ faith in Christ justifies us, to
exclude all other actions, qualities, gifts, or works of
man, from the cause of justifying ; for so much as there
is no other knowledge nor gift given of God to man, be
it never so excellent, that can stand before the judgment
of God unto justification, or whereunto any promise of
salvation is annexed ; but only this faith looking up to
the brazen serpent, that is, to the body of Christ Jesus
crucified for us.
As for example, when the Turk says, that he believes
in one living God that made heaven and earth, his belief
therein is true, yet it justifies him not, because it lacks
the right object, which is Christ. So when the Jew
says, that he believes in one God maker of heaven and
earth, and believes also the same God to be omnipotent,
merciful, just, and true of promise, and that he has
elected the seed of Abraham ; true it is that he believes,
and yet all this senes him not, because Christ the Son
of God is not joined withal. And though the said Jew
should be never so devout in his prayers, or charitable ia
alms, or precise in keeping the law, and believe never so
steadfastly that he is elected to be saved ; yet he is never
the nearer to salvation for all this, so long as his faith is
not grounded upon the head comer stone, which is the
person and body of Jesus Christ the true Saviour. After
like sort it may be said of the papist, when he saith,
that he is baptized, and believes in the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, three persons, and one God, and
also confesses Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, which
died for our sins, and rose again for our righteousness,
&c., his belief therein is true, and indeed would save
him, if he did stay his salvation in this faith, and upon
Christ his Saviour only, according to the promise and
grace of God, and go no further. But that he does not .
for neither does he admit Christ only to be his perfect
Saviour without the help of the patrons, heads, advo-
cates, and mediators, nor yet permits his faith in Christ
only to be the means of his justification, but sets up
other by-means, as hope, charity, sacrifice of the mass,
confession, penance, satisfaction, merits and pardons,
supposing thereby to work his justification before God,
contrary to the word of promise, to the gospel of grace,
and to the doctrine of St. Paul.
And thus much of the true causes of our justification
after the doctrine of St. Paul. Concerning which
causes this distinction is to be added, that as touching
the original causes of our salvation, which are various,
some are external, and without us ; some are internal,
and within us. Of the external causes which are with-
out us, the first and principal is the mercy and grace of
God. On this followeth predestination and election.
Then cometh vocation. The last and next cause to us is
the death and bloodshed of Christ, whereby we are
redeemed, and all these are external causes, because they
are vnthout us. Of internal causes that are in man
through the gift of God, there is but one, and no more
appointed in scripture, that is our faitli in Christ, which
is the gift of God in us. Besides this, there is no gift
of God given to man, virtue, work, merit, nor any thing
else, that is any part or cause of salvation, but only this
gift of faith, to believe in Christ Jesus. And this is the
cause why we hold that faith only justifies, meaning that
amongst all the works, deeds, actions, labours and
operations whatsoever, that man does or can do, there is
nothing in man that works salvation, but only his faith
given to him of God to believe in Christ his Son. And
therefore in the epistle to the Romans, St. Paul
reasoning of the glory of justifying, asks this question,
how boasting of this glory is excluded ; whether by the
law of works ? And concludes no ; ascribing only the
glory thereof to the law of faith, and consequently upon
the same he infers, " we conclude that a man is justified
by faith without the deeds of the law," Rom. iii. 28.
And how then can that be accounted any part of our
justification, which St. Paul utterly debars and excludes ?
1 Of which the whole course of St. Paul's doctrine is full,
24
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
where he still concludes ; " It is the gift of God, not of
•works, lest any man should boast," &c. " Not by works
of ri;»hteoiisuess which we liave done, but according to
his mercy," Ike. " Not according to our works, but ac-
cording to his own purpose and grace which was given us,"
&c. " A mail is not justified by works," &c. " To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," ike.
Eph. ii. 8, y.— Tit. iii. T). 2 Tim. i. 9. Gal. ii. 16.
Rom. iv. 5. By tliese plain declarations, what does he
mean, but utterly to exclude all kind of man's merits, and
works of the law, from the office and dignity of justifying?
And, although lie expresses not the word ouli/ ; yet upon
his exdusives, and negatives, this exceptive must needs
be inferred. And thus much concerning faith in Christ
proved to be the only mean, or instrumental, or condi-
tional cause of our salvation, and no other besides the
same alone, is taught by the doctrine of St. Paul to the
ancient Romans.
The fifth branch, which I note in St. Paul's doc-
trine, is this : that after he has thus established us in
the certainty of our salvation through faith in Christ,
then he exhorts us vehemently to good works, shewing
the true use and end of good works : which is, first,
to shew our obedience and dutiful service unto God,
who hath done so great things for us. Secondly, to
relieve our neighbours with our charity and kindness,
as God hath been kind to us, his enemies. Thirdly,
to stir up others by our example to praise God, to em-
brace the same religion, and to do the like. For it is
requisite, that as God has been so merciful to us, and
gracious in eternal gifts, we should be merciful like-
wise in temporal things. And seeing it has pleased
him of his Fatherly goodness to call us to so high a
vocation, to give the blood of his Son for us, to for-
give us all our sins, to deliver us from this present
■wicked world, to make us citizens of heaven, yea, his
children, more than servants : little then can we do,
and well may we think those benefits ill bestowed, if
we forgive not our neighbours, and shew not some-
thing worthy of that holy calling wherewith he hath
called us, in mortifying our worldly lusts here, and
studying after heavenly things : and, finally, if we being
provoked with such love and kindness, render not again
some love for love, some kindness for kindness, seek-
ing how to walk in the steps which he has prepared
for us to walk in, serving him (so much as we may),
in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.
And though our obedience shall always be imperfect,
yet we should shew obedience, as loving children to
such a loving father.
And this is the cause why St. Paul so vehemently
and urgently calls upon us to do good works; not that
works should justify, but that we being justified so
mercifully and tenderly through the grace of God,
should not abuse his grace in vain, but endeavour our-
selves, to our uttermost, to render our service again to
him, in such conversation of life as may most make to
his glory, and the profit of our neighbour. And though
the words of our Saviour seem, in some places, to
attribute great rewards in heaven to our obedience and
charity here in earth, that is of his own free grace and
goodness so to impute small matters for great deserts,
and it is not for us to claim any meed thereby, or
thank at his hand, as by any worthiness of our doings ;
110 more than tlie servant can, when he comes from the
plough, and serving the cattle in the field, serves first
his master at home, and waits upon his table : the
master is not bound (saith Christ) to thank his ser-
vant, because he did tlie things that were commanded
him : " So likewise ye," saith he, " when ye shall have
done all those things which are commanded you, say. We
are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which was
our duty to do," Luke xvii. 10.
Again, here also is to be understood, that where
such rewards are ascribed to men's deeds, it is not the
worthiness of the deed itself, but the faith of the doer,
which makes the work to be good in God's sight : for
if an infidel should do the same work that the christian
does, it were nothing but mere sin before God. In
that, therefore, the christian man's work is accepted,
be it never so small (as to give a cup of cold water) the
same is only for his faith sake that does it, and not
for the work which is done. Whereby again we may
learn how faith only justifies a man, and that three
manner of ways : —
First, it justifies the person in making him accepted,
and the child of God by regeneration, before he begin
to do any good work.
Secondly, it justifies a man from sin, in procuring
remission and forgiveness of the same.
Thirdly, it justifies the good deeds and works of man,
not only in bringing forth good fruits, but also in
making the same works to be good and acceptable in
the sight of God, which otherwise were impure and ex-
ecrable in his sight.
The oflSce, therefore, of faith and works is different,
and must not be confounded. Faith goes before, and
regenerates a man, and justifies him in the sight of
God, both in covering his ill deeds, and making his
good deeds acceptable to God, climbing up to heaven,
and there wrestling with God and his judgment for
righteousness, for salvation, and for everlasting life.
Works and charity follow faith, and are exercised here
upon the earth, and have glory only before man, but not
before God, in shewing forth obedience both to God and
to man. Further than this our good works do not
reach, nor have any thing to do in the judgment of God
touching salvation. I speak of our good works (as St.
Paul speaketh, Rom. vii.) as they be ours, and imper-
fect. For if our works could be perfect according to
the perfection of the law, as Christ wrought them in the
perfection of his flesh ; that is, if we could perfect them ;
then, as it is said : " The man which doeth those things
shall live by them," Rom. x. 5. But now seeing the
weakness of our flesh cannot attain thereto, it follows that
all glory of justifying is taken from works, and transferred
only to faith.
And thus much concerning the principal contents of
St. Paul's doctrine : wherein the church of the ancient
Romans was first grounded and planted, and so conti-
nued, or at least did not much alter, during the primi-
tive state of the church. Likewise, the same form o(
doctrine the later Romans should have maintained, and
not have fallen away for any man's preaching, but should
hold him accursed, yea if he were an apostle or angel from
heaven, teaching any other doctrine than that which we
have preached unto you. Gal. i. 8., for so were they
warned before by the apostle St. Paul to do. And yet,
notwithstanding all this forewarning and diligent instruc-
tion of this blessed apostle of the Gentiles, what a defec-
tion of faith is fallen among the Gentiles, especially
among the Romans, whereof the said apostle also fore-
told them so long before, prophesying, that the day of the
Lord shall not come, "except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed," &c. 2 Thess. ii. 3.,
meaning a departing and a falling from that faith which
the Holy Ghost had then planted by his ministry among
the Gentiles, as we see it now come to pass in the church
of Rome. Which church is so gone from the faith that
St. Paul taught, that if he were now alive, and saw these
decrees and decretals of the bishop of Rome, these heaps
of ceremonies and traditions, these mass-books, these
festivals and legends, these processionals, hymns, and
sequences, these beads and graduals, and the manner of
their invocation, their canons, censures, and later coun-
cils, such swarms of superstitious monks and friars,
such sects, and so many divers religions— the testament
of St. Francis, the rule of St. Benedict, of St. Bridget,
of St. Anthony, &c. the intricate subtleties and laby-
rinths of the schoolmen, the infinite cases and distinc-
tions of the canonists, the sermons in churches, the
assertions in schools, the glory of the pope, the pride of
the clergy, the cruelty of persecuting prelates with their
officials and promoters : he would say this were not a
defection, but rather a plain destruction, and a ruin of
faith ; neither that this were any true church of Christ,
but a new found religion, or paganism rather, brought in
under the shadow of Christianity, wherein remains al-
most nothing else but the name only of Christ, and the
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
25
outward form of his religion, the true vein and effect
whereof is utterly decayed ; as will soon appear to them
who will examine all the parts of this new Romish
religion.
For save only that they pretend the solemn form and
words of the creed, and are baptized, confessing the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Gliost : as
touching all other points, and true sincerity of the
christian faith, which they outwardly profess, they are
utterly degenerated from that which St. Paul and the
word of God first had taught them.
For, they confess the Father in word, but his will
expressed in his word tliey renounce ; his grace they
acknowledge not ; his benefits and jiromises given unto
us in his Son, they receive not ; the vigor of his law they
feel not ; the terror of his judgments they fear not, and
his commandments they observe by traditions and com-
mandments of their own.
Likewise the name of Christ his Son, they confess in word,
but in deed they deface and diminish his office ; his glory
they seek not, but under his name they seek their own
glory ; the power of his blood and passion they know
not, for they neither admit him to be the head of his
church alone, nor Saviour alone, nor to be our only pa-
tron and advocate, but place him with the Virgin Mary,
and other patrons, so that almost every parish in
Christendom has its peculiar patron, besides Christ.
In like manner, they confess the name of the Holy
Ghost, but God himself knoweth how far they are from
the comfort, knowledge, and taste of the Holy Ghost; as
may well appear by their councils, by their expounding
of scripture, by their superstitious ceremonies, by their
outward worshipping, and idolatrous invocation to stocks
and stones, and to dead creatures, by their scrupulous
observation of days, times, places, numbers and ges-
tures ; and no less also by their doctrine, which de-
frauds the poor hearts of simple christians of their due
consolation, joy and liberty in the Holy Ghost, keep-
ing them stiU in a servile bondage, and a doubtful
uncertainty of their salvation, contrary to the working of
the Holy Spirit of God.
And thus the church of Rome, pretending only the
name of Christ and of his religion, is so far altered from
the truth of what it pretends, that under the name of
Christ, it persecutes both Christ and his religion ; work-
ing more harm to the church of Christ than ever did the
open tyrants and persecuting emperors among the hea-
then : not much unlike the old synagogue of the scribes
and pharisees, who, under the name of God, crucified the
Son of God, and under pretence of the law, fought
against the gospel, and under the title of Abraham's
children, persecuted the children of Abraham. And as
they boasting so highly of the temple of the Lord, did,
indeed, destroy the true temple of the Lord ; just so,
these pretended cathoUcs in these days, after they have
raised up a catholic church of their own, and have
armed it with laws, and have gathered a multitude
of priests, prelates, abbots, priors, monks, cardinals,
and also of secular princes, to take their part ; now,
under the name of the catholic church, they persecute
the true catholic church, and colouring their proceeding
still with the name of the Lord, most cruelly put them to
death, who die for the name of the Lord, condemning
them for heretics, schismatics, and rebels, who deny no
part of the creed which they themselves profess, and
whom they cannot convince by any scripture ; but who
will not join with their errors and heresies, contrary to
the honour of God, and truth of his word.
And lest any should think that our protest against the
corrupt errors and manifold deformities of this later
church of Rome proceeds more of rancour or affec-
tion, rather than grounded upon necessary causes and
demonstration, my purpose is to take herein some little
pains, and as I have collected, a little before, the con-
tents of St. Paul's doctrine, wherewith the old church of
Rome was first seasoned and acquainted, so now, in a
like summary table, I will describe the particular
branches and contents of the pope's doctrine, that all
true christian readers, comparing the one with the other,
taaj discern w-.it great alteration there is between the
I church of Rome that now is, and the church of Rotne
that then was planted by the apostles in the primitive
time. And to open to the simple reader some way
whereby he may the better judge in such matters of doc-
trine, and not be deceived in discerning truth from error,
we will first propound certain princi])les or general posi-
tions, as infallible rules or truths of the scripture, where-
by all other doctrines and opinions of men being tried
and examined, as with the touchstone, may the more
easily be judged whether they be true or false, and
whether they make against the scripture, or no.
T/te Fifst Principle.
As sin and death came originally by the disobe-
dience of one to all men of his generation by nature : so
righteousness and life came originally by the obedience of
one to all men regenerated of him by faith and baptism.
Rom. v. 15.
The Second Principle.
The promise of God was freely given to our first
parents without their deserving ; that the seed of the wo-
man should bruise the serpent's head, Gen. iii. 15.
The Third Principle.
Promise was given freely to Abraham before he de-
served any thing, that in his seed all nations should be
blessed, Gen. xii. '.'>.
The Fourth Principle.
We must neither add to, nor diminish from the word
of God, Dent. iv. 2.
The Fifth Principle.
He that doth the works of the law shall live therein,
Levit. xviii. 5. Gal. iii. 12.
The Sia:th Principle.
Accursed is he which abideth not in every thing
that is written in the book of the law, Deut. xxvii. 26.
Gal. ui, 10.
The Seventh Principle.
God only is to be worshipped, Deut. vi. 13. Luke
iv. 8.
The Eighth Principle.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, Isaiah
Mv. 6.
The Ninth Principle.
In all my holy hill they shall not kill nor slay,
saith the Lord, Isaiah xi. 9. Ixv. 25.
The Tenth Principle.
God loveth mercy and obedience more than sacri
fice, Hoseavi. 6. 1 Sam. xv. 22.
T/ie Eleventh Principle.
The law worketh wrath, condemneth and openeth sin,
Rom. iv. 15.; iii. 19, 20.
The Twelfth Principle.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth, Rom. x. 4.
The Thirteenth Principle.
Whosoever believeth and is baptized, shall be saved,
Mark .\vi. 16.
The Fourteenth Principle.
A man is justified by faith without works, freely by
grace, not of ourselves. Gal. ii. 16 ; Ephes. ii. 9.
The Fifteenth Principle.
There is no remission of sins without shedding of
blood, Heb. ix. 22.
The Sixteenth Principle.
^Vhatsoever is not of faith is sin, Rom. xiv. 23. With-
out faith it is impossible to please God, Heb.
xi. 6.
The Seventeenth Principle.
One mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus,
Tim. ii. 5. And he is the propitiation for our sins,
1 John ii. 2.
The Eighteenth Principle.
Whosoever seeketh to be justified by the law, is fallen
from grace. Gal. v. 4.
The Nineteenth Principle.
In Christ all the promises of God are yea and amen,
2 Cor. i. 20.
The Twentieth Principle.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powe'-s,
giving to Cesar that which is Cesar's, and to Gud
that which is God's, Rom. xiii. 1 ; Mark xii. If.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
26
As no man can deny these principles and infallible rules
of the scripture, so if they be granted, the doctrine of
the pope's church must be found not to be catholic, but
rather full of errors and heresies, as in the sequel re-
mains more expressly and particularly by the grace of
Christ to be proved. I now proceed to give a summary
account of the errors, heresies, and absurdities, con-
tained in the pope's doctrine, contrary to the rules of
God's word, and the first institution of the church of
Rome.
OF FAITH AND JUSTIFICATION.
First, as to the only means and cause of our justifi-
cation, whereby the merits of Christ's passion are ap-
plied to us and made ours, we saw before how St. Paul
ascribes it only to faith ; as appears by all his epistles,
especially to the Romans. Where, excluding all kind
of works, he ascribes all our salvation, justification,
righteousness, reconciliation, and peace with God, only
unto faith in Christ. Contrary to which doctrine, the
pope and his church has set up divers and sundry other
means of their own devising whereby the merits of
Christ's passion (as they say) are applied to us and
made ours, to the putting away of sins, and for our jus-
tification, such as hope, charity, sacrifice of the mass,
auricular confession, satisfaction, merits of saints, and
holy orders, the pope's pardons, &c. So that Christ's
sacrifice, stripes, and suffering, by this teaching, does
not heal us, though we believe never so well, unless we
add also these works and merits above recited. Which
if it be true, then that is false which Isaiah the prophet
doth promise (chapter liii. 5.)," with his stripes we are
healed," &c. This error and heresy of the church of Rome,
though it seem at first sight to the natural reason of
man to be but of small importance, yet if it be earnestly
considered, it is in very deed the most pernicious heresy
almost that ever crept into the church, upon which, as
the foundation, all or the greater part of the errors,
absurdities, and inconveniences of the pope's church
are grounded. For this being once admitted, that a
man is not justified by his faith in Christ alone, but that
other means must be sought by our own working and
merits to apply the merits of Christ's passion unto us,
then there is neither any certainty left of our salvation,
nor any end to setting up new means and merits of our
own devising for remission of sins. Neither hath there
been any heresy that either hath rebelled more presump-
tuously against the high majesty of God the Father, nor
more perniciously injured the souls of the simple, than
this doctrine.
First of all, it subverts the will and testament of God.
For where almighty God of his mercy has given us his
Son to die for us, and with him has given his full promise,
that whosoever believeth on him, should be saved by
faith, and assigns none other condition, either of the law,
or of works, but only of faith, to be the means be-
tween his Son and us : these men take upon them to
alter this testament that God hath set, and add other
conditions, which the Lord in his word never appointed
nor knew. To whom the words of Jerome may be well
applied upon the epistle to the Galatians, " They make
of the gospel of Christ the gospel of men, or rather the
gospel of the devil," &c.
Secondly, whereas the christian reader in the gospel,
reading of the gr^at grace and sweet promises of God
given to mankind in Christ his Son, might thereby take
much comfort of soul, and be at rest and peace with the
Lord his God : there comes the pestiferous doctrine of
these heretics, wherewith they obscure this free grace of
God, choke the sweet comforts of man in the Holy
Ghost, oppress christian liberty, and bring us into spi-
ritual bondage.
Thirdly, as in this their impious doctrine they shew
themselves manifest enemies to God's grace: so are they
no less injurious to christian men, whom they leave in a
doubtful distrust of God's favour and of their salvation,
contrary to the word and will of God, and right institu-
tion of the apostolic doctrine. And, whereas, they
object to as that we rather leave men's conscience un-
certain, forasmuch as, if life (say they) were not a due
reward, it were uncertain : and now forsomuch as due
debt is certain, and mercy or favour is uncertain, there-
fore (say they) we leaving men's consciences to the
mercy of God, do leave them in a doubtful uncertainty
of their salvation. To this I answer, that due debt, if it
be proved by the law duly deserv'ed, must be certain.
But if the law shall prove it imperfect, or not due, then it is
not certain, neither can there be any thing duly claimed.
Now as touching mercy, so long as it remains secret in
the prince's will, and not known to his subjects, so long
it is uncertain. But when this mercy shall be openly
published by proclamation, ratified by promise, conferred
by will and testament, established in blood, and sealed
with sacraments, then this mercy remains no more
doubtful, but ought firmly to be believed of every true
faithful subject. And, therefore, St. Paul, to establish
our hearts in this assurance, and to answer to this doubt,
in his epistle to the Romans, does teach us, saying,
" Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to
the end the promise might be sure to all the seed,"
Rom. iv. 16". Meaning, hereby, that works have nothing
to do in this case of justifying, and stating the reason
why : for then our salvation should stand in doubt,
because in working we are never certain whether our
deserts be perfect and sufficient in God's judgment or
no : and, therefore, (saith St. Paul) to the intent our
salvation should be out of all doubt and certain, it stands
not of works in deserving, but of faith in apprehending,
and of God's free grace in promising.
Fourthly, as in this their sinister doctrine they break
this principle of christian religion, which saith that a
man is justified by faith without works, so again it
breaks another principle above rehearsed. For this rule
being granted, that nothing is to be added to God's
word, nor taken from it, then have these men done
wickedly in adding (as they do) to God's word. For
where the word of God limits to our justification no con-
dition but faith, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved and thy house," &c. Acts xvi. 31,
these add other conditions besides, and such as the word
excludes, as hope, charity, the sacrifice of the mass, the
work of the priest, auricular confession, satisfaction,
meritorious deeds, &c. And thus much concerning the
doctrine of faith and justification. Whereby it may ap-
pear to what horrible blindness and blasphemy the
church of Rome is now fallen, where this kind of doc-
trine is not only suffered, but also publicly professed.
OF WORKS AND THE LAW.
As touching the doctrine of good works, and the law,
what the teaching of St. Paul was to the Romans, we have
seen before. Who, although he excludes good works from
the office of justifying, yet he excludes them not from
the practice and conversation of christian life, but most
earnestly calls upon all faithful believers in Christ to
walk worthy their vocation, to lay down their old con-
versation, to give their members servants of righteous-
ness, to offer their bodies up to God a lively sacrifice,
&c. Whose teaching the reformed churches follow, as
their sermons, their preachings, writings, exhortings,
and lives bear record. Who, although they cannot say
with Christ, " Which of you convinceth me of sin ?" yet
they may say to the adversaries, whosoever of you is
without fault, cast the first stone of reproach against us.
What the errors of the church of Rome are, touching
this part of doctrine, remains to be stated. Their first
error stands in this, that they, misunderstanding the
nature of good works, do call good works, not such as
properly are commanded by the law of God, but such as
are agreeable to the pope's law ; as building of abbeys
and churches, giving to the high altar, founding of
trentals, finding of chanteries, gilding of images, hearing
of masses, going on pilgrimage, fighting for the holy
cross, keeping of vows, entering into orders, fasting of
vigils, creeping to the cross, praying to saints, &c. — all
which are not only reputed for good works, but so pre-
ferred also before all other works, that to these is given
pardon from the pope, double and triplefold, more than
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
27
to any other good work of charity commanded in the
law of x\lmighty God.
Another error also may be noted in the papists, touch-
ing the efficient or formal cause of good works. Al-
tliough they all confess in their books, that '• the grace of
God truly given" is the chief and principal cause there-
of, and works in us " the first justification" (as they call
it), yet the good works after regeneration they refer to
other subordinate causes, under God, as to free-will, or
to " a habit of virtue," or " natural integrity," and
nothing at all to faith, whereas faith only next under
God is the root and fountain of well-doing : as in the
fruits of a good tree, although the planter or the hus-
bandman be the principal agent, and some cause also
may be in the good ground ; yet the immediate cause is
the root that makes the tree fruitful. In like manner,
the grace of God, in a soft and repentant mollified heart,
plants the gift of faith : faith, as a good root, cannot
lie dead or unoccupied, but springs forth, and makes
both the tree fruitful, and the fruit good, which other-
wise had no goodness in them, were it not for the good-
ness of the root from whence they spring ; so St. Paul,
although he had certain works in him, such as they
were before his conversion, yet had he no good works
before the grace of Christ had rooted faith in him : so
Mary Magdalene the sinner, and Zaccheus the publican :
BO all the nations of the Gentiles began to bring forth
fruit, and especially good fruit, when they began to be
ingrafted in Christ, and to receive the root of his faith,
whose fruits before that, were all damnable and unsa-
voury. As touching tlio cause therefore of good works,
there is no other in man but faith, as it is the office of
faith to justify us in heaven, so the nature of it is here in
earth to work by love, as the root works by the sap.
For as a man sees and feels by faith the love and grace
of God toward him in Christ his Son, so he begins to
love again both God and man, and to do for his neigh-
bour as God hath done to him. And hereof properly
springs the running fountain of all good works and deeds
of charity.
Thirdly, as they err in the cause of good works, so
do they err much more in the e)id of the law, and of
good works ; for where St. Paul teaches the law to be
given to this use and end, to convict our transgressions,
to prove us sinners, to shew and condemn our infirmity,
and to drive us to Christ, they take and apply no other
end to the law, but to make us perfect, to keep us from
wrath, aud to make us just before God ! And likewise,
where St. Paul proves all our good works to be im-
perfect, and utterly excludes them from justifying, they
contrariwise teach, as though the end of good works
were to merit remission of sins, to satisfy God, to de-
serve grace, to redeem souls from purgatory, and that
by them the person of the regenerate man pleases God,
and is made just before God. For so they teach most
jFrickedly and horribly, saying, that Christ suffered for
original sin, or sins going before baptism ; but the actual
sins, which follow after baptism, must be done away by
men's merits. And so they assign to Christ the begin-
ning of salvation, or obtaining the first grace (as they
call it), but the perfection or consummation of grace
they give to works and our own strength. Neither can
they bear the doctrine, that we be justified freely by the
mercy of God through faith only apprehending the merits
of Christ. However, all papists do not agree in this error.
For some make a distinction, and say, that we are justified
by Christ principally ; and by the dignity of our own
deeds, less principally. Others hold that we are made
righteous before God, not by our works that go before
L'lith, but by our virtues that follow after. Some again
l(k ■*^^lius expound the saying of St. Paul, " We are justi-
fied by faith," that is (say they) by faith preparing us,
or setting us in a good way to be justified. Others ex-
pound it by faith conjoined together with other virtues ;
others thus, by faith, that is, being formed with charity,
&c. Thus all these derogate from the benefit of Christ,
and attribute unto works a great or the greatest part of our
justification, directly against the true vein of St. Paul's
doctrine, and first institution of the ancient church of
Rome, and against all the principles of holy scripture.
Furthermore, as to the doctrine of the law and good
works, they err in misunderstanding the nature of the
law and works. For where St. Paul argues that the law
is spiritual, and requires of us perfect obedience, which
we being carnal are never able to accomplish, they
affirm otherwise, that the law requires only the outward
obedience of man, and is contented therewith. And this
obedience (they say) man is not only able to perform,
but also to do more and greater things than the law re-
quires. Whereof rise the works of supererogation.
There are also (say they) certain works of the law,
which pertain not to all men, but are counsels left for
perfect men, as matter for them to merit by, and these
they call " works of perfection, or works of supereroga-
tion," adding also unto these new devices, to serve God
after their own traditions besides the word of God, as
monastical vows, wilful poverty, difference of meats and
garments, pilgrimage to relics and saints, worshipping
of the dead, superstitious ceremonies, rosaries, &c. with
such like ; and these they call works of perfection,
which tliey prefer before the others commanded in the
law of God. Insomuch that in comparison of these, the
other necessary duties commanded and commended by
the word of God (as to bear office in the commonwealth,
to live in the godly state of matrimony, to sustain the
office of a servant in a house) are contemned, and ac-
counted as profane in comparison of these.
They teach not rightly of sin, nor after the institution
of the apostles, and the ancient church of Rome, while
they consider not the deepness and largeness of sin, sup-
posing it still to be nothing else but the inward actions
with consent of will, or the outward, such as are against
will ; whereas the strength of sin extends not only to
these, but also comprehends the blindness and ignorance
of the mind, lack of knowledge and true fear of God, the
untowardness of man's mind to God-ward, the privy
rebellion of the heart against the law of God, the unde-
lighturg will of man to God and his word. The sense of
flesh St. Paul also calleth an enemy against God, and
feels in himself, that is, in his flesh, nothing dwelling
but sin.
As touching also original sin, wherein we are born,
which is the destruction of original righteousness, and of
God's image in us (remaining in us, and bringing forth
in us wicked thoughts, affections, and motions of sin
against the law of God, and never ceasing so long as
man lives), this original sin the pope's doctrine doth not
deny, but yet much extenuates it, and holds that this in-
ward concupiscence, and these vicious affections, are not
mortal nor damnable sins, and that this concupiscence in
us is no depravation of the higher, but only of the lower
parts of man, being a thing indifferent, and no less natural
in us than is the appetite to eat and drink, and that
the same is left to remain in the saints after baptism,
to be to them occasion of more meriting.
OF PENANCE OR KEPENTANCE.
This later church of Rome has made a sacrament
of penance, which they say consists of three parts.
Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction. Contrition (as
they teach) may be had by strength of free-will, without
the law and the Holy Ghost, through man's own action
and endeavour : which contrition must be sufficient,
and so it merits remission of sin. In confession they
require a full rehearsal of all sins, whereby the priest
knowing the crimes, may minister satisfaction accord-
ingly : and this rehearsing of sins deserves remission.
Satisfactions they call works not due, enjoined by the
ghostly father : and this satisfaction (say they) takes
away and changes eternal punishment into temporal
pains, which pains also it mitigates. And again, these
satisfactions may be taken away by the pope's indul-
gence, &c.
This unsavoury and heathenish doctrine of penance dif-
fers much from the true teaching of holy scripture. By the
which teaching, repentance properly contains these thre«
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS.
parts, contrition, faith, and new life. Contrition is
called in scripture the sorrow of heart, rising upon the
consideration of sin committed, and of the anger of God
provoked, which sorrow drives a man to Christ for suc-
cour, whereupon rises faith. Faith brings aftervs'ard
amendment or newness of life, which we call new obe-
dience bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
As there is nothing more necessary and comfortable
for troubled consciences, than to be well instructed in
the difference between the law and the gospel ; so the
church of Rome is much to blame because it confounds
together those two, being in nature so divers and con-
trary one from another, as threatenings, with promises —
things temporal, with things eternal— sorrowful things,
with glad tidings — death, with life — bondage, with free-
dom, &c. Teaching the people that whatever the law
saith, the gospel confirms ; and whatever the gospel
saith, the same is agreeable to the law, and so they make no
difference between Moses and Christ ; save only that
Moses was the giver of the old law, Christ the giver of
the new and a more perfect law. And thus they imagine
the gospel to be nothing else but a new law given by
Christ, binding to the promises thereof the condition of
our doings and deservings, no otherwise than to the old
law. And so they divide the whole law after this dis-
tinction into three parts, to wit, the law of nature, the
law of Moses, and the law of Christ. And as for the
gospel (they say) it is revealed for no other cause, but
to shew to the world more perfect precepts and counsels
than were in the old law ; to the fulfilling whereof they
attribute justification, and so leave the poor consciences
of men in perpetual doubt, and induce other manifold
errors ; bringing the people into a false opinion of Christ,
as though he were not a remedy against the law, but
came as another Moses, to give a new law to the world.
Furthermore, as they make no difference between the
nature of the law, and the nature of the gospel, con-
founding Moses and Christ together ; so neither do they
distinguish the time of the law, and the time of the
gospel asunder. For where St. Paul brings in the law to
be a schoolmaster, and limits his time unto Christ, and
saith that Christ is the end of the law ; that is, where the
law ceases there Christ begins, and where Christ begins
there the law ends : they, on the other hand, make the
law to have no end nor ceasing, but give to it immortal
life and kingdom equal with Christ, so that Christ and
the law together do reign over the soul and conscience
of man. Which is untrue ; for either Christ must give
nlace and the law stand, or the law (the condemnation
and malediction of the law I mean) must end, and Christ
reign. For both these, Christ and the law, grace and
malediction cannot reign and govern together. But
Christ the Son of God, which once died, can die no more,
but must reign for ever. Wherefore the law with its
strength, sting and curse must needs cease and have an
end. And this is what St. Paul, speaking of the triumph
of Christ, saith, that he ascending up led captivity cap-
tive, and hath set man at liberty ; not at liberty to live
as flesh lusteth, neither hath freed him from the use and
exercise of the law, but from the dominion and power of
the law, so that " there is now no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh,
&c." Rom. viii. 4. And in another place, St. Paul
speaking of the same power and dominion of the law,
saith that Christ " Blotting out the hand-writing of ordi-
nances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross," Col.
ii. 14. So that as the kingdom of Christ first began upon
the cross, even so upon the same cross, and at the same
time, the kingdom of the law expired, and the male-
diction of the law was so crucified upon the cross, that it
shall never rise again, to have any power against them
that be in Christ Jesus. For like as if a woman be dis-
charged from her first husband, being dead, and has mar-
ied another man, the first husband has no more power
Over her, Rom. vii. 2 ; even so we now being esjioused
unto Christ our second husband, are discharged utterly
from our first husband the law, and as St. Paul saith,
(Rom. vi. 14.) are no more under the law, that is,
under the dominion and malediction of the law, but
under grace, that is, under perpetual remission of sins,
committed not only before our baptism, but as well also
after baptism, and during all our life long. For therein
properly consists the grace of God, in not imputing sin
to us, so often as the repenting sinner rising up by faith,
flies unto Christ, and apprehends God's mercy and re-
mission promised in him, according to the testimony
both of the Psalm, " Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth no sin," &c. and also of all the prophets,
which (as St. Peter saith) " give witness that through
his name, all that believe in him shall receive remission
of their sins," &c. Acts x. 43. Which being so, as
cannot be denied, then what need these private and ex-
traordinary remissions to be brought into the church by
ear-confession, by meritorious deeds, and by the pope's
pardons ? For if there be no condemnation but by the
law, and if this law itself which was the first husband, be
made captive, crucified, abolished, and departed, what
condemnation tlien can there be to them that be in
Christ Jesus, or by whom should it come } If there be
no condemnation, but a free and general deliverance for
all men, once gotten by the victory of Christ from the
penalty of the law, what needs then any particular re-
mission of sins at sundry times to be sought at the
priest's hands or the pope's pardons ? He that has a
general pardon, needs no particular. If remedy for sin
be general and ])erpetual, once gotten, for ever to all
them that be in Christ Jesus, what needs any other
remedy by auricular confession ? If it be not general
and perpetual, how then is it true that St. Paul saith,
the law is crucified, and condemnation abolished ? Or
how stands redemption perpetual and general, if re-
mission be not general .' For what else is redemption,
but remission of sin, or sins bought out ? Or what else
to kill the law, but to discharge us from condemnation for
ever ? He that delivers his friend for a time out of his
enemy's hand does him good ; but he that kUls the
enemy once out of the way, gives perpetual safety. So
if remission of sins by Christ were for some sins, and
not for all, the law then must needs live still. But now
the killing and crucifying of the law imports full and
absolute remission, and our safety to be perpetual. But
here some will object ; how is remission of sins cer-
tain and perpetual, seeing new offences being daily com-
mitted, do daily require new remission ? I answer : al-
though sins do daily grow, whereby we have need daily
to desire God to " forgive our trespasses," &c. yet not-
withstanding the cause of our remission stands ever one
and perpetual, neither is it to be repeated any more, nor
any other cause to be sought besides that alone. This
cause is the body of Christ sacrificed once upon the
cross for all sins that either have been or shall be com-
mitted. Besides this cause there is no other, neithert
confession nor men's pardons, that remits sins.
Furthermore, as the cause is one and ever perpetual,
which worketh remission of sins to us ; so is the promise
of God ever one, once made, and stands perpetual, that
offers it to the faith of the repenting sinner. And be-
cause the promise of God is always sure and cannot fail, i
which offers remission to all them that believe in Christ,]
being limited neither to time nor number, therefore wel
may boldly conclude, that whenever a repenting sinner
believes, and by faith applies to himself the sacrifice of
Christ, he has by God's own promise, remission of bis
sins, whether they were done before or after baptism.
And, moreover, as the promise of God offers re-
mission to the repentant sinner, by no other means nor
condition, but only one, that is, by faith in Christ ; there-
fore excluding all other means and conditions of man's
working, we say, that what repenting sinner soever be-
lieves in Christ, has already in himself (and needs not
to seek to any priest) perpetual assurance of remission,
not for this time or that time only, but for ever 1 For the
promise saith not, he that believeth in Christ shall be .
pardoned this time, so he sin no more ; neither does iti
say that the law is staid or the sentence reprieved, buti
saith plainly that tiij law, with her condemnation andf
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
29
sentence, is itself condemned and crucified, and shall
never rise again to them that be in Christ Jesus, and
promises without limitation, remission of sins, " To all
that believe in his name," &c. Acts x. 43. And like-
wise in another place, the scripture speaking absolutely,
Baith, " Sin shall not have dominion over you," andaddeth
the reason why, saying, " Because ye are not under the
law but under grace," Rom. vi. 14. Adding this lesson,
not that sinners should sin more because they are under
grace, but only that weak infirmities might be relieved,
broken consciences comforted, and repenting sinners
preserved from desperation, to the praise of God's glory.
For as God forgives not sinners, because they should sin,
so neither does infirmity of falling diminish the grace of
\ Christ, but does rather illustrate the same, as it is written,
' " My strength is made perfect in weakness," 2 Cor. xii.
I 9. And again, " Where sin abounded, grace did much
i more abound," Rom. v. 20.
In remission of sins, therefore, these four things must
concur together : first, the cause that works (which is
j the sacrifice of Christ's body) ; secondly, tlie promise
I that offers ; thirdly, faith that apprehends and applies ;
i; fourthly, the repenting sinner that receives. And al-
I though sins do daily grow, which daily provoke us to
I crave remission ; yet, as touching the cause that works
• remission of our daily sins, and the means which apply
the said cause unto us, they remain always one and per-
' petual ; besides which no other cause nor means is to be
sought of man. So that to them that are repenting sin-
i ners, and in Christ Jesus, there is no law to condemn
! them, though they have deserved condemnation ; but
\\ they are under a perpetual kingdom, and a heaven full
j; of grace, and remission to cover their sins, and not to im-
' pute their iniquities, through the promise of God in
. Christ Jesus our Lord.
And therefore is the doctrine of them wicked and im-
; pious, first, who seek any other cause of remission, than
i only the blood of our Saviour ; secondly, who assign
any other means to apply the blood-shedding of Christ
UQto us, besides only faith ; thirdly and especially, who
so limit and restrain the eternal privilege of Christ's
passion, as though it served only for sins done with-
out and before faith, and that the rest committed after
baptism, must be done away by confession, pardons, and
satisfactory deeds. And all this rises because the true
nature of the law and the gospel is not known, nor the
difference rightly considered between the times of the
one and of the other. Neither, again, do they make any
Idistinction between the malediction of the law, and the
use of the law. And therefore whensoever they hear us
speak of the law (meaning the malediction of the law),
to be abolished, thereupon they maliciously slander us,
as though we spake against the good exercises of the
law, and gave liberty to carnal men to live as they like.
Whereof more shall be said (by the Lord's grace) as
place and time shall hereafter require.
OF FREE-WILL,
Concerning free-will, as it may peradventure in some
case be admitted, that men without grace may do some
outward functions of the law, and keep some outward
observances or traditions : so as to things spiritual and
appertaining to salvation, the strength of man not rege-
nerate by grace, is so infirm and impotent, that he can
perform nothing, neither in doing well nor willing well.
Who, after he be regenerated by grace, may work and
do well, but yet there still remains a great imperfection
of flesh, and a perpetual conflict between the flesh and
the spirit. And thus was the original church of the
ancient Romans first instructed. From which we may
see how far this later church of Rome has degenerated,
which holds and affirms, that men without grace may
perform the obedience of the law, and prepare themselves
to grace by working, so that those works may be meri-
torious, and of congruity obtain grace. Which grace
once obtained, then men may (say they) perfectly per-
form the full obedience of the law, and accomplish those
spiritual actions and works which God requires, and so
those works of condignity deserve everlasting life. As
for the infirmity which still remains in our nitxi e, that
they do not regard nor once speak of.
OF INVOCATION AND ADORATION.
Besides these uncatholic and almost unchristian ab-
surdities and departures from the apostolical faith, let
us consider the manner of their invocation, not to God
alone, as they should ; but to dead men, saying that
saints are to be called upon as mediators of intercession ;
and Christ as the mediator of salvation. And they affirm
moreover, that Christ was a mediator only in the time of
his passion. Which is repugnant to the words of St.
Paul, writing to the old Romans, (chap. viii. 34,) where,
speaking of the intercession of Christ, he says, " Who
is on the right hand of God, who also maketh interces-
sion for us," &c. And if Christ be a mediator of salva-
tion, why need we then any other intercession of saints
for our petitions ? For salvation being once had, what
can we require more ? Or what more does he want to
be obtained of the saints, who is sure to be saved only
by Christ ? And then in their devotions, why do they
teach us thus to pray to the blessed Virgin : " Save all
them that glorify thee," &c. if salvation belong only to
Christ ? unless they purposely study to seem contrary
to themselves.
Hereto also pertains the worshipping of relics, and
the false adoration of sacraments, that is, the outward
signs of the things signified. Add to this also, the profa-
nation of the Lord's Supper, contrary to the use for
which it was ordained, in reserving it after the commu-
nion, in setting it to sale for money, and falsely persuad-
ing both themselves and others, that the priest merits
both to himself that speaketh, and to him that heareth,
only by the mere doing of the work, though the party
that useth the same hath no devotion in him.
OF SACRAMENTS, BAPTISM, AND THE LORD'S SUPPER.
As touching the sacraments, their doctrine likewise is
corrupt and erroneous.
First, they err falsely in the number ; for where the
institution of Christ ordains but two, they have added
five other sacraments.
Secondly, they err in the use ; for where the word has
ordained those sacraments to excite our faith, and to give
us admonitions of spiritual things, they contrariwise teach
that the sacraments do not only stir up faith, but also
that they avail and are effectual without faith, as is to
be found in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, Scotus,
and others.
Thirdly, in the operation and effect of the sacraments
they fail, where, contrary to the mind of the scriptures
they say, that they give grace, and not only do sig-
nify, but also contain and exhibit that which they signify,
to wit, grace and salvation.
Fourthly, they err also in application, applying their
sacraments both to the quick and the dead, to them also
that be absent, to remission of sins, and releasing of
pain, &c.
In the sacrament of baptism they are to be reproved,
not only for adding to the simple words of Christ's in-
stitution divers other new found rites and fancies of men,
but also where the use of the old church of Rome was
only to baptize men, they baptize also bells, and apply
the words of baptism to water, fire, candles, stocks and
stones, &c.
But especially in the Supper of the Lord their doctrine
most filthily swerves from the right mind of the scrip-
tures, from all order, reason and fashion, and is mosi
worthy to be exploded out of all christian churches.
Touching the which sacrament, the first error is their
idolatrous abuse by worshipping, adoring, censing,
knocking, and kneeling unto it, in reserving also and
carrying the same about in pomp and procession in
towns and fields. Secondly, also in the substance
thereof, their teaching is monstrous : they say there is
no substance of bread and wine remaining, but only the
real body and blood of Christ, putting no diS"erence be-
tween calling and making ; because Christ called bread
30
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS,
Lis body, therefore, say they, he made it his body, and so
of a wholesome sacrament, they make a perilous idol :
and that which the old church of Rome did ever take to
be a mystery, they turn into a blind mist of mere accidents
to blear the people's eyes, making them believe tliey see
that they see not ; and not to see that which they see,
and to worship a thing made, for their Maker, a crea-
ture for their Creator ; and that which was threshed out
of a wheaten sheaf, they set up in the church, and worship
for a saviour ; and when they have worshipped him, then
they offer him to his father ; and when they have offered
him, then they eat him up, or else close him fast in a pit,
where, if he corrupt and putrify before he be eaten, then
they burn him to powder and ashes. And notwithstand-
ing they know well by scriptures, that the body of Christ
can never corrupt and putrify ; yet for all this corrup-
tion will they needs make it the body of Christ, and burn
all them which believe not that which is against true
christian belief, Acts ii. 27.
OF MATRIMONY.
The order and rule which St. Paul set for marriage is
manifest in his epistle to the Corinthians, where, as he
prefers single life in such as have the gift of continence,
before the married estate ; so, again, in such as have not
the gift, he prefers the married life before the other ; willing
every such one to have his wife, because of fornication,
I Cor. vii. 2. Furthermore, how the apostle allows a
bishop to be the husband of one wife (so he exceeded
not after the manner of the Jews, which were permitted to
have many), and how vehemently he reproves them that
restrain marriage, his Epistles to Timothy do record,
1 Tim. iii. 2, and iv. 3. Moreover, what degrees are
permitted by the law of God to marry, is to be seen in
Lev. xviii. Also how children ought not to marry with-
out the consent of their parents, is apparent by manifest
examples of the scriptures.
Contrary to these ordinances of the scripture, the new
catholics of the pope's church repute and call marriage
a state of imperfection, and prefer single life, be it
never so impure, pretending that where the one replen-
ishes the earth, the other fills heaven. Furthermore, as
good as the third part of Christendom (if it be no more),
both men and women, they keep through compulsory
vows from marriage, having no respect whether they
have the gift or no. Such ministers and priests as are
found to have wives, they not only remove out of place,
but also pronounce sentence of death upon them, and
account their children illegitimate. Again, as good as
the third part of the year they exempt and suspend from
liberty of marriage ; they extend the degrees of forbidden
marriage further than ever did the law of God, even to
the fifth or sixth degree ; which degree, notwithstand-
ing they release again when they choose for money.
Over and besides all this, they have added a new found
prohibition of spiritual kindred, that is, that such as have
been gossips, or godfathers and godmothers together in
christening another man's child, must not marry toge-
ther ; and, finally, in this doctrine of matrimony, they
gain and rake to themselves much money from the peo-
ple, they augment horrible crimes, they nourish adultery,
they fill the world with offences, and give great occasion
of murdering infants.
OF MAGISTRATES AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
We have seen before what rules and lessons St. Paul
gave to the old Romans concerning magistrates, to whose
authority he would have all human creatures to be sub-
ject, and how they are the ministers of God, having the
sword given unto them, wherewith they ought to repress
false doctrine and idolatry, and maintain that which is
true and right, Rom. xiii. 1. Now let us survey a little
the pope's proceedings, and mark how far he trans-
gresses in this, as he does in almost all other points, from
true Christianity.
1. The pope, with all his clergy, exempt themselves
from all civil obedience.
2. They arrogate to themselves authority to ordaia
and constitute, without leave or knowledge of the ma-
gistrate.
3. Yea, they take upon them to depose and set up
rulers and magistrates whom they choose.
OF PURGATORY.
The paradoxes, or, rather the fancies of the later
church of Rome, concerning purgatory, are monstrous,
neither old nor apostolical.
1 . They say there is a purgatory, where souls burn
in fire after this life.
2. The pain of purgatory differs nothing from the
pains of hell, but only that it has an end ; the pains of |
hell have none.
3. The painful suffering of this fire fretteth and
purgeth away the sins before committed in the body.
4. The time of these pains endures in some longer, in
some less, according as their sins deserve.
5. After which time of their pains being expired, then
the mercy of God translates them to heavenly bliss^
which the body of Christ has bought for them.
6. The pains of purgatory are so great, that if all the
beggars in the world were seen on the one side, and but
one soul in purgatory on the other side, the whole
world would pity more that one than all the others.
7. The whole time of punishment in this purgatory
must continue so long, till the fire have clean fretted and
purged away the rusty spots of every sinful soul there
burning, unless there come some release.
8. The helps and releases that may shorten the time
of their purgation are the pope's pardons and indul-
gences, sacrifice of the altar, dirges, and trentals, prayer,
fasting, meritorious deeds out of the treasure-house of
the church, alms and charitable deeds of the living,
in satisfying God's justice for them, &c.
9. Lack of belief of purgatory brings to hell.
Many other false errors and great deformities, here-
sies, absurdities, vanities, and follies, besides their blas-
phemous railings, and contumelies, may be noted in the
later church of Rome, wherein they have made manifest
departure from the old faith of Rome, as in depriving
the church of one kind of the sacrament, in taking from
the people the knowledge and reading of God's word, in
praying and speaking to the people, and administering
sacraments in a tongue unknown, in mistaking the au-
thority of the keys, in their unwritten tenets, in making
the authority of the scripture insufficient, in untrue
judgment of the church, and the wrong notes of the
same, in the supremacy of the see of Rome, in their
wrong opinions of antichrist.
But because these, with all other parts of doctrine,
are more copiously, and at large, comprehended in
other books, both in Latin and English, set forth in
these our days ; I shall not travel further herein, espe-
cially seeing the contrariety between the pope's church
and the church of Christ, between the doctrine of the
one, and the doctrine of the other, is so evident, that
he is blind that sees it not, and has no hands almost
that feels it not.
For, whereas the doctrine of Christ is altogether
spiritual, consisting whoUy in spirit and truth, and re^
quires no outward thing to make a true christian man but
only baptism (which is the outward profession of faith),
and receiving the Lord's Supper. Let us now examine
the whole religion of this later church of Rome, and we
shall find it, from top to toe, to consist in nothing else
but altogether in outward and ceremonial exercises ; as
outward confession, absolution at the priest's hand,
outward sacrifice of the mass, buying of pardons, pur-
chasing of obits, worshipping of images and relics, pil-
grimage to this place or that, building of churches,
founding of monasteries, outward works of the law, out-
ward gestures, garments, colours, choice of meats, differ-
ence of times and places, pecuUar rites and observances,
set prayers, and number of prayers prescribed, fasting
of vigils, keeping of holidays, coming to church, hearing
of service, extern succession of bishops, and of Peter's
see, extern form and notes of the church, &c. So that
AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS.
31
by this religion to make a true christian and a good
catholic, there is no working of the Holy Ghost re-
quired. As for example, to make this matter more
plain let us here define a christian man after the pope's
making, whereby we may see the better what is to be
judged of the scope of his doctrine.
After the pope's catholic religion, a true christian
man is thus defined ; first, to be baptized in the Latin
tongue (where the godfathers profess they cannot tell
■what), then confirmed by the bishop ; the mother of the
child to be purified, after he be grown in years, then to
come to the church, to keep his fasting days, to fast
in Lent, to come under the priest's blessing, that is, to
be confessed of the priest, to do his penance, at Easter
to take his rites, to hear mass and Divine service, to set
up candles before images, to creep to the cross, to take
holy bread and holy water, to go on procession, to carry
his palms and candle, and to take ashes, to fast in the
ember days, rogation days, and vigils, to keep the
holidays, to pay his tithes and offering days, to go oa
pilgrimage, to buy pardons, to worship his Maker over
the priest's head, to receive the pope for his supreme
head, and to obey his laws, to have his beads, and to
give to the high altar, to take orders if he will be a
priest, to say his matins, to sing his mass, to lift up
fair, to keep his vow, and not to marry, when he is
sick to be absolved and anointed, and take the rites of
the holy church, to be buried in the church-yard, to be
rung for, to be sung for, to be buried in a friar's cowl, to
find a soul-priest, &c.
All which points being observed, who can deny but
this is a devout man, and a perfect christian catholic,
and sure to be saved, as a true, faithful child of the
holy mother church ?
Now look upon this definition, and tell me, good
reader, what faith or spirit, or what working of the Holy
Ghost is required in all this doctrine ? The grace
of our Lord Jesus give the ttrue light of his gospel to
shine in our hearts. Amen.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS,
BOOK I.
CONTAINING
THREE HUNDRED YE.\RS NEXT AFTER CHRIST, WITH THE TEN PERSECUTIONS OF THE
PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
Having tluis prepared the way, let us now (by the grace
of Christ our Lord) enter into the matter : that as we
have set forth the state as well of the primitive as of the
later times of this church of Rome ; so now we may dis-
course of the Acts of every age by itself.
First, To declare of the suffering time of the church,
which contains about three hundred years after Christ.
Secondly, The flourishing and growing time of the
same, containing other three hundred years.
Thirdly, The declining time of the church, and of true
religion, other three hundred years.
Fourthly, Of the time of antichrist, reigning and
raging in the church.
Lastly, Of the reforming time of Christ's church, in
these later three hundred years.
In treating of all which things, our chief purpose shall
be, not so much to intermeddle with outward affairs of
princes, or civil matters, as specially minding ''o prose-
cute such things as appertain to the state of the church ;
as first, to treat of the establishing of christian faith, then
of the persecutions of tyrants, the constancy and pati-
ence of God's saints, the conversion of christian realms
to the faith of Christ, namely, of this realm of England
and Scotland : to declare the maintenance of true doc-
trine, the false practice of prelates, the creeping in of
superstition and hypocrisy, the manifold assaults, wars,
and tumults of the princes of this world against the peo-
ple of God. Wherein may appear the wonderful ope-
ration of Christ's mighty hand, ever working in his
church, and never ceasing to defend the same against his
enemies, according to the verity of his own word, pro-
mising to be with his church while the world shall
Stand.
In the treatment of all which things, two special points
I chiefly commend to the reader, as most recpiisite and
necessary for every christian man to observe and to note
for his own experience and profit ; as first, the disposition
and nature of this world; secondly, the nature and con-
dition of the kingdom of Christ ; the vanity of the one,
and establishment of the other ; the unprosperous and un-
quiet state of the one, ruled by man's violence and
wisdom, ap.d the happy success of the other, ever ruled
by God's blessing and providence ; the wrath and re-
venging hand of God in the one, and his mercy upou
the other. The world I call all such as be without or
against Christ, either by ignorance, not knowing him, or
by heathenish life, not following him, or by violence re-
sisting him. On the other side, the kingdom of Christ
in this world, I take to be all them which belong to the
faith of Christ, and here take his part in this world
against the world ; the number of whom, although it be
much smaller than the other, and is always hated and
molested of the world, yet it is the number which the
Lord peculiarly doth bless and prosper, and ever will.
And this number of Christ's subjects it is which we call
the visible church here on earth. Which visible church,
having in itself a difference of two sorts of people, so is it
to be divided into two ])arts, of which the one stands of
such as are of outward profession only, the other which
by election inwardly, are joined to Christ : the first in
words and lips seem to honour Christ, and are in the
visible church only, but not in the church invisible, and
partake the outward sacraments of Christ, but not the in-
ward blessing of Christ. The other are both in the
visible, and also in the invisible church of Christ, who, not
only in words, and outward profession, but also in heart
do truly serve and honour Christ, partaking not only of
the sacraments, but also of the heavenly blessings and
grace of Christ.
And many times it happens that between these two
parts of this visible church there grows great variance
and mortal persecution, insomuch that sometime the true
church of Christ has no greater enemies than of her own
profession, as happened not only in the time of Christ
and his apostles, but also from time to time almost con-
tinually, and especially in these later days of the church,
under the persecution of antichrist and his retinue.
At the first preaching of Christ, who should rather
have known and received him, than the pharisees and
scribes ? And yet, who persecuted and rejected him
more than they ? What followed ? They in refusing
Christ to be their king, and choosing rather to be sub-
ject to Caesar, were by their own Caesar destroyed.
Whereby is to be learned, what a dangerous thing it is to
refuse the gospel of God.
The like example of God's wrathful punishment is to
be noted no less in the Romans also. For when Tibe-
rius Caesar, having heard by letters from Pontius Pilate^
of the doings of Christ, of his miracles, resiurectiou and
A.D. 36.]
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
S3
I ascension into heaven, and how he was received by many
as God, was himself moved with belief of the same, and
proposed to the senate to have Christ adored as God :
they refused him, because that contrary to the law of the
Romans, he was consecrated (said they) God, before the
senate of Rome had so decreed (Tertul. Apol. cap. 5).
Thus the vain senate, contented with the emperor to
reign over them, and not contented with the meek King
of Glory, the Son of God to be their king ; were, like the
Jews, scourged for their refusing, by the same power
which they themselves did prefer. For as they preferred
the emperor, and rejected Christ, so by the just permis-
sion of God, their own emperors were stirred up against
them, so that the senators themselves were nearly all de-
voured, and the whole city most horribly afflicted for
almost three hundred years. For the same Tiberius,
who for a great part of his reign was a moderate prince,
was afterwards a sharp and heavy tyrant, who neither
favoured his own mother, nor spared his own nephews,
nor the princes of the city, of whom, to the number of
twent}', he left not more than two or three alive. Sue-
tonius reports him to be so stern and tyrannical, that in
his reign, many were unjustly accused, and condemned with
their wives and children. In one day he records twenty
persons drawn to execution. By him, also, through the
' just punishment of God, Pilate, under whom Christ was
, crucified, was accused at Rome, deposed, then banished,
and at length did slay himself. Neither did Herod and Caia-
I phas long escape : and Agrippa also was cast into prison.
In the reign of Tiberius, the Lord Jesus, the Son of
I God, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his age, through the
I malice of the Jews, suffered his blessed passion, for the
I conquering of sin, death, and Satan the prince of this
; world, and rose again the third day. After whose
blessed passion and resurrection, this Tiberius lived six
; years, during which time no persecution was yet stirring
I against the Christians.
; In the next year after the passion of our Saviour, or
I somewhat more, St. Paul was converted to the faith.
I Tiberius, having reigned three-and-twenty years, was
succeeded by Caius Caesar Caligula (A. D. 37), Claudius
Nero (A.D. 41), andDomitius Nero (A. D. 54) ; which
three were likewise scourges to the senate and people of
Rome. Caligula commanded himself to be worshipped
as God, and temples to be erected in his name, and used
to sit in the temple among the gods, requiring his images
to be set up in all temples, and also in the temple at
Jerusalem, His cruel displeasure was such towards the
Romans, that he wished that all the people of Rome had
but one neck, that he might destroy such a multitude.
By Caligula, Herod, the murderer of John Baptist, and
condemner of Christ, was condemned to perpetual banish-
ment, where he died miserably. Caiaphas also, who
wickedly sat in judgment upon Christ, was removed from
the high priests' room, and Jonathan set in his place.
The raging fierceness of this Caligula against the Romans
would not so soon have ceased, had he not been cut off
by the hands of a tribune and other officers, who slew
him in the fourth year of his reign (A. D. 41).
But that which Caligula had only conceived, the other
two which came after, brought to pass ; Claudius Nero
reigned thirteen years with great cruelty, and then died
by poison ; but especially Domitius Nero, who succeed-
ing Claudius, reigned fourteen years, with such fury and
tyranny, that he slew the most part of the senators, and
destroyed the whole order of knighthood in Rome. So
prodigious a monster was he, more like a beast, yea
a devil than a man, that he seemed to be born to the
destruction of men. Such was his wretched cruelty,
that he caused his mother, his brother-in-law, his sister,
his wife, all his instructors, Seneca and Lucan, with many
more of his own kindred and consanguinity, to be put to
death. Moreover, he commanded Rome to be set on
fire in twelve places, and it continued six days and seven
nights in burning (A. D. 64), while he to see .the
example how Troy burned, sung the verses of Homer.
And to avoid the infamy thereof, he laid the fault upon
the christians, and caused them to be persecuted. And
so this miserable emperor continued to reign fourteen
years, till the senate proclaiming him a public enemy to
mankind, condemned him to be drawn through the city
and to be whipped to death. For fear whereof, he fled
in the night to the country, where he was forced to slay
himself. In the latter end of this Domitius Nero, Peter
and Paul were put to death for the testimony and faith of
Christ (A. D. 67).
Thus we see, how the just scourge and indignation of
God ever follows, where Christ Jesus is contemned,
and not received ; as may appear, both by the Romans
who were thus consumed and plagued by their own em-
perors, by civil wars and other casualties. And also by
the destruction of the Jews, who (A. D, 73,) were
destroyed by Titus and Vespasian, to the number of
eleven hundred thousand, besides them which Vespasian
slew in subduing Galilee, and them also which were sold
to vile slavery, to the number of seventeen thousand.
Two thousand were brought with Titus in his triumph ;
of whom he gave part to be devoured of the wild beasts,
and a part were most cruelly slain. All nations and
realms may thus take example, what it is to reject the
visitation of God's truth, and much more to persecute
them which be sent of God for their salvation.
And as this vengeance of God hath thus been shewed
upon both the Jews and the Romans, for their contempt
of Christ, so neither the emperors themselves, for perse-
cuting Christ in his members, escaped without their
just reward. For among those emperors who put so
many christian martyrs to death, few of them escaped
either being slain themselves, or by some miserable end
or other worthily punished. The slaughter of the three
Neroes is declared before. After Nero, Domitius Galba
within seven months was slain by Otho. And so did
Otho afterward slay himself, being overcome by Vitellius.
And was not Vitellius shortly after drawn through the
city of Rome, and after he was tormented thrown into
the Tiber ? Titus, a good emperor, is thought to be poi-
soned by Domitian his brother. Domitian, after he had
been a persecutor of the christians, was slain in his
chamber, with the consent of his wife. Commodus was
murdered. The like end was of Pertinax and Julian.
After Severus died here in England (and lieth at York),
did not his son Caracal slay his brother Geta, and he
slain after by Martial ? Macrinus with his son Diadumenus
were both slain by their own soldiers. Heliogabalus
was slain by his own people, and drawn through the
city and cast into the Tiber. Alexander Severus, that
worthy and learned emperor, although in life and virtues
he was unlike Other emperors, yet experienced the like end,
being slain with his godly mother Mammea, by Maximin.
Maximin also after three years was himself slain by his
soldiers. What should I speak of Maximus and Balbi-
nus in like sort, both slain in Rome ? Of Gordian, slain
by Philip : of Philip, the first christened emperor, slain ;
of wicked Decius drowned, and his son slain the same
time in battle ; of Gallus, and Volusianus his son, em-
perors after Decius, both slain by yEmilianus, who
within three months after, was himself slain. Valerianus
was taken prisoner of the Persians, and there made a
riding fool of by Sapores their king, who used him for a
stool to leap upon his horse, while his son Galienus
sleeping at Rome, either would not, or could not once
proffer to avenge his father's ignominy. At length
Galienus was killed by Aureolus. It were too long here
to speak of Aurelian, another persecutor, slain of his
secretary ; of Tacitus and Florinus his brother, of whom
the first was slain at Pontus ; the other was murdered at
Tarsis ; Probus, although a good emperor, was yet
destroyed by his soldiers. After whom Carus was slain by
lightning. Next to Carus followed the impious and
wicked persecutor Dioclesian, with his fellows, Maximin,
Valerius, Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius, under
whom all at one time the greatest and most grievous
persecution was moved against the christians ten years
together. Dioclesian and Maximian deposed themselves
from the empire. Galerius the chief minister of the
persecution, after his terrible persecutions, fell into a
wonderful sickness, and so did swarm with worms, that
being curable neither by surgery nor physic, he con-
fessed that it happened for his cruelty towards the
christians, and so called in his proclamations against
d2
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
them. Maximinus being tormented with pain in his
bowels there di<?d. Maxentius was drowned in the
Tiber. Licinius, beingovercomebyConstantine theGreat,
was deposed, and afterward slain by his soldiers. But
on the other side, after the time of Constantine, when
the faith of Christ was received into the imperial seat,
we read of no emperor after the like sort destroyed or
molested, except it were Julian, or Basil, or Valens.
And thus have we briefly collected out of the chronicles
the miserable state of the emperors of Rome, until the
time of Christian Constantine, with the examples, no less
terrible than manifest, of God's severe justice upon
them, for their contemptuous refusing and persecuting
the faith and name of Christ their Lord.
Moreover, if leisure would suffer me to come more near
home, I could also infer the like examples of this our
country of England, concerning the terrible plagues of
God against the refusing or abusing the benefit of his truth.
We read how God stirred up Gildas to preach to the old
Britains, and to exhort them to repentance and amend-
ment of life, and to warn them of plagues to come if they
repented not. ^Vhat availed it ? Gildas was laughed to
scorn, and taken for a false prophet, and a malicious
preacher. What followed ? God sent in their enemies
on every side and destroyed thern, and gave the land to
other nations. Not many years past, God seeing idola-
try, superstition, hypocrisy, and wicked living used in
this realm, raised up that godly learned man John Wick-
liffe, to preach unto our fathers, and to exhort them to
amend their lives, to forsake their papistry and idolatry,
their hyprocrisy and superstition, and to walk in the fear
of God. His exhortations were not regarded, he with
his sermons were despised, his books and himself after his
death were burnt. What followed ? They slew their
king, and set up three wrong kings, under whom all the
noble blood was slain, and half the commons, in fighting
among themselves for the crown ; and the cities and
towns were decayed, and the land nearly brought to a wil-
derness, compared with what it was before. Since that
time even of late years, God, again having pity of this
realm of England, raised up his prophets ; namely,
William Tindall, Thomas Bilney, John Frith, Doctor
Barnes, Jerome Garret, Anthony Person, with others,
who earnestly laboured to call us to repentance, that the
fierce wrath of God might be turned away from us. But
how were they treated ? They themselves were condemned
and burnt as heretics, and their books condemned and
burnt as heretical. " The time shall come^ saith Christ,
that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God
service." John xvi. 1. If God has deferred his punish-
ment, or forgiven us these our wicked deeds, as I trust
he has, let us not therefore be proud and high minded,
but most humbly thank Him for his tender mercies, and
beware of the like ungodly proceedings hereafter. I need
Bot speak of these our later times, which have been in
King Henry's and King Edward's days, seeing the me-
mory thereof is yet fresh and cannot be forgotten. But,
lOf this I am sure, that God yet once again is come to
this church of England, yea, and that more lovingly and
beneficially than ever he did before. For in this visita-
tion he has redressed many abuses, and cleansed his
church of much ungodliness and superstition, and made
it a glorious church. We now declare the persecutions
r,aised up against the servants of Clirist, within the space
of three hundred years after Christ. Which persecu-
tions in number are commonly counted to be ten, besides
the persecutions by the Jews in Jerusalem against the
a,postles, — in which St. Stephen was put to death,
with many others.
After the martyrdom of Stephen, James the apostle
and brother of John suffered. Mention is made of James
in the Acts, xii. 1. Where is declared, how Herod
stretched forth his hand, to afflict certain of the church :
among whom James was one, whom he slew with the sword.
Of this James, Eusebius mentions, that when brought
to the tribunal, he that brought him (and was the cause
of his trouble) seeing him condemned, and that he would
suflfer death : as he went to the execution, being moved
in heart and conscience, confessed himself a Christian.
And so they were led forth, and were beheaded together
(A. D. ^6).
Dorotheus testifies, that Nicanor, one of the seven
deacons, with two thousand others, who believed in Christ,
suffered also the same day, when Stephen sufl'ered.
Dorotheus witnesses also, that Simon, another of the
deacons, was burned. Parmenas, also another of the
deaconSjSufTered.
Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, and Per-
sians, also to the Germans, Hiraconies, Bactries, and
Magies. He suffered in Calamina, being slain with &
dart.
Simon Zelotes preached at Mauritania, and in Africa,
and in Britain ; he was crucified.
Judas, brother of James, preached to the Edessens,
and all Mesopotamia ; he was slain in Berito.
Simon, brother to Jude and to James, all sons of Mary
Cleophas, and of Alpheus, was bishop of Jerusalem after
James, and was crucified in a city of Egypt.
Mark the evangelist, and first Bishop of Alexandria,
preached the gospel in Egypt, and there, being drawn
with ropes unto the fire, was burned.
Bartholomew is said also to have preached to the In-
dians, and to have translated the gospel of St. Matthew
into their tongue, where he continued a great space, doing
many miracles. At last in Albania, after divers jierse-
cutions, he was beaten down with staves, then crucified,
and after being flayed, he was at length beheaded.
Andrew, the apostle and brother to Peter, preached
to the Scythians, Saxons, etc. When Andrew, tlirough
his diligent preaching, had brought many to the faith of
Christ ; Egeas the governor, resorted thither, to con-
strain as many as believed Christ to be God, to do
sacrifice to the idols. Andrew thinking good at the be-
ginning to resist the wicked doings of Egeas, went to him,
saying ; that, *' It behoved him to know his judge which"
dwelleth in heaven, and to worship him, and so in wor-
shipping the true God, to revoke his mind from false
gods and blind idols."
But he demanded of him, whether he was the same
Andrew that overthrew the temple of the gods, and per-
suaded men of that sect, which the Romans had com-
manded to be abolished. Andrew plainly aflirmed, that the
princes of the Romans did not understand the truth, and
that the Son of God, coming into the world for man's
sake, had taught and declared how those idols, whom they
so honoured as gods, were not only not gods, but also
most cruel devils, enemies to mankind, teaching the
people nothing else but that with which God is offended,
and being oftendcd turns away and regards them not.
The proconsul commanded Andrew not to teach and
preach such things any more ; or if he did, that he
should be fastened to the cross. Andrew answered, he
would not have preached the honour and glory of
the cross, if he had feared the death of the cross.
Whereupon sentence of condemnation was pronounced.
Andrew seeing afar off the cross prepared, neither
changed countenance nor colour, as the imbecility of
mortal man is wont to do, neither did his blood shrink,
neither did he fail in his speech, his body fainted not,
neither was his mind molested, his understanding did not
fail him, but out of the abundance of his heart his mouth
did speak, and fervent charity did appear in liis words ;
he said, " O cross, most welcome and long looked for;
witli a willing mind joyfully and desirously I come to
thee, being the scholar of him which did hang on thee :
because I have been always thy lover, and have coveted
to embrace thee." So being crucified, he yielded up the
ghost and fell asleep.
Matthew, named Levi, wrote his gospel to the Jews in
the Hebrew tongue, as records Eusebius, (lib. ^. cap. 24.
M). lib. h. cap. 8. cap. 10. Also Irenaeus, lib. 3. cap. L
Hieronymus in Cat. scrip. Eccl.) Concerning this ajiostle
and evangelist, divers things are recorded, but in such sort,
as may greatly be suspected to be some crafty forgery,
for the establishment of later decretals, and Romish doc-
trine, as touching merits, consecration of nuns, the su-
perstitious prescription of Lent-fast, not only in abstain-
ing from all flesh meats, but also separating man and wife,
:urifiBOii of S>t ^ete.
iivioit of S>t %\\ktk
Page 34,
A.D. 36—64.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
35
during the time of Lent. Also, the strict prohibition not
to taste any bodily sustenance, before receiving the Lord's
Supper. Inordainingof mass, and that no nun must marry
after the vow of her profession, with such other like.
It is recorded of Matthias, that after he had preached
to the Jews, he was at length stoned and beheaded.
(Joan, de Monte Regali.)
Philip, the apostle, after he had laboured much in
preaching the word of salvation, suffered in Hierapolis,
being crucified and stoned to death.
After Festiis had sent the apostle Paul to Rome, and
the Jews had lost their hope of performing their mali-
cious vow against him, they fell upon James, the brother
of our Lord, who was bishop at Jerusalem, and required
him before all the people, to deny the faith of Christ ;
but he freely, and with great constancy before all the
multitude, confessed Jesus to be the Son of God, our
Saviour, and our Lord ; whereupon they killed him.
Egesippus thus describes the manner of his death :
When many of the chief persons believed in Christ, there
■was a tumult made of the scribes and pharisees ; there-
fore they gathered together, and said to James, " We
beseech thee restrain the people, for they believe in
Jesus, as though he were the Christ ; we pray thee
persuade the people that they be not deceived ; stand
upon the pillar of the temple that thou mayst be seen
from above, and that thy words may be heard by
all the people." And thus the scribes and pharisees set
James upon the battlements of the temple ; and he said,
wich a great voice, " What do you ask me of Jesus the
Son of Man, seeing that he sitteth on the right hand of
God in heaven, and shall come in the clouds of heaven?"
Many, persuaded of this, glorified God upon the witness
of James, and said, " Hosannah in the highest to the
Son of David !" Then the scribes and the pharisees
said among themselves, " We have done evil, that we
have caused such a testimony of Jesus, but let us go up,
and let us take him, that they, being compelled with
fear, may deny that faith." Therefore they went up,
and threw down the just man, and they took him to
smite him with stones, for he was not yet dead when he
was cast down. But he, turning, fell down upon his
knees, saying, " O Lord God, Father, I beseech thee to
forgive them, for they know not what they do."
This James was so notable a man, that he was had in
honour of all men, insomuch that the wise men of the
Jews, shortly after his martyrdom, imputed the cause of
the besieging of Jerusalem, and other calamities, to the
violence and injury done to this man.
These things being thus declared as to the martyrdom
of the apostles, and the persecution of the Jews, let us
now, by the grace of Christ our Lord, narrate the perse-
cutions raised by the Romans against the christians, till
(1) Foxe here has a marginal note; "This report seems neither
to come from Jerome, nor to be true of Peter."
The manner in which later editions of ' Tlie Fathers' have been
corrupted, and the prodisioiis extent to which they were interpo-
lated in tlie monastic libraries, before the discovery of printing, lias
rendered it a matter of exceeding difficulty to ascertain whether any
statement be truly the genuine opinion of the father to whom il
is ascribed. And in subsequent times the Judex expurgutoriits
has erased so many important sentences, and sometimes whole
paragraphs, that we cannot be certain of anything in tliose ancient
writings. There is at this moment in ttie library of Trinity
College, Dublin, a copy of Chrysostom's worl<s, winch had passed
through the hands of one of the Inquisitors of the Index, and his
pen has been drawn over every sentence that seemed to conflict
with the peculiar views of the Roman church, and not unfre-
quently is the word dele and dcleatur inserted in his handwrit-
ing in the margin.
Foxe seems to regard as an interpolation this passage in Jerome
which describes Peter as being twenty-iive years at Home, but
whether it be genuine or otherwise this much at least is certain, that
it was both a moral and physical impossibility that the statement
could be true in reference to that apostle, as will thus appear :
I. St. Paul was converted in the year 35 ; and three years after-
wards he visited Jerusalem, where he found Peter (Gal. i. 18.)
this was about the year 38, so that at this time St. Peter was not
at Rome.
II. In three years after this, we find St. Peter visiting the
regions about Jerusalem, and justifying his proceedings before the
apostles and brethren in that city (Acts, xi. 2). This was about
the year 41, so that at this time St Peter was not at Rome.
III. In about three years afterwards we find St. James be-
headed (Acts, xii. 2), and imraediatel; after we tind St. I'eter im*
the coming of godly Constantine, which persecutions are
reckoned, by most writers, to the number of ten.
It is marvellous to see and read the incredible numbers
of christian innocents that were slain and tormented,
some one way, some another, as Rabanas saith, " Some
slain with the sword ; some burnt with fire ; some
scourged with whips ; some stabbed with forks : some
fastened to the cross or gibbet ; some drowned in the
sea; some their skins pluckt off; some their tongues
cut off ; some stoned to death ; some killed with cold ;
some starved with hunger ; some their hands cut oft", or
otherwise dismembered." Whereof, Augustine also
saith, "They were bound— imprisoned— killed — tortured
— burned — butchered — cut in pieces," ^c. Although
these punishments were divers, yet the manner of con-
stancy in all these martyrs was one. And notwith-
standing these torments, and the cruelty of the tormen-
tors, yet such was the number of these constant saints
tliat suffered, or, rather such was the power of the Lord
in his saints, that, as Jerome says, " there is no day in
the whole year, to wiiich the number of five thousand
martyrs cannot be ascribed, except only the first day of
January."
THE FIRST PERSECUTION.
The first of these ten persecutions was stirred up by
the Emperor Nero Domitius (A. D. 64). His rage
was so fierce against the christians, as Eusebius records,
that a man might then see cities full of the dead bodies
of men and women cast out naked in the open streets.
Likewise, Orosius writes of Nero, that he was the first
in Rome to raise persecutions against the christians,
and not only in Rome, but through all the provinces,
thinking to destroy the whole name of christians.
In this persecution, the apostle Peter was condemned
and crucified, as some write, at Rome ; although others
doubt it : concerning his life and history, because it is suf-
ficiently described in the gospel, and in the Acts, I need
not make any repetition of it. There are many who re-
late the cause and manner of his death, although they
do not all precisely agree in the time. Jerome says that
after he had been bishop of the church of Antioch, and
had preached to the dispersed of them that believed, of
the circumcision, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithynia, in the second year of the Emperor Clau-
dius (A. D. 44), he came to Rome to withstand Simon
Magus, and there kept the priestly chair the space of
five and twenty years, until the last year of Nero, by
whom he was crucified, his head being down, and his
feet upward, himself so requiring, because he was, he
said, unworthy to be crucified after the same form and
manner as the Lord was.'
prisoned at Jerusalem (Acts, xii. 3). This was about the year 44.
So that St. Peter could not have been at Rome at this period.
IV. St. Paul preached at Antioch in about the year 42, remain-
ing there a whole year. He preached there again some years after,
namely, about 46, and it is not improbable that it was during this
visit tliat he had the contention with St. Peter (Gal. ii. 11). So
that Peter was not at that time at Rome.
V. The assembly of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, to de-
termine the question of the observance of the Jewish rites, or as
the P.ii)ist3 call it, the Council of Jerusalem, was in the year 52.
Now Peter was there and spoke at it (Acts, xv. 7). So that he
could not have been at Rome at this time.
VI. The Kpistle of Paul to the Romans was written in the
year CO, and it contains internal evidence that Peter was not at
Rome at that period.
VII. Tliere is no further mention made of St. Peter in the
sacred history, but we find St. Paul at Rome for two whole years
(Acts, xxviii. 30). These were the years 64 and 65, as nearly ag
they can be computed. It is certain that Peter was not at Rome
during those two years, for in the several epistles which St. Paul
wrote during his residence there, he never mentions that apostle
as being even at Rome, much less being bishop or pope of it
(See note, page 16).
VIII. The martyrdom of Peter was about the year 66, or 67 at
the latest, so that his visit to Rome must have been after 65, and
before 67 ; and this is the probable account of the matter. He
pfrliaps, visited Rome at that time after Paul's imprisonment
and preaching there. And he tlien, perhaps was seized and mar-
tyred.
Thus Foxe is fully justified in saying that it cannot be true of
Peter that he was 25 years at Rome. [Ed.J
^;4
36
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
Paul the apostle, after his great and unspeakable la-
bours in promoting the gospel of Christ, suffered also in
tliis first persecution under Nero, and was beheaded.
Among his other manifold labours and travels in
spreading the doctrine of Christ, he won Sergius Paulus,
the proconsul of Cyprus, to the faith of Christ, where-
upon he took his name, as some suppose, turned from
Saulus to Paulus.
And because it is sufficiently comprehended in the Acts
of the Apostles concerning the wonderful conversion, and
conversation of this most worthy apostle, that which re-
mains of the rest of his history, I will here briefly add how
he was sent up in bonds to Rome, where, remaining two
years together, he disputed daily against the Jews,
proving Christ to be come. And here is to be noted,
that after his first answer, or defence, he was discharged,
and went to preach the gospel in the western parts, and
about the coasts of Italy.
But afterwards being brought the second time before
Nero, this worthy preacher and messenger of the Lord,
in the same day in which Peter was crucified (although
not in the same year, but in the next year following)
was beheaded at Rome for the testimony of Christ.
THE SECOND PERSECUTION.
The first Roman persecution ceased under Vespasian
who srave some rest to the poor christians. After whose
reign the second persecution was moved by the emperor
Domitian (about A. D. 94). Of whom Eusebius and
Orosius write, that he beginning mildly, did afterwards
so far outrage in intolerable pride, that he commanded
himself to be worshipped as God, and that images of
gold and silver in his honour should be set up in the
capitol. The chief nobles of the senators, either upon
envy, or for their goods, he caused to be put to death,
some openly, and some he sent into banishment, there
causing them to be slain privately.
And as his tyranny was unmeasurable, so the intem-
perance of his life was no less. He put to death all the
nephews of Jude, called the Lord's brother, and caused
all that could be found of the stock of David to be slain
(as Vespasian also did before him) for fear, lest he were
yet to come of the house of David, who should enjoy the
kingdom. In the time of this persecutor, Simeon,
bishop of Jerusalem, after other torments, was cru-
cified.
In this persecution, John the apostle and evangelist,
was exiled to Patmos. Of whom various memorable
acts are reported in sundry chronicles. As how he was
put in a vessel of boiling oil, by the proconsul of
Ejihesus. Also, how he raised up a widow and a certain
young man from death to life. How he drank poison
and it hurt him not, raising also to life two which had
drank the same before. These, and such other miracles,
although they may be true, yet, because they are no
articles of our christian belief, I let them pass, and only
content myself with that which I read in Eusebius, de-
claring of him, that in the second persecution, John was
banished into Patmos for the testimony of the word,
(A. D. 97). And after the death of Domitian, John
was released, and came to Ephesus (A. D. 100).
Where he continued and governed the churches in Asia ;
where also he wrote his gospel, and so lived till the year
after the passion of our Lord, threescore and eight,
which was the year of his age one hundred and twenty,
(A. D. 101.)
And, as we now have in hand the story of John the
evangelist, here comes in a great doubt and difficulty,
such as has occupied all the catholic, subtile, illuminate,
and seraphical doctors of the pope's catholic church,
these five hundred years ! The difficulty is this, as au-
ricular confession has been, and is yet received in the
pope's catholic church for an holy and necessary sacra-
ment, extending universally to all christians ; here ariseth
a question, who was the Virgin Mary's confessor or
ghostly father ? But it is decreed and confessed, with
full consent of all the catholics, to be St. John. Who-
ever denies, or doubts of this, is straightways a heretic !
This, then, so determined, arises another question or
doid)t, that seeing our lady was without all original sin,
and also actual or mortal sin, what need had she of any
confessor ? Or what should she confess to him .' for if
she had confessed any sin when she had none, then had
she made herself a liar, and so had sinned indeed. Here,
therefore, gentle reader, in this perplexity these our il-
luminate doctors stand in need of thine aid to help at a
pinch. Albert, the great divine, denies not, but that
she indeed, although most pure, yet confessed to her
ghostly father, to keep the observance of the law, ap-
pointed for such as had that need, which she had not ;
and, therefore (saith he) it was necessary that she
should confess with her mouth. But then here it is to be
asked. What did she say in her confession, when she
had nothing to confess .' To this Albert answers again,
and tells us plainly what she said in her confession,
which was this. That she had received that great grace,
not of any worthiness of her own. And this was it that
she said in her confession. (Albert, cap. 74. super
Evang. Missus est, &c.)
Moreover, to help this case out of all doubt, comes in
famous Thomas of Watring, and thus looses the knot,
saying, that as Christ, although he did owe nothing to
the law, ye notwithstanding received circumcision, to
give to others example of humility and obedience ; in
like manner would our lady shew herself obedient to the
observance of the law, although there was no cause why
she had any need of it. And thus hast thou, gentle
reader, this doubtful question moved and solved, to the
intent I would reveal to thee some part of the deep
divinity of our catholic masters that have ruled and
governed the church in these their late popish days !
But I return again to this second persecution under
Domitian, in which, besides these before mentioned,
and other innumerable godly martyrs, suffering for the
testimony of the Lord Jesus, Flavia, the daughter of one
of the Roman consuls, with many others, was banished
out of Rome for the testimony of Christ.
This Domitian feared the coming of Christ as Herod
did, and therefore commanded them to be killed who
were of the stock of David in Judea. There were re-
maining alive at that time certain of the Lord's kindred,
which were the nephews of Jude, that was called the
Lord's brother after the flesh. When tlie lieutenant of
Judea had brought them to Domitian, the emperor de-
manded. Whether they were of the stock of David ? Which,
when they had granted, he asked again, what possessions
and what substance they had ? They answered. That
they had no more between them in all but nine-and-
thirty acres of ground, and that they got their livin"- and
sustained their families with the hard labours of their
hands, shewing their hands to the emperor, being hard
and rough, worn with labour, to witness that to be true
which they had spoken. Then the emperor, inquirino-
of them concerning the kingdom of Christ, what manner
of kingdom it was, how, and when it should appear .'
They answered. That his kingdom was no worldly thing,
but a heavenly and angelical kingdom, and that it should
appear in the consummation and end of the world, when
he coming in glory, should judge the quick and the dead,
and render to every one according to his deservings.
Domitian, hearing this, let them go, and staid the perse-
cution then moved against the christians.
By this story the cause may appear why the emperors
so persecuted the christians, which causes were chiefly
these : — First, Fear, for the em))erors and senate, not
knowing the nature of Christ's kingdom, feared lest it
would subvert the empire, and therefore they sought by
all possible means, by death and all kinds of torments,
utterly to extinguish the christians. Secondly, Hatred, for
the christians serving only the true living God, despised
their false gods, spake against their idolatrous worship-
])ings, and many times stopped the power of Satan,
working in their idols.
Upon these and such causes, rose up those malicious
slanders, false surmises, infamous lies, and slanderous
accusations of the heathen idolaters against the christian
servants of God, which incited the princes of this world
the more to persecute them ; for whatever crimes malice
could invent, or rash suspicion could minister, were im-
A. D. 64—98.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
37
puted to the christians ; and, whatever happened to the
city or provinces of Rome, either famine, pestilence,
earthquake, wars, wonders, unseasonableness of weather,
or what other evils happened, it was imputed to the
christians.
Also among these causes crept in some piece of covet-
ousness, so that the wicked promoters and accusers, for
lucre sake, and to seize the possessions of the christians,
were the more ready to accuse them.
Thus hast thou, christian reader, first, the causes of
these persecutions ; secondly, the cruel law of their con-
demnation ; thirdly, now hear what was the form of in-
quisition, which was (as is witnessed in the second
apology of Justin) that they should swear to declare the
truth, whether they were in very deed christians or not ;
and if they confessed, then by the law the sentence of
death proceeded.
Neither yet were these tyrants contented with death
only. The kinds of death were various and horrible.
Whatever the cruelty of man's invention could devise
for the punishment of man's body, was practised against
the christians. Crafty trains, outcries of enemies, im-
prisonment, stripes and scourgini^s, drawings, tearings,
stonings, plates of iron laid unto tiiein burning hot, deep
dungeons, racks, strangling in prisons, the teeth of wild
beasts, gridirons, gibbets and gallows, tossing upon the
horns of bulls ; moreover, wlu-a they were thus killed,
their bodies were laid in heaps, and dogs there left to
keep them, that no man mi^lit come to bury them,
neither would any prayer uii.ain for them to be interred
and buried.
As it is impossible to compre'uend tlie names and
number of all the martyrs that suifered in these perse-
cutions, so it is hard in such a variety of matter to keep
a perfect order and course of years and times, especially
as the authors themselves, whom we follow in this pre-
sent work, do disagree both in the times, in the names,
and also in the kind of martyrdom of them that suffered.
As for example, where the common reading and opinion
of the church take Anacletus to succeed after Clement,
next before Evaristus, as bishop of Rome ; Eusebius mak-
ing no mention of Cletus, but of Anacletus, saith. That
Evaristus succeeded next to Clement. Likewise, Ruffinus
and Epiphanius, speaking nothing of Anacletus, make
mention of Linus, and of Cletus, next before Clement, but
say nothing of Anacletus ; whereby it may appear that
Cletus and Anacletus were both one. Moreover, where
Antoninus, Vincentius, Jacobus, Simoneta, Aloisius,
with others, declare of Linus, Cletus, Clement, Anacle-
tus, Evaristus, Alexander, bishops of Rome, that they
died martyrs ; Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical history,
writing of them, makes no mention thereof.
And first, as touching Clement (whom Marianus
Scotus calleth the first bishop of Rome after Peter) they
say that he was sent out into banishment with two thou-
sand christians : but Eusebius only says, that after he had
governed the church of Rome nine years, the said Clement
left the succession thereof to Evaristus.
Of which Evaristus, next bishop of Rome, thus we
find in Irenseus (lib. 3. cap. i>.) Peter and Paul (says
he) committed the charge of that church to Linus ; after
whom came Anacletus, then succeeded Clement, next to
Clement followed Evaristus. Little or nothing remains
of the acts and monuments either of this, or of other
bishops of Rome in those days. Whereby it may ap-
pear that no great account was then made of Roman
bishops, whose acts and deeds were then either so lightly
reputed, or so slenderly committed to history. Not-
withstanding, however, certain decretal epistles are re-
maining, or rather thrust upon us in their names, con-
taining in them little substance of any doctrine, but al-
together stuffed with laws, injunctions, and stately de-
crees, little to the purpose, and still less savouring of the
time then present. Amongst which are also numbered
the two epistles of this Evaristus : who, when he had
given these orders, and had made six priests, two
deacons, and five bishops for sundry places (says the
history) he suffered martyrdom. But what kind of
death, for what cause he suffered, what constancy
be shewed, what was the order or conversation of
his life, is not touched, and that seems, therefore, the
more to be doubted which our new histories say ;
because the old ancient writers have no remembrance
thereof, who otherwise would not have passed such
things over in silence, if they had been true.
After him succeeded Alexander in the governance of
that church, of whose time and death there is the like
discrepancy among the writers.
They who write of the deeds and doings of this bishop,
declare that he had converted a great part of the senators
to the faith of Christ, amongst whom was Hermes, a
great man in Rome.
And then (says the history) about the second year of
Adrian, Aurelian the ruler took Alexander, with Hermes,
his wife, children, and his whole household, to the num-
ber of one thousand two hundred and fifty, and threw
them in prison. And not long after, Alexander with
Euentius his deacon, and Hermes, and the rest, were
burned in a furnace. Theodulus, another deacon o{
Alexander, seeing and rebuking the cruelty of the tyrant,
suffered also the same martyrdom.
Quirinus also, the same time having first his tongue
cut out, then his hands and feet, was beheaded and cast
to the dogs.
Various miracles are reported cf this Alexander, in
the legends and lives of saints ; which as I deny not, but
because I cannot avouch them by any grave testimony
of ancient writers, therefore I dare not affirm them,
but do refer them to the authors and patrons thereof,
where they are found. Notwithstanding, whatever is
to be thought of his miracles, this is to be affirmed
and not doubted, that he was a godly and virtuous
bishop.
THE THIRD PERSECUTION'.
Between the second persecution and the third was
but one year, under the Emperor Nerva, after whom
succeeded Trajan ; and under him followed the third
persecution (A.D. S8). Trajan might seem, in com-
parison of others, a worthy and cominendable prince,
familiar with inferiors, and behaving himself to-
wards his subjects as he himself woxdd have the prince
to be to him, if he were a subject. He was noted
to be a great observer of justice, but toward the chris-
tian religion he was impious and cruel, and caused
the third persecution of the church. In which perse-
cution, Pliny the second, a man learned and famous,
seeing the lamentable slaughter of christians, and
moved with pity, wrote to Trajan the following
epistle : —
"It is my property and manner (my sovereign) to
make relation to you of all those things wherein I
doubt. For who can better either correct ray slackness
or instruct mine ignorance, than you ? 1 was never yet
present myself at the examination and execution of
these christians ; and therefore what punishment is to
be administered, and how far, or how to proceed in such
inquisitions, I am ignorant, not able to resolve in the
matter whether any difterence is to be had in age and
person, whether the young and tender ought to be with
like cruelty intreated as the elder and stronger, whethT
repentance may have any pardon, or whether it may
profit him or not to deny, who has been a christian,
whether the name only of christians, without other
offences, or whether the offences joined with the name
of a christian ought to be punished. In the meantime,
as touching such christians as have been presented to
me, I have kept this order. I have inquired the second
and third time of them whether they were christians,
menacing them with fear of punishment ; and such as
did persevere, I commanded to execution. For thus I
thought, that whatsoever their profession was, yet their
stubbornness and obstinacy ought to be punished. Whe-
ther they were also of the same madness ; whom, be-
cause they were citizens of Rome, I thought to send
them back again to the city. Afterward, in further pro-
cess and handling of this matter, as the sect did further
spread, so the more cases did ensue.
38
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
" There was a paper offered to me, bearing no name,
wherein were contained the names of many which
denied themselves to be christians, contented to do
sacrifice with incense and wine to tue gods, and to your
image (which image I caused to be brought for that
purpose) and to blaspheme Christ, whereto none such
as were true christians indeed could be compelled ; and
those I did discharge and let go. Others confessed that
they had been christians, but afterwards denied the
same, Ike. affirming to me the whole sum of that sect or
error to consist in this, that they were wont at certain
times appointed, to meet before day, and to sing certain
hymns to one Christ tlieir God, and to confederate
among themselves, to abstain from all theft, murder,
and adultery, to keep their faith, and to defraud no man :
which done, then to depart for that time, and afterward
to resort again to take meat in companies together both
men and women one with another and yet without any
act of evil.
" In the truth whereof to be further certified whether it
were so or not, I caused two maidens to be laid on the
rack, and to be examined with torments. But finding
nothing in them, but immoderate superstition, I thought
to cease further inquiry till I might be further advised
from you ; for the matter seemed to me worthy and
needful of advice, especially for the great number of
those that were in danger of your statute. For very
many there were of all ages and states, both men and
women, and more are like heieafter to incur the same
peril of condemnation. For that infection has crept
not only into cities, but villages also and boroughs about.
For as much as we see in many places that the temples
of our gods, which were wont to be desolate, begin now
to be freiiuented, and that they bring sacrifices from
every part to be sold, which before very few were found
willing to buy. It may easily be conjectured what mul-
fitudes of men may be amended, if space and time be
given them, wherein they may be reclaimed."
To the above epistle the emperor returned the follow-
ing answer : —
"The statute concerning christians ye have rightly
txecuted. For no such general law can be enacted
therein all special cases particularly can be comprehended.
Let ihem not be sought for, but if they are brought
and convicted, then let them suffer execution : so not-
withstanding, that whoever shall deny himself to be a
christian, and do it unfeignedly in open audience, and
uo sacrifice to our gods, however he may have been
suspected before, let him be released, upon promise of
amendment. Such writings as have n% names, suffice
not to any just crime or accusation ; for that should
give an evil precedent, neither does it agree with the
example of our time."
Tertullian writing upon this letter of Trajan, thus
says, " O sentence of a confused necessity ; he would
not have them to be sought for as innocent men, and
yet causes them to be punished as persons guilty I"
Thus the rage of that persecution ceased for a time, al-
though many men and cruel officers ceased not to afflict
the christians in various provinces ; and especially if
any occasion were given, or if any commotion were
raised in the provinces abroad, the fault was laid upon
the christians. As in Jerusalem, after the Emperor
Trajan had sent down his command, that whoever could
be found of the stock of David, should be put to death.
Certain sectaries of the Jews accused Simeon, the
bishop of Jerusalem, to have come of the stock of
David, and that he was a christian. Of ^hich accusers
it happened also that some of them likewise were appre-
hended and taken as being of the stock of David, and
BO were justly put to execution themselves who had
sought the destruction of others. Tlie blessed bishop
was scourged, during the space of many days together,
though an hundred and twenty years of age. In his
martyrdom he endured so constant, that both the consul
itnd the multitude marvelled to see him at that age so
constantly to suffer, and so at last being crucified, he
Uwished his course in the Lord, for whom he suffered.
In this persecution Phocas, bishop of Pontus, also
suffered, whom Trajan, because he would not do sacrifice
to Neptune, cast into a hot lime-kiln, and afterward put
into a scalding bath, where the constant godly martyr,
for the testimony of Christ, ended his life, or rather
entered into life.
In the same persecution suffered also Sulpitius and
Servilian, whose wives having been converted by Sabina
to the faith of Christ, were also martyred. Sabina was
beheaded in the days of Adrian. Under whom also
suffered Seraphia, a maiden of Antioch.
In this persecution, beside many others, Ignatius, the
blessed martyr of Christ, who to this day is had in great
reverence, also suffered. Ignatius was ajipointed to the
bishopric of Antioch next in succession after Peter.
Being sent from Syria to Rome, because he professed
Christ, he was given to the wild beasts to be devoured.
It is said of him, that when he passed through Asia, he
strengthened and confirmed the churches through all the
cities as he went, both with his exhortations and preach-
ing of the word of God. And thus when he came to
Smyrna, he wrote one epistle to the church of Ephesus,
and another to the church of Magnesia : also another to
the church of Trallis, in which he saith : — ■
"I, being exercised, and now well acquainted with
their injuries, am taught every day more and more ; but
hereby am I not yet justified. And would to God I
were once come to the beasts, which are prepared for
me, which also I wish with gaping mouths were ready to
come upon me, whom also I will provoke that they with-
out delay may devour me, and forbear me nothing at
all, as those whom before they have not touched or hurt
for fear ! And if they will not unless they be provoked,
I will then enforce them against myself. Pardon me, I
pray you. How beneficial it is to me, I know. Now
begin I to be a scholar ; I esteem no visible things, nor
yet invisible things, so that I may obtain Christ Jesus.
Let the fire, the gallows, the devouring of wild beasts,
the breaking of bones, the pulling asunder of my mem-
bers, the bruising or pressing of my whole body, and the
torments of the devil or hell itself come upon me, so
that I may win Christ Jesus."
Besides this godly Ignatius, many thousands also were
put to death in the same persecution, as appears by the
letter of Pliny. Jerome mentions one Publius, bishop of
Athens, who for the faith of Christ during this persecu-
tion, was martyred.
Next after this, Trajan succeeded the Emperor Adrian,
(A. D. US).
It is stated in the histories, that in the time of Adrian,
Zenon, a noblem m of Rome, with ten thousand two hun-
dred and tluee other persons were slain for Christ. Ten
thousand were crucified in the Mount Ararat, crowned
with crowns of thorn, and thrust into the sides with
sharp darts, after the example of the Lord's passion.
Tliere was one Eustachius, a captain, sent out to war
against the barbarians. After he had by God's grace
valiantly subdued his enemies, and was returning home
with victory, Adrian for joy meeting him in his journey
to bring him home with triumph, first would by the way
do sacrifice to Apollo for the victory, requiring Eusta-
chius to do the same. But Eustachius could by no
means be forced thereto, and being brought to Rome,
with his wife and children suffered martyrdom.
We read also of Faustinus and Jobita, who suffered
with grievous torments. At the sight whereof, one Ca-
locerius, seeing their great patience in so great torments,
cried out with these words, " Verily, great is the God of
tlie Christians.'' Which words being heard, he was forth-
with apprehended, and being brought to the place of
execution, was made partaker of their martyrdom.
Symphorissa, the wife of Getulus the martyr, with her
Steven children, is said about the same time to sufier ;
who first was several times beaten and scourged, after-
wards was hanged up by the hair of her head ; at
last, having a huge stone fastened to her, was thrown
headlong into the river; and her seven children, in like
niunner, with various kinds of punishment martyred by
the tyrant.
Sophia, with her three children : also Seraphia and
A. D. 98.— 161.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
39
Sabina, also Anthia, and her son, who was bishop of j
Apulia ; also Justus and Pastor suffered (A. D. I'M).
While Adrian was at Athens, he purposed to visit
Elusiua, and did so ; where sacrificing to the Gentiles'
gods, he gave free leave and liberty to persecute the
christians. Whereupon Quadratus, a man of no less ex-
celli-nt zeal than of famous learning, being then bishop of
Atliens, did exhibit to the emperor a learned and excel-
lent apology in defence of the christian religion ; where-
in he declared the christians, without any just cause to
be so cruelly treated and persecuted. The like also did
Aristides, another no less excellent philosopher in
Athens, who, being noticed by the emperor for his sin-
gular learning and eloquence, and coming to his pre-
sence, there made before him an eloquent oration.
Moreover he exhibited to the emperor a memorable
apology for the christians, so full of learning and elo-
quence, that as Jerome said, it was a spectacle and ad-
miration to all men in his time, that loved to see
wit and learning. Besides these, there was also ano-
ther named Serenus Granius, a man of great nobility,
who wrote very pithy and grave letters to Adrian,
shewing that it was consonant with no right nor reason,
for the blood of innocents to be given to the rage and
fury of the people, and to be condemned for no fault,
only for the name and sect that they followed.
Thus the goodness of God being moved with the
prayers and constant labour of these excellent men, so
turned the heart of the emperor, that he, being better
informed concerning the order and profession of the
christians, became more favourable to them.
In the days of this Adrian, the Jews rebelled again,
and spoiled the country of Palestine. Against whom the
emperor sent Julius Severus, who overthrew in Judea
fifty castles, and burnt and destroyed nine hundred and
eighty villages and towns, and slew fifty thousand of the
Jews with famine, sickness, sword, and fire ; so that Judah
was almost desolate. But at length Adrian, who was also
named yElius, repaired and enlarged the city of Jeru-
salem, which was called after his name, ^liopolis, or
./Elia : he granted only to the Gentiles and to the christians
to live in it, utterly forbidding the Jews to enter into the
city.
After the death of Adrian, succeeded Antonius Pius,
about the year 140, and reigned twenty and three years,
who for his clemency and modest behaviour had the
name of Pius. His saying was. That he had rather save
one citizen, than destroy a thousand of his adversaries.
At the beginning of his reign, although there was no
edict to persecute the christians^ yet the rage of the
heathen multitude did not cease to afflict the people of
God, imputing and ascribing to the christians whatever
misfortune happened contrary to their desires : more-
over, inventing against them all false crimes whereof to
accuse them. By reason of which, some were put to
death ; altliough, not by the consent of the emperor, who
was so mild and gentle, that either he raised no perse-
cution against the christians, or else he soon stayed the
same being moved ; as may well appear by his letter
sent down to the countries of Asia, in which he writes
these things of the christians :—
" This is their joy and desire, that when they are ac-
cused, they rather covet to die for their God than to live.
Whereby they are victorious, and overcome you, giving
rather their lives, than doing that which you require of
them. And here it shall not be inconvenient to adver-
tise you of the earthquakes which have and do happen
among us, that when at the sight of them you tremble
and are afraid, then you may compare your case with
them. For they, upon a sure confidence of their God,
are bold and fearless, much more than you ; who in the
time of this your ignorance, do both worship other gods,
and neglect the religion of immortality, and such
christians as worship him you drive out, and persecute
unto death. Of these matters, many presidents of our
provinces did write to our father of famous memory,
heretofore. To whom he directed his answer, desiring
them in no case to molest the christians, except they
were found in some prejudicial trespass against the
empire. And to me also, many write, signifying their
mind in like manner ; to whom T have answered to the
same effect and manner as my father did. Wherefore, if
any hereafter shall oft'er any vexation or trouble to such,
having no other cause but only for that they are
christians, let him that is impeached be released, and
discharged free, yea, although he be found to be such
(that is, a christian), and let the accuser sustain the pu-
nishment," &c.
This godly edict of the emperor was proclaimed at
Ephesus, in the public assembly of all Asia. By this
means persecution began to be appeased, through the
merciful providence of God, who would not have his
church to be utterly overthrown.
THE FOURTH PERSECUTION.
After the decease of Antonius Pius, followed his son-
in-law Marcus Aurelius Antonius, with Lucius Verus, his
adopted brother (A. D. 161). Marcus was a stern and
severe man, in whose timeagreat number of christians suf-
fered cruel torments and punishments, both in Asia and
France. In the number of whom was Polycarp, the
bishop of Smyrna, who, in the great rage of this perse-
cution in Asia, was martyred. Of his end and martyr-
dom I thought it here not inexpedient to commit to
history so much as Eusebius declares to be taken out of
a certain epistle, written by those of his own church to
the brethren of Pontus : the tenor of this epistle here fol-
loweth.
" The church which is at Smyrna, to the church which
is at Philomilium, and to all the churches throughout Pon-
tus, mercy to you, peace and the love of God our Father,
and of our Lord Jesus Christ, be multiplied. Amen.
We have written unto you, brethren, of those men which
have suffered martyrdom, and of blessed Polycarp, who
hath ended and appeased this persecution, as it were, by
the shedding his own blood." And in the same epistle,
before they enter into further matter of Polycarp, they
discourse of other martyrs, describing what patience they
shewed in suffering their torments ; which was so ad-
mirable (says the epistle) that the lookers on were
amazed, seeing and beholding how they were so scourged
and whipped, that the inward veins and arteries ap-
peared, yea even so much, that the veiy entrails of their
bodies were seen, and after that, were set upon sharp
shells taken out of the sea, and certain nails and thorns
were put for the martyrs to walk upon, which were
sharpened and pointed. Thus they suil'ered all kind of
punishment and torment that might be devised : and
lastly, were thrown to the wild beasts to be devoured.
Now we will return to Polycarp, of whom the afore-
said letter declares as follows. That in the beginning,
when he heard of these things he was not at all afraid
nor disquieted in mind, but purposed to have tarried
still in the city, till being persuaded by the entreaty of
them that were about him, he hid himself in a village
not far from the city, and there abiding with a few more,
did nothing, night or day, but abode in supplication,
wherein he made his humble petition for the obtaining
of peace unto all the churches throughout the world. It
is further mentioned, that when they were hard at hand,
who so narrowly sought for him, he was forced for the
affection and love of his brethren to fly into another
village, to which place notwithstanding within a little
while after the pursuers came, and found him in the
house, from whence he might have escaped if he would ;
but this he would not do, saying, " The Avill of God be
done." Furthermore, when he knew that they were
come, he came down and spake to them with a cheerful
and pleasant countenance, so that it was a wonder to see
them now beholding his comely age, and his grave
and constant countenance, lamenting that they had so
employed their labour, that so aged a man should be
apprehended. To conclude, he commanded that straight-
way without any delay, tlie table should be laid for
them, and persuaded them that they would eat and dine
'.veil, and required of them boldly, that he might have an
hour's respite to pray. Which being granted, he arose
40
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. [Book I.
and went to pray, and was so replenished with the grace
of God, that they which were present, and hearing the
prayers that he made, were astonished, and many were
sorry that so godly an aged man should be put to
death.
After he had made an end of his prayers, and the hour
was come in which they ought to set forward ; they set him
on an ass, and brought him to the city. And there met
him the Irenarch Herod and his father Nicetes, who
causing him to come into the chariot where they sat,
persuaded him, and said, " What hurt, I pray thee, sh<ill
come thereof, if tliou say (by way of salvation) my lord
Cicsar, and do sacrifice, and tlius save thyself?" But
he made no answer, till they forced him to speak ; he
then said, " I will not do as you counsel me." When
they saw he could not be persuaded, they gave him very
rough language, and purj)Osely molested him, so that in
going down from the chariot, he might hurt or break his
legs But l;e treating very light of tlie matter, as if he
had felt no hurt, went merrily and diligently foi-w-ard,
making liaste to the place ajipointed. The proconsul,
when he was come, gave him counsel to deny his name,
and said to him, " Be good to thyself, and favour thine
old age; take thine oath, and 1 will discharge tliee :
defy Christ." Polycarp answered, " Eighty-six years
have 1 been his servant, yet in all this time liath he not
60 much as once hurt me : how then may I speak evil of
my King and sovereign Lord, who hath thus preserved
me?" Hereupon the proconsul stood up; "I have,"
said he, " wild beasts to whom I will throw thee, unless
thou take a better course." Whereunto Polycarp
answered, " Let them come ; we have determined with
ourselves, that we will not turn us from the better way
to the worse, but rather turn from things that be evil
unto that which is good." "Again," said the pro-
consul, " I will tame thee with fire." Then said Poly-
carp, " You threaten me with fire, which shall burn for
the space of an hour, and shall be within a little while
after extinguished ; but thou knowest not the fire of the
judgment to come, and of everlasting punishment,
which is reserved for the wicked and ungodly. But why
make you all these delays ? Give me what death ye
list." These and many other such things being spoken
by him, he was filled with joy and boldness, and his
countenance appeared so full of grace and favour, that
he was not only not troubled with those things which
the proconsul spake to him, but contrarily, the pro-
consul himself began to be amazed, and sent for the
crier, who in the middle of the stage was commanded to
cry three times, " Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a
christian ;" which words of the crier were no sooner
spoken, but the whole multitude desired that he would let
loose the lion at Polycarp. To whom he made answer,
" That he could not do so, because he had already his
prey." Then they cried again all together with one
voice, that he would burn Polycarp alive. And the
pro-consul had no sooner spoken, but it was at once
performed. For the multitude brought out of their
shops, workhouses and barns, wood and other dry
matter for that purpose.
And thus the pile being laid, and when he had now
put off his garments and undone his girdle, straightway
those instruments which are requisite to such a bon-
fire were brought to him, and when they would have
nailed him to the stake with iron hoops, he said, " Let
me alone as 1 am, for he that hath given me strength to
suffer and abide the fire, shall also give power, that
without this your provision of nails, I shall abide, and
not stir in the midst of this fire." Which when they
heard, they did not nail him, but bound him. There-
fore when his hands were bound behind him, he was
sacrificed, saying, " O Father of thy well-beloved and
blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have attained the
knowledge of thee, the God of angels and ))Owers, and of
every creature, and of all just men which live before
thee, I give thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to
grant me this day that I may have my i)art among the
number of the martyrs in the cup of C hrist, unto the
resurrection of eternal life, both of body and soul,
through the operation of thy Holy Spirit, among whom I
shall this day he received into thy sight for an accept-
able sacrifice : and as thou hast prepared and revealed
the same before this time, so thou hast accomplished the
same, O thou most true God, which canst not lie.
Wherefore I in like case for all things praise thee, and
bless thee, and glorify thee by our everlasting bishop,
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory evermore, amen."
The subtle adversary, when he saw the worthiness of
his martyrdom, and that his conversation ewn from his
younger years could not be reproved, ami that he was
adorned with the crown of martyrdom, . nd had now
obtained that incomparable benefit, gave in charge that
we should not take and divide his body, for fear lest the
remnants of the dead corpse should be taken away, and
so worshipi)ed by the people. Whereupon some whis-
pered Nicetes the father of Herod, and his brother
Dalces, to admonish the proconsul, that in no case
should he deliver his body, lest said he, they leave
Christ, and begin to worship Polycarp. And this they
spake, because the Jews had given them secret warning,
and provoked them thereto ; who also watched us, that
we should not take him out of the fire ; not being igno-
rant how that we meant at no time to forsake Christ,
who gave his life for the salvation of the whole world,
(as many I mean as are elected to salvation by him)
neither yet that we could worship any other. For why ?
him we worship as the Son of God, but the martyrs we
love as disciples of the Lord (and that worthily), for
their abundant love towards their king and master, of
whom we also desire and wish to be companions, and to
be made his disciples. When therefore the centurion
saw and perceived the object of the Jews, the corpse
being laid abroad, they burnt the same, as was their
manner.
Thus good Polycarp, with twelve others that came
from Philadelphia, suffered martyrdom at Smyrna ;
which Polycarp especially above the rest is had in
memory, so that in all places among the Gentiles he is
most esteemed.
He was a very aged man, who had served Christ
eighty-six years since the first knowledge of him, and
served also in the ministry about the space of seventy
years : he was the scholar and hearer of John the evan-
gelist, and was placed by John in Smyrna.
It is witnessed by Ireneus, that Polycarp came to Rome
in the time of Anicetus bishop of Rome, about the year
one hundred and fifty-seven; the cause of his coming
hither appears to he about the controversy of Easter
day, wherein the Asians and the Romans disagreed.
And therefore Polycarp, in behalf of the brethren and
church of Asia, took his long journey there to come and
confer with Anicetus. Whereof, writes also Nicephorus,
(lib. 4.) declaring, that Polycarp and Anicetus varied
something in opinion and judgment about that matter,
and that yet notwithstanding, both communicated friendly
the one with the other, in so much that Anicetus in his
church gave place to Polycarp to minister the com-
munion and sacrament of the Lord's supper for honour
sake. Which may be a notable testimony now to us,
that the doctrine concerning the free use and liberty of
ceremonies, was at that time retained in the church
without any offence, or breach of christiem peace in the
church.
In this fourth persecution, besides Polycarp and others
before mentioned, we read of various others, who, at the
same time, did suffer at Smyrna.
Mctrodorus, a minister, was given to the fire, and con-
sumed. Piouius, wJio, after much boldness of speech,
as his apologies exhibited, and his sermons made to the
people in the defence of christian faith, and after much
relieving and comforting of such as were in prison, and
otherwise discomforted, at last was put to cruel tor-
ments, then given to the fire, and so finished his blessed
martyrdom.
And as these suffered in Asia, so in Rome suffered
Felicitas with her seven children ; of whom her first
and eldest son, after he was whipped and scourged with
rods, was pressed to death with leaden weights ; two had
their brains beaten out ; another was cast down head-
long, and had his neck broken ; the rest were beheaded.
A.D. 161.]
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
4t
Last of all, Felicitas the mother was slain with the
sword.
In this fourth persecution, suffered Justin, a man
of learnins; and philosophy, and a great defender of
the christian religion, who presented a book in defence of
our doctrine to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and to the
Senate. After which he was crowned with the like mar-
tyrdom to those whom he had defended in his book.
Under the same Antoninus also suffered Ptolomy and
Lucius for the confession of Christ, in Alcxandrina.
Coiicordus, a minister 6f the city of .Spolet, because he
would not sacrifice to Ju])iter, but did spit in the face of
the idol, after divers and sundi'y punishments, at last
was bclieided with the sword.
A little before, mention was made of Symphorosa,
wife of Getulus, with her seven sons, whom the chronicle
of Ado declares to be put to death, being fastened to
seven stakes, and so racked up with a puUy, and at last
were thrust through, Crescens in the neck, Julianus in
the breast, Neraesius in the heart, Primitivus iu the
stomach, Justinus cut in every joint of his body, Statteus
run through with spears, Eugenius cut asunder from the
breast to the lower parts, and then cast into a deep pit.
After the martyrdom of whom, Symphorosa, the mother,
did likewise suffer.
Under Marcus Antoninus, and in the same persecution,
suffered the glorious and most constant martyrs of Lyons
and Vienne, two cities in France, giving to Christ a
glorious testimony, and to all christian men a spectacle,
or example of singular constancy and fortitude in Christ
our Saviour ; and as the history of them is written and
set forth by their own churches, where they suffered
(Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 2), I thought good to give it in
their own words, as in the following epistle to their bre-
thren in Asia and Phrygia.
*' The servants of Christ inhabiting the cities of Vienne
and Lyons, to the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, hav-
ing the same faith and hope of redemptioyi irith us :
Peace, grace, and glory from God the Father, and
from Jesus Christ our Lord.
"The greatness of this our tribulation, the furious rage of
the Gentiles eigainst us, and the torments which the
blessed martyrs suffered, we can neither in words, nor
yet in writing, set forth as they desei've. For the adver-
sary in every place practised, and instructed his minis-
ters how, in most spiteful manner, to set them against
the servants of God ; so that not only in our houses,
shops, and markets, were we restrained, but also univer-
sally commanded, that none should be seen in any place.
But God hath always mercy in store, and took out of their
hands such as were weak amongst us, and others he set up
as firm and immoveable pillars, who, by suffering, were
able to abide and valiantly to withstand the enemy, endur-
ing all the punishment they could devise ; they fought
this battle for Christ, esteeming their great troubles but
as light ; thereby shewing that all that may be suffered
in this present life, is not to be compared with the great
glory which shall be shewed upon us after life. They
patiently suffered railings, scourgings, drawings and
haliugs, flinging of stones, imprisonings, and whatever
the rage of the multitude is wont to use against their
enemies ; then being led into the market-place, and
there judged ; after their confession, made openly before
the multitude, they were sent back again to prison.
One Vetius Epagathus, one of the brethren, having
within him the fervent zeal of love, and spirit of God,
could not suffer that wicked judgment which was given
upon the christians ; but being vehemently displeased,
desired that the judge would hear the excuse which he
was minded to make in behalf of the christians, in whom,
said he, is no impiety found. The justice did not grant
him his request, but only asked him, whether he himself
was a christian or not ? And he immediately, with a
loud and bold voice, answered and said, I am a christian.
And thus he was received into the fellowship of the
martyrs, and called the advocate of the christians.
_ By this man's example, the rest of the martyrs were
the more animated with all courage of mind. Some there
were unready and not so well prepared, and as yet weak,
not well able to bear so great a conflict ; of whom there
were ten that fainted, ministering to us much heaviness
and lamentation, who by their example caused the rest,
which were not yet apprehended, to be less willing
thereto. With these also certain men-servants were ap-
prehended, and they, fearing the torments which they
saw the saints suffer, being also compelled thereto by
means of the soldiers, charged against us that we kept
the feastings of Thyestes, and of GLdipus, and many
such other crimes, which are neither to be remembered,
nor named of us, nor yet to be thought that any maa
would ever commit the like.
' ' These things being noised abroad, every man began to
shew cruelty against us, insomuch that those whiuli be-
fore were more gentle, now vehemently disdained us,
and waxed mad against us. And thus was fulhlled that
which was spoken by Christ, saying, " The time will come,
that whosoever killeth you, shall think that he doth God
service." Then suftered the martyrs of God such bitter
persecution as is passing to be told. Satan still shooting
at this mark, to make them to utter some blasphemy by all
possible means. Marvellous therefore was the rage both
of the people and prince, especially against one Sanctus,
who was deacon of the congregation of Vienne, and against
Maturus, being but a little before baptized, but yet a wor-
thy soldier of Christ, and also against Attains, who was the
foundation and pillar of that church, and also against Blan-
dina. Blandina was so rilled with strength and boldness,
that they which had the tormenting of her from morning
to night, gave over for very weariness, and were themselves
overcome, confessing that they could do no more against
her, and marvelled that she yet lived, having her body so
torn and rent : and testified that any one of those tor-
ments alone, without any more, bad been enough to have
plucked the life from her body.
" Sanctus also, another of the martyrs, who in the midst
of his torments endured more pains than the nature of a
man might bear with, abode in such constancy of mind,
that he neither told them his name, nor what countryman
he was, nor in what city brought up, neither whether
he was a freeman or a servant : but every question that
was asked him, he answered, ' I am a christian,' and
this was all that he confessed both of his name, city,
kindred, and all other things in the place of execution :
whereupon both the governor and tormentors were the
more vehemently bent against him : they clapped plates
of brass red hot to the most tender parts of his body, yet
he never shrunk, but was bold and constant in his con-
fession, being strengthened and moistened with the
fountain of lively water, flowing out of Christ's side.
Truly his body was a sufficient witness what torments he
suffered : for it was all drawn together and most pitifully
wounded and scorched, so that it had lost the proper
shape of a man, in whose suffering Christ obtained un-
speakable glory, for he overcame his adversaries, and,
to the instruction of others, declared that notning else
is terrible, or ought to be feared where the love of God
is, and nothing grievous wherein the glory of Christ is
manifested.
"Also Satan now thinking to have settledhimself in the
heart of one Biblias, being one of them who had denied
Christ, and thinking to have caused her, being a weak
and feeble woman in faith, to have damned her soul, in
blaspheming the name of God, brought her to the place
of execution ; but she, in the middle of her torments,
returning to herself, and waking as it were out of her
dead sleep by that temporal pain, called to her remem-
brance the pains of hell fire, and against all expectations
answered the tormentors. Saying, ' How should we
christians eat young infants, (as ye report of us) for
whom it is not lawful to eat the blood of any beast ?'
Upon that, so soon as she had confessed herself to be a
christian, she was martyred. Thus when Christ had
ended those tyrannical torments, by the patience and
suffering of the saints, the Devil yet invented other en-
gines and instruments. For when the christians were
cast into prison, they were shut up iu dark and ugly
dungecns, and were drawn by the feet in a rack or
engine made for that purpose. Very many of them
42
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
were strangled and killed in prisons, whom the Lord in
this manner would have to enjoy everlasting life, and
set forth his glory. And surely these good men were
BO pitifully tormented, that if they had had all the helps
and medicines in the world, it was thought impossible
for them to live, and to be restored. And thus they
remaining in prison, destitute of all human help, were
80 strengthened of the Lord, and confirmed both in body
and mind, that they comforted and stirred up the minds
of the rest.
" Photinus.who was deacon to the bishop of Lyons, was
about eighty-nine years old, and a very feeble man, yet
he was of a lively courage and spirit wlien he was brought
to the judgment-seat; although his body was feeble and
weak, botli because of his old age, and also through
sickness, yet was his life preserved, that Christ might
triumph and be glorified. Being demanded of the chief
ruler, what was the christian man's God .' He an-
swered, If thou be worthy to know, thou shalt know.
He being somewhat touched with these words, caused
him to be beaten. Those that stood next him, did
him all the spite and displeasure that they could,
both with hand and foot, having no regard at all to his
old age or white hairs. And they who were further off
threw at him whatever came next to hand, and every man
thought that he did very wickedly refrain who withheld
his hand from doing the like. He was then thrown into
prison, and within two days after died.
" Then Maturus and Attalus were brought together to
the common scaffold, there in the face of the people to
be cast to the beasts. They suffered the tearing of
wild beasts, and whatever else the frantic people on
every side cried for and willed. And above all the
rest they brought an iron chair, in which their bodies
being set, were fried and scorched, as on a gridiron
fried on the coals. And yet for all that the tor-
mentors ceased not, but waxed more fierce and mad
against them, labouring to overcome the patience of the
saints. Notwithstanding all this, they could not get out
of Sanctus' mouth any other thing but the confession
which at the beginning he declared. And thus these
holy men, after they had long continued alive in most
horrible conflict, were at length slain, being made all
that whole day a spectacle to the world, in place and
instead of the games and sights which were wont to be
exhibited to the people.
" Now the emperor had written that all the confessors
should be punished, and the others let go. The governor
therefore caused all the holy martyrs to be brought to the
sessions, that the assembled multitude might behold them,
and he again examined them ; as many of them as he
thought had the Roman freedom he beheaded, the residue
he gave to the beasts to be devoured. And truly Christ
was much glorified by those who a little before had denied
him, who now contrary to the expectation of the infidels
confessed him even to the death. While they were being
examined, one Alexander, standing somewhat near to the
bar, by signs encouraged such as were examined to con-
fess Christ ; so that by his countenance sometimes re-
joicing, and sometimes sorrowing, he was observed of
the standers by. The people not taking in good part to
see those who had recanted again to stick to their first
confession, cried out against Alexander as one that was
the cause of this matter. And when he was forced by
the judge and demanded what religion he was of.' he
answered, ' I am a Christian.' He had no sooner
spoken the word, but he was condemned to be devoured
by the beasts.
" The blessed Blandina being the last that suffered, after
she had, like a worthy mothef, given exhortations unto her
children, and sent them before as conquerors to their
heavenly King, and had called to her remembrance all
their battles and conflicts, so much rejoiced at her child-
ren's death, and so hastened her own, as though she had
been bidden to a bridal, and not to be thrown to the wild
beasts. After this her pitiful whipping, her delivery to
the beasts, and her torments upon the gridiron, at length
she was put in a net, and thrown to the wild bull ; and
when she bad been sufficiently gored and wounded with
the horns of the beast, and heeded nothing of all that
chanced to her, for the great hope and consolation she
had in Christ and heavenly things, was thus slain, inso-
much that the very heathen men themselves confessed,
that there was never woman put to death, that suffered
so much as this woman did. Neither yet was their furi-
ous cruelty thus assuaged against the christians. For the
cruel barbarous people, like wild beasts, knew not when
the time was to make an end, but invented new and
sundry torments every day against our bodies. Neither
yet did it content them when they had put the christians
to death. For those whom they strangled in their
prisons, they threw to the dogs, setting keepers both day
and night to watch them, that they should not be buried,
and bringing forth the remnant of their bones and bodies,
some half burned, some left of the wild beasts, and some
all mangled, also bringing forth heads of others which
were cut off, and committing them to the charge of the
keepers to see them remain unburied.
" Thus were the bodies of the martyrs made a wonder-
ing stock, and lay six days in the open streets; at length
they burned them, and threw their ashes into the river
Rhone, so that there might appear no remnant of them
upon the earth. And this they did, as if they had been
able to have pulled God out of his seat, and to have
hindered the regeneration of the saints, and taken from
them the hope of the resurrection."
Such was the epistle of the brethren of France to those
of Asia.
Among others that suffered under Antoninus, mention
was made of Justin, who exhibited two apologies in
the defence of christian doctrine, the one to the senate
and the other to the emperor.
Of which apologies, the first he wrote to the senate ;
when with great liberty he declared that he was of neces-
sity compelled to write and utter his mind to them. For
that in persecuting of the christians they highly offended
God, and therefore they had need to be admonished. And
writing to the lieutenant of the city, said, " That he put
men to death and torments for no offence committed, but
only for the confession of the name of Christ ; which pro-
ceedings and judgments neither became the emperor, nor
his son, nor the senate :" defending moreover in the
apology, and clearing the christians of such crimes aa
were falsely laid and objected against them.
And likewise in his second apology writing to the em-
peror, with like gravity and free liberty, he declares to
them how they had the name, being commonly reputed
and taken as virtuous philosophers, maintainers of justice,
lovers of learning ; but whether they were so, their acts
declared. As for him, neither for flattery, nor favour at
their hands, was he constrained thus to write unto them ;
and in plain words he charges the emperor as well as
the senate with manifest wrong, for not granting the
christians that which is not denied to all other malefac-
tors, judging men to death, only for the hatred of the
name. " Other men who are accused," said he, " are
not condemned in judgment, before they are convicted :
but on us, you take our name only for the crime, when
indeed you ought to see justice done upon our accusers.
And again, if a christian being accused only deny that
name, you release him, not being able to charge him
with any other offence : but if he stand to his name, you
condemn him only for his confession ; where indeed it were
your duty rather to examine their manner of life, than
what thing they confess or deny, and according to their
demerits to see justice done."
I find that all his apologies stand upon most strong and
firm proofs, denying that the christians ought at the
will and commandment of the emperor and the senate to
do sacrifice to the idols : for which they being con-
demned, affirm, that they suffer open wrong ; affirming
moreover, that the true and only religion is the religion
of the christians. Although Justin did not so prevail
with the emperor, as to cause him to love his religion,
and become a christian, yet obtained thus much, that
Antoninus writing to his officers in Asia, commanded
them that those christians only who were found guilty of
A.D. 161—193.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
43
any trespass should suffer, and such as were not con^dcted,
should not therefore for the name only be punished,
because they were called christians.
Besides this Justin, there were at the same time in
Asia, Apollinaris, bishop of Hieropolis, and Melito,
bishop of Sardis, who exhibited learned and eloquent
apologies in defence of Christ's religion, as Quad-
ratus and Aristides above mentioned did to the emperor,
whereby they moved him somewhat to stay the rage of
his persecution. In like manner did this Apollinaris
and Melito defend the cause of the christians. Of this
Alelito, Eusebius makes mention in his fourth book, and
quotes certain parts of his apology in these words," The
godly suffer persecution by occasion of certain proclama-
tions and edicts proclaimed throughout Asia, for villanous
sycophants, robbers, and spoilers of other men's goods,
grounding themselves upon those proclamations, and
taking occasion of them, rob openly night and day, and spoil
those which do no harm. Which if it be done by your
commandment, be it so ; for a good prince will never
command but good things, and so we will be contented
to sustain the honour of this death. This only we most
humbly beseech your majesty, that calling before you
and examining the authors of this tumult and contention,
your grace would justly judge whether we are worthy of
cruel death, or quiet life. And then if it be not your plea-
sure, and that it proceedeth not by your commandment
(which indeed against your barbarous enemies were too
bad) the more a great deal we are petitioners to your high-
ness, that hereafter you will vouchsafe to hear us, who
are so vexed and oppressed with this kind of villanous
robberies."
Thus much out of the apology of Melito, who in writ-
ing to Onesimus, gives us the benefit of knowing the true
catalogue and the names of all the authentic books of the
Old Testament, received in the time of the primitive
church. Concerning the number and names whereof,
Melito in his letter to Onesimus declares ; how that re-
turning into the parts where these things were done and
preached, he there diligently inquired concerning the
books of the Old Testament, the names whereof he sub-
scribes, and sends to him as follows, the five books
of Moses, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deu-
teronomy,) Joshua, the Judges, Ruth, four books of
Kings, two books of Chronicles, the Psalms, Proverbs
of Solomon, the book of Wisdom, the Preacher, the
Song of Songs, Job, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Twelve Prophets in one book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra.
And thus much of this matter which I thought here to
record, for it is not unprofitable for these later times to
understand what in the first times was received and
admitted as authentic, and what otherwise.
But to return to the apologies of Apollinaris and
Melito, whether it was by the occasion of these apologies, or
whether it was through the writing of Athenagoras, a phi-
losopher, and a legate of the christians, is uncertain : but
this is certain, that the persecution at that time was stayed.
After the death of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, his
son Lucius Antoninus Commodus succeeded (A.D. 180),
who reigned thirteen years.
In the time of Commodus, although he was an in-
commodious prince to the senators of Rome, yet there
was, notwithstanding, some rest from persecution through
the whole church of Christ, by what occasion is not
certain. Some think that it came through Marcia, the
emperor's concubine, who favoured the christians ; but
however it came, the fury of the raging enemies was
then somewhat mitigated, and peace weis given by the
grace of Christ unto the church throughout the whole
world. At which time the doctrine of the gospel in-
fluenced the hearts of all sorts of people, and drew
them to the true religion of God, insomuch that many,
both rich and noble personages of Rome, with their
whole families and households, joined themselves to the
church of Christ.
The Emperor Commodus, upon one of his birth-days,
having called the people of Rome together, clothed him-
self with great royalty, having his lion's skin upon
him, and offered sacrifices to Hercules and Jupiter,
causing it to be proclaimed through the city, that Her-
cules was the patron and defender of the city. There
was the same time at Rome, Vincentius, Eusebius,
Peregrinus, and Potentianus, learned men and instructors
of the people, who, following the steps of the apostles,
went about from place to place where the gospel was not
yet preached, converting the Gentiles to the faith of
Christ. These, hearing of the madness of the emperor,
and of the people, began to reprove their idolatrous
blindness, teaching in the villages and tcwns, all that heard
them to believe upon the true and only God, and to
come away from such worshipping of devils, and to give
honour to God alone, who only is to be worshipped, ex-
horting them to repent and to be baptized. One Julius, a
senator, hearing their preaching, was converted with
others to the religion of Christ. But the emperor hearing
thereof caused them to be ajiprehended, and to be com-
pelled to sacrifice to Hercules, which when they stoutly
refused, after divers grievous torments, they were at last
pressed to death with leaden weights.
Julius being a senator of Rome, and now won by the
preaching of these blessed men to the faith of Christ,
did soon invite them and brought them home to his
house, where being more fully instructed by them in the
christian religion, he believed the gospel, and was bap-
tized with all his family ; he did not keep his faith close
and secret, but with a marvellous and sincere zeal,
openly professed it, wishing and praying that it might
be given to him by God, not only to believe in Christ,
but also to hazard his life for him. The emperor hear-
ing that Julius had forsaken his old religion, and become
a christian, forthwith sent for him, and said, " O Julius,
what madness has possessed thee, that thou dost fall
from the religion of thy forefathers, who acknowledged
and worshipped their gods, and now dost embrace a new
and fond kind of reUgion of the christians r" Julius
having now a good occasion to shew his faith, gave an
account thereof to him, and affirmed that Hercules and
Jupiter were false gods, and how the worshippers of
them should perish with eternal damnation. The em-
peror hearing how he condemned and despised his gods,
was very wroth, and committed him forthwith to the
master of the soldiers, a very cruel and fierce man,
charging him either to see Julius sacrifice to Hercules,
or if he still refused, to slay him : and JuUus continuing
steadfast in the faith, was beaten to death with cudgels.
THE FIFTH PERSECUTION.
After the death of Commodus, Pertinax reigned but
a few months, after whom succeeded Severus (A. D. 19.3),
under whom the fifth persecution was raised against the
christian saints : he reigned eighteen years, and for the
first ten years was very favourable to the christians :
afterward through sinister suggestions and malicious
accusations of the malignant, he was so incensed against
them, that he commanded by proclamations that the chris-
tians should be no more tolerated. Thus the rage of the
emperor being inflamed against them, great persecution
was stirred up on every side, whereby an infinite number
of martyrs were slain about the year of our Lord
205, as Eusebius in his sixth book records. The
crimes and false accusations objected against the chris-
tians are partly touched before ; as sedition and rebellion
against the emperor, sacrilege, murdering of infants,
and eating raw flesh. It was also objected against them
that they worshipped the head of an ass ; I find no
certain cause whence this charge arose, except it were,
perhaps, by the Jews. Also they were charged for wor-
shipping the sun, because before the sun rose, they
assembled together, singing their morning hymns unto
the Lord, or else because they prayed towards the east :
but they were specially accused because they would not
worship idolatrous gods.
The place where the force of this persecution most
raged, was Africa. The number that suffered was innu-
merable. The first was Leonides, the father of Origen,
who was beheaded. Origen being yet young, was fer-
vently attached to the doctrine of Christ's faith, by the
operation of God's heavenly providence, and partly also
by the diligent education of his father, who brought
H
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Hook I.
bim up from nis youth most studiously in all good lite-
rature, but especially in the reading and exercise of the
holy scripture, wherein he had such inward and mystical
speculation, that many times he would ask his father
questions of the meaning of this place or that place in
the scripture, insomuch that his father would often un-
cover his breast being aslee]), and kiss it, giving thanks
to God which had made him so happy a father of such a
happy child. After the death of his father, all his goods
having been confiscated to the emperor, Origen, with his
poor mother and six brethren, were brought to such ex-
treme poverty, that he sustained both himself and them
by teaching a school : till at length, being weary of the
profession, he transferred his study only to the know-
ledge and seeking of divine scripture, and such other
learning as conduced to the same.
They that write of the life of Origen, testify of him
that he was of quick and sharp wit, very patient of
labour, learned in various tongues, of a spare diet, of a
strict life, and a great faster ; he was often in danger of
being stoned of the multitude ; and sometimes by the
provision of christian men had his house guarded about
with soldiers, for the safety of those who daily resorted
to hear his readings. Among others who resorted to
him, and were his hearers, was Plutarch, who died a
martyr ; and with him Serenus, his brother, who was
burned; Heraclides and Heron, who were both be-
headed ; Serenus, who was also beheaded ; Rhais and
Potamiena, who was tormented with pitch poured upon
her, and martyred with her mother, Marcella, who died
also in the fire.
Besides these that suffered in this persecution of
Severus, one Andoclus, whom Polycarp had sent into
France, because he had spread there the doctrine of
Christ, was apprehended by Severus, and hrst beaten with
staves and bats, and afterwards beheaded.
About the same time, Ireneus was martyred with a
great multitude of others, for the confession and doc-
trine of Christ. This Ireneus was a great writer, and
great searcher of all kind of learning. After the mar-
tyrdom of Photinus, he was appointed bishop of Lyons,
where he continued about the space of twenty-three
years. In the time of Ireneus the state of the church
was much troubled, not only by outward persecution,
but also by divers sects and errors then stirring, against
W'hich he diligently laboured and wrote much. The
nature of this man, well agreeing with his name, was
such, that he ever loved peace, and sought to set agree-
ment when any controversy rose in the church. And
therefore, when the question of keeping the Easter-day
was renewed in the church between Victor, bishop of
Rome, and the churches of Asia, and when Victor would
have excommunicated them as schismatics, for disagree-
ing from him therein, Ireneus, with other brethren of
the French church, sorry to see such a contention
among brethren for such a trifle, assembled themselves
together in a council, and directing their letter with
their common consent subscribed, sent unto Victor,
entreating him to stay his purpose, and not to proceed
in excommunicating his brethren for that matter. Al-
though they themselves agreed with him in observing
the Sunday Easter as he did ; yet with great reasons
and arguments they exhorted him not to deal so rigor-
ously with his other brethren, following the ancient
custom of their country in that behalf. And besides
this, he wrote divers other letters abroad concerning the
same contention, declaring the excommunication of
Victor to be of no force.
Not long after Ireneus, followed alsoTertullian, a man
expert both in Greek and Latin, having great gifts in
disputing, and in eloquent writing, as his books de-
clare, and as the commendation of all learned men
testifies.
Such men God raised up from time to time, as pillars
and stays for his poor church, as he did this TertuUian
in these dangerous days of persecution. For when the
christians were vexed with wrongs, and falsely accused
by the Gentiles, TertuUian, taking their cause in hand,
de'"f>n(led them against the persecutors, and against their
slwideroas accusations, declaring they were falsely
belied and wrongfully persecuted, not for any desert of
theirs, but only for tlie hatred of their name. And yet
he proves in the same apology, that the religion of the
christians was not impaired by persecution, but rather
increased. "The more'' (says he) "we are mown
down of you, the more we rise up. The blood of chris-
tians is seed. For what man, in beholding the painful
torments, and the perfect patience of them, will not
search and inquire what is the cause ? And when he
has found it out, who will not agree to it ? And when
he agrees to it, who will not desire to sufler for it .'
Thus this sect will never die, but the more it is cut
down, the more it grows. For every man seeing and
wondering at the sufferance of the saints, is movea
the more thereby to search the cause ; in searching, he
finds it, and finding he follows it.
Thus TertuUian, in this time of persecution, defended
the innocency of the christians against the blaspliemy
of the adversaries ; and moreover, for the instruction of
the church, he compiled many works, some of which are
extant, some are not to be found. Notwithstanding
the great learning and many virtues of this worthy man,
certain errors aad blemishes are noted in his doctrine.
This by the way will be sufficient to admonish the reader
never to look for perfection in any man in this world ;
however excellent he may be, some blemish or other
joins itself with him.
And now, to return again to the order of bishops of
Rome. After Eleutherius, succeeded Victor (A. D.
185}. This Victor was a great stirrer in the controversy
of Easter-day, for which he would have proceeded in ex-
communication against the churches of Asia, had not
Ireneus, with the counsel of his brethren, repressed his
violence. As to that controversy of Easter in those days
of the primitive church, the original cause of it was this,
as Eusebius, Socrates, Platina, and others record. It
is certain that the apostles, being only attentive to the
doctrine of salvation, gave no heed to the observation of
days and times, nor did ' they bind the church to any
ceremonies and rites, except those things mentioned in
the Acts (xv. 2!)), as things strangled and blood, which
was ordained then of the Holy Ghost, not without a
most urgent and necessary cause, touched partly in the
history before. For when the murdering and blood of
infants was commonly charged by the heathen persecu-
tors against the christians, they had no other argument
to help themselves, nor to refute the adversary, but only
their own law, by which they were commanded to ab-
stain, not only from all men's blood, but also from the
blood of all common beasts. And, therefore, that
law seems to be given by the Holy Ghost, and continued
in the church so long as the cause, that is, the persecu-
tions of the heathen Gentiles,continued. Besides these,
we read of no other ceremonies or rites, which the apos-
tles greatly regarded, but they left such things free to the
liberty of christians, every man to use his own discretion,
for the using or not using thereof ; so that concerning
all the ceremonial observations of days, times, places,
meats, drinks, vestures, and such others, the diversity
among men was not greatly noted, nor any uniformity
greatly required.
The doctrine of christian liberty remained whole in
the church till the time of Victor. Neither did the vio-
lence of Victor take such effect, but that the doctrine of
christian liberty was defended and maintained by means
of Ireneus and others, and so continued in the church J
till after the council of Nice. I
But to return to Victor again, we will shew what di-
versity there was in observing the day of Easter. In
the time of Pius, the question of Easter began first to
be moved ; he decreed the observation of that day to be
changed from the wonted manner of the fourteenth day
of the moon, in the first month, to the next Sunday
after. After him came Anicetus, Soter, and Eleuthe-
rius, bishops of Rome, who also determined the same.
Against these stood Melito, bishop of Sardis, Polycarp,
and as some think, Egesippus, with other learned men of
Asia. Which Polycarp being sent by the brethren of Asia,
came to Rome, to confer with Anicetus in that matter ;
and although after long debating, they could not agree, yet^ ^
A.D. 193-222.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
45
nottrithstanding, they both communicated together with
reverence, and separated in peace. And so the celebra-
tion of Easter-day remained as a thing indifFerent in the
church till the time of Victor, who, following after
Anicetus and his fellows, and chiefly stirring in this mat-
ter, endeavoured by all means to draw, or, rather to
subdue the churches of Asia to his opinions, thinking,
moreover, to excommunicate all those bishops and
the churches of Asia, as heretics and schismatics, who
disagreed from the Roman order, had not Ireneus other-
wise restrained him from so doing (A. D. I'Jl). Thus,
then the uniformity of keeping that holy day first began
I to be required as a thing necessary, and all they ac-
I counted as heretics and schismatics, who dissented from
j the bishop and tradition of Rome.
I With Victor, stood Theophilus, bishop of Cesarea,
; Narcissus of Jerusalem, Ireneus of Lyons, Palmas of
! Pontus, Banchillus of Corinth, the bishop of Ostroena,
and others ; all of whom condescended to have the cele-
bration of Easter upon the Sunday, because they would
differ from the Jews in all things as much as they might,
and partly because the resurrection of the Lord fell on
; the same day.
On the contrary side there were divers bishops in
' Asia, of whom the principal was Polycratts, bishop of
; Ephesus, who, being assembled with a great multitude
, of bishops and brethren of those parts, by the common
I Rssent of the rest, wrote to Victor, and to the church of
Rome, declaring that they had ever from the beginning
observed tliat day, according to the rule of scripture un-
changed, neither adding nor altering any thing from the
same; alleging, moreover, the examples of the apostles,
and holy fathers their predecessors, as Philip, the apos-
tle, with his three daughters at Hieropolis ; also John
the apostlj and evangelist, at Ephesus, Polycarp at
Smyrna, Tliraseas, bishop and martyr at Eumenia ;
likewise of Sagaris, bishop and martyr at Laodicea ;
holy Papirius and Melito at Sardis. Besides these,
seven bishops, also of his own kindred, and his own an-
cestors, all of whom observed the solemnity of Easter-day,
after the same manner as we do now.
Victor, being not a little moved herewith, by letters
again denounced against them (more bold upon authority
than wise in his commission), violent excommunication,
although by the wise handling of Ireneus and other
learned men, the matter was staid, and Victor otherwise
persuaded. What the persuasions of Ireneus were,
partly appear in Eusebius (lib. 5. cap. 2(j), to this effect :
That the variance and difference of ceremonies is no
strange matter in the church of Christ, as this variety is
not only in the day of Easter, but also in the manner
of fasting, and in other usages among the christians ; for
some fast one day, some two days, some fast more.
And this varying mode of fasting in the churches began
not only in our time, but was among our fore-elders.
And yet with all this diversity they were in unity among
themselves, and so should we be ; neither does this differ-
ence of ceremonies hinder, but rather commends the
unity of faith. And he brings forth the examples of the
fathers, of Telesphorus, Pius, Anicetus, Soter, Eleu-
thenus, and such others, who neither observed the same
usage themselves, nor prescribed it to others, and yet
notwithstanding kept christian charity with such as came
to communicate with them, not observing the same form
of things which they observed, as ajipeared by Polycarp
and Anicetus, who, although they agreed not in one uni-
torm custom of rites, yet refused not to communicate to-
gether, the one giving reverence to the other. Thus, the
controversy being taken up between Ireneus and Victor,
the matter remained free to the time of the Nicene council.
After \ ictor, Zephirinus succeeded in the see of Rome,
(about A. p. 20;}j. To this Zephirinus two epistles are
ascribed ; but as of the epistles of other Roman bishops,
so 1 say and verily suppose of this, that neither the
etyle, nor the matter therein contained, nor the state of
the time, warranted us to think of them otherwise than
IS forged letters ; letters not written by these fathers,
nor m those times, but crafty and wickedly packed in
by some, who, to set up the primacy of Rome, have
most pestilently abused the authority of these noly and
ancient fathers, to deceive the simple church.
Severus, the persecutor, reigned eighteen years ; and
about the later time of his reign came with his army into
Britain, where, after many conflicts with the Britons in
the north, he cast up a ditch with a mighty wall made of
earth and turfs, and strong stakes, to the length of one
hundred and thirty-two miles from the one side of the
sea to the other, beginning at the Tyne and reaching to
the Scottish sea, which done, he removed to York, and
there died, (A. D. 211), leaving his two sons Basianus,
(surnamed Caracalla,) and Geta, joint emperors.
After Caracalla and Macrinus, Heliogabalus succeeded
to the empire, who may rather be called a monster than
a man, so prodigious was his life in all gluttony and
filthiness. To let pass his sumptuous vestures which he
would only wear of gold, and most costly silks ; his
shoes glistering with precious stones finely engraved, he
never wore one garment twice, he was never two days
served with one kind of meat ; some days his company
was served with the brains of ostriches, and another day
with the tongues of popinjays and other sweet singing
birds. When he was near the sea he never used fish ;
but in places far distant from the sea, all his house was
served with most delicate fishes ; at one supper he was
served with seven thousand fishes, and five thousand
fowls. He sacrificed young children, and preferred the
most abandoned characters to the highest offices in the
state, as public dancers, minstrels, charioteers, and such
like ; in one word, he was an enemy to all honesty and
good order. And when he was foretold by his sorcerers
and astronomers, that he should die a violent death, he
provided ropes of silk to hang himself, swords of gold to
kill himself, and strong poison in precious caskets to
poison himself, if he should be forced thereto ; more
over, he made a high tower, having the floor of boards
covered with gold plate, and bordered with precious
stones, from which tower he would throw himself down,
if he should be pursued of his enemies. But, notwith-
standing all his provision, he was slain of the soldiers,
drawn through the city, and cast into the Tiber, after he
had reigned two years and eight months, as witnesseth
Eutropius ; others say four years.
This Heliogabalus, having no issue, adopted as his son
and heir Aurelius Alexander Severus, the son of Mam-
mea, who began to reign A. D. 222, and continued
thirteen years, who is much commended as being virtu-
ous, wise, gentle, liberal, and hurtful to no man. Among
his other virtues, it appears also that he was friendly and
favourable to the christians.
And thus this good emperor continued the space of
thirteen years ; at length, at a commotion in Germany,
he was slain with his mother Mammea. After him suc-
ceeded Maximinus, contrary to the mind of the senate,
only appointed by the soldiers to be emperor. During
the reign of Severus, although the church of Christ had
not perfect peace, yet it had some tranquillity from per-
secution.
At this time were converted Tiburtius, and Valerianus,
the husband of Cecilia, who both, being noblemen of
Rome, remained constant in the faith unto the end and
suffered martyrdom. Of this Cecilia it is written that
after she had brought Valerian her husband, and Tiburtius
his brother to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and with
her exhortations had made them constant unto martyr-
dom, she was apprehended and brought to the idols to do
sacrifice ; which, when she abhorred to do, she was to be
presented before the judge to have the condemnation of
death. In the meantime, the Serjeants and officers who
were about her, beholding her comely beauty, and her
prudent conversation, began with many persuasive
words to solicit her to favour herself, and such excellent
beauty, and not to cast herself away, &c. But she so
replied to them with reasons and godly exhortations,
that by the grace of Almighty God their hearts began to
kindle, and at length to yield to that religion, which be-
fore they persecuted. She perceiving this, desired of
the judge a little respite, which being granted, she sent
'or Urbanus, the bishop, home to her house, to establish
46
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
and ground them in the faith of Christ ; and so they,
with divers others, were baptized, both men and women,
to the number (as the history says) of four hundred
persons, among whom was one Gordian, a nobleman.
This done, this blessed martyr was brought before the
judge, where she was condemned, and inclosed in a hot
bath ; but remaining there a whole day and night with-
out any hurt, she was brought out again, and was be-
headed.
Under the same Alexander Severus, various others
are there said to have suffered martyrdom, as one
Agapetus, of the age of fifteen years, who, being apj)re-
hended and condemned at Preneste in Italy, because he
would not sacrifice to idols, was assailed with sundry
torments : — first, scourged with whips, then hanged up
by the feet, and after having hot water poured ujion
him, at last was cast to the wild beasts.
Also, with the same Agapetus is numbered Calepodius,
a minister of Rome, whose body was first drawn
through the city of Rome, and afterwards cast into the
Tiber.
Then follows Pammachius, a senator of Rome, with
his wife and children, and others, both men and women,
to the nnmber of forty-two. Also, another noble sena-
tor of Rome, named Simplicius, all which together, in one
day, had their heads smitten oflF.and hanged up in divers
gates of the city, for a terror of others, that none should
profess the name of Christ.
Besides these suffered also Quiritius, a nobleman of
Rome, who, with his mother Julia, and a great number
more, were likewise put to death.
Also, Tiberius and Valerianus, citizens of Rome, and
brethren, suffered the same time, being bruised and
broken with bats, and afterwards beheaded.
Also, Martina, a christian maiden, who, after divers
bitter punishments, being constant in her faith, suffered
in like manner by the sword.
THE SIXTH PERSECUTION.
After the death of the Emperor Alexander Severus,
who, with his mother Mammea (as is said) was murder-
ed in Germany, followed Maximinus, chosen by the will of
the soldiers, rather than by the authority of the senate,
(A.D. 2.'55.) who raised up the sixth persecution against the
christians, especially against the teachers and leaders of
the church, thinking thereby the sooner to vanquish the
rest, if the captains were removed out of the way. In
the time of this persecution, Origen wrote his book on
martyrdom, which book, if it were extant, would give us
some knowledge of such as suffered in this persecution,
who are now unknown, and no doubt but they were a
great number, and would have been still greater, had
not the provident mercy of God shortened his days, and
bridled his tyranny, for he reigned but three years.
After him succeeded Gordian (A. D. 238), a man no less
studious for the utility of the commonwealth, than mild
and gentle to the christians. This Gordian, after he had
governed the empire of Rome with much peace and
tranriuillity for six years, was slain by Philip, the emperor
after him.
In the days of these emperors above recited, was Pon-
tianus, bishop of Rome, who succeeded next after
Urban (A. D. 230). He was banished under Maxi-
minus, and died in the beginning of the reign of Gordian.
In his decretal epistles (which seem likewise to be
forged), he appears very devout, after the example of
other bishops, to uphold the dignity of priests, and of
clergymen, saying, that God has them so familiar with
him, that by them he accepts the offerings and oblations
of others, he forgives their sins, and reconciles them unto
him. Also, that they make the body of the Lord with
their own mouth, and give it to others, &c. How this
doctrine stands with the testament of God, and the glory
of Christ, let C\\e reader use his own judgment.
Other notable fathers also in the same time were
raised up in the church, as Philetus, bishop of Antioch,
and after him Zebenus, bishop of the same place.
To these also may be added Ammonius, the school-
master of Origen, and also the kinsman of Porphyry, the
great enemy of Christ. As he left various books in de-
fence of Christ's religion, so, also, he constantly perse-
vered in the doctrine of Christ, which he had received in
the beginning.
After the decease of Pontianus, bishop of Rome, suc-
ceeded Anterius, who, because he caused the acts and
deaths of the martyrs to be written, was put to martyr-
dom himself, by Maximinus the judge. Next to this
bishop was Fabian, of whom more is to be said here-
after.
Hippolytus also was a bishop and a martyr. He was
a great writer, and left many works in the church. He
lived about A. D. 230.
Prudentius, in his Peristephanon, making mention of
great heaps of martyrs buried by threescore together,
sjjeaks also of Hippolytus, and says that he was drawn
with wild horses through fields, dales, and bushes, and
describes a pitiful story.
After the Emperor Gordian, the empire fell to Philip,
(A. D. 244), who, with Philip his son, reigned about six
years. This Philip, with his son, and all his family, was
christened and converted by Fabian and Origen, who by
letters exhorted him and Severa his wife, to be baptized,
being the first of all the emperors that brought in
Christianity into the imperial seat. However, Pompo-
nius Letus reports him to be a dissembling prince ; this
is certain, that for his Christianity he was slain, with his
son, by Decius, one of his captains.
THE SEVENTH PERSECUTION.
Philip being slain, Decius invaded the crown (A. D.
249). By him a terrible persecution was moved against
the christians. The occasion of his hatred and jierse-
cution against them was chiefly because the treasures
of the emperor were committed to Fabian.
This Fabian, being a married man (as Platina writes),
was made bishop of Rome after Anterius, in which func-
tion he remained to the time of Decius ; who, either
because Philip had committed to him his treasures, or
because of the hatred he bare to Philip, caused him to be
put to death, sending out, moreover, his proclamation
into all quarters, that all who professed the name of
Christ should be slain.
To this Fabian, Origen wrote one of his works. This
Origen (as was stated before) was bold and fervent in
assisting, comforting, exhorting, and kissing the mar-
tyrs that were imprisoned and suffered for the name of
Christ. To the danger of his own life he continued
teaching, writing, confuting, exhorting, and expounding,
about the space of fifty-two years, and sustained great
persecutions, but especially under Decius, as Eusebius
testifies, declaring that for the doctrine of Christ, he sus-
tained bands and torments in his body, racking with bars
of iron, dungeons, besides terrible threats of death and
burning.
Epiphanius writes, that being urged to sacrifice to
idols, and taking the boughs in his hand, wherewith the
heathen were wont to honour their gods, he called upon
the christians to carry them in honour of Christ ; which
fact, the church of Alexandria not approving, removed
him from their communion : whereupon Origen, driven
away with shame and sorrow out of Alexandria, went
into Judea, where, being in Jerusalem among the con-
gregation, and there requested of the priests and minis-
ters (he being also a priest) to make some exhortation in
the church, he refused a great while. At length, by
importunate petition being constrained, he rose up, and
turning the book, as though he would have expounded
some place of the scripture, he only read this verse : " God
saith unto the wicked, what lia>t thou to <lo, to de-
clare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my cove-
nant in thy mouth," Ps. 1. 16. Which being read, he
shut the book, and sat down weeping and wailing, the
whole congregation also weeping and lamenting with him.
Nicephorus, and others who write of this persecution
under Decius, declare the horribleness of it to be so
great, and the martyrs who suffered so innumerable, that
he says, it is as easy to number the sands of the sea, as
to recite the particular names of those whom this perse«
A.D. 222—249.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
47
cution devoured. Although, therefore, it be hard here
to insert all persons that died in this persecution, yet such
as are most notable in history, I will briefly touch by the
grace of him for whose cause they suffered.
Alexander was appointed bishop of Jerusalem, where
he continued a very aged man, above forty years gover-
nor of that church, till the time of Decius, when being
brought from Jerusalem to Cesarea into the judgment
place, after a constant and evident confession of his
faith made before the judge, he was committed to prison,
and there finished his life.
Babylas, bishop of Antioch, also died in prison under
Decius.
We read in Chrysostom, a noble and long history of
one Babylas, a martyr, who about these times was put
to death for not sutfering a certain emperor to enter
into the temple of the christians after a cruel murder
committed, the history of which murder is this : There
was a certain emperor, who upon conclusion of peace
with a certain nation, had received for hostage or surety
of peace, the son of the king, being of young and
tender age, on condition that he should not be molested
by them, and that they should never be vexed by him.
Upon this the king's son was delivered, not without
great care and fear of the father, to the emperor, who,
contrary to promise, caused him in a short time to be
slain. This horrible fact being committed, the tyrant
with all haste would enter into the temple of the chris-
tians, where Babylas being bishop or minister, withstood
him that he should not approach that place. The em-
peror, not a little incensed, in great rage bade him
forthwith to be laid in prison with as many irons as he
could bear, and from thence shortly after to be brought
forth to death and execution. Babylas, going boldly to
his martyrdom, desired after his death to be buried with
his irons and bands, and so he was.
In the city of Antioch, Vincentius speaks of forty
young maidens who suffered martyrdom in the persecu-
tion of Decius.
In the country of Phrygia, Vincentius also speaks of
one Peter, who was apprehended, and suffered bitter
torments for Christ's name, under Optimus the procon-
sul ; and in Tjoada likewise, of other martyrs that there
suffered.
Also in Babylon, divers christian confessors were
found by Decius, and led away into Spain, to be executed
there.
In the country of Cappadocia, in like manner, Gcrma-
nus, Theophilus, Cesarius, and Vitalus suffered martyr-
dom for Christ. jNIention is also made of Polychronius,
bishop of Babylon, and in Pamphilia, of Nestor, the
bishop, that died martyrs.
At Perside, Olympiades and Maximus ; in Tyrus, also
a maiden named Anatolia, and Audax gave up their lives
for the testimony of Christ's name.
Eusebius moreover in his sixth book recites out of the
epistles of Dionysius Alexandrinus, many that sufiered
at Alexandria ; which extracts from Dionysius, as they
are cited in Eusebius, I thought good here for the
ancientness of the author, to insert, in his own words,
and in our language, as he wrote them to Fabius, bishop
of Antioch, as follows :
" This persecution," says he, "began not with the
proclamation set forth by the emperor, but began a
whole year before, by the occasion and means of a
wicked person, a soothsayer, and a follower of wicked
arts ; who, coming to our city here, stirred up the mul-
titude of the heathen against us, and incited them to
maintain their own old superstition ; whereby, they
obtaining full power to prosecute their wicked purpose,
declared all their religion to consist in idolatrous worship
of devils, and in our destruction. And first flying upon
a certain priest of ours, named Metra, they apprehended
him, and brought him forth to make him speak after
their wicked blasphemy ; which, when he would not do,
they laid upon him with staves and clubs, and with sharp
reeds pricked his face and eyes, and afterward bringing
him out into the suburbs, there they stoned him to
death. Then they took a faithful woman, called Quinta,
and brought her to the temple of their idols, to compel
her to worship with them : which, when she refused to
do, and abhorred their idols, they bound her feet, and
drew her through the whole street of tlie city upon the
hard stones, and so dashing her against millstones,
and scourging her with whips, brought her to the same
place of the suburbs, as they did the other before, where
she likewise ended her life. This done, in a great
outrage, and with a multitude running together, they
burst into the houses of the religious and godly chris-
tians, spoiling, sacking, and carrying away all that they
could find of any value. Such things as were of less
value, and of wood, they brought into the open market,
and set them on fire. In the mean time, the brethren
witlidrew themselves, taking patiently and no less joy-
fully, the spoiling of their goods, than they did of whom
St. Paul testifies, Heb. x. 32.
" Amongst the rest that were taken, there was a
certain woman well stricken in years, named Apoliinia,
whom they brought forth, and dashing all her teeth out
of her jaws, made a great fire before the city, threaten-
ing to cast her into the same, unless she would blaspheme
with them and deny Christ ; whereat she pausing a little,
as one that would consider with herself, suddenly leaped
into the midst of the fire, and there was burned.
" There was also one Serapion, whom they took in his
own house, and after they had assailed him with sundry
kinds of torments, and had broken almost all the joints
of his body, they cast him down from an upper loft, and
so he completed his martyrdom. Thus was there no way
neither private nor public, left for us, neither by day
nor by night to escape, all the people making an outcry
against us, that unless we uttered words of blasphemy,
we should be drawn to the fire and burned. And this
outrageous tumult endured a certain space, but at length,
as the Lord would, the miserable wretches fell at dissen-
sion among themselves, which turned the cruelty they
exercised against us upon their own heads. And so
had we a little breathing time for a season, while the
fury of the heathen people by this occasion assuaged.
" Shortly after this, word was brought to us that the
state of the empire, which before was something favour-
able to us, was altered and changed against us, putting
us in great fear. And soon followed the edict of the
emperor so terrible and cruel, that according to the fore-
warning of the Lord, the elect (if it had been possible)
might have been thereby subverted. Upon that edict
such fear came over us all, that there were many, espe-
cially of the richer sort, of whom some for fear, came
running, some were led by the occasion of time, some
were drawn by their neighbours being cited by name, to
those impure and idolatrous sacrifices. Others came
trembling and shaking, not as men who should sacrifice,
but who should be sacrificed themselves, the niult'tude
laughing them to scorn. Some again came boldly to the
altars, declaring themselves never to have been of that
profession, of whom it is said, that they shall hardly be
saved. Of the rest, some followed one part, some
another, some ran away, some were taken ; of whom
certain continued constant in bands and torments ;
others again after long imprisonments, before they
should come before the judge, renounced their faith.
Some also, after they suffered torments, yet after re-
volted. But others being as strong as blessed and
valiant pillars of the Lord's, fortified with constancy
agreeing to their faith, were made faithful martyrs of the
kingdom of God.
" Of whom the first was Julian, a man diseased with
the gout, and not able to walk, being carried by two men,
the old man confessing the Lord with a perfect faith,
was laid upon camels, and there scourged, at length cast
into the fire, and with great constancy was so consumed.
" As these were going to their martyrdom, there was
a certain soldier, who in their defence took part against
them that railed upon them. For which cause the people
crying out against him, he also was apprehended, and
being constant in his profession, was forthwith beheaded.
" Likewise one Macar, being admonished and ex-
horted of the judge to deny his faith, and not agreeing to
his persuasions, was burned alive.
*' After these suffered Epimachus, and one Alexander,
4S
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
who being long det lined in prison and in bands, after in-
numerable pains and torments with razors and scourges,
were also cast into the burning tire with four women,
who all there ended their martyrdom.
" Also Amnionarion, an holy maiden, wliom the cruel
judge h;td long anj bitterly tormented, because; she had
assured him before, that no punishment should cause
lier to yield to his request, and constantly performing
the same, she suffered likewise martyrdom with two
other women, one of whom was an aged matron, named
Mercuria, the other was called Dionysia, being a mother
of many fair children, whom yet she loved not above the
Lord. These, after they could not be overcome by any
torments of the cruel judge, but he rather ashamed and
confounded to be overcome by feeble women, at length
being past feeling of all torments, were slain with the
sword.
" Heron, Ater, and Isidorus, and with them Diosco-
rus, also a cliild of fifteen years, were crowned with the
same crown of martyrdom. The judge began with the
child, thinking him more easy to be won with words to
entice him, than with torments to constrain him. But
he persisted immoveable, giving place neither to persua-
sions nor punishment. The rest, after he had grievously
tormented them, being constant in their profession, he
committed to the fire. The judge, greatly marvelling at
Dioscorus for his wise answers and grave constancy, dis-
missed him, sparing his age to a longer respite ; which
Dioscorus is yet with us at this present, waiting for a
long trial.
" Nemesion was accused as a companion of thieves,
but being acquitted before the centurion, was tlien
accused of Christianity, and for that cause was brought to
the president ; who most unrighteously tormenting and
scourging him double, at length burned liim to deatli
among the thieves, making him a blessed martyr.
" There were standing before the tribunal seat, certain
of the warriors or knights, whose names were Animon,
Zenon, Ptolomeus, Ingenuus, and with them a certain
aged man called Theophilus ; who, when a christian man
was examined, seeing him for fear ready to decline and
faU away, did almost burst for sorrow within themselves,
making signs to him with their hands, to be constant.
This being noted of all the standers by, they were ready
to lay hold upon them ; but they preventing tliis matter,
pressed up of their own accord before to the bench of the
judge, ]irofessing themselves to be christians. Insomuch
that both tlie president with the benchers, were all
astonished, the christians, who were judged, were more
emboldened to suffer, and the judges thereby terrified.
This done, they departed from the place, glad and re-
joicing for the testimony that they had given of their
faith. Many others besides, were in other cities and
towns rent and torn asunder by the heathen, among
whom I will speak of one as worthy of memory.
" lschirion,who'.vasin the service of a certain nobleman,
was commanded of his master to make sacrifice, and for
not obeying was therefore rebuked : after persisting in
the same, he was grievously threatened with sharp and
menacing words. At last his master, when he could not
prevail against liim, taking a stake or pike in his hands,
ran him tri.-ough the body and slew him.
" What shall I speak of the multitude of those, who
wandering in deserts and mountains, were consumed with
hunger, thirst, cold, sickness, thieves, or wild beasts, of
whose blessed victory tliey who are yet alive are wit-
nesses ? In the number of whom, one I will speak of,
among others, named Cheremon, bishop of Nilus, an aged
man: he with his wife, flying to the mountains of Arabia,
never returned again, nor ever could be seen after. And
though they were sought for diligently by their brethren,
yet neither they nor their bodies were found : many others
there were, who flying to the mountains of Arabia were
taken by the Arabs : of whom some with much money
could scarce be ransomed, some were never heard of
yet to this present day," (Eusebius, lib. 6. cap. 41,
42., &c.)
Thus much out of the epistles of Dionysius.
Moreover, Dionysius in another place, writing to Ger-
manus, oi his own dangers and of others, sustained in this
persecution, and before this persecution of Decius, thus
speaks, " I behold before the sight of God, I lie not, and
He knoweth, I lie not, how that 1 having no regard of
mine own life, and not without the motion of God,
did fly and avoid the danger of this persecution. Yea,
and also before that this persecution of Decius did rage
against us, Sabinus the same hour sent a farmer to seek
me, at which time I remaining at home waited three days
for his coming. These three days being past, upon the
fourth day, the Lord (iod so willing and commanding me
to fly, and also marvellously opening to me the way, I with
my children and many other brethren went out together.
And that this did not come of myself, but was the work of
God's providence, the sequel of those things declared,
wherein afterward I was not unprofitable peradventure
to some," &c.
Bergomensis makes relation of many martyred under
Decius, as Meniatus, who suffered at Florence ; Aga-
tha, a maiden of Sicily, who is said to have suffered
many and bitter torments, with imprisonment, with beat-
ings, with famine, with racking, being rolled also upon
sharp shells and hot coals.
It is impossible to recite all that sufiTered in this per-
secution, when whole multitudes went into wildernesses
and mountains, wandering without succour or comfort,
some starved with hunger and cold, some consumed v.-ith
sickness, some taken and carried away by barbarous
thieves.
Mention is made of Triphon, a man of great holiness,
and constancy in his suffering, who for his confession or
Christ's name, was afflicted with divers and grievous tor-
ments, and at length put to death with the sword.
When Decius had erected a temple in the midst of the
city of Ephesus, compelling all that were in the city to
sacrifice to the idols : seven christians were found, who
refusing the idolatrous worship, were accused to the
emperor to be christians. Although they openly professed
and did not deny that they were christians ; because
they were soldiers in the emperor's service, respite was
given them for a time to deliberate with themselves, till
the return of the emperor, who was then going to v,-ar.
In the mean time, the emperor being departed, they
taking counsel together, went and hid themselves in some
secret caves of the mount Celius. The emperor return-
ing again, after great search had been made for them,
hearing where they were, caused the mouth of tlie cave
to be closed up with heaps of stones, that they, not able
to get out, should be famished within. And thus were
those good men martyred.
Agathon, of Alexandria, for rebuking of certain per-
sons scornfully deriding the dead bodies of the christians,
was cried out and railed on of the people, and afterward
accused to the judge, and was condemned to lose his
head.
Also Paulus and Andreas, whom the proconsul of Tro-
ada gave to the people; being scourged, and drawn out.
of the city, were trodden to death with the feet of the^
people.
Among others that sufiTered imder this wicked Decius,
there is mention made of one Justin, a priest, and ofJj
Nicostratus, a deacon, also Fortius, a priest, who is re-
ported to have been the converter of Philip, the emperor. «|
Abdon and Sennas, two noblemen, because they had
buried the christians, were accused to Decius, and brought
to Rome ; where, being commanded to sacrifice to dead
idols, they would not obey ; and were given to the wild
beasts to be devoured. '
One Secundianus was accused to be a christian, whicU
profession when he stoutly maintained, he was command- 'I
cd to prison. As the soldiers were leading him to the '
gaol, Verianus and Marcellianus confessed themselves '|
christians, and were apprehended, and being commanded'
to sacrifice, they did spit upon the idols, and so they
were beaten with truncheons, and afterwards were hangerf
and tormented, having fire set to their sides.
To give the history of the lives and suflferings of all,
who were martyred in this terrible persecution, were too
long, and almost infinite : briefly therefore to rehearse
the names of such as we find alleged out of a treatise of |
Bade, shall be at this time sufficient. Under Deci«
A.D. 249— 251.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
49
suffered Hippolitus and Concordia, Hiereneus and Abun-
dus, Victoria, a maiden, being noble personages of Antioch ;
Bellias, bishop of the city of Apollonia, Leacus, Tirsus,
and Gallinetus. Nazanzo, Triphon in the city of Egypt,
called Tamas, Phileas bishop, Philocomus, witli many
others in Perside, Philcronius a bishop of Babylon ; The-
siplion bishop of Pamphilia, Neffor bishop ia Corduba,
Pannenius a priest, with divers more. In the province
called Colonia, Circensis, Marianus, and Jacobus. In
Africa, Nemesianus, FelLx, Rogatianus a priest, Felicissi-
mus. At Rome, Jovinus, Basileus, also two maidens named
Ruffina and Secunda, TertuUianus, Valerianus, Neme-
sius, Sempronianus and Olympius. In Spain, Teragon.
At Verona, Zeno the bishop. At Cesarea, Marinus and
Archemius. In the town of Milan, Privatus the bishop,
Theodorus, surnamed Gregorius, bishop of Pontus.
Now that I have recorded sufficiently of them, who
under this tempest of Decius gave their lives to martyr-
dom for the testimony of Christ : it remains that a few
words also be spoken of such as for fear or frailty in this
persecution did shrink and slide from the truth of their
confession. In the number of whom, was Serapion,
a very aged man. Of whom Dionysius Alexandrinus
writes to Fabius, declaring that this Serapion was an
old man, who lived amongst them a sincere and upright
life for a long time, but at length fell. This Serapion
often desired to be received again, but no man listened
to him, for he had sacrificed before. Not long after
this, he fell into sickness, when he remained three days
dumb, and benumbed of all his senses. The fourth day,
beginning to recover a little, he called to him his sisteii
son, and said, " How long, how long (my son) do you
hold me here ? Make haste, I pray you, that I
may be absolved. Call some of the ministers to me:"
and so, saying no more, he held his peace again as dumb
and speechless. The boy ran (it was then night) to the
minister, who, being sick, could not come with the mes-
senger, but said, " As he always desired that such as lay
dying, if they wished to be received and reconciled, and
especially if they required it earnestly, should be ad-
mitted, whereby with the better hope and confidence they
may depart hence :" therefore he gave to the boy a little
of the eucharist, desiring him co crumble it into the cup,
and so to drop it into the mouth of the old man. With
this the boy returned, bringing with him the holy eu-
charist. As he was now near at hand, before he had entered
in, Serapion, the old man speaking again, said, " Comest
thou, my son ?" The messenger answered, " The priest
is sick, and cannot come ; but do as he desires you, and
let me go." And the boy mixed the eucharist, and
dropt it in softly into the mouth of the old man,
who, after he had tasted a little, immediately gave up
the ghost.
Dionysius, in his epistles, also writing to Fabius, and
lamenting the great terror of this persecution, declares
how many worthy and notable christians, for fear and
horror of the great tyranny thereof, did shew themselves
feeble and weak men ; of whom, some for dread, some
of their own accord, others after great torments suffered,
yet afterwards revolted from the constancy of their profes-
sion. Also St. Cyprian recites with great sorrow, and
testifies how a great number at the first threatening of
the adversary, neither being compelled nor thrown down
with any violence of the enemy, but of their voluntary
weakness fell down themselves. " Neither," says he, "tar-
rying while the judge should put incense in their hands,
but before any stroke was stricken in the field, turned
their backs, and played the cowards ; not only coming to
their sacrifices, but pretending to come without compul-
sion, bringing moreover their infants and children, either
put into their hands, or taking them with them of their
own accord, and exhorting moreover others to do the
like after their example."
Upon the occasion of these and others, which were
a great number that fell and renounced the faith in
this persecution of Decius, first rose up the heresy
of Novatus, who, in these days, made a great disturb-
ance in the church, holding this opinion, that they,
which once renounced the faith, and for fear of torments
nad offered incense to the idols, although they repented,
yet could not afterward be reconciled, nor adn itted to
the church of Christ. This Novatus being first priest
under Cyprian at Carthage, afterward by stirring up dis-
cord and factions began to disturb the bishopric of Cy-
prian, to appoint there a deacon against the bishoji's mind
or knowledge, also to allure and separate certain of the
brethren from the bishop, all which is declared by Cyprian,
(lib. 2. epist. 8.) After this, Novatus goingtoRome, kept
there the like stir with Cornelius, as the same Cornelius
testifies in Eusebius, (lib. (i. cap. 4.'^.) setting himself up
as bishop of Rome, against Cornelius, who was the law-
ful bishop. He allured to him, to be his adherents,
three or four good men and holy confessors, who had
suffered great torments for their confession, whose names
were Maximus, Urbanus, Sidonius, and Celerinus. After
this he enticed three simple bishops about the coasts of
Italy, to repair to Rome, under the pretence to make an
end of certain controversies then in hand ; he then
caused them to lay their hands upon him, and to make
him bishop, which they did. Thus, there were two bi-
shops together in one church of Rome, Novatus and
Cornelius, which was unseemly, and contrary to the
discipline of the church. And hereupon arises the true
cause and meaning of St. Cyprian, writing in his epistles
so much of one bishop, and of the unity to be kept in
ecclesiastical government. And in like sort also Corne-
lius himself writes of one bishop, saying, " He knew not
that there ought to be one bishop in a catholic church,"
&c. This by the way, (not out of the way I trust,) I have
bricriy touched, to detect and refute the cavilling of the
papists, who falsely apply these passages of Cyprian and
Cornelius to maintain the pope's supreme mastership
alone, over the whole universal church of Christ in all
places ; when their meaning is otherwise, how that
every one catholic church or diocese ought to have one
bishop over it, not that the whole world ought to be
subject to the dominion of him that is bishop of Rome.
Now, to return to the history again. Novatus being
thus bishop, took not a little upon him, endeavouring
by all means to defeat Cornelius, and to allure the i)eo-
ple from him ; insomuch that when Novatus came to the
distributing of the offerings, and should give every man
his part, he compelled the simple persons every man to
swear that they would adhere to him, before they should
receive of the benediction, and of the collects, or obla-
tions, holding both their hands in his, and speaking these
words unto them : " Swear to me by the body and blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou wilt not leave me
and go to Cornelius." He held their bands, till they,
swearing unto him, instead of Amen (to be said at the
receiving of the bread), should answer, " I will not return
to Cornelius." Where, note by the way, that the Latin
book of Christoferson's translation, in this place, craftily
leaves out the name of bread. This story being written
in Eusebius, and also contained in Nicephorus, although
not in the same order of words, yet in effect drawn out
of him, declares in plain words in both authors, that the
sacrament of the body of Christ is termed with the plain
name of bread, after the consecration.
And thus much of Novatus, against whom, as Euse-
bius testifies, a synod was holden at Rome, of sixty bi-
shops, in the time of Cornelius, under the reign of
Decius (A. D. 251), whereby it may be supposed that
the heat of the persecution at that time was somewhat
calmed.
After Fabian, next succeeded to the bishopric of Rome,
Cornelius, whom Cyprian notes to be a worthy bishop,
and much recommended for Ids great virtue, chosen
to that ofl5ce, not so much by his own consent, as by
the full agreement both of the clergj'men, and also of
the people.
In this persecution of Decius, he demeaned himself
very constantly, and faithfully, sustaining great conflicts
with the adversaries. By the commandment of Decius
he was banished, and afterwards sent his letters to
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Cyprian again to him.
This coming to the ears of Decius, the emperor, he
sends for Cornelius, asking him how he durst be so bold
to shew such stubbornness, that he neither caring for the
gods, nor fearing the displeasure of his princes, durst
b2
60
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUflONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
give and receive letters from others, against tlic common-
wealth? To whom Cornelius answering cleared him-
self, declaring to the emperor, that he had, indeed, writ-
ten letters, and received answers concerning the
praises and honouring of Christ, and the salvation of
Boals, but nothing as touching any matter of the com-
monwealth. Then Decius, moved with anger, com-
manded him to be beaten with scourging, and so to be
brought to the Temple of Mars, either there to do sacri-
fice, or to suffer the extremity. But he, rather willing
to die, than to commit such iniquity, ))repared himself
to martyrdom. And so commending the charge of tlie
church unto Steplianus liis archdeacon, he was brought
to the way of Appius, where he ended his life in faithful
martyrdom.
And thus much of the tyranny of this wicked Decius
against God's saints. Now to touch also the power of
God's vengeance and punishment against liim. Like as
■we commonly see a vehement tempest not continue long,
so it happened with this tyrannical tormentor, who,
reigning but two years, was slain with his son in battle
with the barbarians; as he had slain Philip and his son
before, so was he, with his son, slain by the righteous
judgment of God himself.
Neither did the just hand of God plague the emperor
only, but also all the persecutors of his word throughout
ill provinces and dominions ; amongst whom the Lord,
immediately after the death of Decius, sent such a
phigue and pestilence, lasting for the space of ten year*
together, as is horrible to hear, and almost inci-edibk to
believe. And although the greatness of tlie plague
touched also the christians somewhat, yet it scourged
the heathen idolaters much more, lieside that the order
of their behaviour in the one and in the other was very
ditl'erent. For, as Dionysius records, tlie christians,
through brotherly love and piety, did not refuse one to
visit and comfort another, and to minister to him what
ratcl rei.|uiied, notwithstanding it was great danger
to them, for tliere were many who, in closing up their
cj^es, in washing their bodies, and interring them in
the ground, took the disease, and soon followed them
to their graves. Yet all this stayed them not from
doing their duty, and shewing mercy one to another ;
whereas the heathens contrarily being extremely
visited by the hand of God, felt tlie plague, but consi-
dered not the striker, nor did they consider their neigh-
bour, but every man, shifting for himself, cared not one
for another, but sucli as were infected, they would cast
out of doors half dead to be devoured of dogs and wild
beasts, some they let die within their houses without all
Buccour, some they suffered to lie unburied, for that no
man durst come near them ; and yet, notwithstanding
their care not to come near the sick, the pestilence
followed them whithersoever they went, and miserably
consumed them.
Tlie Emjieror Gallus, who, with his son Volusianus,
succeeded Decius (A. D. 251), was somewhat quiet in
the beginning of his reign, yet shortly after, following
the stej)s of Decius, he set forth edicts in like manner
for the persecution of christians, although in this edict
we find no number of martyrs to have suffered, but this
persecution was only in the banishment of bishops or
guides of the flock. We do not read of otlier sufferings
or executions, for the terrible pestilence following imme-
diately, kept the barbarous heathen othenvise occujjied.
Cyprian, being now banished, yet had no less care of his
flock and of the whole church than if he had been jire-
sent with them, and therefore never ceased in his ejiistles
continually to exhort and call upon them to be constant
in their profession and patient in their afflictions.
Amongst others whom he comforted in his banishment,
(although he was in that case to be comforted himself,)
were certain that were condemned to labour in the
mines, whose names were Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius,
with other bishops, priests, and deacons, to whom he
writes, " How it is no shame but a glory, not to be feared,
but to be rejoiced at, to sufler banishment or other pains
for Christ ; and confirming them in the same, or rather
commending them, signifies how worthily they show
themselves to be as valiant captains of virtue, exciting
both by the confessions of their mouth, and by the suf.
fering of their bodies, the hearts of the brethren to
christian martyrdom, whose example was and is a great
confirmation to many, both women and children, to follow
the like ; as for punishment and suffering, it is (saith he)
a thing not execrable to a christian; for a christian man's
breast, whose hojie doth wholly consist in the cross,
dreadeth neither bat nor club ; wounds and scars of the
body are ornaments to a christian man, such as bring no
shame nor dishonesty to the party, but rather prefer
and free him with the Lord. And although in the
mines where the metals are digged there are no beds for
christian men's bodies to take their rest, yet they have
their rest in Christ ; and though their weary bones lie
upon the cold ground, yet it is no pain to lie with
Christ. Their feet have been fettered with bands and
chains, but he is happily bound of man, whom the Lord
Christ doth loose ; happily doth he lie tied in the stocks,
whose feet thereby are made swifter to run to heaven.
Neither can any man tie a christian so fast, but he run-
neth so much the faster for his garland of life. They
have no garments to save them from cold, but he that
putteth on Christ is sufficiently clothed. Do their
liunairy bodies lack bread ? ' But man liveth not by
bread only, but by every word proceeding from the
mouth of God.' Your deformity (saith he) shall be
turned to honour, your mourning to«joy, your pain to
l>leasure and infinite felicity. And if this do grieve you
that you cannot now employ your sacrifices and obla-
tions after your wonted manner, yet your daily sacrifice
ceaseth not, which is a contrite and humble heart, as
when you offer up daily your bodies a lively and a glori-
ous sacrifice unto the Lord, which is the sacrifice that
pleaseth God. And though your labour be great, yet is
the reward greater, which is most certain to follow ; for
God beholding and looking down upon them that confess
his iiame, in their willing mind approveth them, in their
striving helpeth them, in their victory crowneth them,
rewarding that in us which he hath performed, and
crowning that in us which he hath perfected." With
these and such like comfortable words he doth animate
his brethren, admonishing them that they are now in a
joyful journey, hasting apace to the mansions of the
martyrs, there to enjoy after this darkness an eternal
light and brightness greater tlian all their sufferings, ac-
cording to the apostle's saying, ' The suff'erings of this
present time are not worthy to he compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us,' Romans viii. 18.
And with like words of sweet comfon and consolation,
writing to Seagrius and Rogatianus, who were in prison
and bonds for the testimony of truth, Ke encourages
them to continue steadfast and patient in the way wherein
they have begun to run ; for that they have the Lord
with them, their helper and defender, who promises to
be with us to the world's end ; and therefore he exhorts
them to set before their eyes, in their death immortality,
in their pain everlasting glory, of whom it is written,
" Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of Ids
saints." Although before men they suffered torments,
yet their hope is full of immortality, and being vexed in
small things, they shall be well requited in great
matters ; " For the Lord hath tried them as gold in the
fire." lie admonishes them that it is appointed from
the beginning of the world, that righteousness should
suffer here in secular conflicts ; for so just Abel was slain
in the beginning of the world, and after him all just and
good men, the ju-ophets also and the apostles sent of the
Lord himself; unto whom the Lord first gave an ex-
amjile in himself, teaching that there is no coming to
his kingdom, but by that way which he entered himself,
saying by tliese words, " He that loveth his life shall
lose it." And again, " Fear ye not them that kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul." And 8t. Paul
likewise, admonishing all them who would be partakers
of the promises of the Lord, to follow the Lord, saith,
"If we suffer we shall also reign with him."
At the same time, Lucius, bishop of Rome, was sent
to banishment, who succeeded next after Cornelius,
(about A. D. 2;')3), although he did not long continue in
this banishment, but returned home to his church.
1
A.D. 251— 259.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
51
After him next came Stephen, bishop of Rome.
After the reign of Gallus, and his son Volus'^nus,
Emilianus, who slew them both by civil sedition, suc-
'ceeded in their place, who reigned but three months,
and was also slain. Next to whom Valerian, and his
son Gahenus, were advanced to the empire (A. D. 2.5.'}).
About the changing of these emperors the persecution
which first began by Decius, and afterward slacked in
the time of Gallus, was now extinguished for a time,
partly for the great plague reigning in all places, partly
by the change of the emperors, (although it was not very
long) : for Valerian, in the beginning of his reign, for
three or four years, was very courteous and gentle to the
people of God, and well accepted of the senate.
Neither was there any of all tlie emperors before him,
even of those who openly professed Christ, that shewed
themselves so loving and familiar toward the christians
as he did. In so much that his whole court was filled
with holy saints, and servants of Christ, and godly
persons, so that his house might seem to be made a
church of God. But, by the malice of Satan, through
wicked counsel, these quiet days did not endure very
long. For in process of time this Valerian being
charmed or incensed by a certain Egyptian, a chief
ruler of the heathen synagogue of the Egyptians, was so
far infatuated a»d bewitclied, that through the detesta-
ble provocations of that devilish Egyptian, he was
wholly turned to abominable idols, and to execrable im-
piety, in sacrificing young infants, and quaitering bodies,
and dividing the entrails of new-born children ; and so,
proceeding in his fury, he moved the eighth persecution
against the christians, whom the wicked Ei,7ptian could
not endure (A. D. 257).
THE EIGHTH PEKSECUnON.
The chief original cause of this persecution is partly
sienified before, namely through the influence of the wick-
ed" Egyptian : but as this was the outward and political
cause, so St. Cyprian shews other causes. We (says
he) must understand and confess that this oppression
and calamity which has wasted for the most part our
whole comj)any, and daily consumes it, lises chiefly of
our own wickedness and sins, while we walk not in the
way of the Lord, nor observe his precepts left unto us
for our institution. The Lord observed the will of his
Father in all points, but we observe not the will of the
Lord, having all our mind and study set upon lucre and
possessions, given to pride, full of emulation and dis-
sension, void of simplicity and faithful dealing, re-
nouncing this world in word only, but nothing in deed,
every man pleasing himself, and dis]ileasing all others.
And therefore are we thus scourged, and worthily : for
what stripes and scourges do we not deserve, when the
confessors themselves (such as have stood the trial of
their confession) and such as ought to be an example to
the rest of well-doing, do keep no discipline. And
therefore because some such there be, proudly puffed up
«vith this swelling and unmannerly boasting of their con-
fession, these torments come, such as do not easily send
us to the crown, excejjt by the mercy of God : some,
being taken away by quickness of death, do escajie
the tediousness of punishment. These things do we
suffer for our sins and deserts.
Finally, in the end of the epistle, Cyprian adds, " the
Lord vouchsafes to many of his servants to foreshew
the restoring of his church, asd the stable quiet of our
health and safeguard ; after rain fair weather, after
darkness light, after stormy tempest peaceable calm, the
fatherly help of his love, the wont and old glory of his
divine Majesty, whereby both the blasphemy of the per-
secutor shall be repressed, and the repentance of such
as have fallen be reformed, and the strong and stable
confidence of them that stand shall rejoice and glory."
As to the crimes and accusations in this persecution
laid to the charge of the christians, this was the prin-
cipal : that tl-.ey refused to do worship to idols and to the
emperors ; and that they professed the name of Christ :
besides, all the calamities and evils that hapjjened in the
world, as wars famine, and pestilence, were imputed to
the christians. Against all which accusations Cyprian
eloquently defends the christians.
Cyprian was born in Carthage, and was an idolater
and Gentile, given to the study and practice of the magi-
cal arts : of his conversion and baptism he himself in
his first book and second epistle, writes an eloquent his-
tory. His conversion was through the grace of God,
and the means of Cecilius, a priest, and througli the
occasion of hearing the history of the prophet Jonas.
Immediately upon his conversion he distributed among
the poor all his substance, and being ordained a priest,
was not long after constituted bishop of the church of
Carthage.
He was courteous and gentle, loving and full of
patience, and yet strict and severe in his office, accord-
ing as the cause required : he was most loving and kind
toward his brethren, and took much pains in helping
and relieving the martyrs.
Now a few words touching his exile and martyr-
dom. He himself states that he voluntarily absented
himself, lest he should do more hurt than good to the
church, by reason of his presence ; and from the desolate
places of his banishment, wherein he was oftentimes
sought for, he writes to his brethren. But after he re-
turned out of exile in the reign of Valerian, he was
the second time banished by Paternus, the proconsul
of Africa. But when Paternus was dead, Galienus
Marimus succeeded him, who, finding Cyprian in a
garden, caused him to be apprehended, and to be brought
before the idols to offer sacrifice, and on his refusing, the
proconsul condemned him to have his head cut off; he
jjatiently and willingly submitted his neck to the stroke
of the sword. And so this blessed martyr ended this
present life in the Lord (A.D. 259).
Now to speak something of his works and books left
behind him, although aU that he wrote do not remain :
some are missing, some again are not written in his own
name : but such as be certainly his may be soon discerned
by the style and sense. Such is the eloquence of his
phrase, and gravity of his sentence, vigour of wit,
power in persuasion, so differing from all others, tliat he
cannot easily be imitated. Of which extant books, as
the eloquence is worthily commended by the school of rhe-
toricians, so is the authority of no less reputation, not
only in this age of the church, but also among the ancient
fathers.
As we have set forth the commendation of this blessed
martyr Cyi>rian, we must take heed that we do not
incur the old and common danger, which the Papists are
commonlv accustomed to run into, whose fault is almost
always to be immoderate and excessive in their proceed-
ings, making too much of every thing. Thus in speaking
of the Holy Sacraments, they make more of them than the
nature of sacraments require ; not using them, but abusing
them, not referring or applying them, but adoring them,
not taking them in their kind, for things godly, as they
are, but taking them for God himself, turning religion
into superstition, and the creature to the Creator, the
sign to the thing signified, &c. To the church likewise
and ceremonies of the church, to general councils, to the
blessed virgin Mary mother of Christ, to the bishop of
Rome, &c., they are not contented to attribute that
which is sufficient, but they exceed the bounds of judg-
ment and of verity, judging so of the church and general
councils, as though they never could, or never did err in
any jot. That the blessed mother of Christ was blessed
among women, and a virgin full of grace, the scriptures
and truth allow : but to say that she was born without
original sin, or to make of her an advocate or mother of
mercy, there they run further than truth will bear. The
ceremonies were first ordained to serve only for the sake
of order, to which they have at length attributed so much
that they have set in them a great part of our religion,
yea, and also of salvation. And what thing is there
wherein the Papists have not exceeded ?
Wherefore, to avoid this common error of the Papists,
we must beware in commending the doctors and writers
of the church, that truth and consideration go with our
commendation. For though this cannot be denied, but
that Cyprian, and other blessed martyrs were holy men ;
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. [Book 1.
vet notwithstanding, they were men, that is, such as
nii-ht have, and had their falls and faults ; men, I say,_
and not angels, nor gods ; saved hy God, not saviours of
men, nor patrons of grace. And though they were also
men of excellent learning, yet with their learning they
had also their errors; and though their books be (as
they ought to be) of great authority, yet they ought
not to be equal with the scriptures. And although they
said well in most things, yet it is not therefore enough
that what they said must stand for a truth. That pre-
eminence of authority only belongs to the word of God,
and not to the pen of man. For of men and doctors,
be they never so famous, there is none that is free from
fault. In Origen (although in his time the admiration
of his learning was singular) yet how many things there
are which the church now does not hold. For examin-
ing him by the scriptures, where he said well, they admit
him, where otherwise, they leave him. In Polycarp, the
church has corrected and altered that which he held in
ceiehratin" Easter. Neither can holy and blessed Igna
tius be defended in all his sayings ; as where he makes
the fasting upon the Sunday or the Sabbath day as
great an offence, as to kill Christ himself: (Ignat. Epist.
ad Philip.) contrary to this saying of St. Paul, " Let
no man judge you in meat or in drink," Col. ii. 16.
Ireneus held that man was not made perfect in the be-
ginning. He seems also to defend free will in man, in
spiritual things. He says that Christ suffered after he
was fifty years old. Tertullian is noted to be a millina-
riau ; also to have been a montanist. He held also with
Justin, Cyprian and others, that the angels fell first for
the love of women. He defends free will of man after
the corruption of nature, inclining also to the error of
them which defend the possibility of keeping God's law.
Justin also seems to have inclined to the error of the
millinarians, also of the fall of certain angels by women,
of free will of man, of possibility of keeping the law, and
such others. Neither was Cyprian wholly exempt from
error, he, contrary to the doctrine of the church, held
with rebaptizing such as were before baptized of here-
tics. Of Augustine likewise, of Ambrose, Jerome,
Chrysostom, the same may be said, that all of them had
their peculiar faults and errors, whereof it were too long
and out of our purpose to treat at present.
About this time suffered also Sixtus II., bishop of
Rome, who, being accused of being a christian, was
brought with his six deacons to the place of execution,
where he, with Nemesius and the deacons, were beheaded
and suffered martyrdom.
Now let us enter upon the history of that most con-
stant and courageous martyr of Christ, St. Lawrence,
whose words and works deserve to be as fresh and green
in christian hearts, as is the flourishing laurel tree. This
thirsty heart, longing after the water of life, was de-
sirous to pass unto it through the strait door of bitter
death, when he saw his vigilant shepherd, Sixtus, led as
an harmless lamb, of harmful tyrants to his death.
Let us draw near to the fire of martyred Lawrence,
that our cold hearts may be warmed thereby. The mer-
ciless persecutor, understanding this virtuous Levite, not
only to be a minister of the sacraments, but a distributor,
also, of the church riches, promised to himself a double
prey, by the apprehension of one poor soul. First with
the rake of avarice to scrape to himself the treasure of
poor christians : then, with the fiery fork of tyranny, so
to toss and turmoil them, that they should wax weary of
their profession. With furious face, and cruel coun-
tenance, the greedy wolf demanded where this deacon
Lawrence had bestowed the substance of the church?
Who craving three days' respite, promised to declare
where the treasure might be had. In the mean time, he
caused a good number of poor christians to be congre-
gated : so when the day of his answer was come, the
persecutor strictly charged him to stand to his promise.
Then valiant Lawrence, stretching out his arms over the
poor, said : " These are the precious treasure of the
church, these are the treasure indeed, in whom the faith
of Christ reigneth, in whom Jesus Christ hath his man-
sion-place. What more precious jewels can Christ have,
than those in whom he hath '-romised to dwell ? For so
it is written, ' I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat ; I
was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink ; I was houseless,
and ye lodged me.' .\nd again ; ' Look what ye have done
to the least of these, the same have ye done to me.' Oh,»
what tongue is able to express the fury and madness of
the tyrant's heart ! How he stamped, he stared, he
ramped, he fared, as one out of his wits. His eyes
glowed like fire, his mouth foamed like a boar, his teeth
grinned like a hell-hound. Now he might be called, not a
reasonable man, but a roaring lion. " Kindle the fire,"
he cried, " spare no wood. Hath this villain dehided
the emperor? away with him— away with him. Whip
him with scourges, jerk him with rods, buffet him with
fists, brand him with clubs. Does the traitor jest with
the emperor ? Pinch him with fiery tongs, gird him with
burning plates ; bring out the strongest chains, and the
fire-forKs, and the grated bed of iron ; put it on the fire I
bind the rebel hand and foot ; and when the bed is hot,
on with him 1 Roast him, broil him, toss him, turn him :
on pain of our high displeasure do every man his office,
0 ye tormentors." The word was no sooner spoken,
but all was done.
After many cruel handlings, this meek lamb was laid,
1 will not say on his fiery bed of iron, but on his soft bed
of down. So mightily God wrought with his martyr
Lawrence ; so miraculously God tempered his element,
the fire, that it was not a bed of consuming pain, but a
pallet of nourishing rest to Lawreftce. Not Lawrence,
but the emperor, might seem to be tormented : the one
broiling in the flesh, the other burning in the heart.
O rare and unaccustomed patience ! O faith invincible 1
that not only notburnest, but by means unspeakable dost
recreate, refresh, establish, and strengthen those that
are burned, afflicted, and troubled. And why dost thou
so mightily comfort the persecuted ? Because, through
thee they believe in God's infallible promises. By thee
this glorious martyr overcomes his torments, vanquishes
this tyrant, confounds his enemies, confirms the chris-
tians, sleeps in peace, and reigns in glory. The God of
might and mercy grant us grace, by the life of Lawrence,
to learn to live in Christ, and by his death to learn to
die for Christ. Amen.
Such is the wisdom and providence of God, that the
blood of his dear saints (like good seed) never falls in
vain to the ground, but it brings some increase: so it
pleased the Lord to work at the martyrdom of this holy
Lawrence, that by the constant confession of this worthy
and valiant deacon, a certain soldier of Rome, being con-
verted to the same faith, desired forthwith to be baptized
of him ; for which he was called to the judge, scourged,
and afterwards beheaded.
Under the same Valerian, Dionysius, bishop of Alex-
andria, suffered much attliction and banishment, with
certain other brethren : of which he writes himself.
Dionysius, with three of his deacons, came to Emilianus
the president, who signified to them the clemency of his
emperors, who had granted them pardon of life, so that
they would worship the gods of the empire ; trusting, as
he said, that they would not show themselves ungrateful
to the clemency of them which so gently did exhort them.
To this Dionysius said : " We worship not many, nor
divers gods, but only that one God, who is the Creator
of all things, and hath committed to our lords. Valerian
and Galien, the government of their empire, making to
him our prayers incessantly, for their prosperous health
and continuance." Then the president said : " And
what hurt is it, if you both worshij) your God, what god
soever he be, and these our gods also ?" Dionysius an-
swered, " We worship none other, but as we have said."
Emilianus the president, said, " I see you are ungrateful
men, and consider not the benignity of the emperor ;
wherefore you shall remain no longer in this city, but
shall be sent out to the parts of Libya ; neither shall
it be lawful for you to collect your assemblies, or to re-
sort, as ye are wont, to your burial places. And if any
of you shall be found out of your places, where you are
appointed, at your peril be it." Dionysius, speaking of
himself, saith : " Although I was sick, yet he urged me
so strictly to depart, that he would not give me one day's
respite. And yet neither am I altogether absent from
A.D. 2r.9— 270.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
the society of the Lord's flock ; I am absent in body,
yet present in spirit ; and a great congregation remained
with me, as well of those brethren which followed me out
of the city, as also of them which were remaining there
out of Egypt. And there the Lord opened to me the
door of his word : although at first I was persecuted and
stoned among them, yet afterward a great number of
them turned from their idols, and were converted to the
Lord ; and so the word was preached to them : which
ministry, after we had accomplished there, the Lord
removed us to another place. For Emilianus translated
us to more sharp and stricter places of Libya."
Moreover, Dionysius, making mention in his epistle
of them which were afflicted in this persecution of Va-
lerian, says, " It were supettluous here to recite the
names, peculiarly of all our brethren slain in this perse-
cution ; this is certain, that there were men, women,
young men, maidens, old wives, soldiers, simple inno-
cents, and of all sorts and ages of men ; of whom some
with scourgings and fire, some with the sword, obtained
the victory, and got the crown. Some continued a great
time, and yet have been reserved. In which number I
am reserved hitherto, to some other time known unto
the Lord, who saith, ' In the time accepted I have heard
thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee,' &c.
Neither does the president yet cease cruelly murdering
such as are brought before him, tearing some with tor-
ments, imprisoning and keeping some in custody, com-
manding that no man should come to them, inquiring
also who resorted unto them. Yet, notwithstanding,
God comforts the afflicted with cheerfulness, and the
daily resort of the brethren."
As touching Dionysius himself, the histories report,
that he survived all these troubles and persecutions, by
the providence of God, and lived to about the year A.D.
268, and so departed in peace in great age.
In Cesarea Palestine, suffered also at the same time,
Priscus, Malchus and Alexander, which three dwelling
in the country, and good men, seeing the valiant courage
of the christians, so boldly to venture, so constantly to
stand, and so patiently to suffer in this persecution,
beffan to accuse their own cowardly negligence, to see
others so zealous and valiant, and themselves so cold
and faint-hearted : so, consulting and agreeing with
themselves, they came to Cesarea, and declared what
they were, and obtained the end they came for, being
given to the wild beasts.
There suffered also in Africa, three constant maidens.
Maxima, Donatilla, and Secunda, who had vinegar and
gall given for their drink, then were tried with scourges,
after that were tormented upon the gibbet, and rubbed
with lime, then were scorched upon the fiery grid-iron,
and at last were cast to the wild beasts.
In Simela, a city in Italy, one Pontius being appre-
hended, by the commandment of Claudius the president,
was first hanged upon the rack, and was then cast to the
wild beasts.
Zenon, bishop of Verona, is said also to have suffered
martyrdom in the same persecution.
Fructuosus, bishop of Tarraconia, in Spain, with his
two deacons, Augurius and Eulogius, suffered also mar-
tyrdom, being burned after six days' imprisonment in
this persecution. The charge of the judge to the bishop
was, " That he should worship the gods whom the em-
peror Galien worshipped." To whom Fructuosus, the
bishop, answered, " Nay, I worship no dumb god of
stocks and blocks, whom Galien worships, but I wor-
ship the lord and master of GaUen, the Father and
Creator of all times, and his only Son sent down to us,
of whose flock I am here the pastor and shepherd."
At this word, Emilianus answered again, " Nay, say not
thou art, but say thou wast." And forthwith commanded
them to be committed to the fire, where (as is said) their
bands and manacles being loosed by the fire, they
lifted up their hands to heaven, praising the living God,
to the great admiration of them that stood by, praying
also that the element might work his full force upon
them, and speedily dispatch them.
And thus continued wicked Valerian in his tyranny
against the saints of Christ. But as all the tyrants
before, and oppressors of the christians had their de-
served reward at the just hand of God, " which ren-
dereth to every man according to his works;" so this
cruel Valerian felt the just stroke of his hand, whose
indignation he had provoked ; for making his expedition
against the Persians, he fell into the hands of his ene-
mies (A. D. 2(j0), where he led his wretched age in a
more wretched captivity. Insomuch, that Sapor, the king
of the Persians, used him for his riding-block : for
whensoever the king would mount his horse openly in
the sight of the people. Valerian was brought forth
instead of a block, for the king to tread upon his back in
going to his horseback. And so continued this blockish
butcherly emperor with shame and sport enough to his
final end.
Eusebius, in a certain sermon, declares a cruel hand-
ling of him, affirming that he was slain, writing in these
words : " and thou, V^alerian, for so much as thou hast
exercised the same cruelty in murdering of the subjects
of God, therefore hast proved unto us the righteous
judgment of God, in that thyself hast been bound in
chains, and carried away for a captive slave with thy
gorgeous purple, and thy imperial attire, and at length
also, being commanded of Sapor, king of the Persians,
to be slain and powdered with salt, hast set up unto all
men a perpetual monument of thine own wretched-
ness," &.C.
Galien succeeded his father Valerian (A. D. 260),
and being (us is thought) terrified by the example of his
father, removed, at least moderated, the persecution
stirred up by the edicts of Valerian.
By which some peace was granted under Galien to
the church of Christ ; although there were some who
suffered, of whom was one Marinus. This Marinus
being a warrior and a nobleman in Cesarea, stood for
the dignity of a certain order, which by right was next
to fall upon him, had not the envious ambition of him,
that should follow after him, supplanted him both of
office and life ; for he accused him of being a christian,
and therefore said that he was not to be admitted unto
their offices, which was against their religion. Where-
upon, Achaius, then being judge, examined him of his
faith ; who finding him to be a christian indeed, and
constantly to stand to his profession, gave him three
hours to deliberate and advise with himself. There was
at the same time in Cesarea, a bishop named Theotech-
nus, who perceiving him to stand in doubtful deliberation
and perplexity, took him by the hand and brought him
into the church of the christians, laying before him
a sword and a book of the New Testament, and desired
him to take his free choice which of them both he would
prefer. The soldier immediately without delay, ran to
the book of the gospel, taking that before the sword.
And thus, he being animated by the bishop, presented
himself boldly before the judge, by whose sentence he
was beheaded, and died a martyr.
After the death of Galien, followed Claudius, a
quiet emperor (A.D. 268). This Claudius reigned but
two years, after whom came his brother Quintilian, who
reigned only seventeen days, and was succeeded by
Aurelian (A.D. 270) ; under whom Orosius numbers the
ninth persecution against the christians.
THE NINTH PERSECUTION.
Hitherto from the captivity of Valerian, the church
was in some quietness till the death of Quintilian, as
has been declared ; after whom Aurehan possessed the
crown ; who in the beginning of his reign shewed him-
self a moderate and discreet prince. He was severe of
nature, and rigorous in correcting, dissolute in manners;
and as his beginning was not unfruitful to the common-
wealth, so neither was he any great disturber of the
christians, whom he not only tolerated in their religion,
but also their councils. Notwithstanding in progress of
time, through sinister motion and instigation of certain
about him, his nature, somewhat inclinable to severity,
was altered to a plain tyranny ; which tyranny he first
shewed, beginning with the death of his own sister's
son. After that he proceeded either to move, or at least
5f
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book L
to purposs persecution against the christians : although
that wicked purpose of tiie emi)eror the merciful woric-
ing of God soon overthrew. For as the edict or procla-
mation should have been denounced for the persecuting
of the christians, and the emperor was now ready to
subscribe the edict with his hand, he was suddenly terri-
fied with lightning, and so stopped from his wicked
tyranny. Not long after he was slain (A.D. 275).
Thus Aurelian rather intended than moved perse-
cution.
After Aurelian, the succession of the empire fell to
Tacitus, who reigned only six months ; his brother
Florianus succeeded him, who reigned two months ; and
after him followed Marcus Aurelius, suraamed Probus,
(A.D. 276.)
Mention is made before of Eusebius, whom God stir-
red up to visit and comfort the saints that were in prison
and bonds, and to bury the bodies of the blessed mar-
tyrs, not without great peril of his own life, who afterwards
was made bishop of Laodicea. But before he came
to Laodicea to be bishop there, while he remained at
Alexandria, the city was besieged by the Romans. In
which siege half of the city held with the Romans, and
the other half withstood them. In that part which
went with the Roman captain was Eusebius : wiih the
other half that resisted the Romans was Anatholius,
governor of the school of Alexandria. This Anatho-
lius, perceiving the citizens to be in miserable distress
of famine and destruction, sends to Eusebius, who was
then with the Romans, and certifies him of the lament-
able penury and peril of the city, instructing him more-
over what to do in the matter : Eusebius, understanding
the case, repairs to the captain requesting this favour of
him, that so many as would fly out of the city from
their enemies, might be allowed to escape and pass
freely, which was granted. As Eusebius was thus la-
bouring with the captain, Anatholius, on the other side,
laboured with the citizens, saying, I shall counsel you
ID this miserable lack of things to remove out of your
city i'll the women, young children, and aged men, with
such others as are feeble and impotent, and not suffer
them to perish here with famine. The senate hearing
this, and understanding moreover the grant of the Roman
captain promising them their safety, consented to the
proposal of Anatholius ; who taking especial care of
those that belonged to the church, calls them together,
and telling them what they should do, and what had
been obtained for them, caused them to leave the city.
At their coming out, Eusebius was ready to receive
and refresh them, whereby not only they, but the
whole city of Alexandria was preserved from de-
struction.
By this short history of Eusebius and Anatholius, the
reader may partly understand what was the practice of
the prelates in those days in the church, that they were
then only employed in saving life, and succouring the
people among whom they lived ; to which practice if we
compnre the practice of our later prelates of the church
of Rome, I suppose no little difference will appear.
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus was a w-ise and
■virtuous prince, and no less valiant in martial affairs
than fortunate in the success of the same. During this
time we read of no persecution stirring in the clmrch,
but much quietness as well in matters of religion as also
in the commonwealth.
Cams, with his two sons, succeeded next after Probus
in the empire (A.D. 282).
All this time we read of no great persecution stirring
in the church ; it was in quiet and tranquillity to the
nineteenth year of Dioclesian (A.D. 'MYA) ; so that the
peace of the church, which God gave to his people,
seems to continue above forty-four years. During
which time of peace and tranciuillity, the church of the
Lord did mightily increase and flourish, insomuch that
amongst the emperors themselves there were many
which not only bore good will and favour to them of our
profession, but also committed unto them ofhces and
governments over countries and nations. What need
to speak of those who not only lived under the emperors
iu liberty, but also were familiar in the court with the
princes themselves, entertained with great honour and
special favour beyond the other servitors of the court ?
As was Dorotheus, with his wife, children, and whole
family, highly accepted and advanced in the palace of
the emperor ; also Gorgonius in like manner with various
others, who, for their doctrine and learning which they
professed, were in great estimation with their princes.
Bishops of cities and dioceses were also held in the same
reverence by the presidents and rulers where they lived ;
who not only suffered them to live in peace, but also
had them in great regard so long as they kept themselves
upright, and continued in God's favour. Who is able
to number at that time the mighty and innumerable
multitudes and congregations assembling together in
every city, and the notable concourses of such as daily
flocked to the common oratories to pray .' For which
cause they, not being able to be contained in their old
houses, had large cliurches built new from the foun-
dation. Eusebius says the church of Christ grew and
shot up daily more and more, spreading through all
quarters, which neither the en^^ of men could infringe,
nor any devil enchant, nor the crafty policy of man sup-
plant, so long as the protection of God went with his
people.
But as the common nature of all men, being of itself
unruly and untoward, always seeks and desires pros-
perity, and yet can never use prosperity well ; always
would have peace, and yet having peace, always abuses
the same; so likewise, it happened with these men, who
through great liberty and prosperity, began to degene-
rate, and one to work against another, striving and con-
tending amongst themselves, on every occasion ; bishops
against bishops, and people against people, moving
hatred and sedition one against another. And thus,
whilst they were given only to the study of contentions,
threatenings, emulations, mutual hatred and di.'Cord,
every man seeking his own ambition, and persecuting
one another ; then, I say, the Lord, according to the voiirf
of Jeremiah, tookaway the beauty of the daugliter of Mou
and the glory of Israel fell down from heaven ; neithei
did he remember the footstool of his feet in the day of
his wrath. And the Lord overturned all the comely
ornaments of Israel, and destroyed all her gorgeous
buildings, and according to the saying of the psalm, sub-
verted and extinguished the testament of his servant,
and profaned his sanctuary in the destruction of his
churches, and in laying waste the buildings thereof, lie
stroke down to the ground, and diminished her days,
and over all this poured upon her confusion. All these
things were fulfilled upon us, when we saw the tenijiles
razed from the top to the ground, and the sacred scrip-
tures to be burnt in the open market-place, and tlie
pastors of the church to hide themselves, some here,
some there ; others taken j)risoners with great shame,
were mocked by their enemies, when also according to
the saying of the prophet in another place, contempt was
poured out upon the princes, and they caused to go out
of the way, and not to keep the straight path.
THE TENTH PERSECUTION.
By reason whereof (the wrath of God being kindled
against his church) the tenth and last jiersecution arose
against the christians, so horrible and grievous, that it
makes the pen almost to tremble to write it ; so tedious
that never was any persecution before or since to be
compared to it for the time it continued, lasting the
space of ten years together. Although this persecution
passed through the hands of different tyrants, yet it
principally bears the name of Dioclesian, who succeeded
to the empire next after Carus and his sons (A. D. 284).
After being established in the empire, and seeing on
every side many commotions rising up against him,
which he was not well able himself to sustain, in the
beginning of his reign he chose for his colleague, Maxi-
mian. Which two emperors chose two other noblemen,
Galerius and Constantius, whom they called Cesars. Of
whom Galerius was sent into the east parts against the
Persians. Constantius was sent over to this our country
of England, where he took to wife Helena, the daughter
I
A.D. 275—303] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
5*
of king Coill, a maiden excelling in beauty, and no less
in learning, of whom was born Constantine the Great.
All this while no persecution was yet stirred by these
i four princes against the church of Christ, but they
I governed the commonwealth quietly and moderately ;
wherefore God prospered their doings and affairs, and
gave them great victories. By reason of which victories,
Dioclesian and Maximian puffed up in pride, ordained a
solemn triumph at Rome, after which triumph Dioclesian
gave commandment that he should be worshi])ped as
God, saying, that he was brother to the sun and moon,
and adorning his shoes with gold and precious stones,
commanded the people to kiss bis feet.
And not long after began the great and grievous perse-
cution of the christians, moved by the outrageous cruelty
of Dioclesian, who commanded all the churches of the
christians to be spoiled and cast to the earth, and the
books of the holy scripture to be burned.
Thus most violent proclamations were set forth, for
the overthrowing of the christians' temples throughout
all the Roman empire. And this was the first edict by
Dioclesian. The next proclamation that came forth,
was for the burning of the books of the holy scripture ;
which was done in the open market-place ; then next to
that were edicts given for the displacing of such as were
magistrates, and that with great ignominy, and all others
whoever bore any office, imprisoning such as were of the
common sort, if they would not abjure Christianity, and
subscribe to the heathen religion.
Not long after, new edicts were sent forth, for their
cruelty not inferior to the first ; for the casting of the
elders and bishops into prison, and then constraining
them with sundry kinds of punishments to offer to their
idols. Then followed a great persecution among the
governors of the church, among whom n;any stood man-
fully, passing through many exceeding bitter torments,
many of them being tormented and examined in various
ways, some scourged all over their bodies with whips and
scourges, some with racks and intolerable raisings of the
flesh, were excruciated, some one way, some another
way put to death. Some again were violently drawn to
the impure sacrifice, and as though they had sacrificed,
when indeed they did not, were let go. Some neither
coming to their altars, nor touching any piece of
their sacrifices, were yet said by them that stood by, to
have sacrificed, and so suffering that false defamation of
their enemies, went quietly away. Others were carried
and cast away as dead men, being but half dead. Some
they cast down upon the pavement, and trailing them a
great space by the legs, made the people believe that
they had sacrificed. Others there were which stoutly
withstood them, affirming with a loud voice that they
had done no such sacrifice. Some of whom said they
were christians, and gloried in the profession of that
name : some cried, saying, that they neither had, nor
would ever be partakers of that idolatry ; and those,
being buffetted on the face and mouth with the hands of
the soldifers, were made to hold their peace, and so
thrust out with violence. And if the saints seemed
never so little to do what their enemies would have them,
they were made much of ; although all this purpose of the
adversary did not prevail against the holy and constant
servants of Christ. Yet there were many of the weak
sort, who for fear and infirmity fell and gave over, even
at the first brunt.
At the first coming down of these edicts into Ni-
comedia, a christian nobleman, moved by the zeal of
God, after the proclamation was set up, went and took
it down, and openly tore it in pieces, not fearing the
presence of the two emperors, then in the city. For
which act he was put to a most bitter death, which death
he endured even to the last gasp with great faith and
constancy.
What number of martyrs, and what blood was shed
throughout all cities and regions for the name of Christ,
can hardly be told. At that time the bishop of Sidon
was martyred. Sylvanus, the bishop of Gazensis, with
nine and thirty others, were slain in the metal- mines of
Phenicia. Pamphilus, the elder of Cesarea, being the
glory of that congregation, died a most worthy martyr.
In Syria, all the chief teachers of the congregation
were first committed to prison, a most heavy and cruel
spectacle to behold ; and also the bishops, elders, and
deacons, who were all esteemed as men-killers, and per-
petrators of most wicked facts. After that, we read of
another whose name was Tirannion, who was made nifcat
for tlie fishes of the sea, and of Zenobius, a good phy-
sician, who also was slain with brickbats in the same
place.
Eusebius mentions others who were not tormented to
death, but every day terrified without ceasing ; others
that were brought to the altars and commanded to do
sacrifice, who would rather thrust their right hand into
the fire, than touch the profane or wicked sucrifice ;
also some others, that before they were apprehended,
would cast themselves down from steep places, lest being
taken they should commit any thing against thtir profes-
sion. Also two fair maidens, with their mothei*, who had
carefully brought them up, even from their infancy in aU
godliness, being long sought for, and at last found, and
strictly kept by their keepers, threw themselves down
headlong into a river ; and two other young maidens
being sisters, and of a worshipful stock, indued with
many goodly virtues, who were cast by the persecutors
into the sea. But Sylvanus, the bishop of Emissa, the
notable martyr, together with certain others, was thrown
to the wild beasts.
The christians in Mesopotamia were moksted with
many and various torments ; they were hanged up by the
feet, and their head downwards, and suffocated with the
smoke of a small fire ; and also in Cappadocia, where the
martyrs had their legs broken.
So outrageous was the beginning of the persecution
which the emperor made in Nicomedia, that he refrained
not from the slaughter of the children of emperors,
neither yet from the slaughter of the chief princes of his
court, whom a little before he made as much of, as if
they had been his own children. Among whom was
Peter, who suffered various torments, being stripped
naked, and lifted up, his whole body was so beaten with
whips and torn, that a man might see the bare bones ;
and afterwards they mingled vinegar and salt together,
and poured it upon the most tender parts of his body ;
and lastly, roasted him at a soft fire, as a man would
roast flesh to eat ; and so this victorious martyr ended iiis
life. Dorotheus and Gorgonius being in a great autho-
rity under the emperor, after various torments, were
strangled with a halter ; both of whom being of the
privy chamber, when they saw the grievous punishment
of Peter, their household companion, exclaimed, " Where-
fore, O emperor, do you punish in Peter that opinion
which is in all us ? Why is this which we all confess
accounted an offence in him ? We are of the same faith,
religion, and judgment that he is of." Therefore he
commanded them to be brought forth, and to be tor-
mented with like pains as Peter was, and afterwards
hanged. After whom Anthimus, the bishop of Nico-
media, after he had made a notable confession, bringing
with him a great company of martyrs, was beheaded.
These men being thus dispatched, the emperor vainly
thought that he might cause the rest to do whatever he
pleased. To this end came Lucianus, the elder of the
congregation of Antioch, and was martyred after he had
made his apology before the emperor. (Eusebius, lib. 8.
cap. 13.)
Hermanns also, that monster, caused Serena, the wife
of Dioclesian the emperor, to be martyred for the chris-
tian religion ; so much did the rage of persecution ut-
terly forget all natural affections. Other martyrs of
Nicomedia, as Eulampius and Eulampia, Agape, Irene,
Chionia, and Anastasia, were bound hand and foot to a
post and burnt. About that time there assembled
together in their temple many christian men to cele-
brate the nativity of Christ, some of every age and sort.
Maximian, thinking this a very fit occasion to execute his
tyranny upon the poor christians, gave orders to burn
the temple ; the doors being shut and fastened round
about, they came with fire, but first commanded the
cryer with a loud voice to cry. That whoever would save
his life should come out of the temple, and do sacrifice
5G
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book ^
upon the next altar of Jupiter they came to ; and unless
Ihey would do this they should all be burnt with the
temple. Then one stepping up in the temple, answered
in the name of all the rest, with great courage and bold-
ness of mind, that they were all christians, and believed
that Christ was their only God and king, and that they
would do sacrifice to him, with his Father, and the Holy
Ghost ; and that they were now all ready to be offered
to him. With these words the fire was kindled and en-
veloped the temple, and .some thousands of men, women,
and children were burnt. There was a city in Phrygia,
to wliich the emperor sent his edicts, that they should
do sacrifice to the gods and worship idols ; all the citi-
zens, the mayor himself, the questor, and chief captain,
confessed that they were all christians. The city, upon
this, was besieged and set on fire, with all the people.
In Mi'litina. a region of Armenia, the bishops and elders
were case in prison. In Arabrace, Eustratius was
martyred. This man, beholding the constancy of the
martyrs, thirsted with the desire of martyrdom, for he
had privily learned the christian religion. Therefore he
professed that he was a christian, openly execrating the
madness and vanity of the wicked heathens. He tliere-
fore being carried away, was tied up, being first most
bitterly beaten. After that he was parched with fire put
into his bowels, and then basted with salt and vinegar,
and lastly, so scorched and bemangled with sharp and
cutting shells, that his whole body seemed to be all one
continual wound. After this he was carried away to
Sebastia, where, with his companion Orestes, he was
burnt. But at Alexandria, especially, the christians and
martyrs suffered most notable conflicts. In this persecu-
tion of Alexandria, the principal that then suffered were
Peter the bishop of Alexandria, with the elders of the
same, most worthy martyrs ; as Faustus, Didius, and
Ammonius ; also, Phileas, Ilesichius, Pachiminus, and
Theodoras ; all of wliom were bishops of the churches
within Egypt, and besides them many other distin-
guished men. The whole legion of christian soldiers,
which lay at Thebes in Egypt, under the christian
Captain Mauritius, when they would not obey the
emperor's commandment, touching the worshipping of
images, were decimated to death once, and then again,
and at last, througli the exhortation of Mauritius, died
all together like constant martyrs. Likewise, at Antino,
divers christian soldiers, notwitlistanding they were se-
riously dissuaded, suffered death together, among whom
■were Ascla, Philemon, and Apollonius. And also in the
other parts of Africa and Mauritania there was great
persecution. Also in Sammium, of which place Chroni-
con makes mention, and Sicily, where there were seventy-
nine martyrs slain for the profession of Christ.
Now let us come to Europe : at Nicopolis, the mar-
tyrs were most miserably and pitifully handled. Euphe-
mia suffered in Chalcedon.
Agricola aiid Vitalis, at Bohemia. And at Aquileia,
the emperor commanded every man to kill the christians.
And among those martyrs were Felices and Fortunatus.
In all jjlaces of Italy the persecution became great. In
France, Ilectionarus play^^d the cruel hellhound, of whose
great cruelty against the christians many histories are
full. And at j\Iassilia, Maximian set forth his decree,
that either they should all do sacrifice unto the heathen
gods, or else be all slain witli various kinds of torments.
Therefore many nuu-tyrs died there for the glory of
Christ.
In many places of Spain, there was great persecution,
as at Emerita, where Eulalia suffered ; and Adula, where
Vincentius, Sabina, and Christina also suffered. At Tole-
tura, Leucadia the virgin, suffered ; at Cesarea Augusta,
eighteen were put to death, besides a great number of
other martyrs who suffered under Decian. the governor,
who afflicted with persecution all the coasts of Spain.
Rectionarus made such persecution at Trevers that the
blood of the christian men that were slain ran like small
brooks, and coloured great and main rivers. Neither
yet did this suftice him, but from thence he sent certain
horsemen with his letters, commanding them to ride into
every place, and charge all such as had taken and appre-
hended any christians, that they should immediately put
them to death.
Bede says, that this persecution reached even to the
Britains. And the chronicle of Martinus, and the " Nose-
gay of Time" declare, that all the christians in Britain
were utterly destroyed. The kinds of death and punish-
ment were so great and horrible, as no man is able to
express. In the beginning, the emperor threatened them
with bonds and imprisonment ; but within a \\ hile, when
he began to work the matter in good earnest, he devised
innumerable sorts of torments and punishments, as whip-
pings, andscourgings, rackings, horrible scrapings, sword,
fire, and shipboats, wherein a great number being put
were sunk and drowned in the bottom of the sea. Also
hanging them upon crosses, binding them to the bodies
of dead trees, with their heads downward, hanging them
by the middles upon gallows till they died for hunger ;
throwing them alive to such kind of wild beasts as would
devour them ; as lions, bears, leopards, and wild bulls.
Pricking and thrusting them with bodkins and talons
of beasts till they were almost dead ; lifting them up
on high with their heads downward, with other sorts of
punishments most tragical, or rather tyrannical and piti-
ful to describe. As first, the binding of them to trees,
and to the houghs thereof ; the pulling and tearing
asunder of their members and joints, being tied to the
boughs an^l arms of trees. The mangling of them with
axes, the choaking of them with smoke by small fires, the
dismembeiiii!; of their hands, ears and feet, with other
joints; the holy martyrs of Alexandria suffered scorch-
ing and broiling with coals, not unto death, but every
day renewed. With sucli kind of torments the martyrs
at Antioch were afflicted. But in Pontus, other horri-
ble punishments, and fearful to be heard, did the martyrs
of Christ suffer ; some of wliom had sharp bodkins thrust
in their finger ends under their nails ; some were
sprinkled witii boiling lead, having their most necessary
members cut from them ; others suffering most intoler-
able, and undurable torments and ])ains.
Phileas, the bishop of the Thumitans, a man singularly
well learned, hath described, in his epistle to the Thumi.
tans, which epistle is to be found in Eusebius, (lib. viii,
cap. 10), how great the persecution which reigned in
Alexandria was, and with how many and sundry kinds
of new devised punishments the martyrs were afflicted,
of which we will here briefly recite a part. " Because
every man might torment the holy martyrs as they
pleased, some beat them with cudgels, some with rods,
some with whips, some with thongs, and some with
cords ; and this example of heating was executed with
nuich cruelty. For some of them having their hands
hound behind their backs, were lifted up upon timber
logs, and witli certain instruments their members and
joints were stretched forth, whereupon their whole
bodies hanging were subject to the will of the tonncutors.
who were conmsanded to afHict them with all manner of
torments, and not on their sides only (as hoiiiicides
were) but all over their bodies, thighs, and legs, they
s(M'atched them with the talons and claws of wild beasts.
Others were seen to hang by one hand upon the engine,
whereby they might t'eel the more grievous pulling out
of the rest of their joints and members. Otiiers were
honiul to pillars with their faces turned to the wall,
having no sujijjort under their feet, and were violently
drawn down with the weight of their bodies. And this
they suH'ered, not only during the time of their examina-
tion, and while the sheriff had to do with them, but also
tlie whole day long. And whilst the judge went thus
from one to another, he appointed certain officers to at-
tend upon those he left, that they might not he let down,
until either through the intolerableness of the pain, or
by the extremity of the cold, they were near the point of
death. And, further, they were commanded that they
should not shew one spark of mercy or compassion upon
us, but so extremely and furiously did they deal with us,
as though our souls and bodies should have died
together."
Thus wrote Phileas to the church where he was
bishop, before he receired the sentence of death, being
I
D. 303— 305. ! THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
57
yet in bonds ; and in the same he exhorts his brethren con-
stantly to persist after his death, in the truth of Christ.
But as ail their torments were marvellous and notable
for their horribleness, and most grievous and sharp, yet,
notwithstanding, these martyrs were neither dismayed
noi overcome, but rather confirmed and strengthened,
so clieerfuUy and joyfully they sustained whatever was
Jilt upon them. Eusebius says, that he himself beheld
the great persecution that was done in Thebaide ; inso-
much that the very swords of the hangmen and perse-
cutors being blunt with the great and often slaughter,
they, themselves, for weariness sat down to rest, and
others were obliged to take their places. And yet, not-
withstanding all this, the murdered christians shewed
the marvellous readiness, willingness, and divine forti-
tude with which they were endowed ; with courage, joy,
and smiling, receiving the sentence of death pronounced
upon them, and sung even unto the last gasp, hymns
and psalms to God.
Some there were, also, that were overcome with fear
and threatenings, and by their own infirmities, and went
back, amone: whom Socrates names Miletius ; and Atha-
nusiu*. in his second apology, names the bishop of Licus.
Of the fall of Marcellinus, the bishop of Rome, I will
speak afterwards ; for he being persuaded by others, and
especially of the Emperor Dioclesian himself, did sacri-
I fice to the idols, whereupon he was excommunicated.
The number of the martyrs increased daily, sometimes
I ten, sometimes twenty were slain at once , sometimes
' thirty, and oftentimes threescore, and sometimes a hun-
dred in one day, men, women, and children, by divers
kinds of death. Also Damasus, Beda, Orosius, Hono-
rius, and others do witness, that there were slain in this
persecution by the names of martyrs, within the space
of thirty days, seventeen thousand persons, besides a
great number that were condemned to the metal mines
and quarries with like cruelty.
At Alexandria, Peter the bishop, with three hundred
others were slain with axes ; Gereon was beheaded at Colo-
niaAgrippina,with three hundred of his fellows; Mauritius,
the captain of the christian soldiers, with his fellows, six
thousand six hundred and sixty-six. Victor, in the city
of Troy, now called Xanthus, with his fellows, three
hundred and threescore were slain. Reginus recites the
names of many other martyrs, to the number of one
hundred and twenty.
And as mention has been made of Mauritius and
Victor, I thought good here to insert a more particular
account of them taken out of Ado, and other historians,
as follows :
"Mauritius came out of Syria into France and Italy,
being captain of the band of the Theban soldiers, to the
number of six thousand six hundred and sixty, being sent
for by Maximian, to go against the rebellious Bangandes ;
i but rather, as it should seem, by the reason of the tyrant,
j who thought he might better in these quarters use his
! tyranny upon the christians, than in the eastern pa; t.
; These Thebans, with Mauritius the captain, after they
I had entered into Rome, were confirmed in the faith by
. Marcellus the blessed bishop, promising by oath th.it
j they would rather be slain of their enemies, than forsake
that faith which they had received. At that time the Cesa-
reans were encamped not far from the town called Ottodor,
I where Maximian offered sacrifice to his devils, and called
I all the soldiers both of the east and west to the same,
I strictly charging them by the altars of his gods, that thev
I would fight against those rebels the Bangandes, and
1 persecute the christian enemies of the emperor's gods ;
j which commandment was shewed to the Theban host,
I who were also encamped about the river Rhone; but
I they would in no wise come to Ottodor, for every man
I agreed rather to die in that place than either to sacrifice
j to the gods, or bear armour against the christians. The
I emperor being very wroth with them, commanded every
! tenth man of that whole band to be put to the sword, to
I which they committed their necks with great joy. To
! which notable and great strength of faith, Mauritius
I himself was a great encourager, who exhorted and ani-
I mated his soldiers both to fortitude and constancy. Who,
being called to the emperor, answered him thus, ' We
are, O emperor! your soldiers, but yet also, to speak
freely, the servants of God. We owe to thee service of
war, to him innocency. Of thee we receive for our
labour wages ; of him the beginning of life. But in this
we may in no wise obey thee, O em])eror! to deny God
our author and Lord, and not only ours, but your
Lord likewise. If we be not so extremely forced that
we ofiend him, doubtless, as we have hitherto done, we
will yet obey you ; but we will rather obey him than you.
We offer here our hands against any other enemies ;
but to defile our hands with the blood of innocents, that
we may not do. These right hands of ours have skill to
fight against tlie wicked and true enemies ; but to spoU.
and murder the godly and citizens, they have no skill at
all. We have in remembrance how we took armour in
hand, for the defence of the citizens, and not against
them. We fought always for justice sake, piety, and for
the health of innocents. These have been always the
rewards of our perils and labour. We have fought in
the quarrel of faith, which in no wise we can keep to you,
if we do not shew the same to our God. We first sware
upon the sacraments of our God, then afterward to the
king ; and do you think the second will avail us, if wo
break the first ? By us you would plague the christians
to do which feat we are only commanded by you. We
are here ready to confess God the author of all things,
and believe in his son Jesus Christ our Lord. We see
before our eyes our fellows, and the partakers of our
labours put to the sword, and we sprinkled with their
blood. We have not bewailed nor mourned the death of
our blessed companions, but rather have been glad, and
have rejoiced thereat, for that they have been counted
worthy to suffer for the Lord their God. The extreme
necessity of death cannot move us against your majesty,
neither yet any desperation, O emperor, which is wont
in venturous affairs to do much, shall arm us against you.
Behold here we cast down our weapons, and resist not,
for that we had rather to be killed, than kill ; and die
guiltless, than live guilty. Whatsoever more ye will
command, appoint, and enjoin us, we are here ready to
suffer, yea, both fire and sword, and whatsoever other
torments. We confess ourselves to be christians, we
cannot persecute christians, nor will do sacrifice to your
devilish idols.'
" With which answer, the emperor, being much dis-
pleased, commanded the second time the tenth man of
those that were left to be murdered. That cruelty also
being accomplished, at length, when the christian soldiers
would in no wise condescend to his mind, he set upon
them with his whole host, both footmen and horsemen,
and charged them to kill them all ; they making no resist-
ance, but throwing down their armour, yielded their lives
to the persecutors, and offered to them their naked
bodies, and were thus slain.
" Victor was not of that band ; but being an old soldier,
was dismissed for his age ; he coming suddenly upon
them as they were banqueting and making merry
with the spoils of the holy martyrs, was bidden to sit
down with them ; who asking the cause of their great
rejoicing, and understanding the truth thereof, detested
tiie guests, and refused to eat with them. And then
it being demanded of him whether he were a christian or
no ? he openly confessed that he was a christian, and
ever would be. Upon which they rushed upon him, and
killed him, and made him partner of the like martyr-
dom »nd honour.
Dioclesian and Maximinian, seeing the number of the
christians rather increase than diminish, notwithstand-
ing all the cruelty that they could show, were now oue
of all hope of rooting them out ; and loathing the shed-
ding of more blood, they at last ceased of their own ac-
cord to jiut any more christians to death. But yet they
tormented great multitudes, thrustingout their right eyes,
and maiming their left legs with a searing-iron, con-
demned them to the mines, not so much for the use of
their labour, as for the desire of afflicting them.
When Dioclesian and Maximinian had reigned to-
gether emperors twenty-one years, they abdicated the
throne, Dioclesian at K-icomedia, and Maximinian at
Midiolan, both of them led a private life. (A. D. 305.)
58
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. [Book I.
In the beginning of this persecution, you heard how
Dioclesian, being made emperor, took to himMaximinian.
Also how these two governing as emperors together,
chose two others as Cesars under them, namely, Galerius
Maximinus, and Coustantius the father of Constantine
the Great. So Dioclesian and Maximinian being now
displaced, the Imperial Dominion remained with Con-
stantius and Galerius Maximinus, which two divided the
■whole monarchy between them. Maximinus governing
the eastern countries, and Constantius the western parts.
Galerius Maximinus appointed Maximius and Severus
to be the two Cesars. And these were the emperors
and Cesars who, succeeding after Dioclesian and Maxi-
minian, continued that persecution which Dioclesian and
Maximinian began, save only that Constantius, with his
son Constantine was no great doer therein, but rather a
maintainer and supporter of the christians. Which Con-
stantius was a prince very excellent, civil, meek, gentle,
liberal, and desirous to do good unto those who had any
private authority under him. To these virtues he added
yet a more worthy ornament, that is, devotion, love,
and affection towards the word of God, which caused
great peace and tranquillity, in all his provinces. He
neither levied any wars contrary to piety and christian reli-
gion, neither did he destroy the churches, but commanded
that the christians should be preserved and defended.
Galerius Maximinus, joint-emperor with Constantius,
was so great an idolater, that he built up temples in
every city, and repaired those that were fallen in decay.
And he chose out the most worthy of his political magis-
trates to be the idols' priests, and ordained that they
should execute their office with great authority and dignity,
and also with warlike pomp. But he was much opposed to
christian piety and religion, and in the eastern churches
exercised cruel persecution.
He was at length revoked from his cruelty by the just
judgment and punishment of God. For he was suddenly
seized witli a most extraordinary and desperate disease,
which, beginning outwardly in his flesh, from thence pro-
ceeded to the inward parts of his body. The physicians
not being able to cure him, he was at length put in
remembrance that this disease was sent from God, and
began to think of the wickedness that he had done
agamst the saints of God, and so coming again to himself,
first confessed to God all his offences, and then forthwith
connnanded all men to cease from the persecutions of
the christians. Requiring moreover that they should
set uji his imperial proclamations for the restoring of
tlieir temjiles, and that the christians in their assem-
blies should devoutly j'ray to their God for the emperor.
Then was the persecution stayed, and the imperial pro-
clamations were set up in every city, containing the
countermand of those things which were before decreed
agiinst the christians.
The governors therefore of every province, released all
such prisoners as were condemned to the mines, and to
perpetual imprisonment for their faith. This seemed to
them as unlooked for, and as light to travellers in a dark
nigiit. They gathered themselves together in every city,
they called their synods and councils, and marvelled much
at the sudden change and alteration. The infidels them-
selves extolled the only and true God of the christians.
The christians received again all their former liberties ;
and such as fell away before in the time of persecution,
repented themselves, and after having done penance, they
returned again to the church. Now the christians re-
joiced in every city, praising God with hymns and
psalms. This was a marvellous sudden alteration of the
church, from a most unhappy state into a better : but
the tyrant Maximinus scarcely suffered this peace to con-
tinue six months unviolated ; for he took frcnn the chris-
tians all liberty to assemble and congregate in church-
yards.
And the emperor by-and-bye commanded to be pub-
lished throughout every city, and to be hung in the
midst of every city (which was never done before) the
edicts against the christians, graven in tables of brass.
And the children in the schools, with great noise and
clapping of hands, did every day resound the blasphe-
oiies of Pilate unto Jesus, and whatever other things
were devised of the magistrates, after a most despitef
manner.
Thus came it to pass, that at length the persecutiot
was as great as ever, and the magistrates of every proj
vince were very severe against the christians; some thej
condemned to death, and some to exile. Among whoE
they condemned three christiang at Emisa, in Phenicia^
with whom Sylvanus the bishop, a very old man, being
forty years in the ecclesiastical function, was condemned
to death. At Nicomedia, Lucianus, the elder of An*
tioch, being brought thither, after he had exhibited to
the emperor his apology concerning the doctrine of the
christians, was cast into prison, and after put to death.
At Alexandria, Peter, a most worthy bishop, was be-
headed, with whom many other Egyptian bishoj)s also
died. Quirinus, the bishop of Scescanus, having a
hand-mill tied about his neck, was tin own headlong from
the bridge into the flood, and there a long while floated
above the water, and when he opened his mouth to
speak to the lookers on, that they should not be dis-
mayed by his punishment, he was drowned. At Rome
died Marcellus, the bishop, as saith Platina ; also Timo-
theus the elder, with many other bishops and priests,
were martyred. To conclude, many in sundi-y places
everywhere were martyred, whose names the book inti-
tuled Fasciculus Temporum declareth ; as Victorianus,
Symphorianus, Castorius with his wife, Castulus, Cesa-
rius, Mennas, Nobilis, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, Petrus,
and other innumerable martyrs ; Erasmus, Bonifacius,
Juliana, Cosmas, Damianus, Basilinus, with seven
others. Dorothea, Theophilus, Theodosia, Vitalis,
Agricola, Acha, Philemon, Hireneus, Januarius, Festus,
Desiderius, Gregorius, Spoletanus, Agapes, Chionia, Hi-
renea, Theodora, and two hundred threescore and ten other
martyrs. Florianus, Primus and Felicianus, Vitus, and
Modestus, Crescentia, Albinius, Rogatianus, Donatianus,
Pancratius, Catharina, Margareta, Lucia the virgin, and
Antheus the king, with many thousand martyrs more.
Simplicius, Fanstinus, Beatrix, Panthaleon, Georgius,
Justius, Leocandia, Anthonia, and other more (to an
infinite number) suffered martyrdom in this persecution,
whose names God hath written in the book of life. Also
Felix, Victor, with his parents, Lucia the widow, Gemcr
nianus, with threescore and nineteen others. Sabinus,
Anastasia, Chrysogonus, Felix and Audactus, Adrianus,
Natholia, Eugenia. Agnes also, when she was but
thirteen years old, was martyred. Eusebius, in his
eighth book, and fifteenth chapter, mentions these kinds
of torments and punishments inflicted on the christians ;
" Fire, wild beasts, the sword, crucifyings, the bottom of
the sea, the cutting and burning of members, the thrust,
ing out of eyes, dismembering of the whole body, hun-
ger, imprisonment, and whatsoever other cruelty the
magistrates could devise." All which notwithstanding,
the godly ones manfully endured, rather than do sacrifice
as they were bid, to the idols. Neither yet could the
christians live safely in the wilderness, but were fetched
even from thence to death and torments, insomuch that
this was a more grievous persecution under Maximinus
the Tyrant, than was the former cruel persecution under
Maximinian the Prince.
And as you have heard that the cruel edict of Maximinus
proclaimed against the christians, was graven in brass
which he thought should perpetually endure to the abolish-
ing of Christ and his religion : now mark the great handy-
work of God, which immediately fell upon the same;
for there soon followed a most unseasonable drought,
with famine and pestilence among the people. By which
famine and pestilence the people were greatly consumed ;
great numbers died in the cities, but many more in the
countrv and villages, so 'that most part of the husband-
men and countrymen died with the famine and pestilence.
There were many who, bringing out their best treasure,
were glad to give it for any kind of sustenance, were it
never so little ; others, selling away their possessions,
came to extreme poverty and beggary ; some eating grass,
and other unwholesome herbs, were obliged to fill them-
selves with such food as did hurt and poison their
bodies. Also, a number of women in the cities, being
brought to extreme misery, were constrained to depart
A. D. 305—312.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
from the city, and to beg through the country. Some
others being weak and faint, wandering up and down,
iand not able to stand for feebleness, fell down in the
middle of the streets, and holding up their hands, most
pitifully cried for some scraps or fragments of bread to
be given them, and being at the last gasp, ready to give
up the ghost, and not able to utter any other words, yet
cried out that they were hungry. The market-place,
streets, lanes, and alleys lay full of dead and naked
bodies, being cast out and unburied, to the pitiful and
grievous beholding of them that saw them, wherefore
many were eaten of dogs.
In like manner, the pestilence spreading through all
houses and ranks of men, destroyed many, especially
those, who, having plenty of victuals, escaped the famine.
Thus, the rich princes, the presidents, and magistrates,
being the more apt to receive the infection, by reason of
their plenty, were quickly cut off. The miserable mul-
titude being consumed with famine and with pestilence,
all places were full of mourning, neither was there any
thing else seen, but wailing and weeping in every corner ;
so that what with famine and pestilence, death in a short
time brake up and consumed whole households, two or
three dead bodies being carried out together from one
house to one funeral.
These were the rewards of the vain boasts of Maxinii-
,nus and his edicts, which he published in all towns and
cities against us, when it was evident to all men how di-
Jigent and charitable the christians were to them in all
ithis their miserable extremity. For they only in all this
itime of distress, shewed compassion upon them, travel-
ling every day, some in curing the sick, and some in
burying the dead, who were forsaken by their own kin-
dred. Some of the christians calling and gathering the
multitude together, who were in danger of famine, dis-
tributed bread to them, whereby they gave occasion to
all men to glorify the God of the christians, and to con-
fess them to be the true worshippers of God, as appeared
iby their works. By the means liereof, the great God
and defender of the christians, who before had shewed
his anger and indignation against all men, for their
wrongful afflicting of us, opened again to us the com-
fortable light of his Providence, so that peace fell upon us,
las light unto them that sit in darkness, to the great ad-
biiration of all men, who easily perceive God himself to
jbe a perpetual director of our doings, who many times
chastens his people with calamities for a time to exercise
them, but after sufficient correction, again shews himself
merciful and favourable to them who with faith call
upon him.
Thus, at that time was fulfilled most plainly and evi-
dently the true promise of Christ to his church, that the
gates of hell shall not prevail against his church builded
upon his faith, as may sufficiently appear by these ten
^persecutions above described ; in which, as no man can
deny, but that Satan and his malignant world assayed
the uttermost of their power and might to overthrow the
church of Jesus ; so all men must needs grant, that read
these histories, that when Satan and the gates of hell
had done their worst, yet they did not prevail against
(this mount of Sion, nor ever shall. For else what was
to be thought, when so many emperors and tyrants to-
gether, Dioclesian, Maximinian, Galerius, Severus,
Maxentius, Licinius, with their captains and officers,
were let loose, like so many lions, upon a scattered and
unarmed flock of sheep, intending nothing else but the
utter subversion of all Christianity, and especially also
1 , The truth of this narrative is very far from beins established
BO us to justify an author in admittins it without some qualifica-
tion. It is now most generally regarded as a fiction, which was
tiiilt upon some dream of the emperor. Jiosheim tlius notices it:
" It is easy indeed, to refute the opinion of those wlio look
upnii this prodiiy as a cunning fiction, invented by the emperor
t. p iiiiimate his troops in the ensuing battle, or who consider tlie
narration as wholly liibulous. The sentiment also of those who
limagine tliat this pretended cross was no more than a natural
Iplienoiiienon in a solar halo, is perhaps more ingenious than
solid and convincing ; nor, in the third place, do we tliinlv it suf-
licitntly proved that tlie Divine Power interposed here to contirm
t!ie wavering failh of Constantine, by a stujiendous miracle. The
Oiily hy, othesis Ihea » hicli remains, is, that we consider this
when laws were set up in brass against the christians, as
a thing perpetually to stand ; what was here to be
looked for, but a final desolation of the name and reli-
gion of christians ? But what followed, you have partly
heard, and more is to be marked in the history fol-
lowing.
Maxentius, son of Maximinian, having been declared
emperor at Rome (A. D. 306), by his grievous tyranny
and unspeakable wickedness, oppressed the citizens and
senators, who sent their complaints to Constantine, de-
siring him to help and release their country and city of
Rome. Constantine, understanding their miserable and
pitiful state, first sent letters to Maxentius, desiring and
exhorting him to restrain his corrupt doings, and great
cruelty. But when no letters nor exhortations would
j)revail, at length, pitying the woful case of the Romans,
he gathered together his army in Britain and France,
therewith to repress the violent rage of the tyrant
Maxentius. Thus, Constantine, sufficiently furnished
with strength of men, but especially with strength of
God, began his journey towards Italy, which was about
the last year of the persecution (A. D. 312). Maxen-
tius, understanding of the coming of Constantine, and
trusting more to his devilish art of magic, than to the good
will of his subjects, durst not shew himself out of the
city, nor encounter him in the open field, but with secret
garrisons laid in wait for him by the way ; with whom
Constantine had many skirmishes, and by the power of
the Lord vanquished them, and put them to flight. Not-
withstanding Constantine was in great dread of Maxen-
tius as he approached Rome, being in great doubt and jier-
plexity in himself, and revolving many things in his mind,
as he drew towards the city, he looked up to heaven,
and in the south part, about the going down of the sun,
he saw a great brightness in heaven, appearing in the
form of a cross, with certain stars of equal size, giving
this inscription : in hoc vince, that is, In this overcome.
(Eusebius de vita Constant, lib. 2. Niceph. lib. 7. cap. 29.
Eutrop.lib.il. Sozom.lib. Leap. 3. Socrat. lib. Lcap.2.
Urspergensis, Chronic. Paul. Diacon.lib. 11). Thismira-
culous vision Eusebius Pamphilius declares to be true in
his first book (the Life of Constantine), and testifies
that he had heard Constantine himself often report, and
also swear this to be true and certain, which he saw with
liis own eyes in heaven, and also his soldiers about
him. At the sight of which, he was greatly asto-
nished, and consulted with his men upon the meaning
of it. The same night Christ appeared to him in his
sleep, with the sign of the same cross which he had seen
in the heavens, bidding him inscribe his banners with
that figure, and carry it before him in the wars, and so
he should have the victory.'
Here it is to be noted, that this sign of the cross, and
these letters added, in hoc vince, was given to him by God,
not to induce any superstitious worship of the cross, as
though the cross itself had any power or strength in it,
to obtain victory, but only to be an admonition to him,
to seek and aspire to the knowledge and faith of him,
who was crucified upon the cross for the salvation of
him, and of all the world, and so to set forth the glory of
his name, as came to pass aftei-wards. This by the way.
Now to return to the history.
The day following, after this night's vision, Constantine
caused a cross to be made of gold and precious stone, and
to be borne before him instead of his standard, and so with
much hope of victory, and great confidence, as one armed
from heaven, he advanced against his enemy. Maxcn-
famous cross as a vision presented to the emperor in a dream.'
Mosheim, c. iv. p. 1.
Eusebius gives the narration on the sole authority of Constan-
tine, who imagined that he had seen this cross ; it was natural that
in the troubled sleep of tlie emperor, on tlie eve of so eventful a
battle, his dreams should be vivid, and their impression strong;
but it is remarkable that Eusebius gives no evidence from the
thousands of persons in the army who must have seen it, if it were
really a miraculous display of the Divine Power, neither Sozomen
nor Ruffin, who wrote so soon after, make any mentien of it.
And it has been thought that Eusebius, hearing the emperor,
narrating his dream, mistook him as narrating u fact, for Con-
stantine always stated that he was inlluenced by a dream in
making use of the sign of the cross in hi» army. [Eb.J
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTION* IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
60
tiu8, being constrained by force to come, be advances
out of the city, sends all his army to join witli him in
the field beyond the river Tiber, where he was put to
such a flight, and driven to such exigence, that in retir-
ing back with liaste to get into the city, be was over-
turned by the fall of his horse into the bottom of the
river, and being unable to get out from the weight of his
armour, he, with a great part of his men, were drowned.
We read in history of many victories and great con-
quests, yet we never read, and never shall, of any victory
so wholesome, so desirable, so opportune to mankind, as
this was, which made an end of so much bloodshed, and
obtained liberty and life to the posterity of so many ge-
nerations. For although some persecution was yet stir-
ring in the east by Maximinus, and Licinius, who had
been appointed Cssar in room of Severus, yet in Rome,
and in all the west, no martyr died after this heavenly
victor)'. And also in the east Constantine so vanquished
the tyrants, and so established the peace of the church,
that for the space of a thousand years after that, we read
of no open persecution against the christians, until the
time of John Wicklilfe, when the bishops of Rome began
to persecute the true members of Christ, as shall ap-
pear in further process of this history. So happy and
glorious was this victory of Constantine, sirnamed the
Great. For joy and gladness of which the citizens who
bad sent for him, brought him into the city of Rome
with great triumph, where he with the cross was most
honourably received, and the triumph celebrated for the
space of seven days together, having his image set up
in the Market-place, holding in his right hand the sign
of the cross, with this inscription : " Wiih this saving
sign, the true token of fortitude, I have rescued and
delivered our city from the yoke of the tyrant."
(Euseb. lib. 9. cap. 9.)
By this victory of Constantine, no little tranquillity
came to the church of Christ. Although in the east the
storm was not yet altogether quieted, yet here in Europe
great tranquillity followed, and continued in the church
without any open slaughter for a thousand years (to the
time of John Wickliffe and the Waldenses, as is before
mentioned) by the means of the godly beginning of good
Constantine, who, with his fellow, Licinius, being now
established in their dominion, set forth their general
proclamation or edict, that no man should be constrained
to any religion, but that all men should have liberty,
that the christians might continue in their profession
without any danger, and whosoever pleased might freely
join them. Which thing was very well received and highly
approved by the Romans, and all wise men.
The copy of the imperial constitution of Constantine
and Licinius, for the establishing of the free wor-
shippinff of God after the christian relit/ion.
" Not long ago we, considering with ourselves, that
liberty and freedom of religion ought not in any case to be
prohibited, but that free leave ought to be given to every
man to do therein according to his will and mind. We
have given commandment to all men to qualify matters
of religion as they themselves thought good, and that
also the christians should keep the opinions and faith of
their religion ; but because many and sundry opinions
spring and increase through the liberty granted by our
first license, we thought good to add thereunto, and to
make plain those things whereby perchance some
in time to come may be hindered from their religious
observance. When, therefore, by prosperous success,
I, Constantine Augustus, and I, Licinius Augustus,
came to Mediolanum, and there sat in council upon such
things as served for the utility and profit of the com-
monwealth ; these things amongst others we thought
would be beneficiel to all men ; before all other things
we purposed to establish those things wherein the true
reverence and worship of God is comprehended ; that
is, to give to the christians free choice to follow what re-
ligion they think good, and whereby the same sincerity
and celestial grace which is in every jilace received, may
also be embraced and accepted of all our loving sub-
jects. According, therefore, unto this our pleasure
[Book 1.
upon good advisement and sound judgment we have
decreed, that no man be denied to choose and foUov the
christian observance or religion, but that tiiis liberty be
given to every man, that he may apply his mind to what
religion he thinketh meet himself, whereby God may
perform upon us all his accustomed care and goodness.
To the intent therefore you might know that this is our
pleasure, we thought it necessary to write this unto you,
whereby all tliese errors and opinions which are con-
tained in our former letters sent to you in behalf of the
christians, and which seem very indiscreet and con-
trary to our clemency, may be made frustrate and anni-
hilated. Now, therefore, we firmly and freely will and
command that every man have free liberty to observe
the christian religion, and that without any grief or
molestation he may be suffered to do the same. These
things have we thought good to signify unto you by plain
words, that we have given to the christians free and
absolute power to keep and use their religion. And as
this liberty is absolutely given by us unto them, to use
and exercise their former observance, if any be disposed,
it is manifest that the same helpeth much to establish
the public tranquillity of our time, every man to have
liberty to use and choose what kind of worshipping he
p'jcases himself. And this is done of us for the intent,
that we would have no man forced to one religion more
than another. And this thing also amongst others we
have provided for the christians, that they may again
have possession of the places in which they have been
accustomed to make their assemblies ; so that if any
have bought or purchased the same either of us, or of
any other, we command the same places without either
money or other recompense, forthwith and without
delay, to be restored to the christians. And if any man
have obtained the same by gift from us, and shall require
any recompense to be made to them in that behalf, then
let the christians repair to the president (being the judge
appointed for that place) that consideration may be had
of those men by our benignity ; all which things we will
and command, that you see freely given and restored to
the society of the christians, without any delay. And
because the christians themselves are understood to
have had not only those places wherein they were
accustomed to resort together, but certain other peculiar
places also, not being private to any one man, but be-
longing to their church and society ; you shall see also
all those to be restored unto the christians, that is to
say, to every fellowship and company of them, accord-
ing to the decree whereof we have made mention, provi-
ded that the order we have taken in the mean time be
observed, that if any (taking no recompense) shall re-
store the same lands and possessions, they shall not
mistrust, but be sure to be saved harmless by us. In
all these things it shall be your part to employ your
diligence in the behalf of the aforesaid company of the
christians, wliereby this our commandment may speedily
be accomplished, and also in this case by our clemency
the common and public peace may be preserved. For
undoubtedly by this means, as we have said before, the
good- will and favour of God towards us (whereof in
many cases we have had good experience) shall always
continue with us. And to the intent that this our con-
stitution may be notified to all men, it shall be requisite
that the copy of these our letters be set up in all places,
that men may read and know the same, lest any should
be ignorant thereof."
By this history I doubt not but that the reader con-
siders and beholds the marvellous working of God's
mighty power ; to see so many emperors at one time
confederate together against the Lord and Christ his
anointed, who having the subjection of the whole world
under their dominion, exerted their whole might to ex-
tirpate the name of Christ, and of christians. Wherein
if the power of man could have prevailed, what could
they not do ? or what could they do more than they did ?
If policy or devices could have served, what policy was
there lacking? If torments or pains of death could
have helped, what cruelty of torment could be invented
by man, which was not attempted ? If laws, edicts,
A.D.305— 323.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
61
proclamations, written not only in tables, but engraven
in brass, could have stood, all this was practised against
the weak christians. And yet, notwithstanding, to see
how no counsel can stand against the Lord, observe
how all these be gone, and yet Christ and his church still
stand. Only Maximinus now in tlie eastern parts re-
mained, who bore a deadly hatred against the christians,
to whom Constantine and Licinius caused this constitu-
tion of theirs to be delivered. At the sight of which,
although he was somewhat appalled, and defeated of his
purpose ; yet as he saw himself too weak to resist the
authority of Constantine and Licinius, the superior
princes, he dissembled, as though he himself had desired
the quiet of the christians ; but shortly after, making
war, and fighting a battle with Licinius, he lost the
victory, and coming home again, he took great indignation
against the priests and prophets of his gods, whom be-
fore that time he had great regard to and honoured ;
and depending upon whose answers and enchantments,
be began his war against Licinius. But after he per-
ceived himself to be deceived by them, as by wicked
enchanters and deceivers, and such as had betrayed his
safety and person, he put them to death. And he
shortly after, oppressed with a mortal disease, glorified
the God of the christians, and made a most absolute law
for their safety and preservation.
Thus the Lord makes his enemies, be they never so
stern and stout, at length to stoop, and their hearts to
confess him, as this Maximinus did, who not long after
ended his life, leaving no more tyrants alive to trouble
the church, except Licinius.
This Licinius being a Dane born, and first made Caesar
by Galerius, as is above specified, was afterwards joined
with Constantine in the government of the empire, and
in setting forth the edicts, which we have before described,
although all this seems to have been done by him with a
dissembling mind. For so he is described in all his-
tories, to be a man passing all others in desire of in-
satiable riches, hasty, stubborn, and furious. He was
such an enemy to learning, that he named the same a
poison and a common pestilence, and especially the
knowledge of the laws. He thought no vice worse
became a prince than learning, because he himself was
unlearned.
There was between him and Constantine in the be-
ginning great familiarity, and such agreement, that Con-
stantine gave to him his sister Constantia in matrimony.
Neither would any man have thought him to have been
of any other religion than Constantine was of, he seemed
in all things to agree so well with him. He made a
decree with Constantine in the behalf of the christians, as
we have shewed. Such was Licinius in the beginning ;
but afterwards he began to conspire against the person
of Constantine, but finding he could not prevail in his
conspiracies he began vehemently to liate him, and not
only to reject the christian religion, but also to hate the
same. He said he would become an enemy to the chris-
tians, because in their assemblies and meetings they
prayed not for him, but for Constantine. Therefore first
by little and little, and that secretly, he went about to
wrong and hurt the christians, and banished them his
court. Then he commanded that all those who were
knights of the honourable order should be deprived,
unless tliey would do sacrifice to devils. The same
persecution he afterward stretched from his court into
all his provinces.
Tlie flittering officers that were under him, thinking
by tliis means to please him, slew many bishops, and
without any cause put them to death, as though they had
been homicides and heinous offenders ; they cut their
bodies into small pieces in the manner of a butcher, and
threw them into the sea to feed the fishes. What shall
we say of the e.xiles and confiscations of good and virtuous
men ? For he took by violence every man's substance,
and cared not by what means he came by it ; threatening
them with death, unless they would give it up. He ban-
ished those who had committed no evil. He commanded
that many honourable men should be put out of the way ;
and gave their daughters to his followers. Which cruel
outrage caused many godly men to forsake their houses,
of their own accord ; and flee to the woods, fields, desert
places, and mountains, which were the only habitations and
resting-places of the poor and miserable christians. Of
those worthy men and famous martyrs, who in this perse-
cution found the way to heaven, was Theodorus, who first
being hanged upon the cross, had nails thrust into his arm-
pits, and after that, his head stricken oif. Also another
Theodorus, the bishop of Tyre ; Basil also, the bishop of
Amasenus ; Nicholas the bishop of Mirorus, Gregory of
Armenia ; after that Paul of Neocesarea, who had both his
hands cut off with a searing iron. Besides these in the city
of Sebastia, there were forty worthy men and christian
soldiers in the cold time of winter drowned in a horse-
pond. The wives of those forty good men were carried
to Heraclea, acity in Thracia, and there, with a certain
deacon whose name was Amones, were, after innumerable
torments, slain with the sword. Licinius was determined
to have overrun all the christians, to which neither will nor
opportunity were wanted. But God brought Constantine
into those parts to oppose him.
Divers battles were fought between them, the first in
Hungary, where Licinius was overthrown ; then he fled
into Macedonia, and repairing his army was again dis-
comfited. Finally, being vanquished both by sea and
land, he, lastly, at Nicomedia yielded himself to Constan-
tine, and was commanded to live a private life in Thes-
alia, where at length he was slain by the soldiers.
Thus you have heard the end and conclusion of all the
seven tyrants who were the authors and workers of this
tenth and last persecution against the true people of
God. The chief captain and promoter of which per-
secution, was Dioclesian, who died at Salona, as
some say, by his own poison (A. D. 313). The next
was Maximinian, who, (as is said) was hanged by Con-
stantine at Marseilles (A. D. 310). Then died Gale-
rius, plagued with an horrible disease sent of God (A. D.
311). Severus was slain by Maximinian, father of
Maxentius, the wicked tyrant (A. D. 307), who was
overcome and vanquished of Constantine (A. D. 312).
Maximinus, the sixth tyrant, not long after, who being
overcome by Licinius, died (A. D. 313). Lastly, this
Licinius was overcome by Constantine, and slain
(A. D. 323). Only Constantius, the father of Constan-
tine, being a good and a godly emperor, died in the third
vear of the persecution (A. D. 30(i), and was buried at
York.
It now remains, after having described these persecu-
tors, to gather up the names and stories of certain par-
ticular martyrs, who are worthy of special memory, for
the singular constancy and fortitude shewed in their
sufferings and cruel torments; it is impossible to include
the names of all who suftered in this tenth persecution ;
but tlie most notable we here insert, for the edification
of other christians.
When Dioclesian and Maximinian, the pagan em-
perors, had directed their letters with all severity for the
persecuting of the christians, Alban, being then an
infidel, received into his house a certain clerk, flying
from the persecutor's hands, whom when Alban beheld,
continually both day and night to persevere in watching
and prayer, he began to imitate the example of his faith
and virtuous life ; whereupon being instructed, he
became a christian. The wicked prince was in-
formed that this good man and confessor of Christ was
harboured in Alban's house, whereupon he gave charge
to the soldiers to make diligent search as soon as they
came to the house of Alban; he by-and-bye putting on
the apparel which his guest usually wore, offered himself
in the stead of the other, to the soldiers, who binding
him, brought him forthwith to the judge. It happened
that when Alban was brought to the judge, they found
the judge at the altars, offering sacrifice unto devils,
who, as soon as he saw Alban, was in a great rage that
he should presume to give himself a prisoner for his
guest whom he harboured, and he commanded him to
be brought before the images of the devils whom he wor-
shipped, saying, "Because thou hadst rather hide and
convey away a rebel, than deliver him to the officers (as a
contemner of our gods) that he should not suffer pu-
nishment and merit of his blasphemy, the f unishmeat
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
62
he sliould have had, thou shalt suffer for him, if I per-
ceive thee any whit to revolt from our manner of v/or-
shipping." But blessed Alban, who of his own accord
had bewrayed that he was a christian, feared not at all
the menaces of the prince, but being armed with the
spiritual armour, openly pronounced that he would not
obey his commandment. Then said the judge, " Of
what stock or kindred art thou come?" Alban an-
swered, " What is that to you ? Of what stock soever I
came of, if you desire to hear the verity of my religion,
I call vou to witness that I am a christian." Then
the judge answered with fury, " If thou wilt enjoy the
felicity of this present life, do sacrifice to these mighty
gods." Alban replied, " These sacrifices which ye offer
unto devils, can neither help them that offer them,
neither yet can they accomplish the desires and prayers
of their suppliants ; but rather shall they who ofier sa-
crifice to these idols, receive for their meed everlasting
pains of hell fire." The judge, when he heard these
words, was passing angry, and commanded the tormen-
tors to whip this holy confessor of God, endeavouring to
overcome the constancy of his heart with stripes. And
when he was cruelly beaten, he yet suffered the same
patiently, nay, joyfully, for the Lord's sake. Then,
when the judge saw that he would not with torments be
overcome, nor be seduced from the worship of the chris-
tian religion, he commanded him to be beheaded.
The rest of this story that follows in the narration of
Bede, as of drying up the river, as Alban went to the
place of his execution ; then of making a well-spring in
the top of the hill, and of the falling out of the eyes of
him that did behead him (with such other prodigious
miracles mentioned in history ), they seem more legend-
like than truth-like.
The Uke estimation I have of the long history, wherein
is written at large a fabulous discourse of all the doings
and miracles of St. Alban.
But among all evidences sufficient to disprove these
legends of Alban, nothing makes more against, than
the very story itself: as where he brings in the head of
che holy martyr to speak to the people after it was
smitten off from the body. Also, where he brings in the
angels going up and coming down in a pillar of fire, and
singing all the night long. Also, in the river which
Alban made dry, such as were drowned before in the
bottom were found alive. With other such like monk-
ish miracles, and gross fables, wherewith these abbey
monks were wont, in times past, to deceive the churcli
of God, and to beguile the whole world for their own
advantage. Notwithstanding I write not this to any
derogation of the blessed and faithful martyr of God,
who was the first that I did ever find in this realm to
suffer martyrdom for the testimony of Christ. And
worthy no doubt of all commendation, especially of us
here in this land ; whose christian faith in the Lord, and
charity towards his neighbour, I pray God we may all
follow. As also I wish, moreover, that the stories both
of him, and of all other christian martyrs, might have
been delivered to us simple as they were, without the
admixture of all these abbey-like additions of monkish
miracles, wherewith they were wont to paint out the
glory of such saints the most, by whose offerings they
were accustomed to receive most advantage.
The Clerk mentioned in this story, whom Alban re-
ceived into his house, flying into Wales, was brought
back again, and martyred, with cruel torments.
The time of martyrdom of this blessed Alban and the
other, seems to be about the second or third year of the
tenth persecution, under Dioclesian, before the coming
of Constantius to his government. Where, by the way
is to be noted, that this realm of Britain was never
touched with any other of the nine persecutions, before
this tenth persecution of Dioclesian and Maximinian.
In which persecution our histories record, that all Chris-
tianity was almost destroyed in the whole island, the
churches subverted, all books of the scripture burned,
many of the faithful, both men and women were slain ;
among whom, the first and chief (as has been said) was
Alban. And thus much touching the martyrs of Britain.
Now from England to return again to other countries,
[Book Ij
where this persecution raged more vehemently, we wil]
add (the I^ord willing) the histories of others, that be-
ginning with Romanus, the notable and admirable sol-
dier and true servant of Christ, whose history is set
forth in Prudentius as follows ; so lamentably desciibed
by him, that it will be hard for any man with dry cheeks
to hear it.
" Pitiless Galerius with his grand captain Asclepiades,
violently invaded the city of Antioch, intending by force
of arms to drive all christians utterly to renounce their
pure reUgion. The christians, as God would, were at
that time congregated together, to whom Romanus has-
tily ran, declaring that tlie wolves were at hand which
would devour the christian flock ; ' But fear not,' said
he, • neither let this imminent peril disturb you, my
brethren.' It was brought to pass, by the great grace
of God working in Romanus, that old men and matrons,
fathers and mothers, young men and maidens, were all
of one will and mind, most ready to shed their blood in
defence of their christian profession. Word was brought
to the captain, that the band of armed soldiers was not
able to wrest the staff of faith out of the hand of the
armed congregation, and all because that one Romanus
did so mightily encourage them, that they hesitated not
to offer their naked throats, -wishing gloriously to die for
the name of Christ. ' Seek out that rebel (quoth the
captain) and bring him to me, that he may answer for
the whole sect.' He was apprehended, and being bound
as a sheep appointed to the slaughter-house, was pre-
sented to the emperor, who, with wrathful countenance
beholding him, said, ' What.' Art thou the author of
this sedition ? Art thou the cause why so many shall
lose their lives ? By the gods I swear thou shalt smart
for it, and first in thy flesh shalt thou suffer the pains,
whereunto thou hast encouraged the hearts of thy fel-
lows.' Romanus answered, ' O emperor, I joyfully
embrace thy sentence, I refuse not to be sacrificed for
my brethren, and that by as cruel means as thou mayst
invent ; and, whereas thy soldiers were repelled from
the christian congregation, that was, because it was not
fit for idolaters and worshippers of devils, to enter the
holy house of God, and to pollute the place of true
prayer.' Then Asclepiades, wholly inflamed with this
stout answer, commanded him to be trussed up, and his
bowels drawn out. The executioners themselves, more
pitiful in heart than the captain, said, ' Not so, sir, this
man is of noble parentage, it is unlawful to put a noble-
man to so ignoble a death.' ' Scourge him then with
whips (quoth the captain) with knaps of lead at the
ends.' Instead of tears, sighs, and groans, Romanus
sung psalms all the time of his whipping, requiring them
not to favour him for nobility sake ; ' Not the blood of
my progenitors (said he) but christian profession makes
me noble.' Then with great power of spirit he in-
veighed against the captain, laughing to scorn the false
gods of the heathen, with the idolatrous worshij)ping of
them, affirming the god of the christians to be the true
God that created heaven and earth, before whose judg-
ment-seat all nations shall appear. But the wholesome
words of the martyr were as oil to the fire of the
captain's fury. The more the martyr spake, the madder
he was, insomuch that he commanded the martyr's sides
to be lanced with knives, until the bones ajipeared white
again. ' I am sorry, O captain (quoth the martyr) not
that my flesh shall be thus cut and mangled, but for thy
cause am I sorrowful, who, being corrupted with damna-
ble errors, seducest others.' The second time he
preached at large the living God, and the Lord Jesus
Christ his well beloved Son, and eternal life through
faith in his blood ; expressing therewith the abomination
of idolatry, with a vehement exhortation to worship and
adore the living God. At these words Asclepiades com-
manded the tormentors to strike Romanus on the mouth,
that his teeth being stricken out, his pronunciation at
least might be impaired. The commandment was obeyed,
his face buffetted, his eye-lids torn with their nails, his
cheeks scotched with knives, the skin of his beard was
plucked by Uttle and httle from the flesh ; finally, his
seemly face was wholly defaced. The meek martyr said,
' I thank thee, O captain, that thou hast opened unto
A. D. 323.] THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
63
me many mouths, wherein I may preach my Lord and
Saviour Christ. Look how many wounds I have, so
many mouths I have kiuding and praising God." The
captain, astonished with this singular constancy, com-
manded them to cease from the tortures. He threatened
cruel lire, revded the noble martyr, and blasphemed
God, saying, " The crucified Christ is but a yesterday's
god, the gods of the Gentiles are of most antiquity."
«' Here again, Romanus made a long oration of the eter-
nity of Christ, of his human nature, of the death, and
satisfaction of Christ for all mankind. Which done, he
said, ' Give me a child, O captain, but seven years of
&se. which age is free from malice and other vices, where-
with ripe age is commonly infected, and thou slialt hear
what he will say.' His request was granted. A pretty
boy was called out of the multitude, and set before him.
* Tell me, my babe," quoth the martyr, " whether thou
think it reason, that we worship one Christ, and in Christ
one Father, or else that we worship many gods?" Unto
whom the babe answered, " That certainly, whatever it
be til it man affirm to be God, must needs be one ; and as
this one is Christ, of necessity Christ must be the true
God ; for that there be many Gods, we children cannot
believe." The captain much astonished at this, said,
"Thou young villain and traitor, where, and of whom
learaedst thou this lesson?" " Of my mother," quoth
tie child, " with whose milk I sucked in this lesson, that
1 must lielleve in Christ." The mother was called, and
she gladly appeared. The captain commanded the child
to be hoised up and scourged. The pitiful beholders of this
pitiless aot, could not refrain from tears : the joyful and
glad motlier alone stood with dry cheeks : yea, she re-
buked her sweet babe for craving a draught of cold water, she
charijed him to thirst after the cup that the infants of Bethle-
hem once drank of, forgettingtheir mother's milk ; she will-
ed iiuaio lemeuiberlitile Isaac, who beholding the sword
theiv-vvith, and the altar whereon he should be sacrificed,
Willi. ii,"ly olTered his tender neck to his father's sword.
Vriiile tliis counsel was giving, the butcherly tormentor
])lucked the skin from the crown of his head, hair and all.
The mother cried, "Suffer it, my child; anon thou shalt
pass to him that will adorn thy naked head with a crown
of eternal glory." The child, thus counselled and en-
couraged, received the stripes with a smiling countenance.
The captain perceiving the child invincible, and himself
vanquished, committed the blessed babe to the stinking
prison, commanding the torments of Romanus to be re-
newed and increased, as the chief author of this evil.
" Thus was Romanus brought forth again to new stripes,
the punishments to be renewed and received upon his
old sores, in so much as the bare bones appeared, the
flesh all torn away.
" Yea, no longer could the tyrant forbear, but he must
needs draw nearer to the sentence of death. " Is it painful
to thee (said he) to tarry so long alive ? A flaming fire
shall be prepared for thee by-and-by, wherein thou and
that boy, thy fellow of rebellion, shall be consumed into
ashes. Romanus and the babe were led to the place of
execution. As they laid hands on Romanus, he looked
back, saying, " I appeal from this thy tyranny, O unjust
judge, unto the righteous throne of Christ that upright
judge ; not because I fear thy cruel torments and merci-
less handlings, but that thy judgments may be known to
be cruel and bloody." Now when they were come to
tVie place, the tormentors required the child of the mother,
for she had taken it up in her arms ; and she only kissing
it, delivered the babe ; " Farewell," she said, " my sweet
child." And as the hangman applied his sword to the
babe's neck, she sang on this manner :
All laud and praise with heart and voice,
O Lord we yield to thee ;
To whom the death of all thy saints,
We know most dear to be.
" The innocent's head being cut off, the mother wrapped
it up in her garment, and laid it on her breast. On the
other side a mighty fire was made, whereinto Romanus
was cast. His sorrowful hfe and pains being ended, he
now enjoys quiet rest in the Lord, with perpetual hope
of his miserable body to be restored again, with his soul,
into a better life.
' ' Gordius was a citizen of Cesarea, a worthy soldier, and
captain of a hundred men. In the time of extreme per-
secution, he refused any longer to execute his charge, and
willingly chose exile, and lived many years in the desert
a religious and solitary life. But on a certain day when
a solemn feast of Mars was celebrated in the city of
Cesarea, and many people were assembled in the theatre
to behold the games, he left the desert, and got up into
the chief place of the theatre, and with a loud voice ut-
tered this saying of the apostle, " Behold I was found of
them that sought me not, and I was manifest to ther.i
that asked not for me." At this noise, the multitude
looked about to see who it was that made such exclama-
tion. As soon as it was known to be Gordius, the crier
commanded silence, and he was brought to the sheriff,
who was present, and ordained the games. When he
was asked the question who he was, from whence, and
for what purpose he came thither, he telling the whole
truth, answered; "I am come to publish, that I set
nothing by your decrees against the christian religion,
but that I profess Jesus Christ to be my hope and safety."
The sheriff was greatly moved with these words, and
poured all his displeasure upon Gordius, command-
ing the executioners to bring out the scourges. Gordius
answered, " That it would be an hinderance and damage
to him, if he could not suffer and endure divers tor-
ments and punishments for Christ's cause. The sheriff
being more offended with his boldness, commanded him
to feel as many kinds of torments as there were. With
all which, Gordius, notwithstanding, could not be mas-
tered or overcome ; but lifting up his eyes unto heaven,
singeth this saying out of the Psalms, " The Lord is my
helper, I will not fear what man can do to me :" and also
this saying, " I will fear no evil, because thou Lord art
with me."
" When the shei-iff saw that he could win but little by
torment, he tried by gentleness and enticing words, to
turn the stout and valiant mind of Gordius. He promised
him if he would deny Christ, he would make him a
captain, and give him riches, treasure, and whatever he
desired. But it was all in vain. The magistrate thoroughly
angry prepared to condemn him ; and caused him to be
taken out of the city to be burnt. Great multitudes went
out of the city, to see him put to execution; some take
him in their arms, and lovingly kiss him, persuading him
to save himself, and that with 'tears. To whom Gordius
answered, " Weep not, I pray you, for me, but rather for
the enemies of God, who always make war against the
christians ; weep, I say, for them who prepare for us a
fire, purchasing hell fire for themselves in the day of
vengeance ; and cease, I pray you, to molest and disquiet
my settled mind : for truly, I am ready for the name of
Christ to suffer and endure a thousand deaths if need
were. Some others came unto him, who persuaded him
to deny Christ with his mouth, and to keep his consci-
ence to himself. " My tongue," saith he, " which by the
goodness of God I have, cannot be brought to deny the
author and giver of the same ; for with the heart we
believe imto righteousness, and with the tongue we con-
fess unto salvation." He spake many more such words ;
but especially persuading the beholders to suffer death,
and desire martyrdom. After all which, with a cheerful
and glad countenance, never changing so much as his
colour, he willingly gave himself to be burnt."
Not much unlike the history of Gordius is the history
also of Menas an Egyptian, who was likewise a soldier;
in this persecution of Dioclesian, he forsook all, and
went into the desert, where for a long time he gave him-
self to abstinence, watching, and meditation of the
scriptures. At length returning again to the city Cotis,
there in the open theatre, he with a loud voice openly
proclaimed himself to be a christian, and upon this was
brought to Pyrrhus the president; who demanded of
him his faith, when he made this answer, " It is right
that I should confess God, in whom is light and no
darkness, forsomuch as Paul teaches that with the heart we
beUeve to righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." After this the innocent martyr
64
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I,
was most painfully pinched and tortured with sundry-
punishments. In all wliich notwithstanding lie shewed
a constant heart, and invincible taitli, having in the
midst of liis torments these words in his nioutii : " There
IS nothing in my mind lliat can be conij)ared to the
kingdom of heaven : neither is all tlie world, if it were
weighed in a balance, to be compared with the price of
one soul ; who is able to separate us from the love of
Jesus (Jhrist our Lord ? Shall atHiction or anguish ? I
have thus learned of my Lord and my king, not to fear
them which kill the body and have no power to kill the
soul, but to fear him rather, who hath power to destroy
botli body and soul in hell fire." To make the story
short, after he had sutfercd manifold torments, at last
the sentence of death was pronounced upon him,
which was that he should be beheaded. Menas being
then led to the i)lace of execution, said, " I give thee
thanks, my Lord and God, who hast accepted me as a
partaker of thy precious death, and hast not given me to
be devoured of my fierce enemies, but hast made me to
remain constant in thy pure faith unto this my latter
end." And so this blessed soldier fighting valiantly
under the banner of Christ, lost his head, and won his
soul.
Basil, in a certain sermon concerning forty martyrs,
mentions tliis story, not unworthy to be recorded. There
came into a certain place, the emperor's marshal or
officer, with the edict which the emperor had issued
against the christians, tliat whoever confessed Christ,
should after many torments suffer death. And first they
privily suborned certain to detect and accuse the chris-
tians wiiom they had found out, or had laid wait for.
Upon this, the sword, the gibbet, the wheel, and the
whips were brought forth ; at the terrible sight of which,
the hearts of the beholders shook and trembled. Some
fled for fear, some stood in doubt what to do ; some
were so terrified at beholding these engines, and tor-
menting instruments, that they denied their faith. But
some began to suffer, and for a time did abide the con-
flict and agony of martyrdom, but vanquished at length,
by the intolerable pain of their torments, made ship-
wreck of their consciences, and lost the glory of their
confession. Among others, there were at that time forty
young soldiers, who, after the marshal had shown the
emperor's edict, and required of all men obedience to
the same, freely and boldly confessed themselves to be
christians, and declared to him their names. The mar-
shal, somewhat amazed at their boldness of speech,
stands m doubt what was best to do. Yet forthwith he
tries to win them with fair words, advising them to
consider their youth, and that they should not change a
sweet and pleasant life, for a cruel and untimely death :
after that he promised them money and honourable
offices in the emperor's name. But they little esteeming
all these things, brake forth into a long and bold oration,
affirming that they neither desired life, dignity, nor
money, but only the celestial kingdom of Christ, saying
further, that they are ready for the love and faitli they
have in God, to endure the affliction of the wlieel, the
cross and the fire. The rude marslial being herewith
offended, devised a new kind of punishment. He bad
seen in the middle of the city a certain great pond,
which lay exposed to the cold northern wind, for it was
in the winter time ; he caused them all to be put into
this pond, atul kept tliere all that night ; but they com-
forting one another, received this their ajjpointt'd )iunish-
ment with cheerfulness, and said, as they were putting
off their clothes, " We put off not our clothes, but we
put oft' the old man, which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lust. We give thee thanks, f) Lord, that with
this our apparel we may also jmt off by thy grace, the
sinful man ; for by means of the serpent we once put
him on, and by the means of Jesus Christ we now put
him off." When they had thus said, they were brought
naked into the place where they felt most vehement
cold ; insomuch that their bodies became stiff therewith.
As soon as it was day, they were brought to the fire, in
which they were consumed, and their ashes thrown into
the flood.
la this fellowship and company of martyrs, we cannot
leave out, or forget the history of Cyrus. This Cyrus was
a physician born in Alexandria, who, flying into Egjpt
in the persecution of Dioclesian and Maximinian, led a
solitary life in Arabia, being much spoken of for his
learning. After a certain time one John, born in the
city of Edessa, joined himself to Cyrus, leaving the
soldier's life, which before that time he had exercised.
But while the persecution raged in a city in Egypt,
called Canope, a certain godly christian woman, called
Athanasia, and her three daughters, Theoctiste, Theo-
dota, and Eudoxia, with whom Cyrus was well ac
quainted, were cast into prison for the confession
of their faith : he, fearing their weakness, accompanied
with his brother John, came and visited them for their
better confirmation, at which time, Lirianus was chief
captain and lieutenant of Egypt, of whose wickedness
and cruelty, especially against females, Athanasius makes
mention in his apologies, and in his epistles. This
Cyrus, therefore, and John, being accused and appre-
hended, as those by whose persuasions the daughters of
Athanasia despised the gods and the emperor's religion,
and could not be brought to do sacrifice, were, after the
publication of their constant confession, put to cfeath by
the sword, — Athanasia also, and her three daughters,
being condemned to death.
There was a lieutenant-general of Dioclesian named
Sebastian, born in France, who, by his exhortations,
encouraged many martyrs of Christ to constancy, and
kept them in the faith. He being, therefore, accused to
the emperor, was commanded to be apprehended, and
brought into the open field, where he was thrust through
t'le body with innumerable arrows b his own bohliers.
Other martyrs suffered with Sebastian, anmng whom
were Nicostratusi with Zoe his wife; Tranquillinus,
with Martia his wife ; Traglinus, Claudius, Castor,
Tibertius, Castellus, Marcus, and Marcellinus, with
many others.
In a certain exhortation of Ambrose, he commends
the martyrdoms of Agricola and Vitalis, who suil'ered
also in the same persecution. This Vitalis was servant
to Agricola, who both had determined to give their lives
with other martyrs, for the name of Clirist. Vitalis,
being sent before by his master, to offer himself to
martyrdom, fell first into the hands of persecutors, who
laboured by all means to cause him to deny Christ ;
which, when he would in no case do, but stoutly per-
sisted in the confession of his faith, they began to exer-
cise him with all kind of torments, so unmercifully, that
there was no whole skin left on all his body. So Vitalis,
in the midst of the agony and painful torments, in a
short prayer commended himself to God, and gave up
his life. After him, the tormentors set upon Agricola,
his master, whose virtuous manners being singularly
well liked, and known to the enemies, his suffering was
the longer deferred. But Agricola not abiding the long
delay, and driving off, and provoking the adversaries to
be quicker, was, at length, fastened to the cross, and so
finished his martyrdom, which he so long desired.
No less worthy of commemoration is the lamentable
martyrdom of Vincentius. This Vincentius was a
Spanish priest, a godly and virtuous man, who at this
time suffered martyrdom at Valence, under Dacian, the
president. Bergomensis gives an account of his mar-
tyrdom, taken out of a certain sermon of St. Augustine,
as follows: " Our heart conceived not a vain and fruit
less sight (as it were in beholding of lamentable tra-
gedies), but certainly a great and marvellous siglit ;ii 1
with singular pleasure received it, when the painful p.is-
sion of victorious Vincentius was read to us. is t.n.ij
any so heavy hearted that will not be moved in the con-
templation of this immoveable martyr, so manly, or,
rather so godly, fighting against tlie craft and sublilty of
that Serpent, against the tyranny of Dacian, against the
horrors of death, and by the mighty Spirit of his God, con-
(lucring all ? But let us in few words rehearse the num-i
her of his torments, though the pains thereof cannot bel
expressed in many words. First, Dacian caused thai
martyr to be laid upon the rack, and all the joints of his j
body distended, until they cracked again. This beingj
done in the most extreme and cruel manner, all th«j
A. D. 323.]
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
65
members of his painful body were grievously pierced
with deadly wounds. Thirdly, they tore his flesh with
iron combs sharply filed. And in order that the tor-
mentors might not omit any cruelty on the meek and
mild martyr's flesh, they themselves also were scourged
at the president's commandment. And lest his pains
might seem too easy, they laid his body, being all out
of joint, on an iron grate, and tearing it with iron hooks,
they seared it with fiery plates, sprinkling him with
burning salt. Last of all, this mighty martyr was cast
into a dungeon, the floor of which was thickly spread
with the sharpest shells that could be got, his feet being
then fast locked in the stocks, he was left alone without
any worldly comfort ; but the Lord his God was with
him, the Holy Spirit of God (whose office is to comfort
the godly afflicted), filled his heart with joy and glad-
ness. Hast thou prepared a terrible rack, (O, cruel
tyrant ! O, devouring lion !) for the martyr's bed ? the
Lord shall make that bed soft and sweet unto him.
Dost thou rack his bones and joints all asunder .' His
bones, his joints, his hairs, are all numbered. Dost
thou torment his flesh with mortal wounds ? tlie Lord
shall pour abundantly into all his sores of his oil of
gladness. Thy scraping combs, tliy sharp fleshhooks,
thy hot searing irons, thy parched salt, thy noisome pri-
son, thy cutting shelis, thy pinching stocks, shall all
work together for good to this patient martyr. All
sliall work contrary to thy expectation, he shall reap
great joy into the barn of his soul, out of this mighty har-
vest of pains that thou hast brought him into. Yea,
thou shalt find him Vincentius indeed, that is, a van-
quisher, a triumpher, a conqueror, subduing thy mad-
ness by his meekness, thy tyranny by his patience, thy
manifold tortures by the manifold graces of God, where-
with he is plentifully enriched."
In this catalogue of holy martyrs, that suffered in this
I tenth persecution, there are very many more mentioned
j in various authors, beside them whom we have hitherto
i comprehended, as Philoromus, a man of noble birth,
and great possessions in Alexandria, who, being per-
suaded by his friends to favour himself, to consider his
wife and children, not only rejected their counsels, but
. also was not moved by the threats and torments of the
Judge, but kept the confession of Christ inviolate unto
I death, and was beheaded.
I Of like dignity also was Procopius in Palestine, who,
i after his conversion, brake his images of silver and gold,
and distributed the same to the poor, and after ail kind
(of torments, racking, cording, tearing his flesh, goring,
I stabbing, and firing, at length had his head also smitten
'off.
To these may be added also Georgius, a young man of
Cappadocia, who, stoutly inveighing against the impious
idolatry of the emperoi's, was apprehended and cast
into prison, then torn with hooked irons, burnt with hot
lime, stretched with cords, £.fter that his hands and feet
with other members of his body being cut off, at last
had his head cut off with a sword.
With these aforenamed, add also Sergius and Bacchius,
Panthaleon, a physician in Nicomedia, Theodorus of the
icity of Amasia, Faustus a martyr of Egy]it, Gereon,
Iwith three hundred and eighteen fellow martyrs, who
jsuffered about Celeur. Hermogenes, the president of
I Athens, who being converted by the constancy of one
iMenas, and Eugraphus in their torments, suffered also for
;the like faith ; also Samonas Gurias and Abibus. Hieron
lalso, with certain of his confessors, under Maximinus,
Judes and Domuas, who suffered with many other mar-
tyrs, above mentioned, at Nicomedia. Evelasius and
iMaximinus, the emperor's officers, whom Fausta, the
maiden, converted in her torments. Also Thirsus,
Lucius, CaUinicius, Apollonius, Philemon, Asilas, Leo-
(nides, with Arrianus, president of Thebaide. Cyprian,
likewise, a citizen of Antioch, who, after he had con-
itinued a long time a filthy magician, or sorcerer, at length
was converted and made a deacon, then a priest, and at
last the bishop of Antioch. This Cyprian, with Justina,
a maiden, suffered among the martyrs. Also Glicerios
at Nicomedia, Felix a minister, Fortunatus, Achilleus,
deacons in the cit^ of Yolent. Arthemius of Rome,
Ciriacus, deacon to Marcellus, the bishop, Carpophorus,
priest, at Thuscia, with Abundus, his deacon. Also
Claudius Sirinus Antoninus, who suffered with MarceU
liiius, the bisliop. Cucusatus, in the city of Barcinona.
Felix, bishop of Apulia, with Adauctus, and Januarius
his priest, Fortunatus and Septimus his readers, who
suffered in the city Venusina, under Dioclesian.
No less admirable and wonderful was the constancy
also of women, who in the same persecution gave their
bodies to the tormentors, and their lives for the testi-
mony of Christ, with no less boldness of spirit than the
men themselves. Of whom we will narrate some exam-
ples, such as seem most notable, beginning with Eulalia.
There is a city in Portugal called Emerita, wherein
dwelt, and was brought up, a maiden born of noble paren-
tage, whose name was Eulalia. Emerita was a rich and
celebrated city, yet was it more adorned and celebrated by
the martyrdom, blood, and sepulchre of this blessed Eu-
lalia. She had refused great and honourable offers in
marriage as one not delighting in courtly dalliance, neither
yet taking pleasure in purple and gorgeous apparel, or
costly ornaments ; but forsaking and despising all these
pompous allurements, she shewed herself most earnest
in preparing her journey to her hoped inheritance, and
heavenly patronage. As she was modest and discreet
in behaviour, so was she also witty and sharp in answer-
ing her enemies. But when the furious rage of perse-
cution forced her to join herself with God's children in
the household of faith, and when the christians were
commanded to offer incense and sacrifice to devils or
idol gods, then the blessed spirit of Eulalia began to
kindle, and being of a prompt and ready wit, and
pouring out her heart before God, provoked thereby the
force and rage of her enemies against her. But the
godly care of her parents, fearing lest the willing mind
of this damsel, so ready to die for Christ, might be the
cause of her own death, hid her and kept her close at
their house in the country, being a great way out of the
city. She yet disliking that quiet life, and not wishing
any delay, softly steals out of the doors in the night ; and
leaving the common road, passed through the thorny
and briary places ; and although the silent night was
dark and dreadful, yet she had with her the Lord and
giver of light. And as the children of Israel coming
out of Egypt, had* by the mighty power of God, a
cloudy pillar for their guide in the day, and a flame of
fire in the night, so had this godly maiden, travelUng in
tliis dark night, when flying and forsaking the place
where filthy idolatry abounded ; she was not oppressed
with the dreadful darkness of the night.
In the morning, witli a bold courage she goes to the
tribunal, and in the midst of them all with a loud voice
crying out, said, " I pray you what a shame is it for you
thus to destroy and kill men's souls, and to throw their
bodies alive against the rocks, and cause them to deny
the omnipotent God ? Would you know (O you unfor-
tunate) what I am ? Behold, I am one of the christians,
an enemy to your devilish sacrifices, I spurn your idols
under my feet, I confess God omnipotent with my heart
and mouth. Isis, Apollo and Venus, what are they?
Maximinus himself, what is he ? The one a thing of
nought, for that they be the works of men's hands; the
other but a castaway, because he worships them. There-
fore, they are both frivolous; Maximinus is a lord of
substance, and yet he himself falls down before a stone,
and vows the honour of his dignity to those that are
much inferior to his vassals. Why then does he oppress-
so tyrannically, more worthy and courageous spirits than
himself? He must needs be a good guide and an up--
right judge, who feedeth upon innocent blood, doth rent
and tear the bodies of godly men, and what is more,
hath his delight in destroying and subverting the faith.
" Go to therefore, burn, cut, and mangle these earthly
members. It is an easy matter to break a brittle sub-
stance, but the inward mind thou shalt not hurt." Thea
the judge in a great rage, said, " Hangman, take her,
and pull her out by the hair of her head, and torment
her to the uttermost, let her feel the power of our coun.
try's gods, and let her know what the imperial govern-
ment of a prince is. But yet, O thou sturdy girl, £un
66
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book 1.
would I have thee (if it were possible) before thou die,
to revoke this thy wickedness. Behold what pleasures
thou mayest enjoy by the honourable house thou earnest
of, thy fallen house and progeny follows thee to death
with lamentable tears, and the nobility of thy kindred
makes doleful lamentation for thee. What meanest
thou ? Wilt thou kill thyself so young a flower, and so
near these honourable marriages and great dowries thou
mayest enjoy ? Does not the glistering and golden
pomp of a bridal move thee .' Does not the piety of
thine ancestors touch thee ? Wlio is not grieved by thy
rashness and weakness ? Behold here the furniture
ready prepared for thy terrible death ; either thou shalt
be beheaded with this sword, or else with these wild
beasts shalt thou be pulled in pieces, or else being cast
into the fiery flames, thou shalt be consumed to ashes.
What great matter is it for thee, I pray thee, to escape
all this ? If thou wilt but take and put with thy fingers
a little salt and incense into the censers, thou shalt be
delivered from all these punishments." To this Eulalia
made no answer, but throws down the idols, and spurns
with her feet the incense prepared for the censers. Then
without further delay, the executioners took her, and
pulled one joint from another, and with the talons of
wild beasts tore her sides to the hard bones ; she all this
while singing and praising God in this wise : " Behold,
O Lord, I will not forget thee ; what a pleasure is it for
them, O Christ, that remember thy triumphant victories,
to attain unto these high dignities ! and she still calls
upon that holy name, all stained and imbrued with her
own blood." This she sang with a bold spirit, neither
lamenting nor yet weeping, but being glad and cheerful,
abandoning from her mind all heaviness and grief, when
as out of a warm fountain, her mangled members bathed
her white and fair skin with fresh blood. Then they
proceed to the last and final torment, which was not only
the goring and wounding of her mangled body with the
iron grate and hurdle, and terrible harrowing of her
flesh, but burned her on every side with flaming torches ;
wtien the cracking flame reaching the crown of her
hi'ad consumed her ; so she rested in peace.
As you have now heard the christian life, and constant
death of Eulalia, worthy of praise and commendation, so
no less worthy was the blessed Agnes, that constant
damsel and martyr of God, who as she was of honour-
able parents in Rome, so she lies there honourably buried.
She was very young when she was first dedicated to
Christ, and boldly resisted the edicts of the emperor ;
and would net through idolatry deny or forsake the holy
faith. She willingly offered her body to hard and pain-
ful torments, not refusing to sufi'er whatever it should be,
yea though it were death itself. She was therefore
ordered to be beheaded. And when she saw a sturdy
and cruel fellow stand behind her, and approaching near
to her with a naked sword in his hand, " 1 am now glad,"
said she, " and rejoice that thou art come. I will
willingly receive into my bosom the length of this sword,
that thus married unto Christ my spouse, I may sur-
mount and escape all the darkness of this world. O
eternal governor, vouchsafe to open the gates of heaven,
once shut up against all the inhabitants of the earth, and
receive, O Christ, my soul that seeks thee !" Thus
speaking, and kneeling upon her knees, she prays to
Christ in heaven, that her neck might be the readier for
the sword. The executioner then with his bloody hand
finished her hope, and at one stroke cut ofl" her head,
and by such short and swift death prevented her feeling
the pain of it.
I have oftentimes before complained, that the histories
of saints have been mixed up with many false additions,
and fabulous inventions of men, who either of a super-
stitious devotion, or of a subtle practice, have so mangled
their histories and lives, that very few remain simple and
nncorrupt. This I especially find in the history of good
Katherine, whom I have now in hand ; although I do
not doubt that there was great holiness in her life, excel-
lency in her knowledge, constancy in her death, yet that
all things be true that are told of her, I do not affirm,
neither am I bound to think so. Of the many strange
fictions of her some seem incredible, some impudent.
As where Petrus de Natalibus writing of her conversion
declares, how that Katherine sleeping before a certain
picture or table of the crucifix, Christ with his mothei
Mary appeared unto her ; and when Mary had otfered
her unto Christ to be his wife, he first refused her for
her blackness I The next time she being baptized, Mary
appearing again, offered her to marry with Christ, who
then being pleased, was espoused to him and married,
having a golden ring the same time put on her finger in
her sleep ! Bergomensis writes, that because in the
sight of the peoi)le she openly resisted the emperor
Maxentius to his face, and rebuked him for his cmelty,
she was committed to prison. The same night an angel
came to her, comforting her and exhorting her to be
strong and constant unto the martyrdom, for she was
accepted iu the sight of God, and that the Lord would
be with her, and that he would give her a mouth and
wisdom which her enemies should not withstand ; with
many other things which 1 here omit. I also omit con-
cerning the fifty philosophers, whom she convicted in
disputation, and converted to our religion, and who died
martyrs for the same. At length, after she had endured
the rack, and the four sharp cutting wheels, she was
beheaded, and so finished her martyrdom.
Among the works of Basil, a certain oration is extant
concerning Julitta the martyr, who came to her martyr-
dom by this occasion. A certain avaricious and greedy
person of great authority, violently took from her all her
goods, lands, chattels, and servants, contrary to all
equity and right. She complained to the judges ; a day
was appointed when the cause should be heard. The
spoiled woman, and the spoiling extortioner stood forth
together : the woman declared her cause, the man,
frowningly, beheld her face. When she had proved that
the goods were her own, and that he had dealt wrong-
fully with her, the wicked extortioner, preferring vile
worldly substance to the rightful claims of a christian
body, affirmed her action to be of no force, because she
was an outlaw in not observing the emperor's gods. His
allegation was allowed as good. Whereupon incense
and fire were prepared for her to worship the gods, and
unless she would do this, neither the emperor's protec-
tion, laws, or judgment, should be extended to her, nor
should she enjoy life in that commonwealth. When this
handmaid of the Lord heard these words, she said,
" Farewell life, welcome death ; farewell riches, welcome
poverty. All that I have, if it were a thousand times
more, 1 would rather lose, than speak one wicked and
blasphemous word against God my Creator. I yield thee,
O my God, most hearty thanks for this gift of grace,
that I can contemn and despise this frail and transitory
world, esteeming christian profession above all trea-
sures." After this, when any question was demanded,
her answer was, " I am the servant of Jesus Christ."
Her kindred and acquaintance flocking to her, advised
her to change her mind ; but that she refused, with de-
testation of their idolatry. Forthwith the judge con-
demned her to the fire, and the joyful martyr embraced
the sentence as a most sweet and delectable thing. She
prepares herself for the flames, in countenance, gesture
and words, declaring the joy of her heart, and then em-
bracing the fire, she sweetly slept in the Lord.
Beside these, divers godly women have been faithful
martyrs. Barbara, a noble woman in Th\iscia, after
miserable imprisonment, sharp cords, and burning
flames put to her sides, was at last beheaded. Fausta, a
maiden, suffered under Maximinus : by her Euelasius, a
ruler of the emperor's palace, and Maximinus, tlie pre-
sident, were both converted, and also suffered martyrdom.
Juliana, a maiden of singular beauty, in Nicomedia,
after divers agonies, suffered likewise under Maximinus.
Anasia, a maiden of Tliessalonica, also suffered under
Maximinus. Justina, who suffered with Cyprian bishop
of Antioch. Tecla, Lucia, and Agatha, were also mar-
tyrs ; all of whom glorified the Lord Christ with their
constant martyrdom, in this tenth and last persecution
of Dioclesian.
During the time of this persecution, the following
bishops of Rome succeeded each other ; Caius, who suc-
ceeded Sixtus, Marcellinus, Maixellus (whom Eusebiui
A..D 323.J
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
67
does not irietition),Eusebius, and Miltiades ; all of whom
died martyrs in the tempest of this persecution. After
. the martyrdom of Caius, Marce linus was ordained
bishop : he being brought by Dioclesian to the idols,
■ first yielded to their idolatry, and was seen to sacrifice ;
but having been excommunicated by the christians, he
fell into such repentance, that he returned again to Dio-
■ clesian, and standing to his former confession, and pub-
licly condemning the idolatry of the heathen, he recover-
ed the crown of martyrdom, suffering with Claudius,
Cyrinus, and Antoninus.
Marcellus, likewise, was urged by Maxentius to re-
nounce his bishopric and religion, and to sacrifice with
jthem to idols, and when he refused, he was beaten with
sticks and expelled the city. Having entered the house
of Lucina, a widow, he assembled the congregation, which,
when it came to the ears of Maxentius the tyrant, he
turned the house of Lucina into a stable, and made Mar-
i cellus the keeper of the beasts ; who died from the effects
I' of this cruel treatment.
|: Among the decretal epistles, in the book of general
councils, there is a long account of the judgment and
condemnation of Marcellinus, which patrons of popery in
these days take great hold of to prove the supremacy of
the pope to be above all general councils, and that he
ought not to be subject to the condemnation of any one.
The bishops of this council of Sinuesse did condemn
Marcellinus, for the words of the council are plain.
l" They subscribed to his condemnation, and condemned
ihim to be expelled out of the city." Moreover, the
|forty-two witnesses against Marcellinus were brought in
{by the same council, and the verdict of the witnesses was
'demanded and received. What does all this declare,
but that the bishop of Rome was called there, and did
iappear before the judgment-seat of the council, and there
Istood subject to their sentence and authority, by the which
|Le was expelled from the city. For he being urged of them
to condemn himself, did so ; prostrating himself, and
weeping before them. Whereupon they immediately
proceeded to the sentence against him, condemning and
pronouncing him to be expelled the city. Now, whether
jby tliis may be gathered that the bishops of Rome ought
tiot to be cited, accused, and condemned by any person
mr persons, let the impartial reader simply judge.
! And thus have been given the histories and names of
[those blessed saints who suffered in the time of the per-
isecution, from the nineteenth year of Dioclesian to the
■seventh and last year of Maxentius, with the deaths also
and punishments of those tormentors and ci-uel tyrants,
who were the captains of the same persecution. And
iiere ended (blessed be Christ) these persecutions in the
kvestern churches of Europe, so far as the dominion of
IConstantine chiefly extended. Yet in Asia, under Lici-
nius, persecution did not cease for four years after.
In Persia, about this time, under the king Sapor, many
valiant and constant martyrs suffered, Acindimus, Pega-
sius, Anempodistus, Epidephorus, Simeon archbishop of
Selucia, Ctesiphon another bishop of Persia, with other
ministers and religious men of that region, to the num-
ber of one hundred and twenty-eight. The idolatrous
magicians in Persia, taking counsel together against the
christians, accused Simeon and Ctesiphon to Sapor the
king, of being favourable to the Roman emperor, and of
betraying to him what was done in Persia. Whereupon
Sapor was greatly irritated against the christians, op-
pressing them with taxes and tributes, utterly impover-
rSshing them and killing all their priests with the sword.
Afrer that he calls for Simeon the archbishop, who
there before the king declared himself a valiant captain
of Christ's church. For when Sapor had commanded
him to be led to suffer torments, he neither shrunk for
any fear, nor asked for any pardon ; whereat the king
partly wondering and partly offended, asked, " Why
he did not kneel down as he was wont to do before ?"
Simeon answered to this, " Before this time I was not
brought unto you in bonds to betray the true God, as I
am now ; and so long I refused not to perform that
which the order and custom of the realm required of me ;
but now it is not lawful for me so to do, for now I come
to stand in defence of our religion and true doctrine."
Wlien Simeon had thus answered, the king persisting^ in
his purpose, offered to him the choice either to wor-
ship with him after his manner (promising to him many
great gifts, if he would do so) or if he would not,
threatened destruction to him and to all the other chris-
tians within his land. But Simeon, neither allured with
his promises, nor terrified with his threatenings, con-
tinued constant in his purpose, so that he could neither
be seduced to idolatrous worship, nor to betray the truth
of his religion. For which he was committed into bonds,
and commanded to be kept until the king's pleasure
should be known.
It happened as he was going to prison, that there was
sitting at the king's gate a certain euaucb, an old tutor
or school-master of the king's, named Usthazares, who
had been once a christian, and afterward falling from his
profession, joined with the heathenish multitude in theii
idolatry. This Usthazares sitting at the door of the
king's palace, and seeing Simeon passing by to jirison,
rose up and reverenced the bishop. Simeon again, with
sharp words (as time would permit) rebuked him, and in
great anger cried out against him, who being once a
christian, had cowardly revolted from his profession,
and returned to the heathenish idolatry. Hearing these
words, the eunuch forthwith burst into tears, and laying
aside his courtly apparel, which was sumptuous and
costly, he put on a black suit as the token of mourning,
sitting before the court gates, and weeping, he said,
" Woe is me, with what hope, with what face shall 1
look hereafter for my God, who have now denied him,
when as this Simeon my familiar acquaintance, thus
passing by me, so much disdains me, that he refuses
with one gentle word to salute me ?"
These words being brought to the ears of the king
procured against him no little indignation. Whereupon
Sapor the king sending for him, first with gentle words
and courtly promises, began to speak to him, asking him,
"What cause he had to mourn so, and whether there was
any thing in his house which was denied him, or which
he had not at his own will and asking ?" Whereunto
Usthazares answering again, said, "That there was no-
thing in that earthly house which v.'as lacking to him, or
which he desired. Yea would to God " (said he) " O king,
any other grief or calamity in all the world, whatsoever
it were, had happened to me rather than this, for which
I do most justly mourn ! For this grieves me, that I
am this day alive, who should rather have died long
since, than see this sun, which for your pleasure, I ap-
peared to worship against my heart and mind ; for which
cause I am doubly worthy of death : First, for that I
have denied Christ ; secondly, because I did dissemble
with you." Sapor being astonished at the sudden altera-
tion of this man, and doubting whether to be angry with
the enchanters or with him ; whether to treat him with
gentleness or with rigour, at length commanded Ustha-
zares his ancient servant and first tutor to be beheaded. As
he was going to the place of execution, he desired of the
executioners a little to stay, that he might send a message
to the king, which was this, that for all the old and faithful
sei-vice he had done to his father and to him, he would now
requite him with this one office, to cause a public crier to
proclaim the following words, " That Usthazares was be-
headed, not for any treachery or crime committed against
the king or the realm, but only because he was a christian,
and would not at the king's pleasure deny his God." And
so according to his request, it was performed and granted.
Usthazares desired the cause of his death to be published,
because his shrinking back from Christ had been a great
occasion to many christians to do the like ; so now the
same, hearing that Usthazares died for no other cause
than the religion of Christ, they might learn by his ex-
ample to be fervent and constant in their profession.
And thus the blessed eunuch did consummate his martyr-
dom. Of which Simeon hearing in prison, was very
joyful, and gave God thanks ; who the following day, being
brought forch before the king, and still refusing at the
king's request to worship visible creatures, was likewise
by the commandment of the king beheaded, with a great
number more, who the same day suffered to the number
of an hundred and more; all which were put to death,
6H
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I.
bffore Simeon, he standing by and exhorting them with
comfortable words ; admonishing them to stand firm
and steadfast in the Lord ; preaching and teaching them
concerning death, resurrection, and true piety ; and
proving by the scriptures that which he liad said to be
true, declaring moreover, tliat it was true life indeed so
to die, and that it was death indeed to deny or betray
God for fear of punishment : and added further, that
there was no man alive but must needs die. " For as
much as it is appointed all men here to have an end.
But those things which follow hereafter are eternal, which
shall not come to all men after one sort. But as the
condition and trade of life differ in different men, and are
EOtin all men like, so the time shall come, when all men
in a moment shall receive according to their doings in
this present life immortal rewards : such as have here
done well, life and glory ; such as have done evil, per-
petual punishment." With these words of comfortable
exhortation, the holy martyrs willingly yielded up their
lives to death. After whom at last followed Simeon,
with two other priests or ministers of his church : Abe-
decalaas and Ananias, which also with him were par-
takers of the same martyrdom.
At the suffering of those above mentioned, it happened
that Pusices, one of the king's officers, and overseers ot
his artificers, was there present, who seeing Ananias
being an aged old father, somewhat to shake and tremble
at the sight of them that suffered, " O father," said he,
" alittle moment shut thine eyes and be strong, and shortly
thou shalt see the sight of God." Upon these words,
Pusices was immediately apprehended, and brought to the
king ; he there confessed himself to be a christian, and
because he was very bold and hardy before the king in this
cause of Christ's faith, was most cruelly handled in the
execution of his martyrdom. For they made a hole in the
upper part of his neck to thrust in their hand, and pluck-
ed his tongue out of his mouth, and so he was put to
death. At which time also the daughter of Pusices, a
godly maiden, was apprehended and put to death.
The following year, upon the same day, when the
christians celebrated the remembrance of the Lord's
passion, which we call Good Friday before Easter, Sapor I
the king issued a cruel and sharp edict throughout all his ,
land, condemning to death all who confessed themselves
to be christians. So that an innumerable multitude ot
christians, through the wicked procuring of the malig.
nant magicians, suffered death by the sword, both in the
city and the towns. Some being sought for, and some
offering themselves willingly, lest they should seem by
their silence to deny Christ. Thus all the christians
that could be found were slain, and many also of the
king's own court and household. Amongst whom was
Azades an eunuch, one whom the king loved and favour-
ed. After the king understood that Azades was put to
death, being very sorry for him, he commanded that no
christians should be slain exce])t those who were the doc-
tors and teachers of the christian religion.
In the same time it happened that the queen fell into
a severe disease ; upon which the cruel Jews, with the
wicked magicians, falsely accused Trabula, the sister of
Simeon the martyr, with another sister also of hers, of
having wrought privy charms to hurt the queen, for the
revenging of the death of Simeon. This accusation
being believed, innocent Trab\ila, with her sister, were
condemned and cut asunder with a saw, whose quarters
being hung upon stakes, the queen passed between them,
thinking thereby to be delivered of her sickness.
Now as the king had commanded that no christians
should be put to death, but only such as were the
teachers and leaders of the flock, the magicians left no
means untried to set forward the matter. Whereby
great affliction and ))ersecution arose among the bishops
and teachers of the church.
Miserable, and almost innumerable were the slaughters
wnder the reign of this Sapor, of bishops, ministers,
deacons, monks, nuns, and other ecclesiastical persons,
who cleaved to the doctrine of Christ, and suffered for
the same. The names of the bishops, besides the other
multitude taken in the persecution are, Barbasimes,
PouIuB, Gaddiabes, Sabinus, Mareas, Mocius, Johannes,
Hormisdas, Papas, Jacobus, Romas, Maares, Agas,
Bochres, Abdas, Abiesus, Joannes, Abramius, Agdelas,
Sabores, Isaac, Dausas, Bicor also with Maureanda his
fellow bishop, and the rest of his churches under him, to
the number of two hundred and fifty persons. It is not
possible for any history to comprehend the whole multi-
tude of those that suffered in this persecution, the mai>
uer of their apprehension, the cruelness of their tor-
ments, how and in what places they suffered. The num
ber of them that can be reckoned comes to the sum of
•sixteen thousand men and women.
The rumour of this miserable affliction of the chris-
'^ians in the kingdom of Persia, coming to the ears of the
Ii}m])eror Constantine, put him in great heaviness, not
knowing how to help in the matter, which indeed was
>'ery difficult for him to do. At the same time it hap.
oened that certain ambassadors were at Rome from
>apor, king of Persia ; to whom Constantine readily
granted all their requests, thinking thereby to obtain
'lie more friendship at their king's hands, and that at
his request he would be good to the christians ; he wrote,
therefore, to Sapor in their behalf, and sent his epistle
by the ambassadors :
Declaring to him he should stand much beholden
to him, if at his request he would give some quiet
and rest to the christians, in whose religion there
was nothing which he could justly blame. " For,"
said he, " in their sacrifices they kill nothing, and shed
no blood, but only offer up unbloody sacrifices, in
making their prayers unto God ; they delight not in
bloodshedding ; but only in the soul that loves virtue,
and follows that doctrine and knowledge which is agree-
ing to true piety. And, therefore, such men as learn so
to believe and to worship God, are more to be com-
mended." Moreover, he assures him he would find God
more merciful to him, if he would embrace the godly
piety and truth of the christians, &c. And in the end
of the epistle Constantine adds these words : — " What
joy — what gladness would it be to my heart, to hear
that the state also of the Persians flourishes, as I wish it
to do, by your encouraging the christians ? So that
both you with them, and they with you, in long prospe-
rity may enjoy as much felicity together as your hearts
would desire, and in so doing no doubt ye shall. For
so shall you have God, who is the Author and Creator of
all this universal world, merciful and gracious to you.
These men, therefore, I commend to you upon your
kingly honour, and upon your clemency and piety
wherewith you are endued, I commit them to you, de-
siring you to receive them according to your humanity
and benignity, and convenient to your estate ; in so
doing you will now both procure to yourself grace
through your faith, and also will grant to me great pleasure
and a benefit worthy of thanks." .
This letter, written by Constantine to King Sapor,
shews what care this godly prince had for them that be-
lieved in Christ, not only in his own monarchy, but also
in all places of the world.
Under the Emperor Julian the apostate, many suffered
martyrdom by the idolaters. Of the lamentable tragedy
of Marcus Arethusius the bishop, Sozomen, and also
Theodoret, thus write —
" This raan, at the commandment of Constantine,
pulled down a certain temple dedicated to idols, and, in-
stead thereof, built up a church where the christians
might congregate. The Arethusians remembering the
little good will that Julian bare unto him, .accused him
as a traitor and enemy to him. At the first, according
as the scripture teacheth, he prepared himself to flee ;
l)ut when lie perceived that there were certain of his
kinsmen or friends apprehended in his stead, returning
of his own accord, he offered himself to those that
thirsted for his blood. When they had got him in their
possession, as men neither pitying his old age and worn
years, nor abashed at the virtuous conversation of a ma«
so distinguished, both by his life and doctrine, they first
stript him naked, and pitifully beat" him ; then they cast
him into a foul filthy sink, and then bringing him out*
A. D. 323.]
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
6y
they caused boys to pierce him with sharp sticks.
Lastly, they put him in a basket, and anointing him with
honey and broth, they hung him up in the heat of the
suti, as meat for wasps and flies. And all this they did
to him to force him either to build the temple again, or
else to give so much money as should pay for its building ;
but as he purposed with himself to suffer and abide their
grievous torments, so he refused to do what they de-
manded. At length, taking him to be but a poor man,
and not able to pay such a sum of money, they promised
to forgive him one-half, if he would pay the other. But
he hanging in the basket pitifully wounded with the
sharpened sticks, and bitten by the wasps, not only con-
cealed his pain, but also derided those wicked ones, and
called them base, low, and worldly people, and declared
himself to be exalted and set on high. When at length
they demanded of him but a small sum of money, he
answered thus ; ' It is as great wickedness to give one
penny in a case of impiety, as to bestow the whole.'
Thus they not being able to prevail against him, let him
down, and leaving him, went their way, so that every
man might learn at his mouth the example of true piety
and faithfulness."
Although the treating of these persecutions of Persia
somewhat stray out of the order of time and place, yet,
as these holy martyrs also gave so faithful a testimony of
the Lord Jesus with their blood, I thought it improper
to pass over them without some testimony. And here
these persecutions of the primitive church ended.
It may perhaps astonish some, while reading the
[history of these terrible persecutions, that God the
(Almighty director of all things, should suffer his own
Ifaithfui servants, believing in his only begotten son
■Jesus, to be so cruelly and wrongfully tormented and
put to death, and that during so many years together.
To which astonishment I have nothing to answer, but to
isay in the words of Jerome, " We ought not to be
iastonished to see the wicked prevail against the holy ;
ifor, as in the beginning of the world, we see that Abel
the just was killed by wicked Cain, and that the sons of
Israel were afflicted by the Egyptians, so even the Lord
fiimself was crucified by the Jews, Barabbas the thief
ibeing let go. Time would not suffice me to recite how
jthe godly suffer in this world while the wicked flourish
and prevail ; whatever be the cause this is sufficient for
lus, and may be to all men, that we are sure these afflic-
:ions and persecutions of God's people in this world
3ome not by any chance or blind fortune, but by the
ippointment and forewarning of God. For so in the
bid law, by the affliction of the children of Israel, he
prefigured these persecutions of the christians. So by
jthe words of Christ's own mouth in the gospel he
jForewarned his church of these troubles, neither did
he suffer these great afflictions to fall upon his servants,
pefore he had warned them sufficiently by special reve-
lation in the Apocalypse of John his servant ; in which he
Ideclared to his church, not only what troubles were
(coming, where, and by whom they should come, but
jalso in plain numbers, if the words of the prophecy be
|well understood, assigns the true time, how long the
persecutions should continue, and when they should
cease. For as there is no doubt, but by the beast with
peven heads, bearing the whore of Babylon, drunken
fwith the blood of saints, is signified the city of Rome,
JBo in my judgment the forty-two months (in the thir-
eenth of the Apocalypse) is to be expounded by taking
very month for a sabbath of years ; that is, reckoning a
taouth for seven years, so that forty and two such sabbaths
jof years make up the number of years between the time
jofChrist's death and the last year of the persecution of
jMaxentius, when Constantine, fighting under the banner
(of Christ, overcame him, and made an end of all perse-
icution within the monarchy of Rome, i The number of
these years amounted to two hundred ninety and four,
(1) That oar author has not succeeded in so elucidating this
remarkable portion of scripture, as to free it from the numberless
difficulties that envelope it, is no more than must be said of
every other commentator who has undertaken the exposition of
Hafultiiled prophecy.
to which, if the other six years of persecution under
Licinius in Asia be added, it fills up full three hundred
years. And so long continued the persecution of Christ's
people, under the heathen tyrants and emperors, of the
monarchy of Rome, according to the number of the forty
and two months specified in the thirteenth of the Apo-
calypse. For the better explanation of which, because
the matter being of no small importance, greatly apper-
tains to the public utility of the church ; and lest any
should suspect me of following any private interpreta-
tion of mine own, I thought good to communicate to
the reader what has been imparted unto me, in the open-
ing of these mystical numbers in this aforesaid book of
the Revelation as follows :
While I was engaged in these histories, and consi-
dered the exceeding rage of these persecutions, the in-
tolerable torments of the blessed saints, so cruelly
racked, torn, and plucked in pieces with all kinds of tor-
tures that could be devised, more bitter than death
itself ; I could not without great sorrow of mind, be-
hold their grievous afflictions, or write of their bloody
sufferings ; and the hotter the persecutions grew, the
more my sympathy with them increased ; not only pity-
ing their woful case, but almost reasoning with God,
thus foolishly thinking why God of his goodness should
suffer his children and servants to be so vehemently tor-
mented and afflicted ? If mortal things were governed
by heavenly Providence (as must needs be granted),
why did the wicked thus flourish, and the godly suffer ?
If sinners deserved punishment, they alone were not sin-
ners, and why was their death above all others so sharp
and bitter ? At least, why should the Lord suffer the
vehemency of these horrible persecutions to endure so
long, shewing no certain determined end of their
tribulations, whereby they knowing the appointed
determination of Almighty God with more consola-
tion might endure the same ? As the Israelites in the
captivity of Babylon had seventy years limited unto
them ; and under Pharaoh they were promised a deli-
verance ; and also under the Syrian tyrants threescore
and two weeks were assigned to them. But in these
persecutions I could find no end determined for their
deliverance. Whereupon much marvelling with myself,
I searched the Book of Revelation to see whether any
thing might be there found ; and although I perceived
the beast there described to signify the empire of Rome,
which had power to overcome the saints ; yet concerning
the time and continuance of these persecutions under the
beast, I found nothing to satisfy my doubt. For al-
though I read there of forty-two months, of a time,
times, and half a time, of one thousand two hundred
and threescore days ; yet all this by computation coming
but to three years and a half, came nothing near the
long continuance of these persecutions, which lasted
three hundred years. Thus being vexed in spirit, about
the reckoning of these numbers and years ; it so hap-
pened upon a Sunday in the morning, I lying in my bed,
and musing about these numbers, suddenly it occurred
to my mind, to count these months by sabbaths, as the
weeks of Daniel are counted by sabbaths. Whereupon
I began to reckon the forty-two months by sabbaths ;
first of months, that would not serve ; then by sabbaths
of years, wherein I began to feel some probable under-
standing. Yet not satisfied herewith, in order to make
the matter more sure, I repaired to certain merchants of
mine acquaintance, of whom one is departed a true faithful
servant of the Lord, the other two are yet alive, and wit-
nesses hereof. To whom the number of these aforesaid
forty-two months being propounded and examined by
sabbaths of years, the whole sum was found to amount
to two hundred and ninety-four years, the full time of
these persecutions, neither more nor less.
Now this one clasp being opened, the other numbers
that follow are plain and manifest to the intelligent
He has however miscalculated the dates of his first period of
300 years— for from the crucifixion of our Lord to the defeat of
Maxenlius by Constantine, (A. D. 312,) was a period of only 279
years, which added to tlie 6 years of persecution under Liciniui^
would be only 285 years, instead of the precise 300. [Ed.]
79
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
[Book I
reader. For where mention is made of three years and
a half, of one time, two times and half a time, also of
one thousand two hundred and threescore days, all
these come to one reckoning and signify forty and two
months, by which months, as is said, is sigiiifted the
whole time of these primitive persecutions, as here in
order may appear.
TITE MYSTICAL NUMBERS IN THE APOCALYPSE
OPENED.
First, where mention is made (Revelation xi. 3), that
the two prophets shall prophesy 12G0 days ; and also
that the woman flying into tlie desert, shall there be fed
12()0 days : (Rev. xii. 6.) who knoweth not tliat 12(i0 days
make three years and a half ? that is, forty-two months.
Secondly, where we read (chap.xi.8.) the bodies of the
two aforesaid prophets shall lie in the streets of the great
city unburied the space of three days and a half, and
after the said three days and a half they shall revive
again, &c., let the hours of these three days and a half
(which be 42), be reckoned every day for a sabbath of
years, or else every day for a month, and they come to
forty-two months.
Thirdly, where it is said (Rev. xii. 14.) that the woman
had two wings given her to fly unto the desert for a time,
times and half a time : give for one time one year, or
one day ; for two times, two years or two days ; for half
a time, half a year, or half a day ; and so it is manifest,
that these three years and a half amount to forty-two
mouths.
Fourthly, account these forty-two months aforesaid,
which the beast had power to make (Revelations xi), by
sabbath of years ; that is, seven years for a month, or
every month for seven years, and it amounteth to two
hundred and ninety-four years.
And so we just have the years, days, times, and months
of these aforesaid persecutions under the beast, neither
shorter nor longer, reckoning from the death of John
Baptist under Herod, to the end of Maxentius, and of
Licinius, the two last great persecutors, the one in the
West, the other in the East, who were both vanquished
by godly Constantine. And so peace was given to the
church, although not in such ample wise, but that many
tumults and troubles afterward ensued, yet they lasted
not long : and the chief brunt of these Roman perse-
cutions which the Holy Ghost especially considered
above all other in this his Revelation thus ended in the
time of Constantine. Then was the great dragon, the
devil, to wit, the fierce rage and power of his malicious
persecuting, chained for a thousand years after this, so
that he could not prevail, but the power and glory of the
gospel gradually increasing and spreading with great joy
and liberty, so prevailed that at length it got the upper
hand and replenished the whole earth, rightly verifying
therein the water of Ezekiel, which issuing out of the
right side of the altar, the further it ran, the deeper it
grew, till at length it replenished the whole ocean, and
healed all the fishes therein. So also the course of the
gospel proceeding of small and hard beginnings still
kept his stream : the more it was stopped, the swifter it
ran : by blood it feeded, by death it quickened, by cut-
ting it multiplied, through violence it sprung ; till at
last out of thraldom and ojjpression burst forth into
perfect liberty, and flourished in all prosperity. Would
that the christians could have used this liberty wisely
and moderately, and not abused it, forgetting their for-
mer estate to their own pride, pomp, and worldly ease,
as it afterwards came to pass, of which more is to be
said (the Lord willing) in the proper place and time.
And thus much touching the prophetical numbers in
the Apocalypse. In which the eternal wisdom and high
providence of Almighty God is to be magnified, so dis-
posing and governing his church, that no adversity or
perturbation happens at any time to it, which his wisdom
does not fore-see and pre-ordain ; neither doth he pre-
ordain or determine anything which he does not most
truly perform, both fore-seeing the beginning of such
persecutions, and determining the end of them, how
long to continue, and when to cease.
Thus much by the way I have mentioned, lest any
should be surprised to read of the church being so long
and for so many years under such miserable and extieme
afllictions, wherein neither chance nor fortune, nor dis-
position of man, has had any place, but only the fore-
counsel and determination of the Lord governing and
disposing the same, who not only suffered them, and fore-
saw tliose persecutions before they occurred, but also ap-
pointed the times and years how long they should last,
and when they should have an end, as by the forty-two
months in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Reve-
lation has beeen declared. Which months, containing
two hundred ninety and four years (if they be rightly
gathered), make the full time between the first year of
the persecution of Christ under the Jews and Herod,
till the last year of persecution under Licinius ; which
was from the nativity of Christ, in the year ;{24. After
which year according to the preordinate council of God,
when his severity had been sufficiently declared upon his
own house, it pleased him to shew mercy again, and to
bind up Satan the old serpent, according to the twentieth
chapter of the Revelation, for the space of a thousand
years ; that is, from the time of Licinius to the time of
John Wickliffe and John Husse. During all which
time, although certain conflicts and tumults have been
among christian bishops themselves in the church, yet
no universal murdering persecution was stirring before
the preaching of Wicklifle, Husse, and such others, as
in the further process of this history (Christ willing and
aiding us) shall appear.
Thus having discoursed at length of these horrible
persecutions and heavy afflictions of the christian mar-
tyrs ; now by the grace of God, coming out of this red
sea of bloody persecution, leaving Pharaoh and his host
behind, let us sing gloriously to the worthy name of our
God, who through the blood of the Lamb after long and
tedious afflictions, at length has visited his people with
comfort, has chained Satan, has sent his meek Moses
(gentle Constantine I mean), by whom it has pleased
the Lord to work deliverance to his captive people, to
set his servants at liberty, to turn their mourning into
joy, to magnify the church of his Son, to destroy the
idols of all the world, to grant life and liberty (and
would God also not so much riches) unto them who be-
fore were the abjects of all the world, and aU by the
means of godly Constantine, the meek and most chris-
tian emperor, of whose divine victories against so many
tyrants and emperors, persecutors of Christ's people,
and lastly, against Licinius (A. D. 324), of whose other
noble acts and prowesses, of whose blessed virtues
and his happy birth and progeny, we have partly com-
prehended before, and part now remains to be de-
clared.
This Constantine was the son of Constantius, the
emperor, a good and virtuous child of a good and vir-
tuous father, born in Britain (as says Eutropius),
whose mother was named Helena, daughter of King
Coilus ; although Ambrose, in his funeral oration on
the death of Theodosius says, she was an innholder's
daughter. He was a most bountiful and gracious prince,
having a desire to encourage learning, and often used to
read and study himself. He had wonderful success and
prosperity in all things he took in hand, the reason of
which was truly sui)posed to be because he was so great
a favourer of the christian faith. When he had onco
embraced this faith he ever after most devoutly and reli-
giously reverenced it, and commanded by special pro-
clamation, that every man should profess the same reli-
gion throughout all the Roman empire. The wor»
shipping of idols (whereto he was addicted by the
allurement of Fausta, his wife, so that he did sacrifice
to them) after the discomfiture of Maxentius in battle,
he utterly abjured ; but he deferred his baptism to his
old age, because he had determined a journey into Persia,
and thought to have been baptized in Jordan. (Euseb.
lib. 4. De vita Constantini.)
.\s to his natural disposition and wit, he was very
eloquent, a good philosopher, and sharp and ingenious
in disputation. He was accustomed to say that an em-
peror ought to refuse no labour for the utility of thi
A.D. 323.]
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
71
commonwealth ; yea, and to adventure the mangling of
his body for the remedy thereof.
He first entered into the empire by the mercy of
God, who after long waves of doleful persecution
would restore to his church peace and tranquillity
(A. D. 311), as Eusebius accounts in his chronicle.
The church enjoyed great peace and tranquillity under
the reign of this good emperor, who took great pains in
the preservation thereof. First, before he had subdued
Licinius, he set forth many edicts for the restitution of
the goods oi' the church, for bringing back the christians
out of exile, for quieting the dissensions of the doctors
or bisliops of the churcli, for the setting of them free
from public charges, and such like even as his Consti-
tutions declare, in which is contained this prayer of the
good Constautine : —
"To thee therefore now I pray : Oh most mighty God,
that thou wilt vouchsafe to be merciful, and pardon all
the eastern parts, and the inhabitants of the same, being
oppressed with calamity : and that by me thy servant
thou wilt of thy goodness help and relieve the same.
And these things crave I not rashly at thy hands, O Lord,
most mighty and holiest God of all. For I being per-
suaded by the only oracles, have both begun and also
finislied wholesome and profitable things : and further, by
the bearing and shewing of thine ensign, have overcome a
mighty and strong host ; and when any necessity of the
commonwealth committed to my charge requires, (follow-
ing those signs and tokens of thy virtues) I boldly go
forth and fight against mine enemies : and for this cause
I have sacrificed my soul imto thee, purified and cleansed
both with thy love and fear. Yea, truly, thy name do I
sincerely love, and thy power do I reverence, which by
many tokens and wonders hast shewed and confirmed
thereby my belief and faith. Therefore will I do my en-
deavour, and bend myself thereunto, that I may rebuild
thy most holy house, which those wicked and ungodly
emperors have laid waste ; thy people do I desire to bring
and establish in firm peace and tranquillity, and that for
the public utility of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Those which yet err, and are out of the way, enjoy the
benefit of peace and quietness, with and amongst the
number of the faithful : for I trust the restitution of the
like society and participation may be a means to bring
them also that err into the perfect way of truth. Let
no man therefore be grievous one unto another, but what
every man thinketh best, that let him do : for such as
are wise, ought thoroughly to be persuaded, that they only
rtiean to live holily, and as they should do, whom the
Sjiirit of God moveth to take their delight and recreation
in reading in his holy will : and if others wilfully will go
out of the way, cleaving to the synagogues of false doc-
trine, they may at their own peril. As for us, we have
the most worthy house or church of God's truth, which
he according to his own goodness and nature hath given
us. And this also we wish unto them, that with like
participation and common consent, they may feel with
us the same delectation of mind. For this our religion
is neither new, nor newly invented, but it is as old as we
believe the creation of the world to be, and which God
hath commanded to be celebrated with such worship as
pleased him : but all living men are liars, and are deceived
with divers and sundry allusions. Thou, O God, for
Christ thy Son's sake, suffer not this wickedness again
to root : thou hast set up a clear burning light, that
thereby as many as thou hast chosen may come unto thee,
these thy miracles approve the same. It is thy power
that keepeth us in inuocency and fidelity. The sun and
the moon run their appointed course. Neither yet in
ranging.wise do the stars wander to what place of the
world they choose themselves. The days, years, months,
and times keep their appointed turns. The earth abideth
firm and unmoveable at thy word : and the wind at the
time (by thee directed) stormeth and bloweth. The
streaming watery floods ebb in time according as they
flow. The raging sea abideth within her bounded limits :
and for that the ocean stretcheth out herself in equal
length and breadth with the whole earth, this must be
wrought with some marvellous workmanship of thine own
hand. Which thing, unless it were at thy will made and
disposed : without all doubt so great difference and par-
tition between, would ere this time have brought utter
ruin and destruction both to the life of man, and to all
that belongeth to man beside. Which for that they have
such great and huge conflicts amongst themselves, as also
the invisible spirits have ; we give thee thanks, O Lord
most mighty, God of all gods, that all mankind hath not
been destroyed thereby. Surely even as greatly as thy
benignity and gentleness is manifested by divers and
sundry benefits bestowed upon us, so much also is the
same set forth and declared in the discipline of thy eter-
nal word, to those that be heavenly wise, and apply
themselves to the attainment of sincere and true virtue.
But if any such there be that little regard, or have but
small respect unto the consideration thereof, let them
not blame or lay a fault in others that do the same : for
that physic whereby health is obtained, is manifestly
offered unto all men. Now therefore let no man go about
to subvert that, which experience itself doth shew (of ne-
cessity) to be pure and good. Let us therefore altogether
use the participation of this benefit bestowed upon us ; that
is to say, the benefit of peace and tranquillity, setting
apart all controversy. And let no man hurt or be pre-
judicial to his fellow for that thing wherein he thinketh
himself to have done well. If by that, which any man
knoweth and hath experience of, he thinketh he may pro-
fit his neighbour, let him do the same ; if not, let him
give over and remit it till another time ; for there is a
great diversity betwixt the willing and voluntary em-
bracing of religion, and that when a man is thereunto en«
forced and compelled."
Such was the goodness of this emperor Constantine,
or rather such was the providence of Almighty God toward
his church in stirring him up, that all his care was how
to benefit and enlarge the same. Neither was it enough
for him to deliver the church and people of God from
outward vexation of foreign tyrants and persecutors.
His godly care was no less excited in quieting the inward
dissensions and disturbance of the church, among the
christian bishops themselves. Nor did his vigilance less
extend to erecting, restoring, and enriching the churches
of God in all cities, and in providing for the ministers of
the same.
In writing to Miltia.des bishop of Rome, and to Marcus,
he declares in his letters, how Cecilianus bishop of Car-
thage had been accused to him by divers of his colleagues
and fellow bishops. Wherefore his will is, that the said
Cecilianus with ten bishops his accusers, with ten other
his defendants should repair to him at Rome ; where
with the assistance of the aforesaid Miltiades, Rheticus,
Maternus, Marinus, and of their other fellow colleagues,
the cause of Cecilianus might be heard and rightly ex-
amined, so that all schism and division might be cut oflF
from among them, wherein the fervent desire of Con-
stantine to peace and unity may well appear.
Upon the like cause also, he writes to Chrestus bishop
of Syracuse ; being so desirous to nourish peace and
concord in the church, that he offers to him, with his
under ministers and three servants, his free carriage to
come up to him to the council of other bishops, for the
agreeing of certain matters belonging to the church.
To the provinces likewise of Palestine and the parts
about, he directs his edict in the behalf of the christians,
for the releasing of such as were in captivity, and for
the restoring again of them which had sustained any loss
in the former persecution, and for the refreshing of such
as had been oppressed with any ignominy or molestation
for their confession sake ; declaring in the said edict
how that his whole body, life and soul, and whatsoever is
in him, he owes to God and to the service of him, &c.
Moreover, he writes another letter to Eusebius, for
the edifying of new christian churches, and restoring of
them which had been wasted before by foreign enemies.
And after he had collected the synod of Nice for the
study of peace and unity of the church, he writes upon
the same to Alexander and Arius. In which his letters
he most lamentably uttered the great grief of bis heart,
to see and hear of their contention and division, whereby
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
72
the peace and common harmony of the church was
broken, the synod ])rovoked and resisted, the holy
people of the Lord divided into parts and tumults, con-
trary to the office of good and circumspect men, whose
duty were rather to nourish concord, and to seek tran-
quillity. Declaring moreover in the said epistle, the
first origin and occasion of their contentious dissension
to rise upon vain and trifling terms, vile causes and light
questions, and pieces of questions ; about such matters
as are neither to be moved, nor being moved, to be
answered to, more curious to be searched, and perilous
to be expressed, than necessary to be infjuired. Where-
fore by all means he entreats them and persuades them,
not oiily with reasons, but also with tears and sighing
sobs, that they would again restore peace to the church,
and quietness to the rest of his Ufe (which otherwise
would not be sweet unto him) and that they would
return again to the communion of the reverend council.
Thus much I thought summarily to comprehend, where-
by the divine disposition and singular gentle nature of
this meek and religious Constantine, might more plainly
appear to all princes, for them to learn by his example
what zeal they ought to bear toward the church of
Christ, how gently they ought to govern it, and how to
be beneficial to it.
Many other edicts and epistles written to other places
and parties, are expressed at large in the second book of
Eusebius's " Life of Constantine," wherein the zealous
care and princely beneficence of this noble emperor
toward the church of Christ may appear ; a brief recapi-
tulation of which here follows. (Sozo. lib. i. cap. 8, 9.)
First, he commanded all them to be set free, who for
the confession of Christ had been condemned to banish-
ment, or to the mines, or to any public or private labour.
Such as were put to any infamy or shame among the
multitude, he ordered to be discharged from all such
ignominy. Soldiers which before were deprived either
of their place, or their wages, had hberty given them
either to serve again in their place, or to live quietly at
home. Whatever honour, place, or dignity had been
taken away from any man, he commanded to be restored
to them again. And that the goods and possessions of
them that had suffered death for Christ, however they
■were alienated, should return to their heirs or next of
kin, or for lack of them should be given to the church.
He commanded, moreover, that christians only should
bear office ; he charged and restrained the heathens,
that they should neither sacrifice nor exercise any more
divinations and ceremonies of the Gentiles, nor set up
any images, nor keep any feasts of the heathen idolaters.
He corrected moreo-ver and abolished all such unlawful
manners and usages in the cities as might be hurtful to
the church.
Among the Romans was an old law, that such as had
no children should be amerced of half their goods.
Also, that such as being above the years of twenty-five
were unmarried, should not be numbered in the same
privileges with them that were married, neither should
be heirs to them, to whom notwithstanding they were
next in kin. These laws, because they seemed unreason-
able, he abrogated and took away. There was also
another law among the Romans, that they which made
their wills being sick, had certain prescribed words
appointed to them to use, which unless they followed,
their wills stood of no effect. This law also Constantine
repealed, permitting every man in making his testament
to use what words or what witnesses he would. Like-
wise among the Romans he restrained and took away the
cruel and bloody spectacles and sights, where men were
■wont to kill one another with swords. W'here no
churches were, there he commanded new to be made ;
where any were decayed, he commanded them to be
repaired ; where any were too little, he caused them to
be enlarged, giving to the same great gifts and revenues,
not only out of the pubUc tributes and taxes, but also out
of his own private treasures. When any bishops required
any council to be had, he satisfied their petitions ; and
whatever they established in their councils and synods,
that was godly and honest, he was ready to confirm.
He inscribed the armour of his soldiers with the sign
[Book I
of the cross, tha*: they might learn the sooner to forget
their old supersntious idolatry. Moreover, like a worthy
emperor, he prescribed a certain form of prayer, instead
of a catechism for every man to have, that he might
learn how to pray, and to invoke God. Which form of
prayer is recited in the fourth book of Eusebius's " Life
of Constantine," as follows:
*' We acknowledge thee to be our only God, we con.
fess thee to be our King, we invoke and call upon thee
our only Helper, by thee we obtain our victories, by
thee we vanquish and subdue our enemies, to thee we
attribute whatsoever present benefits we tnjoy, and by
thee we hope for good things to come : unto thee wc
direct all our prayers and petitions, most humbly beseech-
ing thee to preserve Constantine our emperor and his
noble children in long life, and to give them victory over
all their enemies, through Christ our Lord : Amen."
In his o'wn palace he set up an house for prayer and
preaching, and used to pray and sing with his people.
Also in his wars he went not without his tabernacle ap-
pointed for the same purpose. The Sunday he com-
manded to be kept holy by all men, and free from all
judiciary causes, from markets, fairs, and all manual
labours, husbandry only excepted : especially charging
that no Images or monuments of Idolatry should be
set up.
He gave men of the clergy and of the ministry in all
places special privileges and immunities, so that if any
were brought before the civil magistrates, and wished
to appeal to the sentence of his bishop, it should be law-
ful for him to do so, and that the sentence of the bishop
should stand in as great force as if the magistrate or the
emperor himself had pronounced it.
But here it is to be observed, that the clerks and
ministers then newly coming out of persecution, were
in those days neither so great in number, nor in order
of life of like disposition to these now living in our
days.
Constantine also had no less care and provision for
the maintenance of schools pertaining to the church,
and for the encouragement of the arts and liberal
sciences, especially of divinity : not only furnishing
them with stipends and subsidies, but also defending
them with large pri^vileges and exemptions.
Besides this, so far did his godly zeal and princely
care and provision extend to the church of Christ, that
he provided books and volumes of scripture, to be
plainly written and copied out, to remain in the public
churches for the use of posterity. Whereupon writing
to Eusebius bishop of Nicomedia, in a special letter,
(Euseb. De vita Constant, lib. iv.) he desires him with
all diligence to procure fifty volumes of parchment well
bound and compacted, wherein he should cause to be
written out of the scripture in a fair legible hand, such
things as he thought necessary and profitable for the
instruction of the church, and allows him for that
business two public ministers, &c.
In perusing and writing this history, and in consider-
ing the christian zeal of this emperor, I wish that either
this our art of printing, and plenty of books, had been-
in his days, or that the same heroic heart towards ther j
christian religion, which was in this excellent monarch,
might something appear in inferior princes reigning in
these our printing-days.
The liberal hand of this emperor bom to do all men
good, was no less also open and ready towards the need
and poverty of such, as either by loss of parents, or other
occasions, were not able to help themselves : for whom
he commanded a due supply both of com and raiment
to be ministered out of his own coffers, to the necessary
relief of the poor men, women, children, orphans, and
widows. (Euseb. de vita Constant, lib. iv.)
Here it will be requisite to say something of the do-
nation of Constantine, whereupon, as their chief anchor-
hold, the bishops of Rome ground their supreme domi-
nion and right over all the political government of the
western parts, and the spiritual government of aU the
other sees and parts of the world. Many argumeBt»
A.D. 325.'i
THE TEN FIRST PERSECUTIONS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
73
might here be adduced, if leisure from other matters
would suffer me to prove that Constantine never gave
this donation, and that the history thereof is false, and
a forgery.
1 First, No ancient history, nor yet doctor, makes any
mention thereof.
Nauck'rus reports it to be affirmed in the history of
Isidorus. But in the old copies of Isidorus no such
thing is to be found.
Gratian, the compiler of the decrees, recites that de-
, cree, not upon any ancient authority, but only under the
! title of Palea.
' Gelasius is said to give some testimony thereof (Dist.
15. Sancta Romana), but the clause of the said distinc-
■ tion touching that matter is not extant in the ancient
books.
I Otho Phrysingensis, who was about the time of Gra-
Uian, after he has declared the opinion of the favourers
of the papacy, affirming this donation to be given by
, Constantine to Pope Sylvester, also mentions the opinion
of them that favour the empire, affirming the con-
; trary.
! How could Constantine have yielded up to Sylvester
all the political dominions over the west, when the said
Constantine at his death, dividing the empire to his
three sons, gave the western part of the empire to one,
tlie eastern part to the second, the middle part to the
tliird ?
Is it likely that Theodosius after them, being a just
and a religious prince, would or could have occupied the
city of Rome, if it had not been his right, but had be-
longed to the pope ? — and so did many other emperors
after him.
The phrase of this decree, being compared with the
phrase and style of Constantine, in his other edicts and
letters above specified, does not agree with them.
Seeing the papists themselves confess that the decree
of this donation was written in Greek, how agrees that
with the truth, when it was written, not to the Grecians,
but to the Romans ; and also Constantine himself, not
understanding the Greek tongue, was obliged to use the
Latin in the council of Nice ?
The contents of tliis donation (whoever was the forger
thereof), betrays itself: for if it be true which there
is confessed, that he was baptized at Rome by Sylvester,
^nd the fourth day after his baptism this patrimony was
given (which was before his battle against Maximinus,
or Licinius — A. D. 'M7 — as Nicephorus recordeth) how
then accords this with that which follows in the dona-
tion, for him to have jurisdiction given over the other
four principal sees of Antioch, Alexandria, Constanti-
nople, and Jerusalem ? when as the city of Constanti-
nople was not yet begun before the death of Maximinus,
or Licinius, and was not finished before the eight-and-
twentieth year of the reign of Constantine (A.D. 339) ;
or if it be true, (as Jerome counted,) it was finished the
three-and-twentieth year of his reign, which was A.D.
334, long after this donation, by their own account.
Furthermore, where in the said Constitution it is said
that Constantine was baptized at Rome by Pope Sylves-
ter, and thereby was purged of leprosy, the fable thereof
agrees not with the truth of history. (Eusebius, lib. 4.
de vita Constantina. Hieronymus in Chron. Ruffin,
lib. 2. cap. 11. Socrates, lib. 1. cap. 39. Theod. Ub. 1.
cap. 31. Sozomenus, lib. 2. cap. 34.) For all the
historians agree that he was baptized, not at Rome, but
at Nicomedia ; and that moreover, as by their testimony
appears, not by Sylvester, but by Eusebius, bishop of
Nicomedia, not before his battle against Maximinus, or
Licinius, but in the thirty-first year of his reign, a little
before his death.
Again, whereas Constantine in this donation appointed
him to have the principality over the other four patri-
archal sees, that makes Constantine contrary to himself,
who in the council of Nice, afterwards agreed with other
bishops, that all the four patriarchal sees should have
equal jurisdiction, every one over his own territory and
precinct.
Briefly to conclude : whoever desires to be more
abundantly satisfied touching this matter, let him read
the books of Marsilius Patavinus, entitled. Defensor
pacis (A. D. 1324) ; of Laurentius Valla (A. D. 1440) ;
of Antoninus archbishop of Florence, who, in his history
plainly denies that this donation is to be found in the
old books of the decrees ; of Cusanus Cardinalis, lib. 3.
cap. 2., writing to the council of Basil (A. D. 14(J0) ;
of ^neas Silvius In dialogo ; of Hier. Paulus Cattala-
nus (A. D. 1496) ; of Raphael Wolateranus (A. D.
1550) ; of Lutherus (A. D. 1537), &c. All which, by
many and evident proofs, dispute and prove this dona-
tion not to proceed from Constantine, but to be a thing
untruly pretended, or rather, a fable imagined, or else to
be the deed of Pepin or Charles, or some such other, if
it were ever the deed of any.
And thus I have briefly collected the narration of the
noble acts, and heavenly virtues of this most famous
Emperor Constantine the Great ; a singular spectacle
for all christian princes to behold and imitate, and wor-
thy of perpetual memory in all congregations of chris-
tian saints : whose fervent zeal and piety to all congre-
gations, and to all the servants of Christ, was notable ;
but especially the aff'ection and reverence of his heart
toward them who had suffered for the confession of
Christ in the persecutions before, is to be admired ; he
had them principally in veneration, insomuch that he
embraced and kissed their wounds and stripes. And if
any bishops, or any other ministers brought to him any
complaints one against another (as they often did), he
would take their bills of complaint and burn them before
their faces ; so studious and zealous was his mind to
have them agree, whose discord caused more grief to him
than it did to themselves. To commit to history all tha
virtuous acts, and memorable doings of this divine and
renowned emperor, would be matter enough of itself to
fill a great volume ; therefore we must be content with
the above brief account, as it is impossible to say enough
of him, I shall not pursue his history any further.
And here is an end of the lamentable persecutions of
the primitive church, during the space of three hundred
years from the passion of our Saviour Christ, till tha
coming of Constantine ; by whom, as by the elect in-
strument of God, it has pleased his Almighty Majesty,
by his determinate purpose, to give rest after long
trouble to his church, according to that which St. Cy-
prian declares before to be revealed by God to his
church : that after darkness and stormy tempest, should
come peaceable, calm, and stable quietness, meaning
this time of Constantine. At which time it so pleased
the Almighty, that the murdering malice of Satan should
at length be restrained, and he chained up for a thou-
sand years, through his great mercy in Christ, to whom,
therefore, be thanks and praise, now and for ever.
Amen.
E>fD OF THE FIRST BOOK.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS,
BOOK II.
CONTAINING
THE NEXT THREE HUNDRED YEARS, WITH SUCH THINGS SPECIALLY AS HAVE
HAPPENED IN ENGLAND, FROM THE TIME OF KING LUCIUS, TO GREGORY,
AND SO AFTER TO THE TIME OF KING EGBERT.
By these persecutions it may be understood that the
fury of Satan, and rage of men, have done what they
could to extinguish the name and religion of christians ;
for all that either death could do, or torments could
work, or the gates of hell could devise, was to the ut-
most attempted. And yet, notwithstanding all the fury
and malice of Satan, all the wisdom of the world and
strength of men, doing, devising, and practising, what they
could, the religion of Christ has had the upper hand,
which I wish to be greatly noted, and diligently pon-
dered, in considering these histories, which I trust will
not be found unworthy the reading.
Now, I propose, in this second book, to leave for a
time the treating of these general affairs of the universal
church, and to pursue such domestic histories as more
nearly concern England and Scotland, beginning with
King Lucius, with whom the christian faith first began
in this realm, as is the opinion of some writers. And
as here may and does rise a great controversy in these
popish days, concerning the origin and planting of the
faith in this realm, it will not be greatly out of our
purpose to stay and say somewhat on this question.
Whether the church of England first received the faith
from Rome or not ? which, although I were to grant,
yet being granted, it little avails the purpose of those
who would so have it. For even if England first re-
ceived the christian faith and religion from Rome, in the
time of Eleutherius their bishop (A. D. 180), and also
in the time of Austin, whom Gregory sent hither
(A. D. 600), yet it follows not that we must therefore
still fetch our religion from thence as from the chief
fountain of all godliness. And, as they are not able to
prove this, so neither have I any cause to grant the
other, that is, that our christian faith was first derived
from Rome, which I may prove by six or seven good
conjectural reasons. The first I take on the testimony
of our countryman, Gildas, who, in his history, plainly
affirms that Britain received the gospel in the time of
the Emperor Tiberius, under whom Christ suffered.
(Lib. de victoria Aurelii Ambrosi). And says, more-
over, that Joseph of Arimathea, after the dispersion of
the Jews, was sent by Philip the apostle from France to
Britain, about the year 63, and remained in this land all
his life, and so with his companions laid the first founda-
tion of christian faith among the British people, where-
upon other preachers and teachers coming afterward,
confirmed the same and increased it.
The second reason is from TertuUian, who, living
near the time of this Eleutherius, in his book (Contra
Judseos) declares plainly the same thing, where, testify-
ing how the gospel was dispersed abroad by the preach-
ing of the apostles, and reckoning up the Medes, Per-
sians, Parthians, and dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Egypt, Pamphilia.
and many other nations, at length comes to the coast of
the Moors, the borders of Spain, and the nations of
France ; and there, amongst others, recites also the parts
of Britain, which the Romans could never attain to, and
reports the same now to be subject to Christ ; and also
reckons up the places of Sarmatia, of the Danes, the
Germans, the Scythians, with many other provinces and
isles unknown to him, in all which places (he says) the
name of Christ reigns, which now begins to be common.
Note here how, among other believing nations, he men-
tions also the wildest parts of Britain, and these in his
time were christianised. Therefore Pope Eleutherius
was not the first who sent the christian faith into this
realm, but the gospel was brought here before his time,
either by Joseph of Arimathea, as some chronicles re-
cord, or by some of the apostles, or of their disciples,
who preached Christ before Eleutherius wrote to Lucius.
My third proof I take from Origen, who calls this
island " Christian Britain " (Hom. 4. in Ezechielem).
Whereby it appears that the faith of Christ was spread
in England before the days of Eleutherius.
For my fourth proof I take the testimony of Bede,
who affirms, that in his time, and almost a thousand
years after Christ, Easter was kept in Britain after the
manner of the eastern church. Whence it is to be col-
lected, that the first preachers in this land came from
the eastern part of the world rather than from Rome.
Fifthly, I may allege the words of Nicephorus
(lib. ii. cap. 40), where he says that Simon Zelotes
spread the gospel of Christ to the western ocean, and
brought it to the isles of Britain.
Sixthly, may be here added also the words
A.D. 180.]
LUCIUS KING OF BRITAIN.
abbott of Clugny, who writing to Bernard, affirms
that the Scots in his time celebrated Easter, not after
the Roman manner, but after the Greek. And as the
Britons were not under the Roman order in the time of
this abbot, neither were they nor would they be under
the Roman legate in the time of Gregory, nor would ad-
mit any supremacy of the bishop of Rome.
For the seventh argument, moreover, I make my
proof by the plain words of Eleutherius, by whose
epistle, written to King Lucius, we may understand that
Lucius had received the faith of Christ in this land, be-
fore the king sent to Eleutherius for the Roman laws ;
for so the express words of the letter manifestly purport,
as hereafter shall be seen. From all which proofs it is
more than probable that the Britons were taught first by
the Grecians of the eastern church, rather than by the
Romans.
Perhaps Eleutherius might help either to convert the
king, or else to increase the faith then newly sprung up
among the people, but that he was the first cannot be
proved. And if we grant he was, as indeed the greater
part of our English histories confess ; yet what do they
obtain thereby? for to conclude this matter in few words,
if the christian faith was first derived from Rome by this
nation through Eleutherius, then let them but grant to
us the same faith which was then taught at Rome, and
from thence derived here by Eleutherius, and we will
desire no more ; for then there was neither any universal
pope above all churches and councils (which did not
occur before the time of Boniface, which was four hun-
dred years after), nor any mention or use of the mass,
the history whereof shall hereafter be seen. Neither
was there any propitiatory sacrifice for souls in purga-
tory, but simply the communion was frequented at
christian tables, where oblations and gifts were offered
to God as well by the people as by the priests. Neither
was there any transubstantiation heard of for a thousand
years after. Neither were there then any images of
departed saints set up in churches ; for a great number
of the saints worshipped in our time were not then
born, nor the churches where they were worshipped
buUt, but occurred long after, especially in the time of
the Empress Irene (A. D. 781), and the Emperor
Constans. Neither were relics or pilgrimages then in
use. The marriage of priests was then as lawful (and
no less received) than at present, neither was it con-
demned before the days of Hildebrand, almost a thou-
sand years afterward. Their service was then in the
vulgar tongue, as Jerome witnesses ; the sacraments
ministered in both kinds as well to laymen as to priests,
as Cjrprian testifies. Yea, and worldly men who would
not communicate at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christ-
mas, were not then counted for catholics, as the pope's
own distinction testifies. At funerals priests did not
then flock togetlier, selling trentals and dirges for
sweeping of purgatory *, but a funeral concion alone was
used, with psalms of praises and halleluiahs sounding on
high, which shook the gilded ceilings of the temple, as
Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome, &c. witness.
In the supper of the Lord, and in baptism, no such cere-
monies were used, as have been introduced of late : both
Augustine and Paulinus then baptized in rivers, not in
hallowed fonts, as Fabian witnesses. Neither the ordinary
of Sarum, of York, of Bangor, with the daily matins
and even-song ; nor the orders of monks and friars were
then dreamed of for almost a thousand years after. So
that, as I said before, if the papists would needs derive
the faith and religion of this realm from Rome, then let
them carry us back whence they found us, that is, let
them sufter us to stand content with that faith and re-
ligion which was then taught and brought from Rome
by Eleutherius (as now we differ in nothing from the
same) and we desire no better. And if they will not,
then let the reader judge where the fault is, in us, or
them, which neither themselves will persist in the anti-
quity of the Romish religion which they so much boast
of, neither will they permit us to do so.
And thus much by the way to answer the aforesaid
objection, whereby we may now more readily return to
the order and course of the history. Therefore, grant-
ing to them what they so earnestly contend for, that the
christian faith and religion of tliis realm was brought
from Rome, first by Eleutherius and afterward by Aus-
tin ; the chronicles thus write of the matter.
About the year 180, King Lucius, son of Coilus, king
of the Britons, hearing of the miracles and wonders
done by the christians at that time, directed letters to
Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, desiring to receive the
christian faith from him, although there is great differ-
ence in authors about the computation of the time.
The good bishop hearing the request of the king, sends
him certain preachers called Fagan and Damian, who
converted the king and people of Britain, and baptized
them with the baptism and sacrament of Christ's faith.
They overthrew the temples of the idols, and converted
the people from their many gods to serve one living
God. "Thus true religion increasing, superstition de-
cayed, with all other rites of idolatry. There were then
in Britain twenty-eight head priests who they called
flamines, and three arch-priests who were called arch-
flamines, having the oversight of their manners, and as
judges over the rest. These twenty-eight flamines they
turned to twenty-eight bishops, and the three arch-
flamines to three archbishops. After this King Lucius
sent again to Eleutherius for the Roman laws, unto whom ,
Eleutherius writes as follows : —
" Ye require us to send you the Roman laws and the
emperors, which you may practise and put in force
within your realm. The Roman laws and the emperors
we may ever reprove, but the law of God we may not.
Ye have received of late through God's mercy in the
realm of Britain, the law and faith of Christ ; ye have
with you within the realm, both the parts of the scrip-
tures. Out of them by God's grace, with the council
of your realm take ye a law, and by that law (through
God's sufferance) rule your kingdom of Britain. For
you are God's vicar in your kingdom, according to the
saying of the psalm, ' O God, give thy judgment to the
King, and thy righteousness to the King's son,' &c.
He said not, the judgment and righteousness of the
emperor, but thy judgment and justice ; that is to say,
of God. The King's sons are the christian people of
the realm, which are under your government, and live
and continue in peace within your kingdom, as the
gospel saith, ' Like as the hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings,' so doth the king his people. The
people and folk of the realm of Britain are yours :
whom, if they be divided, ye ought to gather in concord
and peace, to call them to the faith and law of Christ,
and to the holy church, to cherish and maintain them,
to rule and govern them, and to defend them always
from such as would do them wrong, from malicious men
and enemies. A king hath his name for ruling, and not
for having a realm. You shall be a king while you rule
well ; but if you do otherwise, the name of a king shall
not remain with you, and you shall lose it, which God
forbid. The Almighty God grant you so to rule the
realm of Britain, that you may reign with him for ever,
whose vicar you be in the realm."
After this manner was the christian faith either first
brought in, or else confirmed in this realm, not with any
cross or procession, but only by the simple preaching of
Fagan and Damian, through whose ministry tins island
was reduced to the faith and law of the Lord, according as
was prophesied by Isaiah, as well of this as of other islands,
where he saith, " He shall not fail nor be discouraged till
he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall
wait for his law."— Isaiah, xlii. 4. The faith thus re-
ceived continued and flourished for the space of two
hundred and sixty-one years, till the coming of the
Saxons, who then were Pagans.
But although Lucius, through the merciful providence
of God, was then converted and the gospel almost gene-
rally received in the land, yet the state thereof, as well of
the religion as of the commonwealth, could not be quiet,
for the emperors and nobles of Rome were infidels, and
enemies to the same ; but especially because Lucius the
christian king died without issue. For thereby such
BRITAIN INVADED BY THE SAXONS.
[Book It.
trouble and variance occurred amonn;the Britons, that they
not only brought upon them the idohitrous Romans, and
at length the Saxons, but also entangled themselves in
much misery and desolation. For sometimes the ido-
latrous Romans, sometimes the Britons reigned and ruled
as violence and victory would serve ; one king murdering
anotlier, till at length the Saxons came and dispossessed
them both, as shall hereafter be seen.
Thus the commonwealth was miserably rent anddivided
into two sorts of people, differing not so much in country
as in religion ; for when the Romans reigned, the people
were governed by the infidels ; when the Britons ruled,
they were governed by christians. Thus how little quiet-
ness was or could be in the church in so unquiet and
doubtful days, may easily be considered.
Notwithstanding all these heathen rulers of the Romans,
which governed here, yet (God be praised) we read of no
persecution during all the ten above mentioned, that
touched the christian Britons, before the last persecution
of Diodesian. This persecution, was the first of many
that followed in the church and realm of England. The
rage of Dioclesian (as it was through all the churches in
the world,) was fierce and vehement in Britain, and all
our English chronicles testify that Christianity was de-
stroyed almost throughout the land, churches were sub-
verted, the scriptures burned, and many of the faithful,
both men and women, were slain.
Now concerning the government of the kings of Britain,
although I have little or nothing to note which greatly
appertains to the matter of this ecclesiastical history, yet
this is not to be passed over. First, that Constantine, the
great and worthy emperor, comes in the order of these
kings, who was not only a Briton born, by his mother
Helena, being the daughter of King Coilus, but also by
help of the British army (under the power of God) which
Constantine took with him from Britain to Rome, he
obtained the peace and tranquillity to the universal church
of Christ : in consequence of his taking with him three
legions of chosen and able British soldiers, the strength
of this land was not a little impaired and endangered.
After him Maximian took with him all the remaining
able and fighting men, in order to subdue France.
Thus poor Britain being left naked and destitute on
every side, as a maimed body without might and strength,
was left open to her enemies, unable to succour herself
without the help of foreign friends ; to whom the Britons
were then constrained to fly, especially to the Romans,
to whom they sent this message. " The groans of Britain
— the barbarians drive us into the sea — the sea drives us
back to the barbarians. Thus we have before us two
kinds of death, we must be either butchered or drowned !"
As the realm of Britain almost from the beginning was
never without civil war, at length came wicked Vorti-
gern, who cruelly causing his prince to be murdered, am-
bitiously invaded the crown ; and sent over for the aid
of the Saxons, who were then infidels ; and not only
that, but also married with an infidel, the daughter of
Hengist, called Rowena. Whereupon Vortigern not
long after was with like treachery dispossessed of his king-
dom, and the peojjle of Britain driven out of their country,
after the Saxons, under Hengist and his chiefs, had
slain their chief nobles and barons.
These Saxons coming in daily, filled the land with
their multitudes, so that the Britons at length were neither
able to hold what they had, nor to recover what they had
lost ; leaving an example to all ages and countries, of
what it is to let foreign nations into their dominion, but
especially what it is for princes to join in marriage with
infidels, as this Vortigern did with Hengist's daughter,
who was the mother of all this mischief ; and gave to the
Saxons, not only strength, but also occasion and cou-
rage to attempt what they did. The British lords and
nobility being offended therewith, deposed their king,
and enthroned his son Vortimer in his room. Vortimer,
being a brave prince, the Saxons were repulsed, and
driven again into Germany, where they stayed till the
death of Vortimer, whom Rowena, daughter of Hengist,
caused traitorously to be poisoned. Then Vortigern
being restored to his kingdom, through the entreaty of
nia wife Roweua, sent into Germany for Hengist, who
came in with a navy of three hundred well appointed
ships. The nobles of Britain hearing this, prepared
themselves on the other side in aU force to resist them.
But Hengist, through his daughter Rowena influenced
the king, and excused himself, saying, that he brought
not the multitude to work any violence either against
him or against his country, and that he commits both
himself and his people to him, to appoint how few or how
many of them he would permit to remain within his
land, and the rest were to return. And so it pleased the
king to appoint day and place where they might meet and
talk together of the matter, both he and his followers
would stand to such order as the king with his council
should appoint. With these fair words, the king and
his nobles, well contented, assigned both day and place,
which was in the town of Amesbury, where he meant to
talk with them ; adding this condition, that each party
should come without any weapon. Hengist agreed, but gave
privy commandment to his followers that each man should
secretly carry in his hose a long knife, and a watch-word
also was agreed on, which, when they heard, they were
to draw their knives, and every Saxon kill the Briton
with whom he talked. The British lords being slain, the
Saxons took Vortigern the king, and bound him ; foi
whose ransom they required the cities of London, York,
Lincoln, Winchester, with other the most strong holds
in the land to be delivered to them ; which being granted,
they begin to make spoil and havock of the nation, de-
stroying the citizens, pulling down churches, killing the
priests, burning the books of the holy scripture, and
leaving nothing undone that tyranny could work, which
was about A. D. 46'2. The king, seeing this miserable
slaughter of the people, fled to Wales.
Aurelius Ambrosius, and Uter Pendragon, King Con-
stans' brothers, whom Vortigern caused to be killed, were
then in Little Britain. To them the Britons sent word,
desiring their aid. Aurelius goes over to satisfy their
desire, and being crowned as their king, seeks out wicked
Vortigern, the cause of all this trouble, and the murderer
of his brother Constans. And finding him in a strong
tower in Wales, where he had immured himself, set his
castle on fire, and thus Vortigern was burned to death.
That done, he moved his power against the Saxons, with
whom and with Elle, captain of the South Saxons (who
then was newly come over), he had several conflicts.
After the death of Aurelius, who was poisoned by
order of Pascentius, the son of Vortigern (who suborned
a man in the garb of a monk, to pass himself for a phy-
sician, and to poison him) ; his brother Uter, surnamed
Pendragon, succeeded to the throne, about A. D. 497,
who fighting against Octa and Cosa, took them and
brought them to London ; but they breaking out o!
prison, returned into Germany for more aid. In the
mean time there was daily intercourse of the Saxons
from Saxony, with whom the Britons had many conflicts,
sometimes winning, sometimes losing. Not long after
Octa and Cosa. returned again, and joined the other
Saxons against the Britons. From this time the state
of Britain began to decay more and more, while the
idolatrous Saxons prevailed in numbers and strength
against the christian Britons ; oppressing the people,
throwing down the churches and monasteries, murdering
the prelates, and sparing neither age nor person, but
wasting Christianity almost through the whole realm. To
these miseries it happened, moreover, that Uter their
king was ill, and could not stir, but being grieved for the
lamentable destruction of his people, he caused his bed
to be brought into the camp, where God gave him the
victory, Octa and Cosa being slain. Shortly after, Uter
died of poison, put (as it is said) into a fountain whereof
the king used to drink, about A. D. 516.
About this time the West Saxons came so violently
upon the Britons, that they of the western part of the
realm were not able to resist them. After this the mer-
ciful providence of Almighty God raised up for them
King Arthur, the son of Uler, wlio was then crowned
after him, and reigned victoriously. The old British
histories ascribe to Arthur twelve great victories against
the Saxons, which gave the Britons some peace during
life, and that of certain of his successors. After
A.D. 180—596.]
COMING OF AUSTIN TO BRITAIN.
7>
Arthur, the next king of the Britons was Constantine.
After him Aurelius Conanus, Then Vortiporinus ; after
whom followed Malgo. And after him the last king of
the Britons was Carecius, all of whom were continually
engaged in civil war, execrable to God and man, and
being chased out by the Britons themselves, the land
came into the possession of the Saxons (A. D. 5(J8), by
whom all the clergy of the Britons were utterly driven
out ; insomuch that Theonus archbishop of London, and
Theodosius archbishop of York, seeing their churches
wasted, and parishes dispersed, left their sees in Britain,
and fled into Cambria, which is now called Wales.
The race of the Saxon kings who thus expelled the
British, divided their land into seven kingdoms ; many
of whom delighted in war and bloodshed, while few were
sincere or good. But none escaped either being slain in
war, or murdered in peace, or else being constrained to
become a monk.
Now although the example of those kings who became
monks (in number seven or eight), is rare and strange,
and much commended by the historians of the time ; I
cannot assent to their commendation, first, in altering
their estate from kings to monks, if they did it to find
more ease, and less trouble, I see not how that excuse
stands with the office of a good man, to change his public
vocation for a private convenience. If fear of danger
drove them thereto, what praise or commendation do
they deserve in so doing ? Let the monkish histories
judge what they like, methinks that just so much praise
as they deserve in providing for their own safety, just so
much they deserve again to be discommended for for-
saking the commonwealth. If they did it (as most
likely they did) for holiness' sake, thinking in that kind
of life to serve and please God better, or to merit
more toward their salvation than in the estate of a king,
they were greatly deceived ; not knowing that the salva-
tion which comes of God is to be esteemed, not by man's
merits, or by any perfection of life, or by any difference
of vocation, but only by the free grace of the gospel,
which freely justifies all them that faithfully believe in
Christ Jesus. But here it will be said again, perhaps in
the solitary life of a monk there are fewer occasions
of evils than in kings' courts, wherefore that life con-
duces more to holiness, and is more to be preferred than
the other. To this I answer, to avoid the occasion of
evil is good where strength lacks to resist, but otherwise,
where duty and charge constrain, there to avoid the oc-
casions of evil, where they ought rather to be resisted,
declares rather a weakness of the man than deserves any
praise.
These things thus premised, it remains to enter on
such things as in the time of these kings happened in the
church ; first putting the reader in mind of the former
three or four persecutions within the realm, and which
happened before the coming of Austin into England.
The first was under Dioclesian, and that not only in
England, but generally throughout all the Roman mo-
narchy, as is above specified. In this persecution Al-
ban, Julius, Aaron, with many more christian Britons
were martyred for Christ's name.
The second persecution was by the invasion of the
Huns and the Picts, who made miserable havock of
Christ's saints, spoiling and wasting churches, without
mercy either to women or children.
The third persecution was under Hengist and the
Saxons ; who likewise destroyed and wasted the christian
congregations within the land, like raging wolves flying
upon the sheep, and spilling the blood of christians, till
Aurehus Ambrosius came, and restored again the destroyed
churches.
The fourth destruction of the christian faith and
religion was by Gurmund, a Pagan king of the Africans,
who joining in league with the Saxons, wrought much
grievance to the christians of the land ; and this perse-
cution remained to the time of Ethelbert the king of
Kent. (A. D, 589.)
In the reign of this Ethelbert, who was the fifth king
of Kent, the faith of Christ was first received among the
Saxons by means of Gregory, bishop of Rome, in
the following manner, as collected from the old his-
tories : ^
First then, the christian faith received by King Lucius,
indured in Britain till this time above 400 years, when
by Gurmund (as is said) fighting with the Saxons against
the Britons, it was nearly extinct in all the land, during the
space of about forty-four years. So that the first spring-
ing of Christ's gospel in this land was in A.D. 180. The
coming of Austin was in A. D. 596. In which year
Austin being sent from Gregory, came into England.
The cause of Gregory sending him hither was this :
In the days of Pelagius bishop of Rome, Gregory
chancing to see certain beautiful children in the market-
place of Rome, brought out of England to be sold, de-
manded from whence they were ? and understanding
they were heathens from England, he lamented the case
of the land whose inhabitants being so beautiful and
angelic ' were subject to the prince of darkness. And
asking moreover out of what province they were, it was
answered, out of Deira, a part of North-saxons. Then
he, alluding to the name of Deira, " These people," said
he, " are to be delivered ' De Dei ira,' " that is, " from
God's wrath." Moreover, understanding the king's
name of that province to be Alle, alluding likewise to his
name, " There," saith he, " ought Allelujah to be sung
to the living God." Whereupon he being moved, and
desirous to go and help the conversion of that country,
sent Austin thither, with other preachers to the number
of forty. And he directed letters to Austin, and to his
fellows, exhorting them to go forward boldly to the Lord's
work, as by the following epistle appears :
" Gregory the servant of God's servants, to the ser-
vants of the Lord. Forasmuch as it is better not to take
good things in hand, than after they be begun to think
to revolt back from the same again, therefore now you
may not nor cannot, dear children, turn back, but with
ail fervent study and labour must needs go forward in
that good business, which through the help of God you
have well begun. Neither let the labour of your journey,
nor the slanderous tongues of men appal you, but with
all instance and fervency proceed and accomphsh the
thing which the Lord hath ordained you to take in hand ;
knowing that your great labour shall be recompensed
with a reward of greater glory hereafter. Therefore as
we send here Austin to you again, whom also we have
ordained to be your governor, so do you humbly obey
him in all things, knowing that it shall be profitable for
your souls, whatsoever at his admonition ye shall do.
Almighty God with his grace defend you, and grant me
to see in the eternal country the fruit of your labour ;
that although I cannot labour as I would with you, yet
I may be found partaker of your retribution, for that my
will is good to labour in the same fellowship with you
together. The Lord God keep you safe, most dear and
well-beloved children. Dated the tenth before the
kalends of August, in the reign of our sovereign lord
Maurice most virtuous emperor, the fourteenth of his
eminre."
Thus they being emboldened and comforted through
the good words of Gregory, went on their journey till
they came to the Isle of Thanet. Near the landing-
place was then the palace of the king, not far from Sand-
wich. The king then reigning in Kent was Ethelbert,
who had married a christian Frenchwoman, named
Bertha, whom he had received of her parents upon this
condition, that he should permit her to retain her bishop,
called Lebard, and to enjoy the freedom of her faith, by
means whereof he was sooner induced to embrace the
doctrine of Christ. Austin being arrived, sent forth
certain messengers to the king, signifying that such a
one was come from Rome, bringing with him glad
tidings to him and all his people of life and salvation
eternally to reign in heaven, with the only true and
(1) He asked of what nation were those beautiful children. H«
was told they were Anglici (English), on hearing which, he fbid
they should rather be called Annelid (Angelic). [Ed.]
rs
KING ETHELBERT CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY.
[Book II.
living God for ever, if he would as willingly hearken as
he was gladly come to preach and teach it to him.
The king who had heard of this religion before by his
wife, within a few days comes to the place where Austin
was, to speak with him. Austin, as the histories affirm,
erected a banner of the crucifix (such was the grossness
of that time), and preached to him the word of God.
The king answering said, " The words are very fair that
you preach and promise ; nevertheless, because it is
new to me, I cannot soon start away from my country's
laws wherewith I have been so long inured, and assent
to you. Yet as ye are come (as ye say) so far for my sake,
you shall not be molested by me, but shall be treated
well, having all things ministered to you necessary for
your support. Besides this, neither do we debar you,
but grant you free leave to preach to our subjects, to
convert whom ye may to the faith of your religion."
When they had received this comfort of the king, they
went with procession to the city of Canterbury, singing
Allehijah with the litany. The words of the litany were,
" We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy mercies, that thy
fury and anger may cease from thi,s city, and from thy
holy house, for we have sinned, AUelujah." The king
having given them a mansion for their abode, they con-
tinued there preaching and baptizing such as they had
converted in the old church of St. Martin (where the
queen was wont to resort), to the time that the king
himself was converted to Christ. At length, when the
king had well considered the honest conversation of their
life, and moved with the miracles wrought through God's
hands by them, he heard them more gladly ; and lastly,
by their wholesome exhortations and example of godly
life, he was converted and christened. After the king
was thus converted, innumerable others were daily joined
to the church of Christ; whom the king did specially
embrace, but compelled none ; for so he had learned,
that the faith and service of Christ ought to be volun-
tary, and not compulsory. Then he gave Austin a place
for the bishop's see at Christ's Church, and built the
abbey of St. Peter and Paul in the east side of the city,
where afterwards Austin and all the kings of Kent were
buried, and that place is now called St. Austin.
At this time Austin sailed to France, to be conse-
crated archbishop by the command of Gregory; who,
hearing of Austin's success, sends to the church of
England more coadjutors and helpers, as Melitus,
Justus, Paulinus, and Ruffianus, with books and such
other matters as he thought necessary for the English
church. He sends also to Austin a Pall with letters,
wherein he appoints the two metropolitan sees, the one
to be at London, the other at York. But he grants to
Austin during his life, to be the only archbishop : and
after his time, then to return to the two sees of
London and York, as is contained ia the following
epistle of Gregory to Austin.
" To the reverend and virtuous brother Augustine, his
fellow bishop, Gregory the servant of the servants of God.
Although it is most certain, that unspeakable rewards
of the heavenly King lie laid up for all such as labour
in the word of the Almighty God : yet it shall be re-
quisite for us to reward the same also with our benefits,
to the end they may be more encouraged to go forward
in their spiritual work. And now, as the new church of
Englishmen is brought to the grace of Almighty God,
through his mighty help, and your labour, therefore we
have granted to you the use of the pall, only to be used
at the solemnity of your mass ; so that it shall be lawful
for you to ordain twelve bishops, such as shall be subject
to your province. So that hereafter the bishop of the
city of London shall always be ordained and consecrated
by his own proper synod ; and so to receive the pall of
honour from the holy and apostolic see, wherein I here (by
the permission of God) do serve. And as touching the
city of York, we will send also a bishop thither, whom
you may think meet to ordain. So that if that city with
other places bordering thereby, shall receive the word of
God, he shall have power likewise to ordain twelve
bishops, and have the honour of a metropolitan; to whom
also, if God spare my life, I intend by the favour of God,
to send a pall : this provided, that notwithstanding he
shall be subject to your brotherly appointment. But
after your decease, the same metropolitan, so to be over
the bishops whom he ordereth, that he be in no wise
subject to the metropolitan of London after you. And
hereafter, betwixt these two metropolitans of London and
York, let there be had such distinction of honour, that
he shall have the priority, which sliall be first ordained.
With the common counsel, and affection of heart, let
them go both together, disposing with one accord such
things as are to be done for the zeal of Christ. Let them
consider and deliberate together prudently, and what they
deliberate wisely, let them accompUsh with concord, not
jarring or swerving one from the other. But as for your part,
you shall be endued with authority, not only over those
bishops that you constitute, and over the other constituted
by the bishop of York ; but also you shall have all other
priests of whole Britain, subject unto our Lord Jesus
Christ : to the end that through your preaching and holi-
ness of life, they may learn both to believe rightly, and to
live purely, and so in directing their life, both by the
rule of true faith and virtuous manners, they may attain,
when God shall call them, the fruition and kingdom of
heaven. God preserve you in health, reverend brother.
The tenth before the kalends of July, in the reign of our
Lord Maurice most virtuous emperor."
Besides this, Gregory sends another letter to Melitus
concerning his judgment, what is to be done with the idola-
trous temples and fanes of the English newly converted,
which fanes he thinks best not to pulldown, but to convert
the use thereof, and so let them stand. And likewise of
their sacrifices, and killing of oxen, how the same ought
to be ordered, and how to be altered.
He directed another epistle to king Ethelbert, in which
epistle first he praises God, then commends the goodness of
the king, by whom it pleased God to work such goodness of
the people. Secondly, exhorts him to continue in the
profession of Christ's faith, and to be fervent and zealous
in converting the multitude ; in destroying the temples
and works of idolatry, in ruling and governing the peo-
ple in all holiness and godly conversation. Lastly, com-
forting him with the promises of life and reward to come,
with the Lord that reigneth and liveth for ever.
Melitus, of whom mention is made before, was sent
specially to the East Saxons in the province of Essex,
where he was made bishop of London, under Sigebert,
king of Essex ; Sigebert, together with his uncle Ethel-
bert first built the church and minster of St. Paul in
London, and appointed it to Melitus for the bishop's
see. Austin, with this Melitus and Justus, assembled
and gathered together the bishops and doctors of Britain
in a place, which taking the name of Austin, was called
Austin's Oak. In this assembly he charged the bishops,
that they should preach with him the word of God, and
also that they should among themselves reform certain
rites and usages in their church, specially for keeping
of Easter, baptizing after the manner of Rome, and such
other like. To this the Scots and Britons would not
agree, refusing to leave the custom which they so long
time had continued, without the assent of all who used
the same.
Then Austin gathered another synod, to the which
came seven bisho])s of Britain, with the wisest men of
that famous abbey of Bangor. But first they took coun-
sel of a certain wise and holy man amongst them what
to do ; and whether they should be obedient to Austin
or not. And he said, " If he be the servant of God, agree
unto him." "But how shall we know that?" said they.
To whom he answered again, " If he be meek and hum-
ble of heart, by that know that he is the servant of God."
To this they said again, " And how shall we know him to
be humble and meek of heart ?" " By this" (quoth he)
" seeing you are the greater number, if he at your coming
into your synod rise up, and courteously receive you, per-
ceive him to be an humble and a meek man ; but if he
shall contemn and despise you (being as ye are), the
greater part, despise you him again." Thus the British
bishops entered into the council, Austin after the Romish
manner keeping his chair, would not remove. Whereat
4.D. 596— 616.] DEATH OF AUSTIN, POPE GREGORY, AND ETHELBERT.
being not little offended, after some heat of words, in
disdain and great displeasure departed tlience. To whom
then Austin spake, and said, " That if they would not
take peace with their brethren, they should receive war
with their enemies ; and if they disdained to preach with
them the way of life to the English nation, they should
suffer by their hands the revenge of death." Which not
long after so came to pass by the means of Ethelfride,
king of Northumberland, who being yet a pagan, and
stirred with fierce fury against the Britons, came with a
great army against them. There was at the same time at
Bangor in Wales an exceeding great monastery, contain-
ing upwards of two thousand monks, who all lived by
the sweat of their brow, and labour of their own hands,
having one for their ruler, named Dino. Out of this
monastery came the monks of Chester, to pray for the
good success of Brocmaile, fighting for them against the
Saxons. They continued three days in fasting and prayer.
When Ethelfride, seeing them so attentive to their
prayers, demanded the cause of their coming thither in
euch a company, and when he perceived it, " Then,"
saith he, " Although they bear no weapon, yet they fight
ajjainst us, and with their prayers and preachings they
jiersecute us." ^Vl^ereupon after Brocmaile was over-
come, the king commanded his men to turn their wea-
pons against the unarmed monks, of whom he slew, or
rather martyred, eleven hundred ; only fifty persons of
that number did escape, the rest were all slain. The
authors that write of this lamentable murder, declare how
the saying of Austin was here verified upon the Britons,
who because they would not join peace with their friends,
he said should be destroyed by their enemies. Of both
these parties the reader may judge what he pleases ; I
think both were to be blamed. And as I cannot but
accuse the one, so I cannot defend the other. First,
Austin in this matter can in no wise be excused ; who
being a monk before, and therefore a scholar and profes-
sor of humanity, shewed so little humility in this assembly,
to seven bishops and an archbishop, coming at his com-
mandment to the council, that he would not rise up at their
coming in. Much less would his pharisaical solemnity
have girded himself, and washed his brethren's feet after
their journey, as Christ our great Master did to his disci-
ples ; seeing his lordship was so high, or so heavy, or so
proud, that he could not find in his heart to give them a
little moving of his body, to declare a brotherly and an
humble heart. Again, the Britons were as much or
more to blame, who so much neglected their spiritual
duty, in revenging their temporal injury, that they re-
fused to join their helping labour, to turn the idolatrous
Saxons to the way of life and salvation, in which respect
all private cases ought to give place, and be forgotten.
For which cause, although lamentable to us, yet no great
marvel, if the stroke of God's punishment did light upon
them according to the words of Austin, as is before de-
clared. But especially the cruel king was most of all
to blame so furiously to fly upon them, who had neither
weapon to resist him, nor yet any wUl to harm him.
About this time Gregory, bishop of Rome, died, of
whom it is said, that of the number of all the bishops before
him in the primitive time, he was the worst ; of all that
came after him, he was the best. About which time also
died in Wales, David, first archbishop of Kaerlon, who
then translated the see from thence to Menevia, and
therefore is called " David of Wales." Not long after
this also, the aforesaid Austin died in England, after he
had sat there fifteen or sixteen years.
As touching the acts and deeds of Gregory, above
mentioned, how he withstood the ambitious pride of
John patriarch of Constantinople, who wished to be
the universal priest, and only chief bishop of all others,
declaring him to be no less than the forerunner of anti-
christ, who would assume that name and title upon
him, — how, and with what reasons, he answered the
letters of the emperor Maurice in that matter, sufficient
relation is made in the beginning of this history. This
Gregory, among many other things, began and brought
in this title among the Roman bishops, to be called
"the servant of the servants of God;" putting them
in remembrance thereby, both of their humbleness and
also of their duty in the church of Christ. Moreover,
as concernmg his act for the single life of priests first
begun, and then broken again ; also concerning the
order of Giegory's mass book to be received in all
churches ; liereof who wishes to read more, shall find
the same when we come to the time of Pope Adrian
the first.
After the death of Gregory came Sabinian, who, as
he was a malicious detractor of Gregory, and of his
works, so he continued not long, scarce the space of two
years. After whom succeeded Boniface III., who, al-
though he reigned but one year, yet in that one year did
more hurt than Gregory with so much labour, and in so
many years, could do good. For that which Gregory
kept out, he brought in, obtaining of Phocas, the wicked
emperor, for him and his successors after him, that thj
see of Rome should have the pre-eminence above all other
churches, and that the bishop of Rome should be the
universal head of all churches of Christ in Christendom,
alleging this frivolous reason, that St. Peter had and
left to his successors in Rome, the keys of binding and
loosing, &c. And thus Rome began first to take a head
above all other churches, by means of Boniface III.,
who, as he lacked no boldness nor ambition to seek it,
so neither lacked he an emperor fit and meet to give
such a gift. This emperor's name was Phocas, a man
of such wickedness and ambition (most like to his own
bishop Boniface) that in order to gain the empire, he
murdered his own master the Emperor Maurice and his
children. Thus coming to be emperor, after this de-
testable villany, and thinking to establish his empire
with the friendship and favour of his people, and espe-
cially with the bishop of Rome, he quickly condescended
to all his petitions, and so granted him (as it is said) to
be what he wished, the universal and head bishop over
all christian churches. But as blood commonly requires
blood again, so it came to pass on Phocas. For as he
had cruelly slain the lord and emperor Maurice before,
so he in like manner had his hands and feet cut off by
Heraclius, the emperor, who succeeded him, and was
cast into the sea. And thus wicked Phocas, who gave
the supremacy to Rome, lost his own. But Rome would
not so soon loose this supremacy once given, as the
giver lost his life. For ever since, from that day it has
held, defended, and maintained the same still, and does
j'et to this present day, by all force and policy possible.
And thus much concerning Boniface, whom by the
words of Gregory, we may well caU the fore-runner of
antichrist.
Mention was made a little before of Ethelbert, king
of Kent, and also of Ethelfrid, king of North Saxony.
This Ethelbert having under his subjection all the other
Saxon kings unto the Humber, after he had first himself
received the christian faith by the preaching of Austin,
caused it to be received by others. When he had
reigned the course of fifty and six years, he dianged
this mortal life about A. D. 616. Some histories say
he was slain in a fight between him Eind Ethelfrid, king
of the North Saxons.
In the mean time Ethelfrid, after the cruel murder of
the monks of Bangor, escaped not long, for after he had
reigned four-and-twenty years he was slain in the
field by Edwin, who succeeded in Northumberland after
him.
This Edwin not being the son of Ethelfrid, but of
Alia, was first a panim or idolater, but was afterwards
converted, and was the first christened king in North-
umberland.
Quicelinus, with Kinegilsus, his brother, kings of the
West Saxons, conspiring the death of Edwin, king of
Northumberland, sent upon an Easter-day, a sword-
man privily to slay him. This sword-man or cut-
throat, came to a city beside the water of Derwent, in
Derbyshire, there to wait his time ; and having found
the king smally accompanied, attempted to run him
through with a poisoned sword. But one Lilla, the
king's trusty servant, not having a shield or any other
weapon to defend his master, started between the king
and the sword, and was stricken through the body and
died, thus saving the king, who, however, was wounded
80
CONTROVERSY ABOUT EASTER -COLMAN AND WJLFRID.
[Book II.
with the same stroke. The assassin having wounded
another knijjht, was at last taken, and confessed by
whom he was sent to work that treason. The second
knight that was wounded, died, and the king lay sick a
long time ere he was healed.
In this time there was such j)eace in the kingdom of
Edwin after his conversion, tliat a woman laden with
gold miglit have gone from the one side of the sea to
the other, and no man molest her. Moreover, by the
highway sides, through all his kingdom he caused a dish
or bowl of brass to be chained by every well or spring,
to take up water for refreshing such as went by the way,
which bowls of brass remained there safe, and no man
touched them during all the life of Edwin. Such was
then the tender care and study of christian princes, for
the refreshing of their subjects.
This Edwin, who first brought the faith into the
north parts, continuing after his bajjtism six years,
was at length slain in battle by Cedwella, king of the
Britons.
After the decease of Edwin and his son Offrick,
reigned Ofricus and Eaufridus, the one in Deira, the
other in Bernicia.
After whom, succeeded the second son of Ethelfrid,
named Oswald. Of this Oswald much praise and com-
mendation is written for his zeal in Christ's religion,
and pity towards the poor, with other great virtues.
Being well and virtuously disposed to the setting forth
of Christ's faith and doctrine, he sent into Scotland for
a certain bishop called Aidan, a famous preacher, to
preach to his people. The king, when he was in Soot-
land, had learned the Scottish tongue : wherefore as this
Aidan preached in his Scottish tongue to the Saxons,
the king himself interpreted what he said ; he disdained
not to preach and expound to his nobles and subjects in
the English tongue.
Towards the poor and needy, his pity and tenderness
was such, notwithstanding his princely calling, that as he
was sitting with Aidan at meat, and was served after
the manner of kings in silver ; there comes to him one
of the servitors, bringing him word that there was a
great multitude of poor peoi)le sitting in the street, who
desired some alms of the king. He hearing this, com-
manded not only the meat prepared for his table to be
carried unto them, but also taking a silver platter which
stood before him, brake it in pieces and seiit it amongst
them, and so relieved his poor subjects, not only with
the meat of his table, but with the dishes also.
After Oswald had reigned nine years, he was slain by
wicked Penda, king of the Mercians ; which Penda at
length, after all his tyranny, was overcome, and slain by
Oswy, brother to Oswald.
Oswy succeeded Oswald, and with him was joined
Oswine his cousin. This Oswine was gentle and liberal
to his people, and no less devout toward God. He once
had given to Aidan, the bishop, a princely horse, with
the trappings and all that ajjpertained to it, that he
should not travel so much on foot. Aidan, as he was
riding upon his kingly horse, meets by the way a poor
man, asking his charity. Aidan having nothing else to
give him, lighted down, and gave to him his horse with all
the trai)pings as he was. The king hearing this, and
not being j)leased, as he was entering to dinner with
Aidan, said, " What meant you, father bishop, to give
4way my horse I gave you, to the beggar ? had 1 not
Other horses in my stable that might have served him
(veil enough, but you must give away that which was
picked out for you amongst the chiefest ?" To whom
.:he bishop answered again, rebuking the king, saying,
" What are these words, O king! that you speak.' why
set you more price by a horse, which is but the foal of
a horse, than you do by him which is the Son of
Mary, yea, which is the Son of God?" He said but
this, when the king forthwith ungirding his sword from
about him (as he was then newly come in from hunting),
falls down at the feet of the bishop, desiring him to for-
give him that, and he would never again speak a word to
him for any treasure he should afterwards give away of
his.
Oswine havuig been slain by the king of Bernicia,
Oswy, with his son Egfrid, reigned in Northumberland,
in whose time the question of Easter, and of shaving,
and other ecclesiastical matters, being moved, it was de-
termined that a convocation should be held in the
abbey, called Sternhalt, and this question determined.
To which place came the kings, Oswy and Egfrid, Bi-
shop Colman, with his clergy of Scotland, Agilbert, with
Agathon and Wilfrid priests. James and Roman were
on their sides, Hilda the abbess, with her company, was
on the Scottish part, and the Bishop Cedda, was ap-
pointed prolocutor for both parties. King Oswy began
first with an oration, declaring that it was necessary for
sucli as served one God, to live in one uniform order.
This said, he commanded his Bishop Colman to declare
what was the rite and custom that he used. Then Col-
man said, "The Easter which I observe, I received of
my ancestors that sent me hither a bishop, which all our
forefathers, being men of God, celebrated in like man-
ner ; and lest it should be contemned or despised of any
man, it is manifestly apjiarent to be the very same which
the holy evangelist St. John (a disciple especially be-
loved of the Lord), did customarily use in all churches
and congregations where he had authority." When
Colman had spoken many things to this effect, the king
commanded Agilbert to declare his oj)inion, and to shew
the order that he used, from whence it came, and by
what authority he observed the same. Agilbert requested
the king that his scholar Wilfrid, a priest, might speak
for him, inasmuch as they both, with the rest of his
clergy, were of one opinion herein, and that Wilfrid
could utter his mind better, and more plainly in the
English tongue, than he himself could. Then Wilfrid, at
the king's commandment, said, " The Easter which we
keep, we have seen at Rome, where the holy apostles,
Peter and Paul, did live and teach, did suffer, and were
buried. The same also is used in Italy and in France ;
in which countries we have travelled for learning, and
have noted it to be celebrated of them all. In Asia
also and in Africa, in Egypt and in Greece, and finally
in all the world, the same manner of Easter is observed
that we use, save only by these here present, with
their accomplices, the Picts and Britons." To
whom Colman replied, saying, " I marvel you
will call this order foolish, that so great an apos-
tle as was worthy to lie on the Lord's breast,
did use, whom all the world well knows to have lived
most wisely." And Wilfrid answered, " God forbid
that I should reprove St. John of his folly, who kept the
rites of Moses's law, according to the letter (the church
being yet Jewish in many points), and the apostles not
as yet able to rescind all the observations of the law
before ordained. As for example, they could not reject
images invented of the devil, the which all men that
believe on Christ, ought of necessity to forsake and
detest, lest they should be an offence to those Jews that
were amongst the Gentiles. For this cause did St. Paul
circumcise Timothy, for this cause did he sacrifice in the
temple, and did shave his head with Aquila and Priscilla
at Corinth ; all which things were done to no other pur-
pose, than to avoid the offending the Jews. Hereupon
also said James to Paul, ' Thou seest, brother, how many
thousand Jews do believe, and all these are zealous of
the law. Yet seeing the gospel is so manifestly preached
in the world, it is not lawful for the faithful to be cir-
cumcised, neither to offer sacrifice of carnal things to
God.' Therefore Jolm, according to the custom of the
law, the fourteenth day of the first month at evening,
did begin the celebration of the feast of Easter, not
respecting whether it were celebrated on the Sabbath.
But Peter, when he preached at Rome, remembering
that the Lord did arise from death on the first day after
the Sabbath, giving thereby a hope to the world of the
resurrection, thought good to institute Easter on that
day, and not after the use and precepts of the law, on
the fourteenth day of the first month ; even so, John
looking for the moon at night, if it did arise, and the
next day after were Sunday, which then was called the
Sabbath, then did he celebrate the Easter in the evening,
like as we use to do even at this day. But if Sunday
were not the next day after the fourteenth day, but feU
1
A.D. G16— 679.]
THEODORE SENT TO ENGLAND BY POPE VITALIAN.
81
on the sixteenth day, or seventeenth, or on any other
day unto the one and twentieth, he tarried always for it,
and did begin the holy solemnity of Easter on the even-
jno- next before the Sabbath. And so it came to pass,
that Easter was always kept on the Sunday, and was not
celebrated but from the fifteenth day to the one and
twentieth ; neither does this tradition of the apostle
break the law, but fulfil the same. In which it is to
be noted, that Easter was instituted from the fourteenth
day of the first month at evening, to the one and twen-
tieth day of the same month at evening ; which manner
all St. John's successors in Asia followed after his death
and the catholic church throughout the whole world.
And that this is the true Easter, was not newly decreed,
but confirmed by the council of Nice. Whereupon it is
manifest that you (Colman) do neither follow the exam-
ple of St. John, as ye think, nor of St. Peter, whose
tradition you do willingly resist, nor of the church, nor
yet of the gospel, in the celebration of Easter. For St.
John, observing Easter according to the precepts of the
law, kept it not on the first day after the Sabbath ; but
you precisely keep it on the first day after the Sabbath.
Peter did celebrate Easter from the fifteenth day of the
moon to the one and twentieth day, but you keep Easter
, from the fourteenth unto the twentieth day ; so that you
begin Easter oftentimes the thirteenth day at night, of
i which manner neither the law nor the gospel makes any
mention. But our Lord in the fourteenth day, either
did eat the old passover at night, or else did celebrate
the sacraments of the New Testament, in the remem-
brance of his death and passion. You do also utterly
reject from the celebration of Easter, the one and twen-
tieth day, which the law has chiefly willed to be ob-
served ; and therefore, as I said, in the keeping of
Easter, you neither agree with St. John nor with St.
Peter, nor with the law, nor yet with the gospel." Then
Colman again answered to these things, saying, " Did
then Anatholius, a godly man, and one much com-
mended in ecclesiastical history, write against the law
and the gospel, who writes that the Easter was to be
kept from the fourteenth day unto the twentieth ? Or
shall we think that Columba, our reverend father, and his
successors, being men of God, who observed the Easter
after this manner, did it against the holy scripture ?
Whereas some of them were men of much godliness and
virtue, as was declared by their wonderful miracles.
And I hereby (nothing doubting of their holiness) do
endeavour to follow their life, order, and discipline."
Then, said Wilfrid, " It is certain that Anatholius was
both a godly man, and worthy of great commendation ;
but what have you to do with him, seeing you observe
not his order? For he, following the true rule in keep-
ing his Easter, obsen'es the circle ot nineteen years ;
the which either you know not, or if you do, you con-
demn the common order observed in the universal church
iof Christ. And moreover, the said Anatholius so
Icounts the fourteenth day, in the observation of Easter,
las he confesses the same to be the fifteenth day at night,
lafter the manner of the Egyptians, and likewise notes
[the twentieth day, to be in the feast of Easter, the one
land twentieth in the evening ; that you know not this
distinction, may appear by this, that you keep the
iaster on the thirteenth day before the full moon. I
can answer you touching your father Columba and his
(Successors, whose order you say you follow, moved
{thereto by their miracles, on this wise, that the Lord
will answer to many that shall say in the day of judg-
ment, that in his name they have prophesied and cast
out devils, and have done many miracles, &c. that he
never knew them. But God forbid that I should say so
of your fathers, because it is much better to believe well
»f those we know not, than ill. Whereupon I deny not
but they were the servants of God, and holy men, which
loved the Lord of a good intent, though of a rude sim-
plicity. And I think that the order which they used in
Ithe Easter, did not much hurt them, so long as they had
none amongst them that could shew them the right
observation of the same for them to follow. For I
think, if the truth had been declared to them, they
would as well have received it in this matter as they did
in others. But you and your fellows, if you refuse the
order of the Apostolical bee, or rather of the universal
church, which is confirmed by the holy scripture ; with-
out all doubt you do sin. And though your forefathers
were holy men, what is their fewness, being but a corner
of an island, to be preferred before the universal church
of Jesus Christ, dispersed throughout the whole world ?
And if Columba your father (and ours also, being of
Christ Jesus), were mighty in miracles, is he therefore
to be preferred before the prince of the holy apostles ?
To whom the Lord said, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it, and I will give thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven.' "
Wilfrid having thus ended his argument, the king
said to Colman, " Is it true that the Lord spake these
things to St. Peter ?" And Colman answered "Yea."
Then said the king, " Can you declare any thing that
the Lord gave to Colman ?" Colman answered, " No."
Then quoth the king, " Do both of you agree and con-
sent in this matter without any controversy, that these
words were principally spoken to Peter, and that the
Lord gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven?"
And they both answered " Yea." Then concluded the
king, on this wise, " For so much as St. Peter is the
door-keeper of heaven, I will not gainsay him ; but as far
as I am able, I will obey his orders in every point, lest
when I come to the gates of heaven, he shut them
against me."
Upon this simple and rude reason of the king, the
multitude soon consented, and with them also Cedda was
contented to give over, only Colman the Scot, being
then archbishop of York, left the realm in displeasure.
And thus much concerning this matter of Easter.
About this time Theodore was sent from Italy into
England, by Vitalian the pope, to be archbishop of
Canterbury, and with him other monks of Italy, to set
up here in England Latin service, masses, ceremonies,
litanies, with other Romish ware, &c. This Theodore
being made archbishop and metropolitan of Canterbury,
began to act as if he was king, placing and displacing
the bishops at his pleasure. As for Cedda and Wilfrid
archbishops of York, he thrust them both out, under the
pretence that they were not lawfully consecrated, notwith-
standing they were sufficiently authorised by their kings.
In the time of this Theodore, and by the means of
him, a provincial synod was holden atThetford, mentioned
in Bede ; the principal contents whereof were these :
First. That Easter-day should be uniformly kept and
observed through the whole realm, upon one certain day,
namely, the first full moon after the fourteenth day of the
first month.
Secondly. Tliat no bishop should intermeddle within
the diocese of another.
Thirdly. That monasteries consecrated unto God
should be exempt and free from the jurisdietioa of the
bishops.
Fourthly. That the monks should not stray from one
place (that is) from one monastery to another, without the
license of their abbot ; also to keep the same obedience
which they promised at their first entering.
Fifthly. That no clergyman should forsake his own
bishop, and be received in any other place, without
letters commendatory of his own bishop.
Sixthly. That foreign bishops and clergymen coming
into the realm, should be content only with the benefit
of such hospitality, as should be offered them ; neither
should intermeddle any further within the precinct ot
anv bishop, without his special permission.
"Seventhly. That provincial synods should be held
within the realm at least once a year.
Eighthly. That no bishop should prefer himself before
another, but must observe the time and order of his
consecration.
Ninthly. That the number of bishops should be aug-
mented, as the number of people increases. _
And Tenthly. That no marriage should be admitted,
but that which was lawful ; neither any man to put away
his wife for any cause, except only for fornication, after
the rule ot the gospel.
o2
IVA KING OF WEST SAXONY— SHAVEN CROWNS.
[Book II,
In the year following was the sixth general council at
Constantinople, whereat this Theodore was also present
nnder Pope Agatho : where marriage was permitted to
Greek priests, and forbidden to the Latin. In this
council, the Latin mass was first openly said by John Por-
tuensis, the pope's legate, before the patriarch and princes
at Constantinople, in the temple of St. Sophia.
King Iva or Inas, who reigned in West Saxony, after
Cadwalladcr, the last king of Britain, began his reign
about A. D. 689., and reigned with great valiantness
over the West Saxons for thirty seven years.
About the sixth year of the reign of this Iva, we find
mention of one whom they call St. Cuthlake a confessor,
who about the four-and-twentieth year of his age, re-
nouncing the pomp of the world, professed himself a
monk. Why this Cuthlake should be sainted for his
doings, I see no great cause ; as I cannot think the fa-
bulous miracles reported of him to be true ; as where
the vulgar people are made to believe that he inclosed
the devil in a boiling pot, and caused wicked spirits to
erect up houses, with such other fables and lying mira-
cles. Among which lying miracles also may be reck-
oned that which the stories mention to be done of one
Brithwald, or Drithelme, who, being dead a long season,
was restored to life again, and told many wonders of
strange things that he had seen, causing thereby great
alms and deeds of charity to be done by the people 1
About the sixteenth year of Iva, Ethelred, king of
Mercia, after he had there reigned thirty years, was made
a monk, and afterwards abbot of Bardney.
And about the eighteenth year of the reign of Iva,
died the worthy and learned Bishop Adelme, first abbot
of Malmesbury, afterwards })i,shop of Shirborne ; there
was learning and virtue in him above tlie rest, at that
time (next after Bede), as the great number of books and
epistles, with poems by him set forth, will declare. Al-
though concerning the miracles ascribed to him ; as, first,
in causing an infant of nine days old to speak at Rome,
to declare Pope Sergius, who was then suspected, the
father of the said child ; also in hanging his casule upon
■the sunbeams -, also, in making whole the altar-stone of
.marble brought from Rome ; also in drawing a length
one of the timber pieces which went to the building of
the temple in Malmesbury ; also in saving the mariners
at Dover, &c. These, and such other miracles, which
are attributed to him, I cannot but think to he monkish
devices, forged upon their patrons to maintain the dig-
nity of their houses.
'Moreover, about the twenty-fifth year of Iva, St. John
of Beverley, who was then bishop of York, died, and was
buried at the porch of the minster of Deirwood, or Be-
verley. In which porch it is recorded in monkish chro-
:nicles, that as John -was praying in the porch of St.
Michael in York, the Holy Ghost, in the similitude of a
dove, sat before him upon the altar in brightness shining
above the sun. This brightnees being seen of others,
'first comes one of his deacons running into the porch,
who beholding the bishop there standing in his prayers,
and all the place filled with the Holy Ghost, was stricken
with the light tliereof, having all his face burnt, as it
were, with hot burning fire 1 Notwithstanding the
bishop by-and-bye cured the face of his deacon again,
.charging them (as the story says) not to publish what he
Lad seen, during his life-time, &c. Whidi tale seems
as true as what we read about the sometime done by St.
Egwine, who, when he had fettered both his feet in irons,
for certain sins done in his youth, and had fast locked
them, and cast the key thereof into the sea, afterward a fish
brought the key again into the ship, as he was sailing
homeward from Rome 1
But to leave these monkish fictions, and return to the
right course again of the history. In the time of this
Iva, the right observing of Easter-day first began among
the Picts and the Britons. In the observance of which
day, three things are necessary to be observed : -fir^t, the
fuU moon of the first month, that is of the moath of
March. Secondly, the dominical letter. Thirdly, the
equinoctial day, which equinoctial was wont to be
counted in the eastern church, and especially among the
Egyptians, to be about the seventeenth day of March.
So that the full moon on the equinoctial day, or after the
equinoctial day being observed, the next dominical day
following that full moon, is to be taken for Easter-day.
Wherein are diligently to be noted two things : first, the
fulness of the moon must be perfectly full, so that it be
the beginning of the third week of the moon, which is
the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the moon. Secondly,
it is to be noted, that the perfect fulness of the moon,
beginning the third week, must happen either in the
very evening of the equinoctial day, or after the equi-
noctial day : for else if it happen either on the equinoc-
tial day before the evening, or before the equinoctial
day, then it belongs to the last month of the last year,
and not to the first month of the first year, and so serves
not to be observed.
This rite and usage in keeping Easter-day being re-
ceived in the Latin church, began now to take place
among the Picts and Britons, through the exertions of
Elbert the holy monk, as they term him, and of Colfrid,
abbot of Sirwin in Northumberland, who wrote to Nar-
canus,or Naiton, the king of Picts, concerning the same:
who also among other things, writes of the shaven
crowns of priests, saying, that it was as necessary for the
vow of a monk, or the degree of a priest, to have a
shaven crown for restraint of their lust, as for any chris-
tian man to bless him against spirits, when they come
upon him. The copy of which letter, as it is in Bede,
I have here annexed, not for any great reason contained
therein, but only to amuse the reader, that he may see
the fond ignorance of that monkish age : the letter thus
proceeds.
OP THE SHAVIXG OP PRIESTS.
" Concerning the shaving of priests (whereof you
wrote to me) I exhort you that it be decently observed,
according to the christian faith. We are not ignorant
that the apostles were not all shaven after one manner,
neither does the catholic church at this day agree in one
uniform manner of shaving, as they do in faith, hope,
and charity. I^et us consider the former time of the
patriarchs, and we shall find that Job (an example of
patience) even in the very point of his afflictions, did
shave his head : and he proves also, that in the time of
his prosperity he used to let his hair grow. And
Joseph, an excellent doctor, and executor of chastity,
humility, piety, and other virtues, when he was delivered
out of prison and servitude, was shaven : whereby it ap-
pears, that whilst he abode in prison he was unshaven.
Behold both these, being men of God, used an order in
the habit of body, one contrary to the other, whose con-
sciences, notwithstanding,within did well agree in the
like grace of virtues. But to speak truly and freely, the
difference of shaving hurts not such eis have a pure faith
in the Lord, and sincere charity towards their neigh-
bour; especially as there was never any controversy
amongst the catholic fathers about the diversity thereof,
as there has been about the difference of the celebration
of Easter and of faith. But of all these shavings that
we find, either in the church, or elsewhere, there is none
in mine opinion so much to be followed and embraced,
as that which he used on his head, to whom the Lord
said, ' Thou art Peter, and ujjon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it, and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven.' And contrariwise, there is no shaving so much
to be abhorred and detested, as that which he used, to
whom the same St. Peter said, 'Thy money perish with
thee, because thou thoughtest the gift of God could be
purchased with money — thou hast neither part nor lot
in the matter.' Neither ought we to be shaven on the
crown only, because St. Peter was so shaven, hut be-
cause Peter was so shaven in remembrance of the Lord's
l)assion : therefore, we that desire by the same passion,
to be saved, must wear the sign of the same passion with
him upon the top of our head, which is the highest part
of our body. For as every church, that is made a
church by the death of the Saviour, is used to bear the
sign of the holy cross in the front, that it may the better
by the power of that banner, be kept from the invasions
laiiig |ni iiutlung n Ipilgriniagc to ^onif.
Page 83.
A.D. «.S9-r26.] KING IVA IS PERSUADED BY HIS WIFE ETHELBURGA TO BECOME A MONK. 83
of evil spirits ; and by the often admonition thereof is
taught to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts :
in like mannei it behoves such as have the vows of
monks, and degrees of the clergy, to bind tliemselves with
a stricter bit for the Lord's sake. And as the Lord bare
a crown of thorns on his head in his passion, wliereby he
took and carried away from us the thorns and pricks of
our sins : so must every one of us, by shaving our
heads, patiently bear, and willingly suffer the mocks and
scorns of the world for liis sake, that we may receive the
crown of eternal life, which God hath promised to tliem
that love him, and shall, by shaving their corporal
crowns, bear the adversity, and condemn the prosperity
of tliis world. But the shaving which Simon Magus
iised, what faithful man doth not detest, together with
his magical art ? which at the first appearance has a
show of a shaven crown, but if you mark his neck, you
shall find it curtailed in such wise, as you will say, it is
rather meet to be used of the Simonists, than of the
Christians. And such (by foolish men) are thought
worthy of the glory of the eternal crown ! whereas, in-
deed, for their ill living, they are worthy not only to be
deprived of the same, but also of eternal salvation. I
speak not this against them that use this kind of shaving,
and live catholicly in faith and good works, but surely I
believe there are divers of them very holy and godly men ;
amongst which is Adamnan, the abbot and worthy priest
of the Columbians : who when he came ambassador from
his country to King Alfrid, desired greatly to see our
monastery ; where he displayed a wonderful wisdom, hu-
mility, and religion, both in his manners and words.
Amongst other talk, I asked him. Why he that did be-
lieve to come to the crown of life that should never have
an end, did use contrary to his belief, a defined image of
a crown on his head ? And if you seek (quoth I) the
fellowship of St. Peter, why do you use the fashion of his
crown whom St. Peter did accurse, and not of his rather
with whom you desire to live eternally ? Adamnan an-
swered saying, ' You know right well, brother, though I
use Simon's manner of shaving, after the custom of my
country, yet do I detest, and with all my heart abhor his
infidelity. I desire, notwithstanding, to imitate the
footsteps of the holy apostle, as far forth as my power will
extend.' Then said I, ' I believe it is so : but then it is
apparent you imitate those things which the apostle Peter
did, from the bottom of your heart, if you use the same
upon your face that you know he did : for I suppose your
wisdom understandeth that it is right decent to differ in
the trimming your face, or shaving, from his, whom in
your heart you abhor. And contrariwise, as you desire to
imitate the doings of him whom you desire to have a
Mediator between God and you, so it is meet you imitate
the manner of his apparel and shaving.' Thus much
sjud I to Adamnan, who seemed then well to like our
churches : insomuch that he returned into Scotland, and
reformed many of his churches there after our celebration,
although he could not do so amongst the monks, with whom
he had special authority. He endeavoured also to have
reformed their manner of shaving if he had been able.
And now, O king, I exhort your majesty to labour toge-
ther with your people, over whom the King of kings,
and Lord of lords hath made you governor, to imitate
likewise in all these points, the catholic and apostolical
churches. So shall it come to pass, that in the end of
this your temporal kingdom, the most blessed prince of
the apostles shall open you the gates of the heavenly
kingdom, together with the elect of God. The grace of
the Eternal King preserve you, most dearly beloved son
in Christ, long time to reign over us, to the great tran-
quillity of us all."
When this letter was read before King Naiton, with
other of his learned men, and diligently translated into
his proper language, he seemed to rejoice very much at
the exhortation, insomuch that, rising up from among
his noblemen, he kneeled on the ground, and gave God
thanks that he had deserved to receive so worthy a pre-
sent out of England, and so caused it forthwith by
public proclamation to be written out, learned, and ob-
served throughout all the provinces of the Picts, defacing
the errors that had been used there for the space of 704
years. For all the ministers of the altar, and all monks
were shaven on the crown, and all the people rejoiced for
the new discipline of the most blessed prince of the
apostle St. Peter, which they had received. (Beda,
hb. 5. cap. 21.)
By this monkish letter above prefixed, void of all
scripture, of all proofs and truth of history, the reader
may note how this vain tradition of shaven crowns has
come in, and upon how light and trifling an occasion :
which in very deed was none other but the dreaming
fictions of monks of that time, falsely grounded upon the
example of Peter, when by no old monument of any an-
cient record, can they ever prove either Peter or Simon
Magus to have been shaven. In the letter also is to be
noted, how the Scottish clergy at that season, did wear no
such priestly crowns as ovir English cliurchmen then did.
But to cut off this matter of shaving, more worthy to
be laughed at, than to be recorded, let us now return to
King Iva, who, by the importunate persuasion and subtle
policy of his wife Ethelburga, was allured to go to Rome,
there to be made a monk. Ethelburga, after she had a
long time laboured to persuade him to leave the world,
and could not bring about her purpose, at one time,
when the king and she had rested in a fair palace richly
hanged, and were departed on the morrow, she caused
the palace to be filled with all kinds of dirt and filth,
and hogs and vile beasts to be turned in, as well in the
chambers as in the other parts of the house ; and in
their own chamber a sow was laid with her young pigs.
And when she knew that this palace was thus deformed,
she besouglit the king to visit it. And when she had
brought him there, she said to him, " I pray you, my
lord, behold now this house, where are now the rich
clothes of gold and silk, and other apparel, that we left
here the other day .' And where are the delicacies and
pleasant servitors, and costly dishes, that you and I
lately were served with ? Are not all these passed and
gone ? My lord, in like manner shall we vanish away.
And our bodies, which are now delicately kept, shall fall
and turn into the filth of the earth. Wherefore bear in
mind my words that I have often shewed and told you,
and use your diligence to purchase that palace that shall
ever endure in joy without changing."
By means of these words, the queen turned the king's
mind, so that shortly after he resigned his kingdom to
Ethelard his nephew , and took on him the habit of a
poor man, and setting apart all the pomp and jiride of
this wicked world, associated himself in the fellowship
of poor men, and travelled to Rome, with great devo-
tion, when he had been King of the West Saxons
thirty-seven years. After whose departing, Ethelburga
his wife, went to Barking, where, in the nunnery of
Barking, she continued, and ended the rest of her life,
when she had been abbess of the place a certain time.
Malmesbury also testifies that this Iva was the first
king that granted a penny for every fire-house through
his dominion, to be paid to the court of Rome, which
aftei-ward was called Rome-shot, or Peter-pence, and long
after was paid in many places of England.
And as I must here mention Bede, a man of venerable
memory, and as I see writers do not agree, some saying
that he was not an Englishman ; I thought to report
so mucli of him, as I find by his own words testified of
himself in his ecclesiastical history of England.
Bede declares that he was born in the territory of the
monastei-y of Peter and Paul, where he was, at the age
of seven years, committed to the tuition of Benedict,
and of Celfrid, abbots of the monastery. In which mo-
nastery, continuing from that time forth, all his long
life, he gave himself and all his whole study to the holy
scripture. Whatever time or leisure he had from his
daily service in the church, he spent either in learning, or
teaching, or writing something. About the nineteenth
year of his age, he was made deacon, the thirtieth year
of his age he was made priest. From which time,
to the age of fifty-nine years, he occupied himself in in-
terpreting the works of the ancient fathers for his own
use, and the necessity of others ; and in writing trea-
tises J which came in all to the number of thirty «
84
seven volumes, which he digested into seventy-eight
books.
Some sav that he went to Rome, either there to de-
fend his books as consonant to catholic doctrine, or,
else if they should be found faulty, to amend and correct
the same, as he should be commanded. Although the
reporter of his life dare not certainly affirm that he was
ever at Rome ; yet tliat he was invited and called to
come thither, is manifest in histories, and also the
epistle of Pope Sergius sufficiently proves; declariiig
moreover in what estimation Bede was held, as well in
the court of Rome, as in other places.
So notable and famous was the learning of Bede, that
the church of Rome stood in need of his help, and also
required the same about the discussing of certain con-
troversies appertaining to learning. Moreover, the
whole Latin church at that time gave him the mastery
in judgment and knowledge of the holy scriptures. In
all his explanations, his chiefest scope and purpose was
always simply to instruct and inform his reader, without
any curiousness of style, in the sincere love of God and
his neighbour. As touching the holiness and integrity
of his life, it is not to be doubted. For how could he
attend to any vicious idleness, or have any leisure for
the same, who in reading and digesting so many vo-
lumes, consumed all his time and thoughts in writing
upon the scriptures ? for so he testifies of himself in the
third book of Samuel, saying in these words, " If my
Treatise and Expositions," saith he, " bring with them
no utility to the readers thereof; yet to myself they
conduce not a little thus, that while all my study and
cogitation was set upon them, I had little mind in the
meanwhile for the slippery inticements and vain cogita-
tions of this world." Thus in this labour of study he
cimtinued till the age of sixty-two years : at length,
drawing to his latter end, being sick seven weeks to-
gether, besides other occupyings of his mind, and other
studies which he did not intermit ; he translated also the
gospel of St. John into English. At length, with great
comfort of spirit, he departed this life, pronouncing
many comfortable sayings to them that stood about
him.
Celulfus, king of Northumberland, after he had reign-
ed eight years, was made a monk in the abbey of Fame.
After whom succeeded Egbert his cousin, brother to
Egbert (the same time being bishop of York). Egbert
erected a noble library in York, whose example I wish
other bishops now would follow.
About the reign of this Egbert, Cuthbert was arch-
bishop of Canterbury , who collected a great synod of
bishops and prelates in the month of September (A. D.
747.) near to the place called Clonesho. In which
synod these decrees were enacted.
First. That bishops should be more diligent in see-
ing to their office, and in admonishing the people of
their faults.
2. That they should live in a peaceable mind together,
notwithstanding thpy were in place dissevered asunder.
3. That every bishop should go about all the parishes
of his diocese once a year.
4. That the bishops, every one in his diocese should
admonish their abbots and monks to live regularly : and
that prelates should not oppress their inferiors, but love
them.
5. That they should teach the monasteries which the
secular men had invaded, and could not then be taken
from them, to live regularly.
6. That none should be admitted to orders, before his
life should be examined.
7. That in monasteries the reading of holy scripture
should be more frequented.
8. That priests should be no disposers of secular
business.
9. That they should take no money for baptizing in-
fants.
10. Tliat they should both learn and teach the Lord's
Prayer and Creed in the English tongue.
11. That all should join together iu their ministry
titer one uniform rite and manner.
THE VENERABLE BEDE— KING EDGBERT.
[Book II.
12. That in a modest voice they should sing in the
church.
]'.'>. That all holy and festival days should be cele-
brated at one time together.
14. That the Sabbath day be reverently observed and
kept.
15. That the seven canonical hours be observed every
day.
If). That the rogation days, both the greater and
lesser, should not be omitted.
17. That the feast of St. Gregory and St. Austin our
patron, should not be omitted.
18. That the fast of the four times should be kept and
observed.
19. That monks and nuns should go regularly ap-
parelled.
20. That bishops should see these decrees not to be
neglected.
21. That the churchmen shoiJd not give themselves
to drunkenness.
22. That the communion should not be neglected by
the churchmen.
23. That the same also should be observed by laymen,
as time required.
24. That laymen should be first well tried before they
entered into monkery.
25. That alms be not neglected.
26. That bishops should see these decrees to be noti-
fied to the people.
27. They disputed of the profit of alms.
28. They disputed of the profit of singing psalms
29 That the congregation should be constituted, after
the ability of their goods.
.30. That monks should not dwell among laymen.
31. That public prayer should be made for kings and
princes.
These decrees and ordinances being thus concluded
among the bishops, Cuthbert the archbishop, sends the
copy thereof to Boniface, which Boniface, otherwise
named Winfrid, an Englishman boni, was then archlji-
shop of Mentz, and afterwards made a martyr, as the
popish stories term him.
This Boniface wrote a letter to Eth3lbald, king of
Alerceland, who was also present in the same synod.
I thought this letter not unworthy to be noticed here,
not so much for the author's sake, as for some good
matter, that peradventure may be found in it.
For in this letter is to be seen and noted, first, the
corruption and great disorder of life, wliich always fiom
time to time has been found in these religious houses of
nuns, whose professed vow of compulsory chastity has
never yet been good to the church, nor profitable to
the commonwealth, and least of all to themselves.
Secondly, No less are they also to be reprehended
who maintained these sujierstitious orders of un])rofita-
ble nuns and of other religions. In the number of whom
was this Boniface, otherwise called Winfiid, who, al-
though in this letter he does justly reprehend the vi-
cious enormities both of secular and of religious pei--
sons, yet he himself is not without the same or greater
reprehension, for he gave the occasion thereof in main-
taining such superstitious orders of nuns and other reli-
gions, and restraining the same from lawful marriage.
For we find of him in histories that he was a great
setter-up and upholder of such bhnd superstition, and of all
popery. From this Boniface proceeded that detestable
doctrine which now stands in the pope's registered decrees,
(Dist. 40. cap. Si Papa), which in a certain epistle of his
is this, that in case the pope were of the most abominable
living, and forgetful or negligent of himself and of the
whole of Christianity, so that he led innumerable souls
with him to hell, yet no man ought to rebuke him in so
doing, for he has power to judge all men, and ought to
be judged again by no man.
About this time it was that Gregory III. first brought
into the mass-canon the clause for relics, the memorial,
the offering, and sacrifice for the dead : like as
Zachary brought in the priests' vesture and ornaments,
and as Constantine also was the first pope that gave his
I
D. r47-r94.]
ETHELBERT MURDERED BY OFFA— CHARLEMAGNE.
Sf
feet to be kissed by the emperors. But to turn again
to the course of our English history.
la the latter part of the reign of Offa, king of Mercia,
Etlielbert, u learned and godly prince, came to the court
of Oifa, to sue for the marriage of his daughter, but the
queen conceiving a false suspicion, that Ethelbert with
lis company had come under the pretence of marriage,
o work some violence against her husband, persuaded
ing Offa to seize him and to strike off his head. And
thus the innocent king was wrongfully murdered about
the year A.D. 79'^. Offa understanding afterwards the
innocence of this king, and the heinous cruelty of his
act, gave the tenth part of his goods to the holy church ;
and on the church of Hereford he bestowed great lands.
He built the abbey of St. Albans, with certain other
monasteries. And afterwards he went to Rome for his
4 penance, where he gave to the church of St. Peter a
jfienny through every house in his dominion, which was
li called commonly Rome-shot or Peter-pence, paid to the
/church of St. Peter; and there at length was trans-
oformed from a king to a monk, about A.D. 794.
I A little before, in speaking of certain bishops of Rome,
i mention was made of Pope Constantine I., Gregory II.,
j Pope Gregory III., and of Pope Zachary, who deposed
I Childerick, and set up Pepin the French king, &c. Next
after this Zachary followed Pope Stephan II., to whom
Ptpin, to gratify again the see of Rome for this their be-
netit, gave and contributed to the said see of Rome, the
Exarchate or princedom of Ravenna, the kingdom of the
Lombards, and many other great possessions of Italy,
with all the cities thereto adjoining the borders of Venice.
And this donation of Pepin, no doubt, if the truth were
rightly tried, should be found to be the same, which
hitherto falsely has been thought to be the donation of
tlie emperor Constantine.
j Next to Stephan succeeded Paul I, who foUow-
iing his predecessors, thundered out great excommuni-
ications against Constantine the empeior of Constaiitino-
'ple, for abrogating and plucking down the images set up
■in temples. Notwithstanding this, Constantine neglecting
!the Pope's vain curses, persevered in his blessed purpose,
in destroying idolatry till the end of his life. Then came
to be pope, Constantine II., a layman, and brother to
iDesiderius the king of Lombardy ; for which cause he
was shortly deposed, and thrust into a monastery, having
his eyes put out.
In whose stead succeeded Stephan III., who ordained
jthat no layman should be pope : condemning, moreover,
the seventh council of Constantinople for heretical, be-
cause in that council the worshipping of images was re-
proved and condemned. Contrary to the which council,
this pope not only maintained the filthy idolatry of
inntjes in christian temples, but also advanced their
veneration, commanding them most heathenishly to be
incensed.
I Then in this race of popes, after Stephan III., comes
Adrian I., who likewise following the steps of his fathers
the popes, added and attributed to the veneration of
jimages more than all the others had done before, writing
a book on the adoration and utility proceeding of them ;
Iholding moreover a synod at Rome against Felix, and all
jothers that spake against the setting up of such stocks
|and images. And as Paul I. before him made much of
the body of Petronilia, St. Peter's daughter, so this Adrian
clothed the body of St. Peter all in silver, and covered
the altar of St. Paul with a pall of gold. This Pope
Adrian ratified the order of St. Gregory's mass, above
the order of St. Ambrose's mass : for to his time, (which
was about A. D. 780,) the liturgy of St. Ambrose was
more used in the Italian churches. The history whereof
because it is registered in Durandus, Nauclenis, and Ja-
cobus de Voragine, I here insert, that the reader may
understand the time when this usual mass of the Papists
began first to be universal and uniform, and generally to
i be received in churches. Jacobus de Voragine, in the life
I of Pope Gregory I., thus speaks concerning this matter.
" In time past (saith he) when the service which
Ambrose made, was more used in churches, than the
'•ich Gregory had appointed, the bishop of
Rome, then called Adrian, gathered a council together,
in which it was ordained that Gregory's service should
be observed and kept universally. Which determination
of the council the Emperor Charles diligently put in
execution, visiting various provinces, and informed all
the clergy, partly with threatenings, and partly with
punishments to receive that order. And as to the books
of Ambrose's service, he burnt them to ashes in all
places, and threw into prison many priests that would
not consent and agree to the matter. Blessed Eugeuius
the oishop coming unto the council, found that it was
dissolved three days before his coming. Notwithstand-
ing, through his wisdom, he so persuaded the lord pope
that he called again all the prelates that had been pre-
sent at the council, and were now departed for the
space of three days. Therefore when the council was
gathered again, all the fathers did consent and agree
in this, that both the mass-books of Ambrose and Gregory
should be laid upon the altar of blessed St. Peter the
apostle, and the church doors diligently shut, and most
warily sealed up with the signets of many and divers
bishops. Again, that they, should all the whole night
give themselves to prayer, that the Lord might reveal,
open, and shew unto them by some evident sign or
token, which of these two services he would have used
in the temples. Thus doing if! all points as they had
determined, in the morning they opened the church
doors, and found both the missals or mass-books open
upon the altar ; or rather (as some say) they fovmd
Gregory's mass-book utterly plucked asunder, one
piece from another, and scattered over all the church.
As touching Ambrose's book, they only found it open
upon the altar in the very same place where they before
laid it. This miracle pope Adrian, like a wise expounder
of dreams, interpreted thus, that as the leaves were
torn and blown abroad all the church over, so should
Gregory's book be used throughout the world. Where-
upon they thought themselves sufficiently instructed
and taught of God, that the service which 'Gregoi7 had
made, ought to be set abroad and used throughout the
world, and that Ambrose's service should only be ob-
served and kept in his own church of Mediolanum,
where he was bishop."
Thus the reader has heard the full and whole narra-
tion of this mystical miracle, with the pope's exposition
upon the same. Concerning which miracle, I need not
admonish the reader to smell out the blind practices of
these night-crows, to blind the world with forged inven-
tions instead of true stories. Although to grant the
miracle to be most true, yet as to the exposition there,
of, another man beside the pope might interpret this
great miracle, thus, that God v,as angry with Gregory's
book, and therefore rent it in j)ieces, and scattered it
abroad ; and the other as good, lay sound, untouched,
and at least to be preferred. Yet, whatever is to be
thought of this miracle with the exposition, thus the
matter fell out that Gregory's service only had the place,
and j'et has to this day in the greatest part of Europe,
the service of Ambrose being excluded. And thus much
touching the great act of Pope Adrian for the setting
up of the mass. By the relation whereof the reader, at
least, may understand how commonly in christian nations
abroad, as yet no uniform order of any missal or mass-
book was received.
Now from the popes to return again to the emperors,
as Pepin, the father of Charles the Great, called
Charlemagne, had given to the papal see all the prince-
dom of Ravenna, with other donations and revenues and
lands in Italy ; so this Charlemagne, following his
father's devotion, confirmed the same, adding moreover
the city and dominion of Venice, Istria, the dukedom
Forojuleinse, the dukedom Spoletanum, and Beneven-
tanum, and other possessions, to the patrimony of St.
Peter, making him the prince of Rome and Italy. The
pope, again to recompense his kindness, made him to be
entitled " most christian king," moreover ordained him
only for emperor of Rome. For these causes Charle-
magne bare no little affection to Adrian above all other
popes.
86
THE EMPRESS IRENE— END OF THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND. [Book II,
Partly also, for that Carloman his elder brother being
dead, his wife called Bertha, with her two children, came
to Adrian, to have them confirmed in their father's king-
dom, whereto the pope, to shew a pleasure to Charle-
magne, would not agree : but gave the mother with her
two children, and Desiderius the Lombard king, with
his whole kingdom, his wife and caildren, into the hands
of Charlemagne, who ltd them with him captive into
France, and there kept them iu servitude during their
life.
Thus Charlemagne being proclaimed emperor of Rome,
through Adrian and Pope Leo III. who succeeded
next after him, the empire was translated from the
Grecians to the French (about A. D. 801), where it
continued above one hundred years, till the coming of
Conrad and his nephew Otho, who were Germans ; and
so has continued after them among the Germans to this
present time. This Charlemagne built many monasteries,
he was beneficial to the churchmen, also merciful to the
poor, valiant and triumphant in his undertakings, and
skilful in all languages ; he held a council at Frankfort
where was condemned the council of Nice and Irene,
for setting up and worshipping images, &c.
Concerning which council of Nice, and the things
there concluded and enacted (that no man may think the
detesting of images to be any new thing now begun)
thus I find it recorded in an ancient history of Roger
Hovedon ; his words are these, " In A. D. 792, Charles,
the French king, sent a book containing the acts of a
certain synod, to Britain, directed to him from Con-
stantinople. In which book (lamentable to be told)
many things inconvenient and contrary to the true faith
are to be found ; especially for that by the common
consent of almost all the learned bishops of the Eastern
church, being above three hundred, it was there agreed
that images should be worshipped ; which thing the
church of God hath always abhorred. Against which
book Alcuine wrote an epistle, substantially grounded
on the authority of holy scripture, which epistle with
the book Alcuine in the name and person of our
bishops and princes, did present to the French king."
And thus by the way of Romish matters : now to
return again to the Northumberland kings, where we
left at Egbert, which Egbert (as is before declared) suc-
ceeded Celulphus, after he was made monk. And like-
wise the said Egbert also following the devotion of his
uncle Celulphus, and Kenred before him, was likewise
shorn a monk, after he had reigned twenty years in
Northumberland ; leaving his son Osulphui to suc-
ceed.
After the reign of King Egbert such trouble and per-
turbation was in the dominion of Northumberland, with
slaying, and expelling and deposing their kings one after
another, that after the murdering of Ethelbert, none durst
take the government upon him, seeing the great danger.
Insomuch that the kingdom did lie void and waste the
space of three-and-thirty years together ; after which
this kingdom of Northumberland, with the kingdoms also
of the other Saxons besides, came altogether into the
hands of Egbert, king of the West Saxons, and his pro-
geny; which monarchy began A. D. 827.
In the mean time, Irene, empress of the Greeks, was
busy at Constantinople : she, first through the means
of Pope Adrian, took up the body of Constantine,
emperor of Constantinople, her own husband's father.
And when she had burned the same, she caused the
ashes to be cast into the sea, because he disanulled
images. Afterwards reigning with her son Constantine
VI., son to Leo IV. (whom also we declared to be ex-
communicated for taking away images), being at dis-
sension with him, she caused him to be taken to prison.
He afterward through the influence of friends was re-
stored to his empire, and at last she caused him, although
her own son, to be cast into prison, and his eyes to be
put out, so that witliin a short time he died. After this
Irene, with the advice of Therasius, bishop of Constan-
tinople, held a council at Nice, where it was decreed
that images should again be restored to the church ;
which council was repealed by another council held at
Frankfort by Charlemagne. At length she was deposed
by Nicephorus (who reigned after) and was expelled
the empire, and ended her life iu much penury and
misery.
Hitherto I have brought down the confused and tur-
bulent reigns of the seven Saxon kings, who, after the
expulsion of the Britons, ruled and reigned in sundry
quarters of this land together, to the time of Egbert
king of the West Saxons, by whom it pleased God to
begin to reduce and unite all these scattered kingdoms
into one monarchical form of dominion. Wherefore, as
in Egbert begins another alteration of the Common-
wealth, here in this land among the Saxons : so my
purpose is (the Lord willing) with the same Egbert, to
begin my third book, after first making a brief recapitu-
lation of such things as in this second book are to be
noted, especially touching the monasteries buUt, the
kings who entered the monastic life and profession, also
the queens and queens' daughters, who at the same time
professed solitary life in the monasteries, which they or
their ancestors had erected.
We have hitherto set forth and declared concerning
these seven kingdoms : first, the names and lineal
descent of the kings : then what were the doings and
acts of the same, how first being pagans, they were con-
verted to the christian faith ; what things happened in
their time in the church, how many of them were made
monks ; how devout they were then to the holy church
and to the churchmen, and especially to the church of
Rome. But the churchmen then were very different in
life to what they afterwards declared themselves to be.
Through which devotion of these kings, first came in
the Peter-pence or Rome-shots in this realm, as first by
Iva, then by Offa, and afterwards brought in and rati-
fied through the whole realm by Adelwulph. It is also
to be noted, that by the kings and queens of the Saxons,
the greatest abbeys and nunneries, in this realm, were
first began and built, as partly by the following names of
some of them is to be seen.
First, the church or minster of St. Paul in London,
was founded by Ethelbert, king of Kent, and Sigebert,
king of Essex (about A. D. 604).
The first cross and altar within this realm, was set up
in the north parts in Hevenfield, upon the occasion of
Oswald, king of Northumberland, fighting against Cad-
walla, where he in the same place set up the sign of the
cross, kneeling and praying there for victory, A. D.
635. (Polychron. lib. 5. cap. 12.)
The church of Winchester was first began, and founded
by Kinegilsus, king of the Mercians, having nine miles
about it : afterwards finished by his son Kenwalcus,
where Wine was first English bishop, A. D. 636.
(Guliel. Malms, lib. de gestis pont. Ang.)
The church of Lincoln first founded by Paulinua
a bishop (A. D. 629.)
The church of Westminster, began first by a certain
citizen of Loudon, through the instigation of Ethelbert
king of Kent, which before was an isle of thorns (A. D.
614).
The common schools first erected at Cambridge, by
Sigebert king of Eastangles (A. D. 636).
The abbey of Knovisburgh built by Furceus the
Hermit (A. D. 637).
The monastery of Mamlesbury by one Meldulphus a
Scot, to (about A. D. 640), afterwards enlarged by Agil-
bert bishop of Winchester.
The monastery in Glocester, first built by Ofricua
king of Mercia, as Cestrensis says ; but as William
Malmesbury writes by Ulferus and Ethelred, brethren
to Kiueburga abbess of the same house (A. D. 679).
The monastery of Melrose, by the flood of Tweed, by
Aidanus a Scottish bishop.
The nunnery of Heorenton by Hevi, who was the first
nun in Northumberland (Beda. lib. 4. cap. 1.)
The monastery of Hetesey by Oswy king of Nor-
thumberland, who also with his daughter Elfrid gave
possessions for twelve monasteries in the parts of Nor-
thumberland (A.D. 6o6).
The monastery of St. Martin in Dover, built by Whi«
thred king of Kent.
The abbey of Lestingy by Ceadda (whom we call St.
1a. D. 794—827.] KINGS AND QUEENS WHO BECAME MONKS AND NUNS.
87
Ced) through the grant of Oswald, son to St. Oswald
king of Northumberland (A. D. 651).
The monastery of Whitby, called otherwise Stenhalt,
by Hilda, daughter to the nephew of Edwin king of
Northumberland (A.D. ()o7).
Another monastery called Hacanos, not far from the
game place, built by Hilda the same year.
The abbey of Abbington, built by Sissa king of South-
ses (A. D. 666).
An abbey in the east side of Lincoln, called Joanno,
Dy St. Botulph, A. D. 654. (Polych. lib. 5. cap. 16).
The monastery in Ely, founded by Etheldred or
Etheldrida daughter of Anna king of Eastangles, and
the wife of Elfride king of Northumberland (A. D.
V4).
The monastery of Chertsey in Southery, founded by
Erkenwald bishop of London (A. D. 674), thrown
down by the Danes, after re-built by King Edgar.
Tiie nunnery of Berking, built by the said Erken-
waldus bishop of London about the same time.
The abbey of Peterborough, called otherwise Mode-
hamsted, founded by King Ethelwald, king of the Mer-
cians (A. D. 675).
Bardney abbey by Ethelred king of the Mercians
(A. D. 700).
Glastonbury by Iva king of the West Saxons, and
after repaired and enriched by King Edgar (A. D. 701).
Ramsey in the time of King Edgar, by one Ailwinus a
nobleman (A. D. 973). King Edgar built in his time
forty monasteries, who reigned A.D. 901.
The nunnery of Winburne built by Cuthberga sister
to Ingilsus, King Iva's brother, A. D. 717.
The monastery of Sealsey by the Isle of Wight, by
Wilfridus bishop of York (A. D. 678).
The monastery of Wincombe by Kenulphus king of
the Mercians (A. D. 737).
St. Albans biult by Offa king of the Mercians (A. D.
755).
The abbey of Evesham by Edwin, bishop (A. D.
691).
Ripon in the north by Wilfrid, bishop (A. D. 709).
The abbey of Echlinghey, by King Alfred (A. D.
891).
The nunnery of Shaftsbury by Alfred, the same year.
Thus we see what monasteries began to be founded by
the Saxon kings, newly converted to the christian faith,
within the space of two hundred years ; who, as they
seemed to have a certain zeal and devotion to God, ac-
cording te the leading and teaching that then was : so it
seems to me, there were two things to be wished in these
kings : first, that they who began to erect these monas-
teries of monks and nuns, to live solely and singly by
themselves, had foreseen what danger, and what absurd
enormities might and did ensue, both publicly to the
church of Christ, and privately to their own souls :
secondly, that to this their zeal and devotion had been
joined like knowledge and doctrine in Christ's gospel,
especially in the article of our free justification by the
faith of Jesus Christ ; because of the lack whereof, as
weU the builders and founders, as they that were pro-
fessed in the same, seem both to have ran the wrong
way, and to have been deceived. For although there
was in them a devotion and zeal of mind, that thought
well in this their doing, which I will not here repre-
hend : yet the end and cause of their deeds and build-
ings cannot be excused, being contrary to the rule of
Christ's gospel ; for so much as they did these things
seeking thereby merit with God, and for the remedy of
their souls, and remission of their sins, as may appear
testified in their own records.
By the contents of which may well be understood how
great the ignorance and blindness of these men was ;
who, lacking no zeal, only lacking knowledge to rule it
withal ; seeking their salvation not by Christ only, but
by their own deservings and meritorious deeds. Which
I recite not here to any infamy or reprehension of them ;
but rather to put us in mind how much we at this present
time are bound to God for the true sincerity of his
truth, hidden so long before from our ancestors, and
opened now unto us by the good will of our God, in his
Son Christ Jesus. Lamenting this only by the way, to
see them to have such works, and to lack our faith, and
us to have the right faith, and to lack their works. And
this blind ignorance of that age, was the cause not only
why these kings built so many monasteries, but also why
so many of them, forsaking their orderly vocation of
princely government, gave themselves over to the mo-
nastic profession, or rather wilful superstition. Con-
cerning the names and number of which kings that were
professed monks, is sufficiently declared before ; the
names of whom we shewed to be Seven or eight, within
these two hundred years. Such was then the super-
stitious devotion of kings and princes, and no less also
to be noted in queens' and kings' daughters, with other
noble women of the same age and time ; the names of
whom it were too long here to recite. As Hilda daughter
to the nephew of Edwin king of Northumberland, abbess
of Ely. Erchengoda, with her sister Ermenilda, daugh-
ters of Ercombertus king of Kent, which Erchengoda
was professed in St. Bridget's order in France. Edel-
berga wife and queen to King Edwin of Northumber-
land, and daughter of King Anna, who was also made a
nun in the same house of St. Bridget. Etheldreda,
whom we term St. Eldred, wife to King Ecfride of Nor-
thumberland, who was professed a nun at Helings.
Werburga was the daughter of Ulferus King of Mer-
cians, and made nun at Ely. Kenreda, sister of King
Ulferus and Kineswida her sister, were both nuns pro-
fessed. Sexburga daughter of King Anna, king of Mer-
cians, and wife of Ercombert king of Kent, was abbess
at Ely. Elfrida daughter of Oswy king of Northam-
berland was abbess of Whitney ; Mildreda, Milburga,
and Milguida, all three daughters of Merwardus, king
of West Mercians, entered the profession and vow of
devoted nuns. Kineburga, wife of Alfride king of
Northumberland, and sister to Ofricus king of Mercians,
and daughter of King Penda, was professed abbess of
the monastery in Glocester. Elfleda daughter of Oswy
king, and wife of Peda, son of King Penda, likewise
enclosed herself in the same profession and vow. Like-
wise Alfritha wife to King Edgar, and Editha, daughter
to the said Edgar, with Wolfride her mother, &c., all
which holy nuns, with divers more, the Romish catholics
have canonized for saints, and put the most part of
them in their calendar, only because of the vow which
they solemnly professed. Concerning which I will say,
that although they kept it never so perfectly, yet it is
not that which maketh saints before God, but only the
blood of Christ Jesus, and a true faith in him.
It likevrise remains, that as we have declared the
devotion of these noble women, who, professing monastic
life, cast off all worldly dignity and delights ; so we
should also treat of such noblemen, who among the
Saxon kings in like zeal of devotion, have given over
themselves from the world (as they thought) to the con-
templative life of the monkish profession. The names
of whom are these nine.
1. KinigUs, king of the West Saxons.
2. Iva, king of the West Saxons.
3. Ceolulf, king of Northumberland.
4. Edbert, king of Northumberland.
5. Ethelred, king of Mercia.
6. Kenred, king of Mercia.
7. Offa, king of the East Saxons.
8. Sebbi, king of the East Saxons.
9. Sigebert, king of East Angles.
■WTiat is to be thought of these kings and their doings,
the reader has seen before.
By these histories it is apparent what changes, what
perturbations, and what alterations of state have been in
this realm of Britain, first from British kings to Roman ;
then to British again ; afterward to Saxon. First, to
seven reigning together, then to one, &c. And this al-
teration not only happened in the civil government, but
also followed in the ecclesiastical state. For as in the
Britons' time the metropolitan see was in London, so in
the Saxons' time, after the coming of Austin, it was
removed to Canterbury ; the catalogue and order of
which metropolitans, from the time of Austin to Egbert,
is thus described in the history of Malmesburj.
88 THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY, FROM AUSTIN TO THE TIME OF EGBERT. [Book II.
The names and order of the archbishops of Canter-
bury from Austin to the time of King Egbert, of
whom the first seven were Italians or other foreigners.
1. Austin.
2. Laurentius.
3. Melitus.
4. Justus.
5. Honorius.
6. Deusdedit.
7. Theodorus.
8. Berctualdus.
9. Tacuinus.
10. Nothelmus.
11. Cutbertus.
12. Berguinus.
13. Lambrightus, or Lambertus.
14. Ethelardus.
15. Ulfredus.
16. Feolegeldus.
17. Celnothus.
During the course of these seventeen archbishops of
Canterbury, there were thirty-four popes in Rome, of
whom we have partly declared.
And thus much touching the time of the seven king-
doms of the Saxons, ruling together in England, from
the reign of Hengist unto Egbert, the first monarch of
the whole land, after the expulsion of the Britons.
It now remains (by the grace of Christ) in the nexi,
book, to give the history of such kings as principally
reigning alone had this realm in their possession, from
the time of Egbert king of the West Saxons, to thei
coming of William the Conqueror, the Norman ; com-
prehending therein the rest of the next tliree hundredj
years, with the acts and state of religion iu the church
during that space ; wherein may appear the declining
time of the church, and of true religion, preparing the
way to antichrist, which followed not long after.
THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK.
4
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK Til.
CONTAINING
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS, FROM THE REIGN OF KING EGBERT TO THE TIME OP
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
It now remains, as I before described the descent and
diversity of the seven kings, all reigning and ruling to-
gether in this land, so to prosecute in like order the
lineal succession of them which, after Egbert, king of
the West Saxons, governed and ruled solely, until the
conquest of William the Norman ; and first, of King
Egbert :
In the reign of Brightric, about A. D. 795, there
was a noble personage called Egbert, who was feared by
Brightric, because he was of kingly blood, and was by
force and conspiracy chased out of Britain into France,
till the death of Brightric. After hearing whereof,
Egbert came back to his country, where he obtained the
government of the kingdom of the West Saxons.
Bernulph, king of Mercia, with other kings, had this
Egbert in much derision, making scoffing jests at him ;
all which he sustained for a time. But when he was
more established in his kingdom, he assembled his
knights, and gave battle to Bernulph, and won the field;
which done, he made war upon the Kentish Saxons,
and obtained the victory. He also subdued Northum-
berland, and caused the kings of these three kingdoms
to live under him as tributaries. After these and other
victories, he called a council of his lords at Winchester,
where by their advices he was crowned king and chief
lord over this land, which before that day was called
Britain ; but then he sent out into all the land his com-
mandments and commissions, charging straitly, that,
from that day forward, the Ssixons should be called
Angles, and the land Anglia.
About the thirtieth year of the reign of Egbert, the
Danes, who a little before had made horrible destruction
\n Northumberland, and especially in the isle of Linde-
farne, where they spoiled the churches, and murdered
the ministers, with men, women, and children, after a
cruel manner, entered now the second time with a great
host into this land, and spoiled the isle of Sheppy in
Kent : Egbert assembled his people, and met with them
at Charmouth. But he did not succeed so well in that
conflict as he had done before, but with his knights was
compelled to forsake the field. Notwithstaadiug, in the
next battle, Egbert, with a small force, overthrew a
great multitude of them, and so drove them back. The
next year the Danes returned again, and after this they
were continually abiding in one part or other of the
realm of England, till the time of Hardecanute. And
although they were often driven out of the land, and
chased from one country to another, yet they always
gathered new strength and power, and abode still in the
laud.
Egbert, when he had ruled the West Saxons, and the
greater part of England, thirty-seven years, died, and
was buried at Winchester, leaving his kingdom to his
son Ethelwolf, who first was bishop of Winchester, and
8ifterwards, upon necessity, was made king.
Ethelwolf had entered into the order of sub-deacon,
and, as some say, was made bishop of Winchester ; but
afterwards, being the only son of Egbert, was made king
through the dispensation of the pope. This Ethelwolf
(as being himself once in that order) was always good
and devout to holy church and religious orders, inso-
much that he gave to them the tithe of all his goods and
lands in West Saxony, with liberty and freedom from all
servage and civil charges.
Whence, it may appear, how and when the churches
of England began first to be endued with temporalities
and lands ; and enlarged with privileges and exemptions.
Ethelwolf, having done these things in his realm,
went to Rome with Alfred his youngest son, and com-
mitted him to the bringing up of Pope Leo IV. ; and he
gave and granted to Rome a penny to be paid for every
fire-house through his whole land, as King Iva in his
dominion had done before. He aJso gave and granted,
towards maintaining the light of St. Peter, 100 marks,
to be paid annually ; to the light of St. Paul, 100
marks ; for the use of the pope also another 100.
Ethelwolf had always about him two bishops, whose
counsel he was most ruled by, Swithin bishop of Win-
chester, and Adelstan bishop of Sherborne. One was
more skilful in temporal and civil affairs, touching the
king's wars, and filling of his coffers. The other (which
was Swithin) was of a contrary disposition, wholly in-
clined to spiritual meditation, and to minister spiritual
counsel to the king : he had been schoolmaster to the
king before. And herein appeared one good feature in
this king's nature, among his other virtues, not only in
90
POPE JOAN, A FEMALE POPE. THE EPISTLE OF HULDRIKE,
[Book III.
following the precepts of his old schoolmaster, but also
that, like a kind and thankful pupil, he so reverenced
him, that he made him bishop of Winchester.
From the time of Pope Adrian I. unto Pope Adrian II.
the emperors had some hand in the election (at least in
the confirmation) of the Roman pope ; but several of
these popes began to endeavour to bring their purpose
about. Yet all their devices could take no full effect,
before Adrian III. So that the emperors all this while
had some authority in choosing the popes, and in as-
sembling general councils. Wherefore, by the com-
mandment of the Emperor Lewis, in the time of
Gregory IV., a general synod was commenced at Aquis-
grane, where it was decreed by Gregory and his assist-
ants : first, that every church should have sufficient of
its own proper lands and revenues to keep the priests
thereof, that none should lack or go about a begging.
Also, that none of the clergy, of what order or degree
soever he be, should use any vesture of any precious or
scarlet colour. Neither should wear rings on their
fingers, unless it be when prelates be at mass, or give
their consecrations. Also, that prelates should not keep
too great houses or families, nor keep many horses, use
dice, or be guilty of immoral conduct ; and that the
monks should not exceed in gluttony or riot. Also, that
none of the clergy being either anointed or shaven,
should use either gold or silver in their shoes, slippers,
or girdles, like to Heliogabalus. By this it may be con-
jectured, what pomp and pride in those days was crept
into the clergy. Moreover, by Pope Gregory IV., the
feast of All Saints was first brought into the church.
After this pope, came Sergius II., who first brought
in the altering of the pope's names, because he was
named before " Swines-snout ;" he also ordained the
Agnus to be sung thrice at the mass, and the host to be
divided into three parts.
After him was Pope Leo IV. By this pope it was
first enacted in a council, that no bishop should be
condemned under threescore and twelve witnesses, ac-
cording as ye see by the witnesses, was practised at the
condemnation of Stephen Gardiner.
Also contrary to the law of Gregory IV., his prede-
cessor, this pope ordained the cross (all set with gold
and precious stones) to be carried before him, like a
pope.
And here next comes in the whore of Babylon (Rev.
xix. 2.), rightly in her true colours, by the permission
of God, and manifestly to appear to the whole world ;
and that not only after the spiritual sense, but after the
very letter. For after this Leo above mentioned, the
cardinals proceeding to their ordinary election (after a
solemn mass of the Holy Ghost, to the perpetual shame
of them, and of that see), instead of a man pope,
elected a woman, called Joan VIII., to minister sacra-
ments, to say masses, to give orders, to constitute dea-
cons, priests, and bishops ; to promote prelates, to make
abbots, to consecrate churches and altars, to have the
reign and rule of emperors and kings. This woman's
proper name was Gilberta, who went with an English
monk out of the Abbey of Fulda, in man's apparel, to
Athens, and through her wit and learning was promoted
to the popedom, where she sat two years and six
months.' At last openly in the face of a general proces-
sion, she gave birth to a child, and so died, and was suc-
ceeded by Benedict III., who first ordained the dirge to
be said for the dead.
After him came Pope Nicholas I., who enlarged the
pope's decrees with many constitutions, equalling the
(1) This extraordinary event has naturally been disputed by the
modem advocates of the church of Rome. The election and
fession of a woman, who is incapable of orders, in the seat of the
poniitfii, is such a sundering of the links of apostolic succession in
tlie pupal chair, and such an impeacliinent of the orders of gome
In that church, that it were passing strange if every effort that
telent, learning, and ingenuity could devise, were not made to
obliterate such a fact from the page of history.
There is however this broad, plain, and unquestionable fact,
which requires an answer more cogent than any it has yei re-
ceived, namely, that for /Ire hum/red t/c/irx after the time of
Pope Joan, it was acknowledged as an historical event of as great
notoriety as any other conoected with the pupal chair, and that it
authority of them with the writings of the apostles. He
ordained that no secular prince, nor the emperor him-
self, should be present at their councils, unless in mat-
ters concerning the faith ; to the end that such as they
judged to be heretics, they should execute and murder.
Also, that no laymen should sit in judgment upon the
clergymen, or reason upon the pope's power. Also,
that no christian magistrate should have any power
upon any prelake, alleging that a prelate is called God.
Also, that all church service should be in Latin, yet
allowing the Sclavonians and Polonians to retain still
their vulgar language. Sequences in the mass were by
him first allowed. By this pope priests began to be
debarred from marrying ; whereof Iluldrike, bishop of
Ausburgh (a learned and a holy man), sending a letter
to the pope, gravely and learnedly refutes and declaims
against his indiscreet proceedings touching that matter ;
which letter I judged meet for the instruction of the
reader, and worthy to be inserted here, as follows : —
"A learned epistle of Iluldrike, Bishop of Ausbitrgh,
sent to Pope Nicholas I., proving by substantial
proofs, that priests ought not to be restrained from
marriage.
" Huldiike, bishop only by name, unto the reverend
father Nicholas, the vigilant provisor of the lioly church
of Rome, with due commendation sendeth love as a son,
and fear as a servant. Understanding, reverend father,
your decrees which you sent to me concerning the single
life of the clergy, to be far from all discretion, I was
troubled partly with fear, and partly with heaviness.
With fear, because, as it is said, the sentence of the
pastor, whether it be just or unjust, is to be feared.
For I was afraid lest the weak hearers of the scripture
(which scarcely obey the just sentence of their pastor,
much more despising this unjust decree) through the
onerous transgression of their pastor, should shew them-
selves disobedient. I was troubled with heaviness, and
with compassion, because I doubted how the members
of the body should do, their head being so greatly out
of frame. For what can be more grievous, or more to
be lamented, touching the state of the church, than for
you, being the bishop of the principal see, to whom ap-
pertaineth the government of the whole church, to
swerve never so little out of the right way ? Certainly
in this you have not a little erred, in that you have gone m
about to constrain your clergy to singleness of life, H
through your imperious tyranny, whom rather you ought ■
to stir up to the honourable estate of marriage. For is
not this to be counted a violence and tyranny in the
judgment of all wise men, when a man is compelled by
your decrees to do that which is against the institution
of the gospel and the proceeding of the Holy Ghost .'
Seeing then there be so many holy examples both of the
Old and New Testament, teaching us, as you know, due
information ; I desire your patience not to think it
grievous for me to bring a few here out of many.
" First, in the old law, the Lord permitteth marriage B
unto the priests, which afterward in the new law we do I
not read to be restrained, but in the gospel thus he saith,
'There be some eunuchs which have made themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able
toreeeiveit, let him receive it,' Matt. xix. 12. Where-
fore, the apostle saith, ' Concerning virgins, I have no
commandment of the Lord, yet i give my judgment,"
1 Cor. vii. 25. Which counsel also all men do not take,,
as in the commandment of the Lord before, but manjT !
was never called in question till the church of Rome began to^
feel the necessity of defending herself against those who openly
opposed her assumed authority. Marianus Scotus, who lived verf '
near the time of Pope Joan, mentions her as "Joanna, Mulier,"'
and adds that she was pope for two years, five months and fivetl
days, and all the historians for some centuriek although all'
were members of the church of Rome — in like manner acknow-
ledge the facts, and even since the reformation a large number ofll
Romish divines — among whom are some of their best learned mea i^
- liave admitted it.
Thus much at all events is certain. If this matter be an inTeo-
tion or falsehood, it rests not on protestantt— but on romaJiifita'
themselves. lii-D,\
A.D. 858—870.] EPISTLE OF HULDRIKE PROVING THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS LAWFUL. 91
there be, false dissemblers and flatterers, going about to
please men, and not God, whom we see under a false
pretence of holiness to fall into horrible wickedness.
And, therefore, lest through the infection of tliis wicked
pestilence, the state of the church should too much go
to ruin, he said, ' Let every man have his own wife ;'
touching which saying, our false hypocrites falsely do lie
and feign, as though it only pertained to the laity, and
not to them. And yet they themselves, seeming to be
set in the most holy order, are not afraid to do outrage
in all manner of wickedness.
" These men have not rightly understood the scrip-
ture ; for the saying of the apostle, ' Let every man
have his own wife,' doth except none in very deed, but
him only which hath the gift of continency. Wherefore,
O, reverend father 1 it shall be your part to cause and
oversee, that whosoever hath made a vow of celibacy,
and afterward would forsake it, should either be com-
pelled to keep his vow, or else by lawful authority should
be deposed from his order.
" And to bring this to pass, you should not only have
me, but also all other of my order, to be helpers unto
you. But that you may understand, that such which
know not what a vow doth mean, are not to be vio-
lently compelled thereunto : hear what the apostle saith
to Timothy ; a bishop, saith he, ' Must be blameless,
the husband of one wife,' 1 Tim. iii. 2. Which sen-
tence lest you should turn and apply only to tlie church ;
mark what he inferreth after. ' If a man know not how
to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the
church of God ;' and ' Let the deacon be the husband
of one wife, ruling their children and own houses well,'
1 Tim. iii. 5 — 12. And this wife, how she is wont to be
blessed by the priest, you understand sufficiently, I sup-
pose, by the decrees of holy Sylvester the pope.
' ' To these and such other holy sentences of the scripture
agreeth also, he that is the writer of the rule of the clergy,
writing after this manner, of the clerks, ' Let them have
one wife.' Whereby it is to be gathered, that the bishop
and deacon are noted infamous and reprehensible, if they
be divided with more women than one ; otherwise, if
they do forsake one under pretence of religion, they, as
well the bishop as the deacon, are here condemned by
the canonical sentence, which says, ' Let no bishop or
priest forsake his own wife, under the colour and pre-
tence of religion. If he do forsake her, let him be ex-
communicate. And if he so continue, let him be drag-
ged.' St. Augustine also (a man of discreet holiness),
says in these words, ' There is no offence so great or
grievous, but it is to avoid a greater evU.'
" Furthermore, we read in the second book of the
Tripartite history, that when the council of Nice, going
about to establish the same decree, would enact that
bishops, priests, and deacons, after their consecration,
either should utterly forsake tl>eir own wives, or else
should be deposed ; then Paphnutius (one of those holy
martyrs, whose right eye the Emperor Maximus had
put out, and houghed their left legs), rising up amongst
them, withstood their purposed decree ; confessing
marriage to be honourable, and so persuaded the coun-
cil from making that law, declaring what evil might
come of it. And thus much did Paphnutius (being un-
qaarried himself), declare to them. And the whole
council commending his sentence, agreed thereto, and
left the matter freely without compulsion, to the will of
every man, to do therein as he thought.
" Notwithstanding there be some which take St.
Gregory for their defence in this matter, whose temerity
I laugh at, and ignorance I lament ; for they know not,
being ignorantly deceived, how dangerous the decree of
this heresy was (being made of St, Gregory), who after-
wards revoked the same, with much repentance.
" Peradventure if these men had read with me what
happened through this decree, I think they would not
be so rash in their doing and judging ; fearing at least
the Lord's tx)mmaudment, ' Judge not that you be not
judged.' And St. Paul saith, ' Who art thou that
judgest another man's servant ? To his own master he
standeth or falleth, yea, be shall be holden up, for God
i^ able to make biwstaAd.* Therefore let your boUuess
cease to compel and enforce those whom you ought only
to admonish, lest through your own private command-
ment (which God forbid) you be found contrary as well
to the Old Testament as to the New. For as St. Au-
gustine saith to Donatus, ' This is only what we do fear
in your justice, lest (not for the consideration of chris-
tian lenity, but for the grievousness and greatness of
transgressions committed) you be thought to use vio-
lence in executing punishment of that, which only we
do desire you (by Christ) not to do. For traik.<gressions
are so to be punished, that the life of the transgressors
may repent.' Also another saying of St. Augustine
wc would have you to remember, which is this, ' Let no-
thing be done through the greediness of hurting, but all
things through the charity of profiting ; neither let any
thing be done cruelly, nothing ungently.' Also by the
same Augustine it is written, ' In the fear and name of
Clirist I exhort you, who have not the goods of this
world, be not greedy to have them. Such as have them,
presume not too much upon them. For, I say, to have
them is no damnation, but if you presume upon them,
that is damnation ; if for the having of them you shall
seem great in your own sight, or if you do forget the
common condition of man through the excellency of any
thing you have. Use, therefore, therein due discretion,
tempered with moderation, the which cup of discretion
is drawn out of the fountain of the apostolic preaching,
which said, ' Art thou bound unto a wife ? Seek not
to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife ? Seek not
a wife,' 1 Cor. vii. 27. Where, also it follows ' It re-
maineth, that they who have wives be as though they
had none, and they that use this world as not
abusing it.'
" Concerning the widow, he saith, ' She is at
liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the
Lord,' 1 Cor. vii. 39. To marry in the Lord, is no-
thing else but to attempt nothing in contracting of
matrimony, which the Lord doth forbid. Jeremy also
saith, ' Trust ye not in the lying words, saying. The
Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, The Tem-
ple of the Lord, are these,' Jer. vii. 4. The which saying
of Jeremy, .Jerome expounding, saith thus, ' This may
agree also, and be applied to such nuns as boast of their
vow, and know not how the apostle defineth the virgin,
that she should be holy in body, and also in spirit. For
what availeth the purity of the body, if the mind in-
wardly be unholy ? Or if it have not the other virtues,
which the prophetical sermon doth describe ?' The
which virtues, for so much as we see partly to be in you,
and because we are not ignorant, that this discretion,
although neglected in this part, yet in the other actions
of your life is kept honestly of you, we do not despair, but
you will also soon amend the little lack which is behind.
And therefore with as much gravity as we can, we
cease not to call upon you, to correct emd amend this
your negligence. For although, according to our com-
mon calling, a bishop is greater than a priest, and
Augustine was less than Jerome ; notwithstanding the
good correction proceeding from the lesser to the
greater, was not to be refused or disdained, especially
when he which is corrected is found to strive against the
truth to please men. For as St. Augustine saith,
writing to Boniface, ' The disputations of all men, be
they never so catholic or approved persons, ought not
to be had instead of the canonical scriptures.' So that
we may disapprove or refuse (saving the honour and
reverence which is due unto them) any thing that is in
their writings, if any thing there be found contrary to
truth. And what can be found more contrary to the
truth than this ? When as the truth itself, speaking of
abstaining from marriage, saith, ' He that can receive it,
let him receive it,' which saying, these men (moved, I
know not by what) do turn and say, ' He that cannot re-
ceive it, let him be accursed.' And what can be more
foolish amongst men, than when any bishop or arch-
deacon run themselves headlong into all kind of sin,
and yet say, that the marriage of priests is an abomina-
tion ; and, as void of all compassion and true righteous-
ness do not desire or admonish their clerks, as their
feUow-servants to abstain from marriage, but command-
92
VARIOUS INCURSIONS OF THE DANES.
[Book III.
them, and enforce tliem as servants, violently to abstain.
Unto the which imperious cominandmeut of theirs, or
counsel (whether you will call it), they add also this
foolish and wicked suggestion, saying, ' That it is better
to sin privately than openly in the sight of men to be
bound to one wife.' Which truly they would not say,
if they were either of him, or in him, who saith, ' Woe
to you, pharisees, which do all things to be seen of men.'
And so the psalmist, ' Because they please men, they
are confounded, for the Lord hath despised them,'
Ps. liii. 5. These be the men who ought to teach us
that we should rather be ashamed to sin privily in the
sight of Him to whom all things be open, than seem in
the sight of men to be holy. These men, therefore,
although through their sinful wickedness they deserve
no counsel of godliness to be given them ; yet we, not
forgetting our humanity, cease not to give them counsel
by the authority of God's word, which seeketh all men's
salvation, desiring them by the bowels of charity, and
saying with the words of scripture, ' Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then
thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote of thy bro-
ther's eye.
" Moreover, we desire them to attend to what the Lord
saith of the woman taken in adultery, ' He that is with-
out sin among you, let iiim first cast a stone at her.' As
though he would say, ' If MoseS bid you, I also bid you.
But yet I require you that he the competent ministers and
executors of the luv, take heed what you add thereunto:
take heed also ( I pray you) what you are yourselves ;
for if (as the scripture saith) thou shalt well consider thy-
self, thou wilt never defame another.'
" Moreover, it is signified unto us also, that there be
some of them, who (when they ought like unto good shep-
herds to give their lives for the Lord's flock) yet are they
pufled up with such pride, that without all reason they
presume to rend and tear the Lord's flock with whippings
and beatings, whose unreasonable doings St. Gregory
bewailing, thus saith, ' What shall become of the sheep
when the pastors themselves be wolves ?' But who is
overcome, but he which exerciseth cruelty ? Or who shall
iudge the persecutor, but he which gave patiently his
back to stripes ? And this is the fruit which cometh to the
church by such persecutors, also which cometh to the
clergy by such despiteful handling of their bishops, or
rather infidels. For why may you not call them infidels,
of whom St. Paul thus speaketli, and writeth to Timothy?
' That, in the latter days some shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
devils: spejiking lies in hypocrisv, having their consci-
ences seared with an hot iron, forbidding to marry, and com-
manding to abstain from meats, &c., 1 Tim. iv. L These
be they which bring heresy into the church of God (as
blind guides leading the blind) that it might be fulfilled
which the Psalm speaketh of, as foreseeing the errors of
such men, and accursing them after this manner, ' Let
their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow
down their back always,' Rom. xi. 10. For so much
then (O apostolical Sir) as no man which knoweth you,
is ignorant, that if you through the light of your discre-
tion had understood and seen what poisoned pestilence
might have come into the church through the sentence of
this your decree, you would never have consented to the
suggestions of certain wicked persons. Wherefore we
counsel you by the fidelity of our due subjection, that with
all diligence you would put away so great slander from
the church of God : and through your discreet discipline,
you will remove this pharisaical doctrine from the flock
of God : do not separate the holy people and the kingly
priesthood from her spouse which is Christ, through an
unrecoverable divorcement : seeing that no man without
holiness shall see our Lord, who with the Father and the
Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth for ever. Amen."
By this epistle of bishop Hulderick, it is easy to
conceive what was then the opinion of learned men con-
cerning the marriage of ministers.
After this Pope Nicholas succeeded Adrian II., John
VIII., Martin II. After these came Adrian III., and
Stephan VI, By this Adrian it was first decreed, That
no emperor after that time should intermeddle or have
any thing to do in the election of the pope. And thus
the emperors began first to decay, and the papacy to swell
and rise.
Now to return where we left King Ethelwolf. About
the latter end of his reign, the Danes who before had in-
vaded the realm, in the time of King Egbert, made their
re-entry again, with three and thirty ships arriving about
Hampshire.
Concerning the occasion given by the Englishmen
which moved the Danes first to invade the realm, I find in
certain histories two causes most specially assigned. The
first was given by the means of Osbright, reigning under,
king of the West Saxons. This Osbright had treated with
violence the wife of one of his nobles, called Bruer, where-
upon Bruer consulting with his friends, first went to the
king resigning into his hands all the service and possessions
which he held of him : he then took shipping and sailed into
Denmark. There making his complaint to Codrinus the
king, he desired his aid in revenging the villany of Osbright
against him and his wife. Codrinus hearing this, and
glad to have some just quarrel to enter that land, levied
an army with all speed, and preparing all things necessary
for the same, sends an innumerable multitude of Danes
into England ; who first arriving at Holderness, they
burnt up the country, and killed without mercy, both
men, women, and children, whom they could lay hands
upon. Then marching towards York, entered into battle
with Osbright, where he with most part of his army was
slain. And so the Danes took possession of the city of
York. The second cause assigned by some historians,
for the invasion of the Danes is as follows :
A certain Danish nobleman, called Lothbroke, entering
with his hawk into a skiff or small boat alone, was driven by
a tempest with his hawk to the coast of Norfolk, where
being found and detained, he was presented to the king.
The king understanding his parentage, and seeing his case,
entertained him in his court accordingly, and every day
perceiving more and more his great dexterity in hunting
and hawking, bare special favour to him. Insomuch that
the king's falconer, or master of his game, bearing privy
envy against him, as they were hunting together in a
wood murdered him^ and threw him into a bush. This
Lothbroke, being murdered, in two or three days began to
be missed in the king's house : of whom no tidings could j
be heard ; but a spaniel dog of his, which continuing inl
the wood wdth the corpse of his master, at various times!
came and fawned upon the king : and that so long that
at length they followed the trace of the hound, and were
brought to the place where Lothbroke lay. Whereupon!
inquisition being made, at length by certain evidence, '\€
was known how he was murdered by the king's hunts-J
man. Who being convicted, was put into the same boat,1
alone and without any tackling, to drive by sea, either to be
saved by the weather or to be drowned in the deep. And
as it chanced that Lothbroke was driven from Denmark
to Norfolk, so it happened that from Norfolk the murJ
derer was carried into Denmark, where the boat
Lothbroke being well known, hands were laid upon him^
and inquisition made of the party. In his torments, to
save himself, he uttered an untruth of King EdmundJ
saying, " That the king had put Lothbroke to death in
the county of Norfolk," Whereupon the Danes being
very angry, appointed an army, and sent great multil
tudes into England to revenge that fact.
In the mean time. King Ethelwolf, when he had chase
the Danes from place to place, causing them to take to
the sea, departed himself both from land and life : leaving
behind him four sons, who reigned every one in hi^
order, after the decease of his father.
King Ethelbald* the eldest son of Ethelwolf, succeed J
ing his father in the province of West Saxony, and Ethel-
bright in the province of Kent, reigned both together
the term of five years, one with the other. After these
two succeeded Ethelred, the third son, who in his time wag
so incumbered with the Danes, bursting in on every side,
especially about York, that in one year he stood in nine
battles against them.
About the latter time of the reign of this Ethelred,
which was about A, D, 870» certain of the Danei
being possessed of the northern country, took shipping
ping (^tljeltoolfe miir \\t §mtes.
A.D. 870—901.] KING ALFRED DISGUISED AS A MINSTREL ENTERS THE DANISH CAMP.
y.3
from thence, and landed in Norfolk, and came to Thet-
ford. Edmund, then under-king of that province, assem-
bled an host and gave them battle.
The king put to the worse, fled to the castle of Fra-
mingham, where being on every side compassed by his
enemies, he yielded himself to their persecution. And when
he would not deny Christ, they most cruelly bound him
to a tree, and caused him to be shot to death ; and lastly,
caused his head to be smitten from his body, and cast
into the thick bushes.
Tidings soon after were brought to king Ethelred , of the
landing of Osrike king of Denmark, who with the assist-
ance of the other Danes had gathered a great host, and
were encamped upon Ashdon. To this battle king Ethel-
red, with his brother Alured, called Alfred, hasted to with-
stand the Danes, the king staying a little behind to offer
up prayer to God, Alfred who was come before entered
already into the whole tight with the Danes, who stuck
together with huge violence. Afterwards, through the
grace of God, and their godly manhood, the king coming
with his fresh soldiers, so discomfited the Danes that day
that in flying away not only they lost the victory, but
many of them their lives. — their king Osrike, and five of
their dukes being slain.
After this the Danes yet re-assembled their people, and
gathered a new host ; so thit within fifteen days they
met at Basingstoke, and there gave bntfle to the king,
and had the better. Then the king agun gathered his men
at the town of Merton, a-ul he give them a sharp battle,
but the Danes had the honour of the field, and king
Ethelred was there wo'ind^d.
After these two battles thus won by the Danes, they
spread over a great circuit of ground, and destroyed man
and child that would not yield to tl-.ein. The churches
and temples they turned to the use of stables, and other
vile occupations.
Thus the king being beset with enemies on every side,
seeing the land so miserably oppressed ^v the Danes, his
knights and soldiers consumed, his own land of the West
Saxons in such desolation, he being also wounded him-
self, rather wished to die honestly than to reign in such
trouble and sorrow. And not long after deceased,being
gucceeded by his brother
KING ALCRED, OTHERWISE CALLED ALFRED.
Among the Saxon kings I find none to be compared to
Alfred, for great and singular qualities, worthy of high
renown and commendation ; whether we behold in him
the valiant acts and manifold trials which he sustained
against his enemies in wars, during almost all his reign,
for the public preservation of his people ; or whether we
consider in him his godly and excellent virtues, joined
with a public and tender care, and a zealous study for
the common peace and tranquillity of the public weal ;
appearing as well in his prudent laws as also by the
virtuous institution of his life ; or whether we respect
his notable knowledge of good letters, with a fervent
love and princely desire to set forth the same through all
his realm, before his time both rude and barbarous. All
which heroic properties, joined together in one prince,
as it is a rare thing, and seldom seen in princes now-
a-days ; so I thought the same more to be noted and
exemplified in this good king. Wherefore, to discourse
in order of these things, we will first treat of his acts and
painful trials sustained in defence of the public realm,
against the raging tyranny of the Danes.
King Alfred, the first of all the English kings, taking
his crown and unction at Rome of Pope Leo, in the be-
ginning of his reign, perceived his lords and people
much wasted and decayed, by reason of the great wars
of Ethelred against the Danes, yet as well as he could,
he gathered his people, and in the second month that he
was made king he met with the Danes beside Wilton,
where he gave them battle. But being far over-matched
through the multitude of the enemy, he was put there
to the worse ; although not without a great slaughter of the
Pagan army. The next year the Danes left those parts, and
drew to Lindsey, robbing and spoihng the towns and vil-
lages as they went, and holding the common people under
their bondage. Afterwards joining with the three othfT
kings of the Danes, they grew in mighty force and strength,
till the fourth year of King Alfred. In which year .Alfred's
men had a conflict on the sea with six of the Danes' ships,
of which they took one, and the others fled away. The
army of the three Danish kings returned again to West
Saxony, and entered the castle of Wareham ; wli»re
Alfred with a sufficient force was ready to assault them.
But the Danes seeing his strength, durst not attempt it
with him. In the meantime they were constrained to
treat for truce ; leaving sufficient pledges in the king's
hand, and promising moreover upon their oatli to
leave the country of the West Saxons. The ki:ig upon
the surety let them go. But they falsely breaking their
league, privilyin the night brake out, taking their jour;iv-y
toward Exeter. In which voyage they lost six score of
their small ships by a tempest. Then king Alfred foUo.Vv d
after the horsemen of the Danes, but could not overt.ik^
them before they came to Exeter, where he took of th^i.i
pledges and fair promises of peace, and so returned.
Notwithstanding the number of the Pagansdnly increaseu,
in so much that if in one day thirty thousand of tht:i:i
were slain, shortly after they increased double as uidny
again.
The next year, the Danes having all the rule of th3
north part of England, from the river Thames, disdaiiiuJ
that Alfred should bear any dominion on the other side
of the Thames southward. Whereupon the threi; kinirs,
with all the forces and strength they could make, maiched
with such a multitude, that the king with his peo-
ple was not able to resist them ; and of the people which
inhabited there, some fled over the sea, some remained
with the king, and many submitted themselves to the
Danes. Thus Alfred being overset with a multiUule of
enemies, and forsaken by his people, having neither la. id
to hold, nor hope to recover that which he had lost, with-
drew himself with a few of his nobles, into a certain wood
country in Somersetshire called Etheling, where he had
little to live on but such as he and his people might pro-
cure by hunting and fishing. This Etheling stands in a
great marsh or moor, so that there is no access unto it
without ship or boat, and has in it a great wood called
Selwood, and in the middle a little plain about two acres
of ground, in which isle is venison, and other wild beasts,
with fowls and fishes. In this wood king Alfred at his
first coming spied a certain cottage of a poor swineherd,
keeping swine in the wood, by whom the king then un-
known was entertained and cherished with such poor
fare as he and his wife could make him. For which king
Alfred afterwards set the poor swineherd to learning, and
made him bishop of Winchester.
Notwithstanding the king in process of time was
strengthened and comforted, through the providence
of God, respecting the miserable ruin of the English.
First, the brother of King Halden the Dane coming in
with three and thirty ships, landed about Devonshire ;
where by chance being resisted by a bushment of King
Alfred's men (who for their safeguard there lay in garri-
son) were slain to the number of 1300 men, and their
ensign called the Raven was taken. Both Inguar and
Hubba were slain among the other Danes. After this
King Alfred being better cheered shewed himself more
at large, so that the men of Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and
Hampshire daily resorted to him, till he was strongly
accompanied.
Then the king undertook a bold and dangerous adven-
ture ; for, apparelling himself in the habit of a minstrel,
(as he was very skilful in all Saxon poems), with his
instrument of music he entered into the camp of the
Danes, lying then at Eddendun ; and while playing his
interludes and songs, he espied all their sloth and idle-
ness, and heard much of their counsel. Shortly after he
fell upon the Danes suddenly in the night and slew a
great multitude of them, and chased them from that coast,
insomuch that through his strong and valiant assaults he
clearly voided the country of them between that and Sel-
wood. His subjects soon hearing of his valiant victories
and manful deeds, drew to him daily out of all coasts.
Who through the help of God held the Danes so short,
that he won from them Winchester and other towns.
94
THE DANES SUBDUED. CHARACTER OF KING ALFRED.
[Book III.
At length he forced them to seek for peace, which was
concluded upon certain covenants, whereof one and the
principal was, that Gutrum their king should be chris-
tened. The other was, that such as would not be chris-
tened should depart the country.
About the fifteenth year of the reign of Alfred, the
Danes returning from France to England, landed in
Kent, and so came to Rochester and besieged that city ;
and there lay so long that they built a tower of timber
against the gates of the city. But by the strength of
the citizens that tower was destroj'ed, and the city de-
feuded, till King Alfred came and rescued them.
Whereby the Danes were so distressed, and so near
trapped, that for fear they left their horses behind them,
and fled to their ships by night. But the king, when he
was aware thereof, sent after them and took sixteen of
their ships, and slew many of the Danes. Tliis done,
the king returned to London, and repaired that city,
and made it habitable, which before was decayed and
enfeebled by the assaults of the Danes.
About the one-and-twentieth year of his reign, the
Danes again landed in four places of this land ; in the
east, in the north, and in two places in the west.
When King Alfred ascertained that the Danes were
landed, he went forth against them from where he was
in East Anglia, and he pursued so sharply, that he drove
them out from those parts. They then landed in Kent,
whither the king, with his people, in like manner drave
them out. After this, the Danes took shipping, and
sailed into North Wales, and there robbed and spoiled
the Britons.
The fourth host of the Danes, the same year, came to
Chester, which at length they won : but then the country
adjoining pressed so sore upon them, and besieged them
so long, keeping them within the city, that at last the
Danes, wearied with the long siege, were compelled to
eat their own horses for hunger. Alfred, in the mean-
while, with his host marched thitherward. Then the
Danes, leaving their strong-holds and castles, furnished
with men and victuals, again took shipping, and so set
their course that they landed in Sussex, and came to the
jiort of Lewes, and from thence toward London, and
Ijuihled a tower or castle twenty miles from London.
But the Londoners hearing thereof, sent out a certain
nuin))er of men of arms, who, with the assistance of
them of that country, put the Danes from that tower,
and after beat it down to the ground. Soon after the
king came down thither, and to prevent the dangers
that miglit ensue, commanded the river of Lea to be
divided in three streams ; so that where a ship might
sail in times before, there a little boat might scarcely
row. From thence the Danes leaving their ships and
wives, were forced to fly that country, and took their
way again toward Wales, to the river of Severn ; where,
upon the borders thereof they builded them a castle,
there resting themselves for a time, whom the king soon
pursued with his army. The year following, the Danes
divided their host, part went to Northumberland, some
to Norfolk, part sailed to France, others came to West-
sax, where they had conflicts with the English, both by
land, and upon the sea; some of whom were slain,
many perished by shipwreck, others were taken and
hanged, and thirty of their ships were taken.
Not long after this, Alfred, when he had reigned
nine-and-twenty years and six months, quitted this
mortal life. And thus much, we write, touching the
painful labours and trials of this good king ; which he
no less valiantly achieved, than patiently sustained for
the defence of his realm and subjects.
Now if there be any who desire to see and follow the
virtuous and godly disposition of this king, both touch-
ing the institution of his own life, and also concerning
his careful government of the commonwealth, thus the
histories record: — That when young, perceiving himself
disposed to dissoluteness and vice, he did not, as many
young princes and kings' sons in the world now do, that
IS, give themselves to all kind of license, and dissolute
sensuality, but, wishing to avoid the temptation, he be-
sought God that he would send to him some continual
tickness, whereby he might be kept from any dissolute
habits, and be more profitable to the )ublic business
of the commonwealth, and more apt to serve God
in his calling.
The bountiful goodness joined with prudence in this
man, in the ordering and disposing his riches and rents,
is not unworthy to be recited ; he divided his goods into
two equal parts, the one he appropriated to secular uses,
the other to spiritual or ecclesiastical. Of which two
principal parts, the first he divided into three portions,
the first to the support of his house and family ; the
second upon the workmen and builders of his new
works, whereof he had great delight and cunning ; the
third upon strangers. Likewise the other half for
spiritual uses, he divided into four portions, one to the
relieving of the poor, another to the monasteries, the
third portion to the schools of Oxford, for the maintain-
ing of good letters ; tlie fourth he sent to foreign
churches without the realm.
He was most sparing and frugal of time, as of a thing
in this earth most precious. He so divided the day and
night in three parts (if he were not hindered by wars
and other great business) that he spent eight hours in
study and learning, eight hours in prayer and alms-deeds,
and eight hours in his natural rest, sustenance of his
body, and the needs of the realm.
How careful he was of the commonwealth, and for the
maintenance of public tranquillity, his laws set forth and
devised by him may declare. Wherein especially was
provided by him for the extirpating and abolishing of all
thieves out of the realm. Whereby the realm was
brought into such tranquillity, or rather perfection, that
in every cross or turning way through his dominion he
caused to be set up a golden brooch, at least of silver
gilded, and none were found so hardy as to take it down
either by day or night. He diligently searched out the
doings of his officers, and especially of his judges, so
that if he knew any of them to err, either through
covetousness or unskilfulness, he removed them from
their office.
And thus much concerning the valiant acts and noble
virtues of this worthy prince ; whereunto although there
were no other ornaments besides, yet they alone were
sufficient to set forth a prince worthy of excellent com-
mendation. Now, besides these other qualities and
gifts of God's grace in him, there remains another part
of no little praise and commendation, which is his
learning and knowledge of good lettei-s, whereof he was
not only excellently expert himself, but also a worthy
maintainer of the same through all his dominions ;
where there was no grammar or other sciences practised ;
through the industry of the king, schools began to be
erected, and studies to flourish. Although among the
Britons, in the town of Chester, both grammar and phi-
losophy, with other tongues, was then taught. After
that some other writers record that in the time of
Egbert, king of Kent, this island began to flourish with
philosophy. About which time some also think that the
university of Grantchester, near to that which now is
called Cambridge, began to be founded by Bede. Be-
fore these times, it is thought that there were two
schools or universities within the realm, the one Greek
at the town of Greglade, which afterwai-d was called
Kirkelade ; the other for Latin, which place was then
called Latinlade, afterward Lethelade near to O.xford.
But however it chanced that the knowledge and
study of good letters being once planted in this realm,
afterward went to decay ; yet King Alfred deserves no
little praise for restoring or rather increasing the same.
But this we may see, what it is to have a prince learned
himself, who, feeling and tasting the price and value of
science and knowledge, is thereby not only the more apt
to rule, but also to instruct and frame his subjects, from
a rude barbarity, to a more civil life, although it was
somewh;xt late before he learned, yet such was the do-
cility of his nature that, being a child, he had the
Saxon poems (such as were used then in his own tongue)
by heart and memory. Afterwards, with years he grew
up in much perfection of learning and knowledge, which
is the more to be marvelled at, for he was twelve years
of age before he knew any letter. At which time his
>.D. 901.]
JOHN SCOT. POPE FORMOSUS.
95
mother having by chance a book in her hand, which he
wished to have, promised to give it to him if he would
learn it. Upon which he, through his desire to possess
the book, soon learned the letters, his master being
Pleimundus, afterwards bishop of Canterbury. And so he
daily grew more and more in knowledge, that at length
he translated a great part of the Latin library into
English. Of which books, translated by him, was Oro-
sius, Gregory's Pastoral, the History of Bede, Boetius
on the Consolation of Philosophy. He also wrote a
book in his own tongue, which he called a Hand Book.
Besides the history of Bede translated into the Saxon
tongue, he also himself compiled a history in the same
speech, called The History of Alfred, &c. And as he
was himself excellently well learned, so he likewise in-
flamed all his countrymen with the love of letters. Also
his nobles he allured to the embracing of good letters,
80 that they set all their sons to schools ; or if they had
no sons, yet they caused their servants to be taught.
He began, moreover, to translate the Psalter in English,
and had almost finished the same, when death prevented
him.
Moreover, among other learned men who were about
King Alfred, histories make mention of John Scot (a
godly divine, and a learned philosopher). This John is
described to be of a sharp wit, of great eloquence, and
well expert in the Greek tongue, of a pleasant and merry
nature, as appears by many of his doings and answers.
He left his own country of Scotland, by reason of the
great tumults of war, and went to France, where he was
worthily entertained, and for his learning was held in
great estimation by Charles the Bald, the French king ;
so that he was commonly and familiarly about the king.
One day, the king sitting at meat, and seeing something
(belike in this John Scot) which seemed not very courtly,
merrily asked of him what difference there was betwixt
a Scot and a sot ? to which the Scot sitting over against
the king, somewhat lower, replied again suddenly, ratner
than advisedly (yet merrily) saying, the table ordy ; im-
porting thereby himself to be the Scot, and so calling the
king a sot by craft. Which word, how other princes
would have taken, I know not, but this Charles, for the
great reverence he bear to his learning, turned it but to a
laughter among his nobles, and so let it pass.
Another time, the same king being at dinner, was
served with a certain dish of fish, wherein were two
great fi.shes and a little one. After the king had taken
thereof his repast, he sent the fish down to John Scot,
to distribute to the other two clerks sitting with him,
who were two tall and mighty persons, he himself being
but a little man. John, taking the fish, takes and
carves to himself the two great ones ; the little fish he
reaches to the other two. The king perceiving his di-
vision thus made, reprehended it. Then John, whose
manner was ever to find out some honest matter to de-
light the king, answered, proving his division to stand
just and equal : for here (said he) are two great, and a
little, pointing to the two great fishes and himself ; and
likewise here again is a little one and two great, pointing
to the little fish, and the two great persons. I pray you
(said he) what odds is there, or what distribution can be
more equal ? Whereat the king with his nobles being
much delighted, laughed merrily.
The same John Scot moreover compiled a book, in
which is contained the resolution of many profitable
questions ; but he is thought to follow the Greek church
rather than the Latin, and for the same was counted of
some to be an heretic ; because there be some things in
that book which in all points accord not with the Romish
religion. Wherefore the pope, writing to King Charles,
complains that a certain man called John, a Scottish
man, had translated the book of Dionysius the Areopa-
gite, of the names of God, and of the heavenly orders,
from Greek into Latin. Which book, according to the
custom of the church, ought first to have been approved
by our judgment ; namely, seeing the said John (although
he is said to be a man of great learning and science) in time
past has been noted to have been a man not of upright
or sound doctrine, in certain points, &c. For this cause
Scot, being constrained to remove from France, came to
England, allured by the letters of King Alfred, by whom
he was entertained with great favour, and continued a
long time about the king ; till at length (whether before
or after the death of the king it is uncertain) he went to
Malmesbury, where he taught certain scholars a few
years, by which scholars at last he was most impiously
murdered and slain with their penknives, and so died.
King Alfred having these helps of learned men about
him, and no less learned also himself, passed his time to
the great utility and profit of his subjects. Alfred had
two sons, Edward and Ethelward, and three daughters,
Elfleda, Ethelgora, and Ethelguida. Edward, his eldest
son, succeeded him in the kingdom ; the second son,
Ethelward, died before his father: Ethelgora, his middle
daughter, was made a nun, the other two were married,
the one in Merceland, the other to the Earl of Flanders.
Thus King Alfred, the valiant, virtuous, and learned
prince, after he had thus christianly governed the realm,
the term of nine-and-twenty years and six months, de-
parted this life, 5th November (A. D. 901), and lies
buried at Winchester. Of whom I find, moreov(!r, this
thing greatly noted and commended in history, and not
here to be forgotten, for the rare example thereof, that
wherever he was, or whithersoever he went, he always
bore about him a little book containmg the Psalms of
David, and certain other orisons of his own collecting.
Whereupon he was continually reading or praying,
whenever he had any leisure.
As to the course and proceedings of the Romish
bishops, I last mentioned Pope Stephen VI. After his
time there was much broil in the election of the bishops
of Rome, one contending against another ; so that
in the space of nine years, there were nine bishops I the
first was Formosus, who succeeded Stephen VI., being
made pope against the mind of certain in Rome, who
preferred Sergius. This Formosus had offended Pope
John VIII., by reason whereof, for fear of the pope, he
left his bishopric. And because, being sent for by the
pope, he would not return, he was excommunicated.
At length coming to make his satisfaction to the pope,
he was degraded from a bishop into a secular man's
habit, swearing to the pope that he would no more re-
enter into the city of Rome, nor claim his bishopric
again, subscribing moreover with his own hand, to con-
tinue from that time in the state of a secular person.
But then Pope Martin (the next pope after John) re-
leased Formosus of his oath, and restored him again to his
bishopric ; whereby Formosus entered not only into Rome
again, but also shortly after obtained the papacy. Thus,
he being placed in the popedom, there arose a great
doubt or controversy among the divines about his con-
secration, whether it was lawful or not ; some holding
against him, that as he was solemnly deposed, degraded,
unpriested, and also sworn not" to reassume the ecclesi-
astical state, therefore he ought to be taken no otherwise
than for a secular man. Others alleged again, that
whatever Formosus was, yet for the dignity of the order,
and for the credit of those whom he ordained, all his
consecration ought to stand in force, especially as For-
mosus was afterwards received and absolved by Pope
Martin from his perjury and degradation, &c. In the
mean time, Formosus sends to King Arnulphus for aid
against his adversaries ; when then marching toward
Rome, was there resisted by the Romans from entering.
But Arnulphus obtaining the city of Rome, rescues
Pope Formosus, and beheads his adversaries ; the pope
to gratify him in return, blesses and crowns him as
emperor. Thus Formosus sitting about the space of
four or five years, followed his predecessors ; after whose
time (as I said) within the space of nine years were
nine bishops as follows. But in the mean time concern-
ing this Formosus, I would gladly ask, and more gladly
learn of some impartial good catholic person, who being
a papist, not in obstinacy, but in simple error, would
answer his conscience — whether he thinks the holy order
of priesthood, which he takes for one of the seven sacra •
ments, to be an indelible character or not ? If it be not
indelible, that is, if it be such a thing as may be put off,
why then does the pope's doctrine pretend it to be inde-
lible, and unremoveable ? or if it be indeed as they
96
KING EDWARD SUCCEEDS HIS FATHER ALFRED.
[Book HI.
teach and affirm, of an indelible character, why then did
Pope John, or could Pope John annihilate and evacuate
one of his seven pope-holy-sacraments, making of a
priest a non-priest, or layman, uncharactering his own
order which is (as he says) a character which in nowise
may be blotted out or removed ? Again, however Pope
John is to be judged in this matter, as either well or not
well; this I would know, whether he did well in dis-
priesting and discharacterising Formosus for such private
offences ? If he did, how then stands his doing with his
own doctrine which teaches the contrary ? If he did
not well, how tlien stands his doctrine with his doings,
which teaches that the pope with his synod of cardinals
cannot err ? Moreover, if this Pope John did not err in
his disordaining Formosus, how then did Martin his
successor not err in repealing the act of his predecessor?
or how did not Pope Formosus err himself, who being
unpriested by Pope John without reiterating the charac-
ter or order of priesthood, took upon him to be pope,
and made acts and laws in the church ? Again, if For-
mosus, when he was pope, did not err, how then did
Pope Stephen, his successor, afterwards not err, who
annihilated the consecration, and all other acts of For-
mosus as erroneous ? Or, again, if we say that this
Stephen with his synod of cardinals did right, then how
could it be that Pope Theodore, and Pope John IX. who
came after Stephen, did not err, who approving of the
consecration of Formosus, did condemn and burn the
synodical acts of Stephen and his cardinals, who before
had condemned Formosus ?
After Formoius bad governed the see of Rome five
years, Boniface VI. succeeded, who continued but five-
and-twenty days. Then came Stephen VII. who so hated
the name of his predecessor Formosus, that he abrogated
and dissolved his decrees, and taking up his body after
it was buried, cut two lingers off his right hand, and
commanded them to be cast into the Tiber, and then
buried the body in a private or lay-man's sepulchre !
After Stephen had sat in the chair of pestilence one year,
Pope Romanus succeeded, and sat three months, repealing
the acts decreed by Stephen against Formosus. Next to
him came Theodore II., who, taking part with Formosus
against Stephen, reigned but twenty days. Than sat Pope
John IX., who to confirm the cause of Formosus more
surely, held a synod at Ravenna of seventy-four bishops,
mth the French king, and his archbishops present at it.
At this council were ratified all the decrees and doings
of Formosus, and the contrary acts of the synod of Stephen
VII. were burned. This pope continued not quite two
years, after whom succeeded Benedict IV., who kept the
chair three years. After whom Leo V., he within forty
days of his paj)acy, was taken and cast into prison by one
Christopher, his ovvn chaplain. Which Christopher, being
pope about the space of seven months, was likewise
himself driven from his papal throne by Sergius III., as he
had done to his master before. And thus within the
space of nine years, nine popes had succeeded one after
another. Then Sergius after he had thrust down Pope
Christopher, and shorn him and put him as a monk into
a monastery, occupied the room seven years. This Ser-
gius, a rude man and unlearned, very proud and cruel,
had before been put back from the popedom by Formo-
sus above mentioned. Therefore to revenge himself on
Formosus, he caused the body of Formosus, where it was
buried, to be taken up ; and afterwards sitting in the papal
see (as in his pontificalibus) first degraded him, then
commanded his head to be smitten off, with the other
three fingers that were left, and then commanded his body
to be thrown into the Tiber, deposing likewise all such as
by Formosus had before been consecrated and invested.
This body of Formosus, thus thrown into the Tiber, was
afterward (as our writers say) found and taken up by
certain fishers, and so brought into St. Peter's temple.
At the presence whereof (as they say) certain images
standing by, bowed themselves down, and reverenced the
same I But such deceivable miracles of stocks and images,
in monkish temples are no news to us, especially here in
England, where we have been so inured with the like and
so many, that such wily practices cannot be invisible,
to us, though this crown-shorn generation think them-
selves to dance in a net. But the truth is, while ther
think to deceive the simple, these wily beguilers most of
all deceive themselves, as they will find, except they re.
pent. By this Pope Sergius first came up the custom of
bearing about candles on Candlemas-day, for the puri-
fying of the blessed Virgin ; as if the sacred conception
of Jesus the Son of God, were to be purified as a thing
impure, and that with candle light.
After Sergius was Pope Anastasius. After Anastasius
had sat two years, followed Pope Lando, the father (as
some historians think) of Pope John, which John is said
to have been set up by Theodora, an infamous woman
of Rome, either against Lando, or after Lando to succeed
in his room. Luithprand mentions this Theodora and
Pope John X., and says, " that Theodora had a daughter
named Marozia, which Marozia had a son by Pope Ser-
gius, who afterward was Pope John XL The same
Marozia afterwards married Guido, marquis of Tuscia,
through the means of which Guido and his friends at
Rome, she had this Pope John X. smothered with a
pillow after he had reigned thirteen years, that so John
XL, her son, might succeed after him. But because M
the clergy and people of Rome did not agree to his elec- fl
tion, therefore Pope Leo was set up. "Thus Pope John, '
the son of Sergius and Marozia,being rejected. Pope Leo
reigned seven months. After him Pope Stephen two
years, who being poisoned, then was Pope John XL,
the son of Sergius and Marozia, set up again in the
papacy, where he reigned near the space of five years.
Of the wickedness of this Marozia, how she married two
brothers, one after the death of the other, and how she
governed all Rome, and the whole church at that time
I let pass. After John XL, followed Pope Leo, who
reigned three years and four months. Pope Stephen IX.,
three years and four months. Pope Martin three years
and six months ; after him Pope Agapetus eight years
and six months. About whose time, or a little before,
first began the order of monks, called, " The monks of
Cluny," &c. But now to leave off these monstrous mat-
ters of Rome, we return again to our country of England,
where we left off.
KING EDWARD THE ELDER.
After the reign of Alfred, his son Edward succeeded, '
This Edward began his reign (A. D. 901)t and governed
right valiantly and nobly twenty- seven years. In knowledge
of good letters and learning he was not to be compared to
his father, otherwise in princely renovrn, in the civil
government, and such like martial prowess, he was
nothing inferior, but rather excelled him ; through whose
valiant acts first the princedom of Wales and the king-
dom of Scotland, with Constantine king thereof, were
subdued to him. He added moreover to his dominion,
the country of East Anglia, that is Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Essex. All Merceland also he recovered, and Northumber-
land out of the hands of the Danes. In all his wars he
never lightly went without victory. The subjects of his
provinces and dominions were so inured and hardened in
continual practice and feats of war, that when they heard
of enemies coming (never tarrying for any bidding from
the king or from his dukes) straightways they encountered
with them, always excelUng their adversaries both in num-
bers and the knowledge of the art of war.
About the twelfth year of his reign, the Danes repent-
ing them of their covenants, and minding to break the
same, assembled an host, and met with the king in Staf-
fordshire, at a place called Totenhall, and soon after at
Wodenfield, at which two places, the king slew two kings,
two earls, and many thousands of Danes that occupied
the country of Northumberland.
Thus the importunate rage of the Danes being assuaged,
King Edward having now some leisure given from wars
to other studies, gave his mind to the building or repair-
ing of cities, towns, and castles, that had been razed, shat>
tered, and broken by the Danes.
As touching the laws and statutes of this Edward, as
also of his father Alfred, I omit here to record them on
account of their length : yet notwithstanding I think
good to note that in the days of these ancient kings of
k.B. 928—965.]
KING ATHELSTAN— KING EDMUND.
97
England, the authority both of conferring bishoprics
and spiritual promotions, and also of prescribing laws
as well to the churchmen as to the laity, and of ordering
and intermeddling in matters merely spiritual, was then in
the hands of the kings ruling in the land, and not only in
the hand of the pope, as appears by the laws of Alfred.
Whence it may appear, how the government and direc-
tion of the church in those days depended not upon the
pope of Rome, but upon the king who governed the land.
To this also the example of King Edward's time gives
testimony ; for Edward with Pleimundus, archbishop of
Canterbury, and other bishops in a synod assembled,
assigned and elected seven bishops in seven metropolitan
churches of the realm, in which election the king's au-
thority seemed then alone to be suflScient, &c.
KING ETHELSTAN, OR ADELESTON.
* j Ethelstan succeeded, after the death of Edward his
father (A. D. 928)., and was crowned at Kingston. He
was a prince of worthy memory, valiant and wise in aU
his acts, nothing inferior to his father. In like worldly
renown of civil government, joined with much prosper-
ous success, in reducing this realm under the subjection
of one monarchy. For he both expelled the Danes, sub-
dued the Scots, and quieted the Welshmen.
Among the victorious and noble acts of this king, one
blot is written of him, wherein he is as much worthy to
be reprehended, as in the others to be commended ; that
is, the innocent death and murder of his brother Edwin.
The occasion thereof was this. The said Ethelstan
being bom of Egwina, the wife to Edward before he was
married to her, and fearing his next brother Edwin, who
,was rightly born, especially being stirred thereto through
|the sinister suggestion of his butler, felt such dislike to
I Edwin his brother, that he caused him to be set in an
old rotten boat in the broad sea, without any tackling or
other provision. Where the young and tender prince
being dismayed with the rage of winds and of the floods,
and now weary of his life, cast himself overboard into
the sea, and so was drowned. The king, afterwards
coming to the remembrance of himself, was stricken with
great repentance the space of seven years together, and
I at length was revenged of him that was the accuser of
Ihis brother. This accuser was the king's cup bearer,
!who (as God the righteous judge of all things would
have it) upon a certain solemn feast, bearing the cup to
'the king, chanced in the middle of the floor to stumble
iwith one foot, helping and recovering himself with the
other, saying in these words, " Thus one brother helps
lanother." These words being thus spoken in the hear-
jing of the king, so moved his mind, that forthwith he
'comiianded the false accuser of his brother, to be had
out to execution. WTiose just recompense I would wish
I to be a warning to all men, what it is to sow discord
I between brother and brother.
1 King Ethelstan (besides his seven years lamentation
1 for this act) built the two monasteries of Midleton and
I of Michlenes for his brother's sake, or (as the histories
j gay) for his soul. Whereby it may appear what was the
cause in those days of building monasteries, to wit, for
I releasing the sins both of them departed, and them
! alive : which cause, how it stands with the grace and
I verity of Christ's gospel, and of his passion, let the
I christian reader try and examine with himself. This cruel
I act of the king towards Edwin, caused him afterward to be
I more tender and careful towards his other brethren and
sisters left in his hands unmarried. Which sisters, he
bestowed in great marriages ; one to the king of Nor-
thumberland ; another he gave unto Lewis king of
Aquitain ; the third to Otho, who was the first emperor
of the Germans.
The fourth of his sisters being of singular beauty,
Hugo the French king required to be given to him,
sending to King Ethelstan precious and sumptuous pre-
sents, such as were not before seen in England. Among
which presents and gifts, besides the rare odours of sun-
dry favours, and fine spices ; and besides the precious
and costly gems, besides also many beautiful coursers
and palfries richly trapped ; especially of one jewel
which was a certain vessel finely and subtilly made of
the precious onyx stone, so radiantly wrought, that in it
appeared the lively corn growing, and men's images
walking, &c. Besides these, there was sent also the
sword of Constantine the Great, with the name of the
possessor, written in golden letters, where in the haft of
the same all beaten in gold, was one of the iron nails
wherewith our Saviour was nailed on the cross. Among
them, moreover, was the spear (as is reported) where-
vrith the side of our Saviour was opened, with a portion
likewise of the holy cross inclosed in crystal, also a
part of the crovm of thorns in like manner inclosed, &c.
Of the truth of all which relics I am not much disposed
to say all I suspect.
Ethelstan prescribed certain constitutions also, touch-
ing tithes, where he proclaimed as follows : "I, Ethel-
stan King, charge and command all my officers through
my whole realm, to give tithes unto God of my proper
goods, as well in living cattle, as in the corn and fruits
of the ground, and that my bishops likewise of their
proper goods, and mine aldermen, and my officers and
headmen shall do the same. Also this I will, that my
bishops and other headmen do declare the same to such
as be under their subjection, and that to be accomplished
at the term of St. John the Baptist. Let us remember
what Jacob said unto the Lord, " Of all that thou shalt give
me I will surely give a tenth unto thee." Gen. xxviii. 22.
And thus much briefly concerning the history of King
Ethelstan, who reigned about the space of sixteen years.
And because he died without issue, therefore his brother
Edmund succeeded after him (A. D. 940), who reigned
six years.
KING EDMUND.
Edmund, the son of Edward, and brother of Ethel-
stan, was twenty years of age when he began his reign ;
he had two sons, Edwin and Edgar, who both reigned
after him. This Edmimd continued his reign six years
and a half. By him the Danes, Scots, Normans, and
all foreign enemies were expelled out of the land, and
then the king set his mind to redressing and maintaining
the state of the church, all which then stood in build-
ing of monasteries, and furnishing of churches, either
with new possessions or restoring the old which were
taken away before. In the time of Edmund, I find this
written in an old history, " In the time of this
king, there was a scattering or dispersion made of the
monks out of the monastery of Evesham, and canons
substituted in their place, through the doing of Athelm
and Ulric, laymen, and of Osulfus bishop," &c.
Here, as concerning this matter between monks and
others of the clergy, first it is to be understood, that in
the realm ot England, before the time of Dunstan, the
bishops' sees and cathedral churches were not filled with
monks, but with priests and canons, called then clerks
or clergy. After this a difference begins to rise between
these two parties in strictness of life, and in habit ; so
that they who lived after a strict rule were called monks,
and professed chastity, that is, to live a single life (for
so chastity was defined in those blind days) as though holy
matrimony were no chastity. The other sort who were
not monks but priests or clergy, lived more free from
those monkish rules and observances, and were then
commonly (or at least lawfully) married, and in their
life and habit came nearer to the secular state of other
christians. By reason whereof there was great disdain
and emulation among them, so that in many cathedral
churches, where priests were before, there monks were
put in ; and sometimes where monks had intruded, there
priests and canons were again placed, and the monks
thrust out ; whereof more shall appear hereafter (by the
grace of Christ) when we come to the life of Dunstan.
In the mean time, to satisfy the reader, who would
know of the first coming of monks into this realm and
church of England, this is to be noted.
About this time of King Edmund, or shortly after,
when strictness of life joined with superstition, was had
in veneration, and counted for great holiness ; men,
either to win fame with men, or merits with God, gave
h2
98
KING EDWIN. KING EDGAR.
tBooK in.
themselves to lead a strict life, thinking- thereby (the
stranger their conversation was, and the further from
the common trade of vulgar people) to be the more per-
fect towards God and man. There was at that time a
monastery in France named Floriake, after the order of
Benedict : from which monastery sprung a great part of
our English monks, who being there professed, and
afterward returning into England, congregated men
daily to their profession. And so, partly for strangeaess
c.f their rule, partly for outward hohness of life, partly
for the opinion of holiness that many had of them, they
were in great admiration, not only with the rude sort,
but with kings and princes, who founded their houses,
maintained their rules, and enlarged them with posses-
sions. Among the monks was one Oswald, first a monk of
Floriake, then bishop of Worcester and York, a great
patron and setter up of monkery. Of this Oswald,
bishop of York, and Dunstan, bishop of Canterbury,
and Ethelwald, bishop of Winchester, and how they
filled divers monasteries and cathedral churches with
monks, and how they discharged married priests and
canons out of their houses, to plant monks in their cells,
more shall be spoken hereafter.
In the time of this king, Dunstan was not yet arch-
bishop of Canterbury, but only abbot of Glastonbury,
of whom many fabulous narrations pass among the
writers, whereof this is one of the first. When Edgar
was born, Dunstan being abbot of Glastonbury (as the
monkish fables dream) heard a voice in the air of certain
angels singing after this tenor and saying. Now peace
Cometh to the church of England in the time of this
child, and of our Dunstan, &c. This I mention that
the christian reader might the better ponder with him-
self the impudent and abominable fictions of this
Romish generation. Of the same mint also they have
forged, how at another time the said Dunstan heard the
angels sing, which is as true as that the harp, hanging in
a woman's house, played by itself the tune of an anthem.
What would not these deceivers pretend in matters some-
thing likely, who in things so absurd are not ashamed to
lie and to forge so impudently and also so manifestly ?
Through the instigation of this Dunstan, King Edmund
built and furnished the monastery of Glastonbury, and
made Dunstan abbot of it.
By the laws of King Edmund (ordained and set forth,
as well for the redress of church matters, as also of civil
government) it may appear that the state both of tem-
poral and spiritual causes appertained then to the king's
right (notwithstanding the false pretended usurpation of
the bishop of Rome) as by these laws are to be seen :
■where he, by the advice of his lords and bishops did
enact and determine concerning the pure life of eccle-
siastical ministers, and such as were in the orders of the
church, with the penalties also for those who trans-
gressed the same.
Also for tithes to be paid for every christian man, and
for the church fees, and alms fees, &c.
Concerning ))rofessed women, whom we call nuns, &c.
For every bishop to see his churches repaired of
his own proper charge ; and boldly to inform the
king, whether the houses of God were well maintained,
&c.
For flying into the church for sanctuary, &c.
Concerning cases and determinations on matrimonial
questions, &c.
All which constitutions declare what interest kings
took in those days in ecclesiastical matters as well as
others, within their dominion, and not only in disposing
the ordinances and rites, such as appertained to the in-
stitution of the church, but also in placing and setting
bishops in their sees, &c.
In the time of this Edmund, Ulstan was archbishop of
York, and Odo archbishop of Canterbury.
This Odo continued bishop the space of twenty years.
After whom Elsinus was elected and ordained by the
king to succeed through favour and money ; but in going
to Rome for the pope's pall, in his journey over the Alps
he died through the cold. WTiereupon Dunstan suc-
ceeded. Before this king Edmund died, and was buried
by Duostaa at Glastonbury.
He was succeeded by his brother Edrid, (\.D. 948,)
who governed as protector until Edwin the eldest son of
Edmund came of age.
KING EDWIN.
Edwin, sometimes called Edwy, began his reign A.D.
955, befhg crowned at Kingston by Odo the archbishop
of Canterbury. Of this Edwin it is reported that the
first day of his coronation, while sitting with his lords,
he suddenly left them for the company of a certain lady,
whom he retained (it not being known whether she was Ms
wife), to the great displeasure of his lords, and especially
of the clergy. Dunstan was yet but abbot of Glastonbury,
who following the king, brought him back, and accused
him to Odo the archbishop, by whom the king was sus-
pended out of the church. By reason whereof the king
being displeased with Dunstan, banished liiin. About
the same time the order of Benedict monks, cr black
monks (as they were called), began to multiply and in-
crease in England, so that where other priests and
canons had been, there monks were set in, and tlie secu-
lar priests (as they then were called, or canons) put out.
But king Edwin for the displeasure he bare to Dunstan,
so vexed all the orders of monks that in Malmesbury,
Glastonbury, and other places, he thrust out the monks,
and set in secular priests in their stead.
Notwithstanding, it was not long before these priests
and canons were again removed, and the monks restored
in their stead, both in the aforesaid houses, and in many
other cathedral churches, besides.
In fine, king Edwin being hated by all his subjects,
was removed from his kingly honour, and his brother
Edgar received in his stead.
KING EOGAR.
Edgar, the second son of Edmund, being of the age of
sixteen years, began his reign A.D. 959, but was not
crowned till fourteen years after ; the causes whereof
hereunder follow to be declared. In the beginning of
his reign he called home Dunstan, whom king Edwin had
exiled. Then was Dunstan, who was abbot of Glaston-
bury, made bishop of Worcester, and then of London.
Not long after, this Odo the archbishop of Canterbury
deceased, after he had governed that church above twenty
years. After whom Brithilinus bishop of Winchester,
was first elected ; but because he was thought not suffi-
cient, Dunstan was ordained archbishop, and the other
sent home again to his old church. Where, note by the
way, how in those days the donation and assigning of
ecclesiastical dignities remained in the king's hand ; only
they brought their pall from Rome as a token of the
pope's confirmation. So Dunstan being by the king
made archbishop, took his journey to Rome for his pall
of Pope John XIII. Dunstan obtaining his pall, shortly
after his return from Rome, intreats king Edgar that
Oswald might be promoted to be bishop of Worcester,
which was granted to him. And not long after, through
means of Dunstan, Ethelwold was also made bishop of
Winchester.
The monks began first to swarm in the churches of
England, that is, in the days of this Edgar, by the means
of these three bishops, Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Oswald.
Although Dunstan was the chief ringleader, yet Ethelwold
being now bishop of Winchester, and Oswald bishop of
Worcester were not much behind. By the instigation and
counsel of these three. King Edgar is recorded to have
built either new out of the ground, or to have re-edified
more than forty decayed monasteries. In setting up and
building which Ethelwold was a great founder under the
king. Moreover, through the influence of this Dunstan
and his fellows. King Edgar in many great houses and
cathedral churches, where prebendaries and priests were
before, displaced the priests and set in monks.
After the king was thus persuaded to advance monkery,
Oswald bishop of Worcester, and also made archbishop
of York, having his see in the cathedral church of
St. Peter, began with fair persuasions to try the minds
of the canons and priests, whether they would be content
t
A. D. 965.]
MONKS IN THE PRIMITIVE AGE LAYMEN
93
to change their profession, and be made monks or no ;
when he saw it would not take effect, he practised this
j)olicy with them : Near to the church of St Peter, within
the churchyard, he erected another churcli of our lady,
which he filled with monks, there he continually fre-
quented, and was always there to be seen, by reason of
which the other church was left naked and desolate,
and all the people gathered where the bishop was.
Tlie priests seeing themselves so neglected both by the
bishop and the people, were driven either to relinquish
the house, or else become monks. Ethelwold also drove
out the canons and priests from the new monastery in
Winchester, and in Oxford, and in Mildune, with other
places, the secular priests with their wives were expelled
to give place to monks. The cause whereof is thus
pretended in certain writers : the priests and clerks were
thought negligent in their church service, and set vicars
in their stead, while they lived in pleasure, and mis-spent
the patrimony of the church. Then king Edgar gave to
the vicars the same land which before belonged to the pre-
bendaries ; who also not long after shewed themselves as
negligent as the others. Wherefore king Edgar, by the
consent of Pope John XIII., removed the priests and
ordained monks there.
As we have entered upon the mention of monks and
nuns, and of their profession so greatly commended in
our monkish histories, lest perhaps the reader may be
deceived in hearing the name of monks to be such an
ancient thing in christian life (even from the primitive
church after the apostles' time) therefore to prevent all
error herein, it shall not be unprofitable to say somewhat
concerning the original institution of monks, what they
were who in the old time were called monks, in what the
monks in the primitive time did differ from the monks of
the middle time, and from the monks of this later age ;
moreover, in what all these three differ from priests (as
we call them) and from the clergy. Wherefore to answer
to the superstitious scruple of such as allege the anti-
quity of the name of monks ; I grant the name and
order to be of old continuance, from the time of three
hundred years after Christ. Several old authors write
of them, as Augustine, Jerome, Basil (who was himself
one of the first instituters and commenders of that
superstition), Chrysostom, Nazianzen, Evagrius, Sozo-
men, Dionysius, and others. In the number of these
monks (who then were divided into hermits or ancho-
rites, and coenobites) were Antony, Paul, John, with divers
other recluses. Cassian makes mention of a certain mo-
nastery in Thebes, wherein were above five thousand
monks, under the government of one abbot. And here
also in England, mention is made before of Bangor,
wherein were two thousand and two hundred monks
under one man's ruling (A. D. 596). Whereby it
appears that monks were then, and two hundred years
before, in the primitive church. But these monks were
such as either by persecution were driven into solitary
and desert places ; or else such as not constrained by
any, but by their own voluntary devotion (joined with
some superstition) withdrew themselves from all com-
pany. And all these were then nothing else but lay-
men ; of whom there were two sorts, one of the \'ulgar
and common people, who were only partakers of the
sacraments ; the other, following a monastic life, were
called monks, (being nothing but laymen) leading a more
severe and stricter life than the others.'
Monks in the former age of the church, although they lived
a solitary life, yet were only laymen, differing from priests,
and differing from the other monks who succeeded them in
the middle age of the church, in three points : first, they
were bound to no prescribed form, either of diet or apparel,
or any thing else. Secondly, they remained in the order
of laymen (only being of a stricter life than the rest) and
had nothing to do in matters ecclesiastical. Thirdly,
the monks of that age (although the most part of them
liyed single) yet some of them were married ; and cer-
(1) August, lib. de moribus ecclesiae, rap. 13. Item, lib. de ope-
ribus Moimchorum. Item, Epistola ad Aurelium. Also by Hierome
ad Heliodorum. Also the same appeareth likewise by the fourth
canon of the council of Chalcedon, where it i*. provided, "ne mona-
tainly none of them were forbidden or restraiiicd from
marriage. Of such as were married, speaks Athanasius
in Epistola ad Dracontium, who says that he knew both
monks and bishops married men, and fathers of chil-
dren, &c.
And yet the monks of the old time, though they were
better than those that followed ; yet superstition began
to creep among them into the church, through the crafty
subtilty of Satan, and all for the ignorance of our free
justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Examples declare
the vain and prodigious superstition of these men ; two
or three shall suffice for many, which I here insert, that
the mind of the godly reader may the better consider
and understand, how shortly after the time of Christ and
his apostles, the doctrine of christian justification began
to be forgotten, true religion turned to superstition, and
the price of Christ's passion obscured through the vain
opinion of men's merits, &c. A certain abbot named
Moses thus testifies of himself in the collations of
Cassian, that he so afflicted himself with fasting and
watching, that sometimes for two or three days together,
he not only felt no appetite to eat, but also had no remem-
brance of any meat at all, and by reason thereof, was
driven also from sleep. So that he was obliged to pray
to God for a little refreshing sleep to be given him some
part of the night. In the same author mention is made
of a certain old man a hermit, who because he had
conceived in himself such a purpose never to eat meat,
without he had some g^uest or stranger with him, was
sometimes constrained to abstain five days together until
Sunday, when he came to the church, and brought some
stranger or other home with him.
Two other examples I will add out of Cassian, to shew
how the subtilty of Satan, through superstition and false
colour of holiness, blinds the miserable eyes of such as
rather attend to men's traditions than the word of God.
A certain abbot named John, in the desert wilderness of
Scythia, sent two novices with figs to one that was sick,
eighteen miles off from the church. It chanced these
two young novices, missing the way, wandered so long
in the wild forest or wilderness, and could not find the
cell, that for emptiness and weariness they waxed faint
and tired ; and yet rather would they die than taste the
figs committed to them to carry, and so they did ; for
shortly after they were found dead, their figs lying whole
by them.
Another story he also recites of two mouasttcal bre-
thren, who making their progress in the desert of Thebes,
purposed to take no sustenance but such as the Lord
himself should minister to them. It happened as they
were wandering in the desert, and fainting almost for
want, certain Mazises, a kind of people by nature fierce
and cruel, notwithstanding being suddenly altered into a
new nature of humanity, came forth, and of their own
accord offered bread to them ; which bread the one
thankfully received as sent of God ; the other, as count-
ing it sent of man, and not of God, refused it, and so
perished.
I might also add the story of Mucins, who, to shew
his obedience, did not stick, at the commandment of his
abbot, to cast his son into the water, not knowing whe-
ther any were ready to rescue him from drowning ; so
far were the monks in those days drowned in supersti-
tion. What is this, but for man's traditions and com-
mandments to transgress the commandments of God,
which saith, " Thou shalt do no murder ; thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God?" What man is so blind, that sees
not by these and many other examples, what pernicious
superstition begun by reason of this monkery, almost
from the beginning, to creep into the church ? ^^ hereat
I cannot marvel enough, seeing that that age of the
church had so many learned doctors, who not only
approved and followed these monastical sects, but also
themselves were authors and institutors of the same.
Among whom may be reckoned Basil and Nazianzen,
chi se ecclesiasticis ni-gotiis iramisceant ;" that is, " that monks
should not intermeddle with inatttrs of the church," &c. Et Leo
Epistola, 62, vetat monaehos et laicos, " etsi scientiee tiomina elo»
rientur, admitti ad oflScium docendi et concionandi,"
100
MONKS IN THE MIDDLE AND LATER AGES OF THE CHURCH. [Book III.
who with immoderate austerity so reduced themselves,
that when they were called to the office of bishops, they
were not able to bear the labour thereof.
After these monks followed other monks of the middle
age of the church ; who, increasing both in multitude
and in superstition, began by little and little to leave
their desolate dens in the vast wilderness and approach
nearer to great towns ; where they had solemn monas-
teries founded by kings and queens, and kings' daugh-
ters. I note, that the most part of these monasteries
were first erected upon some great murder, either by
war in the field, or privately committed at home, as will
appear to those that read the books I have mentioned.
But to return to our monks again, who, as I said, first
began to creep from the cold field into warm towns and
cloisters, from towns then into cities, and at length from
their close cells and cities into cathedral churches, where,
they not only abounded in wealth and riches (especially
these monks of our later time) but much more in super-
stition and Pharisaical hypocrisy, being yoked and tied in
all their doings, to certain prescribed rules, and formal
observances ; in watching, in sleeping, in eating, in
rising, in praying, in walking, in talking, in looking, in
tasting, in touching, in handling, in their gestures, in
their vestures, every man apparelled not as the proper
condition of others would require, nor as the season of
the year did serve, but as the rules and order of every sect
enforced them. The number of which sects was infinite;
gome after Basil's rule, went in white ; some after Bene-
dict's rule in black ; some of Cluny ; some after Jerome's
rule, leather girdled, and coped above their white coat ;
some Gregorians copper coloured ; some grey monks ;
Eome Graudimontenses, wearing a coat of mails upon
their bare bodies, with a black cloak thereon ; some
Cistercians, who had white rochets on a black coat ;
some Celestines, all in blue, both cloak, cowl, and cap ;
some charter monks, wearing haircloth next their bo-
dies ; some Flagellants, going bare-foot in long white
linen shirts, with an open place in the back, where they
beat themselves with scourges on the bare skin every day
before the people's eyes, till the blood ran down, saying,
that it was revealed to them by an angel, that in so
scourging themselves, within thirty days and twelve
hours, they should be made so pure from sin, as they
were when they first received baptism ; some starred
monks ; some Jesuites, with a white girdle and russet
cowl. But who can reckon the innumerable sects and
disguised orders of their fraternities ? Some holding of
St. Benedict, some of St. Jerome, some of St. Basil,
some of St. Bernard, some of St. Bridget, some of St.
Bruno, some of St. Lewis, as though it were not enough
for christians to hold of Christ only. So subject were
they to servile rules, that no part of christian liberty
remained among them ; so drowned and sunk in super-
stition, that they had not only lost Christ's religion, but
also almost the sense and nature of men. For where
men naturally are and ought to be ruled by the discreet
government of reason in all outward doings, wherein one
rule can serve for all men ; the circumstance of time,
place, person and business being so sundry and divers ;
on the contrai-y among these, no reason, but only the knock
of a bell ruled all their doings ; their rising, their sleeping,
their praying, their eating, their coming in, their going
out, their talking, their silence, and altogether like in-
sensible people, either not having reason to rule them-
selves, or else as persons ungrateful to God, neither
enjoying the benefit of reason created in them, nor yet
using the grace of Christ's liberty, whereunto he re-
deemsd them.
Thus the reader sees what the monks were in the pri-
mitive time of the church, and what were the monks of
the middle age, and of these our later days of the
church. Whereto join this, that where the monks of
elder time were mere laymen and no spiritual ministers :
afterwards Boniface III. made a decree (A. D. 606),
that monks might use the office of preaching, of
christening, of hearing confessions, and also of absolving
people from their sins, &c. So then monks, who in the
beginning were but laymen, and no spiritual ministers,
forbidden by the general council of Chalcedon to inter-
meddle with matters ecclesiastical ; afterwards in pro-
cess of time, did so much encroach upon the office of
spiritual ministers, that at length the priests were dis-
charged out of their cathedral churches, and monks set
in their places ; because that monks in those days,
leading a stricter life, and professing celibacy, had a
greater countenance of holiness among the people than
the priests, who then in the days of King Edgar had
wives (at least so many as would) no law forbidding
them to the contrary, till the time of Hildebrand, called
Gregory VII.
And thus much by the way, as to the order and pro-
fession of monks. Now to turn again to the matter of
King Edgar. Such provinces and lordships, as were
not yet come under the king's subjection, he united to
his dominion, and so made one perfect monarchy of the
whole realm of England, with all the islands and borders
about the same. Such as were wicked, he kept under,
he repressed them that were rebels, the godly he main-
tained, he was devout to God, and beloved of his sub-
jects, whom he governed in much peace and quietness.
And as he was a great seeker of peace, so God did bless
him with much abundance of peace and rest from all
wars. He was a great maintainer of religion and learn-
ing, not forgetting herein the footsteps of King Alfred his
predecessor.
It is reported of this Edgar, by divers authors, that
about the thirteenth year of his reign, he being at
Chester, eight kings, to wit, petty kings, came and did
homage to him. All which kings, after they had given
their fidelity to Edgar, the next day (for a pomp or
royalty), he entered with them into the river Dee,
where he, sitting in a boat, took the helm, and caused
these eight kings, every person taking an oar in his
hand, to row him up and down the river, to and from
the church of St. John to his palace again, in token that
he was master and lord of so many provinces.
And thus ye have heard, touching the commendation
of King Edgar, such reports as the old monkish writers
bestow upon him, as the great patron of their monkish,
religion, who had built so many monasteries for them,
as were Sundays in the year.
Now, on the other side, what vices were in him, let
us likewise consider, according as we find in the said
authors described, which most wrote to his advance-
ment. One vice is noted to be cruelty, as well upon
others, as upon a certain earl, called Ethelwold. The
story is this ; Ordgar, Duke of Devonshire, had a cer-
tain daughter named Elfrida, whose beauty being highly
commended to the king, he sent this Ethelwold,
(whom he especially trusted), to the party, to see and
to bring him word again, and if her beauty were such as
was reported, he desired him also to negociate a mar-
riage between them. Ethelwold finding the party, and
seeing her beauty nothing inferior to her fame, and
thinking to serve himself, gave a false account to the
king. Whereupon the king changed his mind, and in
the end Ethelwold himself married the maiden.
Not long after the king hearing how he was deceived, set
a fair face upon the matter before Ethelwold, and merrily
jesting with him, told him he would come and see his
wife, and indeed appointed the day when he would be
there. Ethelwold perceiving this matter to go hardly
with him, made haste to his wife, declaring to her the
coming of the king, and also opening the whole order of
the matter how he had done ; desiring her on her love
for him, as she would save his life, to disfigure herself
with such garments and attire as the king might not
discover her beauty. Elfrida hearing this, contrary to
the request of her husband and the promise of a wife,
against the king's coming trimmed herself at the glass,
and decked herself in her best array. When the king
beheld her, he was not so much delighted with her,
as in hatred with her husband, who had so deceived
him. Whereupon the king shortly after, making aa
though he would go to hunt in the forest of Harwood,
sent for Ethelwold to come to him under the pretence
of hunting, and there ran him through and slew him.
And besides the vices objected to King Edgar in our
monkish writers, I also observe another, which wa«
A. D. 965—976.] KING EDGAR'S CHARACTER, AND ORATION TO THE CLERGY.
blind superstition and idolatrous monkery brought into
the church of Christ, with the wrongful expelling of
lawful married priests out of their houses. Whereupon
what inconveniences ensued after in this realm, especially
in the House of the Lord, I leave to the consideration
of them which have heard of the detestable enormities
of those religious votaries ; the occasion whereof first
and chiefly began in this Edgar, through the instigation
of Dunstan and his fellows, who after they had inveigled
the king, and had brought him to their purpose, caused
him to call a council of the clergy, where it was enacted,
that the canons of divers cathedral churches, parsons,
vicars, priests, and deacons, with their wives and chil-
dren, either should give over that kind of life, or else
give room to monks, &c.
And thus much concerning the history of King
Edgar, and of such things as happened in his time in
the church. When he had reigned the space of sixteen
years, he died, and was buried at Glastonbury, leaving
after him two base born children, Editha and Edward, and
one lawful son, named Ethelred.
King Edgar is noted in all histories to have lived a
riotous and debauched kind of life ; in consequence of
his having taken a nun named Elfled into his house ;
he was kept back from his coronation by Dunstan
archbishop of Canterbury, the space of seven years ; and
so the king beginning his reign in the sixteenth year of
his age (A. D. 959), was crowned (A. D. 974). Con-
cerning the coronation and the presumptuous behaviour
of Dunstan against the king, and his penance enjoined
by Dunstan ; you shall hear both Osbern, Malmesbury,
and other authors speak in their own words as follow :
" After Dunstan had understood the king's offence per-
petrated with the professed nun, and that it was blazed
amongst the people, he came with great ire and passion
of mind to the king, who, seeing the archbishop coming,
arose from his regal seat towards him, to take him by
th«! hand, and to give him place. But Dunstan refused
to take him by the hand, and with stern countenance
bending his brows, spake to this effect to the king. ' You
that have not feared to corrupt a virgin dedicated to Christ,
])resume you to touch the consecrated hands of a bishop ?
You have defiled the spouse of your Maker, and think
you by flattering service to pacify the friend of the
bridegroom ? No, Sir, his friend will not I be, who has
Christ as his enemy,' &c. The king terrified with these
thundering words of Dunstan, and touched with inward
repentance of his sin, fell down weeping at the feet of
Dunstan, who, after he had raised him from the ground,
began to utter the horribleness of his act ; and finding
the king ready to receive whatever satisfaction he would
lay upon him, enjoined him this penance for seven years'
space, as follows : —
" That he should wear no crown all that time ; that
he should fast twice in the week ; he should distribute
his treasure, left to him of his ancestors, liberally to
the poor, he should build a monastery of nuns at Shafts-
bury, that as he had robbed God of one devoted maiden
through his transgression, so he should restore to him
many again in times to come. Moreover he should ex-
pel clerks of evil life (meaning such priests as had wives
and children), out of churches, and place convents of
monks in their room," &c.
It follows then in the story of Osbern, that when the
seven years of the king's penance were expired, Dun-
stan calling together all the peers of the realm, with the
bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastical degrees of the
clergy, in the public sight of all the multitude, set the
crown upon the king's head at Bath, which was the one-
and-thirtieth year of his age, and the thirteenth year of
his reign ; so that he reigned only but three years
crowned king. All the other years Dunstan probably
ruled the land as he pleased.
Among his other laws, this king ordained that the
Sunday should be solemnized from nine o'clock on Satur-
d) Foie had placed this oration at the end of the present bool«,
■with this observation — " A certain oration of Kinj Edsar's which
should have been placed before, chanced in the meantime to come
to my bauds, not unwortliy to be read : 1 tliouijlit by tlie way, in
101
day evening till Monday morning. He also made a
certain oration to the clergy, not unworthy to be read,
as follows :'
THE ORATION OF KING EDGAR TO THE CLERGY.
" Because God hath shewed his great mercy to work
with us ; it is meet (most reverend fathers,) that with
worthy works we should answer his innumerable benefits.
For we possess not the land by our own sword, and our
own arm hath not saved us : but his right hand and his
holy arm, because he hath been delighted in us. There-
fore it is meet that we should submit both ourselves and
our souls to him, that hath subjected all these things
under our government ; and we ought stoutly to labour,
that they, whom he hath made subject to us, might be
subject to his laws. It belongs to me to rule the lay-
people with the law of equity, to do just judgment be-
tween a man and his neighbour, to punish church-rob-
bers, to hold under rebels, to deliver the helpless from
the hand of the stronger, the needy also and the poor
from them that rob them. It belongs also to my care to
provide necessary things for the ministers of the churches,
for the flocks of the monks, for the company of nuns,
and to provide for their peace and quiet. The examining
of all whose manners belongeth unto us ; whether they
live purely, if they behave themselves honestly toward
them that be without, whether they be diligent at God's
service, if they be earnest to teach the people, if they be
sober in eating and drinking, if they keep measure ia
apparel, and if they be discreet in judgment. If ye had
regarded these things with a trial of them (O reverend
fathers, by your leaves I speak) such horrible and abomi-
nable things of the clerks should not have come unto our
ears. I omit to speak how their crown is not broad,
nor their rounding convenient : the wantonness of your
life, the pride of your gesture, the filthiness of your
words do declare the evil of the inward man.
" Furthermore, what negligence is in God's serv'ice,
whence they will scarce be present at the holy Vigils .'
And when they come to mass, they seem rather to be
gathered to play and laugh than to sing. I will tell that,
which good men will be sorry for, and the evil laugh at. I
will speak with sorrow (if so be I may express it) how
they are riotous in banquetings, in chambering, drunk-
enness and riotings that now clerks' houses may be
thought to be convents of players. There is dice, there
is dancing and singing, there is watching to midnight,
with crying and shouting. Thus the goods of kings,
the alms of princes, yea (and what is more) the price of
that precious blood is not esteemed. Have our fathers
then spent their treasure for this purpose .' Have the
king's coffers decayed by taking away many revenues for
this cause? Hath the king's liberality given lands andpos-
sessions to Christ's churches for this intent, that clerks'
dancers and singers should be decked with the same .' that
riotous feasts might be dressed ? that hounds and hawks
and such otlier toys might be gotten .' The soldiers cry
out for these things, the people grudge, minstrels sing, and
dance, and yet ye regard it not, ye spare it, ye dissemble
it. Where is the sword of Levi, and the zeal of Si-
meon, which killed the Sichemites and the circumcised,
who bare the figure of them that defile Christ's
church with filthy deeds, because they abused Jacob's
daughter ? Where is Moses' spirit, which spared not his
own kinsfolk that worshipped the head of the calf.'
Where is Phineas the priest's dagger, which pacified
God's anger by holy zeal, when he killed him that sinned
with the Midianite ? Where is Peter's spirit, by whose
power covetousness is destroyed, and simouiacal heresy
is condemned ? Be earnest ye priests, be earnest to fol-
low the ways of the Lord, and the righteousness of our
God. It is time to act against them that have broken
the law of God. I have Constantine's sword, and ye
have Peter's sword in your hands ; let us join right hands,
tlie end of this book, to insert ihe same, (although out of order)
yet 1 judge it better out ol order, than out of the book." It il
iiere inserted in it6 proper place. lEu.J
102
THE ORATION OF KING EDGAR TO THE CLERGY. KING EDWARD. [Book III.
let us couple sword to sword, that the lepers may be
cast out of the temples, that the holy place of the Lord
may be purged, and the sons of Levi may minister in his
temple, who said to his father and mother, I know you
not ; and to his brother, I know you not. Go to, dili-
gently, I pray you, lest we repent to have done that we
have done, and to have given that we gave, if we shall
see that to be spent not in God's service, but on the
riotousness of wicked men, through vile and corrupt
liberty of life, for lack of chastisement. Let the relics
of holy saints, which they despise, and the holy altars
before which they play the madmen, move you. Let the
great devotion of our ancestors move you, whose alms
the madness of the clerks doth abuse. My great grand-
father (as ye know) gave the tenth part of all his lands
to churches and abbeys. My great-great grandfather,
Alfred, of holy memory, thought it not meet to spare his
treasures, his goods, nor costs, nor rents, that he might
enrich the church. Your fatherhood is not ignorant
how great things my grandfather the elder Edward gave
to the churches. It becometh you to remember with
what gifts my father and his brothers did enrich Christ's
altars. O father of fathers, Dunstan ! behold (I pray
thee) the eyes of my father looking on thee, from that
bright place of heaven : hearken to his complaining
words sounding in thine ears, thus pitifully lamenting,
0 Father Dunstan ! thou, thou (I say) gavest me coun-
sel to build abbeys and churches, thou wast my helper
and fellow-worker in aU things : I chose thee as a shep-
herd and bishop of my soul, and a keeper of my man-
ners. When did I not obey thee ? What treasures
did I prefer in respect of thy counsels ? What posses-
sions did I not despise, if thou badest me ? If thou
thoughtest meet to give any thing to the poor, I was
ready. If thou thoughtest meet to give any thing to
churches, I deferred not. If thou complainedst that
monks or clerks wanted any thing, I supplied. Thou
saidst that alms lasted for ever, and that there was none
more fruitful than that which was ^ven to abbeys or
churches. For with that both God's servants are sus-
tained, and that which remaineth is given to the poor.
O, worthy alms ! O, worthy price of the soul ! O,
wholesome remedy for our sins, which now doth stink in
the sweet furrs of priests' lemmans, wherewith they
adorn their ears, and deck their fingers, apparelling their
delicate bodies with silk and purple ! O, father I is this
the fruit of my alms ? is this the effect of my desire,
and of thy promise .' WTiat wilt thou answer to this
complaint of my fathers .' I know, I know : when thou
didst see a thief, thou runnedst not with him, neither
hast thou put thy portion with adulterers. Thou hast
rebuked, thou hast exhorted, thou hast blamed them ;
but words have been despised ; now we must come to
stripes of correction. Thou hast here with thee the
worshipful father, Edward bishop of Winchester. Thou
hast the reverend prelate, Oswald bishop of Worcester.
1 commit this business to you, that both by bishoply
correction, and the king's authority, the filthy livers
may be cast out of the churches and they that live orderly
may be brought in," &c.
In this oration of King Edgar above prefixed, three
things are chiefly to be noted and considered by them that
have judgment to mark and understand, to wit, The
religious zeal and devotion of kings, both in giving to
the church, and also in correcting the manners of
churchmen. Secondly, the dissolute behaviour of the
clergy, then abusing the great donations and patri-
monies of princes bestowed upon them. Thirdly, the
blind ignoranfie and superstition of that time in both
states, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, in esteeming
Christ's religion chiefly to consist in giving to churches,
and in maintaining of monkery ; being falsely persuaded
that the remission of their sins, and the remedy of their
souls therein, did lie in building monasteries, erecting
churches and cloisters, and in placing monks in the
same, and such other alms-deeds, and works of devotion.
MTierein appears how ignorant they of that time were
of the true doctrine of Christ's faith, and of the free grace
of the gospel, which promises life, remedy, and justifica-
tion, not by any devout merits of ours nor by any works
either of the law of God, or of the inventions of man,
but only and freely by our faith in Christ Jesus the Son
of God, in whom only consist all the promises of God.
Amen.
KING EDWARD, CALLED THE MARTYR.
After the death of King Edgar no small trouble arose
among the lords and bishops concerning the succession of
the crown ; the principal cause whereof rose upon this oc-
casion : Immediately after the decease of the king, Alferus,
duke of Mercia, and many other nobles who held with
Ethelred, the only right heir and lawful son of Edgar, dis-
liking the placing and intruding of monks into churches,
and the tlirusting out of the secular priests, with their
wives and children out of their ancient possessions, ex-
pelled the abbots and monks, and brought in again the
priests with their wives. Against whom certain other
there were on the contrary part that made resistance, as
Ethelwin duke of East Angles, Elfwold his brother, and
the Earl Brithnoth, saying. That they would never
suff'er the religious monks to be expelled and driven out
of the realm, who held up all religion in the land ; and
thereupon levied an army to defend the monasteries by
force.
In this hurly-burly amongst the lords, about the
placing of monks, and putting out of priests, rose also
the contention about the crown, who should be their
king ; the bishops, and such lords as favoured the monks,
seeking to advance such a king as they knew would in-
cline to their side ; so that the lords thus divided, some
of them would have Edward, and some Ethelred, the
lawful son. Then Dunstan archbishop of Canterbury,
and Oswald archbishop of York, with their fellow
bishops, abbots, and other lords and dukes assembled
in a council together. In which council Dunstan
coming in with his cross in his hand, and bringing Ed-
ward before the lords, so persuaded them that in the
end Edward was elected, consecrated, and anointed for
their king.
After Dunstan and his fellows had thus set up Edward
for their king, they supposed all to be sure on their
side, and that they had established the kingdom of
monkery for ever, through the help of the young king,
and the duke of East Angles, and certain other nobles
whom they had drawn to their part. However this mat-
ter passed not so well with them as they hoped, for
shortly after the coronation of the young king, Alfenis,
duke of Mercia, stoutly standing on the other side, drove
out the monks from the cathedral churches, and restored
the priests with their wives. The words of the very
author are these, " Alferus, duke of Mercia, with other
great men more, drove out the monks from the great
monasteries whom King Edgar had there set in before,
and restored again the priests with their wives."
(Hist. Jornal in vita Edgari.)
Whereby it evidently appears that priests in those
days were married, and had their lawful wives.
The duke and nobles of England expelled the monks
out of the monasteries after the death of King Edgar ;
whereof let us hear what the abbey of Crowland records.
" The monks being expelled out of certsdn monasteries,
the clerks were again brought in, who distributed the
manors or farms of the said monasteries to the dukes
and lords of the land, that they being obliged to them,
should defend them against the monks. And so were
the monks of Evesham thrust out, and the secular
clerks placed, and the lands of the church given to the
lords ; with whom the queen, the king's stepmother
holding the same time, took part also with the said
clerks against the king. On the contrary part stood the
king and the holy bishops, taking part with the monks.
Howbeit the lords and peers of the realm, staying upon
the favour and power of the queen triumphed over the
monks," &c.
Thus, as there was much ado through all quarters of
the realm among the lords, so arose no less contention
between the priests and monks. The priests complain-
ing to the king and Dunstan, said for themselves that it
1 was uncomely, uncharitable yea and unnatural, to put
i A.D. 97C— 995.T KING EDWARD MURDERED, SUCCEEDED BY KING ETHELRED.
103
dut an old known dweller for a new unknown ; and that
God was not pleased that that should be taken from the
ancient possessor which by God was given him. The
monks on the other side said for their part, that Christ
allowed neither the old dweller, nor the new comer, nor
yet looked upon the person, but that whoever would take
the cross of penance upon him, and foUow Christ in vir-
tuous livir.g. should be his disciple.
These and such other were the allegations of the
monks. But whether a monk's cowl, or a wifeless life
make a sufficient title to enter into other men's posses-
I gions or no, I refer to the judgment of the godly. The
troublous cares in marriage, the necessary provision for
house-keeping, the virtuous bringing up of children, the
daily helping of poverty, and bearing of public charges,
with other manifest perturbations and encumbrances
daily incident to matrimony, might rather appear to wise
men to come nearer to the cross of penance, than the
easy and loitering idleness of monkery. In the end,
upon this controversy a council of bishops and other of
the clergy was held, where the greater part both of the
nobles and commons, judged the priests to have suffered
great wrong, and sought by all means possible to bring
them again to their old possession and dignities.
Not long after, King Edward, whom the writers de-
scribe to be a virtuous and a meek prince, very
pitiful and beneficial to the poor, about the fourth year
of his reign, came once from hunting in the forest
alone, without the company of his servants to the place
in the west country, where Alfrith his mother, with her
son Ethelred lived. When the queen-mother was
warned of his coming, she calls a servant who was of spe-
cial trust, shewing him how and what to do for the ac-
complishing of her wicked purpose. Which thing so
done, she made towards the king, and received him with
all courtesy, desiring him to tarry that night, but he in
like courtesy excused himself, and desired to see his
brother, and to drink upon his horse sitting.
Now, while the cup was at his mouth, the servant of
the queen struck him in the body with a long two-edged
dagger. After which the king struck the horse with the
spurs, and galloped towards the place where he supposed
to meet with his company, but he bled so much, that he
fell from his horse with faintness, one foot being caught
in the stirrup, by which he was drawn by his horse over
fields and lands till he came to a place named Corf-gate,
where he was found dead.
In the order and course of the Roman bishops, men-
tion was made last of Agapetus II., after whom next
succeeded Pope John XII. ' This pope is noted to be very
wicked and infamous, with abominable vices ; an adulterer,
gamester, an extortioner, perjurer, a fighter, a murderer,
cruel and tyrannous. Of his cardinals, some he put out
their eyes, from some he cut off their tongues, some their
fingers, some their noses, &c. In a general council be-
fore the Emperor Otho I., these objections were articled
against him, " That he never said his service ; that in
saying his mass he did not communicate ; that he
ordained deacons in a stable ; that playing at dice he
called for the devil to help ; that for money he made
boys bishops ; that he committed adultery ; that he put
out the eyes of the Bishop Benedict; that he caused houses
to be set on fire ; that he brake open houses ; that he
drank to the devil ; that he never crossed himself," &c.
For which causes he was deposed by the consent of the
emperor with the prelates, and Pope Leo VIII. was
substituted in his place. But after his departing, Pope
John was restored again to his place, and Leo was
deposed. At length about the tenth year of the popedom
of this John, he being found without the city with ano-
ther man's wife, was so wounded by her husband, that
within eight days after he died.
After him the Romans elected Pope Benedict V.,
(I) The FPader must bear in mind that Foxe introduces Pope
Joan with tlie desisnation the Vlllth., [see page 90] and therefore
lie arranu'is all the succeeilinj Johns under numbers proportionably
liicrher in the numeral line of succession. Again, durin? the pon-
tifioare of Bonifaoe VII., there was another Jon.v, whom Foxe
nekons as tlie XVth, and wlio was elected, after the election, and
deposed before the death of this Boniface VII.: and who. therefore, |
without the consent of the emperor r whereupon the said
Otho, the emperor, being not a little displeased for dis-
placing of Leo VIII., whom he had before promoted,
and for the choosing also of Benedict V., came with his
army, and laid siege to Rome, and so set up Pope
Leo VIII. again. Leo, to gratify his benefactor, in re-
turn crowned Otho for emperor, and intitled him to be
called Augustus. Also the power which Charlemagne
had given before to the clergy and people of Rome, this
Leo granted to the emperor and his successors ; that
is, touching the election of the bishop of Rome. The
emperor again restored to the see of Rome all such dona-
tions and possessions which either Constantine (as they
falsely pretend) or which Charlemagne took from the
Lombards, and gave to them.
After Pope Leo, succeeded Pope John XIII. Peter,
the head captain of the city, with two consuls, twelve
aldermen, and divers other nobles, gathering their
power together, laid hands upon him in the church of
Lateran, and put the pope in prison eleven months.
The emperor hearing this, •;vith all speed returned with
his army to Rome ; who after execution done upon the
authors and chief doers of that act, committed Peter to
the pope's sentence, he caused him first to be stripped
naked, then his beard being shaven, to be hanged by
the hair a whole day together, after that to be set upon
an ass (his face turned backward, and his hands bound
under the ass's tail), and so to be led through the city,
that all men might see him ; that done, to be scourged
with rods, and so banished the city. Thus ye see how
the holy father followeth the injunction of the gospel,
" Love your enemies." From this pope proceeded first
the christening of bells (A. D. 971).
After him followed Pope Benedict VI., wno in like
manner was apprehended by Cinthius, a captain of
Rome, and cast in prison, where he was strangled, or as
some say, famished to death.
Then came Pope Donus II., after Boniface VII. was
pope, who likewise seeing the citizens of Rome conspire
against him, was constrained to hide himself, and seeing
no place there for him to tarry, took the treasure of St.
Peter's church, and so privily stole to Constantinople. In
whose stead the Romans set up one Pope John. Not
long after Boniface returning again from Constantinople,
by his money and treasure procured a garrison or com-
pany to take his part : this Pope John was taken, his eyes
put out, and so thrown into prison, where he was, as
some say, famished ; some say he was slain by Ferrucius.
Neither did Boniface reign many days after, but suddenly
died ; whose carcass after his death was dravra by the
feet through the streets of Rome after a most despiteful
manner, the people shrieking and exclaiming against him,
(A. D. 976).
Next pope after him was Benedict VII., by the con-
sent of the Emperor Otho II. and reigned nine years.
After Benedict succeeded Pope John XIV., and died
the eighth month of his papacy ; next to whom came
John XV., and after him Gregory V. (A. D. 995).
This Gregory was a German, and therefore the more
disliked by the clergy and people of Rome. Where-
upon, Crescentius, with the people and clergy, conspir-
ing against Gregory, set up John XVI. Gregory
went in all haste to the emperor, who set forward with
his army to Italy, got the city, and there took both
Crescentius the consul, and John the pope. John first
having his eyes put out, was deprived after of his life.
Crescentius the consul was set upon a vile horse, having
his nose and ears cut off, and so was led through the
city, his face being turned to the horse's tail, and
afterward having his members cut off, was hanged upon
a gibbet.
Pope Gregory thus being restored, reigned four years
in his papacy.
is cenerally omitted in the line of iuccessioii in the papal chair.
These occasion much difficulty to tlie general reader, as confusing
the def iijnations of the many popes of this name ; therefore the
desisnation of Joan as the Vlllth, and of the Pope John in the
time of Boniface, as tlie XVth, arc omitted in this edition, and
the others stylea in the usual way. [Ed.]
104
DEATH OF KING ETHELRED. EDMUND AND CANUTE.
[Book III.
KING ETHELRED IT. SOMETIMES CALLED EGELRED
AND ELRED.
' King Edward being murdered, as before said, the
crown fell next to Ethelred. This Ethelred had a long
reign given him of God, which endured the term of
eight-and-thirty years, but very unfortunate and full of
great miseries ; and he himself seems a prince not of
the greatest courage to govern a commonwealth. Our
English histories writing of him, report of his reign, that
in the beginning it was ungracious, wretched in the
middle, and hateful in the latter end.
About the eleventh year (some say the ninth year) of
this king's reign Dunstan died.
Not long after the death of Dunstan, the Danes again
entered England, in many and different places of the
land ; so that the king scarcely knew to which coast he
should go first to withstand his enemies. But in the
end, he was compelled to appease them with great sums
of money : and when that money was spent, they fell to
robbing the people, and assailing the land, not only
about Northumberland, but also besieged the city of
London at last. But being from thence repelled by the
manhood of the Londoners, they strayed to other coun-
tries adjoining, burning and killing wherever they went ;
so that for lack of a good head or governor, many
things in the land perished. For the king gave him-
self to vice and taxing his subjects, and disinheriting
men of their possessions, and caused them to redeem
the same again with great sums of money ; for he paid
great tributes to the Danes yearly, which was called
dane-gilt. Which tributes so increased, that from the
first tribute of ten thousand pounds, it was brought at
last in process of five or six years, to forty thousand
pounds.
To this sorrow, moreover, was joined hunger and
penury among the commons, insomuch that every one
of them was constrained to pluck and steal from others.
So that what for the pillage of the Danes, and what by
inward thieves and bribers, this land was brought into
great affliction.
The Danes thus prevailing more and more over the
English grew in such pride and presumption, that when
they caused the husbandmen to ear and sow the land,
and to do all other vile labour belonging to the house,
they would sit at home at their pleasure. And when
the husbandman came liome, he could scarcely have of
his own, as his servants had ; so that the Dane had all at
his will, and fill, faring of the best ; when the owner
scarcely had his fill of the worst. Thus the common
people being so oppressed by them, were in such fear
and dread, that not only were they constrained to suffer
them in their doings, but also glad to please them.
And thus hitherto we have brought this history to
A. D. 1000. In this year, Ethelred, through the
counsel of his familiars about him, in the one-and-
twentieth year of his reign, began a matter which was
the occasion of a new plague to the Saxons, for the
king this year married Emma the daughter of Richard
duke of Normandy. By reason of which marriage King
Ethelred was not a little inhanced in his own mind ;
and sent secret and strict commissions to the rulers of
every town in England, that upon St. Brices' day at an
hour appointed, the Danes should be suddenly slain.
And so it was performed.
Soon after tidings came into Denmark of the murder
of those Danes, Swanus king of Denmark with a great
host and navy, landed in Cornwall; and took Exeter,
and beat down the walls. From thence proceeding
further into the land, they came to Wilton and Shere-
borne, where they cruelly spoiled the country, and slew
the people. But Swanus hearing that the king was
coming to him took to his ships. And as soon as he
heard of any host of Englishmen coming toward him,
then he took shipping again. So that when the king'8
army sought to meet him in one coast, then would he
suddenly land in another. And thus they wearied the
English, and in conclusion brought them into extreme
•ind unspeakable misery ; insomuch, that the king was
fain to take peace with them, and gave to King Swanvui
30,000/.
After this, Swanus hearing of the increase of his people
in England, broke his covenants not to molest the English,
and with a great army and navy, landed in Northumber-
land and proclaimed himself king. Where after much
vexation when he had subdued the people, and caused
the earl with the rulers of the country to swear to
him fealty ; he passed the river of Trent, and subduing
the people there, forced them to give hiin pledges or
hostages ; which hostages he committed with his navy,
unto his son Canute to keep, while he went further into
the land ; and so with a great host came to Mercia, kil-
ling and slaying. Then he took by strength Winchester
and Oxford, and did there what he liked. That done,
he came toward London, and hearing the king was
there, passed by the river Thames, and came into Kent,
and there besieged Canterbury, where he was resisted
for the space of twenty days. At length by the treason
of a deacon called Almaric he won it, and took the
goods of the people, and fired the city, and decimated
the monks of St. Augustine's abbey (that is, they slew
nine out of every ten by cruel torment, and the tenth
they kept alive as their slave). So they slew there of
monks to the number of nine hundred persons ; of
other men, women and children, they slew above eight
thousand. And finally, when they had kept the bishop
Elphegus in prison the space of seven months, because
he would not give them 3000/. ; after many villanies
done to him, they brought him to Greenwich, and there
stoned him to death.
King Ethelred in the mean time, fearing the end of
this persecution, sent his wife Emma, with his two sons
Alfred and Edward, to the Duke of Normandy, with
whom also he sent the bishop of London. The DanesJ
proceeded still in their fury and rage, and when theyj
had won a great part of West Saxony, they returnedl
again to London. Whereof the Londoners hearing,!
sent unto them certain great gifts and pledges. At lasM
the king about the five-and- thirtieth year of his reign,]
was chased unto the Isle of Wight, and with a secret!
company he spent there a great part of the winter ; andl
finally, without cattle or comfort, sailed to Normandy to
his wife. Shortly after Swanus died suddenly.
When King Ethelred heard of the death of Swanus,
he returned to England. Canute, being unprovided,
fled to Sandwich, and there cutting off the noses and
hands of the hostages whom his father left with him,
sailed into Denmark ; the next year he returned again
with a great navy, and landed in the south country.
The eldest son of King Ethelred, called Edmund Iron-
side, made provision to meet him. At this time King
Ethelred being at London, was taken with great sick-
ness, and there died, after he had reigned thirty and six
years ; leaving his said eldest son Edmund Ironside,
and Elfred, and Edward. This Ethelred, although he
was miserably assailed and vexed by his enemies, yet
with his council he gave forth many wholesome laws.
EDMUND IRONSIDE A SAXON, AND CANUTE A DANK,
KINGS TOGETHER IN ENGLAND.
After the death of Ethelred variance fell between the
Englishmen for the election of their king. For the citi-
zens of London, with certain other lords, named Edmund
the eldest son of Ethelred (a young man of lusty and
valiant courage), in martial adventures both hardy and
wise, who could very well endure all pains ; wherefore
he was surnamed Ironside. But more of the lords
favoured Canute, the son of Swanus, especially the
abbots, bishops, and other spiritual men, who before had
sworn to his father. By means whereof, between these
two martial princes many great battles were fought, first
in Dorsetshire, where Canute was compelled to fly the
field. And after that they fought another battle in
Worcestershire, so hard fought that none could tell who,
had the better ; but either for weariness or for lack of
day, they departed one from the other, and on the next
morning fought again ; but then Canute was compelled
to forsake the field. After this they met in Merciaf
A. D. 995-1007.] HARDICANUTE, THE LAST DANISH KING IN ENGLAND.
105
'and there fought again ; where Edmund had the worse.
Thus there were many great conflicts between these two
Iprinces. But upon a season, when the hosts were ready
to join, and a certain time of truce was taken before
the battle, a knight of the party of Edmund stood up
upon a high place, and said these words : " We die daily
land none has the victory : and when the knights be dead
on either part, then the dukes compelled by need shall
: agree, or else they must fight alone. And is this kingdom
not sufficient for two men, which sometimes sufficed
seven ? But if the covetousness of lordship in these two
be so great, that neither can be content to take a part
and live with the other, nor the one under the other, then
let them fight alone that will be lords alone. If all men
continue to fight, at the last all men shall be slain, and
none left to be under their lordship, nor able to defend
the king that shall be against strange enemies and na-
jtions."
I These words were so well approved of both by the hosts
and princes, that both were content to try the quar-
:rel between the two princes only. Then the place and
time was appointed, where they both met in sight of
the two armies. And when they had assailed each
other with swords and sharp strokes, first by the motion
of Canute (as some write) suddenly they both agreed,
land kissed each other to the comfort of both hosts.
And shortly after they agreed upon the partition of the
land ; and after that during their lives they loved as
brethren. Soon after a son of wicked duke Edric espied
when King Edmund was unarmed, and with a spear (some
isay with a long knife) thrust him through, whereof
lEdmund shortly died, after he had reigned two years.
I He left behind him two sons, Edmund and Edward,
iwhom Edric the wicked duke, after the death of their
[father, took from their mother (not knowing yet of the
death of Edmund her husband) and presented them to
king Canute. Thus Canute, after the death of Edmund
Ironside, was king of the whole realm of England.
When Canute was established in the kingdom, he
called a parliament at London, where this question was
proposed to the bishops, barons, and lords of the parlia-
ment, whether in the composition made between Edmund
[and Canute, any provision was made for the children
lof Edmund, for any partition of the land. The lords
[flattering the foreign king, and speaking against their
own minds, as also against their native country, said
Ithere was not. Affirming moreover with an oath (for
Ithe king's pleasure) that they to the uttermost of
'their powers, would put off the blood of Edmund in
Sail that they might. By reason of which answer and
(promise, they thought to have purchased great favour
with the king. But by the just retribution of God it
; chanced far otherwise. For many of them he distrusted
land disdained ever after, so that some he exiled, and
la great many he beheaded. Among whom was wicked
! Edric the traitor. For as the king was in his palace,
' Edric coming to him, began to reckon up his benefits
and labours in forsaking and betraying Ethelred, then in
slaying King Edmund his son, with many such other
deeds more, which for his sake he had done. "Well," said
the king, " thou hast here rightly judged thyself, and thou
shall die deservedly for slaying thy natural prince, and
my sworn brother." And so he commanded him to be
bound immediately hand and foot, and to be thrown into
the Thames.
Thus the Danes being settled in England, began by
little and little to become christians. Canute went to
Rome, and returning again to England, governed that
land the space of twenty years, leaving after him two
sons, Harold and Hardicanute.
Harold (called Harefoot, for his swiftness), began his
reign over England A.D. 1036 : he reigned but four
years.
Hardicanute was next king of England, and when he
had reigned two years he was suddenly stricken dumb,
I and fell down to the ground, and within eight days after
j died without issue of his body. He was the last Danish
I king that reigned in England.
The earls and barons, after his death, assembled
in council, and determined that no Dane should ever be
king of England, for the despite that they had done to
Englishmen. For evermore before, if the Englishmen
and the Danes had happened to meet upon a bridge, the
Englishmen were obliged to stand still till the Dane had
passed. And moreover, if the Englishmen had not
bowed down their heads to do reverence to the Danes,
they would have been beaten. For which despites and
villanies they were driven out of the land after the death
of Hardicanute, and they never came again.
The earls and barons, by their common consent and
council, sent unto Normandy for these two brethren,
Alfred and Edward ; intending to crown Alfred the elder
brother, and to make him king of England. And to this
the earls and barons made their oath : but the earl
Godwin of West Sax, falsely and treacherously, thought
to slay these two brethren as soon as they came into
England, that he might make Harold his son king:
which son he had by his wife, Hardicanute's daughter.
When Alfred had heard these messengers, and per-
ceived their tidings, he thanked God, and in all haste
came to England, arriving at Southampton. There
Godwin the false traitor (having knowledge of his coming)
welcomed and received him with joy, pretending to lead
him to London, where the barons waited to make him
king, and so they passed forth together toward London.
But when they came to Guilddown, the traitor command-
ed his men to slay all that were in Alfred's company,
which came with him from Normandy ; and after that,
to take Alfred, and to lead him into the Isle of Ely where
they should put out both his eyes ; so they slew all the
company that were there, to the number of twelve gen-
tlemen, which came with Alfred from Normandy ; and
after that they took Alfred, and in the Isle of Ely they
cruelly murdered him. And so this innocent Alfred,
being the right heir of the crown, died through the trea-
son of wicked Godwin. When the lords of England
heard thereof, and how Alfred, that should have been
their king, was put to death through the false traitor
Godwin they were very wroth, and swore between God
and them that he should die a worse death, and would
immediately have put him to death, but that the traitor
fled thence into Denmark, and there continued more
than four years, and lost all his lands in England.
And thus much of Canute, and of his sons Harold and
Hardicanute.
Of this Canute, it is reported that he following the
superstition of Achelnot, archbishop of Canterbury, went
on a pilgrimage to Rome, and there founded an hospital
for English pilgrims. He gave the pope precious gifts,
and burdened the land with a yearly tribute, called the
*' Rome-shot." He shrined the body of Berinus, and
gave great lands and ornaments to the cathedral church
of Winchester ; he built St. Benedict's in Norfolk, which
before was an hermitage. Also St. Edmunsbury, which
King Athlestan before ordained for a college of priests,
he turned to an abbey of monks of St. Benedict's order.
Henry, archdeacon of Huntington, makes mention of
this Canute, as does also Polydore. That after his
coming from Rome, he was walking upon a time by the
port of Southampton, but Polydore saith and Fabian
affirmeth the same, that it was by the Thames side of
London, when his flatterers coming about him, began to
exalt him with high words, calling him a king of aU
kings (most mighty) who had under his subjection both
the people, the land, and also the sea : Canute revolv-
ing this matter in his mind (either for pride of his heart
exalted, or to try and refute their flattering words) com-
manded his chair of state to be brought to the sea-sidC;
at the time it should begin to flow : (Polydore saith that
no seat was brought, but that he sat upon his garments,
being folded together under him), he there charged and
commanded the floods arising and coming towards his feet,
that they should touch neither him nor his clothes. But the
water keeping its ordinary course came nearer and nearer ;
first to his feet, and so growing higher, began to wash
over him. Wherewith the king abashed, and partly
also afraid, started back, and looking to his lords ; " Lo,"
said he, " ye call me such a mighty king, and yet I can-
not command this little water to stay at my word, but it
is ready to drown me. Wherefore aU earthly kings may
105
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. HAROLD II.
[Book III.
know, that all their powers are vain, and that none is
worthy to have the name of a king, but he alone which
hath all things subject to the power and authority of his
word, which is the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator
of all things, the Father of Christ our Lord, who with
him for ever is to be glorified : Him let us worship and
extol for our King for ever." After this (as histories
witness) he never suffered the crown to come upon his
head but went to Winchester, or (as some say) to Canter-
bury ; but both those may be true ; for his going to
Canterbury, was to acknowledge that there was a Lord
much higher and of more power than he himself was, and
therewithal to render up his crown for ever.
Here is also to be noted in this Canute, that although
he acted in the beginning of his reign upon King Edgar's
laws, yet in process of time, he set forth peculiar laws of
his own. Among which, there are several that concern
ecclesiastical causes. Whereby it may appear, that the
government of spiritual matters did not depend then on
the bishop of Rome : but appertained to the lawful
authority of the temporal prince, no less than matters
and causes temporal.
And here being an end of the Danish kings, we
return to the English kings, whose right line comes in
again as follows
KINO EDVfARD, CALLED THE CONFESSOB..
The next election and right of the crown appertained
to Edward the younger son of King Ethelred and Emma,
a true Englishman : who had now been long banished
in Normandy : he was a man of gentle and soft spirit,
more appliable to other men's counsel, than able to trust
to his own ; so averse to all war and bloodshed, that being
in his banishment he wished rather to continue all his
life long in that private estate, than by war or bloodshed
to aspire to any kingdom. This Edward came over, ac-
companied with a few Normans, and was crowned (A. D.
104.'i). After he had thus taken upon him the govern-
ment of the realm, he guided the same with much wisdom
and justice, the space of nearly four-and-twenty years :
from whom issued (as out of a fountain) much godliness,
mercy, pity, and liberty toward the poor, gentleness
and justice toward all men, and in all honest life he gave
a virtuous example to his people.
In the time of this Edward, Emma his mother was
accused, of being familiar with Alwin, the bishop of Win-
chester : upon which accusation he took from her many
of her jewels, and caused her to be kept more strictly in
the abbey of Warwel, and the bishop he committed to the
examination of the clergy. Polydore says they were both
in prison at Winchester, where she sorrowing the defame
both of herself and the bishop, and trusting upon her
conscience, desires justice, offering herself ready to abide
a;iy lawful trial, yea, although it were with the sharpest.
Then many of the bishops petitioned the king for them
both, and would have obtained their wish, had not Robert
then archbishop of Canterbury stopped the suit. Who,
being not well pleased with their labour, said to them ;
" My brethren, how dare you defend this woman? She has
defamed her own son the king, and degraded herself with
the bishop. And if it be so, that the woman will purge
the priest, who shall then purge the woman, that is ac-
cused to be consenting to the death of her son Alfred, and
who procured venom to the poisoning of her son Edward.'
But let her be tried in this way, whether she be guilty or
guiltless ; if she will go barefooted for herself four steps,
and for the bishop five, upon nine red hot plough-shares ;
then if she escape harmless, he shall be acquitted by this
challenge, and she also."
To this she consented, and the day was appointed ; at
whicli day the king, and a great part of his nobles were
prerient, except only Robert the archbishop. This Robert
had been a monk of a house in Normandy, and an helperof
the king in his exile, and so came over and was made first
bishop of London, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury.
Tiiea siie w;us led blindfold unto the place between two men,
where the irons lay burning hot, and passed the nine
sh:ir.'s uahurt. " At last," says she : " Good Lord, when
shall 1 come to the jdace of my purgation ?" When they
then opened her eyes, and she saw she was past the paio^
she kneeled down giving God thanks.
Then the king repented, (says the history,) and restored
to her what he had taken from her, and asked her
forgiveness.
About this time, William Duke of Normandy, came
with a goodly company into England to see King Edward,
and was honourably received : and the king at his return en-
riched him with many great gifts, and there (as some write)
promised him, that if he died without issue, the said
William should succeed him in the kingdom of England.
This virtuous and blessed King Edward, after he had
reigned twenty-three years and seven months, died, and
was buried in the monastery of Westminster , which he
had greatly augmented and repaired.
KING HAROLD n.
Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, and last king of the
Saxons, succeeded, although many of the nobles went
with Edgar Adding, the next heir after Edmund Iron-
side : yet he contemning the young age of Edgar, and
forgetting also his promise which he had made to Duke
William, that he would marry his daughter and keep
the kingdom for him, took upon him to be king of Eng-
land (A. D. 1066).
Immediately on which, William, duke of Normandy,
sent an ambassage to Harold, king of England, remind-
ing him of the covenants that were agreed between
them : which was, to have kept the land to his use after
the death of Edward. But because the daughter of
Duke William (that was promised to Harold) was dead,
Harold thought himself thereby discharged.
Upon this answer, Duke William having in the
meanwhile that the messengers went and came, gathered
his knights, and prepared his navy, and having obtained
the consent of the lords of his land to aid and assist him
in his journey : sends to Rome to Pope Alexander, con-
cerning his title and voyage into England, the pope con-
firms him, and sent to him a banner, desiring him to
bear it in the ship, in which himself should sail. Thus
Duke William took shipping at the haven of St. Valery,
where he tarried a long time for a convenient wind : at
last the wind came about, and they took shipping with a
great company, and landed at Hastings in Sussex.
There were three causes which induced Duke William
to enter this land to subdue Harold. One was, that it
was given to him by King Edward his nephew. The
second was, to take vengeance for the cruel murder of
his nephew Alfred, and of the Normans, which deed he
ascribed chiefly to Harold. The third was, to revenge
the wrong done to Robert archbishop of Canterbury,
who was exiled by means of Harold.
Thus, while Harold was in the north, Duke William
made so great speed, that he came to London before the
king ; out of which he was kept till he made good
surety, that he and his people should pass through the
city without tarrying : wliich promise he well observing,
passed the bridge, and went over to Sussex, whence he
sent a monk to Harold, and proffered him three ways.
First, to render to him the possession of the land, and
so to take it again of him under tribute, reigning under
him ; secondly, to abide and stand to the pope's arbitra-
tion ; or, thirdly, to defend this quarrel in his own person
against the duke, and they two only to try the matter by
dint of sword, without any other blood-shedding.
But Harold refused all these offers, saying, " It
should be tried by dint of swords, and not by one
sword:" and so gathered his people and joined battle
with the Normans, in the place where afterwards was
builded the abbey of Battel in Sussex. In the begin-
ning of which fight, the Englishmen kept them in good
array and were likely to vanquish the Normans : where-
fore, Duke William caused his men to give back, as
though they fled, whereby the Englishmen followed fast,
and broke their array. Then the Normans, fiercely
giving a charge upon them, in conclusion obtained the
victory through the just providence of God. Where
King Harold, who before had murdered Alfred the true
heir of the crown, with his company of Normans so
A D 1066 1 THE SUCCESSION OF POPES FROM GREGORY V. TO ALEXANDER II.
I
cruelly, was now wounded of the Normans in the left
1 eye with an arrow, and thereof died : although Gerard
i says he fled away to Chester, and lived after that a monk
I in the monastery of St. James.
I This Duke WilUam and King Edward were cousins
by the father's side. For Richard the first of that name,
I which was the third duke of Normandy after Rollo, was
, father to Duke Richard the second of that name, and
brother to Emma mother to King Edward. Which
Duke Richard the second was father to duke Robert,
this Duke William's father.
■ Although the church of Christ and state of religion,
I first founded and grounded by Christ and his apostles,
did not continually remain in the. primitive perfection,
wherein it was first instituted ; but in process of time
began from better to worse, to decrease and decline into
. much superstition and inconveniency ; partly through
the coming in of Mahomet, partly through the increase
of wealth and riches, partly through the decrease of
, knowledge and diligence in such as should be the guides
'of Christ's flock: yet the infection and corruption of
that time (though it were great) did not so abound in
Isuch excessive measure as afterwards in later times now
following, that is, about a thousand years after Christ,
whereof we have to treat. About which time and year
came Sylvester II., who succeeded after Gregory V.,
and occupied the see of Rome about A. D. 1000.
After Sylvester, succeeded John XVII., by whom was
Ibrought in the feast of All Souls (A. D. 1004), through
(the means aad instigation of one Odilo, abbot of Cluny,
to be celebrated next after the feast of All Saints. This
Imonk Odilo, thinking that purgatory should be in the
iMount Etna, dreamed upon a time, in the country of
'Sicily, that he by his masses had dehvered divers souls
from thence : saying moreover, " that he did hear the
Ivoices and lamentations of devils, crying out for that the
Isouls were taken from them by the masses and dirges !"
iNot long after, came John XVIII. and Sergius IV. After
whom succeeded Benedict VIII., then John XIX., who
brought in the fast of the eve of John Baptist and St.
Lawrence. After him followed Pope Benedict IX., who
was fain to sell his seat to his successor, Gregory VI., for
i^&loOO. At which time were three popes together in Rome,
reigning and raging one against another ; Benedict IX.,
Sylvester III., and Gregory VI. For which cause the em-
peror coming to Rome, displaced the three monsters,
placing Clement II. in the papal chair, and thereupon
jnactiug that there shovdd be no bishop of Rome hence-
f'orth chosen, but by the consent and confirmation of the
amperor. Which constitution, though it was both agree-
ible, and also necessary for the public tranquillity of
chat city, yet the Cardinals would not suffer it long to
ptand, but did impugn it afterward by subtile practice
(ind open violence. In the time of this Clement, the
Romans made an oath to the emperors concerning the
jlection of the bishops, to intermeddle no further there-
Ln, but as the consent of the emperor should approve.
flowever the emperor departing into Germany, by and
jjy they forgot their oath, and within nine months after
f)oisoned the bishop. Which act some impute to Stephen,
biis successor, called Damasus II. Some impute it to
Brazutus, who (as histories record) within thirteen years
poisoned six popes ; that is, Clement II., Damasus II.,
Leo IX., Victor II., Stephen IX., Nicholas II.
I Thus Clement being poisoned, after him succeeded
Damasus II., neither by consent of the people, nor elected
by the emperor, but by force and invasion, who
filso within twenty-three days being poisoned, (A. D.
1049.) much contention and striving began in Rome
kbout the papal seat ; whereupon the Romans through
fhe counsel of the Cardinal sent to the emperor, desiring
him to give them a bishop : and so he did, whose name
fvas Bruno, afterward o&Ued Leo IX. This Bruno being
^ simple man, and easy to be led with evil counsel,
Doming from the emperor towards Rome in his pontifical
ipparel like a pope ; there meet him by the way, the
ibbot of Cluny, and Hildebrand, a monk, who seeing
bim so in his pontifical robes, began to rate him,
aying to his charge that he would so take his authority
►f the emperor, and not rather of the clergy of Rome,
107
and the people thereof, as his predecessors were wont to
do : and so counselled him to lay down that apparel,
and to enter in with his own habit, till he had his election
by them. Bruno following their counsel, and confessing
his fault before the clergy of Rome, obtained their
favour, and so was nominated Leo. IX., whereby Hil-
debrand was made a cardinal. Under this Pope Leo,
two councils were held ; one at Versailles, where
the doctrine of Berengarius against the real presence in
the sacrament was first condemned (although Berengarius
yet recanted not, which nevertheless was done after in
the council of Lateran, under Nicholas II., A. D. 1060).
The other was held at Moguntia, where amongst many
other decrees it was enacted. That priests should be ex-
cluded and debarred utterly from marriage.
After the death of Leo, whom Brazutus poisoned the
first year of his popedom, Theophylactus strove to be
pope ; but Hildebrand, to defeat him, went to the em-
peror, who assigned another bishop, called Victor II.
This Victor holding a council at Florence, deposed divers
bishops and priests for simony and fornication ; for
simony, in that they took their dignities of secular men
for money ; for fornication, in that, contrary to their
canon, they were married, &c. The second year of his
papacy, and little more, this pope also followed his pre-
decessors, being poisoned by Brazutus, through the pro-
curement of Hildebrand and his master.
Here now the church and clergy of Rome began to
wring out of the emperor's hand the election of the
pope ; electing Stephen IX. for pope, contrary to their
oath, and to the emperor's assignment. This Stephen
was not ashamed to accuse the Emperor Henry of heresy,
for minishing the authority of the Roman see. So
this was their heresy at that time, not to maintain the
ambitious proceedings of the Romish prelate. And they
called it simony, to take and enjoy any spiritual living
at a secular man's hand.
In the mean time, Stephen the pope, tasting of Bra-
zutus' cup, fell sick. Hildebrand, hearing that, returned
home with all speed. So being come to Rome, he as-
sembleth all the companies and orders of the clergy
together, making them to swear that they should admit
none to be bishop but he who shall be appointed by the
public consent of them all together. This being done,
Hildebrand, takes his journey into Florence, to fetch the
bishop of Florence to install him bishop ; the clergy
swearing unto him that no bishop should be ordained
before his return again. But the people of Rome, not
suffering the election to stand so long, after the death of
Stephen, elected one of their own city, called Benedict X.
Hildebrand hearing of this, was not a little ofi'ended ;
wherefore returning to Rome with one Garhard, bishop
of Florence, he caused the clergy to proceed to a new
election, saying. That Benedict was not lawfully called,
but came in by force and bribing. But the clergy not
daring to attempt any new election at Rome, went to
Sene, and there elected this Garhard, whom Hildebrand
brought with him. So there were two popes in Rome
together: but Garhard, named Nicholas II., holding a
council at Sutrium, through the help of Duke Godfrid
and Guibert, and other bishops about Italy, caused the
other pope to be deposed. Benedict understanding them
to be set against him through the means of Hildebrand,
unpoped himself, and went to Velitras ; living there
more quietly than he would have done at Rome.
Nicholas being thus set up without the mind either of
the emperor or of the people of Rome, after his fellow
pope was driven away, brake up the Synod of Sutrium,
and came to Rome, where he assembled another council,
called the Council of Lateran. In which council first
was promulgated the terrible sentence of excommunica-
tion mentioned in the decrees. The effect whereof is
this : first, that he after a subtle practice undermines the
emperor's jurisdiction, and transfers to a few cardinals,
and certain cathohc persons, the full authority of choos-
ing the pope. Secondly, against all such as do creep
into the seat of Peter by money or favour, without the
full consent of the cardinals, he thunders with terrible
blasts of excommunication, accursing them and their
children with devils, as wicked persons, to the auger of
108
SUCCESSION OF POPES. ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY.
[Book III.
Almighty God, giving also authority and power to car-
dinals, with the clergy and laity, to dei)Ose all such
persons, and call a general council, wherever they will
against them.
In the council of Lateran, under Pope Nicholas II.
Berengarius, an arch-deacon, was driven to the recanta-
tion of his doctrine, denying the real suhstance of
Christ's holy hody and blood to be in the sacrament,
otherwise than sacrameutally and in mystery.
In tlie same council also was hatched and invented
the new found device and term of transubstantiation.
It were too long here to declare the confederation
betwixt this Nicholas and Robert Guiscard, whom this
pope (contrary to all right and good law, displacing tlie
right heir) made duke of Apulia, Calabria, Sicily, and
cai)tain-general of St. Peter's lands : that through his
force of arms and violence he might the better subdue
all such as should rebel against him. Now, let all men,
which be godly and wise, judge and understand how this
stands with the doctrine of Christ, the exam])le of
Peter, or the spirit of a christian bishop, by outward
arms and violence to conquer christian men and coun-
tries, under the obedience of a bishop's see. Thus Pope
Nicholas II., by might and force continued three years
and a half. But at length he met with Brazutus' cup,
and so died.
At the beginning of this, Nicholas, or somewhat be-
fore (about A. D, 1057), Henry IV., after the decease
of Henry III., was made emperor, being but a child, and
reigned fifty years : but not without great molestation
and much disquietness, and all through the ungracious
wickedness of Hildebrand, as hereafter (the Lord so per-
mitting) shall De declared.
Here by the way comes to be noted an example,
whereby all princes may learn and'linderstand how the
pope is to be handled, whoever looks to have any good-
ness at his hand. If a man stand in fear of his curse,
he shall be made his slave ; but if he be despised of you,
you shall have him as you like. For the pope's curse
may well be likened to Domitian's thunder : If a man
give ear to the noise and crack, it seems a terrible thing ;
but if you consider the causes and effect thereof, it is
most vain and ridiculous.
In the reign of this Nicholas (A. D. 1060), Aldred
bishop of Worcester was appointed archbishop of York,
who, coming to Rome with Tostius, Earl of Northum-
berland, for his pall, could not obtain it, but was de-
prived of all dignity. Whereupon returning again to Rome
with Tostius, he there made his complaint, but would
not be heard, till Tostius, a man of stout courage, tak-
ing the matter in hand, told the pope to his face, " That
his curse was not to be feared in far countries when the
pope's own neighbours, yea, and the most vile vaga-
bonds derided and despised it at home." Wherefore
he required the pope, either to restore Aldred again to
his goods, or else it should be known that they were lost,
through his means and subtilty. And that the king of
England hearing this would debar him of St. Peter's
tribute, thinking it shameful treatment to him and his
realm, if Aldred should come from Rome both deprived
of dignity, and spoiled also of his goods. The pope
being thus persuaded by the argument gf his purse, was
content to send home Aldred with his pall, according to
his request.
After the death of Nicholas, the Lombards being op-
pressed before by Pope Nicholas, and brought under
fear, were the more desirous, and thought it good to
have a bishop of their company, and so elected the
bishop of Parmen, called Cadolus, to be pope : sending
to the emperor, and desiring his favour and support
therein, for the election of the pope (they said) most
properly appertained unto him.
The emperor, well pleased and content, gave them his
voice and support But Hildebrand, a stout main-
tainer of popish liberties against good emperors, hearing
this, sets up by a contrary faction another bishop,
Anselm, after called Alexander II. Cadolus, thus
elected by the emperor and the cardinals, sets forward
to Rome with a sufficient army and strength of men.
Alexander, also, no less prepared, there received him
with another army, where they had a great conflict, and
many slain on both sides. But Cadolus, as he had the
better cause, so he had the worse fortune. The emperor
seeing this hurly-burley, to take up the matter, sent
thither his ambassador Otho archbishop of Cullen: who,
coming to Rome, sharply chides the pope for taking so
upon liim without the leave or knowledge of the em-
peror, declaring how the election of that see ought
chiefly to appertain to the right of the emperor, as it
had done for the most part in the time of his predeces-
sors before. But Hildebrand all set on wickedness and
ambition, and also puffed up not a little with his late
victories, not suH'ering the ambassador to tell to the
end, interruptiil iiim in tlie middle of his tale ; affirming
that if they should stand to law and custom, the liberty
of that election should rather belong to the clergy than
to the emperor. To make short, Otho the ambassador
agreeing more with the clergy than with the emperor,
was content to be persuaded, and only required this in
the eni])eror's name, that a council should be held, to
decide the matter, whereat the emperor should be pre-
sent himself; which was agreed. In the which council
being held at Mantua, Alexander was declared pope, the
other had his pardon granted. In this council, amongst
many other con:^iderations, it was concluded concerning
priests. That they should have no wives : priests' chil- .
dren not to be secluded from holy orders : no benefices
to be bought for money : halleluiah to be suspended in
time of lent out of the church, &c. This also was de-
creed (which made most for Mildebrand's purpose) that
no spiritual man, whatsover he be, should enter into any
church, by a secular person, and that the pope should
be elected only by the cardinals, &c. Cardinal Benno
writes of Alexander, tliat after he perceived the frauds
of Hildebrand, and of the emperor's enemies, and under-
standing that he was set up and enthroned only for a
purpose ; being at his mass, as he was preaching to the
people, told them he would not sit in the place, unless
he had the license of the emperor. Which when Hilda-
brand heard, he was stricken in such a fury, that he could
scarcely keep his hands off him, while mass was doing.'
After the mass was finished, by force of soldiers and
strength of men, he had him into a chamber, and there
struck Pope Alexander with his fists, rating and rebuking'
him because he would seek for favour of the emperor. —
Thus Alexander being kept in custody, and being stintedi
to a certain allowance, as about five groats a-day, Hilde-
brand engrossed all the whole revenues of the church to
himself. At length Alexander, under the miserable in-
durance of Hildebrand, died after eleven years and-
a-half, of his popedom. And thus much of Romish
matters.
Now returning again to the history of our own coun-
try, we enter upon the reign of William the Conqueror,
the next king following in England. But first, as at the
end of the former book, we will give the order of the
archbishops of Canterbury ; beginning with Ethelred,
who succeeded after Celnoth, the last mentioned.
The names and order of the archbishops of Canterbury,
from the time of King Egbert to William Conqueror.
18. Ethelred.
19. Pleimund.
20. Athelm.
21. Ulfelm.
22. Odo.
2A. Elfius, or Elfinus.
24. Dunstan.
25. Ethelgar.
26. Elfric.
27. Siric.
28. Elphege.
29. Livinge.
30. Egenold.
31. Edsius.
32. Robert.
33. Stigand.
34. Lanfranc.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK IV.
CONTAINING
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS, FROM WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, TO THE TIME OP
JOHN WICKLIFFE ;
WHEREIN IS DESCRIBED THE PROUD AND MIS-ORDERED REIGN OF ANTICHRIST, BEGINNING TO STIR Ilf
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
William, duke of Normandy, surnamed the Con-
queror, base son of Robert, the sixth duke of Normandy,
and nephew to King Edward, after the victory against
Harold, was received as king over the realm of England,
not so much by assent, as for fear and necessity ; for
Ithe Londoners had promised their assistance to Edgar
Etheling. But being weakened and wasted so greatly in
former battles, and the duke coming so fast upon them,
and fearing that they could not make their party good,
they submitted themselves. William was crowned upon
Christmas-day (A. D. 1066), by the h^nds of Aldred,
archbishop of York ; for at that time Stigand archbishop
of Canterbury was absent, or else durst not, or would
not come into the presence of the king.
This king reigned over England twenty-one years and
ten months, with great sevciity towards the English,
burthening them with tributes and exactions ; requiring
for every hide of ground containing twenty acres, six
j shillings. Some parts of the land rebelled, and espe-
jdally the city of Exeter. But at last William overcame
Ithem, and punished them. On account of that and
lother severities of William, several of the Lords oe-
Iparted into Scotland ; wherefore he kept the other lords
ithat tarried the stricter, and exalted the Normans, giving
j:hem the chief possessions of the land. And as he
iDbtained the kingdom by the sword, he changed the
Inhole state of the government, and ordained new laws
lit his own pleasure, profitable to himself, but grievous
j^nd hurtful to the people ; abolishing the laws of King
JEdward, though he was sworn to observe and maintain
them.
William endeavoured to establish a form of govern-
ment both in the church and commonwealth answerable
0 his own mind : however he allowed the clergy a kind
jf jurisdiction of bringing persons before them and of ex-
ercising such ecclesiastical discipline as that age and time
lid use.
Besides this, William, as he was a warrior, delighting in
"orts and bulwarks, builc four strong castles ; two at
ITork, one at Nottingham, ana another at Lincoln, which
jarrisons he furnished with Normans.
About the third year of his reign, Harold and Canute,
sons of Swanus, king of Denmark, entered into the north
country. The Normans within York, fearing that the
Englishmen would aid the Danes, fired the suburbs of the
town. And the flame was so great and the wind so
strong that it took to the city, and burnt a great part of
it with the minster of St. Peter, where no doubt many
worthy works and monuments of books were consumed.
The Danes by the favour of some of the citizens entered the
city, and slew more than three thousand of the Normans.
But not long after King William chased them out, and drove
them to their ships, and was so displeased with the in-
habitants of that country, that he destroyed the land from
York to Durham, so that nine years after the province
lay waste, and the inhabitants kept in such penury by
the war of the king ; that (as our English history re-
lates) they eat rats, cats, and dogs, with other vermin.
Also in the fourth year of the reign of this king, Mal-
colm king of Scots entered into Northumberland, and de-
stroyed the country, and slew there many of the people,
both men, women, and children, in a lamentable way,
and took some prisoners. But within two years after,
King William made such war upon the Scots, that he
forced Malcolm their king to do him homage.
And thus much concerning the outward calamities of
this realm under this foreign conqueror, which is novr
the fifth time that the land has been scourged by the
hand of God. First, by the Romans, then by the Scots
and Picts, afterwards by the Saxons ; and then by the Danes.
And yet the indignation of God ceased not, but stirred
up the Normans against them, who conquered and altered
the whole realm ; so, that besides the innovation of
the laws, coins, and possessions, there was scarcely an
English bishop in any church of England, but only Nor-
mans and foreigners placed through all their dioceses.
To such a misery was this land then brought, that not only
of all the English nobility not one house was standing,
but also it was thought reproachful to be called an
Englishman.
In the fourth year of this king, a solemn council of the
clergy of England was held at Winchester. At which
council were present two cardinals sent from Pope Alex-
ander II. In this council, the king being present, several
bishops, abbots, and priors were deposed, (by the means
of the king) without any cause, that his Normans might be
110 CONTROVERSY FOR THE PRIMACY BETWEEN THE TWO METROPOLITANS. [Book IV.
promoted to the rule of the church, as he had promoted
his knights to the rule of the temporality. Among whom
also Stigand archbishop of Canterbury was deprived of
his dignity, and kept in Winchester as a prisoner during
his life. This Stigand is noted for a man so covetous
and sparing, that when he would take nothing of his own,
and swore that he had not a penny, yet by a key fastened
about his neck, great treasure of his was found hid under
the ground.
At the same time, Thomas, a Norman, was preferred to
the archbishopric of York, and Lanfranc, an Italian, was
made archbishop of Canterbury.
After this, Lanfranc and Thomas came to Rome, with
Remi"-ius Bishop of Dorchester for their palls, as the man-
ner was ; without which no archbishop nor bishop could
be confirmed, although their election were never so law-
ful. This pall must be asked no where but of the pope
or his assigns, and that within three months, which was
no small gain to the Romish see. For although at the
beginning the pall was given without money, according
to the decree (Dist. 100), or for little; yet in process of
years it grew to such excess, that where the bishoprick
of Mentz was wont to give to Rome only ten thousand
florins, afterwards he could not obtain it without twenty
thousand. And from thence it exceeded to five and
twenty thousand, and at length to seven and twenty
thousand florins ; which sum James archbishop of
Mentz was obliged to pay a little before the council of
Basil, so that at his death (which was four years after),
he said that his death did not so much grieve him as
to remember that his poor subjects would be constrain-
ed to pay so terrible a fine for the pope's pall. Now by
this ; the enormous sum which comes to the pope in the
whole of Wermany, containing in it above fifty bishop-
ricks, may be easily conjectured.
Lanfranc coming to Rome with the otlier two bishops,
for the fame of his learning obtained of Alexander two
palls, one of honour, the other of love. He obtained
for the other two bishops also their confirmation. At
the time while they were there the controversy began first
to be moved (or rather renewed) for the primacy between
the two metropolitans, that is, between the archbishop of
Canterbury and the archbishop of York, which of them
should have the pre-eminence. For Canterbury chal-
lenged to himself the prerogative and primacy over all
Britain and Ireland ; this contention continued a long
time between these two churches, and was often renewed
in the days of several kings after this ; as in the reign of
Henry I., between Thurstin of York and Radulph of
Canterbury. And again, in the seven and twentieth year
of the same king, at his second coronation. For Radulph
would not suffer the first coronation to stand, because it
was done by the bishop of York, without his consent.
Also in the reign of Henry II., where pope Alexander
made a decretal letter between these two Metropolit?.ns,
for bearing the cross, (A.D. 1159.) Also another time,
in the reign of the said king, betwixt Richard of Canter-
bury, and Roger of York. Again, about the year of our
Lord 1170, when Thomas Becket hearing that the king
was crowned by Roger bishop of York, complained grie-
vously to Pope Alexander III. Also another time,
(A. D. 1176), betwixt Richard and Roger, which of
them should sit on the right hand of Cardinal Hugo, in
his council in London. Moreover, in the beginning of
the reign of King Richard (A. D. 11 DO), betwixt Bald-
win of Canterbury, and Godfrid of York, &c.
Now to proceed in the history of this : after this
question was brought to the pope's presence, he (not
disposed to decide the matter) sent them home to Eng-
land, there to have their cause determined. Upon
which (A.D. 1070), they brought the matter before the
king and the clergy at Windsor. Lanfranc first alleg-
ing for himself, how that from the time of Austin to the
time of Bede, (which was about a hundred and forty
years) the bishop of Canterbury had ever the primacy
(1) Some allege 182 instead of 180, for the introduction of the
christian f:iith. It appears this Thomaa alleged the former
date. [ED.j
over the whole land of Britain and Ireland ; how he kept
his councils several times within the precincts of York •
how he called and cited the bishops of York thereto ; of
whom, some he constituted, some he excommunicated,
and some he removed ; besides also he alleged various
privileges granted by princes and prelates to the primacy
of that see, &c.
To this Thomas archbishop of York replied, and first
beginning vrHh the original of the Britons' church,
declared in order of time how the Britons, the
first possessors of this kingdom of Britain, which en-
dured from Brutus and Cadwalladar, 2076 years, under
an hundred and two kings, at length received the chris-
tian faith in the year 162, in the time of Lucius their
king, Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, having sent tJtt
preachers Fagan and Damian to them,' at wliich tiSfe
after their conversion, they assigned and ordained in the
realm eight and twenty bishops, with two archbishops,
Theonus, the archbishop of London, and Theodosius
archbishop of York. Under those bishops and arch-
bishops the church of Britain was governed after their
conversion, almost three hundred years, till at length
the Saxons, being then infidels, with Hengist their king,
subduing the Britons by fraudulent murder invaded their
land, which was about A.D. 449. After this the Britons
being driven into Cambria (which we now call Wales),
the Saxons over-running the land, divided themselves
into seven kingdoms. And so being Infidels and Pagans,
continued till the time that Gregory bishop of Rome
sent Austin to preach to them ; which Austin
coming first to Dover, being then the head city of Kent,
called in Latin, Dorobernia, and there planting himself,
converted first the king of Kent, called Ethelbert, who
had then subdued certain other kings unto the H umber.
By reason of which Austin was made archbishop of
Dover, by the appointment of Gregory, who sent him
certain palls with his letter from Rome, as is before
mentioned.''' Which letter being recited, then Thomas
declares how the meaning of Gregory in this letter was,
to reduce the new church of the Saxons to the order
that was among the Britons ; that is, to be under two
metropolitans, one of London, the other of York. Not-
withstanding, he gives to Austin this prerogative during
his hfe time, to have authority and jurisdiction, not only
over his twelve bishops, but over all other bishops and
priests in England. And after his decease then these two
metropolitans, London and York, were to oversee the
whole clergy, as in times past amongst the Britons ;
whom he joins together after the death of Austin, to
constitute bishops, and to oversee the church. And
that he so means London to be equal with York, appears
by four arguments : First, that he ordains London to
be consecrated by no bishop, but by his own synod.
Secondly, he ordains no distinction of honour to be
betwixt London and York, but only according as each
one of them is elder in time. Thirdly, he places these
two equally together in common council, and with one
agreement to consent together in doing such things as
they shall consult upon in the zeal of Christ Jesus ; and
that in such sort that one should not dissent from the
other. What means this, but that they should govern
together ? Fourthly, where he writes that the bishop of
York should not be subject to the bishop of London ;
what means this, but that the bishop of London should
be equivalent with the metropolitan of Y'ork, or rather
superior unto him ?
And thus he expounded the meaning of Gregory in
the letter. Lanfranc again answers, " That he was not
the bishop of London, and that the question pertained
not to London." Thomas replies, " That this privilege
was granted by Gregory to Austin alone, to have all
other bisho])s subject to him ; but after his decease
there should be equality of honour betwixt London and
Y^ork, without distinction of priority ; except only the
priority of time. And although Austin translated the
see from London to Kent ; yet Gregory, if his mind had
been to give the same prerogative to the successors of
(2) See page 78.
jil. D 1070—1073.]
LANFRANC OBTAINS THE PRIMACY.
Ill
■Austin (which he gave to him) would expressly have
! uttered it in the words of his epistle, writing thus to
jAustin : ' That which 1 give to thee, Austin, 1 give also
land grant to all thy successors after thee.' But as he
(.'makes here no mention of his successors, it appeeirs
I ithe.reby, that it was not his mind so to do."
I I To this Lanfranc argued again: "If this authority
I had been given to Austin alone, and not to his succes-
,Sors, it had been but a small gift, proceeding from the
, apostolic see, to his special and familiar friend ; espe-
ciadlv seeing also that Austin in all his life did constitute
no bishop of York, neither was there any such bishop to
be subject to him. Again, we have privileges from the
apostolic see, which confirm this dignity in the succes-
sors of Austin, in the same see of Dover. Moreover,
all Englishmen think it both right and reason to fetch
the direction of well living from that place, where first
they took the sparkle of right believing. Further,
whereas you say that Gregory might have confirmed with
plain words the same thing to the successors of Austin,
which he gave to him ; all that I grant ; yet, this is not
prejudicial to the see of Canterbury. For, if you know
your logic, that which is true in the whole is also true in
the part, and what is true in the more, is also true in
the less. Now the church of Rome is as the whole, to
n-hom all other churches are as parts thereof. The
church of Rome is greater than all churches ; that
which is wrought in it ought to work in the less churches
also ; so that the authority of every chief head of the
:hurch ought to stand also in them that succeed ; unless
:here be any precise exception made by name. Where-
fore like as the Lord said to all bishops of Rome the
5ame thing which he said to Peter, so Gregory in hke
manner said to all the successors of Austin, that which
[ he said to Austin. So thus I conclude, as the bishop of
Canterbury is subject to Rome, because he had his faith
from thence ; so York ought to be in subjection to Can-
terbury, which sent the first preachers thither. Now
vhereas you allege that Gregory desired Austin to be
resident at London, that is utterly uncertain. For how
is it to be thought that such a disciple would do contrary
;o the mind of such a master ? But grant (as you say)
, (hat Austin removed to London, what is that to me,
I vho am not bishop of London ? Notwithstanding all
I ihis controversy ceasing betwixt us, if it shall please you
.0 come to some peaceable composition with me (all
contention set apart) you shall find me not out of the
vay, so far as reason and equity shall extend."
With these reasons of Lanfranc, Thomas gave over,
ondescendiug that his province should begin at the
tlumber. W^hereupon it was then decreed that York
jrom that time should be subject to Canterbury, in all mat-
lers appertaining to the rites and government of the ca-
holic church ; so that wherever within England the
rclibishop of Canterbury would hold his council, the
rchliishop of York should resort thither with his bishops,
lid be obedient to his canonical decrees.
Provided that when the archbishop of Canterbury
hould decease, York should repair to Dover, there to
onsecrate with others the bishops that should be elect.
iiid if York should decease, his successor should resort
I Canterbury, or else where the bishop of Canterbury
hould appoint, there to receive his consecration, making
i< jnofession there, with an oath of canonical obedience.
'Iiomas being content withal, Lanfranc, the Italian, tri-
ni|ihed with no small joy, and put the matter forth-
ith in writing, that the memory of it might remain to
i> .-uccessors. But yet that decree did not stand long;
)r shortly after the same scar, so superficially cured,
urst out again ; so that in the reign of king Henry I.,
A. D. 1121) Thurstin, archbishop of York, could
lot be compelled to swear to the archbishop of Canter-
jury ; and yet by letters of Calixtus II., was consecrated
Kthout any profession made to the said bishop, with
liuch more matter of contention, to recite all which were
bo long. But this I thought to commit to history, that
ien might see the lamentable decay of true Christianity
Inongst the christian bishops, who, enflamed with glo-
ious ambition, so contended for honour, that without
ae force of the law no modesty could take place.
About A. D. 1016, the bishopric of Lindaffame,
otherwise named Holyland, was translated to Durham ;
so likewise in the days of this Lanfranc, archbishop of
Canterbury (A. D. lO/C), several bishops' sees were
altered and removed from townships to greater cities.
As the bishopric of Selese was removed to Chichester ;
that of Cornwall to Exeter ; from Wells to Bath ; from
Sherborne to Salisbury ; from Dorchester to Lincoln ;
from Litchfield to Chester ; which bishopric of Chester,
Robert being then bishop, was removed from Chester to
Coventry. Likewise after that in the reign of William
Rufus (A. D. 109.i), Herbert, bishop of Thetford, from
thence removed the see to Norwich, &c.
As concerning Dover and Canterbury, whether the
see was likewise translated from the town of Dover to
the city of Canterbury in the time of Theodore ; or
whether in the old time Canterbury had the name of
Dorobernia (as the letter of Lanfranc to Pope Alexander
above mentioned pretends), I find it not expressly defined
in histories ; save that I read by the words of William,
being yet duke of Normandy, charging Harold to make
a well of water for the king's use in the castle of Doro-
bernia, that Dorobernia was then taken for that which
we now call Dover ; but whether Dorobernia and the
city of Canterbury be both one or different is not im-
jjortant. Notwithstanding I read this in the epistle of
Pope Boniface to King Ethelbert, as also to Justin,
archbishop : also in the epistle of Pope Honorius to
Bishop Honorius : also of Pope Vitalian to Theodore :
of Pope Sergius to King Ethelred, Alfred and Adulphus,
and to the bishops of England : Likewise of Pope
Gregory III. to the bishops of England : Also of Pope
Leo to Athelard, archbishop of Canterbury : of Formo-
sus to the bishops of England, and of Pope John to
Dunstan ; that the names of Dorobernia and of Canter-
bury are indifferently taken for one matter.
In this time (and by the management of this Lan-
franc), in the ninth year of William I., a council was
held at Loudon, where these were the principal things
concluded :
1. For the order of sitting, that the archbishop of
York should sit on the right hand, and the bishop of
London on the left hand, or in the absence of York,
London should have the right, and Winchester the
left hand of the archbishop of Canterbury sitting in
council.
2. That bishops should translate their sees from
villages into cities, whereupon those sees above named
were translated.
3. That monks should have nothing as private pos-
sessions ; and if any so had, he dying unconfessed should
not be buried in the churchyard.
4. That no clerk or monk of any other diocese should
be admitted to orders, or retained without letters com-
mendatory or testimonial.
5. That none should speak in the council, except
bishops and abbots, without leave of the arch-metro-
politans.
6. That none should marry within the seventh de-
gree, with any either of his own kindred, or of his
wife's.
7. That none should either buy or sell any office
within the church.
8. That no sorcery or any divination should be used
or permitted in holy church.
9. That no bishop nor abbot, nor any of the clergy,
should be at the judgment of any man's death or dis-
membering, neither should be any favourer of the judi-
cants.
Moreover in the days of this Lanfranc, many good
bishops of the realm began to take part with the priests
against the monks, in displacing these out of their
churches, and to restore the married priests again ; so
that Walkelm, bishop of Winchester, had placed above
forty canons instead of monks in his diocese ; but this
godly enterprise was stopped by Lanfranc.
After the death of Pope Alexander above mentioned,
next followed Hildebrand, sirnamed Gregory VIL
This Hildebrand, as he was a sorcerer, so was he
the first and principal cause of all this trouble that ia
2'Jl
POPE GREGORY VII. CALLED HILDEBRAND.
[Book IV
DOW and has been since his time in the churcli ;
through his example all this ambition, boldness, and
pride entered into the church of Rome, and has
ever since continued. For before Hildebrand came to
Rome working his feats there, setting up and displacing
what bishops he chose, corrupting them with perni-
cious counsel, and setting them against emperors, under
pretence of chastity destroying matrimony, and under
the title of liberty breaking peace, and resisting autho-
rity ; before this (I say) the church of Rome was in some
order, and the bishops quietly governed under christian
emperors, and also were defended by the same ; as
Marcellus, Miltiades, and Sylvester, were under obe-
dience to Constantine (A. D. 340) ; Siricius to Theodo-
sius (A. D. 388) ; Gregory to Maurice (A. D. COO) ;
Adrian and Leo to Charlemagne (A. D. 801) ; Paschal
and Valentius to Lewis the Pious (A. D. 830) ; Ser-
gius II. to Lothaire (A. D. 840) ; Benedict III. and
John VIII. to Lewis, son of Lotliaire (A. D. 85()).
But against this obedience and subjection Hildebrand
first began to spurn, and by his example taught all
other bishops to do the same.
At length they brought to pass that it should be law-
ful for a few cardinals (contrary to ancient ordinances
and decretal statutes) to choose what pope they liked,
without any consent of the emperor at all. And,
whereas, before it stood in the emperor's gift to give
and to grant bishoprics, archbishoprics, benefices,
and other ecclesiastical preferments within their ovm
limits, to whom they chose ; now the popes, through
much wrestling, wars, and contention, have extorted
all that into their own hands ; yea, have plucked in
all the riches and power of the whole world : and not
content with that, have usurped and prevailed so much
above emperors, that, as before, no pope might be
chosen without the confirmation of the emperor : so now
no emperor may be elected without the confirmation of
the pope, taking upon them more than princes to place
or displace emperors at their pleasure for every light
cause ; to put down or set up when and whom they
pleased; as Frederic I., for holding the left stirrup of
the pope's saddle, was persecuted almost to excommu-
nication, which cause moves me to use more diligence
here, in setting out the history, acts, and doings of this
Hildebrand, from whom, as their first patron and foun-
der, sprang all this ambition and contention about the
liberties and dominion of the Roman church.
And first, how this Hildebrand had behaved himself,
before he was pope, I have partly declared. For though
he was not yet pope in name, yet he was then pope in-
deed, and ruled the popes and all their doings as he
liked. What devices he had attempted ever since his
first coming to the court of Rome, to magnify and
maintain false liberty against true authority ; what prac-
tice he wrought by councils, what factions and conspi-
racies he made, in stirring up popes against emperors,
striving for superiority ; and what wars followed, I have
also expressed. Now let us see further the worthy virtues
of this princely prelate, after he came to be pope, as they
are described in the histories of several writers.
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF GREGORY THE SEVENTH,
OTHERWISE NAMED HILDEBRAND.
Hitherto the bishops of Rome have been elected by the
voices and suffrages of all sorts and degrees, as well of
the priests and the clergy, as of the nobility, people, and
senate, all assembling together. And this election I find
in force, if ratified by the Roman emperors, who had
authority to call and assemble all tlaese, as well as
bishops to councils, as the case required. Under the
authority and jurisdiction of these emperors in Ger-
many, France, Italy, and through the whole dominion
of Rome, all patriarchs, bishops, masters of churches
and monasteries were subject by the decree of councils,
according to the old custom of our ancestors. The
holy and ancient fathers, (as Christ with his dis-
ciples and apostles both taught and did) honoured and
esteemed their emperors as the supreme potentate next
under God on earth, set up, ordained, elected, and
crowned of God, above all other mortal men, and so
counted them, and called them their lords. To them
they yielded tribute, and paid their subsidies, and also
prayed every day for their life. Such as rebelled against
them tliey regarded as rebels, and resisters against
God's ordinance and christian piety. The name of the
emperor was of great majesty, and received as given
from God. Then these fathers of the church never inter-
meddled nor entangled themselves with political affairs
of the commonwealth, much less did they occupy them,
selves in martial arms, and feats of chivalry : all their
contention with other christians was only in poverty and
modesty, who should be poorest and most modest among
them. And the more humbleness appeared in any, the
higher opinion they conceived of him. They took thfs
sharp and two-edged sword given to the church of Christ, to
save and not to kill ; to quicken and not to destroy ; and
they called it the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God, the life and the light of men, who revokes from
death to life, making of men gods ; of mortal, immortal.
They were far from thrusting out any prince or king
(though he were never so far out of the way, yea, an
Arian) from his kingdom, or to curse him, or to release
his subjects from their oath and their allegiance, to
change and translate kingdoms, to subvert empires, to
pollute themselves with christian blood, or to war with
their christian brethren for rule and principality. This
was not their spirit and manner then, but rather they
loved and obeyed their princes. Again, princes loved
them also like fathers and fellow-princes with them of
the souls of men.
Now this Gregory VII., otherwise named Hildebrand,
was the first of all others who, contemning the authority
of the emperor, invaded the see of Rome, vaunting him-
self as having both the ecclesiastical and temporal sword
committed to him by Christ, and that fulness of power
was in his hand to bind and loose at his will. Thus he
presumed to grasp both governments, to challenge all
the whole dominion, both of the eastern and western
churches, yea, and all power to himself alone, admitting
none as equal, much less superior, to him, derogating
from others, and arrogating to himself their due right
and honour, set at nought Cesars, kings, and emperors.
Bishops and prelates as his underlings he kept in awe,
suspending and cursing, and cutting off their heads,
stirring up strife and wars, sowing discord, making
factions, releasing oaths, defeating fidelity and due alle-
giance of subjects to their princes. Yea, and if he had
offended or injured the emperor himself, yet notwith-
standing he ought to be feared, as he himself glories in
an epistle, as one that could not err, and had received
of Christ our Saviour, and of Peter, authority to bind I
and unbind at his will and pleasure. Priests then in i
those days had wives openly and lawfully (no law for- •
bidding to the contrary) as appears by the deed and 1
writings of their chapter-seals and donations, which i
were given to temples and monasteries, wherein their r
wives also are cited with them for witness, and were
called presbyterissse. Also, as for bishops, prelates,
parsons of churches, governors of the clergy, masters of
monasteries, and religious houses ; all these were then
in those times in the emperor's appointment, to assign
to whom he would. Now these two things Gregory
could not endure, for which two causes only was all his
striving from his first beginning to abolish the marriage
of priests, and to translate the imperial authority to the
clergy. To this scope only tended all his labour, as ap-
peared before in the council of Lateran, under Pope
Nicholas, and also in the council of Mantua, under
Alexander, making their marriage heresy, and the other
to be simony. And that which previously he went
about by others, now he practises by himself, to con-
demn ministers that were married as Nicholaitans, and
to receive any spiritual charge of secular persons as
simony, directing his letters to Henry the emperor, to
dukes, princes, potentates, and tetrarchs ; namely to
Berchtold, to Rodulph of Swevia, to Whelpo, Adal-
beron, and to their wives : also, to bishops, archbishops,
priests, and to all the people ; in which letters he de-
jA.D. 1074.]
MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS FORBIDDEN BY HILDEBRAND.
113
:nounces them to be no priests who were married, for-
bidding men to salute them, to talk, to eat, to company
jwith them, to pay them tithes, or to obey them if they
would not be obedient to him. Among others, he
directed special letters to Otho bishop of Constance
c'liiceruing this matter. But Otho perceiving the un-
ci) JIv and unreasonable pretence of Hiidebrand, would
uiver separate them that were married from their wives,
n )r vet forbid them to marry who were unmarried. The
following is the letter of Hiidebrand sent to the bishop
of Constance against priests' marriages : —
" Gregory, bishop, servant of servants of God, to the
clergy and laity, both more and less, within the diocese
of Constance, salvation and benediction. We have
directed to our brother Otho, your bishop, our letters
exhortatory ; wherein we enjoined him, according to the
necessity of our duty, by the apostolical authority, that
he should utterly abolish out of his church the heresy of
simony, and also should cause to be preached with all
diligence the chastity of priests. But he, neither moved
wich reverence of St. Peter's precept, nor yet with the
re;- ird of his duty, neglected to do these things, whereto
wo so fatherly have exhorted him, incurring thereby a
double offence, not only of disobedience, but also of re-
bellion, in that he has gone and done clean contrary to
I our commandment (yea, rather the commandment of
I blessed St. Peter), so that he hath permitted his clergy,
not only such as had wives, not to put them away, but
:also such as had none, to take them. Whereupon we
i being truly informed, and grieved therewith, have di-
, rected to him another letter, declaring the motion of our
I displeasure and indignation. In which letters also we
I have cited him up to our council at Rome, there to ap-
I pear and give account of his disobedience in the au-
I dience of the whole synod. And now, therefore, we
j thought it best to signify this to you (our dear children)
I whereby in this behalf we might the better provide for
! your health and salvation. For if your bishop shall
i continue so obstinately to repugn and resist our com-
mandment, he is not meet to sit over you. Wherefore,
I these shall be to command you, and all them that be
obedient to God, and to blessed St. Peter, by our apos-
• toUcal authority, that if this your bishop shall persist in
his obstinacy, you that be his subjects hereafter give to
I him no service nor obedience. For the which we here
I discharge you before God and your souls. For if your
bishop shall act contrary to the decrees and apostolical
I injunctions, we, through the apostolical authority of
1 St. Peter, discharge and absolve you from the band of
your allegiance to him. So that if you be sworn to him,
80 long as he is a rebel against God and the aposto-
lic seat, we loose you from the peril of your oath, that
you shall not need to fear therein any danger," &c.
In the council held at Rome, Hiidebrand, with other
bishops of Rome, did then enact, among many others,
j these three things especially. First, That no priest here-
I after should marry. Secondly, That all such as were
I married should be divorced. Thirdly, That none here-
I after should be admitted to the order of priesthood, but
1 should swear perpetual celibacy, &c. This council of
Rome being ended, forthwith the act of Hiidebrand,
concerning the single life of priests, was proclaimed and
published in all places, and strict commandment given
to bishops to execute the same. The following is the
copy of his bull sent into Italy and Germany : —
" Gregory the pope, otherwise Hiidebrand, the ser-
vant of the servants of God, sends the apostle's blessing
to all within the kingdoms of Italy and Germany, that
shew true obedience to St. Peter. If there be any
priesis, deacons, and subdeacons, that still will remain
in the sin of marriage, we forbid them the church's en-
trance, by the omnipotent power of God, and by the
authority of St. Peter, till in time they amend and re-
pent. But if they persevere in their sin, we charge that
none of you presume to hear their service ; for their
blessing is turned into cursing, and their prayer into
sin, as the Lord doth testify to us by his prophets, ' I
will turn your blessing,' " &c.
The bishops of France being called upon daily by the
pope's letters, were compelled to obey the decree of the
council ; but the rest of the clergy manfully and stoutly
withstanding the pope's decree and their bishops, would
not agree, and said that the council did manifestly op-
pose the word of God, and that the pope did take from
priests that which both God and nature had given them;
and therefore was a heretic and author of a wicked doc-
trine, who ruled not by the Spirit of God, but by Satan ;
that the decree and act set forth was directly against the
word of God and the saying of Christ, " All men receive
not this saying." Against the sound doctrine of St.
Paul, writing these words, " Concerning virgins I have
no commandment of the Lord," &c. 1 Cor. vii. 25.
Again, " Let them marry," 1 Cor. vii. 9. And that it
was against the canons both of the apostles, and of the
Nicene council. Moreover, that it was against the
course of nature, that men being separated from their
wives, should be compelled to live as angels ; and that,
therefore, the bishop opened a pernicious window to im-
morality and vice. In short, they concluded. That they
had rather give up their benefices than forsake their
lawful wives. And, finally, if married priests could not
please them, they ought to call down angels from heaven
to serve the churches. But Hiidebrand, nothing moved,
either with honest reason, or with the authority of
holy scripture, or with the determination of the Nicene
council, or any thing else, follows up this matter, calls
upon the bishops still, accuses them of negligence, and
threatens them with excommunication, unless they
cause the priests to obey his decree. Whereupon a
great number of bishops, for fear of the pope's tyranny,
laboured the matter with their priests, by all means
possible to bereave them of their accustomed matri-
mony.
Among others, the archbishop of Mentz, perceiving
this might produce no little trouble, talks with his
clergy gently, admonishes them of the pope's mind and
decree, and gives them half a year's respite to deliberate
upon the matter ; exhorting them diligently to shew
themselves obedient to the pope and to him. The time
of deliberation expired, the archbishop assembles his
clergy at Erpsford, and there requires them either to ab-
jure all matrimony or to renounce their benefices. The
clergy defend themselves against the decree with scrip-
ture, with reason, with the acts of general councils,
with examples of ancestors, by strong arguments, de-
claring the pope's decree inconsistent, and that it ought
not to take effect. But the archbishop said he was
compelled by the pope, and could not but execute that
which was enjoined him.
The clergy seeing that no reason, nor prayer, nor dis-
putation would serve, consulted among themselves what
was best to be done ; some gave counsel not to return to
the synod, some thought it good to return and thrust
out the archbishop from his see, and to punish him with
death, that by his example others might be warned,
never to attemj3t it again to the prejudice of the church,
and the rightful liberty of ministers. After this was
signified to the archbishop by certain spies, he, to pre-
vent the matter, sends to the priests as they were coming
out, certain messengers, bidding them be of good hope,
and they should have what would content their minds.
So being thus persuaded, they corne again to the council.
The bishop promises he would do what he could, to
change the mind of the bishop of Rome, desiring them
in the mean time to continue as they had done in their
ministry. The next year Hiidebrand the soldier of
Satan sends his legate to the archbishop of Mentz, and
assembled a council, in which the archbishop again
proposes the matter, commanding all the clergy, under
pain of the pope's curse, either to renounce their wives
or their livings. The clergy defended their cause again
with great constancy. But when no defence would
avail, but all went by tyranny, it burst at last to an up-
roar and tumult, where the legate and the archbishop
i2
114
THE EMPEROR HENRY VI. EXCOMMUNICATED.
[Book IV.
hardly escaped with their lives, and so the council
Oroke up. By this schism and tumult the churches
afterwards, in choosing their priests, would not send
chem to the bishops (the enemies and suppressors of
matrimony) to be confirmed and inducted, but elected
them within themselves, and so put them in their office
without all leave or knowledge of the bishops, who then
agreed and were determined to admit no priests, but
such as would take an oath never to marry. And thus
first came up the oath and profession of single priest-
hood. Notwithstanding, if other nations had followed
in like manner, the constancy and concord of those
German ministers, the devilish decree of this Hildebrand
for rather hell-brand) had been frustrated. But the
greediness of livings in weak priests made them yield up
tlieir liberty to wicked tyranny. And thus much for the
I roliibition of matrimony.
Now let us proceed to the contention between Hilde-
brand and the emperor. But it will not be amiss first
to say a little of the character of this pope, as we find it
described in the epistles of Benno a cardinal, written to
other cardinals of Rome. This Cardinal Benno lived at
the same time with Hildebrand.
He is thus described in one epistle of Benno to his
brother cardinals as follows : —
" We have made mention before of some colleges of
the church of Rome which refused to hold communion
with him; as Leo, Benno, Ugobald, John; all cardinals:
Peter, chancellor and cardinal, being all instituted before
the time of this Hildebrand. These three also, though
consecrated by him, Natro, Innocent, and Leo, forsook
him, cursing the detestable errors which he held. Also
Theodine, whom he constituted arch-deacon, and
other cardinals more, John, surnamed Primicerius,
Peter Oblationarius, with all that belonged to them,
saving one man only. And now when this Hildebrand
saw that the bishops also would forsake him, he called
to him the laymen, and made them his privy councillors,
thinking thereby to separate the bishops, so that they
should have no conference with the cardinals. Then he
called the bishops together, and being guarded with
bands of laymen, he forced the bishops partly through
fear, and partly through his menacing words, to swear
.tlrat they would never oppose what he wished to have
done, and that they would never defend the king's
quarrel, and that they would never favour nor obey any
pope who might be instituted in his stead.
" As soon as Pope Alexander was dead, who died
somewhat before night, the same day, contrary to the
canons, Hildebrand was chosen pope by the laymen.
But the cardinals did not subscribe to his election.
For the canons prescribed (under an anathema or curse)
that none should be chosen pope before the third day
after the burial of his predecessor. But Hildebrand re-
moved the cardinals from being members of the council.
And then, contrary to the minds of the cardinals, and
to the regular order of pronouncing judgment by the
canons, he rashly excommunicated the emperor, al-
though he had not been in any synod solemnly accused
I efore. The sentence of wliich excommunication none
cf the cardinals would subscribe.
■" The emperor was wont oftentimes to go to St. Mary's
church to pray. Hildebrand, when he knew all the
doings of the emperor, caused the place where the em-
peror was accustomed either standing or prostrate on
his face to pray, to be marked, and he hired an assassin
to gather and lay together a heap of great stones directly
over the place in the vault of the church, v.here the em-
peror would stand, that in throwing them down upon his
head, he might slay the emperor. As the assassin hasted,
and was busy removing to the place a stone of great
weight, it broke the plank on which it lay, and as the
assassin was also standing on it, they fell together from
tiie roof to the pavement of the church, by which he was
killed. After the Romans had learned the matter, they
fastened a rope to one of the feet of the assassin, and
caused him to be drawn through the streets of the city
three days together as an example to others.
" In the Easter week, when the clergy and the people
were assembled at St. Peter's church to hear mass, after
the gospel, Hildebrand went into the pulpit as he was ia
his pontifical attire, and in the presence of the bishops,
cardinals, senate, and people of Rome openly preached,
that the emperor should die before the feast of St. Peter
next ensuing : or at least, that he should be so hurled
from his kingdom, that he should not be able to gather
together above six knights. This he preached to the
bishops and cardinals, and all that were present, crying
out of the pulpit in these words, ' Never accept me for
pope any more, but pluck me from the altar, if this pro-
phesy be not fulfilled by the day appointed.' About the
same time he sought by murderers to kill the emperor,
but God preserved him.
" When the time was expired that Hildebrand had
named, and when neither was the king dead, nor the
power of the empire impaired : he subtilely turned his
words, saying, ' that he meant them not of the body of
the king, but of his soul.' "
It were too long and tedious here to recite all the de-
testable doings, and diabolical practices of Hildebrand,
of which there is a long narration in the epistles of
the cardinal Benno to the other cardinals, to which the
reader may refer, who has either leisure to read or mind
to understand more of the abominable parts and devilish
acts of this pope.
Now let us proceed to set forth the vexation which the
virtuous and godly emperor sustained by that ungodly
pontiff.
When Henry VI. was encumbered with civil dissensioa
in Germany, the time seemed to Hildebrand very oppor-
tune to work out his objects : his study from the begin-
ning was to advance the Romish seat above all other
bishops, and also to press down the authority of the
temporal princes, under the spiritual men of the church.
The emperor busied in his wars, had no leisure to at-
tend to councils. But the pope proceeds to assemble
his council ; and threatens even to excommunicate tha
emperor, and depose him from his royal kingdom, unless
he would renounce the right of presenting to benefices,
and do penance. The council being ended, Guibert,'
archbishop of Ravenna persuaded one Centius to take the'
emperor's part against the pope, and he watching his'
time, in the temple of St. Mary, upon Christmas day in
the morning, takes the pope and puts him fast in a strong
tower. The next day the people of Rome hearing tliis,
proceed to help the bishop, whom they loosed out of
prison, and tlien they besieged the house of Centius, and
pulled it down to the ground ; his family having their
noses cut off, were cast out of the city ; Centius himself
escaping, fled to the emperor. The emperor being moved'
with the arrogant presumption of the proud prelate,
called a council at Worms. In which council all the
bishops not only of Saxony, but of all the empire of
Germany, agreed and concluded upon deposing Hilde-
brand, and that no obedience hereafter should be giveu
to him. This being determined in the council, Roland
was sent to Rome with the sentence, who in the name of
the council, commanded the pope to resign his seat, and
charged the cardinals to resort to the emperor for a new
election of another pope. The following was the sen-
tence of the council of Worms against Pope Hilde-
Irand :
" Forsomuch as thy first ingress and coming in hath
been so spotted with so many perjuries, and also the
church of God brought into no little danger through thine
abuse and new fangleness ; moreover, because thou hast
defamed thine own life and conversation, with so much
and great dishonesty, that we see no little peril or slander
to rise thereof; therefore the obedience, which yet we
never promised thee, hereafter we utterly renounce, and
never intend to giv'e thee. And as thou hast never taken
us yet for bishops (as thou hast openly reported of us) so
neither will we hereafter take thee to be apostolic."
The po])e touched witii this sentence, first condemns it in
his council of Lateran with an excommunication. Secondly,
deprives Sigifrid archbishop of Mentz of his dignities and
ecclesiastical livings, with all other bishops, abbots, and
priests, as many as took the emperor's part. Thirdly,
accuses Henry the emperor himself, depriving him of his
kingdom, and releasing all his subjects of their oath of
A.. D. lOrfi— 1080.] THE EMPEROR'S SERVILE SUBMISSION TO THE POPE.
115
allegiance in the following sentence excommunicatory,
against Henry the empei-or by Pope Hildebrand.
" O blessed St. Peter, prince of the apostles, bow down
thine ears I beseech thee, and hear me thy servant,
whom thou hast brought up even from mine infancy, and
hast delivered me until this day from the hands of the
wicked, who hate and persecute me, because of my faith
in tiiee. Thou art ray witness, and also the blessed mother
of Jesus Christ, and thy brother St. Paul, fellow partner
of thy martyrdom, how that I entered this function not
willingly, but enforced against my will ; not that I take
it so as a robbery, lawfully to ascend into this seat, but
because that I had rather pass over my life like a pilgrim
or private person, than for any fame or glory to climb up
to it ; I do acknowledge (and that worthily) all this to
come of thy grace, and not of my merits, that this charge
over christian people, and this power of binding and loos-
ing is committed to me. Wherefore, trusting upon this
assurance for the dignity and tuition of holy cliurch in
the name of God omnipotent, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, I do here depose Henry, the son of
Henry, once the emperor, from his imperial seat, and
princely government, who hath so boldly and pre-
sumptuously laid hands upon the church. And further-
more, all such as heretofore have sworn to be his sub-
jects, I release them of their oath, whereby all subjects
are bound to the allegiance of their princes. For it is
meet and convenient that he should be void of dignity,
who seeks to diminish the majesty of thy church. More-
over, for that he has contemned my admonitions, tending
to his health and the wealth of his people ; and has
separated himself from the fellowship of the church
(which he, through his seditions, studies to destroy)
therefore I bind him by virtue of excommunication,
trusting and knowing most certainly, that thou art Peter
(in the rock of whom as in the true foundation) Christ
our king has built his church."
The emperor, thus assaulted with the pope's censure,
sends his letters through all nations to clear himself, de-
claring how wrongfully he was condemned. The princes
of Germany partly fearing the pope, and partly rejoicing
that an excuse was given to rebel against the emperor,
assembled and consulted together, and so concluded to
elect another emperor, unless he would submit and obtain
pardon from the pope.
Here we may see the lamentable affections of the Ger-
mans in those days, thus to forsake such a valiant emperor,
and to regard so much a vile bishop. But this was the
ignorance and rudeness of the world then, for lack of
better knowledge. The emperor, seeing the chief princes
ready to forsake him, promises them with an oath, that
if the pope would repair to Germany, he would ask
forgiveness.
IJpon this tlie bishop of Treves was sent to Rome, to
intreat the pope to come into Germany. The pope was
content and entered into Germany, thinking to come to
Augsburgh ; but he retired in fear to Canusium.
Henry (immediately coming out of Spires with his
empress and his young son) resorts to Canusium. All
nis peers and nobles had left him for fear of the Pope's
curse, neither did any accompany him. Wherefore the
emperor, being not a little troubled (laying apart his
regal ornaments) came barefooted with his empress and
child to the gate of the city, where from morning to night
(all the day fasting) he most humbly desired absolution.
Thus he continued three days together ; at length an an-
swer came, that the pope's majesty had yet no leisure to
speak with him. The emperor patiently and humbly
waits without the walls, with no little grievance and
pain ; for it was a sharp winter, and all freezing with
cold. At length it was granted, through the entreaty of
Matilda the pope's favorite, and of Arelaus earl of Sebau-
dia, and the abbot of Cluny, that he should be admitted
to the pope's presence. On the fourth day being ad-
mitted, he pelds to the pope his crown, with all other
imperial ornaments, and confessed himself unworthy of
the empire, if ever he should do against the pope here-
after, as he had done before, desiring for that time to be ab-
solved and forgiven. The pope answered, he would neither
forgive him, nor release the bond of his excommunication,
but upon certain conditions. First, to promise that hs
should be content to stand to his arbitration, and to take
such penance as he shall enjoin him ; also that he shall be
ready to appear, in whatever place or time the pope shall
appoint him. Moreover, that he, being content to accept
the pope as judge of his cause, shall answer to all objec-
tions and accusations laid against him, and that he shall
never seek any revenge in return. Also that he shall
submit to the pope's mind and pleasure, whether he shall
have his kingdom restored or not. Finally, that before
his trial, he shall neither use his kingly ornaments,
sceptres or crown, nor usurp authority to govern, nor to
exact any oath of allegiance from his subjects, &c. These
things being promised to the bishop by an oath, and put in
writing, the emperor is released from his excommunication.
The pope with his cardinals vaunted and triumphed
with no little ))ride, that they had so quailed the emperor,
and brought him on his knees to ask forgiveness. Yet,
mistrusting themselves, and what might befall them if
fortune should turn, and God give the emperor a more
quiet kingdom ; they study and consult privily how to dis-
place Henry from his kingdom. They determined to
offer the empire to Rodulph, a man of great nobility
among the chief states of Germany. To bring this pur-
pose the better to pass, legates were sent down from the
pope, who should persuade all France, that Henry was
rightfully excommunicated, and that they should give to
the bishop of Rome their consent in choosing Rodulpk
to the empire.
While this conspiracy was in hand Henry was absent.
In the meantime Rodulph was elected emperor. Upon
this comes the bishop of Strasburgh to the emperor,
certifying him what was done. He mustered his mer
with expedition, and marched forward to defend his right,
and attempted battle against Rodulph. A great slaugh-
ter took place on both sides, but the victory was certait
on neither part ; so that both the captains yet challenged
the empire. Their armies being refreshed, they soor
had another conflict, but victory was again doubtful.
Thus both the captains being wearied in wars, th«i
Romish beast, the bishop, who was the cause of ail,
sends his legates to call together a council in Germany,
where it should be determined to whom the empir«
should belong.
But the emperor would not permit the legates to hold
any council within Germany unless they would first
depose Rodulph. The pope hearing this, and seeing hia
purpose was so thwarted by the emperor, draws out ano-
ther excommunication against him, and again deprives
him of his kingdom.
Tke Second Excommunication of Hildebrand against th\
Emperor.
" Blessed St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and thou St,
Paul also, the teacher of the Gentiles, give ear unto mt,
I beseech you a little, and gently hear me, for you are
the discijiles and lovers of truth. The things that I shall
say are true. This matter I take in hand for truth's sake,
that my brethren (whose salvation I seek) may the more
obsequiously obey me, and better understand, how that I
trusting upon your defence (next to Christ, and his mo-
ther the immaculate Virgin) resist the wicked, and am
ready to help the faithful. I did not enter this seat o<
mine own accord, but much against my will and with
tears, for that 1 accounted myself unworthy to occupy
so high a throne. And this I say, not that I have chosen
you, but you have chosen me, and have laid this great
burthen upon our shoulders. And now, whereas by this
your assignment, I have ascended up this hill, crying to
the people and shewing them their faults, and to the
children of the church their iniquities ; the members
of Satan have risen up against me, and have laid
hands together to seek my blood. For the kings of
the earth have risen up against me, and the princes of
this world, with whom also have conspired certain of the
clergy against the Lord and against us his anointed,
saying, " Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast
their cords away from us." This have they done against
me, to bring me either to death or to banishment, la
116
SENTENCE OF THE COUNCIL OF BRIXIA AGAINST POPE HILDEBRAND. [Book IV.
the number of whom is Henry, whom they call king, the
son of Henry the emperor, who has lifted up so proudly
his horns against the church of God, making conspiracy
with divers other bishops, Italians, French, and Germans.
Against the pride of whom hitherto your authority has
prevailed ; who rather being broken than amended,
coming to me in Cisalpina, made humble suit to me for
pardon and absolution. I, thinking there was true
repentance in him, received him again to favour, and did
restore him to the communion only, from which he was
excommunicated, but to his kingdom (from which in the
synod of Rome he was worthily expelled) I did not re-
store him, nor to the rents and fruits thereof, (that he
might return to the faith again) that I granted not to
him. And that I did for this purpose, that if he should
defer to agree with certain of his neighbours whom he
h:is always vexed, and to restore again the goods both
of the church and otherwise, then he might be compelled
bv the censures of the church, and force of arms thereto.
Wiiereby divers and sundry bishops and princes of Ger-
many (such as he had long troubled) being helped by this
opportunity, elected Rodulph their duke to be king in
phice of Henry, whom they for his transgressions had
removed and dispatched from his empire. But Rodulph,
first in tliis matter using a princely modesty and integrity,
-ent up his messengers to me, declaring how he was con-
strained to take that regal government upon him, although
he was not so desirous thereof, but that he would rather
sliow himself obedient to us, than to the other that
offered him the kingdom ; and vi'hatever our arbitration
should be therein, he would be under obedience both to
God and to us. And for more assurance of his obedience
he hath sent his own children hither for pledges. Upon
this Henry began to be angry, and first intreated us to
restrain and inhibit Rodulph, through the pain of our
curse, from the usurpation of his kingdom. I answered
1 would see which of them had the best right and title
'.hereto, and so send our legates thither to know the whole
etate of the matter ; and thereon I would decide between
them which of them had the true right. But Henry
would not suffer our legates to come to take up the mat-
ter, and slew many both secular men and clergy, spoiling
and profaning churches ; and so by this means hath
endangered himself in the bonds of excommunication.
I therefore, trusting in the judgment and mercy of
God, and in the support of the blessed virgin, also upon
your authority, do lay the sentence of curse upon the said
Henry and all his adherents ; and here again I take his
regal government from him, charging and forbidding all
christian men that have been sworn to him, whom I dis-
charge here of their oath, that hereafter they obey him in
nothing, but that they take Rodulph as their king, who
is elected by many princes of the province. For it is
right and convenient, that as Henry for his pride and
stubbornness is deprived of his dignity and possession ; so
Rodulph being acceptable to all men for his virtue and
devotion, be exalted to the imperial throne and dominion.
" Therefore, O you blessed princes of the apostles,
grant this, and confirm with your authority what I
have said, so that all men may understand, if you
have power to bind and loose in heaven, you have also
power in earth to give and take away empires, king-
doms, principalities, and whatever here on earth belongs
to mortal men. For if you have power to judge in
such matters as appertain to God : what then should
we think you have of these inferior and profane things ?
And if it be in your power to judge the angels, ruling
over proud princes, what then shall it beseem you to do
upon their servants ? Therefore let the kings under-
stand by this example, and all other princes of the world,
what you are able to do in heaven, and what you are with
God ; that thereby they may fear to contemn the com-
mandment of holy church. And now do you exercise
this judgment quickly upon Henry, whereby all men may
see this son of iniquity fall from his kingdom, not by any
chance, but by your provision and only work. Not-
withstanding this I would crave of you, that he, being
brought to repentance through your intercession, yet in
the day of judgment may find favour and grace with the
Lord."
After this, Henry and Rodulph, to try the matter by
the sword, contended together in battle, where Henry,
by the favour of God, contrary to the judgment of Hil-
debrand, had the victory. Rodulph being severely
wounded in the conflict, was taken out of the army, and
carried to Hyperbolis, where he commanded the bishops
and chief movers of his conspiracy to be brought before
him. When they came, he lifted up his right hand in
which he had received his deadly wound, and said,
" This is the hand which gave the oath and sacrament
of fidelity to Henry my prince, and which through your
instigation so often has fought against him and fought in
vain ; now go and perform your first oath and alle-
giance to your king ; for I must go to my fathers," and
so he died. Thus the pope gave battle, but God gave the
victory.
Henry, after his enemy was thus subdued, forgot
not the injuries received from Hildebrand, by whom
he was twice excommunicated, and expelled from his
kingdom. Therefore he calls a council of the bishops of
Italy, Lombardy, and Germany, at Brixia (A.D. 1083),
where he cleared himself, and then accused Hildebrand
of various crimes, as an usurper, perjured, a necromancer,
a sower of discord ; complaining moreover of wrongs and
injuries done by the bishop and church of Rome ; his
father, who was emperor before him, had installed many
bishops by his assignment, without the election of any
other : and now this pope, contrary to his oath and
promise, thrust himself in without the will and knowledge
of him who was the emperor and chief magistrate.
For, in the time of his father Henry III., this Hilde-
brand with others, bound themselves with an oath, that
so long as the emperor and his son should live, they
should neither themselves presume, nor suffer any
other to aspire to the papal seat, without the assent and
approbation of the emperors ; which now this Hildebrand,
contrary to his oath, had done. Wherefore the council,
with one agreement, condemned this Hildebrand that he
should be deposed, and passed the following sentence
against him.
" Because it is known that this bishop was not elected
of God, but has intruded himself by fraud and money — •
who has subverted all ecclesiastical order — who has dis-
turbed the government of the christian empire — menacing
death of body and soul against our catholic and peace-
able king — who has set up and maintained a perjured
king — sowing discord where concord was — causing de-
bate amongst friends — slanders and offences amongst
brethren — -divorce and separation among the married,
(for he took away the marriage of priests) — and finally
disquieting the peaceable state of ail quiet life : There-
fore we here, in the name and by the authority of God,
congregated together, with the legates and nineteen
bishops, on this day of Pentecost, at Mentz, do proceed
in canonical judgment against Hildebrand, a most wicked
man, preaching sacrilege and burning, maintaining per-
jury and murders, calling in question the catholic faith
of the body and blood of the Lord, a follower of divina-
tion and dreams, a manifest necromancer, a sorcerer, and
infected with an evil and heathen spirit, and therefore
departed from the true faith, and we judge him to be de-
posed and expelled, and unless he, hearing this, shall
yield and depart the seat, to be perpetually condemned."
This being enacted and sent to Rome, they elected
Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna in the place of Hilde-
brand, to govern the church of Rome, under the title of
Clement III. But when Hildebrand neither would give
over his hold, nor give place to Clement, the emperor
gathering an army came to Rome to depose him, and
to place Clement. But Hildebrand sending to Matilda,
who possessed great power and authority in Italy, re-
quired her, in remission of all her sins, to withstand
Henry, and so she did. But Henry prevailed, and came
to Rome, where he besieged the city all the Lent, and
after Easter got it, the Romans being compelled to open
the gates to him ; so, coming to the temple of St.
Peter, he there places Clement in his papacy. Hilde-
brand straight flies into Adrian's tower with his adherents,
where, being beset round about, he sends for Robert
Guiscard his friend, a Norman. In the meantime,
A. D. lO'^— 1087.] DEATH OF HILDEBRAND AND WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
117
while Robert collects his power, the abbot of Cluny,
conferring with Gregory, exhorts him to crown Henry
as emperor in Lateran. Which if he would do, the
other promises to induce Henry to depart with his army
1 into Germany : the people of Rome did likewise move
; him unto this. Gregory answered, " That he was con-
tent so to do, but upon condition that the emperor would
submit himself to ask pardon to amend his fault and to
promise obedience. The emperor not agreeing to those
conditions, went to Senas, taking Clement the new pope
with him.
After the return of the emperor, Robert Guiscard, ap-
proaching with his soldiers, burst in at one of the gates,
and spoiled the city. And not long after, delivered
Hildebrand out of his enemy's hands, and carried him
away to Campania ; where he not long after died in
exile.
Antony writes, that Hildebrand, as he lay dying,
' called to him one of his chief cardinals, bewailing to him
I his fault, and the disorder of his spiritual ministry, in
I stirring up discord, war, and dissension, whereupon he
I desired the cardinal to go to the emperor, and desire
\ of him forgiveness, absolving from the danger of excom-
I municatioa both him and all his partakers both quick and
dead.
Thus the reader has the full history of Pope Gregory VII.
called Hildebrand ; which I have laid out more at large,
because from this pope sprang all the occasions of mis-
chief, of pomp, pride, presumption, and tyranny, which
since that time has reigned in the cathedral church of
the Romish clergy. For here came first the subjection
! of the temporal authority under the spiritual jurisdiction ;
and emperors, who before were their masters, now are
made their underlings. Also here came in the suppres-
sion of priests' marriage. Here came in moreover the
authority of both the swords spiritual and secular into
spiritual men' s hands. So that christian magistrates
could do nothing in election, in giving bishopricks or
benefices, in calling councils, in hearing and correcting
the excesses of the clergy, but the pope alone must do
all. And finally, here came in the first example to per-
secute emperors and kings with rebellion and excommu-
nication.
Now we may return to the history of England. About
the death of Pope Hildebrand, or not long after, fol-
lowed the death of King William the Conqueror, in the
year 1087, after he had reigned in England the space of
one-and-twenty years and ten mouths.
By the life and acts of this king it may appear true, as
histories report of him that he was wise, but guileful ;
rich, but covetous ; a fair speaker, but a great dissem-
bler ; glorious in victory, and strong in arms, but rigor-
ous in oppressing those whom he overcame, and passing
all others in laying taxation. Insomuch that he caused
to be enrolled and numbered in his treasury every hide of
land, and the owner thereof, what fruit and revenues were
derived of every lordship, every township, castle, village,
field, river, and wood, within the realm of England ;
how many parish churches, how many living cattle there
were, what and how much every baron in the realm
could spend, what fees were belonging to them, what
wages were taken, &c. The tenor and contents of all
which yet remains in rolls.
The king had such pleasure in hunting, and in parks,
that in the county of Southampton, for the space of
thirty miles, he cast down churches and townships, and
there made the new forest ; loving his deer so dearly, as
though he had been a father to them, making sharp laws
for the increasing thereof, under pain of losing both the
eyes. So hard was he to Englishmen, and so favourable
to his own country, that there was no English bishop
remaining, but only Wolstan of Winchester, who being
commanded by the king and Lanfranc to resign up his
Btaff, partly for inability, partly for lack of the French
tongue, refused otherwise to resign it, but only to him
that gave it, and so went to the tomb of King Edward,
where he thought to resign it, but was permitted to en-
joy it still.
Among his other conditions, this is noted, that he was
so given to peace and quiet, that any maiden laden with
gold or silver, might pass through the whole realm
without harm or resistance. This William in his time
built two monasteries, one in England, at Battle in
Sussex, where he won the field against Harold, called
the Abbey of Battle ; another besides, named Barmond-
sey, in his own country of Normandy.
A little above, mention was made of the bishop's see
of Sherborne, translated from thence to Salisbury. The
first bishop of Salisbury was Hirman, a Norman, who
first began the new church and minster of Salisbury.
After whom succeeded Osmund, who finished the work,
and endowed the house with great revenues, and much
good singing. This Osmund first began the ordinary
which was called " Secundum usum Sarum " (A. D.
1076). The occasion whereof was this, as I find in au
old story book, entitled " Euloffiurn." A great conten-
tion chanced at Glastonbury, between Thurstan the
abbot, and his convent, in the days of William the Con-
queror. The cause of this contention was, that Thur-
stan contemning their choir service, then called the use
of St. Gregory, compelled his monks to the use of one
William, a monk of Fiscam in Normandy. Whereupon
came strife and contentions among them, first in words,
then from words to blows, after blows then to armour.
The abbot, with his armed guard, fell upon the monks,
and drove them to the steps of the high altar, where two
were slain, and eight wounded with arrows, swords, and
pikes. The monks then driven to such a straight and
narrow shift, were compelled to defend themselves with
forms and candlesticks, with which they wounded some
of the soldiers. One monk (an aged man), instead of
his shield took an image of the crucifix in his arms for
his defence, which image was wounded in the breast by
one of the bowmen, whereby the monk was saved. My
story adds that the striker immediately fell mad, which
seems some monkish addition. This matter being
brought before the king, the abbot was sent again to
Cadonum, and the monks, by the command of the king,
were scattered in far countries. Thus Osmund, bishop
of Salisbury, devised that ordinary, which is called
" the use of Sarum," and was afterward received in a
manner through England, Ireland, and Wales.
WILLIAM RUFUS.
William Rufus, the second son of William the Con-
queror, began his reign (A. D. 1087), and reigned thir-
teen years, being crowned at Westminster by Lanfranc.
After his coronation, he released out of prison, at the
request of his father, several English lords, who had
been in custody. It happened that, at the death of Wil-
liam the Conqueror, Robert, his eldest son, was absent
in Germany, who hearing of the death of his father, and
how William his younger brother had taken upon him
the kingdom, was greatly incensed : he laid his duke-
dom to pledge to his brother Henry, and gathered an
army, and landed at Hampton. But William Rafus
sent to him fair and gentle words, promising him sub-
jection, as to the more worthy and elder brother, only
requiring that as he was in possession, he might enjoy
it during his life, paying to him yearly three thousand
marks, with condition that whichever of them outlived
the other should enjoy the kingdom. The occasion of
this variance between these brothers brought a great dis-
sension between the Norman lords and bishops, both in
England and in Normandy. But Duke Robert, by the
advice of his council, was content to consent to all that
was desired, and returned shortly after into Normandy.
This Rufus was so disliked by the Normans, that be-
tween him and his lords there was frequently dissension.
All the Normans took part against him, so that he was
forced of necessity to draw to him the Englishmen.
Again, he was so covetous and so immeasurable in his
taxes and takings, in selling benefices, abbeys, and bi-
shoprics, that he was hated by all Englishmen.
King William was an exceeding plunderer of church
goods ; after he had given the bishopric of Lincoln to his
chancellor, Robert Blevet, he then began to cavil, avow-
ing that the see of Lincoln belonged to the see of York,
118
WILLIAM R[JFUS.— THE FIRST CRUSADE.
[Book IV
till the bishop of Lincoln had pleased him with a great
Bum of money, viz., five thousand marks.
And as nothing could come in those days -without
money, so Herbert Loginga, by paying to the king a piece
of money, was made Bishop of Thetford, as he had paid a
little before to be made abbot of Ramsay. He removed
his see from Thetford to the city of Norwich, and there
elected the cathedral churcli with the cloister, where he
furnished the monks with sufficient living and rents of his
own charges, besides the bishi)i)'s lands. Afterwards, re-
penti:ig of his oi)enaiul mnnifest simony, be went to Rome,
where he resigned into the pope's hands his bishopric,
but so thit i.nmediately he received it back again.
\\'e heard a little before of the death of Pope
HildebraaJ, after whose time the emperors began to
lose their aathority in the po})e's election, and in giving
of benelic^^s. I'or next aft„'r this Hildebrand came Pope
Victor III., through the influence of Matilda, and the
Duke of Normiiidy, with the faction and retinue of Hil-
debrand, who likewise shewed himself stout against the
eaipc-ror. But God restrained bis power. For Victor
being poisoned, as some say, in his chalice, sat but one
ycai- and a half. However, the example of Hildebrand
coutiiuied still in those that followed hitn. And as the
k:n,'s of Israel followed for the most jjart the steps of
Jroboam, till the time of their desolation; so the popes
folknved the steps and proceedings of this Hildebrand,
th i'ir spiritual Jeroboam, in maintaining false worship,
and c'.iielly in upholding the dignity of that see, against
ail rightful authority, and the lawful kingdom of Sion.
Next to Victor sat Urban II., by whom the acts of
Hildebrand were confirmed, and also new decrees en-
acted against Henry the emperor. In this time were
two popes together at Rome, Urban II. and Clement III.,
whom the emperor set up. Under Pope Urban II.
came in the white monks of the Cistercian order. In
this order the monks lived by the labour of their hands ;
they payed no tithes nor offerings, they wore no fur nor
lining, they wore red shoes, white cowls, and black
coats, all shorn, save a little circle round their heads ;
they only eat flesh in their journeys.
This Urban held several councils ; one at Rome, where
he excommunicated all such lay persons as gave inves-
titure of any ecclesiastical benefice ; also all such of the
clergy as degraded themselves to be the underlings or
servants to lay persons for ecclesiastical benefices.
He held another council at Cleremont in France,
where among other things, the bishop made an oration
to the lords there present, concerning the recovering
the Holy Land from the Turks and Saracens. The
cause of which first sprang by one Peter, a monk or
hermit, who being in Jerusalem, and seeing the great
misery of the christians under the pagans, declared it to
Pope Urban II., and was a great advocate for the cru-
sade to all christian princes. By which, after the ora-
tion of Pope Urban II., 30,000 men (taking on them the
sign of the cross), made preparation for that voyage.
Their chiefs were Godfrey, duke of Loraine, with his
two brothers, Eustace and Baldwin ; the bishop of
Pody ; Bohemond, duke of Puell, and his nephew Tan-
cred ; Raymond, earl of St. Egidius ; Robert, earl of
Flanders, and Hugh le Grand, brother of Philip the French
king. To whom also was joined Robert Curthoise, duke
of Normandy, with other noblemen, together with Peter
the hermit, who was the chief cause of the undertaking.
At that time many of the noblemen laid their lands
and lordships to mortgage, to assist in this crusade ; as
Godfrey, duke of Loraine, who sold the dukedom of
Bologna, to the bishop of Eburone for a great sum of
money. Also Robert Curthoise, duke of Normandy,
pledged his dukedom to his brother William, king of
England, for ten thousand pounds.
Thus the christians, who passed first over the Bos-
phorus, under the guidance of Peter the hermit (a man
more devout than expert in guiding an army), being
entrap])ed by their enemies, were slain and murdered in
great numbers.
When the nobles and the whole army met together
at Constantinople (where Alexius was emi)eror), passing
over by the Hellespont on their way to Jerusalem, they
took the cities of Nice, Eraclea, Tarsis, and subdued
the country of Cicilia.
Antioch was besieged, and in the ninth month of the
siege it yielded to the christians by one Pyrrhus ; about -
which time were fought many strong battles, to the great
slaughter and desolation of the Saracens, and not with-
out the loss of many christian men. The government
of this city was committed to Bohemond, duke of Puell,
whose martial knighthood was frequently proved in the
time of the siege.
And not long after, Corbona master of the Persian
chivalry, was vanquished and slain, with an hundred
thousand infidels. In which discomfiture 15,000 camels
were taken.
On the nine-and-tbirtieth day of the siege, Jerusalem
was conquered by the christians, and Robert, duke of
Normandy, was elected king of it. However, he refused
it, hearing of the death of William Rufus, king of
England, wherefore he never succeeded well in all his
affairs afterwards. Then Godfrey, captain of the chris-
tian army, was proclaimed the first king of Jerusalem.
At the taking of the city, such was the murder of men,
that blood was congealed in the streets the thickness of
a foot. Then after Godfrey, reigned Baldwin his bro-
ther ; after him Baldwin II., his nephew. Then Gau-
fride, duke of Gaunt, and after him Gaufride his son,
by whom many great battles were fought against the
Saracens, and all the country thereabout subdued, save
Ascalon, &c. And thus much touching the voyage
to the Holy Land. Now to our own land again.
About this time (as Matthew Paris writes) the king
of England did not much favour the See of Rome, be-
cause of the impudent and unsatiable exactions which
they required ; nor would he suffer any of his subjects
to go to Rome.
By Pope Urban II. it was decreed, that no bishop
should be made, but under the name and title of some
certain place.
That matins and hours of the day should be said
every day.
Also that every Saturday there should be said the
mass of our lady, and all the Jews' sabbath turned to
the service of our lady.
That all such of the clergy as had wives should be de-
prived of their order.
That it should be lawful for subjects to break their
oath of allegiance with all such as were excommunicated
by the pope.
In the year 109.3, the king gave the archbishopric of
Canterbury to Anselm, abbot of Beck in Normandy.
This Anselm was an Italian, born and brought up in
the abbey of Beck in Normandy, where he was so strict
a follower of virtue, that (as the story records) he
wished rather to be without sin in hell, than with sin
in heaven. Which saying and wish of his, if it were his,
may seem to proceed out of a mind neither speaking
orderly according to the phrase and understanding of
the scripture, nor yet sufficiently acquainted with the
justification of a christian man.
Of this Anselm it is reported, that he was so unwil-
ling to take the archbishopric, that the king had much
ado to thrust it upon him ; and he was so desirous to
have him take it, that the city of Canterbury, which
previously was held by Lanfranc, only at the king's
good will and pleasure, he now gave absolutely to
Anselm (A. D. 1093). But as desirous as the king
then was to place Anselm there, so much did he repent
it afterwards, seeking all possible means to defeat him
if he could. Such strife and contention rose between
them for certain matters, the ground and occasion
whereof first was this :
After Anselm had thus been elected to the see of
Canterbury, before he was fully consecrated, the king
communed with him that such lands and possessions of
the church of Canterbury as the king had given and
granted to his friends since the death of Lanfranc, they
might still enjoy as their own lawful possessions. But
to this Anselm would not agree. At which the king,
conceiving great displeasure against him, stopped his
consecration, till in process of time the king, forced
A. D. 1087—1098.]
DISPUTE BETW'EEN THS KING AND ANSELM.
iiy
"by the daily complaints and desires of his people, for
want of an archbishop to moderate the church, was
constrained to admit him. Thus Anselm, taking his
consecration, and doing his homage to the king, went to
his see of Canterbury, and not long after the king sailed
over to Normandy.
About this time there were two striving in Rome
for the popedom, as is before touched. Urban and
Guibert, different realms consenting, some to the one,
some to the other. England, taking part with the king,
rather inclined to Guibert, called Clement III. ; but
Anselni went with Urban. After the king returned
I from Normandy, the archbishop comes to him, and
asks leave to go to Rome, to obtain his pall of Urban.
When he could not at first obtain leave, he appeals from the
king to the pope. The king being justly displeased, charges
the archbishop with breach of his fealty, contrary to his
promise made, that without his licence he should not appeal
either to Urban, or to any other pope. Anselm answers
again, that it was to be referred to some greater council,
■where it is to be disputed, whether this be breach of a
man's allegiance to an earthly prince, if he appeal to the
vicar of St. Peter. And here much arguing and con-
tending was on both sides. The king's reason proceeds
thus: " The custom, saith he, from my father's time,
has been in England, that no person should appeal to
the pope witliout the king's licence. He that breaks
the customs of the realm, violates the power and crown
of the kingdom ; and he that violates and takes away
my crown is a traitor and enemy against me," &c. To
this Anselm replied again, — " The Lord, saith he, easily
discusses this question, briefly teaching what fidelity and
allegiance we ought to give to the vicar of St. Peter,
where he saith, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
will I build my church, and to thee will I give the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou
shalt bind in earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and what-
soever thou shalt loose in earth, shall be loosed in heaven,'
&c. Again, to them all in general, he saith, ' He
that heareth you, heareth me ; and whoso despiseth
you, despiseth me.' And in another place, ' He that
toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye.' On the
other side, what duty we owe to the king, he shews also.
'Give,' saith he, 'to the emperor, what belongeth to the
emperor, and to God, that which to God belongeth.'
"Wherefore, in such things as belong to God, I will yield,
and must yield by good right and duty, my obedience to
the vicar of St. Peter ; and in such things as belong
again to earthly dignities of my prince, in those I wiU
not deny my faithful help and counsel so far as they can
extend."
Thus you have the arguments of this prelate against
his prince, to whicli perhaps was joined also some piece
of a stubborn heart. But in this conclusion none of his
fellow bishops durst take his part, but were all against
him ; namely, William, bishop of Durham, to whom
Anselm thus protests, saying, " Whoever he were that
would presume to prove it any breach of allegiance or
fealty to his sovereign, if he appealed to the vicar of St.
Peter, he was ready to answer at all times to the con-
trary." The bishop of Durham answered again, —
" That he who would not be ruled by reason, must be
constrained with force." &c. The king, having on his
part the agreement of the bishops, thought to deprive
the archbishop of his pastoral see, and to expel him out
of the realm. But he could not perform this; for An-
selm, as he was ready to depart the realm, said, when-
ever he went, he would take his office and authority
with him, though he took nothing else. Whereupon
that matter was deferred till a longer time. In the
meanwhile, the king had sent privately two messengers
to Pope Urban, to intreat him to send his pall to the
king, for him to give it where he chose ; which mes-
sengers by this time were returned again, bringing with
thejn from Rome Galtar, bishop of Alban, the pope's
legate, with the pall to be given to Anselm. This
legate, first landing at Dover, came privately (unknown
to Anselm) to the king, declaring and promising, that
if Urban was received pope in England, whatever the
king required to be obtained, he, by his privilege from
the apostolical see, would ratify and confirm, save only
that when the king required of the legate that Anselm
might be removed, the legate thereto would not agree,
saying, " That that was impossible for such a man as he,
being lawfully called, to be expelled without manifest
cause." In conclusion, although he could not obtain
his request of the legate, yet the legate so managed with
the king, that Urban was proclaimed lawful pope
throughout all the realm.
Then certain bishops were sent to Anselm, to influ-
ence his mind, declaring what charges and pains the
king had been at in his behalf, to procure the pall for
him from Rome, which otherwise would have stood him
in great expenses, and that all this the king had done
for his sake ; therefore it was but good reason and pro-
per that he, to gratify the king, should yield somewhat
to his request in return. But with all this Anselm, the
stout archbishop, would not be moved. Therefore the
king, seeing no other remedy, was compelled to grant to
him the full right of his archbishopric. And so on the
appointed day, when the pall was to be brought to Canter-
bury (being carried with all solemnity in a silver box),
the archbishop, with a great concourse of people, came
forth barefoot with his priestly vestments, to meet it.
And so being brought in, it was laid upon the altar,
while Anselm, spreading over his shoulders his popish
vestments, proceeded to his popish mass.
Thus agreement being made between the king and the
bishop, so long as it would hold ; it happened the year
following, that the king entered with his army into
Wales, to subdue such as rebelled against him there.
After victory the king, returning home with triumph,
found Anselm was coming to congratulate him on his suc-
cess. But the king prevented him by messengers, laying
to the bishop's charge both the small number and the
evil service of his soldiers sent to him at his need. At
hearing this, all the hopes of Anselm were dashed to the
ground, for he had thought to have obtained and done
many great matters with the king, touching the state of
the church. But here all turned contrary to his expec-
tation, so that he was charged, against the next court of
parliament, to make his answer. But he avoided that
by appealing to Rome. So he made his suit and inter-
est with the king for licence to go to the pope. The
king answered, " That he should not go, neither was
there any cause for him to do so ; for that both he knew
him to be of so sound a life, that he had done no such
offence, whereof he needed to crave absolution at Rome,
neither was there any such lack of science and kno^ -
ledge, that he needed to borrow any counsel there ; in-
somuch, saith the king, I dare say Pope Urban rather has
to give place to the wisdom of Anselm, than Anselm to
have need of Urban. Wherefore as he has no cause to go,
so I charge him to tarry. And if he continue in his stubborn-
ness still, I shall assuredly seize upon his possessions, and
convert his archbishopric into my coft'ers, because he
transgresses and breaks fidelity and obedience, pro-
mising before to observe all the customs of my kingdom.
Neither is it the fashion in this realm, that any of my
nobles should go to Rome without my sending. And
therefore let him swear to rae, that he will never for
any grievance appeal hereafter to the see of Rome, or
else let him leave my realm."
Anselm thinking best not to reply by any message,
but by word of mouth, comes himself personally to the
king, and places himself on the right hand of the prince,
where he made his reply to the message sent to him by
the king. " Whereas you say I ought not to go to
Rome, either in regard of any trespass, or for abundance
of counsel and knowledge in me (although I grant
neither of them to be true), yet what the truth is therein,
I refer it to the judgment of God. And whereas ye say
that I promised to keep and observe your customs ; that
I grant, hut with a condition, so far to keep them, and to
observe such of them as were consonant to the laws of
God, and ruled with right and equity. Moreover,
whereas ye charge me with breach of my fidelity and al-
legiance, for that, contrary to your customs I appeal to
the apostolic see (my reverence and duty to your sove-
reignty reserved) ; if another person would say it, it
120 ARTICLES IN WHICH THE GREEK CHURCH DIFFERED FROM THE LATIN. [Book 3V.
would be untrue. For the fidelity and obedience that I
owe to thee, O king ! I have it of the faith and fidelity
of God, whose vicar St. Peter is, to whose seat I do
appeal. Further, whereas ye require me to swear, that
I shall for no cause hereafter at any time appeal to Rome,
I pronounce openly that a christian prince has no right
to require sucli an oath of his archbishop ; for if I should
forswear St. Peter, I should deny Christ. And when
I shall at any time deny Christ, then shall I be content
and ready to stand to the satisfaction of my transgression
to you, for asking licence to go to Rome. And perad-
venture when I am gone, the goods of the church shall
not so serve your temporal desires and commodities as
ye ween for." At these words of the bishop the king
and his nobles were not a little incensed. And declared
again, " That in his promise of observing the king's
customs, there was neither condition, nor any clause
put in, either of God or right," ike.
At length the king, after many threatening words,
told him he should carry nothing out of the realm with
him. " Well," said the bishop ; " if I may neither
have my horse nor garments with me, then will I walk
on foot ;" and so he prepared to set out on his journey,
(all the other bishops forsaking him), of whom none
would take his part ; but if he came to them for coun-
sel, they said he was wise enough, and needed not their
counsel, as being one who for his prudence knew best
what was to be done, as also for his holiness, was willing
and able to follow what he knew. As for them, they
neither durst nor would stand against the king their lord,
■whose favour they could not be without, for the peril
that might happen both to themselves and their kin-
dred.
Anselm coming to Rome, made his complaint to Pope
Urban of the king ; and the pope, writing to the king in
behalf of Anselm, his letters and commands were de-
spised. In the meantime, while the pope's letters were
sent to the king, and Anselm was bid to wait about the
pope for an answer back, till perceiving at length how
little the king regarded the pope's letters, he began to
be weary of waiting, and desired the pope that he might
be discharged from his archiepiscopal office. To this
the pope would not consent, but added, " As touching
these matters we shall sufficiently provide at the next
council to be holden at Baycwine, where 1 require you to
be present.
When the time of the council was come, Anselm
among others was called for, who, first sitting outside
the bishops, was afterwards placed at the right foot of
the pope, whence the same place was appointed to the suc-
cessors of the see of Canterbury, in every general
council by the decree of Pope Urban, to sit at the right
foot of tlie pope. In this council there was great stir
and much reasoning against the Grecians, concerning the
matter and order of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost.
Where is to be noted, that the Greek church has for a long
time dissented from the Latin church in many points,
to the number of twenty, or twenty-nine Articles, as
I have them collected out of the register of the church
of Hereford, of which some are as follow :
Wherein the Greek church differ eth from the Latin.
1. They are not under the obedience of the church of
Rome, because that the church of Constantinople is not
fcubject but equal to the same.
'2. Tliey hold that the bishop of the apostolic see of
Rome has not greater power than the four patriarchs.
And whatever the pope does beside their knowledge, or
without tlitir approbation, it is of no value.
'.'i. They say wliatever has been done or concluded,
since the second general council, is of no authority ;
btia ISC fiom that time they a(!count the Latins to be in
eiror, and excluded uut of the holy church.
4. Tiiey liolJ the eucharist consecrated by the church
of Rome not to be tlie very body of Christ. Also where
the Raitiisli church consecrates in unleavened bread, they
tonsicrate in bread leavened.
a. 'I'l.ey say that the Romish church errs in the
words of bajitisui, for saying, " I baptize thee ;" when
they should say, "Let this creature of God be baptized/*
&c.
6. They hold moreover that there is no purgatory,
and that the suffrages of the church do not avail the
dead, either to lessen the pain of them that be destined
to hell, or to increase the glory of them that be ordained
to salvation.
7. They hold that the souls out of the bodies departed
(whether they have done good or evil) have not tneir
perfect pain nor glory, but are reserved in a certain place
till the day of judgment.
8. They condemn the church of Rome for mixing cold
water in their sacrifice.
y. They condemn the church of Rome, for that women
as well as priests anoint children (when they baptize
tliem) on both shoulders.
10. They call our hveaiA panagia.
11. They blame the church of Rome for celebrating
their mass on other days besides Sundays, and certain
other feasts appointed.
12. Also in this the Greek church varies from the
Latin ; for they have neither cream nor oil, nor sacra-
ment of confirmation.
\'S. Neither do they use extreme unction, or anoint-
ing after the manner of the Roman church, expounding
the place of St. James of the spiritual infirmity, and not
corporal.
14. They enjoin no satisfaction for penance, but only
that they shew themselves to the priests, anointing them
with simple oil in token of remission of sins.
15. Only on Maunday Thursday they consecrate for
the sick, keeping it for the whole year after, thinking it
to be more holy on that day consecrated than upon any
other. Neither do they fast any Saturday through the
whole year, but only on Easter-eve.
16. They give but only five orders, as of clerks, sub-
deacons, deacons, priests and bishops ; whereas the Ro-
man church gives nine orders after the nine orders of
angels.
17. Moreover the Grecians in their orders make no
vow of celibacy, alleging for them the fifth canon of
Nice, requiring that priest or deacon will not forsake his
wife for honesty sake.
18. Every year the Grecians use upon certain days to
excommunicate the church of Rome, and all the Latins
as heretics.
19. Among the Grecians they are excommunicated
that beat or strike a priest. Neither do their religious
men live in such priestly celibacy as the Roman priests do.
20. Their emperor amongst them ordains patriarchs,
bishops, and other of the clergy, and deposes the same
at his pleasure ; also he gives benefices to whom he
chooses, and retains the fruits of the same benefices
as pleases him.
2 1 . They blame the Latin church because they eat no
flesh, eggs, and cheese on Fridays, and do eat flesh on
Saturdays.
22. They hold against the Latin men for celebrating
without the consecrated church, either in the house or
in the field ; and fasting on the Sabbath day ; also for
suffering dogs and other beasts to enter into the church.
2.H. The Grecians use not to kneel in all their devo-
tions, yea not to the body of Christ, but one day in the
whole year ; saying and affirming that the Latins are
goats and beasts, for they are always prostrating them-
selves upon the ground in their prayers.
24. The Grecians moreover permit not the Latins to
celebrate upon their altars. And if it chance any Latin
priest celebrates upon their altar, they wash the altar in
token of abomination and false sacrifice. And they
diligently observe that whenever they do celebrate, they
do but one liturgy or mass upon one altar or table that
day.
2;"). They dissent from the church of Rome touching
the order and manner of the proceeding of the Holy
Ghost.
These articles, wherein is declared the diff'erence be-
tween the east and west church, of the Grecians and
Romans, as I found them articled and collected in an
ancient and authentic register of the church of Hereford,
A.D.1098— 1100.]
VACILLATING CONDUCT OF THE POPE.
121
so I thought here to insert them, and leave them to the
consideration of the reader. Other four articles more in
the same register are there expressed concerning simony
and usury, not forbidden with them ; and touching also
tlieir emperor ; and how they teach their children to
hart or damnify the Latin priests in all manner of ways.
Which articles, because they seem not truly collected out
of their teachings, or else not greatly pertinent to the
doctrine of religion ; I pass them over, and return to
our history again.
When some of these questions weie moved in the
council to be discussed, namely concerning the assertion
of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost, and concerning
leavened bread in the ministration of the Lord's supper,
Anselm was called for, who in the handling and treating
of the articles so bestirred him in that council, that he
well pleased the pope and them about him.
Then in the history it follows, after long debating
and discussing of these matters in the council, when they
had published their judgment on them, and the pope
had blasted out his thundering excommunications against
the Grecians, and all that took their part : at length the
complaints and accusation against the king of England
were brought in. Upon this. Pope Urban with his ad-
herents was ready to proceed in excommunication against
the king. But Anselm kneeling before the pope, after
he had first accused his king, afterwards obtained for him
longer time to be given for further trial.
Thus the council breaking up, the pope returning again
to Rome, directs his letters to the king, commanding
him that Anselm should be reinvested in his archbishop-
ric, and all other possessions there pertaining. To this
the king sends answer by messengers ; who coming to the
pope, declared in the king's behalf, that the king their
master did not a little marvel what induced him to com-
i mand Anselm to be reinvested in his archbishopric ;
I seeing he before told him plainly, that if he went
lout of England without his leave, he would deprive
him of it. " Well," said the pope, " have ypu no other
Inatter against Anselm but only this ?" "No," quoth
they. "And have ye taken all this travel," said the
pope "to come hither so far to tell me this, that the
1 primate of your country is dispossessed, because he has
appealed to the apostolical see and judgment } Therefore
I if you love your lord, speed home and tell him, if he will
j not be excommunicated, that he quickly reinvest Anselm
I again to all that he had before. And lest I have you be
hanged for your labour, look to your time, and see that
i you bring me answer again from him to this city, against
I the next council the third week after Easter." The mes-
I senger or speaker being somewhat astonished at the
j hearing of this tragical answer, and thinking yet to work
I something for his king and master, came secretly to the
' pope, saying that he would confer a certain mystery from
t his king privately with his hohness. What mystery that
was, or what there passed from the king to the pope and
the court of Rome, my author does not shew ; but so cun-
ningly that mystery was handled, that with a full consent
both of the pope and all the court of Rome, a longer day
was given, from Easter to Michaelmas, and the pope's
choleric heat so assuaged, that when the council came
(which was held at St. Peter's church at Rome) although
great complaints were denounced against the king ; yet
such favour was found that he suffered no harm. Only
the sentence of excommunication was there pronounced
against such laypersons as gave investiture of churches,
and them that were so invested. Also against them that
consecrate such, or who gave themselves in subjection to
lay men for ecclesiastical livings, as is before touched.
This council being finished, the archbishop seeing the
unstedfastness of the pope (which but pleased him but
little) took his journey to Lyons, where he continued his
abode a long time, till the death first of pope Urban, then
afterwards of the king.
Of this King William many things are differently re-
corded, some to his commendation, and some to his
blame ; whereof this is one, which some will ascribe to
hardiness, but 1 rather ascribe to rashness in him. As
the king once was in his sport of hunting, suddenly word
came to him that Cenourona (a city in Normandy) was
besieged. The king without tarrying or advice took the
straight way toward the sea-side, sending to his lords that
they should follow after. They advised him to stay till
his people were assembled, but he would not be stayed,
saying that such as loved him (he knew) would follow
him shortly, and so went and took ship. The ship-
master seeing the weather so dark and cloudy was afraid,
and counselled the king to tarry till the wind would
change, and the weather be more favourable. But the
king persisting, commanded him to make all speed he
could for his life, saying, " That he never heard that
any king yet was ever drowned." And so he passed the
sea in safety, and came to Normandy.
In the tliirteenth year of his reign King William, (hav-
ing at the same time in his hand three bishoprics, Can-
terbury, Wincliester, and Sarum ; also twelve abbeys
in farm\ was wounded to death, as he was in his sport
of hunting in the New Forest, by the glancing of an
arrow, shot by a knight named Walter Tyrrel, and was
carried speechless to Westminster, and there buried. His
life was such that it is hard for a history that should tell
the truth, to say whether he was more to be commended
or reproved. Among other vices, there is especially to
be rebuked in him unmeasurable and unreasonable
covetousness ; so that he coveted to be every man's heir.
This one example of liberal and princely nature 1 find in
him ; that upon a time when a certain abbot of a place
was dead, there came to his court two monks of the same
house, who had gathered much money, and used in-
fluence with the king, and severally made large offers to
be promoted to that dignity. There was also a third
monk of the same place, who of meekness and humility
followed the other two, in order that upon him whom the
king would admit for abbot, he should give attendance,
and as his chaplain return with him. The king called be-
fore him the two monks severally, of whom the one out-
bid the other. As the king cast his eye aside, he espied
a third monk standing by, supposing that his coming had
been also for the same matter. Then the king calling
him, asked what he would do, whether he would give
more than his brethren had offered, to be appointed
abbot. He answered the king, and said, that he neither
had nor would (if he could) offer money for it by any
such unlawful means.
When the king had well pondered this third Monk's
answer, he said that he was best worthy to be the abbot,
and to have the rule of so holy a charge ; and so he gave
him that benefice without taking any money.
Urban bishop of Rome, who (as is said) succeeded after
Victor, ruled the church of Rome about the space of twelve
yeai-s ; and amongst his other acts he excommunicated
the emperor Henry IV., as a man not very devoted to the
see of Rome. But yet he was a worthy and victorious
prince, in whom also some vice perchance might be noted,
yet none such for which any prelate or minster of Christ
ought to excite his subjects to rebel against public autho-
rity appointed of God. This Emperor Henry IV. was
excommunicated by four popes severally ; by Hildebrand,
by Victor, by Urban, and by Paschal. Which excommuni-
cation wrought so in the ignorant and blind hearts of the
people, that many (as well the nobles as of the multitude,
contrary to their sworn allegiance) rebelliously conspired
against the king and emperor.
KING HENRY THE FIRST.
Henry, the first of that name, the third son of William
the Conqueror, succeeding his brother Rufus, began his
reign in England (A. D. 1100); for his knowledge and
science in the seven liberal arts, he was sirnamed Clerk
or Beauclerk. In him it may well appear how knowledge
and learning greatly conduce to the government and ad-
ministration of any realm or country. At the beginning
he reformed the state and condition of the clergy, released
the grievous payments introduced against King Edward'a
laws, with amendments thereof ; he reformed the ol«*
and untrue measures, and made a measure after the length
of his arm ; he greatly abhorred excess of meats and drinks ;
he reformed many abuses ; and used to
counsel than by sword.
HENRY I. DISPUTE BETWEEN THE KING AND ANSELM.
In the second year of his reign, Robert his elder bro-
ther, duke of Normandy, being occupied in the christian
wars against the Tinrks, and being elected king of Jeru-
salem, hearing of the death of Rufus, refused the king-
dom thereof. Thus returning to Normandy, he made
there his preparation, and came over to England with a
great army to challenge the crown ; but by mediation of
the lords, it was agreed upon that Robert should have
yearly during his life three thousand marks, as was like-
wise promised him before by King Rufus his brother ;
and whichever of them overlived the other, shoidd be the
other's heir. In process of time there was variance again
between King Henry and Robert ; and at length Robert
in the wars was taken prisoner and brought over to
England, and was put into the castle of Cardiff in Wales,
where he continued a prisoner as long as he lived.
It has been already stated how Anselm went to the
pope ; after the death of King William he was sent for
again by King Henry, and returned, and was at the coun-
cil of the king at Westminster, where the king, in tlie
presence of the lords, as well temporal as spiritual,
ordained and invested two bishops, Roger bishop of
Salisbury, and Roger bishop of Hereford.
After this council, Herbert bishop of Norwich had much
ado with the priests of his diocess ; for they would neither
leave their wives, nor yet give over their benefices as had
been decreed in the council. Whereupon he wrote to
Anselm the archbishop for advice. Anselm required him
to persuade the people of Norfolk and Suffolk ; that as
they professed Christianity, they should subdue them as
rebels against the church, and utterly drive both them
and their wives out of the country, placing monks in
ther rooms.
Gerard the archbishop of York had also much trouble in
depriving the priests of his province of their wives, which
with all his excommunications and thunderings, he could
hardly bring about.
About the end of the third year of the reign of this king,
which was A. D. 1103, a variance arose between King
Henry and Anselm, the occasion of which was this : you
heard a little before how Henry had of his own authority in-
vested two bishops, one Roger, who was chancellor, bishop
of Salisbury ; and another bishop of Hereford. Besides
these he invested others also, and several other things
he took upon him in the ecclesiastical state, which he
might lawfully do, God's word allowing the same ; but
because he was restrained by the bishop of Rome, and
forbidden to do so, this Anselm was so enraged that he
would neither consent to it, nor yet confirm them, nor
communicate nor talk friendly with them, whom the king
had instituted and invested ; but opprobriously called
them abortives, or children of destruction, disdainfully
rebuking the gentle king as a defiler of religion, and pol-
luter of their holy ceremonies. With this uncomely out-
rage the king was much displeased, and required Gerard
tlie archbishop of York to consecrate them : who without
delay did so, saving that one William Gifford, to whom
the king had given the bishopric of Winchester, refused
to take his consecration by the hands of the bishop of
York. For which cause the king deprived him both of
bishopric and goods, and banished him the realm.
Moreover, the king required of Anselm, to do homage,
after the manner of his ancestors. Also it was asked,
whether he would join with the king in giving investi-
tures, as Lanfranc his predecessor had done. Anselm
answered that he would not do homage to the king ;
alleging the pope's excommunication, who, in his
council of Rome a little before, had given forth open
sentence of excommunication upon all such lay persons
(whatever they were) that should from henceforth con-
fer or give any spiritual promotions : also upon them
that received such promotions at their hands, and those
who consecrated any such receivers. Moreover he pro-
nounced all them accursed who for benefices or other
ecclesiastical promotions should subject themselves under
the homage or service of any great man, king, prince,
duke, or earl of the laity. For (the pope said) it was
unseemly and a thing very execrable, that the hands
which were converted into so high a working, as was
granted to no angel (that is, to create Jesus Christ in
[Book IV.
the mass, even him who created all, and to offer up the
same before the sight of the Father for the salvation of
the whole world) should be brought to such a slavery,
as to be subject to those filthy hands, which are polluted
with robberies, and bloodshed, &c. Anselm allegin"
this decree of Pope Urban, refused to do homage, fear'!
ing (as he said) the pope's excommunication.
In the mean time, while there was long disputation
on both sides for investing, the nobles of the realm con-
tended, that investings did belong to the king's dignity ;
wherefore the king calling for Anselm again, required
him either to do homage to him or else to leave his
kingdom. To whom Anselm replying again, required
the pope's letters to be brought forth, and the matter to
be decided according to the tenor thereof. For now the
messengers were returned from Rome, with the pojie's
answer ; altogether agreeing with Anselm. Then said
the king ; " What have I to do with pope's letters ? I
will not forego the liberties of my kingdom for any
pope." Thus the contention continued between them.
Then other ambassadors were sent again to the pope,
that he would something oualify and moderate (or rather
abolish) the sternness of the Roman decree before- men-
tioned. On the part of Anselm were sent two monks,
Baldwin and Alexander. On the king's behalf were
sent two bishops, Robert bishop of Lichfield, and Her-
bert bishop of Norwich.
After the ambassadors (thus sent on both sides to
Rome) had pleaded their causes ; the pope glad to
gratify the king (yet loath to grant his request, being
against his own profit, and therefore more inclining to
Anselm's side) sent his letters to Anselm, signifying
that he would not repeal the statutes of his holy fathers
for one man's pleasure : charging him moreover, not
only not to yield in the cause of investing, but con-
stantly to adhere to the decree of Pope Urban, &c.
Besides this letter to Anselm, he directed also another
to the king himself : which letter, the king suppressed
and did not shew, only declaring by word of mouth,
what the ambassadors had said unto him from the pope.
Which was, that he permitted unto him the licence of
investing, upon condition that in other things he would
execute the office of a good prince, &c. The conten-
tion still continuing, it was agreed by the king and his
nobles, that Anselm should go himself to Rome. And
much entreaty was made that he would take that
journey in hand, in his own person, to present himself
to the pope, for the peace of the church and of his
country. And so at length by persuasion, he went to
Rome and spake with the pope. He was followed also
by the king's ambassador, William Warlwast, new
elect bishop of Exeter. There it was decreed, that the
bishops who were invested by the king, should be ex-
communicated. The absolution and satisfaction of whom
was left to Anselm, the king only, who had invested
them, being excepted.
Thus Anselm, leaving Rome, took his journey to-
ward England. But the ambassador, pretending to go
to St, Nicholas, remained behind, to see whether he
could win the pope's mind to the king's purpose.
Which when he saw he could not do, he overtakes
Anselm by the way, at Placentia, and told him the
king's pleasure. " The king," said he, " gives to you
in charge and commandment, that if you will come to
England, and there behave yourself to him, as your
predecessor did to his father, you should be received
and retained in the realm accordingly : if not — you
are wise enough to know what I mean, and what will
follow." And so with these words, parting from him,
he returned again to the king : and Anselm remained
at Lyons a year and a half, and wrote to the king as
follows :
" To his Reverend Lord, Henry, King of England, An-
selm, Archbishop of Canterbury, faithful Service,
with Prayers.
" Although you understand by William Warlwast
what we have done at Rome ; yet I shall shortly shew j
you that which belongs to me. When I came to Rome ]
A.D 1100—1106.]
SYNODAL DECREES OF ANSELM.
123
I I declared the cause wherefore I came to the lord pope.
lie answered that he would not swerve from the
! statutes of his predecessors. Furthermore, he com-
manded me that I should have no fellowship with
those who received investings of churches at your
hands, after the knowledge of this prohibition, unless
they would do penance, and forsake what they had re-
ceived, without hope of recovery ; also tliat 1 should not
communicate with the other bishops that had conse-
crated such men, unless they would present themselves
to the judgment of the apostolic see. The aforesaid
William can be a witness of all these things if he will.
This William, when we departed asunder (reckoning up
in your behalf, the love and liberality which you had
always towards me) warned me as your archbishop, that
I should shew myself such an one, that if I would come
into England, 1 might be with you as my predecessor
was with your father, and you might treat nie with the
same honour and liberty that your father treated my
predecessor. By which I understand, that unless I
should shew myself such a one, you would not have me
come into England. For your love and liberality 1 thank
you : but that I should be with you as my predecessor
was with your father, 1 cannot do it. For 1 dare not do
homage to you, nor communicate with those who take
investings of churches at your hands : because of this
inhibition made, 1 myself hearing it. Wherefore I de-
sire you to send me your pleasure herein if it please
you, whether I may return into England (as I said)
with your pi ace and power of mine office."
In the meanwhile there was great debate, and many
messengers sent to and fro between the king, the arch-
bishop, and the pope, but nothing was done : for the
pope would not agree to the king, neither would the
king condescend to the archbishop. At last the arch-
bishop, seeing he could by no means prevail against the
king, thought to revenge himself by excommunication,
and so went about the same. The king, hearing of this
by the Countess Adela his sister, desires her to come to
him into Normandy, and bring Anselm with her :
whereupon (through the means of the countess) the
king and Anselm were reconciled, and the archbishop
was restored to his former possessions again. Only his
return was deferred, because he would not communicate
with those whom the king had invested. So the king
took his passage over into England, and Anselm abode
at the abbey of Becke.
In the meantime complaints were daily brought from
England to Anselm, against the priests and canons,
who, in his absence, contrary to the late council holden
at London, received their wives unto their houses again,
and were permitted so to do by the king, they paying
him certain money for the same. Anselm, the sore
enemy against lawful marriage, grieved therewith, ad-
dressed his letters to the king, requiring him to refrain
from taking any more of such exactions, declaring,
moreover, and affirming, that the offences of all such ec-
clesiastical ministers must be corrected by the bishops,
and not by laymen.
It was not long after that the king, as he had
promised, went again to Normandy, and meeting with
Anselm at the abbey of Becke, he agreed with him in
all such points as the archbishop required. As first,
that all his churches, which before were made tributary
to King William, now should remain free from all
tribute ; that he should require nothing of the said
churches or provinces in the time of the seat being
vacant. Moreover, concerning such priests and minis-
ters as had given money to the king for liberty to keep
their wives, it was agreed that they should cease from
all ecclesiastical functions for the space of three years.
Thus Anselm, the stout champion of popery and super-
stition, after he had gained this victory over the king,
for which he had so long fought, sailed into England
with joy and triumph, having obtained all his popish re-
quests. Where first he flies like a lion upon the mar-
ried priests, contrary to the word of God, divorces and
punislies, by man's authority, those whom the Eternal
aad Almighty God had coupled. Next, he looks to
those who held any church by farm under the king.
Against simony, Ukewise, and against those that married
within the seventh degree, he proceeds with his full
pontifical authority.
Shortly after, as King Henry had finished his war in
Normandy, he returned again with victory into England,
about the sixth year of his reign, Anselm archbishop of
Canterbury (by the permission of the king) assembled a
great council of the clergy and prelates of England at
Westminster in London. In which (by the bishop of
Rome's authority) he so wrought with the king, that at
length (though not without great difficulty) it was newly
confirmed and enacted, that no temporal man after that
day should make investiture with cross or with ring, or
with pastoral hook. In this council various injunctions
were given forth to priests and deacons. And, as we
are here mentioning the synodal acts concluded in the
time of this Anselm, I here place them all together,
taking them from Malmesbury and other authors.
The first thing decreed by this Anselm, in his synodal
councils, was touching the fiiult of simony, whereby
many bishops and abbots (as is before mentioned) were
at the same time deposed : and laymen were forbidden
to confer any ecclesiastical piromotion.
Also, it was decreed, that no bishop should bear any
office in secular men's business or meetings : and that
such should not go apparelled as the laymen did, but
should have their vestures decent and meet for religious
persons. And that in all places they should never go
without some to bear witness of their conversation.
That no archdeaconries should be let out to farm.
That no archdeacon should be under the degree of a
deacon.
That no archdeacon, priest, deacon, sub-deacon,
coUigener, nor canon, should from that time marry, nor
yet keep his wife, if he had been married to one before.
That every sub -deacon, being under the degree of a
canon, marrying a wife after the profession of celibacy,
should be subject to the same rule.
That any priest who did not put away his wife, should
be reputed unlawful, and that he should say no mass,
and if he said mass, he should not be heard.
That none should be admitted to orders from that
time forward, from the degree of a sub-deacon, unless
he professed celibacy.
That priests' sons should not claim the benefices of
their fathers by heritage, as the custom had always been
before.
That no spiritual person should sit in any secular
office, as to be procurators or judges of blood.
That priests should not resort to taverns or banquets,
nor sit drinking by the fireside.
That the garments of priests should be of one colour,
and that their shoes should be decent.
Besides all these synodal acts, with others which we
omit, given out by Anselm, he also directed other new
injunctions to the priests.
That they and their wives should never meet in one
house, neither yet have dwelling in their territories.
That the priests, deacons, and sub-deacons, should
keep no female in their house, unless they were of their
next kin.
That such as had separated themselves from the so-
ciety of their wives, and yet for some cause had to com-
municate with them, might do so, if it were out of
doors, and before two or three witnesses.
That if any of them should be accused by two or three
witnesses, and could not clear himself again by sLx able
men of his own order if he be a priest ; or, if he be a
deacon, by four ; or, if he be a sub-deacon, by two ;
then he should be judged a transgressor of the statutes,
deprived of his benefice, and be made infamous, or be
put to open reproach of all men.
That any who rebelled, and in contempt of this new
statute still held his wife, and presumed to say mass,
upon the eighth day after (if he made not due satisfac-
tion) should be solemnly excommunicated.
That all archdeacons and deacons should be straitly
sworn not to wink or dissemble at their meetings, nor to
bear with them for money. And if they would not
n*
LETTERS OF POPE PASCHAL AND ARCHBISHOP ANSELM.
[Book IV.
be sworn to this, then to lose their offices without re-
covery.
That such priests, as forsaking their wives were will-
ing to serve still and remain in their holy order, first
must cease forty days from their ministration, setting
vicars to serve for them in the mean time, and taking
such penance upon them, as should be enjoined by their
bishop.
Thus you have heard of the life and doings of Anselm,
how superstitious he was in his religion, how stubborn
against his prince, what occasion of war and discord he
ministered by his complaints (if they had been taken) ;
what zeal without right knowledge, what fervency with-
out cause he pretended, what pains without profit he
took. Who, if he had bestowed that time and labour in
preaching Christ at home to his flock, which he took in
going to Rome to complain of his country, in my mind
he had been better occupied. Moreover, you have
heard what violent and tyrannical injunctions he set
forth concerning investing and other things ; but espe-
cially against the lawful and godly marriage of priests :
what a vehement adversary he was in this matter, may
appear by these extracts from letters, which we here an-
nex as follows : —
A LETTER OF ANSELM.
Anselm, Archbishop ; to his Brethren and Dearest Sons
the Lord Prior and others at Canterbury.
" As concerning priests,' of whom the king com-
manded that they should have both their churches and
their wives as they had in the time of his father, and of
Lanfranc archbishop : both because the king hath re-
vested and reseized the whole archbishopric, and because
so cursed a marriage was forbidden in a council in the
time of his father and of the said archbishop : I boldly
command by the authority which I have by my arch-
bishopric, not only within my archbishopric but also
throughout England, that all priests who keep wives,
shall be deprived of their churches and ecclesiastical
benefices."
A LETTER OF POPE PASCHAL TO ANSELM.
Paschal, Bishop, Servant of God's Servants; to his
Reverend Brother Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury,
greeting and apostolical blessing.
" We believe your brother-hood is not ignorant what
is decreed in the Romish church concerning priests'
children. But because there is so great multitude of
such within the realm of England, that almost the
greater and better part of the clerks are reckoned to be
on this side : therefore we commit this dispensation to
your care. For we grant these to be promoted to holy
offices by reason of the need at this time, and for the
profit of the church (such as learning and life shall com-
mend among you) so that yet notwithstanding the pre-
judice of the ecclesiastical decree be taken heed to here-
after," &c.
ANOTHER LETTER OF ANSELM.
Anselm, Archbishop ; to the Rev. Gudulph, Bishop; and
to Arnulph Prior; and to William, Archdeacon of
Canterbury ; and to all in his Diocese, greeting.
" William, our archdeacon, hath written unto me,
that some priests that be under his custody (taking
again their wives that were forbidden) have fallen into
the error from the which they were drawn by wholesome
counsel and commandment. When the archdeacon
would amend this thing, they utterly despised with
wicked pride his warning and worthy commandment to
be received. Then he, calling together many religious
men and obedient priests, worthily excommunicated the
proud and disobedient, who despised the curse, and
were not afraid to defile the holy ministry, as much as
lay in them," &c.
And thus much concerning Anselm archbishop of
Canterbury ; whose stout example gave no little courage
to Tliurstin and Becket his successors, and others that
followed after, to do the like against their kings and
princes, as hereafter by the grace of Christ shall appear.
About the same time and year when King Henry
began to reign. Pope Paschal entered his papacy, suc-
ceeding after Urban (about A. D. 1100), nothing
swerving from the steps of Hildebrand his superior.
About the same time (A. D. 1101), the bishop of
Florence began to teach and to preach of antichrist then
to be born and to be manifest, as Sabellicus testifies :
whereupon, Paschal, assembling a council, put to silence
the said bishop, and condemned his books. In this
council at Trecas, priests that were married were con-
demned for Nicolaitans.
Concerning the excommunication and other troubles
that Hildebrand wrought against the Emperor Henry IV.
it is declared sufficiently before. This excommunication
Paschal renewed against Henry. And not only that,
but also convening the princes of Germany to a general
assembly, set up the emperor's own son against him,
causing the bishops of Mentz, >of Cologne, and of
Worms to deprive him of his imperial crown, and to
place his son Henry V. in his father's kingdom. So
coming to the place at Hilgeshem, first they required his
diadem, his purple, his ring, and other ornaments per-
taining to the crown, from him. The emperor de-
manded the cause, being then excommunicate and void
of friends. They pretended, for selling bishoprics, ab-
bacies, and other ecclesiastical dignities for money : also
alleging the pope's pleasure and other princes. Then
he inquired first of the bishop of Mentz (and likewise of
the other two, whom he had preferred to their bishop-
rics before) asking them in order, if he had received one
penny of them for promoting them to their dignities.
This they could not deny to be so, " Well" (saith he)
" and do you requite me again with this treatment ?"
and with many other words of exhortation he admo-
nished them to remember their oath and allegiance to
their prince. But the perjured prelates, neither reve-
rencing his majesty, nor moved with his benefits, nor
regarding their fidelity, ceased not for all this, but first
plucked from him (sitting in his throne) his imperial
crown, then disvestured him, taking from him his purple
and his sceptre. The good emperor, being left desolate
and in confusion, said to them: " Let God see and
judge." Thus leaving him, they went to his son to
confirm him in his kingdom, and caused him to drive
his father out. In the end, being utterly dispossessed
of his kingdom, he was brought to that distress, that
coming to Spire, he begged of the bishop there, whom
he had done much for before, to have a prebend in the
church : and as he had some skill in his book, he de-
sired to serve in our lady's quire, yet he could not
obtain so much at his hand, who swore by our lady, he
should have nothing there. Thus the woeful emperor
came to Leodium, and there died for sorrow, after he
had reigned fifty years.
After the decease of this emperor, his son Henry V.
reigned the space of twenty years. Who, coming to
Rome to receive the crown of the pope, could not ob-
tain it, before he would fully assent to have this ratified,
that no emperor should have any thing to do with the
election of the Roman bishops or with other bishoprics.
Soon after, however, the emperor prevailing against the
pope, compelled him to agree to restore to him his right
in the election of the pope and other bishops : but as
soon as the emperor was returned again to Germany,
forthwith the pope, calling a synod, not only revoked all
that he had agreed to before, but also excommunicated
Henry as he had done his father before.
The emperor seeing no end of these conflicts (unless
he would yield to the pope) was obliged to give over,
and forego his privilege, agreeing not to meddle with
matters pertaining to the pope's election, nor with in-
vesting, nor such other things belonging to the church
and churchmen. And thus the peace between them was
concluded, and proclaimed to the no small rejoicing of
both the armies, then lying by Worms, near the river
Rhine.
After the death of Paschal (A. D. 1118), succeeded
A. D. 1109—1126.] THE TWO METROPOLITANS CONTEND ABOUT THE PRIMACY.
125
Pope Gelasius, chosen by the cardinals, but without the
consent of the emperor, whereupon rose no little vari-
ance in Rome. And at length another pope was set up
by the emperor called Gregory, and Gelasius driven away
into France, and there died. After whom came Calix-
tus II., chosen likewise by a few cardinals, without
the voice of the emperor, who, coming up to Rome to
enjoy his seat, first sent his legate into Germany to ex-
communicate the Emperor Henry ; who then, having
divers conflicts with his fellow Pope Gregory, at length
drove him out of Rome.
In conclusion, the emperor being overcome, and fear-
ing the dangerous thunderbolt of his curse, was obliged
to condescend to the unreasonable conditions of the pope.
First, to ratify his election, although the other pope was yet
alive. Secondly, that he should resign up his right and
title in matters pertaining to the election of the pope,
and investiture of bishops.
This being done and granted, and the writings set up
in the church of Lateran, as a triumph over the emperor,
the pope went after Gregory his rival pope, who was
then in a town called Sutrium ; which being besieged
and taken, Gregory also was taken. Calixtus the pope
setting him upon a camel (his face to the camel's tail),
brought him so through the streets of Rome, holding the
tail in his hand instead of a bridle ; and afterwards being
shorn, he was thrust into a monastery.
The same Calixtus, holding a general council at
Rheims, decreed that priests, deacons, and sub-deacons
should put away their wives ; and whoever was found to
keep his wife should be deprived of benefice, and all
other ecclesiastical livings.
After the death of Anselm (A.D. 1109), the church of
Canterbury stood empty five years ; and the goods of the
church went to the king's use. And when he was prayed
to appoint a pastor, his answer was, that as his father and
brother had been accustomed to set the best tried
and approved men in that see, that he might do the
same, he took the more time. And so he delayed the
time, while he filled his coffers with the riches of that
benefice.
After this (A.D. 1115), Rodulph, bishop of Rochester,
(an Englishman) was promoted to be archbishop of Can-
terbury, and Thurstin, the king's chaplain, was elected
archbishop of York. Who being content to receive his
benediction or consecration of the see of Canterbury, yet,
because he refused to make his profession of obedience
to the same see, was deprived by the king of his dignity.
Then Thurstin (by the instigation of certain of his
clerks at York) took his journey to Rome ; who there
making his complaint to Paschal, brought with him a
letter from the pope to the king, where among other
words was contained as follows :
" We hear and understand, that the archbishop elect
of the church of York (a discreet and industrious man)
is sequestered from the church of York, which stands
against both divine justice and the institution of holy
fathers. Our purpose is, that neither the church of
Canterbury should be impaired, nor again that the
church of York should suffer any prejudice, but that
the same constitution which was by blessed Gregory
(the apostle of the English nation) set and decreed be-
tween those two churches, should remain still in force
and effect inviolate. Wherefore, as touching the fore-
said elect archbishop, let him be received again by all
means, as is right and meet unto his church. And if
there be any question between the foresaid churches, let
it be handled and decided in your presence, both the
two parties being there present."
Upon the occasion of this letter, a solemn assembly
was appointed at Salisbury, about the hearing of this
controversy. The variance between these two prelates
still increased more and more. Rodulph archbishop of
Canterbury in no case would yield or condescend to give
imposition of hands to him, unless he would make his
profession of obedience. Thurstin again said, he would
wiUingly receive and embrace his benediction ; but as
to the profession of his subjection, that he would not
agree unto. Then the king signified to Thurstin, that
without his subjection and obedience professed to the
archbishop of Canterbury, he should not enjoy the arch-
bishoprick of York. Thurstin upon this renounced his
archbishoprick, promising moreover to make no more
claim unto it, nor to molest them that should enjoy it.
Shortly after this, it happened that pope Paschal died :
after whom, as is above rehearsed, succeeded pope Gela-
sius, who lived not more than a year, and died in France.
The cardinals (who then followed Pope Gelasius to
Cluny) created another pope of their own choosing, whom
they called Calixtus II. The other cardinals who were
at Rome chose another pope called Gregory. About
these two rival popes there was much stir in the christian
world. As this Calixtus was remaining in France, and
there calling a general council at Rheims, Thurstin the
archbishop of York desired licence of the king to go to
the council, purposing there to open the cause of his
church ; first promising to the king that he should there
attempt nothing that should be prejudicial to the church
of Canterbury. In the meantime the king had sent
secret word to the pope, by Rodulph and other proctors,
that he should in no case consecrate Thurstin. Yet,
notwithstanding the faithful promise of the pope made
to the king, the pope was inclined to consecrate him,
and gave him the pall ; and required of the king that he
would license Thurstin to return with favour into his
realm. But the king utterly refused, unless he would
profess subjection to the church of Canterbury, as his
predecessors had done before ; and excused himself by
his oath which he had before made. To this the pope
answered that he, by his apostolical authority, would easily
dispense with him for his promise or oath. Then the
king said that he would consult his council, and send an
answer; which answer was this, "That, for the love
and request of the pope, he was content that Thurstin
should re-enter his realm, and quietly enjoy his pre-
lateship, upon this condition, that he would profess his
subjection to the church of Canterbury."
The year following after that (which was A.D. 1120),
Pope Calixtus directs his letters for Thurstin to the king,
and to Rodulph archbishop of Canterbury. In which
epistle, by his full power apostolical, he interdicts both
the church of Canterbury and the church of York, with
all the parish churches within the same cities, from the
burial of the dead, also from all divine service, ex-
cepting only baptizing of children, and absolution of
them that are dying ; unless, within a month after the
receipt of the same, Thurstin (without any exaction of
subjection) were received and admitted to the see of
York, and that the king also should be excommunicated
except he would consent to the same. Whereupon, for
fear of the pope's curse, Thurstin was immediately sent
for and reconciled to the king, and was placed quietly
in his archiepiscopal see of York.
It followed not long after (within two years) that Ro-
dulph archbishop of Canterbury died, in whose see suc-
ceeded after him William de Turbine. About which time
(in the twenty-seventh year of the king's reign, or a
little before), the king called a council at London, where
the spirituality of England consented to the punishment
of married priests. By reason of which the priests,
paying a certain fine to the king, were suffered to
retain their wives still, whereby the king gathered no
small sum of money, (Rog. Hoved. Guliel. Gisburnesis.)
It was before stated tliat Matilda or Maud, daughter
of king Henry, was married to the emperor Henry V. ;
and after his decease she returned about this time with
the imperial crown to her father in Normandy, bringing
with her the hand of St. James 1 For the joy of ob-
taining this relic, the king built the abbey of Reading,
where the hand was deposited. This Matilda was re-
ceived by the council as next heir to the king, her father,
in possession of tlie English crown, for lack of issue
male. And soon after she was sent over to Normandy,
to marry Geoffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou, of whom
came Henry II., who was king of England after
Stephen.
After Calixtus, succeeded Pope Honorius II. ; not-
withstanding that the cardinals had elected another,
yet he by the means of certain citizens obtained the
papacy (A.D. 1125). About the second year of his in«
STEPHEN KING OF ENGLAND, SUCCEEDED BY HENRY 11.
[Book IV,
duction there was a certain legate of his called John
Cremensis sent to England. This legate coming with
the pope's letters, after he had refreshed himself in
the bishops' houses, and amongst the abbots, at length re-
sorted to London, where he assembled the whole clergy
together, inquired concerning priests' wives, and made
thereupon a statute in the said synod of London after
this tenor: "To priests, deacons, subdeacons, and
canons, we do utterly inhibit by authority apostolical, all
manner of society and conversation with all kind of wo-
men, except only their mother, sister, or aunt, or such
whereof can rise no suspicion. And whoever shall be
found to violate this deciee, being convicted thereof,
shall sustain thereby the loss of all that he hath by his
order." But see how God works against such ungodly
proceedings. It happened that the same cardinal was
found to be guilty of gross vice, although he had so
strictly given out his precepts the day before, to the
no little slander and shame (as Matthew Paris writes)
of the whole clergy.
After Honorius succeeded Pope Innocent II. (A.D.
11,'iO.) But as it was with his predecessors before him,
that at every change of popes there came new troubles,
and very commonly when a pope was elected, some other
was set up as a rival against liim (there being sometimes
two and sometimes three popes together), so likewise it
happened with this Innocent ; for after he was chosen,
the Romans elected another pope, named Anacletus.
Between these two popes there was much trouble, and
great conflicts.
Aboutthe time of these things, (A.D. 11.35,) king Henry
being in Normandy, as some say, by a fall from his
horse, as others say, by a surfeit in eating lanii)ieys, fell
sick and died, after he had reigned five-and-thirty years
and odd months ; leaving for his heirs his daughter the
empress Matilda, with her young son Henry, to succeed
after him ; to whom all the prelates and nobility of the
realm were sworn. But contrary to their oath made to
h^r, in the presence of her father, William the archbiphop
of Canterbury, and the nobles of the realm, crowned
Stephen earl of Boulogne, and sister's son to king Henry,
upon St. Stephen's day in Christmas week.
KING STEPHEN.
Thus, when king Stephen, contrary to his oath, had
taken ui)on him the crown, he swore before the lords at
O.xford, that he would not hold the benefices that were
vacant, and that he would remit the danegilt, with many
other things, which afterwards he little performed. As
he dreaded the coming of the empress, he gave licence to
bis lords, every one to build upon his own ground strong
castles or fortresses. All his reign he was annoyed with
wars, especially with David king of the Scots, with whom,
however, he at length made peace. But yet the Scottish
king would pay him no homage : although Henry, the son
to king David, did homage to king Stephen. But he re-
penting thereof, entered into Northumberland with a great
army, and burnt and slew the people in a most cruel man-
ner, neither sparing man , woman, or child. The children
they tossed upon spear points, and laying the priests upon
the altars, they mangled and cut them all to pieces, after a
most terrible manner. But by the valour of the English
lords and soldiers, and through the means of Thurstin,
archbishop of Vork, they were met and defeated, a great
number of them being slain, and David their king con-
strained to give his son Henry as hostage for surety of
peace. In the mean time, king Stephen was occujtied
in the South countries, besieging various castles of bishops
and other lords, and took them by force, and fortified
them with his knights and servants, to withstand the
empress, of whose coming he was ever afraid.
About the sixth year of his reign, the empress came
into England out of Normandy, and by the aid of Robert,
Earl of Gloucester, and Ranulph of Chester, made war
upon king Stephen. In the end the king's party was
chased, and himself taken prisoner ; and sent to Bristol,
there to be kept in close confinement.
After this battle the queen. King Stephen's wife, made
great entreaty to the empress and her council, to have
the king released and put in to some monastery, but could
not obtain it. Also the Londoners made great suit to the ,
empress, to have Saint Edward's laws again, and not the i
laws of her father, which were more strict and strange to '
them than the other. When they could not obtain this
request of her and her council, the citizens of London,
being discontented, would have taken the empress : but
she fled privately from London to Oxford : then the
Kentish-men and Londoners, taking the king's part, join- ;
ed battle against the empress ; where Robert, earl rf fj
Gloucester, and base brother to the emj)ress, was taken, ,:
and so by exchange, both the King and the Earl Robert
were released from prison. Then Stephen without delay,
gathering a strong army, pursued ]\Iatilda or Maud, with
her partisans, besieging them in the castle of Oxford. In
the siege there fell a great snow, and the frost was so liard,
tliat a man heavily-burthened might pass over the water :
upon this the empress, arranged with her friends and re-
tinue clothed in white sheets, and issuing out by a jiostern-
gate, went upon the ice over the Thames, and so escaped
to Wallingford. After this, the king gained the castle,
and when he found not the empress he was much dis-
pleased. He pursued the empress and her company so
hard, that at last he caused them to fly the realm, which
was the sixth year of his reign.
The second year after this, which was the eighth of his
reign, there was a parliament at London, to which all the
bishops of the realm resorted, and there denounced the
king as accursed, and all those with him that did any hurt
to the church, or to any minister of it : upon tliis the
kingbegan somewhat to amend his proceedings for a time,
but afterwards was as bad as before. The empress being
compelled to fly the realm, returned again to Normandy
to Geoffrey Plantagcnet her husband : who, after he had
valiantly won and defended the duchy of Normandy
against King Stephen, ended his life, leaving his son Henry
to succeed in that dukedom. In the meanwhile, Robert
earl of Gloucester, and the earl of Chester, had several
conflicts with the king,so that at a battle at Wilton the king
was nearly taken, but yet escaped.
Soon after this Henry, duke of Normandy, with a great
army entered England, and won the castle of Malmestiur)-,
the tower of London, and afterward the town of Notting-
ham, the castles of Wallingford, with other holds and cas-
tles. Between him and the king many battles were fought.
During which time, Eustace the king's son died. Upon
this occasion, the king caused Theobald archbishop of
Canterbury to mediate with the Duke for peace, which
was concluded upon this condition, that Stephen, during
his lifetime, should hold the kingdom, and Henry in the
meantime be proclaimed heir-apparent in the chief cities
throughout the realm. These things being concluded,
duke Henry returned to Normandy, and the same year
king Stephen, as some say for sorrow, ended his life, after
he had reigned nineteen years.
As Theobald succeeded after William archbishop of
Canterbury, so in York, after Thurstin, succeeded Wil-
liam, who was called St. William of York, and was poison-
ed in his chalice by his chaplains.
Matthew Paris writes how Stephen king of England,
reserved to himself the right and authority of bestowing
spiritual livings, and investing prelates.
At this time also, the Emperor Lotharius began to do
the same in recovering again the right and privilege
taken away from Henry his predecessor ; had not Bernard
given him contrary counsel.
At this time came into the church the manner of curs-
ing with bell, book and candle, devised in the Council of
London, held by William, bishop of Winchester under
Celestine II. who succeeded Innocent II. (A.D. 114:5).
KING HENRY THE SECOND.
Henry II. the son of Geoff"rey Plantagcnet, and the Em-
press Maud, daughter of King Henry I. began his reign
after King Stephen (A. D. lir)4), and continued five-and-
thirty years. The first year of his reign he subdued Ireland ;
and not long after, Thomas Becket was made Lord Chan-
cellor of England. He went into the north, where he sub-
dued William king of Scotland, who at that time held a
A. D. 1130—1155.] CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR.
great part of Northumberland, and joined S( oMand to liis
own kingdom, from the South ("cean to the North Isles
of Orcad'es. Also he put under his domini in the king-
dom of Wales. So that by his great manho k1 and policy,
the dominion of England was increased with the addition
of Scotland, Ireland, the Orcades, Brittany, Poictoii, and
Guienne. Also he had ii\ his rule Normmdy, Gascoyn,
Anjou, and Chinon ; also Auvergne and the city of Tho-
iouse : besides these (by the title of his wife Eleanor,
daughter to the Earl of I'oii-tou) he obtained the Mount
Pyrame in Spain : so that we read of none of his proge-
nitors, who had so many countries under his dominion.
Now the time requires us to proceed to the history of Fre-
derick I. (called Barbarossa) successor to Conrad in the
empire, who marched into Italy, to subdue certain rebels
there. The Pope hearing this, came with his clergy to
meet hira, in hojies to obtain his assistance against his
enemies. The emperor, on seeing the bishop, alighted
from his horse to receive him, holding the stirrup to the
prelate on the left side, when he should have held it on
the right, at which the pope shewed himself somewhat
annoyed. The emperor smiling, excused himself, that
he was never accustomed to hold stirrups ; and as it was
done only of good will, and of no duty, it was little
matter which side of the horse he held. The next day, to
make amends to the bishop, the emperor sent for him,
and received him holding the right stirrup, and so all
the matter was settled.
After this, as they were come in and sat together, Adri-
an, the pope, began to declare unto him, how his ances-
tors before him, such as sought unto the See of Rome for
the crown, were wont always to leave behind them some
special token or monument of their benevolence for the
obtaining thereof. Wherefore he required some benefit
to proceed likewise from him to the church of Rome, in
restoring again the country of Apulia to the church of
Rome ; which if he would do, he for his part would do
what appertained to him to perform : meaning in giving
him the crown, for at that time the popes had brought
the emperors to seek their crown at their hand.
Frederick with his princes perceiving that, unless he
would of his own proper costs and charges recover Apulia
out of Duke William's hands, he could not secure the
crown, promised all that the pope required, and so the
next day after was crowned.
This done, the emperor returned into Germany, while
Adrian, not liking to be idle, gives forth his excommu-
nication against WiUiam, duke of Apulia. Besides, not
content with this, he sends also to Emmanuel, Emperor
of Constantinople, inciting him to war against William.
The duke perceiving this, sends to the pope for peace,
promising to restore to him whatever he wished.
But the pope, through the malignant counsel of his
cardinals, would grant no peace, thinking to get more by
war. The duke, seeing nothing but war, prepared him-
self with all expedition, and he arrived at Apulia, and
there put the Emperor Emmanuel to flight. Then he
proceeded to the city of Bonaventure, where the pope
with his cardinals were looking for victory. He so be-
sieged and pressed the city, that the pope with his car-
dinals were glad to treat" for peace, which they refused
before. The duke granted peace upon certain conditions,
viz. that he should not invade such possessions as belong-
ed to Rome, and that the pope should make him king of
both Sicilies.
The emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, all this while sit-
ting quietly at home, began to consider with himself how
the pope had extorted from the emperors his predeces-
sors, the investiture of prelates; how he had sickened
and taxed all nations by his legates, and also had been
the sower of seditions through all his empire ; he began
therefore to require of all the b.ishops of Germany ho-
mage, and an oath of allegiance ; commanding also the
pope's legates, if they came into Germany, without his
sending for, not to be received. Charging moreover all
his subjects that none of them should appeal to Rome.
Besides this, in his letters he set and prefixed his name
before the pope's name : whereupon the pope, being not
a little offended, directed his letters to the Emperor
Frederick alter this tenor, as follows :
127
"Adrian bishop, servant of the servants of God, to
Frederick emperor, health and apostolical benediction.
The law of God as it promises to them that honour father
and mother long life, so it threatens the sentence of death
to them that curse father and mother. We are taught
by the word of truth, that every one who exalteth himself
shall be brought low. Wherefore, my well-beloved son in
the Lord, we marvel not a little at your wisdom, in that
you seem not to show that reverence to blessed St. Peter,
and to the holy church of Rome, which you ought to
shew. For why ? In your letters sent to us, you jilace
your own name before ours, wherein you incur the note
of insolency, yea, rather of arrogancy. Why should I
here recite to you the oath of your fidehty, which you
sware to blessed St. Peter and to us, and how you ob-
serve and keep the same ? Seeing you so require homage
and allegiance of them that be gods, and all the sons of
the high God, and presume to join their holy lands with
yours, working contrary to us : seeing you also exclude,
not only out of your churches, but also out of your
cities, our cardinals, whom we direct as legates from
our side : what shall I say then to you ? Amend,
therefore I advise you, amend ; for while you go about
to obtain of us your consecration and crown, and to get
those things you have not, I fear much your honour will
lose the things you have. Thus fare ye well."
The Answer of Frederick the Emperor to the Pope.
" Frederick by the grace of God, Roman Emperor,
ever Augustus, to Adrian Bishop of the Roman church,
and to all such as be willing to cleave to those things
which Jesus began to do and to teach, greeting. The
law of justice gives to every person accordingly that
which is his. Neither do we derogate from our parents,
of whom according as we have received this our dignity
of the imperial crown and governance ; so in the same
kingdom of ours, we do render their due and true honour
to them again. And for so much as duty in all sorts of
men is to be sought out, let us see first in the time of
Constantine (Sylvester then being bishop of Rome) what
))atrimony or regality he had of his own, due to him that
he might claim. Did not Constantine of his liberal be-
nevolence give liberty and restore peace to the church ?
And whatever regality of patrimony the see of your
papacy has, was it not by the donation of princes given
to them ? Revolve and turn over the ancient chroni-
cles, (if either you have not read or neglected what we
do affirm) where it is to be found. Of them which are
gods by adoption, and hold our lordships of us, why may
we not justly require their homage, and their sworn al-
legiance, when he which is both your master and ours
(taking nothing of any king or any man, but giving all
goodness to all men) paid toll and tribute for him and
Peter unto Caesar ? giving you example to do the like.
And therefore he saith to you and all men, ' Learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly,' &c. Wherefore either
render again your lordships and patrimonies which ye
hold of U3 ; or else if ye find them so sweet to you,
then give that which is due to God unto God ; and that
which is due to CsSsar, unto Caesar. As for your cardi .
nals, we shut them out both of churches and cities,
because we see they are not preachers but prowlers ; not
makers of peace, but rakers for money ; not pillars and
upholders of the church, but the insatiable taxers of the
world, and collectors of money and gold. When we shall
see them otherwise (such as the church requires them
to be) as members and makers of peace, shining lorth
like lights to the people, assisting poor and weak men's
causes in the way of equity, &c., then shall they find us
forward and ready to relieve them with salaries, and all
things necessary. And where you bring such questions
as these to secular men (little conducing to religion) you
incur thereby no little note andblemish of your humility,
which is keeper of all virtues, and of your meekness.
Therefore let your fatherhood beware and take heed, lest
in moving such matters as seem to us unseemly for you,
ye give thereby offence to such as depend on your word
(giving ear to your mouth as it were to an evening
shower) : for we cannot but teU you of what we hear ;
123
DISSENSION BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR.
[Book IV
seeing now the detestable beast of pride creeps into the
Beat of Peter, providing always as much as we may (by
God's grace) for the peace of the church. Fare ye
well."
Upon this Adrian the pope directs a bull against Fre-
derick, excommunicating him with public and solemn
ceremonies, and then conspiring with William Duke of
Apulia, he souglit all manner of ways to infest the em-
peror, and to set all men against him, especially the
clergy. The pope understanding the intent of the empe-
ror,"and how loth he was to come under subjection to
his see, devised by all crafty ways to bring it to pass ;
and sent some sharp letters to him, and yet not so
sharp as proud and disdainful. Wherein the first sa-
lutation by his legates was this: "Oar most blessed
father the pope greeteth you, and the universal company
of the cardin tls, he as your father, they as your bre-
thren." Meaning that the emperor should understand
himself to be subject and underling to the pope, no less
than the cardinals were. The emperor with his princes,
perceiving, on perusing the letters, at what the pope by
his legates was aiming, could not brook such intolerable
presumption, whereupon there was much contention
between the legates and the princes. " And of whom
then," say the legates, " does the emperor receive the
empire, if not from the pope ?" With this the German
princes were so much offended that, had not the emperor
stopped them with some difficulty, they would have used
violence against the legates. But the emperor not per-
mitting that, commanded the legates away, charging them
to make no turn by the way, but to depart straight home.
And he, to certify to the whole state of the empire the
truth of the matter, directs forth these letters that
follow :
The Emperor's Letter sent through all his empire.
*' For so much as the providence of God (whereof de-
pendeth all power, both in heaven and earth) hath com-
mitted to us, his anointed, this our empire to be go-
verned, and the peace of his churches by our imperial
arms to be protected, we cannot but lament and com-
plain to you with great sorrow of heart, seeing such
causes of dissension the root and fountain of evils, and
the infection of pestiferous corruption thus to rise
from the holy church, imprinted with the seal of peace
and love of Christ.
" By reason whereof (except God turn it away) we
fear the whole body of the church is like to be polluted,
the unity thereof to be broken, and schism and division
to be betwixt the spiritual and temporal government.
Per we being of late at Bisunze, and there intreating
busily of matters pertaining as well to the honour of
our empire, as to the wealth of the churches, there came
ambassadors of the see apostolical, declaring that they
brought a legacy to our majesty of great importance,
redounding to the no small commodity of our honour and
empire.
"Who then, the first day of their coming, being
brought to our presence, and received of us (as the man-
ner is) with honour accordingly, audience was given
them to hear what they had to say. They forthwith
bursting out of the mammon of ini(iuity, haughty pride,
stoutness and arrogancy, out of the execrable presump-
tion of their swelling heart, delivered their message
with letter apostolical, whereof the tenor was this :
' That we should always have before our eyes, how tliat
our sovereign lord the pope gave us the imperial crown,
and that it doth not repent him, if so be we have received
greater benefits at his hand.' And this was the effect of
that so sweet and fatherly legation, which should nourish
peace both of the church and of the empire, to unite
them fast together in the band of love.
"And at the hearing of this so false, untrue, and
most vain-glorious presumption of so proud a message,
not only the emperor's majesty conceived indignation,
but, also all the princes (there present) were moved
with such anger and rage thereat, that if our presence
and request had not stayed them, they would not have
held their hands from "these wicked priests, or else
would have proceeded with sentence of death against
them.
" Furthermore, because a great number of other
letters (partly written already, partly with seals ready
signed, for letters to be written according as they.sliould
think good to the churches of Germany) w^ere found
about them, whereby to work their conceived intent of
iniquity here in our churches, to spoil the altars, to
carry away the jewels of the church, and to tear off
the limbs and plates of golden crosses, &c. To the in-
tent their avaricious meaning should have no further
power to reign, we gave them commandment to depart
the same way they came. And now seeing our reign and
empire stands upon the election of princes from God alone,
who in the passion of his Son subdued the world to be
governed with two swords ; and again, seeing Peter the
apostle hath so instructed the world with this doctrine,
' Fear God, honour your king ;' therefore, whoso sayeth
that we have and possess our imperial kingdom by the
benefit of the lord pope, is contrary both to the ordi-
nance of God, and to the doctrine of Peter, and also shall
be reproved for a liar.
" Therefore as our endeavour has been heretofore to help
and to deliver the servile captivity of churches out of the
hand and from the yoke of such Egyptians, and to main-
tain the right of their liberties and dignities, we desire
you all with your compassion to lament with us this
slanderous ignominy, cast upon us and our kingdom,
trusting that your faithful good will, which has been ever
trusty to the honour of this empire (never yet blemished
from the first beginning of this city, and of religion) will
provide that it shall have no hurt through the strange
novelty and presumptuous pride of such. Which thing
rather than it should come to pass, know you this for
certain ; I had rather incur the danger of death, than
suffer such confusion to happen in our days."
This letter of the emperor fretted the pope not a little,
who wrote again to the bishops of Germany, accusing the
emperor, and requiring them to work against him what
they could.
This pope continued not very long, the space only of
four years and odd months.
Although this Adrian was bad enough, yet the next
was much worse. Alexander III. was not elected alone,
for the emperor with nine cardinals set up another pope,
named Victor IV. Between these two popes rose a great
discord that long continued. So that the emperor, being
required to take up the matter, sent for them both to ap-
pear before him, that in hearing them both he might
judge their cause better. Victor came, but Alexander
refused to appear. Whereupon the emperor, with a full
consent of his bishops and clergy ratified the election of
Victor. Alexander flying into France accursed them both,
sending his letters through all Christendom against them,
as men to be avoided and cast out of all christian com-
pany. Also at Rome, by flattery and money he got on
his side the greatest part of the city. After this, Alex-
ander coming from France to Sicily, and from thence to
Rome, was there received with much favour, through the
help of Philip the French king.
The emperor, hearing of this, marched with great force
into Italy. Coming at length to Rome, he required the
citizens that the cause betwixt the two popes might be
decided, and that he who had the best right might be
taken. Alexander mistrusting his part, and doubting
the will of the citizens, fled to Venice.
The emperor sent his son Otho, with men and ships
against Venice, charging him not to attempt any thing
before his coming. The young man more hardy than
circumspect, joined battle with the Venetians, was over-
come, and taken prisoner.
The father, to help the captivity and misery of his son,
was compelled to submit himself to the pope, and to treat
for peace. So the emperor coming to Venice (at St.
Mark's church, where the bishop was, there to get his
absolution) was obliged to kneel down at the pope's
feet.
The proud pope, setting his foot upon the emperor's
neck, said this verse of the psalm, " Thou shalt tread upon
the adder and the serpent, the lion iind the dragon shalt
A.D. 1155-1164.]
THE HISTORY OF THOMAS BECKET.
thou tread under thy feet." The emperor answered,
" Not to thee but to Peter." The pope a<j;ain, " Both
to nie and to Peter." The emperor, fearing to give nny
occasion for further quarrelling, held his peace, and so
was absolved, and peace made between them. The con-
ditions were : first, that he should receive Alexander aa
the true pope, and secondly, that he should restore to
the church of Rome all that he had taken away. And
thus the emperor, obtaining his son's release, departed.
Here, as I noted in various writers a great diversity and
variety concerning this matter, of whom some say that
the emperor encamped in Palestine before he came to
Venice, some say after, so I marvel to see in Volateran
(so great a favourer of the pope) such a contradiction,
who in his two- and- twentieth book saith, that Otho the
emperor's son was taken in this conflict, which was the
cause of the peace between his father and the pope. And
in his three-and-twentieth book again saith, that the
emperor himself was taken prisoner in the same battle ;
and so afterwards (peace concluded) took his journey to
Asia and Palestine. This pope, in the time of his papacy
(which continued one and twenty years) kept sundry
councils both in Turin and at Lateran, where he con-
firmed the wicked proceedings of Hildebrand, and his
other predecessors ; as to bind all orders of the clergy to
the vow of celibacy.
Now, as Thomas Becket lived in the time of this
Pope Alexander, let us narrate somewhat of him, so far
as shall seem worthy of knowing : to the end that the
truth being sifted from all flattery and lies of such
popish writers as write his history, men may the better
judge both of him, and his cause.
THE LIFE AND HISTORY OF THOMAS BECKET, ARCH-
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
If it be the cause that makes a martyr, I do not see
why we should esteem Thomas Becket a martyr, more
than any other whom the prince's sword punishes for
their crimes. To die for the church I grant is a glorious
matter. But the church (as it is a spiritual and not a tem-
poral church) stands upon a heavenly foundation, as upon
faith, religion, true doctrine, sincere discipline, obedience
to God's commandments ; and not upon things pertain-
ing to this world, as possessions, liberties, exemptions,
privileges, dignities, patrimonies, and superiorities. If
these be given to the church, I pray God church-men
may use them well ; but if they be not given, the church
cannot claim them ; or if they be taken away, such a
measure is in the prince's power. To contend with
princes about it does not in my mind make a martyr,
but rather a rebel. Therefore as I suppose Thomas
Becket to be far from the title of a martyr, yet would 1
have wished the law rather to have found out his fault,
than the swords of men to have smitten him, without
command of either prince, or of the law to do so. It
would have been the better way, for the laws to have ex-
ecuted their justice upon him ; and certainly it had been
the safest way for the king, and a'so thereby his death
had been without all suspicion of martyrdom, neither
had there been that shrining and sainting of him
that followed. If the emperors had dealt according to
the law with the popes who contended against them,
when they had taken them prisoners, that is, if they had
used the law of the sword against them, and chopped off
the heads of one or two, according to their traitorous re-
bellions, they had broken the neck of much of that dis-
turbance, which long after troubled the church. But,
because the emperors having the sword, and the truth on
their side, would not use their sword ; but standing in
awe of the pope's vain curse, and reverencing his seat for
St. Peter's sake, durst not lay hands upon him, though
be were never so abominable and traitorous a malefactor ;
the popes, perceiving that, took so much upon them, not
as the scripture would give, but as the superstitious fear
of emperors and kings would suffer them to take.
Now to the history, if that be true which is set forth
by those four, who took upon them to narrate the life of
Thomas Becket, it appears, that he was a man of a stout,
tevere and inflexible temper. Whatever opinion he had
129
once conceived, from that he would in nowise be re-
moved, or very hardly. Threatenings and flattering were
to him both alike; following no man's counsel so^mncH
as his own. He had more natural than cultivated talents,
although he was somewhat skilled in the civil law ; he
had a good memory, and was well trained in courtly and
worldly matters. Besides this, he was of a chaste and
strict life, if the histories be true ; although in the first
part of his life (being yet archdeacon of Canterbury, and
after lord chancellor) he was very civil, courtly, pleasant,
much given both to hunting and hawking, according ta
the guise of the court ; and he was highly favoured by\i»
prince, who not only had thus promoted him, but also
had committed his son and heir to his instruction and
government. But in this his first beginning he was not so
well beloved, but that afterward he was much hated, both
by the king, and also by the greater part of his subject*,
save only certain monks and priests, and such as were
persuaded by them, who magnified him not a little for up-
holding the liberties of the church ; that is, the licentious
life and excesses of church-men. He was full of devotion
but without any true religion ; zealous, but without knowl
ledge. And therefore as he was stiff and .stubborn of
nature, so (a blind conscience being joined with all) it
turned to plain rebellion. So superstitious was he to the
obedience of the pope, that he forgot his obedience to bis
natural and most beneficent king : and in maintaining so
contentiously the constitutions and decrees of men, he
neglected the commandments of God. But here he is
most of all to be reprehended, that he not only (contrary
to the king's knowledge) sought to convey himself out of
the realm, when holding so high place and calling, but also
set matter of discord between the pope and his king,
and also between the French king and him, contrary to
all propriety, good order, natural subjection, and truo
Christianity. Upon which followed no httle disquiet to
the king, and damage to the realm.
His first preferment was to the church of Branfield,
which he had by the gift of St. Alban. After that, h»
entered into the service of the archbishop of Canterbury,
by whom he was then preferred to be his archdeacon ;
in process of time the king made him lord chancellor,
and he then left playing the archdeacon, and began to play
the chancellor. He fashioned his proceedings like the
king's both in weighty matters and trifles ; he would hunt
with him, and watched the time when the king dined and
slept. He began to love the merry jestings < f the court, lo-
delight himself with the great applause of men, and praisa
of the people. And that I may pass over his household,
stuff, he had his bridle of silver, and the bosses of his
bridle were worth a great treasure. At his table and in
other exi)enses he surpassed any earl. He acted also thi
good soldier under the king in Gascony, and both woQ'
and kept towns : in the four-and-fortieth year of his age,
he was made priest, and the next day, consecrated
bishop.
As touching the priesthood of this man, I find histories
to vary in themselves : for if he were beneficed, and
chaplain to Theobald, and afterwards archdeacon (as some
say) it is not likely, but that he was priest before, and not
(as most English histories say) made priest in one day,
and archbishop the next.
The chief cause of the variance that sprung up be-
tween the king and this Thomas Becket, was this,
a canon having reviled the king's justices, the king was
offended, the archbishop, to pacify the king, com-
manded the canon to be whipped and deprived of his
benefices for certain years. But the king was not con-
tent with this gentle punishment, because it rather in-
creased their boldness, and therefore he called the arch-
bishop, bishops, and all the clergy, to assemble at
Westminster. When they were assembled, the kmg
commanded that such wicked clerks should have no pri-
vilege of their clergy, but be delivered to the jailors ; and
this he said their own canons and laws had decreed.
The archbishop, counselling with his bishops and
learned men, desired heartily the king's gentleness, that
under Christ our new king, and under the new law of
Christ he would bring in no new kind of punishment
into this reahn against the old decrees of the holf.
k2
130
VARIANCE BETWEEN THE KING AND THOMAS BECKET.
[Book IV.
fathers ; and he frequently said, " That he neither ought
nor could suffer it." The king being angered at this,
alleges the old laws and customs of his grandfather, ob-
served and agreed upon by archbishops, bishops, pre-
lates, and other privileged persons, inquiring likewise of
the archbishop whether he would agree to the same.
To which laws and customs Thomas partly granted, and
partly would not grant. The copy of the which said
laws are contained in the number of eight-and-twenty
or nine-and-twenty, whereof I thought here to recite
some not unworthy to be known.
The Copy of the old Laws and Customs whereunto
Thomas Becket did agree.
"1. That no order should be given to husbandmen's
children and bondmen's children, without the assent or
testimonial of the lords of the country where they were
born and brought up : and if their sons become clerks,
they shall not receive the order of priesthood without
licence of their lords.
" 2. That if a man of holy church hold any lay fee
in his hand, he shall do therefore the king the service
that belongeth thereto, as upon juries, assize of lands
and judgments, saving only at execution doing of
death.
" 3. That if any man were the king's traitor, and
had taken to the church, it should be lawful for the king
and his officers to take him out.
" 4. That if any felon's goods were brought to holy
church, there should none such keep there ; for every
felon's goods be the king's.
" 5. That no land should be given to the church, or
to any house of reUgion, without the king's licence."
These Articles following , Thomas agreed not unto.
"1. If there were any striving for church-goods, be-
tween a clerk and a layman, the plea should be done in
the king's court.
" 2. That neither bishop nor clerk should go out of
the land without the king's licence, and then he should
swear that he would procure no hurt against the king,
nor any of his.
" 3. If any man were denounced accursed, and were
come again to amendment, the king would not that he
should be sworn, but only find sureties to stand to that,
that holy church should award.
"4. That no man, that held of the king in chief,
ior in service, should be accursed without the king's
licence.
'• 5. Tliat all the bishoprics and abbeys that were
vacant, should be in the king's hands, until such time
that he should choose a prelate thereto, and he should
be chosen out of the king's chapels ; and iirst before he
■were confirmed, he should do his homage to the king.
" fi. If any plea were brought to the consistory, they
should appeal from thence to the archdeacon, and from
thence to the bishop's court, and from the bishop's
court to the archbishop's, and from thence to the king,
and no furthej-. So that in conclusion, the complaints
of holy church must come before the king, and not the
pope.
" 7. That debts, that were owing through troth plight,
should not be pleaded in spiritual, but in temporal
courts.
" 8. That the Peter-pence, which were gathered to
the pope, should be taken to the king.
" !). If any clerk were taken for felony and so proved,
he should be first degraded, and then through judgment
be hanged, or if he were a traitor, be drawn."
Other Laws and Constitutions made at Clarendon in
Normandi/, and sent to England, vhereimto Becket
and the Pope would not agree, he being then fed out
of ike realm.
"1. If any person shall be found to bring from the
pope, or from the archbishop of Canterbury, any writing
containing any interdict or curse againat the realm of Eng-
land, the same man to be apprehended without delay for
a traitor, and execution to be done upon the same.
"2. That no monk nor any clerk shall be permitted
to pass over into England without a passport from the il
king or his justices : who so doth the contrary, to be i||
attached and imprisoned.
"3. No man to be so bold as to appeal to the pope,
or to the archbishop of Canterbury out of England.
" 4. That no decree or commandment, proceeding (fl
from the authority of the pope, or the bishop of Canter,
bury, be received into England, under pain of taking and
imprisoning.
" 5. In general, to forbid any man to carry over any
commandment or precept, either of clerk or layman, to
the pope, or to the archbishop of Canterbury, uuder
pain of imprisonment.
" G. If any bishop, clerk, abbot, or layman shall do
contrary to this inhibition, or will keep the sentence of
interdicting, the same to be thrust out of the land,
with all their kindred, and to leave all their goods be-
hind them.
"7. All the possessions, goods, and chattels of such
as favour the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury, to
be seized and confiscate for the king.
" 8. All such of the clergy as be out of the realm,
and derive their rents and profits out of the land, to be
summoned and warned through every shire within three
months to repair home, or else their rents and goods to
return to the king.
" y. That St. Peter's-pence should be no more paid
to the apostolical see, but to be reserved diligently in
the king's coffers, and there to be at his commandment.
" 10. That the bishops of Salisbury and Norwich be
at the king's mercy, and be summoned by the sheriff,
and beadles, that they before the king's justices do right
to the king and his justices, because (contrary to the
statutes of Clarendon) by commandment they interdicted
the land of Earl Hugh, and published the same in their
diocese without licence of the king's justices."
By these and such other laws and decrees it may ap-
pear, that the abolishing of the pope's authority is no
new thing in the realm of England. This only differ-
ence is, that the pope being driven out then, could not
be kept out so long as he is now. The cause is, that
the time was not yet come that antichrist should be so
fully revealed ; nor was his wickedness then so fully ripe
as in our time. We will now return to
The Communication and Controversy between the King
and Thomas Becket, with his Clergy.
The king assembling his nobles and clergy, required
the punishment of some delinquent clergymen ; but
Thomas Becket not assenting, the king demanded
whether he would consent, that the customs set forth in
the realm (meaning the first part of those decrees above
specified) should be observed. To which the arch-
bishop, consulting together with his brethren, answered,
That he was content, adding this. Salvo ordine sno ; that
is, Saving his order. And in like manner all the otlier
bishops answered with the same addition. Salvo ordine
suo. Hilarius, bishop of Chichester, alone agreed to
observe them bona fide. The king was greatly offended
at this exception or saving clause ; and turning to the
archbishop and prelates, said, " That he was not well
content with that clause of theirs, Salvo ordine suo,
whicli was captious and deceitful, having some venom
lurking under it ; and therefore required an absolute
agreement, without any exception, to the king's ordi-
nances." To this the archbishop answered again, " Tliat
they had sworn to him their fidelity, both life, body,
and earthly honour. Salvo ordine suo ; and that in the
same earthly honour also those ordinances were compre-
hended, and to tlie observing of them they would bind
themselves after no other form, but as they had sworn
before." The king with this was very angry, and all his
nobility not a little. As for the other bishojis, there
was no doubt but they would easily have changed their
minds, bad not the boldness of the archbishop made
A.D.1164.]
BECKET YIELDS TO THE KING, BUT AFTERWARDS REPENTS.
l.Sl
them more constant than otherwise they would have
been. The day being well spent, the king departed in
great anger, giving no salutation to the bishops. The
day following, the king took from the archbishop all the
honours and lordships he had given him before in the
time that he was chancellor ; which shewed the great
displeasure of the king against him and the clergy. Not
long after this, the king removing from London (un
known to the bishops) sailed over to Normandy, whither
the bishop of London resorted to crave tlie king's fa-
vour, and gave him counsel how to gain over some of
the other bishops. And the greater part of the bishops
were by this means reconciled again to the king ; the
archbishop, with a few others, only remained still in
their obstinacy. The king, to try every means, when he
saw no fears nor threats could change him, tried him
with gentleness ; but it would not serve. Many of the
nobles laboured between them to influence Becket, but
it would not be. The archbishop of York, with other
bishops and abbots, especially the bishop of Chester,
did the same. Besides this, his own household daily
called upon him, but no one could persuade him. At
length learning what danger might happen not only to
himself, but to the other clergy from the kmg's dis-
pleasure, and considering the love and kindness of the
king towards him in time past, he was content to give
way to the king's wishes, and came to Oxford to him,
and reconciled himself. The king being somewhat
softened by this, received him with a more cheerful
countenance, but yet not so familiarly as before, saying,
" That he would have his ordinances and proceedings
after the prescribed form, confirmed in the public au-
dience and open sight of all his bishops and all his
nobles." After this, the king at Clarendon called there
all his peers and prelates before him, requiring to have
all performed, which they had promised, in consenting
to the observing of his grandfather's ordinances and
proceedings. The archbishop now drew back from his
promise, but at last he was induced to assent. First
came to him the bishops of Salisbuiy and of Norwich,
weeping and lamenting to the archbishop, desiring him
to have some compassion of them, and to cease tliis op-
position to the king, lest it should exasperate the king's
displeasure, and cause himself to be imprisoned, and the
whole clergy endangered. Besides these two bishops,
there went to him two noble peers of the realm, influ-
encing him to relent and yield to the king's wishes : or
if not, that they should be forced to use such violence,
as would not be consistent with the king's fame, and
much less with his quietness ; but yet the obstinacy of
the man would not give over. After this came to him
two rulers of the temple, called templars, w-ith their
company, lamenting and bewailing the great danger
which they declared was hanging over his head : yet
neither with their tears, nor with their kneelings would
he be persuaded. At length came the last message
from the king, signifying with express words, and also
with tears, what he might expect, if he would not give
over.
By this message, either terrified or persuaded, he at
last submitted. The king immediately assembling the
states, the archbishop, before all others, promises the
king obedience and submission, and that cum bona fide,
leaving out his former addition, Salvo ordine: instead of
which he promised in verba veritatis, to observe and
keep the king's customs, and swear to the same. After
him tlie other bishops took the same oath ; upon which
the king commanded certain instruments obligatory to
be drawn, of which the king should have one, the arch-
bishop of Canterbury another, the archbishop of York
the third, requiring the latter prelate also to set to his
hand and seal. He, though he was ready to do so, yet
desired a little delay that he (being but newly come to
his bishopric) might, better peruse the customs and or-
dinances of the king. This request, as it seemed but
reasonable, was easily granted.
Alanus, one of the four writers of the life of this
Thomas Becket, records, that the archbishop in his
journey to Winchester, began greatly to repent of what
he had done through the instigation chiefly of his cross -
bearer, who earnestly expostulated with him for yielding
to the king's request, against the privilege and liberties
of the church, polluting not only his fame and con-
science, but also giving a pernicious example to those
that should come after. To make the matter short, the
aichbishop was touched with such repentance, that
keeping himself from all company, lamenting with tears,
with fasting, and afflicting himself with much penance,
he suspended himself from all Divine service, and would
not be comforted, till he was absolved by the pope, who,
compassionating the tears of his dear chicken, directed
to him letters by the same messenger which Thomas had
sent to him. In which letters he not only absolved him,
but also with words of great consolation encouraged him
to be determined in the aflair which he took in hand.
The copy of which consolatory letter here follows : —
" Alexander bishop, &c. Your brotherhood is not
ignorant that it has been advertised us, how that upon
the occasion of a certain transgression or excess of yours,
you have determined to cease henceforth from saying of
mass, and to abstain from the consecration of the body
and blood of the Lord ; which determination, how dan-
gerous it is (especially in such a personage) and also
what inconvenience may rise from it, I wish you ad-
visedly to consider, and discreetly to ponder. Your
wisdom ought not to forget what diff"erence there is be-
tween those who advisedly and willingly offend, and
those who through ignorance and for necessity sake of-
fend. For, as you read, so much the greater is wilful
sin, as the same not being voluntary is a lesser sin.
Therefore if you remember yourself to have done any
thing that your own conscience accuses you of, whatever
it be, we counsel you (as a prudent and wise prelate) to
acknowlege it. Which done, the merciful and pitiful
God, who has more respect to the heart of the doer than
to the thing done, will remit and forgive you the same
according to his accustomed great mercy. And we,
trusting in the merits of the blessed apostles St. Peter
and St. Paul, do absolve you from the offence commit-
ted, and by the authority apostolical we release you to
your fraternity, counselling you and commanding you,
that henceforth you abstain not (for this cause) from the
celebration of the mass."
This letter, with others of the same kind, the pope
then wrote to him, animating and comforting him in this
quarrel, which so nearly pertained to the pope's profit.
By which, Becket took no small courage and consolation.
In the meantime, the king hearing how he now refused
to set his seal to those sanctions which he yielded to be-
fore, felt no small displeasure against him, so that
threatening him, he began to call him to account, and
to burthen him with payments, that all men could per-
ceive that the king was against him. The archbishop
thought to escape out of the realm, and went in the
night (with two or three stealing with him out of his
house), to take shipping privately. Now among other
of the king's ordinances and laws, this was one, "That
none of the prelacy or nobility, without the king's licence,
or of his justices, should depart out of the realm." So
Becket twice attempted to take shipping to flee to the
see of Rome ; but the weather not being favourable, he
was driven home again, and for that time frustrated in
his purpose. After his flight began to be known, the
king's ot.lcers came to Canterbury to seize upon his
goods in the king's behalf. But the night before their
coming, Becket had returned, and was found at home,
so they did not proceed in their purpose.
Upon this, the archbishop (understanding the king's
displeasure against him, and that the seas would not
serve him), made haste to the court, which was then at
Woodstock. The king received him, but not so fami-
liarly as he used, taunting him jestingly and merrily, as
though one realm were not large enough to hold them
both. Becket, although he was permitted to go and
come at his pleasure to the court, he could not obtain
the favour that he wanted. The archbishop of York la-
boured to make peace between them ; but the king would
not be reconciled unless Becket would subscribe to hi|
132
DISSIMULATION OF THE POPE. BECKET CITED TO NORTHAMPTON. LBook IV.
laws. The king, considering his regal authority,
thought it too much that any subject should stand
against him. And the archbishop, emboldened by the
authority of the pojie, thouglit himself strong enough
against the king and all his realm. So that the arch-
bishop would not yield, but by virtue of his apostolical
authority gave censure upon tliese laws and constitutions
of the king, condemning some, and approving others.
Besides this, there came also Rotrodiis archbishop of
Rothomage (sent from the pope) to make peace between
the king and Canterbury : to which the king was content,
provided the pope would agree to ratify his ordinances.
But when that could not be obtained at the pope's hands,
then the king being stopped by Becket's apostolic legacy,
(bein^ legatus a latere) sent to the pope, to obtain of
him, that the same authority of the apostolic legacy
might be conferred on the archbishop of York : but the pope
refused. However, the pope was willing that the king
himself should be legate ; ac which the king felt great in-
dignation (as Hoveden writes), so that he sent back the
pope's letters.
The pope being perplexed, began after the old practice
of popish prelacy, to play with both hands : privily con-
spiring with the one, and openly dissembling with the
other. First he granted to the king's ambassadors their
request, to have the legate removed, and to place the
archbishop of York in that office ; and then to protect
the cause of Thomas Becket. He adds a promise, that
Becket should receive no harm or damage thereby. Thus
the po])e craftily managing the matter between them both,
writes to the king openly, and secretly directs another
letter to Becket : the contents whereof here follow.
Alexander the pope, to Thomas Archbishop of Canterhury .
" Although we. condescending to the king's request,
have granted the gift of our legacy after his mind from
you : yet let not your mind thereby be discomforted, nor
brought into sighs of despair. For before we had granted
that, or gave our consent thereunto, the king's ambas-
sadors firmly promised in the word of truth (ready also
to be sworn upon the same, if I would so have required)
that their letters also which he had obtained, should not
be delivered to the archbishop of York without our know-
ledge and consent therein. This is certain, and so per-
suade yourself boldly without any scruple, doubt or mis-
trust, that it was never my mind or purpose, nor ever shall
be ((Jod willing) to subdue you or your church under the
obedience of any person, to be subject to any, save only
to llie bishop of Rome. And therefore we warn you and
charge you, that if you shall perceive the king to deliver
these foresaid letters, which we trust he will not attempt
without our knowledge to do ; forthwith by some trusty
messengers or by your letters you will give us knowledge
thereof : whereby we may provide upon the same both for
your person, your church, and also your city committed
to you, to be clearly exempt by our authority apostolical,
from all power and jurisdiction of any legacy."
The king, after he had received the letters from the
pope, began to put forth more strength to his purposed
proceedings, against the archl)ishop, beginning with
inferiors of the clergy, such as were offenders against his
laws : as felons, robbers, quarrellers, breakers of peace,
and especially such as had committed homicide and mur
ders, whereof more than a hundred at that time were
proved upon the clergy, (Guliel. Neuburgensis, de gestis
Anglorum, lib. 2. cap Ki.) urging and constraining them
to be arraigned after the order of the temporal law, and
justice to be administered to them according to their de-
serts : as, first, to be deprived, and so be committed to
the secular hands. This seemed to Becket to derogate
from the liberties of holy church, that the secular
power should pass in criminal causes, or sit in judgment
against any ecclesiastical person. This law of exemption,
the clergy had forged out of Anaclclus, and Euaristus,
by whose falsely alleged and pretended autliority, they
have deduced this constitution from tlie apostles, giv-
ing immunity to all ecclesiastical persons to be free
from secular jurisdiction ! Becket, therefore, like a
valiant champion (fighting for his liberties, and having
the pope on his side) would not permit his clerka to b«
examined and deprived for their crimes, unless before
ecclesiastical judges, and no secular judge to proceed
against them : but that after their deprivation, if they
should incur the like offence again, then the temporal
judge might proceed against them. This obstinate and
stubborn rebellion of the archbishop stirred up much
anger and vexation in the king, and not only in him
but also in the nobles and the greater part of the
bishops, so that he was almost alone a wonder to all the
realm.
The king's wrath daily increasing more and more
against him, he caused him to be cited to appear by a
certain day at the town of Northampton, there to make
answer to such things as should be laid to his charge.
So when the day was come (all the peers and nobles,
with the prelates of the realm upon the king's procla-
mation being assembled in the castle of Northampton)
great fault was found with the archbishop for that be
(though personally cited to appear) did not come him-
self, but sent another in his stead. The cause why he
came not, Hoveden assigns to be this : the king had
placed his horse and horse-men in the archbishop's lodg-
ing ; he being offended at this, sent word that he would not
appear, unless his lodging were cleared of the king's
horsemen, &c. Upon which, by the public sentence as
well of all the nobles, as of the bishops, all his move-
ables were adjudged to be confiscated for the king, unless
the king's clemency would remit the penalty.
The next day the king laid an action against him in
behalf of his marshal, for certain injuries done to him, and
required of the archbishop the repaying of certain money,
lent to him when chancellor, amounting to five hundred
marks. This money the archbishop denied not that he
had received from the king, but he said it was by way
and title of a gift, though he could bring no proof thereof.
The king required him to give security for the payment :
the archbishop was so called upon, that either he should be
accountable to the king for the money ; or else he should
incur present danger, the king being so bent against him.
And being brought to such a strait, and destitute of his
own suffragans, he could not have escaped, had not five
persons of their own accord stepped in, being bound for
him, every man for one hundred marks each. And this
was concluded upon the second day.
The morrow after, which was the third day of the
council, as the archbishop was sitting below in a conclave
with his fellow bishops about him, consulting together,
the doors being fast locked on them, as the king had
commanded, it was propounded to him in the behalf of
the king, that he had divers bishopricks, and abbaricks in
his hand which were vacant, with the fruits and revenues
thereof due to the king for certain years, of which he had
rendered as yet no account to the king : wherefore it was
demanded of him to bring in a full and clear reckoning
of the same.
Thus, while the bishops and prelates were in council,
advising and deliberating what was to be done, at length
it came to voices, every man to say his mind, and to give
sentence what was the best course for their archbishop to
take. First began Henry bishop of Winchester, who
took part with Becket so much as he durst for fear of the
king, he said, " He remembered that the archbishop, first
being archdeacon, and then lord chancellor, when he was
promoted to the church of Canterbury, was discharged
from all bonds and reckonings of the temporal court, as
all the other bishops could not but remember and witness."
Next spake Gilbert, bishop of London, exhorting the
archbishop, that he should call to mind from whence
the king took him, and set him up ; what, and how
great things he had done for him ; also that he should
consider the dangers and perils of the time, and what ruin
he might bring upon the whole church (and ujion them
all there present) if he resisted the king's mind in the
things he required. And if it were to render up his arch-
bishoprick, although it were ten times better than it is,
yet he should not hesitate in the matter. To this the
archbishop answering, " Well, well," said he, " I perceive
well enough, my Lord, whither you tend." Then spake
Winchester, ""This form of counsel," saith he, "seem*
A. D. 1164.]
ADVICE OF THE BISHOPS, AND BECKET'S REPLY.
1:5.?
to me very pernicious to the catholic church, tending to
I our subversion, and to the confusion of us all. For if
; our archbishop and primate of all England do lean to this
I example, that every bishop should give over his authority
. and the charge of the flock committed to him, at the com-
I tnand and threat of the prince, to what state shall the
I church be brought, but that all shall be confounded at his
( pleasure and arbitrament, and nothing shall remain cer-
I tain by any order of law, and as the priest is, so shaJl the
j people be ?"
Hilary, the bishop of Chichester replies to this saying,
' *' If it were not that the urgency and the great danger of
I the times did otherwise require and force us, I would
think this counsel here given were good to be followed.
But now seeing the authority of our canon fails, and can-
■ not serve us, I judge it not best to go so strictly to work,
' but so to moderate our proceedings, that dispensation
I with sufferance may win that which severe correction may
I destroy. Wherefore my counsel and reason is, to give
i place to the king's purpose for a time, lest by over hasty
1 proceeding, we exceed so far, that both it may redound
I to our shame, and also we cannot rid ourselves out again
, when we would."
Much to the same end spake Robert the bishop of Lin-
i coin, " Seeing," saith he, " it is manifest that the life and
' blood of this man is sought, one of these two must needs
; be chosen ; that either he must part with his archbishop-
rick, or else with his life. Now what profit he shall
, take in this matter of his bishoprick, his life being lost, I
do not greatly see."
Next followed Bartholomew bishop of Exeter with his
; advice, who inclining his counsel to the state of the time,
; affirmed how the days were evil and perilous ; and if they
, could escape the violence of that raging tempest by bear-
1 ing and relenting, it were not to be refused. But that,
he said, could not be, except strictness should give place
to moderation ; and the state of the times required no
less, especially as that persecution was not general, but
personal and particular ; and he thought it more holy and
convenient, for one head to run into some danger, than
the whole of the church of England be exposed to inevit-
'able inconvenience.
! The answer of Roger bishop of Worcester advised nei-
' ther the one, nor the other: he said that he would give an-
! swer on neither part ; " for if I should say that the pastoral
I function and cure of souls ought to be relinquished at the
'king's will or threatening, then my mouth shall speak
I against my conscience to the condemnation of my own
I head. And if I shall give again contrary counsel to resist
I the king's sentence, they are here who will hear it, and
I report it to his grace, and so I shall be in danger to be
Ithrust out of the synagogue, and accounted amongst the
'public rebels to be condemned with them : wherefore
neither do I say this, nor counsel that."
' Against these voices and censures of the bishops,
iBecket the archbishop replies, expostulating and check-
ing them with rebukeful words, " I perceive (said he) and
understand you go about to maintain and cherish but
your own cowardliness under the colourable shadow of
j sufferance, and under pretence of dissembling softness to
choak the liberty of Christ's church. Who hath thus
Ibe witched you, O insatiable bishops .' What mean ye ?
I Why do ye so, under the impudent title of forbearing,
I bear a double heart, and cloak your manifest iniquity?
iWhat call ye this bearing with the times, to the detri-
|ment of the church of Christ : Let terms serve the mat-
'ter. Why pervert you that which is good with untrue
iterms ? For that ye say we must bear with the malice of
itime, I grant with you : but yet we must not heap sin to
•in. Is not God able to help the state and condition of
'his church, without the sinful dissimulation of the teach-
|ers of the church ? Certainly God is disposed to try you.
jAnd tell me when should the governors of the church
1 put themselves to dangers for the church, in time of tran-
quillity, or in time of distress ? And now then (the church
lying in so great distress and vexation) why should not
the good pastor put himself into peril for it? For neither
do I think it a greater act or merit for the ancient bishops
of the old time, to lay the foundation of the church then
with their blood, than now for us to shed our blood for
the liberties of the same. And to tell ycu plain, I think
it not safe for you to swerve from an example which you
have received of your holy elders."
On the next day following, because it was Sunday, no-
thing was done. So the day after, the archbisliop was
cited to appear before the King. But the night before
he was taken with a disease, so he kept his bed that day,
and was not able to rise. The morrow after, some that
were about him, fearing that some danger would happen
to him, gave him counsel in the morning to have a mass
in honour of the holy martyr St. Stephen, to keep him
from the hands of the enemies that day. When the
morrow was come (being Tuesday) there came to him the
bishops and prelates, counselling and persuading him co-
vertly by insinuation, (for they durst not openly) that he
would submit himself with all his goods (as also his arch •
bishoprick) to the will of the king, if peradventure his
indignation by that means might assuage. Adding, that
unless he would do so, perjury would be laid against him :
for that he being under the oath of fidelity to keep the
king's laws and ordinances, would not now observe them.
To this Becket the archbishop answered again, "Brethren,
ye see and perceive well how the world is set against me,
and how the enemy rises and seeks my confusion. And
although these things are dolorous and lamentable, yet
the thing that grieves me most of all, is this, the sons of
mine own mother are pricks and thorns against me. And
although I do hold my peace, yet the posterity will know
and report how cowardly you have turned your backs, and
have left your archbishop and metropolitan alone in his
conflict, and how you have sat in judgment against me
(although guiltless of crime) now two days together, and
not only in the civil and spiritual court, but also in the
temporal court, are ready to do the same. But in gene-
ral, this I charge and command (on the virtue of pure
obedience, and in peril of your order) that ye be pre-
sent personally in judgment against me. And that ye
shall not fail so to do, I here appeal to our mother (the
refuge of all such as be oppressed) the church of Rome :
and if any secular men shall lay hands upon me (as it is
rumoured they will) I straitly enjoin and charge you in
the same virtue of obedience, that you exercise your cen-
sure ecclesiastical upon them, as it becomes you to do for
a father and an archbishop. And this I do you to under-
stand, that though the world rage, and the enemy be fierce
and the body trembles (for the flesh is weak), yet God so
favouring me, I will neither cowardly shrink, nor yet
vilely forsake my flock committed to my charge," &c.
But the bishop of London, contrary to this command-
ment of the archbishop, did forthwith appeal from him.
And thus the bishops departed from him to the Court,
save only two, Henry of Winchester, and Joceline of
Salisbury, who returned with him secretly to his chamber,
and comforted him. This done, the archbishop, (who
yesterday was so sore sick that he could not stir out of
his bed) now addresses him to his mass of St. Stephen
with all solemnity, as though it had been an high festi-
val day, with his metropolitan pall, which was not used
but upon the holy days, &c.
The mass being ended, the archbishop (putting off his
pall, his mitre, and other robes) proceeded to the
king's court. But yet not trusting to the strength of his
mass, to make the matter more sure, he takes also
the sacrament privately about him, thinking himself suf-
ficiently defended thereby against all evils. In going to
the king's chamber (there to wait the king's coming)
as he entered the door, he takes from Alexander his
crozier, the cross, with the cross-staft", in the sight of all
that stood by, and carries it in himself, the other bi-
shops following him, and saying he did otherwise than
became him. Amongst others, Robert bishop of Here-
ford offered himself to bear his cross, rather than he
should so do, for that it was not comely ; but the arch-
bishop would not suffer him. Then said the bishop of
London to him, " If the king shall see you come armed
into his chamber, )ierchance he will draw out his sword
against you, which is stronger than yours, and then
what shall this profit you?" The archbishop answered
again, " If the king's sword do cut carnally, yet my sword
cuts spiritually and strikes down to hell. But you, my
134
BECKET ACCOUNTED A TRAITOR AND FLIES THE KINGDOM.
[Book IV
lord, as you Imve played the. fool in this matter, so
you -.vill not yet leave off your folly for any thin? I can
see;" an 1 so hi came into the chamber. The king
hearing of his coming, and of his manner, tarried not
long. First, the crier called the prelates and all the lords
of the temper ilty together. That being done (and every
one placed in his seat according to his degree) the king
begins with a great complaint against the archbishop for
his manner of entering into the court, " not as a subject
into a king'a court, but as a traitor, shewing himself in
such sort as has not been seen before in any christian
king's court, professing christian faith." To this all
there present gave witness with the king, affirming him
always to be a vain and proud man, and that the shame
of his act did not only redound against the prince him-
self, but also against his whole realm. They said, too,
that this had so happened to the king, because that he
had done so much for such a man, advancing him so
highly. And so all together with one cry, called him
traitor on every side, as one that refused to give earthly
honour to the king, in keeping (as he had sworn) his
laws and ordinances, at whose hands also he had re-
ceived such honour and great perferments : and there-
fore he was well worthy (said they) to be handled like a
perjured traitor and rebel. Whereupon there was great
doubt and fear what would befal him. The archbishop
of York, coming down to his men, said he could not
abide to see what the archbishop of Canterbury was like
to suffer. Likewise, the tipstaves, and other ministers
of the assembly, coming down with an outcry against him,
crossed themselves at seeing his haughty stubbornness,
and the business that was about him. Some there were
of his disciples sitting at his feet, comforting him
softly, and bidding him to lay his curse upon them.
Others bidding him not to curse, but to pray and forgive
them ; and if he lost his life in the quarrel of the
church and the liberty thereof, he should be happy. In
the meantime comes Bartholomew bishop of Exeter, de-
siring him to have regard and compassion of himself, and
also of them, or else they were all likely to suffer ; for (said
he) "there comes out a precept from the king that he shall
be taken, and sufferfor an open rebel, whoever takes your
part. It is said, too, that Joceline bishop of Salisbury,
and William bishop of Norwich, are to be brought to the
place of execution, for their resisting and making inter-
cession for the bishop of Canterbury." When he had
thus said, the archbishop, looking upon the said bishop
of Exeter, " Avoid hence from me," saith he, " thou
understandest not, neither dost savour those things that
be of God."
The bishops and prelates then going aside by them-
selves from the other nobles, the king permitting them
to do so, took counsel together what was to be done.
Here the matter stood in a doubtful perplexity, for
they must either incur the dangerous indignation of the
king, or else with the nobles they must proceed in con-
demnation against the archbishop for resisting the king's
sanctions. In this strict necessity they at length agreed
upon this, that they with common assent should cite
the archbishop to the see of Rome upon perjury : and
that they should oblige and bind themselves to the king
with a sure promise, to work their diligence in deposing
the archbishop ; upon this condition that the king
should promise their safety, and discharge them from the
peril of the judgment which was against them. So all
the bishops, obliging themselves thus to the king, went
to the archbishop, one speaking for the rest (which
was Hilary bishop of Chichester), in these words, " Once
you have been our archbishop, and so long we were bound
to your obedience ; but now forasmuch as you, once
swearing your fidelity to the king, do resist him, neglect-
ing his injunctions and ordinances, concerning and ap-
pertaining to his civil honour and dignity ; we here
pronounce you perjured, neither are we bound to give
obedience to an archbishop thus being perjured ; but,
putting ourselves and all ours in the pope's protection,
we do cite you up to his presence." And they assigned
him his day and time to appear. The archbishop upon
this sends to Rome in all haste to the pope, informing
him by letters of the whole matter, how, and wherefore,
and by whom he was cited.
The archbishop being thus cited up to Rome, still sat
with his cross in the court, neither giving place to the
king's request, nor abashed with the clamour of the
whole court against him, calling him traitor on every
side ; at length the king, by certain earls and barons,
sent command to him that he should without delay come
and render a full account of all he had received, as the
profits and revenues of the realm during the time he was
chancellor, and specially for the 150,000 marks, for the
which he was accountable to the king. The archbishop
answered, " The king knew how often he had made his
reckoning of those things which were now required of
him ; and that Henry, his son and heir of his realm, with
all his barons, and also Richard Lucy, chief justice of
England told him, that he was free and clear before God
and holy church from all receipts and reckonings, and
from all secular exactions on the king's behalf. And
that he, taking thus his discharge at their hands, en.
tered into his office ; and therefore he would make no
other account besides this." When this word was brought
to the king, he required his barons to put the law in force
against him ; and they sentenced him to be apprehended
and laid in prison. This done, the king sends the earl
of Cornwall and Devonshire, and the earl of Leicester,
to declare to him his judgment. The archbishop an-
swered, " Hear, my son, and good earl, what I say to
you : how much more precious the soul is than the
body, so much more ought you to obey me in the Lord,
rather than your earthly king. Neither does any law or
reason permit the children to judge or condemn their fa-
ther. Wherefore, to avoid both the judgment of the
king, of you, and all others, I put myself wholly to
the arbitration of the pope, under God alone, to be
judged by him, and by no other ; to whose presence I
do appeal here before you aU ; committing the ordering
of the church of Canterbury, my dignity, with all other
things appertaining to the same, under the protection
of God and him. And as for you, my brethren and
fellow bishops, who rather obey man than God, you also
I call and cite to the audience and judgment of the pope,
and depart henceforth from you, as from the enemies
of the catholic church, and of the authority of the apos-
tolic see."
Wliile the barons returned with this answer to the
king, the archbishop, passing through the throng, takes
his palfry, holding his cross in one hand, and his bridle
in the other, the courtiers following after, and crying,
" Traitor ! traitor ! tarry, and hear thy judgment." But
he passed on. While the king was at supper, he prepares
his journey secretly to escape away ; and changing his
garment and his name, went first to Lincoln, and from
thence to Sandwich, where he took ship and sailed into
Flanders, and from thence journeyed into France, as Ho-
veden writes. However Alanus, differing something in
the order of his flight says, " that he departed not
that night ; but at supper-time there came to him the
bishops of London and Chichester, declaring to him that
if he would surrender to the king his two manors of
Otford and Wingcham, there was hope to recover the
king's favour, and to have all forgiven. But when
the archbishop would not agree, as those manors be-
longed to the church of Canterbury, the king hearing
thereof took great displeasure, so that the next day
Becket was fain to send to the king for leave to depart
the realm. The king answered, " That he would pause
till the next day, and then he should have an answer."
But Becket not waiting for his answer, conveyed himself
away secretly to Lewis the French king. But before he
came to the king, Gilbert the bishop of London, and
William, the earl of Arundel, were sent from the king of
England to France, re<juiring the French king, on the
part of the king of England, not to receive nor retain
in his dominion the archbishop of Canterbury.
The French king, understanding the matter, and think-
ing thereby to have some advantage against the king
of England, not only harbours this Becket, but also
writing to the pope, intreats him to support the cause
A. D. IIGS.]
THOMAS BECKET RESIGNS HIS SEE TO THE POPE.
135
of the archbishop. The king sent another embassage
to Pope Alexander. The ambassadors sent on this mes-
sage were Roger archbishop of York, Gilbert bishop of
London, Henry bishop of Winchester, Hilary bishop of
Chichester, Bartholomew bishop of Exeter ; with other
doctors and clerks ; also William Earl of Arundel, with
otlier lords and barons, who coming to the pope's court
were friendly received by some of the cardinals. Among
the cardinals there arose some dissension about the mat-
ter. Some judging that the bishop of Canterbury in
defence of the liberties of the church was to be main-
tained. Some thinking again, that he (being a dis-
turber of peace and unity) was rather to be bridled for
his presumption, than to be fostered and encouraged.
But the pope wholly inclined to Becket. Wherefore the
day following, the pope sitting in consistory with his
cardinals, the ambassadors were called for the hearing
of Becket's matter ; and first begins the bishop of Lon-
don ; next, the archbishop of York ; then Exeter ; and
the other bishops, every one in their order. Their ora-
tions were not well received by the pope, and some of
them were disliked. The earl of Arundel perceiving that,
began after this manner :
" Although it is unknown to me, who am both unlet
tered and ignorant, what it is that these bishops here
liave said, nor am I so able to express my mind in that
tongue as they have done ; yet being sent and charged
thereto by my prince, neither can nor ought I but to
declare (as well as I may) what is the cause of our send-
ing hither : not indeed to contend or strive with any
person, nor to offer any injury or harm to any man,
especially in this place, and in the presence here of such
an one to whose beck and authority all the world
stoops and yields. But for this time is our legation hi-
ther directed, to present here before you, and in the
presence of the whole church of Rome, the devotion
and love of our king and master, which he ever has had,
and yet has still towards you. And that the same might
the better appear to your excellency, he has assigned and
appointed to this legation, not the least, but the great-
est, not the worst, but the best and chiefest of all his
subjects ; both archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, with
other potentates more, of such worthiness and paren-
tage, that if he could have found greater in all his realm,
he would have sent them, both for the reverence of your
person, and of the holy church of Rome. Over and
beside this, I might add more (which your holiness has
sufficiently tried and proved already) the true and
hearty fidelity of this our king and sovereign toward
you (in his first entrance to his kingdom) wholly sub-
mitting himself, with all that is his besides, to your will
and pleasure. And truly, to testify of his majesty how
he is disposed to the unity of the catholic faith : we
believe there is none more faithful to Christ than he, nor
more devout to God, nor yet more moderate in keeping
the unity of peace whereto he is called. And as I may be
bold to protest this for our king and master, so neither do
I affirm the archbishop of Canterbury to be a man desti-
tute or unfurnished with gifts and qualities in his calling,
but to be a man both sage and discreet in such things as
appertain to him, save only that he seems to some more
quick and sharp than needs. This blot alone if it were
not, and if the breach between our king and him had
not so happened, both the authorities together (the
temporal and spiritual) might quietly have flourished
one with the other in much peace and concord, both
tinder a prince so worthy, and a pastor so virtuous.
Wherefore, the case so standing as it does, our mes-
sage hither, and our supplication to your vigilant pru-
dence is, that (through your favour ,ind wisdom) the
neck of this dissension may be broken, and that refor-
mation of unity and love (by some good means) may be
sought."
This oration of his, although it was liked for its soft-
ness and moderation, yet it did not persuade the Ro-
mish bishop to condescend to their request ; which was, to
have two legates or arbitrators to be sent into England,
to examine the controversy between the king and the
archbishop. But the pope would not grant their peti-
tion ; as it would be prejudicial and tending to the
oppression of the archbishop. And therefore he de-
sired them to wait his coming ; otherwise being absent,
he would not in any case proceed against him. But
they, alleging that their appointed time was expired,
said, " Thai they could not wait for the coming of
Becket, but must return back with their cause frustrated,
and without the pope's blessing to the king." Within
four days after, Becket comes to the pope's court, where
prostrating himself at his feet, he brought out of his
bosom a scroll containing the customs and ordinances
of the king. The pope receiving the scroll, and read-
ing it in the open hearing of his cardinals, condemned
and accursed the most part of the decrees of the king,
which he called "his grandfather's ordinances." Be-
sides this, the pope blamed Becket, for having so much
yielded at the beginning : yet, because he was repen-
tant, he was content to absolve him for tlie same, and that
the rather, because of his great troubles, which for the
liberties of holy church he had sustained, and so with
great favour dismissed him for that day.
The next day, Alexander the pope assembling his
cardinals together in his secret chamber, archbishop
Becket appears before them, making this oration to the
pope and his popelings, which here I thought to set out
in our English tongue, that posterity hereafter may un-
derstand either the vain superstition or vile slavery of
the churchmen in those days, who being not content
with their own natural prince and king given them by
God, must seek further to the pope.
The Oration of Becket resigning his bishoprick to the
Pope.
" Fathers and lords, I ought not to lie in any place,
much less before God and in your presence here. Where-
fore, with much sighing and sorrow of heart, I grant and
confess, that these troubles of the church of England
were raised through my miserable fault. For I entered
into the fold of Christ, but not by the door of Christ ;
for that the canonical election did not call me lawfully
thereunto, but terror of public power drove me in. And
although against my will I took this burden upon me,
yet not the will of God, but man's pleasure placed me
in that office. And therefore no wonder all things have
gone contrary and backward with me. And as for the
resigning it again, if I had so done, and given up to their
hands the privilege of my episcopal authority, which I had
granted to me at the command of the king (as my fellow
bishops did urgently call upon me to do), then had I
left a pernicious and dangerous example to the whole
catholic church. Therefore I thought good to defer that
to your presence. And now acknowledging my ingress
not to be canonical, and therefore fearing it to have the
worse end ; and again pondering my strength and ability
(as not sufficient for such a charge) lest I should be
found to hold that office to the ruin of the flock to whom
I was appointed an unworthy pastor, I here render up
to your fatherly hands the archbishopric of Canterbury,
&c." And so putting off his ring from his finger, and
offering it to the pope, he desired a bishop to be provided
for the church of Canterbury : seeing he thought not
himself meet to fulfil the same, and so (with tears, as
the history saith) he ended his oration.
This done, the archbishop was bid to stand aside, and
the pope conferred with his cardinals about the resigna-
tion of Becket, what was best to be done. Some thought
it best to take the opportunity offered, thinking that
thereby the king's wrath might easily be assuaged, if the
church of Canterbury were assigned to some other
person, and Becket otherwise provided for. Others
again thought otherwise, whose reason was, " If he (who
for the liberties of the church had ventured not only his
goods, dignity, and authority, but also his life) should
now at the king's pleasure be deprived, it might be a
precedent hereafter to others ; and so it might redound
not only to the weakening of the Catholic church, but
also to the derogation of the pope's authority. Briefly,
this sentence at length prevailed ; and so Becket receives
his pastoral office from the pope's hand again, with com-
mendation and much favour. But as he could not well
136
LETTER OF THE POPE TO KING HENRY. AN ANSWER TO THE POPE. [Book IV.
be placed in England, in the mean while the pope sends
him with a monk's habit into the abbey of Pontigny
in France, where he remained two years ; from thence
he removed to Senon, where he abode live years. So the
time of his exile continued seven years in all.
Upon this, the king being certified by his ambassadors
of the pope's answer, how his favour inclined more to
Becket than to him, was moved (and very naturally)
with displeasure ; and upon sailing from England unto
Normandy, he directed certain injunctions again,t the
pope and the archbishop of Canterbury.
These and other injunctions Becket partly specifies in a
letter, writing to a friend of his in this manner.
"Thomas archbishop of Canterbury, to his well be-
loved friend, &c. Be it known to your brotherly good-
ness that we, with all ours here (by God's grace) are safe
and in good health. Having a good hope and trust in
your faithful friendship, I charge you, and require you,
that either by the bringer hereof, or by some other
(whom ye know faithful and trusty to our church of Can-
terbury, and to us) you write with all speed what is done.
As to the king's decrees here set out, they are these :
• That all havens and ports should be diligently kept,
that no letters of the pope's interdict or curse be brought
in. And if any monks bring them in, they shall have
their feet cut off; if he be a priest or clerk, he shall
be mutilated ; if he be a layman, he shall be hanged ;
if he be a leper he shall be burned. And if any bi-
shop, for fear of the pope's interdict, will depart, let
him have nothing else besides his staff' only in his hand.
Also the king's will is, that all scholars and students
beyond the seas shall repair home, or else lose their be-
nefices. And if they shall remain still, they shall lose
the liberty of ever returning. Further, if any such priests
shall be found who for the pope's suspension or interdict
will refuse to officiate, they shall be mutilated. In short,
all such priests as shew themselves rebels to the king, let
them be deprived of their benefices," &c.
Besides these and such like injunctions, it was also set
forth by the king's proclamation (A. D. 1166.) That
all manner of persons, both men and women, whoever
were found of the kindred of Thomas Becket, should be
exiled, without taking any part of their goods with them,
and sent to him where he was, which was no little vexa-
tion to Becket to behold them. Moreover, as he was
then living with Gwarine, abbot of Pontigny, to whom
the pope had commended him, the king wrote to the
abbot, required him not to retain the archbishop of Can-
terbury in his house ; for if be did, he would drive out
of his realm all the monks of his order. Upon which
Becket was forced to remove, and went to Lewis the
French king, by whom he was placed at Senon, and there
remained for the space of five years.
In the meantime the pope writes to King Henry, to
exhort and charge him to shew favour to Thomas
Becket ; where, in the course of the epistle, are these
words : " Therefore we do desire, admonish, and exhort
your honour by these our apostolical writings, and also
enjoin you upon the remission of your sins, in the be-
half of Almighty God, and of St. Peter, prince of the
apostles, by our authority, that you will receive again
the aforesaid archbishop into your favour and grace, for
the honour of God, his church, and of your own realm,"
&c.
Thus have we heard the pope's intreating letter. Now
here is another letter sent to the king, wherein he
menaces him.
" Bishop Alexander, servant of the. servants of God, to
King Henry, king of England, health and blessing
apostolical,
" How fatherly and gently we have oft-times entreated
and exhorted, both by legates and letters, your j)rincely
honour, to be reconciled again with our reverend brother
Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, so that he and
his may be restored again to their churches and other
possessions to them appertaining, your wisdom is not
ignorant, seeing it is notified and spread almost through-
out all Christendom. Forsomuch, therefore, as hitherto
we could not prevail with you, neither move nor stir
your mind with fair and gentle words, it laments us not
a little, to be so frustrated and deceived in the hope and
expectation which we had conceived of you. Especially
seeing we love you so dearly, as our own dearly beloved
son in the Lord, and understand so great a jeopardy to
hang over you.
" But forsomuch as it is written, ' Cry out and cease
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and dtckre to my j.vo-
ple their wickedness, and to the house of J ;u:ui) their sins.'
Also forsomuch as it is in Solomon commanded, ' That
the sluggish person should be stoned with •the dung of
oxen,' we have thought good, therefore, not to forbear
or support your stubbornness any longer ai^ainst justice
and salvation : neither that the mouth of the arch-
bishop should be stopped from henceforth any more ; but
that he may freely prosecute the charge of his office and
duty, and revenge with the sword of ecclesiastical dis-
cipline, the injuries both of himself, and of his church
committed to his charge.
" And here I have sent unto you two legates, Peter de
ponte Uei, and Bernard de Corilio, to admonish you of
the same. But if ye will neither be advised by us, nor
give ear to tliem in obeying, it is to be feared, doubtless,
lest such things as they shall declare to you from us in
our behalf may happen and fall upon you. Dated at
Benevent, the ninth day before the kalends of June."
To answer these letters again, there was another writ-
ing drawn out and directed to the pope, made by some
of the clergy, as it seems ; but not without consent of
the king, as may appear by the title, inveighing against,
and disproving the misbehaviour of the archbishop.
The tenor whereof here follows, and begins :
An answer to the Pope,
" Time now requires more to seek help than to make
comjjlaints. For the holy mother church (our sins de-
serving the same), lies in a dangerous state of great
decay, which is like to ensue, unless the present mercy
of the Lord support her.
" Such is the wickedness now of schismatics, that the
father of fathers, Pope Alexander (for^ the defence of his
faith, and for the love of righteousness) is banished out
of his country ; not able to keep free residence in his
own proper see, by reason of the hardened heart of
Frederick the Pharaoh.
" The church also of Canterbury is miserably impaired
and blemished, as well in the spiritual as in the temporal
estate ; much like to the ship in the sea, being destitute
of her guide, tossed in the floods, and wrestling with the
winds, while the pastor being absent from his province,
dare not there remain thrcugh the power of the king ;
who, being over wise (to the jeopardy of himself, his
church, and us also), hath brought and entangled us
likewise with himself in the same partaking of his pu-
nishments and labours, not considering how we ought to
forbear, and not to resist superior powers. And also
he shews himself unkind to us, who with all our affec-
tions bear with him the burthen of his afflictions, not
ceasing yet to persecute us who stand in the same con-
demnation with him. For, betwixt him and our sove-
reign prince, the king of England, arose a certain matter
of contention, whereupon they were both agreed, that
a day should be appointed, to have the controversy
discussed by equity and justice.
" The day being come, the king commanded all the
archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the church
to be called in a solemn assembly ; so that the greater
and more general this council was, the more manifest
the detection of this stubborn malice should appear and |
be seen. j
" At the day therefore above mentioned, this troubler
of the realm and of the church, presents himself in the
sight of our catholic king ; and not trusting the quality
and condition of his cause, arms himself with the armour
of the cross, as one who should be brought to the pre-
sence of a tyrant. By reason of which the king's ma- j
jesty being somewhat aggrieved (yet because he would |
be delivered from all suspicion) commits the mattei to
A.D. 11G6.] LETTERS OF BECKET TO THE BISHOP OF NORWICH AND TO THE POPE. 137
the hearing; of the bishops. This done, it rests in the
bishops to decide and cease this contention, and to
set agreement between them, removing all occasion of
dissension. Which thing they going about, this arch-
bishop comes in, forbidding, and commanding that no
man should proceed in any sentence upon him before
the king.
" This being signified to the king, his mind was
grievously provoked to anger ; whose anger, notwith-
standing, had been easily assuaged, if the other would
have submitted himself, and acknowledged his default.
But he adding stubbornness to his trespass, through the
greatness of his excess was the autlior of his own punish-
ment, which now by the civil law he bears, and yet
shames to crave pardon for his deserts at the king's
hand ; whose anger he fears not to stir up, in such a
trouljlesome time of the persecution of the church, aug-
menting and increasing thereby the persecution which
the church now lies under. Much better it had been for
him to have tempered himself with the bridle of moder-
ation, in the highest estate of bis dignity, lest in exceed-
ing too far in straining the strict points of things by
overmuch presumption, peradventure through his pre-
sumption, being not in mean and tolerable things, he
might fall from higher. And if the detriment of the
church would not move him ; yet the great benefits and
preferments of riches and honours ought to persuade him
not to be so stubborn against the king. But here
peradventure his friend and our adversary will ob-
ject, that his bearing and submitting to the king in
this behalf were prejudicial against the authority of the
apostolical see. Although he did not, or might not
understand, that although the dignity of the church
should suffer a little detriment in that judgment ; yet he
might, and ought to have dissembled, for the time, to
obtain peace to the church. He will object again, al-
leging the name of father, that it sounds like a point of
arrogancy, for children to proceed in judgment of con-
demnation against the father, which thing is not conve-
nient. But he must understand again, that it was ne-
cessary that the obedience and humility of the children
Bhould temper the pride of the father, lest afterward the
hatred of the father miglit redound upon the children.
Wherefore by these premises you father may understand
that tlie action of this our adversary ought to fall down, as
void, and of none effect, who only under the influence of
malice has proceeded thus against us, having no just
cause nor reason to stand upon.
" And forsomuch as the care and charge of all
churches (as ye know) lies upon us, it stands upon us to
provide concerning the state of the church of Canter-
bury, by our diligence and circumspection : So that the
church of Canterbury, by the excesses of its pastor, be
not driven to ruin or decay."
By this epistle it may appear that Becket (being ab-
sent from England"! went about to work some trouble
against some of the clergy and the laity, in excommuni-
cating such as he took to be his evil willers.
Now to understand further what his working was, or
who they were whom he excommunicated, this letter,
sent to William bishop of Norwich, shall declare.
A Letter of Becket to the Bishop of Norwich.
" He binds himself to the penalty of the crime, who-
ever receiving power and authority of God, uses and
exercises not the same with due severity, in punishing
vice : but winking and dissembling, ministers boldness
to wicked doers, maintaining them in their sin. For
the blood of the wicked is required at the hand of the
priest, who is negligent or dissembles. And as the
scripture saith, • Thorns and brambles grow in the
hands of the idle drunkard.' Wherefore, lest (through
our too much sufferance and dissembling) the trans-
gressions of manifest evil-doers should also be laid to
our charge, and redound to the destruction of the church
through our guilty silence ; we therefore following the
duthority of the pope's commandment, have laid our
sentence of curse and excommunication upon the Earl
Hugo : commanding you throughout all your diocese
pubhcly to denounce the said earl a« accursed, so that,
according to the discipline of the church, he be seques-
tered from the fellowship of all faithful people. Also, it
is not unknown to your brotlierhood, how long we have
born with the transgressions of the bishop of London ;
who, amongst other acts, I would to God were not a
great doer, and favourer of this schism, and subverter of
the rites and liberties of holy church. Wherefore we,
being supported with the authority of the apostolic see,
have also excommunicated him. Besides, also the
bishop of Salisbury, because of his disobedience and
contempt : and others likewise, upon divers and sundry
causes, whose names here follow subscribed : — Hugo
Bernard's son, Rodulph de Brock, Robert de Brock a
clerk, Hugo de St. Clare, and Letardus a clerk of Nor-
folk, Nigellus of Scacavil, and Richard Chaplin, William
of Hasting, and the friar who possesses my church of
Monchot. We therefore charge and command you by
the authority apostolical and ours, and on the virtue of
your obedience, and on the peril of salvation, and of
your order ; that ye cause these openly to be proclaimed
excommunicate, throughout all your diocese, and to
command all the faithful to avoid their company. Fare
ye well in the Lord. Let not your heart be troubled,
nor fear : for we stand sure through the assistance of the
apostohc see, God being our support against the shifts
of the malignant sort, and against all their appeals.
Furthermore, all such as have been solemnly cited by us
shall sustain the like sentence of excommunication, if
God wiU, on ascension-day : unless they shall otherwise
agree with me. That is, to wit, Geoffrey archdeacon of
Canterbury, and Robert his vicar, Rice of Wilcester,
Richard de Lucy, M'illiam Giffard, Adam of Cherings,
with others : who, either at the command of the king, or
upon their own temerity, have invaded the goods and
possessions either appertaining to us, or to our clerks
about us. With these also we do excommunicate all
such as are known, either with aid or council, to have
incensed or set forward the proceeding of our king
against the liberties of the church, and exiling of the in-
nocents. And such also as are known to impeach o'
hinder by any manner of way the messengers (sent
either from the pope, or from us) for the necessities of
the church. Fare you well again, and ever."
Hitherto the reader has seen divers and sundry
letters of Thomas Becket, whereby we may collect a
sufficient history of his doings and demeanor, though
nothing else were said further of liim, concerning
his lusty and haughty spirit, about that which be-
seemed either his degree or cause which he took in
hand. And here perhaps I may seem to tarry too
long in the history of this one man, having to write of
so many others better than he, yet for the weaker sort,
who have counted him, and yet do count him for a saint,
having in themselves little understanding to judge or
discern in the causes of men, I thought to add this
letter more, wherein he complains of his king to a
foreign power ; doing all in his power to stir up for his
own cause mortal war to the destruction of many. For
suppose wrong had been offered him by his prince, was
it not enough for him to fly ? What cause had he, for
his own private revenge, to set potentates in public dis-
cord ? Now, having no just cause, but rather offering
injury in a false quarrel, so to complain of his prince ;
what is to be said of this, let every man judge who sees
this letter.
An Epistle of Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury to
Pope Alexander.
" To our most loved father and lord, Alexander, by
the grace of God bishop, Thomas the humble minister
and servant of the church of Canterbury due and reve-
rend obedience. Long enough and too long most loving
father have I forborne, still looking after the amendment
of the king of England, but no fruit have I reaped of
this my long patience : nay rather, whilst unwisely I do
thus forbear, I augment and procure the detriment and
diminishing of mine authority, as also of the church of
God : for oftentimes have I by devout and religious mea-
138
LETPER OF THE SUFFRAGANS OF CANTERBURY TO BECKET.
[Book IV.
sengers invited him to make condign satisfaction, as also
by my letters (the copies whereof I have sent you) inti-
mated and pronounced God's severity and vengeance
against him, unless he repent and amend. But he, not-
withstanding that, grows from evil to worse, oppressing
and crushing the church and sanctuary of God ; perse-
cuting both me and those who take part with me : so
that with fearful and threatening words his purpose is to
terrify such, as (for God's cause and mine own) seek
any way to relieve and help me. He wrote also letters
to the abbot of the Cistercian order. That as he valued
the abbacy of his order (which he said was in his power)
he should not receive me into the fellowship thereof, nor
do any thing else for me. Why should 1 use many
words ? So much has the rigour and severity as well of
the king as of his officers, under our patience and suffer-
ance, shewed itself; that if a great number of men, yea,
and that of the most religious sort, should shew to you
the matter as it is indeed, I partly doubt whether your
holiness would give credit to them or not. With heavi-
ness of mind therefore considering these things, and be-
holding as well the peril of the king as of ourself, I have
publicly condemned not only those pernicious customs,
but all those perversities and wicked doings whereby the
church of England is disturbed and brought to confu-
sion ; as also the writing whereby they were confirmed ;
excommunicating generally as well the observers and
exacters thereof, as also the inventers and patrons of the
same, with their favourers, counsellors, and coadjutors
whatever, either of the clergy or laity, absolving also
our bishops from their oath, whereby they were so
strictly enjoined to the observation of the same. These
are the articles which in that writing I have principally
condemned, first, That it is inhibited to appeal to the
see apostolical for any cause, but by the king's licence.
That a bishop may not punish any man for perjury, or
for breaking of his troth. That a bishop may not ex-
communicate any man that holds of the king in cajnte,
or else interdict either their lands or offices without the
king's licence. That clerks and religious men may be
taken from us to secular judgment. That the king or
any other judge may hear and decide the causes of the
church and tithes. That it shall not be lawful for any
archbishop or bishop to go out of the realm, and to
come at the pope's call without the king's licence ;
and divers others such as these. I have also ex-
communicated John of Oxford, who has communicated
with that schismatic and excommunicate person (Regi-
nald Coloniensis) who also, contrary to the command-
ment of the lord pope and ours, hath usurped the
deanery of the church of Salisbury, and has (to renew
his schism) taken an oath in the emperor's court. Also
I have denounced and excommunicated Richard of Wor-
cester, because he is fallen into the same damnable
heresy, and communicated with that famous schismatic
of Cologne ; devising and foregoing all mischief possible,
with the schismatics and Flemings, to the destruction of
the church of God, and especially of the church of
Rome, by composition made between the king of Eng-
>and and them. Also Richard de Lucy, and Jocelin de
Baliol, who have assisted the favourers of the king's
tyranny and workers of their heresies. Also Rodulph de
Brock, and Hugo de St. Clare, and Thomas the son
of Bernard, who have usurped the possessions and goods
of tlie church of Canterbury without our licence and
consent. We have also excommunicated all those, who
without our licence stretch out their hands to the pos-
sessions and goods of the church of Canterbury. The
king himself we have not yet excommunicated per-
sonally, still waiting for his amendment : whom (not-
withstanding) we will not defer to excommunicate, un-
less he quickly amend, and be warned by what he has
done. And therefore that the authority of the see apos-
tolic, and the liberty of the church of God, which in
these parts are almost utterly lost, may be by some
means restored, it is meet and very necessary that what
we have herein done should be ratified by your holi-
ness, and confirmed by your letters. Thus I wish your
holiness long to prosper and flourish,"
By this epistle, he that wishes to understand the
doings of Becket, may partly judge what is to be thought
of them. Although in some part they may be imputed
either to ignorance of mind, or blindness of zeal, or
human frailty ; yet in this point, so vilely to complain
of his natural prince, he can by no wise be defended.
But such was the blindness of the prelates in those days,
who measured and esteemed the dignity and liberties of
Christ's church by nothing but by the goods and pos-
sessions flowing and abounding in the clergy ; and
thought no greater point of religion to be in the church,
than to maintain the same. For whicVi cause they most
abominably abused christian discipline and the excommu-
nication of the church. And what wonder if the acts and
doings of this archbishop seem now to us in tliese dajs
both fond and strange : when the suffragans of his own
church and clergy, writing to him, could not but repre-
hend him, as may be seen in this their epistle.
An effecfual and pithy Letter, full of reason and persua-
sion, sent from all the Svffrayans of the Church of
Canterbury to Thomas Becket their Archbishop.
" Such troubles and perturbations as happened
through the strangeness of your departure out of the
realm, we hoped by your humility and prudence should
have been reduced again (God's grace working withal)
into a peaceable tranquillity. And it was no little joy to
us, to hear so of you in those parts where you are con-
versant, how humbly you there behaved yourself, nothing
vaunting yourself against your prince and king, and that
you attempt no risings or wrestlings against his king-
dom, but that you bear with much patience the burthen
of poverty, and gave yourself to reading and prayer,
and to redeem the loss of your time spent, with fasting,
watchings, and tears ; and so, being occupied with
spiritual studies, to tend and rise up to the perfection of
virtue, &c. But now, through the secret relation of
some, we hear (what we are sorry for) that you have
sent to him a threatening letter, wherein there is no salu-
tation premised. In which also ye pretend no intreat-
ing nor prayers for the obtaining of favour, nor use any
friendly manner in declaring what you write, but menac-
ing with much austerity, threaten to interdict him, and
to cut him froni the society of the church. W'hich
thing if you shall accomplish with like severity, as in
words ye threaten to do, you shall not only put us out
of all hope of any peace, but also put us in fear of hatred
and discord without measure, and without all redress
amongst us. But wisdom will consider before the end
of things, labouring and endeavouring to finish that
which she wisely begins. Therefore your discretion
shall do well diligently to forecast and consider whereto
ye tend ; what end may ensue thereof, and whereabout
ye go. Certainly we, for our parts, hearing what we do
hear, are discouraged from what we hoped for, who,
previously having some good comfort of tranquillity to
come, are cast from hope to despair : so that while one
is drawn thus against another, there is scarcely any hope
or place left to make entreaty or supplication. Where-
fore, writing to your fatherhood, we exhort and counsel
you by way of charity. That you add not trouble to
trouble, nor heap injury upon injury: but that you so be-
have yourself, that all menaces set aside, you rather give
yourself to patience and humility, and to yield your
cause to the clemency of God, and to the mercy of your
prince ; and in so doing you shall heap coals of charity
upon the heads of many. Thus charity shall be kindled,
and that which menacings cannot do (by God's help and
good men's counsel) perad venture pity and godliness
shall obtain. It were better to sustain poverty with
praise, than in great promotions to be a common note
to all men. It is right well known unto all men, how
kind the king has been to you, from what baseness to
what dignity he has advanced you, and also into his own
familiarity has so much preferred you, that from the
northern ocean to the Pyrinean mountains, he has sub-
dued all things to your authority : in so much that they
were among all others accounted for fortunate men, who-
ever could find any favour with you.
A. D. linfi— 1169.
LETTER OF THE EMPRESS MATILDA TO BECKET.
139
" And, furthermore, lest your estimation should be
over matched by any nobility, he (against the mind of
j his mother, and of his realm) has placed and ratified you
I substantially in ecclesiastical dignity, and advanced you
I to this honour wherein ye stand : trusting through your
help and counsel to reign more safely and prosperously.
1 Now, if he shall find disquietness, wherein he trusted to
I have quietness, what shall all men say or think of you ?
M'hut recompence or retribution shall this be thought to
j be for so many and great benefits received ? Therefore
: (if it shall please you) ye shall do well to favour and
! spare your fame and estimation, and to overcome your
I lord and sovereign with humility and charity. Whereto
j if our advice cannot move you ; yet the love and fidelity
you bear to the bishop and holy church of Rome ought
to incline you not to attempt any such thing, where-
by the troubles of the church our mother may in-
crease, or whereby her sorrow may be augmented in the
loss of them, whose disobedience she now bewails : for
•what if it so happen through provocation, tliat the king
(whom all his subjects and kingdoms obey) should re-
linquish the pope, which God forbid, and should deny
all obedience to him, as he denies to the king help or aid
against you ? what inconvenience would grow thereof ?
And think you, he hath not great instigations, supplica-
tions, gifts, and many fair promises so to do ? Yet he
(notwithstanding) abides firm hitherto, in the rock, de-
spising with a valiant mind all that the world can offer.
This one thing we fear, lest his mind (whom no worldly
offers can assail, no glory, riches, nor treasure can over-
turn) only through indignation of unkindness be sub-
verted. Which thing if it chance to happen through
you, then may y^ou sit down and sing the song of the
Lamentation of Jeremiah, and weep your full.
" Consider therefore, if it please you, and foresee well
with yourself, this purpose of yours, if it proceed, how
hurtful and perilous it will be ; not only to the pope,
and to the holy church of Rome, but also to yourself
most especially. But some perad venture about you, of
haughty and high minded stoutness, more stout than wise,
will not suffer you to take this way, but will give yon con-
trary counsel, rather to prove and declare what you are
able to do against your lord and prince, and to practise
against him and all his the utmost of your power and au-
thority, which power and authority of yours, to him that
offends is fearful ; and to him that will not amend, terri-
ble. Such counsel as this, some peradventure will whis-
per in your ear. But to these again, we say this, and
answer for our king, whom notwithstanding we do not
affirm to be without fault ; but yet we speak confidently
and protest in his behalf, that he is always ready to amend
and make satisfaction.
" The king, appointed as the Lord's anointed, pro-
vides for the peace of his subjects all that he is able : and
therefore to the intent that he may preserve this peace in
his churches and among his subjects committed to him, he
wills and requires such ordinances as are due to the kings,
and were exhibited before time to them to be exhibited to
him also. Wherein if there has any contradiction sprung
between him and us, he being admonished from the pope
by the reverend bishops of London and Hereford, burst
not out into any defiance, but meekly and humbly an-
swered, that wherein soever the church or any ecclesias-
tical person can shew himself grieved he would therein
stand to the judgment of the church of his kingdom.
Which also he is ready no less to perform, thinking no-
thing more sweet unto him than to be admonished of his
fault, if he have offended the Lord, and to reform the same ;
and not only to reform and amend his fault, but also to
satisfy it to the utmost, it the law shall so require him.
W^herefore, seeing he is so willing to recompense and sa-
tisfy the judgment of the church in all things appertain-
ing to the church ; refusing no order that shall be taken,
but in all things submitting his neck to the yoke of Christ :
with what right, by what canon, or reason can you inter-
dict him, or use excommunication against him ? It is a
thing laudable and a virtue of great commendation in wise
men, wisely to go with judgment and reason, and not to
be carried with puffs of hasty violence. Whereupon this
u the oidy and common petition of us all, that your fa-
therly care will diligently provide for your flock and sheep
committed to you, so that they miscarry not, or run to
any ruin through any inconsiderate or too much heady
counsel in you : but rather that through your softness
and sufferance, they may obtain life, peace and security.
It doth move us all, what we hear of late to be done by
you against the bishop of Salisbury, and the dean of the
same church, prosperously, as some men suppose ; against
whom you have given out the sentence of excommunica-
tion and condemnation, before there was any question of
their crime ; following therein, as seems, more the heat of
hastiness than the path of righteousness. This is a new
order of judgment, unheard of yet to this day in our laws
and canons, first to condemn a man, and after to inquire
of the fact committed. Which order lest you should
hereafter attempt to exercise in like manner against our
sovereign and king, or against us and our churches, and
parishes committed to us, to the detriment of the pope,
and the holy church of Rome, and to the no little con-
fusion of us all ; therefore we lay here against you, for
ourselves, the remedy of appeal. And, as before, openly
in the public face of the church with lively voice we ap-
pealed to the Pope for certain perils that might have hap-
pened : so now again in writing we appeal to the same,
assigning as the term of our appeal the day of the Lord's
ascension. Most humbly and reverently beseeching your
goodness, that you, taking a better way with you in this
matter, will let your cause fall, sparing herein both the
labours and charges, as well of yourself, as ours also.
And thus we wish you right well to fare, reverend in the
Lord."
The Letter of Matilda the Empress, and Mother of the
King, to Thomas Becket.
" My Lord the Pope commanded me, and upon the
forgiveness of my sins enjoined me, that I should be a
mediator and means of peace and concord between my
son and you, by reconciling of yourself to him, whereunto
(as you know) you requested me. Wherefore the earnester
and with more affection (as well for the divine honour as
for holy church) I took the enterprise upon me. But
this by the way, I assure you, that the king, his barons,
and council, take it grievously, that you, whom he en-
tirely loved, honoured and madechiefest in all this realm
to the intent to have more comfort and better trust in
you, should thus (as the report is) rebel, and stir his peo-
ple against him. Yea and further, that as much as in you
lies, you went about to disinherit him, and deprive him
of his crown. Upon the occasion whereof, I sent to you
our trusty and familiar servant Lawrence archdeacon, by
whom I pray you that I may understand your mind here-
in, and good will toward my son, and how you mean to
behave yourself (if my prayer and petition may be heard
by him in your behalf) toward his Grace. But this one
thing I assure you of, that unless it be through your great
humility and moderation, evidently appearing in you, you
cannot obtain the favour of the king. Herein what you
mean to do, I pray you send me word by your proper
letters and messengers."
But to proceed further in the order of the history.
After these letters sent to and fro (A- D. 1169),
which was the fifteenth year of the reign of King
Henry II. the king doubting and fearing with him-
self, that the archbishop would proceed in his excommu-
nication against his person, made his appeal to the pre-
sence of the pope, requiring to have certain legates sent
down from Rome, to take up the matter between the
archbishop and him ; requiring moreover that they might
also be absolved that were interdicted. Whereupon two
cardinals, being sent from Alexander the Pope with let-
ters to the king, came to Normandy : where they ap-
pointed the archbishop to meet them before the king
upon St. Martin's day. But the archbishop, neither
agreeing with the day nor the place, delayed his coming
till the eighth day after, neither would go any further
than to Grisortium. where the two cardinals and arch-
bishop, with other bishops meeting together, had a treaty
of peace and reconciliation, but it came to no conclusion.
140
LETTER OF TWO CARDINALS TO THE POPE, CONCERNING BECKET. [Book IV,
The contents of which treaty or action, because it is suf-
ficiently contained in the cardiiial's letters, who were
called William and Otho, written to the pope, it requires
no further labour, than to give the letter itself, as follows.
The copy of the Epistle written and sent ly two Cardi-
nah to the Pope, concerning the matter of the Arch-
bishop Becket.
" William and Otho, cardinals of the church of Rome
to Alexander the Pope, &c. Coming to the land of the
king of England, we found the controversy betwixt him
and the archbishop of Canterbury more sharp and vehe-
ment than we would. For the king, and the greater part
of them about him, said, that the archbishop had stirred
lip the French king, grievously against him ; and also the
earl of Flanders his kinsman (wlio bare no displeasure to
him before) he made his open adversary, ready to war
against him, as is by divers evidences most certain.
Thus when we came to Cadomus, into the king's pre-
sence, we gave the letters of your fatherhood to his
hands, which after that he had received and considered
(bringing forth other letters received from you before,
something different and altering from these which he re-
ceived of us) he was moved with no little indignation ;
saying, that after our departure from you, the archbishop
had received of you other contrary letters, by the virtue
whereof he was exempted from our judgment, so that he
should not be compelled to answer us. Moreover, the
king affirmed to us, and so did the bishops there present,
testify the same, that concerning the old and ancient
customs of his progenitors (whereof complaint was made
to you) all that for the most part was false and untrue
which was intimated to you ; offering further to us, that
if there were any such customs or laws in his time, that
seemed prejudicial or disagreeable to the statutes of the
church, he would willingly be content to revoke and dis-
annul the same. Whereupon we with other archbishops,
bishops and abbots of the land hearing the king so rea-
sonable, laboured by all the means we might, that the
king should not utterly break from us, but rather should
incline to us to have the matter brought before us between
Lim and the forenamed archbishop. By reason whereof,
we directed our chaplains with letters to the archbishop,
appointing him both time and place where he might safely
meet with us in the feast of St. Martin. Nevertheless
he, pretending certain excuses, made delays, putting off
the time from the day of St. Martin to the eighth day
following, which stirred the king's heart more than is to
be thought.
" Thus although we offered to the archbishop safe con-
duct, yet when he refused to meet us in the borders of
the king, we, to satisfy his mind, condescended to meet
him within the land of the French king, in the place
where he himself appointed, because there should be no
hinderance in us, whereby to stop his profit. After we
had entered communication, we began to exhort him, all
that we could, to submit and humble himself to his sove-
reign and king, who had heaped him with such benefits
and dignities. He, being thus moved and exhorted by
us, departed aside to consult with his council upon
the matter. At length after counsel taken, he comes
again, answering in this manner : that he would submit
and humble himself to the king, ' Saving the honour of
God, and liberty of the church, saving also the honesty
of his person, and possessions of churches ; and more-
over, saving the justice of him and of all his in all things, '
&c. After which communication, we moved and required
him more urgently, that he would come to the special-
ties. Likewise we demanded of him, if he would stand
and submit himself to our letters, if the king and the
bishops were contented to do ."^o. To which he said, ' That
he had received from you a commandment, not to answer
until he and all his were restored fully to all their pos-
sessions ; and then he would proceed in the matter, accord-
ing as he should receive commandment from the see
apostolical.'
" Thus we breaking off communication, seeing that he
neither would stand to j'ulginent, nor come to confor-
■aity, thought to make relation thereof to the king, and
so did : declaring that which he had expressed to us ;
yet not uttering all, but keeping back a great part of that
which we had heard and seen. Which when the king and his
nobles had understanding of, he affirmed to us again ;
that he therein was cleared so much the more, for that
the archbishop would not stand to their judgment, nor
abide their trial. After much heaviness and lamentation
of the king, the archbishop, bishops, and abbots of the realm
requiring of us, whether we had any such power, by virtue
of our commission, to withstand him and proceed against
him ; and perceiving that our authority would not serve
thereto, and fearing lest the archbishop, refusing all order
of judgment, would work again disquietness to some
noble personages of the realm : and seeing our authority
could not extend so far as to help them against him, they
holding consultation among themselves agreed with one
consent, to make their appeal to your audience, prefix-
ing accordingly the term of their appeal."
By this epistle of these two cardinals sent to the
pope, may sufficiently appear all the discourse and
manner of that assembly concerning the confidence be-
tween the cardinals and the archbishop. When William,
who was the more eloquent of the two cardinals, had rea-
soned long with him asconcerning the peace of the church :
which Becket said he preferred above all things. "Well
then," said the cardinal, " seeing all this contention
between the king and you rises upon certain laws and
customs to be abrogated, and that you regard the peace
of the church so much : then what say you ? Will you
renounce your bishoprick, and the king will renounce his
customs ? The peace of the church now lies in your
hands, either to retain or to let go ; what say you :" To
whom he answereth again, " That the proportion was not
hke. For I," saith he, " (saving the honour of my
church and my person) cannot renounce my bishopric. On
the other hand, it becomes the king for his soul's health
and honour to renounce these his ordinances and customs."
Which thing he thus proved ; because the pope had con-
demned those customs, and he likewise with the church
of Rome had done the same, &c.
After the cardinals were returned, the French king
seeing the king of England disquieted and solicitous to
have peace (or at least pretending to set an agreement
between them) brought the matter to a communication
among them. In which communication the French king
made himself as umpire between them. The king of
England, hearing that the archbishop would commit him-
self to his arbitration, was the more willing to admit his
presence. Whereupon, many being there present, the
archbishop, prostrating himself at the king's feet, de-
clared to him kneeling upon his knees, that he would
commit the whole cause, whereof the dissension rose
between them, unto his own arbitration ; adding (as he
did before) " Saving the honour of God." The king (as
is said before) being greatly offended at this word, hear-
ing and seeing the stiffness of the man sticking so much
to this word, was highly displeased, rebuking him with
many grievous words, as a man proud and stubborn, and
also charging him with sundry and great benefits be-
stowed upon him, as a person ungrateful, and forget-
ing what he had so gently done and bestowed upon him.
And speaking to the French king there present : " See,
sir, if it please you," saith the king of England, " what-
soever displeases this man, he calls it contrary to the
honour of God. And so by this means he will vindicate
and challenge to himself both what is his and what is
mine also. And yet as 1 will not do anything contrary or
prejudicial to God's honour, this I offer him : there have
been kings in England before, both of greater and less
puissance than I am ; likewise there have been bishops
of Canterbury many both great and holy men : what the
greatest and most holy of all his predecessors before
him has done to the least of my progenitors and predeces-
sors,let him do thesame to me and I am content." Thejr
that stood by, hearing these words of the king, crifd all
with one voice, " The king hath debased hinistlf enough
to tlie bishop." The archbishop made no answer, but
kept silence, "What," saith the French king to him,
" my lord archbishop, will you be better than those holy
men .' Will ye be greater than Peter . What stand you
A. D. 1169— 1170.] DISSIMULATION OF LOUIS. BECKET RETURNS TO ENGLAND.
141
doubting ? Here now you have peace and quietness placed
in your o.vn hands, if ye will take it." To this the arch-
bishop answered again. "Truth it is," saithhe, '• my pre-
decessors were both much better and greater than I, and
every one of them for tiis time, although he did not
extirpate all, yet did pluck up and correct somewhat
which seemed adverse and repugnant to God's honour.
For if they had taken all together away, no such occasion
then had been left for any man to raise up this fiery trial
now against us ; that we, being so proved with them,
might also be crowned with them, being likewise par-
takers of praise and reward, as we are of their labour and
travel. And though some of them have been slack, or
exceeded in their duty, we are not bound in that to follow
their example. When Peter denied Christ, we rebuke
him ; but when he resisted the rage of Nero, therein we
commend him. And therefore because he could not find
in his conscience to consent to what he ought in no wise
to dissemble, neither did he ; by reason thereof he lost
his life. By such like oppressions the church has always
grown. Our fore-fathers and predecessors, because they
would not dissemble the name and honour of Chiist,
therefore they suffered. And shall I, to have the favour
of one man, suffer thehonour of Christtobe suppressed ?"
The nobles standing by, hearing him thus speak, were
greatly grieved with him, noting in him both arrogancy
and wilfulness, in perturbing and refusing such an honest
offer of agreement. But specially one amongst the rest
was most grieved, who there openly protested, that seeing
the archbishop so refused the counsel and the request of
both of the kingdoms, he was not worthy to have the help
of either of them ; but as the kingdom of England had
rejected him, so the realm of France should not receive
him.
Alan, Herbert, and another of his chaplains that com-
mitted to history the doings of Becket, record (whether
truly or no I cannot say), that the French king sending
for him, as one much sorrowing and lamenting the words
that he had spoken, at the coming of Becket did pro-
strate himself at his feet, confessing his fault, in giving
counsel to him in such a cause (pertaining to the honour
of God) to relent therein and to yield to the pletusure of
man : wherefore, declaring his repentance, he desired to
be absolved thereof. So that after this, the French king
and Becket were great friends together ; insomuch that
King Henry sending to the king to intreat him, and de-
sire him that he would not support nor maintain his
enemy within his realm, the French king utterly denied
the king's request, taking part rather with the archbishop
than with him.
Besides these quarrels and grudges betwixt the king
and the archbishop above mentioned, there followed yet
another, which was this : shortly after this communica-
tion between the king and Becket, the king of England re-
turning again from Normandy into England (A. D. 1170,
and the sixteenth year of his reign), kept his court of par-
liament at Westminster ; in which parliament he (through
the assent both of the clergy and the lords temporal) caused
his son Henry to be crowned king. Which coronation
was done by the hands of Robert archbishop of York,
with the assistance of other bishops administering to the
game, as Gilbert of London, Jocelin of Salisbury, Hugo
of Durham, and Walter of Rochester. By reason of
which Racket of Canterbury, being neither mentio.ied
nor ciUed for, took no little displeasure ; and so did
Louis the French king, hearing that Margaret his daughter
was not crowned with her husband : whereupon gather-
ing a great army, he forthwith marched into Normandy.
But the matter was soon composed by the king of Eng-
land, who sending his son to him in Normandy, there en-
treated and concluded peace with him, promising that his
son should be crowned again, and then his daughter
should be crowned also. But the archbishop not ceasing
his displeasure and emulation, sent to the pope, com-
plaining of these four bishops, especially of the archbishop
of York ; who durst be so bold in his absence, and with-
out his licence, to crown the king, being a matter proper
and peculiar to his jurisdiction. At this request, the pope
•ent down the sentence of eicommunication against the
bishop of London. The other three bishops with the arch-
bishop of York he suspended.
This being done, the archbishop of York with the other
bishops resorted to the king with a grievous comjjlaint,
declaring how miserably their case stood, and what they
had sustained for fulfilling his commandment. The king,
hearing this, was highly moved, as no marvel was. But
what remedy ? The time of tlie ruin of the pope was
not yet come ; and what prince then could withstand the
injurious violence of that Romish potentate ?
In the mean time the French king with his clergy and
courtiers lost no occasion to excite and solicit Alexander
the pope against the king of England to excommunicate
him also : thinking to have some advantage against the
realm. Nor was the king ignorant of this, which made
him more ready for reconciliation. At length came down
from the pope two legates, the archbishop of Rothomage
and the bishop of Navern, with the direction and full
commission either to drive the king to be reconciled, or
to be interdicted by the pope's censures out of the
church. The king understanding himself to be in greater
straits ihan he could avoid, at length through the medi-
ation of the French king and of other prelates and great
princes, was content to yield to peace and reconciliation
with the archbishop, whom he both received to his favour,
and also permitted and granted him free return to his
church again. Concerning his possessions and lands of
the church of Canterbury, although Becket made great
labour there for, yet the king (being then in Normandy)
would not grant him them, before he should repair to Eng-
land to see how he would there agree with his subjects.
Thus a sort of pea^e being concluded between the king
and him, the archbishop, after six years banishment, re-
turned to England, where he was right joyfully received by
the church of Canterbury ; although by Henry the young
king, he was not so greatly welcomed. So that coming up
to London to the king, he was sent back to Canterbury,
and there bid to keep his house. Roger Hoveden makes
mention in his chronicle, that the archbishop (upon
Christmas-day) excommunicated Robert de Brock for
cutting off the tail of a certain horse of his the day before.
In the mean time the four bishops before mentioned,
whom the archbishop excommunicated, sent to him,
humbly desiring to be released of their censure. To whom
when the archbishop would not grant clearly and simply
without cautions and exceptions, they went over to the
king, declaring to him and complaining of their misera-
ble state and uncourteous handling by the archbishop.
Whereupon the king conceived great sorrow in his mind,
and displeasure toward the party. Insomuch ihat he
lamented to them about him, (amongst so many that he
had done for) there was none that would revenge him of
his enemy. By occasion of which words, certain that were
about the king (to the number of four) hearing him tlms
complain and lament, addressed themselves in great heat
of haste to satisfy the grieved mind and quarrel of their
prince: who within four days after Christmas-day, sail-
ing over into England, came to Canterbury, where Becket
was commanded to keep. After certain consultations
among themselves, they pressed at length into the palace
where the archbishop was setting with his company about
him : first to try him with words, to see whether he would
relent to the king's mind, and come to some conformity.
They brought to him, they said, commandment from the
king, and bid him choose whether he had rather openly
there in presence, or secretly receive it. Then the com-
pany being desired to leave, as he sat alone, they said,
" You are commanded from the king beyond the sea, to
repair to the king's son here, and to do your duty to him,
swearing to him your fidelity for your barony and other
things, and to amend those things wherein you have tres-
passed against h'm." Whereupon the archbishop refus-
ing to swear, and perceiving their intent, called in his
company again, and in multiplying of words to and fro,
at length they came to the bishops who were excommu-
nicate for the coronation of the king, whom they com-
manded in the king's name he should absolve and set
free again. ■ The archbishop answered, " That he neither
supended nor excommunicated them, but the pope ; where-
142
BECKET SLAIN AT CANTERBURY BY FOUR SOLDIERS.
[Book IV
fore, if that were the matter that grieved them, they
should resort to the pope, he had nothing to do with the
matter."
Then said Reginald one of the four ; " although you
in your own person did not excommunicate them, yet
through your instigation it was done." To whom the
archbishop said again, " and if the pope (said he) tender-
ing the injuries done to me and my church, wrought this
revenge for me, I confess it offends me nothing." " Thus
then (said they) it appears well by your own words, that
it pleases you right well (in contempt and contumely oi
the king's majesty) to sequestrate his bishops from their
ministry, who at the commandment of the king did ser-
vice in the coronation of his son. And seeing you have
so presumed tlius to stand against the exaltation of this
our sovereign, our new king, it seems likely that you
asjiired to take his crown from him, and to be exalted
king yourself." " I aspire not (said he) to the crown and
name of the king, but rather if I had four crowns (to
give him more), I would set them all upon him ; such
good will I do bear him, that only his father the king
excepted, there is none, whose honour I more tender and
love. And as concerning the sequestrating of those bi-
shops, this I give you to understand, that nothing was
done in that behalf without the knowledge and assent of
the king himself ; to whom when I had made my com-
plaint at the feast of Mary Magdalene, of the wrong and
injury done to me and my church therein; he gave me
his good leave to obtain at the pope's hand such remedy
as I could, promising moreover his help to me in the
same." " What is this," quoth they, " that thou sayest?
Makest thou the king a traitor, and a betrayer of the
king his own son ? that when he had commanded the bi-
shops to crown his son, he would give thee leave afterward
to sus|)end them for so doing ? Certainly, it had been
better for you not to have accused so the king of this
treachery." The archbishop said to Reginald, that he
was there present at that time, and heard it himself. But
that he denied, and swore it was not so. " And think
you (said they) that we the king's subjects will or ought
to suffer this ?" And so approaching near him, they
said he had spoken enough against his own head ; where-
ujion followed great exclamation and many threatening
words. Then said the archbishop, " I have since my
coming over sustained many injuries and rebukes, con-
cerning both myself, my men, my cattle, my wines, and
all other goods ; notwithstanding the king, writing over
to his son, required him that I should live in safety and
peace, and now, beside all others, you come hither to
threaten me." To this Reginald answering again, said,
" If there be any that works you any injury otherwise
than is right, the law is open, why do you not complain ?"
" To whom, (said Becket,) should I complain ?" " To the
young king," said they. Then said Becket, " I have
complained enough if that would help, and have sought
for remedy at the king's hands, so long as I could he suf-
fered to come to his speech ; but now seeing that I am
stopt from that neither can find redress of so great vexa-
tions and injuries as I have and do daily sustain, nor can
have the benefit of the law or reason ; such right and law,
as an archbishop may have, that will I exercise and will
be hindered for no man." At these words one of them,
bursting out in exclamation, cried, " He threatens, he
threatens. What ? will he interdict the whole realm and
us altogether ?" " Nay, that he shall not, (saith another,)
he has interdicted too many already." And drawing more
near to him, they protested and denounced him to have
spoken words to the jeopardy of his own head. And so
departing in great fury and with many high words, they
rushed out of the doors ; but returning to the monks,
charged them in the king's name, to keep him forth-
coming, that he should not escape away. " What," quoth
the archbishop, " think ye, I will flee away ? Nay, nei-
ther for the king, nor any man alive, will I stir one foot
from you." " No, (say they,) thou shalt not leave, though
thou wouldst." And so they departed, the archbishop fol-
lowing them out of the chamber door, crying after them,
" Here, here, here shall you find me," laying his hand
upon his crown.
The names of these four soldiers above mentioned were
these, Reginald Bereson, Hugh Mortevil, William Thracy
and Richard Brito, who going to put on their armour,
returned the same day, but finding the hall door of the
palace of Canterbury shut against them, they went to an
inward back door leading into the orchard ; there they
broke a window, and opened the door, and so got into
the palace. The monks (it being about even-song time)
had got the archbishop into the church, who being per-
suaded by them, caused his cross to be borne before him,
and through the cloister, by a door which was broken
up for him, he proceeded into the choir. The armed men
following after, at length came to the church-door, which
door the monks would have shut against tliem ; but, as
the history says, the archbishop would not suffer them.
So they approaching into the church, and the archbishop
meeting them upon the stairs, there he was slain ; every
one of the four soldiers striking him with his sword into
the head, who afterward flying into the north, at length,
with much ado, obtained their pardon of the pope by the
king's procurement, and as some histories record, went to
Jerusalem.
Thus you have the life and death of Thomas Becket,
what judgment we should form respecting him, let his
own actions and conduct declare. And although the
Scripture ought to be the only rule for us to judge all
things by, yet if any one shall require further testimony
to satisfy the mind, we have the judgments of certain
men, in years and times almost as ancient as himself re-,
specting his conduct.
And first to begin with the testimony of one of hisov
religion and church, and also not far from his own timeJ
who in writing of his martyrdom and miracles, gives tol
us the judgment and opinion of others concerning his proj
motion and behaviour. The Chronicle being written "
Latin, is here translated for the English reader : " Man][
there are who as to his promotion regard it not as caJ
nonical. For it was effected rather by the influence of tha
king (thinking him a man ready and useful to him) than bj
the assent either of the clergy or of the people. It is reJ
marked in him as presumption and want of discretion,'
that when scarce worthy to take the oar in hand, he would
take upon him to sit at the helm and guide the ship
of the church, where the crew being in gesture and ves-
ture religious, is wont to have their prelate of the same
profession. Whereas he scarcely bearing the habit of a
clergyman, and going in his changes and soft apparel, is
more conversant among the delicate rufflers in the court,
rather savouring of worldly things, not refusing to climb
up to the high preferment of such an holy dignity, but
rather willingly and of his own accord aspiring to it.
Moses we read did otherwise, he being the (riend of God
and sent by him to conduct his people Israel out of Egypt,
trembled at the message, and said, who am I, Lord, that
I should go to Pharaoh, and bring thy people Israel out
of Egypt, &c."
And although scarcely any testimony is to be taken of
that age (being all blinded and corrupted with supersti-
tion), yet let us hear what Neubergensis an ancient his-
torian says, who being a contemporary and continuing
his history to the time of King Richard I. has these words,
writing of Thomas Becket.
" Whereas many are wont, in those whom they love o"*
praise (judging them more by affection than prudence)
to allow and approve whatever they do, yet if I might
judge tliis reverend man, verily I do not think his doings
and action praiseworthy or allowable, for so much as they
were unprofitable and only stirred up the anger of the
king, wliereujion afterward sprung many and great mis-
chiefs, although what he did might have proceeded from
a laudable zeal."
To this matter also refer the words of Cesarius the
monk, about the eight and fortieth year after the death of
Thomas Becket (A.D. 1220), his words are to this ef-
fect : —
" There was a question moved among the mastt rs of
the university of Paris, whether that Tlionias Becket
was saved or damned ? To this question Roger, a Nor-
man, answered, that he was worthy of death and damna-
tion, because he was so obstinate against God's minister,
his king. On the other hand, Peter Cantor, a Parisian^
§m\\ of Cjjomas %, ^etkt.
Piige 142.
A.D. 11 ro— 1171.] FALSE MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO BECKET, BLASPHEMOUS ANTHEM. 143
disputed, saying and affirming, tliat his miracles were
great signs and tokens of salvation, and also of great
holiness in that man ; affirming, moreover, that the
cause of the church allowed and confirmed his martyr-
dom, for which church he died," itc.
And tiius have ye the judgment and censure of the
school of Paris toucliing this question, for the sainting
of Thomas Becket. In which judgment as the greatest
argument rests in the miracles said to have been wrought
by him after his death ; let us, therefore, pause a little,
and examine these miracles. In this examination we
shall find one of these two things to be true, either that
if the miracles were true, they were wrouglit not by
God, but by a contrary spirit, of whom Christ our Lord
gives us warning in his gospel, saying, "There shall
arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew
great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possi-
ble, they shall deceive the very elect," Matt. xxiv. 24.
2 Thes. ii. 9. Rev. xiii. 14. ; or else we shall find that
no sucli miracles were ever wrought at all, but were
feigned and forged by idle monks, and by nuns and
friars, for the exaltation of their churches, and the profit
of their purses : this, indeed, seems rather to be the
truth, as may appear by the miracles themselves, set
forth by one of his own monks, and of his own time.
This monk, in five solemn books, has included all the
revelations, virtues, and miracles of the archbishop ;
which books I have seen and perused : in them is con-
tained the whole sum of all his miracles, to the number
of two hundred and seventy ; and they are far beyond
all truth and reason ; some are ridiculous, some mon-
strous, and vain, and absurd, some blasphemous, and
some so impudent, that not only they deserve no credit,
(altogether savouring of mere forgery), but also for very
shame would abash a modest pen to write them. Now
if miracles serve for convincing infidels, what necessity
was there, in a christian realm that has the word of God,
for God to work such miracles after the death of a man
who never wrought any miracle in all his life ? Then
if we consider the object of these miracles, to what pur-
pose do they tend, but only to bring men to Canter-
bury, with their vows and offerings to enrich the
Convent ?
Beside the number of these miracles, which is said to
be so great, that they lose all credit, what disease is
there belonging to man or woman, in the curing of which
some miracle has not been wrought by this wonder-
worker, as fevers, the gout, tooth-ache, palsy, consump-
tion, falling sickness, leprosy, head-ache, broken arms,
maimed legs, swelling throats, the raising up the dead
who have been two days departed, with numberless
others.
To recite all these prodigious revelations and fantasti-
cal miracles, falsely imagined and ascribed to this
archbishop, were nothing else but to write a legend
of lies, and to occu{)y the people with trifles. And be-
cause it pertains rather to the idle profession of such
dreaming monks and cloisterers, that have nothing else
to maintain their religion with ; I will not take their
profession out of their hands. Wherefore, to omit all
such vain and lying apparitions and miracles, as how this
angry saint (three days after his death) appeared by
vision at the altar in his Pontifical robes, commanding
the choir not to sing, but to say this office of his mass,
Exurge, quare ohdormis, Domine, i^'c. To omit also
the blasphemous lie, how in another vision the arch-
bishop said, " That his blood did cry out of the earth to
God, more than the blood of righteous Abel." Also in
another vision that appeared to a monk, how this saint
Thomas had his place in heaven appointed with the
apostles, above Stephen, Lawrence, Vincent, and all other
martyrs; for which. this reason is given that St. Ste-
phen, Lawrence, and others, suffered only for their own
cause ; but that this Thomas Becket suffered for the
universal church. Also, how it was shewn to a young
man twelve years before the death of this Becket,
that among the apostles and martyrs in heaven there was
a vacant place left for a certain priest of England, which
was credibly supposed to be this Thomas Becket.
Also, how a certain knight's son, being two days dead,
was revived again so soon as he had the water of Canter-
bury put into his mouth, and had four pieces of silver
offered by his parents, in Canterbury, in the child's be-
half. All these, I say, with such others, I omit, giving
only this one story, or another that follows, which shall
suffice to express the vanity and impudent forgery of all
the rest.
There is a miracle of a countryman of Bedfordshire,
whose name was Kihvard ; in his drunkenness, bursting
into another man's house, who was his debtor, he took
out of his house a whetstone, and a pair of hedging
gloves. The other party seeing this value not sufficient
for his condemnation, entered an action of felony againsi
him for other things besides, as for stealing his wimble,
his axe, his net, and other cloths. Whereupon Eihvard
being condemned, was judged to have both his eyes put
out. Which punishment by the malice of his adversary
being executed upon him, he, lying in great danger of
death by bleeding, was counselled to make his prayer to
this Thomas of Canterbury. Which done, saith the mi-
racle, there appeared one to him by night, in white ap-
parel, bidding him to watch and pray, and put his trust
in God and our lady, and holy St. Thomas Becket. In
conclusion, the miracle thus fell out. The next day at
evening, the man, rubbing his eyelids, began to feel his
eyes restored again ; first, in a little, after in a greater
measure, so that one was of a grey colour, the other was
of black. This one miracle I thought here to express, that
by this one thou mightest judge of all the rest of his mi-
racles. Wherefore, as I said, if the holy sainting of
Thomas Becket stands upon nothing but his miracles,
what credit is to be given thereto .' and upon what a
weak ground his shrine has stood so long, by this may
easily be seen. Another fable as notable as this we read
in the story of Gervasius. That Thomas Becket ap-
pearing to a certain priest, named Thomas, declared to
him that he had so brought to pass, that all the names of
the monks of the church of Canterbury, with the names of
the priests and clerks, and with the families belonging to
that city and church of Canterbury, were written in the
book of life !
But whatever is to be thought of his miracles, or how-
ever the testimony of the school of Paris, or of these an-
cient times, went with him or against him, certain it is,
that this anthem, lately written and used in his praise,
is blasphemous, and derogates from the praise of him to
whom only all praise and honour is due.
By the blood of Thomas,
MTiich he for thee did spend,
Grant us, Christ, to climb,
Where Thomas did ascend.
After the death of Thomas Becket, the king, fearing
the pope's wrath and curse, sent the archbishop of Rotho-
niage, with other bishops and archdeacons, to the pope
with his excuse, which the pope would in nowise hear.
And after other messengers were sent, it was shewn to
them that on Good Friday, the pope was used to absolve
or to curse, and that it was rumoured that the king of
England, with his bishops, would be cursed, and his land
interdicted, and that they should be put into prison.
After this, certain of the cardinals shewed the pope, that
the messengers had power to swear to the pope, that the
king would obey his punishment and penance. So that
on the same day the pope cursed the perpetrators, and
all that either aided or harboured them.
The king's ambassadors could find no grace or favour
for a long time at the pope's hands. At length it was
agreed, that two cardinals should be sent down to in-
quire into the matter concerning those that were con-
senting to Becket' s death. The king, perceiving what
was preparing at Rome, and being yet uncertain what the
design of the pope and coming down of the cardinals
would tend to, applied himself with a great army to invade
Ireland, giving it in charge and commandment, that no
bearer of any brief or letter should come into England,
or pass out of the realm, without special licer>e and as-
surance, that he would bring nothing that should be pre-
judicial to the realm.
144 PENANCE ENJOINED ON THE KING FOR THE DEATH OF THOMAS BECKET, [Book VI.
This being ordained, the king, with four hundred
great ships, takes his voyage to Ireland, where he sub-
dued in a sliort time the whole land, which at that time
was gv)verued under several kings, to the number of five ;
of wIkmu four submitted themselves to King Henry,
the fifth only refused to submit, keeping in the woods
and marshes.
Wiiile the king was thus occupied in Ireland, the two
cardinals that were sent from the pope, Theodine and
Albert, were come to Normandy. The year following,
the king went to meet them (October, A. D. 1172).
The king, returning out of Ireland, by Wales, into
England, and from thence to Normandy, there cleared
himself of the charge, before the pope's legates, as to the
death of Becket, to which he swore he was neither aid-
ing nor consenting, but only that he spoke severely
against him, because his knights would not avenge him
against Thomas ; for which cause this penance was en>
joined lam under his oath.
First, thdt he should send so much money into the
Holy Land, as would supply two hundred knights or
soldiers for the defence of that land.
Also, that from Christmas-day next following, he should
s?,t forth in his own person to fight for the Holy Land,
ft)r the space of three years together, unless he should
be otherwise dispensed with by the pope.
Also, that if he would make his journey into Spain,
he should there fight against the Saracens, and as long
as he should abide there, so long he might take in pro-
longing his journeys to Jerusalem.
Also, that he should not hinder, nor cause to be
hindered by him, any appeal made to the pope of
Rome.
Also, that neither he nor his son should depart or dis-
sever from Pope Alexander, or from his catholic succes-
sors, so long as they should count him or his son for
catholic kings.
Also, that the goods and possessions taken from the
church of Canterbury should be restored, as they stood
the year before Thomas Becket departed the realm ;
and that free liberty should be granted to all such
as were outlawed for Becket's cause to return again.
Also, that the customs and decrees established by
him against the church, should be extinct and repealed,
(such only except that concerned his own person, &c.;,
besides other secret fastings and alms enjoined him.
All these conditions the king with his son agreed to,
debasing himself in such submission before the two car-
dinals, that they took no little glory from it, using this
verseof the Psalm : " Helooketh on the earth, and it trem-
bleth, He toucheth the hills, and they smoke," Psalm
civ. 32. It is mentioned, too, that a little after, the king
returning out of Normandy to England, came first to Can-
terbury, (A. D. 1174) and as he came within sight of Bec-
ker's church, lighting off his horse, andputtingoffhis shoes
lie went barefoot to the tomb, the steps of which were
found bloody, through the roughness of the stones. And
not only tliat, but he received the further penance of the
discipline of the rod, by every monk of the cloister. By
whicli great degradation of the king, if it were true, we
mny see the blind and lamentable superstition and igno-
rance of tliose days.
The next yo-ir (A. D. 117.t"), a convocation of bishops
was held at Westminster by Richard archbishop of Can-
terbury. In which all the bishops and abbots of the
provinca of Canterbury and of York being present, de-
termined (as it had done a little before in the days of King
Henry I. A. D. 111.'5) about the obedience that York
should pay to Canterbury ; that is, whether the arch-
bishop of York might bear his cross in the diocese of
Canterbury or not, of which somewhat was mentioned
before in this history. Upon these and other such matters
rose such controversy between these two sees, that the
one appealed the other to the presence of the bishop of
Rome.
In these and such like causes, how much better had it
been if the supremacy had remained more near at home
in the king's hands. By which not only much labour
and travelling had been saved, but also the great and
wasteful expenses at Rome might with much more fruit
and profits have been spent among their cures and flocks
committed to them.
We have stated already among the acts and doings of
Pope Alexander III., how he had brought the emperor's
head under his foot in St. Mark's church at Venice,
when the peace was there concluded, and a composition
made between the pope and the Emperor Frederick. This
pacification Roger Hoveden, and Walter Gisbiirn. refer to
about this time (A. D. 1177), bringing in two letters sent
from the said pope to Richard archbishop of Canterbury,
and to Roger archbishop of York, and to Hugh bishop ot
Durham. Out of which letters, so much as serves to our
present purpose, I have here inserted.
The Letter of Pope Alexander.
" Alexander servant of the servants of God, to his re-
verend brethren Roger archbishop of York, and Hugh
bishop of Durham, greeting and apostolical blessing. The
obsequiousness and service of your kind devotion, which
hitherto you are known to have given both devoutly and
laudably to us and to the church, requires that we should
describe to you, as to our special friends, the prosperous
success of the church, and to let you know, as spiritual
children or the church, what has happened to the same.
For it is meet, convenient, and also honest, that you,
whom we have had so firm and sure in our devotion,
should now be cherished and made joyous in the prospe-
rity of us and of the church."
And about the end of the epistle it follows thus :
" The next day, which was the feast of St. James, the
emperor so requesting us, we came to the church of St.
Mark, to celebrate there our solemn mass ; where (as
■we were coming in the way) the emperor met us without
the church, and placing us on his right hand, he brought
us so into the church. After the mass was done, placing
us again on his right hand, he brought us to the church
door. And moreover, when we would mount our palfry,
he held our stirrup, exhibiting to us such honour and re-
verence, as his progenitors were wont to exhibit to our
predecessors. Wherefore these shall serve to excite your
diligence and zeal towards us, that you may rejoice with
us and the church in these our prosperous successes, and
also that you may open the same source of peace to other
devout children of the church : that such as are touched
with the zeal of the house of the Lord, may be thankful
and rejoice in the Lord for the great peace which he hath
given. Given at Venice, the 2f)th of July."
This year the contention revived again between the
two archbishops of York and Canterbury, the occasion
whereof was this ; the manner and practice of the pope
is, when he begins to want money, to send some cardinal
abroad to gather in his harvest. So there came this
year into England a cardinal from Rome, called Hugo,
who would needs keep a council at Westminster. To
this council resorted a great concourse of bishops, abbots,
priors, doctors, and others of the clergy. As every one
was there placed in his order, and according to his rank,
first comes the archbishop of York, who to anticipate the
other archbishop, came something sooner, and placed him-
self on the right hand of the cardinal, the archbishop of
Canterbury following shortly after, and seeing the first
place occupied, refuses to take the second, complaining of
the archbishop of York, as having prejudiced his see. So
while the one would not rise, and the other would not sit
down, there arose no small contention between them. The
archbishop of Canterbury claimed the upper seat by the
pre-eminence of his church. On the other hand, the
archbishop of York alleged the old decree of Gregory.
By which this order was appointed between the two
metropolitans of Canterbury and York, that which ever
of them should be first in election, should have the pre-
eminence in dignity before the other. Thus contending
to and fro, they waxed so warm in words, that at last
they turned to blows. How strong the archbishop of
York was in reason and argument, I cannot tell ; but the
archbishop of Canterbury was stronger at the arm's end ;
whose servants being more in number and like valiant
men, not suffering their master to take up with such a
trick, so succeeded against York, as he sat on the right
A.D. 1172—1189.] DEATH OF HENRY IT. FORM OF GIVING THE PALL TO THE ARCHBISHOP. 145
hand of the cardinal, that they plucked him down from the
hand to the foot of the cardinal upon the ground, treading
and trampling upon him with their feet, so that it was a
marvel he escaped with life. His robes were all rent
and torn from his back.
But what did the noble Roman cardinal ? Standing
up in the midst, and seeing the house in such a broil, he
committed himself to flight. The next day the arch-
bishop of York brings to the cardinal his robes, to bear
witness what injury and violence he had sustained ; ap-
pealing and citing up the archbishop of Canterbury to
the bishop of Rome. And thus the holy council was
dissolved the same day it was begun.
Under the reign of this King Henry II. the dominion
and crown of England extended so far as had not been
seen in this realm before him ; histories record him as
possessing under his rule and jurisdiction, first, Scot-
land, to whom William king of Scots, with all the lords
temporal and spiritual, did homage both for them and for
their successors (the seal whereof remains in the king's
treasury) as also Ireland, England, Normandy, Aqui-
taine. Gaunt, &c., to the mountains of the T'yrenees,
being also protector of France ; to whom Philip the
French king yielded both himself and his realm wholly to
his government (A. D. 1181). He was offered also to be
made king of Jerusalem, by the patriarch and master of
the hospital there ; who, being distressed by the Soldan,
brought him the keys of the city, desiring his aid against
the infidfls ; which offer he refused, alleging the great
charge wliich he had at home, and the rebellion of his
sons, which might happen in his absence.
The wisdom, discretion, manhood, and riches of this
prince was so spread abroad and renowned in all quarters,
that messages came from Emmanuel emperor of Constan-
tinople, Frederick emperor of Rome, and William arch-
bishop of Treves in Germany, the duke of Saxony, and
from the earl of Flanders, and also from the French king,
to ask counsel and determination in difficult questions
from this King Henry, as one most wise, and schooled
in all wisdom and justice, so as to solve their questions
and doubts. Alphonso king of Castile, and Sancius king
of Navarre being in strife for certain castles and other pos-
sessions, submitted them (of their free accord, and by their
oath) to abide the award of this King Henry ; who made his
award and pleased them both ; by this it is to be supposed,
that this king, to whom other princes so resorted, as to
their arbiter and judge, was not given either to sloth or
vicious living. From which it may appear that the acts
of this prince were not so vicious as some monkish writers
describe.
Among many other memorable things in this king, one is
that he reigned five-and- thirty years, and having such
wars with his enemies, yet he never put upon his sub-
jects any tribute or tax. And yet his treasury after his
death amounted to above nine hundred thousand pounds,
besides jewels, precious stones, and household furniture.
But as there is no felicity or wealth in this mortal
world so perfect, as not to be darkened with some cloud
of adversity ; so it happened to this king, that among his
other princely successors, this affliction followed him, that
his sons rebelled and stood in arms against him, taking
the part of the French king against their father.
At the coronation of his son Henry, whom the father
joined with him as king, he being both father and king,
notwithstanding, set down as if he was only an attendant,
the first dish to his son, renouncing the name of a king.
The archbishop of York, sitting on the right hand of the
young king, said, " Sir, ye have great cause this day to
joy, for there is no prince in the world that hath such an
attendant this day," &c. And the young king disdain-
ing his words, said, '* My father is not dishonoured in
doing this, for I am a king and a queen's son, and he is
not so." And not only this, but afterwards he even per-
secuted his father ; and so in his youth when he had
reigned but a few years he died ; teaching us what is the
reward of breaking the commandment of God.
After him likewise his son Richard (who was called
Richard Cceur de Lion) rebelled against his father, and
also John his youngest son did not much degenerate
from the steps of his brethren. Insomuch that this
Richard, taking part against his father, brought him to
such distress of body and mind, that for sorrow of heart
he fell into an ague, and within four days departed, (A.D.
118y) after he had reigned five-and-thirty years.
And thus much concerning the reign of Henry II., and
the death of Thomas Becket ; whose death happened in
the days of Pope Alexander III. ; which pope usurping
the keys of the ecclesiastical government one-and-twenty
years (or as Gisburn writes, three and-twenty years) go-
verned the church with much tumult.
This pope, among many other acts, had certain coun-
cils, some in France, some at Rome, in Lateran ; by
whom it was decreed, that no archbishop should receive
the pall, unless he should first swear to obey the pope.
Concerning the solemnity of which pall, for the order
and manner of giving and taking the same with obedience
to the pope, as it is contained in their own words, I
thought it good to set it forth.
The form and manner how and by what words the pope i»
wont to give the pall unto the Archbiahop.
"To the honour of Almighty God, and of blessed
Mary the virgin, and of blessed St. Peter and Paul, and
of our lord Pope N., and of the holy church of Rome,
and also of the church of N., committed to your charge,
we give to you the pall taken from the body of St. Peter,
as a fulness of the pontifical office, which you may wear
within your own church upon certain days which are ex-
pressed in the privileges of the said church, granted by
the see apostolic."
In like manner proceedeth the oath of every bishop
swearing obedience to the pope as follows :
" I, N., bishop of N., from this hour henceforth, will
be faithful and obedient to blessed St. Peter, and to the
holy apostolic church of Rome, and to my lord N. the
pope. 1 shall be in no council, nor hel]) either with my
consent or deed, whereby either of them, or any member
of them may be impaired, or whereby they maybe taken
with any evil taking. The counsel which they shall com-
mit to me either by themselves, or by messenger, or by
their letters wittingly or willingly I shall utter to none
to their hinderance and damage. To the retaining and
maintaining the papacy of Rome, and the regalities of St.
Peter, I shall be an aider (so mine order be saved) against
all persons, the legate of the apostolic see, both in going
and coming, I shall honourably treat and help in all ne-
cessities. Being called to a Synod I shall be ready to
come, unless I be hindered by some lawful and canonical
impeachment. The palace of the apostles every third
year I shall visit either by myself or my messenger, ex-
cept otherwise being licensed by the see apostoUc. All
such possessions as belong to tlie table and diet of my
bishoprick, I shall neither sell, nor give, nor lay to mort-
gage, nor lease out, nor remove away by any manner
of means without the consent and knowledge of the
bishop of Rome ; so God help me and the holy gospeb
of God."
In the reign of King Henry (about A.D. 1178), I find
in Roger Iloveden and others, that in the city of
Toulouse there was a great multitude of men and women
whom the pope's commissioners prosecuted and con-
demned as heretics ; some of them were scourged naked,
some were chased away, and some were compelled to ab-
jure. Concerning their opinions I can give no certain
account.because I find the papists so often falsifying things
in their accusations, and untruly collecting men's words,
not as they meant them, but wresting and depraving
men's assertions in such a way as pleased thcniselvea.
But I find that one of the commissioners or inquisitor!
(Henry the abbot), in a letter, wrote thus of one of
them, that, " After a new opinion he affirmed that the
holy bread of eternal life, consecrated by the ministry of
the priest, was not the body of the Lord," &c.
In the time of this Pope Alexander commenced the
doctrine and name of those who were called, " Poor mea
of Lvons," who, from Waldus or Waldo a chief senator
in Lyons, were named " Waldenses," ^about A.U., 1100,
or as Laziard writes A.D. 1170.)
Not long before this time lived Gratian, maaier of th«
12
I4()
THE HISTORY AND DOCTRINES OF THE WALDENSES.
decrees, and Peter Lombard, master of the sentences,
both arch -pillars of all papistry ; after whom followed two
others as bad or worse than they, Franci? and Dominic,
mai'itaining blind hypocrisy not less than the others main-
tained proud prelacy. As these laboured one way by
superstition and worldly advancement to corrupt the
simplicity of the christian relii^on, so it pleased Christ
on the contrary, working against them, to raise up the
Waldenses against the pride and hypocrisy of the
others.
Thus we never see any great corruption in the church,
but some sparks of the true and clear light of the gospel
by God's providence remains ; whatever doctors Aus-
tin, Reinerius, Sylvius, Cranzius, with others in their
popish histories, write of them, defaming them and ac-
cusing them as disobedient to orders, rebels to the
catholic church, and contemners of the Virgin Mary ;
yet they that judge impartial judgment, rather trusting
truth than wavering with the times, in weighing their
articles, shall find it otherwise ; and that they main-
tained nothing but the same doctrine which is now de-
fended in the church.
The history of the Waldenses concerning their original
and doctrine, with their persecutions.
The first origin of these Waldenses was one Waldus,
(or Waldo), a man of great substance in the city of
Lyons. About the year IKiO some of the best and
chief inhabitants of the city of Lyons, walking in a cer-
tain place after their old accustomed manner, especially
in the summer time, conferred and consulted together on
various matters, either to pass away the time, or to de-
bate their measures. Among them it chanced that one
fell down suddenly dead ; this Waldus was among them
at the time. He, looking on the matter more earnestly
than the others, and terrified with so awful an ex-
ample, and God's Holy Spirit working within him, was
stricken with a deep and inward repentance. Upon this
followed a great change, with a careful study to reform
his former life. So that first he began to minister large
alms of his goods to such as were in need. Secondly,
to instruct himself and his family with the true know-
ledge of God's word. Thirdly, to admonish all that
resorted to him on any occasion, to repentance and vir-
tuous amendment of life. Partly through his extensive
charities to the poor, partly through his diligent teaching
and wholesome admonitions, more of the people daily
frequented about him ; and when he saw them ready and
diligent to learn, he began to give out to them certain
easy portions of the scripture, which he had translated
himself into the French tongue ; for as he was wealthy
in riches, so he was also not unlearned in languages.
Although Laziard, Volateran, with others, describe
him as utterly unlearned, and charge him with ignorance,
yet by others that have seen his works yet remaining in
old parchment monuments, it appears he was both able
to declare and translate the books of scripture, and also
to collect the comments of the learned upon them.
But whatever he was, whether lettered or unlettered,
the bishops and prelates seeing him thus intermeddle
with the scriptures, and have such resort about him,
altliough it was only in his own house and in private
conference, could not abide that the scriptures should be
explained by any other than themselves, and yet they
would not take the pains to explain it themselves. So
they threatened to excommunicate him if he did not
cease to do so. Waldus seeing his proceedings to be
godly, and their malice stirred up without just or godly
cause, neglected the threatenings and frettings of the
wicked, and said, " that God must be obeyed rather
than man." To be brief, the more diligent he was in
setting forth the true doctrine of Christ against the
errors of antichrist, the more maliciously their fierceness
increased. So that when they saw their excommunica-
tion despised, they ceased not to persecute him with
(1) This article seems to be given of them in Bohemia not long
ftfter, fur indulgences came not in before Boniface VIII.
[Book IV.
prison, with sword, and banishment, till at length they
had driven both Waldus and all the favourers of his true
preaching out of the city.
Whereupon came first their name, that they were
called Waldenses, or the poor men of Lyons, not be-
cause they would have all things common among them,
or that they, professing any wilful poverty, would imi-
tate to live as the apostles did (as Eneas Sylvius falsely
belied them), but because, being thrust out both of
country and of goods, they were compelled to live poorly
whether they would or not.
And thtis much touching the first occasion and be-
ginning of these men, and of the restoring and maintain-
ing of the true doctrine of Christ's gospel, against the
proud proceedings of popish errors. Now, concerning
their articles, which I find in order and in number to be
these : —
L Only the holy scripture is to be believed in matters
pertaining to salvation, and no man's writing, or man
besides.
IL All things necessary to salvation are contained in
holy scripture, and nothing is to be admitted in religion,
but only what is commanded in the word of God.
in. There is one only Mediator; other saints are in
no wise to be made mediators, or to be invoked.
IV. There is no purgatory, but all men are justified
by Christ to life, or without Christ are condemned ; and
besides these two there is not any third or fourth place.
V. That all masses, namely, such as are sung for the
dead, are wicked and ought to be abolished.
VI. All men's traditions are to be rejected, at least
not to be reputed as necessary to salvation, and there-
fore this singing and superfluous chanting in the chancel
should be ceased ; constrained and prefixed fasts bound
to days and times, difference of meats, such variety of
degrees and orders of priests, friars, monks, and nuns,
superfluous holy days, so many sundry benedictions aud
hallowing of creatures, vows, pilgrimages, with all the
rites and ceremonies brought in by man, ought to be
abolished.
VII. The supremacy of the pope usurping above all
churches, and especially above all realms and govern-
ments, and his usurping the jurisdiction of both the
swords, is to be denied ; and no degree of orders is to be
received in the church, but priests, deacons, and
bishops.
VIII. The communion under both kinds is necessary
to all people, according to the institution of Christ.
IX. The church of Rome is the very Babylon spoken
of in the Apocalypse ; and the pope the fountain of all
error, and the very antichrist.
X. The pope's pardons and indulgences they re
ject. '
XI. The marriage of priests and of ecclesiastical
persons, is godly, and also necessary in the church.
XII. Such as hear the word of God, and have a right
faith, are the right church of Christ. And to this
church the keys of the church are given, to drive away
wolves, and to institute true pastors, and to preach the
word, and to minister the sacraments."
These are the principal articles of the Waldenses,
although there are some who add more to them ; some
again divide these into more parts.
The Waldenses, at length exiled, were dispersed in
many and various places, many remained long in Bo-
hemia, who, writing to their king, Uladislaus, to clear
themselves against the slanderous accusations of Dr.
Austin, gave their confession together with an apology
of their christian profession ; defending with strong and
learned arguments the same defence and confession
which is now received in most reformed churches con-
cerning gBBce, faith, charity, hope, repentance, and
works of mercy.
As for purgatory, they say that Thomas Aquinas is
the creator of it.
Concerning the supper of the Lord, their faith was.
(2) Some ancient autliors add another article — viz. " They r»-
ceive and approve of two sacruments only, Baptism and the Coi"
I munton." [Ed.]
A.D. 11S9.]
DOCTRINE AND MANNERS OF THE WALDENSES.
147
I that it was ordained to be eaten, not to be shewed and
worshipped ; for a memorial, not for a sacrifice ; to serve
for the present ministration, and not for reservation ; to
I be received at the table, not to be carried out of the
doors ; according to the ancient use of the primitive
church, when they used to communicate sitting. And
this they prove both by an old chronicle called Chronica
Gestorum, as also by ancient Origen upon the third
book of Moses, bringing in his words, which are these,
proving that this sacramental bread ought not to be re-
served : — " Whoever receives this bread of the supper
, of Christ upon the second or third day after, his soul
shall not be blessed, but polluted. Therefore because
the Gibeonites brought old bread to the children of
Israel, it was enjoined them to carry wood and water," &c.
; Dr. Austin, disputing against them about this matter
of the holy eucharist, urges then* with this question,
whether it be the same Christ present in the sacrament
, which is present at the right hand of the Father .' If it
' be not the same Christ, how is it true in the scripture,
'"One farth, one Lord Jesus Christ?" If it be the
i same Christ, then how is he not to be honoured and
worshipped here as well as there .•"
To this the Waldenses answer and grant that Christ is
one and the same with his natural body, in the sacra-
ment which he is at the right hand of his Father, but not
after the same existence of his body. For the existence
of his body in heaven is personal and local, to be appre-
hended by the faith and spirit of men. In the sacra-
ment the existence of the body is not personal or local,
to be apprehended or received of our bodies, after a
personal or corporeal manner, but after a sacramental
manner ; that is, where our bodies receive the sign, and
our spirit the thing signified. Moreover, in heaven the
existence of his body is complete with the full propor-
tion and quantity wherewith he ascended. Here, the
existence of his complete body, with the full proportion,
measure, and stature, does not, and cannot stand in tie
sacrament.
That answer being made to the captious proposition
of Dr. Austin, the Waldenses (retorting the like ques-
tion to him) demand of him to answer them : Whether it
be all one Christ substantially and naturally, which sits
in heaven, and which is under the forms of bread and
wine, and in the receivers of the sacrament ? If he
grant it to be so ; then they bid him say, seeing Christ
is as well in the sacrament as in heaven, and as well in
the receiver as in the sacrament, and all one Christ in
substance and nature ; why then is noi the same Christ
to be worshipped as well in the breast of the receiver, as
under the forms of bread and wine in the sacrament ;
seeing he is there after a more perfect manner in man,
than in the sacrament ? for in the sacrament he is but
for a time, and not for the sacrament's sake, but for the
man's sake : in man he is not for the sacrament's sake,
but for his own ; and that not for a season, but for ever,
as it is written, " He that eateth this bread shall live for
ever," &c.
Besides this, seeing transubstantiation is the passing
of one substance into another ; they question again with
him, whether, the forms of bread and wine remaining,
the substance be changed into the whole person of our
Lord Christ Jesus ; that is, into his body, soul, and
divinity, or not into the whole Christ .' If he grant the
whole ; then say they, that is impossible (concerning the
divinity) both to nature and to our faith, that any crea-
ture can be changed into the Creator. If he say, the
bread is changed into the body and soul of Christ, not
to his divinity, then he separates the natures in Christ.
If he say, into the body alone, and not the soul, then he
separates the natures of the true manhood, &c. and so it
cannot be the same Christ that was betrayed for us ; for
that he had both body and soul. To conclude, to what
part soever he would answer, this doctrine of transub-
stantiation could not be defended without great incon-
veniences.
Besides this, Eneas Sylvius, writing of their doctrine
and assertions (perchance as he found them, perchance
makinst worse of them than they taught or meant^ re-
ports of them after this manner :
"The bishop of Rome is equal with other bishops.
Among priests there is to be no difference of degree-
No priest is to be reputed for any dignity of his order,
but for the worthiness of his life.
"The souls of men departed enter either into pain ever-
lasting, or everlasting joy. There is no fire of purga-
tory. To pray for the dead is vain, and a thing only
invented for the lucre of priests.
" The images of God (as of the Trinity) and of saints
should be abolished. The hallowing of water and palm
are a mere ridicule. The religion of begging friars is
an invention of the devil. Priests should not engross
riches in this world, but rather follow poverty, being
content with their tithes, and men's devotion. The
preaching of the word should be free to all men called
thereto.
" No deadly sin is to be tolerated, for the sake of a
greater convenience. The confirmation which bishops
exercise with oil, and extreme unction, are not to hb
counted among the sacraments of the church. Auriculai
confession is but a childish thing ; it is enough for every
man to confess himself in his chamber to God. Bap-
tism ought to be administered only with pure water,
without any mixture of hallowed oil. The temple of the
Lord is the wide world. The majesty of God is not re-
strained within the walls of temples, monasteries, and
chapels, so as that his grace should be found in one
place more than in another.
"Priests' apparel, ornaments of the high altar, vest-
ments, corporals, chalices, patins, and other church-
plate, are of no use. It makes no matter in what place
the priest consecrates or ministers to them who require
it. li- is sufficient to use only the sacramental words
witVout other superfluous ceremonies.
" The suffrages of saints, reigning with Christ ia
iieaven, are prayed for in vain ; they being unable
to help us. In saying or singing the hours and
matins of the day the time is lost. A man ought to
cease from his labour no day, but only upon the Sun-
day.
" The feasts and festivals of saints ought to be rejected.
Such fasts as are compulsory, and enjoined by the
church, have no merit in them."
The doctrines of the Waldenses being thus specified
by Eneas Sylvius, who afterwards was pope, I thought
it well to give them in English, that as they are the less to
be doubted, being described by the pen of this pope, so
we may the better know what their opinions were, and
also understand how this doctrine, now preached and
taught in the protestant church, is no new doctrine, in-
asmuch as we here see it both taught and persecuted
almost 400 years ago. And as I have spoken hitherto
sufficiently concerning their doctrine : so now we will
briefly somewhat touch of the order of their life and
conversation, as we find it registered in a certain old
book of inquisition.
" The manner of the Waldenses is this, kneeling
upon their knees, and leaning on some bank or stay,
they continue in their prayers with silence so long as a
man may say the Lord's prayer thirty or forty times.
And this they do every day with great reverence, among
themselves, and such as are of their own religion, and
no strangers with them, both before and after dinner ;
likewise before and after supper ; also when they go to
bed, and in the morning when they rise, and at certain
other times also, as well in the day as in the night.
They use no other prayer but the Lord's prayer, and
that without any ' Hail, Mary,' or the creed, which
they affirm not to be by Christ, but only by the church
of Rome. Although they use the seven articles of faith
concerning the divinity, and seven articles concerning
the humanity, and the ten commandments, and seven
works of mercy, which they have compiled together in a
compendious book.
" Before they go to meat they ask a blessing, and that
the Lord Christ may have mercy upon them, and they
say the Lord's prayer. Which being said, then the
elder among them begins thus in their own tongue :—
' God who blessed the five barley loaves, and two fialiei
148
ORIGIN OF THE VARIOUS CROSSES.
[Book IV.
in the desert before his disciples, bless this table, and
what is set upon it, or shall be set upon it: In the name
of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
Amen.' And likewise again, when they rise from
meat, the senior gives thanks, saying the words of the
Apocalypse, ' Blessing, and worship, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, honour, virtue, and strength to God alone
for ever and ever. Amen.' And adds, moreover, ' God
reward them in their bosoms, and be beneficial to all
them that be beneficial to us, and bless us. And may
the God who has given us bodily food grant us his
spiritual life ; and may God be with us, and we always
with him.' To which they answer again, ' Amen. '
And thus saying grace, they hold their hands upward,
looking up to heaven. After their meat and grace said,
they teach and exhort amongst themselves, conferring
together upon their doctrine," &c.
In their doctrine and teaching they were so diligent
and painful, that Reinerius, a writer about their time,
and a violent enemy against them, in a long process,
wherein he describes their doctrine and teaching, testi-
fies that he heard of one who knew the party, that a
certain heretic, as he calls him, merely to turn a person
away from our (Roman) faith, and to bring him to that
of the Waldenses, swam in the night, and in the winter
time, over the river Ibis, to come to him, and to teach
him. So perfect were they in the scriptures, that
Reinerius says, he heard and saw an unlettered country-
man who could recite the whole book of Job word by
word, without book, and others who had the whole New
Testament perfectly by heart.
And although some of them rather strange'y ilian un-
skilfully expounded the words, " Sui non rccepprvnt
e'i7n," John i. 11. ; " swine received him not ;" yet ihev
were not so ignorant and devoid of learning, nor yet ^-,
few in number, but that they greatly spread ; so that
Reinerius has these words : " There was none durst stop
them for the power and multitude of their favourers. I
have often been at their inquisition and examination,
and there were numbered forty churches infected with
their heresy, insomuch that in one parish of Cammach,
were ten open schools of them," &c.
And Reinerius, when he had said all he could in slan-
dering and impugning them, yet is driven to confess
this, where he distinguishes their sect from every other
sect. " This sect of the Lyonists has a great shew of
holiness, they live justly before men, and believe all
things well of God, and hold all the articles contained in
the creed ; only they blaspheme the Romish church, and
hate it," &c.
Now to say a little about their persecutions : After
they were driven out of Lyons, they were scattered into
various places (the Providence of God so permitting it,)
that the sound of their doctrine might be heard abroad
in the world. Some went to Bohemia, many fled into
the provinces of France, some into Lonibardy, others
into other pluces, &c. But as the cross commonly fol-
lows the true and sincere preaching of God's word,
80 neither could these be suffered to live or remain at
rest. There are yet to be seen the consultations of law-
yers, archbishops, and bishops of France, which yet re-
main in writing, for the extirpation of these Waldenses,
written above three hundred years ago ; by which it
appears that there was a great number of them in France.
Besides, there was a council held in Toulouse about
three hundred and fifty-five years ago, (A. D. 122!),)
against these Waldenses, who were condemed in another
council at Rome before that.
What great persecutions were raised up against them
in France by the pope's commissioners before alluded
to, appears by their writings ; I will recite some of
their words, which towards the end are these: — " Who
is such a stranger that he knows not the condemnation
of the heretical Waldenses decreed, so many years ago,
■o famous, so public, followed up with so great labours]
expenses, and travel of the faithful, and sealed with so
many deaths of these infidels, so solemnly condemned
and openly punished ?" By this we may see persecu-
tion to be no new thing in the church of Christ, when
antichrist so lon^j before (even three hundred yeais ago)
began to rage against these Waldenses. In Bohemia
likewise afterwards, under the name of Taborites (as
Sylvius records) they suffered no little trouble. But
never was persecution stirred up against them, or
against any other people more terrible than in these
later years in France by the French king (A. D. 1.54.i)
the lamentable story is described in Sleidan, and here-
atter in the course of this book, when we come to the
j)roper period it shall be narrated (by the grace of
Christ) more at large. In this persecution it is stated
that in one town, Cabiiera, there were slain eight hundred
))ersons at once, without respect of women or children
ot any age ; of whom forty women, and most of them
great with child, thrust into a barn, and the windows be .
ing kept with pikes, and fire being applied to them, were
all consumed. Besides, in a cave not far from the town
Mussium, five-and-twenty persons were at the same
time destroyed with smoke and fire. At Merindolum
(when all the rest had fied away) one young man,
being found, was tied to an olive-tree, and most cruellj
destroyed with torments. There was much more per-
secution, as shall appear hereafter in the history trans-
lated out of Sleidan.
There is also an old document of process, wherein it
appears that four hundred and forty-three were brought
to examination in Pomerania, Marchia, and places
thereabouts (about A. D. Kiyi).
And thus much touching the origin, doctrine, and the
lamentable persecutions of the Waldenses, who, as is de-
clared, first began about the time of this King Henry 11.
It now remains in the order of time to narrate such
other incidents as occurred under the reign of this kiu",
not unworthy to be observed.
There was a great war in Palestine, when the city of
Jerusalem, with the cross and king of the city, and
others of the temple, were taken by the Saracens, and
most pait of the christians there were either slain or
taVen. There was cruel murder and slaughter by the
Turk, wlio caused all the chief of the chri.-*^ians to be
brougu forth and beheaded before his face, so that Pojie
Urban III. died for sorrow, and (Gregory VIII., ne.\C
pope after him, lived not two months. Then, in tiie
days of Pope Clement III., sorrow was growing daily
for the loss of Palestine, and destruction of the chris-
tians. King Henry of England, and Philip the French
king, the duke of Burgundy, the earl of Flanders, the
earl of Campania, with other christian princes with a
general consent upon St. George's day, took the mark
of the cross upon them, promising together to take
their voyage into the Holy Land. At which time the
histories say, the king of England received first the red
cross, the French king took the white cross, the earl of
Flanders took the green cross ; and se likewise other
princes took various colours, so as to be known every-
one by his proper cross. But King Henry (after the
three years were expired, in which he promised to per-
form his voyage) sent to the pope for further delay
of his promise, offering to erect three monasteries in-
stead.
Almaric, king of Jerusalem, destroyed Babylon (A. D.
1170), so that it was never after to this day restored,
but lies waste and desolate ; wherein was fulfilled that
which in the j)roj)hets was threatened against Babylon.
This Almaric had a son named Baldwin, and a daugh-
ter called Sibylla.
Sibylla was first married to one Willerm, marquis of
Mount Ferrat, by whom she had a son called also Bald-
win. After him she was married to another husband
named Guido de Liziniaco, earl of Joppa and of Asca-
lon. After the death of Baldwin, and the next heir, his
crown by descent fell to Sibylla the wife of Guido. The
peers and nobles, joining together in council, offered
Sibylla as the lawful heir to the crown, that she should
be their queen, with this condition, that she should
separate, by solemn divorce, from her husband Guido ;
but she refused the kingdom offered to her on that con-
dition, till at last the magistrates, with the nobles in
general, granted to her, and by their oaths confirmed it,
that whoever she would choose as her husband, they
would all obey as their king. Guido her husband, among
A.D. 1000—1190.] KING RICHARD II.— SLAUGHTER OF THE JEWS.
149
the rest, humbly requested her that the kingdom might
not, for his account, or for his private loss, be desti-
tute of government. At length, with tears consenting to
their entreaty, she was solemnly crowned their queen,
and received their allegiance by their oath. Upon this,
Guido, without any hope of wife and kingdom, departed
home quietly to his own place. Then the queen, as-
sembling her states and prelates together, conferred with
th.-m about choosing a king, according to what they had
pioniis.>d, and sworn to her, that they would obey him
as their king whom she would name to be her husband.
Thu^, while they were all in great expectation, waiting
every man to see whom she would nominate, the queen
with a loud voice said to Guido that stood among them,
•• Guido, my lord, I choose thee for my husband, and,
yielding myself and my kingdom unto you, openly I
proclaim you to be the king." At these words all the
assembly, being amazed, wondered that one simple
woman had beguiled so many wise men. And she was
worthy, no doubt, to be commended and extolled for her
singuiir virtue, both of faithfulness and prudence : so
man:iging the matter, that she obtained to her husband
the kingdom, and retained to herself her husband, whom
she so faitlifully loved.
As I have hitherto described the public acts of King
Henry, so now I mean to say something of his private
condition. He was of mean stature, eloquent, and
learnei, manly and bold in chivalry, fearful of the muta-
bility and chance of war, more lamenting the death of
his soldiers when dead, than loving them when alive.
No one was more courteous and liberal for obtaining
Ihis purpose ; in peace and tranquillity none was more
rou^^h ; stubborn against the stubborn ; sometimes mer-
ciful to those whom he had vanquished ; strict to his
household servants, but liberal to strangers ; publicly of
jiublic things liberal, sparing of his own ; whoever he
once took a displeasure against he hardly or never would
receive again to favour ; somewhat lavish of his tongue,
a willing breaker of his promise, a lover of his ease, but
lan oppressor of his nobility ; a severe avenger and pro-
imoter of justice, variable of word, and crafty in his
italk, a nourisher of discord amongst his children ; more-
jover the papists, bearing him (for Thomas Becket's quar-
rel, and such like, as may be gathered) no good will,
term him an adversary of the faith.
He died in the five-and-thirtieth year of his reign, in
khe castle of Chinon in Normandy.
KING RICHARD.
King Richard, the eldest son of Henry II., succeeded
his fiither (A. L>. 1189) ; at which time Pope Clement
sat at Rome, succeeding Gregory, who died a little be-
fore with sorrow for the loss of the holy cross.
During the time of his coronation it happened, that,
filthough the king, the day before his coronation, by public
ledict, had commanded the Jews and their wives not to
presume either to enter the church or palace, during
the solemnization of his coronation, amongst his nobles
tmd barons, yet, while the king was at dinner, the chief
bf the Jews, with several others, entered the court gates.
IA christian man, being offended, struck one of them, and
bade him stand further from the court gate, as the king
had civen commandment. Others following the example,
and displeased against the Jews, offered them similar in-
iBult. Others, also, supposing that the king had so com-
^landed, fell upon all the Jews that stood outside the
court gate: and first they beat them, but afterwards
they took up stones and such other things as they could
get, and threw at them from the court gates, some of
them they wounded, some they slew, and some they left
for dead.
! There was among the Jews,one who was called the blessed
Jew of York, who was so severely wounded, that for fear
'of his life, he said he would become a christian, and was
baptized ; by which he escaped death, and the persecu-
tors' hands. In the meanwhile, there was a great ru-
mour spread throughout all the city of London, that the
:king had commanded to destroy all the Jews. Upon
which, the citizens, and innumerable people, being as-
sembled to see the king's coronation, armed themselves
and came together. The Jews thus being for the most
part slain, the rest fled into their houses, where, for a
time, they were defended ; but at length their houses
were set on fire, and they destroyed within them.
These things being declared to the king while he was
with his nobles and barons at dinner, he sends immedi-
ately Ranulfe de Glanville, the lord high steward of Eng-
land, with other noblemen to accompany him, that they
might stay and refrain these excesses of the Londoners ;
but all was in vain ; for in so great a tumult, there was none
that either regarded what the nobility said, or reverenced
their persons, but, rather with stern looks and threaten-
ing words, advised them to depart, and that quickly.
They, thinking it best to do so, departed ; the tumult
and insurrection continuing till the next day. At which
time the king, sending certain of his officers into the
city, gave them in command to apprehend and present
such as were the chief of the malefactors. Three were
condemned to be hanged ; one, because he had robbed
a christian's house in the tumult ; and the other two
because they fired the houses to the great danger of the
city. After this, the king sent for the man that from a
Jew was converted to Christianity, and in the presence
of those that saw where he was baptized, the king asked
him whether he was become a christian or not ? He,
answering the king, said " No ; but to the intent he might
escape death, he promised to do whatever the christians
would have him." Then the king asked the archbishop of
Canterbury (other archbishops and bishops being present)
what were best to be done with him ? Who, unadvisedly
answering, said, " If he will not be a man of God, let him be
a man of the devil," and so he returned again to Judaism.
Then the king sent his writs to the sheriffs of every
county, to inquire for the authors of this outrage. Of
whom three were hanged ; and several were imprisoned.
So great was then the hatred of Englishmen against the
Jews, that as soon as they began to be removed from the
court, the Londoners fell upon them, set their houses on
fire, and spoiled their goods. The country again, follow-
ing the example of the Londoners, did the same. And
thus the year which the Jews took to be their jubilee,
was to them a year of confusion. In the city of York,
the Jews obtaining a certain castle for their preserva-
tion, and afterward not being willing to restore it to the
christians again, when they saw no other remedy, but
to be vanquished by force, first offered money for their
lives ; when that would not be taken, by the counsel of
an old Jew among them, every one, with a sharp razor,
cut another's throat, whereby a thousand and five hun-
dred of them were destroyed.
King Richard, after the death of his father, coming
to remembrance of hinistlf, and of his rebellion against
his father, sought for absolution ; and, in satisfaction for
the same, agreed with Philip the French King, to take
his voyage with him for the recovery of Christ's patri-
mony, as they call the Holy Land.
After this, King Richard, preparing to set all things
in an order before his going, tomniitted the whole go-
vernment of the realm, principally to William, bishop of
Ely, his chancellor, and to Hugh, bishop of Durham,
whom he appointed the chief justice of all England in
his absence, sending also to Pope Clement, in behalf uf
William, bishop of Ely, that he might be made the
j)ope's legate through all England and Scotland, which
also was obtained. Thus the bishop, being advanced to
high authority, provides out of every city in England,
two palfries, and two sumpters, and also out of every
abbey, one palfry, and one sumpter, for the king's service
in Palestine.
These things being set in order, the king, according
to his appointment, sailed into France, wlierc the French
king and he conferring together, prorogued their voyage
till after midsummer. In the meantime, the king oc-
occupied himself in redressing and establishing such
things as were requisite. Ue ajpointcd the cap-
tains and constables over his navy, and set laws to be ob-
150
KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND AT MESSINA.
[Book IV.
served in his voyage upon the seas, but especially his
care was to make unity and concord between parties that
were at variance, and to reconcile them.
After King Richard had composed such things as were
to be redressed within the realm, he advanced forward
bis journey, and came to Touraine, to meet with Philip
the French king ; and so after that went to Vezelay ;
where the French king and he joining together, for the
continuance of their journey, assured themselves by
solemn oath, swearing fidelity one to the other ; the form
of whose oath was this : " That either of them should
defend and maintain the honour of the other, and bear
true fidelity unto him of life, members, and worldly
honour ; and that neither of them should fail one the
other in their affairs ; but the French king should aid
the king of England in defending his land and dominions,
as he would himself defend his own city of Paris, if
it were besieged ; and that King Richard of England
likewise should aid the French king in defending his
land and dominions, no otherwise than he would defend
his own city of Rouen if it were besieged," &c.
But how slenderly this oath held these two kings, and
by whose chief occasion it first fell asunder, the sequel
of the history (the Lord willing) shall declare.
The laws and ordinances appointed by King Richard
for his navy were these :
1 . That whoever killed any person on shipboard, should
be tied with him that was slain, and thrown into the sea.
2. And if he killed him on the land, he should in like
manner be tied with the party slain, and be buried with
him in the earth.
3. He that shall be convicted by lawful witness to
draw out his knife or weapon, to the intent to strike
any man, or that hath stricken any to the drawing of
blood, shall lose his hand.
4. Also, he that strikes any person with his hand,
without effusion of blood, shall be plunged three times
in the sea.
5. Wlioso speaks any opprobrious or contumelious
words in reviling or cursing one another, for so often as
he hath so reviled, shall pay so many ounces of silver.
6. A thief or felon that has stolen, being lawfully con-
victed, shall have his head shorn, and boiling jiitch
poured upon his head, and feathers or down strewed
upon the same, whereby he maybe known ; and so at the
first landing-place they shall come to, there to be cast
up, &c.
King Richard sending his navy by the Spanish seas,
and by the straits of Gibraltar, to meet him at Marseilles,
went himself to Vezelay, to the French king. The two
kings from thence went to Lyons, where the bridge over
the Rhone gave way with the press of people, and many,
both men and women, were drowned. The two kings
were then constrained to separate for the rest of their
journey, arranging to meet in Sicily ; and so Philip
took his way to Genoa, and King Richard to Marseilles,
where he remained eight days, appointing his navy to
meet him there. From thence crossing over to Genoa,
where the French king was, he passed forward by the
coast of Italy, and entered the Tiber not far from Rome,
where meeting with Ottoman, the cardinal and bishop of
Hostia, he complained greatly of the filthy simony of the
pope and the pope's court, for receiving seven hundred
marks for consecrating the bishop Cenomanensis ; also
a thousand and five hundred marks from William the
bishop of Ely for his office as legate ; and likewise an infinite
sum of money from the bishop of Bordeaux, for acquit-
ting him when he should have been deposed for a certain
crime laid to his charge by his clergy, ^c.
The seventh day of August King Richard departed
from Marseilles, and the three-and-twentieth of Septem-
ber arrived at Messina, with such a noise of trumpets
and shawms, with such a rout and show, that it was to
the great wonder and terror both of the Frenchmen and
all others that heard and beheld the sight.
The French king had come to the town of Messina be-
fore the sixteenth day of the month of September, and
had taken the palace of Tancred, king of Sicily, for his
lodgings. King Richard after his arrival, soon went to
Lim; and when the two kings had conversed together,
immediately the same day the French king took shipping
to sail to the laud of Jerusalem. But after he was out
of the haven, the wind rising against him, he returned
to Messina. The last day of September, Richard passed
over the Hood of Delfar, and there gained a strong hold
called De la Bagmare, or Le Bamre, and placing therein a
sufficient garrison, he returned to Messina. The second
of October he won another stronghold, and he deposited
there all his store and provision, which came from Eng.
land or other places.
The citizens of Messina, seeing that the king of Eng-
land had won the castle and island in De la Bagmare, and
also the monastery of the Griffons, and doubting lest the
King would extend his power further to invade their city,
and if he could, all the Isle of Sicily, began to stir
against the king's army, and to shut the Englishmen out
of tlie gates, and keep their walls against ihem. The
Englishmen seeing that, made to the gates, and by force
would have broken them open, so that the king riding
among them with his staff, and breaking some of their
heads, could not assuage their fierceness ; such was the
rage of the Englishmen against the citizens of Messina.
The fourth day of the month of October, the archbishop
of Messina came to King Richard, with two other arch-
bishops, also with the French king, and other earls,
baions, and bishops, to treat for peace. As they were
consulting, and had almost concluded upon the peace, the
citizens of Messina issued out of the town, some went
uj) upon the mountains, some with open force invaded
the mansion or lodging of Hugh Brun an English captain.
The noise of this coming to the ears of the king, he, sud-
denly breaking off the conference with the French king
and the rest, departed, and coming to his men, commanded
them forthwith to arm themselves ; who then, with some
of his sohliers, making up to the top of a mountain,
there put the citizens to flight, chasing them down the
mountain, to the very gates of the city; some of the
king's servants pursued them within the city, where
five valiant soldiers, and twenty of the king's servants
were slain, the French king looking on, and not once
desiring to rescue them, contrary to his oath and league
with the king of England. For the French king with
his men, being there present, rode in the midst of them
safely and without harm to and fro, and might well have
assisted the king's party, if he wished.
This being known to the English army, how their com-
rades were slain, and the Frenchmen permitted in the
city, and that they were excluded, and the gates barred
against them, being also stopped from buying of food and
other things ; they with great indignation, gathered them-
selves in arms, burst open the gates, and scaled the walls,
and so, winning the city, set up their flags, with the Eng-
lish arms upon the walls. When the French king saw
this he was ofiended; requiring the king of England
that the arms of France might also be set up and joined
with his ; but King Richard would not agree ; but to
satisfy his mind, he consented to take down his arms,
and commit the custody of the city to the Hospitale and
Templars of Jerusalem, till the time that Tancreil king of
Sicily and he, should agree together u])on the conditions.
In this mean time, as these two kings of France and
England were thus wintering at Messina, the eni])eror,
Frederick I. (on whose neck Pope Alexander trod in
the church of Venice, saying the verse of the j)sulm,
"Thou shalt tread on the serpents and the adders,")
and his son Conrad, with a mighty army of Germans
and others, were coming likewise to the siege of Acre ;
where the emperor, falling oflT his horse into a
river, was drowned. Conrad, his son, taking the con\-
mand of his army, came to the siege of Acre, in which
siege he also died. In consequence of the coming of thi^
multitude of Germans, there was a dearth in the camp
which lasted two months, so that a loaf of bread, which
before the coming of the German army was sold for one
j)enny, was afterward sold for three pounds, by reason
of this many christian soldiers perished through famine.
The chief food which the princes had to feed upon was
horse-flesh. This famine being so miserable, some
good bishops who were in the camp, namely, Hubert
bishop of Salisbury, with certain others, makiuij a
AD. 1190.] RICHARD OVERCOMES CYPRUS, AND PROCEEDS TO THE SIEGE OF ACRE. 151
general collection through the whole camp for the poor,
made such a provision that in this penury of all things,
no man was so destitute and needy, but he had some-
what for his relief; till within a few days after by the
merciful providence of God, who is the feeder of all
creatures, ships came to them with abundance of corn,
wine, and oil.
The siege of this town of Acre lasted a long time, and
as it was ably assailed by the christians, so it was strongly
defended by the Saracens, especially by the help of wild-
fire, which the Latins call Greek fire, so that there was
great slaughter on both sides.
The next year following (A. D. 1191), King Richard
sent over his gallies to Naples, there to meet his mother
Eleiior, and Berengaria the daughter of Sancius king of
Navarre, whom he purposed to marry. In the meantime
King Richard shewed himself exceeding bountiful and
liberal to all. To the French king he gave several
ships ; upon others he bestowed rich rewards ; and of
his goods and treasure he distributed largely to his sol-
diers and servants about him. It was reported that he
distributed more in one month, than any of his prede-
cessors did in a whole year ; by which he obtained great
love and favour, which not only redounded to the ad-
vancement of his fame, but also to his great advantage
and profit, as the sequel proved.
To proceed then in the progress of King Richard,
leaving the city of Messina, he went to Catana, where
Tancied king of Sicily then lay, where he was honourably
received, and remained with King Tancred three days
and three nights. On the fourth day, when he was
departing, Tancred offered him many rich presents in
gold and silver, and precious silks ; of which King
Richard would receive nothing, but one little ring, as a
token of his good will. For which King Richard again
gave liim a rich sword. At length, when King Richard
should take his leave, King Tancred would not so let
him part, but would give him four great ships, and fifteen
gallies ; and he himself would accompany him the space
ol two days journey to a place called Tavernium.
Then the next morning when they should take their
leave, Tancred declared to him the message which the
French king a little before had sent to him by the duke
of Burgundy, which was this: "That the king of
England was a false traitor, and would never keep the
peace that was between them. And if Tancred would
war against him, or attack him secretly by night, he
would assist him with all his power, and join with him to
the destruction of him and all his army," &c. Richard
the king protested that he was no traitor, nor ever was ;
and as to the peace begun between them, it should never be
broken through him ; nor could he believe that the French
king, being his good lord and his sworn partner in that
voyage, would utter any such words by him. When
Tancred heard this, he brings forth the letters of the
French king sent to him by the duke of Burgundy ; af-
firming, that if the duke of Burgundy would deny the
bringing of the letters, he was ready to meet him by any
of his dukes. King Richard receiving the letters, and
musing not a little upon them, returns to Messina.
From that time King Richard being angered against
King Philip, never shewed him any gentle countenance
peace and amity, as he was wont before.
Soon after this. King Philip sailed for Acre, and the
next month King Richard sailed with an hundred and
fifty great ships, and three-and-fifty great gallies well
manned and appointed, also towards Acre ; on Good Friday
there rose a mighty tempest, which scattered all his navy.
The king with a few ships, was driven to the isle of
Crete. The ship that carried the king's sister queen of
Sicilia, and Berengaria the king of Navarre's daughter,
with two other ships, were driven to the isle of Cyprus.
The king making great moan for the ship of his sister,
and Berengaria his intended wife, and not knowing where
they were, after the tempest was blown over, sent his
gallies diligently to search for the ship wherein his sister
was, and the maiden whom he was to marry ; at length
they were found safe and well at the port of Limisso in
the isle of Cyprus. Though the two ships, which were
iu their company in the same haven, were lost. The
king of Cyprus was then Isakius (called also the empe-
ror of the Griffons) who took and imprisoned all English-
men, who were cast by shipwreck upon his land ; and
would not suffer the ship wherein the two ladies were
to enter within the port.
The tidings of this being brought to King Richard, he
in his great wrath, gathering his gallie?and ships together,
landed in Cyprus, where he first iu gentle terms signifies
to King Isakius, how he with his Englishmen, coming
as strangers to the support of the Holy Land, where by dis-
tress of weather, driven upon his borders, and therefore
with all humble petition besought him in God's behalf,
and for reverence of the holy cross, to release such pri-
soners of his as he had in captivity, and to restore again the
goods of them who were drowned, and which he detained
in his hands, to be employed for the benefit of their souls,
&c. And this the king, once, twice, and thrice requested
of Isakius. But he, answering proudly, sent the king
word, that he would neither let the captives go, nor re-
turn the goods of those who were drowned, &c.
When King Richard heard how little Isakius made of
his humble and honest petition, and how nothing there
could be got without force ; he soon gives command
through all his army, to put themselves in armour, and
to follow him, to revenge the injuries received from that
proud and cruel king of Cyprus; desiring them to put
their trust in God, and not to doubt but the Lord would
stand with them, and give them the full victory. Isakius
in the mean time, stood guarding the sea coasts, where
the Englishmen should arrive, with swords, bills, and
lances, and such other weapons as they had, setting
boards, stools, and chests before them instead of a wall.
However, but few of them were in armour, and for the
most part inexpert, and unskilful in the feats of war. Then
King Richard with his soldiers, issuing out of their ships,
first set his bowmen forward, who with their shot made a
way for others to follow. The Englishmen, thus gaining
the land, pressed so fiercely upon the Griffons, that after
long fighting, and many blows, Isakius was put to flight;
King Richard valiantly pursued, and slew many, and
several he took alive, and had nearly taken the king, had
not the night come on and parted the battle. And thus
King Richard returning with much spoil and great vic-
tory to the port town of Limisso, which the townsmen
had abandoned for fear, found there great abundance of
corn, wine, oil, and provisions.
The same day, Joan the king's sister, and Berengaria
the maiden entered the port and town of Limisso, with
fifty great ships, and fourteen galliots ; so that the whole
navy, there meeting together, were two hundred and fifty
four tall ships, and above threescore galliots. Then
Isakius, seeing no way to escape by sea, pitched his tents
five miles off, swearing that the third day he would give
battle to King Richard. But Richard set upon the tents of
the Griffons early, while they were unwares and asleep,
and made a great slaughter of them, so that Isakius was
compelled to run away naked, leaving his tents and pavi-
lions to the Englishmen, full of horses and rich treasure, al-
so with the imperial standard, the lower part of which with
a costly streamer was covered and wrought all with gold.
King Richard then returning with victory and triumph
to his sister and Berengaria, shortly after, married Beren-
garia, in the isle of Cyprus.
Isakius being afterwards taken and sent in chains of
silver and gold to Tripoli, and all things being set in order
touching the possession of the isle of Cyprus, the keep-
ing of it he committed to Radulph, son of Godfrey, lord
chamberlain. King Richard departed from the isle of
Cyprus, with his ships and gallies towards the siege of
Acre ; and on his voyage he met with a great bark,
fraught with soldiers and men of war, to tlie number of
one thousand and five hundred ; who pretending to be
Frenchmen, and shewing their flag with French arms,
were really Saracens in disguise, secretly sent with wild-
fire, and barrels of unknown serpents, to the defence of
the town of Acre. King Richard at length perceiving
this, soon set upon them, and vanquished them, the niost
of them were drowned, and some were taken alive. The
next day. King Richard came to Acre : soon after his
coming, the Pagans within the city seeing their walls
152
RICHARD TAKEN BY THE DUKE OF AUSTRIA.
undermined, and towers overthrown, were driven to escape
•with life and limb, to surrender the city to the two kings.
An jfhe.r great help to the christians in winning the city
WH.^ this r in the city of Acre there was a secret christian
aino:.;^ the Saracens, who in the time of the siege, used
to CA>t over the walls, into the camp of the christians,
cert^iin letters written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in
which he disclosed to the christians, from time to time,
the doings and counsels of their enemies, advertising
them ho>v, and by what way they should work, and what
to bjware of; and always his letters began thus : "In the
nane of the Father, and of the Sou, and of the Holy Ghost."
By this, the christians were much advantaged in their
proceedings. But it was a source of great heaviness to
them, that he would never tell his name, nor when
the city was got, could they ever understand who he
was.
To make of a long siege a short narration, upon the
twelfth day of July (A. D. lliU), the princes and
ciptai;i3 of the Pagins, upon agreement came, to the
tent of the Templars, to commune with the two kings
touching peice and giving up of their city.
The twentieth d ly of July, King Richard, speaking
with the French king, desired him that they two with
their armies would bind themselves by oath to remain
there, still in the land of Jerusalem the space of three
years, for the winning and recovering again of those
countries. But he said he would swear no such oath.
So al)out the beginning of the month of August, Philip
tlie French king, went from Acre to Tyre ; although King
Ricliard and all the princes of the christian army with
great intreaty desired him to tarry ; shewing what a
shame it were for him to come so far, and now to leave
undone that for which he came. After his departure the
Pagans refused to keep their covenants ; they would
neither restore the holy cross, nor the money, nor the
captives, as they had pledged ; sending word to King
Richard, that if he beheaded the hostages left with him
at Acre, they would chop off the heads of such captives
of the christians as were in their hands. Shortly after
this, the Saladin, sending great gifts to King Richard,
requested the time limited, viz., forty days for behead-
ing the captives might be prolonged ; but the king re-
fused to take his gifts, and to grant his request. W'here-
Upon the Saladin caused all the christian captives within
his possession forthwith to be beheaded, which was the
eighteenth day of August. But yet. King Richard would
not anticipate the time before prescribed for the execu-
tion of his prisoners, being the twentieth of August.
Upon which day he caused the prisoners of the Sara-
cens, openly in the sight of the Saladin army, to lose
their heads : the number came to two thousand five
hundred, save only that certain of the principal of them
he reserved for purposes, and considerations, especially
to make exchange for the holy cross, and some of the
christian captives.
After this, King Richard purposed to besiege the city
of Joppa ; where, by the way between Acre and Joppa,
Saladin with a great multitude of his Saracens came
fiercely against the king's rear : but through God's mer-
ciful grace, the king's warriors acquitted them so well,
that the Saladin was put to flight (whom the christians
pursued the space of three miles), and lost the same day
many of his nobles and captives, so that the Saladin had
not been put to such confusion for forty years before.
From thence King Richard went to Joppa, and then to
Ascalon, where he found first the city of Joppa forsaken
by the Saracens, who durst not abide the king's coming.
And Ascalon, the Saladili tlirew down to the ground,
and forsook the holy land of Syria; through all which
the king had free passage without resistance, neither
durst the Saracen piince encounter after that with King
Richard.
Many other valiant and famous acts were achieved
by him and the French king, and more would have been
accoiniili.-ihed, had not those t'vo kings, falling into
discord, separated thrmselves. Pliilip, the French king,
returni'd home within a short time, and soon invaded
Normandy, urging John, the brother of King Richard, to
seize tiie kingdom of England iu his brother's absence ;
[Book IV.
who then made league with the French king, and did
homage to him. Richard being then in Syria, and hear-
ing of this, made a peace with the Turks for three years.
And not long after (in the spring following) King Richard
returned also. In his return he was driven, by distress
of weather, about the parts of Istria, in a town called
Synaca, and was there taken by Leopold, duke of the same
country, and sold to the Emperor Henry, for 60,000
marks.
King Richard, being thus shipwrecked, and traitor-
ously taken and sold to the emperor by the Duke of
Austria, was there kept in custody a year and three
months. In some histories, it is affirmed that King Ri-
chard, returning out of Asia, came to Italy with prosper-
ous winds, where he desired of the pope to be absolved
from an oath made against his will, and could not obtain
the absolution. And so setting out from thence towards
England, passing by the country of Conrad, the marquis,
whose death was falsely imputed by the French king to the
king of England, was there traitorously taken, as is be-
fore said, by Leopold, duke of Austria. Although in
another history I find the matter more credibly set forth,
which saith, "That King Richard slew the brother of
this Leopold, playing with him at chess in the French
king's court. And Leopold, taking his advantage, was
the more cruel against him, and delivered him, as is said,
to the emperor ; in whose custody he was detained during
the time above mentioned, a year and three months.
The French king, in the meantime, raised war in Nor-
mandy ; and Earl John, the king's brother, invaded
England ; but the barons and bishops of the land
mightily withstood him, and besieged him in the castle
of Windsor, where they took from him all the castles
and forts, which he had got before. Thus the earl, see-
ing no hope of prevailing in England, and suspecting the
deliverance of the king his brother, went to France, and
stayed with the French king. At length it was agreed
and concluded with the emperor, that King Richard
should be released for a hundred thousand pounds.
That sum of money was here gathered, and made in
England, of chalices, crosses, shrines, candlesticks, and
other church plate, also with public contribution of
friaries, abbies, and other subjects of the realm. Part
of this sum was immediately paid, and for the residue,
hostages and pledges were taken, which was about
the fifth year of his reign. And then it was obtained of
the pope, that priests might celebrate with chalices of
pewter and tin, and so it was granted and continued long
after.
Thus King Richard being ransomed, was restored again
and repaired into England. At his return Earl John his
brother, coming to him with humble submission, desired
to be pardoned for his trangressions. King Richard an-
swered, " I would to God that this your misconduct as it
dies in oblivion with me, so it may remain in remembrance
with you," and so he gently forgave him. And after he
had recovered his holds and castles, he caused himself to
be crowned again. Which done, he went with his forces
against the French king, and drove him out of Normandy.
And after that, he went against the Welshmen, and sub-
dued them.
The year following, (A.D. 1197,) Philip the French king
brake the truce made between him and King Richard ;
and the king was compelled to sail over again to Nor-
mandy to withstand the malice of his enemy. About which
time, my history records of one called Fulco by some ;
some say he was the archbishop of Rouen, called Walter,
This Fulco being then in England, and coming to the
king's presence, said to him with great courage and bold-
ness; " Thou hast, O mighty king, three daughters very
vicious and of evil disposition ; take good heed of them,
and at once ])rovide for them good husbands ; lest, by
untimely bestowing them in marriage, thou shalt not only
incur great loss and injury, but alsu utter ruin and de-
struction to thyself." The kingina rage said, "Thou lying
and mocking hyi)0crite, thou knowest not where thou ait,
or what tliou sayest ; I think thou art mad, or not wi-U
in thy wits ; for 1 have never had a daughter, as all the
world knows, and therefore thou 0])en liar get rhee out of
our presence." Fulco answered, "No, and like yojr grace.
A. D. 1191—1205.] DEATH OF RICHARD CCEUR DE LION. SUCCEEDED BY JOHN.
153
I lie not. but say truth : for you have three daughters
wliich I iintinually frequent your court, and wholly possess
your person, and such three naughty ones as never before
was heard of; 1 mean, mischievous /;rjrfe, greedy covet-
ou-miexif, and filthy ludtti-y ; and therefore again I say, O
king, ijcware of tnem, and at once provide marriages for
tiiein, lest m not so doing, thou utterly undo both thyself
aui all tijc whole realm."
The king took his words in good part, with correction
of himseli, and confession of the same. Whereupon im-
mediately, he called his lords and barons before him, to
whom he declared the conversation of Fulco, who had
desired hiui to beware of his three daughters, pride, ava-
rice, and luxury, with advice to marry them immediately,
lest further inconvenience should ensue both to him and to
the whole realm : "His good counsel (my lords)l intend to
follow, not doubting of all your consent thereto. Wherefore
here before you all, 1 give my daughter swelling pride to
wife to the proud Templars ; my greedy daughter avarice to
the covetous order of the Cistercian monks ; and last of all,
my tilthy daughter luxury to the riotous prelates of the
church, whom I think to be very meet men for her ; and
go severally well agreeing to all their natures, that the like
matches in this our realm are not to be found for them."
And thus much concerning Fulco.
Not long after this, a certain noble personage found a
great treasure both of gold and silver hid in the ground,
a great part of which he sent to King Richard, as chief
lord and prince over the whole country. Which the king
refused ; saying, he would have all or none, for that he
was the principal chieftain over the land. But the tinder
■would not condescend to that. Therefore the king laid
siege to a castle of his, called Galuz, thinking the treasure
to lie there. But the keepers and warders of the castle,
seeing themselves not sutticient to withstand the king,
offered to him the castle, desiring to depart with life and
armour. To this the king would in no wise grant, but bid
them to re-enter the castle again, and to defend it in all
the forcible wise they could. It so befel, that as the king
with the duke of Brabant went about the castle, viewing
the places thereof; a soldier within, named Bertrand
Cordoun, struck the king with an arrow in the arm, and
the iron remaining and festering in the wound, the king
I within nine days after died ; who, because he was not
I content with the half of the treasure that another man
i found, lost all his own treasure that he had. The king,
I being thus wounded, caused the man that struck him to
be brought to him, and asked him the cause why he so
' wounded him ? Who answered him (as the history says),
i that he thought to kill rather than to be killed ; and what
! punishment soever he should sustain, he was content, so
! that he might kill him who had before killed his father and
: brothers. The king, hearing his words, freely forgave him
and caused an hundred shillings to be given him. Al-
though (as the history adds) after the death of the king,
the duke of Brabant, caused him after great torments, to
' be hanged. The history of Gisburn says, that the killer of
; King Richard coming to the French king, thinking to
have a great reward, was commanded to be drawn asunder
with horses, and his quarters to be hanged up.
Another history affirms, and Gisburn partly testifies the
] same, that a little before the death of King Richard, three
' abbots of the order Cistercian came to him, to whom he
I was confessed ; and when he saw them somewhat stay at
1 Lis absolution, he added these words : that he did willingly
' commit his body to be eaten of worms, and his soul to
I the fire of purgatory, there to be tormented till the judg-
ment, in the hope of God's mercy.
KING JOHX.
After the death of King Richard, called Coeur de Lion,
his brother John, earl of Morton.began his reign, A. D.
1199. The archbishop put the crown on his head, and
swore him to defend and to maintain the church. And
unless he resolved in his mind to do so, the archbishop
charged him not to presume to take on him this dignity.
And on St. John Baptist's day next following, King John
sailed into Normandy and came to Rouen, where he was
royally received, and a truce concluded between him and
the French king for a time. And there came to him the earl
of Flanders, and all other lords of France that were of Kiiu;
Richard's band and friendship, and were sworn unto him.
Not long after this, Philip the French king made Ar-
thur a knight, and received his homage for Normandy,
Brittany, and all other his possessions beyond the sea, and
promised him assistance against King John. After this,
King John and the French king conferred with their lords
about one hour's space ; and the French king asked so
much land for himself and Knight Arthur, that King
John would grant him none, and so he de]iarted in wrath.
The same year a legate came into France, and com-
manded the king on pain of an interdict, to release
one Peter out of prison, who was elected to a bishoprick ;
and he was accordingly released.
And after that the legate came into England, and com-
manded King John, also under pain of an interdict, to de-
liver the archbishop whom he had kept as prisoner two
years ; which the king refused to do, till he had paid him
six thousand marks ; because he took him in armour in
battle against iiim, and sware him upon his deliverance,
that he should never wear armour against any Christiaa
man.
This time a divorce was made between King John and
his wife, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester, because they
were in the third degree of kindred. And afterwards by
the advice of the French king, King John wedded Isabel,
daughter of the Earl of Angouleme ; and then Arthur of
Brittany did homage to King John for Brittany and other
lands.
At this time there was a contention between King John
and Geffrey the archbishop of York ; first, because he
would not suffer and permit the sheriff of York to pro-
ceed in such affairs as he had to do for the king within his
diocese. Secondly, because he also excommunicated the
sheriff. Thirdly, because he would not sail with him into
Normandy, to make the marriage between Louis the
French king's son, and his niece, &c.
In the year 1202, Philip the French king required that
King John should part wich all his lands in Normandy
and Pictavia to Arthur his nephew, or else he would war
against him ; when King John refused, the next day the
French king with Arthur attacked his towns and castles
in Normandy, and put him to much trouble ; but he re-
ceived, however, such a repulse at the Englishmen's
hands, that they, pursuing the Frenchmen in their flight,
so followed them that they not only took Arthur prisoner,
with many others, but gave such an overthrow, that none
was left to bear tidings home.
This Arthur was nephew to King John, and son to
Geffrey, who was the elder brother to John. For King
Henry II. had eight children ; one William, who died in
childhood; the second, Henry, who died also while his
father was yet alive ; the third, Geffrey, earl of Brittany,
who likewise died in his father's days, leaving behindhim
two children, Arthur and Brecca ; the fourth, Richard Coeur
de Lion, king ; the fifth, John, now reigning ; and three
daughters besides.
Arthur being thus taken, was brought before the king,
and having been exhorted with many gentle words to
leave the French king, and to incline to his uncle, an-
swered boldly and with great indignation ; demanding the
kingdom of England, v.-ith all the other dominions thereto
belonging, as the lawful heir of the crown. By this he pro-
voked the king's displeasure against him and was sent to
the tower of Rouen, where at length (whetuer by leaping
into the ditch, thinking to make his escape, or whether
by some other secret hand, or by what chance else it is
not yet agreed upon in history) he finished his life. King
John was under great suspicion ; whether justly or un-
justly, the Lord knows.
The year following, John lost all his holds and posses-
sions in Normandy, through the power of the French
king.
After these losses, came other troubles upon him, with
as great or greater enemies, that is, with the pope and his
popelings in the affair of the archbishop of Canterbury.
In A. D. 1205, Hubert the archbishop of Canter-
bury died. Before his body was yet committed to the
earth, the younger sort of the monks gathered them-
1«4
DISPUTE CONCERNING THE ARCHBISHOPRICK OF CANTERBURY. [Book IV
selves together at midnight, and elected their superior
Reginald, and without the king's license, or even know-
ledge, placed him in the metropolitan seat. And lest
the king should make the election void, tliey charged him
by virtue of his oath to keep all secret, and to reveal no-
thing till he came to the pope ; but he, contrary to his
oath, so soon as he came into Flanders, opened abroad all
the matter. The next day the elder monks sent to the
king, desiring him of his gracious license canonically to
choose tiieir archbishop. The king most gently and fa-
vourably granted their petition, desiring that for his sake
they would shew favour to John Gray, then bishop of
Norwich, as indeed they did, electing him to that See of
the primacy. As the authority of kings and princes was
then but small in their own dominions, without the pope's
consent and confirmation ; he also sent to Rome to have the
election ratified by the pope. The suffragans of Canter-
bury then being not a little offended at these two elections
sent speedily to Rome to have them both stopped ; for
they had not been consulted about them. And from
them grew a most prodigious tumult.
In this year the clergy grew so unruly, that they ne-
glected their charge, and incensed the king's displeasure
so much against them, thathetook order about the goods
of such as were faulty.
A Letter of King John, touching the Lands and Goods of
such Clergymen as refuse to celebrate Divine Service.
" The king to all clerical and lay persons within the bi-
shoprick of Lincoln, greeting : know ye that from Mon-
day next before the feast of Easter, we have committed to
William of CornhiU, archdeacon of Huntington, and to
Joseline of Canvil, all the lands and goods of the abbots
and priors, and of all the spiritual persons ; and also of
all clerks within the bishoprick of Lincoln, who will not
from that time celebrate divine service. And we com-
mand you, that from thence you assist them as our bai-
liffs ; and believe them in those things which they shall
tell you privately on our behalf. Witness ourself at Claren-
don the 18th day of March, in the 9th year of our reign."
But to proceed in this troublesome election : the next
year, the suffragans of the province of Canterbury on one
side, and the monks of Canterbury on the other, came be-
fore the pope with their brawling matter. First , the
monks, presenting Reginald their superior, desired that
their election might be confirmed. The suffragans like-
wise complained that the monks should presume to choose
the archbishop without their consent, and therefore de-
sired the first election to be annulled. The pope, decid-
ing the matter, pronounced with the monks ; charging
the suffragans and bishops to meddle no more with that
election, but to let the monks alone. The monks of Can-
terbury, now having the whole election in their own hands,
fell out among themselves. The younger sort who had
chosen Reginald their superior, wished that election to
stand. The elder sort of monks replied that the first
election was done by stealth and by night, and by the
younger part ; also without the counsel of the other
monks. Besides, it was done without the king's license
and appointment, and without due solemnity.
When they had multiplied talk on both sides a long
time, and could not agree upon one person, Pope Inno-
cent condemned both their elections, commanding them
to choose Stephen Langton, then cardinal of St. Chryso-
gon, for their archbishop. The monks then answered,
that they durst not so do without consent of their king.
The pope in a passion, taking the words out of their
mouths, said to them, " We desire you to know that we
have full power and authority over the church of Canter-
bury, and are not wont to tarry for the consent of princes,
therefore we command you, on pain of our great curse,
that ye choose him only whom we have appointed."
The monks at these words abashed and terrified, though
they much murmured in their hearts, yet consented, and
thus Stephen Langton was made archbishop of Canterbury.
Upon this occasion King John conceived an exceeding
displeasure against the clergy and monks of Canterbury
for doing so many things against his prerogative. With-
out his license they elected their archbishop, and set
aside the bishop of Norwich, whom he had appointed.
They wasted a great part of his treasure, and to bring all
to the devil, they made Stephen Langton their high me-
tropolitan ; so that in his anger he banished them out of
the land to the number of sixty-four.
The king then sends messengers to the pope with his
letters, wVerein he sharply remonstrates with the pope,
because he so uncourteously refused the election of the
bishop of Norwich, and set up Stephen Langton, conse
crating him archbishop of Canterbury ; and among other
things he adds, that he will stand for his liberties, if need
be, unto death ; and he thus concludes, saying, "That
if he be not heard in this his request, he will so pro-
vide for the sees that there shall be no such gadding and
coursing any more over toRome, suffering the riches of the
land no more to be transported there. And seeing he has
of his own, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of
the church, sufficiently provided and instructed in all kinds
of knowledge, he shall not require to seek for judgment
and justice abroad."
When these came to the pope, he directs letters ia
return to the king in this form :
" Innocent, pope, servant of the servants of God, to
our well-beloved son in Christ, the king of England,
health and apostolical blessing. Whereas we have writ-
ten to you heretofore, exhorting and intreating you after
an humble, diligent, and gentle way ; you have written
to us in reply after a threatening and upbraiding manner;
both spitefully and frowardly. And whereas we have
borne with you and given way to you above what our right
and duty required ; you for your part have given to us
not so much as by right and duty you are bound to do.
And though your devotion, as you say, has been to us
very necessary, yet consider again that ours also is not a
little opportune and expedient for you. And whereas we
have not shewed at any time the like honour to any prince
as we have to you ; you again have so much derogated
from our honour, as no prince else hath presumed to do
besides you alone ; pretending certain frivolous causes
and occasions," &c.
Then alluding at length to the election of Langton, he
thus proceeds : " Wherefore be it known to your dis-
cretion or kingly prudence, that as this election of Ste-
phen Langton has proceeded without fraud or deceit
upon a person meet for the same ; therefore we will for
no man's pleasure, neither may we without danger of
fame and of conscience defer or protract any longer the
consummation of the said election. Wherefore, my well-
beloved son, seeing we have had respect to your honour,
above what our right and duty required, study to honour
us so much as your duty requires again, so that you may
the more plentifully deserve favour both at God's hand
and ours ; lest that by doing the contrary you bring
yourself into such a sea of troubles as you shall after-
wards scarce free yourself of again. For know this for
a certainty, that in the end it must needs fall out that he
shall have the better, to whom every knee of ' things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth'
doth bow, whose place I serve in earth, though I be un-
worthy. Therefore set not yourself to obey their per-
suasions, who always desire your unquietness, that they
may fish the better in the troubled water ; but commit
yourself to our pleasure, which undoubtedly shall turn
to your praise, glory, and honour."
After this letter was sent, there proceeded not long
after a charge and commandment into England to certain
bishops, requiring them by apostolic authority that if the
king would not receive the prior of Canterbury and his
monks they should interdict him throughout all his realm.
For the executing of this four bishops were appointed
by the pope's bulls, namely, William, bishop of London ;
Eustace, bishop of Ely ; Walter, bishop of Winchester ;
and Giles, bisliop of Hereford. These bishops went to
the king, and shewed their commission from the i)ope,
and wished him to consent ; but the king refused, and
would by no means grant their request. They went on
the morrow after the Annunciation of the Virgin, and pro-
nounced the general interdict throughout all England,
so that the church doors were shut up with keys and othel
fastenings, and with walls, &c.
A. D. 1205—1210.]
THE POPE CURSES KING JOHN.
Ic
Now when the king heard of this, he began to be
moved against them, and took all the possessions of the
four bishops into his haads, appointing certain men
to keep the livings of the clergy throughout the realm,
ar.d that they should enjoy no part thereof. Which be-
ing done, the bishops cursed alt them that kept, or should
meddle with church goods.
After a time certain prelates, on the king's part,
made an arrangement with them, and when the form of
agreement was concluded, it was engrossed in two in-
dentures ; and the four bishops set their seals to one
part, and the other part the bishops, earls, and abbots
carried to the king. When the king saw the arrange-
ment he liked it well, only he would not agree to make
restitution of the church goods. So he sent to the four
bishops again that they should put out that point of
restitution. But they answered stoutly that they would
not put out one word. Then the king sent word to the
archbishop, by the four bishops, that he should come to
Canterbury to speak with him. When the archbishop
Stephen came to Canterbury, the king sent his treasurer
the bishop of Winchester to him, to persuade him to
put out of the indentures the clause of restitution ; but he
refusing to alter a word of it, angered the king so that
immediately it was proclaimed throughout England at
the king's command that all those that had any church
livings, and went over sea should come back to England
by a certain day, or else lose their livings for ever. And
further in that proclamation, he charged all sheriffs
within the realm, to inquire if any bLshops, abbots,
priors, or any other churchman (from that day forward)
received any command that came from the pope, and
that they should take his or their body and bring it be-
fore him : and also that they shovdd take into their
hands, for the king's use, all the church lands that were
given to any man by the Archbishop Stephen, or by the
priors of Canterbury, from the time of the election of
the archbishop ; and he further charged that all the
woods, that were the archbishop's, shovdd be cut down
and sold.
When tidings came to the pope that the king had
acted thus, he was moved with fiery wrath, and sent to
the king two legates (Pandulph and Durant), to warn
him in the pope's name that he should cesise his doings
to the holy church, and amend the wrong he had done
to the archbishop of Canterbury, to the priors and the
monks of Canterbury, and to all the clergy of England.
And further, that he should restore the goods again that
he had taken against their will, or else they should
curse the king by name ; and for this purpose, the pope
gave them his bulls and letters patent. These two legates,
coming into England, came to the king, and informed
him of the pope's pleasure.
Then the king answered, " All that ye have said I
would gladly do, and all things else that you would or-
dain ; but as to the archbishop, 1 shall tell you as it lies
in my heart. Let the archbishop leave his bishoprick,
and if the pope shall then intreat for him, perhaps I
may give him some other bishoprick in England, and
upon this condition I will receive and admit him."
Then said Pandulph to the king, " Holy church was
wont never to degrade an archbishop without reasonable
cause ; but she was ever wont to correct princes that
were disobedient to her."
" What.' How now ?" said the king, " do ye threaten
me r"
" Nay," said Pandulph, " but you have now openly
told us as it stands in your heart ; and now we will tell
you what is the pope's wiU. He has wholly interdicted
and cursed you, for the wrongs you have done to the
church and to the clergy. And for so much as ye continue
in your malice, and will come to no amendment, you
are to understand, that from this time forward the sen-
tences against you have force and strength. And all
those that have had intercourse with you before this
time, whether that they be earls, barons, knights, or any
other, we absolve them safely from their sins up to this
day ; but from this time forward we accurse them
openly, and specially by this our sentence, that hold in-
tercourse with you. -\nd we absolve, moreover, earls,
barons, knights, and all other manner of men, of their
homages, services, and fealties. Also, Sir King," said
Pandulph, " all the kings, princes, and the great dukes
of Christendom, have requested the pope to give license
to them to cross themselves, and to war against thee, as
upon God's great enemy, and win thy land, and to ap-
point for king whom the pope pleases. And we here
now absolve of their sins all those that will rise against
thee here in thine own land."
Then the king, hearing this, answered, " \Miat fur-
ther shame may ye do to me than this r"
Pandulph again : " We say to you, by the word of
God, that neither you, nor any heir that you have, after
this day shall be crowned."
So the king said, " By him that is Almighty God, if I
had known of this thing before ye came into this land,
and that ye had brought me such news, I woidd have
made you stay away these twelve months out of my
realms."
Then answered Pandulph, " Full well we thought, at
our first coming, that you would have been obedient to
God and to holy church, and have fulfilled the pope's
commandment, which we have shewed and pronounced
to you. And now you say, that if you had known the
cause of our coming, you would have made us stay away
a whole year ; you might as well say, that you would
have taken a whole year's respite without the pope's
leave ; but, thoug'n we were to suffer death for it, we
shall not shrink from telling all the pope's message and
wiO, that he gave us in charge."
In another chronicle I find the words between the
king and Pandulph somewhat otherwise described, as
if the king had threatened him with hanging, if he had
foreknown of his coming. Pandulph answered, that he
looked for nothing else at his hands, but to suffer for
the church's rights. Whereupon the king, being
mightily incensed, departed. The king, being then at
Northampton, desired the sheriffs and bailiffs to bring
forth all the prisoners there, that such as had deserved it
should be put to death, to the intent (as some think) to
make Pandulph afraid. Among them was a certain
clergyman, who, for counterfeiting the king's coin, was
condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered ; and
was commanded by the king, thereby to anger Pan-
dulph, to be hanged higher than the rest. Panduljih
hearing of this, though he began to fear lest he should
be hanged himself, yet went with courage to the
church to bring out book, beU, and candle, charging
that no man, under pain of cursing, should lay hands
upon the clergyman. Upon this the king and the car-
dinal parted in no little anger ; and Pandulph went to
Rome, and reported to the pope and the cardinals what
had been done.
Then the pope summoned all the bishops, abbots, and
clergy of England, to repair to Rome, to consult what
was to be done. In which council it was decreed, that
John king of England should be accursed, with all such
as held with him. However, it was not yet permitted
that the people should assume the cross to fight against
him, because as yet he had shed no blood. But after-
wards the pope, seeing that King John would not stoop
under his subjection, sent to the French king, that upon
remission of all his sins, and those of all that would
accompany him, he should invade the realm of England.
Pope Innocent again commanded, on pain of his
great curse, that no man should obey King John : he
forbid all persons to eat and drink with him, or talk
with him, to commune or counsel with him ; yea, he for-
bid his own familiar household to do him any kind of
service, either at bed, or at board, in church, in hall,
or in stable. Neither was the pope content with this,
but gave sentence definitive that King John should be
put from his regal seat and deposed, and another put in
his room. And for the speedy execution of this sen-
tence he appointed the French king Philip, promi.-ing
to give him full remission of all his sins, and the clear
possession of all the realm of England, to him and his
heirs, if he either killed him or expelled him.
The next year the French king began his attempt,
being well manned with bishops, monks, prelates, priests,
156
KING JOHN RESIGNS HIS CROWN TO THE POFE.
[Book IV.
and their senants. But, behold the work of God, the
English navy took three hundred of the French king's
ships, well laden with wheat, wine, meal, flesh, armour,
and such materials for the war ; and burnt one hun^
dred within the harbour, taking the spoils with them.
In the meantime the priests within England had pro-
vided them a false prophet, c died Peter Wakefield of
Poiz, who was an idle wanderer and talking fellow. They
made this Peter prophesy lies, rumouring his ))rophesies
abroad, to bring the king out of all credit with his peo-
ple. This knavisii fellow prophesied of King John, that
he should reign no longer than Ascension-day (A.D.
r2l:i), and this, he said, he had by revelation. Then it
was demanded of him whether John would be slain, or
expelled, or resign the crown ? He answered, that he
could not tell ; but of this he was sure, that neither he,
nor any of his stock, or lineage, should reign after that
dav. The king, hearing of this, laughed much at it.
" Tush, (said he,) it is but an idiot knave, and one out of
his wits." But when this foolish prophet had escaped
the king's displeasure, he used to talk more than enough ;
so tliat they who loved the king apprehended him as a
malefactor, and he was thrown into prison without the
king knowing it.
Soon after, the fame of this prophet went all over the
realm, and his name was known every where, specially
because he was imprisoned for the matter. From thence
old gossips' tales went abroad, new tales were invented,
fables were added to fables, and lies grew upon lies, so
that every day new slanders were raised against the
king, rumours arose, blasphemies were spread, the ene-
mies rejoiced, and treasons were maintained by the
priests.
When the Ascension-day was come, which was pro-
phesied of before. King John commanded his regal tent
to be spread abroad in the open field, passing that day
with his noble council and men of honour, in the great-
est solemnity that he ever did before, solacing himself
with musical instruments and songs, and always in sight
among his trusty friends. When that day was past in
all prosperity and mirth, his enemies turned all to an
allegorical understanding, to make the prophesy good,
and said, " he is no longer king, for the pope reigns, and
not he." Then was the king persuaded by his council,
that this false prophet had troubled the realm, perverted
the hearts of the people, and excited the commons
against him. The king, therefore, commanded that he
should be hanged and drawn like a traitor.
Then the popish prelates, monks, canons, priests, &c.,
began to practise with Pope Innocent and the French king
abroad, besides the treasons which they wrought within
the real,m, and they blinded the nobility and commons
by their confessionals. The king thus surrounded with
enemies, and knowing the conspiracies that were work-
ing against him, as well by the pope, as by Philip the
French king, and being aware that his lords and barons
were rebelliously incited against him, and seeing the
pope's curses and interdicts against such as took his
part, and his absolutions and dispensations for all those
that woidd rebel against him, commanding them to de-
tain from him such homage, service, duties, debts, and
all other allegiance that godly subjects owe and are
bound to yield and give to their liege lord and prince.
The king, I say, in the thirteenth year of his reign, see-
ing all this, and that the French king began an invasion
upon his realm, sent ambassadors to the pope, the foun-
tain of all this mischief, promising to do whatever the
pope should command him in the reformation of himself,
and restitution of all wrongs done to holy church.
Then the pope sent again into England his legate
Pandulph, with others, and the king waited their coming
at Canterbury ; where, the thirteenth day of May, the
king received them, making an oath, that of and for all
things wherein he stood accursed, he would make ample
restitution and satisfaction. All the lords and barons
of England (so many as were there with the king) sware
in like manner, that if the king would not accomplish in
every thing the oath which he had taken, they would
compel him to hold and confirm the same.
Then the king submitted himself to the court of
Rome, and resigned his dominions and realms of Eng-
land and Ireland for himself and for his heirs for ever.
With this condition, that the king and his heirs should
take again these two dominions of the pope to farm, pay-
ing yearly to the court of Rome one thousand marks of
silver. Then the king took the crown from his head,
and kneeling upon his knees, in the presence of all his
lords and barons of England, he gave it to Pandulph,
saying, " Here I resign the crown of the realm of Eng-
land to the hands of the pope. Innocent III., and place
myself wholly at his mercy." Then Pandulph took the
crown, and kept it five days as a possession and seizin-
taking of these two realms of England and Ireland, con-
firming also all things promised by his charter obligatory,
as follows : —
The Copy of the Letter Obligatory that King John made
to the Pope, concerning the yielding vp of the Crown
and Realtn of England into the Pope's hands, for a
certaiti sum of money yearly to be paid.
" To all christian people throughout the world, John,
by the grace of God, king of England, greeting : be it
known unto you all, that as we have grieved and offended
God, and our mother church of Rome, and as we have
need of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can
offer nothing so worthy, or make so competent satis-
faction to God and to holy church, as with our realms of
England and of Ireland, then, by the grace of the Holy
Ghost, we desire to humble ourselves, for the love of
him that humbled himself to the death upon the cross.
And through counsel of the nobles, earls, and barons, we
offer and freely grant to God, and to the apostles St.
Peter and Paul, and to our mother church of Rome, and
to our holy father Pope Innocent III., and to all the
popes that come after him, all the realm, patronages of
churches of England and of Ireland, with all the appur-
tenances, for remission of sins, and help and health of
our kings' souls, and of all christian souls. So that
from this time afterward, we will receive and hold of our
mother church of Rome, as in farm, doing fealty to our
holy father the pope. Innocent III., and to all the popes
that come after him, in the manner above said. And in
the presence of the wise Pandulph, the pope's legate, we
make liege homage, as if it were in the pope's presence ;
and thereto we bind us, and all that come after us, and our
heirs for ever, without any gainsaying to the pope.
And in token of this, we will confirm, and ordain, that
he be our special renter of the aforesaid realms, saving
St. Peter-pence, in all things. To the mother church of
Rome, paying by the year 1000 marks of silver, at two
periods of the year, for all customs that we should do
for the said realms, that is to say, at Michaelmas, and at
Easter ; that is, for England 700 marks, and 300 marks
for Ireland, saving to us and to our heirs, our justices and
our other franchises. And all these things, we will that
they be firm and stable without end, and to that obliga-
tion, we and all our successors, and our heirs in this
manner are bound, that if we or any of our heirs
through any presumption fail in any of these things, and
he being warned and not amending, he shall then lose the
aforesaid realms for ever ; and this charter of obligation
and our warrant for ever, shall be firm and stable without
gainsaying. We shall from this day afterward be true to
God, and \o the mother church of Rome, and to thee,
Innocent IH., and to all that come after thee, and the
realms of England and of Ireland we shall maintain
against all manner of men, by our power through God's
help."
Upon this obligation, the king was discharged the se-
cond day of July, from that tyrannical interdict, under
which he continued five years and three months. But
before the release, he was thus miserably comjiellcd to
give over both his crown and sceptre to that antichrist of
Rome, for the space of five days, and as his client, vas-
.•581, feudary, and tenant, to receive it again of him at the
hands of another cardinal, being bound both for himself
and for his successors, to pay yearly (for acknowledg-
ment thereof) 1000 marks for England and Ireland.
la (A. D. 1215), as witnesses, Paulus utmihus.
A.D. 1210—1216.]
KING JOHN POISOxNED BY A MONK.
IS
and other histories, Pope Innocent III. held a ge-
neral synod at Rome, called the council of Lateran.
The chief causes of that council were these : 1 i the days
of this Innocent, heresy, as he calls the truth of God, or
the doctrine that rebukes sin, began to spread forth its
branches, so that many princes were excommunicated.
as Otho the emperor, John the kinc; of En2;land, Peter
king of Arragon, Raimund the earl of Toulouse, Aqui-
tain, Sataloni, and others. Therefore this council was
proclaimed, and prelates from all iiations called to it. And
the pope gave out that his intent was only to have the
church universally reformed, and the Holy Land reco-
vered from the Turks. But all this was craft and false-
hood, as the sequel proved. For his jiurpose was to
subdue all princes, and to make himself rich and wealthy.
For there he made this antichristian act, and established
it by public decree, that the pope should have from
thenceforth the correction of all christian princes, and
that no emperor should be admitted, except he were
sworn before, and were also crowned by him. He or-
dained, too, that whoever should speak evil of the pope,
should be punished in hell with eternal damnation ;
(Cnnradris, Urspergensis , Hieronymus, Marins.)
In this council transubstantiation was first invented
and brought in ; of which John Scot, sirnamed Duns,
makes mention in his fourth book, writing in these
words : " The words of the scripture might be expounded
more easily, and more plainly, without transubstantia-
tion. But the church did choose this sense, which is
more hard ; being moved thereto, as it seems, chiefly be-
cause about the sacraments men ought to hold as the
holy church of Rome holds," &c.
Now let us return to King John again, and mark how
the priests and their adherents were plagued for their
treatment of his majesty's will. In the council of
Lateran, Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury,
was excommunicated, with all those bishops, prelates,
priests, barons, and commons, who had been with him in
the former rebellion. And when the archbishop had made
suit to be absolved, the pope answered with great indig-
nation,— " I swear by St. Peter, thou shalt not so soon
at my hand obtain the benefit of absolution." With the
barons of England, the pope had been so deeply offended
and angered a little before, that he rent and destroyed the
great charter of the liberties of England, and by sen-
tence condemned it for ever ; and cursed all the other
rebels, with book, bell, and candle.
About the same time were such treasons and conspi-
racies wrought by the bishops, priests, and monks
throughout all the realm, that the king knew not where
to find trusty friends ; he was compelled to tn vel from
place to place, but not without a great army of men,
looking every day when his barons and their confeder-
ates would cruelly set upon him. For the space of
three months he remained in the Isle of Wight, abroad
in the air to quiet himself for a time from all tumults,
and led there a solitary life among rivers and watermen.
He rather coveted to die than to live, being so traitor-
ously handled by his bishops and barons, and not know-
ing how to be avenged. Therefore, he took upon him
the cross, or voyages against the Turks, for the recovery
of Jerusalem. Influenced rather by the doubts which he
had of his people, than by any devotion ; and he said to
his familiar servants, " Since I submitted myself and my
lands (England and Ireland) to the church of Rome,
nothing ever prospered with me, but all hath gone against
me."
In this year (A. D. 1216,) died Pope Innocent III.
After whom succeeded Cintius, called Honorius III., a
man of very great age : yet he lived in the papacy ten
years and a half, and more.
In the same year, as King John was come to Swinstead
abbey, not far from Lincoln, he rested there two days :
where (as most writers testify) he was most traitorously
poisoned by a monk of that abbey.
Among other peculiar traits belonging to this king,
there was one which is not to be reprehended, but rather
commended in him : for being above the superstition
which kings at that time were commonly subject to, he
regarded not the popish mass ; I find testified of him,
that on a time in his hunting, coming where a very fat
stag was cut up and opened, the king beholding the fat-
ness and the liking of the stag : " See," saith he, " how
easily and happily he has lived, and yet for all that he
never heard a mass."
It is recorded in the chronicle of William C'axton,
that the Monk Simon being much off'ended with the
king, cast in his wicked heart how he most speedily
might bring him to his end. And first of all he took
counsel with his abbot, shewing him the whole affair, and
what he designed to do. He alleged the prophesy of
Caiajihas, " It is expedient for us that one man die for
the people, and that the whole nation perish not," John,
xi. 50. " I am well contented," saith he, "to lose my
life, and so become a martyr, that I may utterly destroy
this tyrant." The abbot wept for gladness, and much
commended his fervent zeal. The monk then being ab-
solved by his abbot beforehand for doing this act, con-
veyed poison into a cup of wine, and with a smiling and
flattering countenance said to the king, *' If it please
your princely majesty, here is such a cup of wine as ye
never drank better in all your life time ; I trust this was-
sail shall make all England glad :" and with that he
drank a great draught of it himself, the king pledging him.
The monk died, and had continually from thenceforth
three monks to sing mass for his soul, confirmed by their
general chapter ! What became of King John, ye shall
now learn. I would ye did mark well the wholesome pro-
ceedings of these holy votaries, how virtuously they obey
their king, whom God hath appointed, and how religiously
they bestow their confessions, absolutions, and masses !
The king within a short space after (feeling great pain
in his body) asked for Simon the monk ; and answer was
made that he was dead. " Then God have mercy upon
me," said he, " I suspected as much, after he had said that
all England should thereof be glad." With that he com-
manded his chariot to be prepared, for he was not able
to ride. So he went from thence to Sleaford castle, and
from thence to Newark on Trent, and there within less
than three days he died. Upon his death-bed he much
repented of his former life, and forgave all them that
had done him injury ; desiring that his elder son Henry
might be admonished by his example, and learn by his
misfortunes to be natural, favourable, gentle, and loving
to his people. His soldiers both Englishmen and strangers
were still about him, and followed his body in their
armour, till they came to the cathedral church of Wor-
cester, and there he was honourably buried by Silvester
the bishop, between St. Oswald and St. Wolstan, two
bishops of that church. He died A. D. 1216, the nine-
teenth day of October, after he had reigned in such ca-
lamity, eighteen years and six months and odd days.
Many opinions are among the chroniclers of the death
of King John. Some of them write that he died of sor-
row and heaviness of heart, as Polydore : some of sur-
feiting in the night, as Raduljih Niger : some of a bloody
flux, as Roger Hoveden : some of a burning ague ; some
of cold sweat, some of eating apples, some of eating
pears, some of plums, &c.
Thus you see what variety is among the writers con-
cerning the death of this King John. Of which writers,
although the most of them agree in this, that he was poi-
soned by the monk, yet Matthew Paris writes thus,
" That going to Lincolnshire, and there hearing of the loss
of his carriage and of his treasures upon the washes, he
fell into great heaviness of mind ; insomuch that he fell
thereby into a burning fever, at the abbey of Swinsted.
This ague he also increased through evil surfeiting and
improper diet, by eating of peaches and drinking of new
ciser, or as w^e call it cider. Thus being sick, he was
carried from thence to the castle of Sleaford, and from
thence to the castle of Newark ; where calling for his son
Henry, he gave to him the succession of his crown and
kingdom, writing to all his lords and nobles to receive
him for their king ; and shortly after, upon St. Lucy's
eve, he departed this life, being buried at Worcester," &c.
In the reign of this King John, the citizens of London
first obtained of the king to choose yearly a mayor. In
whose time also the bridge of London was first built of
stone, which before was of wood.
1S8
ORIGIN OF THE DOMINICANS AND FRANCISCANS.
[Book IV.
KIXG HENRY THE THIRD.
After King John had reigned seventeen years, he died.
He left behind him four sons and three daughters ; firj^t,
Henry, the second Richard earl of Cornwall, the third
William of Valentia, the fourth Guido Disenaie : he had
also another son, who afterwards was made bishop. Of
his daughters, the first was Isabel, married to the emperor
Frederick, tlie second Elenor, married to William earl
marshal, the third to Mountford the earl of Leicester, &c.
Another history says, that he had but two daughters, Isabel
and Elenor, or as another calls her Joan, who was after
queen of Scotland.
Henry the eldest son was then nine years of age, when
the majority of the barons of England adhered to Lewis
the French king's son, whom they had previously in-
vited to come to England, proposing, in their opposition
to King John, then under the pope's curse, to elect this
Lewis as their king, and had sworn to him their allegiance.
Then William, earl marshal, a nobleman of great autho-
rity, and a grave and sound counsellor, in a friendly and
quiet way called together several earls and barons, and tak-
ing this Henry the young prince, he sets him before them,
using these words, "Behold, right honourable and well
beloved, although we have persecuted the father of this
young prince for his evil demeanour, and worthily ; yet
this young child w^hom here ye see before you, as he is in
years tender, so is he pure and innocent from these his
father's doings : wherefore in as much as every man is
charged only with the burthen of his own works and trans-
gressions, neither shall the child (as the scripture teacheth
us) bear the iniquity of his father : we ought therefore
of duty and conscience to pardon this young and tender
prince, and take compassion of his age. And now for
so much as he is the king's eldest son, and must be our
sovereign and king and successor of this kingdom; come
and let us appoint him our king and governor, and let us
remove from us Lewis the French king's son, for it is a
shame to our nation, and let us cast off'the yoke of our
servitude from our shoulders." To these words the earl
of Gloucester answered ; "And by what reason or right,"
said he, "can we so do, seeing we have called him
hither, and have sworn to him our fealty?"
The earl marshal again said, " Good right and reason
we have, and ought of duty to do no less ; for contrary
to our mind and calling he has abused our affiance and
fealties. It is true we invited him, and meant to prefer
him to be our chieftain and governor ; but he has con-
temned and despised us: and if we shall so suffer him,
he will subvert and overthrow both us and our nation,
and so shall we remain a spectacle of shame to all men,
and as outcasts of all the world."
At these words they all cried with one voice, " Be it
so, Henry shall be our king." And so the day was ap-
pointed for his coronation. Notwithstanding this, Lewis
did not forego his claim, but laid siege to the castle of
Dover. When he could not succeed there he took the
castle of Berkhamstead, and also the castle of Hert-
ford, doing much harm in the countries, in spoiling and
robbing the people where he went : so that the lords and
commons, who held with the king, assembled together to
drive Lewis out of the land, and gave battle to him ; in
conclusion Lewis lost the field and fled to London, which
was in the hands of his friends, causing the gates to
be shut, and waiting there for more succour out of France.
In the meantime, Eustace, a French lord, came with a
grand army and a hundred ships to assist Lewis ; but
before they arrived, they were encountered upon the seas
by Richard, King John's natural son ; who having no
more than eighteen ships to keep the cinque ports, set
eagerly upon them, and tlirough God's grace overcame
them, and he smote off the head of Eustace : the rest of
the French lords to the number of ten, he brought ashore
with hiin, where he imprisoned them in the castle of
Dover, and slew almost all their men, and sunk their
ships in the sen, so that only fifteen ships escaped.
Lewis hearing this loss of his ships and men, proposed
terms, and left the kingdom.
The life and acts of Pope Innocent III. are partly de-
scribed before : how he intruded Stephen Langron against
the king's will into the archbishoprick of Canterbury,
stirring up sixty-four monks of the church of Canterbury
privily to work against the king. How he excommuni-
cated the king as a jiublic enemy of the church, putting
him and his whole kingdom under interdict, for the space
of five years and three months, and at length deposed
and deprived him of his sceptre, keeping it in his own
hands for five days. How he absolved his subjects
from their due obedience and subjection to him. How
he gave away his kingdoms and his possessions to Lewis
the French king's son, commanding Lewis to spoil him
both of lands and life. Whereupon the king, being for-
saken of his nobles, prelates, and commons, was forced
against his will to submit and swear obedience to the pope,
paying a yearly tribute of one thousand marks a year,
for receiving his kingdom again, whereby both he and his
successors after him were vassals to the pope. These
were the apostolical acts of this holy vicar of Jesus Christ
in the realm of England ! Moreover, he condemned
Almeric, a learned man and a bishop, as an heretic, for
teaching and holding against images. This pope brought
first into the church the jiaying of private tithes. He
ordained the receiving the communion once a year at
Easter. To the papal decretals he added the decree,
which declares every human creature to be subject to the
pope. Also the reservation of the sacrament, and the
going wth the bell and light before the sacrament, was
appointed by him. In the council of Lateran he also
ordained that the canon of the mass should be received
with equal authority, as though it had proceeded from the
apostles themselves. And it was he, in this council, who
first formally established trausubstantiation as the doc-
trine of the church of Rome.
In this council of Lateran there were present sixty- one
archbishops and primates, four hundred bishops, twelve
abbots, eight hundred priors and conventuals, besides other
ambassadors and legates, doctors and lawyers innume-
ble, &c.
In the history of Herman Mutius, we read how iu
A. D. 1212, in this pope's time several noblemen, and
others in the country of Alsatia, held contrary to the tra-
dition of the Romish popes, that every day was free for
eating flesh, if done in moderation. They held also that
it was wicked to restrain priests and ministers from their
wives, for which opinions, this pope Innocent and his
bishops, caused an hundred of them in one day to be
burned and martyred !
In the days of this Pope Innocent, began the twd
orders of friars, one called "The Preachers' Order,
and Black Friars of St. Dominic ;" the other called " The
Minorites of St. Francis."
The preachers of the black friars order began with one
Dominic, a Spaniard, about the parts of Toulouse, who
after he had laboured ten years in preaching against the
Albigenses, and such others as held doctrines contrary to
the church of Rome, afterward cameto the council of Late-
ran, and desired of Innocent, to have his order of preaching
friars confirmed, which the pope a great while refused to
grant : at length he had a dream, that the church of
Lateran was ready to fall ; and that this Dominic, with
his shoulders propped up the church, and so preserved
the building from falling, &c. And right well this dream
may seem verified, for the friars have been always tlie
chief pillars and upholders of the pope's church. Upon
this the pope, waking out of his dream, called Dominic
to him, and granted his petition : and so came up this
order of the dominicans !
Tlie order of the minors or minorite friars, was de-
scended from one Francis, an Italian, who, hearing how
Christ sent forth his disciples to preach, thought to. imi-
tate the same in himself and his disciples, and so left off
his shoes, and had but one coat, and that of coarse cloth.
Instead of a latchet to his shoe, and of a girdle, he took
about him a hempen cord, and so he apparelled his disciples,
teaching them to fulfil, for so he speaks, the perfection
of the gospel, to embrace poverty, and to walk in the
way of holy simplicity. He left in writing, to his dis-
ciples and followers, his rule, which he called "The
Rule of the Gospel." As if the gospel of Christ were
A. D. 1220.]
THE RA.BBLEMENT OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
159
not a sufficient rule to all christian men, but it must take
its perfection from Francis ! This Francis, as he was
superstitious in all things ; so by way of penitential de-
ception he covered his body in the winter season with
ice and snow ! These Franciscan or begging friars, al-
though all under one rule of St. Francis, yet are divided
into "many orders : some go on treen shoes or pattins,
some barefooted, some are called Regular Franciscans or
Observants, some Minors or Minorites, others Minimi,
others Gospelers, others De Caputio. They all differ in
many things, but agree in superstition and hypocrisy. As
we have here entered into the matter of these two orders
of friars, I thought a little to digress from our history, in
reciting the whole catalogue or rabblement of monks,
friars, and nuns of all sects, rules, and orders, set up
and oontirraed by the pope. The names are as follow :
THE R.-LBJiLEMENT Or RfiLIGIOUS ORDERS.'
Augustinians, the first order. A.n.
Ambrosians, two sorts ;^0y
Antony's Hermits •*-■*
Austin's Hermits 498
Austin's Observants 41>0
Armenians.
Ammonites and Moabites.
Basiliu's Order 384
Benedict's Order ^'^^
Bernardus' Order 1120
Barefooted Friars 1221-
Bridget's Order 1-^0
Beghearts or White Spirits 1^93
Brethren of Jerusalem 1103
Brethren of St. John de Civitate, Black Friars . 1220
Brethren of Wilful Poverty.
Cluny, Order of °1*'
Canons of St. Augustine 1080
Charter-house Order 1086
Cistercian Order 1098
Cross-bearers, or Crossed Fnars 1216
Carmelites, or White Friars 1212
Clare's Order 1225
Celestine's Order 1297
Cuuialdulensi's Order °^0
Cross-starred Brethren.
Constantinopolitan Order.
Cross-bearers.
Chapter-Monks.
Dutch Order Ipl^
Dominican Black Friars 1220
Franciscans 1224
Grandmontain Order 10/6
Gregory's Order ^"4
George's Order 1407
GuUelmites (Williamites) 1246
Gerundinensis Order.
Galilei, or Galileans.
Hermits.
Helen's Brethren. Humiliati 1166
Hospital Brethren.
Holy Ghost Order.
' Jerome's Orders, two sorts 1412
I John's Hermits.
I Justin's Order 1432
John's Order, Joannites ^80
Otherwise Kmghts of Rhodes 1308
Injesuati 1365
Jerome's Hermits 490
Joseph's Order.
Janu's Order.
James' Brethren Order.
James' Brethren wth the Sword.
Indian's Order.
The reader sees what orders and what sects of religion
have been set up by the pope, the catalogue and number
of them all, si far as we could search them out. The
number of which rabblement of monkish persons came
to one hundred and one.
Now as I have reckoned up the names and varieties of
these prodigious sects, I will add the words of Hildegar-
dis. a celebrated nun in 1146, against the Romish pre-
(1) This list is very far from satisfactory. The various orders of
monks and nuns were far more numerous than are here given :
Eraillianne specifies half as many more, while he omits some that
are here specified by Foxe " The Lords of Hungary," or Teu-
tonic Knights, " The Templars," &c. as here inserted, are a very
tmall portion of the military orders. It is not easy to explain the
K5.tharine of Sienna Order 1455
Keyedmonks. Knights of Rhodes.
Lazarites of Mary Magdalene's, our Lady Brethren 1034
Lords of Hungary.
Minorites, who are divided into
Conventuals. De Caputio.
Observants. De Evangelic.
Reformed. Amedet.
Collectane. Clariui and others.
Minors or Minorites 1224
Malay's Servants 1304
Monks of Mount Olivet 1046
Marovinies.
Minorites.
Monachi and Monachae.
Morbonei and Meresti.
Menelaish and Jasonish Sect.
New Canons of St. Austin 1430
Nestorini.
Nalheart Brethren.
New Order of our Lady.
Nazareans.
Paul's Hermits 345
PrBemonstre Order 1119
Preacher-Order or Black Friars.
Peter the Apostle's Order 1409
Purgatorean Brethren.
Rechabites.
Sarrabites.
Sambouites 1199
Scourgers, the first Sect 1266
Soldiers of Jesus Christ 1323
Scopenits or St. Salvator's Order 1367
Specularii, or the Glass Order.
St. Sepulchre's Order.
Sheer Order.
Swerd's Order.
Starred Monks.
Starred Friars.
Sclavonian Order.
Scourgers, the second Sect, called Ninevites.
Stool Brethren.
Scottish Brethren Order.
Sicarii.
St. Sophia's Order.
Templar Lords
Templar Knights
The Valley of Jehoshaphat's Order.
Vallis Umbrosa 1400
Waldenses Sect.
Wentzelaus Order.
Wilhelmer Order.
White Monks of Mount Olivet 1406
Zelote's Order.
lates, and especially against the friars. This Hildegardis
is held among the papists themselves as a great prophet-
ess, and therefore let us hear her opinion about these mcu,
long before the Reformation.
" In tliose days shall arise a senseless people, proud,
greedy, without faith, and subtle, who shall eat the sins
of the people, holding a certain order of foolish devotion
in.erti.mof such names as Galileans - Rechabites - Waldenses,
&c They seem to have been taken witliout correction from some
list\Yhich confounded sects and orders without distinction -an
error very natural to writers before the Reformation and not ud-
frequently committed. Ku.j
1110
1120
160
THE l»ROPHECY OF HILDEGARDIS, A NUN.
[Book IT, '
under the feigned cloak of being " mendicants," prefer-
ring tlieinselves above all others by their "feigned
devotion, arrogant in understanding, and pretending
holiness, walking without shamefacedness or the fear of
God, in inventing many new mischiefs strong and stout.
But this order shall be accursed of all wise men and faith-
ful christians. They shall cease from all labour, and
give themselves over unto idleness, choosing rather to
live through flattery and begging. Moreover, they shall
together study how they may perversely resist the teach-
ers of tlie truth, and slay them together with the noble-
men ; how to seduce and deceive the nobility, for the
necessity of their living and pleasures of tliis world :
for the devil will graft in them four principal vices,
that is to say, flattery, envy, liypocrisy, and slander. Flat-
tery, that they may have large gifts given thein ; envy,
when they see gifts given to others, and not to them ;
hypocrisy, that by false dissimulation they may please
men. Backbiting, that they may extol and commend
themselves, and backbite others, for the praise of men,
and seducing of the simple. Also they shall instantly
preach, but without the devotion, or after the example
of the martyrs, and shall speak evil of the secular
princes, taking away the sacraments of the church
from the true pastors, receiving alms of the poor,
diseased, and miserable, and also associating themselves
with the common people ; instructing women how tliey
shall deceive their husbands and friends by their flattery
and deceitful words, and to rob their husbands to give
to them, for they will take all these stolen and evil-
gotten goods and say, ' Give it to us, and we will pray
for you ;' so that they being curious to hide other
men's faults, do utterly forget their own. And alas,
they will receive all things of rovers, pickers, spoilers,
thieves, and robbers, of sacrilegious persons, usurers,
and adulterers, heretics, schismatics, apostates, noble-
men, perjurers, merchants, false judges, soldiers, tyrants,
princes, of such as live contrary to the law, and of
many perverse and wicked men, following the persuasion
of the devil, the sweetness of sin, a delicate and transi-
tory life, and fulness even unto eternal damnation.
" All these things shall manifestly appear in them to
all people, and they (day by day) shall wax more wicked
and hard-hearted: and when their wickedness and deceits
shall be found out, then shall their gifts cease, and then
shall they go about their houses hungry, and as mad dogs
looking down upon the earth, and drawing in their necks
as doves, that they might be satisfied with bread. Then
shall the people cry out upon them, ' Woe be unto you,
ye miserable children of sorrow, the world has seduced
you, and the devil hath bridled your mouths, your flesh
is frail, and your hearts without savour, your minds have
been unsteadfast, and your eyes delighted in much vanity
and folly, your dainty appetites desire delicate meats,
your feet are swift to run into mischief. Remember when
you were apparently blessed, yet envious ; poor in siglit,
but rich ; simple to see to, but mighty flatterers, unfaith
ful betrayers, perverse detractors, holy hypocrites, sub-
verters of the truth, righteous overmuch, proud, un-
shamefaced, and unsteadfast teachers, dilicate martyrs,
confessors for gain ; meek, but slanderers ; reUg'ous, but
covetous ; humble, but proud ; iiitiful, but hard-hearted
liars ; pleasant flatterers ; persecutors, op])ressors of
the poor, bringing in new sects newly invented of
yourselves; thought merciful, but found wicked ; lovers
of the world, sellers of pardons, spoilers of benefices,
unprofitable orators, seditious conspirators, drunkards,
desirers of honours, maintainers of miscliief, robbers of
the world, unsatiable preachers, mon-pleasers, seducers,
and sowers of discord. You have Iniilded up on high,
and when you could ascend no higher, then did you
fall even as Simon Magus, whom (Jod overthrew, and
did strike with a cruel jdague ; so you likewise through
your false doctrine, naughtiness, lies, detractions, and
wickedness are come to ruin. And the people shall say
unto them, 'Go, ye teachers of wickedness, subverters of
the truth, brethren of the Shunamite, fathers of heresies,
false apostles, which have feigned yourselves to follow the
life of the apostles, and yet have not followed it in any
part : ye sons of iniquity, you will not follow the know-
ledge of your ways, for pride and presumption hath de-
ceived you, and insatiable covetousness hath subverted
your erroneous hearts. And when you would ascend
higher than was meet or comely for you, by the just
judgment of God, you are fallen back into perpetual
opprobrium and shame."
About the same time that these Franciscans and
Dominican friars began, then sprang up also the Cross-
Bearers, or Crutched Friars. Innocent III. raised an army,
signed with a cross ,-on the breast, to fight against the
Albigenses, whom the pope accounted for heretics la
the neighbourhood of Toulouse. What these Albi-
genses were cannot be well gathered from the old popish
histories ; for if any held, taught, or maintained anything
against the pope or his papal pride, or withstood and
gainsayed his traditions, rites, and religions, &c., the
historians of that time do so deprave and misrepresent
them that they paint them forth as worse than Turks and
infidels. And it was that, I suppose, which caused tlie
pojiish historians to write of them as they did. I find
in some records that the opinions of the Albigenses
were sound enough, holding and professing nothing else
but only against the wanton wealth, pride and tyranny
of the prelates, and denying the pope's authority to have
ground in the scriptures ; neither could they bear with
the ceremonies and traditions, images, pardons, purga-
tory of the Romish church, calling them (as some say)
blasphemous o(-cupyings, &c. Of these Albingenses '
there were slain and burned a great multitude by the
means of the pope, one Simon and others.
As mention is here made of these superstitious sects
of friars, and such other mendicant orders, it might seem
not out of place, as I have done with Hildegardis before, )
so now to annex also another ancient treatise compiled
by Geoffery Chaucer, by the way of a dialogue or ques-
tions, moved in the person of a certain uplandish and
simple ploughman of the country. The author intitled
it "Jack Upland," and shews in it to all the world
the blind ignorance and discord of these irreligious
monks ; whereby it may be seen that it is no new thing,
but that their blasphemous doings have been detected by
various good men in old time.
A Treatise of Geoffrey Chaucer, intitled Jack Upland.
I, Jack Upland make my moan to God, and to all that
are true in Christ, that antichrist and his discijiles (by co-
lour of holiness) walking and deceiving Christ's church
by many false figures, where through, (by antichrist and
his) many vertues been transposed to vices.
But the felliest folk that ever antichrist found, been
last brought into the church and in a wonder wise, for
they been of divers sects of antichrist, sown of divers
countries and kindreds. And all men known well, that
they be not obedient to bishops, ne leegemen to kings :
neither they tillen, ne sowen, weeden, ne repen, wood,
corn, ne grass, neither nothing that man should help ;
but only themselves their lives to sustain. An these men
han all manner power of God as they seein in heaven and in
yearth, to sell heaven and hell to whom that them liketh,
and these wretches weet never were to been themselfs.
And therefore (Freer) in thine orders and rules been
grounded on Goddis law, tell thou me. Jack Upland,
that I ask of thee, and if thou be or thinkest to be on
Christ's side keep thy paciens.
Saint Paul tcacheth, that all our deeds should be
doo in charity, and else it is nought worth, but displeasing
to God and harme to our own souls. And for that freers
challenge to be greatest clerks of the church, and next
following Christ in living. Men should for charity ax
them some questions, and pray them to ground their an-
swers in reason and holy writ, for else their answer would
nought be worth, be it florished never so fair : and as
mee think men might skilfully ask thus of a freer.
1. Freer, how many orders be in earth, and which
is the perfectest order ? Of what order art thou ? Who
made thine order ? What is thy rule ? Is there any
perfecter rule than Christ himself made? If Christ's
rule be most perfect, why rulest thou thee not thereafter .'
A D. 1220.] A TREATISE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER, ENTITLED ' JACK UPLAND,'
161
W itlioiit more why, shall a freer be more punished if he
bi^ak the rule that his patron made, than if he break the
h:,sts tuit God himself made ?
2. Approoveth Christ any more religions then one,
that St. James speaketh of.' If he approoveth no more,
whv hast thou left his rule and takest another ? Why is
a freer apostate that leaveth his order and taketh another
Sect, sith there is but one religion of Christ ?
3. Why be you wedded faster to your habits then a
mail is to his wife ? For a man may leave his wife for a
year or two as many men done : and if you leave your
habit a quarter of a year, ye should be holden apostate.
4. Maketh your habit you men of religion or no ? If
u do, then ever as it weareth, your religion weareth, and
after that your habit is better, your religion is better, and
when you have liggen it beside, then lig ye your religion
beside you, and bin apostates : why hie you so pretious
clothes ? sith no man seeketh such but for vain glory, as
St. Gregory saith.
What betokeneth your great hood, your scalpery, your
knotted girdle, and your wide cope .■■
5. Why use ye all one colour, more then other chris-
tian men doo ? What betokeneth that ye been clothed all
in one manner of clothing ?
If ye say, it betokeneth love and charity, certes then
ye be oft hypocrits, when any of you hateth another, and
in that that ye wooll be said holy by your clothing.
Why may not a freer wear clothing of another sect of
friers, sith holiness stondeth not in the cloths?
fi. Why hold ye silence in one house, more then ano-
ther, sith men ought over all to speak the good and leave
the evil ?
Why eat you flesh in one house more than another, if
your rule and your order be perfect, and the patron that
made it ?
7. Why get you your dispensations to have it more
easie .' Certes, either it seemeth that ye be unperfect,
or he that made it so hard, that ye may not hold it, and
Biker, if ye hold not the rule of your patrons, ye be not
then her freers, and so ye lie upon your selves.
8. Why make you as dead men when ye be professed,
and yet ye be not dead, but more quick beggers then ye
were before ? And it seemeth evil a dead man to go
about and beg.
9. Why will yee not suffer your novises hear your
councils in your chapter-house ere that they have been
professed, lif your councels been true and after God's
law ?
10. W^hy make ye you so costly houses to dwell in ?
lith Christ did not so, and dead men should have but
graves, as falleth it to dead men, and yet ye have more
courts than many lords of England : For ye now wen-
den through the realm, and each night will lig in your
own courts, and so mow but few right lords do.
11. Why heire you to ferm your limitors, giving there-
fore erth year a certain rent, and will not suffer one in
anoth<r's limitation, right as yee were your selves lords
of countries ?
Why be ye not under your bishops' visitations, and
. leege men to our king ?
Why axe ye no letters of bretherheds of other men
, prayers, as ye desire that other men should axe letters of
you .'
I If your letters be good, why grant ye them not gene-
I rally to all manner of men for the more charity ?
1 12. Mow ye make any man more perfect brether for
j your prayers then God hath by our believe ? by our bap-
I tism and his own grant .' If ye mow, certes then ye
} be above God.
1 Why make ye men believe that your golden trental
i tong of you, to take therefore ten shillings, or at least
I five shillings, wool bring souls out of hell, or out of
1 purgatory ? If this be sooth, certes ve might bring all
I Bouls out of pain, and that wool ye nought, and then ye
be out of charity.
l.i. Why make ye men believe that he that is buried
in your habit shall never come in hell, and ye weet not
i of yourself whether ye shall to hell or no ? and if this
I were sooth, ye should sell your high houses to make
many habits for to save maay men's souls
14. Why steal ye men's children for to make hem of
your sect, sith that theft is against God's bests, and sith
your sect is not perfect ? ye know not whether the rule,
that ye bind him to, be best for him or worst.
1"). Why underneme ye not your brethren for their
trespass after the law of the gospel, sith that undernem-
ing is the best that may be .■' But ye put them in prison
oft when they do after God's law, and by St. Augustine's
rule. If any do amiss and would not amend him, ya
should put him from you.
16. Why covet ye shrifts and burying of other men's
parishens, and none other sacrament that falleth to
christian folk.
Why bussy ye not to hear to shrift of poor folk as
well as of rich lords and ladies, sith they mow have more
plenty of shrift fathers than poor folk mow.
Why say ye not the gospel in houses of bedred men,
as ye do in rich men's that mow go to church and hear
the gospel ?
Why covet you not to bury poor folk among you ?
sith that they bin most holy (as ye saine that ye been for
your poverty ?)
17. Why will ye not be at hir dirges as ye have bin at
rich men's ? sith God praiseth him more then he doth
other men.
What is thy prayer worth ? sith thou wilt take there-
fore, for all chapmen ye need be most wise for dread of
simony.
What cause hast thou that thou wilt not preach the
gospel, as God saith that thou shouldest ? sith it is the
best lore and also our believe.
Why be ye evil apaid that secular priests should
preach the gospel .' sith God himself hath hodden hem.
18. Why hate ye the gospel to be preached, sith ye
be so much hold thereto .' For ye win more by year
with in principio, then with all the rules that ever your
patrons made, and in this minstrels bin better then ye,
for they contrarien not to the mirths that they maken,
but ye contrarien the gospel both in word and deed.
19. Freer, when thou receivest a penny for to say a
mass, whether sellest thou God's body for that penny,
or thy prayer, or else thy travel .' If thou sayest thou
wolt not travel for to say the mass, but for the penny,
that certes if this be sooth, then thou lovest too little
meed for thy soul : and if thou sellest God's body, other
thy prayer, then it is very simony, and art become a
chapman worse then Judas that sold it for thirty pence.
20. ^Tiy writest thou her names in thy tables that
yeveth thee money ? sith God knoweth all things : for it
seemeth by thy writing that God would not reward him,
but thou writest in thy tables, God would els forgotten
it.
Why bearest thou God in hand and slanderest him
that he begged for his meat ? sith he was Lord over all,
for then had he bin unwise to have begged, and have no
need thereto.
Freer, after what law rulest thou thee ? where findest
thou in God's law that thou shouldest thus beg ?
21. What manner men needeth for to beg ?
For whom oweth such men to beg ?
Why beggest thou so for thy brethren ?
If thou sayst, for they have need, then thou dost it
for the more perfection, or els for the least, or els for
the mean. If it be the most perfection of all, then
should all thy brethren do so, and then no man needed
to beg but for himself, for so should no man beg but
him needed. And if it be the least perfection, why (
lovest thou then other men more then thyself? For so
thou art not well in charity, sith thou shouldest seek the
more perfection after thy power, living thyself most
after God, And thus leaving that imperfection thou
shouldest not so beg for them. And if it is a good
mean thus to beg as thou doest, then should no man do
so, but they bin in this good mean, and yet such a
mean granted to you may never be grounded on God'g
law ; for then both lerid and leaud that bin in mean de-
gree of this world, should go about and beg as ye do.
And if all should do so, certes well nigh all the world
should go about and beg as ye done, and so should there
be tea beggers against ooe yever
M 2
62
A TREATISE OF CHAUCER'S, ENTITLED < JACK UPLAND.'
[Book IV.
Why procurest thou men to yeve thee their ;ilms, and
sayest it is so needful, and thou wilt not thyself win thee
that meed ?
22. Why wilt not thou beg for poor bedred men that
bin poorer then any of your sect? That liggen and
mow not go about to help himselfes, sith we be all
brethren in God, and that bretherhed passeth any other
that ye or any man could make, and where most need
were, there were most perfection, either els ye hold
them not your pure brethren, but worse, but then ye be
unperfect in your begging ?
Why make ye so many masters among you ? sith it is
against the teaching of Christ and his apostles ?
2.5. Whose been all your rich courts that ye ban, and
all your rich jewels ? sith ye saine that ye ban nought ne
in proper ne in common. If ye saine they been the
popes, why gether ye then of poor men and lords so
much out of the king's hand to make your pope rich ?
And sith ye saine that it is great perfection to have
nought in proper ne in common, why be ye so fast about
to make the pope that is your father rich, and put on
him imperfection ? sithen ye saine that your goods been
all his, and he should by reason be the most perfect
man, it seemeth openlich that ye been cursed children so
to slander your father and make him imperfect. And if
ye saine that the goods be yours, then do ye aienst your
rule, and if it be not aienst your rule, then might ye
have both plough and cart, and labour as other good
men done, and not so to beg by losengery, and idle as
ye doone. If ye say that it is more perfection to beg,
then to travel or to worch with your hand, why preach
ye not openly and teach all men to do so ? sith it is the
best and most perfect life to the help of their souls, as ye
make c'.iildren to beg that might have been rich heirs.
Why make ye not your feasts to poor men and yeveth
him yefts, as ye done to the rich .' sith poor man han
more need then the rich.
What betokeneth that ye go twain and twain together?
If ye be out of charity, ye accord not in soul.
Why beg ye and take salaries thereto more then other
priests ? sith he that most taketh, most charge hath.
24. Why hold ye not St. Francis' rule and his testa-
ment ? sith Francis saith, that God shewed him this
living and this rule : and certes if it were God's will, the
pope might not fordo it ; or else Francis was a lier that
said oil this wise. And but this testament that he made
accord with God's will, or else erred he as a lier tliat
were out of charity : and as the law saith, he is accursed
that letteth the rightful last will of a dead man. And
this te^itament is the last will of Francis that is a dead
mau ; it seemeth therefore that all his freers been
cursed.
25. Why will you not touch no coined money with
the cross, ne with the king's head, as ye done other
jewels both of gold and silver ? Certes if ye despise the
cross or the king's head, then ye be worthy to be de-
spised of God and the king ; and sith you will receive
money in your hearts, and not with your hands, and it
seemeth that ye hold more holiness in your hands then
in your hearts, and then be false to God.
26. Why have ye exempt you from our king's laws
and visiting of our bishops more then other christen
men that liven in this realm, if ye be not guilt of trait-
ory to our realm, or trespassers to our bishops ? But
ye will have the king's laws for the trespass do to you,
and ye will have power of other bishops more then other
priests, and also have leave to prison your brethren, as
lords in your courts, more then other folks han that been
the king's leege men.
27. Why shall some sect of your freers pay ech a
year a certain to her general provincial or minister, or
else to her sovereigns ? but if he steal a certain number
of children (as some men saine) and certain if this been
sooth, then ye be constrained upon a certain pain to
doe theft against God's commandment, Non jurtum
fades.
28. Why be ye so hardy to grant by letters of frater-
nity to men and women, that they shall have part and
merit of all your good deeds, and ye weeten never
whether God be apaid with your deeds because of your
sin ? Also ye witten never whether that man or woman
be in state to be saved or damned, then shall he have no
merit in heaven for his own deeds ne for none other
man's. And all were it so, that he should have part of
your good deeds : yet should he have no more then God
would give him after that he were worthy, and so much
shall each man have of God's yeft without your limita-
tion. But if ye will say that ye been God's fellows, and
that he may not do without your assent, then be ye
blasphemers to God.
2y. What betokeneth that ye have ordained, that
when such one as ye have made your brother or sister,
and hath a letter of your seal, that letter mought be
brought in your holy chapter and there be read, or else
ye will not pray for him. And but ye willen pray espe-
cially for all other that were not made your brethren or
sistren, then were we not in right charity, for that ought
to be commen, and namely in ghostly things.
30. Freer, What charity is this, to overcharge the
people by mighty begging under colour of preaching or
praying, or masses singing ? sith holy write biddeth not
thus, but even tlie contrary : for all such ghostly deeds
should be done freely, as God yeveth them freely ?
31. Freer, What charity is this to beguile childien or
the commen to discretion, and bind hem to your orders
that bin not grounded in God's law against her friends
will ? sithen by this folly bin many apostates both in will
and deed, and many bin apostates in her will during all
her life, that would gladly be discharged if they wist
how, and so many bin apostates that shoulden in other
states have bin true men.
32. Freer, What charity is this, to make so many
freers in every country to the charge of the people ? sith
parsons and ■^^cars alone, yea secular priests alone, yea
monks and canons alone, with bishops above them were
inough to the church to do the priest's office. And to
add more then inough is a foul error, and great charge
to the people, and this openly against God's will that
ordained all things to be done in weight, number, and
measure. And Christ himself was apaid with twelve
apostles and a few disciples, to preach and to do priest's
office to all the whole world, then was it better done
then is now at this time by a thousand dele. And right
so as four fingers with a thumb in a man's hand helpeth
a man to worch, and double number of fingers in one
hand should let him more, and so the more number that
there were passing the measure of God's ordinance, the
more were a man letted to worch : right so (as it
seemeth) it is of these new orders that bin added to the
church without ground of holy write and God's ordi-
nance.
33. Freer, What charity is this, to the people to lye,
and say that ye follow Christ in poverty more than other
men done ? and yet in curious and costly housing, and
fine and precious clothing, and delicious and liking feed-
ing, and in treasure and jewels, and rich ornaments,
freers passen lords and other rich worldly men, and
soonest they should bring her cause about i^lie it never
so costly) thoufdi God's law be put back.
34. Freer, What charity is this, to gather up the
books of holy write, and put hem in treasory, and so
emprison them from secular priests and curates, and by
this cautel let hem to preach the gospel freely to the
peo])le without worldly meed, and also to defame good
priests of heresie, and lien on hem openly for to let hem
to shew God's law by the holy gospel to the christian
peojjle ?
3.'). Freer, What charity is this, to fain so much holi-
ness in your bodily clothing (that you clepe your habit)
that many blind fools desiren to die therein more than
in another ? and also that a freer, that leaveth his habit
late founden of men, may not be assoiled till he take
again, but is a))ostate as ye sain, and cursed of God and
man both ? The freer believeth truth, and patience,
chastity, meekness and sobriety, yet for the more part
of his life he may soon be assoiled of his prior, and if he
bring home to his house much good by the year (be it
never so falsely begged and pilled of the poor and needy
people in countries about) he shall behold a noble freer.
O Lord, whether this be charity ?
A. D. 1220.] THE NOBLES COMPLAIN AGAINST THE POPE'S COVETOUSNESS.
1R3
36. Freer, "WTiat charity is this, to prease upon a rich
man, and to intice him to be buried among you from his
parish-church, and to such rich men give letters of fra-
ternity confirmed by your general seal, and thereby to
bear him in hand that he shall have part of all your
masses, mattens, preachings, fastings, wakings, and all
other good deeds done by your brethren of your order
(both whilst he liveth, and after that he is dead) and yet
ye witten never whether your deeds be acceptable to
God, ne whether that man that hath that letter be able
by good living to receive any part of your deeds, and
yet a poor man (that ye wite well or supposen in certen
to have no good of) ye ne given no such letters, though
he be a better man to God than such a rich man : never-
theless, this poor man doth not retch thereof. For as
men supposen such letters and many other that freers
behotten to men, be full false deceits of freers, out of all
reason, and God's law and christian men's faith.
3". Freer, What charity is this, to be confessors of
lords and ladies, and to other mighty men, and not
amend hem in her living ? but rather as it seemeth, to be
the bolder to pill her poor tenants, and to live in riot,
and there to dwell in your office of confessor for winning
of worldly goods, and to be hold great by colour of such
ghostly offices ? this seemeth rather pride of freers, than
charity of God.
38. Freer, A\Tiat charity is this, to sain that who so
liveth after your order, liveth more perfectly, and next
foUoweth the state of apostles in poverty and pennance,
and yet the wisest and greatest clerks of you wend or
send, or procure to the court of Rome to be made cardi-
nals or bishops of the pope's chaplains, and to be as-
soiled of the vow of poverty and obedience to your mi-
nisters, in the which (as ye sain) standeth more perfec-
tion and merit of your orders, and thus ye farren as
Pharisees that sain one and do another to the contrary.
Why name ye more the patron of your order in your
conjiteor when ye begin mass, then other saints,
apostles, or martyrs, that holy church hold more glo-
rious then hem, and clepe hem your patrons and your
avowries .'
Freer, Whether was St. Francis in making of his rule
that he set thine order in, a fool and a lyar, or else wise
and true ? If ye sain that he was not a fool, but wise ;
ne a lyar but true : why shew you contrary by your
doing, when by your suggestion to the pope ye said,
That your rule that Francis made was so hard that ye
mow not live to hold it without declaration and dispen-
sation of the pope, and so by your deed ^ Ne let your
patron be a fool that made a rule so hard that no man
may well keep, and eke your deed proveth him a lyar,
where he saith in his rule, " That he took and learned it
of the Holy Ghost." For how might ye for shame pray
the pope undo that the Holy Ghost bit, as when ye
prayed him to dispence with the hardness of your
order .'
Freer, Which of the four orders of freers is best to a
man that knoweth not which is the best, but would
fain enter into the best, and none other ? If thou sayest
that thine is the best, then saiest thou that none of the
other is as good as thine, and in this each freer in the
three other orders wooU say that thou lyest, for in the
self manner each other freer wooU say that his order is
best. And thus to each of the four orders bin the other
three contrary in this point : in the which if any say
sooth, that is one alone, for there may but one be the
best of four. So foUoweth it that if each of these orders
answered to this question as thou dost, three were false,
and but one true, and yet no man should wite who that
were. And thus it seemeth, that the most part of freers
bin or should be lyers in this point, and they should
answer thereto. If you say that another order of the
freers is better than thine, or as good ; why took ye not
rather thereto as to the better, when thou mightst have
chose at the beginning .-' And eke why shouldst thou be
an apostate to leave thine order and take thee to that is
better, and so why goest thou not from thine order in
that?
Freer, Is there any perfecter rule of religion than
Christ God's Son gave in his gospel to his brethren ?
Or then that religion that St. James in his epistle
maketh mention of? If you say yes, then puttest thou
on Christ (that is the wisdome of God the Father) uu-
kunning, unpower, or evil will : for then he could not
make his rule so good as another did his. And so he
had unkunning, that he might not so make his rule so
good as another man might, and so were he unmighty,
and not God, as he would not make his rule so perfect
as another did his, and so he had bin evil willed, namely
to himself.
For if he might and could, and would have made a
rule perfect without default, and did not, he was not
God's Son Almighty. For if any other rule be perfecter
than Christ's, then must Christ's rule lack of that per-
fection by as much as the other weren more perfecter,
and so were default, and Christ had failed in making of
his rule : but to put any default or failing in God is blas-
phemy. If thou say that Christ's rule, and that religion
which St. James maketh mention of, is perfectest ; .why
boldest thou not thilk rule without more ? And why
clepest thou tlie rather of St. Francis or St. Dominick's
rule, or religion, or order, than of Christ's rule, or
Christ's order ?
Freer, Canst thou assign any default in Christ's rule of
the gospel (with the which he taught all men sikerly to
be saved) if they kept it to her ending ? If thou say it
was too hard, then sayst thou Christ lyed ; for he said
of his rule, " My yoke is soft, and my burthen light."
If thou say Christ's rule was too light, that may be
assigned for no default, for the better it may be kept.
If thou sayest that there is no default in Christ's rule '
of the gospel, sith Christ himself saith " It is light and
easie ;" what need was it to patrons of freers to add
more thereto ? and so to make an harder religion to
save freers, than was the religion of Christ's apostles
and his disciples helden and were saved by. But if they
woulden that her freers saten above the apostles in
heaven for the harder religion that they keepen here, so
would they sitten in heaven above Christ himself, for
their more and strict observations, then so should they
be better than Christ himself with mischance.
Go now forth and frain your clerks, and ground ye
you in God's law, and gif Jack an answer, and when ye
ban assoiled me that I have said sadly in truth, I shall
soil thee of thine orders, and save thee to heaven.
If freers kun not or mow not excuse hem of these
questions asked of hem, it seemeth that they be horrible
guilty against God, and her even christian ; for which
guilts and defaults it were worthy that the order that
they call their order were fordone. And it is wonder
that men sustain hem or suffer her live in such manner.
For holy write biddeth, " That thou do well to the
meek, and give not to the wicked, but forbed to give
hem bread, least they be made thereby mightier through
you."
After these digressions, we may now return to the
course of our history again.
After England had been subjected by King John, and
made tributary to the pope, it is incredible how the un-
satiable avarice of the Romans oppressed and wrung the
commons and all estates of the realm, especially bene-
ficed men, and such as had any thing of the church ;
who were brought into such slavery and penury, that
when the king durst not remedy their wrongs by him-
self ; yet by his advice, Simon Montfort, and the Earl of
Leicester, with other noblemen, thought to bridle and
restrain the insatiable ravening of these greedy wolves.
They devised a letter, giving command to tlie ecclesi-
astics, and to such as had churches to farm, tliat hence-
forth they should not pay the Romans such farms and
rents any more, as follows :
" A complaint of the nobles of England apahxt the in-
tolerable covetousness of the Pope and Prelaten of
Rome.
" To such and such a bishop, and such a ch'^ptor ;
all the university and company of them, that had rather
164
COUNCIL HELD AT LONDON— THE POPE'S EXACTiONS REFUSED. [Book IV.
die than be confounded by the Romans, wishes health.
How the Romans and their legates have hitherto be-
haved themselves toward you and other ecclesiastical
persons of this realm of England is not unknown to
your discretion, in disposing and giving away the bene-
fices of the realm after their own fancies, to the intoler-
able prejudice and grievance both of you, and all other
Englishmen. For, whereas the collation of benefices
should and does jiroperly belong to you and your fe.Uow-
oishops (ecclesiastical persons), they, thundering against
yoa the sentence of excommunication, ordain that you
should not bestow them upon any person of this realm,
until in every diocese and cathedral church within the realm,
five Romans, sucli as the pope shall name, be provided
for, to the value of every man an hundred pounds a-
ye;ir. Besides these, many other grievances the Ro-
manists do inflict on the laity and nobles of the realm,
for the patronages and alms bestowed by them and their
an''cstors, for the support of the poor of the realm, and
also for the clergy and ecclesiastical persons of the realm
touching their livings and benefices. And yet the Ro-
mans, not contented with these, do also take from the
clergy of this realm the benefices which they have to be-
.stow them on men of their own country, &c.
" Wherefore, we considering the rigorous austerity of
these aforesaid Romans, who once coming in but as
Strangers here, now take upon them not only to judge,
•but also to condemn us, laying upon us insupportable
burthens, whereunto they will not put one of their own
fingers to move ; and laying our heads together upon a
general and full advice had among ourselves concerning
the same, have thought good, although very late, to
withstand them, rather than be subject to their intoler-
able oppressions, and greater slavery hereafter to be
looked for. For which cause we straitly charge and
command you (as your friends going about to deliver
you, the church, the king, and the kingdom from that
miserable yoke of servitude) that you do not intermeddle,
or take any part concerning such exactions or rents to
be required or given to the said Romans. Letting you
to understand for truth, that in case you shall (which
God forbid) be found culpable herein, not only your
goods and possessions shall be in danger of burning, but
you also in your persons shall incur the same peril and
punishment as shall the Romish oppressors themselves.
Thus fare ye well."
In the reign of this Henry III., cardinal Otho was
sent from the i)ope with letters to the king, as other
letters also were sent to other places for exactions of
money.
The king, opening theletters,and perceiving the contents,
answered, " That he alone could say nothing in the matter
which concerned all the clergy and commons of the whole
realm." Not long after a council was called at Westmin-
ster (A.D. 122(i), where the letters being opened, the
form was this : " We require to be given to us, first, of
all cathedral churches, two prebends, one for the bishops'
part, the other for the chapter ; and likewise of monas-
teries where are divers portions, one for the abbot,
another for the convent ; of the convent so much as ap-
pertains to one monk, the portion of the goods being
proportionally divided ; of the abbot likewise as much,"
&c.
When those proposals of the legate were propounded
in the assembly on the pope's behalf, answer was made
that the matter concerned especially the king ; but in
general it touched all the archbishops, with their suffra-
gans, the bishops, and all the prelates of the realm.
Wherefore, seeing the king, by reason of his sickness,
■was absent, and the archbishop of Canterbury, with
other bishops, also were not there, therefore in their ab-
sence they had nothing to say in the matter, neither
could they do so without prejudice of those that were
absent. And so the assembly broke up.
Notlongafter, Cardinal Otho, coming again from Rome,
called another council at London, and caused all prelates,
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and others of the
clergy, to be summoned to the council, to be held in the
church of St. Paul's, at Loadoa. The pretence of which
council was for the redress of matters concerning bene-
fices and religion ; but the chief and principal object was
to hunt for money ; for putting them in fear and in hope,
some to lose, some to obtain spiritual promotions at his
hand, he thought some gain would rise thereby, and so
it did. For, in the meantime, precious gifts were of-
fered him in palfries, in rich plate and jewels, iii costly
and sumptuous garments, richly furred; in coin, in vic-
tuals, and such like things of value, well worthy of ac-
ceptance. Wherein one endeavoured to go beyond
another in munificence.
The time of the council drawing nigh, the cardinal
commanded at the west end of St. Paul's church an high
and solemn throne to be prepared, rising up with a glo-
rious scaffold upon substantial stages strongly built, and
of great height. Thus, on the day assigned, the arch-
bishops, bishops, abbots, and others of the prelacy, as-
sembled both far and near throughout all England,
wearied and vexed with the winter's journey, bringing
their letters procuratory. Being assembled together, the
cardinal was about to begin his sermon, when there broke
out a great dispute between the two archbishops of Can-
terbury and York, about sitting at the right hand and
left hand of the glorious cardinal, for which the one ap-
pealed against the other. The cardinal, to pacify the
strife between them, brought forth a bull of the pope ;
in the midst of this bull was pictured the figure of the
cross. On the right side of the cross stood the image of
St. Paul, and on the left side St. Peter. "Lo!" said
the cardinal, holding open the bull with the cross ;
" here you see St. Peter on the left hand of the cross,
and St. Paul on the right, and yet there is between these
two no contention, for both are of equal glory. And yet
St. Peter, for the prerogative of his keys, and for the pre-
eminence of his apostleship and cathedral dignity, seems
most worthy to be placed on the right side. But yet be-
cause St. Paul believed on Christ when he saw him not,
therefore has he the right hand of the cross ; for,
' blessed be they,' saith Christ, ' which see not, and yet
have believed.'" And from that time forth the arch-
bishop of Canterbury enjoyed the right hand, and the
archbishop of York the left.
The cause why the pope was so greedy and needy of'
money, was this ; he had mortal hatred and waged conti-
nual battle against the good emperor Frederick 11. who
had married Isabel, the sister of King Henry. And there-
fore because the pope's war could not be sustained with-
out charges, it made the pope the more importunate to
take money in all places, but especially in England; so
that he shamed not to require the fifth part of every eccle-
siastical man's living, as Matthew Paris writes. And he
bargained with the citizens of Rome that if they would
join with him in vanquishing Frederick, he would grant
to them, that all the benefices in England, whieh should
be vacant should be bestowed at their own will to their
children and kinsfolks ! Upon which it follows thus ia
the forenamed history. " The pope sent commandment
to the archbishop of Canterbury and four other bishops,
that provision should be made for three hundred Romans
in the chief and best benefices in all England at the next
vacancies, so that the archbishop and bishops should be
suspended in the meantime from all collation or gift of be-
nefices,until the foresaid three hundred were provided for."
At length the bishops, abbots, and archdeacons came to
the king, lamentably complaining of the exactions of the
pope, desiring the king, that seeing the matter touched
not themselves alone, but the whole church, and seeing
the valuation of churches was better known to their arch-
deacons than to themselves, therefore there might be a
general calling and conference on the matter. In the oc-
taves of St. John the Baptist, the day and place was aa-
signed where they should confer ; at which day and place
the prelates of England, assembling together, durst not
give any direct denial of that contribution, but after a
modest way insinuated certain exceptions against it.
[Not long after followed a general council at Lyons,
(A.D. r245)called by pope Innocent IV. in which the Eng-
lish nation exhibited the following articles of their griev-
ances.
I. The kingdom of England is grieved that the pope,
A.D. 1226.]
INSOLENT CONDUCT OF THE POPE'S LEGATE AT OXFORD.
it;5
j being not content with his Peter-pence, requires and ex-
j torts from the clergy great exactions, without the con-
sent of the king, and against the customs of the realm.
j IL The church and kingdom of England is grieved,
that the patrons of the same cannot present as they were
wont, to their churches because of the pope's letters ; but
the churches are given to Romans, who know neither the
realm nor the language, both to the great peril of souls
and robbing away the money out of the realm.
III. It is grieved, because the pope having agreed by
Lis letters, that in requiring pensions and provisions in
,fhe realm of England he would require only twelve bene-
fices, now contrary to his agreement and letter, many
more benefices and provisions are given away by him.
I IV. The realm is grieved and complains that in the
ibenefices in England, one Italian succeeds another, the
Englishmen being not only excluded, but also compelled
for determining of their matters, to seek to Rome, con-
trary both to the customs of the realm, and also to the
■privileges granted by the pope's predecessors to the
'king and kingdom of England.
I V. The fifth grievance is for the frequent recourse of
Ithat infamous legate, by whom both faith and fidelity,
the ancient customs of the realm, the authorities of old
grants, statutes, laws, and privileges, are annulled and
abrogated, wherebr an infinite number in England are
grievously afflicted and oppressed.
VI. The realm is also grieved in general taxings, col-
lections and assessments made without the king's con-
sent, the appeal and contradiction of the king's proctors
to the contrary notwithstanding.
VII. The realm complains and is grieved, that in
the benefices given to Italians, neither the old ordi-
nances, nor relief of the poor, nor hospitality, nor any
preaching of God's word, nor care of men's souls, nor ser-
vice in the church, nor yet the walls of the churches are
kept up and maintained, as the manner and custom of
the realm requires.
Over and above these grievances, there came also from
I the pope other letters, charging and commanding the pre-
lates of England to find at their own costs and charges
[for one whole year, some ten armed soldiers, some five,
some fifteen, to be ready at the pope's command wher-
ever he should appoint.
After these and other grievances and enormities of
Rome, the states of England, consulting together, direct
their letters to the pope, for the reformation of them.
First the abbots and priors, then the bishops and suffra-
gans, afterward the nobles and barons, last of all the king
himself.]
At length the ambassadors who were at Rome came
home, bringing word that the pope, hearing what was
done in the council of Westminster, and by the king, was
greatly displeased with him and the realm, denouncing
the king and his people as half schismatics. The king
jwas marvellously incensed at this, and commanded by ge-
neral proclamation through all his realm, that no man
! should hereafter consent to any tax or subsidy of money
' for the court of Rome. But afterwards the king, for fear
' of the pope, and partly through the persuasions of the bi-
I shop of Worcester and other prelates, gave over.
At this time it is told of the legate Otho that as he left
j no place unsought, where any advantage might be got :
' EO among others he came to Oxford, where he was re-
ceived with great honour ; the scholars presenting him
honourably with such dishes and rewards as they had,
thinking to gratify the cardinal after the best manner.
This being done before dinner, and the dinner ended, they
came reverently to see and welcome him, supposing that
they also should be entertained with like courtesy. As
they came to the gate, the porter (an Italian) asks what
I they wanted. They said they came to see the lord le-
gate. But the porter holding the door half open, with
proud and insolent language thrust them out, and would
! not suffer them to enter. The scholars seeing that, by
force thrust open the gate and came in ; and when the
Romans who were within would have repelled them with
their fists, and such staves as they had in their hands,
they fell to much heaving and pushing, and many blows
were given on both sides. In the meantime, while some
of the scholars ran home for their weapons, there chanc^ed
a poor scholar (an Irishman) to stand at the gate waiting
for his alms. When the master-cook saw him at the gate,
he took hot scalding water and cast it in his face. One
of the scholars, a Welshman, that came with his bow and
shafts, seeing this, let fly an arrow, and shot this master
of cooks clean through the body, and slew iiim at once.
When the cook fell dead, there was a mighty uproar and
a great clamour throughout all the house. The cardinal,
hearing the tumult and great noise about him, like a va-
liant Roman runs as fast as he could into the steejjle, and
there locks the doors fast, where he remained till mid-
night. The scholars in the meanwhile, not yet pacified,
sought all about for the legate, exclaiming and crying
out, " Where is that usurer, that simonist, that pilferer
and taxer of our livings, that prowler and extortioner of
our money, who perverts our king, and subverts his king-
dom, enriching himself with our spoils:" &c. All this
the cardinal heard and held his peace : when the night
approaching had broken up the field, the cardinal coming
out of his fort, and taking his horse in the silence of night
was privately conveyed over the river to the king.
Mention was made a little before of the Albigenses
living about the city of Toulouse. These Albigenses,
because they began to discover the pope, and to con-
trol the inordinate proceedings and discipline of the see
of Rome, the pope therefore accounting them as a he-
retical people, excited Lewis, the young French king,
through the instance of Philip his father, to lay siege
against Toulouse to eradicate and extinguish these Al-
bigenses. Whereupon Lewis reared a mighty army to
beset the city. But after he had long wearied him-
self and his men, there fell upon the French host such
famine and pestilence both of men and horses, besides
the other daily slaughter of the soldiers, that Lewis
was forced to retire and return to France. In the
slaughter, besides many others. Earl Simon de Mout-
fort, general of the army, to whom the lands of the earl
of Toulouse were given by the pope, was slain.
In the year 1226, died Pope Honorius III., a great
adversary against the Emperor Frederick, after whom
succeeded Gregory IX. In which year also died Lewis,
the perjured French king, at the siege of Avignon, whom
the pope now the second or third time had set up to
fight against Reymond the good earl of Toulouse, and
the Albigenses of that country, the origin whereof was
this. In the days of Philip the French king, this Rey-
mond (earl of "Toulouse) was disdained by the pope for
holding with the Albigenses, and, therefore, by the in-
stigation of the pope, the lands of the earl were taken
from him and given to Simon Montfort ; but when
Earl Reymond would not be removed from the right of
his possessions, then the pope set Philip to make war
against him. Whereupon Lewis (his son) was sent, as
above declared, to besiege the city of Toulouse ; but
being repulsed, returned home, after he had lost the
most part of his army by pestilence and other calamity.
And thus continued the good earl still in quiet posses-
sion till this present time (A.D. 1226), when the pope,
not forgetting his old malice against the earl, and no
less inflamed with insatiable avarice, directed his legate
Romanus to France for two purposes ; one to extirpate
the earl, the other to enlarge his own revenues. Thus
the legate begins to summon a council, requiring the
French king, with the archbishops, bishops, and clergy
of France, to appear before him at Bitures. The coun- '•
cil being set, and the pope's letters read, there appears
before them Reymond earl of Toulouse on the one part,
and Simon Montfort on the other part. Simon de-
manded the lands and possessions of Reymond, which
the pope and Philip the French king had given to him
and to his father before, confirmed by the donation of
the pope and of the king. Adding, moreover, that the
Earl Reymond was deprived and disinherited in the
general council at Rome for the heresy, which is called
the heresy of the Albigenses.
To this the Earl Reymond answered, offering himself
ready to all duty and office both towards the French
king and to the church of Rome, whatever duly apper-
tained to him. And as to the heresy with which he was
lb'6
SIEGE OF TOULOUSE— PERJURY OF THE POPE'S LEGATE,
TBooK IV.
there charged, he not only there offered himself in that
council before the legate, but most humbly entreated
of him, that he would take the pains to come into every
city within his precinct, to inquire of every person there
the articles of his belief; and if he found any person or
persons holding that which was not catholic, he would
see the same corrected and amended according to the
censure of holy church to the uttermost. Or if he
should find any city rebelling against him, he, to the
uttermost of his might, with the inhabitants, would
compel them to do satisfaction. And, as to himself,
if he had committed or erred in anything, he offered
there full satisfaction to God and the church, as became
any faithful christian man to do, &c. But all this the
legate despised, neither could the catholic earl there find
any grace, unless he would give up his heritage, both
for himself and for his heirs for ever.
After much altercation on both sides about the mat-
ter, the legate required every archbishop to call aside his
suffragans, to deliberate with them upon the case, and to
give in writing what was concluded. Which being done
accordingly, the legate denounced excommunication
against all such as revealed any part of that which was
there concluded, before the pope and the king had in-
telligence of it.
In the meantime certain preaching friars were di-
rected by the legate, throughout all France, to incite and
stir up the French to assume the cross, and to war
against the earl and the people of Toulouse, whom they
accounted for heretics. He ceased not to prosecute the
pope's fury against him and his subjects, stirring up the
king and the French, under pain of excommunication,
to war against them. Lewis being thus forced by the
legate, answered, that he for his own safety would not
achieve that expedition, or venture against the earl, un-
less the pope would first write to the king of England,
commanding him, that, during the time of that expe-
dition, he should invade and molest no piece of his
lands and possessions. All this being done and accom •
plished, the French king and the legate, crossing them-
selves to the field, appointed a day for the Frencli army
to meet together at Lyons, under pain of the pope's
excommunication, and with horse and armour to set
■pon the Toulousians.
When the day was come, the French king marched
forward with a mighty host, after whom also came the
legate, with his bishops and prelates. The number of
lighting-men in his army, besides the victuallers and
waggoners, were fifty thousand men. The legate openly
excommunicated the earl of Toulouse, and all that took
his part, and interdicted his whole land. Thus the king
came marching forward, till he came into the province
of Toulouse, and the first city of the earl's which he
came to there was Avignon, which city they thought
first to have besieged, and so in order to have destroyed
and wasted the whole province belonging to the earl.
And first the king demanded of them to have his passage
through the city, pretending peace, as desiring only to
paiss through. The citizens, consulting with themselves
what was to be done, gave answer, " That they mis-
trusted their coming, and supposed that in deceit they
required entrance into their city, and for no necessity
of their journey."
The king being much offended at this, swore an oath,
that he would not depart till he had taken the city, and
immediately he began to make assaults. The citizens
manfully defended themselves, and casting stone for
•tone, and shooting shot for shot, slew and wounded many
of the French. Thus when they had long besieged the
city, and could not win it, at length provisions began to
fail in the French camp, and many of the French army
died for hunger ; for the earl of Toulouse, as a wise man of
war, hearing before of their coming, took into the town
all the provision that was abroad, and left nothing with-
out to serve for their defence and succour. He ploughed
up the fields, that there should be no pasture to serve
their horses ; he put out of the town aU the old people
and young children, lest they who kept the town should
want provisions, and before their coming sent them far
away, so that within the town they had plenty, and
without they died for famine. And, besides, in seekin»
about for their forage, many fell into the hands of tliain
that kept the city, who secretly lay in wait for them
abroad, and slew many of them ; besides a great number
of cattle and horses died for want of forage, and poor
soldiers, that had no great store of money, died for want
of victuals. By which mortality a pestilence broke out
among them, so that the king himself, and also the legate,
were greatly dismayed, thinking it to be no little dis-
grace, as well to the realm of France, as also to Rome,
that they should depart and break up their siege : and
the soldiers also thought that it was much better for
them to end their lives by battle, than to starve and die
like dogs. Wherefore, with one consent, they deter-
mined to give a new assault at the bridge that goes over the
river Rhone into tlie town ; to which place they came in
such number, that either by the weakness of the bridge,
or the subtilty of the soldiers that kept the town, the
bridge broke, and three thousand of them, vrith bridge
and all, fell armed into the violent stream, and were
drowned. There was nothing then but joy and gladness
among the citizens, and much lamentation and heavi-
ness among the others ; and shortly after the citi-
zens (when they saw a convenient time) came suddenly
upon them, and slew two thousand of them, and re-
turned to the town again with safety. Lewis the king,
to avoid the pestilence that was in the camp, went into
an abbey not far off, where he shortly after died ; of
whose death there are various opinions, some saying,
that he was poisoned ; some, that he died of dysentery.
The legate thought to keep his death secret till the
town should be surrendered ; for he thought himself dis-
graced for ever, if he should depart before the town was
taken ; so he considered how by falsehood he might be-
tray them, and he sent certain heralds, to desire them
that they should consult among themselves upon articles
of peace, and bring the same to the French camp ; they
faithfully promised the safe conduct of the messengers,
both in coming and going ; and when they had given
their pledges, the messengers from the citizens talked
with the legate, who promised them, if they would deli-
ver up their city, they should have their lives, goods,
and possessions in as ample a manner as they now en-
joyed them. But the citizens and soldiers refused,
and after much talk on both sides, the legate
requested them, that he and his prelates might come
into their city to examine what faith and belief they
were of, and that he neither sought nor meant any
other thing, but their own safety as well of body as of
soul, which he faithfully sware to. " For," saith he,
" the report of your great infidelity has come to the lord
pope's ear, and therefore he desired us to truly certify
thereof." The citizens, not mistrusting his oath and
promise, granted entrance to him and the clergy. But
the soldiers of the camp, as was privately arranged by
the legate, made themselves ready ; so that at the en-
trance of the prelates in at the gate, disregarding their
oath and fidelity, the soldiers were ready, and suddenly,
with violence, rushing in, slew the porter and warders, and
at length won the city and destroyed it. Thus when they
had taken this noble city by falsehood and policy, they
carried the king's corpse to Paris, where they buried it.
Of the whole number of the French soldiers who were
destroyed in this siege by famine, pestilence, and drown-
ing, are recounted more than two-and-twenty thou-
sand.
In the former part of this history it has been stated
how the church and commons of England were misera-
bly afflicted by the intolerable oppression of the pope,
who, through his violent extortion, had procured the best
benefices to be given to his Romans, and the chief fruits
of them to be reserved to his own coffers. You heard
before what complaints had been made, but yet no re-
dress could be had. Such was the insatiable avarice of
these Roman exactors, prowling and taking wherever
they came, with their provisions and exactions out of
measure, and never satisfied. And these importunate
exactions and contributions of these Itahan harpies, be-
sides the Peter-pence, besides the common tribute, in-
creased daily more and more, to the great grievance of
A.D. 1226—1232.] VARIANCE BETWEEN POPE GREGORY IX. AND THE ROMANS.
167
j the realm, so that the wealth of this land was almost
! sucked out, and transferred to the court of Rome. The
I king was not ignorant of this, but he could not help the
i matter. Therefore it was devised by some of the nobles,
I (A. D. I'i.'U), that certain letters, under the pretended
■ authority of the king, should be sent abroad, command-
ing that such corn and grain, with other revenues, as
were takt.n up for the pope, should be stayed and forth-
coming by a certain day appointed in the letters.
At thit time, (about A. D. 1232), there was at St.
I Albans i great consistory of abbots, priors, archdeacons,
' with s( veral both of the nobility and clergy. At the
breaki) g up of which consistory, there was a certain
I clerk, whose name was Cincius, a Roman, carried away
by the soldiers ; and one John, archdeacon of Norwich,
a Florentine, hardly escaping, got to London, where he
; hid himself. Cincius, after being kept five weeks, when
I they had well emptied his bags, was safely sent again
j without any more injury to London.
Not long after this, the barns of a beneficed man, a
I Roman, being full of com, were broke up by a like
company of armed soldiers, and the corn brought out to
be sold and given away to the poor people.
The same year, about Easter, all the barns in England
which were in the hands of any Roman or Italian, were
likewise wasted, and the corn sold to the best advantage
for the poor commoners ; of which, great alms were dis-
tributed, and many times money, also with corn together
was scattered for the poor people to gather up. Neither
was there any that would or durst stand against them.
A") for the Romans and Italians themselves, they were
struck with such fear, that they hid themselves in monas-
teries and cells, not daring to complain of their injuries,
but held it better to lose their goods, than to lose their
lives. The authors and workers of this feat were to the
number of fourscore armed soldiers, of whom the prin-
cipal captain was one naming himself William Withers,
surnamed Twing.
This coming to the pope's knowledge, he sends his
letters immediately to the king, with sharp threats and
imperious commands, charging him for suffering such
villany within his realm, straightly enjoining him, under
pain of excommunication, to search out the perpetrators
with all diligence, and so punish them that all others
might take example by them.
Thus, after inquisition made of all parties, and wit-
nesses sworn and examined, many were found culpable
in the matter, some that were actors, some that were
consenters, of whom some were bishops and chaplains
to the king, some archdeacons and deans, with soldiers
and laymen. Among them was the Robert Twing above
mentioned, a comely young man, and a tall soldier, who,
of his own accord, with five other servitors, whom
he took with him abroad to work that feat, came to the
king, openly protesting himself to be the author of that
deed, and said he did it for hatred of the pope and the
Romans, because that by the sentence of the bishop of
Rome, and fraudulent circumvention of the Italians, he
was bereaved of the patronage of his benefice, having no
more to give but that one ; wherefore to be revenged of
that injury, he enterprised that which was done, prefer-
ring rather to be justly excommunicated for a season,
than to be spoiled of his benefice for ever. Then the
king, and other executors of the pope's commandment,
gave him counsel, that seeing he had so incurred the
danger of the pope's sentence, he should offer himself to
the pope to be absolved of him again, and there make
his declaration to him, that he justly and canonically
was possessed of that church. The king, moreover, sent
with him his letters testimonial to the pope, urgently de-
siring the pope that he might be heard with favour. At
this request. Pope Gregory both released him of the
sentence, and restored to him his patronage, writing to
the archbishop of York, that he might again enjoy the
right of his benefice, in as ample a manner as he did be-
fore it was taken from him.
Variance between Pope Gregory JX. and the Romans.
At this time dissension and variance began in Rome,
between the pope and the citizens. The citizens claimed
I
by old custom and law, that the bishop of Rome might
not excommunicate any citizen of the city, nor suspend
the city with any interdict for any manner of excess.
To this the pope answered, " That although he was lesa
than God, yet he was greater than any man : and therefore,
greater than any citizen, yea also, greater than king or
emperor." And as he is their spiritual father, he both
ought, and lawfully may chastise his children when they
offend, as being subject to him in the faith of Christ.
The citizens alleged again for themselves that the au-
thorities of the city, and the senators received from the
church of Rome a yearly tribute, which the bishops of
Rome were bound to pay to them, both by new and also
ancient laws. Of which yearly tribute they have beea
ever in possession bef<Jre this Pope Gregory IX.
To this the pope answered, that although the church of
Rome in time of persecution, for defence and peace, was
wont to respect the rulers of the city with gentle rewards,
yet that ought not now to be taken for a custom ; for
that custom only ought to stand, which consists not upon
examples, but upon right and reason.
By these and such other controversies rising between
the pope and the Romans, such dissension was kindled,
that the pope with the cardinals, leaving the city of
Rome removed to Perusiura, there to remain and to
plant themselves ; but the Romans overthrew several of
his houses in the city, for which he excommunicated
them. The Romans then flying to the emperor, desired
his aid and succour ; but he, to please the pope, gather-
ing an army, went rather against the Romans. Then the
pope's army, whose captains were the earl of Toulouse,
(to purchase the pope's favour,) and Peter the bishop of
Winchester, whom the pope had sent for, partly for his
treasure, partly for his skill in feats of war, and the em-
peror's army, joined together, and going about the city
of Rome, cast down the castles or mansions belonging to
the citizens round about the suburbs, to the number of
eighteen, and destroyed all their vines and vineyards
about the city. The Romans not a little enraged, brake
out of the city with more heat than order, to the number
of one hundred thousand, to destroy Viterbium the pope's
city with sword and fire. But the multitude being in dis-
order, and out of battle-array, and unprepared for con-
tingencies, fell into the hands of their enemies, who were
in wait for them, and destroyed a great number ; so that
on both sides there were slain to the number of thirty thou-
sand ; but the greater portion was of the citizens. And
this dissension thus begun, was not soon ended, but con-
tinued long after.
By these and such other histories, who sees not how
far the church of Rome has degenerated from the true
image of the right church of Christ ? which by the rule
and example of the gospel, ought to be a daughter of
peace, not a mother of debate, not a revenger of herself,
nor a seeker of wars ; but a forgiver of injuries, humbly
and patiently referring all revenge to the Lord ; not a
raker for riches, but a winner of souls ; nojt contending
for worldly mastership, but humbling themselves as ser-
vants ; and not vicars of the Lord, but jointly like bre-
thren serving together, bishops with bishops, ministers
with ministers, deacons with deacons ; and not as
masters separating themselves by superiority one from
another ; but briefly communicating together in doctrine
and counsel, one particular church with another ; not as
a mother, one over another, but rather as a sister church
one with another, seeking together the glory of Christ,
and not their own. And such was the church of Rome
first in the old ancient beginning of her primitive state,
esjiecially while the cross of persecution yet kept the
bishops and ministers in humility of heart, and fervent
calling upon the Lord for help ; so that happy was* that
christian then, who with liberty of conscience might only
hold his life, how barely soever he lived. And as for the
pride and pomp of the world, as striving for patrimo-
nies, buying of bishopricks, gaping for benelices, so far was
this off from them, that then they had little leisure, and
less desire so much as once to think of them. Neither did
the bishops of Rome then fight to be consuls of the city,
but sought how to bring the consuls to Christ, being glad
if the consuls would permit them to dwell with them iu
168
SEPARATION OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN CHTTRrHES.
[Book IV.
the city. Neither did they then presume so high, as to
bring the emperors' necks under their girdles, but were
glad to save their own necks in any corner from the
sword of tlie emperors. Then they lacked outward peace,
but they abounded with inward consolation, — God's holy
Spirit mightily working in their liearts. Then was one
catholic unity of truth and doctrine amongst all churches
against errors and sects. Neither did the east and
west, nor distance of place divide the church ; but both
the eastern church and western church, the Greeks and
Latins made all one church. And although there were
then five patriarchal sees appointed for order sake, differ-
ing in regions, and peradventure also, in some rites one
from another ; yet all these consenting together in one
unity of catholic doctrine, having one God, one Christ,
one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one head, and linked
together in one bond of charity, and in one equality of
honour, they made altogether one body, one church, one
communion, called one Catliolic Universal and Aposto-
lic Church. And so long as this knot of charity and
equality did join them in one unity together, so long the
church of Chiist flourished and increased, one ready
to help and harbour another, in time of distress, as Aga-
petus and Vigilius flying to Constantinople, were there
aided by the patriarch, &c. So that all this while, neither
foreign enemy, neither Saracen, nor Soldan, nor Sultan,
nor Calipha, nor Corasmine, nor Turk, had any power
greatly to harm it.
But through the malice of the enemy, this catholic
unity did not long continue, and all by reason of the
bishop of Rome, who, not contented to be like his bre-
thren, began to extend himself, and to claim superiority
above the other four patriarchal sees, and all other
churches in the world. And thus as equality amongst
christian bishops was by pride oppressed, so unity began
by little and little to be dissolved, and the Lord's vesture,
which the soldiers left whole, began to be divided. Which
■vesture of christian unity, although now it has for a long
time been rent asunder by the occasion aforesaid, yet not-
withstanding in some part it held together in some
mean agreement, under subjection to the see of Rome,
till the time of this Pope Gregory IX. (A. D. 12:50), at
which time this rupture and schism of the church brake
out into a plain division, utterly dissevering the eastern
church from the western church, upon this occasion.
There was a certain archbishop elected to an arch-
bishoprick among the Grecians ; who, coming to Rome
to be confirmed, could not be admitted unless he promised
a great sum of money. Which when he refused to do,
and detested the execrable simony of the court of Rome,
he repaired home again to his own country unconfirmed,
declaring there to the whole nobility of that land, how
the case stood. There were others also, who having come
lately from Rome, and having there experienced the same
or worse treatment came in and gave testimony to the
truth of his saying. Upon which, all the churches of the
Grecians, hearing this, departed utterly from the church
of Rome, in the days of this Pope Gregory IX.
By the occasion of this separation of the Grecians from
Pope Gregory, it happened shortly after, (A. D. 1237)
that Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, wrote to the
pope, humbly desiring him to study and seek some means
of unity, that the seamless coat of the Lord Jesus thus
lamentably rent, not witli the hands of soldiers, but by the
discord of prelates, might be healed again ; offering this
besides, that if he would take the pains to do so, he
for his part, notwithstanding his old age and feeble body,
would not refuse to meet him in the mid-way, that tlie
truth on both sides being debated by the scriptures, the
wrong may be reduced, the slander stopped, and unity
reformed between them.
This request of the patriarch, as it was both godly and
reasonable, so it was the pope's part again with like humi-
lity to have yielded and agreed to it, and to have been
glad with all his might to help forward the reformation
of christian unity in the church of Christ, and so to have
shewed himself the son of peace : but the proud bishop
of Rome, more like the son of discord and dissension,
standing still upon his majesty, refused, and wrote an-
■wer to his letters, with great disdain, seeking nothing
else, but how to advance his see above all other churches ;
and not only that, but shortly after sent forth his preach-
ing friars, to move all christians to take the sign of the
cross, and to fight against the Grecians no less than
against the Turks and Saracens : so that in the isle of
Cyprus many good men and martyrs were slain for the
same, as by the letters of Germanus patriarch of Con-
stantinople is to be seen.
Shortly after, pope Gregory prepared to send men-of-war
signed with the cross, to fight against the (.Grecians ; upon
which the archbishop of Antioch, with Germanus, so-
lemnly excommunicated the pope, after he first had ex-
communicated them. In the meantime by the tenor of
the letters of the patriarch sent to the pope and to the car-
dinals, it is evident to all men.
First, that the whole universal church of Christ from the
east to the west, in ancient times, were altogether united
in one consent of doctrine, and linked together in bro-
therly charity, one church brotherly helping another, both
with temporal aid and spiritual counsel, as case required.
Neither was there any one mother-church above other
churches, but the whole universal church was the mother-
church and spouse of the Lord to every faithful believer.
Under the universal church in general were compre-
hended all other particular churches in particular, as sister
churches together, not one greater than another, but all
in like equality, as God gave his gifts so serving one ano-
ther, ever holding together the unity of faith and sisterly
love. And so long was it and rightly might it be called
"the catholic church," having in it true unity, univer-
sality and free consent. Unity in doctrine, universality
ill communicating and joining together of voices, con-
sent in spirit and judgment. For whatever was taught
at Rome touching faith and salvation, was no other than
that which was taught at Antioch, Syria, &c.
Secondly, how in process of time, through occasion of
the tyranny and violent oppression of the bishops of
Rome, this ring of equality being broken, all flew in
pieces, the eastern church from the western, the Greeks
from the Latins, and that which was one before, now was
made two ; unity turned to division, universality to sin-
gularity, and free consent to dissension.
Thirdly, here is also to be noted after this piteous
breach of equality, how many and what great nations de-
parted from the communion of the church of Rome, and
especially about this time, (A.D. 1230) so that both before
and after that time many councils were held, and many
things concluded in the western church, to which one- half
of Christendom in the east never agreed ; and on the other
hand, many councils were holden with them, which in the
Latin church were not received. So that the church now
as she lost the benefit of universal consent, so also she
lost the name catholic. Upon which this question is to
be asked, that when the council of Lateran, under pope
Innocent III. ordained the doctrine of transubstantiation,
and auricular confession here in the western church, with-
out the free consent of the eastern church, whether that
doctrine is to be accounted catholic or not .'
Fourthly, in the departing of these churches from the
bishop of Rome, there is also to be noted that the
churches of the Greeks, although they separated them-
selves from the church of Rome, and that justly, yet they
still kept their unity with their God, and still received the
true and sincere doctrine of faith, ready to discuss and
try the truth of their religion by the scriptures. Where-
fore the church of Rome has done them open wrong, for,
when the Greeks offered so gently to try and to be tried
by the truth of God's word, she not only would stand
to no trial, nor abide any conference, but even excom-
municated as heretics, those who appear to have been
more orthodox christians than they themselves.
Fifthly, these things being so, then we have to con-
clude that the church of Rome falsely pretends itself ca-
tholic, for if the name of catholic must needs import an
universal consent of the whole, how can that be catholic
where the consent of so many famous and true christian
churches has been wanting ; and further, where the con-
sent that has been among themselves, has rather been a
constrained than any true or free consent * As is easy to
be proved ; for let the fires and faggots cease, let kings
|A.D. 1232—1237.] A TABLE OF THE UNREASONABLE EXACTIONS OF THE POPE.
169
and princes leave off pressing their subjects with the
pope's obedience ; let the scripture and the bishops alone,
every one in his own diocese, to govern their flock after
the rule of God's word, and how few are there in this
western world, that would not do the same that these Gre-
cians, Ethiopians, and Syrians, have done before us.
When I consider the acts of this Gregory, and then
the conduct of the Greek church, I cannot but commend
their wisdom, and judge their state happy and blessed,
in shaking off from their necks the miserable yoke of the
pope's tyranny ; and on the other side, considering with
myself the wretched thraldom of these our churches here
in the western part of the world under the bishop of Rome,
I cannot tell whether more to marvel at or to lament
their pitiful state, who were brought into such oppression
and slavery under him, that they could neither abide him,
nor yet dare to cast him off. So intolerable were his ex-
actions, so terrible was his tyranny, his suspensions and
excommunications like to a mad man's dagger, drawn at
jevery trifle, that no christian patience could suffer it, nor
ination abide it. Again, so deep did he sit in their con-
sciences, they falsely believing him to have the authority
of St. Peter, that for conscience sake neither king nor
emperor durst withstand him, much less poor subjects.
And although his takings and spoilings, in this realm of
England, were such that neither the laity nor spiritualty
could bear ; yet was there no remedy, they must bear
them, or else the pope's sentence was upon them, to curse
them as black as pitch.
In reading the histories of these times, any good heart
would lament and rue, to see the miserable captivity of
the people which they suffered under this thraldom of the
bishop of Rome.
A brief Table or Declaration of the Papers unreasonable
gatherings, exactions, and oppressions in thi realm
of England.
I And first to begin with the elections of the bishops,
abbots, deans, and priors within this realm, it cannot be
told what mass of money grew to the popes by them in this
king's time, for no election happened either of archbishop,
bishop, abbot, or any dignity, but when the convent or
chapter had chosen one, the king would set up another.
'By which when the other appealed to Rome, no small ri-
vers of English money went flowing to the pope's sea.
And although the election went never so clear, yet the
I new elect must needs respect the Holy Father with some
'gentle reward.
j A contention happened between the king and the
monks of Winchester, about the election of William Rale,
whom the monks had chosen, but the king refused, and
t therefore sent to Rome, with no small sum of money to
'evacuate the election of William Rale ; commanding also
that the gates of Winchester should be shut against him;
and that no man should be so hardy as to receive him
into the house. Upon this William being excluded, af-
ter he had laid his curse upon the whole city of Win-
chester, repaired to Rome, where for eight hundred marks
promised to the pope, his bishopric (spite of the king)
was confirmed, (Ex. Mat. Paris, fol. 164 and 240.)
After the death of Stephen Langton archbishop of Can-
i terbury, the monks had elected Walter, a monk of Canter-
bury. But the king to stop that election, sent to the
I pope to annul it. Perceiving at first how hard and
unwilling the pope and cardinals were thereto, and
I considering how all things might be bought for money,
I rather than the king should fail of his purpose, his proc-
tors promised on the king's behalf to the pope, a tenth
part of all the moveables in the realm of England and of
Ireland. At the contemplation of which money the pope
I soon be','an to pick quarrels with Walter, for not answer-
I ing rightly to his questions about Christ's descending to
hell, making of Christ's body on the altar, the weeping of
Rachel f )r lier children, she being dead before ; about
the sentence of excommunication, and certain causes of
matrimony. He was therefore put back, and the king's
man preferred, which cost the whole realm of England
and Ireland the tenth part of their moveable goods. (Ex.
I Mat. Paris, fol. 71.)
There was the like dissension also between the king
and the convent of Durham, for not choosing Master
Lucas the king's chaplain, whom the king oft'ered to be
their bishop, when much money was bestowed on both
sides, the pope defeating them both, admitted neither
Master William, nor Master Lucas, but ordained the
bishop of Sarum to be their bishop, (A. D. 1228.)
Between the monks of Coventry, and the canons of
Lichfield there arose another quarrel, which of them
should have the superior voice in choosing their bishop.
In which suit after much money bestowed in the court
of Rome, the pope to requite each for their money gave
this order that each by course should have the choosing
of the bishop. (A.D. 1228.)
What business arose likewise between Edmund arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and the monks of Rochester, about
the election of Richard Wendour, to be their bishop ?
And what was the end ? First, the archbishop was obliged
to travel himself to the pope, and so did the convent also
send their proctors. Who being better monied, weighed
down the cause, so that the good archbishop was con-
demned by the pope in a thousand marks, of which the
greatest part (no doubt) redounded to the pope's coffers.
(A. D. 1233.)
After the returning of Edmund archbishop of Canter-
bury from Rome, the monks of Canterbury had elected
their prior without his assent ; for which he excommu-
nicated the monks, and evacuated their election. Not
long after this, the pope's exactors went about to extort
from the churchmen the fifth part of their goods to the
service of the pope, who was fighting then against the
emperor. This cruel exaction being a great while resisted
by the prelates and clergy, at length the archbishop,
thinking thereby to get the victory against the monks,
was contented to grant the exaction, adding moreover of
his own, for an overplus, eight hundred marks ; where-
upon the rest of the clergy were obliged to follow sifter,
and contribute to the pope's exactors. (A.D. 1240.)
In the church of Lincoln there arose a contention between
Robert Grosthead then bishop, and the canons of the ca-
thedral church about their visitation, whether the bishop
should visit them, or the dean ; the bishop and the chap-
ter, both went to Rome, and there after they had well
wasted their purses, they received at length their answer,
but paid full sweetly for it. (A.D. 1239.)
Robert Grosthead bishop of Lincoln having a great
anxiety to bring the privileged orders of religious houses
within his precinct, under his subjection and discipline,
went to Rome, and there with great labour and much mo-
ney procurtd of the pope a mandate, whereby all such
religious orders were commanded to be under his power
and obedience. Not long after the monks (who could
soon weigh down the bishop with money) sent to the
pope, and with their golden eloquence so persuaded him,
and stirred his affections, that they soon purchased to
themselves freedom from their ordinary bishop. Robert
Grosthead having intelligence of this, aigain went up to
Rome, and there complaining to the pope, declared how
he was disappointed and confounded in his purpose, con-
trary to the promises and assurance made to him before.
Pope Innocent looking with a stem countenance, made
this answer, " Brother what is that to thee ? Thou hast
delivered and discharged thine own soul. It hath pleeised
us to shew favour to them. Is thine eye ill, because I
am good?" And thus was the bishop sent away, mur-
muring with himself, yet not so softly, but that the pope
heard him say these words: "O money, money! what
canst not thou do in the court of Rome ?" Wherewith
the pope being somewhat pinched, gave this answer, " O
ye Englishmen, Englishmen ! of all men most wretched,
for all your seeking is how ye may consume and devour
one another," &c. (A.D. 1250).
It happened also the same year that Robert Grosthead
excommunicated and deprived one Ranulph, a beneficed
person in his diocese, being accused of immorality, who
after the term of forty days, refusing to submit himself,
the bishop wrote to the sheriff of Rutland to ajjprehend
him as contumacious. The sheriff, because he deferred
or refused to do so (bearing favour to the party,) and be-
ing therefore solemnly excommunicated by the bishop,
170 THE OPPRESSION OF ENGLAND BY THE POPE, IN THE REIGN OF HENRY III. [Book IV.
uttered his complaint to the king. The king taking great
displeasure with the bishop for excommunicating hisshe-
ritf, and not first making his complaint to him, sends
fortlnvithtopope Innocent, a substantial messenger, by vir-
tue of whose words the pope, easy to be intreated, sends
down a proviso to the abbot of Westminster, charging
that no prelate nor bishop in the realm of England,
should molest or enter action against any of the king's
bailiff's or officers, in such matters as to the king's juris-
diction appertained. And thus was the strife ended,
not without some help and heap of English money ; so
that no wind of any controversy stirred here in England,
were it never so small, but it blew some profit for the
pope's advantage.
Icome now likewise totouchbrieflyof someof thepope's
dispensations, provisions, exactions, contributions and
extortions in England in this king's days ; for to tell of
all, it is not one book would contain it.
Simon Montfort, earl of Leicester, had married
Elenor the king's sister, who had taken the mantle and
ring. Wherefore the king, and his brother Richard,
earl of Exeter, were greatly offended with the marriage ;
which the Earl Simon seeing, took a large sum of
money, and posting over to Rome, after he had talked a
few words in Pope Innocent's ear, the marriage was
good enough ; and letters were sent to Otho the pope's
legate here, to give sentence solemnly with the earl.
Notwithstanding which the Dominican friars, and others
of the religious fraternity, withstood the sentence of the
pope stoutly, saying, that the pope's holiness was de-
ceived, and souls were in danger ; that Christ was
jealous over his wife ; and that it could not be any wise
possible that a woman who had vowed marriage with
Christ, could afterward marry with any other, &c.
(A. D. 1238).
As there was nothing so hard in the wide world, with
which the pope would not dispense for money ; so by the
dispensations much mischief was wrought abroad. For
the people trusting upon the pope's dispensation, little
regarded what they did, what they promised, or what
they sware. As well appeared by this King Henry III. ;
who being a great exactor of the poor commons, and
thinking to win the people to his devotion, most faith-
fully promised them once or twice, and thereto bound
himself with a solemn oath, both before the clergy and
laity, to grant to them the old liberties and customs as
well of Magna Charta, as Charta de Foresta, perpetually
to be observed. Whereupon a fifteenth was granted to
the king. But after the payment was sure, the king,
confident of the pope's dispensation for a little money
to discharge him of his oath and covenant, went from
what he had promised and sworn before.
In like manner the king another time, being in need
of money, signed himself with the cross, pretending and
swearing deeply in the face of the whole parliament,
that he would himself personally fight in the Holy Land
against the Saracens. But as soon as the money was
taken, small care was had for performance of his oath ;
for the pope for a hundred pounds or two, would quickly
discharge him thereof.
Out of the same corrupt spring of these popish dis-
pensations, have proceeded also many other foul ab-
surdities. For there were many young men in those
days who enjoyed benefices, and yet were no priests,
and when by the procurement of Robert Grosthead,
bishop of Lincoln, these young men should be forced,
whether they would or not, to enter orders, they laying
their purses together, sent to Rome, and obtained of the
pope a dispensation to remain still as they were, that is,
to have the fruits of benefices to keep them at school or
at the university, and yet themselves neither ministers to
takecharge, nor yielding any service for their profits taken.
Besides innumerable heaps of enormities more, proceed-
ing from the pope's dispensations, as dispensing one
man to have several bishoprics, to engross pluralities
of benefices, to make children parsons, to legitimatize
natural children, with such other like ; the particu-
lars whereof for brevity sake, I omit to further oppor-
tunity.
The intolerable oppression of the Realm of England by
the Papers exactions and contributions, and other
sleights used in the time of King Henry III.
Although these emoluments, thus rising daily to the
pope's purse by simony and bribery, by elections and
disjiensations, might seem sufficient to satisfy his greedy
ajjpetite ; yet so insatiable was the avarice of that see,
tliat he not yet contented, sent continually some legate
or other into this realm. With all violence exacting
and extorting continual provisions, contributions, and
sums of money to be levied out of cells, abbeys, priories,
fruits of benefices, and bishoprics, and also laymen's
purses, to the miserable impoverishing both of the clergy
and temporality.
First, after Pandulph, Cardinal Otho was sent into
this realm. Great preparation was made for receiving
him ; many rich and precious gifts in scarlet, in plate, in
jewels, in money and palfries, were given him. The
king also himself went as far as the sea-side to receive
him, bowing down his head in low courtesy to the car-
dinal's knees. To whom also the bishop of Winchester
for his part gave towards keeping of his house, fifty fat
oxen, a hundred semes of wheat, and eight great vessels
of pure wine. This legate at his first coming, began
first to bestow such benefices, as he found vacant, upon
them whom he brought with him, without respect
whether they were meet or unmeet.
After this the pope hearing how the nobles and com-
mons of the realm began to dislike the cardinal for his
excessive procurations and exactions, sent for him home;
but £is the king stood in fear of his nobles, and thought
to have some support from the cardinal against all oc-
currences, he entreated him to stay while he wrote to
the pope to obtain further licence for him to tarry ; and
so he did, not without some English money you may be
sure.
In the mean time, Otho, thinking to lose no time,
but to gather also some crumbs in Scotland, made as
though he would set things in order there, and so comes
to the king of Scots, who was then in York with King
Henry, to have leave to enter. The king thus made
answer, that he never to his remembrance saw any
pope's legate in his land, neither was there any need
(God be praised) for such to be sent for. Matters
there were well enough, and needed no help of his.
And as he could never learn, either in the days of his
father, or any of his predecessors, that any such en-
trance was granted to any legate ; so he for his part
would not now begin. " But yet as I hear (said he)
that you are a good man, this I tell you beforehand,
that if you will adventure in, do it warily, and take care
of yourself, lest it happen to you otherwise than I would
wisli ; for they are a savage and unruly people, given
much to murder, and shedding blood, whom I myself
am scarce able to bridle ; so that if they fall upon you, I
shall not be able to help you. How they also invaded
me, and sought to expel me from my kingdom, you
heard of late. And therefore I warn you beforehand,
take heed in time what you think best to do." After
the cardinal heard the king speak these words, he drew
in his horns, and durst proceed no further, but kept still
by the side of King Henry. Shortly after, however,
coming to the borders of Scotland, he there called the
bishops to him, and when he had well filled his bags,
came back again.
Not long after licence came from Pope Gregory to his
legate Otho, for his longer abode here, with new autho-
rity also to proceed in the pope's affairs. Who first
shewing to the bishops and the clergy his letters of
longer tarrying, required of them, as no man (said he)
wars of his own charges, to be supported with new pro-
curations ; which was to have of every able church four
marks ; and where one church was not able to reach
thereto, that other churches should join withal to make
up the money. Notwithstanding the bishops a great
while stood in the denial thereof.
Besides, he assembled together all the black monks of
lA.D. 1238—1244.]
THE INTOLERABLE EXACTIONS OF THE POPE.
171
jSt. Benedict's order, giving to them strict orders, which
shortly after (for money) he released them from.
Moreover, collation of benefices being taken out of
•the hands of the patrons, were given to light and vile
'runaiiates, coming from Italy and other places, such as
;the pope and his legate pleased to give them to, to the
great prejudice of the ancient liberty and right of the
true patrons. Upon this the earls, and barons, and
nobles of the realm, addressed letters unto Pope Gregory
by Sir Robert Twing, knight, for redress of such wrongs
•and injuries ; who otherwise should be forced (they said)
to invoke the succour of their king, who was both able,
land no less willing, according to his duty, they trusted,
ito reform such enormities, and to defend the liberties of
ihis realm. The tenor of whose writing is to be read
■;in Matthew Paris, (fol. 128, a).
: Not long after, (A. D. 1240), came a new precept
from Pope Gregory, by Peter Rubeus the pope's nuncio,
that all beneficed clergy, as well in England as in France,
iShould pay to the pope the fifth part of their revenues.
lUpon this, when the clergy made their complaint to the
king, seeking to be relieved by him, the king answered
;that he neither would, nor durst stand against the pope,
and so without any hope of assistance sent them away.
Then were the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and pre-
'lates of the church commanded to assemble together at
Reading, there to hear the pope's pleasure concerning
;the payment of this fifth part, where in the end, thus the
matter concluded ; that the prelates desired a further
time to be given them to advise upon the matter; and for
that season the assembly brake up. Notwithstanding
at last, after many excuses made by the clergy ; first,
■•• That because the money was gathered to fight against
the emperor, they ought not to contribute their money,
icontrary to the liberties of the church. Also, forso-
jniuch as they had paid a tenth not long before to the
[{)ope, upon condition that no more such payments
should be required of them, much less now the fifth part
'should be exacted of them, because an action twice
done, makes a custom. Also seeing they had often-
times to repair to the court of Rome, if they should give
this money against the emperor, it would turn to their
idanger coming through his land. Also, seeing their
iking had many enemies, against whom they must needs
jrelieve the king with their money, they could not do so
If the realm were thus impoverished," &c. They were,
Ibowever, compelled at length to conform to the pope's
good pleasure, through the example given by Edmund,
(archbishop of Canterbury, who, to obtain his purpose
against the monks of Canterbury (with whom he was
then in strife) began first to yield to the legates, eight
hundred marks for his part, whereby the rest also were
tobliged to follow after.
' The same year the pope agreed with the people of
Rome, that if they would aid him against the Emperor
Frederick, whatever benefices were vacant in England
should be bestowed upon their children. Whereupon
commandment was sent to Edmund, archbishop, and to
the bishops of Lincoln and Sarum, that all the collations
of benefices within the realm should be suspended, till
provision were made for three hundred children of the
citizens of Rome to be first served !
1 This done, then Peter Rubeus the pope's nuncio, and
;Ruffin went into Scotland, from whence they brought with
them three thousand pounds to the pope's use about All-
liallows the same year. At which time also, cometh
janother harpy from the pope to England, named Mume-
ilius, bringing with him three-and-twenty Romans here
juto the realm to be beneficed. Thus, what by the king
Ion the one side, and what by the Cardinal Otho, Peter
IRubeus, Ruffin, and Mumelius on the other side, poor
lEagland was in a wretched case.
Another pretty practice of the pope to prowl for
money was this : Peter Rubeus, coming into religious
houses, and into their chapters, caused them to con-
tribute to the pope's holiness, by the example of this
ibishop and that abbot, pretending that he and he, of
their own voluntary devotion, had given so much and so
much, and so seduced them. Also the pope craftily
•suborned certain friars, authorized with full indulgence,
that whoever had vowed to fight in the Holy Land, and
was disposed to be released of his vow, needed not to
repair to Rome for absolution, but paying so much
money as his charges would come to going thither, he
resorting to the friars, might be absolved at home.
This passed A. D. 1240. Now all these troubles laid
together, were enough to vex the meekest prince in the
world ; the king had also much ado with the prelates and
clergy, who were always tampering with his title, es-
pecially in their assemblies and councils . he sent Geoffry
Langley to the archbishop of York, and to other bishops
purposed to meet at Oxford, to appeal for him, lest, in
the council there called, they should presume to ordain
any thing against his crown and dignity. This was
done A. D. 1241. In which year also came a command
apostolical to the house of Peterborough, that they must
grant the pope some benefice, the fruits of which were
worth at least a hundred pounds, and if it were more it
should be the better welcome ; so that they should be as
the farmers, and he to receive the profits. In fine, the
convent excused themselves by the abbot being then not
at home. The abbot, when he came home, excused
himself by the king being the patron and founder of the
house. The king being grieved with the unreasonable
ravening of these Romanists, utterly forbade any such ex-
ample to be given.
In the time of the council of Lyons, Pope Innocent
IV. (as the instrument whereby the realm of England
stood tributary to the pope, was thought to be burned in
the pope's chamber a little before), brought forth either
the same, or another chai-t like it, to which he straitly
charged and commanded every English bishop present at
the council, to set his hand and seal. Which unrea-
sonable demand of the pope, although it went sore
against the hearts of the bishops, yet (see in what miser-
able subjection the pope had all the bishops under him)
none of them durst but accomplish the pope's request,
both to their own shame, and to the prejudice of the
public freedom of the realm. Which act, when the king
and the nobility understood, they were mightily and
worthily offended therewith, (A. D. 1245).
When Cardinal Otho was sent for by Pope Gregory in
all haste to come to the general council, two others re-
mained here in his room, whose names were Peter
Rubeus, and Peter de Supino. Of whom the one, bear-
ing himself for the pope's kinsman, brought out his bills
and bulls under the pope's authority, to such an abbot,
or to such a prior, or to such and such a bishop, ^nd so
extorted from them a great quantity of gold and silver.
The other, namely, Peter de Supino, sailed to Ireland,
from whence he brought with him a thousand and five
hundred marks to the pope's use, (A. D. 1241). All
which money, however, fell into the hands of Frederi('k
the emperor, who caused it to be restored, as near as he
could, to them of whom it was taken.
After these came Master Martin, from the new Pope In-
nocent IV. (A. D. 1244), armed with full power, to sus-
pend all prelates in England from giving benefices, till
the pope's kinsmen were first preferred. Neither would
he take the fruits of any benefice, unless it were above
the value of thirty marks. At his first coming, he re-
quired prelates, and especially religious houses to fur-
nish him with horses and palfries, such as were conve-
nient for the pope's special chaplain and legate to sit
upon ; also with plate, raiment, provision for his kit-
chen and cellar, &c,, and such as denied, or excused, he
suspended, as the abbot of Malmesbury, and the }>rior
of Merton. All prebends that were void he sought out
and reserved for the pope, among which was the golden
prebend of Sarum, belonging to the chancellor of tlie
choir, whom he preferred to the bishopric at Bath, and
so seized upon the prebend being void, against the wills
both of the bishop and the chapter. He brought with hira
blanks in paper and parchment, signed in the pope's cham-
ber with his stamp and seal, wherein he miglit aftenvanl
write to whom, and what he would. He, moreover,
required of the king, in the pope's behalf, to help his ho-
liness with a contribution to be taxed amongst his
clergy, at least 10,000 marks. And to the end that the
pope might win the king sooner to his devotion, ho
\7i
AMOUNT OF THE POPE'S EXACTIONS IN ENGLAND.
[Book IV.
writes to the nobles and commons of the realm, that they
should not fail, upon pain of his great curse, to grant
such subsidy of money to the support of the king, as he
then demanded of them, but they stood stiff in not
granting to him.
While the insatiable avarice of the pope thus made no
end in gathering riches and goods together in England ;
the nobles and barons, with the community as well of
the clergy as the laity, weighing the miserable state of
the realm, and especially of the church, who now neither
had liberty left to choose their own ministers, nor yet
could enjoy their own livings, laid their heads together,
and so exhibited an earnest intimation to the king, be-
seeching him to consider the pitiful affliction of his sub-
jects under the pope's extortion, living in more thraldom
than the people of Israel under Pharaoh. Whereupon
the king beginning at last to look up, and to consider
the injuries and wrongs received in this realm tlirough
the avarice of the court of Rome, directs to Pope Inno-
cent IV. this letter, in tenor as follows :
J%c hinges letter to Pope Innocent IV.
" To the most holy father in Christ, and lord Inno-
cent IV., by the grace of God, chief bishop, Henry, by
the same grace, king of England, &c. Greeting and
kissings of his blessed feet. The more devout and ob-
sequious the son shews himself in obeying the father's
will, the more favour and support he deserves to find at
his father's hands again. This therefore I write because
both we and our realm have ever and in all things been
hitherto at the devotion and commandment of your fa-
therhood ; and although in some certain affairs of ours
and of our kingdom, we have found your fatherly favour
and grace some times propitious to us, yet in some things
again, as in provisions given and granted to your clerks
of foreign nations, both we and our kingdom have felt no
small detriment. By reason of which provisions, the
church of England is so sore charged and burthened,
that not only the patrons of churches to whom the do-
nations thereof do appertain, are defrauded of their right,
but also many other good works of charity thereby do
decay, for that such benefices, which have been merci-
fully bestowed upon religious houses, to their sustenance
are now wasted and consumed by your provisions.
" Wherefore as your apostolic see ought to be favour-
able to all that are petitioners to the same, so that no
person be wronged in that which is his right, we thought
therefore to be suitors to your fatherhood, most humbly
beseeching your holiness, that you will desist and cease
for a time from such provisions. In the meantime, it
may please your fatherhood, we beseech you, that our
laws and liberties (which you may rightly repute none
other but your own), you will receive to your tuition, to
be conserved whole and sound, nor to suffer the same by
any sinister suggestion in your court to be violated and
infringed. Neither let your holiness be any whit moved
therefore with us, if in some such cases as these be, we
do or shall hereafter resist the tenor of your command-
ments ; for so much as the complaints of such, which
daily call upon us, do necessarily inforce us thereto,
who ought, by the charge of this our office, and kingly
dignity committed to us of Almighty God, to foresee that
no man in that which is their right be injured, but truly
to minister justice to every one, in that which duly to
him appertains." This letter was sent the eight-and-
twentieth year of the king's reign. (Ex Parisiensi,
fol. 172.)
A man would think that this so gentle and obedient
letter of the king to the pope would have wrought some
good effect in the apostolical breast. But how little all
this prevailed to stop his insatiable greediness and into-
lerable extortions and oppressions, the sequel well de-
clares. Shortly after, the pope sent Master Martin with
blanks, being bulled for contribution of ten thousand
marks, in all haste to be paid also, even immediately upon
the receiving of this letter. And the pope, after all this
great submission of the king, and so manifold benefits
and payments yearly out of his realm was not ashamed
to take of David, prince of North Wales, five hundred
marks a-year, to set him against the king of England,
and exempted him from his fealty and obedience due to
his own liege lord and king, to whom both he and all
other Welchmeu had sworn their subjection before.
(Matth. Parisiensi, fol. 172.)
Neither did Master Martin in the meanwhile slip his
business, in making up his market for the pope's money
of ten thousand marks, but still was caUing upon the
prelates and clergy, who, first excusing themselves by
the absence of the king and the archbishop of Can-
terbury, afterward being called again by new letters,
made their answer by the dean of St. Paul's their pro-
locutor : —
That the poverty of the realm would not suffer them
to consent thereto.
That, whereas they had given before a contribution to
Cardinal Otho, for paying of the pope's debts, and knew
the money to be employed to no such end as it was de-
manded, for they had now more cause to doubt, lest this
contribution in his hands, which was a much more infe-
rior messenger than the cardinal, would come to the
same, or a worse effect.
That, if they should now agree to a new contribution,
they feared le.st it would grow to a custom, seeing that
one action, twice done, makes a custom.
That, forsomuch as a general council is shortly looked
for, where every prelate of the realm must needs bestow
both his travel and expenses, and also his present to the
pope, if the prelates now should be bound to this tax,
they were not able to abide this burthen.
That, seeing it is alleged, that the mother church of
Rome is so far in debt, it were reason and right, that
the mother so oppressed should be sustained of aU her
devout children meeting together in the general council ;
whereas by helps of many, more relief might come than
by one nation alone.
And, last of all, they alleged, that for fear of the
emperor and his threatenings, they durst not consent to
the contribution.
While these things were thus in talk between the
pope's priests and the clergy of England, comes in John
Mariscal and other messengers from the king, command-
ing in the king's name, that no bishop that held his ba-
ronage of the king, should infeft his lay fee to the court
of Rome, which they ought only to him, &c.
Not long after this, (in A. D. 1245), the whole nobi-
lity of the realm, by general consent, and not without the
king's knowledge also, caused all the ports by the sea-
side to be watched, that no messenger with the pope's
letters and bulls from Rome should be permitted to
enter the realm ; some were taken at Dover and there
stayed. But, notwithstanding, when complaint was
brought to the king by Martin, the pope's legate, there
was no remedy, but the king must needs cause these let-
ters to be restored again, and executed to the full ef-
fect.
Then the king, upon advice, caused a view to be
taken through every shire in England, to what sum the
whole revenues of the Romans and Italians amounted,
which, by the pope's authority, went out of England;
the whole sum whereof was found to be yearly sixty
thousand marks, to which sum the revenues of the
whole crown of England did not extend I (Ex Matt.
Parisiensi, fol. 185. a.)
The nobles then understanding the miserable oppres-
sion of the realm, being assembled together at Dunsta-
ble for certain causes, sent one Fulco, in the name of
the whole nobility, to Martin, the pope's legate, with
this message ; that he immediately upon the same warn-
ing should prepare himself to be gone out of the realm,
under pain of being cut to pieces. At which message,
the legate being sore aghast, went straight to the king, to
know whether his consent was to the same or not. Of
whom when he found little better comfort, he took his
leave of the king, who bade him adieu in the devil's
name, says Matthew Paris, and thus was the realm rid
of Master Martin, (A. D. 1245.)
As soon as Pope Innocent had intelligence hereof, by
the complaint of his legate, he was in a mighty rage.
A.D. 1245—1246.] SUPPLICATION TO THE POPE IN THE GENERAL COUNCIL AT LYONS. 173
And, remembering how the French king, and the king of
Arragon, not long before had denied him entrance in'o
their land, and being therefore in displeasure with them
likewise, he began in great anger to knit his brows, and
said, " It is best that we fall in agreement with our
prince, whereby we may the sooner bring under these
little petty kings ; and so the great dragon being
pacified, these little serpents we shall handle at our own
pleasure as we please."
After this, immediately then followed the general
council of Lyons, to which council the lords and states
of the realm, with the consent of the commonalty, sent
two bills, one containing a general supplication to the
pope and the council, the other with the articles of such
grievances as they desired to be redressed, whereof re-
lation is made sufficiently before. The other bill of the
supplication, because it is not before expressed, I
thought here to exhibit for two causes ; first, that men
in these days may see the pitiful blindness of those igno-
rant days, wherein our English nation here did so
blindly humble themselves and stand to the pope's
courtesy, whom rather they should have shaken off, as
the Grecians did. Secondly, that the pride of the pope
might the better appear in his colours, who so disdain-
fully rejected the humble suit of our lords and nobles,
when they had much more cause, rather to disdain and
to stamp him under their feet. The tenor of the sup-
plication was this :
I The copy of (he sttpplication written in the names of
all the nobles and commons of England, to Pope
Innocent IV., in the general council at Lyons,
(A. D. 1245.^
" To the reverend father in Christ, Pope Innocent, chief
bishop, the nobles, with the whole commonalty of
the realm of England, sendeth commendation with
kissing of his blessed feet.
" Our mother, the church of Rome, we love with all
our hearts, as our duty is, and covet the increase of her
honour with so much affection as we may, as to whom
we ought always to fly for refuge, whereby the grief
lying upon the child, may find comfort at the mother's
hand. Which succour the mother is bound so much the
rather to impart to her child, how much more kind and
beneficial she finds him in relieving her necessity.
Neither is it unknown to our mother how beneficial and
bountiful a giver the realm of England has been now of
long time for the more amplifying of her exaltation, as
appeared by your yearly subsidy, which we term by the
name of Peter-pence. Now the said church, not con-
tented with this yearly subsidy, has sent divers legates
for other contributions, at divers and sundry times to be
taxed and levied out of the same realm ; all which con-
tributions and taxes notwithstanding have been lovingly
and liberally granted.
" Furthermore, neither is it unknown to your father-
hood, how our forefathers, like good catholics, both
loving and fearing their Maker, for the soul's health, as
well of themselves, as of their progenitors and successors
also, have founded monasteries, and have largely en-
dowed the same, both with their own proper lands, and
also patronages of benefices, whereby such religious
I persons professing the first and chiefest perfection of
I holy religion in their monasteries, might with more peace
and tranquillity occupy themselves devoutly in God's
service, as to the order appertained ; and also the clerks
presented by them into their benefices, might sustain the
I other exterior labours for them in that second order of
religion, and so discharge and defend them from all
hazards, so that the said religious monasteries cannot be
defrauded of those their patronages and collations of
benefices, but the same must touch us also very near,
and work intolerable griefs unto our hearts.
" And now see, we beseech you, which is lamentable
to behold what injuries we sustain by you and your pre-
decessors, who, not considering those our subsidies and
contributions above remembered, do suffer also your
Italians and foreigners, which are out of number, to be
possessed of our churches aud benefices in England,
pertaining to the right and patronage of those monas
teries aforesaid, which foreigners, neither defending the
said religious persons, whom fhey ought to see to, nor
yet having the language, whereby they may instruct the
flock, take no regard of their souls, but utterly leave
them to wild wolves to be devoured. Wherefore it may
truly be said of them, that they are no good shei)herds,
whereas they neither know their sheep, nor do the sheep
knowthe voice of their shepherds, neither do they keep any
hospitality, but only take up the rents of those benefices,
carrying them out of the real.n, wherewith our bre-
thren, our nephews, and our kinsfolks might be sus-
tained, who could and would dwell upon them, and employ
such exercises of mercy and hospitality as their duty re-
quired. Whereof a great number now for mere neces-
sity are laymen, and obliged to fly out of the realm.
" And now to the intent more fully to certify you of
the truth, ye shall understand that the said Italians and
strangers receiving of yearly rents out of England, not
so little as sixty thousand marks by year, besides other
avails and excises deducted, do reap in the said our
kingdom of England more emoluments of mere rents,
than doth the king himself, being both tutor of the church,
and governor of the land.
" Furthermore, whereas at the first creation of your
papacy we were in good hope, and yet are, that by
means of your fatherly goodness we should enjoy our
franchises, and free collation of our benefices and dona •
fives, to be reduced again to the former state, now
comes another grievance which we cannot but signify
unto you, pressing us above measure, which we receive
by Master Martin, who, entering late into our land without
leave of our king, with greater power than ever was seen
before in any legate, although he bears not the state
and shew of a legate, yet he has doubled the doings of a
legate, charging us every day with new mandates, and so
most extremely has oppressed us ; first, in bestowing
and giving away our benefices, if any were above thirty
marks, as soon as they were vacant, to Italian persons.
" Secondly, after the decease of the said Italians, un-
knowing to the patrons, he has intruded other Italians
therein, whereby the true patrons have been spoiled and
defrauded of their right.
" Thirdly, the said Master Martin yet also ceases not
to assign and confer such benefices still to the like per-
sons ; and some he reserves to the donation of the apos-
tolical see ; and extorts, moreover, from religious houses
immoderate pensions, excommunicating and interdicting
whoever dare withstand him.
" Wherefore, forasmuch as the said Master Martin has
so far extended his jurisdiction, to the great perturbation
of the whole realm, and no less derogation to our king's
privilege, to whom it has been fully granted by the see
apostolic, that no legate should have to do in his land,
but such as he by special letters did send for : with
most humble devotion we beseech you, that as a good
father will always be ready to support his child, so
your fatherhood will reach forth your hand of compas-
sion to relieve us your humble children from these
grievous oppressions.
" And although our lord and king, being a catholic
prince, and wholly given to his devotions and service of
Christ Jesus our Lord, so that he respects not the health
of his own body, will fear and reverence the see apos-
tolic, and, as a devout son of the church of Rome, de-
sires nothing more than to advance the estate and
honour of the same ; yet we who labour in his affairs,
bearing the heat and burden of the day, and whose duty,
together with him, is to tender the preservation of the
public wealth, neither can patiently suffer such oppres-
sions, so detestable to God and man, and grievances in-
tolerable, neither by God's grace will suffer them,
through the means of your godly remedy, which we well
hope and trust of you speedily to obtain. And thus
may it please your fatherhood, we beseech you to accept
this our supplication, who in so doing shall worthily
deserve of all the lords and nobles, with the whole com-
monalty of the realm of England, condign and special
thanks accordingly." A. D. 1245. (Ex Mat. Paris,
fol. 188.)
174
MISERY OF CHRISTENDOM THROUGH THE POISE'S EXTORTIONS. [Book IV
This supplication being sent by the hands of Sir R.
Bigot, knight, W. de Powick, esq., and Henry de la
Mare, with other knights and gentlemen, after it was
there opened and read, Pope Innocent, first keeping
silence, delayed to make answer, making haste to pro-
ceed in his detestable excommunication and curse
against the good emperor Frederick ; which curse being
done, and the English ambassadors waiting still for
their answer, the pope told them flatly they should not
have their request fulfilled. Whereat the Englishmen,
departing in great anger, sware -with terrible oaths,
that they would never more suffer any tribute, or fruits
of any benefices, whereof the noblemen were patrons,
to be paid to that insatiable and greedy court of Rome,
worthy to be detested in all worlds.
The pope hearing these words, although making then
no answer, thought to watch his time, and did so. Dur-
ing the council, he caused every bishop of England to
))ut his hand and seal to the obligation made by King
John for the pope's tribute ; threatening, moreover, and
saying, that if he had once brought down the em-
peror Frederick, he would bridle the insolent pride of
England.
But here by occasion of this council at Lyons, that
the reader may see upon what slippery uncertainty and
variableness the state of the king depended, it is ma-
terial here to introduce the form of a letter sent by
Henry III. to the prelates of his land, before they were
transported over the sea to Lyons ; wherein may be
gathered, that the king suspected they would be pushing
and heaving at his royalty, and therefore directed these
letters to them, otherwise to prepare their affections :
the tenor whereof follows : —
A Letter of Charge to the Prelates of England, pur-
posed to assemble in the Council at Lyons, that they
should ordain nothing to their King^s prejudice.
" The king to the archbishops, bishops, and to all
other prelates of his land of England, appointed to meet
at a council at Lyons, greeting : you are (as you know)
bound to us by oath, whereby you ought to keep all the
fealty that you can to us in all things, concerning our
royal dignity and crown. Wherefore we command you
upon the fealty and allegiance wherein you are firmly
bound to us, enjoining that you do your uttermost en-
deavour, as well to get as to keep, and also to defend
the right of us and our kingdom. And that neither to
the prejudice of us, or of the same kingdom, nor yet
against us or our rights, which our predecessors and we
by ancient and approved custom have used, you pre-
sume to procure or attempt anything in your council at
Lyons ; nor that you give assent to any that shall pro-
cure or ordain ought in this case, upon your oath afore-
said, and the loss of your temporalities, which you hold
of us. Wherefore in this behalf so behave yourselves,
that for your good dealing and virtue of thankfulness, we
may rather specially commend you, than for the con-
trary by you attempted (which God forbid) we reprove
your unthankfulness, and reserve vengeance for you in
due time. Witness myself, &c., the nine-and -twentieth
year of our reign."
In the same way he wrote to the archbishops and
bishops, &c. of Ireland and Gascony.
In the beginning of the year following (A.D. 1246),
Pope Innocent came to Cluny, where a secret meeting
was tlien appointed between the pope and Lewis the
French king (who was then preparing his voyage to
Jerusalem). The pope sought all means to persuade
the French king, in revenge of his injury, to war against
the weak and feeble king of England, as he called him,
either to drive him utterly from his kingdom, or else
to damnify him, whereby he should be constrained,
whether he would or no, to stoop to the pope's will and
obedience, wherein he also would assist him with all the
authority he could. Nevertheless, the French king
would not agree to this.
Straight upon this followed then the exaction of Boni-
face archbishop of Canterbury, that he had bought of
the pope ; which was to have the first year's fruits of all
benefices and spiritual livings in England for the space
of seven years together, until the sum should come to
ten t.iousand marks. At this the king at first was
greatly grieved. But in conclusion, he was obliged at
last to agree with the archbishop, and so the money was
gathered.
Over and besides all other exactions wherewith the
pope miserably oppressed the church of England, thig
also is not to be passed over in silence, how the pope,
sending down his letters from the see apostolic, charged
and commanded the prelates to find him some ten, some
five, and some fifteen able men, well furnished with
horse and armour for one whole year, to fight in the
pope's wars. And lest the king should have knowledge
of it, it was enjoined them, under pain of excommuni-
cation, that they should reveal it to none, but to keep it
in secret only to themselves.
When Pope Innocent IV. had knowledge of certain rich
clerks leaving great substance of money, who died in-
testate, as of one Robert Hailes, archdeacon of Lincoln,
who died leaving thousands of marks and much plate
behind him, all which, because no will was made, came
to temporal men's hands : also of Almarike, arch-
deacon of Bedford, being found worth a great substance
when he died ; and likewise of another, John Ho-
tosp, archdeacon of Northampton, who died suddenly
intestate, leaving behind him five thousand marks, and
thirty standing pieces of plate, with other infinite jewels
besides ; he sent forth a statute to be proidaiuied in
England, that whatsoever ecclesiastical person hence-
forth sliould decease in England intestate, that i.s, witli-
out making his will, all his goods should redound to the
pope's use.
The pope, not yet satisfied with all this, addresses
new letters to the bishop of Winchester, and to William
bishop of Norwich, for gathering up among the clergy,
and religious houses in England, six tliousand marks
for the holy mother church, without any excuse or de-
lay, by virtue of obedience. Which, being greatly
grudged by the clergy, when it came to the king's ear,
he directed contrary letters to all the prelates, and every
one of them, commanding them, upon fortViting their
temporalities to the king, that no such subsidy-money
should be gathered or transported out of the rcahri.
But the pope again hearing of this, in great anger writes
to the prelates of England, that this collection of money,
upon pain of excommunication and suspension, should
be provided, and brought to the new Temple in London,
by the feast of the Assumption next ensuing.
And as he perceived the king to go about to oppose
his proceedings, taking thereat great disdain, he was
about to interdict the whole land. To whom then one
of his cardinals, called John Anglicus, an Englishman
born, speaking for the realm of England, desired his
fatherhood for God's cause to mitigate his moody ire,
and with the bridle of temperance to assuage tlie pas-
sion of his mind: "Which," said he, " to tell you
plain, is here stirred up too much without cause. Yotir
fatherhood may consider that these days be evil. First,
the Holy Land lies in great perils to be lost. Ail the
Greek church is departed from us. Frederick the eu)-
peror is against us, the mightiest prince this day in all
Christendom. Both you and we, who are the peers of
the church, are banished from the papal see, thrust out
of Rome, yea, excluded out of all Italy. Hungary,
with all coasts bordering about it, looketh for nothirig
but utter subversion by the Tartars. Gerniai;y is
wasted and afflicted with inward wars and tumults.
Spain is fierce and cruel against us, even to the cutting
out of the bishops' tongues. France is so im])overished
by us that it is brought to beggary, which also conspires
against us. Miserable England, being so often plagued
by our manifold injuries, even much like to Balaam's
ass, beaten and bounced with spurs and staves, begins at
length to speak and complain of her intolerable griefs
and burthens, being so wearied and damnified, that she
may seem past all recovery ; and we, after the manner
of Ishmael, hating of men, provoke all men to hate us."
For all these words of John Anglicus his cardinal, t'>e
A.D. 1246.] SICKNESS AND SUPPOSED MIllACULOUS RECOVERY OF THE FRENCH KING. 175
pope's passion could not yet be appeased, but forthwith
he sends commandment with full authority to the bishop
of Worcester, that in case the king would not speedily
cease his rebellion against his apostolical proceedings
he would interdict his land. So that in conclusion, the
king, for all his stout enterprise, was obliged to relent at
last, and the pope had his money, (A. D. I2iti).
What man having eyes is so blind who sees not these
execrable dealings of the pope to be such, as would
cause any nation in the world to do as the wise Grecians
did, and perpetually to renounce the pope, and well to
consider the usurped authority of that see not to be of
God .' But such was the rude dulness then of miserable
England, for lack of learning and godly knowledge, that
they feeling what burdens were laid upon them, yet
would play still the ass of Balaam, or else the horse of
JEsop, which receiving the bridle once in his mouth,
could afterward neither abide his own misery, nor yet
recover liberty. And so it fared with England under
the pope's thraldom.
And so it follows in the history of Matthew Paris,
how the pope taking more courage by his former abused
boldness, and perceiving what a tame ass he had to ride
upon, ceased not thus, but directed a new precept the
same year (A.D. 1246), to the prelates of England, com-
manding by the authority apostolic, that all beneficed
men in the realm of England, who were resident upon
their benefices, should yield to the pope the third part of
their goods, and they who were not resident should
give the one-half of their goods, and that for the space
of three years together, with terrible threatenings to all
them that should resist ; and ever with this clause withal,
non obstante, which was like a key that opened all
locks. Which sum, cast together, was found to amount
to sixty thousand pounds, which sura of money could
scarce be found in all England to pay for King Richard's
ransom. (Paris, fol. 207.) The execution of this pre-
cept was committed to the bishop of London, who con-
ferring about the matter with his brethren in the church
of St. Paul's, as they were busily consulting together,
and bewailing the insupportable burden of this contri-
bution, which was impossible for them to sustain, sud-
denly comes in certain messengers from the king, Sir John
Lexinton, knight, and Master Lawrence Martin, the
king's chaplain, straightly in the king's name foibidding
them in any case to consent to this contribution, which
would be greatly to the prejudice and desolation of the
whole realm.
And thus much hitherto of these matters, to the in-
tent that all who read these histories, and see the doings
of this western bishop, may consider what just cause
the Grecians had to separate from his subjection, and
communion. For what christian communion can be held
with him who so contrary to Christ and his gospel seeks
for worldly dominion, so cruelly persecutes his brethren,
so given to avarice, so greedy in getting, so injurious in
oppressing, so insatiable in his exactions, so malicious iu
revenging, stirring up wars, depriving kings, deposing
emperors, playing the monarch in the church of Christ,
so erroneous in doctrine, so abominable in abusing excom-
munication, so false in promise, so corrupt in life, so void
of God's fear: and briefly, so far from all the qualifications
of a true evangelical bishop .' For what seems he to care
for the souls of men, who sets boys and outlandish Ita-
lians in the benefices : and further appoints one Italian
to succeed another, who neither knew the language of
the flock, nor could bear to see their faces ? And who
can blame the Grecians then for dissevering themselves
from such an oppressor against Christ ?
If this realm had followed their wise example, as it
might, our predecessors had been rid of an infinite num-
ber of troubles, injuries, oppressions, wars, commotions,
long journeys and charges, besides the saving of innu-
merable thousands of pounds, which this bishop of Rome
full falsely had raked and transported out of this realm.
But as I must not exceed the bounds of my history, my
purpose being not tostandupon declamations, nor to dilate
on common places, I will pass this over, leaving the
judgment of it to the further examination of the reader.
For if I wished to prosecute this argument so far as
the matter would lead me, and truth perhaps require me to
say, I might not only say, but could well prove the pope
and court of Rome to be the fountain and principal
cause, not only of much misery here in England, but of
all the public calamities and notorious mischiefs which
have ha])pened these many years through all these western
parts of Christendom, and especially of the lamentable
ruin of the church, which not only we, but the Grecians
also this day do suffer by the Turks and Saracens. As
whoever well considers by reading of histories, and views
the doings and acts passed by the bishop of Rome, shall see
good cause to think with me. Only one narrative touch-
ing this argument, I am disposed to set before the readers,
it happened about this present time of King Henry's
reign (A. D. 1244.)
It happened that Lewis the French king, son to Queen
Blanch, fell very sick, lying in a trance for some days,
in such a way that few thought he would have lived, and
some said he was gone already. Among others, there was
with him his mother, who sorrowing bitterly for her son,
and given somewhat to superstition, went and brought
forth a piece of the holy cross, with the crown and the
spear ; and blessing him with them, laid the crown and
spear to his body, making a vow in the person of her son,
that if the Lord would visit him with health, and release
him of that infirmity, he should be crossed or marked
with the cross, to visit the holy sepulchre, and solemnly tc
render thanks in the land which Christ had sanctified with
his blood. Thus as she, with the bishop of Paris, and
others there present were praying, the king, who was
supposed by some to be dead, began with a sigh to
move his arms and legs, and stretching himself began to
speak, giving thanks to God, who from on high had
visited him, and called him from the danger of death.
As the king's mother with others took this as a great mi-
racle wrought by the virtue of the holy cross : so the king
amending more and more, as soon as he was well re-
covered, received solemnly the badge of the cross.
After this there was great preparation and much ado in
France toward the setting forth to the Holy Land. For
after the king first began to be crossed, the greater part
of the nobles of France with several archbishops and
bishops, with earls, and barons, and gentlemen to a
mighty number, received also the cross upon their sleeves.
A. D. 1246. (Ex Matt. Parisiensi, fol. 204. 6.)
The next year, the French king yet persevering in his
purposed journey. Lady Blanch his mother, and the bishop
of Paris his brother, with the lords of his council, and
other nobles, and his special friends advised him with great
persuasions to alter his mind as to that adventurous and
dangerous journey, for his vow, they said, was unadvisedly
made, and in time of his sickness, when his mind was not
perfectly established : and what dangers might happen
at home was uncertain ; the king of England being on
the one side, the emperor on the other side, and the Pic-
tavians in the midst, so fugitive and unstable : and as to
his vow, the pope would dispense with it, considering the
necessity of his realm, and the weakness of his body.
To this the king answered, *' As you say, that it was
in feebleness of my senses I took this vow upon me .
lo, as you wish me, I lay down the cross that I took."
And putting his hand to his shoulder, lie tare oif the
badges of the cross, saying to the bishop, " Here I resign
to you the cross wherewith I was signed." At the sight
of this there was no small rejoicing among all that were
present. The king then, altering his countenance and
his speech,thus spake to them : " My friends, whatever I
was in my sickness, now I thank God I am of perfect sense,
and sound reason, and now I require my cross again to be
restored unto me :" saying moreover, " That he would eat
no food until he were recognized again with the same cross,
as hewas before." At this all present were astonished, sup-
posing that God had some great matter to work, and so
moved no more questions to him.
Upon this drew nigh the feast of John Baptist, which
was the time appointed for setting forth. And being in
readiness, the king in a few days after was entering his
journey : but yet one thing was wanting. The king, per-
ceiving the mortal variance between the pope and good
Frederick the emperor, thought best before his going to
CONTESTS BETWEEN THE FRENCH AxNiJ THE SsARACENS.
176
have that, matter appeased, by whii^h his way might be
safer through the emperor's countries, and also be less
danger at home after his departure ; and therefore, he first
went to Lyons, where the pope was, partly to take his
leave; but especially to make reconcilement between
the emperor and the pope. . , ,
Here it may be noted by the way, that with the good
emperor there was no difficulty or hindrance. He rather
sought all means how to compass the pope's favour, and
never could obtain it: so that before he was excom-
municated in the council of Lyons, he not only answered
sufficiently by his attorney, discharging himself against
whatever crimes or objections could be brought against
him ; but so far humbled himself to the pope and the
council, that for all detriments, damages, losses, or
wrongs done on his part, what amends soi;ver the pope
coulifor would require, he would recompence it to the
uttermost. This the pope would not take.
He then offered, that if the pope could not abide liis
remaining in his own dominions and empire, he would go
and fight against the Saracens and Turks, never to re-
turn into Europe again, offering there to recover the
lands and kingdoms, that at any time belonged to Christ-
endom, provided that the pope would be contented that
Henry his son, who was nephew to King Henry here in
England, should be emperor after him. Neither would
this be admitted by the pope.
Then he offered for the security of his promise, to put
in the French king and the king of England to be his
sureties, or else for trial of his cause to stand to their
award and arbitration. Neither would that be granted.
At last he desired, that he might come himself and
answer before the council. But the proud pope in no
case would abide that, saying, " That he did not yet find
himself so ready and meet for martyrdom, to have him
to come to the council ; for if he did, he would depart
himself," &c.
Such was the obstinate rancor and devilish malice of
Pope Innocent and his predecessor, against that valiant
emperor and against the Grecians ; what disturbance and
mischief it wrought to the whole church, what strength it
gave to the Saracens and Tartars, how it impaired chris-
tian concord, and weakened all christian lands, not only
the army of the French King found shortly after, but
Christendom even to this day may and does feel and rue
it. Nor can there in history be found any greater cause
that made the Turks so strong, to get so much ground
over Christendom as they have, than the pestilent work-
ing of this pope, in deposing and excommunicating this
worthy emperor.
In the mean time, when the French king coming thus
to the pope at Lyons to intreat for the emperor, could
find no favour, he took his leave, and with great heavi-
ness departed, setting forward on his journey.
About the beginning of October, the French took
Damietta, being the principal fort or hold of the Sara-
cens in Egypt (A. D. 1249.) After wiiming Damietta,
the Saracens, being terrified at the loss, offered to the
christians great ground and possessions more than ever
belonged to Christendom before, on condition that they
might have Damietta restored to them again. But the
pride of the earl of Artois, the king's brother, would not
accept the offers of the Saracens, but required both Da-
mietta and Alexandria the chief metropolitan city of
all Egypt, to be surrendered. The Saracens, seeingthe pride
and greediness of the Frenchmen, would not abide that :
which turned afterwards to the great loss of the christians.
At length after long conferences between them, the Sol-
dan proposed to them to resign to him the city of Dami-
etta, with every thing which they found in it, and that they
should have in return all the country about Jerusalem,
with all the captive christians, restored to them. The
christians, said he, ought to be contented with this, and
to seek no more, but only to possess the land of Jerusa-
lem ; which being granted to them, they ought not en-
croach into lands and kingdoms, whereto they had no
right. This form of peace well pleased the meaner
sort of the poor soldiers, and many of the council and
nobiUty ; but the proud earl of Artois, the king's brother,
would not assent to it, but still required the city of Alex-
[BooK IV.
andria to be yielded to him, which the Egyptians would
by no means agree to.
From that time the French army, being surrounded by
sea and by land, began every day more and more to be dis-
tressed for provisions and with famine, being driven to that
misery, that they were obUged to eat their own horses in
Lent time, which should have served them unto other
uses. Neither could any christian power, nor Frederick,
being deposed by the pope, send them any succour. The
more misery the christians were in, the more fiercely the
Saracens pressed upon them on every side, detesting their
froward wilfulness. Many of the christian soldiers de-
serted, and not able to abide the affliction, privately went
over to the Saracens, who gladly received and relieved them,
and some were permitted still to keep their faith, some
marrying wives among them, and for hope of honour
apostatized. The Soldan, being perfectly informed by
these fugitives of every thing in the king's army, sent to
him in derision, asking where were all his mattocks, forks,
and rakes, scythes, ploughs, and harrows, which he
brought over with him, or why he did not occupy them,
but let them lie by him to rust and canker ? All this and
much more the king with his Frenchmen were obliged to
bear with.
The French king, with his army, seeing himself dis-
tressed, and that nothing was done against the Soldan of
Egypt, after he had fortified the city of Damietta, with
an able garrison, and left it with the duke of Burgundy, j
he removed his camp from thence to go eastward. In
his army followed William Longspath, who came from
England to fight in the Holy Land, accompanied with a
picked number of English warriors : but such was the ■
hatred of the French against this William Longspath ,
and the English, that they could not abide them, but
flouted them in an insulting manner, calling them
" English tails," insomuch that the good king himself
had much ado to keep peace between them. (|
The original cause of this grudge between them began ?
thus : there was, not far from Alexandria in Egypt, a
strong fort or castle, filled with noble ladies, and rich
treasure of the Saracens : this stronghold it happened
that W^illiam Longspath, with his company of English
soldiers, got possession of, more by good luck and politic
dexterity, than by open force of arras, by which he and
his followers were greatly enriched. W'hen the French
had knowledge of this, they began to conceive a heart-
burning against the English soldiers, and could not i
speak well of them after that. It happened again, not
long after, that William Longspath had intelligence of a
company of rich Saracen merchants going to a fair about
the parts of Alexandria, with their camels, asses, and
mules, richly laden with silks, precious jewels, spices,
gold and silver, with cart-loads of other wares, besides
victuals and other furniture, of which the soldiers then
stood in great need. Having secret knowledge of tliis,
he gathered all the EngUsh, and so by night falling
upon the merchants, some he slew, some he took, and
some he put to flight. The carts with the drivers and
with the oxen, and the camels, asses, and mules, with
the whole carriage and provisions he took and brought
with him, losing in all the skirmish but one soldier, and
eight of his servitors.
This being known in the camp, forth came the French,
who all this while loitered in their pavilions, and meet-
ing the carridges by the way, took all the spoils wholly
to themselves, rating Longspath and the English, for
adventuring and issuing out of the camp without leave
or knowledge of their general, contrary to the disci})line
of war. William Longspath said, he had done nothing
but he would answer to it, that his purpose was to have
the spoil divided to the whole army : when this would
not serve, being grieved in mind at being spoiled in so
cowardly a way, of that for which he had so adventur-
ously travelled, he went to the king to complain. But
when no reason nor complaint would serve, owing to the
proud earl of Artois disliking him, he bid the king fare-
well, and said he would serve him no longer. And
so William Longspath, with his followers, breaking
from the French host, went to Acre. Upon their de-
parture the earl of Artois said, " Now is the army of th»
A. D. 124&— 1250.] OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH ARMY BY THE SARACENS.
177
French well rid of these tailed people." ^N'Tiich words,
Bpoken in great despite, were evil taken by many good
men that heard him.
The king, setting forward from Damietta, directed his
journey towards Cairo. The Soldan in the meantime
hearing of the coming of the French host, in great hopes
of conquering all, sent to the king, offering to the chris-
tians the quiet and full possession of the Holy Land,
with all the kingdom of Jerusalem, and more ; besides
other infinite treasure of gold and silver, or what else
might please them, only upon this condition, they would
restore again Damietta, with the captives there, and so
would join together in mutual peace and amity. Also
they should have all their christian captives delivered
home, and so both countries should freely pass one to
another with their wares and traffic, such as they chose
to adventure. It was also firmly asserted that the
Soldan, with most of his nobles, were willing to leave
the filthy law of Mahomet, and receive the faith of
Christ, so that they might quietly enjoy their lands and
possessions. Then great quietness had no doubt per-
vaded in all Christendom, with the end of bloodshed and
misery, had it not been for the pope and his legate, who
(having command from the pope, that if any such offers
should come, he should not take them) in no wise would
receive the conditions offered, (Paris, fol. 2'^3).
After this every thing was prepared on both sides for
war. The king comes to the great river Nile, thinking
to pass over upon a bridge of boats. On the other
side the Soldan pitched himself to oppose his passage.
In the mean time there occurred a certain festival among
the Saracens, in which the Soldan was absent, leaving
his tents by the water side. This was observed by a
Saracen lately converted to Christ, ser\'ing with Earl
Robert the king's brother, who pointed out a shallow
ford in the river, where they might more easily pass
over ; the earl and the master of the Templars, with a
great force of about the third part of the army, passed
over the river, followed by William Longspath with his
band of English soldiers. Being joined together on the
other side of the water, they encountered the Saracens
i remaining in the tents, and put them to flight. After
1 this victory the French earl, elated with pride and
J triumph, as if he had conquered the whole earth, would
i needs press forward, dividing himself from the main
i host, thinking to win the spurs alone. Some sage men
I among the Templars advised him not to do so, but rather
to return and take their whole strength with them, and
1 that so they would be more sure against all deceits and
1 dangers. The practice of that people (they saidj they
i knew well, and had had more experience of than he : alleg-
I ing also, their wearied bodies, their tired horses, their
I famished soldiers, and the insufficiency of their number,
I which was not able to withstand the multitude of the
enemies : with other such like words of persuasion.
'When the proud earl heard them, being inflamed with
I no less arrogancy than ignorance, he reviled them, called
ithem cowardly dastards and betrayers of the whole
country, objecting to them the common report, which
said, That the land of the holy cross might be won to
I Christendom, were it not for the rebellious Templars, with
the Hospitallers and their fellows, &c.
To these contumelious rebukes the master of the
iTemplars answered for himself and for his companions,
ibidding the earl display his ensign whenever he would,
and wherever he dared, they were quite as ready to fol-
low him, as he to go before them. Then began William
iLongspath the worthy knight to speak, desiring the
earl to give ear to those men of experience, who had
better knowledge of those countries and people than he
had, commending their counsel to be discreet and whole-
some, and so turning to the master of the temple he be-
gan with gentle words to soften and appease him. The
knight had not half ended his taik, when the earl, taking
the words out of his mouth, began to fume and swear,
crying out of these cowardly Englishmen with tails.
" What a pure army (said he) should we have here, if
these tails, and tailed people were purged from it?"
with other like words of great villany and much hatred.
The English knight answered " Well, Earl Robert t
wheresoever you dare set your foot, my step shall go a:i
far as yours ; and I believe, we go this day where you
shall not dare to come near the tail of my horse." la
the event it proved true.
Now, seeing Earl Robert would needs set forward to
get all the glory to himself, he attacked a place called
Mansor. Then immediately comes the Soldan with all
his main power ; he seeing the christian army to be di-
vided, and the brother separated from the brother, had
that which he had long wished for, and so enclosing
them round about so that none should escape, he fell on
them and there was a cruel fight. Then the earl began
to repent of his rashness, but it was too late : then see-
ing William Longspath the English knight gallantly
fighting in the chief brunt of the enemies, cried to him
in a most cowardly way to fly, seeing God (said he)
fights against us. The knight answered " God forbid
that my father's son should run away from the face of a
Saracen." The earl then turning his horse fled away,
thinking to escape bv the swiftness of his horse, and so
taking the river of Thafnis, pressed down with his
armour, he sunk and was drowned. Thus the earl being
gone, the French began to despair and scatter. Then
William Longs])ath, bearing all the force of the enemy,
stood against them as long as he could, wounding and
slaying many a Saracen, until at length his horse being
killed, and his legs maimed, he could no longer stand,
yet as he was down, he mangled their feet and legs, and
did the Saracens much sorrow, till at last, after many
blows and wounds, being stoned by the Saracens, ho
yielded his life. After his death the Saracens setting
upon the rest of the army, whom they had compassed on
every side, destroyed them all, so that scarce one man
escaped alive, saving two Templars, one Hospitaller, and
one poor soldier, who brought tidings of it to the king.
These things being known in the French camp to the
king and his soldiers, there was no little sorrow and
heaviness on every side, with great fear and doubt in.
themselves what was best to do. At last, when they saw
no remedy, but they must stand manfully to revenge-
the blood of their brethren, then the king with his host-
passed over the Nile, and coming to the place where the-
battle had been, there they beheld their fellows and
brethren, pitifully lying with their heads and hands cufc
off. For the Saracens for the reward before promised
by the Soldan or Sultan, to them that could bring the
head or hand of any christian, had mangled the chris-
tians, leaving their bodies to the wild beasts. Thus as-
they were sorrowing and lamenting the rueful case of
their christian fellows, suddenly appears the coming of
the Soldan, with a multitude of innumerable thousands.
Against them the Frenchmen soon prepare themselves to
encounter, and so the battle being struck up, the armies
began to join. But alack for pity, what could the
French do, their number was so lessened, their hearts
wounded with fear and sorrow, their bodies consumed
with penury and famine, their horses for feebleness not
able to serve them .' In conclusion, the Frenchmen were
overthrown, slain, and dispatched; and seeing there was
no flying, happy was he that first could yield himself.
In which miserable conflict, the king with his two
brethren, and a few that clave unto him, were taken
captives, to the confusion of all christian realms, and
presented to the Soldan. All the rest were put to the'
sword, or else stood to the mercy of the Saracens,,
whether to be slain or to remain in woful captivity.
And this was the end of that sorrowful battle, wherein
almost all the nobihty of France was slain, and there
was scarcely one man in the multitude who escaped free,
but was either slain, or taken prisoner.
The Soldan, after taking of the French king, deceit-
fully disguising an array of Saracens to the nimaber of
the French army, with the arms and ensigns of them
that were slain, made toward Damietta, where the duke of
Burgundy, with the French queen, and Otho, the pope's
legate, and other bishops, and their garrisons were re-
maining, supposing under the shew of Frenchmen to be
let in ; but the captains mistrusting their hasty coming,.
and doubting their visages, not like to the Frenchmeiu
shut the gates against them.
v2
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. [Book IV.
175
As the Soldan missed his purpose, he thought by ad-
vice of his council, to use the king's life for his own
advantage in recovering the city of Damietta, as in the end
it came to pass. For, although the king at the first was
greatly unwilling, and had rather die than surrender
Damietta again to the Saracens, yet the conclusion fell
out, that the king was put to his ransom, and the city of
Damietta was also resigned, which city being twice won,
and twice lost by the christians, the Soldan or Soladine
afterward caused it utterly to be razed down to the
ground. The ransom of the king, upon condition that
the Soldan should see him safely conducted to Acre,
came to 6'0,000 marks. The number of French and
others who died in that war by water and by land, came
to 80,000 persons.
And thus you have the brief narration of this lamenta-
ble pilgrimage of Lewis the French king, all occasioned
by the pope and Otho his legate ; by whose sinister
means and pestilent pride, not only the lives of so many
christians were then lost, but also the loss of other cities
and christian regions bordering in the same quarters,
is to be ascribed ; for by the occasion of all this, the
hearts of the Saracens on the one side were so encou-
raged, and the courage of the christians on the other
side so much discomfited, that in a short time after,
both the dominion of Antioch, and of Acre, with all other
possessions belonging to the christians, were lost, to the
great diminishing of Christ's church.
Another reason, too, why the ruin of this French army
is deservedly imputed to the pope, is this ; for, when
Lewis the French king perceiving what a necessary
friend and helper Frederick the tmperor might be to
him against the Saracens, and therefore was an earnest
suitor for him to the pope, to have him released ; yet
neither he, nor the king of England, by any means could
obtain it. Through which, not only the French king's
army went to wreck, but also such a fire of mischief was
kindled against Christendom, as yet to this day cannot
be quenched. For the Saracens, and after them the
Turks, got such a hand over Christendom, as to this
day we all have great cause to rue and lament.
The chief and greatest cause of all which, was, that the
emperor who could have done the most, was deposed by
the pope's tyranny, by which all those churches in Asia
were left desolate. As to the Emperor Frederick, whom
we have frequently mentioned before, as his history is
strange, his acts wonderous, and his conflicts tragical,
which he sustained against four or five popes one after
another, I thought it well to set it forth, that the reader
may know what is to be thought of this see of Rome,
which had wrought such abominable mischief in the
world, as in the sequel of the history following, may be
seen.
The whole tragical history of the Emperor Frederick IT. ,
translated out of the Latin book of Nicholas Cisnerus,
(fromA.D. 1193, to A.D. 1250.J
Frederick II. was of the noblest lineage, being grand-
son to Frederick Barbarossa, and son to the Emperor
Henry VI., and Constantia, daughter of the king of
Sicily.
The Emperor Henry "VI., when he died, which was
shortly after the birth of Frederick II., committed the
protection of him to Constantia his wife, to Philip his
brother, governor of Etruria, and to the bishop of
Rome, then Innocent III.
Constantia, not long after the death of Henry her hus-
band, being sickly and growing into age, resigned, and
willed by her testament the safety both of her son
Frederick, and also of his dominions, to the protection
and government of Innocent III.
This Pope Innocent, as soon as he had the protection
of the young emperor, became, instead of a patron and
protector to him and his dominions, both an enemy
and conspirator. The examples are many ; he per-
suaded Sibylla, the wife of Tancred (whom Henry put
from the kingdom of Sicily), to recover the same again.
"Whereupon Walter, who was married to tlie daughter of
this Tancred, by the instigation, counsel, and aid of
the French king, with the pope, invaded Campania and
Apulia. At which time also, the same worthy protector
Innocent III., sent his legates with letters of excoinmu-
nication against all that would not take Walter for their
king.
Again, when the princes, electors, and other nobles,
had promised by their oath to Henry, that they would
make Frederick his son emperor after his decease,
the pope absolved them all from the oath which they
had taken and given for the election of Frederick.
He then went about to procure that Otho, the son of
Henry Leo, should be made emperor. He deprived all
such bishops as he knew to be favourable to Philip, who
ruled the empire during the minority of his nephew Fre-
derick. But Philip, whose cause was better, and whose
skill in martial affairs was greater, and who was stronger
in power, after many and great conflicts, and the fearful
disturbance and desolation of the whole empire, by God's
help, defeated the other. All which calamities and mis-
chiefs, Conrad Lichtenau, living at that time, in his
annals, most pitifully complains of, and accuses the bi-
shop of Rome and his adherents to be the chief authors
and devisers of this great and lamentable mischief.
Thus you may see how it was by the counsel and con-
sent of Pope Innocent, and by his instigation, besides
his secret conspiracies, that this good Frederick and his
dominions were hurt and damaged.
At this time Frederick was come to the age of twenty
years ; by the provision of Constantia his mother, he
was so well instructed in letters, and so accomplished
with other arts and virtues, that at these years there ap-
peared and shone in him excellent gifts both of wisdom
and knowledge.
He was excellently well versed in the Latin and
Greek languages, although at that time learning began to
decay, and barbarousness to increase. He had also the
German tongue, the Italian tongue, and the Saracen
tongue. He daily exercised and put in practice those
virtues which nature had planted in him, as piety, wis-
dom, justice, and fortitude; so that he might well be
compared and accounted among the worthiest and most
renowned emperors his predecessors.
When Frederick had gathered his armies, he was
crowned ; and after that, he set the empire at rest, and
in order, and appeased the whole of Germany. And
then with all his nobles and princes he returned to
Rome, and by Pope Honorius III. was with great solem-
nity consecrated and called Augustus. W^hich Honorius
succeeded Innocent in the papal see.
After the consecration of Frederick was with great
solemnity finished, he departed from Rome, to set in
order and settle the cities and great towns of Italy, for
the better tranquillity of himself, and the safety of his
subjects, where he heard of some that began to raise and
make new factions against him. Among whom were
Thomas and Richard, the brothers of Innocent III., who
held some castles from him by force. These castles he
besieged and beat down. Richard he took and sent as a
prisoner into Sicilia ; but Thomas escaped to Rome ; there
also repaired certain bishops and others that were con-
spirators against Frederick, and were by this bishop of
Rome maintained and defended. Frederick began to ex-
postul;\te with the pope, who, on the other side, was
so chafed and vexed, that immediately, without further
delay, he thunders out against Frederick his curses and
excommunications.
Thomas Fazel declares the detestation or defiance that
broke out between them in a different manner. There were,
says he, among those who were found traitors to the em-
peror, certain bishops, who flying to the pope, requested
his aid : upon which the pope sent his legates to the eini)e-
ror, and requested liim, that he would admit and receive
to favour those bishops whom he had banished and put
from their offices, and that he would not intermeddle with
any ecclesiastical charge wherewith he had nothing to do:
and said further, that the correction and punishment of
such matters pertained to the bishop of Rome, and not
to him. And, moreover, that the oversight of those
churches in that kingdom, from the which he had expelled
the bishops, pertained and belonged to the pope.
To this Frederick replied, " That forsomuch as now
A. D. 119:5— 1250.] THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 179
four hundred years and more (from the time of Charle-
magne) all emperors and kings in their dominions might
lawfully commit to meet and tit men for the same, such
ecclesiastical functions and charges as were within their
territories and kingdoms ; that he also looked to have the
like privilege and authority, which his predecessors had
before him." And being chafed and moved with these
demands of the pope, lie breaks forth and says, " How
long will tlie bishop of Rome abuse my patience ? When
will his covetous heart be satisfied ? Whereunto will his
ambitious desire grow?" With such words, repeating
certain injuries and conspiracies, both against him and
his dominions, plotted as well by Honorius as by Inno-
cent. " What man, (says he,) can suffer and bear this in-
credible boldness and intolerable insolency of so proud a
bishop ? Go," says he, to the legates, " and tell Hono-
rius, that I will hazard both the seigniory of my empire,
and crown of my kingdom, rather than suffer him thus"^
to diminish the authority of our majesty."
Whilst Frederick was in Sicilia,his wife Constantia died.
In the mean time the christians, with a great navy sailed
into Egypt, and took the city Heliopolis, commonly
called Damietta, being in good hope to have driven the
Soldan out of Egypt, they experienced a great and mar-
vellous overthrow by the water of the Nile (which then
overflowed their camp), and they were obliged to agree to
a truce with the Soldan for some years, and to deliver up
the city again. Upon this, John sumamed Brennus, king
of Jerusalem, arrived in Italy, and prayed aid of the em-
peror, in whom he had great hopes of finding a remedy
of these calamities ; thence he went to Rome to the pope,
describing to him the great discomfiture, as also the pre-
sent peril and calamity that they were in. By his means,
the emperor was reconciled again to the pope, and pro-
mised, that he would prepare an army for the recovery of
Jerusalem, and go there himself. In the mean time
Honorius, to whom he was lately reconciled, purposed to
have made against him some great and secret attempt,
had he not been prevented by death.
After him succeeded Gregory IX., who was as great an
enemy of Frederick. This Gregory was scarcely settled
in his papacy, when he threatened the emperor with ex-
communication, unless he would proceed into Asia accord-
ing to his promise ; the reason why the pope so hastened
the journey of Frederick, you shall hear hereafter. For
he could not well bring to pass, what he had devised in
his mischievous mind, unless the emperor were farther
from him. However, Frederick it should seem smelling
a rat, or mistrusting somewhat, as well he might, alleged
different excuses for delay.
Fazell, a Sicilian writer, says, that the special cause of
the emperor's stay was, the oath of truce and peace during
certain years, which was made between the Saracens and
christians, and which time was not yet expired.
The same also writes of King John of Jerusalem, that
when his daughter was brought to Rome, the emperor and
the pope were reconciled together. And being called up to
Rome to celebrate the marriage of the emperor with Joel,
the daughter of John, Pope Gregory (as the manner of
those proud prelates is) offered his right foot to the em-
peror to kiss. But the emperor, not stooping so low,
scarcely with his lip touched the upper part of his knee,
and would not kiss his foot ; which the pope took in very
evil part, and was marvellously offended. But no opportu-
nity that time served to revenge his malice, so he dissem-
bled for that time, thinking to recompence it at the full, as
time would serve.
After this, the emperor hearing how the christians were
oppressed by the Soldan in Syria, and that there came
a great army against the christian princes, he made
the more haste, and was with more desire encouraged to
set forward on his journey into Asia.
\\ ith all his power, he made speedy preparation for
the wars : he rigged and manned a puissant navy ; he
had the most picked men and the best soldiers that
were in every country, and made warlike provision for
every thing pertaining to such a voyage and expedition.
Great bands assembled and mustered both of German
soldiers and others, and appointed under their captains,
they set forth and marched to Brundusium, where lying
a long time, and waiting for the emperor, who was delayed
by sickness, a great pestilence broke out among them,
through the great heat of that country ; and many a sol-
dier there lost his life ; among them died Thuringus, one of
their generals. The emperor when he had somewhat re-
covered his health, launched with all his navy, and set
forward to Brundusium. And when he came to the
straits of Peloponnesus and Crete, he suddenly fell sick,
his diseases returning upon him again, and so sending be-
fore all or the most part of his bands and ships into
Palestine, and promising to follow them so soon as he
might recover and get never so little health ; he himself
with a few ships returned to Brundusium, and from thenca
for want of health, went into Apulia.
When tidings hereof came to the pope's ear, he sent
out his thundering curses and excommunications against
the emjieror. The pretended cause of this, I find noted
and mentioned by his own letters, how that wlien Frede-
rick had robbed and taken from Brundusius, prince of
Thuring, his horses, his money, and other rich furniture
of his house at the time of his death, he sailed into Italy ;
not to make war against the Turk, but to convey his prey
away from Brundusius ; and so neglecting his oath and
promise which he had made, and feigning himself tobesick,
came home again : and by that his default Damietta was lost,
and the host of the christians sore afflicted. Then Frede-
rick, to repel and refute the slander, sends the bishop of
Brundis and other legates to Rome ; but the pope would
not suffer them to come to his presence, nor yet to the coun-
cils of the cardinals, to make his vindication. Wherefore
the emperor, to purge himself of the crimes which the pope
so falsely accused him of, both to all christian kings, and
especially to the princes of Germany, and all the nobles
of the empire, writes his letters that those things are
both false and feigned and invented by the pope's own head ;
and he shews, how that his ambassadors with his vindica-
tion were not suffered to come into the pope's presence.
" Amongst other catholic princes," says Matthew
Paris, " he also wrote his letters to the king of England,
embossed with gold ; declaring in the same, that the
bishop of Rome was so inflamed with the fire of avarice
and manifest covetousness, that he was not contented
with the goods of the church which were innumerable, but
also that he shamed not to bring princes, kings, and em-
perors to be subjects and contributors to him, and so to
disinherit them, and put them from their kingly dignities:
and that the king of England himself had good experi-
ment thereof, whose father. King John, they held so
long excommunicated, till they had brought both him and
his dominions under servitude, and to pay tribute to him.
Behold the manners and conditions of our Roman bishops !
behold the snares wherewith these prelates seek to entangle
men ; to wipe their noses of their money , to make their child-
ren bondmen, to disquiet such as seek to live in peace, being
clothed with sheep's clothing, when indeed they be but
ravening wolves, sending their legates hither and thither
to excommunicate and suspend ; as having power to pun-
ish whom they please, not sowing the seed, that is, the
word of God, to fructify, but that they may bribe and
tax men's persons, and reap that which they never sowed.
Thus it comes to pass, that they spoil the holy churches
and houses of God, which should be the refuge for the
poor, and the mansion houses of saints, which our devout
and simple parents built for that purpose, and ordained
for the relief of poor men and pilgrims, and for the sus-
tenance of such as were well disposed and religious. But
these degenerate varlets, whom letters have only made
both mad and malapert, strive and gape to be both kings
and emperors.
" Doubtless the primitive church was built and laid in
poverty and simplicity of life, and then, as a fruitful
mother she begat those her holy children, whom the
catalogue of saints now makes mention of ; and verily no
other foundation can be laid by any other church, than
that which is laid by Jesus Christ. But this church as
it swims and wallows in all superfluity of riches, and
builds and raises the frame in all superfluous wealth and
glory ; so is it to be feared lest the walls thereof fall to
decay, and when the walls be down, utter ruin and sub-
version follow after," &c.
iSD
THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. [Book IV
But now, that Frederick might in very deed stop the
mouth of tlie cruel pope, who persisted still in his ex-
communication against him, when he had prepared all
things for the war, and had levied a great army, he de-
parted, and came by sea to Cyprus with his army.
From Cyi)rus the emperor sailed to Joppa, which he
fortified ; but it came to i)ass, that in short space they
wanted provisions, and were afflicted with famine. Then
they made their humble supplication to God, and the
great tempest and foul weather ceased, whereby, the
seas being now calm, they had provisions and all other
necessary things brought to them. Immediately the
emperor and his army, as also the inhabitants of Joppa,
were greatly refreshed and animated ; and, on the other
side, their enemies being disappointed of their purpose,
were greatly discouraged, so that the king of Egypt,
who with a great army had encamped within one day's
journey of Joppa, thinking to have besieged it, was now
contented to treat for peace. Whereupon ambassadors
were sent with the emperor's demands, and the Sara-
cens immediately granted them, so that a peace for ten
years was concluded, and was confirmed by solemn
oath on the behalf of both princes, according to their
several usages and manner : the form and condition of
which articles of peace briefly collected, are these : —
" First, That Frederick the emperor should be crowned
and anointed king of Jerusalem, according to the man-
ner of the kings of Jerusalem before him.
" Secondly, That all the lands and possessions which
were situated between Jerusalem and Ptolemais, and
the greatest part of Palestine, and the cities of Tyre and
Sidon, which were in Syria, and all other territories
which Baldwin IV. at any time had and did occupy
there, should be delivered unto him, only certain castles
being reserved.
" Thirdly, That he might fortify and build what for-
tresses and castles, cities and towns, he thought good in
all ^'yria and Palestine.
" Fourthly, That all the prisoners which were in the
Saracens' hands, should be ransomed freely and sent
home. And again, that the Saracens might have leave
without armour to come into the temple, where the
Lord's sepulchre is, to pray ; and that they should still
hold and keep Chratum and the king's mount."
As Frederick thought the conclusion of this peace to
be both necessary, and also profitable for all christians,
and as he had got as much thereby, as if the wars had
continued, he sent his legates with letters to all chris-
tian kings, princes, and potentates, as also to the bishop
of Rome, declaring the circumstance and success of his
journey and wars, as you have partly heard ; requiring
them that they also would praise and give God thanks
for his good success and profitable peace concluded.
And he desired the pope, that as he had now accom-
plished his promise, and there was no cause why he
should be displeased with him, he might be reconciled
and obtain his favour.
In the meantime the emperor with all his army
marched to Jerusalem, where, upon Easter-day (A.D.
122y,) he was with great triumph, and to the joy of all
his nobles, and also the magistrates of that kingdom,
solemnly crowned king.
After this he rebuilt the city and the walls, which
■were beaten down by the Saracens ; he supplied it with
munition, he built up the churches and temples that were
in ruins, he fortified Nazareth and Joppa with strong
garrisons, provisions, and all other necessary things.
Now see and behold, I pray you, whilst Frederick
was thus occupied, what practices the pope was about in
Italy ; not any whit careful in the affairs of the christian
commonwealth, but studying and labouring what mis-
chief he might work against the emperor. First, he
caused the soldiers, whom the emperor sent for out
of Germany to the maintenance of the holy wars, to be
stopped as they passed tlirough Italy, preventing their
journey, and spoiling them of all such provision as they
had. And not only this, but lie sent secretly letters
iato Aula to the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the sol-
diers that kept the temple and the hospital, enticmg and
inciting them to rebel against the emperor ; and, fur
thermore, he dissuaded tlie princes of the Saracens, that
they should make no league nor truce with F'-ederick,
nor deliver up to him the crown and kingdom of Jeru-
salem. Which letters, as they were manifest testimo-
nies of his treachery and treason towards him, whom
God had instituted and made his liege lord and sove-
reign, and mightiest potentate upon the earth ; so it was
lus will that he should come to the knowledge thereof,
and that tliose letters should fall into his hands, that he
kept those letters for the more certain testimony of all
this, he protests in his last epistle to the christiait
princes.
When the pope had thus conspired against Frederick,
and had betrayed him, as far as he could, to the public
enemy of all christians, the Turk, he could not dissem-
ble this his mischievous treasons, nor content himself
with it, but he must needs devise and practise another.
For he incited John, father-in-law to Frederick, to make
war against him, and caused the subjects of the empire
to withdraw their allegiance from him, as also the inha-
bitants of Picenum and of Lombardy ; and thus joining
themselves together they sought further assistance of the
French king, by which they gained great power. That
done, they divided their force in two armies, invading
with one the empire, and with the other the territories
belonging to the inheritance of Frederick.
But when the pope saw, that fortune neither favoured
his designs, nor served his longings, he was as a man
bereft of his wits, and especially at these tidings of the
prosperous success of the emperor against the Saracens.
He tore and threw all his letters on the ground, and with
all insulting language rebuked and reviled the legates
for the emperor their master's sake.
These injuries of the pope against Frederick, are great
and most wicked treasons. But still his cruel and ty-
rannical mind was not contented, but it went so far as is
scarce credible, for he not only set variance between
Frederick and his son Henry, but also caused the son to
become an enemy to the father. And this was the drift
of all his policy, that at one instant in different and
many places far one from another, war might be made
against the emperor.
When the emperor understood what commotion the
pope kept up in ail his dominions in his absence, think- I
ing to prevent the pope's purpose, and also to confirm
the friendship of those whom in his absence he found I
his trusty subjects ; he left Asia, and with all speed came \
to Calabria. During the time of his being there, he as-
sembled his forces, and made all the preparation he could.
From thence he went to Berletta, where the duke of
Spoletanum, with all his garrisons came to him ; and
thence he came into Apulia ; and within a short time, by
God's help, recovered again all his dominions there. And
then, going into Campania, he won as many towns and
holds as the pope had there, even almost to Rome. And i
now although the emperor had got this entrance upon \
the pope's dominions, whereby he might have revenged i
himself of all the injuries done to him ; yet he preferred
nothing before the christian and public tranquillity, for
the love of which, restraining his wrath, he sends his
legates to treat for peace. Furthermore, to treat for
this peace, and decide all controversies, he sent to the
jjope eight or ten of the noblest and chiefest about him,
l)rinces and dukes of the empire.
But yet so great was the insolence and pride of the
pope, that by no gentleness or kindness could he be
brought to promote the profitable concord of the church
and christian commonwealth. O, worthy head, that chal-
lenges all authority to himself in the church of Christ,
and for his own wilful revenge, cares nothing for the
health and advantage of all Christendom 1 The next
year a peace was concluded between them, by the help of
Leopold of Austria. The pope absolving the emperor of
his excommunication, took therefore of him 120,000
ounces of gold, restoring the titles both of his empire,
and also of his kingdoms.
Although Frederick concluded writh the pope this
peace unprofitable for himself, yet he performed thoM
A.D. 1193—1250.] THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 181
tilings that were agreed upon faithfully. But the pope,
who thought it but a trifle to break his promise, would
not stand to the conditions of the peace. For, to pass
over other things, he neither restored, as he promised,
the customs of the land of Sicily, nor yet the city Castel-
lana. Yet Frederick, for the quietness and advantage of
the commonwealth, bore and suffered these small inju-
ries, and studied in all that he could, as well by liberal
gifts as otherwise, to make the pope a trusty friend.
Whilst these things were done in Italy and Sicily,
great rebellions were moved in Germany against the
emperor, by his sons Henry Caesar, and Frederick of
Austria. For Henry being now shaken off from his
I ;rd pope, by reason of the peace between his father and
thi:- pope, began now to make an open claim to the empire.
■Wht-n intelligence of these things was brought to the
emperor, he sent his legates, and commanded that both
the Ciesar his son, and other princes of Germany, who
ha.l assembled their armies, should break up and dis-
perse. And as he saw his son made so apparent rebel-
lion ag-iinst him, and fearing greater insurrections in
Germaay, he thought it good to prevent the same with
all expedition. So he determined to go in all haste to
Germany with his army, from whence he had now been
absent fourteen years. The pope promised the emperor
that he would write letters in his behalf to all the princes of
Germany, but persuaded him to the utmost of his
power, that he should in no case go into Germany him-
self. For why ? his conscience accused him that he
had written to the nobles in Germany, even from the be-
ginning of his papacy, that they should not suffer the
emperor, nor any of his heirs, to enjoy the empire ; and
had stirred them all up to rebel against him ; and had
moved Henry the emperor's son, by his bribes and fair
promises to conspire against his father. And to con-
clude, he was the author and procurer of the conspiracy
which the Lombards then made against him, and fearing
lest these things should come now to the emperor's ear,
he was greatly troubled. But the emperor not thinking
it good at so important a time to be absent, went
speedily into Germany. And assembling there a council,
Henry Caesar his son, after his conspiracy was manifestly
detected, whereof the pope was chief author, was by
judgment and sentence of seventy princes, condemned of
high treason ; and being commanded by his father to be
bound, was brought to Apulii, where, not long after, he
died in prison. Furthermore, by public commandment
he renounced his son Frederick of Austria, and caused
him to be proclaimed an enemy to the public weal.
And when he saw that that punishment did not cause
him to remember himself, and acknowledge his miscon-
duct, the emperor, with a great army, took from him all
Austria and Styria, and brought them again under his
own obedience and fidelity.
Then when he had set Germany in quietness, he left
there his son Conrad Caesar, and returned to Italy, to
punish such as had conspired against him, whose trea-
sons were all detected at the condemnation of his son,
chiefly set on by the pope. The pope understanding that
the emperor marched towards Italy, pretended himself
reconciled, and a friend to Frederick, yet was he not-
withstanding a most secret and dangerous enemy. He
advised the rebellious to join together, and to fortify
strongly their cities with garrisons, that they should send
for aid to their friends, and that with all the force they
Were able, they should prepare for the war.
And he sent his ambassadors to the emperor, to whom,
under the pretence of promoting a peace, he had given
a secret commandment that they should interdict him and
his army, so soon as he came within the borders of Italy.
The emperor then prosecuted his purpose, and marched
into Italy, where he brought under his subjection those
cities that rebelled against him. And then he set upon
the great host of the confederators, of whom he took one
thousand prisoners, and also their general, and slew
several captains, and took all their ensigns.
The pope now somewhat dismayed at this overthrow of
his confederates, began to fear the emperor ; and whereas
before, he wrought secretly and by others, now he goes
to woiic with might and main to subdue and deprive the
emperor. And although the emperor saw and perceived
what hate and mortal malice he bare towards him ; yet,
that there should be no fault found in him for the breach
of the peace, he sent four legates to the bishop of Rome,
who should answer and refute those criminating charges
which he laid to him.
The bishop, when he understood the ambassadors to be
not far from Rome, thought that in hearing the e.\cuse
and reasonable answer of the emperor, perhaps he might
be pro%-oked to desist from his purpose, so he refused to
speak with them, and at the day appointed pronounced the
sentence of proscription against him, depriving him of all
his dignities, honours, titles, prerogatives, kingdoms and
whole empire. And calling the Venetian and Genoese le-
gates, he made a peace bet-^^een them, and covenanted with
them, that at their charges they should rig and man five-
and-thirty galleys, which should spoil and burn all along the
sea-coasts of the kingdoms and dominions of Frederick.
But when the pope saw the good will and fidelity
which the good duke of Venice bare to the emperor, and
saw also what aid the emperor had from him, and that he
was not likely to win him to his purpose ; then he had
recourse again to his old crafty practices and subtilties.
And he devised to put forth an edict at Rome to the uni-
versal church and people ; wherein he declares the causes
why he curses and gives the emperor to the devil of hell, and
has dejected him from all his princely dignity. He in the
same edict accuses him of many and great crimes, that are
detestable even to name. And, besides that, he restrains
his sovereign lord and emperor of the appeal, which every
private man by law may have. He accuses him of trea-
son, perjury, cruelty, sacrilege, killing of his kindred,
and all impiety ; he accuses him for an heretic, a schis-
matic, and a miscreant : and to be brief, what mischief
soever the pope can devise, with that he charges and
burthens the emperor. The pope issued two other man-
dates, in which he commanded all bishops, prelates, and
other of the clergy, that they should solemnly recite the
same in their churches instead of their sermon, that by his
decree he had excommunicated Frederick out of the fel-
lowship of christian men, put him from the government
of the empire, and that he had released all his subjects of
their allegiance and fidelity towards him. And charges
them, and all other christian men, under pain of cursing
and damnation, that they neither succour the emperor,
nor yet so much as wish him well.
Among the other noblemen of Germany at that time,
was Otho, a prince of great honour, riches, and estima-
tion. This prince, the pope both with fair promises and
rewards, enticed from the emperor. Otho again caused
three other princes and dukes to revolt from the emperor
to the pope. To whom came also Frederick of Austria,
his son ; who was easily won to the pope.
The emperor was at Patavium when this news was
brought to him. Therefore he commanded Peter of Ve-
nice his secretary, upon Easter day, to make a narration
to the people of his great and liberal munificence to the
bishops and church of Rome, and again, of the injuries
of them toward him in recompence thereof ; of his inno-
cence also in that, of which the pope had accused him, and
of the unseemliness of such an act or deed, of the right
use of the ecclesiastical censure, and of the errors and
abuse of the church of Rome. By which oration of his,
he so removed the cloud of blind superstition from many
men's hearts, and the conceived opinion of holiness of
the church of Rome, and its bishops, and their usurped
power, and subtle jjcrsuasion, that they plainly saw the
vices of the church of Rome, and of the bishops of that
see, as also their fraudulent deceits, and flagitious doings,
most vehemently lamenting and complaining of the same.
The emperor also, by his letters and legates, gives in-
telligence to all christian kings, to the princes of his own
empire, to the college of cardinals, and people of Rome ;
as well of the pretended crimes wherewith he was charged,
as also of the cruelty of the bishop of Rome against him.
The copy of which letter or epistle is as follows : —
The Emperor to the Prelates of the World.
" In the beginning and creation of the world, the in-
182 THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. [Book IV.
estimable foreknowledge and providence of God (who
asketh counsel of none) created in the firmament of heaven
two lights, a greater and a less ; the greater he created
to rule the day, and the less to rule the night : which two
80 perform their proper offices and duties in the zodiac,
that although oftentimes the one be in an oblique aspect
to the other, yet the one is not an enemy to the other ; but
rather the superior communicates his light to the in-
ferior. Even so the same eternal foreknowledge hath
appointed upon the earth two authorities, that is to say,
priesthood and kingly power ; tlie one for knowledge and
wisdom, the other for defence ; that man which is made
of two parts, might have two reins to govern and bridle
him withal, that thereby peace and love might dwell
upon the face of the earth. But alas, the bishop of
Rome sitting in the chair of perverse doctrine or pesti-
lence, that pharisee anointed with the oil of iniquity
above the rest of his consorts in this our time, who for
his abominable pride is fallen from heaven, endeavours
with his power to destroy and to undo all, and thinks, I
believe, to star himself again there, from whence he fell.
His purpose is to darken and to shadow the light of our
unspotted life, whilst that, altering the verity into lies,
his papal letters, stuffed with all untruths, are sent into
sundry parts of the world ; of his own corrupt humour,
and upon no reasonable cause, blemishing the sincerity of
our religion. The lord pope has compared us to the beast
rising out of the sea, full of names of blasphemy, and
spotted like a leopard. But we say, that he is that mon-
strous beast of whom it is said, and of whom we thus
read : ' And there went out another horse that was red,
and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace
from the earth, and that they should kill one another,'
Rev. vi. 4. For since the time of his promotion he has
not been the father of mercy, but of discord ; a diligent
steward of desolation, instead of consolation, and has en-
ticed all the world to commit offence. And to take the
words in a right sense and interpretation, he is that great
dragon that has deceived the whole world ; he is that
antichrist, of whom he has called us the forerunner ; he
is that other Balaam hired for money to curse us ; the
prince of darkness, who has abused the prophets. This
U the angel leaping out of the sea, having his vials filled
with bitterness, that he may hurt both the sea and the
land ; the counterfeit vicar of Christ, that sets forth his own
imaginations. He says, that we do not rightly believe
in the christian faith, and that the world is deceived with
three manner of deceivers, which to name, God forbid we
should open our mouth ; seeing that we openly confess
only Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to be the ever-
lasting Son of God, coequal with his Father and the Holy
Ghost, begotten before all worlds, and in process of time
sent down upon the earth for the salvation of mankind ;
conceived by the Holy Ghost ; who was born of the glori-
ous Virgin Mary, and after that suffered and died, as
touching the flesh ; and by his godhead the third day
he raised from death that other nature which he as-
sumed in the womb of his mother. But we have learned
that the body of Mahomet hangs in the air, and his soul
is buried in hell : whose works are damnable and con-
trary to the law of the Most High. We affirm also, that
Moses was the faithful servant of God and a true teacher
of the law ; and that he talked with God in Mount Sinai.
By whom also God wrought miracles in Egypt, and
delivered the law written to the Israelites, and that after-
wards with the elect he was called to glory. In these
and other things our enemy and envier of our state, caus-
ing our mother the church to accuse her son, has written
against us venomous and lying slanders, and sent the
same to the whole world. If he had rightly understood
the apostle's meaning, he would not have preferred his
■violent will, which bears such sway with him, before
reason ; neither would he have sent out his mandates at
the suggestion of those who call light darkness, and evil
good ; who suspect honey to be gall, for the great good
opinion they had conceived of that holy place, which in-
deed is both weak and infirm, and converts all truth into
falsehood, and affirms that to be which is not.
" Truly my opinion, so impartial on every side, ought
not in any case to be infringed and turned from the
faith to such enemies of so corrupt a conscience. Where-
fore we are greatly forced to marvel not a little, which
thing also doth much disquiet us to see ; that you, who
are the pillars and assistants in the office of righteous
dealing, the senators of Peter's city, and the principal
beams in God's building, have not remedied the disturb-
ances of so fierce a judge ; as do the planets of heaven
in their kind, which to mitigate the passing swift course
of the great orb or sphere of heaven, draw a contrary
way by their opposite movings. In very deed our im-
peiial felicity has been, almost from the beginning,
spurned against, and envied by the papal see and dignity :
as Simonides being demanded why he had no more
enemies and enviers of his state, answered : ' Be-
cause I have had no good success in any thing that ever
I took in hand.' And whereas we have had prosperous
success in all our enterprises (the Lord's name be blessed
therefore), especially in the overthrow, of late, of our
rebellious enemies, the Lombards, to whom in their
quarrel he promised life and absolution, with remission
of their sins, and this our success is the cause why tii's
apostolical bishop mourns and laments. And nov^', not
by your counsels, I suppose, he labours to oppose this
our felicity, but out of his own power of binding and
loosing, of which he glories so much. But presently where
power and ability wants redress, there abuse takes
place. We see in him who was so mighty a king, and
the worthiest prince among all the prophets, a desire and
craving of the restitution of God's Holy Spirit, wlien he
had polluted the dignity of his office. But the proverb is,
' As things indissoluble are not to be loosed, so things that
cannot be bound, are not to be bound.' Which thing is
manifestly proved in him. For why, the scriptures of
God instruct men how to live, they mortify our souls
which are immortal, and quicken the same which are
dead for want of life. And doubtless he is able to hum-
ble and bring down those that are unworthy of dignity,
as much as he pleases, and when he pleases. Doubtless
if the bishop of Rome were a true bishop indeed, inno-
cent, unpolluted, and not associated with wicked livers
and evil men, his life should prove him to be so. He
would not then be an offerer of dissentious sacrifice, but
a peacable oll'erer of love and charity, and would cense,
not with the incense of grief and hatred, but with the
sweet smelling incense of concord and unity, neither yet
would make of a sanctified office an execrable abuse. If
he were sucli a bishop as he ought to be, he would not
wrest or abuse the preaching the word into the fruit and
gain of his own dissension, neither should we be accused
as such an enemy of our mother the true church, as is laid
unto her Son's charge by such a bishop. W^hich true and
mother church we honour with all reverence, and embrace,
being so beautified and adorned with God's holy sacra-
ments. Some singular persons notwithstanding, feigning
themselves to be our brethren by that mother, and who yet
are not, such, I say, as are subject and slaves to cor-
ruptible things (putting them from amongst us) we ut-
terly reject : especially because injuries done by them are
not merely transitory and belonging to this life, where-
with our majesty is so molested, vexed, and grieved.
Wherefore we cannot so easily mitigate our mood, neither
ouglit we in very deed to do so, and therefore are we
forced the more to take the greater revenge of them.
You therefore that are men of grave and deliberate
counsel, having tlie excellent gift (as from God) of wis-
dom and understanding ; oppose that roaring enemy of
ours in these his proceedings, whose beginnings are so
wicked and detestable, wisely comparing things past,
with those to come. Otherwise you that are under our
subjection, as well of our empire as other our dominions,
shall feel and perceive (both of my chief enemy and per-
secutor, as also of the princes that are his favourers and
adherents) wliat revenge by sword Frederick Augustus
shall take upon them, God so permitting."
The bishops and prelates, with one consent support-
ing the emperor, and contemning the pope's mandates
and writs, and also the curses and threatenings of Al-
bert his legate, accused, reproved, and greatly blamed
his temerity, and also the tyranny which he usurped
A.D. 1193— 1250.] THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 183
against the churches of Germany, and especially against
the good emperor ; that without his consent he durst be
80 bold as to meddle in churches committed to the em-
peror's government against the old and ancient cus-
toms ; and that he had excommunicated the emperor
without just cause ; that he had condemned the empe-
ror's faithful subjects as enemies to the church, for
standing with their liege and sovereign prince (which
allegiance without horrible iniquity they might not vio-
late), and so had sought to disquiet them likewise in
their charges and administrations ; and had also in that
quarrel given such defiance to the emperor. They ac-
cused and condemned Albert for a most impudent im-
postor, and for a most pestiferous botch and sore of the
christian commonwealth, and they give him to the devil
as a ruinous enemy, as well of the church as of his own
natural country, and further think him worthy to have
his reward with the rest of the pope's pursuivants,
being one of the most wicked inventors and devisers of
mischief that were in all Germany. This done, they in-
formed the emperor of it by their letters ; and, further,
they advertised all the princes of Germany (especially
those which were of the pope's faction or rebellion, and
were the favourers of Albert), that they should take
heed and beware in any case of his subtle deceits and
pernicious deceivable allurements, and that they should
not assist the pope against the emperor.
While these things were thus in working in Ger-
many, Frederick came to Etruria, and after he had
allayed certain insurrections there, from thence to Pisa,
where he was received and welcomed with great amity
and honour. This city was always faithful to the emperors
of Germany.
Frederick then getting on his side the Lucenses, the
Volaterans, the Genenses, the Aretines, and several
cities besides in Etruria, came to Viterbium, which took
part with him.
When the pope understood that Frederick was come
to Viterbium he was very heavy, for he feared he would
come to Rome, the good-will of which city the pope
much mistrusted. He, therefore, caused a supplication
to be drawn, pourtraying the heads of Peter and Paul,
and with a sharp and contumelious oration he much de-
faced the emperor, promising everlasting life and the
badge of the cross to as many as would arm themselves
and fight against the emperor, as against the most
wicked enemy of God and the church. Now when the
emperor, marching somewhat near to the gates of Rome,
beheld those whom the pope had, with his goodly spec-
tacle of St. Peter and St. Paul, and with his alluring
oration, stirred up against him, and marked with the
badge of the cross, coming forth in battle against him ;
disdaining to be accounted for the enemy of the church,
when he had been so beneficial to it, he made a fierce
charge upon them, and soon put them to flight, and as
many as he took (cutting off that badge from them) he
caused to be hanged.
After this, when the emperor had greatly afflicted by
battle such as conspired with the pope against him, he
marched to vanquish the rest of his enemies in Italy,
and besieged Asculinum. There understanding what
the pope's assistants had done with the princes elec-
tors, and other princes of Germany, he wrote his letters
to them. In which, first he shewed how that those con-
tumelies and spiteful words, which the pope blustered
out against him, are lighted upon himself ; and how the
bishops of Rome not only seek to bring emperors,
kings, and princes under their obedience, but also seek
to be honoured as gods, and say that they cannot
err, nor yet be subject or bound to any religion.
And further, as princes they command (under pain
of cursing) that men believe every thing they say,
how great a lie soever it be. Insomuch that by this
covetousness of his, all things go backward, and the
whole commonwealth is subverted, neither can any
enemy be found more hurtful or perilous to the church
of God than he. He wrote to them further, that he,
seeing their good wills and practices towards him,
would, with all the power and ability that God had
given him, endeavour that he who in the likeness of
the shepherd of the flock, and the servant of Christ,
and chief prelate in the church, shews himself so very a
wolf, persecutor and tyrant, may be removed from that
place, and that a true and careful shepherd of God's
flock may be appointed in the church. Wherefore he
exhorts them, if they desire the safety and preservation
of the whole state of the commonwealth and empire,
that they be furtherers of his purpose and proceedings,
lest otherwise they also should happen to fall into the
same snare of servitude with the bishop of Rome.
When the pope, as is said before, would not hear the
emperor's legates that came to treat for peace, he called
to a council at Rome, all such prelates out of Italy,
France and England, as he thought to favour him and
his proceedings, that thereby, as his last shift and only
refuge, he by their help might deprive Frederick of his
empire, as an utter enemy to God and to the church.
All which things Frederick having knowledge of, deter-
mined to prevent their passage to Rome, as well by sea
as by land. So that all the passages by land being now
stopped and prevented, he commanded his son Henry
with certain galleys to go and keep the coasts of Sardinia,
and from thence to go to Pisa, and with the Pisans to rig
out a navy to meet with such as should come to aid the
pope at Rome. The pope's champions understanding
they could not safely repair to Rome by land, procured
galleys and ships out of Genoa to the number of forty sail
for their defence ; thinking that if they should happen to
meet with any of the emperor's ships or galleys, they
should be able to make their part good, and give them
the repulse. Encius in like manner and Huglinus (being
captain and admiral of the Pisan navy for the emperor)
launched forth to sea with forty ships and galleys ; and met
with the Genoese ships, and fiercely began to grapple with
them and board them, in which fight at length three of
the Genoese ships were sunk, with all the riches and trea-
sure in them. In these, three legates of the popes, were
taken, of whom were two cardinals, all cruel enemies
against the emperor, and many other prelates more ; be-
sides a great number of legates and procurators of cities,
with an infinite number of monks and priests, besides six
thousand soldiers, with others.
Pandolph Colonutius, in describing the circumstances
of the great loss and misfortune of these champions of the
pope by sea, declares that besides the great spoil and
booty, they also found many writings and letters against
Frederick, which much helped them in the defence of those
causes, wherein they had laboured against him.
News hereof was brought to the emperor not long after,
who immediately led his army towards Rome ; and in the
way he reconciled the city of Pisa to the cause. But Fanum,
because the townsmen shut their gates and would not sufl'er
the emperor to come in, he took by force and destroyed.
The emperor, seeing that neither by petition to the pope,
nor yet by lawful excuse, could he do any good with him,
thought, by his sudden comiiig there, and the tVar of the
imminent peril, he might be brought to leave off his])er-
tinacity. And although the emperor was too strong for
the pope, yet, because he regarded nothing more than the
public tranquillity of the enijiire, and that he might then
take the Tartar wars in hand, he refused not to treat for
peace, as if he had been both in force and fortune much
his inferior.
While this ruffle was betwixt the emperor and the pope,
the emperor of the Tartars' son, invaded the borders next
adjoining to him, and there won Roxolanum, Bodolium,
Mudanum, with many other cities, towns, and villages,
destroying, wasting and burning the countries all about,
killing and slaying man, woman, and child, sparing none
of any sex or age. At this sudden invasion, the people
being in such fear and perplexity, having no city, no re-
fuge, nor aid to stand in defence for them, were obliged
to leave all that they had, and disperse themselves into
woods, and fly into marshes and mountains, or wherever
any succour offered itself to them.
The emperor though! it very requisite, that this mis-
chief should be remedii d and prevented with all speed ;
but his great enemy the pope, was the only hinderance.
For when he saw and perceived that he himself could do
no good, and only laboured in vain in seeking peace with
184 THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDl KICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. [Book IV.
the pope, he gave commandment to Boiemus and Boius,
to intreat and persuade with him. And (considering the
imminent peril likely to ensue, by reason of such civil
dissension, to the whole state of Christendom) that he
would take up and conclude a peace, and mitigate some-
what his fierce and wrathful mood ; and when he saw
further, that neither by that means of intreaty nor any
other, the pope would desist from his stubborn and mali-
cious purpose, he wrote to the king of Hungary, that he
was right sorry and greatly lamented their miserable state,
and that he much desired to relieve the need and neces-
sity that he and all the rest stood in. But that he could
not redress the same, nor be any assistance to him, be-
cause as the bisho]) of Rome refused all treaty of peace,
he could not without great peril to himself depart out of
Italy, lest by tlie pope's mischievous imaginations, he
should be in peril of losing all at home. This was the
loving zeal and affection of the pope and his adherents in
this time of calamity towards the christian state and com-
monwealth ; that he had rather bend his force and re-
venge his malice upon the good and christian emperor, than
either he himself withstand, or suffer and permit, by any
profitable peace, that this most bloody and cruel Tartar
should be restrained from so great a havock, spoil and slaugh-
ter of christian men ; and yet forsooth these men will
seem to have the greatest regard of all others to the
christian preservation, and think to have the supremacy
given therein ! What else is this, but manifest mockery
and deceiving of the people.
When Frederick saw there was no other remedy, and
that he laboured in vain to have peace with the pope, he
prosecuted this war to the uttermost ; and when he had
got Tudertum, he destroyed the towns of Geminum and
Narvia, and gave the spoil to his soldiers ; he gently re-
ceived the surrender of Siburnium, and wasted all the
country about Rome. The pope, dismayed and troubled,
and seeing that things prospered not so well with him
and against the emperor as he wished, died for very
anger.
In the stead of Gregory, succeeded Celestine IV., who,
the eighteenth day after he was created pope, also
died.
When the cardinals were all assembled, they made
Sinibald pope, whom they called Innocent IV. Of
which election, when Frederick was informed, he was
well pleased ; and as he had in all this troublous time
been his friend, he hoped that the christian common-
wealth would now have been brought to much peace and
concord.
The legates of Frederick also, with the assistance of
Baldwin, the emperor of Constantinople, laboured very
dihgently for the conclusion of the promise of peace.
And to be brief, every man was in good hope, and looked
for no less. But the matter fell out far otherwise, and
contrary to all their expectation. For the pope was
secretly set on and encouraged by the cardinals and
others against Frederick. And while the emperor's le-
gates waited for the answer, Rainerus, the cardinal,
went secretly to Viterbium with a number of soldiers,
and took the town.
The emperor, hearing of this, mustered his bands,
and with a sufficient force entered the pope's territory to
recover Viterbium. From thence he sent ambassadors
to Rome, and with them also the emperor of Constanti-
nople, and the earl of Toulouse, who he thought were
able to do much vrith the pope in the prosecuting of this
peace. But when the legates perceived no conclusion of
peace was purposed, they began to despair of the matter;
and so sent word to the emperor. The emperor yet
doubted not, but if he might himself speak with the
pope, he should, upon reasonable conditions, accord
with him ; so by his legates and letters, he desired him to
appoint a place where the emperor might resort to him.
The pope seemed to be contented, and appointed a day
at Fescennia, where they would talk together ; and the
pope promised that he would be there before him, and
wait the emperor's coming. But the pope had made a
confederacy with the French king against Frederick; and
when he knew the three galleys previously hired to be
ready, he secretly in the night took ship, and came to
Genoa, and from thence to Lyons in France, where,
calling a council, he, with a loud voice summoned Fre-
derick, and appointing him a day, commanded him there
personally to plead his cause.
And although his sudden departing out of Italy made
plain demonstration of no conclusion of a peace ; yet the
most modest emperor, using the innocency and upright,
ness of his cause, and as one most desirous of peace and
christian concord, sent the patriarch of Antioch, tlie
bishop of Panormia andThadeus Suessanus. the president
of his court, a most skilful and prudent civilian, to the
council of Lyons, who signified to them that the emperor
would be there for the defence of his own cause ; and, as
tlie day was very short, required a more convenient time
for him to repair there. The emperor also sent to in-
treat that he would prorogue the day of hearing, till he
might conveniently travel thither. But the pope would
not give so much as three days' space, in which time the
ambassadors assured them of the emperor's presence.
When the day was come, the pope, with his confederates,
against God's law, against christian doctrine, against
both the precept of the law of nature and reason, against
the rule of equity, against the constitutions of emperors,
and also the decrees of the empire, without any observa-
tion of the law, or granting dilatory days, without proof
of any crime, or his cause suffered to be pleaded or
heard what might be answered therein, taking upon him
to be both adversary and judge, condemned the emperor
in his absence. What more wicked sentence was ever
pronounced ? What more cruel act, considering the
person, could be committed ? Or, what thing more
brutish could have been imagined or devised ?
When the emperor heard of this cruel and tyrannical
sentence of the pope, passed and pronounced against him,
he thought good by his letters to let all christian princes
and potentates understand, as well what injurious and
manifold displeasure he had sustained by the four preceding
popes in their times, as also the cruelty and tyranny of this
pope, in pronouncing the sentence of judgment and con-
demnation against him passing the bounds both of justice,
equity, and reason.
This policy the pope used to disturb Germany, and the
whole empire ; and utterly to destroy and subvert the
same. And thus, Germany was divided, some taking
part with Frederick the emperor ; some with those that
should by the pope's appointment be the electors of the
new emperor, and thus was the public peace and quiet
broken, and all together in tumult.
By these civil wars, Germany suffered no little cala-
mity ; in every place was manslaughter and murder, the
country spoiled, the towns and villages set on fire and
burnt, the churches and temples, wherein the husband-
men had put their goods and substance, violated and
robbed ; houses were pulled down, the goods divided, and
every man's cattle driven away. To conclude, in this
turmoil and contention of deposing and choosing another
emperor, in this faction of princes, and this liberty of ^
wearing armour ; in this licence of hurting and sinning, the <
impudent boldness of private soldiers, and especially of
such as were the horsemen, then counted the better sort of j
soldiers, was so great, and their unbridled and unsatiable ,
desire in robbing, spoiling and taking of booties, catching
and snatching all that came to hand, so much, that nothing
could be sure and in safety that any good man enjoyed.
Otho Boius, however, kept his promise and faith
which he had pledged before to the emperor Frede-
rick and Conrad his son. Whereupon Philip Javavensis,
Albert and others calling a council at Mildorsus by the
pope's commandment, sent for Otho, to whom they open-
ed the pope's pleasure and commandment. To all which
when he had heard, Otho answered, " I cannot marvel at
some of you enough, that, when heretofore you persuaded
me to leave and forsake the part I took with the bishop
of Rome, whom you yourselves affirmed to be Antichrist ,
and that I should take part with the emperor, you your- J
selves will not keep your fidelity and promise made to
those good princes." And he said, that "he perceived
in them a great inconstancy and levity, both in their
words and deeds, who now call that wicked, unjust and j
violent wrong, that but lately they thought equal, just j
XD. 1229—1250.] THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF FREDERICK II. EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 185
i and right." He said further, " that they were ove'-come
' with pleasures, corrupted with superfluity, won with
bribes, gaping for honour and estimation ; and that they
, neither regarded honesty, godliness, nor their duty and
' office ; but studied how to make dissension and commo-
tions, and longed after war and bloody battle."
He said further, that for his part he would obey God
and his prince, to whom he had sworn fidelity ; and that
he nought esteemed the feigned holiness and detestable
practices of such prelates. He said he believed in Christ,
and would trust to his mercy ; and that he believed how
those whom they cursed and gave to the devil, were in the
greatest favour with God. However, those prelates took
in good part this expostulation of his, and seemed to bear
Otho no malice or grudge for what he had said, but to be
desirous of peace and unity ; yet not long after Otho was
cursed as black as all the rest, and counted as bad as the
worst.
Albert the pope's champion nowbethought himof amis-
chievous device against Conrad Caesar the emperor's son.
Albert with certain of his confederates, by means of Ulric
a chief officer of the monks, came in the dead time of the
night into the chamber, where the Coesar with a few
others about him was lying down ; and falling upon
them, they took some, and slew others ; and finding no
other body in the chamber or lodging, they thought that
Csesar had been slain among the rest. But he hearing
the noise, forsook his bed, and hid himself under a bench,
and so escaped their hands. The next day he outlawed or
proscribed the bishop and his co.Tipanions, and also the
monk's bailiff for treason, and seized upon all the goods
of the house. But at the suit of the guiltless monks he
released aU to them again, taking by way of fine one hun-
dred pounds. Ulric lost his office, and Albert, to escape
punishment, took the habit of a monk. Conrad Hochen-
folseus, who was the murderer of these men, though he
escaped the punishment of man's hand, yet the vengeance
of God for the fact he escaped not. For as he was riding
in the day time abroad, he was suddenly stricken with a
thunderbolt and died.
During all this busy and contentious time, it may well
oe gathered, that Frederick was not still, but had his
hands full suppressing these rebellious Popish tumults,
and having done strict execution on those that had con-
spired against his person, he came to Cremona and took
with him the wisest, most virtuous, and best learned men
that there were, thinking with them to have gone himself
to Lyons to the pope, and there to have communication
with him as well concerning the sentence, as also about
the conclusion of some peace, if by any means he might.
And when all things were prepared and ready, he took
the journey in hand. When within three days' journey of
Lyons, he was certified that Parma was taken by the out-
laws of sundry factions of the pope ; when he understood
this and that the pope was the chief actor, he saw mani-
festly it would little prevail to attempt any further the
thing he went about, and then at length when he saw no
other remedy, putting from him all hope of peace, he
prepared himself to the wars with all his force and might.
Thus altering his purpose and journey, he took the
straightest way into Lombardy, and with an army of sixty
thousand men he besieged Parma. In the beginning all
things prospered well with Frederick, and had good suc-
cess; for he sharply repelled the charges of them that de-
fended the city of Parma. And further, Robert Casti-
lion, who was the emperor's lieutenant in Picenum
near to Auximum, discomfited the pope's army, and slew of
them more than four thousand, and took many such as
were of the confederate cities prisoners. But this good
success and prosperous fortune lasted not long. For
when Frederick to recreate himself (as he seldom had his
health) rode about the fields with some of his horsemen
to hawk and hunt, many of the soldiers wandered and
ranged unarmed about the fields. The soldiers in Parma,
having this opportunity, entered with all force and speed
possible the emperor's camp, which not being strongly
fenc%d, nor having gates to shut against them, was a thing
easy enough to do. When they had killed and slain a
great number of the emperor's soldiers, and had burnt
snd destroyed the camp, they came again to Parma.
After this also, Richard in another conflict in Picenum,
discomfited the pope's soldiers, and slew their captain
Hugolinus, besides two thousand others slain and taken
prisoners. When Frederick had now again gathered, and
new mustered his bands at Dominum, he marched forth
to Cremona ; and notwithstanding that there he under-
stood of the good success and victory that Encius had
at Rhegium, yet he perceived the defection of the most
part of Lombardy from him, and he determined to take
his journey into Apulia, and when he had there levied a
strong and sufficient army, he purposed to make his speedy
return again into Lombardy.
When news was brought him thither, that Encius his
son (coming to aid the Mutinenses against the Bono-
nians) was taken prisoner two miles from Mutina ; and
that in his absence, the pope's captains, with their
bands and garrisons, went throughout all Lombardy,
Emilia, Flamminia, and Etruria, to stir and procure
the cities to revolt from the obedience of the emperor,
and working the same partly by subtle policies, and
partly by force and sinister means to bring them to his
purpose : he determined, with all the force and power
he might by any means procure, to begin afresh, and
prosecute this war to the utmost. Nor was it to be
doubted but that he would have wrought some marvel-
lous exploit and great attempt, but that he was pre-
vented by unlooked-for death. When he fell into this
ague, which led to his death, he made and ordained his
testament. And when to Conrad and his other children
he had given and appointed the great and innumerable
mass of money which he had collected and levied for the
maintenance of his wars, and godly purpose (as it is
called) and also had given all his kingdoms and domin-
ions (to every one according to their ages and years) he
departed this wretched and miserable world.
Pandolph writes, that Frederick was very willing to
die, and, as they made certain report to him who were
present at his death, that his mind was altogether set
and bent on heavenly joy and felicity. He died in
A. D. 1250, the 13th of December, in the seven-and-
fiftieth year of his age, and seven-and-thirtieth year of
his reign.
This Frederick had not his equal in martial affairs, and
in warlike policies none could be compared to him
among all the princes of that age : he was a wise and
skilful soldier, a great endurer of painful labours,
most bold in greatest perils, prudent in foresight,
industrious in all his doings, prompt and nimble
about what he took in hand, and in adversity most stout
and courageous. But as in this corruption of nature,
there are few that attain perfection, neither yet is
there any prince of such government and godly insti-
tution both in life and doctrine as is required of them :
so neither was this Frederick without his fault and
human frailty, for the writers impute to him some faults
wherewith he was stained and spotted.
As you have heard of the iniquity and raging pride of
the popish church against the lawful emperor ; so now
you shall hear how God begins to resist and withstand
the corruption of that church, by stirring up certain
faithful teachers in sundry countries ; as in Suevia (about
A. D. 1240), where many preachers, mentioned in
Urspergensis, and also in Crantzius (lib. viii. cap. 16
and 18), preached against the pope. These preachers (as
Crantzius saitli) ringing the bells, and calling together the
barons in Hallis of Suevia, preached that the pope was a
heretic, and that his bishops and prelates were simo-
niacs and heretics ; and that the inferior priests and
prelates had no authority to bind and loose, but were all
deceivers. That no pope, bishop, or priest could re-
strain men from their duty of serving and worshipping
God ; and therefore such cities or countries, as were then
under the pope's curse, might lawfully resort to the re-
ceiving of sacraments as well as before. That friars,
Dominican, and Franciscan, subverted the church with
their preaching. And that the indulgence of the pope
was of no value. And thus much I thought here to re-
cite, whereby it may appear how the resisting of the
pope's usurped power and corrupt doctrine is no new
thing in these days in the church of Christ.
THE ACCOUNT OF ROBERT GROSTHEAD, BISHOP OF LINCOLN. [Book IV.
186
And not long after rose up Arnold De Nova Villa, a
Spaniard, and a man famously learned and a great
writer (A. D. 1250), whom the pope condemned among
heretics for holding and writing against the corrupt
errors of the popish church. His teaching was, that
Satan had seduced the world from the truth of Christ
Jesus. That the faith (which then christian men were
commonly taught) was such a faitli as the devils had ;
meaning belike (as we now affirm) that the papists do
teach only the historical faith, that christian people
(meaning the most part) are led by the pope unto hell.
That all monks and nuns are void of charity and
damned ; that masses are not to be celebrated ; and that
they ought not to sacrifice for the dead.
And as this Arnold was condemned, so also at the
same time John Semeca, the gloss-writer of the pope's
decrees, and provost of Halberstat,was excommunicated
and deprived of his provostship, for resisting Pope
Clement IV. in gathering his exactions in Germany ; and
therefore he appealed from the pope to a general council,
and had many great favourers on his side, till at last
both the pope and he died.
Then followed the worthy and valiant champion of
Christ, and adversary of antichrist William de St. Amore,
a master of Paris, and chief ruler of that university.
This William in his time had no small ado writing
against the friars, and their hypocrisy, condemning
their whole order. All the testimonies of scripture that
make against antichrist, he applied against the clergy of
prelates, and the popish spirituality. He compiled
many worthy works, wherein, although he uttered
nothing but truth, yet he was by antichrist condemned
for a heretic, exiled, and his books burnt.
In the days of this William there was a most detest-
able and blasphemous book set forth by the friars, which
they called " The Everlasting Gospel," or " The Gos-
pel of the Holy Ghost." In which book many abomina-
ble errors of the friars were contained, so that the gos-
pel of Jesus Christ was utterly defaced, which, this book
said, was not to be compared with this Everlasting Gos-
pel, no more than the shell is to be compared with the
kernel, than darkness to light, &c. Moreover, that the
gospel of Christ shall be preached no longer than fifty
years, and then that this " Everlasting Gospel " should
rule the church, &c. Also, that whatever was in the
whole bible, was likewise contained in this new gospel.
At length this friars' gospel was accused to the pope,
and six persons were chosen to peruse and judge of the
book, among whom this William was one, who mightily
impeached this pestiferous and devilish book. These
six, after perusing the book, were sent to Rome. The
friars likewise sent their messenger, where they were
refuted, and the book condemned •, but the pope com-
manded the book to be condemned not publicly, but
privately, wishing to preserve the estimation of the
religious orders, as of his own chief champions.
Among the others of that age, who withstood the
bishop of Rome and his antichristian errors, was one
Lawrence an Englishman, and master of Paris ; another
was Peter John, a minorite. Lawrence was about the
year A. D. 1260; in his teaching, preaching, and writ-
ing, he stoutly defended William de St. Amore against the
friars. Other things also he wrote, wherein by various
proofs and testimonies he argued, that antichrist was not
far off to come.
The other, Peter John, was about the year A.D. 1290.
He taught and maintained many things against the
pope, proving that he was antichrist, and that the syna-
gogue of Rome was Babylon.
To these is to be added Robert Gallus, who being
born of a noble parentage, for devotion sake was made a
dominican friar about the year A.D. 12'J0. This man
calls the pope an idol, who having eyes sees not, neither
desires to see the abominations of his people, nor the
excessive enormity of their licentiousness, but only to
see to the heaping up of his own treasure.
It is time that we return to our own country again.
Wherein following the course of time, we will now add
the bishop of Lincoln, named Robert Grostluad, a man
famously learned in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and in
all liberal sciences ; his works and sermons are yet ex-
tant. He was a man of excellent wisdom, of profound
doctrine, and an example of all virtue. He set forth
many books concerning philosophy. Afterward being
doctor in divinity, he drew out several treatises out of
the Hebrew glosses, and translated divers works out of
the Greek. Many other works and volumes besides
were written by Grosthead.
This godly and learned bishop, after many conflicts sus-
tained against the bishop of Rome, at length, after great
labour and trouble of life, finished his course A.D. 1253.
Of his decease Matthew Paris thus writes, (fol. 278) ; —
" Out of the prison and banishment of this world (which
he never loved) was taken the holy bishop of Lincoln,
Robert ; who was an open reprover of the pope and of the
king, a rebuker of the prelates, a corrector of the
monks, a director of the priests, an instructor of the
clerks, a favourer of scholars, a preacher to the people,
a persecutor of the incontinent, a diligent searcher of
the scripture, a mallet against the Romans, and a con-
temner of their doings, &c. What a mallet he was to
the Romans in the sequel shall better appear.
Pope Innocent had a certain cousin or nephew (so
popes were wont to call their sons) named Frederick,
being yet young and under years, whom Innocent would
needs prefer to be a canon or prebendary in the church
of Lincoln, in the time of Robert bishop of that church ;
and he directed letters to certain here in England for
the execution thereof.
It is no great wonder if this godly bishop Robert
Grosthead was offended with these letters ; he desei-ves a
double commendation, in that he was so firm and con-
stant in standing against the pope, according as his an-
swer to the pope appears, wherein he denounces the
pope's attempt to appoint one who would not be a true
pastor, saying, among other things : —
" This would be a great apostasy, corruption, and
abuse of the seat and fulness of power, and an utter se-
paration from the glorious throne of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and a near approach to the two principal princes
of darkness, sitting in the chair of pestilence, prepared
for the pains of hell (i. e. Lucifer and antichrist).
Neither can any man, who is faithful to the see, obey
with sincere and unspotted conscience such precepts and
commandments, or other such attempts, even though
proceeding from the high order of angels themselves,
but rather ought with all their strength to withstand and
rebel against them. Wherefore, my reverend lord, I,
like an obedient child, upon my bounden duty of obe-
dience and fidelity which I owe to the holy and apostolic
see, and partly for love of unity in the body of Christ,
do not obey but withstand and utterly rebel against
these things contained in the letter, and which espe-
cially urge and tend to the aforesaid wickedness, so abo-
minable to the Lord Jesus Christ, so repugnant to the
holiness of the holy apostolic see, and so contrary to the
unity of the catholic faith."
Then it follows, in the history both of Matthew Paris,
and of Florilegus, in these words : —
" That when this epistle came to the knowledge of the
pope, he, fuming and fretting with anger and indigna-
tion, answered with a fierce look and proud mind, say-
ing, What old doting frantic wretch is this, so boldly
and rashly to judge of my doings? By St. Peter and
Paul, were it not but tliat we are restrained by our own
clemency and good nature, we would hurl him down to
such confusion thatwewould make him a fable, a gazing-
stock, an cxamjile and wonderment to all the world. For
is not the king of England our vassal ? and, to say more,
our errand-boy or jiage, who may at our pleasure and
beck both hamper him, imjunson him, and put him to
utter shame ? When the yio]w in his great fury and rage
had uttered tliis among his brethren the cardinals, they
were scarce able to ai)])t;i!-e his furious violence."
Not long after this, this reverend and godly Robert,
bishop of Lincoln, ftU grievously sick, and within a few
days departed. In the time of his sickness he called to
him a certain friar of the preaching order, a man expert
and cunning both in i>liysic and divinity, partly to re-
ceive of him some comfort of his body, and partly to
A.D. 1250—1260.] DEATH OF ROBERT GROSTHEAD.— PROVISIONS MADE AT OXFORD. 1S7
confer with him in spiritual matters. Thus upon a certain
day, the bishop reciting the doings of the pope, rebuked
and reprehended severely the preaching friars, and the
other order also of the minors. The vehemency of his
disease more and more increasing, and because the
nights were somewhat longer, the third night before his
departure, the bishop, feeling his infirmity to grow,
directed certain of his clergy to be called to him, that he
might be refreshed with some conference or communi-
cation with them. To them the bishop mourning and
lamenting in his mind for the loss of souls, reproved such
detestable enormities of the court of Rome, as, all kinds
of avarice, the usury, the simony, the extortion, all kinds
of filthiness, gluttony, and their sumptuous apparel in tiiat
court ; afterwards he went about to prosecute more, how the
court of Rome, like a gulf, never satisfied, ever gaping so
wide, that the flood of Jordan might run into his mouth,
aspired how to possess himself of the goods of them that
die intestate, and of legacies bequeathed without form
of law ; and in order the more licentiously to bring this
to pass, they used to join the king, as partaker with them
in their spoils, extortions, and robbing. "Neither,"
saith he, "shall the church be delivered from the servi-
tude of Egypt, but by violence and force, and with the
bloody sword." " And although," saith he, " these be
yet but light matters, yet shortly more great and grievous
things than these shall be seen."
And in the end of this which he scarcely could utter
without sighing, sobbing, and weeping, his tongue and
breath began to fail, and so his voice being stopped, he
made an end of both his speech and life. ( Matth. Paris.)
Ye have heard it often complained of, how the pope
violently encroached upon the church of England, in
giving benefices and prebends to his Italians and
strangers, to the great damage and ruin of Christ's
flock. This injury could by no lawful and gentle means
be reformed ; so about this time it began to be some-
what bridled by means of another kind. In the reign of
this king, the bishop of London, named Fulco, had given
a certain prebend, in the church of St. Paul, to one
Rustand, the pope's messenger here in England, who,
dying shortly after, the pope immediately conferred the
prebend on one of his specials, a stranger as the other
was. About the same instant, it befel that the bishop
of London also died, by which the vacant bishopric fell
into the king's hands, who, hearing of the death of
Rustand, gave the prebendship to one John Crakehale,
who, with all solemnity, took his installation, not know-
ing as yet that it was already bestowed by the pope on
another. Not long after, this being noised at Rome,
forthwith comes down a proctor, with the pope's letters,
to receive collation to the benefice, wherein Jolm Crake-
hale had been already installed by the king's donation.
This matter coming before Boniface archbishop of Can-
terbury, he, inquiring and searching which donation
was the first, and finding it was the pope's grant, gave
sentence with him against the king ; so that in conclu-
sion, the Roman clerk had the advantage of the benefice,
although the other had long enjoyed the possession.
Thus the pope's man being preferred, and the English-
man excluded, after the party had been invested and
stalled, he, thinking himself in sure possession, at-
tempted to enter the chapter-house, but was not per-
mitted, whereupon the pope's clerk, giving place to
force and number, went to the archbishop to complain.
This being known, certain monks pursued him, and
one in the thickness of the throng, who was never after
known, suddenly rushed upon him, and cut off his head.
This heinous murder being famed abroad, a strict in-
quiry was made, but the murderer could not be known;
and although great suspicion was laid upon Crakehale,
the king's chaplain, yet no proof could be brought
against him. But most men thought, that this bloody
act was done by certain ruffians about the city or the
court, who disdained that Romans should be so enriched
with Englishmen's livings. And therefore because they
saw the church and realm of England in such subjection,
and so mu,;h trodden down by the Romans and the pope's
messengers, they thought by such means to prevent
them from coming so much into this land.
Besides many other matters, I pass over the con-
flict,— not between the frogs and the mice which Ho-
mer writes of, — but the mighty pitched field, fought
A. D. 1259, between the young students and scholars
of the university of Oxford, having no other occasion,
but the difference of the country where they were bom.
For the northerns, joining with the Welch, to try their
manhood against the southerns, fell on them with their
ensigns and warlike array, so that in the end several on
both sides were slain. This heavy and bloody conflict
increased among them, and the end was that the nor-
thern lads with the Welch had the victory. After fury
and fiery fierceness had done what it could, the victors
thinking partly of what they had done, partly how it
would be taken by the higher powers, and fearing punish-
ment, took counsel together, and offered to king Henry
four thousand marks, to Edward his son three hundred,
and to the queen two hundred, to be released of all pu-
nishment. But the king answered that he set a higher
value on the life of one true subject than on all they of-
fered, and would not receive the money. The king,
however, being then occupied in great affairs and wars,
and partly involved in discord at home with his nobles,
had no leisure to attend to the correction of these uni-
versity men. (Matth. Paris.)
This that follows concerning the commotion between
the king and the nobles, is lamentable, and contains
much fruitful example, both for princes and subjects, to
see what mischief grows in the commonwealth, where the
prince regards not offending his subjects, and where the
subjects forget the office of christian patience in suffer-
ing their princes' injuries ; therefore, I thought it not
unprofitable to occupy the reader a little in perusing
this lamentable matter.
King Henry married Elenor, daughter of the earl of
Provence, a foreigner, by which a great door was
opened for foreigners, not only to enter the land, but
also to fill the court ; to them the king seemed more to
incline his favour, advancing them to greater preferment
than his own English lords, which was no little grievance
to them. The king, too, by Isabel his mother, who was
a foreigner, had several brothers, whom he supported
with great livings and possessions, and large pensions,
which was another heart-sore and hinderance to his
nobles. Over and besides which, there were unreason-
able collections of money from time to time, levied by
the king, as well on the spirituaUty, as on the laity.
By reason of all which collections, the commonwealth
of the realm was utterly stripped, to the great impover-
ishment of the English.
In the year 1260, a great number of aliens resorted to
England, and had the management of all principal mat-
ters of the realm under the king, which not a little trou-
bled the nobility of England. So that Simon Montfort
earl of Leicester, offering to stand to death for the liber-
ties of the realm, conferred with other lords and barons
upon the matter, who, then coming to the king with an
humble sort of petition, declared how all his realm, and
his own affairs were altogether disposed by the hands
and after the wills of strangers, neither profitable to him,
nor to the public weal ; for his treasures being wasted and
himself in great debt, he was not able to satisfy the pro-
vision of his own house. And now therefore, said they,
if your highness will please to be informed by our advice,
and to commit your house to the guiding and government
of your own faithful and natural subjects, we will take
upon us to discharge your whole debt within one year, out
of our own proper goods and revenues, so as that we
within five years may repay ourselves again.
To these words so lovingly declared, — so humbly pre-
tended,— so heartily and freely off"ered, the king as wil-
lingly condescended, assigning to them both day and
place where to confer and to dehberate further upon the
matter, which should be at Oxford the fifteenth day after
Easter. At which day and place all the sUtes and lords,
with the bishops of the realm, were summoned to appear.
Where an oath was taken, first by the king hiinself, then
by the lords, that what decrees or laws should m the said
assembly be provided to the profit of the king and of the
realm, the same should universaUy be kept and observed
188 THE KING ABSOLVED BY THE POPE FROM HIS OATH MADE AT OXFORD. [Book IV.
to the honour of God, and utility of his church, and
wealth of the realm. Besides these lords and the king,
there were also nine bishops, who swearing to the same, ex-
communicated all such as should withstand the provisions
there made ; the king holding a burning taper in his hand,
and the lords openly protesting to rise with all their force
against all that shall stand against the same.
In this assembly it was enacted that all strangers and
aliens of what state or condition soever, should forthwith
leave the realm on pain of death. Various other provi-
sions were ordained and established at the same time, that
if any held of the king in whole or in part, and should
die (while his heir was under age,) the wardship of the
heir should belong to the king.
Moreover, it was there decreed, that the wool of Eng-
land should be wrought only within the realm, neither
should it be transported out to foreigners.
That no man should wear any cloth, but which was
wrought and made within the realm.
That garments too sumptuous should not be brought
in nor worn.
That all excessive and prodigal expenses, wasted upon
pleasure and superfluity, should be avoided by all persons.
Many other laws and decrees were ordained in this
assembly, which continued the space of fifteen days.
After the promulgation of the laws many things dis-
pleased the king, and he began to repent of his oath.
But because he could not at that present otherwise choose,
he dissembled for a season. Within a year following,
(A.D. 1261), the king sent to the pope, praying both for
himself and bis son Edward to be released of their oath
made at Oxford. This absolution being easily obtained
(or rather bought at the pope's hands) the king stepping
back from all that was before concluded, calls another
parliament at Oxford, where before the lords and nobles
he declared, how in the late council of Oxford they had
agreed on certain measures for the common utility of the
realm of the king, as they pretended, for the increasing of
his treasure, and diminishing his debt ; and thereupon
bound themselves with an oath, causing also himself and
his son Edward to be bound to the same. But now that
they, contrary to their covenant made, sought not so much
the profit of him and of the realm, as their own, taking him
not as their lord, but going about to bring him under their
subjection ; and that moreover his treasure greatly decreas-
ing, his debts increasing, and his princely liberality cut
short and trodden under foot, they should not marvel, if
he henceforth would be no more ruled by their counsel,
but would provide himself with some other remedy. And
moreover, as to the oath wherewith he and his son stood
bound to them, he had sent already to Rome, and had
obtained absolution and dispensation of the same, both
for him, and his son Edward, and for all others that
would take his part. And therefore he required of them
to be restored again to that state and condition he had
enjoyed in times past.
To this the nobility gave answer on the other side, in
the number of whom was Simon Montfort earl of Lei-
cester, Richard Clare earl of Gloucester, with many more ;
whose answer to the king was, " that the provisions made
at the council at Oxford, to which they were sworn, they
would hold, defend and maintain to their lives' end." All
this while, the pope's absolution for the king, although it
was granted and obtained at Rome, yet was not brought
down in solemn writing.
At length, the writing of the king's absolution being
brought from Rome, the king soon commanded it to be
published throughout the realm, and sends to the French
king and other strangers for help ; moreover he seized
all his castles into his own hand, rejecting the counsel of
the lords, to whose custody they were before com-
mitted; also removing the former officers, as justices, the
chancellor, with others placed before by the lords, he
appointed new ones in their stead.
After this followed the year 126.3, in which the barons
of England, confederating themselves together, for main-
taining the statutes and laws of Oxford, and partly
moved with their old dislike conceived against the fo-
reigners, joined all their forces, and attacked the
foreigners who were about the king. Their goods and
manors they wasted and spoiled, whether they were per-
sons ecclesiastical or temporal. By reason of this it
came to pass, that a great number of foreigners, espe-
cially monks and rich priests, were urged to such ex-
tremity, that they were glad to flee the land.
In the mean time, the king keeping then in the Tower,
and seeing the greatest part of his nobles and commons
with the Londoners set against him, agreed to the peace
of the barons, and was contented to assent again to the
ordinances and provisions of Oxford ; although the
queen, by all means possible, went about to persuade the
king not to assent thereto ; so that as she was endea-
vouring to pass by barge from the Tower to Windsor,
the Londoners standing on the bridge with their exclama-
tions, cursing and throwing of stones and dirt at her, in-
terrupted her course, forcing her to return to the Tower
again.
When this contention was referred to the French king,
and he decided against the barons, it wrought in their
hearts great indignation, and they hastened home to de-
fend themselves with all their strength and power. The
king called his council together at Oxford, whence he ex-
cluded the university of students for a season ; and hearing
that the barons were assembled in a great number at Nor-
thampton, went there with his host, and with his ban-
ners displayed. The king commanded the barons that
were therein, to yield the city to him, or he' would im-
mediately destroy them. But they boldly, and with one
mind answered. That they would not obey the king's
will, but would rather defend themselves and the city,
if need were, even to the death. Which the noblemen
of the king's part hearing, sent word again, that at least
they should come to the wall of the city to speak to the
king, if by any means peace might he made. And they,
suspecting no deceit, came to the wall. But in the mean
time, while matters were reasoned and treated of, the
Lord Philip Basset, with mattocks and other instru-
ments, undermined the wall of the city ; and the wall fell
down, and there was made a great plain, so that there
might have gone together forty horsemen abreast. And of
this subtlety the foreign monks were thought to be the
workers, because they made way and entrance for them
that came in. But when they that passed by saw this,
and the king's banners were erected ready to enter in,
there was a great howling made, and the noise of the
people came to the ears of the barons, and they made
speed to resist them, but it was all in vain, because they
were already prevented by a great company of their
enemies. But the clerks of the university of Oxford,
(which university by the barons' commandment was
translated thither) did the king's men more hurt than
the barons, with their slings, long bows, and cross-
bows, for they had a banner by themselves, that was set
up on high against the king. The king being greatly
moved, sware at his entering in, that they should all be
hanged. Which when they heard, many of them shaved
their crowns, and they that were able ran away as fast as
they could. And when the king entered the city, many
fled in their armour into the castle, others left their horse
and armour, and ran into the churches, and a few were
slain, and those were of the common people ; but there
was not much bloodshed, because all things were done as
upon the sudden. When the city was at length set in
quiet, the king commanded his oath to be executed upon
the clerks. But his counsellors said to him, " This be
far from thee, O king, for the sons of thy nobles, and of
other great men of thy kingdom, were there gathered to-
gether into the university ; whom if thou wouldst cause _
to be hanged or slain, even they that now take thy part ■
would rise up against thee, not suffering, to the utmost ^
of their powers, the blood of their sons and kinsfolk to
be shed." And so the king was pacified, and his wrath
against the clerks was appeased.
The king then went to Rochester, and raising the
siege, proceeded to Tunbridge, and thence he continued
his journey to Winchester, where he received to peace
the seamen of the haven towns. And three days after,
he came to the town of Lewes, and was received into the
abbey, and his son Edward into the castle.
The barons now drew near to the king ; for they were
A.D. 1261
WAR BETWEEN THE KING AND THE BARONS.
18S
not far distant from Lewes : and the king's troops being
without provision for their horses, it was commanded them
to go out and seek for hay : when they were attacked
by their enemies, and most of them killed. Then
the barons, coming to the full plain, descended there,
and girding and trimming their horses, put on their
armour. And there the Earl Simon created the earl of
Gloucester, and Robert de Vere, and many other new
knights. Which being done, he divided and distin-
guished his host into four several divisions, and he ap-
fointed noblemen to guide and govern every division.
n the meantime the king's host came forth, preparing
themselves to the field in three divisions, of which
Edward the king's son led the first. The most part of
the king's army were but young men, for the king
thought not that his barons had come so nigh. Their
armies being on both sides set in array and order, they
exhorted one another on either party to fight valiantly :
and after they buckled together, the battle was great,
and many horsemen were overthrown even in a moment.
But by and by Edward the king's son with his band, as
a fierce young gentleman and valiant knight, fell upon
his enemies with such force, that he compelled them to
recoil back a great way, so that the hindmost (thinking
by reason of their giving back, that the foremost were
slain) ran many of them away. Straightway the Lon-
doners, knowing not how the battle went, took to their
heels: Edward pursued them with his band, killing them
for the space of two or three miles ; for he hated them
because they had rebelled against his father, and dis-
graced his mother when she was in her barge upon
the Thames, as is before mentioned.
Whilst Prince Edward was thus in chase of the
Londoners, the main division of the barons set upon the
king's main division, of which the king of Almain the
brother of King Henry had the leading, who was soon
discomfited, and he with his son Henry and other
captains taken prisoners, the reserve where the king
himself fought was immediately attacked, and he seeing
his knights and soldiers on every side about him beaten
aown and slain, and his soldiers forsaking the field, re-
tired into the abbey, and shutting up the gates, caused
them to be strongly guarded with soldiers. The barons
thus getting the field, after a long fight, and many men
on both sides slain, entered the town of Lewes.
In the mean time, when Prince Edward returning
from the chase of the Londoners, came to the place
where the bloody battle had been fought, and saw the
great discomfiture and overthrow, which in his absence,
had happened with great slaughter, his heart was much
dismayed, and his countenance altered. Yet comforting
and encouraging his knights and soldiers, of whom he
had a valiant company, he marched in battle array
toward the town ; against whom came the barons again
with all their power. And thus was begun between
them a fresh field and new battle, and many men slain
on both sides. But at length the earl de Warenia, with
the king's two brothers, forsook the field and fled : after
whom went more than seven hundred chosen soldiers,
who were of their house and family, who the same day
came to Pevensy, and there took shipping over the sea.
Also Hugh Bigot, with several others, fled, and left the
valiant prince fighting in the field : upon which he re-
treated to the town. And when he found not the king
at the castle, he went from thence to the abbey where
he was. In the meantime the town was divided into
parts, some fighting, some spoiling, some getting booties.
But when within a while the barons had assembled some
company, they gave an assault upon the castle, thinking
to have rescued John Gifford and others, whom the
king's soldiers had taken prisoners and put therein.
But the soldiers within manfully defended it, and in
throwing out balls of wild-fire for the defence of it, they
fired part of the town. Then the barons retired and left
the castle, and purposed to have set upon the abbey
where the king and Prince Edward his son was, which
also was set on fire by the assault given to the castle ;
but yet it was shortly recovered and quenched. Then
Edward the king's son, perceiving the bold enterprize of
the barons, prepaied with the courageous knights and
soldiers, who yet remained within the abbey, to have
issued out, and to have given a new charge upon
them. But the barons, perceiving that, sent to the king
messengers to intreat a truce for that day, and on the
morrow to talk and conclude of a further peace between
them, when Prince Edward was given as hostage for the
king and his party, and Henry, son of the king of
Almoin, for his father.
In this year also, Boniface, archbishop of Canter-
bury, a foreigner, having been some years beyond the
seas in disgrace with the king of England, upon occa-
sion of some misdemeanour, the king being of a relent-
ing nature, and bearing much with clergymen's inso-
leucies, consulted with his nobles about the return of
Boniface into England.
After much ado, we read that Boniface returned, and
becoming more holy towards his death, he went with
other bishops to the king, requesting him, that being
mindful of the decay of his kingdom, by ecclesiastical
livings bestowed upon foreigners, he would hereafter
prefer learned and godly men of his own nation. The
king answered that he would willingly do it. " Where-
fore I think it meet that you, who are yourself a
foreigner and unlearned, and also my brother Ethelmer,
bishop of Winchester, whom I have preferred to such
dignities only for kindred's sake, should first give ex-
amples to others, and forsake your churches, and I will
provide other learned men to serve in tliem." Which
answer of the king so pierced this Boniface, that he al-
ways after lived a wearisome life in England. Where-
fore, perceiving himself to be disliked of the king and
the people, he desired to return into his country. And
thereupon first felling and selling the woods, letting out
the archbishopric, taking great fines of his tenants, and
making a great mass of money of the clergy of his pro-
vince, he went with the curse of all men unto Savoy,
and soon after died.
After the death of Pope Urban, succeeded Pope
Clement IV. (A. D. 1265.) Clement (as affirmeth Nic.
Trivet) was first a married man, and had wife and
children, and was solicitor and counsellor to the French
king ; then after the death of his wife, was bishop ; and
afterwards archbishop of Narbon ; and at last made car-
dinal ; and being sent as legate by Pope Urban, was
in his absence elected pope by the cardinals.
Now, after all the tumults and broils of the king and
his barons, to the vexation of the whole land, it was
thought meet and necessary that all parties at variance
should be reconciled. Whereupon peace was made be-
tween them.
The king now was at leisure to reform the abuses of
the church ; and as he considered that non-residence being
a blame-worthy abuse, required reformation, he wrote
his mind to the bishop of Hereford for the redress of the
same ; his letter, because it is memorable, and the matter
contained in it is applicable to non-residents of our time,
we have here inserted it.
A Letter of King Henry JIT. to the Bishop of Hereford
concerning Non-reaidence.
The king to the bishop of Hereford sendeth greetin;:; v
Pastors or shepherds are set over flocks, that by exercis-
ing themselves in watching over them day and night, tliey
may know their own cattle by their look, bring the hun-
ger-starved sheep into the meadows of fruitfulness.and the
straying ones into one fold by the word of salvation, and
the rod of correction ; and to do their endeavour, tliat
indissoluble unity may be kept. But some there are
who damnably despising this doctrine, and not knowing
how to discern their own cattle from others, take away
the milk and the wool, not caring how the Lord's flock
may be nourished ; they catch up the temporal goods,
and who perishes in their parish with famishment, or
miscarries in manners, they regard not ; which men de-
serve not to be called pastors, but rather hirelings. And
even we in these days, when removing ourselves into the
borders of Wales, to take order for the disposing of the
garrisons of our realm, have found this default in your
church of Hereford; we report it with grief; for we have
m
PRINCE EDWARD ESCAPES FROM CUSTODY.— BATTLE OF EVESHAM. [Book IV
found there a church destitute of a pastor's comfort, as
having neither bishop nor official, vicar nor dean, that
may exercise any spiritual function and duty in the same.
But the church itself, which in time past was wont to flow
in delight, (and had canons that attended upon service day
and night, and that ought to exercise the works of charity,
they forsaking the church, and leading their lives in
countries far hence,) hath put off her stole or robe of
pleasure, and fallen to the ground, bewailing her widow-
hood, and there is none among all her friends and
lovers that will comfort her. Verily while we beheld
this, and considered diligently, pity did move our bowels,
and the sword of compassion did inwardly wound our
heart very sore, that we could no longer dissemble so
great an injury done to our mother the church, nor pass
the same over uncorrected.
" Wherefore we command and straitly charge j'ou, that
all occasions set aside, you endeavour to remove yourselves
with all possible speed unto your church, and there per-
sonally execute the pastoral charge committed unto you
in the same. Otherwise we will you to know for cer-
tainty that if you have not a care to do this, we will
■wholly take into our own hands all the temporal goods, and
whatsoever else does belong unto the oarony of the same
church, which goods, it is certain our progenitors of godly
devotion have bestowed thereupon for spiritual exercise
sake. And such goods and duties as we have commanded
hitherto to be gathered and safely kept and turned to the
profit and commodity of the same church, the cause now
ceasing we will seize vipon ; and suffer no longer that he
shall reap temporal things, who fears not unreverently to
withdraw and keep back spiritual things, whereunto by
office and duty he is bound ; or that he shall receive any
profits who refuses to undergo and bear the burthens of
the same. Witness the king at Hereford, the first of
June, in the forty- eighth year of our reign."
But leaving these affairs of the church, and church-
men, we will now enter into other troubles of the tempo-
ral state. You heard before of a pacification concluded
between the king and his barons, when Prince Edward
was given as hostage (A.D. 1264.) But it came to pass
among the lords and barons, that no such firm recon-
ciliation was made as was likely to last long. For in
the year 126."), the sons of the Earl Simon did that
which much displeased the earl of Gloucester : inso-
much that he challenged Henry, the eldest son of the
Earl Simon Montfort : this affair, however, was settled
without fighting, but afterwards the earl of Gloucester
sent to the Lord Roger Mortimer, who always took the
king's part, desiring that they two might talk together
about the interests of the king. When they met, the earl
of Gloucester shewed him all that he purposed to do,
and lamenting that he had so offended the king, said he
would now make amends, and would deliver Prince Ed-
ward, so they sent secretly to Robert the brother of
the earl of Gloucester, who was near about the Earl
Simon, and made him consent with them. And to work
this more circumspectly, Roger Mortimer sent to Edward,
the king's son, a horse excelling all others in fleetness,
to wliich he might safely trust, when he saw conveni-
ent opportunity. After which things thus contrived.
Prince Edward desired leave of the Earl Simon to prove
his courser against such time as he should ride at the
tilt. As soon as he had got leave, and that with gallop-
ing and ranging the field, he had wearied several of their
horses : at the last, getting up uj)on that fleet horse which
was sent for that purpose, and spying a servant on horse-
back coming toward him with two swords, he turned about
to his keeper, and to others that were with him, saying,
*' My loving lords, tlius long have I kept your company,
and have been in your custody ; and now not purposing
to use your company any longer, I commit you to God."
And quickly turning his horse about, put to the spurs,
and away he went. The others pricked after apace, but
could not overtake him. When the prince's escape
was publicly known, much people came to him out of
every quarter, with great joy. Among whom the first was
the earl of Gloucester, and the other soldiers of the king,
and within a short space he had a great and a mighty host.
Which when the Earl Simon understood, he muc-
doubted and mistrusted himself ; and sending into Wale:
he got from thence a great many men, and augmented
his force as strongly as he could from every part (;
England. He sent also Simon his son to the nobleaie
of the northern parts, that with all possible speed b
might bring them with him ; who with a great com
pany came with him, and staid a while at Kenilwortl
and there pitched their tents. And when this was de
clared to Edward, he pre]iared himself in the night, t
go to the place where Simon and his company ha
pitched. In khe morning they were very early in armin
themselves, and met some of their enemies stragglin
loosely, and thinking to have gone a foraging ; whom thei
took, and with their fresh horses new horsed their sol
diers that had their horses tired with long travel. An'
so marching forward, came very early in the mornin;
upon their enemies, whom for the most part they fount
sleeping ; and laying lustily about them, they slew seve
ral ; some they took, the rest they put to flight, ani
fifteen of their chiefest ensigns they took, with man-
other rich spoils.
But when Edward heard that Earl Simon was comingto
ward Kenilworth, to join with his son's battle, he march
ed forward to meet him the third day after at Evesham
Edward caused his own standards and ensigns to be takei
down, and young Simon's, which he had taken, to bi
displayed ; so that the Earl Simon thinking them to havi
been his son's army, and not knowing of his overthrow
was deceived, till his scout the better to descry them
went up to the abbey steeple, wkere he could plainly dis
cern them and all their standards ; for by this time the;
had mounted the hill, thinking to have that advantage
when they should give their charge, and they had also dis
played again his own standards. Then he cried aloud t(
the Earl Simon, and said, " We are all but dead men ; fo
it is not your son, as you suppose, that comes, but it i
Edward the king's son that comes from one part, and thi
earl of Gloucester from another part, and Roger Morti
mer from the third part." Then said the earl, " The Lon
be merciful to our souls, forsomuch as our bodies and live:
are now in their hands;" commanding that every mai
should make himself ready to God, and to fight out the field
for that it was their wills to die for their laws, and in a jus
quarrel. And such as would depart, he gave leave to go thei
ways, that they should be no discouragement to thi
rest.
Then came to him his eldest son Henry, and comfortec
him, desiring him to have no despair, nor yet mistrust n
the good success of this victory, with other such cheerfu
words. " No, my son," says he, " I despair not ; but yet
it is thy presumption, and the pride of the rest of th)
brethren that has brought me to this end you see ; not-
withstanding, yet I trust I shall die to God, and in (
, righteous quarrel." After words of comfort given to all
his host, and the oration made as is the manner, they all
armed themselves. The king also (whom the earl alwajsi
kept with him) he armed in an armour of his own : and
then dividing their battles, they marched towards theii|
enemies. But before they joined, the Welshmen ranj
away, and thinking to escape over the river Dee, soraei
were drovs'ned, and some slain. Then when the battle
joined and they fought hand to hand, in a short time
many of the earl's party fell and were slain ; the kingi
himself being struck at, cried with a loud voice to them,|
saying, " Kill me not, I am Henry your king :" by which^
words, the Lord Adam Monthaut knew him, and saved
him. Also Prince Edward his son, hearing his cry, came
and delivered him to the guard and care of certain knights.
In the mean time the Earl Simon was hard beset and
beaten, and slain before Edward the prince came at him.
But before he fell, when he fought for his life, and his
son Henry, and other noblemen on his part were about
him, he brake out into these words to his enemies, say-
ing, " What ! is there no mercy and compassion with
you .•"' Who again answered, " What compassion should
there be shewed to traitors ?" Then said he, " The Lord
be merciful to our souls, our bodies are in your hands.^ '
And so soon as these words were spoken, they mangled his
body, and cut oflf his head, which head Roger Mortimer
A.D. 1264— 1271.]
PRINCE EDWARD WOUNDED BY AN ASSASSIN.
191
gent to his wife. And not far off from him also was slain
Henry his eldest son.
After this great slaughter and overthrow there was a
parliament summoned at Winchester by the earl of
Gloucester, and others. Here it is to be remembered,
that although the king was in the camp of the earl of
Leicester, being then in custody, and his son Edward
with the earl of Gloucester, yet the king was on that
side against his will, and therefore in the parliament the
king was restored to his kingly dignity, which was be-
fore that time under the custody of the barons.
Soon after, a general voyage being proclaimed to war
against the Turks, and a subsidy being collected in Eng-
land for the same, Prince Edward, with others,were appoint-
ed to take their voyage, and were now on their journey.
After some stay in Sicily, Prince Edward took ship-
ping again, and soon after Easter arrived at Acre, and
went ashore, taking with him a thousand of the best and
roost expert soldiers, and tarried there a whole month,
refreshing both his men and horses, and that in this
space he might learn the secrets of the land. After this
he took with him six or seven thousand soldiers, and
marched forward twenty miles from Acre, and took
Nazareth ; and slew all those that he found there, and
afterwards returned again to Acre ; b\it their enemies
following after them, thought to have attacked them
unawares. The prince perceiving this, again charged,
and slew many of them, and put the rest to flight.
WTien the fame of Prince Edward thus grew among his
enemies, and they began to fear him, they devised among
themselves how by some policy they might circumvent and
betray him. Whereupon the great prince and admiral of
Joppa sent to him, pretending, with great hypocrisy, to
become a christian, and that he would draw with him a
great number besides, provided they might be honour-
ably entertained and treated by the christians. This
pleased the prince well, and induced him to finish the
thing, he had begim so well, by writing again ; he also
sent by the same messenger, and wrote back to him
several times about the matter, by which no distrust
should arise. When this messenger came the fifth
time, and was searched by the prince's servants, ac-
cording to custom, to see what weapon and armour he
had about him, as also his purse ; and when not so
much as a knife could be found about him, he was
brought up into the prince's chamber, and after doing
homage, he pulled out certain letters, which he delivered
to the prince from his lord, as he had done before ; at
which time the prince was laid bareheaded upon his bed
in his jerkin, for the great heat of the weather.
Wlien the prince had read the letters, it appeared by
them, that upon the Saturday next following the
prince of Joppa would be there ready to accomplish all
that he had written and promised. The report of this
news by the prince to those standing by pleased them
well, and they drew somewhat back to consult about it
among themselves. In the meantime the messenger
kneeling and making his obeisance to the prince (ques-
tioning further with him) put his hand to the belt, as
though he would have pulled out some secret letters,
and suddenly he pulled out an envenomed knife, think-
ing to have stricken him therewith as he lay there on
the bed ; but the prince lifting up his hand to defend his
body from the blow, received a great wound in the
arm : and the assassin being about to fetch another
stroke at him, the prince with his foot gave him such a
kick that he felled him to the ground. With that the
prince got him by the hand, and wrested the knife from
him with such violence, that he hurt himself with it in
the forehead, but immediately thrust the traitorous
messenger through and slew him. The prince's ser-
vants being in the next chamber not far off, hearing the
bustling, came running in with great haste, and finding
the messenger lying dead on the floor, one of them took
up a stool and beat out his brains ; at which the prince
was angry, because he struck a dead man, and one that
was killed before. The rumovir of this attack being so
strange, soon went throughout all the court, and from
thence among the common people, so that they were
very heavy and greatly discouraged. The captain of the
temple also came to the prince, and brought him a
costly and precious drink against poison, lest the venom
of the knife should penetrate the blood ; and in a
blaming way said to him, " Did 1 not shew your grace be-
fore of the deceit and subtilty of this people ? Notwith-
standing," saith he, " let your grace take a good heart,
you shall not die of this wound, my life for yours." But
the surgeons and physicians were immediately sent for,
and the prince's wound was dressed, and within a few
days after it began to putrefy, and the flesh to look dead
and black ; whereupon they that were about the jjrince
began to be very sad and heavy : which he perceiving,
said to them, " Why do you whisper thus among your-
selves ? What see you in me, can I not be healed ?
Tell me the truth, be ye not afraid." Whereupon one
said to him, " Your grace, you may be healed, we mis-
trust it not ; but yet it will be very painful for you to
suffer." — " May suffering," said he again, " restore
health ?" — " Yea," saith the other, " on pain of losing
my head." — " Then," said the prince, " I commit
myself to you, do with me what you think good."
Then said one of the physicians, " Is there any of your
nobles in whom your grace reposes special trust ?" To
whom the prince answered, " Yea," naming certain of
the noblemen that stood about him. Then said the
physician to the two whom the prince first named, the
Lord Edmund, and the Lord John Voisie, " And do
you also faithfully love your lord and prince ?" Who
answered both, " Yea, undoubtedly." Then saith he,
" Take you away this gentlewoman and lady (meaning
his wife) and let her not see her lord and husband until
such a time as I tell you." Whereupon they took
her out of the prince's presence, crying out and wring-
ing her hands. Then said they unto her, " Be ye con-
tented, good lady and madam ; it is better that one
woman should weep a little while, than that all the
realm of England should weep a great season." Then
upon the morrow they cut out all the dead envenomed
flesh out of the prince's arm, and said to him, " How
cheers your grace ? We promise you within these fif-
teen days you shall shew yourself abroad (if God per-
mit) upon your horseback, whole and well as ever you
were." And according to the promise he made the
prince so it came to pass, to the no little comfort and
admiration of all his subjects. When the great Soldan
heard of it, and that the prince was yet alive, he would
scarcely believe the same ; and sending to him three
of his nobles and princes, he excused himself by them,
calling his gods to witness, that the same was done
neither by him, nor with his consent. Which princes
and messengers standing aloof from the king's son,
worshipping him, fell flat upon the ground. " You,"
saith the prince, " do reverence me, but yet you love
me not." Nevertheless he treated them honourably,
and sent them away in peace.
Thus when Prince Edward had been eighteen months
in Acre, he took shipping, returning homeward, and
came to Rome, where he was honourably entertained by
the pope ; from thence he came into France, where his
fame and noble prowess was much celebrated among the
common people, and envied by the nobility, especially
by the Earl de Chalons, who sent him and required him
that he might break a staff with him at a tilt in his
country. As the prince would not diminish his honour
and fame by declining the challenge (although he might
have well alleged sufficient excuse), he willingly con-
sented ; whereupon it was proclaimed, that Prince Ed-
ward by such a day, with those that were with him, had
challenged all comers at the tilt and barriers. Then
great assemblies were made in the country all about,
and several horsemen as well as footmen had sworn
among themselves, and conspired against the English-
men, selling their horses and armour aforehand, and
drinking one to another in good success of the spoil of
them whom they would take as their prisoners. Prince
Edward in the meantime sent into England for certain
earls and barons to come to him. When the day ap-
pointed was arrived, the prince had with him more than
one thousand horsemen, who were knights, besides his
footmen, but yet there were as many more on the other
192
THE POPE ENCOURAGES THE SCOTS TO RISE AGAINST EDWARD I.
[Book IV.
side both in horsemen and footmen. When the parties met
the French footmen, who had before conspired, began
both to spoil, rifle, and kill the Englishmen, who resisted
and defended themselves both with bows and slings;
slew many of the Frenchmen, and drove them to the gates
of their city ; the others they chased over a river, where
many of them were drowned. In the meantime the Earl
de Chalons, with fifty of his knights who followed him,
came forth and joined battle with a like number of the
prince's followers, and a long time together they tried
it with their swords, laying one at another. At the last
the earl perceiving himself not able to match with
Prince Edward at the arm's end, closed with him, and
takir.g him about the neck, held him with his arms very
tight. " What mean you, my lord," said the prince,
" think you to have my horse ?" — " Yea, marry," said
the earl, " I mean to have both thee and thy horse."
Ilereat Prince Edward, being indignant, lifted up him-
self, and gave him such a blow, that therewith he, for-
saking his horse, hung still about the prince's neck, till
he shook him off to the ground, and the prince, being
somewhat in a heat, left the grounds to take the air,
thereby to refresh himself. But when he saw the injury
of the French towards his men, and how they had slain
many of them, he said to them, that they used rather
the exercise of battle, than of tourney. " Spare ye not,
therefore," said he, " from henceforth, any of them all,
but give them again as good as they give you." Then
they began to kill each other freely on their part, and
let their swords work.
And when by this time the English footmen were again
returned, and saw the conflicts of the horsemen, and that
many of the Englishmen were overthrown ; they put
themselves amidst the grounds ; and some stabbing the
horses, some cutting asunder the girths of the French-
men's saddles, they overthrew the riders. Then when
the Earl De Chalons was horsed again by some of his
men and had come among the throng. Prince Edward
also rushed in among the thickest, and coupled again
with him, and cried to him that he should yield himself
as vanquished ; but he would not do so, notwithstanding
when his strength began to fail him, he was obliged to
yield himself to a simple knight, according as Prince Ed-
ward bade him, and all the rest of his horsemen and
knights fled and saved themselves. However, many of
them were slain in that place, and the Englishmen re-
turned having the victory. But when after this they ex-
pected to be quiet and at rest, the citizens attacked them
unawares by two and by three at once, and killed some of
them as they went in the streets. When the prince heard
this, he sent for the mayor and burgesses, commanding
them to see this matter redressed, and that immediataly :
for otherwise, by his knighthood he assured them, that
upon the morrow he would fire the city, and make it
level with the ground. Upon which they went, and set
watchmen in many places to keep peace, by which means
the prince and his men were in safety and quiet. Thus
in this pastime of tourneying, much blood was spilt.
From thence the prince came to Paris, and was honour-
ably entertained by the French king, and after certain
days, he went from thence into Gascony, where he stayed
till he heard of the death of the king his father.
KING EDWARD THE FIRST.
Edward the eldest son of Henry III., as soon as he
heard of his father's death, returned from Gascony home
to his country, and was crowned (A.D. 1274.) He then
laid down his crown, saying lie would no more put it on,
before he had gathered together all the lands appertaining
to the same. Of the gentle nature of this courageous
prince, sufficient proof is given by this one example ; at
one time he being engaged in his sport of hawking, hap-
pened sharply to rebuke the negligence of one of his
gentlemen, for what fault I cannot tell, about his hawk ;
the gentleman being on the other side of the river, hear-
ing his menacing words said, " he was glad that the river
was between them." The courageous blood of this prince
being moved with this answer, he leaped straight into the
flood, which was a swift stream and of a dangerous deep-
ness, and Qo less hard in getting out : notwithstanding,
either forgetting his own life, or neglecting the present
danger, and having a good horse, he ventured his own
death, to have the death of his man. At length, with
much difficulty recovering the bank, with his sword drawn
he pursued his provoker, who having not so good an horse,
and seeing himself in danger of being overtaken, reined
in his horse, and returning back bareheaded to the prince,
submitted his neck under his hand to strike. The prince,
whose courage and passion could not be quenched by the
water of the whole river, so cooled at the little submis-
sion of this man that the quarrel fell, his anger ceased,
and his sword was put up without any stroke given. And
so both returned to the hunting good friends again.
As Edward urged his claim to Scotland as well as Eng-
land, and pursued it by force of arms, and as the Scots,
&c., saw they could not make their party good, they sent
privily to pope Boniface for his aid and counsel, who im-
mediately sent down his precept to the king, that he
should cease to disquiet or molest tlie Scots, for that they
were a people exempt from his jurisdiction and properly
pertaining to the papal chair. The king briefly madef
answer, swearing with an oath, that he would to his ut.
termost keep and defend that which was his right, evi-
dently known as it was to all the world. Thus the Scots
bearing themselves bold upon the pope's message, and
also confederating themselves with the Frenchmen, passed
over that year. The next year (which was the '29th ofthe
king). Pope Boniface directs his letters again to theking,
wherein he claims the kingdom of Scotland to be the pro-
perty of the church of Rome, and not subject to the king of
England. And therefore it wasagainst God, againstjustice,
and also prejudicial to the church of Rome, for him to
have or to hold any dominion over the same ; adding fur-
thermore, that the kingdom of Scotland first was con-
verted by the relics of the blessed apostle St. Peter,
through the divine operation of God, to the unity of the
catholic faith !
The king, after he had received these letters of the
pope, assembled a parliament at Lincoln : by the advice
of which he addressed letters in reply to the pope, where-
in first in all reverend manner he desires him not to give
a light ear to the sinister suggestions of false reports, and
imaginers of mischief. Then he declares out of old re-
cords and histories from the first time of the Britons, that
the realm of Scotland had always from time to time been
one with England, beginning first with Brutus in the
time of Eli and Samuel the prophet, which Brutus,
coming from Troy to this isle, called then Albion, after
called by him Britannia, had three sons ; Locrinus, tot
whom he gave that part of the land, called then of hinu
Loegria, now Anglia ; Albanactus his second son, to whom
he gave Albania, now called Scotia, and his third son'
Camber, to whom he gave Cambria, now called Wales,
&c. — The letter then continued :
" And thus much concerning the first division of tM»
isle, as in ancient histories is found recorded. In which:
matter, passing over the deatli of King Humber, the acta
of Dunwald king of this realm, the division of Belyn andf
Brenne, the victories of King Arthur, we will resort (saitb
the king) to more near times, testified and witnessed by«
sufficient authors, as Marian Scot, William Malme8-(
bury, Roger Abyndon, Henry Huntington, Radulph ds
Bizoto and others ; all of whom make special declaration^,
and give manifest evidence of the execution of this our
right (saith he) and title of superiority ever continued and
preserved hitherto.
" And first to begin with King Edward before the con-
quest, son to Alfred king of England, about A.D.
yOO, it is plain and manifest, that he had the king?
of Scots under his dominion and obedience. And
here is to be noted, that this matter was so notoriou*
and manifest, that Marian the Scot, writing that history
in those days, grants, confesses and testifies the same ; and
this dominion continued in that state twenty-three years.
At which time, Athelstane succeeded to the crown of
England, and having by battle conquered Scotland, he
made one Constantine king of that party, to rule and go-
vern the country of Scotland under him, adding thi*
princely word, that it was more honour to him to makv
a king, than to be a king.
A.D. 1274—1303.] VARIANCE BETWEEN THE FRENCH KING, AND BONIFACE VIII.
193
"T.veiity-four years after that, (which was A.D. 947;
Eldred the king our progenitor, At:iel=tane's brother, re-
ceived homage of Irise, tlieii king of Scots.
" Thirty years after that, (which was A.D. 977), King
Edgar our predecessor received homige of Kyuald king
of Scots. Here was a little trouble in England by the
death of St. Edward king and martyr, destroyed by the
deceit of his mother-in-law, but yet within memory.
" Forty years after the homage done by Kynald to
King Edgar, (that is to say, A.D. 1017,) Malcoliue the
king of Scots did homage to Canute our predecessor. Af-
ter this homage done, the Scots shewed some piece of
their natural disposition, whereupon, by war made by
our progenitor St. Edward the Confessor, tliirty-and-nine
years after that homage done, (that is to say, A.D. 1056')
Malcoline king of Scots was vanquished, and the realm
of Scotland given to Malcoline his son by our said proge-
nitor St. Edward, unto whom the said Malcoliue made
homage and fealty.
" Within fifty years after that, William the Conqueror
entered this realm, whereof he accounted no perfect con-
quest until he had likewise subdued the Scots ; and there-
fore in the same year (A.D. lOtiS), the said Malcoline
king of Scots did homage to the said William the Con-
queror as his superior, by conquest king of England.
" Twenty-five years after that, (wliich was A.D. 109.'>)
the said Malcoline did homage and fealty to William
Rufus,son to the said William the Conqueror, and yet after
that, he was for his offences and demerits deposed, and
his eoa substituted iu his place ; who likewise failed in his
duty. Edgar brother to the last Malcoline, and son to
the first, was ordained king of Scotland by the said Wil-
liam Rufas, who did iiis homage and fealty accordingly.
" Seven years after that, (which was in A.D. 1100), the
said Edgar, king of the Scots, did homage to Henry I.
cur progenitor.
" Thirty-seven years after that, David king of Scots
did homage to Matilda the empress, as daughter and heir
to Henry I. Wherefore being after required by Stephen,
then obtaining possession of the realm, to make his ho-
mage : he refused so to do, because he had before made
it to M itilda, and thereupon forbare. After David's
death, which followed shortly after, tiie soa of the said
David made homage to King Stephen.
" Fourteen years after that (which was in A.D. 1150),
William king of Scots, and David his brother, with all the
nobles of Scotland, made liomage to the sou of Henry II.,
with a reservation of their duty to Henry 11. his father.
"Twenty-five years after that (which was in A.D. 1175),
William king of Scotland, after much rebellion and resist-
ance, according to their natural inclination (king Henry
II. then being in Normandy)acknowledged finally his er-
ror, and made his peace and composition, confirmed Vvfith
his great seal, and tlie seals of the nobility of Scotland,
making therewith his homage and fealty.
" Within fifteen years afcer that (which was in A.D.
1190), the said William king of Scots came to our city
of Canterbury, and there did homage to our noble proge-
nitor King Richard I.
" Fourteen years after that, the said William did ho-
mage to our progenitor King John, upon a hill besides
Lincoln, making his oath upon the cross of Hubert, tiien
archbishop of Canterbury, being there present, and a
marvellous multitude assembled for that purpose.
"Twenty-six years after that (which was iu A.D. 1230),
Ale.\aaJer king of Scots married INIargaret the daughter
of our progenitor Henry III. at our city of York, in the
feast of Christmas. At which time the said Alexander
did his homage to our said progenitor, who reigned in
this realm fifty-six years. And therefore between the
homage made by the said Alexander king of Scotland,
and the homage done by Alexander, son to the said king
of Scots, to us at our coronation at Westminster, there
was about fifty years. At which time, the said Alexander
king of Scots repaired to the said feast of our coronation,
aud there did he his duty as is aforesaid."
In the year 1303, William Wallace in his rebellion,
gathered great multitudes of the Scots to withstand the
king, till at length he was taken, and sent up to London,
and there executed. After which the king held his par-
liament at Westminster. Slioitly after, Robert Bru>;e,
forgetting his oath to the king, within a year or two
after this, by the counsel of the abbot of Stone, and the
bishop of St. Andrews, sent to Pope Clement V. for a
dispensation of his oath ; insinuating to him, tliat King
Edward vexed and grieved the realm of Scotland wrong-
fully. Whereupon the pope wrote to the king to leave
otf such doings. Notwithstanding which inhibition of
the pope, the king prosecuting his own right, gathered
his men, and set otf to Scotland, where joining battle
with Sir Robert and all his army of Scotland in a plain,
near to St. John's Town, he put him to fiiglit, and so chased
the Scots, tiiat there were slain of them to the number of
seven thousand. In which victory, such bishops and
abbots as were taken he sent to the pope ; the temporal
lords and other Scots he sent to London. Sir Robert
Bruce after this discomfiture, when he had thus lost
both the field and his chief friends, fled into Norway,
When this noble Edward had thus subdued the Scots, he
yielded thanks to God for his victory, and returned to
London, which was the thirty-fifth and last year of his
reign.
Now touching the variance and dissension between
Philip the French king, and Pope Boniface VUI. After
the bishoprick of Rome had been vacant through the
dissension of the cardinals, for the space of two years
and three months ; at length Pope Celestine was chosen
successor to Pope Nicholas IV. Celestine in his first
consistory began to reform the clergy, by which he pro-
cured to himself such hatred among his clergy, that this
Boniface, speaking through a reed in his chamber wall
at midnight, warned him, as it had been a voice froaii
heaven, that he should give over his papacy, as being a^
burthen greater than he could wield.
This Pope Celestine after he had sat six months, was
induced by the treachery and falsehood of this Boniface,
to resign his bishoprick, partly on account of the voice
spoken of before, partly from fear 5 being told^ of certain
persons craftily suborned in his chamber, that, if he did
not resign, he should lose his life.
This Pope Boniface succeeding after Celestine, be-
haved himself so imperiously, that he put down princes,
and excommunicated such kings as did not take their
confirmation at his hand : many of his cardinals he drove
away for fear, some of them he deposed as schismatics
and spoiled of all their substance. Philip the French king
he excommunicated, for not suffering his money to go
out of the realm ; and therefore cursed both him and
bis to the fourth generation. Albert the emperor, not
once or twice, but tiirice sought at his hands to be con-
firmed, and yet was rejected. This pope first ordained
tiie jubilee in Rome, in the solemnizing whereof, the
first day he shewed himself in his pontifical robes, and
gave free remission of sins to as many as came to Rome
out of all the parts of the world. The second day (being
arrayed with imperial ensigns) he commanded a naked
sword to be carried before him, and said with a loud
voice, " Lo, here the power and authority of both the
swords!"
These things thus premised of Pope Boniface, now I will
come to the occasion of the strife between him and the
French king. In A. D. l.'iOl, the bishop of Oppanu-
ham, being accused of a conspiracy against the French
king, was brought up to his court, and so committed to
prison. The pope hearing this, sends word to the king
by his legate to set him at liberty. The French king,
not daring to the contrary, released the bishop ; but at
the same time, he dismissed both the bishop and the
legate, commanding them to leave his realm. Upon:
this Pope Boniface revoked all the graces and privileges
granted either by him or his predecessors to the kingdom
of France ; and not long after he thundered out the sen-
tence of his curse against him. Moreover, he cited all
the prelates, all divines, and lawyers both civil and
canon, to appear personally before him at Rome, at a
certain day. Against this citation the king provided
and commanded by proclamation, that no person should
export out of the realm either gold, or silver, or anj-
ware or merchandise, upon pain of forfeiting all their
02
194
APPEAL OF WILLIAM NAGARETA AGAINST BONIFACE VIII.
[Book IV.
goods, and their bodies at the king's pleasure : pro-
viding at the same time, that the roads and harbours or
seaports, should be diligently kept, that none might pass
unsearched. Besides which, the king defeated the pope
in giving and bestowing prebends, and benefices, and
other ecclesiastial livings, contrary to the pope's profit.
For which cause, the pope wrote to the king in form and
effect as follows.
" Boniface, bishop, and servant to God's servants, to his
beloved son Philip, by the grace of God, king of
France, greeting and apostolical blessing.
" Boniface, the servant of God's servants. Fear God,
and observe his commandments. We will thee to under-
stand, that thou art subject to us both in spiritual
things, and temporal ; and that no gift of benefices or
prebends belongs to thee ; and if thou have the keeping
of any being vacant, that thou reserve the profits of them
to the successors. But if thou have given any, we judge
the gift to be void, and revoke how far soever thou
hast gone forward. And whosoever believes otherwise,
•we judge them heretics."
To this letter of the pope. King Philip made answer
as follows :
Philip, by the grace of God king of France, to Boniface
not in deeds behaving himself for pope, little friend-
ship or none.
" To Boniface, bearing himself for chief bishop, little
health or none. Let thy foolishness know, that in tem-
poral things we are subject to no man, and that the gifts
of prebends and benefices, made and to be made by us,
were and shall be good, both in time past and to come.
And that we will defend manfully the possessors of the
said benefices, and we think them that believe or think
otherwise, fools and madmen. Given at Paris the Wed-
nesday after Candlemas, 1301."
After these and other writings passing to and fro,
between the French king and the pope, within a year
and a half after, the king summoned a parliament, send-
ing down his letters to his sheriffs and other officers, to
summon the prelates and barons of the realm to the
court of parliament.
A declaration of master William Nagareta, made against
Pope Boniface the Eighth, with his appellation also
made at Paris, before the king and his council in the
church of Paris.
In the name of God, amen. In the year of our Lord,
1303, the 12th day of March, and the ninth year of the
popedom of the most holy father the Lord Boniface VIII.,
by God's providence pope, and in the presence of us
common notaries, and witnesses under written, the
nobleman master William Nagareta, (or de Nogaret),
knight, a worshipful professor of the laws, standing
before the most excellent prince the lord Philip, by the
grace of God most noble king of France, spake with
lively words, and gave in writings these things that
follow :
" There have been false prophets among the people,
as there have been also false teachers among you. St.
Peter, the glorious prince of the apostles, speaking to us
by the Spirit, told us things to come ; that likewise as
there were false prophets aforetimes, so there should
come among you false teachers, bringing in sects of
destruction ; by the which the way of truth shall be
defaced ; and covetously they shall make merchandise
of you with feigned words ; such masters follow the
way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the
reward of wickedness, and had his bridled ass to
correct his madness, which speaking in a man's
voice, did stop the foolishness of the prophet. All
which things as they are shewn to us by the greatest
patriarch himself ; your eyes see them fulfilled this day
according to the letter. For there sits In St. Peter'i
chair the master of lies, causing himself to be called
' Boniface,' that is ' a well doer,' when he is notable in
all kind of evil doing, and so he has taken to himself a
false name ; and where he is not a true ruler and master,
he calls himself the lord, judge, and master of all men.
And coming in contrary to the common order appointed
by the holy fathers, and also contrary to the rules of
reason, and so not entering in at the door into the Lord's
sheepfold, he is not a shepherd nor even a hireling, but
rather a thief and robber. For he (the true husband of
the Romish church yet living) deceived him that was
delighted in simplicity, and enticed him with feigned
flatterings and gifts to let him have his spouse to be his
wife, against truth, which cries, ' Those whom God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder ;' and at length
laying violent hands upon him, persuading him falsely
that which the deceiver said was come from the Holy
Spirit, was not ashamed to join to himself with wicked
practice that holy church, which is mistress of all
churches, calling himself her husband, whereas he cannot, I
be so ; for Celestine, the true Romish bishop, agreed \
not to the divorce, being deceived by so great subtilty ;
nothing is so contrary to agreeing as error and deceit,
as man's laws bear witness, therefore I need not speak ii
of his violence. But because the Spirit inspires whom li
he will, and he that is led by the Spirit is not under the J
law ; the holy universal church of God, not knowing the
crafts of that deceiver, stumbling and doubting whether
it came from the Holy Ghost that Celestine should leave
off his government, and the sins of the people deserving
it, for fear of a schism suffered the foresaid deceiver :
although, according to the doctrine of our Lord, ' By hig d
fruits he might be known,' whether he came to the said 1]
government by the Holy Ghost or otherwise ; his fruits i
(as it is plainly here written beneath) are now manifest I '
to all men, by which it is apparent to the world, that he j
came not in by God, but other ways ; and so came not i|
in by the sheepfold. His fruits are most wicked, and '
his end is death ; and therefore it is necessary that so
evil a tree, according to the Lord's saying, ' should be
cut down and cast into the fire. This cannot avail to his
excuse, which is made by some men, that is, that the
cardinals agreed upon him again, after the death of ;
Celestine the pope, seeing he could not be her husband, j
whom it is manifest he defiled by adultery, when her i
first husband was yet living, and she being worthy to
have the promise of marriage kept to her ; therefore,
because that which is done against the Lord turns to the v.
wrong of all men ; and especially in so great a mischief, \
I, like a bridled ass, by the power of the Lord, and not
by the voice of a perfect man, being not able to bear so
great a burthen, take in hand to rebuke the madness of
the said false prophet Balaam, who at the instance of
King Balak, that is, of the Prince of Devils, whom he
serves, is ready to curse the people blessed of the Lord.
I beseech you, most excellent prince, and Lord Philip, by
the grace of God, king of France, that like as the angel
of God in time past met the prophet Balaam in the way,
with a drawn sword, as he was going to curse God's
people ; so you, who are unwilling to execute fierce
justice, and are therefore like the angel of the Lord, and ,
minister of power and office, would meet with a naked
sword this said wicked man, who is far worse than
Balaam, that he perform not that evil which he intends
to the people.
"1. I propound that the foresaid man, who names
himself Boniface, is no pope, but wrongfully keeps the
seat which he has to the great damage of all the souls of
God's holy church. I say also, that his entering was
faulty in many ways, and he entered not in at the door, ■
but otherways, and therefore is to be judged a tliief and
a robber.
"2. I propound also, that the said Boniface is a ma-
nifest heretic, and utterly cut off from the body of the
holy church, because of many kinds of heresies, which \
are to be declared in convenient time and place. \
"3. I propound also, that the said Boniface is an'
horrible simoniac, and such a one as has not been since i
the beginning of the world : and the mischief of this lia i|
A. D. 1303—1304.] THE APPEAL OF KING PHILIP AG.UNST BONIFACE VIIL
195
I in him is notorious to all the world, (which thing is ma-
I nifest to all that will plainly understand) insomuch that
! he, being openly slandered, said openly, that he could
' not commit simony.
I " 4. I propound also, that the said Boniface, being
I wrapt in many manifest and heinous sins, is so hardened
in them, that he is utterly impossible to be corrected ;
' and lies in dungeon of mischief so deep, that he cannot
I be suffered any longer, without the overthrow of the
. church. His mouth is full of cursing, his feet are swift
i to shed blood. He utterly tears in pieces the churches,
which he ought to cherish ; wickedly wasting the goods
' of the poor, and making much of wicked men that give
' him rewards ; persecuting the righteous, and not gather-
ing but scattering among the people, bringing in new
; sects of destruction that have not been heard of; blas-
' pheming the way of truth, and by robbery thinking him-
self equal to the Lord Jesus Christ who is blessed for
; ever. And he being most covetous thirsts for gold,
j covets gold, and by some device gets gold of every
I people ; and utterly disregarding the worshipping of God,
; with feigned words, sometimes by flattering, sometimes
! by threatening, sometimes by false teaching, and all
to get money withal, he makes merchandise of us all ;
envying all things but his own ; loving no man, nourish-
ing war, persecuting and hating the peace of his subjects.
He is rooted in all unspeakable sins ; contrarying and
: striving against all the ways and doctrines of the Lord.
He is truly the abomination of the people, which Daniel
the Lord's prophet described.
" Therefore I answer, that laws, weapons, and all the
elements ought to rise against him, who thus overthrows
jthe state of the church; for whose sins God plagues the
i whole world. And finally nothing remains to him, being
|so unsatiable, to satisfy him withal, but only the unsa-
'tiable mouth of hell, and the fire that cannot be
'quenched, continuing forever. Therefore seeing that in
a. general council it so becomes, and I see this wicked
'man to be damned, who offends both God and all men :
I ask and require as instantly as I can, and I beseech
'you, my lord and king aforesaid, that you would declare
thus much to the prelates, doctors, people and princes,
'your brethren in Christ, and chiefly to the cardinals and
all prelates, and call a council. In the which (when the
'aforesaid wicked man is condemned) by the worshipful
[cardinals, the church may be provided with a shepherd :
[and for that council I offer myself ready lawfully to pur-
'sue the aforesaid things. And whereas the said man,
ibeing in the highest dignity, in the mean time cannot be
suspended of his superior; therefore he ought to be
taken, suspended indeed for the things aforesaid, seeing
his state is called into judgment, by the means aforesaid.
" I beseech and require the said cardinals by you, and
I presently require them and the church of God, that
this wicked man being put in prison, the church of Rome
may be provided with a vicar, who may minister those
things that shall appertain, until the church of God be
provided with a bishop, utterly to take away all occasion
of a schism. And lest the said wicked man should let
and hinder the prosecuting thereof, I require these
things of you, my lord king, affirming you to be bound to
do this for many causes. First, for the faith's sake.
Secondly, for your kingly dignity, to whose office it be-
longs to root out such wicked men. Thirdly, for your
oath's sake, which you made for the defence of the
churches of your realm, which the aforesaid ravener
utterly tears in pieces. Fourthly, because you are the
patron of the churches, and therefore you are not bound
only to the defence of them, but to the calling for again
of their goods, which this aforesaid man has wasted.
Fifthly, following the footsteps of your ancestors, you
ought to deliver your mother, the Romish church, from
so wicked a band wherein by oppression she is tied and
bound. I require that a public instrument may be made
of these requests by the notaries here present, under the
witness of the worshipful men that be here present.
These things were done and spoken as is aforesaid, at
Paris, in the king's house of Lupara."
After tins protestation of Master Nagareta, immedi-
ately ensued the appeal of the king, pronounced and
published against Boniface, recapitulating and ampli.
fying the same charges as are in the appeal of Na-
gareta.
Then King Philip made his appeal to a general coun-
cil, in form as follows :
"We, Philip, by the grace of God, hearing and un-
derstanding the objections propounded by our beloved
faithful knight, William of Nagareta, against Boniface,
now having the government of the Romish church : al-
though we would gladly cover with our own cloak, the
filthy parts of such a father ; yet for the love of the ca-
tholic faith, and great devotion that we bear to the holy
Romish and universal church our mother, and all faith-
ful men, and spouse of Christ, following the steps of our
ancestors, who hesitated not to shed their own blood for
the increase and defence of the church's liberty, and the
faith ; and desiring to provide for the purity of the faith
and state of the church ; as also to avoid the hurt of the
general slander, not being able any longer to pass over
these things with winking and dissembling, and my con-
science driving to the same ; seeing this estimate and
opinion of this Boniface in these matters is not rashly
conceived by us, but vehemently and plainly increased by
the many and continual complaints of credible men, and
fearing, moreover, the destruction of the faith, both of
us and of all other subjects, and especially of kings and
princes of the world, who ought to reprove negligence,
who acknowledge that we have received power given us
from the Lord, to the promoting and increasing of it ;
we agree to your request in this behalf, and to the calling
and assembling a council for the glory of God (saving the
honour and reverence that is due to the holy Romish
church in all things) whereby the truth may appear in
the premises, and all error avoided : that the state of the
universal church, and all Christianity, and the matters of
faith, and the holy land may be provided for, and the
slanders and jeopardies hanging over us may be with-
stood ; we are ready, and offer ourselves gladly, as much
as in us lies, to bestow our labours and diligent pains
thereabout ; earnestly requiring and beseeching in the
merciful bowels of Jesus Christ, you archbishops and
other prelates here present, as children of the church
and pillars of faith, called of the Lord to the promoting,
increase and preserving thereof, to care for the same,
that with all diligence you would gire heed, as becomes
you, and that you would effectually labour by all ways
and fit means, to the calling and assembling of this coun-
cil, in which we intend to be personally present. And
lest the said Boniface, who has boldly and wrongfully
many times threatened to proceed against us, stopping
and hindering our purposes and intent, lest any of his
works of darkness (if there be any) should come to
light, directly or indirectly hindering the calling and
gathering of this council ; or lest any state being in the
same realm that will indeed proceed against us, or our
state, churches, prelates, barons, and other faithful vas-
sals, our subjects, our lands, or our realm, and the state
of the realm, by abusing any spiritual sword, in excom-
municating, suspending, or other ways, by any means :
for us and our well-willers, and them that will follow us,
we provoke and appeal in writing to the aforesaid ge-
neral council (which we instantly desire to be called) and
to one lawful chief bishop that shall be, or to any other
to whom we should appeal ; and yet not going from the
appeal made by William of Nagareta, to whom we ad-
hered then, and also yet adhere : requiring earnestly a
witness of our appeal by you prelates and notaries, ex-
pressly to renew such provocation and appeal, when and
before whom it shall be thought meet to you."
Then the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors,
make their appeal in like manner with the king to a ge-
neral council.
These things being done, then followed the year 1304.
In the which year, a garrison of soldiers, sent partly by
the French king, partly by the cardinals of Columna, came
to the gates of Arvagium, where the pope hid himself.
The captains of which army were one Schaira, brother to
IVG
THE POPE MADE PillSONEll AND DIES.
[Boor IV.
those cardinals, and another, William de Longareto,
lii^h steward to the French king, who, invadiaij the
pope's town, and finding tlie gates open, gave assault to
the pope's frontier, where the pojie, witli his nephew,
a marquess, and three other cardinals were immured.
The townsmen, seeing all their intent and strength to be
bent against the pope, caused the common bell to be
rung, and so assembling themselves in a common coun-
cil, ordained Adolphus, one of the chiefest rulers of
the town, for their captain, who, unknown to them, was
a great adversary to the pope. This Adolphus joined
•with the French company against the pope, and beset
his palace on every side. And first, setting upon the
palaces of the three cardinals, who were then chief about
the pope, they rifled and spoiled all their goods. The
cardinals by a back door hardly escaped their hands ;
but the pope's palace, through the strength of tlie mar-
quess, was somewhat better defended. At lengtli the
pope, perceiving himself not able to make his party
good, desired truce with Schaira, wliich was granted
from one till nine. During which time of truce, the
pope privily sends to the townsmen of Arvagiura, desir-
ing them to save his life, which, if they would do, he
promised so to enrich them, that they sliould all have
cause never to forget or repent their kindness be.-towed
on him. To this they made answer, excusing them-
selves, that it lay not in their ability to do him any good,
for that the whole power of the town was with the cap-
tain. Then the pope, all destitute and desolate, sends
to Schaira, beseeching him to draw out in articles
wherein he had wronged him, and he would make him
amends to the uttermost. Schaira to this makes a plain
answer, signifying to him again, "That he should in no
wise escape with his life, except upon these three condi ■
tions. First, to restore again the two cardinals of
Columna his brethren, whom he had before deprived,
with all other of their stock and kindred. Secondly,
that after their restitution, he should renounce his
papacy. Thirdly, tliat his body should remain in his
power and custody." These articles seemed to the
pope so hard, that in no case would he agree to them.
When the truce expired, the captains and soldiers, set-
ting themselves against the bishop, first fired the gates
of the palace, whereby the army, having a full entrance,
fell to rifle and spoil the house. The marquess upon
hoping to save hi- life, and the life of his children,
yielded himself to the hands of Scliaira and the oth.er
captain, jvhich, when the pope heard, he we])t and made
great lamentation. After this breaking through the
windows and doors, they burst in to the pope,Vhom
they treated with words and threats accordingly. Upon
this he was put to his choice, whether he v.'ould pre-
sently leave his life, or give over his papacy. But he
said that he would never while he lived renounce his
popedom. Then Schaira was ready to slay him, but he
was prevented by some that were about hi'm. The sol-
diers, who ranged in the meantime through all the
corners of the jiope's house, loaded themselves with all
the immense treasure of gold, silver, plate, and orna-
ments that were collected there. Thus Boniface, be-
reaved of all his goods, remained in their custody three
days, during which time tliey set him on a wild unbroken
colt, his face turned to the horse's tail, and caused the
horse to gallop, so tliat the pope was almost breathless :
they kept him so without meat, that he was nearly fa-
mished to death. After the third day, the Arvagians
and people of the town, mustering themselves together,
to the number of ten thousand, secretly bui-st into the
house where the pope was kept, and slaying the keepers,
delivered the pope by a strong hand. Being then
brought into the middle of the town, he gave thanks
with weeping tears to the people for saving his life, pro-
mising, moreover, (forsomuch as he was out of all ids
goods, having neither bread nor drink to put in his
mouth), God's blessing and his, to all them that now
would relieve him with any thing, eithi-r to eat or drink.
And here now see what j)overty and affliction can work
in a man ; the pope, before in all his pom]) and most
ruffling wefilth, was never so proud, but now he was as
humble and lowly^ thsit every poor simple man might
have a bold and free access to his person. To make the
story short, the pope, in that great distress of famine,
was not so gret.dy of the peoj)le's victuals, as tliey were
greedy of his blessing. The women and people of the
toivn came so thick, some with bread, some with wine,
some with water, some with meat, some with one thing,
some with anotlier, that the pope's chamber was too lit-
tle to receive the offering ; insomuch, that when tliere
lacked cups to receive the wine, they poured it down on
the chamber floor, not regarding the loss of wine to win
the ))0])e's holy blessing. Thus Pope Boniface, being
refreshed by the town of Arvagium, took his journey
from thence, accompanied with a great multitude of sol.
diers, and came to Rome, where, shortly after, partly
from fear, partly from famine, partly from sorrow for
the loss of so inestimable a treasure, he died.
Now, after this matter between the French king and
Poj)e Boniface, let us proceed in our English history.
About this time, in the days of King Edward, the church
of Rome began daily more and more to rise up, and
swell so high in pride and worldly dominion, that no
king could do scarcely any thing, but as pleased the
pope, who ruled all in all countries, but chiefly here in
England. When tlie king and the church of Canterbury ,
in their election h id chosen one Robert Burnhil, bishop
of Bath, to be archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Boni-
face, of his own presumptuous authority, ruling the
matter after his own pleasure, frustrated their election,
and thrust in another, named John Peckham; for among
others, this had always been one practice of the court of
Rome, ever to have the archbishop of their own appoint-
ing, or sucli an one as they might be sure of on their
side, to weigh against. the king. To this John Peckham,
Pope Boniface directed a solemn bull from Rome, as
also to all quarters of the universal church. In which
bull it was decreed, directly against the rule of scrip-
ture and christian obedience, " That no church nor ec-
clesiastical person should henceforth yield to his king
or temporal magistrate, either any giving or lending, or
promising of tribute or subsidy, or portion whatsoever,
of the goods and possessions belonging to him, but
should be clearly exempted and discharged from all tax-
ation in the behalf of the prince and his affairs." This
decree manifestly rebelled against the ordinance of God,
and the apostolical canon of St. Peter, and all other ex-
amples of holy scripture. For as there is no word in the
scripture that excludes spiritual men more than tempo-
ral from obedience and subjection to princes ; so if the
prince was to be too rigorous in his exacting, or cruel ia
oppression, that is no cause for the clergy to be ex-
empt, but they rather should bear the common burthea
of obedience, and pray to God to turn and move the
prince's mind.
This bull being directed from Rome to the archbi-
shop of Canterbury, and likewise through the whole
church, under the pope's authority ; it happened not .
long after that the king held his parliament at St. Ed-
mundsbury, where was granted to him by all cities and
boroughs an eighth, and by the commons a twelftii of
their goods. Only the clergy, by virtue of this bull,,
stoutly refused to pay any thing to the king. This an-
swer not pleasing the king, he desired them to deliberate
better with themselves upon the matter, and after ma-
ture advice to give him answer against the next parlia-
ment, which should be held the next Hilary term at
London.
In conclusion, when the parliament met, the clergy,
persisted still in the denial of their subsidy, alleging the
pope's bull for their warrant and discharge. Where-
upon the king excluded them from under his j)rotectiou
and the safeguard of his laws. And as concerning the
archbisho]) of Canterbuiy aijove mentioned, because he
was found more stubborn than the rest, and was tlie in-
citer to the others ; he seized upon all his goods, and
caused an inventory of the same to be enrolled in the
exchefpier. Several of the otlier bishops relented sooa
after to tlie king, and contributed the fifth of their good4
unto him, and were received !x.x;iin to favour.
After the death of John Poc-kliam, archbishop of C'an-
I terbury, succeeded iitbirt Vi'iuchelsey ; with whom aif*"
A. D. i;'.C4— 130/-.] THE EPISTLE OF CASSIODORUS TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
197
the kin? had similar variance. And as this king was
tro'.ibk'ii in hi.-; time with both the archbishops, John
Peckham, and also Robert Wiuchelsoy ; so it h-'ppened to
all otht-r kiuijs for the most part, from the time of Lan-
franc (that is, from Pope Hildebrand) that every king in
his time had some trouble or other with that see. As
William Rufus, and Henry L were troubled with
Ansehn ; Henry IL with Thomas Beeket ; King Richard
and all England, with William, bishop of Ely, the
pope's legate ; King John, with Stephen Langton :
King Henry IH. with Edmund, arclibishop, called
St. Edmund; likewise this King Edward L, with John
Peckham and Robert Winchelsey. And so other kings
after him, with some prelate or other.
After Pope Boniface succeeded Benedict XI. and
then Pope Clement V., who translated the pope's court
to Avignon in France, where it remained for seventy-
four years after. At the coronation of this Clement,
was present Philip, king of France; Charles his son; and
Duke John, duke of Brittany, with a great number of
Other men of state and nobility. At which coronation,
ill the middle of the pomp and procession, a great wall
break down and fell upon them : by the fall of which,
Duke John, with twelve others, were slain ; King Philip,
hurt and wounded ; the pope struck from his horse, and
lost out from his mitre upon his head, a carbuncle,
esteemed to the value of (5000 florins. By this
Clement it was ordained, that the emperor, though he
might be called king of the Romans before, yet he might
rot enjoy the title and right of the emperor, until he was
confirmed by him. And that the emperor's seat being
vacant, the pope should reign as emperor, till a new
emperor was chosen. By him the oVder of the Templars
(who at that time were too abominable) was put down
at the council of Vienna. He also ordained and con-
firmed the feast of Corpus Christi. assigning indulgences
to such as heard the service. And as Pope Boniface
before heaped up the book of decretals, called Sextus
Decretaltum, so this Clement compiled the seventh
book of the decretals, called of the same Clement, The
Clementines. In the time of this pope, the Emperor
Henry VI. was poisoned in receiving the sacrament, bv
a false dissembling monk called Bernard, that feigned
himself to be his familiar friend ; which was thought to
be done not without the consent of the pope's legate.
The emperor, perceiving himself poisoned, warned him
to flee and escape away ; for the Germans would surely
have slain him ;■ although he escaped himself, yet man .'
of his order were slain with fire and sword.
This Pope Clement V. had well provided against the
empire of Rome to bring it under his girdle, insomuch
that, without the pope's benediction, no emperor might
take the state upon him, and now he proceeded to
intermeddle with the empire of Constantinople ; where
he first exercised his tyranny and power of excommu-
nication against the emperor Andronicus Paleologus,
(A. D; 130()), declaring him to be a schismatic and
heretic, because he neither would nor durst suffer the
i Greeks to make their appeal from the Greek church
j to the pope, nor would acknowledge him for his su-
I perior. From this it may appear, that the Greek
I church did not admit the pope's superiority as yet, nor
i indeed at any time before, except about the time of
[Pope Innocent III. (A. D. 1202), when Baldwin, earl
'of Flanders, joined with the Venetians, and went against
the Greeks, to place Alexius in the empire of Constanti-
jnople, upon condition (as writes Platina) of subduing
the Greek church under the church of Rome. Alexius
I being restored, and shortly after slain, the empire came
ito the Frenchmen, with whom it remained the space of
jfifty-eight years, till the coming of Michael Paleologus,
|Who restored the empire to its pristine state. After
Ithis, Michael, emperor of Constantinople, being called
jup to a council at Lyons by Pope Gregory X., alDOut the
wontroversy of the procession of the Holy Ghost and
obedience to the church of Rome, submitted himself and
the Greeks to the subjection of Rome, and he thereby
procured to himself such grudge and hatred among the
Greek monks and priests, that after his death they
denied him the due honour and place of burial. The
son of this Michael Paleologus was Andronicus above
mentioned : who was constrained by the Greeks not to
admit any appeal to the bishop of Rome, and was there-
f'.re accursed by the pope's censures for a heretic.
Whereby it apjiears, that the Greeks, recovering their
state Jigain, refused all subjection at this time unto the
church of Rome, which was A. D. 1307. After this
Clement V. followed Pope John XXII., with wliora
Lewis the emptror had much trouble. After whom
next in course s'uveeded Pope Benedict XII. Now to
return to the Engli-h history in the year 1307, which
was the thirty-fourth of the reign of this king, the
king kept a parliament at Carlisle, where great com-
plaints were brought in by the nobles of the realm,
concerning the manifold and intolerable oppressions
of churches and monasteries, and exactions of money
by the pope's legate, William Testa. The pope sent
this legate into England with his bulls, in which he
reserved the first fruits of all churches vacant at any
time, within the realm of England, .Scotland, Wales,
and Ireland, and also the fruits of abbeys and priories,
&c. The king, with his nobles, seeing the inconve-
nience and injury of this to the whole realm, in the
parliament held at Carlisle, withstood the legate, com-
manding him by the assent of the earls and barons, that
henceforth he should abstain from all such exactions.
And as concerning his lord the pope, the king wrote, de-
claring and admonishing the pope, that he should not
exact the first fruits of the churches and abbeys,
founded by his predecessors and the noblemen of the
land, for the honour and maintenance of God's service,
for alms and hospitality.
During this parliament, as men w^ere talking of the
pope's oppressions, there suddenly fell down among
them a certain paper, with this superscription.
An Ejnxtle of Cassiodorus to the Church of England,
concerning the Abuses of the Romish Church.
" To the noble church of England, serving in clay
and brick, as the Jews did in time past under the ty-
ranny of the Egy])tians ; Peter the son of Cassiodorus a
catholic soldier, and devout champion of Christ, sends
greeting, and wishing it to cast off the yoke of bondage,
and to receive the reward of liberty.
" To whom shall I compare thee, or to whom shall I
liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem .' To whftm shall I
match thee, O daughter of Sion ? Great is thy troubled
state, like to the sea. Thou sittest alone without com-
fort all the day long, thou art confounded and consumed
with heaviness. Tl)0u art given up into the hands of
him from whence thou canst not rise without the help
of one to lift tbee up : for the scribes and pharisees sit-
ting upon the chair of Moses, the enemies of the
Romans are as tliy heads and rulers : enlarging their
guarded phylacteries, and seeking to be enriched with
the marrow of thy bones, laying heavy burdens, and not
able to be borne upon thy shoulders, and on thy minis-
ters, and they set thee under tribute, (who of old time
hast been free) beyond all honesty or measure. But
marvel not thereat, for thy mother, v.hich is the lady of
people, like a widow having married and coupled her-
self to her subjects, has appointed him to be thy father :
that is to say, the bishop of Rome, who shews no point
of any fatherly love towards thee. He magnifies and ex-
tends to the utmost his authority over thee, and by
experience he declares himself to be the husband of
thy mother. He remembers oft with himself the
prophetical saying of the prophet, and well digested
the same in the inward part of his breast : ' Take to
thee a great book, and write therein quickly with the
pen of a man ;' ' take the spoil, rob quickly.' But is
this it which the apostle says that he was appointed
for, where he writes thus ? ' Every bishoj), taken
from among men, is apjiointed for men in those
things that belong to the Lord:' not to spoil, nor
to lay on them yearly taxes, nor to kill men, but ' to
offer gifts and sacrifices for sins," and to sorrow with them
that be ignorant and do err. .\nd so we read of Peter
the fisherman (whose successor ha boasts himself to be;
198
DEATH OF KING EDWARD I.— HIS CHARGE TO HIS SON.
[Book IV.
that after the resurrection of Christ, he returned with
the other apostles, to the office of fishing : who when he
could take nothing on the left-side of the ship, at the
bidding of Christ turned to the right-side, and drew to
land a net full of fishes. M'herefore the profitable minis-
ti7 of the church is to be exercised on the right side, by
which the devil is overcome, and plenty of souls are
gained and won to Christ. But certainly the labour on
the left side of tlie ship is far otherwise : for in it the
faith stumbles, heaviness bears rule, when that which is
desired by seeking, is not found. For who is so foolish
as to think that he can at one time serve both God and
man .' satisfy his own will, or stick to the revelations of
flesh and blood, and offer worthy gifts to Christ .' And
doubtless that shepherd who watches not for the edifying
of the flock, prepares another way for ' the roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour.' And now behold, I say,
O daughter, the deeds of him that is called thy Father,
are such as have not been heard of before : he drives away
the good shepherds from the sheepfold, and places in
their stead bishops, to rule, but not to profit (his ne-
phews, cousins, and parents) some that know no letters,
and others dumb and deaf, who understand not the plain
voice of the sheep, not curing their wounds, who are
hurt by the wolves: but like hirelings, plucking off the
fleeces, and reaping that which other men have sown,
whose hands moreover are always ready in their baskets
and pouches, but their backs are turned from their bur-
thens. By which it is manifest, that the priesthood is
clean changed in these days, — the service of God decayed,
— alms diminished and brought to nought, — the whole
devotion of kings, princes and christians, is banished.
May not this be thouglit wonderful in the eyes of all men ;
that whereas Christ commands tribute to be paid to kings
for him and for Peter, this bishop now goes about by domi-
nion of his style, to subdue to him both realms, and princes
of realms (against his will, whose vicar he saith he is, and
who refused the realms and judgments of the world)
which this bishop contrarywise challenges, claiming all
that which he in his style writes to be his ? Alas ! O
daughter, what doth he yet more against thee? Mark,
he draws from thee whatever pleases him, and yet he is
not content, to have the tenth part only of thy goods from
thee ; except he have also the first fruits of the benefices
of the ministers, whereby he may get a new patrimony,
as well for himself as for his kindred, contrary to the
godly wills of the first founders. Over and besides all
this, he introduces other execrable taxes and stipends
for his legates and messengers, whom he sends into
England ; who not only take away the feeding and cloth-
ing of thee and thine, but also like dogs tear in pieces
your flesh and skins. May not this prince be compared
to King Nebuchadnezar, who destroyed the temple of
the Lord, and carried away the golden and silver vessels
thereof ? The very same does this man also ; he robbed
the ministers of God's house, and left them destitute of
due help. — In like manner does he : truly they are better
who are killed with the sword, than they who are pined
with hunger ; for they are dead immediately, but these
are wasted with the barrenness of the earth. O daughter,
all they that pass by, let them have pity and compassion
on thee, for there is no sorrow like thy sorrow. For
now thy face is blacker than coals, through much sorrow
and weeping, and thou art no more known in the streets :
thy foresaid ruler has placed thee in darkness, and has
given thee wormwood and gall to drink. O Lord, hear
the sorrow and sighing of thy people, behold. Lord,
and descend, for the heart of this man is more hardened
than the heart of Pharaoh. For he will not suffer the
people to depart, except only by the strength of thy hand.
For he not only scourges them miserably upon the earth,
but also after their death, he intends, to ingross the
goods of all christians under the name and title of
dying intestate, or making no will. Therefore, let
the chivalry of England well remember, how the French-
men iri times past, directing their greedy eyes on
the realm of England, laboured with all their power how
to bring the same under their subjection. But it is to
be feared, lest the new devices and practice of this new
enemy supply that r^Hich hitherto has been lacking in
them. For in diminishing the treasure of the realm,
and spoiling the church goods, the realm shall be brought
inio such inability, that it shall not be able to help itself
against the enemy. Therefore, O daughter, and you the
ministers thereof, suffer not yourselves to be led any more
into such miserable bondage. It is better for the wealth
of thee and thine, that the christian king and the powers
of the realm, who have clothed thee with great benefits,
and you also who are clothed with their benefits, do la-
bour with all your power how to resist the devices, conspi-
racies, arrogance, presumption, and pride of the foresaid
person : who not for any zeal of God, but for the inrich-
ing of his parents, and for his own kindred (exalting
himself like an eagle) by these and such other exactions
goes about, after another kind of extortion, to scrape up
and devour all the money and treasure of England. Now,
lest the dissembled simplicity of the realm in this behalf
do bring utter subversion, and afterward be compelled to
seek remedy when it is too late : 1 beseech the Lord God
of Hosts to turn away the veil from the heart of that
man, and to give him a contrite and an humble mind, in
such sort as he may acknowledge the ways of the true
God, whereby he may be brought out of darkness, and
be forced to relinquish his old sinister attempts ; and that
the vineyard, which the Lord's hand has planted, may
be replenished continually with the preachers of the
word. Let the words of the Lord, prophesied by the
mouth of Jeremy, stir up your minds to withstand and
resist the subtle practices of this man, by which words
the Lord speaks : ' O thou pastor which hast scattered my
people, and hast cast them out of their habitations, be-
hold I will come and visit upon thee, and upon the malice
of thy studies : neither shall there be any of thy seed which
shall sit upon the seat of David, neither which shall have
power any more in Judah. So that thy nest shall become
barren, and utterly subverted, like Sodom and Gomorrah.*
" ' And if he being terrified by these words, do not leave
off from this which he beginneth, and does not make resti-
tution of those which he has received, then let all and
singular persons sing for him being hardened, to him that
seeth all things,' the 108 Psal. For as truly as favour,
grace, and benevolence, remits, and neglects many things ;
so again the gentle benignity of man, being too much op-
pressed and grieved, seeking to be delivered and freed
from the same, strives and searches to have the truth
known, and casts off that yoke by all means possible that
grieves him," &c.
In the year 1307, King Edward, marching toward
Scotland, fell sick, which sickness increased so upon
him, that he despaired of life : wherefore calling before
him his earls and barons, he caused them to be sworn
that they should crown his son Edward. That being
done, he called his son Edward, informing and advising
him with wholesome precepts ; and he charged him also,
as he valued his blessing, with several matters. First,
That he should be courteous, gentle, upright in judg-
ment, fair spoken to all men, constant in deed and in
word, familiar with the good ; and especially to be mer-
ciful to the miserable. He gave him also charge not to
be too hasty in taking his crown before he had revenged
his father's injuries against the Scots ; but that he
should remain in those parts to take with him his fa-
ther's bones, after being well boiled from the flesh ; and
so being inclosed in some fit vessel, should carry them
with him till he conquered all the Scots, saying, that so
long as he had his father's bones with him, none should
overcome him. He desired and required him to love
his brothers Thomas and Edmund ; also to cherish and
be tender to his mother Margaret the queen. He, also,
strictly charged him upon his blessing (as he would
avoid his curse) that he should in no case call to him
again, or send for Peter Gaveston, which Peter Gave-
ston the king had before banished from the realm, for
his naughty and wicked intimacy with his son Edward,
and for his leading him astray with evil counsel. For
which he banished both Peter Gaveston utterly out of
the realm, and also put Edward his son into prison ;
and, therefore, he strictly charged his son not to send
for this Gaveston, or to have him about him. And.
finally, because he had conceived in himself a vow to
A.D. 1307—1311.] EDWARD II.— PRIDE AND TYRANNY OF POPE CLEMENT V.
199
have returned in his own person to the Holy Lmd,
(which from his many wars with the Scots he could
not perform), therefore he had prepared thirty-two
thousand pounds of silver, for sending some soldiers
with his heart to the Holy Land ; which he required his
son to see accomplished, so that the money, under his
curse and malediction, should not be employed to
other uses. But these injunctions and precepts the dis-
obedient son did not observe after the decease of his
father, but leaving off the war with the Scots, he hasted
with all speed to his coronation. Also contrary to
the mind of his nobles, and against the precept of his
father, he sent for Peter Gaveston, and prodigally be-
stowed upon him all that treasure which his father had
bequeathed to the Holy Land. He was moreover a
proud despiser of his peers and nobles, and therefore
reigned unfortunately.
KING EDWARD THE SECOND.
Edward II. was born at Carnarvon, in Wales, and
after the death of his father, entered the government,
A.D. 130", but was not crowned before the year follow-
ing (A.D. 1308,) by reason of the absence of Robert
Winchelsey, who was banished by King Edward I.
Whereupon the king wrote to the pope for the restitu-
tion of the archbishop, for by an ancient law of the
realm the coronation of the king could not proceed
without the archbishop of Canterbury. This Edward,
as he was personable in body and outward shape, so in
conditions and evil dispositions he was much deformed ;
being unsteadfast in his word, and lightly disclosing
secrets of great counsel ; also refusing the company of his
lords and men of honour, he associated with villains and
vile personages, given moreover to drinking, and such
vices as usually ensue on drunkenness. And as of his
own nature he was disposed to such vices, so he was
made much worse by the counsel and familiarity of
certain evil disposed persons, as Peter, or Pierce Gave-
ston, and the two Spensers, and others, following whose
wanton counsel he gave himself to riot and debauchery ;
not ordering his government with gravity, discretion, or
justice, which caused great variance between him and
his nobles, so that he shortly became odious to them,
and in the end was deprived of his kingdom. In the
first year of his reign he took to wife Isabel, daughter of
Philip king of France, with whom, the year after, he
was crowned at Westminster by the bishop of Winches-
ter, as Robert Winchelsey, archbishop of Canterbui^,
was not yet returned home. The barons and lords first
made request to the king to put Peter Gaveston from
him, or else they would not consent to his coronation ;
whereupon he was forced to grant them at the next
parliament to have their requests accomplished, and so
he was crowned. In the meantime this Peter or Pierce,
emboldened by the king's favour, continued triumphing
and setting at light all the other states and nobles of the
realm, so that he ruled both the king and the realm,
and all things went as he wished, neither had the king
any delight or kept company with any, but with him ;
with him only he told all his mind, and conferred all his
counsels. This seemed strange to the lords and earls,
and inflamed them so much against this Peter Gaveston,
that through the exciting of the nobles, the bishops of
the land proceeded in excommunication against him
\inless he departed the land.
At length the parliament met (A.D. 1310), and ar-
ticles were drawn by the nobles to be exhibited to the
king, which articles were the same as contained in
Magna Charta, and de Foresta, with such other articles
as his father had charged him with before ; to wit, that
he should remove from him and his court all aliens and
perverse counsellors, and that all the matters of the
commonwealth should be debated by the common coun-
cil of the lords both temporal and spiritual ; and that
he should stir no war out of England in any other
foreign realm, without the common assent of the same,
&c. Tlie king perceiving their intent to be, as it was
indeed, to separate Peter Gaveston from his company,
Wid seeing no other remedy but he must yield and grant
his consent, agreed that Gaveston should be banished
to Ireland ; and so the parliament breaking up, the lordii
returned home well pleased.
In the history of King Edward I. mention was made
of Pope Clement v., who succeeded Benedict; also of
the suppression of the Templars, which happened in
this year by means of the French king. He burned
in the city of Paris this year fifty-four Templars, with
the grand master of the order, and induced Pope Cle-
ment to call a council at Vienna, where the whole order
of Templars was condemned, and shortly after, with the
consent of all christian kings, totally suppressed in one
day. After this the French king thought to make his
son king of Jerusalem, and to transfer to him all the
lands of the Templars. But Clement the pope would
not agree, and transferred aU their lands to the order of
Hospitallers, for the great sum of money given for the
same. The cause of these impious Templars being sup-
pressed, was on account of their abominable and filthy
practices, which are better not told, if those things be
true which some authors write.
Another matter of similar abomination I may here
mention, touching a certain nunnery in France called
Provines, within which, at the cleansing of a fish-pond,
many bones of young children were found, and the
bodies also of some infants not yet decomposed. On
account of this, several of the nuns of this nunnery, to
the number of twenty-seven, were brought to Paris, and
there imprisoned.
In the same council also it was decreed by Clement
v., that all religious orders who were then exempt
should be subject to the common laws as others were.
But the Cistercian monks with money and great gifts
redeemed their privileges and exemptions of the pope.
These Cistercians succeeded better than the Minorites
of the Franciscans in their suit. Of which Franciscans,
when certain of them had offered to the pope forty
thousand florins of gold, besides silver, if he would dis-
pense with their having lands and possessions against
their rule. The pope asked them where was that
money ? They answered, in the merchants' hands.
So the space of three days was given them to produce
the merchants. Then the pope absolved the merchants
of their bond made to the friars, and commanded all
that money to be employed to his own use ; declaring
to the friars that he would not infringe or violate the
rule of St. Francis lately canonized, neither ought he to
do it for any money. And thus these rich friars, although
they called themselves "the begging friars, "and" themen-
dicant order," lost both their money and their indulgence.
This Pope Clement V. excommunicated the Vene-
tians for aiding and preferring Azoda to the state of
Ferrara ; and wrote his letters throughout all Europe,
condemning them as enemies of the church, and giving
their goods as a lawful prey to all men, which caused
them to sustain great harm. But Francis Dandulus, a
nobleman of Venice, being ambassador from the Vene-
tians to Clement, in order to obtain their absolution and
the safety of their city and country, and to pacify the
pope's fury, so humbled himself before this proud pre-
late, that he suffered a chain of iron to be tied about
his i«ck, and lay down flat before his table, to catch
the bones and fragments that fell from it, as if he had
been a dog, till the pope's fury was assuaged ; so that
afterwards in reproach (because he so humbled himself
for the behalf and helping of his country), he was by
some called a dog. But the city of Venice showed
themselves not ungrateful to Dandulus for his gentle
good will thus shown to his country ; for as he had
abased himself in the vile and ignominious condition of a
dog for his country's sake, so they extolled him with as
much glory when he returned home, decking and
adorning him after the best array, with the chief princely
ornaments of the city, to make him amends for his for-
mer reproach. /» r. Tjn\ i„
Let us proceed to the next year (A.D. 1.511). In
which year Peter Gaveston, Nvho had wandered the
countries about, and could find no safe restmg place,
secretly returning into England, j.resented hiniMlt to
the king. The king for joy ran to meet him. and em-
200
PETER GAVESTON BEHEADED-GREAT FAMINE IN ENGLAND.
[Book IV.
I racing him, not onlv retained him, but also for his
sake undid all such acts as had been enacted in the par-
liament. The queen and the whole court seeing this
doting of the king, were exceeding sorrowful. After
this return of Gaveston was noised among the com-
mons, the peers, and nobles of the realm were not a
little stirred, consulting with themselves what was
best to be done. At last they determined that Thomas,
earl of Lancaster should be elected among them the
chieftain, and chief doer in this business ; to whom all
other earls, barons, and jirelates also consented, ex-
cept only AValtcr bishop of Coventry, whom Robert the
archbishop, therefore, afterwards excommunicated. The
earl of Lancaster, by the assent of the i-est, sent to the
king, (who was then at York) humble petitions in the
name as well of the whole nobility as of the commons,
desiring his grace to give Gaveston over to them, or
else, according to the ordinance of the realm, that he
might be banished ; but the tyrannous king, who set
more value on the love of one stranger than on his
whole realm besides, would neither hearken to their
counsel, nor give place to their sujiplications, but in all
hasty fury removed from York to Newcastle, where he
remained till near midsummer.
In the meantime the barons had gathered an host of
sufficient and able soldiers, and came towards New-
castle, not intending any molestation against the king,
but only the execution of the laws upon the wicked
Gaveston. The king not having men to resist their
power, removed to Tynemouth, and thence to the castle of
Scarborough, where leaving Peter Gaveston to the safe
keej)ing of his men, himself journeyed toward War-
wick. The lords hearing where Peter was, bent thither
all their power ; so that at length Gaveston seeing no
remedy but he must needs come into their hands, yield-
ed, and submitted himself, requiring no other con-
dition, but only that he might talk but a few words to
the king in their presence.
It chanced tiiat Guy, the earl of Warwick, came to
the place where Gaveston was in custody, and taking
him out of the hands of his keejiers, he carried him to
the castle of Warwick, where they would have put him to
death ; but doubting and fearing the king's displeasure,
they stayed a little. When one of the company (a
man of sage and wise counsel, as mine author writes)
standing up among them, gravely declared the nature
of the man, the wickedness of his own condition, the
realm so greatly endamaged by him, the nobles de-
spised and rejected, the intolerable pride and ambition
of the man, the ruin of things like to ensue by him, and
the great charges and expeusts they had been at in so
long i)ursuing and catching him ; and now being gotten
and in their hands, he exhorted them to use and take the
occasion now present.
Briefly he so persuaded the hearers, that forthwith
Gaveston was brought out and beheaded. And thus he
that had called the earl of Warwick the black dog of
Ardeine, was thus worried by the dog.
After this, great disturbance began to rise between
1 he king and the lords ; who hnving their forces lying about
Dunstable, sent message to the king at London, to have
their former acts confirmed. Gilbert, earl of Gioc%^ter,
the king's nephew, (who neither held against the king,
nor yet against the nobles), with the bishops and pre-
lates of the realm, went between both j)arties with great
diligence to make unity. At which time also came two
cardinals from Rome, with letters from the ])ope. Tlie
nobles answered to the message of the cardinals, then at
St. Albans ; that as to themselves, they should be at all
times welcome, but as touching their letters (forasmuch
as they were unlettered men, and only brought up in
■war and feats of arms) tlierefore they cared not for
seeing the same. Then message was sent again, re-
quiring that they would at least speak with the pope's
legates, who purposely came for the intent to set quiet
and unity in the realm. Tiiey answered again, that
they had bisho])S both godly and learned, by whose
counsel only they would be led, and not by any strangers,
who knew not the true cause of their commotion. And
therefore they said explicitly, that they would have no
foreigners or aliens to be doers in their business and
affairs pertaining to the realm. Yet notwithstanding,
through the mediation of the archbishop, and of the earl
of Glocester, the matter at length was so taken up, ttiat
the barons agreed to restore to the king or to his attorney
of St. Albans, all the treasure, horses, and jewels of
Gaveston which were taken at Newcastle, so that their
requests should be granted. And so the matter at that
time was settled.
Shortly after this, Isabel the queen way delivered of a
fair child at Windsor. At the birth tl,(-;e was great
rejoicing througii all the land, and especially tlie king so
much joyed, that he began daily more and more to
forget the sorrow and remembrance of Gave ston's death,
and was after that more agreeable to the will of his
nobles.
In the mean time the Scots began to be busy, and to
rebel through the means of Robert Bruce ; who being
chased out of Scotland by King Edward L, as is before
mentioned, went into Norway, but was now returned
again into Scotland, where he so influenced the lords
there, that in a short time he was made king of the
realm, and warred so strongly upon them that took the
king's part, that he won from them many eastlcs and
strongholds, and invaded the borders of England. The
king hearing this, assembled a great army, and enters
the realm of Scotland by sea. Against whom Robert
Bruce with his Scots fought a strong battle at Estrivelin ;
in the end, the Englishmen were discomfited.
The Scots after this, exalted with pride and fierceness,
invaded the realm of England, killing and destroying
man, woman, and child ; they came winning and wasting
the north parts as far as to York. Besides this, there
was such dearth of victuals, and penury of all things so
oppressed the whole land, such murrain of sheep and
oxen ; that men were compelled to eat horse-flesh, dogs,
cats, mice, and whatever else they could get. Moreover,
such a price of corn followed, that the king hardly had
bread for the sustenance of his own household. More-
over, there were some that stole children and eat them,
and many died for the lack of victuals. And yet all this
amended not the king of his evil living.
The cause and origin of this great dearth, was partly
the wars and dissension between the English and the
Scots, whereby a great part of the land was wasted.
But the chiefest cause was the intemperate season of the
year, which contrary to the common course, was so
moist with abundance of rain, that the grain laid in the
earth could have no ripening by the heat of the sun, nor
grow to any nourishment. They that had any thing to
eat could not be satisfied, but soon were as hungry
again. They that had nothing were driven to steal and
rob ; the rich were constrained to abandon and diminish
tiieir households ; the poor died from famine. And not
so much the want of provisions, which could not be
gotten, as tlie unwholesomeness of the same when it was
taken, so consumed the people, that the living were not
sufficient to bury the dead. For the corruption of the
meats, by reason of the unseasonableness of the ground,
was so infectious that many died of hot fevers, many of
the pestilence, and other diseases. And not only the
bodies of men were infected, but also the beasts, by the
putrefaction of the herbs and grass, fell into so great a
murrain, that the eating of flesh was suspected and
thouglit contagious. A quarter of corn and salt, from
the month of June to September grew from thirty shil-
lings unto forty shillings. The flesh of horses was then
precious to the poor. Many were driven to steal fat
dogs, and to eat them. Some were said in secret
corners to eat their own children. Some would steal
other men's children to kill them and eat them privily.
The prisoners and thieves that were in prison, for hunger
fell upon such as were newly brought in to them, and
tearnig them in pieces eat them half alive. Briefly, this
extreme penury had extinguished and consumed (as it
was thought) the greatest part of the people of the land,
had not the king by the advice of the Londoners given
forth command through all his land, that no corn shoiild
at that time be turned to the making of drink. Such a
Lord is God, thus able to do where he is disposed to
A.D. 1311—1323.] THE KING PROHIBITS THE EXACTIONS OF THE POPE'S LEGATES.
201
strike. And yet we miserable creatures in our wealth
and abundance will not cease daily to provoke his terrible
majesty. « t,
Soon after this two legates came from Rome, sent by
Pope John XXII., under pretence of setting agreement
between England and Scotland ; who for their charges
and expenses, required of every spiritual person four
pence in every mark. But all their labour availed
nothing ; for the legates as they were in the north parts
with their whole family and train, were robbed and
despoiled of their horses, treasure, apparel, and what else
they had, and being severely handled, retired back again
to Durham, where they staid waiting for an answer from
the Scots. But when neither the pope's legacy nor his
curse could obtain any place with the Scots, the legates
returned to London, where they first excommunicated
and cursed as black as soot all those arrogant and pre-
sumptuous robbers of Northumberland. Secondly, for
supplying the losses which they had received, they
exacted of the clergy eightpence in every mark to be
paid to them. But the clergy would not agree, seeing it
was their own covetousness (as they said) that made
them venture farther than they needed. Whereof the
king being advertised, and taking part with his clergy,
directed his letters to the legates in form as follows :
*' The king to Master Rigand of Asserio, canon of
Aurelia, greeting : we have taken notice of the clamours
and lamentable petitions of the subjects of our realm,
perceiving by the same that you practise many and sun-
i dry inconveniences very strange, never heretofore accus-
! tomed, nor heard of in this our realm, as well against
I the clergy and ecclesiastical persons, as against the laity,
I even to the utter oppression and impoverishing of many
] of our liege people, which if it should be winked at (as
God forbid) may in process of time be occasion of
] greater perils ; whereat we are (not without cause)
i moved, and not a little grieved : we command you there-
i fore, that from henceforth you practise not, or presume
j in any case to attempt any thing within this our realm,
I either against our clergy or laity, that may any way tend
to the prejudice of our royal person, or of our crown and
regal dignity. Witness the king at Windsor, the sixth
day of February, in the eleventh year of his reign."
In the same year the king wrote to the same effect to
the archbishop of Canterbury, to the archbishop of York,
and to every other bishop through England. By which
letters the greedy legates being restrained of their ravening
purpose, taking what they could get, and settling a peace
Csuch as it was) between the king and the earl of Lan-
caster, were obliged to depart.
Besides the restraint above mentioned for strange im-
positions, there followed the same year the king's prohi-
bition for the gathering of Peter-pence, directed to the
legate, the tenor whereof follows.
A Prohibition of Peter-pence.
"The king to Master Rigand of Asserio, canon of
Aurelia, greeting. We are given to understand that you
demand and purpose to levy the Peter-penny within our
realm, otherwise than the said Peter-penny hath been
heretofore accustomed to be levied in the time of any of
our progenitors, exercising herein grievous censures ec-
clesiastical, to the great annoyance and damnifying of the
subjects of our realm : for present remedy whereof, our
loving subjects have made their humble supplication to
us. And forasmuch as the said Peter-penny hath been
hitherto accustomed to be gathered and levied upon
lands and tenements within our realm, after a due man-
ner and form : we, not willing that any such unaccus-
tomed impositions shaU, in anywise be made upon the
lands and tenements of any our subjects within our do-
minions, prohibit you, upon grievous penalty, straitly
charging that in nowise you presume to exact, gather,
or levy the said Peter-penny in any other form or man-
ner than has been heretofore accustomed to be gathered
and levied in the time of our progenitors, or since the
beginning of our reign until further order be taken in our
high court of parliament, by the advice of the nobles and
peers of our realm, s\ich as may well be taken witi.out
prejudice of our crown, and damage of our subjects.
Witness the king at Westminster, the first day of
March."
To the same effect, letters were directed to the arch-
bishops, deans, archdeacons, and the rest of the
clergy.
Touching the first original of which Peter-pence,
though mention is made already in the life of King Ofla,
and others : yet to make a brief recapitulation of the
matter, according to the rolls it thus follows: " It is
thus found recorded in ancient chronicles touching the
Peter- pence of St. Peter, (A. D. 1S7), Otfa, king of
Mercia, travelled up to Rome in the time of Pojie
Adrian I., to obtain the canonizing of St. Alban.^ And
having performed his vow, visiting the college of English
students which then flourished in Rome, he gave to the
maintenance of the scholars of England, students in
Rome, one jienny out of every tenement within this
realm that had land belonging to the same, amounting to
the yearly value of thirty pence."
In the meantime the lords and nobles of England, de-
testing the outrageous pride of the two Spensers, where-
by they wrought daily both great dishonour to the king,
and hinderance to the commonwealth, conspired against
them. These Spensers being favouied by the king, were
as har.ghty and proud as Peter Gaveston was, and having
much influence over the king, they were greatly hated
both by the nobles and commons, who now gathering
their forces together, made a request to the king, that
he should remove the Spensers from his person. For
which there was a parliament called in London, and the
barons came together with a great company. At this
parliament both the Spensers were banished the land for
the term of their lives: and they took shipping at
Dover, and so left the land. But it was not long after,
before the king sent for them again, and set them in
high authority. Wherefore, the barons again intending
toreform this mischief, assembled their forces ; but the
king, making much haste, gathered his people as soon,
and as he was stronger than they, he pursued them so in
divers places, that the barons not fully joined together,
were in the end chased so closely, that Thomas, earl of
Lancaster, was taken and put to death, with the rest of
the nobility, to the number of two-and-twenty of the
: greatest men, and chiefest captains of this realm.
After the ruin of these noble personages, the king, as
though he had gained a great conquest, began to triumph
not a little with the Spensers, trusting and committing
all to their counsel ; insomuch, that both the queen and
the other nobles were but little regarded.
Polydore Virgil, among other histories of our English
nation' which he intermeddles with, prosecuting also the
acts and hfe of this present king, and coming to write
of the queen's going over into France, infers much variety
and difference of authors concerning the cause thereof.
The precise truth of the matter is as follows :
The king of England had been frequently cited to the
court of France, to do homage for the dukedom of Aqui-
taine, and other lands which the king held of France,
when the king of England refused, the French king
began to enter all such possessions as the king held
in°France ; upon which there were great contention
and conflicts on both sides. At length in this year, a
parliament was called in London ; where it was at last
determined that certain should be sent over to make
agreement between the two kings. For the better for-
warding of which agreement, it was thought good that
Queen Isabel, sister to Charles, the French king, should
be sent over. Where is to be noted first, that the
queen's lands, and possessions and castles, upon the
breach between the French king and the king of Eng-
land, a little before, were seized into the knig's hands,
and the queen put to her pension, &c. Thus the queen
being sent over, with a few to attend upon her, only Sir
John Cromwel, baron, and four knights, took their pas-
sa^e into France : by whose mediation it was there con-
cluded that the king of England (if he would not himself
THE QUEEN AND PRINCE PROCLAIMED TRAITORS.
[Book IV,
come to do his homage) should give to his son Edward,
the dukedom of Aquitaine, and the earldom of Pontigne,
and so he should come to make his homage to the king,
and to possess the same. Upon this, deliberation was
taken in the council of England. But the two Spensers,
fearing either to take the voyage with the king, or else to
remain behind without the king, so appointed, that
Prince Edward was sent, which proved afterwards their
utter desolation. For all things being quieted and
ordered according to the agreement in France, King
Edward, of England, sends for his wife and his son
agadn out of France. But she sending home most part
of her family, refused to return herself ; for what cause
is not fully certain. The king seeing this, gives forth in
proclamation, and limits a certain day to the queen and
his son to return ; or else to be proclaimed traitors to
the king, and to the realm. Notwithstanding, the queen
persisting in her purpose, refused to return, unless the
other nobles who were fled might be permitted also to
return safely with her. The king immediately caused
them both to be proclaimed traitors.
Here then began great hatred between king and king,
and between the king and the queen much preparation
of war. Then the king, (by the counsel of the Spensers)
sent privily to procure the death of the queen and of his
son, through the means of the earl of Richmond, the
queen's familiar friend. But that was prevented and
utterly frustrated. The queen, however, doubting what
corruption might do in the court of France, removed
from thence, and was received, with Edward, joyously
and honourably in the court or country of the earl of
Henawde, or fleinault, where a marriage was concluded
between Edward her son, and the earl's daughter. When
this was noised in England, several men of honour and
name came over to the queen. And soon after the earl
of Heinault prepared a body of five hundred men of
arms to send over with the young prince and his mother
to England. The fame of this spread shortly through
the realm. The king made all provision to have the
havens and ports securely kept, to resist the landing of his
enemies. On the other side the queen, with no less
preparation, provided all things necessary to her ex-
pedition. When she saw her time, she hastened to the
sea-coast with Prince Edward, Lord Edmund, earl of
Kent, the king's brother, Sir Roger Mortimer, the Lord
Wygmore, and other exiles of England, accompanied also
by the band of Heinaulters, of whom Sir John Heinault,
the earl's brother, was a captain, having with her of
Englishmen and strangers, the number of two thousand
seven hundred and fifty-seven soldiers : she took ship-
ping, and had the wind so favourable, that they landed
in England, near Harwich, in Suffolk. After her land-
ing, the Earl Marshal, and the earl of Leicester, joined
her, with other barons, knights, and bishops also ;
namely, the bishops of Lincoln, Hereford, Durham, and
Ely. The archbishop of Canterbury, though he came
not himself, yet sent his aid, and money. Thus the
queen, well furnished with both men and provisions, sets
forward toward London ; so that the further she came,
the more her number daily increased, and the king's
power on the other hand decreased ; so that not one al-
most in all the realm could be hired with any wages to
fight on the king's behalf against the queen, neither did
the queen's army hurt any man or child, either in goods
or any thing else, by the way.
At the arriving of the queen, the king was in London,
who first would not believe it to be true. Afterward he
fortified the tower of London with men and provisions,
committing the charge of it to John Eltham, his younger
son. And leaving Walter Stapleton, bishop of Exeter,
behind him to rule the city of London, he himself hear-
ing daily the great recourse of the people that drew to
the queen, fled with a small company westward toward
Wales. But before his departing from London, he
caused a proclamation to be made, wherein all persons
were charged upon forfeiture of life and goods, every
man with all his power to rise and invade the rebels and
destroy them all, only the life of the queen, his son, and
his brother, reserved. Also that no man should help,
rescue, or relieve the rebels, with goods, victuals, or
otherwise. It was also proclaimed, that whoever would
bring to the king the head and body of Sir Roger Mor-
timer, either dead or alive, should have out of the king's
coffers, a thousand pounds.
On the other hand, the queen sets forth another pro-
clamation, wherein it was forbidden to take or spoil
violently any man's goods against the will of the owner,
under pain of losing his finger, if it were three-
pence : of his hand, if it were sixpence : of his head, if
it were twelve-pence. Moreover, whoever would bring
to the queen the head of Hugh Spenser the younger,
should receive for so doing of the queen, two thousand
pounds. This done, the queen sends her letters to the
city of London for aid and succour to subdue the oppres-
sor of the realm.
These letters being published and perused, the bishop
of Exeter, to whom was committed the rule of the city,
sent to the mayor for the keys of the gates, using so
sharp words in the king's name, that variance began to
kindle between him and the citizens ; so that the com-
mons in their rage took the bishop and belieaded him
and two of his household at the Standard in Cheapside.
Then the king, with Hugh Spenser, and Sir Robert Bal-
dock, chancellor, and the earl of Arundel, went into
Wales. And the queen so pursued them, that they took
Sir Hugh Spenser the father, who being drawn and
torn, they at last hanged up at Bristol in iron chains.
As the king was thus flying, the queen caused to be pro-
claimed through her army, that the king should come
and appear, and so receive his kingdom again, if he
would be comfortable to his liege subjects : and when
he did not appear, Prince Edward his son was pro-
claimed high keeper of the realm.
In the meantime, Henry earl of Lancaster, brother to
the good Earl Thomas who was beheaded, also Lord
William Souch, and Master Uphowel were sent by the
queen into Wales to pursue the king ; and there they
took him and sent him to the castle of Kenilworth : and
took Hugh Spenser the son, and Sir Robert Baldock,
chancellor, and Sir John Earl of Arundel, and brought
them all to the town of Hereford. And, soon after,
Hugh Spenser the son, was drawn and hanged on a
gallows fifty feet high, and then beheaded and quartered,
whose quarters were sent into four quarters of the realm.
Sir John of Arundel was beheaded, Sir Robert Baldock
was put into Newgate at London, where shortly after he
pined away and died among the thieves. This done, a
parliament was assembled at London, from whence mes-
sage was sent to the king, that if he would resign up his
crown, his son should have it after him : if not, another
should take it to whom the lot would give it. Where-
upon the king, being constrained to yield up his crown
to his son, was kept in prison ; where he is said to have
felt great repentance.
It is thought by some writers, that the year following,
by means of Sir Roger Mortimer, the king while in
prison, was miserably slain : he was buried at Gloucester,
after he had reigned nineteen years.
In the time and reign of this king, the college of
Cambridge, called Michael House, was founded and
built by Sir Henry Stanton, knight, for the use and in-
crease of learning.
About the same time also was Nicolas de Lyra, who
wrote the ordinary Gloss of the Bible. Also William
Ocham, a worthy divine, and of a right sincere judg-
ment, as the times then would either give or suffer.
Among those who fell into trouble with this king
during his contention with his barons, was one Adam,
bishop of Hereford : who being impeached of treason
with others, was arrested in the parliament. Many
things there were laid against him, for taking part with
them that rose against the king, with other matters and
heinous rebukes, &c. Whereto the bis.hop % great while
answered nothing.
At length the bishop claiming the liberties and privi-
leges of the church, answered to the king in this form :
" I, an humble minister and member of the holy church
of God, and bishop consecrate (although unworthy) can-
not, and ought not to answer to these high matters
without authority of the archbishop of Canterbury, my
A. D. 1323—1327.] LEWIS TROUBLED, AND AT LAST POISONED BY THE POPE.
203
Jirect judge, next under the high bishop of Rome,
whose suffragan I am, and the consent likewise of the
other my fellow bishops." After which, the archbishop
and other bishops with him were ready to make humble
intercession for him to the king, and did so. But when
the king would not be won nor turned with any suppli-
cation ; the bishop, together with the archbishop and the
clergy, coming with their crosses, took him away, challeng-
ing him for the church, without making any more an-
swer ; charging, moreover, none to presume to lay any
further hands upon him, under the censures of the church
and excommunication. The king, moved with this bold-
ness and stoutness of the clergy, commanded notwith-
standing, to proceed in judgment, and the jury of twelve
men to go upon the inquiry of his cause : who finding
and pronouncing the bishop to be guilty, the king im-
mediately caused all his goods and possessions to be
confiscated unto himself: moreover, he made his plate
and all his household provision to be thrown out of his
house into the street ; but yet he remained still under
the protection and defence of the archbishop.
This archbishop was Walter Winchelsey, after whom
succeeded Simon Mepham in the same see of Canter-
bury, A. D. 1327. (Ex Thorn. Walsingham).
After Pope Clement V., by whose decease the Romish
see stood vacant two years and three months, Pope John
XXII., a Cistercian monk, was next elected, who sat in
that papacy eighteen years. He was stout and inflexible.
given so much to the heaping of riches, that he pro-
claimed them heretics who taught that Christ and his
apostles had no possessions of their own in this world.
At this time was emperor Lewis of Bavaria, a worthy
man ; who had no less contention with this pope, and
others that followed him, than had Frederick, before men-
tioned in the time of King Henry III. This contention
continued the space of four-and-twenty years. The cause
and first origin of this tragical conflict, rose upon the con-
stitution of Clement V. predecessor to this pope ; by whom
it was ordained, that the emperors might be called
kings of the Romans, but might not enjoy the title or
right of the empire, to be nominated emperors, without
their confirmation by the pope. Wherefore, because
this emperor used the imperial dignity in Italy, before
he was authorised by the pope, the pope therefore ex-
communicated the emperor. And, notwithstanding the
emperor several times proffered himself to make treaty
of peace and concord, yet the pope would not bend.
The writings of both parties are yet extant, wherein the
bishop makes his boast, that he had full power to create
and depose kings and emperors at his pleasure. In the
same time were several learned men, who, seeing the
matter, greatly condemned the bishops of Rome's do-
ings ; among whom was William Ocham, whose treatises
were afterwards condemned by the pope, for writing
against the temporal jurisdiction of their see. And
another named Marsilius, who wrote the book intitled
' Defensor Pacis,' which was given into the hands of the
emperor, wherein the controversy of the pope's unlaw-
ful jurisdiction in things temporal is largely disputed,
and the usurped authority of that see set forth to the
utmost. It is found in some writers, that a great cause
of this variance was that one of the emperor's secreta-
ries, unknown to the emperor, in some of his letters had
likened the papal see to the beast rising out of the sea in
the Apocalypse. At length, when the emperor, after
much suit made to the pope at Avignon, could not ob-
tain his coronation ; coming to Rome, he was there re-
ceived with great honour, where he and his wife were
both crowned by the full consent of all the lords and
cardinals there. Not long after which, the pope died
at Avignon in France. After him succeeded Bene-
dict XII., and reigned seven years, who confirmed and
prosecuted the censures and cursings that John his pre-
decessor had published against the Emperor Lewis.
Moreover, he deprived him of his imperial crown, and
also of his dukedom of Bavaria.
After whom followed Pope Clement VI., a man of the
most furious and cruel disposition. Renewing the for-
mer excommunications of his predecessors, he caused
ids letters to be set upon church doors, wherein he
threatened and denounced most terrible thunderbolts
against the Emperor Lewis, unless within three days he
should satisfy God and the church, and renounce the
imperial possession of the crown. The emperor upon
this comes to Frankfort, and there ready to stand in all
things to the ordinance of the pope, sends his orators to
the court of Rome, to intreat the pope's favour and good
will towards him. To which messengers the pope an-
swered that he would never pardon the emperor, before
he gave over and confessed his errors and heresies, and
resigning up his empire to his hands, would submit him-
self, his children, and all his goods to the will and plea-
sure of tlie bishop, declaring that he should not receive
again any part of the same, but upon his good grace, as
his will should be to restore them.
The pope also sent to the emperor certain written
conditions for him to sign. The princes and electors,
seeing the conditions, some of which sounded to the
malicious defacing and destruction of the empire, abhor-
ring the wickedness thereof, desired the emperor to stand
to the defence of the imperial dominion, as he had be-
gun, promising that their assistance and aid to the
utmost should not be wanting. Upon that, other ora-
tors were sent to Pope Clement from the princes, desir-
ing him to abstain from such articles conceived against
the state and majesty of the empire. The pope surmis-
ing all this to spring from the Emperor Lewis, to the
utter subversion of him and all his posterity, onMaunday-
Thursday issued out most black curses against him, re-
newing all the former processes of his predecessor
against him, as against both an heretic and a schismatic;
commanding, moreover, the princes electors to proceed
in choosing a new emperor. Upon which, the arch-
bishop of Cologne, the duke of Saxony, and some other
electors, being bribed by the king of Bohemia, elected
his son Charles emperor. In the meantime, what sor-
row there was among the princes and citizens of Ger-
many, and what complaints were made against Pope
Clement, and those electors, cannot be expressed. For
as they were all together at Spires in a general assembly,
so there was none among them all, that allowed the
election of Charles, or that cared for the pope's process,
promising all to adhere and continue faithful subjects to
Lewis their lawful emperor. But Lewis, remembering
his oath made before to the pope, voluntarily and wil-
lingly gave over his imperial dignity, and went to Bur-
gravia, where, shortly after, through the procurement of
Pope Clement, poison was given him to drink ; and
there the good and gentle emperor, wickedly persecuted
and murdered of the pope, fell down dead, whom I may
well recount among the innocent and blessed martyrs of
Christ. For if the cause being righteous makes a mar-
tyr, what papist can justly disprove his cause or faith ?
If persecution joined thereto causes martyrdom, what
martyr could be more persecuted than he who having
three popes like three bull dogs upon him, at length was
devoured by them.
This Pope Clement first reduced the year of jubilee to
every fiftieth year, which before was kept but on the
hundreth year. And so he being absent to Avignon
(which he then purchased with his money to the see of
Rome) caused it to be celebrated at Rome, (A.D. 1350.)
In which year there were numbered, of pilgrims going
in and coming out every day at Rome, to the calculation
of five thousand. The bull of Pope Clement, given out in
this present year of jubilee, proceeds in these words : —
" What person or persons soever, for devotion sake,
shall take their pilgrimage to the holy city, the same
day when he sets forth out of his bouse, he may choose
to him what confessor or confessors, either in the way,
or where else he chooses ; to which confessors we grant,
by our authority, plenary power to absolve aU cases
papal, as fully as if we were in our proper person there
present. Also, we grant that whoever being truly con-
fessed, shall chance to die by the way, he shall be quit
and absolved of all his sins. Moreover, we command the
angels of Paradise to take his soul out of his body, being
absolved, and to carry it into the glory of Paradise, &c."
And in another bull, he says, "We will that
no pain of hell shall touch him ; granting, moro-
204
EDWARD III.— ENGLAND INVADED BY THE SCOTS
[Book IV.
over to all persons, signed with the holy cross, power,
and autharity to deliver and release three or four souls,
whom they themselves please, out of the pains of purga-
tory," &c,
KING EDWARD III.
After the imprisonment of King Edward II., as is
above expressed, Edward his son was crowned king of
England, being about fifteen years of age, and reigned
the space of fifty years. He was a prince of great tem-
perance, very expert in feats of arms, and no less fortu-
nate in all his wars than his father was unfortu-
nate before him ; he was worthily commended for his
liberality and clemency ; and, briefly, in all princely
virtues he was famous and excellent. Concerning the
memorable acts of this prince, both in war and in
peace, as how he subdued the Scots, had great victories
by the sea, how he conquered France, (A.D. 13ii2), won
Calais, (A.D. 1348), and took the French king prisoner,
and how the French arms were first brought in by him,
and joined with the English arms ; also, how the Order
of the Garter was first invented and ordained by him,
(A. D. 1356.) How he in his parliament at Notting-
ham, decreed that all such in Flanders, or elsewhere,
that had skill in making cloth, might peaceably inhabit
the land, and be welcome. (For three years before that
it was enacted, that no wool should be transported over
the sea, which was to bridle the pride of the Flemings,
who then loved better the sacks of wool, than the nation
of Englishmen.) All these, with other noble acts of this
worthy prince, although they are fully treated of in
other chronicles ; yet according to the order I have be-
gun (saying somewhat of each king's reign, although
not pertinent to our ecclesiastical history), I have here
mentioned them, making haste to other matters, shortly
and compendiously abridging them out of many and
various authors.
The coronation of King Edward III. and all the pomp
thereof was no sooner ended, than Robert Bruce king of
Scotland, understanding the state and government of the
realm to be (as it was indeed) in the queen, the young
king, the earl of Kent and sir Roger Mortimer ; and that
tiie lords and barons, as he was informed, did scarcely
well agree amongst themselves, thought this a fit time
for his purpose, to make invasion. Whereupon, about
the feast of Easter he sent his ambassadors with heralds
and letters of defiance to the young King Edward III.,
the queen and the council ; declaring, that his purpose
was with fire and sword to enter and invade the realm of
England, &c.
The king and queen made speedy preparation for this
expedition : the noblemen provided themselves with all
things necessary ; the English captains and soldiers (their
bands tlioroughly furnished) were ready at their appointed
time and place. After this, the king set forward his
army towards Durham, and encamped himself near about
the same, he also sent the lord Vitlbrd and the lord
Mounbrey to Carlisle with a sufficient company to keep
that entrance ; and also the lord marshal of England to
keep the town of Newcastle with a sufficient company to
defend the same, and tlie country adjoining.
But the Scots privily passed tlie river between the two
towns into England, few being aware of it till the great
firu'S which the Scots had kindled and made in England,
betrayi-d them : who came burning and destroying the
country all about as far as Stanhope-park. This being
declared to the king, he commanded his army with all
speed to march towards them ; but the Scots, understand-
ing the sui)erior fo»L'e of the king always kept the advan-
t-ue of the liills, retiring in the night from one to ano-
tliL-r : t!iat without great advantage on the one side, and
haaard to the other, the king could not set upon them.
Tints the Scots keeping the advantage of the hills, in
the day time, and in the night time retiring till they came
to 'inother hill, came near the bank of that river where
tliey rirst passed over, and there they made a shew to
ofi'er hatllo to the king ujjou the morrow. Whereupon
tiie ki;ig bei.ig busied iu putting liis men and divisions in
readiness to fight tlie next morning, being almost wearied
in pursuing the Scots from place to place : the Scots in
the meantime crossed over the river, and eyc-iju d the
danger of the king. It would have availed the l>;u^ very
little to have made pursuit after them, as the wily Siota
knew full well. For the joy whereof, the Lord XVilUam
Douglas, one of the Scot's generals, with two huaui-cd
horses, gave alarm in the king's camp ; and came so near
that he cut certain of the lines of tlie king's tent in sunder
with his sword, and retired to his company without great
loss of any of his men. A truce of four years was soou
after concluded between them.
After the truce of four years, the king prepared ano-
ther army against Scotland, and wasted the land, liunit
destroyed, and took towns and castles with small resistance
or none ; and during the space of six months together did
what he pleased in that land, without any battle otiered
to him. For the king of Scots was but a (diild, not al)ove
fifteen years of age, and wanted good captains that should
have defended the realm.
Then Sir Robert de Artois, a nobleman of France,
descended of the blood royal, being in Englai.d with the
king, often put him in mind of his good and rightful title
to the crown of France. King Edward was not unwilling
to hear of this, but took delight often in reasoning and
debating the matter with him. But yet, he thought it
not good to make any attempt without advised and cau-
tious counsel ; therefore, calling togetlicr certain of his
council, he sought their deliberate advice touching the
matter. In fine, it was thought good by them, that the
king should send certain ambassadors over to the earl of
Heinault, whose daughter he had married, as well to hear
his advice and counsel herein ; as also to learn wliat
friends and aid, by him and his means, might be procured.
The king appointed for this ambassage the bishop of Lin-
coln with two baronets, and two doctors ; who in a short
space returned to the king with this answer, that not only
the earl's counsel and advice should be at the service of
the king of England, but also the whole country of Hein-
ault. And further, that he would procure for the king
greater aid, as the duke of Brabant his cousin-germain,
and a puissant prince, the duke of Guerles, the archbi-
shopof Cologne,themarquessof Juliers, &c., whowereall
good men of war, and able to make ten thousand fighting
men. This answer well pleased the king, and made him
very joyous. But this counsel of the king, secret as it
was, came to the French king's ears : whereupon he
stayed the voyage of the cross which he had then in hand,
sending forth countermands to stay the same, till he knew
further the purpose of the king of England.
The king hereupon himself takes shipping, and when
he had consulted with all the lords of the empire in this
matter, and understood their fidelity, he repaired to the
emperor, at whose hands he was well entertained, and
honourably received. Philip hearing this, prepared his
army, and rigged his navy, that so soon as the king ,
should enter into the dominion of France, they also
might enter into England, requiring like for like.
The king of England, after the feast of St. John
Baptist, according to his purpose, prepared all things
ready to such an expedition, conducting his army, and ,'
gathering a greater force in the empire, as was promised, '
using the emperor's authority therein, as his lieutenant-
general, although at the charge altogether of the king of
England. The French king, as soon as King Edward
had landed his army at Machelen in Flanders, sent
certain ships lying ready, and waiting for such oppor-
tunity to the coast of England ; which, upon a Sunday,
whilst the townsmen were at the church, little looking
for any such matter, entered the haven of Southampton,
took the town and spoiled the same, shamefully ill-
treated the women, burnt, killed, took captives, and
carried away rich spoils to their ships, and so again de-
parted into France. Further, as the king of England
had allied himself with the noblemen of the empire, and
had tiie friendly favour of the emperor, so the French
king made league and alliance with David the king of
Scots, and forthwith sent garrisons and bands into Scot-
land to keep play with the Englishmen. King Edward,
departing from Ma«helen, set forward his host toward
Heinault till they came to Cambray, and besieged it
with 40,000 men, while another company went to St.
A.D. 1327—1340.]
WAR CET"A'EEN EDWARD AND THE FRENCH KING.
205
; Quintin. But neither there, nor at Cambra}', nor else-
where, was any thing remarkable achievt-d. But the
summer being well spent, and the kiu'^' of Eugluid
I prevailing little in the siege of Cambray, being strong
in situation, and well defended with men and ammu-
nition, he brake up the siege, and marched further
into the heart of France. And afterwards '^without any
battle either given or taken) he returned with his army
to Gaunt.
The winter then drew on, and the king thought best
for a season to return to England with his army, giving
iover the wars till the next spring. When he came to
London, he was told of the great spoil the Frenchmen
had made at Southampton : he answered, " That within
one year he doubted not but they should be well paid
land recompensed." In the spring tlie king again pre-
i pared his army, and rigged his navy, purpos^ing to land
'in Flanders. But the archbishop of Canterbury, then
Herd chancellor, having understood that the French
J forces were upon the sea, watching for the king, gave
I him information of it, desiring him to go more strongly
lor else not to venture. But the king not crediting the
iarchbishop, and being angry with him, said, " That he
would go forward :" whereupon the bishop resigned the
cliancellorship, and removed himself from his council :
,then the king consulting farther with the Lord Morley
jhis admiral, and others, furnished himself with a greater
[force, and embarked ; so that a few days before mid-
'summer, he was upon the sea with a great fleet. The
French king, to stop his passage, had ready a great
'navy, well near to the number of twenty score sail, be-
ifore the town of Sluse ; and had made the Christopher
|of England (which the Frenchmen had captured at
Southampton) their admiral's ship ; betwixt which two
navies there was a long and terrible fight. But in the
end. the victory, by God's grace, fell to the king of
England, (in which fight he himself was personally en-
gaged). So that of the number of thirty thousand
Frenchmen, few or none escaped alive, and two hundred
sail of ships were taken, in one of which were found
four hundred dead bodies.
This victory being achieved, and the fame thereof
spreading abroad in England, it was not believed, till
letters came from the king to Prince Edward his son,
then at Waltham, directed to the bishops and prelates
of the realm : the effect of which letters here follows : —
" The bountiful benignity of God's great clemency
poured upon us of late, for your true certainty and re-
joicing, we thought good to intimate to you. It is not
unknown (we suppose) to you, and to oui other faith-
ful subjects, who also have been partakers with us of the
same, with what storms of boisterous wars of late we
jliave been tossed and shaken, as in the great ocean.
jBut although the rising surges of the sea are marvellous,
jyet more marvellous is the Lord above, who, turning the
itempest into a calm, in so great dangers, so mercifully
jhas respected us. For whereas we of late ordained our
passage upon urgent causes into Flanders ; the Lord
|Philip de Valois, our bitter enemy, understanding there-
jof, laid against us a mighty navy of ships, intending
jthereby either to take us, or at least to stop our voyage.
A\ hich voyage, if it had been staid, had been the cut-
ting off of all the great enterprises by us intended and
(taken in hand ; and, moreover, we ourselves had been
jbrought to a great confusion. But the God of mercies,
peeing us so distressed in such perils and dangers, hath
graciously, and beyond man's expectation, sent to us
great succour and strength of fighting soldiers, and a
prosperous wind after our own desires. By the means
and help of which, we set out of the haven into the seas,
where we soon perceived our enemies well appointed and
prepared with a main multitude to set upon us, upon
midsummer-day last past. Against whom, notwith-
standing, Christ our Lord and Saviour hath rendered to
|US the victory, through a strong and vehement conflict.
In w]ii<'h conflict, a mighty number of our enemies were
|destroyt;d, and well near all thtrir whole navy was taken;
jwith some loss al;,o ot our )art, but nothing in compari-
son to tlieics. By reasoa of wliicu we doubt not but
I our passage by the seas lierenfl'er shall be more quiet
and safe for our subjects, and also many other advan-
tages shall ensue, as we have good cause to hope well of
the same. For which cause we, devoutly considering
the heavenly grace so mercifully wrought upon us, do
render most humble thanks and praise to Christ our
Lord and Saviour, beseeching liim, that as he hath been
and always is, ready to anticijiate our necessities in time
of ojiportunity, so he will continue his helping hand ever
towards us, and so to direct us here temporally, that we
may reign and joy with him in heaven eternally. And
in like sort we recpiire your charity, that you also with
us rising up to the praise of God alone, who hath begun
so favourably to work with us to our goodness, in your
prayers and divine service do instantly recommend us to
the Lord, while we are travelling here in these foreign
countries, studying not only to recover our right here in
France, but also to advance the whole catholic church of
Christ, and to rule our people in justice. And also that
ye call upon the clergy and people, every one through
his diocese, to do the same, invocating the name of our
Saviour, that of his mercy he will give to us his humble
servant a docible heart, so to judge and rule hereupon
rightly, doing that which he hath commanded, that at
length we may attain to that which he hath promised,
&c." Which letter was written to the bishops and
prelates, A. D. 1340.
After this victory the king passing into Flanders,
came to Gaunt in Brabant, where he had left the queen,
who joyfully received him, being a little before delivered
of her fourth son, whose name was John, commonly
called John of Gaunt, who was earl of Richmond and
duke of Lancaster. At Villenorth the king assembled
his council, whereat the noblemen of Flanders, Brabj^nt,
and Heinault, joining together in most firm league, tne
one to help and defend the other, with the king of Eng-
land, against the French king, purposing and determin-
ing from thence to march toward Tournay to besiege it.
The French king, understanding their counsel, fortified
and victualled the same before their coming thither.
Furthermore to stop King Edward, he sent with King David
of Scotland a great army, to make invasion in England,
thereby the sooner to cause the king to remove his
siege.
This David (with the aid of the Scots and Frenchmen)
so much succeeded, that they recovered almost all Scot-
land. Then they invaded England, and came with their
army, wasting and burning the country before them, till
they came as far as Durham, and then returned again
into Scotland, where they recovered all their holds again,
saving the town of Berwick. Edinburgh they took
by a stratagem or subtile device practised by Douglas, and
others: who ap])arelling themselves in poor men's habits,
as victuallers with corn and provender, and other things,
demanded of tlie porter early in the morning whether
they had need thereof? Who nothing mistrusting,
opened the outward gate, where they should tarry till
the captain rose : and perceiving the porter to have the
keys of the inward gate, they threw down their sacks in
the outward gate, that it might not be shut again, and
slew the porter, taking from him the keys of the town.
Then they blew their horns as a warning to their bands,
who laid not far off : and they coming quickly, and find-
ing the gates ready opened, entered upon the sudden, and
killed as many as resisted them, and so obtained the city
of Edinburgh.
At the same time the French king gathered together
an army, purposing to raise the siege of Tournay : and
among others sent for the king of Scots, wlio caii\e
to him with a great force, besides other nobLmen
of France : so that the French king had a gre^t army,
and thought himself able enough to raise the siciie.
But for all this, he durst not yet approach the king
of England so near, as to give him battle, but ktpt
himself with his army aloof, in a sure place ibr his
better defence. And although the king of Englai.d
wasted, burnt, spoiled, and destroyed the c.rintry. t'.veii'y
rniles about Tournay, and took many strons; towns and
holds, and slew above three huiidrcd men of anus, i:ud
206
LETTER OF THE KING AND NOBLES OF ENGLAND TO THE POPE. [Book IV.
killed of noblemen, the Lord of Duskune, of Mauris-
Ifou, of Rely, of Chastillion, of Melly, of Fenis, of Ham-
elar, Mountfaucon, and other barons, to the number of
fourteen ; and also slew and killed above one hundred
and tliirty knights, being all men of great possessions
and prowess, and took other small cities and towns to
the number of three hundred : yet for all this, the French
king durst neither rescue his towns nor relieve his own
men: but of his great army he lost (which is to be mar-
velled at, being in the midst of his own country) by fa-
taine and other inconveniencies, and for want of water,
more than twenty thousand men without fighting any battle.
Whereupon at the entreaty of Philip by his ambassadors
to the king, and by the mediation of the Lady Jane,
sister to Philip, and mother to the earl of Heinault, whose
daughter king Edward had married ; a truce for one year
was concluded.
As soon as this truce was finished. King Edward brake
up his camp, removing his siege from Touruay, and came
again to Gaunt. From whence (very early in the morning)
he with a small company took shipping, and came by sea
to the tower of London, very few or none having been
aware of it. And being greatly displeased with some of
his council and high officers (for through their default he
was constrained against his will, not having money to
maintain his wars, to condescend to the truce) he com-
manded the Lord John Stonehore chief justice of Eng-
land, and Sir John Poultney, with divers others, to be
apprehended and brought to him to the Tower. And the
next morning he sent for the bishop of Chichester, and
the Lord Wake, the lord treasurer, and others that were
in authority and office, and commanded them all to be
kept as prisoners in the Tower, the bishop only ex-
cepted.
The history treating of this matter reports, that the
king had at this time under him evil substitutes, and
covetous officers : who attending more to their own gain
than to the public honour and commodity of the realm,
left the king destitute and naked of money. With which
crime also John Stratford then archbishop of Canter-
bury was suspected.
About the year A. D. 1341, there were sent from the
pope two cardinals to treat with King Edward for three
years truce more, to be concluded with the French king,
besides the former truce taken before for one year, and
all by the pope's means. For here is to be understood,
that it was not for the pope's purpose to have the king of
England to reigu over so many countries.
The next year, which was A. D. 1342, the emperor,
■who before had shewed great courtesy to King Edward
in his first voyage, insomuch that he made him his vicar
or vicegerent-general, and offered him also aid against
the French king; now (either turned by inconstancy,
or seduced by the pope) writes to him contrary letters,
wherein he revokes the vicegerentship granted to him,
and befriends the French king.
In the mean time Pope Benedict XII. died ; after whom
succeeded Pope Clement VI. Of whom it is reported,
that he was very liberal and bountiful to his cardinals,
enriching them with goods and possessions not of his own
however, but with the ecclesiastical dignities and prefer-
ments of the church of England. But the king being
offended therewith, made void and frustrated all those
provisions of the pope ; charging and commanding
that no person whatever should busy himself with any
such provisions, under pain of imprisonment and losing
his life, (A. D. 1344.)
Pope Clement began to make new provisions for two of
his cardinals of the benefices and churches that should
be next vacant, besides bishopricks and abbotships, to
the extent of two thousand marks. And the proctors
of the cardinals were sent down for them. But the king
and nobility of the realm not suffering such proceed-
ings under pain of imprisonment, caused the proctors
forthwith to leave the realm, and the nobles and commons
shortly after wrote a fruitful epistle to the pope, for the
liberties and maintenance of the English church, which
the pope and the cardinals were not able to answer. The
argument of which letter is as follows :
The letter of the king of England, and the nobles of the
same, to the pope, against the reservations and provi-
sioTis which he had in England.
" To the most holy father in God, Lord Clement, by
the grace of God, of the holy church of Rome, and of
the universal church, chief and high bishop ; his humble
and devout children, the princes, dukes, earls, barons,
knights, citizens, burgesses, and all the commonalty of
the realm of England, assembled at the parliament
holden at Westminster the fifteenth day of May last
past ; send devout kissings of his holy feet, with all
humble reverence and humility. Most holy father, the
holy discretion, government and equity, which appears
to be in you, and ought of duty to be so, (being so high
and holy a prelate, and head of the holy church), by
whom the holy universal church and people of God
ought to be as by the sun-beams enlightened, gives us
good hope and likelihood, that the just petitions (to the
honour of Jesus Christ and holy church, and vour holi-
ness also) by us declared, shall be by you graciously
heard and considered ; and that all errors and other
iniquities should be quite taken away and removed ;
instead whereof, fruitful exploits and necessary remedies
(by the grace of the Holy Spirit which you in so high an
estate have received) may be by you likewise graciously
ordained and disposed. Wherefore most holy father we
aU (upon great deliberation and common assent) come
unto your holiness, shewing and declaring that the noble
kings of England, our progenitors, our ancestors, and
we, according to the grace of the Holy Spirit to them and
us given, every one according to his devotion, have
established, founded, and endowed within the realm of
England, churches, cathedrals, colleges, abbeys, priories,
and other houses of religion ; and to the prelates and go-
vernors of the same places have given lands, possessions,
patrimonies , franchises , advowsons, and patronages of dig-
nities, revenues, offices, churches, with many other bene-
fices ; whereby the service of God and the faith of
Christ might have been honoured and had in reverence,
that the hospitals and alms-houses that are made, with
all the churches and edifices, might be honestly kept and
maintained, and that devout prayers might in those
places be made for the founders, and the poor pa-
rishioners aided and comforted. And such only ought to
have the cure thereof, as are able to hear confessions ;
and in their own natural tongue are otherwise meet to
inform and teach their parishioners. And forsomuch as
(most holy father) you cannot well come to the notice of
divers such errors and defaults, neither yet understand
the conditions of the places, being so far off, unless your
holiness be informed and advertised ; we having the per-
fect intelligence and understanding of the said errors
and defaults of the places, within the realm, have thought
meet to signify the same unto your holiness : that divers
reservations, provisions, and collations by your prede-
cessors apostolic of Rome, and by you, most holy
father, in your time, have been granted, and that more
largely than they have been accustomed to be, to divers
persons as well as strangers, and of sundry nations, as
to some such as are our enemies having no understand-
ing at all of the tongue and condition of them, of whom
they have the government and cure. Whereby a great
number of souls are in peril, — a great many of their
parishioners in danger, — the service of God destroyed, —
the alms and devotion of all men diminished, — the hos-
pitals perished, — the churches with their appurtenances
decayed, — charity withdrawn, — the good and honest
persons of our realm unadvanced, — the charge and
government of souls not regarded, — the devotion of the
peo])le restrained, — many poor scholars unpreferred, —
and the treasure of the realm carried out against the
minds and intents of the founders. All which errors,
defaults and slanders, most holy father, we neither can
nor ought to suffer or endure. We therefore most
humbly require your holiness, that the slanders, errors
and defaults, which we have declared to you, may be
through your great discretion considered ; and that it
may please you that such reservations, provisions, and
collations may be utterly annulled, that from henceforth
1
A. D. 1340—1346.] TRUCE BETWEEN THE KINGS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
207
the same be no more used among us ; and to take such
order and remedy therein, that the benefices, edifices,
rights, with their appurtenances, may be to the honour
of God, occupied, defended, and governed by our own
countrymen. And that it may further please your holi-
ness by your letters to signify to us, without delay, what
your pleasure is touching this our lawful request ; that
we may do our endeavour with diligence herein for the
remedy, correction, and amendment of those enormities
above specified. In witness whereof, unto these letters
patent we have set our seals. Given in the full par-
liament at Westminster, the eighteenth day of May,
A. D. 1343."
The king shortly after sent over his proctors, the
Earl of Lancaster and Derby, Hugh Spenser, Lord
Ralph Stafford, with ihe bishop of Exeter, and others, to
the pope's court, to discuss and plead about the right of
his title before the pope. To whom Pope Clement VI.,
not long after sent down this message ; how that Lewis,
Duke of Bavaria the emperor, whom the pojie had before
deposed, had submitted himself to him in all things ;
and therefore deserved at his hands the benefit of abso-
lution ; and how the pope had conferred and restored to
him justly and graciously the empire, which he before
held unjustly, &c. Which message when the king
heard, being moved to anger, he answered again, saying,
*' That if the pope also agreed and compounded with the
French king, he was ready to fight with them both."
Within this year, pence, half-pence, and farthings,
began to be coined in the Tower. And the next year
following (which was A. D. 1344), the castle of Windsor
(where the king was born) began to be repaired ; and in
which the house called the round table was situate, the
diameter whereof, from the one side to the other, con-
tained two hundred feet : to the expenses of which
house there was allowed weekly an hundred pounds for
the maintaining of the king's chivalry, till at length by
the occasion of the French wars, it came down to nine
pounds a week.
During the same year the clergy of England granted
to the king tenths for three years ; for which the king
in recompence granted to them his charter, containing
these privileges : that no archbishop nor bishop should
be arraigned before his justices, if the said clergyman do
submit and claim his right as a clergyman, professing
himself to be a member of holy church ; who doing so,
shall not be bound to come before the justices. And if
it shall be laid to their charge that they have married
two wives, or have married a widow, the justices shall
have no power to proceed against them. But the cause
shall be reserved to the spiritual court, &c.
About this present time at the setting up of the round
table, the king made Prince Edward, his eldest son, the
first Prince of Wales. All this while the truce continued
between the two kings. Although it is thought that the
French king made many attempts to infringe it. Where-
upon Henry Earl of Lancaster, with six hundred men at
arms, and as many archers, was sent over to Gascony,
the year after, (A. D. 1345), who there so valiantly
behaved himself, that he subdued fifty-five townships to
the king, he took twenty three noblemen prisoners,
encountering with the French at Allebroke. So cour-
teously and liberally he dealt with the soldiers, that it
was a joy to them, and a preferment to fight under him.
His manner was in winning any town, to reserve little or
nothing to himself, but to divide the whole spoil to his
soldiers. One example in the author (whom I follow) is
mentioned ; how the earl at the winning of the town of
Briers, where he had granted to every soldier for his
booty the house with all its contents, which he should
obtain by victory ; among his other soldiers was one who
took a certain house which contained the mint and
coined money for that country ; when the soldier had
found it, in breaking up a house where the gross metal
was not yet perfectly wrought, he came to the earl,
declaring to him the treasure, to know what was his
pleasure therein. To whom the earl answered, " That
the house was his, and whatever he found therein."
Afterward the soldier, finding a whole mint of pure
silver ready coined, again informed the earl, as he
thought such treasure too great for his portion ; the earl
again answering, declared that " He had once given him
the whole house, and what he had once given, he would
not call back again, as children use to play." And
therefore bade him enjoy that which was granted to him ;
and if the money were thrice as much, it should be his
own. Which story, whether it was true or otherwise in
those days, 1 have not to affirm. But, if in these our
covetous, wretched days now present, any author should
report the like act to be practised, I would hardly believe
it to be true.
As the Earl of Lancaster was thus occupied in Gas-
cony, the Scots were as busy in England, wasting and
spoiling without mercy ; who were thought to be set on by
the French king. And therefore he was judged both by
that, and by other ways to have broken the covenants of
truce between him and the king of England.
Wherefore the next year (A. D. 1346) King Edward
first sending his letters to the court of Rome, and therein
complaining to the pope of Philip, how he transgressed
and broke the truce between them ; about the month of
July made his voyage into Normandy, in such a secret way,
that no man well knew whither he designed to go. First
he entered the town of Hogs, and from thence proceeded
to Cardoyne. Where, about the twenty-seventh of July,
by the river of Cardoyne, he fought a great battle with the
Normans and other Frenchmen, who to stop his passage,
defended the bridge. At the battle there were taken of
the lords of France, the Earl of Ewe, the Earl of Tan-
kerville ; and of knights with other men of arms, to the
number of one hundred; of footmen six hundred; and the
town and suburbs beaten down to the hard walls. And all
that could be borne away, was transported to the ships.
A little before, mention was made how the French
king began first to infringe the truce, and how the Earl of
Lancaster on that account, was sent unto Gascony. It
appears that the French king (contrary to the form of
truce taken at Vanes) had seized some of the nobles of
England, and had brought them to Paris to be im-
prisoned and put to death ; besides other slaughters and
spoilings made in Brittany, Gascony, and other places.
King Edward therefore seeing the truce broken on the
French king's part, A. D. 1345, the fourteenth of the
month of June, published and sent abroad his letters
of defiance.
Now concerning the campaign of the king, with his
achievements from the winning of Codane or Car-
doyne, to the town of Poissy, all is sufficiently described
by one of the king's chaplains and his confessor ; who
being a Dominican Friar, and accompanying the king
through all his journey, writes as follows :
" We have great cause to praise and laud the God of
Heaven, and to confess his holy name, wlio has wrought
mercy to us. For after the conflict at Codane, in which
many were slain, and the city taken and sacked even to
the bare walls, the city of Baia immediately yielded, fear-
ing lest their counsels had been betrayed. After this the
lord our king directed his progress toward Rouen. And
while at the town of Lexon, there came certain cardinals
to him, greatly exhorting him to peace. The cardinals
being courteously entertained by the king from reverence
to the pope's see, it was answered them ; that the king
being desirous of peace, had tried by all reasonable ways
and means how to maintain it, and therefore had offered
conditions of peace to the no small prejudice of his own
cause. And he is yet ready to admit any reasonable offer
of peace. With this answer the cardinals going to the
French king, to persuade him in like manner, returned
to King Edward again, offering to him in tlie French
king's name, the dukedom of Aquitaine, besides the hope
also of obtaining more, if treaty of peace might be obtained.
But for so much as that did not content the king, and as
the cardinals did not find the French king so tractable
and desirous of peace as they looked for, they returned,
leaving the matter as they found it. So the king hasten-
ing forward, subdued the country and the great towns,
without any resistance of the inhabitants, who all fled and
ran away. Such fear God struck into them, that it seem-
208
EDWARD'S CONFESSOR DESCRIBES THE KING'S PROGRESS IN FRANCE. [Book IY.
cd as if they had lost their hearts. As the king had got-
ten many towns and villages, so he also subdued many
strong castU-s, and that with little difficulty. His
enemy being at the same time at Rouen had reared a
great army, yet he ever kej)! on tlie other side of the ri-
ver Suine, bniuking down all the bridges that we should
not come over to him. And althoui;h the country round
about was spoiled, sacked, and consumed with tire lor a
circuit of twenty miles ; yet the French king, being dis-
tant scarcely the space of one mile from us, either would
not, or else dared not (when he might easily have passed
over the river) make any defence of his country and peo-
ple. And so our king journeying forward, came to Pu-
siake or Poissy, where the French king had also broken
down the bridge, and kept on the other side of the
river."
After coming to Poissy, this cliajilain and confessor to
the king, named Michael Northburgh, describes the
king's progress, and the acts of the English from the
town of Poissy, to his coming to Calais as follows : —
A Letter of William Northburgh the King's Confessor,
descriOing the King's Progress into France.
" Salutations premised, we give you to understand,
that our sovereign lord the king came to the town of
Poissy, the day before the assumption of our lady, where
was a bridge over the Seine, broken down by the enemy,
but the king waited there, till the bridge was again made.
And while the bridge was repairing, there came a great
number of men-at-arms, and other soldiers, to hinder the
works. But the earl of Northampton issued out against
them and slew more than one tliousand ; the rest fled
away, thanks be to God. At another time our men
passed the water, although with much difficulty, and slew
a great number of the common soldiers about the city of
Paris, and adjoining country ; so that our people now
made other good bridges, God be thanked, without any
great loss or damage to us. On the morrow after the
assumption of our lady, the king passed the river
Seine and marched toward Poissy, a town of great defence
and strongly immured, and a very strong castle within it.
When our vanguard was passed the town, our rear-guard
gave an assault and captured it, there were slain more
than three hundred men-at-arms of our enemies. The
next day, the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Hugh Spenser
mardied forth upon the commons of the country assem.
bled and w^U armed, and discomtited them, and slew
more tiian two hundred, and took six hundred gentlemen
prisoners, beside others. After that, the king marched
toward Grand V^illers, and while he was encamped there,
the vaiiguard was descried by the mea-of-arras of the
king of Bohemia ; whereupon our men issued out in great
haste, and joined battle with them, but were forced to
retire. But thanks be unto God, the earl of Northamp-
ton issued out, and rescued the horsemen with other sol-
diers ; so that few or none of them were either taken or
siain, (except oniy Thomas Talbot,) but had the enemy in
chase within two leagues of Amiens, of whom we took
eight, and slewtwelve of their best men-at-arms ; the rest
being well horsed, reached the town of Amiens. After
this, tiis king of England marched toward Pountife upon
Bartliolome.v d ly, and came to the water of Somme where
theFrenchkinjrli id laid five hundred men-at-arms, and three
thousand footin-.ui, purjiosing to have stopped our passage,
but thanks be to God, the king of EiigUuul and his host
entered the w iti'r of Somme, without the loss of any of
our men. After that he encountered with the enemy, and
slew more than two thousand of thein ; the rest fled to
Abbeville, in which chase there were taken many knights,
squires, and men-at-arms. The same day Sir Hugh
Spenser took tiie town of Croylay, where he and his sol-
diers slew four hundred men-at-arms, and kept the town,
where they found great store of victuals. The same night
the king of England encamped in the forest of Cressy
upon the same water, for the French king's host came on
the other side of the town near to our passage ; and so
marched toward Abbeville. And upon the Friday follow-
ing, the king being still encamped in the forest, our
scouts descried the French king, marching toward us in
four great divisions. And having then information of our
enemies, a little before the evening we drew to the plain
field, and set our forces in array ; and immediately the
light began, it was sore, cruel, and long, for our enemies
behaved themselves right nobly. But thanks be given to
God, the victory fell on our side, and our adversaiy was
discomtited with all his host, and put to Hight : there
was slain the king of Bohemia, the duke of Lorraiii, the
earl of Dabeson.the carl of Flanders, the earl of Blois, the
earl of Arcot, with his two sons, the earl of Damerler,
the earl of Navers, and his cr -..her, the lord of Tronard,
the archbishop of Meymes, the archbishop of Saundes,
the high prior of France, the earl of Savoy, the lord of
Morles, the lord de Guis, seignior de St. Novant, seig-
nior (le Rosinburgh, with six earls of Germany and
other earls, barons, knights and squires, whose names
are unknown. Philip (the French king) himself, with
another marquess, who was called Lord Elector among
the Romans, escaped from the battle. The number of the
men-at-arms found dead in the field, besides the common
soldiers and footmen, were one thousand five hundred and
forty-two. And all that night the king of England with
his host, remained armed in the field where the battle was
fought. On the next morrow before the sun rose, there
marched toward us another great army, mighty and strong.
But the earl of Northampton, and the earl of Norfolk is-
sued out against them in three divisions ; and after a long
and terrible fight, they discomfited them by God's great
help and grace (for otherwise it could never have been)
where they took of knights and squires a great number,
and slew above two thousand, pursuing the chase three
leagues from the place where the battle was fought. The
same night the king encamped again in the forest of Cres-
sy, and on the morrow marched toward Boulogne, and
by the way took the town of Staples ; and from thence
he marched toward Calais, which he intends to besiege.
And therefore our sovereign lord the king commands
you, to send to the siege, convenient supplies of victuals.
For after the time of our departing from Chaam, we have
travelled through the country, with great peril and dan-
ger of our people, but yet always had plenty of victuals,
thanks be to God. But now as the case stands, we need
your help to be refreshed with victuals. Thus fare you
well. Written at the siege before the town of Calais the
14th day of September."
After the siege and winning of Poissy, the third day of
September A.D. \MG, the king through the mid.>t of
France, directed his course to Calais, and besiegid it ;
which siege he continued from the 3rdofSeptember,till the
3rd of August next ensuing, upon which day it was sur-
rendered and subdued to the crown of England.
After thus winning Calais, King Eward, remaining in
the town, was in consultation concerning his proceeding
further into France. But by means of the cardinals, a
truce for a time was accejited, and instruments made
that certain noblemen as well for the French king, as for
the king of England, should come to the pope, there to
debate upon the articles. To which King Edward, for
peace sake, was not much oi:i)osed (A. D. 1.'517).
In A. D. i;5.";0, the town of Calais was, by the trea-
son of the keeper of the castle, almost betrayed and won
from the Englishmen. And within the same year Philip
the French king died. After whom King John his son,
succeeded to the crown.
About A. D. l.''.')l, concord and agreement began to
come well forward, and instruments were drawn upon
the same between the two kings. But the matter being
brought up to Pope Innocent VI., partly by the quar-
relling of the Frenchmen, partly by the winking of the
pope, who ever held with the French side, the condi-
tions were repealed, which were these : that to the king
of England all the d\ikedom of Aquitaine with other
lands there, should be restored without homage to the
French king. And that King Edward again should sur-
render to him all his right and title, which he had in
France ; whereupon rose the occasion of great war and
tumult which followed after between the two realms.
It followed after this, (A. D. 1355,) that King Ed-
A.D. 1346—1350.]
REMONSTRANCES AGAINST THE POPE'S USURPATION.
209
ward hearing of the death of Philip the French king,
and that King John his son had granted the dukedom
of Aquitaine to Charles his eldest son and dauphin of
Vienna, sent over Prince Edward with the earls of
Warwick, of Salisbury, of Oxford, and with them a suf-
ficient number of able soldiers into Aquitaine. Where
he being willingly received by some, he subdued the rest,
partly by force of sword, partly by their submitting
themselves to his protection.
Not long after this, in the same year, word was
brought to King Edward, that John, the French king,
was ready to meet him at St. Omers, there to give him
battle, so he gathered his forces, and set over to Calais
with his two sons, Lionel earl of Wilton, and John of
Gaunt earl of Richmond, with Henry duke of Lan-
caster, &c. When Edward was come to St. Omers,
the French king with a mighty army, heard of his
coming, but the nearer he approached to them, the fur-
ther they retired back ; wasting and destroying behind
them, so that the English army in pursuing them, might
find no provisions. By which, King Edward following
him for the space of nine or ten days to Hadem (when
he could find neither his enemy to tight, nor provisions
for his army) returned to Calais. King Edward, seeing
the shrinking of his enemy, crossed the seas into Eng-
land, where he recovered again the town of Berwick,
which the Scots before by subtlety had gotten.
The same year, when King Edward had recovered
Berwick, and subdued Scotland, Prince Edward being
in Gascony, made toward the French king. The victo-
rious prince made way with his sword, and after much
slaughter of the French, and many prisoners taken, he
at length came up with the French king at Poictiers, and
with scarcely two thousand men, overthrew the French
with seven thousand men of arms and more. In which
conflict, the French king himself, and Philip his son,
with Lord James of Bourbon, the archbishop of Senon,
eleven earls, and twenty-two lords were taken. Of other
warriors and men of arms two thousand. Some affirm,
that in this conflict there were slain two dukes, of lords and
noblemen twenty-four, of men of arms two thousand and
two ; of other soldiers about eight thousand. The com-
mon report is, that more Frenchmen were there taken
prisoners, than the whole English army which took
them. This noble victory gotten by the grace of God,
excited no little admiration among all men.
It were too long, and little pertaining to the purpose
of this history, to comprehend in order all the doings of
this king, with the circumstances of his victories, of the
bringing in of the French king into England, of his
abode there, of the ransom levied on him, and of David
the Scotish king ; of which, the one was rated at one
million of pounds, the other at an hundred thousand
marks, to be paid in ten years.
Thus having treated of all martial affairs and warlike
exploits in the reign of this king between him atid the
realms of France and Scotland : now, to return to our
ecclesiastical matters, it follows to notify the troubles
and contentions growing between the king and the pope,
and other ecclesiastical persons in matters touching the
church, taken out of the records in the Tower. In the
fourth year of his reign, tlie king wrote to the archbishop
of Canterbury to this effect: that whereas King Ed-
ward I. his grandfather, gave to his chaplain, the dignity
of treasurer of York, (the archbishoprick of York being
then vacant and in the king's hands,) in the quiet pos-
session of which the chaplain continued, until the pope
would have displaced him, and promoted a cardinal of
Rome to that dignity, the king therefore straitly charges
the archbishop of York not to suffer any matter to pass,
that may be prejudicial to the donation of his grand-
father, upon pain of his highness's displeasure.
The like precepts were also directed to these bishops
following: to the bishop of Lincoln, bishop of Worcester,
bishop of Sarum, archdeacon of Richmond, archdeacon
of Lincoln, the prior of Lewen, the prior of Lenton, to
Master Rich of Bentworth, to Master Iherico de Con-
core, to the pope's nuncio, to Master Guido of Calma.
And he wrote letters to the pope consisting of three
parts. First, in the declaration and defence of bis right
and title to the donation and gift of all manner of tempo-
rnlties, of offices, prebends, benefices and dignities
ecclesiastical, held of him in capite, as in the right of
his crown of England. Secondly, in expostulatinj; witli
the pope for intruding himself into the ancient right of
the crown of England, intermeddling with such colla-
tions, contrary to right and reason, and the example of
all his predecessors. Thirdly, intreating him that he
would henceforth abstain and desist from molesting the
realm with such novelties and strange usurpations ; and
so much the more, because in the parliament lately held
at Westminster, it was agreed by the universal assent of
all the estates of the realm, that the king should stand
to the defence of all such rights and jurisdictions as to
his regal dignity and crown any way appertained.
The tenth year of his reign he wrote also to the pope
to this effect : that whereas the prior and chapter of
Norwich nominated a clerk to be bishop of Norwich,
and sent him to Rome for his investiture, without the
king's knowledge ; therefore the pope would withdraw
his consent, and not intermeddle in the matter apper-
taining to the king's peculiar jurisdiction and preroga-
tive.
After this, in the sixteenth year of this king, it hap-
pened that the pope sent over legates to hear and deter-
mine matters ajipertaining to the right of patronages of
benefices ; the king perceiving this to tend to the no
small derogation of his right, and the liberties of his
subjects, writes to the said legates, admonishing and re-
quiring them not to proceed therein, nor attempt any
thing unadvisedly, otherwise than might stand with the
lawful ordinances and customs of the laws of his realm,
and the freedom and liberties of his subjects.
The year following, which was the seventeenth of his
reign, he wrote another letter to the pope, against his
provisions and reservations of benefices.
The year following, another letter likewise was sent
by the king to the pope, upon occasion taken of the
church of Norwich, requiring him to cease his reserva-
tions and provisions of the bishoprics within the realm,
and to leave the elections thereof free to the chapters of
such cathedral churches, according to the ancient grants
and ordinances of his noble progenitors.
Proceeding now to the nineteeth year of this king's
reign, there came to the king certain legates from Roma,
complaining of certain statutes passed in his parliament,
tending to the prejudice of the church of Rome, and the
pope's primacy, viz., that if abbots, priors, or any other
ecclesiastical patrons of benefices should nut present
to the benefices within a certain time, the laj)se should
come to the ordinary or chapter thereof, or if they did
not present, then to the archbishop, if the archbishop
likewise did fail to present, then the gift to pertain not
to the lord pope, but to the king and his heirs. Another
complaint also was this, that if archbishops should be
slow ill giving such benefices as properly pertained to
their own patronage in due time, then the collation
thereof likewise should ajipertain to the king and his
heirs. Another complaint was, that if the pope should
make void any elections in the church of England for
any defect found therein, and so had placed some honest
and discreet persons in the same, that then the king and
his heirs was not bound to render the temporalties to the
parties placed by the pope's provision. Whereupon, the
pope being not a little aggrieved, the king wrote to liim,
certifying that he was misinformed, denying that there
was any such statute made in that parliament. And
further, as touching all other things, he would confer
with his prelates and nobles, and would return answer
by his legates.
In the twentieth year of his reign, another letter was
written to the pope by the king, the effect whereof was
this : "That in respect of his great charges sustained in
his wars, he had by the counsel of his nobles, taken into
his own hands the fruits and profits of all his benefices
in England."
To proceed in the order of years, in the twenty-sixth
year of this king, one Nicholas Heath, clerk, a busy-
headed body, and a troubler of the realm, had procured
some bishops, and others of the king's council to bo
r2
210
SUNDRY EMINENT WRITERS AGAINST THE POPE.
[Book IV.
cited up to the court ^f Rome, there to answer such
complaints as he had made against them. Whereupon
commandment was given by the king to all the ports of
the reahn for the restraint of all passengers out, aud for
searching aud arresting all persons bringing in any bulls
or other process from Rome, tending to the derogation
of the dignity of the crown, or molestation of the
subjects.
The same year the king wrote also to the pope's le-
gate resident in England, requiring him to cease from
exacting divt-rs sums of money of the clergy, in the name
of hrst fiuits of benetices.
The tiiirty-eighth year of his reign an ordinance was
made by the king and his councd, and proclaimed in all
poi t towns within the realm, — " Tliat good and diligent
search should be made, that no person whatsoever com-
ing from the court of Rome, ike, do bring into the
reahn with him any bull, instrument, letters patent, or
other jjiocess that may be prejudicial to the king, or any
of his subjects ; or that any person, passing out of this
realm toward the court of Rome, do carry with him any
instrunieut or process that may redound to the prejudice
c f tiiC king or his subjects ; and that all persons passing
to the said court of Rome, with the king's special license,
do, notwithstanding, promise and find surety to the lord
chancellor, that they shall not in any wise attempt or pur-
sue any matter to the prejudice of the king or his subjects,
under pain to be put out of the king's protection, and to
forfeit his body, goods, and chattels, according to the sta-
tute made in the twenty- seventli year of his reign."
And thus much concerning the letters and writings of
the king, with such other domestic matters and troubles
as passed between him and the pope, taken out of the
public records of the realm, wlierebj' I thought to give
the reader to understand the horrible abuses, the into-
lerable pride, and the insatiable avarice of tliat bishop,
more like a proud Lucifer than a pastor of the church of
Christ, in abusing the king, and oppressing his subjects
with immeasurable exactions ; and not only exercising
liis tyranny in this realm, but raging also against other
princes, both far and near, amongst wliom he didnotspare,
even the emperor himself. In the history of the Em-
peror Lewis, whom the pope excommunicated upon
Maundaj Thursday, and the same day placed another
emperor in his room, mention was made of certain
learned men, who took the emperor's part against tlie
pope. In number of whom was Marsilius of Padua,
William Ockam, John of Ganduno, Leopold, Andrew
Landensis, Ulric Hangenor, treasurer of the emperor,
Dante, Aligerius, &c. Of whom Marsilius compiled a
worthy work entitled ' Defensor Pacis,' written in the
emperor's behalf against the pope. Wherein (both
godly and learnedly disputing against the pope) he
proves all bishops and priests to be equal, and tliat the
pope has no superiority above other bishops, much less
above the emperor. That the word of God ought to be
the only chief judge in deciding and determining causes
ecclesiastical ; that not only spiritual persons, but laymen
also being godly and learned, ought to be admitted unto
general councils ; that the clergy and the pope ought to
be subject to magistrates ; that the church is the uni-
versity of the faithful, and that the foundation and head
of the church is Christ, and that he never appointed any
vicar or pope over his universal church; that bishops ought
to be chosen every one by their own church and clergy ;
that the marriage of priests may lawfully be permit-
ted ; that St. Peter was never at Rome ; that
the clergy and synagogue of the pope is a den of
thieves ; that the doctrine of the pope is not to be fol-
lowed, because it leads to destruction ; and that the
corrupt manners of the christians do sj)ring and flow out
of the wickedness of the spiritualty, lie disputes more-
over in another work of free justification by grace, aud
extenuated merits, saying that they are no efficient
causes of our salvation, that this is to say, that works are
I'D cause of our justification, but yet our justification
goes not witnout them. For which doctrine, most sound
and catholic, he was condemned by the pope, A. D.
I'.i'H, (by the pope's decree Extravagant, cop. Licet
inter doctrinam.) Concerning which man and his doc-
trine, I thought good to commit thus much to history,
to the intent men may see that they which charge this
doctrine now taught in the church, with the note of no-
velty or newness, are ignorant of the histories of past times.
In the same number and catalogue comes also Ockam,
(A. D. 1326), and who wrote likewise in defence
of the emperor against the pope ; and also in defence of
Michael, general of the Grayfriars, whom the pope had
excommunicated and cursed for a heretic. Several trea-
tises were set forth by Ockam, of which some are extant
and in print, some are extinct and suppressed. Some
again are not published under the name of the author, as
the dialogue between the soldier and the clerk, wherein it
is to be conjectured, what books and works this Ockam
had collected against the pope. Of this Ockam, John
Sleidan in his history makes mention, to his great
commendation ; his words are these : " William Ock-
am, in tlie time of the Emperor Lewis IV., flourished
about A. D. 1326, who, among other things, wrote
of the authority of the bishop of Rome. In which book
he handles these eight questions very copiously : whether
both the administrations of the bishop's office, and of the
emperor's, may be in one man ? Secondly, whether the
emperor takes his power and authority only from God,
or else from the pope ? Thirdly, whether the pope and
church of Rome have power by Christ to set and j)lace
kings and emperors, and to commit to them their juris-
diction .' Fourthly, whether the emperor being elected, \
has full authority ui)on his election, to administer »
his empire ? Fifthly, whether other kings besideg i
the emperor and the king of the Romans, in that
they are consecrated by priests, receive of them any part
of their power ? Sixthly, whether the kings in any case
be subject to their consecrators ? Seventhly, wliethei
if the kings should admit any new sacrifice, or should
take to themselves the diadem without any further con •
secration, they should thereby lose their kingly right,
and title ? Eightlily, whether the seven princes elec-
tors give as much to the election of the emperor, as suc-
cession rightfully gives to other kings .'' Upon these
questions he disj)utes and argues with many arguments
and various reasons on both sides, at length he decides
the matter on the part of the civil magistrate ; and by oc-
casion thereof enters into the mention of the ])ope's
" Decrees extravagant," declaring how little force or
regard is to be given thereto."
Trithemius makes mention of one Gregory of I
Arimini, a learned and a famous and right godly man, who, ■
not much differing from the age of this Ockam, (about ''
A. D. 1.350), disputed in the same doctrine of grace and
free will as we do now, and dissented therein from the pa-
pists and sophisters, counting them worse than Pelagians.
And what should I speak of the duke of Bungundy,
named Eudo, who, at the same time (A. D. 1350), per-
suaded the French king not to receive in his land the new
found constitutions, decretal and extravagant, nor to
suffer them within his realm, whose sage counsel then
given, yet remains among the'French king's records ?
Dante, an Italian writer, a Florentine, lived in the
time of Lewis the emperor, (about A. D. 1300), and
took part with Marsilius against three sorts of men, who
he said were enemies to the truth, that is, the jiope;
secondly, the order of monks and friars, who count
themselves the children of the church, when they are
the children of the devil their father ; thirdly, the doc-
tors of decrees and decretals. Certain of his writings
are still extant, wherein he proves the pope not to be
above the emperor, nor to have any right or jurisdiction
in the empire. He proves the donation of Constantine
to be a forged and a feigned thing, for which he was
thought by many to be an heretic. He comj)lains very
much, that the preaching of God's word was omitted,
and instead of it, the vain fables cf monks and friars
were j)reached and believed by the people, and so the
flock of Christ was fed not with the food of the gospel,
but with wind. " The pope," saith he, " of a pastor is
mad" a wolf, to waste the church of Christ, and to pro-
cure with his clergy, not the word of God to be preached,
but his own decrees." In his canticle of purgatory, be
declares the pope to be the whore of Babylon.
A. D. 1 ',50— ir.GO.] WRITERS AGAINST THE POPE, — SUCCESSION OF ARCHBISHOPS. 211
Here miy be added the saying out of the book of
Joi-.iauc!, imprinted with Dante ; that, forsomuch as
antichrist comes not before the destruction of the empire,
therefore such as strive to have the empire extinct, are in
so doing forerunners and messengers of anticlirist.
{ " Tlierefore let the Romans," saith he, " and their bi-
shops beware, lest their sins and wickedness so deserv-
ing, by the just judgment of God, the priesthood be
1 taken from them. Furthermore, let all the prelates and
I princes of Germany take heed," &c.
< And because our adversaries who object to us the
i newness of our doctrine shall see and perceive the course
! and form of this religion now received, not to have been
I either such a new thing now, or a thing so strange in
j times past ; I will add to these above recited, Master
I Taulerus, a preacher of Argentine in Germany (A. D.
1 lo50), who, contrary to the pope's proceedings, taught
I openly against all human merits, and against invocations
I of saints, and preached sincerely of our free justification
I by grace, referring all man's trust only to the mercy of
God, and was an enemy to all superstition.
\A'ith whom also may be joined Francis Petrarch, a
I writer of the same age, who, in his works and Italian
.verses, speaking of Rome, calls it " The whore of Ba-
bylon,— the school and mother of error, — the temple of
: heresy, — the nest of treachery, growing and increasing
iby the oppressing of others ;" and saith further, that
ishe extols herself against her founders, that is, the em-
iperors who first set her up, and did so enrich her, and
iseems plainly to affirm, that the pope was antichrist, de-
i daring that no greater evil could happen to any man,
ithan to be made pope. This Francis Petrarch was
iabout A. D. 1350.
About the year (A. D. 1340), iu the city of Her-
bipoli, was one named Master Conrad Hager, who,
(as appears by the old bulls and registers of Otho,
bishop of the city), is there recorded to have maintained
land taught for the space of twenty-four years together,
jthat the mass was no sacrifice ; and that it profits not
lany man, either quick or dead, and that the money given
|by the dying for masses, are very robberies and sacrileges
tof priests. He said too, that if he bad a store full of
jgold and silver, he would not give one farthing for any
mass. For this doctrine, this good preacher was con-
jdemned, and inclosed in prison ; but what afterward be-
jcame of him was never heard.
There is among other old and ancient records of
antiquity, belonging to this time, a certain monu-
ment in verses poetically compiled, but not without a
certain moral, intitled, " Poenitentiarius Asini," i. e.
The Asses' Confessor ; bearing the date and year A. D.
1343. In this treatise are brought forth the wolf, the
|fox, and the ass, coming to confess, and doing penance.
(First, the wolf confesses to the fox, who easily absolves
Jiim from all his faults, and also excuses him in them.
|ln like manner the wolf, hearing the fox's confession,
jshowed to him the like favour in return. After this
comes the ass to confession, whose fault was this :
|that he being hungry took a straw out from the sheaf of
a man that went on a pilgrimage to Rome. The ass,
repenting of this act, and thinking it not so heinous as
the faults of the others, hoped the more for his absolu-
tion. But what followed .' After the silly ass had ut-
tered his crime in auricular confession, immediately the
discipline of the law was executed upon him with se-
verity ; neither was he judged worthy of any absolution,
but was apprehended upon the same, slain, and devour-
ed. Whoever was the author of this fabulous tale, he
hud a moral in it ; for by the wolf was meant the pope ;
but the fox represented the prelates, courtesans,
pricbts, and the rest of the spiritualty. By the spiritu-
alty the pope is soon absolved, as, in return, the pope
soon absolves them in like manner. By the ass is
meant the poor laity, upon whose back the strict cen-
sure of the law is executed ; especially when the German
rmperoi's come under the pope's inquisition, to be ex-
amined by his discipline, there is no absolution or par-
(loii to 1 e found, but in all haste he must be deposed, as
l!i t!i?se histories may partly aiipear before.
Not long alter this, (about A. D. 1^50), Gerhard
Riddler wrote against the monks and friars a book, in ■
titled, " Lacryma Ecclesise," wherein he disputes
against the order of the begging friars ; proving that
kind of life to be far from christian perfection, as being
against charity to live upon others, when a man may livd
by his own labour ; and affirms them to be liypocrites,
filthy livers, and such as for man's favour, and for lucre
sake, do mix with true divinity, fables, apocryphas, and
dreams of vanity. Also that, under pretence of long
prayer, they devour widows' houses, and with their con-
fessions, sermons, and burials, trouble the church of
Christ. And therefore he persuaded the prelates to
bridle and keep short the inordinate license and abuses
of these monastical persons, &c.
As yet I have made no mention of Michael Sesenas,
provincial of the Gray Friars, nor Peter de Corbaria, of
whom Antonine writes and says they were condemned
in the " Extravagant" of Pope John, with one John de
Poliaco. Their opinions, says Antonine, were these, —
That Peter the apostle was no more the head of the church
tlian the other apostles ; and that Christ left no vicar
behind him, or head of his church ; and that the pope
has no authority to correct and punish, to institute
or depose the emperor ; also, that all priests, of what
degree soever, are of equal authority, power, and juris-
diction, by the institution of Christ : but by the institu-
tion of the emperor, the pope may be superior, who, by
the same emperor also, may be revoked again. Also,
that neither the pope, nor yet the church, may punish
any man with bodily restraint or compulsion ; unless
they receive the license of the emperor. This Michael,
master of the Gray Friars, wrote against the tyranny,
pride, and primacy of the pope, accusing him to be an-
tichrist, and the church of Rome to be the whore of
Babylon, drunk with the blood of saints. He said there
were two churches, one of the wicked, which was
flourishing, wherein reigned the pope ; the other of the
godly, which was afflicted. Also, that the truth was
almost utterly extinct ; and for this cause he was de-
prived of his dignity, and condemned by the pope.
Notwithstanding, he stood constant in his assertions.
This Michael was about A. D. 1322. And he left
behind him many favourers and followers of his doc-
trine, of whom a great part were slain by the pope : some
were condemned, as William Ockam ; some were burned,
as John de Castilione, and Francis de Arcatara.
Much about this time the nuns of St. Bridget's order
began first. About this time also was built the Queen's
College, in (Jxford, by Queen Phillippa, of England,
wife to King Edward III. (about A. D. 1360.)
And here to make an end of this Fourth Book ; it now
remains to prosecute the race of the archbishops of Can-
terbury, contained in this Fourth Book, beginning,
whd-e we before left off, (page 108), at Lanfranc.
A Table of the Archbishops of Canterbury/, contained
in the Fourth. Book.
34. Lanfranc.
35. Anselm.
36. Radulph.
37. William Curboil.
38. Theobald.
3!). Thomas Becket.
40. Richard.
41. Baldwin.
42. Hubert.
43. Stephen Langton.
44. Richard Magnus.
45. Edmund, of Abingdon
46. Boniface.
47. Robert Kilwarby.
48. John Peckham.
49. Robert Winchelsey.
50. Walter Reynald.
51. John Stratford.
52. JohnOflord.
53. Thomas Braidwarden.
54. Simon Islip.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS,
BOOK V.
CONTAINING
THE LAST THREE HUNDRED YEARS, FROM THE LOOSING OUT OF SATAN.
Thus having discoursed in these former books the order
and course of years, from the first tying up of Satan to
A. D. i;^(JO, I have a little overpassed the limit of time
in the scripture, appointed for the loosing out of him
again. For so it is written by St. .John, (Rev. xx. li),
that after a thousand years, Satan, the old dragon, shall
be let loose again for a season, &c.
For the better explanation of which mystery, let us
first consider the context of the scripture : afterwards
let us examine by history, and course of times, the mean-
ing of the same. And first, to recite the words of
scripture, the text of the prophesy is this, (Rev.
XX. 1.)
" And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having
the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his
hand. And he laid hold on tlie dragon, that old serpent,
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the
nations no more till the thousand years should be ful-
filled : and after that he must be loosed a little season.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judi^-
ment was given unto them ; and I saw the souls of tlieiu
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus," &c.
By these words of the Revelation, here recited, three
special times are to be noted.
First, Satan's being abroad to deceive the world.
Secondly, The binding of him.
Thirdly, The loosing of him again, after a thousand
years, for a season.
Concerning tlie interpretation of which times, I see the
common opinion of many to be decfived by ignorance of
histories, and state of things done in the church; they
supposing that the chaining up of Satau for a thousand
years, spoken of in the Revehition, was meant from the
birth of Christ our Lord. Wlierein I grant that spi-
ritually, the strength and dominion of Satan, in accusing
and condemning us for sin, was cast down at tlie ])aiisi()u
and by the passion of Christ our Saviour, and locked up,
not only for a thousand years, hnt for ever. Although,
as to the malicious hatred and fury of that serpent,
against the outward bodies of Ciirist's poor saints, (which
is the heel of Chi-ist) to afflict and torment the church
outwardly ; that I judge to be meant in the Revelation
of St. John, not to be restrained till tiie ceasing of those
terrible persecutions of the primitive church, when it
pleased God to pity the sorrowfal affliction of his poor
flock, being so long under persecution, the space of three
hundred years , and so to assuage their griefs and torments :
which is meant by the binding up of Satan, the worker
of all those mischiefs : understanding thereby that as the
devil, the prince of this world, has now, by the death of
Christ the Son of God, lost all his power and interest
against the soul of man, he should turn his furious rage
and malice, which he had to Christ, against the people of
Christ, (which is meant by the heel of the seed, Gen. iii. lo.)
in tormenting their outward bodies. Which yet shoaid
not be for ever, but for a determinate time, as it
should please the Lord to bridle the malice, and snaffle
the power of the old serpent, and give rest to his church
for the term of a thousand years. Which time being
expired, the serpent shall be suffered loose again for a
certain or a small time.
And I am led by three reasons thus to expound this
prophetical passage of scripture :
The first is, that the binding up of Satan, and closing
him in the bottomless pit by the angel, imports as much
as that he was at liberty, raging and doing mischief
before. And certainly, those terrible and horrible ]ier-
secutions of the primitive time universally through the
whole world, during the space of three hundred years
of the church, do declare no less. Wherein it is to be
thought and sup])osed, that Satan all that time, was not
fastened and closed up.
The second reason, moving me to think that the closing
up of .Satan was after the ten persecutions of the jiriaii-
tive church, is taken out of the twelfth cha))ter of
Revelation; where we read, that after the woman,
(meaning the church) had travailed of her man-child;
tlie old dragon, the devil, the same time being cast down
from heaven, drawing the third part of tlie st trs with
him, stood before the woman with great anger, anil per-
secuted her (that is, the church of God), with a wlio'e
Hood of water, (that is, with abundance of all kinds i>f
torments), and from thence went moreover to iit;l;t
against the residue of her seed, and stood upon tiie
sands of the sea ; whereby it appears that he was not as
yet locked up.
The third reason I collect out of the thirteenth
chapter of Revelation ; wliere it is written of the beast, sig-
nifying the imperial monarchy of Rome, that he had
power to make war forty and two months. By which
months is meant, no doubt, the time that tlie dragon,
and the persecuting em])erors, should have in aflli(;ting
the saints of the primitive church. Tlie computation of
which forty-two months (counting every month for a
A.D. 1360.] THE PLOUGHMAN'S COMPLAINT OF THE ABUSES OF THE WORLD. '213
! sabbath of years ; that is, for sev-en years, after the order
: of scripture) rises to the sum (counting from the passion
of the Lord Christ) of three hundred years, lacking six,
I when Maxentius, the last persecutor in Rome, fighting
against Constantine, was drowned with his soldiers,
like as Pharaoh, persecuting the children of Israel, was
drowned in the Red Sea ; to the which forty-two months,
or sabbaths of years, if we add the other six years where-
in Licinius persecuted in the East, ye shall find just
three hundred years, as is specified before in the First
Book.'
After which forty and two months being expired, it is
manifest that the fury of Satan, that is, his violent
malice and power over the saints of Christ, was dimi-
nished and universally restrained through the whole
world.
Thus then the matter standing evident, that Satan
after three hundred years, counting from the passion of
Christ, began to be chained up, when the persecution of
■ the primitive church began to cease : now let us see how
long this binding up of Satan should continue, which
, was promised in the book of the Revelation to be a
thousand years. Which thousand years, if ye add to
the forty-two months of years, that is, to two hundred
, and ninety-four years ; they make one thousand two
hundred and ninety-four years after the passion of the
Lord. To these, moreover, add the thirty years of the
age of Christ, and it comes to A. D. 11524, which was
the year of the letting out of Satan, according to the
prophecy.
These things thus premising for the loosing out of
Satan, according to the prophecy in the Revelation,
now let us enter (Christ willing) to the declaration of
these later times which followed after the letting out of
i Satan into the world. Describing the wondrous trou-
Ibles and cruel tyranny stirred up by him against Christ's
I church ; also the valiant resistance of the church of
i Christ against him and antichrist, as in these our books
here following may appear.
I The argument of which books consists in two parts :
; First, to treat of the raging fury of Satan now loosed,
;and of antichrist, against the saints of Christ fighting and
labouring for the maintenance of truth, and the refor-
imation of the church. Secondly : To declare the decay
land ruin of antichrist, through the power of the word
lof God, being at length, either in a great part of the
[world overthrown ; or at least universally in the whole
jworld detected.
I Thus then to begin with the year 1360, wherein
|l have a little transgressed the limits of the first loosing
of Satan : we are come now to the time wherein the
Lord, after long darkness, begins some reformation of
|his church, by the diligent industry of his faithful and
ilearned servants, of whom several we have already
touched in the former book, as having withstood the
corrupt errors, and intolerable enormities of the Bishop
of Rome.
Now to these (the Lord willing) we will add such
other holy martyrs and confessors, as followed after in
jthe course of years with like zeal and strength of God's
|word, and also with like danger of their lives, gave the
llike resistance against the enemy of Christ's religion,
land suffered at his hands the like persecutions. First,
Ibeginning with that godly man, whosoever he was, the
author of the book, entitled. The Prayer and Complaint
.of the Ploughman, written about this present time, as
jfollows : —
Ah old ancient Writing, intituled. The Prayer and
Complaint of the Ploughman.*
" Ah Lord, thou forgave sometime Peter his sins, and
also Mary Magdalen, and many other sinful men with-
out shriving to priests, and taking penance of priests for
Itheir sins. And, Lord, thou art as mighty now as thou
(1) See note pajre 69. [Ed.]
(2) Tlie old luiieuage and spelling of this treatise ciillcd " The
flouglunaii'g Liiment," render! it in a great degree unintullig Ue
were that time, but gif any man have bynomen thee thy
mignt. And we lewd men beleven, that there is no
man of so great power, and gif any man maketh himself
of so great power, he heighteth himself above God.
And St. Paul speaketh of one that sitteth in the temple
of God, and heighten him above God ; and gif any such
be, he is a false Christ.
" But hereto seyn priests, that when Christ made clean
leprous men, he bade them go and shew them to priests.
And therefore they seyn that it is a commandment of
Christ, that a man should shewen his sin to priests.
For as they seyn, lepre in the old law betokenneth sin in
this new law. A, Lord God, whether thine apostles
knew not thy meaning as well as men done now ? And
gif they hadden yknow that thou haddest commanded
men to shriven them to priests, and they ne taught not
that commandment to the people, me thinketh they
hadden ben to blame. But I trow they ktewen well
that it was none of thy commandments, ne needful to
heal of man's soul. And as me thinketh, the law of
lepre is nothing to the purpose of shriving : for priests
in the old law hadden certain points and tokens to
know whether a man were leprous or not : and gif they
were leprous, they hadden power to pu'ten them away
from other clean men, for to that they weren clean ; and
then they hadden power to receiven him among hig
brethren, and offeren for him a sacrifice to God.
" This is nothing to the purpose of shriving. For there
is but one priest, that is Christ, that may know in cer-
tain the lepre of the soul. Ne no priest may make the
soul clean of her sin, but Christ that is priest after Mel-
chisedec's order: ne no priest here beneath may ywit for
certain whether a man be clean of his sin. or clean as-
soiled, but gif God tell it him by revelation. Ne God
ordained not that his priests should set men a penance
for their sin, after the quantity of the sin, but this is
man's ordinance, and it may well be that there commeth
good thereof. But I wot well that God is much un-
worshipped thereby. For men trust more in his abso-
lutions, and in his years of grace, than in Christ's abso-
lutions, and thereby is the people much appaired. For
now the sorrow a man should make for his sin, is put
away by this shrift : and a man is more bold to do sin
for trust of this shrift, and of this bodilich penance.
" Another mischief is, that the people is ybrought
into this belief, that one priest hath a great power to as-
soylen a man of his sin and clennere, than another
priest hath.
" Another mischief is this, that some prieSt may as-
soylen them both of sin and pain : and in this they taken
them a power that Christ granted no man in earth, ne
he ne used it dought on earth himself.
" Another mischief is, that these priests sellen for-
giveness of men's sins and absolutions for mony ; and
this is an heresie accursed that is yclejied simony : and
all thilk priests that axeth price for granting of spiritual
grace, beth by holy laws deprived of their priesthood,
and thilke that assenteth to this heresie. And be they
ware ; for Helyse the prophet took no mony of Naaman,
when he was made clean of his lepre ; but Giesi his ser-
vant ; and therefore the lepre of Naaman abode with
him and with his heirs evermore after.
" But, Lord God, he that sitteth in thy stede hath
undo thy law of mercy and love ; Lord, thou biddest
loven enemies as our self; and shewest in the gospel
there as the Samaritan had mercy on the Jew. And
thou biddest us abo prayen for them that cursen us,
and that defamen us, and pursuen us to death. And so
Lord thou diddest, and thine apostles also. But he
that clepeth himself thy vicar on earth, and head of thy
church, he hath undone thy law of love and mercy.
For gif we speaken of loving our enemies, he teacheth
us to fight with our enemies, that Christ hath forboden.
He curseth and desireth vengeance to them that so doth
to him. Gif any man pursueth him, he curseth Liia,
to the general reader. It is of considerable length, and we ^.tTe
retained only a portion of it, tliat the reader may be fl-abled to
judge of its nature. [Kd.]
214
THE PLOUGHMAN'S COMPLAINT OF THE ABUSES OF THE WORLD.
[Book V.
that it is a sorrow a christon m.in to hearen the cursings
that they maken, and hlasphemies in sucli cursing. Of
what thing that I know, I may bear true witness.
" But gif we speak of loving of our brethren, this is
nndone by him tliat saith lie is God's vicar in earth.
For Christ in the gospel biddeth us, that we shoulder
clepen us no father njiou earth : but clepen God our
father, to maken us love iierfitlich together. And he
clepeth himself Father of fathers, and maketh many re-
ligions, and to everich a father. But whetlier is love
and charity encreased by these fathers and by their re-
ligions, or else yniade less .' For a frier ne loveth not a
monk, ne a secular man neither, nor yet one frier
another that is not of the order, and it is againward.
" But, Lord, in the old law the tithings of the lewd
people ne were not due to priests, but to that otiier
childer of Levi that serveden thee in the temple, and
the priest hadden their part of sacrifices, and the first by-
geten beasts and other things as the law telleth. And,
Lord, St. Paul thy servant saith, that the order of the
priesthood of Aaron ceased in Christ's coming and the
law of that priesthood. For Christ was end of sacrifices
yoffered upon the cross to the Father of heaven, to bring
man out of sin, and become himself a priest of ]\Ielchise-
dek's order. For he was both king and priest, without
beginning and end ; and both the priesthood of Aaron,
and also the law of that priesthood ben ychanged in tlie
coming of Christ. And S. Paul saith it is reproved, for
it brought no man to perfection. For blood of goats,
ne of other beasts ne might done away sin, for to that
Christ shad his blood.
" Ah Lord Jesus ; whether thou ordenest an order of
priests to offren in the auter thy flesh and thy blood to
bringen men out of sin, and also out of pein ? And
whether thou geve them alonelich a power to eat thy
flesh and thy blood, and whether none other man may
eat thy flesh and thy blood withouten leve of priests ?
Lord, we beleven, that thy flesh is very meat, and thy
blood very drink ; and who eateth thy flesh, and drink -
eth thy blood, dwelleth in thee, and thou in him, and
■who that eateth this bread shall live without end. But
Lord thine disciples said ; this is a word ; but thou
answerest them and saidest ; when ye seeth man soon
stiven up there he was rather, the Spirit is that maketh
you live, the words that ych have spoken to you ben
spirit and life. Lord, yblessed mote thou be, for in this
word thou teachest us that he that keepeth thy words,
and doth after them, eateth thy flesh, and drinketh thy
blood, and hath an everlasting life in thee. And for we
shoulden have mind of this living, thou gavest us the
sacrament of thy flesh and blood, in form of bread and
wine at thy supper, before that thou shouldest suffer thy
death, and took bread in thine hand, and saidest :
' Take ye this, and eat it, for it is my body :' and thou
tookest wine, and blessedst it, and said ; ' This is the
blood of a new and an everlasting Testament, that shall
be slied for many men in forgiveness of sins : as oft as
ye do this, do ye this in mind of me.'
" Ah Lord, thou ne bede not thine disciples maken this
a sacrifice, to bring men out of peines, gif a priest oflVed
thy body in the altar ; but thou bed them go and fallen
all the folk in the name of the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, in forgiveness of their sins ; and teach
ye tliem to keep those that ych have commanded you.
And Lord, thine disciples ne ordained not priests prin-
cipalli(h to make thy body in sacrament, but for to
teach the people, and good husbandmen that well
govern their households, both wives and children, and
their meiny, they ordeiiied to be priests to teachen
other men the livv of Christ, both in word, in dede, and
they lived ein as true Cliristian men, every day they
eaten Christ's body, and drinken his blood, to the sus-
tenance of living of their souls, and other whiles they
token of the sacrament of his body in form of bread
and wi:ie, in mind of our Lord Jesus Christ.
" But all this is turned ujjsedown : for now whoso
will liven as thou taughtest, he shall been holden a fool.
And gif he speak thy teaching, he shall ben holden an
heretick, and accursed. Lord, have no longer wonder
hereof, for so they seiden to thee when thou were here
sometime. And therefore we moten take in patience
their words of blasphemy as thou diddcst thy self, or else
we were to blame. And trulich Lord 1 trow, that if
thou were now in the world, and taughtest as tliou did-
dest sometime, thou shouldest ben done to death. For
thy teaching is damned for heresie of wise men of the
world, and then moten thy needs ben hereticks that
teachen thy lore, and all they also that travalien to live
thereafter.
" Lord in the gospel thou sayest, that true heriers
of God ne herieth him not in that hill beside Samaria,
ne in Hierusalem neither, but true heriers of God
herieth him in spirit and in truth. And Lord God,
what herying is it to bilden thee a church of dead stones,
and robben thy quick churches of their bodilich livei-
lood ? Lord God, what herying is it, to cloth mawp
mets of stocks and of stones in silver and in gold, and
in other good colours ? And Lord I see thine image
gone in cold and in hete, in clothes all to broken, with-
out shone and hosen, an hungred and athrust. Lord
what herying is it to teende tapers and torches before
l)lind mavv-mets that mowen not seyen ? And hide thee
that art our light and our lantern towards heaven, and
put thee under a bushel, that for darkness we ne may
not seen our way toward bliss ? Lord what herying is
it to kneel tofore mawmets that mow not yheren, and
worshepen them with prayers, and maken thine quick
images kneel before them, and asken of them absolu-
tions and blessings, and worshepen them as gods, and
putten thy quick images in thraldom and in travail
evermore as beasts, in cold and in hete, and in feeble
fare to finden them in liken of the world ? Lord what
herying is it to fetch deed mens bones out of the
ground, there as they shoulden kindelich rotten, and
slirinen them in gold and silver ; and sufferen the quick
bones of thine images to rot in prison for default of
clothings ? And sufTren also thy quick images to perish
for default of sustenance, and rooten in the hoorehouse
in abominable lechery ? Some become thieves and rob.
hers, and manquellers, that mighten ben yholpen with
the gold and silver that hongeth about deed mens bones,
aud other blind mawmets of stocks and stones.
" Lord, here been great abominations that thou
shewdist to Ezechiel thy prophet, that priests done
in thy temple, and yet they clepen that thine herying.
But leve Lord, methinketh that they loven thee little that
thus defoulen thy quick images, and worshepen blind
mawmets.
" And Lord, another great mischief there is now in
the world, an hunger that Amos thy prophet speaketh
of, that there shall comen an hunger in the earth, not
of bread, ne thrust of drink, but of hearing of God's
words. And thy sheep woulden be refreshed, but their
shepheards taken of thy sheep their livelode, as tyth-
ings, &c. And liven themselves thereby where them
liketh.
" O Lord deliver the sheep out of the ward of thes?
shepherds, and these hired men, that stonden more to
keep their riches that they robben of thy sheep, than
they stonden in keeping of thy sheep.
" O Lord when thou come to Jerusalem, sometime
thou drove out of the temple sellers of beasts and of
other chafl^are, and saidst. Mine house should ben
cleped an house of prayers, but they maden a den of
thieves of it. O Lord thou art the temple in whom we
should praien thy Father of heaven. And Salomon's
temple, that was ybelded at .Jerusalem, was a figure of
this temjile. But Lord, he that clepeth himself thy vicar
ujion earth, and saith that he occupieth thy place here on
earth, is become a cha])man in thy temple, and hath his
chapmen walking in divers countries to sellen his chaf-
fare, and to maken him rich. And he saith, Thou gave
him so great a power aboven all other men, that wnat-
ever he bindeth other unbindeth in earth, thou bindeth
otlier unbindest the same in heaven. And so of great
power he sellcth other men forgiveness of their sin. And
for much nioney he will assoilen a man so clean of his
sin. that he behcteth men of the bliss of heaven with-
outen any pain r.ftcr that they be dead, that given him
much money.
A.D. 13C0.] A PARABLE PROPHESYING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POPE.
215
Bishopnrks and chirches, and such other chaffares he
gelletli also for money, and maketh himself rich. And
thus hi' besfuiled the puple.
" O Lord Jesus here is much untruth, and mischief, and
matter of sorrow. Lord thou saidest sometime, tliat thou
wouldest be with thy servants unto the end of the world.
And thou saidest also, there as tweine or three ben ygraded
togedder in thy name, that thou art in the middle of
them. A Lord, then it was no need to thee to maken lief-
teenant, sith thou wolte be evermore amongst thy servants.
'* Lord, thou axedst of thy disciples, who they trowed
that thou were. And Peter answered and said, ' That
thou art Christ God's Son.' And thou saidst to Peter,
' Thou art yblessed Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
ne sliowed not this to thee, but my Father that is in
heaven.' And I say to thee, ' That thou art Peter, and
upon this stone ych would bilde my church, and the gates
of hell he shullen not availen agens it.
" And to thee ych wole geve the keys of heaven, and
what ever thou bindest upon earth shall be bound in
heaven, and what ever thou unbindest on earth, shall be
nnbounden in heaven.' This power also was gran ten
unto the other disciples, as well as to Peter, as the gospel
openlich telleth. In this place men seggen that thou
granted to Peter's successor, the selve power that thou
gave to Peter. And therefore the bishop of Rome, that
saith he is Peter's successor, taketh this power to him
to biuden and unbinden in earth what him liketh. But
Lord, ych have much wonder how he may for shame
clepen himself Peter's successor : for Peter knowiedged
that thou were Christ and God, and kept the bests of
thy law ; but these han forsaken the hests of thy law,
and hath ymaken a law contrary to thine hests of thy
law. And so he maketh himself a false Christ, and
a false god in earth. And I trow thou gave him no
power to undo thy law. And so in taking this power
upon him, maketh him a false Christ and antic'nrist.
" For who may be more agens Christ, than he that
in his words maketh himself Christ's vicar in earth ;
and in his werkes undoth the ordinance of Christ, and
maketh men believen that it is needful to the heal of
men's souls, to believen that he is Christ's vicar in
eartli .' And what ever he bindeth in earth, is ybounden
in heaven, and under this colour he undoth Christ's law,
and maketh men always to keepen his law and hests.
" And thus man may yseen that he is against Christ,
and therefore he is antichrist that maketh men worship-
pen him as a god on earth, as the proud King Nabugod-
onosor did sometime, that was king of Babylon. And
therefore we lewde men that knowen not God but thee
Jesus Christ, believen in thee that art our God, and our
King, and our Christ, and thy laws ; and forsaken anti-
christ, and Nabugodonosor that is a false god, and a false
Christ, and his laws being contrary to thy preaching.
" And Lord strength thou us against our enemies.
For they ben about to maken us forsaken thee and thy
law, other else to putten us to death.
" O Lord, onlich in thee is our trust to help us in this
mischief, for thy great goodness that is withouten end.
" Lord thou ne taughtest not thy disciples to assoilen
men of their sin, and setteu them a penance for their
sin, in fasting, ne in praying, ne other almous deed ; ne
thyself, ne thy disciples, useden no such power here on
earth. For Lord, thou forgive men her sins, and bede
him sin no more. And thy disciples fulleden men in thy
name, in forgiveness of her sins. Nor they took no
sucli power upon them as our priests dare now. And
Lord, thou ne assoiledst no man both of his sin and of his
pain, that was due for his sin, ne thou grautedst no man
sucii power here on earth.
" And Lord, me thinketh that gif there was a purga-
tory, and any earthlich man had power to deliver sinful
men from the peines of purgatory, he should, and he were
in charity, savea everich man that were in the way of
salvation from thilke peines, sith they make them
greater than any bodilich peineg of this world. Also gif
the bishop of Rome had such a power, he himself shuld
never, comen in purgatory, ne in hell. And sith we see
Well that he ne hath no power to keepen himself, ne other
taen noth^r out of these bodilicb peiues of the world,
and he may go to hell for his sin as another man may :
I ne believe not, that he hath so great power to assoylen
men of their sin as he taketh upon him aboven all other
men. Andl trow that in this he higheth himself above God.
" As touching the selling of bishopricks, and parso-
nages, I trow it be a point of falsehed. For agenst
God's ordinance he robbeth poor men of a portion of their
sustenance, and selleth it, other givetli it, to find prond
men in idleness that don the lewd puple little profit, but
much harme, as we told before. Thus ben thy com-
mandments of truth, of meekness, and of poorness undone
by him, that clepeth himself thy vicar here upon earth."
I doubt not, gentle reader, but in reading this godly
treatise above prefixed, the matter is manifest and plain of
itself without any further explication, what is to be
thought and judged of this vicar of Christ, and successor
of Peter, whom we call the bishop of Rome : whose
life here is seen not only to be disordered in all points,
swerving from the steps and example of Christ the prince
and bishop of our souls, but also whose laws and doc-
trines are so repugnant and contrary to the precepts and
rule of the gospel, that there is scarcely any similarity
between them : as in the perusing of this complain-
ing prayer, may be understood. Wherefore having no
need to stand in any further expressing of this matter,
but leaving it to the consideration and discretion of the
reader, I will (Christ willing) proceed towftrd the
time of John Wickliffe and his fellows, taking, in the
order of years as I go, such things by the way, as both
happened before the time of Wickliffe, and also may the
better prepare the mind of the reader, to the entering of
that history. Where first I think it not inconvenient to
insert a prophetical parable, written about this time, or
not much before, which the author morally applies to the
bishop of Rome. To what author this moral is to be
ascribed, I can not certainly affirm. In the meantime,
as I have found it in Latin expressed, because it ])aints
out the pope so rightly in his feathers and colours ; so
I thought the thing was not to be omitted, and therefore
took this present place, as most fit (although peradven-
ture missing the order of years a little) to insert the same.
The effect of which parable is as follows :
In the time of Pope Innocent VI., when friar John de
Rupescissa was kept at Avignon in prison, Froysard heard
in the pope's court this parable recited by this friar, to
the cardinal Hostiensis, and cardinal Auxercensis.
" When on a certain time a bird was brought into the
world all bare and without feathers, the other birds
hearing thereof, came to visit her : and as they saw her
to be a marvellous fair and beautiful bird, they counselled
together how they might best do her good, as without
feathers she might neither fly, nor live conveniently.
They all wished her to live for her excellent form and
beauty's sake, insomuch that among them all there was
not one, that would not grant some part of her ovra
feathers to deck this bird withal : yea, and the more
trim they saw her to be, the more feathers still they gave
to her, so that by these means she was passing well penned
and feathered, and began to fly. The other birds that
had thus adorned her with goodly feathers, beholding her
flying abroad, were marvellously delighted therewith. In
the end, this bird seeing herself so gorgeously feathered,
and of all the rest to be had in honour, began to wax proud
and haughty. Insomuch that she had no regard at all
to them, by whom she was advanced : yea, she punged
them with her beak, plucked them by the skin and fea-
thers, and in all places hurted them. Whereupon the
birds sitting in council again, called the matter in ques-
tion, demanding one of another what was best to be
done touching this unkind bird, whom they lovingly with
their own feathers had decked and adorned; affirming
that they gave not their feathers, to the intent that she,
thereby puff'ed up with pride, should contemptuously de-
spise them all. The peacock theiefore answers first,
' Truly,' says he, ' as she is bravely set forth with my
painted feathers, 1 will again take them from her.' Then
says the falcon, ' And I also will have mine again.' This
sentence at length took place among them all, so that
216 THE HISTORY AND WRITINGS OF ARMACHANUS, PRIMATE OF IRELAND. [Book V.
every one plucked from her those feathers which before
they had given, each taking their own again. Now this
proud bird, seeing herself thus dealt with, began forth-
with to abate her haughty spirit, and humbly to submit
herself openly, confessing and acknowledging, that of
herself she had nothing ; but that her feathers, her ho-
nour and other ornaments was their gift: she came into
the world all naked and bare, they clad her with comely
feathers, and therefore of right they may receive them
again. Wherefore most humbly she desires pardon,
promising to amend all that is past, neither would
Ehe at any time hereafter commit anything whereby
through pride she might lose her feathers again. The
gentle birds, that before had given their feathers, seeing
her so humble and lowly, being moved with pity, restored
ngain the feathers which lately they had taken away,
lidding withal this admonition, * We will gladly,' say
they, ' behold thee flying among us, so long as thou wilt
use thine office with humbleness of mind, which is the
chiefest comeliness of all the rest: but know thou this
for certainty, that if at any time hereafter thou extol
thyself in pride, we will straiglitways deprive thee of thy
feathers, and reduce thee to thy former state wherein we
found thee.' Even so, oh you cardinals," said this friar,
" shall it happen to you: for the emperors of the Romans
and OermaiiS, and other christian kings, potentates, and
princes of the earth, have bestowed upon you goods,
lands, and riphes, that should serve God, but you have
poured it out, and consumed it upon pride^ and all kind
of wickedness, riot, and wantonness."
THE HISTORY OF ARMACHANUS.
In the catalogue of these learned and zealous defenders
of Christ against antichrist above rehearsed, whom the
Lord about this time began to raise up for the reanima-
tion of his church, I cannot omit to write something of
the reverend prelate, and famous clerk, Richard Armach-
anus, primate and archbishop of Ireland : a man for his
life and learning so memorable that they had none almost
his better. His name was Richard Fizraf. Such was
the capacity and dexterity of this man, that being com-
mended to King Edward III., he was promoted by him,
first, to be archdeacon of Lichfield, then to be the com-
missary of the university of Oxford ; at length to be
archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. He had cause to come
to London at the time when there was contention between
the friars and clergy about preaching and hearing con-
fessions, &c. Whereupon, this Armachanus, being re-
quested to preach, made seven or eight sermons ; wherein
he propounded nine conclusions against the friars, for
which he was cited by the friars to appear before this
Pope Innocent VI., and so he went, and before the face
of the pope valiantly defended, both in preaching and
in writing, the same conclusions, and therein stood
constantly to the death, as John Wickliife well
testifies. William Botonerus testifying of him in hke
manner, says, " That Armachanus first reproved beg-
ging-friars for hearing the confessions of professed nuns,
without licence of their superiors, and also of married
women without knowledge of their husbands. What
dangers and troubles he sustained by his persecutors, and
how miraculously the Lord delivered him from their
hands, and in what peril of thieves and searchers he was,
and yet the Lord delivered him ; yea, and in what
dangers he was of the king's officers, who coming with
the king's letters, laid all the havens fcr him ; and how
the Lord Jesus delivered him, and gave him to triumph
over all his enemies : how the Lord also taught him
and brought him to the study of the scri])tures of God.
All this, with much more, he himself expresses in a cer-
tain prayer or confession made to Christ Jesus our Lord,
in which he describes almost the whole history of his
own life.
Thus the troubles of this good man, and how he was
cited up by the friars to the pope, you have ])artly heard.
Now his reasons and arguments wherewith he defended
his cause in the pope's presence, are to be declared.
In the time of innocent 111., and the Lateran coun-
cil, (A. D. 1215), lived Dominic, the author and
founder of the preaching friars ; who laboured at Pope
Innocent for the confirmation of his order, but did not
obtain it in the life time of that pope.
The year after this council Pope Innocent died, (A. D.
121G), after whom came Honorius III. who confirmed
the order of the friar Dominic, and gave to him and his
friars authority to preach, and to hear confessions, with
other privileges. Dominic lived five years after the
confirmation of his order, and died A. D. 1221. About
which year the order of the Franciscan friars began also
to breed, and to spread in the world.
After this Honorius, next followed Pojtc Gregory IX.,
about A. D. 1228, who also promoted the order of
Dominic.
This Gregory died about A. D. 1241, after whom
came Celestine IV., and sat but eighteen days; then
came Innocent IV., and sat eleven years and six months.
Who, although he began first to favour the friars, yet
afterward he debarred them of their liberties and priri.
leges, and gave out precepts and excommunications
against friars. And not long after was dispatched and
made away with.
Innocent being thus removed out of the way, about
A. D. 1254, succeeded Pope Alexander IV., a great
maintainer of the friars, and sat seven years. He re-
voked and repealed the acts and writings of Pope Inno-
cent his predecessor against the friars ; the divines and
students of Paris being not contented with this, stirred
up tour principal doctors. Tliese four compiled a book
against the begging order of friars, both Dominicann and
Franciscans, entitled T)e PericuUs Ecclmce, containing
fourteen chapters, the fourteenth has thirty-nine articles
against the friars. Besides these thirty-nine articles, are
seven other articles, under the name of the students of
Paris against the friars.
Besides these articles, certain conclusions were also
propounded in the schools of Paris at the same time,
solemnly to be disputed and defended against the friars :
which were these :
First, That the begging friars were not in the state of
salvation.
Secondly, That they were bound to labour vrith their
hands, who could, and not to beg.
Thirdly, That they ought not to exercise the office of
preaching, or to hear the confessions of them that will
come to them.
All these articles and conclusions, with the book set
forth by these Parisians, this Pope Alexander IV. con-
demned to be abolished and burned, writing his precepts
to the French king, and also the university of Paris, in
favour of the friars ; commanding the friars to be re-
stored to all their privileges and liberties.
Not long after Pope Alexander IV. followed Clement
IV., (A. D. 1265), and sat three years: who also gave
privileges to the friars.
Some time after this Clement came Pope Martin IV.,
(A. D. 1281), who renewed again the canon in behalf
of the curates against the friars.
Pope Boniface VIII. began to sit A. D. 1294, and
sat eight years and nine months. Who taking side
with the friars, gave them another privilege. In which
privilege he licensed the friars, that without license of
vicars of churches they shall first present themselves to
the prelates to be admitted ; by whom if they be refused
the second time, then they, upon special authority ot
this pope, shall be privileged, without either bishop or
curate, to preach, to bury, and to hear confessions.
By this Pope Boniface, a certain Dominican friar was
made cardinal, named Nicolas Bocasin, of Tervisa, and after
the death of Boniface he was made pope, (A. D. Ki03),
surnamed Pope Benedict XL, who made another consti-
tution, revoking that of Boniface.
Again, after Benedict XL, followed Pope Clement V.,
(A. D. i;{05), and sat nine years. Who, in his general
council held at Vienna, revoked the constitution of
Benedict his predecessor, and renewed the former de-
cree of Boniface ; which constitution, moreover, was
confirmed afterward by Pope John XXII. , (A. D. 1316).
Upon this variable diversity of the popes (one dissent-
ing and repugning from another) rose among the divine*
and schoolmen in universities great matter of coabea-
A.D. 1360.] HISTORY AND WRITINGS OF ARMACHANUS, PRIMATE OF IRELAND.
tion, as well in the university of Paris, as the university
of Oxford about the begging friars, some holding one
tyay, some another way.
The matter of contention about the friars stood in four
points : first, preaching without licence of curates. Se-
condly, in hearing confession. Thirdly, in burying.
Fourthly, in begging and taking of the jjcoijle.
217
Popex that maintained the Friars.
Honorius I IT.
Gregory IX.
Alexander IV.
Clement IV.
Boniface VIII.
Clement V.
Pojjes thai maintained Curates.
Innocent III.
Innocent IV.
Martin IV.
Benedict XI.
These considerations being ])remised, for the opening
of this present cause of Armachanus against the idle beg-
garly sects of fi'iars ; it now remains, that we collect and
open his reasons and arguments uttered in the consistory,
and in the audience of the pope himself, wherewith he
maintains the true doctrine and cause of the church
against the pestiferous canker creeping in by these friars
after subtle ways of hypocrisy, to corrupt the sincere
{simplicity of Christ's holy faith and perfect testament.
"Which reasons and arguments of his, I thought good and
expedient for the utility of the church more amply and
largely to discourse and prosecute, for I note in the sects,
iofititutions, and doctrine of these friars, subtle poison
to lurk, more pernicious and hurtful to the religion of
Christ and soul* of christians, than all men peradventure
do consider.
Thus Armachanus, joining with the clergy of Eng-
land, disputed and contended with the friars here of Eng-
land, (A.D. 1358) about a double matter. "Whereof the
one was concerning confession and other esciiPats which
the friars encroached in parish churches against the cu-
rates, and public pastors of churches. The other was
concerning wilful beggary and poverty, which the friars
then took upon them, not upon any necessity, being
otherwise strong enough to work for their living, but only
upon a wilful and affected profession. For which cause
the friars appealed him up to the court of Rome. The
occasion of which thus arose.
It happened that Armachanus, upon certain business
coming up to London, found there certain doctors dis-
puting and contending about the begging of Chi'ist our
Saviour. Whereupon he, being greatly urged and re-
quested, made seven or eight sermons, wherein he uttered
nine conclusions : whereof the first and principal conclu-
eion was, touching the matter of the friars' privileges in
hearing confessions. His conclusions were these :
First, That if a doubt or question be moved for hear-
ing confessions, which of two places is rather to be chosen ;
the parish church is to be preferred before the church
of the friars.
Secondly, being demanded ; which is to be taken (to
hear the confession of the parishioners, the parson or cu-
rate, or the friar) it is to be said, rather the parson or
the curate.
Thirdly, that our Lord Jesus Christ in his human con-
versation was always poor, but that he loved not poverty,
nor did covet to be poor.
Fourthly, that our Lord Jesus Christ did never beg,
•wilfully professing to be poor.
Fifthly, that our Lord Jesus Christ did never teach
wilfully to beg, or to profess wilful beggary.
The sixth conclusion was, that Christ our Lord held
the contrary, that men ought not wilfully or purposely,
without necessity to beg.
Seventhly, that it is neither wisdom nor holiness, for
any man to take upon him wilful beggary, perpetually to
be obseiTed.
Tiie eighth, that it is not agreeing to the rule of the ob-
•erssaats, or friars' minorites, to observe wilful poverty.
Xihe last conclusion was, touching the bull of pope
Alexander IV., which condemned the libel of the masters
of Paris : that the same bull touched none of these seven
last conclusions.
Upon these nine conclusions premised, Armachanus
being cited, and brought up to the presence of the pope,
began to prove the same.
I. Beginning with the first conclusion ; that the parish
church was a place more fit and convenient for the con-
fessions or burials of the parishioners to be used, than any
other exempt church or place of the friars. Which he
proved by three causes ; first, for the more sureness or
certainty to the conscience of the parishioners con-
fessed. Secondly, for the more utility and profit of him.
Thirdly, for the less incommodity ensuing by confessions
taken in parish churches, than in friars' churches.
As touching the first, for the more assuredness and
certainty, he argued that as the sacraments of the cliuri;h
are to be frequented and used in no other ])Iace, but only
in that, which by God himself is assigned and commanded,
and seeing that elect place in the law, i. e. the temple
represents the parish churches ; and that the friar»'cluirch
is not the place prescribed of God, but only permitted
by bishops of Rome ; he concluded therefore, that pa-
rish churches were more sure for confessions and burials
than the places of the friars.
By another reason also he confirmed the same, for the
parish church stands free from the pope's interdict, and
the churches of the friars do not, but are under suspicion
and doubt of the pope's interdict And further, he proved
that it had fewer inconveniences, for every man to resort
to his parish church than to the friars.
II. Now to the second conclusion, touching the person
of the friar, and of the ordinary curate. If the question
be, which of these two is to be preferred in the office of
ecclesiastical administration ; the opinion of Armachanus
was, that the ordinary curate was better than the extra-
ordinary friar.
He argued that it is more safe and sure for the parish-
ioners to resort to their ordinary or parish priest ; be-
cause the person of the lawful ordinary or priest, is ex-
pressly commanded by God, where the person of the friar
is not, and therefore is forbid. Also, because the pa-
rishioner may more trust to his ordinary curate ; as one
who is more bound and obliged to be careful for him,
than any other extraordinary person. And because in
the person of the ordinary curate, commonly there is no
doubt of any interdict to bind him ; whereas in the friars
there is good matter to doubt, whether he stand bound
under the pope's censure of excommunication or not, and
that for divers causes. As where it is decreed, that all
such religious men are excommunicated de facto, who
ever absolve any, against whom the sentence of excom-
munication has been denounced by the statute provincial,
or synodal ; as it is commonly said, that the friars are
accustomed to do, in loosing them whom the censure of
prelates or their officials have bound. Armachanus brings
example of this in his own diocese : " For I (said he) in
mine own diocese of Armagh have as good as two thou-
sand under me, who, by the censure of excommunication
every year denounced against wilful murderers, common
thieves, burners of men's houses, and such like malefac-
tors, stand accursed : of all which number notwithstand-
ing, there are scarcely fourteen who come to me, or to
any about me for their absolution. And yet all they re-
ceive the sacraments as others do, and all because they
are absolved, or because they feign themselves absolved by
none other than by friars ; who in so doing are proved
to be under the danger of excommunication, both the
friars, and also the parishioners, if they knowing thereof
do consent to their error."
Moreover, that it is the more sure way for the pa-
rishioners to resort to their appointed curates, than to
the friars, he argues thus : that the parish priest or
curate, being better acquainted with his own parishioner
than is a stranger, he can better judge of the nature and
disposition of his disease, and minister to him dne phy-
sic of penance for the same, and also will be more care-
ful in curing him.
About this matter Armachanus leamedlr and wor»
218
HISTORY AND WRITINGS OF ARMACHANUS, PRIMATE OF IRELAND. [Book V.
tliily discourses, proving how pernicious these orders of
friars are to tlie whole state of the church, and what
mischief comes by the privileges of certain popes, who
have privileged them to intermeddle in the office and
function of ecclesiastical ministers, to jireach and to
take alms and tithes of the people, and impropriations
from the church. To prosecute in order his reasons
and arguments, as he has left them in writing, would
make a large book. Yet because it will not be unfruit-
ful both for the time present, and for posterity, to know
the manifold detriments and inconveniences received
through these friars, and to know what great benefit
God has done for us in unburdening the church of this
monstrous generation, I have briefly, therefore, con-
tracted certain of his reasons, such as seemed most wor-
thy of noting.
And first, alleging the authority of Innocent IV., he
sets forth four inconveniences rising by the friars, which
are these : — Contempt of the people against their ordi-
naries ; decreasing of devotion ; taking away of shame
from the people by confessing to the friars ; detaining
of oblations, such as the people are wont to give at their
confessions and burials, and which by right belong to
the jiarish churches.
Also, by the privileges of the popes, granted to the
friars, many other great enormities do arise. As first,
because thereby the true shepherds do not know the
faces of their flock.
And, by the occasion of these privileges given to the
friars, great contention, and sometimes blows rise be-
tween the friars and secular curates, about titles, impro-
priations, and other avails.
Also, by the occasion of these privileges many young
men, as well in universities as in their fathers' houses, are
allured craftily by the friars their confessors to enter
their orders ; from whence afterward they cannot get
out though they would, to the great grief of their pa-
rents, and no less repentance to the young men them-
selves. Armachanus states a case of a certain English-
man with him in Rome, who having a son at the uni-
versity of Oxford, who was enticed by the friars to enter
into their order, could by no means after release him ;
but when his father and his mother would come to him,
they could not be suffered to speak with him, but under
the friars' custody. Whereas the scripture commands
plainly, that whoso stealeth any man and selleth him
(being thereof convicted) shall be put to death. Exod.
xxi. 16'. The father was compelled to come to Rome to
seek remedy for his son.
And no less inconvenience and danger also by the
friars rises to the clergy; for laymen, seeing their chil-
dren thus stolen from them in the universities by the
friars, refuse to send them to their studies, willing
rather to keep them at home to their occupation, or to
follow the plough, than so to be circumvented and de-
feated of their sons at the university, as by daily expe-
rience manifestly appears. For whereas in my time
(saith Armachanus) there were in the university of Ox-
ford thirty thousand students, now are there not to be
found six thousand. The occasion of which so great
decay is to be ascribed to no other cause but to this cir-
cumvention only of the friars above mentioned.
Over and besides this, another inconvenience as
great, or greater, Armachanus inferred to proceed by
the friars through the decay of doctrine, and knowledge
in all manner of faculties, and liberal sciences, which
thus he declared : — For that these begging friars through !
their privileges obtained of the popes to preach, to hear
confessions, and to bury ; and through their charters of
impropriations, did grow thereby to such great riches
and possessions by their begging, craving, catching, and
intermeddling with church matters, that no book could
stir of any science, either of divinity, law, or physic,
but they were both able and ready to buy it up. So
that every convent having a great library full stuffed
and furnished with all sorts of books, and there being
so many convents within the realm, and in every con-
vent so many friars increasing daily more and more, it
came to pass that very few books or none at all remain
for other students. Which by his own experience he
thus testifies, saying : — That he himself sent forth to the
university four of his own priests or cha;)lains, who
sending him word again, that they could neither find the
bible, nor any other good profitable book of divinity
meet for their study, therefore were minded to return
home to their country, and one of them, he was sure,
was returned by this time.
Furthermore, as he has proved hitherto the friars to
be hurtful both to the laity and to the clergy, so pro-
ceeding farther, he proves them to be hurtful also to
themselves ; and that in three points, as incurring the
vice of disobedience against God and against their own
rule, the vice of avarice, and the vice of j)ride. The
proving of all which points he prosecuted in a long
discourse.
As concerning the vice of avarice, it may be proved
uj)on them (says Armachanus) ; for seeing so manv
charges belong to the office of a secular parish priest, as
to minister the sacrament at Easter, to visit tiie sick
with extreme unction, to baptize children, to wed, with
such other, wherein stands as great devotion ; how then
happens it that these friars, making no labour for these,
only procure privileges to preach in churches, to hear
confessions, and to bury from parish churches, but be-
cause there is lucre and gain in these, and none in the
other.
Which also may appear by this, for if it were for mere
devotion only, that they procure license to bury from
parish churches, and to preach, why then have they
procured license to take offerings, oblations, and lega-
cies for their funerals .' And, for their preaching, why
have they annexed also license to require and take of the
people necessaries for their labour, unless only avarice is
the cause thereof?
Likewise forbearing of confession, when all good men
have enough to know their own faults, and nothing list
to hear the faults of others, it may be sujiposed that
they would never have been so desirous of procuring
that privilege, were it not that these friars did feel some
sweetness and gain to hang upon the same.
Also, where the rule of Friar Francis forbids them to
company with any woman, to enter into monasteries to
be godfathers and gossips to men and women, how
comes it that they, contrary to their rule, enter into the
secret chambers of queens, and other women, and are
made to know the most secret counsels of their doings,
but that avarice and advantage have so blinded their
eyes, and stirred their hearts.
III. His third conclusion was, that the Lord Christ
in his human conversation was always poor, not be-
cause he loved or desired poverty for itself, &c. \\ herein
this is to be noted, that Armachanus differed not from
the friars in this, that Christ was poor, and that he
loved poverty ; but herein stood the difference, in the
manner of loving, that is, whether he loved poverty for
itself, or not.
IV. The fourth conclusion was, that Christ our Lord
and Saviour did never beg wilfully. Which he proves
by sundry reasons.
First, for that (,'hrist in so doing should break the •
law, which saith. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's '
house, his wife, his servant, his maid, his ox, his ass, of '
anything that is his. Exod. xx. The danger of which
commandment he that begs voluntarily must needs
incur.
2. If Christ had begged voluntarily, he should have
committed sin against another commandment, which
says, " There shall be no beggar, nor needy person j
among you," &c. Deut. vi. 1
3. Christ in so doing should have transgressed thfe j
emperor's law, for the emperor's law said there shall no
able-bodied beggar be surt'ered in the city.
4. If Christ had been a wilful beggar, he had broken,
the law of loving his neighbour ; whom he had vexed, 1
having no need. For whoever without need asks oir j
craves of his neighbour, docs but vex him, in suciiaway ,•
as he would not be vexed himself. Which Christ would '
never do.
A.D. 13C0.J HISTORY AND WRITINGS OF ARMACHANUS, PRIMATE OF IRELAND.
219
5. If Christ had begged wilfully, he had moved slan-
der thereby to his own gospel, which he with miracles
confirmed ; for then they that saw his miracle in feeding
five thousand in the wilderness, would have thought
much with themselves how that miracle had been
wrought, if he who fed others, either could not, or would
not feed himself.
6'. If Christ had begged wilfully, then he had done
that which himself condemns by Paul, for so we read,
1 Tim, vi. 5, that Paul condemns them, who esteem
piety to be gain and lucre. Which all they do, who
under the colour of piety, hunt or seek for gain, when
otherwise they need not.
7. If Christ had begged wilfully, he had offended in
declaring an untruth in so doing ; for he that knows in
his mind that he needs not indeed that thing which he
asks of another, declares in himself an untruth, as one
who in word pretends to be otherwise than he is in very
deed ; which Christ without doubt never did, nor would
ever do.
8. If Christ had begged wilfully, that is, having
no true need thereto, then had he appeared either to be
an hypocrite, seeming to be what he was not, and to
lack when he did not ; or else to be a true beggar in
very deed, not able to suffice his necessity. For he is a
true beggar in deed, who being constrained by mere
necessity is forced to ask of others, that which he is not
able to give to himself. But neither of these two
agrees to Christ.
9. If Christ had begged wilfully, then why did Peter
rebuke the mother of Clement his disciple, finding her
to stand among the beggars, whom he thought to be
strong enough to labour with her hands for her living, if
she in so doing had followed the example of Christ ?
10. If Christ had begged wilfully : and if the friars
do rightly define perfection of the gospel by wilful
poverty, then was Clement, St. Peter's successor, to
blame, who laboured so much to remove away beggary
and poverty from among all them that were converted
to the faith of Christ, and is specially for the same com-
mended of the church.
11. Again, why did Clement, writing to James bishop
of Jerusalem, command so much to obey the doctrine
and examples of the apostles ; who as he shews in that
epistle, had no beggar or needy person among them, if
christian perfection (as by the friars' philosophy) stands
in wilful beggary ?
12. If Christ the high priest had begged wilfully,
then did the holy church err wittingly, which ordained
that none without sufficient title of living and clothing,
should be admitted to holy orders. And moreover,
when it is said in the canonical decrees, that the bishop
or clerk that begs, brings shame upon the whole order
of the clergy.
13. If Christ had wilfully begged, then the examples
of wilful poverty had pertained to the perfection of
christian life, which is contrary to the old law, which
commands the priests to have possessions and tithes to
keep them from beggary.
14. If Christ did wilfully beg, then beggary were a
point of christian perfection. And so the church (f
God should err, in admitting such patrimonies and
donations given to the church, and so in taking from
the prelates their perfection.
15. Again, what will these friars who put their per-
fection in begging, say to Melchisedec, who without
begging or wilful poverty, was the high priest of God,
and king of Salem, and prefigured the order and priest-
hood of Christ ?
l<i. And if beggary be such a perfection of the gospel
(as the friars say) how comes it, that the Holy Ghost
given to the apostles, which should lead them into all
truth, told them no word of this beggarly perfection,
neither is there any word mentioned thereof throughout
the whole testament of God ?
17. Moreover, where the projdiet saith, " I never saw
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their
bread;" how stands this with the righteousness of Christ,
which was most perfectly righteous, if he should be for-
saken, or his seed go beg their bread ? And then how
agrees this with the abominable doctrines of Franciscan
friars, who put their perfection in wilful begging ?
18. Finally, do we not read that Christ sent his disci-
ples to preach without scrip or wallet, and bid them
salute no man by the way ? Meaning that they should
beg nothing of any man ; did not tne same Christ also
labour with his hands under Joseph ? St. Paul likewise,
did he not labour with his hands, rather than he would
burden the church of the Corinthians ? And where now
is the doctrine of the friars, which puts the state of per-
fection, in wilful begging .''
V. The fifth conclusion of Armachanus against the
friars, was this, that Christ never taught any man wil-
fully to beg, which he proved thus : it is written, Acts i. 1.
" Christ began to do and to teach." If Christ therefore,
who did never wilfully beg himself, had taught men to
do otherwise ; then his doing and teaching had not
agreed together.
And if Christ, who never begged himself wilfully, had
taught men this doctrine of wilful begging contrary to
his own doing ; he had given suspicion of his doctrine.
Moreover, in so teaching, he had taught contrary to
the emperor's just law, which expressly forbids the
same.
VI. The sixth conclusion of Armachanus against the
friars was, that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us, that
we should not beg wilfully, which he proves by Luke
xiv. 13 ; 2 Thes. iii. 8 — 10 ; Prov. vi. 9, and xxxi. 13.
&c.
VII. The seventh conclusion of Armachanus is, that
no wise nor true holy man can take upon him wilful
poverty to be observed always, which he proves by
Prov. XXX. 8, by its being a temptation, and so against
the Lord's prayer.
VIII. The eighth conclusion of this matter, that it is
not agreeing to the rule of the friars observant, to
observe wilful beggary. Which may be proved, for that
friar Francis, both in his rule and in his testa-
ment left to his Franciscans, does plainly prefer laboui
before begging.
IX. The ninth and last conclusion is, that the bnll of
Pope Alexander IV., which condemns the book of the
masters of Paris, impugns none of these conclusions
premised.
Notes io be observed in this oration of Armaehanus.
By this oration of Armachanus the learaed prelate,
thus made before Pope Innocent and his cardinals, many
things there are for the utility of the church worthy to
be observed. First, what troubles and vexations came
to the church of Christ by these friars. Also what per-
secution follows by the means of them against so many
learned men and true servants of Christ. Further, what
opposition and contrariety was among the popes, and how
they could not agree among themselves about the friars.
Fourthly, what pestiferous doctrine S4.ibverting well nigh
the testament of Jesus Christ. Fifthly, wha;t decay of
ministers in Christ's church. Sixthly, what robbing
and circumventing of men's children. SeTenthly, what
decay of universities, as appeared by Oxford. Eighthly,
what damage to learning and lack of book* to students
came by these friars. Ninthly, to what pride, under
colour of feigned humility, to what riches, nnder dissem-
bled poverty they grew. Insomuch that at length
through their subtle and most dangerous hypocrisy they
crept up to be lords, archbishops, cardinals, and at last
also chancellors of realms, yea, and of most secret counsel!
with kings and queens.
But enough of this oration of Armachanus. What
success it had with the pope, is not certain. By his
own life it appears that the Lord so wrought that his
enemies did not triumph. Yet he was seven or eight
years in banishment for the same matter.
I credibly hear of certain old Irish Bibles translated
long since into the Irish tongue ; which, if it be true, it
is not unlikely the doing of this Armackaaos. Aiwt
220
THE LAW OF PR^MUNIRE.— ST. BRIDGET.
[Book V.
thus much of this learned prelate and archbishop of
Ireland, a man worthy for his cbristiau zeal of immortal
commendation.
After the death of Innocent VI. next was poped in the
see of R )me Pope Urban V., who, by the father's side,
was an Englishman.
This pope m lintained and kindled great wars in Italy,
sending Eijidius his carditiil and legate, and after him
Arduiiius a Burgundian, his legate and abbot, with great
force and much money agiiust several cities in Italy :
by whose means the towns and cities which had before
broken from the bishop of Rjme were oppressed ; also
Barnabes and Galeaceus, princes of Milan, vanquished.
By whose example others being afraid, submitted them-
selves to the church of Rome. And thus that wicked
church arrived to her great possessions, which her
patrons would needs father upon Constantine the godly
emperor.
In the time of this Pope Urban V., and in the second
year of his reign, about the beginning of the year 1364,
I rind a certain sermon of one Nicholas Orem, made
before the pope and his cardinals on Christmas-even.
In which sermon the learned man worthily rebukes the
prelates and priests of his time, declaring their destruc-
tion not to be far off, by certain signs taken of their
wicked and corrupt life. AH the sayings of the prophets,
spoken against the wicked priests of the Jews, he aptly
applies against the clergy of his time, comparing the
church then present to the spiritual strumpet spoken of
in the sixteenth chapter of the prophet Ezekiel. And
proves in conclusion the clergy of the church then to be
so much worse than the old synagogue of the Jews, by
how much it is worse to sell the church and sacraments,
than to suffer doves to be sold in the church. With no
less judgment also and learning he answers to the old
and false objections of the papists, who, although never
80 wicked, yet think themselves the church which the
Lord cannot forsake.
In the fifth year of this Pope Urban, began the order
of the Jesuits. And to this time, which was about
A. D. 13t>7, the offices here in England, as the lord
chancellor, lord treasurer, and of the privy seal, were
wont to be in the hands of the clergy. But about this
year, through the motion of the lords in the parliament,
and partly for hatred of the clergy, all the offices were
removed from the clergy to the lords temporal.
After the death of Pope Urban, succeeded Pope
Gregory XI. who brought again the papacy out of
France to Rome, after having been absent the space of
seventy years : he was influenced (as Sabellicus records)
by the answer of a bishop, whom the pope asked, why
■he was so long absent from his charge and church, say-
ing that, " it was not the part of a good pastor, to keep
him from his Hock so long." The bishop answer-
ing said, " And you yourself, being the chief bishop,
who may and ought to be an eiample to us all, why are
you so Jong from the place where your church is?"
The pope sought all means after that to remove his
court out of France again to Rome, and he did so.
The king of England, holding a parliament in the
third year of this pope, sent his ambassadors to him, de-
airing that from henceforth he would abstain from his
(reservations of benefices used in the court of England ;
and that spiritual men, promoted within this realm to
bishoprics, might freely conduct their elections within
■the realm, and be confirmed by their metropolitans, ac-
cording to the ancient custom of the realm. Wherefore,
'Upon these, and such other matters, where the king and
the realm thought themselves aggrieved, he desired of
*he pope to provide some remedy, &c. The pope re-
turned answer to the king, requiring to be certified of
the king's mind concerning the same. But what answer
•it was, is not in history expressed, save that the year
following, which was L574, there was a treating at
Burgeg upon certain of the articles between the king
and the pope, which hung two years in suspense ; and so
At length It was agreed, that the pope should no more
aise his ceservatioas of benefices in England, and the
king shotdd no more confer and give benefices upon the
Krit, Quare impedit, Hfc. But as to the freedom of elec*
tions to be confirmed by the metropolitan, nothing was
touched.
The king by the consent of the lords and commons, ia
the twenty-fifth year of his reign, enacted a statute in
accordance with a statute made in the thirtieth year of
his grandfather Edward I., wherein an act was ])assed
against the ravenous pillage of the pope, through pro-
visions, reservations, and collations, &c. but not put in
execution: by which provisions, the state of the realm de-
creased more and more, the king's royalty and pre-
rogative was greatly obscured and diminished, innu
merable treasure of the realm transported, aliens and
strangers placed in the best and fattest bishopricks,
abbeys, and benefices within the realm ; and such, as
either for their offices in Rome, as cardinalships, &c.
could not be resident here, or if resident, yet were better
away, for infinite causes. The king not only revived the
statute made by Edward I., but also enlarged the same.
Adding very strait and sharp penalties against the of-
fenders, as exemption out of the king's protection, loss
of all their lands, goods, and other possessions, and
their bodies to be imprisoned at the king's pleasure ; and
further, whoever was lawfully convicted, or for want of
appearance by process, was within the lapse of this
statute of prfeiDunire, (for so was the name thereof),
should suffer all and every such molestations and inju-
ries, as men exempted from the protection of the king.
So that whoever had killed such men, had been in no
more danger of law, than for killing any outlaw, or one
not worthy to live in a commonweal. Like unprofitable
members they were then, yea, in that time of ignorance,
esteemed in England who would offer themselves to the
wilful slavery and servile obedience of the pope ; al-
though in these days, yea and that amongst no small
fools, it is counted more than evangelical holiness. He
that wishes to peruse the statute, and would see every
branch and article thereof at large discussed and han-
dled, with the penalties, let him read the statute of pro-
vision and pramunire, made in the twenty-fifth year of
this king's days. And let him read in the statutes
made in the parliaments holden the twenty-seventh and
thirty-eighth years of his reign ; and under the same title
of provision and prcemunire, he shall find the pope's
primacy and jurisdiction within this realm more nearly
touched, and much of his papal power restrained ; in-
somuch that whoever, for any cause or controversy in
law, either spiritual or temporal, the same being deter-
minable in any of the king's courts (as all matters
were) whether they were personal or real citations, or
other, should either appeal or consent to any appeal to
be made out of the realm to the pope or see of Rome,
should incur the penalty and danger of prcemunire.
Divers other matters wherein the pope is restrained of
his usurped power, authority, and jurisdiction within
this realm of England, are expressed in the titles and
statutes, and at large set forth, whoever list to peruse
the same, which for brevity's sake I omit, hasting to
other matters.
About this time (being A. D. 1370), lived holy
Bridget, whom the church of Rome has canonized not
only for a saint, but also for a prophetess ; who, not-
withstanding, in her book of revelations, which has been
oftentimes printed, was a great rebuker of the pope, and
of the filth of his clergy, calling him a musderer of souls,
a spiller and a pilferer of the flock of Christ, more abomi-
nable than the Jews, more cruel than Judas, more unjust
than Pilate, worse than Lucifer himself. The see of the
pope she prophesies shall be thrown down into the deep
like a millstone ; and that his assistant shall bui-n with
brimstone; affirming that the prelates, bishops, and
priests are the cause why the doctrine of Christ is ae-
glected, and almost extinguished. And that the clergy
have turned the ten commandments of God into two
words, to wit, " Give money." It were long and tedious to
declare all that she writes against them, let this suffice
for all. Bridget affirms in her revelations, that when
the Holy Virgin said to her Son, " how Rome was a
fruitful and fertile field ;" " yea," said he, '' but of weeds
only, and cockle," &c.
To this Bridget I will join also Catherine of Sienn«,
A.D. 1362— i;5-l.] DIVERS LEARNED MEN AT THIS TIME WRITE AGAINST THE POPE. 221
an holy nun, who lived much about the same time,
(A. D. l.'{79). This Catherine was wont much to com-
plain of the corrupt state of the churcli, namely, of the
prelates of the court of Rome, and of the pope, warning
them of the great schism, which then followed in the
church of Rome, and endured to the council of Con-
stance. (A. D. 1414.)
Besides these, the Lord, who never ceases to work in
his church, stirred up against the malignant church of
Rome, the spirits of divers good and godly teachers, as
Matthew Paris, a Bohemian born, who, about A.D.
1370, wrote a large book of antichrist, and proves him
to be already come, and notes the pope to be the same.
In this book he greatly inveighs against the wickedness
and tilthiness of the clergy, and against the neglecting of
their duty in governing the church. The locusts men-
tioned in the Apocalypse, he says, are the hypocrites
reigning in the church. The works of antichrist, he
says, are these, the fables and inventions of men reigning
in the church, the images and feigned relics that are wor-
shipped every where. That men worship every one his
own saint and saviour beside Christ , so that every man and
city almost has his peculiar Christ. He taught and
affirmed morever, thatgodliness and true worship of God
are not bound to place, persons, or times, to be heard
more in this place than in another, at this time more
than at another, &c. He argues also against the clois-
terers, who leaving the only and true Saviour, set up to
themselves their Francises, their Dominies, and such
other, and have them for their saviours, glorifying and
triumphing in them, and feigning many forged lies about
them. He was greatly and much offended vrith monks
and friars, for neglecting, or father burying the word of
Christ, and, instead of him, celebrating and setting up
their own rules and canons, affirming him to be hurtful
to true godliness ; that priests, monks, and nuns, should
account themselves spiritual, and all others to be lay and
secular, attributing only to themselves the opinion of
holiness, and contemning other men. He further
writes, that antichrist had seduced all universities and
colleges of learned men, so that they teaoh no sincere
doctrine, neither give any light to the christians with
their teaching. Finally, he forewarns that it will come to
pass, that God yet once again will raise up godly teach-
ers, who, being fervent in the spirit and zeal of Elias,
shall disclose and refute the errors of antichrist, and an-
tichrist himself, openly to the whole world.
About the same time, or shortly after, (A. D. 1384),
we read also of John of Mouiitziger, rector of the uni-
i versity of Ulme, who openly in the schools in his ora-
I tion propounded that the body of Christ was not God,
and therefore not to be worshipped as God with that
kind of worship called Latreia, as the sophisters term
it, meaning thereby that the sacrament was not to be
adored, which afterward he also defended in writhig ;
affirming also, that Christ in his resurrection took to
him again all his blood which he had shed in his pas-
sion ; meaning thereby to infer, that the blood of Christ,
which, in many places is worshipped, neither can be
called the blood of Christ, neither ought to be wor-
shi])ped.
Nilus was archbishop of Thessalonica, and lived much
about this time. He wrote a long work against the La-
tins, that is, against such as took part and held with the
church of Rome. His first book, being written in Greek,
was afterward translated into Latin, and lately now into
English, in this our time. In the first chapter of thisbook,
ha lays all the blame and fault of the dissension and
schism between the eastern and the western churches,
upon the pope. He affirmed that the pope only would
command what he pleased, were it never so contrary to all
the ancient canons ; that he would hear and follow no
man's advice ; that he would not permit any free coun-
cils to be assembled, &c. And that therefore it was not
possible that the controversies between the Greek church
and Latin church should be decided.
In the second chapter of this book he makes a very
learned disputation. For first, he declares that the
pope, not at all by God's commandment, but only by
human law, has any dignity, more than other bishops,
which dignity, the councils, the fathers, the emperors,
have granted to him. Neither did they grant it for jiny
consideration, than that the city then had the empire of
all the whole world, and not at all because Peter was ever
there, or not there.
Secondly, he declares that the primacy is not so great
as he and his svcophants usurp to themselves. Also he
refutes the chiefest propositions of the papists one after
another. He declares that the pope has no more do-
minion than other patriarchs, and that the pope may
err as well as other mortal men ; and that he is subject
both to laws and councils, as well as other bishops.
That it belonged not to him, but to the emperor, to call
general councils ; and that in ecclesiastical causes he
could establish and ordain no more than all other bishops
might. And, lastly, that he gets no more by Peter's
succession than that he is a bishop, as all other bishops
after the apostles are, &c.
I cannot leave out the memory of James Misuensis,
who also wrote of the coming of antichrist. He men-
tions a certain learned man, whose name was Militzius,
who was a famous and worthy preacher in Prague. He
lived about A. D. 1366, long before Huss, and before
WicklilTe also. In his writings he declares how the
same good man Militzius was by the Holy Spirit of God
incited, and moved to search out of the holy scriptures
the manner and coming of antichrist ; and found that
now in his time he was already come. And James says
that Militzius was constrained to go up to Rome,
and there publicly to preach ; and that afterwards he
affirmed the same before the inquisitor — that the same
mighty and great antichrist, which the scriptures made
mention of, was already come.
He affirmed also, that the church, by the negligence
of the pastors, should become desolate, and that iniquity
should abound. Also, he said that there were in the
church of Christ idols, which should destroy Jerusalem,
and make the temple desolate, but were cloaked by hy-
pocrisy. Further, that there are many who deny Christ,
for they keep silence against their conscience ; neither
do they hear Christ, whom all the world should know,
and confess his truth before men.
There is also a bull of Pope Gregory XI. to the arch-
bishop of Prague, wherein he is commanded to excommu-
nicate and persecute Militzius and his hearers. The
same bull declares that he was once a canon of Prague,
but that afterwards he renounced his canonship, and
began to preach, because he preached that antichrist was
already come, and he was, by John, archbishop of Prague,
put in prison. He had his company or congregation to
whom he preached, and among them were certain con-
verted women who had forsaken their evil life, and did
live godly and well ; he was accustomed in his sermons
to prefer these before all the blessed nuns that never
offended. He taught also openly, that in the pope, car-
dinals, bishops, prelates, priests, and other religious
men, was no truth, and that they taught not the way of
truth, but that only he, and such as held with him,
taught the true way of salvation.
About the year' 1371, lived Henry de Jota, whom
Gerson much commends, and also his companion
Henry de Hassia, a learned and famous man. In an
epistle of this Henry de Hassia, which he wrote to tlie
Bishop of Normacia, the author greatly accuses the s]ii-
ritual men of every order, yea, and the most holy of all
others, the pope himself, of many and great vices. He
said that the ecclesiastical governors in the primitive
church were compared to the sun shining in the day-
time ; and the political governors to the moon shining
in the night. But the spiritual men, he said, ih.it now
are, do neither shine in the day-time, nor yet in the
night-time, but rather with their darkness do obscure
both the day and the night, that is, with their filthy
living, ignorance, and impiety. He cites also out of the
prophecy of Hildegardis, these words : " Therefore doth
the devil in himself speak of you priests ; damty ban-
quets and feasts, wherein is all voluptuousness, do I find
amongst these men; insomuch that mme eyes, mine
ears, my body, and my veins be even filled with the
froth of them!" " Lastly," saith he, " they every day
222
MARTYRS BEFORE WICKLIFF.— LAW OF PRAEMUNIRE REVIVED. [Book V.
more and more, as Lucifer did, seek to climb higher and
higher, till every day with him more and more, they
fall deeper and deeper."
About the year 1390, there were burned at Bringa
thirtv-six citizens of Mentz, for the doctrine of
the Waldenses, as Brussius affirms, which opinion was
not contrary to what they held before, wherein they af-
firmed the pope to be that great antichrist which should
come ; unless peradventure the pope seemed then to be
more evidently convicted of antichristianity, than at any
other time.
For the like cause many others beside these are to be
found in histories, who sustained similar persecutions
by the pope, if leisure would serve to peruse all that
might be searched. As where Masseus records of some
to the number of a hundred and forty, who, in the pro-
vince of Narbonne, chose rather to suffer every grievous
punishment by fire, than to receive the decretals of
the Romish church, contrary to the truth of the scrip-
ture.
What should I here speak of the twenty-four who
suffered at Paris (A. D. 1210) ? Also in the same au-
thor is testified that (A. D. 1211) there were four hun-
dred, under the name of heretics, burned, eighty be-
headed. Prince Americus hanged, and the lady of the
castle stoned to death.
Moreover, in the chronicles of Hoveden, and of other
writers, are recited a great number, who, in France,
were burned for heretics.
We will now, Christ willing, proceed upon no light
reports of feeble credit, nor upon any fabulous legends
without authority, but upon the true and substantial
copies of the public records of the realm, remaining yet
to be seen under the king's most sure and faithful cus-
tody. Out of which records such matter appears against
the popish church of Rome, and against his usurped au-
thority, such open standing and crying against that see,
and that not privily, but even in open parliament, in the
days of this King Edward III., that neither will the
Romish peojile of this our age easily think it true
when they see it, neither yet shall they be able to deny
it.
King Edward III., in the sixth year of his reign,
hearing that Edward Baliol had proclaimed himself
King of Scotland, required counsel of the whole state.
And for this he summoned a parliament of all estates
to meet at York about the beginning of December,
where the king was already come, waiting for the coming
of such as were summoned. But none of all the clergy
came, except the archbishop of York, the bishop of
Lincoln, and of Carlisle, and abbots of York and Selby.
So that there came not the archbishop of Canterbury,
nor any other of his province, and all because there was
a dispute whether Canterbury or York should carry the
cross.
It follows also in the records that the commons find
great default at provisions coming from Rome, whereby
foreigners were enabled to enjoy ecclesiastical dignities
within this realm, and shew inconveniences ensuing
thereby, namely, the decay of daily alms, — the trans-
portini;: of the treasure to nourish the king's enemies,
• — the discovering of the secrets of the realm, and the
disabling and impoverishing of the clergy within this
realm.
They also shew how the pope had most covertly
granted to two new cardinals within this realm above ten
thousand marks of yearly taxes. They therefore required
the king and nobles to find some remedy, for that they
never could, or would any longer bear tliose strange op-
pressions, or else to help them to expel out of this realm
the pope's jower by force.
Hereupon, the king, lords, and commons, sent for the
act mad^^ at Carlisle, in the thirty-fifth year of King
Edward I., upon the like comjdaint, thtreby forbidding
that any tiling should be attempted or brought into the
realm, which sliould tend to the bh wishing of the King's
prerogative, or to the prejudice of his lords or c<unnioiis.
And so at this time the statute calle<l the act of provision.
was made common by consent, which generally forbids the
bringing in of any bulls, or such trinktts from the court of
Rome, or the using, enjoying, or allowing of any such
bill, process, instrument, or such ware.
Also, It was i)roponnded in the parliament, in the
eighteenth year of Edward III., that if any bishop elect
shall refuse to take any such bishoprics, otherwise than
by the poj)e's bull ; that then such shall not enter nor
enjoy his temporalties without special license.
Also, tliat the king shall dispose of all such benefices
and dignities of such foreigners, his enemies, as remain
in the country of his enemies, and employ the profits to
the defence of the realm.
Moreover it was propounded, that commissioners be
sent to all the king's ports, to apprehend all such
persons as shall bring in any such instrument from Rome,
and to bring them forthwith before the council to answer
thereto.
Propoimded, furthermore, that the deanei-y of York,
which is to be recovered by judgment in the king's court,
may be bestowed upon some aVjle man within the realm,
who will maintain the same against him (meaning the
cardinal, who holds the same by provision from Rome,
being the enemy to the king and to the realm), and that
the profits may be employed to the defence of the
realm.
To all which petitions the king's answer was
made in the form following : — " It is agreed by the
king, earls, barons, justices, and otherwise men of the
realm, that the petitions aforesaid be made in sufficient
form of law, according to the petitions aforesaid."
To pass further, in the twentieth year of the king's
reign in the parliament holden the same year, it was
propounded. That all foreign monks should leave the
realm by the day of St. Michael, and that their livings
should be disposed to young English scholars. The
livings of these the king took to his hands.
Also, that the king may take the profits of all other
foreigners' livings, as cardinals and others, during their
lives. The profits of which were also to be in the king's
hands.
That such foreigners enemies, as are advanced to liv-
ings here in England (being in their own countries, shoe-
makers, tailors, or chamberlains to cardinals), should
depart liefore Michaelmas, and their livings be disjiosed
to poor English scholars. The livings also of these re-
mained in the king's hands.
The commons refused to pay any payment to any car-
dinals, lying in France, to treat of war or peace, which
was granted on the king's part as reasonable.
Also propounded and fully agreed, that the yearly ad-
vance of two thousand marks (granted by the pope to
two cardinals, out of the provinces of Canterbury and
York) should be restrained.
Likewise enacted, that no Englishman should take any-
thing in farm of any foreign monk, or buy any of their
goods, or be of their counsel, on pain of perpetual im-
prisonment.
Enacted further, that no person should bring into the
realm, to any bishop or other, any bull, or any other let-
ters from Rome, or from any alien, unless he shew the
same to the chancellor or warden of the cinque ports,
upon loss of all his goods.
Finally, in the end of the parliament the bishops were
commanded, before the next convocation, to certify to
the chancery the names of all such foreigners, of their
benefices, and the values of the same.
The parliament of the twenty-fifth year was begun the
fith day of February, in which, beside other matters, it
was propounded that remedy might be had against the
pope's reservation, by which the j)ope received the first
fruits of all ecclesiastical dignities : a greater consump-
tion to the realm than all the king's wars.
Also that the same remedy might be had against such
as in the court of Rome presume to iindo any judgment
given in the king's court, as if they had power to undo
the laws of the realm.
\\ liereto it was answered, that there was sufficient
remedy provided by law.
In the jiarli'iment holden at Westminster, the thirty-
f'-htli year of Edward III., it was required by the
Iving's own mouth, and declared to the whole estates,
A. D. 1370.]
NOTES OUT OF ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AGAINST THE POPE.
223
how daily citation and false suggestions were made to
the pope, for matters determinable in his courts within
the realm, and for procuring provisions to ecclesiastical
dignities, to the great defacing of the ancient laws — to
the spoiling of his crown — to the daily conveying away
of the treasure — to the wasting of ecclesiastical livings
• — to the withdrawing of divine service, alms, hospitality,
and other acceptable works, and to the daily increase of
all mischiefs : wherefore, in person by his own mouth
the king required the whole estate to jirovide due
remedy.
In the fortieth year of the reign of King Edward III.,
another parliament was called at Westminster (A. D.
136"6), the bishop of Ely being lord chancellor and
speaker, who, in the second day of the assembly in the
presence of the king, lords, and commons, declared,
how the day before they generally understood the cause
of this their assembly, and now should more particu-
larly understand the same ; specially how that the king
understood that the pope (for the homage which King
John made to the see of Rome for the realms of England
and Ireland, and for the tribute by him granted), meant
by process to cite the king to Rome to answer thereto.
Wherein the king required their advice, what were best
for him to do if any such thing were attempted. The
bishops by themselves required a respite till the next
day to answer. So did the lords and commons every
one of them by themselves.
The next day the whole estates re-assembled toge-
ther, and by common consent enacted in effect following,
viz. forasmuch as neither King John, nor any other king,
could bring his realm and people under such thraldom
and subjection, but by the common assent of parliament,
which was not done, therefore John acted against his
oath at his coronation. If, therefore, the pope should
attempt anything against the king, by process, or other
matter, that the king, with all his subjects should with
all their force and power resist the same.
Here, moreover, is not to be omitted, how in the pre-
sent parliament the universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge on the one side, and the friars of the four mendi-
cant orders in the universities on the other side, made
long complaints, the one against the other to the king in
parliament, and in. the end submitted themselves to the
king's order.
After which, the king upon full digesting of the whole
matter (by assent of parliament) ordered, that the chan-
cellor and scholars, as well as the friars of those
lorders in the universities, should in all graces and
[other school exercises use each other in friendly wise,
^without any rumour as before. That none of those or-
|ders should receive any scholars into their orders under
Ithe age of eighteen years. That the friars should take no
'advantage, or procure bulls, or other process from Rome,
against the universities, or proceed therein. And that the
king should have power to redress all controversies be-
itween them from thenceforth, and the offenders to be
Ipunished at the pleasure of the king, and of the Council.
' In process of these acts and rolls of parliament, it
jfoUows, that in the fiftieth year of the reign of King
jEdward III. (A.D. 137(i), another great parliament was
iassembkd at Westminster, where a long bill was put up
lagain^t the usurpations of the pope, as being the cause
|of all the plagues, murrains, famine, and poverty of the
irealm, so as there was not left one-third of the number
|of persons, or other commodity within the realm that
ithere lately was .
I 2. That the taxes paid to the pope of Rome for eccle-
Isiastical dignities, amount to five -fold as much as the
tax of all profits which belong to the king, by the year,
out of his whole realm ; and that for some one bishopric
or other dignity, the pope, by means of translations and
deaths, has three, four, or five several taxes.
3. That the brokers of that sinful city promote for
money many caitifls (being altogether unlearned and un-
worthy), to a thousand marks living a year, where the
learned and worthy can hardly obtain twenty marks,
whereby learning decays.
4. That foreigners (euemies to this land) who never
saw nor care not to see their parishioners, have those
livings, whereby they despise God's service, and convey
away the treasure, and are worse than Jews or Saracens.
5. Also it was put in the bill to be considered, that
the laws of the church would have such livings to be be
stowed for charity oidy, without praying or paying.
6". That reason would that livings given of devotion
should be bestowed in hospitality.
7. That God had committed his sheep to the pope, to
be pastured, and not to be shorn or shaven.
8. That lay j)atrons, perceiving the covetousness and
simony of the pope, do thereby learn to sell their bene-
fices to beasts, none otherwise than Christ was sold to
the Jews.
9. That there is no prince in Christendom so rich, that
has the fourth part of the treasure which the pope most
sinfully lias out of this realm for churches.
10. Over and besides in the bill, repeating again the
tender zeal for the honour of the church, were declared
and particularly named all the plagues which have
justly fallen upon this realm, for suffering the church to
be so defaced, with a declaration that it will daily in-
crease without redress.
11. Whereupon with much persuasion this was de-
sired, to help to re-edity the same ; and the rather be-
cause this was the year of jubilee, the fiftieth year of the
king's reign, the year of joy and gladness, than which
there could be no greater.
12. Tlie means how to begin this was to write two
Ittrers to the pope, the one in Latin under the king's
seal, the other in French under the seals of the nobles,
importing their particularities, and requiring redress ;
of which ktter of the lords the effect may be seen in
a like letter mentioned before.
13. And for a further accomplishment liereof, to
enact, that no money be carried out of the realm by let-
ter of Lombardy or otherwise, on pain of forfeiture and
imprisonment, and to enact the articles hereafter ensuinf .
14. The king had heretofore by statute provided suf-
ficient remedy, and otherwise pursued the same with the
holy father the pope, and so minded to do from time to
time, until he had obtained as well for the matters be-
fore, as for the articles ensuing, being in a manner £iU
one.
15. That the pope's collector and other strangers the
king's enemies, and only lieger spies for English dig-
nities and disclosing of the secrets of the realm, may be
touched.
16. That the same collector being also receiver of the
pope's pence, keeps a house in London, with clerks and
officers, as if it were one of the king's solemn courts,
transporting yearly to the pope twenty thousand marks,
and most connnonly more.
17. That cardinals and other foreigners remaining at
Rome, whereof one cardinal is dean of York, another of
Salisbury, another of Lincoln, another archdeacon of
Canterbury, another archdeacon of Durham, another
archdeacon of Suffolk, another archdeacon of York,
another prebendary of Thame and Nassington, another
prebendary of Bucks in the church of York, have some
of the best dignities of England, and have sent over to
them yearly twenty thousand marks, over and above that
which English brokers lying here have.
18. That the pope (to ransom the Frenchmen the
king's enemies, who defend Lombardy from him), does
always at his jdeasure levy a subsidy of the whole clergy
of England.
19. That the pope for the greater gain makes several
translations of all the bishoprics and other dignities
within the realm.
20. That the pope's collector has this year taken to
his use the first fruits of all benefices, by collation or
provision.
21. To renew all the statutes against provisors from
Rome, since the pope reserves all the benefices of the
world for his own proper gifts, and has this year created
twelve new cardinals, so as now there are thirty, where
was wont to be but twelve, and all those cardinals, ex-
cept two or three, are the king's enemies.
22. That the pope in time will give the temporal
224
THE HISTORY OF JOHN WICKLIFP.
[Book V.
manors of those dignities to the king s enemies, since he
so daily usurps upon the realm, and the king's regalities.
23. That all houses and corporations of religion, who
to the time of the king's reign had free election of their
heads, the pope has encroached the same to himself.
24. That in all legacies from the pope, the English
clergy bear the charge of the legates, and all for the
goodness of our money.
2."). And so it appears, that if the money of the realm
were as plentiful as ever it was, the collectors, with the
proctors of cardinals, would soon convey the same
away.
26. For remedy hereof it may be provided, that no
su^h collector or proctor do remain in England, on pain
of life and member. And that no Englishman, on the
like pain, become any such collector or proctor, or re-
main at Rome.
27. For better information hereof, and namely touch-
ing the pope's collector, because the whole clergy being
obedient to him, dare not displease him, it were good
tliat Sir John Strensale, parson of St. Botolph's in Hol-
born, may be sent to come before the lords and com-
mons of this parliament, who being straightly charged
can declare much more, because he served the collector
five years.
And thus much of this bill touching the pope's mat-
ters, whereby it may appear that it was not for nothing
that the Italians and other foreigners used to call
Englishmen good asses, for they bare £ill burdens that
were laid upon them.
In these rolls and records of parliament in this
King's time several other things are to be noted worthy of
being marked, and not to be suppressed in silence.
Wlicrein the reader may learn and understand that the
state of the king's jurisdiction here within this realm, was
not straightened in those days (although the pope then
seemed to be in his chief ruff) as was seen afterwards
in othtr kings' days, as may appear in the parliament
of the fifteenth year of this King Edward III., and in
the twenty -fourth article of the parliament, where it is
to be read, that the king's officers and temporal justices
did then both punish usurers, and impeached the officers
of the church for bribery, and for taking money for tem-
poral pain, probate of wills, solemnity of marriage, &c.
notwithstanding all the pretended liberties of the popish
churcli to the contrary.
This is moreover to be added to the commendation of
this king, how in the volumes of the acts and rolls of the
king it appears, that King Edward III. sent John Wick-
liff, then reader of divinity lectures in Oxford, with other
lords and ambassadors, over to Italy, to treat with the
pope's legates concerning affairs betwixt the king and
the pope with full commission ; the tenor whereof here
follows : —
" The king to all and singular to whom these presents
shall come, greeting. Know ye, that we reposing assured
confidence in the lidelity and wisdom of the reverend
father John t}ishop of Bangor, and other our loving and
faithful .subjects. Master John Wickliff, reader of the
divinity lecture. Master John Gunter, dean of Segobyen,
tind Master Simon Moulton, doctor of law, Sir William
Burton Knight, Master John Belknap, and Master John
Honnington, have directed them as our ambassadors and
special commissioners to the parts beyond the seas.
Giving to our ambassadors and commissioners, to six or
five of them, of whom I desire that the bishop shall be
one, full power and authority, with commandment spe-
cial, to treat and consult mildly and charitably with the
legates and ambassadors of the lord pojjc touching cer-
tain affairs. Whereupon of late we sent heretofore tlic
bishop, and William Ughtred, monk of Durham, and
Master John Shepy to the see a])ostolical; and hereof to
make full relation of all things done and jiassed in the
said assembly, that all such things which may tend to the
honour of holy church, and the advancem; nt of our crown
and this our realm, may, by tlie assistance of God, and wis-
dom of the see apostolical, be brought to good effect, and
accomplished accordingly. Witness ourselves, &c. at
London, dated the twenty-sixth day of July, in the
forty-eighth year of our reign."
It may be seen by this letter what good will the king
then bare to Wickliff, and what little regard he had for
the sinful see of Rome. W^e will now proceed to the
history of this valiant soldier of Christ.
JOHN WICKLIFF.
After all those before recited, by whom it pleased the
Lord to work against the bishop of Rome, and to weaken
the pernicious superstition of the friars ; it now remains to
enter into the history of John Wickliff, our countryman,
and others of his time and country, whom the Lord
by the power of his Spirit raised up here in England, to
detect more fully and amply the poison of the pope's
doctrine, and the false religion set up by the friars. In
his opinions some blemishes perhaps may be obsei-ved,
yet they are such blemishes as rather shew him to be
a man that might err, than one who could directly fight
against Christ our Saviour, as the popes and friars did.
And from the primitive ages of the church what learned
man has been so perfect, so absolutely sure, that no
opinion of his has ever been erroneous ; and yet these
articles of his would be seen to be neither so many in
number, nor yet so gross in themselves as his enemies
give them out to be, if his books which they destroyed
were remaining to be compared with those articles which
they have wrested to the worst.
"This much is certain, and cannot be denied, but that
he, being the public reader of divinity to the university
of Oxford, was» for the rude time wherein he lived,
famously reputed for a great clergyman, a deep scholar,
and no less expert in all kind of philosophy, which not
only appears by his famous and learned writings, but
also by the confession of Walden his most cruel and
bitter enemy, who, in a letter written to Pope Martin V.,
says, " That he was wonderfully astonished at his most
strong arguments with the places of authority which he
had gathered, with the vehemency and force of his rea-
sons,'' &c. It appears that Wickliff flourished about
A. D. 1371, in the reign of Edward III. ; for thus we
find in the chronicles of Caxton : " In the year of our
Lord 1371, Edward III., king of England, in his parlia-
ment was against the pope's clergy : he willingly
hearkened, and gave ear to the voices and tales of here-
tics, with some of his council ; conceiving and following
sinister opinions against the clergy ; for which he
tasted and suffered afterward much adversity and
trouble. And not long after, in the year of our Lord
1372, he wrote to the bishop of Rome, that he should
not by any means intermeddle any more within his king-
dom, as to the reservation or distribution of benefices,
and that all such bishops as were under his dominion,
should enjoy their former and ancient liberty, and be
confirmed by their metropolitans, as has been accus-
tomed in times past," &c. This is without all doubt,
that when the world was in a most desperate and vile
state, and lamentable darkness and ignorance of God's
truth overshadowed the whole earth, this man stepped
out like a valiant champion.
Thus does Almighty God continually succour and help
us, when all things else are in despair, being always, ac-
cording to the Psalm, " a help in time of need." This
was never more apparent than in these later days and
extreme age of the church, when the whole state, not
only of worldly things, but also of religion, was depraved
and corrupted. The state of religion amongst the
divines was in a deep lethargy, and past all the help and
remedy of man. Only the name of Christ remained
among the christians ; his true and lively doctrine was
as far unknown to most men, as his name was common
to all men. As to faith, — consolation, — the end and
use of the law, — the office of Christ, — our impotency
and weakness, — the Holy Ghost, — the greatness and
strength of sin, — true works — grace, and free justifica-
tion by faith, — the liberty of a christian man ; of all these
things wherein consists the sum of our profession, there
was no mention, and scarcely a word spoken. Scripture,
A. D. 1370—13/6.] WICKLIFF SENT FOR BY JOHN OF GAUNT, DUKE OF LANCASTER. 225
learning, and divinity, was knuwn but to a few, and that
in the schools only, and there also it was almost all
turned into sophistry. Instead of the epistles of Peter
and Paul, men occupied their time in studying Aquinas
and Scotus, and Lombards, the Master of Sentences.
The world leaving and forsaking God's spiritual word
and doctrine, was altogether led and blinded with
outward ceremonies and human traditions. In these
was all the hope of obtaining salvation fully fixed,
so that scarcely any thing else was taught in the
churches.
The people were taught to worship nothing but what
they saw, and saw almost nothing which they did not
worship.
The whole world was filled and overwhelmed with error
and darkness. And no great wonder, for the simple and
unlearned people, being far from all knowledge of the
holy scripture, thought it sufficient for them to know
only these things which were delivered to them by their
pastors and shepherds, and they on the other hand
taught nothing else, but such things as came forth from
the court of Rome, of which the greater part tended to the
profit of their order, more than to the glory of Christ.
The christian faith was nothing then, but that every
man should know that Christ once suffered, that is to say,
that all men should know and understand that which the
devils themselves also knew. Hypocrisy was counted for
wonderful holiness. Men were so given to outward
forms, that even they who professed the knowledge of
tte scriptures, scarcely understood, or knew any thing
but these forms. And this appeared, not only in the
common sort of doctors and teachers, but also in the
very heads and captains of the church, whose whole re-
ligion and holiness consisted in the observing of days,
meats, and garments, and such circumstances, as of
»)lace, time, person, &c. From this there sprang so
miny fashions of vestures and garments, so many dif-
ferences of colours and meats, so many pilgrimages to
ieveral places, as if St. James at Compostella could do
fhat, which Christ could not do at Canterbury ; or else,
that God was not of the same power and strength in every
place, or could not be found, unless by running hither
and thither in the pilgrimages. &c. Thus the holiness
of the whole year was transported and put off to the
lent season. No country or land was counted holy, but
only Palestine. Such was the blindness of that time,
that men did strive and fight for the cross at Jerusalem,
as if it had been for the chief and only strength of our
faith. It is a wonder to read the monuments of the
former times, to see and understand what great troubles
and calamities this cross had caused in almost every
christian commonwealth. For the Romish champions
never ceased, by writing, admonishing, and counselling,
yea, and by quarrelling, to move and stir up princes to
mind war and battle, even as though the faith and be-
lief of the gospel were of no power, or little effect with-
out that wooden croes.
In these troublous times, and horrible darkness of
ignorance, when there seemed to be no spark of pure
doctrine remaining, this Wickliff sprang up by God's
providence, through whom the Lord purposed to awaken
the world, which was overwhelmed in the deep streams
of human traditions.
Wickliff, after he had a long time professed divinity
in the university of Oxford, and perceiving the true doc-
trine of Christ's gospel to be defiled with the inventions
of bishops, orders of monks, and dark errors, and after
long deliberating with himself, vrith many secret sighs,
and bewailing the general ignorance of the world, could
no longer bear it, he at last determined to remedy such
things as be saw to be out of the way. But as he saw
that this couid not be attempted without great trouble,
and that these things, which had been so long time
rooted and grafted in men's minds, could not be sud-
denly plucked up, he thought that it should be done by
little and little. Wherefore he first assailed his adver-
saries in logical and metaphysical questions, disputing
with them of the first form and fashion of things, of the
increase of time, and of the intelligible substance of a
creature, with other such things of no great importance.
but yet it helped him not a little in preparing to dispute
about greater matters.
From these beginnings the way was opened to greater
matters, so that at the length he came to touch the mat-
ters of the sacraments, and other al)uses of the church.
Touching which things this holy man took great pains,
protesting openly in the schools^ that it itsls his chief
and principal purpose to call back the church from
her idolatry to some better amendment, especially in
the matter of the sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ ; but this sore point could not be touched with-
out the great grief and pain of the whole world. For
first of all, the whole body of monks and begging friars
were set into a rage and madness, and even as hornets
with their sharp stings assailed this good man on every
side. After them the priests, and then after them the
archbishop took the matter in hand, depriving him of
his benefice which he had in Oxford ; but being some-
what befriended and supported by the king, he con-
tinued and bare up against the malice of the friars, and of
the archbishop, till about A.D. 1.S77. I must now digress
a little to make some mention of John of Gaunt duke of
Lancaster, who was his special supporter and friend.
When King Edward III. had reigned now about
fifty-one years, and was of great age, and in such fee-
bleness, that he was unable to govern the affairs of the
realm, a parliament being called the year before his
death, it was resolved by the knights and burgesses, that
twelve sage and discreet lords and peers should be placed
as guardians about the king, to have the doing and dis-
posing under him of matters pertaining to the government.
These twelve governors by parliament being ap-
pointed to have the tuition of the king, and to attend
the public affairs of the realm, remained for a certiin
time about him, till afterwards, being again removed,,
all the government of the realm, next under the king,,
was committed to the duke of Lancaster the king's soDi.
For as yet Richard, the son of Prince Edward, lately de«-
ceased, was very young and under age.
This duke of Lancaster had in his heart for a long-
time conceived a displeasure against the popish clergy,
whether for corrupt and impure doctrine joined with
abominable excess of life, or for what other cause, is not
precisely known.
The duke sent for John Wickliff, who was then the-
divinity reader in Oxford, and had commenced several
disputations contrary to the form and teaching of the
pope's church in many things, and had been deprived of
his benefice. The opinions which he began to put forth in;
Oxford, in his lectures and sermons, were these : — That
the pope had no more power than others to excommuni-
cate any man^that even if it be given by any person to^
the pope to excommunicate, yet to absolve the same is as
much in the power of another priest as in the pope.
He affirmed, that neither the king nor any temporal lord
could give any perpetuity to the church, or to anj
ecclesiastical person ; for that when such ecclesiastical per-
sons sinned, and continued in the same, the temporal
powers ought to take away from them what before had
been bestowed upon them, which he proved to have
been practised here in England by William Rufus,
Wliich (said he) if he did lawfully, why may not the
same also be practised now ? If he did it unlawfully,,
then does the church err unlawfully in praying for him.
Besides these his opinions and assertions, with others
which are hereafter to be mentioned in order, he began
also to touch the matter of the sacrament, proving that
in the sacrament the accidents of bread remained not
without the substance, both by the holy scriptures, and
also by the authority of the doctors, but specially by
such as were most ancient. As for the later writers he-
utterly rejected them, saying, that the simple and plain
truth appears in the scriptures, to which all hu/nan tra-
ditions whatever must be referred, and specially such
as are set forth and published now of late years. Thia
was the cause why he refused the later writers of decre-
tals, leaning only to the scriptures and ancient doctors^
affirming out of them, that in the sacrament of the body
which is celebrated with bread, the accidents are not
present without the substance ; that is to say, that tito
o2
226 WICKLIFF CITED TO APPEAR BEFORE THE BISHOPS.— DEATH OF EDWARD III. [Book T.
body of Christ is not present without the bread, as the
common sort of priests in those days did dream.
Although through the favour and support of the duke
of Lancaster, and Lord Henry Percy, he persisted
hitherto, and was protected against the violence and
cruelty of his enemies, at last, about A. D. 1376,
the bishops still urging and inciting their archbishop
Simon Sudbury, who had already deprived him, and
afterwards prohibited him, had obtained by process and
order of citation to have him brought before them,
both space and time for him to appear was assigned to
him after their usual form.
The duke having intelligence that Wickliff was to
appear before the bishops, and fearing that he was too
weak against such a multitude, called to him out of the
orders of friars, four bachelors of divinity, one out of
every order, to join them with Wickliff, for the greater
security. When the day was come assigned to Wickliff to
appear, which day was Thursday the 19th of February,
John Wickliff went accompanied with the four friars,
and the duke of Lancaster, and Lord Henry Percy, lord
marshal of England — the Lord Percy going before them
to make room and way where Wickliff should come.
As Wickliff, thus sufficiently guarded, was coming to
the place where the bishops sat, they animated and
exhorted him not to fear or shrink before the bishops,
who were all unlearned as compared with him. With
these words, and with the assistance of the nobles,
W'ickliif approached to the church of St. Paul in Lon-
don, where a great concourse of people was gathered to
hear what should be said and done. Such was the
throng of the multitude, that the lords (notwithstanding
all the authority of the high marshal) with great diffi-
culty could get through. The bishop of London seeing
the stir that the lord marshal kept in the church among
tlie people, speaking to the Lord Percy, said, " That if
lie had known before what authority he would have
assumed in the church, he would have stopped him from
coming there." At which words the duke, not a little
angered, answered, " That he would keep such autho-
rity there, whether the bishop liked it or not."
At last they pierced through and came to our Lady's
chapel, where the dukes and barons were sitting with
tiie archbishops and other bishops. John Wickliff, ac-
cording to the custom, stood before them, to learn what
should be laid to his charge. The Lord Percy kindly
bid liini to sit down ; but the bishop of London in anger
said, " he should not sit there. Neither was it fitting,"
said he, " that he, who was cited before his ordinary,
should sit during the time of his answer." On these
words a fire began to kindle between them, so that they
began to rate and revile one another.
Then the duke, taking Lord Percy's part, answered
the bishop with hasty words. The bishop far excelled
him in this railing art of scolding ; so the duke fell to
■threatening the bishop, that he would bring down the
;pride not only of him, but also of all the prelacy of
England ; and softly whispering in the ear of the person
next him, said, that he would rather pluck the bishop
by the hair of his head out of the church, than he would
take this at his hand. This was not spoken so secretly,
but that the Londoners overheard him. Upon which
they cried out in rage, that they would not suffer their
bishop to be abused so contemptuously, htut would lose
their lives rather than allow him to be drawn out by tlie
hair. Thus that council, being broken up with scolding
and brawling for that day, was dissolved before nine
o'clock.
Upon the 21st of June (A.D. L37",) the worthy and
victorious prince King Edward III. died after he had
■ reigned fifty one years. A prince not more aged in
years than renowned for many heroic virtues, but chiefly
remarkable and ap))lauded for his singular meekness and
clemency towards his subjects and inferiors, ruling them
by gentleness and mercy, without rigour or severity.
Among other noble and royal ornaments of his nature,
he is described as a " father to the orphan, compas-
sionate to the afflicted, — mourning with the miserable, —
relieving the oppressed, — and a friend to all tliat wanted
M helper in time of need," &c. But above all other
things in this prince in my mind deserving to be comme-
morated, is, that above all other kings of this realm, to
the time of King Henry VIII., he was the greatest bridler
of the pope's usurped jjower and outrageous oppressions;
during all the time of this king, the pope could never en.
tirely succeed in this realm, and John Wickliff was main-
taiued with favour and sufficient support.
KING RICHARD THE SECOND.
After King Edward succeeded his grandson, Richard
II. at the age of eleven years : who was crowned at West-
minster A. D. 1377, and who, following his father's
steps, was no great opponent to the doctrine of Wickliff:
although at the beginning, partly through the iniquity of
the times, and partly through the pope's letters, he could
not do all he wished in his behalf. The bishops now see-
ing the aged king taken away, during whose old age all
the government depended upon the Duke of Lancaster •
and now again seeing the duke, with the Lord Percy, re-
main in their private houses witliout intermeddling, they
thought now was the time to gain some advantage ao-ainst
V»^ickliff ; who had some degree of rest and quietness
under the protection of the duke and lord Marshal. It
is already stated how when he was brought before the
bishops, by the means of the duke and lord Henry Percy,
the council was interrupted, and brake up, bv which Wick-
liff at that time escaped without any further trouble.
These articles were at that time collected out of his ser-
mons.
That the Holy Eucharist, after the consecration, is not
the very body of Christ, but figuratively.
That the church of Rome is not the head of all
churches : and that Peter had not any more power given
by Christ, than any otlier Apostle had.
That the pope of Rome has no more in the keys of
the church, than has any other person in the order of
priesthood.
That the lords temporal may lawfully and deservedly
take away their temporalties from the church-men who
persevere in offending.
That if any temporal lord know the church to be so
offending, he is bound, under pain of damnation, to take
the temporalties from the same.
That all the Gospel is a rule sufficient of itself to rule the
life of every christian man here, without any other rule.
That all other rules, under whose observances various
monastic persons are governed, add no more perfection
to the Gospel, than does the white colour to tlie wall.
That neither the pope, nor any other prelate of the
church, ought to have prisons wherein to punish trans-
gressors.
Besides these articles, various other conclusions were
afterward gathered out of his writings and preachings,
which the bishops sent to pope Gregory at Rome : where
being perused, they were condemned for heretical and
erroneous by three-and-twenty cardinals.
The next year following, (A.D. 1378), being the first
year of King Richard II. Pope Gregory sent the following
bull by means of one master Edmund Stafford, directed to
the university of Oxford, rebuking them sharply, impe-
riously, and like a pope, for suft'ering so long the doc-
trine of John Wicklift' to take root, and not plucking it
uj) with the crooked sickle of their catholic doctrine.
Gregory the Bishnp, the servant of God's setfants, to
his veil-beloved Sons, the Chancellor and University
of Odford, in the Diocese of Lincoln, Greeting and
Apostolical Benediction.
We are compelled not only to marvel, but also to
lament, that you, considering the apostolical see has
given to your University of Oxford so great favour and
privilege, and also that you flow as in a large sea in the
knowledge of the holy scriptures, and ought to be cham-
pions and defenders of the ancient and cathohc faith
(without which there is no salvation) by your great ne-
gligence and sloth will suffer wild cockle, not only to
grow uj) among the pure wheat of the flourishing field of
your university, but also to wax strong and choke the
A. D U7G-UB2.'\ RICHARD 11.— BULL OF GREGORY XL AGAINST WICKLIFF.
227
i corn. Neither have ye any care (as we are informed)
to extirpate and phick the same up by the roots, to the
' great blemishing of your renowned name, — the peril of
' your souls, — the contempt of the church of Rome, — and
' to the great decay of the ancient faith. And further
(which grieves us) the increase of that filthy weed was
more sharply rebuked and judged of in Rome, than in
England where it sprang. Wherefore let there be means
sought by the help of the faithful, to root out the same.
Grievously it is come to our ears, that one John Wicklitf,
j parson of Lutterworth in Lincoln diocese, a professor of
Divinity (would God he were not rather a master of er-
rors) is run into a kind of detestable wickedness, not only
i and openly publishing, but also vomiting out of the filthy
dungeons of his breast, diverse professions, false and er-
roneous conclusions, and most wicked and damnable
[ heresies. Whereby he might defile the faithful sort,
I and bring them from the right path headlong into the
I way of perdition, overthrow the state of the church, and
i utterly subvert the secular policy. Of which his mis-
chievous heresies some seem to agree (only certain names
, and terms changed) with the perverse opinions, and un-
I learned doctrine of Marsilius of Padua, and of John Gan-
dune, of unworthy memory, whose books were utterly
abolished in the realm of England, by our predecessor
of happy memory John XXII., which kingdom does not
, only flourish in power, and abundance of faculties, but is
1 much more glorious and shining in pureness of faith ; ac-
customed always to bring forth men excellently learned
in the true knowledge of the holy scriptures, ripe in gra-
vity of manners, men notable in devotion, and defenders
of the catholic faith. Wherefore we will and command
you by your writing apostolical in the name of your obe-
dience, and upon pain of privation of our favour, indul-
gences and privileges granted unto you and your uni •
versity from the said see apostolical ; that hereafter ye
suffer not those pestilent heresies, and those subtle and
false conclusions and propositions, misconstruing the
right sense of faith and good works (howsoever they term
it, or what curious implication of words soever they use)
any longer to be disputed of, or brought in question ; lest
if it be not withstood at the first, and plucked up by the
roots, it might perhaps be too late hereafter to prepare
medicines when a greater number is infected with the
contagion. And further, that ye apprehend immediately,
or cause to be apprehended the said John WicklifF, and
deliver him to be detained in the safe custody of our well-
beloved brethren, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the
bishop of London, or either of them. And if you shall
find any gainsayers, corrupted with the said doctrine
(which God forbid) in your university within your juris-
diction, that shall obstinately stand in the said errors ;
that then in like manner ye apprehend them, and com-
mit them to safe custody, and otherwise to do in this
case as it shall appertain unto you : so as by your care-
ful proceedings herein, your negligence past concerning
the premises may now fully be supplied and recompensed
with present diligence. Whereby you shall not only pur-
chase unto you the favour and benevolence of the see
apostolical, but also great reward and merit of Almighty
God.
Given at Rome at St. Mary's the Greater, xu Kalend
of June, and in the 7th year of our consecration.
The pope also sent letters of similar purport to the
University of Oxford and to the bishops, and even to the
King Richard.
The bishops being again assembled, and WicklifF being
brought before them, they proceeded to examine him,
when a certain personage of the prince's court, and yet
of no very noble birth, named Lewes Clifford, entering
in among the bishops, commanded that they should not
proceed with any final sentence against John WicklifF.
At these words they all were so amazed, that they be-
came speechless. And thus by the unforeseen providence
of God, John WicklifF escaped the second time out of
the bishops' hands.
At the time of his examination, John WicklifF exhi-
bited to the bishops in writing the following protestation,
with a declaration of his mind, upon the following articles.
Tfie Protestation of John Wickliff.
" First I protest (as I have often before done) that I do
mind and intend with my whole heart (by Ihegrace ofGod)
to be a true christian, and as long as breath shall remain
in me, to profess and defend the law of Christ. And if
it shall happen that tlirough ignorance or otherwise I
sliall fail therein : I desire of my Lord God pardon and
forgiveness. And now again as before also, I do revoke
and retract ; most humbly submitting myself under the
correction of our holy mother the church. And forso-
much as the sentence of my faith, which I have holden
in the schools and elsewhere, is reported even by child-
ren, and moreover is carried by children to Rome : there-
fore lest my dear beloved brethren should take any
offence by me, I will set forth in writing the sentence
and articles, for wliich I am now accused and impeached:
which also even to the death I will defend, as I believe
all christians ought to do, and specially the bishop of
Rome and all other priests and ministers of the church.
For I do understand the conclusions after the sense and
manner of speaking of the scriptures and holy doctors,
which I am ready to expound : and if they shall be found
contrary to the faith, I am ready to revoke, and speedily
to call them back again."
This protest was accompanied by an exposition of the
articles exhibited against him.
The next year, vhich was 1.382, by the command of
William archbishop of Canterbury, there was a convo-
cation held at London, at which John WicklifF was also
commanded to be present. But whether he appeared
personally or not, I find it not certainly affirmed.
Of the articles attributed to John WicklifF, there were
ten which were condemned by the friars as heretical, the
rest as erroneous, and are as follow. It may be supposed,
that some of them were made worse by their sinister
collecting, than he meant them in his own works and
writings.
The Articles of John Wickliff, condemned as Htyetical.
1. The substance of material oread and wine remains,
in the sacrament of the altar after the consecration.
2. The accidents do not remain without the subject in
the same sacrame-nt, after the consecration.
3. That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar
truly and really, in his proper and corporal person.
4. That if a bishop or a priest be in deadly sin, he
cannot ordain, consecrate, or baptize.
5. That if a man be duly and truly contrite and peni-
tent, all exterior and outward confession is but super-
fluous and unprofitable.
6. That it is not found or established by the gospel,
that Christ did make or ordain mass.
7. If the pope be a reprobate and evil man, and conse-
quently a member of the devil ; he has no power given
to him over faithful christians, except it be given him by
the emperor.
8. That since the time of Urban VI.. there is none to
be received for the pope, but every man is to live after
manner of the Greeks, under his own law.
9. That it is against the scripture, that ecclesiastical
ministers should have any temporal possessions.
The other Articles of John Wickliff, condemned as
erroneous.
10. That no prelate ought to excommunicate any man
except he knew him first to be excommunicate of God.
11. That he, who so excommunicates any man, is
thereby himself either an heretic, or excommunicated.
12. That a prelate or bishop excommunicating any of
the clergy, who has appealed to the king or the council,
is thereby himself a traitor to the king and realm.
13. That all such who leave oft" preaching or hearing
the word of God or preaching of the gospel for fear of
excommunication, are already excommunicated, and in
the day of judgment shall be counted as traitors to
God.
22ft
THE ARCHBrSHOP OF CANTERBURY'S LETTER AGAINST W.CKLIFF.
14. Tliat it is lawful for any man, either deacon or
priest, to preach the word of God without the authority
or licence of the apostolic see or any other of his catholics.
15. That so lonj? as a man is in deadly sin, he is
neither bishop nor prelate in the church of God.
Hi. Also that the temporal lords may, according to
their own will and discretion, take away the temporal
goods of the churchmen whenever they offend.
17. That tithes are pure alms, and that the parish-
ioners may, for offence of their curates, detain and keep
them back, and bestow them upon others, at their own
will and pleasures.
18. Also, that all special prayers applied to any pri-
vate or particular person, by any prelate or religious
man, do no more profit the same person, than general or
universal prayers do profit others, under similar circum-
stances.
19. Moreover, if any man enters into any private re-
ligion, whatever it be, he is thereby made the more
unapt and unable to observe and keep the commandments
of God.
20. That holy men, who have instituted private reli-
gions, whatever they be (as well such as have posses-
sions, as also the order of begginij friars having no
possessions) in so doing, have grievously offended.
21. That religious men, (i. e. monks,) being in their
private religions, are not of the christian religion.
22. That friars are bound to get their living by the
labour of their hands, and not by begging.
2',i. That whoever gives any alms to friars, or to any
of the mendicant orders, is accursed, or in danger thereof.
While the archbishop and suffragans, with the other
doctors of divinity and lawyers, with a great company of
babbling friars and monastics were gathered together to
consult as to John WicklifT's books, at the Gray
Friars in London, upon St. Dunstan's day after din-
ner, about two o'clock, the very hour that they should
go forward with their business, a wonderful and ter-
rible earthquake fell throughout all England. Several
of the suffragan bishops being frightened, thought it
good to leave off from their purpose. But the arch-
bishop confirmed and strengthened their hearts and
minds, which were daunted with fear, to proceed in their
attempted enterprise. Then discoursing upon Wick-
liff's articles, not according to the sacred cations of the
holy scripture, but according to tlieir own traditions, tliey
pronounced and gave sentence, that some of them were
simply and plainly heretical, others half erroneous, others
irreligious, and some seditious, and not consonant to the
church of Rome.
Whereupon the lord archbishop of Canterbury, wish-
ing to check such heresies and errors, delivered to the
chancellor, his letters patent to be executed as follow :
" William by the grace of God archbishop of Canter-
bury, primate of all England, and legate of the aposto-
lical see, To our well beloved son in Christ the chancellor
of the university of Oxford, within the diocess of Lincoln,
greeting, grace, and benediction. Tlie prelates of the
church, about the Lord's flock committed to their charge,
ought to be so much more vigilant as that they see the
wolf, clothed in sheep's attire, fraudulently go about to
worry and scatter the sh^p. Doubtless, the common
fame and report is come unto our ears, tkc. We will there-
fore and command, straitly enjoining you, that in the
church of our blessed lady in Oxford, upon those days
in the which customarily the sermon is made, as also in
the schools of the university upon those days when the
lectures are read, ye publish and cause by others to be
published to the clergy and people, as well in their vul-
gar tongue, as in the Latin tongue, manifestly and plainly
without any curious implication, that the same heretical
and erroneous conclusions, so repugnant to the determi-
nation of holy church, as is aforesaid, have been and
are condemned ; which conclusions we also declare by
these our letters to be utterly condemned. And that
furthermore you forbid, and caiionically admonish and
cause to be admonished, as we by the tcnour of these
presents do forbid <tnd admonish you, once, twice, thrice,
and that peremptorily, that none hereafter hold, teach,
and preach, or defend the heresies and errors above said,
or any of them, either in school or out of school by any
sophistical cavilling or otherwise : or that any admit to
jireach, hear or hearken unto John Wicklitt", Nicliolas
Uerford, Philip Reppington, canon regular, or John
Ashton, or Lawrence Redman, who are vehemently
and notoriously suspected of heresy, or any otlier what-
ever, so suspected or defamed ; or that either privately
or publicly they either aid or favour them or any of
them, but that immediately they shun and avoid the same
as a serpent which puts forth most pestiferous poison.
And furthermore we suspend the said suspected persons
from all scholastical act, till such time as thev shall
purge themselves before us in that behalf : and that you
denounce the same publicly by us to have been and be
suspended ; and that ye diligently and faithfully inquire
after all their favourers, and cause to be inquired through-
out all the halls of the university. And that when you
shall have intelligence of their names and persons, that ye
compel all and every one of them to abjure their outrages
by ecclesiastical censures and other pains canonical,
under pain of the greater curse, which against all and
singular the rebellious in this behalf, and disobeying ou.
admonitions, we j)ronounce : so that their fault, deceit,
and offence in this behalf deserve the same (the said
admonition of ours being first sent) which in this behalf we
esteem and allow canonical, that then and again accord,
ing to the effect of these our letters, &c. The absolution
of all and singular such, which shall incur the sentence
of this instrument by us sent forth (which God forbid)
we specially reserve unto ourselves : exhorting you the
chancellor by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
that to the utmost of your power hereafter you do your
endeavour, that the clergy and people being subject to
you, if there be any who have strayed from the catholic
faith by such errors, may be brought home again to the
praise and honour of his name that was crucified, and to
the preservation of the true faith. And further our will
is, that whatever you shall do in the premises, in manner
and form of our process in this behalf it be had and done :
and that you for your part, when you shall be required
thereto, plainly and distinctly do certify us by your let-
ters patents, having the tenour hereof."
The conclusions and articles mentioned in this letter
are above prefixed. Of which some were condemned
for heretical, some for erroneous.
After this, the archbishop directed his letters of admo-
nition to Robert Rigge commissary of Oxford, for re-
pressing this doctrine : which notwithstanding, both
then, and yet to this day (God be praised) remains.
The Examination of Nicholas Herford, Philip Repping^
ton, and John Ashton.
Some days afterwards, on June 18th 1382, in the
chamber of the preaching-friars afore mentioned, before
the archbishop in the presence of divers doctors and
bachelors of divinity, and many lawyers both canon and
civil, whose names are under written, appeared Ni-
cholas Ilerford, Philip Reppington, and John Ashton,
bachelors of divinity. Who after oath taken to give judg-
ment ui)on the conclusions aforesaid, were examined
severally, each by himself, before the archbishop. ^^ ho
there required day and place to deliberate upon the con-
clusions, and to give their answer to the same in writing.
Two days afterwards, when the answers were returned,
the lord archbishop of Canterbury demanded of all the
doctors what their judgment was touching the answers
that were made ujion sucli conclusions. All which doc-
tors severally said, "That all the answers given to the
first, second, third, and sixth conclusions, were insuffi-
cient, heretical and subtle ; and that all the atiswers
made, especially to the ninth, tenth, and last conclusions,
were insufficient, erroneous, and perverse." Where-
upon the lord archbishop of Canterbury, considering the
answers to be heretical, subtle, erroneous, and perverse,
accordingly as the doctors had weighed and considered,
admonished Nicholas and Philip ; assigning to them
A. D. 1382.] NICHOLAS HERFORD AND PHILIP REPPINGTON EXCOMMUNICATED.
eight days' space, that is to say, until the twenty-seventh
day of the month, and that then they should appear be-
fore the said lord archbishop of Canterbury, to hear his
decree tliat should be made in that behalf. This done,
the archbishop of Canterbury admonished and cited
John Ashtoa, under the tenor of these words fol-
lowing :
" In the name of God, we, William, by God's per-
mission, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all
England, legate of the see apostolical, and through all
our province of Canterbury, chief inquisitor of all
heretical pravity, do monish and cite thee, John Ashton,
master of arts, and student in divinity, appearing before
us, judicially to say and speak the plain verity touching
these conclusions, to wliich we refer thee, and to which
we have caused thee to swear, laying thy hand upon a
book," &c.
After this citation, John Ashton was examined before
the bishops, and his answers not proving satisfactory
to them, they determined against him, and then the
archbishop proceeded thus :
" And thou John Ashton, admonished and commanded
by us, as is aforesaid, after thine oath taken, without
any reasonable cause, or any other license, neither
WDuldst thou, nor yet wilt, but refusedst, and yet dost
contemptuously, to answer to such conclusions before
us; judicially according to our admonition and command-
ment aforesaid ; we do hold all such conclusions to be
by thee confessed, and thee the aforesaid John, with all
thy aforesaid conclusions, convicted. And, therefore, we
do pronounce, and declare by giving sentence that thou
John Ashton, concerning those conclusions, which by us,
with good deliberation of divers prelates, our suffragans,
and also divers and sundry professors of divinity, and
other wise men and learned in the law, according to the
canonical sanctions, being condemned and declared for
a heretic, and heretical hast been, and still art a heretic,
and thy conclusions heretical. And as touching thy
other conclusions, by us heretofore counted erroneous,
and for erroneous condemned, we do pronounce and
declare sententially by these our writings, that both thou
hast erred, and dost err."
Oa the appointed day, the archbishop, with the doc-
tors, being assembled in the chief house of his church
at Canterbury, before the hour of nine, expected Nicho-
las, Philip, and also Thomas Hilman, calling them and
looking after them ; nevertheless they apjieared not before
two o'clock the same day. At which hour the archbishop
of Canterbury examined Thomas Hilman, who then and
there judicially appeared, what his opinion was touching
the aforesaid conclusions, who, somewhat stammering at
them and their meaning, at last to all the conclusions
then read and exjiounded to him, thus answered, " I
suppose and judge all and singular those conclusions
lately condemned by my lord of Canterbury to be
heretical and erroneous, even as the same my lord of
Canterbury, and other doctors of divinity, of the canon
and civil law, by common consent and counsel have sup-
posed and thought. And the same (being for heresies
and errors, as before is said condemned) I do, as much
as in me is, condemn, protesting that 1 will hold and af-
firm the contrary of those conclusions, and in the same
faith live and die." Then the archbishop of Canterbury,
sitting as tribunal or judge, pronouncing Nicholas and
Philip, guilty of contumacy and disobedience, for not
appearing in court, excommunicated them for their con-
tumacy, as follows : —
The denouncing of the excommvnication against Nicholas
Herford and Philip Seppington.
■ . ♦' William, by God's permission, archbishop of Can-
terbury, &c. To our beloved Son in Christ, whoever he
be, that this instant Sunday shall preach at St. Paul's
cross in London, salutation, grace, and blessing. For-
asmuch as we appointed a certain day and place to
Master Nicholas Herford, and Master Philip Rejiping-
ton, canon regular of the monastery of our lady of
Leicester, being doctors of divinity, and suspected of
beieticp' gravity (after certain answers not fully made,
22V
but impertinent and nothing to the purpose, as also
heretical and erroneous} in divers places of our p'-ovince
commonly, generally, and publicly taught and preached,
and that therefore they should judicially apjjcar before
us, to do and receive peremptorily in that behalf whatever
the quality of that business should move us to: and that wj
have for their contumacy in not appearing before us at that
day and place, adjudged as right therein required. We, by
these presents, command and commit to you, firmly en-
joining you, when all the multitude of people shall be
gathered together to hear your sermon, that in the day
and i)lace appointed you puulicly and solemnly denounce
the aforesaid Nicholas and Philip, holding up a cross,
and lighting up a candle, and then throwing down the
same upon the ground, to have been so and in such man-
ner e-xcommunicated, and still continuing so.
" Fare ye well. In our manor house at Lambeth, the
thirteenth day of July, the year of our Lord 1382, and
first year of our translation."
The archbishop sent also another letter to Master
Rigge, commissary of Oxford, straightly enjoining and
charging him, not only to denounce the sentence of ex-
communication, and to give out public citation against
them, but also to make diligent search and inquisition
through all Oxford for them, to have them apprehended
ind sent up to him, personally before him to appear at
a certain day prescribed for the same. Whereby it may
appear how busy this bishop was in disquieting and per-
secuting these poor men, whom he should have nour-
ished and cherished as his brethren.
The archbishop not contented with this, solicits the
king to join the power of his temporal sword, for he well
perceived that as yet the popish clergy had not sufficient
authority, by any public law or statute of this land, to
proceed unto death against any person in question of re-
ligion, but only by the usurped tyranny and example of
the court of Rome. Where note, gentle reader, for thy
better understanding, the practice of the Romish prelates
in seeking the king's help to further their bloody pur-
pose against the good saints of God. The king being
but young, and not arrived at years of ripe judgment,
was seduced by the archbishop to give his private assent
to an ordinance, which was indeed the very first law to
be found against religion and the professors thereof,
bearing the name of an act made in the parliament held
at Westminster, in the fifth year of Richard II. Where
among other statutes then published, and yet remaining
in the printed books of statutes, this supposed statute is
to be found, (cap. 5. & ultimo).
" Forasmuch as it is openly known that there be
divers evil persons within the realm, going from county
to county, and from town to town, in certain habits
under dissimulation of great holiness, and without the
licence of the ordinaries of the places, or other sufficient
authority, preaching daily not only in churches and
churchyards, but also in markets, fairs, and other open
places where a great congregation of people is, divers
sermons containing heresies and notorious errors, to the
great blemishing of the christian faith, and destruction of
the laws, and of the estate of holy church, to the great
peril of the souls of the people, and of all the realm of
England, as more plainly is found, and sufficiently
proved before the reverend father in God the archbishop
of Canterbury, and the bishops and other prelates,
masters of divinity, and doctors of canon and of civil law,
and a great part of the clergy of the said realm, si)ecially
assembled for this great cause ; which persons do also
preach divers matters of slander, to ingender discord and
dissension betwixt divers estates of the said realm, as
well spiritual as temporal, in exciting the people to the
great peril of all the realm : which preachers being cited
or summoned before the ordinaries of the places, there
to answer to that whereof they are impeached, they will
not obey the summons and commands, and care not for
the admonitions nor censures of the holy church, but ex-
pressly despise them ; and moreover, by their subtle and
ingenious words, draw the people to hear their sermons,
and maintain them in their errors by strong hand, and
by great routs : it is ordained and assented in this pre-
THE VALIDITY OF THE KING'S STATUTE AGAINST WICKLIFF EXAMINED. [Book T.
230
sent pai-liament, that the king's commissions be made
and directed to the sheriffs, and other ministers of our
sovereign lord the king, or other persons sufficiently
learned, and according to the certificates of the prelates
to be made in chancery from time to time, to arrest all
such preachers, and also their favourers, maintainers and
abetters, and to hold them in arrest and strong prison,
till they justifv themselves according to the law and
reason of holy church. And the king wills and com-
mands, that the chancellor make such commissions at all
times, that he by the prelates, or any of them shall be
certified and thereof required as is aforesaid."
An Examination of the aforesaid supposed Statute, and
of the invalidity thereof.
As this supposed statute was the principal ground
whereupon proceeded all the persecution of that time;
it is therefore not impertinent to examine the same
more particularly, whereby it shall appear, that as it
was fraudulently and unduly devised by the prelates
only, so was it in like manner most injuriously and
disorderly executed by them. For immediately u])on
the publishing of this law, without further warrant
either from the king or his council, commissions under
the great seal of England were made in this form,
"Richard by the Grace of God," &c. "Witness m^
self at Westminster the 2(ith day of June, in the sixth
year of our reign." Without more words of warrant un-
der-written, such as in like cases are both usual and re-
quisite,viz: "peripsumregem :"" perregem et concilium :"
"per breve de privato sigillo." All or any which words
being utterly wanting in this place, as may be seen in the
king's records of that time ; it must therefore be done
either by warrant of this statute, or else without any war
rant at all. M^nereupon it is to be noted, that whereas
the statute appointed the commissions to be directed to
the sheriff, or other ministers of the king, or to other
persons sufficiently learned, for the arresting of such per-
sons ; the commissions are directed to the archbishop
and his suffragans, being as it appears parties in the case,
authorizing them further without eit^ier the words, or
reasonable meaning of the statute, to imprison them in
their own houses, or where else they pleased.
Besides also, what manner of law this was, by whom
devised, and by what authority the same was first made
and established, judge by that which follows, viz.
In the utas of St. Michael next following, at a parlia-
ment summoned and holden at Westminster, the sixth
year of the king, among sundry petitions made to the
king by his commons, to which he assented, there is one
in this form. Article 52.
" That whereas a statute was made the last parliament
in these words, — 'It is ordained in this present parliament
that commissions from the king be directed to the she-
riffs, and other ministers of the king, or to other persons
sufficiently skilful, and according to the certificates of the
prelates thereof, to be made to the chancery from time to
time, to arrest all such preachers, and their favorers, main-
tainers and abetters : and to detain them in strong pri-
son, until they justify themselves according to rea-
son, and law of holy church : and the king wills and com-
mands, that the chancellor make such commissions at
all times as he shall be by the prelates or any of them
certified and thereof required, as is aforesaid,' — the which
was never agreed nor granted by the commons ; but
whatever was moved therein, was without their assent.
That the said statute be therefore disannulled. For it is
not in any wise their meaning, that either themselves or
such as shall succeed them, shall be further justified or
bound by the prelates, than were their ancestors in for-
mer times," whereunto is answered, " II plaist al, Roy.
I." the king is pleased.
Hereby notwithstanding the former unjust law was
repealed, and the fraud of the framers thereof suffi-
ciently discovered : yet such means wesre taken by
the prelates, that this act of repeal was never published,
nor ever since printed with the rest of the statutes of
that parliament : so that the rejjeal being concealed,
similar commissions and other process were made from
time to time, by virtue of the statute, as well during all
the reign of this king, as ever since against the professors
of religion.
The young king was further induced by '.he importu-
nity of the archbishop, to send special letters to the vice
chancellor and proctors of the university of Oxford, in
which he straightly and sharply enjoins them to make a ge-
neral inquisition through the wliole university, for John
\\'ickliff, Nicholas Herford, Pliilip Reppington, John
Ashton, and such others ; and also for all whom they
know or judge to be suspected of that doctrine, or to be
maintainers, receivers, and defenders of the parties, or
their opinions ; to the intent that they being so appre-
hended, may be within seven days of tlieir admonition
expelled the university, and cited before the archbishop
of Canterbury, moreover commanding the vice-chancel-
lor and proctors with their assistants, that if any person
or persons in any house, hall, or college, or in any
other place shall be found to have any of the books
or treatises compiled by John Wickliff, Nicholas Herford,
&c. they will cause the said person or persons, to be
arrested and attached, and their books to be seized and
presented within one month, without correction, corrup-
tion, or alteration, to the archbishop upon their faith
and allegiance, as they would avoid the forfeiture of all
privileges of the university, &c.
The vice-chancellor at this time in Oxfopd was Master
Robert Rigge. The two proctors ^Vere John Huntman
and Walter Dish ; who, as far as they durst, favoured
the cause of John Wickliff, so that when some public ser-
mons at the feast of the Ascension, and of Corjni?, Christj
were to be preached in the cloister of Saint Frideswide
(now called Christ's church) before the people, by the
vice-chancellor and the proctors : they committed it to
Philip Reppington and Nicholas Herford, so that Heiford
should preach on the Ascension-day, and Reppington
upon Corpus Christi day. Herford was observed to de-
fend John Wickliff openly as a faithful, good, and inno.
cent man ; at which there were great outcries among the
friars. This Herford, after he had long favoured and
maintained Wickliff's part, grew in suspicion among the
enemies of truth. For as soon as he began somewhat
liberally and freely to utter anything, which tended to the
defence of Wickliff, by and bye the Carmelites, and all
the orders of religion were on his watch, and laid not a
few heresies to his charge ; which they had strained here
and tliere out of his sermons. After this the feast of
Corpus Christi drew near : upon which day it was ex-
pected that Reppington would preach. This man was a
canon of Leicester, who protested openly, that in all
moral matters he would defend Wickliff. But as to the
sacrament he would as yet hold his peace, until such time
as the Lord should otherwise illuminate the hearts and
minds of the clergy.
Now the day of Corpus Christi approaching near, when
the friars understood that this man would preach, they
arranged with the archbishop of Canterbury, that the
same day, a little before Philip should preach, Wickliff's
conclusions, which were privately condemned, should
be openly defamed in the presence of the whole univer-
sity.
These things being thus done, Philip Reppington at
the hour appointed, proceeded to his sermon. In which
among many other things, he was reported to have ut-
tered these sayings, or to this effect :
" That the popes or bishops ought not to be exalted
above temporal lords.
"That in moral matters he would defend Master
Wickliff as a true catholic doctor.
" That the duke of Lancaster was very earnestly affected
and minded in this matter, and wished that all such
should be received under his protection," besides many
things more which touched the praise and defence ot
Wickliff.
And finally, in concluding his sermon, he dismissed
the people with this sentence, — " I will in the specula-
tive doctrine, as pertaining to the sacrament of the
altar, keep silence and hold my peace, until such time ai«
God otherwise shall instruct and illuminate the hearta
of the clergy."
A. D. 1382.] PHILIP REPPIXGTON AND JOHN ASHTON ABJURE WICKLIFF'S DOCTRINES. 231
When the sermon was done, Reppington etitered into
St. Frideswiie's church, accompanied with many of his
friends, who, as their enemies surmised, were privately
I armed under their garments against danger. Friar
Stokes, the Carmelite, who was the chief champion
against Wicklitf, suspecting all this to he against him,
kept witliiii the sanctuary of the church. Tlie vice-
chancellor and Reppington, friendly saluting one another
in the church porch, sent away the people, and so every
man departed home to his own house. There was
! not a little joy through the whole university for that
sermon ; but in the meantime, the unquiet and busy
Canndlite slipt not his matter. For by his letters he
declared the whole matter to the archbishop, exaggerat-
I iug the dangers he was in, and desiring his help and aid,
I Oiuitting notliing to move and stir up the archbishop's
j uiiud, who of his own nature was ready enough to pro-
i secute the matter. The vice-chancellor being afterward
I accused for contempt of the archbishop's letters, when
i he perceived and saw that no excuse would prevail to
avoid that danger, humbling himself upon his knees, he
desired pardon, which, when he had obtained, by the help
of the bishop of Winchester, he was sent away again
with certain commands, and suspensions of heretics.
Then began the hatred on both sides to appear and de-
velope itself, and all men were offended at these friars
and monks, to whom they imputed whatever trouble or
mischief was raised up, as to the authors and causers of
the same.
Nicholas Herford, and Philip Reppington, being
privily warned by the vice-chancellor, conveyed them-
selves out of sight, and fled to the duke of Lancaster ;
but the duke, whether for fear, or for what cause I
cannot say, in the end forsook his poor and miserable
clients.
Being repulsed by the duke, and destitute of his sup-
port, whether they were sent, or, of their own accord
went to the archbishop, is uncertain ; but Reppington
was reconciled again to the archbishop, and admitted to
the university. And so was also John Ashton. Of
Nicholas Herford all this while I find no special re-
lation.
In the meantime, about the twenty-third day of
September (A.. D. 1382), the king sent his mandate
to the archbishop for collecting a subsidy, and to have a
convocation of the clergy summoned against the next
parliament, which should begin the eighteenth day of
November. All which being done, the parliament was
asseinblei at Oxford the eighteenth day of November,
where the convocation was kept in the monastery of
FriJeswide. The archbishop, with other bishops, sitting
there in their pontifical robes, declared two causes of their
present assembly, one to repress heresies, which began
afresh in the realm ; the other to aid and support the king
with some necessary subsidy of money.
The convocation being continued the next day, the
archbishop, with the other prelates, assembling themselves
as before, the archbishop, after the usual solemnity, de-
sired the proctors of the clergy, appointed for every diocess,
to consult among themselves, in some convenient place,
what they thought touching the redress of matters, and to
be notified and declared to him and to his brethren, &c.
Further, forsomuch (saith he) as it is so noised
through all the realm, that there were certain in the
university of Oxford who held and maintained conclu-
sions heretical and erroneous, condemned by him, and
by other lawyers and doctors of divinity ; he therefore
assigned the bishops of Sarum, Hereford, and Rochester,
with Wdliim Rugge, then vice-chancellor of the
university of Oxford, (for probably Robert Rigge was
then displaced,) as also William Berton, and John Mid-
dleton, doctors, giving them his full authority with
cursing and banning to compel them to search, and to
inquire with all diligence and possible ways over all
and singular whatsoever, either doctors, bachelors, or
scholars of the university, who did hold, teach, main-
tain, and defend, in schools, or out of schools, the con-
clusions mentioned before.
On which day, in the presence of the prelates and
the clergy in the chapter-house of St. Frideswide, came
in Philip Reppington, who there adjured those conclu-
sions and assertions, in this form of words :
" In the name of God, Amen. I, Philip Reppington,
canon of the house of Leicester, acknowledging one
catholic and apostolic faith, do curse and also abjure all
heresy, namely, these heresies and errors under written,
condemned and reproved by the canonical decrees, and
by you, most reverend father, touching which hitherto I
have been defamed ; condemning, moreover, and re-
proving both them and the authors of them, and do con-
fess the same to be cathohcally condemned. And I
swear also by these holy evangelists, which here I hold
in my hand, and do promise, never by any persuasions
of men, nor by any way hereafter, to defend or hold as
true, any of the said conclusions underwritten ; but do
and will stand and adhere in all things, to the determi-
nation of the holy catholic church, and to yours, in this
behalf. Over and besides, all such as stand contrary
to this faith, I do pronounce them with their doctrine
and followers worthy of everlasting curse. And if I my-
self shall presume at any time to hold or preach any
thing contrary to the premises, I shall be content to
abide the severity of the canons. Subscribed with
mine own hand, and of mine own accord, Philip Rep-
pington."
And thus he was discharged, and afterward was made
bishop of Lincoln, and became at length the most bitter
and extreme persecutor of this side, of all the other
bishops within the realm.
After the abjuration of this Reppington, immediately
was brought in John Ashton, who, appearing before the
archbishop and the prelates, did in like form of words
abjure as Reppington had before done.
Of this John Ashton we read, that afterward, by
Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, he was
cited and condemned ; but whether he died in prison,
or was burned, we have no certainty.
As to Nicholas Herford, he did not appear during the
time of this convocation, and therefore was exconimu-
nicated ; against which he appealed from the arch-
bishop to the king and council. The archbishop would
not admit it, but caused him to be apprehended and
put in prison. He escaped out of prison, returning
again to his former exercise and preaching as he did
before, though in as covert and secret a manner as he
could. Upon which the archbishop, thundering out his
bolts of excommunication against him, sends to all
pastors and ministers, commanding them in all churches,
and on all festival days, to proclaim the excommunica-
tion against him to all men.
Not contented with this, he addressed his letter to the
king, requiring the aid of his temporal sword. See and
note, reader, the seraphical charity of these priestly pre-
lates towards the poor redeemed flock of Christ.
The letter of the Archbishop to the King.
" To the most excellent prince in Christ, &c. William,
&c., greeting, in him by whom kings do reign, and
princes bear rule. Unto your kingly highness by the
tenor of these presents we intimate, that one Master
Nicholas Herford, doctor of divinity, for his manifest
contumacy and offence in not appearing before us being
called at the day and place assigned, is therefore included
in the sentence of the greater curse, publicly by our or-
dinary authority ; and in the same sentence has con-
tinued now forty days, and yet still continues with
obdurate heart, wickedly contemning the keys of the
church, both to the great peril of his soul, and to the
pernicious example of others. Forsomuch, therefore,
as the holy mother, the church, cannot proceed any fur-
ther in this matter, we humbly desire your kingly ma-
jesty to direct out your letters for the apprehending of
the said excommunicate, according to the custom of this
realm of England, wholesomely observed and kept hi-
therto ; to the intent that such, whom the fear of God
doth not restrain from evil, the discipline of the secular
arm may bridle and pluck back from offending. Your
232
THE EPISTLE OF WICKLIFF TO POPE URBAN VI.
[Book V,
princely highness, the Lord continue. From Lambeth,
the fifteenth of January."
And thus far concerning Nicholas Herford, and the
others. But all this while what became of John Wick-
liff is not certainly known ; — it appears that he was
banished and driven to exile. In the meantime it is
not to be doubted, but he was alive during all this while,
as may appear by his letter which he about this time
wrote to Pope Urban VI.
The Epistle of John Wick I iff sent to Pope Urban VI.,
A. D. 1382.
"Verily I do rejoice to open and declare to every
man the faith which I hold, and specially to the bishop
of Rome, which faith as I suppose it to be sound and
true, he will most willingly confirm, or, if it be errone-
ous, amend.
" First, I suppose that the gospel of Christ is the
whole body of God's law ; and that Christ, who gave
that same law himself, I believe to be a very man, and
in that point, to exceed the law of the gospel, and all
other parts of the scripture. Again, I do give and
hold the bishop of Rome, forsomuch as he is the vicar
of Christ here in earth, to be bound most of all other
men to that law of the gospel. For the greatness
amongst Christ's disciples did not consist in worldly dig-
nity or honours, but in the near and exact following of
Christ in his life and manners ; whereupon I do gather
out of the heart of the law of the Lord, that Christ for
the time of his pilgrimage here was a most poor man,
abjecting and casting off all worldly rule and honour, as
appears by the gospel of St. Matthew, the eighth
chapter, and second of the Corinthians, in the eighth
chapter.
" Hereby I do fully gather, that no faithful man
ought to follow, either the pope himself, or any of the
holy men, but in such points as he has followed the
Lord Jesus Christ. For Peter and the sons of Zebedee,
by desiring worldly honour, contrary to the following of
Christ's steps, did offend, and therefore in those errors
they are not to be followed.
" Hereof I do gather, as a counsel, that the pope
ought to leave unto the secular power all temporal do-
minion and rule, and thereunto effectually to move and
exhort his whole clergy ; for so did Christ, and especi-
ally by his apostles. Wherefore, if I have erred in any
of these points, I will most humbly submit myself unto
correction, even by death, if necessity so require ; and
if I could labour according to my will or desire in mine
own person, I would surely present myself before the
bishop of Rome ; but the Lord has otherwise visited me
to the contrary, and has taught me rather to obey God
than men. Forsomuch then as God has given to our
pope just and true evangelical instinctions, we ought to
pray that those motions be not extinguished by any
subtle or crafty device. And that the pope and car-
dinals be not moved to do any thing contrary to the
law of the Lord. Wherefore let us pray to our God,
that he will so stir up our Pope Urban the sixth, as he
began, that he, with his clergy, may follow the Lord
Jesus Christ in life and manners ; and that they may
teach the people effectually, and that they likewise
may faithfully follow them in the same. And let us
especially pray, that our pope may be preserved
from all malign and evil counsel, which we do know
that evil and envious men of his household would
give him. And seeing the Lord will not suffer us to be
tempted above our power, much less then will he require
of any creature to do that thing which they are not able ;
forsomuch as that is the plain condition and manner of
antichrist.''
Thus much wrote John Wickliff to Pope Urban. But
this pope was so hot in his wars against Clement, the
French pope, his rival, that he had no leisure, and less
■wUl to attend to Wickliff. By which schism God pro-
vided for poor Wickliff some rest and quietness.
Concerning which schisniatical wars of these popes,
it will not be irrelevant to digress a little, so as to say
something of the tragical doings of these two holy popes,
striving for the triple crown, that the christian reader
may see what difference there is between the popes, and
Christ with his apostles. For though in the gospel it
is written, that certain of the disciples did strive which
should be tlie greater ; yet we do not read that one of
them ever took weapons against the other; and it appears
too that for so striving as they did they were sharply re-
buked by our Saviour Christ.
About the beginning of the year 138;i, Pope Urban,
studying how to conquer his rival pope, took to him-
self the sword of Romulus, instead of the keys of Peter,
and set upon him with open war. And devising with
himself whom he might best choose for his chief
champion ; he thought none more fitted for such affairs
than Henry Spencer, then bishop of Norwich, a young
and stout prelate, more fitting for the charge of a camp,
than for the peaceable church of Christ. To this bishop
of Norwich the pope had sent his bulls about this time,
to confer the cross on whoever would go with him into
France, to destroy the antipope. In which bulls these
privileges were granted.
1. That the bishop of Norwich may use his sword
against the antipope, and all his adherents, favourers,
and counsellors, and with violence put them to death.
2. That he has full power to inquire after all schis*
matics, and to put them in prison, and to confiscate allj
their goods, moveable and immoveable.
3. That he has power and authority to deprive all
laymen that are schismatics of all manner of secular of-
fices whatever, and to give their offices to other fit and
convenient persons.
4. That he may deprive all such clergy, and declare
them to be schismatics, and to give and bestow their
benefices either with cure or without cure, their digni-
ties, parsonages or offices, to other persons more meet
for the same.
5. He has power and authority over lay persons that
are exempt, and clergy both secular and regular, yea,
although they be friars mendicants, or masters and pro.
fessors of other houses or hospitals of St. John's of
Jerusalem, or St. Mary's of Flanders, or professors of
what order soever.
6. He has power to dispense, with any secular
clergy soever, being beneficed either with cure or without
cure, and also with such as have dignities, parsonages,
or offices, being regulars either exempt or not exempt,
that every one of them may be absent with him from
their dignities and benefices, &c., under the standard of
the cross, without license of any of their prelates being
required, and yet to receive and take the entire income
of their benefices, as though they had been personally
resident upon the same.
7. There is granted to all that pass the seas in this
quarrel, either at their own expenses, or at the expenses
of any other, full remission of their sins ; and as large
privileges are granted to all those that go over the sea
with him, as to any that pay their money, or go to fight
for the Holy Land.
8. Also all such as with their proper goods and sub-
stance shall give sufficient stipend to able soldiers, mus-
tered at the discretion of the foresaid lord bishop, or by
his deputy, although themselves be not personally at this
business, yet shall they have like remission and indul-
gence, as they who have been personally with him in
this expedition.
9. All they are partakers of this remission, who give
any part of their goods to the said bishop to fight against
the said schismatics.
10. If any shall chance to die in the journey who are
soldiers under the standard of the jcross, or else before
the quarrel are killed by some means, they shall fully
and wholly receive the said grace, and shall be partakers
of the remission and indulgence.
11. He has power to excommunicate, suspend, and
interdict what persons soever be rebellious or disturbers
of him in the execution of his power and authority com-
mitted to him, of what dignity, state, degree, pre-emi-
nence, order, place, or condition soever they shall be ;
whether they shall be either of regal, queenly, or impenal
A.D. 1382—1384.] UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD'S TESTIMONY CONCERNING WICKLIFF.
233
dignity, or of what dignity soever, either ecclesiastical
or civil.
I 12. He has power and authority to compel and enforce
' any religious person soever, and to appoint them, and
send them over sea, if it seem good to him, yea, al-
though they be professors of the friars mendicants, for
the execution of the premises.
The Papers Absolution pronounced by the Bishop.
" By the authority apostolical to me in this behalf
committed, we absolve thee A. B. from all thy sins con-
fessed with thy mouth, and being contrite with thy
heart, and whereof thou wouldst be confessed if they
came into thy memory ; and we grant to thee plenary
remission of all manner of sins, and we promise to thee
thy part of the reward of all just men, and of everlasting
salvation. And as many privileges as are granted to
them that go to fight for the Holy Land, we grant to
thee ; and of all the prayers and benefits of the church,
; the universal synod, as also of the holy catholic chuich,
I we make thee partaker."
This courageous, or, rather outrageous bishop, armed
1 thus with the pope's authority, and prompt with his
privileges, came to the parliament, where there was
great consultation and contention, and almost no less
schism, about the voyage of this popish bishop in the
parliament, than was between the popes themselves. In
which parliament, there were many who thought it not
safe to commit the king's people and subjects to an un-
skilful priest. So great was the diversity of judgments
in that behalf, that the voyage of the bishop was pro-
I tracted to the Saturday before Passion Sunday. After
i which Sunday the parties agreed that the bishop should
! set forward in his voyage, having given to him the fifteenth
■ which was granted to the king in the parliament before.
' Which things thus concluded in the parliament, this
' warlike bishop preparing all things in readiness, set
' forward in this journey. And forthwith entered the
<eas. and went to Calais, where, waiting a few days for
' the rest of his army, he then took his journey to the
town of Gravelines, which he besieged so desperately,
' without any preparation of engines of wur, or counsel,
I that he seemed rather to fly upon them, than to invade
i them. At length, through the superstition of our men,
' trusting to the pope's absolution, they entered the town
I with their bishop, where, at his command, they destroyed
i both man, woman, and child, and left not one alive !
From Gravelines this warlike bishop set forward to
Dunkirk, where not long after, the French meeting with
him, he joined with them in battle ; in which battle (if
the story be true) twelve thousand of the French were slain
in the chase, and of our men seven only were missing.
It would require a long treatise here to relate all things
done in these popish wars. Also it would be no less
ridiculous to view and behold the glorious temerity
of this new upstart captain. As when the bishop com-
ing from Dunkirk to the siege of Ypres, a great number of
Englishmen were lost there, and much money consumed,
and yet nothing done, to the great shame and ignominy
of the bishop. Again, after the siege of Ypres, the
bishop proceeding with a small force to fight with the
French king's camp, contrary to the counsel of his cap-
tains, was feign to break company with them, whereby
part of the army went to Burburgh, and the bishop with
his part returned to Gravelines, both which towns
shortly after were besieged by the French army. In fine,
when the bishop could keep Gravelines no longer, he
crossed the seas, and came home again as wise as he
went. And thus making an end of this pontifical war,
we will return from whence we digressed, to the history of
John Wickliff.
Mhich John Wickliff returning again within a short
space, either fiom his banishment, or from some other
place where he was secretly kept, repaired to his parish
of Lutterworth, where he was parson ; and there,
quietly departing this mortal life, slept in peace in the
Lord, in the beginning of the year 1384, upon Silvester's
day
Here may be seen the great providence of the Lord
in this man, as in several others whom the Lord so long
preserved amidst the fury of so many enemies from all
their hands, even to his old age. For it appears by
Thomas Walden, that he was a very aged man before he
departed. Such a Lord is our God, that whom he will
have kept, nothing can hurt.
This Wickliff had written several works, which in the
year A. D. 1410 were burnt at Oxford. And not only
in England, but in Bohemia likewise, the books of
Wickliff were consumed by the archbishop of Prague,
who made diligent inquisition for them, and burned
them ; the number of volumes which he is said to have
burned, most excellently written, and richly adorned
with bosses of gold, and rich coverings (as Eneas Silvius
writes) were about two hundred.
We will now add the testimonial of the University of
Oxford concerning WickliflF.
The public testimony given out hy the University of Ox-
ford, touching the commendation of the great learning
and good life of John Wickliff.
" Unto all and singular the children of our holy mother
the church, to whom this present letter shall come, the
vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford, with the
whole congregation of the masters, with perpetual health
in the Lord. Forsomuch as it is not commonly seen, that
the acts and monuments of valiant men, nor the praise
and merits of good men should be passed over and hidden
in perpetual silence, but that true report and fame
should continually spread abroad the same in strange and
far distant places, both for the witness of the same, and
example of others ; forsomuch also as the provident dis-
cretion of man's nature, being recompensed with cruelty,
hath devised and ordained this buckler and defence against
such as do blaspheme and slander other men's doings,
that whensoever witness by word of mouth cannot be
present, the pen by writing may supply the same.
" Hereupon it followeth, that the special goodwill and
care which we bear unto John Wickliff, sometime child
of this our university, and professor of divinity, moving
and stirring our minds (as his manners and conditions
required no less) with one mind, voice and testimony, we
do witness, all his conditions and doings throughout his
whole life to have been most sincere and commendable ;
whose honest manners and conditions, profoundness of
learning, and most redolent renown and fame, we desire
the more earnestly to be notified and known unto all the
faithful, for that we understand the maturity and ripeness
of his conversation, his diligent labours and troubles to
tend to the praise of God, the help and safeguard of others,
and the profit of the church.
" Wherefore we signify unto j'ou by these presents, that
his conversation (even from his youth upward, unto the
time of his death) was so praise-worthy and honest, that
never at any time was there any note or spot of suspicion
noised of him. But in his answering, reading, preaching
and dettrmining, he behaved himself laudably, and as a
stout and valiant champion of the faith ; vanquishing by
the force of the scriptures, all such, who by their wUful
beggary blasphemedand slandered Christ's religion ; nei-
ther was this doctor convicted of any heresy, neither burn-
ed of our prelates after his burial. God forbid, that our
prelates should have condemned a man of such honesty
for an heretic ; who, amongst all the rest of the university,
had written in logic, philosophy, divinity, morality, and
the speculative arts, without an equal. The knowledge
of which all and singular things we do desire to testify
and deliver forth, to the intent that the fame and renown
of this said doctor may be the more evident and had ip
reputation amongst them unto whose hands these present
letters testimonial shall come.
" In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters
testimonial to be sealed with our common seal. Dated
at Oxford in our congregation-house, the 1st day of
October, in the year of our Lord 1406."
Now as we have declared the testimony of the univer-
sity of Oxford, concerning the praise of John Wickliff;
234 THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE CONDEMN THE DOCTRINES OF WICKLIFF. [Book V.
it follows likewise that we set forth the censures and
judgments of his enemies, blinded with malicious hatred
and corrupt affections against him, especially of the pope's
council gathered at Constance, proceeding first in con-
demning his books, then his articles, and afterward burn-
ing his bones. The copy of which sentence given
against him by that council here follows.
The sentence tjiren by the Council of Constance, in con-
demniiui tlie Ductrine, and Jive and forty Articles of
John Wickliff.
" The most holy and sacred council of Constance,
making and representing the catholic church, for the ex-
tirpation of this present schism,' and of all other errors
and heresies, springing and growing under the shadow
and pretence of the same, and for the reformation and
amendment of the church, being lawfully congregate and
gathered together in the Holy Ghost, for the perpetual
memory of the time to come.
" We are taught by the acts and histories of the holy
fathers, that the catholic faith, without which, as the holy
apostle St. Paul saith, it is impossible to please God, hath
been always defended by the faithful and spiritual sol-
diers of the church, by the shield of faith, against the
false worshippers of the same faith, or rather perverse
impugners; who through their proud curiosity will seem
to know more, and to be wiser than they ought to be,
and for the desire of the glory of the world have gone
about oftentimes to overthrow the same. These kinds of
wars and battles have been prefigured to us before in
those carnal wars of the Israelites against the idolatrous
people. For in those spiritual wars the holy catholic
church through the virtue and power of faith, being
illustrated with the beams of the heavenly light, by the
Providence of God, and being helped by the help and
defence of the saints and holy men, hath always con-
tinued immaculate, (and the darkness and errors, as her
most cruel enemies being put to flight) , she hath most
gloriously triumphed over all. But in these our days
the old and unclean enemy hath raised up new conten-
tions and strifes, that the elect of this world might be
known, whose prince and captain in time past was one
John Wickliff, a false christian, who, during his lifetime,
taught and sowed very obstinately many articles con-
trary and against the christian religion and the catholic
faith. And the same John Wickliff wrote certain books
which he called a Dialogue, and a Trialogue, besides
many other treatises and works which he both wrote and
taught, in which he wrote the aforesaid, and many other
damnable and execrable articles, which books for
the publication and advancement of his perverse doc-
trine, he set forth openly for every man to read ;
whereby, besides many offences, great hurt and damage of
soul has ensued in divers regions and countries, but especi-
ally in the kingdom of England and Bohemia. Against
whom the masters and doctors of the universities of Ox-
ford and Prague, rising up in the truth and verity of
God, according to the order of schools, within a while
after did reprove and condemn the said articles.
Moreover, the most reverend fathprs the archbishops
and bishops, for that time present, of Canterbury,
York, and Prague, legates of the apostolic see, in the
kingdoms of England and Bohemia, did condemn the
books of the said Wickliff to be burnt. And the said
archbishop of Prague, commissary of the apostolic see,
did likewise in this behalf determine and judge. And
moreover he forbid that any of those books which re-
mained unburned should be hereafter any more read.
And, again, those things being brought to the knowledge
and understanding of the apostolic see, and in the general
council, the bishop of Rome, in his last council, condemned
the said books, treatises, and volumes, commanding them
to be openly burned. Most straightly forbidding that
any men who should bear the name of Christ should
be so hardy either to keep, read, or expound any of the
(1) The gohinra here alluded to was that of the popedom. There
being at that time no less than titri e rival popes, — Benedict XIII.,
Gregory XII., John XXIII. The Council of Constance was con-
said books or treatises, volumes or works, or by any
means to use or occupy them, or else to allege them
openly or privily, but to their reproof and infamy. And
to the intent that this most dangerous and filthy doctrine
should be utterly wiped away out of the church, he gave
commandment throughout all places, that the ordinaries
should diligently inquire and seek out by the apostolic
authority and ecclesiastical censure, for all such books,
treatises, volumes, and works. And the same so being
found, to burn and consume them with fire ; providing
withal, that if there be any found who will not obey
the same, should process be made against them, as
against the favourers and maintainers of heresies. And
this most holy synod hath caused the said forty-five
articles to be examined, and oftentimes perused by
many most reverend fathers of the church of Rome,
cardinals, bishops, abbots, masters of divinity, and doc-
tors of both laws, besides a great number of other
learned men ; which articles being so examined, it was
found (as in truth it was no less) that many, yea, and a
great number of them be notoriously reproved and
condemned by the holy fathers for heretical ; others not
to be catholic, but erroneous ; some full of offence and
blasphemy ; certain of them offensive to godly ears, and
many of them to be rashful and seditious. It is found
also that his books do contain many articles of like ef-
fect and quality, and that they do induce and bring into
the church unsound and unwholesome doctrine contrary
to the faith and ordinance of the church. Wiierefore in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, this sacred synod,
ratifying and approving the sentences and judgments of
the archbishops and council of Rome, do by their decree
and ordinance perpetually for evermore condemn and
reprove the said articles, and every one of them, his
books which he intituled his Dialogue and Trialogue,
and all other books of the same author, volumes, trea-
tises and works, by what name soever they be intitled
or called, the which we will here to be sufficiently ex.
pressed and named. Also we forbid the reading, learn-
ing, exposition, or alleging of any of the said books unto
all faithful christians, except so far as shall tend to the
reproof of the same ; forbidding all and singular catho-
lic persons, under the pain of curse, that from hence-
forth they be not so hardy openly to preach, teach, or
hold, or by any means to allege the said articles, or any
of them, except, as aforesaid, that it do tend to the re-
proof of them ; commanding all those books, treatises,
works, and volumes aforesaid, to be openly burned, as
it was decreed in the synod at Rome, as it is afore ex-
pressed. For the execution whereof duly to be observed
and done, the said sacred synod doth straightly charge
and command the ordinaries of the place diligently to
attend and look unto the matter, according as it apper-
taineth unto every man's duty by the canonical laws and
ordinances."
The Decree of the Council of Constance, tovching the
taking up of the Body and Bones of John Wickliff, to
be burned forty -one years after he was buried in his own
Parish at Lutterworth.
" Forsomuch as by the authority of the sentence and
decree of the council of Rome, and by the commandment
of the church, and the apostolical see, after due delays
being given, they proceeded to the condemnation of the
said John Wickliff, and his memory, having first made
proclamation, and given commandment to call forth
whosoever would defend the said Wickliff, or his memory,
if there were any such (but there did none appear, which
would either defend him or his memory.) And moreover
witnesses being examined, by commissioners appointed by
Pope John and his council, upon the impenitency and
final obstinacy and stubbornness of the said John Wick-
liff (reserving that which is to be reserved, as in such
business the order of the law requireth) and his impe-
nitency and obstinacy even unto his end, being suffici-
vencd A. D. 1414, to suppress this schism. The first was deposeil.
tlie two latter rcsipned ; and the cardinals elected Otto dn
Cotonna, under the title of Martin V. [Ed.]
A. D. 1388—1389.] DECREE FOR BURNING WICKLIFF'S BONES.— WILLIAM SWINDERBY. 235
I ently proved by evident signs and tokens, and also by
! lawful witnesses, and credit lawfully given thereto.
' Wherefore at the instance of the steward of the trea-
I sury, proclamation being made to hear and understand
the sentence against this day, the sacred synod declares,
determines, and gives sentence, that the said John Wick-
liff was a notorious obstinate heretic, and that he died in
his heresy, and they curse and condemn both him and
' his memory.
' " This synod also decrees and ordains, that the body
! and bones of the said John WicklifF, if it might be discer-
, ned and known from the bodies of other faithful people,
should be taken out of the ground, and thrown away far
from the burial of any church, according to the canon
laws and decrees. Which determination and sentence
; definitive being read and pronounced, the lord president,
and the aforesaid presidents of the four nations, being
demanded and asked whether it did please them or no ?
They all answered (first Hostiensis the president, and after
' him the other presidents of the nations) that it pleased
I them very well, and so they allowed and confirmed all
the premises, &c."
' What Heraclitus would not laugh, or what Democritus
I would not weep, to see these sage and reverend Catoes
occupy their heads about taking up a poor man's body,
who had been dead and buried for the space of forty one
' years ? and yet perhaps they were not able to find his
right bones, but took up some other body, and so of a
catholic made an heretic ! Yet herein Wickliff had some
■ cause to give them thanks, that they at least spared him
so long till he was dead, and gave him so long respite
' after his death, forty-one years to rest in his sepulchre
before they ungraved him, and turned him from earth to
I ashes ; which ashes they also took and threw into the river.
I And so he was resolved into three elements, earth, fire, and
I water, thinking thereby utterly to extinguish and abolish
; both the name and doctrine of Wickliff for ever. Not
much unlike the example of the old Pharisees, who when
I they had brought the Lord to the grave, thought to make
I him sure never to rise again. But these and all other
;must know, that as there is no counsel against the Lord ;
i so there is no keeping down of the truth, but it will spring
jand come out of dust and ashes, as appeared right well
in this man. For though they digged up his body, burnt
Lis bones, and drowned his ashes ; yet the word of God,
!and the truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success
, thereof, they could not burn ; which yet to this day, for
,the most part of his articles, do remain; notwithstand-
jing the transitory body and bones of the man were thus
I consumed and dispersed.
] These things thus finished and accomplished, which
I pertain to the history and time of WicklifF ; let us now by
ithe support of the Lord proceed to write of the rest,
who either in his time or after his time, springing out of
the same university, and raised up (as one might say)
out of his ashes, were partakers of the same persecution.
Of whom speaks Thomas Walden, where he says, that
after WicklifF many suffered most cruel death, and many
more did forsake the realm.
In the number of whom was William Swinderby, Wal-
|ter Brute, John Purvey, Richard White, William Thorpe,
!Raynold Peacock bishop of St. Asaph, and afterward of
IChichester.
] To this catalogue also pertains Laurence Redman
master of arts, David Sautre, divine, John Aschwarby
vicar, as they call him, of St. Mary's church at Oxford',
iWilliam James an excellent young man, well learned,
iThomas Brightwell, and William llawlam a civilian,
jRafe Grenhurst, John Scut, and Philip Norice ; who
|being excommunicated by Pope Eugenius IV., in the
lyear 1446, appealed to a general council.
I Peter Paine also, who flying from Oxford unto Bohe-
]mia, stoutly contended against the sophisters, as admi-
Inistering both kinds in the sacrament of the last supper.
Also the Lord Cobham, &c., with others, whose names
are named in the king's writ, sent to the sherifl" of North-
ampton, which writ of the king follows in this tenor :
I" Forsomuch as John Attyate of Chepingwarden, John
Warryner, Robert Brewood, &c., being receivers and
favourers of heretics, and especially of John Woodward
priest, publicly defamed and condemned of heresy, will
not be justified by the censures of the church, as the re-
verend father John bishop of Lincoln hath certified us :
we therefore desiring to withstand all defenders and
favorers of such heresies, do will and command as well
the forenamed, as namely the aforesaid John Woodward
to be apprehended, straightly charging the same to be im-
prisoned by their bodies, or otherwise punished as shall
seem good to the justices, until they and every of them
shall submit themselves to the obedience of the aforesaid
bishop in that behalf accordingly. Whereof fail you not
under pain of an hundred pounds. Witness ourselves :
given at our manor of Langley the 8th day of March, the
twelfth year of our reign."
To these above rehearsed, and other favorers of Wick-
lifF, witliin this our country of England, we may add also
the Bohemians ; for the propagation of the doctrine of
Wickliff' in that country took root, coming from England
to Bohemia by the following occasion.
There happened that at that time a certain student of
the country of Bohemia was at Oxford, one of a wealthy
house, and also of a noble stock ; who returning home
from the university of Oxford to the university of Prague,
carried with him certain books of WicklifF. It happened
at the same time that a certain nobleman in the city of
Prague had founded and built a great church of Matthias
and Mattheus, (which church was called Bethelem), giving
to it great lands, and finding in it two preachers every
day, to preach both holy-day and working-day to the
people. Of which two preachers, John Huss was one, a
man of great knowledge, of a pregnant wit, and most
highly esteemed among them for his worthv life. Thus
John Huss having familiarity with this young man, in
reading and perusing these books of Wickliff, derived
such pleasure and profit in reading them, that he not only
began to defend the author openly in the schools, but
also in his sermons, commending him for a good man, an
holy man, and heavenly man, wishing himself, when he
should die, to be there placed, where the soul of WicklifF
should be.
And thus much briefly concerning the favorers and
adherents of John WicklifF in general. Now particularly
and in order let us (by Christ's grace) narrate the
histories and persecutions of the parties aforenamed, be-
ginning with the valiant champions William Swinderby
and Walter Brute.
Tke History of William Swinderby,
In the year 1389, William Swinderby priest, within
the diocess of Lincoln, being accused and seized for cer-
tain opinions, was presented before John bishop of Lin-
coln, after the form and order of the pope's law, according
to their usual rite ; his accusers were friar Frisby an
Observant, friar Hincely an Augustinian, and Thomaj
Blaxton a Dominican.
The articles or conclusions were exhibited against him
by the friars in the bishop of Lincoln's court. Which
articles although he never preached, taught, or at any time
defended, as appears in the process ; yet the friars with
their witnesses standing against him, declared him to
be convicted ; bringing dry wood with them to the town
to burn him, and would not leave him, before they made
him promise and swear for fear of death, never to hold
them, teach them, nor preach them privily, or openly ;
and that he should go to certain churches to revoke the
conclusions, which he never affirmed. Which he obedi-
ently accomplished, with this form of revocation, which
they bound him to.
The Revocation of William Swinderby.
" I, William Swinderby, priest, although unworthy of
the diocese of Lincoln, acknowledging one true catholic
and apostolic faith of the holy church of Rome, do ab-
jure all heresy and error opposed to the determination
of the holy mother church, whereof I have been hitherto
defamed, namely, the conclusions and articles above
prefixed, and every one of them judicially objected to
me, by the commissary of the reverend father in Christ
236
THE INFORMATIONS LAID AGAINST WILLIAM SWINDERBY.
[Book V.
Lord John, by the grace of God bishop of Lin-
coln ; and do revoke the same, and every one of
them, some as heretical, some as erroneous and false,
and do affirm and believe them to be so, and hereafter
will never teach, preach, or affirm publicly or privily the
same. Neither will I make any sermon within the
diocese of Lincoln, without first asking and obtaining the
license of the aforesaid reverend father and lord, the
bishop of Lincoln. Contrary to the which if I shall |
presume hereafter to say or do, to hold or preach, I shall
be content to abide the severity of the canon, as I have
judicially by the necessity of the law, sworn, and do
swear," &c.
Thus you see the conclusions and articles of tbis
good man, falsely objected to him by the malicious and
lying friars ; and also the retraction to which they com-
pelled him ; by which it may be conjectured, what credit
is to be given to the articles and conclusions which these
cavilling friars, wresting all things to the worst, have
objected and imputed to Wickliff and all others like him,
whom they so falsely defame, so slanderously belie, and
so maliciously persecute. After these things in the
diocese of Lincoln, Swinderby removed to the diocese of
Hereford ; where he was as much or more molested by
the friars again, and by John Tresnant bishop of Here-
ford, as by the process set out at large in their own
registers may appear.
Here follow the informations laid before John Tresnant,
bishop of Hereford, against William Swinderby in the
cause of heretical pravity, as the popish heretics call
it.
" Reverend father and high lord. Lord John, by God's
sufferance bishop of Hereford : it is lamentably declared
unto your reverend fatherhood on the behalf of Christ's
faithful people, your devout children of your diocese of
Hereford, that notwithstanding the unbelief of very
many Lollards, who have too long sprung up in your
diocese, there is newly come a certain child of wicked-
ness, named William Swinderby ; who by his horrible
persuasions, and mischievous endeavours, and also by
his public preaching and private teaching, perverts the
whole ecclesiastical state, and stirs up, with all his
power, schism between the clergy and the people. And
that your reverend fatherhood may be the more fully
informed, who and what manner of man the same
William Swinderby is ; there are proposed and exhibited
here to your fatherhood, on behalf of the faithful people
of Christ, against the same William Swinderby, cases
and articles. Which if he shall deny, then shall these
cases and articles be most evidently proved against him
by witnesses worthy of belief, and by other lawful proof
and evidences, to the end that your fatherhood may
do and ordain therein, as to your pastoral office be-
Jongeth.
1. William Swinderby, pretending himself a priest,
was openly and publicly convicted of certain articles and
conclusions being erroneous, schismatical, and heretical,
preached by him at several places and times, before a
multitude of faithful christian people. And the same
articles and conclusions he by force of law revoked and
abjured, some as heretical, and some as erroneous and
false, avouching and believing them for such as that from
thenceforth he would never preach, teach, or affirm
openly or privily any of the same conclusions : and if by
preaching or avouching he should presume to do the
contrary ; that then he should be subject to the severity
of the canons, according as he took corporal oath, judi-
cially upon the holy gospels.
2. Also the conclusions, which by him were first
openly taught and preached, and afterward abjured and
revoked, are contained in the process of the bishop of
Lincoln, written word by word. And for the cases and
articles, they were exhibited by the faithful christian
people against the said William Swinderby, together
with the conclusions, and are hereafter written : of
which cases and articles the tenor here follows :
'i. The liaid William, contrary to the revocation and
abjuration, not converted to repentance, but perverted
from ill to worse, and given up to a reprobate mind,
came into your diocese, where he running about in sun-
dry places, has presumed to preach, or rather to pervert
and to teach of his own rasliness, many heretical, erro-
neous, blasphemous, and other slanderous things contrary
and repugnant to the sacred canons, and the determina-
tion of the holy catholic church. What those things
were, at what place and what time, shall hereafter more
particularly be declared.
4. The same William, notwithstanding your com-
mandments and admonitions sealed with your seal, and
directed to all the curates of your diocese, ordaining
among other things that no person of what state, degree,
or condition soever, should presume to preach or to
teach, or expound the holy scripture to the people,
either in hallowed or profane places within your diocese,
without sufficient authority, under any manner of pre-
tence, as in the same your letters of admonition and of
inhibition, is more largely contained ; which letters the
same William received into his hands, and read word by
word in the town of Monmouth of your diocese, in the
year 1390, so that these your letters came to the true
and undoubted knowledge of the same William ; yet
notwithstanding, he has presumed in various places and
times to preach within your diocese, after and against
your commandment aforesaid.
5. The same William in his preaching to the people,
on Monday the first of August, 1--590, in the parish of
Whitney in your diocese, held and affirmed, that no pre-
late of the world, of what estate, pre-eminence or degree
soever he were, having cure and charge of souls,
being in deadly sin, and hearing the confession of any
could do anything in giving him absolution : as
being one who neither looses him from his sin, nor,
in correcting or excommunicating him from his demerits,
binds him by his sentence, unless the prelate shall him-
self be free from deadly sin, as St. Peter was, to whom
our Lord gave power to bind and loose.
6. The same William in many places said and af-
firmed, in the presence of many faithful christian people,
that after the sacramental words uttered by the priest
when he intends to consecrate, the very body of Christ
is not made in the sacrament of the altar.
7. Thi't accidents cannot be in the sacrament of the
altar without a subject ; and that there remains material
bread there to such as are communicants of the body of
Christ, in the same sacrament.
8. That a priest, being in deadly sin, cannot by the
strength of the sacramental words make the body of
Christ, or bring to perfection any other sacrament of
the church, nor minister it to the members of the
church.
9. That all priests are of equal power in all things,
although some of them in this world are of higher and
greater honour, degree, or pre-eminence.
10. That only contrition puts away sin, if so be that
a man shall be duly contrite ; and that all auricular and
outward confession is superfluous, and not requisite of
necessity to salvation.
11. Inferior curates have their power of binding and
loosing not immediately from the pope or bishop, but
immediately from Christ : and therefore neither pope
nor bishop can revoke to themselves such kind of power,
at their will and pleasure.
12. That the pope cannot grant annual and yearly
pardons ; because there may not be so many years to
the day of judgment, as are in the pope's bulls or par-
dons contained. By which it follows that these pardons
are not of such value as they pretend.
1.}. It is not in the pope's power to grant to any
penitent person remission of the punishment of the
fault.
14. That person that gives alms to any, who in his
judgment is not in want, commits sin in so giving it.
l."). That it is not in the power of any prelate, of what
order soever he be, privately to give letters for the
benefit of his order, neither does such benefit profit to
the salvation of the soul, them to whom they be granted.
16. That the same William, unmindful of his own
A.D. 1389—1391.] THE CITATION AND ANSWERS OF WILLIAM SWINDERBY.
237
salvation, hath many and oftentimes come into a certain
desert wood, called Dervallwood, of your diocess, and
there in a certain chapel not consecrated, or rather in a
profane cottage, has in contempt of the keys, presumed
of his own rashness to celebrate, nay rather to profane.
17. The sama William has also presumed to do such
thin"-s in a certain profane chapel, situated in the park
,of Newton nigh to the town of Leint^'arden, of your
, diocess."
The Citation.
" John, by God's permission, bishop of Hereford, to
bis dear sons our dean of Leamster, to the ])Hr5ons
of Croft, Almady, and Whitney, and also to the vicars of
Kingston, Ladersley, Wiggemore, and Monmouth Clif-
ford, and of St. John's altar in our cathedral church of
Hereford, and to the rest of the deans, parsons, vicars,
chaplains, parish priests, and to others whosoever in
any place are appointed through our city and diocess
jof Hereford, sendeth greeting, grace and benediction.
" We bid and command, charging you straightly, in
the virtue of holy obedience, that you cite or cause to be
Icited peremptorily (and under the pain of excommuni-
cation) William Swinderby, pretending himself to be a
priest, that he appear before us, or our commissaries
on the twentieth day of this present month of July, at
North Lodebury, within our diocess, with the continu-
ance of the days following in other places also to be as-
signed unto him if it be expedient, till such things as
have been, and shall be laid against him, be fully dis-
cussed, to answer more at large to certain positions and
articles, touching the catholic faith, and the holy mother
church's determination that have been exhibited and
ministered unto the said William. And to see and hear
, also many things that have openly in judgment before
,us, and a great number of faithful christians, by him
I been even in writing confessed, to be condemned as
I heretical, false, schismatical, and erroneous. And to
I Fee and hear positions and articles denied by the said
iWilliam, to be proved by faithful witnesses, and other
llawful trials against the said William. And to receive
jfor his false, heretical, erroneous, and schismatical doc-
itrine, that which justice shall appoint, or else to shew
(Causes why the premises should not be done.
j "And if the said William conceals himself, or can-
not be cited in his proper person ; we will that in your
[churches, when most people shall then come together to
divine service, you openly with a loud voice, and that
Imay be understood, cause the said William peremptorily
|to be cited unto the premises, certifying the said William,
Ithat whether he shall appear the day and place appointed
lor no, we notwithstanding will proceed unto the premises
lagainst the said William, according to the canonical de-
:crees, by form of law, in the absence or contumacy of
the said William notwithstanding. We will, moreover,
if the said William shall appear at the said day and
iplace, as is aforesaid, before us, friendly hear him, and
;honestly, and favourably, as far as we may with God's
leave, deal with him ; granting free license to come and
go for his natural liberty without any hurt either in body
or goods. And see that you fully certify us of the
jthings that you or any of you shall do about the execu-
ition of this our commandment, and that by your letters
Ipatent signed with your seal authentic, giving also
ifaithfuUy to the said William, or to his lawful proctor,
iif he require it, a copy of this our present command-
Iment.
I " Given at our house of Whitburne, under our
seal, the fifth day of the month of July, in
the year of our Lord 1391."
William Swinderby either explained or defended the
lyarious conclusions objected against him, and concluded
in the following words, which we insert in the ancient
style in which they were written :
" The fifth article telleth of forgiveness of sins, and is
this ; that very contrition withouten charity and grace,
do away all sins before done of that man that is verily
contrite ; and all true confession made by mouth out-
wardly to a wise priest and a good, profiteth much to a
man, and it is needful and helping, that men shew their
life to such, trusting fully to God's mercy, that he for-
giveth the sin.
" And hereto I say, that there been two remissions of
sin, one that belongeth only to God, and that remission
is the cleansing of the soul from sin, and the other re-
mission, a certifying that one man certifieth anotlier,
that sins been forgiven of God, if he be sorry with all
his heart for them, and is in full will to leave them for
ever ; and this manner of forgiveness longeth to priests.
Of the first manner of forgiveness David saith, ' And I
said, 1 will confess my unrighteousness unto the Lord,
and thou forgavest me my misdeed.' And Zechnry,
saith, ' And thou, O child, shalt be called the jii-opiiet
of the highest, &c. To give knowledge of salvation
unto his people for the remission of their sins, by tiie
bowels of God's mercy.' And John Baptist, ' Beliold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.'
And St. John the Evangelist saith in his epistle, ' If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and cleanse us from all our iniquity.' And it
followeth, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, even Jesus Christ, and he it is
that is tlie propitiation for our sins.' And of the
other remission of sins, Christ speaketh in the gospel,
and saith, ' Whose sins ye forgive they shall be for;^iven.'
And man's forgiveness availeth little, but if God forgive
our sins through his grace.
" The sixth conclusion toucheth indulgences and par-
dons that the pope granteth in his bulls, and men callen
it an absolution a puma e( culpa.
" Of this manner of speech I cannot find in the gos-
pel, ne in no place of holy writ, ne I have not read tliat
Christ used this manner of remission, ne none of his
apostles. But as me seeraeth, if the pope had such a
power, sithen the pains after a man's death had been
much greater than any bodily pains of the world ; me
thinketh he should of charity keep men out of such pains,
and then men needed not to find so many vicious priests,
after their life, to bring their souls out of purgatory.
Another thing me thinketh, that sith the pope's power
ne may not keep us in this world from bodily pains, as
from cold, from hunger, from dread, from sorrow and
other such pains, how should his power help us from
spiritual pains, when we been dead ? But for that no
man cometh after his death to tell us the sooth of what
pain they been, men mow tell thereof what him lust.
St. John saith in his Apocalyps, that he saw under the
altar the souls of them which were slain for the word of
God, and for the testimony which they had. And they
did cry with a loud voice, saying, ' How long. Lord holy
and true, dost not thou revenge our blood of them which
dwell on the earth ?' And white stoles were given to
every of them to rest awhile, till the number of their
fellow servants and brethren should be fulfilled, which
also remained to be slain as they were, &c. Here
seemeth it, that these souls were not assoiled a pwna,
that is, from pain ; for their desire is not fulfilled. And
they were bidden abide awhile, and that is a pain. And
if martyrs were not assoiled from pain, it is hard for any
man to say, that he assoileth other men a pwna. Also
good men's souls have not but spiritual bliss, and they
want bodily bliss until their resurrection in the day of doom.
And after they desired to have that bliss, and abiden
it, and that is pain to them. And I cannot see that the
pope hath power to bring him from this pain. But if
any man can shew me that he hath such a power
granted in the troth of holy writ, I will gladly
leefen it.
" The seventh point speaketh of the pope, and is
this ; sith it is only due to God, as I have said before,
to geve and to grant plenar remission from pain and
from blame ; that whatsoever he be, pope or other, that
presumptuously mistaketh upon him the power that is
only due to God, in that, inasmuch as in him is, he
maketh himself even with Christ, and blasphemeth God
as Lucifer did, when he said, Ascendam, et ero similia
altissimo, that is, I will ascend, and belike the highest, &c.
" For that I say, if the pope hold men of arms io
maintaining of his temporal lordship, to avenge ^lim o^
238 SENTENCE AGAINST W. SWINDERBY.— THE HISTORY OF WALTER BRUTE. [Bock V.
them that giltenand offenden him, and geveth remission
to fight and to sley them, that contrarien him, as men
sayden he did by the bishop of Norwich, not putting his
sword in his sheath, as God commanded to Peter, he is
an.tichrist. For he doth the contrary of the command-
ment of Jesus Christ, that bad Peter forgiven to his
brothel seventy sithe seven sithe. Well, I find in the
gospel, that when Christ sent his disciples to Samaria,
the Samaritans would not receive them. And some of
them bidden Christ, that he should make fire come
down from heaven to destroy the city. And he blamed
them and said, ' Ye know not of what spirit ye are ; the
Son of Man is not come down to destroy, but to save the
lives and souls of men,' &c. If Christ then come to save
men, and not to slay them ; who tliat doth the reverse
hereof is against Christ, and then he is antichrist. Christ
bade Peter put his sword into his sheath, and said, ' All
which take the sword, shall perish with the sword.' And
I cannot find that Peter drew out his sword after that
time, but suffered as Christ said, ' When thou shalt wax
old, another shall gird thee, and lead thee whether thou
wilt not.' And, therefore, said Peter, ' Chiist suffered
for us, leaving us example that we should follow his
steps.' And Paul saith, ' Not defending youi-selves, but
give place to anger, leave revenging to me and I shall
reward them,' &c. And therefore it seemeth to me,
that it is much against Christ's lore, that his vicar
should be a fighter ; sithen that he mote be a shepherd,
that should go before his sheep, and let them come after
him. and not with swords to drive them away from him.
For as Christ saith, ' A good shepherd shall put his life for
his slieep.' And zif all that Christ had two swords, when
that heVas taken of tlie Jews, he said himself it was for
that the scriptures moten zif be fulfilled, ' He was re-
puted among the wicked ;' and not figure two swords that
men sayen the pope hath to govern with the church.
And when I see such doings of the pope, and many other
that accorden not with Christ's lore, ne his living ; and
when I read divers scriptures of holy writ, I am foul
astonied whether they shoidden be understood of
him, or of any other. And I ])ray you for God's love
tell me the sooth. Christ saith, ' Many shall come in
my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall seduce
many,' &c, Christ (I wet well) is as much to say, as
he that is anointed, and two anointings there were in the
law, one of kings, another of priests. And Christ was
both king and priest, and so the ])ope saith that he is.
And if all that have been emperors of Rome, and other
heathen kings have been antichrists, they come not in
Christ's name. But whoso cometh in Christ's name,
and feigneth himself Christ's friend, and he be privily
his enemy, he may lightly beguile many. St. Paul saith,
before there cometh a defection first and the son of per-
dition shall be revealed, which is the adversary, and is
extolled above all that is named God, or wliich is wor-
shipped, so tliat he shall sit in the temj)le of God, shew-
ing himself as God. And it foHoweth in the same place;
and now ye know what holdeth till he be revealed in his
time, for he worketh already the mystery of iniquity.
Only he that holdeth, let him hold till he come abroad,
and then that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the
Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth, &c.
And St. John saith in the Apocalyps, ' I saw another
beast ascending out of the earth, and two horns like to
the Lamb. He spake like the dragon, and had the power
of the first beast.' Many such authorities astonied me
oft sithes ; and therefore I pray you, for the love of
God, to tell me what they mean."
After two sittings in July, and two in August, the last
of which was on the sixteenth of August, ISiJl, they
proceed to sentence, October the third. —
" The name of Christ being invoked, we, John, by the
permission of God, bishop of Hereford, sitting in tribunal
seat, having God before our eyes, weighing and consider-
ing the articles by the aforesaid faitliful christians put
up against the said Swinderby, pretending himself to be
priest, with his answers upon the same, Actis et Actitatis
before us in the cause of heretical perversity, with ma-
ture deliberation had before in his behalf, with masters
and doctors of divinity, and also of other faculties, with
their counsel and consent, do pronounce, decree, and de-
clare tiie said William to have been and to be a heretic
schismatic, and a false informer of the people, and such as
is to be avoided of faithful christians. Wherefore we
admonish, under the pain of the law, all and singular
christians, of what sex, state, condition, or pre-eminence
soever, that neither they nor any of them within our
di.ocese, or any other, do believe, receive, defend, or fa.
vour the said William, till he shall deserve fully to be
reconc led to the bosom again of holy church."
Of the process, answers, and condemnation of this
worthy priest, and true servant of Christ, William
Swinderby, you have heard. What afterwards became
upon him I have not been al)le to ascertain ; whether
he died in prison, or whether he escaped their hands, or
whether he was burned, there is no certain relation
made. This remains out of doubt, that during the life
of King Richard II. no great harm was done to him,
which was until the year 1401, when King Richard being
wrongfully deposed, Henry IV. seized the kingdom of
England. About the beginning of his reign we read of a
certain parliament held at London, in which it was
decreed, that whoever shewed themselves favourers of
Wickliff, who at that time were called Lollards, they
should be apprehended, and if they obstinately perse-
vered in that doctrine they should be delivered over to
the bishop of the diocess, and from him committed to
the secular magistrate. This law (says the history)
brought a certain priest to punishment the same year,
who was burned in Sraithfield in the presence of a great
number. But it does not appear what was the priest's
name. Notwithstanding, by divers conjectures it ap-
pears to me that his name was Swinderby, who was
forced to recant before the bishop of Lincoln. This is
plain for all men to judge that if he were burned, then
the bishops, friars, and priests, who were the causes
thereof, have a great thing to answer to the Lord, when
he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
The history of Waller Bride.
After the history of William Swinderby, I thought good
and convenient to add the acts and doings of Walter
Brute, his joint fellow and companion, being a lay-man,
and learned ; brought up as it seems in the university of
Oxford, being there also a graduate. The treating of
whose history, as it is something long, so therein
will appear many things worthy to be read and con-
sidered.
First, tlie mighty operation of God's Spirit in him, his
ripe knowledge, modest simplicity, his valiant constancy,
his learned treatises, and many conflicts sustained against
God's enemies. On the contrary part in his adversaries
may appear might against right, man's authority against
plain verity ; against whom they, having nothing directly
to allege, proceed in condemnation against one whom
they are not able to confute. The chief occasion,
that seemed to stir up the heart and zeal of this Walter
against the i)ope, v/as the impudent pardons and indul-
gences of Pope Urban, granted to Henry Spencer bishop
of Norwich, to fight against Pope Clement, mentioned
before. Secondly, the wrongful condemnation of the
articles and conclusions of WiUiam Swinderby ; the
whole order whereof, in the process here following, more
plainly may appear.
The process of John, bishop of Hereford, against
Walter Brute a learned lay-man, of the diocess qf
Hereford, touching the cause of Heresy.
" In the name of God, amen. To all manner of faithful
christian people, tliat shall see and hear this our present
process, John by the sufferance of God bishop of Here-
ford sends greeting and continual charity, in the Lord.
A.D. 1391.]
ARTICLES EXHIBITED AGAINST WALTER BUUTE.
239
We would that vou all should know, that of late by
! many faithful christian people, and specially zealous fol-
I lowers of the catholic faith, we were lamentably informed
by way of complaint ; that a certain son of ours, named
i Walter Brute, a learned lay person, of our diocess, has
under a cloaked shew of holiness damnably seduced the
people ; and, setting behind him the fear of God, seduces
them as much as he can from day to day, informing and
teaching openly and privily as well the nobles as the
commons, in certain conclusions, heretical, schismatical,
and erroneous, and heretofore condemned. And they
have also exhibited against the same Walter, the articles
. underwritten, in manner and form as followeth.
Articles exhibited and denounced to the bishop, against
Walter Brute.
*' ' Reverend father and lord, we the faithful people of
I Christ, and zealous lovers of the catholic faith, and also
■ your humble and devout children, do minister and exhibit
! to your reverend fatherhood the articles underwritten,
i touching the catholic faith, contrary and against ma-
' licious persons, and detractors of the same faith, and the
determinations of holy mother church, and namely,
against the child of Belial, one Walter Brute, a false
teacher and seducer amongst the people : humbly be-
seeching, that you would vouchsafe to have regard to the
correction of the enormities underwritten, according to
the canonical constitutions, t-ven as to your pastoral
! office doth belong.
i 1. We do give and exhibit and intend to prove that
t the same Walter Brute, being unmindful of his salvation,
I has been by many and divers faithful christian people
frequently accused of the cursedness of heresy ; as by
j the swift report, slander, and rumour of the people, pro-
ceeding before the most reverend father and lord, lord
William, archbishop of Canterbury, and also before the
j reverend father and lord, lord John, late bishop of
Hereford, your predecessor, and now bishop of St.
; Asaph, hath been testified, and also hath been many and
I divers times cited to answer to articles avouched, and
■ openly and publicly taught by him against the catholic
i faith. But he in this matter of heretical cursedness (so
I grievously and shamefully spoken of) has never purged
his innocency ; but lurkingly, and running into corners,
has many years laboured to advance things erroneous,
and schismatical, and also heretical, and to imprint them
in the hearts of faithful people.
2. The aforesaid Walter Brute has openly, publicly,
and notoriously avouched ; and commonly said and
taught, and stubbornly affirmed ; that every christian
man (yea and woman) being without sin, may make the
body of Christ as well as the priest.
1 .3. The same Walter has notoriously, openly and pub-
licly avouched and taught, that in the sacrament of the
I altar there is not the very body, but a sign and a memo-
irial only.
1 4. The aforesaid Walter has said commonly, and
avouched, and also has laboured to inform men and
icompanies, that no man is bound to give tithes, nor
ioblations ; and if any man will needs give, he may give
jhis tithes and oblations to whom he will, excluding
jthereby their curates.
5. That such as preach and prefer crosses, and par-
dons (granted by the high bishop to them that helped
the purpose of the reverend father lord Henry, by the
grace of God bishop of Norwich, when he took his jour-
ney to tight for the holy father the pope) are schismatics
and heretics, and that the pope cannot grant such man-
ner of pardons.
6". The said Walter has often said, and commonly
avouched, that the pope is antichrist, and a seducer
of the people, and utterly against the law and life of
Christ.
7. Whereas of late your reverence proceeded in form
of law against William Svvinderby ; and that the said
William Swinderby had given his answers in writing,
containing errors, schisms and heresies, even as you with
the mature counsel of masters and doctors in divinity,
and other faculties have determined and given sentence,
and have pronounced the same WiUiam Swinderby to be
an heretic and a schismatic, and an erroneous teacher of
the people : nevertheless, the aforenamed Walter has
openly, publicly, and notoriously said, avouched and
Siubbornly affirmed, that the said William's answers are
good, righteous, and not able to be convinced, in that
they contain no error, and that your sentence, given
against the said William, is evil, false, and unjust ; and
that your assistants have wickedly, naughtily, perversely,
and unjustly condemned the answers aforesaid.'
"Now thereupon immediately those same faithful chris-
tian people have instantly required, that we would vouch-
safe that other articles given by the same faithful chris-
tians against William Swinderby, together with the
writings and answers of the same William, should be ad-
mitted against Walter Brute. Wliich things being done,
the sam" faithful christian people, and especially Sir
Walter Pride, the j^enitentiary of our cathedral church
of Hereford, personally appearing before us, sitting in
our judgment seat in the parish church of Whiteborne
of our diocess brought forth and exhibited two public
instruments against the same Walter Brute, in the case
of cursed heresy aforesaid.
" At last, Walter Brute did present to us divers scrolls
of paper, written with his own proper hand, for his
answers to the same articles and conclusions above
written ; which scrolls were as follows : —
" ' In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, Amen. I, Walter Brute, sinner, layman,
husbandman, and a christian (having my oti'spring of
the Britons, both by my father's and mother's side) of
the Britons, have been accused to the bishop of Here-
ford, that I did err in many matters concerning the
catholic christian fai':h ; by whom I am required that I
should write an answer in Latin to all those matters.
Whose desire I will satisfy to my power, protesting first
of all, before God and beibre all the world ; that like as
it is not my mind, through God's grace, to refuse the
known truth, for any reward, greater or smaller, yea, he
it never so big, nor yet for the fear of any temporal
punishment ; even so it is not my mind to maintain any
erroneous doctrine for any personal advantage. And if
any man, of what state, sect, or condition soever he be,
will shew me that I err in my writings or sayings, by
the authority of the sacred scripture, or by probable
reason grounded on the sacred scripture, I will humbly
and gladly receive his information. But as for the bare
words of any teacher (Christ only excepted) I will not
simply believe, except he shall be able to stablish them
by the truth of experience, or of the scripture : because
that, in the holy apostles elected by Christ, there has
been found error by the testimony of the holy scripture,
because that Paul himself confesses that he rebuked
Peter, for that he was worthy to be rebuked. Gal. ii. 14.
There have been errors found in the holy doctors, that
have been before us, as they themselves confess of
themselves. And oftentimes it happens, that there is
error found in the teachers in our age : who are of con-
trary opinions among themselves, and some of them do
sometimes determine one thing for truth, and others do
condemn the self same thing to be heresy and error.
Which protestation premised, I will here jilace two sup-
positions or cases for a ground and a foundation of all
things that I shall say, out of which I would gather two
probable conclusions established upon the same, and
upon the sacred scripture. By which conclusions, when
they shall be declared after my manner and fashion, it
shall plainly appear what my opinion and judgment is
concerning all matters that I am accused of. But be-
cause I am ignorant and unlearned, I will get me under
the mighty defences of the Lord : O Lord, I will re-
member thine only righteousness.
" ' God the Father Almighty uncreate, the maker of
heaven and earth, hath sent his Son (that was everlast-
ingly begotten) into this world, that he should be incar-
nate for the salvation and redemption of mankind, who
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, everlastingly pro-
240
THE ANSWER OF WALTER BRUTE.
[Book V.
ceeding from the Father and the Son, and was born of
Mary the virgin, to the end that we might be born
anew. He sutfered passion under Pontius Pilate for our
sins, laying down his life for us, that we should lay
down our life for our brethren. He was crucified, that
we should be crucified to the world, and the world to
us. He was dead, that he might redeem us from death,
by purchasing for us forgiveness of sins. He was
buried, that we being buried together with him into
death by baptism, and being dead to sins, should
live to righteousness. He descended into hell, thereby
delivering man from thraldom, and from the bondage of
the devil, and restoring him to his inheritance which he
lost by sin. The third day he rose from the dead,
through the glory of the Father, that we also should
walk in newness of life. He ascended up to the heavens,
to which nobody has ascended, saving he that descended
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
He sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Al-
mighty, until his enemies be made his footstool. He
being in very deed so much better than the angels, as
he hath obtained by inheritance a more excellent name
than they. From whence he shall come to judge the
quick and the dead, according to their works, because
the Father hath given all judgment to the Son. In
whose terrible judgment we shall rise again, and shall
all of us stand before this judgment seat, and receive
joy as well bodily as spiritually, for ever to endure, if we
he of the sheep placed at the right hand; or else punish-
iiient both of body and soul, if we shall be found
cmongst goats, placed on the left hand, &c.
" 'Jesus Christ the Son of God, very God and very man,
a king for ever, by establishing an everlasting kingdom
(breaking to powder all the kingdoms of the world,)
Daniel ii. 44. A priest for ever after the order of Mel-
chisedec, whereby also he is able evermore to save such
as come unto God by him, and always liveth to make in-
tercession for us, Heb. vii. 25. He offering one sacri-
fice for our sins, hath made perfect for ever by one obla-
tion those that be sanctified, Heb. x. 14. Being the
wisdom that cannot be deceived, and the truth that can-
not be uttered, he has in this world taught the will of
God his Father, which will he has in work fulfilled, to
the intent that he might faithfully instruct us, and has
given the law of charity to be observed by his faithful
people, which he has written in the hearts and minds of
the faithful with the finger of God, where is the Spirit
of God, searching the inward secrets of the Godhead.
Wherefore, his doctrine must be observed above all
other doctrines, whether they be of angels or of men,
becaiise that he could not, and would not err in his
teaching. But in men's doctrine there chances often-
times to be error ; and therefore we must forsake their
doctrines, if covertly or expressly they are repugnant to
the doctrine of Christ. Men's doctrines being made for
the people's profit, must be allowed and observed, so
that they be grounded upon Christ's doctrine, or at least
be not rejiugnant to his words.
" ' If the high bishop of Home calling himself the servant
of the servants of God, and the chief vicar of Christ in
this world, makes and maintains any laws contrary to
the gospel of Jesus Christ ; then is he of those that have
come in (Christ's name, saying, I am Christ, and have
deceived many, by the testimony of our Saviour in
Matt. xxiv. 2'.i. And the idol of desolation sitting in
the temple of God and taking away from him the con-
tinual sacrifice for a time, times, and half a time, which
idol must be revealed to the christian people by the tes-
timony of Daniel. Whereof Christ speaketh in the
gospel ; when ye shall see the abomination of desolation
that was told of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the
holy place ; let him that readeth imderstand, he is the
pestiferous mountain infecting the whole universal earth,
Jer. li. 25. And not the head of Christ's body. For
the person ancient in years, and honourable in reverence,
he is the head, and the prophet teaching lies, he is the
tail, Is. ix. 15. And he is that wicked and sinful cap-
tain of Israel, whose foreappointed day of iniquity is
come in time of iniquity, who shall take away the
'iadem and take away the crown, £z. xxi. 26. To
whom it was said ; Forasmuch as thy heart was exalted,
and didst say, I am a God, and sittest in the seat of
God, in the heart of the sea, seeing thou art a man and
not God, and hast given thine heart, as if it were the
heart of God ; therefore behold I will bring upon thee
the most strong and mighty strangers of the nations,
and they shall draw their swords upon the beauty of thy
wisdom, and shall defile the commandments, and kill
thee, and pull thee out, and thou shalt die in the de-
struction of the slain. And it foUoweth, In the multi-
tude of thine iniquities, and of the iniquities of thy
merchandize, thou hast defiled thy sanctification. I
will therefore bring forth a tire from the midst of the
whole earth, and will make thee as ashes upon earth.
Thou art become nothing, and never shalt thou be any
more, Ez. xxviii. Furthermore, he is the idol shepherd
forsaking his flock, having a sword on his arm, and
another sword on his right eye, Zech. xi. 1". And sit-
ting in the temj)le of God, he doth advance himself above
all things that is called God, or whatsoever is worship,
ped, 2 Thess. ii. 4. And in the defection or falling
away shall the man of sin be revealed, whom the Lord
Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth. For
every kingdom divided in itself shall be brought to de-
solation. He is also besides. The beast ascending
up out of the earth, having two horns like unto a lamb,
but he speaketh like a dragon, and as the cruel beast
ascending up out of the sea, whose power shall continue
forty-two months. He worketh the things that he
hath given to the image of the beast. And he com-
pelled small and great, rich and poor, free men and
bond slaves, to worship the beast, and to take his mark
in their forehead or their hands. Rev. xiii. If). And
thus, by the testimony of all these places, is he the chief
antichrist upon the earth, and must be slain with the
sword of God's word, and cast with the dragon, the
cruel beast and the false prophet that hath seduced the
earth, into the lake of tire and brimstone to be tor-
mented world without end.
" ' If the city of Rome do allow his traditions, and do
disallow Christ's holy commandments, and Christ's
doctrine, that it may confirm his traditions ; then is she
' Babylon the great,' or the ' daughter of Babylon,' _■
and the ' great whore sitting upon many waters,' with ■
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, n
and the inhabitants of the earth are become drunken
with the wine of her fornication. With whose spiritual
whoredom, enchantments, witchcrafts, and Simon Magus
merchandises, the whole world is infected and se-
duced ; saying in her heart, ' I sit as queen, and am
not a widow, neither shall I see sorrow and mourning.'
Yet is she ignorant that within a little while shall come
the day of her destruction and ruin by the testimony of
God, Rev. chap. xvii. Because that from the time
of the continual sacrifice being taken away, and the
abomination of desolation placed, there be passed one
thousand two hundred and ninety days by the testimony
of Daniel, and the chronicles added do agree to the
same. And the holy city also hath been trodden under
foot of the heathen, for forty-two months, and the
woman was nourished up in the wilderness (unto which
she fled for fear of the face of the serpent) during one
thousand two hundred and sixty days, or else for a time,
times, and half a time, which is all one. All these
things be manifest by the testimony of the book of Re-
velations, and the chronicles thereto agreeing. And as
concerning the fall of Babylon aforesaid, it is manifest in
the Revelations, where it is said, ' In one day shall her
plagues come, death, lamentation, and famine, and she
shall be burned with tire. For, strong is the Lord,
which shall judge her.' And again, ' Babylon that
great city is fallen, which hath made all nations to
drink of the wine of her fornication.' And, thirdly,
' One mighty angel took up a mill-stone, that was a
very great one, and did cast it into the sea, saying. With
violence shall that great city Babylon be overthrown,
and shall no more be found. For her merchants were
the princes of the earth, and with her witchcraft all
nations have gone astray, and in her is there found th«
blood of the saints and prophets.' And of her destruc
A.D. 1391.] THE SECOND AND MORE AMPLE TREATISE OF WALTER BRUTE.
241
tion Isaiah speaketh in the thirteenth chapter, ' And
Babylon, that glorious city, being so noble amongst
kingdoms in the pride of the Chaldeans, it shall be tliat
like as the Lord did overturn Sodom and Gomorrah up-
side down, it shall never more be inhabited, nor have
the foundation laid in no age, from generation to gene-
ration.' Jeremiah saitli, ' Your mother that hatb
bonie you is brought to very great confusion, and made
even with the ground.' And again, ' The Lord hath
devised and done as he hath spoken against the in-
habiters of Babylon ; which dwell richly in their trea-
sures ujjon many waters, thine end is come.' And,
thirdly, ' Drought shall fall upon her waters, and they
shall begin to dry: for it is a land of graven images, and
boasteth in her prodiijious wonders : it shall never more
be inhabited, neither be builded up in no age nor gene-
ration. Verily even as God hath subverted Sodom and
Gomorrah with her calves.
" ' Pardon me (I beseech you) though I be not plenti.
ful in pleasant words. For if I should run after the
course of this wicked world, and should please men, I
should 7\ot be Christ's servant. And because I am a
poor man, and neither have nor can have notaries hired
to testify of these my writings ; I call upon Christ to be
my witness, who knows the inward secrets of my heart,
that 1 am ready to declare the things that I have written
to the profit of all christian peojde, and to the hurt of
no man living, and am ready to be reformed if any man
will shew me where I have erred ; being ready also
(miserable sinner though I be) to suffer for the confes-
sion of the name of Christ, and of his doctrine, as much
as shall please him by his grace and love to assist me a
miserable sinner. In witness of all these things I have
to this writing set the seal of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ : which I beseech him to imprint upon my
forehead, and to take from me all manner of mark of
tntichrist. Amen.' "
These two suppositions (as they are termed in the
ichools) written by Walter Brute, and exhibited to the
bishop, although they contained matter sufficient either
to satisfy the bishop if he had been disposed to learn, or
else to have provoked him to reply again, if his know-
ledge therein had been better than his : yet could neither
of them work any effect in him. But he receiving
and perusing them when he could neither confute that
which was said, nor would reply or answer by learning,
I to that which was truth, said, " That this his writing
, was too short and obscure, and therefore required him
I to write upon the same again more plainly and more at
I large." Whereupon the said Master Walter satisfying
1 the bishop's request (and ready to give to every one an
account of his faith) in a more ample treatise renews his
I natter before declared. Of this treatise we give the
following extracts : —
" Reverend father, forsomuch as it seems to you that
my motion in my two suppositions or cases, and in my
two conclusions, is too short and somewhat dark : I will
gladly now satisfy your desire, according to my small
learning, by declaring the same conclusions. In open-
ing where:)f, it shall plainly appear, what I do judge in
all m'^tters that I am accused of to your reverence ; de-
siring you lirst of all that your discretion would not be-
lieve tliit 1 do enterprise of any presumption to handle
the secrets of the scriptun-s, which the holy and just,
and wise doctors have left unexpounded. It is not un-
known to many, that I am in ail points far inferior to
them, whose holiness of life and profoundness in know-
ledge is always allowed. But as for mine ignorance,
and multitude of sins, they are to myself and others
sufficiently known : wherefore I judge not myself worthy
to unloose or to carry their shoes after them. Do you
therefore no otherwise deem of me, tlian 1 do of mine
own self. But if you shall find any goodness in my
writings, ascribe it to God only : who, according to the
multitude of his mercy, doth sometimes reveal those
things to idiots and sinners, which are hidden from the
joly and wise, according to this saying, ' J tiiank thee,
O Father, for that thou hast hidden these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto
babes : even so, O Father, for so it seemeth good in thy
sight.' And in another place, ' For judgment am I
come into this world, that they which see not, might
perceive ; and that they which see, might be made blind.'
And Paul says, ' That (iod hath chosen the weak things
of the world, to confound the mighty ;' that no man
shall glory in himself, but that all men should give the
glory to God.
" He that hath the key of David, who openeth and no
man shutteth, shutteth and no man openeth, does (when
and how long it pleases him) hide the mysteries, and
the secrets of the scriptures from the wise, prudent, and
righteous ; and at his jdeasure reveals them to sinners,
and lay persons, and simple souls, that he may have the
honour and glory in all things. Wherefore, as I have
before said, if you shall find any good thitigs in my
writings, ascribe the same to God alone. If yon shall
find otherwise, think ye the same to be written in ignor-
ance, and not in malice. And if any doubt of error be
shewn me in all my writings, I will humbly allow your
information and fatherly correction.
" In the first conclusion of mine answer, I have con-
ditionally put it, who is that antichrist lying concealed in
the hid scrijitures of the ])rophets: I will pass on the decla-
ration of thnt conclusion, bringing to light those things
which lay hid in darkness, because nothing is hid which
shall not be disclosed, and nothing covered which shall
not be known. And therefore the thing which was said
in the darkness, let us say in the light ; and the thing
which we have heard in the ear, let us preach upon the
house-tops. I, therefore say, that if the high bishop of
Rome, calling himself the sei-vant of God, and the chief
vicar of Christ in this world, makes and justifies many
laws contrary to the gos])el of Jesus Christ : then is he
the chief of many, who coming in the name of Christ,
have said, I am Christ, who have deceived many; which is
the first part of the first conclusion, and is manifest.
For Christ is called of the Hebrews the very same that
we call anointed. And among them there was a double
sort of anointing by the law, the one of kings, and the
other of priests. And as well were the kings, as the
priests, called in the law, Christs. The kings, as in the
psalm, The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes
took counsel together, against the Lord, and against
his Christ, or anointed. And in tiie books of the
Kings very often are the kings called Christs. And our
Saviour was Christ, or anointed king, because he was
a king for evermore upon the throne of David, as
the scripture very often witnesses. The priests also
were called anointed, as where it is written. Touch
not my Christs ; that is, mine anointed ones, and
do my prophets no harm. And so was our Saviour
Christ, ' a priest for ever, according to the order of Msl-
chisedec'
" Seeing then that the bishops of Rome do say that
they are the high priests ; they say slso therein that they
are kings, because they say thai they have the spiritual
sword i)ertaining to their priesthood, and the temporal
sword which agrees to a king's state. So it is plain,
that really, and in very deed, they say, that they are
Christs, although they are not expressly called Christs.
Now that they come in the name of Christ is manifest,
because they say that they are his vicars in this world,
ordained of Christ for the government of the christian
church. Therefore, seeing they say, that really and in
very deed they are Ciirists, and the chief friends of
Christ ; if they make and justify many laws contrary to
the gospel of Jesus Christ, then is it plain that they
themselves in earth are antichrists, because there is no
worse plague and pestilence than a familiar enemy. And
if in secret they be against Christ, and yet in open ap-
pearance they say that they are his friends, they are so
much the more meet to seduce and deceive the chris-
tion people, because that a manifest enemy will have
much trouble to deceive a man, because men trust him
not : but a hidden enemy, pretending outward friend-
ship, may easily seduce."
" Paul to the Romans declareth in a godly discourse,
b2
242
PETER NOT OVER THE OTHER APOSTLES.
[Book V.
and to the Galatians likewise, ' That none shall be jus-
tified by the works of the law, but by grace in the faith
of Jesus Christ.' As for the morals and ceremonies of
the law, as circumcision, sacrifices for offences, and for
sins, first-fruits, tenths, vows, divers sorts of washings,
the sprinkUng of blood, the sprinkling of ashes, ab-
staining from unclean meats, which are ordained for the
sanctifying and cleansing of the people from sin, no nor
yet the prayers of the priests, neither the preachings of
the prophets could cleanse a man from his sin. For
death reigned even from Adam to Moses, and sin from
Moses to Christ, as Paul declareth to the Romans in
the fifth chapter. But Christ, willing to have mercy
and not sacrifice, being a priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedec, and an high priest of good things to
come, did neither by the blood of goats or calves, but by
his own blood, enter in once into the holy place,
when an everlasting redemption is found : neither did
Jesus enter into the holy places that were made with
hands, which are the examples of true things, but unto
the very heaven, that now he may appear before the
face of God for us. Nor yet he did so, that he should
offer up himself oftentimes, as the high bisliop enter-
ed into the holy place every year with strange blood,
(for otherwise he must needs have suffered often-
times since the beginning of the world), but now, in
the latter end of the world, hath he on. e appeared by
his own sacrifice, for the destruction of sin. And like
as it is decreed for men once to die, and after that
Cometh judgment ; even so was Christ once offered uj)
to consume away the sins of many. The second time
shall he appear without sin to the salvation of such as
look for him. For the law having a sliadow of good
things to come, and not the very image or substance
itself of the things, can never by those sacrifices which
they offer (of one selfsame sort continually year by year)
make them perfect that come unto her. Otherwise, men
would leave off offering, because that those worshippers
being once cleansed, should have no more prick of con-
science for sin afterwards. But in them is there re-
membrance made of sins every year. For it is impos-
sible, that by the blood of goats and bulls sins should be
taken away. Wherefore he entering into the world doth
say. As for sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not have,
but a body hast thou framed unto me. And sacrifices
for sin have not pleased thee : then said 1, behold I
come; in the head, or principal part of the book it is
written of me, that I should do thy will O God. Where-
fore he said before, that sacrifices, oblations, and burnt-
offerings, and that for sin thou wouldst not have: neither
were those things pleasant to thee which are offered
according to the law : then said 1, behold I come,
that I may do thy will, O God : he taketh away the
first that he may establish that that followed. In
which will we are sanctified and made holy by the offer-
ing up of the body of Jesus Christ once. And verily
every priest is ready every day ministering, and often-
times offering the self-same sacrifices, which never can
take away sins. Butthis^man, offering one sacrifice for
sins, doth for ever and ever sit at God's right hand,
looking for the reet to come, till that his enemies be
placed to be his footstool. For with one offering hath
he for ever made perfect those that be sanctified. By
which things it plainly appeareth, that Christ by once
offering hath cleansed from their sins, they who could
not be cleansed from the same by all the ceremonies of
the law, and so did fulfil that which the priesthood of
the law could not. Wherefore the moral and judi-
cial law, he fulfilled by the law of charity, and by grace ;
and the ceremonial, by one offering up of his body on
the altar of the cross. And so it is plain that Christ
fulfilled the whole law.
" Tliey say that the bishop of Rome (who is the chief
priest and judge among them) hath full power and
authority to remit sins. Whereupon they say, that he
is al)le fully and wholly, to absolve a man a pena et
culpn, so tliat if a man at the time of his death, had this
remission, he should straightway fiy to heaven without
any pain of purgatory. The other bishops (as they say)
iiave not so great authority. Tlie priests constituted
under every bishop, have power, say they, to absolve the
sins of them that are confessed, but not all kind of sins-
because there are some grievous sins reserved to the
absolution of the bishops ; and some again, to the abso-
lution only of the chief and high bishop. They say
also, that it behoves the offenders, for the necessity of
their soul's health, to call to their remembrance their
offences, and to declare them with all the circumstances
to the priest in auricular confession, supplying the ])lace
of God, after the manner of a judge ; and afterward
humbly to fulfil the penance enjoined by the priest,
except the penance so enjoined, or any part thereof, be
released by the superior power. All these things (say
they) are manifestly determined. And although these
things have not expressly their foundation in the plain
and manifest doctrine of Christ, nor any of the apostles ;
yet the authors of the decrees and decretals concerning
this matter, have grounded the same upon divers places
of the scriptures, as in the words of Christ in the gospel
of St. Matthew the sixteenth chapter, whereupon they
ground the pope's power judicial to surmount the powers
of other priests, as where Christ said unto his disciples,
' Whom do men say that I am .' And tliey answered,
Some say that thou art John Baptist, some Elias, and
some Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said. But
whom say ye that I am ? Simon Peter, answered, and
said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou
Simon Bar-Jona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto thee ; but ray Father which is in heaven. And
I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock
will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against it. And to thee will I give the keys of the king-
dom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon
earth, shall also be bound in heaven ; and whatso-
ever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in
heaven.'
" Out of this text of Christ, divers expositors have
drawn divers errors. As first when Christ said, ' And
I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock
will I build my church ;' some affirm, that Christ meant
he would build his church upon Peter. This exposition
is ascribed to Pope Leo ; the error whereof is manifestly
known. For the church of Christ is not builded upon
Peter, but upon the rock of Peter's confession, for he
said, ' Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.'
And again when Christ said singularly to Peter, ' I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt bind,' &c. By this saying they
affirm, that Christ gave to Peter specially, as chief of
the rest of the apostles, a larger power to bind and to
loose, than he did to the rest of the apostles and disci-
pies. And because Peter answered for himself and all
the apostles, not only confessing the faith which he had
chiefly above the rest, but also the faith which the rest
of the apostles had even as himself, by the revelation of
the heavenly Father ; it appears that as the faith of all
the apostles was declared by the answer of one, so by
this that Christ said, ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind,'
&c., is given unto the rest of the apostles, the same
power and equality to bind and to loose, as unto Peter.
Wliich Christ himself declares in the gospel of St. Mat-
thew, the eigliteenth chapter, in these words, ' Verily I
say unto you, what things soever you shall bind upon
earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever you
shall loose upon earth, shall be also loosed in heaven.'
And further he adds, ' And again I say unto you, that
if two of you shall agree upon earth, touching any-
tiiing ye shall ask, it shall be given unto you of my Fa-
ther which is in heaven. For where two or three be
gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst
of them.' And in John, the twentieth chapter, he
saith generally to them, ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose-soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ;
and whose-soever sins you retain, they are retained.'
By this it appears, that the power to bind and to loose
is not specially granted to Peter, as chief and head of
the rest, and that by him the rest had their power to
bind and to loose ; for the head of the body of the
church is one, which is Christ, and the head of Christ id
A.D. 1391.1
POPISH ABSOLUTION NOT WARRANTED BY SCRIPTURE.
243
God. Feter and the rest of the apostles are tlie good
members of the body of Christ ; receiving power and
virtue from Christ, whereby they confirm and glue
together the other members (as well the strong and
noble, as the weak and unable) to a perfect composition
and seemliuess of the body of Christ : that all honour
from all parts and members may be given to Christ as
head and chief, by whom as head all the members are
governed. And therefore Paul says, I Cor. iii. 4., 'For
while one saith, I am of Paul ; and another 1 am of Apol-
los ; are ye not carnal ? Who then is Paul, and who is
Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the
Lord gave to every man ? I have planted, Apollos
watered ; but God gave the increase. So then neither
is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth ;
but God that giveth the increase.' And to the Gala-
tians he says (ii. 6 — 10.) ' But of those who seemed to be
somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to
me : God accepteth no man's person : for they who
seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to
me : but contrariwise, when they saw that the Gospel of
the uncircumcision was comniiited unto me, as the Gospel
of the circumcision was unto Peter ; (for he that wrought
effettually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumci-
sion, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles :)
and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pil-
lars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave
to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship ; that
we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the cir-
cumcision. Only they would that we should rcmemi)er
the poor ; the same which I also was forward to do.'
Hereby it appears that Paul had not his authority of
Peter to convert the Gentiles, to baptize them, and to
remit their sins, but of him who said unto him, ' 8aul
Saul, why persecutes! thou me ? It is hard for thee to
kick against the pricks." Here is Paul of the head of
the church, and not of Peter : by which head they say,
that all the members are sustained and made lively.
" The third error which the authors of the canons con-
ceive in the text, ' Unto thee will I give the keys,' &c.
is this, they say that in this sentence which was said to
Peter of the authority to bind and to loose, was meant
that as Christ gave to Peter above all the rest of the
apostles a special, and as it were an excellent power
above all the apostles ; even so, say they, he gave power
to the bishops of Rome (whom they call Peter's chief
successors) the same special power and authority, ex-
ceeiling the power of all other bishops of the world.
" The first part of this parallel and comparison, doth
appear manifestly by the premises to be erroneous ;
wherein is plainly shewed that the other apostles had
equal power with Peter to bind and loose. Wherefore
consequently it follows that the second part of the pa-
rallel, grounded upon the same text is also erroneous.
But if the first part of the parallel were truth, as it
is not, yet the second part must needs be an error,
wherein is said, that the bishops of Rome are Peter's
chief successors. For although there is but one catholic
christian church, of all the faithful sort converted ; yet
the first part of the church, and the first converted, was
of the Jews, the second of the Greeks, and the third
part w'as of the Romans or Latins. W hereof the first
part was most perfectly converted to the faith, for they
faithfully observed the perfection of charity, as appearetli
in the acts of the apostles, by the multitude of the
believers. They were of one heart, and one soul, neither
called they any thing that they possessed their own, but
all was common among them.
" Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says, the gospel is
' salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and
also fothe Greek.' The Greeks were after the Jews the
next converted, and after them the Romans, taking their
information of the Greeks, as appears by the chronicles,
although indeed some Romans were converted to the
faith, by Peter and Paul. And as Christ said thrice to
Peter, feed my sheep, so Peter ruled these three
churches, as the chronicles witness. But first he
reformed the church of the Jews in Jerusalem and
Judea, as appears by the testimony of the acts of the
apostles. For it is manifest how Peter standing up
amongst his brethren, spake unto them concerning the
election of an apostle in the place of Judas the traitor,
alleging places to them out of the scripture, that another
should take upon him his apostleship. And so by lot
rt'as Matthias constituted in the place of Judas. After
that the Holy Ghost was come upon the apostles,
and that they spake with the tongues of all men, the
hearers were a.<tonished at the miracle. And some
mocked them, saying, these men are full of new wine ;
but Peter stood up and spake to them, saying, that it
was fulfilled in them that was prophesied by Joel the
prophet. And he preached unto the people Christ,
whom they in their ignorance had put to death. To
whom was a Saviour promised by the testimony of the
propliets. And when they heard the words of Peter,
they were pricked at the heart, saying unto him and the
rest of the apostles, what shall we then do ? And Peter
said unto them. Repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of your sins, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. And
there were joined unto them the same day about three
thousand souls. And by Acts iii. 4, 5, it appears that
Peter above the rest did those things which belonged to
the ministry of the apostleship, as well in preaching as in
answering. Whereupon some chronicles say, that Peter
governed the church of the Jews at Jerusalem, four
years before he governed Antioch. And by the testi-
mony of Paul to the Galatians, the gospel of the uncir-
cumcision is committed to Paul, even as the circumcision
to Peter. And he that wrought with Peter in the apos-
tleship of circumcision, wrought with Paul amongst the
Gentiles. Whereby it appears that the church of the
Jews was committed to the government of Peter. And
in the {)rocess of the acts of the apostles it appears, that
Peter believed that the faith of Christ was not to be
preached to those Gentiles, who always lived in unclean-
ness of idolatry. But when Peter was at Joppa, Corne-
lius a Gentile sent to him that he would come and shew
him the way of life ; but Peter (a little before the coming
of the messengers of Cornelius) being in his chamber,
after he had prayed, fell in a trance, and saw heaven
opened, and a certain vessel descending even as a great
sheet, let down by four corners from heaven to earth.
In which were all manner of four-footed beasts, serpents
of the earth, and fowls of the air. And a voice spake
unto him, saying, Arise Peter, kill and eat ; and Peter
said. Not so. Lord, because I have never eaten any
common or unclean thing. This was done thrice. And
Peter descended (not knowing what the vision did sig-
nify) and found the messengers of Cornelius.
" As concerning the judicial authority of the clergy,
many things are written in the canons of decrees, greatly
to be marvelled at, and far from the truth of the scrip-
ture. The authors of the canons say, that Christ gave
unto the priests judicial power over sinners that con-
fessed their sins unto them. And this they ground
upon the text of Christ : ' I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou
loosest,' &c. And these keys of the kingdom of heaven,
they call the knowledge to discern, and the power to
judge, which they say only belongeth to the priests,
except in case of necessity ; then they say a lay-man
may absolve a man from sin. And as touching absolu-
tion, they say there are three things to be required on
the sinner's part : first, hearty contrition, whereby the
sinners ought to bewail their offending of God through
sins ; the second is, auricular confession, whereby the
sinner ought to shew unto the priest his sins, and the
circumstances of them ; the third is satisfaction through
penance enjoined to him by the priest for his sins com-
mitted. And of his part that gives absolution there are
two things (say they) to be required : that is to say,
knowledge to discern one sin from another, whereby he
ought to make a difference of sins, and appoint a conve-
nient penance, according to the quantity of the sins.
The second is, authority to judge, whereby he ought to
enjoin penance to the offender. And further, they say,
that he that is confessed ought with all humility to sub-
mit himself to this authority, and wholly and volun-
tarily to do those penances which are commanded him
OF AURICULAR CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION.
244
by tlie priest, except the penance be released by a
superior power ; for all priests (as they say) have not
equal authority to absolve sins. The chief ])riest whom
they call Peter's successor, has power fully and wholly
to absolve. But the inferior priests have power, some
more, some less: the more as they are near hnn in
dignity, the less as they are farther from the degree of
his dignity. All this is declared by process in the de-
crees, but not by the express doctrine of Christ, or any
of his apostles. For although Christ absolved men from
their sins, I do not find that he did it after the manner
of a judge, but of a Saviour. For Christ saith, ' God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved,' John
iii. 17. Whereupon he spake unto him whom he healed
pf the i)alsy, ' Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be for-
given thee.' And to the woman taken in adultery,
Christ said, ' Woman, where are thine accusers } hath
no man condemned thee?' Who said, 'No man.
Lord.' To whom then Jesus thus said, ' Neither will
I condemn thee, go and sin no more.'
"By which words and deeds of Christ, and many other
places of the scripture, it a|ipears he was not as a judge
at his first coming, to punish sinners according to their
offences ; but that day shall come here ifter, wherein he
shall judge all men according to their works, as in
Matt. XXV., where he saith, 'When the Son of Man shall
come in his glory, and all his angels with him ; then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations
shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them
one from anotlier, as a shepherd divideth the sheep
from the goats,' &c. Neither shall be judge alone, but
his saints also with him. For he saith, ' You that have
followed rae in the regeneration, when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of his glory, shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging tlie twelve tribes of Israel.' If then
Christ came not as a judge, why do the priests say that
they supply the room of Christ on earth, to judge sin-
ners according to the quantity of their offences ? And
yet not only this, but it is more to be wondered at, how
the bishop of Rome dares to take upon him to be a
judge before the day of judgment, and to prevent the
time, judging some to be saints in heaven, and to be ho-
noured of men, and some again to be tormented in hell
eternally with the devils ! Would to God these men would
weigh the saying of St. Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 5. ' Judge no-
thing before the time the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make
manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then every one
sh.iU have praise of God.' Let the bishoj) of Rome
take heed, lest that in Ezekiel be spoken him, ' Be-
cause thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said I am
a God, I sit in the seat of God, and in the midst of the
seas, yet thou art a man, and not God.' It is manifest
that tlie remission of sins principally belongs to God,
who tlirough grace washes away our sins. For it is said,
'The Lamt) of God taketh away the sins of the world.'
And to christians it belongs as the ministers of God.
For ill the twentieth chapter of John, Christ saith,
* Receive unto you the Jloly Ghost : whose sins you re-
mit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose sins you
shall retain, they ure retained.' Seeing therefore that
all c'.iristians that are baptized in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, receive the
Holy Ghost ; it appears that they have power given to
them of Christ, to remit sins ministerially. Has not
every christian autliority to baptize ? and in the baptism
all the sins of the baptized are remitted. Ergo, they
that do baptize do remit sins.
" Who is he therefore who so rashly takes upon him
to judge the infants begotten of faithful parents, dying
■without baptism, to be tormented with eternal tire?
Now let us consider the three things which the canons
of decrees affirm to be requisite for the remission of the
sins of those that sin after bajjtism, that is to say, con-
trition of heart, auricular confession, and satisfaction of
the deed through pen mce enjoined by the jjriest for the
sins committed. I cannot find in any place in the gos-
pel where Christ commanded that this kind of confession
should be done unto the priest ; nor caa I find that
[Book "V.
I
Christ assigned any penance to sinners for their sins,
but that he desired them to sin no more. If a sinner
confess that he has offended God through sin, and sor-
rows heartily for his offences, minding hereafter to sia
no more, then is he truly repentant for his sin, and then
he is converted unto the Lord. If he shall then humbly,
and with good hope, crave mercy from God, and remission
of his sins : who is he that can prevent God from ab-
solving that sinner from his sin ? And as God absolves
a sinner from his sins, so has Christ absolved many,
although they confessed not their sins to the jiriests, and
although they received not due penance for their sins.
And if Christ could after that manner once absolve sin-
ners ; how is he become now not able to absolve ? Ex-
cept some man will say that he is above Christ, and that
his power is diminished by the ordinances of his own
laws. How were sinners absolved by God in the time
of the apostles, and always heretofore, to the time that
these canons were made ? I s])eak not these things as
though confession to jiricsts were wicked, but that it is
not of necessity requisite to salvation. I believe vcrilv
that the confession of sins to good priests, and likewise
to other faithful christians, is good, as witnesseth
St. James the apostle : ' Confess your sins one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be
healed ; for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.' This kind of confession is good,
jirofitable, and expedient ; for if God peradventure hears
not a man's own prayer, he is helped with the interces-
sion of others. Yet nevertheless the prayers of the
priests seem too much to be extolled in the decrees,
where they treat of penitence, saying as is ascribed to
Pope Leo (mvltiplea; mtsericordla Dei, if\C.), that it is
ordained by the Providence of God's divine will, that
the mercy of God cannot be obtained but by the prayer
of the priests, &c. The prayer of a good priest much
avails a sinner, confessing his faults to him. Tiie coun-
sel of a discreet priest is very profitable for a sinner, to
give the sinner counsel to beware of sin hereafter, and to
instruct him.
"After this manner I esteem confession to priests very
expedient and profitable to a .sinner. But to confess sins
to the priest as to a judge, and to receive of him corpo-
ral penance for a satisfaction to God for his sins com-
mitted ; I see not how this can be founded upon the
truth of scripture. For before the coming of Christ, no
man was sufficient or able to make satisfaction to God
for his sins, although he suffered never so much penance
for his sins. And therefore it was needful that he that
was without sin, should be punished for sins, as witnesses
Isaiah liii. 4. where he saith, ' He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows.' And again, ' He was wounded
for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.'
And again, ' The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.'
And again, ' For the transgression of my people vs-as he
stricken.' If therefore Christ through his passion has
made satisfaction for our sins, whereas we ourselves were
unable to do it : then through him have we grace and
remission of sins. How can we say now that we are
sufficient to make satisfaction to God by any penance
enjoined to us by man's authority, seeing that our sins
are more grievous after baptism, than they were before
the coming of Christ ? Therefore as in baptism the
pain of C'hrist in his passion was a full satisfaction for
our sins ; even so is it also after baptism, if we confess that
we have offended, and be heartily sorry for our sins, and
mind not to sin again afterwards.
" Hereupon John writeth in his first epistle, ch. i. ' If we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all un-
righteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make
him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children,
these things I write unto you that ye sin not ; but if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus
Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world.' Therefore we ought to confess ourselves
chiefly to God even from the heart, for that he chiefly
remits sins, without whose absolution lit*le avails the
A. D. 1391.]
■OF AURICULAR CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION.
245
absolution of man. This kind of confession is profit-
able and good. The authors of the canons say, that
although auricular confession made to the priest be not
expressly taught by Christ, yet say they it is taught in
that saying which Christ said to the diseased of the le-
prosy, whom he commandfd, ' Go your ways aud shew
yoursKlves unto the priests:' because they say the law of
cleansing lepers, which was given by Moses, signified the
confessions of sins to the priest. And whereas Christ
commanded the lepers to shew themselves to the priests,
they say, that Christ meant tliat those that were unclean
with the leprosy of sin, should shew their sins to the
priests by auricular confession. I marvel much at the
authors of the canons ; for even from the beginning of
their decrees to the end, they ground their sayings upon
the old law, which was the law of sin and death, and not
(as witnesses Paul) upon the words of Christ, which are
spirit and life. Christ saith, ' The words which I speak
unto you, they are the spirit, and they are life.' They
ground their sayings in the shadow of the law, and not
in the light of Christ, for every evil doer hateth the light,
and cometh not unto it, lest his deeds should be reproved ;
but he that doth the truth cometh into the light, that his
works may be made manifest, that they are wrought in
God, John iii. 20.
" Now let us pass to the words that Christ spake to
the leper ; the leper said, ' Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus stretcliing forth his hand
touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean; and straight-
ways ha w;is cleansed of his leprosy.. And Jesus said unto
him, S'ee thou tell no man, but go and sliew thyself to the
prie.sts, au.l offer the gifts that Moses commanded for a
testimony unto them.' Tliis gospel witnesses plainly, that
tl'.e leiier was cleansed only by Clnist, and not by the
priests, neither did Christ command the leper to shew
\iiinself to the priests, for any help of cleansing that ae
should receive of the priests ; but to fulfil the law of
Moses, ill offering a sacrifice for his cleansing, and for a
testimony to the priests, who always of envy accused
Christ as a transgressor of the law. For if Christ after
he had cleansed the leprosy, had licensed him to com-
municate with others that were clean, before he had
shewed himself cleansed to the priests, then might the
priests have accused Clirist as a transgressor of the law ;
because it was a precept of the law, that the leper after
he was cleansed, should shew himself to the priests.
And they had signs in the book of the law, w'nereby they
might judge whether he were truly cleansed or not. And
if he were cleansed, then would the priests offer a gift for
his cleansing : and if he were not cleansed, then would
they separate him from the comjiany of others that were
clean. Seeing every figure ought to be assimilated unto
the thing that is figured, I pray you then what agree-
ment is there between the cleansing of lepers by the law,
and the confession of sins .' By the law the priest knew
whether tlie man were leprous better than he that had
the leprosy. In confession the priest knew not the sins
of hiiu that confessed, but by his own confession.
In the law the priest did not cleanse the leprous.
How now therefore ought the priests to cleanse sinners
from their sin, and that without them they cannot be
cleansed ? In the law the priest had certain signs, by
the which he could certainly know whether a man were
cleansed from his leprosy or not. In confession the
priest is not certain of the cleansing of sins, because
Le is ignorant of his contrition. He knows not also
u liether he will not siu any more ; without which contri-
titin and resolving to sin no more, God has not absolved
any sinner. And if God has not absolved a man, without
doubt then is he not made clean. And how then is confes-
sion figured under the law ? Doubtless so it seems to me
(under the correction of them that can judge better in
the matterj that this law bears rather a figure of excom-
munication, and reconciliation of him that hath been ob-
stinate in hiri sin, and is reconciled again. For so it ap-
pears by the process of the gospel, that when as the
sinner doth not amend for the private correction of his
brotlier, not for the correction of two or three, neither
yet for the public correction of the whole church ; then
M he to be counted as an heathen man and publican, and
as a certain leper to be voided out of the company of all
men. Which sinner, notwithstanding, if he shall yet re-
pent, is then to be reconciled, because he is then cleansed
from his obstiniicy.
" But he who pretends himself to be the chief vicar of
Christ, and the high priest, saith that he has power to
absolve a pa-na et culpa. I do not find how it is founded
in the scripture, but of his own authority he enjoins to
sinners penance for their sins. And grant that he
may absolve them from their sins, yet from the pain
(which they call a pwnaj he does not simply absolve, as
in his indulgences he promises. But if he were charit-
able, aud had such power as he pretends, he would suf-
for none to lie in purgatory for sin, forsomuch as that
pain far exceeds all other pain which we sutler here. What
man is there, but if he sees his brother tormented in
this world, will not help him and deliver him.' Much
more ought the pope then to deliver out of pains of
purgatory, as well rich as poor alike. And if he sell to
the rich his indulgences, doublewise, yea triplewise he
seduces them. First, in promising them to deliver them
out of the pain from whence he does not, and cannot
deliver them, and so makes them falsely to believe that
wliich they ought not to believe. Secondly, he deceives
them of their money, which he takes for his indulgences.
Thirdly, he seduces them in this, that he promising to
deliver them from pain, induces them into grievous
punishment indeed, for the heresy of simony, which
both of them commit, and therefore are worthy both of
great pain to fall upon them ; for so we read that Jesus
cast out buyers and sellers out of his temple. Also
Peter said unto Simon the first author of this heresy,
' Thy money,' said he, ' perish with thee, because thou
thoughtest the gift of God could be purchased for
money.' Moreover, whereas Christ saith, ' Freely you
have received, freely give.' And whereas on the contrary
the pope sells that thing which he has taken, what doubt is
there, but that he grievously deserves to be punished,
both he that sells and he that buys, for the crime of
simony which they commit ? Over and besides, by
many reasons and authorities of the scripture it may be
proved, that he does not absolve a man contrite for his
sins, although he absolves him from the guilt.
" But this surprises me, that in his indulgences he pro-
mises to absolve men from all manner of deadly sins,
and yet cannot absolve a man from debt ; for as the
debt which we owe to God is of much greater import-
ance than the debt of our brother, if he be able to re-
mit the debt due to God, much more it should seem that
he is able to forgive the debt of our brother.
" Another thing there is that I wonder at: the pope
shows himself more strict in absolving a priest for not
saying, or negligently saying his matins, than for trans-
gressing the commandment of God ; considering that
the transgression of the commandment of God is much
more grievous than the breach of man's commandment.
" For these and many other errors concurring in this
matter of the pojie's absolutions, blessed be God, and
honour be to him for the remission of our sins. And
let us firmly believe and know, that he does and wiU
absolve us from our sins, if we be sorry from the bot-
tom of our hearts that we have offended him, having a
good purpose and will to offend him no more. And let
us be bold to resort to good and discreet priests, who
with wholesome discretion and sound counsel can in-
struct us how to avoid the corruption of sin hereafter ;
and which, because they are better than we, may pray
to God for us ; whereby we may both obtain sooner the
remission of our sins past, and also may learn better
how to avoid the danger of sin to come." (Ex Registro
Latino Episc. Hereford.)
And thus much concerning the judgment and doi;trine
of this Walter for Christian patience, charity, and mercy,
which as they are true and infallible notes and marks of
tnle Christianity, so Walter Brute, making comparison
herein between Christ and the pope, goes about pur-
posely to declare and manifest, whereby all men may
see what contrariety there is between the rule of
Christ's teaching, and the proceedings of the pope,
246
WALTER BRUTE'S BELIEF CONCERNING THE LORD'S SUPPER.
[Book V.
between the example and life of the one, and the ex-
ample of the other. Of which two, as one is alto-
gether given to peace, so is the other on the contrary
side as much disposed to war, murder, and bloodshed,
as is easy to be seen. Whoso looks not upon the out-
ward shows and pretended words of these Roniish
popes, but advises and considers their inward practices
and secret works, shall easily perceive under the mask of
peace what discord and debate they work, who bearing
outwardly the meek horns of the lamb mentioned in the
Revelations, do bear within the bowels of a wolf, full of
cruelty, murder, and bloodshed ; which if any do think
to be spoken of me contumeliously, would God that man
could prove as well the same to be spoken of me not
truly. But truth it is, I speak it sincerely, without
affection of blind partiality, according to the truth of
histories both old and new. Thus under the phrase
' In the name of God, Amen,' how unmercifully does
the pope condemn his brother ! and while he ])rctended
it was not lawful for him to kill any man ; what thou-
sands of men has he killed ? And likewise in this sen-
tence, ' in the bowels of Jesus Christ,' pretending as
though he would be a mediator to the magistrate for the
party, yet indeed will he be sure to excommunicate the
magistrate if he execute not the sentence given, who
are the true heretics the Lord when he comes shall
judge. But grant them to be heretics whom he con-
demns as heretics, yet what bowels of mercy are here,
' where there is nothing but burning, fagotting, drown-
ing, prisoning, chaining, famishing, racking, hanging,
tormenting, threatening, reviling, cursing, and oppressing,
and no instructing, nor yet impartial heiring of them,
what they can say ? The like cruelty also m;iy appear in
■ their wars, if we consider how Pope Urban V. , besides the
racking and murdering of seven or eight cardinals, set
up Henry Spencer, bishop of Noiwich, to fight against
the French pope. Innocent IV. was in war himself
against the Apulians. Likewise Alexander IV., his
successor, stirred up the son of King Henry III. to
fight against the son of the emperor, Frederick II., for
Apulia. Boniface VIII. moved Albert (who stood to
be emperor) to drive Philip the French king out of his
realm. Gregory IX. excited Lewis the French king
three sundry times to mortal war against the Earl Rey-
mond and the city of Toulouse, and Avignon where Lewis
the French king died. Honorius III. by strength of
war many ways resisted Frederick II. and set out thirty-
five gallies against the coasts of the emperor's do-
minions. The same pope also besieged Ferrara, to pass
over the war at Ticinum, with many other battles and
conflicts of popes against the Romans, Venetians, and
divers other nations. Innocent III. set up Philip the
French king to war against King John. Wiiat stir
Pope Gregory VII., otherwise named Hildebrand, kept
against the Emperor Henry IV. is not unknown. And
who is able to recite all the wars, battles, and fields,
fought by the stirring-up of the pope ? These, with
many other like examples, considered, caused this Wal-
ter Brute to write in this matter, making yet no uni-
versal proposition, but that christian magistrates in
case of necessity might make resistance in defence of
public right. Now he proceeds further to the matter
of the sacrament,
" Touching the matter (saith he) of the sacrament
•of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, divers
men have divers opinions, as the learned do know. As
concerning my judgment upon the same, I firmly believe
whatever the Lord Jesus taught implicitly or ex-
pressly to his disciples, and faithful people to be be-
lieved. For he is, as I believe and know, the true
bread of God which descended from heaven, and giveth
life to the world, of which bread whosoever eateth shall
live for ever ; as it is in the sixth of John declared.
Before the coming of Christ in the flesh, although men
did live in body, yet in spirit they did not live, because
all men were then under sin, whose souls thereby were
dead, from the which death no man by the law, nor
with the law, was justified : ' For by the works of the
law shall no fiesh be justified.' Gal. ii. 16. And again in
the same epistle, chap. iii. 11. ' But that no man is jus-
tified by the law in the sight of God it is evident : for the
just shall live by faith ; the law is not of faith ; but the
man that doeth them shall live in them.' And again
in the same chapter, ver. 21 , ' If the law had been given,
which might have justified, then our righteousness had
come by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all
under sin, that the promise might be sure by the faith of ft
Jesus Christ to all believers. Moreover, before that ll
faith came, they were kept and concluded all under the '
law, until the coming of that faith which was to be re-
vealed. For the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
to Christ, that we should be justified by faith.' Also
the said Paul, Rom. v. 20. saith, ' The law entered that
the oflTence might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound ; that as sin hath reigned i
unto death, so might grace reign through righteous-
ness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.'
Whereby it is manifest that by the faith which we have
in Christ, believing him to be the true Son of God
which came down from heaven to redeem us from sin,
we are justified from sin, and so live by him which is the
true bread and meat of the soul. And the bread which
Christ gave is his flesh, given for the life of the world.
For he being God, came down from heaven, and being
truly carnal man, did suffer in the flesh for our sins,
which in his divinity he could not suffer. Wherefore
like as we believe by our faith that he is true God, so
must we also believe that he is a true man, and then do
we eat the bread of heaven, and the flesh of Christ.
And if we believe that he did voluntarily slied his
blood for our redemption, then do we drink his
blood.
" And thus except we eat the flesh of the Son of man,
and shall drink his blood, we have not eternal life in us,
because the flesh of Christ is meat indeed, and his blood
is drink indeed ; and whosoever eateth the flesh of Christ,
and drinketh his blood, abideth in Christ, and Christ in
him. John vi. And as in this world the souls of tlie
faithful live, and are refreshed s])iritually with this
heavenly bread, and with the flesh and blood of Christ ;
so in the world to come, tlie same shall live eternally in
heaven, refreshed with the deity of Jesus Christ. And
in the memory of this refreshment, present in this world,
and in the world to come, Christ hath given to us (for
eternal blessedness) the sacrament of his body and blood
in the substance of bread and wine, as it appears in
Matt. xxvi. ' As they were eating, Jesus took bread
and blessed it, brake it, and gave it unto his dis-
ciples, and said. Take, eat, this is my body : And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it them, saying.
Drink ye all of this, this is my blood of the New Tes-
tament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'
And Luke in his gospel, chap. xxii. of this matter thus
writeth, ' And he took bread, and gave thanks, and
brake it, and gave it unto them, saying. This is my body
which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cu]) after supper, saying. This cup is
the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for
you.' That Christ said, this is my body, in show-
ing to them the bread, I firmly believe, and know that
it is true : for Christ (forasmuch as he is God) is the
very truth itself, and by consequence all that he saith is
true. And I believe that the very same was his body,
in such wise as he willed it to be his body ; for in that
he is Almighty, he hath done whatsoever pleased liiin.
And as in Cana of Galilee he changed the water into
wine really, so that after the transubstantiation it was
wine and not water, so when he said, this is my body, if
he would have had the bread really to be transub-
stantiated into his very body, so that after this changing
it should have been his natural body, and not bread as
it was before, I know that it must needs have
been so ; but I find not in the scripture that his will
was to have any such real transubstantiation or
mutation.
" And as the Lord God Omnipotent, in his perfection
essential being the Son of God, exceeds the most pure
creature, and yet when it pleased him he took upon him
our nature, remaining really God as he was before, and
A.D. 1391.] WALTER BRUTE'S DECLARATION CONCERNING THE PRIESTHOOD, &c.
247
was really made man ; so that after this assuming of our
substance, he was really very God, and very man ; even
so, if lie would, when he said, this is my body, he could
make this to be his body really, the bread still really
remaining as it was before. Wherefore he that could
make one man to be very God, and very man, could, if
he would, make one thing to be really very bread, and
his very body. But I do not find it expressed in the
scripture, that he wished any such identity or conjunc-
tion to be made. And as Christ said, ' I am the true
bread,' not changing his essence or being in the es-
sence or substance of bread, but was the same Christ
which he was before really, and yet bread by a simili-
tude or figurative speech ; so if he would, it mi;^ht be,
when he said, this is my body, that this should really
have been the bread as it was before, and sacramentally
or memorially to be his body. And this seems to me
most nearly to agree to the meaning of Christ, foras-
much as he said, ' Do this in remembrance of me.' Then
forasmuch as in the supper it is manifest that Christ
gave to his disciples the bread of his body which he
brake, to eat with their mouths ; in which bread he gave
himself also to them, as one in whom they should be-
lieve (as to be the food of the soul) and that by faith
they should believe him to be their Saviour who took
his body, wherein also he wished it to be manifest that
he would redeem them from death ; so was the bread
eaten with the disciples' mouths, that he, being the true
bread of the soul, might be in spirit received and eaten
spiritiially by their faith which believed in him.
" Tbe bread which in the disciples' mouths was
chewed, from the mouth passed to the stomach. For,
as Christ saith, ' Whatsoever cometh to the mouth,
goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught.'
But that true and very bread of the soul was eaten of the
spirit of the disciples, and by faith entered their minds,
and abode in their hearts through love. And so the
bread broken seemeth unto me to be really the meat of
the body, and the bread which it was before, but sacra-
mentally to be the body of Christ ; as Paul, 1 Cor. x.
* The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the body of Christ .'' So the bread which we break is
the communion of the Lord's body. And it is manifest
that the heavenly bread is not broken, neither yet is
subject to such breaking ; therefore Paul calls the mate-
rial bread which is broken, the body of Christ which the
faithful are partakers of. The bread, therefore, changes
not its essence, but is bread really, and is the body of
Christ sacramentally. Even as Christ is the very vine,
abiding really and figuratively the vine : so the temple of
Jerusalem was really the material temple, and figura-
tively it was the body of Christ ; because he said, ' De-
stroy this temple, and in three days I will build it
again.' And this spake he of the temple of his body ;
•whereas others understood it to be the material temple,
as appeared by their answer. For, said they, ' Forty
and seven years was this temple in building, and wilt
thou raise it up in three days .''
" The writers of this time and age affirm, that if by the
negligence of the priest, the sacrament be so negligently
left, that a mouse, or any other beast or vermin eat the
same ; then they say, that the sacrament returneth
again into the nature and substance of bread.' Where-
by they must needs confess, that a miracle is as well
wrought by the negligence of the priest, as there was
made by the consecration of the priest in making the
sacrament. For either by the eating of the mouse the
body of Christ is transubstantiated into the nature of
bread, which is a transubstantiation supernatural ; or
else this bread is produced by creation out of nothing ;
and therefore either of these operations is miraculous.
Now, considering the varying opinions of the doctors.
<l) The following is still part and pareel of the Rubric or Canon
of tlie Missal :— " If the host when conseorated shall disappear,
either by some accident, as by the uitid , or by a mimclr, or
taken a vay by a motixe or any animal, and caaiiot he J'nitirl,
then 1ft anotr.er oe consecrated !" Such is the rule of theMissal,
or Mass Book : and thus, after teaching that tlie host is Jesus
Christ, il bupposes the gross absurdity of his disappearing by an
and the absurdities which follow, I believe with Paul,
that the bread which we break, is the communion of the
body of Christ : and as Christ saith, that the bread is
the body of Christ for a memorial and remembrance of
him. And in such sort as Christ willed the same to be his
body, in the same manner and sort do I believe it to be
his body.
" But whether we can make the body of Christ, and
minister it to the people : or whether priests are di-
vided from the lay people by their knowledge, pre-emi-
nence, and sanctity of life, or else by external signs only.
Also, whether the signs of tonsure and other external
signs of holiness in ])riests, are signs of antichrist, or
else taught by our Lord Jesus Christ ; it remains for me
next to spe^.k. And first of the three kinds of the
priests. I remember that I have read, the first of them
to be Aaronical, legal, and temporal ; the second to be
eternal and regal according to the order of Melchisedec ;
the third to be christian. The first of these ceased at
the coming of Christ ; for St. Paul to the Hebrews
saith. The priesthood of Aaron was translated to the
priesthood of the order of Melchisedec. The legal sort
of priests of Aaron, were separated from the rest of the
people by kindred, office, and inheritance. By kindred,
for the children of Aaron only were priests. By office,
for it only pertained to them to oft"er sacrifice for the
sins of the people, and to instruct the i)eople in the pre-
cepts and ceremonies of the law. By inheritance, be-
cause the Lord was their portion of inheritance ; neither
had they any other inheritance amongst their brethren,
but those things which were offered to the Lord, as the
first-fruits, parts of the sacrifices, and vows ; except
places for their houses for them and theirs, as ap-
pears by Moses' law. The priesthood of Christ much
diff'ered from this priesthood, as Paul witnesses to the
Hebrews.
" First in kindred, because that our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, came of the stock and tribe of Judah ; of
which tribe none had to do with the altar, and in which
tribe nothing at all was spoken of the priests of Moses.
" Secondly, Others were made priests without their
oath taken : but he, by an oath, by him which said, ' The
Lord sware and will not repent, thon art a priest for
ever, after the order of Melchisedec'
" Thirdly, by duration, for many of them were made
priests but during the term of their lives : but he, be-
cause he remaineth for ever, hath an eternal priesthood.
Wherefore he is able to save us for ever, having by him-
self access unto God, who ever liveth to make interces-
sion for us.
"The law made also such men priests as had infirmi-
ties ; but ' Sermo,' (that is the word, which accord-
ing to the law is the eternal Son and perfect) by an
oath.
" The priesthood of Christ also differed from the
priesthood of Aaron and the law, in the matter of the
sacrifice, and in the place of sacrificing. In the matter
of their sacrifices, because they used in their sa-
crifices strange bodies for their sacrifices, and shed
strange blood for the expiation of sins : but he offer-
ing himself to God his Father for us, shed his o\vn
blood for the remission of our sins. In the place of
sacrificing, because that they did offer their sacrifice in
the tabernacle, or temple : but Christ suffering death
without the gates of the city, offered himself upon the
altar of the cross to God his Father, and thence shed his
jtrecious blood. In his supjiing chamber also he blessed
the bread, and consecrated the same forhis body, and the
wine which was in the cup he also consecrated for his
■ blood ; delivering the same to his apostles to be done
for a commemoration and remembrance of his incarnation
and passion. Neither did Jesus enter into the sanctu-
arcident — by «!»rf — eaten up by a mnii.ie or other anijiial .'
There is nothins in Eg-yptian idolatry nuire ubfurd than this, for
it supposes God not able to ta.ke care of liiuiself.
They have latfiy fer-ouie so ashamed of this, that in the later
fditions of the Missal they liave surreptitiously omit>"d all men-
tion of the mouse, though they retain the rest of the rule. [Ed.]
£48
WALTER BRUTE'S DECLARATION CONCERNING THE PRIESTHOOD, &c. [Book V,
ary made with man's hands, which be examples and
fiiTures of true things, but he entered into heaven itself,
that he might apjiear before the majesty of God for us.
.Neither doth he offer himself oftentimes, as the cliief
priest in the sanctuary did with strange blood, (for then
should he oftentimes have sutfered from the beginning;
but now once for all, in the latter end of the world, to
destroy sin by his peace-offering hath he appeared. And
even as it is decreed, that man once shall die, and then
cometh the judgment ; so Christ hath been once offered,
to take a.vay the sins of many. The second time he
sliall appear without sin, to those that look for him, to
their s.lvation. For the law having a shadow of good
things to come, can never by the image itself of things,
(vvliich every year without ceasing they ofler by such sa-
crifices) make tliose perfect that come thereunto : for
olheruise that offering should have ceased : because that
such worshippers, being once cleansed from their sins,
should have no more conscience of sin. But in these,
commfnior.ition is made every year of sin ; for it is im-
possible that by the blood of goats and calves, sins should
be purged and taken away. Therefore Christ coming into
the v\oild said; sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not
hive, but a body hast thou given me ; peace-oiTerings for
sins have not pleased thee : then said I, behold I come :
in the volume of the book it is written of me, that I
should do tliy will, O God : saying as above ; because
tliou would.<t have no sacrifices nor burnt offerings for
sin, neither dost thou take pleasure in those things that
are oiFered according to the law. Then said I, Behold I
come, that I may do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first to establish that which followeth. In which
will we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest is ready
daily ministering, and oftentimes offering like sacrifices,
which can never take away sins. But this Jesus, oiier-
ing one sacrifice for sin, sitteth for evermore on the
right hand of God, expecting the time till his enemies
be made his footstool. For by his own only oblation,
hath he perfected for evermore those that are sanc-
tified. All these places have I recited which Paul
writeth, for the better understanding and declaration of
those things I mean to speak. By all which it appears
manifestly, how the priesthood of Christ differs from the
legal priesthood of Aaron : and by the same it also ap-
pears, how the same dift'crs from all other christian
priesthood, that imitates Christ. For the properties of
the priesthood of Christ, above recited, are found in no
other priest, but in Christ alone. Of the third priest-
hood, that is, the christian priesthood, Christ by his ex-
press words, speaks but little, to make any difference
between the priest and the rest of the people, nor does
he use the name of ' s-icerdos' or ' presbyter,' in the gos-
pel. But some he calls disciples, some apostles, whom
he sent to baptize and to preach, and in his name to do
miracles. He calls them the salt of the earth, in which
name wisdom is meant ; and he calls them the light of
the world, by which good living is signified. For he
saith, ' Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which
is in heaven.' And Paul, speaking of the priests to
Timothy and Titus, seems not to me to make any differ-
ence between the priests and the other people, but that
he would have them to surpass others in knowledge and
perfection of life.
" But the fourth priesthood is the Roman priesthood,
brought in by the church of Rome ; which church makes
a distinction between tlie clergy and the lay-people : and
after that the clergy is divided into sundry degrees, as ap-
pears in the decretals. This distinction of the clergy from
the laity, with the tonsure of clerks, began in the time of
Anacletus, as it appears in the chronicles. The decrees of
the clergy were afterward invented and distinguished by
their officers, and there was no ascension to the degree of
tlie priesthood but by inferior orders and degrees. But
in the primitive church it was not so : for immediately
after the conversion of some of them to faith and bap-
tism received ; they were made priests and bishops ; as
ajipears by Anianus, who was a tailor or shoemaker, whom
Marcas made to be a bishop. And of many others it was
in like case done, according to the traditions of the
church of Rome. Priests are ordained to offer s^icrifices,
to make supplication and prayers, and to bless and sanc-
tify. The oblation of the priesthood only to priests (as
they say) is congruent : whose duties are upon the altar
to offer for the sins of the peojile the Lord's body,
which is consecrated of bread. Of which saying I have
great marvel, considering St. Paul's words to tli.e He-
brews before recited. If Christ, offering f(;r our tinj
one oblation for evermore, sits at the rignc iiand of God,
and with that one oblation has perfected for ever-
more those that are sanctified. If Christ evermore
sitteth at the right hand of God, to make intercession
for us, what need he to leave here any sa<:rifice for our
sins to be daily offered by the priests.'' 1 do not find ia
the scriptures of God, nor of the apostles, that the body
of Christ ought to be made a sacrifice for sin ; but only
as a sacrament and commemoration of the sacrifice
passed, which Christ offered upon the altar of the cross
for our sins. For it is an absurdity to say t'nat Christ
is now every day really offered as a sacrifice upon the
altar by the priests ; for then the priests sliould really
crucify him upon the altar, which is a thing to be be-
lieved by no christian. But even as in his sui)per, he de-
livered his body and his blood to his disciples, in memo-
rial of his body that should be crucified on tlie morrow
for our sins: so after his ascension, his apostles used the
same (when they brake bread in every house) for a sa-
crament, and not for a sacrifice, of the body and blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And by this means were they
put in remembrance of the great love of Christ, who so
entirely loved us, that he willingly suffered the death for
us, and for the remission of our sins. And thus did
they offer themselves to God by love, being ready to
suffer death for the confession of his name, and
for the saving health of his brethren, fulfilling the new
commandment of Christ, which said to them, ' A new
commandment do I give unto you, that you love one
another, as I have loved you.' But when love began to
wax cold, or rather to be frozen for cold, through the
anguish and anxiety of persecution for the name of
Christ, then priests did use the flesh and blood of Christ,
instead of a sacrifice. And because many of them
feared death, some of them fled into solitary places, no'
daring to give themselves a sacrifice by death unto God
through the confession of his name, and saving health of
their brethren : some others worshipped idols, fearing
death, as did also the chief bishop of Rome, and many
others in different parts of the world. And thus it
came to pass, that that which was ordained and con-
stituted for a memorial of the one and only sacrifice, was
altered (for want of love) into the reality of the sacrifice
itself."
After these things thus discussed, he enters upon
another brief treatise concerning women and lay-
men ; whether in defect of the clergy, they may ex-
ercise the action of prayer, and administration of sa-
craments belonging to priests, where he declares the
custom received in the pope's church for women to bap-
tize, which, saith he, cannot he without remission of
sins ; wherefore seeing that women have power by the
pope to remit sin, and to baptize, why may not they
as well be admitted to minister the Lord's supper, in
like cases of necessity .' Wherein also he makes relation
of Pope Joan the Eighth, a woman pope, proposing certain
questions concerning her. All which, for brevity, 1 omit,
proceeding to the ministration of prayer, and blessing of
sanctification, appropriate to the office of priests, as
follows.
" Furthermore, as touching the function and office of
praying and blessing, whereto priests seem to be ordained
(to omit here the question whether women may pray in
churches, in lack of other meet persons) it remaineth
now also to prosecute. Christ, being desired of his dis-
ciples to teach them to pray, gave them the common
prayer both to men and women, to which prayer in my
estimation, no other is to be compared. For in that,
first, the whole honour due unto the Deity is compre-
I.D. 1391.]
WALTER BRUTE'S DECLARATION CONCERNING EXORCISMS. &c.
24J
bended Secondly, whatsoever is necessary for us, both
for the time present, or past, or for time to come, is
there desired and prayed for. He informs us besides
to pray secretly, and also briefly : secretly to enter into
our close chamber, and there in secret he wills us to
pray unto his Father. And saith moreover, ' When ye
pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for
they think they will be heard for their much speaking.
Be ye not therefore like to them.' By which doctrine
he calls us away from the errors of the heathen gentiles ;
from whom proceed these superstitious manner of arts,
(or rather of ignorances) as necromancy, the art of di-
vination, and other species of conjuration, not unknown
to them that are learned : for these necromancers believe
one place to be of greater virtue than another ; there to
be heard sooner than in another. Like as Balaam, being
hired to curse the people of God by his art of soothsay-
ing or charming, when he could not accomplish his pur-
pose in one place, he removed to another ; but he in the
, end was deceived of his desire. For he, intending first
to curse them, was not able to curse them whom tlie
Lord blessed, so that his curse could not hurt any of all
that people. After like sort, the necromancers turn
their face to the East, as to a place more apt for their
prayers. Also the necromancers believe that the virtue
of the words of the prayer, and the curiosity thereof,
causes them to bring to eflFect that which they seek after ;
: which is also another point of infidelity, used much of
charmers, sorcerers, enchanters, soothsayers, and such
like. Out of the same art (I fear) proceedeth the
practice of exorcising, whereby devils and spirits be con-
jured to do that whereunto they are inforced by the ex-
, orcist. Also whereby other creatures likewise are exor-
cised or conjured, so that by the virtue of their exorcism
' they may have their power and strength exceeding all
j natural operation.
I "In the church of Rome many such exorcisms and con-
' juratious are practised, andare called of them benedictions,
or hallowings. But here I ask of these exercisers, whe-
ther they believe the things and creatures so exorcised
[ and hallowed, have that operation and efficacy given them
i which tiiey pretend ? If they so believe, every child may
' see that they are deceived. For holy water being of
] them exorcised or conjured, hath no such power in it,
I neither can have, which they in their exorcism do com-
mand. For there they enjoin and command, that wliere-
I ever that water is sprinkled, all vexation or infestation
; of the unclean spirit should avoid, and not that no pes-
' tileut spiiit there should abide, &c. But it is most
: plain that no water, be it never so holy, can have any
! 8uch power so ro do, as it is commanded, to wit, to be an
universal remedy to expel all diseases.
"I would ask this of these exorcists ; whether in their
I cominandiug, they do conjure or adjure the things con-
jured to be of aa higher virtue and operation, than their
own nature gives ; or else whether they in their prayers
' desire of God, that he will infuse into them that virtue,
which they retjuire ? If they in their commanding do so
believe, then do they believe that they have that power
I in them to vvliich the inferior power of the thing
I exorcised must obey, in receiving that which is com-
j manded. And so doing they are much more deceiv-
'. ed, forasmuch as they see themselves, that they who
; are so authorised to the office of exorcising, say to
the devil being conjured, 'Go, and he goeth not;
and to another. Come, and he cometh not ;' and
I many things else they command tlie inferior spirit
their subject to do, and he does it not. So in like case,
when they pray to God to make the water to be of such
' virtue, that it may be to them health of mind and body,
. and that it may be able to expel every unclean spirit,
, and to chase away all manner of distemper and pestilence
i of the air (being an unreasonable petition asked, and dis-
pleasing to God) it is to be feared lest their benediction,
their hallowing and blessing is changed into cursing, ac-
cording to that saying that follows : ' and now, O ye
priests, this commandment is for you ; If ye will not
hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory to
my name, saith the Lord of Hosts, I will send a curse
upon you, and I wiL cuise your blessings.' Mai. ii. 1,2.
How many things are blessed, or hallowed in the
church, that in hallowing thereof displease God, and
are accursed ? And therefore according to the saying of
St. James, ' they ask and receive not, because they ask
amiss, that they may consume it on their lusts.' Let a
man behold the blessing or hallowing of their fire, water,
incense, wax, bread, wine, the church, the altar, the
churchyard, ashes, bells, copes, palms, oil, candles, salt,
the hallowing of the ring, tlie bed, the staff, and of many
such like things ; and I believe that a man shall find out
many errors of the heathen magicians, witches, sooth-
sayers and charmers. And notwithstanding the ancient
magicians in their books command those that are conju-
rors, that they in any wise live devoutly (for otherwise,
as they say, the spirits will not obey their commandments,
and conjurations) yet the Roman conjurors impute it to
the virtue of the holy words, because it is they that work,
and not the holiness of the conjurors : how comes it to
pass that they say, the things consecrated by a cursed and
vicious priest, should have as great virtue in pronouncing
(as they say) the holy and mystical words, as if they were
pronounced by a priest never so lioly ? But I marvel tliat
they say so, reading this saying in the acts of the ai>o.>.tles :
because the charmers pronouncing the iiuine of Jes>is
(that is above all names) would have healed tliose that
were possessed with devils, and said ; ' AVe adjure you by
Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.' And the possessed with
devils answered, ' Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but
who are ye ?' And he beat the exorcists.
"And now considering this andmany such like things,
I marvel wherefore the vicious priests do sell their pray-
ers and blessings dearer (as also their masses and trentals
of masses) than those that be devout laymen, and holy
women : who with all their heart desire to flee from
vice, and take hold of virtue. Forasmuch as God in di-
vers places of the scripture doth promise that he will not
hear sinners and wicked persons. Neither should he
seem to be just, if he should sooner hear the j)rayers of
his enemies, than of his faithful friends. Ho.v, 1 pray
you, shall a sinful priest deliver another man from sin by
his j)rayers, or else from the punishment of sin, when he
is not able to deliver himself by his prayer from sin ?
What then doth God so much accept in the mass of a
vicious priest, that for his mass, his prayer or oblation,
he might deliver any man either from sin, or from the
pain due for sin ? No, but because Christ once offered
himself for our sins, and now sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father, always shewing unto him what and
how great things he hath suffered for us. And every
priest always makes mention in his mass of this oblation.
Neither do we this that we might bring the same oblation
into the remembrance of God, because that he always in
his presence sees the same ; but that we should have in
remembrance this so great love of God, that he would
give his own Son to die for our sins, that he might
cleanse and purify us from all our sins. What, doth it
please God, that the remembrance of so great love is
made by a priest, who loves sin more than God ? Or
how can any prayer of such a priest please God, in what
holy place soever he be, or what holy vestments soever
he put on, or what holy prayers soever he makes? And
whereas Chi ist and his apostles do command the preach-
ing of the word of God; the priests be now more bound
to celebrate the mass, and more straightly bound to say the
canonical hours ; whereat I cannot but greatly marvel.
For why ? To obey tlie precepts of men more than the
commandments of God, is in effect to honour man as
God, and to bestow the sacrifice upon man which is
due unto God, and this is also spiritual fornication. How
therefore are priests bound at the commandment of man
to leave the preaching of the word of God, at whose com-
mandment they are not bound to leave the celebration of
the mass, or singing of matins? Therefore, priests ought
not at the commandment of any man to leave the preach-
ing of the word of God, which they are bound both by di-
vine and apostolical precepts.
"Do priests therefore sin or not, who bargain for money
to pray for the soul of any dead man ? It is well known
that Jesus did whip those that were buyers and sellers
out of thf temple, saying ; ' My house shall be called th0
250 WALTER BRUTE'S DECLARATION ON SELLING PRAYERS AND DIRGES.
[lioOK f.
house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'
Truly he cast out such merchants from out of the
churcli, because of their sins. Whereupon Jerome
upon this text saith ; Let the priest be diligent and take
good heed in this church, that they turn not the house of
God into a den of thieves. He doubtless is a thief who
seeks j^ain by religion, and by a shew of holiness studies
to find occasion of merchandise. Peter the apostle said
to Simon Magus, ' Thy money perish with thee, be-
cause thou hast thought that the gifts of God may be
bought for money.' Therefore the spiritual gifts of God
ought not to be sold.
"Verily, prayer isthespiritualgift ofGod,as is also the
preaching of the word of God, or the laying on of hands,
or the administration of other the sacraments. Christ,
sending forth his disciples to preach, said unto them ;
* Heal ye the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead, freely
ye have received, freely give.' If the priest have power
to deliver souls in purgatory from grievous pains, without
doubt he has received that power freely from God. How
therefore can he sell his act, unless he resist the com-
mandments of God, of whom he has received that autho-
rity ? This truly cannot be done without sin, as it is
against the commandment of God. How plainly spake
Christ to the pharisees and priests, saying ; 'Woe unto
you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, because ye devour
widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers,
therefore shall ye receive greater damnation.' Wherein
I pray you do our pharisees and priests differ from them ?
Do not our priests devour widows' houses and posses-
sions, that by their long prayers they might deliver the
souls of their husbands from the grievous pains of purga-
tory ? How many lordships I pray you have been bestow-
ed upon the monastic men and women to pray for the
dead, that they might deliver those dead men from the
pain (as they said) that they suffer in purgatory, griev-
ously tormented and vexed ? If their prayers and speak-
ing of holy words shall not be able to deliver themselves
from pain, unless they have good works ; how shall other
men be delivered from pain by their prayers, who while
they lived, gave themselves over to sin ? Yea, peradven-
ture those lordships or lands, which they gave to the
priests to pray for them, they themselves have gotten by
might from other faithful men, unjustly, and violently :
and the canons do say, that sin is not forgiven, till the
thing taken away wrongfully be restored : how then shall
they be able (who unjustlypossess such lordships or lands)
to deliver them by their prayers from pain, who have
given to them these lordships or lands, seeing God from
the beginning has hated all extortion in his burnt sacri-
fices ? ' Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven : buthethat doeth
the will of my Father which is in Heaven.' And again,
' not the hearers of the law, but the doers of the law shall
be justified.'
" If therefore the wordsof him that prays donotdeliver
himself from sin, nor from the pain of sin, how do they
deliver other men from sin or from the pain of sin, when
no man prays more earnestly for another man, than for
himself? Therefore many are deceived in buying or
selling of prayers, as in the buying of pardons,
that they might be delivered from pain ; when com-
monly they pay dearer fur the prayers of the proud and
vicious prelates, than for the prayers of devout women
and devout men of the hiy people. But out of doubt,
God does not regard the person of him that prays, nor
the place in which he prays, nor his apparel, nor the cu-
riousness of his prayer, but the humility and godly affec-
tion of him that prays. Did not the pharisee and the
publican go up into the temple to pray ? The publican's
prayer for his humility and godly affection is heard. But
the Pharisee's prayer for his pride and arrogancy is con-
temned. Consider that neither the person, nor the place,
nor the state, nor the curiousness of his prayer helps the
pharisee : because the publican not thinking himself wor-
thy to lift up his eyes to Heaven, for the multitude of his
Bins (saying, O God, be merciful unto me a sinner) is
justified in his humility, and his prayer is heard. But
the pharisee boasting in his righteousness is despised,
because God thrusta down the proud, and exalteth the
humble and those that be meek. The rich glutton also
that was clothed with purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day, praved unto Abraham, and is not
heard, hut it is buried in ))ains and torments of Hell fire.
But Lazarus, who lay begging at his gate, (being full of
sores) is placed in the bosom of Abraham. Behold that
neither the richness of his apparel, nor the dcliciousness of
his banquets, nor the gorgeousness of his estate, neither
the abundance of his riches, heljis any thing to prefer the
jirayers or petitions of the rich glutton, nor yet diminish
his torments, because that miglity men in their migliti-
ness shall suffer torments mightily. How dare any man
by composition demand or receive any thing of another
man for his prayers ? If he believe that he can by his
prayer deliver his brother from grievous pain, he is bound
by charity to relieve his brother with his prayers although
he be not hired : but if he will not pray unless he be
hired, then has he no love at all. What therefore helps
the prayer of him who abides not in charity ? Therefore
let him first take compassion on himself by prayer, that
he may come into charity, and then he shall be the bet-
ter able to help others. If he believe not, or if he stands
in doubt whether he shall be able to deliver his brother
by his prayer, wherefore does he make with him an as-
sured bargain, and take his money, and yet knows not
whether he shall relieve him ever a whit the more, or not,
from his pain ? I fear lest the words of the prophet are
fulfilled, saying. From the least to the most, all men ap-
ply themselves to covetousness ; and from the pro])het to
the priest, all work deceitfully. For the poor priests
excuse themselves concerning this selling of their
prayers, saying, the young cock learns to crow from the
old cock. For, he saith, that the pope himself, in stalling
of bishops and abbots, takes the first-fruits : in the placing
or bestowing of benefices he always taketh somewhat,
especially if the benefices be great. And he selleth part
dons or bulls, and to speak more plain, he takes money
for them. Bishops in giving orders, in hallowing churches
and churchyards, do take money : in ecclesiastical correc-
tion they take money for the mitigation of penance : in the
grievous offences of convicted persons, money is requir-
ed, and caused to be paid. Abbots, monks, and other
religious men that have possession, will receive no man
into their fraternity, or make them partakers of their spi-
ritual suffrages, unless he bestow somewhat upon tliem,
or promise them somewhat. Curates and vicars having
sufficient livings by the tithes of their parishioners, yet in
dirges and years' minds, in hearing confessions, in wedt.
dings and buryings, require and have money. The friars
also of the four orders of beggars, who think themselves
to be the most perfect men of the church, take money
for their prayers, confessions, and buryings of the dead;
and when they preach, they believe that they shall have
either money or some other thing worth money. Where-
fore then are the poor priests blamed .' ought not they tO
be held excused, although they take money for their pray.
ers by composition ? Truly (me thinketh) that this ex-
cuse by other men's sins does not excuse them, forasmuch
as to heap one mischief upon another's head, is no suffi-
cient discharge. I would to God all the buyers and sel-
lers of spiritual suffrages would with the eyes of their
heart behold the ruin of the great city, and the fall of
Babylon, and that which they shall say after that fall.
Does not the prophet say, ' And the merchants of the
earth shall weep andmournforher,fornonianbuyeth their
merchandise any more, the merchandise of gold aiid sil-
ver, and p'-ecious stone, and of pearl, and fine linen, and
purple and silk.' Rev. xviii. 1. And again, he saith ; 'The
merchants of these things which were made rich by her,
shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping
and wailing, and saying, alas ! alas! that great city, that
was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and
decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in
one hour so great riches are come to nought,' Rev. xviii.
If). And again ; 'And they cast dust upon their heads,
and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying ; alas 1
alas ! that great city, wherein were made rich all that had
ships in the sea, by reason of her costliness ! for in one
hour is she made desolate.' Rev. xviii. 19.
" This Babylon, this great city, is the city of Rome.
A. D. 1391.]
WALTER BRUTE'S DECLARATION— ROME IS BABYLON, &c.
251
Because the angel which shewed to St. John the destruction
of the mishty harlot sitting upon many waters, with whom
the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and
all they which dwell upon the earth, are made drunk with
the wine of her fornication, said unto him, ' And the
■woman which thou sawest, is the great city that reigneth
over the kings,' &c. And indeed in the days of St.
John the whole world was subject to the temporal empire
of the city of Rome, and afterwards it was subject to the
spiritual empire or dominion of the same. But touching
the temporal government of the city of Rome, it is fallen
already : and so the other also, for the multitude of her
spiritual fornication, shall fall. The emperors of the city
gave themselves to idolatry, and would have men honour
them as gods, and put all those to death that refused
such idolatry, and by the cruelty of their torments aU in-
fidels got the upper hand.
" Hereupon by the image of Nabuchadnezzar, the em-
pire of the Romans is likened to iron, which beats to-
gether, and has the mastery of all metals. And in the
vision of Daniel, wherein he saw the four winds of heaven
to fight in the main sea ; and four very great beasts com-
ing out of the sea ; the kingdom of the Romans is likened
to the fourth terrible and marvellous beast, which had
great iron teeth ; eating and destroying, and treading the
rest under his feet : and this beast had ten horns, and as
Daniel saith, he shall speak words against the most
high, and shall tear with his teeth the saints of the most
liigh : and he shall think that he may be able to change
times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his
power, until a time, times, and half a time. In the Reve-
lation, St. John saw a beast coming out of the sea, having
seven heads and ten horns, and power was given to him
to continue forty-two months. So long time endured the
empire of the Romans; that is to say, from the begin-
ning of Julius Cesar, which was the first emperor of the
Romans, unto the end of Fredericus, which was the last
emperor of the Romans. Under this empire Christ
suffered, and other martyrs also suffered for his name's
sake. And here is fallen Rome as Babylon (which is
all one) according to the manner of speaking in the
Revelation, as touching the temporal power of govern-
ing. And thus shall she fall also touching the spiri-
tual power of governing, for the multitude of iniquities
and spiritual fornication, and merchandise that are com-
mitted by her in the church.
" The feet of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw,
betoken the empire of Rome, and part of them were of
iron, and part of clay and earth. The part that was of
iron fell, and the power thereof vanished away, because the
power thereof was at an end after certain months. That
part of clay and earth yet endures, but it shall vanish
away by the testimony of the prophets : whereupon St.
John says in the Revelation ; after that, he saw the part
made of iron rising out of the sea, to which each people,
tribe, and tongue submitted themselves. And he saw
another beast coming out of the earth, which had two
horns, like to the horns of a lamb, and he spake like a
dragon, and he vanquished the first beast in his sight.
This beast as seems to me, betokens the clay and earthen
part of the feet and image, because he came out of the
earth. For that by earthly help he is made the high and
chief priest of the Romans in the church of Christ, and
so from below he ascended on high. But Christ de-
scended from heaven, because he who was God, and author
of every creature, became man ; and he that was Lord of
Lords, was made in the shape of a servant. And although
in the heavens the company of angels minister unto him,
he himself ministered or served in earth, that he might
teach us humility, by which a man ascends into heaven,
even as by pride a man goes down into the bottomless
pit. This beast has two horns most like a lamb, because
he challenges to himself both the priestly and kingly
power above all other here in earth. The Lamb, that is,
Christ, is king for ever upon the kingly seat of David,
and h° is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec ;
but his kingdom is not of this world : but the kingdom
of this beast is of this world, because those that be
under him fight for him. And as Jesus is Christ two
laaaner of ways, because that ' Christ ' is as much as to say
' anointed' ; he verily was anointed king and anointed
priest : so this beast saith, that he is chief king and
priest. Wherefore does he call himself Christ ? Because
that Christ, knowing that afore, said, ' Many shall come
in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive
many.' And thus because he is both king and priest,
he challenges to himself the double sword, that is, the
temporal sword and spiritual sword. The temporal
sword is in his right hand, and his spiritual sword is in
his right eye, by the testimony of Zechariah. But he
speaks subtilely like a dragon, because that by the testi-
mony of Christ he shall deceive many, as the book of Re-
velation witnesses. He did great wonders that he might
make more fire to come from heaven to the earth in the
sight of men, that he might deceive those that dwell upon
the earth, because of the wonders that are permitted him
to do in the sight of the beast, and he overcame the first
beast which ascended out of the sea. For that beast
challenged to himself authority of government of the whole
world. He has put to death and tormented those thai
resist his commandments, and would be honoured as a
god upon the earth. The bishop of Rome says that the
whole world ought to be in subjection to him ; those that
are disobedient to his commandments he puts in prison,
and to death if he can : if he cannot, he excommunicatea
them, and commands them to be cast into the devil's
dungeon. But he has no power over the body, much
less has he pow-er over the soul. And truly his excom-
munication, or the excommunication of any priest under
him, shall at that time little hurt him that is excommuni-
cated, so that the person of him that is excommunicated
be not first excommunicated of God through sin.
" This one thing is certain, that none in the church
ought to sell spiritual merchandize (of which things we
have spoken before) unless he have the mark of the beast.
Mycounsel is,let thebuyerbewareof thosemarks; because
that after the fall of Babylon, ' If any man worship the
beast and his image, and receive his mark in his fore-
head or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of
the wrathof God, which is poured out without mixture into
the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented in
fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in
the sight of the Lamb : and the smoke of their torments
ascendeth up for ever and ever : and they have no rest
day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.' The beast
doubtless recompenses his friends with his small reward ;
that is, with great temporal gifts and benefices ; with a
mean reward, that is, with great spiritual gifts, in authority
of blessing, loosing, binding, praying, and exercising other
spiritual works ; and with his greatest reward, which after
that they be dead, makes them to be honoured in earth
among the saints. The number of his name, according to
the opinion of some men, is. Dux Cleri, the ' captain of the
clergy,' because by that name he is named, and makes
his name known, and that name is 666. Rev. xiii. 18.
'* This is my opinion of the beast ascending out of the
earth, and shall be until such time as I shall be of the
same beast better instructed. And although this beast
signifies the Roman bishops ; yet the other cruel beast
ascending out of the sea, signifies the Roman emperors.
And although the dragon being a cruel beast, and the
false prophet giving the mark, must be thrown into the
lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented for ever ;
I would have no man to judge, but I leave such
things altogether to the final judgment of Christ to be
determined. But Martin the Pope's confessor, who
makes the chronicle of the emperors and the popes,
recites many errors of the popes, more horrible and abo-
minable than of the emperors. For he speaks of the
idolatrous, heretical, simoniacal popes, and popes that
were murderers, that used necromancy and witchcraft,
that were evil livers, and defiled with all kind of vice.
But I have partly declared how the pope's law is con-
trary to Christ's law, and how he saith, ' That he is the
chief vicar of Christ in earth ;' and in his deeds is con-
trary to Christ, and forsakes both his doctrine and life.
I cannot see who else may be so well antichrist, and a
seducer of the people. For there is not a greater pesti-
lence than a familiar enemy.
THE BULL OF POPE BONIFACE IX. AGAINST THE LOLLARDS.
[Book ?, I
"As concerning idols, and the worshipping of them,
1 think of them, as Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and the rest of the prophets did, who speak against
the making of images, as also the worshipping of images.
And faithful David, full of the Spirit of God, saith, ' Let
all them be confounded that worship images, and that re-
joice in idols.' And again he saith, ' Let them be made
like unto them that make them, and all such as put their
trust in them.' Wherefore I pray God that this evil
come not upon me, which is the curse of God pronounced
by David the prophet. Nor will I be, by God's grace,
either a maker, or a worshipper of images."
After all the aforesaid things were exhibited and given
by M^alter Brute, to the bishop of Hereford ; he further
appointed to Walter, the Ad day of October, at Hereford,
to hear his opinion. Which third day now at hand,
being Friday (A. D. 1393), Walter Brute appeared
before him, sitting in commission in the cathedral church
of Hereford, about sLx o'clock ; having for his assistants
in the same place, divers prelates and abbots, and twenty
bachelors of divinity, whereof twelve were monks, and
two doctors of the law. Amongst these was Nicholas
Hereford accompanied with many other j)relates and
worshipful men, and wise graduates in sundry faculties,
charged Walter about his writings, and the contents
therein : they were earnest in picking out of those
writings his heresies, and in shewing his schisms, sundry
errors, and other things. Now, after that they continued
all that day, and the two days following in their informa-
tions and examinations ; W'alter Brute submitted himself
to the church, as appears in a scroll written in the English
tongue, as follows :
" I, W^alter Brute, submit myself principally to the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the determination of holy
Kirk, and to the general councils of holy Kirk. And to
the sentence and determination of the four doctors of
holy writ ; that is, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and
Gregory. And I meekly submit me to your correction,
as a subject ought to his bishop."
W^hich scroll Walter Brute read with a loud and in-
telligible voice, at the cross in the church-yard on
Monday, the sixth day of October, before the sermon, in
presence of the bishop of Hereford and others, as also
barons, knights, and noblemen, and clergy, and also a
great multitude of people. After which Thomas Crawlay
made a sermon, and took for his text the words of the
apostle to the Romans, xi. 20.
Out of these declarations and writings of Walter
Brute, the bishops, with the monks and doctors above
rehearsed, gathered certain articles, to the number of
thirty-seven, which they sent to the university of Cam-
bridge to be confuted, to two learned men, Master Col-
will and Master Newton, bachelors of divinity. Masters
Colwill and Newton both laboured in the matter, to
the utmost of their cunning, in replying to the said
thirty-seven articles.
Besides them also, William Woodford a friar (who
wrote likewise against the articles of Wickliff) labouring
in the same cause, made a solemn and a long treatise,
compiling the articles of Brute, to the number of nine-
and-twenty.
I do not find what afterwards became of this Walter
Brute : but it is probable that he for this time escaped.
I here add certain writings and documents connected
with his history.
The bull of Pope Boniface IX. , against the Lollards.
" Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to
the reverend brother, John, bishop of Hereford, sendeth
greeting, and apostolical benediction. We mean to
write unto our well-beloved son in Christ (Richard, the
renowned king of England) in form inclosed within these
presents. Therefore we will and command your brother-
hood, that as much as ye may ye study and endeavour
yourself to exhort and induce the same king to do those
things which we have written unto him as it is said
before. And notwithstanding that now many a day yoji
ought to have done it of yourself, and not to look that
we should persuade you to that effect by us written;
you may proceed as well by our authority, as by voor
own, forasmuch as it was given you before ; that here-
after we may know effectually by your diligence, what
zeal your devotion heareth unto the catholic faitli, and
to the conserving of the ecclesiastical honour, and also
to the execution of your pastoral office.
" Given at Rome at St. Peter's, the l.'ith kalends of
October, the sixth year of our bishop-like dignity."
The hull to the renovned prince, Richard, by the grace
of God, king of England and of France, which van
inclosed in the above, and there mentioned.
"To our well beloved son in Christ, Richard, the noble
king of England, we send greeting, &c. It grieveth us
from the bottom of our hearts, and our holy mother the
church in all places through Christendom lamenteth.
We understand that there be certain heresies sprung,
and do without any condign restraint range at their own
liberty, to the seducing of the faithful people, and do
every day with overmuch liberty enlarge their undisoreet
bounds. But how much the more carefully we labour
for tlie preservation both of you and your famous king,
dom, and also the purity of the faith, and do with much
more ardent desire long that the prosperous state of the
same should be preserved and enlarged ; the sting of
greater sorrow so much the more penetrates and molests
us, as we see (alas the while !) in our time, and under the
regal presidence of your most christian government, a
certain crafty and hare-brain sect of false christians grow
and increase in your kingdom, who call themselves the
poor men of the treasury of Christ and his disciples, and
whom the common peojtle by a more sound name call
Lollards, (as a man would say, 'withered darnel'), accord-
ing as their sins require ; and perceive that they may
wax strong, and as it were prevail against the diocesans
of some places, and other governors, as they meet toge-
ther, not courageously addressing themselves against
them as they ought to do (whereof chiefly and not un.
deservedly I give them admonition) for that they take
thereby the more bolder presumption and courage among
the unlearned people. And forasmuch as those whom
we cannot call men, but the damnable shadows or ghosts
of men, do rise up against the sound faith, and holy uni-
versal church of Rome ; and that very many of them being
indifterently learned, which little learning (to the confusion
and eternal damnation of some of them) they got sitting
upon their mother's lap the said church of Rome, do
rise up or inveigh against the determination of the holy
fathers, with too much presumptuous boldness, to the
subversion of the whole ecclesiastical order and estate ;
and have not been afraid, nor are yet afraid, publicly to
preach very many erroneous, detestable, and heretical
articles, because they are not put to silence, reproved,
driven out, rooted out, or otherwise punished by any
that has authority and the fear and love of God. And
also they are not afraid openly to write the same articles,
and so being written to deliver them to your kingly par*
liament, and obstinately to affirm the same. The
venomous and disdainful recital of which articles, upon
good advise, at this present we pass over, lest the
sufferance of such sensuality might chance to renew the
wound that reason may heal. Yet notwithstanding, lest
so great and contagious an evil should escape unpu-
nished, and that without deserved vexation ; and also
that it might not get more heart, and wax more strong,
we therefore (according to our office and duty, where
there is such negligence and sluggishness of our prelates
who are present where this thing is) do commit and give
in commandment to our reverend brethren the arch-
bisho])8 of Canterbury and York by our letters ; that they
stand up in the power of God against this pestilent and
contagious sect, and that they promptly persecute the
same in form of law ; root out and destroy those, that
advisedly and obstinately refuse to withdraw their foot
from the same stumbling-block, any restraint to the
contrary notwithstanding. But because the assistance.
JA..D. 1392.] THE KING'S COMMISSION AO.\TNST THE TRUE PROFESSORS.
253
j counsel, favour, and aid of your kingly estate and high-
I ness are requisite to the execution ot the premises ; we
' require, exliort, and beseech the same your princely
higlmess by the bowels of the mercy of Jesus Christ,
by his lioly faith, by your own salvation, by the benefit
i that to all men is common, and by the prosperity assured
to every man and woman, that not only your kingly
severity may readily shew, and cause to be shewed to our
'archbishops and their commissaries, convenient aid and
favour, as otherwise also to cause them to he assisted ; but
that also you will enjoin your magistrates and justices of
assize and peace, more straightly, that of their own good
wills they execute the authority committed to them, with
all severity against such damned men, according as they
are bound by the office which they are put in trust with ;
against those, I mean, which have determined obsti-
nately to defile themselves in their malice and sins, to
expel, banish, and imprison, and there to keep them, till
condign sentence shall pronounce them worthy to sufl'er
ipunishnient. For your kingly wisdom sees that such as
jthey not only deceive poor simple souls (or at the least
ido what they can to deceive them) but also bring their
ibodies to destruction, and further prepare confusion and
ruinous fall to their temporal lords. Go too, therefore,
my sweet son, and endeavour yourself to work so in this
matter, as undoubtedly we trust you will : that as this
■firebrand (burning and flaming overmuch) began under
lyour presidence or government : so under your severe
judgment and virtuous diligence, might, favour, and aid,
there may not remain one spark hid under the ashes,
(but that it be utterly extinguished, and speedily put out.
[ " Given at our palace of St. Peter's at Rome, the loth
iof the kalends of October, in the sixth year of our ponti-
Ificality."
The king's commission.
" Richard, by the grace of God, king of England, and
,of France, and lord of Ireland, to all those unto whom
these present letters shall come, greeting. Know ye,
[that whereas lately at the instance of the reverend father,
iWilliam, archbishop of Canterbury, metropolitan of all
(England, and legate of the apostolical see, we for the
redress and amendment of all those who would obsti-
pately preach or maintain, publicly or privily, any con-
flusions of the holy scripture, repugnant to the determi
ation of our holy mother the church, and notoriously
redounding to the subversion of the catholic faith, or
fjontaining any heresy or error, within the province or
bishoprick of Canterbury, have by our special letters
patent, in the zeal of the faith, given authority and
iicence unto the foresaid archbishop, and to all and
|«iugular his suffragans, to arrest all and every of them
that will preach or maintain any such conclusions,
wherever they may be found, and to commit them either
.CO their own prisons, or any other at their own pleasure,
and to keep them in the same, until they repent them
pf the errors and depravities of those heresies, or till by
lis or by our council it should be otherwise determined,
;;hat is to say, to every one of them and their ministers
fhroughout their cities and diocese. And now the re-
ferend f ither in God, John, bishop of Hereford, hath
for a certainty informed us, that although the same bi-
fhop hatli according to justice convinced a certain fellow,
Iiamed William Swinderby, pretending himself to be
haplain, and one Stephen Bell, a learned man, and hath
ironounced them heretics, and excommunicate, and false
nformcrs among the common people, and hath declared
the sa:na by the definitive sentence of the aforesaid
j)ishop, tliey have presumed to affirm and preach openly,
(.n divers places within the diocese of Hereford, many
bonclusions or naughty ojiinions notoriously redounding
to the subversion of the catholic sound faith, and tran-
f^[uillity of our kingdom : the same bishop, notwithstand-
ing, neither by tlie ecclesiastical censures, neither by the
Force and strength of our commission, was able to revoke
the foresaid Wdliam and Stephen, nor yet to bridle the
raalice and indurate contumacy of them ; for that they,
ufter that they were convicted of such heretical pravity
by the same bishop (to the intent they might delude
liis judgireat and justice) conveyed themselves into
the borders of Wales, with such as were their fa-
vourers and accomplices, keeping themselves hid, to
whom the force of our letters does in nowise extend.
Wliereai)on the said bishop has made supplication to us,
that we will vouchsafe to provide a sufficient remedy in
tliat behalf. We, therefore, who always, by the help of
Almiglity God, are defenders of the faith, willing to
withsland such presumptuous and perverse enter])r!ses
by tlie most safe way and means, give and commit full
])ower and authority to the aforesaid bishop, and to his
ministers, by the tenor of these presents, to arrest or take,
or cause to be arrested or taken, the aforesaid William
and Stephen, in any place within the city and diocese of
Hereford, and our dominion of Wales, with all the !-peed
that may be, and to commit them either to our prison,
or else to the prison of the same bishop, or any other
prison at their pleasure, if such need be, and there to
keep them safe. And afterwards, unless they will obey
the commandments of the church, with diligence to bring
them before us and our council, or else cause them to be
brought, that we may determine for their further punish-
ment, as we shall think it requisite and convenient to be
done by the advice of our council, for the defence and
preservation of the catholic faith. And that the afore-
said William and Stephen, being succoured by the aid
of their favourers, should not be able to tly or escape to
their accustomed starting holes, and that the sharp-
ness of their pains so aggravated, may give them suffici-
ent cause to return to the lap again of their holy mo-
ther, the church ; we straightly charge and command all
and singular our sheriffs, bailiffs, barons, and all other
our officers in the city and diocese of Hereford, and in
any other places being within our dominion of Wales,
by the tenor of these presents, that from time to time
(where they think it most meet) they cause it openly to
be proclaimed in our name, that none of what state, de-
gree, pre-eminence, kind, or other condition he shall be,
do cherish openly or secretly the aforesaid William and
Stephen, until the time that they repent them of their
heresies and errors, and shall be reconciled unto the
holy church of God ; neither that any person or persons,
be believers, favourers, or receivers, defenders, or in
any case wittingly instructors of the said William or
Stephen, or any other of the residue of the heretics that are
to be convinced, upon the forfeiture of all that ever they
have. And that also they giving their attendance be
obedient and answerable to the aforesaid bishop and his
deputies in this behalf, for the execution of the pre-
mises ; and that they certify us and our council dis-
tinctly and plainly, from time to time, of the names of all
and singular persons, who shall be found culpable in
this behalf, under their seals. In witness whereof we have
caused these our letters patent to be made.
" Witness ourself at Westminster, the ninth day
of March, in the fifteenth year of our reign.
Farrington."
Another letter of the King against Walter Brute.
" Richard, by the grace of God king of England, and
of France, and Lord of Ireland, to his beloved and faith-
ful John Chaundos, knight ; John Eynfore, knight ;
Renold de la Bere, knight; Walter Deveros, knight;
Thomas de la Bare, knight ; William Lucy, knight ;
Leonard Hakeluke, knight ; and to the mayor of the city
of Hereford, to Thomas Oldcastle, Richard Nash, Roger
Wygniore, Thomas Waylwayne, John Skydmore, John
Up-Harry, Henry Morton, and to the sheriff of Hereford,
sendeth salutations.
" Forasmuch as it is advertised us, that one Walter
Brute, and other such children of iniquity, have damna-
bly holden, affirmed, and preached, certain articles and
conclusions, being notoriously repugnant agiinst the holy
scripture (of the which some of them as heresies, and
the rest as errors are finally by the church condemned),
and that in divers places within the diocese of Hereford,
and parts near adjoining, both privately, ojienly, and ob-
stinately, which thing we perceive not only to redound
to tht subversion, in a manner, of the catliolic faitli,
which as well we as other catholic princes ought of duty
254 CERTAIN GODLY PERSONS IN LEICESTER PERSECUTED FOR THE TRUTH. [Book V.
to maintain, but also to forewarn us of the subversion of
our faithful diocesans ; and that the said bishop, upon
the good deliberation and advice of a great number of
doctors in divinity, and other learned and skilful men in
the scriptures, of special devotion, according to his
bounden duty, purposed to begin and make divers and
sundry processes by law to be sent unto the aforesaid
Walter and his accomplices to appear personally before
him and other the doctors aforesaid in the cathedral
church of Hereford, the morrow after the translation of
Sf. Thomas of Hereford next ensuing, and to proceed in
the same place against the same Walter, in the aforesaid
articles and conclusions, for the amendment of his soul ;
and that they now afresh (because that the said Walter
and others of their retinue, cleaving and confederating with
him, might not suffer condign pains according to their
den.erits) endeavour themselves to make void and
frustrate the said godly purpose of the same bishop, in
such correction and execution as should have been done,
and with force do resist, and prevent the same with all the
power they may, to the great contempt of us and of our
crown, and to tlie breaking and hurting of our peace, and
pernicious example of others : we doappoint you, and every
one of you, immediately as soon as this our commission shall
be delivered unto you, in our behalf and name, to make open
proclamation in the diocese and parts aforesaid, where ye
shall think it most meet and convenient: that no man
be so hardy henceforth, of what state or condition so-
ever he shall be, within the diocese and parts aforesaid,
upon pain of forfeiture of all that ever he hath, to make
or levy any conventicles, assemblies, or confederacies, by
any colour, or that they presume to attempt or pro-
cure any other thing, whereby our peace may be hurt or
broken, or that the same bishops and doctors aforesaid
may be by any means molested or hindered in the execu-
tion of such correction as is to be done, according to the
canonical sanctions, and to arrest all those whom ye shall
find, or take offending in this behalf, or that keep them-
selves in any such conventicles ; and that they, being
committed to prison, be there kept, till you shall have
other commandment from us and from our council for
their deliverance ; and that ye distinctly and plainly
certify us, and our said council, of all your doing in
this behalf under your seals, or else the seals of
some of you. And therefore we straightly charge and
command you, and every one of you, that ye diligently
attend upon tlie premises, and that in your deeds ye ex-
ecute the same with all diligence and careful endeavour
in the form and manner aforesaid. And further we give
straight charge and commandment to all and singular
sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, constables, and other our faithful
subjects, by the tenor of these presents, that they attend
upon you, counsel and aid you and every one of you, as
is meet and convenient in the doing and execution of the
premises. In witness whereof, we have caused these
our letters patents to be made. Witness myself at
W^estminster, the twenty-second day of September, in
the seventeenth year of our reign.
" By the same king and council."
Thus King Richard, by the setting on of William
Courtney, archbishop of Canterbury, and his fellows,
taking part with the pope and Romish prelates, became
strict and hard against the poor christians of the other
side who followed Wickliff. Yet during the life of this
king I find none expressly by name that suffered burn-
ing. Some, however, there were, who, by the arch-
bishop and other bishops, had been condemned, and
some also abjured, and did penance as well in other
places, as chiefly about the town of Leicester, as is de-
clared in the archbishop's register and records as follows :
" At the time the said archbishop William Courtney
■was in his visitation at the town of Leicester, certain
there were accused and detected to him, by the monks
and other priests in the said town. The names of which
persons there detected were Roger Dexter, Nicholas
Taylor, Richard Wagstaff, Michael Scrivener, William
Smith, John Henry, William Parchmentar, and Roger
Goldsmith, inhabitants of the town of Leicester. These,
with others, were denounced to the archbishop for
holding the opinion of the sacrament of the altar, of auri-
cular confession, and other sacraments, contrary to that
which the church of Rome preaches and observes. All
which parties above named, and many others whose
names are not known, held these heresies and errors
here underwritten, and are of the church of Rome con-
demned.
"1. That in the sacrament of the altar, after the words
of consecration, there remains the body of Christ with
the material bread.
" 2. That images ought not to be worshipped in any
case, and that no man ought to set any candle before them.
" 3. That no cross ought to be worshipped.
"4. The masses and mattens ought not with an high
and loud voice to be said in the church.
" 5. That no curate or priest, taken in any crime, can
consecrate, hear confessions, or minister any of the
sacraments of the church.
" G. That the pope and all prelates of the church can-
not bind any man with the sentence of excommunication,
unless they know him to be first excommunicated of God.
"7. That no prelate of the church can grant any
pardons.
"8. That every layman may in every place preach and
teach the gospel.
" y. That it is sin to give any alms or charity to the
friars, preachers, Minorites, Augustinians, or CarmeUtes.
"10. That no oblation ought to be used at thf funerals
of the dead.
"11. That it is not necessary to make confession of
our sins to the priest.
" 12. That every good man, although he be unlearned,
is a priest."
These articles they taught, preached, and affirmed
manifestly in the town of Leicester, and other places ad-
joining. Whereupon the said archbishop admonished the
said Roger and Nicholas, with the rest, on the next day
to make answer unto him in the said monastery to the
aforesaid articles. But the aforesaid Roger and Ni-
cholas, with the rest, hid themselves out of the way, and
appeared not. Whereupon the archbishop upon All-
hallow day, being the first day of November, celebrating
the high nmss at the high altar, in the said monastery,
being attired in his pontifical robes, denounced the said
parties with all their adherents, favourers, and coun-
sellors, excommunicate and accursed, who either held,
taught, or maintained the aforesaid heretical and errone-
ous conclusions, and that in solemn wise, by ringing the
bells, lighting the candles, and putting out the same
again, and throwing them down to the ground, with
other circumstances thereunto belonging. Upon the
morrow after, being All-Souls day, he sent for all the
curates and some laymen of the town of Leicester, to in-
quire more diligently of the verity of such matter as they
knew, and were able to say against any persons whatever
concerning the aforesaid articles, as also against the parties
before named and specified upon their oaths, denouncing
every one of them severally by their names to be excom-
municated and accursed ; and caused them also to be ex-
communicated in divers parish churches in Leicester.
Andfurtherthe said archbishop interdicted the whole town
of Leicester, and all the churches in the same, so long
as any of the aforesaid excommunicate persons should
remain, or be within the same, and till all the Lollards of
the town should return and amend from such heresies
atid errors, obtaining at the said archbishop's hands the
benefit of absolution.
At length it was declared and shewed to the said arch-
bishop, that there was a certain anchoress, whose name
was Matilda, enclosed within the church-yard of St.
Peter's church of the town of Leicester, infected with
the pestiferous contagion of the aforesaid heretics and
Lollards : whereupon, after the said archbishop had ex-
amined the aforesaid Matilda, touching the aforesaid
conclusions, heresies, and errors, and found her not to
answer plainly and directly to the same, but sophistically
an d subtlely ; he peremptorily gave and assigned unto
lier a day, j)ersonally to appear before him in the monas-
tery of St. James at Northampton, more fully to answer
to the said articles, heresies, and errors, which was the
A. D. 1393.] PENANCE ENJOINED ON THOSE WHO ABJURED THE TRUTH.
255
sixth day of the said month of November ; commanding
the abbot of the mouasteiy of Pratis, that the door of
the recuse, in which the said Matilda was, should be
opened, and thst till his return he should cause her
to be put in safe custody. That done, he sent forth
his mandate against the Lollards, under this form : —
" William, by the permission of God, &c. To his well-
beloved sons, the mayor and bailiff's of the town of Lei-
cester diocese, greeting. We have lately received the
king's letters, graciously granted us for the defence of
the catholic faith, in these words following : Ricliard,
by the grace of God, king of England and of France, &c.
We, on the behalf of our holy mother, the cliurch, by
the king's authority aforesaid, do require you, that you
cause ttie same Richard, William, Roger, and tlie rest,
to be arrested, and sent unto us ; that they with their
pernicious doctrine do not infect the people of God, tkc.
Given under our seal," &c.
By another instrument also in the same register men-
tion is made of one Margaret Gaily, a nun, who, forsak-
ing her order, was by the said archbishop constrained,
against her will, again to enter the same, as by this in-
strument here- under ensuing may appear.
"William, by the grace of God, &c. To our reverend
brother of God, John, by the grace of God, bishop of
Ely, greeting, &c. In the visitation of our diocese of
Lincoln according to our office amongst other enormi-
ties worthy reformation, we found one slieep strayed out
of our fold, and entangled amongst the briars ; to wit,
Margaret Gaily, nun professed, in the monastery of St.
RaJegond, within your diocese, who, casting off the ha-
bit of her religion, was found in secular attire, many
years being an apostate, and leading a dissolute life.
And lest her blood should be required at our hands, we
Lave caused her to be taken and brought unto you, being
her pastor ; and straightly enjoining you, by these pre-
sents we do command, that you admit the same IMar-
garet again into her aforesaid monastery (although re-
curned against her will), or else into some other place,
^-here for her soul's health you shall think most conve-
nient ; and that from henceforth she be safely kept, as
in the straight examination of the same you will yield an
account. Given under our seal," &c.
By sundry other instruments also in the same register
I find, that Matilda, the anchoress, upon the straight ex-
amination and handling of the archbishop, before whom
she was peremptorily enjoined to appear, and till that
day of appearance taken out of the recluse, and com-
mitted to safe custody, as you heard, retracted and re-
canted her aforesaid articles and opinions. For which
she being enjoined forty days' penance, was again ad-
mitted into her recluse in Leicester.
Also, by another letter of the archbishop to the dean
of the cathedral church of our lady of Leicester, I
find that of the number of those eight persons be-
fore recited, whom the archbishop himself at high
mass, in his pontifical robes so solemnly cursed with
book, bell, and candle : after process against them, or
else in the meantime they being aj)prehended and taken,
two of them recanted their opinions ; to wit, William
Smith and Roger Dexter. But in the meantime Alice,
the wife of Roger Dexter, abjured the same. However,
vvhether they presented themselves willingly, or else
were brought against their wills (as most like it was)
hard penance was enjoined them before they were ab-
solved. The -words of the instrument are as fol-
lows : —
" Seeing our holy mother the church denies not her
lap to any penitent child returning to her unity, but
rather proffers to them the same : we therefore receive
again \\ illiam, Roger, and Alice, to grace. And further
^ave caused them to abjure all and singular the foresaid
j articles and opinions, before they received of us the
; benefit of absolution, and were loosed from the sentence
of excomiauiiication, wherein they were snarled, enjoin-
ing to them penance, according to the quantiiy of the
crime, in forn^ as follows , that is to say, that the Sun-
day next after their returning to their proj)er goods,
they, the said V^ illiain, Roger, and Alice, holding every
of them an image of the crucifix in their hands, and in
their left hands every one of them a taper of wax,
weigliing half a jiound weight, in their shirts (having
none other apparel upon them) do go before the cross
three times, during the procession of the cathedral
clmrch of our lady of Leicester; that is to say, in the
beginning of the procession, in the middle of the pro-
cession, and in the latter end of the procession ; to the
honour of him that was crucified, in tlie memorial of his
passion, and to the honour of the ^'irgin his mother;
who also devoutly bowing their knees and kneeling,
shall kiss the same crucifix, so held in their hands.
And so with the same procession they entering again
into the churcli, shall stand during all the tinie of the
holy mass, before the image of the cross, with tlieir
tapers and crosses in their hands. And when tl:e mass
is ended, the said \\ illiam, Roger, and Alice, shall oiler
to him that celebrated that day the mass. Then ujson
the Saturday next ensuing, the said William, Roger, and
Alice, shall in the full and public market, witliin the
town of Leicester, stand in like manner in their shirts,
without any more clothes upon their bodies, holding the
foresaid crosses in their right hands ; which crosses
they shall devoutly kiss three times, (during tlie market)
reverently kneeling upon their knees ; that is, in the be-
ginning of the market, in the middle of the market, and
in the end of the market. And the said M illiam (be-
cause he somewhat understands the Latin tongue) shall
say this anthem, with the collect, " IIoli/ Ca///erine,"
&c. ; and the foresaid Roger and Alice, being unlearned,
shall say devoutly a Pater Noster, and an Ave Maria.
And, thirdly, the Sunday next immediately after the
same, the said William, Roger, and Alice, in their
parish church of the said town of Leicester shall stand
and do, as upon the Sunday before they stood and did
in the cathedral church of our lady aforesaid in all
things. Which done, the foresaid \^ illiam, Roger, and
Alice, after mass, shall offer to the priest or chaplain
that celebrated the same, with all humility and rever-
ence the wax tapers, which they shall carry in their
hands. And because of the cold weather that now is,
lest the foresaid penitents mighc peradventure take some
bodily hurt standing so long naked (being mindful to
moderate partly our rigour) we give leave, that after
their entrance into the churches above said, whilst they
shall be in hearing the foresaid masses, they may put on
necessary garments to keep them from cold, so that
their heads and feet notwithstanding be bare and un-
covered. We therefore will and command you, together
and apart, that you pronounce the said William, Roger,
and Alice to be absolved and restored again to the unity
of our holy mother the church, and that you call them
forth to do their penance in manner and form aforesaid.
Given at Dorchester the 17th day of November, ia
the year 13S'J, and the ninth year of our translation."
To the above narration we will adjoin the history of
Peter Pateshul, an Augustinian friar, who, obtaining by
the pope's privilege (through the means of Walter Dis,
confessor to the duke of Lancaster) liberty to change his
coat and order, and hearing the doctrine of John \\ ick-
liff, and others of the same kind, began at length to
preach openly, and expose the vices of his order, in such
a way that all men wondered to hear the horrible recital.
This being brought to the ears of his order, they to the
number of twelve (coming out of their houses to the
place where he was preaching) thought to have with-
stood him by force. Among whom one especially lor
the zeal of his religion, stood up openly, during his
preaching, and contradicted what he said, as he was
preaching in the church of St. Christopher in London.
When the faithful Londoners saw this, taking grief
hereat, they were very angry against the friar, thrust-
ing him with his other brethren out of the church,
whom they not only had beaten and sore wounded, but
also followed them home to their house, intending to have
256=
THE ROOK OF CONCLUSIONS EXHIBITED TO PARLIAMENT.
[EooK V.
destroyed their mansion with fire also : and would have
so done, had not one of the sheriifs of London, with two
of the friars of the house, well known and reported
amongst the Londoners, with gentle words mitigated
their rage and violence. After this, Peter Pateshul thus
disturbed, was desired by the Londoners (forsomuch as
he could not well preach amongst them) to put in writ-
ing what he had said, and other things besides that he
knew about the friars. He at their request writing the
.Kdme, accused the friars of murder committed against
Heverul of tlieir brethren. And to make the matter
more apparent and credible, he declared the names of
them tbat were murdered, with the names also of their
tfirmentors : and named moreover time and place, where
and wiieu they were murdered, and where they were
burled. He affirmed further that they were guilty of
other horrible sins, and wc-e traitors both to the king
and the realm ; with many other crimes, which mine
. author For tediousness leaves ofl' to recite. And for the
niore confutation of the friars, the Londoners caused
tlie accounts to be openly set up at St. Paul's church-
door in London, which was there read, and they were
<-opit'd l)y many. This was done A. D. LJ87, and in the
ttntli year of King Richard II.
Thus it may appear how the gospel of Christ,
preached by John Wickliff and others, began to spread
and fructify abroad in London, and other places of the
realm : and more woidd have done no doubt, had not
M'illiam Courtney the archbis}\op, and other prelates
v.-ith the king, set them so forcibly with might and
main to witlistand the course thereof. However, as
is said before, I find none who were put to death
during the reign of this King Richard II. Whereby it
appears of this king, that although he cannot utterly be
excused for molesting the godly and innocent preachers
of that time, (as by his briefs and letters afore men-
tioned may appear) yet was he not so cruel against them,
as others that came after him : and that which he did,
seemed to proceed by the instigation of the pope and
other bishops, rather than by the consent of his parlia-
ment, or advice of his council about him, or else by his
own nature. But however the doings of this king are to
be excused, or not, it is undoubted, that Queen Anne his.
wife, most rightly deserves singular commendation ; who
at the same time, living with the king, had the gospels
of Christ in l']nglish, with the writings of four doctors upon
the same. This Anne was a Bohemian born, and sister to
W'encchius, king of Bohemia : she was married to King
Richard about the fifth (some say the sixth) year of his
r;-'ign, and continued with him the space of eleven years.
IJy the occasion whereof it may seem not improbable,
th.it the Bohemians coming in with her, or resorting
intd this realm after her, perused and received here the
b;)iiks of John WicklifF, which afterward they conveyed
into Bohemia.
'1 he said virtuous Queen Anne, after she had lived
with King Richard about eleven years, in the seven-
teenth year of his reign changed tliis mortal life, and
was buiied at Westminster. At whose funeral Thomas
AraniUl, then archbishop of York, and Lord Chancel-
lor, made tiie sermon. In which sermon (as remains in
the library of Worcester) he, treating of the commenda-
tion of her, said these words, That it was more joy of
her than of any woman that ever he knew ; for not-
withstanding that she was born an alien, she had in
ICnglish all the four gospels, with the doctors upon
tliern : aflirming, moreover, and testifying, that she had
sent the same to him to exaniine ; and he said they
v.ere good and true. And, further, with many words of
praise lie greatly commended her, in that she being so
great a lady, and also a foreigner, would humbly study
such virtuous books. And in that sermon he blamed
shar])ly the negligence of the prelates and other men.
Insomuch that some said, he would on the morrow give
up the offict-tof chancellor, and forsake the world, and
fulfil his pastoral office, for what lie had seen and read in
those books ; and then it had been the best sermon
that ever they heard. In which sermon of Thomas
Arundel, three points are to be considered : first, the
laudable cubtora of those old times, to have the scrip.
ture and doctors in our vulgar English tongue. Secondly,
the virtuous exercise and example of this godly lady,
who had these books not for a shew hanging at her
girdle ; but also seemed by this sermon to be a studious
reader of the same. The third thing to be noted is,
what fruit the archbishop declared also himself to have
received at the hearing and reading of the same books
in the English tongue. However, the same Thomas
Arundel, after this sermon and promise made, became
the most cruel enemy that might be against English
books, and the authors thereof, as follows afterwards in
his history.
For shortly after the death of Queen Anne, in the
same year (the king being then in Ireland) this Thomas
Arundel, archbishop of York, and Robert Rraybrocke
the bishop of London, (whether sent by the archbishop
of Canterbury and the clergy, or whether going of their
own accord) crossed the seas to Ireland, to desire the
king with all sjieed to return and help the faith and
church of Christ, against such as holding WicklifTs
doctrine, went about (as they said) to subvert all their
proceedings, and to destroy the canonical sanctions of
their holy mother church. At this complaint the king
hearing the one party speak, and not hearing the other,
was so incensed, that immediately leaving all his afiairs
incomplete, he hastened his return to England. In
the beginning of the following year, (which was A. D.
l.'59.5,) a parliament was called at Westminster. In
which certain articles or conclusions were put up by
tliose of the gospel's side, to the number of twelve.
Which conclusions were fastened upon the church-door
of St. Paul in London, and also at Westminster : the
copy of which conclusions, with the words and contents
thereof here follow : —
The Book of Conclusions or Reformations, exhihiied to
the Parliament at London, and set vp at the door of
St. Paul's, and other places, in the eighteenth year of
the reign of King Richard II., and in the year \'A\)a.
The first conclusion : When the church of England be-
gan first to dote in temporalities after her stejunothe
the great church of Rome, and the churches were
authorised by appropriations ; then faith, hope, and
charity began in divers places to vanish and fiy away
from our church, for pride with her most lamentable
and dolorous genealogy of mortal and deadly sins, chal-
lenged that place by title of heritage. And this conclu-
sion is general, and approved by experience, custom.
and manner, as ye shall after hear.
The second conclusion : That our usual priesth.ood,
which took its original at Rome, and is feigned to t.e a
power higher than angels, is not that priesthood wliich
Christ ordained to his disciples. This conclusion is
thus proved, Forsomuch as the Romish priesthood is
done with signs and pontifical rites and ceremonies, and
benedictions, of no force and effect, neither having any
ground in scripture, forsomuch as the bishop's ortiinal
and the New Testament do not at all agree ; neither do
we see that the Holy Ghost gives any good gift tVn-ongh
any such signs or ceremonies; because he, togttlier with
all noble and good gifts, cannot co-exist in any ])erson
with deadly sin. It is a lamentable and dolorous
mockery to wise men, to see the bishops mock and jilay
with the Holy Ghost in the giving of their orders.
The third conclusion.'
The fourth conclusion that most harms the innocent
people, is this : That the feigned miracle of the sacra-
ment of bread induces all men, except it be a very few,
to idolatry : for they think that the body wliich shall
never be out of heaven, is by the virtue of tjie ])riest's
words essentially included in the little bread, ■« hich they
shew to the people. But would to God they would be-
lieve that which the evangelical doctor- teaches us in his
trialogue, " That the biead of the altar is the body of
Christ accidentally :" forsomuch as we suppose that by
(1) Tliis conclusion which reflects on the vices of the hoiiw»h
prii'sts, is omitted, being of too gross a nature for insertion is
this cilition. [En].
(2) Wickliff.
A. D. 1394—1395.] THE BOOK OF CONCLUSIONS EXHIBITED TO PARLIAMENT.
257
that means every faithful man and woman in the law of
God may make tne sacrament of that bread without any
such miracle. The corollary of this conclusion is. That
as the body of Christ be endowed with eternal joy,
the service of Corpus Christi, made by friar Thomas,
is not true, but painted full of false miracles.
The fifth conclusion is this : That the exorcisms and
hallowings, consecrations, and blessings over the wine,
bread, wax, water, oil, salt, incense, the altar-stone,
anrt about the church walls, over the vestiment, chalice,
mitre, cross, and pilgrim-staves, are the very practices
of necromancy, rather than of sacred divinity. This
conclusion is thus proved : because that by such exor-
cisms the creatures are honoured as of more force and
power tiian of their own proper nature ; for we do not
see any alteration or change in any creature so exorcised,
except it be by false faith, which is the principal point
of the devilish art; The corollary of this is, that if the
book of exorcisation or conjuring of holy water, which
is sprinkled in the church, were altogether faithful and
true ; we think certainly that holy water used in the
church, were the best medicine for all kind of sickness
and sores ; daily experience teaches us the contrary.
The sixth conclusion is, that a king and bishop both
in one person, a prelate and justice in temporal causes,
a curate and officer in worldly office makes every king-
dom out of good order. This conclusion is manifest,
because the temporalty and the spiritualty are two
parts of the holy universal church ; and therefore he
who addicts himself to the one part, let him not inter-
meddle with the other, for no man can serve two mas-
ters. The corollary of this conclusion is, that we the
proctors of God in this case do sue to the parliament,
that it may be enacted, that all the clergy (as well of the
highest degree as of the lowest) should be fully excused
from any temporal office, and occupy themselves with
their own charge, and not with others.
The seventh conclusion, what we mightily affirm is,
that spiritual prayers made in the church for the souls of
the dead (preferring any one by name more than another)
is a false foundation of alms, whereupon all the houses
of alms in England are falsely founded. This conclusion
is proved by two reasons : the one is, that a meritorious
prayer (of any force or effect) ought to be a work pro-
ceeding from mere charity : and perfect charity excepts
no person, because thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy-
self. Whereby it appears that the benefit of any tem-
poral gift, bestowed and given to priests, and houses of
alms, is the principal cause of any special prayers, which
is not far different from simony. The other reason is,
that every special prayer, made for men condemned to
eternal punishment, is very displeasing to God. And
although it be doubtful, yet it is very probable to faithful
christians that the founders of every such house of alms,
for their wicked endowing the same, are for the most
part passed by " the broad-way.'' The corollary is,
that every prayer of force and effect, proceeding from
perfect charity, would comprehend generally all such as
God would have saved. The merchandize of special
prayers now used for the dead makes mendicant posses-
sioners and other hireling priests, who otherwise were
strong enough to work and to serve the whole realm,
: and maintains them in idleness, to the great charge of
the realm, because it was proved in a certain book which
' the king has, that a hundred houses of alms are suffi-
■ cient for the whole realm. And thereby might perad-
, venture greater increase and profit come to the tem-
i poralty.
' The eighth conclusion, needful to tell to the beguiled
I people is, that pilgrimages, prayera, and oblations made
) to blind crosses or roods, or to deaf images inad<^ either
of wood or stone, are very near a kin to idolatry, and
, far different from alws And although these things
which are forbidden, aie the book of errors to the com-
mon people ; yet the usual and common image of the
Trinity is most especially abominable. This conclusion
God himself openly manifests, commanding alms to be
given to the pf or and needy, for he is the image of God
: in a more perfect similitude and likeness than any block
or stone. For God did not say, let us make a block or
stone unto our likeness and image, but let us make
man ; the supreme and highest honour, which the
clergy call ' Latria,' pertains only to the godhead, and the
inferior honour which the clergy call ' Dulia,' pertains to
men and angels, and to no other inferior creature. The
corollary is, that the sert'ice of the cross, celebrated
twice every year in our church is full of idolatry ; for
if rood, tree, nails, and spear ought so profoundly to be
honoured and worshipped, then were Judas' lips (if any
man could get them) a marvellous goodly relic 1 But,
thou pilgrim, we pray thee tell us when thou dost offer
to the bones of the saints, and holy men which are laid
up in any place, whether thou relievest the holy man
who is already in joy, or the alms house which is so well
endowed, whereas the saints are canonized (the Lord
knows how) and to speak more plain, every faithful
christian may well suppose that the strokes of that same
man, whom they call St. Thomas, were no cause of
martyrdom.
The ninth conclusion, that keeps the people down, is,
that auricular confession, which is said to be so necessary
for salvation, and the feigned power of absolution, exalts
and sets up the pride of priests, and gives them oppor-
tunity of other secret talks, which we will not at this
time talk of ; for as both lords and ladies do witness,
that for fear of their confessors they dare not speak the
truth ; and in time of confession is good op])ortunity
ministered of wooing, or to play the villain, or to make
other secret arrangements to deadly sin. They affirm
and say, that they are commissaries sent of God to judge
and discern of all manner of sin, to pardon and cleanse
whatever pleases them. They say also, that they have
the keys of heaven and hell, and that they can ex-
communicate, curse, and bless, bind and loose at their
own will and pleasure ; so that for a small reward, or
for twelve pence, they will sell the blessing of heaven
by charter and clause of warranty, sealed by their
common seal. This conclusion is so common in use,
that it needs not any proof. The corollary is, that the
pope of Rome who feigned himself to be the profound
treasurer of the whole church, having that same wortliy
jewel, the treasure of the passion of Christ, in his own
keeping and custody, together with the merits of all the
saints in heaven, by which he gives feigned indulgences
and pardons, is a treasurer out of charity, who pretends
he may deliver all captives in purgatory at his pleasure.
But here every faithful christian may easily perceive
that there is much falsehood hid in our church.
The tenth conclusion is, that manslaughter (either by war
or by any pretended law of justice for any temporal cause
or spiritual revelation) is expressly contrary to the New
Testament, which is the law of grace, full of mercy.
This conclusion is evidently proved by the examples of
the preaching of Christ here in earth, who chiefly-
teaches every man to love his enemies, and have com-
passion upon them, and not to kill and murder them..
The reason is this, that for the most part when men do
fight, after the first stroke, charity is broken ; and who-
ever dies without charity goes the right way to hell.
And we know, that none of the clergy can deliver any
from the punishment of death for one deadly sin, and
not for another ; but the law of mercy, which is the
New Testament, forbids all manner of murder. For in
the gospel it is spoken to our forefathers, " Thou shalt
not kill." The corollary is, it is a robbing of the people,
when lords purchase indulgences and pardon for such
as help their armies to kill and murder the christian
people in foreign countries, for temporal gain ; as we
see certain soldiers who run among the heathen people,
to get themselves fame and renown by the murder and
slaughter of men. Much more do they deserve evil
thanks at the hands of the king of peace, forsomuch as
by humility and peace, our faith is multiplied and in-
creased ; for murderers and manslayers Christ hates and
menaces, " He that killeth with the sword shall perish
with the sword."
The eleventh conclusion.'
(1) This conclusion reflects on the mcraU of nunnerie*, and
thoiigli most true, it is also omitted for Che Mm* reuoa at tb*
third.- I Kb.]
« 2
258 DEA-lll OF ARCHBISHOP COURTENAY. LETTER OF RICHARD II. TO THE POPE. [Book V
The twelfth conclusion is, that the multitude of arts not
necessary (used in this our church) causes much sin and
offence in waste, curiosity, and disguising in curious
apparel ; experience and reason partly shew the same,
for nature, with a few arts, is sufficient for man's use
and necessity.
This is the whole tenor of our ambassage, which
Christ hath commanded us to prosecute at this time,
most fit and convenient for many causes. And although
these matters are here only briefly noted and touched :
yet they are more at large declared in another book,
with many others beside in our own proper tongue,
which we wish should be common to all christian people.
Wherefore we earnestly desire and beseech God for his
great goodness sake, that he will wholly reform our
church (now altogether out of frame) to the perfection
of her first beginning and original. (Ex Archivis
Regiis.)
After these conclusions were thus proposed in the
parliament, the king not long after returned home from
Dublin into England, toward the latter end of the par-
liament. At his return he called certain of his nobles to
him, Richard Stury, Lewis Clifford, Thomas Latimer,
John Mountacute, &c., whom he sharply rebuked, and
terribly threatened, for he heard they were favourers of
that side ; charging them straightly never to hold,
maintain, nor favour any more those opinions and con-
clusions. And he took an oath of Richard Stury, that
he should never from that day favour or defend any such
opinions ; which oath being taken, the king then an-
swered. And I swear (saith he) again to thee, if thou
dost ever break thine oath, thou shalt die for it a
shameful death, &c.
All this while William Courtenay archbishop of Can-
terbury was yet alive, who was a great stirrer in these
matters. But yet Pope Urban the great master of the
catholic sect was dead and buried six years before.
After whom succeeded in the schismatical see of Rome,
Pope Boniface IX., who nothing inferior to his prede
cesser in all kind of cruf Ities, left no diligence untried
to set forward what Urban had begun, in suppressing
those that were setting forth the light of the gospel : and
he had written several times to King Richard, as well
for the repealing of the acts of parliament against his
provisions, ' Quare impedit,^ and ^ Premiinire fades :' as
also that he should assist the prelates of England in the
cause of God (as he pretended) against those, whom he
falsely suggested to be Lollards and traitors to the
church, to the king, and the realm, &c. Thus the
courteous pope with the cruel slander of his malicious
tongue sought to work his poison against those whom he
could not reach with his sword ; which letter he wrote
to the king, A. D. 1396, the year before the death of
William Courtenay Archbishop of Canterbury. After
whom succeeded in that see, Thomas Arundel, brother to
the earl of Arundel, being first bishop of Ely, afterwards
archbishop of York, and lord chancellor of England,
and at last made archbishop of Canterbury, about A. D.
13<)7. The next year following, which was A. D. 131)8,
and the ninth year of the pope, I find in certain records
of the bishop of Durham, a letter of King Richard II.,
written to Pope Boniface, rebuking the schism in the
popedom, which I judged worthy of being seen here,
and therefore annex the same, as follows : —
f^O the most holy father in Christ, and Lord, Lord Bo-
niface IX., by the grace of God, high pope of the
most holy Romish and imiversal church, his humble
and devout son Richard, by the grace of God, king of
England, and France, lord of Ireland, greeting and
desiring to help the miseries of the affiicted church,
and kissing of those his blessed feet.
" Who will give my head water, and mine eyes stream-
ing tears, that I may bewail the decay, and manifold
troubles of our mother, which have chanced to her by
her own children in the distress of this present schism
and division ? For the sheep have forgotten the proper
voice of their shepherds, and hirelings have thrust in
themselves to feed the Lord's flock, who are clothed
with the apparel of the true shepherd, challenging the
name of honour and dignity, resembling so the true
shepherd, that the ])oor sheep can scarce know whom
they ought to follow, or what pastor as a stranger they
ought to flee, and whom they should shun as an hireling.
Wherefore we are afraid lest the holy standard of the
Lord be forsaken of his host, and so that city, being full
of riches, become solitary and desolate, and lest the
land or people which was wont to say (flourishing in her
prosperities) I sat as a cjueen, and am not a widow, be
destitute of the presence of her husband, and as it were
so bewitched that she shall not be able to discern his
face, and so wrapped in amazement, that she shall not
know where to turn her, that she might more easily find
him, and that she shall with weeping speak that saying
of the spouse, ' I sought him whom my soul loveth, I
sought him and found him not.' For now we are com.
pelled so to wander, that if any man say, beliold here is
Christ, or there, we may not believe him so saying ; and
so many shepherds have destroyed the Lord's vineyard,
and made his pleasant portion a vast wilderness.
This multitude of shepherds is become very bur-
denous to the Lord's flock. For when two strive to be
chief, the state of both their dignities stands in doubt,
and in so doing they give occasion to all the faithful of
Christ, for a scJiism and division of the climch. And
alth ugh both parties go about to subdue to tiu ir power
the whole church militant, yet contrary to botli their
purpose, by working tliis way, there begins to rise now a
division in the body of the church, as when the division
of the living innocent body was asked, when the two
women did strive before Solomon ; like as the ten tribes
of Israel followed Jeroboam the intruder, and were with-
drawn from the kingdom for Solomon's sin : even so of
old time the desire of ruling has drawn the great power
of the world from the unity of the church. Let your-
selves remember, we beseech you, how that all Greece
fell from the obedience of the Romish cliurch in the
time of the faction of the priniarch of Constantinople ;
and how Mahomet with his fellows, by occasion of
supremacy in ecclesiastical dignity, deceived a great part
of Christians, and withdrew them from the empire and
ruling of Christ. And how in these days, where the
same su))remacy has witiidrawn itself from the obe-
dience of it, insomuch that now in very few realms the
candle that burns before the Lord remains, and that for
his servant David's sake. And although now few coun-
tries remain professing the obedience of Christ's true
vicar : yet peradventure if every man were left to his
own liberty, he would doubt of the preferring of your
dignity, or what is worse, would utterly refuse it by such
doubtful evidence alleged on both sides ; and this is the
subtle craft of the crooked serpent, that is to say, under
the pretence of unity to procure schisms, as the spider
of a wholesome flower gathers poison, and Judas learned
of peace to make war. Wherefore it is believed by
wise men, that except this pestilent schism be withstood
by and by, the keys of the church will be despised, and
they shall bind the conscience but of a few : and when
either none dare be bold to correct this fault, or to re-
form things contrary to God's law, so by this means at
length temporal lords will take away the liberties of the
church, and peradventure the Romans will come and
take away their place, people, and lands : they will
spoil their possessions, and bring the men of the church
into bondage, and they shall be contemned, reviled, and
despised, because the obedience of tlie people, and devo-
tions towards them will almost be taken away, wlien tlie
greater part of the tUurch, left to their own liberty,
shall w:>.t prouder than they are wont, leaving a wicked
examjile to them that see it. For when they see the
jirelates study more for covetousness than they were
wont, to hoard up money, to ojipress the subjects, in
their punishings to seek for gain, to confound laws, to
stir up strife, to suppress truth, to vex poor subjects
with wrong corrections, intemperate in meat and drink,
past shame in feastings : what marvel is it if the
peojile despise them as the foulest forsakers of God's
law } but all these things do follow if the church should
A.D. 1396— 139S.1 LETTER OF KING RICHARD II. TO POPE BONIFACE IX.
259
be left long in this doubtfulness of a schism, and then
should that old saying be veriiied ; ' In those days there
was no king in Israel, but every one did that which
was right in his own eyes.' Micah did see the people
of the Lord scattered in the mountains, as they had
been sheep without a shepherd : for wlien the shep-
herd is smitten, the sheep of the flock shall be scat-
tered, the great stroke of the shepherd is the diminishing
of his jurisdiction, by which the subjects are drawn from
his obedience. When Jason had the office of the highest
priest, he changed the ordinance of God, and brought
in the customs of the heathen, the priests leaving the
sei-vice of the holy altar, and applying themselves to
wrestling, and other exercises of the Grecians, and de-
spising those things that belonged to the priests, did
labour with all their might to learn such things of the
Grecians ; and by that means the place, people, and holy
anointing of priests, which in times past were had in
great reverence of kings, were trodden under foot of all
men, and robbed by the king's power, and profaned by
being thrust in for money. Therefore let the highest
vicar of Christ look to this with a diligent eye, and
let him be the follower of him by whom he has got
authority above others.
" If you mark well, most holy father, you shall find
that Christ rebuked sharply two brethren, coveting the
seat of honour : he taught them not to play the lords
over the people, but the more grace they were filled
with, to be so much more humble than others, and more
lowly to serve their brethren. To him that asked his coat,
to give the cloak, to him that smote him oh theone cheek,
to turn the other to him. For the sake of the sheep
that are given to his keeping, he must forsake all earthly
things, and shed his own blood, yea, and if need re-
quired, to die. These things, I say, are those that adorn
the highest bishop, if they be in him, — not his white
horse, not his imperial crown, because he among all men
is most bound to all the sheep of Christ. For the fear
of God therefore, and for the love of the flock which ye
guide, consider these things diligently, and do them
wisely, and suffer us no longer to waver betwixt two :
although not for your own cause, to whom peradventure
the fulness of your own power is known ; yet in pitying
our weakness, if thou be he, tell us openly, and shew
thyself to the world, that all we may follow one. Be not
t6 us a bloody bishop, lest by your occasion, man's
blood be shed ; lest hell swallow a number of souls,
and lest the name of Christ be evil spoken of by in-
fidels, through such a worthy personage. But perad-
venture ye will say, our right is manifest enough, and
we will not put it to other men's decision. If this
answer should be admitted, the schism will con^
tinue still : seeing neither part is vriliing to agree to
the other, and where the world is as it were equally di-
vided between them, neither part can be compelled to
give place to the other without much bloodshed. The
incarnation of Christ, and his resurrection, was well
enough known to himself and his disciples ; yet he asked
of his Father to be made known to the world. He made
also the gospel to be written, and the doctrine of the
apostles, and sent his apostles into all the world, to do
the office of preaching, that the same thing might be
known to all men. The aforesaid reason is the subtlety
of Mahomet, who knowing himself guilty of his sect,
utterly forbad disputations. If ye have so full trust of
your right, put it to the examination of worthy persons
in a general council, to which it belongs by right to de-
fine such doubts, or else commit it to able persons, and
give them full power to determine all things concerning
that matter, or at least, by both parties forsaking the
ofiBce, leave the church of God free, speedily to pro-
vide a new shepherd.
"We find kings have forsaken their temporal king-
doms only for devotion, and have taken the apparel of
monk's profession. Therefore let Christ's vicar, (being
a professor of most high holiness) be ashamed to con-
tinue in his seat of honour to the offence of all people,
and to the prejudice and hurt of the Romish church, and
the devotion of it, and cutting away kingdoms from
it.
" But if you say, it is not requisite that the cause of
God's church should be called in controversy, and ciicre-
fore we cannot so easily go from it, seeing our conscieaue
forbids us.
" To this we answer, if it be the cause of God and
the church, let the general council judge of it : but
if it be a personal cause (as almost all the world
probably thinks) if ye were the followers of Christ,
ye would rather choose a temporal death, than to
suffer such a schism and division. I say not, to
the hurt of so many, but to the endless destruc-
tion of souls, to the offence of the whole world, and to
an everlasting shame of the apostolical dignity. Did not
Clement, named, or (that I may more truly speak) or-
dained of St. Peter to the apostolic dignity, and to be
bishop, resign his right, that his deed might be taken of
his successors for an example ? Also Pope Siricius gave
over his popedom to be a comfort of the eleven thou-
sand virgins. Therefore much more ought you (if need
require) give over your popedom, that you might gather
together the children of God who are scattered abroad.
For as it is thought a glorious thing to defend the com-
mon riglit, even to bloodshed, so it is sometimes neces-
sary for a man to wink at his own cause, and to forsake
it for a greater profit, and by tliat means better to pro-
cure peace. Should not he be thought a devil, and
Christ's enemy who would agree to an election of him-
self for the apostolical dignity and popedom, if it should
be to the destruction of christians, division of the church,
the offence and loss of all faithful people ? If such mis-
chief should be known to all the world by God's reve-
lation, to come to (jass by such a person receiving the
popedom and apostolical dignity : then by the like rea-
son why should he not be judged of all men an apostate,
and forsaker of his faith, who chooses dignity, or worldly
honour, rather than the unity of the church ? Christ
died that he might gather together the children of God,
which are scattered abroad : but such an enemy of God
and the church wishes his subjects bodily to die in
battle, and the greater part of the world to perish in soul,
rather than forsake his popedom. If the fear of God, the
desire of the heavenly kingdom, and the earnest love of the
unity of the church move your heart, shew indeed that
your works may bear witness to the truth. Clement
and Siricius, most holy popes, not only are not reproved,
but rather are reverenced by all men, because they gave
over their right for profitable causes, and for the same
cause all the church of holy men shew forth their praise.
Likewise, your name should live for ever and ever, if ye
would do the like for a necessary cause, that is to say,
for the unity of God's church. Give no heed to the un-
measurable cry of them that say, that the right choosing
of popes is lost, except ye defend your part manfully .
but be afraid, lest such stirrers up of mischief look for
their own advantage or honour, that is to say, that under
your wing they might be promoted to riches and honour.
After this sort Ahithophel was joined with Absalom in
persecuting his own father, and falsely usurping his
kingdom.
" Furthermore, there should be no jeopardy to that
election, because both parties stick stiffly to the old
fashion of election, and both of them covet the pre-
eminence of the Romish church, counselling all chris-
tians to obey them. And although, through their resig-
nation, tlie fashion of choosing the pope should be
changed for a time, that might be borne, rather than to
suffer any longer this division in God's church. For
that fasliion in choosing is not so necessarily required
to the state of a pope, but that the successor of the
apostle might come in at the door by another fashion of
election, and that canonical enough. And this we are
taught manifestly by examples of the fathers ; for Peter
the apostle ajtpointed after him Clement, and that not
by falsely usurping the power. And it was thought
that that fashion of appointing popes was lawful to the
time of Pope Hilary, who first decreed that no pope
should appoint his successor.
" Afterwards the election of the pope went by the
clergy and people of Rome, and the consent of the em-
peror's council, 38 appears in the election of the blessed
LETTER OF KING RICHARD 11. TO POPE BONIFACE IX.
260
Gregory. But Pope Martin, with the consent of the
holy synod, granted Charles the power to choose the
pope. But of late Nicholas II. was the first whom
Martin makes mention of in his councils, as chosen by
the cardinals. But all the bishops of Lombardy (for
the most part) withstood this election, and chose tadu-
lus to be pope, saying, Tiiat the j.ope ought not to be
chosen but within the precinct of Italy. Wherefore we
think it not a safe way so earnestly to stick to the tradi-
tions of men, in the fashion of choosing the pope, and so
often to change, lest we be thought to break God's tra-
ditions concerning the unity of the church. Yea rather,
it were better yet to ordain a new fashion of his election,
and meeter for him as it has been before. But all things
concerning the same election might be kept safe, if
God's honour were looked for before your own, and the
peace of the church were uprightly sought : for such a
dishonouring should be most honour to you, and that
giving place should be the getting of a greater dignity,
and the willing deposing of your honour should obtain
you the entry of everlasting honour, and should procure
the love of the whole world toward you, and you should
deserve to be exalted continually, as David was in hum-
bling himself. O how monstrous a sight, and how foul a
monster is a man's body disfigured with two heads ! So
if it were possible, the spouse of Christ should be made
so monstrous, if she were ruled with two such heads :
but that is not possible, she is ever altogether fair, in
whom no spot is found ; therefore we must cast away
that rotten member and thruster in of his second head.
We cannot suffer any longer so great a wickedness in
God's house, that we should suffer God's coat, that is
without seam, by any means to be torn by the hands of
two, that violently draw it in sunder. For if these two
should be suffered to reign together, they would be-
tween them so tear in pieces that coat of the Lord,
that scarce one piece would hang to another. They pass
the wickedness of the soldiers that crucified Christ : for
they, willing to have the coat whole, said, ' Let us not
rend it, but let us cast lots for it, whose Jt shall be.' But
these two popes suffering their right and title to be tried
by no lot nor way (although not in words yet in deeds)
they pronounce this sentence, ' It shall neither be thine
nor mine, but let it be divided ;' for they choose rather
as it appears, to be lords, (though it be but in a little
part, and that to the confusion of the unity of the church)
than, in leaving that lording, to seek for the peace of the
church. We do not affirm this, but we shew almost the
whole judgment of the world. We looked for amend-
ment of this intolerable confusion during the time that
these two inventors of this mischief lived. But we
looked for peace, and behold trouble : for neither in
their lives nor in their deaths have they procured any
comfort, but rather dying as it were in a doubt betwixt
two ways, left to their successors matter of continual
contention. But now for the space of seven years, we
desired and looked that they should bear good grapes,
and they bring forth wild grapes, in this matter we fall
into a deep despair. But inasmuch as we hear the com-
fort of the Lord, who promised that miserably he would
destroy those wicked men, and let his vineyard to other
husbandmen who will bring him fruit at their ajipointed
times, and hath promised faithfully that he will help his
spouse in her need to the end of the world : we, leaning
on the sure hope of this promise, and in hope believing
against hope, by God's grace will |)ut our helping
hands to the easing of this misery, wlien a convenient
time shall serve, as much as our kingly power is able,
and although our wit does not perceive how these things
may be amended, yet we being encouraged to this by the
hope of God's promise, will do our endeavour : like as
Abraham believed that even if his son were slain by sa-
crifice, that the multitude of his seed should increase to
the number of the stars, according to God's promise.
Now, therefore, the times draw near to make an end of
this schism, lest a third election of a schismatic against
the apostle's successor, make a custom of the thing, and
■o the pope of Avignon shall be besides the Romish
pope, and he shall say with his ji-irlakers, as the patriarch
of Constantinople said unto Christ's vicar, when he for-
[BooK V.
sook him, 'The Lord be with thee, for the Lord is with
us :' and this is much to be feared of all christian men : for
that Pharisee begins now to be called the pope of Avig-
non among the people. But, perhaps, it would be
thought by some men that it belongs not to secular
princes to bridle outrages of the pope. To whom we an-
swer, that naturally the members put themselves in
jeopardy to save the head, and the parts labour to save
the whole. Christ so decked his spouse, that her sides
should cleave together, and should uphold themselves,
and by course of time and occasion of things they should
correct one another, and cleave together in harmony.
Did not Moses put down Aaron, because he was unfaith-
ful ? Solomon put down Abiathar, who came by lineal
descent from Anathoth, and removed his priesthood from
his kindred to the stock of Eleazar, in the person of
Zadok, who had his beginning from Eli the priest ?
Emperor Otho deposed Pope John XII. because he was
immoral. The Emperor Henry put down Gratian, be-
cause he used simony in buying and selling spiritual
livings. And Otho deposed Pope Benedict I. because he
thrust himself in. Therefore, by like reason, why may
not kings and princes bridle the Romish pope in default
of the church ; if the quality of his fault require it, or
the necessity of the church compel to help the church
oppressed by tyranny .' In old time schisms, which
rose about making the pope, were determined by the
power of secular princes, as the schism betwixt Sym-
machus and Laurence was ended in a council before
Theodric, king of Italy. The Emperor Henry, when two
strove to be pope, deposed them both, and received the
third being chosen at Rome to be pope, that is to say,
Clement II., who crowned him with the imperial crown.
And the Romans promised him that from thenceforth
they would promote none to be pope without his con-
sent. Alexander also overcame four popes, schismatics, '
all of whom the Emperor Frederick corrected. '
" Thus look on the register of popes and thf ir deeds,
and ye shall find that schisms most commonly have been
decided by the power of secular princes, the schisma-
tics cast out, and sometimes new popes made, and
sometimes the old ones cast out of their dignities, and
restored to their old dignities again. If it were not
lawful for secular princes to bridle the outrages of such
a pope lawfully made, and afterwards becoming a tyrant;
in such a case, he might oppress the church ; he might
change Christendom into heathens, and make the labour
of Christ crucified to be in vain : or else truly, God
would not have provided for his spouse in earth by all
means as much as is possible by service of men to with-
stand dangers. Therefore we counsel you, with such a
loving affection as becomes children, that ye consider in
your heart well, lest in working by this means ye pre-
pare a way to antichrist through your desire to bear
rule, and so by this m' -^ns as we fear, the one of these two
things shall happen : t ither ye shall cause all the princes
of the world to rise against you to bring in a true follower
of Christ to have the state of the apostolical dignity, or
what is worse, the whole world despising the ruling of
one shepherd, shall leave the Romish church desolate.
But God keep this from the world, that the desire of
honour of two men stiould bring such a desolation into
the church of God : for then, that de})arting away, which
the apostle jirophesied, should come before the coming of
antichristwereathand : whichshouldbethe last disposition
of the world, to receive antichrist with honour. Consider,
therefore, the state of your most excellent holiness, how
ye received the jiower from God to the building of the
church, and not to the destruction of it ; that Christ hns
given you wine and oil to lital the wounded ; and ha»
appointed you his vicar in these things which pertain to
gentleness, and has given us these things which serve to
rigour. For we bear not the sword without a cause to
the punishment of evil-doers, which power ordained of
God we have received, ourselves being witness : beseech-
ing you to receive our counsel effectually, that in doing
thus, the waters may return to the places from whence
they came, and so the waters may begin to be made
sweet with salt : lest the axe swim on the water, and the
wood sink, and lest the fruitful olive degenerate into a
A.D. 1397—1400.] DEPOSITION AND DEATH OP RICHARD II.— HENRY IV. CROWNED.
261
wild olive, and the leprosy of Naaman cleave continually
10 the house of Gehazi, and lest the pope and the Pha-
risees crucify Christ agaim Christ, the spouse of the
church, which was wont to bring the chief bishop into
the holiest place, increase your holiness, or rather re-
store it being lost."
This epistle of King Richard II., written to Pope Bo-
niface IX. in the time of the schism, (A.D. 1397,) as it
contaiaed much good matter of wholesome counsel to be
followed, so how little it wrought with the pope the se-
quel afterwards declared. For the schism continued long
after, in which neither of the popes would give over their
hold.
We come now to the 22d year of King Richard's reign,
which is A. D. 1399. In which year happened the strange
and lamentable deposing of King Richard from his kingly
sceptre, the cause of which was briefly as follows.
Several acts on the part of the king led to the estrange-
ment of the people, and certain of the nobles appeared in
arms against him. As this was going on in England, the
report reached the king's ears, who was then in Ireland,
he therefore left the business he had in Ireland, and return-
ing, landed at Milford Haven, not daring, as it seemed,
to come to London.
Henry duke of Hereford having returned from France,
and taken up arms against the king, had now landed in
the north, and was joined by the earl of Northumberland,
lord Henry Percy, and Henry his son, the earl of West-
morland, lord Radulph Nevil, and other lords, with a
great number of men, so that the multitude rose to sixty
thousand able soldiers. Who first making toward the
castle of Bristol, where the members of the council
who held with the king, had shut themselves in, and
having gained the castle they took the chief of them pri-
soners, namely ; John Bushy, Henry Grene, William
Scrope and William Bagot ; of whom three were imme-
diately beheaded, but Bagot escaped and fled away to
Ireland.
The king lying about Wales, destitute and desolate,
without comfort or counsel, neither durst come to Lon-
don, nor would any man come to him ; and perceiving that
the commons had a great force against him, and would
rather die than give over what they had begun, and being
compassed on every side with miseries, he moved from
place to place, the duke still following him ; till at length,
at the castle of Conway, the king desired to talk with
Thomas Arundel archbishop, and the earl of Northum-
berland ; to whom he declared, that he would resign his
crown, on condition that an honourable living might be
provided for him, and life promised to eight persons, such
as he would name. Which being granted and ratified,
but not performed, he came to the castle of Flint, where
he was brought the same night by the duke of Lancaster
and his army to Chester, and thence conveyed secretly to
the Tower, there to be kept till the next parliament. As
he came near to London, several evil disposed men of the
city gathered themselves, thinking to have slain him, for
the great cruelty he had used toward the city ; but by the
mayor and rulers of the city, the madness of the people
Vas checked. Not long after the duke followed, and the
parliament assembled. In which parliament the earl of
Northumberland, with many other earls and lords were
sent to the king in the Tower, to receive his full resigna-
tion, according to his promise. This done, certain accu-
sations and articles were laid against the king. And the
next year after he was removed to Pomfret castle, and
there starved to death.
KING HENRY THE FOURTH.
And thus King Richard being deposed from his right
fal crown, the duke of Lancaster was led by Thomas
Arundel the archbishop to the royal seat ; who there
■standing np, and crossing himself on the forehead and the
bteast, spake as follows :
" In the name of God, Amen. I, Henry of Lancaster,
claim the realm of England and the Crown, with all the
i^purtenances, as descended by right hne of the blood.
coming from that good Lord King Henry III. And
through the right that God of his grace has sent to me,
with the help of my kin and of my friends to recover the
same, which was in danger of ruin by default of good
government, and due justice," &c.
After which words the archbishop, asking the assent of
the pcoph', took the duke by the hand, and placed him
on the throne, and shortly after he was crowned by the
archbishop, king of England.
The next year, a parliament was held at Westminster ;
in which pariiainent one Sir William Sautre, a good man
and a faithful priest, inflamed with zeal for true religion,
required that he might be heard for the advantage of the
whole realm. But the matter being suspected by the
bishops, they obtained that the matter should be referred
to the convocation ; where William Sautre being brought
before the bishops and notaries, the convocation was de-
ferred to the Saturday next ensuing.
When Saturday was come, that is to say, the 12th day
of February, A. D. 1400, Thomas Arundel archbishop of
Canterbury, in the presence of his provincial council, being
assembled in the chapter-house, objected against one Sir
William Sautre, personally then and there appearing by
the command of the archbishop of Canterbury ; that the
said Sir William had once renounced and abjured before
the bishop of Norwich, divers and sundry conclusions
heretical and erroneous ; and that after such abjuration,
he publicly and privately held, taught and preached the
same conclusions, or such like, contrary to the catholic
faith, and to the great peril, and pernicious example of
others. And after this he caused such conclusions, held
and preached, by Sir William, then and there to be read
to the archbishop, in a certain scroll written, in tenor
of words as follows :
" Sir William Sautre, otherwise called Chatris, parish
priest of the church St. Scithe the Virgin in London,
publicly and privately doth hold these conclusions under
written.
1. That he will not worship the cross on which
Christ suffered, but only Christ that suffered on the
cross.
2. niat he would sooner worship a temporal king than
the wooden cross.
3. That he would rather worship the bodies of the
saints, than the very cross of Christ on which he hung,
if it were before him.
4. That he would rather worship a man truly con-
trite than the cross of Christ.
5. That he is bound rather to worship a man that is
predestinate than an angel of God.
6. That if any man would visit the monuments of
Peter and Paul, or go on pilgrimage to the tomb of St.
Thomas a Becket, or anywhere else, for obtaining of any
temporal benefit, he is not bound to keep his vow, but
he may distribute the expenses of his vow upon the
alms of the poor.
7. That every priest and deacon is more bound to
preach the word of God than to say the canonical hours.
8. That after the pronouncing of the sacramental
words of the body of Christ, the bread remains of the
same nature that it was before, neither does it cease to
be bread."
To which conclusions, or articles, the archbishop of
Canterbury required Sir William to answer. And he
then asked for a copy, and required a competent time
to answer. On which the archbishop appointed the
following Thursday to make answer. When the day
was come the convocation was adjourned until the mor-
row. When the morrow came. Sir William Sautre, in
the chapter-house, before the bishop and his provincial
council, exhibited a certain scroll, containing the an-
swers to the articles or conclusions given to him, and
said that he delivered the same to the archbishop as hit
answer in that behalf, which answer was as follows : —
" I, William Sautre, unworthy priest, say and an-
swer, that I will not, and intend not to worship the
262
THE HISTORY OF SIR WILLIAM SAUTRE, A PRIEST AND MARTYR. [BdbK V,
cross whereon Christ was crucified, but only Christ that
suffered upon the cross ; so understand me, that I will
not worship the material cross, or the gross corporeal
matter : yet notwithstanding I will worship the same as
a sign, token, and memorial of the passion of Christ.
And that I will rather worship a temporal king, than the
wooden cross, and the material substance. And that I
will rather worship the bodies of saints than the very
cross of Christ whereon he hung, with this addition, even
if the very same cross were before me, as touching the
material substance. And also that I will rather worship
a man truly confessed and penitent, than the cross on
which Christ hung, as touching the material substance.
*' And that also I am bound, and will rather worship
him whom I know to be predestinate, truly confessed
and contrite, than an angel of God ; for that the one is a
man of the same nature with the humanity of Christ,
and so is not a blessed angel. Notwithstanding I will
worship both of them, according as the will of God is I
should.
" Also, that if any man has made a vow to visit the
shrines of the apostles Peter and Paul, or to go on pil-
grimage unto St. Thomas's tomb, or anywhere else,
to obtain any temporal benefit or advantage, he is not
bound simply to keep his vow upon the necessity of
salvation ; but he may give the expenses of his vow in
alms amongst the poor, by the prudent counsel of his
superior, as I suppose.
" And also I «ay, that every deacon and priest is
more bound to preach the word of God, than to say the
canonical hours, according to the primitive order of the
church.
" Also, touching the sacrament of the altar, I say,
that after the pronouncing of the sacramental words
of the body of Christ, there ceases not to be very
bread simply, but remains bread, holy, true, and the
bread of life ; and I believe the said sacrament to be the
very body of Christ, after the pronouncing of the sacra-
mental words."
When all these answers were publicly read, the arch-
bishop inquired of Sir William whether he had abjured
the heresies and errors objected against him, or else had
revoked and renounced the conclusions or articles, or
not ? To which he answered and affirmed that he had
not. And then the archbishop examined Sir William
Sautre, especially upon the sacrament of the altar.
First, whether in the sacrament of the altar, after the
pronouncing of the sacramental words, remains very
material bread or not.' To which interrogation Sir
William somewhat waveringly answered, that he knew
not. He said, however, that there was very bread, be-
cause it was the bread of life which came down from
heaven.
After that the archbishop demanded of him, whether
in the sacrament after the sacramental words, riglitly
pronounced of the priests, the same bread remains
which did before the words pronounced, or not .' And
to this question William answered as before, saying,
that there was bread, holy, true, and the bread of life.
After that, the archbishop asked him, whether the
same material bread before consecration, by the sacra-
mental words of the priest rightly pronounced, be tran-
substantiated from the nature of bread into the >'ery
body of Christ ? Sir William said, that he knew not
what that meant.
And then the archbishop assigned Sir William time to
deliberate, and more fully to make his answer, till the
next day, and continued this convocation then and there
till the morrow. Which morrow, to wit, the 19th day
of February, being come, the archbishop of Canterbury,
before his provincial council then and there assembled,
especially examined Sir William Sautre upon the sacra-
ment of the altar, as before ; and Sir William again
answered as before.
Then the archbishop demanded, whether he would
stand to the determination of the holy church or not,
which affirms, that in the sacrament of the altar, after
the words of consecration being rightly pronounced of
the priest, the same bread, which before in nature was
bread, ceases any more to be bread ? To this interroga.
tion Sir William said, that he would stand to the deter-
mination of the church, where such determination was
not contrary to the will of God.
He then demanded of him again, what his judgment
was concerning the sacrament of the altar ? who said
and affirmed, that after the words of consecration, by
the priest duly pronounced, remained very bread, and
the same bread which was before the words spoken.
Wherefore the said archbishop of Canterbury, by the
counsel and assent of the whole convocation then and there
present, gave sentence against Sir William Sautre (be-
ing personally present, and refusing to revoke his here-
sies, that is to say, his true doctrine, but constantly
defending the same) under the tenour of words as
follows : —
" In the name of God, Amen. We, Thomas, by the
grace of God archbishop of Canterbury, primate of
England, and legate of the see apostolical, by the au-
thority of God Almighty, and blessed St. Peter and
Paul, and of holy church, and by our own authority,
sitting for tribunal or chief judge, having God alone
before our eyes, by the counsel and consent of the
whole clergy our fellow brethren and suffragans, assist-
ants to us in this present provincial council, by this our
sentence definitive do pronounce, decree, and declare
by these presents, thee, William Sautre, otherwise
called Chatris, parish priest pretended, personally ap-
pearing before us, in and upon the crime of heresy,
judicially and lawfully convicted, as an heretic, and aa
an heretic to be punished."
The bishop of Norwich, according to the command-
ment of the said archbishop of Canterbury, presented to
William Sautre a certain process, inclosed and sealed
with his seal, giving the names of credible witnesses
sealed with their seals, the tenour whereof follows
thus : —
" That upon the last day of April, A.D. 1399, Sir
William Sautre, parish priest of the church of St. Mar-
garet in the town of Lynn, appeared before the bishop
of Norwich, and there publicly affirmed and held the
conclusions before specified.
" And afterwards, to wit, the 19th day of May, Sir
William revoked and renounced all his conclusions, ab-
juring and correcting all such heresies and errors, taking
his oath upon a book before the bishop of Norwich, that •
from that time forward he would never preach, affirm,
nor hold, privily nor openly, the conclusions ; and that ;
he would pronounce, according to the appointment of
the bishop, the aforesaid conclusions to be erroneous
and heresies, in the parish churches of Lynn and
Tilney, and in other places at the assignment of the said
bishop."
This being done, the archbishop of Canterbury, in the |
convocation of his prelates and clergy, and such like
men, caused the process of the bishop of Norwich to be
read openly and publicly to Sir William Sautre. And
after that demanded and objected against the snid Sir
William, that after he had before the said bishop of
Norwich revoked and abjured divers errors and here-
sies, he affirmed, that in the same sacrament of the
altar, after the consecration made by the priest, as he
taught, there remained material bread ; which heresy,
amongst others as errors also, he abjured before the
foresaid bishop of Norwich. Hereto William answered
smiling, or in mocking wise, saying, and denying that
he knew of the premises. Then finally it was de-
demanded of Sir William, why he ought not to be
pronounced as a man fallen into heresy, and why they
should not further proceed to this degradation according to
the canonical sanctions : to which he answered nothing,
neither could he allege any cause to the contrary.
Whereupon the archbishop of Canterbury by the coun-
sel and assent of the whole council, and especially by the
counsel and assent of the reverend fathers and bishops,
as also priors, deans, archdeacons and other worshipful
A. D. 1400.] THE DEGRADATION OF SIR WILLIAM SAUTRE BY THE ARCHBISHOP.
2fi3
doctors and clerks then and there present in the council,
fully determined to proceed to tlie degradation, and actual
deposing of William Sautre, as relapsed into heresy and as
I incorrigible, according to the sentence in writing, as
follows.
" In the name of God, Amen. We Thomas, by the
j grace of (iod archbishop of Canterbury, legate of the see
; apostolical, and metropolitan of all England, do find and
I declare, that thou William Sautre, otherwise called Cha-
• tris, priest, by us with the counsel and assent as all and
I singular our fellow brethren and whole clergy, by this
j our sentence definitive declared in writing, hast been for
: heresy convicted and condemned, and art (being again
fallen into heresy) to be deposed and degraded by these
! presents."
Upon the 26th of February, the archbishop of Canter-
bury sat in the bishop's seat of the foresaid church of St.
j Paul in London, and solemnly apparelled in liis ponti-
fical attire, with six other bishops, commanded and caused
Sir William Sautre, apparelled in priestly vestments, to
I be brought before him. That done, he declared and ex-
pounded in English to all the clergy and people assem-
j bled there in great multitude ; that all process was fin-
, ished against Sir William Sautre. Which thing finished,
j he recited and read the above-mentioned sentence of
I relapse against Sir William. And as he saw William
j nothing abashed, he proceeded to his degradation and
actual deposition in form as follows.
" In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. We Thomas by God's permission arch-
bishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and legate
of the apostolic see, do denounce thee William Sautre,
otherwise called Chatris, a pretended chaplain, in the
habit and apparel of a priest, as an heretic, and re-fallen
into heresy, by this our sentence, by counsel, assent,
and authority to be condemned : and by conclusion of all
our fellow brethren, fellow bishops, prelates, council pro-
vincial, and of the whole clergy, do degrade and deprive
thee of thy priestly order. And in sign of degradation
and actual deposition from thy priestly dignity, for thine
incorrigibility and want of amendment, we take from
thee the jiaten and chalice, and do deprive thee of all
power and authority of celebrating the mass, and also we
pull from thy back the casule, and take from thee the vest-
ment, and deprive thee of all manner of priestly honour.
" Also, we Thomas archbishop by authority, counsel,
and assent, which upon the foresaid William we have,
being a pretended deacon, in the habit and apparel of a
deacon, having the New Testament in thy hands, being
an heretic, and twice fallen, condemned by sentence as
is aforesaid, do degrade and put thee from the order of
a deacon. And in token of this thy degradation and ac-
tual deposition, we take from thee the book of the New
Testament, and the stole, and do deprive thee of all au-
thority in reading of the gospel, and of all and all manner
of dignity of a deacon.
" Also, we Thomas archbishop, by authority, counsel,
and assent, which over thee the foresaid William we have,
being a pretended sub-deacon, in the habit and vestment
of a sub-deacon, an heretic, and twice fallen condemned
by sentence, as is aforesaid, do degrade and put thee
from the order of a sub-deacon ; and in token of this
thy degradation and actual deposition, we take from
thee the surplice and maniple, and do deprive thee of
all manner of sub-deaconical dignity.
" Also we Thomas archbishop aforesaid, by counsel
assent, and authority which we have over thee, the fore-
said William, a pretended acolyte, wearing the habit
of an acolyte, and heretic, twice fallen, by our sentence
condemned, do degrade and put from thee all order of an
acolyte ; and in sign and token of this thy degradation,
and actual deposition, we take from thee the candlestick
and taper, and also urceolum, and do deprive thee of all
and all manner of dignity of an acolyte.
" Also we Thomas archbishop, by assent, counsel, and
authority, which upon thee the aforesaid William we have,
a pretended exorciiit, in the habit of an exorcist or holy-
water clerk, being an heretic, twice fallen, and by our
sentence as is aforesaid, condemned, do degrade and
depose thee from the order of an exorcist ; and in token
of this thy degradation and actual deposition, we take
from thee the book of conjurations, and do deprive thee of
all and singular dignity of an exorcist.
" Also, we Thomas archbishop, by assent, counsel,
and authority . as is abovesaid, do degrade and depose
thee the aforesaid William, a pretended reader, clothed
in the habit of a reader, an heretic, twice fallen, and by
our sentence as is aforesaid, condemned from the order
of a reader ; and in token of this thy degradation and
actual deposition, we take from thee the book of the divine
lections (that is, the book of the church legend) and do
deprive thee of all and singular manner of dignity of such
a reader.
" Also, we Thomas archbishop of Canterbury aforesaid,
by authority, counsel and assent, the which we have, as
is aforesaid, do degrade and put thee the foresaid William
Sautre, a pretended sexton, in the habit of a sexton,
and wearing a surplice, being an heretic twice fallen,
by our sentence definitive condemned, as aforesaid from
the order of a sexton ; and in token of this thy degrada-
tion and actual deposition, for the causes aforesaid, we
take from thee the keys of the church-door, and thy
surplice, and do deprive thee of all and singular manner
of commodities of a door-keeper.
"And also, by the authority of omnipotent God the
Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the authority,
counsel, and assent, of our whole council provincial above
written, we do degrade thee, and depose thee, being here
personally present before us, from orders, benefices, privi-
leges and habit in the church ; and for thy pertinency in-
corrigible we do degrade thee before the secular court of
the high constable and marshal of England, being per-
sonally present ; and do depose thee from all and singular
clerkly honours and dignities whatsoever, by tliese writ-
ings. Also, in token of thy degradation and deposition,
here actually we have caused thy crown and ecclesiastical
tonsure in our presence to be rased away, and utterly
to be abolished, like to the form of a secular layman ;
and here we do put upon the head of thee the aforesaid
William the cap of a lay secular person ; beseeching the
court aforesaid, that they will receive favorably the said
William to them thus recommitted."
Thus William Sautre the servant of Christ being utterly
thrust out of the pope's kingdom, and metamorphosed
from a clerk to a secular layman, was committed to the
secular power. Which so done, the bishops, not yet
contented, cease not to call upon the king, to cause him
to be brought forth to speedy execution. Whereupon the
king, too ready to gratify the clergy, and to retain their
favours, directs out a terrible decree against William
Sautre, and sent it to the major and sheriffs of London to
be put in execution ; as follows :
The Decree of the King against William Sautre.
"The decree of our sovereign lord the king and his
council in the parliament, against a certain new sprung
up heretic. To the major and sheriffs of London, &c.
Whereas the reverend father Thomas archbishop of
Canterbury, primate of all England, and legate of the
apostolic see, by the assent, consent, and counsel of other
bishops, and his brethren suffragans, and also of all
the whole clergy within his province or diocese, gathered
together in his provincial council, the due order of the
law being observed in all points in this behalf, hath pro-
nounced and declared, by his definitive sentence, William
Sautre sometime chaplain fallen again into his most dam-
nable heresy, the which before time the said William had
abjured, thereupon to be a most manifest heretic, and
therefore hath decreed that he should be degraded, and
hath for the same cause really degraded him from all pre-
rogative and privilege of the clergy, decreeing to leave
him to the secular power; and hath really so left him,
according to the laws and canonical sanctions set forth in
this behalf, and also that our holy mother the church
hath no further to do in the premises : we therefore
264
ARTICLES EXHIBITED ON THE CHURCH DOORS AGAINST HENRY IV. [Bock. V
being zealous in religion, and reverend lovers of the
catholic faith, willing and minding to maintain and de-
fend the holy church, and the laws and the liberties of
the same, to root out all such errors and heresies out of
our kingdom of England, and with condign punishment
to correct and punish all heretics or such as be convicted ;
provided always that both according to the law of God
and man, and the canonical institutions in this behalf
accustomed, such heretics convicted and condemned in
form aforesaid ought to be burned with fire : we com-
mand you, as straightly as we may, or can, firmly enjoining
you that you do cause the said William, being in your
custody, in some public or open place within the liberties
of your city aforesaid (the cause aforesaid being pub-
lished unto the people) to be put into the fire, and there
in the same fire really to be burned, to the great horror
of his offence, and the manifest example of other chris-
tians. Fail not in the execution thereof, upon the peril
that will fail thereupon."
Thus it may appear how kings and princes have been
blinded and abused by the false prelates of the church,
insomuch that they have been their slaves and butchers,
to slay Christ's poor innocent members. See therefore
what danger it is for princes not to have knowledge and
understanding themselves, but to be led by other men's
eyes, and specially trusting to such guides, who through
hypocrisy deceive them, and through cruelty devour the
people.
As King Henry IV.. who was the deposer of King
Richard, was the first of all English kings that began
the unmerciful burning of Christ's saints for standing
against the pope : so was this William Sautre, the true
and faithful martyr of Christ, the first of all them in
Wickliff's time, who I find to be burned in the reign of
this king, which was A. D. 1400.
After the martyrdom of this godly man, the rest of
the same company began to conceal themselves for fear
of the king, who was altogether bent to hold with the
pope's prelacy. Such was the reign of this prince, that
he was ever terrible to the godly, immeasurable in his
actions, and really beloved by very few men ; but princes
never lack flatterers about them. Neither was the time of
his reign quiet, but full of trouble, of blood and misery.
Such was their desire of King Richard again in the reign
of this king, that he was many years after rumoured to
be alive (by those who desired that to be true which they
knew to be false) for which several were executed. For
the space of six or seven years together, scarcely a year
passed without some conspiracy against the king.
Many of the nobles joined in these rebellions, and
many of them were beheaded, or otherwise slain, but still
the rebellions continued.
This civil rebellion of so many nobles and others, against
the king, declared what hostile feelings the people then
bore towards this King Henry. Among whom I cannot
omit here the archbishop of York named Richard Scrope,
■who with the Lord Mowbray, marshal of England, gather-
ed a great company in the north country against the king,
to whom also was joined the forces of Lord Bardolf, and
Henry Percy earl of Northumberland. And to stir up
the people more willingly to take their parts, they col-
lected certain articles against the said king, to the num-
ber of ten, and fastened them upon the doors of the
churches and monasteries, to be read of all men in Eng-
lish. Which articles, as they contain a great part of the
doings between King Henry and King Richard, I thought,
for the better opening of the matter to insert the same,
in such form as I found them.
Articles set upon the Church Doors against King Henry
the Fourth.
" In the name of God, Amen, Before the Lord Jesus
Christ, judge of the quick and dead, &c. We A. B. C.
D. &c., not long since became bound by oath upon the
sacred evangelical book, to our sovereign lord Richard,
late king of England and France, in the presence of many
prelates, potentates and nobility of the realm ; that we,
so long as we lived, should bear true allegiance and fide-
lity toward him and his heirs succeeding him in the kin?,
dom by just title, right, and line, according to the statutes
and custom of this realm of England. By virtue wliereof
we are bound to see that no vices, or heinous offences
arising in the commonwealth, take effect, and we ought to
give ourselves and our goods to withstand the same,
without fear of the sword or death, upon pain of perjury,
which pain is everlasting damnation. Wherefore we
seeing and perceiving divers horrible crimes, and great
enormities daily without ceasing committed by the chil-
dren of the Devil and Satan's soldiers against the supre-
macy of the church of Rome, the liberty of the church of
England, and the laws of the realm, against the person
of King Richard and his heirs, against the prelates, no-
blemen, religion, and commonalty, and finally against the
whole public weal of the realm of England, to the great
offence of the majesty of Almighty God, and to the pro-
vocation of his just wrath and vengeance toward the realm
and people. And fearing also the destruction both of the
church of Rome and England, and the ruin of our coun-
try to be at hand, having before our eyes the justice and
the kingdom of God, calling always on the name of Jesus,
having an assured confidence in his clemency, mercy and
power ; have here taken certain articles, subscribed in
the following form to be propounded, tried, and heard
before the jiist judge, Jesus Christ, and the whole world,
to his honour, the delivery of the church, the clergy, and
commonalty, and to the utiUty and profit of the public
weal. But if (which God forbid) by force, fear, or vio-
lence of wicked persons we shall be cast in prison, or by
violent death prevented, so as in this world we shall not
be able to prove the articles as we would wish, then do
we appeal to the high celestial judge, that he may judge
and discern the same, in the day of his supreme judgment.
" I. We depose, say, except, and intend to prove
against the Lord Henry Darby, son of the Lord John of
Gaunt, late duke of Lancaster, and commonly called king
of England (himself pretending the same, although with-
out all right and title thereunto) and against his adhe-
rents, favours, and accomplices ; that they ever have been,
are, and will be traitors, invaders, and destroyers of God's
church in Rome, England, Wales, and Ireland, and of our
sovereign lord Richard late king of England, his heirs,
his kingdom, and commonwealth, as shall hereafter ma-
nifestly appear.
"11. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry, for
that he had conceived, devised, and conspired certain
heinous crimes and traitorous offences against his sove-
reign lord Richard's state and dignity, as manifestly ap-
peared in the contention between the said Lord Henry,. u
and the Lord Thomas duke of Norfolk begun at Coven- ■•
trj'^, but not finished thoroughly. Afterwards he was sent
into exile by sentence of the King Richard, by the agree-
ment of his father the Lord John duke of Lancaster, by
the voice of many of the lords temporal, and nobility of
the realm, and also by his own consent; there to remain
for a certain time appointed unto him by the said lords,
and withal he was bound by oath not to return into Eng-
land before he had obtained favour and grace of the king.
Not long after, when the king was departed into Ireland
for reformation of that country appertaining to the crown
of England, but as then rebelling against the same ; the
said Lord Henry in the meantime contrary to his oath and
fidelity, and long before the time limited unto him was ex-
pired, with all his favourers and invaders secretly entered
into the realm, swearing and protesting before the face of
the people, that his coming into the realm in the absence
of the king was for no other cause, but that he might in
humble sort with the love and favour of the king, and all
the lords spiritual and temporal, have and enjoy his law-
ful inheritance descending unto him of right after the
death of his father : which thing as it pleased all men, so
they cried, ' Blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord.' But how this blessing afterwards turned into
cursing, shall appear in that which followed : and also ye
shall understand his horrible and wicked conspiracy
against his sovereign lord King Richard, and divers
other lords as well spiritual as temporal ; besides that his
manifest perjury shall well be known, and that he remains
not only foresworn and perjured, but also excommunicate,
|a.D. 1401.] ARTICLES EXHIBITED ON THE CHURCH DOORS AGAINST HENRY IV.
i for he conspired against his sovereign lord our king,
i Wherefore we pronounce him by these presents as well
I perjured as excommunicate.
I " III We depose, &c. against the Lord Henry, t'.at he,
immediately after his entry into England, by crafty and
subtle policy caused to be proclaimed openly throughout
the realm, that no tenths of the clergy, fifteenths of the
people, sealing up of cloth, diminution of wool, impost of
wine, nor other extortions or exactions whatsoever, should
i hereafter be required or exacted ; hoping by this means
-to purchase unto him the voice and favour of tlie prelates
spiritual, the lords temporal, the merchants, and com-
monalty of the whole realm. After this he took by force
the king's castles and fortresses, sj)oiled and devoured his
goods wheresoever he found them, crying, Havock !
Havock ! The king's majesty's subjects as well spiritual as
temporal, he spoiled and robbed, some he took captive and
'imprisoned them, and some he slew and put to miserable
ideath, whereof many were bishops, prelates, priests, and
ireligious men. Whereby it is manifest, that the said Lord
Henry is not only perjured, in promising and swearing
that there should be hereafter no more exactions, pay-
ments, or extortions within the realm, but also excom-
municate for the violence and injury done to prelates and
priests. Wherefore by these presents we pronounce him,
as before, as well perjured as excommunicate.
" IV. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry,
That he hearing of the king's return from Ireland into
WaleS; rose up against his sovereign lord the king with
many thousands of armed men, marching forward with all
iiis power towards the castle of Flint in Wales, where he
took the king and held him prisoner, and so led him
captive as a traitor unto Leicester : from whence he took
ihis journey towards London, misusing the king by the
jway, both he and his, with many injuries and opprobrious
icontumelies and scoffs. And in the end committed him
jto the Tower of London, and held a parliament, the king
ibeing absent and in prison : wherein for fear of death he
|Corn^)elled the king to yield and resign to him all his right
and title of the kingdom and crown of England. After
which resignation being made, the said Lord Henry stand-
ing up in the parliament house, stoutly and proudly be-
jfore them all, said and affi/med, that the kingdom of Eng-
iland and crown of the same, with all thereunto belonging,
Idid pertain to him at that present, as of very right, and
Ito no other ; for that the said King Richard by his own
ideed was deprived for ever of all the right, title, and inte-
rest that ever he had, hath, or may have in the same.
And thus at length by right and wrong he exalted himself
unto the throne of the kingdom : since which time, our
commonwealth never flourished nor prospered, but
has been altogether void of virtue, for the spiritualty
is oppressed, exercise and war-like practices have not
'been maintained, charity is waxed cold, and covet-
[ousness and misery have taken place, and finally mercy
lis taken away and vengeance supplies the room. Where-
jby it doth appear (as before is said,) that the said lord
i Henry is not only perjured and false by usurping the
kingdom and dominion belonging to another, but also
excommuuicate for the apprehending, unjust imprisoning,
! and depriving his sovereign lord the king of his royal
: crown and dignity. Wherefore, as in the articles before,
we pronounce the said Lord Henry to be excommunicate.
*' V. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry, that
he the same Lord Henry with the rest of his favourers and
accomplices, heaping mischief upon mischief, have com-
mitted and brought to pass a most wicked and mischiev-
ous fact, yea, such as has not been heard of at any time
before. For after that they had taken and imprisoned the
king, and deposed him by open injury against all human
nature; yet, not content with this, they brought him to
Pomfret castle, and there imprisoned him, where fifteen
days and nights they vexed him with continual hunger,
thirst, and cold, and finally bereft him of life with such a
kind of death as never before that time was known in
England, but by God's Providence it is come to light.
Who ever heard of such a deed, or who ever saw the like
of him? Wherefore, O England ! arise, stand up, avenge
the cause, the death and injury of thy king and prince :
•wtiich if thou do not, take this for certain, that the right-
265
eous God will destroy thee by strange invasions and fo-
reign power, and avenge himself on thee for this so hor-
rible an act. Whereby doth appear not only his perjury,
but also his excommunication most execrable ; so that,
as before, we pronounce the said Henry not only per-
jured, but also excommunicate.
" VI. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry,
that after he had attained to the crown and sceptre of the
kingdom, he caused forthwith to be apprehended divers
lords spiritual, bishops, abbots, priors, and religious men
of all orders, whom he arrested, imprisoned, and bound,
and against all order brought them before the secular
judges to be examined ; nor sparing the bishops whose
bodies were anointed with sacred oil, nor priests nor
religious men, but commanded them to be condemned,
hanged, and beheaded by the temporal law and judgment,
notwithstanding the privilege of the church and holy
orders, which he ought to have reverenced and worship-
ped, if he had been a true and lawful king : for the first
and chief oath in the coronation of a lawful king is, to
defend and keep inviolate the liberties and rights of the
church, and not to deliver any priest or religious man
into the hands of the secular power, except for heresy
only, and tliat after his degradation, according to the or-
der of the church. He has done contrary unto all tliis ;
so that it is manifest by this article as before in the rest,
that he is both perjured and excommunicate.
" VII. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry,
that he not only caused to be put to death the lords spi-
ritual and other religious men, but also divers of the lords
temporal and nobility of the realm, and chiefly those that
studied for the preservation of the commonwealth, not
ceasing as yet to continue his mischievous enterprise, if
by God's Providence it be not prevented, and that with
speed : amongst all other of the nobility, these first he put
to death ; the earl of Salisbury, the earl of Huntington,
the earl of Gloucester, the Lord Roger Clarendon the
king's brother, with several other knights and esquires,
and afterwards, the Lord Thomas Percy earl of Worcester,
and the Lord Henry Percy son and heir to the earl of
Northumberland ; which Lord Henry he not only slew,
but to the utmost of his power again and again he endea-
voured to have him slain. For after he was once
put to death, and delivered to the lord of Furnile to be
buried (who committed his body to holy sepulture, with
as much honor as might be, commending his soul to Al-
mighty God with the suffrages of blessed mass and other
prayers) the said Lord Henry, most like a cruel beast still
thirsting for his blood, caused his body to be exhumed and
brought forth again, and to be placed between two mill-
stones in the town of Shrewsbury, there to be kept with
armed men; and afterwards to be beheaded and quartered,
commanding his head and quarters to be carried into di
vers cities of the kingdom. Wherefore, for so detestable
an act never heard of in any age before, we pronounce
him, as in the former articles, excommunicate.
" VIII. We depose, &c. against the said Lord Henry,
that after his attaining to the crown he willingly ra-
tified, allowed, and approved a most wicked statute set
forth and renewed in the parliament holden at Winches-
ter. The which statute is directly against the church of
Rome, and the power, and principality thereof given by
our Lord Jesus Christ unto blessed St. Peter and his suc-
cessors bishops of Rome ; unto whom belongs by full au-
thority the free disposing of all spiritual promotions as
well superior as inferior : which wicked statute is the
cause of many mischiefs, viz. of simony, perjury, adul-
tery, disorder, and disobedience; for many bishops, ab-
bots, priors, and prelates (we will not say by virtue, but
rather by error of this statute) have bestowed the bene-
fices vacant upon young men, rude and unworthy persons,
who have bargained with them for the same, so that
scarcely one prelate is found that has not covenanted
with the party promoted for the half yearly, or, at the
least, the third part of the said benefice so bestowed. And
by this means the said statute is the destruction of the
right of St. Peter, the church of Rome and England, the
clergy and universities, the whole commonwealth, and
maintenance of wars, &c.
" IX. We say and depose, &c. against the saidLor**
266
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK EXECUTED. ARTICLES AGAINST JOHN BADBY. [Book V.
Henry, that after he had tyrannously taken upon him the
government of the realm, England never flourished since,
nor prospered, by reason of his continual exactions of
money, and yearly oppressions of the clergy and com-
monnlty : neither is it known how this money so extorted
is bestowed, when neither his soldiers, nor his gentle-
men are i):iid as yet their wages and fees for their charges,
and wonderful toil and labour, neither yet are the poor
country peojile satisfied for the victuals taken of them :
and nevertheless the miserable clergy, and more miserable
common;dcy, are forced still to pay by menaces and sharp
tlireatenings. Notwithstanding he sware, when he first
usurped the crown, that hereafter there should be no such
Kxactions nor vexations, neither of the clergy nor laity.
Wherefore, as before, we pronounce him perjured, &c.
" X. In the tenth and last article we depose, say, and
openly protest by these presents, for ourselves, and all
our assistants in the cause of the church of Rome and
England, and in the cause of King Richard, his heirs, the
clergy and commonalty of the whole realm ; that our in-
tention neither is, was, nor shall be, in word or deed to
offend any state either of the prelates spiritual, lords tem-
poral, or commons of the realm ; but rather, foreseeing
the perdition and destruction of this realm to approach,
we have here brought before you certain articles concern-
ing the destruction of the same, to be circumspectly con-
sidered by the whole assembly, as well of the lords spiri-
tual as temporal, and the faithful commons of England :
beseeching you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ the right-
eous judge, and for the merits of our blessed lady the
mother of God, and of St. George our defender, under
whose displayed banner we wish to live and die, and un-
der pain of damnation, that ye will be favourable to us,
and to our causes which are three in number. Whereof
the first is, that we exalt unto the kingdom the true and
lawful heir, and crown him in the kingly throne with the
diadem of England. And secondly, that we recall the
Welshmen, the Irishmen, and all other our enemies to
perpetual peace and amity. Thirdly, and finally, that
•we deliver and make free our native country from all ex-
actions, extortions, and unjust payment ; beseeching our
Lord Jesus Ciirist to grant his blessing, the remission of
their sins, and life everlasting to all that assist us to their
power in this godly and meritorious work ; and to all
those that are against us we threaten the curse of Al-
mighty God, by the authority committed unto us by
Christ and his holy church, and by these presents we pro-
nounce them excommunicate.'*
These articles being seen and read, a great concourse
of people daily resorted more and more to the archbi-
shop. TheEarlof Westmorelandbearingof this, mustered
his soldiers with all the force he was able to make, and
went against the archbishop ; but seeing his party too
weak to encounter with him, he used policy, and under
colour of friendship, he laboured to seek out the causes of
that great stir. The archbishop shewed him the arti-
cles, which, when the earl had read, he seemed highly
to commend the purpose and doings of the bishop ;
promising that he would help in that quarrel to the ut-
most of his power. The archbishop, easily persuaded,
was content, although much against the counsel of the
earl marshal, and came to hold further conference. The
articles being opened, published, and read, the earl of
Westmoreland pretended to like them, and exhorted
the archbishop that he would discharge the needless
multitude of his soldiers, and dismiss them home to their
works and business, and they would together drink and
join hands in the sight of the whole company. Thus
they shaking hands together, the archbishop sends away
his soldiers in peace, not knowing himself to be circum-
vented, until he was arrested by the hands of the earl
of Westmoreland ; and shortly after, the king coming
with his army to York, he w;is tliere beheaded ; and
with him also Lord Thomas Mowbray, marshal, with di-
vers others. After whose slaughter, the king proceeds
farther to pursue the earl of Nortluiniijerlaud, and Lord
Thomas Bardolph. At length, within two years after,
fighting against the king, they were slain iu the field,
(A. D. 1408.)
The king, after the shedding of so much blood, see-
ing himself so disliked by his subjects, thought to keep
in with the clergy, and with the bishop of Rome. And
therefore he was compelled in all things to serve their
humour, as appeared as well in condemning William
Sautre, as also in others whom we have now to treat of.
In the number of whom comes now John Badby,
who, by tlie cruelty of Thomas Arundel, archbishop,
and other prelates, was brought to his condemnation
in this king's reign (A.D. 1409), as appears by their
own registers,
JOHN BADBY, ARTIFICER.
In A. D. 1409, March 1st, the following exami-
nation of John Badby, a layman, was made upon the
crime of heresy, before Thomas Arundel, archbishop of
Canterbury, and the archbishop of York, bishops of Lon-
don, of Winchester, of Oxford, of Norwich, of Salisbury,
of Bath, of Bangor, and a great number of other lordfL i
both spiritual and temporal. Master Morgan read the
articles of his opinions to the hearers, as follows :
" In the name of God, Amen. Be it manifest to all
men by this present public instrument, that in the year
after the incarnation of our Lord, according to the
course and computation of the church of England, in
the year 1409, John Badby, a layman, of the diocese of
Worcester, appearing personally before the reveren4
father in Christ and Lord, Lord Thomas, by the grace
of God bishop of Worcester, was detected of heresy,
having heretically taught, and openly maintained, that
the sacrament of tlie body of Christ, consecrated by the
priest upon the altar, is not the true body of Christ by
the virtue of the words of the sacrament. But that after
the sacramental words spoken by the priests to make the
body of Christ, the material bread remains upon the
altar as in the beginning, neither is it turned into the
very body of Christ after the sacramental words spoken
of the priests. Which John Badby being exaniiued, and
diligently demanded by the reverend father, did answer
that it was impossible that any priest should make the
body of Christ, and that he believed firmly that no priest
could make the body of Christ by such words sacrament-
ally spoken in such sort. And also he said expressly
that he would never while he lived believe that any
priest could make the body of Christ sacranjeutally,
unless that first he saw manifestly the like body of Christ
to be handled in the hands of the priest uj)on the altar,
in his corporal form. And, furthermore, he said that
John Raker of Bristol had as much power and authority
to make the like body of Christ, as any ]>rit?t had.
Moreover, he said that when Christ sat at supjier with
his disciples, he had not his body in his hand, to the in*
tent to distribute it to his disciples ; and he said e.v
pressly, that he did not this thing. And he also spake
many other words teaching and defending the heresy,
both grievous, and also out of order, and horrible to
the ears of the hearers, sounding against the catholic
faith.
" Upon which occasion the reverend father admonished
and requested John Badby oftentimes and very instantly
to charity ; forsomuch as he would willingly that he
should have forsaken such heresy and opinion holden,
taught, and maintained by him, in such sort against the
sacrament, to renounce, and utterly abjure them, and to
believe other things which the holy mother church doth
believe. And he informed the said John on that behalf,
both gently, and yet laudably. Yet the said John
Badby, although he were admonished and requested both
often and instantly by the said reverend father, said and
answered expressly, that he would never believe other-
wise than he had before said, taught, and answered.
Whereujion, the aforesaid reverend father, bishop of
Worcester, seeing, understanding, and perceiving John
Badby to maintain and fortify the heresy, being stub-
born, and proceeding in the same stubbornness, pro-
nounced the said Jolin to be before this time convicted
of such an heresy, and that he hath been and is an hC"
tic, and in the end declared it in these words • ,
A.D. 140y.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN BADBY. THE STATUTE EX-OFFICIO.
267
I " In the name of God, Amen. We, Thomas, bishop
of Worcester, do accuse thee, John Badby, being a lay-
,man, of our diocese, of and upon the crime of heresy,
(being oftentimes confessed and convicted before us sit-
ting for chief judge, that thou hast taught, and openly
affirmed, as hitJierto thou dost teach, boldly affirm, and
defend ; that the sacrament of the body of Christ, conse-
crated upon the altar by the priest, is not the true body
'of Christ ; but after the sacramental words, to make the
body of Christ, by virtue of the said sacramental words
pronounced, to have been in the crime of heresy : and we
.do pronounce thee both to have been and to be an here-
tic, and do declare it finally by these writings."
j When these things were thus finished, and all the con-
]clusions were read in the vulgar tongue, the archbishop
(demanded of him, whether he would renounce and for-
sake his opinions and such conclusions or not, and ad-
;here to the doctrine of Christ and the catholic faith ? He
'answered, that according to what he had said before, he
'would adhere and stand to those words which before he
jhad made answer unto. Then the archbishop oftentimes
required him by the bowels of Jesus Christ, that he
would forsake those opinions and conclusions, and that
henceforth he would cleave to the christian faith, which,
in the audience of all the lords and others that were pre-
isent, he expressly denied and refused.
' After all this, when the archbishop of Canterbury and
the bishop of London had consulted, to what safe keep-
ing John Badby might be committed ; it was concluded
that he should be put into a certain chamber, or safe
house within the mansion of the friars preachers ; and
then the archbishop of Canterbury said that he himself
would keep the key thereof in the meantime. And when
Hhe day was expired, being the fifteenth day of March,
land that the archbishop of Canterbury, with his fellow
'brethren and suffragans, were assembled in the church
of St. Paul in London ; the archbishop of Canterbury,
taking the episcopal seat, called unto him the archbishop
X)f York, and the following bishops : Richard of London ;
Henry of Winchester ; Robert of Chic-hester ; Alex-
p.nder of Norwich ; and the noble Prince Edmund ;
the duke of York ; Ralph, earl of Westmoreland ;
Thomas Beaufort, knight ; lord chancellor of England ;
iand the Lord Beamond, with other noble men, as
Iwell spiritual as temporal, that stood and sat by,
Iwhom it would be long to name : Before whom
jJohn Badby was called personally to answer to the ar-
(ticles. The articles were read by the official of the
Icourt of Canterbury, and by the archbishop (in the vul-
gar tongue) expounded publicly and expressly ; and as
ihe had before spoken and deposed, he still held and de-
Ifended his opinions, and said that while he lived, he
: would never retract the same. And, furthermore, he
said especially to be noted, that the lord duke of York,
personally there present, and every man else for the
time being, is of more estimation and reputation,
than the sacrament of the altar, by the priest in due
form consecrated. And whilst they were thus in his
examination, the archbishop considering and weighing
I that he would in nowise be altered, and seeing moreover
I his countenance stout, and heart confirmed, so that he
! began to persuade others as it appeared : these things
considered, the archprelate, when he saw that it
was not in his power either by exhortations, reasons,
or arguments, to bring John Badby from his con-
i Btant truth to his catholic faith (executing and doing
' the office of his great master) proceeded to confirm and
i ratify the former sentence given by the bishop of Wor-
' cester against John Badby, pronouncing him for an open
[ and public heretic. And thus they delivered him to the
j secular power ; and desired the temporal lords then and
1 there present, that they would not put John Badby
to deatii for that his offence, nor deliver him to be
punished or put to death in the presence of all the lords.
These things thus done and concluded by the bishops
in the forenoon : in the afternoon, tVie king's writ was
not far behind. John Badby, still persevering in his
constancy unto the death, was brought into Smithfield,
and there being put in an empty barrel, was bound with
iron chains fastened to a stake having dry wood put
about him.
And as he was thus standing in the barrel, it hap-
pened that the prince, the king's eldest son, was pre-
sent; who, shewing some part of the good Samaritan,
began to endeavour to save the life of him, whom the
hypocritical Levites and pharisees sought to put to
death. He admonished and counselled him, that he
should speedily witlidraw himself out of these dangerous
labyrinths of opinions, adding oftentimes threatenings,
which might have daunted any man's courage.
In the mean time the prior of St. Bartholomew's, in
Smithfield, brought with all solemnity tlie sacrament of
God's body, with twelve torches borne before, and so
shewed the sacrament to the poor man at the stake.
And then they demanding of him how he believed in it,
he answered, That lie knew well it was hallowed bread,
and not God's body. And then was the barrel put over
him, and fire put to him. And when he felt the fire,
he cried, mercy, calling upon the Lord, and so the
prince immediately commanded to take away the barrel,
and quench the fire. The prince's commandment being
obeyed, he asked him if he would forsake heresy and take
to the faith of holy church ? which, if he would do, he
should have goods enough, jiromising also a yearly
stipend out of the king's treasury.
But this valiant champion of Christ, neglecting the
prince's fair words, refused the offer of worldly promises,
being no doubt more vehemently inflamed with the
Spirit of God, than with any earthly desire. Wherefore,
when he continued unmoveable in his former mind, the
prince commanded him straight to be put again into the
barrel, and that he should not afterward look for any
grace or favour. But as he could be allured by no
rewards, even so was he nothing at all abashed at their
torments, but, as a valiant champion of Christ, he per-
severed invincible to the end. Not without a great and
most cruel battle, but with much greater triumph of
victory ; the Spirit of Christ having always the upper
hand in his members, notwithstanding the fury, rage,
and power of the whole world.
This godly martyr, John Badby, having thus per-
fected his testimony and martyrdom in fire, the perse-
cuting bishops not yet contented, and thinking them-
selves as yet either not strong enough, or else not sharp
enough against the poor innocent flock of Christ, to
make all things sure and substantial on their side, so
that this doctrine of the gospel now springing should be
suppressed for ever, laid their conspiring heads together;
and having now a king for their own purpose, ready to
serve their turn, the bishops and clergy of the realm ex-
hibited a bill to the king's majesty ; subtlely declaring,
what quietness had been maintained within this realm
by his most noble progenitors, who always defended the
ancient rites and customs of the church, and enriched
the same with large gifts, to the honour of God and the
realm : and contrariwise, what trouble and disquietnesa
was now risen by wicked and perverse men, teaching
and preaching openly and privily a certain new, wicked,
and heretical kind of doctrine, contrary to the catholic
faith and determination of holy church. The king, al-
ways oppressed with blind ignorance, by the crafty
means and subtle pretences of the clergy, granted in
the parliament (by consent of the nobility assembled)
a statute to be observed, called ex-officio, as follows : —
The Statute Ex- Officio.
" That is to say. That no man within this realm, or
other the king's majesty's dominions, presume to take
upon him to preach privily or openly, without special
license first obtained of the ordinary of the same place
(curates in their own parish churches, and persons
heretofore privileged, and others admitted by the canoa
law, only excepted). Nor that any hereafter do preach,
maintain, teach, inform openly or in secret, or make or
write any book contrary to the catholic faith, and deter-
mination of the holy church. Nor that any hereafter
make any conventicles or assemblies, or keep and ex-
ercise any manner of schools touching this sect, wicked
268
THE HISTORY AND EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
[Book V.
doctrine and opinion. And further, That no man here-
after shall by any means favour any such preacher, any
such maker of unlawful assemblies, or any such book-
maker or writer; and, finally, any such teacher, in-
former, or stirrer up of the people. And that all and
singular persons having any of the said books, writings,
or schedules, containing the said wicked doctrines and
opinions, shall within forty days after this present pro-
clamation and statute, really and effectually deliver, or
cause to be delivered, all and singular the said books
and writings unto the ordinary of the same place. And if it
shall happen that any person or persons, of what kind,
state or condition soever he or they be, to do or attempt
any manner of thing contrary to this present proclama-
tion and statute, or not to deliver the same books in
form aforesaid : That then the ordinary of the same
place in his own diocese, by authority of the said pro-
clamation and statute shall cause to be arrested and de-
tained under safe custody the said person or persons in
this case defamed and evidently suspected, or any of
them, until he or they so offending have by order of law
purged him or themselves as touching the articles laid
to his or their charge in this behalf; or until he or they
have denied and recanted (according to the laws eccle-
siastical) the said wicked sect, preachings, teachings,
and heretical and erroneous opinions. And that the
said ordinary by himself or his commissaries proceed
openly and judicially to all the effect of law against the
said persons so arrested and remaining under safe
custody, and that he end and determine the matter
within three months after the said arrest (all delays and
excuses set apart) according to the order and custom of
the canon law. And if any person, in any cause above-
mentioned, shall be lawfully convicted before the ordi-
nary of the diocese or his commissaries ; that then the
said ordinary may lawfully cause the said person so con-
victed (according to the manner and quality of his of-
fence) to be laid in any of his own prisons, and there
to be kept so long as in his discretion shall be thought
expedient.
" And further. The said ordinary (except in cases by
the which according to the canon law the party offend-
ing ought to be delivered unto the secular power) shall
charge the said person with such a fine of money to be
paid unto the king's majesty, as he shall think compe-
tent for the manner and quality of his offence. And
the said diocesan shall be bound to give notice of the
said fine, into the king's majesty's exchequer, by his
letters patent under his seal ; to the intent that the said
fine may be levied to the king's majesty's use of the
goods of the person so convicted.
" And further. If any person within this realm and
other the king's majesty's dominions, shall be convicted
before the ordinary of the place, or his commissaries, of
the said wicked preachings, doctrines, opinions, schools,
and heretical and erroneous informations, or any of
them ; and will refuse to abjure and recant the said
wicked sect, preachings, teachings, opinions, schools,
and informations ; or if, after his abjuration once made,
the rela)ise be pronounced against him by the diocesan
of the ])lace, or his commissaries (for so by the canon
law he ought to be left to the secular power, upon credit
given to the ordinary or his commissaries) that then the
sheriff of the same county, the mayor, sheriffs, or sheriff,
or the mayor, or bailiffs of the same city, village, or
borough of the same county, and nearest inhabiting to
the said ordinary, or his said commissaries, shall per-
sonally be present, as often as they shall be required, to
confer with the said ordinary or his commissaries in
giving sentence against the said persons offending, or
any of them : and, after the said sentence so pronounced,
sh.ill tnke unto them the said persons so offending, and
any of them, and cause them openly to be burned in the
sight of all the people ; to the intent that this kind of
j'unishnient may be a terror unto others, that the like
wicked doctrines and heretical opinions, or authors and
favourers thereof be no more maintained within this
realm and dominions, to the great hurt (which God for-
"bid) of christian religion, and decrees of holy church.
In all which and singular the premises, concerning the
statute aforesaid, let the sheriff, mayors, and bailiffs of
tiie said counties, cities, villages, and boroughs be at-
tendant, aiding and favouring the said ordinaries and
their commissaries."
By this bloody statute so severely and sharply en-
acted against these sim])le men, the reader may well
consider the nature and condition of this present
world, how it has been set and bent ever from the be-
ginning, by all might, counsel, and ways possible to
strive against the ways of God, and to overthrow that
which he will have set up. And although the world
may see by infinite histories and examples, that it is but
in vain to strive against him ; yet such is the nature of
this world (all set in malignity) that it will not cease
still to be like itself.
After this was issued the terrible constitution of the
archbishop of C interbury against the followers of God's
truth, full of cruelty and persecution unto blood, but
which is too long for insertion here.
Who would have thought by these laws and constitu-
tions, but that the name and memory of this persecuted
sort should utterly have been rooted up, and never
could have stood ? Aiiu yet such be the works of the
Lord, passing all men's admiration, that notwith-
standing all this, so far was the number and courage
of these good men from being vanquished, that rather
they multiplied daily and increased. For so I find in
registers recorded, that these foresaid persons, whom
the king and the catholic fathers did so greatly detest
for heretics, were in divers counties of this realm in-
creased, especially at London, in Lincolnshire, in Nor-
folk, in Herefordshire, in Shrewsbury, in Calais, and
other quarters. However there were some that did shrink,
many did revolt and renounce, for danger of the law.
Among whom was John Purvey, who recanted at Paul's
Cross, of whom more follows (the Lord willing) to be
said in the year 1421. Also John Edward, priest of the
diocese of Lincoln, who revoked in the Greenyard at
Norwich ; Richard Herbert, and Emmot Willy, of Lon-
don ; also John Becket, who recanted at London ; John
Seynons, of Lincolnshire, who was caused to revoke at
Canterbury.
WILLIAM THORPE.
Thus much being signified briefly, touching those who
have been forced in the time of this king, to open abju-
ration. Next comes the history of Master William
Thorpe, a valiant warrior, under the triumphant banner
of Christ, with the process of his examinations before
Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, written by
Thorpe, and recorded by his own pen, at the request of
his friends. In his examination (A.D. 1407) thou shalt
have, good reader, both to learn and to marvel. To
learn, in that thou shalt hear truth discoursed and dis-
cussed, with the contrary reasons of the adversary dis-
solved. To marvel, for thou shalt behold here in this
man the marvellous force and strength of the Lord'«
might, spirit, and grace, working and fighting in hi«
soldiers, and also speaking in their mouths, according
to the word of his promise. Master Thorpe, in his
preface to the account of his examipation, says, that he
was moved to write it, not only by the desire of his
friends, but also that other christian J)eople might profit
by seeing truth opposed to error, and that they might
be prepared to forsake all the things of this life,
not knowing how soon they may be called to a like
trial.
The Examination of William Thorpe, penned with hit
own hand.
"Be it known to all men, that read or hear this
writing, that on the Sunday next after the feast of St.
Peter, that we call Lammas (A. D. 1407), I, William
Thorpe, being in prison in the castle of Saltwood, wai
brought before Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canter-
bury, and chancellor then of England. And when I
came to him he stood in a great chamber, and manj
A. r. 1409.]
THE EXAMINATION' OF WILLIAM THORPE.
21:9
people about him ; and when he saw me he went into a
closet, bidding all secular men that followed him to
leave him soon, so that no man was left in that closet
but the archbishop himself, and a physician that was
called Masveren, parson of St. Dunstan's in London,
and two other persons unknown to me, who were minis-
ters of the law. By and by the archbishop said to me,
' William, I know well that thou hast this twenty winters
or more travelled in the north country, and in divers
other countries of England, sowing false doctrine, la-
bouring with untrue teaching to infect and poison all
this land. But through the grace of God thou art now
withstood and brought into my ward, so that I sliall now
sequester thee from thine evil purpose, and prevent
thee from poisoning the sheep of my province. Never-
theless, St. Paul saith, If it may be, as much as in us
lies, we ought to live peaceably with all men. There-
fore, William, if thou wilt now meekly and of good
heart without any feigning, kneel down and lay thy
hand upon a book and kiss it, promising faithfully
as I shall here charge thee, that thou wilt submit
thee to my correction, and stand to mine ordi-
nance, and fulfil it duly by all thy skill and power,
thou shalt yet find me gracious to thee.' Then
said I to the archbishop, ' Sir, since ye deem me an
heretic, and out of the faith, will you give me here
audience to tell you my belief?' And he said, ' Yea,
tell on.' And I said, ' I believe that there is but one
God Almighty, and in this Godhead, and of this God-
head are three Persons, that is, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. And I believe that all these three
Persons are equal in power and in knowledge, and in
might, full of grace of all goodness. For whatsoever that
the Father doth, or can, or will do, that thing also the
Son doth, and can, and will do ; and in all their power,
knowledge, and will, the Holy Ghost is equal to the
Father, and to the Son.
" ' Besides this, I believe, that through the counsri of
this most blessed Trinity, in the time before appointed
for the salvation of mankind, the second person of this
Trinity was ordained to take the form of man, that is,
the nature of man. And I believe, that this second per-
son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was miraculously conceived
through the Holy Ghost in the womb of the blessed
Virgin Mary. And I believe that in due time Christ
was born of this most blessed virgin.
" ' And I believe, that Christ our Saviour was circum-
cised in the eighth day after his birth, in fulfilling of
the law, and his name was called Jesus, which was so
called of the angel, before that he was conceived in the
womb of Mary his mother.
" ' And I believe that Christ, as he was about thirty
years old, was baptized in the Jordan by John the bap-
tist ; and the Holy Ghost descended like a dove upon
him, and a voice was heard from heaven, saying, ' Thou
art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'
" * And I believe that Christ was moved then by the
Holy Ghost to go into the desert, and there he fasted
forty days and forty nights without bodily meat and
drink. And I believe that by and by after this fasting,
when the manhood of God hungered, the devil came
to him, and tempted him in gluttony, in vain glory,
and in coveting ; but in all those temptations Christ
confuted the devil, and withstood him. And then with-
out tarrying Jesus began to preach, and to say to the
people, ' Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
" ' I believe that Christ lived here most holily, and
taught the will of his Father most truly. And I believe
that he suffered most wrongfiilly the greatest reproofs
and despisings.
" ' And after this, when Chiist would make an end
here of this temporal life, I believe that in the day next
before he was to suffer passion, he ordained the sacra-
ment of his flesh and his blood in form of bread and
of wine ; that is, his own precious body, and gave it to
his apostles to eat ; commanding them, and by them all
their after-comers, that they should do it in this form
tJiat he shewed to them, use themselves, and teach and
.1 Iminister to other men and women this most worship-
ful and holiest sacrament, in remembrance of his holiest
living, and of his most true preaching, and of his willin"
and patient suffering of the most painful passion.
" ' And I believe that this Christ our Saviour, after
that he had ordained this most worthy sacrament of his
own precious body, went forth willingly against his ene-
mies, and he suffered them most patiently to lay their
hands most violently upon him, and to bind him, and
to lead him forth as a thief, and to scorn him and
buffet him, and to defile him with their sjjittings.
Besides this, I believe that Christ suffered most meekly
and patiently his enemies to extract with sharp scourges
the blood that was between his skin and his fiesh ; yea,
without resisting, Christ suffered the cruel Jews to crown
him with sharp thorns, and to strike him with a reed.
And after, Christ suffered wicked Jews to draw him out
upon the cross, and to nail him thereupon ; and so
Christ shed out willingly for man's blood the blood that
was in the ^eins. And then Christ gave willingly his
spirit into the hands or power of his Father, and so, as
he would, and when he would, Christ died willingly for
man's sake upon the cross. And notwithstanding that
Christ was wilfully, painfully, and most shamefully put
to death, as to the world, there was left blood and
water in his heart, as before ordained, that he would
shed out this blood and this water for man's salvation ;
and therefore he suffered the Jews to make a blind
knight to thrust him in the heart with a spear, and this
blood and water that was in his heart, Christ would
shed out for man's love. And after this, I believe that
Christ was taken down from the cross and buried. And
I believe that on the third day by the power of his God-
head Christ rose again from death to life. And the for-
tieth day thereafter, I believe that Christ ascended up
into heaven, and that he there sitteth on the right hand
of the Father Almighty. And the fiftieth day after his
ascension he sent to his apostles the Holy Ghost, that
he had promised them before ; and I believe that Christ
snail come and judge all mankind, some to everlasting
peace, and some to everlasting pains.
" ' And as I believe in the Father, and in the Son, that
they are one God Almighty, so I believe in the Holy
Ghost that he is also with them the same God Almighty.
" ' And I believe an holy church, that is, all they that
have been, and that now are, and always to the end of
the world shall be, a people who shall endeavour to
know and to keep the commandments of God, dreading
over all things to offend God, and loving and seeking to
please him : and I believe, that all they that have had,
and yet have, and all they that yet shall have the afore-
said virtues, surely standing in the belief of God, hoping
steadfastly in his merciful doings, continuing to their
end in perfect charity, willingly, patiently, and gladly
suffering persecutions, by the example of Christ chiefly,
and his apostles, all these have their names written in
the book of life.
" 'Therefore I believe, that the gathering together of this
people, living now here in this life, is the holy church
of God, fighting here on earth against the devil, the
prosperity of the world, and their own lusts. Where-
fore, seeing that all the gathering together of this church,
and every part thereof, neither covets, nor wills, nor
loves, nor seeks any thing but to eschew the offence of
God, and to do his pleasing will ; meekly, gladly, and
willingly, with all mine heart, I submit myself unto this
holy church of Christ, to be ever ready and obedient to
the ordinance of it, and of every member thereof, aftor
my knowledge and power by the help of God. There-
fore I acknowledge now, and evermore shall, if God
will, that with all my heart, and with all my might, I
will submit me only to the rule and governance of them,
whom after my knowledge I may perceive to be members
of the holy church. ^^ herefore these articles of belief
fend all other (both of the old law, and of the new, which
after the commandment of God any man ought to be-
lieve) I believe verily in my soul, as a sinful deadly
wretch, of my knowledge and power, ought to believe :
praying the Lord God for his holy name to increase my
belief, and to help my unbelief.
" ' And because to the praising of God's name, I des-ira
above all things to be a faithful member of holy church.
270
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
[Cook V,
I make this protestation before you all four tliat are now
here present, desiring that all men and women who are
now absent knew the same : that is, whatsoever before
this time I have said or done, or whatever I shall do or
say at any time hereafter, I believe, that all the old law,
and new law, given and ordained by the council of the
three persons of the Trinity, were given and written for
the salvation of mankind. And I believe, that these
laws are sufficient for man's salvation. And I believe
every article of these laws, to the intent that these
articles ordained and commanded by these three persons
of tlie most blessed Trinity are to be believed.
" ' And therefore to the rule and the ordinance of these
laws of God, meekly, gladly, and willingly, I submit me
with all mine heart ; that wlioever can or will by autho-
rity of God's law, or by open reason, tell me that I have
erred or now err, or in any time hereafter shall err in
any article of belief (from which misfortune God keep
me by his goodness) I submit to be reconciled, and to
be ready and obedient to those laws of God, and to
every article of them. For by authority specially of these
laws I will, through the grace of God, be united charitably
to these laws. Yea, sir, and besides this ; I believe and
admit all the sentences, authorities and reasons of the
saints and doctors according to the holy scripture, and
declaring it truly.
" ' I submit me willingly and meekly to be ever obedient,
after my knowledge and power, to all these saints and
doctors, as they are obedient in work and in word to
God and to his law, and further not (to my knowledge)
for any earthly power, dignity or state, through the help
of God. But sir, I pray you tell me, if after your
bidding I shall lay my hand upon the bcJok, is it to the
intent to swear thereby ?' And the archbishop said to
:ne, ' Yea wherefore else ?' And I said to him : ' Sir,
a book is nothing else but a thing coupled together of
divers creatures, and to swear by any creature, both
God's law and man's law is against it.
But sir, this thing I say here to you before these
your clerks, with my protestation, that how, where, when,
and to wliom men are bound to swear or to obey in any
wise after God's law, and saints, and true doctors, accord-
in,' with God's law ; I will through God's grace be ever
le-idy thereto, with all my skill and power. But I pray
you sir, for the charity of God, that ye will before I
swear, tell me how or to whom I shall submit me : and
sl-.ew me that whereof ye will correct me, and what is
the ordinance that ye will thus oblige me to fulfil.'
"And the archbishop said to me: 'I require that
thou swear to me, that thou wilt forsake all the opinions
which the sect of Lollards hold ; sotliat, neither privilvnor
openly, wilt thou hold any opinion which I shall rehearse
to thee. And that thou wilt not favour any man or
woman, young or old, that holds these opinions ; but
after thy knowledge and power thou shalt exert thyself
to withstand all such disturbers of holy church in every
diocese that thou comest into, and them that will not
leave their false and damnable opinions, thou wilt put
them up, publishing them and their names, and make
them known to the bishop of the diocese, or to the
bishop's ministers. And besides this I will that thou
preach no more until I know by good witness
and true, that thy conversation be such, that thy heart
and tiiy mouth accord truly in one, contradicting all the
secular learning that thou hast taught here before.'
" And I hearing these words, thought in my heart
that this was an unlawful demand ; and I deemed myself
accursed of God, if I consented to it. And because I
stood still and spake not, the archbishop said to me :
' Answer one way or the other ;' and I said, ' Sir, if I
consented to swear to you thus as ye require, I should
become an appealer, or every bishojVs spy in all Eng-
land. For if I should thus i)ut up and publish the
names of men and women, I sboiild herein deceive many
persons : yea, sir, by the doom of mv conscience, I
should be the cause of the death both of men and
women, yea, both bodily an.l spiritually. But I find in
no place in holy scripture, that tliis office of common
informer and si)y with which ye would now infeoft" me,
accords to any priest of Christ's sect, nor to any other I
christian man : if I should do as you require, full many
men and women would (as they might full truly) gav
that I had falsely and cowardly forsaken the truth, and,
slandered shamefully the word of God. For if I con.i
sented to your will for any fear of man, or of worldly
consideration, I deem in my conscience, that 1 were
worthy to be cursed of God and also of all his saints • \
from which misfortune keep me and all christian people '
Almighty God, now and for ever for his holy name.' Andi'
then the archbishop said to me : ' Oh, thine heart is ftxUi
hardened, as was the heart of Pharaoh, and the devil
hath overcome thee, and perverted thee, and he hath so
blinded thee, that thou hast no grace to know the trutb
nor tlie measure of mercy that 1 have offered to thee. >
Therefore, as I perceive now by thy foolish answer, tboui
hast no will to leave thine old errors. But 1 say to thee ■
either quickly consent to mine ordinance, and submit to '
my decrees, or by St. Thomas thou shalt be degraded,
and follow thy companion to Smithfitld.' And at this!!
saying I stood still and sjjake not, but I thought in mine
heart, that God did to me great grace, if he would of his '
great mercy bring me to sucli an end. And in mine
heart I was nothing afraid with this menacing of the arch-
bishop. And I considered two things in him. One, that
he was not yet sorrojvful that he had caused William
Sautre wrongfully to be burnt ; and as I considered that
the archbishop thirsted yet after more shedding of inno-
cent blood, I was moved in my mind, to hold himneitherfor
prelate norforj)riestof God: and because mine inward man ■
was thus altogether departed from the archbishop, me- '
thought I should not have any dread of him. But I was
right heavy and sorrowful, because there were no secular '
men present to hear : but in my heart I prayed the Lord
God to comfort me and strengthen me : 1 prayed God
for his goodness to give me then and always grace to
speak with a meek and a quiet spirit : and whatever I
■hould speak, that I might have true authorities of the
bcri])tures or open reason for it. As I stood thus still
and spake nothing, one of the archbishop's clerks said
to me, ' What thing musest thou .'' Do as my lord hath
commanded thee.'
"And yet I stood still and answered him not; and
then soon after the archbishop said to me, ' Art thou
not yet determined whether thou wilt do as I have said
to thee ?' And I said then to him, ' Sir, my father and
my mother spent much mortey about my learning, to
have made me a priest to God. But when I came to
years of discretion, 1 had no will to be priest, and
therefore my friends were very harsh towards me, and
then methought their grudging against me was so pain> li
ful, that I purposed to have left their company They '
spake to me oftentimes very grievous words, and me-
naced me in divers manners. And thus they were a
long time busy about me, ere I consented to be a priest, i
At last, I prayed them that they would give me licence i:
to go to wise priests, and of virtuous conversation, to '
have their counsel, and to know of them the office and ;
charge of priesthood. My father and my mother con- ,
sented gladly, and gave me their blessing and leave, and
also money to spend in this journey. And so 1 went to '.
those priests whom I heard to be of best name, and of
most holy living, and best learned, and most wise of
heavenly wisdom ; and so I communed with them to the j
time that I perceived by their virtuous and continual '
occupations, that their honest and charitable works t
passed their fame which I had heard before of them.' i
" And the archbishop said, — ' 1 say to thee, who are |
these holy and wise men, of whom thou hast taken thine ii
information ?' ;
" ' And I said, sir. Master John Wickliff was held by J
many men the greatest clerk that they knew then living, j
and he was named an able, a good, and an innoceul •
man in his living ; and therefore great men communed
often with him, and they loved so his learning, that they ',
wrote it, and endeavoured to rule themselves after it. '
Therefore, sir, this learning of Master John Wickhff is
yet held by many men and women, tlie learning most in
accordance with the living and teaching of Christ and
his apostles, and most openly shewing and declaring how
the church of Christ has been and yet should be ruled
A.D. 1-109.]
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
271
and governed. Therefore it is that so many men and
\ women desire his learning, and purpose through God's
grace to conform their lives like to this learning of Wick-
I lift'. Master John Ashton taught and writ accordingly,
I and full zealously, where, and when, and to whom he
; might, and he used ic himself right perfectly to his life's
• end. And also Philip of Rampington, while he was a
canon of Leicester, Nicholas Herford, Davey Gotray of
Pakring, monk of Byland, and a master of divinity, and
John Purvey, and many others who were held right wise
, men and prudent, taught and writ busily this learning, and
i conformed to it. And with all these men I was very fami-
I liar, and communed with them long time and often, and be-
fore all other men I chose willingly to be informed of them
and by them, and especially of Wickliff himself, as of the
1 most virtuous and godly wise man that I ever beard of
i or knew. And therefore of him especially, and of these
1 men I took the learning that I have taught ; and
I purpose to live thereafter (if God will) to my life's
I end.'
j " And the archbishop said, ' That learning, that thou
I caUest truth and soothfastness, is open slander to holy
I church, as is proved by holy church. For although
j Wickliff was a great clerk, and though many held him to
I be a perfect liver ; yet his doctrine is not approved of
; holy church, but many sentences of his learning are
damned as they well deserve. But as to Philip of Ramp-
I ington, he neither holds now, nor will hold what he then
j taught, when he was a canon of Leicester. For no bi-
'( shop in this land pursues now more sharply those that
j hold those doctrines than he.'
j " And I said, ' Sir, many men and women wonder at
him, and speak of him much to his shame, and hold him
I as a cursed enemy of the truth.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' Mlierefore dost
j thou delay me with such fables, wilt thou submit thee
to me or no ?'
" And I said ; ' Sir, I tell you at one word ; I dare not
for fear of God submit me to you, according to the sen-
tence ye have read to me.' j
" And thus as if he had been wroth, he said to one of
his clerks ; ' Fetch hither quickly the certificate that
came to me from Shrewsbury under the bailiff's seal wit-
nessing the errors and heresies which this fellow has
venomously sown there.'
" Then the clerk hastily took out, and laid forth on a
table, some roUs and writings, among which there was a
little one, which the clerk delivered to the archbishop.
And by and by the archbishop read this roll containing
this sentence :
" ' The third Sunday after Easter, the year of our
Lord 1407, William Thorpe came unto the town of
Shrewsbury, and through leave granted unto him to
preach, he said openly in St. Chad's church, in his ser-
mon, that the sacrament of the altar, after the consecra-
tion, was material bread. And that images should in
nowise be worshipped. And that men should not go on
pilgrimages. And that priests have no title to tithes.
And that it is not lawful to swear in any wise.'
" And when the archbishop had read thus this roll, he
rolled it up again, and said to me ; ' Is this wholesome
teaching to be among the people ?'
" And said ; ' Sir, I am both ashamed on their be-
half, and sorrowful for them that have certified you these
things thus untruly ; for I never preached, nor taught
thus privily or openly.'
" And the archbishop said tome, ' I wiU give credence
to these worshipful men who have written to me, and
witnessed under their seals among them. Though now
thou deuiest this, thinkest thou that I will give credence
to thee ? Thou hast troubled the worshipful commonalty
of Shrewsbury, so that the bailifi's and commonalty of
that to.vn have written to me, praying me that am arch-
bishop of Canterbury, primate and chancellor of England,
that I will vouchsafe to grant them, that if thou shalt be
made (as thou art worthy) to suffer for thine heresies,
that thou may suffer openly there among them ; so that
all they whom thou and such others have there perverted,
Buy throuirh fear of thy deed be reconciled again to the
unity of holy church. And also they that stand in true
faith of holy church, may be more established therein.'
"But certainly neither the prayer of the men of
Shrewsbury, nor the menacing of the archbishop made
me afraid, but my heart greatly rejoiced. I thank
God for the grace that I then thought, and yet think
shall come to all the church of God in this matter, by
the special mercy of the Lord. And as having no dread
of the malice of tyrants, by trusting steadfastly in the
help of the Lord, I said to the archbishop, — ' Sir, if the
truth of God's word might now be accepted as it should
be, I doubt not to prove by likely evidence, that they
tliat are feigned to be out of the faith of holy church in
Shrewsbury, and in other places also, are in the true
faith of holy church. For as their words sound, and
their works shew to man's judgment (dreading and lov-
ing faithfully God) their desire, their will, their love, and
their business, are most set to dread to offend God, and
to love, and please him in true and faithful keeping of his
commandments. And again, they that are said to be in
the faith of holy church in Shrewsbury and in other
places, by open evidence of their proud, envious, mali-
cious, covetous, and other foul words and works, neither
know, nor have will to know, truly and effectually the
right faith of holy church.
" And where, sir, ye say that I have troubled the
commonalty of Shrewsbury, and many other men and
women with my teaching : if it thus be, it is not to be
wondered at, since all the commonalty of the city of
Jerusalem was troubled by Christ's own person, that
was very God and man, and the most prudent preacher
that ever was or shall be. And also ill the synagogue
of Nazareth was moved against Christ, and so filled with
ire towards him for his preaching, that the men of the
synagogue rose up and cast Christ out of their city, and
led him up to the top of a mountain to cast him down
headlong.
" And the archbishop said to me, ' It followeth of
these thy words, that thou and such other thinkest. that
ye do right well to preach and teach as ye do, without
authority of any bishop. For you presume that the
Lord hath chosen you only to preach, as faithful disci-
ples and special followers of Christ.'
"And I said, ' Sir, by authority of God's law, and
also of saints and doctors, I am learned to deem that it
is every priest's office and duty to preach busily, freely,
and truly the word of God.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' Fellow, why
makest thou such vain reasons to me ? Asks not St.
Paul, How should priests preach except they be sent ?
But I never sent thee to prearh. For thy venomous
doctrine is known throughout England, that no bishop
will admit thee to preach. Why then wilt thou presume
to preach, since thou art not sent nor licensed of thy
superior to preach .' St. Paul saith, that subjects ought
to obey their sovereigns, and not only good and viituous,
but also tyrants that are vicious.'
" And I said, ' Samuel the prophet said to Saul, the
wicked king, that God was more pleased with the obedi-
ence of his commandments, than with any sacrifice of
beasts. But David saith, and St. Paul, and St. Gre-
gory say together, that not only they that do evil, arc
worthy of death and damnation, but also they that con-
sent to evil doers. And, sir, the law of the holy church
teaches in the decree, that no servant to his lord, nor
child to the father or mother, nor wife to her husband,
nor monk to his abbot ought to obey, except in lawful
things.'
" And the ai-chbishop said to the three clerks that stood
before him, ' Sirs, this is the business of this fellow, and
such others, to pick out such sharp sentences of holy
scripture and doctors, to maintain their sect, against the
ordinance of holy church. And therefore, it is that
thou wishest to have again the psalter that I had taken
from thee at Canterbury, to recite sharp verses against
us. But thou shall never have that psalter, nor any
other book, till I know that thy heart and thy mouth
agree fully to be governed by holy church.'
" And I said, ' Sir, all my will and power is, and ever
272
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
[Book T.
sha'l be (I trust to God) to be governed by holy
church.'
" And the archbishop asked me, * What was holy
church ?'
'* And I said, ' Sir, I told you before what was holy
church. But since ye ask me this question again, I call
Christ and his saints, holy church.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' I know well that
Christ and his saints are holy church in heaven, but
what is holy church in earth ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, holy church has two parts. The
first and principal part has overcome perfectly all the
wretchedness of this life, and reigns joyfully in heaven
with Clirist. And the other part is here yet in earth,
busily and continually fighting day and night against
the temptations of the devil ; forsaking and hating the
prosperity of this world, despising and withstanding their
fleshly lusts, who only are the pilgrims of Christ, wan-
dering towards heaven by steadfast faith, and grounded
hope, and by perfect charity. For these heavenly pil-
grims may not, nor will not be hindered of their good
purpose by reason of any doctors disagreeing from holy
scripture, nor by the floods of any temporal tribulation,
nor by the wind of any pride, of boast, or of menacing
of any creature : for they are all fast grounded upon the
sure rock, Christ, hearing his word, and loving it, exer-
cising them faithfully and continually in all their wits to
do thereafter.'
" And the archbishop said to his clerks, ' See ye not
how his heart is hardened, and how he has travelled with
th& devil, bringing in such sentences to maintain his
errors and heresfes. Certainly, he will occupy us here
all day, if we suffer him.'
" One of the clerks answered, ' Sir, he said just now,
that this certificate that came to you from Shrewsbury,
is untruly forged against him. Therefore, sir, question
him now in the points which are certified against him,
and we shall hear his answers of his own mouth, and
witness them.'
" And the archbishop took the certificate in his
hand, and looked thereon a while, and then he said
to me:
" ' Lo, here it is certified by worthy and faithful men
of Shrewsbury, that thou didst preach there openly, that
the sacrament of the altar was material bread after the
consecration ; what sayest thou .' Was this truly
preached ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, I tell you truly that I touched no-
thing there of the sacrament of the altar, but in this wise
as I will, with God's grace, tell you here. As I stood
there in the pulpit, busying me to teach the command-
ment of God, a sacred bell began ringing, and therefore
many people turned away hastily, and with noise ran
towards it ; and I seeing this, said to them thus, ' Good
men, ye were better to stand here still, and to hear
God's word. For the virtue of the most holy sacrament
of the altar stands much more in the faith that you
ought to have in your soul, than in the outward sight of it,
and therefore ye were better to stand still quietly to hear
God's word, because that through the hearing of it, men
come to true belief. And I am certain I spake not
more than this of the worthy sacrament of the altar.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' I believe thee not
whatsoever thou sayest, since so worshipful men have
witnessed thus against thee. But since thou deniest
what thou saidst thus, what sayest thou now ? After the
consecration, does there remain in the host, material
bread or no ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, I know in no place in holy scrip-
ture, where this term material bread is written : and
therefore sir, when I speak of this matter, I use not to
speak of w.aterial bread.'
" Then the archbishop said to me, ' How teachest
thou men to believe in this sacrament ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, as I believe myself, so I teach
other men.'
" He said, ' Tell out plainly thy belief thereof.'
" And I said with my protestation, ' Sir, I believe that
the night before Christ Jesus suffered for mankind, he
took bread in his holy hands, lifting np his eyes, and
giving thanks to God his Father, blessed this bread, and
brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying to them,
take and eat of this all you, this is my body. And that
this is, and ought to be, all men's belief, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and Paul witness. Other belief, sir, I have none,
nor will have, nor teach : for I believe that this is suffi-
cient in this matter. For in this belief, with God's
grace, 1 purpose to live and die, knowledging as I be-
lieve and teach other men to believe, that the holy sacra-
ment of the altar is the sacrament of Christ's flesh and
blood in the form of bread and wine.'
" And I said, ' Sir, by clear evidence, a thousand
years after the incarnation of Christ, the determination,
which 1 have here before you rehearsed, was accepted of
holy church as sufficient to the sedvation of all them that
would believe it faithfully.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' Well, well, thou
shalt say otherwise before that I leave thee. But what
say you to this second point that is recorded against
thee by worthy men of Shrewsbury, saying, that thoa
preachedst there, that images ought not to be worshipped
in anywise ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, I preached never thus, nor through
God's grace will I at any time consent to think, or to
say thus. For lo, the Lord witnesseth by Moses, that
the things which he had made were very good ; and so
they were, and are and shall be good and worshipful
in their kind, and therefore to the end for which God
made them, they are all praiseworthy and worshipful,
and especially man, who was made after the image
and likeness of God, is worshipful in his kind. And
also I say, wood, tin, gold, silver, or any other matter
that images are made of, are worshipful in their kind,
and to the end that God made them for. But the car-
ving, casting, and painting of an imagery ought not to be
worshipped in form, nor in the hkeness of man's
craft.'
"Then the archbishop said to me, ' I grant that no
body ought to worship any images for themselves ; but a
crucifix ought to be worshipped for the passion of Christ
that is painted therein, and thus the images of the blessed
Trinity, and of the Virgin Mary, Christ's Mother, and
other images of saints ought to be worshipped. For as
earthly kings and lords who send their letters sealed with
their arms, or with their private signet to those that are
with them, are worshipped by these men. For when
these men receive their lord's letters, in which they see
and know the wills of the lords, they doff their caps to
these letters. Why not then, since in images made with
man's hands, we may read and know many things of
God, and of his saints, shall we not worship their
images ?'
" And I said 'That these worldly usages of temporal
laws that ye speak now of, may be done without sin.
But this is no similitude to worship images, made by
man's hand, since Moses, David, Solomon, Baruch, and
other saints in the bible forbid so plainly the worship-
ping of such images.'
"Then the archbishop said to me, * In the old law
before Christ took human nature, there was no likeness of
any person of the Trinity ; but now since Christ became
man, it is lawful to have images to shew his manhood,
yea, though many men held it an error to paint the
Trinity ; 1 say, it is well done to make and to paint the
Trinity in images. For it is a great moving of devotion
to men, to have and behold the Trinity and other images
of saints carved, cast, and painted. For beyond the sea
are the best painters that ever I saw. And sirs, I tell
you, this is their manner, and it is a good manner :
when an image-maker shall carve, cast in mould, or
paint any images, he shall go to a priest, and confess
himself as clean, as if he should then die ; and take
penance, and make some certain vow of fasting or of
praying, or of pilgrimages, prapng the priest specially to
pray for him, that he may have grace to make a fair and
devout image.'
" And I said, ' Sir, I doubt not if these painters that
ye speak of, or any other painters, understood truly the
text of Moses, of David, of the Wise Man, of Baruch,
and of other saints and doctors, these painters should be
A.D. 1409.]
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
272
moved to confess to God with inward sorrow of heart,
taking upon them penance for the sinful and vain craft
of painting, carving, or casting ; promising God faith-
fully never to do so again.'
" Then the archbishop said unto me, ' I hold thee a
vicious priest and accursed, and all thy sect ; for all
priests of holy church, and all images that move men to
devotion, thou and such others go about to destroy.
Would it be a right thing to come into the church, and
see no image in it .•"
" And I said, ' Sir, they that come to the church, to
pray devoutly to the Lord God, may in their inward
parts be the more fervent, that all their outward senses
be closed from all outward seeing and hearing, and from
all disturbance and lettings. And since Christ blessed
them that saw him not bodily, and have believed faith-
fully in him ; it is sufficient to all men to believe in
God, though they never see images made with man's
hand after any person of the Trinity, or of any other
saint.'
" And the archbishop said to me with a fervent
spirit, ' 1 say to thee, that it is right well done to make
and to have an image of the Trinity ; yea, what sayest
thou .' Is it not a stirring thing to behold such an
image .■"
" And I said, ' Sir, ye said just now that in the old
law, before Christ took mankind, no likeness of any
person of the Trinity was shewed to men : wherefore,
sir, ye said it was not then lawful to have images, but
now ye say, since Christ is become man, it is lawful to
have an image of the Trinity, and also of other saints.
But sir, this would I learn of you : since the Father of
heaven, yea and every person of Trinity was without
beginning, God Almighty ; and many holy prophets were
martyred violently in the old law, and also many men
and women then died confessors ; why was it not then
as lawful and necessary as now, to have an image of the
Father of heaven, and to have other images of martyrs,
prophets, and holy confessors, to move men to devotion,
as ye say that images now do ?'
" And the archbishop said, ' The synagogue of the
Jews had not authority to do those things as the church
of Christ has now.'
" And I said, ' Sir, St. Gregory was a great man, and
of great dignity, and he commended greatly a bishop,
and he forbade utterly the images made with man's hand
to be worshipped.'
" And the archbishop said, ' Ungracious fellow, thou
savourest no more truth than an hound. Since at the
rood at the north door at London, at our lady at Wal-
singham, and many other places in England, are many
great and admirable miracles done ; should not the
images of such holy saints and places, to the reverence
of God, and of our lady, and other saints, be more wor-
shipped than other places and images, where no miracles
are done ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, there is no such virtue in any
imagery, that any image should be worshipped ; where-
fore T am certain that there is no miracle done of God
in any place in earth, in order that any images made
with man's hand should be worshipped. And therefore,
sir, as I preached openly at Shrewsbury and other
places, I say now here before you, that nobody should
trust that there is any virtue in images made with man's
hand ; and therefore nobody should vow to them, nor
seek them, nor kneel to them, nor bow to them, nor
pray to them, nor offer any thing to them, nor kiss
them, nor offer incense to them. For even the most
worthy of such images, the brazen serpent (by Moses
jmade, at God's bidding) the good King Hezekiah de-
stroyed worthily and thankfully, and all because it was
worshipped. Therefore sir, if men take good heed to
the writing and the learning of St. Augustine, of St.
i Gregory, and of St. John Chrysostome, and of other
' saints and doctors, how they spake and wrote of miracles,
that shall now be done in the latest end of the world :
it is to be feared that for the unfaithfulness of men and
women, the devil hath great power to work many of
the miracles that now are done in such places. For
both men and women delight now more to hear and
know miracles, than they do to know God's word, or to
hear it effectually.'
" And the archbishop said, ' As holy church hath
suffered the images of the Trinity, and all other images
to be painted and shewed ; it is enough to them that are
members of holy church. But since thou art a rotten
member, cut away from holy church, thou savourest not
the ordinance thereof. But since the day passes, we
leave this matter.'
" And then he said to me, 'What sayest thou to the
third point that is certified against thee, preaching
openly in Shrewsbury, that pilgrimage is not lawful ?
And over this thou saidst that those men and women
that go on pilgrimages to Canterbury, to Beverley, to
Karlington. to Walsingham, and to any other such
places, are accursed and made foolish, spending their
goods for nothing.'
" And I said, ' Sir, I am accused to you that I taught
that no pilgrimage is lawful. But I never said thus.
For I know that there are true pilgrimages and lawful,
and acceptable to God : and therefore, sir, however
mine enemies have certified you of me, I told at Shrews-
bury of two manner of pilgrimages.'
"And the archbishop said to me, ' Whom callest thoa
true pilgrims .''
" And I said, ' Sir, with my protestation I call them
true pilgrims travelling toward the bliss of heaven, who
in the state, degree, or order that God calls them to, do
busy them faithfully to occupy all their mind bodily and
spiritually, to know truly, and to keep faithfully the bid-
dings of God, hating and fleeing all the seven deadly
sins, and every branch of them ; ruling themselves vir-
tuously, doing discreetly, willingly, and gladly, all the
works of mercy, seeking the gifts of the Holy Ghost,
disposing themselves to receive them in their souls and
to hold the right blessings of Christ. And then they
shall be moved with the good Spirit of God, to examine
their conscience often and diligently, that neither wilfully
nor wittingly they err in any article of belief, having
continually (as frailty will suffer) all their business, to
dread and to fly the offence of God, to love him over
all, and to seek ever to do his pleasant will. Of these
pilgrimages I said, whatever good tliought they at any
time think, whatever virtuous word they speak, and
whatever fruitful work they accomplish ; every such
thought, word, and work is a step numbered of God
toward him into heaven. These pilgrims of God delight
when they hear of saints or of virtuous men and women,
how they willingly forsook the prosperity of this life, how
they withstood the suggestion of the devil, how they
restrained their fleshly lusts, how discreet they were in
their penance doing, how patient they were in all their
adversities, how prudent they were in counselling men
and women, moving them to hate all sins, and to fly
them, and to love all virtues, and to draw to them,
imagining how Christ, and his followers by this example,
suffered scorns and slanders, and how patiently they
took the wrongful menacing of tyrants : how homely
they were, and serviceable to poor men to relieve and
comfort them bodily and spiritually, and how devout
they were in prayers, how fervent they were in heavenly
desires, and how they absented themselves from spectacles
of vain sayings and hearings, and how constant they were
to prevent and destroy all vices, and how laborious and
joyful they were to sow and to plant virtues ? These
heavenly conditions, true pilgrims have, or endeavour to
have, whose pilgrimage God accepteth.'
" And again I said, ' As their works shew, the most
part of men and women, that now go on pilgrimages,,
have not these conditions, nor love to have them, ^or
ds I well know, since I have full often tried, examine
whoever will, twenty of these pilgrims, and he shall not
find three men or women that know surely a command-
ment of God, nor can say their Paternoster and Ave
Maria, nor their creed readily in any manner of lan-
guage. And as I have learned and also know some-
what by experience of these same pilgrims, teUing Jhe
cause why many men and women go hither and thither
T 2
274
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
TBooK V.
now on pilgrimage, it is more for the health of their
bodies, than of their souls : more to have riches and
prosperity of this world, than to be enriched with virtues
in their souls : more to have here worldly and fleshly
friendship, than to have friendship of God and of his
saints in heaven ; for whatsoever thing man or woman
does, the friendship of God, or of any other saint, can-
not be had, without keeping of God's commandments.
Further with my protestation, I say now, as I said in
Shrewsbury, though they that have fleshly wills, travel
far their bodies, and spend much money, to seek and to
■visit the bones or images (as they say they do) of this
saint or of that ; such pilgrimage going is neither praise-
able nor thankful to God nor to any saint of God, since
in effect all such pilgrims despise God and all his com-
mandments and saints. For the commandments of God
they will neither know, nor keep, nor conform them to
the example of Christ and of his saints. M'^herefore,
sir, I have preached and taught openly, and so I pur-
pose all my life time to do with God's help, saying, that
such fond people waste blamefully God's goods in their
vain pilgrimages. Also, sir, I know that when several
men and women go thus after their own wills, and fixing
on the same pilgrimage ; they will arrange beforehand to
have with them both men and women that can sing
wanton songs, and other pilgrims will have with them
bagpipes : so that every town that they come through,
what with the noise of their singing, and with the sound
of their piping, and with the tangling of their Canterbury
bells, and with the barking of dogs after them, they
make more noise than if the king came there with all
his clarions and minstrels.'
" And the archbishop said to me, ' Thou seest not far
enough in this matter, for thou considerest not the great
labour of pilgrims, therefore thou blamest a thing tluit is
praiseworthy. I say, that it is right well done, that
pilgrims have with them both singers and also pipers ;
that when one of them that goes barefoot strikes his toe
upon a stone, and hurts himself sorely, and makes him
to bleed, it is well done that he or his fellow begin then
a song, or else take out of his bosom a bagpipe, to drive
away with such mirth the hurt of his fellow. For with
such solace the labour and wearinesss of pilgrims is
lightly and merrily borne out.'
"And I said, 'Sir, St. Paul teaches men to weep
with them that weep.'
" And the archbishop said, ' ^Vhat janglest thou
against men's devotion ? Whatever thou or such other
say, I say that the pilgrimage that now is used, is to
them that do it a praiseworthy and a good mean to come
to grace.'
" And (as if he had been displeased with my answer) he
Baid to his clerks, ' What think ye that this idiot will
speak there, where he has no dread ; since he speaks
thus here in my presence ? Well, well, by God thou
shalt be ordained for.' And then he spake to me
fkngrily.
" Then the archbishop said, ' Well, well. By God,
the king doth not his duty, unless he suffer thee to be
condemned.'
" And then another clerk said to me, ' Why coun-
sellest thou a man of my lord's, that he should not con-
fess himself to man, but only to God ?'
" And with this question I was abashed ; and then I
knew that I was betrayed by a man that came to me in
prison, communing with me in this matter of confession.
And certainly, by his words I thought that this man
came to me of full fervent and charitable will ; but now
I know he came to tempt me and to accuse me ; God
forgive him, if such was his will. And with all my
heart when I had thought thus, I said to this clerk, ' sir,
I pray you that you would fetch tliis man hither ; and
all the words, as near as I can, repeat them, which I
spake to him in the prison, I will rehearse here before
you all, and before him.'
" And the archbishop said then to me, ' They who
are now here will repeat them. How saidst thou
to him ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, that man came and asked me in
divers things, and after his asking, I answered him.
And as he shewed to me by his words, how he was sorry
of his living in court, and right heavy for his own
vicious living, and also for the viciousness of other men,
and specially of priests' evil living ; and therefore he said
to me with a sorrowful heart (as I imagined) that he
purposed within a short time to leave the court and to
apply himself to know God's law, and to conform all
his life after it. And when he had said to me these
words and others, which I would rehearse if he were r
present, he prayed me to hear his confession. And I
said to him, sir, wherefore come ye to me, to be con- ]
fessed of me? Ye know well that the archbishop holds
me here, as one unworthy either to give or to take any
sacrament of holy church.
" And he said to me, ' Brother, I know well, and i
so do many others, that you and such others are '
wrongfully vexed, and therefore I commune with yOn
the more gladly.' And I said to him, certainly I know
well, that many men of this court, and specially the
priests of this household will be full evil against both '
you and me, if they were aware that ye were con.
fessed of me. And he said, ' that he cared not, for he
had little affection for them.' And as methought, he
spake these words and many others, of a good will and of
a high desire, to have known and done the pleasant
will of God. And I said to him, as I say to you now ;
here, sir, I counsel you to absent you from all evil com- il
pany, and to draw you to them that love and busy them
to know and to keep the precepts of God ; and then the
good Spirit of God will move you to occupy all yotir
wits in gathering together of all your sins, as far as he t
can bethink you, shaming greatly of them, and sorrow- <
ing heartily for them : yea, sir, the Holy Ghost will
then put in your heart a good will and a fervent desire
to take and to hold a good purpose, to hate ever and to
fly all occasion of sin ; and so then wisdom shall come
to you from above, lightening (with divers beams of
grace and of heavenly desire) all your wits, informing
you how ye shall trust steadfastly in the mercy of the
Lord, acknowledging to him only all your vicious living,
praying to him devoutly for charitable counsel and con-
tinuance, hoping without doubt, that if ye continue
thus, busying you faithfully to know and to keep his
biddings, he will (for he only may) forgive you all your
sins. And this man said to me, ' Though God forgivei,
men their sins, yet it behoveth men to be absolved of
priests, and to do the penance that they enjoin them.'
And I said to him, ' Sir, it is all one to absolve men of
their sins, and to forgive men their sins. Wherefore,
since it pertains only to God to forgive sin ; it suffices,
to counsel men and women to leave their sin, and to
comfort them that do thus, to hope in the mercy ol
God. And again, priests ought to tell sharply to sin-
ners, that if they will not make an end of their sin, bul
continue in sins, all such deserve pain without any end.
And therefore priests should ever busy themselves t(
live well and holily, and to teach the people busily anc^
truly the word of God, shewing to all in open preach-'
ing, and in privy counselling, ' That the Lord Go<!
only forgiveth sin.' And, therefore, those priests tha.
take upon them to absolve men of their sins, blasphemi
God ; since it pertains only to the Lord to absolve mei
of all their sins. For, no doubt, for a thousand year,
after that Christ was man, no priest of Christ durst takij
upon him to teach the people, either privily or openly
that they must come to be absolved by them as priest
now do. But by authority of Christ's word priest
used to bind indurate, customary sinners to everlast
ing pains, who would never have busied themselves faith'
fully to know the biddings of God, nor to keep their
And sir, accordingly to this sentence, upon Mid-ler
Sunday (two years ago) I heard a monk of Feversharr
(called Morden,) preach at Canterbury at the cross withi
Christchurch abbey, saying thus of confession : ' Sin(
the Lord God is more ready to forgive sin than the dc\
is or may be powerful to move any body to sin, tlu
whoever will shame and sorrow heartily for their sin
knowledging them faithfully to God, amending them aft
their power and cunning, without counsel of any oth
body than of God and of himself ("through the grace
A.D. 1409.]
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM THORPE.
275
God) all such men and women may find sufficient means
to come to God's mercy, and so to be clean absolved of
aU their sins.' This sentence I said, sir, to this man
of yours, and the words as near as I can guess.'
" And the archbishop said, ' Holy church approveth
not this learning.'
" And I said, ' Sir, holy church, of which Christ is head
in heaven and in earth, must needs approve this sentence.
For lo, hereby all men and women may, if they will, be
sufficiently taught to know and keep the commandments
of God, and to hate and to Hy continually all occasion of
sin, and to love and to seek virtues zealously, and to
beUeve in God steadfastly ; and to trust in his mercy
steadfastly, and so to come to perfect love, and continue
therein persevering. And more the Lord asketh not of
any man in this life. And certainly, since Jesus (Christ
, died upon the cross, to make men free ; men of the church
■ are too bold and too ready to make men captives, binding
\ them under the pain of endless curses, to do many ob-
1 servances and ordinances, which neither the living nor
! teaching of Christ nor of his apostles approve.
I " And a clerk said then to me, ' Thou shewest plainly
' here thy deceit, which thou hast learned of them that
travelled to sow the tares among the wheat. But I coun-
: gel thee to go away clean from this learning, and submit
thee to my Lord, and thou shalt find him yet to be
gracious to thee.'
I " Then a clerk said to the archbishop, ' Sir, it is late
j in the day, and ye have far to ride to-night ; therefore
' make an end with him, for he will make none ; but the
more, sir, that ye busy you to draw him toward you, the
more contumacious he is made.'
[ " And then Malveren said to me, ' William, kneel
down, and pray my lord's grace, and leave all thy fancies,
I and become a child of holy church.'
I " And I said, ' Sir, I have prayed the archbishop often,
1 and yet I pray him for the love of Christ, that he will
cease his indignation against me : and that he will suffer
I me to do mine office of priesthood, as I am charged of
i God to do it. For I desire nought else but to serve my
I God to his pleasing in the state that I stand in.'
i " And the archbishop said to me, ' If of good heart
thou wilt submit thee now here meekly, to be ruled from
this time forth by my counsel, obeying meekly and wil-
lingly my ordinance, thou shalt find it most profitable and
best to thee to do thus. Therefore delay thou me no
longer, do this I have said to thee now here shortly, or
deny it utterly.'
" And I said, ' Sir, as I have before rehearsed, I will
be ready gladly to obey Christ the head of the holy
church, and the learnings and biddings, and counsels of
every pleasing member of him.'
" Then the archbishop, striking with his hand fiercely
upon a table, spake to me with a great spirit, saying,
• By Jesus, but if thou leave not such additions, obliging
thyself without any exception to submit to mine ordinance
(before I go out of this place) I shall make thee as sure
as any thief that is in prison ; advise thee now what thou
wilt do.' And then as if he had been angered, he went
from the table where he stood, to a window.
" And then Malveren and another clerk came nearer
me, and spake to me many words pleasantly ; and another
time they menaced me, and counselled me to submit, or
else, they said, I should not escape punishment ; for they
said I should be degraded, cursed, and burned, and then
damned. But now they said, ' Thou mayest eschew a21
these mischiefs, if thou wilt submit thee willingly ?nd
meekly to this worthy prelate, that hath cure of thy soul.
And for the pity of Christ bethink thee, how great clerks
the bishop of Lincoln, Herford and Purvey were, and
yet are. Who also have forsaken and revoked all the
learning and opinions that thou and such others hold.
Wherefore since each of them is much wiser than thou
art, we counsel thee for the best ; that by the example
of these four clerks, thou follow them, submitting thyself
as they did.'
" And I said to the clerks, that thus counselled me to
follow these men ; ' Sirs, if these men had forsaken
benefices of temporal profit and of worldly worship, so
that they had absented them, and eschewed from all
occasions of covetousness and of fleshly lust, and had
taken upon them simple living, and wilful poverty ; they
had given good example to me and to many other, to have
followed them. But now, sinoe all these four men have
slanderously and shamefully done the contrary, consent-
ing to receive, and to hold temporal benefices, living now
more worldly and more fleshly than they did before, con-
forming them to the manners of this world: I forsake
them iierein, and in all their doings. For I purpose,
with the help of God, to flee these men, teaching and
counselling whomsoever I may, to flee and to eschew the
wav that they have chosen. Wherefore sirs, I pray you
that you busy not to move me to follow these men in
revoking and forsaking the truth.'
" Then the archbishop said to his clerks, ' Busy you no
longer about him, for lie, and other such as he is, are
confederate together, that they will not swear to be obe-
dient, and to submit them to the prelates of holy church.
For now since I stood here, his fellow also sent me word
that he will not swear, and that this fellow counselled
him that he should not swear to me. But blessed be God,
he shall not have his purpose of him. For he has for-
saken all thy learning, submitting him to be ready and
obedient to "the ordinance of holy church, and weeps
bitterly, and curses thee heartily for the venomous teach-
ing which thou hadst shewed to him.
" 'And for thy false counsel to thy fellow thou hast
great cause to be right sorry. For a long time thou hast
busied thee in perverting whomever thou mightest.
Therefore as many deaths thou art worthy of, as thou
hast given evil counsels. And therefore, by Jesus, thou
shalt go thither, where Nicholas Herford and Thomas
Purvey were harboured. And I undertake, ere this day
eight days, thou shalt be right glad to do whatever I bid
thee. And I shall try. if I can make thee there as sor-
rowful as thou wast glad at my last going out of England.
By St. Thomas, I shall turn thy joy into sorrow,'
" And I said, ' Sir, no body can prove lawfully that
I ever joyed at the manner of your going out of this land.
But sir, to say the truth, I was joyful when ye were
gone; for the bishop of London, in whose prison ye left
me, found in me no cause to hold me longer in his prison,
but at the request of my friends, he delivered me to them,
asking of me no submission.'
" Then the archbishop said to me, ' Why I went out
of England is unknown to thee : but be this thing weU
known to thee, that God has caUed me again, and
brought me into this land, to destroy thee and the false
sect that thou art of: as, by God, I shall pursue you so
narrowly, that 1 shall not leave a slip of you in this
" And I said to the archbishop, ' Sir, the holy prophet
Jeremiah said to the false prophet. When the word of the
prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be
known that tie Lord hath truly sent him. Jer. xxvm. 9
" And thi archbishop (as if he had not been pleased
with my spying") turned him awayward hither and thither,
and said ' By God, I shall set upon thy shins a pair of
pearls chat thou shalt be glad to change thy voice.'
" These and many more words were spoken to me,
menacing me and all others of the same sect with pun-
isjiment and destruction to the utmost.
" And then the archbishop called to him a clerk, and
conferred with him ; and that clerk went forth, and soon
he brought in the constable of Saltwood castle, and the
arcJibishop conferred a good while with him ; and then
the constable went forth, and then came in divers secu-
lars, and they scorned me on every side, and menaced
me greatly, and some counselled the archbishop to burn
me by and by, and some other counselled him to drowu
me in the sea, for it is near hand there.
" And a clerk standing beside me, there kneeled down
to the archbishop, praying him, that he would deliver
me to him to sav matins with him, and he would under-
take, that within three days I should not resist anything
that were commanded me to do of my prelate.
" And the archbishop said that he would settle for me
himself. , , , ,
" And then came again the constable and spake
privUy to the archbishop; and the archbishop com-
276
ARTICLES TAUGHT BY JOHN PURVEY.
[Book V,
manded the constable to lead me forth with him, and he
did so. And when we were gone forth we were sent for
again. And when I came in again before the arch-
bishop, a clerk bade me kneel down and ask grace, and
submit myself, and I should find it for the best.
*' And I said then to the archbishop, ' Sir, as I have
said to you several times to-day, 1 will willingly and
humbly obey and submit to God and to his law, and to
every member of holy church, as far as I can perceive
that these members accord with their head Christ, and
will teach me, rule me, or chastise me by authority,
specially of God's law.'
" And the archbishop said, ' I knew well he would not
without such additions submit.'
" And then I was rebuked, scorned, and menaced on
every side ; and yet after this divers persons cried upon
me to kneel down and submit me ; but I stood still, and
gpake no word. And then there was spoken of me, and
to me, many words, and I stood and heard them me-
nace, curse, and scorn me, but I said nothing.
" Then awhile after the archbishop said to me, ' Wilt
thou not submit thee to the ordinance of holy church ?'
" And I said, ' Sir, I will full gladly submit me, as I
have showed you before.'
" And then the archbishop bade the constable to have
me forth thence in haste.
" And so then I was led forth, and brought into a foul
prison, where I never was before. But thanked be
God, when all men were gone forth then from me, and
had barred fast the prison-door after them, I, by myself,
busied me to think on God, and to thank him for his
goodness. And I was then greatly comforted, not only
because I was then delivered for a time from the sight,
from the hearing, from the presence, from the scorning,
and from the menacing of mine enemies ; but much
more I rejoiced in the Lord, because that through his
grace he so kept me, both among the flattering and
among the menacing of mine adversaries, that without
heaviness and anguish of my conscience I passed away
from them. For as a tree laid upon another tree,
oyerthwart or crosswise, so was the archbishop and
his three clerks always contrary to me, and I to
them.
" Now good God for thine holy name, and to the prais-
ing of thy most blessed name, make us oi.e together,
if it be thy will. And that it may thus be, let all who
read or hear this writing, pray heartily to the Lord God,
that he for his great goodness, that cannot be with
tongue expressed, grant to us, and to all other who in
the same wise, and for the cause specially, or for any
other cause are separated, may be knit and made one
in true faith, in steadfast hope, and in perfect charitv
Amen." •''
What was the end of this good man, an! blessed ser-
vant of God, William Thorpe, I find asyet sjecified in no
history. It is thought that the archbishop, Thunas Arun-
del, being so hard an adversary against those m>n, would
not let him go. Much less is it to be supposed, that
he would ever retract his sentence and opinion, which
he so valiantly maintained before the bishop, nether
does it seem that he had any such recanting spVit.
Again, neither is it found that he was burned, wher«^
fore it remains most like to be true, that he being com-
mitted to some straiglit prison (according as the arch-
bishop in his examination threatened him), there (as
Thorpe himself confesses) was so straightly kept, t'nat
either he was secretly made away, or else died by
sickness.
The like end also I find to happen to John Ashton,
another good follower of Wickliff, who for the same
doctrine of the sacrament was condemned by the bishops,
and because he would not recant he was committed to
perpetual prison, wherein the good man continued till
his death, (A.D. 1382.)
JOHN PURVEY.
In the examination of William Thorpe, mention is
made of John Purvey, of whom we said something
before, promising to treat more particularly afterwards.
Of this Purvey, Thomas Walden writes thus : — " John
Purvey," saith he, " was tlie library of Lollards, and
glossary upon Wicklitf. He said that the worshipping
of Abraham was but a salutation ; and that this John
Purvey, with Herford a doctor of divinity, were griev-
ously tormented and punished in the prison of Salt-
wood, and at the length recanted at Paul's Cross at
London, Thomas Arundel being then archbishop o{
C^anterbury. Afterwards he was again imprisoned un-
der Henry Chichely, archbishop of Canterbury, A.D,
1421." Thus much writes Walden. As touching the
sacrament of the last supper, the sacrament of penance,
the sacrament of orders, the power of the keys, the
preaching of the gospel, of marriages, of vows, of pos-
sessions, of the punishing and correcting of the clergy,
of the laws and decrees of the church, of the state and
condition of the pope and the clergy ; of all these
generally he left several treatises, gravely and exactly
written.
The articles which he taught, and afterward was forced
to recant at Paul's Cross, were these :
I. That in the sacrament of the altar, after the conse-
oration, there is not, neither can be any accident without
the subject ; but there verily remains the same substance,
and the very visible and corruptible bread, and likewise
the very same wine which before the consecration were
set upon the altar to be consecrated by the priest ; a>,
when a pagan or infidel is baptized, he is spiritually con.
verted into a member of Christ through grace, and yei
remains the very same man which he before was in hut
proper nature and substance.
II. Auricular confession, or private penance, is a ceN,
tain whispering, destroying the liberty of the gospel, and
newly brought in by the pope and the clergy, to entangle
the consciences of men in sin, and to draw their souls
into Hell.
III. Every layman being holy and predestinate imto
everlasting life, is a true priest before God.
IV. That many prelates and other of the clergy hve
wickedly, contrary to the doctrine and example of Christ
and his apostles. Therefore they who so live, have not;
the keys either of the kingdom of Heaven, or yet of Hell^.
neither ought any christian to esteem their censure ant-
more than as a thing of no force. Yea, although the popf;
should peradveiiture interdict the realm, yet could henoi:
hurt, but rather profit us, forsomuch as thereby we should.
be dismissed from the observance of his laws, and from
saying service according to the custom of the church.
V. If any man make an oath or vow to keep perpetual,
celibacy, or do anything else whereto God has not ap-
pointed him, giving him grace to perform his purpose;
the same vow or oath is unreasonable and indiscreet, nei-
ther can any prelate compel him to keep the same, except
he will do contrary to God's ordinance. But he ought
to commit him to tlie governance of the Holy Ghost aii|i
of his own conscience ; forsomucli as every man, who
will not fulfil his vow or oath, cannot do it for that cause.
VI. Whoever takes upon him the office of priesthood,
although he have not the charge of souls committed unto
him, according to the custom of the church, not only
may, but ought to preacii the gospel freely to the people^;
otherwise he is a thief, excommunicated of God, and 01
the holy clmrch.
VII. That Pope Innocent III. and six hundred bishops,
a^d a thousand other prelates, with all the rest of the
cletory^ who together with the pope agreed and determin-
ed, t'i\at in the sacrament of the altar, after the conver-
sion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of
Christ, the accidents of the said bread and wine do re-
main there without any proper subject of the same ; who
also ordained, that all christians ought to confess their
sins once a year to a proper priest, and to receive the
reverend sacrament at Easter, and made certain other
laws at the same time : all they, saith he, in so doing,
were fools and blockheads, heretics, blasphemers, and
seducers of christian people. Wherefore we ought not
to believe the determinations of them, or of their succes-
sors, neither ought wc to obey their laws or ordinance*,
A.D. 1409.] ARTICLES TAUGHT BY JOHN PURVEY, DRAWN OUT OF HIS BOOKS.
2-;
except they are plainly grounded upon the holy scripture,
or upon some reason which cannot be impugned.
Other Articles drawn nut of Purveys Books more at
large by Richard Levingham.
" As to the sacrament of thanksgiving, he saith, That
that chapter of repentance and remission, {omnis utrins-
que sejcus,) wherein it is ordained, that every faithful
man ought once every year at the least, that is to say at
Easter, to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist, is a
beastly thing, heretical and blasphemous.
♦' That Innocent III. was the head of anti-christ, who
after the letting loose of Satan, invented a rie»v article of
our faith, and a certain feigned doctrine touching the sa-
crament of the altar, that is to say, that the sacrament of
the altar is an accident without a substance, or else an
heap of accidents without a substance. But Christ and
his apostles do teach manifestly, that the sacrament of
the altar is bread and the body of Christ together, after
the manner that he spake. And in that he calleth it
bread, he would have the people to understand, as they
ought with reason, that it is very and substantial bread,
and uo false nor feigned bread.
" And although Innocent, that anti-christ, doth allege
that in the council at Lyons, where this matter was de-
cided, were six hundred bishops with him, and one thou-
sand prelates, who agreed in this determination ; All
those notwithstanding, he calls fools, according to that
saying of Eccles. i. ' Of fools there are an infinite num-
ber.' And so in like manner he calleth them false christs
and false prophets, of whom Christ speaketh in the 24th
of Matthew, ' Many false christs and false prophets shall
arise, and deceive many.' And therefore every christian
man ought to believe firmly, that the sacrament of the
altar is very bread indeed, and no false nor feigned bread.
And although it be very bread indeed, yet notwithstand-
ing, it is the very body of Christ in that way which he
spake, and called it his body ; and so it is very bread,
and the very body of Christ. And as Christ concerning
his humanity was both visible and passible, and by his
divinity was invisible and impassible : so likewise this sa-
crament in that it is very bread, may be seen with the
corporal eye, and may also abide corruption. But al-
though a man may see that sacrament, yet notwithstand-
ing cannot the body of Christ in that sacrament be seen
with the corporal eye, although it be the body of Christ
in that manner he spake it ; for that notwithstanding,
the body of Christ is now incorruptible in Heaven. So
the sacrament of the cup is very wine, and the very
blood of Christ, according as his manner of speaking was.
Also lunocent III., with a great multitude of his secular
priests, made a certain new determination, that the sa-
crament of the altar is an accident without a substance,
whereas neither Jesus Christ, nor any of his apostles
taught this faith (but openly and manifestly to the con-
trary), neither yet the holy doctors, for the space of a
thousand years and more, taught this faith openly.
" Therefore when anti-christ or any of his shavelings
doth ask of thee that art a simple christian, whether that
this sacrament be the very body of Christ or not ? affirm
thou it manifestly to be so. And if he ask of thee whe-
ther it be material bread, or what other bread else ? say
thou, that it is such bread as Christ understood and
meant by his proper word ; and such bread as the Holy
Ghost meant in St. Paul, when he called that to be very
bread which he brake ; and wade thou no further there-
in. If he ask thee how this bread is the body of Christ?
say thou, as Christ understood the same to be his body,
which is both omnipotent and true, and in whom is no
untruth ; say thou also as the holy doctors do say, ' That
the terrestrial matter or substance may be converted into
Christ, as the pagan or infidel may be baptized, and here-
by spiritually be converted, and be a member of Christ,
and so after a certain manner become Christ, and yet the
same man remain still in his proper nature.' For so doth
*t. Augustine grant, that a sinner forsaking his sin, and
oeing made one spirit with God by faith, grace and cha-
rity, may be converted into God, and be after a manner
God, as both David and St. John do testify, and yet be
the same person in substance and nature, and in soul and
virtue be' altered and changed. But yet men of more
knowledge and reason may more plainly prove the falsity
of antichrist both in this matter and in others, by the
gift of the Holy Ghost working in them. Notwithstand-
ing, if men will humbly hold and keep the manifest and
apparent words of the holy scripture, and the plain sense
and meaning of the Holy Ghost, and proceed no further,
but humbly commit to the Spirit of God, that which
passes their understanding ; then may they safely offer
themselves to death, as true martyrs of Jesus Christ.
"As to the sacrament of penance ; that chapter {omnis
utriusque sexus) by which a certain new-found auricular
confession was ordained, is full of hypocrisy, heresy, co-
vetousness, pride, and blasphemy, he reproves that chap-
ter verbatim. Also he says that the penance and pains
limited by the canons are unreasonable and unjust, foi
their austerity and rigour. And further shews how Inno-
cent III. brought in a new-found confession, whereby the
priests oppress the laymen compelling them to confess
themselves to blind and ignorant priests, in whom there
is nothing else but pride and coveteousness, holding those
in contempt who are learned and wise. Also that the
decretal of Innocent III., touching the auricular or vocal
confession, was brought in and invented to entangle men's
consciences with sin, and to draw them down to hell.
And further, that such manner of confession destroys
the evangelical liberty, and prevents men from inquiring
after, and retaining the wise counsel and doctrine of such
as are good priests, who would willingly teach the people
the right way to heaven. For which abuse all christian
men, and specially all Englishmen ought to exclaim
against such wicked laws.
" As to the authority of the keys and censures, no
christian man ought to esteem Satan (whom men call the
pope) and his unjust censures, more than the hissing of
a serpent, or the blast of Lucifer. Also, that no man
ought to trust or put confidence in the false indulgences
of covetous priests, which indulgences do draw away the
hope, which men ought to repose in God, to a sort ot
sinful men, and do rob the poor of such alms as are given
to them. Such priests are manifest betrayers of Christ
and of the whole church, and are Satan's own stewards
to beguile christian souls by their hypocrisy and feigned
pardons. Also, forasmuch as those prelates and clergy-
men live so execrable a life, contrary to the gospel of
Christ and examples of his apostles, and teach not truly
the gospel, but only lies and the traditions of sinful wicked
men ; it appears most manifestly, that they have not the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, but rather the keys of
hell. And they may be well assured, that God never
gave to them authority to make and establish so many
ceremonies and traditions contrary to the liberty of the
gospel, and blocks in christian men's ways, that they can
neither know nor observe his gospel in liberty of con-
science, and so attain a ready way to heaven.
"As touching the jireaching of the gospel, ' whosoever
receiveth or taketh upon him the office of a priest, or of
a bishop, and dischargeth not the same by the example
of his good conversation and faithful preaching of the
gospel, is a thief, excommunicate of God and of holy
church.' And further, ' If the curates preach not the
word of God, they shall be damned, and if they know not
how to preach, they ought to resign their benefices.' So
that those prelates who preach not the gospel of Christ
(although they could excuse themselves from the doing
of any other evil') are dead in themselves, are anti-christs,
and satans, transfigured into angels of light, and betray-
ers of Christ's people.
" Now as to the correction of the clergy. By the law
of God, and by reason, the king and all other christians
may punish Italy, and all the false priests and clerks
within the same, and reduce them to the humble ordi-
nance of Jesus Christ. Also that the law of Sylvester
the pope is contrary to the law of Christ : and that proud
and ambitious Sylvester by his law so defended two car-
dinals which were not to be defended by the law of
Christ, that by no means they might be convicted, al-
though they were both vicious and evil. And although
Christ sustained and suffered the judgment of unjust
278
LETTER OF KING HENRY IV. TO POPE GREGORY XII.
[Book V.
temporal judges, our mitred prelates in these days so
magnify themselves beyond Christ and his apostles, that
ihey refuse such judgments. Also that those decretals
of accusations which proliibit that any clerks should be
brought before a secular judge to receive judgment, con-
tain both heresy, blasphemy, and error, and bring great
gain and commodity to antichrist's coffers.
" Furthermore, that all christian kings and lords ought
to exclaim against the pope, and those that be his fa-
vourers, and banish them out of their lands, till such
time as they will obey God and his gospel, kings, and
other ministers of God's justice. Also that bishops
and their favourers, that say it appertains not to kings
and secular lords (but unto them and their officials) to
punish adultery and fornication, do fall into manifest
treason against the king, and heresy against the scrip-
ture. Also that it appertains to the king to have the
order both of priests and bishops, as these kings Solomon
aud Jehoshaphat had.
" Furthermore that chapter (NtiUns judicium de foro
competentij, by which secular judges are forbidden,
without the bishop's commandment, to condemn any
clerk to death, is manifestly against the holy scripture,
declaring that kings have power over clerks and priests,
to punish them for their deserved crimes. Also that
the decree of Boniface, made against the prosecutors,
strikers, and imprisoners ot cardinals, is contrary both
to the holy scripture, and to all reason. Also that by
the law of God and reason, a secular lord may lawfully
take a cardinal and put him in prison for committing the
crime of open simony, adultery, and manifest blasphemy.
Also that the chapter {Si Papa, Dist. 40.), which saith
that the pope ought to be judged of none, unless he be
Deviun a fide, is contrary to the gospel, which saith. If
thy brother sin against thee, correct him. Also whereas
St. Gregory and St. Augustine called themselves the
servants of God's servants, this proud bishop of Rome,
which will not be judged by his subjects (which be in
very deed his lords, if they be just and good men) de-
stroys the order of God's law, and all humility, and ex-
tols himself above God and his apostles. Also that
christian kings ought not only to judge this proud bishop
of Rome, but also to depose him by the example that
Cestrensis, (lib. 6. cap. 8.) declares of Otho the em-
peror, who deposed John XII., and instituted Leo in
his place. And further he makes an exhortation to the
princes to judge the church of Rome, which he calleth
the great and cursed whore, of which St. John writes
in Rev. xvii.
" Lastly, touching the laws and determinations of the
church ; christians have reasonable excuses and causes
to repel the statutes of the pope and of his shavelings,
which are not expressly grounded on the holy scripture,
or else upon reason inevitable. Also that simple men do
reverently receive the sentences of the doctors, and other
laws, so far forth as they are expressly grounded upon
the holy scripture or good reason. Also that whereas
the pope's laws, and laws of his ministers and clerks are
contrary to themselves, and have not their foundation
either upon scripture, or yet upon reason, simple men
ought to bid them farewell. Also that that proud priest
of Rome, with all his rabble, might easily err in the
faith ; and yet the christian faith be preserved whole and
safe in the faithful members of Christ, which are his
true church ; while the pope and all his rabblement can-
not prove that they be any part of his church. Also
that the pope with all his favourers, may as well be de-
ceiyed by a lying spirit, as was Ahab and all his pro-
phets ; and that one true prophet, as was Michaiah, may
have the truth shewed to him. Also that all good chris-
tians ought to cast from them the pope's laws, saying,
let us break their bands in sunder, and let us cast from our
necks those heavy yokes of theirs. Also that where
these prelates do burn one good book for one error
perhaps contained in the same, they ought to burn all
the books of the canon-law, for the manifold heresies
contained in them."
And thus much out of a certain old written book in
parchment, which book containing divers ancient records
of the university, seems to belong sometime to the li-
brary of the university, bearing the year of the compiling
thereof, A. D. 1396. If this date be correct, then it was
written before Purvey recanted before Thomas Arundel,
archbishop, at Saltwood, where he was imprisoned.
Here is to be considered, at least to be admonished,
that all this while the schism in the cliurch of Rome did
yet continue, and so endured till the council of Con- '■,
stance, which was in whole, the space of twenty and i
nine years. The origin whereof (as was said before) j
first began at Urban v., which Urban being dead (A. D. [i
1389), next followed Pope Boniface IX., who sat ll
fourteen years. He, in selling his pardons, was so im- .1
pudent and so past shame, that he brought the keys of l)
Peter (as saith Platina) into contempt. After him suc-
ceeded Innocent VII. and sat two years : who being
dead, the cardinals consulting together, and seeing the
enormity and inconvenience growing upon this schism
in their church of Rome (minding to provide some re-
medy after the best device they could) in their conclave
where they were assembled for a new election for the
jjope, took this order, promising among themselves with
.solemn vow made to God, to Mary the Blessed Virgin,
to Peter and Paul, and to all the blessed company of
saints ; that if any of them, within the college or with-
out the college, should be called to the high place of
apostolical pre-eminence ; he should immediately re-
nounce the jurisdiction and title of his popedom, when
the rival pope, for the time being, would in like manner,
renounce his place and title, and his cardinals in the
like manner condescend to the other cardinals of Rome.
So that both these two colleges of cardinals agreeing to-
gether, one chief bishop was to be chosen and taken out
of them both, to be made the true pope. Provided,
moreover, that none should seek any release or absolu-
tion from the promise, vow and bond once passed among •
them ; all which things every one subscribed with his i;
hand. These things thus prefixed and ratified, they pro-
ceeded to the election. In which was chosen Gregory
XII., who the same day of his election, in the presence
of all the cardinals, confirmed the vow, sacrament, and
promise made, subscribing the same with his hand, in
form as follows : " And I, Gregory, this day being the ;
last of November, A. D. 1407, chosen and elected for •,
bishop of Rome, do swear, vow, and promise, and coa» j
firm all the premises above contained," &c. This being ;■
done, shortly after he was crowned, being of the age of Ij
eighty years. As the time thus passed, the people and
cardinals were in great expectation, waiting when the
pope, according to his oath, would give over, with the
other pope also. And not long after, the matter began i|
indeed between the two popes to be attempted, by letters ij
from one to another ; assigning both day and place, ||
where and when they should meet together ; but yet no- •;
thing followed.
This so passing on, there was great murmuring among
the cardinals, to see their holy perjured father so neglect
his oath and vow. Insomuch that at length, several of
them forsook the pope, as being perjured (as no less he
was) sending moreover to kings and princes of other n
lands, for their counsel and assistance, to appease the j
schism. Among the rest, Cardinal Bituriensis was sent
to the king of England ; who published propositions and
conclusions (remaining in the registers of Thomas Aran- ,
del), proving that the pope ought to be subject to laws i'
and councils. Then King Henry (moved to write to '•]
Gregory the pope) directs his letter, A. D. 1409.
The Letter of King Henry the Fourth to Pope Gre-
gory the Tuelfth.
" Most blessed father, if the discreet providence of the |
apostolical see would call to mind with what great perils j
the universal world has been damnified hitherto, under j
pretence of this present schism ; and especially would ij
consider, what slaughter of christian people, to the num- (
her of two hundred thousand (as they say) hath been ij
through the occasion of war raised up in divers quarters
of the world ; and now of late, to the number of thirty
thousand soldiers, who have been slain through the dii*
A. D. 1409.]
THREE POPES AT ONCE.— JOHN IIUSS.
279
scnsion moved about the bishoprick of Leodium, between
two set up, one by the authority of one pope, the other
by the authority of the other pope, fighting in camp for
the title of that bishopric ; certainly, ye would lament
in spirit and be sore grieved in mind for the same. So
that with good conscience ye would rather relinquish
the honour of Ihe apostolic see, than sutTer such horrible
bloodshed to ensue, under the cloke of dissimulation,
following herein the example of the true mother in the
book of Kings : who pleading before Solomon for the
right of her child, rather would part from the child, than
the child should be parted by the sword. And although
it may be vehemently suspected by the new creation of
nine cardinals by you lately made, contrary to your oath
(as other men say), that you but little heed or care for
ceasing the schism ; yet far be it from the hearing and
noting of the world, that your circumspect seat should
ever be noted and distained with such an inconstancy
of mind ; whereby the last error may be worse than the
first."
And to the cardinals likewise, the said king directed
another letter with these contents here following :
King Henry the Fourth to the Cardinals.
" We, desiring to shew what zeal we have had and have,
to the reformation of peace of the church, by the con-
sent of the states of the realm, have directed to the
bishop of Rome our letters, after the tenour of the copy
herewith in these presents inclosed to be executed effec-
tually : wherefore we seriously beseech your reverend
college, that if it chance the said Gregory to be present
at the council of Pisa, and to render up his popedom,
according to your desire, and his own oath, you then so
ordain for his state totally, that chiefly God may be
pleased thereby, and that both the said Gregory, and
also we who entirely love his honour and advantage,
may have cause to give you worthily condign thanks for
the same."
This being done in the year A.D. 1409, afterwards
in the year next following, A.D. 1410, the cardinals of
both the popes, to wit, of Gregory and Benedict, by
common advice assembled together at the city of Pisa,
for the reformation of unity and peace in the church.
To which assembly, a great multitude of prelates and
bishops being come, a new pope was chosen, named
Alexander V. But to this election neither Gregory nor
Benedict would fully agree. Whereby there were three
popes together in the Roman church (that is, to under-
stand) not three crowns upon one pope's head, but
three heads in one popish church together ! This
Alexander, being newly made pope, scarcely had well
warmed his triple crown, but straight gives out full re-
mission, not of a few, but all manner of sins whatever,
to all that conferred anything to the monastery of St.
Bartholomew by Smithfield, resorting to the said church
any of these days following ; to wit, on Maundy Thurs-
day, Good Friday, Easter even, the feast of the Annun-
ciation, from the first even -song to the later. But this
pope, who was so liberal in giving remission of many
years to other, was not able to give one year of life to
himself, for within the same year he died. In whose
stead came in Pope John XXIII.
In the time of this Alexander great stir began in the
country of Bohemia, by the occasion of the books of
John Wickliff, which then coming to the hands of John
Huss, and of others, both men and women, especially of
the lay sort, and artificers, began there to do much
good, so that many of them, not only men, but women
aUo, partly by the reading of their books translated into
their language, partly by the setting forward of John
Huss, a remarkably learned man, and a singular preacher
at that time in the university of Prague, were in a
short time so ripe in judgment, and prompt in the
scriptures, that they began to move questions, yea and
to reason with the priests, touching matters of the holy
scriptures.
By reason of this, complaint was brought to Pope
Alexander, who soon caused John Huss to be cited to
Rome. But when he came not at the pope's citation,
then Pope Alexander addressed his letters to the arch-
bishop of Swinco. Wherein he straightly charged him
to prohibit and forbid, by the authority apostolical, all
maimer of preachings or sermons to be made to the
people, except only in cathedral churches or colleges,
or parish churches, or in monasteries, or else in their
churchyards ; and that the articles of Wickliff should, in
no case by any person, of what state, condition, or de-
gree, be suffered to be held, taught, or defended, either
privily or openly. Commanding, moreover, and charg-
ing the archbishop, that with four bachelors of divinity,
and two doctors of the canon law, he would proceed
upon the same, and so provide that no person in
churches, schools, or any other place, should teach, de-
fend, or approve any of the aforesaid articles. So that
whosoever should attempt the contrary, should be ac-
counted an heretic, and unless he shall revoke solemnly
and publicly the said articles, and shall for ever abjure
the books in which the articles are contained, so that
they may be utterly abolished out from the eyes of the
faithful, he should be apprehended and imprisoned,
without appeal, the help also of the secular arm being
called in, if need shall require, &c. These were the
contents of this mighty and fierce bull of Pope
Alexander.
Against which bull John Huss, justly complaining,
objecteth many things, as appears in his book, entitled
De Ecclesia, cap. 18, where he declares this mandate
of the pope to stand directly against the doings and
sayings both of Christ and of his apostles ; considering
how Christ himself preached to the people, both in the
sea, in the desert, in fields, in houses, in synagogues, in
villages ; and the apostles also in all places did the
same, the Lord mightily working with them. He de-
clared, moreover, the mandate or buU of the pope to
redound to the great detriment of the church, in bind-
ing the word of God, that it might not have free course ;
also to be prejudicial to chapels newly erected for the
word to be preached in them. Wherefore (saith he)
from this commandment or mandate of Pope Alexander
I appeal unto Alexander, being better informed and
advised. And as I was prosecuting my appeal, the lord
pope (saith John Huss) immediately died.
Then the archbishop of Swinco, to whom this present
bull was directed, when he saw the process, bulls, and
mandates of the bishop of Rome to be thus despised by
John Huss and his fellows, and having no hope of re-
dress in Winceslaus the king, who seemed to neglect
the matter, went to Hungary, to complain to Sigismund
king of Hungary, and brother to Winceslaus. But this
archbishop, as soon as he arrived in Hungary (by the
just judgment of God) died, as the history saith, for
sorrow. Whereby a little more liberty and quiet was
given by the Lord to his gospel, beginning to take root
among the Bohemians. This tranquillity, however, did
not continue long without trouble and persecution, nor
could it in those furious days and reign of antichrist.
For after this Alexander, Pope John XXIII. succeeded.
Who, Ukewise playing his part in this tragedy, bent all
his might and main to disturb the Bohemians, as
(Christ willing) shall be declared hereafter in the course
of our history.
Thus the poor christians, like the simple Israelites
under the tyranny of Pharaoh, were oppressed in every
place, but especially here in England, because the Eng-
lish king, unlike Winceslaus, entirely held with the
pope and his prelates against the gospellers.
By reason of which the kingdom of the pope and his
members began to be so strong in this realm, that none
durst stir or move against them. The bishops having
the king so entirely on their side, armed, moreover,
with laws, statutes, punishments, sword, fire, and faggot,
reigned and ruled as they pleased, as kings and princes
within themselves. So strong were they that no human
force was able to stand against them : so exalted in
pride, and puffed up in glory, that they thought all
things to be subject to their reverend majesties. What-
ever they set forth or decreed, it must by all men be re-
ceived and obeyed.
280 MANDATE OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY FOR THE TOLLING OP AVES. [Book V,
And such was their superstitious blindness and curi-
ous vanity, that whatever toy came once in their fancy,
it was at once determined and established for a law to
be observed by all men, were it never so frivolous or
superstitious ; as well appears by Thomas Arundel,
archbishop of Canterburv and others, who having now a
little leisure from slaying and killing the innocent
people, martvrs and confessors of the Lord, and having
now brought their enemies (as they thought) under
their feet ; began to set up themselves, and to invent
some new custom, as the habit is of the pope's church,
ever to intrude into the church of God some ceremony
or custom of their own making, whereby the church of
Christ has been hitherto exceedingly pestered. So like-
wise this Thomas Arundel, thinking the church not yet
sufficiently filled with ceremonies and vain traditions of
men, brought in a new-found gaud, commonly called
" The tolling of Aves,'* ;'n honour of our lady, with
certain Aves to be said, and days of pardon to be given
for the same. For the ratification of which, under the
pretence of the king's request, he directed the following
mandate to the bishop of London, well filled with words
of idolatry, as by reading it will plainly appear.
A Mandate of Thomas Arundel, directed to the Bishop
of London, to warn men to say certain Prayers at the
tolling of the Aves, or ringing of the Curfew.
" Thomas, &c. To the right reverend brother, the
Lord Robert, by the grace of God, bishop of London,
greeting, &c. While we lift our eyes round about us,
and behold attentively with circumspect consideration,
how the most high Word that was in the beginning with
God, chose to him a holy and immaculate virgin of the
kingly stock, in whose womb he took true flesh by in-
spiral inspiration, that the merciful goodness of the
Son of God, that was uncreate, might abolish the sent-
ence of condemnation, which all the posterity of man-
kind, that was created, had by sin incurred : amongst
other labours in the vine of the Lord of Sabaoth, w«
sung to God our Saviour with great joy, thinking, that
though all the people of the christian religion did extol
with voices of praise so worthy a virgin, by whom we
received the beginnings of our redemption, by whom
the holy day first shined to us, which gave us hope of
salvation ; and although all the same people were drawn
to reverence her, who being a happy virgin, conceived
the Son of God, the King of heaven, the Redeemer and
Saviour of all nations, ministering light to the people
that were miserably drowned in the darkness of death :
we truly, as the servants of her own inheritance, and
such as are written of, to be of her peculiar dower, as
we are by every man's confession acknowledged to be,
we, I say, ought more watchfully than any others to
shew our devotion in praising her. Who being hitherto
merciful to us, willed that our power, being as it were
spread abroad every where through all the coasts of the
world, should with a victorious arm be feared among all
foreign nations ; that our power, being on all sides so
defended with the buckler of her protection, did sub-
due unto our victorious standards, and make subject
unto us, nations both near at hand and far off.
" Likewise our happy estate, all the time that we
have passed since the beginning of our lives, may be
well attributed only to the help of her medicine ; to
whom also we may worthily ascribe now of late in these
our times, under the mighty government of our most
christian king, our deliverance from the ravening wolves,
and the mouths of cruel beasts, who had prepared
against our banquets a mess of meat mingled full of
gall, and who hated us unjustly, secretly lying in wait
for us, in recompence of the good will that we shewed to
them. Wherefore, that she being on high sitting before
the throne of the heavenly Majesty, the defendress and
patroness of us all, being magnified with all men's
praises, may more plentifully exhibit to us the sons of
adoption the breasts of her grace, in all those things
that we shall have to do ; at the request of the special
devotion of our Lord the king himself, we command
your brotherhood, straightly enjoining you that you
command the subjects of your city and diocese, and of
all other suffragans, to worship our Lady Mary the
mother of God, and our patroness and protectress, ever-
more in all adversity, with such like kind of prayer and
accustomed manner of ringing, as the devotion of
Christ's faithful people is wont to worship her at the
ringing of cour le feu. And when before day in the
morning ye shall cause them to ring, that with like
manner of prayer and ringing she mav be evei-y wliere
honoured devoutly by our and your surtV,i;,';uis, and their
subjects as well regular as secular, in ydiir and their
monasteries and collegiate-churches : that we so humbly
calling upon the mercy of the heavenly Falher, the right
hand of the heavenly piety may mercifully come to the
help, the protection and defence of the same our lord
the king, who for the happy remedy of quietness, and
for our succour from tempestuous floods, is ready to ap-
ply his hands to work, and his eyes with all his whole
desire to watching. We therefore desiring more earnestly
to stir up the minds of all faithful people to so devout
an exercise of God, &c. ; we grant by these presents,
to all and every man, &c. that shall say the Lord's
Prayer and the Salutation of the Angel five times at the
morning-peal with a devout mind, toties quoties forty
days' pardon by these presents.
" Given under our seal in our manor of Lambeth the
10th day of February." {Ex Regist. Thomas Arundel).
By this frivolous and barbarous constitution, with
many other of the same kind, heaped into the church by
the papists, appear the proper natures and condition of
this generation, whose priests were more solicitous
about worldly honour than christian humility.
As, for example, what can be more suitable for a
true ecclesiastical pastor, than humility of heart and
spirit, according to the example of the Head Bishop
himself? So what greater shew of arrogancy and jiride
could there be, than in this Thomas Arundel, arch-
bishop of Canterbury .' who, passing by the High-street
of London, did not only look and wait for the ringing of
the bells, in honour of his coming, but took great of-
fence, and suspended all such churches in London (not
only from the use of the steeple and bells, but also from
the organs) as did not receive his coming with the ring-
ing of bells, according as appears by his own registers,
where is the following commission addressed to his own
somner.
A Commission directed to the Somner, to susvcnd certain
Churches of London, because they rung not their Bells
at the presence of my Lord the Archbishop of Canter-
bury.
'* Thomas, by the permission of God, &c. To our well-
beloved Thomas Wilton, our somner sworn, health,
grace, and blessing. The comeliness of our holy churctf
of Canterbury, over which we bear rule, deserveth and'
requireth, that while we pass through the province of
the same (having our cross carried before us) every;
parish church in their turns ought and are bounden, in
token of special reverence that they bear to us, to ring
their bells. Notwithstanding which, on Tuesday last,
when we, between eight and nine of the clock before
dinner, passed openly on foot as it were through the
midst of the city of London, with our cross earned be-
fore us ; several churches, whose names are here beneath
noted, shewed towards us willingly (though they certainly
knew of our coming) unreverence rather than reverence,
and the duty that they owe to our church of Canterbury,
ringing not at all at our coming. Wherefore, we being
willing to revenge this injury, for the honour of our
spouse, as we are bounden, command you, that by our
authority you put all those churches under our indite-
ment, suspending God's holy organs and instruments in
the same. . Which we also suspend by the tenor of
these presents, till the ministers of the aforesaid
churches be able hereafter to attain of us the benefit ol
moj'e plentiful grace. Given," &c.
What reason was there in this, why this archbishop
i. D. 1410—1413.] PENANCE FOR NOT BRINGING LITTER FOR THE ARCHBISHOP'S HORSE. 281
should thus look for the ringing of the bells, or why he
should be thus displeased with not ringing, I do not see.
Perhaps his mind in the mean time was greatly occupied
with some great subject, as a sense of God's fear, with
repentance and remembrance of his sins, with zealous
care and solicitude for his flock, with the earnest medi-
tation of the passion and life of our Saviour, who in this
world was so despised : or else was set upon some grave
study, while he waited for the ringing of the bells,
which were wont to be so noisome to all students. And
why were not the trumpeters also punished as well, be-
cause they did not sound before his person .' But
though the' bells did not clatter in the steeples, why
should the body of the church be suspended ? At least,
the poor organs (methinks) suffered some wrong in
being put to silence in the quire, because the bells rang
not in the tower.
To show the glorious pomp of these prince-like pre-
lates, in these blind days of popish religion, I add
another example not much unlike, nor differing much
in time, concerning certain poor men cited up, and e*.
joined strict penance by, William Courtney, predecessor
of Thomas Arundel, for bringing litter to his horse, not
in carts as they should do, but in little sacks, in a
I secret manner under their cloaks or coats. For which
heinous and horrible sin the archbishop, sitting in his
tribunal seat, called and cited before him the persons
{pro litera, i. e. for litter, after his own Latin), and
after their submission enjoined them penance. "VMiich
penance here follows out of the said archbishop's
I registers.
' " Ignorance, the mother of error, hath *) blinded
and deceived certain persons, to wit, Hugh Pennie,
I John Forstall, John Boy, John Wanderton, "William
I Hayward, and John White, tenants of the lord of
1 Weugham, that against the coming of the archbishop to
j his palace of Canterbury, on Palm Sunday evening,
; A.D. 1390, where they being warned by the bailiff to
i convey and carry hay, straw, and other litter, to the
I palace, as they were bound by the tenour of their lands,
; which they hold of the see of Canterbury ; refusing and
I disdaining to do their service, as they were accustomed,
j brought their straw and other litter, not in carts and
I waggons openly and sufficiently, but by piecemeal, and
closely in bags or sacks, in contempt of their lord, and
derogation of the right and title of the see of Canter-
bury. Whereupon they being cited and presented be-
fore the archbishop, sitting in judgment at his manor
of Statewood, yielded and submitted themselves to his
lordship's pleasure, humbly craving pardon of their
trespass. Then the aforesaid archbishop absolved the
above-named Hugh Pennie, &c., they swearing to obey
the laws and ordinances of holy church, and to do the
punishment that should be appointed them for their
deserts ; that is, that they going leisurely before the
procession, every one of them should carry openly on
his shoulder his bag stuffed with hay and straw, so that
the hay and straw should appear hanging out, the
mouths of the sacks being open."
To proceed now in the reign of this king, and to treat
something of his parliaments as we have done of others.
First, we will begin with the parliament held in the first
year of his reign.
As our papists will not believe the contrary, but
that the jurisdiction of their father the pope has ever
extended throughout all the world, as well here in Eng-
land as in other places, therefore speaking of the par-
liaments holden in this king's days concerning this mat-
ter, I refer them to the parliament of King Henry in
his first year, and to the twenty-seventh article. Where
they may read in the tenth objection laid against King
Richard, in plain words, how that as the crown of this
realm of England, and the jurisdiction belonging to the
same ; as also the whole realm itself, at all times lately
pa-st, has been at such liberty, and enjoyed such pre-
rogative, that neither the pope, nor any other out of the
same kingdom, ought to intrude himself nor inter-
meddle therein, it was therefore objected to King
Richard II. that he procured the letters apostolical from
the pope, to confirm and corroborate certain statutes,
which seemed then to the parliament to tend against
the crown and regal dignity, as also against the statutes
and liberties of this our realm of England. (Act Pari.
An. 1. Reg. Hen. 4. Act 27.)
Further, in the second year of the said king, it was
required in the parliament that all such persons as shall
be arrested under the statute made against the Lollards,
in the second year of Henry IV. may be bailed, and
freely make their purgation, that they be arrested by
none other than by the sheriffs, or such officers.
In the eighth year, moreover, of this king's reign it
was propounded in parliament, that all such persons as
shall procure, or sue in the court of Rome any process
touching any benefice, collation, or presentation of the
same, shall incur the pain of the statute of provisors,
made in the thirteenth year of Richard II., whereunto
the king granted, that the statutes heretofore provided
should be observed.
In the same parliament there was presented a pe-
tition, that the king might enjoy half the profits of
every parson's benefice who is not resident thereon.
The king answered, that the ordinaries should do their
duties therein, or else he would provide further remedy
to stay their pluralities.
In the same parliament it was required, that none do
sue to the court of Rome for any benefice, but only to
the king's courts.
Besides, in the parliament held the eleventh year of
this king, the commons of the land put up a bill to the
king to take the temporal lands out from spiritual men's
hands or possession. The effect of which bill was, that
the temporalities disorderly wasted by men of the
church, might suffice to find to the king fifteen earls,
fifteen hundred knights, six thousand two hundred
esquires, and a hundred houses of alms to the relief of
the poor people ; and over all these aforesaid charges,
the king might put yearly in his coffers twenty thousand
pounds.
Provided, that every earl should have of yearly rent
three thousand marks ; and every knight a hundred
marks and four plough-lands ; every esquire forty marks
by year, with two plough-lands ; and every house of
alms a hundred marks, with oversight of two true secu-
lars to every house, and also with provision that every
township should keep all their own poor people, which
could not labour for their living ; with a condition that
if more fell in a town than the town might maintain, then
the said almshouses should relieve such townships.
To which bill no answer was made, but that the king
would deliberate and advise on the matter.
These things thus narrated, touching such acts and
matters as occurred in the lifetime of this king, next
follows the thirteenth year of his reign. In which year
the king, after he had sent a little before a company
of captains and soldiers to aid the duke of Bur-
gundy in France (among whom was the Lord Cobham),
keeping his Christmas at Eltham, fell grievously sick.
From thence he was conveyed to London, where he be-
gan to call a parliament. In the meantime the infirmity
of the king increasing more and more, he was taken and
brought to a bed in a beautiful chamber at Westminster.
And as he lay in his bed, he asked what they called the
chamber he was in ; and they answered Jerusalem.
And then he said it was his prophesy, that he should die
in Jerusalem. And so disposing himself toward his end
in his chamber, he died on the twentieth of Marcl*
A.D. 1413,
KING HENRT V.
After the death of Henry IV. , his son Henry V. began
to reign. Henry was born at Monmouth in Wales, of
whose other virtues, and great factories in France, I shall
not much intermeddle, especially as the memory of
his prowess, being sufficiently described in other writers,
may both content the reader, and unburden my labour,
especially as these later troubles of the church offer me
80 much, that little leisure will be left to intermeddle
with secular matters.
282 TROUBLE AND PERSECUTION OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM. [Book V.
After the coronation of this new king, which was on
the ninth day of April, called then Passion Sunday, which
was an exceeding stormy day, and so tempestuous, that
many wondered at the omen : not long after a parlia-
ment began to be called, and held at Westminster,
(A. D. 1413.) At which time Thomas Arundel, the
archbisliop of Canterbury, collected in St. Paul's church
at London, an universal synod of all the bishops and
clergy of England.
The Trouble and Persecution of Lord Cobham.
The chief and principal cause of the assembling of this
synod, as the chronicle of St. Albans reports, was to repress
the growing and spreading of the gospel, and especially to
withstand the noble and worthy Lord Cobham, who was
then noted to be a principal favourer, receiver, and
maintainer of them, whom the bishop misnamed to be
Lollards, especially in the dioceses of London, Roches-
ter, and Hereford, setting those up to preach whom the
bishops had not licensed, and sending them about to
preach, which was against the provincial constitutions,
holding also and teaching opinions of the sacraments, of
images, of pilgrimage, of the keys and church of Rome,
contrary and repugnant to the received determination of
the Romish church, &c.
In the meantime, as the commotion was in debate
concerning the good Lord Cobham, there resorted to
them the twelve inquisitors of heresies (whom they had
appointed at Oxford the year before, to search out here-
tics,) with all WicklifTs books, who brought two hundred
and forty-six conclusions, which they had collected as
heresies out of the books.
The articles being brought in, they proceeded in their
communication, concluding that it was not possible for
them to make whole Christ's coat without seam, unless
certain great men were taken out of the way, who seemed
to be the chief maintainers of the said disciples of Wick-
liff. Among whom this noble knight Sir John Old-
castle, the Lord Cobham, was complained of by the ge-
neral proctors to be the principal. They accused him
first for a mighty maintainer of suspected preachers in
the dioceses of London, Rochester, and Hereford, con-
trary to the minds of the ordinaries. They not only af-
firmed him to have sent there the preachers, but also to
have assisted them there by force of arms, notwithstand-
ing their synodal constitution made to the contrary.
Last of all, they accused him that he was far otherwise
in belief of the sacrament of the altar, of penance, of
pilgrimage, of image worshipping, and of the ecclesias-
tical power, than the holy church of Rome had taught
many years before.
In the end it was concluded among them, that without
any further delay, process should be awarded out against
him, as against a most pernicious heretic.
Some of them who were of more crafty experience
than the others, thought it best not to have the matter so
rashly handled ; but considering Lord Cobham was a
man of great birth, and in favour at that time with the
king, their counsel was to ktiow first the king's mind.
This counsel was well accepted, and the archbishop, with
his other bishops, and a great part of the clergy, went
directly to the king, and laid most grievous complaints
against Lord Cobham, to his great infamy and blemish,
being a right godly man. The king gently heard those
blood-thirsty prelates, and far otherwise than became his
princely dignity : notwithstanding, requiring, and desir-
ing them, that in respect of his noble stock and knight-
hood, they should deal favourably with him. And that
they would, if it were possible, without rigor or extreme
handling, reduce him again to the church's unity. He
promised them also, that if they were contented to take
some deliberation, he himself would seriously commune
the matter with him.
Soon after the king sent for Lord Cobham ; and when
he was come, he called him secretly, admonishing him to
submit himself to his mother, the holy church, and as an
obedient child to acknowledge himself culpable. The
christian knight made this answer : " You, most
worthy prince, I am always prompt and willing to
obey, forsomuch as I know you are a christian king,
and the appointed minster of God, bearing the sword to
the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them
that do well. Unto you (next to my eternal God) I owe
my whole obedience, and submit thereunto, as 1 have
ever done, all that I have, either of fortune or nature,
ready at all times to fulfil whatsoever ye shall in the
Lord command me. But as touching the pope and his
spiritualty, I owe them neither suit nor service, forso-
much as I know him by the scriptures to be the great
antichrist, the son of perdition, the open adversary of
God, and the abomination standing in the holy place."
When the king had heard this, he would talk no longer
with him, but left him.
And as the archbishop resorted again to him for an an-
swer, he gave him his full authority to cite him, examine
him, and punish him according to their devilish decree,
which they called the laws of holy church. Then the
archbishop, by the counsel of his other bishops and
clergy, appointed to call before him Sir John Oldcastle,
the Lord Cobham, and to cause him personally to appear,
to answer to such articles as they should lay against
him.
This most constant servant of the Lord, and worthy
knight. Sir John Oldcastle, beholding the fury of anti-
christ thus kindled against him, perceiving himself also
compassed on every side with deadly dangers, took
paper and pen in hand, and wrote a christian confession
of his faith, both signing and sealing it with his own
hand. Wherein he also answered to the four chief ar-
ticles that the archbishop laid against him. That done,
lie took the copy with him, and went therewith to the
king, trusting to find mercy and favour at his hand.
This confession of his was none other than the cnnimop
belief or sum of the church's faith, called The Apostles'
Creed, then used by all christian men, with a brief de.
claration upon the same, as follows : —
The Christian Belief of the Lord Cobham.
" I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of hea-
ven and earth : and in Jesus Christ his only Son our
Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of l|
the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was cru- '
cified, dead and buried, He descended into hell, the third I-
day He rose again from the dead. He ascended int« .:
heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father ;
Almighty; and from thence shall come to judge the quiclr i
and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy ca- ■
tholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness
of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life ever-
lasting. Amen.
" And for a more large declaration (said he) of this
my faith in the catholic church, I steadfastly believe, ,
that there is but one God Almighty, in and of whosQ i'
Godhead are these three persons, the Father, the Son^ ,1
and the Holy Ghost, and that those three persons are th« 'j
self-same God Almighty. I believe also, that the second ll
person in this most blessed Trinity, in most convenient
time appointed thereunto before, took flesh and blood of
the most blessed virgin Mary, for the safeguard and re-
demption of the universal kind of man, which was before
lost in Adam's offence,
" Moreover I believe, that the same Jesus Christ our
Lord, thus being both God and man, is the only head of
the whole christian church, and that all those that have been
or shall be saved, are members of this most holy church.
And this holy church I think to be divided into three
sorts of companies.
" The first sort are now in heaven, and they are the
departed saints. These as they were here conversant,
conformed always their lives to the most holy laws and
pure examples of Christ, renouncing Satan, the world,
and the flesh and all their lusts and evils.
" The second sort are in purgatory (if any such place
be in the scriptures) abiding the mercy of God, and a full
deliverance of pain.
"The third sort are here upon the earth, and are i
called the church militant. For day and night they con- | '
tend against the crafty assaults of the devil, the flattering i
Stormir fHlm-Smitajj.
A.D. 1413.]
TROUBLE AND PERSECUTIONS OF LORD COBHAM.
283
prosperities of this world, and the rebellious lusts of the
flesh.
"This last company by the just ordinance of God is
also divided into tliree several estates, that is to say, into
the i)riesthood, the knighthood, and the commons.
Among whom the will of God is, that the one should aid
the other, but not destroy the other. The priests first
of all, secluded from all worldhness, should conform their
lives to the examples of Christ and the apostles. They
should be occupied in preaching and teaching the scrip-
tures purely, and in giving wholesome examples of good
living to the other two degrees of men. They should be
more modest also, more loving, gentle, and lowly in
spirit, than any sort of people.
" In the knighthood are all they who bear the sword
by law of office ; these shoidd defend God's laws, and see
that the gospel is purely taught, conforming their lives
to the same, and excluding all false preachers ; yea tliese
ought rather to hazard their lives, than to suffer such
wicked decrees as either blemish the eternal testament
of God, or prevent the free passage thereof, whereby
heresies and schisms might spring in the church. For
they arise principally from erroneous constitutions, first
creeping craftily in under hypocritical lies, for advantage.
They ought also to preserve God's people from oppressors,
tyrants, and thieves, and to see the clergy supported so
long as they teach purely, pray rightly, and administer
the sacraments freely. And if they see them do other-
wise, they are bound by the law or office to compel them to
change their doings ; and to see all things performed ac-
cording to God's prescribed ordinance.
" The last fellowship of this church, are the common
people ; whose duty is to bear their good minds and true
obedience to the aforesaid ministers of God, their kings,
civil governors and priests. The right office of these, is
for every man justly to occupy his faculty, be it mer-
chandise, handicraft or cultivating the ground. And so
one of them be as an helper to another, following always
the just commandments of the Lord God.
" Over and besides all this, I most faithfully believe,
that the sacraments of Christ's church are necessary to
all christian believers ; so that they be truly ministered
according to Christ's first institution and ordinance. And
as I am maliciously and most falsely accused of misbelief
in the sacrament of the altar, to the hurtful slander of
many ; I signify here to all men, that this is my faith con-
cerning it. I believe in that sacrament Christ's very
body and blood are contained, under the similitude of
bread and wine, yea the same body that was conceived of
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified on
the cross, di^ and was buried, arose the third day iVom
the death ; and is now glorified in heaven, I also believe
the universal law of God to be most true and perfect,
and they who do not follow it in their faith and works (at
one time or another) can never be saved. Whereas he
that seeks it in faith, accepts it, learns it, delights there-
in, and performs it in love, shall taste the felicity of ever-
lasting innocency.
" Finally, this is my faith also, that God will ask no
more of a christian believer in this life, but only to obey
the precepts of that most blessed law. If any prelate of
church require more, or any other kind of obedience,
tlian this; he contemns Christ, exalting himself above
God, and so becomes an open antichrist. All the pre-
mises I believe particularly, and generally all that God
has left in his holy scripture, that I should believe ; in-
stantly desiring you my liege lord and most worthy king,
that this confession of mine may be justly examined by
the most godly, wise, and learned men of your realm.
And if it be found in all points agreeing to the truth,
then let it be allowed ; and 1 acknowledged as none other
than a true christian. If it be proved otherwise, then let
it be utterly condemned ; provided always, that I be
taught a better belief by the word of God j and I shall
most reverently at all times obey it."
This brief confession of his faith the Lord Cobham took
.to the court, offering it with all meekness to the king to
read it over. The king would not receive it, but com-
manded it to be delivered to them that should be his judges.
Then he desired in the king's presence, that an hundred
knights and esquires might be suffered to come in upon
his purgation, who he knew would clear him of all here-
sies. Moreover, he offered himself, after the law of arms,
to fight for life or death with any man living, christian
or heathen, in the quarrel of his faith, the king and the
lords of his council excepted. Finally, with all gentleness
he protested before all that were present, that he would
refuse no manner of correction that should after the laws of
God be ministered to him, but that he would at all times
with all meekness obey it. Notwithstanding all this the
king suffered him to be summoned personally in his own
privy chamber. There was nothing allowed that the
Lord Cobham had required. But as he would not be
sworn to submit himself to the church, and take what
penance the archbishop would enjoin hini ; he was
arrested again at the king's commandment, and led to
the Tower of London.
As the day of examination was come, which was the
23d day of September, Thomas Arundel the archbishop,
sitting in Caiaphas' room in the chapter-house of St.
Paul's, with Richard Clifford bishop of London, and
Henry Bolingbrook bishop of Winchester ; Sir Robert
Morely, knight and lieutenant of the Tower, brought Lord
Cobham before them, to whom the archbishop thus
spoke.
" Sir John, in the last general convocation of the clergy
of this our province, you were detected of certain heresies,
and by sufficient witnesses found culpable. Whereupon
you were cited by form of spiritual law, and would in no
case appear. In conclusion, upon your rebellious con-
tumacy, you were both privately and openly excommuni-
cated. Notwithstanding we neither shewed ourselves
unready to have given you absolution (nor yet do to this
hour) would ye have meekly asked it." To this the
Lord Cobham seemed, as if he had not heard it^ having
his mind otherwise occupied, and so desired no absolu-
tion. But said, " He would gladly before him and his
brethren make rehearsal of that faith which he held and
intended always to stand to, if it would please them to
license him thereto." And then he took out of his
bosom a certain writing, concerning the articles whereof
he was accused, and read it before them, giving it the
archbishop as he concluded it.
Then the archbishop counselled with the other two
bishops and with the doctors, what was to be done in this
matter ; commanding him to stand aside for the time.
In conclusion by their common assent the archbishop
thus addressed him ; " Come hither. Sir John : in this
your writing many good things are contained, and right
catholic also, we deny it not : but you must consider
that this day was appointed you to answer to other
points concerning articles of which no mention is made
in this your writing. And therefore you must declare
to us your mind more plainly : " Whiether you hold,
affirm and believe that in the sacrament of the altar,
after the consecration rightly done by a priest, material
bread remains, or not ? Moreover, whether you do
hold, affirm, and believe, that as concerning the sacra-
ment of penance, every christian man is necessarily
bound to confess his sins to a priest ordained by the
church or not ?"
After certain other communications, this was the an-
swer of the good Lord Cobham. " That he would not
declare his mind, nor yet answer to these articles in any
other way, than was expressly contained in his writing."
Then said the archbishop to him ; "Sir John, beware
what ye do. For if you answer not clei^rly to those things
that are here objected against you, the law of the holy
church is, That compelled once by a judge we may openly
proclaim you an heretic." To whom he gave this an-
swer: "Do as ye shall think best, for I am deter-
mined." Whatever he or the other bishops asked him,
he bade them refer to his bill ; for by it he would stand
to the very death. He would not give them any other
answer that day ; at which the bishops and prelates wer»
much amazed and disquieted.
'^
THE EXAMINATION OF LORD COBHAM.
[H.^OK V
The day following, the archbishop sent to him into the
Tower, this foolish and blasphemous writing, made by
him and by his unlearned clergy.
The Determination of the Archbishop and Clergy.
"The faith and determination of the holy church
touching the blissful sacrament of the altar, is this ;
That after the sacramental words are once spoken by a
priest in his mass, the material bread, that was before
t)read, is turned into Christ's very body. And the mate-
rial wine, that was before wine, is turned into Christ's
very blood. And so there remains in the sacrament of
the altar, from thenceforth, no material bread, nor mate-
rial wine, which were there before the sacramental words
.were spoken ; how believe ye this article ?
" Holy church has determined that every christian
man, living here bodily upon the earth, ought to confess
to a priest ordained by the church, if he may come to
him. How feel ye this article ?
'• Christ ordained St. Peter the apostle to be his vicar
here in earth, whose see is the holy church of Rome ;
and he granted, that the same power which he gave to
Peter should succeed to all Peter's successors, whom we
now call popes of Rome ; by whose power in particular
churches, are ordained prelates, as archbishops, bishops,
parsons, curates, and other degrees ; whom chris-
tian men ought to obey after the laws of the church
of Rome. This is the determination of holy church.
How feel ye this article ?
" Holy church has determined, that it is meritorious
to a christian man to go on pilgrimage to holy places ;
and there especially to worship holy relics and images of
saints, apostles, and martyrs, confessors, and all other
saints beside, approved by the church of Rome. How
feel ye this article ?'*
When Lord Cobham had read over this most wretched
writing, he marvelled greatly at their mad ignorance.
But he considered again, that God had given them over,
for their unbelief's sake, into most deep errors and
blindness of soul. He perceived by this, that their
utmost malice was resolved against him, however he
should answer. And therefore he put his life into
the hands of God, desiring only his Spirit to assist him
in his next answer. When the twenty-fifth day of Sep-
tember was come, Thomas Arundel, the archbishop
of Canterbury, commanded his judicial seat to be re-
moved from the chapter-house of St. Paul's, to the
dominie friars vrithin Ludgate, at London. And as he
was there set with Richard, bishop of London ; Henry,
the bishop of Winchester ; and Bennet, the bishop of
Bangor : he called in unto him his council of his officers,
with other doctors and friars. All these, with a great
many more of priests, monks, canons, friars, parish
clerks, bell-ringers, and pardoners, disdained Lord Cob-
ham, with innumerable mocks and scorns, reckoning him
to be an horrible heretic, and a man accursed before
God.
Soon the archbishop called for a mass book, and
caused all the prelates and doctors to swear that every
man should faithfully do his office and duty that day.
And that neither for favour nor fear, love nor hate, of
the one party nor the other, should any thing be wit-
nessed, spoken, or done, but according to the truth, as
they would answer before God and all the world at the
day of doom. Then were the two notaries sworn also to
witness and to write the process that should be uttered
by both parties, and to say their minds (if they other-
wise knew) before they should register it. And all this
dissimulation was but to colour their mischiefs, before
the ignorant multitude.
After all this. Sir Robert Morley, knight, and lieute-
nant of the Tower, came before them, and brought with
him the good Lord Cobham, leaving him there among
them, as a lamb amobg wolves, to his examination and
answer.
Then the archbishop said to him, " Lord Cobham, you
are aware of the words and process which we had on
Saturday last in the chapter-house of St. Paul's. I said
to you then, that you were accursed for your contumacy
and disobedience to the holy church. "
Then Lord Cobham, with a cheerful countenance, an-
swered : " God said by his holy prophet, ' I will curse
your blessings,' " Mai. ii. 2.
The archbishop continued. " Sir, at that time I
gently offered to have absolved you if you would have
asked it. And I still do the same if you will humbly
desire it in due form and manner as holy church has
ordained."
Then said the Lord Cobham ; " Nay, I will not; fori
never yet trespassed against you ; and therefore I will
not do it." And with that he kneeled down on thf;
pavement, holding up his hands towards heaven, and
said : "I confess myself here unto thee, my eternal living
God, that in my frail youth I offended thee, O Lord,
most grievously in pride, wrath, gluttony, and covetous-
ness. Many men have I hurt in mine anger, and done
many other horrible sins : good Lord, I ask thee mercy."
And then weeping, he stood up again and said with a loud
voice; " Lo ! good people, lo ! for the breaking of
God's law, and his great commandments, they never yet
cursed me ; but for their own laws and traditions they
most cruelly, handle both me and other men. And there-
fore both they and their laws, by the promise of God, shall
be utterly destroyed."
At this the archbishop and his company were not a
little hurt. However, he took courage, and examined the
Lord Cobham of his christian belief.
To which the Lord Cobham made this godly answer :
" I believe fully and faithfully in the universal laws of
God. I believe that all is true which is contained in
the holy sacred scriptures of the bible. Finally, I be-
lieve all that my Lord God would I should believe."
Then the archbishop demanded an answer to the bill
which he and the clergy had sent to him to the Tower the
day before, concerning the four articles whereof he waa
accused, especially concerning the sacrament of tha
altar, how he believed therein.
The Lord Cobham said, " That with that bill he had no-
thing to do. But this was his belief concerning the sacra-
ment. That his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, sitting at
his last supper with his most dear disciples, the night be-
fore he suffered took bread in his hand ; and giving
thanks to his Eternal Father, blessed it, brake it, and so
gave it to them, saying, ' Take, and eat this, for this ik
my body which is given for you : do this in remembrance
of me.' This, (said he) do 1 believe, for this faith am I
taught in the gospel of Matthew, in Mark, and Luke^
and also in the first epistle of St. Paul to the Corin*
thiaus."
Then the archbishop asked if he believed that it were
bread after the consecration or sacramental words spokeA
over it.
Then Lord Cobham said ; " I believe that in the 8a<.
crament of the altar is Christ's very body in form ot
bread, the same that was born of the Virgin Mary, crui.
cified on the cross, dead, and buried, and that the third
day arose from death to life, which now is glorified in
heaven."
Then said one of the doctors of the law: " Afler thb
sacramental words be uttered, there remains no bread,
but only the body of Christ."
The Lord Cobham said then to one Master John
Whitehead: "You said once to me in the castle of
Gowling, that the sacred Host was not Christ's body.
But I held then against you, and proved that therein
was his body, though the seculars and friars could not
therein agree, but held each one against the other in
that opinion. These were my words then, if ye remem-
ber it."
Then a set of them shouted together, and cried with
great noise : " We all say that it is God's body."
And many of them asked him, in great anger, whether
it were material bread after the consecration or not .'
Then the Lord Cobham looked earnestly upon the
archbishop, and said: "I believe surely that it i«
Christ's body in form of bread : Sir, believe not you
thus?"
And the archbishop said, — " Yes, do I."
f!
A.D. 1413.]
THE EXAMINATION OF LORD COBRAM.
28b
j Then the doctors asked him whether it were only-
Christ's body after the consecration of a priest, and no
I bread, or not ?
I And he said to them : " It is both Christ's body and
' bread : I shall prove it thus : for like as Christ's dwel-
i ling here upon the earth had in him both godhead and
I manhood, and had the invisible godhead covered under
I that manhood, which was only visible and seen in him :
I so in the sacrament of the altar is Christ's very body and
bread also, as I believe the bread is the thing that we
, see with our eyes, the body of Christ (wliich is his flesh
and his blood) is thereunder hid, and not seen but in faith."
Then they smiled one upon another, that the people
should judge him taken in a great heresy. And many of
them said : " It is a foul heresy."
Then the archbishop asked what bread it was ? And
i the doctors also inquired of him whether it were material
! or not ?
I Lord Cobham answered : " The scriptures make no
i mention of this word material, and therefore my faith
I hath nothing to do therewith. But this I say and be-
. lieve, that it is Christ's body and bread. Therefore I
say now again as I said before, as our Lord Jesus Christ
is very God, and very man, so in the most blessed sacra-
ment of the altar is Christ's very body and bread."
Then said they all with one voice : " It is an heresy."
One of the bishops stood up and said : " It is a mani-
fest heresy, to say that it is bread after the sacra-
mental words be once spoken."
Lord Cobham said : " St. Paul the apostle was, I am
sure, as wise as you are now, and more godly learned,
and he called it bread, writing to the Corinthians, ' The
bread which we break,' saith he, ' is it not the commu-
nion of the body of Christ ?' Lo, he called it bread and
not Christ's body, but a means whereby we receive
Christ's body."
Then they asked him if he believed not in the deter-
mination of the church ?
And he said unto them, — " No ; for it is no God.
In all our creed the word in is but thrice mentioned
concerning belief: In God the Father, in God the Son,
in God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God,
The birth, the death, the burial, the resurrection and as-
cent of Christ, hath no in for belief, but only in him.
Neither yet hath the church the sacraments, the for-
giveness of sin, the later resurrection, nor yet the life
everlasting, nor any other in than in the Holy God."
Then said one of the lawyers : " But what is your be-
lief concerning holy church .'"
The Lord Cobham answered : " My belief is that all
the scriptures of the sacred Bible are true. All that is
grounded upon them I believe. But in your lordly laws
and idle determinations I have no belief. For ye are no
part of Christ's holy church, as your open deeds do
shew : but ye are very antichrists, obstinately set against
his holy law and will. The laws that ye have made are
nothing to his glory, but only for your vain glory and
abominable covetousness."
This, they said, was an exceeding heresy, not to believe
the determination of holy church.
Then said the archbishop : " Can you tell me who is
of the church ?"
Then Lord Cobham answered : " Yes ; truly 1 can.
Christ saith, ' That like as the evil tree is known by its
fruit, so is a false prophet by his works.' "
Then said Doctor Walden unto him : " Ye make here
no difference of judgments : rash judgment and right
judgment, all is one with you. So swift judges always
are the learned scholars of Wickliff !"
To whom the Lord Cobham answered. " Preposter-
ous are your judgments evermore. For as the prophet
Isaiah saith : ' Ye call evil good and good evil ;' and
therefore the same prophet concludes ; ' That your ways
are not God's ways, nor God's ways your ways.' And
as for the virtuous man Wickliff, whose judgments ye so
highly disdain, I shall say here of my part, both before
God and man, that before I knew that despised doctrine
of his, I never abstained from sin. But since I learned
therein to fear my Lord God, it has, I trust, been other-
wise with me : I could never find so much grace in all
your glorious instructions.''
Then said Doctor Walden yet again unto him. " It
were not well with me if 1 had no grace to amend ray life,
till I heard the devil preach."
The Lord Cobham said: "Your fathers, the old
Pharisees, ascribed Christ's miracles to Beelzebub, and
his doctrine to the devil. And you as their natural chil-
dren have still the self-same judgment concerning his
faithful followers. They that rebuke your vicious living
must needs be heretics!" Then said he to them all :
" To judge you as you are, we need go no further than to
your own acts. Where do you find in all God's l<nr,
that ye should thus sit in judgment on any christian
man, or give sentence upon any other man unto
death, as ye do here daily ? you have no ground in all
the scripture so lordly to take it upon you, but in Annas
and Caiaphas, who thus sat upon Christ, and upon his
apostles after his ascension. Of them only have ye
taken it to judge Christ's members as ye do, and neither
of Peter nor John."
Then said some of the lawyers : " Yes, forsooth, sir,
for Christ judged Judjis."
The Lord Cobham said : " No ; Christ judged him
not, but he judged himself, and thereupon went forth
and so did hang himself : since his venom was shed into
the church ye never followed Christ."
Then the archbishop asked him, what he meant by
the venom of Judas .''
The Lord Cobham said, " Your possessions and lord-
ships. Before that time all the bishops of Rome were
martyrs in a manner. And since that time we read of
very few. But since that time, one has put down
another, one has poisoned another, one has cursed
another, and one has sl^n another, and done much
more mischief besides, as all the chronicles tell. And
let all men consider this well. That Christ was meek
and merciful ; the pope is proud and a tyrant ; Christ
was poor and forgave, the pope is rich and a malicious
manslayer, as his daily acts do prove him. Rome is
the very nest of antichrist, and out of that nest come all
his disciples. Of whom prelates, priests, and monks,
are the body, these friars are the tail."
Then said he unto them all, " Christ saith in his
gospel, ' Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypo-
crites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men : for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suft'er ye
them that are entering to go in ;' but ye stop up the
ways thereunto with your own traditions, and therefore
are ye the household of antichrist ; ye will not permit
God's verity to have passage, nor yet to be taught of his
true ministers, fearing to have your wickedness re-
proved. But by such flatterers as uphold you in your
mischiefs, you suffer the common people most miserably
to be seduced."
Then said the archbishop, '• By our lady, sir, there
shall none such preach within my diocese nor yet in my
jurisdiction, as either make division or dissension among
the poor commons."
The Lord Cobham said, " Both Christ and his
apostles were accused of sedition making, yet were they
most peaceable men. But Daniel and Christ prophe-
sied, that such a troublous time should come, as hath
not been yet since the world's beginning. And this
prophecy is partly fulhlled in your days and doings ; for
many have ye slain already, and more will ye slay here-
after, if God fulfil not his promise."
Then a doctor of law, called Master John Kemp,
plucked out of his bosom a copy of the bill which they
had sent him into the Tower, thinking thereby to make
shorter work with him. For they were so amazed with
his answers (not all unlike to them who disputed with.
Stephen) that they knew not well how to occupy the
time, their wits and sophistry so failed them that day.
" My Lord Cobham," said this doctor, " we must
briefly know your mind concerning these four points
here following. The first of them is this ; (and then he
read from the bill.) The faith and determination of holy
church touching the blessed sacrament of the altar u
286
THE SENTENCE OF CONDEMNATION AGAINST LORD COBHAM.
[Book Y,
this, That after the sacramental words be once spoken
of a priest in his mass, the material bread, that was be-
fore bread, is turned into Christ's very body, and the
material wine is turned into Christ's blood. And so
there remaineth in the sacrament of the altar from
thenceforth no material bread nor material wine, which
were there before the sacramental words were spoken :
sir, believe you not this?"
The Lord Cobham said, "This is not my belief. But
my faith is, that in the worshipful sacrament of the altar
is Christ's very body in form of bread."
Then said the archbishop, " Sir John, ye must say
otherwise."
The Lord Cobham said, " Nay, that I will not, if
God be upon my side (as I trust he is) but that there is
Christ's body in form of bread, as the common belief is."
Then the doctor read again.
" The second point is this; holy church hath de-
termined, that every christian man, living here bodily
upon earth, ought to be confessed to a priest ordained
by the church, if he may come to him. Sir, what say
you to this .'"'
The Lord Cobham answered and said, " A diseased
or sore wounded man hath need to have a wise surgeon.
Most necessary were it therefore to be first confessed
unto God, who only knoweth our diseases, and can help
us. I deny not in this the going to a priest, if he be a
man of good life and learning ; for the laws of God are
to be inquired of the priest, who is godly learned.
But if he be an idiot, or a man of vicious living, that is
my curate, I ought rather to fly from him than to seek
to him."
Then the doctor read again.
" The third point is this ; Christ ordained St. Peter
the apostle to be his vicar here in earth, whose see is
the church of Rome. And he granted that the same
power which he gave unto Peter should succeed unto all
Peter's successors, whom we call now popes of Rome.
By whose special power in particular churches, be or-
dained prelates and archbishops, parsons, curates, and
other degrees more, whom christian men ought to
obey after the laws of the church of Rome. This is the
determination of holy church. Sir, believe ye not
this ?"
To this he answered and said, " He that followeth
Peter most nearly in pure living, is next unto him in suc-
cession. But your lordly order esteemeth not greatly
the lowly behaviour of poor Peter whatsoever ye prate
of him. Neither care ye greatly for the humble man-
ners of them that succeeded him till the time of Silvester,
which for the more part were martyrs, as I told you
before."
One of the other doctors asked him ; " Then what do
ye say of the pope?"
The Lord Cobham answered, " As I said before, so
I say again ; That he and you together make whole the
gre-at antichrist. Of whom he is the great head, you
bishops, priests, prelates, and monks, are the body, and
the begging friars are the tail, for they cover the filthi-
ness of you both with their subtle sophistry : neither will
I in conscience obey any of you all, till I see you with
Peter follow Christ in conversation."
Then the doctor read again.
" Tiie fourth point is this ; holy church hath deter-
mined, that it is meritorious to a christian man, to go
on pilgrimage to holy places, and there .specially to
worship the holy relics and images of saints, apostles,
martyrs, confessors, and all other saints besides, ap-
proved by the church of Rome. Sir, what say you to
this ?"
He answered, " I owe them no service by any com-
mandment of God. It were best ye swept them far
from cobwebs and dust, and so laid them, or else bury
tnem, far in the ground, as ye do other aged people
who are God's images.
" It is a wonderful thing that saints, now being dead,
should become so covetous and needy, and thereupon so
bitterly beg, who all their life time hated all covetous-
Dess and begging."
" Why, sir," said one of the clerks, " will ye not
worship good images ?"
" What worship should I give to them?" said the
Lord Cobham.
Then said friar Palmer to him, *' Sir, will ye worship
the cross of Christ, that he died upon ?"
" Where is it ?" said the Lord Cobham.
The friar said, " I put you the case, sir, that it were
here even now before you."
The Lord Cobham answered, " This is a wise man,
to put me an earnest question of a thing, and yet he
himself knows not where the thing itself is. Yet once
again I ask you, what worship I should do to it."
A clerk said unto him, " Such worship as Paul
speaks of, and that is this ; ' God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ.'"
Then said the Lord Cobham, and spread his arms
abroad; "This is the very cross, yea, and so much
better than your cross of wood, in that it was created of
God, yet will not I seek to have it worshipped."
Then said the bishop of London, " Sir, ye know well
that he died on a material cross."
The Lord Cobham said, " Yea, and I know also, that
our salvation came not in by that material cross, but
alone by him who died thereon. And well I know, that
holy St. Paul rejoiced in none other cross, but in
Christ's passion and death only, and in his own suffer-
ings of like persecution with him, for the self«same truth
that he had suffered for before." ,
Another clerk asked him, " Will ye then do no
honour to the holy cross ?"
He answered him, " Yes, if it were mine own, I
would lay him up honestly, and see unto him that he
should take no more scathe abroad, nor be robbed of his
goods, as he is now a- days."
Then said the archbishop unto him, " Sir John,
much time have we spent here about you, and all in
vain so far as I can see. We must now be at this short
point with you, for the day passeth away : ye must
either submit yourself to the ordinance of holy church,
or else throw yourself into most deep danger. See to it
in time, for it will be else too late."
The Lord Cobham said, " I know not to what pur-
pose I should otherwise submit me. Much more have
you offended me, than ever I offended you, in this
troubling me before this multitude."
Then said the archbishop again unto him, " W^e once
again require you to remember yourself well, and to
have none other manner of opinion in these matters,
than the universal faith and belief of the holy church of
Rome is. And so like an obedient child return again to
the unity of your mother. See to it, I say, in time, for
yet ye may have remedy, whereas soon it will be too
late."
The Lord Cobham said expressly before them all ; " I
will none otherwise believe in these points than that I
have told you here before. Do with me what you
will."
Finally, then the archbishop said ; " Well, then I see
none other but that we must needs do the law ; we must
proceed forth to the sentence definitive, and both judge
you and condemn you for a heretic.''
And with that tlie archbishop stood up and read a
bin of his condemnation as follows : —
The Sentence of Condemnation against Lord Cobham.
" In the name of God, so be it. We, Thomas, by the
sufferance of God, archbishop of Canterbury, metropoli-
tan and primate of all England, and legate from the
apostolic see of Rome, will tliis to be known unto all
men. In a certain cause of heresy, and uj)nn divers
articles, whereupon Sir John Oldcastle, knight, Lord
Cobham, after a diligent inquisition made for the same,
was detected, accused, and presented before us in our
last convocation of all our province of Canterbury,
holden in the cathedral church of Paul's at London, at
the lawful denouncement and request of our universal
clergy of the said convocation, we proceeded against
A.D. 1413.]
THE SENTENCE AGAINST LORD COBHAM.
287
him according to the law (God to witness) with all the
favour possible. And following Christ's example in all
that we might, ' who willeth not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he might be converted and live ;' we
took upon us to correct him, and sought all other ways
possible to bring him again to the church's unity, de-
claring unto him what the holy and universal church of
Rome hath said, holden, determined, and taught in that
behalf. And though we found him in the catholic faith
far wide, and so stiff-necked, that he would not confess
his error, nor purge himself, nor yet repent him thereof;
we yet pitying him of fatherly compassion, and entirely
desiring the health of his soul, appointed him a compe-
tent time of deliberation, to see if he would repent and
seek to be reformed : but since that time we have found
him worse and worse. Considering, therefore, that he
is not corrigible, we are driven to the very extremity of
the law, and with great heaviness of heart we now pro-
ceed to the publication of the sentence definitive, against
him."
Then he brought forth another bill, containing the
sentence, and that he read also as follows : —
" We take Christ to witness, that we seek nothing
else, in this our enterprise, but only his glory. Foras-
much as we have found by divers acts done, brought
forth and exhibited, by sundry evidences, signs, and
tokens, and also by many most manifest proofs, the said
Sir John Oldcastle knight. Lord Cobham, not only to be
an evident heretic in his own person, but also a mighty
maintainer of other heretics against the faith and re-
ligion of the holy and universal church of Rome ;
namely, about the two sacraments (of the altar, and of
penance) besides the pope's power and pilgrimages ;
and that he, as the child of iniquity and darkness, hath
so hardened his heart, that he will in no case attend to
the voice of his pastor ; neither will he be allured by
straight admonishments, nor yet be brought in by favour-
able words : the worthiness of the cause first weighed on
the one side, and his unworthiness again considered on
the other side, his faults also aggravated or made double
through his damnable obstinacy (we being loath that he
which is naught should be worse, and so with his con-
tagiousness infect the multitude) by the sage counsel
and assent of the very discreet fathers, our honourable
brethren and lord bishops here present, Richard of
London, Henry of Winchester, and Bennet of Bangor,
and of other great learned and wise men here, both
doctors of divinity, and of the laws canon and civil, se-
cular and religious, with divers other expert men assist-
ing us : we sententially and definitively by this present
writing judge, declare and condemn the said Sir John
Oldcastle knight. Lord Cobham, for a most pernicious
detestable heretic, convicted upon the same, and refus-
ing utterly to obey the church again, committing him
here from henceforth as a condemned heretic, to the
secular jurisdiction, power, and judgment, to do him
thereupon to death. Furthermore, we excommunicate
and denounce accursed, not only this heretic here pre-
sent, but so many else besides, as shall hereafter in
favour of his error either receive him or defend him,
counsel him or help him, or any other way maintain
him ; as very favourers, receivers, defenders, counsellers,
aiders, and maintainers of condemned heretics.
" And that these premises may be the better known
of all faithful christian men, we commit it here unto
your charges, and give you straight commandment
thereupon by this writing also, that ye cause this con-
demnation and definitive sentence of excommunication
concerning both this heretic and his favourers, to be
published throughout all dioceses, in cities, towns, and
. villages, by your curates and parish priests, at such
times as they shall have most recourse of people. And
see that it be done after this sort: as the people are thus
gathered devoutly together, let the curate every where
go into the pulpit, and there open, declare, and ex-
pound this excess in the mother tongue, in an audible
and intelligible voice, that it may be perceived of all
men : and that upon the fear of this declaration also the
people may fall from their evil opinions conceived now
of late by seditious preachers. Moreover, we will, that
after we have delivered unto each one of you bishops,
which are here present, a copy hereof, that ye cause the
same to be written out again into divers copies, and to
be sent unto the other bishops and prelates, of our
whole province, that they may also see the contents
thereof solemnly published within their dioceses and
cures. Finally, We will that both you and they signify
again unto us seriously and distinctly by your writings
as the matter is, without feigned colour, in every point
performed ; the day whereon ye received this process,
the time when it was of us executed, and after what sort
it was done in every condition, according to the tenor
hereof, that we may know it to be justly the same."
After the archbishop had thus read the condemna-
tion before the whole multitude, the Lord Cobham said
with a most cheerful countenance, " Though ye judge
my body, which is but a wretched thing, yet am I cer-
tain and sure that ye can do no harm to my soul, no
more than could Satan unto the soul of Job. He that
created that, will of his infinite mercy and promise save
it. I have therein no manner of doubt. And as con-
cerning these articles before rehearsed I will stand to
them even to the very death, by the grace of my eternal
God."
And therewith he turned him unto the people, casting
his hands abroad, and saying with a very loud voice,
" Good christian people, for God's love be well aware of
these men, for they will else beguile you, and lead you
blindfold into hell with themselves. For Christ saith
plainly unto you. If the blind lead the blind, both shall
fall into the ditch."
After this, he fell down upon his knees, and thus be-
fore them all prayed for his enemies, holding both his
hands and his eyes towards heaven, and saying, " Lord
God eternal, I beseech thee of thy great mercy sake to
forgive my persecutors, if it be thy blessed will." And
then he was delivered to Sir Robert Morley, and led forth
again to the Tower of London, and thus there was an end
of that day's work.
While the Lord Cobham was thus in the Tower, he
sent out privily to his friends, and they at his request
wrote the following letter, causing it to be set up in
divers quarters of London, that the people should not
believe the slanders and lies that his enemies, the bishops'
servants and priests, had made on him abroad.
" Forasmuch as Sir John Oldcastle, knight, and Lord
Cobham, is untruly convicted and imprisoned, falsely
reported and slandered among the common people by his
adversaries, that he thinks and speaks of the sacraments
of the church, and especially of the blessed sacrament of
the altar, otherwise than was written in the confession of
his belief, which was written and taken to the clergy,
and so set up in several open places of the city of Lon-
don, be it known here to all the world, that he never
since varied from it, but this is plainly his belief, that
all the sacraments of the church are profitable and expe-
dient to all that shall be saved, taking them after the
intent that Christ and his true church has ordained.
Furthermore he believes, that the blessed sacrament of
the altar is verily and truly Christ's body in form of
bread. ' '
After this, the bishops and priests were in great dis-
credit both with the nobility and commons ; partly be-
cause they had so cruelly handled the good Lord Cob-
ham, and partly because his opinion, as they thought,
was right concerning the sacrament. The prelates
feared this would become a further inconvenience to
them ; they consulted, and consented to take a different
course from what they had done before. They caused
it to be spread abroad by their servants and friends, that
Lord Cobham had submitted himself to holy church,
utterly changing his opinion concerning the sacrament.
And tiiey counterfeited an abjuration in his name, that
the people should take no hold of his opiniori oy any-
thing they had heard of him before, and so should stand
288 A FORGED ABJURATION OF LORD COBHAM CIRCULATED BY THE BISHOPS. [Book 1.
the more in awe of them, considering that he was so
great a man, and yet was subdued by them.
This, say they, is the abjuration of Sir John Old-
castle, knight, sometime the Lord Cobham : —
An Abjuration counterfeited by the Bishops.
" In the name of God, Amen. I, John Oldcastle, de-
nounced, detected, and convicted of and upon various
articles, savouring both of heresy and error, before the
reverend father in Christ and my good lord, Thomas, by
the permission of God, lord archbishop of Canterbury,
and my lawful and rightful judge in that behalf, ex-
pressly grant and confess, that as concerning the estate
and power of the most holy father the pope of Rome,
of his archbishops, his bishops, and his other prelates,
the degrees of the church, and the holy sacraments of
the same, specially of the sacraments of the altar, of
penance, and other observances besides of our mother
holy church, as pilgrimages and pardons ; I affirm, (I
say) before the said reverend father archbishop and
elsewhere, that I being evilly seduced by divers seditious
preachers, have grievously erred, and heretically per-
sisted, blasphemously answered, and obstinately re-
belled ; and therefore I am by the said reverend father,
before the reverend fathers in Christ also, the bishops
of London, Winchester, and Bangor, lawfully con-
demned for an heretic.
" Yet, nevertheless, I now remembering myself, and
desiring by this mean to avoid that temporal pain which
I am worthy to suffer as an heretic, at the assignation
of my most excellent Christian prince and liege lord,
King Henry V., now by the grace of God most worthy
king both of England and of France ; minding also to
prefer the wholesome determination, sentence, and doc-
trine of the holy universal church of Rome, before the
unwholesome opinions of myself, my teachers, and my
followers, I freely, willingly, deliberately, and thoroughly
confess, grant, and affirm, that the most holy fathers in
Christ, St. Peter the apostle, and his successors bishops
of Rome, specially now at this time, my most blessed
Lord Pope John, by the permission of God, the three
and twentieth pope of that name, who now holdeth Peter's
seat (and each of them in their succession) hath full
strength and power to be Christ's vicar in earth, and the
head of the church militant , ajid that by the strength of
his office he hath full authority and power to rule and
govern, bind and loose, save and destroy, accurse and
absolve all other Christian men.
" And agreeably still unto this I confess, grant, and
affirm all other archbishops, bishops, and prelates in
their provinces, dioceses, and parishes (appointed by the
said pope of Rome to assist him in his doings or busi-
ness), by his decrees, canons, or virtue of his office, to
have had in times past, to have now at this time, and
that they ought to have in time to come, authority and
power to rule and govern, bind and loose, accurse and
absolve the subjects or people of their aforesaid pro-
yinces, dioceses, and parishes, and that their said sub-
jects or people ought of right in all thinjjs to obey them.
Furthermore, I confess, grant, and affirm, that the said
spiritual fathers, as our most holy father the pope,
archbishops, bishops, and prelates, have had, have now,
and ought to have hereafter, authority and power for
the state, order, and governance of their subjects or
people, to make laws, decrees, statutes, and constitu-
tions, yea, and to publish, command, and compel their
said subjects and people to the observation of them.
" Moreover, I confess, grant, and affirm, that all
these aforesaid laws, decrees, statutes, and constitutions,
made, published, and commanded according to the
form of the spiritual law, ail christian j)eople, and every
man in himself is straightly bound to observe, and
meekly to obey, according to the diversity of the afore-
said powers, as the laws, statutes, cnnous, and consti-
tutions of our most holy father the pope, incorporated
in his decrees, decretals, Clementines, codes, charts, re-
scripts, se.xtiles, and extravagants over all the world ;
and as the provincial statutes of archbishops in their
provinces, the synodal acts of bishops in their dioceses,
and the commendable rules and customs of prelates in
their colleges, and curates in their parishes, all christian* |i
people are both bound to observe, and also most meekly
to obey. Over and besides all this, I, John Oldcastle
utterly forsaking and renouncing all the aforesaid errors
and heresies, and all other errors and heresies like them,
lay my hand here upon this book, or holy gospel of
God, and swear, that I will never more from hence-
forth hold these heresies, nor yet any other like them
wittingly. Neither will I give counsel, aid, help, or
favour at anytime, to them that shall hold, teach, affirm, • j
and maintain the same, as God shall help me, and these ' \
holy evangelists.
" And that I will from henceforth faithfully obey and
inviolably observe all the holy laws, statutes, canons, and
constitutions, of all the popes of Rome, archbishops, bi-
shops, and prelates, which are contained and determined
in their holy decrees, decretals, Clementines, codes, charts,
rescripts, sextiles, sums, papal extravagant?, statutes
provincial, acts synodal, and other ordinary rules and
customs constituted by them, or that shall chance here-
after directly to be determined or made. To these, and
all such other, will I myself with all power possible
apply. Besides all this, the penance which it shall
please my said reverend father the lord archbishop of
Canterbury hereafter to enjoin me for my sins, I will
meekly obey and faithfully fulfil. Finally, all my sedu-
cers and false teachers, and all other beside, whom I
shall hereafter know suspected of heresy or errors, I
shall effectually present, send or cause to be presented
unto my said reverend father lord archbishop, or to I
them who have his authority, so soon as I can conve-
niently do it, and see that they be corrected to my
utmost power."
This abjuration never came to the hands of the Lord
Cobham, neither was it compiled by them for that pur-
pose, but only to blear the eyes of the unlearned muU
titude for a time.
After Lord Cobham had remained in the Tower a cer-
tain time, he escaped one night, it is not known by what
means, and fled into Wales, where he continued four
years.
Sir Roger Acton also was apprehended, condemned and
put to death or martyrdom three years and more before
the Lord Cobham died. Likewise master John Brown,
and John Beverley, the preacher, suffered with him the
same kind of death (as some say) in the field of St. Giles,
with others, to the number of thirty-six, if the story be
true. Which was in the month of January, A.D. 1414,
after the computation of our English histories.
These men, as is said, suffered before Lord Cobham
about three years. Some say they were hanged and burnt in
St. Giles' field; others that only some of them were hanged
and burnt. Polydore, speaking only of their burning,
makes no mention of hanging. An English Chronicle
records of Sir Roger Acton, that his sentence before the
justice was to be drawn through London to Tyburn, and
there to be hanged. And when certain days were past
(saiththe author) a trumpeter of the king's called Thomas
Cliff, got grant of the king to take him down, and to bury
him.
After the decease or martyrdom of these, who were
executed in the month of January, A.D. 1414, in the
next month, and in the same year, God took away the
great enemy of his word, and rebel to his king, Thomas
Arundel archbishop of Canterbury : whose death follow-
ing after the execution of these good men, by the marvel-
lous stroke of God so suddenly, may seem somewhat to
declare their innocency, and that he was also some great
procurer of their death, in that God would not suffer him
longer to live, striking him immediately with death. But
as I did the other before, so this also I refer to the secret
judgment of the Lord, who once shall judge all secrets
openly.
Henry Chichesly succeeded next in the see of Can-
terbury, A. D. 1414, and sat five-and-twenty years. Fol-
lowing the steps of his predecessor, he shewed himself
no small adversary against the favourers of the truth. In
his time there was much trouble and great affliction in the
A.D. 1414.]
HISTORY OF THE BOHEMIANS. JOHN HUSS.
289
church. For as the preaching and teaching of the word
multiplied and spread abroad daily more and more, so on
the contrary side, more vigilant care and straight inqui!<i-
tion increased against the people of God, by reason of
which many suffered, and were burned ; some for fear
fled the country : many were brought for examination,
aud by infirmity constrained to abjure.
As true piety and sincere preaching of Christ's word
began at this time to decay ; so idle monkery and vain
superstition in place thereof began to increase. For about
the same year the king began the foundation of two mo-
nasteries, one of the one side of Thames, of Friars Ob-
servants, the other on the other side of Thames called
Sheen and Zion, dedicated to charter-house-monks, with
certain Bridget-nuns or recluses, to the number of sixty,
dwelling within the precincts, so that the whole number
of these with priests, monks, deacons, and nuns, should
equal the number of twelve apostles, and seventy-two
disciples. The order of these was according to the de-
scription of St. Paul the apostle, Col. i. 24, " Eat not,
taste not, touch not," &c. was to eat no flesh, to wear no
linen, to touch no money, &c.
About Michaelmas, the same year, the king began his
parliament at Leicester. In which parliament the com-
mons put up their bill again, which they had put up
before in the eleventh year of Henry IV. that teni-
poralties, disorderly wasted by the men of the church,
might be converted and employed to the use of the
king, of his earls and knights, and to the relief of the
poor people, as is before recited. In fear of which
: bill lest the king would give thereto any audience (as
testifies Robert Fabian and other writers) the prelates
I put the king in mind to claim his right in France. Where-
upon Heiiry Chichesly archbishop of Canterbury made a
I long and solemn oration before the king to persuade him
I to the same, offering to the king in the behalf of the clergy
great and noble sums. By which (saith Fabian) the bill
I was again put off, and the king set his mind for the re-
j covery of the same.
I will now return to other matters of the church.
7%c History of the Bohemians.
' I declared a little before how by the occasion of Queen
■ Anne, who was a Bohemian, and married to King Richard
' II., the Bohemians coming thereby to the knowledge of
I Wickliff's books here in England, began first to taste and
I favour Christ's gospel, till at length by the preaching of
' John Huss, they increased more and more in knowledge.
I Insomuch that Pope Alexander V. hearing of it, directs
i his bull to the archbishop of Swinco, requiring him to
' look to the matter, and to provide that no person in
' churches, schools, or other places, should maintain that
' doctrine, citing also John Hviss to appearbefore him. John
Huss in answer, declared that the mandate or bull of the
pope was opposed to the manifest examples and doings
both of Christ and of his apostles, and prejudicial to the
' liberty of the gospel, in binding the word of God so as
not to have free course. And therefore from this man-
date of the pope he appealed to the same pope better ad-
vised. But while he was prosecuting his appeal, Pope
^ Alexander died, as is aforesaid.
j After him succeeded Pope John XXIII., who sought
■ by all means possible to suppress the Bohemians, begin-
! ning to work his malice upon John Huss their preacher,
1 who preaching at Prague, seemed willing to teach the gos-
' pel of Christ, rather than the traditions of bishops, and
1 was therefore accused to the pope as a heretic. The bishop
' committed the whole matter to Cardinal de Columna ;
who, when he had heard the accusation, appointed a day to
' John Huss, that he should appear in the court of Rome :
! which thing once done, Wenceslaus king of the Romans,
and of Bohemia, at the request of his wife Sophia, and of
the whole nobility of Bohemia, as also at the earnest suit
and desire of the town and university of Prague, sent his
; ambassadors to Rome, to desire the bishop to deliver
John Huss from that sentence and judgment : and that if
the bishop suspected the kingdom of Bohemia to be in-
fected with any heretical or false doctrine, he should smd
his ambassadors, who might correct and amend the same,
; if there were any error or fault in them. And that all
this should be done at the costs and charges of the ki ng of
Bohemia ; and to promise in his name tliat he would aid
and assist the bishop's legates with all his power and au-
thority, to punish all such as should be taken or found
in any erroneous doctrine. John Huss, also, before his
api)ointed day, sent his proctors to the court of Rome,
and with most firm and strong reasons proved his inno-
cency. But when the Cardinal de Columna, (to whose
will and judgment the whole matter was committed) would
not admit any defence or excuse, John Huss' proctors
appealed to the high bishop: yet notwithstanding this last
refuge did not so prevail with Cardinal de Columna, but
that he openly excommunicated John Huss as an obsti-
nate heretic, because he came not at his appointed day to
Rome.
However, as his proctors had appealed to the high bi-
shop, they had otlier judges appointed, as Cardinal Aqui-
leianus and Cardinal Venetus, with others. Thejudges,
after they had deferred the matter for the space of one
year and a half, at last returned to the sentence and judg-
ment of Cardinal de Columna, and confirming it, com-
manded John Huss' proctors that they should leave off
defending him any more, for they would suffer it no
longer. Upon which, when his proctors would not cea&c
their urgent suit, some of them were cast into prison,
and grievously punished, the others leaving their busi-
ness undone, returned into Bohemia.
The Bohemians, however, little cared for all this, but
continuing still, as they grew more in knowledge, so the
less they regarded the pope, complaining daily against him
and the archbishop for stopping the word of God, and the
gospel of Christ to be preached, saying, " That by their
indulgences and other practices of the court of Roma^
and of the bishop's consistory, they sought their owoii
profit, and not the glory of Jesus Christ ; that they-
took from the sheep of Christ the wool and milk, and
did not feed them, either with the word of God, or with
good examples. Teaching moreover and affirming, that
the commandments of the pope and prelates are not to
be obeyed, but so far as they follow the doctrine and life
of Christ and of his apostles ; and that laymen ought tO'
judge the works of prelates, as Paul judged the works of
Peter in correcting him, Gal. ii. Furthermore, they had
amongst them certain notes and observations, whereby
they might discern how far and wherein they might obey
their prelates ; they derided also and scorned the pope's
jurisdiction, because of the schism that was then in the
church, when there were three popes together, one striv-
ing against another for the papacy.
After the death of the Archbishop Swinco, one Conrad'
was appointed by the pope as chief general, this Conrad
conferring with the divines and doctors of the university of
Prague, required their advice and counsel, what way they
should best take to assuage the dissension and discord
between the clergy and the people. So a council was de-
vised and holden, where it was decided after this manner.
"1. That all doctors and masters of the university of
Prague should be assembled in the court of the arch-
bishop, and in his presence, that every doctor and mas-
ter should swear, not to hold or maintain any of the
forty-five articles of John Wickliff before condemned.
" 2. Concerning the seven sacraments of the church,
the keys and censures of the church, the manners, rites,
ceremonies, customs, and liberties of the church, concern-
ing also the worshipping of reliques and indulgences, the
orders and religions of the church, that every one shall
swear that he holds, believes, and maintains, and will
maintain, as does the church of Rome, and no otherwise,
of the which church of Rome the pope is the head, and
the college of cardinals is the body : who are the true and
manifest successors of blessed St. Peter prince of the
apostles, and of the college of the other apostles of Christ.
" '.i. That every one shall swear, that in every catholic
matter, belonging to the church, he will stand to the de-
termination of the apostolical see, and that he will obey,
the prelates in all manner of things, wheresoever the
thing, which is purely good, is not forbidden ; or that
whi(-h is mere ill, is not commanded ; but is mean and
indifferent between both. Which mean or indifferent
0 2
290
ARTICLES CONCERNING JOHN HUSS, WITH HIS REPLY.
[Book V.
thing, yet notwithstanding by circumstances of time,
place or person, may be either good or evil.
"4. That every one shall swear and confess by his
oath, that the opinions of Wickliff and others, touching
the seven sacraments of the church, and other things
above notified, being contrary to the church of Rome are
false.
" 5. That an oath be required of them all, that none of
them shall hold, defend, or maintain any of the forty-five
articles of John WickUff aforesaid, or in any other matter
catholic, and especially of the seven sacraments and
other articles above specified, but only as the church
of Rome does, and no otherwise.
"6. That every ordinary in his diocese shall cause
the premises, contained in the first, second, third, and
fourth articles, to be published in his synods, and by his
preachers to the people in the kingdom of Bohemia.
"7. If any clerk, student, or layman shall withstand
any of the premises, that the ordinary have authority, if
he be convicted thereof, to correct him according to the
old laws and canons, and that no man shall defend such
a one by any means ; for none but the ordinary has
power to correct such a man, because the archbishop is
chancellor both of the kingdom and university of Prague.
" 8. That the songs lately forbidden, being odious,
slanderous, and offensive to others' fame, be not sung
either in streets, taverns, or any other place.
" i). That Master John Huss shall not preach so long as
he shall have no absolution of the court, nor shall hinder
the preaching in Prague by his presence ; that by this,
his obedience in the apostolical see may be known.
" 10. That this council appears to be good and reason-
able for the putting away of ill report and dissension
. that is in the kingdom of Bohemia.
" 11. If Master John Huss with his accomplices will
perform this, which is contained in the four former arti-
cles, then we will be ready to say as they would wish us
and have us, whenever need shall require, that we do
agree with them in matter of faith : otherwise if they
will not so do, we in giving this testimony, should lie
greatly unto our lord the king and the whole world. And
moreover, we will be content to write for them to the
court of Rome, and do the best we can for them."
This counsel and devise being considered amongst the
heads of the university of Prague, the aforesaid admi-
nistrator named Conrad, (presented it to the king and
to the baroris of the realm, and also to the senate of
Prague. As soon as information of it came to John
Huss and his adherents, they likewise drew out other
articles in manner and form of a covincil as follows :
" For the honour of God and the true preaching of his
gospel, for the health of the people, and to avoid the
sinister and false infamy of the kingdom of Bohemia,
and of the marquis of Moravia, and of the city and uni-
versity of Prague, and for the reforming of peace and
■ unitv between the clergy and the scholars of the uni-
versity :
" 1. Let the right and just decree of the princes, and
of the king's council, be held in force, which between the
Lord Archbishop Swinco on the one party, and between
the rector and Master John Huss on- the other party, wae
made, proclaimed, sealed, and solemnly on both parts
received and allowed in the court of our sovereign lord
tbe king.
■" 2. That the kingdom of Bohemia remain in its former
t rites, liberties, and common customs, as other kingdoms
' anfl lands ; that is, in all approbations, condemnations, and
other acts concerning the holy mother universal church.
■" ;?. That Master John Huss (against whom the afore-
said Lord Swinco could object no crime before the coun-
cil) may be present in the congreRation of the clergy,
and there whoever will object to him either heresy or
.error, let him object, binding himself to suffer the like
,pain, if he do not prove it.
" 4. If no man will set himself on the contrary part
■against him, then let the command be made by our
sovereign lord the king through all his cities, and like-
wise let it be ordained and proclaimed through all vil-
lages and towns, that Master John Huss is ready to
render account of his faith, and therefore if any will ob-
ject to him any heresy or error, let him write his name
in the chancery of the lord archbishop, and bring forth
his proofs openly before both the parties.
" 5. If none such shall be found to oV,j<rrt, or who will
write his name, then let him be called for, w ho rumoured
in the pope's court, that in the kingdom of Bohemia in
the city of Prague, and in the marqiiisdom of Moravia
there were many whose hearts are infected with heresy
and error, that they may prove who they are, and if the?
are not able to prove it, let them be punished.
" (i. That commands be directed to doctors of divinity
and of the canon law, and to the chapter of cathedral
churches, and that it be required of them all and of every
one particularly, that they will bring forth his name, if
they know any such to be an heretic or erroneous, and if
they deny to know any such, then let them make re-
cognition thereof, before the public notary, confirming
the same with their seals.
" 7. These things thus done and premised, then that
our sovereign lord the king, and also that the archbishop
will give commandment under pain, that no man shall
call one another heretic or erroneous, unless he will
stand to the proof of that heresy or error.
•' 8. That our sovereign lord the king, with the consent
of his barons, will then levy a subsidy, or collect of the
clergy, and direct an honest ambassy to the pojie's court,
with which ambassadors let those persons go at their own
proper charges or expenses for their purgation, who have
caused this kingdom to be falsely and grievously defamed
in tlie apostolic court.
"9. In the mean time for the presence of Master John
Huss, no interdict ought to be made, as it was made of
late contrary to the order and determination of our holy
mother church.''
As this matter was thus in altercation between the two
])arties, the one objecting, the other answering, it hap-
pened by the occasion of Ladislaus king of Naples, who
had besieged the pope's towns and territories, that Pope
John raising up war against Ladislaus, gave full remis-
sion of sins to all them which would war on his side to
defend the church. When this bull of the pojie's indul-
gence was come to Prague, and there published, the King
Wenceslaus, who then favoured that pope, gave com-
mand that no man should attempt anything against the
pope's indulgences. But Huss with his followers, not
able to abide the impiety of those pardons, began to
speak against them ; of which company were three cer-
tain artificers, who, hearing the priest preaching these
indulgences, openly spoke against them, and called the
pope antichrist, who would set u)3 the cross to fight
against his fellow christians. For this they were brought
before the senate, and committed to prison ; but the people
joining together in arms, came to the magistrates, re-
quiring them to be let loose. The magistrates with
gentle words and fair promises satisfied the people, so
that every man returning home to his own house, the
tumult was assuaged ; but the captains being in prison
were there beheaded, whose names were John, ISlartin,
and Stascon. The death and martyrdom of tliese three
being known to the people, they took the bodies of them
that were slain, and with great solemnity brought them
to the church of Bethlehem. And so their bodies were
sumptuously interred in the church of Bethlehem, John
Huss, preaching at the funeral, much commending thein
for their constancy, and blessing God the J'ather of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who had hid the way of his truth
from the prudent of this world, and had revealed it to
the simple lay people and inferior priests, who chose
rather to please God than men.
Thus the city of Prague was divided. The prelates
with the greatest part of the clergy, and most of the
barons, who had anything to lose, did hold with the
pope, especially Steven Paletz, being the chiefest doer
on that side. On the .contrary part the commons witli
part of the clergy and students of the university, wetit
with John Huss. Wenceslaus the king, fearing lest this
would grow to a tumult, being moved by the doctors.
unul of loljit, Partm anb Bk%mi
Pagd 290,
A.D. 1414.] OBJECTIONS OF JOHN IIUSS AGAINST THE DOCTORS' DECREES.
291
! and prelates, apd council of his barons, tliouglit best to
i remove John Huss out of the city, who had been ex-
, communicated before by the pope. And further to end
I this dissension in the church, he committed the matter
to the doctors and the clergy. They, consulting toge-
1 ther among themselves, set forth a decree, ratified and
conffrined by the sentence of the king, containing the
sum of eighteen articles, for the maintenance of the
pope and of the see of Rome, against the doctrine of
Wickliff and John Huss. John Huss, thus dejjarting
out of Prague, went to his country, where, being pro-
tected by the lord of the soil, he continued preaching
there, to whom resorted a great concourse of people,
neither yet was he so expelled out of Prague, but that
sometimes he resorted to his church at Bethlehem, and
there also preached unto the people.
Against the decree of the doctors John Huss, with his
company, replied, and answered to their articles with
contrary articles, as follow : —
The Objections of John Huss, and of his party afjainst the
Decree of the Doctors.
" 1. The foundation of the doctors, upon which they
found all their writings and co\insels, is false, which
foundation is, that part of the clergy in the kingdom of
Bohemia is pestilent and erroneous, and holds falsely of
the sacraments.
" 2. The doctors hereby do defame the kingdom of
Bohemia, and do raise up new discords.
" .3. Let them show, therefore, those persons of the
clergy, whom they call pestilent, and so let them verify
their report, binding themselves to suffer the like pain if
they be not able to prove it.
"4. It is false what they say of the pope and his car-
dinals as the true and manifest successors of Peter and
of the apostles, and that no other successors of Peter
and of the apostles can be found upon the earth besides
them, when no man knows whether he is worthy of
hatred or of favour, and all bishops and priests are suc-
cessors of Peter and of the apostles.
" 5. Not the pope, but Christ only is the head ; and
not the cardinals, but all Christ's faithful people are the
body of the catholic church, as all holy scripture and
decrees of the holy fathers testify and affirm.
" 6. And as touching the pope, if he be a reprobate, it
is plain that he is no head, — no, nor member even of the
holy church of God, but of the devil, and of his syna-
gogue.
" 7. The clergy of the gospellers agreeing with the say-
ing of St. Austin which they allege, and according to
the sanctions of the fathers, and determinations of the
holy mother church, say and affirm laudably, that the
condemnation and prohibition of the forty-five articles
is unlawful, and unjust, and rashly done ; and that not
only because the doctors, but also all bishops and arch-
bishops, in such great causes, namely, touching faith, as
these articles do, have no authority at all.
" 8. The second cause of the discord, which they allege,
also is most false ; seeing the faith of all Christen-
dom, concerning the church of Rome, is divided in three
parts by reason of three popes, which now together do
reign ; and the fourth part is neutral. Neither is it
true, that we ought to stand in all things to the deter-
mination of the pope, and of the cardinals, but so far
as they agree with the holy scripture of the Old and New
Testament.
" 9. In the fourth article they run into dotage, and
are contrary to themselves ; because they dotishly repre-
hended the gospellers, who, in all their doings, receive
the holy scripture (which is the law of God, the way of
truth and life) for their judge and measure ; and afterward
they themselves allege the scripture, Deut. xvii. where
all judges, both popes and cardinals, are taught to judge
and discern between leper and leper, and in every ecclesi-
astical cause, only after the rule of God's law. And so are
they contrary to their second article, wherein they say,
that in every catholic matter we must run to the pope,
which is contrary to the foolish condemnation of the
articles aforesaid.
" 10. Consequently, like idiots, they most falsely
alleire for their purpose the canon, under the name and
authority of Jerome, where they do apply the words of
Jerome most impertinently to the pope of Rome, which
he writes to St. Austin, calling him a most blessed
pope.
" 11. By which place of Jerome it is manifest that
the first article of those doctors is false. For by these
words it appears that other besides the bishop of Rome
and his cardinals are called blessed popes, holding the
faith and seat of Peter, and are successors of the apos-
tles, as was Austin and other holy bishops.
" 12. It follows moreover, that the church of Rome
is not that place where the Lord appointed the princi-
pal see of his whole church ; for Christ, who was the
head priest of all, first sat in Jerusalem, and Peter sat
first in Antioch, and afterwards in Rome. Also other
popes sat some in Bononia, some at Perusium, some at
Avignon.
" i:i. The prelates are falsifiers of the holy scriptures
and canons, and therefore are worthy to be punished,
who affirm and say, that we must obey the pope in all
things, because it is known that many jiopes have
erred, and one pope was also a woman ; to whom not
only it was not lawful to give obedience, but also unlaw-
ful to communicate with them.
" 14. Their sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and
eleventh articles are grounded upon untrue and false
persuasions, and therefore are to be rejected and de-
tested, seeing they induce not to peace and verity, but
to dissension and falsity.
" 1,5. It is manifest also to the laity, that this dissen-
sion among the clergy rises for no other cause, but only
for the preaching of the gosjiel, which reprehends such
simoniacs and heretics in the church of God as haunt
the court of Rome, spreading out their branches abroad
into all the world, who deserved to be removed and ex-
tirpated, not only by the clergy gospellers, but also by
the secular power. And so these three vices, to wit,
simony, luxury, and avarice (which is idolatry), are
the causes of all this dissension among the clergy in
the kingdom of Bohemia. These three vices being re-
moved, peace and unity would soon be restored in the
clergy.
"16. Moreover, their last article is too gross, and not
only is without all law, but also without all colour of
law ; whereas they fondly and childishly argue thus, that
the processes made against Master John Huss ought to
be obeyed, because forsooth the common sort of the clergy
of Prague have received them. By the same reason
they may argue also, that we must obey the devil, for
our first parents Adam and Eve obeyed him. Also our
ancestors before us were pagans, wherefore we must obey
them, and be pagans also.
"17. But let this frivolous opinion go : this is certain
truth, that the processes made against Master John
Huss, are by law null and void ; for they were obtained,
drawn, wrought, and executed contrary to the commi8>
sion of the pope, against the determination of the holy
mother church.
" 18. Finally, whoever wittingly and obstinately de-
fends and executes the said process made, are all to be
counted as blasphemers, excommujucate, and heretics."
To these objections of John Huss the doctors again an-
swered in a long tedious process ; the scope of which prin-
cipally tended to defend the principality of the pope, and
to maintain his obedience above all other potentates
in the world, affirming and contending, that although
Christ is the head alone of the whole multitude of them
that are sleeping in purgatory, and which are labouring
in the church militant, and which are resting in heaven,
yet this hinders not, but the pope is head of the church
here militant, that is, of all the faithful, which here in
this world live under his office, &c.
Thus then Master John Huss being driven out of
Prague by these doctors, and moreover being so excom-
municated that no mass must be said where he was pre-
sent, the people began mightily to grudge and to cry out
against the prelates and other popish priests, who were tho
292
THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.— POPE JOHN IMPRISONED.
[Book V.
workers thereof, accusing them to be simoniacs, covet- |
ous, immoral, adulterers, proud ; sparing not to liy j
open their vices to th.ir great ignominy and shame, and i
greatly crying for a reformation amongst the clergy.
The king seeing the inclination of the people, and
being not ignorant of the wickedness of the clergy, be-
gan, under pretence of reforming the church, to require
greater exactions upon such priests and men of the
clergy as were known and accused to be wicked, livers.
Upon which they that favoured John Huss, taking the
occasion, complained of all, accused many, and spared
none, whoever they knew to be of the popish faction, or
enemies to John Huss. By reason of wliich the popish
clergy were brought, such as were faulty into great dis-
tress, and such as were not faulty, into great fear, so
that they were glad to fall in, at least not to fall out,
with the protestants, being afraid to displease them.
By this means Master Hu.ss began to take some more
liberty, and to preach in his church at Bethlehem ; by
the same means the people also received some comfort,
and the king much gain and money.
And thus the popish clergy, while they went about to
persecute John Huss, were entrapped themselves in great
tribulation, and afflicted on every side, so that women
and children were against them ; and by tlie means
with which they thought to entangle him, they were
overthrow^n themselves.
As there was a council held at Rome four years be-
fore, against the articles and books of John WickliflF, it
will not be impertinent nor out of purpose to repeat a
certain merry history, and worthy otherwise to be noted,
written by Nicholas Clemangis, of a certain spirit
which ruled the popish councils ; his words are these -.^ —
" The pope called a council at Rome about four years
before, at the earnest suit of several men, and a mass of
the Holy Ghost being said at the opening of the council
(according to the accustomed manner), the council be-
ing set, and Pope John .sitting highest in a cliair pre-
pared for him for that purpose, behold, au ugly and
dreadful owl, or as the common proverb is, the evil
sign of some mischance of death, flew to and fro, with
her evil favoured voice, and standing upon the middle
beam of the church, cast her staring eyes upon the
pope. The whole company began to marvel, to see the
night-crow, which is wont to abide no light, ho^ he
should in the mid-day come in the face of such a multi-
tude, and judged (not without cause) that it was an ill-
favoured token. For behold, said they (whispering one
in another's ear) the spirit appears in the shape of an
owl. And as they stood beholding one another, and
advising the pope, scarcely could they keep their coun-
tenance from laughter. John himself, upon whom the
owl steadfastly looked, blushing at the matter, began to
sweat, and to fret, and fume with himself, and not find-
ing by what other means he might solve the matter,
being so confused, dissolved the council, and rose up
and departed. After that there followed another ses-
sion, in which the owl again, after the manner aforesaid,
although, as I believe, not called, was present, looking
steadfastly upon the bishop. He beholding it come
again, was more ashamed than he was before, saying he
could no longer abide the sight of her, and commanded
that she should be driven away with bats and shoutings ;
but she being afraid neither with their noise, neither at
anything else, would not go away, until with the strokes
of the sticks, which were thrown down at her, she fell
down dead before them all."
The Council of Constance.
Here is to be noted, that during all this time of Pope
John, there were three popes together for twenty-nine
years, on account of which a general council was held at
Constance, (A. D. 1414,) called by the emperor Sigis-
mund, and Pope John XXII 1., for healhig the schism
between the three popes striving for the popedom. The
first was John whom the Italians set up. The second
was Gregory, whom the French set up. The third
was Benedict, whom the Spaniards set uu. In this
conflict every one defended his own pope, to tlie great
disturbance of the christian nations. This council
coutiiiued four years, and in it all matters were decided
mostly by four nations, viz. the English, German,
Frenoli, and Italian. C)ut of which four nations there
were appointed four presidents, to determine the matters
of the council. The names of which presidents were
these: John the patriarch of Antioch for France, .\n-
thony, archbishop of Reigen for Italy, Nicholas, arch-
bislioj) of Geneva for Germany, and Nicholas bishop of
Bath for England. First, this John XXIII. resigned
his papacy, the emperor giving him thanks kissed his
feet. This John afterward repenting that he had done
so, sought means to flee; so changing his garments, he
fled by night with a small company. The emperor pur-
suing, took him, and being thus deposed, he was carried
to the castle of Manheim, where he was kept prisoner
for the space of three years.
This Pope John was deposed by the decree of the
council, more than three-and-forty most grievous and
heinous crimes being objected and proved against him ;
as that he had hired a physician to poison Alexander his
predecessor ; that he was an heretic, a simoniac, a liar, an
hypocrite, a murderer, a dice-player, an adulterer, and
finally, what crime is it that he was not infected with ?
And now to return to the council, first we will declare
the order of their sessions, with the things therein con-
cluded, in general ; then we will (Christ willing) treat of
such matters as pertain to the history of the Bohemians,
and John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, who in the same
ungodly council were condemned and burned.
This council therefore of Constance, which was sum-
moned by the emperor Sigismund, and Pope John
XXllI. (A. D. 1414), assembled about the latter end of
the year. Which beginning, as the manner is, with a
mass of the Holy Ghost, as they were singing according
to their custom their hymn, " Come Holy Spirit," ike,
there was at the same time a certain paper set up in the
church, wherein were contained these words following :
" We (i. e. The Spirit) are otherwise occupied at this
time, so we cannot come to you." The council con-
tinued for the space of four years, and had five-an<l-forty
sessions, wherein many things were concluded, which
altogether were too long to be recited in this place ; as
the deposition of three several popes. Yet 1 mind to
make some brief recapitulation of the principal matters.
In the first session chiefly was concluded,
1. Tliat this council was lawfully assembled.
2. That the departure iif the pope should be no liin-
drance, but the council might proceed.
;i. This council should not be dissolved before the
church were reformed, as well in the superiors as inferiors.
In the fourth session, this was first concluded ; that a
synod assembled in the Holy Ghost, making a general
council, representing the whole catholic church here
militant, has power from Christ immediately, to which
power every person, of what state or dignity soever he
be, yea, the yioye himself, ought to be obedient in all
such things ns concern the general reformation of the
church, as well in the heads, as in the members.
Also the ])oi)e should not translate the court of Rome,
and the otiicers of the court, from the city of Constance.
And that all liis censures, doings and workings, to the
prejudice ol this council, should be of no efi"ect.
In the fifth session the same articles were repeated and
concluded again.
In the sixth session commissioners were appointed
out of the four nations for the hearing of John Huss.
The memory of John Wicklitf was condemned, and
the sentence, given in the council held at Rome upon
the condemnation and burning of Wicklift' 's books, was
confirmed.
In the same session, citation was sent out against
Jerome of Prague.
In the seventh session nothing was handled, but that
the tenor of the citation against Pope John was recited.
In the eighth session, the sentence and condemnation of
John Wickliff and his forty-five articles was recited, and
sentence given against his memory, andbones tobeburned.
In the ninth session the matter and cause of Pope
A.D. 1414.]
THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.
2')3
John was again treated, and commissioners appointed to
inquire upon his cause, and judges for the same.
In the tenth session suspension was given out and
read against the pope.
In the eleventh and twelfth sessions notaries were
assigned and definitive sentence given against the pope :
where also it was decreed that none of them, that sought
for the papacy, should be chosen pope.
In the thirteenth session was decreed, that no priest,
under pain of excommunication, shall communicate unto
the people under both kinds of bread and wine.
In the fourteenth session came in the resignation of
Pope Gregory XII., which was one of the three before
mentioned, striving for the papacy, with certain other
articles concerning the election of the bishop of Rome.
Then ensues the fifteenth session, in the which silence
was commanded under pain of excommunication and
the great curse, that no person or persons high or low,
of what estate or degree soever he were, emperor, king,
cardinal, or other, should disturb the said session with
any manner of noise, either by hand, foot, or voice. This
being done, the sentence and condemnation against
John Huss was read and published.
In the sixteenth session ambassadors were assigned by
the council to go into Arragon to Benedict XIII. to
treat with him for the resignation of his papacy, as the
other two had done before.
In the seventeenth session the emperor took upon him
a journey to the king of Arragon, to treat with Pope
Benedict. An excommunication denounced against all
such as should go about to impeach the emperor's
journey, about that matter, &c.
In the eighteenth session it was there also decreed,
that such letters and bulls, as were written in the name
of that council, should be received with no less credit
and authority than the bulls proceeding from the see
apostolical, and that the falsifiers of the same should
incur no less penalty, than the falsifiers of the other.
Legates also and ambassadors were sent into Italy.
In the nineteenth session Jerome of Prague was ac-
cused of heresy, and cast into prison by the council, and
constrained to abjure.
It was decreed also, that notwithstanding the safe
conduct given by the emperor and kings, &c., inquiry
mriy be made against any man for heresy by a sufficient
judge, and process to be made according to the law.
In the twentieth session there was nothing important.
In the year 1416, was the twenty-first session, begin-
ning after their manner with a mass of the Holy Ghost,
with procession and such other rites, in the time of
which mass, James, bishop of Londy made a sermon,
and Jerome of Prague being present, stood up, replying
against the foresaid .lames and his sermon, whereupon
Jeiome was delivered to the secular power, and burned.
From the twenty-second to the thirty-first sessions
there was nothing of particular importance.
In the thirty-second and thirty-third sessions the ac-
cusation of Poj)e Benedict was renewed, and his obsti-
nacy accused, and witnesses brought in ; at which the
Emperor Sigisraund was present
In the thirty- fourth session the cause of the pope was
heard, and process given out against him.
In the thirty-sixth session a citation was made and
read against the pope, containing his deprivation, and
the sentence against him. And whereas this pope had
thundered out his curses, deprivations, and excommunica-
tions against them, the synod did annihilate all his doings.
The thirty-seventh session renewed again the accu-
sation of the aforesaid pope, and the sentence definitive
against him was published.
The thirty-eighth session referred to the king of
Arragon.
Thus Pope Benedict being deposed and excommuni-
cated, in the next sessions following they addressed them-
selves to the election of a new pope, beginning first in
the thirty-ninth session, to give out decrees concerning
general councils, and provision for the avoiding of such
like schisms hereafter. Decreeing every tenth year to
have a general council, after the two councils that should
follow immediately after this ; of which, the oiie should
be kept within five years then next following, and the
second within seven years after that.
In the same session was drawn out a form touching
such things as the pope should profess and bind himself
to observe at the time of his election, of which form tlie
order and tenor is this :
" I, N. elected for pope, profess with heart and
mouth unto Almisjhty God, whose church I take upon
me to govern by his help, and to blessed St. Peter, tlie
prince of the apostles, so long as I shall endure in this
frail and brittle life, firmly to believe and hold the holy
catholic faith after traditions of the apostles, of general
councils, and of other holy fathers, and, namely, of the
eight general councils ; Nicene the first, the second of
Constantinople, Ejthesine the third, Chalcedon the
fourth, the fifth and sixth of them in Constantinople,
the seventh of Nice, the eighth of Constantinople. And
also of the general councils of Lateran, Lyons, and
Vienna, willing to observe the same faith inviolate even
to the uttermost, and to preach and defend the same,
even to the spending of my life and blood ; and also by
all means possible to prosecute and observe the rite of
the sacraments canonically delivered to the catholic
church. And this my profession and confession, by my
commandment being written out by the notary of the
arches of the holy church of Rome, I have subscribed
with mine own hand, and sincerely with a pure mind
and devout conscience I offer it unto the Almighty God
upon such an altar, &c. In the presence of such wit-
ness, &c. Given," &c.
In the fortieth session, certain decrees were read, as
to reformations to be made through the whole church by
the pope, with the council, before this synod should
break up.
Also, that they should proceed to the election of
the bishop of Rome, notwithstanding the absence of
those cardinals who were with Pope Benedict in Spain,
This done, the order and manner was decreed for the
election of the pope.
In the next session, which was forty-one, the consti-
tntion of Clement VI. was read, concerning the order
and diet of the cardinals then in the conclave about the
choosing of the pope, and oaths were ministered to the
cardinals and other electors, binding them to observe
and keep all such things as they should be bound to
during the time of the election.
1. That they should enter into the conclave within
ten days after the fortieth session, which was this present
day after sun-set.
2. That every cardinal should have but two servitors
attending upon him, at the most, either of the laity or
clergy, as they chose themselves.
li. That they should remain together in the conclave,
without any wall between them, or any other cover,
save only bare curtains, if any were disposed to sleep.
4. That the conclave should be so shut up, and the
entry to the privy chamber be kept so straightly, that
none of them should come in or out, nor any have re-
course to them to talk with them privily or openly.
5. That no man should send to them either messenger
or writings.
6. That a competent window should be assigned unto
them to receive in their victuals, but that no person
might come in thereat.
7. That no day after their first ingress into the con-
clave, beside bread, wine, and water, they should have
any more dishes but one of one only kind, either of flesh
or fish, eggs, pottage, made of fish or flesh, not after the
daintiest sort, beside sallads, cheese, fruit, and conserves,
whereof there shall be no principal mess made but for
sauce and taste.
8. That not one should be compelled to go into the
conclave ; but if they did all refuse to go in, then they
should be compelled.
V. That such as would go out might ; but if they
would all go out before the pope were elected, they
should be compelled to go in again, except such whom
infirmity excused ; but without the excuse of infirmity,
if any went out, he should no more be admitted, except
they went all out together.
294 SAFE CONDUCT GIVEN TO JOHN HUSS BY THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND. [Book V-.
10. That such as went out by reason of infirmity, to
be absent, and return before the election be determined,
may be admitted ajjain into the conclave in the same
state wherein they shall find the election to stand.
Further, and besides, the keepers of the conclave
should also be sworn to see all these premises observed
and kept without fraud or guile, and that they should
not straighten the cardinals and other electors above the
order here taken.
These things thus prepared and set in order, the patri-
arch of Constantinople, with the cardinals and other
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, deans, archdeacons,
doctors, with other electors, entering into the conclave
upon Monday, on Thursday after they had hatched out
a pope, being St. Martin's even, whereupon they named
him Martin. This Martin thus being elected, was
straightway brought in by the emperor and the council
into the church of Constance, and there enthroned for
pope, with great solemnity and triumph. The twenty -
first day of the said month, this Martin, according to
their accustomed pomp, was honourably brought in to
be crowned with sumptuous procession from the high
church of Constance, to the monastery of St. Austin ;
the emperor on foot leading his horse by the bridle on
the right hand, and the marquess of Brandenburgh
prince elector likewise leading his horse on the left hand,
the pope himself riding in the midst upon his palfrey.
And thus being brought to the monastery, and round
about again from thence to the high church of Con-
stance, he was there crowned with all magnificence.
In the forty-third session, certain other decrees and
statutes were made by Pope Martin in the synod, an-
nulling all the acts and proceedings of the other popes
before, during the time of the schism from the time of
Gregory II. As in matters concerning exemptions,
■unions, fruits, and profits of the church ; benefices,
simony, dispensations, tithes, and burthens of the
church. Also concerning the apparel of the clergy, and
such other things.
Now to finish our tedious rehearsal of this synod, the
Cardinal Umbald, by the commandment of the pope and
the council, with a high and loud voice pronounced these
words : " Lord, depart in peace ;" whereunto the stan-
ders by answered, " Amen."
The number of the foreigners resorting to this council,
both spiritual and temporal, was sixty thousand five
hundred, whereof the number of archbishops, and bi-
shops, was three hundred and forty-six.
Abbots and doctors, five hundred and sixty-four.
Secular men (princes, dukes, earls, knights, esquires),
sixteen thousand.
Besides women belonging to tlie same council, four
hundred and fifty.
Barbers, six hundred.
Minstrels, cooks, and jesters, three hundred and twenty.
So that the whole multitude which were viewed to be
in the town of Constance, between Easter and Whitsun-
tide, were numbered to be sixty tltousand five hundred
strangers and foreigners at that council.
Here is to be noted, that in this council of Constance
nothing was decreed or enacted worthy of memory, but
this only, that the pope's authority is under the council,
and that the council ought to judge the pope.
And as touching the communion in both kinds, al-
though the council did not deny, but that it was used by
Christ and his apostles ; yet notwithstanding it was de-
creed by the council to the contrary.
Hitlierto we have comprehended the order and dis-
course of this council, with the acts and sessions concern-
ing the same ; which council, although it was princi-
pally thought to he assembled, for quieting of the schism
between the three poj)es, yet notwithstanding a great part
thereof was for the affair of the Bohemians, and especi-
ally for John Huss. For, before the council began, the
Eni])eror Sigismiind sent certain gentlemen of his own
houseluild, to bring John IIuss to the council, under his
safe conduct. The meaning of which was, that John
Huss should puree and clear himself of the blame which
they had laid ag;»inst him ; and f«)r the better assurance,
the Emperor not only promised him safe conduct, that
he might come freely to Constance, but also that he
should return again into Bohemia, without fraud or in-
terruption ; he promised also to receive him under his
protection, and under safeguard of the whole empire.
Tfie safe Conduct given to John Huss
" Sigismund, by the grace of God, king of the Romans,
of Hungary and Denmark, Croatia, &c. To all princes
as well ecclesiastical as secular, dukes, marquesses,
and earls, barons, captains, borough masters, judges, and
governors, officers of towns, burgesses, and villages,
and unto all rulers of the commonalty, and generally to
all the subjects of our empire, to whom these letters
shall come, grace and all goodness.
" We charge and command you all, that you respect
John Huss, who is departed out of Bohemia, to come to
the general council, which shall be celebrated and held
very shortly at the town of Constance. Which John
Huss we have received under our protection and safe-
guard of the whole empire, desiring you that you will
cheerfully receive him when he shall come towards you,
and that you treat and handle him gently, shewing him
favour and good will, and shew him pleasure in all things,
as touching the forwardness, ease, and assurance of his
journey, as well by land as by water.
"Moreover, we will, that he and all his company, with
his carriage and necessaries, shall pass throughout all
places, passages, ports, bridges, lands, governances,
lordships, liberties, cities, towns, boroughs, castles, and
villages, and all other your dominions, without paying
of any manner of imposition or tribute, or any other
manner of toll whatever. We wiU, also, that you suffer
to pass, rest, tarry, and to sojourn at liberty, without
doing unto him any manner of impeachment, or ve.xa-
tion, or trouble ; and that if need shall so require, you
do provide a faithful company to conduct him withal, for
the honour and reverence which you owe unto our
imperial majesty. Given at Spire the eighteenth of
October, in the year of our Lord God, 1414."
By this it may appear, that this safe conduct was
granted not in the time of the council by the bishop, but
before the council by the emperor, who was, or ought to
be the principal ordainer and director of the council un-
der God. Now whether the bishops did well in break-
ing ihis promise of the emperor, I will defer to such
time as may be more convenient to the full examiuation
thereof.
John Huss seeing so many fair promises, and the as-
surance which the emperor had given, sent answer that
he would come to the council. But before he departed
out of the realm of Bohemia, and especially out of the
town of Prague, he wrote certain letters, and caused
them to be fastened upon the gates of the cathedral
churches and parish churches, cloisters and abbeys : the
copy whereof here follows :
" Master John Huss, bachelor of divinity, will appear
before the most reverend father, the Lord Conrad,
archbishop of Prague, and legate of the apostolic seat, in
their next convocation of all their prelates and clergy of
the kingdom of Bohemia, being ready always to satisfy
all men which shall require him to give a reason of his
faith and hope that he holds, and to hear and see all such
as will lay to his charge, either any stubbornness of
error or heresy, that they should write in their names
there, as is required both by God's law and man's. And
if so be that they could not lawfully prove any stubborn-
ness of error or heresy against him, that then they
should suffer the like punishment that he should have
had, to whom all together he will answer at the next
general council of Constance, before the archbishop and
the prelates, and according to the decrees and canons of
the holy father, shew forth his innocency in the name of
Christ. Dated the Sunday next after the feast of St.
Bartholomew."
After this, as all the barons of Bohemia were assem-
bled in the abbey of St. James, about the affairs of tho
Sumptuous |!rott$$ioii
Page 294.
A.D. 1414.] ARRIVAL OF JOHN IIUSS AT CONSTANCE— APPEARS BEFORE THE POPE. 295
r ihn, the archbishop of Prague was also present. There
J.ilm Huss presented petitions, by which he most hum-
l)!v desired the barons that they would shew him that la-
T .ur towards the archbishop, that if the archbishop sus-
f p.uted him of any error or heresy, he should declare it
openly, and that he was ready to endure and sutler cor-
rection for the same at his hands. And if he had found
or perceived no such thing in him, that he would then
give him a testimonial thereof. The archbishop con-
fessed openly, before all the assembly of barons, that he
knew not that John Huss was culpable or faulty in any
crime or offence.
About the ides of October, A.D. 1414. John Huss,
being accompanied with two noble gentlemen, Wancelat
of Uuba, and John of Clum, departed from Prague, and
took his journey towards Constance.
In all cities as he passed by, and principally when he
was departed out of Bohemia, and entered into Ger-
many, a great number of people did come unto him, and
he was very gently received and entertained through all
the towns of Germany, and especially by the citizens and
burgesses, and oftentimes by the curates. And if it hap-
pened that there were any information before of his
coming, the streets were always full of people desirous to
see and gratify him ; and especially at Nuremberg, where
certain merchants certified the citizens of his coming.
There were many curates who came to him, desiring that
they might talk with him secretly : to whom he answered.
That he loved much rather to pronounce and shew forth
his mind and opinion openly before all men, for he
would keep nothing hidden. So, after dinner, till it was
night, he spake before the priests and senators, and
other citizens, so that they all had him in great estima-
tion and reverence.
The twentieth day after that he departed out of the
town of Prague, which was the 3d day of November, he
came unto Constance, and lodged at an honest matron's
house, being a widow named Faith, in St. Galles Street.
The morrow after his arrival, Master John de Clum,
and Master Henry Latzemboge, went to the pope, and
certified him that John Huss was come, under the
emperor's safe conduct ; desiring also that he on his part
would gnint John Huss liberty to remain in Constance,
without any trouble, vexation, or interruption. To
whom the pope answered, That even if John Huss had
killed his brother, yet he might go about, as much as hi
him lay, that no outrage or hurt should be done to him
during his abode in the town of Constance.
The 2()th day after the said Huss was come to Con-
stance, during all which time he was occupied in read-
ing, writing, and familiar talk with his friends ; the car-
dinals sent'"two bishops ; to wit, the bishops of Augusta,
and of Trent, to the place where John Huss lodged, to
report to him that they were sent by the pope and his
cardinals, to advertise him that he should come to
render some account of his doctrine before them, as he
had oftentimes desired, and that they were ready to hear
him. .
John Huss answered, " I am not come for any such in-
tent, as to defend my cause before the pope and his car-
dinals, protesting that I never desired any such thing,
but I would willingly appear before the whole assembly
of the council, and there answer for my defence openly,
without any fear or doubt, unto all such things as shall
be demanded or required of me. Notwithstanding," said
he, " forasmflch as you require me so to do, I will not re-
fuse to go with you before the cardinals. And if it
happen that they evil entreat or handle me ; yet never-
theless 1 trust in my Lord Jesus, that he will so comfort
and strengthen me, that I shall desire much rather to die
for his glory's sake, than to deny the verity and truth
which I have learned by his holy scriptures." Where-
fore, it came to pass, that the bishops being instant
upon him, and not shewing any outward appearance that
they bore any malice or hatred against him in their
hearts, John Huss took his horse which he had at his
lodging, and went to the court of the pope and the
cardinals.
V/hen he was come, and had saluted the cardinals,
they began to speak to him iu this sort: " We have heard
many reports of you, which, if they be true, are in no
case to be suffered : for men say, that you have taught
great and manifest errors against the doctrine of the
true church ; and that you have sowed your errors
abroad through all the realm of Bohemia for a long
time ; wherefore we have caused you to be called before
us, that we might understand and know how the matter
stands."
John Huss answered in few words, " Reverend fathers,
you shall understand that I am thus minded, that I
should rather choose to die, than I should be found
culpable of one only error, much less of many and great
errors. For this cause 1 am the more willingly come to
the general council, to shew myself ready even with all
my heart to receive correction, if any man can prove
any errors in me." The cardinals answered him again.
That his sayings pleased them very well, and upon that
they went away, leaving John Huss, with Master John
de Clum, under the guard and keeping of the armed
men.
In the mean time, they suborned and furnished out a
certain divine, a Franciscan friar, a subtle and crafty
man, and a malicious hypocrite, to question John Huss,
who was compassed round about with armed men. This
man drawing near in his monkish gesture, said, " Reverend
master, I a simple and ignorant man, am come to you to
learn ; for I have heard many strange and contrary
things against the catholic faith ascribed to you. Where-
fore I do desire you, even for the love which you bear to
the truth, and to all good and godly men, that you
would teach me, most simple and miserable man, some
certainty and truth. And first, men say, that you hold
opinion that after the consecration and pronunciation of
the words in the sacrament of the altar, there remains
only material bread." John Huss answered, " That it was
falsely attributed and imputed unto him." Then said he,
" I pray you, is not this your opinion ?" " No verily,"
said JohnHuss, "I do notsothinkof it." When the monk
asked this question the third time, Master John de
Clum being moved somewhat with him, said, " Why art
thou so importunate upon him ? Verily, if any man had
affirmed or denied any thing to me even once, I would
have believed him. And thou, although he hath shewed
thee his mind so often, yet ceasest not to trouble him."
Then said the monk, " Gentle master, I pray you pardon
me an ignorant and simple friar ; surely I did it of a
good mind and intent, being willing and desirous to
learn." This friar put another question unto him, pro-
testing his simplicity and ignorance, what manner of
unity of the Godhead and manhood was in the person of
Christ? When John Huss had heard this question, he
turning himself to Master John de Clum, in the Bohe-
mian language said, " Truly this friar is not simple as he
pretends, for he hath propounded to me a very hard
question." And afterward turning himself to the friar,
he said to him, " Brother, you say that you are simple,
but as I have heard you, I perceive very well that you
are double and crafty, and not simple." " It is not so,"
said the friar. " Well," said John Huss, " I will cause
you to understand that it is so. For as to the simplicity of
a man, it is required in things that concern civility and
manners that the spirit, the understanding, the heart,
the words, and the mouth, should agree together : and I
do not perceive that this is in you. There is in your
mouth a certain semblance of simplicity, which would
very well declare you to be an idiot and simple, but
your deeds shew plainly and evidently a great subtlety
and craft in you, with a great quickness and liveliness of
wit, to propose to me so hard and difficult a question.
Notwithstanding, I will not fear to shew you my mind
in this question." And when he had made an end, the
monk gave him great thanks for his gentleness, and so
departed. After that, the pope's garrison which were
about John Huss, told him, that this friar was called
master Didace, who was esteemed and counted the
greatest and most subtle divine in all Lombardy. '' Oh,
said John Huss, "if 1 had known that before, I would
have handled him after another fashion ; but I would to
God they were all such, then through the help and aid
of the holy scriptures I would fear none of them. In
296 JOHN HUfeS PUT IN PRISON, NOTWITHSTANDING THE ' SAFE CONDUCT.' [Boo*. V.
this manner Hubs and master John de Chim, were left
under the keeping of these men-at-anns, until four
o'clock in the afternoon. After which time the cardinals
assembled again in the pope's court, to devise and take
counsel what they should do with John Huss.
A little before night, they sent the provost of the
Roman court to master John de Clura, to shew him that
he might return to his lodging ; but as for John Huss,
they had otherwise provided for him. When master
John de Clum heard this news, he was wonderfully dis-
pleased, as through their crafts, subtleties, and glossing
words, they had so drawn this good man into their
snarrs, whereupon he went to the pope, declaring to him
all that was done; most humbly beseeching him, that
he would call to remembrance the promise wliich he had
made unto him and master Henry Latzemboge, and that
he would not so lightly falsify and break his faith and
promise. The pope answered, that all these things were
done without his consent or commandment, and said fur-
ther to master Clum apart, " What reason is it that you
should impute this deed unto me, seeing that you know
well enough that I myself am in the hands of these car-
dinals and bishops?"
So the said master Clum returned very pensive and sor-
rowful; hecomplainedvery sore, both privately and openly,
of the injury and outrage that the pope had done, but all
profited nothing. After this, John Huss was led by
the officers to the charter-house of the great church of
Constance, where he was kept prisoner for the space of
eight days ; from thence he was carried to the Jacobines,
hard by the river of the Rhine, and was shut up in the
prison of the abbey.
After he had been inclosed there a certain time, he
fell sore sick of an ague, by means of the stench of the
place, and became so weak, that they despaired of his
life. And for fear lest this good man should die in
j)rison, as others are wont to do, the pope sent to him
certain of his physicians to cure and help him. In the
midst of his sickness, his accusers made importunate
suit to the principals of the council, that John Huss
might be condemned ; and presented to the pope these
articles here under written :
Articles presented against John Huss.
•' First, he errs about the sacrament of the church,
and specially about the sacrament of the body of Christ,
forsomuch as he hath openly preached, that it ought to
be ministered openly unto the people under both kinds,
that is to say, the body and blood. This article is evi-
dent, forsomuch as his disciples at this instant in Prague
do minister the same in both kinds. Moreover it is
affirmed by several, that he has taught both in the
schools and in the church, or at the least that he holds
this opinion, that after the words of consecration pro-
nounced upon the altar, there remains still material
bread in the sacrament. This article shall be known by
his examination.
" Secondly, he errs as to the ministers of the church,
forsomuch as he saith, that they cannot consecrate or
minister the sacraments when they are in mortal sin.
This article shall likewise be known by his examination.
Notwith.standing, all that which is here contained may
he gathered by his writings on the church, which if he
deny, let there then be some divines and others ap-
pointed, to peruse and look over his writings More-
over he saith, that other men beside priests may minister
the sacrament. This article is evident, forsomuch as his
disciples do the same at Prague, who of themselves
do violently take the sacrament out of the treasury, and
communicate among themselves, when the holy commu-
nion is denied unto them. By this and other things also
it is sufficiently evident, that he has taught that every
man, being without mortal sin, has the power of orders
or priesthood, forsomuch as such only as have taken
orders ought to minister the sacrament to themselves.
And because he proceedeth from small matters unto
great and weightier, it does consequently ap])ear and
follow, that those which be in the state of grace can
bind and loose.
*' Thirdly, he errs as to the church, and specially
because he does not allow and admit that the church sig.
nifies the pope, cardinals, archbishops, and the clergy
underneath them; but saith, that this signification was .
drawn out from the school-men, and is in no case to be
held or allowed. This article is manifest by his treatise
upon the church.
" Moreover, he errs concerning the church, in that he
saith, that the church ought not to have any temporal
possessions. And that the temporal lords may take
them away from the church and the clergy without any
offence. This error is evident, forsomuch as through
his doctrine and enticements many churches in the king,
dom of Bohemia, and in the city of Prague, are already
spoiled and robbed of a great part of their temporalties
and goods. He saith also that Constantine and other
secular princes erred by enriching and endowing churches
and monasteries. This article is manifest by that which
goes ne.xt before.
" Fourthly, he errs as touching the church, in that he
saith, that all priests are of like power, and therefore
affirms, that the reservations of the pope's casualties,
the ordering of bishops, and the consecration of the
priests, were invented only for covetousness. This
article somewhat appears by those foregoing, but by his
examination shall be more evident.
" Fifthly, he errs concerning the church, in that he
saith, that the church being in sin, has no power of
the keys, when the pope, cardinals, and all other of
the priests and clergy are in deadly sin ; wh'ch he saith
is possible enough. This also appears in his treatise
upon the church in his first error as touching the minis-
ters of the church.
" Sixthly, he errs touching the church, forasmuch as
through contempt he does not fear excommunication.
This notoriously appears by his own doings, that he
contemned and despised the apostoUc and ordinary cen-
sure, and in all the apostolic excommunications and
injunctions he has borne himself upon the divine com-
mandments, and in contempt of the keys, to the setting
out of his hypocrisy, he has said mass all the way be-
tween this and the city of Prague, and thereby has pro-
faned the process and authority of the ch'irch.
" Seventhly, he errs again as toucliing the church,
because he keeps not the institutions nnd investitures
thereof, but holds opinion that every man has authority
to invest and appoint any man to the cure of souls. This
is evident by his own doings, forsomuch as many in the
kingdom of Bohemia, by their defenders and favourers,
or rather by himself, were appointed and put into parish
churches, which they have long ruled and kept, not
being aj)pointed by the apostolic see, neither yet by tlie
ordinary of the city of Prague.
" Eighthly, he errs as touching the church, in that he
holds opinion, that a man, being once ordained a priest
or deacon, cannot be forbidden or kept back from the
office of preaching. This is likewise manifest by his
own doings, forasmuch as he himself could never be
hindered from preaching, neither by the apostolic see,
neither yet by the archbishop of Prague.
" And to the intent that John Huss, who is clothed in
sheep's clothing, and inwardly a ravening wolf, may be
the better known by his fruits, for the better information
of you most reverend fathers : I say, that from the first
time that he took in hand, or went about to sow such
errors and heresies, which afterward he did indeed, he
understanding and perceiving himself to be withstood
and gainsayed by the (Jermans, who were in the uni-
versity of Prague, forsomuch as he could conclude
nothing, because they had three voices, and he on his
part had but one only voice ; he went about and brought
to pass, and that by the secular power, that the Ger-
mans should have but one voice, and he and his parts
three voices : which thing, when the Germans once per-
ceived, rather than they would lose or forsake any part
of their right which they had in voices, or be in danger
in their persons, which would then have ensued upon
it, to save themselves, they wholly with one consent
agreed together to depart out of Prague ; and by this
means this solemn and famous university of Prague was
A.D. 1414] JOHN HUSS SICK IN PRISON.— THE BOOKS HE WROTE THERE.
29:
made desolate, that had brought forth so many notable
men in divers sciences. Behold this his first fruits
whicli divided that so famous university, forsomuch as
grapes are not gathered of thorns, neither figs of bram-
bles.
" Moreover, when there were questions moved amongst
the divines of the university of Prague upon the forty-
five articles of John Wickliff, and that they had called a
convocation, and all the divines of Bohemia, (for the
Germans were already departed), they concluded that
every one of those articles were either heretical, sedi-
tious, or erroneous. He alone held the contrary opinion,
that none of those articles were either heretical, seditious,
or erroneous, as afterward he did dispute, hold, and
teach, in the common schools of Prague, whereby it is
evidently enough foreseen, that he holds and affirms those
articles of Wickliff, which are not only condemned in
England, but also by the whole church, because they
were first invented and set forth by the members of
antichrist.
" Moreover, he being complained of to the archbishop
of Prague, that he preached and set forth certain articles
which were heretical, false, and seditious, he was forbid-
den by the said archbishop to preach any more, who
proceeded against him, according to the canonical sanc-
tions, the which process is confirmed by the apostolic
see, and published as well in the court of Rome, as
without ; which John Huss and his adherents have
divers and manifold ways violated and profaned. And
whoever did speak against him, they were deprived of
their benefices, and others placed in, who have ruled and
do yet rule the said churches, and the flocks pertaining
to the same, not having any cure or charge of the souls
committed unto them, neither by the apostolic see,
neither yet by the ordinary of the place.
" Also all those, as well priests as laymen, in the city
of Prague and kingdom of Bohemia, who have spoken
against the doctrine of Huss, and the profanation of the
process aforesaid, or at the least not allowed the same,
have suffered most mortal hatred and persecutions, and
yet to this day do suffer. But at this present it is
dissembled until the end of the process against John
Huss. Mlierefore if he be now let go again, without
doubt they shall suffer great persecution both in body
and goods, and throughout all the realm of Bohemia,
iiouse shall be against house, and this mischief will
creep, yea suddenly spring up throughout all Germany,
and innumerable souls shall be infected, so that there
shall be such persecution of the clergy and faithful, as
has not been since the time of the emperor Constantine
to this present day ; for he ceases not to move and stir up
the laity agninst the clergy and faithful christians. And
when any of the clergy would draw him away, or call
him from his heresy, and for that cause forbid him to
preach, that he does not teach any heresies : then says
he that the clergy do that of envy and malice, because
he rebukes their vices and faults ; that is to say, their
simony, and pride, and covetousness.
" Aloreover, he stirs up the secular princes against
the prelates of churches, monasteries, and universities,
aud generally against the whole clergy. Going about by
this means, he preaches and teaches that prelates and
other men of the church ought not to have any temporal
goods or possessions, but only to live upon alms. And
by this means he has done already very much hurt, and
annoyed divers and many prelates, clerks, and churches
in the kingdom of Bohemia, and city of Prague, forso-
much as tiiereby they are already spoiled and robbed of
their possessions. Yea, he teaches also that it is lawful
for the lay-people without sin to withhold and keep back
the tithes and oblations, or to give the church goods to
any other minister ; all the secular princes are greatly
inclined hereunto, but especially the laity, who follow
every man his own will.
" He has generally with him all those heretics who
do but very smally regard the ecclesiastical censures,
and hate the authority of the Roman church, yea do
utterly detest and abhor the same ; which thing will
more and more increase, except it be effectually and
manfully withstood ; and if he do by any means escape
from the council, he and his favourers will say that his
doctrine is just and true, and that it is allowed by the
authority of the universal sacred council, and that all his
adversaries are wicked and naughty men, so that he
would do more mischief, than ever any heretic did sinco
the time of Constantine the Great.
" Wherefore, most holy fatheis, provide and take heed
to yourselves, and to the whole flock amongst whom the
Holy Ghost hath placed you, to rule the church of
Christ, which he hatli purchased with his own blood ;
and whilst the disease is new and fresh, help and remedy
it, as well touching him who doth so infect and trouble
the church of God, as also concerning the occasions,
through the which he hath presumed, and might do the
same, because the prelates do abuse the ecclesiastical
censures, and they as well as those that are under
them, do not keep and observe the order of the church
which is appointed them by God, whereby it comes to
pass, that whilst they themselves do walk the broken and
unknown paths, their flock falls headlong into the
ditch.
" Wherefore, let our sovereign lord the pope, and this
most sacred council, ordain and depute commissioners,
who may examine the said John Huss upon all be-
fore-written, and other things in the presence of them
which know the matter. Let there be also certain
doctors and masters appointed to read over and peruse
his books which he hath written, whereof some are here
present, that the church may be speedily purged and
cleansed from these errors."
Upon this accusation, they ordained and ap-
pointed three commissioners or judges, that is to say,
the patriarch of Constantinople, and the bishop of
Castile, and the bishop of Lybuss, — which prelates
being thus deputed, heard the accusation and the wit-
ness which was brought in by certain priests of Prague,
confirmed by their oaths, and afterward recited the ac-
cusation to Huss in the prison, at such time as his ;'gue
was fervent and extreme upon him.
Upon this, John Huss required to have an advocate
to answer for him ; which was utterly denied him.
Thus John Huss remained in the prison of the convent
of the Franciscans, until the Wednesday before Palm
Sunday ; and in the meantime to employ his time, he
wrote certain books, concerning the ten command-
ments, of the love and knowledge of God, of matri-
mony, of penance, of the three enemies of mankind, of
the prayer of our Lord, and of the supper of our Lord.
The same day Pope John XXIII. changed his apparel,
and conveyed himself secretly out of Constance, fearing
the judgment by which afterward he was deprived of his
papal dignity, for the most execrable and abominable
doings. This was the cause that John Huss was trans-
ported and carried unto another prison : for the pope's
servants, who had the charge and keeping of John Huss,
understanding that their master was fled and gone, de-
livered up the keys of the prison unto the Emperor
Sigismund, and to the cardinals, and followed their
master the pope. Then by the consent of the whole
council, John Huss was put into the hands of the bishop
of Constance, who sent him to a castle on the other side
of the river of the Rhine, not very far from Constance,
where he was shut up in a tower with fetters on his legs,
that he could scarce walk in the day time, and at night he
was fastened up to a rack against the wall hard by his bed.
In the meantime, certain noblemen and gentlemen of
Poland and Bohemia did all their endeavour to procure
his deliverance, having respect to the good renown of
all the realm, which was wonderfully defamed and slan-
dered by certain naughty persons. The matter was
grown unto this point, that all they who were in the
town of Constance, that seemed to bear any favour unto
John Huss, were made as mocking stocks, and derided of
all men, yea, even of the slaves and base people.
Wherefore they took counsel and concluded together to
present their request in writing to the whole council, or
at the least to the four nations of Germany, Italy,
APPLICATION OF THE NOBLES FOR THE RELEASE OF JOHN HUSS. [Book V.
France, and England; this request was presented the
14th day of May, A. D. 1415 : the tenour here ensues.
The first Schedule or Bill, vhich the Nobles of Bohemia
delivered up to the Council for the deliverance of
John Huss, the Uth day of May, A.D. 1415.
" Most reverend fathers and lords, the nobles and
lords of Bohemia and Poland here present, by this their
present writing do shew and declare unto your fatherly
reverences, how that the most noble king and lord, the
Lord Sigismund, king of the Romans, always Augustus,
king of Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia, &c. hearing of the
great dissension that was in the kingdom of Bohemia, as
heir, king, and lord successor, willing to foresee and
provide for his own honour, sent these noblemen,
Master Wenceslate de Duba, and John de Clum here
present, that they would bring and assure Master John
Huss UNDER THE KINg's NAME AND SAFE CONDUCT.
So that he would come to the sacred general council of
Constance, under the safe conduct of the said king, and
the protection of the sacred empire, openly given and
granted unto the said Master John Huss, that he might
purge himself and the kingdom of Bohemia from the
slander that was raised upon them, and there to make
an open declaration of his faith to every man that would
lay any thing to his charge. The which the said nobles,
•with the forenamed Master John Huss, have performed
and done, according to the king's commandment.
" When the said Master John Huss was freely of his
own accord come unto Constance, under the said safe
conduct, he was grievously imprisoned before he was
heard, and at this present time is tormented both with
fetters, and also with hunger and thirst. Although
that in times past at the council holden at Pisa in the
year of our Lord 1410, the heretics who were con-
demned, were suffered to remain there at liberty, and
to depart home freely ; notwithstanding this, Master
John Huss, neither being convicted nor condemned, no
not so much as once heard, is taken and imprisoned,
■when as neither king nor any prince elector, neither any
ambassador of any university was yet come or present.
And albeit the lord the king, together with the nobles
and lords here present, most instantly required and de-
sired, that as touching his safe conduct they would fore-
see and have respect to his honour, and that the said
Master John Huss might be openly heard, forsomuch as
he would render and shew a reason of his faith ; and if
he were found and convicted obstinately to affirm or
maintain any thing against the truth of holy scripture,
that then he ought to correct and amend the same, ac-
cording to the instruction and determination of the
council ; yet could he never obtain this. But the said
Master John Huss, notwithstanding all this, is most
grievously oppressed with fetters and irons, and so
weakened with thin and slender diet, that it is to be
feared, lest that his power and strength being hereby
consumed and wasted, he should be put in danger of his
wit or reason.
" And although the lords of Bohemia here present are
greatly slandered, because they, seeing the said Master
John Huss so to be tormented and troubled, contrary to
the king's safe conduct, have not by their letters put the
king in mind of his safe conduct, that the said lord and
king should not any more suffer any such matters, for-
somuch as they tend to the contempt and disregard of
the kingdom of Bohemia, which, from the first original
and beginning, since it received the catholic faith, never
departed or went away from the obedience of the holy
church of Rome ; yet, notwithstanding, they have suf-
fered and borne all these things patiently hitherto, lest
by any means occasion of trouble or ve.\ation of this
sacred council might arise or spring thereof.
" Wherefore, most reverend fathers and lords, the
nobles and lords before named, do wholly and most
earnesrly de.sire and require your reverences here pre-
sent, that both for the honour of the safe conduct of our
said lord the king, and also for the preservation and
increase of the worthy fame and renown, both of the
kingdom of Bohemia, and your own also, you will make
a short end about the affairs of Master John Huss ; for-
somuch as by th(! means of his straight handling he is in
great danger by any longer delay ; even as they do most
specially trust upon the most upright consciences and
judgments of your fatherly reverences. But forasmuch
as, most reverend fathers and lords, it is now come to
the knowledge and understanding of tlie nobles and lords
of Bohemia here present, how that certain backbiters
and slanderers of the most famous kingdom of Bohemia
aforesaid, have declared and told unto your reverences,
how that the sacrament of the most precious blood of
our Lord is carried up and down through Bohemia in
vessels not consecrate or hallowed, and tliat cohhleis do
now hear confessions, and minister the most blessed
body of our Lord unto others. The nobles therefore of
Bohemia here present, require and desire you, that you
will give no credit unto false promoters and tale tellers,
for that, as most wicked and naughty slanderers and
backbiters of that kingdom aforesaid, they do report and
tell untruths ; requiring also your reverences, that such
slanderous persons of the kingdom aforesaid may be
named and known. And the lord the king, together
with your reverences, shall well perceive and see that the
lords of Bohemia will go about in such a manner to re-
pel and put away the false and frivolous slanders of these
naughty persons, that they shall be ashamed to appear
hereafter before the lord the king and your reverences."
When the noblemen of Bohemia for a long time couldaL
obtain no answer to this, and a second supplication
which they had already put up, they determined the las
day of May, by another supplication to the principals <
the council, to intreat that John Huss might be delij
vered out of prison, and defend his own cause openly, id
which among other things they pray —
"Wherefore, most reverend fathers, his enemiesJ
through the extreme hatred which they bear to himl
have picked and taken out by piecemeal, certain articlef
out of the books of Master John Huss, rejecting and
not looking upon the allegations and reasons, have com^
pounded and made thereof certain false and feigned arti;
cles against him to this end, that all charity and lov^
being set apart, they might the better overthrow himj
and bring him unto death, contrary to the safe conduct
upon good and just occasion openly assigned, and given
to the said Master John Huss, by the most noble princd
the Lord Sigismund, king of the Romans, and of Hun-i
gary, for his just defence against all the frivolous accusa*
tions and assaults of the enemies, not only of the saifl
Master John Huss, but also of the famous kingdom o(|
Bohemia, and for the quiet appeasing of all such tumult
and rumours rising and springing in the said kingdom of
Bohemia, or elsewhere ; the avoiding of which most pe^
rilous uproars, the said king of the Romans doth greatlj
desire and wish, as the right heir and successor of th
said kingdom.
" Wherefore may it please your fatherly reverences td
command the said Master John Huss, neither convicted
nor condemned, to be taken and brought out of his bond
and chains, in the which he is now most grievously detained
and kept, and to put him into the hands of some reverend
lord bishops, or commissioners, appointed, or to be ap-
pointed by this present council ; that the said Master John
Huss may somewhat be relieved, and recover again his
health, and be the more diligently and commodiously ex-
amined by thecommissioners. Andforthe more assurance,
the barons and nobles aforesaid of the kingdom of Bohemia,
will provide most sure and good sureties, the which will
not break their fidelity and faith for any thing in the
world. Which also shall promise in this behalf, that he
shall not flee or depart out of their hands, until such
time as the matter be fully determined by the said com-
missioners. In the e.xecuiion of the which premises, we
have determined to provide and foresee unto the fame and
honour of the said kingdom of Bohemia, and also to the
safe conduct of the most worthy prince, the king of the
Romans, lest that the enemies and detractors of the ho-
nour and fame of the kingdom aforesaid, might not a
little slander and reprove the R«id lords, pretendir^ and
A.D. 1415.]
JOHN HUSS DISPUTES IN THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.
299
shewing forth hereafter, that they had made unreasona-
ble or unlawful requests ; for the witlistanding of which
' mischief we require your fatherly reverences, that you
j will decree, and most graciously consent, that this our
petition and supplication may be drawn out again by
your notary, and reduced into a public form and order."
The same day the said barons and lords presented a
supplication to the emperor, embodying the foregoing
j supplication, and concluding thus :
i " Wherefore we most humbly require and desire your
princely majesty, that both for the love of justice, and
also of the fame and renown of that most famous king-
dom of Bohemia, whereof we acknowledge you un-
; doubtedly the true lord, heir, and successor ; and also
foreseeing unto the liberty nf your safe conduct, that
you will with your favourable countenance, beholding
i these most reasonable and just supplications which we
I have put up to the lords aforesaid, put to your helping
I hand toward the said most reverend fathers and lords,
I that they will effectually hear us, in this our most just
I petition, which we have offered up to them, as is afore-
said, lest that the enemies of the renown and honour of
the famous kingdom of Bohemia, and such be our slan-
derers also, hereafter may detract and slander us, that we
should make unreasonable and unlawful requests unto
: the said reverend fathers and lords ; and therefore we
required and desired of them, that it would please them
to decree by setting to their public hand and seal, to
authorise our said publication. Likewise, we do most
heartily require your highness, that you would vouch-
safe in like manner, to give us your testimony of the
premises."
But what answer the emperor made hereto, we could
never understand or know, but by the process of the
matter a man may easily judge, that this good emperor
was brought, through the obstinate mischief of the car-
dinals and bishops, to break and falsify his promise and
faith which he had made and promised ; and this was
their reason, that no defence could or might be given
either by safe conduct, or by any other means to him,
who was suspected or judged to be an heretic. But by
the epistles and letters of John Huss, a man may easily
judge what the king's mind was. Now we will proceed
to the history.
The fifth day of June, the cardinals, bishops, and the
rest of the priests, all that were in Constance, assembled
to a great number, at the convent of the Franciscans in
Constance, and there it was commanded, that before
John Huss should be brought forth, in his absence they
should rehearse the witnesses and articles which they
had slanderously gathered out of his books. By chance
there was then present a certain notary, named Mladonie-
witz, who bare great love and amity to Huss, who, as
soon as he perceived that the bishops and cardinals were
already determined and appointed to condemn the said
articles in the absence of John Huss, went with all speed
to Master Wencelate de Duba, and John de Clum, and
told them all the matter, who immediately made report
of it to the emperor, who, understanding their object,
sent to signify to them that nothing should be resolved
or done in the case of John Huss, before they should
send him all such articles as were laid against the said
John Huss, which were either false or heretical, and he
would do so much, that the said articles should be ex-
amined by good and learned men. Then according to
the emperor's will, the judgment of the principals of the
council was suspended, until such time as John Huss
were present.
In the meantime, these gentlemen, master of Duba
and of Clum, gave to the two princes, whom the emperor
had sent, certain small treatises which John Huss had
made, out of which they had drawn certain articles to
present to them who rule the council, under this condi-
tion, that they would render them again, when they
should demand them. The intent and meaning of these
barons was, that by this means the adversaries of John
Huss might the more easily be reproved, who, of a
naughty and cornipt conscience, had picked out corrupt
sentences out of the books of John Huss. The books
were delivered to the cardinals and bishops ; and then
John Huss was brought forth, and the princes who were
sent by the emperor, departed. After they shewed the
books to John Huss, and he confessed openly before
the whole assembly that he had wrote them, and that he
was ready, if there were any fault in them, to amend the
same.
Now hearken a little to the holy proceedings of these
reverend fathers, for here happened a strange and shame-
ful matter. With much ado they had scarcely read one
article, and brought forth a few witnesses upon the
same against him, but as he was about to open his
mouth to answer, all this mad herd or flock began so to
cry out upon him, that he was not able to speak one
word. The noise and trouble was so great and so
vehement, that a man might well have called it an up-
roar or noise of wild beasts, and not of men ; much less
was it to be judged a congregation of men gathered toge-
ther to judge and determine so grave and weighty mat-
ters. And if it happened that the noise and cry did ever
so little cease, that he might answer any thing at all, out
of the holy scriptures oi ecclesiastical doctors, by and
by he would hear such replies as were nothing to the
purpose.
Besides all this, some did outrage in words against
him, and others spitefully mocked him, so that seeing
himself overwhelmed with these rude and barbarous
noises and cries, and that it profited nothing to speak,
he determined finally with himself to hold his peace and
keep silence. From that time forward, all the whole
rout of his adversaries thought that they had won
the battle of him, and cried out all together " Now he
is dumb, now he is dumb ; this is a certain sign and
token, that he doth consent and agree unto these his
errors." Finally, the matter came to this point, that
certain of the most moderate and honest among them,
seeing this disorder, determined to proceed no further,
but that all should be deferred and put off until
another time. Through their advice, the prelates and
others departed from the council for the present, and
appointed to meet there again on the morrow to pro-
ceed in judgment.
The next day, which was the seventh of June, on which
day the sun was almost wholly eclipsed, somewhat after,
about seven of the clock, this same flock assembled again
in the cloister of the friars minors, and by their appoint-
ment John Huss was brought before them, accompanied
with a great nuniber of armed men. Thither went also
the emperor, whom the gentlemen, master of Duba and
Clum, and the notary named Peter, which were great
friends of the said Huss, did follow to see what the end
would be. When they were* come thither, they heard
that in the accusation of Michael de Causis, they read
these words following : John Huss hath taught the peo-
ple divert and many errors both in the chapel of
Bethlehem, and also in many other places of the city of
Prague, of the which errors some of them he hath drawn
out of Wickliff's books, and the rest he has forged and
invented of his own head, and maintains the same very
obstinately.
First, that after the consecration and pronunciation
of the words in the supper of the Lord, there remains
material bread. To this John Huss, taking a solemn
oath, answered that he never spake any such word ; but
thus much he did grant, that at what time the archbi-
shop of Prague forbade him to use any more that term
or word bread, he could not allow the bishop's command,
as Christ, in the sixth chapter of John, oftentimes names
himself the bread of life, which came down from
heaven, to give life unto the whole world. But as
touching material bread, he never spake any thing at all.
Then they returned again unto the witnesses, who
every man for himself affirmed with an oath that which
he had said. Amongst whom John Protyway, when he
should confirm his testimony, added that John Huss,
said that St. Gregory was but a rhymer, when he alleged
his authority against him. To whom John Huss an-
swered, that in this point they did him great iiyorj, as
THE EMPEROR'S ORATION TO JOHN HUSS.
[BofK V,
he always esteemed and reputed St. Gregory for a most
holy doctor of the church.
Tlien was there read a certain article of accusation, in
which it was alleged, that John Huss had taught, and
obstinately defended certain erroneous articles of Wick-
lifF'sin Bohemia. Whereunto Huss answered, that he
never taught any errors of John Wickliff's, or of any other
man's. But to confirm their article, there was alleged,
that John Huss did withstand the condemnation of
Wickliff's articles. He answered that he durst not
agree thereto, for offending his conscience, and especially
for these articles, that Silvester the pope and Constantine
did err in bestowing those great gifts and rewards upon
the church. Also, that the pope or priest, being in
mortal sin, cannot consecrate nor baptize. " This arti-
cle," said he, " I have thus determined, as if I should
say, that he unworthily consecrates or baptizes, when he
is in deadly sin, and that he is an unworthy minister of
the sacraments of God." Here his accusers, with their
witnesses, were earnest and instant that the article of
Wickliff was written in the very same words of the
treatise of John Huss. "Verily," said John Huss ; "I
fear not to submit myself, even under the danger of
death, if you shall not find it so as I have said." When
the book was brought forth, they found it written as
John Huss had said.
Then was there rehearsed another article of his accu-
sation in this manner : — That John Huss to confirm the
heresy which he had taught the common and simple
people out of Wickliff's books, said openly these words,
that at what time a great number of monks and friars,
and other learned men were gathered together in Eng-
land, in a certain church, to dispute against John Wick-
liff, and could by no means vanquish him, suddenly
the church door was broken open with lightning, so
that with much ado Wickliff's enemies hardly escaped
without hurt. He added, moreover, that he wished his
soul to be in the same place where John Wickliff's soul
was. Whereunto John Huss answered, " That a dozen
years before that any books of divinity of John Wick-
liff's were in Bohemia, he saw certain works of philoso-
phy of his, which, he said, did marvellously delight and
please him. And when he understood the good and
godly life of Wickliff, he spake these words, I trust,
said he, that Wickliff is saved ; and although I doubt
whether he be damned or no, yet with a good hope I
wish that my soul were in the same place where John
Wickliff's is." Then again did all the company jest
and laugh at him.
It is also in his accusation, that John Huss did coun-
sel the people, according to the example of Moses, to
resist with the sword against all such as did gainsay his
doctrine. And the next day after he had preached the
same, there were found openly in divers places certain
intimations, that every man, being armed with his sword
about him, should stoutly proceed, and that brother
should not spare brother, neither one neighbour an-
other. John Huss answered, that " All these things
were falsely laid unto his charge by his adversaries ; for
he at all times when he preached, did diligently ad-
monish and warn the people, that they should all arm
themselves to defend the truth of the gospel, according
to the saying of the apostle, ' with the helmet and
sword of salvation ;' and that he never spake of any ma-
terial sword, but of that which is the word of God.
And as touching intimations, or Moses' sword, he never
had anything to do withal."
When all the articles were in this way gone through,
John Huss was committed to the custody of the bishop
of Reggeo, under whom Jerome of Prague was also pri-
soner. But before he was led away, the cardinal of
Cambray calling him back again in the presence of the
emperor, said, " John Huss, I have heard you say, that
if you had not been willing of your own mind to come
to Constance, neither the emperor himself, neither the
king of Bohemia, could have compelled you to do it."
John Huss answered, " Under your license, most reve-
rend father, I never used any such kind of talk or
words. But this I did say, that there was in Bohemia a
great number of gentlemen and noblemen, who did
favour and love me, who also might easily have kept mo
in some sure and secret place, that I should not have
been constrained to come into this town of Constance
neither at the will of the emperor, neither of the king of
Bohemia." With that the cardinal of Cambray, even
for very anger, began to cliange his colour, and despite-
fuUy said, " Do you not see tlie unshamefacedness of the
man here ?" And as they were murmuring, and whis-
pering on all parts, the Lord John de Clum, ratifying
and confirming that which John Huss had spoken, said,
" Tliat John Huss had spoken very well ; for on my
])art," said he, " who, in comparison of a great mikny
others, am but of small force in the realm of Bohemia,
yet if I would have taken it in hand, I could have
defended him easily by the space of one year, even
against all the force and power of both these great and
mighty kings. How much better might they have done
it who are of more force or jiuissance than I am, and
have stronger castles and places than I have .'" After
that the Lord de Clum had spoken, the cardinal of
Cambray said, " Let us leave this talk. And I tell you,
John Huss, and counsel you, that you submit yourself
to the sentence and mind of the council, as you did
promise in the jirison ; and if you will do so, it shall be
greatly both for your profit and honour."
And the emjieror himself began to tell him the same
tale, saying, " Although there be some who say, that the
fifteenth day after you were committed to prison, you
obtained of us our letters of safe conduct, notwithstand-
ing I can well prove by the witness of many princes and
noblemen, that the safe conduct was obtained and got-
ten of us by my Lords de Duha and de Clum, before you
were departed out of Prague, under whose guard we have
sent for you, to the end that none should do you any
outrage or hurt, but that you should have full liberty to
speak freely before all the council, and to answer as
touching your faith and doctrine ; and as you see, my
lords the cardinals and bishops have so dealt with you,
that we do very well perceive their good-will towards
you, for the which we have great cause to thank them.
And forasmuch, as divers have told us, that we may
NOT, OR OUGHT NOT, OF RIGHT TO DEFEND ANY MAN
WHO IS AN HERETIC, OR SUSPECT OF HERESY ; there-
fore now we give you even the same counsel which the
cardinal of Cambray hath given you already, that you
be not obstinate to maintain any opinion, but that you
do submit yourself under such obedience as you owe
unto the authority of the holy council, in all things that
shall be laid against you, and confirmed by credible wit-
nesses, which thing, if you do according to our counsel,
we will give order that for the love of us, of our brother,
and the whole realm of Bohemia, the council shall suffer
you to depart in peace, with an easy and tolerable
penance and satisfaction, which if you refuse to do, the
presidents of the council shall have sufficient authority
to proceed against you. And for our part be ye well
assured, that we will sooner prepare and make the fire
with our own hands, to burn you withal, than we will
endure or suffer any longer that you shall maintain or
use this stiffness of ojiinions, which you have hitherto
maintained and used. Wherefore our advice and counsel
is, that you submit yourself wholly unto the judgment
of the council." John Huss answered, " O most
noble emperor, I render unto your highness most im-
mortal thanks for your letters of safe conduct." Upon
this Lord John de Clum did break him of his purpose,
and admonished him that he did not excuse himself of
the blame of obstinacy.
Then said John Huss, " O most gentle Lord, I do
take God to my witness, that I was never minded
obstinately to maintain any opinion, and that for
this same intent and purpose I came hither of mine
own good will, that if any man could lay before me any
better or more holy doctrine than mine, that then I
would change mine opinion without any fiirther doubt."
After he had spoken and said these things, he was sent
away with the Serjeants.
The morrow after, which was the eighth day of June,
the very same company which was assembled the day
before, assembled now again at the convent of the Fran-
D. 1415.]
THE APPEAL OF JOHN HUSS FROM THE POPE TO CHRIST.
301
iciscars ; and in this assembly were also John Huss'
ifriends, Lord de Duba, Lord de Clum, and Peter the
'notary. Thither was John Huss also brought, and in
his presence there were read about thirty-nine articles,
'which they said, were drawn out of his books. Huss
acknowledged all those that were faithfully and truly
collected and gathered, to be his, of which sort there
were but very few ; the residue were counterfeited and
forged by his adversaries, for they could find no such
thing in the books, out of the which they said they had
'drawn and gathered them.
Tiiese were the same articles in a manner which were
shewed before in the prison to John Huss, and are re-
hearsed here in another order : although there were
some more articles added to them, and others corrected
and enlarged, mention is made in them of his appeal,
! which is as follows : —
IVie Appeal of John Hitss/rom the Pope to Christ.
" Forasmuch as the most mighty Lord, one in essence,
[three in person, is both the chief and first, and also the
last, and utmost refuge of all those who are oppressed,
land th;it he is the God who defendeth verity and
truth tliroughout all generations, doing justice to such
as be wronged, being ready and at hand to all those
wliich call upon him in verity and truth, unbinding those
that are bound, and fulfilling the desires of all those
who honour and fear him; defending and keeping all
those that love him, and utterly destroying and bringing
to ruin the stiff-necked and impenitent sinner, and that
the Lord Jesus Christ very God and man, being in great
anguish, compassed in with the priests, scribes, and
pharisees, wicked judges and witnesses, willing by the
most bitter and ignominious death to redeem the children
of God, chosen before the foundation of the world, from
everlasting damnation ; hath left behind him this godly
example for a memory unto them who should come
after him, to the intent they should commit all their
causes into the hands of God, who can do all things, and
knoweth and seeth all things, saying in this manner : O
Lord, behold my affliction, for my enemy hath prepared
himself against me, and thou art my protector and de-
fender. O Lord, thou hast given me understanding,
and I have acknowledged thee, thou hast opened unto
me all their enterprises ; and for my own part, I have
been as a meek lamb which is led unto sacrifice, and have
not resisted against them. They have wrought their
enterprises upon me, saying. Let us put wood in his
bread, and let us banish him out of the land of the
living, that his name be no more spoken of, nor had in
memory. But thou, O Lord of Hosts, who judgest
justly, and seest the devices and imaginations of their
hearts, hasten thee to take vengeance upon them, for I
have manifested my cause unto thee, forsomuch as the
number of those which trouble me is great, and have
counselled together, saying, the Lord hath forsaken
him, pursue him and catch him. O Lord my God, be-
hold their doings, for thou art my patience ; deliver me
from mine enemies, for thou art my God ; do not sepa-
rate thyself far from me, for tribulation is at hand, and
there is no man which will succour. My God, my God,
look down upon me, wherefore hast thou forsaken me ?
So many dogs have compassed me in, and the company
of the wicked have besieged me round about, for they
have spoken against me with deceitful tongues, and have
compassed me in with words full of despite, and have
enforced me without cause. Instead of love towards me
they have slandered me, and have recompensed me with
evil for good, and in place of charity they have conceived
hatred against me.
" Wherefore, behold, I staying myself upon this most
holy and fruitful example of my Saviour and Redeemer,
do appeal before God for this my grief and hard oppres-
sion, from this most wicked sentence and judgment, and
the excommunication determined by the bishops, scribes,
pharisees, and judges, who sit in Moses's seat, and
resign my cause wholly unto him ; even as the holy
patriarch of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, appealed
twice from the council of the bishops and clergy ; and
Aadrew, bishop of Prague, and Robert, bishop of Lin-
coln, appealed to the sovereign and most just Jud^e,
who is not defiled with cruelty, neither can he be cor-
rupted with gifts and rewards, neither yet be deceived by
false witness. Also I desire greatly that all the faitht'ui
servants of Jesus Christ, and especially the princes,
barons, knights, esquires, and all other who inhabit
our country of Bohemia, should understand and know
these things, and have compassion upon uie, vvlio am
so grievously oi)pressed by the excommunication which
is out against me, and which was obtained and gotten Ijy
the instigation and procurement of Michael de Causis
my great enemy, and by the consent and furtherance of
the canons of the cathedral church of Prague, and given
and granted out by Peter of St. Angelo, dean of the
church of Rome, and cardinal, and also ordained judge
by Pope John XXIIL, who hath continued almost these
two years, and would give no audience unto my advo-
cates and procurators, which they ought not to deny,
(no not to a Jew or Pagan, or to any heretic whatsoever
he were) neither yet would he receive any reasonable
excuse, for that I did not appear personally, neither
would he accept the testimonials of the whole university
of Prague with the seal hanging at it, or the witness of
the sworn notaries, and such as were called unto witness.
By this all men may evidently perceive that I have not
incurred any fault or crime of contumacy or disobe-
dience, forsomuch as that I did not appear in the court
of Rome, was not for any contempt, but for reasonable
causes.
" And moreover, forsomuch as they had laid ambush-
ments for me on every side by ways where I should pass,
and also because the perils and dangers of others have made
me the more circumspect and advised ; and forsomuch
as my proctors were willing and contented to bind them-
selves even to abide the punishment of the fire to answer
to all such as would oppose or lay any thing against me
in the court of Rome ; as also because they did imprison
my lawful procurator in the said court, without any
cause, demerit, or fault, as I suppose. Forsomuch then
as the order and disposition of all ancient laws as well
divine of the old and new testament, as also of the canon
laws, is this, that the judges should resort unto the
place where the crime or fault is committed or done,
and there to inquire of all such crimes as shall be
objected and laid against him which is accused or slan-
dered, and that of such men as by conversation have
some knowledge or understanding of the party so accused
(who may not be the evil willers or enemies of him
which is so accused or slandered ; but must be men of
an honest conversation, no common quarrel pickers or
accusers, but fervent lovers of the law of God ;) and
finally, that there should be a fit and meet place ap-
pointed, whither as the accused party might without
danger or peril, resort or come, and that the judge and
witnesses should not be enemies unto him that is accused.
And also forsomuch as it is manifest, that all these con-
ditions were wanting and lacking, as touching my ap-
pearance for the safeguard of my life, I am excused
before God from the frivolous pretended obstinacy and
excommunication. Whereupon \, John Huss, do pre-
sent and ofTer this my ajipeal unto my Lord Jesus
Christ, my just Judge, who knoweth and defendeth, and
justly judgeth every man's just and true cause."
Articles formerly contained or picked out of the Treatise
of John Huss of Prague, tchich he entitled " Of the
Church,^^ following in this part or behalf the errors,
as they term them, of John Wickliff, tvith the judg-
ment against them.
The first article. " No reprobate is true pope, lord,
or prelate." The error is in the faith, and behaviour,
and manners, being many times before condemned, as
well against the poor men of Lyons, as also against the
Waldenses and Pikards. The affirmation of which
errors is temerarious, seditious, offensive and pernicious,
and tending to the subversion of all human policy and
government, forasmuch as no man knows whether he be
worthy of love or hatred, for all men offend in many
points, and thereby should all rule and dominion b«
302
ARTICLES ALLEGED AGAINST JOHN HUSS.
[Rook V.
made uncertain and unstable, if it should be founded
upon predestination and charity ; neither should the
commandment of Peter have been good, who desires all
servants to be obedient unto their masters and lords,
although they be wicked.
The second article. " That no man who is in deadly
sin, whereby he is no member of Christ, but of the devil,
is true pope, prelate, or lord." The error of this is like
to the first.
The third article. " No reprobate or person in deadly
sin, sits in the apostolic seat of Peter, neither has any
apostolical power over the christian people." This
error is also like to the first.
The fourth article. " No reprobates are of the
church, nor any who do not follow the life of Christ."
This error is against the common opinion of the doctors,
concerning the church.
The fifth article. " They only are of the church, and
sit in Peter's seat, and have apostolic power who follow
Christ and his apostles in their life and living." The
error hereof is in faith and manners, as in the first arti-
cle, but containing more arrogancy and rashness.
The sixth article. " That every man who lives up-
rightly, according to the nile of Christ, may and ought
openly to preach and teach, although he be not sent,
yea, although he be forbidden or excommunicated by any
prelate or bishop, even as he might or ought to give
alms ; for his good life in living together with his learn-
ing, sufficiently sends him." This is a rash and teme-
rarious error, offensive, and tending to the confusion
of the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy.
The seventh article. " That the pope of Rome being
contrary to Christ, is not the universal bishop, neither
has the church of Rome any supremacy over other
churches, except peradventure it be given to him of
Csesar, and not of Christ." An error lately and plainly
reproved.
The eighth article. " That the pope ought not to be
called most holy, neither that his feet are holy and
blessed, or that they ought to be kissed." This error is
temerarious, irreverently, niul offeii.-ively published.
The ninth article. " That according unto the doc-
trine of Christ, heretics, be they never so obstinate or
stubborn, ought not to be put to death, neither to be
accursed or excommunicated." This is the error of the
Donatists, temerariously, and not without great offence
affirmed against the laws of the ecclesiastical discipline,
as St. Augustine proves.
The tenth article. " That subjects and the com-
mon people, may and ought publicly and openly to de-
tect and reprove the vices of their superiors and rulers,
as having power given them of Christ, and example of
St. Paul so to do." This error is pernicious, full of
offence, inducing all rebellion, disobedience and se-
dition.
The eleventh article. "That Christ only is head of
the church, and not the pope." It is an error accord-
ing to the common interpretation of the doctors, if all
the reason of the supremacy, and of being head, be se-
cluded and taken away from the pope.
The twelfth article. " That the only church, which
comprehends the predestinate and good livers, is the
universal church, whereto subjects owe obedience. And
this is consecpient to the former article." The error is
contained as in the former articles.
Tlie thirteenth article. " That tithes and oblations
given to the church, are public and common alms."
This error is offensive, and contrary to the determination
of the apostle, 1 Cor. ix.
The fourteenth article. " That the clergy living
wickedly, ought to be reproved and corrected by the
lav-people, by the taking away of their tithes and other
temporal profits." A most pernicious error and offen-
sive, inducing the secular people to perpetrate sacrilege,
subverting the ecclesiastical liberty.
The fifteenth article. " That the blessings of such as
are reprobate or evil livers of the clergy, are maledic-
tions and cursings before God, according to the saying,
I will curse your blessings." This error was re])roved
by St. Augustine, against St. Cyprian and his followers.
neither is the master of the sentences allowed of the
masters in that point when he seems to favour this
article.
The sixteenth article. " That in these days, and in
long time before, there has been no true po])e, no true
church or faith, which is called the Romish church,
whereunto a man ought to obey, but that it both was
and is the synagogue of antichrist and Satan." The
error in this article is in this point, that it is derived
and takes its foundation upon the former articles.
The seventeenth article. "That all gift of money
given to the ministers of the church, for the ministration
of any spiritual matter, makes such ministers in that I'
case users of simony." This error is seditious and '
temerarious, forasmuch as something may be given to
the clergy, under the title of susteiitation or maintaining
the minister, without the selling or buying of any
spiritual thing.
The eighteenth article. " That whoever is excommu-
nicate of the pope, if he appeal to Christ, he is preserved
that he need not fear the excommunication, but may
utterly contemn and despise the same." This error
is temerarious and full of arrogancy.
The nineteenth article. " That every deed done with-
out charity, is sin." This error was reproved and
revoked before this time at Paris, specially if it be under-
stood of deadly sin ; for it is not necessary that he who
lacketh grace, should continually sin and offend anew,
although he be continually in sin.
This folloving, the masters of Paris, by their whole
voice and consent, did add and join to these nineteen
articles, as their reason and determination.
" We affirm, that these articles aforesaid are noto-
riously heretical, and that they are judicially condemned
for such, and diligently to be rooted out with their most
seditious doctrines, lest they do infect others. For
although they seem to have a zeal against the vices of
the prelates and the clergy, which (the more is the pity
and grief) do but too much abound, yet it is not accord-
ing to learning ; for a sober and discreet zeal suffers
and laments those sins and offences, which one sees in
the house of God, that he cannot amend or take away;
for vices cannot be rooted out and taken away by other
vices and errors, forasmuch as devils are not cast out
through Beelzebub, but by the power of God, which is
the Holy Ghost, who wills, that in correction the mea-
sure and mean of prudence be always kept, according to
the saying, Mark who, what, where and why, by what
means and when, prelates and bishops are bound, under
grievous and express penalties of the law, diligently and
vigilantly to bear themselves against the foresaid errors,
and such other like, and the maintainers of them ; for
let it be always understood and noted, that the error
which is not resisted is allowed, neither is there any
doubt of privy affinity or society of him, who is slow
to withstand a manifest mischief.
" These things are intermeddled by the way under
correction, as by way of doctrine.
(Signed) " John Gerson,
" Chancellor of Paris, unworthily."
These things thus declared, a man may easily under-
stand, that John Huss was not accused for holding any
opinion contrary to the articles of our faith, but because
he did stoutly preach and teach against the kingdom of
antichrist for the glory of Christ, and the restoring of
the church.
Now to return unto the history : when the articles,
which I have before rehearsed, were all read over, the
cardinal of Cambray, calling to John Huss, said, "Thou
hast heard what grievous and horrible crimes are laid
against thee, and what number of them they aic ; and
now it is thy part to devise with thyself what thou wilt
do. Two ways are proposed and set before thee by the
council, of which one thou must of necessity enter into.
" First, that thou do humbly and meekly submit thy-
self unto the judgment and sentence of the council, that
A.D. 1415.] THE CARDINAL OF CAMBRAY AND OTHERS EXHORT HUSS TO RECANT. .30.5
whatever shall be there determined, by their common
toice and judgment, thou wilt patiently bear and suffer.
Which thing if thou wilt do, we of our part, both for
the honour of the most gentle emperor here present, and
also for the honour of his brother the king of Bohemia,
and for thy own safeguard and preservation, will treat
and handle thee with as great humanity, love and gentle-
ness, as we may. But if as yet thou art determined to
defend any of those articles which we have propounded
to thee, and dost desire or require to be further heard
thereupon, we will not deny thee power and license
thereto ; but this thou shalt well understand, that there
are such men, so clear in understanding and knowledge,
and having so firm and strong reasons and arguments
against thy articles, that I fear it will be to thy great
hurt, detriment and peril, if thou shouldst any longer
•wiU or desire to defend the same. This I do speak and
say to thee, to counsel and admonish thee, and not as a
judge."
Many others of the cardinals, every man for himself,
did exhort and persuade John Huss in the same way ; to
whom, with a lowly countenance he answered, " Most
reverend fathers, I have often said, that I came hither
of mine own free wiU, not to defend any thing, but if in
any thing I should seem to have conceived a perverse or
evil opinion, that I would meekly and patiently be con-
tent to be reformed and taught. Whereupon I desire
that I may have yet further liberty to declare my mind.
Whereof, except I shall allege most firm and strong
reasons, I will willingly submit myself."
Then said the cardinal of Cambray, " Forasmuch then
as thou dost submit thyself to the information and grace
of this council, this is decreed by all almost three-score
doctors.
" First of all, thou shalt humbly and meekly confess
thyself to have erred in these articles which are alleged
and brought against thee.
" Moreover, thou shalt promise by an oath, that from
henceforth thou shalt not teach, hold or maintain any of
these articles. And last of all, that thou shalt openly
recant all these articles."
Upon which sentence, when many others had spoken
their minds, at length John Huss said, " I once again
do say, that I am ready to submit myself to the infor-
mation of the council ; but this I most humbly require
end desire you all, even for his sake, who is the God
of us all, that I be not compelled or forced to do the
thing which my conscience rejects or strives against,
or which I cannot do without danger of eternal damna-
tion, that is, that I should make revocation by oath to
all the articles which are alleged against me. For I
remember, that I have read in the book of universalities,
that to abjure, is to renounce an error which a man has
before held. And forsomuch as many of these articles
are said to be mine, which were never in my mind or
thought to hold or teach, how should I then renounce
them by an oath ? But as touchirg those articles which
are mine indeed, if there be any man who can teach me
contrariwise to them, I will willingly perform that which
you desire."
Then said the emperor, " Why mayest not thou with-
out danger also renounce all those articles which thou
sayest are falsely alleged against thee by the witnesses ?
For I verily would nothing at all doubt to abjure all
errors, neither does it foUow that therefore by and by I
have professed any error." To whom John Huss an-
swered : "Most noble emperor, this word, to abjure, sig-
nifies much more than your majesty here gives it." Then
said the cardinal of Florence, " John Huss, you shall
have a form of abjuration, which shall be gentle, and
tolerable enough, written and delivered to you, and then
you will easily and soon determine with yourself, whether
you will do it or no." Then the emperor, repeating
again the words of the cardinal of Cambray, said, " Thou
hast heard that there are two ways laid before thee : first
that thou shouldst openly renounce those thy errors,
which are now condemned, and subscribe unto the judg-
ment of the council, whereby thou shouldst try and find
their grace and favour. But if thou proceed to defend
thy opinions, the council shall have sufi&cient power,
whereby according to their laws and ordinances, they
may decree and determine upon thee." To whom John
Huss answered, " I refuse nothing, most noble emperor,
whatsoever the council shall decree or determine upon
me. Only this one thing I except, that I do not offend
God or my conscience, or say that I have professed those
errors which was never in my mind or thought to pro-
fess. But I desire you all, if it may be possible, that
you will grant me further liberty to declare my mind and
opinion, that 1 may answer as much as shall suffice, as
touching those tilings which are objected against me,
and specially concerning ecclesiastical offices, and the
state of the ministry."
Here a certain very old bishop of Pole put in his ver-
dict. He said, " The laws are evident as touching
heretics, with what punishment they ought to be
punished." But John Huss constantly answered as
before, insomuch that they said he was obstinate and
stubborn. Then a certain well fed priest, and gaily
apparelled, cried out unto the presidents of the council,
saying, "He ought by no means to be admitted to
recantation, for he hath written unto his friends, that
although he do swear with his tongue, yet he will keep
his mind unsworn without oath ; wherefore he is not to
be trusted." Unto this slander John Huss answered,
as is said in the last article, affirming that he was not
guilty of any error.
In the meantime there was exhibited to the council a
certain article, wherein John Huss was accused, that he
had slanderously interpreted a certain sentence of the
pope's ; which he denied that he did, saying, that he
never saw it but in prison, when the article was shewn
him by the commissioners.
Then was there another article read, in the which was
contained, that three men were beheaded at Prague, be-
cause that through Wickliff's doctrine and teaching they
were contumelious and slanderous against the pope's
letters : and that they were by the same Huss, with the
whole pomp of the scholars, and with a public convoca-
tion or congregation, carried out to be buried, and by a
public sermon placed among the number of saints.
Then said John Huss, that it was false, that the
corpses were by him conveyed with any such pomp into
their sepulchre or burial.
Other charges of the same kind were made and de-
nied again, and then there was great silence kept for a
while. Then Paletz, who had conducted the process
against John Huss, rising up, as having now finished his
accusation, said, " I take God to my witness before the
emperor's majesty here present, and the most reverend
fathers, cardinals, and bishops, that in this accusation of
John Huss, I have not used any hatred or evil will ; but
that I might satisfy the oath which 1 took when I was
made doctor that I would be a most cruel and sharp
enemy of all manner of errors, for the profit of the holy
catholic church." Michael de Causis did also the like.
" And I," said John Huss, " do commit all these things
unto the Heavenly Judge, which shall justly judge the
cause or quarrels of both parties." Then said the cardinal
of Cambray, " I cannot a little commend and praise the
humanity and gentleness ol Master Paletz, which he hath
used in drawing out the articles against Master John
Huss. For as we have heard, there are many things
contained in his book much worse, and more detestable."
When he had spoken these words, the bishop of Reg-
geo, unto whom John Huss was committed, commanded
that the said John Huss should be carried again safely
unto prison. Then John de Clum following him, did
not a little encourage and comfort him. No tongue can
express what courage and stomach he received by the
short talk which he had vrith him ; when in so great a
broil and grievous hatred, he saw himself in a manner
forsaken of all men. After John Huss was carried
away, the emperor began to exhort the presidents of the
council in this manner, saying,
" You have heard the manifold and grievous crimes
which are laid against John Huss, which are not only
proved by manifest and strong witnesses, but also con-
fessed by him ; of which, every one of them by my
394
THE SERMON OF THE BISHOP OF LONDY AGAINST JOHN HUSS.
[Book V.
judgment and advice, have deserved, and are worthy of
death. Therefore, except he do recant them all, I judge
and think meet that he be punished with lire. And al-
though he do that which he is willed and commanded to
do, notwithstanding I do counsel you, that he be forbid
the ofhce of preaching and teaching, and also that he re-
turn no more into the kingdom of Bohemia. For if he
be ad.nitted again to teach and preach, and especially in
the kingdom of Bohemia, he will not observe and keep
that which he is commanded, but hoping upon the fa-
vour and goodwill of such as be his adherents and
favourers there, he will return again unto his former
purpose and intent, and then, besides these errors, he
will also sow new errors amongst the people, so the last
error sliall be worse than the first.
" Moreover, I judge and think it good, that his arti-
cles which are condemned, should be sent to ray brother
the king of Bohemia, and afterward to Pole, and other
provinces, where men's minds are replenished with his
doctrine, with this commandment, that whosoever do
hold or keep the same, should by the common aid
both of the ecclesiastical and civil power, be punished.
So at the length shall remedy be found for this mischief,
if the boughs, together with the root, be utterly rooted
and pulled up : and if the bishops, and other prelates,
who here in this place have laboured for the ex-
tirpating of this heresy, be commended by the whole
voices of the council to the king and princes, under
whose dominion they are. Last of all, if there be
any found here at Constance, who are familiars unto
John Huss, they also ought to be punished with such
severity and punishment as is due unto them, and es-
pecially his scholar, Jerome of Prague." Then said the
rest, " When the master is once punished, we hope
we shall find the scholar much more tractable and
gentle."
After they had spoken these words, they departed out
of the cloister, where they were assembled and gathered
together. The day before his condemnation, which was
the sixth of July, the Emperor Sigismund sent to him
four bishops, accompanied by Master Wincelate de Duba,
and John de Clum, that they should learn and under-
stand of him what he intended to do. When he was
brought out of prison to them, John de Clum began first
to speak unto him, saying —
" Master John Huss, I am a man unlearned, neither
am I able to counsel or advise you, being a man of learn-
ing and understanding : notwithstanding I do require
you, if you know yourself guilty of any of those errors,
which fire objected and laid against you before the coun-
cil, that you will not be ashamed to alter and change
your mind to the will and pleasure of the council; if
contrariwise, I will be no author to you, that you should
do any thing contrary, or against your conscience, but
rather to suffer and endure any kind of punishment, than
to deny that which you have known to be the truth."
To whom John Huss, with lamentable tears, said ; " Ve-
rily, as before I have oftentimes done, I do take the
most High God for my witness, that I am ready with my
heart and mind, if the council can instruct or teach me
any better by the holy scripture, and I will be ready with
all my whole heart to alter and change my purpose."
Then one of the bishops which sat by, said unto him,
that he would never be so arrogant or proud, that he
would j>refer his own mind or opinion before the judg-
ment of the whole council. To whom John Huss an-
swered, " Neither do I otherwise mind or intend. For
if he which is the meanest or least in all this council can
convict me of error, I will with an humble heart and
mind perform, and do whatever the council shall require
of me." "Mark," said the bishops, "how obstinately he
perseveres in his errors." And when they had thus
talked, they commanded the keepers to carry him again
to prison, and so they returned again unto the emperor
with their commission.
The next day after, which was Saturday, and the sixth
day of July, there waa a general session held by the
princes and lords, both of the ecclesiastical and tem-
poral estates, in the head church of the city of Con.
stance, the Emperor Sigismund being president, in his
imperial robes and habit ; in the midst whereof there waa
made a certain high place, being square like a table, and
close by it there was a desk of wood, upon the which the
garments and vestments pertaining to priesthood were
laid for this purpose, that before John Huss should be de-
livered over to the civil ])ower, he should be openly de-
prived and spoiled of his priestly ornaments. When
John Huss was brought thither, he fell down upon his
knees before the same high place, and prayed a long
time. In the mean while the bishop of Londy went up
into the pulpit, and made this sermon following.
The Sermon of the Bishop of Londy, before the Sentenct
was given upon John Huss.
" In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Trusting by humble invocation upon the divine
help and aid, most noble prince, and most christian em-
peror, and you, most excellent fathers, and reverend
h)rds, bishops and prelates, also most excellent doctors
and masters, famous and noble dukes, and high counts,
honourable nobles and barons, and all other men worthy
of remembrance ; that the intent and purpose of my
mind may the more plainly and evidently appear unto
this most sacred congregation : I am first of all deter-
mined to treat or speak of that which is read in the
epistle on the next Sunday, in the sixth chapter to the
Romans ; that is to say, ' Let the body of sin be de-
stroyed,' &c.
" It appeareth by the authority of Aristotle, in his
book entituled De Cwlo et Mundo, how wicked, dan-
gerous, andjfoolish a matter it seemeth to be, not to
withstand perverse and wicked beginnings. For he
saith, that a small error in the beginning, is very great in
the end. It is very damnable and dangerous to have
erred, but more hard to be corrected or amended.
Whereupon that worthy doctor St. Jerome, in his book
upon the exposition of the catholic faith, teaches how
necessary a thing it is that heretics and heresies should be
suppressed, even in the first beginning of them, saying
thus, the rotten and dead flesh is to be cut off from
the body, lest that the whole body do perish and putrify.
For a scabbed sheep is to be put out of the fold, lest
that the whole flock be infected ; and a little fire is to be
quenched, lest the whole house be consumed and
burned. Arius was first a spark in Alexandria, who,
because he was not quenched at the first, he presumed,
and went about with his wicked and perverse imagi-
nations, and phantastical inventions, to spot and defile
the catholic faith, which is founded and established by
Christ, defended with the victorious triumphs of so many
martyrs, and illuminated and set forth with the excellent
doctrines and writings of so many men. Such, there-
fore, must be resisted ; such heretics must of necessity
be suppressed and condemned.
" Wherefore I have truly propounded, as touching
the punishment of every such obstinate heretic, that
the body of sin is to be destroyed. W^hereupon it is to
be considered according to the holy traditions of the fa-
thers, that some sins are adverse and contrary unto ano-
ther. Others are annexed or conjoined together ; others
are, as it were, branches and members of others ; and
some are, as it were, the roots and heads of others.
Amongst all which, those are to be counted the more
detestable, out of which the most and worst have their
original and beginning. Wherefore, although all sins
and offences are to be abhorred of us ; yet those are
especially to be eschewed, which are the head and root
of the rest. For by how much the perverseness of them
is of more force and power to hurt, with so much the
more speed and circumspection ought they to be rooted
out and extinguished, with apt preservatives and reme-
dies. Forsomuch, then, as amongst all sins, none doth
appear to be more inveterate '■.ban the mischief of this
most execrable schism, therefore have I right well pro-
pounded, ' That the body of sin should be destroyed.'
For by the long continuance of this scliism, great and
1. D. 1415.]
SERMON OF THE BISHOP OF LONDY AGAINST JOHN HUSS.
ao.-j
most cruel destruction is sprung up amongst the faithful,
I and hath long continued ; abominable divisions of here-
1 gies are grown ; threatenings are increased and multi-
plied ; the confusion of the whole clergy is grown
i thereupon, and the opprobriums and slanders of the
christian people, are abundantly sprung up and in-
creased : and truly it is no marvel, forsomuch as that
most detestable and execrable schism, is, as it were, a
body and heap of dissolution of the true faith of God : for
what can be good or holy in that place, where such a
, pestiferous schism hath reigned so long a time ? For as
St. Bernard saith, * Like as in the unity and concord of
' the faithful, there is the habitation and dwelling of the
Lord; so likewise in the schism and dissipation of the
christians, there is made the habitation and dwelling of
the devil. Is not schism and division the original of all
subversion, the den of heresies, and the nourisher of
all offences ? For the knot of unity and peace being
once troubled and broken, there is free passage made for
all strife and debate. C'ovetousness is uttered in others
' for lucre sake ; lust and will is set at liberty, and all
means opened unto slaughter ; all right and equity is
1 banished, the ecclesiastical power is injured, and the
calamity of this schism bringeth in all kind of bondage,
Bword and violence doth rule, the laity have the do-
, minion, concord and unity are banished, and all pre-
scribed rules of religion utterly contemned and set at
naught.'
" Consider, most gentle lords, during this most pes-
tiferous schism, how many heresies have appeared and
shewed themselves, how many heretics have escaped
unpunished ; how many churches have been spoiled and
■ pidied down, how many cities have been oppressed,
and regions brought to ruin .' What confusion hath
there happened in the clergy .' What and how great
destruction hath been amongst the christian people ?
I jnay you mark how the church of God, the
Epouse of Christ, and the Mother of all the faithful,
I is contemned and despised. For who doth reverence the
; keys of the church ? who feareth the censures or laws .'
' or who is it that doth defend the liberties thereof .-'
1 but rather who is it that doth not offend the same, or
I who doth not invade it, or else who is he that dare not
' violently lay hands upon the patrimony or heritage of
I Jesus Christ ? The goods of the clergy, and of the poor,
I and the relief of pilgrims and strangers, gotten together
! by the blood of our Saviour, and of many martyrs, are
I spoiled and taken away : behold, the abomination of
I desolation brought upon the church of God, the destruc-
ition of the faith, and the confusion of the christian
I people, to the ruin of the Lord's flock or fold, and all
I the whole company of our most holy Saviour and Re-
jdeemer. This loss is more great or grievous than any
'which could happen unto the martyrs of Christ, and
this persecution much more cruel than the persecution
of any tyrant, for they did but only punish the bodies,
ibut in this schism and division the souls are tormented.
There the blood of men was only shed; but in tliis case
the true faith is subverted and overthrown. That per-
secution was salvation unto many ; but this schism is
destruction unto all men. When the tyrants raged,
■then the faith did increase ; but by this division it is
'utterly decayed. During their cruelty and madness the
j)rimitive church increased ; but through this schism it
jis confounded and overthrown. Tyrants did ignorantly
lofFend ; but in this schism many do wittingly and wil-
lingly even of obstinacy offend. There came in heretics,
(users of simony, and hypocrites, to the great detriment
land deceit of the church ; under those tyrants the me-
ifits of the just were increased.
' " But during this schism, mischief and wickedness
iare augmented : for in this most cursed and execrable
Idivision, truth is made an enemy to all Christians, faith
lis not regarded, love and charity hated, hope is lost,
jjustice overthrown, no kind of courage or valiantness,
but only unto mischief : modesty and temperance
cloaked, wisdom turned into deceit, humility feigned,
equity and truth falsified, patience utterly fled, con-
science small, all wickedness intended, devotion counted
folly, gcntlentss abject and cast away, rsligion despised,
obedience not regarded, and all manner of life reproach-
ful and abominable. With how great and grievous sor-
rows is tlie church of God replenished and filled, whilst
tyrants do oppress it, heretics invade it, users of si-
mony do spoil and rob it, and schismatics go about
utterly to subvert it ? O most miserable and wretched
christian people, whom now by the space of forty years,
with such indurate and continual schism they have tor-
mented, and almost brought to ruin ! O the little bark
and ship of Christ, which hath so long time wandered
and strayed now in the midst of the whirlpools, and by
and by sticketh fast in tlie rocks, tossed to and fro with
most grievous and tempestuous storms ! O miserable
and wretched boat of Peter, if the most Holy Father
would suffer thee to sink or drown, into what dangers
and perils have the wicked pirates brouglit thee ?
Amongst what rocks have they placed thee ? O most
godly and loving christians, what faithful devout man is
there, who beholding and seeing the great ruin and
decay of the church, would not be j)rovoked unto tears ?
What good conscience is there that can refrain weep-
ing, because that contention and strife is poured upon
the ecclesiastical rulers, which have made us to err in
the way, because they have not found, or rather would
not find the way of unity and concord, whereupon so
many heresies and so great confusion is sprung up, and
grown in the flock of Peter and the fold of the Lord.
" Many princes, kings, and prelates, have greatly
laboured and worked for the rooting out hereof; but
yet could they never bring to pass or finish that most
wholesome and necessary work. Wherefore, most
christian king, this most glorious and triumphant vic-
tory hath tarried only for thee, the crown and glory
thereof shall be thine for ever, and this most happy
victory shall be continually celebrated to thy great
honour and praise, that thou hast restored again the
church which was so spoiled, that thou hast removed and
put away all inveterate and overgrown schisms and di-
visions, that thou hast trodden down users of simony, and
rooted out all heretics. Dost thou not behold and see
how great, perpetual, and famous renown and glory it
will be unto thee ? For what can be more just, what
more holy, what better, what more to be desired ; or,
finally, what can be more acceptable, than to root out
this wicked and abominable schism, to restore the
church again unto her ancient liberty, to extinguish and
put away all simony, and to condemn and destroy all
errors and heresies from amongst the flock of the faith-
ful .' Nothing, truly, can be better, nothing more holy,
nothing more profitable for the whole world ; and, final-
ly, nothing more acceptable unto God. For the per-
formance of which most holy and godly work thou wast
elect and chosen of God ; thou wast first deputed and
chosen in heaven before thou wast elect and chosen
upon earth. Thou wast first appointed by the celestial
and heavenly Prince, before the electors of the empire
did elect or choose thee, and specially, that by the im-
perial force and power thou shouldest condemn and
destroy those errors and heresies which we have pre-
sently in hand to be condemned and subverted. To the
performance of this most holy work God hath givea
unto thee the knowledge and understanding of his divine
truth and verity, power of princely majesty, and the just
judgment of equity and righteousness, as the Most High
himself doth say, I have givea thee understanding and
wisdom, to speak and utter my words, and have set thee
to rule over nations and kingdoms, that thou shouldest
help the people, pluck down and destroy iniquity, and by
exercising of justice thou shouldest, I say, destroy all
errors and heresies, and specially this obstinate heretic
here present, through whose wickedness and mischief
many places of the world are infected with most pesti-
lent and heretical poison, and by this means and occa-
sion almost utterly subverted and destroyed. This
most holy and godly labour, O most noble prince ! wa«
reserved only for thee, upon thee it doth only lie, unto
whom the rule and ministration of justice is given.
Wherefore thou hast established thy praise and renown,
even by the mouths of infants and sucking babes, for thy
praises shall be celebrated for evermore, that thou hast
306
SENTENCE OF THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE AGAINST JOHN HUSS.
[Book V.
destroyed and overthrown such and so great enemies of
the faith. The which that thou mayest prosperously
and happily perform and bring to pass, our Lord Jesus
vouchsafe to grant thee his grace and help, who is
blessed for ever and ever. Ameu."
When this sermon was thus ended, the proctor of the
council rising up, named Henry de Piro, required
that the process of the cause against John Huss might
be continued, and that they might proceed unto the de-
finitive sentence. Then a certain bishop, who was ap-
pointed one of the judges, declared the process of the
cause, which was pleaded long since in the court of
Rome, and elsewhere, between John Huss and the pre-
lates of Prague.
At the last he repeated those articles which we have
before mentioned, amongst which he rehearsed also
one article, that John Huss should teach the two
natures of the Godhead and manhood to be one Christ.
John Huss went about briefly with a word or two to an-
swer every of them ; but as often as he was about to
speak the cardinal of Cambray commanded him to hold
his peace, saying, " Hereafter you shall answer all to-
gether, if you will." Then said John Huss, " How
can I at once answer all these things which are alleged
against me, when I cannot remember them all ?"
Then said the cardinal of Florence, '• We have heard
thee sufficiently." But when John Huss for all that
would not hold his peace, they sent the officers that they
should force hiui thereunto. Then he began to intreat,
pray, and beseech them, that they would hear him, that
sucli as were present might not credit or believe those
things to be true which were reported of him. But
when all this could nothing prevail, he, kneeling down
upon his knees, committed the whole matter unto God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, for at their hands he believed
easily he would obtain that which he desired.
When the articles abovesaid were ended, last of all
there was added a notable blasphemy, which they all im-
puted to John Huss, that is, that he said there should
be a fourth person in divinity, and that a certain doctor
did hear him speak of the same. When John Huss de-
sired that the doctor might be named, the bishop that
alleged the article said that it was not needful to name
him. Then said John Huss, " O miserable and
wretched man that I am, who am forced and compelled
to bear such a blasphemy and slander."
Afterwards the article was repeated, how that he had ap-
pealed to Christ, and that appeal was called heretical.
Whereto John Huss answered, " O Lord Jesus
Christ, whose word is openly condemned here in this
council, unto thee again I do appeal, who when thou
wast evil intreated of thine enemies didst appeal unto
God thy Father, committing thy cause unto a most just
Judge, that by thy example we also being oppressed
with manifest wrongs and injuries should flee unto
thee." Last of all the article was rehearsed, as touch-
ing the contempt of the excommunication by John
Huss. Whereto he answered as before, that he was ex-
cused by his advocates in the court of Rome, wherefore
he did not appear when he was cited ; and also that it
may be proved by the acts, that the excommunication
was not ratified; and finally, to the intent he might
clear himself of obstinacy, he was for that cause come
unto Constance under the emperor's safe conduct.
When he had spoken these words, one of them, who
was appointed judge, read the definitive sentence against
him, wliich follows thus word for word : —
The Sentence or Judgment of the Council of Constance
against John Huss.
" The most holy and sacred general council of Con-
stance, being congregated and gathered together, re]ire-
senting the catholic church, for a perpetual memory of
the thing, as the verity and truth did witness, ' An evil
tree bringeth forth evil fruit ;' hereupon it cometh, that
the man of most damnable memory, John Wickliff,
through his pestiferous doctrine, not through Jesus
Christ by the gospel, as the holy fathers iu times past
have begotten faithful children, but contrary to the
wholesome faith of Jesus Christ, as a most venomous
root, hath begotten many pestilent and wicked children
whom he hath left behind him, successors and followers
of his perverse and wicked doctrine, against whom this
sacred synod of Constance is forced to rise up, as
against bastards and unlawful children, and with dili-
gent care, with the sharp knife of the ecclesiastical au-
thority, to cut up their errors out of the Lord's field, as
most hurtful brambles and briars, lest they should grow
to the hurt and detriment of others.
" Forsomuch then as in the holy general council,
lately celebrated and holden at Rome, it was decreed,
that the doctrine of John Wickliff, of most damnable
memory, should be condemned, and that his books
which contained the same doctrine should be burned as
heretical, and this decree was approved and confirmed
by the sacred authority of the whole council, neverthe-
less, one John Huss here personally present in this
sacred council, not the disciple of Christ, but of John
Wickliff, an arch heretic, after, and contrary or against
the condemnation and decree hath taught, preached, and
affirmed the articles of Wickliff, which were condemned
by the church of God, and in times past by certain most
reverend fathers in Christ, lords, archbishops, and
bishops, of divers kingdoms and realms, masters of
divinity of divers universities ; especially resisting in his
open sermons, and also with his adherents and accom-
plices in the schools, the condemnation of the said
articles of Wickliff 's, oftentimes published in the said
university of Prague, and hath declared him the said
Wickliff, for the favour and commendation of his doc-
trine before the whole multitude of the clergy and peo-
ple, to be a catholic man, and a true evangelical doctor.
He hath also published and affirmed certain and many
of his articles worthily condemned, to be catholic, the
which are notoriously contained in the books of the said
John Huss.
" Wherefore, after diligent deliberation and full in-
formation first had upon the premises by the reverend
fathers and lords in Christ of the holy church of Rome,
cirdinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and other
prelates, doctors of divinity, and of both laws, in great
number assembled and gathered together, this most
sacred and holy council of Constance, declareth and de-
termineth the articles abovesaid (the which, after due
conference had, are found in his books written with his
own hand, the which also the said John Huss in open
audience, before this holy council, hath confessed to be
in his books), not to be catholic, neither worthy to be
taught, but that many of them are erroneous, some of
theni wicked, others offensive to godly ears, many of
them temerarious and seditious, and the greater part of
them notoriously heretical, and even now of late by the
holy fathers and general councils reproved and con-
demned. And forsomuch as the said articles are ex-
pressly contained in the books of the said John Huss,
therefore this said sacred council dot'n condemn and re-
prove all those books which he wrote, in what form or
phrase soever they be, or whether they be translated by
others, and doth determine and decree, that they all
shall be solemnly and openly burned in the presence of
the clergy and people of the city of Constance, and else-
where ; adding moreover for the premises, that all his
doctrine is worthy to be despised and eschewed of all
faithful christians. And to the intent that this most per-
nicious and wicked doctrine may be utterly excluded
and shut out of the church, this sacred synod doth
straightly command, that diligent inquisition be made
by the ordinaries of the places by the ecclesiastical
censure, for such treatises and works, and that such as
are found be consumed and burned with fire. And if
there be any found, who shall contemn or despise this
sentence or decree, this sacred synod ordainetii and
decreeth, that the ordinaries of the places, and the in-
quisitors of heresies, shall proceed against every such
person as they suspect of heresy.
" Wherefore, after due inquisition made against the
said John Huss, and full information had by the com-
missaries and doctors of both laws, and also by the say-
A.D. 141.').
THE CEREMONY OF DEGRADATION OF JOHN HUSS.
307
ings of the witnesses which were worthy of credit, and
m^ny other things openly read before the said John
H'l.-s, and I)(.fore the fathers and prelates of this sacred
council (by the which allegations of the witnesses, it
appeareth, that the said John Huss hath taught many
evil and offensive, seditious and perilous heresies, and
hath preached the same for a long time), this most sa-
cred and holy synod, lawfully congregated and gathered
together in the Holy Ghost, (the name of Christ being
invoked and called upon) by this their sentence which
here is set forth in writing, determineth, pronouuceth,
declareth, and decreeth, that John Huss was and is a
true and manifest heretic, and that he hath preached
openly errors and heresies lately condemned by the
church of God, and many seditious, temerarious, and
ofl'eusive things, to no small offence of the Divine Ma-
jesty, and of the imiversal church, and detriment of the
catholic faith and church, neglecting and despising the
keys of the church, and ecclesiastical censures. In the
which error he has continued with a mind alto-
gether indurate and hardened by the space of many
years, much offending the faithful christians by his ob-
stinacy and stubbornness, in his having made his ap-
peal unto the Lord Jesus Christ as the most high Judge,
omitting and leaving all ecclesiastical means. In the
which appeal he allegeth many false, injurious, and
offensive matters, in contempt of the apostolic see, and
the ecclesiastical censures and keys.
" Whereupon, both for the premises and many other
things, the said synod pronounceth Jolin Huss to be an
heretic, and judgeth him by these presents to be con-
demned and judged as an heretic, and reproveth the
said appeal as injurious, offensive, and done in derision
unto the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and judgeth the said
Huss not only to have seduced the christian people
by his writings and preachings, and especially in the
kingdom of Bohemia, neither to have been a true
preacher of the gospel of Christ unto the said people,
according to the exposition of the holy doctors ; but
also to have been a seducer of them, and also an obsti-
nate and stiffnecked person, yea, and such an one as
doth not desire to return again to the lap of our holy
mother the church, neither to abjure the errors and
heresies which he hath openly preached and defended.
Wherefore this most sacred council decreeth and de-
clareth, that the said John Huss shall be publicly de-
posed and degraded from his priestly orders and dig-
nity, &c."
Whilst these things were thus read, John Huss, al-
though he was forbidden to speak, notwithstanding did
often interrupt them, and especially when he was re-
proved of obstinacy, he said, with a loud voice : " I was
j never obstinate, but as always heretofore, even so now
I again I desire to be taught by the holy scriptures, and I
do profess myself to be so desirous of the truth, that if
I might by one only word subvert the errors of all here-
tics, I would not refuse to enter into what peril or
I danger soever it were." When his books were con-
[ demned, he said : " Wherefore have you condemned those
books, when you have not proved by any one article that
they are contrary to the scriptures or articles of faith ?
And, moreover, what injury is this that you do to me,
that you have condemned these books written in the Bo-
hemian tongue, which you never saw, neither yet read ?"
And oftentimes looking up unto heaven he prayed.
Vi hen the sentence and judgment was ended, kneeling
4own upon his knees, he said : " Lord Jesus Christ,
forgive mine enemies, by whom thou knowest that I am
falsely accused, and that they have used false witness
and slanders against me: forgive them, I say, for thy
great mercy's sake." This his prayer and oration the
greater part, and especially the chief of the priests de-
rided and mocked.
At last, the seven bishops who were chosen out to de-
grade him of his priesthood commanded him to put on
the garments pertaining unto priesthood, which, when
he had done, he came to the putting on of the albe, he
called to his remembrance the purple vesture which
Herod put on Jesus Christ to mock him withal. So
likewise in all other things he comforted himself by the
example of Christ. When he had now put on all his
priestly vestures, the bishops exhorted him that he
should yet alter and change his mind, and provide for his
honour and safety ; then he (according as the manner of
the ceremony is) going up to the top of the scaffold,
being full of tears, spake to the people in this sort :
" These lords and bishops do exhort and counsel me,
that I should here confess before you all that I have
erred ; to do which thing, if it were such as might be
done with the infamy and reproach of man only, they
might peradventure easily persuade me thereto ; but
now truly I am in the sight of the Lord my God, with-
out whose great displeasure and the hurt of mine own con-
science, I can by no means do that which they require of
me. For I do well know, that I never taught any of
those things which they have falsely alleged against me,
but I have always preached, taught, written, and thought
contrary thereto. With what countenance then should I
behold the heavens .' With what face should I look
upon them whom I have taught, whereof there is a great
number, if through me it should come to pass that those
things, v.hich they have hitherto known to be most cer-
tain a^d sure, should now be made uncertain ? Should
I by this my exanijjle astonish or troul)le so many souls,
so many consciences, indued with the most firm and
certain knowledge of the scriptures and gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ and his most pure doctrine, armed
against all the assaults of Satan ? I will never do it,
neither commit any such kind of offence, that I should
seem more to esteem this vile carcase appointed unto
death, than their health and salvation."
At this most godly word he was forced again to hear,
by the sentence of the bishops, that he did obstinately
and maliciously persevere in his pernicious and wicked
errors.
Then he was commanded to come down to the execu-
tion of his judgment, and in his coming down, one of the
seven bishops before rehearsed, first took away from him
the chalice which he held in his hand, saying : " O,
cursed Judas, why hast thou forsaken the council and
ways of peace, and hast counselled with the Jews ? We
take away from thee this chalice of thy salvation." But
John Hu«s received this curse in this manner : "But I
trust unto God the Father omnipotent, and my Lord
Jesus Christ, for whose sake I do suffer these things,
that he will not take away the chalice of his redemption,
but I have a steadfast and firm hope that this day I shall
drink thereof in his kingdom." Then followed the
otlier bishops in order, who every one of them took
away the vestments from him which they had put on,
each one of them giving him their curse. Whereunto
John Huss answered : " That he did willingly embrace
and bear those blasphemies for the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ." At the last they came to the erasing of
his shaven crown. But before the bishops would go
in hand with it, there was a great contention between
them, with what instrument it should be done, with a
razor or with a pair of shears.
In the mean time, John Huss, turning himself to-
ward the emperor, said: "I marvel that forsomuch as
they be all of like cruel mind and spirit, yet they can-
not agree upon their kind of cruelty." Notwithstand-
ing, at last they agreed to cut off the skin of the crown
of his head with a pair of shears. And when they had
done that, they added these words : " Now hath the
church taken away all her ornaments and privileges from
him. Now there resteth nothing else, but that he be
delivered over unto the secular power." But before
they did that, there yet remained another reproach. For
they caused to be made a certain crown of paper, almost
a cubit deep, in the which were painted three de%'ils of
wonderful ugly shape, and this title set over their heads,
" ARCH-HERETIC," which, when he saw, he said : " My
Lord Jesus Christ for my sake did wear a crown of
thorns, why should not I then for his sake again wear
this light crown, be it never so ignominious ? Truly I
will do it, and that willingly." When it was set upo«
308
EXIiCUTlON OF JOHN HUSS.
[Book V.
his head, the bishop said : " Now we commit thy
soul to the devil." " But 1,'' said John Huss, lifting
his eyes up towards the heavens, " do commit my spirit
into thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ, unto thee I com
mend my spirit which tliou hast redeemed." These
contumelies thus ended, the bisliops turning themselves
towards the emperor, said : " This most sacred synod of
Constance leaveth now John Huss, who has no more any
office in the church of God, to the civil judgment and
power." Then the emperor commanded Lewis, duke of
Bavaria, who stood before him in his robes, holding the
golden apple with the cross in his hand, that he should
receive John Huss from the bishops, and deliver him to
them wlio should do the execution. As he was led by
them to the place of execution, before the church doors iie
saw his books burning, whereat he smiled and laughed.
And ail men that passed by he exhorted, not to think
that he should die for any error or heresy, but only for the
hatred and ill will of his adversaries, who had charged
him with most false and unjust crimes. Nearly the
•whole city followed him in armour.
The place appointed for the execution was before the
gate Gotlebian, between the gardens and gates of the
suburbs. When Jolin Huss was come thither, kneel-
ing down upon his knees, and lifting his eyes up unto
heaven, he prayed, and said certain Psalms^ and espe-
cially the thirty-first and fiftieth Psalms. And they
■who stood hard by, heard him oftentimes in his prayer,
with a lively and cheerful countenance, repeat this verse :
" Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit,'' &c.
Which thing when tlie lay people beheld who stood
next to him, they said : " What he hath done before we
know not, but now we see and hear that he doth speak
and pray very devoutly and godly." Others wished
that he had a confessor. There was a certain priest by,
sitting on horseback, in a green gown, drawn about with
red silk, who said : " He ought not to be heard, because
he is an heretic." Yet, notwithstanding, while he was
in prison, he was both confessed, and also absolved by a
certain doctor, a monk, as Huss himself witnesses in an
epistle which he wrote to his friends out of prison.
, Thus Christ reigns unknown to the world, even in the
midst of his enemies. In the meantime, while he
prayed, as he bowed his neck backward to look upward
unto heaven, the crown of paper fell off from his head
upon the ground. Then one of the soldiers, taking it up
again, said, " Let us put it again upon his head, that he
may be burned with his masters, the devils, whom he has
served."
When by the commandment of the tormentors he
•was risen up from his prayer, with a loud voice, he
said: "Lord Jesus Christ assist and help me, that
with a constant and patient mind, by thy most gracious
help, I may bear and suffer this cruel and ignominious
death, whereunto I am condemned for the preaching
of thy most holy gospel and word." Then, as before,
he declared the cause of his death to the people. In the
meantime the hangman stripped him of his garments,
and turning his hands behind his back, tied him fast to
the stake with ropes tliat were made wet. And whereas
by chance he was turned towards the east, certain cried
out that he should not look towards the east, for he was
an heretic ; so he was turned towards the west. Then
•was his neck tied with a chain to the stake, which chain,
when he beheld, smiling, he said, " That he would wil-
lingly receive the same chain for Jesus Christ's sake,
who, he knew, was bound with a far worse chain."
Under his feet they set two fagots, mixing straw with
them, and so likewise from the feet up to the chin he
was enclosed in round about with wood. But before
the wood was set on fire, Lewis, duke of Bavaria, with
another gentleman, who was the son of Clement, came
and exhorted John Huss, that he would yet be mindful
of his safety, and renounce his errors. To whom he
said : " What errors should I renounce, when 1 know
myself guilty of none .' For as for those things which
are falsely alleged against me, I know that I never did so
much as once think them, much less preach them. For
this was the i)rincij)al end and ])urpose of my doctrine,
that I might teach all men repentance and the remission
of sins, according to the verity of the gospel of Jesug
Christ, and the exposition of the holy doctors ; where,
tore with a cheerful mind and courage I am here ready
to suffer death." When he had spoken these words,
they left him, and shaking hands together, they departed.
Then was the fire kindled, and John Huss began to
sing with a loud voice, " Jesus Christ the Son of the liv-
ing God have mercy upon me." And when he began to say
the same the third time, the wind drove the flame so
upon his face, that it choaked him. Yet notwithstand-
ing he moved a while after, by the space that a man might
almost -say the Lord's Prayer three times. When all the
wood was burned and consumed, the upper part of the
body was left hanging in the chain, so they threw down
stake and all, and making a new fire, burned it, the
head being first cut in small pieces, that it might the
sooner be consumed unto ashes. The heart, which was
found amongst the bowels, being well beaten with staves
and clubs, was at last pricked upon a sharp stick, and
roasted at a fire apart until it was consumed. Then,
with great diligence gathering the ashes together, they
cast them into the river Rhone, that the least rem-
nant of the ashes of that man should not be left upou
the earth, whose memory notwithstanding cannot be
abolished out of the minds of the godly, neither by
fire, neither by water, neither by any kind of torment.
I know very well that these things are very slenderly
written by me as touching the labours of this most holy
martyr, John Huss, with whom the labours of Hercules
are not to be compared. For that ancient Hercules
slew a few monsters ; but this our Hercules w^ith a most
stout and valiant courage, hath subdued even the world
itself, the mother of all monsters and cruel beasts. This
history were worthy some other kind of more curious
handling ; but forsomuch as I cannot otherwise perform
it myself, 1 have endeavoured according to the very
truth, as the thing was indeed, to commend the same
unto all godly minds : neither have I heard it reported
by others, but I myself was present at the doing of all
these things, and as I was able, I have put them in writ-
ing, that by this my labour and endeavour, howsoever
it were, I might preserve the memory of this holy man
and excellent doctor of the evangelical truth.
What was the name of this author which wrote this
history it is not expressed. Cochleus, in his second book
" Contra Hussitas," supposetli his name to be Johannes
Pizibrara, a Bohemian.
This godly servant and martyr of Christ was con-
demned by the cruel council, and burned at Constance,
A. D. 141.5, about the month of July.
How grievously this death of John Huss was taken
among the nobles of Bohemia and of Moravia, hereafter
(Christ willing) shall appear by their letters which they
sent to the council, and by the letters of Sigismund, the
king of the Romans. Wherein he labours, all that can,
to purge and excuse himself of Huss's death. Although
he was not altogether free from that cruel act, and in-
nocent from that blood ; yet notwithstanding he pre-
tends in words so to wipe away that blot from him, that
the greatest part of the crime seems to rest upon the
bloody prelates of that council.
But it ai)pears that the emperor, partly ashamed and
sorry, would gladly have cleared himself thereof, and
with Pilate have washed his hands ; yet he could not so
clear himself, but that a great portion of that murder re-
mained on him, as may appear by his last words spoken
in the council to John Huss, whereof John Huss in his
epistles complains, writing to his friends in Bohemia in
his thirty-third epistle, as follows : —
" I desire you again, for the love of God, that the
lords of Bohemia joining together, will desire the king
for a final audience to be given to me. Forsomuch as
he alone said to me in the council, that they should give
me audience shortly, and that I should answer for my-
self briefly in writing : it will be to his great confusion,
if he shall not perform that which he hath spoken. But
I fear that word of his will be as firm and sure, as the
other was concerning my safe conduct granted by him.
A. U. 1415.]
LETTERS OF JOHN HUSS TO THE PEOPLE OF PRAGUE, &c.
sds
There were some in Bohemia, who desired me to be-
ware of his safe conduct. And other said, he will surely
give you to your enemies. And the lord Mikest Dwaky told
me before Master Jessenitz, saying, ' Master, know it for
certain, you shall be condemned.' And this I su))pose he
spake, knowing before the intention of the king. I
hoped that he had been well affected toward the law
of God and the truth, and had therein good understand-
ing; now I conceive tliat he is not very skilful, nor so
prudently circumspect in himself. He condemned me
before even mine enemies did. Who, if it had pleased
him, might have kept the moderation of Pilate the
Gentile, who said, ' I find no cause in this man ;' or
at least, if he had said but thus, ' Behold, I have given
him his safe conduct safely to return :' And if he will
not abide the decision of the council, I will send him
home to the king of Bohemia with your sentence and at-
testations, that he with his clergy may judge him.' "
John Huss, while in prison, wrote several treatises, as,
"of the commandments;" "of the Lord's prayer;" "of
mortal sin;" " of matrimony;" " of the knowledge and
love of God ;" " of the three enemies of mankind, the
world, and flesh, and the devil ;" " of penance;" " of the
sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord;" " of the
sufficiency of the law of God to rule the church," &c.
He wrote also many epistles and letters to the lords, and
to his friends of Bohemia. Some of his letters I thought
here to insert, that the reader may have some taste, and
take some profit of the christian writings and doings of
this blessed man ; first beginning with the letter of the
Lord de Clum, concerning the safe conduct of John Huss.
A Letter of the Lord John de Clum, concerninij the safe
conduct of John Huss.
" To all and singular that shall see and hear these
presents, I John de Clum do it to understand, how
Master John Huss, bachelor of divinity, under the safe
conduct and protection of the renowned prince and
Lord Sigismund of the Romans, ever Augustus, and
; king of Hungary, &c. my gracious lord, and under the
protection, defence, and safe-guard of the holy empire of
i Rome, having the letters patent of the said my lord,
I king of the Romans, &c. ; came unto Constance to render
I a full account of his faith in public audience to all that
! would require the same. T.-is the said Master John
\ Huss, in this imperial city of Constance, under the safe
I conduct of the said my lord king of the Romans, hath
1 been and yet is detained. And although the pope, with the
cardinals, have been seriously required by solemn am-
1 bassadors of the said my lord king of the Romans, in
the king's name and behalf, that the said Master John
Huss should be set at liberty, and be restored unto me,
yet, notwithstanding, they have and yet do refuse
1 hitherto to set him at liberty, to the great contempt and
I derogation of the safe conduct of the king, and of the
' safeguard and protection of the empire, or imperial
majesty. Wherefore I, John aforesaid, in the name of
I the king, do here publish and make it known, that the
I apprehending, and detaining of the said Master John
I Huss, was done wholly against the will of the forenaraed
I king of the Romans my lord, seeing it is done in the con-
I tempt of the safe conduct of his subjects, and of the pro-
tection of the empire, because that the said my lord was
then absent, far from Constance ; and if he had been
j there present, would never have pe.'mitted the same.
, And when he shall come, it is to be doubted of no man,
I but that he, for this great injury and contempt of this
safe conduct done to him and to the empire, will griev-
ously be molested for the same.
" Given at Constance, in the day of the Nativity
of the Lord, 1414.
An Epistle of John Huss unto the People of Prague.
" Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you being delivered from sin may walk in his grace, and
may grow in all modesty and virtue, and after this may
injoy eternal life.
*' Dearly beloved, I beseech you who walk after the
law of God, that you cast not away the care of the salva-
tion of your souls, wlien you ht-aring the word of God
are forewarned wisely to understand tliat you be not de-
ceived by false apostles ; who do not reprehend the siiif
of men, but rather extenuate and diminish them : whi
flatter the priests, and do not shew to the pitople thel
off'ences ; who magnify themselves, boast their owl
works, and marvellously extol their own worthiness, but
follow not Clirist in his humility, in poverty, in the
cross, and other manifold afflictions. Of whom our
merciful Saviour did warn us before, saying, ' False
christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive
many.' And when he had forewarned his well-beloved
disciples, he said unto them, ' Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are
ravening wolves : ye shall know them by their fruits,'
And true it is, that the faithful of Christ have much
need diligently to beware and take heed to themselves.
For, as our Saviour himself says, ' The elect also, if it
were possible, shall be brought into error.' Wherefore,
my well-beloved, be circumspect and watchful, that ye
be not circumvented with the crafty trains of the devil.
And the more circumspect ye ought to be, for antichrist
labours the more to trouble you. The last judgment is
near at hand : death shall swallow up many, but to the
elect children of God the kingdom of God draweth near,
because for them he gave his own body. Fear not
death, love together one another, persevere in under-
standing the good will of God without ceasing. Let the
terrible and horrible day of judgment be always before
your eyes, that you sin not ; and also the joy of eternal
life, whereunto you must endeavour. Furthermore, let
the passion of our .Saviour be never out of your minds ;
that you may bear with him, and for him gladly, what-
ever shall be laid upon you. For if you shall consider
well in your minds his cross and afflictions, nothing
shall be grievous unto you, and you shall patiently give
place to tribulations, cursings, rebukes, stripes, and im-
prisonment, and shall not doubt to give your lives
moreover for his holy truth, if need require. Know ye,
well-beloved, that antichrist being stirred up against
you, devises various persecutions. And many he has
not hurt, no not the least hair of their heads, as by mine
own example I can testify, although he has been ve-
hemently incensed against me. Wherefore, I desire you
all, with your prayers to make intercession for me to the
Lord, to give me understanding, sufferance, patience,
and constancy, that I never swerve from his divine
verity. He hath brought me now to Constance. In all my
journey, openly and manifestly, 1 have not feared to utter
my name as becomes the servant of God. In no place
have I kept myself secret, nor used any dissimulation.
But never did I find in any place more pestilent and
manifest enemies than at Constance. Which enemies
neither should I have had there, had it not been for
certain of our own Bohemians, hypocrites, and deceivers,
who, for benefits received, and stirred up with covetous-
ness, with boasting and bragging, have persuaded the
people that I went about to seduce them out of the right
way : but I am in good hope, that through the mercy of
our God, and by your prayers. I shall persist strongly in
the immutable verity of God unto the last breath.
Finally, I would not have you ignorant, that whereas
every one here is put in his office, I only as an outcast
am neglected, &c. I commend you to the merciful Lord
Jesus Christ, our true God, and the Son of the imma-
culate Virgin Mary, who hath redeemed us by his most
bitter death, without all merits, from eternal pains, from
the thraldom of the devil, and from sin.
" From Constance the year of our Lord, 1415."
Another Letter of John Huss to his Benefactors.
" My gracious benefactors and defenders of the truth,
I exhort you by the bowels of Jesus Christ, that now ye
setting aside the vanities of this present world, will give
your service to the Eternal King, Christ the Lord.
Trust not in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom
there is no help. For the sons of men are dissemblers
and deceitful. To-day they are, to-morrow they perish,
SID
LETTERS OF JOHN HUSS.
[Cook V.
but God remaineth for ever. Who hath his servants,
not for any need he hath of them, but for their own
profit : unto whom he performs that which he promises,
and fulfils that which he purposes to give. He casts off
no faithful servant from him ; for he saith, ' Where I
am, there also shall mv servant be.' And the Lord
maketh every servant of his to be the lord of all his pos-
session, giving himself unto him, and with himself,
all things ; that without tediousiiess, fear, and without
defect he may jiossess all things, rejoicing with all
saints in joy infinite. O ! happy is that servant, whom,
when the Lord sliall come, he shall find watching.
Happy is the servant which shall receive tliat King of
Glory with joy. Wherefore, well beloved lords and
benefactors, serve you that King in fear ; who shall
bring you, as I trus4, by his grace, at this present time to
Bohemia, in health, and hereafter to eternal life of glory.
Fare you well, for 1 think that this is the last letter that
I shall write to you; who, to-morrow, as I suppose,
shall be purged in hope of Jesus Christ, through bitter
death for my sins. The things that happened to me this
night I am not able to write. Sigismund has done all
things with me deceitfully, God forgive him, and only
for your sakes. You also heard the sentence which he
awarded against me. I pray you have no suspicion of
faithful Vitus."
Another Epistle of John Huss, tcherein he declares why
God suffereth not his Peojile to perish.
" The Lord God be with you. ]\Iany causes there
•were, my dear friends, well-beloved in God, which
moved me to think tliat those letters were the last,
which before I sent to you, looking that same time for
instant death. But now understanding the same to be
deferred, I take it for great comfort to me, that I have
some leisure more to talk with you by letters. And
therefore I write again to you, to declare and testify at
least my gratitude and mindful duty toward you. And,
as touching death, God doth know why he doth defer it
both to me, and to my well-beloved brotlier, IMaster
Jerome, who I trust will die holily and without blame ;
and do know also that he doeth and suffereth now more
valiantly than I myself, a wretched sinner. God hath
given us a long time, that we might call to iremory our
sins the better, and repent for the same more fervently.
He hath granted us time, that our long and great temp-
tation should put away our grievous sins, and bring the
more consolation. He hath given us time, wherein we
should remember the horrible rebukes of our merciful
King and Lord Jesus, and should ponder his cruel
death, and so more patiently might learn to bear our af-
flictions. And, moreover, that we might keep in re-
membrance, how that the joys of the life to come are not
given after the joys of this world immediately, but
through many tribulations the saints have entered into
the kingdom of heaven. For some of them have
been cut and chopped all to pieces, some have had their
eyes bored through, some been boiled, some roasted, some
flayed alive, some buried alive, stoned, crucified, ground
betwixt millstones, drawn hither and thither unto ex-
ecution, drowned in waters, strangled and hanged, torn
in pieces, vexed with rebukes before their death, kept
in prisons, and afflicted in bonds. And who is able to
recite all the torments and sufferings of the holy saints,
which they suffered under the Old and New Testament
for the verity of God ; namely, those which have at any
time rebuked the malice of the priests, or have preached
against their wickedness ? And it will be a marvel if
any man now also shall escape unpunished, whoever
dare boldly resist the wickedness and perversity, espe-
cially of those priests, who can abide no correction.
And I am glad that they are compelled now to read my
books, in which their malice is somewhat described ; and
I know they have read the same more exactly and will-
ingly, than they have read the holy gospel, seeking
therein to find out errors.
" Given at Constance upon Thursday, the 28th day
of June, A. D. 1415."
Another Letter of John Hu.is, wherein he confirmeth
the Bohemians, and describeth the tvickedness of the
Coiincil.
" John Huss, in hope the servant of God, to all the
faithful in Bohemia, which love the Lord, greeting,
through the grace of God. It cometh in my mind,
wherein I must needs admonish you, that are the faith-
ful and beloved of the Lord, how that tlie council of
Constance being full of pride, avarice, and all abomina-
tion, has condemned my books written in the Bohemian
tongue, for heretical, which books they never saw, nor
ever heard. And if they had heard them, yet thev
could not understand the same, being some Italians
some Frenchmen, some Britons, some Spaniards, Ger
mans, with other people of other nations ; xmless, per-
adventure, John, bishop of Litomysl, understood them,
who was present in that council, and certain other Bo-
hemians, and priests which are against me, and labour
all they may how to deprave both the verity of God, and
the honesty of our country of Bohemia ; which I judge
in the hope of God, to be a godly land, right well given
to the true knowledge of the faith, for it so greatly de-
sires the word of God, and honest manners. And if
you were here at Constance, you would see the grievous
abomination of this council, which they call so holy, and
infallible. Of which council I have heard it reported,
that the city of Constance cannot in thirty years be
purged of those abominations committed in that
council. And almost all are offended with that council,
being sore grieved to behold such execrable things per .
petrated in th.e same.
" When 1 stood first to answer before mine adversa-
ries, seeing all things there done with no order, and
hearing them also outrageously crying out, 1 said plainly
to them, that I looked for more honest behaviour and
better order and discipline in that council. Then tno,
chief cardinal answered, ' Sayest thou so ? But in the
Tovv-er thou sj)akest more modestly.' To whom said I,
' In the Tower no man cried out against me, whereas now
all do rage against me.' My faithful and beloved in
Christ, be not afraid with their sentence in condemning
my books. They shall be scattered hither and thither
abroad, like light butterflies, and their statutes shall en-
dure as s]iider-webs. They went about to shake my
constancy from the verity of Christ ; but they could not
overcome the virtue of God in me. They would not
reason from scripture against me, as divers honour-
able lords can witness with me, who being ready to
suffer contumely for the truth of God, took my part
stoutly ; namely. Lord Wenceslate de Duba, and Lord
John de Clum : for they were let in by King Sigismund
into the council. And when I said, that I was desirous
to be instructed if 1 did in any thing err, then they heard
the chief cardinal answer again, ' Because thou wouldest
be informed, there is no remedy but that thou must first
revoke thy doctrine according to the determination of
fifty bachelors of divinity appointed.' O high in-
struction !
" After like manner St. Katherine also should have
denied and revoked the verity of God, and faith in
Christ, because the fifty masters likewise withstood her :
which, notwithstanding, that good virgin would never
do, standing in her faith unto death : but she did win
those her masters unto Christ, when as I cannot win
these my masters by any means. These things I
thought good to write to you, tliat you might know how
they have overcome me, with no grounded scripture, nor
with any reason : but only did assay with terrors and
deceits to persuade me to revoke and to abjure. But
our merciful God, whose law 1 have magnified, was and
is with me, and 1 trust, so will continue, and will keep
me in his grace unto death.
" Written at Constance, after the feast of John
Baptist, in prison and in bonds, daily looking for death;
although for the secret judgments of God, I dare not say,
whether this be my last e))istle : for now also Almighty
God is able to deliver me."
A.D. 1415.]
LETTERS OF JOHN IIUSS TvO THE BOHEMIANS.
311
dntthpr Letter ofJohnHms, wherein he coiytfortcth his
Frieiuh, and wilieth them nut to be troul/led fur the
condemning of his Books; and also declareth the
wickedness of the Clergy.
" Master John Huss, in hope the servant of God, to
all the faithful which love him and his statutes, wisheth
the truth' and grace of God.
" Beloved, I thought it needful to warn that you
should not fear or be discouraged, because the adversa-
ries have decreed that my books should be burnt. Re-
member how the Israelites burned the preachings of the
prophet Jeremiah, and yet they could not avoid the things
that were prophesied of in them. For after they were
burnt, the Lord commanded to write the same prophecy
again, and that larger, which was also done. For Jere-
miah, sitting in prison spake, and Baruch, who was
ready at his hand, wrote. This is written either in the
thirty-fifth or forty-fifth chapter of the vision of Jere-
miah. It is also written in the books of the Maccabees,
* That the wicked did burn the law of God, and killed
them that had the same.' Again, under the New Testa-
ment, they burned the saints, with the books of the law
of God. The cardinals condemned and committed to
fire certain of St. Gregory's books, and had burnt them
all if they had not been preserved by God through the
means of Peter, Gregory's minister. Having these
things before your eyes, take heed lest through fear you
omit to read my books, and deliver them to the adver-
saries to be burnt. Remember the saying of our mer-
ciful Saviour, by which he forewarned us. Matt. xxiv.
'There shall be,' saith he, ' before the day of judgment,
great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of
the world until this day, no, nor yet shall be : so that
even the elect of God should be deceived, if it were pos-
sible. But for their sakes those days shall be short-
ened.' When you remember these things, beloved, be
not afraid, for I trust in God that that school of anti-
christ shall be afraid of you, and suffer you to be in
quiet, neither shall the council of Constance extend to
Bohemia. For I think, that many of them who are of
the council, will die before they shall get from you
my books. And they shall depart from the council, and
be scattered abroad, throughout the parts of the world,
like storks, and then they shall know when winter
conieth, what they did in summer. Consider that they
have judged their head, the pope, worthy of death, for
many horrible acts that he hath done. Go to now ;
answer to this, you preachers, who preach that the pope
is the god of the earth ; that he may, as the lawyers say,
make sale of the holy things ; that he is the head of the
whole holy church, in verity well governing the same;
that he is the heart of the ''hurch in quickening the
same spiritually: that he is iLe well-spring from which
floweth all virtue and goodness : that he is the sun of
the holy church : that he is the safe refuge to which
every christian man ought to fly for succour. Behold
now, that head is cut off with the sword, now the god of
the earth is bound, now his sins are declared openly ;
now that well-spring is dried up, that sun darkened, that
heart is plucked out and thrown away, lest that any man
should seek succour thereat. The council hath con-
demned that head, and that for this offence, because he
took money for indulgences, bishopricks, and other such
like.
" I would that in that council God had said, ' He that
amongst you is without sin, let him give the sentence
again.-t Pope John ;' then surely they had gone all out
of the council-house, one after another. Why did they
bow the knee to him always, before this his fall, kiss his
feet, and call him the most holy father, seeing they saw
apparently before, that he was an heretic, that he was a
killer, that he was a wicked sinner, all which things now
they have found in him? Why did the cardinals choose
him to be pope, knowing before that he had killed the
holy father ? Why suffered they him to meddle with
holy things, in bearing the office of the popedom ? for to
this end they are his counsellors, that they should ad-
monish him of that which is right. Are not they them-
selves as guilty of these faults as he ? seeing that they
accounted these things vices in him, and were partakers
of some of them themselves .' Why durst no man lav
ought to his charge, before he had fled from Constance',
but as soon as the secular power, by the sufferance of
God, laid hold upon him, then, and never before, they
conspired all together that he should not live any
longer ? Surely, even at this day is the malice, the
abomination and filthiness of antichrist revealed in the
pope, and others of this council.
" Now the faithful servants of God may understand
what our Saviour Christ meant by this saying, ' When
you shall see the abomination of desolation, which is
spoken of by Daniel, &c. whoso can understand it,' &c.
Surely, these be great abominations, pride, covetousness,
simony, sitting in a solitary place ; that is to say, in a
dignity void of goodness, of humility, and other virtues ;
as we do now clearly gee in those that are constituted in
any office and dignity. O how acceptable a thing should
it be (if time would suffer me) to disclose their wicked
acts, which are now apparent that the faithful servants
of God might know them I I trust in God that he will
send after me those that shall be more valiant ; and
there are alive at this day, those who shall make more
manifest the malice of antichrist, and shall give their
lives to the death for the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall give both to you and me the joys of life ever-
lasting.
" This epistle was written upon St. John Baptist's day,
in prison and in cold irons, I having this meditation
with myself, that John was beheaded in his prison and
bonds, for the word of God."
Another Letter of John Huss.
" John Huss, in hope the servant of God, to all the
faithful at Bohemia which love the Lord, wisheth to
stand and die in the grace of God, and at last to attain
unto eternal life.
" Ye that bear rule over others, and be rich, and ye
also that be poor, well-beloved and faithful in God, I
beseech you, and admonish you all, that ye will be obe-
dient unto God, make much of his word, and gladly
hearing the same, will humbly perform that which ye
hear. I beseech you stick fast to the verity of God's
word, which I have written and preached unto you out
of his law, and the sermons of his saints. Also I desire
you if any man either in public sermon or in private talk
heard of me any thing, or have read any thing writtea
by me which is against the verity of God, that ye do not
follow the same. Albeit I do not find my conscience
guilty that I ever have spoken or written any such thing
amongst you.
" I desire you, moreover, if any man, at any time
have noted any levity either in my talk or in my con-
ditions, that ye do not follow the same, but pray to God
for me, to pardon me that sin of lightness. I pray you
that ye will love your priests and ministers which be of
honest behaviour, to prefer and honour them before
others ; namely, such priests as travel in the word of
God. I pray you take heed to yourselves, and beware
of malicious and deceitful men, and especially of these
wicked priests of whom our Saviour doth speak, that
they are under sheep's clothing, and inwardly ire ra-
vening wolves. I pray such as be rulers and superiors,
to behave themselves gently towards their poor inferiors,
and to rule them justly. I beseech the citizens that
they will walk every man in his degree and vocation,
with an upright conscience. The artificers also, I be-
seech that they will exercise their occupations diligently,
and use them with the fear of God. I beseecli the
servants that they will serve their masters faithfully.
And likewise the schoolmasters I beseech, that they
living honestly, will bring up their scholars virtuously,
and teach them faithfully, first to learn to fear God ;
then for the glory of God and the public utility of the
commonwealth, and their own health, and not for avarice
or for worldly honour, to employ their minds to honest
arts. I beseech the students of the university, and all
schools, in all honest things to obey their masters, and
to follow them, and that with all diligence they will
m
LETTERS OF JOHN HUSS TO A PRIEST, &c.
[Book V.
study to be profitable both to the setting forth of the
glory of God, and to the soul's health, as well of them-
selves, as of other men. Together I beseech and pray
you all, that you will yield most hearty thanks to the
right honourable lords, the Lord Wemxslaus de Duba,
Lord John de Clura, Lord Henry Lumlovio, Lord Vilem
Zagecio, Lord Nicholas, and other lords of Bohemia, of
Moravia, and Polonie ; that their diligence towards me
may be grateful to all good men ; because that they,
like valiant champions of God's truth, have oftentimes
set themselves against the whole council for my deliver-
ance, contending and standing against the same to the
uttermost of their power ; but especially Lord VV'ences-
laus de Duba, and Lord John de CJum. Whatsoever
they shall report unto you, give credit unto them ; for
they were in the council when I there answered many.
Tliey know who they were of Bohemia, and how many
false and slanderous things they brought in against me,
and tliat council cried out against me, and how I also an-
swered to all things whereof I was demanded. I be-
seech you also that ye will pray for the king of the Romans,
and for your king, and for his wife, your queen, that God
of his mercy would abide with them and with you, both
now and henceforth in everlasting life. Amen.
" This epistle I have written to you out of prison and
in bonds, looking the next day after the writing hereof,
for the sentence of the council upon my death ; having a
full trust that he will not leave me, neither suffer me to
deny his truth, and to revoke the errors, which false
witnesses maliciously have devised against me. How
mercifully the Lord God hath dealt with me, and was
with me in marvellous temptations, ye shall know when
hereafter by the help of Christ we shall all meet to-
gether in the joy of the world to come. As concerning
Master Jerome, my dearly beloved brother and fellow, I
hear no other but that he is remaining in straight bonds,
looking for death as I do ; and that for the faith which
he valiantly maintained amongst the Bohemians, our
cruel enemies of Bohemia have given us into the power
and hands of other enemies, and into bonds. I beseech
you pray to God for them.
" Moreover, I beseech you, namely of Prague, that
ye will love the temple of Bethlehem, and provide so
long as God shall permit, that the word of God may be
preached in the same. For, because of that place, the
devil is angry, and against the same place he hath stirred
up priests and canons, perceiving that in that place his
kingdom should be disturbed and diminished. I trust in
God that he will keep that holy church so long as it shall
please him, and in the same shall give greater increase of
his word by other, than he hath done by me a weak
vessel. I beseech you also, that ye will love one another,
and withholding no man from the hearing of God's
word, ye will provide and take care that good men be
not oppressed by any force and violence. Written at
Constance, the year of our Lord 1415."
Another right f/odli/ letter of John Hms to a certain
priest, admonis/iing him of his ojfice. and exhorting
him to be faithful ; worthy to be read of all Ministers.
" The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. My dear
brother be diligent in preaching the gospel, and hIo the
work of a good evangelist ; neglect not your vocation ;
labour like a blessed soldier of Christ. First, live godly
and holily. Secondly, teach faithfully and truly. Thirdly,
be an example to others in well doing, that you be not
reprehended in your sayings : correct vice and set forth
virtue. To evil livers threaten eternal punishment ; but
to those that be faithful and godly, set forth the comforts
of eternal joy. Preach continually, but be short and
fruitful, prudently understanding, and discreetly dis-
pensing the holy scrijjtures. Never affirm or maintain
those tilings that be uncertain and doubtful, lest that
your adversaries take hold upon you, which rejoice in
depraving their brethren, whereby they may bring the
ministers of God into contempt. Exhort men to the
confession of their faith, and to the communion of both
kinds both of the body and blood of Christ, whereby such
as do repent earnestly of their sins, may the more often
come to the holy communion. And I warn you that
you enter into no taverns with guests, and be not a
common company-keej)er. for the more a preacher
keeps him from the company of men, tlie more he is
regarded. Ho. \ ever, deny not yet your help and diligence,
wheresoever you may proht otUcr. Against Jiesiily lust
preach continually all that, ever you can ; for that is the
raging beast, which devoureth men, for whom the tiesU
of Christ did sutler. Finally, howsoever you do, louf
God and keep his precejjts ; so shall ^^a walk wisely,
and shall not perish ; so sliall you suudue tlie tiesh,
contemn the world, and overcome the devil ; so shall
you put on God, tind life, and confirm oLliers, and shall
crown yourself with the crown of glory, cue which the
just Judge sliall give you. Amen.''
This letter of John Huss containeth a confession of the
infirmity of man's ftesh, how weak it is, and repug-
nant against tite spirit. Wherein he also exhorleth
to persevere constantly in the truth.
" Health be to you from Jesus Christ, &c. My dear
friend, know that I'aletz came to me to persuade me that
1 sliould not fear tlie sliaine of abjuration, but to consider
the good which tliereof will come. To whom 1 said
that tlie shame of condemnation and burning is greatei
than to abjure.
" Almighty God shall confirm the hearts of his faith«
ful, whom he hath chosen before the foundation of thft
world, that they may receive the eternal crown of glory.
And let antichrist rage as mucli as he will, yet he shall
not prevail against Christ, who shall destroy him with
the spirit of his mouth, as the ajiostle saith ; and then
shall the creature be delivered out of the bondage of cor-
ruption, into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God, as
saith the apostle in the words following. ' We also
within ourselves do groan, waiting for the adoption, to
wit, the redemption of our body.'
" I am greatly comforted in those words of our Sa-
viour, ' Happy are you when men shall hate you, and
shall separate you, and shall rebuke you, and shall cast out
your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake : rejoice
and be glad, for behold, great is your reward in heaven,'
Luke vi. O worthy, yea, O most worthy consolation,
which not to understand, but to practise in time of tri-
bulation, is a hard lesson.
" This rule St. James, with the other apostles, did
well understand, when he saith, ' Count it exceeding joy,
my brethren, when ye shall fall into divers temptations,
knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience :
let patience have her perfect work.' For certainly it is
a great matter for a man to rejoice in trouble, and to
take it for joy to be iu divers temptations. A light
matter it is to speak it and to expound it ; but a great
matter to fulfil it. For why .' our most patient and
most valiant champion himself, knowing that he should
rise again the third day, overcoming his enemies by his
death, and redeeming from damnation his elect, after his
last supper, was troubled in spirit, and said, ' My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.' Of whom also
the gospel saith, ' That he began to fear, to be sorrowful
and very heavy.' Who being then in an agony, was
confirmed of tlie angel, and his sweat was like drops
of blood falling upon the ground. And yet he notwith-
standing, being so troubled, said to his disciples, ' Let
not your hearts be troubled, neither fear the cruelty of
them that persecute you, for you shall have me with yott
always, that you may overcome the tyranny of your per-
secutors.' W'hereupon those his soldiers, looking upon
the Prince and King of Glory, sustained great coufiicts.
They passed through fire and water, and were saved,
and received the crown of the Lord God, of which St.
James in his canonical epistle, saith, ' Blessed is the
man who suffereth temptation, for when he shall be
proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God
hath promised to them that love him.' Of this crown I
trust steadfastly the Lord will make me a partaker also
with you, which be the fervent sealers of the truth, and
with all them which steadfastly and constantly do love
the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us, leaving to u
A.D. 1415.] JEROME OF PRAGUE TAKEN AND BROUGHT TO CONSTANCE.
313
I an example that we should follow his steps. * It behoved
\ him to suffer,' as he saith, and us also it behoveth to
i Buffer, that the members may suffer together with the
head. For he saith, ' If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself.and take up his cross, and follow me.'
" O most merciful Christ ! draw us weak creatures
j after thee, for except thou should draw us, we ere not
' able to follow thee. Give us a strong spirit, that it may
be ready, and although the flesh be feeble, yet let thy
grace go before us, go with us, and follow us ; for with-
I out thee we can do nothing, and much less enter into a
I cruel death for thy sake. Give us that prompt and
ready spirit, a bold heart, an upright faith, a firm hope,
and perfect charity, that we may give our lives patiently
and joyfully for thy name's sake. Amen.
, " Written in prison in bonds on the vigil of St. John
I the Baptist, who being in prison and in bonds for the
I rebuking of wickedness, was beheaded."
I By the life, acts, and letters of John Huss hitherto
I rehearsed, it is evident and plain, that he was condemned
I not for any error of doctrine, for he neither denied their
' popish transubstantiation, neither spake against the au-
thority of the church of Rome, if it were well governed,
nor yet the seven sacraments, but said mass, him-
i self, and in almost all their popish opinions was a papist
i with them ; but only through evil will was accused by
' his malicious adversaries, because he spake against the
' pomp, pride, and avarice, and other wicked enormities
I of the pope, cardinals, and prelates of the church, and
I because he could not abide the high dignities and livings
I of the church, and thought the doings of the pope to be
! antichrist like. For this cause he procured so many
enemies and false witnesses against him, who, straining
and picking matter out of his books and writings, having
no one just article of doctrine to lay unto him, yet they
made him an heretic, whether he would or no, and
brought him to his condemnation.
7%e traf/ical and lamentable history of the famous
learned man and godly martyr of Christ, Master
Jerome of Prague, burned at Constance for like cause
and quarrel as Master John Huss was, A. D. 1416.
These things being discoursed, touching the life, acts,
and constant martyrdom of Master John Huss, with
part also of his letters, whose death was on the sixth
of July (AD. 1415), it now remains to describe the
like tragedy and cruel handling of his christian compa-
nion Master Jerome of Prague, who, grievously sorrowing
for the slanderous reproach and defamation of his coun-
try of Bohemia, and also hearing of the manifest inju-
ries done to that man of worthy memory. Master John
Huss, freely and of his own accord came to Constance
the fourth day of April (A. D. 1415), and there per-
ceiving that John Huss was denied to be heard, and that
watch and wait was laid for him on every side, departed
to Iberling, until the next day, which city was a mile
from Constance, and from thence he wrote his letters to
Sigismund, king of Hungary, and his barons, and also
to the council, most earnestly requiring that the king
and the council would give him a sate conduct freely to
come and go, and that he would then come in open
audience to answer to every man, if there were any of
the council that would lay any crime to him, as by the
t.enor of his intimation shall more at large appear.
^^ hen the king of Hungary was required thereto, be-
ing in the house of the lord cardinal of Cambray, he re-
fused to give Master Jerome any safe conduct, excusing
himself for the evil speed he had with the safe conduct of
John Huss before, and alleging also certain other causes.
The deputies also of the four nations of the council being
moved thereto by the lords of the king of Bohemia, an-
swered • " We will give him a safe conduct to come, but
not to depart." Whose answers, when they were re-
ported to Master Jerome, he the next day after wrote
certain intimations according to the tenor under written,
which he sent to Constance to be set upon the gates of
the city, and upon the gates of the churches and monaste-
ries, and of the houses of the cardinals, and other nobles
and ]»relates. The tenor whereof here follows word for
word in this manner : —
" To the most noble prince and lord, the Lord Sigis-
mund, by the grace of God, king of the Romans, always
Augustus, and of Hungary, &c., I Jerome of Prague,
master of arts of the general universities of Paris, Cologne,
Heidelberg, and Prague, by these my present letters do
notify to the king, together with the whole reverend
council, and as much as in me lieth, do all men to under-
stand and know, that because of the crafty slanderers,
backbiters, and accusers, 1 am ready freely, and of mine
own will, to come to Constance, there to declare 0])euly be-
fore the council, the purity and sincerity of my true
faith, and mine innocency, and not secretly in corners
before any private or particular person. Wherefore, if
there be any of my slanderers, of what nation or estate
soever they be, who will object against me any crime of
error or heresy ; let them come forth openly before me
in the presence of the whole council, and in their own
names object against me, and I will be ready, as I have
written, to answer openly and publicly before tlie whole
council, of mine innocency, and to declare the purity
and sincerity of my true faith. And if so be that I shall
be found culpable in error or heresy, then I will not re-
fuse openly to suffer such punishment as shall be meet
and worthy for an erroneous person, or an heretic.
"Wherefore I most humbly beseech my lord the king,
and the whole sacred council, that I may have to this
end and purpose aforesaid, safe and sure access. And if it
happen that I offering such equity and right as I do, be-
fore any fault be proved against me, be arrested, impri-
soned, or have any violence done unto me ; that then it
may be manifest to the whole world, that this general
council does not proceed according to equity and jus-
tice, if they would by any means put me back from this
profound and straight justice, being come hither freely
of mine own mind and accord, which thing I suppose to
be far from so sacred and holy council of wise men."
When he could not get any safe conduct, then the
nobles, lords, and knights, especially of the Bohemian
nation, present in Constance, gave to Master Jerome
their letters patents, confirmed with their seals for a
testimony and witness of the premises. With which
letters Master Jerome returned again unto Bohemia ;
but by the treason and conspiracy of his enemies he was
taken in Hirsaw by the officers of Duke John, and
brought back to the presence of the duke. In the
meantime such as were the setters forward of the coun-
cil against Master John Huss, and Master Jerome, that
is to say, Michael de Causis, and Master Paletz, and
other their accomplices, required that Master Jerome
should be cited by reason of his intimations, and certain
days after a citation was set upon the gates and porches
of the city and churches.
After Sigismund, king of Hungary, with the rest of
the council, understood that Master Jerome was taken,
they were earnestly requiring that he should be brought
before them to the council. The Duke John, after he
had received letters of the king and the council, brought
Master Jerome bound to Constance, whom his brother,
Duke Lewis, led through the city to the cloisters of the
friars minors in Constance, where the chief priests and
elders of the people. Scribes and Pharisees, were ga-
thered together, attending and waiting for his coming.
Master Jerome carried a great hand-bolt of iron with a
long chain in his hand ; and as he passed, the chain made
a great rattling and noise, and for the more confusion
and despite towards him, they led him by the same
chain after Duke Lewis, holding and stretching out the
same a great way from him, with which chain they also
kept him bound in the cloister. When he was brought into
the cloister, they read before him the letter of Duke John
unto the council, containing in effect how that the duke
had sent Master Jerome, who by chance was fallen into
his hands, because he heard an evil report of him, that
he was suspected of heresies of Wickliff, that the council
might take order for him, whose part it was to correct
and punish such as did err and stray from the truth, be-
314
IMPRISONMENT AND ABJURATION OF JEROME OF PRAGUE.
[Book V.
sides many other flattering tales which were written in
the said lettt-r for the praise of the council. After this
they read the citation vYhich was given out by the coun-
cil against Master Jerome. Then certain of the bishops
said to him : " Jerome, why didst thou fly and run
away, and not appear when thou wast cited ?" He an-
swered: "Because I could not have any safe conduct,
neither from you, neither from the king, as it appears
by these letters patents of the barons, which you have,
neither by my open intimations could I obtain any safe
conduct. Wherefore I, perceiving many of my grievous
and heavy friends to be here present in the council,
would not myself be the occasion of my perils and dan-
gers ; but if I had known or had any understanding of
this citation, without all doubt, although I had been in
Bohemia, I would have returned again.'' Then all the
whole rabble rising up, alleged various accusations
against him with a great noise and tumult. When the
rest held their peace, then spake Master Gerson, the
chancellor of Paris : " Jerome, when thou wast at Paris
thou thoughtest thyself by means of thy eloquence to be
an angel, and didst trouble the whole university, alleging
openly in the schools many erroneous conclusions with
their corollaries, and especially in the question de univer-
salibvs et de Idms, with many other very offensive
questions." To whom Master Jerome said : "I an-
swer to you. Master Gerson ; those matters which I did
put forth there in the schools at Paris, in which also I
answered the arguments of the Masters, I did put them
forth philosophically, and as a philosopher, and master
of the university ; and if I have put forth any questions
which I ought not to have put forth, teach me that
they are erroneous, and I will most humbly be informed,
and amend them."
While he was yet speaking, another, rising up, said :
" When thou wast also at Cologne, in thy position which
thou didst there determine, thou didst propound many
erroneous matters." Then said Master Jerome unto
him: " Shew me first one error which I propounded."
Wherewithal he being in a manner atonished. said : " I
do ni)t remember them now at the first, but hereafter
thev shall be objected against you."
And by and by a third man rising up, said :
" When you were also at Heidelberg, you propounded
many erroneous matters as touching the trinity, and
there painted out a certain shield or escutcheon comparing
the trinity of persons in the divinity to water, snow, and
ice, and such like." Unto whom Master Jerome an-
swered : " Those things that I wrote or painted there,
the same will I also speak, write, and paint here ; and
teach me that they be erroneous, and I will most humbly
revoke and recant the same."
Then certain cried out: "Let him be burned, let
him be burned." To whom he answered: " If my
death do delight or please you, in the name of God let
it be so."
Then said the archbishop of Saltzburg : " Not so.
Master Jerome, forsomuch as it is written, I will not
the death of a sinner, but rather that he be converted
and live."
When these and many other tumults and cries were
passed, whereby they most disorderly and outrageously
witnessed against him, they delivered him bound to the
officers of the city of Constance, to be carried to prison
for that night ; and so every one of them returned to
their lodgings.
In meantime, one of the friends of Master John Huss,
lookin" out at a window of the cloister, said unto him :
"Mast'er Jerome.'' Then said he: "You are wel-
come, my dear brother." Then said Peter to him :
" Be constant and fear not to suffer death for the truth
sake, of which, when you were in times past at liberty,
you did preach so much and so well." Jerome answered :
" Truly brother I do not fear death, and as we know
that we have spoken much thereof in times past ; let us
now see what may be known or done in eff'ect." By
and bv his keepers coming to the window, threatening hmi
with blows, put away Peter from the window of the cloister.
Then came there one Vitus to Master Jerome, and
said: "Master, how do you do.'" He answered,
"Truly brother, I do very well." Then his keepers
coming about him laid hold of Vitus, saying : " This is
also one of the number,'' and kept him. When it drew
towards evening, the archbishop of Riegen sent his ser-
vants, who led away Master Jerome, being strongly
bound with chains, both by the hands and by the neck,
and kept him so for some hours. When niglit drew on
they carried him to a tower of the city, whert-, tying him
fast to a great block, and his feet in the stocks, his
hands also being made fast, they left him ; tlie block was
so high, that he could by no means sit upon it, so that
his head must hang downward. Tliey carried al-0 Vitus
to the archbisho[) of Riegen, who demanded of him,
" Why he durst be so bold to talk with such a man, be-
ing a reprobate of all men, and an heretic ;" and when
he could find no cause of imprisonment in him, Jiud that
he said he was Master John de Clum's friend (taking an
oath and promise of him, that he should not go about tc
endamage the council by reason of that imprisonment
and captivity) he so dismissed him.
Master Jerome, unknown to his friends whither he was
carried, lay in the tower two days and two nights, relieved
only with bread and water. Then one of hiskeejjers, com-
ing to Master Peter, declared to him how Master Jerome
lay hard by in bonds and chains, and how he was fed. Then
Master Peter desired that he might have leave given him
to give him meat, because he would procure the same for
him. The keeper of the prison, granting his request,
carried meat to him. Within eleven days after, so
hanging by the heels, he used so small repast, that he
fell sore sick even to death. When living in that capti-
vity and prison, he desired to have a confessor ; the
council denied that he should have any, until such time
as by great importunity he obtained one ; his friends being
then present in the prison and tower, wherein he lay by
the space of one year, lacking but seven days.
After they had put John Huss to death, then nbout
the feast of the nativity of the Virgin Mary, they
brought forth Master Jerome, whom they had kept so
long in chains ; and threatening him with death, being
instant upon him, they forced him to abjure and recant,
and consent to the death of Master John Huss, that he
was justly and truly condemned and put to death by
them. He, for fear of death, and hoping thereby to es-
cape out of their hands, according to their will and plea-
sure, and according to the tenor which was exhibited to
him, did make abjuration, and that in the cathedral
church and open session, the draught whereof penned to
him by the papists, here ensues :
The abjuration of Master Jerome of Prague.
" I, Jeromeof Prague, master of arts, acknowledgingthe
catholic church, and the apostolic faith, do accurse and
renounce all heresies, and especially that whereof I have
hitherto been infamed, and that which in times past
John Huss and John Wickliff have holden and taught in
their works, treatises, and sermons, made unto the people
and clergy ; for the which cause the said Wickliff" and
Huss, together with the said doctrines and errors, are
condemned by this synod of Constance as heretics, and
all the said doctrine sententially condemned, and especi-
ally in certain articles expressed in the sentences and
judgments given against them by this sacred council.
" Also 1 do accord and agree unto the holy church of
Rome, the apostolic seat in this sacred council, and with
my mouth and heart do profess in all things, and touch-
ing all things, and especially as touching the keys, sa-
craments, orders, and offices, and ecclesiastical censures,
of pardons, relics of saints, ecclesiastical liberty, also
ceremonies, and all other things pertaining unto the chris-
tian religion, as the church of Rome, the apostolic see,
and this sacred council do profess : and especially that
many of the said articles are notoriously heretical, and
lately reproved by the holy fathers, some of them blas-
j)hemous, some others erroneous ; some offensive unto
godly ears, and many of them temerarious and seditious.
And such also were counted the articles lately con-
demned by the sacred council, and it was inhibited and
forbidden to all and singular catholic men hereafter to
A.D. 141C.] JEROME'S ABJURATION.— NEW ARTICLES BROUGHT AGAINST HIM
315
preach, teach, or presume to hold or maintain any of the
said articles, under pain of being accursed.
" And I the said Jerome, forsomuch as I have la-
boured by scbolastical arts to persuade the opinion,
de univemalibus realibus, and that one substance of the
common kind should signify many things subiect under
the same, and every one of them, as St. Ambrose, Je-
rome, Augustine, do affirm, and likewise others ; for the
teaching hereof by a plain example I described as it
were a certain triangle, form, or figure, the which I
called the shield of faith.
" Therefore utterly to exclude and take away the er-
roneous and wicked understanding thereof, the which
peradventure some men may gather thereby, I do say,
affirm, and declare that I never made the said figure,
neither named it the shield of faith to that intent or
purpose, that I would extol or prefer the opinion of
universalities above or before the contrary opinion, in
such sort, as though that were the shield of faith, and
that without the affirmation thereof the catholic faith
could not be defended or maintained, when as I myself
would not obstinately stick thereunto. But this I said,
because I had put example in the description of the tri-
angle or form, that one divine essence consisted in
three subjects or persons in themselves distinct, that is
to say, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The
article of the which Trinity is the chief shield of faith,
and foundation of the catholic truth.
" Furthermore, that it may be evident unto all men
what the causes were for which I was reputed and
thought to stick to, and favour sometime John Huss, I
signify unto all men by these presents, that when I
heard him oftentimes both in his sermons, and also in
the schools, I believed that he was a very good man,
neither that he did in any point gainsay the traditions of
our holy mother the church, or holy doctors ; insomuch
as when I was lately in this city, and the articles which
I affirmed were shewed unto me, which were also con-
demned by the sacred council, at the first sight of them
I did not believe that they were his, at the least not in
that form. But when as I had further understood, by
certain famous doctors and masters of divinity, that they
were his articles, I required for my further information
and satisfaction to have the books of his own hand-
writing shewed unto me, wherein it was said these
articles were contained, which books when they were
showed unto me written with his own hand, which I did
know as well as mine own, I found all, and every one
of those articles therein written in like form as they
are condemned. "Wherefore I do worthily judge and
think him and his doctrine, with his adherents, to be
condemned and reproved by the sacred council as he-
retical and without reason. All which the premises,
with a pure mind and conscience, I do here pronounce
and speak, being now fully and sufficiently informed of
thfi foresaid sentences and judgments, given by the sa-
cred council against the doctrines of the said John
WicklifF, and John Huss, and against their own per-
sons, unto the which judgment, as a devout catholic
in all things, I do most humbly consent and agree.
" Also I the foresaid Jerome, who before the reve-
rend fathers the lords cardinals, and reverend lords, pre-
lates, and doctors, and other worshipful persons of this
sacred council in this same place, did heretofore freely
and willingly declare and expound mine intent and pur-
pose amongst other things, speaking of the church, did
divide the same into three parts. And as I perceived
afterwards, it was understood by some that I would
affirm, that in the triumphant church there was faith,
whereas I do firmly believe that there is the blessed
sight and beholding of God, excluding all dark under-
standing and knowledge, and now also I say, affirm,
and declare, that it was never my intent and purpose
to prove hat there should be faith, speaking of faith as
faith is commonly defined, but knowledge far exceeding
faith. And generally whatsoever I said, either there, or
at any time before, I do refer, and most humbly submit
myself unto the determination of this sacred council of
Constance.
" iloreover t do swear both by the Holy Trinity,
and also by the most holy gospel, that I will for ever-
more remain and persevere without all doubt in the
truth of the catholic church ; and all such as by their
doctrine and teaching shall impugn this faith, I judge
them worthy together with their doctrines of eternal
curse. And if I by myself at any time (which God
forbid I should) do presume to preach or teach con-
trary thereunto, I will submit myself unto the severity
of the canons, and be bound unto eternal pain and
punishment. Whereupon I do deliver up this my con-
fession and tenour of my profession willingly before this
sacred general council, and have subscribed and written
all these things with mine own hand."
After all this they caused him to be carried again to
the same prison, but not so straightly chained and
bound as he was before, notwithstanding kept every day
with soldiers and armed men ; and when his enemies
understood and knew by the words and talk of Master
Jerome, and by other certain tokens, that he made the
same abjuration and recantation, not of a sincere and
pure mind, but only to escape their hands, they put up
new accusations against Master Jerome, and drew the
same into articles, being very instant and earnest that
he should answer thereunto ; and as his judges, and
certain cardinals, as the cardinal of Cambray, the car-
dinal de Ursinis, the cardinal of Aquilegia, and of Flo-
rence, considering the malice of the enemies of Master
Jerome, saw the great injury that was done to him, they
laboured before the whole council for his delivery.
It ha])pened upon a certain day, as they were labour-
ing in the council for the delivery of the said Master
Jerome, that his enemies with all force and power
resisted against it, crying out that he should in no
case be dismissed. Then started up one called Doc-
tor Naso, who said unto the cardinals, " We marvel
much of you, most reverend fathers, that your reve-
rences will make intercession for such a wicked heretic,
for whose sake we in Bohemia, with the whole clergy,
have suffered much trouble and mischief, and perad-
venture your fatherhoods shall suffer ; and I greatly
fear, lest that you have received some rewards either of
the king of Bohemia, or of these heretics." When the
cardinals were thus rebuked, they discharged themselves
of Master Jerome's cause and matter.
Then his enemies obtained to have other judges ap-
pointed, as the patriarch of Constantinople, and a Ger-
man doctor, as they did know that the patriarch was a
grievous enemy to Master Jerome, because he being be-
fore appointed judge by the council, had condemned
John Huss to death.
But Master Jerome would not answer them in prison,
requiring to have open audience, because he would there
finally declare to them his mind, neither would he by
any means consent to those private judges. Whereupon
the presidents of the council, thinking that Master Je-
rome would renew his recantation before the audience,
and confirm the same, did grant him open audience.
In the year A. D. 1416, the twenty-fifth day of May,
Master Jerome was brought to open audience before the
whole council, in the great cathedral church of Con-
stance, where the commissioners of the council laid
against him a hundred and seven articles, to the intent
that he should not escape the snare of death, which
they provided and laid for him. He answered to more
than forty articles most subtlely objected against him ;
denying that he held or maintained any such articles as
were either hurtful or false, and affirming that those
witnesses had deposed them against him falsely and
slanderously, as his most cruel and mortal enemies. In
the same session they had not yet proceeded to death,
because that the noon-time drew so fast on, that he
could not answer to the articles. Wherefore, for lack
bf time sufficient to answer to the residue of the articles,
there was another time appointed, at which time again
early in the morning he was brought to the cathedral
church to answer to all the residue of the articles.
In all which articles, as well those which he had an-
swered before, as in the residue, he cleared himself very
learnedly, refuting hia adversaries in such a way that
n%
THE ORATION OF JEROME BEFORE THE COUNCIL.
[Book V.
tbey were themselves astonished at his oration, and
the refutation of their testimonies against him, and with
shame enough were put to silence. As when one of
them had demanded of him what he thought of the sa-
crament of the altar, he answered, " Before consecra-
tion," said he, " it is bread and wine; after the conse-
cration it is the true body and blood of Christ," adding
more words according to their catholic faith. Then
another rising up, " Jerome," said he, " there goes a
great rumour of thee, that thou dost hold bread to
remain upon the altar." To whom he pleasantly an-
swered, saying, " That he believed bread to be at the
baker's." At which words one of the Dominican friars
rose angrily, and said, " What ! dost thou deny,
that which no man doubts ?" His peevish sauciness
Jerome with these words did well repress, " Hold thy
peace, thou monk, thou hypocrite !" And thus the
monk being nipped in the head, sat down dumb. After
whom started up another, who with a loud voice cried
out, " I swear, by my conscience, that to be true which
thou dost deny." To whom Jerome replied, " Thus to
swear by your conscience is the next way to deceive."
Another there was, a spiteful and a bitter enemy of his,
whom he called by no other name than dog, or ass.
After he had thus refuted them one after another, that
they could find no crime against him, neither in this
matter, nor in any other, they were all driven to keep
feilence.
Then the witnesses were called, who coming gave tes-
timony to the articles before produced. By reason
whereof the innocent cause of Jerome was oppressed,
and began to be concluded in the council. Then Je-
rome rising up began to speak, " Forsomuch," said he,
" as you have heard mine adversaries so diligently, it is
convenient that you should also now hear me speak for
myself." Whereupon, with much difficulty, at last au-
dience was given in the council for him to say his mind.
Which being granted, he continued from morning to
noon, treating of many matters, with great learning
and eloquence. W^ho first beginning with his prayer to
God, besought him to give him spirit, ability, and utter-
ance, which might both tend to the profit and salvation
of his own soul ; and then began his oration as follows : —
■■ I know," said he " reverend lords, that there have
been many excellent men, who have suffered much
otherwise than they have deserved, being oppressed
with false witnesses, and condemned with wrong judg-
ments." And so beginning with Socrates, he declared
how he was unjustly condemned of his countrymen,
neither would he escape'when he might ; taking from us
the fear of two things, which seem most bitter to men,
to wit, imprisonment and death. Then he inferred the
captivity of Plato, the banishment of Anaxagoras, and
the torments of Zeno. Moreover, he brought in the
wrongful condemnation of many Gentiles, as the ba-
nishment of Rupilius, reciting also the unworthy death
of Boetius, and of others whom Boetius himself writes of.
From thence he came to the examples of the He-
brews, and first began with Moses the deliverer of the
people, and the lawgiver, how he was oftentimes slan-
dered of his people as being a seducer and contemner of
the people. Joseph also for envy was sold of his
brethren, and for false suspicion of crime was cast into
bonds. Besides these, were Isaiah, Daniel, and almost
all the prophets, who as contemners of God, and sedi-
tious persons, were oppressed with wrongful condemna-
tion. From thence he proceeded to the judgment of
Susanna, and of divers other besides, who being good
and holy, were yet unjustly cast away with wrong-
ful sentence. At length he came to John Baptist, and
so in long process he descended to our Saviour, declaring
how it was evident to all men, by what false witnesses
both he and John Baptist were condemned. Moreover,
how Stephen was slain by the college of the priests, and
how all the apostles were condemned to death, not as
good men, but as seditious stirrers up of the people, and
contemners of the gods, and evil doers. It is unjust,
said he, to be unjustly condemned one priest by another,
tad yet he proved that the same so happened most un-
justly in that council of priests. These things did ho
discourse at large, with marvellous eloquence, and with
singular admiration of all that heard him.
And forasmuch as all the whole sum of the cause did
rest only in the witnesses, by many reasons he j)roved
that no credit was to be given to them, especially see-
ing they spake all things of no truth, but only of hatred,
malice, and envy. And so prosecuting the matter, so
lively and expressly he opened to them the causes of
their hatred, that he had almost persuaded them. In
so lively and likely a way was their hatred detected, that
almost no credit was given to their testimonies, save
only for the cause and quarrel wherein they stood
touching the pope's doctrine. All men's minds were
moved and bending to mercy toward him ; for he told
them how tliat he of his own accord came up to the
council, and to purge himself he did open to them all
his life and doings, being full of virtue and godliness.
This was (said he) the old manner of ancient and
learned men, and most holy elders, that in matters of
faith, they differed many times in arguments, not to
destroy the faith, but to find out the truth. So did
Augustine and Jerome dissent one from the other, and
yet without any suspicion of heresy.
All this while the pope's holy council waited, still ex-
pecting when he would begin to excuse himself, and re-
tract those things which were objected against him, and
to crave pardon of the council ; but he persisting still in ,
his constant oration, did acknowledge no error, norj
gave any signification of retractation.
At last entering to the praise and commendation ol
Master John Huss, he affirmed that he was a good, just,J
and holy man, and much unworthy that death which ha
suffered. He knew him from his youth upward to be
neither immoral, a drunkard, nor any evil or vicious
person, but a chaste and sober man, and a just and true
preacher of the holy gospel ; and whatever things Mas4l
ter John Huss and W'ickliff had holden or written, spe-l
cially against the abuse and pomp of the clergy, h^
would affirm even to the death, that they were holy ancf
blessed men, and that in all points of the catholic faith
he believes as the holy catholic church holds or be-
lieves. And finally, he concluded, that all such articles
as John Wickliff and John Huss had written and puil
forth against the enormities, pomp, and disorder of ihei
prelates, he would firmly and steadfastly, without recan-
tation, hold and defend even to the death. And last of |
all he added, that all the sins that he had ever commit-
ted, did not so much gnaw and trouble his conscienccn
as did that only sin which he had committed in that ]
most pestiferous act, when in his recantation he had(
unjustly spoken against that good and holy man and his,*
doctrine, and specially in consenting to his wicked con*
demnation, concluding that he did utterly revoke and
deny that wicked recantation which he made in that
most cursed place, and that he did it through weakness
of heart and fear of death. And, moreover, that what-
ever he had spoken against that blessed man, he had
altogether lied upon him, and that he repented with hifl
whole heart that he ever did it.
At the hearing hereof the hearts of the hearers werei
not a little sorry. For they wished and desired greatly
that such a singular man should be saved, if otherwise
their blind superstition would have suffered it. But he
continued still in his opinion, seeming to desire rather
death than life. And persisting in the praise of John
Huss, he added moreover, that he never maintained any
doctrine against the state of the church, but only spake
against the abuses of the clergy, against the pride, pomp,
and excess of the prelates. For as the patrimonies of
the churches were first given for the poor, then for hos-
pitality, and thirdly to tlie reparations of the churches ;
it was a grief to that good man (said he) to see the same
mispent and cast away upon great feastings, and
keeping of horses and dogs, upon gorgeous apparel, and
such other things unbeseeming the christian religion.
And herein he shewed himself marvellous eloquent ; yea,
never more.
And when his oration was interrupted many times by
A.D. 1416.]
THE SENTENCE OF CONDEMNATION ON JEROME.
317
several of them, carping at his sentences as be was in
speaking, yet was there none of all those that interrupted
him who escaped unscathed, but he brought them all to
confusion, and put them to silence. When any noise
began, he ceased to speak, and after began again, pro-
ceeding in his oration, and di^siring them to give him
leave a while to speak, whom they hereafter should hear
no more, nor was his mind ever dashed at all these
noises and tumults.
And this was marvellous to behold in him, notwith-
standing he continued in prison three hundred and forty
days, having neither book, nor almost light to read by,
yet how admirably his memory served him ; declaring
how all those pains of his straight handling did not so
much grieve him, as he did wonder rather to see their
unkind humanity towards him.
When he had spoken these and many things as touch-
ing the praise of John Wickliff and John Huss, they
who sat in the council whispered together, saying, by
these his words it appears that he is resolved with him-
self. Then was he again carried into prison, and grie-
vously fettered by the hands, arms, and feet, with great
chains and fetters of iron.
The Saturday next before the ascension-day, early in
(he morning, he was brought with a great number of
armed men to the cathedral church before the open con-
grL'gation, to have his judgment given him. There they
exhorted him that those things which he had before
spoken in the open audience, as is aforesaid touching
the praise and commendation of master John WicklifF,
and master John Huss, confirming and establishing
their doctrine, he would yet recant : but he marvel-
lous stoutly without all fear spake against them, and
among other things said to them, " I take God to my
witness, and I protest here before you all, that I do be-
lieve and hold the articles of the faith, as the holy
catholic church does hold and believe the same ; but for
this cause shall I now be condemned, because I will not
consent with you to the condemnation of those most holy
and blessed men, whom you have most wickedly con-
demned for certain articles, detesting and abhorring your
wicked and abominable life." Then he confessed there
before them all his belief, and uttered many things very
profoundly and eloquently, insomuch that all men there
present could not sufficiently commend and praise his
great eloquence and excellent learning, and by no means
could they induce or persuade him to recant.
Then a certain bishop, named the Bishop of Londy,
made a certain sermon against Master Jerome, per-
suading them to condemn him.
After the bishop had ended the sermon. Master Je-
rome said again unto them, " You will condemn me
wickedly and unjustly. But I after my death will leave
a remorse in your conscience, and a nail in your hearts.
And here I cite you to answer unto me before the most
high and just Judge, within a hundred years."
No pen can sufficiently write, or note those things
which he most eloquently, profoundly, and philosophi-
cally had spoken in the said audience, neither can any
tongue sufficiently declare the same ; wherefore I have
but only touched here the superficial matter of his talk,
partly and not wholly noting the same. Finally, when
they could by no means persuade him to recant the
premises, immediately even in his presence, the sentence
and judgment of his condemnation was given against
him, and read before him.
Sentence.
" In the name of God, Amen. Christ our God, and
our Saviour being the true vine, whose Father is the
husbandman, taught his disciples, and all other faithful
men, saying, ' If any man abide not in me, let him be
cast out as a bough or branch, and let him wither and
dry,' &c. The doctrine and precepts of which most
excellent doctor and master, this most sacred synod of
Constance executing and following in the cause of in-
quisition against heretics, being moved by this sacred
synod, through report, public fame, and open infamation,
proceeding against Jerome of Prague, master of arts, lay-
man. By the acts and processes of whose cause it
appeareth that the said Master Jerome hath hoiilen,
maintained, and taught divers articles heretical and
erroneous, lately reproved and condemned hy the holy
fathers, some being very blasphemous, other some offend-
ing godly ears, and many temerarious and seditious,
wiiich have been affirmed, maintained, preached and
taught by the men of the most damnable memory, John
Wickliff and John Huss, the which are also written in
many of their works and books. Which articles of
doctrine and books of the said John Huss, and John
Wickliff, together with their memory, and the person of
the said John Huss, were by the said sacred synod con-
demned of heresy. Which sentence of condemnation
this Jerome afterwards during the time of inquisition,
acknowledged in the said sacred synod, and approved
the true catholic and apostolic faith, thereunto consent-
ing, accursing all heres-y, especially that whereof he was
infamed, and confessed himself to be infamed, and that
which in times past John Huss and John Wickliff main-
tained and taught in their works, sermons, and books,
for which the said Wickliff and Huss, together with
their doctrine and errors, were by the said sacrt-d synod
condemned as heretical. The condemnation of all which
premises he did openly profess and allow, and did
swear that he would persevere and continue in the verity
of that faith. And if that he should presume at any
time to hold opinion, or preach contrary thereunto, that
he would submit himself to the trial and truth of the
canons, and be bound to perpetual punishment. And
this his profession written with his own hand, he de-
livered up unto the holy council. Not many days after his
said profession and abjuration, as a dog returning unto
his vomit, to the intent he might openly vomit up the
most pestilent poison which had long lurked and lain hid
in his breast, he required and desired that he might be
openly heard before the council. The which being
granted unto him, he affirmed, said, and professed before
the whole synod, being publicly gathered together, that
he had wickedly consented and agreed to the sentence
and judgment of the condemnation of the said Wickliff"
and Huss, and that he had most shamefully lied in
approving and allowing the said sentence, neither was he
ashamed to confess that he had lied ; yea, he did also
revoke and recant his confession, approbation, and pro-
testation, which he had made upon their condemnation,
affirming that he never at any time had read any errors
or heresy in the books and treatises of the said Wickliff
and Huss. Although he had before confessed it, and it is
evidently proved, that he did diligently study, read, and
preach their books, wherein it is manifest that there are
contained many errors and heresies. Also the said
Master Jerome did profess as touching the sacrament of
the altar and the transubstantiation of the bread into the
body of Christ, that he doth hold and believe as the
church doth hold and believe, saying also that he doth
give more credit unto St. Augustine, and the othtr doc-
tors of the church, than unto Wickliff and Huss. It
appeareth moreover, by the premises, that the said Je-
rome is an adherent and maintainer of the said Wickliff
and Huss, and their errors, and both is, and has been a
favourer of them. Wherefore the said sacred synod de-
termineth the said Masttr Jerome as a rotten and withered
branch, not growing upon the vine, to be cut off and
cast out. The said synod also pronounceth, declireth
and condemneth him as an hejetic and drowned in all
kind of heresies, excommunicate and accursed, leaving
him unto the sentence and judgment of the secular
judge, to receive just and due punishment, according to
the quality of so great an offence ; the sacred synod
notwithstanding, entreating that the said judge would
moderate his sentence of judgment without peril of
death."
I Which sentence so given before his face, being ended,
I a great and long mitre of paper was brought unto him,
painted about with red devils, which when he beheld and
saw, throwing away his hood upon the ground amongst
the prelates, he took the mitre and put it upon his
head, saying, " Our Lord Jesus Clirist, when h«
318
MARTYRDOM OF JEROME. LETTER OF THE NOBLES TO THE COUNCIL. [B.ok V.
•hould suffer death for me most wretched sinner, did
wear a crown of thorns ujion his head ; and I for his
Bake instead of that crown, will willingly wear this mitre
and cap." Afterwards he was laid hold of by the secular
power.
After that he was led out of the said church to the
place of execution ; when he was going out of the
church, with a cheerful countenance and loud voice lift-
ing his eyes up unto heaven, he began to sing, " I
believe in one God," &c., as it is accustomed to be sung
in the church. Afterward as he passed along, he sung
some canticles of the cliurch ; which being ended, in the
entering out of the gate of the city, as men go to Goth-
lehem, he sung this hymn, Felix namqne. After that he
came to the place of execution where Master John Huss
before had innocently suffered death, and kneeling down
before an image which was like to the picture of Master
John Huss, which was there prepared to burn Master
Jerome, he made a certain devout prayer.
While he was thus praying, the tormentors took him
up, and lifting him up from the ground, spoiled him of
all his garments, and left him naked, and afterwards
girded him about the loins vv'ith a linen cloth, and bound
hira fast with cords and chains of iron, to the image
which was made fast unto the earth ; and so standing
upon the ground, when as they began to lay the wood
about him, he sung Sahe festa dies. And when the
hymn was ended, he sung again with a loud voice, " I
believe in one God," unto the end. That being ended,
he said unto the people in the German tongue, in effect
as follows. " Dearly beloved cliildren, even as I have
now sung, so do I believe, and none otherwise. And
this creed is my whole faith, notwithstanding now I die
for this cause, because I would not consent and agree to
the council, and with them affirm and hold that Master
John Huss was by them holily and justly condemned ;
for I did know well enough that he was a true preacher
of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
After that he was compassed in with the wood up to
the crown of the head, they cast all his garments upon
the wood also, and with a tire-brand they set it on fire ;
which being once fired, he began to sing with a loud
voice, " Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my apirit."
When that was ended, and that he began vehemently to
burn, he said in the vulgar. Bohemian tongue, " O Lord
God, Father Almighty have nisrcy upon me, and be
merciful unto mine offences, for thou knowest how sin-
cerely I liave loved thy truth." Then his voice by the
vehemency of the fire was choked and stopped, that it
was no longer heard, but he moved continually his
mouth and lijis, as though he had still jjrayed or spoken
within himself.
When his whole body with his beard was so burned
round about, that there appeared through the great
burning upon his body certain great blisters as big as an
egg, yet he continually very strongly and stoutly moved,
and shaked his head and mouth, by the space almost of
one quarter of an hour. So burning in the fire, he
lived with great pain and martyrdom, while one might
easily have gone from St. Clement's over the bridge to
our lady church. After he was thus dead in the fire,
by and by they brought his bedding, his straw bed, his
boots, his hood, and all other things that he had in the
prison, and burned them all to ashes in the same fire.
Which ashes, after that the fire was out, they diligently
gathered together, and carried them in a cart, and cast
them into the river Rhone, which ran hard by the
city.
That man who was the true reporter hereof, and
which testified to us the acts and doings about the con-
demnation of Master Jerome, and sent the same to us to
Prague in w'riting, thus concludes. " All these things,"
said he, " I did behold, see, and hear to be done in this
form and manner. And if any man do tell you the con-
trary, do not credit him ; for all those things which
happened unto him when he came toward Constance,
and also at his first coming unto Constance of his own
free will, and afterward when he was brought bound unto
Constance, as is aforesaid, I mysslf did see and perfectly
behold, and for a perpetual memory thereof to be had
for ever, I have directed the same unto you, not lying or I
falsifying any point thereof, as he which is the Siearcher (
of all men's hearts can bear me witness, willing rather
to sustain the charge of ignorance and rudeness of style,
to bear witness to tl>e truth, than I would by any means t
be compelled by tickling, or flattering the ears of the i
hearers with feigned and cloaked speech, to swerve or go
aside from the truth."
Thus end the tragical histories of Master John Huss,
and Master Jerome of Prague, faithfully gathered and
collected by a certain Bohemian, being a present eve-
witness and beliolder of the same, written and compiled
first in Latin, and sent by the said Bohemian into his
country of Bohemia, and again translated out of the
Latin with like fidelity into our English tongue.
In the mean time, while Master Jerome was in this
trouble, and before the council, the nobles and lords of
Bohemia and of Moravia directed their letters to this
barbarous council of popish murderers : in tenor and
form of words as foUoweth.
The Letter nf the fftrj -four Nobles of Moravia, vritten
unto the Council of Conxtance in the defence of Mastet
John Huss and Jerome of Prague.
" To the right reverend fathers and lords in Christ,
the lords cardinals, patriarchs, primates, arch-
bishops, bishops, ambassadors, doctors, and
masters, and to the whole council of Constance,
We, the nobles, lords, knights, and esquires, of
the famous marquisdom of Moravia, wish the de
sire of all goodness, and the observation of the
commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.
" Forsomuch as every man, both by the law of natxire
and also by God's law, is commanded to do that unto
another man, which he would have done unto himself,
and is forbidden to do that thing unto another, wliich he
would not have done unto himself, as our Saviour saith,
' All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the
prophets.' Yea, the law is fulfilled in this one point,
' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:' We, there-
fore, (God being our author), having respect as much as
in us lieth unto the said law of God, and the love of our
neighbour, did before send our letters unto Constance
for our dearly beloved friend of good memory. Master
John Huss, bachelor of divinity, and preacher of tne
gospel. Whom of late in the council of Constance (we
know not with what spirit being led) you have con-
demned as an obstinate heretic ; neither having con-
fessed any thing, neither being lawfully convicted as was
expedient ; having no errors or heresies declared or laid
against him, but only at the sinister, false, and impor-
tune accusations, suggestions, and instigations of his
mortal enemies, and the traitors of our kingdom and
marquisdom of Moravia. And being thus unmercifully
condemned, you have slain him with most shameful and
cruel death, to the perpetual shame and infamy of our
most christian kingdom of Bohemia, and the famous
marquisdom of Moravia (as we have written unto Con-
stance, unto the most noble prince and lord, the Lord
Sigismund, king of the Romans, and of Hungary, the heir
and successor of our kingdom) which was also read and
jjublished in your congregations, which we will here also
have enrolled ; and have burned him, as it is reported,
in reproach and contempt of us.
" Wherefore, we have thought good even now to di-
rect our letters patent to your reverences now ju-esent
in the behalf of Master John Huss, openly ])n)fessiiig
and protesting, both with heart and mouth, that he, the
said Master John Huss, was a just, good, and catholic
man, and for a long season worthily connuended and al-
lowed in our kingdom for his life and conversation. He
also preached and taught us and our subjects the law of
the gospel, and of the holy prophets, and the books of
the Old and New Testament, according to the exjjosi-
tion of the holy doctors approved by the cliurch, and
left many monuments in writing, most constantly detest-
A.D. 141G.] THE HISTORIES OF JOHN CLAYDON AND RICHARD TURMING.
319
ing and abhorring all errors and heresies, continually
admonishing both us and all faithful cliristians to do the
like, diligently exhorting all men as much as in him lay,
by his words, writings, and labours, unto quietness and
concord ; so that using all the diligence that we might,
we never heard or could understand, that Master Jolin
Huss had preached, taught, or by any means affirmed
any error or heresy in his sermons, or that by any
manner of means he had offended us, or our subjects,
either by word or deed, but that he always led a quiet
and a godly life in Christ, exhorting all men diligently,
both by his word and works, as much as he might, to
observe and keep the law of the gospel, and the institu-
tions of tlie holy fathers, after the preaching of our holy
mother the church, and to the edifying of men's souls.
Neither did these premises which you had so per])e-
trated to the reproach both of us and our kingdom and
marquisdom, suffice and content you, but that also
without all mercy and pity you have apprehended, im-
prisoned, and condemned, and even now, peradventure,
like as you did Master John Huss, you have most cruelly
murdered the worshipful man, Master Jerome of
Prague, a man abounding in eloquence, master of the
seven liberal arts, and a famous jjhilosojiher, not being
seen, heard, examined, neither convicted, but only at the
sinister and false accusations of his and our accusers and
betrayers.
" Furthermore, it is come to our knowledge and un-
derstanding (which we do not without great grief re-
hearse) as we may also evidently gather by your writ-
ings, how that certain detractors, odious both to God
and men, privy enviers and betrayers, have wickedly and
grievously, although falsely and traitorously, accused us,
our kingdom and marquisdom aforesaid, before you in
your council, that in the said kingdom of Bohemia, and
marquisdom of Moravia, divers errors are sprung up,
which have grievously and manifoldly infected both our
nearts, and also the hearts of many faithful men ; inso-
much that without a speedy stop or stay of correction,
the said kingdom and marquisdom, together with the
faithful christians therein, should incur an irreparable
loss and ruin of their souls.
" These cruel and pernicious injuries which are laid
to us, and to our said kingdom and marquisdom, al-
though most falsely and slanderously, how may we suf-
fer ? Forsomuch as through the grace of God (when in
a manner all other kingdoms of the world have often-
times wavered, making schisms and antipopes) our
most gracious kingdom of Bohemia, and most noble
marquisdom of Moravia, since the time they did receive
the catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, have always
without reproof stuck constantly to the church of Rome,
and have sincerely done their true obedience. Also
with how great costs and charges, and great labour, with
what worship and due reverence they have reverenced
the holy mother tlie church and her pastors, by their
princes and faithful subjects, is more manifest than
the day-light to the whole world ; and yourselves, if you
will confess the truth, can witness the same also.
" Wherefore, that we, according to the mind of the
apostle, may procure honest and good things, not only
before God, but before men also, and lest by neglecting
the famous renown of the kingdom and marquisdom, we
be found cruel toward our neighbours ; having a steadfast
hope, a pure and sincere conscience and intent, and a
certain true faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, by the
tenour of these we signify and declare unto your
fatherhoods, and to all faithful christians, openly pro-
fessing both with heart and mouth, that whatsoever man,
of what estate, pre-eminence, dignity, condition, de-
gree, or religion, soever he be, who hath said, or af-
firmed, either doth say or affirm, that in the said king-
dom of Bohemia, and marquisdom of Moravia, heresies
have sprung up which have infected us and other faith-
ful christians, as is aforesaid (the only person of our
most noble prince and lord, Sigismund, king of Romans,
and of Hungary, &c. our Lord and heir successor, being
set apart, whom we trust and believe, not to be guilty in
the premises) all and every such man (as is aforesaid)
doth lie falsely upon his head, as a wicked and naughty
traitor and betrayer of the said kingdom and marquis-
dom, and most traitorous to us, and most pernicious
heretic, the son of all malice and wickedness, yea, and
of the devil himself, who is a liar, and the father of all
lies.
" Notwithstanding, we for this present committinc
the foresaid injuries unto God, unto whom vengeance
pertainetli, who will also abundantly reward tlie workers
of iniquity, will prosecute them more amply before him,
wlioni God shall appoint in the apostolic see, to govern
his holy churcl), as the only and undoubted pastor.
Unto whom, God willing, w'e exhibiting our due reve-
rence and obedience as faithful children, in those thing.'
which are lawful, honest, and agreeable to reason and
the law of God, will make our recpiest and petition, that
speedy remedy may be provided for us, our said king-
dom and marquisdom upon the premises, according to
the law of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the institutions of
the holy fatiiers. Tiie premises, notwithstanding, we
setting apart all fear and men's ordinances provided to
the contrary, will maintain and defend the law of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the devout, humble, and con-
stant preachers thereof, even to the shedding of our
blood.
" Dated at Sternberg, in A. D. 1415, upon St.
Wenceslaus' day, martyr of our Lord Jesus
Christ.''
Round about these letters there were fifty-four seals
hanging, and the names of those noblemen subscribed,
whose seals they were.
After these things, concerning the history of John
Huss and Jerome of Prague, the order of time calls me
back to other matters here of our own country, which
passed in the mean time with us in England. "Which
tilings being finished, we will (Christ willing) afterward
return to the troubles and conflicts of the Bohemians,
with other things besides, pertaining to the later end of
the council of Constance, and election of Pope Martin.
Ye heard before, how after the death of Thomas
Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, succeeded Henry
Chichesley, (A.D. 1414,) and sat twenty-five years.
In whose time was much trouble and great affliction of
good men here in England ; of whom many were com-
pelled to abjure, some were burned, several were driven
to exile. Whereof, partly flow to treat, as we find
them in registers and histories recorded, we will first
begin with John Claydon of London, and Richard
Turming. The history of which John Claydon in the
registers is thus declared.
The Kiniory of John Claydon, Currier; and of Richard
Turming, Baker.
The 17th of August, 1415, did personally appear
John Claydon, currier of London (arrested by the
mayor of tlie city for the suspicion of heresy) before
Henry, archbishop of Canterbury, in St. Paul's church ;
which John (it being objected to him by the archbishop,
that in the city of London, and other places of the pro-
vince of Canterbury, he was suspected by divers godly
and learned men of heresy, and to be contrary to the
catholic faith and determination of the church) did
openly confess, and denied not, but that he had been for
the space of twenty years suspected both about the city
of London, and also in the province of Canterbury, and
especially by the common sort, of the opinions of the
Lollards and heresy, and to be contrary to tlie catholic
faith and determination of the church of Rome, and de-
famed of the same all the time aforesaid.
Insomuch, that in the time of Master Robert Bray-
brook, bishop of London, deceased, he was for the
space of two years committed to the prison of Conway
for the foresaid defamation and suspicion, and for the
same cause also he was in prison in the Fleet for tnree
years. Out of which prison he (in the reign of King
Henry IV.) was brought before the Lord John Scarle,
then chancellor to the king, and there did abjure all
heresy and error. And the said John Claydon being
asked of the said archbishop whether he did abjure the
320
CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM OF JOHN CLAYDON.
[Book V.
heresy of which he was suspected before any other ? did
confess, that in a convocation at London, in St. Paul's
church, before Thomas Arundel, late archbishop, de-
ceased, he did ar)jure all such doctrine, which they
called heresy and error, contrary to the catholic faith
and determination of the church, and that he had not
only left such articles and opinions, wherein he was de-
famed, but also did abstain from all company that were
suspected of such ojiinions, so that he should neither
give aid, help, counsel, nor favour unto them.
And, moreover, the said John was asked by the said
archbishop, whether he had ever since his abjuration had
in his house or in his keeping, any books written in
English. Whereunto he confessed, that he would not
deny, but that he had in his house, and in his keeping,
many English books ; for he was arrested by the mayor
of the city of London for such books as he had, which
books (as he thought) were in the mayor's keeping.
Upon the which the mayor did openly confess, that he
had such books in his keeping, which in his judgment
were the worst, and the most perverse that ever he did
read or see, and one book that was well bound in red
leather, of parchment, written in a good English hand ;
and among the other books found with the said John
Claydon, the mayor gave up the said book before the
archbishop. Whereupon the said John Claydon, being
asked of the archbishop if he knew that book, did openly
confess that he knew it very well, because he caused it
to be written of his own costs and charges, for he spent
much money thereupon since his abjuration. Then was
he asked who wrote it. He did answer, one called
John Grime.
And further, being required what the said John Grime
was, he answered, he could not tell. Again, being de-
manded whether he did ever read the same book, he did
confess, that he could not read, but he had heard the
fourth part thereof read of one John Fullar. And being
asked, whether he thought the contents of that book to
be catholic, profitable, good and true .' He answered,
that many things which he had heard in the same book,
were both profitable, good, and healthful to his soul ; and
as he said he had great affection to the said book, for a
sermon preached at Horslydown, that was written in the
said book. And being further asked, whether, since
the time of his said abjuration, he did commune with
one Richard Turming, of «he city aforesaid ; he did an-
swer, yea : for the said Richard "Turming did come often
unto his house to have communication with him. And
being asked whether he knew the said Richard to be
suspected and defamed of heresy, he did answer again,
that he knew well that the said Richard was suspected
and defamed by many men and women in the city of
London, as one whom they thought to be an he-
retic.
Which confession being made, he did cause the said
books to be delivered to Master Robert Gilbert, doctor
of divinity, to William Lindewood, doctor of both laws,
and other clerks to be examined, and in the mean time,
David Beard, Alexander Philip, and Balthasar Mero,
were taken for witnesses against him, and were com-
mitted to be examined to Master John Escourt, general
examiner of Canterbury. This done, the archbishop
continued his session till Monday next, in the same
])hice. Whicli Monday being come, which was the
twentieth of the said month, the said Master Escourt
openly and publicly exhibited the witnesses, being
openly read before the archbishop, and other bishops ;
which being read, then after that were read divers trea-
tises, found in the house of the said John Claydon :
out of the which being examined, various points were
gathered and noted for heresies and errors, and espe-
cially out of the book aforesaid, which book John Clay-
don confessed by his own costs to be written and bound,
which book was intitled " The Lanthoru of Light."
For the articles contained in this and other books, the
archbishop, with other bishops, and learned men,
communing together, first condemned the books as he-
retical, and burned them in the fire : and then, because
they thought John Claydon to be forsworn and fallen i
into heresy, the archbishop proceeded to his definitive I
sentence against him, he personally appearing before him
in judgment, (his confessions being read and deposed
against him) after this manner :
" In the name of God, Amen. We, Henry, by the
grace of God, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all
England, and legate of the apostolical see, in a certain
cause of heretical pravity, and of relapse into the same,
whereuj)on John Claydon, layman of the province of
Canterbury, was detected, accused and denounced, and
in the said our province of Canterbury publicly defamed,
(as by public fame and common report notoriously to us
hath been known), first, sitting in judgment-seat, and ob-
serving all things lawfully required in this behalf, do
proceed to the pronouncing of the sentence, definitive iu
form as foUoweth. The name of Christ being invoked
and only set before our eyes, forasmuch as by the acts
and things enacted, produced, exhibited and confessed
before us ; also by divers signs and evidences, we have
found the said John Claydon to have been, and to be
publicly and notoriously relapsed again into his former
heresy, heretofore by him abjured ; according to the
merits and deserts of the said cause, being of us dili-
gently searched, weighed, and pondered before, to the
intent that the said John Claydon shall not infect others
with his scab, by the consent and assent of our reverend
brethren, Richard, bishop of London, John, bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield, and Stephen, bishop of St.
David's, and of other doctors, as well of divinity as of
both laws and also of other discreet and learned men as-
sisting us in this behalf, we do judge, pronounce, and
declare the said John Claydon to be relapsed again into
his heresy, which he before did abjure, finally and defi-
nitively appointing him to be left unto the secular
judgment, and so do leave him by these presents.'*
Thus John Claydon, receiving his judgment and con-
demnation of the archbishop, was committed to the
secular power, and by them was committed to the fire at
Smithfield, where meekly he was made a burnt offering
unto the Lord, A. D. 1415.
Robert Fabian, and other chronologers who follow
him, add also, that Richard Turming, baker, of whom
mention is made before, in the examination of Jolm
Claydon, was likewise at the same time burned with him
in Smithfield. But in the register I find no sentence
of condemnation given against the said Turming, neither
yet in the history of St. Albans, is there any such men-
tion of his burning made, but only of the burning of
John Claydon aforesaid ; wherefore the judgment
hereof I leave free to the reader. Notwithstanding,
concerning the said Turming this is certain, that he was
accused to the bishops, and, no doubt, was in their
hands and bands. What afterwards was done with him,
I refer it to the authors.
The next year after the burning of these two afore-
said, and also of John Huss, being burnt at Constance,
which was A. D. 1416, the prelates of England seeing
the daily increase of the gospel, and fearing the ruin o(
their papal kingdom, were busily occupied with all their
counsel and diligence to maintain the same. Wherefore,
to make their state and kingdom sure, by statutes, laws,
constitutions, and terror of punishment, as Thomas
Arundel, and other prelates had done before, so Henry
Chichesley, archbishop of Canterbury, in his convoca-
tion at London, makes another constitution (as though
there had not enough been made before) against the
poor Lollards ; the copy and tenor whereof he sendeth
abroad to the bishop of London, and to other his suf-
fragans, by them to be put in straight execution, aa
follows :
" Henry, hy the grace of God archbishop of Canter-
bury, primate of all England, and legate of the chief seat :
to our reverend brother in the Lord, Richard, by the grace
of God bishop of London, health and brotherly love,
with continual increase. Lately in our last convocation
in St. Paul's church in London, being kept by you and
other our brethren and clergy of our province, we do
remember to have made this order underwritten, by your
®ml of loljii Cloboii.
Pase 3-it).
A.D. 141fi.] THE TROUBLES OF ROBERT CHAPEL— HIS FORCED CONFESSION.
321
consents : when as among many other our cares, this
on^'lit to be chief, that by some means we may take
tlii'ss lieretics, who like foxes, lurk and hide themselves
in tlie Lord's vineyard; and that the dust of negligence
nviy be utterly shaken from our feet, and from tlie feet
of our fellow brethren ; iu this the said convocation of
flu- prelates and clergy, we have ordained, tliat our
fellow brethren, our suffragans and archdeacons of our
province of Canterbury, by themselves, their officials or
commissaries in their jurisdictions, and every one of their
cbirges in their country, twice every year at the least, do
diligently inquire for such persons as are suspected of
heresy ; and that in every such their archdeaconries in
every parish, wherein is reported any heretics to in-
habit, they cause three or more of the honestest men,
and best reported of, to take their oath upon the holy
evangelists, that if they shall know or understand any
frequenting either in privy conventicles, or else differing
in life or manners from the common conversation of
other catholic men, or else that hold any either heresies
or errors, or else that have any suspected books in the
English tongue, or that do receive any such persons
suspected of heresies and errors into their houses, or
that be favourers of them that are inhabitants in any
such place, or conversant with them, or else have any
recourse unto them ; they make certificates of those
persons in writing, with all the circumstances wherewith
they are suspected, to the said our suffragans or arch-
deacons, or to their commissaries, so soon, and with as
much speed as possibly they can ; and that the said
archdeacon, and every of their commissaries aforesaid,
do declare the names of all such persons denounced,
together with all the circumstances of them, the diocese
and places, and secretly under their seals do send over
unto us the same : and that the same diocesans effec-
tually direct forth lawful process against them, as the
quality of the cause rcquireth, and that with all dili-
gence they discern, define and execute the same.
" And if perhaps they leave not such persons convicted
unto the secular court, yet notwithstanding let them com-
mit them unto the perpetual or temporal prisons, as the
quality of the cause shall require, until the next convo-
cation of the prelates and clergy of our province of Can-
terbury, there personally to remain ; and that in the same
prisons they cause them to be kept according as the law
requires ; and that of all and singular the things afore-
said, that is, what inquisition they have made, and what
they have found, and how in the process they have be-
haved themselves, and what persons so convicted they have
caused to be put in safe keeping, with what diligence or
•' negligence of the commissaries aforesaid, with all and all
manner of other circumstances premised, and thereunto
in anywise appertaining, and especially of the abjurations,
if in the meantime they shall chance to abjure any heresies,
that then in the next convocation of the prelates and
clergy under the form aforesaid, they cause the same dis-
I tinctly and openly to be certified to us and our successors ;
; and that they deliver effectually to the official of our
court, the same process to remain with them, or else in
the register of our court of Canterbury, so that every
one, to whom such things appertain, for the further ex-
j ecution of the same process, may have recourse unto the
! same official with all effect.
; " We therefore command, that as touching the consti-
Itution brought unto your city and diocesan, you cause
I the same in convenient place and time to be published,
j and that in all points you both observe the same your-
I selves, and cause it also of others to be diligently ob-
j served ; commanding, furthermore, all and singular our
! fellow brethren and suffragans, that they in likewise
i caus.^ the same to be published throughout all their cities
and dioceses, and both diligently observe the same them-
I selves, and also cause all others to do the same ; and
i what thing soever you shall do in the premises, that you
1 certify us betwixt this and the feast cf St. Peter ad vin-
culo next coming, that you duly certify us of these things
by your letters patent, containing the same effect,
Beakd with your seals. Dated at our house in London,
the first day of July, A. D. 1416.''
During the time of this convocation, two priests were
presented and brought before the bishops, defamed for
heretics, one named John Barton, to whom it was ob-
jected by Philip, bishop of Lincoln, that he had been ex-
communicated about six or seven years before, upon
articles concerning religion, and yet neither would ap-
pear when cited, nor would seek to be reconciled again
to the church. Which things being so proved against
him, he was committed to the custody of Philip, bishop
of Lincoln, and to be holden in prison, till he should
hear further what should be done.
The other was Robert Chapel, otherwise named Hol-
bech, chaplain sometimes to the Lord Cobham ; to
whom likewise it was objected, that he being under the
sentence of excommunication about three or four years,
yet notwithstanding continued saying mass, and preach-
ing, and sought not to be reconciled ; Chapel denying
that he knew of any such excommunication given out
against him. Then was the copy of his excommunica-
tion first made by the bishop of Rochester, afterward de-
nounced by the bishop of London at St. Paul's cross,
brought and read before him ; and that being done, the
session brake up for that time, which was about the
latter end of May, A. D. 1416.
The twelfth day of the month of July next following.
Chapel appeared again before the archbishop and the
prelates ; and confessing and submitting himself, he
desired pardon. The bishop of Rochester putting in his
hands the decree of the canon law, made him abjure all
his former articles and opinions as heretical and schismati-
cal, never to hold the same again, according to the con-
tents of the canon. Upon which, Robert Chapel being
absolved by the authority of the archbishop, (save only
that he should not intermeddle with saying mass before
he had been dispensed from the pope himself for irregu-
larity), was enjoined by the archbishop himself for his-
penance, to stand at St. Paul's, and to publish these arti-
cles following unto the people, instead of his confessioai
given him to be read.
" 1. I confess that bishops, priests, and other ecclesi-
astical persons, having no other possession to Ihe con-
trary, may lawfully have, receive, and retain lands and
possessions temporal, to dispense and dispose the same-
and the rents thereof, to the behoof of themselves, or of
their church where they dwell, according as seemelh
good to them.
" 2. I confess that it were very unlawful, yea, rather
unjust, that temporal men upon any occasion soever,
should take away temporal lands and possessioas-froni
the church, either universal or particular, to which
they are given, the consideration of the abuse of
mortal prelates, priests, or other ministers in the-
church conversant (which are mixt- together good'
with bad) abusing the same, to the contrary notwith-
standing.
" ?i. I confess that pilgrimages to the relics of saints,
and to holy places, are not prohibited, nor to be con-
temned of any catholic, but are available to remission of
sins, and approved of holy, fathers, and worthy to be
commended.
"4. I confess that to worship the images of Christ or
of any other saints, being set up in the church or in any-
other place, is not forbidden ; neither does it conduce to
idolatry, being so used as the holy fathers do will them
to be worshipped ; but rather such images do profit
much to the health of christians, because they do put ua
in remembrance of the merits of those saints whom they
represent, and the sight of them doth move and stir up,,
the people to prayers and devotion.
"5. I confess that auricular' confession used in the;-
church is necessary for a sinner to the salvation of hia^
soul, and necessary, to be doae of such a, priest as is or-
dained by the church to hear the confession of the sin-
ner, and to enjoin him penance for the same ; without
which confession (if it may be had) there is noremissjoa
of sins to him that is in mortal sin.
" 6. I confess and firmly do hold, that although the
priest be in mortal sin, yet he »^»» make the body of'
322 PiiiRSECUTIONS IN ENGLAND, BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, &c. [Book V.
Christ, and minister other sacraments and sacramentals,
which nevertheless are profitable to all the faithful,
whoever receives them in faith and devotion of the
church.
"7.1 confess that bishops in their own dioceses may
forbid, decree, or ordain upon reasonable causes, that
priests should not, without their special license, preach
the word of God, and that those that do against the same,
should suffer the ecclesiastical censures.
" 8. I confess that private religions, as well of monks,
canons, and others, as also of the begging friars, being
allowed by the church of Rome, are profitable to the
universal church, and in no means contrary to God's law,
but rather founded and authorised thereof.
"9. I promise and swear upon these holy evangelists,
which I hold here in my hands, that I will henceforth
never hold, affirm, nor by any means teach any thing
contrary unto the premises either openly or privately."
After the setting out of the constitution aforesaid, in
the days of Henry Chichesley, archbishop of Canterbury,
great inquisition followed in England, and many good
men, whose hearts began to be won to the gosi)el, were
brought to much vexation, and caused outwardly to
abjure.
Thus, while Christ had the inward hearts of men ;
yet the catholic antichrist would needs possess their out-
ward bodies, and make them sing after his song. In the
number of those who were compelled to al)jure, besides
the other aforesaid, was also John Taylor of the parish
of St. Michael's at Quern ; William James, master of
arts and physician, who had long remained in prison, and
at length, after abjuration, was licensed with his keeper
to practise his physic.
Also John Dwarf, so named for his low stature, who
was sent l)y the duke of Bedford to the aforesaid Chi-
chesley, and other bi-shops, to be examined before them
or the convocation ; there he at length revolting from
his doctrine, recanted and did ]ienance.
In like manner John Jourdelay of Lincolnshire, well
commended in the registers for his learning, accused by
the priests of Lincoln for a certain book, which he, con-
trary to the former decree of the bishops, concealed, and
did not exhibit to them, was therefore forced to ab-
jure. After whom was brought likewise before the bi-
shops one Katharine Dertford, a spinster, who being ac-
cused and examined upon these three articles concerning
the sacrament of the pope's altar, adoration of images,
and of pilgrimage, answered, that she was not able, be-
ing unlearned, to ansvver to such high matters, neither
had she any further skill, but only her creed and ten com-
mandments ; and so was she committed to the vicar
general of the bishop of Winchester (for she was of the
same diocese), to be kept, and further to be examined
■ of the same.
At the same sitting was also brought before the arch-
bishop and his fellow bishops, by the lieutenant of the
Tower, the parson of Heggeley in Lincolnshire, named
Master Robert, who being long kept in the Tower, at
length by the king's writ, was brought and examined the
■same time upon thelike articles, to wit, touching the sacra-
ment of their altar, pilgrimage, adoration of images, and
whether it was lawful for spiritual men to enjoy tem-
poral lordships, &c. To which articles he answered
(saith the register) doubly and mockingly, save oidy in
the sacrament he seemed something more conformable,
although not yet fully to their content. Wherefore, be-
ing committed to the custody and examination of Richard,
bishop of Lincoln, in the end he was also induced to
submit himself.
The same likewise did William Henry of Tenterden,
being suspected and arrested for keeping company wMtli
them whom the bishops called Lollards, and for having
suspected books.
Besides these, many others there were who in the
same convocation were assembled and revoked their
opinions, as John Galle, a priest of London, <'or having a
book in Enghsh, intitutled " A Book of tlie New Law.''
Richard Monk, vicar of Chesham in Lincolnshire, who
ubmitted himself likewise. In this race and number
followed moreover Bartholomew Commonger, Nicholas
Hoper, servant to the Lord Cobham ; Thomas Granter
with others, mentioned in the register.
Among the rest who were at this time troubled for
their faith, was one Radulph Mungin, priest, who for the
same doctrine was arrested and sent by the lord chan-
cellor of England to the archbishop, and by him com-
mitted to David Price, vicar-general to the bishop of
London ; where, after he had endured four months in
prison, he was presented to the convocation, against
whom divers articles were objected.
But for the better explaining of the matter, first here
is to be noted, that touching the time of this convocation
provincial. Pope Martin had sent down to the clergy of
England, for a subsidy to be gathered of the church, to
maintain the pope's war against the Lollards (so the
papists did term them) of Bohemia. Also another sub-
sidy was demanded to persecute one Peter Clerk, master
of arts of Oxford, who, flying out of England, was at the
council of Basil, dis])uting on the Bohemians' side. And
thirdly, another subsidy was also required to j)ersecute
Williani Russel, warden of the Gray Friars in London,
who the same time was fled from England to Rome, to
maintain his opinion before the pope, and there escaped
out of prison, &c. of whom we shall treat more largely
hereafter (Christ willing). In the meantime mark here
the petty shifts of the i)ope to hook in the English
money, by all manner of pretences possible.
Thus Ralph Mungin, appearing before the bishops in
the convocation, it was objected against him, first, that
he affirmed and held, that it was not lawful for any
christian to fight and make war against the heretics of
Bohemia.
Also, it was objected to him that he did hold and say
tliat it was not lawful for any man to have property of
goods, but that they should be common, which he ex-
pressly denied that ever he so said or affirmed. Whereby
we have to observe how the crafty malice of these adver-
saries use falsely to collect and surmise of men, what they
never spake, to oppress them wrongfully whom by plain
truth they cannot expugn.
Moreover they objected against him, that he kept
company with Master Clerk, and also that he dispersed
in the city of London certain books of John Wicklifl", and
of Peter Clerk, namely the book ' Trialogus,' and the gos-
gel of John Wickliff, &c. He was charged, moreover,
to have spoken against the pope's indulgences, affirming
that the pope had no more power to give indulgences
than he had.
Upon these and other such articles objected, Mungin
being asked if he would revoke, answered, "That it
seemed to him not just or meet so to do, who did not
know himself guilty of any heresy." Thus he being re-
spited for the time, was committed to prison till the next i
sitting, who then being called afterward before the hi- •
shops, after long inquisition and straight examination i'
made, also depositions brought in against him so much
as they could search out, he notwithstanding still denied
as before to recant. Wherefore the aforesaid Henry,
the archbishop, proceeding to his sentence definitiye,
condemned him to perpetual imprisonment.
After this followed the recantation of Richard Monk,
and Thomas Granter. Also of Edmund Frith who was ,
before butler to Sir John Oldcastle. j
Besides these, many are recorded in the register, who •]
for their faith and religion were greatly vexed and
troubled, esi)ecially in the diocese of Kent, in the towns
of Romney, Tenterden, Woodchurch, Cranbrook, Staple-
hurst, Benenden, Halden, Rolvenden, and others, >
where whole households, both man and wife, were driven !■
to forsake their houses and towns for danger of persecu- j
tion ; as sufficiently appears in the process of the arch- !
liishop Chichesley against those persons, and in the car- i
tificate of Burbath his official, wherein are named ths
following persons :
1. W.White, priest.
2. Thomas Grenested, priest.
3. Bartholomew Commonger,
4. John Wadnon. •
5. Joan his wife.
AD. 1418.] THE SECOND APPREHENSION AND MARTYRDOM OF LORD COBHAM.
323
G. Thomas Everden.
7. William Everden.
8. Stephen Robin,
y. W. Chiveling.
10. John Tame.
11. John Fowlin.
William Somen.
Marian his wife.
John Abraham.
Robert Miinden.
Laurence Coke.
These being cited up together by tlie bishop, would
not appear. Upon which great inquisition being made
for them by his officers, they were constrained to Hy their
houses and towns, and shift for themselves as secretly as
they could.
Concerning Sir John Oldcastle the Lord Cobham,
his first apprehension with his whole history and life,
has been sufficiently expressed before, and how being com-
mitted to the Tower, and condemned falsely of heresy,
he escaped afterwards out of the Tower, and was in
Wales tfbout the space of four years. In wliich time, a
great sum of money was promised by proclamation by
the king, to him that could take Sir John Oldcastle,
either alive or dead. About the end of which four
years the Lord Powis, whether for love and greedi-
ness of the money, or whether for hatred of the
true and sincere doctrine of Christ, seeking all manner
of ways how to play the part of Judas, at lei;gth ob-
tained his bloody purpose, and brought the Lord Cob-
ham bound up to London ; which was about A.D. 1417,
and about the month of December. At which time
there was a parliament assembled in London. I^he
records of which parliament do thus say : " That on Tues-
day the fourteenth day of December, and the nine-and-
twentietli day of the said parliament. Sir John Oldcastle
of Cowling, in the county of Kent, knight, being out-
lawed (as is before mentioned) in the king's bench, and
excommunicated before by the archbishop of Canterbury
for heresy, was brought before the lords, and having
heard his said convictions, answered not thereto in his
excuse. Upon which record and process it was adjudged
that he should be taken as a traitor to the king and the
realm ; that he should be carried to the Tower of Lon-
don, and from thence down through London, unto the
new gallows in St. Giles without Temple Bar, and there
to be hanged and burned hanging."
Thus, after long process, they condemned him again
for heresy and treason, by force of the aforenamed act ;
he rendering thanks unto God, that he had so appointed
him to suffer for his name's sake.
And, upon the day appointed, he was brought out of
the Tower with his arms bound behind him, having a very
cheerful countenance. Then was he laid upon a hurdle,
as though he had been a most heinous traitor to the
crown, and so drawn forth into St. Giles's-fields, where
they had set up a new pair of gallows. As he was
coming to the place of execution, and was taken from
the hurdle, he fell down devoutly upon his kness, de-
siring Almighty God to forgive his enemies. Then
he stood up and beheld the multitude, exhorting them,
in most godly manner, to follow the laws of God written
in the scriptures, and, in any wise, to beware of such
teachers as they see contrary to Christ in their conver-
sation and living ; with many other special counsels.
Then was he hanged up there by the middle, in chains
of iron, and so consumed alive in the fire, praising the
name of God, so long as his life lasted. In the end he
commended his soul into the hand of God, and so de-
parted hence most christianly, his body being resolved
into ashes. And this was done A. D. 1418, which was
the fifth year of the reign of King Henry V. ; the people
there present, shewing great sorrow. How the priests
that time fared, blasphemed, and accursed, requiring
the people not to pray for him, but to judge him damned
in hell because he departed not in the obedience of their
pope, it were too long to write.
This terrible kind of death, with gallows, chains, and
fire, appears not very precious in the eyes of men that
be carnal, no more than did the death of Christ, when
he was hanged up among thieves. " The righteous
seemeth to die," saith the wise man, " in the sight of
them which are unwise, and their end is taken for very
destruction. Ungodly souls think their lives very mad-
ness, and their passage hence without all honour ; but,
though they suffer pains before men," saith he, " yet is
their expectation full of immortality. They are ac-
counted for the children of God, and have their portion
among the saints. As gold in the furnace doth God try
his elect, and as a most pleasant burnt offering, receiveth
he them to rest." The more hard the passage be, the
more glorious shall they appear in the latter resurrection.
Not that the afflictions of this life are worthy of such a
glory, but that it is God's heavenly pleasure so to reward
them. Never are the judgments and ways of men like
unto the judgments and ways of God, but contrary ever-
more, unless they be taught of him. " In the latter
time," saith the Lord unto Daniel, "shall many be
chosen, proved, and purified by fire ; yet shall the un-
godly live wickedly still, and have no understanding that
is of faith." By an angel from heaven was John
earnestly commanded to write that "blessed are the
dead that die in the Lord." " Right dear," saith
David, "in the sight of God, is the death of his ser-
vants.''
Thus rested this valiant christian knight. Sir John
Oldcastle, under the altar of God, which is Jesus Christ,
among that godly company, who, in the kingdom of
patience, suffered great tribulation with the death of
their bodies, for his failhful word and testimony, abiding
there with them. He, fulfilling of their whole number
and the full restoration of his elect. The which he
grant, in effect, who is one God eternal ! Amen.
Thus have you heard the whole matter concerning the
martyrdom of the good Lord Cobham, as we have
gathered it partly out of the collections of John Bale
and others.
Moreover, in the records above mentioned, it follows
how in the parliament, after the martyrdom of this
valiant knight, a motion was made, that the Lord Powis
might be thanked and rewarded, according to the procla-
mation made for his great pains taken in the apprehen-
sion of " Sir John Oldcastle, knight, heretic." Thus
stand the words of the record. Where two things are
to be noted : first, how Sir John here in the record is
called not traitor, but heretic only. Secondly, mark
how this brother of Judas here craveth his reward for
betraying the innocent blood. Wherein it is not to be
doubted, but that his light fee, and " what will you give
me .•"' in this world, will have an heavy reward hereafter
in the world to come, unless he repented.
And now from our English matters, to return again to
the history of the Bohemians, from whence we have a
little digressed, When the news of the barbarous
cruelty exercised at Constance against John Huss and
Jerome of Prague, were noised in Bohemia, the nobles
and gentlemen of Moravia and Bohemia, such as favoured
the cause of John Huss, gathering themselves together
in the zeal of Christ ; first sent their letter to the coun-
cil ; expostulating with them for the injury done to those
godly men, as is before expressed. For which letter
they were all cited up to the council. To this letter
Sigismund the emperor makes answer in the name of the
whole council ; first, excusing himself of John Huss's
death, which, he said, was against his safe conduct, and
against his will : insomuch that he rose in anger from
the council, and departed out of Constance, as is before
remembered. Secondly, he requires them to be quiet,
and to conform themselves peaceably to the order of the
catholic church of Rome, &c.
Also the council hearing or fearing some stir to rise
among the Bohemians, did make several laws and
articles whereby to bridle them.
The Bohemians, however, notwithstanding these cruel
articles, contemning the vain devices of these prelates
and fathers of the council, ceased not to proceed in their
league and purpose, joining themselves more strongly
together.
In the meantime it happened, that during this council
324 ELECTION OF POPE MARTIN.-^DEATH OF WENCESLAUS.— HISTORY OF ZISCA. [Book V.
of Constance, after the deposing of Pope John, and
spoiling of his goods, which came to seventy five thou-
sand pounds of gold and silver, as is reported in the
history of St. Alban's ; Pope Martin, upon the day of
St. Martin, was elected to the pontifical chair. Con-
cerning his election great preparation was made before
by the council, so that beside the cardinals, five other
bishops of every nation should enter into the conclave,
who there together should be kept with thin diet, till
they had chosen a pope. At last, when they were to-
gether, they agreed upon this man, and not tarrying for
opening the door, like mad men, for haste they broke
open a hole in the wall, crying out, " We have Pope
Martin!" The emperor hearing thereof, came with
similar haste, and falling down kissed the new pope's
feet. Then they all went to the church together, and
sung Te Deum.
Tlie next day, this Martin was made priest (for before,
he was only a cardinal deacon) and the day after was
consecrated bishop, and sang his first mass, whereat
one hundred and forty mitred bishops were present.
After this, the new holy pope ordained a general pro-
cession, where a certain clerk was appointed to stand
with flax and fire, who, setting the flax on fire, thus said,
" Behold, holy father, thus the glory of this world
passeth away." Which done, the same day the holy
father was brought up to a high scaffold (saith the
history) I will not say to a high mountain, where was
offered to him all the glory of the world, &c. there to be
crowned for a triple king. This done, the same day
after dinner, the new crowned pope was with great
triumph brought through the midst of the city of Con-
stance, where all the bishops and abbots followed wear-
ing their mitres. The pope's horse was all in scarlet
trappings down to the ground. The cardinal's horses
were all in white silk ; the emperor on the right side,
and prince elector on the left, (playing both the pope's
footmen) went on foot, leading the pope's horse by the
bridle.
As this pageant, with the great giant, thus proceeded,
and came to the market place, there the Jews (according
to the manner) offered to him their law and ceremonies.
Which the pope receiving, cast behind him saying,
" Let old things pass away, all things are become new,''
&c. This was A. D. 1417. (Ex Hist. St. Alb. ex
paralip. Ursperg.)
Thus the pope, being now confirmed in his kingdom,
first begins to write his letters to the Bohemians,
wherein partly he moves them to catholic obedience,
partly he dissembles with them, jiretending that if it
were not for the emperor's request, he would enter pro-
cess against them. Thirdly, and finally, he threatens to
attempt the utmost against them, and with all force to
invade them, as well with the apostolic, as with the se-
cular arm, if they still persisted, as they began. How-
ever, these new threats of the new bishop did not move
the constant hearts of the Bohemians, whom the inward
zeal of Christ's word had before inflamed. And al-
though it had been to be wished such bloodshed and
wars had not followed ; yet, to say the truth, how could
these men greatly blame them herein, whom their
bloody tyranny had before provoked so unjustly, if now
with their glossing letters they could not so easily ap-
pease them again .■'
Wherefore, these Bohemians, partly for the love of
John Huss and Jerome their countrymen; partly for the
hatred of the malignant papistry, assembling together,
first agreed to celebrate a solemn memorial of the death
of John Huss and Jerome, decreeing the same to be
held and celebrated yearly. And, afterward, by means
of their friends, they obtained certain churches of the
king, wherein they might freely preach and minister the
sacraments to the congregation. This done, they suj)-
pressed several monasteries, pharisaical temples, and
idolatrous fanes, beginning first with the great monas-
tery of the Blackfriars, eiglic miles from Prague, driving
away the wicked and vicious priests and monks out of
them, or compelling them to a better order. And thuj i
their number more and more increasing under the safe
conduct of a certain nobleman, named Nicholas, they
went again to the king, requiring to have more and
ampler churches granted to them. The king seemed at
the first willingly and gently to give ear to Nicholas in-
treating for the people, and commanded them to come
again the next day.
When the people were departed, the king turning ;
himself to the nobleman Nicholas, who tarried stiU be* 1
hind, said, " Thou hast begun a web to put me out of '1
my kingdom, but 1 will make a rope of it, wherewithal I
will hang thee." Whereupon he immediately departed
out of the king's presence, and the king himself went
into the castle of Vissegrade, and soon after, into a new
castle, which he himself had built five stones' cast from
thence, and sent ambassadors to his brother to require
aid.
These protestants' being assembled in the town of
Prague, holding their meetings, the king sent his cham-
berlain with three hundred horsemen to fall upon them ;
but he fearing for his life, fled. When the news was
brought to the king, all that were about him being
amazed, utterly detested the act : but the king's cup.
bearer standing by, said, " I knew before, that these
things would thus come to pass." Whom the king
taking hold of in a rage, threw down before his feet,
and with his dagger would have slain him ; but being
prevented by such as were about him, with much per-
suasion he pardoned him his life. Immediately the king
being taken with a palsy, fell sick, and within eighteen
days after, when he had marked the names of such whom
he had appointed to be put to death, and was incessantly
calling for aid of his brother, and his other friends, he
departed this life before the princes whom he had sent
to, were come, when he had reigned five-and-fifty years,
and was about the age of seven-aud-fifty years.
The History of Zisca.
Immediately after the death of Wenceslaus, there arose
a certain nobleman named Zisca, born at Trosnovia,
who, from his youth upward, was brought up in the
king's court, and had lost one of his eyes in a battle,
where he had valiantly conducted himself. This man
being grieved for the death of John Huss, and Jerome
of Prague, and minding to revenge the injuries which
the council had done, greatly to the dishonour of the
kingdom of Bohemia, gathered together a number of
men of war, and pulled down the monasteries and idola-
trous temples, pulling down and breaking in pieces the
images and idols, driving away the priests and monks,
who he said were kept in their cloisters, like swine in
their styes, to be fatted. After this, his army being in-
creased, having gathered together about forty thousand
men, he attempted to take the castle of Vissegrade,
which was but slenderly defended. From thence Zisca
went speedily unto Pelzina, where he knew he had many
friends of his faction, and took the town into his power,
fortifying it very strongly, and those who tarried behind,
took the castlrf of Vissegrade.
Then the Queen Sophia sent letters and messengers
to the Emperor Sigismund and other nobles, requiring
aid and help : but the emperor made preparation against
the Turk, who had then lately won certain castles of
him. Upon which the queen, seeing all aid so far off,
together with Zenko Warterberge, gathered a host with
the king's treasure, and fortified the castle of Prague,
and the lesser city which joins to the castle, making
gates and towers of wood upon the bridge, that the pro-
testants should have no passage that way. Then it
happened that at the Isle of St. Benedict, one Peter
Steremberge fought an equal or indifferent battle with
them.
In the meantime, the number of the protestants being
increased in Prague, they fought for the bridge. In
which battle many were slain on both parts, but at
(!) Oil.- author is treatiiie of eventg ahout a century before tlio i who at that age were opposed to the papal system.
B«formali(»i, and he gives the appellation of yroUilaitta lu iIium niuiiy inch in all agas of the churrh. [J^U-J
Titers wer»
A.D. 1419.]
WAR BETWEEN ZISCA AND THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND.
325
leng-th the Hussites won the bridge and the lower part
of lesser Prague, the queen's party flying into the upper
part, where they, tul-ning again, fiercely renewed the
battle, and fought continually day and night for the
space of five days. Many were slain on both sides, and
goodly buildings were destroyed, and the council house,
which was iu a low place, was utterly defaced and
burned.
During the time of this troublous estate, the ambassa-
dors of the Emperor Sigismund were come, who, taking
upon them the rule and government of the realm, made
a truce with the city of Prague on this condition, that
the castle of Vissegrade being surrendered, it should be
lawful for them to send ambassadors to the Emperor
Sigismund to treat as to their estate, and that Zisca
should surrender Pilzina and Piesta with the other forts
which he had taken. These conditions thus agreed
upon and received, all the foreign protestants departed
out of the city, and the senate of the city began to
govern again according to their accustomed manner, and
all things were quieted. However, the papists, who
were gone out of the town, durst not return, but still
looked for the emperor, by whose presence they thought
they should have been safe. But this their hope was
frustrated by means of certain letters which were sent
from the emperor, that he would shortly come and rule
the kingdom, even after the same manner as his father
Charles had done before him. Upon which, the pro-
testants understood that their sect and religion should
be utterly banished.
About Christmas, the Emperor Sigismund came to
Brunna, a city of Moravia, and there he pardoned the
citizens of Prague, on condition that they would let
down the chains and bars of the city, and receive his
rulers and magistrates. The whole city obeyed, and
the magistrates, lifting up their hands to heaven, re-
joiced at the coming of the new king. But the emperor
turned another way, and went to Uratislavia, the head
city of Silesia, where a little before the commonalty of
the city had slain, in an insurrection, the magistrates,
which his brother Wenceslaus had set in authority ;
the leaders of which he beheaded. When the news of
this was reported at Prague, the citizens being terrified
by the example of the Uratislavians, distrusting their
pardon, rebelled, and having influenced Cencho to join
them, who had the government of the castle of Prague,
they sent letters into all the realm, that no man should
suffer the emperor to enter, as he was an enemy to
Bohemia, and sought nothing else but to destroy the
kingdom : he had also bound the ancient city of the
Prutenians under order, by pledges, and put the mar-
quess of Brandenburg from the Bohemian crown : and
had not only suff'ered John Huss and Jerome of Prague
to be burned at the council of Constance, but also pro-
cured the same, and with all his endeavours impugned
the doctrine and faith which they taught and followed.
While these things were thus done, Zisca, having given
over Pelzina by arrangement, was twice assaulted by his
enemies, but through skill he was always victor. The
places where they fought were rough and unknown, his
enemies were on horseback, and his soldiers on foot,
neither could there be any battle fought but on foot.
Whereupon, when his enemies were alighted from their
horses, Zisca commanded the women who usually
followed the host, to cast their kerchiefs upon the
ground, in which the horsemen being entangled by their
spurs, were slain before they could unloose their feet.
After this, he went unto Ausca, a town situate upon
the river Lucinitius, out of which town, Procopius and
Ulricius, two brethren papists, bad cast out many pro-
testants. This town Zisca took by force of arms the
first night of Lent, and set it on fire. He also took the
castle of Litius, which was a mile off, where Ulric was
fled, and put Ulric and all his family to the sword,
saving one only.
Then, as he had no walled or fenced town to inhabit,
he chose a certain place upon the river, which was
fenced by nature, about eight miles from the citv of
Ausca. This place he compassed with walls, and com-
maoded every mao to build bouses, where they had
pitched their tents, and named this city Tnbor, and the
inhabitants, his companions, Tal)oritfS, because their
city was buildrd ujion the top of some hill or mount.
This city, though it was fenced with high rocks and
cliffs, yet was compassed with a wall and ram))arts, and
the river of Lucinitius fences a great part of the town ;
the rest is com])assed in with a great brook, which, run-
ning straight into the river Lucinitius, is stopped by a
great rock, and driven back towards the right hand all
the length of the city, and at the further end it joineth
with the great river. The way unto it by land is scarce
thirty feet broad, for it is almost an island. In this
place there was a deep ditch ca.st, and a triple wall
made, of such thickness, that it could not be broken
with any engine. The wall was full of towers and forts
set in their convenient and meet places. Zisca was the
first that built the castle, and those that came after him
fortified it, every man according to his own device. At
that time the Taborites had no horsemen among them,
until such time as Nicholas, master of the mint (whom
the emperor had sent into Bohemia with a thousand
horsemen to set things in order, and to withstand the
Taborites, lodging all night in a village named Vogize)
was surprised by Zisca coming upon him suddenly in
the night, taking away all his horse and armour, and
setting fire to the village. Then Zisca taught his
soldiers to mount on horseback, to leap, to run, to turn,
and to cast a ring, so that after this he never led an
army without his wings of horsemen.
In the meantime, Sigismund, the emperor, gathering
together the nobles of Silesia, entered Bohemia, and
went into Grecium, and thence, with a great army,
to Cuthna, alluring Cencho with many great and large
promises to surrender the castle of Prague, and there
placed him to annoy the town. This Cencho, inflamed
with double treason, returned home. The citizens of
Prague sent for Zisca, who speeding himself thither with
the Taborites, received the city under his government.
In the Bohemian's host there were but only two barons,
Hilco Crusina of Lituburge ; and Hilco Waldestene ;
with a few other nobles ; all the rest were of the com-
mon people. They went first to subdue the castle,
which was by nature very strongly fenced, and could not
be won by any other means than with famine : where-
upon all the passages were stopped, that no victuals
should be carried in. But the emperor opened the
passages by dint of sword, and when he had given to the
besieged all things necessary, and sent for aid out of the
empire, he determined shortly after to besiege the city.
There were in the emperor's camp the duke of Saxony ;
the marquess of Brandenburg ; and his son-in-law,
Albert of Austria. The city was assaulted for the
space of si.x weeks. The Emperor Sigismund was
crowned in the metropolitan house in the castle; Conrad,
the archbishop, solemnizing the ceremonies of the coro-
nation. The city was straightway besieged. In the
meantime the captains, Rosenses and Chragery, who had
taken the tents of the Taborites, being overcome in
battle by Nicholas Huss, whom Zisca had sent with
part of his force, for that purpose, were driven out of
their tents, and Grecium, the queen's city, was also
taken.
There is also above the town of Prague a high hill,
which is called Videchon. On this hill had Zisca strong-
ly planted a garrison, that his enemies should not possess
it, with whom the marcjuis of Misnia skirmishing, lost
a great part of his soldiers. For when the Misnians
had got the top of the hill, being driven back into
a corner, which was broken and steep, and fiercely-
set upon, when they could no longer withstand the
violent force of their enemies, some of them were slain,
and some falling headlong from the hill, were destroyed.
Upon vi-hich the Emperor Sigismund raising his siege,
departed to Cuthna, and Zisca with his company de-
parted to Tabor, and subdued many ])laces ; among
which he subverted a town jiertaining to the captain of
Vissegrade. During this time the castle of Vissegrade
was strongly besieged, where, when other victuals failed,
they were compelled to eat horse-flesh. Last of all, un-
less the emperor aided them, by a certain day, they pro-
WAR BETWEEN ZISCA AND THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND.
[Book V.
mised to yield it up, but on this condition, that if the
emperor came, they within the castle should be no more
molested.
The emperor was present before the day, but being
ignorant of the truce taken, entering into a strait under-
neath the castle, was suddenly set upon by the soldiers
of Prague, where he liad a great overtlirow, and so
leaving his purpose uuperfornu>d, returned back again.
There were slain in that conflict fourteen noblemen of
the Moravians, and of the Hungarians, and others a
great number. The castle was delivered up to them.
While these things were in doing, Zis^a took Boslaus, a
captain, who was surnamed Cigneus, by force, in a very
strong town of his, and brought him to his religion.
Wiio, a few years after, leading the protestant army in
Austria, was wounded before Rhetium, and died. There
were in the territory of Pelzina many monasteries, of
which Zisca pulled down and burned five. And as the
monastery of at. Clare was the strongest, there he pitched
himself.
There also came the emperor with his army : but
when Zisca brought forth his forces against him, he
most cowardly fled, and not long after, he departed and
left Bohemia. Then Zisca went with his army to Pel-
zina ; but as he saw the city so fenced, that he was in
doubt of winning it, he went to Committavia, a famous
city, which he took by force, burning aU the priests
in it.
Afterwards, when as he lay before the town of Raby,
and strongly besieged it, he was struck with an arrow in
the eye, having only that one before to see with. From
thence he was carried to Prague by physicians, where he
was cured of his wound, and his life saved, altliougli he
lost his sight, and yet he would not forsake his army, but
Still took the charge of them.
After this the garrisons of Prague went to Verona,
■where there was a great garrison of the emperors, and
took it by force, many being slain on both sides. They
also took the town of Broda, in Germany, and slew the
garrison, and afterward took Cuthna, and many other
cities, by composition. Further, when they led their
army unto a town called Pons, which is inhabited by the
Misnians, the Saxons meeting them by the way, because
they durst not join battle, they returned back. After all
this, the emperor appointed the princes electors a day,
that they should with their army invade the west part of
Bohemia, and he, with an host of Hungarians, would
enter the east part. There came to his aid the arch-
bishop of Mentz, the county palatine of Rhein, the
dukes of Saxony, the marquis of Brandenburg, and many
other bishops out of Almaine ; all the rest sent their aids.
They encamped before the town of Sozius, a strong and
well fenced place, which they could by no means subdue.
The country was spoiled and wasted round about, and
the siege continued until the feast of St. Galle. Then it
was broken up, because the emperor was not come at his
day appointed : but he having gathered together a great
army of the Hungarians, and West Moravians, about
Christmas entered into Bohemia ; and took certain towns
by force, and Cuthna was yielded unto him. But when
Zisca (although he was blind) came towards him, and
set upon him, he being afraid, and many of his nobles
slain, fled. But first he burned Cuthna, which the
Taborites, by means of the silver mines, called the
Pouch of Antichrist. Zisca, pursuing the emperor a
day's journey, got great and rich spoil, and taking the
town of Broda by force, set it on fire, which afterward
almost by the space of fourteen years, remained unin-
habited. The emperor passed by a bridge over the
river of Iglaria. And Piso, a Florentine, who had
brought fifteen thousand horsemen out of Hungary to
these wars, passed over the ice ; which by the multitude
and number of his horsemen being broke, drowned and
destroyed a great number. Zisca having obtained this
victory, would not suffer any image or idol to be in the
churches, neither thought it tolerable that priests should
minister with copes or vestments: for which cause he
was much the more envied amongst the states of Bo-
hemia. And the consuls of Prague, being grieved at
the insolency of John Premonstratensis, called him and
nine others of his adherents, whom they supposed to be
the principals of this faction, into the council-house, as i
though they would confer with them as touching the il
commonwealth : and when they were come in, they slew ;
them, and afterward departed home every man to his
own house, thinking the city had been quiet, as though
nothing had been done. But their servants not being (
circumspect enough, washing down the court or yard, ,{
washed out also the blood of those that were slain >'
through the sinks or channels ; which being once seen,
the people understood what was done. By and by there
was a tumult ; the council-house was straightway over-
thrown, and eleven of the principal citizens who were
tliought to be the authors of it, were slain, and many
houses plundered.
About the same time, the castle of Purgel, wherein
the emperor had left a small garrison (whither also many
papists with their wives and children were fled) was,
through negligence, burned, and those who escaped out
of the fire went unto Pelzina. After this, many of the
Bohemian captains, and the senate of Prague, sent am-
bassadors to Yitold, duke of Lithuania, and made him
their king. This did Zisca and his adherents gainsay.
This Vitold sent Sigismund Coributus with two thousand
horsemen into Bohemia, who was honourably received
by the inhabitants of Prague. At his coming, they de-
termined to lay siege to a castle situate upon a hill,
which was called Chai'les' Stone.
Here Sigismund had left for a garrison four centu-
rions of soldiers. The tents were pitched in three
places. The siege continued six months, and the assault
never ceased day and night. Five great slings threw
continually great stones over the walls, and about two
thousand vessels, tubs, or baskets, filled with dead
carcases, and other excrements, were cast in amongst
those which were besieged : which thing did so infect
them with stench, that their teeth did either fall out, or
were all loose. Notwithstanding they bare it out with
stout courage, and continued their fight until the
winter.
In the mean time, Frederick the Elder, prince of
Brandenburg, entering into Bohemia with a great army,
caused them of Prague to raise the siege. And Vitold,
at the request of Uladislaus, king of Poland, which had
talked with the emperor on the borders of Hungary,
called Coributus, his uncle, with his whole army, out of
Bohemia. Whereupon the emperor, supposing that the
protestants, being destitute of foreign aid, would the
sooner do his commandment : but he was far deceived
therein ; for they, leading their armies out of Bohemia,
subdued the borderers thereupon adjoining. It is also
reported that Zisca went into Austria, and when the
husbandmen of the country had carried away a great
number of their cattle by water into an isle of the river
called Danube, and by chance had left certain calves and
swine in their villages behind them : Zisca drove them
to the river side, and kept them there so long, beating
them, and causing them to roar out and cry, until the
cattle feeding in the island, hearing the lowing and
grunting of the cattle on the other side the water, for
the desrire of their like, did swim over the river ; by
the means whereof he got and drove away a great
booty.
About the same time the Emperor Sigismund gave
unto his son-in-law, Albert, duke of Austria, the coun-
try of Moravia, because it should not want a ruler. At
the same time also, Eric, king of Denmark, and
Peter Infant, brother to the king of Portugal, and father
of James, cardinal of St. Eustace, came to the em-
peror, being both very expert men in the affairs of war,
which did augment the emperor's host with their aid and
power. Whereupon they straightway pitched their camp
before Lutemperge, a town of Moravia, and continued
the siege by the space of three months. There was at
that time a certain knight at Prague, surnamed Aqua,
which was very rich, and of great authority. This
man, forsomuch as he had no child of his own, adopted
his sister's son, named Procopius ; whom when he
was of mean nature and age, he carried with him into
France, Spain, and Italy, and unto Jerusalem, and at
A.D. 1421.]
DEATH OF Z ISC A— HIS EPITAPH.
327
Lis return caused him to be made priest. This man,
when the gospel began to flourish in Boliemia, took part
; with Zisca ; and as he was strong and valiant, and also
j painful, he was greatly esteemed.
i This Proeopius for his valiant acts was afterwards
called Proco])ius Magnus, and had committed unto him
the whole charge of the province of Moravia, and the
defence of the Lutemperges, who receiving a great
power by force, carried victuals into the town which was
besieged, and so frustrated the emperor's siege. The
emperor before this, had delivered to the marquises of
Misnia the bridjre and town of Ausca, ui)on the river
Elbe, that they should fortify them with tlu-ir garrisons.
VS'hereupon Zisca besieged Ausca; and Frederick, the
marquis of Misnia, with his brother the landgrave of
Turing, gathering together a great army out of Saxonia,
Turing, Misnia, and both the Lusaces, determined to
rescue and aid those which were besieged.
There was a great battle fought before the city, and
the victory was long uncertain, but at last it fell on the
protestants' part. There were slain in the battle, the
j burgraves of Misnia or Chyrpogenses, the barons of
I Glychen, and many other nobles, besides nine thousand
I common soldiers, and the town of Ausca was taken and
I utterly razed.
At last, dissension rising between Zisca and them of
j Prague, they of Prague prepared an army against him,
wherewith tie perceiving himself overmatched, fled to
I the river Elbe, and was almost taken, but that he had
I passage through the town of Poggiebras ; but they of
I Prague, pursuing the tail of the battle, slew many of his
I Taborites. At length they came to certain hills, where
I Zisca going into the valley, knowing the passes of the
I place, that his enemies could not spread their army, he
I commanded his standard to stand still, and exhorting
1 and encouraging his soldiers, he gave them battle.
This battle was very fierce and cruel ; but Zisca hav-
ing the upper hand, slew three thousand of them of
Prague, and put the rest to flight, and took the city of
Cuthna by force (which they of Prague had repaired)
and set it on fire : then with all speed he went with his
army to besiege Prague, and encamped within a bowshot
of the town. There were many both in the city, and
also in his host, who grudged sore at that siege ; some
accusing Zisca, others tliem of Prague. There were
great tumults in the camp, the soldiers saying that it
was not reasonable that the city should be suppressed,
which was both the head of the kingdom, and did not
dissent from them in opinion, saying, that the Bohe-
mians' power would soon decay, if their enemies should
know that they were divided within themselves : also
that they had sufficient wars against the emperor, and
that it was but a foolish device to move wars amongst
themselves. This talk came to the ear of Zisca, who,
calling together his army, standing upon a place to be
heard, spake in these words :
" Brethren, be ye not aggrieved against me, neither
accuse him who hath sought your health and safety.
The victories which ye have obtained under my conduct
are yet fresh in memory, neither have I brought you at
any time to any place, from whence you have not come
victors. You are become famous and rich, and 1 for
jour sake have lost my sight, and dwell in darkness.
Nothing have I gotten by all these fortunate battles, but
only a vain name. For you have I fought, and for you
have I vanquished ; neither do I repent me of my toil ;
neither is my blindness grievous to me, but only that I
cannot provide for you according to my accustomed
manner : neither do I persecute them of Prague for
mine own cause, for it is your blood that they thirst and
seek for, and not for mine. It were but small pleasure
for them to destroy me, being now an old man and
blind, it is your valiantness and stout courage which
they fear. Either you or they must perish, who while
they =?eein to lie in wait for me, seek after your lives.
\ou Diu.'it rather fear civil wars than foreign, and civil
^editioIl ought first to be avoided. We will subdue
Prague, asid banish the seditious citizens before the
emperor shall have any news of tlu« sedition. And then
having but a few of his faction left, we may with the
less fear look for it, better than if these doubtful citizens
of Prague were still in our camp. But because ye shall
accuse me no more,. 1 give you free liberty to do what
you will. If it i)lease you to suffer them of Prague to live
in quietness, 1 will not be against it, so that there be no
treason wrought. If you determine to have war, I am
also ready. Look which part you will incline to ; Zisca
will be your aid and helper."
When he had spoken these words, the soldiers' minds
were changed, and wholly determined to make war, so
that they ran by and by to take up their armour and wea-
pons, to run to the walls, to provoke their enemies to fight
for the gates of the city. Zisca, in the mean time, pre-
pared all things ready for the assault. There is near
Pelzina, a certain village named Rochezana. In this
place, there was a child born of poor and base parentage,
whose name was John ; he came to Prague, and got his
living there by begging, and learned grammar and logic.
When he came to man's estate, he became the school-
master of a nobleman's child ; and as he was of an ex-
cellent wit, and ready tongue, he was received into the
college of the poor : and last of all, being made priest,
he began to preach the word of God to the citizens of
Prague, and was named John of Rochezana, by the name
of the town where he was born. The man grew to be
of great name and authority in the town of Prague.
Upon which, when as Zisca besieged Prague, he by the
consent of the citizens, went out into the camp, and re-
conciled Zisca again to the city.
When the emperor perceived that all tilings came to
pass according to Zisca's will and mind, and that upon
him alone the whole state of Bohemia depended, he
sought privy means to reconcile and get Zisca into his
favour, promising him the government of the whole king-
dom, the guiding of all his hosts and armies, and great
yearly revenues, if he would proclaim him king, and
cause the cities to be sworn to him. Upon which con-
ditions, when Zisca, for the performance of the cove-
nants, went to the emperor, during his journey at the
castle of Priscovia, he was struck with sickness, and died.
It is reported, that when he was asked, while sick, in
what place he would be buried ; he commanded the skin
to be pulled off from his carcase, and the flesh to be cast
to the fowls and beasts, and that a drum should be made
of his skin, which they should use in their battles ,
affirming, that as soon as their enemies should hear the
sound of that drum, they would not abide, but take their
flight. The Taborites, despising all other images, yet
set up the picture of Zisca over the gates of the city.
The Epitaph of John Zisca, the valiant Captain of the
Bohemians.
"I, John Zisca, not inferior to an emperor, or captain
in warlike skill, a severe punisher of the pride and
avarice of the clergy, and a defender of my country, do
lie here. That which Appius Claudius, by giving good
counsel, and M. Furius Camillus by valiantness, did for
the Romans, the same, I being blind, have done for my
Bohemians. I never slacked opportunity of battle,
neither did fortune at any time fail me. I, being blind,
did foresee all opportunity of well ordering or doing my
business. Eleven times in joining battle I went victor
out of the field. I seemed to have worthily defended
the cause of the miserable and hungry against the deli-
cate, fat, and gluttonous priests, and for that cause to
have received help at the hands of God. If their envy
had not promoted it, without doubt I had deserved to be
numbered amongst the most famous men. Notwith-
standing my bones lie here in this hallowed place, even
in despite of the pope.
Signed "John Zisca, a Bohemian, enemy to all wicked
and covetous priests, but with a godly zeal."
And thus have you the acts and doings of this worthy
zisca, and other Bohemians, which for the more credit
we have drawn out of .Eneas Sylvius, only his railing
terms we have here suppressed.
328
BULL OF POPE MARTIN AGAINST THE FOLLOWERS OF WICKLIFF, &c. [Book V
An this while the emperor, with the whole power of
the Germans, were not so busy on the one side, but
Martin the pope was much occupied on the other side,
who about the same time directed down a terrible bull,
full of all poison, to all bishops and ardibishops, against
all such as took any part or side with M'ickliff, John
Huss, Jerome, or with their doctrine and opinions.
The copy of which bull, which I found in an old written
monument, I wish the reader thoroughly to peruse,
wherein he shall see the pope to pom- out at once all his
poison.
The Bull of Pope Martin directed forth against the
Followers of John Wickliff' of Enrjland, of John Huss
of Bohemia, and Jerome of Prague.
•' Martin, bishop, the servant of God's servants, to
our reverend brethren the archbishops of Salzeburg,
Gueznen, and Prague, and to the bishops of Olumzen,
Luthomuslen, Bambergen, Misnen, Patavien, Uratisla-
vien, Ratisponen, Cracovian, Posnamen, and Nitrien,
and also to our beloved children the inquisitors ap-
pointed of the prelates above recited, or where else so-
ever, unto whom these present letters shall come, greet-
ing, and apostolical benediction. Amongst all other
pastoral cares wherewith we are oppressed, this chiefly
and specially does enforce us, that heretics with their
false doctrine and errors, being utterly expelled from
amongst the company of christian men, and rooted
out (so far as God will make us able to do), the
right and catholic faith may remain sound and unde-
filed ; and that all christian people, immoveable and in-
violate, may stand and abide in the sincerity of the
same faith, the whole veil of security being removed.
But lately in divers places of the world, but especially
in Bohemia, and the dukedom of Moravia, and in the
straits adjoining thereunto, certain arch-heretics have
risen and sprung up, not against one only, but against
divers and sundry documents of the catholic faith, be-
ing land-lopers, schismatics, and seditious persons,
fraught with devilish pride, and wolfish madness, de-
ceived by the subtlety of Satan, and from one evil
vanity brought to a worse. Who although they rose up
and sprang in divers parts of the world, yet agreed they
all in one, havinsi their tails as it were knit together,
to wit. John Wicklilf of England, John Huss of Bohe-
mia, and Jerome of Prague, of d.'irnnable memory, who
draw with ttiem no small number to miserable ruin and
intidclity. For when as those and such like pestiferous
persons did in the beginning of their poisoned doctrine
obstinately sow and spread abroad perverse and false
opinions, the prelates who had the government and
the execution of the judicial power, like dumb dogs
not able to bark, neither yet revenging speedily with the
apostle all such disobedience, nor regarding to cast out of
the Lord's house (as they were enjoined by the canons)
those subtle and pestilent arch-heretics, and their wolf-
ish fury and cruelty, with all expedition, but suffering
their false and pernicious doctrine negligently, by their
over-long delays, to grow and wax strong ; a great mul-
titude of people, instead of true doctrine, received
those things, which they did long falsely, perniciously,
and damnably sow among them, and giving credit unto
them, fell from the right faith, and are entangled (the
more pity) in the foul errors of paganism.
" Insomuch, that these arch -heretics, and such as
spring of them, have infected the catholic flock of Christ
in divers climates of the world, and parts bordering
upon the same, and have caused them to putrify in the
filthy dunghill of their lies. Wherefore the general
synod of Constance was comjitUed with St. Augustine
to exclaim against so great and ruinous a plague of
faithful men, and of the sound and true faith itself, say-
ing, ' What shall the sovereign medicine of the church
do, with motherly love seeking the health of her sheep,
chafing as it were, amongst a coni])any of men frantic,
and having the disease of the lethargy ? What, shall
she desist and leave off her good juirpose ? No, not so.
But rather let her. if there be no remedy, be sharp to
both these sorts, which are the grievous cncaiies of her
body. For the physician is sharp unto the man dis.
tracted and raging in his frenzy, and yet he is a father
to his own rude and unmannerly son, in binding the
one, in beating the other, by shewing therein his great
love unto them both. But if they be negligent, and suf-
fer them to perish,' saith St. Augustine, ' this mansue.
tude is rather to be supposed false cruelty.'
" And therefore the foresaid synod, to the glon' ot
Almighty God, and preservation of his catholic faith,
and augmenting of cliristian religion, and for the salva-
tion of men's souls, hath corporally rejected and cast
forth of the household of God, the foresaid John Wick-
liff, John Huss, and Jerome, who amongst other things
did believe, i)reach, teach, and maintain, of the sacra-
ment of the altar, and other sacraments of the church,
and articles of the faith, contrary to that the holv
church of Rome believeth. holdeth, preacheth, and
teacheth, and have presumed obstinately to preach,
teach, hold, and believe many other things, to the dam-
nation of themselves and of others ; and the said synod
hath separated the same, as obstinate and malapert
heretics from the communion of the faithful ])eople, and
hath declared them to be spiritually thrown forth. And
many other things both wholesome and profitable hath
the same council, as touching the premises, established
and decreed, whereby they, which by the means of
those arch-heretics, and by their false doctrine, have
spiritually departed from the Lord's house, may by the
canonical rules be reduced to the straight path of truth
and verity.
" And moreover (as we to our great grief do hear)
not only in the kingdom of Bohemia, and dukedom of
Moravia, and other places above recited, but also in
certain parts and provinces near adjoining and border-
ing upon the same, there be many other of the sectaries
and followers of the foresaid arch-heretics and heretical
opinions ; casting behind their back as well the fear of
God as the shame of the world, neither receiving fruit
of conversion and repentance by the miserable destruc-
tion of the foresaid John Huss and Jerome, but as men
drowned in the dungeon of their sins, cease not to blas-
pheme the Lord God, taking his name in vain (whose
mi.ids the father of lies hath damnably blinded), and do
read and study the foresaid books or works, containing
heresies and errors, being lately by the foresaid synod
condemned to be burned ; also to the peril of themselves
and many otlier simple men, and against the statutes,
decrees, and ordinances in the synod aforesaid, and the
canonical sanctions, do presume to preach and teach the
same, to the great peril of souls, and derogation of the
catholic faith, and slander of many others besides, we
therefore considering, that error, where it is not re-
sisted, seemeth to be allowed and liked, and having a
desire to resist such evil and pernicious errors, and
utterly root them out from amongst the company of
faithful christians, especially from the afore-recited
places of Bohemia, Moravia, and other straits and
islands joining and bordering upon the same, lest they
should stretch out and enlarge their limits, we will and
command your discretions by our letters apostolical, the
holy council of Constance approving and allowing the
same, that you that are archbishops, bishops, and
other of the clergy, and every one of you by himself, or
by any other or others, being grave and fit persons to
have spiritual jurisdiction, do see that all and singular
persons, of what dignity, office, pre-eminence, state, or
condition soever they be, and by what name soever they
are known, which shall presume othei^wise to teach,
preach, or observe, touching the most high and excel-
lent, the most wholesome and superadmirable sacrament
of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, or else of the
sacrament of baptism, confession of sins, penance for
sins, and extreme unction, or else of any other sacra-
ments of the church, and the articles of the faith, than
that which the right holy and universal church of Roma
doth hold, teach, preach, and observe ; or else that shall
jiresume obstinately by any ways or means, privily or
openly, to hold, believe, and teach the articles, 'oooks,
or doctrine oi the foresaid arch-hcretics, John Wickliff,
John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, being by the fore-
A.D. 1422.] BULL OF POPE MARTIN AGAINST THE FOLLOWERS OF WICKLIFF, &c.
829
said synod of Constance with their authors (as is said")
damned and condemned, or dare presume publiclv or
privily to allow or commend in anywise the death and
end of the said arch-heretics, or of any other their re-
ceivers, aiders, and favourers, in the favour or support
of the foresaid errors, as also their believers and ad-
herents ;, that then as before, you see and cause them,
aad every of them to be most severely punished, and
that you judge and give sentence upon them as heretics,
aud that as arrant heretics you leave them to the secular
court or power. Let the receivers also and favourers
and defenders of such most pestiferous persons, not-
withstanding they neither believe, favour, nor have de-
votion towards their errors, but haply shall receive or
entertain such pestiferous persons because of earthly
affection or friendly love, besides the punishment due
unto them by both laws, over and above the same pun-
ishment by competent judges, be so afflicted, forsuch hein-
ous acts of theirs, and with so severe pain and punish-
ment excruciated, that the same may be to others in like
case offending, an example of terror ; that, at the least,
those whom the fear of God by no means may revoke
from such evil doing, yet the severity of this our disci-
pline may force and constrain.
" As touching the third sort, which shall be any man-
ner of ways infected with this damnable sect, and shall
after competent admonition repent and amend them-
selves of such errors and sects aforesaid, and will return
again into the lap and unity of our holy mother the
church, and fully acknowledge and confess the catholic
faith, towards them let the severity of justice, as the
quality of the fact shall require, be somewhat tempered
with a taste of mercy.
" And furthermore we will and command, that by
this our authority apostolical ye exhort and admonish
all the professors of the catholic faith, as emperors,
kings, dukes, princes, marquises, earls, barons, knights,
and other magistrates, rectors, consuls, proconsuls,
shires, countries, and universities of the kingdoms, pro-
vinces, cities, towns, castles, villages, their lands and
other places, and all other executing temporal juris-
diction, according to the form and exigence of the law,
that they expel out of their kingdoms, provinces, cities,
towns, castles, villages and lands, and otlier places, all
and all manner of such heretics, according to the effect
and tenor of the council of Lateran, beginning Stent ait
Ecclesia, i^-c, that those whom publicly and manifestly
by the evidence of their deeds shall be known to be such
as like sick and scabbed sheep infect the Lord's flock,
they expel and banish till such time as from us, or you,
or else other ecclesiastical judges or inquisitors, holding
the faith and communion of the holy church of Rome,
they shall receive other order and countermand ; and
that they suffer no such within their shires and circuits
to preach or to keep either house or family, either yet
to use any handicraft or occupations, or other trades of
merchandise, or else to solace themselves any ways, or
frequent the company of christian men.
" And furthermore, if such public and known heretics
shall chance to die (although not so denounced by the
church) , yet in this so great a crime let him and them
have no christian burial, and let no offerings or oblations
be made for them nor received. His goods and sub-
stance also from the time of his death, according to the
canonical sanctions being confiscate, let no such enjoy
them to whom they appertain, till that by the eccle-
siastical judges, having power and authority in this be-
half, sentence upon that his or their crime of heresy be
declared, and promulgated ; and let such owners as be
found suspected or noted with any such suspicion of
heresy, before a competent and ecclesiastical judge, ac-
cording to the consideration and exigence of that sus-
picion, and according to the quality of the person, by
the arbitrement of such a judge, shew and declare his
proper and own innocency with devotion, as beseemeth
in that behalf. And if in his purgation, being canoni-
cally interdicted, he do fail, or be not able canoiiically
to make his purgation, or that he refuse to lake his oath
by damnable obstinacy to make such purgation ; tlien let
him be condemned as aa heretic. But such as through
negligence or through slothfulness shall omit to shew
their said innocency, and to make such purgation, let
him be excommunicate, and so long i)ut out from the
company of christian men, till that they shall make con-
dign satisfaction ; so that if by the space of one whole
year they shall remain in such excommunication, then
let them as heretics be condemned.
" And further, if any shall be found culpable in any
point of the aforesaid pestiferous doctrine of the arch-
heretics aforesaid, or in any article thereof, whether it
be by the report of the seditious, or else well-disposed ;
let them yet be punished according to the report of the
canons. If only through infamy and suspicion of the
aforesaid articles, or any of them, any man shall be
suspected, and in his purgation canonical for this
thing being interdicted, shall fail ; let him be accounted
as a man convicted, and as a convicted person by the
canons let him be punished.
" And furthermore, we invocating and putting in exe-
cution the canon of our predecessor of happy memory,
Pope Boniface VIII., which beginneth thus, Ut inqui-
sitionis negotium, Hfc. In exhorting-wise require, and
also command all tem])oral potentates, lords and judges
before recited, by whatsoever dignities, offices and names
they are known, that as they desire to be had, esteemed,
and counted for the faithful members and children of
the church, and do rejoice in the name of Christ, so
likewise for defence of the same faith, they will obey,
attend, give their aid and favourable help to you that
are archbishops, bishops, and ecclesiastical men, inqui-
sitors of all heretical pravity, and other judges and eccle-
siastical persons by you hereunto, as aforesaid, appoint-
ed (holding the faith and communion of our holy mother
the church) for the searching out, taking, and safe cus-
tody of all the aforesaid heretics, their believers, their
favourers, their receivers, and their defenders, whenso-
ever they shall be thereunto required.
" And that they bring and cause to be brought (all
delay set apart) the aforesaid pestiferous persons so
seeking to destroy others with them, into such safe
keeping and prisons, as by you the archbishops, bishops,
clergy and inquisitors aforesaid, are to be appointed, or
else unto such other place or places, as either you or
they shall command within any of their dominions,
governments and rectories, where they by catholic men,
that is, by you the archbishops, bishops, the clergy and
inquisitors, or any other that shall be by you appointed,
or are already appointed by any of you, may be holden
and kept in safe keeping, putting them in fetters,
shackles, bolts, and manacles of iron, under most straight
custody for escaping away, till such time as all that
business, which belongeth unto them, be by the judg-
ment of the church finished and determined, and that of
such heresy, by a competent ecclesiastical judge (which
firmly holdeth the faith and communion of the aforesaid
holy church of Rome) they be condemned.
" The residue let the aforesaid temporal lords, rec-
tors, judges, or other their officers and pursuivants take
amongst them with condign deaths, without any delay
to punish. But fearing lest to the prejudice and slan-
der of the aforesaid catholic faith and religion, through
the pretext of ignorance, any man herein should be cir-
cumvented, or that any subtle and crafty men should
under the veil of frivolous excuse, cloke and dissemble
in this matter ; and that as touching the convincing or
apprehending of the aforesaid heretics, their receivers
and defenders, favourers, believers, and adherents ; and
also of such as are suspected of heresy, and with such
like perverse doctrine in any wise spotted, we might
give more perfect instruction ; therefore, as well to the
kingdom of Bohemia, and parts near adjoining to the
same, as all other where this superstitious doctnne
began to spread, we have thought it good to send the
articles hereunder written concerning the sect of those
arch-heretics, for the better direction of the aforesaid
catholic faith.
" Touching which articles, by virtue of holy obe-
dience, we charge and command you and all other arch-
bishops and bishops, all manner of commissaries and in-
quisitors, that every one of them within the dioc«se and
3?.0 ARTICLES OF HUSS ON WHICH THE SUSPECTED WERE TO BE EXAMINED. [Book V.
limits of their jurisdiction ; and also in the foresaid
kingdom and dukedom, and places near adjoining,
although the same places be beyond the same their
jurisdiction, in the favour of the catholic faith, do
give most diligent and vigilant care about the ex-
tirpation and correction of those errors, arch-here-
sies, and most pestiferous sect aforesaid ; and also
that they compef all defamed persons and suspected of
so pestiferous a contagion, whether it be under the pe-
nalty of the crime confessed, or of excommunication,
suspension, or interdict, or any other formidable pain
canoaical or legal, when and wheresoever it shall seem
good unto them, and as the quality of the act requireth,
by an oath corporally taken, either upon the holy Evan-
gelists, or upon the relics of saints, or upon the image
of the crucifix, according to the observances of certain
places, and according to the interrogatories, to make
convenient answer to every article therein written. For
we intend against all and singular archbishops, bishops,
ecclesiastical persons, or inquisitors which shall show
themselves negligent and remiss in the extirpation of the
leaven of this heretical pravity, and purging their terri-
tories, dioceses, and places to them appointed, of such
evil and wicked men, to proceed and cause to be pro-
ceeded unto the deprivation and deposition of their pon-
tifical dignities, and shall substitute such other in
their places, which can and may be able to confound
the said heretical pravity, and proceed to further pains
against such by the laws limited, and to others yet more
grievous, (if need require) we ourselves will proceed
and cause to be proceeded, according as the party, his
act, and filthiness of his crime committed, shall deserve.
The tenor of those articles whereof we have made men-
tion in this our own writing is in words as follow : —
The Articles of John Huss to be inquired iipon.
1. There is one only universal church, which is the
university of the predestinate, as shall after be declared.
2. The universal church is only one ; and there is
one university of those that are predestinate.
3. Paul was never a member of the devil, although he
did certain acts like unto the acts of the church malig-
nant.
4. The reprobate are not parts of the church, for that
no part of the same finally falleth from her, because that
the charity of predestination, which bindeth the same
church together, never faileth.
5. The two natures (that is) the Divinity and the
humanity, be one Christ.
6. The reprobate, although he be sometime in grace
according to present justice, yet is he never a part of the
holy church ; and the predestinate is ever a member of
the church, although sometime he fall from grace adven-
titial but not from grace of predestination ; ever taking
the church for the convocation of the predestinate, whe-
ther they be in grace or not, according to present jus-
tice. And after this sort the church is an artii'le of our
belief.
7. Peter is not, nor never was the head of the holy
catholic church.
8. Priests living viciously do defile the authority of
priesthood, and so, as unfaithful children, do unfaithfully
believe of the seven sacraments, of the keys of the church,
of offices, of censures, of ceremonies, of the worship-
ping of relics, indulgences, orders, and other holy
things of the church.
9. The papal dignity came and grew from the em-
peror ; and his government and institution sprang
from the emperor's government.
10. No man can reasonably affirm either of himself or
other, that he Is the head of any particular church, or
that the bishop of Rome is head of the church of Rome.
11. A man ought not to believe that he who is bishop
of Rome is the head of every particular church, unless
God have predestinated him.
12. None is the vicar of Christ, or else of Peter, un-
less he follow him in manners and conditions, seeing
that there is no other following more pertinent, nor
otherwise apt to receive of God this power procuratory.
For unto the office of a vicegerent of Christ is required
the conformity of manners, and the authority of the in*
stitutor.
i;5. The pope is not the manifest and true successor
of Peter the prince of apostles, if he live in manners
contrary to Peter ; and if he hunt after avarice, then is
he the vicar of Judas Iscariot. And likewise the cardi-
nals be not the true and manifest successors of the
college of the other apostles of Christ, unless they live
according to the manner of the apostles, keeping the
commandments and councils of our Lord Jesus Christ.
14. The doctors alleging that a man, who will not
be amended by ecclesiastical censures, is to be delivered
to the secular powers, do follow in this point the
bishops, scribes and pharisees, that delivered Christ
to the secular power, saying, it is not lawful for us to
kill any man, because he would not obey them ia
all things ; and that such be greater homicides than
Pilate.
1.5. The ecclesiastical obedience is such an obedience
as the priests of the church have found out, besides the
express authority of the scripture. The immediate divi-
sion of human works, is, that they be either virtuous or
vicious : and if a man be vicious and doeth any thing,
then he does it viciously ; and if he be virtuous, and
doeth any thing, then he does it virtuously. For like as
vice, which is called a great offence or mortal sin, doth
stain all the doings of a vicious man, so virtue doth
quicken all the doings of a virtuous man.
16". A priest of God living after his law, and having
a knowledge of the Scripture, and a desire to edify the
people, ought to preach, notwithstanding any excom-
munication pretended of the pope. And further, if the
pope, or any other magistrate, doth forbid a priest so
disposed to preach, he ought not to be obedient unto
him. For every one who taketh upon himself the order
of priesthood, receiveth in charge the office of a preacher ;
and of that burden ought he well to discharge himself,
any excommunication against him pretended in any wise
notwithstanding.
17. By the censures ecclesiastical, as of excommuni-
cation, suspending and interdict, the clergy to their own
advancement cause the lay people to aid them ; they
multiply their avarice, they defend their malice, and
prepare the way to antichrist. And it is an evident
sign that such censures proceed from antichrist, which
in their process they call fulminations ; that is, their
thunderbolts wherewith the clergy principally proceedeth
against those that declare the wickedness of antichrist,
who so greatly for his own commodity hath abused them.
18. If the pope be evil, especially if he be a repro-
bate, then is he with Judas a very devil, a thief, and the
son of perdition, and is not the head of the holy church
militant, nor any member of the same-
19. The grace of predestination is the band wherewith
the body of the church and every member of the same
is indissolubly joined to their head Christ.
20. The pope or prelate that is evil and reprobate, is
a pastor in name, and not in deed, yea he is a thief and
a robber in very deed.
21. The pope ought not to be called the most holy
one for his office sake, for then ought the king to be
called by his office the most holy one ; and the hangman,
with other such officers also, were to be called holy ; yea,
the devil himself ought to be called holy, for as much
as he is God's officer.
22. If the pope live contrary to Christ, although he
climb up by the right and lawful election, according to
the common custom of men ; yet notwithstanding, should
he otherwise climb than by Christ ; yea, though we ad-
mit that he should enter by the election princijially
made by God. For Judas Iscariot was lawfully elect of
God Christ Jesus to his bishoprick, and yet came not he
the same way he ought to do unto the sheepfold. .
%\. The condemnation of the forty-five articles of John
Wickliff made by the doctors is unreasonable, wicked,
and nought, and the cause by them alleged is feigned —
that is, that none of them are catholic, but every one
of them heretical, erroneous, or slanderous.
24. Not for that the electors or the most part of them
A. D. U.'2.] ARTICLES OF HUSS ON WHICH THE SUSPECTED WERE TO BE EXAMINED. 331
have consented together with lively voice, according to
the custom of men upon the person of any, therefore
that person is lawfully elect, or therefore is the true and
manifest successor and vicar of Peter the Apostle, or of
any other the apostles in the ecclesiastical office.
Wherefore, whether the electors have either well or evil
made their election, it behoveth us to believe the same
by the works of him that is elected. For in that that every
one that worketh more meritoriously to the profit of the
church, he hath so much the more authority from
God.
25. There is not so much as one spark of apjiearance,
that there ought to be one head, ruling and governing
the church in spiritual causes, which shoidd always be
conversant in the church militant ; for Christ without
any such monstrous lieads, by his true disciples dispersed
through the whole world, could better a great deal rule
hi» church.
20". The apostles and faithful priests of God have
right worthily, in all tilings necessary to salvation, go-
verned tlie cluuch before the pope's office took place,
and so might they do again, by like possibility until Christ
came to judgment, if the office should fail.
Let every one that is suspected in the foresaid articles,
or else otherwise found with the assertion of them, be
examined in manner and form as tolloweth : —
1. Whether he knew John WicklifT of England, John
Huss of Bohemia, and Jerome of Prague, or any of them,
and how he came by the knowledge of them ; whether
that during the lives of them, or any of them, they had
been conversant with them, or found any friendship at
their hands ?
2. Whether he knowing them, or any of them, to be
excommunicate, did willingly participate with them ;
esteeming and affirming the same their participation to
be no sill .'
3. Whether that after their deaths, he ever prayed for
tnem, or any of them, openly or privily, doing any
work of mercy for them, affirming them to be either
saints, or else to be saved ?
4. Wliether he thought them, or any of them to be
saints, or whether that ever he spake such words, and
whether ever he did exhibit any worship to them as to
saints ?
5. Whether he believe, hold, and affirm, that every
general council, as also the council of Constance, repre-
sents the universal church ?
6. Whether he believes that that which the holy council
of Constance, representing the universal church, hath
and doth allow in the favour of the faith, and salvation
of souls, is to be approved and allowed of all the faithful
christians ; and that whatsoever the same council hath con-
demned and doth condemn to be contrary both to faith
and to all good men, is to be believed, holden, and
affirmed for condemned, or not ?
7. Whether he believes that the condemnations of
John Huss, John WicklifF, and Jerome of Prague, made
as well upon their persons as their books and doctrine-
by the holy general council of Constance be rightly and
justly made, and of every good Catholic man are so to be
holden or affirmed or not ?
8. Whether he believe, hold, and affirm, that John
Wicklift' of England, John Huss of Bohemia, and Jerome
of Prague, were heretics or not, and for heretics to be
nominated and preached, yea or not ; and whether their
books and doctrines were and be perverse or not ; for
the which, together with their pertinancy, they were con-
demned by the holy sacred council of Constance for
heretics .'
y. Whether be have in his custody any treatises,
small works, epistles, or other writings in what language
or tongue soever, set forth and translated by any of these
heretics, John WicklifT, John Huss, and Jerome, or any
other of their false disciples and followers, that he may
deliver them to the ordinaries of that place, or his com-
missary, or to the inquisicors upon his oath ? And if he
saj that be hath no such writing about him, but that
they are in some other place, that then you swear him
to bring the same before his ordinary, or other afore-
named, within a certain time to him prefixed.
10. Whether he knows any that has the treatises,
works, epistles, or any other writings of the aforesaid
John Wicklitf, John Huss, and Jerome, in whatever
tongue they are made or translated, and that he detect
and manifest the same, for the purgation of their faith
and execution of justice.
11. Especially let the learned be examined, whether
he believes that the sentence of the holy council of Con-
stance upon the forty-five articles of John WicklifF, and
the thirty articles of John Huss be not Catholic ; which
saith that some of them are notorious and heretical, some
erroneous, others blasphemous, some slanderous, some
rash and seditious, some offensive to godly ears .'
12. Whether he believes and affirms that in no case
it is lawful for a man to swear .'
13. Whether he believes that at the commandment of
a judge or any other it is lawful to take an oath to tell
the truth in any convenient cause, although it be but
purging of infamy or not ?
14. Whether he believes that perjury wittingly com-
mitted, upon what cause soever, whether it be for the
safeguard of his own life, or of any other man's life, (yea
although it be in the cause and defence of the faith), be
a sin or not .'
15. Whether a man contemning pui-posely the rites of
the church, and the ceremonies of exorcism, of cate-
chism, and the consecration of the water of baptism be
in deadly sin or not ?
16. Whether he believe, that after the consecration of
the priest, in the sacrament of the altar, under the figure
of bread and wine be no material bread and w'ne ; but
in all points the same very Christ which was crucified
upon the cross, and sitteth upon the right hand of the
father ?
17. Whether he believe, that after the consecration
made by the priest, under the only form of bread, and
besides the form of wine, be the very flesh of Christ and
his blood, his soul and his deity, and so whole Christ as
he is ; and in likewise, whether under the form of wine,
without the form of bread, be the very flesh of Christ
and his very blood, his soul and deity, and so whole
Christ, and the same body absolutely under every one of
those kinds severally ?
18. Whether he doth believe, that the custom of ad-
ministering to the lay people under the form of bread
only, observed of the universal church, and allowed by
the only council of Constance, be to be used, and not
without the authority of the church at men's pleasures
to be altered, and that they that obstinately affirm the
contrary to this are to be punished as heretics, or not ?
ly. Whether he believe that those which contemn the
receiving of the sacraments of confirmation, or extreme
unction ; or else the solemnization of matrimony, com-
mit deadly sin or not ?
20. Whether he believe that a christian man, over
and besides the contrition of heart, being licensed of a
convenient priest, is bound to confess liimself only to a
priest, and not to any layman, be he never so devout or
good, upon the necessity of salvation .'
21. Whether he believe, that in cases before put, a
priest may absolve a sinner confessing himself, and being
contrite, from all sins, and enjoin him penance for the
same ?
22. Whether he believe, that an evil priest, with due
manner and form, with the intention of doing, does verily
consecrate, verily absolve, verily baptize, ar.d -verily dis-
pose all other sacraments even as the church does .'
2;J. Wliether he believe that St. Peter was the
vicar of Christ, having power to bind and loose upon the
earth .'
24. "Whether he beUeve that the pope being canonically
elect, which for the time shall be, by that name expressly
be the successor of Peter or not, having supreme autho-
rity in the church of God .'
25. Whether he believe, that the authority or juris-
diction of the pope, an archbishop or a bishop, in biudiiyr
332 THE ARTICLES FOR EXAMINATION, &c. IN THE BULL OF POPE MARTIN. [Book V.
or loosing, be more than the authority of a simple priest
or not, although he have charge of souls ?
26". Whether he beheve, that the pope may, upon a
just and good cause give indulgences and remission ot
sins to all christian men, being verily contrite and con-
fessed, especially to those that go on pilgrimage to holy
places and good deeds ?
21. Whether he believe, that by such grant the pil-
grims tliat visit those churches, and give them any thing,
may obtain remission of sins or not ?
28. Whether he believe that all bishops may grant
unto their subjects, according as the holy canons do
limit, sucli indulgences, or not ?
2y. Whether he believe and affirm, that it is lawful
for faithful christians to worship images and the relics of
saints, or not ?
30. Whether he believe that those religions, which the
church hath allowed, were lawfully and reasonably
brought in of the holy fathers, or not ?
31. Whether he believe that the pope, or any other
prelate for the time being, or their vicars, may excom-
municate their subject ecclesiastical or secular for dis-
obedience or contumacy, so that such an one is to be
held and taken for excommunicated, or not ?
32. Whether he believe, that for the disobedience and
contumacy of persons excommunicated, increasing, the
prelates or their vicars in spiritual things have power to
aggravate and to reaggravate, to put upon men the inter-
dict, and to call for the secular arm ; and that the same
secular arm or power ought to be obedient to the cen-
sures, by their inferiors called for ?
33. Whether he believe that the pope and other pre-
lates, or else their vicars, have power in spiritual things
to excommunicate priests and laymen that are stubborn
and disobedient, from their office, benefice, or entrance
into the church, and from the administration of the
sacraments of the church, also to suspend them ?
34. Whether he believe that it is lawful for ecclesias-
tical persons, without committing sin, to have any pos-
sessions and temporal goods ; and whether he beheve
that it is not lawful for laymen to take away the same
from them by their authority : but rather that such
takers away and encroachers upon ecclesiastical goods
are to be punished as committers of sacrilege, yea,
although such ecclesiastical persons live naughtily that
have such goods ?
4.T. Whether any such taking away or encroaching
upon any priest rashly or violently made, although the
priest be an evil liver, be sacrilege, or not ?
36. Whether he believe that it is lawful for the laity
whether men or women, to preach the word of God, or
not?
37. Whether he believe that it is lawful to all priests
freely to preach the word of God wherever, whenever,
and to whoever it shall please them, although they be
not sent at all ?
38. Whether he believe that all mortal sins, and
especially such as be manifest and public, are to be cor-
rected and to be extirpated, or not .■'
" Furthermore, we will, command, and decree, that if
any by secret information, by you or any other to be re-
ceived, shall be found either infamed or suspected of any
kind of the pestiferous sect, heresy, and doctrine of the
most pestilent men, John Wickliff, John Huss, and
Jerome of Prague, the arch-heretics aforesaid, or of
favouring, receiving, or defending tho aforesaid damned
men whilst they lived on the earth, their false followers
and disciples, or any that believeth their errors, or any
that after their death pray for them or any nf them, or
that nominateth them to be amongst the number of
catholic men, or that defendeth them to be placed
amongst the number of the saints, either by their preach-
ing, worshipping, or other ways, wherein they deserve
to be suspected ; that then they by you or some of you
may be cited personally to appear before you or some of
you, without either proctor or doctor to answer for
them, an oath being openly taken by them as is afore-
said, to speak the plain and mere verity of the articles
»bove written, and every of them, or other opportune, as
case and circumstance shall require, according to your
discretion, as you or any of you shall see expedient to
proceed against them, or any of them, according to these
presents, or otherwise cauonically, as you shall thinl
good.
" Also that you do publish solemnly, and cause to be
published these present letters, omitting the articles and
interrogatories herein contained, in the cities and other
places of your diocese, where conveniently you may,
under our authority, and there to denounce and cause to
be denounced all and singular such heretics, with their
abettors and favourers of their heresies and errors ; of
what sex or kind soever, that do hold and defend the
said errors, or do participate any manner of way with
heretics, privily or openly ; of what state, dignity, or
condition soever he or they be, patriarch, archbishop,
king, queen, duke, or of what other dignity either eccle-
siastical or secular he be ; also with their advocates and
jirocurators whosoever, which are believers, followers,
favourers, defenders, or receivers of such heretics, or
suspected to be believers, followers, favourers, defenders,
or receivers of them, to be excommunicate every Sunday
and festival day, in the presence of the people.
" Furthermore, that you diligently cause to be in-
quired, by the said our authority, upon all and singular
such persons both men and women, that maintain,
approve, defend, and teach such errors, or that be
favourers, receivers and defenders of them, whether ex-
empt or not exempt, of what dignity, state, pre-emi-
nence, degree, order, or condition soever. And such as
you shall find in the said your inquisition, either by their
own confession, or by any other means to be defamed,
or otherwise infected with the spot of such heresy or
error, you through the sentence of excommunication,
susjiension, interdict, and privation of their dignities,
parsonages, offices, or other benefices of the church, and
fees which they hold of any church, monastery, and other
ecclesiastical places, also of honours and secular dignities
and degrees of sciences, or other faculties, as also by other
pains and censures of the church, or by any ways and means
whatsoever that shall seem to you expedient, by taking
and imprisoning their bodies, and other corporal punish-
ments wherewith heretics are punished, or are wont,
and are commanded by canonical sanctions to be used ;
and if they be clerks, by degradation, do correct and
punish, and cause them to be corrected and punished
with all diligence.
" Furthermore, that you do rise up stoutly and cou-
rageously against such heretics, and the goods as well of
them, as of the laymen, according to the canonical sanc-
tion made against heretics and their followers, under
which we will and command them and their partakers to
be subject. And also such persons as shall be infamed
of the heresies or errors aforesaid, or any of the pre-
mises, shall be l)ound to purge themselves at your arbi-
tration ; but the others, who either by witnesses, or by
their own confessions, or other allegations or probations,
shall be convicted of the aforesaid heresies or articles, or
of any the premises, they shall be compelled to revoke
and abjure publicly and solemnly the said articles and
errors, and to suffer condign penance and punishment,
yea, even to perpetual imprisonment (if need be) for the
same.
" And to the intent that they shall not nourish any
kind of heresies hereafter, either in word, deed or ges-
ture, or shall induce other either in word or deed,
privily or openly, directly or indirectly to believe the
same, they shall be forced to put in sufficient surety.
Who, if it so clianoe that they will not publicly and
solemnly renounce and abjure their articles and errors,
and take at your liands condign penanre, though it bft to
perpetual or temporal p\inishnient according to your dis-
cretion, neither will be contented to put in sufficient
surety that they will not hereafter hold or nourish these
errors and heresies, neither will induce other by word or
deed privily or openly, directly or indirectly, or by any
other manner of colour to believe the same, that then
you shall proceed against them, according to the quality
of their errors and demerits ; yea, and if you see it so
expedient, as against heretics, and as infected with
A. D. 1422.] AN EXHORTATION OF THE BOHEMIANS TO KINGS AND PRINCES.
S33
heresy, by our authority, according- to the canonical
sanctions ' summarily, and simply and plainly, Sine
strepitu etfigiirajudic'ii, and of office, all appellation or
appellations whatsoever ceasing, and that you punish
the same, according to the sanctions and traditions
canonical, yea if need be, in leaving and committing
thera to the secular power ; and against such as be supe-
riors or learned doctors, laying the censures of eccle-
siastical excommunication, all appellation set aside, also
invocating, if need shall require, aid of the secular arm ;
the constitution as well of our predecessor Pope Boni-
face VIII. of blessed memory, wherein is decreed that
no man without his city or diocese (except in certain
cases) or in places being one day's journey distant from
thence where he iuhabiteth, shall be called into judg
ment, and that no man do presume to depute judges
from the see apostolic, without the city and diocese
where they are deputed to proceed against any ; and do
presume to commit their authority to any other person
or persons, or to fetch and remove any man beyond one
day's journey from out his diocese where he dwelleth, or
at most two days' journey, if it be in a general council ;
as also all other constitutions of any bishop of Rome,
touching as well judges delegate, as persons not be called
to judgment beyond a certain number ; or else any other
edict, indulgence, privilege, or exemption general or spe-
cial, granted from the apostolic see, for any jierson or
persons not to be interdicted, suspended, or excommu-
nicated, or cited up to judgment without the compass
(if certain limits, or else whatsoever thing otherwise
may hinder, stop, or impeach your jurisdiction, power,
and free proceeding herein by any means to tiie con-
trary notwithstanding. Given at Constance the first year
of our popedom."
This bloody and abominable commission of Pope
Martin, which I have copied out of a certain old monu-
ment, remaining in the hands of Master Hackluyt, stu-
dent, in the Temple, seems to be directed and given
out to the public destruction of all faithful christian
men, about the latter end and breaking up of the coun-
cil of Constance, (A. D. 1418.) By the which the
prudent reader may note and consider, what labour,
what policy, what counsel, and what laws have been set,
what ways have been taken, what severity has been
shewed, how men's power, wit, and authority of the
whole world have conspired together from time to time,
continually by all manner of means to subvert and sup-
plant the word and way of the Lord ; and yet notwith-
standing man has not prevailed, but all his force and
devised polices hath been overthrown, dispatched, and
with the counsel of Ahithophel and Ammon, have been
brought to nought, and contrary to the fury of the
world, the gospel of Christ has still increased. Neither
yet for all this will the pope cease to spurn and rebel
still against the kingdom of Christ and his gospel, against
which neither he, nor yet the gates of hell shall ever
prevail. The Lord of hosts be merciful to his poor per-
secuted flock ! Amen.
Against this pestilent bull and inquisition of Pope
Martin the great, antichrist, I thought good here to
annex another contrary writing of the Bohemians,
bearing the name and subscription of Procopius, Conrad,
and other captains of the Bohemians ; which seems to
have been written not long after the death of Zisca,
against the pestiferous see of Rome, the tenor whereof
here followeth.
A fruitful and Christian Exhortation of the Bohemians
to kings and princes, to stir them vp to the zeal of the
Gospel.
" May the Almighty God the Father, by his well-be-
loved Son Jesus Christ, and by his Holy Spirit, open the
understanding both of you and of all christians, and
lighten your hearts with the light of his doctrine of right-
eousness, and make you to continue therein surely
established to the end. This we desire of you for your
salvation, all ye honourable, wise, and honest noblemen,
anil all the commonalty, yea rich and poor, hear and
consider with diligent heed the words of this jiresent
letter, which is sent unto you from the country of the
Bohemians. It is manifest and well known to you and
many other cities, kings, princes, and lords, that now for
a certain number of years there hath been great discord
betwixt us and you ; and there have been some which
have moved you by letters, and provoked you to make
war against us, and to destroy us. And as well on your
part as ours many men, as well noble as unnoble, have
foolishly lost their lives. Yet never hitherto have ye in
any part understood our faith by our own confession,
neither whether we be able to prove the same out of the
scriptures, or not ; and yet in the mean time kings,
princes, lords, and cities, have sustained great damage.
And hereof we greatly marvel that you do so much trust
and believe the pope and his priests, which give you
drink full of poison, and such comfort as no man can
understand, in that they say that they will give you for-
giveness of all your sins, and great grace and paidon, to
this end tliat you should war upon us and destroy us ;
whereas their graces and pardons are none other tiian
great lies, and a great seducing of the body and soul of
all them that believe them, and put their trust in them.
This we would prove to them, and convince them by the
holy scripture ; and we would suffer, that whoever is
desirous to hear, the same should hear it. For the pope
and all his priests herein deal with you as the devil
would have done with our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom
Luke writes in his fourth chapter, that he brought him
upon an high hill, and shewed unto him in the twinkling
of an eye, all the kingdoms that are in the compass of
the earth, and said unto him, ' I will give thee,' &c.
So the devil deceiveth the pope, and all the priests, with
the riches of the world, and worldly power ; and they
think they can give grace and pardon when they will ;
and they themselves shall never find favour before Al-
mighty God, except they repent and make amends,
because of their great deceiving of Christendom. And
how can they give that to others, which they themselves
have not ? So did the devil, who was rich in promising,
and poor in giving. And like as the devil is not ashamed
to tell a lie, so all they are not ashamed to speak that
which shall never be found true, nor be proved by the
holy scriptures, because for no cause they stir up kings,
princes, lords, and citizens, to make war against us, not
to the end that the christian faith should thereby be
defended, but because they fear that their secret vices
and heresies shall be disclosed and made manifest. For
if they had a true cause, and a godly love to the christian
faith, they would then take the books of the holy scrip-
ture, and would come to us, and confute us with the
weapons of God's word, and that is our chief desire.
For so did the ajjostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
came to the Pagans and Jews, and brought them from
their infidelity to the true faith of our Lord Jesus Christ;
and this they did in the spirit of meekness, as the apostle
Paul w-rites in the sixth chapter of the Galatians, ' Bre-
thren, if any man be grieved,' &c. So ought they also
to do, if tliey perceived that they were just and we un-
just. And if we would not abide instruction, then they
might take to them kings, princes, lords, and imperial
cities, and resist us according to the commandments of
the holy scripture. But this is the subtle defence of all
the bishops and priests, that they say that Master Huss
and Jerome, which were burnt at Constance, were con-
futed by the holy father the pope, and by the whole
council. For ye must understand that they were not
overcome by the Holy Ghost, but unjustly, with wrong-
ful violence, which God may yet hereafter grievously
punish in all them that gave their counsel and aid
thereto. And they say it ought not to be suffered, that
we should be heard in confessing our faith. How may
that be proved by the holy scripture, since Christ heard
the devil, as it is written in the fourth chapter of Mat-
thew ? And they are not better thnn Christ, nor we
worse than the devil. If they be just and have the
truth with them (as they say they have) and we be un-
righteous, why do they fear, since the truth ought not to
be afraid of falsehood, as Esdras writeth in his second
book, the third chapter? Zorobabel declareth that
334
DIVISION IN THE BOHEMIAN ARMY ON CHOOSING A CAPTAIN.
FBooK V
truth is of all things the most mighty, and overcometh
all things. For Christ is the truth, John xiv. ' I am the
way, the truth,' &c. And the devil is the father of lies,
John viii. ' He is a liar from the beginning, and never
abode in the truth, and there is no truth in him.' There-
fore, if the pope and his priests have the truth, let them
overcome us with the word of God. But if they have
lies, then they cannot long abide in their presumption.
Wherefore, we exhort and beseech all the imperial cities,
all kings, princes, noblemen, rich and poor, for God's
sake, and for his righteousness, that one of them write
hereof to another, and that there may be some means
made, how we may commune with you safely and friendly,
at some such place as shall be tit both for you and us, and
bring with you your bishops and teachers, and let them
and our teachers fight together with the word of God,
and let us hear them, and let not the one overcome the
other by violence or false subtlety, but only by the word
of God. And if your bishops and teachers liave better
proofs of their faith out of the holy scripture than we,
and our faith be found untrue, we will receive penance
and satisfaction, according to the gospel. But if your
bishops and teachers be overcome of ours by the holy
scripture, then do ye repent and hearken to us, and hold
with us. And if your bishops and teachers will cease
from their spiritual pride, and repent and make satisfac-
tion ; then we will help you according to our power, and
will compel them, either to join with us, or else we will
expel them out of Christendom. And if your bishops and
teachers will say that it is not lawful for laymen to hear
such reasoning, or to be present at it ; that you may un-
derstand to tend to no other end, but that tiiey fear they
should be overcome and put to shame in the sight of you.
For if they knew that they should overcome therein, out
( f doubt they would desire that every man should hear
it, and thereby their glory should become the greater,
and their fame and praises should be increased upon the
earth. And if your bishops and teachers counsel you to
come to no hearing with us, then do it whether they will
r- no, and suffer not yourselves at any time to be so
foolishly seduced with their foolish pardons, but tarry at
home in your houses with your wives and children. And
let the pope of Rome come to us with all his cardinals
and bisiiops, and with all his priests, with his own per-
son and power, to war wich us, and let tliemselves de-
serve the absolution of sins, grace and jiardon, which
they preach to you (for they have great need of forgive-
ness of sins, grace, and pardon,) and by the grace of
God, we will give them pardon enough as they shall
need. But their subtle excuse is this, they say that it
belongs not to priests to fight with bodily weapons : and
true it is that it belongs not to them ; but it belongs as
little to them to stir up, to counsel, and to fortify others
thereto. For Paul saith in the first chapter of the
Romans, and in the fifth of the Galatians, ' That all
that do such things are worthy of everlasting death.'
" And if ye will not determine to do any other thing
than to fight against us, then will we take the Lord to
our help and his truth, and we will defend it to the
death, and we will not be afraid for the excommunica-
tion or curse of the pope, or his cardinals, or of the
bishops, because we know that the pope is not God,
as he maketh himself, that he can curse and excommu-
nicate when he will, or bless when he will ; who has now
these many years cursed and excommunicated us, and
■ yet notwithstanding, God and his gracious blessing hath
been our help. But peradventure ye will say, that though
we see that bishops and priests be evil and wicked, yet we
cannot do without them ; for who should baptize our
child.-en, who should hear confessions, and minister the
holy sacraments .' and then also we should be within
the excommunication of the pope, and of his bishops.
AVell-beloved, ye need to take no care for these matters.
The excommunicating of the pope liurts you nothing.
Fear ye the excommunicating of God, and the Lord will
provide for those things well enough. If ye would
banish evil bishops and priests, ye should have good
pnests who should baptize your children, hear confes-
sions, and minister the holy mysteries, because when
tbe devil is banished, then place is made for the Holy
Ghost : so when ill bishops and priests shall be banished
then place shall be made for good priests and bishops.
Also, your bishops and priests say, that we are mis.
creants and heretics, and that we believe not on purgs.
tory, upon the Virgin Mary, nor upon the saints-
wherein they say ill, for we will prove by the holy scrip,
ture, tliat we know better by God's grace how we ou^ht
to believe u;>on jnirgatory, and upon Mary tlie mother
of our Lord, and ui)on his well-beloved saints, than
they can tell us. Also they say, that we will not be
obedient unto the pope. Truly when he shall become
holy and just, then we know well that we ought to be
obedient to him in all things, and not before. They say
also, that we destroy God's holy service, in that we de-
stroy monasteries, banishing thence the wicked monks
and nuns. Truly we did it, thinking on(;e that they
were holy, that they did the reverend service of God •
but after that we well perceived and considered their life
and works, then we perceived that they were false lowly
hypocrites, and wicked builders on high, and sellers of
pardons and masses for the dead, and such as devoured
in tliemselves the sins of the people. And whereas they
said that they rise at midnight when other men sleep,
and pray for the sins of the people ; forasmuch as their
selling of their prayers and masses for the dead for gifts,
is no better than hypocrisy and heresy ; therefore, if we
do speak against them and destroy their monasteries,
we do not tlierein destroy the service of God, but rather
the service of the devil, and the schools of heretics. And
if ye knew them as we know them, ye would as dili-
gently destroy them as we do. For Christ our Lord did
not ordain any sucli order, and therefore it must needs
come to pass that shortly it shall be destroyed, as our
Ijord said in the gospel of St. Matthew, chap. xv.
Every plant which my Father hath not planted, shall be
rooted up."
[Here are added sixteen articles against the Romish
priests, which we omit.]
(Signed) Procopius, Smahors, Conrad, Samssmo-
lich ; captains of Bohemia.
Now to return to the wars of the Bohemians again.
After Zisca was dead, there was great fear, sorrow, and
lamentation in the army, the soldiers accusing fortune
which gave over such an invincible captain to be over-
come with deatli. Immediately there was a division in
the host, the one part choosing Procopius Magnus to be
tlieir captain, tlie otlier part saying, that there was none
could be found worthy to succeed Zisca, whereupon they
choosing out certain to serve the wars, named themselves
orphans.
Thus the Taborites being divided into two armies,
the one part retained their old and accustomed name,
and the other, by reason of the death of their captain,
named themselves orphans. And although often there
was dissension between them, yet whenever any foreign
power came towards them, they joined their powers toge-
ther in one camp, and defended themselves. They
seldom went to any fenced towns, except it were to buy
necessaries, but lived with their wives and children in
their camp and tents. They had amongst them many
cars, which they used as a bulwark ; for whenever
they went unto battle, they made two wings of them,
which closed in the footmen. The wings of the horse«
men were on the outside, and when they saw their time
to join battle, the waggon-men which led the wings, going
forth to the emperor's standard, and compassing in such
part of their enemies as they would, did close themselves
in together, whereby the enemies being enclosed, so that
they could not be rescued, they were partly by the foot-
men, and partly by the men that were in the cars, with
their darts, slain. The horsemen fought without the for-
tification ; and if it happened that they were oppressed,
or put to flight, by and by the cars opening themselves,
received them as it were into a fenced city ; and by this
means they got many victories, forsomuch as their
enemies were ignorant of their policies.
These two armies went forth, the one into Silesia, and
the other into Moravia, and returned again with great
prey, before their enemies knew of their coming. After
|ioIjcinia-f illing Ultii anb Mmmh
Page 335.
A.D. 1422.]
WAR BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE B0J5EMIANS.
335
tliis they besieged the town of Swietla in Austria, where
theTaborites and the Orphans during two nights, continu-
ally assaulted the walls without ceasing ; but Albert, duke
ot Austria, coming with his host to aid the citizens, they
foui'-ht for the space of almost four hours, the valiantest
r warriors being slain on both parts. At length the battle
, -was broken off, and the Taborites lost their cars, and
t Albert was put out of his camp and tents. Within
i awhile after, Procopius INIagnus came again and enclosed
i the city of llhetium in Austria with a notable siege.
I They of Prague were in his army, and Boslaus Cygnens,
' of whom we spake before, was slain there with a dart,
: and the city of Rhetium was taken by force, sacked and
I burnt. The burgrave of Malderburg, lord of the town,
was also taken and carried unto Prague, where also he
died in prison.
These things being done, the emperor sent for the no-
bles of Bohemia, who went to him to a town of Hungary,
cdled Posonium, in the borders of Austria, upon the
ban.ks of the river Danube ; but they would not enter
into the. town, but remained without the town in their
tents ; whither, the emperor going out unto them,
communed much with them, as touching his right and
title, and the recovering of his father's kingdom, pro-
mising if there were any cause, which did alienate the
Bohemians' minds from him, that he would take away all
the occasion thereof : they made answer, that he had
made war upon them without cause, and that he had
suffered their countrymen, contrary to his promise, to be
burnt at Constance not being heard, and the kingdom to
be contumeliously interdicted, and the nobles of Bohemia
to be condemned by the church of Rome as heretics ;
and that he should think the force and power of the Bo-
hemians not to be so small, but that they would provide
for their own honour. Whereto the emperor answered
very gently, and offered them a general council, wherein
they might declare their innocency, if they would sub-
mit themselves to the judgment of the universal church ;
but the Bohemians, who were become valiant victors in
arms, would not be overcome with words ; and so nothing
being finally concluded, the emperor returned home.
Then Pope Martin, perceiving the gospel to increase
daily more and more, sent the cardinal of Winchester,
an Englishman, born of a noble house, into Germany, to
move them to war against the Bohemians. The emperor
also assisted him.
There were three armies provided. In the first army
were the dukes of Saxony, and the lower cities. The
second army, which was gathered of the Franconians,
was under the conduct of the marquis of Brandenburg.
The third army was led by Otho, the archbishop of
Treves, whom the Rhenenses,. the Bavarians, and the
imperial cities of Swevia followed. These armies entering
into Bohemia in three several parts, after they were
passed the wood, joined together and pitched before
Misna. This town a certain learned and eloquent pro-
testant, named Prichicho, the night before had won
from the papists ; wherefore the army was determined
first to recover that city, before they would go any fur-
ther. But when news came to the host, how the protes-
tants had gathered an army, and came with all speed
towards them, they fled before they saw their enemies,
and went to Tacovia, leaving behind them their warlike
engines with a great prey. The cardinal was not yet
come to the camp, but meeting them in their flight at
Tacovia, he marvelled at the cowardly flight of so many
noble and valiant men, desiring them that they would
turn again to their enemies, which, he said, were far
weaker than they. Which thing, when he had long la-
boured about in vain, he was fain to be a companion with
them in their flight. They were scarcely entered the
wood, when the Bohemians coming upon them, set upon
the rearward. Then was their flight much more disor-
dered and fearful than before, neither did they leave fly-
ing before the Bohemians left following. Then all im-
pediment or hindrance being taken away, they vanquished
Tacovia ; and having obtained great store of warlike en-
gines, they destroyed Misna. And when they would
have returned home by Franconia, they had great sums
of money sent unto them, that they should not waste
or destroy the countries of Bamberg and Noremberg ;
whereby the host of the Bohemians was greatly en-
riched.
Sigismund, the emperor, having news of these things,
went straight unto Noremberg, and gathered there fresh
aid and help. Also Pope Martin sent Julian, the cardi-
nal of St. Angelo, into Germany, with his ambassage, to
make war against the Bohemians, and that he should in
the council of Basil, which would now shortly draw on, be
president in the pope's name. He, entering into Germany,
went straight to Noremberg to the emperor, where many
of the nobles of Germany were assembled.
There was a new expedition decreed against the
Bohemians, against the eighth of the kalends of July,
and Frederick, marquis of Brandenburg, ajipointed
general of that war, who should follow the cardinal.
He entered into Bohemia by the way that leadeth unto
Thopa, and Albert, prince of Austria, was appointed
to bring his army through Moravia.
In this expedition were Albert and Christopher of
Bavaria, and Frederick, dukes of Saxony, John and Al-
bert i)rinces of Brandenburg, with their father, who
was general of those wars. Also the bishops of Hyper-
bolis, Bamberge, and Eysten. Also the company of
the Swevians, which they called the company of St.
George, and the magistrates of the imperial cities, the
bishop of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, sent their aids,
and with them the chieftains of their provinces. It is
said that the number of their horsemen were above
forty thousand, but their footmen were not full so many,
for the Germans for the most part fight their battles on
horseback.
Also Rhenatus, prince of Lorraine, promised to come
to these wars ; but being hindered by his civil wars, forso-
much as he went about to vanquish the earl of Vandome,
he could not keep his promise, and the county palatine
of Rheine, who did aid and succour the earl of Van-
dome, could not go against the Bohemians. The
cardinal, st^jiag for them, deferred his journey until the
kalends of August. In the meantime Albert, leading his
army out of Austria, understanding that the cardinal
was not present at the day appointed, and seeing himself
unable to encounter with the Bohemian power, he re-
turned back again. After this the cardinal entered into
Bohemia with a huge army, and destroyed many of the
protestants' towns, killing men, women, and children,
sparing neither old nor young ; notwithstanding this, his
tyranny was exercised in the uttermost borders of Bohe-
mia, for his captains feared to enter far into the land.
The Bohemians, as soon as they had heard that their
enemy was come, made ready and gathered their host
with all speed, and laid siege to a tower called Stiltiverge,
and brought it under subjection.
In the meantime there fell such a marvellous sudden
fear amongst the papists throughout the whole camp,
that they began most shamefully to run away before any
enemy came in sight. The cardinal Julian, marvelling
at this most sudden fear, and what should move so great
an army to flee, went about to the captains, exhorting
them to put on armour, to order their battles, and cour-
ageously to abide their enemies, saying they did not
fight for the glory of their kingdom, or for the possession
of lands, but for their lives, honour, and religion of
Christ, and for the salvation of souls. How ignominious
a thing is it (said he) for the Germans to flee in battle,
whose courage and vallantness all the world doth extol .'
It were much better to die, than to give place to any
enemies before they were seen ; for they can by no means
live in safety within the walls, who give place unto their
enemy in the field ; for it is the weapon that defends a
man and not the walls, and except they would even pre-
sently defend their liberty with the sword, they should
shortly be in greater bondage, more miserable than any
death. But this exhortation was all in vain, for fear had
put away all boldness ; for the ensigns were snatched up,
and as though there had been no captain in the host,
every man run headlong away. No man regarded any
commandment, neither once took his leave of his cap-
tain, but casting away their armour with speedy flight,
they ran away, as though their enemy had been at their
336 THE BOHEMIANS SEND REPRESENTATIVES TO THE COUNCIL OF BASIL. [Book V.
bac".:s. The cardinal also, although it were against his
will, was forcfd to 'lo the like.
Thus the protestants, by the fear of their enemies, made
the more bold and oourageous, pursued them through
the woods, and had a great prey and spoil of them. Not-
withstanding, Albert, when he heard that the cardinal
was entered into Bohemia, with all speed came again
out of Austria with his army, and besieged the strong
town of Prezorabia ; but when he understood how the
cardinal was fled, he left off his purpose, and returned
through Moravia, which was not yet subject to him, and
destroyed above fifty towns with fire and sword, took
many of their cities by force, and spoiled them, commit-
ting great murder and slaughter, and so afflicted them
that they took upon them his yoke, and promised to be
subject and obedient to him under this condition, that as
touching religion he would be bound to do that which
the council of Basil should determine.
Then was there an ambassage sent out of Bohemia
unto Basil, where Sigismund held the council, who,
during the time of the wars had kept himself at Norem-
berg. When he should take his journey unto Rome to
be crowned emperor, he wrote letters unto the nobles of
Bohemia, wherein was contained, how that he was a
Bohemian born, and how he was not more attached to
any nation than to his own, and that he went to
Rome for none other cause but to be crowned, which
honour should also be a renown to the Bohemi-
ans, to advance whom had been always his especial
care.
Also, how that through his endeavour the council
was begun at Basil, exhorting all such as were desirous
to be heard as touching religion, that they should come
thither, and that they would not maintain any quarrel
contrary to the holy mother the church ; that the
council would lovingly and gently hear their reasons ;
that they should only endeavour themselves to agree
with the synod as touching religion, and reserve and
keep a quiet and peaceable kingdom for him, against his
return : neither should the Bohemians think to refuse
his government, whose brother, father, and uncle had
reigned over them, and that he would reign over them,
after no other mean or sort than other christian kings
used to do.
The council of Basil also wrote their letter to the Bo-
liemians, that they should send their ambassadors who
should shew a reason of their faith, promising safe con-
duct to go and come, and free liberty to speak what
they would. The Bohemians on this point, were of two
opinions ; for the protestants, and almost all the com-
mon people Slid, it was not good to go, alleging the
examples of John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, who
going unto Constance, under the safe conduct of the em
peror, were there openly burned. But the nobility, fol-
lowing the mind of Maynard, prince of the new house,
said, that they ought to go to the council, and that they
are not to be suffered who had invented those new and
strange opinions of faith, and new kind of religion, ex-
cept they would render account of their doings and
sayings before the universal church, and defend those
things which they had openly taught before learned men.
This opinion prevailed, and an ambassage of three
hundred horse was sent to Basil. The chief whereof
were William Cosca, a valiant knight, and Procopius,
surnamed Magnus, a man of worthy fame for his mani-
fold victories, Jolm Rochezana, preacher of Prague,
Nicholas Galecus, minister of the Taborites, and one
Peter, an Englishman, of excellent, prompt and pregnant
wit. The people came in great numbers out of the town,
and many out of the synod and council, attending before
the gates to see the coming of this valiant and famous
people ; others gathered together, in great numbers into
the streets where they should pass through. The ma-
trons, maids, and children filled the windows and houses
to behold and see, and to marvel at their strange kind of
apparel, and stout courageous countenances, saying, that
it was not untrue which was reported of them : not-
withstanding all men beheld Procopiuni, saying, this is
Le who has overthrown the papists in so many battles,
who has subverted so many towns, and slain so many
men, whom both his enemies, and also his own soldiers
do fear and reverence ; also, that he was a bold, valiant
and invincible captain, who could not be overcome with'
any terror, labour, or travail.
These Bohemian ambassadors were gently received. The
next day after. Cardinal Julian, sending for them to
the council-house, made a gentle, long, and eloquent
oration to them, exhorting them to unity and peace
saying, that the church was the spouse of our Sanour
Christ, and the mother of all faithful, that it hath the
keys of binding and loosing, and also that it is white and
fair, witliout spot or wrinkle, and cannot err in those
points that are necessary to salvation, and that he who
contemns the same church is to be counted as a pro-
fane lieathen and publican, neither can this church be
represented better by any means than in this council.
He exhorts them also to receive the decrees of the coun-
cil, and to give no less credit to the council than to the
gospel, by whose authority the scriptures themselves are
received and allowed. Also that the Bohemians, who
call themselves the children of tlie church, ought to hear
the voice of their mother, who is never unmindful of
her children ; how that now of late they have lived apart
from their mother ; although (said he) that is no new
or strange thing, for there have been many in times
past who have forsaken their mother, and yet seek-
ing after salvation have returned to her again ; that in
the time of Noah's flood, as many as were without the
ark perished ; that the Lord's passover was to be eaten
in one house ; that there is no salvation to be sought
for out of the church, and that this is the garden and
famous fountain of water, whereof whosoever shall drink,
shall not thirst everlastingly ; that the Bohemians have
done as they ought, in that they have sought the foun-
tains of this water at the council, and have determined
now at length to give ear unto their mother. Now all
hatred ought to cease, all armour and weapon to be laid
apart, and all occasion of war utterly to be rejected.
For the fathers would lovingly and gently hear whatever
they would say in their own cause or quarrel, requiring
only that they would willingly receive and embrace the
good counsels and determinations of the sacred synod ;
whereto not only the Bohemians, but also all other faith-
ful christians, ought to consent and agree, if they will
be partakers of eternal life.
This oration of the cardinal was heard and very well
approved by the fathers. Whereto the Bohemians an-
swered in a few words, that they neither had contemned
the church nor the council ; that the sentence given at
Constance, against those who were unheard, doth dimi-
nish nothing of the christian religion ; that the authority
of the fathers hath always remained amongst them in-
violate ; and that whatever the Bohemians have taught,
was confirmed by the scriptures and gospel ; and that
they are now come to manifest their innocency before
the whole church, and to require open audience, where
the laity may also be present. Their request was
granted them ; and being further demanded in what
points they did disagree from the church of Rome, they
propounded four articles.
First. They affirmed, that all such as would be saved,
ought of necessity to receive the communion of the last
supper under both kinds of bread and wine.
The second article. They affirmed aU civil rule and
dominion to be forbidden to the clergy by the law of
God.
The third article. That the preaching of the word of
God is free for all men, and in all places.
The fourth article. As touching open crimes and of-
fences which are in nowise to be suffered for the avoiding
of greater evil.
These were the only propositions which they pro-
pounded before the council in tlie name of the whole
realm. Then another ambassador affirmed, that he had
heard of the Bohemiams very many things offensive to
christian ears, amongst which this was one point, that
they had preached that the invention of the order of
begging friars was diabolical.
Then Procopius, rising up, said, " Nor is it untrue ;
for if neither Moses, neither before him the patriarchs,
A.D. 1422.] DEATH OF HENRY V. ORDER OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. 337
1 neither after him the prophets, neither in the new law
Christ and his apostles did institute the order of begging
friars, who does doubt but that it was an invention of
the devil, and a work of darkness ?"
' This answer of Procopius was derided by them all.
And cardinal Julian went about to prove, that not only
the decrees of the patriarchs and prophets, and those
things which Christ and his apostles had instituted, were
of God, but also that all such decrees as the church
j should ordain, being guided through the Holy Ghost, be
I the works of God. Although, as he said, the order of
begging friars might seem to be taken out of some part
of the gospel.
The Bohemians chose out four divines who should de-
clare their articles to be taken out of the scriptures.
Likewise on the contrary part there were four appointed
by the council. This disputation continued fifty days,
where many things were alleged on either part, whereof,
as place shall serve, more hereafter (by the grace of Christ)
shall be said, when we come to the time of that council.
In the meantime, while the Bohemians were thus in
Jong conflicts with Sigismund the emperor and the pope,
fighting for their religion, to whom, notwithstanding all
the fulness of the pope's power was bent against them,
God of his goodness had given such noble victories, as is
ibove expressed, and ever did prosper them so long as
they could agree among themselves ; as these things (I
say) were doing in Bohemia, King Henry V. of England,
fighting likewise in France, although for no like matter
of religion, fell sick at Blois and died, after he had
reigned nine years, five months, three weeks, and odd
days from his coronation. This king in life, and in all
his doings, was so devout and serviceable to the pope and
his chaplains, that he was called by many the prince of
priests, he left behind him a son being yet an infant,
nine months and fifteen days of age, whom he had by
Queen Katharine, daughter to the French king, who was
married to him about two or three years before. The
name of which prince, succeeding after his father, was
Henry VI., left under the government and protection of
his uncle, named Humphrey, duke of Gloucester.
TAe names of the Archbishops of Canterbury contained
in this Fifth Book.
55. Simon Islepe.
56. Simon Langham.
57. WiUiam Witlesey
58. Simon Sudbury.
59. William Courtney
60. Thomas Arundel
61. Henry Chichesle
THE END OF THE FIFTH BOOK.
4CTS AND MONUMENTJ?
^ O O K VT,
PERTAINING TO
THE TA«'T iflREE rlUNDRED YEARS, FROM THE LOOSING OUT OF SATAN.
EFACE lO THE READEI
According to tne nve different periods and states of
the church, so have I divided hitherto the order of this
present church history into five principal parts, every
part containing three hundred years. So that nov»r
coming to the last three hundred years, that is, to the
last times of the church, counting from the time of Wick-
liiF: forasmuch as in the compass of the said last three
hundred years are contained great troubles and pertur-
bations of the church, with the marvellous reformation
of the same through the wondrous operation of the Al-
mighty ; all which things cannot be comprehended in
one book ; I have therefore disposed the later three
hundred years into several books, beginning now with
the sixth book, at the reign of King Henry VI. In
which book, beside the many and grievous persecutions
raised up by antichrist, herein is also to be observed,
that whereas it has of long time been received and
thought of the common people, that this religion now
generally used, has sprung up and risen but of late, even
by the space (as many do think) of twenty or thirty
years, it may now manifestly appear, not only by the
acts and monuments heretofore passed, but also by the
histories hereafter following, how this profession of
Christ's religion has been spread abroad in England, of
old and ancient time, not only for the space of these two
hundred late years, from the time of Wickliff, but has
continually from time to time sparkled abroad, although
the flames thereof have never so perfectly burst out, as
they have done within these hundred years and more ;
as by these histories here collected and gathered out of
registers, especially of the diocese of Norwich, shall ma-
nifestly appear ; wherein may be seen what men, and
how manybothmenand women within the diocese of Nor-
wich there have been, who have defended the same doc-
trine which now is received by us in the church. Which
persons, although then they were not so strongly armed
in their cause and quarrel as of late years they have been,
yet were they warriors in Christ's church, and fought to
their power in the same cause. And although they gave
back through tyranny, yet judge thou the best, good
reader, and refer the cause thereof to God, who reveals
all things according to his determinate will and appointed
time.
ITiis young prince being under the age of one year,
after the death of his father, succeeded to the throne and
kingdom of England (A. D. 1422), and in the eighth
year was crowned at Westminster ; and the second year
after was crowned also at Paris, Henry, bishop of Win-
chester, cardinal, being present at them both, he reisrned
thirty-eight years, and then was deposed by Edward IV.
as hereafter (Christ willing) shall be declared in his
time. In the first year of his reign was burned the con-
stant witness-bearer of Christ's doctrine, William Tailor,
a priest, under Henry Chinhesley, archbishop of Canter-
bury. Of this William Tailor I read, that in the days
of Thomas Arundel hewasfirst apprehended, and abjured.
Afterwards in the days of Henry Chichesley, about A.D.
1J21, which was a year before his burning, William
Tailor appeared again in the convocation' before the
archbishop, being brought by the bishop of Worcester,
being complained of as having taught at Bristol, these
BTticles following :
First, That whoever hangs any scripture about his
neck, takes away the honour due only to God, and gives
it to the devil.
Secondly, That no human person is to be worshipped,
but only God is to be adored.
Thirdly, that the saints are not to be worshipped
nor invoked.
Upon these articles W^illiam Tailor being examined,
denied that he did preach or hold them in way of de- ,
fending them, but only did commune and talk upon the ij
same, especially upon the second and third articleSi w
only in way of reasoning, and for argument sake. And ij
to justify his opinion to be true in what he held, h« Ij
brought out of his bosom a paper, wherein were con-
tained certain articles, with the testimonies of the doc-
tors alleged, and exhibited the same to the nrrlibishop.
Who then being bid to stand aside, the archbishop con-
sulting together with the bishops and other jirelates
what was to be done in the matter delivered the writ j
A. D. 1123—1424.] MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM TAILOR.— PERSECUTION IN NORWICH.
ings to Master John Castle, and John Rikinghale, the
two vice-cliancellors of Oxford, and Cambridge, and to
John Langdon, monk of Canterbury, who, advisinsr with
themselves, and with other divines, about the articles and
allegations, on the Monday following presented the arti-
cles of William Tailor to the archbishops and prelates.
as erroneous and heretical. Upon which, William Tailor
being called before them, in conclusion was contented
to revoke the same, and for his penance was by them
condemned to perpetual prison.
Notwithstanding, through favour, they were con-
tented that he should be released from his incarceration,
in case he would put in sufficient surety in the king's
chancery, and swear that he shall never hold nor favour
such opinions hereafter. And thus William Tailor, ap-
pointed to appear the next Wednesday at Lambeth, be-
fore the archbishop, to take his absolution from his long
excommunication during the time from Thomas Arundel,
appeared again before him, where he, laying aside his
cloak, his cap, and stripped to his doublet, kneeled at
the feet of the archbishop, who, then standing up, and
having a rod in his hand, began the psalm Miserere, i(c.
His chaplains answering the second verse. After that
was said, the collect, Dens cui proprinm, i^'c. with cer-
tain other prayer.s. And so taking an oath of him, the
archbishop committed him to the custody of the bishop
of Worcester, to whom power and authority was per-
mitted to release him upon those conditions. And thus
was William Tailor for that time absolved, being en-
joined notwithstanding to appear at the next convoca-
tion, whenever it should be, before the archbishop or his
successor that should follow him.
In the meantime, while William Tailor was thus in
the custody of the bishop of Worcester, there passed
certain writings between him and one Thomas Smith,
priest at Bristol, in the which writings William Tailor re-
plied against Thomas, concerning the question of worship-
ping of saints. Upon the occasion of which reply, being
brought to the hands of the bishop of Worcester, Wil-
liam Tailor began anew to be troubled, and was brought
again before the public convocation of the clergy by
the said bishop of Worcester, to answer unto his
writings. This was the eleventh day of February,
A. D. 1422. To which convocation William being pre-
sented, his writings were read to him ; which he would
not, nor could not, deny to be of his own hand-writing.
The tenor and effect of whose writing only tended
to prove, that every petition and prayer for any super-
natural gift ought to be directed to God alone, and to
no creature. Although in his writing he did not
utterly deny that it was lawful in any respect to pray
to saints (and brings for the same Thomas Aquinas), but
only in respect of that worship which is called latria ;
and he seems little or nothing to differ from the super-
stition of the papists. And yet the writing, being de-
livered by the archbishop to the four orders of friars
of London to be examined, was found erroneous and
heretical in these points : —
1. That every prayer, which is a petition of some
supernatural gift or free gift, is to be directed only to
God.
2. That prayer is to be directed to God alone.
3. To pray to 'any creature is to commit idolatry.
4. Also, another opinion there was, much like to the
other, to make up the fourth ; — hereupon came down
a writ from the king, directed to the lord mayor and
sheriffs of London, " De hcerefico comdnrendo," i. e.
" the writ for burning a heretic," dated the first day
of March, the first year of his reign. Upon which,
William Tailor, condemned as a relapse, was first de-
graded, and then sentenced to be burned, and so was
committed to the secular power ; then being brought to
Smithfield, the first day of March, with christian con-
stancy, after long imprisonment, he there consum-
mated his martyrdom, (A. D. 1422.)
The manner of his degrading was all one with the de-
grading of John Huss before, for the papists use but one
form for all men First, Degrading them from priest-
hood, by taking from them the chalice and patine.
From deaconship, b taking from them the gospel-book
339
and tunicle. From sub-deaconship, by taking from
them the e])istle-book and tunicle. From acoluteshi)),
by taking from them the cruet and candlestick. From
an exorcist, by taking away the book of exorcisms or
gradual. From the sextonship, by taking away the
church-door-key and surplice. And likewise from
benedict, in taking away the surplice, and first tonsure,
^:c. All which they in due order accomplished upon
this godly martyr, before his burning.
Jo/m Florence, a Turner.
John Florence, a turner, dwelling in Shelton, in the
diocese of Norwich, was attached, because he held and
taught these heresies here underwritten (as they called
them) contrary to the determination of the church of
Rome.
That the pope and cardinals have no power to make
or constitute any laws.
That there is no day to be kept holy, but only the
Sunday which Uod has hallowed.
That images are not to be worshipped, neither that
the people ought to set up any lights before them in the
churches, neither to go on pilgrimage, neither to offer
for the dead.
That curates should not take the tithes of their
parishioners, but that such tithes should be divided
amongst the ])Oor parishioners.
That all such as swear by their life or power, shall be
damned, except they repent.
On the second of August, in the year 1424, John
Florence personally appeared before William Bernam,
chancellor to William, bishop of Norwich, where, being
threatened by the judge, he acknowledged that he had
erred, and submitted himself to the correction of the
church, and abjured, taking an oath that from that
time forward he would not hold, teach, preach or will-
ingly defend any error or heresy contrary to the deter-
mination of the church of Rome, neither maintain, help,
or aid any that shall teach or hold any such errors or
heresies, either privily or publicly ; and for his offence
he was enjoined this penance following : —
That for three Sundays, in a solemn procession in the
cathedral church of Norwich, he should be disciplined, e. e.
have a rod or scourge laid on him before all the people.
The same also should be done around his parish-church
of Shelton, three other several Sundays, he being bare-
headed, bare-footed, and bare-necked, after the manner
of a public penitent, his body being covered with a
canvass shirt, and canvass breeches, carrying in his
hand a taper of a pound weight ; and that done he was
dismissed.
Richard Behcard of Ersham.
Richard Belward of Ersham, in the diocese of Nor-
wich, was accused of holding and teaching these errors
and opinions here under-written, contrary to the de-
termination of the church of Rome.
That ecclesiastical ministers have no power to excom-
municate. And that if a bishop excommunicate any
man, God absolves him.
That he held the erroneous opinions that Sir John
Oldcastle held when he was in prison, and affirmed that
Sir John Oldcastle was a true catholic man, and falsely
condemned and put to death without reasonable
cause.
That such as go on pilgrimage, offering to images
made of wood and stone, ai-e excommunicated, because
they ought to offer to the living, and not to the dead ;
and that the curates sell God upon Easter-day, when
they receive offerings of such as communicate, before
they minister the sacrament to them.
That he counselled women, that they should not offer
in the church for the dead.
That the saints who are in heaven ought in no case to
be prayed to, but God only.
The fifth day of July (A. D. 1424), Richard Belward was
broup-ht before John, bishop of Norwich, when articlea
340
PERSECUTION IN THE DIOCESE OF NORWICH.
•^.BooK VI.
were objected against him, -which he there denied ; there-
fore the bishop appointed him another day ; upon
which he appeared again before the bishop, and brought
with him nine of his neighbours to purge him upon
those articles, and there did solemnly purge himself.
And afterwards, the bishop commanded him to swear
upon the evangebsts. That from that day forward he
should not wittingly preach, teach, or defend any error
or heresy, contrary to the church of Rome ; neither aid,
assist, favour, or maintain, privily or openly, any
manner of person or persons, that should hold or main-
tain the said errors or heresies.
In like manner John Goddesel, of Dichingham, was
accused upon the same articles, and brought before the
bishop, where he denying tbem, purged himself by his
neighbours, as Richard Belward before had done, being
sworn also in like manner as he was, and so was dismissed
and set at liberty, until the year 1428, when he was
again apprehended, accused, and abjured, as shall be
more at large declared in the history when we come to
that year. Sir Hugh Pie also, chaplain of Ludney, in
the diocese of Norwich, was likewise accused and
brought before the bishop of Norwich the fifth day of
July, (A. D. 1424,) for holding these opinions fol
lowing : —
That the people ought not to go on pilgrimage.
That the people ought not to give alms, but only to
such as beg at their doors.
That the image of the cross and other images are not
to be worshipped. And that the said Hugh had cast the
cross of Bromehold into the fire to be burned, which he
took from one John Welgate, of Ludney. Which
articles being objected against him, he utterly denied ;
whereupon he had a day appointed to purge himself by
the witness of three laymen and three priests. That so
done, he was sworn as the other before, and so dis-
missed.
After this, (A. D. 1428,) King Henry TI. ?ent down
most cruel letters of commission unto John Exeter and
Jacolet Germain, keeper of the castle of Colchester, for
the apprehending of Sir William White, priest ; and
others, suspected of heresies, the tenour whereof here
ensues.
The Copy of the King's Letters directed to John Exeter
and Jacolet Germain, keeper of the Castle of Col-
chester, for the apprehending of Sir William White,
priest : and other {as theij called them) Lollards.
" Henry, by the grace of God, king of England and
of France, lord of Ireland, to his well-beloved John
Exeter, and Jacolet Germain, keeper of the castle of
Colchester, health ;
" Ye shall understand that we, fully trusting unto
your fidelity and circumspections, have appointed you
jointly and severally to take and arrest William White,
priest ; and Thomas, late chaplain of Setling, in the
county of Norfolk ; and William Northampton, priest ;
and all others, whatsoever they be, that are suspected of
heresy or LcUardy, wheresoever they may be found,
within the liberties or without ; and straightway being so
taken, to send them unto our next gaol or prison, until
such time as we shall have taken other order for their
delivery: and therefore we straightly command you, that
ye diligently attend about the premises, and fulfil the
same in form aforesaid. Also we charge and command
all and singular justices of peace, mayors, sheriffs,
bailiffs, constables, and all other our faithful officers, by
the tenour of these presents, That they do assist, aid,
and counsel you and every of you, in the execution of
the premises, as it shall be comely for them. In wit-
ness whereof we have caused these our letters patent to
be made.
" Witness my.self at Westminster, the sixth of July,
the sixth of our reign."
By virtue of which commission we find in old monu-
ments, that within a short time after, John Exeter, who
ipsa appointed one of the <"/>mmis*ioners, uttached six
persons in the town of Bungay, in the diocese of Nor-
wich, and committed them to be sent within ten days
following, under safe custody, unto the castle of Nor.
wich.
Besides these, we also find in the said old monuments
within the diocese of Norfolk and Suffolk, specially in
the towns of Beccles, Ersham, and Ludney, a great
number both of men and women to have been vexed and
cast into jirison, and after their abjuration brought to
0])en shame in churches and markets, by the bishop of
the diocese, called William, and his chancellor William
Bernham, John Exeter being the registrar ; so that
within the space of three or four years, that is, from the
year 1428 to the year 14.'51, about the number of one
hundred and twenty men and women were examined,
and sustained great vexation for the profession of the
christian faith, of whom some were only taken upon
suspicion, for eating meats prohibited upon vigil days,
who, upon their purgation made, escaped more easily
away, and with less punishment.
Others were more cruelly handled, and some of them
were put to death and burned, among whom we do spe-
cially find mention made of these three : —
Father Abraham of Colchester.
William White, priest.
John Waddon, priest.
A great number of good men and women, seventy-
eight in all, were forced to abjure, sustaining such cruel
penance as the bishop and his chancellor pleased to lay
upon them.
These soldiers of Christ, being much beaten with the
cares and troubles of those days, although they were
constrained to relent and abjure, that is, to protest
otherwise with their tongues than their hearts did think,
partly through correction, and partly through infirmity
(being as yet but new trained soldiers in God's field),
yet for the good-will they bare to the truth, although
with their tongues they durst not express it, we have
thought good to mention them here ; for this cause,
either to stop the mouths of malignant adversaries, or to
answer to their ignorance, who following rather blind
prejudice, than the true knowledge of history, for lack
of knowledge, blame what they know not, accusing the
true doctrine of the word of God as a novelty, and carping
at the teachers thereof as new made brethren. Who should
understand by these histories, how this doctrine of the
grace of God, lacking no antiquity, has from time to
time continually sought to burst out, and in some
places has prevailed, although in most places, through
tyranny and the malice of men, Christ's proceedings
have been suppressed and kept under from rising, so
much as men's power and strength joined with craft and
subtlety could labour to keep it down ; as here by these
good men of Norfolk and Suffolk may well appear. For
if the knowledge and the goodness of those men had had
the same liberty of time, with the help of the same au-
thority, as we have now, and had not been restrained
through the iniquity of the times and the tyranny of
prelates, it had well appeared how old this doctrine
would have been, which now they contemn and reject
for its newness : neither needed Bonner to have asked
of Thomas Hawks, and such others, where their church
was forty years ago, inasmuch as for forty years ago,
and more, within the country of Norfolk and Suffolk,
was then found such plenty of persons of the same pro-
fession and the like doctrine which we now profess.
And thus much for the number of these persons.
Now as touching their articles which they maintained
and defended :
Concerning the articles, many of them either were
falsely objected against them , or not truly reported, accord-
ing to the common manner of these adversaries. The
notaries reported them erroneously, either mistaking thut
which they said, or misunderstanding that which tl)ey
meant, especially in these two articles concerning bap-
tism and paying of tithes. For, when speaking agninst
the ceremonial and superfluous traditions then used in
baptism, as salt, oil, spittle, taper, light, chrisomes, ex-
orcising of the water, with such other, they accounted
A.D. 1424—1428.] ARTICLES OBJECTED AGAINST WILLIAM WHITE AND OTHERS. 341
them as no material thing in the holy institution of bap-
tism, the notaries slanderously depraving this assertion,
to make it more odious to the ears of the people, so
gave out the article, as if they held that the sacrament
of baptism used in the church by water is but a light
matter and of small effect.
Again, in speaking against women christening new-
born infants in private houses, against the opinion of
such as think children damned who depart before they
come to their baptism, they are falsely reported, as if
they said, that christian people are sufficiently baptized
in the blood of Christ, and need no water, and that in-
fants are sufficiently baptized, if their parents be bap-
tized before them.
Moreover they thought, or said, perhaps, that in cer-
tain cases tithes might be withheld from wicked priests
sometimes, and be conferred to better uses to the bene-
fits of the poor : therefore they are falsely slandered, as
saying and affirming, that no tithes were to be given to
the ministers and curates of the churches.
And likewise for matrimony, wherein they are re-
ported to hold and affirm, as if it consisted only in the
mutual consent betwixt the man and the woman, need-
ing no other solemnizing in the public church, and all
because they denied it to be a sacrament. Other arti-
cles were objected against them, as these which here-
after follow : —
That auricular confession is not to be made to a priest,
but to God only ; because no priest has any power to
absolve a sinner from his sin.
That no priest has power to make the body of Christ
in the sacrament of the altar ; but that, after the sacra-
mental words, there remains pure material bread as
before.
That every true christian man is a priest to God.
That no man is bound under pain of damnation to
observe Lent, or any other days prohibited by the church
of Rome.
That the pope is antichrist, and his prelates the dis-
ciples of antichrist, and the pope has no power to bind
and loose upon earth.
That it is lawful for every christian to do any bodily
work (sin only except) upon holy days.
That it is lawful for priests to have wives.
That excommunications and ecclesiastical censures
given out by the prelates, are not to be regarded.
It is not lawful to swear in private cases.
That men ought not to go on pilgrimages.
That there is no honour to be given to the images of
the crucifix, of our lady, or any other saint.
That the holy water, hallowed in the church by the
priest, is not holier or of more virtue than other running
or well-water, because the Lord blessed all waters in
their first creation.
That the death of Tliomas Becket was neither holy
nor meritorious.
That the relics, as dead men's bones, ought not to be
worshipped or digged out of their graves, or set up in
shrines.
That prayers made in all places are acceptable unto
God.
That men ought not to pray to any saint, but only to
God.
That the bellis and ringing in the church was ordained
for no other purpose, but to fill the priests' purses.
That it is no sin to withstand the ecclesiastical
precepts.
That the catholic church is only the congregation of
elect.
These were the articles which were generally objected
against them all, wherein they did so agree in one imi-
form faith, that whatever one held, all the others main-
tained and held the same. By which their consent and
doctrine it appears, that they all received it of some one
instructor, who was William White, who being a scho-
lar and follower of John Wickliff, resorted afterwards
into this country of Norfolk, and there instructed these
men in the light of the gospel. Now it remains to speak
of their troubles, how they were handled, beginning with
William White.
William White, Priest.
This William White, being a follower of John Wick-
liff, and a priest, not after the common sort of priests,
but rather reputed amongst the number of them of
whom the wise man speaketh, " He was as the morning
star in the midst of a cloud," &c. This man was well-
learned, upright, and a well-spoken priest. He gave
over his priesthood and benefice, and took him a godly
young woman to his wife, notwithstanding he did not
therefore cease from his former office and duty, but
continually laboured to the glory and praise of the
spouse of Christ, by reading, writing, preaching. The
principal points of his doctrine were these, which he
was forced to recant at Canterbury.
That men should seek for the forgiveness of their sins
only at the hands of God.
That the wicked living of the pope, and his holiness,
is nothing else but a devilish estate and heavy yoke of
antichrist, and therefore he is an enemy unto Christ's
truth.
That men ought not to worship images, or other ido-
latrous paintings.
That men ought not to worship the holy men which
are dead.
That the Romish church is the fig-tree which the
Lord Christ hath accursed, because it hath brought
forth no fruit of the true belief.
That such as wear cowls, or be anointed or shorn, are
the lance-knights and soldiers of Lucifer ; and that they
all, because their lamps are not burning, shall be shut
out when the Lord shall come.
Upon which articles he being attached at Canterbury
under the archbishop Henry Chichesley (A. D. 1424),
there for a certain space, stoutly and manfully wit-
nessed the truth which he had preached ; but as there he lost
his courage and strength, so afterwards he became again
much stouter and stronger in Jesus Christ, and con-
fessed his own error and offence. For after this, going
into Norfolk with his wife, and there occupying himself
busily in teaching and converting the people to the true
doctrine of Christ, at the last, by the means of the
king's letters sent down for that intent and purpose, he
was apprehended and brought before William, bishop of
Norwich, by whom he was convicted and condemned of
thirty articles, and there was burned in Norwich, in the
month of September, A.D. 1424.
This William White and his wife lived much with one
Thomas Moon of Ludney. This man was of so devout
and holy life, that all the people had him in great re-
verence", and desired him to pray for them ; so that one
Margaret Wright confessed, that if any saints were to be
prayed to, she would rather pray to him than any other.
When he was come to the stake, thinking to open his
mouth to speak to tlie people, to exhort and confirm
them in the truth, one of the bishop's servants struck
him on the mouth, to force him to keep silence. And
thus this good man, receiving the crown of martyrdom,
ended this mortal life to the great sorrow and grief of
all the good men of Norfolk. His wife, following her
husband's footsteps according to her power, teaching
and sowing abroad the same doctrine, confirmed many
men in God's truth : she suffered much trouble and
punishment the same year at the hands of the bishop.
About the same time also was burned Father Abra-
ham of Colchester, and John Waddon, priest, for the like
articles.
Concerning them which abjured, how and by whom
they were examined, what depositions came in against
them, and what was the order and manner of the penance
enjoined them, here it might be set out at large ; but for
avoiding of prolixity, it shall be sufficient briefly to
touch certain of the principals, whereby the better un-
derstanding may be given to the reader, after what man-
ner and order all the other were entreated.
First, amongst those who were arrested and forced
to abjure (A.D. 1428), were Thomas Pie, and John
Mend'ham, who, being convicted upon the articles before-
mentioned, were enjoined penance in their own parish
LETTER OF THE BISHOP OF NORWICH ENJOINING PENANCE.
342
church, as by the bishop's letter directed to the dean of
Rhodenhall, and the parish priest of Aldborough, more
at large appears.
The copy of the Bishop of Norwich's Letter.
William, by the sufferance of God, bishop of Norwich,
to our well-beloved sons in Clirist, the dean of Rhoden-
hall of our diocese, and to the jjarisli priest of the parish
church of Aldborough of the same our diocese, health,
grace, and benediction. Forasmuch as we, according
to our office, lawfully proceeding to the correction and
amendment of the souls of Thomas Pie and John Mend-
ham of Aldborough, of the diocese aforesaid, because
they have held, believed and affirmed divers and many
errors and heresies, contrary to the determination of the
holy church of Rome, and the universal church and
catholic faith, have enjoined the said Thomas and John,
apjiearing before us personally, and confessing before us
judicially that they have holden, believed, and affirmed
divers and many errors and heresies, this penance
hereunder written, for their offences to be done and ful-
hlled in manner, form, and time hereunder written, ac-
cording as justice doth require, that is to say, six whip-
pings, or disciplinings about the parish church of Aldbo-
rough aforesaid, before a solemn ])rocession six several
Sundays, and three disciplinings about the market-place
of Kerelstone, of our said diocese, three principal mar-
ket days, bare neck, head, legs, and feet, their bodies
being covered only with their shirts and breeches, each
of them carrying a tajier in his hand of a pound weight, as
well round about the church, as about the market-place,
in each of the aforesaid appointed days ; which tajiers,
the last Sunday after the penance finished, we will that
the said John and Thomas do humbly and devoutly
offer unto the high altar of the parish church of Aldbo-
rough. at the time of the offertory of the high mass the
same day, and that either of them, going about the mar-
ket-place aforesaid, shall make four several pauses and
stays, and at every of those same pauses humbly and
devoutly receive at your hands three disciplinings.
Therefore we straightly charge and command you, and
either of you, jointly and severally by virtue of your obe-
dience, that every Sunday and market-day, after the
receipt of our present commandment, you do effectually
admonish and bring forth the said Thomas Pie and John
Mendham to begin and accomplish their said penance,
and so successfully to finish the same in manner and
form afore-appointed. But if they will not obey your
monitions, or, rather our commandments, in this behalf,
and begin and finish their said penance effectually, you, or
one of you, shall cite them peremptorily, that they, or
either of them, appear before us, or our commissary, in
the chapel of our palace at Norwich, the twelfth day after
the citation so made, if it be a court day, or else the
next court day following, to declare if they, or any of
them, have any cause why they should not be excom-
municated for their manifest offence in this behalf com-
mitted, according to the form and order of law, and fur-
ther to receive such punishment as justice shall provide
in that behalf. And what you have done in the pre-
mises, whether the said Thomas and John have obeyed
your admonitions, and performed the same penance or
no, we will that you, or one of you, which have received
our said commandment for the execution thereof, do dis-
tinctly certify us between this and the last day of Novem-
ber next coming. Dated at our palace of Norwich, un-
der our commissary's seal, the eighth day of October,
A.D. 1428."
This, gentle reader, was for the most part, the order
of their whole penance : however some were more
cruelly handled ; and after their penance they were ba-
nished out of the diocese, and others more straightly
used by longer imprisonment, whereof we will briefly
rehearse one or two for example.
John Beverly, alias Battild.
John Beverly alias Battild. a labourer, was attached
[Book YL
by the vicar of Southcreke, the parish priest of Water-
den, and a lawyer, and so delivered unto Master William
Barnham the bishop's commissary, who sent him to the
castle of Norwich there to be kept in irons : afterward
being brought before the commissary, and having no-
thing proved against him, he took an oath, that every
year afterward he should confess his sins once a-year to
his curate, and receive the sacrament at Easter, as other
christians did ; and for his offence was enjoined that the
Friday and Saturday next after he should fast on bread and
water, and upon the Saturday to be whipped from the
palace of Norwich, going round about by Tomblands,
and by St. Michael's church, by Cottlerew, and about
the market, having in his hand a wax candle of two-
pence, to offer to the image of the Trinity after he had
done his penance. And forsomuch as he confessed
that he had eaten flesh upon Easter-day, and was not
shriven in all Lent, nor received upon Easter-day, the
judge enjoined him that he should fast Tuesday, Wed-
nesday, and Friday in Whitsun-week, having but one
meal a-day of fish and other white meats, and after this
penance he should depart out of the diocese, and never
come there any more.
John Skilley of Flixon, Miller.
John Skilley of Flixon, miller, being apprehended and
brought before the bishop of Norwich, the fourteenth day
of March, A.D. 1428, for holding and maintaining the ar-
ticles above-written, was thereupon convicted and forced
to abjure ; and after this abjuration solemnly made, he
had a most sharp sentence of penance pronounced
against him ; that forsomuch as he was convicted by his
own confession, for holding and maintaining the articles
before-written, and for receiving certain good and godly
!nen into his house, as Sir William White, priest, and
John Wadden, whom they called famous, notorious,
and damnable heretics, and had now abjured the same,
being first absolved from the sentence of excommunica-
tion which he had incurred by means of his opinions, he
was enjoined for penance seven years' imprisonment in
the monastery of Langly, in the diocese of Norwich.
And as in times past he used upon the Fridays to eat
flesh, he was enjoined to fast on bread and water every
Friday, for the space of that seven years to come ; and
that for the space of two years next immediately after the
seven years expired, every Wednesday in the beginning
of Lent, and evexy Maundy Thursday, he should appear
before the bishop, or his successor, or commissary for
the time being, in the cathedral church of Norwich, to-
gether with the other penitents, to do open penance for
his offences.
Besides these there were others of the same company,
who in the same year were forced to similar abjuration
and penance. And so to proceed to the next year fol-
lowing, which was A.D. 1429, there ensues a great
number in the same register, who were examined, and did
penance also to the number of sixteen or seventeen. In
the number of whom was John Baker, otherwise called
Usher Tonstal, who for having a book with the Lord's
Prayer, the Ave and Creed in English, and for certain
other articles of fasting, confession, and invocation,
contrary to the determination of the Romish church, after
much vexation, was caused to abjure and sustain such
penance, as others before him had done.
The History of Margery Backsier.
Another was Margery Backster, against whom one
Joan, wife of Cliffland, was brought in by the bishop, and
compelled to depose.
First, that the said Margery Backster did inform this
deponent, that she should in no case swear, saying to
her in English : " Dame, beware of the bee, for every hee
will sting, and therefore take heed you swear not, neither
by God, neither by our lady, neither by any other saint ;
and if ye do contrary, the bee will sting your tongue and
venom your soul."
Also, this deponent being demanded by Margery,
what she did every day at church ; she answered, " That
A. D. 142S— 1430.] PERSECUTION IN NORWICH.— MARGERY BACKSTER, &c.
343
she kneeled down and said five Pater Nosters, in wor-
ship of the crucifix, and as many Ave Maries in worship
of our lady." Whom Margery rebuked, saying, "You do
evil to kneel or pray to such images in the churches, for
God dwelleth not in such churches, neither shall come
down out of heaven, and will give you no more reward
for such prayer, than a candle lighted, and set under tl-.e
cover of tiie font, will give light by night to those which
are in the church." Saying, moreover, in English ;
** Ignorant workmen hew and form such crosses and
images, and after that, ignorant painters gloss them with
colours. And if you desire so much to see the true
cross of Christ, I will shew it you at home in your own
house." Which tliis deponent being desirous to see,
Margery, stretching out her arms abroad, said to this
deponent, " This is the true cross of Christ, and this
cross thou oughtest and mayest every day behold and
worship in thine own house, and therefore it is but vain
to run to the church to worship dead crosses and
images."
Also, this deponent being asked by Margery how she
believed touching the sacrament of the altar, said, " That
she believed tlie sacrament of the altar, after the conse-
cration, to be the very body of Christ in form of bread."
To whom Margery said, " Your belief is wrong ; for if
every such sacrament were God, and the very body of
Christ, there would be an infinite number of gods, be-
cause that a thousand priests and more do every day
make a thousand such gods, and afterwards eat them.
And therefore know for certainty, that by the grace of
God it shall never be my God, because it is falsely and
deceitfully ordained by the priests in the church, to in-
duce the simple people to idolatry ; for it is only mate-
rial bread."
Moreover Margery said to this deponent, " That
Thomas of Canterbury, whom the people called St.
Thomas, was a false traitor, and damned in hell, because
he injuriously endowed the churches with possessions,
and raised up many heresies in the church, which seduce
the simple people ; and therefore if God be blessed,
Thomas is accursed ; and those false priests that say that
he suffered his death patiently before the altar, do lie ;
for as a cowardly traitor he was slain in the church door,
as he was flying away."
Moreover, this deponent saith, that Margery told her
that the cursed pope, cardinals, archbishop, and bishops,
and especially the bishop of Norwich and others that
support and maintain heresies and idolatry, reigning
and ruling over the people, shall shortly have the very
same or worse mischief fall upon them, than that cursed
man Thomas of Canterbury had. For they falsely and
cursedly deceive the people, to extort money from the
simple folk to sustain their pride, riot and idleness. And
know assuredly that the vengeance of God will speedily
come upon them, who have most cruelly slain the chil-
dren of God, father Abraham, and William White, a true
preacher of the law of God, and John Wadden, with
many other godly men ; which vengeance had come upon
the said Caiaphas, the bishop of Norwich and his minis-
ters, who are members of the devil, before this time, if the
pojie had not sent over these false pardons to those parties,
which the said Caiaphas had falsely obtained, to induce
the people to make procession for the state of them and
of the church. Which pardons brought the simple
people to cursed idolatry.
Also Margery said to this deponent, that every faithful
man and woman is not bound to fast in Lent, or other
days appointed for fasting by the church, and that every
man may lawfully eat flesh and all other meats upon
those days and times : and that it were better to eat the
fragments left upon Thursday at night on the fasting
days, than to go to the market to bring themselves in
debt to buy fish : and that Pope Silvester made the
Lent.
Also Margery said to this deponent, that William
White was falsely condemned for an heretic, and that he
was a good and holy man, and that he desired her to
follow him to the place of execution, where she saw that
when he would have opened his mouth to speak to the
(leople to instruct thetu, but a devil, one of Bishop
Caiaphas's servants, struck him on the lips, and stopped
his mouth, that he could in no case declare the will of
God.
This deponent saith, that Margery taught her that she
should not go on pilgrimage, neither to our lady of Wal-
singham, nor to any other saint or place.
Also this deponent saith, that Margery desired her
that she and Joan her maid would come secretly in the
night to her chamber, and there she should hear her
husband read the law of Christ to them ; which law wa«
written in a book that her husband was wont to read to
her by night, and that her husband is well learned in the
christian verity.
Tliat Margery said to this deponent, that the people
worshijiped devils which fell from heaven with Lucifer,
which devils in their fall to the earth, entered into
the images which stand in the churches, and have long
lurked and dwelled in them ; so that the people, wor-
shipping those imagesjcommit idolatry.
Slie said also to this deponent, that holy bread and
holy water were but trifles of no effect or force, and that
the bells are to be cast out of the church, and that they
are excommunicated which first ordained them.
Moreover, that she should not be burned, although
she were convicted of Lollardy, for that she had a charter
of salvation in her body.
Also the said deponent saith, that Agnes Berthem her
servant, being sent to the house of the said Margery the
Saturday after Ash-Wednesday, the said Margery not
being within, found a brass pot standing over the fire,
with a piece of bacon and oatmeal seething in it, as the
said Agnes reported to this deponent.
There were also, besides this deponent, others sworn
and examined against the said Margery, as John Grim-
ley and Agnes Berthem, servants to William Clifland,
who altogether confirmed the former depositions.
Thus much we have thought good to note as concern-
ing Margery Backster. But what became of her after
this her accusation, because we find no mention made in
the registers, we are not able to declare.
The same year also were the like depositions made by
one William Wright against divers good men, as here
foUoweth.
First, this deponent saith, that William Taylor told
John Piry of Ludney, in the house of John Bungay of
Beghton, in the presence of John Bungay, Robert
Grigges, wright of Martham, and John Usher, that all
the good men of Martham who were favourers and
helpers to that good man William White, are evil trou-
bled now-a-days, and that William White was a good
and holy doctor ; and that the best doctor after him was
William Everden, who wrought with WiUiam Taylor of
Ludney, for the space of one month, and that the first
Sunday of the month, William Everden did sit all day
upon the table at work, saying to William Taylor, that
he would not go to church to shew himself a scribe or a
pharisee ; and the second Sunday he put on gentleman's
apparel, and went to Norwich to hearken how the bishop
and his ministers used the poor christians there in
prison.
Also the said William Wright deposed, that William
Taylor of Ludney was one of the sect, and went to Lon-
don with Sir Hugh Pie, and had conversation oftentimes
with Sir William White, having often conference upon
the Lollards' doctrine.
Also that Anise, wife of Thomas Moon, is of the same
sect, and favoured them, and receives them often, and
also the daughter of Thomas Moon is partly of the same
sect, and can read English.
Also that Richard Fletcher of Beckles is a most per-
fect doctor in that sect, and can very well and perfectly
expound the holy scriptures, and has a book of the nevf
law in English, which was Sir Hugh Pie's first.
Also that Nicholas Belward, son of John Belward,
dwelling in the parish of Southelem, is one of the same
sect, and has a new testament which he bought at Lon-
don for four marks and forty pence, and taught the said
William Wright and Margery his wife, and wrought with
them continually by the space of one year, and studied
diligently upon the New Testament.
m
PERSECUTION IN NORWICH.— EX.VMINATION OF NICOLAS, CANON. [Boox VI.
That Thomas Gremner, turner, of Dychingliam, is
perfect ill that sect and law.
John Clark the younger, of Bergh, had the bedding
and apparel of William Everden in his custody, after the
return of William WTiite from Bergh, and is of the same
sect.
Also William Bate, tailor, of Sething, and his wife,
nnd his son, who can read English very well, are of the
same sect.
Also William Skirving of Sething, received Joan the
wife of William White into his house, being brought
thither by William Everden, after their departure from
Martliain.
Also William Osbourn of Sething, John Reve, glover,
and Bavvdwin Cooper of Beckles, are of the same sect.
Al.-^o John Pert, late servant of Thomas Moon, is of
the same sect, and can read well, and did read in the
presence of William White, and was the first that
brought Sir Hugh Pie into the company of the Lollards,
who assembled oftentimes together at the house of
Thomas Moon, and there conferred upon their doctrine.
Also Sir Hugh Pie bequeathed to Alice, servant to
William W^hite, a New Testament, which they then
called the book of the new law, and was in the custody
of Oswald Godfrey of Colchester.
John Perker, mercer, of a village by Ipswich, is a
famous doctor of that sect. Also he said, that father
Abraham of Colchester is a good man.
Also the said William Wright deposes, that it is read
in the prophecies amongst the Lollards, that the sect of
the Lollards shall be in a manner destroyed ; notwith-
standing at length the Lollards shall prevail and have the
victory against all their enemies.
Also he said that Tucke knows aU of that sect in
Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex.
Besides these, there were many others the same year,
whose names being before expressed in the table of
Norfolk men, here for brevity's sake we omit to treat
of, passing over to the next year, which was 1430.
[Ex Regist. Norw.]
John Burrel, servant to Thomas Moon of Ludney, in
the diocese of Norwich, was apprehended and arrested
for heresy, the ninth day of September, in this year
(A.D. 1430,) and examined by Mr. William Bernham,
the bishop's commissary, upon the articles before men-
tioned, and others.
That the catholic church is the soul of every good
christian man.
That no man is bound to fast in Lent or other fast-
ing days appointed by the church, for they were not ap-
pointed by God, but ordained by the priests ; and that
every man may eat flesh or fish upon the same days
indifferently, according to his own will, and every Friday
is a free day to eat both flesh and fish indifferently.
That pilgrimage ought not to be made, but only to the
poor.
That it is not lawful to swear, but in case of life and
death.
That masses and prayers for the dead are but vain ;
for the souls of the dead are either in heaven or hell :
and there is none other place of purgatory but this
world. Upon which articles he being convicted, was
forced to abjure, and suffered a similar penance as the
others before had done.
Thomas Moon of Ludney was apprehended and at-
tached for suspicion of heresy, against whom were ob-
jected by the bishop the articles before written, but
especially this article, that he had familiarity and com-
munication with several heretics, and had received, com-
forted, supported, and maintained several of them, as
Sir William White, Sir Hugh Pie, Thomas Pet, and
William Callis, priests, with many more ; upon which
articles he being convicted before the bishop was forced
to abjure, and received the penance, in like manner as
before.
In like manner, Robert Grigges of Martham was
brought before the bishop the seventeenth day of Fe-
bruary, in the year aforesaid, for holding and affirming
the aforesaid articles, but especially these hereafter
following.
That the sacrament of confirmation, ministered by the-
bishop did avail nothing to salvation.
Thit it was no sin to withstand the ordinances of the
church of Rome.
That holy bread and holy water were but trifles, and
that the bread and water were the worse for the conjura-
tions and characters which the priests made over thijiu.
Upon which articles he being convicted, was forced to
abjure, and received penance in manner and form as the
others had done before him.
The like also (though somewhat more sharp') happened
unto John Finch of Colchester, the twentieth day of Sep.
tember, who although he was of the diocese of London,
being suspected of heresy, was attached in Ipswich in
tlie diocese of Norwich, and brought before the bishop
there, before whom he being convicted of the articles, as
all the others before him, was enjoined penance, three
disciplinings in solemn procession about the cathedral
church of Norwich, three several Sundays, and three
disciplinings about the market-place of Norwich, three
principal market-days, his head and neck and feet being
bare, and his body covered only with a short shirt or
vesture, having in his hand a taper of wax of a pound
weight, which, the next Sunday after his penance, he
should offer to the Trinity ; and that for the space of
three years after, every Ash-Wednesday and Maunday-
Thursday, he should appear in the cathedral church at
Norwich, before the bishop or his vicegerent, to do
open penance amongst the other penitentiaries for his
offences.
About the same time, even the same year, 1430, shortly
after the solemn coronation of King Henry VI., a certain
man named Richard Hoveden, a wool-winder, and
citizen of London, received the crown of martyrdom.
Which man when he could by no persuasions be with-
drawn or plucked back from the opinions of Wickliff, he
was by the rulers of the church condemned for heresy :
and as Fabian writes, burned hard by the Tower of
London.
Nicolas, Canon qfEyt.
Now to proceed in our account of the persecution of
Norfolk and Suffolk, we find that in the year 1431,
Nicolas, canon of Eye, was brought before the bishop of
Norwich for suspicion of heresy, with witnesses sworn to
depose against him, which witnesses appointed one Wil-
liam Christopher to speak, and he deposed as follows :
First, that on Easter-day, when all the parishioners
went about the church of Eye solemnly in procession,
as the manner was, this Nicolas Canon, as it were,
mocking and deriding the other parishioners, went
about the church the contrary way, and met the pro-
cession.
This article he confessed, and aflSrmed that he thought
he did well in so doing.
Again, Nicolas asked of Master John Colman, of Eye,
this question, " Master Colman, what think you of the
sacrament of the altar ?" Colman answered, " I think
that the sacrament of the altar is very God, and very
man, the very flesh and very blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ under the form of bread and wine." To whom
Nicolas in derision said, " Truly, if the sacrament of the
altar be very God and very man, and the very body and
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, then very God and very
man may be put in a small space ; as when it is in the
priest's mouth. And why may not we laymen as well
eat flesh upon Fridays, and all other prohibited days, as
the priest to eat the flesh and drink the blood of our Lord
every day indifferently ?" Nicolas thought he had
spoken well in that matter.
Also, that on Corpus Christi dav, at the elevation of
high mass, when all the parishioners and strangers
kneeled down, holding up their hands, and doing rever-
ence to the sacrament, Nicolas went behind a pillar of th6
church, and turning his face from the high altar,
mocked them that did reverence to the sacrament.
,\.D. 1430—1431.] THE HISTORY OF THOMAS RHEDON, A CARMELITE FRIAR,
345
This article he also acknowledging affirmed that he be-
j lieveth himself to do well in so doing.
Also, when his mother would have him to lift up his
I right hand, and cross himself from the crafts and assaults
of the devil, when he deferred doing so, his mother took
np his right hand, and crossed him, saying, " In the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen ;"
and then Nicolas immediately deriding his mother's
blessing, took up his right hand of his own accord, and
. blessed himself otherwise. This article Nicolas acknow-
ledged to be true.
Also, that upon AUhallows-day, in the time of eleva-
: tion of high mass, when many of the parishioners of
Eye lighted many torches, and carried them up to the
high altar, kneeling down there in reverence and honour
of the sacrament, Nicolas carrying a torch went up to the
high altar, and standing behind the priest's back, saying
mass, at the time of the elevation stood upright upon his
feet, turning his back to the priest, and his face toward
the people, and would do no reverence to the sacrament.
This article he acknowledged, affirming that he thought
he had done well in that behalf. All which articles
the bishop's commissary caused to be copied out, word
for word, and sent to Master William Worsted, prior of
the cathedral church of Norwich, and to other doctors
of divinity, that they might deliberate upon them, and
shew their minds between that and Thursday next
following. Upon which Thursday, Nicolas was again
examined upon two other articles, that he doubted whe-
ther in the sacrament of the altar were the very body of
Christ or no. This article he confessed before the com-
missary to be true.
Also, that he believed that a man ought not to confess
his sins to a priest. This article he also confessed that
i he doubted upon.
I Now remains to declare what these doctors concluded
I upon the articles ; whose answer was this.
First of all, as to the first article, they said that the ar-
ticle in tlie terms as it was propounded, is not simply an
, heresy, but an error.
Also, as to the second article, the doctors agree as in
, the first.
Also, as to the third article, they affirm that it is an heresy.
To the fourth article, they answered as to the first and
I second.
] Also, the doctors affirm the fifth article to be an heresy.
] Also, as to the sixth article, the doctors conclude, that
I if the said Nicolas, being of perfect mind and remem-
[ brance, did doubt whether the sacrament of the altar
I were the very perfect body of Christ or no, then the ar-
I tide is simply an heresy.
Upon this, the commissary declared and pronounced
I Nicolas to be an heretic, and forced him to abjure ; and
! enjoined Nicolas penance for his offences, three disci-
plinings about the cloister of the cathedral church of Nor-
; wich, before a solemn procession, bare-headed and bare-
I foot, carrying a taper of half-a-pound in his hand.
Thomas Bagley, priest.
I find in Fabian's chronicles, that in the same year
(A. D. 1431), Thomas Bagley, a priest, vicar of Mo-
nenden, beside Maiden, being a valiant disciple, and
adherent of Wickliff, was condemned by the bishops of
heresy at London, about the midst of Lent, and was
degraded and burned in Smithfield.
Paul Craw, a Bohemian.
The same year also, was Paul Craw, a Bohemian,
taken at St. Andrews, by the bishop Henry, and deli-
vered over to the secular power to be burnt, for holding
opinions contrary to the church of Rome, touching
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the worshipping
of saints, auricular confession, with other of WicklifTs
opinions.
The History of Thomas Rhedon, a Frenchman, and a Car-
melite Friar, burnt in Italy for the profession of Christ.
We have before declared how this cruel storm of per-
I secution, which first began in England after it had long
raged here against many good and godly men, brake out
and passed into Bohemia, and after a short time, in-
creasing by little and little, invaded Scotland, and now,
with greater force and violence, this furious devouring
flame entered Italy, and suffered not any part of the
world to be free from the murder and slaughter of good
and godly men. It happened about this time that one
Thomas Rhedon, a Carmelite friar, came with the Ve-
netian ambassadors into Italy. This man, although he
was a Carmelite, yet understood theword of God, judging
that God ought not to be worshipped neither in that
mount, nor at Jerusalem only, but in spirit and truth.
This man being a true Carmelite, prepared himself to go
into Italy, trusting that he should find there some by
whose good life he might be edified and instructed. For
where ought more abundance of virtue to be, than in
that place which is counted to be the fountain of all re-
ligion ? And how could it otherwise be, but that where
so great holiness is professed, where all men's eyes are
bent as upon a stage, where St. Peter's seat is, and which
is thought to be the ruler and governor of all the church,
all things should flourish and abound worthy of so great
a place ? This holy man, having these things before his
eyes, forsook his own country, and went to Rome, con-
ceiving a firm and sure hope that, by the example of so
many notable and worthy men, he should greatly profit
in godliness and learning : but the success of the matter
utterly frustrated his hope, for all things were clean con-
trary. W^hatever 1ip. saw was nothing else but mere
dissimulation and hypocrisy. Instead of heavenly
gifts, there reigned among them the pomp and pride of
the world : in place of godliness, riot : instead of learn-
ing and study, slothfulness and superstition. Tyranny
and haughtiness of mind had possessed the place of
apostolic simplicity : that now there remained no more
any place or liberty for a man to learn that which he
knew not, or to teach that which he perfectly understood.
Finally, all things were reversed — all things happened
contrary to his expectation. But nothing so much of-
fended this good man's mind, as the intolerable ambition
and pompous pride in them, whom an example of hu-
mility should especially commend and praise to the
whole world. And, although he saw nothing which ac-
corded with the rule of the apostles, yet these things so
much passed all measure and patience, that he could by
no means refrain his tongue in so much abuse and cor-
ruption of the church, seeing such ambitious pride in
their buildings, apparel, in their palaces, in their dainty
fare, in their great trains of servants, in their horse and
armour, and finally in all things. Which things, so far
as they differed from the prescribed rule of the gospel,
so much the more was this good man forced to speak ;
although he well understood how little he should prevail
by speaking : for if admonition would profit any thing at
all, the books of Wickliff, and others were not wanting.
The famous testimonies of John Huss, and of Jerome of
Prague, and their blood shed for the same, was yet pre-
sent before their eyes : at whose most effectual exhorta-
tions, they were so little corrected and- amended, that
they seemed twice more cruel than they were before.
Yet all this could not terrify this good man. So by this
means, he who came to be a scholar to others, was now
forced to be their teacher : and he who determined to
follow other men's lives and manners, had now, on the
other hand, set before them his life to be marked and
followed. For he lived so among them, that his life
might be a rule to them all, and so taught, as he might
also be their schoolmaster. For even as Paul had fore-
shewn to such as desired to live godly in Christ, that
they should suffer persecution, such reward happened to
this man. He gave to them the fruit of godliness,
which they should follow : they again set upon his head
the diadem of martyrdom. He shewed them the way of
salvation ; and they for the benefit of life, rewarded him
with death : and whereas no rewards had been worthy of
his great labours and troubles, they with most extreme
ignominy persecuted him even unto the fire. For when
by continual preaching he had gotten great envy and
hatred, the rulers began to consult together by what
346
THE HISTORY OF THE COUNCIL OF BASIL.
[Book VI.
means they might circumvent this man's life. Here
they had recourse to their accustomed remedies : for it
was a peculiar and continual custom among the prelates
of the church, that if any man did displease them, or
that liis talk was not according to their mind, or by any
means hurtful, or a hindrance to their lucre and gain, by
and by they frame out articles of some heresy, which
they charge' him withal. And like as every living thing
has his peculiar and proper weapon to defend himself
from harm, as nature hath armed the boar with his
tusks, the hedgehog with his prickles, as the lion is feared
for his claws, the dog for his biting, the bull fights
with his horns, neither doth the ass lack his hoofs to
strike withal ; even so this is the only armour of the
bishops, to strangle a man with heresy, if he once go
about to mutter against their will and ambition ; which
thing may be easily perceived and seen in this most holy
man, beside a great number of others. Who when he
began to wax grievous unto them, and could no longer
be suffered, what did they do ? .Straightways flew to
their old devices, and as they had done with Huss, and
Jerome of Prague, even so they went about to practise
against this man. They overwhelm him with suspicion,
they seek to entangle him with questions, they examine
him in judgment, they compile articles against him, and
lay heresy to his charge, they condemn him as an here-
tic, and l)eing so condemned, they destroy and kill him !
This was their godliness : this was the peaceable order
of those Carmelites. Whose religion was to wear no
sword nor shield, yet they bore in their hearts malice,
rancour, vengeance, poison, craft, and deceit, sharper
than any sword. With how great care and policy is it
provided by law, that none of these clergymen should
light with sword in the streets .' when in judgment and
accusations there is no murderer who has more ready
vengeance, or that does more vilely esteem his brother's
soul than they. They shed no blood themselves, they
strike not, nor kill, but they deliver them over to others
to be slain ! What difference is there I pray you, but
that they are the authors, and the other are but the
ministers of the cruel act ? they kill no man as mur-
derers do. How then ? Although not after the same
sort, yet they do it by other means.
The articles which they falsely gathered against this
man, are affirmed by some to be these : —
That the church lacks reformation, and that it shall
be punished and reformed.
That infidels, Jews, Turks, and Moors, shall be con-
verted to Christ in the latter days.
That abominations are used at Rome.
That the unjust excommunication of the pope is not
to be feared ; and those which do not observe the same,
do not sin or offend.
But yet there lacked a minister for these articles ;
however he could not long be wanting at Rome, where
all things are to be sold, even men's souls. For this
office and ministry there was no man thought more
meet than William of Rouen, cardinal of St. Martin's in
the mount, vice-chancellor of the court of Rome. Eu-
genius at that time was pope, who had a little before
succeeded Pope Martin above mentioned. Before
which Eugenius, this godly Rhedon the Frenchman
was brought, and from thence sent unto prison. And
again after his imprisonment, and divers and sundry
grievous torments, he was brought before the judges.
The wolf sat in judgment, the lamb was accused. Why ?
Because he had troubled the spring. But here need not
many words. This good Thomas not being able to re-
sist the malice of these mighty potentates, had offended
enough, and was easily convicted and condemned to be
burned, but not before he was deprived of all such de-
grees of priesthood as he had taken.
After the death of Pope Martin, who reigned fourteen
years, Eugenius IV. succeeded, about the year A.D.
14;il. Of whom Antonius thus writes, that he was
much given to wars, as his conflicts and fighting with
the Romans may declare ; also the battles between the
Venetians and the Florentines.
This pope began first to celebrate thecouncil of Basil,
which council Martin his predecessor had before in-
tended to assemble, according to <.he direction of the
council of Constance. Eugenius, however, perceiving
afterward that this council of Basil would not favour
him and his doings, and fearing some injury, afterwards
laboured by all subtle practice to dissolve and interrupt
the council, and to translate it first from Basil to Fer-
rara, then to Florence, nearer to his own see of Rome.
Concerning which council of Basil, as we have begun
here to make mention, it will be no great digression to
discourse something more at large, so much as shall
seem sufficient or necessary to be known.
THE ORDER AND MANNER OF THE COUNCIL OF BASIL,
TVith the principal matters concluded iJterein, briefly
collected and abridged here in this present book.
In the thirty-ninth session of the council of Con-
stance, it was decreed and provided concerning such
general councils as should hereafter follow : — That the
first that should ensue, should be assembled the fifth
year after the council of Constance : that the second
should be held the seventh year after that, and so all
others to follow successively every tenth year. Where-
fore, according to this decree, there followed a general
council five years after the council of Constance, cele-
brated and held at Siene, under Pope Martin, A.D. 1424,
but it soon broke up. After which council, the term of
seven years being expired, another council was held
at Basil, A.D. 1431, which council is noted to have
been the most troublesome, and to have endured longer
than any other council before celebrated and held in the
church. This council continued almost the space of
seventeen years, wherein it was concluded, as in the
council of Constance, that the general councils were
above the pope, and both of these two councils attri.
buted to the general council the chief authority in decree-
ing, and determining, which is the reason that the oppo-
site party derogate so much from the authority of this
council.
When Pope Martin V. had appointed Julian cardinal
and deacon of St. Angelo, his legate, to celebrate and
hold a general council at Basil, for the reformation of
the church, and rooting out of heresies, within a short
space afterwards Pope Martin died. Eugenius IV. suc-
ceeded, and confirmed to Cardinal Julian the same au-
thority which his predecessor had given him. To this
council of Basil came the Emperor Sigismund, who
during his life, with his presence and authority, pro-
tected and defended the synod. After the emperor's
death, Pope Eugenius altering his mind and purpose,
wished to remove the council to Bononia, and thus
check the council of Basil. And first he held an oppo-
sition council at Ferrara, and afterwards at Florence,
For, after the death of the Emperor Sigismund, there
were no princes nor noblemen that had any care or re-
gard for the council. Eugenius cited Cardinal Ju-
lian, and the fathers of the council, to Bononia, under a
great penalty. They again cited the pope, that either
he should come himself to the council, or send ambas-
sadors under the like penalty. For this cause the am-
bassadors of Albert king of the Romans, and of the
other princes of Germany, assembled together first at
Nuremburg ; and when they could determine nothing
there, they assembled again at Frankfort to ajipease the
dissension between the council and the pope : for it was
thought that the electors of the empire could best as-
semble and meet in that place : in the meantime the em-
peror's ambassadors, and the ambassadors of the elec-
tors went to Basil, and having conference with the am-
bassadors of the othe*- princes who were there, they ear-
nestly exhorted the fathers of the council, that they
would embrace the unity which they would offer. The
request of the princes was, that the fathers would tran-
s])ort the council, and go unto another place ; which was
the very thing Pope Eugenius seemed always to seek
and desire, that he might either divide the fathers of the
council, or take away their liberty.
This sacred synod, however, thought good neither to
deny the princes' request, nor to grant what Pope Euge«
A.D. 1431.]
COUNCIL OF BASIL. THE POPE DECLARED A HERETIC.
347
tiius required. During this doubt, the emperor's am-
bassadors, the bishops of Patavia and Augusta, ap-
pointed a noble and valiant baron called Conrad Wein-
sperge, by the king's command to be protector and de-
fender of the council and the fathers, liy which the
enemies perceived the emperor to be alienated from the
pope, and the fathers of the council understood his
good-will towards them, as he would not have sent them
a protector if he had not judged it a lawful council ;
neither would he have judged it a council in Basil, if he
had given credit to Pope Eugenius. But owing to a
great pestilence which began to spread there, the assem-
bly that should have been held at Frankfort was tran-
sported unto Mentz.
The assembly was very famous, for there were present
the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, electors
of the sacred empire, and all the ambassadors of the
other electors. The archbishop of Cologne was the chief
favourer of t^e council in this assembly, who with all his
labour and diligence went about to bring the matter
unto a good end. Rabanus, the archbishop of Treves,
shewed himself somewhat more rough. The sacred
synod also thought good to send their ambassadors, and
appointed the patriarch of Aquileia, the bishop of Vi-
cene, and the bishop of Argen ; divines, John Segovius,
and Thomas de Corcellis, with others. There was no
man there present who would name himself the ambas-
sador of Eugenius, although there were many of his
favourers and friends, both from the council, and also
out of Florence, who although they had sworn to the
contrary, yet favoured Eugenius more than the council.
But the chief Hercules of all the Eugenians was Nicolas
Cusan, a man singularly well learned, and of great ex-
perience. After several consultations, the electors of the
empire, and the ambassadors of the other princes of Ger-
many, gave command throughout their whole nation and
country, that the decrees of the council of Basil should
be received and observed.
Whilst these things were thus debated at Mentz, there
sprang a certain very doubtful question among the di-
vines who remained at Basil, whether Eugenius might
be called an heretic, who had so rebelUously contemned
the commandments of the church. They gathered
themselves together, disputing long among themselves,
some affirming, and others holding the negative part.
Upon this there arose three several opinions, some af-
firming that he was an heretic ; others, not only an
heretic, but also a relapse. The third sort would
neither grant him to be an heretic nor a relapse.
Among these divines, the chief and principal both in
learning and authority, was the bishop of Ebrun, am-
bassador of the king of Castile, and a certain Scottish
abbot, who, as two most valiant champions, subdued all
their enemies, so that all the rest either consented to
their arguments, or gave place to them, and so their de-
termination took place, and Eugenius was pronounced
both an heretic and relapse. Eight conclusions were
there determined and allowed amongst the divines, which
they called verities, a copy of which they published
j throughout all Christendom.
When the ambassadors of the council were returned
from Mentz, by the commandment of the deputies, all
the masters, and doctors, and clergy were called toge-
I ther, with all the other prelates, into the chapter of the
I great church, there openly to dispute and discuss Euge-
I nius' heresy. This disputation continued sbc days,
both forenoon and afternoon, among whom Cardinal
! Lewis, archbishop of Arelata, was appointed judge and
arbiter, who, besides many other notable virtues, was
I both valiant and constant. Nicholas Amici, who was also
a protector of the faith, a famous man among the divines
of Paris, demanded of every man what their opinion was.
John Deinletist, public notary, wrote every man's sen-
tence and judgment. The conclusions of the divines,
which were the ground and foundation of their disputa-
tion, were these here following : —
1. It is a verity of the catholic faith, that the sacred
general council hath )0wer ver the pope, or any other
prelate.
2. The pope cannot by his own authority, either dis-
solve, transport, or prorogue the general councd being
lawfully congregated, without the whole consent of the
council, and this is of like verity.
3. He who doth obstinately resist these verities, Ls
to be counted an heretic.
4. Pope Eugenius IV. hath resisted these veiities,
when at the first, by the fulness of his apostolic power,
he attempted to dissolve or to transport the council of
Basil.
."). Eugenius being admonished by the sacred council,
did recant the errors repugnant to these verities.
(). The dissolution or translation of the council, at-
tempted the second time by Eugenius, is against the
aforesaid verities, and containeth an inexcusable error
touching the faith.
7. Eugenius, in going about to dissolve and transport
the council again, is fallen into his before revoked
errors.
8. Eugenius being warned by the synod that he
should revoke the dissolution or translation the second
time attempted, after that his contumacy was declared,
persevering in his rebellion, and erecting a council at
Ferraria, shewed himself thereby obstinate.
These were the conclusions which were read in the
chapterhouse before the fathers of the council. Upon
which, when they were desired to speak their minds,
they all in a manner confirmed and allowed them.
Archbishop Panormitan, however, disputed much against
them. Also the bishop of Burgen, the king of Arra-
gon's almoner. Yet they did not oppose the first three
conclusions, but only those in which Pope Eugenius was
touched. This Panormitan, as he was subtle, so did
he subtlely dispute against the late conclusions, endea-
vouring himself to declare that Eugenius was not re-
lapsed, and he had great contention with the bishop of
Argens, John Segovius, and Francis de Fuxe, divines.
The oration of Panormitan was more praised than al-
lowed of men. Yet it wrought this effect, that after-
wards this word " relapse" was taken out of the conclu-
sions, and the word " prolapse" put in. Neither durst
Panormitan himself altogether excuse Eugenius of
heresy, but defended more the first dissolution than the
second, yet he departed not without answer, for John
Segovius, an expert divine, rising up, answered him re-
verently, as was comely for such a prelate.
Segovius could scarcely finish his oration without in-
terruption ; for Panormitan, often interrupting him,
went to confute now this, and now that reason. Where-
upon the bishop of Argens rising up, a man not only
eloquent, but also of a stout courage, assailed Panormi-
tan in his reasons and arguments, and put him from his
purpose ; yet they proceeded so far, that they did not
abstain from opprobrious taunts.
When the bishop of Argens chanced to say that the
bishop of Rome ought to be the minister of the church,
Panormitan could not suffer that : insomuch that he so
forgot himself, and his knowledge (which otherwise was
great) so failed him, that he was not ashamed to say
that the pope was lord over the church. Segovius
answered, " Mark (saith he) O Panormitan, what thou
sayest ; for this is the most honourable title of the
bishop of Rome, wherein he calleth himself the ' ser-
vant of the servants of God.' Which is gathered upon
this point, when as Christ said unto his disciples, when
they demanded of him which of them was the greatest,
you know he answered them, ' The princes of the
Gentiles have rule and dominion over them, but
amongst you it is not so,' &c. Wherein he utterly pro-
hibits lordship and dominion ; and Peter, who was the
first vicar of Christ, said, ' Feed the flock of Christ
which is committed unto you, providing for them not by
compulsion, but willingly;' and immediately after he
said, ' not as lords over God's heritage.' For if Christ, the
Son of God, came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister and to serve, how then can his vicar have any
dominion, or be called lord, as you Panormitan will
affirm ? the disciple is not above his Master, nor the
servant above his Lord. And the Lord himself gaith.
348
COUNCIL OF BASIL— GREAT CONCORD THEREIN.
[Book VI.
' Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Master,
even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall
be your servant.'" Panormitan, being somewhat dis-
quieted with this answer, the council brake up and de-
parted.
The next day there was a general congregation, and
they returned all again to the chapterhouse after dinner,
where the archbisliop of Lyons, the king's orator, being
required to speak his mind, after he had proved Eugenius
to be a heretic, he bitterly complained of those that had
preferred such a man unto the papacy, and so moved all
their hearts who were present, that they altogether with
him bewailed the calamities of the universal church.
Then the bishop of Burgen, the ambassador of S])ain,
divided the conclusions into two parts ; some he called
general, and others personal, disputing very excellently
as to the three first conclusions, affirming, that he did in
no point doubt of them, but only, that the addition,
which made mention of the faith, seemed to be doubtful
to him. But upon this point he stayed much, to prove
that the council was above the pope. Which, after he
had sufficiently proved, both by God's law and man's
law, he taught it also by physical reason, alleging
Aristotle for witness. He said, " That in every well
ordered kingdom it ought esj)ecially to be desired, tiiat
the whole realm should be of more authority than tlie
king; which, if it happened otherwise, it should not be
called a kingdom but a tyranny : so likewise he thinks of
the church, that it ought to be of more authority than
the prince thereof; that is to say, the pope." His ora-
tion he uttered so eloquently, learned, and truly, that all
men depended on him, and desired to have him continue
his oration.
But when he entered into the other conclusions, he
seemed to have forgotten himself, and to be no more the
same man that he was ; for neither was tjiere the same
eloquence in his words, neither gravity in oration, or
cheerfulness of countenance ; so that if he could have
seen himself, he would peradventure greatly have mar-
velled at himself. Every man might well see and per-
ceive then the power and force of the truth, which mi-
nistered matter to him, so long as he spake in the de-
fence thereof. But when he began once to speak against
her, she took away even his natural eloquence from him.
After this there were long and heated debates about
the authority of councils, and about Pope Eugenius, and
about the sessions of the council, and certain conclu-
sions which were proposed, these discussions continued
for many days ; and it happened in them, even as in
warlike affairs ; for, as there, such as are most valiant
and strong, and do most worthy feats, obtain most fame,
as in the battle of Troy, Achilles and Hector were the
heroes : so in these spiritual wars and contentions, those
who most excel in learning and eloquence, and do more
than others, should be most renowned and named : for, on
the one part, Panormitan was prince and captain ; on the
other, Arelatensis : and when all was finally determined,
the protector also desired the sacred council, that none
should be suffered to bring any weapon to the session
which was to be held next day, as he was ready to en-
force the safe conduct of the emperor ; and, together
with the senate of the city, to prohibit all quarrels that
would lead to injury.
When the sixteenth day of May was come, all they
whom the session pleased assembled. The ambassa-
dors also of the princes were come together into the
quire of the church, to attempt further what they could
do ; and sending the bishop of Lubeck and Concense,
and the dean of Turnon, an excellent learned man, they
offered themselves to be present at the session, if the
deposing of Pope Eugenius would be deferred four
months. Who, when they had received a gentle answer
of Arelatensis and the other principals, returning again
to the ambassadors, they would only have the first con-
clusion decreed, and thereupon sent again to Arelatensis:
answer was made, " That the chief force did consist in
the two otfier conclusions, and that the council would
specially determine upon them. If the ambassadors
would not be present, they should understand, that the
coiiLord was broken by them, who would not observe
what they had ofTered." With wnich answer they de-
parted, and the session began to be celebrated. "There
was no prelate of Aragon present at it, neither out of
Spain, nor out of Italy, only the bishop of Grossetane,
and the abbot of Dona, who, for their constancy and
steadfast good will toward the universal church, could
not be changed from their purpose ; but of doctors and
other inferiors, there were a great number of Aragons,
and almost all the inferiors of Spain and Italy (for the
inferiors feared not the jirinces, as the bishops did), and
then the worthy stoutness of the Aragons and Castilians
appeared in the inferior sort, who would not shrink away
in the necessity of the church. Of the two other
nations there were only j)resent twenty bishops. The
rest lurked in their lodgings, professing the faith in their
hearts, but not in their mouths. Arelatensis seeing be-
forehand what would come to pass, caused prayers to be
made, and after j)rayers to Almiglity God, with tears
and lamentation, that he would send them his Holy
Spirit to aid and assist them, they were greatly com-
forted and encouraged. This congregation was famous,
and although tliere were not many bishops present, yet
all the seats were filled with the bishops, proctors, arch-
deacons, presidents, jiriors, priests, and doctors of both
laws, which were about the number of. four hundred or
more : amongst whom there was no noise, no chiding,
no opprobrious words or contention, but one exhorted
another to tiie profession of the faith, and there ap-
peared a full and whole consent of them all to defend
the church. The bishop of Massilia, a nobleman, read
the decree, which was attentively hearkened to, and not
one word interrupted. When it was ended, " Te Deum
laudamus" was sung with great joy and gladness, and so
the session dissolved, which was in number the thirty-
third session, and amongst all the preceding ones the
most quiet and peaceable.
The day following, being the 22d of May, the prince's
ambassadors, against all men's expectation, came to the
general! congregation, by so doing, at the least giving
their assent to the session before passed. In celebra-
ting which, if the fathers had erred, it had not been law-
ful for the princes and ambassadors to have held the
council with those fathers. But it was thought that
they were touched with remorse of conscience, and
even now detested and abhorred what they had done ; as
it was not hidden to the ambassadors of the empire and
France. For the bishop of Lubeck said, " That the
cause of his absence was, that he was appointed by the
emperor's commandment to treat for a peace : wherefore
it was not comely for him to be present at any business,
whereby he should be vexed or troubled, with whom the
peace should be treated." Notwithstanding, he did
much commend the session before held, and believed
the decree therein promulgated to be most good and
holy, and the verities therein contained to be un-
doubted; and said, " That he would stick thereto both
now and ever, even to the death." But the bishop of
Tournon, a man both learned and eloquent, speaking for
him ^d his fellows, said, " That he heard how they
were evil spoken of, in that they had not honoured their
king in that most sacred session, whom it becomes
specially to exalt and defend the faith ; who also for that
cause above all other kings was named mott christian,
notwithstanding," he said, " that they had a lawful ex-
cuse, in that it was convenient that they, who were sent
to treat peace, should do nothing whereby their ambas-
sage should be stopped or hindered."
After the bishop of Tournon had made an end, Cardi-
nal Arelatensis gave thanks unto God, who had so de-
fended his church, and after great storms and clouds had
sent fair and clear weather ; and commending the good
will of the emperor and the king of France toward the
church, he also praised the bishops of Lubeck, and Tour-
non, for that often in the council, and also of late at
Mentz, they had defended the authority of the council.
But especially he commended their present doings, that
they had openly confessed the truth, and had not sepa-
rated themselves from the faith of the church.
Afterward, entering into the declaration of the matter,
he said, that he was at Pisa and at Constance, and
A.D. 1431—1439.] COUNCIL OF BASIL.— A TERRIBLE PESTILENCE IN THE CITY.
349
never saw a more quiet or devout session than this ;
affirming that tliis decree was most necessary, to repress
the ambition of the bishops of Rome, who. exalting
themselves above the universal church, thought it lawful
to do all things after their own pleasure, and also affirm-
in"' that no one man should transport the council from
one place to another, as Eugenius attemi>ted to do, now
to Bononia, now to Florentia, then again to Bononia,
after to Ferrara, and after that again to Florentia ; and
that hereafter the bishops should withdraw their minds
from the carefulness of temporal goods ; and therefore
by how much this session was most holy and necessary, by
so much more the assent of the am))assadors was most
laudable and acceptable to all the fathers. These words thus
spoken, he rose up, and the congregation was dissolved.
Now after Pope Eugenius was deposed from the
bishopric of Rome, the principal fathers of the council,
being called together in the chapter-house of the
great church, consulted together, whether it were
expedient that a new bishop should be created at
once, or deferred for a time. Such as thought good
that the election should be done with speed, shewed
how dangerous a thing it was for such a congregation to
be without a head ; also what a pestiferous sickness was
in all the city, which not only consumed young men and
children, but also men of middle age, and old men in
like manner ; and that this plague came first by strangers
to the poor of the city, and so infected the rich, and now
was come to the fathers of the council ; exaggerating
and making the thing worse than it was. The other
party which thought that there should be a delay, said,
that the council wanted no head, for Christ was the head
thereof ; neither did lack a ruler, for it was governed by
the presidents and other officers ; and that no mention
should be made of any pestilence in such case, seeing
that to stout and strong men, death is not to be feared,
neither can any thing daunt or fear them who contend
for the christian faith. The matter being thus dis-
cussed amongst them (although there were as many
minds as there were mn), yet it seemed to them all,
that it was most profitable to choose the bishop by and
by, but most honest to defer it.
Hereupon John Segovius, a man of excellent learning,
said, " Most reverend fathers, I am drawn by various
reasons to this side and to that. But as I weigh the
matter more deeply in my mind, this is my opinion, that
to come to a speedy election seems good, to speak after
man's judgment ; but to delay it for two months, to
speak after God's judgment, seems much better. I
judge that not only the words, but also the meaning of
our decree, ought to be observed. Wherefore, if ye will
give any credit to me, follow rather dangerous honesty,
than secure utility ; although indeed utility cannot be
discerned from honesty." "This opinion of delay took
place among the fathers, and they determined to stay for
the space of two months.
In the mean time messengers were sent unto the
princes, to declare the deposition of Eugenius by the
synod, and publish it abroad.
During this time, the corrupt air was not at all
purged, but the mortality daily increasing, many died
and were sick. Whereupon a sudden fear came upon
the fathers. Nor were they sufficiently advised what
they ought to do ; for they thought it not to be without
danger, either to depart or tarry. However they
thought it good to tarry, that since they had over-
come famine, and the assaults of their enemies on
earth, they would not seem to shrink for the persecu-
tion of any plague. When the dog-days were come,
and that all herbs withered with heat, the pestilence
daily increased more and more, that it is incredible
how many died. It was horrible to see the corpses
hourly carried through the streets, when on every side
there was weeping, wailing and sighing. There was no
house void of mourning ; no mirth or laughter in any
place, but matrons bewailing their husbands, and the
husbands their wives. Men and women went through
the streets, and durst not speak one to another. Some
tarried at home, and others that went abroad had per-
fumes to smell, to preserve them against the plague.
The common people died without number ; and as in
the cold autumn the leaves of the trees do fall, e\en so
did the youths of the city consume and fall away. The
violence of the disease was such, that you might have met
a man merry in the street now, and within ten hours
heard that he had been buried. The number of the
dead corpses was such also, that they lacked place to
bury them in ; insomuch that all the church-yards were
digged up, and filled with dead corpses, and great holes
made in the parish churches, where a great number of
corpses being thrust in together, they covered them over
with earth. For which cause the fathers were so afraid,
that there appeared no blood in their faces ; and espe-
cially the sudden death of Lewis the prothonotary made
all men afraid, for he was a strong man, and flourishing
in age, and singularly learned in both laws, whom the
same envious and raging sickness took away in a few
hours. By and by, after died Lewis the patriarch of
Aquileia, a man of great age, and brought up always in
troubles and adversity, neither could he see the day of
the pope's election which he had long wished for. How-
ever, he took partly a consolation, in that he had seen
Eugenius deposed before his death. This man's death
was regretted by all the fathers ; for now they said, that
two pillars of the council were decayed and overthrown,
meaning the prothonotary and the patriarch, whereof the
one by the law, and the other with his deeds, defended
the verity of the council.
Likewise a great number of the registers and doctors
died ; and of such as fell into that disease, few or none
escaped. One among all the rest, ^neas Sylvius, being
stricken with this disease, by God's help escaped. This
man lay three days even at the point of death, all men
being in despair of him ; notwithstanding it pleased God
to grant him longer life. When the pestilence was most
fervent and hot, and that daily there died about one
hundred, there was great entreaty made to Cardinal Arela-
tensis, that he would go to some other town or village near
hand ; for these were the words of all his friends and
household, "What do you, most reverend father? At
the least avoid this wane of the moon and save yourself;
who being safe, all we shall also be safe ; if you die, we
all perish. If the plague oppress you, unto whom shall
we fly ? Who shall rule us ? Or who shall be the
guide of this most faithful flock .' The infection hath
already invaded your chamber. Your secretary and
chamberlain are already dead. Consider the great
danger, and save both yourself and us." But neither
the entreaty of his household, neither the corpses of those
which were dead could move him, he being willing rather
to preserve the council with peril of his life, than to save
his life with peril of the council ; for he knew, that if he
should depart, few would have tarried behind, and thai
deceit would have been wrought in his absence.
Wherefore, as in war the soldiers fear no danger,
when they see their captain in the midst of their ene-
mies : so the fathers of the council were ashamed to fly
from this pestilence, seeing their president to remain
with them in the midst of all dangers. Which utterly
subverted the opinion of them, who babbled abroad, that
the fathers tarried in Basil, to seek their own profit and
not the verity of the faith ; for there is no commodity
upon earth which men would change for their lives ; for
all such as serve the world, prefer it before all other
things. But these our fathers, shewing themselves an
invincible wall for the house of God, overcoming all dif-
ficulties, which this most cruel and pestiferous year
brought upon them, at length all desire of life also being
set apart, they overcame all dangers, and did not hesitate
with most constant minds to defend the verity of the
council, even to this present.
The time of the decree being passed, after the deposi-
tion of the pope, it seemed good to the fathers to pro-
ceed to the election of another bishop. And first ot all,
they nominated those that together with the cardinals,
should elect the pope. The first and principal of the
electors, was the Cardinal Arelatensis, a man of invinci-
ble constancy, and incomparable wisdom ; to whose vir-
tue may justly be ascribed whatever was done in the
council ; for without him, the prelates had not perse-
350 COUNCIL OF BASIL.— ELECTION OF POPE IN THE ROOM OF EUGENIUS. [Book VI.
vered in their purpose, neither could the shadow of any
prince have so defended them. Tliis man came not to
the election by any favour or denomination, but by his
own proper right. The rest of the electors were chosen
out of the Italian, French, German, and Spanish nations,
and their cells and chambers appointed to them by lots,
without respect of dignity or person, and as the lots
fell, so were they placed ; whereby it chanced a doctor
to have the highest place, and a bishop the last.
The next day after there was a session held ; Marcus a
famous divine, made an oration to the electors ; he reck-
oned up the manifold crimes of Pope Eu^^nius, who wis
deposed. He endeavoured to persuade the electors u)
choose such a man, as should in all points be contrary
to Eugenius, and eschew all his vices; that as he, through
his manifold reproaches, was hurtful to all men, so
be who should be chosen, should shew himself acceptable
to ail men.
There was so great a number of people gathered toge-
ther to behold this matter, that neither in the church,
nor in the streets, could any man pass. There was pre-
sent, John earl of Dierstein, who supplied the place of
the emperor's protector ; also the senators of the city,
■with many other noblemen, to behold the same. The
citizens were without in arms, to take care that there
should be no uproar. The electors received the commu-
nion together, and afterwards they received their oath ;
and the Cardinal Arelatensis, opening the book of de-
crees, read the form of the oath in the audience of all
men, and first of all, he taking the oath himself, began
in this manner :
" Most reverend fathers, I promise, swear, and vow
before my Lord Jesus Christ (whose most blessed body
I unworthy sinner have received, unto whom in the last
judgment, I shall give an account of all my deeds) that
in tliis business of election, whereto now by the will of
the council we are sent, I will seek nothing else, but only
tlie salvation of the christian jieople, and the profit of
the universal church. This shall be my whole care and
study, that the authority of the general councils be not
contemned, that the catholic faitli be not impugned, and
that the fatliers who remain in the council be not op-
pressed. «il'his will I seek for : this shall be my care ; to
this, with all my whole force and power, will I bend ray-
self ; neither will I respect any thing in this point,
either for mine own cause, or for any friend, but only
God, and the profit of the church. With this mind and
intent, and with this heart, will I take mine oath before
the council."
His words were lively and fearful. After him all the
other electors in their order, did swear and take their
oath : then they went with great solemnity unto the
conclave, where they remained seven days. The manner
of their election was in this sort. Before the cardinals'
seat was set a desk, whereupon there stood a bason of
silver, into the which bason all the electors did cast their
schedules ; which the cardinal receiving, read one by
one, and four other of the electors wrote as he read
them.
The tenor of the schedules was in this manner : " I
George, bishop of Vicenza, do choose such a man, or
sucii a man for bishop of Rome," and peradventure named
one or two ; every one of the electors subscribed his
name to the schedule, that he might thereby knov/ his own,
and say nay, if it were contrary to that which was spoken ;
wliercby all deceit was utterly excluded. The first scru-
tiny thus ended, it was found that there were many named
to the papacy ; yet none had sufficieiit voices, for that
day there were seventeen of different nations nominated.
Notwithstanding, Amedeus duke of Savoy, a man of sin-
gular virtue, surmounted them all ; for in the first scru-
tiny he had the voice of sixteen electors, which judged
him worthy to govern the church.
After this, tliere was a diligent incpiisition had in the
council touching those who were named of the electors,
and as every man's opinion served him, he either praised
or discommended those who were nominated. But
there was such report made of Amedeus, that in the next
scrutiny, which was held in the nones of November,
Amedeus had Iwenty-oue voices, and in the third and
fourth scrutiny, twenty-one voices. And as there was
none found in all the scrutiny to have two parts, all the
other schedules were burnt. And as there lacked but
only one voice to the election of the high bishop, they
fell to prayer, desiring God that he would vouchsafe to
direct their minds to an unity and concord, worthily to
elect and choose him who should take the charge over
the flock of God. As Amedeus seemed to be nearer
unto the papacy than all others, there was great commu-
nication had among them, touching his life and disposi-
tion. Some said that a layman ought not so suddenly
♦:o be chosen ; for it would seem a strange tiling, for a
secu.a." prince to be called to the bishopric of Rome ;
which would also too much derogate from the ecclesias-
tical state, as though there were none therein meet or
worthy for that dignity. Others said. That a man
who was married and had children, was unmeet for such
a charge. Others again affirmed, that the bishop of
Rome ought to be a doctor of law, and an excellent
learned man. "*p
When these words were spoken, others rising up,
spake far otherwise ; that although Amedeus was no
doctor, yet was he learned and wise, as all his whole
youth he had bestowed in learning and study, and liad
sought not the name, but even the ground of learning.
Then said another, " If ye be desirous to be instructed
further of this prince's life, I pray you give ear to me,
who know him thoroughly. Truly this man from liis
youth upward, and even from his young and tender
years, has lived more religiously than secularly, being
always obedient to his parents and masters, and being
always indued with the fear of God, never given to any
vanity or wantonness ; neither has there at any time
been any child of the house of Savoy, in whom lias ap-
peared greater wit or towardness ; whereby all those
who did behold and know this man, judged and foresaw
some great matter in him ; neither were they deceived.
For if ye desire to know his rule and government, what
and how noble it has been ; first, know ye this, that this
man has reigned since his father's decease, about forty
years.
" During whose time, justice, the lady and queen of
all other virtues, has always flourished: for he, hearing
his subjects himself, would never suffer the poor to be
opyiressed, or the weak to be deceived. He was the
defender of the fatherless, the advocate of the widows,
and protector of the poor. There was no rapine or
robbery in all his territory. The poor and rich lived all
under one law, neither was he burthenous to his sub-
jects, or importune against strangers throughout all bis
country ; there were no grievous exactions of money
throughout all his dominion. He thought himself rich
enough, if the inhabitants of his dominions did abound
and were rich ; knowing that it was the point of a good
shepherd to shear his sheep, and not to devour them.
In this also was his chief study and care, that his sub-
jects might live in peace, and such as bordered upon
him, might have no occasion of grudge.
" By which policies he did not only quietly govern his
father's dominions, but also augmented the same by
others, who willingly submitted themselves unto him.
He never made war upon any, but resisting against such
as made war upon him, he studied rather to make peace
than to seek any revenge, desiring rather to overcome
his enemies with benefits, than vrith the sword. He
married only one wife, who was a noble maiden, and of
singular beauty and virtue. He would have all his
family to live virtuously, and throughout all his house,
honesty and integrity of manners was observed. When
his wife had departed this life, and he perceived his
duchy to be established, and that it would come without
any controversy to his posterity, he declared his mind,
which was always religious, and dedicated to God, and
shewed what will and affection he had long borne in his
lieart. For he contemning the pomp and state of this
world, calling to him his dear friends, departed and
went into a wilderness ; where building a goodly abbey,
he addicted himself wholly to the service of God, and
taking his cross upon him, followed Christ. In which
place he being conversant by the space of many years,
A. D. 1439.] AMEDEUS, DUKE OF SAVOY, ELECTED POPE UNDER THE NAME OF FELIX V. 351
shewed forth great examples of holiness, wearing no
other garments but such as could withstand the cold,
neither using any kind of dainty fare, but only to resist
hunger, watching and praying the most part of tlie
night. Wherefore this prince is not newly come to the
church (as some suppose), but being a christian, born of
proo'enitors who have been christians a thousand years
and^more, doth now serve God in a monastery.
" But as to that which is spoken concerning a wife, I
do not regard it ; when not he only who has had a wife,
but he also who has a wife may be elected and chosen
pope. For why do the doctors dispute, whether a mar-
ried man chosen pope, ought to continue to live with
his wife, but only because a married man might be re-
ceived and chosen ? For as you know well enough,
there were many popes that had wives ; and Peter also
was not without a wife. But what do we stand about
this ? For peradventure, it had been better that more
priests had been married ; for many would be saved
through marriage, who are now damned through their
single life. But hereof we will speak in another
place. I pray you, choose this man. He will augment
the faith, he will reform manners, and preseiTe the
authority of the church. Have ye not heard these
troubles of the church to have been before spoken of,
and that the time now present should be an end of all
troubles ? Have ye not heard that about this time there
should a pope be chosen which should comfort Zion,
and set all things in peace ? And who, I pray you,
should he be that could fulfil these things except we
choose this man ? Believe me, these sayings must be
fulfilled, and I tnist that God will move your minds
thereto. Notwithstanding, do whatever you shall think
most good and holy."
WTien he had spoken these words, the greatest num-
ber of the electors seemed to consent to him, and his
words took such effect, that in the next scrutiny the
matter was finished and ended, and when the scrutiny
was opened, it was found that Amedeus, the most de-
vout duke of Savoy, according to the decree of the
council, was chosen pope. Wherefore suddenly there
was great joy and gladness among them, and all men
highly commended their doings. Then the Cardinal Arela-
tensis published the name of the elect bishop. After
this all the prelates in their pontifical robes and mitres,
and all the clergy of the city coming unto the conclave,
the electors being likewise adorned, they brought him to
the great church, where after great thanks given to God,
and the election again declared to the people, a hymn
being sung for joy, the congregation was dissolved.
This Amedeus was a man of reverend age, of comely
stature, of grave and discreet behaviour ; also before
married. Who thus being elected pope about November,
was called Felix V., and was crowned in the city of
Basil, in the month of July. There was present at his
coronation, Levris, duke of Savoy ; Philip, Earl Gebe-
nensis ; Lewis, marquis of Salutz ; the marquis of
Rotelen ; Conrad of Winsperg, chamberlain of the
empire ; the earl of Dierstein ; the ambassadors of the
cities of Strasburgh, Berne, Friburgh, Solatorn, with a
great multitude of others beside, to the number of fifty
thousand persons. At this coronation, the pope's two
sons served and ministered to their father. Lewis,
cardinal of Hostia, set on his head the pontifical dia-
dem, which was esteemed at thirty thousand crowns.
It were too long here to recite the whole order and solem-
nity of the procession of the pope's riding about the
city. First proceeded the pope under his canopy of
cloth of gold, having on his head a triple crown, and
blessing the people as he went. By him went the mar-
quis of Rotelen and Conrad of Winsperg, leading his horse
by the bridle. The procession finished, they went to
dinner, which lasted four full hours, being excessively
sumptuous ; where the pope's two sons were butlers to
his cup ; the marquis of Salutz was the steward, &c.
Of this Felix, Volaterane in his third book thus writes,
that he being asked by certain of the ambassadors, if
he had any dogs or hounds, to shew them ; he desired
them the next day to repair unto him, and he would
shew them such as he had. When the ambassadorg,
according to the appointment were come, he shewed to
them a great number of poor peojile and beggars sitting
at his tables at meat, declaring that those were his
hounds, which he every day used to feed, hunting with
them (he trusted) for the glory of heaven to come.
And thus you have heard the state of this council
hitherto, which council endured a long season, the space
of seventeen years.
About the sixth year of the council, Sigismund the
emperor died, leaving but one daughter to succeed him
in his kingdoms, whom he had married to Albert, the
second duke of Austria, who first succeeded in the
kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, a sore adversary to
the Boliemians, and afterwards was made emperor,
A. D. 14.'58, and reigned emperor but two years, leaving
his wife, who was Sigismund's daughter, great w^ith
child. After which Albert, his brother Frederick, the
third duke of Austria, succeeded in the empire, &c.
And having thus far proceeded in the matters of this
council, until the election of Amedeus, called pope
Felix v., before we prosecute the rest, order requires to
intermix the matters concluded between this council and
the Bohemians.
The Bohemians then were invited to Basil, where the
council was appointed ; and having, after much delay,
and some treaty, procured a safe conduct from the coun-
cil, from the princes, and from the city of Basil, they
appeared by their ambassadors, and addressed the
council.
Then Rochezanus made an oration, requiring to have
a day appointed when they should be heard, which was
appointed the sixteenth day of the same month. Upon
which day John Rochezanus, having made his preface,
began to propound the first article, touching the com-
munion to be ministered vmder both kinds, and disputed
upon the same for the space of three days always before
noon. Then Wenceslaus, the Taborite, disputed upon
the second article, touching the correction and punish-
ing of sin, for the space of two days. After whom Ulde-
ric, priest of the Orphans, propounded and disputed
upon the third article, for the space of two days, touch-
ing the free preaching of the word of God.
Last of all, Peter Pain, an Englishman, disputed three
days upon the fourth article, touching the civil dominion
of the clergy, arid afterward gave copies cf their disputa-
tions in writing to the council, with hearty thanks that
they were heard. The three last did somewhat inveigh
against the council for condemning John Huss and John
Wickliff" for their doctrine. Whereupon John de Ra-
gusso, a divine, rising up, desired that he might have
leave to answer in his own name, to the first article of
the Bohemians. The council consented, so that for the
space of eight days in the forenoon, he disputed there-
upon. But before he began to answer, John, the Abbot
of Sistertia, made an oration to the Bohemians, that
they should submit themselves to the determination of
the holy church, which this council represents. This
matter did not a little offend the Bohemians. John
Ragusinus, a divine, after scholars' fashion, in his an-
swer spake often of heresies and heretics. Procopius
could not suffer it, but rising up with an angry spirit,
complained openly to the council of this injury. " This
our countryman, (saith he,) does us great injury, calling
us oftentimes heretics." Ragusinus answered: "As I
am your countryman both by tongue and nation, I do the
more desire to reduce you again unto the church." It
came almost to this point, that through this offence the
Bohemians would depart from Basil, and could scarcely
be appeased. Certain of the Bohemians would not hear
Ragusinus finish his disputation.
After him a famous divine, one Egidius Carlerius,
dean of the church of Cambray, answered to the second
article, for the space of four days. To the third article
answered one Henry, three days together. Last of all,
one John Polomarius answered to the fourth article,
likewise for the space of three days, so that the long
time which they used in disputations seemed tedious to
the Bohemians. Notwithstanding this answer, the Bo-
hemians still defended their articles, and especially the
A A
352
COUNCIL OF BASIL.— ON THE COMMUNION.
rBooK VI.
first, insomuch as John Rochezanus did strongly im-
pugn Ragusinus's answer, for the space of six days. But
as one disputation bred another, and it was perceived
how that by this means no concord could be made ; the
Prince William, duke of Bavaria, protector of the
council, attempted another remedy, that all disputations
being set aside, the matter should be friendly debated.
There were certain appointed on either part to treat
upon the concord, who coining together the eleventh day
of March, those who were appointed for the council,
were demanded to say their minds. " It seemed good,"
said they, " if these men would be united unto us, arid
be made one body with us, that this body might then ac-
cord, and declare and determine all manner of diversities
of opinions and sects, what is to be believed or done in
them."
The Bohemians, when they had a while paused, said,
" This way seems not apt enough, except first of all
the four articles were exactly discussed, so that either
we should agree with them, or they with us : for other-
wise it would be but a frivolous matter, if they being
now united, again disagree in the deciding of the arti-
cles." Here answer was made to the Bohemians,
" That if they were rightly united, and the aid of the
Holy Ghost called for, they would not err in the decid-
ing of the matter, as every christian ought to believe
that determination, which, if they would do, it would
breed a most firm and strong concord and amity on
either part." But this answer satisfied them not, so
that the other three rose up, and disputed against the
answers which were given. At that time Cardinal
Julian, president of the council, made this oration unto
the Bohemian ambassadors.
"This sacred synod,'' said he, "has now for the
space of ten days patiently heard the propositions of
your four articles." And afterward he annexed, "You
have propounded," saith he, " four articles, but we un-
derstand that, beside these four, you have many other
strange doctrines, wherein ye dissent from us. Where-
fore it is necessary, if a perfect unity and fraternity shall
follow between us, that all these things be declared in
the council, to the end that by the grace of the Holy
Ghost, which is the author of peace and truth, due pro-
vision may be made therein. Wherefore we desire you,
that you will certify us upon these and certain other
points, what you do believe, or what credit you give to
them. But we do not require, that you should now
declare your reasons, but it shall satisfy us, if you will
answer unto every article by this word : ' We believe
or believe not.' Which if you will do (as we trust you
will) then we shall perceive that you desire that we
should conceive a good estimation of you. If there be
any thing whereof you would be certified by us, ask it
boldly, and we will give you an answer out of hand ;
for we are ready, according to the doctrine of St. Peter,
to render account unto every man which shall require it,
touching the faith which we hold." Hereto the Bohe-
mian ambassadors answered in few words, " That they
came only to propound those four articles, not in their
own name, but in the name of the whole kingdom of
Bohemia," and spake no more. Whereupon William,
the noble protector of the council, calling upon four
men on either part, treated touching the pacifying the
matter, by whose advice the council decreed to send a
famous amhassage with the Bohemian ambassadors, to
Prague, where the people should assemble upon Sunday.
But they would not receive these conditions of peace
which were offered, but made haste to depart. Where-
upon on the fourteenth day of April, there were ten
chosen out of the council, to go with the Bohemian am-
bassadors unto Prague.
After the coming of those ambassadors, much conten-
tion began to rise between the parties. First began John
Rochezanus, who speaking in the public person of the
commonalty, laboured to commend and prefer the four
verities of the Bohemians before propounded ; charging
also the prelates and priests for their slanderous and un-
deserved contumelies wherewith they did defame the
noble kingdom of Bohemia, complaining also that they
would not receive those christian verities, left and
allowed by their king. Wenceslaus, now departed.
Wherefore he required them in the behalf of the whole
nation, that they would leave off hereafter to oppress
them in such sort, that they would restore to them again
their Joseph's vesture, that is, the ornament of their
good fiime and name, whereof their brethren, their
enemies, had spoiled them, &c.
To this Polomar makes answer again, with a long and
curious oration, exhorting them to peace and unity of
the church, which, if they would embrace, all other ob.
stacles and impediments (said he) should be soon re-
moved, promising also, that this their vesture of honour
and fame should be amply restored again ; and after-
ward, if there were any doubtful matters, they might
and should be the better discussed.
But all this pleased not the Bohemians, unless they
might first have a declaration of their four articles,
which, if they might obtain, they promised then to em-
brace peace and concord. Which peace (said they) be-
gan first to be broken by themselves, in that the council
of Constance, by their unjust condemnation, burned
John Huss, and Jerome of Prague ; and also by their
cruel bulls and censures, raised up first excommunica-
tion, then war against the whole kingdom of Bohemia.
When the ambassadors saw the matter could not
otherwise be settled, they required to have those articles
delivered to them in a certain form, which they sent to
the council by three Bohemian ambassadors.
Afterward the council sent a declaration into Bohemia,
to be published by the ambassadors, which were com-
manded to report unto the Bohemians, in the name of
the council, that if they would receive the declaration of
those three articles, and the unity of the church, there
should be a means found whereby the matter touching
the fourth article, of the communion under both kinds,
should be passed with peace and quietness.
After the Bohemians had taken deliberation, they
said, " That they would give no answer before they un-
derstood what should be offered them as touching the
communion." Wherefore, it was necessary to declare
the matter, as it was written in form following : —
" In the name of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,
upon the sacrament of whose most blessed last supper
we shall treat, that he who hath instituted this most
blessed sacrament of unity and peace, will vouchsafe to
work this effect in us, and to make us that we may be
one in the Lord Jesus our Head, and that he will sub-
vert all the subtleties of the devil, who, through his en-
vious craftiness, hath made the sacrament of peace and
unity an occasion of war and discord ; that, while chris-
tians do contend, touching the manner of communicat-
ing, they be not deprived of the fruit of communion.
This was thought good above all things to be premised,
that the general custom of the church, which your
fathers and you also in times past have observed, hath a
long time had and still useth, that they who do not con-
secrate, communicate only under the kind of bread.
Which custom being lawfully brought in by the church
and holy fathers, and now a long time observed, it is
not lawful to reject, or to change at your will and plea-
sure, without the authority of the church. Therefore, to
change the custom of the church, and to take in hand to
communicate unto the people under both kinds, without
the authority of holy church, is altogether unlawful.
For holy church, upon reasonable occasions, may grant
liberty unto the people to communicate under both
kinds. And every communion, which, being attempted
without the authority and license of the church, should
be unlawful ; when it is done with the authority of holy
church, shall be lawful, if other things prevent it not ;
because, as the apostle saith, ' He that eateth and drink -
eth unworthily, eateth and drinketh his own damnation. '
" Moreover, doctors do say, that the custom of com-
municating to the people, only under the kind of bread,
was reasonably introduced by the church and holy
fathers, for reasonable causes, specially for the avoiding
of two perils — of error and irreverence. Of error, as to
think that the one part of Christ's body were in the
bread, and the other part in the cup, which were a great
A. D. 1439.]
COUNCIL OF BASIL.- PETITIONS OF THE BOHEMIANS.
;«5
error. Of irreverence, as many things may happen, as
well on the part of the minister, as on the part of the re-
ceiver : as it is said, that it happened when a certain
priest carried the sacrament of the cup unto a sick man,
when he should have ministered, he found nothiiiG; in the
cup, being all spilt by the way, with many other such
like chances. We have heard, moreover, that it hath
often happened that the sacrament consecrated in the
cup has not been sufficient for the number of conimuni-
cants, whereby a new consecration must be made, which
ii not agreeable to the doctrine of tlie holy fathers, and
also that oftentimes they minister wine unconsecrated for
consecrated wine, which is a great peril. By this means,
when it shall be brought to pass, that if you will effec-
tually receive the unity and peace of the church in all
other things besides the use of the communion under
both kinds, conforming yourselves to the faith and order
of the universal church, you that have that use and
custom shall comraiinicate still by the authority of the
church under both kinds, and this article shall be dis-
cussed fully in the sacred council, where you shall see
what as touching this article, is to be holden as a uni-
versal verity, and is to be done for the profit and salva-
tion of the christian people, and all things being thus
thoroughly handed, then if you persevere in your desire,
and that your ambassadors do require it, the sacred
council will grant licence in the Lord to your ministers,
to communicate to the people under both kinds, that is
to say, to such as be of lawful years and discretion, and
shall reverently and devoutly require the same ; this al-
ways observed, that the ministers shall say to those
who shall communicate, that they ought firmly to be-
lieve, ' not the flesh only to be contained under the
form of bread, and the blood only under the wine, but
under each kind to be whole and perfect Christ.' "
Thus, hitherto we have declared the decree of the
council. As to the other questions, a concord and unity
was concluded and confirmed by setting to their hands.
The Bohemians jiromised to receive the peace and unity
of the church, and the declaration of the three articles.
This was done in the year 1438.
At the last the concord was confirmed by writing with
their seals at Inglavia, a city of Moravia, the fifth day
of July, in the presence of the emperor.
Certain petitions which the Bohemians put up last of all
in the sacred council of Basil, A. D. 1438, m the
month of November.
•• To the most reverend fathers in Christ, and our
most gracious lords : we the ambassadors of the king-
dom of Bohemia do most humbly and heartUy require
you that for the perpetual preservation of peace and
concord, and for the firm preservation of all things
contained in the composition, you will vouchsafe of your
clemency to give and grant uuto us all and singular our
requests here underwritten, with eflFectual execution of
the same.
" First, and above all things we desire and require
you, for the extirpation of divers dissensions and con-
troversies which will undoubtedly follow amongst our
people under the diversity of the communion, and for
the abolishing of infinite evils which we are not able to
express as we have conceived them, that you wiU gently
vouchsafe of your goodness and liberality to give, grant,
and command, unto our kingdom of Bohemia, and mar-
quisdom of Moravia, one uniform order of the commu-
nion unto all men, under both kinds, that is to say, unto
the archbishop of Prague, the bishop of Luthonus, 01-
mutz, and other prelates of the kingdom and marquis-
dom, having charge of souls, and to their vicars, and
also to their flocks and subjects, and that according to
those things which are contained in the bull of the am-
bassadors, and in the compositions made in the name of
the whole council, written in the chapter, pro firmitate,
where it is thus said, ' And all other things shall be
done, which shall be meet and necessary for the preser-
Tation of the peace and unitv.' For this done, by your
benefit the whole kingdom shall be comforted above
measure, and established in brotherly love ; whereby an
uniform subjection and obedience shall be perpetually
attributed unto the holy church.
" Also, we require and desire (as before) that for the
avoiding of all suspicion and doubtfulness of many, who
su])pose that the sacred council hfs granted the commu-
nion under both kinds to us but for a time, as neither
profitable nor wholesome, but as the writing of divorce-
ment ; that you will vouchsafe, wholesomely and speedily
to provide for our saft-ty. and with your grant in this be-
half, and with the bulls in your letters, to confirm that
chapter, together with the other pertaining to the office
of your ambassadors.
" Also, we beseech you (as before) that for the con-
firmation of obedience, and for the discipline of all the
clergy, and for the final defence and observation of all
things determined and agreed upon, and for the good
order in spiritualties, ye will vouchsafe effectually to
provide for us a good and lawful pastor, archbishops and
bishops, who shall seem to us most meet and acceptable
for our kingdom, to execute those offices and duties.
" Also, we require you that your fatherly reverences
wUI vouchsafe, for the defence of the worthy fame of the
kingdom and marquisdom, to declare and shew our inno-
cency, in that they have communicated, do, and here-
after shall communicate under both kinds ; to give out,
ordain, and direct the letters of the sacred council, in
manner and form most apt and meet for such declara-
tion, to all princes, as well secular as spiritual, cities and
commonalties, according to the compositions, and as the
lords the ambassadors are bound to us to do.
" Also, we desire you that in the discussing of the
matter for the communion under both kinds, and of the
commandment given to aU faithful, ye will not proceed
otherwise than according to the Concordatum agreed
upon in Egra : that is to say, according to the law of
God, the order of Christ, and his apostles, the general
councils, and the minds of the holy doctors, truly
grounded upon the law of God.
" Also, we desire that your fatherly reverences, con-
sidering the great affection of our people, will give us-
the desired liberty to communicate to the younger sort
the sacrament of the supper. For if this use of commu-
nicating should be taken away, which our kingdom being
godly, moved by the writings of most great and holy
doctors, and brought in by example, has received as
catholic, and exercised now a long time ; verily it would
raise \ip an intolerable offence among the people, and
their minds would be grievously vexed and troubled.
" Also, we require you (as before) that for like causes
your fatherly reverences would vouchsafe to permit, at
the least the gospels, epistles, and creed, to be sung and
read in the church in our vulgar tongue, before the
people, to move them to devotion ; for in our language
it has been used of old in the church, and likewise in
our kingdom.
" Also, we require you in the name of the said king-
dom, and of the famous university of Prague, that your
fatherly reverences would vouchsafe to shew such dili-
gence and care toward the desired reformation of that
university, that according to the manner and form of
other universities reformed by the church, prebends and
collations of certain benefices of cathedral and parish
churches may be annexed and incorporated into the said
university, that thereby it may be increased and pre-
ferred.
" Also, we desire you (as before) as heartily as we
may, and also (saving always your fatherly reverences)
require you, and by the former compositions we most
instantly admonish you; that with your whole minds and
endeavours, and with all care and study, your reverences-
will watch and seek for that long desired and most
necessary reformation of the church and christian reli-
gion, and effectually labour for the rooting out of all
public evils, as well in the head as in the members, as
you have often promised to do in our kingdom, in the
compositions, and as our fourth article, touching tiia
avoiding of all Tjublic evib exacts and requires."
^M
COUNCIL OF BASIL DISSOLVED.— EPISTLE OF yENEAS SYLVIUS.
LBooK VL
Tliere were certain answers provided by the council to
these petitions of the Bohemians, which were not de-
livered to them, but kept back, for what purpose and
intent we know not. Wherefore because we thought
thern not greatly necessary for this place, and also to
avoid prolixity, we have judged it meet to omit them.
Thus have ye heard compendiously the chief and prin-
cipal matters treated of and done in this famous council
of Basil.
Concerning the authority of this general council of
Basil, what is to be thought of it, may be learned by all
good men by the acts and fruits of it. Neither was it
doubted by any man in the beginning, so long as the pope
agreed and consented to it. But after the pope began
to draw back, many others followed, especially of the
richer sort of prelates, who had anything to lose. In
the number of those inconstant prelates was Cardinal
Julian, the first collector of this council, and vicar-
general of the pope, as by his fervent and vehement let-
ter, written to Pope Eugenius in defence of this council
appears. In it he most earnestly expostulates with Pope
Eugenius, for seeking to dissolve the council, and de-
clares many causes, why he should rather rejoice, and
give God thanks for the godly proceedings and joyful
agreement between the council and the Bohemians, and
so exhorts him with many persuasions to resort to the
council himself, and not to seek its dissolution.
In like manner ^neas Sylvius also, with his own
hand-writing, not only gave testimony to the authority
of this council, but also bestowed his labour and pains
in setting forth the whole history of it. Notwithstand-
ing Sylvius afterward being made pope, with his new
honour, altered and changed his old opinion. His
epistle, touching the commendation of the council, be-
cause it is but short, I thought here, for satisfying the
reader's mind, to insert : —
An Epistle of ^neas St/lrius to the Rector of the
University of Cologne.
" To a christian man, which will be a true christian
indeed, nothing ought to be more desired, than that the
sincerity and pureness of faith, given to us of Christ by
our forefathers, be kept of all men immaculate. And if
at any time anything be wrought or attempted against
the true doctrine of the gospel, the people ought with
one consent to provide lawful remedy, and eveiy man
to bring with him some water to quench the general
fire ; neither must we fear how we be hated or envied, so
we bring the truth. We must resist every man to his
face, whether he be Paul or Peter, if he walk not di-
rectly to the truth of the gospel. Which thing I am
glad, and so are we all, to hear that your university
has done in this council of Basil. For a certain treatise
of yours is brought here to us, wherein you reprehend
the rudeness, or rather the rashness of such, as deny the
bishop of Rome, and the consistory of his judgment,
to be subject to the general council ; and that the su-
preme tribunal seat of judgment stands in the church,
and in no one bishop. Such men as deny this, you so
confound with lively reasons and truth of the scriptures,
that they are neither able to slide away like slippery
eels, neither to cavil or bring any objection against
you."
The deposed Pope Eugenius, not acknowledging the
acts of deposition, called a council at Florence, and in
the meantime prevailed on the French king to make war
on the council of Basil. The dauphin was defeated, but
the council was at last dissolved.
As these things were doing at Basil, Pope Eugenius
brought to pass in his convocation at Florence, that
the emperor and tlie patriarch of Constantinople, with
the rest of the Greeks there present, were persuaded to
receive the sentence of the church of Rome, concerning
the proceeding of the Holy Ghost ; also to receive the
communion in unleavened bread, to admit purgatory,
and to yield themselves to the authority of the Romish
bishop. To which, however, the churches of Greece
would in no wise assent at their coming home, so that
with a public anathema they condemned all those le-
gates who had consented to these articles, that none of
them should be buried in christian burial. (A.D. 1439.)
And thus endeth the history, both of the council of 'j
Basil and of the council of Florence, also of the emperor
Sigismund, and of the schism between Pope Eugenius
and Pope FeUx, (who was induced to resign the popedom
to the successor of Eugenius,) and also of the Bohe-
mians. The Bohemians, notwithstanding all these
troubles and tumults, did right well, and were strong
enough against all their enemies, till at length through
discord, partly between the two preachers of the old
and new city of Prague, partly also through the discord
of the messengers and captains taking sides one against
the other, they made their enemies strong, and en-
feebled themselves. However they so defended the
cause of their religion, not by sword, but by argument
and disputation, that the bishop of Rome could never, nor
yet to this day remove the Taborites and city of Prague
from the communion of both kinds, nor could ever
cause them to keep the conditions, which in the be-
ginning of the council were enjoined their priests to
observe.
During this business beyond the sea, our bishops here
in England were not unoccuined. Whether it be the na-
ture of the country, or the great livings and wealthy pro-
motions of the clergy that influences them, it is certain
that in TSngland there is more burning and slaying for re-
ligion, and for all other matters more bloodsned among
us, than in any other land or nation in Christendom be-
sides. After the burning of Richard Hoveden, of Nicho-
las Canon, and of Thomas Bagley, priest, above re-
corded, whom the bishops condemned to death (A.D,
1431), not long after, about A.D. 1439, which was
the seventeenth of the reign of King Henry VI., they had
another poor man, named Richard Wiche, priest, who
was first degraded, then burnt at Tower-hill for heresy.
After the burning of this man, a convocation was,
called by Henry, archbishop of Canterbury, wherein waa
propounded among the clergy, to consult what way were'
best for the removing away the law of Premuniri facias s
for so were the hearts then of the temporalty set against'
the ecclesiastical sort, that where any vantage might be
given them by the law, they did spare nothing ; by rea-
son of which the churchmen at that time were greatly;
molested by the law of Premuniri, and by the king's
writs, and other indictments. By long consultation and
good advisement, at last this way was taken, that a peti-
tion or supplication should be drawn and presented to
the king, for the abolishing of the law of Premuniri
facias, and also for the restraining of other briefs, writs,
and indictments, which seemed then to lie heavy upon
the clergy. This bill or supplication being contrived and
exhibited by the archbishops of Canterbury and of York
to the king, when he was standing in need of a subsidy to
be collected of the clergy ; this answer was given to their
supplication, on the king's behalf ; that forsomuch as
the time of Christmas drew near, whereby he had as
yet no sufficient leisure to advise upon the matter, he
would take therein a farther pause. In the meantime,
as one tendering their quiet, he would send to all his of-
ficers and ministers within his realm, that no such brief
of Preyminiri should pass against them, or any of them,
from the said time of Christmas, till the next parliament,
A.D. 1439.
The Invention of Printing.
In following the course of years, we find this year of
our Lord, 14.')0, to be famous and memorable, for the
divine and miraculous inventing of printing. Naucle-
rius, and Wymselingus following him, refer the inven-
tion to A. D. 1440. " Others refer it to A.D. 144(;, and
1450. The first inventor is thought to be a German,
dwelling first in Strasburg, afterwards citizen of Mentz,
named John Faustus, a goldsmith. The occasion of tl.is
invention was by engraving the letters of the alphabet
in metal, then laying black ink uponthe metal, it gave
the form of letters in paper. The man being industri-
ous and active, thought to proceed further, and to trj
A.D. 1440.J
THE INVENTION OF THE ART OF PRINTING.
355
whether it would frame as well in words, and in whole
sentences, as it did in letters : and when he perceived it
did so, he acquainted one John Guttemberg, and Peter
Schafferd, binding them by their oath to keep silence
for a season. After ten years, John Guttemberg, co-
partner with Faustus, began then first to broach the
matter at Strasburg. The art, being yet but rude, in
process of time was advanced by various men of inven-
tive genius, adding more and more to the perfection of
it. In the number of whom, John Mentel, John Pruss,
Adolphus Ruschius, were great helpers. Ulricus Han,
in Latin called Gallus, first brought it to Rome.
However, whatever man was the instrument, with-
out all doubt God himself was the ord;iiner and disposer
thereof, no otherwise, than he was of the gift of tongues,
and that for a similar purpose. And well may this
gift of printing be resembled to the gift of tongues ; for
as God then spake with many tongues, and yet all that
would not turn the Jews ; so now, when the Holy Ghost
speaks to the adversaries in innumerable sorts of books,
yet they will not be converted, nor turn to the gospel.
Now to consider to what end and purpose the Lord
hath given this gift of printing to the earth, and to what
great utility and necessity it serves, is not hard to
judge.
And first, touching the time of this invention being
given to man, this is to be observed, that when the
bishop of Rome, with all the whole and full consent of the
cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors,
lawyers, doctors, provosts, deans, archdeacons, assem-
bled together in the council of Constance, had con-
demned poor John Huss and Jerome of Prague to death
for heresy, though they were no heretics, and after they
had subdued the Bohemians and all the whole world
under the supreme authority of the Romish see ; and had
made all christian people obedient and vassals, having,
as one would say, all the world at their will, so that the
matter now was past,not only the power of all men, but the
hope also of any man to be recovered : in this very time
so dangerous and desperate, where man's power could
do no more, then the blessed wisdom and omnipotent
power of the Lord began to work for his church, not
with sword and target to subdue his exalted adversary,
but with printing, writing, and reading to convince
darkness by light, error by truth, ignorance by learning.
So that by this means of printing, the secret operation
of God has heaped upon that proud kingdom a double
confusion. For, whereas the bishop of Rome had
burned John Huss before, and Jerome of Prague, who
neither denied his transubstantiation, nor his supremacy,
nor yet his popish mass, but said mass, and heard mass
themselves, neither spake against his purgatory, nor any
other great matter of his popish doctrine, but only ex-
claimed against his excessive and pompous pride, his
unchristian or rather antichristian abomination of life :
thus while he could not abide his wickedness of life
.|& be touched, but made it heresy, or, at least matter of
death, whatever was spoken against his detestable conver-
sation and manners, God of his secret judgment, seeing
time to help his church, has found a way by this art of
printing, not only to confound his life and conversation,
which before he could not abide to be toi'ched, but also
to cast down the foundation of his sfai^ding, that is, to
examine, confute, and detect his toost detestable doc-
. trine, laws, and institutions in such sort, that though his
life were never so pure, yet his doctrine standing as it
does, no man is so blind but he may see, that either the
pope is antichrist, or else that antichrist is near cousin
to the pope ; and all this does and will hereafter more
and more appear by printing.
The reason whereof is this : Hereby tongues are
known, knowledge grows, judgment increases, books
are dispersed, the scripture is seen, the doctors are read,
histories opened, times compared, truth discerned, false-
hood detected, and all, as I said, through the benefit of
printing. Wherefore, I suppose, that either the pope
must abolish printing, or he must seek a new world to
reign over ; for else, as this world stands, printing
doubtless will abolish him. But the pope, and all his
college of cardinals, must understand this, that through
the light of printing the world begins now to have eyes
to see, and heads to judge : he cannot walk so invisible
in a net, but he will be spied. And although through
might he stopped the mouth of John Huss before, and of
Jerome, that they might not preach, thinking to make
his kingdom sure ; yet, instead of John Huss and others,
God hath opened the press to preach, whose voice the
pope is never able to stop with all the puissance of his
triple crown. By this printing, as by the gift of tongues,
and as by the singular organ of the Holy Ghost, the
doctrine of the gospel sounds to all nations and coun-
tries under heaven, and what God reveals to one man, is
dispersed to many, and what is known in one nation is
opened to all.
The first and best were for the bishop of Rome, by the
benefit of printing, to learn and know the truth. If he
will not, let him well understand that printing is not set
up for nought. To strive against the stream will not
avail. What the pope has lost, since printing and the
press began to preach, let him cast his counters. First,
when Erasmus wrote, and Frobenius printed, what a
blow thereby was given to all friars and monks in the
world ? And who sees not that the pen of Luther fol-
lowing after Erasmus, and set forward by printing, has
set the triple crown so awry on the pope's head, that it
is like never to be set straight again .'
Briefly, if there were no demonstration to lead, yet by
this one argument of printing, the bishop of Rome might
understand the counsel and purpose of the Lord to work
against him, having provided such a way in earth, that
almost as many printing presses as there be in the world,
so many bulwarks there are against the high castle of
St. Angelo, so that either the pope must abolish know-
ledge and printing, or printing at length will root him
out. As nothing made the pope strong in time past
but lack of knowledge and ignorance of simple chris-
tians : so contrariwise, now nothing debilitates and
shakes the high spire of his papacy so much as reading,
preaching, knowledge and judgment, that is to say, the
fruit of printing ; whereof some experience we see al-
ready, and more is likely (by the Lord's blessing) to fol-
low. For although, through outward force and violent
cruelty tongues dare not speak, yet the hearts of men
daily, no doubt, are instructed through the benefit of
printing. And though the pope hath now by cruelty,
and in times past by ignorance, had all under his posses-
sion ; yet neither must he think, that violence will al-
ways continue, neither must he hope for that now which
he had then. In former days books were scarce, and o)
such excessive price that few could attain to the buying,
and still fewer to the reading and studying of them,
which books now by the means of this art, are made acces-
sible to all men. Ye heard before how Nicholas Belward
bought a New Testament in those days for four marka
and forty pence, whereas now the same price will well
serve forty persons with so many books 1
Moreover, it was before noted and declared by the
testimony of Armachanus, how for defect of books and
good authors, both universities were decayed and good
men kept in ignorance, while begging friars, scraping all
the wealth from other priests, heaped up all books that
could be gotten, into their own libraries, where either
they did not diligently apply them, or else did not
rightly use them, or at least kept them from such as
more fruitfully would have perused them. Wherefore
Almighty God of his merciful Providence, seeing both
what lacked in the church, and how also to remedy the
same, for the advancement of his glory, gave the under-
standing of this excellent art or science of printing,
whereby three singular benefits at one time came to
the world. First, the price of all books is diminished.
Secondly, the speedy help of reading furthered. And
thirdly, the plenty of all good authors enlarged.
By reason of which, as printing of books ministered
matter of reading, so reading brought learning, learning
shewed light, by the brightness of which blind ignorance
was suppressed, error detected, and finally God's ^ory
with truth of his word advanced.
35 fJ
THE LOSING OF CONSTANTINOPLE.— HISTORY OF REYNOLD PEACOCK. [Book VI.
The lamentable losing of Constantinople.
A.D. 14o:i, Constantinus Paleologus, being emperor
of Constantinople, on the twenty-nintjj day of May, the
great city of Constantinople was taken by the Turk
Mahomet, after a siege of fifty-four days, which siege
began in the beginning of April. Within the city, be-
side the citizens, there were only six thousand rescuers of
the Greeks ; alid three thousand of the Venetians and
Genoese. Against these Mahomet brought an army of
four hundred thousand, collected out of the countries and
places adjoining near about, as out of Grecia, lUyrica,
Wallaohia, Dardanis, Triballis, Bulgaria, out of Bithynia,
Galatia, Lydia, Sicily, and such other, which places had
the name yet of Christians. Thus one neighbour for
lucre's sake helped to destroy another.
Tiie city was compassed by the Turks both by the sea
and land. Mahomet, the Turk, divided his army into
three sundry parts, which in three parts of the city so
beat the walls and brake them down, that they attempted
by the breaches thereof to enter the city. But the va-
liantness of the christians therein won much commenda-
tion, whose duke was called John Justinian of Genoa.
But as the assaults were great, and the number of the
christian soldiers daily decreased, fighting both at the
walls and at the haven against such a multitude of the
Turks, they were not able long to hold out. Beside the
armies which lay battering at tlie walls, the Turk had
upon the sea his navy of two hundred and fifty sail, lying
upon the haven of the city, reaching from the one side of
the haven's mouth to the other, as if abridge should be
made from the one bank to the otiier. Which haven by
the citizens was barred with iron chains, whereby the
Turks were kept out a certain space. Against which
navy there were seven ships of Genoa within the haven,
and three of Crete, and certain of Chios, which stood
against them. Also the soldiers issuing out of the city,
as occasion would serve, did manfully withstand them,
and with wild-fire set their ships on fire, that a certain
ejiace they could serve to uo use. At length the chains
being broken, and a way made, the Turk's navy entered
the haven, and assaulted the city, whereby the Turk began
to conceive great hope, and was in forwardness to obtain
the city. The assault and skirmish then waxing more
hot, Mahomet the tyrant stood by upon a hill, with his
warriors about him, crying and howling out to them
to scale the walls and enter the town, otherwise, if any
recoiled, he threatened to kill them, and so he did.
M'^herefore a great number of his soldiers, in their re-
pulse and retreat, were slain by the Turk's men, being
sent by his commandment to slay them, and so they
were justly served, and well paid their hire.
Although this was some comfort to the christians to
see and behold out of the city the Turk's retinue so con-
sumed, yet that hope lasted not long. Shortly after by
the rage of war, it happened that one Justinian, the duke
above-named, was wounded ; who, notwithstanding that
he was earnestly desired by Paleologus the emperor, not
to leave the tower which he had to keep, seeing his wound
was not deadly dangerous ; yet could he not be entreated
to tarry, but left his standing and his fort undefended,
setting none in his place to guard the same. And so
this doughty duke hurt more with his false heart than
with force of weapon, gave over and fled to Chio, where
shortly after for sorrow, rather than for soreness of his
wound, he died. Many of his soldiers, seeing their
captain flee, followed after, leaving their fort utterly de-
stitute without defence. The Turks, understanding that
vantage, soon burst into the city. The Emperor Paleo-
logus, seeing no other way but to fly, making toward the
gate, either was slain, or else trodden down with the
multitude. In the which gate, eight hundred dead
men's bodies were found and taken up.
The city of Constantinople thus being got, the Turks
sacking and ranging about the streets, houses, and
corners, did put to the sword most unmercifully whom-
soever they found, both aged and young, matrons,
maidens, children, and infants, sparing none ; the noble
•atroas and maidens were horribly insulted ; the goods
of the city, the treasuries in houses, the ornaments in
churches were all sacked and spoiled ; the pictures of
Christ opprobriously handled in hatred of Christ. The
spoil and havock of the city lasted three days together,
while the barbarous soldiers murdered and rifled what
they liked.
These thing.s being done, and the tumult ceased, after
three days Mahomet the Turk entered the city, and first
calling for the heads and ancients of the city, such as he
found alive he commanded to be mangled and cut in
pieces. It is also (saith my author) reported, that in
the feasts of the Turks, all such as were of the king's
stock, after other barbarities, were hewn and cut in
pieces for their sjjort.
And this was the end of that princely and famous city
of Constantinople, beginning first by a Constantine, and
ending also with a Constantine, which for its princely
royalty was named and ever honoured, from the time of
the first Constantine, equally with the city of Rome, and
called also by the name thereof New Rome, and also
continued the space of 1123 years. I pray God that
Old Rome may learn of New Rome, to take heed and
beware betime.
This terrible destruction of the city of Constantinople,
the queen of cities, I thought here to describe, not so
much to set forth the barbarous cruelty of these filthy and
merciless murderers ; as specially for this, that we being
admonished by the doleful ruin and misery of these our
fellow christians, mr.y call to mind the deserved plagues
and miseries which seem to hang no less over our
own heads, and thereby may learn betime to invoke and
call more earnestly upon the name of our terrible and
merciful God, that he for his Son's sake will keep us,
and preserve his church among us, and mitigate those
plagues and sorrows, which we no less have deserved,
than these above minded have done before us. Christ
grant it, Amen.
The history of Reynold Peacock bishop of Chichester,
afflicted and imprisoned for the gospel of Christ.
After the death of Henry Chichesley before men-
tioned, next succeeded John Stafford (A. D. 144;")),
who continued eight years. After him came John
Kemp (A. D. 1453), who sat but three years. Then
succeeded Thomas Burschere. In the time of which
archbishop, Reynold Peacock, bishop of Chichester,
was afflicted by the pope's prelate for his faith and pro-
fession of the gospel. This man (saith Hall) began to
move questions not privately, but openly in the univer-
sities, concerning the Annates, Peter-pence, and other
jurisdictions, and authorities pertaining to the see of
Rome, and not only put forth the questions, but declared
his mind and opinion in the same ; wherefore he was for
this cause abjured at Paul's Cross." This bishop, first
of St. Asaph, then of Chichester, so long as Duke
Humfrey lived, (by whom he was promoted and much
made of) was quiet and safe, and also bold to dispute
and to write his mind, and wrote several books and
treatises. But after that good duke was made away,
this good man was open to his enemies, and matter soon
found against him. Being complained of, and accused
to the archbishop, letters were directed down from the
archbishop, to cite all men to appear that could say any
thing against him.
This citation being thus issued, the bishop came
before the judges and bishops to Lambeth, where
Thomas the archbishop, with his doctors and lawyers,
were gathered together in the archbishop's court. The
duke of Buckingham was present, accompanied with the
bishops of Rochester, and of Lincoln. What were the
opinions and articles objected against him, shall be spe-
cified in his revocation. In his answering for himself,
in such a com])any of the po])e's friends, although he
could not prevail ; yet stoutly defending himself, he
declared many things wortiiy great commendation of
learning, if learning could have prevailed against power.
But tliey on the contrary part, with all labour ami
diligence exerted themselves, either to reduce him, or
eUe to confound him. Briefly, uo stone was left ua«
A. D. 1440—1457. RECANTATION OF REYNOLD PEACOCK.- POPE PIUS II.
357
turned, no ways unproved, either by fair means to
entreat him, or by terrible menaces to terrify his mind,
till at length, he being vanquished and overcome by the
bishops, began to faint, and gave over. Whereupon, by
and by, a recantation was put unto him by the bishops,
which he should declare before the people. The copy of
which recantation here follows :
" In the name of God, Amen. Before you tlie most
reverend father in Christ and Lord, the Lord Thomas,
by the grace of God, archbishop of Canterbury, primate
of all England and legate of the apostolic see, I Reynold
Peacock, unworthy bishop of Chichester, do purely,
willingly, simply, and absolutely confess and acknow-
ledge, that I in times past, that is to say, by the space
of these twenty years last past and more, have otherwise
conceived, holden, taught and written, as touching the
sacraments, and the articles of the faith, than the holy
church of Rome, and universal church ; and also that I
have made, written, published, and set forth many and
divers pernicious doctrines, books, works, writings,
heresies, contrary and against the true catholic and
apostolic faith, containing in them errors contrary to the
catholic faith, and especially these errors and heresies
hereunder written.
1. First of all, that we are not bound, by the neces-
sity of faith, to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ after
his death descended into hell.
2. That it is not necessary to salvation to believe in
the holy catholic church.
3. That it is not necessary to salvation to believe the
communion of saints.
4. That it is not necessary to salvation to affirm the
body material in the sacrament.
5. That the universal church may err in matters
which pertain unto faith.
6. That it is not necessary unto salvation to believe
that which every general council doth universally ordain,
approve, or determine, should necessarily for the help
©f our faith, and the salvation of souls, be approved and
holden of all faithful christians.
" Wherefore I, Reynold Peacock, wretched sinner,
who have long walked in darkness, and now by the mer-
ciful disposition and ordinance of God, am reduced and
brought again unto the light and way of truth, and
restored to the unity of our holy mother the church,
renounce and forsake all errors and heresies afore-
said."
It is probable that this bishop repented afterward of
his recantation ; which may easily be supposed, because
he was committed again to prison, and detained captive,
where it is uncertain whether he was oppressed with
privy and secret tyranny, and there obtained the crown
of martyrdom, or no.
From the persecutions and burnings in England we
will now digress a little, to speak of foreign matters of
the church of Rome.
Pope Nicholas, to get and gather great sums of money,
appointed a jubilee A. D. 1450, at which time there
resorted a greater number of people to Rome, than had
at any time before been seen. At which time we read
in the history of Platina, that to have happened, which I
thought here not unworthy to be noted for the example
of the thing. As there was a great concourse of people
resorting to the mount Vatican to behold the image of
our Saviour, which they had there to shew to the pil-
grims, the people being thick going to and fro between
the mount and the city, by chance a certain mule of the
cardinals of St. Mark, came by the way, by which the
people not being able to avoid the way, one or two fall-
ing upon the mule, there was such a throng upon that
occasion on the bridge, that to the number of two hun-
dred bodies of men, and three horses were there stran-
gled, and on each side of the bridge many besides fell
over into the water, and were drowned.
In the time of this pope one Matthew Palmerius
wrote a book On Angels, for defending which he was
condemned by the pope, and burned at Coma.
After him succeeded Calixtus III., who among divers
other things ordained, both at noon and evening the bell
to toll the Ave>i, as it was used in the popisli time, to
help the .soldiers that fought against the Turks ; for
which cause also he ordained the feast of the transfigura-
tion of the liord, solemnizing it with like pardons and
indulgencies, as was Corpus Christi day.
Also this pope, proceeding contrary to the councils of
Constance and Basil, decreed that no man should ap-
I)eal from the ])ope to any council. By whom also St.
Edmund of Canterbury, with divers othei s, were made
saints.
Next after this Calixtus succeeded Pius II., otherwise
called Apneas Sylvius, who wrote the two books of com-
mentaries upon the council of Basil before mentioned.
This Apneas, at the time of the writing of those books,
seemed to be a man of tolerable judgment and doctrine,
from which he afterward, being pope, seemed to de-
cline and swerve, seeking by all means possible how to
deface and abolish the books which he had written.
Sentences attributed unto this Pius.
" The divine nature of God may rather be compre-
hended by faith than by disputation.
" Christian faith is to be considered, not by what
reason it is proved, but from whom it proceeds.
" Neither can a covetous man be satisfied with
money, nor a learned man with knowledge.
" Learning ought to be to poor men instead of silver,
to noblemen instead of gold, and to princes instead of
precious stones.
" An artificial oration moves fools, but not wise
men.
" Suitors in the law are as birds; the court is the
bait ; the judges are the nets ; and the lawyers are the
fowlers.
" Men are to be given to dignities, and not dignities
to men.
" The office of a bishop is heavy, but it is blessed to
him tRat doth well bear it.
" A bishop without learning may be likened to an ass.
" An evil physician destroyeth bodies, but an un-
learned priest destroyeth souls.
" Marriage was taken from priests not without great
reason ; but with much greater reason it ought to be re-
stored again."
The like sentence to this he utters in his second book
of the council of Basil, saying, " Peradventure it were
not the worst, that the most part of priests had their
wives ; for many should be saved in priestly marriage,
which now in unmarried priesthood are damned." The
same Pius also, as Celius reports, dissolved certain
orders of nuns, of the orders of St. Bridget and St.
Clare, bidding tlunn to depart out, that they should no
more disgrace the profession of religion.
This Pius, if he had brought so much piety and godli-
ness as he brought learning unto his popedom, had ex-
celled many popes that went before him.
Before his elevation he preferred general councils be-
fore the pope, now being pope, he decreed tliat no man
should appeal from the high bishop of Rome to any
general council. And likewise for priests' marriage,
whereas, before he thought it best to have their wives
restored, yet afterward he altered liis mind.
After this Pius II. succeeded Paul 11., a pope wholly
set upon his own gratification and ambition, and not so
much void of all learning, as the hater of learned men.
After this Paul came Sixtus IV. This pope, amongst
his other acts, reduced the year of jubilee from th".
fiftieth to the twenty-fifth. He also instituted the feast
of the Conception, and the presentation of Mary and of
Anna her mother, and Joseph. Also he canonized Bo-
naventure and St. Francis for saints. By this Sixtus
also were beads brought in, and instituted to make our
lady's Psalter. This pope made two-and-thirty cardi-
nals in his time.
Next after this Sixtus came Innocent, as rude, and as
far from all learning, as his predecessor was before him.
Amongst the noble acts of this pope this was one, that
358
DEPOSITION OF HENRY VI.— SUCCEEDED BY EDWARD IV.
[Book VI.
in the town of Polus apud Equicolos, he caused eight
men and six women, with the lord of the place, to be
apprehended and taken, and judged for heretics, because
they said none of them was the vicar of Christ who
come after Peter, but they only who followed the poverty
of Christ. Also he condemned of heresy, George the
king of Bohemia, and deprived him of his dignity and
also of his iiingdom, and jjrocured his whole stock to be
utterly rejected and jiut down, giving his kingdom to
Matthias king of Pannonia.
Now, from the popes let us descend to other estates,
beginning with our troubles here at home, pertaining to
the overthrow of King Henry VI. and his seat. Here is
to be remembered, how, after the death of the duke of
Glocester, mischiefs came in by heaps ujjon the king
and his realm. For, after the giving away of Anjou
and Maine to the Frenchmen, by the unfortunate mar-
riage of Queen Margaret above mentioned, the French-
men, perceiving now by the death of the duke of Glo-
lester, the stay and pillar of this commonwealth to be
decayed, and seeing, moreover, the hearts of the nobility
amongst themselves to be divided, lost no time, having
Buch an open way into Normandy, and in a short time
t'.iey recovered the same, and also got Gascony, so that
no more now remained to England of all the parts be-
yond the sea, but only Calais. Neither yet did the
calamity of the realm only rest in this : for the king now
having lost his friendly uncle, as the stay and staft' of his
age, who had brought him up so faithfully from his
youth, was now thereby the more open to his enemies,
and they more emboldened to set upon him ; as appeared
first by Jack Cade the Kentish captain, who, encamping
first on Blackheath, afterward aspired to London, and
had the spoil thereof, the king being driven into War-
wickshire (A.D. 1450.) Not long after the suppression
of Cade's insurrection, the duke of York, accompanied
by three earls, set upon the king near to St. Alban's,
where the king was taken captive, and the duke of York
was by parliament declared protector in the same year
1455. After this followed long division and mortal war
between the two houses of Lancaster and York, con-
tinuing many years. At length, in the year 1450, the
duke of York was slain in battle by the queen near to
the town of Wakefield, and witli him also his son, the
earl of Rutland. The queen, also, shortly after, dis-
comfited the earl of Warwick, and the duke of Norfolk,
to whom the keeping of the king had been committed
by the duke of York; and so the queen again delivered
her husband.
After these victories, the northern men, advanc-
ing not a little in pride and courage, began to take
upon them great attempts, not only to spoil and rob
churches, and religious houses, and villages, but also
fully intending, partly by themselves, partly by the in-
ducement of their lords and captains, to sack, waste,
and utterly to subvert the city of London, and to take
the spoil thereof; and no doubt (saith my history)
would have proceeded in their conceived greedy intent,
had not the opportune favour of God provided a speedy
rsmedy. For as these mischiefs were in brewing, sud-
denly the noble Prince Edward came to London with a
mighty army, on the twenty-seventh of February, (1461,)
he was the son and heir to the duke of York above
mentioned, and was accompanied by the earl of War-
wick, and divers more. King Henry, in the meantime,
with his victory, went up to York ; when Edward being
at Loudon, caused there to be proclaimed certain arti-
cles concerning his title to the crown of England, on the
second of March ; and then on the fourth, accompanied
with the lords spiritual and temporal, and with much
concourse of people, he rode to Westminster-hall, and
there, by the full consent, as well of the lords, as also by
the voice oif all the commons, took his possession of the
crown, and was called King Edward IV.
These things thus accomplished at London, the king
proceeded northward against Henry, when, with his army
he had passed over the river of Trent, and was come
near to Ferrybridge, where the army of King Henry was
not far off, upon Palm Sunday, between Ferrybridge and
Tadcaster, both the armies of the southern and northern
men joined together in battle. And although at the be-
ginning, some liorsemen of King Edward's side turned
their backs, yet the courageous prince, with his captams,
little discouraged, fiercely and manfully set on their ad-
versaries. The battle was so cruelly fought on both
sides, that in the conflict there were slain to the
number, as is reported, beside men of name, thirty-six
thousand of the poor commons. Notwithstanding, the ■
conquest fell on King Edward's part, so that King i
Henry having lost all, was forced to fly into Scotland,
where he gave up to the Scots the town of Berwick,
after he had reigned eight-and-thirty years and a half.
KING EDWARD THE FOURTH.
King Edward, after his conquest and victory achieved
against King Henry, returned again to London, where,
upon the vigil of St. Peter and Paul, (A.D. 14(;i.) be-
ing on Sunday, he was crowned king of England, and
reigned twenty-two years.
When it was proposed that the king should marry,
several alliances were suggested ; and first, the Lady
Margaret, sister to James IV. king of Scots, wag
thought of ; afterward the Lady Elizabeth, sister to Henry
king of Castile, but she being under age, the earl of
Warwick turned to the French king Lewis XL, to ob-
tain Lady Bona, daughter of the duke of Savoy, and
sister to the French queen, and obtained consent.
Meanwhile the king was pleased with Elizabeth Grey,
widovc of Sir John Grey, knight, slain before in the bat-
tle of St. Albans, daughter to the duchess of Bedford,
and Lord Rivers, and first endeavoured to have her as
his mistress. But she being unworthy (as she said)
to be the wife of such an high personage, and thinking
herself to be too good to be his mistress, so won the king's
heart, that before the return of the earl of Warwick, he
married her ; at which marriage only the duchess of Bed-
ford, two gentlewomen, the priest and clerk, were present.
Upon this so hasty and unlucky marriage ensued no little
trouble to the king, much bloodshed to the realm, un-
doing almost to all her kindred, and finally confusion to
King Edward's two sons, which both were declared af-
ti^'ward to be illegitimate, and also deprived of their
lives. For the earl of Warwick, who had been the
faithful friend and chief maintainer before of the king,
at the hearing of this marriage, was so angry, that he
ever afterwards endeavoured to work displeasure to the
king. And although for a time he dissembled his
wrathful mood, till he might find a time convenient, and
a world to set forward his purpose, at last finding occa-
sion sen'ing to his mind, he made known his purpose to
his two brethren, to wit, the Lord Mountecute, or Mon-
tague, and the archbishop of York, conspiring with them
how to bring it about. Then he also thought to find
out the mind of the duke of Clarence, King Edward's
brother, and he likewise obtained him on his side, giving
him his daughter in marriage.
This matter being thus prepared against the king, the
first flame of his conspiracy began to appear in the
north country ; where the northern men in a short
space gathering themselves in an open rebellion, and
finding captains of their wicked purpose, came down
from York toward London. Against whom was ap-
pointed by the king, William Lord Herbert earl of Pem-
broke, with the Lord Staftord, and certain other cap-
tains to encounter. The Yorkshiremen giving the over-
throw first to the Lord Staff'ord, then to the earl of
Pembroke, and his company of Welshmen at Banbury
Field, at last joining together with the army of the earl
of Warwick, and the duke of Clarence, in the dead of
the night secretly stealing on the king's field at Wolney
by Warwick, killed the watch, and took the king pri-
soner, who first being in the castle of Warwick, then
was conveyed by night to Middleham castle in York-
shire, under the custody of the archbishop of York,
where he having loose keeping, and liberty to go on
hunting, meeting with Sir William Stanley, Sir Thomas
of Borough, and other friends, was too good for hia
keepers, and escaped the hands of his enemies and so
came to York, where he was well received ; from theace
A. D. 1457—1471.] KING HENRY RESTORED AGAIN TO HIS KINGCOM.
to Lancaster, where he met with the Lord Hasting his
chamberliia, well accompanied, by whose help he came
safe to London.
After tiiis tumult, when reconciliation could not come
to perfect peace and unity, although much labour was
made by tlie nobility, the earl of Warwick raises up a
new war in Lincolnshire, the captain whereof was Sir
Robert Wells, knight, who shortly after, being taken in
battle with his father and Sir Thomas Duncock, they were
beheaded, the rest casting away their coats ran away
and fled, giving the name of the field called Losecoat
Field. The earl of Warwick, after this, put out of com-
fort and hope to prevail at home, fled out of England,
A.D. 1470, first to Calais, then to Lewis the French
king, accompanied by the duke of Clarence. The
fame of the earl of Warwick, and of his famous acts,
was at that time in great admiration above measure, and
so highly favoured, that both in England and in France
all men were glad to behold his person. W^herefore
the coming of this earl, and of the duke of Clarence,
was not a little grateful to the French king, and no less
opportune to Queen Margaret, King Henry's wife, and
Prince Edward her son, who also came to the French
court to meet and confer together touching their affairs ;
where a league was concluded between them, and more-
over a marriage between Edward prince of Wales, and
Anne the second daughter of the earl of Warwick was
wrought. Thus all things falling luckily upon the earl's
part, beside the large off"ers and great promises made by
the French king, that he would do his best to set forward
their purpose, the earl having also intelligence by letters,
that the hearts almost of all men went with him, and
longed sore for his presence, so that there now lacked
only haste to return with aU speed possible ; he, with
the duke of Clarence, well fortified with the French
navy, set forward towards England ; for so was it be-
fore decreed between them, that they two should prove
the first venture, and then Queen Margaret, with Prince
Edward her son, should follow after. The arrival of the
earl was no sooner heard of at Dartmouth in Devonshire,
but great concourse of people by thousands went to him
from all quarters to receive and welcome him ; who im-
mediately made proclamation in the name of King
Henry VI., charging all men, able to bear armour, to
prepare themselves to fight against Edward duke of
York, usurper of the crown. There lacked no friends,
strength of men, furniture, nor policy convenient for
such a matter.
When King Edward (who was passing the time in
hunting, in hawking, in all pleasure and dalliance), had
knowledge what great resort of multitudes incessantly
repaired more and more daily about the earl and the
duke, he began now to provide for remedy when it was
too late. Who trusting too much to his friends, and
fortune before, did now right well perceive what a va-
riable and inconstant thing the people is, and especially
the people of England, whose nature is never to be content
long with the present state, but always delighting in
news, seek new variety of changes, either envying that
which standeth, or else pitying that which is fallen.
Which inconstant mutability of the light people, chang-
ing with the wind, and wavering with the reed, did well
appear in the course of this king's story. For he,
through the favour of the people, when he was down,
was exalted ; now being exalted by them, was forsaken :
in which this is to be noted by all princes, that as
there is nothing in this mutable world firm and stable,
80 there is no trust nor assurance to be made, but only
in the favour of God, and in the promises of his word,
only in Clirist his Son, whose kingdom alone shall
never end, and never change.
While these things were passing on in England, King
Edward, accompanied by the duke of Gloucester his
brother, and the Lord Hastings, who had married the
earl of Warwick's sister, and yet was ever true to the
king ; and the Lord Scales, brother to the queen, sent
abroad to all his friends for able soldiers to withstand his
enemies. When he could obtain but little assistance, the
king departed into Lincolnshire, where, perceiving his
enemiee daily increasing, and all the country in disturb-
ance, making fires, and singing songs, crying, " King
Henry, King Henry I a Warwick, a Warwick!" and
hearing that his enemies the Lancastrians were within
half a day's journey of him, he was advised to fly over
the sea to the duke of Burgundy, who not long before
had married King Edward's sister.
Charles, duke of Burgundy, at hearing of the condition
of King Edward his brother-in-law, was greatly amazed
and perplexed, doubting what he should do. For beingthen
at war with the French king, he could not well provoke the
English nation against him, nor could he, without great
shame, leave King Edward in that necessity. So he
demeaned himself through fair speech, pretending to the
Englishmen to join part with the house of Lancaster,
being himself partly descended of the same family by his
grandmother's side ; so that he was his own friend openly,
and the king's friend covertly, pretending what he did
not, and doing what he pretended not.
When tidings were spread in England of King Ed-
ward's flying, innumerable people resorted to the earl of
Warwick, to take his part against King Edward, and a
few only of his constant friends took sanctuary. Among
whom was Elizabeth his wife, who, in despair almost of
all comfort, took sanctuary at Westminster, where in
great penury she was delivered of a fair son called
Edward, who was baptized without any pomp, like any
poor woman's child, the godfathers being the abbot and
prior of Westminster, the godmother was the lady
Scroope.
To make the story short, the earl of W^arwick having
now brought all things to his wishes, upon the r2th of
Oct. rode to the Tower, which was then delivered to
him, and there took King Henry out of the ward, and
placed him in the king's lodging. The 25th of the same
month, the duke of Clarence, accompanied by the earls
of Warwick, Shrewsbury, and the Lord Stanley, with a
great company, brought him in a long gown of blue
velvet through the high streets of London, first to Paul'g
church, then to the bishop's palace of London, and
there he resumed again the royal crown, (A. D. 1470.)
After this followed a parliament, in which King Edward
with all his partakers were judged traitors. King Ed-
ward made urgent and successful suit to Duke Charles
his brother, to rescue him with such forces as he could
give him ; for he was fully resolved to protract the time
no longer.
The duke secretly gave to him 50,000 florins, and
further caused four great ships to be appointed for him
in a haven in Zealand, where it was free for all men to
come. Also the duke had hired for him fourteen ships
of the Easterlings well appointed, taking security from
them to serve him faithfully till he were landed in Eng-
land, and fifteen days after.
Thus King Edward with only two thousand men of
war, took his voyage into England, and landed at Ra.
venspur in Yorkshire. Dissembling his purpose, he
pretended not to claim the crown and kingdom, but only
to claim the duchy of York, which was his own title, and
caused the same to be published. This being notified
to the people, that he desired no more than only his
just patrimony and lineal inheritance, they began to be
moved with mercy and compassion towards him, either
to favour him or not to resist him ; and so journeying
toward York, he came to Beverley. He then proceeded
to York without resistance, where he required of the
citizens to be admitted into their city. They durst not
grant it to him, but on the contrary sent him word to
approach no nearer, as he loved his own safety. The
desolate king was here driven to a narrow strait, he
could not retire, for in the opinion of the country it
would be the loss of his cause ; neither could he advance,
for the present danger of the city. So using policy as
before, with loving words and gentle speech, he desired
the messengers to declare to the citizens, that his coming
was not to demand the realm of England, but only the
duchy of York, his old inheritance ; and therefore had
determined to set forward, neither with army nor weapon.
The messengers were no sooner within the gates, than ho
was there as soon.
The citizens hearing his courteous answer, and that bt
3€0
THE REACCESSION OF EDWARD IV. AND THE DEATH OF HENRY VI. [Book VI.
intended nothing to the prejudice of the king, nor of the
realm, were somewhat softened toward him, and began
to parley with him from the walls, desiring him to with-
draw his soldiers to some other place, and that they
should be the more ready to aid him, at least he should
have no damage by them.
However, he again used such lowly language, and de-
livered so fair speech to them, treating them so oour-
teously, and saluting the aldermen by their names, re-
quiring at their hands no more but only his own town,
whereof he had the name and title, that at length the
citizens, after long talk and debating upon the matter,
partly also enticed with fair and large promises, agreed
that if he would swear to be true to King Henry, and
gentle in entertaining his citizens, they would receive
him into the city.
This being concluded, the next morning at the enter-
ing of the gate, a priest was ready to say mass, in the
which after the receiving of the sacrament, the king
received a solemn oath to observe the two articles afore
agreed. By which he obtained the city of York. Where,
in sho»t time forgetting his oath, he set garrisons of
armed soldiers. King Edward, being soon more fully
furnished at all points, by the accession of his friends,
came to the town of Leicester, and there hearing that
the eirl of Warwick, with the earl of Oxford were at
Warwick, with a great army, he marched his army,
ho])ing to give battle to the earl. The duke of Clarence
in the meantime, had levied a great host and was coming
toward the earl of Warwick. But when the earl saw
the duke delay the time, he began to suspect that he
was altered to his brother's party. When the armies of
the two brothers. King Edward and the duke of Cla-
rence, were in sight of the other, Richard, duke of Glo-
cester, brother to them both, as arbiter between them,
first rode to the one, then to the other. Whether all
this was for appearances, is uncertain. But hereby both
the brothers, laying all army and weapons aside, first
lovingly and familiarly communed ; after that, brotherly
and naturally joined together. And that fraternal amity
was ratified by proclamation, and thereby put out of all
suspicion.
Then it was agreed between the three brothers to
attemj)! the earl of Warwick, if he likewise would be
reconciled ; but he crying out shame upon the duke of
Clarence, stood in utter defiance. From thence King
Edward so strongly supported, and daily increasing,
takes his way to London. Where after it was known
that the duke of Clarence had joined him, much fear fell
upon the Londoners, as to what was best to be done.
Ho the citizens consulting with themselves, having no
walls to defend them, thought best to take that way
whicli seemed to them most sure and safe, and therefore
they concluded to take part with King Edward. This
was no sooner known abroad, than the commonalty ran
out by heaps to meet King Edward, and to salute him
as their king. The duke of Somerset, with others of
King Henry's council, hearing of this, and wondering at
the sudden change in the world, fled away and left King
Henry alone.
The earl had now passed a great part of his journey
to London, when hearing the news how affairs were
changed, and that King Henry was a prisoner in the
Tower, was not a little appalled ; so he stayed with his
army at St. Albans, to see what course to take. And
then removed to Barnet, ten miles from St. Albans.
Against liim King Edward set forth with a strong
army of picked and able jiersons, with artillery and every
requisite ; bringing with him also his prisoner King
Henry. On Easter even he came to Barnet, and there
he entrenched himself. In the morning upon Easter-
day the battle began, and fiercely continued almost till
noon, with murder on each side, till both parts were
almost weary with fighting and murdering. King Ed-
ward then, with a great body of fresh soldiers set upon
his wearied enemies. Where the earl's men, encouraged
with words of their captain, stoutly fought, but they
being already wounded and wearied, could not long hold
out. The earl, rushing into the midst of his enemies,
ventured so far, that he could not be rescued ; where he
was stricken down and slain (April 14, 1471.) The Mar-
quis Mountecute tliinking to succour his brother, whom he
saw to be in great jeopardy, was likewise overthrown and
slain. After Richard Nevil, earl of Warwick, and his bro-
ther were gone, the rest fled, and many were taken.
In the same year, and about the same time, u))on the
Ascension-even, king Henry, being prisoner in the
Tower, departed, after he had reigned in all thirty-eight
years and six months. Polydore, and Hall fdilo^viag
liim, affirm that he was slain with a dag^.r, by l\,ii;iiard,
duke of Gloucester, for the more quiet and safeguard of
his brother King Edward.
Polydore, after he had described the virtues of this
king, records, that King Henry VII. afterward removed
his corpse from Chertsey, where he was buried, to
Windsor, and adds, that certain miracles were wrought
by him. For which cause King Henry VII. saith he, la-
l)oured with Pope Julius, to have him canonised for a
saint, but the death of the king prevented the matter
proceeding. Edward Hall, writing of this matter, adds,
declaring the cause why King Henry's sainting was not
completed, to be this : that the fees for canonizing of a
king were so great at Rome, (more than of bishop or
prelate) that the king thought it better to keep the
money in his chests, than to buy so dear, and pay so
much for a new holy-day of St. Henry in the Calendar.
During the time of these doings, about A. D. 14(i.5,
there was in England a Carmelite friar, who preached at
St. Paul's, in London, that our Lord Jesus Christ, wliile
here in this world, was in poverty, and did beg. To
this doctrine, the provincial of that order seemed also to
incline, defending it both in his reading and preaching,
with other doctors and brethren of the same order ; also
certain of the Jacobites. On the contrary side, many
doctors and also lawyers, both in their public lectures
and preaching, withstood their assertion, as most pesti-
ferous in the church. Such a bitter contention was
among them, that the defendant part was driven for a
while to keep silence. This question of the begging-
friars, whether Christ did beg or no, went so far, that at
length it came to the ears of Pope Paul II., who was no
beggar ye may be sure. After the fame of this doctrine,
mounting over the Alps, came flying to the court of
Rome, A. D. Htio, it brought with it such an evil smell
to the fine noses there, that there was no need to bid
them to stir, for begging to them was worse than high
heresy. Wherefore the holy father. Pope Paul II., to
repress the sparkles of this doctrine, which otherwise,
perhaps, might have set his whole kitchen on fire, takes
the matter in hand, and directs his bull into England,
insinuating to the prelates here, that this heresy, which
pestiferously affirms that Christ did openly beg, was
condemned of old time by the bishops of Rome, and his
councils, and that the same ought to be declared in all
places for a damned doctrine, and worthy to be trodden
down under all men's feet, &c.
As to the rest of the affairs of this king, (who had van-
quished in nine battles, himself being present) how after-
ward he, through the incitement of Charles, duke of
Burgundy, his brother-in-law, ventured into France
with a puissant army, and how the duke failed him in his
promise ; also how peace between these two kings was
at length concluded in a solemn meeting of both kings
together (which meeting is notified in histories, by a white
dove sitting the same day of meeting upon the top of
King Edward's tent) also of the marriage promised
between the young dauphin and Elizabeth, King Edward's
eldest daughter, but afterwards broken off on the French
king's part ; moreover, as touching the death of the
duke of Burgundy, slain in war, and of his daughter
Mary, niece to King Edward, spoiled of her lands and
possessions wrongfully by Lewis, the French king, and
married after to Maximilian ; furthermore, as touching
the expedition of King Edward into Scotland, by reason
of King James breaking promise in marrying with Cicely,
the second daughter of King Edward, and of driving out
his brother, and how the matter was composed there,
and of the recovery again of Berwick ; of these, I say,
and such other things more, partly because they are de-
scribed sufficiently in our common English histories.
A. D. 1471—1473.] BURNING OF JOHN GOOSE.— EMPERORS OF AUSTRIA.
361
part'iV also because they are matters not greatly pertain-
ing to the church, ! omit to spenk, making of them a
supersedeas. Two things I find here, among many
other, specially to be remembered,
Tlie first is, concerning a godly and constant servant
of Christ, named John Goose, who in the time of this
king, was unjustly condemned and burnt at the Tower-
hill, A. D. 1473, in the month of August. Thus had
England also its John Huss, (Huss signifies a goose) as
well as Boiiemia. Wherein this is to be noted, that
since the time of King Richard II., there is no reign of
any king in which some good man or other has not suf-
fered the pains of fire for the religion and true testimony
of Christ Jesus. Of this John Goose, or John Huss, I
find it recorded, that being delivered to one of the
sheriffs, to see him burnt in the afternoon ; the siieritf,
like a charitable man, brought him home to his house,
and there exhorted him to deny his alleged errors. But
the godly man, after long exhortation, desired the
sheriff to be content, for he was satisfied in his consci-
ence. However, this he desired of the sheriff, for God's
sake to give him some meat, saying, that he was very
sore hungered. Then the sheriff commanded him meat ;
whereof he took, and did eat, as if he had been in no
manner of danger, and said to such as stood about him,
" I eat now a good and competent dinner, for I shall
pass a little sharp shower ere I go to supper." And
when he had dined, he gave thanks, and required that he
might shortly be led to the place where he should yield
up his spirit unto God.
The second thing herein to be noted, is the death of
George, duke of Clarence, the king's second brother ;
of whom relation was made before, how he assisted
King Edward his brother, against the earl of Warwick,
at Barnet Field, and helped him to the crown ; i.nd now,
after all these benefits, was at length thus requited, that
(for what cause it is uncertain) he was apprehended and
cast into the Tower, where he being adjudged for a
traitor, was privily drowned in a butt of malmsey.
What the true cause was of his death it cannot certainly
be affirmed.
Now having long tarried at home in describing the
tumults and troubles within our own land, we will
proceed more at large, to consider the afflictions and
perturbations of other parties and places also of Christ's
church, as well here in Europe, under the pope, as in
the eastern parts under the Turk, first beginning our
history from the time of Sigisuiund, which Sigismund, as
it is above recorded, was so engaged in the council of
Constance against John Huss, and Jerome of Prague.
This emperor ever had evil luck fighting against the
Turks. Twice he warred against them, and in both the
battles was discomfited and put to flight ; once, about the
city of Mysia, fighting against Eajazet, the Great Turk,
A. D. VMa, the second time fighting against Celebinus,
the son of Bajazet, about the town called Columbacium.
But especially after the council of Constance, wherein
were condemned and burned these two godly martyrs,
more unprosperous results followed him fighting against
his own subjects, the Bohemians, A. D. 1420, by whom
he was repulsed in so many battles, to his great dis-
honour, during all the life of Zisca, and of Procopius,
as is before more at large expressed ; he was so beaten
by the Turks, and at home by his own people, that he
never encountered the Turks afterwards. Then followed
the council of Basil, after the beginning of which this
Sigismund, who was emperor, king of Hungary, and
king of Bohemia, died in Moravia, A. D. 1437.
THE EMPEROR ALBERT.
This Sigismund left behind him only one daughter,
Ehzabeth, who was married to Albert, duke of Austria,
by which he was advanced to the empire, and so was both
duke of Austria, emperor, king of Hungary, and also
king of Bohemia. This Albert, being an enemy and a
disquieter to the Bohemians, and especially to the good
men of Tabor, as he was preparing and setting forth
against the Turks, died in the second year of his reign,
A. D. 1439, leaving his wife great with child; who being
then in Hungary, and believing that she should bear
a dau'j;hter, called to her the princes and the chieftains of
the realms, declaring to them that she was but a woman,
and insufficient to the government of such a state ; and
moreover, how she thought herself to be with child of a
daughter ; and therefore required them to provide
among them such a prince and governor, (reserving the
right of the kingdom to herself) as were fit and ablo
under her, to have the management of the empire com-
mitted to. The Turk, in the meanwhile, being elevated
and encouraged with his victories against Sigismund,
began more fiercely to invade Hungary, and those parts
of Christendom. Wherefore the Hungarians, making
the more haste, consulted among themselves to make
Duke Uladislaus, brother to Casimir, king of Poland,
their king.
But while this was in progress between the Hunga-
rians and Uladislaus, in the mean space Elizabeth
brought forth a son called Ladislaus, who being the law-
ful heir of the kingdom, the queen called back again
her former word, minding to reserve the kingdom for her
son, being the true heir, and therefore refused marriage
with Uladislaus, which she had before designed. But
Uladislaus joining with a great part of the Hungarians,
persisting still in the condition before granted, would not
give over ; by which great contention and division
kindling among the people of Hungary, Amurath, the
Great Turk, taking his advantage of their discord, and
partly elated with pride at his former success against
Sigismund, with his whole main and force invaded the
realm of Hungary; where Huniades, sirnamed Vainoda,
prince of Transilvania, joining with the new king Ula-
dislaus, both together set against the Turk, A. D. 1444,
and there Uladislaus, the new king of Hungary, the
fourth year of his kingdom, was slain. Elizabeth, with
her son, fled in the meanwhile to Frederic the emperor.
Of Huniades Vainoda, the noble captain, and of his acts,
and also of Ladislaus CChrist willing) more shall be said
hereafter, in his time and place.
FREDERIC III., EMPEROR,
After the decease of Albert, Frederic III., duke of Aus-
tria, succeeded in the empire, A. D. 1440. By whom
it was procured (as we have before signified) that Pope
Felix, elected by the council of Basil, resigneti his pope
dom to Pope Nicholas V. ; upon this condition, that
Pope Nicholas should ratify the acts decreed in the coun-
cil of Basil. In the days of this emperor much war and
dissension raged almost through all christian realms, in
Austria, Hungary, Poland, in France, in Burgundy, and
also here in England, between King Henry VI. and
King Edward IV., so that it might have been easy for
the Turk to have overrun all t-he christian realms in
Europe, had not the providence of our merciful Lord
otherwise provided to keep Amurath the Turk occupied
in other civil wars at home in the meanwhile. To this
Frederic came Elizabeth, with Ladislaus her son, by
whom he was nourished and entertained a certain space,
till at length, after the death of Uladislaus, king of
Hungary, the men of Austria, through the instigation of
Ulric Eizingerus, and of Ulric, earl of Cilicia, rising in
arms, required Frederic the emperor, either to give
them their young king, or else to stand to his own
defence.
When Frederic heard this, he would neither render
a sudden answer, neither would he abide any longer
delay ; and so the matter going to war, the new city was
besieged, where many were slain, and much harm done.
At length the emperor's part being the weaker, the em-
peror, through the intervention of certain nobles of Ger-
many, restored Ladislaus to their hands, who being yet
under age, committed his three kingdoms to three go-
vernors. John Huniades, the worthy captain above-
mentioned, had the ruling of Hungary ; George Pogie-
bracius had Bohemia ; and Ulric, the earl of Cilicia,
had Austria. Which Ulric, having the chief custody of
the king, had the greatest authority ; a man as full of
ambition and tyranny, as he was hated almost by all the
Austriaus, and shortly after, by means of Eizingerus^
382
LADISLAUS THE YOUNG KING OF BOHEMIA.
[Book VI.
was excluded also from the king and the court, but after-
ward restoredagain, and Eizingerus thrust out. Suchisthe
unstable condition of those who are in place about princes.
Not long after, Ladislaus, tlie young king, went to
Bohemia to be crowned there, where George Pogiebra-
cius had the government. But Ladislaus during all the
time of liis being there, though being much requested,
yet would neither enter into the churches, nor hear the
service of those who followed the doctrine of IIuss. So
that when a certain priest, in the high tower of Prague,
was appointed and addressed, after the manner of priests,
to say service before the king, being known to hold with
John Huss and Rochezana, the king disdaining him,
commanded him to give place and depart, or else he
would send him headlong from the rock of the tower ;
and so the good minister repulsed by the king, departed.
Also, another time, Ladislaus seeing the sacrament car-
ried by a minister of that side, whom they called then
Hussites, would pay no reverence to it.
At length the abode of the king, although it was not
very long, yet seemed to the godly-disposed to be longer
than they wished ; and that was not unknovni to the
king, which made him make the more haste away ; but
before he departed, he thought first to visit the noble
city Uratislavia, in Silesia ; in which city Ladislaus
being there in the high church at service, many great
princes were about him ; among whom was also George
Pogiebracius, who then stood nearest to the king, to
whom one Chilian, playing the parasite about the king,
(as the fashion is of such as feign themselves fools, to
make other men as very fools as they) spake as follows :
" With what countenance you behold this our service I
see right well, but your heart I do not see. Say, then,
doth not the order of this our religion seem unto you
decent and comely .' Do you not see how many and
how great princes, yea, the king himself, follow one
order and uniformity ? And why do you then follow
rather your preacher Rochezana than these.' Do you
think a few Bohemians more wise than all the church of
Christ besides .' Why then do you not forsake that
rude and rustic people, and join to these nobles, as you
are a nobleman yourself?"
To whom thus Pogiebracius sagely answered, " If you
speak these words of yourself, you are not the man
whom you feign yourself to be ; and so I answer to you
not as to a fool. But if you speak this by the sugges-
tion of others, then must I satisfy them. Hear, there-
fore : As to the ceremonies of the church, every man has
a conscience of his own to follow. As for us, we use such
ceremonies as we trust please God : neither is it for
our choice to believe what we will ourselves. The mind
of man, being persuaded with great reasons, is captivated
whether he will or no ; and as nature is instructed and
taught, so is she drawn, in some one way, and in some
another. As for myself, I am fully persuaded in the re-
ligion of my preachers. If I should follow thy religion,
1 might perchance deceive men, going contrary to mine
own conscience, but I cannot deceive God, who seeth
the hearts of all ; neither shall it become me to frame
myself to thy disposition. That which is meet for a
jester, is not likewise convenient for a nobleman. And
these words either take to thyself as spoken to thee, if
thou be a wise man, or else I refer them to those who set
thee on work."
After the king was returned from the Bohemians
again to Austria, the Hungarians likewise made their
petitions to the king, that he would come to them. The
governor of Hungary was John Iluniades, whose vic-
torious acts against the Turks are famous. Against this
Huniades, wicked Ulric, earl of Cilicia, did all he could
with the king to bring him to destruction, and therefore
caused the king to send for him to Vienna, and there
privily to work his death. But Huniades having intel-
ligence, offers himself in Hungary, to serve his prince to
all affairs. Out of the land where he was, it was neither
best, said he, for the king, nor safest for himself to
come. The earl being so disappointed, came down with
certain nobles of the court to the borders of Hungary,
thinking either to apprehend him and bring him to
Vieaaa, or there to despatch him. Huniades, said he,
would commune with him in the open fields, but within the
town he should not be brought. After tliat another
train also was laid for him, that under pretence of the
king's safe conduct, he should meet the king in
the broad fields of Vienna. But Huniades, suspecting
deceit, came indeed to the place appointed, where he
neither seeing the king to come, nor the earl to have any
safe conduct for him, was moved (and not without
cause) against the earl, declaring how it was in his
power there to slay him, who went about to seek his
blood, but for his reverence to the king he would spare
him, and let him go.
Not long after this, the Turk, with a great army of
fighting men, to the number of one hundred and fifteen
thousand, arrived in Hungary, where he laid siege to the
city Alba. But through the merciful hand of God, John
Huniades, and Capistranus, a certain Minorite, with a
small garrison of chnstian soldiers, gave him the repulse,
and put him to flight, with all his mighty host. Huni-
ades shortly after this victory, died ; of whose death when
the king and the earl were informed, they came the more
boldly into Hungary, where being received by Ladis-
laus Huniades' son into the town of Alba, there viewed
the place where the Turks before had pitched their tents.
When this Ladislaus heard that the king was coming first
toward the town, he obediently opened to him the gates.
He prevented four thousand armed soldiers from en-
tering the city.
In the mean time, while the king was resident in the
city, the earl, with other nobles, sat in council, requiring
Ladislaus also to resort to them ; who first doubting
with himself what he might do, at length put on secret
armour, and came to them. Whether the earl first
began with him, or he with the earl, is not known. The
opinion of some is, that Ulric first called him traitor, for
shutting the gates against the king's soldiers. However
the occasion began, this is undoubted, that Ulric, taking
his sword from his page, struck at his head. To break
the blow, some putting up their hands had their fingers
cut off. The Hungarians, hearing a noise and tumult
within the chamber, brake it open, and there instantly
slew Ulric the earl, wounding and cutting him almost all
to pieces. The king hearing thereof, although he was
not a little discontented at it in his mind ; yet seeing there
was then no other remedy, dissembled his grief for a time.
From thence the king took his journey again to Buda,
accompanied with Ladislaus ; passing by the town where,:
the wife of Huniades was mourning for the death of her r
husband, he seemed with many fair words to comfort,!
her, and after he had there sufficiently refreshed himself, ,
with such pretence of dissembled love, and feigned favour, ,
that they were without all suspicion and fear, he set !
forward from thence in his journey, taking with him the '
two sons of Huniades, Ladislaus and Matthias, who were
right ready to wait upon him. The king being come to
Buda, (whether of his own head, or by sinister counsel
set on) when he had them at a vantage, caused them both
to be seized. And first, Ladislaus, the elder son,
was brought forth to the place of execution, there to
be beheaded, where he meekly suffered, being charged
with no other crime but this, published by tlie voice of I
the cryer, saying, ' ' Thus are they to be chastened who are
rebels against their lord." Peucer, writing of his death,
adds, that after the hangman had struck three blows at
his neck, yet Ladislaus, having his hands bound behind
him, after the third stroke, rose upright upon his feet,
and looking up to heaven, called upon the Lord, and
protested his innocency in that behalf; and so laying
down his neck again, at the fourth blow was dispatched.
Matthias, the other brother, was led captive with the
king into Austria. The rest of the captives brake the
prison, and escaped.
It was not long after this act of cruelty, the king being
about the age of twenty- two years, that talk was made oi
the king's marriage with Magdalen, daughter to the
French king. The place of the marriage was appointed
at Prague, where was great preparation for the matter.
At the first entrance of the king into the city of Prague,
Rochezana, with a company of ministers, such as
were favourers of John Huss, and of sincere ie>
A. D. 14rj— 1475.] DEATH OF LADISLAUS.— WAR THROUGHOUT EUROPE.
363
ligion, came with all solemnity to receive the king, ,
making there his oration to congratulate the king's most
joyful and prosperous access into his own realm and
country of Bohemia. After he had ended his oration, the
king would scarcely open his mouth to give thanks to him,
or any cheerful countenance to liis company, but fiercely
seemed to frown upon them. In the next pageant after
these came forth the priests of the high minister, after
the most popish manner, meeting him with procession,
and with the sacrament of the altar. For as a panacea
among physicians serves for all diseases, so the sacra-
ment of the pope's altar serves for all pomps and pa-
geants. First it must lie upon the altar, then it must
be held up with hands, then it must hang in the pix, it
must serve for the living, it must also help the dead, it
must visit the sick, it must walk about the churchyard,
it must go about the streets, it must be carried about
the fields to make the grass to grow, it must be had to
the battle, it must ride on horseback before the pope.
And finally it must welcome kings into cities. These
catholic fathers do seem somewhat to forget themselves.
For if the pope, being inferior to the sacrament of the
altar, sit still, while the kings come and kiss his feet,
what reason is it that the sacrament of the altar, which
is above the pope, should meet kings by the way, and
welcome them to the town ? But this by the way of
parenthesis. Let us now continue the text.
When this catholic king, Ladislaus, who had shewed
himself before so stout and stern against Rochezana and
his company, had seen these catholic priests with their
procession, and especially with their blessed sacrament,
to come with all reverence and much devotion he lighted
down from his horse, he embraced the cross and kissed
it, and with cheerful countenance saluted the priests in
order. All this while his young wife was not yet come
out of France, but legates were sent in the most sump-
tuous way to conduct her. Other legates also were sent
at the same time to the Emperor Frederick for conclu-
sion of peace. The third legacy was directed likewise
to Pope CalLxtus about religion, hov/ to reduce the Bo-
hemians to the church of Rome. The author of this
history (which was Pope Pius himself) declares further
the opinion of some to be, that King Ladislaus the same
time had intended to make a final end and destruction
of all that sect in Bohemia, who held with the doctrine
of John Huss and Jerome, by the assembly and con-
course of the catholic princes, and popish prelates, who
were appointed there to meet together at that marriage
in Prague. For there were to have been first the Emperor
Frederick, Elizabeth the king's mother, and his sisters
Elizabeth and Anna, the princes of Saxony, Bajoria,
Silesia, Franconia, the Palatine, and other princes of the
Rhine. Many eJso of the lords of France, besides the
pope's cardinals, legates, prelates, and other potentates
of the pope's church, who if they had assembled alto-
gether in Bohemia, no doubt but some great mischief
had been wrought there against the Hussites ; but when
man has purposed, yet God disposes as pleaselh him.
And, therefore, it is truly written by iEneas Sylvius,
in the same place, saying, " De refflmine civitatum, de
mutatione regnorum, de orbis imperio, minimum est
quod homines possiut (tum vero de religionis constitutione
multo minus) magna magnus disponit Deus." That
\s, in the government of cities, in alteration of kingdoms,
in ruling and governing the world, it is less than nothing
that man can do ; it is the high God that ruleth high
things. Whereunto then I may well add this moreover,
and say, that if the governance of worldly kingdoms
standeth not in man's power, but in the disposition of
God, much less is it then that man's power can do in
the ordering and governing of religion. Example
whereof in this purposed device of princes doth evi-
dently appear. For as this great preparation and
solemnity of marriage was in progress, and the princes
ready to set it forth, with a little turn of God's holy
hand, all these great purposes were suddenly turned and
dashed. For in the midst of this business, about the
twenty-first day of November, A.D. 1461, this great ad-
versary of Christ's people, King Ladislaus, king of
Bohemia, of Hungary, and prince of Austria sickened,
and within six and thirty hours died. As it came not
without the just judgment of God, revenging the inno-
cent blood of Ladislaus Huniades' son, so by the ojjpor-
tune death of this king the poor churches of Bohemia
were graciously delivered. And this was the end of
Ladislaus, one of the mightiest princes at that time in
all Europe, in whom three mighty kingdoms were con-
joined and combined together, Austria, Hungary, and
Bohemia.
After the death of Ladislaus, the kingdom of Bohe-
mia fell to George Pogiebracius, whom Pope Innocent
VIII. excommunicated and deposed for his religion.
The kingdom of Hungary was given to Matthias, son
of Huniades, who was in captivity (as is said) under
King Ladislaus, and would have been put to death after
his brother had not the king been overtaken by death.
The noble acts of John Huniades, and of this Mat-
thias his son, were not only great stays to Hungary, but
almost to all Christendom, in repelling the Turk. For
beside the other victories of John Huniades the father,
this Matthias his son succeeding no less in valiantness
than in the name of his father, so recovered Sirmiura,
and the confines of lUyrica, from the hand of the Turks,
and so vanquished their power, that both Mahomet and
also Bajazet his son were forced to seek for truce.
Matthias, conducting his army into Bosnia, recovered
again Jaitza, the principal town of that kingdom,
from the Turks' possession, and if other christian
princes had joined their help withal, he would have
proceeded farther into Thrace. But behold here the
malicious subtlety of Satan, working by the pope ; for
while Matthias was thus occupied in this expedition
against the Turks, wherein he should have been set
forward and aided by christian princes and bishops, the
bishop of Rome wickedly and sinfully ministers matter
of civil discord between him and Pogiebracius, in re-
moving him from the right of his kingdom, and trans-
ferring it to Matthias ; by which not only the tide of
victory against the Turks was stopped, but also great war
and bloodshed followed in christian realms, as wellbetween
this Matthias and Pogiebracius, with his two sons Vic-
torinus and Henry, as also between Casimir Uladislaus,
and Matthias warring about Uratislavia, till at length
the matter was taken up by the princes of Germany.
Notwithstanding all the execrable excommunication
of the pope against Pogiebracius, a great part of Bohe-
mia would not be removed from the obedience of their
king, whom the pope had cursed and deposed ; yet
Matthias took from him Moravia, and a great portion of
Silesia, and adjoined it to his kingdom of Hungary,
A.D. 1474.
Where this by the way is to be noted, that the re-
ligion in Bohemia, planted by John Huss, could not be
extinguished or suppressed with all the power of four
mighty princes, Vinceslaus, Sigismund, Albert, and
Ladislaus, although with the popes they did all they
possibly could ; but still the Lord maintained the sanje,
as we see by this Pogiebracius, king of Bohemia, whom the
pope could not remove out of the kingdom of Bohemia.
This Matthias, beside his other memorable acts of
chivalry, is no less also commended for his singular
knowledge and love of learning and of learned men,
whom he with great salaries brought into Pannonia,
where by the means of good letters, and supplies of
learned men, he reduced in a short tim6 the barbarous
rudeness of that country into a flourishing common-
wealth. Moreover, he there erected such a library, and
replenished it with all kinds of authors, sciences, and
histories, which he caused to be translated out of Greek
into Latin, that its equal is not to be found next to
Italy, in all Europe beside.
Immediately after this there was contention and war
in every part of Europe ; almost no angle or portion of
all Christendom (whether we consider the church, or
civil government) was free from discord, tumults, and
dissensions. This cankered worm of ambition so migh-
tily creeps, and every where prevails in these later ends
of the world, that it suffers neither rest in common-
wealths, nor peace in the church, nor scarcely any
spark of charity to remain in the life of men. And wlu^
364 THE AVARICE OF THE SEE OF ROME.— JOHN OF FRANCONIA A MARTYR. [Book VI.
marvel then, if the Lord seeing us so far to degenerate,
not oiilv f.oin his precepts and counsels, but almost from
the sense and bond of nature, that brother with brother,
uncle with nephew, blood with blood, cannot agree, in
striving, killing, and fighting, for worldly dominions,
do send tliese cruel Turks upon us, to scourge and de-
vour us ? of whose bloody tyranny and daily spilling of
christian blood hereafter (by the grace of Christ) we
will discourse more at large, when we come to the pecu-
liar consideration of the Turkish histories. In the
meantime this shall be for us to note and observe, not
so much the scourge how grievous it is ; but rather to
behold the causes which bring the whip upon us, which
is our own miserable ambition and wretched wars among
ourselves.
'And yet if this christian peace and love, left and com-
mended so heartily unto us by the mouth of the Son of
God, being now banished out of christian realms, and
civil governance, might at last find some refuge in the
church, or take sanctuary among men professing nothing
but religion, and we should have less cause to mourn.
Now. however, we see little peace and amity among civil
potentates ; so we find less in the spiritual sort of them,
who chiefly take upon them the administration of Christ's
church. So that it may well be doubted whether the
scourge of the Turk, or the civil sword of princes have
slain more in the fields, or the pope's keys have burnt
more in towns and cities. And although such as are
professed to the church do not fight with sword and
target for dominions and revenues, as warlike princes
do ; yet this ambition, pride and avarice, appears in
them "nothing inferior to otherworldly potentates ; espe-
cially if we behold the doings and insatiable desifes of
the court of Rome. Great arguments and proof hereof
are neither hard to be found, nor far to be sought ; what
realm almost through all Christendom has not only seen
with their eyes, but have felt in their purses the intoler-
able ambition and insatiable avarice of that devouring
church, and also have complained of the grievance, but
never could obtain redress ! What exactions and extor-
tions have been here in England out of bishopricks,
monasteries, benefices, deaneries, archdeaconries, and
all other offices of the church, to fill the pope's coffers I
and when they had done all, yet every year brought al-
most some new invention from Rome to fetch in our
English money ; and if all the floods in England (yea in
all Europe) run into the see of Rome, yet were that
ocean never able to be satisfied.
In Francs likewise what floods of money were swal-
lowed up into this see of Rome 1 It was openly com-
plained of in the council of Basil, as is testified by
Henry Token, canon and ambassador of the archbishop
of Maidenburg, that in the council of Basil, A. D.
1436, the archbishop of Lyons declared that in the time
of Pope Martin, there came out of France to the court
of Rome, nine millions of gold, which was gathered by
the bishops and prelates, besides those which could not
be counted of the inferior clergy, who daily without
number ran to the court of Rome, carrying with them
all their whole substance. The archbishop of Tours
said also at Basil, A. D. 1439, that three millions of
gold came to Rome in his time, within the space of
fourteen years, from the prelates and prelacies, besides
the inferior clergy who daily ran to that court.
And what made Pope Pius II. labour so earnestly to
Lewis XI. the French king, that he should promise to
abolish and utterly extinguish the constitution establish-
ed at the council of Bourges, by King Charles VII. his
predecessor, called the Pragmatic Sanction ; but only
the ambition of that see, which had no measure, and
their avarice which had no end ? The story is this :
Kin" Charles VII. willing to obey and follow the council
of B^asil, summoned a parliament at Bourges ; where by
the full consent of all the states in France, both spiritual
and temporal, a certain constitution was decreed and
published, called the Pragmatic Sanction ; wherein was
comprehended briefly the pith and effect of all the
canons and decrees concluded in the council of Basil.
Which constitution King Charles commanded through
all his realm to be observed inviolably and ratified for
the honour and increase of christian religion for ever.
This was A. U. 14:58.
It followed thai after the decease of Charles, succeed-
ed King Lewis XI. who had promised before, while he
was dauphin, to Pope Pius, that if he ever came to the
crown, the pragmatic sanction should be abolished.
Pius hearing of his being crowned, sent to him John
Balveus, a cardinal, with his letters patent, desiring
him to be mindful of his promise. The king, either
willing, or else pretending a will to perform and accom-
plish what he had promised, directed the pope's letters
patent, with the cardinal, to the council of Paris, re-
quiring them to consult upon the cause.
Thus the matter being brought and proposed in the
parliament, the king's attorney named John Roinane, a
man well spoken, singularly witted, and well reasoned,
stepping forth, with great eloquence, and no less bold-
ness, proved the sanction to be profitable, hojy, and
necessary for the wealth of the realm, and in no case to
be abolished. To whose sentence the university of
Paris adjoining their consent, aj)pealed from the at-
tempts of the pope to the next general council. The
cardinal understanding this, was not a little indignant
at it, fretting and fuming, and threatening many terrible
things against them ; but notwithstanding all his threat-
ening words, he returned again to the king, not having
obtained his purpose, A. D. 1438.
Thus the pope's purpose in France was disappointed,
which also in Germany had come to the like eftect, if
Frederick the emperor had there done his part toward
the Germans ; they, bewailing their miserable estate,
went with humble suit to persuade the emperor, that he
should no longer be under the subjection of the j)opes of
Rome, unless they first obtained certain things as touching
the charter of appeals ; declaring their state to be far
worse than the French or Italians. The nobles and
commonalty of Germany intreat with most weighty
reasons, to have the emperor's aid and help as he was
bound to them by an oath ; alleging also the great dis-
honour and ignominy in that they alone had not the use
of their own laws, declaring how the French nation had
not made their suit to their king in vain against the
exactions of popes. The emperor being moved, and
partly overcome by their persuasions, promised that he
would provide no less for them than the king of France
had done for the French, and to make decrees in that
behalf. But the grave authority of jEneas Sylvius, as
Platina writes in the history of Pius II. brake off the
matter ; who by his subtle and pestiferous persuasions,
so bewitched the emperor, that he, contemning the
equal, just and necessary requests of his subjects, chose
^'Eneas to be his ambassador to Calixtus, the newly
chosen pope, to swear to him in his name, and to pro-
mise the absolute obedience of all Germany.
And here ceasing with the history of Frederick, we
will now proceed to the reign of Maximilian, his son.
I must not pass over such christians as were con-
demned, and suffered the pains of fire for the testimony
of Christ and his truth. Of whom one was John, a
pastor or a neat-herd, who was a keeper of cattle : the
other was John de Wesalia, although not burned, yet
persecuted near to death, under the reign of this em-
peror, Frederick III.
And first, touching this John the neat-herd, thu»
writes Munster, that the bishop of Herbipolis con-
demned and burned for an heretick one John, who was
a keeper of cattle at a town called Nicholas Hausen in
Franconia, because he taught and held that the life of
the clergy was ignominious and abominable before God.
The other was doctor John de Wesalia, who was com-
plained of to Dietherus the archbishop of Mentz, by the
Thomists, upon cetain articles and opinions gathered
out of his books. Wherefore Dietherus directs com-
missions to the universities of Heidelburgh and Cologne,
to take the matter in examination ; who called this
Doctor de Wesalia before them, making him to swear
that he should present and give up all his treatises,
works and writings, whatever he had made or preached ;
that being done, they divided his books among them-
selves, severally, every man to find out what heresies
A.D. H75— 1479.]
THE EXAMINATION OF JOHN DE WESALIA.
3(5
and errors they could. His articles and opinions are
these :
" That all men be saved freely, and through mere grace
by faith in Chrbt. Free will to be nothing. Tliat we
should only believe the word of God, and not the gloss
of any man, or the fathers. That tlie word of God is to
De expounded by the collating one place with anotlier.
That prelates have no authority to make laws, nor to
expound thw scriptures, by any peculiar right given to
them more than to another. That nien"s traditions, as
fastings, pardons, feasts, long prayers, pilgrimages,
and sucii hke, are to be rejected. Extreme unction and
confirmation to be reproved ; confession and satisfaction
to be reprehended. The primacy of the pope also he
affirmed to be nothing."
Certain other articles also were gathered out of his
books by his adversaries, but in such sort, that they
may seem rather to follow their own malicious gather-
ing, than the true intention of his mind.
I Thus when Wesalia was commanded to appear, there
1 was the archbishop, the inquisitor, the doctors of Cologne,
'. and the doctors of Heidelburgh, with the masters of
I the same, and the rector of the university of Mentz, the
, dean of faculties, bachelors of divinity, and many other
masters of the same university, canons, doctors, with
: the bishop's chancellor, and his counsellors, besides
many religious prelates, scholars, with a doctor of Frank-
fort, the somner and beadles, who all met together in
the great hall of the minorites, for the examination of
, this John de Wesalia.
' Friar Elton, the inquisitor, first sits in the highest
place, then after him, others according to their degree.
i In the beginning of the examination, first the inquisitor
I begins widi these words, " Most reverend fathers and
I honourable doctors, &c. Our reverend father and prince
i elector has caused this present convocation to be called,
I to hear the examination of Master Joim de VV^esalia, in
I certain suspected articles concerning the catholic faith.
, But something I will say before, that may do him good,
I and desire that two or three of them that favour him, or
■ some other, will rise up and give him counsel to forsake
I and leave his errors, to acknowledge himself, and to ask
I pardon ; which, if he will do, he shall have pardon ; if he
I will not, we will proceed against him without pardon.''
I And thus Wesalia being cited, and brought in the midst
j betwLxt two minorites, being very aged, and having a
j staff in his hand, was set before the inquisitor. Begin-
1 ning to answer for himself with a long protestation, he
I was not sulfjred to go on with his oration, but was
] cut oft', and required briefly to make an end, and to tell
, them in a few words, whether he would stand to his
opinions, or to the determination of the church. To
I tliis he answered, that he never spake any thing
against the determination of the church, but said,
I " That he h td written several treatises, in which, if he
I had erred, or were found to say otherwise than well, he
, was contented to revoke and call back the same, and do
jail things that were requisite." Then said the inquisi-
I tor, " L)o you ask then pardon ?" The other answered,
j " Why should 1 ask pardon, when I know no crime or
'error committed?" The inquisitor said, "Well, we
] will call you to the remembrance thereof, and proceed to
I the examination."
I In the mean time, others called upon him instantly to
: ask pardon. Then said Wesalia, " I ask pardon."
Notwithstanding which, the inquisitor proceeded to the
I examination, reading there two instruments, declaring
that he had authority from the apostolic see ; after this,
I he cited John to appear to his examination. Thirdly,
i he commanded him under pain of disobedience, in the
; virtue of the Holy Ghost, and under pain of excommu-
nication of the greater curse (from which no man could
absolve him, but only the pope, or the inquisitor, ex-
cept only at the point of death), to tell plainly the truth
upon such things as should be demanded of him con-
cerning his faith, without doubts and sophistication of
words. And so being demanded first whether he be-
lieved upon his oath, that he was bound to tell the truth.
altliough it were against himself or any other ; to this he
answered, " I know it." Then the inquisitor bid him
say, " J believe it." To which he answered again,
" VV'hat need I say that I helieve the thing which 1
Anotr i"' There the inquisitor, something stiired with
the matter, cried witli a loud voice, " Master John,
Master John, Master John, say I believe, say I be-
lieve ;" then he answered, " I believe."
Many other interrogatories were ministered unto him,
whereof some were vain, some false.
Being demanded whether he was a favourer of tha
Bohemians, he said he was not. Also, being de-
manded concerning the sacrament of the holy body and
blood of our Lord, whether he thought Christ there to
be contained really, or only spiritually, and whether he
believed that in the sacrament, the substance of bread
remained, or only the form of it ; to this he answered,
not denying but the body of Christ was there really con-
tained, and also that with the body of Christ the sub-
stance of bread remained.
After this, he was demanded his opinion concerning
religious persons, as monks and nuns, whether he
thought them to be bound to the vow of chastity, or to
the keeping of any other vow, and whether he said to
the friars Minorites any such word in effect, " I cannot
save you in this your state and order." This he con-
fessed that he had said, " how that not your religion
saveth you, but the grace of God," &c. not denying but
they might be saved.
Being required whether he believed, or had written,
that tliere is no mortal sin, but which is expressed to be
mortal in the canon of the holy Bible ; to this he
answered, " that he did so believe as he hath written,
till he was better informed." Likewise, being required
what he thought of the vicar of Christ in earth, he
answered, " "That he believed that Christ left no vicar
in earth ;" for the confirmation of which he alleged and
said, " That Christ ascending up to heaven, said, ' Be-
hold I am with you,' &c. In which words he plainlj
declared, that he would substitute under him no vicai
here in earth ;" and said, moreover, " if a vicar signi-
fied any man who in the absence of the principal hath
to do the works of the principal, then Christ hath no
vicar here in earth."
In like manner, concerning indulgences and pardons,
they demanded of him, whether they had any efficacy,
and what he thought of them ; he answered, " That he
had written a certain treatise of that matter, and what
he had written in that treatise he would persist therein,
which was thus, ' That he believed that the treasure-
box of the merits of saints could not be distributed by
the pope to others, because that treasure is not left here
in earth, for so it is written in the book of Revelations,
' their works follow them ;' and that their merits could
not be applied to other men, for the satisfaction of their
pain due unto them ; and therefore that the pope and
other prelates cannot distribute that treasure to men."
Also, being demanded what he thought of the hallow-
ing and blessing of altars, chalices, vestments, wax-
candles, palms, herbs, holy-water, and other divine
things, &c.; be answered, " That they had no spiritual
virtue and power in them to drive away devils, and that
holy-water has no more efficacy than other water not
hallowed, as concerning remission of venial sins, and
driving away devils, and other effects, which the school
doctors attribute to it."
He believed, " That God may give grace to a man,
having the use of reason, without all motion of free
will." Also, he thought- " that St. Paul, in his con-
version, did nothing of his own free will for his conver-
sion." He believed, moreover, " That God may give
such grace to a man having the use of reason, not doing
that which is in him."
He affirmed, " That nothing is to be believed which
is not contained in the canon of the Bible."
Also, " That the elect are saved only by the grace of
God."
This examination being ended, and the articles con
demned by the inquisitor and his assistants, then he said
after this manner : *' As you do with me, if Christ bim«
see
RECANTATION OF JOHN DE WESALIA.— KING EDWARD V.
[Book VI.
self were here, he might be condemned as a heretic."
After this they sent several to him to have communica-
tion with him, and to persuade him ; at length, within
three or four days after, he was content to yield to
them, and to submit himself to their holy mother
church, and the information of the doctors.
Although this aged and feeble old man, by weakness
was constrained to give over to the Romish clergy, by
outward profession of his mouth, yet, notwithstanding,
his opinions and doctrine declared his inward heart, of
what judgment he was, if fear of present death had not
forced him to say otherwise than he thought.
In the year 1484, in the Emperor Maximilian's time,
died Pope Sixtus IV., who was rather a monster of nature
than a prelate of the church. Of him Platina writes,
that he unjustly vexed all Italy with war and dissension
and openly countenanced and encouraged gross vice and
immorality.
Of the said pope it is recorded, that he was a special
patron and tutor to all begging friars, granting them to
have and enjoy revenues in this world, and in the world
to come everlasting life. Among which friars there was
one named Alanus de Rupe, a black friar, who made the
rosary of our lady's psalter.
Concerning the institution of this rosary, there was a
book set forth (about A. D. 1480). In the beginning
whereof is declared, " That the blessed virgin entered
into the cell of this Alanus, and espoused him to herself
as her husband." For the truth of which story Alanus
did swear deeply, cursing himself, if it were not even as
he had made relation !
But leaving here Pope Sixtus with his vices, let us
now proceed to the history of Maximilian, keeping
also the order of our kings here in England. For a
little before the reign of Maximilian, King Edward IV.
died (A. D. 1483), after he had reigned twenty-two
years.
KING EDWARD V.
This King Edward left behind him by his wife Eliza-
oeth, two sons, Edward and Richard, and two daughters,
Elizabeth and Cecilia. Which two sons, Edward and
Richard, as they were under age, and not ripe to govern, a
consultation was called among the peers, to debate whether
the aforesaid young prince and king, should bo under the
government of his mother, or else that Richard, duke
of Gloeester, brother to King Edward IV., and uncle to
the child, should be governor of the king, and protector
of the realm. There was then among otlier noble peers
of the realm, the duke of Buckingham, a man of great
authority, who had married King Edward's wife's sister.
Because the duke being so near allied to the king, had
been unkindly, as he thought, treated by the king, hav-
ing no advancement by him, nor any great friendship
shewed to him, he took part with Richard, duke of Glo-
cester, both against the queen and her children, to make
the duke the chief governor and protector. Which be-
ing brought to pass, by the aid, assistance, and working
of the duke of Buckingham, the queen took sanctuary
with her younger son ; the elder brother, who was the
king, remaining in the custody of the duke of Glocester,
his uncle, who, being now in a good towardness to ob-
tain that which he had long looked for, sought all the
means, and soon compassed the matter, by false colour of
dissembled words, by perjury, and the labour of friends,
namely of the duke of Buckingham, and the cardinal
archbishop of Canterbury, that the other brother also
should be committed to his care. Thus the ambitious
protector and unnatural uncle, having the possession of
his two nephews, and innocent babes, thought himself
almost up the wheel where he would climb, although he
could not walk in such mists and clouds, but his pur-
poses began to be seen, which caused him more secretly
to remove from him all suspicion, and to blind the peo-
ple's eyes. But before he could accomplish his execra-
ble enterprise, there were some whom he thought must
first be rid out of the way, namely the Lord Ilastings,
and the Lord Stanley, who as they were sitting together
in council within the Tower, the protector suddenly
rushed in among them, and after a few words there
communed, he suddenly hasted out again, his mind
being full of mischief and fury, and within the f|)ace
of an hour he returned again into the chamber, with
a stern countenance and a frowning look, and so sat
down in his place. Shortly afterwards he charged them
as traitors, and had them both arrested without any
cause whatever.
The Lord Hastings was commanded to speed and
confess his sins apace, for before dinner the protector
sware by St. Paul that he should die ; and so without fur-
ther judgment, his head was struck off.
After this tyrannous murder, the mischievous pro-
tector aspiring still to the crown, to set his devices for-
ward, first through gifts and fair promises, suborned
Doctor Shaw, a famous preacher then in London, at St.
Paul's Cross, to insinuate to the people, that neither
King Edward with his sons, nor the duke of Clarence,
were the lawful children of the duke of York, but that
they were the children of the duchess their mother, by
some other person, and that he alone was the true and
only lawful heir of the duke of York. Moreover, to de-
clare and to signify to the audience that King Edward
was never lawfully married to the queen, but his wife
before was dame Elizabeth Lucy, and that so the two
children of King Edward were illegitimate, and therefore
the title of the crown most rightly pertained to the lord
protector. Thus this false flatterer, and loud lying |
preacher, to serve the protector's humour, was not I
ashamed most impudently to abuse that holy place, that
reverend auditory, and the sacred word of God, where-
upon such disdain of the people' followed him, that for
shame of the people crying out against him, in a few
days after he pined away.
When this sermon would take no effect with the peo-
ple, the protector, unmercifully drowned in ambition,
rested not thus, but within a few days after excited the
duke of Buckingham, first to break the matter in private
talk to the mayor and certain heads of the city picked
out for the purjjose ; that done, to come to the Guild-
hall, to move the people by all flattering and lying per-
suasions to the same, which shameless Shaw before had
preached at St. Paul's Cross. Which the duke, with all
diligence and helps of eloquence, being a man both
learned and well spoken, endeavoured to accomplish,
making to the people a long and artificial oration, sup-
j)osing no less, but that the people, allured by his crafty
insinuations, would cry. King Richard, King Richard I
But there was no King Richard in their mouths, less in
their hearts. Whereupon the duke looking to the lord
mayor, and asking what this silence meant, contrary tO
the promise of the one, and the expectation of the other,
it was then answered of the mayor, that the people per-
adventure understood him not ; wherefore the duke, re ■
iterating his narration in other words, declared again
what he had done before. Likewise the third time he
repeated his oration again and again. Then the com-
mons who before stood mute, being now in amaze, seeing
this opportunity, began to mutter softly among them-
selves, but yet no king Richard could sound in their lips,
save only that in the nether end of the hall, certain of
the duke's servants, with one Nashfield, and other be-
longing to the protector, thrusting into the hall among
the press, began suddenly to cry King Richard, King
Richard 1 throwing up their caps, whereat the citizens
turning back their heads, marvelled not a little, but said
nothing.
The duke and lord mayor taking this for sufficient tes-
timony, came to the protector, who was then at Baynard's
castle. Where the matter being arranged before, was
now so contrived, that humble petition was made in the
name of the whole commons, to the protector, that he,
although it was utterly against his will to take it, yet
would of his humility stoop so low as to receive the
heavy kingdom of England upon his shoulders. At this
their tender request and suit of the lords and commons
made, the mild duke, seeing no other remedy, was con-
tented at length to yield, although sore against his will
(ye must so imagine), and to submit himself so low, as
of a protector to be made king ; not much herein unlike
A.D. 1483-1485.] RICHARD III. THE USURPER.-BATTLE OF BOSWORTH FIELD.
to our prelates in the popish church, who when they
have before well compounded for the pope's bulls, vet
must they for manner sake make courtesy, and thrice
deny that for which they so long before have gaped, and
so sweetly have paid for.
KING RICHARD III. USURPER.
And thus Richard duke of Glocester took upon him
to be made and proclaimed king of England, in the
month of June, A.D. 148,5.
The triumph and solemnity of his usurped coronation
being finished, this unquiet tyrant yet could not think
himself safe, so long as young Edward the right king
and his brother were alive ; wherefore the next enter-
prise which he did set upon was this, how to rid those
innocent babes out of the way, that he might reign king
alone.
In the meantime, while all this ruffling was in hand,
what dread and sorrow the tender hearts of these father-
less and friendless children were in, what little joy of
themselves, what small joy of life they had, it is not so
hard as grievous for tender hearts to understand. As
the younger brother lingered in thought and heaviness,
so the prince, who was eleven years old, was so out of
heart, and so fraught with fear, that he never tied his
points, nor enjoyed good day, till the traitorous impiety of
their cruel uncle had delivered them of their wretched-
ness. After King Edward their uncle had first attempted
to compass his devilish device by Robert Brakenbury,
constable of the Tower, and could not win him to such a
cruel act, then he got one James Tyril, and with him
John Dighton, and Miles Forrest, to perpetrate this
heinous murder. Dighton and Forrest, about midnight
entering into the princes' chamber, so wrapped and en-
tangled them amongst the clothes, keeping down the
feather-bed and pillows hard to their mouths, that within
a while they smothered and stifled them in their bed.
And thus these two young princes ended their lives,
through the wretched cruelty of these tormentors, who,
for their detestable and bloody murder, escaped not long
unpunished by the just hand of God. For first Miles
Forrest miserably rotted away by piece-meal. John
Dighton lived at Calais long after, so disdained and hated,
that he was pointed at by all men, and died there in great
misery. Sir James Tyril was beheaded at Tower Hill for
treason. Also King Richard himself, within a year and
half after, was slain in the field, hacked and hewed by
his enemies' hands.
Furthermore, the justice of God's hand let not the
duke of Buckmgham escape free ; for within less than a
year after God so wrought, that he was beheaded for
treason by the king, whom he so unjustly before had ad-
vanced.
Doctor Morton, bishop of Ely, had devised bringing
Henry, earl of Richmond, to England, and marrying him
to Ehzabeth, King Edward's daughter, thereby joining
the two houses of Yoi-k and Lancaster together. This
device was first broken to the duke of Buckingham,
which soon after cost him his life. But that bishop,
more crafty to save himself, fled into Britany ; the
device however once being broached, was so plausible
and took such effect, that a message was sent over
the sea to Henry, earl of Richmond, by his mother,
and by the queen, mother to the Lady Elizabeth, that
tll^^'^'f ,'^''^^. ¥' '■^*''™' ^"'^ P'-o'^i^e to marry
with the Lady Elizabeth, King Edward's daughter, he
should be received.
Embracing this offer, the earl of Richmond takes the
seas at Harfleur, in the month of August (A D 1485")
accompanied only with two thousand men, and" a small
number of ships, arrived at Milford Haven, in Wales
and first came to Dale, then to Harford West, where he
was joyfully received, and also by the coming in of
Arnold Butler, and the Pembroke men, was increased in
power. From thence he removing by Cardigan to
Shrewsbury, and then to Newport, and so to Stafford,
In !"f 'a Lichfield, his army stiU more and more
augmented. As a great flood, by coming in of many
£67
small rivers, gathers more abundance of water ; so to
this earl, many noble captains and men of power joined
themselves, as Richard Griffith, John Morgan, Rice ap
Thomas ; then Sir George Talbot, with the young earl of
Shrewsbury, his ward ; Sir William Stanley ; Sir
Thomas Burchier ; and Sir Walter Hungerford, knights.
At last tlie earl, hearing of the king's coming, conducted
his whole army to Tamworth.
King Richard, hearing of the arrival of the Earl
Henry in the parts of Wales with so small a force,
gave little or no regard to it. But understanding that
he was come to Lichfield, without resistance or incum-
brance, lie was sore moved, cursing and crying out
against them who had so deceived him, and in all speed
sent for John duke of Norfolk, Henry earl of Northum-
berland, Thomas earl of Surrey, with other friends of
special trust. Robert Brakenbury also, lieutenant of
the Tower, was sent for, with Sir Thomas Burchier, and
Sir Walter Hungerford, with certain other knights and
esquires, whom he partly misdoubted. Thus, King
Richard, well fortified and accompanied, leaving nothing
undone that diligence could require, set forward toward
his enemies. The earl by this time was come to Tam-
worth, to whom secretly in the evening, resorted Sir
John Savage, Sir Bryan Sanford, Sir Simon Digby, and
many others, forsaking the part of King Richard, whom
all good men hated, as he indeed deserved. The king,
having perfect knowledge of the eari being encamped
at Tamworth, embattled himself in a place near a village
called Bosworth, not far from Leicester, determining
there to encounter his adversaries. Here the matter
lay in great doubt and suspense concerning the Lord
Stanley, (who was the earl's father-in-law, and had
married his mother) to whose part he would incline.
For although his heart went (no doubt) with the earl,
and lie had secret conference with him the night before,
yet because of his son and heir, George Lord Strange,
being then in the hands of King Richard, lest the king
should attempt any thing against him, he durst not be
seen openly to go that way where in heart he favoured,
and therefore, closely kept himself between both, till
the push came that his help might be of signal service.
The number of the earl's party was not more than
one half of the side of King Richard. When the time
and place was appointed, where the two battles should
encounter and join together, sore stripes and great
blows were given on both sides, and many slain. If
number and multitude might govern the success of
battle, King Richard had double the eari. But it is
God, not man, that giveth victory, by what means it
seemeth best to his divine providence. In what order,
and by what occasion this field was won and lost, the
certain intelligence we possess not, only the history of
Polydore Virgil, whom Sir Thomas More follows word
for word. In which history it ap^iears, that as these
two armies were coupling together. King Richard un-
derstanding by his spies where the eari of Richmond
was, and how he was but slenderly accompanied, and
seeing him approach more near to him, rather carried
with courage, than ruled with reason, set spurs to his
horse, and ranging out of the compass of his ranks, pres-
sed toward the eari, and set upon him so sharply, that
first he killed Sir William Brandon, the earl's standard-
bearer, father to the Lord Charies Brandon, duke of
Suffolk, then after overthrew Sir John Cheinie, thinking
likewise to oppress the eari. But as the Lord by his
secret providence disposeth the event of all things, as
the earl with his men about him, being overmatched,
began to despair of victory, suddenly and opportunely
came Sir William Stanley, with three thousand well-
appointed able men, whereby King Richard's men were
driven back, and he himself, cruelly fighting in the
thick of his enemies, was slain, and brought to his
confusion and death, which he worthily deserved.
In the meantime, the earl of Oxford, who had the
guiding of the forward, discomfited the forefront of King
Richard's host, and put them to flight, in which chase
many were slain, of noblemen especially above others,
John duke of Norfolk, Lord Ferrers, Sir Richard Had-
369 DEATH OP KING RICHARD HI.— HENRY Vll.— THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN. [Book VI.
cliff, and Robert Brankenbury, lieutenant of the Tower.
&c. Lord Thomas Haward, earl of Surrey, there sub-
mitted himself, and although he was not received at first
to grace, but remained long in the Tower, yet at length,
for his fidelity, he was delivered and advanced to his
recovered honour and dignity again.
This King Richard had but one son, who, shortly
after the cruel murder of King Edward's sons, was
taken with sickness and died.
Moreover, as to the Lord Stanley, thus reports the
history, that King Richard being in Bosworth field, sent
for Lord Stanley by a pursuivant, to advance with his
conii)any, otherwise he sware by Christ's passion, that
he would strike off his son's head before dinner. Tlie
Lord Stanley sent word again, that if he did, he had
more sons alive. The king immediately commanded
the Lord Strange to be beheaded ; at the very time
when both the armies were within sight, and were ready
to join together. Wherefore the king's councillors,
pondering the time and the case, persuaded the king
that it was now time to fight, and not to do execution,
advising him to delay the matter till the battle was
ended. And so (as God would) King Richard breaking
his oath, or rather keeping his oath, for he himself was
fdain before dinner, the Lord Strange was committed to
be kept prisoner within the king's tent ; who then, after
the victory was gotten, was sought out and brought to his
joyful father. And thus you have the tragical life and
end of this wretched King Richard.
Henry, the earl of Richmond, after hearty thanks
given to Abnighty God for his glorious victory, pro-
ceeded to the town of Leicester, where the crown was
brought to him by the Lord Strange, and put on the
earl's head.
In the meantime the dead corpse of King Richard was
shamefully carried to tlie town of I/cicester, being naked
and despoiled to the skin ; and being trussed behind a
pursuivant of arms, was carried like a hog or a dog,
having his head and arms hanging on the one side of
the horse, and the legs on the other side, all sprinkled
with mire and blood. And thus ended the usurped
reign of King Richard, who reigned two years and two
months.
KING HESRT the seventh.
When King Henry, by the providence of God, had
obtained this triumphant victory and diadem of the
realm, first sending for Edward Plantagenet, earl of War-
wick, son to George duke of Clarence, and committing
him to safe custody within the Tower, from Leicester he
removed to London, and not long after, according to
his oath and promise made before, he espoused the
young Lady Elizabeth, heir of the house of York ;
whereby both the houses of York and Lancaster were
joined together, to the no little rejoicing of all Eng-
lish hearts, and no less quiet unto the realm, which was
A. D. 1485. This king reigned twenty-three years and
eight months, and being a prince of great policy, justice,
and temperance, kept his realm in good tolerable rule
and order. And here, interrupting a little the course of
our English matters, we will now (the Lord willing)
enter the history above promised, of Maximilian the
emperor, and matters of the empire, especially such as
pertain to the church.
MAXIMILIAN THE EMPEROR.
So happy was the education of this emperor in good
letters, so expert he was in languages and sciences, but
especially such was his dexterity and promptness in the
Latin tongues, that he, imitating the exami)lo of Julius
Ciesar, did write and comprehend in Latin histories his
own acts and feats. Moreover, as he was learned liim-
self, so he was a singular patron and advancer of learned
students, as may well appear by the erecting and setting
up the university of Wittenburgh. By this emperor
many in those days were excited to embrace as weU
other libera' arts, as also the searching out of old his-
tories, by which several persons were induced to exer-
cise their diligence in collecting and exjjlaining matters
pertaining to the knowledge of history, as well of ancien*
as also of later times, as Cuspinianus, Nauclerus, Con-
radus, Peutingerus, Manlius, and others.
Here now it began to appear, what great benefit was
conferred on the world by the art and faculty of printing.
Through means of which the church and commonwealth
of Christ began now to be replenished with learned
men.
Among the many learned men of this time, must be
numbered Weselus Groningensis, otherwise named
Basilius. He was so notable and worthy a man, that the
people called him " The Light of the World."
Concerning his doctrine, he reprehended the opinion
of the ])apists, as touching re])entance, which they
divided into three parts, of which three parts, satisfac-
tion and confession he disallowed. Likewise purgatory
and supererogation of works and pardons he disproved,
both lit Rome and at Paris. He spake against the
pope's indulgences, by occasion of which several of the
jiope's court, being persuaded by him, began to sjieak
more freely against the matter than he himself had
done.
The abuses of masses, and praying for the dead he
disallowed ; and likewise the supremacy of the pope he
utterly rejected, denying utterly that any supreme head
or governor ought to be in the world over all other ;
affirming also, and saying many times, " That the pope
had no authority to do any thing by commandment, but
by truth, that is, so far as truth goes with him, so far
his sentence to stand ; neither that he ought to prevail
by commanding, but only by teaching, as every true
christian bishop may prevail over another." Also in
some places in his writings he denies not, " but that
pope's and their spiritual prelates, proceeding against
Christ's doctrine, are plain antichrists.*'
Also, Weselus witnesses that the fathers who were
before Albert and Thomas did resist and withstand the
pope's indulgences, calling them in their writings plain
idolatry, mere fraud and error ; adding moreover, that
unless the severity of some good divines had withstood
these pardons and indulgences of the pope, innumerable
errors had overflown the chiirch.
By this it may be seen and noted, how, by the grace
of God and gift of printing, first came forth learning, and
by learning came light to judge and discern the errors
of the pope from the truth of God's word.
About the very same time, whenthe gospel began thus
to branch and spring in Germany, the host of Christ's
church began also to muster and to multiply here in
England. For not long after the death of this Weselus,
A.D. 1494, and in the ninth year of the reign of Henry
VII., on the twenty-eighth of April, a very old woman
named Joan Boughton, widow, and mother to the Lady
Young, was burned, which lady was also suspected to be
of that opinion which her mother was. Her mother was
fourscore years of age or more, and held eight of Wick-
liff's opinions (which opinions my author does not shew)
for which she was burnt in Smithfield. Our author
says she was a disciple of Wickliff, whom she accounted
for a saint, and held so fast and firmly eight of his ten
opinions, that all the doctors of London could not turn
her from one of them ; and when it was told her that she
should be burnt for her obstinacy and false belief, she
set nothing by their menacing words, but defied them ;
for she said she was so beloved of God, and his holy
angels, that she cared not for the fire, and in the midst
thereof she cried to God to take her soul into his holy
hands. The night following that on which she was
burnt, the most part of her ashes were taken away by
such as had a love to the doctrine that she died for.
Shortly after the martyrdom of this godly aged mo-
ther, on the seventeenth of January, A.D. 1497, being
Sunday, two men, the one called Richard Milderale,
and the other James Sturdy, performed the penance of
carrying fagots before the procession of St. Paul's, and
1485—1499.] MARTYRDOM OF JEROME SAVANAROLA, UNDER POPE ALEXANDER VI. 369
afterwards stood before the preacher in the time of his
sermon. And upon the Sunday following two other men
stood at Paul's Cross all the sermon time ; the one gar-
nished with painted and written papers, the other hav-
ing a fagot on his neck. After that in Lent season,
upon Passion Sunday, one Hugh Glover bore a fagot
before the procession of St. Paul's, and after with
the fagot stood before the preacher all the sermon
time at Paul's Cross. And on the Sunday next follow-
ing four men stood, and did their open penance at
Paul's Cross in the sermon time, and many of their
books were burnt before them at the cross.
The next year following, which was in the beginning
of May, A.D. 1498, the king then being at Canterbury,
a priest was burnt, who was so strong in his opinion
that all the clerks and doctors then there being could
not remove him from his faith. Whereof the king
being informed, he caused the priest to be brought be-
fore his presence, who by his persuasion caused him to
revoke, but still he was burnt immediately.
In the same year above mentioned, which was A.D.
1498, after the beheading of Edward Plantagenet, earl
of Warwick, and son to the duke of Clarence, the king
and queen being removed to Calais, a certain godly man
and a constant martyr of Christ, named Babram, in
Norfolk, was burnt in the month of July.
About which year likewise, or in the year next fol-
lowing, the twentieth day of July, was an old man burnt
in Smithfield.
In the year 1499, the martyrdom and burning
of Jerome Savanarola took place, a man no less
godly in heart than constant in his profession. Who
being a monk in Italy, and singularly well learned,
preached against the evil living of the spiritualty, and
especially of his own order, complaining against them as
the springs and authors of all mischiefs and wickedness.
Whereupon, by the help of certain learned men, he be-
gan to seek reformation in his own order. The pope
perceiving this, and fearing that Jerome, who was now
in great reputation among all men, should diminish or
overthrow his authority, he ordained his vicar or pro-
vincial to see reformation of these matters, which vicar
with great superstition began to reform things ; but Je-
rome always withstood him, whereupon he was com-
plained of to the pope, and because contrary to the
pope's commandment he withstood his vicar, he was
accursed. But for all that Jerome left not off preach-
ing, but threatened Italy with the wrath and indignation
of God, and prophesied to them, that the land should
be overthrown for the pride and wickedness of the
people, and for the untruth, hypocrisy, and falsehood of
the clergy, which God would not leave unrevenged, as
it afterwards came to pass, when King Charles came
into Italy and to Rome, and so straightly beset Pope
Alexander, that he was forced to make composition
with the king.
Now as Jerome would not leave off preaching, he was
commanded to appear before the pope, to give account
of his new learning (for so then they called the truth of
the gospel), but he made his excuse that he could not
come. Then he was again forbidden by the pope to
preach, and his learning pronounced and condemned as
pernicious, false, and seditious.
This Jerome, as a man worldly wise, foreseeing the
great perils and dangers that migljt come unto him, for
fear left off preaching ; but when the people, who sore
hungered and longed for God's word, were urgent on
him that he would preach again, he began again to
preach A.D. 1496, in the city of Florence ; and although
many counselled him that he should not do so without
the pope's commandment, yet he did not regard it, but
went forward freely of his own good-will. When the
pope and his shavelings heard news of this they were
grievously incensed and inflamed against him, and now
again cursed him, as an obstinate and stiff-necked here-
tic. But for all that, Jerome proceeded in teaching
and instructing the people, saying that men ought not
to regard such curses, which are against the true doc-
trine and the common advantage, whereby the people
should be taught and amended, Christ's kingdom en-
large'I, and the kingdom of the devil utterly overthrown.
In all his preaching he desired to teach no other
thing than only the pure and simple word of God, mak-
irig often protestation that all men should certify him if
*,bey had heard him teach or preach anything contrary
thereto, for upon his own conscience he knew not that
he had taught anything but the pure word of God.
What his doctrine was all men may easily judge by his
books that he has written.
After this (A.D. 1498,) he was taken and brought out
of St. Mark's cloister, and two other friars with him,
named Dominic and Sylvester, who favoured his learn-
ing, and was carried into prison, where he wrote a
godly meditation upon that most comfortable thirty-first
Psalm : " In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, let me
never be ashamed : deliver me in thy righteousness."
Wherein he doth excellently describe and set forth the
continual strife between the flesh and the spirit.
After this the pope's legates came to Florence, and
called forth these three good men, threatening them
marvellously ; but they continued still constant. Then
came the chief counsellors of the city, with the pope's
commissioners, who had gathered out certain articles
against these men, whereupon they were condemned to
death ; the tenour of which articles hereafter ensue : —
1 . The first article was as touching our free justifica •
tion through faith in Christ.
2. That the communion ought to hp ministered under
both kinds.
3. That the indulgences and pardons of the pope were
of no effect.
4. For preaching against the filthy and wicked living
of the cardinals and clergy.
5. For denying the pope's supremacy.
6. Also that he had affirmed that the keys were not
given to Peter alone, but unto the universal church.
7. Also, that the pope did neither follow the life nor
doctrine of Christ, for that he attributed more to his
own pardons and traditions, than to Christ's merits, and
therefore he was antichrist.
8. Also, that the pope's excommunications are not to
be feared, and that he who doth fear or flee them is ex-
communicated of God.
9. That auricular confession is not necessary.
10. That he had moved the citizens to uproar and
sedition.
11. That he had neglected and condemned the pope's
citation.
12. That he had shamefully spoken against and slan-
dered the pope.
13. That he had taken Christ to witness of his naugh-
tiness and heresy.
14. Also, that Italy must be cleansed through God's
scourge, for the manifold wickedness of the princes and
clergy.
These and such other articles were laid against them i
and read before them. Then they demanded of Jerome
and his companions, whether they would recant and give,
over their opinions. They answered, that through God's-
help they would steadfastly continue in the manifest
truth, and not depart from the same. Then were they
degraded one after another by the bishop of Vasion, and
so delivered over to the secular rulers of Florence, with
commandment to carry them forth, and handle them as
obstinate and stiff-necked heretics.
Thus was this worthy witness of Christ, with the other
two, first hanged up openly in the market-place, anrf
afterward burnt to ashes, and the ashes gathered up, an
cast into the river of Arum, the 24th of May, A. D. 1499.
This Savanarola suffered under Pope Alexander VI.
Now to return to the order of popes, where we left off
with Innocent VIII. After Innocent succeeded Pope
Alexander VI. In Alexander, among other horrible
things, this is to be noted, that when Gemes, bro-
ther to Bajazet the great Turk, was committed by the
Rhodians to the safe custody, first of Pope Innocent,
then of Alexander VI., (for whose keeping, the pope
B b2
:i:o
INFAMOUS DOINGS OF ALEXANDER VI. AND PIUS III.
[Book VI.
received every year forty thousand crowns) ; yet, when
Pope Alexander was compelled to send Gemes to Charles
VIII., the French king, as a pledge, he, being hired by
the Turk, caused Gemes to be poisoned at Terracina.
Moreover, it appears that this Alexander taking
displeasure with Charles the French king, about the
winning of Naples, sent to Bajazet the Turk, to fight
against Charles.
Munsterus declaring the history of Gemes some-
thing otherwise, saith that he was first committed by
the Rhodians to the French king. And when Alexander
the pope, through his fraudulent flattery, got him out of
the hands of the French king into his own, then by his
means Gemes afterward was poisoned, as is before ex-
pressed.
To these poisoning acts of the pope, let us also add his
malicious wickedness, with like fury exercised upon
Antonius Mancinellus, a man of excellent learning,
because he wrote an eloquent oration against his wicked
manners and filthy life, with other vices ; he therefore
commanded both his hands and his tongue to be cut off,
playing with him, as M. Antonius the tyrant before did
with M.Cicero, for writing against his horrible life. At
length, as one poison requires another, this poisoning pope,
as he was sittingwith his cardinals, and other rich senators
of Rome at dinner, his servants unawares brought to him
a wrong bottle, by which he was poisoned, and some of
his cardinals who were about him.
In the time of this Pope Alexander also it happened,
that the angel, which stood in the high top of the pope's
church, was beaten down with terrible thunder. After
this pope, succeeded Pius III., (A. D. lyOii.) After
whom came Julius II., a man so far passing all other in
iniquity, that Wigelius, and such other of his own
friends, are compelled to say of him, " that he was more
given to war and battle, than to Christ." Concerning
the madness of this man, it is most certainly known,
that when he was going to war, he cast the keys of St.
Peter into the river Tiber, saying, that as the keys of
St. Peter would not serve him to his purpose, he would
betake himself to the sword of St. Paul.
Of this Julius it is certainly reported, that partly with
his wars, and partly with his cursings, in the space of
seven years, as good as two hundred thousand christians
were destroyed. P"irst, he besieged Ravenna against the
Venetians, then Servia, Imolia, Faventia, Forolivium,
Bononia, and other cities, which he got out of princes'
hands, not without much bloodshed. The chronicles of
John Sleidan make mention, that when this Julius was
made pope, he took an oath, promising to have a council
within two years ; but when he had no leisure, being
occupied with his wars in Italy among the Venetians,
and with the French king, and in Ferraria, and in other
countries, nine of his cardinals departing from him,
came into Milan, and there appointed a council at the
city of Pisa ; among whom, the chief were Bernard,
Cruceius, William Prenestinus, Francis, Constantine,
with others ; to whom also were added, the proctors of
Maximilian the emperor, and of Charles the French
king. So the council was appointed (A. D. 1511) to
begin in tlie kalends of September. The cause why they
called this council was, that the pope having broken his
oath, gave no hope of having any council ; and also
because there were other crimes of which they had to
accuse. Their purpose was to remove him out of his
seat, which he had procured through bribes and ambition.
Julius hearing tliis, conimaiuls, under great penalties,
that no man should obey tiicni, and himself calls another
council against the next year, to be begun the nineteentli
day of April. The French king understanding that Pope
Julius had joined with the Venetians, to take their part
against him, assembled a council at Turin, in the montli
of September ; in which council these questions were
pro)iosed.
Whether it was lawful for the pope to wage war
against any prince without cause .*
Whether any prince in defending himself, might invade
his adversary, and deny his obedience ?
To which questions it was answered, that the bishop
ought not to invade, and also that it was lawful for the
king to defend himself. Moreover, that the pragmatical
sanction was to be observed through the realm of France
and that excommunications ought not to be feared, if
they were found to be unjust. After this the king sent to
Julius the answer of his council, requiring him either to
agree to peace, or to appoint a general council some-
where else, where this matter might be more fully de-
cided. Julius would do neither of these, but forthwith
accursed Charles, the French king, with all his kingdom.
At length at Ravenna, in a great battle, he was overcome
by the French king, and at last, after much slaughter,
and great bloodshed, and mortal war, this pope died
the twenty-first day of February, A. D. 1.513.
If it were not that I am afraid of filling this vo-
lume with foreign histories, when I have professed
chiefly to treat of Acts and Monuments done here at
home, I would add after these popes something also of
the Turks' history, of their rise and cruel persecution of
the saints of God, to the great peril of Christendom ;
yet there are certain causes which necessarily require
their wicked proceedings, their cruel tyranny, and
bloody victories, the ruin and subversion of so many
christian churches, with the horrible murders and cap-
tivity of infinite christians, to be made known, as well to
this our country of England, as also to other nations.
The great victories of tlie Turks, and the want of
success of our men fighting against them, may ad-
monish and teach us, following the example of the old
Israelites, how to seek for greater strength to encounter
with these enemies of Christ than hitherto we have
done. First, we must consider that the whole power of
Satan, the prince of this world, goes with the Turks, to
resist which no strength of man's arm is sufficient, but
only the name, spirit, and power of our Lord Jesus the
Son of God going with us in our battles, as among the
old Israelites the ark of God's covenant and promise
went with them also fighting against the enemies of
God. For so are we taught in the scripture, that we
christian men have no strength but in Christ only.
Whether we war against the devil, or against the Turk,
it is true what the scripture saith, " without me you can
do nothing." There is no power to stand against the
devil, or to conquer the world, unless our faith only, to
which all the promises of God (touching salvation) are
annexed, beyond which promises we must not go, for
the word must be our rule. He that presumes beyond
the promises in the word expressed, goes not, but wan-
ders, he cannot tell whither. Neither must we appoint
God how to save the world, but must take that way
which he hath appointed. Let us not set God to
school, nor comprehend his Holy Spirit within our
knowledge. He that made us without our counsel, did also
redeem us as pleased him. If he be merciful, let us be
thankful. And if his mercies surmount our capacity,
let us therefore not resist but search his word, and
thereto apply our will, which if we will do, all our con-
tentions will be soon at a point. Let us, therefore,
search the will of our God in his word ; and if he wills
his salvation to stand free to all nations, why do we
make merchandise thereof ? If he has graciously of-
fered his waters to us, without money, or money's
worth, let us not hedge in the plenteous springs of liis
grace so freely given us.
And if God has determined his own Son to stand
alone, let us not presume to mix with his majesty any
of our trumjiery. He that brings St. George or St.
Dennis as patrons to the field to fight against the Turk,
leaves Christ (no doubt) at home. Now how we have
fought these many years against the Turk, though his-
tory keeps silence, yet the success declares. 'We fight
against a jiersecutor, being no less persecutors ourselves.
We wrestle against a bloody tyrant, and o\u- hands are
as full of blood as his. He kills Christ's peojile with
the sword, and we burn them with fire. He observing
tlie works of the law, seeks his justification by the
same, the like also do we. But neither he nor we seek
our justification as we should, that is, only by faith in
the Son of God.
And what. marvel then, our doctrine being almost as
corrupt as his, and our conversation worse, if Cijrist
A.D. 1499.]
HISTORY OF THE TURKS.— MAHOMET.— THE ALKORAN.
S7l
fight not with us, fighting against the Turk ? The Turk
hath prevailed so mightily, not because Christ is weak,
but because Christians are wicked, and their doctrine
impure. Our temples are polluted with images, and
our hearts with idolatry; our priests sin before God
in adultery, being restrained from lawful matrimony.
The name of God is in our mouths, but his fear is not
in our hearts. We war against the Turk with our
works, masses, traditions, and ceremonies, but we fight
not against him with Christ, and with the power of his
glorjs which if we did the field were won.
I do believe, that when the churcU of Christ with the
sacraments thereof shall be so reformed, tliat Christ
alone shall be received to be our justifier, all other re-
ligions, merits, traditions, images, patrons and advo-
cates set apart, the sword of the christians, with the
strength of Christ, shall soon vanquish the Turks' pride
and fury. But of this I will treat more largely in the
process of this history.
As to the time when this sect of Mahomet first began,
history does not fully consent, but it is generally rec-
koned from his flight from Mecca (A.D. C>22), which
they call the Hegyra, and in the eleventh year of Heraclius
the emperor of Constantinople.
In this all writers agree, that this damnable Mahomet
was born in the country of Arabia, bordering on the
east part of Judea, (A.D. 571.) His father was an
Arabian of the tribe of Koreish, and his mother
was an Ishmaelite, which Ishmaelites being a people
of Arabia, were called the Hagarens, which term
Mahomet afterwards turned to the name of Saracens.
Of this wretched Mahomet mention was made be-
fore, where we shewed, how he making himself the
highest prophet of all other, yet denies not Christ to be
an holy prophet, and next to him, and Moses also to
be another. Moreover, he denies not Mary the mother
of Christ to be a virgin, and to have conceived Christ
by the Holy Ghost : affirming farther, that Christ in his
own person was not crucified, but another called Judas
for him. He greatly commends John the son of Za-
chary for a chaste man, when he himself permits a man to
have four wives, and as many concubines as he is able to
find, and saith that whereas Christ and other prophets
had tlie gift given them to work miracles, he was
sent by force of the sword, to compel men to his
religion.
The prodigious vanities, lies, and blasphemies con-
tained in his law, called The Alkoran, are rather to be
laughed at than recited.
it is thought that Sergius, a Nestorian, assisted Ma-
homet, in contriving this Alkoran, and so it appears by
the scope, which especially tends to this end, to take the
divinity from the person of Christ, whom he grants
notwithstanding to be a most holy man, and also that
he is received up to God, and shall come again to kill
antichrist, &c.
Moreover, this ridiculous Alkoran is so intermingled
with mixtures of the Christian, Jewish, and the Gentile
laws, giving such liberty to all the lusts of the flesh,
setting up circumcision, abstaining from swine's flesh,
and Jewish washings, and so much stands upon father
Abraham, that it is supposed by some that this filthy
Alkoran was set out in the days of Mahomet, but that
certain Jews had some handling also in the matter, and
put it out after his death.
After Mahomet had thus seduced the people, teaching
them that he came not by miracles, but by the sword to
give his law, and that they who will not obey it must
either be put to death, or else pay tribute (for so are the
words of the Alkoran) ; and after he had gathered the
strength of the Arabians about him, which Arabians
l.ad then occasion to rebel against the emperor, because
their stipends were not paid them by the emperor's ofii-
cers, he began to range with force and violence in parts
of Syria, and subdued Mecca, then Damascus, and
further increasing in power he entered Egypt, and sub-
dued the same. From thence he turned ugainst the
Persians. Chosroes, the king of Persia, encountered him
with a powerful army, and overthrew the Saracens, and
put Mahomet to flight. Of these Persians came the
Turks, who afterward joining with the Saracens, main-
tained them against the christians.
After the death of this beast (A.D. G:'2), who, as
some sav, was i)oisoned in his house, he was succeeded
by his f;ither-in-law, Abubeker, who took upon him the
government of their followers, and got tlie city Gaza,
and besieged also Jerusalem. He reigned two years at
Damascus.
After him followed Omar, who conquered a great part
of Syria, Egyjit, and Persia.
The fourth king of the Saracens, after Mahomet, was
Otman, tlien followed Ali the son-in-law of Mahomet,
and after him Mahuvias, or Moawiyah, who, after a siege
of seven years, obtained the christian city of Cesarea ;
also overcame the Persians, and subdued that country to
his law.
Thus the wicked Saracens, in the space of thirty
years, subdued Arabia, got Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria,
Egypt, and Persia.
Not long after Heraclius, emperor of Constantinople,
succeeded Constans his nephew, who, in the sixteenth
vear of his empire, fighting unluckily against the Sara-
cens in Lycia, was overthrown by Mahuvias, A.D. 657.
The Saracens after this victory spoiled all Rhodes.
These cursed Saracens, in these great victories and
conquests, were not without domestic sedition and di-
visions, yet the j)rinces of the Saracens, then called
Sultans, had in their possession the government of
Syria, Egypt, Africa, and of a great part of Asia, about
four hundred years, till at length the Saracerf king who
ruled in Persia, fighting against the Saracen of Babylon,
sousrht aid of the Turks to fight with him against the
sultan of Babylon. The Turks Iiy little and little sur-
prised the sultan of Persia, and not long after usurped
the kinsdom of Persia ; and this is the first beginning of
the Turkish dominion.
These Turks, after they had thus overcome many
countries and provinces, and made their power large
and mighty both in Asia and Europe, began to divide
their kingdoms and countries among themselves. But
when they could not agree, but with deadly war contended
for the bounds of those kingdoms and dominions, four
of the principal families conquering and subduing all the
rest, parted the whole empire among themselves. And
yet they also were not contented, but fell to such cruel
hatred, contention, war, and slaughter (no doubt by the
just judgment of God against his blasphemous enemies),
that there was no end of it, until the remnant of the an-
cient Turks was utterly rooted out.
These four families, with their captains and armies,
about A.D. 1330, went raging throughout all Asia and
Europe, and every one of them conquered some part of
the countries where they passed.
The causes of these great invasions and victories,
were the dissension and discord, falsehood, idleness, un-
constancy, greedy avarice, lack of truth and fidelity
among christian men of all states and degrees, both high
and low. For by the wilful defection and backsliding of
the christians, the Turkish power exceedingly increased,
in that many desiring the licentious life and liberty of
war, and allured with the prosperous success of things,
forsook the church of God, and made themselves bond-
slaves to Mahomet and his deviUsh sect, both because
liberty is delightful to all men, and partly also because as
fortune favours, so commonly the wills of men incline.
And again, such as are profane and without the fear of
God (of whom there is an infinite number in the church)
in all ages are wont commonly to judge of religion, ac-
cording to the success of realms and kingdoms. For
many, not only for the variety of opinions, but also for
the diversity of events and fortune among men, have in-
quired, and do inquire whether there is any church of
God distinct from other nations, what it is, and where
it is ; especially as the greatest part of men, both in the
old time when the four monarchies flourished, was igno-
rant of this doctrine, which is peculiar to the church
alone, and now also the barbarity of Mahomet prevails
and reigns in the most part of the world. And ho^
372 OTTOMAN EMPIRE.— OTHMAN OR OTTOMAN.— ORCHANES.—AMURATH. [Book VI.
stands this with man's reason, that a small number, both
miserable and also feeble and broken with many battles,
should be regarded and loved of God, and the other
flourishing in all wealth, prosperity, victory, authority,
and power, should be rejected and despised of God,
seeing there is no power and authority, but by the ordi-
nance of God ? Although therefore the power of the
Turks has been, for these two hundred years, of greater
force than any other monarchy of the world besides, yet
is thsre no imjierial dignity to be regarded in that
Turkish tyranny, but among those nations only, where
the heavenly doctrine of the gospel is preached, and
other disciplines necessary for the church of God, and
the common life of man maintained and regarded, where
the laws of God, and other honest and civil ordinances
agreeable to the same, flourish and reign ; where lawful
judgment is exercised ; where virtue is honoured and re-
warded ; where sin and wickedness is punished ; where
honest families are maintained and defended.
These things are not regarded among the Turks, the
enemies of the Son of God, and all lawful empires, be-
cause they dissolve and reject all godly societies, honest
discipline, good laws, politics, righteous judgment, the
ordinance of matrimony, and godly families. For what
has the empire of the Turks been hitherto, but most
deadly, cruel, and perpetual war, to work all mischief,
destruction, and desolation ? To subvert good laws,
cities, kingdoms, policies, and to enlarge their cruel
power and dominion .' The stay and strength whereof is
not love and favour proceeding of virtue and justice, as
In lawful and well governed empires ; but fear, violence,
oppression, swarms and infinite thousands of barbarous
and most wicked peo])le, ministers of Satan's malice and
fury. Which kind of dominion and tyranny has been
condemned by the voice of God many years ago ; the
testimonies whereof the Lord would have to remain in
the church, lest the godly, being moved with the power
and success thereof, should fall awav and forsake the Son
of God.
Wherefore, let us not seek for any imperial state in
that barbarity ; but let us be thankful, and acknowledge
the great benefit of God, that he hath reserved to us
certain remnants of the Roman empire ; and let us call
upon him daily with hearty petitions and groans, and
with zeal and love to the house of God, that this Turkish
power joined with the malice of Satan against the Son
of God, prevail not against the poor congregations and
little remnant of his church, as it has hitherto done
against those strong and noble christian kingdoms and
churches, where now we see the Turkish tyranny to
reign, and Satan to have taken full possession. Whose
state was once far better than ours is now, and more likely
to continue without such horrible overthrows and deso-
lation. O that we might foresee a little the great dan-
ger that hangs over our heads ! For though the Turk
seems to be far off, yet do we nourish within our breasts
at home, that which may soon cause us to feel his cruel
hand and worse, if worse may be ; to overrun us ; to lay
our land waste ; to scatter us among the infidels, the
enemies and blasphemers of the Son of God.
Now, although these four families above-mentioned
long continued togetlier in bloody wars, deadly hatred,
yet one of them passed the rest in all cruelty and
tyranny, and subduing the other three families, took upon
him the government alone, and so became the first mo-
narch, or emperor, that reigned amongst tliem, called
Ottoman, of whom all that reigned after him were called
Ottomans, who succeeding in the order of his line, have
occupied the same dominion and seat of the Turks,
from A. D. l^iOO, to this present time, to the number
of twelve, of which twelve, in such order as they lived
and reigned, I intend (Christ so permitting) seve-
rally and compendiously shortly to treat, briefly ab-
stracting, out of prolix and tedious writers, such parti-
culars as for us christians shall be briefly requisite to be
known,
THE TWELVE GREAT EMPERORS OF THE TURKS.
I. Ottoman. — This man was at first of poor estate,
and obscure among the common sort of men, coming of
a base progeny, and of rustic parents ; but through his
valiantness and activity in war, he got him a great name
among the Turks. For he being a man of fierce courage,
refusing no labour, delighting in war, and gathering toge-
ther by great subtlety a multitude of common soldiers,
began to make war, and by conquest and victories to ad-
vance himself and his family. First, he began to rob and
spoil with a great band of rovers, and afterward he at-
tempted to set upon all men. Neither did he vex and
destroy the christians only, but set upon his own nation
also, and sought all occasion to subdue them wholly to
him. For now the'princes and captains of the Turks,
inflamed with ambition and desire of rule, began to fall
out and contend among themselves, insomuch that they
fell to domestic war, with all the power they could.
Ottoman considering this occasion very fit and meet to
accomplish that which he had long sought for, gathered
to him all such as he thought given to robbing and
spoiling, and set them upon mischief, and in a short time
he began to grow in authority, and set upon certain towns,
as he saw opportunity. Of which towns some he took by
force, some by surrender, others he spoiled and overthrew
to terrify the rest, thus laying the first foundation of his
rising. In the meantime, the discord which was among
the christians was no small advantage to this Ottoman,
by occasion whereof, he within ten years' space subdued
Bithynia, and all the provinces about Pontus ; also
Natolia, which comprehends all the dominion of the
Greeks within Asia ; Ancyra, a city in Phrygia ; Synope,
a city in Galatia ; and Sebastia, a city in Cappadocia :
and thus still prevailing, he increased in a short time to a
mighty power, either through the secret judgment of
God against that nation, or else because God would have
them so far and so cruelly to prevail, for the punishment
of the sins of other nations.
This Ottoman, after he had reigned twenty-eight
years, died A. D. 1328, leaving behind him three sons,
of whom Orchanes, being the youngest, killed his two
brethren, whilst they were at variance between them-
selves.
II. Orchanes after he had slain his two brethren,
took the government of the Turks after his father, who,
after he had drawn to him the hearts of the multitude,
such as had their dispositions set upon the licentious life
of war, applied his power further to enlarge his father's
dominion, winning and subduing Mysia,Lydia, Lycaonia,
Phrygia, and Caria ; all which countries, being within
the compass of Asia, to the seaside of Hellespont, and
the Euxine sea, he added to the Turkish empire. Also
he won Prusa, which was the metropolitan city of
Bithynia, which then he made the chief seat of the Turks'
empire. Besides these, he conquered Nice, and got
Nicomedia ; all which were before christian cities and
regions. And yet all this could not make the christian
princes in Greece to cease their civU wars, and to join
and accord among themselves. By reason of which the
Turk's aid was sent for out of Asia to help our christians
one to kill another, and at length to get all those parts
of Europe from them both. Orchanes, after these vic-
tories, when he had reigned two-and-thirty years, was
struck, some say, with a dart in the shoulder, at the
siege of Prusa. The opinion of others is, that fighting
against the Tartarians, where he lost a great part of
his army, he was there also slain himself, (A. D.
1359.)
III. Amurath. — The Greek writers inform us that Or-
chanes had two sons, Soliman and Amurath ; but Soliman,
who was very distinguished, died shortly before his father.
After him followed Amurath, who, after Asia was subdued
by his predecessors, sought by all means and ways how to
proceed further, and to invade Europe. To whose ambi-
tious purpose thedomestic warsofthechristians gave most
prosperous occasion, which occasion is thus declared.
Certain discord fell between the princes of Greece, and
John Paleologus emperor of Constantinople. Whereupon
A. D. 1499.]
BAJAZET'S CRUEL TYRANNY, CAPTIVITY, AND DEATH.
37:i
Paleologus, as he was not able to make his party good
with the Grecians, most unwisely sent for Amurath to
help him, who, being glad to have such an occasion of-
fered, which he so long had sought, sent to aid him
twelve thousand Turks into Thrace ; but first he used all
the delays he could of crafty policy, to the intent that
the Greeks should waste their strength and power upon
themselves, by which he might be more able afterward
to set upon them, and to accomplish his conceived
desire.
The Turks thus being called into Europe, by the chris-
tians, whether they tasting the sweetness of the soil, in-
duced Amurath their emperor to make invasion, or
whether Amurath of his own head thought good to use the
time, in A. D. 1363, became himself over into Europe with
sixty thousand Turks, falling upon the Greeks, being
wasted and spent with their long wars and battles before.
The pretence of the devilish Turk was, to aid and assist
the emperor Paleologus, whether he would or no, and to
subdue as had fallen from him.
Thus the Turks' army being conveyed over by the
Grecian sea, called the Hellespont, first got Calipolis, with
other towns and cities bordering about the sea, and there
planting themselves, and preparing ships of their own
for transporting their munitions out of Asia, advanced
their power further into Thrace, and there won Philip-
polls, then got Adrianople, which was not far from
Constantinople, and there Amurath made his chief seat.
Then began Paleologus, the emperor, at length to bewail
his offer and covenant made with Amurath. When
the Turks had thus conquered a great part of Thrace,
they extended forth their army to Mysia, which they
soon subdued ; from thence proceeding and conquering
the Bessos and Triballos, they entered into Servia and
Bulgaria, where they joining battle with the prince of
Servia, and with other dukes of Dalmatia and Epirus,
won the field, and defeated them, where the prince being
taken, and committed to prison, ended his life. This
prince had a certain faithful client or servant, who to re-
venge his master's death, with a bold courage, although
seeing death before his eyes, yet ventured his life so far,
that he came to the tyrant and thrust him through with
his dagger. This Amurath reigned thirty years, and
was slain A. D. 1389.
IV. Bajazet. — The power of the Turks began to in-
crease in Europe, when Bajazet, the first of that name,
after the death of his father, entered on the possession of
the Turkish kingdom. This Bajazet had two brethren,
Soliman and Sauces : Sauces had his eyes put out by his
father, for striving for the kingdom. Soliman was slain of
his brother. Thus Bajazet, beginning his kingdom with
the murder of his brother, brought his imperial seat from
Prusa, a city of Bithynia, to Adrianople, intending,
with himself to subdue both Asia and Europe to his own
power. First he set upon the Servians and Bulgarians,
thinking to revenge his father's death, where he gave the
overthrow to all the nobility of the Servians and Bulga-
rians, and put all those parts under his subjection, to the
borders of the lUyrians. All Thrace he brought like-
wise under his yoke, only Constantinople and Pera ex-
cepted. That done, he invaded the rest of Grecia, pre-
vailing against the countries of Thessaly, Macedonia,
Phocia, and Attica, spoiling and burning as he passed
without any resistance ; and so, returning with innumer-
aHfc spoils of the christians to Adrianople, laid siege to
Constantinople for the space of eight years, and would
have taken it, but that Paleologus, being brought to ex-
tremity, was driven to crave aid of the French, and of
Sigismund the emperor, who, being accompanied with a
sufficient power of French and Germans, came down to
Hungary, and towards Servia, against the Turk. Bajazet
hearing of their coming, raised his siege from Constan-
tinople, and with sixty thousand horsemen came to Nico-
polis, where he encountering with them, overthrew all
the christian army, and took John, the captain of the
French, prisoner, (A. D. 1392.) Sigismund, who before
in the council of Constance had burned John Huss, and
Jerome of Prague, hardly escaped by flying. Bajazet,
after the victory, carried away duke John, with five others
in bands, into Prusa,' where before his face he caused all
the other christian prisoners to be cut in pieces. After-
ward John, being ransomed with two hundred thousand
crowns, was delivered up. Some authors refer this his-
tory to the time of Calepinus.
Bajazet, the cruel tyrant, after this victory, and the
tyranny shewed upon the christians, returned again to
the siege of Constantinople, fully determined to conquer
and subdue the same, which he would have no doubt ac-
complished, but that the providence of God had found
such a means, that Tamerlane, king of Parthia, with a
hundred thousand horsemen, and swarms of footmen,
like a violent flood overrunning Asia, and pressing upon.
Syria and Sebastia, had taken Orthobule, the son of
Bajazet prisoner, and afterwards slew him, exercising the
like cruelty upon his prisoners, as Bajazet had done be-
fore upon the christians, insomuch that he spared
neither sex nor age of the Turkish multitude, of whom
he caused twelve thousand at one time to be overridden
and trodden down under his horses' feet. By this,
Bajazet, the tyrant, was forced to raise the siege of
Constantinople, and to return with his army into Asia,
where, near the hill called Stella, he pitched his tent to
encounter Tamerlane.
The fight between these two was long and great on
both sides, (A. D. 1402,) and the second year after the
slaughter of our christians at Nicopolis in Pannonia ;
but the victory of this battle fell to Tamerlane at length.
In which battle, as Munster writes, two hundred thou-
sand Turks were slain. Among whom Bajazet, the ty-
rant, having his horse slain under him, was taken pri-
soner ; and to make a spectacle of his wretched fortune,
he was bound in golden fetters, and so being enclosed in
an iron cage (whom before all Greece could not hold)
was led about and shewn through all Asia, to be scorned
and laughed at ; and,, moreover, was used instead of a
footstool to Tamerlane, or a block, as often as he
mounted upon his horse. Some add also that he was
made like a dog to feed under Tamerlane's table. The
tyranny of this Bajazet against the christians, as it was
not much unlike to the cruelty of Valerian, the Roman
emperor, so neither was the example of his punishment
much different, for as Sapor, king of the Persians, did
then with Valerian in the time of the eighth persecution of
the primitive church, so likewise was Bajazet the perse-
cutor worthily handled by Tamerlane, king of the Par-
thians, as is above mentioned.
Tamerlane, after this conquest, passed with his army
into Mesopotamia, into Egypt, and into Syria, where he
victoriously subduing the cities and munitions of the
Turks, at length also conquered Damascus. In his
sieges his manner was, the first day to go all in white
attire, the second day in red, and the third day in black,
signifying thereby mercy the first day to them that
yielded ; the second day the sword ; the third day fire
and ashes. At last, after having gotten great victories,
and spoils of the Turks, he returned to his own country,
and there died, (A. D. 140.').)
In writing of this Tamerlane, it is recorded that he had
in his army eight hundred thousand men : and that he
overcame the Parthians, Scythians, Iberians, Albans,
Persians, Medes, and conquered all Mesopotamia ; and
after he had also subdued Armenia, passing over the
river Euphrates he invaded all Asia Minor, conquering
and subduing from the river Tanais to the Nile in Egypt,
and was called the terror of the world. He left behind
him two sons, who, tailing into discord for their posses-
sions, lost all again, that their father had got.
In the mean time Bajazet, in the second year of hit
captivity, died, (A.D. 1403) leaving behind him four
sons: Isa, the eldest, Musa, SoUman, and Mahomet,
who disputed with the second the right of succession to
the remainder of his empire. This civil war ended in
the triumph of Mahomet, and in the death of his brothers.
In these discords and divisions among the Turks, an
occasion was given to the christians to have recovered
again of the Turks that which they had lost, if they had
374 THE SULTANS SOLIMAN CHELEBI— MUSA CHELEBI— MAHOMET, &c. [Book \l.
ported this man, and set him up with sufficient
materials and supj)lies of war, to figlit against Amurath.
But in conclusion he not being able to make his party
good, came into the hands of his enemy, and had his
neck broke with a bow-string, after the manner of the
Turkish execution.
The Greeks, then terrified with this sinister adversity,
required truce of the Turk ; but when that would not be
granted, they set up another Mustapha, who, like-
wise being armed by the Greeks, got the city of Nice in
Bithynia, from Amurath. Although it was not long be-
fore he was overcome in the same city, and brought to
Amurath ; who caused him likewise to taste of the same
death, as the other Mustapha had done before. Amurath
being now out of all fear and doubt of brethren and
kinsfolk to rise against him, collected all his power
against the Greeks ; and first ranging throughout Thrace,
where many cities surrendered to them, which before
belonged to the emperor of Constantinople, from thence
he set forward to the noble and famous city of Thessa-
lonica, being then under the liege and protection of the
Venetians. After Thessalonica was subdued, Phocis
with all the country about Athens, Bcetia likewise,
^tolia, Acarnania, with all the region beyond Pelopon-
nesus, to the coast of Corinth, were brought in bon-
dage and slavery unto the Turk.
In Epirus, and in that quarter that adjoins Macedonia
named Albania, one John Castriot then reigned ; who,
perceiving himself too weak to match with the Turk's
l)ower, made with the Turk this convention, that he
should have Croya, a famous city in Greece, and also
gave to him his three sons for hostages, to wit, Constan-
tine, Reposius, and George.
In this George there appeared such noble courage,
such vigour of mind, and strength of body, that
the Turk caused him more freely to be instructed after
the Turkish religion and manner in his own court ;
wliere being trained up, he so excelled as well in feats of
activity, as in strength of body, that he excelled all his
companions, so that he was named Scanderbeg, which
means as much as Alexander the Great.
After this Alexander was grown up to mature ripe-
ness of age, and was well trained up in feats of war, he
was sent out by the Turk to war against Caraman of
Cilicia, the Turk's enemy. In which expedition he sped
himself most manfully, fighting hand to hand, first with
a footman of Scythia, then with an horseman of Persia,
being challenged by them both to encounter, first with
the one, after with the other ; whom he so valiantly
overthrew, that he won great renown with the Turk :
insomuch that he, trusting to the Turk's favour, when
he heard of the decease of his father, durst ask of the
Turk the grant of his father's dominion to be given to
him. Which request, although Amurath the Tui'k did
not deny him ; yet notwithstanding, he perceiving the
matter to be dallied out with fair words, by subtle means
and policy slipped out of the Turk's court, and came to
Epirus his own inheritance, where first by forged letters
he recovered Croya. The other cities voluntarily yielded
themselves to him ; then gathering to him the people of
Epirus and Macedonia (who though not many in num-
ber, yet with good willing minds they stuck to him) he so
manfully and valiantly behaved himself, that against all
the power both of Amurath, and also of Mahomet, he
maintained his own, repelled their violence, and put to
flight their armies many years together. But to return
again to the course of Amurath's victories, after he had
prevailed against the eastern parts of Europe and
Greece, and had treated thus for the dominion of Epirus,
he invaded Illyricum, (now called Sclavonia) containing
in it Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, and Liburnia ; which
countries he spoiled and wasted, and then continued his
course to Albania and Bosnia. In which regions, when
he had subdued a great part, and had led away an innu-
merable multitude of captives, he moved further to
Wallachia and Servia, hoping to conquer all Pannonia.
There reigned at the same time in Servia, a certain
prince named George Despota, who made great suit to
the Turk for truce and peace, prosoising to give him bis
hot been either negligent, or in their own private wars
otherwise occupied with themselves.
V. SoLiMAN Calkpin'us. — Calepinus or Chelebi, was
the second son of Bajazet. This Calepinus, encouraged
by the sloth and negligence of the princes of Europe,
and by the discord of the Greeks among themselves and
other nations, near about them, long troubled and vexed
the Buln-arians, Servians, and Macedonians, even to the
time of Sigismuud. Which Sigismund seeing that
Bajazet was now overcome and taken of Tamerlane,
and the power of the Turks weakened in Eurojie, and
having such occasion offered him, as it were from heaven,
to destroy and utterly to root out, not only out of Asia, but
■also out of all Europe, that barbarous nation, and cruel
enemies to the name and religion of Christ ; and also to
revenge the great slaughter and discomfiture of his army,
when fighting before with Bajazet at Nicopolis a city in
Mysia ; with great power made war against Calepinus at
Cohimbatium a town in Servia, as is also before mention-
ed, but as unluckily and with as little success as he did
before against Bajazet his father. For in that battle
were slain of the christians to the number of twenty
thousand, and the rest utterly discomfited, the king
himself escaping so hardly, that he entered not again
into his kingdom for the space of eighteen months
after. After this, Soliman was overcome by his brother
Musa, in the civil contention which was still raging
among the brothers, and was killed (A. D. 1409), after
having reigned nearly eight years.
VI. MasA Chelebi. — After the captivity of Bajazet
above mentioned, histories vary. The Greek writers,
making no mention at all of Calepinus, only mention the
sons of Bajazet generally, and of the contention among
them, until the time of Mahomet. The Latin histories,
writing of the children of Bajazet and of their succession,
do not agree, some affirming that Bajazet had only two
sons, others that he had more. After the death of
Soliman, Musa was saluted emperor by the European
army, but shortly after was attacked by his brother Ma-
homet, and killed in battle, after he had reigned about
eight years.!
VII. Mahomet. — This Mahomet, the last of the
sons of Bajazet, secured to himself alone the kingdom,
or tyranny rather of the murdering Turks (A.D. 1413).
He afflicted the christians with sore wars within Eu-
rope, especially the country called Wallachia, lying not
far from the river Danube, between Hungary and Thrace.
From thence he removed into Asia, where he recovered
divers parts in Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia,
which before Tamerlane had alienated from the Turks.
This Mahomet planted his chief imperial seat in Adria-
nople not far from Constantinople, within the country
of Thrace. In some writers the conflict between Sigis-
mund and the great Turk, wherein the christians were
so discomfited, is referred rather to this Mahomet,
than to Calepinus ; of which conflict mention is above
made in the history of Sigismund. This Mahomet
reigned, after the death of Musa, eight years, and died
A.D. 1421.
VIII. Amurath the Second, was the son of Maho-
met ; he proved a wretched tyrant, and was permitted
as a scourge of God, to correct the sins of the chris-
tians Soon after Amurath began his reign, a person
sprung up calling himself Mustapha, the son of Bajazet;
but it would seem he was an impostor, as the real Mus-
tapha was supposed to have been killed in battle
before the death of Bajazet. However the Greeks sup-
(1) The period from the death of Bajiizet to the accession of
Mahotnet is usually styled " 'I'he Interrcenum," the kinirdom being
divided by tlie contention of the brothers, but it was again united
under Muhoniet. — [£i>.]
A.D. 1499.] BATTLE OF VARNA, FOUGHT BY AMURATH AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. 375
daugliter in marriage ; for by the Turks' law they marry
as many wives as they please. It was not lonij after
Amurath had married the daughter of Despota, that he,
contrary to his league and promise, made war upon
Despota his father-iu-law, and expelled him out of liis
kiiii^doni, taking from him divers cities, as Sco])ia,
Novomonte, Sophia, and all Mysia. George himself
tied into Hungary, leaving behind him his son to defend
tlie town of Sinderonia. Amurath understanding of tlie
flight of Despota his father-in-law, compassed the city
of Sinderonia with a strong siege, which when he
had taken he took liis wife's brother, the son of
Despota, and without all regard of mercy and affinity,
after the barbarous tyranny of the Turks, i)ut out his
eyes, with a bason red hot set before his eyes, and after
that led him about with him in derision and in despite of
his cowardly father.
Servia being thus won, Amurath, thinking to go
further into Hungary, besieged the city called Belgrade,
and no doubt would have also destroyed it, had not the
providence of God found means, that partly tlirough
slaughter of his men, partly for lack of victuals and other
forage, he was compelled to raise his siege and retire.
In the mean time John Huniades (of whom mention
was made before) had got great victories against the
Turkish power, and had recovered part of Servia, and
all ^loldavia ; against whom Amurath tlie Turk, with a
mighty army, moved into Pannonia. But Huniades
with the power and aid of Ladislaus king of Poland,
(and more especially by the power of the Lord) did soon
weaken the power of the Turk, and gave him the over-
throw, recovering to the christians the greatest part of
Servia and Bulgaria.
In this battle Huniades had five conflicts with the
Turks upon one day, and with five victories put them to
the worse, and toward night did so discomfit and over-
throw the great captain of Amurath, called Bassa, the
duke of Anatolia, (which is otherwise named Asia Minor)
that he slew of the Turks that day to the number of
thirty thousand. Amurath, although he was not a little
discouraged thereat, yet dissembling his fear, with stout
countenance sent for Carambeius his principal stay and
captain, with a new army brought out of Asia to assist
him in his wars. This Carambeius, having arrived in the
dovrns of Transylvania, Ladislaus the king of Poland (the
Lord so working) through the industry of John Huniades,
so received and with such celerity overcame him, that all
his stout and sturdy army either was slain downright, or
else put to flight, Carambeius the captain being himself
taken prisoner in the same field.
These victories of Huniades struck no little terror to
Amurath, so that for distress of mind he was ready to
destroy himself (as some write) but being confirmed by
Helibeus Bassa his counsellor, he kept himself within
the straits of Mount Rhodope. Who then hearing that
Caramannus invaded the country of Bithynia and Pon-
tus in Asia, was glad to make truce with Ladislaus and
Huniades upon such conditions as they pleased to make
themselves ; which conditions were these, that Amurath
should depart from all the region of Servia, and should
remove from thence all his garrisons ; also he should
restore George Despota, prince of Servia, to his posses-
sion, and set his children free, whom he had in captivity,
and restore them to their inheritance. And that he
should make no more claim nor title to the country of
Moldavia above mentioned, nor to that part of Bulgaria
which he had lost ; and that he should desist hereafter
from all wrongs and injuries against the chriscians.
Upon these conditions the Turk being agreed, truce
was concluded on both parts for ten years, and con-
firmed with a solemn oath between them.
This done, Amurath the tyrant addresseth himself
toward Asia, to resist the invasion of Caramannus. At
which time Pope Eugenius so soon as he heard the Turk
to be returned into Asia, sent Julian Caesarian his cardi-
nal to Ladislaus, with full dispensation and absolution to
break his oath and league with the Turk, promising
moreover great hope and aid, if he would go in arms
Btoutly against the tyrant.
Where by the way is to be noted, that as there is no
truth of promise in that j estilent see of Rome, neither
was there ever any war prospered, which was taken in
hand by the pope's council ; so was there never any
council of the pope that brought with it more detriment
to Christianity thin this. But the pope belike thought
that as lie might lav/fully break promise with John Huss,
and with other christians, so also he need not to ob-
serve any league or truce taken with the Turk : but it
turned much otherwise than the pope imagined, as is to
be seen by the secptel. For Ladislaus, being thus ex-
cited by the unadvised and sinister instigation of Pope
Eugenius, contrary to the truce established a little be-
fore, set out with his army, and proceeding to Wallachia
and Bulgaria, came to Varna, where he fell sick.
It was not long, but the Turk, having intelligence of
this, left his wars in Asia, and made haste into Europe,
passing over by the straits near to Callipolis, where all
the Italian navy was looking on, but whether on pur-
pose, or whether for cowardliness, they would not stir
one oar to stop the passage of the Turkish army. When
Amurath was come to Adrianople in Thrace, using
such celerity as no man looked for, within eight days he
was in Bulgaria, and there encamped himself against
Ladislaus. The day of battle being set, the armies
joined on both sides. Huniades was himself present,
but all the matter was ruled by Julian the cardinal, and
the pope's clergy. The fight continued three days and
three nights together, with great courage and much
bloodshed on each side ; so that the field was covered
with lakes of blood. It seemed at the first to incline to
the christians, by breaking the first ranks of the Turks.
But the priests and prelates who were at the field (who
had been more fit to have been in the church) seeing
the Turks to begin to fly, unskilfully left their array to
pursue the enemy, so that they leaving the other posts
of the christians naked, gave great advantage to the
Turks with their darts and shot to disturb the christian
ranks. By which occasion Amurath, enclosing the
christians with his army round about, obtained the
victory. In which field, Ladislaus, the_ young king of
Poland, having his horse killed under him, was struck
down and slain. The pope's bishops flying to save
themselves, fell into the marshes, and were there de-
stroyed, sustaining a death worthy of their filthy false-
hood and untruth. Julian the cardinal, who, with the
pope, was the chief doer in breaking the league, was
found dead in the way, full of wounds, and spoiled to
naked skin. Of the rest of the army that escaped by
flying, part was drowned in the marshes, some perished
miserably for hunger, some for cold, watching and
wandering in the woods. Huniades hardlv escaped the
danger, by the merciful providence of God, being re-
served to the further profit of Christendom. This battle
of Amurath against the christians was fought at Varna,
A, D. 1444.
This John Huniades, the worthy warrior, was bom in
Wallachia, being earl of Bistice, of all captains that ever
went against the Turks he was most famous and singular,
prudent and discreet in council, ex))ert and politic in
war, prompt of hand, circumspect before he attempted,
quick in expedition : in whom was wanted almost no
good property requisite in a warlike captain. Against
two most mighty and fierce tyrants, Amurath and
Mahomet, through the Lord's might, he defended all
Pannonia, and therefore was called the thunderbolt and
terror of the Turks. As Achilles was to the Grecians,
so was he set up of God to be as a wall or bulwark of all
Europe against the cruel Turks and enemies of Christ
and of his christians. Neither was there any king or
prince that ever achieved such noble victories, either so
many in number, or so profitable for the public utility
of all Europe, as did he, and that not only in the days
of this Amurath, but also of Mahomet his successor, as
hereafter remains further to be seen.
Amurath, by reason of this victorious overthrow
of the christians, being filled with no small pride,
directed his journey immediately toward the Greeks,
where Castriot was, otherwise called Scanderot;^.
376 DEATH OF THE SULTAN AMURATH II.— SUCCEEDED BY MAHOMET II. [Book VI.
And first coming to Peloponnesus, and breaking down
the wall about the straits of Corinth, encountered the
brother of the emperor of Constantinople, whom, with
his sudden coming, he oppressed, with all the Greeks'
army, ere they were provided. Paleologus, the em-
peror, after that, built up the wall again, but at the
Turk's bidding, he was compelled to undo it again :
which wall afterwards the Venetians repaired. After
the demolition of the wall, Amurath entering into Pelo-
ponnesus, took several towns and cities, and made all
the parts of Thessaly and Achaia tributaries.
In the following year, the Turk bent all his force
against the country of Epirus, which the noble and vic-
torious Scanderbeg valiantly defended against all the
power of Amurath ; so that he discomfited and van-
quished seven of the most expert dukes of the Ottoman
emperor, one after another, with all their armies of most
picked and chosen soldiers, and expelled them utterly
out of all Epirus.
After this discomfiture, the saying is, that Amurath
gave himself to a religious order, living a contemplative
life with certain other priests, in the forests of Bithynia,
renouncing the government of his realm to the hands of
Haly, one of the princes (for the reader must under-
stand, that the Turks also be not without their sundry
sects of religion, no more than we christians are without
our friars and monks).
While Amurath was cloistered in his monkish re-
ligion, John Huniades, in the kingdom of Hungary ;
and Castriot Scanderbeg in Greece, kept a great stir
against the Turks. By reason of which Amurath was
taken again from his monkish vow and profession, and
brought again into the field : for Huniades had rescued
the wliole country of Hungaria, and had repulsed all the
army of the Turks far from Servia. And although the
peevish practice of George, prince of Servia, had often-
times disclosed his councils unto the Turks, whereby
twice he was brought in danger, yet, notwithstanding,
(through the Lord's gracious protection) he was preserved
and delivered by the said George unto the Hungarians
again, and after that manfully vanquished the Turks, so
that they had no resting place about those peu'ts of Servia
and Bulgaria, so long as he lived.
Castriot Scanderbeg so foiled the Turk, and kept
Amurath so short, that, coming from Epirus in the
straits, he was so entangled by Castriot, that he was
forced to give battle. In which battle he was so van-
quished, and most part of his army slain, that, for grief
and sorrow, falling into a raving sickness, he was trans-
ported out of his pavilion to Adrianople, and there in
fury and madness died, after he had reigned thirty
years, which was about the year 1451.
This Amurath first established the order of the Jani-
zaries, who were the male children of such christians
as he conquered and took captive ; whom he forced to
renounce the faith of Christ, wherein they were bap-
tized, and brought them up in Mahomet's law, and ex-
ercised them in the same feats of war as he did his own
people, and after they came to man's estate, he named
them Janizaries (that is to say) soldiers of a strange
country, and made them guard his person. They wear
on their head, instead of a helmet, a white attire made
of the coarsest sort of wool, and in so many folds about
their head that it cannot be pierced with a sword. It
hangs down on the back with a tail, and before, on the
forehead, it is garnished with gold and silver. They
formerly used bows and lances in the field, but now
they use sabres and fire-arms as our cavalry do.
At the first institution there were but eight thousand,
but now there are twice as many. This, of all bondage
and servitude that the christians suffer under the Turks,
is most intolerable, and greatly to be lamented by all
true christians. For what can godly minds behold more
to their grief, than to see their children pulled from the
faith of Christ wherein they were baj)tized, and by whose
blood they should eternally be saved, and to be in-
structed and nourished with the blasphemous doctrine of
Mahomet, and so be professed enemies of Christ and
his church, to make war against heaven, and to perish
everlastingly ? And, finally, what a lamentable thing is
it, to see and behold our own children bom of our own
bodies, to become our mortal and cruel enemies, and to
cut our throats with their own hands ! This servitude
of mind is far greater than death itself: which, if our
princes would well consider, it would cause them the
rather to agree, and bend their whole force and power
against this cruel enemy.
IX. Mahomet the Second. — .\murath left behind him
three sons, — Mahomet, born of the daughter of Despota,
being twenty years of age ; the second son, called Turci-
nes ; the third, named Calepinus. This Turcines, being
an infant, and but eighteen months old, was strangled
at the commandment of the Turk, by his servant Moses,
himself being there present and beholdiiii; the horrible
murder. And when Moses, the executioner of the
murder, had desired him not to pollute his hands with
the blood of his brother, he answered, that it was the
manner of all the Ottoman Turks, that all the other
brethren being destroyed, none should be left alive but
one to govern the empire. Wherefore, Moses was com-
manded by the tyrant, there presently, and in his sight,
to kill the infant. This horrible fact, when the mother
of the child understood, she cried out, and almost mad
for sorrow, cursed the tyrant to his face. But he, to
mitigate the rage of his mother, at her request, being
desirous to be revenged upon the executioner of her son's
death, delivered Moses bound into her hands, who then,
in the presence of the tyrant, thrust him to the heart
with a knife, and opening his side, took out his liver,
and threw it to the dogs to be devoured.
The third son, called Calepinus, who was but six
months old, and who had been commended, by his father
Amurath, to the custody of Halibassa, one of his nobles,
who, to gratify and please the tyrant, betrayed the infant,
and brought him to him, and he, at the tyrant's command-
ment, was strangled. Some affirm, that instead of Ca-
lepinus another child was offered to the tyrant, and that
Calepinus was conveyed to Constantinople, and after the
taking of Constantinople was carried to Venice, and
then to Rome to Pope Calixtus, where he was baptized,
and afterward came into Germany to Frederic the em-
peror, and there was honourably entertained, and kept
in Austria during his life. Where note, how the merci-
ful providence of God can fetch out of the devil's mouth.
And note, moreover, Halibassa, the betrayer of the
infant, how he escaped not. For Mahomet, under-
standing him to be a man of great substance and riches,
through forging of false crimes, with great torments,
put him to death to have his riches ; for this tyrant was
given to insatiable avarice. Thus this bloody Mahomet
began his reign with horrible murder, after the example
of other cursed tyrants his predecessors.
Although this Mahomet came of a christian mother,
being the daugliter of Despota, prince of Servia, and
by her was brought up and instructed from his child-
hood in the precepts of christian religion and ma&>
ners, yet, he soon forgetting all, gave himself to
Mahomet's religion, and yet so, that he being ad-
dicted to neither religion, became an atheist, be-
lieving and worshipping no God at all, but only the
goddess of good fortune, mocking the minds and judg-
ments of men, who believe that God, by his providence,
governs and regards the state of human things on
earth.
After this Mahomet,having heard of the victories and
conquests of his predecessors, and having understood how
Bajazet lay eight years about Constantinople, and could
not win it ; he dispraising Bajazet, and disdaining that
so long time should be spent about the siege and yet no
victory gotten, bent all his study and device how to sub-
due the same. But first, having a privy hatred against
the city of Athens, and having his hands lately imbrued
with the blood of his brethren, this murdering Ma-
homet first of all takes his voyage to subvert and de-
stroy that famous school of all good learning and dis-
cipline. Against which city he so furiously raged for
the hatred of good letters, that he thought he ought not
to suffer the foundation thereof to stand, because that
city was a good nurse and fosterer of good arts and
A.D. 1499.]
SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLK— CRUELTY OF MAHOMET II.
377
sciences ; wherefore he commanded the city to be razed
and utterly subverted ; and wherever any monuments or
books could be found, he caused them to be cast into
dirty sinks, and the filthiest places of the city, or put to
the most vile uses that could be devised, for extirpating
and abolishing all good literature ; and if he understood
that any lamented the loss, and ruin of that noble place,
those he grievously punished and put to death.
Thus the famous and ancient school of Athens being
destroyed, he turned his army into Thrace, where in all
haste he, gathering his power both by sea and land, with
a mighty multitude compassed the city of Constantino-
ple, and began to lay his siege against it, in the year
1453 ; and in the four-and-fiftieth day of the siege it
was taken, sacked, and the Emperor Constantine slain.
As touching the cruelty and fierceness of the Turks in
getting of this city, and what slaughter there was of
men, and women, and children, what calamity and
misery was there to be seen, as sufficient relation, with
a full description, hath been made before, it would be
superfluous now to repeat the same. This only is not
to be omitted touching the principal causes of the over-
throw of this city ; whereof the first was the filthy
avarice of those citizens, who, hiding their treasures in
the ground, would not employ the same to the necessary
defence of their city. For so I find it in history, that
when the Turk, after the taking of the city, had found
not so much treasure as he looked for, suspecting with
himself (as the truth was) the treasures and riches to be
hidden under the ground, commanded the earth to
be dug up, and the foundations of the houses to be
searched : where he then found treasures incredi-
ble. " What (quoth he), how could it be that this
place could ever lack ammunition and fortification, which
did flow and abound with such great riches, and plenty
of all things?" The second cause was the absence of
the navy of the Venetians, which, if they had been
ready in time, might have been a safeguard against the
invasion of the enemies.
Joannes Ramus, writing of the destruction of this
city, amongst other matters makes relation of the image
of the crucifix, being there in the high temple of Sophia ;
which image the Turk took, and writing this superscrip-
tion upon the head of it, " This is the God of the chris-
tians," gave it to his soldiers to be scorned ; and com-
manding the image, with a trumpet, to be carried
through all his army, made every man to spit at it
most contumeliously. Wherein the reader by the way
may note, what occasion of slander and offence we
christians give to the barbarous infidels by this our un-
godly superstition, in having images in our temples,
contrary to the express commandment of God in his
word. For if St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, saith,
"We know Christ now no more after the flesh ;" how
much less then is Christ to be known by us in blind
stocks and images set up in our temples, serving for no
other purpose, but for the infidels to laugh both us and
our God to scorn, and to provoke God's vengeance ?
To make the history short, such was the cruelty of
these Turks in winning the city, that when Mahomet
had given license to the soldiers three days together, to
spoil, to kill, and to do whatever they pleased, there was
no corner in all Constantinople, which did not either
flow with christian blood, or else was the scene of abo-
mination and cruelty. Of which citizens, some they
murdered, some they roasted upon spits, some they
flayed off their skin, hanging them up to consume with
famine, others they put salt into their wounds the
more terribly to torment them, so that one contended
with another who could devise most strange kinds of new
torments and punishments, exercising such cruelty that
the place where the city was before seemed now to be
no city, but a slaughter-house or shambles of christian
men's bodies. Among the dead bodies, the body also
of Constantine the emperor was found ; whose head,
Veing brought to Mahomet, he commanded it to be car-
ried upon a spear through the whole city, for a public
spectacle and derision to all the Turkish army. And
because he would diminish the number of the captives,
Who seemed to him to be very great, he never rose from
his table but he put every day some of the nobles to
death, in order to fill his cruel mind with blood, as his
body was filled with wine ; which he used to do so long
as any of the nobles of that city were left alive. And
of the other sort also, as histories credibly report, there
passed no day in which he did not slay more than three
hundred persons, the rest he gave to his soldiers to kill,
and to do with them what they would. It is here to be
noted, that as Constantine, the son of Helena, was the
first emperor of Constantinople, so Constantine, the
son also of Helena, was the last emperor.
Not far from the city of Constantinople, there was
another little city, called Pera, and once called Galata,
situated by the sea-side, who, hearing of the miserable
destruction of Constantinople, and seeing the city
flaming with fire, sent certain of the chief men with
speed to Mahomet, declaring to them, that they neither
had sent any help to the city of Constantinople, neither
yet wrought any injury to any of his army ; wherefore
they desired and prayed him, that as they would gladly
yield unto him, so he would be favourable to them, and
spare them, and not to punish the guiltless with the
guilty. Mahomet, although he was not ignorant that
for fear, rather than of any good-will, they submitted
themselves, and that they would rather resist him if
they had been able, yet received for that time the sub-
mission of the messengers : but sending with them his
ambassadors into the city, he commanded also his army
to follow withal, and to enter with him into the city,
which, although it was greatly suspected and disliked by
the citizens, yet they durst not otherwise do but suffer
them to enter; which being done, the ambassador gave
a sign to the soldiers, every man to do whatever he was
bidden ; of whom, some ran to the walls, some to the
temples and churches, some to the streets and houses of
the city, plucking all things down to the ground, sacking
and ranging with no less fury and abomination than they
had done at Constantinople before, saving only that they
abstained from murder : but the same day, letters came
from Mahomet to the ambassador, that he would spare
none, but destroy and murder all that were in the
city ; which message, because it seemed to the ambassa-
dor to be too cruel, as they had yielded themselves, he
stayed his hand a little until night came. In the mean
time, drunken Mahomet, coming something to himself,
(whom drunkenness had before overcome) sent his second
letters to revoke the first. Where again is to be noted
the merciful providence of God towards his people in
their deserved plagues, by staying the hands, and bridling
the fury many times of their enemies, when otherwise
the case seems to be past all remedy.
Mahomet thus being in himself not a little advanced
and elevated by the winning of Constantinople, which he
had now made tlie imperial seat of theTurkish dominion,
on the third year following set out to the siege of Belgrade,
a city of Hungary, lying near the banks of the Danube,
thinking to have the like success there, as he had in the
winning of Constantinople, although through the Lord's
disposing, it fell out much otherwise. Within the city
of Belgrade, at the time of the siege, was John Huni-
ades, the valiant captain of whom mention has been
made before ; who with a sufficient strength of picked
soldiers, although in number nothing equal to the Turk's
army, valiantly defended the city with great courage,
and no less success. In which siege great diligence was
bestowed, and many of the Turks slain. Among whom
also Mahomet himself, being wounded under the left arm,
was carried out of the field half dead, and the rest so put
to flight, that of the Turks were destroyed to the number,
or not much under the number of forty thousand, besides
the loss of all their ordnance, which the Turks, in haste
of their flight, were forced to leave behind them.
Jerome Zieglerus, writing of the siege of this Bel-
grade, adds, that when Mahomet was at the siege, seeing
the town so small and weak of itself, that it could not be
won with all his great multitude, commanded all his
brazen pieces to be laid, to batter down the walls and
towers of the town : so that the christians within the
walls were vehemently distressed : for the siege con-
tinued both night and day without intermission. Amooj;
378
THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE.— DEATH OF JOHN HUNIADES.
[Book VI.
the rest of the christians who defended the town, was a
certain Bohemian much worthy of commendation, w-ho
being upon the walls, and seeing that a Turk with a
banner or ensign of the Turks had got up, by the sight
whereof the whole town was in danger to be concpiered
and taken, runs to the Turk, and clasping him about the
middle, speaking to John Capistranus standing below,
asking hiin whether it were any danger of damnation to
him, if he, of his voluntary mind, did cast himself witli
that dog (so he termed him) down headlong from the
wall, to be slain with him ; what would become of his
soul, and whether he might be saved or not ? To whom
when the other had answered that he should be saved
without doubt, he forthwith tumbles himself with the
Turk down off the wall, where by his death, he saved at
the same time the life of all the city. Mahomet being
so wounded, and in despair of winning the city, was
carried, as he heard, out of the field ; who at length
coming again to himself, partly for fear, and partly for
shame, was ready to kill himself. And thus was the
town of Belgrade at that time rescued through God's
providence, by the means of John Huniades and this
Bohemian.
This siege of Belgrade began A. D. 1456, and endured
six-and-forty days. At which siege were two hundred
thousand Turks ; of whom forty thousand were slain,
where the victory fell to the christians through the pros-
perous success given of God to John Huniades. Which
Huniades, not long after the victory, through the labour
and fatigue in defending the town, was taken with a sore
sickness, and died ; to whose valiant prowess and sin-
gular courage, histories give great praise and com-
mendation.
Mahomet after this done in Europe, returned into
Asia to war with Usumcassanes, a Persian, with whom
he had three battles ; the first was about the river
Euphrates, where the Turk lost ten thousand men, and
was put to the worse. In the second field likewise he
was discomfited. The third battle at Arsenga, where
through the terrible noise of the brazen pieces, the Per-
sian horses disturbed the camp, and so was Usumcassanes
overcome.
From thence the Turk . educed again his power against
the christians, and first subdued unto him Synope, and
all Paphl igonia ; also the kingdom of Trebizond,
which he besieging both by land and water, won from
the christians, and sent David the king with his two
sons, and Calus his uncle, to Constantinople, where they
were miserably and cruelly put to death, and all the
family of the Comneni, which were of the king's family,
were destroyed by the Turk ; which was about A. D.
1461, at which time this mischievous Mahomet was first
saluted emperor.
Not long after h(; got from the Grecians, Corinth
and Mitylene, not without great slaughter of christian
men ; insomuch that the whole city of Mitylene was
destroyed almost to the ground. The isles also of
Lemnus and Lesbos he won from the Venetians ; in
which island of Lesbos is the city of Mitylene.
Not far from this isle of Lesbos and Mitylene, there
is a country in Asia toward the sea-side, bordering next
to Europe, called Mysia, or of some called Maesia, wherein
stood the city of Troy. This country Mahomet coveting
to win rather by policy and falsehood, than by doubtful
danger of war, secretly sent for the prince to come to
speak with him for certain causes (as he pretended)
which would concern the profit and commodity of them
both. When the king of Mysia, either for shame would
not, or for fear durst not deny, he came to him as to con-
fer upon necessary affairs in common to them appertain-
ing. Mahomet caused the king to be apprehended, and
cruelly slain, or rather torn in j)ieces ; and so invading
the land of Mysia, he exercised the like tyranny upon his
kindred and affinity.
This Mysia by fraud being taken and lost, Mahomet
flies again towards Europe, where he assailed the island
Euboia, otherwise called Nigropont, making a bridge of
marvellous fame over the sea Euripus, to convey over
his army out of Greece, and there laid his siege to the
city Chalois, which at length in thirty days he overcame,
not without a great slaughter of his army, who in the
siege is said to have lost forty thousand of theTuiKs.
But the slaughter of the christians was greater, for when
the city was won, the tyrant commanded, most cruelly,
none to be spared within the whole city, but to be put
to the sword, whoever was above the age of twenty
years. This cruelty was shewed of the barbarous tyrant
for anger and fury, because such a number of his Turks
were slain at the siege thereof, being reckoned (as is
said) to forty thousand. In the fierce siege of this city
it is memorable that is in histories recorded, how that
the women of that city, seeing the men begin to faint,
and the city to lie in present danger, took the matter
themselves in hand, and playing the men, went to the
walls, and there defended the city with no less trouble to
the enemy than the men had before done, and so for a
space continued, so long as any man's strength and di-
ligence could do any good. A great cause of the loss of
this city and island, is imputed to the cowardly timidity
of the Venetian navy ; wlio being there present, and
having prosperous wind, yet durst not, or would not
adventure upon the Turks' bridge, which if they had
done, the island of Euboia and Chalcis had not so soou
been overmatched of the Turks.
Thus all the east parts of Greece being subdued to the
Turkish tyrant, with all Achaia, Attica, Acarnania, and
Euboia, shortly after followed also Peloponnesus, brought
in like subjection to the Turk. Within Peloponnesus
were these provinces contained, Achaia, ISIessenia, La-
conia, Argolica and Archadia, &c. The Venetians ia
this Peloj)onnesus had great possessions, and had made
up the wall again toward the sea-side, near to the straits
of Corinth, where for the more speed of the work, they
had thirty thousand workmen in the building ; which,
when it came to the knowledge of the Turk, he broke
into the country of Peloponnesus, with an army of eight
thousand, and first wasted the regions of the Coroneans
and Methoneans, and making a great slaughter of the
V^enetians, in short time he brought the whole dominion
of Peloponnesus under his yoke and tribute.
It is long and more lamentable to recite all the vic-
tories of Mahomet against the christians, both by land
and sea. Before was declared how truce was taken be-
tween Georgius Scanderbeg, and the Turk for tea
years ; which truce being expired, Mahomet leaves no
time unspent, no diligence unsought, but makes with
all his power to Epirus and Albania, which he, after
long siege, at length overcame and subdued. \\Tien'
Scanderbeg the valiant captain had done against the
Turk what in man's strength did lie, yet being over-
matched with power and multitude, seeing no possi-
bility to make his party good, he was forced to depart
his country as an exile, and went to Italy, and there
being sent for by the pope's letters, openly declared
that it was not possible otherwise to resist the furious
rage of the barbarous Turks by the strength of any one
king or prince, unless all Europe with one con-
sent should join their j)ower and force together. And
thus, Scanderbeg, a man of puissant ceurage, being
driven out of his country, continued his life in exile.
His courage and vehemency is reported to have been
such, that in fighting against the barbarous enemy, for
very eagerness of spirit, his blood was seen to burst out
of his lips. It is testified also of him, that being
challenged he never refused to fight, and in fighting,
never turned his back, neither yet was he ever wounded but
only once with a light shaft in his foot, neither did he ever
setagainst theTurk withmorethan six thousand horsemen
and three thousand footmen. He is said with his own
hand to have slain above two thousand Turks, whom
with such violence he did strike, that many of them be
did cleave asunder, from the head to the middle.
Neither yet was the insatiable greediness of this
Turkish hell-hound satisfied with all this, but still he
conceived greater things in his mind, thinking to con-
quer the whole world ; and so passing forward towards
Europe, he subdued all Ulyria. Then passing into
Wallachia, set ui)on Dracula, the prince thereof. Dra-
cula, although he had no great power of soldiers, yet
so enclosed and environed the Turk, that he had almost
A.D. 1499.]
DEATH OF MAHOMET.— BAJAZET II.
379
lost his whole army, of whom a great part was destroyed,
and many of his ensigns taken. Shortly afterwards he
sent Ahmet with one hundred ships into Italy, and he,
passin"- along by tlie coast, spoiled and wasted several
places, till at length he came to Hydruntium (Otrauto) a
city in Calabria in Italy, which after a long siege he over-
came and subdued, and brought such a terror into all Italy,
that the pope, forgetting all other things, yet mindful of
himself, with all haste fled out of Rome. After the city of
Hydruntium was taken, which was A. D. 1481, ]\Iatthias
Corvinus, Huniades's son, was sent for by the Italians,
to set upon the city, for its rescue, when Ahmet was
about to make his return with five-and-twenty thousand
Turks, in the meantime news came that Mahomet the
great Turk was dead ; the siege brake up, and the city
was delivered to the Italians again, and so Italy was deli-
vered at that time out of peril and danger. This jNIa-
homet won from the christians two hundred cities, and
twelve kingdoms, and two empires, which he joined
both together. He died A. D. 1481, after having
reigned fifty years.
X. Bajazet the Second. — Mahomet had three sons ;
of which Mustapha, the eldest, through voluptuousness,
died before his father. The other two were Bajazet and
Demes ; about whom great controversy arose amongst
the Turks, which of them should succeed in their father's
kingdom. For neither of them was present at Constan-
tinople when Mahomet died ; Bajazet being in Cappa-
docia, and Demes in Lycaonia ; when great dissension
was among the nobles for the succession, and great strife
and bloodshed for the matter, the janiaaries, who were
the Turk's guard, proclaimed Bajazet emperor. Bajazet
coming at length from Cappadocia, partly through yield-
ing, partly by corrupting with money, got the wills of
the janizaries, and was made emperor. Demes, the
other brother, being in Lycaonia more near, although
he made no less speed in his coming, yet was prevented
by Bajazet, and excluded out of Constantinople. WTiere-
fore, he being put back from all hope of his kingdom,
incited by some of his friends, moved war against his
brother ; but being overcome in three battles by Ah-
met, Bajazet's captain, fled to the great master of
Rhodes, leaving in a place called Carrse, his mother and
two young children, whom Bajazet slew.
This Demes being with the master of the knights of
Rhodes, was sent to the bishop of Rome, where being
kept, and afterwards sent to Charles Ylil., for an host-
age of Pope iUexander VI, was poisoned by the way by
Pope Alexander, as is before declared. After whose
death, Bajazet, to requite Ahmet for his good service,
put him to the halter, partly suspecting his power,
partly for lucre sake, to have his treasure : his death
was of great profit to the christians, as he was ever an
utter enemy to the religion and name of Christ.
Bajazet thus being confirmed in his tyranny, made his
expedition against Wallachia, where he subdued two
great forts. From thence he removed liis power, taking
his voyage into Asia, thinking to be revenged of the
sultan of Egypt, where he lost two great battles, the one
fought at Adena, the other at Tarsus ; but especially at
Tarsus, the army of the Turk was so overthrown, that
of an hundred thousand brought into the field, scarce
the third part remained unslain.
Thus Bajazet being overthrown and terrified with evil
luck, fighting against the sultan of Egypt, removed
from Asia, and directed his army into Europe. Leading
his army against the Venetians, he had with them many
and doubtful conflicts, where the Turk was sometimes
put to the worse, and sometimes again prevailed ; out of
Jadra and other cities about Dalmatia, he carried away
great multitudes of christians into captivity, about
A. D. 14U8.
Two years after this, which was A. D. 1500, Bajazet
with one hundred and fifty thousand armed men, entered
into Peloponnesvis ; which although Mahomet had over-
run before, yet the Venetians had defended Methone, or
Modon, all this while against the Turks. The Turk be-
sieged this city with three armies, having about the walls
fivti hundred great brazen cannons, wherewith he bat-
tered the city both day and night : but the citizens,
who were within the city committing themselves to
God, defended their city as well as they could, rather
choosing to die than to yield unto the Turk's tyranny.
But the^Turk prevailing, and they not able to withstand
the siege, the christians assembled together into a cer-
tain house prepared for the purpose, both men, women,
and cliildren ; where they setting the house on fire,
gave themselves rather to be burned than to come into
the tyrant's hands. Certain women also, with their
children, cast themselves headlong into the sea, by that
means to avoid the Turkish captivity. Some writers affirm
that the Methonians, seeing five great ships of the
Venetians coming with men and provisions toward them,
issued down from the walls to the sea side to receive
them; but were all taken captives, being above the
number of a thousand : and all being tied with long
ropes, were brought before the tyrant, and in his sight
were cruelly slain, except certain nobles, whom Cher-
seogles, son-in-law to Bajazet, got pardoned, amongst
whom was Andreas Gritto.
The Turk had to maintain war in Asia against Ismail
Sophi or king of Persia. Which Sophi was stirred up
by God's providence to war with this Bajazet, whereby
the christian churches in Europe might have some
breathing time, and freedom from the Turk's cruel
tyranny and bloodshed. This Sophi was a valiant
Turk, who with great power and victories had overrun a
great compass of the eastern parts of Asia ; and de-
feated many of the generals of Bajazet.
Thus, through the admirable example of God's justice
and providence, were these Turks kept occupied, and so
came it to pass, that these barbarians being blasphem-
ous against the Son of God, should thus horribly run on
to the destruction one of another, being worthily punish-
ed with mutual slaughter and bloodshed for their im-
piety and blasphemy against Christ and his religion,
whereby in the meantime some rest was given to the
christians.
Bajazet, partly by these victories discouraged, partly
diseased and languishing of the gout, and partly also
broken with age, finding himself unequal to the
government of that tumultuous kingdom, began to talk
with his nobles about the choosing of one to succeed
him. The occasion whereof ministered much matter of
inward wars among the Turks. This Bajazet had in all
six sons, whereof three died before him, and three
were yet left alive ; to wit, Ahmet, Korkud, and
Selim. Bajazet himself had most mind to Ahmet,
but the chief of his nobles rather favoured Selim ;
and provoked him to stir up war against his father : and
though that he was overcome in war, yet through inter-
cession he was reconciled to his father, and is after-
wards proclaimed emperor again against his father's will,
through the help and favour of the soldiers, entering the
first beginning of his kingdom, with the murdering of
his own father. The story in some authors is thus de-
clared.
After the janizaries had persuaded Bajazet that as
he himself was unwieldly, he should therefore do well
to constitute some successor ; and having assigned Ah-
met to succeed him, the janizaries being offended
with Ahmet, because he would not enlarge their
stipends, and bribe them, compassing about the king's
palace with their privy swords which they had under
their garments, with a mighty cry required Selim to
be appointed for their emperor. When Bajazet had
answered that he had assigned Ahmet, they refused
him, because he was fat, gross, and unable thereto ; but
needs would have Selim, who was stout and warlike,
as their emperor: and withal they drew out their
swords, crying Selim, Selim! Then Bajazet, giving
place to their fury, shewed himself content to give
them Selim ; whom the janizaries receiving, brought
into the palace : Bajazet his father giving place to him,
desires him not to be so hasty and furious in his doings,
but to be modest and take heed what he did, and not to
follow his furv, but to give place to time, which reveals
all things, and think himself to be a man subject to dan-
gers and jeoTjardies as other men are : and thus speak-
380
BAJAZET POISONED BY HIS SON SELIM, WHO SUCCEEDS HIM.
[Book VI,
ing, he resigned his imperial throne and seat to him,
and went away all heavy, entering into a certain order of
their religion. Whereupon followed great acclama-
tions of the people, saluting Selim as emperor. Who
then taking the rule upon him, began to govern with
great cruelty, destroying many of his nobles, such as
had stood against him, some with poison, some by other
cruel means, and advancing his own side, with great
honours and promotions.
Not long after Selim was thus settled in his king-
dom, Bajazet his father, intending to see and prove
how he behaved himself in his government, first entered
into his treasure-house, where he found all his riches to
he scattered and gone. Afterward he came into his
armory, where all the spoils gotten by war were likewise
wasted ; then he entered into the jewel-house, where all
his plate and gifts sent from kings and princes were
kept, which likewise were dispersed and given away.
At length he came into the stable, where also he seeing
his principal horses to be wanting, sighing with himself,
and crying vengeance upon him, he prepared himself,
with the rest of the treasure which was remaining, to
sail over into Natolia to his eldest son ; and passing by
an orchard near the sea- side, where he had appointed to
take ship, he sat down under a tree, and began to
curse his son, and to ask vengeance upon him, for that
he had so despised his father, and was become so im-
pious a wretch.
Selim hearing of his father's departure came into the
orchard where he was, and seeming to be very heavy,
and much lamenting that his father would so depart and
go away, seeing that he desired not the government of
the empire, but was contented only with the title thereof.
*' O father, (said he) do not thus privily depart away ;
do not procure this shame to your son, who so tenderly
loves you. Let me have but the name only, and be you
the emperor indeed. The end of your natural life most
patiently I shall expect, which I pray God may long
continue." And thus using many fair and flattering
words to his father, he commanded a banquet with
many dainty delicacies to be brought to him, but tem-
pered and infected with poison. Which as soon as
Bajazet had begun to taste, and felt the strength of the
poison working in his body, he took his last farewell of
his son, and going out of the city accompanied with a
great retinue of men, yelling and crying out in the
streets, in the middle of his journey he fell down and
miserably died, (A. D. 1512.) Here mayest thou see,
good reader, a cursed brood of this Turkish generation,
where the father dies in cursing the son, and the son
reigns by poisoning his father.
XI. Selim I. — After this wretched Selim had ex-
ercised his barbarous cruelty upon his father, with
like impiety he seeks the destruction of his brethren
and their children, first beginning his murder with the
five children his nephews, which were the sons of his
three brethren who had previously died, then remained
his other two brethren yet alive, Ahmet and Kor-
kud with their children, likewise to be destroyed. Of
whom the one had three sons, whom the father sent
to Selim his brother, and their uncle, with fair and
gentle words, to entreat him to be good to their father,
offering to him their duty and service in all things,
honouring him also as emperor. But cruel Selim
commanded forthwith his nephews to be strangled. The
father hearing of the cruel murder of his sons, leaving
house and home, went and hid himself in the moun-
tains, where he lived for a space with herbs and wild
honey ; but being betrayed by one of his men, he was
brought to Selim, and so was strangled.
The wars and conquests of this Selim were very
many in various parts of Asia. From thence triumphing
he departed to Constantinople, intending to spend the
rest of his time in persecuting the christians ; but in
that mean space he was stricken with a cankered sore
inwardlv, and died after he had reigned about eiglit
years (A.D. 1520.)
The reign of this Turk was but short in number of
^pears ; bat in number of his murders and cruel blood-
shed it mig1:( seem exceedingly long, which lived more
like a beast than a »■.; n, lor lie never spared any of his
friends or kindred. Hi lather first lie poisoned, his
brethren and all his cousins he quelled, leaving none of
all his kindred alive. Moreover, his ciiief and principal
captains for small occasions he put to death, as Musta-
pha, Calogere, Chendeme, Bostang his son-in-law, and
Juno Bassa.
It is said that he intended the poisoning of his own
son Solyman, sending to him a shirt infected with a poi-
son, because he seemed something freely to speak
against the cruel demeanour of his father ; but by means
of his niother, the gift being suspected, was given to
another who was his chamberlain, who putting on the
siiirt was struck with the poison, and died.
As to this Turk Selim, by the way here may be
noted how the secret providence of the Lord kept him
occupied with his Turkish wars at home, while the re-
formation of christian religion here in Europe, begun by
Martin Luther, might the more quietly take some root
witliout disturbance or interruption. For so it appears,
that in the days of this Selim, Martin Luther first
began to write against the pope's indulgences, which
was A.D. 1516.
XII. Solyman — the only son of Selim, succeeded af-
ter his father's death. In the beginning he seemed to some
to be simple and sheepish, and not meet for the Turkish
government. Wherefore certain of his nobles, consult-
ing how to depose him, intended to set up another em-
peror. In which consyiiracy especially are named Cajer-
beius and Gazelli. This Cajerbeius was he that be-
trayed Campson the sultan of Egypt to Selim, who
now also being in consultation with Gazelli and others
about this matter, detected them also to Solyman.
Wherefore Gazelli and his fellows being thus detected,
were put to death by Solyman, proving that he was n(>t
so sheepish as he was thought of them to be, and as
by his acts afterwards more fully appeared.
Solyman, after this execution of the conspirators,
taking his voyage into Europe, first besieged Belgrade,
which being a city in Hungary, was the strongest fort of
all the Roman empire, and the chief defence at that
time of all Christendom. The kingdom of Hungary at
that fiine was under the government of Lewis, a young
king without experience or knowledge. Whom other
princes, and especially the covetous churchmen, so plun-
dered, that they left him nothing but the bare name
and title of his kingdom, by which, he being unsupplied
both with men and money, was unable to match with
such an enemy.
Another advantage also which the Turks had in besieg-
ing Belgrade, was that the christian princes at that time
were in civil dissension and variance among themselves,
and the pope with his churchmen also were so busy in
suppressing Luther, and the gospel then newly spring-
ing, that they minded nothing else, except it were to
maintain their wealth : which pope if he had set his care
(as his duty was) so much in stirring up princes against
the common enemy, as he was bent to deface the gospel,
and to persecute the true professors thereof, it might
have brought to pass that Belgrade might have been
defended against the Turk.
Certainly whatever the pope then did, this had beea
his duty, setting all other things aside, to have had an
earnest compassion of so many miserable and lost cap*
tives, who were fallen from their faith and religion into
the misery and slavery of the Turk, and thraldom of the
devil, and to have sought all means possible to have
brought them, as lost sheep, into the fold again ; which
might have been done, if prelates and princes, joining
together in christian concord, had loved so well the
public glory of Christ, and souls of christians, as they
regarded their own private, worldly, and frivolous quar-
rels. And even supposing that the pope had conceived
never so much malice against Luther, and supposing his
quarrel also to be good, yet the public church standing
in such danger, as it then did by the invasion of the Turk,
reason would, nature led, religion taught, time required,
that a good jjrelate, forgetting lighter matters, should
A. D. 1499.]
SOLYMAN CAPTURES THE ISLAND OF RHODES.
381
rather have laid his shoulder to the excluding of so
great a danger, as was then imminent to liimself and the
uni\ersal church of Christ; but now his quarrel being
unjust, and the cause of Luther being most just and
godly, what is to be said or thought of such a prelate,
who forbearing the Turk, whom in a time so dangerous
\ie ought chiefly to have resisted, persecuted the truth
which he should specially have maintained ?
Solyman therefore taking this occasion, while our
princes were thus at variance, without any resistance or
interruption brought his army to Belgrade (A.D. 1521) ;
which city being but slenderly defended, the Turk
throuo-h his underminers, guns, and other engines of
war, without great difficulty, and with little loss of his
ioldiers, soon subdued and overcame it.
After this victory Solyman resting himself a whole
year, and casting in his mind how to make all sure be-
hind him, thought it expedient for his purpose if he
might obtain the island of Rhodes, for that was the only
christian place that remained between him and Asia ;
wherefore the next year he brought his army of four
hundred and fifty ships, and three hundred thousand
men, to the besieging thereof. This Rhodes was a
mighty and strong island. The inhabitants at the first
manfully resisted the Turk, sparing no labour nor pains
for the defence of themselves and of all Christendom ;
but afterwards being brought to extremity, and pinched
with penury, seeing also no aid come from the chris-
tians, they began to languish in themselves. The
Turks in the meantime casting up two great mountains
with strength of hand, two miles off from the city, like
rolling trenches carried them before them near to the city,
in the tops whereof they planted their ordnance and artil-
lery to batter the city. The master of the knights of
Rhodes was then one Philip Villadamus, a Frenchman,
in whom no diligence was wanted requisite to the de-
fence of the city. The Rhodians hkewise so valiantly
behaved themselves upon the walls, that with their shot
all the ditches about the city were filled with the car-
cases of dead Turks. Besides this, such a disease
reigned in the Turk's camp, that thirty thousand
of them died; and yet for all this Solyman would
not cease from his siege. At length, by underminers
castmg down the ramparts, and outermost parts of the
city, he won ground still more and more upon the
Rhodians, and with mortar-pieces so battered the
houses, that there was scarcely a free place standing in
all the city. And thus the siege continued for the
space of five or six months, and yet all this while no
help came to them from the christians. Wherefore they
being out of all hope, through the advice of Villadamus,
yielded themselves to the Turk, upon condition that he
'vould spare them with life and goods, which conven-
tion the Turk kept with them faithfully and truly.
Thus Solyman to his great glory, and to the utter shame
of all christian princes, and to the ruin of all Christen-
dom, got the noble Isle of Rhodes, although not without
great loss of his army, so that at one assault twenty
thousand Turks about the walls were slain with fire,
sword, stones, and other engines. WTiereby it may be
conjectured what these Rhodians might or would have
done, if succour had come to them from other christian
princes as they looked for. This city was won upon
Christmas-day, A.D. 1522.
This conquest of Rhodes being secured, Solyman
the fourth year after brings back his army into Hun-
gary, where he found none to resist him but Lewis
the young king, who being accompanied with a small
army, and not able to match with the Turk, yet of a
hasty rashness and vain hope of victory, would needs
set upon him, who if he had staid but a little had pros-
pered the better. For John Vaivoda, a captain well
exercised in Turkish wars before, was not far off,
coming with a sufficient force of able soldiers ; but Pau-
lus the archbishop of Colosse, a Franciscan friar, a man
more bold than wise, with his temerity and rashness
troubled all their doings. For the whole sum of the
army of the Hungarians contained in all but only
twenty-four thousand horsemen and footmen, who at
length coming to the battle, and being compassed about
with a great multitude of the Turk's army, were brought
into great distress. The Turks twice shot off tlieir
pieces against the christian army, yet scarce was any
christian touched, which was thought to be done on
purpose, because they were christians who had the or-
dering of the guns, for then the special gunners of the
Turks were christians, whom forthe sake of their gun-
nery they spared. Then the Turk's horsemen, coming
upon the rear of the christian army, compassed them
about, and by reason of their multitude overcharged
their horsemen. Among whom was slain at the same
time the archbishoj) of Colosse, with the bishops of
Strygone and Varadine, and many other nobles beside.
Also the king himself was compelled to fly into a marsh,
where falling from his horse, being heavy laden with
the harness, he was not able to rise again, but there
miserably perished.
Solyman the Turk marvelled at the foolishness of
Lewis, who with so small an army would presume to
encounter with such a great host of two hundred thou-
sand. This battle in Hungary was fought A.D. 1526.
After the decease of Lewis, Ferdinand succeeded in
the kingdom, being duke of Austria and king of Hun-
gary. Then Solyman, setting contention between John
Vaivoda and Ferdinand for the kingdom of Hungary,
marched to the city of Buda, which also in short time he
made to surrender upon condition that they should
escape with their lives and goods.
In the year 1529, Ferdinand, king of Hungary,
recovered several holds, and warring against John Vai-
voda his enem)', expelled him out of his kingdom.
Whereupon Vaivoda, flying to the Turk, desired his aid.
The Turk, glad to take that occasion, with great prepa-
ration addressed himself to return into Hungary, where
recovering again the city of Buda, which Ferdinand had
got from him a little before, he removed his army into
Austria, spoiling and destroying by the way all that came
to his hands, shewing many examples of great cruelty
and tyranny most lamentable to hear and understand.
For of some he put out their eyes, of some he cut off
their hands, of some their ears and noses. And these
examples of horrible and barbarous tyranny this wretched
Turk perpetrated by the way coming toward Vienna, a
noble city in Austria, besides the captives which he took
by i*-o Tay and led into most miserable slavery, amount-
ing to the number of thirty thousand.
Among other holds by the way as the Turks came,
there was a castle called Altenburch, strongly situated
by nature, and defended by art ; which castle the Turk
intending not to pass, because he would make all things
sure behind him, began to make his assault, and lay his
ordnance against it. The warders and keepers of the
castle, so soon as the Turk began to lay siege against
them, making no resistance, of a womanly cowardliness
sent their messengers to the Turk, to yield themselves
ready to do his commandment, and further him with
their supplies. Among whom were three hundred Bo-
hemians, who were commanded to follow the army, that
the Turk by them might learn what strength was in the
city of Vienna ; also where the king was, and what was
to be done for the winning thereof.
Of whom when the Turk had understanding how all
things stood, and how there were but twenty thousand
men in Vienna able to bear armour, and that other cities
of Austria would soon yield if that were taken, and that
Vienna was victualled but for two months, and that the
king was of late in Bohemia ; the Turk being certified
of all things, having no doubt in his mind of victory,
made speed toward Vienna ; and first coming to Neapolis,
a city but eight miles distant from Vienna, he required
them to yield themselves ; who notwithstanding with-
stood, and repulsed them valiantly. Then the Turks
assigned a place for the pitching of their tents; and
because it seemed somewhat too little for such a great
multitude, they took in more ground to tlie compass of
seven miles circuit. The multitude of his army, which
he there planted, is accounted of some to extend to two
hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. The Turk thus
being planted, made daily excursions over all the country
of Austria, especially about the city of Vienna, wasting
382 SIEGE OF NEAPOLIS AND VIENNA.— VALTANT DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS, [Book VJ.
and spoiling with great cruelty and murder among the
poor christians.
Moreover, to make all things more sure toward the
preparation of the siege, scouts were sent abroad and
ambushraents were laid about the side of the river
Danube, to provide that no aid nor provisions should be
brought to Vienna. It so pleased the providence of the
Lord (who disposes all things) that three days before the
coming of the Turk, Frederick the earl palatine, who
was then assigned by the empire to take the charge of
Vienna, was come down by the river Danube, with four-
teen thousand men, and with a certain troop of horsemen,
well appointed and picked for the purpose. After the
coming of this Frederick, provision also was appointed
to follow shortly after by the river.
In the mean time, they who had the carriage and
transport, hearing how the ways were laid, and all the
passages ten miles about Vienna stopped by the Turks,
although they knew the city to stand in great need of
provisions, yet seeing there was no other remedy, rather
tlian it should come to the enemy's hand, thought it
best to sink their boats with their carriage, and so tliey
did. \\'hereby although the christians wanted their
relief, yet were the Turks disappointed of their prey and
pur))Ose.
The captains who had the keeping of the city, were
chiefly Frederick the earl palatine, William Rogen-
dorf, and Nicolas earl of Salme, they seeing themselves so
straightened contrary to their expectation, although they
had great causes to be discouraged, yet calling their
courage to them, they consulted together for the best
way to be taken ; and seeing that the little city of Nea-
polis (above mentioned) being eight miles distant from
them, so valiantly withstood the Turks, that in one day
they sustained seven assaults against all the main force
of the Turkish army ; by their example and manful
standing being the more animated and encouraged, they
determined to abide the utmost before they would give
over ; and first plucking down all the suburbs and
buildings without the walls whereby the enemy might have
any succour, they commanded all the farmers and inha-
bitants about t^e city to save themselves, and to bring
in tlieir goods within the walls. Such places as were
weak within the walls, they made strong. About the
towers and munition of the walls they provided ramparts
and bulwarks distant eighty feet one from another,
to keep oft" the shot ; and every man had his place and
standing awarded to him upon the wall, and his office
appointed what to do ; but especially that side of the
city which lies to the river Danube, they fortified
after the best manner ; for that way only now remained
for victuals to be transported from the Bohemians to
them. Wherefore eight ensigns were assigned to the
keeping of the bridge, and in the plain, which was like
an island enclosed within the river, a sufficient garrison
of horsemen were placed, lying within the gunshot of the
city, that if any grain or victuals were sent from the Bo-
hemians, they might provide the same safely to be
brought into the city.
These things thus being disposed and set in order,
Lord William Rogendorff, to try the strength of the
Turks, made divers sallies out with his horsemen, al-
though much against the minds of the Austrians ; who,
knowing the manner of the Turks, thought it better to
suffer them, while either they might be wearied with
time, or consumed for lack of victuals. Among many
skirmishes which the christians had with the Turks, one
especially was unfortunate to our men ; in which certain
of the horsemen spying a small troop of the Turks scat-
tering abroad from their company, made out after them,
who siiddeidy and guilefully were enclosed by the Turks,
before they could recover the gates of the city, and so
were all taken alive ; of whom three were sent from the
Turks into the city, to declare to the Viennians what
strength they had seen in the camp of their adversaries,
and to solicit them to yield their city for fear of punish-
ment which would follow. The rest they reserved to
torments and punishment, whom in the sight of the
whole army, and of the christians (who should tell the
same to the citizens) they caused every man to be drawn
with four horses a-pieces, and so to be dismembered and
plucked asunder.
After this was done, the barbarous Turk immediately sent
his herald to talk with the captains of the city, whether
tliey would yield tlie city u]>on honest conditions, or else
would abide the arbitrement of war. If they would
gently submit themselves, they should have all gentle-
ness shewed to them. If they would be stubborn, and
stand to tlieir defence, he would also stand to his siege,
so that he would spare neither man, woman, or child.
To this the captains answered again, that they were
contented that Solyman should stand to his siege, and
do his utmost, what he would, or what he could. As
for them, they were resolved to defend themselves and
their city so long as they could ; the event and issue of
victory, they said, was doubtful, and many times it hap-
j)ens, that they who begin the war, are wearied sooner
than they who are challenged.
Solyman, disdaining this answer, first burning and
consuming all the villages, houses and places round
about the city, poisoning the springs and fountains which
gave water to the city, and so stopping all passages that
no relief should have way to them, began to approach
the city, with three great camps ; sending word in scorn
and contumely by one of his captains, that if they stood
in need of soldiers, he would send to them the three
hundred Bohemians (mentioned a little before") to aid
them in their defence. To whom the palatine directed
answer again, that they had more soldiers in the city
than they needed. As for the Bohemians who had
yielded, he might do with them what he would, for
Vienna stood in no great need of them.
In the mean time a messenger coming from Ferdinand
was privately let in by night into the city, he brought
word that they should occupy the men in keeping out
the enemy awhile ; for it would not be long, but both
Ferdinand and Charles his brother, with the strength of
all Germany, would be ready to rescue them. At this
message the hearts of the soldiers began somewhat to be
cheered, and to contemn the multitude of the adver-
saries, whose army extended in compass seven miles
round the city walls.
In the meantime Solyman beat down to the ground
the ramparts, with all the suburbs of the city, and in such
a short time, that the hearts of the inhabitants were ap- '
palled with fear, lest the Turk with celerity and violence
should prevail against the walls, as he did in beating
down the ramparts. And no doubt the Turk had put
the city in great hazard, had not night coming on
broken off the siege for that day.
In the mean time the citizens laboured all night in
repairing and refreshing the walls, to make all things
sure against the next assault. The next day early in the
morning, the Turks approaching the city again for a
new assault, thinking to scale the walls, were so repulsed
and manfully resisted by the Germans, that the ditches
about the walls could not be seen for the bodies of
the dead Turks that filled them ; so that the Turks
were obliged to fight standing ujjon the bodies of the
slain.
It happened at the same time, that a company of the
Turks being seen wandering out of order, the Captain
Rogendorff with two legions of horsemen issuing out of
the city gate called Sahnaria, and passing closely under
the hill's side, so set upon them, that they slew a great
number of them ; the rest driven to take the river, they
destroyed, and so retired back to the city again. By
this victory the Captain Rogendorff began to be terrible
to the Turks. For in the skirmish (as afterwards was
known) were slain so many, that of five thousand and
three hundred horsemen and footmen, scarce one hundred
and forty escaped alive.
Solyman thought to try this matter another way, and
so bringing his forces toward the gate called the King's
Gate, there making his trenches and bulwarks, planted
his ordnance, with the violence whereof the walls were
so battered and shaken, that no man was able to stand
there. The Turk, seeing two great breaches made in
the wall, commanded his soldiers in the dark smoke of
the gunpowder, to press into the city. The same also
A.D. 1499.] GREAT SLAUGHTER OF THE TURKS AT THE SIEGE OF VIENNA.
383
was done at the Scottish Tower, by which the city was
invaded in two places at one time. The inliabitants at
first began to withstand them, new soldiers still coming
in the place of them that were slain ; and so this assault
continuing more than six hours together, our men began
at length to languish and faint, not only in strengtli but
also iu courage, by which the city was in great danger,
had not the two captains, Ilogendorlf in one place, and
the earl of Salme in the other, manfully encouraged the
soldiers to abide the brunt, and to bear out awhile the
violence of the Turks, promising that immediately they
should have aid from Ferdinand.
In the mean time the Turks came so thick for greedi-
ness of victory, scaling, climbing, and fighting ujmn the
walls, that had it not been for the press and throng of
the great multitude of the Turks, coming so thick that
one of them could not fight for another, Vienna had
been taken and utterly lost. But by the policy of the
captains giving a sign within the city, as though new
soldiers were called for, our men began to be encoui'aged,
and the Turks' hearts to be discomfited.
When Solyman saw his army the second time repulsed,
he began to attempt a new way, purposing by under-
mining to overthrow the city ; in which work especially,
he used the help of the lllyrians, of whom he had a
great number in his camp, expert in that kind of feat.
These lllyrians beginning to break the earth at the gate
Carinthia, and coming near the foundations of the tower,
which they had attempted to burst into, could not work
so closely under the ground, but that they were per-
ceived by certain men above ; who, countermining
against them, and filling their trenches as they went with
gunpowder, so conveyed their train, that when fire
should be set to it, the violence should burst out by the
trenches of the enemies ; which done, suddenly the
ground beneath made a great shaking, so that the tower
did cleave asunder, and all the undenniners of the Turks,
working in their trenches, were smothered and destroyed,
which came to the number (as it was supposed afterward)
of eight thousand persons.
When Solyman saw that this way also would not serve,
and had private intelligence that the walls about the
gates of Stubarium were negligently kept, and that he
might have there more easy entrance ; he secretly moved
about ten garrisons of fresh soldiers, so as the townsmen
should not perceive them : who came so suddenly upon
them, that they had filled their ditches, and were upon
the top of the fortresses, before our men were aware
of them, or could make themselves ready to resist them.
For although there was no lack of soldiers within the
city, yet the whole brunt of the siege lay especially at
the two gates, from whence the soldiers could not be
well removed ; men however were sent to the spot now
attacked. And thus the assault continued terrible and
doubtful until (the dark night coming upon them) they
could not well know the one from the other. In this
affair there were counted of the Turks to be slain more
than five thousand.
Then the Captain Rogendorff, commending the valiant
standing of his soldiers, providing with all diligence
against another assault, made up the breaches of the
■walls, and prepared all things necessary for resistance.
The next morning, which was dark and misty, the Turks
thinking to anticipate our men with their sudden coming,
began again busily to mount upon the top of the walls.
It would require a long treatise here to describe the
great distress and danger that the city was in those
three days following. During all which time there was
no rest, no intermission, nor diligence wanting either in
the enemy's fighting against the city, or in our men in
defending the same. For the Turks, besides the great
ordnance, wherewith (as with a great tempest of gun-
shot) they never ceased battering the walls, and beating
the fortifications of the city, sent also such heaps and
multitudes of the Turks, to the scaling and climbing of
the walls, that notwithstanding all the defeats, the number
of them never seemed diminished ; till at last the soldiers
of the Turks, perceiving themselves able by no means to
prevail, but only run in danger of life, and to do no
j good, began to wrangle amongst themselves, repining
against their dukes and captains, imputing the whole
cause to them, that the city was yet untaken, and so the
siege ceased for that time.
After this, when Solyman had purposed with his last
and strongest siege to try the city the utmost that he
was able to do, and had encouraged his soldiers to pre-
pare themselves : the soldiers shewed themselves very
unwilling to return again from whence they were so
often repulsed before ; so that a great commotion began
to rise in the Turk's camp. When the nniioiu came to
Solyman's ears, he sends his grand captain to keep all
the soldiers in order and obedience, or if they would be
stubborn, to compel them, whether they would or not,
to accomplish his commandment, who coming to the
soldiers shewed to them the great Turk's message, and to
animate and encourage them, declared that the opportu-
nity was not to be neglected, neither could they now
without great shame give over, after so many assaults,
who, if they would sustain but one brunt more, the vic-
tory were in their own hands. The townsmen, he said,
were wasted, and their victuals spent ; and the more to
inflame their minds, he promised them not only great
thanks and reward of their emperor, but also the whole
spoil of the city.
But when all this could not stir up the tired Turks,
using compulsion where persuasion would not serve, he
appointed a number of horsemen to be set at their backs
to force them either to go forward, or if they refused
to destroy them with guns and spears. The Turks see-
ing themselves in such a straight, that whether they
went or tarried it was to them the same peril, yet they
would not set forward except the captain would take the
lead before them, who thus spake : " Forsake your faith
and allegiance, and betray the emperor of Constantinople
to the christians if you will ; but 1 wiU discharge my
duty towards the commonwealth and my emperor ;" and
with that word advanced his ensign, making toward the
city walls. When others followed him, and still more
and more pressed after him, it came to pass that whole
bodies of them were overthrown and slain by our men
upon the walls, before it was known what they meant.
Others terrified by their example gave back and left
their array, and winding themselves by by-ways and
under covert of the hills, returned again to their tents, and
so came it to pass, that the strength of the enemies
daily more and more decreasing, they had less hope
every day of obtaining the city. For besides the innu-
merable slaughter of Turks upon the walls, the towns-
men also watching the forages and purveyors of the
Turks, as they ranged about for victuals for the camp,
as occasion served them encompassed them, and encoun-
tered with them, so that of a whole legion scarcely the
tenth part returned alive, by which the courage of the
enemy began greatly to faint. As our men began to
receive more hope and courage, so the Turks began still
more to droop and to languish with despair, so that at
length they scarce durst appear without the bounds
where they were entrenched, but only in light skirmishes,
when they were challenged by our men to come out and
to shew themselves.
Solyman perceiving his soldiers thus daily to go to
wreck, of whom he had lost already more than eighty
thousand, and that with long tarrying he could do no
good, being also in lack of forage, for the country about
him was wasted, he began to consult with his captains and
counsellors, what remained best to be done. The most
part advised him to raise his siege, and provide for him-
self. The chief motive was, that he heard Frederick, the
Palatine, was coming with a great army at Ratisbon
towards Vienna. When Solyman had intelligence of
this, thinking it not best to wait the coming of the
Palatine, made haste with bag and baggage to remove
his camp, and to retire ; and first sending his carriage
before him, he made speed himself with his army to fol-
low shortly after.
The Viennians, when they heard of the departure of the
Turks, although at the first they scarcely believed it to be
true, being afterward certified of their removing, and how
it was in a manner of a flight, were greatly desirous to
make out of the city after them. In which, although the
384 THE TURKS TAKE EGINA AND BUDA.— CRUELTY TO THE CHRISTIANS. [Book VI.
presence of the Palatine with his army, if he had been
there, might have stood them in great stead, yet they
took the opportunity, and issuing out of the city, set
after them with their horsemen, and first passing the
tents (where the Turks had pitched their pavilions) they
made such pursuit after them, that within a little time
they overtook the rearward of the army ; they made such
havoc and destruction, that, as the author reports, there
was not a shot discharged, nor weapon drawn, nor
stroke struck, by the pursuers, which did not tdl on the
enemy.
Tims through the merciful protection of A mighty God,
Austria was delivered from the fierce and barbarous hos-
tility of the cruel Turks. Notwithstanding, that neither
Ferdinand, the king, nor the emperor his brother,
were present, but only the power of God, through the
valiantness of the worthy Germans, defended that city ;
in defence of which consisted the safety and deliverance
of all these west parts of Christendom. For the which
immortal praise and thanks be unto our immortal God
in Christ our Lord, according as he hath most graciously
and worthily deserved of us. Wherein by the way take
-»otice, gentle reader, how and after what manner God's
61essing goes with the true followers of his religion ; for
vhe Turks in so many battles and sieges heretofore were
never so repelled and foiled, as at this time in encoun-
tering with the protestanls and defenders of sincere re-
gion. This city of Vienna was besieged and delivered,
A.D. 1529. The assaults of the Turk against the city
are numbered to be twenty, and his repulses as many.
The number of his army which he first brought, was
two hundred and fifty thousand, whereof were slain
eighty thousand and above.
In the year 1537, Solyman, who could not be quiet
at home, nor rest in peace, returning out of Asia from
his wars there into Europe with two hundred and seventy
ships, great and little, set upon Corcyra, another island
belonging to the Venetians, which he besieged ten days,
wasting and burning the towns and fields as he went,
beside the destruction of much people therein, whom
partly he slew, partly led away captives. From thence
he sailed to Zacinthus and Cythera, another island not
far from Corcyra, bordering near to the coasts of Epinis
and Greece. Where he suddenly by night invading the
husbandmen in villages and fields, sleeping and mistrust-
ing no harm, drew them out of their houses and posses-
sions, men and women, besides children, to the number
of nine hundred, whom he made his bondslaves ; burning
moreover their houses, and carrying away all the goods and
cattle being without the said city of Zacinthus and Cythera.
From thence they turned their course to the siege of
Egina, a rich and populous island, lying between Greece
and Asia. Where at first the Eginians did manfully re-
sist them in battle, and were likely to have prevailed ;
but wearied at length, and oppressed with innumerable
thousands of fresh Turks, who still were sent in, to rescue
the others who were overcome before, they were com-
pelled to fly to the city of Egina. Which city the cruel
Turks, with much labour, and violence of their great ord-
nance brouglit out of their ships, subdued and cast down to
the ground ; the citizens and inhabitants which the
Turk after he had burned their houses, and ransacked
their goods, commanded to be slain and killed every one.
The women both noble and unnoble, with their infants,
were shipped to Constantinople, and led away to perpe-
tual misery and slavery, which was A. D. 1537.
In the year 1540, the restless Turk making his return
toward Hungary, by the way passing by Dalmatia, laid
siege to the town called Novum Castellum, defended by
the Spaniards. In which town, because they refused to
yield themselves, all the inhabitants and soldiers were
put to the sword, and slain every one. This Novum
Castellum, or Newcastle, was a strong fort of the chris-
tians, which being now in the Turk's power, he had great
advantage over all those quarters of Dalmatia, Stiria,
Carinthia, and Hungaria. From thence he proceeded
further, keeping his course into Hungary, where he
planted his forces against the city of Buda.
This Buda was a principal city in Hungary, under the
goverument of George Monachus, who quarrelled with
Ferdinand, and said that he would never any more trust
the promises of christians, and immediately upon the
same, sent to Solyman the Turk, for aid against the
christians, promising that he would surrender to him
free possession of Hungary, if he would come and van-
quish the army of Ferdinand lying about the siege of
Buda. The Turk made no long tarrying, but glad
of the occasion, with a mighty army came into Hun-
gary, and soon overpowering the host of Ferdinand,
he got the city into his own hands, commanding
George Monachus with his mother, to follow after his
camp.
In the history of Joannes Ramus, it follows, that when
Solyman the Turk had thus prevailed against the city of
Buda, and against other parts of Hungary ; by the assent
of the empire, one Joachim, duke of Brandenburg,
prince elector, was appointed with a puissant army of
chosen soldiers of all nations, to recover the city
of Buda from the Turk, and to deliver the other parts
of Christendom from the fear of the Turk, A. D. 1542.
Which Joachim, at his first setting forth, appeared so
courageous and valiant, as if he would have conquered
the whole world : but this great heat was so cooled in a
short time by the Turk, that before any great danger was
offered to him, he was glad to be discharged of the voy-
age, and with shame enough returned home again. And
would God he had left behind him in the fields no more
but his own shame. For the enemies having intelligence
of his cowardly departure, thinking to work some point
of mastery or victory before his going, set upon the right
wing of his army, out of which they took away with them
above five hundred strong and valiant soldiers, not kill-
ing them, but carrying them away alive. For whom it
had been much better to have stood to their weapon,
and to have died manfully upon the Turks, than by
yielding themselves to be deprived of weapons and
armour, and so to be left to the cursed courtesy of the
foul Turks. What courtesy was shewed in the sequel,
soon appeared. For after the Turks had led them out of
Hungary into their own dominions, after a most horrible
sort they disfigured and mangled them, and so sent them
abroad through all Greece, to be witnesses of the Turkish
victory. Their kind of punishment was thus : first, they
had their right arm thrust through with an iron red hot,
by which they would be unable and unmeet to all labour
and warfare ; secondly, their heads were shaven to the
very sculls, after the manner of our friars and monks,
when they are newly shaven ; thirdly, they had all their
limbs cruelly and shamefully mangled and mutilated.
But to return again to the city of Buda, from whence
we have digressed, here we must not omit what falsehood
and what cruelty the Turks used towards the christians
there after their victory. For after Solyman the Turk,
upon the yielding and submission of the men of Buda, had
given to them his promise of safety and life, within a
short time, he picking a quarrel with him for selling oxen
to the christians, and for bargaining with them, slew all
the magistrates of the city of Buda ; as in all other cities
wherever the christians yielded to him, he never, or very
rarely kept his promise with them, nor did ever any
christians speed better with the Turk, than they who
most valiantly resisted him.
And as his promise with the magistrates of Buda was
false and wretched ; so his cruelty with the soldiers was
much more notorious and abominable ; for two cohorts
or bands of christian soldiers came alive to his hands ; to
whom, when he seemed at first to grant pardon of life,
he commanded that they should put on their armour
again, and to dispose themselves in oiier and battle
array, after the warlike manner of the christians ; which,
when they had accomplished readily, according to his
commandment, and when he, riding about the ranks, had
diligently viewed and beheld them a certain space, at
length he commanded them to put off their armour
again ; which done, certain of the tallest and strongest
of them he picked out, the rest he commanded by his-
soldiers coming behind them with swords, to be cut in-
pieces and slain. Of the others, whom he had elected
and chosen, some he set for marks and buts to be shot
at ; some he appointed to his two sons, for them to ^las^
A.D. 1499.] ALBA BESIEGED AND TAKEN.— THE SULTAN SOLYMAN KILLS HIS SON. 335
with their swords and try their strength, which of them
could give the deeper wound, and (as they termed it)
the fairer blow, by which the most blood might flow
out of their christian bodies.
After the winning of Buda, the Turk, purposing not
to cease till he had subdued and brought under his obe-
dience all Hungary, proceeding further with his army,
first brought under a strong hold of the christians,
named Pestum or Pesta, where a great number of chris-
tian soldiers were slain, and many were led away to more
cruel affliction.
Then he came to another castle called Walpo, situate
in the confines of Bosnia, Croatia, and Hungary ; which
fort or castle he besieged three months ; no rescue or aid
was sent to them, either from Ferdinand, king of Hungary,
or from any other christian prince or princess. At length
the fort was given up to the Turk ; but more through
the false treachery or cowardly heart of the soldiers than
of the captain. Wherein is to be noted an example not
unworthy of memory. For when the cowardly soldiers,
either for fear or flattery, would needs surrender them-
selves and the place to the Turk, contrary to the mind
of the captain, who in no case would agree to their
yielding : they, thinking to find favour with the Turk,
apprehended their captain, and gave him to Soly-
man. But see how the justice of God, sometimes by the
hand of the enemy, disposes the end of things to the
rewarding of virtue, and punishing of vice. For where
they thought to save themselves by the danger of the
faithful captain, the event turned clean contrary ; so
that the Turk was bountiful and very liberal to the caj)-
tain, and the soldiers, notwithstanding that they had
all yielded themselves, yet were all commanded to be
slain.
The Turk proceeding from one fortified town to ano-
ther, took them, and greatly and cruelly extended his con-
quests through all Hungary till he came to Alba ; there,
the Turks, using the occasion of a misty darkness, ap-
proached the walls, and got up to a certain fortress
where the Germans were, before our men could well per-
ceive them : where they pressed in so thick, and in such
number, that although the christian soldiers, standing
strongly to the defence of their lives, did what valiant
men in cases of such extremity were able to do ; yet
being over-matched by the multitude of the Turks, and
the suddenness of their coming, gave back, seeking to
I retire unto the inward walls. There was between the
outward walls and inward gate of the city, a strait, or
' narrow passage, cast up in the manner of a bank or
! causeway, which passage happened to be barred and
stopped. By reason of which the poor soldiers were
forced to cast themselves into the ditch, thinking to
swim as well as they could into the city : many of them
sticking in the mud were drowned, one pressing upon
another ; many were slain by their enemies coming
behind them. A few who could swim out were received
'into the city, but the chief captains and warders of the
town were slain there.
The citizens being destitute of their principal captains
and warriors, were in great perplexity and doubt among
themselves what to do, some thinking good to yield,
some counselling the contrary. Thus, while the citizens
were distracted, the magistrates thinking to depend on
'the Turk's gentleness, sent out one of their heads to the
Turk, who in the name of them all should surrender to
him the city, and become to Um tributaries, upon con-
Idition they might enjoy liberty of life and goods ; which
being granted, after the Turkish faith and assurance :
the soldiers who were within the city, putting off their
armour, were discharged and sent away.
] Now see what happened to the yielding citizens.
When the Turk had entered the town, and had visited
the sepulchre of the kings, for three or four days he
pretended much clemency toward the citizens, as though
he came not to oppress them, but to be revenged of Fer-
dinand their king, and to deliver them from the servitude
of the Germans. On the fourth day, all the chief and
head men of the city were commanded to appear before
the Turk, in a plain not far from the city where the con-
demned persons before were wont to be executed, as
though they should come to swear to the Turk. At this
command of the Turk, when the citizens in great number,
and in their best attire were assembled, the Turk, con-
trary to his faith and promise, commanded suddenly a
general slaughter to be made of them all. And this was
the end of the citizen? of Alba.
As the false and cruel Turk was thus raging in Hun-
gary, and intended further to rage without all mercy
and pity of the christians, and might easily then have
prevailed and gone whither he would, for Charles the
emperor, and Francis the French king, were at the same
time in war and hostility, and also other christian
princes, as Henry, duke of Brunswick against John
Frederick, duke of Saxony ; also princes and rulers were
contending among themselves : behold the gracious
providence of our Lord and God towards us, who seeing
the misery, and having pity of his poor christians, sud-
denly reined this raging beast, and brought him out of
Europe into his own country again, by occasion of the
Persians, who were then in great preparation of war
against the Turks, and had invaded his dominion. By
which the Turks were kept there occupied, fighting with
the Persians for a long time. Which wars at length
being achieved and finished, (wherein the said Turk lost
great victories, with slaughter of many thousands of his
Turks) he was not only provoked by the instigation of
certain evil-disposed Hungarians, but also induced by
the discord of christian princes to return again into
Europe, in hopes to subdue all parts to his dominion..
When he had levied an army, incredible in multitude,,
see again the merciful providence and protection of our
God toward his people. As the Turk was thus intending
to set forward with his innumerable multitude against
the christians, the hand of the Lord sent such a pesti-
lence through all the Turk's army and dominions,
reaching from Bithynia, and from Thrace to Macedonia,
and also to Hungary, that all the Turk's possessions
seemed almost nothing else but as an heap of dead
corpses, whereby his voyage for that time was stopped,
and he almost compelled to seek a new army.
Besides this plague, which was worse to them than
any war. other domestic calamities, through God's pro-
vidence, happened to Solyman, the great rover and robber
of the world, which kept him at home from vexing the
christians, especially concerning his eldest son Mustapha.
This Mustapha being hated, and feared by Rustanus,
the chief counsellor about the Turk, and by Rosa, the
Turk's concubine, and afterwards his wife, was com-
plained of to his father, accused, and at length so
brought into suspicion and displeasure of the Turks,
that his father caused him to be sent for to his pavilion,
where six Turks with masks were appointed to put him
to death : they put (after their manner) a small cord or
bow-string full of knots about his neck, and so throwing
him dovm upon the ground, not suiTering him to speak
one word to his father, with the twitch thereof strangled
him to death, his father standing in a secret corner by,
and beholding the same. Which fact being perpetrated,
afterwards when the Turk would have given to another
son, called Gianger, the treasures, horse, armour, orna-
ments, and the province of Mustapha his brother;
Gianger crying out for sorrow at his brother's death,
said he to his father, " Shame on thee, thou impi-
ous and wretched dog, traitor, murderer, I cannot call
thee father, take the treasures, the horse and armour of
Mustapha to thyself:" and with that, taking out his
dagger, thrust it through his own body. And thus was
Solyman murderer and parricide of his own sons ; which
was A. D. 1552.
Wherein is to be noted the singular providence and
love of the Lord towards his afflicted christians. For
this Mustapha, as he was courageous and greatly expert
and exercised in all practice of war, so had he a cruel
heart, maliciously set to shed the blood of the chris-
tians : wherefore, we have great cause to congratulate,
and to give thanks to God, for the happy taking away of
this Mustapha. And no less hope also and good com-
fort we may conceive of our loving Lord, to think that
c c2
386
THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS UNDER THE TURKS.
[Book VI.
our merciful God, after these sore afflictions of liis
christians under these twelve Turks afore recited, now,
after this Solyman, intends some gracious good work to
Christendom, to reduce and release us out of this
long and miserable Turkish captivity, as may be hoped
now, by taking away of these young imps of this impious
generation, before they should come to work their con-
<;eived malice against us : the Lord, therefore, be glori-
fied and praised. Amen.
Moreover, as I was in writing hereof, opportunely
came to my hands a certain writing out of Germany,
certifying us of such news and victory of late achieved
against the Turk, as may not a little increase our hope
and comfort us, touching the decay and ruin of the
Turk's power and tyranny against us. Which news are
these : that after the Turkish tyrant had besieged, with
an army of thirty thousand men, the famous and strong
town and castle of Jula in Hungary, lying forty Dutch
miles beyond the river Danube, which city had by the
space of six weeks sustained many grievous assaults :
God, tlirough his great mercy and goodness so com-
forted the said town of Jula, and the poor christians
therein, at their earnest prayers, that the Turk, with all
his host was driven back by the hands of the general,
called Karetsliim Laslaw, and his valiant company :
who not only defended tlie town, but also constrained
the Turks to retire, to their great shame and confusion,
with a great slaughter of the Turkish rabble ; for which,
the everlasting God be praised for ever.
The manner of the overthrow was this. As the gene-
ral saw his advantage, with Captain George, and other
horsemen of the Silesians and Hungarians, they set
on the rearward of the Turks and killed about eight
thousand of them, and took also some of their artillery,
and followed them so fast, that the Turks were con-
sti-ained to fly into a marshy ground, and to break the
wheels of the rest of their artillery to save themselves,
and therewith they got a very rich booty, rescuing besides,
and taking from the Turks, a great number of christian
prisoners.
This Solyman reigned forty-six years ; he began the
same year in the which the Emperor Charles V. was
crowned, which was A. D. 1520, and so has continued
by God's permission, for a scourge to the christians, to
the year loCfi. This Solyman, by one of his concubines,
had his eldest son called Mustapha. By another concu-
bine called Rosa, he had four sons, Mahumet, Bajazet,
Zelymus, and Gianger. Of which sons, Mustapha and
Gianger were slain (as ye heard before) by means of
their own father. And thus much concerning the
wretched tyranny of the Turks.
Thus from time to time the church of Christ has
had little or no rest in this earth ; what for the hea-
then emperors on the one side ; what for the proud
pope on the other side ; on the third side, what for the
barbarous Turk : for these are and have been from
the beginning, the three principal and capital enemies
of the church of Clirist. The cruelty and malice of these
enemies against Christ's people has been such, that to
judge which of them did most exceed in cruelty of per-
secution, it is hard to say ; but it may be thought that
the bloody and beastly tyranny of the Turks, incompar-
'ably surmounts all the afflictions and cruel slaughters
that ever were seen in any age, or read of in any history;
so that there is neither history so perfect, nor writer so
diligent, who writing of the miserable tyranny of the
Turks, is able to express or comprehend the horrible ex-
amples of the unspeakable cruelty and slaughter, ex-
ercised by these twelve Turkish tyrants ujion jjoor chris-
tian men's bodies, within the compass of these later
three hundred years. Whereof although no sufficient
relation can be made, nor number expressed ; yet to give
to the reader some general guess or view thereof, let us
first consider what dominions and empires, how many
countries, kingdoms, provinces, cities, towns, strong
holds, and forts, these Turks have surprised and won
from the cliristians. In all which victories, that there
is almost no place wliich the Turks ever came to and
subdued, where they did not either slay all the inhabi-
tants, or lead away the most part into such captivity and
slavery, that they continued not long after alive, or
else so lived, that death almost had been more toler-
able.
As in the time of the first persecutions of the Romaa
emperors, the saying was. That no man could step with
his feet in all Rome, but he would tread upon a martyr :
so here may be said. That almost there is not a town,
city, or village in all Asia, Greece, also in a great part of
Europe and Africa, whose streets have not flowed with
the blood of the christians, whom the cruel Turks have
murdered. Of whom are to be seen in histories, heaps
of soldiers slain, of men and women cut in pieces, of
children stuck upon poles and stakes, whom those de-
testable Turks most spitefully (and that in tlie sight of
their parents) use to gore to death : some they drag at
their horse tails, and famish to death ; some they tear in
pieces, tying their arms and legs to four horses ; others
they make mark.s to shoot at ; upon some they try their
swords how dee]) they can cut and slash. The aged and
feeble they tread under their horses : sex is not regarded,
but women and children are barbarously murdered.
Whether the christians yield to them, or yield not, it
is all the same. As in their promises there is no truth,
so in their victories there is no sense of manhood or
mercy, but they make havoc of all.
So the citizens of Croja, after they had yielded and
were promised their lives, were all destroyed, and that
horribly. In Mysia, after the king had given him-
self to the Turks, having promise of life, Mahomet the
Turk slew him with his own hands. The princes of
Rasia had both their eyes put out, with basons red hot
set before them. Theodosia, otherwise called Capha,
was also surrendered to the Turk, having the like assur-
ance of life and safety ; and yet, contrary to the league,
the citizens were put to the sword and slain. At the
winning and yielding of Lesbos, what a number of young
men and children were put upon sharp stakes and poles,
and so thrust through ! At the winning of the city of
Buda, what tyranny was shewed and exercised against
the poor christians who had yielded themselves, and
against the two dukes, Christopher Bisserer and John
Tranbinger, contrary to the promise and hand-writing of
the Turk, is to be seen in the history of Melchior
Soiterus.
The like also is to be read in the history of Bernard
de Breydenbach, who, writing of the taking of Hydrun-
tum, a city in Apulia, testifies of the miserable slaughter
of the young men there slain ; of old men trodden under
the horses' feet ; of matrons and maidens horribly
outraged and murdered ; of women with child cut
and rent in pieces ; of the priests in the churches
slain; and of the archbishop of that city, who,
being an aged man, and holding the cross in his
hands, was cut asunder with a wooden saw, &c. The
same Bernard, also writing of the overthrow of Nigro-
pontus, otherwise called Chalcides, (A. D. 1471,) de-
scribes the like terrible slaughter which was exercised
there, where the Turk, after his promise given to the
contrary, most cruelly caused all the youth of Italy to be
pricked upon sharp stakes ; some to be dashed against
the hard stones, others to be cut asunder in tlie midst,
and others with various kinds of torments to be put to
death : insomuch, that all the streets and ways of Ciial-
cides did flow with the blood of them which were there
slain. In which history the writer records one memo-
rable example of maidenly courage, worthy of all chris-
tians to be noted and commended. The history is told
of the pretor's daughter of that city, who, being tlie only
daughter of her father, and noted to be of an exceeding
singular beauty, was saved out of the slaughter, and
brought to Mahomet the Turk. But she refusing to
join the Turk's seraglio, or to embrace the Mahometan
faith, was commanded to be slain and murdered, and so
died she a martyr.
The like cruelty also was shewed upon them who kept
the castle and afterwards yielding tliemselves upon hope
of the Turk's promise, were slain every one. What
should I speak of the miserable slaughter of Methone,
and the citizens thereof dwelling in Peloponnesus J who,
A.D. 1499.]
THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS UNDER THE TURKS.
3S7
seeing no remedy, but that they must needs come
into the Turks' hands, set the barn on tire where they
were gathered together, men, women, and children ;
some women also voluntarily cast themselves into the
sea, rather than they would sustain the Turks' capti-
vity.
It is miserable to behold, long to recite, incredible to
believe, all the cruel acts and horrible slaughters
wrought by these miscreants against the christians
through all places of the world, both in Asia, in
Africa, but especially in Europe. Who is able to recite
the innumerable societies and companies of the Grecians
martyred by the Turks' sword in Achaia, Attica, Thes-
saly, Macedonia, Epirus, and all Peloponnesus ? besides
the island of Rhodes, and other islands, in the ad-
jacent sea numbered to about two-and-fifty ; of which
also Patmos was one, where St. John wrote his Re-
velations. Where did ever the Turks set any foot,
but the blood of christians was shed there, without
pity or measure ? and what place or province is there
almost through the world, where the Turks either have
not pierced, or are not likely shortly to enter .' In
Thrace, and through all the coasts of the Danube, in
Bulgaria, Dalmatia, in Servia, Transylvania, Bosnia in
Hungaria, also in Austria, what havoc has been made
by them of christian men's bodies, it will pain any chris-
tian heart to remember. At the siege of Moldavia and
many other places ; also at the battle of Varna, where
Ladislaus, king of Poland, with almost all his army,
through the rashness of the pope's cardinal, were slain ;
at Xabiacchus, Lyssus, Dynastrum ; at the siege of
Gunza, and of the faithful town Scorad, where the
number of the shot against their walls, at the siege,
were reckoned to two thousand five hundred and tliirty-
nine. Likewise at the siege of Vienna, where all the
christian captives were brought before the whole army
and slain, and many drawn in pieces with horses ; but
especially at the winning of Constantinople, above men ■
tioned : also at Croja and Methone, what beastly cruelty
was shewed, it is unspeakable. For as in Constantino-
ple, Mahomet, the drunken Turk, never rose from
dinner, but he caused every day, for his sport, three
hundred christian captives of the nobles of that city to
be slain before his face ; so in Methone, after his captain
Omar had sent to him at Constantinople live hundred
prisoners of the christians, the cruel tyrant commanded
them all to be cut and divided in sunder by the middle,
and so being slain, to be thrown out into the fields.
What christian heart will not pity the incredible
slaughter done by the Turks in Euboia, where Faber
testifies, " That innumerable people were stuck and
gored upon stakes ; divers were thrust through with a
hot iron ; children and infants, not yet weaned from the
mother, were dashed against the stones, and many cut
asunder in the midst ?''
But never did country taste and feel more the bitter
and deadly tyranny of the Turks, than did Rasia, called
Mysia Inferior, and now Servia. Where (as writes
Wolfgang Drechsterus) the prince of the same country
being sent for, under fair pretence of words and promises,
to come and speak with the Turk, after he was come of
his own gentleness, thinking no harm, was apprehended,
and wretchedly and falsely put to death, and his skin
flayed off, his brother and sister brought to Constantino-
ple for a triumph, and all the nobles of his country had
their eyes put out.
Briefly to conclude, by the vehement and furious rage
of these cursed caitiffs, it may seem that Satan the old
dragon, for the great hatred he bears to Christ, has
stirred them up to be the butchers of all christian people,
inflaming their beastly hearts with such malice and
cruelty against the name and religion of Christ, that
they degenerating from the nature of men to devils,
will neither by reason be ruled, nor by any blood or
slaughter satisfied. Like as in the primitive age of the
church, and in the time of Dioclesian and IMaximilian,
when the devil saw that he could not prevail against the
person of Christ who was risen again, he turned all his
fury upon his servants, thinking by the Roman em-
perors utterly to extinguish the name and profession of
Christ out from the earth : so in this later age of the
world, Satan being let loose again, rages by the Turks,
thinking to make no end of murdering and killing, till
he have brought (as he intends) the whole church of
Christ, with all the professors thereof, under foot. But
the Lord (I trust) will once send a Constantine to van-
quish proud Maxentius, a Moses to drown indurate
Pharaoh, a Cyrus to subdue the stout Babylonian.
And thus much, touching our cliristian brethren who
were slain and destroyed by these blasphemous Turks.
Now, many others were torn away violently from
their country, from their wives and children, from
liberty, and from all tlieir possessions, into wretched
captivity and extreme penury: it remains likewise to
treat somewhat also concerning the cruel manner of the
Turks' handling of the said christian captives. And
first, here is to be noted, that the Turk never comes into
Europe to war against the christians, but there follow
after his army a great number of brokers or merchants,
such as buy men and children to sell again, bringing
with them long chains in hope of great bargains. In
which chains they link by fifty and sixty together,
such as remain undestroyed by the sword, whom they
buy of the soldiers as part of the spoils of them that rob
and spoil the christian countries.
Such as belong to the Sultan's share, i. e. a tenth
of tlie whole, are sold to the use of husbandry or
keeping of beasts. If they are young men or women,
they are sent to certain places, there to be instructed
in their language and arts, as shall be most for their ad-
vantage ; and the first care of the Turks is this, to make
them deny the christian religion ; and after that they are
appointed, every one as he seems most apt| either to the
learning of their laws, or else to learn the feats of w-ar.
Tlieir first rudiment of war is to handle the bow ; first
beginning with a weak bow, and, as they grow in
strength, coming to a stronger bow ; and, if they miss
the mark, they are sharply beaten ; and their allcnvance
is twopence or threepence a-day, till they come and take
wages to serve in war. Some are brought up for the
purpose to be placed in the number of the wicked
Janizaries.
Such as are young maidens and beautiful, are deputed
for seraglios. They who are of little beauty, serve for
matrons to do the drudgery work in their houses and
chambers, or else are put to spinning, and such other
labours ; but so, that it is not lawful for them either to
profess their christian religion, or ever to hope for any
liberty.
The others who are bought and sold among private
subjects, first are allured with fair words and promises
to embrace Mahometanism, which, if they do, they are
more favourably treated, but all hope is taken from
them of returning again into their country ; if they at-
tempt that, the penalty is burning. And if such coming
at length to liberty will marry, they may ; but then their
children remain bond to the master for him to sell at his
pleasure ; and, therefore, such as are wise amongst them
will not marry. They who refuse to become Mahome-
tans are miserably handled ; for example whereof, the
author who gives testimony hereof adduces his own ex-
perience. Such captives as are expert in any manual
art or occupation, can better shift for themselves ; but
they who have no handicraft to live upon, are in worse
case. And, therefore, such as have been brought up in
learning, or be priests or noblemen, and such othert
whose tender education can abide no hardness, are the
least reputed, and most of all others neglected by him
that has the sale or keeping of them, because he sees
less profit to rise of them than of the other ; and there-
fore no cost of raiment is bestowed upon them, but they
are carried about barehead and barefoot, both summer
and winter, in frost and snow. And if any faint and be
sick in the way, there is no resting for him in any inn,
but first he is driven forward with whips, and if that wiU
not serve, he is set peradventure upon some horse ; or,
if his weakness be such that he cannot sit, then is he
laid overthwart the horse upon his belly like a calf ; and
if he chance to die, they take off his garment, such as he
has, and throw him in a ditch.
383
THE MISERABLE STATE OF THE CHRISTIANS UNDER THE TURKS. [Book VI.
They are brought forth to the market for sale, where
the buyer, if he be disposed, plucking off their garments,
vieweth all the bones and joints of their body : and if
he like them he gives his price, and carries them away
into miserable servitude, either to tilling of their ground,
or to pasture their cattle, or to some other strange kind
of misery incredible to speak of; insomuch that the
author reports that he hath seen himself certain of such
christian captives yoked together like horse and oxen,
and to draw the plough. The maid servants likewise are
kept in perpetual toil and work in close places, where
neither they come in sight of any man, neither are they
permitted to have any talk with their fellow-servants,
&c. Such as are committed to keep beasts, lie abroad
day and night in the wild fields, without house and har-
bour, and so changing their pasture go from mountain
to mountain, of whom, also beside the office of keeping
the beasts, other handy labour is exacted at spare hours,
such as pleases their masters to i)ut unto them.
Out of this misery there is no way for them to fly, es-
pecially for them that are carried into Asia beyond the
seas, or if any do attempt so to do, he taketh his time
chiefly about harvest, when he may hide himself all the
day-time in the corn, or in woods or marshes, and find
food, and in the night only he flies, and had rather be
devoured of wolves and other wild beasts, than to return
again to his master. In their flying they use to take
with them an hatchet and cords, that when they come to
the sea-side, they may cut down trees, and bind toge-
ther the ends of them, and so where the sea of Helles-
pont is narrowest, about the Sestos and Abydos, they
take the sea, sitting upon trees, where, if the wind and
tide do serve luckily, they may run over in four or five
hours. But the most part either perish in the floods,
or are driven back again upon the coasts of Asia, or else
are devoured of wild beasts in woods, or perish with hun-
ger and famine. If any escape over the sea alive into
Europe, they enter into no town by the way, but wander
upon the mountains, following only the North Star for
their guide.
As touching such towns and provinces which are won
by the Turk, and wherein the christians are suff'ered to
live under tribute : first, all the nobility there they kill
and make away, the churchmen and clergy hardly they
spare. The churches, with the bells and all the furni-
ture, either they cast down, or else they convert to the use
of their own blasphemous religion, leaving to the chris-
tians certain old blind chapels, which when they decay,
it is permitted to our men to repair them again for a
great sum of money given to the Turk. Neither are they
permitted to use any open preaching or ministration, but
only in silence and by stealth to frequent together.
Neither is it lawful for any christian to bear office within
the city province, nor to bear weapon, nor to wear any
garment like to the Turks. And if any contumely or
blasphemy, be it never so great, be spoken against them,
or against Christ, yet must thou bear it, and hold thy
peace. And then if thou speak one word against
Mahomet, thy punishment is fire and burning. And if
it chance a Christian being on horseback meet, or pass
by a Mussulman, that is, a Turkish priest, he must light
from his horse, and with a lowly look devoutly reverence
and adore the Mussulman, or if he do not he is beaten
down from his horse with clubs and staves.
Furthermore, for their tribute they pay the fourth
part of their substance and gain to the Turk, beside
the ordinary tribute of the christians, which is to pay for
every poll within his family a ducat unto the Turk,
•which if the parents cannot do, they are compelled to
sell their children into bondage. Other being not able to
pay, go chained in fetters from door to door begging, to
makeup their payment, or else must lie in perpetual prison.
And thus have ye heard the lamentable afflictions of
our christian brethren under the cruel tyranny and
captivity of the Turks, passing all other captivities that
ever have been to God's people, either under Pharaoh in
Egypt, or under Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, or under
Antiochus in the time of the Maccabees. Under which
captivity, if it so please the Lord to have his spouse the
church to be nurtured, his good will be done and obeyed.
But if this misery come by the negligence and discord
of our cliristian guides and leaders, then have we to pray
and cry to our Lord God, either to give better hearts to
our guides and rulers, or else better guides and rulers
to his flocks.
And these troubles and afflictions of our christian
brethren suffered by the Turks, I thought good and pro-
fitable for our country people here of England to know,
for so much as by the ignorance of these, and such like
histories worthy of consideration, I see much inconveni-
ence follows. Whereby it cometh to pass, that because
we Englishmen being far off" from these countries, and
little knowing what misery is abroad, are the less moved
with zeal and compassion to tender their grievances, and
to pray for them whose troubles we know not. Where-
upon also it follows that we not considering the miserable
state of other, are the less grateful to God, when any
tranquillity is granted to us. And if any little cloud
arise upon us, be it never so little, as poverty, loss of
living, or a little banishment out of our country for the
Lord's cause, we make a greater matter of it, and all
because we go no further than our own country, and only
feeling our own cross, do not compare that which we
feel with the great crosses to which the churches of
Christ commonly in other places abroad are subject.
Which if we rightly understood, and earnestly considered
and pondered in our minds, neither would we so exces-
sively forget ourselves in the time of our prosperity, nor
yet so impatiently be troubled, as we are in time of our
adversity, and all because either we hear not, or else we
ponder not the terrible crosses which the Lord layeth
upon our other brethren in other nations.
The Prophecies of the Holy Scriptures considered,
touching the coming up and final ruin and destruction
of this wicked kingdom of the Turk, with the revela-
tions and foreshewings also of other authors concern-
ing the same.
As you have sufficiently heard to what largeness tlie
dominion of the Turks has increased, and understand
what cruel tyranny these wretched miscreants have and
do daily practise most heinously, wherever they come
against the servants and professors, it shall not be un-
profitable, but rather necessary, and to our great com-
fort, to consider and examine in the scriptures, with
what prophecies the Holy Spirit of the Lord has fore-
warned us before of these heavy persecutions to come
upon his people by this horrible antichrist. For as the
government and constitution of times and states of mo-
narchies and policies fall not to us by blind chance, but
are administered and allotted to us from above, so it is
not to be supposed, that such a great alteration of king-
doms, such a terrible and general persecution of God's
people almost through all Christendom, and such a
terror of the whole earth as is now moved and gendered
by these Turks, comes without the knowledge, suff'er-
ance, and determination of the Lord, for such ends and
purposes as his divine wisdom doth best know. For
the better evidence and testimony of which he has
left in his scriptures sufficient instruction and decla-
ration, by which we may plainly see to our great com-
fort how these grievous afflictions and troubles of the
church, though they are sharp and heavy to us, yet they
come not by chance or by man's working only, but even
as the Lord himself has appointed it.
In the later years of the Jewish kingdom, what trou-
bles and afflictions that people sustained three hundred
years together, but chiefly the last one hundred and
sixty-six years before the coming of Christ, by Antio-
chus and his fellows, the history of the Maccabees can
report. Wherein we have also notoriously to understand
the miserable vexations and persecutions of christian
churches in these later ends of the world by antichrist.
We read that this Antiochus, in the eighth year of his
reign, in his second coming to Jerusalem, first gave
forth in commandment, that all the Jews should relin-
quish the law of Moses, and wbrship the idol of Jupiter
Olympius which he set up in the temple of Jerusalem.
A.D. 1499.1
PROPHECIES FROM SCRIPTURE CONCERNING THE TURKS.
389
The books of Moses and of the Prophets he burned. He
set garrisons of soldiers to ward the idol. In the city of
Jerusalem he caused the feasts and revels of Bacchus to
be kept, full of all filth and wickedness. Old men,
women, and virgins, such as would not leave the law of
Moses, he murdered with cruel torments. The motliers
that would not circumcise their children he slew. The
children that were circumcised he hanged up by the
necks. The temple he spoiled and wasted. The altar
of God, and candlestick of God, with the other orna-
ments and furniture of the temple, ])artly he cast out,
partly he carried away. Contrary to the law of God he
caused them to offer and to eat swine's desh. Great
murder and slaughter he made of the people, causing
them either to leave their law, or to lose their lives.
Among whom, besides many others, with cruel tor-
ments, he put to death a godly mother with her seven
sons, sending his cruel proclamations through the whole
land, that whoever kept the observances of the Sabbath,
and other rites of the law, and refused to condescend to
his abominations, should be executed. No kind of
calamity, nor face of misery could be shewed in any
olace, which was not there seen. Of the tyranny of this
Antiochus it is historied at large in the book of Macca-
bees ; and Daniel prophesying before of the same, de-
dares that the people of the Jews deserved no less for
their sins and transgressions.
By consent of all writers, this Antiochus bears a
figure of the great antichrist, which was to follow in the
latter end of the world, and is already come, and work-
eth what he can against us. Although, as St. John
saith, there have been, and be many antichrists, as parts
and members of the body of antichrist, which are fore-
runners, yet to speak of the head and principal anti-
christ, and great enemy of Christ's church, he is come
in the latter end of the world, at what time shall be
such tribulation as never was seen before ; whereby is
meant (no doubt) the Turk, prefigured by this Antio-
chus. By this antichrist I do also mean all such, as
following the same doctrine of the Turks, think to be
saved by their works, and not by their faith only in the
Son of God, of what title and profession soever they be ;
especially if they use the like force and violence for the
same as he doth, &c.
Of the tyranny of this Antiochus, and of the tribu-
lations of the church in the latter times, both of the
Jews' church, and also of the Christian church to come,
let us hear and consider the words of Daniel in the
eleventh chapter, and also in his seventh chapter, pro-
phesying of the same as follows : —
" For the ships of Chittim shall come against him :
therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have in-
dignation against the holy covenant : so shall he do ; he
shall even return, and have intelligence with them that
forsake the holy covenant. And arms shall stand on
his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of
strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and
they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he
corrupt by flatteries : but the people that do know their
God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that
understand among the people shall instruct many : yet
they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity,
and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall,
they shall be holpen with a little help : but many shall
cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of un-
derstanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to
make them white, even to the time of the end : because
it is yet for a time appointed. And the king shall do
according to his will ; and he shall exalt himself, and
magnify himself above every god, and shall speak mar-
vellous things against the God of gods, and shall pros-
per till the indignation be accomplished : for that that
is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard
the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor
regard any god : for he shall magnify himself above all.
But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces : and
a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with
gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant
things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with
a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase
with glory : and he shall cause them to rule over many,
and shall divide the land for gain. And at the time of
the end shall the king of the south push at iiim : and the
king of the north shall come against him like a whirl-
wind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many
ships ; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall
overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the
glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown :
but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and
Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He
shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries : and
the land of Egypt shall not escape But he shall have
power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over
all the precious things of Egypt : and the Libyans and
the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out
of the east and out of the north shall trouble him :
therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy,
and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the
tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glo-
rious holy mountain ; yet he shall come to his end, and
none shall help him." (Dan. xi. .30 — 4,5.)
To this place of Daniel, might also be added the pro-
phecy written in the seventh chapter, and tending to
the like effect ; where he treating of his vision of four
beasts (which signify the four monarchies), and speak-
ing now of the fourth monarchy, has these words : —
" After this I saw in the night-visions, and behold a
fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceed-
ingly ; and it had great iron teeth : it devoured and
brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet
of it : and it was diverse from all the beasts that were
before it ; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns,
and, behold, there came up among them another little
horn, before whom there were three of the first horns
plucked up by the roots : and, behold, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great
things, — whose look was more stout than his fellows. I
beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints,
and prevailed against them ; until the Ancient of days
came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most
High ; and the time came that the saints possessed the
kingdom." (Dan. vii. 7, 8; 20—22.)
Thus have you the plain words of Daniel ; in which
as he manifestly describes the coming of Antiochus the
great adversary, towards the latter end of the Jews, so
by Antiochus is figured also to us the great adversary of
Christ, which is the Turk.
Although some there are, who with great learning
and judgment apply this place of Daniel not to the
Turk, but to the pope, and that for six or seven special
causes herein touched and noted.
The first is this, that the wicked transgressors of the
covenant shall join with him deceitfully and hypocriti-
cally, who shall pollute the tabernacle of strength, and
take away the perpetual sacrifice, and bring in the
abomination of desolation.
The second note is, that the prophet declares, how
the learned among the people shall teach many, and
that they shall fall upon the sword, into fire and cap
tivity, and shall be banished, whereby they shall be
tried, chosen, and made bright and pure, &c. All
which (say they) is not among the Turks, but only in
the pope's church, where the faithful preachers and
teachers of the people are slain and burned, &c. Where
likewise it follows, that they shall be helped against
antichrist, and that many false brethren should join
them dissemblingly, &c. To this they allege, that the
christians have no such help against the Turk, whereto
such false brethren should join themselves, as is and has
been commonly seen among the Christians against the
pope, from time to time, almost in all countries.
Thirdly, that the king shall exalt himself above all
that has the name of God, and shall lift up his mouth to
speak presumptuously against God.
Fourthly, that he cares not for the desires of women,
which may seem to note how the pope's doctrine shall
forbid the honest and lawful marriage in churchmen.
The fifth specialty which they apply to the pope, ia
that which follows in the prophet, saying, " Neither
390
PROPHECIES FROM SCRIPTURE CONCERNING THE TURKS.
[Book VI.
shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor any god ; but
instead of him s^hall set up his god Muhuzzim, and shall
•worship him with silver and gold, and precious stones,"
&c. which they apply to the pope, setting up his god
of bread, and worshipping him with glistering golden
ornaments, and most solemn service.
Sixthly, it follows, " And he shall increase them with
much glory and riches, and shall divide unto them
lands and jiossessions," &c. ; meaning that the pojie,
having dominion over treasures of gold and silver, and
all precious things of the land, shall endue his cardinals,
prelates, his Mattering doctors, with friars, monks, and
priests, and all such as shall take his jiart, with great
privileges, liberties, revenues, and possessions. And
thus I say, some there are who ajiply this prophecy of
the seventh and eleventh chapters of Daniel to the
bishop of Rome. Whom although I take to be an ex-
treme persecutor of Christ's church, yet I judge rather
those two chapters of Daniel concerning the little horn
in the middle of the ten horns, and the great destroyer
of the pleasant land and glorious holy mountain, to
mean first Antiochus ; and by him, secondly, to mean
the great antichrist the Turk, who has now set already
the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, according
to the prophecies of Daniel.
Let us come now to the prophecies of the New Tes-
tament, and mark the words of St. Paul, writing to the
Thessalonians, who then were christian, and now either
are Turkish, or under the Turk, whose words are these :
" That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter
as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let
no man deceive you by any means : for that day shall
not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
(2 Thess. ii. 2 — 4.) Although this falling away and de-
parting may have a double understanding, as well of the
pope's sect (which is gone and departed from the free
justification by faith only in Christ through the promise
of grace) as of the Turks ; yet leaving a while to speak
of the pope, because it appears more notoriously in the
Turk, we will chiefly apply it to him, in whom so aptly
it agrees, that unless this great apostasy frona the
faith in so many churches had happened by the Turk, it
had been hard to understand the apostle's mind, which
now by the history of the Turks is easy and evident to
be known, considering what a ruin has happened to the
church of Christ by these miserable Turks, what em-
pires, nations, kingdoms, countries, towns, and cities,
he has removed from the name and profession of Christ,
how many thousands, and infinite multitudes of chris-
tian men and children, in Asia, in Africa, and in Eu-
rope, are carried away from Christ's church to Maho-
met's religion, some to serve for the Turk's guard
among the janisaries, some for soldiers, some for mi-
ners, some for gunners, to fight and war against the
christians ; so that the most part of all tLe churches,
planted once by the apostles, are now degenerated into
Turks, only a small handful of christians reserved yet
in these western parts of Europe, of which small rem-
nant, what shall also become shortly, except Christ him-
self do help, Christ only himself knows.
Notwitlistanding this text of the holy apostle may be
verified also with no less reason upon the bishop of
Rome than upon the Turk, because he is a man of sin,
that is, his seat and city is a great maintainer of wicked-
ness, and also for that he is an adversary, that is, con-
trary in all his doings and proceedings to Christ.
Thirdly, for he sits in the temple of God, and so did
not Mahomet.
Fourthly, because he is an exalter of himself, and sit-
teth more like a god than a man in Rome.
Fifthly, because he seduces, and has seduced by his
apostasy, the most part of all Christendom from the
doctrine and free promises of God, into a wrong and
Btrange way of salvation, which is not to be justified
freely before God but only by our faith in Christ his
well-beloved Son (to which faith the promise of God
freely and graciously has annexed all our salvation only,
and to no other thing) ; but the pope has taught us to work
out our salvation by an infinite number of other things ; so
that he binds the necessity of our salvation also to this,
that we must believe (if we will be saved) and receive him
to be the vicar of Christ in earth, &c.
But to return again to the Turks. Among all the
prophecies, both of the Old Testament and of the New,
there is none that points out the antichristian kingdom
of the Turks better tlian doth the Revelation of St.
John, whose words let us weigh and consider. Who
speaking of opening the seventh and last seal (which
signifieth the last age of the world), and there writing
of the seven trumpets of the seven angels, at the sound-
ing of the sixth angel, he saith, " Loose the four angels
which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the
four angels were loosed, which were prepared for aa
hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the
third part of men. And the number of the array of the
horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand : and I
heard the number of them. And tlius I saw the horses
in the vision, and them that sat on them, liaving breast-
plates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone : and the
heads of the horses were as the heads of lions ; and out
of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone.
By these three was the third part of men killed, by the
fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, vi'hich
issued out of their mouths." (Rev. ix. 14 — 18.)
By the seventh seal is meant the seventh and last age
of the world, which last age of the world is from Christ
to the judgment and resurrection of the dead.
By the seven angels with their seven trumpets is sig-
nified the seven plagues that come in this seventh and
last age of the world.
By the sixth trumpet of the sixth angel is meant the
sixth plague coming last and next before the plague of
the great judgment-day, which sixth plague is here de-
scribed to come by the eastern kings, that is, by the
Turks.
By loosing the angels who had rule of the great river
Euphrates, is signified the letting out of ^he east kings,
that is, the Turks out of Scythia, Tartary, Persia, and
Arabia, by whom the third part of Christendom shall be
destroyed, as we see it this day has come to pass.
It follows in the prophecy, " For their power is in
their mouth, and in their tails : for their tails were like
unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do
hurt." (Rev. ix. 19.) Meaning that these Turks with
the words of their mouths shall threaten great destruc-
tion of fire and sword, to them that will not yield to
them, and in the end, when the Christians shall yield to
them, trusting to their promises, they, like serpents, shall
deceive them in the end, and kill them.
The like prophecy also, after the like words and sense,
is to be seen and read in the sixteenth chapter of the
Revelations, where St. John, treating of seven cups
filled with the wrath of the living God, given to the
hands of seven angels by one of the four beasts (that is,
in the time of one of the four monarchies, which was
the monarchy of Rome), speaks likewise of the sixth
angel, " And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon
the great river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was
dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared." (Rev. xvi. 12.)
By the sixth angel with the sixth vial is meant, as before
the last plague save one that shall come upon the chris-
tians. By the kings of the east are meant the Saracens,
and twelve Ottoman Turks. By drying up the river
Euphrates, is signified the way of these Turks to be pre-
pared by the Lord's appointment, to come out of the east-
ern to the western parts of the world, to molest and afflict
the christians. It follows more in the text: — " And I
saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For
they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which
go forth unto tlie kings of the earth and of the whole
world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of
God Almighty." And it follows shortly after, " And
A.D. 1499.]
PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE TURK AND POPE.
391
hi githered them together into a place called iu the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon." And immediately it
folio weth in the same place, " And the seventli angel
pu'jred out his vial into the air ; and there came a great
voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, say-
ing, It is done." (Rev. xvi. 13. 16, 17.) Whereby it
is to bs understood, that towards the last consummation
of the world great force shall be seen, and a mighty
army of the enemies shall be collected and gathered
against the people and saints of the Highest, and then
comes the consummation.
Wherefore, it is not for nought that the Holy Spirit
of God, in the same place, a little before the sixth angel
pours out his vial, exhorts all the faithful, saying, " Be-
hold, I come like a thief in the night ; blessed is he that
watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked,
and men see his filthiness," &c.
Nicholas de Lyra ; and Paul, bishop of Burdens ; and
Matthias Dorinke, writing upon the thirteenth chapter
of the Apocalypse, and expounding the mystery of the
second beast rising out of the earth, having the horns of
a lamb, Sec. apply it to Mahomet and the Turks, with a
solemn declaration made upon the same. Which in-
terpretation of theirs, although in some points it may
seem to have some appearance of probability, yet, as
touching the proper and natural meaning of the apostle
in that place, speaking of the false Lamb, &c. if we con-
sider well all the circumstances of that beast, and mark
the consequence of the text, both of that which goes
before and follows after, we must grant, that the de-
scription and interpretation of that false horned lamb
must necessarily be applied only to the bishop of Rome,
and none other, which is to be proved by six principal
causes or arguments.
The first is, for that this beast is described to bear the
horns of a Lamb ; by which Lamb, no doubt, is meant
Christ. By the horns of the Lamb is signified the out-
ward shew or resemblance of Christ our Saviour ; which
shew or resemblance can have no relation to Mahomet,
for he takes himself to be above Christ, and Christ as an
excellent prophet of God sitting at his feet. Wherefore,
seeing Mahomet comes neither as equal to Christ, nor
as vicar under Christ, this prophecy cannot agree to
him, but only to him who openly in plain words pro-
tests, that all Christ's lambs and sheep, not singularly,
but universally, through the whole world, are committed
to him as vicar of Chiist, and successor of Peter, and
that all men must confess the same of necessity, or else
they are none of Christ's sheep, &c. Wherein it is
easy to see where the pretended horns of the lamb
gi ow.
The second argument, " And he spake like a
dragon," &c. A lamb's horns and the mouth of a
dragon do not agree together. And as they do not
agree together in nature, so neither can they be found
in any person, either Turk or other, so lively, as in the
bishop of Rome. When thou hearest him call himself
" The apostolical bishop, the vicar of Christ, the suc-
cessor of Peter, the servant of God's servants," &c.
thou seest iu him the two horns of a lamb, and wouldst
think him to be a lamb indeed, and such a one as would
wash your feet for humility ; but hear him speak, and
you shall find him a dragon. See and read the epistle
of Pope Martin v., charging, commanding, and threaten-
ing emperors, kings, dukes, princes, marquises, earls,
barons, knights, rectors, consuls, proconsuls, with their
shires, counties, and universities, of their kingdoms,
provinces, cities, towns, castles, villages, and other
places. See the answer of Pope Urban II., and his
message to King William Rufus. Behold the works
and doings of Pope Innocent III. against King John.
Note also the answer of another pope to the king of
England, which, for the price of the king's head, would
not grant to him the investing of his bishops. Mark
well the words and doings of Pope Hildebrand against
the Emperor Henry IV. ; also of Pope Alexander II.
treading upon the neck of Frederick Barbarossa, not like
a lamb treading upon a dragon, but like a dragon tread-
ing upon a lamb.
It follows, moreover, in the same prophecy. Rev.
xiii. 12, for the third argument, " And he exerciseth all
the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the
earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was healed," &c.
In this propliecy two things are to be noted ; firit,
what the first beast is, whose power the second beast
executes. Secondly, what this second beast is which so
exercises his power in his sight. The first of these
beasts having seven heads and ten horns, must needs
signify the city of Rome, which may easily be proved by
two demonstrations. First, by the exposition of the
seventeenth chapter of Revelation, where is declared
and described tlie beast to stand on seven hills, and to
contain ten kings, having the whole power of the dragon
given ; and also the same city to be named " The whore
of Babylon, drunken with the blood of the saints."
All which properties joined together, can agree in no-
wise to any kingdom but the heathen empire of Rome,
which city, at that time of writing these prophecies, had
the government of the whole world. The second de-
monstration or evidence may be reduced out of the
number of the months assigned to this beast. For so it
is written, that this beast had power to war, — that is, to
work his malice against Christ's people forty-two months,
which months counted by Sabbaths of years, (that is,
every month for seven years) makes up the just number
of those years, in which the primitive church was under
the terrible persecutions of the heathen emperors of
Rome, as is before specified.
Which thing thus proved that the first beast must
needs signify the empire and city of Rome, then must it
necessarily follow that the second beast with the lamb's
horns, must signify the bishop and pope of the same
city of Rome. The reason whereof is evident by that
which follows in the prophecy, where it is declared,
that the second beast, having two horns of a lamb, re-
ceived and exercised all the power of the first beast, be-
fore or in the sight of the said beast, which cannot be
verified either in the Turks or in any other, but only in
the pope of Rome, who (as you see) receives, usurps,
and derives to himself all the power of that city and
monarchy of Rome ; so that he saith, that when Con-
stantine or Ludovicus yielded unto him the rule and
kingdom of that city, he gave him but his own, and that
which of right and duty belonged to him before.
And this authority or power over all the empire of
Rome he works not in Asia, or in Constantinople, as the
Turk does, but in the sight of the beast which gave him
the power, that is, in the city of Rome itself, which is
the first beast here in this prophecy of the Revelation
described.
Fourthly, It follows further, " And he causeth the
earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first
beast, whose deadly wound was healed," &c. The in-
terpretation of this part, as also of all the other parts of
the same chapter, stands upon the definition of the first
beast ; for it being granted, as cannot be denied, that
the first beast signifies the city and empire of Rome ; it
must consequently follow, that the bishop (whom we
call the pope) of the city of Rome, must be understood
by the second beast ; as neither Turk nor any other, but
only the bishop of Rome has held up the estimation and
dignity of that city, which began to be in ruin and de-
cay by the Vandals, Goths, Herulians, and Lombards,
about A. D. 4.t6 ; but afterward, by the bishop of
Rome, the pristine state and honour of that city revived
again, and flourished in as great veneration as ever it did
before. And that is it which the Holy Ghost seems
here to mean of the first beast, saying, " That he had
a wound of the beast, and was cured." For so it fol-
lows :
Fifthly, " Saying to them that dwell on the earth,
that they should make an image to the beast, which had
the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many
as would not worship the image of the beast should be
killed. And he caused all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right
hand, or in their foreheads : and that no man might buy
392
THE NUMBER OF THE NAME OF THE BEAST DISCUSSED.
[Book VI.
or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, orthe number of his name," &c. (Rev. xiii.l4 — 17.)
By giving life to the image of the beast, and making it
speak, it is presupposed that the beast was at the point
of death, and lay speechless ; inasmuch as the city
of Rome began to lose and change name, a'ld was
called for a while Odacria, from Odoacer king of the He-
rulians, who by dint of sword surprised tlie Romans ;
and yet, notwithstanding, by the means of its pre-
lates, the city of Rome, which was then ready to give
up tlie gliost, recovered its maje.sty and strength again.
It is even hard to say, whether Rome did ever ruffle
and rage in tyranny, more tragically in the time of
Nero, Doraitian, Dioclesian, and other emperors, than
it has (lone under the pope ; or whether that Rome
had all kings, queens, princes, dukes, lords, and all sub-
jects more under obedience and subjection, when the
emperors reigned, or now in the reign of the pope.
And therefore it is said not without cause by the Holy
Ghost, That it is given to him, to give life and speech
to the image of the beast, causing all them to be slain
which will not worship the image of the beast, &c. As
for example, who sees not what multitudes of christian
men, women, and children in all countries have been put
to fire and sword ? histories of all times will declare
what havook has been made of christian blood about the
pre-eminence and majority of the see of Rome ; what
churches and countries, both Greeks and Latins, have
been excommunicated ; AMhat kings have been deposed,
and emperors stripped from their imperial seat, and all
because they would not stoop and bend to the image of
the beast, that is, to the majesty and title of Rome, ad-
vanced so highly now by its bishop, as it was never
higher before in the reign of Nero or Dioclesian.
Wlierefore, taking the first beast to signify the empire
of Rome, which cannot be denied, it is plain, that the
second beast must necessarily be applied to the pope
and not to the Turk, as the Turk seeks nothing so little
as the advancement of that empire, but rather strives
against it to pluck it down.
The sixth and last argument is grounded upon the
number of the name of the beast, expressed by the Holy
Ghost in the same prophecy, by the letters xKq- In
which letters, although there lies great darkness and dif-
ficulty to be understood, yet certain ancient fathers
which were disciples and hearers of them which heard
St. John himself, as Irenseus and others, expound the
letters conjecturally, to contain the name of the beast,
and to be the name of a man under this word \aTti7'og:'
Whereas no other name lightly of any person, either in
Greek or Latin, will agree to the same, save only the
foresaid named Xariivog. There are some other solu-
tions of these numbers, but of all names properly sig-
nifying any man, none comes so near to the number of
tJiis mystery, (if it go by order of letters) as the word
Xarfti'f'f.
Let us come to the twentieth chapter of the Revela-
tion, wherein the holy scripture seems plainly and di-
rectly to notify the Turks. The words of the prophecy
are these : —
" And 1 saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain
in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit,
and shut hitn up, and set a seal upon him, that he should
deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years
should be fulfilled : and after that he must be loosed a
little se-ison."
And it follows after, " And when the thousand years
are exjiired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four
quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle : the number of whom is as the sand
of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the
earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and
the beloved city," &c. (ver. 7, 8, 9.)
M) The number of these letters in Greek, maketh the full num-
ber of tix huDdreJ and sixty-six.
To the perfect understanding of this prophecy, three
things are necessary to be known. First, what is meant
by binding up, and loosing out of Satan as the old
dragon. Secondly, at what time and year first he was
chained up and sealed for a thousand years. Thirdly, at
whal year and time these thousand years did end, when
he should be loosed out again for a little season. Which
three points being well examined and marked, the pro-
phecy may easily be understood directly to be meant of
the Turk.
First, by binding and loosing of Satan seems to be
meant the ceasing and staying of the cruel and horrible
persecution of the heathen emperors of Rome against
the true christians, as is to be seen in ' The Ten first
Persecutions in the Primitive Church,' in which most
bloody persecutions, Satan then raged without all mea-
sure, till the time it pleased Almighty God to stop this
old serpent, and to tie him shorter. And thus have you
to understand what is meant by the binding up of Satan
for a thousand years ; whereby is signified, that the per-
secution against the christians stirred up by the beast
(that is, in the empire of Rome, through the instigation
of Satan) shall not always continue, but shall break up
after a certain time, and shall cease for a thousand
years, &c.
Now at what time and year this persecution, that is,
the fury and rage of Satan should cease, is also de-
clared in the Revelation before ; where in the eleventh
and thirteenth chapters we read, that the beast before
mentioned shall have power to work his malice and mis-
chief for the space of forty- two months, and no more, and
then that Satan should be locked up for a thousand
years. The computation of which months, being counted
by Sabbaths of years (after the example of the sixty-
nine weeks of Daniel, chapter xi.) it brings us to the ™
just year and time, when that terrible persecution in the ■
primitive church should end, and so it did. For, if we a
allow to every month a Sabbath of years, that is, reckon
every month for seven years, and that makes two hun-
dred and ninety-four years, which embraces the period
between the eighteenth year of Tiberius, (under whom
Christ suffered) and the death of Maxentius the last per-
secutor of the primitive church in Europe, subdued by
Constantine, as may appear by calculating the years,
months, and days, between the year of the reign of
Tiberius, and the death of Maxentius ; and so you
have the account of the period when Satan was
first bound up, after he had raged in the primitive
church two-and-forty months. Which months, as is
said, being counted by Sabbaths of years, after the usual
manner of scripture, amount to two hundred and ninety-
four years ; and so much was the full time between the
passion of our Lord, which was in the eighteenth year
of Tiberius, to the last year of Maxentius. ^
And here by the way comes a note to be observed,
that as by the number of these forty-two months speci-
fied in the Revelations, the empire of Rome must neces-
sarily be confessed to be the first beast, therefore it must
by like necessity follow, the bishop of Rome is the se-
cond beast, with the two horns of the lamb, because he
only has and does cause the empire of Rome to revive
and to be magnified, which the Turk does not, but
rather labours to the contrary. Wherefore let every
christian man be wise, and beware in time how he takes
the mark of the beast, lest peradventure it follow upon
him, that he drink of that terrible cup of wrath men-
tioned. (Rev. xiv.)
Thirdly, it remains to be discussed touching the third
point in this prophecy, that as we have found out
(through the help of Christ) the year and time of Sa-
tan's binding, so we search out likewise the time and J
season of his loosing out, which by the testimony of I
scripture was approved to be a thousand years after his m
binding up, and rightly according to the time appointed I
it came to pass. For if we number well by the scrip- '■'
ture the year of his binding up, which was from the
passion of our Lord two hundred and ninety-four years,
(2) See note p. 68. [EuJ i
A.D. 1506.]
THE BURNING OF WILLIAM TYLSWORTH AND OTHERS.
393
and. add thereto a thousand years, it mounts to one
thousand two hundred ninety-four, which was about the
time when Ottoman the first Turk began his conquests,
which was the first spring and well-head of all these wo-
ful calamities that the church of Christ hath felt botli in
Asia, Africa, and Europe, almost these three hundred
years past. For so we find in chronicles, that the king-
dom of the Turks being first divided into four families,
at length the family of Ottoman prevailed, and thereupon
came those whom we now call Turks, which was
about the same time when Pope Boniface VIII. was bishop
of Rome.
In this long digression, wherein sufficiently has been
described the grievous and tedious persecution of the
Saracens and Turks against the christians, thou hast to
understand, good reader, and to behold the image of a
terrible antichrist evidently appearing both by his own
doings, and also by the scriptures, prophesied and de-
clared to us before. Now in comparing the Turk with
the pope, if a question be asked, which of them is the
truer or greater antichrist, it were easy to see and judge,
that the Turk is the more open and manifest enemy
against Christ and his church. But if it be asked
which of the two has been the more bloody and pernici-
ous adversary to Christ and his members, or which of
them has consumed and spilt more christian blood, he
with sword, or this with fire and sword together, neither
is it a light matter to discern, neither is it my part here
to discuss, who only write the history, and the acts of
them both. Wherefore after the history of the Turks
thus finished, we will now return to where we left off,
in describing the domestic troubles and persecutions here
at home under the bishop of Rome, after the burning of
Babram in Norfolk.
In the days of King Henry VII. (A.D. 1506), in the
diocese of Lincoln, in Buckinghamshire, one William
Tylsworth was burned in Amersham, in a close, called
Stanley, about sixty years ago. At which time one
Joan Clerk, a married woman, who was the only daugh-
ter of William Tylsworth, and a faithful woman, was
compelled with her own hands to set fire to her dear fa-
ther ; and at the same time her husband John Clerk did
penance at her father's burning, and bear a fagot, as did
also twenty-three other persons ; and who afterwards
were compelled to w-ear certain badges, and went abroad
to certain towns to do penance, as to Buckingham,
Aylesbury, and other towns. And also several of these
men were afterwards burned in the cheek, as William
Page, who at this present day is alive, and likewise
carried a fagot with the others. Agnes Wetherly, who
is still alive, testifies that at the burning of this William
Tylsworth, were above sixty others who were obliged to
carry fagots for their penance, of whom some were en-
joined to bear and wear fagots at Lincoln the space of
seven years, some at one time, some at another, &c. In
which number was also one Robert Bartlet, a rich man,
who for his professions' sake was put out of his farm and
goods, and was condemned to be kept in the monastery
of Ashryge, where he wore on his right sleeve a square
piece of cloth, the space of seven years together.
About the same time of the burning of William Tyls-
worth, was one Father Roberts burned at Buckingham.
He was a miller, and dwelt at Missenden. At his burn-
ing there were about twenty persons that were compelled
to carry fagots, and to do such penance as the wicked
Pharisees compelled them to. After that, by the space
of two or three years, was burned at Amersham, Thomas
Bernard, a husbandman, and James Mordon, a la-
bourer, they were both burned at one fire ; and there
was William Littlepage (who is yet alive) compelled to
be burned in the right cheek, and Father Rogers, and
Father Reive, who afterwards were burned. This Father
Rogers was in the bishop's prison fourteen weeks toge-
ther, night and day, where he was so cruelly handled
with cold, hunger and irons, that after his coming out
of the prison, he was so lame in his back, that he could
never go upright as long as he lived, as several honest
men that are now living can testify. Also there were
thirty more burned in the right cheek, and obliged to
carry fagots the same time. The cause was that they
would talk against superstition and idolatry, and were
desirous to hear and read the holy scriptures. The
manner of their burning in the cheek was this ; their
necks were tied fast to a post, and their hands holden
fast that they might not stir, and so the iron being hot,
was ])ut to their cheeks, and thus they bore about them
the prints and marks of the Lord Jesus.
The cruel handimg of Thomas Chnse of Amersham,
who was wickedly stranyled and martyred in the
Bishops' Prison at Woburn.
Among those who were so cruelly persecuted for the
gospel and word of Christ, was one Thomas Chase of
Amersham. This man by the report of such as knew
him, was a man of a godly, sober, and honest behaviour
(whose virtuous doings yet remain in memory) and could
not abide idolatry and superstition, but many times
would speak against it. Wherefore the ungodly and
wicked did the more hate and despise him, and took him
and brought him before the blind bishop, being at that
time at Woburn in the county of Buckingham, and as it
is written in the Acts that wicked Herod vexed certain of
the church, and killed James, the brother of John, with
the sword ; and because he saw that it pleased the Jews,
he proceeded farther, so this bishop had Thomas Chase
before him, asking him many questions touching the
Romish religion, with many taunts, checks, and rebukes,
but what answer this godly man, Thomas Chase, made
them is unknown. However it is to be supposed, that
bis answer was most zealous and godly in professing
Christ's true religion and gospel, and to the extirpation
of idolatry, and superstition, and hypocrisy, for that he
was commanded to be put in the prison, in the bishop's
house at Woburn, which had not been done to him, had
not his answers been sound and upright. There Thomas
Chase lay bound most painfully with chains, manacles,
and irons, often pining with hunger, where the bishop's
alms was daily brought to him by his chaplains, which
alms were nothing else but checks, taunts, rebukes, and
threatenings and mockings. All which cruelty the godly
martyr took most quietly and patiently, remembering
and having respect to Christ's promises : " Blessed are
they which suffer for righteousness sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven," Matt. v. And as follows:
" Blessed are ye when men rev^e you and persecute
you," &c. When the bishop, with his band of shave-
lings, perceived that by their daily practices of cruelty
they could not prevail against him, but rather that he
was the more fervent and earnest in professing Christ's
true religion, and that he did bear most patiently all
their wickedness and cruelty to him, they imagined how
and which way they might put him to death, lest there
should be a tumult or an uproar among the people.
And as Richard Hunne shortly after was hanged or
strangled in Lollards' Tower, about A.D. 1514, even so
these blood-suckers most cruelly strangled and put to
death this Thomas Chase in prison, who most heartily
called upon God to receive his spirit, as witnesses a cer-
tain woman that kept him in prison.
After these vipers of the wicked brood of antichrist
had thus most cruelly and impiously murdered this faith-
ful christian, they were at their wits' end, and could not
tell what shift to make, to cloak their shameful murder ;
at last, to blind the ignorant silly people, these bloody
butchers most slanderously caused it to be rumoured
abroad by their dependents, that Thomas Chase had
hanged himself in prison, which was a most shameful
and abominable lie, for the prison was such, that a man
could not stand upright, nor lie at ease. And besides,
this man had so many manacles and irons upon him, that
he could not well move either hand or foot, as the wo-
man declares that saw him dead. And yet these holy
catholics had not made an end of their wicked act in this
both killing and slandering of this godly martyr ; but to
put out the remembrance of him, they caused him to be
buried in the wood, called Norland-wood, in the high-
way betwixt Woburn and little Marlow, to the intent he
should not be taken up again to be seen ; and thus com*
394
THE BURNING OF LAWRENCE GHEST AND OTHERS.
[Book VI.
monlf are innocent men laid up by these unworthy
clergymen. But he that is true hath promised at one
time or another, to clear his true servants, not with lies
and fables, but by his own true word. No secret, saith
he, is so close but it shall be opened ; neither is any
thing so hid, that shall not at the last be known clearly.
Such a sweet Lord is God always to those that are his
true servants. Blessed be his holy name for ever and
ever. Amen.
Thomas Harding being one of this company, thus
molested and troubled in tlie town of Amersham, for the
truth of the gospel, after his abjuration and penance was
an-ain sought for, and brought to the fire in the days of
King Henry VII.
After the martyrdom of these two, I read also of one
Thomas Noris, who for the same cause, that is, for the
profession of Christ's gospel, was condemned by the
bishop, and burnt at Norwich the last day of March,
(A.D. 1507.)
In the next year following, which was A. D, 1508, in
the consistory of London, was Elizabeth Sampson of the
parish of Aldermanbury, upon certain articles, and espe-
cially for speaking against pilgrimage and adoration of
images, especially the images of our lady at Wilsdon, at
Stanings, at Crome, at Walsingham, and against the sa-
crament of the altar. For these and certain other
articles, she was compelled to abjure before Master
William Horsey, chancellor, the day and year above
written.
Laurence Ghest,
It is lamentable to remember, and almost impossible
to comprehend the names, times, and persons of all who
have been slain by the pope's clergy, for the true main-
taining of Christ's cause, and his sacraments. W hose
memory being registered in the bock of life, although it
need not our commemoration, yet for the more confirma-
tion of the church, I thought it not unprofitable to relate
the suffering and martyrdom of them who innocently
have given their blood to be shed in Christ's cause.
In the catalogue of whom, next in order comes the
memorial of Laurence Ghest, who was burned in Salis-
bury for the matter of the sacrament, in the days of
King Henry VII. He was of a comely and tall person-
age, and otherwise not unfriended, for which the bishop
and the clergy were the more loath to burn him, but kept
him in prison for the space of two years. This Laurence
had a wife and seven children. Wherefore they thinking
to influence and persuade his mind, by awal;ening his
fatherly affection toward his children, when the time
came which they appointed for his burning, as he was at
the stake, they brought before him his wife and his seven
children. At the sight of them, although nature is
commonly wont to work in other men, yet in him reli-
gion overcoming nature, made his constancy remain un-
moveable, so that when his wife exhorted and desired
him to save himself, he again began to desire her to be
content, and not to be a stumbling-block in his way, for
he was in a good course, running toward the mark of his
salvation ; and so fire being put to him, he finished his
life, renouncing not only wife and children, but also
himself to follow Christ. As he was burning one of the
bishop's men threw a firebrand at his face. At this the
brother of Laurence, who was standing by, ran at him
with his dagger, and would have slain him, had he not
been otherwise prevented.
But among all the examples of God, of whom so many
have suffered from time to time for Christ and his truth,
I cannot tell if ever there were any martyrdom more
notable and admirable, or wherein the plain demonstra-
tion of God's mighty power and judgment has at any
time been more evident against the persecutors of his
flock, than at the burning of a certain godly woman put
to death in Chipping Sodbury, about the same time,
under the reign of King Henry VII.
The constancy of which blessed woman, as it is glori-
ous for all true godly christians to behold, so the ex-
ample of the bishop's chancellor, which cruelly con-
demned the innocent, may offer a terrible spectacle to
the eyes of all papistical persecutors to consider, and to
take example, which the living God grant they may.
Amen. The name of the town where she was martyred,
was, as is said, Chip))ing Sodbury. The chancellor who
condemned, was Doctor Whittington. The time of her
burning was in the reign of Henry VII.
After this godly woman, and manly martyr of Christ,
was condemned by the wretched chancellor, for the faith-
ful profession of the truth, which the papists then called
heresy, and the time now come when she should be
brought to the place and pains of her martyrdom, a great
concourse of all the multitude, both in the town and
country about was gathered to behold her end. Among
whom was also Doctor Whittington, the chancellor, there
present to see the execution. Thus this faithful woman,
and true servant of God, constantly persisting in the
testimony of the truth, committing her cause to the Lord,
gave over her life to the fire, refusing no pains nor tor-
ments to keep her conscience clear and unrejiroveable in
the day of the Lord. The sacrifice being ended, the people ' '
began to return homeward, coming from the burning of
this blessed martyr. It happened in the meantime, that
as the popish executioners were busy in slaying this
Lamb at the town's side, a certain butcher was as busy
within the town slaying a bull, which bull he had fast
bound in ropes ready to knock him on the head. But
the butcher (belike not so skilful in his art of killing
beasts, as the papists are in murdering christians) as he
was lifting his axe to strike the bull, failed in his stroke,
and smote a little too low, or else how he smit, I know
not : this was certain that the bull, although somewhat
grieved at the stroke, but yet not stricken down, put his
strength to the ropes, and broke loose from the butcher
into the street, at the very time when the people were
coming in great crowd from the burning, who seeing the
bull coming towards them, and supposing him to be wild,
gave way for the beast, every man shifting for himself as ■
well as he might. Thus the people giving back, and P
making a lane for the bull, he passed through the throng
of them, touching neither man nor child, till became
where the chancellor was. Against whom the bull, with
a sudden vehemency, ran full butt with his horns, and
gored him through and through, and so killed him im-
mediately, to the great wonder of all that saw it.
Although the carnal sense of man be blind in consi-
dering the works of the Lord, imputing many times to
blind chance the things which properly pertain to God's
only praise and providence ; yet in this so strange and
so evident example, what man can be so dull or ignorant ■
as not to see a plain interposition of God's mighty :
power and judgment, both in the punishing of this
wretched chancellor, and also in admonishing all other
persecutors, by his example, to fear the Lord, and to
abstain from the like cruelty ?
And thus much concerning the state of the church.
Wherein is to be understood, what storms and persecu-
tions have been raised up in all quarters against the flock
and congregation of Christ, not only by the Turks, but
also at home within ourselves, by the bishop of Rome
and his retinue. Where also is to be noted in the days
and reign of this King Henry VII. how mightily the
working of God's gospel has multiplied and increased,
and what great numbers of men and women have suft'ered
for the same with us in England.
Now these things declared relating to the church, it
remains to treat likewise of the commonwealth, which
commonly follows the state of the church. Where the
church is quietly and modestly governed, and the flock
of Christ defended by godly princes in peace and safety,
from devouring and violence of bloody wolves ; the suc-
cess of the civil estate, there and then for the most part,
flourishes, and the princes long continue through God's
preservation, in prosperity and tranquillity. Contrari-
wise, where either the church of Christ through the
negligence of princes, or through their instigation, the
poor members of Christ are persecuted and devoured ;
shortly after comes some just recompence of the Lord
upon those princes, that either their lives do not long
A. D. 1509.]
PERSECUTIONS AT COVENTRY.
395
continue, or else they find not that quiet in the common-
wealth which they look for. Examples of this, as in all
other ages, they are abundant, so in this present time
are not lacking, whether we consider the state and condi-
tion of other countries far off, or else of our country
near at home.
Not that I here affirm or define, as a general rule, that
worldly success and prosperity of life always follow the
godly, whom we see rather given over often to the
wicked : yet, speaking of the duty of princes, I observe
by examples of histories, that such princes as have most
defended the church of Christ committed to their govern-
ment, from injury and violence of the bishop of Rome,
have not lacked at God's hand great blessing and felicity.
Whereas contrariwise, they who either themselves have
been persecutors of Christ's members, or have not
shielded them by their protection from foreign tyranny
and injuries, have lacked at God's hand that protection
which the other had, as may appear by King Edward II.,
Richard III., King Henry IV., King Henry V., King
Henry VI., &c., who, because either negligently they
have suffered, or cruelly caused such persecuting laws to
be made, and so much christian blood injuriously de-
voured, therefore have they been the less prospered of
the Lord ; so that either they were deposed, or if they
flourished for a while, yet they did not long continue,
almost not half the time of the other kings before named.
And therefore, as the state of the commonwealth com-
monly follows the state of the church, so it had been to
be wished that this King Henry VII., being otherwise
a prudent and temperate prince, had not permitted the
intemperate rage of the pope's clergy so much to have
their wills over the poor flock of Christ as they had.
Although he reigned nearly twenty-four years, yet, not-
withstanding, here comes the same thing to be noted of
which I spake : that when the church of Christ begins
to be injured with violence, and to go to wreck through
disorder and negligence, the state of the commonwealth
cannot long endure without some alteration and strokes
of God's correction. But however this mark is to be
taken, thus lies the history : that after the burning and
vexing of these poor servants of Christ above recited,
when the persecution began now in the church to be
hot, God calls away the king the same year, which was
1509, after he had reigned nearly the term of twenty-four
years ; who if he had adjoined a little more compassion-
ate respect, in protecting Christ's poor members from
the fire of the pope's tyranny, to his other great virtues
of singular wisdom, excellent temperance, and moderate
frugality, so much had he been comparable with the
best of those princes, as he had been inferior but to a
few : but this defect which was wanted in him, wassup-
pUed most luckily (blessed be the Lord), by his poste-
rity succeeding after him.
Among many other things incident in the reign of this
King Henry VII., I have passed over the history of
certain godly persons persecuted in the diocese of Co-
ventry and Lichfield, as we find them in the registers of
the diocese recorded, here following.
The year of our Lord, 1485, March 9, among other
good men in Coventry, these nine here under-named,
were examined before John bishop of Coventry and
Litchfield in Saint Michael's church, upon the following
articles : —
First, John Blomston was openly and publicly accused,
reported and appeached, that he was a very heretic, be-
cause he had preached, taught, holden, and affirmed,
that the power attributed to St. Peter in the church of
God, by our Saviour Jesus Christ immediately, did not
flit or pass from him, to remain with his successors.
That there was as much virtue in an herb, as in the
image of the Virgin Mary.
That prayer and alms avail not the dead ; for imme-
diately after death, he goes either to heaven or hell,
whereupon he concludes there is no purgatory.
That it was foolishness to go on pilgrimage to the image
of our lady of Doncaster, Walsingham, or the tower
o the city of Coventry ; for a man might as well wor-
6Uip cLe b'essed Virgin by fire-side in the kitchen, as in
the aforesaid places, and as well might a man worship
the blesBed Virgin, when he sees his mother and sister,
as in visiting the images, because they are no more but
dead stocks and stones.
Richard Hegham of the same city was accused, &c.,
to be a very heretic, because he held that a christian
man being at the point of death, should renounce all his
own works, good and ill, and submit him to the mercy of
God.
That it was foolishness to worship the images of our
lady of Tower in the city, or of other saints, for they are
but stocks and stones.
That if the image of our lady of Tower were put into
the fire, it would make a good fire.
That it were better to deal money to poor folks, than
to offer to the images of Christ and other saints, which
are but dead stocks and stones.
Robert Crowther of the same city, was accused that
he was a heretic, because he held, that whoso receives
the sacrament of the altar in deadly sin, or out of cha-
rity, receives nothing but bread and wine.
That neither bishop, nor priests, nor curates of
churches, have power in the market of penance to bind
or loose.
That pilgrimage to our lady of Tower is foolishness ;
for it is but a stock or a stone.
John Smith was accused to be a very heretic, be-
cause he held that every man is bound to know the
Lord's prayer, and the creed in English.
That whoso believed as the churchmen believed, be-
lieves ill : and that a man had need to frequent the
schools a good while, ere he can attain to the knowledge
of the true and right faith.
That no priest has power to absolve a man in the
market of penance from his sins.
Roger Brown of the same city, was also accused to
be an heretic, because he held that no man ought to
worship the image of our lady of Walsingham, nor the
blood of Christ at Halies, but rather God Almighty,
who would give him whatever he would ask.
That he held not up his hand, nor looked up, at the
elevation of the Eucharist.
That he promised one to show him certain books of
heresy, if he would swear that he would not utter them,
and if he would credit them.
That he did eat flesh in Lent, and was taken in the act.
If any man were not confessed and absolved in his
whole life long, and in the point of death would be con-
fessed, and could not, if he had no more but contrition
only, he should pass to joy without purgatory : and if
he were confessed of any sin, and were enjoined only to
say for penance one paternoster, if he thought he should
have any punishment in purgatory for that sin, he would
never be confessed for any sin.
Because he said all is lost that is given to priests.
That there was no purgatory, that would pardon all
sins, without confession and satisfaction.
Thomas Butler of the same city was likewise openly
accused as a very heretic, because he held that there
were but two ways, that is to say, to heaven and to hell.
That no faithful man should suffer any pain after the
death of Christ, for any sin, because Christ died for our
sins.
That there was no purgatory ; for every man imme-
diately after death passes either to heaven or hell.
That whoever departs in the faith of Christ and the
Church, however he has lived, shall be saved.
That prayers and pilgrimages are nothing worth, and
avail not to purchase heaven.
John Falks was accused as a very heretic, because he
did affirm, that it was a foolish thing to offer to the
image of our lady, saying, what is it but a block ? If it
could speak to me, 1 would give it a halfpenny-worth
of ale.
That when the priest carries to the sick the body of
Christ, why carries he not also the blood of Christ ?
That he did eat cow-milk upon the first Sunday of Lent.
That as concerning the sacrament of penance and
absolution, no priest has power to absolve any man from
his sins, inasmuch as he cannot make one hair of hia
head.
396
PERSECUTIONS AT COVENTRY.
[Book VI.
That the image of our lady was but a stone or a block.
Richard Hilmiu was accused that he was a very here-
tic, because he did say and maintain, that it was better
to part with money to the poor, than to give tithes to
priests, or to offer to the images of our lady ; and that
it were better to offer to images made by God, than to
images of God painted.
That he had the Lord's prayer and the salutation of
the angel and the creed in English, and another book he
saw and had, which contained the epistles and gospels
in Eno-lish, and according to them he would live, and
thereby believed he would be saved.
That no priest speaks better in the pulpit than that book.
That the sacrament of the altar is but bread, and that
the priests make it to blind the people.
That a priest while he is at mass, is .a priest ; and
after one mass done, till the beginning of another mass,
he is no more than a layman, and has no more power
than a mere layman.
After they were forced to recant, they were absolved,
and obliged to do penance.
In A. D. 1488, the third of April, Margery Coyt,
wife of James Coyt of Ashburn, was brought before the
foresaid John Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who was
there accused that she said, that that which the priests
lifted over their heads at mass, was not the true and very
body of Christ ; for if it was so, the priests could not
break it so lightly into four parts, and swallow it as they
do ; for the Lord's body has flesh and bones, which that
which the priests receive has not.
That priests buying forty cakes for a halfpenny, and
shewing them to the people, and saying, that of every
one of them they make the body of Christ, do nothing
but deceive the people and enrich themselves.
Seeing God in the beginning created and made man,
how can it be that man should be able to make God .'
This woman also was constrained to recant, and so
was she absolved and did penance.
Thus much I thought good to insert here, touching
these men of Coventry, especially for this purpose, be-
cause our cavilling adversaries are wont to object against
us the newness of Christ's old and ancient religion. To
the intent therefore they may see this doctrine, not to be
so new as they report, I wish they would consider both
the time and articles here objected against these persons.
I should also in the same reign of King Henry VII.,
have induced that story of Johannes Picus Earl of Mi-
randula, tlie mention of whose name partly is touched
before. Tliis Picus Earl of Mirandula, being but a young
man, was so excellently witted, and so singularly learned
in all sciences and in all tongues, both Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew, Clialdee, and Arabic, that coming to Rome
booted and spurred, lie set up ninety conclusions, to
dispute with any in all Christendom, whoever would
come against him. Of which conclusions several were
on the matter of the sacrament, &c. And when none
was found in all Rome, nor in Europe, that openly would
dispute with him, privately and in corners certain of
the pope's clergy, prelates, lawyers, and friars, ap-
pointed by the pope, consulted together to inquire upon
his conclusions, whereupon they articulated against
him for suspicion of heresy. And thus the unlearned
clergy of Rome privately circumvented and entangled
this learned earl in their snares of heresy, against whom
they durst never openly dispute. He died at the age of
thirty-two years, of such wit and forwardness, as is hard
to say whether ever Italy bred up a better. In his
sickness Charles VIII., then French king, moved with
the fame of his learning, came to visit him.
The names of the Archbishops of Canterlury in ihts
Sixth Book contained.
62. John Stratford,
63. John Kempe.
64. Thomas Bouchier.
65. John Morton.
66. Thomas Langhtoc
67. Henry Dene.
William Warham.
THE END OF THE SIXTH BOOK.
THE PROUD PRIMACY OF POPES DESCRIBED,
IN OaDER OF THEIR RISING UP BY LITTLE AND LITTLE, FROM FAITHFUL BISHOPS AND
MARTYRS, TO BECOME LORDS AND GOVERNORS OVER KINGS AND KINGDOMS,
EXALTING THEMSELVES IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, ABOVE ALL
THAT IS CALLED GOD, ETC. II Thkssalonians, ii. 4.
In the description of the primitive church, the reader
has had set forth and exhibited before his eyes the
grievous afflictions and torment, which, through God's
secret sufferance, fell upon the true saints and members
of Christ's church in that time, especially upon the
good bishops, ministers, and teachers of the flock, of
whom some were scourged, some beheaded, some cruci-
fied, some burned, some had their eyes put out, some
one way, some another, miserably consumed ; which
days of woeful calamity continued for nearly three hun-
dred years. During which time the spouse and elect church
of God, being sharply assaulted on every side, had no
rest, nor joy, nor outward safety in this world, but
passed all their days in much bitterness of heart, in
continual tears and mourning under the cross, being
spoiled, imprisoned, contemned, reviled, famished, tor-
mented, and martyred everywhere ; they durst not tarry
at home for fear and dread, and much less durst come
abroad for the enemies, but only by night, when they
assembled sometimes to sing psalms and hymns toge-
ther. But notwithstanding, in all their dreadful dan-
gers, and sorrowful afflictions, the goodness of the Lord
left them not desolate ; but the more their outward
tribulations increased, the more their inward consola-
tions abounded ; and the farther off they seemed from
the joys of this life, the more present was the Lord with
them with grace and fortitude to confirm and rejoice
their souls. And though their possessions and riches
in this world were lost and spoiled, yet were they en-
riched with heavenly gifts above an hundred fold. Then
was true religion really felt in heart. Then Christianity
was not merely shown in outward appearance, but was
received in inward affection, and in the true image of
the church, not in pretended outward shew, but in her
effectual perfect state. Then was the name and fear of
God engrafted in the heart, not only dwelling on the
lips. Then faith was fervent, zeal ardent ; prayer was
not merely on the lips, but groaned out to God from the
bottom of the spirit. Then there was no pride in the
church, nor leisure to seek riches, nor time to keep
them. Contention for trifles was then so far from
christians, that they were happy when they could meet
to pray together against the devil, the author of all dis-
sension. Briefly, the whole church of Christ Jesus,
with all its members, the farther it was from the type
and shape of this world, the nearer it was to God's
favour and support.
The first rising of the Bishops of Rome.
After this long time of trouble it pleased the Lord at
length mercifully to look upon the saints and servants of
his Son, to release their captivity, to relieve their mi-
sery, and to bind up the old dragon the devil, who so
long vexed them, whereby the church began to aspire to
some more liberty ; and the bishops who before were as
abjects utterly contemned by emperors, through the
\ providence of God (who disposeth all things in his time
f after his own will) began now to be esteemed by empe-
rors and had in honour ; and, further, as emperors
grew more in devotion, so the bishops were more and
more exalted, not only in favour, but also preferred to
honour, so that in a short space they became not quar-
ter-masters, but rather half emperors with emperors.
After this, as riches and worldly wealth crept into
the clergy, and the devil had poured his venom into
the church, so true humility began to decay, and
pride to step in, till at last they played as the ivy does
with the oak-tree, which first beginning with a goodly
green show, embraces it so long that at length it over-
grows it, and so sucks all his moisture from him, set-
ting its root fast in his bark, till at last it both stifles
the stock, and kills the branches, and so comes to be a
nest for owls and all unclean birds. Not untruly, there-
fore, it was said by Augustine, " Religion begat riches,
and the daughter has devoured the mother." The
truth of which may appear in the history of the church
of Rome and her bishops. For after the church of
Rome, through the favour of emperors, was endowed
with lands, donations, possessions, and patrimonies, so
that the bishops feeling the pleasure of wealth, ease, and
prosperity, began to increase in pomp and pride. The
i more they flourished in this world, the more God's
Holy Spirit forsook them, till at last the bishops, who
at tlie first were poor, creeping upon the ground, and
persecuted, every man treading upon them in this
world, now, instead of being persecuted people, began
to be the persecutors of others, and to tread upon the
necks even of emperors, and to bring the heads of kings
and princes under their girdle. And not only that, but
through pride and riches, they were so far gone from all
true religion, that in the end they became the great ad-
versary of God (whom we call antichrist) prophesied of
so long before by the Spirit of God to come, sitting ia
the temple of God, &c. Of whom we thus read in the
epistle of St. Paul, where he saith, " Now we beseech
you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not
soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day
of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means : for that day shall not come, except there come
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii. 1 — 4.)
By which words of St. Paul, we have several things
to note : First, that the day of the Lord's coming was
not then near at hand. Secondly, the apostle giv-
ing us a token before, to know when that day shall
approach, bids us to look for an adversary first to be re-
vealed. Thirdly, to shew what adversary this shall be,
he expresses him not to be as a common adversary, such
398
THE FIRST RISING OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME.
as were then in his time. For although Herod, Annas,
and Caiaphas, the high priests and pharisees, TertuUus,
Alexander the coppersmith, Elymas and Simon Magus,
and Nero tlie emperor, in St. Paul's time, were great
adversaries : yet here he means another besides these,
greater than all the rest, not such a one as should be
like to priest, king, or emperor, but such as far exceed-
ing the state of all kings, priests, and emperors, should
be the prince of priests, should make kings stoop, and
should tread upon the neck of emperors, and make them
to kiss his feet. Moreover, where the apostle saith,
that he shall sit in the temple of God, thereby is meant,
not merely the personal sitting of the pope in the city
of Rome, but the authority and jurisdiction of his see
exalted in the whole universal church, equal with God
himself. For let men give to the pope that which he re-
quires in his pontifical laws and decrees, and what dif-
ference is there between God and the pope .' If God
sets laws and ordinances, so does he. If God have his
creatures, so has he. If God require obedience, so
does he. If the breach of God's commandments are
punished, much more are his. God has his religion,
the pope also has his ; yea, for God's one religion he
has an hundred. God has set up an advocate, he has an
hundred. God has instituted but a few holy-days, for
God's one he hath instituted forty. Christ is the head
of the church, so is the pope. Christ gives influence to
his body, so does the pope. Christ forgives sin, the
pope does no less. Christ expels evil spirits by his
jiower, so the pope pretends to do by his holy water.
Furthermore, where Christ went barefoot upon the bare
ground, he with his golden shoes is carried upon men's
shoulders. Christ never used any but the spiritual
sword, he claims both spiritual and temporal. Christ
bought the church, he both buys and sells the church.
And if it be necessary to believe Christ to be the Sa-
viour of the world, so it is necessary to believe the pope
to be the head of the church. Christ paid tribute to
C;esar, he makes Caesar pay tribute to hirn. Finally,
the crown of Christ was of sharp thorns, the pope has
three crowns of gold upon his liead, so far exceeding
Christ the Son of God in glory of this world, as Christ
exceedeth him in the glory of heaven ; whose intolerable
pride and exaltation, according as St. Paul describes
him in his epistle, we have here set forth, not only in
these tables, and by his own facts to be noted, but also
declared in his own words and registers, Clementines,
extravagants, and pontificals, as (the Lord willing) shall
follow in order.
The exaltation of Popes alove Kings and Emperors, out
of History.
First, after Italy and the city of Rome were overrun
by the Goths and Vandals, so that the seat of the em-
j)ire was removed to Constantinople, then began John,
patriarch of Constantinople, to put himself forth, and
would needs be called universal bishop of the world ; but
the bishop of Rome in no case would suffer that, and
stopped it. After this came the emperor's deputy, and
exarch of Ravenna to rule Italy, but the bishop of
Rome, through the aid of the king of the Lombards,
soon mastered him.
Not long after (A.D. 600,) came Phocas the murderer,
who slew the emperor of Constantinople, his master
Mauricius, and his children. By which Phocas the bi-
shops of old Rome aspired first to their pre-eminence to
be counted the head bishops over the whole church, and
so together with the Lombards began to rule the city of
Rome. Afterwards, when the Lombards would not yield
to him, in accomplishing his ambitious desire, but would
needs require of the bishop the city of Rome, he stirred
up Pepin, but first deposed Childeric the king of France,
(A.D. 17.")1,) and so thrusting him into an abbey set up
in his place Pepin and his son Charlemagne, to put down
the king of the Lombards called Astulphus. And so he
transferred the empire from Constantinople to France,
dividing the spoil between liim and them, so that the
kings of France had all the possessions and lands which be-
fore belonged to the empire, and he received of them the
(juiet possession of the city of Rome, with such dona-
tions and lordships, which now they challenge to them
under the name of St. Peter's patrimony, which they
falsely ascribe to a donation of Constantine the Great.
It follows then in process of time, after the days of
Pepin, Charlemagne, and Lewis (who had endowed
these bishops of Rome, called now popes, with large
possessions), that the kings of France were not so pli.
able to their beck, to aid and maintain them against the
princes of Italy, who began then to pinch the bishops
for their wrongfully usurped goods. The pope, therefore,
j)ractised with the Germans to reduce the empire to Otho,
the first of that name, duke of Spain, referring the elec-
tion to seven princes, electors of Germany, (A. D. 938,)
notwithstanding, reserving still in his hands the negative
voice, thinking thereby to enjoy what they had in quiet-
ness and security, and so he did for a good space.
At length, when some of these German emperors also,
after Otho, began a little to spurn against the bishops
and popes of Rome, some of them they accursed, some
they subdued and brought to the kissing of their feet,
some they deposed, and placed other in their possessions.
Henry IV. was so accursed by these bishops, that he
was forced with his wife and child to wait attendance
upon the pope's pleasure three days and three nights in
winter, at the gates of Canosa, (A.D. 1077.) Besides
all this, the pope raised up Rodolph to be emperor against
him, who being slain in war, then Pope Gregory VII. stirred
up his own son, Henry V. to fight against his own father,
and to depose him ; which Henry V. was also himself
afterwards accursed and excommunicated, and the Saxons
at last set up by the bishops to fight against him.
After this the emperors began to be somewhat calmed
and more quiet, suffering the bishops to reign as they
liked, till Frederick I., called Barbarossa, came and be-
gan to stir contention against them. However, they
hampered both him and his son Henry in such a way,
that they obliged Frederick to submit to be trod upon (A.
D. 1177), in the church of Venice; and afterwards the said
bishops, crowning Henry VI. his son in the church of
St. Peter, set his crown on his head with their feet, and
with their feet spurned it off again, to make him know
tliat the popes of Rome had power both to crown empe-
rors and depose them again, (A.D. 1190.)
Then followed, (A.D. 1198,) Philip, brother to Henry,
whom also the popes accursed, and set up in opposition
to him, Otho duke of Saxony. Upon the death of
Philip (A. D. 1209), the pope conferred the imperial
crown upon Otho IV., but this emperor, like his prede-
cessors, was unwilling to submit to the pontiff's nod,
and began to dispossess the bishops of their cities and
lands which they had engrossed into their hands. This
they could not bear, and immediately excommunicated
him and put him aside ; so that he was only suffered to
reign four years, (A.D. 1212.)
At this time Frederick II., the son of Henry VI.,
was but young, whom the bishops of Rome suppos-
ing to find more mortified and tamed to their hand,
advanced to be emperor. But that fell out much con-
trary to their expectation. For he perceiving the im-
moderate pomp and pride of the Roman bishops,
which he could in no case abide, so nettled them
and cut their combs, and waxed so stout against
them, intending to extirpate their tyranny, and to
reduce their pompous riches to the state and con-
dition of the primitive church again, putting some of
them to flight, and imprisoning some of their cardinals,
that of three popes, one after another, he was accursed,
circumvented by treason, at last deposed, and after that
poisoned, and at last forsaken and died, (A. D. 1250.)
After this Frederick followed his son Conrad, whom
the bishops for his disobedience soon despatched, ex-
citing against him in mortal war the landgrave of Turin,
by which he was at length driven into his kingdom of
Naples, and there died.
"This Conrad had a son called Conradine, duke and
prince of Suevia. When this Conradine, after the de-
cease of his father, came to enjoy his kingdom of Naples,
these bishops stirred up against him Charles the French
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
3'j9
king s brother, so that, through crafty conveyance, both
Conradine, who descended from the blood of so ninny
emperors, and also Frederick duke of Austria, were
both taken, and after much wretched handling in their
miserable endurance, unseeming to their state, at length
were both brought under the axe by the pope's procure-
ment, and so both beheaded. And thus ended the im-
perial stock of Frederick I. surnained Barbarossa.
The same that happened to Frederick the emperor,
had almost also fallen upon Philip IV., the French king,
by Pope Boniface VIII., who, because he could not have
his commodities and revenues out of France after his
•will, sent out his bulls and letters patent to displace
King Philip, and to place Albert king of the Romans in
his room.
And thus hitherto in foreign histories. Now touching
our own country princes here in England, to speak some-
what likewise of them : did not Pope Alexander III.
presumptuously take upon him where he had nothing to
do, to intermeddle with the king's subjects ? for the
death of Becket the rebel, although the king sufficiently
cleared himself thereof, yet, notwithstanding, did he not
wrongfully bring King Henry II. to such penance as it
pleased him to enjoin, and also violently constrained
him to swear obedience to the see of Rome ? The like
also was shewed before in this history to have happened
to King John his son. For when the king like a valiant
prince had held out against the tyranny of those bishops
seven years together, were not all the churches in Eng-
land barred up, and his inheritance with all his do-
minions given away by Pope Innocent III. to Lewis the
French king, and he afterwards compelled to submit
himself, and to make his vphole realm feudatory to the
bishops of Rome, and moreover the king himself driven
also to surrender his crown to Pandulph the pope's legate,
and so continued as a private person five days, stand-
ing at the pope's courtesy, whether to receive it again at
his hands or no ? And when the nobles of the realm
rose afterwards against the king for the same, was he
not then fain to seek and sue to the pope for succour ?
And yet notwithstanding ail this that King John so
yielded to the pope, he was both pursued by the nobles,
and also in the end was poisoned by a subject of the
pope's own religion, a monk of Swinsted.
Besides this King Henry II. and King John his son,
see what kings have here reigned in England since their
time, until the reign of King Henry VIII., who although
there were prudent princes, and did what they could in
providing against the proud domination of these bishops,
yet were forced at length sore against their wills, for
fear, to subject themselves, together with their subjects
under usurped authority, insomuch as King Henry III.
was fain to stoop and kiss the legate's knee.
The Image of AniicJirist exalting libnaelf in the Temple
of God, above all that is named God, out of his own
decrees, decretals, extravagants, pontificals, H^-c. word
for word, as it is out of the said books here alleged
and quoted.
(1) Forasmuch as it stands. upon necessity of salvation,
for every human creature to be subject to me the pope
of Rome, it shall be therefore requisite and necessary
for all men that will be saved, to learn and know the dig-
nity of my see and excellency of my domination, as here
is set forth according to the truth and very words of mine
own laws, in style as follow : (2) First, my institution be-
gan in the Old Testament, and was consummated and
i finished in the New, in that my priesthood was prefi-
j gured by Aaron ; and other bishops under me were pre-
i figured by the sons of Aaron, that were under him.
(1) Pope Boniface VIII. Extravag. de majorit. & obed. cap. i
(2i Distinct. 12. cap. Dnritis.
(8) Pope Pelasius, Distinct. 21, cap. Q^uamvii.
(4) Pelasius. ibid.
(5) Pope Nicolas. Distinct. 21. cap. Inferior,
(6) I'ope Lucius, 24, q. 1. cap. ii. Recta.
(7) Poye C'alixtus, Dist. 12. cap. Non decet.
(8) Pope Innicentius. II. cap. Quw.
(9; Pope Stephan. Distinct. 19. cap. Enim vtro.
{?>) Neither is it to be thought that my church of Rome has
been preferred by any general council, but obtained the
primacy only by the voice of the gospel, and the mouth
of the Saviour. (4) And has in it neither spot nor wrinkle,
nor any such thing. (5) Wherefore as other seats are all
inferior to me, and as they cannot absolve me ; so have
they no power to bind me or to stand against me, no
more than the axe has power to stand or presume above
him that hews with it, or the saw to presume above him
that rules it. (())This is the holy and apostolic mother
church of all other churches of Christ ; (^7) from whose
rules it is not meet that any person or j)ersons should
decline : but like as the Son of God came to do the will
of his Father, so must you do the will of your mother,
the church, the head of which is the church of Rome,
(g) And if any other j)erson or persons shall err from the
said church, either let them be admonished, or else their
names taken, to be known who they be that swerve from
the customs of Rome. (9) Thus then as the holy church
of Rome, of which I am governor, is set up to the whole
world for a glass or example, reason would that whatever
the church determines, or ordains, should be received by
all men for a general and a perpetual rule for ever.
(lO)Whereupon we see it now verified in this church, that
was prophesied by Jeremiah, saying, " Behold, I have set
thee up over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to
break down, to build and to plant," &c. (11) Whoso un-
derstands not the prerogative of this my priesthood, let
him look up to the firmament, where he may see two
great lights, the sun and the moon, one ruling over the
day, the other over the night ; so in the firmament of
the universal church, (12) God hath set two great digni-
ties, the authority of the pope, and of the emperor. Of
which two, this our dignity is so much weightier, as we
have the greater charge to give account to God for kings
of the earth, and the laws of men. (13) Wherefore be
it known to you emperors, who know it also right well,
that you depend upon the judgment of us ; we must not
be brought and reduced to your will. (14) For, as I
said, look what difference there is betwixt the sun and
the moon, so great is the power of the pope ruling over
the day, that is, over the spiritualty, above emperors
and kings ruling over the night, that is, over the laity.
(1.5) Now seeing then the earth is seven times bigger than
the moon, and the sun eight times greater than the
earth, it follows that the pope's dignity fifty-six times
doth surmount the estate of the emperors. (16) Upon
consideration of which, I say and pronounce, that Con -
stantine the emperor did naughtily in setting the patri-
arch of Constantinople at his feet on his left hand,
(17) And although the emperor wrote to me, alleging the
word of St. Peter, commanding us to submit ourselves
to every human creature, as to kings, dukes, ajid others
for the cause of God, &c. 1 Pet. ii. Yet in answering
again my decretal, I expounded the mind and the words
of St. Peter to pertain to his subjects, and not to his
successors, commanding the emperor to consider the
person of the speaker, and to whom it ^^as spoken. For
if the mind of Peter had been there to debase the order
of priesthood, and to make us underlings to every human
creature, then every aspirant might have dominion over
prelates, which makes against the example of Christ,
setting up the order of priesthood to bear dominion over
kings, according to the saying of Jeremiah : " Behold, I
have set thee up over kings and nations," &c. (18) And
as I feared not then to write this boldly to Constantine,
so now I say to all other emperors, that they receiving
of me their approbation, unction, consecration, and
crown imperial, must not disdain to submit their heads
under me, and swear to me their allegiance. (19) For so
you read in the decree of Pope John, how that princes
(10) Pope Boniface VIII. Extravag. cap. Unam sanciam. Item.
Pope Joannes XXII. Extravag. cap. Super yetirrs.
(11) Pope Innocent III. art. dc major. & obed. cap. Solitie.
(12) Pope Gelasius, Dist. 96. cup. Dm. (13) Ibidem.
(14) Innocentius de major. & obed. cap. Solitce.
(15) Glossa. Ibidem. (16) Ibidem.
(17) Innocentius. Ibid.
(18) Pope Clement V. Clement de jure jurando. cap. Romani.
(19) Pope Joannes, Dist. 96. cap. Nunqvam.
400
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
heretofore have been wont to bow and submit their heads
unto bishops, and not to proceed in judgment against the
heads of bisliops. (20) If this reverence and submission
was wont to be given to bishops, how much more ought
they to submit their heads to me being superior, not
only to kings, but emperors ? and that for two causes :
first, for my title of succession, that I, pope of Rome,
have to the empire, the room standing vacant ; also for
the fulness of power that Chrst, the King of kings, and
Lord of lords, has given to me, though unworthy, in the
person of Peter: (21)by reason of which, seeing my
power is not of man but of God, who by his celestial
Providence has set me over his whole universal church,
master and governor, it belongeth therefore to my office
to look upon every mortal sin of every christian man :
(22) whereby all criminal offences, as well of kings as all
others be subject to my censure, (23) in such sort, that in
all manner of pleading, if any manner of person at any
time, either before tlie sentence given, or after shall ap-
peal to me, it shall be lawful for him so to do.
(24) Neither must kings and princes think it much to
submit themselves to my judgment, for so did Valenti-
nian, the worthy emperor ; so did Theodosius, and also
Charles. (25) Thus you see all must be judged by me,
and I of no man. Yea, and though I pope of Rome, by
my negligence or evil demeanor, be found unprofitable,
or hurtful, either to myself or others ; yea, if I should
draw with me innumerable souls by heaps to hell, yet
may no mortal man be so hardy, so bold, or so pre-
sumptuous to reprove me, (2*j)or to say to me. Sir,
why do you so ? (27) For although you read that Balaam
was rebuked of his ass, by which ass our subjects, by
Balaam, we prelates are signified ; yet that ought to be
no example to our subjects to rebuke as. (28) And
though we read in the scripture that Peter, who received
power of the kingdom, and being chief of the apostles
might by virtue of his office control all other, was con-
tent to come and give answer before his inferiors, ob-
jecting to him his going to the Gentiles ; yet other in-
feriors must not learn by this example to be checkmate
with their prelates, because that Peter so took it at their
hands, shewing thereby rather a dispensation of humility,
than the power of his office, by which power he might
have said to them again in this wise, it becomes not sheep,
nor belongs to their office to accuse their shepherd ;
(2y)for else why was Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria,
condemned and excommunicated at Chalcedon ? Not
for any cause of his faith, but only for that he durst
stand against Pope Leo, and durst excommunicate the
bishop of Rome ; for who is he that has authority to
accuse the seat of St. Peter ? (30) Although I am not
ignorant what St. Jerome writes, that St. Paul would
not have reprehended St. Peter, unless he had thought
himself equal to him. (31) Yet St. Jerome must thus
be expounded by my interpretation, that this equality
betwixt St. Peter and St. Paul consist not in like office
of dignity, but in pureness of conversation. (32) For
who gave St. Paul his licence to preach but St. Peter ?
(20) Poiie Clement v. Clement (le Sentent. &de rejudi pastoralis.
(21) Piipe Innocent III De judiciis, cup. Novlf. (22; Ibidem.
(2;!) Pcipp Marcellus, Ciius. 2. q. 6. cap. ad lioiimnam.
(24) IniKicent. Novteille.
(25) rsoiiilacius Miirtyr. diet. 40. cap. Si Pupa.
(26) Glos>a Extr. de sede vacant, ad Apostolatus.
(27) Pope Leo, caus. 2. q. 7. cap. Nos.
(28) GreR. 2. q. 7. cap. I'ctrus.
(29) Pope Nicol.ius, Hist. cap. 21. In cantum.
(30) Jer. caita. 2. q. 7. cap. Paulas.
(31 ) GInssa Gratiani. Ih.
(32) Glosaa in Diss. 11. cap. (luis.
(33) Cau3. 2. q. 7. cap. licati.
(34; Pope NicolttiiB, 0ist. 22. Omnes.
(35) Pope Anaclet, Dist. 22. cap. Sacrosanrta.
(30) Pope Pelagius. Dist. 21. cap. Quumvis.
(37) Pope Nicolaus, Dist. 21. cap. Deiiique.
(3(J) PopeSteplien, Di. 29. Eniin vero.
(39) I'ope Uiicius, 24. q. 1. Arect.
(40) Pope Nicolaus, Dist. 22. cap. Omnes.
(41) Pope Gregory, Dist. 81. cap. Si qui.
(42) Pope Leo, caus. 3. q. 62. cap. Multum.
(43) Dist. 20. cap. DccrctuUs.
<ii) Pope Julius, caus. 2. q. 6. qui se.
(45) Causa. 3. q.O. Ar^'uta. Item. cap. Ad Jtottianam. caus. 2.
q. a. cap. Placuit. Glos»a. Gratiani. Nisi.
and that by the authority of God, saying, " Separate to
me Paul and Barnabas," &c. (33) Wherefore be it
known to all men, that my church of Rome is prince and
head of all nations, (.34) the mother of the faith, (35) the
foundation cardinal, whereupon all churches do depend,
as the door depends by the hinges, (36) the first of all
other seats, without all spot or blemish. (37) Lady,
mistress, and instructor of all churches, (38) a glass and
a spectacle to all men, to be followed in all whatsoever
she observes. (39) Which was never found yet to slide
or decline from the path of apostolic tradition, or to be
entangled with any newness of heresy; (40) against
which ciiurch of Rome whoever speaks any evil, is forth-
with an heretic, (41) yea, a very pagan, a witch, and an
idolater or infidel, (42)having fulness of power only in her
own hands in ruling, (43) deciding, absolving, condemn-
ing, casting out, or receiving in. (44) Although 1 deny
not but other churches are partakers with her in labour-
ing and carrying. (45) To which church of Rome it is
lawful to appeal for remedy, from all other churches.
Although it was otherwise concluded in the general
council of Milevitane, that no man should appeal over
the sea under pain of excommunication, yet my gloss
comes in here with an exception : " Except the appeal
be to the see of Rome," &c. (46) By the authority of
which church of Rome all synods and decrees of councils
stand confirmed. (47).\nd hath always full authority
in her hands to make new laws and decreements, and
to alter statutes, privileges, rights, or documents of
churches ; to separate things joined, and to join things
separated upon right consideration, either in whole or in
part, either personally or generally. (48) Of which
church of Rome I am head as a king is over his judges,
(49) the vicar of St. Peter, (50) yea, not the vicar of St.
Peter properly, but the vicar of Christ properly, and suc-
cessor of Peter, (51) vicar of Jesus Christ, (52) rector of
the universal church, director of the Lord's flock,
(53) chief magistrate of the whole world, (54) the head
and chief of the apostolic church, (55) universal pope,
and diocesan in all places exempt, as well as every bisliop
is in places not exempt, (56) most mighty priest,
(57) a living law in the earth, (58) judged to have all laws
in the chest of ,my breast, (5!)j bearing the room of no
pure man, (60) being neither God nor man, but the ad-
miration of the world, and a middle thing b jtwixt both.
(61) Having both swords in my power. Doth of the
Spiritual and Temporal jurisdiction, ((i2)so far sur-
mounting the authority of the emperor, that I of mine
own power alone without a council, have authority to
depose him, or to transfer his kingdom, and to give a
new election, as I did to Frederick and divers other.
(63) What power then or potentate in all the world
is comparable to me, who have authority to bind
and loose both in heaven and in earth ? (64) That
is, who have power both of heavenly things, and also of
temporal things. (65) To whom emperors and kings are
more inferior, than lead is inferior to gold. (66) For do
you not see the necks of great kings and princes bend under
(46) Pope Gelasi. 25. q. 1. cap. Coiifldimus.
(47) Pope Urbanus, 25. q. 1. cap. Sunt. P. Pelagius, 25. q. 2.
cap. Posteaquam.
(48) HuUa Donationis, Dist. 96. cap. Constant.
(49) Pope Pasclialis, Dist. 68. cap. Ego.
(50) Pope Clement V. Clement, cap. liomntti Glossa.
(51) Pope Boniface VIII. Sext. Decret. cap. Ubi.
(52) Ibidem.
(53) Pope Boniface, prohem. Sext. Decret. 1. Sacrosancta.
(54) Anacletus, D. 22. caji. Sacrosiincla.
(55) Pope Boniface IV. Sext. Decret. de poenit. ct rcmls. cap.
5. Glossa. Item Alexander IV. Sext. decret. cap. 4. iu Glossa
(56) Pope Hilaiius,25. q. 1. Nutli.
(o7) Sixt. Decret. cap. Ab Arbitris, Glossa.
(58) Poi)e Boniface Sext. decret. de const, cap. Licet.
(59) Pope Innocent III., de trans, cap. Quanta.
(60) Prohem. Clement. Gloss. Papa Stupor mundi, &c. NecDeiU
es ncc homo, quasi neuter es inter utrumque.
(61) Pope Boniface Kxtrayag. de Majorit et obed. cap. Unam.
Item Dist. 22. cap. Onmcs. '
(62) Sext. Deer, de Scntent. et re. ca. ad. Apostoli. Item is
Glossa, Ibidem.
(63) Pope Nicolaus, Dist. 22, cap. Omnes.
(64) Gloss. Ibidem.
(65) Pope Gelasius, Dist. 96. cap. Duo, '
(66) Pope Gelasius, Ibidem,
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
401
our knep.s, yea and think themselves happy and well de-
fenced, if tliey may kiss our hands ? (67) Wherefore the
gauciness of Honorius the emperor is to be reprehended,
and his constitution abolished, who, with his laity
would take upon him to intermeddle, not only with the
temporal order, but also with matters ecclesiastical, and
the election of the pope. ((i8) But here perchance some will
object, the examples and words of Christ, saying, " That
his kingdom is not of this world," and where he being
required to divide betwixt two brethren their heritage,
did refuse it. But that ought to be no prejudice to my
power. (('>9) For if Peter, and I in Peter, if we, I say,
have power to bind and loose in heaven, how much
more then is it to be thought, that we have power in
earth to loose and to take away empires, kingdoms,
dukedoms, and what else soever mortal men may have,
and to give them where we will ? (70) And if we have
authority over angels, which be the governors of princes,
what then may we do upon their inferiors and servants ?
(71) And that you may not marvel when I say angels are
subject to us, you shall hear what my blessed clerk
Antoninus writes of the matter, saying, " That our
power IS greater than the angels in four things ; — 1. In
jurisdiction, 2. In administration of sacraments, 3. In
knowledge, 4. In reward," &c. (72) And again in Bulla
Clementis, do I not there command in my bull the
angels of paradise, to absolve the soul of man out of
purgatory, and to bring it into the glory of paradise ?
(73) And now besides my heavenly power, to speak of mine
earthly jurisdiction, who did first transfer the empire
from the Greeks to the Germans, but I ? (74) And not
only in the empire am I emperor, the place being empty,
but in all ecclesiastical benefices have fall right and
power to give, to translate, and to dispose after my
arbitrement. (75) Did not I, Zacharias, put down
t Childerick the old king of France, and set up Pepin ?
j (76) Cid not I, Gregory VII. set up Robert Wysard,
j and make him king of Sicily, and duke of Capua ? &c.
. {77) Did not I the same Gregory also set up Rodolph
I against Henry IV. emperor ? (78) And though this
1 Henry was an emperor of most stout courage, who stood
; sixty-two times in open field against his enemies,
; (79) yet did not I, Gregory, bring him before us, and
I make him stand at my gate three days and three nights
j bare-footed and bare- legged, with hiswife and child, in the
I depth of winter, both in frost and snow, intreating for his
I absolution, and afterwards excommunicated him again,
80 that he was twice excommunicated in my days?
i(80) Again, did not I, Pascal, after Gregory, set up the
json of Henry against his father in war, to possess the
jempire, and to put down his father, and so he did ?
|(81) Did not I, Pope Alexander, bring under Henry II.
iking of England, for the death of Thomas Becket, and
icause him to go bare-foot to his tomb at Canterbury
iwith bleeding feet.' (82) Did not I, Innocent III.
cause King John to kneel down at the feet of Pandulph my
legate, and offer up his crown with his own hands ; also to
kiss the feet of Stephen Langton, a bishop of Canter-
bury : and besides, fine him in a thousand marks by the
year? (8:5) Did not I, Urban II., put down Hugo, earl
in Italy, discharging his subjects from their oath and
bbedience to him ? (84) Did not I, Pascal II., excommu-
nicate also his son Henry V., and get out of his bands
all his right and title of elections and donations of
spiritual promotions? Did not I, Gelasius II., bring
the captain of Cintius under, to the kissing of my feet?
And after Gelasius, did not I, Calixtus II., quail the
Emperor Henry V., and also bring in subjection Gre-
gory, whom the emperor had set up against me as pope,
bringing him into Rome upon a camel, his face to the
horie tail, making him to hold the horse tail in his hand
instead of a bridle? (85) Further, did not I, Innocent
II., set up and make Lothaire to be emperor for driving
out Pope Anacletus out of Rome? (8f)) Did not I, the
said Innocent, take the dukedom of Sicily from the
empire, and make Roger king thereof, whereby after-
ward the kingdom became the patrimony of St. Peter?
(87) Did not I, Alexander III., suspend all the realm
and churches of England for the king's marriage
(A. D. 1159)? (88) But what do I speak of kings?
Did not Alexander bring the valiant emperor, Frederick
I., to Venice, by reason of his son Otho there taken
prisoner, and there in St. Mark's church made him fall
down flat upon the ground while I set my foot upon bis
neck, saying the verse of the Psalm, " Thou shall tread
on the adder and the serpent,'' &c. (89) Did not I,
Adrian IV. , pope, an Englishman born, excommunicate the
king of Sicily, and refuse his peace, which be offered ?
And had not he overcome me in plain- field, I would
have shaken him out of his kingdom of Sicily, and
dukedom of Apulia. (90) Also, did not I, Adrian, con-
trol and correct the foresaid Frederic, emperor, for hold^
ing the left stirrup of my horse, when he should have
holden the right? (91) And afterward did not I ex-
communicate and curse him, for he was so saucy to set
his own name in writing before mine ? (92) And al-
though a poor fly afterward overcame and strangled me,.,
yet I made kings and emperors to stoop. (93) Did not
I, Innocent III., cast down Philip, brother to Frederic,
from the imperial crown, being elected without my leave,
and afterwards set him up again ? And also set up
Otho of Brunswick, and afterwards excommunicated
and also deposed the same after four years, setting up the
French king to war against him ? (94) Then was Frederic
II. set up by me, and reigned thirty-seven years ; and yet
five years before he. died he was de-posed. (95) Did not I,
Honorius III., iuterdict him, for not restoring certain to
their possessions at my request ? (96) Whom also
Gregory IX. excommunicated twice together, and raised
up the Venetians against him. (97) And at length Inno-
cent IV. spoiled him of his empire ; after that he caused
him to be poisoned, and at length to be strangled by one
Manfred, and excommunicated bis son Conrad after
him, not only depriving him of his right inheritance, but
also caused him, with Frederic, duke of Austria, to be
beheaded. (98) Thus then, did not I excommunicate
and depose all these emperors in order? Henry IV.,
Henry v., Frederic I., Philip, Otho IV., Frederic II.,
and Conrad his son ? (99) Did not I interdict King
Henry VIII. ? (100) And all his kingdom of England ?
(101) And had not his prudence and power prevented
my practice, I had displaced him from his kingdom also.
Briefly, who is able to com])rehend the greatness of my
power and of my seat? (102) For by me only general
councils take their force and confirmation, (103) and the
interpretation of the councils, and of all other causea-
(67) Di. 96. c.ip. Illud.
(68) Kx citatione Hiero. Marii.
(69) Popp Ilildebrandus, alius Gregorius 7. Ex. Platina, in vita
freEorii.
(70) Hildt'iirandu?, Ibidem.
(71) Anloiiiiiiis in tertia parte Summx majoris.
(72) Bulla Clementis.
(78) Pope Innocent, de electione. cap. VcncrabileTn.
(74) Extrav. de prsebend. fcdij. cap. Execrabilis.
(75) Pope ZaclKirias, Gaus. l."}, q. 6. cap. Alius.
(76) Pope Hildebrand, alias Oregor. 7. Clement, cap. PaiiornZw.
(77) Ex. Gestis Hildebrandi.
(78) Baptista Egnatiiis.
(79) Platina, Bfnno Nauclerus.
(80) Plalina, Epn.itius Benno.
J(81) Polydore Viisil. Historia ornalcnsis de rebus .\nglortim.
1(82) Chronica vcrnaciila.
(«<3) Pope lirbaniis, Cans. 15. q 6. cap. Jvrntos.
(64) Pope Pasclialis Ctusiilanus. Plalina, Vinccntiiis, Stella, An-
Qinus, Mattheus Parisiensis, Pope. Gelasius 2. Poi'c.
(85) Pope Innocentius 2.
(8(1) Nauclerus.
(87) Pope Alexanders, de sponsa!. & matr. cap. Nmi eat.
(88) Nauclerus acta Koin. pontiticuin.
(89) Po^e Adrian, vit. Kom. pontiflcum.
(rO) Ex Aventino.
(91) Bulla Adrian! centra Cte?arem.
(92) Acta Rom. Pont.
(9.'i) Pope Innocentius 8. Ex Vitis & Actls Ronu pontiflcum. Ex
ab Urspe-rg.
(94) Ex eodem.
(95) Pope Honor. 3. Ex. Mario.
(98) Pope Grcj;. 9. Ex codein.
(97) Pope Innocent 4. Hieronymus Marius. Petros de VTueii.
(98) Ex Chronic. Carionis.
(99) Hist. Anglor.
000) Ibidem.
(101) Ibidem.
(102) Pope Marrellus, Dist. 17. cap. SynoJum.
(103; Diit. 20. Decretalea.
S D 2
402
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
hard and doubtful, ought to be referred and stand to my
determination. (104) By me the works of all writers,
whatsoever they be, are either reproved or allowed.
(10,5) Then how much more ought my writings and de-
crees to be preferred before all others ? (106) So that
my letters and epistles decretal be equivalent with the
general councils. (107) And, whereas, God has or-
dained all causes of men to be judged by men, he has
only reserved me, that is, the pope of Rome, without all
question of men, unto his own judgment. (108) And,
therefore, where all other creatures are under their
judge, only I, who in earth am the judge of all, can be
judged of none, either of emperor, nor the whole clergy,
nor of kings, nor of the people. (109) For who has
power to judge upon his judge ? (110) This judge am I,
and that alone, without any other resistance of any
council joined to me. For I have power upon councils ;
councils have no power upon me. But if the council
determine amiss, it is in my authority alone to infringe
it, or to condemn whom I list without any council.
(Ill) And all for the pre-eminence of my predecessor
blessed St. Peter, which, by the voice of the Lord, he
received, and ever shall retain. (11 '2) Furthermore,
and whereas all other sentences and judgments, both of
councils, person or persons, may and ought to be ex-
amined, (IK?) fo'r that they may be corrupted four ways,
by fear, by gifts, by hatred, by favour, only my sentence
and judgment must stand, (114) as given out of heaven
by the mouth of Peter himself, which no man must
(ll5) break or retract, (116) no man must dispute or
doubt of. (117) Yea, if my judgment, statute, or yoke
seem scarcely tolerable, yet for remembrance of St.
Peter it must be humbly obeyed. (118) Yea, and more-
over, obedience is to be given, not only to such decrees
set forth by me in time of my popedom, but also to such
as I do foresee and commit to writing before I be pope.
(119) And although it be thought by some writers, to be
given to all men to err, and to be deceived, (120) yet
neither am I a pure man. (121) And again, the sen-
tence of my apostolic seat is always conceived with such
moderation, is concocted and digested with such patience
and ripeness, and delivered out with such gravity and
deliberation, that nothing is thought in it necessary to
be altered or detracted. (122) Wherefore, it is mani-
fest, and testified by the voice of holy bishops, that the
dignity of this my seat is to be reverenced through the
whole world, in that all the faithful submit themselves
to it as to the head of the whole body ; (123) whereof it
is spoken to me by the prophet, speaking of the ark ; if
this be humbled, whither shall you run for succour, and
where shall your glory become ? Seeing then this is so,
that so holy bishops and scriptures do witness with me,
what shall we say then to such as will take upon them to
judge of my doings, to reprehend my proceedings, or to
require homage and tribute of me to whom all other are
subject? (124) Against the first sort the scripture
speaks, "Thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neigh-
bour's standing corn." Which thing to attempt against
me, what is it but plain sacrilege? (125) According to
my canonists, who thus define sacrilege to consist in
three things; either when a man judges of his princes'
judgment ; or when the holy-day is profaned ; or when
reverence is not given to laws and canons. (126)
(104) Pope Nicolaus, Dist. 19. cap. Si Romanorum.
(105) Ihififin.
(10(5) Dist, 20. Decretales.
'107) Symm:icUiis I'ope, 0. q. 3. cap. AUorum.
C108) Pope Innocentiuin 6. q. 3. cap. Nemo.
(109) IhiJem.
(110) Pope Gelasius, 9. q. 3. cap. CuTic'.a.
(111) IbMem.
ni2) Anastasius Patriarch. Dist. q. 3. cap. Antiquis.
(II.')) Pope GreR. a. q 3. cap. Q««'.
(114) Pope Au'atho, Dist. 19. cap. Sic onincx.
(Hi)) Pope Nicholas, 9. q. 3. Patet.
(IIG) Pope Innocent. 2. .\rt. 17. q. 4. cap. St quis.
(117) Dist. 19. cap. In nieinoriaw.
(115) Sext. Decret. T. 7. De rcnunc. Quoniam Glossa.
(119) Offlc. lib. 1.
(120/ Glossii Extra. Do verb, si^nif. cap. Arl.
(121) Pope Grep;. Cans. 35. q. 9. cap. Apostoliccs.
(122) Pope Syinmachus. Caus. 9. q. 3. cap. AUorum.
(123) Ibidem.
Against the second sort makes the place of the book of
Kings, where we read the ark of God was brought from
Gaza to Jerusalem, and in the way the ark inclining by
reason of the unruly o.^en, Ussah the Levite put forth hi»
hand to help, and therefore was stricken of the Lord^
By this ark is signified the prelates ; by the inclination
thereof, the fall of prelates, (127) who also are signified
by the angels that Jacob saw going up and coming
down the ladder : (128) also, by the prophet where he
saith, " He bowed down the heavens and came down,"
&c. By Ussah and by the unruly oxen are meant our
subjects, (129) Then, like as Ussah was sti-icken for
putting his hand to the ark inclining, no more must
subjects rebuke their prelates going awry. (I.'IO) Al-
though here it may be answered again, that all are not
prelates who are so called ; for it is not the name that
makes a bishop, but his life. (131) Against the third
sort of such as would bring us under the tribute and ex-
actions of secular men, makes the New Testament,
where Peter was bid to give the groat in the fish's
mouth, but not the head nor the body of the fish; no
more is the head or body of the church subdued to
kings, but only that which is in the mouth, that is, the
external things of the church. And yet not they
neither. (132) For so we read in the book of Genesis,
that Pharaoh, in time of dearth, subdued all the land ol
the Egyptians, but yet he ministered to the priests, so
that he took neither their possessions from them, nor
their liberty. If then prelates of the church must be
neither judged, nor reprehended, nor exacted, how
much more ought I to be free from the same, (133) who
am the bishop of bishops, and head of prelates ?
(134) For it is not to be thought that the case between
me and other prelates ; between my see and other
churches, be like, (135) although the whole catholic and
a])ostolic church make one bride-chamber of Christ ; yet
the catholic and apostolic church of Rome had the pre-
emience given over all other by the mouth of the Lord
himself, saying to Peter, " Thou art Peter," &c. (136)
Thus a discrepance and difference must be had in the
church as it was betwixt Aaron and his children ;
(137) betwixt the seventy-two disciples, and the twelve
apostles; betwixt the other apostles and Peter. (138)
Wherefore it is to be concluded, that there must be an
order and difference of degrees in the church between
power, superior and inferior ; without which order the
universality of the whole cannot consist. (139) For, as
among the angelical creatures above in heaven, there is
set a difference and inequality of powers and orders,
some be angels, some archangels, some cherubims, and
seraphims: (140) so in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the
church militant in the earth, priests must not be equal
with bishops, bishops must not be like in order with
archbishops, with patriarchs or primates, (141) who
contain under them three archbishops, as a king con-
tains three dukes under him. In which number of pa-
triarchs comes in the state of (142) cardinals or princi-
pals, so called, because as the door turneth by his
hinges, so the universal church ought to be ruled by
them. (143) The next and highest order above these is
mine, who am pope, differing in power and majority,
and honour reverential, from these and all otiier de-
grees of men. (144) For the better declaration of
(124) Pope Greg. 0. p. 3. rap. Scriptum est.
(125) Caus. 17. q. 4. Sacrile.:;. Glossa.
(12U) 2. q. 7. cap. Plcerumque. Glosseina Criitiaiii. Ilein.
(127) IbiHein.
(128) Ibidem.
(129) Ibidem.
(130 i Ibidem. His ita.
(131) Pope Urbanus 23. q. cap. T rihiUuni.
(132) Ibidem. Qiiamv|<i.
(1.13) Pope Benodict. Kxtr. De aut. k. usiipallii. cap. SaiiCt.it
(134) Pope Stt'phanus. Dist. 19. Enimvero.
(135) Po|je Pelaicus, Di<t. 21. cap. t^uaiacis.
(130) Dist. 2 1, cap. Vernt.s.
(137) Po])e .'Inaclet. Dist.22. caft. In vovo.
(138) Pope Uunifacius et Greg. Dist. 8'J. cap. Ad lice.
(139) Ibidem.
(140) Dist. 89. cap. Sifi/julri.
(141) Kx citatione Biildiere. 5. sen. 3.
(142) Deotticio .-irchipre-b.vt. in Glossa. (liS)
044) Ex. 3. parte Sumina- niajoris b. .^ntonini.
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
403
which, my canonists make three kinds of power in
earth; immediate, which is mine immediately from God;
derived, which belongelh to other inferior prelates from
me; (145) ministerial, belonging to emperors and princes
to minister for me. For which ciuise the anointing of
princes, and my consecration differ ; for they are
anointed only in the arms or shoulders, and I in the
head, to signify the difference of power betwixt princes
and me. (146) This order, therefore, of priests, bishops,
archbishops, patriarchs, and others, as a thing most con-
venient, my church of Rome has set and instituted
through all churches, following therein, not only the ex-
ample of the angelical army in heaven, but also of
the apostles. (147) For among tl»eni also there was
not an uniform equality or institution of one degree,
(148) but a diversity or distinction of authority and
power. Although they were all apostles together, yet
it was granted notwithstanding to Peter (themselves
also agreeing to the same) that he should bear dominion
and superiority over all the other apostles. (149) And
therefore he had his name given him Cephas, that is,
head or beginning of the a]iostleship. (150) Whereupon
the order of priesthood first in the New Testament began
in Peter, to whom it was said, Thou art Peter, and
upon thee I will build my church. (151) And I will
give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and thou
being converted confirm thy brethren. (152) I have
prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail. Wherefore
seeing such power is given to Peter, (153) and to me in
Peter, being his successor; (154) who is he then in
all the world that ought not to be subject to my decrees
I who have such power in heaven, in hell, in earth, with
the qiiick and also the dead ? (155) Commanding and
granting in my bull sent to Vienna, to all such as died
in their pilgrimage to Rome, that the pain of hell should
not touch them ; and also that all such as took the holy
cross upon them should every one at his request, not
I only be delivered himself, but also deliver three or four
I souls, whoever he would, out of purgatory. (156) Again,
] having such promise and assurance that my faith shall
I not fail, who then will not believe my doctrine ? For
I did not Christ himself first pray for Peter that his faith
should not fail ? (15") Also have I not a sure promise
I of Paul's own mouth, writing to my church by these
I words, "God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit,
in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make
•I mention of you always in my prayers ?" Rom. i. 9. (158)
I WTierefore as I condemn worthily all who will not obey
my decrees, to be dispossessed of all their honour with-
I out restitution, (159) so all they that believe not my
doctrine, or stand against the privilege of the church,
especially the church of Rome, I pronounce themheretics.
(160) And as the other before is to be called unjust, so
this man is to be called a heretic. (161) For why ? he
goes against the faith who goes against her who is the
mother of faith. (162) But here may rise perhaps a
doubt or scruple, that if my faith and knowledge stand
so sure by the promise of Christ, and by the continual
i prayer of Saint Paul, whether is it true, or is it to be
granted, that any other should excel me in knowlege,
or interpretation of holy scripture ? (16.'5)Forsee whose
knowledge is grounded on most reason, his words should
(145) Pope Innocent 3. De sacra unctione, Qui venisset.
(1-16) Pope Nicholaus, Dist. 22. cap. Omnex.
(147) Pope Clement, Dist. 80. cap. In ilUs.
(148) Pope Anacletus, Dist. 22. ca\i. Sacrosaneta.
(149) Ibidem. Quasi vero Petrus non a Petra sed Ki(pag utto
Trjc KCipdXriQ. ducatur.
(150) Dist. 21. cap. In novo.
(151) Ibidem.
(152) Diet. 21. cap. Dccrctis.
(153) Pope Leo, dist. 19. cap. Ita Dominus.
(154) Pope Nicbolaus in tantum, dist. 22.
(155) Pope Clemens in Bulla Viennte in scriniis privilegiorum.
(150) Dist. 21. cap. Dccrrtis.
(157) Pope -inacletus, dist. 22. cap. Sacrosancto. Scripture well
applied, and like a clerk.
(158) I'ope Damasus, 25. q. cap. Omnia. Item Pope Greg. Dist.
19. cap. Null.
(159 Pope Nicholaus Dist 22. cap. Omnes,
(leo) Ibidem.
(161) Ibidem.
seem to be of more authority. (164) Whereto I answer
and grant, that many there are who have been more
abundantly endowed with fuller grace of the Holy Ghost
and greater excellency of knowledge ; and therefore that
tlie writings of Augustine, Jerome, and others ought to
be preferred before the constitutions of some popes ; yet
I say in determination of causes, because they have
not the virtue and height of that authority which is
given to me, therefore in expounding of scriptures they
are to be preferred, but in deciding of maUers, they stand
inferior to my authority. By virtue of which autho-
rity, (165) they themselves are allowed for doctors,
and their works approved, but all other matters are
ruled, through the power of the keys which were
given to me immediately by Christ. Although I deny
not but the same keys are also committed to othet
prelates, as they were to other apostles besides Peter.
(166) Yet it is one thing to have the keys, and ano-
ther thing to have the use of the keys. (167) ^\'here-
fore here is to be noted a distinction of keys, after
the mind of my school doctors ; one key which is
called the key of order, having authority to bind and
loose, but not over the pL?rsons whom they bind and
loose, and this authority they take not immediately
of Christ, but mediately by me the vicar of Christ. The
other key is called the key of jurisdiction, which I the
vicar of Christ take immediately of him, having not only
authority to bind and loose, but also dominion over them
on whom this key is exercised. By the jurisdiction ot
which key the fulness of my power is so great, that
whereas all other are subjects; (168)yea and empeiors
themselves ought to subdue their executions to me ; only
I am subject to no creature, (169) no not to myself ex-
cept I list, in foro prsnit entice, to my ghostly father sub-
mitting myself as a sinner, but not as pope. So that mv
papal majesty ever remains unpunished. Superior to all
men, (170)whomall persons ought to obey, ( 171 ) and
follow, (172) whom no man must judge nor accuse of any
crime, either of murder, adultery, simony, or such like.
(17o) No man depose, but I myself; (174)No man can
excommunicate me, yea though I communicate vfith the
excommunicate, for no canon bindeth me. Whom no
man must lie to, (175) for he that lies to me is a church
robber, (176) and who obeys not me is an heretic, and
an excommunicated person. (177) For as all the Jews
were commanded to obey the high priest of the Levitical
order, of what state and condition soever they were, so
are all christian men more and less bound to obey me
Christ's lieutenant on earth. Concerning the obedience
or disobedience of whom ye have in Deut. xni.
(178) Where the common gloss saith, that he who de-
nieth to the high priest obedience, lies under the sen-
tence and condemnation, as much as he that denies to
God his omnipotence. Thus then it appears, that the
greatness of my priesthood (179) began in Melchisedeck,
was solemnized in Aaron, continued in the children of
Aaron, perfected in Christ, represented in Peter, exalted
in the universal jurisdiction, and manifested in Silvester,
&c. So that through t'liis pre-eminence of my priesthood,
having all things subject to me, (160) it may seem well
verified in me that which was spoken of Christ, Pssdm viii.
"Thou hast put all things under his feet ; all sheep and
(1G2) Dist. 20 cap. DecretaUs.
(1U3) Ibidem.
(164) Ibidem.
(165) Dist 19. cap. Si Koinn.ivtvn
(166) Gabriel Biel, lib. 4. Dist. li>.
(167) Petru< de Paiude.
(1(18) Di'.t. 95. cap. Imperator,
(109) Gabriel, lib. 4. Dist. 19.
(170) Pope Nicholaus, Dist. can. *"" Ilrt'naiioruii),\n GloBSa.
(171) Iteui 24. q. 1. llitc est. '
(172) Dist. 40. cap. 5( I'l.'j.u-.
(173) 2 q. 7. No< si in Glossa.
(174) Extrava:;. de ele. t. lunotuit.
(175) De Panitmlia, Dist. 1. cip. SerjJtms, in Gloss? ,
(176) Dist. 19. cad. NvUi.
(177) August de Ancho.
(178) Glu>sa Ordinar.
(179) Antoninus.
(180) .\ntoninus, Summa majoris, 8. paxt. Di8t. iij.
404
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HLMSELF, ETC.
and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowls of the
air, and the fish of the sea," vVc. (181) Where is to be
noted, that by oxen, Jews, and heretics, by beasts of the
field. Pagans be signified. For altliough as yet they be
out of the use of my keys of binding and loosing, yet they
be not out of the jurisdiction of my keys, but if they re-
turn I may absolve them. (ISJ) liy sheep and all cattle
are meant all christian men both great and less, whether
they be emperors, princes, prelates, or others. By fowls
of the air you may understand the angels and potentates of
heaven, who will be all subject to me, in that I am greater
than the angels ; and that in four tilings, as is before de-
clared; and in having power to bind and loose in heaven,
(18;i)and to give heaven to them that fight in my wars.
(184) Lastly, by the fishes of the sea, are signified the
souls departed in pain or in purgatory, as Gregory by
Lis prayer delivered the soul of Trajan out of hell, and 1
have power to deliver out of purgatory whom 1 please.
(18.5) Lastly, by the fishes of the sea are signified such as
are in purgatory ; so that they stand in need and neces-
sity of other men's help, and yet are in their journey.
Passengers belonging to the court of the pope, therefore
they may be relieved out of the storehouse of the church,
by the participation of indulgence. And forasmuch as
6ome object that my pardons cannot extend to them that
are departed, for thai it was said to Peter, " Whatsoever
thou shalt loose upon earth ;" and therefore seeing they
are not upon earth, they cannot be loosed by me. Here
I answer again by my doctors, that this word, " Upon the
earth," may be explained in two manner of ways ; first,
to him that is the looser, so that he who shall loose shall
be upon the earth ; and so I grant that the ])ope being
dead, can loose no man. Also it may be referred to him
that is loosed, so that whoever is loosed must be upon
the earth, or about the earth ; and so the souls in pur-
gatory may be loosed, who, altliough they are not upon
the earth, yet they are a'uout the earth, at least they are
not in heaven. And because oftentimes one question
may rise upon another, and the heads of men now-a-days
are curious, a man hearing now that I can deliver out of
purgatory, will ask here a question, whether I am able
also to empty all purgatory at once, or not ? to whom
my canonist answers by a trijjle distinction : Touching
my absolute jurisdiction, he saith, I am able to rid
out all purgatory together, for as many as be under
my jurisdiction, as all be, except only infants un-
baptized, in limbo, and men departed only with the
baptism of the Spirit, and such as have no frjends to
do for them that for which my pardons are given ;
these only excepted. For all other besides, the pope,
he saith, has power to release all purgatory at once,
as touching his absolute jurisdiction. Although Thomas
Aquinas (part 4), denies the same, forsomuch as
Christ himself, he saith, when he came down, did not
utterly at once release all purgatory. As touching my
ordinary execution they hold, that I may if I will, but I
ought not to do it. Thirdly, as concerning the divine
acceptation, that is, how God would accept it if I did it,
that, they say, is unknown to them, and to every crea-
ture, yea, and to the pope himself.
And to the intent I would all men to see and understand
that I lack not witnesses more besides these, if 1 list to
bring them out, you shall hear the whole quire of my
divine clergy brought out, with a full voice testifying in
my behalf in their books, transactions, distinctions, titles,
glosses, and summaries, as by their own words here
follows. The pope, say they, being the vicar of Jesus
Christ through the whole world, is in the stead of the living
God, has that dominion and lordship which Christ here
in earth would not have, although he had it in habit, but
gave it to Peter in act, that is, the universal jurisdiction
both of spiritual things and also of temporal, which
double jurisdiction was signified by the two swords in the
gospel, and also by the ofl'ering of the wise men, who
offered not only incense, but also gold, to signify not only
(1811 Antoninus, Summa tnajoris 3. osrt. Dist. 23.
(182) Ibidem.
(183) '23. q. cap. Omnium.
the spiritual dominion, but also the temporal, to belong
to Christ and to his vicar. For as we read, " The earth
is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" as Christ saith,
" All power is given to him both in heaven and earth :''
so it is to be affirmed inclusive, that the vicar of Christ
hith power of things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal.
Whi('h he took immediately of Christ ; all others take
it immediately by Peter and the pojie. Wherefore such
as say that the pope has dominion only in spiritual things
in the world, and not of temporal, may be likened to the
councillors of the kings of Syria (.1 Reg. 20), which
said " That the gods of the mountains be their gods, and
therefore they have overcome us ; but let us fight against
them in the low meadows, and in valleys where they
have no power, and so we shall prevail over them." So
evil councillors now-a-days, through their pestiferous flat-
tery, deceive kings and princes of the earth, saying popes
and prelates are gods of mountains, that is, of sj)iritual
things only ; but they are not gods of valleys, that is,
they have no dominion over temporal things, and there-
fore let us fight with them in the valleys, that is, in the
power of the temporal possessions, and so we shall pre-
vail over them. But what saith the sentence of God to
them, let us hear. Because, sai^h he, " the Syrians say
that the god of mountains is their god, and not the god
of valleys, therefore I will give all this multitude into
your hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." What
can be more eHectually spoken to set forth the majesty
of my jurisdiction, which I received immediately of the
Lord ; of the Lord, I say, and of no man. For whereas
Constantine the emperor gave to Silvester this possession
and patrimony ; that is so to be expounded and taken
not so much for a donation, as to be counted for a resti-
tution made of that which tyrannously was taken from
him before. And again, whereas 1 have given at sundry
times to Lewis the other emperors, of my temporal lands
and possessions, yet that was done not so much for any
recognising of homage to them, as for keeping peace
with tb.em. For I owe to emperors no due obedience
that they can claim, but they owe to me as to their su-
perior. And therefore for a diversity betwixt their de-
gree and mine, in their consecration they take the
unction on their arm, and I on the head. And as I am
superior to them, so I am superior to all laws, and
free from all constitutions. Who am able of myself,
and by my interpretation, to prefer equity not being
written before the law written ; having all laws within
the chest of my breast, as is aforesaid. And whatsoever
this my see shall enact, a])prove, or disapprove, all men
ought to approve or reprove the same, without either
judging, disputing, doubting, or retracting. Such is the
privilege given of Christ, in the behalf of Peter, to the
church of Rome, (18(i)that what country soever, kingdom
or province, choosing to themselves bishops and minis-
ters, although they agree vi'ith all other Christ's faithful
people in the name of Jesus, that is, in faith and charity,
believing in the same God, and in Christ his true Son,
and in the Holy Ghost, having also the same creed ; the
same evangelists and scriptures of the apostles : yet un-
less their bishops and ministers take their origin and or-
dination from this apostolic seat, they are to be counted
not of the church. So that succession of faith only is
not suflncient to make a church, except their ministers
take their ordination by them who have their succession
from the apostles. So their faith, supremacy, the cliair
of Peter, keys of heaven, power to bind and loose, all
these are inseparable from the clnu'ch of Rome : so that
it is to be presumed, that God always providing, and
St. Peter helping the bishoprick and diocese of Rome,
it shall never fall from the faith. And likewise it is to
be presumed and presupposed that the bishop of that
church is good and always holy. Yea, and though he
be not always good, or be destitute of his own merits,
yet the merits of St. Peter, predecessor of that i)lH.'e,
are sufficient for him, who has bequeathed and leita
(184) Idem, Antoninus, ibid.
(185) Ibidem.
(186) Joan Driedo. Ve dogmatibus varils, 1. 4.
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC
405
perpetual dowry of merits, with inheritance of inno-
cency, to his posterity, (187) yea, though he fall into
homicide or adultery, he may sin, but yet he cannot be
accused, but rather is excused by the murders of Sam-
son, the thefts of the Hebrews, the adultery of Jacob.
(188) Furthermore, the pope, say they, has all the digni-
ties, and all power of all patriarchs. In his primacy, he
is Abel ; in government, the ark of Noah ; in patriarch-
dom, Abraham ; in order, Melchisedec ; iu dignity,
Aaron ; in authority, Moses ; in seat judicial, Samuel ;
in zeal, Elias ; in meekness, David ; in power. Peter ;
in unction, Christ. My power, they say, is greater than
all the saints. For whom I confirm, no man may infirm :
I may favour and spare whom I please, (181)) to take from
one and to give to another. And if I am an enemy to
any man, all men ought to eschew that person forthwith,
and not tarry and look while 1 bid them so to do. All
the earth is my diocese, and I the ordinary of ail men,
having the authority of the king of all kings upon sub-
jects. I am all in all, and above all, (190) so that God
himself, and I the vicar of God, have both one consis-
tory, (191) and I am able to do almost all that God can
do. (192) It is said of me, that have an heavenly arbi-
trator, and therefore am able to change the nature of
things, and of nothing to make things to be, and of a
sentence that is nothing to make it stand in effect ; in
all things that I list my will is to stand for reason. For
I am able by the law to dispense above the law, and of
wrong to make justice, in correcting laws and changing
them. You have heard hitherto sufficiently out of my
doctors. Now you shall hear greater things out of mine
own decrees. {l9'.i)Re3id there Dist. 96. Satis. (194)
Also 12 Cans. 11. q. 1. cap. Sacerdotibus. (195) Also
12. q. I. cap. Futuram. Do you not find there expressed
how Constantine the emperor sitting in the general council
of Nice, called us prelates of the church, all gods .' (196)
Again, read my canon. Decretal. De transl. Episc. cap.
Quanta. Do you not see there manifestly expressed, how
not man, but God alone separates that which the bishop
of Rome dissolves and separates ? Wherefore if those
things that I do be said to be done not of man, but of
God ; what can you make me but God .'' Again, if pre-
lates of the church be called and counted of Constantine
for gods, I then being above all prelates seem by this
reason to be above all gods. Wherefore no marvel, if
it be in my power to change time and times, to alter and
abrogate laws, to dispense with all things, yea, with the
precepts of Christ. For where Christ bids St. Peter
put up his sword, admonishing his disciples not to use
any outward force in revenging themselves ; (197) do
not I, Pope Nicolas, writing to the bishops of France,
exhort them to draw out their material swords in pursu-
ing theirenemies, and recovering their possessions? Where
Christ was present himself at the marriage in Cana of
Galilee, (198) do not 1, Poi)e Martin, in my distinction
inhibit the spiritual clergy to be present at marriage
feasts, and also to marry themselves .' Where matrimony
by Christ cannot be loosed but only for adultery, (199)
do not I, Pope Gregory, writing to Boniface, permit the
same to be broken for infirmity of body .' (200) Against
the express caution of the gospel, does not Innocent IV.
permit to repel force by force .' (201) Likewise against
the Old Testament I do dispense in not giving tithes.
(202) Against the New Testament in swearing. (20;5)
Wherein two kinds of oaths are to be noted. Whereof
6ome promissory, some be assertions, &c. (204) In
(187) Hufro, in glossa, dist. 40 cap Nnn Not.
(188) Glosp. in cans. 12. q. 3. cap. Ab.sis.
(189) Gloss, in c II. q. 3. cap Si iitimlcus.
(190) Hostiensis in cap (pianto lie frrinsl. pneb,
(191) Ex siimnia casMuin fratris Baptistoe.
(192) Ex Citations Hcnr Bulling, de fine Seculi, Orat. Prima.
(193) Tope Nicolaus, Di§t.96. cup. Satis.
(104) 11 q. II. cap. Sticrddtibiis.
(195) 12 q. I. cap. Fuliinnh.
(I9C) Decretal. De transl. Episc. cap. Qiimito,
(197) l'o])e Nicolaus, Causa 15. q. 6. cap. Autlioritatein.
(198) I'ope Martin, Dist. 14. cap. Lector.
(199) PopeGrep. Junior, 32. q. 7. cap. Quod proposnisfi.
(800) Pope Innocent 4. Sext. Decret. de sententia excom, cap.
Oilecto.
vows, and that ex toto voto, whereas other prelates can-
not dispense e.v toto a voto, I can deliver ex toto a
voto, like God himself. (205) In perjury if I absolve
my absolution stands. (206) Where also note, that in
all swearing always the authority of the superior is ex-
cepted. (207) Moreover, where Christ bids us to lend
without hope of gain, do not I, Pope Martin, give dis-
pensation for the same ? and notwithstanding the coun-
cil of Turin enacted the contrary, yet with two bulls I
disannulled that decree. (208) What should I speak of
murder, making it no murder nor homicide to slay them
that are cxconminni<!ated. (209) Likewise against the
law of nature. (210) Against the apostle. (211) Also
against the canons of the ajiostles I can and do dispense.
For where they in their canon command a priest for for-
nication to be deposed, I through the authority of Sil-
vester do alter the rigour of that constitution, (212) con-
sidering the minds and bodies al.so of men now to be
weaker than they were then. (213) Briefly, against the
universal state of the church I have dispensation. And
for marriage in the second degree of consanguinity and
affinity between the brother's children, so that the uncle
may not marry his niece, unless for an urgent and
weighty cause. As for all such contracts betwixt party
and party, wliere matrimony is not yet consummated, it
is but a small matter for me to dispense withall. In short,
if ye list briefly to hear the whole number of all such
cases as properly appertain to my papal dispensation,
which come to the number of one and fifty points, that
no man may meddle withal but only I myself alone, I
will recite them in English, as they be set forth in my
canonical doctors.
Cases papal, to the number of one and fftij, wherein the
Pope hath power only to dispense, and none else be-
sides, except by special licence from him.
Determination of doubts and questions belonging to fait'h.
Translation of a bishop, elected or confirmed; likewise
of abbots exempted.
Deposition of bishops.
The taking of resignation of bishops.
Exemptions of bishops, not to be under archbishops.
Restitution of such as are deposed from their order.
The judicial definition or interpretation of his own pri-
vileges.
Changing of bishoprics, or dismissal of convents, &c.
New correction of bishops' seats, or institution of new
religions.
Subjection or division of one bi.=hopric under another.
Dispensation for vowing to go to the Holy Land.
Dispensation for the vow of chastity, or of religion, or
of holy orders.
Dispensation against a lawful oath, or vow made.
Dispensation against divers irregularities, as in crimes
greater than adultery, and in such as are suspended
for simony.
Dispensation in receiving into orders him that had two
wives.
Dispensing with such as being within orders do that
which is above their order, as if a deacon should say
mass, being not yet priest.
To receive into order such as are blemished or maimed
in body.
Dispensation with murder, or with such as willingly cut
off any member of man's body.
(201) Pope Alexander 3. De decimis, cap E.r parte.
(202) Pope Nicolaus, 15. q. fi. cap. Aiitoritiilctn.
(203) De elect. & e ect. ])otestate. Sisniticasti, in Glossa.
(204) Baptista de Saliu in Sninina casuum ex Panorniitano.
(205) Pope Innocent 4. De elect Vencrabilem.
(206) K.xt De Jurejurando cap. Ycainites, Item Dist. de Elect,
Significusti in Glossa.
(207) Pope Martinus 5. Extra, cap. Hctjiiiiini Universnlis Bc-
clcsifp.
(208) Pope Urhanus 2 Cans. 2S. q. 3. cap. E.rromtiiunicatoruitt,
(209) Pope Nicolaus, cau9. 15. q. 6. cap. Autoritatem.
(.ilO) Ihidem.
(211) Dist. 82. I. cap. Prrshi/tcr.
(212) Pope Pclasius Dist. 34 cap. Fratrrnitatis.
(213) Baptista de Salis, fol. 114 Ibidem.
406
THE IMAGE OF ANTICHRIST EXALTING HIMSELF, ETC.
Dispensation to give orders to such as have been under
the sentence of the greater curse or excommunica-
tion.
Dispensation with such as being suspended with the
greater curse do minister in any holy order.
Dispensation with such as be unlawfully born to receive
orders or benefices.
Dispensation for pluralities of benefices.
Dispensation to make a man bishop before he be thirty
years old.
Dispensation to give orders under age.
The pope only hath power to make and call a general
council.
The pope alone has power to deprive an ecclesias-
tical person, and give away his benefice being not
vacant.
The pope alone is able to absolve him that is excommu-
nicated by name.
The ])ope only is able to absolve him whom his legate
excommunicates.
The pope both judges in the causes of them that appeal
unto him, and where he judges, none may appeal
from him.
He only has authority to make deacon and priest, whom
he made subdeacon, either upon Sundays, or upon
other feasts.
Only the pope, and none else, at all times, and in all
places, wears the pall.
The pope only dispenses with a man, either being not
within orders, or being unworthy to be made
bishop.
He only either confirms or deposes the emperor when he
is chosen.
A man being excommunicated, and his absolution re-
ferred to the pope, none may absolve that man but
the pope alone.
The same hath authority in any election, before it be
made, to pronounce it one, when it is made.
He canonizes saints, and none else but he.
Dispensation to have many dignities and personages in
one church, and without charge and cure of soul, be-
longs only to the pope.
To make that effectual which is of no effect, and con-
trariwise, belongs only to the pope.
To pluck a monk out of his cloister both against his own
will and the abbot's, pertains only to the pope.
His sentence makes a law.
The same day in which the pope is consecrated, he may
give orders.
He dispenses in degrees in consanguinity and affinity.
He is able to abolish laws, qitoad uirumque forum, that
is, both civil and canon, where danger is of the
soul.
It is in his dispensation to give general indulgences to
certain places or persons.
To legitimate what persons soever he please, as touch-
ing spiritualties, in all places, as touching temporal-
ties, as honors, inheritance, &c.
To erect new religions, to approve or reprove rules or
ordinances, and ceremonies in the church.
He is able to dispense with all the precepts and statutes
of the church.
(214) Dist. 90 Const;intinus.
(gl.")) lix Coiiinientiiriis 'I'lieoderici Nienij, quem cit;it Illvricus
In CatulO'.'o tcstiiim, fol. 228.
(2l(i) Dist. 06 ('(jiistiintiiius.
(817) Autoiiinus. In ^Dmina maJTe, 8 part.
To dispense and to discharge any subject from the bond
of allegiance, or oath made to any manner of person.
No man may accuse him of any crime, except of heresy
and not even that, except he be incorrigible.
The same is also free from all laws, so that he cannot
incur into any sentence of excommunication, suspen-
sion, irregularity, or into the penalty of any crime,
but in the note of crime he may well.
Finally, he by his dispensation may grant, yea, to a
simple priest, to minister the sacrament of confirma-
tion to infants, also to give lower orders, and to hal-
low churches and virgins, &c.
These be the cases wherein I only have power to dis-
pense, and no man else, neither bishop, nor metropo-
htan, nor legate, without a licence from me.
After that I have now sufficiently declared my power
in earth, in heaven, and in purgatory, how great it is, and
what is the fulness thereof, in binding, loosing, com-
manding, permitting, electing, confirming, deposing,
dispensing, doing and undoing, &c., I will treat now a
little of my riches likewise, and great possessions, that
every man may see by my wealth and abundance of all
things, rents, tithes, tributes, my silks, my purple
mitres, crowns, gold, silver, pearls and gems, lands
and lordships, how God here prospers and magnifies his
vicar on the earth. For to me pertains first the impe-
rial city of Rome, the palace of Lateran, the kingdom of
Sicily is proper to me, Apulia and Capua be mine.
Also the kingdom of England and Ireland, are they not,
or ought they not to be tributaries to me.' (214)To
these I adjoin also, besides other provinces and coun-
tries, both in the west and the east, from the north to
the south, these dominions by name ; (215) as Ravenna,
Corsica, Naples, &c. &c. &c. with divers other more,
(21(i) which Constantine the emperor gave unto me, not
that they were not mine before he gave them. (217)
For in that I took them of him, I took them not as a
gift but as a restitution. And that I rendered them again
to Otho, I did it not for any duty to him, but only for
peace sake. What should I speak here of my daily re-
venues of my first fruits, annats, palls, indulgences, bulls,
confessionals, indults and rescripts, testaments, dispen-
sations, privileges, elections, prebends, religious houses,
and such like, which come to no small mass of money .'
Insomuch, that for one pall to the archbishop of Mentz,
which was wont to be given for ten thousand (218)
florins, now it is grown to twenty-seven thousand florins,
which I received of James, the archbishop, not long be-
fore Basil council ; besides the fruits of other bishoprics
in Germany, coming to the number of fifty, whereby what
advantage comes to my coffers, may partly be conjec-
tured. But what should I speak of Germany, (219)
when the whole world is my diocese, as my canonists do
say, and all men are bound to believe, (220) except they
will imagine (as the Manichseans do) two beginnings,
which is false and heretical ? For Moses saith, " In the
beginning God made heaven and earth," and not in the
beginnings. (221) Wherefore as I begun, so I conclude,
commanding, declaring, and pronouncing, to stand upon
necessity of salvation, for every human creature to be
subject to nie.
(218) Ex li'>. Or.i noiiiiniuii nationU GeriiiaiiiciE. — Above fifty
bis!i()|irics in Gcnnniiy. /Kni';is Sylvius.
(219) Sent. Derict. l)e drilis, ( ap. l-'elicis, in Glossn. Item <1«
privili'sii^s, c::p A'ttiiri ii'nii, in Olnssn
(2'.0) l\)i)t Uuiiiiucius 8 Eslr. de Majo. & obed. cip Viuvif
tatac (iciil) Ibideoi.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK VII.
BEGINNING WITH
THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.
King Henry VII. died in the year 1509, and had by-
Elizabeth his wife four sons, and as many daughters.
Three only survived, to wit, Prince Henry, Lady Mar-
garet, and Lady Mary : of whom King Henry the
Eighth succeeded his father ; Lady Margaret was mar-
ried to James IV., king of Scotland ; and Lady Mary
was affianced to Charles king of Castile.
Not long before the death of King Henry VIL,
Prince Arthur his eldest son espoused Lady Catherine
daughter to Ferdinand, when fifteen years of age, and
she was about the age of seventeen ; shortly after this
marriage, within five months he died at Ludlow, and
was buried at Worcester. After his decense, the succes-
sion to the crown fell to King Henry Vlll., who at the
age of eighteen years, commenced his reign A.D. 1509,
and shortly after married Catherine, the widow of his
late brother Prince Arthur, in order that her dowry
■which was great, should not be transported out of the
land. For this marriage, which was more politic than
scriptural, he received a dispensation from Pope Julius,
at the request of Ferdinand her father. The reign of
this king continued with great nobleness and fame the
space of thirty-eight years. During his time there was
great alteration of things, in the civil state of the realm,
and especially in the ecclesiastical state, and in matters
appertaining to the church. For by him the usurped
power of the bishop of Rome was exiled and abolished
out of the realm, idolatry and superstition somewhat re-
pressed, images defaced, pilgrimages abolished, abbeys
and monasteries , pulled down, monkish orders rooted
out, the scriptures translated into the vernacular tongue,
and the state of the church and religion redressed.
Concerning all which things, we will endeavour (Christ
willing) to discourse particularly and in order, after we
first touch on a few matters, which are to be noted in
the beginning of his reign.
Thi'U first comes to our hands a turbulent tragedy,
and a fierce contention which had long before troubled
the church, and now was renewed afresh in this present
year 1509, between two orders of begging-friars, to wit,
the Dominican and the Franciscan fiiars, about the con
ception of the Virgin Mary the mother of Christ.
Tlie Franciscans held of St. Francis, and followed the
rule of his testament, commonly cilled gray-friary or
minorifes. Their opinion was this, that tlie Virgin
Mary, prevented by the grace of the Holy Ghost, was so
sanctified, that she was never subject one moment in her
conception to original sin. The Dominican friars hold-
ing of Dominick, were commonly called llach-friars, or
preaching -friars. Their opinion was this, that the
Virgin Mary was conceived as all other children of
Adam ; so that this privilege only belongs to Christ, to
be conceived without original sin : notwithstanding, the
blessed Virgin was sanctified in her mother's womb, and
purged from her original sin, as was also John the Baptist,
Jeremiah, or any other privileged person. This frivolous
question kindling and engendering between these two
orders of friars, burst out into such a flame, that it oc-
cupied the heads and wits, schools and universities, al-
most through the whole church ; some holding one part
with Scotus, some the other part with Thomas Aquinas.
The Minorites holding with Scotus their master, dis-
puted and concluded, that she was conceived without all
spot or stain of original sin ; and thereupon caused the
feast and service of the Conception of St. Mary the
Virgin to be celebrated and solemnized in the church.
On the other hand the Dominican friars taking part with
Aquinas, preached, that it was heresy to affirm that
the blessed Virgin was conceived without the guilt of
original sin ; and that they who celebrated the feast of
her conception, or said any masses in honour of it, did
sin grievously and mortally.
At the time when this fantasy waxed hot in the
church, one side preaching against the other. Pope
Sixtus the Fourth, A. D. 1476, who joining side with
the Minorites or Franciscans, first sent forth his decree
by authority apostolic, willing, ordaining, and com-
manding all men in holy church for evermore to solem-
nize this new-found feast of the Conception : offering to
all men and women, who devoutly frequenting the
church, would hear mass and service from the first even-
song of the feast, to the octaves of the same, as many
days of pardon, as Pope Urban IV. and Pope Martin
V. granted for hearing the service of Corpus Christ!
day. And this decree was given and dated at Rome,
A.D. 1476.
Moreover, the pope, in order that the devotion of the
people might be the more encouraged in the celebration
of this feast of the conception, added a new clause to
the Ave Maria, granting great indulgence and release of
sins to all such as would invocate the blessed Virgin with
the addition, saying thus : " Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Ivord is witli tliee, blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ ; and
blessed is Anna thy mother, of wliom thy virgin's flesh
hath proceeded without blot of original sin. Amen."
4U8
DISSENSION BETWEEN THE DOMINICAN AND GRAY-FRIARS.
[Book VII.
"WTierein the reader many note for his learning
three things : first, how the pope turns that im-
properly into a ])rayer, which was sent by God for a
message or tidings. Secondly, how the pope adds to
the words of the scripture, contrary to the express pre-
cept of the Lord. Thirdly, how the pope exempts
Mary the blessed Virgin, not only from the seed of
Abraham and Adam, but also from the condition of a
mortal creature. For if there be in her no original gin,
then she bears not the image of Adam, neither does she
descend of that seed, of whose seed evil proceeds upon
all men and women to condemnation, as St. Paul
teaches, Rom. v. 14 — 1(). Wherefore if she descend of
that seed, then the infection of original evil must ne-
cessarily proceed to her. If she descend not thereof,
then she comes not of the seed of Abraham, nor of the
seed of David, &c. Again, seeing that death is the
effect and wages of sin, by the doctrine of St. Paul,
Rom. vi. 2'A, then she would not have had to suffer the
curse and punishment of death, and so should never
have died, if original sin had no place in her. But to
return to our history : this constitution of the pope
being set forth for the feast of the Conception of the
blessed Virgin, A. D. 147(), it was not long after that
Pope Sixtus, perceiving that the Dominican friars with
their accomplices would not conform thereto, directed
forth, by the authority apostolical, a bull in effect as
follows :
" Whereas, the holy church of Rome liath ordained a
special and proper service for the public solemnization
of the feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin
Mary ; certain orders of the Black Friars in their public
sermons to the people in divers ])laces, have not ceased
liitherto to preach, and yet daily do, that all they who
hold or affirm the glorious Virgin to have been conceived
without original sin, be heretics ; and they who celebrate
the service of her conception, or do hear the sermons of
them who so affirm, do sin grievously : also not con-
tented herewith, do write and set forth books, maintain-
ing their assertions to the great offence and ruin of godly
minds. We, therefore, to prevent and withstand such
presumptuous and perverse assertions which have risen,
and more hereafter may arise, by such opinions and
preachings, in the minds of the faithful; by the au-
thority apostolical, do condemn and reprove the same ;
and by the motion, knowledge, and authority aforesaid,
decree and ordain. That the preachers of God's word,
and ail other persons, of what state, degree, order, or
condition soever they be, who shall presume to dare af-
firm or preach to the people these oj)inions and asser-
tions to be true, or shall read, hold, or maintain any
such books for true, having before intelligence hereof,
shall incur thereby the sentence of excommunication,
from which they shall not be absolved otherwise than by
the bishop of Rome, except only in the time of death."
This bull, being dated A. D. 148.T, gave no little heart
and encouragement to the Gray- Friars Franciscans, who
defended the immaculate conception of the holy Virgin
against the Black Dominican Friars, holding the con-
trary side. By the authority of this bull, the Gray
Order had got such a concniest over tlie Black Order of
the Dominicans, that the Dominicans were compelled at
length, for a perpetual memorial of the triumph, both to
give to the glorious Virgin every night an anthem in
praise of her conception, and also to subscribe to their
doctrine ; in which doctrine these, with other points, are
contained.
1. That the blessed Virgin Mary suffered the griefs
and adversities in this life, not for any necessity inflicted
for punishment of original sin, but only because she
would conform herself to the imitation of Christ.
2. That the Virgin, as she was not obliged to any
punishment due for sin, as neither was Christ her son ;
so slie had no need of remission of sins, but instead
thereof had the divine preservation of God's help, keep-
ing her from all sin, which was the only good she
needed, and she had it.
3. That though the body of the Virgin Mary was sub-
ject to death, and died ; this is to be understood to come
not for any penalty due for sin, but either for iniitatioii
of and conformity to Christ, or else for the natural con-
stitution of her body, being elemental, as were the
bodies of our first parents : who, if they had not tasted
of the forbidden fruit, would have been preserved tVom
death, not by nature, but by grace, and the strtngth of
other fruits and meats in paradise : which meats, be-
cause Mary had not, but did eat our common nuiits-
theref'ore she died, and not for any utcedsity of originjj
sin.
4. The universal proposition of St. Paul, who saith,
" That the scripture hath concluded all mm undfr sin,"
is to be understood thus, as speaking of all t^.t-m who
are not exempted by the special privilege of God, as is
the blessed Virgin Mary.
5. If justification be taken for reconciliation of him
that was unrighteous before, and now is made righteous:
then the blessed Virgin is to be taken, not as justified
by Christ, but just from her beginning by preser-
vation.
fi. If a Saviour be taken for him which saves men
fallen into perdition and condemnation ; then Clirist is
not the Saviour of Mary, but is her Saviour only in this
respect, as saving her from not falling into condemna-
tion, &c.
7. Neither did the Virgin Mary give thanks to God,
nor ought to do so, for expiation of her sins, but for her
preservation from sinning.
8. Neither did she pray to God at any time for remis-
sion ©f her sins, but only for the remission of other
men's sins she prayed many times, and counted their
sins for hers.
9. If the blessed Virgin had died before the passion of
her Son, God would have reposed her soul not in the
place among the patriarchs, or among the just, but in
the same most pleasant place of paradise where Adam
and Eve were before they transgressed.
These were the doting dreams and fantasies of the
Franciscans, and of other papists, then commonly held
in the schools, written in their books, preached in their
sermons, taught in their churches, and set forth in pic-
tures. So that the people was taught nothing else al-
most in the pulpits all this while, but how the Virgin
Mary was conceived immaculate and holy, without ori-
ginal sin, and how they ought to call to her for help,
addressing her with special titles as " The way of mercy,
— The mother of grace, — The lover of piety, — The com-
forter of mankind, — The continual intercessor for the
salvation of the faithful, and an advocate to the King her
Son, who never ceases,'' &c. And although the greatest
number of the school-doctors were of the contrary fac-
tion, as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard,
Bonaventure, and others : yet these new papists shifted
off their objections with frivolous distinctions and blind
evasions.
The Dominican Friars, for t"..eir part, were not all
silent, having great authorities, and also the scripture
on their side. But yet the others having the apostolical
see with them, had the better hand, and got the victory
triumphantly, to the high exaltation of their order. For
Pope Sixtus, by the authority apostolic, after he had de-
creed the conception-day of the Virgin to be sanctified
perpetually, and also with his terrible bull had con-
demned for heretics all who withstood the same ; the
Dominican friars were driven to two inconveniences : the
one was, to keep silence ; the other was, to give place to
their adversaries the Franciscans. Although, where the
mouth durst not speak, yet the heart would work ; and
though their tongues were tied, yet their good-will was
ready by all means possible to maintain their quarrel
and their estimation.
It happened in this year, 1509, after this dissension
between the Dominican and the Franciscan Friars, that
certain of the Dominicans, thinking, by subtle sleight,
to work in the people's heads that which they durst not
attempt by open preaching, devised a certain image of
the Virgin made so artificially, that the friars by private
springs made it move, make gestures, lament, complain,
weep, groan, and give answers to those that asked it ;
A.D. 1509.]
PERSECUTIONS BY THE BISHOP OF LONDON.
409
I BO that the people were brought into a marvellous per-
suasion, till at length the fraud being detected, the
friars were taken, condemned, and burnt at Berne in the
year above-mentioned, 1509.
In the history of John Stumsius, this story partly ap-
pears : but in the registers and records of the city of
Berne, the order and circumstance is more fully ex-
pressed and set forth, and is thus declared.
In the city of Berne there were certain Dominican
friars, to the number chiefly of four principal actors and
chiefs of that order, who had inveigled a certain simple
poor friar, who had newly planted himself in the cloister:
when the friars had so infatuated him witli sundry
superstitions, and feigned apparitions of St. Mary, St.
Barbara, and St. Katherine, and imjirinted, moreover,
in him the wounds of St. Francis, he believed fully, that
the Virgin Mary liad appeared to him, and had offered
him a red host consecrated with the blood also of
Christ miraculously, that the blessed Virgin also had sent
him to the senators of Berne, with instructions, declar-
ing to them from the mouth of the Virgin, " That she was
conceived in sin ; and that the Franciscan Friars were
not to be credited nor suffered in the city, who were not
yet reformed from that erroneous opinion of her con-
ception." He added, moreover, "That they should re-
sort to a certain image there of the Virgin Mary, (which
image the friars by engines had made to weep) and
should do their worship, and make their oblations to the
same."
This feigned device was no sooner forged by the friars,
but it was believed by the people ; so that a great while
the red-coloured host was undoubtedly taken for the
true body and blood of Christ, and certain coloured
drops of it sent abroad to noble personages and states
for a great relic, and that too not without considerable
cost in return. Thus the deceived people came flocking
in {Treat numbers to the image, and to the red host, and
coloured blood, with many gifts and oblations. In
short, the Dominican friars so had managed the matter,
and had so swept all offerings to their own order from
the order of the Franciscans, that all the alms came to
their box. The Franciscans seeing their reputation de-
caying, and their kitchen waxing cold, and their coffers
becoming emjity, not able to abide that misery, and
being not ignorant or unacquainted with such counter-
feited doings, (for, as the proverb saith, " It is all halting
before a crip))le,") soon discovered the crafty juggling,
and detected the fraudulent miracles of the Dominicans.
Whereupon the four chief leaders above-named were ap-
prehended and burned, of whom the provincial of the
order was one.
And thus much touching the beginning and end of this
tumultuous and popish tragedy, wherein it may evidently
appear to the reader, how these turbulent friars could
not agree among themselves, and in what frivolous
trifles they wrangled together. But to let these ridicu-
lous friars pass with their trifling phantasies, which de-
serve to be derided by all wise men : this is, in the
mean time, to be lamented, to behold the miserable
times of the church, in which the devil kept the minds
of C iirist's people so attentive and occupied in such
friarly toys, that scarcely any tiling was taught or heard
in the church, but the commendalion and exaltation of
the Virgin Mary : but of our justification by faith, of
grace, and of the promises of God in Christ, of the
strength of the law, of the horror of sin, of the differ-
ence between the law and the gospel, of the true liberty
of conscience, &c. little mention was made. Wherefore,
in so blind a time of darkness it was very needful and
requisite, that the Lord of his mercy should look upon
his church, and send down his gracious reformation,
which he did. For shortly after, through God's gra-
cious raising him up, came Martin Luther, of whom the
order of history now requires that we should treat, and
«e will do so (Christ willing) after the history of
Richard Hunne, and a few other things premised, for
the better opening of the history to follow.
Mention was made before of the doings of Pope
Julius II., and of his warlike affairs, for which he was
condemned, and not unjustly, in the council of Tours in
France, (A. D. 1510,) and yet all this could not assuage
the furious spirit of tliis pope, but tlie same vi-ar he in-
vaded the city of Mutina and Mirandula, in Italy, and
took them by force of war. Pope Julius, not long after,
in the year 1512, refusing the peace offered by Maximi-
lian the emperor, was encountered by Lewis the French
king about llaveniia, upon Easter-day, where he was
vanquished, and had of his army slain to the number of
sixteen thousand. And the year following, (A. D. ir)lS,)
this apostolic warrior, who had resigned hi.s keys to the
river Tiber before, made an end togetlier both of his
fighting and living, after he had reigned and fought ten
years. After him succeeded next in the see of Rome,
Pope Leo X. ; al)out this time great changes began to
work, as well in the temporal states, as in the state of
the church. At which time the following potentates
were reigning in their several kingdoms : —
Boean to reicrn. Reicned.
Pope Leo X. in Rome, — — A. D. 15i;5, 9 years.
Charles V., emperor of Germany, A. D. 1519, .'^.9
Francis I., king of France, — A. D. 1515, .32
Henry VIII. , king of England, A. D. 1509, 38 •
James V., king of Scotland, — A. D. 1513, 29
In the time of the above mentioned potentates, great
alterations, troubles, and changes of religion were
wrought in the church, by the mighty operation of God's
hand, in Italy, France, Germany, Kngland, and all
Europe ; such as have not been seen (although much
groaned for) many hundred years before : as in the
course of this history shall more manifestly appear.
But before we come to these alterations, taking the
time as it lies before us, we will first speak of Richard
Hunne, and certain other godly-minded persons here in
England, who were afflicted for the word of Christ's
gospel in great multitudes, as they be found and taken
out of the registers of Fitzjames, bishop of London.
The History of some good Men and Women, n-ho were
persecuted for Religion in the City and Diocese of the
Bishop of London; briefly etiracted out of the Re-
gisters of Richard Fitzjamei.
Beside the great number of the faithful martyrs and
professors of Christ, that constantly, in the strength of
the Holy Ghost, gave their lives for the testimony of his
truth, I find recorded in the register of London, between
the years 1509 and 1517, the names of many persons,
both men and women, who, in the fulness of that dark
and misty time of ignorance had also some portion of
God's good Spirit, which induced them to the know-
ledge ot his truth and gospel, and were troubled, perse-
cuted, and inijirisoned for the same : notwithstanding,
by the proud, cruel, and bloody rage of the Romish see,
and through the weakness and frailty of their own
nature, (not then fully strengthened in God) they were
for the time suppressed and kept under, as a])pears by
their several abjurations made before Richard Fitzjames,
then bishop of London, who was a most cruel persecutor
of Christ's church, or else before his vicar-general de-
puted for that purpose. And, as many of the adver-
saries of God's truth have of late days disdainfully and
braggingly cried out, and demanded in their public as-
semblies, asking, " Where was this your church and re-
ligion fifty or sixty years ago?" I have thought it not
altogether vain, somewhat to stop such questioners, both
by mentioning the names of those who suffered for the
truth of this religion, and likewise opening some of the
chief and principal matters for which they were so un-
mercifully afflicted : thereby to make known the con-
tinuance and consent of the true church of Christ in
that age, touching the chief points of our faith, and also
to shew what fond and frivolous matters the ignorant
prelates in that time of blindness, were not ashamed to
object against the poor and simple people, accounting
them as heinous and great offences, yea, such as de-
served death both of body and soul.
They were forty in number who were persecuted in
410
PERSECUTIONS IN THE DIOCESE OF LONDON.
[Book VII.
the time between the years 1510 and 1527; and here
follows the particular examination of them all.
There were several particular articles (besides the
common and general sort used in such cases) privately
objected, such as they were accused of either by their
curate, or their neighbours. And as I think it super-
fluous to make any large recital of all and every part of
their several processes, I purpose therefore only to touch
briefly on so many of the articles as may be sufficient to in-
duce the christian reader to judge the sooner of the rest.
The chief objection against Joan Baker was, that she
would not only herself not reverence the crucifix, but
Lad also persuaded a friend of hers lying at the point of
death, not to put any trust or confidence in the crucifix,
but in God who is in heaven, and not in the dead
images, which are but stocks and stones, and therefore
she was sorry that ever she had gone so often on pil-
grimage to St. Saviour and other idols. Also, that she
held that the pope had no power to give pardons, and
that the Lady Young (who was not long before that
time burned) died a true martyr of God, and therefore
she wished of God that she herself might do no worse
than the Lady Young had done.
Against William Pottier, besides other false and slan-
derous articles (as that lie denied the benefit and effect
of Christ's passion) it was alleged, that he affirmed there
were six Gods : the first three were the holy Trinity, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; the fourth was a
priest's concubine being kept in his chamber ; the fifth
was the devil ; and the sixth, that thing that a man sets
his mind most upon.
The first part of this article he utterly denied, con-
fessing most firmly and truly, the blessed Trinity to be
only one God in one unity of deity. As to the other
three he answered, that a priest delighting in his con-
cubine made her as his god ; likewise a wicked person,
persisting in his sin without repentance, made the devil
his god ; and lastly, he granted, that he once heard of
certain men, who by the singing and chattering of birds
superstitiously sought to know what things were to hap-
pen either to themselves or others, said, that those men
esteemed their birds as gods.
Among the artides objected against Thomas Goodred,
Thomas Walker, Thomas Forge, Alice Forge, John
Forge, John Calverton, John Woodrof, Richard Wool-
man, and Roger Hilliar, (as that they spoke against
pilgrimages, praying to saints, and such like) this was
principally charged against them, that they all denied
the carnal and corporal presence of Christ's body and
blood in the sacrament of the altar ; and further, had
concealed and consented to their teachers and instruc-
tors in that doctrine, and had not, according to the
laws of the church, accused and presented them to the
bishop or his ordinary. Also great and heinous dis-
pleasure was conceived against Richard Woolman, be-
cause he called the church of St. Paul a house of thieves,
affirming, that the priests and other ecclesiastical per-
sons there were not liberal givers to the poor (as they
ought) but rather were takers away from them what they
could get.
Likewise as Thomas Austy, Joan Austy, Thomas
Grant, John Garter, Christopher Ravins, Dyonise
Ravins, Thomas Vincent, Lewis John, Joan John, and
John Web, were of one fellowship and profession of
faith with those before recited, so they were almost all
apprehended about one time, and chiefly charged with
one opinion of the sacrament. Which declares evi-
dently, that notwithstanding the dark ignorance of those
corrupted times, yet God did ever in mercy open the
eyes of some to behold the manifest truth, even in those
things of which the papists now make the greatest vaunt,
and boast of long continuance. Many of them were
charged with having spoken against pilgrimages, and
having read and used certain English books opposing
the faitli of the Romish church, as the four Gospels,
WicklitTs Wicket, a Book of the Ten Commandments of
Almighty God, the Revelation of St. John, the Epistles
of St. Paul and St. James, with others, which those
Romish divines could never abide : and good cause why,
for as darkness could never agree with light, no more
can ignorance, the maintainer of that kingdom, with the
true knowledge of Christ and his gospel.
It was further objected against Joan John, the wife of
Lewis John, that she learned and maintained, that God
commanded no holy-days to be kept, but only the sab-
bath-day, and therefore she would keep none but it ; nor
any fasting- days, affirming, that to abstain from sin was
the true fast. That she had despised the pope, his par-
dons and pilgrimages, so that when anj' poor body asked
an alms of her in the name and for the sake of the lady
of Walsingham, (i. e. the image of the Virgin Mary at
Walsingham,) she would answer in contempt of the pil-
grimage, " The lady of Walsingham help thee !" and
if she gave anything to him, she would then say, " Take
this in the name of our lady in heaven, and let the
other go." Which shews, that for lack of better in-
struction and knowledge, she yet ignorantly attributed
too much honour to the true saints of God departed,
though othervvise she abhorred the idolatrous worship-
ping of the dead images. By which example, as also
by many others, I have just occasion to condemn the
wilful subtlety of those, that in this bright shining light
of God's truth, would yet, under colour of godly remem-
brance, still maintain the having of images in the
church, craftily excusing their idolatrous kneeling and
praying to them, by affirming, that they never worship,
ped the dead images, but the things that the images re-
presented. But if that were their only doctrine and
cause of having those images, why then would their pre-
decessors so cruelly compel these poor simple people
thus openly in their recantations to abjure and revoke
their speaking against the gross adoration of the out-
ward images only, and not against the thing represented,
which many of tliem (as appears partly by this example)
in their ignorant simplicity confessed might be worship,
ped ? However, God be thanked, their hypocritical ex-
cuses cannot now have such place in the hearts of the
elect of God as they have done heretofore, especially
seeing the word of God so manifestly forbids as well the
worshipping of them, as the making or having them for
purposes of religion.
It was alleged against William Cowper, and Alice
Cowper his wife, that they had spoken against pil-
grimages, and worshipping of images ; but chiefly the
woman, who having her child hurt by falling into a pit
or ditch, and earnestly persuaded by some of her igno-
rant neighbours to go on pilgrimage to St. Lawrence for
help to her child, said, that neither St. Lawrence, nor
any other saint could help her child, and therefore none
ought to go on pilgrimage to any image made with man's
hands, but only to Almighty God ; for pilgrimages
were indeed nothing worth, except to make the priests
rich.
To John Houshold, Robert Rascal, and Elizabeth
Stamford, the article against the sacrament of the altar
was objected, as also that they had spoken against pray-
ing to saints, and had despised the authority of the
bishop of Rome, and of his clergy ; but especially John
Houshold was charged with having called them anti-
christs, and the pope himself *' the great whore," who
with his pardons had drowned in blindness all christian
realms for money.
Also among other articles against George Browne,
these were counted very heinous and heretical. First,
that he had said, that he knew no cause why the cross
should be worshipped, seeing that the same was the cause
of pain to our Saviour Christ in the time of his passion,
and not any ease or jjleasure to him ; alleging for exam-
ple, that if he had had a friend hanged or drowned he
would never after have loved that gallows or water by
which his friend died. Another objection was, that he
had erroneously, obstinately, and maliciously said (for
so are their words), that the church was too rich. This
matter, 1 may tell you, touched somewhat the quick,
A.D. loll.]
PERSECUTIONS IN THE DIOCESE OF LONDON.
411
and therefore no marvel tliat they counted it erroneous
and malicious ; for take away their gain, and farewell to
their religion. They also charged him with having re-
fused holy water to be cast about his chamber, and like-
wise with having spoken against priests.
The greatest matter with which they charged John
Wikes, was, that he had often and for a long time kept
company with persons suspected of heresy, and had re-
ceived them into bis house, and there did hear them
read erroneous and heretical books, contrary to the faith
of the Romish church ; and did also himself consent to their
doctrine, and had many times secretly conveyed them
away from such as were appointed to apprehend them.
John Southake, Richard Butler, John Sam, AVilliam
King, Robert Durdant, and Henry Woolman, were
charged with speaking words against the literal and car-
nal presence of Christ's body in the sacrament of the
altar, and also against images, and the rest of the seven
sacraments. They charged them with the reading of
certain English heretical books, naming most blasphe-
mously the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the four evange-
lists, to be of that number, as appears evidently by the
eighth article objected by Thomas Bennet, doctor of
law, chancellor and vicar-general to Richard Fitzjames,
then bishop of London, against Richard Butler, the
very words of which article, for a more declaration of
truth, I have thought good here to insert, which are
these : — " Also we object to you, that divers times,
and especially upon a certain night, about the space of
three years last past, in Robert Durdant's house of
Iver Court, near unto Staines, you erroneously and
damnably read in a great book of heresy of the said
Robert Durdant's, all that same night, certain chapters
of the gospels in English, containing in them divers
erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of
heresy, in the presence of the said Robert Durdant,
John Butler, Robert Carder, Jenkin Butler, William
King, and divers other suspected persons of heresy, then
being present, and hearing your said erroneous lectures
and opinions." To the same effect and purpose tended
some of the articles propounded against the other four ;
whereby we may easily judge what reverence they, who
yet desire to be counted the true and only church of
Christ, bow to the word and gospel of Christ, when
they are not ashamed to blaspheme it with most horri-
ble titles of erroneous and damnable opinions and con-
clusions of heresy. But why should we marvel at this,
when the Holy Ghost in several places of the scripture
declares, that in the latter days there should come such
proud and cursed talkers, who shall speak lies through
hypocrisy, and have their consciences seared with an
hot iron ? Let us, therefore, now thank our heavenly
Father for revealing them to us ; and let us also pray
him, that of his free mercy in his Son Christ Jesus, he
would, if it be to his glory, either turn and soften all their
hearts, or else, for the peace and quietness of his church
he would in his righteous judgment take them from us.
About this time Richard Fitzjames ended his life,
after whose death Cuthbert Tonstall (afterwards bishop
of Durham), succeeded in the see and bishopric of Lon-
don, who soon upon his first entry into the room, mind-
[ ing to follow rightly the footsteps of his predecessor,
caused Edmund Spilman, priest, Henry Chambers,
j John Higgins, and Thomas Eglestone to be appre-
hended, and so to be examined upon articles ; and in the
I end, either for fear of . iS ::rut ty and che r ig n r of
j death, or else through ft. pe of < is ilatterng proa.ises
I (such was their weakness), he compelled them to ab-
IJure and renounce their true professed faith touching
i the holy sacrament of Christ's body and blood, which
I was, that Christ's corporal body was not in the sacra-
, ment, but in heaven ; and that the sacrament was a
I figure of his body, and not the body itself.
i^Iore.over, about the same time there were certain
articles objected against John Higges, alias Noke, alias
Johnson, by the bishop's vicar-general, among which
were these : — First, that he had affirmed, that it was as
lawful for a temporal man to have two wives at once, ai
for a priest to have two benefices. Also, that he had in
his custody a book of the four evangelists in English,
and often read therein ; and that he favoured the doc-
trines and opinions of Martin Luther, openly pronounc-
ing, that Luther had more learning in his little finger
than all the doctors in England in their whole bodies ;
and that all the priests in the churc'li were blind, and
had led the people the wrong way. Likewise it was
alleged against him, that he had denied purgatory, and
had said, that while he was alive he would do as much
for himself as he could, for after his death he thought
that prayers and ahnsdeeds could little help him.
With these and such like matters these poor and sim-
ple men and women were chiefly charged, and were ex-
communicated and imprisoned as heinous heretics, and
at last compelled to recant ; and some of them in utter
shame and reproach, besides the ordinary bearing of
fagots before the cross in procession, or else at a ser-
mon, were enjoined for a penance (as they termed it) to
appear once every year before their ordinary, as also to
wear the sign of a fagot painted upon their sleeves, or
other part of their outward garment, during all their
lives, or so often and long as it pleased their ordinary to
appoint. By which long, rigorous, and open punishing
of them, they meant utterly to terrify and keep back all
others from the true knowledge of Jesus Christ and his
gospel. But the Lord be evermore praised, what little
eft'ect their wicked purposes had, these our most light-
some days of God's glorious gospel most joyfully declare.
Besides these, others more simple and ignorant were
also troubled, who having but a very small taste of the
truth, did yet at first gladly consent to the same ; but being
apprehended, they quickly again yielded, and therefore
had only assigned them for their penance, the bearing of
a little candle before the cross, without any further open
abjuring or recanting. Among whom 1 find two especially ;
the one a woman, called Ellen Heyer, to whom it was
objected, that she had neither confessed herself to the
priest, nor yet received the sacrament of the altar for
the space of four years, and had every year eateu flesh at
Easter.
The other was a man named Robert Berkeway, who
(besides most wicked blasphemies against God, which he
utterly denied) was charged to have spoken heinous
words against the pope's holy and blessed martyr,
Thomas Becket, calling him thief, for that he wrought
by crafts and imaginations.
Thus have 1, as briefly as I could, summarily collected
the principal articles objected against these weak and
infirm earthly vessels ; not meaning hereby either to ex-
cuse or condemn them in these their fearful falls and
dangerous defections, but leaving them to the immea-
surable rich mercies of the Lord, I wish only to make
manifest the insatiable bloody cruelty of the pope's king-
dom against the gospel and true church of Christ, for
nothing would mitigate their envious rage, which they
showed even against the very simple idiots, and that
sometimes in most frivolous and irreligious cases. But
now leaving them, 1 will (by God's grace) go forward
with other more serious matters.
The Death and Martyrdoyn of William Sweeting and
John Brewster.
In searching and perusing the register, for the collec-
tion of the names and articles before recited, 1 find that
within the compass of the san.e years there were also
some others, who after they had once shewed themselves
as frail and inconstant as the rest, (being either pricked
in conscience, or otherwise overcome with the manifest
truth of God's most sacred word) became yet again as
earnest professors of Christ as they were before, and for
the same profession were the second time apprehended,
examined, condemned, and in the end were most cruelly
burned. Of which number were William Sweeting and
John Brewster, who were both burned together in Smith-
field the eighteenth day of October, A.D. 1511. The
chief case alleged against them in their articles, was their
412
THE PERSECUTION OF RICHARD HUNNE.
[Book VII.
faith concerning the sacrament of Christ's body and blood,
which because it dirt'ered from tlie absurd and gross
opinion of the new schoolmen, was counted as the most
heinous heresv. There were otlier things besides ob-
jected a:;-unst "them, as the reading of certain forbidden
books, and accompanying with sucli persons as were sus-
pected of heresy. But one great and heinous offence
counted amongst the rest, was their putting and leaving
off tlie piiiited fagots, wiiich they were at theiV first ab •
juring enjoined to wear as badges during their lives, or
so long as it should please their ordinary to appoint,
and not to leave them off upon pain of relapse, until
they were dispensed with for the same. The breach
of tliis injunction was esteemed to be of no small weight,
and yet, the matter well and thorougldy considered, it seems
by their confessions, tliat they were by necessity forced
to it. For Sweeting being, for fear of the bishop's
cruelty constrained to wander about the country to get
his living, came at length to Colchester, where he was
appointed by the parson of the parish of Magdalen to
be the holy water clerk, and in that consideration
had that infamous badge taken away from him. Brew-
ster left off his at the command of the controller of
the Earl of Oxford's house, who hiring the poor
man to labour in the earl's household business,
would not suffer him to wear that badge any longer.
So that necessity of living compelled both of them to
break that injunction : and tlierefore if charity had borne
as great sway in the hearts of the pope's clergy as did
cruelty, this trifle would not have been so heinously
taken as to be brought against them for an article and
a cause of condemnation to death. But where tyranny
once takes place, all godly love, and all human reason
and duties are quite forgotten. But to be brief, for
these causes, as also because they had already once
abjured, and yet as they termed it fallen again into
relapse, they were both together burned in Smithfield ;
although, as the register records, they again, before
their death fearfully forsook their revived constancy, and
submitting themselves to the discipline of the Romish
church, craved absolution. However, as many of the
registers' notes and records in such cases may well be
doubted, I refer the knowledge thereof to the Lord, who
is the trier of all truths. Not forgetting, however, if
the report be true, to charge that priesthood and their
^ wicked laws, with a more shameless tyranny and unchari-
table cruelty than before ; for if they cease their bloody
malice towards such as so willingly submit themselves to
their mercies, what favour may the faithful and constant
professors of Christ look for at their hands ? I might
here also ask of them, how they follow the pitiful and
loving admonition, or rather precept, of our Saviour
Christ (whose true and only church they so stoutly boast
to be), who says, " If thy brother trespass against
thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day
turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive
him." (Luke xvii. 4.)
John Browne, father to Richard Browne, which Richard
was in prison in Canterburi/, and would have been
hvmed with two more, the day after the death of
Queen Man/, but by the proclaiming of Queen Eliza-
beth theij escaped.
The occasion of the first trouble of this John Browne,
•was by a priest sitting in a Gravesend barge. John Browne,
being at the same time in the barge, came and sate hard
by him ; after some communication, the i)riest asked
him, "Dost thou know," said he, "who I am.' thou
sittest too near me, thou sittest on my clothes ;" " No,
Sir," said he, " 1 know not what you are." " I tell thee
I am a priest." " What, sir, are you a parson, or vicar,
or a lady's chaplain .''' " No," quoth he again, " I am a
soul-priest, I sing for a soul,'' saith he. " Do you so,
sir," quoth the other, "that is well done; 1 pray you
sir," quoth he, " where find you the soul when you go to
mass?" " 1 cannot tell thee," said the priest. "I
pray you, where do you leave it. Sir, when the mass is
done ?" " I cannot tell thee," said the priest. " Nei-
ther can you tell where you find it when you go to mass
nor where you leave it when the mass is done, how cau
you then save the soul ?" said he. " Go thy ways," said
he; " thou art an heretic, and I will be even with thee."
.So at the landing, the priest taking with him Walter
More, and William More, rode straightways to the
Archbishop Warhain, whereupon John Browne, within
three days after, his wife being churched the same day,
and he bringing in a mess of pottage to the table to his
guests, was sent for, and his feet bound under his own
horse, and so brought to Canterbury, neither his wife
nor he, nor any of his, knowing where he was taken ;
and there continuing from Low-sunday till the Friday
before Whitsunday, his wife not knowing all this whila
where he was. He was set in the stocks overnight, and
on the morrow went to death, and was burned at Ashford,
A.D. 1.t17. The same night, as he was in the stocks
at Ashford, where he and his wife dwelt, his wife then
hearing of him, came and sat by him all the night be-
fore he was burned : to whom he declaring the whole
story of how he was handled, shewed and toll, how
that he could not set his feet to tlie ground, for they
were burnt to the bones, and told her how, by the two
bishops W^arham and Fisher, his feet were heated upon the
hot coals, and burned to the bones "to make me," said he,
" to deny my Lord, which I will never do ; for if 1 should
deny my Lord in this world, he should hereafter deny
me. I pray thee, therefore, good Elizabeth, continue aa
thou hast begun, and bring up thy children virtuously
in the fear of God." And so the next day, on Whit-
sunday even, this godly martyr was burned. Standing
at the stake, this prayer he made, holding up his hands
" O Lord, I yield me to thy grace,
Grant me mercy for my trespass ;
Let never the fiend my soul chace.
Lord, I will bow, and thou shalt beat;
Let never my soul come in hell heat.
" Into thy hands I commend my spirit ; thou hast re-
deemed me, O Lord of truth.''
And so he ended.
The History of Richard Hunne.
There was in the year 1514, one Richard Hunne, mer-
chant-tailor, and freeman in the city of London, who
was esteemed during his life, and taken not only for a
man of true dealing and good substance, but also for a
good catholic man. This Richard Hunne had a child
at nurse in Middlesex, which died. Thomas Dryfield,
the priest of the parish, sued Richard Hunne in the
spiritual court for a bearing-sheet, for a mortuary for the
son of Richard Hunne, who died at the age of live
weeks. Hunne answered, " That as the child had no
property in the sheet, he therefore would not pay it, nor
ought the other to have it. The priest, moved with a
covetous desire, and loth to lose his pretended right,
cited him to appear in the spiritual court. Richard
Hunne being troubled in the spiritual court, was forced
to seek counsel of the learned in the law, and pursued
a writ of pramunire against Thomas Dryfield, which
when the rest of the priestly order heard of, indignant
that any layman should attempt such a matter against any
of them, and fearing that if they should now suffer this
priest to be condemned, there would be ever after a
liberty to all of the laity to do the Hke with the rest of
the clergy in such cases ; they straightways, both to
stop this matter, and also to be revenged of him, sought
all the means they possibly could to intrap and bring
him within the danger of their own cruel laws. And so
making secret and diligent inquisition, and seeking all
they could against him, at length they found means to
accuse him of heresy to Richard Fitzjames, then bishop
of London, who (desirous to satisfy the revenging and
bloody affection of his chaplains) caused him to be ap-
prehended and committed to prison in the Lollards
Tower at Paul's, so that none of his friends might be
suffered to come to him. This Richard Hunne being
clai)t in the Lollards' Tower shortly after, at the earnest
instigation of Dr. Horsey, the bishop's chancellor (a
man more ready to prefer the clergy's cruel tyranny,
A. D. 1514.]
CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD HUNNE.
4U
I than the truth of Christ s gospel) was brought before
the bishop, at his manor of Fulham, the 2d day of De-
j cember, where in his chapel he examined him upon tiiese
I articles, collected against him by Horsey and his ac-
ccmi)lices : —
1. Tliathehad read, taught, preached, published, and
obstinatfly defended, against the laws of Almighty God,
that tithes, or paying tithes, was never ordained to be
due, saving only by the covetousness of priests.
2. That he had read, taught, preached, pulilislied,
and obstinately defended, that bishops, and priests are
the scribes and pharisees that crucified Christ and con-
demned him to deatli.
3. That he had read, taught, preached, &c., that bishops
and priests are teachers and preachers, but no doers
nor fulfillers of the law of God ; but catching, ravening
and taking all things, and ministering and giving nothing.
4. Where and when'one Joan Baker was detected and
abjured of many great heresies, as appears by her abju-
ration, the said Richard Hunne said, published, taught,
preached, and obstinately took upon him to say, that he
would defend her andjier opinions, if it cost him five
hundred marks.
5. Afterwards, when Joan Baker, after her abjuration,
*'as enjoined open penance, according to her demerits,
the said Richard Hunne said, published, taught, and
obstinately defended her, saying, the bishop of Lon-
don and his officers have done open wrong to Joan
Baker in punishing her for heresy ; for her sayings and
opinions are according to the laws of God : wherefore
the bishop and his officers are more worthy to be pun-
ished for heresy than she.
6. That the said Ricliard Hunne has in his keeping
divers English Books, prohibited and condemned by tlie
law ; as the apocalypse in English, epistles and gospels
in English, WicklifTs damnable works, and other books
containing infinite errors, in which he has been for a long
time accustomed to read, teach, and study dailj'.
Particular answer to these several objections in the
register I find none, saving that under them there is
written in his name, with a different hand, these words :
" As to these articles, I have not spoken them as they
are here laid ; however I have unadvisedly spoken v.ords
somewhat sounding to the same effect, for which I am
sorry, and ask God's mercy, and submit me to my Lord's
charitable and favourable correction." Which they
affirm to be written with Hunne's own hand : but how
likely to truth that is, let the discreet wisdom of the
reader judge by the whole sequel of this process. And
further, if it were his own act, what occasion then had
they so cruelly to murder him as they did, seeing he had
already so willingly confessed his fault, and submitted
himself to the charitable and favourable correction of the
bishop .'
This examination being ended, the bishop sent him
back again the same day unto the Lollards' Tower ; and
then, by the appointment of Dr. Horsey liis chancellor,
he was committed from the custody of Charles Joseph
the somner, to John Spalding the bell-ringer, a man by
whose simpleness the subtle chancellor thought to bring
his devilish homicide the easier to pass ; which he most
cruelly did, by his suborned ministers, within two nights
after, as is proved, by the inquiry, and final verdict of
the coroner of London and his inquest. But when tliis
Usual practice of the papists was once accomplished,
there were wanted no secret shifts nor worldly-wiles
for the crafty colouring of this mischief: and therefore
the next morning after they had, in the night, com-
mitted this murder, Spalding got himself out of the
way into the city, and leaving the keys of the prison
with one of his fellows, desired him to deliver them to
the somner's boy who used to carry to Hunne his meat
and other necessaries ; thinking that the boy, first find-
ing the prisoner dead, and hanged as they left him, they
might by his relation be thought free from having any
hand in this matter. Which happened in the beginning
almost as they wished. For the boy the same morning,
accompanied witli two of the bishop's somners, went
about ten o'clock into the prison, to serve the prisoner
as he was wont to do ; and when they came up, they
found him hanged with his face towards the wall. Tliey
astonished at this sight, immediately told the cliaucellor,
who was tlien in the church, and watching, I suppose,
for such news ; he forthwith got certain of his colleagues,
and went witli them into tiie prison, to see that wliich
his own wicked cons-cience knew full well before, as was
afterwards j)laiiily proved. althouLch he tlien made a fiir
face to the contrary, blazing abroad among the people
by their officers and servants, that Hunne had lianged
himself. However the people having good ex])erietice
of the honest life and godly conversation of the man,
and also of the devilish malice of his adversaries the
]iriests, judged rather, that he was secretly murdered by
their procurement. On this there arose great couten-i
tion ; for the bishop of London on one side, taking his
clergy's part, affirmed stoutly that Hunne had hanged
himself: the citizens again on the other side, susjiecting
some secret murder, caused the coroner of London, ac-
cording to law, to choose an inquest, and to take view
of the dead body, and so to try the truth of the matter.
As the bisho]) and his chaplains were then driven to ex-
tremity of shifts : and therefore wishing by some subtle
show of justice to stop the mouths of the })eopIe, they
determined, that while the inquest was occupied about
their charge, the bishoj) should for his part j)roceed ex
officio, in case of heresy against the dead person ; sup-
posing, that if the party were once condemned of heresy,
the inquest durst not then but find him guilty of his
own death, and so clearly acquit them from all suspicion
of murder. This determination of theirs they imme-
diately put in practice, in order as follows :
Besides the articles before mentioned, which they
affirm were objected against him in his life-time. Dr.
Horsey, thebishop of London's vicar general, nowafterhis
death collected others out of the prologue of his English
Bible, which he diligently perused, not to learn any
good thing, but to get thereout such matter as he
thought might best serve their cursed purpose, as
appears by the tenor of the articles, which are these :
1. The book condemns all holy canons, calling them
ceremonies and statutes of sinful men, and calls the
pope, Satan and antichrist.
2. It condemns the pope's pardons, saying they are
but impositions.
3. The said book of Hunne saith, that kings and
lords called christian in name, and heathen in con-
ditions, defile the sanctuary of God, bringing clerks full
of covetousness, heresy and malice, to stop God's law,
that it cannot be known, kept, and freely preached.
4. The book saith, that lords and prelates pursue
fully and cruelly them that would teach truly and freely
the law of God, and cherish them that preach sinful
men's traditions and stalutes, by which he means the
holy canons of Christ's church.
5. That poor and simple men have the truth of the
holy scriptures, more than a thousand prelates, and re-
ligious men, and clerks of the school.
6. That christian kings and lords set idols in God's
house, and excite the people to idolatry.
7. That princes, lords, and prelates so doing, are
worse than Herod that pursued Christ, and worse than
the Jews and heathen men that crucified Christ.
8. That every man, swearing by our lady, or any
other saint or creature, gives more honour to the saints
than to the Holy Trinity, and so they are idolaters.
y. He saith that saints ought not to be honoured.
10. He condemns adoration, prayer, kneeling, and
offering to images, wh.ich he calls stocks and stones.
11. He saith, that the very body of the Lord is not
contained in the sacrament of the altar, but that men
receiving it shall thereby keep in mind that Christ's
flesh was wounded and crucified for us.
12. He condemns the university of Oxford, with all
degrees and faculties in it, as arts, civil and canon laws,
and divinity ; saying, that they hinder the true way to
come to the knowledge of the laws of God and holy
scripture.
16. He defends the translation of the Bible and holy
scripture into the English tongue, which is prohibited
by the laws of our holy mother church.
414
INQUEST ON THE BODY OF RICHARD HUNNE.
[Book VII.
These articles thus collected, as also the others before
specified, they caused, for a shew of their pretended
justice and innocency, to be openly read the next Sun-
day, by the preacher at Paul's- Cross, and having now,
as "they thought, sufficient matter against him, they pur-
posed to proceed to his condemnation.
Accordingly, the bishop of London, accompanied
by the bishops of Durham and Lincoln, sat in judg-
ment on Richard Hunne, the sixteenth day of Decem-
ber, taki..g as witnesses of their proceedings, six public
notaries, his own register, and about twenty-five doctors,
abbots, priors, aiul priests, with a great rabble of other
common anointed catholics. Where after a solemn pro-
clamation, that if there were any that would defend the
opinions and books of Richard Hunne, they should
presently appear and be heard according to law, he
counuanded all the articles and objections against
Hunne ojienly to be read before the assembly : and then
perceiving that none durst appear in his defence, by the
advice of his assistants, he pronounced the sentence
definitive against the dead carcase, condemning it of
heresy, and therewith committed the same to tlie secular
power, to be by them burned accordingly. Which
ridiculous decree was accomplished in Smithfield the
twentieth day of December, sixteen days after they had
barbarously murdered him, to tike great grief and indig-
nation of all the people.
Notwithstanding after all this tragical and cruel hand-
ling of the dead body, and their fair show of justice, yet
the inquest never stayed their diligent searching out of
the true cause and means of his death. So that when
they had been several times called before the king's
privy council, (liis majesty himself being sometimes
present) and also before the chief judges and justices of
the realm, and that the matter being thoroughly examined
and perceived to be much bolstered up by the clergy, was
wholly committed to their determination, they found by
good proof and sufficient evidence, tliat Doctor Horsey,
the chancellor ; Charles Joseph, the somner ; and John
Spalding, the bell ringer, had privily and maliciously
committed this murder, and therefore indicted them all
three as wilful murderers. However, through the earnest
suit of the bishop of London to Cardinal Wolsey, means
were found that at the next sessions of gaol delivery, the
king's attorney pronounced the indictment against Doc-
tor Horsey to be false and untrue, and him not guilty of
the murder, who, having yet a guilty conscience, durst
never after for shame come again to London. But now
that the truth of all this may seem more manifest and
plain to all men's eyes, here shall follow word by word,
the whole enquiry and verdict of the inquest, exhibited
by thorn to the coroner of Loudon, aud so given up and
signed with his own band.
The Minnies of the Inquest.
The fifth and the sixth day of December, in the sir.h
year of the reign of our sovereign lord King Henry VIII.
William Barnwell, coroner of London, the day and year
above said, within the ward of Castle Baynard of London,
assembled an inquest, whose names afterwards appear,
and hath sworn them trdly to enquire concerning the
death of one Richard Hunns, who lately was found dead
in the Lollards' Tower within St. Paul's church of Lon-
don : whereupon all we of the inquest together went up
into the said tower, where we found the body of the said
Hunne hanging upon a staple of iron, in a girdle of silk,
with a fair countenance, his head fair combed, and his
bonnet sitting right upon his head, with his eyes and
mouth fair closed, without any staring, gaping, or frown-
ins-, also without any drivelling in any i)lace of his body ;
whereupoTi by one assent we all agreed to take down the
body of the said Hunne, and as soon as we began to
heave the body it was loose, whereby we perceived that
the girdle had no knot about the staple, but it was
double cast, and the links of an iron chain, which did
hang on the staple, were laid upon the gi:dle whereby he
did hang : also the knot of the girdle that went about his
neck, stood under his left ear, which caused his head to
lean towards his right shoulder. Notwithstanding there
came out of his nostrils two small streams of blood to
the quantity of four drops, save only these four drops of
blood, the face, lips, chin, doublet, collar, and shirt of the
said Hunne was clean from any blood. Also we found
that the skin both of his neck and throat, beneath the
girdle of silk, was fretted away, with that thing which
the murderers had broken his neck with. Also the
hands of the said Hunne were marked in the wrists,
whereby we perceived that his hands had been bound.
Moreover, we found that within the said prison there
was no means whereby a man might hang himself, but
only a stool, which stool stood upon a bolster of a he-d,
so unsteady that any man or beast might not touch it so
little, but it was ready to fall, whereby we perceived,
that it was not possible that Hunne could have hanged
himself, the stool so standing. Also all the girdle from
the staple to his neck, as well as the part which went
about his neck, was too little for his head to come out
thereat. Also it was not possible that the soft silken
girdle should break his neck or skin beneath the girdle.
Also we found in a corner, somewhat beyond the place
where he did hang, a great parcel of blood. Also we
found u])on the left side of Hunne's jacket, from the
breast downward, two great streams of blood. Also
within the flap of the left side of his jacket we found a
great cluster of blood, and the jacket folden down there-
upon, which thing the said Hunne could never fold nor
do after he was hanged. Whereby it appeareth plainly
to us all, that the neck of Hunne was broken, and the
great plenty of blood was shed before he was hanged.
Wherefore we all find, by God and our consciences, that
Richard Hunne was murdered. Also we acquit the said
Richard Hunne of his own death.
" Also there was an end of a wax candle, which, as
John, the bell-ringer, saith he left in the prison burning
with Hunne that same Sunday at night that Huime was
murdered, which wax candle we found sticking upon the
stocks, fair put out, about seven or eight foot from the
place where Hunne was hanged, which candle in our
opinion was never put out by him, for many likelihoods
which we have perceived. Also at the going iip of Mas-
ter Chancellor into the Lollards' Tower, we have good
proof that there lay on the stocks a gown, either of
murrey, or crimson in grain, furred with shanks, whose
gown it was we never could prove, neither who carried
it away. All we find, that Master William Horsey,
chancellor to my lord of London, hath had at his com-
mandment both the rule and guiding of the said pri-
soner. Moreover, we all find that the said Master Hor-
sey, chancellor, hath put Charles Joseph out of his
office, as the said Charles hath confessed, because he
would not deal and use the said prisoner so cruelly, and
do to him as the chancellor would have had him to do.
Notwithstanding the deliverance of the keys to the
chancellor by Charles on the Saturday at night before
Hunne's death, and Charles riding out of the town on
that Sunday in the morning ensuing, was but a conven-
tion made betwixt Charles and the chancellor to colour
the murder. For the same Sunday that Charles rode
forth, he came again to the town at night, and killed
Richard Hunne, as in the depositions of Julian Little,
Thomas Chicheley, Thomas Simonds, and Peter Turner,
doth appear.
" After colouring of the murder betwixt Charles and
the chancellor conspired, the chancellor called to him
one John Spalding, the bell-ringer of St. Paul's, and
delivered to the same bell-ringer the keys of the Lollards'
Tower, giving to the said bell-ringer a great charge, say-
ing, ' I charge thee to keep Hunne more straightly than
he hath been kept, and let him have but one meal a-day ;
moreover, I charge thee let nobody come to him with-
out my licence, neither to bring him shirt, cap, ker-
chief, or any other thing, but that I see it before it come
to him.' Also before Hunne was carried to Fulham, the
chancellor commanded to be put upon Hunne's neck a
great collar of iron, with a great chain, which is too
heavy for any man or beast to wear, and long to
endure.
" Moreover, it is well proved, that before Hunne's
death the said chancellor came up into the said Lollards'
A. D. 1514—151/.] VERDICT CONCERNING THE MURDER OF RICHARD HUNNE.
415
Tower, and kneeled down before Hunne, holding up his
hands to him, praying of him forgiveness of all that
he had done to him, and must do to him. And on Sun-
day following the chancellor commanded the peniten-
tiary of St. Paul's to go up to him, and say a gospel, and
make for him holy water, and holy bread, and give it to
him, which he did ; and also the chancellor commanded
that Hunne should have his dinner. And at the same
dinner-time Charles' boy was shut up in prison with
Hunne, which was never done so before ; and after din-
ner, when the bell-ringer let out the boy, the bell-ringer
said to the same boy, " Come no more hither with meat
for him till to-morrow, for my master chancellor hath
commanded that he should have but one meala-day ;" and
the same night following Richard Hunne was murdered,
which murder could not have been done without consent
and licence of the chancellor, and also by the witting and
knowledge of John Spalding, the bell-ringer ; for there
could no man come into the prison but by the keys which
were in John, the bell-ringer's keeping. Also, as by my
lord of London's book appears, John, the bell-ringer, is
a poor innocent man. Wherefore we all perceive, that
this murder could not be done but by the commandment
of the chancellor, and by the witting and knowing of
John, the bell-ringer.
Then follows certain minutes of the evidence, and at
last the following verdict : —
The Sentence of the Inquest subscribed by the Coroner.
The inquisition intended and taken in the city of
London, in the parish of St. Gregory, in the ward of
Baynard Castle, in London, the sixth day of December,
in the sixth year of the reign of King Henry YIII.,
before Thomas Barnwell, coroner of our sovereign lord
the king, within the city of London aforesaid. Also
before James Yarford and John Mundey, sheriffs of the
said city, upon the sight of the body of Richard Hunne,
late of London, tailor, who was found hanged in the
Lollards' Tower , and by the oath and proof of lawful
ir^en of the same ward, and of other three wards next
adjoining, as it ought to be, after the custom of the
city aforesaid, to enquire how, and in what manner the
said Richard Hunne came by his death : and upon the
oath of John Barnard, Thomas Stert, William Warren,
Henry Abraham, John Aborow, John Turner, Robert
Allen, William Marlet, John Burton, James Page,
Thomas Pickhill, William Burton, Robert Bridgwater,
Thomas Busted, Gilbert Howell, Richard Gibson,
Christopher Crafton, John God, Richard Holt, John
Palmere, Edmund Hudson, John Arunsell, Richard
Cooper, John Tim : The which said upon their oaths,
that w'nereas the said Richard Hunne by the command-
ment ot Richard, bishop of London, was imprisoned and
brought to hold, in a jjrison of the said bishop's, called
the Lollards' Tower, lying in the cathedral church of
St. Paul, in London, in the parish of St. Gregory, in the
ward of Baynard Castle aforesaid ; William Horsey, of
London, clerk, otherwise called William Heresie, chan-
cellor to Richard, bishop of London ; and one Charles
Joseph, late of London, somiier, and John Spalding of
London, otherwise called John the bellringer, did felo-
niously, as felons to our lord the king, with force and
arms against the peace of our sovereign lord the king,
and dignity of his crown, on the fourth day of Decem-
ber, in the sixth year of the reign of our sovereign lord
aforesaid, of their great malice, at the parish of St.
Gregory aforesaid, upon the said Richard Hunne they
made a fray, and the same Richard Hunne they felo-
niously strangled and smothered, and also the neck they
did break of the said Richard Hunne, and there felo-
niously slew him and murdered him ; and also the body
of the said Richard Hunne, afterward the same fourth
day, year, place, parish, and ward aforesaid, with the
proper girdle of the same Richard Hunne, of silk, black
of colour, of the value of twelve pence, after his death,
upon a hook driven into a piece of timber in the wall of
the prison aforesaid, made fast, and so hanged him,
against the peace of our sovereign lord the king, and
the dignity of his crown : and so the said jury hath
sworn on the holy evangelists, that the said WiJli;ini
Horsey, clerk, Charles Joseph, and John Spaldins, of
their set malice, then and there feloniously kilK-d and
murdered the said Richard Hunne in manner and form
above said, against the ))eace of our sovereign lord the
king, his crown and dignity.
Subscribed in this manner :
Thomas Barnwell, Coroner of the city of London.
After the twenty-four had given up their verdict,
sealed and signed with the coroner's seal, the cause was
then brought into the parliament house, where the truth
was laid so plain before all men's faces, and the fact so
notorious, that immediately certain of the bloody mur-
derers were committed to prison, and should no doubt
have suffered what they deserved, had not the cardinal
by his authority, practised for his popish children, at
the suit of the bishop of London. W'hereu])on the
chancellor, by the king's pardon, and secret shifting,
rather than by God's pardon and his deserving, escaped,
and went, as is said, to Exeter, &c.
But 1 will trouble the reader no further in this
matter of Richard Hunne, being of itself so clear, that
no impartial judge can doubt thereof. Wherefore to
return to the purpose of our history ; among the num-
ber of those which about this time of Richard Hunne
were forced to deny and abjure their professed opinions,
were Elizabeth Stamford, John Houshold, and others,
who abjured about the year of our Lord l.il7. It is
painful to see their weakness, yet to consider t'ne confes-
sion of their doctrine in those days, is not unprofitable.
We can see the same doctrine then taught and jilanted
in the hearts of our forefathers, which is now publicly
received, as well touching the Lord's sacrament of his
body, as also other specialties. And although they had
not then public authority to maintain the open preach-
ing and teaching of the gospel, which the Lord's merci-
ful grace has given \is now ; yet in secret knowledge
and understanding they seemed then little or nothing
inferior to these our times of public reforniation, as
may appear by this confession of Elizabeth Stamford ;
which may suffice for example, to understand what ripe
knowledge of God's word was then abroad, although not
publicly preached in churches, for fear of the bishops,
yet in secret taught and received by many.
Among the number of whom was this Elizabeth
Stamford, who being brought and examined before
Fitzjames, bishop of London, (A.D. 1517,) confessed that
she was taught by one Thomas Beele, these words,
eleven years before : that Christ feeds, and nourishes
his church with his own precious body, that is, the
bread of life coming down from heaven : this is the
worthy word that is worthily received, and joined to
man to be in one body with him. This is not received
by chewing of teeth, but by hearing with ears, and un-
derstanding with your soul, and wisely working there-
after. Therefore, saith St. Paul, I fear, brethren, that
many of us be feeble and sick ; therefore I counsel you,
brethren, to rise and watch, that the great day of doom
come not suddenly upon us, as the thief doth upon the
merchant. Also this Thomas Beele taught and shewed
her, that the sacrament of the altar was not the very
body of Christ, but very bread : and that the sacrament
was the very body of Christ put upon the cross after a
divine and mystical manner. And moreover he taught
her this lesson, that she should confess her sins to God,
and that the pope's pardons and indulgences were no-
thing worth, and that worshipping of images and pil-
grimages ought not to be done.
To this confession of Elizabeth Stamford may also be
added the doctrine and confession of Joan Sampson,
wife of John Sampson, carpenter, of Aldermanbury, in
London : who being cited and examined before the
bishop of London, certain witnesses were produced
against her, who, being sworn, denounced Joan Sampson
in these articles and opinions following :
1. That she being in labour, and Joan Sampson the
elder, who was alive, being with her, she, after the usual
manner of women, called for the help of the virgin
Mary ; but Joan spake against it, and was so gneved at
416
CHARGES AGAINST JOHN STILMAN.
[Book VII.
it that the other party was compelled to forsake the
house.
2. Also, that she spake against pilgrimages, and the
worshipping of the blessed Virgin, and of all saints,
affirniinsr that there is none holy but one.
.S. Also, at another time, in the hearing of one
Margiret An worth, when she and other women were
invoking the blessed Virgin, she stood against them, and
spake agJiinst such invocations.
4. Also, tiiat she speaking against the pilgrimage of
our lady of Wilsden (as she was then called) and of St.
Saviour at Barmsey, called the said St. Saviour, Syni
Sawyer.
5. She was also accused of having two books in
En^lvh, one bigger, and another lesser, which she com-
mitted to one John Anstead, a cook ; which books are
not nMiiied in the register.
(). She was also accused, that once, at a supper, in
the hearing of certain men, and of a certain widow,
named Joan White, she spake openly in contempt of the
sacrament of the altar, saying, that the priests were
idolaters, who did lift up the bread over their heads,
making the people to worship it, and making the peoi)le
to believe that it was the Lord's body ; and that it v.as
better to eat the altar cloth, if it might be eaten and
digested as easilv as the other.
Then follow, in the registers, the names of thirty-five
persons who were compelled to abjure.
It was objected against one John Southwick, that
when a man, named William Rivelay, coming from the
church of the Gray-Friars, in London, had said to his
wife that he had heard mass, and had seen his Lord
God in form of bread and wine over the priest's head ;
John Southwick answered, " Nay, William, thou sawest
not thy Lord God, thou sawest but bread and wine and
the chalice." And when Rivelay answered again in the
same words as before, saying, " 1 trust verily that I saw
my Lord God in form of bread and wine, and this I doubt
not." The other replying again, answered and said as
before ; " Nay, 1 tell thee thou sawest but only a figure
or sacrament of him, which is in substance bread and
wine," &c. This was A.D. 1520. In which year he was
compelled to abjure.
All these persons above-named, held and agreed
together in one doctrine and religion, against v/hom
five or six special matters were objected, namely, for
speaking against worshipjnng of saints, against pil-
grimage, against invocation of the blessed Virgin,
against the sacrament of the Lord's body, and for
having scripture books in English : which books espe-
cially I fi:id to be named, as these, the book of the
four evangelists, a book of the epistles of Paul and
Peter, tlie epistle of St. James, the book of the Revela-
tijrm, and of antichrist, of the ten commandments, and
* Yvickliff's Wicket,' with such like.
John Stilnian, Martyr,
It would be tedious to recite the great multitude and
number of good men and women who, in those days,
recanted and abjured about the beginning of King
Henry's reign and before : among whom there were
some whom the Lord brought back again, and made
strong in the profession of his truth, and constant to
death ; of which number John Stilman was one, who,
about the twenty-fourth of September, A.D. 1518, was
apiireliended and brought before Ricliard Fitzjames,
then bishop of London, at his manor of I'ulham, (not-
withstanding his former recantation, oath, and abjura-
tion, made about eleven years then j)ast, before Edmund,
then bishop of Salisbury,) and was there examined and
charged, as well for speaking against the worshi]iping,
praying, and offering unto images ; as also for denying
the carnal and corporal presence in the sacrament of
Christ's memorial : also, that since his former abjura-
tion he had fallen into the same opinions again, and so
into the danger of relapse : and further had higlily com-
mended and praised John Wic'slifie, Jiftirming that he
was a saint iu heaven, and that his book, called the
Wicket, was good and holy. Soon after his examina-
tion, he was sent from thence unto Lollards' Tower at
London, and on the twenty-second of October next
ensuing, was brought openly into the consistory of
Paul's, and was there judicially examined by Thomas
Hed, the bishop's vicar-general, upon the contents of
these articles following : —
" I. I object unto you, that you have confessed before
my lord of London and me. Dr. Hed, liis vicar-general,
that about twenty years, past, one Stephen Moone, of
the diocese of Winchester, (with whom you abode six or
seven years after) did teach you to believe that tiie
going on pilgrimage and the worshipping of images, as
tiiat of the lady of Walsingham and others, were not to
be used. And also that afterwards one Richard Smart,
who was burned at Salisbury about fourteen years past,
did read unto you ' Wicklitf's Wicket,' and likewise
instructed you to believe that the sacrament of the altar
was not the body of Christ : all which things you have
erroneously believed.
" II. You have often read the said hook, called
' Wicklitf's Wicket,' and another book of the tea
commandments, which Richard Smart did give you, and
at the time of your first apprehension you did liide them
in an old oak, and did not reveal them unto the bishop
of Salisbury, before wliom you were abjured of heresy
about eleven years since ; where you promised, by oath
upon the evangelists, ever after to believe and hold as
the Christian faitli taught and preached, and never to
offend again in the said heresies, or any other, upon
pain of relapse. And further, you there promised to
perform all such penance as the bishop of Salisbury did
enjoin you : who then enjoined you upon the like pain,
not to depart out of his diocese without his special
licence.
" III. It is evident that you are relapsed, as well by
your own confession, as also by your deeds, in that
about two years after your abjuration you went into the
said place where you had hidden your books ; and then
taking them away with you, you departed from the
diocese of Salisbury, without the licence of the bishop,
and brought them with you to London, where now being
attached and taken with them upon great suspicion of
heresy, you are brought to the bishop of London : by
reason of your demeanour, you have shewed both
your impenitent and dissembled conversion from your
errors, and also your unfaithful abjuration and disobe-
dience to the authority of our mother holy church, in
that you performed not the penance ; in whicli behalf
you are voluntarily perjured, and also relapsed, in that
you departed the same diocese without licence.
" iV. You are not only impenitent, disobedient, vo-
luntarily perjured and relapsed by this your heretical
demeanour, but also since your last attachment upon
suspicion of heresy, you have maliciously spoken erro-
neous and damnable words, affirming before my lord of
London, your ordinary, and me, judicially sitting at
Fulham, that you were sorry that you ever abjured your
opinions, and had not at first suffered manf'ul!y for
them, for they were, and are good and true ; and there-
fore you will now abide by them to die for it. And
furthermore, you have spoken against our holy father
the pope, and his authority, damnably saying thst he is
antichrist, and not the true successor of Peter, or
Christ's vicar on earth ; and that his pardons and indul-
gences, which he grants in the sacrament of ]ienance,
are naught, and that you will have none of them. .\nd
likewise that the college of cardinals are limbs of anti-
christ : and that all other inferior prelates and priests
are the synagogue of Satan. And moreover you said,
that the doctors of the church have subverted the truth
of holy scripture, expounding it after their own mind.*,
and therefore their works be naujcht. and liiey in hell ;
but that W'ickliff is a saint in heaven, nnd that the
book called his Wicket is good, for therein he sl;ews the
truth. Also you did wish that there were twenty thou-
sand of your opinion, against us scribes and pharisee^,
to see what you would do for the defence of yciir faith.
All which heresies you did afterwards erroneously affirm
A. D. 1518.] JOHN STILMAN AND THOMAS MAN BURNED IN SMITHFIELD.
before the archbishop of Canterbury, and then said that
you would abide by them to die for it, notwithstanding
his earnest persuasions to the contrary ; and therefore
for these premises you be evidently relapsed, and ought
to be committed to the secular power."
After these articles thus propounded, and his constant
persevering in the truth perceived, Dr. Hed, vicar-
general, by his sentence definitive, did condemn him a
vehn)sed heretic, on the twenty-fifth of October, and de-
livered him the same day to the sheriffs of London, to
be openly burned in Smithfield.
417
TJiomas Man, Martyr.
Next follows in this order of blessed martyrs, the per-
secution and condemnation of Thomas Man : who, March
29, A.D. 1518, was burned in Smithfield. This Thomas
Man had been ppprehended for the profession of Christ's
gospel about six years before, (August 14, A.D. loll,)
and was examined upon these articles : —
1. That he had spoken against Auricular confession,
and denied the corporeal presence of Christ's body in the
sacrament of the altar.
2. That he believed that all holy men were priests.
3. That he had affirmed that the Father of heaven
was the altar, and the Second Person the sacrament ;
and that upon Ascension-day the sacrament ascended
to the altar, and there abides.
4. That he believed not aright in the sacrament of
extreme unction.
5. That he had called certain priests, meanly arrayed
knaves.
(>. That he had said that pulpits were priest's lying
stools.
7. That he had believed that images ought not to be
worshipped, and that he neither believed in the crucifix,
nor would worship it.
8. That he had affirmed that the word of God and
God were all one, and that he that worthily receives the
word of God, receives God.
9. That he had said that the popish church was not
the church of God, but a synagogue : and that holy men
were the true church of God.
For these matters he was a long time imprisoned, and
at last, through frailty and fear of death, was content to
abjure and yield himself to the judgment of the Romish
church, and thereupon was enjoined, not only to make
his open recantation, but also to remain as a prisoner
within the monastery of Osney, and to bear a fagot
before the first cross, at the next general procession in
the university. All which, notwithstanding, he (being
perhaps sorry for his offence in denying the truth, and
also weary of his prison-like bondage) bethought him-
self how he might best escape ; and therefore seeing a
good opportunity, he fled, and seeking abroad in other
counties for work, to sustain his life, he abode sometimes
in Essex, sometimes in Suffolk ; where he associated him-
self with such godly professors of Christ's gospel as be
there could hear of. But within a few years after (such is
the cruel rage of Satan and his wicked members, who never
suffer the godly long to continue untroubled) he was
again accused of relapse by the inquisition of London,
and thereupon was apprehended and brought before
Richard Fitzjames, the bishop of London, February
9, 1518.
And although as the register notes (but how truly
i God only knoweth) he again forsook his profession of
[Christ's gospel, and yielded himself to the bishop of
i Rome, requiring to be absolved from his curse of ex-
} communication, and consented to do such penance as
I they should enjoin him, he was yet delivered to the
I sheriff of London, to be burned. The bishop's chan-
icellor who condemned him desired the sherifl' that he
I would receive this person as relapsed and condemned,
and yet not punish him by rigorous rigour. The words
I in the sentence are : " We desire, in the bowels of our
; Lord Jesus Christ, that the punishment and execution
of due seventy, on thee, and against the.', may be so
moderate, that there be no rigid rigour, nor yet loose
mildness, but to the health aud aafety of thy sOul," &c.
Wherein these Romish churchmen do well shew, that
the laws of their church are grounded upon Pilate and
Caiaphas. For as Caiaphas with his court of Pharisees
cried against Christ to Pilate : " It is not lawful for us
to put any man to death ; but if thou let him go, thou
art not CiEsar's friend." Even so they, first condemn-
ing the saints of God to death, and then delivering them
to the secular magistrate to be executed, would yet
cover their malignant hearts with the cloak of hypocri-
tical holiness and unwillingness to shed blood. But God
be thanked, who bringeth all things to light in his due
time, and uncovereth hypocrisy at last, that she may be
seen and known in her right colours.
Thus Thomas Man, the manly martyr of Jesus
Christ, being condemned by an unjust sentence, was
delivered to the sherifl" of London sitting on horseback
in Paternoster-row, before the bishop's door, A.D. 1518.
he protesting to the said sherifl', that he had no power
to put him to death, and therefore desired the sheriff
to take him as a relapser and condemned, to see him
punished. The sheriff immediately carried him to
Smithfield, and there the same day in the forenoon
caused him to become an angel in heaven.
In the deposition of one Thomas Risby against this
martyr, it appears by the registers that he had been iu
many places and counties in Englaiad, and had in-
structed many jiersons at Amersham, at London, at
Chelmsford, at Stratford-Langthorn, at Uxbridge, at
Burnham, at Henley upon Thames, in Suffolk and Nor-
folk, at Newbury, and many other places : where he
testifies, that as he went westward, he found a great
company of well-disposed persons, being of the same
iudgment touching the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
that he was of, and especially at Newbury, where there
was (as he confessed) a glorious and sweet society of
faithful favourers, who had continued for the space of
fifteen years together, till at last they were betrayed by
a person, whom they trusted and made of their counsel,
and then many of them, to the number of six or seven
score, abjured, and three or four of them were burnt.
From thence he came to the forest of Windsor, where he,
hearing of I he brethren who were at Amersham, re-
moved there, where he found a godly and a great com-
pany, who had continued in that doctrine and teaching
tweiity-thrce years. Against these faithful christians of
Amersham, there was great trouble and persecution in-
the time of William Smith bishop of Lincoln, about the-
year 1507, at which time so many were abjured that it
was called " the great abjuration." In this congrega-
tion of faithful brethren, were four principal instructors.
One was Tilesworth, who was burned at Amersham.
Another was Thomas Chase, who was murdered and
hanged in the bishop of Lincoln's prison at Woburn.
The third was this Thomas Man, burned as is here
mentioned in Smithfield, A.D. 1518, who, as appears, by
his own confession, and no less also by his labours, was
God's champion, and suffered much trouble by the priests
for the cause of God. He confesses himself in the
same register that he had turned seven hundred people
to his religion and doctrine, for which he thanked God.
He conveyed also five couples of men and women from
Amersham, Uxbridge, Burnham, and Henley upon
Thames, where they dwelt, to Suffolk and Norfolk, that
they might be brought (as he then termed it) out of the
devil's mouth.
Robert Cosin, Martyr.
This Robert Cosin seems to be the same who in the ■
former part of this history is mentioned, as called by
the name of Father Robert, and was burnt in Bucking-
ham. Of this Robert Cosin, I find in the registers of
Lincoln, that he, with Thomas Man, had instructed and
persuaded one Joan Norman, about Amersham, not to
go on pilgrimage, nor to worship any images of saints.
Also when she had vowed a piece of silver to a saint for
the health of her child, they dissuaded her from the
same, and said, that she needed not to confess to a
priest, but that it was sufficient to lift up her hands to
Heaven. Moreover, they were charged by the bishop,
K £ 2
418
ACCOUNT OF DOCTOR COLET.
[Book VII.
for teaching Joan, that she might as well drink upon
Sunday before mass, as any other day, &c. And thus
you see the doctrine of these good men, for which they
were in those days abjured or condemned to death.
Christopher Shoomaker, Martyr.
To these blessed saints we will add Christopher Shoo-
maker, of whom I find this briefly recorded in the regis-
ter of Sir John Longland, that the said Christopher
Shoomaker, a parishioner of great Missenden, came to
the house of John Say, and after other matters, read to
him out of a little book the words which Christ spake to
lus disciples. And thus coming to liis house about four
times, at every time he read something out of the same
book to him teaching him not to be deceived in the priest's
celebration of the mass, and declaring that it was not the
same very present body of Christ, as the priests did
fancy, but in substance bread in remembrance of Christ;
and taught him moreover, that pilgrimage, worshipping,
and setting up candles to saints, were all unprofitable.
And thus the said John Say being taught by this Chris-
topher, and also confirmed by John Okenden and Robert
Pope, was brought to the knowledge of the same doc-
trine. Thus much briefly I find in that register con-
cerning Christopher Shoomaker ; declaring further, that
he was burned at Newbury about this time, which was
A. D. 1518. And thus much out of the registers of
London.
Doctor Colet.
About this time died Doctor John Colet, A.D. ir)19,
to whose sermons these men, about Buckinghamshire,
had a great mind to resort. After he came from Italy
and Paris, he first began to read the epistles of St. Paul
openlv in Oxford, instead of reading the works of Scotus
and Thomas Aquinas. From whence he was called by
the king, and made dean of St. Paul's : where he used
to preach much with a great auditory, as well of tlie
king's court, as of the i-itizens and others. His diet
was frugal, his life upright, in discipline he was severe :
so that his canons, because of their stricter rule, com-
plained that they were made like monks. The honest
and honourable state of matrimony he ever preferred
before the unchaste singleness of prie:ns. At his dinner
commonly was read eiither some chapter of St. Paul, or
of Solomon's proverbs. And although the bUndness of
that time carried him away after the common error of
popery, yet in ripeness of judgment he seemed to incline
from the common opinions of that age. The order of
monks and friars he fancied not ; neither could he favour
the barbarousdivinity of the school-doctors, so that, when
Erasmus, speaking in the praise of Thomas Aquinas,
commended him: Colet first supposing that Erasmus
had spoken in jest, but afterwards finding that he was in
earnest, burst out, saying, " Why tell you me of the
commendation of that man, who unless he had been
of an arrogant and presumptuous spirit, would not de-
fine and discuss things so boldly and rashly : and also,
except b.e liad been more worldly-minded than heavenly,
would never have so polluted Christ's holy doctrine with
man's profane doctrine, as he has done ?
The bishop of London at that time was Fitzjames. AAlio
(bearing au old grudge and displeasure against Colet)
witli other two bishops, entered complaint against Colet
to the archbishop of Canterbury, then William Warham.
His complaint was divided into three articles : The _^r.v/
was for speaking against vrorshipping images: ih&necond
was about hospitality, that in treating of the words of
the Gospel, "Feed, — feed, — feed:" John xxi. L5.
when he had expounded the first two, as feeding with
example of life, and with doctrine ; in the third, which
the schoolmen expouiul for feeding with hospitality, he
left out the outward feeding of the belly, and applied it
another way. The third crime with which they charged
him, was for speaking against such as used to preach
only by written sernions, preaching nothing to the peo-
pie, but what they brought in their papers with then.
And, because the bishop of London used much to do
this, he took it as spoken against himself, and therefore
bare this displeasure against Dr. Colet. The archbishop
weighing the matter more wisely, and being well ac-
quainted with Colet, took his part against his accusers,
and at that time he was got out of trouble.
William Tindal, in his book in answer to Master
More, testifies, that the bishop of London would have
pronounced Colet, the dean of St. Paul's, an heretic, for
translating the Lord's Prayer into English, had not the
archbishop of Canterbury helped the dean.
But yet the malice of the bishop ceased not : being
thus repulsed by the archbishop, he laid by another
train how to accuse him to the king. It happened at
the time, that the king was making preparation for war
against France : so the bishop with his co-adjutors
taking occasion upon certain words of Colet, in which
he seemed to prefer peace before war, were it never so
just ; accused him of it in their sermons, and also in
the presence of the king.
It so happened at this time, that on Good Friday
Doctor Colet, preaching before the king, treated of
the victory of Christ ; exhorting all christians to fight
under the standard of Christ, against the devil : adding
moreover, what an hard tiling it was to fight under
Christ's banner, and that all they who upon private
hatred or ambition took weapons against their enemy
(one christian to slay another) did not fight under the
banner of Christ, but rather of Satan : and therefore,
he exhorted that christian men in their wars would
follow Christ their prince and captain, in fighting against
their enemies, rather than the example of Caesar, or
Alexander, &c. The king hearing Colet thus speak,
and fearing lest the hearts of his soldiers might be with-
drawn from his v.'ars, which he had then in hand, took
him aside and talked witli him in secret conference,
v.alking in his garden. Bishop Fitzjames. Bricot, and
Standish, who were his enemies, thought now that Colet
must needs be committed to the Tower, and waited for
his coming out. But the king treating Doctor Colet
with great gentleness, and bidding him familiarly to put
on his cap, much commended him for his learning and
integrity of life ; agreeing with him in all points, only
he required him (that the soldiers should not rashly
mistake what he had said) more plainly to explain his
words ; which he did : and so after long communication
and great ])romises, the king dismissed Colet with these
words, saying, " Let every man choose what doctor he
pleases, Colet shall be my doctor;" and so he departed.
So that none of his adversaries durst ever trouble him
after tliat time.
Among many other memorable acts left behind him,
Colet erected a foundation of the school of St. Paul's
(I pray God the fruits of the school may answer the
foundation) for the cherishing of ynutli in good letters,
providing a sufficient stipend as well for the master, as
for the usher: whom he wished rather to be appointed
out of the number of married men, than of single
priests. The first moderator of this school, was Wil-
liam Lily, a man no less notable for his learning, than
was Colet for his foundation.
In turning over the registers and records of Lincoln
likewise, and coming to A. D. 1520, and 1521, I find
that as the light of the gospel began the more to appear,
and the number of professors to increase, so the vehe-
mency of persecution, and stir of the bishops began also
to increase. Upon which then ensued great trouble and
grievous affliction in many quarters of this realm, espe-
cially about Buckinghamshire and Amersham, Uxbridge,
Henley, Newbury, in the diocese of London, in Essex,
Colchester, Sufl"olk, and Norfolk, and other places. And
this was before the name of Luther was heard of in these
countries among the people ; so that they are m\ich de-
ceived and misinformed who condemn tliis kind of doc-
trine of novelty, asking where was this church and reli-
gion before Luther's time .' To whom it may be an-
swered, that this religion and form of doctrine was
planted by the apostles, and taught by true bishops ; it
afterwards decayed, and is now reformed again ; and
although it was not received nor admitted by tlie i)opt:'3
A. D. 1521.]
PERSECUTION IN THE DIOCESE OF LINCOLN.
419
clergy before Luther's time, neither is now, yet it was re-
ceived by others, in whose hearts it pleased the Lord
secretly to work, and they a great number, who both
l)rofessed and suffered for the same. And if they think
this doctrine so new that it was not heard of before Lu-
ther's time, how then came such great persecution be-
fore Luther's time here in England ? If these were of
the same profession which the pope's clergy were of,
then was their cruelty unreasonable, so to persecute
their own fraternity. And if they were otherwise, how
then is this doctrine of the gospel so new, or the profes-
sors of it so lately sprung up as they pretend to be .'
But this comes only of ignorance, and through not know-
in"- and well considering the times and antiijuities of the
church which have been before us ; which if they did, they
! would see and confess that the church of England has
I not wanted great multitudes who tasted and followed the
'sweetness of God's holy word almost in as ample a man-
Iner, for the number of well-disposed hearts as now.
Although public authority then was wanting to maintain
I the open preaching of the gospel, yet the secret multi-
tude of true professors was not much unequal : certainly
I the fervent zeal of those christian days seemed much
superior to these our days and times, as may appear by
jtheir sitting up all night in reading and hearing, also by
the expenses and charges they incurred in buying books
]in English, some of whom gave five marks, some more,
Isome less, for a book ; some gave a load of hay for a few
chapters of St. James, or of St. Paul, in English. In
which time of scarcity of books, and want of teachers, this
■one thing I greatly marvel at, to note in the registers, and
,to consider how notwithstanding the word of truth mul-
•tiplied so exceedingly as it di(f amongst them. Wherein
'is to be seen no doubt the marvellous working of God's
Imighty power ; for I find and observe in considering the
Iregisters, how one neighbour resorting and conferring
with another, soon with a few words did win and turn
their minds to the truth of God's word and his sacra-
ments. To see their labours, their earnest seeking,
their burning zeals, their readings, their watchings, their
s '.veet assemblies, their love and concord, their godly living,
,their faithful marrying with the faithful, may make us now
in these our days of free profession, to blush for shame.
Tliere were four prjncipal points in which they stood
gainst the church of Rome ; in pilgrimage, in adoration
f saints, in reading scripture books in English, and in
he carnal presence of Christ's body in the sacrament.
As they were simple, and yet not uncircumspect in
heir doings, so the crafty serpent, being more wily than
hey by fraudulent subtlety so circumvented them, that the
hopish clergy caused the wife to detect the husband, the
liusband the wife ; the father the daughter, the daughter
|the father ; the brother to disclose his brother, and the
heighbour the neighbour. Neither were any assemblies
Sor readings kept, but both the persons and also the
ooks viere known, neither was any word so closely
?poken, nor article mentioned, but it was discovered.
So subtlely did these prelates use their inquisitions and
jxaminations, that nothing was done or said among these
nen, fifteen or twenty years before, so covertly, but it
ivas brought at length to their intelligence. They had
such captious interrogatories, and so many articles and
suspicions ; such spies and privy scouts were sent abroad
jy them ; such authority and credit had they with the
ting, and in the king's name; such diligence they
shewed ; so violently and impudently they abused the
30ok of the peaceable evangelists, wresting men's con-
sciences upon their oath, swearing them upon the same
;o detect themselves, their fathers and mothers, and
)thers of their kindred, with their friends and neigh-
Jours, and that to death.
For the better declaration of all which here first is to be
loted touching the see of Lincoln, that after William
smith succeeded John Longland. Smith was not so bloody
tnd cruel as Longland, who, for I find t'nat in the time
)f " the great abjuration" and affliction of the Bucking,
jamshire men, where many were abjured, and some
)urned, yet he sent several quietly home without puuish-
aentand penance, bidding them go home and live as
good christian men should do. And many who were
enjoined penance he released. This Smith died abont
the year 1,51,5. The college of Brazen Nose in Oxford
was built by him.
After him followed John Longland, a fierce and cruel
vexer of the faitliful servants of Christ. He to renew
again the old persecution, which were not yet utterly
quenched, began with one or two of those who had ab-
juied, and caused them by oath to detect and betray not
only their own ojiinions, but also to discover all others
who were suspected. By which an incredible multitude
of men, women, and maidens, were brought to examina-
tion, and strictly handled. And such were found in relapse
were burned.
The rest were so burdened with superstitions and ido-
latrous penance and injunction, that either through grief
of conscience they shortly afterwards died, or else lived
with shame.
One Robert Bartlet, and Richard his brother, were
detected as having abjured before in the tin>e of William
Smith bishop of Lincoln.
They being sworn, and confessing nothing before the
bishop, at last were convicted by witness. Wherefore
they were constrained at their next examination to utter
themselves, and confess what they had both done and
said ; that is, that Robert had read to Richard his bro-
ther a parcel of scripture beginning thus : " James the
servant of God, to the twelve tribes," &c. That he
heard Tilseworth say, that images of saints were but
stocks and stones, and dead things ; and that he taught
the same to his brother Richard, and concealed the words
of Tilseworth. That he partly believed Thomas Mastal,
teaching him that the true presence of Christ was not in
the sacrament ; and likewise of images and pilgrimages :
for receiving the communion at Easter without confes-
sion, &c..
Robert Bartlet was obliged to prove against Agnes
Wellis, his own sister, that he had twice instructed her i
not to worship images, and also had taught her in the '
epistle of St. James.
The following interrogatories were put to this Agnes
Wellis :—
1. Whether she knew that some of the parish of
Amershara were brought before William Smith, late
bishop of Lincoln, for heresy ?
2. Whether she knew that some of them erred in the
sacrament of the altar, or in other sacraments, and what
errors they were, and wherein .■'
3. Whether she knew any others to be suspected of
the same heresy besides those of Amersham, who they
were, and how many .''
4. Whether she had been in the same company, or
held the same opinions with them.
5. Whether she at any time had any conversation with
Thurstan Littlepage .' and if she had, how often she had
been in his company, how, what time, in what place,
who else were present, for what causes, and whether she
knew him to be suspected for heresy ?
6. Whether she knew and at any time had any conver-
sation with Alexander Mastal ? and if she had, how,
when, in what place, who were present, for what causes,
and whether she knew him to be suspected for heresy ?
7. Whether she was ever detected to the office of
William Smith, late bishop of Lincoln, at what time .'
and whether she was then called before the bishop for
heresy or not ?
8. Whether she had been reputed to be of the same
sect with Thurstan Littlepage ?
9. Whether she had been present at any time at the
readings or conferrings between Thurstan Littlepage and
other convicts ?
10. Whether Thurstan Littlepage did ever teach her
the epistle of St. James, or the epistles of St. Peter or
Paul in English ? and whether she had repeated the
epistle of St. James to Thurstan, in the presence ol
Richard Bartlet her brother .'
11. Whether Richard Bartlet her brother did teach
her at any time the epistle of St. James ? and if he did,
how often, and in what place ?
420
THE KING'S LETTER IN AID OF THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN.
[Book VH.
12. Whether she had been instructed by Thnrstnn
Littlepage, or by any other, that in the sacrament of the
altar was not the true body of Christ, but only the sub-
stance of bread ?
1.'^. Whether she had been instructed by Thurstan
Littlepage, or any other, that pilgrimage was not to be
used, nor the images of saints to be adored ?
14. Whether she credited Thurstan Littlepage, or any
other, teaching her in the premises ? and whether she
believed or expressly agreed with them in these arti-
cles ?
1.5. Whether Robert Bartlet her brother did ever
teach her the epistle of St. James ; and if he did, how
often, and where ?
K). Whether Robert Bartlet had taught her, that
pilgrimage was not to be used, and that images were not
to be adored ?
17. Whether she knew such a law or custom among
them, that such as were of that sort contracted matri-
mony only with themselves, and not with other chris-
tians .'
18. Wliether she ever heard Thurstan or any other sav,
that they only who were of their doctrine were true
christians ?
19. When she came to receive, and was confessed,
■whether she uttered and confessed her heresies to the
priest .'
These captious and cruel interrogatories Agnes Wellis
answered negatively to almost all of them, refusing to
name any person to the bishop. But soon after beinjj
otherwise schooled, I cannot tell liow, she was compelled
to detect both herself, her brother Robert Bartlet,
Thurstan Littlepage, and also Isabel Morwin, wife
of John Moi-win, and others.
By this system of examination, brother was compel-
led to inform against brother, sister, or neighbour, until
evidence was thus craftily obtained against several hun-
dred of godly men and women, that they used to assem-
ble together and read portions of the holy scriptures in
the English tongue.
The reader may thus learn the number of the good men
and women, who were troubled and molested by the church
of Rome, and all in one year ; of whom few or none were
learned, being simple labourers and artificers, but it pleased
the Lord to work in them knowledge and understanding,
by reading a few Ene;lish books, such as they could get.
And here is to be noted the blind ignorance and uncourte-
ous dealing of the bishops against them, not only by their
violent oath and captious interrogatories, constraining the
children to accuse their parents, and parents the children,
the husband the wife, and the wife the husband, &c. But
especially in most wrongfully afflicting them, only for
believing God's word, and the reading of the holy
scriptures.
Now it remains that we show the reasons and scrij)-
tiires whereupon they grounded their views. And first,
against pilgrimage, and against worshipping of images,
they used this text of the Revelation, chap, ix., " I saw
the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them,
having breastplates of fire, and of jacintli, and brim-
stone : and the heads of the horses were as the heads of
lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and
brimstone. By these three was the third part of men
kdled, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brim-
stone, which issued out of their moutlis. For their
power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their
tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with
them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which
■were not killed by these jilagues yet repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship
devds, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and
stone, and of wood," &c. (Ex Regist. Longland.
fol. 72.) Also they alleged the first commandment,
that there is but one God, and that they ought not to
worship more gods than one.
And as to the sacrament, they had their instruction
partly out of " Wickliffs Wicket," partly out of the
" Shepherd's Calendar;" where they read that the sa-
crament was made in remembrance of Christ, and ought
to be received iu remembrance of his body, &c. They
also alleged the words of Christ spoken at the supper,
when sitting with his disciples, he took bread, and
hlessed it, and brake it, and gave to his disciples, and said,
" Eat : this (reaching out his arm, and showing the breailin
his hand, and then noting his own natural body, and
touching the same, and not the bre;id consecrated) is my
body which is broken for you ; this do in remembrance of
me." And he likewise took the wine cup and bade them
drink, saying, " This cup is the new testament in my
blood : this do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance
of me." (1 Cor. xi. 24, &c.)
That Christ our Saviour sitteth on the right hand of
the Father, and there shall be unto the day of judgment.
Wherefore, they believed that in the sacrament of tl»e
altar the very body of Christ was not there.
Such reasons as these, taken out of the scripture, and
out of the " Shepherd's Calendar," " WicklifTs
Wi<:ket,'' and out of other books they had among tliem.
And although there was no learned man with them to
ground them in their doctrine, yet they, communing and
conferring together among themselves, converted one
anotlier, the Lord's hand working with them : so that in
a short space the number of these men exceedingly in-
creased ; so that the bishop, seeing the matter almost
past his power, was driven to make his complaint to the
king, and require his aid for suppression of these men.
Whereupon, King Henry, being then young, and inex-
pert in the bloody practices and blind leadings of these
apostolical prelates, directed down the following letter to
the sheriffs, bailiffs, officers, and others, for the aid of
tlie bishop in tliis behalf.
The Copy of the Kmi'' s I^etfer for the aid of John
Lonffland, bishop of Lincoln, ar/ainst the Senmnts of
Christ, theTt falsely called Heretics.
" Henry VIIL, by the grace of God, king of England
and of France, lord of Ireland, defender of the faith : to
all mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, and constables, and to all
other our officers, ministers, and subjects, hearing or
seeing these our letters, and to every olf them, greeting.
Forasmuch as the right reverend father in God, our
trusty and right well-beloved counsellor, the bishop of
Lincoln, hath now within his diocese no small number
of heretics, as it is thought, to his no little discomfort
and heaviness : We, therefore, being in will and mind
safely to provide for the said right reverend father in
God and his officers, that they, or none of them, shall
bodily be hurt or damaged by any of the said heretics or
their favourers, in executing and ministering justice to
the said heretics, according to the laws of holy church ;
do straightly charge and command you, and every of
you, as ye regard our high displeasure, to be aiding,
helping, and assisting to the said right reverend father
in God, and his said officers, in the executing of justice
in the premises, as they or any of them shall require you
so to do ; not failing to accomplish our commandment
and pleasure in the premises, as ye intend to please us,
and will answer to the contrary at your uttermost perils.
Given under our signet at our castle at Windsor, the
twentieth day of October, the thirteenth year of our
reign."
The bishop thus being armed with the authority of the
king's letter, and incited by his own fierceness, lost no
time, but, to accomplish his violence upon the poor
flock of Christ, he called before him all those in his
diocese, who were suspected to incline toward those
opinions : to such as had but newly been taken, and had
not before abjured, he enjoined most rigorous penance.
The others in whom he could find any relapse, yea, al-
though they submitted their.selves never so humbly to
his favourable courtesy ; and tho\igh also at his request,
and for hope of pardon, they had shewed tlicmselves
great detecters of their brethren ; yet, contrary to his
fair words, and their expectation, he spared not, but
read sentence of rehpse against them, committing them
to the secular arm to be burnt.
The books ami opinions wliich these persons were
charged with, and for the which they were abjured, are
A.D. 1521.]
THE REFORMATION.
421
partly before expressed, partly here follow in a brief
summary to be seen.
A brief Summary of their Opinions.
The opinions of many of these persons were, That he
or she never believed in the sacrament of the altar, nor
ever would.
That he was known of his neighbours to be a good
feUow, meaning, that he was one of this sect or com-
pany.
For saying, that he would give forty pence on condi-
tion that such a one knew so mnch as he knew.
Some for saying, that they of Amersham, who had
abjured before by Bishop Smith, were good men,
and perfect christians, and simple folk who could not
answer for themselves, and therefore were oppressed by
the power of the bishop.
Some, for hiding others in their barns.
Some, for reading the scriptures, or treatises of scrip-
ture, in English : some, for hearing the same read
Some, for defending ; some, for marrying with them
who had abjured.
Some, for saying that matrimony was not a sacra-
ment.
Some, for saying that worshipping of images was
mummery ; some, for calling images carpenters' chips ;
some, for calling them stocks and stones ; some, for call-
ing them dead things.
Some, for saying that money s]ient upon pilgrimage,
served but to maintain thieves and harlots.
Others, for saying, that notliing graven with man's
hand was to be worshipped. .
Another, for calling his vicar a poll- shorn priest.^
Another, for calling a certain blind chapel in ruin, an
old fair milk-house.
Another, for saying, that alms should not be given
before it did sweat in a man's hand.
Some, for saying, that they who die, pass straight
either to heaven or hell.
Isobel Bartlet was brought before the bishop and ab-
jured, for lamenting her husband when the bishop's man
came for him, and saying, that he was an undone man,
and she a dead woman.
For saying that Christ, departing from his disciples
into heaven, said. That once he was in sinners' hands,
and would come there no more.
Some were condemned for receiving the sacrament at
Easter, and doubting whether it was the very body of
Christ, and not confessing their doubt to their ghostly
Father.
Some, for reading the gospels — the epistles — and Re-
velation. Some, for having the creed and Lord's prayer
in English.
Some for saying, that the pope had no authority to
give pardon, or to release man's soul from sin ; and that
it was nothing but blindmg of the people to get their
money.
The penance enjoined to these parties, by this John
Longland, bishop of Lincoln, was almost uniform, save
that they were severally committed to several monas-
teries, there to be kept all their life, except they were
otherwise dispensed with by the bishop.
And they were all at the same time compelled to ab-
jure; by which word, " abjure," is meant, that they were
constrained by their oath, swearing upon the evangelists,
and subscribing with their hand, and a cross to the
same, to say that they utterly and voluntarily re-
nounced, detested, and forsook, and never should hold
hereafter these opinions, contrary to the determination
of the holy mother church of Rome : and, further, that
they should detect to their ordinary, whomever they
should see or suspect hereafter to teach, hold, or main-
tain the same.
Among the forenamed persons who thus submitted
themselves, and were put to penance, there were some,
who, because they had been abjured before, were now
condemned for relapse, and had sentence read against
them, and so were committed to the secular arm to be
burned : whose names here follow : — Thomas Bernard,
James Morden, Robert Rave, John Scrivener, martyrs.
(A.D. 1521.)
Of these, mention is made before, both touching their
abjuration, and also their martyrdom. To whom we
may add, Joan Norman, Thomas Holmes.
This Thomas Holmes, altliough he had disclosed and
detected many of his brethren ; thinking thereby to
please the bishop, and to save himself, and was thought
to be a man paid by the bishop for that purpose : yet,
in the bishop's register appears the sentence of relapse
and condemnation, written and drawn out against him ;
and most probable it is that he was also adjudged and
executed with the others.
As touching the burning of John Scrivenes, here it is
to be observed, that his children'were compelled to set
fire to their father ; and, in like manner, Joan Clerke
also, daughter of William Tilseworth, was constrained to
apply the fire to the burning of her own father.
The example of which cruelty, is not only contrary
both to God and nature, but it lias not even been seen
or heard of in the memory of the heathen.
THE REFORMATION.
Although it cannot be sufficiently expressed with the
tongue, or pen of man, into what miserable ruin and
desolation the church of Christ was brought in those
later d ys : yet partly, by the reading of these histories,
some intelligence may be given to those who have judg-
ment to mark, or eyes to see in what blindness and
darkness the world was drowned during the space of
upwards of four hundred years. By the viewing and
considering of which times and histories, thou mayst
understand (gentle reader) how the religion of Chri t,
which only consists in spirit and truth, was wholly turned
into outward observances, ceremonies, and idolatry.
We had so many saints, so many gods, so many monas-
teries, so many pilgrimages. W^e had as many churches,
as many reliques forged and feigned. Again, we believed
so many reliques, so many lying miracles. Instead of
the only living Lord, we worshipped dead stocks and
stones. In place of immortal Christ, we adored mortal
bread. How the people were led, so that the priests
were fed, no care was taken. Instead of God's word,
man's word was set up. Instead of Christ's testament,
the pope's testament, that is the canon-law. Instead
of St. Paul, Aquinas took place, and almost full posses-
sion. The law of God was little read, the use and end
of it was less known ; and as the end of the law was
unknown, so the difference between the gospel and the
law was not understood, the benefit of Christ not con-
sidered, the effect of faith not examined. Through this
ignorance it cannot be told what infinite errors, sects,
and religions crept into the church, overwhelming the
world as with a flood of ignorance and seduction. And
no marvel ; for where the foundation is i.ot well laid,
what building can stand or prosper ? The foundation of
all our Christianity is only this ; the ])romise of God in the
blood of Christ his Son, giving and promising lite to
all that believe in hi •. : Giving (saith the scripture) to
us, and not bargaining or indenting ttit/i us. And that
freely for Christ's sake, and not conditionally for our
merits' sake.
Furthermore, freely (saith the scripture) by grace,
that the promise might be firm and sure, and not by the
works that we do, which always are doubtful. By grace
(saith the scripture) through promise, to all and upon
all them that believe, and not by the law upon those that
deserve. For if it come by deserving, then it is not of
grace : if it be not of grace, then it is not of promise ;
and contrariwise, if it be of grace and promise, then it
is not of works, saith St. Paul. Upon the foundation
of God's free promises and grace, first builded the
patriarchs, kings, and prophets. Upon this same foun-
dation also Christ the Lord builded his church. Upon
which foundation the apostles likewise builded the apos-
tolic or catholic church.
So long as the church retained this apostolical and
catholic foundation, so long it continued pure and sound.
422
THE REFORMATION.— MARTIN LUTHER.
[Book VII.
■wliich endured a long time after the apostles' time. But
afterwards in process of j'ears, through wealth and neg-
ligence, so soon as this foundation began to be lost,
there came in new builders, who would build upon a new
foundation a new church, wliich we call now the church
of Rome ; who being not content with the old founda-
tion, and the head corner-stone, which the Lord by his
word had laid, laid the groundwork upon the condition
and strength of the law and works. Although it is not
to be denied, but that the doctrine of God's holy law,
and of good works according to the same, is a thing
most necessary to be learned and followed by all men :
yet it is not that foundation whereupon our salvation
consists, neither is that foundation able to bear up the
weight of the kingdom of heaven, but is rather the tiling
wliich is builded on the foundation, which foundation
is Jesus Christ; according as we are taught by St. Paul,
saying, " Other foundation can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ," &c.
Rut this ancient foundation, which the old ancient
church of Christ laid, has been now long forsaken,
and instead of it a new church, with a new foundation,
lias been erected, not upon God's promise, and his free
giace in Christ Jesus, nor upon free justification by
faith, but upon merits and deserts of men's working.
And here they have planted all their new devices, so
infinite, that they cannot well be numbered ; as masses,
trecenaries, dirges, obsequies, matins, and hours-singing-
service, vigils, midnight-rising, barefoot-going, fish-
tasting, Lent-fast, Ember-fast, stations, rogations, jubi-
lees, advocation of saints, praying to images, pilgrimage-
walking, works of supererogation, application of merits,
orders, rules, sects of religion, vows of celibacy, wilful
poverty, pardons, relations, indulgences, penance, and
satisfaction, with auricular confession, founding of ab-
beys, &c. And who is able to recite all their laborious
buildings, falsely framed upon a wrong ground, and all
for ignorance of the true foundation, which is the free
justification by faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God.
Moreover note, that as this new-found church of
Rome was thus deformed in doctrine, so was it cor-
rupt in order of life and deep hypocrisy, doing all
things only under pretences and dissembled titles ; so
Under the pretence of Peter's chair, they exercised a
majesty above emperors and kings. Under the visor of
their vowed celibacy, reigned adultery ; under the cloak
of professed poverty, they possessed the goods of the
tcniporalty ; under the title of being dead to the world,
tiiey not only reigned in the world, but also ruled the
world ; under the colour of the keys of heaven to hang
vnder their girdle, they brought all the states of the
Avorld under their girdle, and crept not only into the
purses of men, but also into their consciences : they
heard their confessions ; they knew their secrets ; they
dispensed as they were disposed, and absolved what
they chose ; and finally, when they had brought the
v.'hole world under their subjection, their pride neither
ceased, nor could their avarice be ever satisfied.
In these so blind and miserably corrupt days of dark-
ness and ignorance, thou seest, good reader, how neces-
sary it was, and high time, that the reformation of the
church should come, which now most happily and gra-
ciously began to work, through the merciful providence
of .Almighty God ; although he suffered his church to
wander and start aside, through the seduction of pride
and prosperity, for a long time, yet at length it pleased
!)is goodness to have respect to his people, and to reduce
his church to its pristine foundation and frame again,
from whence it was piteously decayed. Of this I have
now to treat, intending by the grace of Christ to declare
]:ow, and by what means first this reformation of the
church began, and how it proceeded, increasing by little
iind little to this perfection which we now see.
And here we have first to behold the admirable work
of God's wisdom. For as the first decay and ruin of
the church began by rude ignorance, and lack of know-
ledge in teachers ; so, to restore the church again by
doctrine and learning, it pleased God to open to man the
art of printing shortly after the burning of John Huss
and Jerome. Printing opened to the church the instru-
ments and tools of learning and knowledge, which were
good books and authors who before lay hid and un-
known. The science of printing being found, imme-
diately followed the grace of God, which stirred up good
understandings to conceive the light of knowledge and
of judgment : by which light darkness began to be seen,
and ignorance to be detected ; truth to be discerned
from error ; and religion from superstition.
After these men, stirred up by God, there followed
others, increasing daily more and more in science, in
languages, and perfection of knowledge, who being
so armed and furnished with the help of good letters,
that they encountered the adversary, sustaining the
cause and defence of learning against barbarity ; of truth
against error ; of true religion against superstition.
Here began the first assault against the ignorant and
barbarous faction of the pope's church. After these
men, by their learned writings and laborious travel, had
opened a window of light to the world, and had made (as
it were) a way more ready for others to come after them,
immediately, according to God's gracious appointment,
followed Martin Luther, with others after him, by
whose ministry it pleased the Lord to work a more fuU
reformation of his church.
The History of Dr. Martin Luther, with his Life and
Doctrine described.
Martin Luther, born at Isleben in Saxony, A.D. 148.3,
was sent to the university, first of Magdeburg, then of
Erfurth. In this university of Erfurth there was an
aged man in the convent of the Augustinians, with
whom Luther, being of the same order, an Augustinian
friar, had conference upon many things, especially touch,
ing the article of remission of sins ; which article the
aged father opened to Luther after this sort, declaring,
that we must not generally believe only forgiveness of
sins to be, or to belong, to St. Peter, to St. Paul, to
David, or such good men alone ; but that God's express
commandment is, that every man should believe his
sins individually to be forgiven him in Christ ; and
further said, that this interpretation was confirmed by
the testimony of St. Bernard, and shewed him the
place, in the Sermon of the Annunciation, where it is
thus set forth : — " But add thou that thou believest this,
that by him thy sins are forgiven thee. This is the
testimony that the Holy Ghost gives thee in thy heart,
saying, thy sins are forgiven thee. For this is the opinion
of the apostle, that man is freely justified by faith."
By these words Luther was not only strengthened,
but was also instructed in the full meaning of St. Paul,
who repeats so many times this sentence, " We are jus-
tified by faith." And having read the expositions of
many upon this place, he perceived, as well by the pur-
pose of the old man, as by the comfort he received in
his spirit, the vanity of those interpretations, which he
had read before by the schoolmen. And so reading by
little and little, comparing the sayings and examples of
the prophets and apostles, and continual invocation of
God, and exercise of faith and prayer, he perceived that
doctrine most evidently. Then he began to read St.
Augustine's books, where he found many comfortable
things : among others, in the Exposition of the Psalms,
and especially of the Book of the Spirit and Letter,
which confirmed this doctrine of faith and consolation
in his heart not a little. And yet he laid not aside tlie
Sententiaries, as Gabriel and Cameracensis. Also he
read the books of Occam, whose subtlety he preferred
above Thomas Aquinas and Scotus. He read also Ger
son ; but, above all the rest, he perused St. Augustine's
works all over, with attentive meditation ; and thus he
continued his study at Erfurth for the space uf four
years in the convent of the Augustiiics.
About this time one Staupitius, a famous m;ii\, was
promoting the erection of an university in '\\ ittenliuvir,
and endeavouring to have schools of divinity foumltd in
this new university : when he had considered the sjiirit
and learning of Luther, he invited him from Erfurth,
to place him in Wittenburg, (A.D. \h(W.) at the age of
twenty-six. There his learning ajjpearcd in the ordi«
A.D. 1521.1
HISTORY OF MARTIN LUTHER.
421
nary exercise, botli of liis disputations in the schools, and
in preaching in churches, where many wise and learned
men attentively heard Luther.
Dr. Mellarstad would often say, that Luther was of
such a wonderful spirit, and so ingenious, that he was
sure that he would introduce a more compendious, easy,
and familiar manner of teaching.
There he expounded the logic and philosophy of Aris-
totle, and in the meanwhile omitted not his study in
theology. Three years afterwards he went to Rome,
about some contentions of the monks, and returning the
same year he was graduated as a doctor, at the ex))ense
of the elector Frederick duke of Saxony, according to
the solemn manner of the schools ; for he had heard him
preach, well understood the quietness of his spirit, dili-
gently considered *he force of his words, and held in
high admiration those profound matters which he so ex-
actly explained in his sermons.
After this he began to expound the Epistle to the
Romans, and then the Psalms, where he shewed the
difference betwixt the law and the gospel. He also
overthrew the error that then reigned in schools and
sermons, that men may merit remission of sins by their
own works, and that they are just before God by out-
ward dis<i]iline, as the pharisees taught. Luther dili-
gently led the minds of men to the Son of God ; and as
John the Baptist pointed to the Lamb of God which
took away the sins of the world, even so Luther shining
in the church as a bright star after a long, cloudy, and
obscure sky, clearly shewed, that sins are freely remitted
for the love of the Son of God, and that we ought faith-
fully to embrace this bountiful gift.
These happy beginnings got him great authority, espe-
cially as his life corresponded to his profession. The
consideration of which allured to him wonderfully the
hearts of his auditors, and also many notable personages.
All this while Luther yet altered nothing in the cere-
monies, but precisely observed his rule among his fel-
lows ; he meddled in no doubtful opinions, but taught
this only doctrine as the principal of all others to men,
opening and declaring the doctrine of repentance, of re-
mission of sins, of faith, as the only true comfort in times
of adversity. Every man received good taste of this sweet
doctrine, and the learned conceived high pleasure to behold
Jesus Christ, the prophets, and apostles, come forth
into light out of darkness, by which they began to un-
derstand the difference between the law and the gospel ;
between the promises of the law and the promise of the
gospel ; between spiritual righteousness and civil things ;
which certainly could not have been found in Thomas
Aquinas, Scotus, and such like authors, who were
studied at that time.
It happened about this time, that many were induced
by Erasmus's learned works, to study the Greek and
Latin tongues ; who perceiving a more gentle and ready
order of teaching than before, began to have in contempt
the monks' barbarous and sophistical doctrine ; and
especially such as were of a liberal nature and good dis-
position. Luther began to study the Greek and He-
brew tongue, that after he had learned the phrase and
propriety of the language, and drawn the doctrine from
the very fountains, he might give more sound judgment.
As Lutherwasthus occupied in Germany (A.D. 151(i,)
Leo X. having succeeded Julius 11. was pope of Rome,
•who, under a pretence of war against the Turk, sent a
jubilee with his pardons abroad through all christian
realms and dominions, by which he gathered together
innumerable riches and treasure. The gatherers and
collectors persuaded the people, that whoever would give
ten shillings, should at his pleasure deliver one soul from
the pains of purgatory. For this they held as a general
rule, that God would do whatever they would have
him, according to the saying, "Whatsoever you shall
loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven." But if it
were but one jot less than ten shillings, they preached
that it would profit them nothing.
This filthy kind of pope's merchandize, as it spread
through all quarters of christian regions, so came also to
Germany, through means of a certain Dominican friar
named Tetzel, who most impudently caused the pope's
indulgences or pardons to be carried and sold about the
country. Luther, much moved with the blasphemous
sermons of this shameless friar, and having his heart
earnestly bent to maintain true religion, published cer-
tain propositions concerninir indulgences, and set them
openly on the temj)le that joins the castle of Wittenberg,
on the ;iOth of September, A.D. 1517.
This friar, hoping to obtain the pope's blessing, as-
sembled certain monks and divines of his convent, and
forthwith commanded them to write something against
Luther. And while he would not himself seem to b;-,
dumb he began not only to inveigh in his sermons, but
to thunder against Luther, crying, " Luther is an here-
tic, and worthy to be persecuted with fire.'' And be-
sides this, he burned openly Luther's propositions, and
the sermons which he wrote on indulgences. The rage
and fury of this friar forced Luther to treat more amply
of the cause, and to maintain his argument.
And thus arose the beginning of this controversy,
wherein Luther, neither suspecting nor dreaming of any
change that might happen, did not utterly reject the in-
dulgences, but only reqviired a moderation in them ; and
therefore they falsely accuse him, who blaze that he be-
gan with plausible matter, by which he might get praise,
to the end that in process of time he might change the
state of the commonweal, and purchase authority either
for himself or others.
And certainly he was not stirred up by the court, for
the Duke Frederick was offended that such contention
and controversy should arise.
And as this Duke Frederick was one of all the princes
of the time that most loved quietness and tranquillity, so
he neither encouraged nor supported Luther, but often
shewed the heaviness and sorrow which he bore in his
heart, fearing still greater dissensions. But being a wise
prince, and following the counsel of God, and well de-
liberating thereon, he thought with himself that the glory
of God was to be preferred above all things. Nor was
he ignorant what blasphemy it was, horribly condemned
by God, obstinately to oppose the truth. Wherefore he
did as a godly prince should do ; he obeyed God, com-
mitting himself to his holy grace, and omnipotent pro-
tection. And although Maximilian the emperor, Charles
king of Spain, and jiope Julius, had given commandment
to the Duke Frederick that he should prohibit Luther
from all place and liberty of preaching ; yet the Duke,
considering with himself the preaching and writing of
Luther, and weighing diligently the testimonies and
places of scripture which he alleged, would not withstand
the thing which he judged to be true and sincere. And
yet he did not do this, trusting to his own judgment, but
was very anxious to hear the judgment of others, who
were both aged and learned. In the number of whom
was Erasmus, whom the duke desired to declare to him
his opinion touching the matter of Martin Luther ; say-
ing and protesting, that he would rather the ground should
open and swallow him, than he would bear with any
opinions which he knew to be contrary to manifest truth ;
and therefore he desired him to declare his judgment in
the matter to him freely and friendly.
Erasmus, thus being intreated by the duke, began thus
jestingly and merrily to answer the duke's request, say-
ing, that, in Luther were two great faults ; first,
that he would touch the bellies of monks : the second,
that he would touch the pope's crown; which two mat-
ters are in no case to be tampered with. Then, opening
his mind plainly to the duke, he said, that Luther was
occupied in detecting errors, and that a reformation was
to be wished, and very necessary in the church : and he
added, that the effect of his doctrine was true ; but only
he wished in him a more temperate moderation and
manner of writing. Duke Frederick shortly after wrote
to Luther seriously, exhorting him to temper the vehe-
mence of his stjle. This was at the city of Cologne,
shortly after the coronation of the new emperor.
Erasmus the next year wrote to the archbishop of
Mentz an epistle touching the cause of Luther. In
which epistle he signifies to the bishop " That manj
424
THE REFORMATION.— MARTIN LUTHER.
[Book VII.
things were in the hooks of Luther condemned by monks
ind divines for heretical, which in the books of Bernard
nnd Austin are read as sound and godly."
Also " That the world is burdened with men's insti-
tutions, with school-doctrines and opinions, and with
the tyranny of begging friars ; which friars, being
nothing but the pope's sei-vants and underlings, yet
have they so grown in power and multitude, that they
are now terrible both to the pope himself, and to all
princes. Who so long as the pope makes with them, so
Ions: tliey make him more than God ; but if he make any
thing against their purpose or advantage, then they
weigh his authority no more than a dream or phantasy."
" Once," said he, " it was counted an heresy when
a man opposed the gospel or articles of the faith ; now
he that dissents from Thomas Aquinas is an heretic ;
whatever they like not, whatever they understand not,
that is heresy. To speak Greek is heresy ; or to speak
more finely than they do, that is with them heresy." And
thusmuchby the way concerning the judgment of Erasmus.
Now to return, and to treat of the acts and conflicts of
Luther with his adversaries. After Tetzel, with his
fellow-monks and friars, had cried out with open mouth
against Luther, in maintaining the pope's indulgences ;
and after Luther, in defence of his cause, had set up
propositions against the open abuses of indulgences, it
was wonderful to see how soon those propositions were
spread abroad in far places, and how greedily they were
caught up in the hands of persons both far and near.
And thus the contention increasing between them,
Luther was compelled to write more largely and fully
than otherwise he thought, which was in A.D. 1,517.
Yet all this while Luther never thought of any altera-
tion, much less such a reformation of doctrine and cere-
monies as afterwards followed. But hearing that he was
accused to the bishop of Rome, he wrote humbly to him,
in which writing he declares the outrage of those pardon-
mongers who so excessively cheated the simple people,
to the great slander of the church, and shame to his
holiness ; and so proceeding, in the end of his writing
thus submits himself.
" Wherefore,'' saith he, " most holy father, I offer
myself prostrate under the feet of your holiness, viith all
that I am, and all that I have. Save me, kill me, call
me, recall me, approve me, reprove me as you shall please.
Your voice, the voice of Christ in your sjieaking, I will
acknowledge. If I have deserved death, I shall be con-
tented to die ; for the earth is the Lord's, and all the
fulness thereof, who is blessed forever. Amen." This
was in A.D. 1.518.
After Martin Luther, provoked by Tetzel, had de-
clared his mind in writing, lowly and humbly, and had
set up certain propositions to he disputed ; not long
after, among other monks and friars, steps up Silvester
de Prierio, a Dominican friar, who began to publish
abroad an imi)ndent and railing dialogue against him.
Next after this Sylvester stept forth Eckius, and op-
posed the conclusions of Luther. Against whom D.
Andrew Bedenstein, archbishop of Wittenberg, came
forth, making his apology in defence of Luther.
Then was Martin Luther cited the 7th of August, by
Jerome bishop of Ascalon, to appear at Rome. About
which time Thomas Cajetan, cardinal, the pope's legate,
was then at the city of Augsburgh, having before been
sent down with certain mandates of Pope Leo to that
city. The University of Wittenberg hearing of Luther's
citation, soon directed their letters, with their public
seal, to the pope in Luther's behalf. Also another letter
they sent to Charles Militz, the pope's chamberlain ;
also good Frederick ceased not for his part to solicit the
matter with his letters and earnest suit with Cardinal
Cajetan, that the cause of Luther might be removed
from Rome to Augsburgh, in the hearing of the cardinal.
Cajetan, at the suit of the Duke, wrote to the pojie, from
whom he received this answer, 2.{d August: " That he
hadcnted Luther to appear personally before him at Rome,
by Jerome bishop of As(-alon, auditor of the chamber,
which bishop had diligently done what was commanded
him ; but Luther, abusing and contemning the gentle-
ness offered, not only refused to come, but also became
more bold and stubborn, continuing, or rather increasing
in his former heresy. Wherefore he desired that tiie
cardinal should cite and call up the said Luther, to a])-
pearat the city of Augsburgh before him, adjoining withal
the aid of the princes of Germany, and of the emperor,
if need required ; so that when the said Luther should
appear, he should lay hands upon him, and commit him
to safe custody, and then he should be brought up to
Rome ; and if he perceived him to come to any ki>:>w-
ledge or amendment of his fault, he should release iiim
and restore him to the church again, or else he should
be interdicted, with all his adherents, abettors, and
maintainers, of whatever state or condition they were,
whether they were dukes, marquises, earls, barons,
&c. Against all which persons and degrees, he desired
him to extend the same curse and maledi-.-tion (only the
person of the emperor excepted) interdicting, by the
censure of the church, all such lands, lordships, towns,
tenements, and villages, as should minister any harbour
to Luther, and were not obedient to the see of Rome.
Contrariwise, to all such as shewed themselves obedient, !
he should promise full remission of all their sins."
The pope directs other letters also at the same time
to Duke Frederick, complaining with many grievous i
words against Luther.
The cardinal being thus charged with injunctions!
from Rome, according to his commission, sends with
all speed for Luther, to appear at Augsburgh, before him.
About the beginning of October, Martin Luther yield,
ing his obedience to the church of Rome, came to Augs-
burgh at the cardinal's message (at the charges of the 1
noble prince elector, and also with his letters of com-
mendation), where he remained three days before he
came to his presence, for it was providecJ by his friends
that he should not confer with the cardinal till a suf-
ficient warrant or safe conduct was obtained of the
emperor Maximilian. Which being obtained, he soon
entered, offering himself to the presence of the cardi-
nal, and was there received by the cardinal very gently ;
who, according to the pope's command, propounded to
Martin Luther three things, to wit : —
1. That he should repent and revoke his errors.
2. That he should promise, from that time forward, to
refrain from the same.
'A. That he should refrain from all things that might by 1
any means trouble the church.
When Martin Luther required to be informed where-
in he had erred, the legate brought forth a papal bull,
called the Extravagant of Clement, which begins, " Uni-
genitus," &c., because that he, contrary to that canon,
had held and taught in his fifty-eight propositions, " That
the merits of Christ, are not the treasure of indulgences
or pardons." Secondly, the cardinal, contrary to the
seventh proposition of Luther, affirmed, that faith is not
necessary to him that receives the sacrament.
Another day, in the presence of four of the emperor's
council, having a notary and witnesses present, Luther
protested for himself, in this manner following : —
"I Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, protest, that
I do reverence and follow the church of Rome in all my
sayings and doings, present, past, and to come ; and if
any thing has been, or shall be said by me to the con-
trary, I count it, and am willing that it be counted
and taken as though it had never been spoken. But
because the cardinal has required at the command of
the pope three things of me,
1. That I should return again to the knowledge of
myself.
2. That I should beware of falling into the same agaiq
hereafter.
3. That I should promise to abstain from all things
which might disquiet the church of God ;
" I protest here this day, that whatever I have said,
seems to me to be sound, true, and catholic ; yet for
the further proof of it, I offer myself personally, cither
here or elsewhere, publicly to give a reason of my say-
ings. And if this please not the legate, I am ready hIso
in writing to answer his objections, if he have any against
me ; and to hear the sentence and judgiiie tit of rlie
universities of the empire, Basil, Friburg, and Louvaine.'*
A.D. 1521.1
THE REFORMATION.— MARTIN LUTHER.
425
After this, Luther prepares an answer to the legate,
teaching that the merits of Christ are not committed to
men ; that the pope's voice is to be heard when he
speaks agreeably to the scriptures ; that the pope may
err, and that he ought to be reprehended. Moreover
he shewed, that in matters of faith, not only the
general council, but also every faithful christian is al)ove
the pipe, if he depend on better authority and better
reason : that the extravagant bull contains untruths :
that it is an infallible truth that none is righteous : that
it is necessary for him that comes to the receiving
of the sacrament to believe : that faith in the remission
of sins is necessary ; that he ought not to decline from
the truth of the scripture : that he sought nothing but the
light of the truth, &c.
But the cardinal would hear no scriptures ; he disputed
without scriptures ; he devised glosses and expositions
out of his own head ; and by subtle distinctions like a
very Proteus he avoided all things. After this, Luther
being commanded to come no more into the presence of
the legate, except he would recant, abode there still and
would not depart. Then the cardinal sent for John Stu-
pitius, vicar of the Augustinians, and moved him earnestly
to bring Luther to recant. Luther tarried the next day
also, and nothing was said to him. The third day also
he tarried, and delivered his mind in writing ; in which,
first, " he thanked him for his courtesy and great kindness,
which he perceived by the words of Stupitius, toward
him, and therefore was the more ready to gratify him in
whatever kind of office he could do him service, confessing
that where he had been somewhat sharp and eager against
the pope's dignity, that was not so much of his own mind,
as it was to be ascribed to the importunity of some
who gave him occasion. Notwithstanding as he acknow-
ledged his excess, so he was ready to shew more modera-
tion hereafter, and also promised to make amends to the
bishop, and that in the pulpit, if he pleased. And as to
the matter of pardons, he promised also to proceed no
further, if his adversaries likewise were bound to keep
silence. Rut as he wa- pressed to retract his sentence
which he had pfv-iously lefenr'^ed, as he had said nothing
but with a good lonscienc*;, and which was agreeable to
the firm testimonies of the.Tripture, therefore he humbly
desired the detera 'natioiv of it to be referred to the
bishop of Rome ; for nothing could be more grateful
to him, than t*^ hear the voice of the church speak-
ing." &c.
Who does not see by this humble submission of Lu-
ther, that if the bishop of Rome would have been satis-
fied or contented with any reason, he had never been
troubled any further by Luther ? But the secret purpose
of God had a further work to do ; for the time was now
come when God thought good that pride should have a
fall. Thus while the unmeasurable desire of that bishop
sought more than enough (like Esop's dog coveting to
have both flesb and shadow) he not only missed what
he gaped for, but also lost what he had.
This writing Luther delivered to the cardinal, the
third day after he was commanded out of his sight.
Which Ic-tter or writing the cardinal little regarded.
When Luther saw that he would give no answer to the
letter, he yet remained after the fourth day, and still
nothing was answered ; the fifth day likewise was passed
with silence, and nothing done. At length, by the coun-
sel of liis friends, and especially because the cardinal had
said before that he had a commandment to imprison
Luther and John Stupitius ; after he had made and set
up his ai)pe;il where it might be seen and read, he de-
parted, tliinking that he had shewed obedience long
enough. Luther himself records all this, and shews
why he submitted himself to the church of Rome ; de-
claring that even those things which are most truly
spoken, yet ought to be maintained and defended with
humility and fear ; and he protests that he reverences
and follows the church of Rome in all things, and that
he sets himself only against those which, under the name
of the church of Rome, go about to set forth and com-
mend Babylon to us.
Thus Luther, being rejected from the presence of the
cardinal Cajetan after six days' waiting, departed by the
advice of his friends, and returned into Wittenber",
leaving a letter in writing to be given to the cardinal,
wherein he declared sufficiently, — his obedience iu his
coming, — the reasons of his doctrine, — his reasonable
submission to the see of Rome, — his long waiting after
he was repelled from the cardinal's presence, — the
charges of the duke, — ard finally, the cause of his de-
parting. Besides this letter to the cardinal, he left also
an appeal to the bishop of Rome, from the cardinal,
which he caused to be published before his departure.
After Luther had departed and returned again into
his own country, Cajetan writes to Duke Frederick a
sharp and biting letter, in which first he notices his
gentle entreating and good will shewn to reduce Luther
from his error. Secondly, he complains of the sudden
departing of him, and of Stupitius. Thirdly, he declares
the danger of Luther's doctrine against the church of
Rome. Fourthly, he exhorts the duke, that as he ten-
ders his own honour and safety, and regards the favour of
the high bishop, he will send him to Rome, or expel him
out of his dominions, forasmuch as such a pestilence
could not, and ought not by any means to be suffered.
To this letter of the cardinal the duke answers at
large, clearing both Luther and himself ; Luther, in that
he following his conscience, grounded upon the word of
God, would not revoke that for an error, which could be
proved to be no error ; and himself he excuses thus,
that where it is required of him to banish him his coun-
try, or to send him up to Rome, it would be little be ■
coming him to do so, and less conscientious, unless he
knew just cause wliy he should do so, which if the cardi-
nal would or could declare to him, there should lack
nothing in him which was the duty of a christian prince
to do. And therefore he desired him to endeavour with
the bishop of Rome, that innocency and truth be not
oppressed before the crime or error be lawfully con-
victed.
This done, the duke sends the letter of the cardinal to
Martin Luther, who answered again to the prince, shew-
ing first how he came obediently to Cajetan with the
emperor's warrant, and what talk there was between
them ; how Cajetan pressed him, against his conscience
and manifest truth, to revoke these errors. First, that
the merits of Christ's passion were not the treasure of
the pope's pardons. Secondly, that faith was necessary
in receiving the sacraments. Although in the first he
was content to yield to the cardinal ; yet in the second,
because it touched a great part of our salvation, he could
not with a safe conscience retract, but desired to be
taught by the scriptures, or at least, that the matter
might be brought into open disputation in some free
place of Germany, where the truth might be discussed
and judged by learned men. The cardinal, not pleased
with this, in great anger cast out many menacing words,
and would not admit him any more to his presence ; and
yet he persisting in his obedience to the church of Rome,
gave attendance, waiting upon the cardinal's pleasure a
sufficient time.
At last, when no answer would come, after lie had
waited the space of five or six days, to his great loss and
greater danger, by the persuasion of his friends he de-
parted. At which, if the cardinal was displeased, he
had most cause to blame himself. " And now, aii the
cardinal threatens me," saith he, " not to let the matter
fall, but that the process shall be pursued at Rome, un-
less I either come and present myself, or else be banished
your dominions, I am not so much grieved for mine own
sake as that you should sustain on my account any
danger or peril. And therefore seeing there is no jihu-e
nor country, which can keep me from the malice «f my
adversaries, I am willing to depart hence, and to for-
sake my country, whithersoever it shall please the Lord to
lead me, thanking God who has counted me worthy to
suffer thus much for the glory of Christ's name."
At this time the cause of Luther was in great danger,
and he himself was ready to fly the country, and the
duke again was as much afraid to keep him, had not the
marvellous providence of God provided a remedy where
the power of man failed, by stirring up the whole univer-
sity of Wittenberg, who seeing the cause of truth thus
426
THE REFORMATION.— MARTIN LUTHER,
[Book VII.
declining, with a full and general consent addressed their
letters to the prince, in defence of Luther and of his
cause, making their humble suit to him, that he of
his i)riin!ely honour would not suffer iimocency and the
S!in|ilicity of cruth, so clearly exposed in the scriptures,
to he foiled and oppressed by mere violence of certain
mali'^jiriut flatterers about the pope, but that the error
may first be sliewa and convicted, before the party be
pronounced guilty.
By these letters tlie duke began more seriously to con-
sider in his mind the cause of Luther, and to read his
works, and also to hearken to his sermons. By which
(through God's holy working) he grew to knowledge and
strc-iiiitli, perceiving in Luther's quarrel more than he
did !jt fore. This was about the beginning of December,
A.D. i:)is.
As tliis passed on. Pope Leo, playing the lion at Rome,
in tlie month of November, to establish his seat against
the defection which he feared was coming, had sent
forth new indulgences into Germany, and all quarters
abroad, with a new edict, wherein he declared this to be
tlie c;itl)olic doctrine of the holy mother church of Rome,
prince of all other churches, that bishops of Rome, who
are successors of Peter, and vicars of Christ, have this
poiver and authority given to release and dispense, also
to grant indulgences available both for the living, and
for the dead lying in the pains of purgatory ; and this
doctrine he charged to be received of all faithful christian
men, under pain of the great curse, and utter separation
from all holy church.
This popish decree and indulgence, as a new merchan-
dise to get money, having been sent into all quarters of
Christendom for the holy father's advantage, came also
to be received in Germany about the month of Decem-
ber. Luther in the meantime, hearing that at Rome
they were about to proceed and pronounce against him,
provided a certain appeal in due form of law, wherein he
appeals from the pope to the general council.
When Pope Leo perceived that his pardons would not
prosper to his mind, and that Luther could not be
brought to Rome, he sent his chamberlain, Charles
Miltitz, who was a German, into Saxony to Duke Fre-
derick, with a golden rose, after the usual ceremony, with
secret letters also to certain noblemen of the duke's
council, to solicit in favour of the pope's cause, and to
remove the duke's mind, if it might be, from Luther.
But before Miltitz approached Germany, the Emperor
Maximilian died in Jan. 1519. Then two candidates
stood for the election, to wit, Francis the French king,
and Charles king of Spain, who was also duke of Austria,
and duke of Burgundy. To make this matter short,
through the means of Fredel-ick prince elector (who
having the offer of the preferment, refused it) the election
fell to Charles, called Charles V., about the end of
August.
In the month of June previously, there was a public
disputation at Leipsic, a city under the dominion of
George duke of Saxony, uncle to Duke Frederick. This
disputation first began through the occasion of John
Eckius, a friar, and Andrew Carolostad, a doctor of
Wittenberg. This Eckius had impugned certain propo-
sitions or conclusions of Martin Luther, which he had
written the year before against the pope's pardons.
Against him Carolostad wrote in defence of Luther.
Eckius, to answer Carolostad, set forth an apology ;
which apology Carolostad confuted in writing. To this
disputation Martin Luther came with Philip Melanc-
thon, who not a year before had come to Wittenberg ;
Luther not thinking then of disputing any thing because
of his appeal already mentioned, but only to hear what
was said and done.
iiffore the entering into the disputation it was agreed
that every thing should be penned by notaries, and
efterwards published. But Eckius afterwards went back
from that, pretending that the penning of the notaries
would be an hinderance to them, by whicli their rea-
soning would be the more languid. Hut Carolostad
would not dispute without notaries. The sum of their
disputation was reduced to certain conclusions. Among
which, first came in question to dispute of free will, that
is, whether a man have of himself any election or pur-
pose to do that which is good. When the question was
to be discussed, what the will of man may do of itself,
without grace ; they, through heat of contention, fell
into other matters little or nothing appertaining to
that Carolostad proposed. Eckius affirmed that the
pure strength to do good is not in man's will, but is
given of God to man, to take interest and increase of
man again, which at first he seemed to deny. Then
being asked by Carolostad whether the whole and full
good work that is in man proceeds of God ? He an-
swered, the whole good work, but not wholly, granting
that the will is moved by God, but that to consent is in
man's power. Against this Carolostad reasoned, al-
leging certain places of Augustine, and of St. Paul, who
saith, "That God worketh in us both to will and to j
do." And this opinion of Carolostad seemed to prevail.}
And thus a whole week was lost about this contentious]
and sophisticalaltercation between Eckius and Carolostad.
Luther, as was said, came not thinking at all to dis-
pute, but having liberty granted by the duke, and under
the po])e's authority, was challenged, and forced against
his will, to dispute with Eckius. The matter of their
controversy was about the authority of the bishop of j
Rome. Luther had previously set forth in writing, that
they who attribute the pre-eminency to the church of
Rome, have no otlier foundation for it than the pope's
decrees, which had been set forth not much more thau
four hundred years before ; and these decrees he af-
firmed to be quite contrary to all ancient histories, fori
above a thousand years past, and also contrary to the
holy scriptures, and to the Nicene council.
Against this assertion Eckius set up a contrary con-
clusion, saying, " That they who hold that the supre-
macy and pre-eminence of the church of Rome above all
other churches was not before the time of pope Silves-
ter I. do err, forasmuch as they who succeed in the see
and faith of Peter, were always received for the successors
of Peter, and vicars of Christ on earth."
Though this was the last of all the other points of Ec-
kius, yet he thought to begin with this against Luther, in
order to bring him into more displeasure with the bishop
of Rome ; but Luther refused to dispute, alleging that
the subject was more unpleasant than necessary for that
time, and also that for the bishop of Rome's sake, he
had much rather keep silence on the point. But if he
must needs be forced to it, he wished the fault should
be understood to be where it really was, namely, in his
adversaries who challenged him to it. Eckius again
clearing himself, transfers all the fault to Luther, who
first in his treatise on indulgences, asserted that before
Pope Silvester's time the church of Rome had no pre-
eminence above other churches.
Thus Luther being constrained to dispute, whether
he would or no, the question began to be pro-
pounded as to the supremacy of the bishop of Rome,
which supremacy, Eckius contended was found and
grounded upon God's law. Luther on the other side
denied not the supremacy of the bishop of Rome above
other churches, neither did he deny it to be universal
over all churches, but he only affirmed it not be instituted
by God's law. Upon this question the disputation con-
tinued for tlie space of five days. During all which time
Eckius very dishonestly and discourteously demeaned
himself, studying by all means how to bring his adver-
sary into hatred with the auditors, and into danger
with the pope. Tlie reasons of Eckius were these:
" Forasmucli as the church, being a civil body, cannot
be without a head, therefore as it stands with God's law,
that other civil governments should not be destitute of a
head ; so it is requisite by God's law, that the pope
should be the head of the universal church of Christ."
To tliis Martin Luther answered, "That he confesses
and grants the church not to be headless so long as
Christ is alive, who is the only head of the church ; neither
does the cliurch require any other head beside him, foras-
much as it is a spiritual kingdom, and not earthly."
And he alleged for him the place of Coloss. i. 18
Eckius again produces certain places out of Jerome and
Cyprian, which made very little way to prove the pri-
i- ,r '■
-11^/
^ i. i
I mi; I
§ift:«i
A. D. 1521.]
THE REFORMATION.— MARTIN LUTHER.
427
macy of the pope to exist by the law of God. As
to the testimony of Bernard, the authority of that au-
thor was not of any great force in this question.
Then he came to the phice of St. Matthew, " Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church,"
&c. To this was answered, " That this was a confes-
sion of faith ; and that Peter there represents the person
of the whole universal church, as Augustine expounds
it. Also, that Christ in that place means himself to be
the rock, as is manifest both by his words, and the struc-
ture of the sentence, and many other conjectures.
Also to the place of St. John, (xxi.Ki.) " Feed my sheep "
(Which words Eckius alleged were spoken, peculiarly to
Peter alone). Luther answered, " That after these
words were spoken, an equal authority was given to all
the apostles, where Christ saith to them, ' Receive ye
the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are re-
mitted,' &c. By these words (saith he) Christ, assign-
ing to them their office, teaches what it is to feed, and
what he ought to be who feeds." After this, Eckius
came to the authority of the council of Constance , al-
leging this among others, — " That it stands upon neces-
sity of our salvation, to believe the bishop of Rome to
be supreme head of the church : alleging, moreover,
that in that council it was debated and discussed, that a
general council could not err." To this Martin Luther
answered discreetly, saying, " That all the articles which
John Huss held were not condemned in that council for
heretical. Again, of what authority that council of
Coustance is to be esteemed, he left to other men's
judgments. This is most certain (said he) that no
council has authority to make new articles of faith."
Here Martin Luther was exclaimed against by Eckius
and his accomplices, for diminishing the authority of
general councils ; although he meant to confirm their
authority. Yet he was called a heretic and a schismatic,
and one of the Bohemian faction, with many other terms
of reproachful insult. Eckius then granted the autho-
rity of the apostles to be equal : and yet that it did not
follow thence, that the authority of all bishops was
equal. In conclusion, Eckius could not bear that any
one should decline from any word or sentence of the
pope's decrees, or the constitutions of the fathers. To
this Luther answered, grounding himself upon the place
in Gal. ii. 6, where St. Paul, speaking of the principal
apostles, saith, " And of them who seemed to be some-
what, whatever they were, it maketh no matter to me,
for God accepteth no man's person : nevertheless, that
they seemed to be somewhat added nothing to me," &.c.
Eckius said to this " That as to the authority of the
apostles, they were all chosen by Christ, but were or-
dained bishops by St. Peter." And when Luther
brought forth the constitution of the decree, which saith,
" Let not the bishop of Rome be called universal
bishop," &c. Eckius answered, " That the bishop of
Rome ought not to be called universal bishop ; yet he
may be called bishop of the universal church." And
thus much touching the question of the pope's su-
premacy.
From this matter they entered next upon purgatory,
where Eckius kept no order ; for when they should have
disputed what power the pope has in purgatory ; Eckius
turns the scope of the question, and endeavours to prove
that there is purgatory ; and alleges the place of Macca-
bees. Luther, leaning upon the judgment of Jerome,
affirms the book of Maccabees to be not canonical.
Eckius again replies, that the book of Maccabees was
of no less authority than the gospels. Also, he alleges
the place, 1 Cor. iii. 15, " He himself shall be saved ;
yet so as by fire." Also, the place of Matthew v. 25,
*' Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in
the way with him, lest he deliver thee to prison, — thou
shale not come out thence till thou hast paid the utter-
most farthing," &c. To this he added also, Psal.
Ixvi. 12, " We went through fire and water," &c. How
these places are wrested to purgatory, let the reader dis-
cern and judge. Then was brought on the question of
indulgences, of which Eckius seemed to make but a
tritie, and a matter of nothing, and so passed it over.
At last they came to the question of penance : touch-
ing which, the reasons of Eckius digressed much from
the purpose, and went to prove, that there are some pains
of satisfaction, which Luther never denied ; but that for
every particular offence such particular penance is ex-
acted of God's justice upon the repentant sinner, as is
in man's power to remit or release ; such penance
neither Luther, nor any true christian would admit.
And thus ye have the chief effect of this disputation
between Luther and Eckius at Leipsic, in the month of
July, 15iy.
About the beginning of the same year, 1519, Ulric
Zuinglius came first to Zurich, and there began to teach.
In the sixteenth article in his book of articles, he re-
cords, that Luther and he at the same time, one not
knowing or hearing of the other, began to write against
the pope's pardons and indulgences. Yet, if the
time be rightly counted, I suppose we shall find that
Luther began a year or two before Zuinglius. Not-
withstanding, Sleidan testifies, that in tliis year, when
Sampson, a Franciscan, came with the pope's pardons to
Zurich, Ulric Zuingli\is withstood him, and declared his
pardons to be but a vain seducing of the people, to in-
veigle away their money.
In the next year, which was 1520, the friars and
doctors of Louvaine, and of Cologne, condemned the
books of Luther as heretical. Luther again effectually
defended himself, and charged them with obstinate vio-
lence and malicious in. piety. About this same time
flashed out from Rome the thunderbolt of Pope Leo
against Luther, although he had so humbly and obe-
diently reverenced both the person of the pope, and the
authority of his see, and had also dedicated to him the
book intituled, " Of Christian Liberty." In which
book he discusses aud proves these two points princi-
pally ;
1. That a christian man is free, and Lord over all
things, and subject to none.
2. That a christian man is a diligent underling and
servant of all men, and to every man subject.
Also, in the same year he set out a defence of all his
articles, which the pope's bull had before condemned.
Another book also he wrote to the nobility of Ger-
many, in which he impugns and shakes the three princi-
pal vvalls of the papists ; the first whereof is this : —
1. Whereas the papists say, that no temporal or pro-
fane magistrate has any power over the spirit-
uality, but that the spirituality have power over the
other.
2. Where any place of scripture, being in controversy,
it is to be decided, they say, " No man may ex-
pound the scripture, or be judge of it, but only the
pope."
3. When any council is brought against them, they
say, " That no man has authority to call a council,
but only the pope."
Moreover, in this book he handles and discourses on
other matters : That the pope can stop no free councU ;
also what things ought to be handled in councils : That
the pride of the pope is not to be suffered. What
money goes out of Germany yearly to the pope, amounts
to the sum of three millions of florins. Furthermore,
in this book he proves and discusses, that the emperor
is not under tlie pope ; and that the donation of Con-
stantine is not true, but forged : That priests may have
wives : That the voices of the people ought not to be
separated from the election of ecclesiastical persons :
That interdicting and suspending of matrimony at cer-
tain times was introduced from avarice : what is the
right use of excommunication : That there ought to be
fewer holy-days : That liberty ought not to be restrained
in meats : That wilful poverty and begging ought to be
abolished : What damage and inconvenience have grown
up by the council of Constance : and what misfortunes
Sigismund the emperor sustained, for not keeping faith
and promise with John Huss and Jerome of Prague :
That heretics should be convinced not by fire and
faggot, but by evidence of scripture, and God's word :
How schools and universities ought to be reformed:
428
THE REFORMATION— MARTIN LUTHER.
[Book VII.
What is to be said and juds;ed of the pope's decretals :
That the first teaching of children ought to begin with
the gospel.
In the month of October this year, the new emperor,
Charles v., was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle ; and about
the month of November, Pope Leo sent again to Duke
Fredeii<-k two cardinals, of whom the one was Jerome
Leander, who, after a few words of high commendation,
premised to the duke, touching his noble progeny and
his other famous virtues, then they made two requests
to him in tlie pope's name ; first. That he would cause
all the books of Luther to be burned. Secondly,
That he would either cause Luther to be executed, or
else would send him up to Rome to the pope.
These two requests seemed very strange to the duke :
who, answering the cardinals, said, " That he having
been hmg absent from thence, on other public affairs,
could not tell what had been done, neither had he com-
municated on the doings of Luther. However, this he
had heard, that Eckius was a great disturber not only of
Luther, but of other learned and good men of his uni-
versity. As for himself, he was always ready to do his
duty ; first, in sending Luther to Cajetan the cardinal
at the city of Augsburgh, and afterwards, at the pope's
command, would have sent him out of his dominions,
had not Meltitz, the pope's own chamberlain, given
contrary counsel to retain him still in his own country,
fearing lest he might do more harm in other countries
than where he was better known : and so now also he was
as ready to do his duty, wherever right and equity re-
quired. But as in this cause he sees much hatred and
violence shewn on one side, and no error yet convicted
on the other side, but that it had rather the appr bation
of many well learned and sound men of judgment ; and
as also the cause of Luther was not yet heard before the
emperor, therefore he desired the legates to arrange
•with the pope's holiness, that certain learned persons of
gravity and upright judgment might be assigned to have
the hearing and determination of this matter, and that
his error might first be known and proved, before he
•was made a heretic, or his books burned. And then
when he should see his error by manifest and sound
testimonies of scripture, Luther should find no favour at
his hands ; otherwise he trusted that the pope's holiness
would e.xact nothing of him, which he might not with
equity and honour of his place and estate, reasonably
perform, &c.
Then the cardinals, declaring to the duke again, that
they could do no otherwise, than according to the form
of their commission, and so they took the books of
Luther, and shortly after set fire upon them, and openly
burnt them. Luther hearing this, in like manner called
together all the students and learned men in Wittenberg,
and there taking the pope's decrees, and the bull lately
sent down against himself, openly and solemnly, accom-
panied with a great number of people following him, he
set them likewise on fire, and burnt them, on the 10th
of December.
A little before these things passed between the pope
and Martin Luther, the emperor had commanded and
ordained a sitting or assembly of the states of all the
empire to be held at the city of Worms, on the sixth
day of January next ensuing. In which assembly,
through tlie means of Duke Frederick, the emperor gave
forth. That he would have the cause of Luther there
brought before him, and so it was. For when the as-
semljly was commenced in the city of Worms, after-
wards, upon the sixth day of March following, the em-
peror, tlirough the advice of Duke Frederick, directed
his letters to Luther ; signifying, that for so much as he
had set forth certain books, he therefore, by the advice
of his peers and princes about him, had ordained to have
the cause brought before him in his own hearing, and
tlierefore he granted him licence to come, and return
home again. And that he might safely and quietly do
so, he promised to him by pul)lic faith and credit, in the
name of the wliole empire, his passport and safe conduct;
as by tlie instrument which he sent to him, he might
the more fully be assured. Wherefore, without all
doubt or distrust, he desired him to repair to liim, and
to be there present the one-and-twentieth day after the
receipt thereof.
Martin Luther being thus provided with his safe con-
duct by the emperor, and after having been accursed at
Rome upon Maunday Thursday, by the pope ; he,
shortly after Easter, speeds his journey to Worms ;
where he appeared before the emperor and all the states
of Germany ; how constantly he stuck to the truth, and
defended himself, and answered his adversaries, shall
now be detailed.
The Acts and Doingf: of Martin Luther hefore the
Emperor at the City of Worms.
In the year 1.521, about seventeen days after Easter,
Martin Lutlier entered Worms, having been sent for by
the Emjjeror Charles V., &c. And whereas Luther
having published tliree years before certain propositions
to be disputed in the town of Wittenberg in Saxony,
against the tyranny of the pope^which, notwithstand-
ing, were torn in pieces, condemned and burned by the
papists, and yet convinced by no manifest scriptures, or
probable reason — the matter began to grow to a tumult
and agitation ; and yet Luther maintained all the while
openly his cause against the clergy. Upon this it
seemed good to some, that Luther should be summoned,
assigning to him a herald-at-arms, with a letter of safe
conduct by the emperor and princes. Being sent for,
he came, and was brought to the house of the knights of
Rhodes, where he was lodged, well treated, and visited
by many earls, barons, knights of the order, gentlemen,
priests, and the commonalty, who frequented his lodging
until night.
To conclude, he came, contrary to the expectation of
many ; for although he was sent for by the emperor's
messenger, and had letters of safe conduct, yet, as a few
days before his books had been condemned by public
proclamation, it was much doubted by many whether he
would come : especially as his friends deliberated to-
getlier in a village nigh at hand, (where Luther was first
advertised of these occurrences) and many persuaded
him not to venture himself into such danger. When he
had heard their whole persuasion and advice, he
answered in tliis wise : — " As, since I am sent for, I am
resolved and certainly determined to enter Worms, in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; yea, although there
were so many devils to resist me, as there are tiles to
cover the houses in Worms.'*
The fourth day after his arrival, a gentleman, named
Ulrick of Pappenheim, lieutenant-general of the men at
arms of the empire, was commanded by the emperor, be-
fore dinner, to go to Luther, and to enjoin him to appear
before his imperial majesty, the princes electors, dukes,
and other estates of the empire, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, to be informed of the cause of his being sent
for ; to which he willingly assented, as was his duty.
Therefore, at four o'clock, Ulrick of Pappenheim, and
Caspar Sturm the emperor's herald, (who conducted
Luther from Wittenberg to Worms,) came for Luther,
and accompanied him through the garden of the knights
of Rhodes, to the earl palatine's palace : and lest the
people that thronged in should molest him, he was led by
secret stairs to the place where he was appointed to have
the audience. Yet, many who perceived this stratagem,
violently rushed in, and were resisted, but in vain, and
many ascended the galleries, because they desired to see
Luther.
Tlius standing before the emperor, the electors, dukes,
earls, and all the estates of the empire assembled there,
he was first advertised by Ulrick ofPappenheim to keep
silence, imtil such time as he was required to speak.
Then John Eckius, above-mentioned, who was the bishop
of Triers' general official, with a loud and intelligible voice,
first in Latin, then in Dutch, according to the emperor's
command, said and proposed this sentence : —
" Martin Luther, his sacred and invincible imperial
majesty hath enjoined, by the consent of all the estates of
the holy empire, that thou shouldst be appealed before
A. D. 1521.]
THE REFORMATION— MARTIN LUTHER.
429
j the throne of his majesty, to the end, that I might demand
of thee thf se two points.
j " Fir.-;t, whether thou confess these hooks here (for he
i shewed a heap of Luther's books, written in the Latin
I and Dutch tongues), and which are in all places dis-
persed, entitled with thy name, be thine, and that thou
dost affirm them to be thine, or not ?
" Secondly, whether thou wilt recant and revoke
them, and all that is contained in them, or rather meanest
to stand to what thou hast written ?"
Then, before Luther prepared to answer, Jerome
! ScurfTus, a lawyer of Wittenberg, required that the titles
I of the books should be read. Forthwith Eckius named
some of the books, and those principally which were
printed at Basil, among which he named his Commen-
taries upon the Psalms, his book on Good Works, his
Commentary upon the Lord's Prayer, and others which
were not controversial.
After this, Luther answered in Latin and in Dutch : —
"Two things are proposed to me by bis imperial
majesty : First, whether I will avow all those books that
j bear my name. Secondly, whether I will maintain or
revoke anything that I have devised or published. I will
answer as briefly as I can.
" In the first place, I can do no otherwise than re-
cognise those books to be mine, which were named ;
and, certainly, I will never recant any clause of them.
In the second place, to declare whether I will wholly de-
, fend, or call back any thing contained in them ; as there
are questions of faith and the salvation of the soul, (and
this concerns the word of God, which is the greatest and
most excellent matter that can be in heaven or earth, and
which we ought duly and evermore to reverence,) this
might be accounted a rashness of judgment in me, and
even a most dangerous attempt, if 1 should pronounce
I any thing before I were better advised, considering I
! might recite something less than the matter imports, and
i more than the truth requires, if I did not premeditate
I what I would speak. These two things being well consi-
' dered, doth bring to my mind this sentence of our Lord
' Jesus Christ, where it is said, ' Whosoever shall deny me
I before men, him will I also deny before my Father, who is
in heaven.' I require then for this cause, and humbly
beseech his imperial majesty to grant me liberty and lei-
sure to deliberate, so that I may satisfy the interroga-
tion made to me, without prejudice of the word of God,
and peril of mine own soul."
Whereupon the princes began to deliberate. Then
Eckius, the prolocutor, pronounced their resolution,
saying, " Although, master Luther, thou hast sufficiently
understood, by the emperor's command, the cause of thy
appearance here, and therefore dost not deserve to have
any further respite given thee to determine ; yet the em-
peror's majesty, of his mere clemency, grants to thee one
day to meditate thy answer, so that to-morrow, at this
hour, thou shalt exhibit thine opinion, not in writing,
but pronounce the same with thy voice."
Then Luther was led to his lodging by the herald.
But here I must not forget, that in the way as he was
going to the emperor, and when he was in the assembly
of the princes, he was exhorted by others to be cour-
ageous, and manly to demean himself, and not to fear
them that can kill the body, but not the soul, but rather
to dread him that is able to send both body and soul to
everlasting fire.
He was encouraged too by the words of our Lord, that
" When tl;ou art before kings, think not what thou shalt
speak, for it shall be given to thee in that hour what thou
shalt say."
The next day, at four o'clock, the herald again came,
and brought Luther from his lodging to the emperor's
court, where he staid till six o'clock, for the princes were
occupied in grave consultations ; there he was surrounded
with a great number of people, and almost smothered for
the press that was there. Theji, afterwards, when the
jirinces were set, and Luther entered, Eckius, the o£5cial,
began to speak in this manner : —
" Yesterday, at this hour, the emperor's majesty
assigned thee to be here master Luther, for thou didst
affirm those books that we named yesterday were thine.
Further, to the interrogation made by us, whether thou
wouldest approve of all that is contained in them, or
retract and make void any part of them, thou didst re-
quire time for deliberation, which was granted, and is
now expired. Although thou oughtest not to have had
opportunity granted to deliberate, considering it was not
unknown to thee wherefore we cited thee. And as con-
cerning the matter of faith, every man ought to be so
prepared, that at all times, whenever he shall be required,
he may give certain and constant reason thereof ; and
thou, especially, being counted a man of such learning,
and so long time exercised in theology. Then, go to,
answer even now to the emperor's demand, whose cle-
mency thou hast experienced in giving thee leisure to
delil)erate. Wilt thou now maintain all thy books which
thou hast acknowledged, or revoke any part of them, and
submit thyself?"
The official made this interrogation in Latin and in
Dutch. Martin Luther answered in Latin and in Dutch,
in this wise, modestly and lowly, and yet not without
some stoutness of spirit, and christian constancy, so that
his adversaries would gladly have had his courage more
humbled and abased, but yet more earnestly they desired
his recantation, of which they were in some hopes, when
they heard him desire respite to make his answer.
His Ansicer was this : —
"Most magnificent emperor, and you most noble
princes, and my most gentle lords, I appear before you
here at the hour prescribed to me yesterday, yielding the
obedience which I owe ; humbly beseeching, for God's
mercy, your most renowned majesty, and your graces
and honours, that ye will minister to me this courtesy, to
attend to this cause benignly, which is the cause, (as I
trust,) of justice and truth. And if, by ignorance, I
have not given to every one of you your just titles, or if
I have not observed the ceremonies and countenance of
the court, offending against them, it may please you to
pardon me of your benignities, as one that hath frequented
cloisters, and not courtly ci\ilities. And first, as touch-
ing myself, I can affirm or promise no other thing, but
only this ; that I have taught hitherto in simplicity of
mind, that which I have thought to tend to God's glory,
and to the salvation of men's souls.
" Now, as concerning the two articles objected by
your most excellent majesty, whether I would acknow-
ledge those books which were named, and are published
in my name, and whether I would maintain or revoke
them, I have given a resolved answer to the first, in
which I persist, and shall persevere for evermore, that
these books are mine, and published by me in my name ;
unless it has since happened, by some fraudulent deahng
of mine enemies, that there be any thing foisted into
them, or corruptly altered. For I will acknowledge
nothing but what I have written, and that which I have
written I will not deny.
" Now, to answer the second article. I beseech your
most excellent majesty, and your graces, to vouchsafe to
give ear. All my books are not of one sort. There are
some in which I have so simply and soundly declared,
and opened the religion of christian faith, and of good
works, that my very enemies are compelled to confess
them to be profitable, and worthy to be read of all chris-
tians. And truly, the pope's bull, (how cruel and tyran-
nous soever it be,) judges some of my books to be blame-
less ; although, with severe sentence he thunders against
me, and with monstrous cruelty condemns my books ;
which books if I should revoke, I might worthily be
thought to transgress the office of a true christian, and
to be one that opposes the public confession of all peo-
ple. There is another sort of my books, which contain
invectives against the papacy, and others of the pojie's
retinue, who have, with their pestiferous doctrine, and
pernicious examples, corrupted the whole state of our
Christianity. Nor can any deny or dissemble this, for
universal experience, and common complaint of all bear
witness to it, that the consciences of all faithful men are
most miserably entrapped, vexed, and cruelly tormented
430
THE REFORMATION— MARTIN LUTHER.
[Book VII.
by the pope's laws and doctrines of men. Also, that
the goods and substance of christian people are devoured,
especially in this noble and famous country of Germany,
and even yet, in a most detestable manner, are suffered
still to be devoured, without measure, by incredible
tyranny ; notwithstanding that they themselves have
ordained to the contrary in their own proper laws, wherein
they themselves have decreed, ' That all such laws of
popes, as are repugnant to the doctrine of the gospel, and
the opinions of the ancient fathers, are to be judged
erroneous, and reproved.'
" If, tiien, I should revoke these, I do nothing but add
more force to their tyranny, and open not only windows
but wide gates to their impiety, which is likely to extend
more wide and more licentiously than ever ; and by my
retracting, their insolent assumptions shall be made
more licentious, and less subject to punishment, intoler-
able to tlie common people, and more confirmed and
established, especially if it be known that I have done
this by the authority of your most excellent majesty, and
the sacred Roman empire. O, Lord ! what a cover or
shadow shall I be then to cloak their naughtiness and
tyranny !
" The rest, or third sort of my books, are such as I have
written against some persons, to wit, against such as with
tooth and nail labour to maintain the Romish tyranny,
and to deface the true doctrine and religion which I have
taught and professed. As to these, I plainly confess, I
have been more vehement than my religion and profes-
sion required ; for I make myself no saint, and I dispute
not of my life, but of the doctrine of Christ.
" And these I cannot without prejudice call back; for,
by this recantation it will come to pass, that tyranny and
impiety shall reign, supported by my means, and so they
shall exercise cruelty against God's people more violently
and ragingly than before.
" Nevertheless, as I am a man, and not God, I can no
otherwise defend my books, than did my very Lord Jesus
Christ defend his doctrine ; who being examined before
Annas, and having received a buffet of the officials, said,
' If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil.'
" If the Lord, (who was perfect, and could not err,) re-
fused not to have testimony given against his doctrine, yea
of a most vile servant, how much the more ought I, who
am but vile corruption, and can of myself do nothing but
err, earnestly see and require if any will bear witness
against my doctrine.
" Therefore, I require, for God's mercy, your most
excellent majesty, your graces and right honourable
lordships, or whatsoever he be of high or low degree,
here to give his testimony to convict my errors, and con-
fute me by the scriptures, either out of the prophets, or
the apostles, and I will be most ready, if so instructed,
to revoke any manner of error ; yea, and I will be the first
that shall consume mine own books, and burn them.
" I suppose it may seem, that I have well weighed
beforehand the perils and dangers, the divisions and
dissensions which have arisen throughout the wliole
world, by reason of my doctrine, whereof I was vehe-
mently and sharply yesterday admonished. Concerning
which divisions of men's minds, what other men judge I
know not. As to myself, I conceive no greater delight
in anything, than when I behold discords and dissen-
sions stirred up for the word of God ; for such is the
course and proceedings of the Gospel. Jesus Christ
saith, ' I came not to send peace, but a sword ; I came
to set a man at variance with his father,' &c. (Matt. x.
34.)
" And, further, we must think, that our God is mar-
vellous and terrible in his counsels ; lest perhaps that
which we endeavour with earnest study to achieve and
bring to pass, (if we begin first with condemning his
word,) may redound again to a sea of evil ; and lest the
new reign of this young and bounteous prince Charles,
(in whom, next after God, we all conceive singular
hope,) be lamentable, unfortunate, and miserably begun.
" I could exemplify this with authorities of the scrip-
tures more effectually, as by Pharaoh, the king of
Egypt, and the kings of Israel, wlio then most obscured
the bright suu of their glory, and procured their own
ruin, when by their counsels, and not by God's counsels,
they attempted to pacify and establish their governments
and realms ; for it is he that entraps the wily in theii
wiliness, and subverts mountains before they be aware.
Wherefore, it is good to dread the Lord.
" I speak not this, supposing that so politic and pru-
dent heads have need of my doctrine and admonition,
but because I would not omit to profit my country, and
offer my duty or service. And thus I humbly commend my.
self to your most excellent majesty, and your honourable
lordships, beseeching you that 1 may not incur your dis-
pleasure, or be contemned of you through the persecution
of my adversaries. I have spoken.''
Then Eckius, the emperor's prolocutor, with a stern
countenance began, and said, " That Luther had not
answered to any purpose. Neither behoved it him to
call in question things concluded and defined by general
councils ; and, therefore, retpiired of him a plain and di-
rect answer, whether he would revoke or no ?"
Then Luther. — " Considering, (said he,) your sovereign
majesty and your honours require a plain answer, this
I say and profess as resolutely as I may, without doubt-
fulness or sophistication, that if I be not convinced by
testimonies of the scriptures, and by probable reasons,
(for I believe not the pope, neither his general councils,
which have erred many times, and have been contrary to
themselves,) my conscience is so bound in these scrip-
tures, and the word of God, which I have alleged, that I
will not, and may not revoke any thing, considering it is
not godly or lawful to do any thing against conscience.
Hereupon I stand and rest. God have mercy upon
me."
The princes consulted together upon this answer ; and
when they had diligently examined the same, the prolo-
cutor began thus : —
" Martin," said he, " thou hast more immodestly an-
swered than beseemed thy person, and also little to the
purpose. Thou dividest thy books into three sorts, in
such a way as that all that thou hast said, makes nothing
to the interrogation proposed ; and, therefore, if thou
hadst revoked those wherein the greatest part of thine
errors is contained, the emperor's majesty, and the noble
clemency of others, would have suffered the rest to sus-
tain no injury. But thou dost revive, and bring to light
again, all that the general council of Constance has con-
demned, which was assembled of all the nation of Ger-
many, and now requirest to be convinced by the scrip-
tures, wherein thou greatly errest. For what availeth it
to renew disputation of things so long time condemned
by the church and councils, unless it should be necessary
to give a reason to every man of every thing that is con-
cluded ? Now if it should be permitted to every one
that opposes the determination of the church and coun-
cils, that he must be convinced by the scriptures, we
shall have nothing certain and established in Christendom.
" And this is the cause that the emperor's majesty re-
quires of thee a simple answer, either negative or affirma-
tive, whether thou mindest to defend all thy works as
christian, or no ?"
Then Luther turning to the emperor and the nobles,
besought them not to force or compel him to yield against
his conscience, confirmed with the holy scriptures, with-
out manifest arguments alleged to the contrary by his
adversaries.
" 1 have declared and rendered," said he, " mine an-
swer simply and directly, neither have I any more to
say, unless mine adversaries, with true and sufficient
proofs, grounded upon the scripture, can reduce and re-
solve my mind, and refute mine errors which they lay to
my charge. I am tied, as I said, by the scriptures ; nei-
ther may I, or can I, with a safe conscience, assent to
them. For as to general councils, with whose authority
only they press me, I am able to prove, that they have
both erred, and have defined many things contrary to
themselves ; and therefore the authority of them is not
sufficient, for the which I should retract those things,
the verity of which stands so firm and manifest in the
holy scripture, that neither of me ought it to be re-
quired, nor could I do so without impiety."
The official again answeredi denying that any man
A. D. 1521.]
THE RtFORMATI ON— MARTIN LUTHER
431
could prove the councils could have erred. But Luther
alleged that he could, and promised to prove it ; and now
night approaching, the lords rose and departed. And
after Luther had taken his leave of the emperor, many
Spaniards scorned and scoffed the good man in the way
going to his lodging, hollowing and whooping after him
a long wliile.
Upon the following Friday, when the princes electors,
dukes, and other estates were assembled, the emperor
sent to the whole body of the council a letter, containing
in effect as follows : —
The Emperor's Letter.
" Our predecessors, who truly were christian princes,
were obedient to the Romish church, which Martin Luther
now opposes. And therefore, inasmuch as he is not de-
termined to retract his errors in any one point, we can-
not, without great infamy and stain of honour, degene-
rate from the examples of our elders, but will maintain
the ancient faith, and give aid to the see of Rome. And
further, we are resolved to pursue Martin Luther and
his adherents, by excommunication, and by other means
that may be devised, to extinguish his doctrine. Ne-
vertheless we will not violate our faith, which we have
promised him, but mean to give order for his safe re-
turn to the place from whence he came."
The princes electors, dukes, and other estates of the
empire, sat and consulted about this sentence, on
Friday all the afternoon, and on Saturday the whole day,
80 that Luther had yet no answer from the emperor.
During this time, many j)rinces, earls, barons, knights
of the order, gentlemen, priests, monks, with others of
the laity and common sort visited him. All these were
present at all hours in the emperor's court, and could
not be satisfied with the sight of him. Also there were
bills setup, some against Lutb.er, and some, as it seemed,
with him. Notwithstanding many supposed, and espe-
cially such as well conceived the matter, that this was
subtlely done by his enemies, that thereby occasion
might be offered to violate the safe -conduct given to
him. Which the Romish ambassadors with all diligence
endeavoured to bring to pass.
The Monday following, the archbishop of Triers ad-
vertised Luther, that on Wednesday next he should ap-
pear before him, at nine of the clock, and assigned him
the place. On St. George's day, a chaplain of the
archbishop of Triers came to Luther, by the command-
ment of the bishop, signifying, that at that hour and place
prescribed, he must on the morrow after appear before him.
The morrow after St. George's day, Luther obeying
the archbishop's commandment, entered his palace, ac-
companied thither with his chaplain, and one of the em-
peror's heralds, and such as came in his company out of
Saxony to Worms, with his chief friends. Then Dr.
Voeus, the jMarquess of Baden's chaplain, began to de-
clare and protest in the presence of the archbishop of
Triers, Joachin Marquess of Brandenburgh, George
Duke of Saxony, the bishops of Augsburgh and Branden-
burgh, and others, that Luther was not called there to be
conferred with, or to a disputation, but only that the
princes had procured licence of the emperor's majesty,
through christian charity, to have liberty granted to them
to exhort Luther benignly and brotherly.
He said further, that although the councils had or-
dained many things, yet that they had not determined
contrary matters. And even though they had greatly
erred, yet their authority was not therefore abased, or at
the least they did not err so that it was lawful for every
man to impugn their opinions.
He said moreover, that Luther's book would breed
great tumult and incredible troubles ; and that he abused
the common sort with his book of christian liberty, en-
couraging them to shake off their yoke, and to confirm
in them disobedience. The believers were all of one
heart and soul, and therefore it was requisite and neces-
sary to have laws. It was to be considered, said he,
although he had written many good things, and, no doubt,
of a good mind, as de triplice just'tcia, and other mat-
ters, yet how the devil now by crafty means goeth
about to bring to pass, that all his works for ever should
be condemned. For by these books which he wrote last,
men, said he, would judge and esteem him, as the tree
is known, not by the blossom, but by the fruit.
Here he added something of the noon devil, and of
the spirit coming in the dark, s^d of the flying arrow.
All his oration was exhcrtatory, full of rhetorical figures
about honesty, the utility of laws, the dangers of con-
science, of the commonwealth ; repeating often, in
his oration, that this admonition was given from a
singular good will and great clemency. In concluding
his oration, he added menaces, saying, that if Luther
would abide in his intention, the emperor would proceed
further, and banish him from the empire.
Martin Luther answered : " Most noble princes, and
my most gracious lords, I render most humble thanks
for your benignities and singular good wills, whence pro-
ceedeth this admonition ; for I know myself to be safe,
as by no means I can deserve to be admonished of so
mighty estates."
Then he frankly pronounced, that he had not reproved
all councils, but only the council of Constance ; and for
this principal cause, that it had condemned the word of
God, which appeared in the condemnation of this article
propounded by John Huss : — "The church of Christ is the
communion of the predestinate." It is evident, said he,
tliat the council of Constanceabolished this article, and con-
sequently the article of our faith ; " I believe in the holy
church universal ;" and said, that he was ready to spend
life and blood, if he were not compelled to revoke the
manifest word of God ; for in defence of it we ought ra-
ther to obey God than men. If Christ's sheep were fed
with the pure pasture of the gospel : if the faith of Christ
was sincerely preached, and if there were good ecclesias-
tical magistrates who duly would execute their office,
we should not need, saith he, to charge the church with
men's traditions. Further, he knew well we ought to
obey the magistrates and higher powers, how unjustly
and perversely soever they lived. We ought also to be
obedient to their laws and judgment : all which he had
taught, said he, in all his works ; adding further, that
he was ready to obey them in all points, so that they en-
forced him not to deny the word of God.
Then Luther was desired to stand aside, and the
princes consulted what answer they might give him.
This done, they called him into a parlour, where the
aforesaid Dr. Voeus repeated his former matters, ad-
monishing Luther to submit his writings to the emperor,
and to the princes' judgment.
Luther answered humbly and modestly, that he could
not permit that men should say he would shun the
judgment of the emperor, princes, and superior powers
of the empire ; he would not refuse to stand to their
trial, and that he was contented to suffer his writings
to be discussed, considered, and judged by the simplest,
jirovided it were done by the authority of the word of
God and the holy scriptures ; and that the word of God
made so much for him, and was so manifest to him, that
he could not give place, unless they could confute his
doctrine by the word of God. This lesson, said he, he
learnt of St. Augustine, who WTites, " That he gave this
honour only to those books which are called canonical,
that he believed the same only to be true. As touching
other doctors, although in holiness and excellency of
learning they surpassed, yet he would not credit them
further than they agreed with the touchstone of God's
word. Further, said he, " St. Paul gives us a lesson,
writing to the Thessalonians, ' Prove all things, hold fast
that which is good ;' and to the Galatians, ' Though an
angel from heaven preach any other doctrine, let him be
accursed.' "
Finally, he meekly besought them not to urge his
conscience, which was bound by the word of God and
holy scripture, to deny the same excellent word. And
thus he commended his cause and himself to them, and
especially to the emperor's majesty, requiring their favour
that he might not be compelled to do any thing in this
matter against his conscience : in all other causes he
would submit himself with all kind of obedience and due
subjection.
432
THE REFORMATION— MARTIN LUTHER.
Book VIL
As Luther had thus ended his talk, Joachim the elec-
tor, Marquis of Brandenburgh, demanded if his meaning
was this, that he would not yield, unless he were con-
vinced by the scripture. " Yea truly, right noble lord,"
quoth Luther, " or else by ancient and evident reasons."
And so the assembly broke up, emd the princes repaired
to the emperor's court.
After their dejjarture, the archbishop of Triers, accom-
panied with a few of his familiars, namely, John Eckius
his olficial, and Cochleus, commanded Luther to repair
into his parlour. With Luther was Jerome Scurfe and
Nicholas Ambsdorff for his assistants.
They prayed him that he would submit his writing
to the judgment of the next general council. Luther
agreed to this, but with this condition, that they
themselves should present the articles collected out of
his books to be submitted to the council in such sort,
as should be authorized by the scripture, and confirmed
with the testimonies of the same.
They then leaving Luther, departed, and reported to the
archbishop of Triers, that he had promised to submit his
writings in certain articles, to the next council, and in
the mean space that he would keep silence ; which Luther
never thought ; who neither with admonitions, nor yet
•with menaces, could be induced to deny or submit his
books to the judgment of men (he had so fortified his
cause with clear and manifest authorities of scrijjture)
unless they could prove by sacred scripture, and apparent
reasons to the contrary.
It chanced then by the special grace of God, that the
archbishop of Triers sent for Luther, thinking presently
to hear him.
Then the archbishop intreated Luther, and conferred
with him very gently, first removing such as were
present. In this conference Luther concealed nothing
from the archbishop ; affirming that it was dangerous to
submit a matter of so great importance to those who
had already condemned his opinion, and approved the
pope's bull.
Then the archbishop, bidding a friend of his draw nigh,
required Luther to declare what remedy might be minis-
tered to help this difficulty. Luther answered, " That
there was no better remedy than such as Gamaliel
alleged in the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,
saying. If this council, or this work, proceed of men it
shall come to nought : but if it be of God, ye cannot
destroy it. And so he desired that the emperor might
be advertised to write to the pope, that he knew certainly
that if this enterprise proceeded not of God, it would be
abolished within three, yea within two years.
The archbishop inquired of him what he would do, if
certain articles were taken out of his books to be sub-
mitted to the general council. Luther answered, " Pro-
vided that they be not those which the council of Con-
stance condemned." The archbishop said, " I fear they
will be the very same ; but what then .>" Luther replied,
" I will not, and I cannot hold my peace on such matters,
for I am sure by their decrees the word of God was con-
demned ; therefore I will rather lose head and life, than
abandon the manifest word of my Lord God."
Tlien the archbishop, seeing Luther would in nowise
give over the word of God to the judgment of men, gently
bad Luther farewell ; who then prayed the archbishop to
intreat the emperor's majesty to grant to him gracious
leave to depart. He answered he would take order for
him, and speedily advertise him of the emperor's
pleasure.
Within a small while after, John Eckius the archbi-
shop's official, in the presence of the emperor's secre-
tary, said to Luther, by the command of the empe-
ror, that since he had been admonished by his imperial
majesty, the electors, princes, and estates of the empire,
and notwithstanding would not return to unity and
concord, it remained that the emperor, as advocate of the
catholic faith, should proceed further ; and it was the
emperor's ordinance, that he should within twenty-one
days return boldly under safe-conduct, and be safely
guarded to the place from whence he came ; provided
that he raised no commotion among the people in his
iourney, either in conference or by preaching.
Luther hearing this, answered very modestly, and
christiauly ; " Even as it hath pleased God, so is it
come to pass, the name of the Lord be blessed." He
said further, he thanked most humbly the emperor's
majesty, and all the princes and estates of the empire,
that they had given to him benign and gracious audience,
and granted him safe-conduct to come and return.
Finally he said, he desired none other of them, than a
reformation according to the sacred word of God, and
consonancy of holy scripture, which he desired in his
heart -. otherwise he was prepared to suffer all chances
from his imperial majesty, as life, and death, goods,
fame, and reproach ; reserving nothing to himself, but
the only word of God, which he would constantly con-
fess to the end ; humbly recommending himself to the
emperor's majesty, and to all the princes and other
estates of the sacred empire.
The morrow after, which was April 26, after he had
taken his leave of such as supported him, and his bene-
volent friends that often visited him. he departed from
Worms. The emperor's herald Casper Sturm followed and
overtook him at Oppenheim, being commanded by the
emperor to conduct him safely home.
The usual prayer of Martin Luther.
" Confirm in us, O God, what thou hast wrought, and
perfect the work that thou hast begun in us, to thy
glory. Amen."
Martin Luther thus being dismissed by the emperor,
departed from Worms towards his country, accom-
panied with the emperor's herald, and the rest of his
company, having only one-and-twenty days granted to
him for his return. In the meantime he writes to the
emperor, and to other nobles of the empire, rep ting
briefly to them the whole action and order of things
there done, desiring of them their lawful good will and
favour, which as he hath always stood in need of, so
now he most earnestly craves, especially in this, that his
cause, which is not his, but the cause of the whole
church universal, may be heard with equity, and decided
by the rule and authority of holy scripture : signifying
moreover, that whenever they shall please to send for
him, he shall be ready at their command, at any time or
place, upon their promise of safety, to appear, &c.
During the time of these doings, the doctors and
school-men of Paris were not behind-hand, but to shew
their cunning, condemned the books of Luther, extract-
ing out of them certain articles as touching the sacra-
ments, laws, and decrees of the church, equality of
works, vows, contrition, absolution, satisfaction, pur-
gatory, free-will, privileges of the holy church, councils,
punishment of heretics, philosophy, school divinity, and
other matters. Unto whom Philip Melancthon wrote
an answer, and also Luther himself, though pleasantly
and jestingly.
It was not long after this, that Charles the new em-
peror, to purchase favour with the pope (because he was
not yet confirmed in his empire) provides and directs a
solemn writ of outlawry against Luther, and all those
that take his part ; commanding Luther, wherever he
might be got, to be apprehended, and his books burned.
By which decree, proclaimed against Luther, the em-
peror procured no small thanks with the pope ; so that the
pope, ceasing to take part with the French King, joined
himself wholly to the emperor. In the mean time Duke
Frederick, to give some place to the emperor's procla-
mation, conveyed Luther a little out of sight secretly,
by the help of certain noblemen whom he well knew to
be faithful and trusty to him in that particular. There
Luther being kept close and out of company, wrote
several letters, and books to his friends ; among which
he dedicated one to his order of Augustinian friars,
entitled, " The mass abolished :" the friars being en-
co'Ar:;ged by him, began at first to lay aside their private
masses. Duke Frederick, fearing lest it would breed
some great stir or tumult, caused the judgment of the
whole university of Wittenberg to be asked in the
matter.
A.D. 1522.] ADRIAN ADMITS THE NECESSITY OF A REFORMATION IN THE CHURCH. 43Z
The jpinion of the whole university being ascertained,
it was shewn to the duke, that he would do well and
godly, by the whole advice of the learned there, to com-
mand the use of the mass to be abolished through his
dominions : and though it could not be done without
tumult, yet that was no reason why true doctrine should
be checked. Neither ought such disturbance to be im-
puted to the doctrine taught, but to the adversaries, who
willingly and wickedly kick against the truth. For fear
of such tumults therefore, w-e ought not to cease from
that which we know should be done, but must go con-
stantly forward in defence of God's truth however the
world may esteem us, or rage against it. Thus they
shewed their judgment to Duke Frederick.
It happened moreover about the same year and time,
(A.D. 1.t21,) that King Henry VIII., pretending an oc-
casion to impugn the book " On the Babylonish captivity,"
wrote against Luther. In which book,
1. He reproves Luther's opinion about the pope's
pardons.
2. He defends the suprem.acy of the bishop of Rome.
3. He labours to refute all his doctrine of the sacra-
ments.
This book, although it bore the king's name in the
title, yet it was another that planned it, and another
again who formed the style of it. But whoever had the
labour of this book, the king had the thanks and also
the reward. For the bishop of Rome gave to King
Henry VIII., for the book against Luther, the style and
title of " Defender of the Faith," aad to his successors
for ever.
Shortly after this, within the compass of the same
year. Pope Leo, after he had warred against the French,
and had got from them, through the emperor's aid, the
cities of Parma, Placentia, and Milan, sitting at supper,
and rejoicing at three great gifts that God had bestowed
upon lum : said, 1. That he, being banished out of his
country, was restored to Florence again with glory.
2. That he had deserved to be called apostolic. 3. That
he had driven the Frenchmen out of Italy. After he
had spoken these words, he was seized with a sudden
fever, and died shortly after, being of the age of forty-
seven years : some suspect that he died of poison.
Adrian VI., schoolmaster to Charles the emperor, suc-
ceeded and lived not much above one year and a half in
his papacy. This Adrian was a German, brought up'at
Louvaiue ; and as in learning he exceeded the common
sort of popes, so in moderation of life and manners he
seemed not so intemperate as some other popes. And
yet like a right pope, nothing degenerating from his see,
he was a mortal enemy to Martin Luther. In his time,
shortly after the council of Worms was broken up,
another meeting or assembly was appointed by the em-
peror at Nuremberg, of the princes, nobles, and states
of Germany, A.D. 1522.
To this assembly Adrian sent his letters in manner of
a brief, with an instruction also to his legate Cheregata,
to inform him how to proceed, and what to allege
against Luther, before the assembled princes. In this
letter of instruction, among other matters, is the follow-
ing admission by the pope himself, of the necessity of
the reformation : he thus writes to his legate.
" This you shall say to them, that we confess our-
selves, and deny not, but that God suffereth this persecu-
tion to be intlicted upon his church for the sins of men, es-
pecially of priests and prelates of the clergy. For certain
il IS, that the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that he
cannot save ; but our sins have divided between God and
US, and therefore he hideth his face from us that he will
not hear us. The scripture testifieth, that the sins of
the people do issue out from the sins of the priests ;
and therefore (saith St. Chrysostom) Christ, going
about to cure the sick city of Jerusalem, first entered
into the temple, to correct the sins of the priests, like a
good physician, who first begins to cure the disease from
the very root. We know that in this holy see there
have been many abominable things for a long time
wrought and practised : as abuses in matters spiritual,
and also ejicesses in life and manners, and all things
turned clean contrary. And no marvel, if the sickness
first beginning at the head, that is, at the high bishops,
have descended afterward to inferior prelates. All liave
declined, every one after his own way ; neither hath
there been one that hath done good, no nr)t one.
Wherefore there is need that we all give glory to God,
and that we humble our souls to him, considering every
one of us from whence he hath fallen ; and that every
one do judge himself before he be judged of God in the
rod of his fury. For the redress whereof you shall in-
sinuate to them, and promise in our behalf, that in us
shall be lacking no diligence of a better reformation,
first beginning with our own court ; that like as the
contagion first from thence descended into all the in-
ferior parts ; so reformation and amendment of all that
is amiss, from the same place again, shall take its be-
ginning. To tliat they shall find us so much the mere
ready, because we see the whole world so desirous of the
same. We ourselves (as you know) never sought this
dignity, but rather desired, if we otherwise might, to have
led a private life, and in a quiet state to serve God : and
also would utterly have refused the same, had not the
fear of God, and the manner of our election, and mis-
doubting of some schism to follow after, urged us to
take it. And thus took we the burthen upon us, not for
any ambition of dignity, or to enrich our friends and
kinsfolks, but only to be obedient to the will of God.
and FOR RliFORMATION OF THE CATIIOMC CHURCH,
and for relief of the poor, and especially for the advance-
menc of learning and learned men, with such other
things more as appertains to the charge of a good bishop
and lawful heir of St. Peter. And though all errors,
corruptions, and abuses be not straightways amended by
us, men ought not thereat to marvel. The sore is great,
and far grown, and is not single, but of manifold
maladies together compacted, and therefore to the
curing of it we must proceed by little and little, first be-
ginning to cure the greater and the most dangerous, lest
while we intend to amend all, we destroy all. All sud-
den mutations in a commonweath (saith Aristotle) are
perilous : and he that wringeth too hard, straineth out
blood."
Tfte Answer of the noble and reverend Princes, and
States of the sacred Roman Empire, exhibited to the
Pope's Ambassador.
"The noble and renowned prince Lord Ferdinand,
lieutenant to the emperor's majesty, with other rever-
end peers in Christ, and mighty princes electors, and
other states and orders of this present assembly of the
Roman empire in Nuremberg convented, have gratefully
received, and diligently perused the letters sent in form
of a brief, with the instructions also of the most holy
father in Christ and Lord, Lord Adrian, the high bishop
of the holy and universal church of Rome, presented
unto them in the cause of Luther's faction.
" By the aforesaid letters and writings, they first un-
derstand his holiness to have been born, and to have had
his native origin and parentage out of this noble nation
of Germany, at which they do not a little rejoice. Of
whose great virtues and ornaments, both in mind and
body, they have heard great fame and commendation,
even from his tender years : by reason whereof they are
so much the more joyous of his advancement and pre-
ferment, by such consent of election, to the height of the
apostolical dignity, and yield to God most hearty thanks
for the same: praying also, from the bottom of their
hearts, for his excellent clemency, and the perpetual
glory of his name, and for health of souls, and the safety
of the universal church, that God will give his holiness
long continuance of felicity : having no misdoubt but
that, by such a full and consenting election of such a
pastor of the universal catholic church, great jjrofit and
advantage will ensue. Which thing to hope and look
for, his holiness openeth to them an evident declaration
in his own letters, testifying and protesting what a care
it is to him both day and night, how to discharge his
pastoral function, in studying for the health of the flock
to him committed : and especially in converting the
minds of christian princes from war to peace. Declaring
moreover, what subsidy and relief his holiness hath sent
F F 2
434
ANSWER OF THE NOBLES TO THE POPE.
[Book VII.
to the soldiers of Rhodes, &c. All which things they
having considered with themselves, conceive exceeding
hope and comfort in their minds, thus reputing and
trusting that this concord of christian princes will be a
great help and stay to the better quieting of things now
out of frame ; without which neither the state of the
commonwealth, nor of the christian religion, can be rightly
redressed, and much less the tyranny of the barbarous
Turks repressed.
" Wherefore the excellent prince, lord lieutenant to
the emperor's majesty, with the other princes electors,
and orders of this present assembly, most heartily do
pray, tliat his holiness will persist in this his purpose
and diligence, as he hath virtuously begun, leaving no
stone unremoved ; so that the disagreeing hearts of
christian princes may be reduced to quiet and peace ; or
if tiiat will not be, yet at least some truce and intermis-
sion of domestic dissensions may be obtained for the
necessity of the time now present, whereby all christians
may join their powers together, with the help of God, to
go against the Turk, and to deliver the people of Christ
from his barbarous tyranny and bondage. Whereunto
both the noble prince lord lieutenant, and other princes
of Germany, will put to their helping hands, to the best
of their ability.
" And whereas by the letters of his holiness, with his
instruction also exhibited unto them by his legate, they
Tiuderstand that his holiness is afflicted with great sorrow
for tlie prospering of Luther's sect, whereby innumer-
able souls, committed to his charge, are in danger of per-
dition, and therefore his holiness vehemently desireth
some speedy remedy against the same to be provided,
witli an explication of certain necessary reasons and
causes, wliereby to move tlie German princes thereunto ;
and that tliey will tender the execution of the apostolic
sentence, and also of the enijieror's edict set forth
touching the suppressing of Luther. To these the lord
lieutenant, and other princes and states do answer, that
it is to tiiem no less grief and sorrow than to his holi-
ness ; and also they do lament as much for these impie-
ties and perils of souls, and inconveniences which grow
in the religion of Christ, either by the sect of Luther, or
any otherwise. Further, what help or counsel shall lie
in them for the extirpating of errors, and decay of souls'
health, what their moderation can do, they are willing
and ready to perform ; considering how they stand bound
and subject, as well to the pope's holiness, as also to the
emperor's majesty^ But why the sentence of the apos-
tolic see, and the emperor's edict against Luther, hath
not been put in execution hitherto, there hath been (said
they) causes great and urgent, which have led them
thereto ; as first, in weighing and considering with
themselves, that great evils and inconveniences would
tliereupon ensue. For the greatest part of the people
of Germany have always had this persuasion, and now
by reading Luther's books, are more therein confirmed
that great grievances and inconveniences have come to
this nation of Germany by the court of Rome ; and
therefore, if they should have proceeded with any rigor
in executing the pope's sentence, and the emperor's
edict, the multitude would conceive and suspect in their
minds, this to be done for subverting the verity of the
gospel, and for supporting and confirming the former
abuses and grievances, whereupon great wars and
tumults, no doubt, would have ensued : which thing of
the princes and states there hath been well perceived by
many arguments. For the avoiding wljeieof, they
thouglit to use more geutle remedies, serving more op-
portunely for the time.
" Again, whereas the reverend lord legate (said
they) in the name of the pope's holiness, hath been in-
structed to declare unto them, that God suiFereth this
persecution to rise in the church for the sins of men,
and that his holiness doth promise therefore to begin the
reformation with his own court, that as the corruption
first sprang from thence to the inferior parts, so the
redress of all again sliould first begin with the same :
also, whereas his lioliness, of a good and fatherly heart,
doth testify in his letters that lie liimtelf did always dis-
like that the coui't of Rome should intermeddle so much,
and derogate from the concordates of the princes, and
that his lioliness dotli fully purpose in that behalf,
during his papacy, never to practise the like, but so to
endeavour, that every one, and especially the nation of
the Germans, may have their proper due and right,
granting especially to the said nation his peculiar fa-
vour : who seeth not by these premises, but that this
most holy bishop omitteth nothing which a good father,
or a devout pastor may or ought to do to his sheep ? Or
who will not be moved hereby to a loving reverence,
and to amendment of his defaults ; namely, seeing his
holiness so intendeth to accomplish the same in deed,
which in word Lc piouiiseth, according as he hath
begun ?
" And thus undou'jtedly, both the noble lord lieute-
nant, and all other princes and states of the empire, well
hope that he will, and pray most heartily that he may
do, to the glory of our eternal God, to the health of
soids, and to the tranquillity of the public state. For
unless sucli abuses and grievances, with certain other
articles also, which the secular princes (assigned purposely
for the same) shall draw out in writing, shall be faithfully
reformed, tliere can be no true peace and concord be.
tweeu tlie ecclesiastical and secular estates, nor can any
true extirjiation of this tumult and errors in Germany
be expected ; for partly by long wars, and partly by
reason of other grievances and hindrances, this nation of
Germany hath been so wasted and consumed in money,
that it is scarcely able to sustain itself in private affairs,
and necessary upholding of justice within itself; much
less than to minister aid and succour to the kingdom of
Hungary, and to the Croatians, against the Turk. And
whereas aU the states of tlie sacred Roman empire do
not doubt, but the pope's holiness doth riglit well un-
derstand how the German princes did grant and con-
descend for the money of annates to be levied to the
see of Rome for a certain term of years, upon condition
that the said money should be converted to maintain
war against the Turkish infidels, and for the defence of the
catholic faith : and whereas the term of these years hav-
ing now long since expired, when the said annates should
have been gathered, and yet that money hath not been
so bestowed to that use for which it was first granted.
Wherefore if any such necessity should now come, that
any public contributions should be demanded of the
Getman people against the Turk, they would answer again.
Why has not that money of annates, which was reserved
many years before, not been bestowed and applied to
that use ; and so they would refuse to allow any more
such burthens to be laid upon them for that cause.
"Wherefore the said lord lieutenant, and other princes
and degrees of the empire, make earnest petition, that
the pope's holiness will with a fatherly consideration ex-
pend what had been collected, and cease hereafter to
require such annates ' which are accustomed to be paid
to the court of Rome, on the death of bishops, and
other prelates or ecclesiasticlil persons, and sutler them
to remain to tlie chamber of \he empire, whereby justice
and peace may be more commodiously administered,
the tranquillity of the public state of Germany maintained,
and also that by the same, due helps may be ordained
and disjiosed to other christian potentates in Germany
against the Turk, which otherwise without the same is
not to be hoped for.
" L W hereas the pope's holiness desireth to be in-
formed in what way it may be best to take in resisting
those errors of the Lutlierans. To this the lord lieu-
tenant, with other princes and nobles, did answer, that
whatsoever help or counsel they can devise, with willing
hearts they will be ready to give. Seeing therefore that
the state, as well ecclesiastical as temporal, is far out of
frame, and have so much corrupted their ways ; and
seeing not only of Luther's part, and of his sect, but
also by divers other occasions besides, so many errors,
abuses, and corruptions have crept in ; it is requisite
and necessary that some eflfectual remedy be provided,
(1) Annates was a certain portion of money wont to be paid to
the court of Rome, out of tlie first year's fruits at lUe vacation of
an ecclesiastical living.
A. D. 1522,]
ANSWER OF THE NOBLES TO THE POPE.
435
as well for redress of the church, as also for repressing
the Turk's tyranny. Now the lord lieutenant and other
estates and princes do not see that any more present or
effectual remedy can be had than tliis, that the pope's
holiness, by the consent of the emperor's majesty, do
summon a free christian council in some convenient
jilace of Germany, as at Strasburg, or at Mentz, or at
Coblentz, and that it may be with as much speed as con-
venient, so that the congregation of the said council
he not deferred above one year : and that in this coun-
cil it may be lawful for every person that there shall
have interest, either temporal or ecclesiastical, freely to
speak and consult, to the glory of God, and health of
souls, and the public wealth of Christendom, without
impe;Khment or restraint, whatsoever oath or other
bond to the contrary notwithstanding : yea, and it shall
be every good man's part there to speak, not only
freely, but to speak that which is true, to the purpose,
and to edifying, and not to pleasing or flattering, but
simply and uprightly to declare his judgment, without
all fraud or guile. And as touching by what ways these
errors and tumults of the German people may best be
stayed and pacified in the meantime, until the council be
set, the foresaid lord-lieutenant, with the other princes,
thereupon have consulted and deliberated, that foras-
much as Luther, and certain of liis fellows, be within
the territory and dominions of the noble Duke Frede-
rick, the said lord lieutenant, and other states of the
empire, shall so labour the matter with the afore-named
prince, duke of Saxony, that Luther and his followers,
shall not write, set forth, or print anything during the
said mean space : neither do they doubt but that the
said noble prince of Saxony, for his christian piety, and
obedience to the Roman empire, as becometh a prince
of such excellent virtue, will effectually condescend to
the same.
" IL The said lord-lieutenant and princes shall labour
so witli the preachers of Germany, that they shall not in
their sermons teach or blow into the people's ears such
matter whereby the multitude may be moved to rebel-
lion or uproar, or to be induced into error ; and that
they shall preach and teach nothing but the true, pure,
sincere, and holy gospel, and apj)roved scripture, godly,
mildly, and christianly, according to the doctrine and
espo>ition of the scripture, being apjiroved and received
of Christ's church, abstaining from all such things which
are better unknown than learned of the people, and
which to be subtlely searched, or deeply discussed, is not
expedient. Also, that they shall move no contention of
disputation among the vulgar sort ; but whatsoever
hangeth in controversy, the same they shall reserve to
the determination of the council to come.
" in. The archbishops, bishops, and other prelates
within their diocese, shall assign godly and learned men,
having good judgment in the scripture, which shall dili-
gently and faithfully attend upon such preachers ; and
if they shall perceive the said preachers either to have
erred, or to have uttered anything inconveniently, they
shall godly, mildly, and modestly advertise and inform
them thereof, in such sort as that no man shall justly
complain of the truth of the gospel being impeached.
But if the preachers, continuing still in their stubborn-
ness, shall refuse to be admonished, and will not desist
from their lewdness, then shall they be restrained and
punished by the ordinaries of the place.
" Besides, the said princes and nobles shall provide and
undertake, so much as shall be possible, that, from
henceforth during the aforesaid time, no new book shall
be printed, especially none of these famous libels,
neither shall they be privily or openly sold. Also order
shall be taken amongst all potentates, that if any
shall set out, sell, or print any new work, it shall first
be seen and perused of certain godly, learned, and dis-
creet men appointed for that purpose ; so that if it be
not admitted and approved by them, it shall not be per-
mitted to be published in print, or to come abroad.
Thus by these means they hope, that the tumults, errors,
and offences among the people, shall cease ; especially
if the pope's holiness himself shall begin with an orderly
and due reformation, in the above-mentioned grievances,
and will procure such a free and christian council as
hath been said, and if so, tlien tlie people will be well
contented and satisfied. Or if the tumult shall not so
fully be calmed as they desire, yet the greater part will
thus be cpiieted ; for all such as are honest and good
men, no doubt, will be in great ex])ectation of that
general council which will shortly be assembled. Fi-
nally, as concerning priests which contract matrimony,
and religious men leaving their cloisters, whereof inti-
mation was also made by the apostolical legate, the
aforesaid j)rinc>'s do consider, that forasmuch as in the
civil law there is no ))enalty for those that are ordained,
they shall be referred to the canonical constitutions, to
be punished thereafter accordingly, that is, by the loss
of their benefices and jirivileges, or other condign cen-
sures, and that the said ordinaries shall in no case oe
stopped or inhibited by the secular powers from the cor-
rection of such ; but that they shall add their help and
favour to the maintenance of ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
and shall direct in their public edicts and precepts, that
none shall impeach or prohibit the said ordinaries in
their ecclesiastical castigation upon transgressors.
" To conclude, the redoubted prince lord-lieutenant,
and other princes, estates, and orders of the empire,
vehemently and most heartily do pray and beseech, that
the pope's holiness, and the reverend lord his legate
will accept and take all the premises to be no otherwise
spoken and meant, than of a good, free, sincere, and a
christian mind. Neither is there anything that all the
aforesaid princes, estates, and nobles, do more wish and
desire, than the furtherance and prosperous estate of the
holy catholic church of Rome, and of his holiness. To
whose wishes, desires, and obedience, they offer and
commend themselves most ready and obsequious, &»
faithful children."
Thus hast thou, loving reader, the full discourse,
both of the pope's letter, and of his legate's instructions,
with the answer also of the states of Germany to the
said letter and instructions, to them exhibited in the
diet of Nuremburg. Also, what was concluded at the
said diet, and what order and consultation was taken,
first touching the grievances of Germany, which they ex-
hibited to the pope, then concerning a general council to
be called in Germany, also for printing, preaching, and
for priests' marriage, hath been likewise declared, &c.
The disturbance about priests' marriage, was occa-
sioned first by the ministers of Strasburg, who about
this time began to take wives, and they therefore were
cited by the bishop of Strasburg to appear before him
on a certain day, as violaters of the laws of holy church,
of the holy fathers, the bishops of Rome, and of the empe-
ror's majesty, to the prejudice both of their own order
of priesthood, and of the majesty of Almighty God ; but
they referred their cause to the hearing of the magis-
trates of the same city, who, being suitors for them unto
the bishops, laboured to have the matter either released,
or at least to be delayed for a time.
It would be tedious to recite all the circumstances fol-
lowing upon this diet or assembly of Nuremburg ; how
their decree was received of some, of some neglected, of
divers diversely wrested and expounded. It may be
enough to say that the states address the pope to con-
vene a general council to settle and determine these mat-
ters, and they enact the Interim, which required that all
persons should be silent, and all publications cease, and
all changes of religion be unlawful until such general
council should assemble and decide.
In the same session of Nuremburg mention was made
of certain grievances to the number of an hundred, ex-
hibited to the bishop of Rome. From these one hun-
dred grievances, thus publicly complained of in the diet
by the princes of Germany, the world may see and judge
not only what abuses and corruptions, monstrous and in-
credible, lay hid under the glorious title of the holy church
of Rome, but may also understand with what hypocrisy
and impudence the pope takes upon him so grievously
to complain against Luther and others, when in all the
universal church of Christ there is none so much to be
blamed in every way as he himself appears by these
436
SOME OF THE GRIEVANCES OF THE GERMANS STATED.
FBooK VII.
complaints of the German princes against the pope's in-
tolerable oppressions and grievances. It would be too
long to insert all these one hundred grievances thus so-
lemnly objected to in the diet ; but the few which follow
will illustrate the then corrupt state of the church of Rome.
A Comjjlaint for selling Remission of Sim for Monet/.
The burden and grievance of the pope's indulgences
and pardons is most insujjportable. The bishops of
Rome, under pretence of building .'some church in
Rome, or to war against the Turks, do make out their
indulgences with their bulls, persuading and promising
to the simple people strange a»id wonderful benefits of
remission ii poena et culpa, that is, from all their sins and
punishment due for the same, and that not in this life
only, but also after this life, to them thit are burning
in the tire of purgatory. Through the ho])e, of which
true piety is almost extinct in all Germany, vvhile every
evil-disposed person promises to himself, for a little
money, license and impunity to do what he pleaseth :
whereupon followeth fornication, adultery, perjury, ho-
micide, robbing, and spoiling, rapine, usury, with a
whole flood of all mischiefs, &c.
A Complaint against the Immunities of Clergymen.
Whoever that hath received any ecclesiastical orders,
great or small, thereby contends to be freed from all
punishment of the secular magistrate, how great soever
his offence may be : neither doth he unadvisedly pre-
sume thereupon, but is maintained in that liberty to
sin, by the principal estates of the clergy. For it hnth
often been seen, that wliereas by the canonical laws
priests are forbidden to marry, they afterwards diligently
labour and go about day and night to tempt matrons,
virgins, and the viives, daughters, and sisters of the lay-
men ; and through their continual importunity and la-
bour, partly with gifts and rewards, and flattering words,
partly by their secret confessions (as they call them)
as it has been found by experience, they bring to pass
that many virgins and matrons, which otherwise would
be honest, have been overcome and moved to sin and
wickedness : and it happeneth oftentimes, that they do
detain and keep away the wives and daughters from their
husbands and fathers, threatening them with fire and
sword that do require them again. Thus, through their
raging immorality, they heap and gather together innu-
merable mischiefs and offences. It is to be marvelled
at, liow licentiously, without punishment they daily
offend in robberies, murder, accusing of innocents, burn-
ing, rapine, theft, and counterfeiting of false coin, be-
sides a thousand other kinds of mischiefs, contrary and
against all laws both of God and man, not without great
offence of others, trusting only upon the freedom and
liberty of sin, which they usurp to themselves by the
privilege of their canons.
Wherefore necessity and justice doth require, that the
privileges of the clergy should be abrogated and taken
away, and in their place it be provided, ordained, and
decreed, that t'ne clergy, of what order or degree soever
they be, shall have like laws, like judgment and punish-
ment as the laity have; so that they pretend no preroga-
tive or freedom in like offence, more than the laymen ;
but that every one of the clergy offending, under tlie
judge where the offence is committed, shall be punished
for his act, according to the measure and quality of his
offence, in such manner as other malefactors are, with
the punishment appointed by the common laws of the
empire.
The Church burdened uith a number of Holy -days.
Moreover, the common people are not a little oppressed
with the great number of holy-days, for there are now
BO many holy-days, that the husbandmen have scarcely
time to gather the fruits of the earth, which they have
brought forth with so great labour and travel, being
often in danger of hail, rain, and other storms, which fruits
notwithstanding, if they were not prevented with so
many holy-days, they would gather and bring home
without any loss. Besides, upon tliese holy-days innu-
merable offences are committed and done, ratlier tlian
God honoured or worshipped. Which thing is so mani-
fest, that it needeth no witness. For that cause the es-
tates of the sacred empire think it best and most protit-
abie for the christian commonwealth, tiiat this great
number of holy-days should be diminished, which ought
ratlier to be celebrated in sjiirit and truth, than with the
external worship, and be better kept with abstinence
from sin.
Baptizing of Bells.
Also the bishops have invented, that no other but
themselves may baptize bells for the lay people, whereby
the simple jieople upon the afhrmation of the suffra-
gans do believe that such bells so baptized will drive
away evil spirits and tempests. Whereupon a great
number of godfathers are appointed, especially such as
are rich, which at the time of baptizing, holding the rope
wherewithal the bell is tied, the suffragan speaking be-
fore them, as is accustomed in the baptizing of young
children, they altogether do answer, and give the name
to the bell. The bell having a new garment put upon
it, as is accustomed to be done unto the christians ; after
this they go unto sumptuous banquets, whereunto also
the gossips are bidden, that thereby they might give the
greater reward ; and the suffragans, with their chaplains
and other ministers, are sumptuously fed. Yet doth not
this suffice, but that the suffragan also must have a re-
ward, which they do call a small gift or present ; whereby
it happeneth oftentimes, that even in small villages
a hundred florins are consumed and spent in such chris-
tenings. Which is not only superstitious, but also con-
trary unto the christian religion, a seducing of the simple
people, and mere extortion. Notwithstanding the bi-
sliops, to enrich their suffragans, do suffer these things,
and otliers far worse. Wherefore such wicked and un-
lawful things ought to be abolished.
Complaint of Officials for maintaining unlavful Usury.
Furthermore, the officials being allured through the
greedy and insatiable desire of money, do not only
not forbid unlawful usuries and gains of money, but also
suffer and maintain the same. Moreover, they taking
a yearly stipend and pension, do suffer the clergy and
other religious persons unlawfully to dwell with their
concubines and harlots, and to beget children by them.
Both which things how great peril, offence, and detri-
ment they do bring both unto body and soul, every man
may plainly see (so that it need not to be rehearsed) ex-
cept he will make himself as blind as a mole.
Complaint of Officials permitting unlawful cohabitation
with others, when the Husband or Wife are long absent.
Furthermore, where it so happeneth (as it doth often-
times) that either the good man, or the good wife, by
means of war, or some other vow, hath taken in hand
some long journey, and so tarrieth longer than serveth
the appetite of the other, the official, taking a reward of
the other, giveth licence to the party to dwell with any
other person, not having first regard, or making inquiry
whether the husband or wife, being absent, be in health
or dead. And because these their doings should not be
evil spoken of, they name it a toleration of sufferance, not
without a great offence to all men, and to the great con-
temi)t of holy matrimony.
Complaint against Incorporations or Impropriations,
and other plundering of the People by Churchmen.
Many parish churches are subject unto monasteries,
and to the parsons of other churches, by means of incor-
porations, as they call them, or otherwise, which they ai'C
bormd also, according to the canon laws, to foresee and
look unto by themselves, when as they do put tiitin
forth unto others to be governed, reserving for the most
A. D. ir)24.]
THE DOCTRINES OF LUTHER AND ZUINGLIUS COMPARED.
437
part unto tbemselves the whole stipend of the benefits
and titlies ; and moreover aggravate and charge the
same with so great pensions, that the hireling priests,
and other ministers of the church, cannot have there-
upon a decent and competent living. Whereby it
Cometh to pass, that these hireling priests (for they
must needs have whereupon to live) do with unlaw ful ex-
actions miserably spoil and devour the poor sheep com-
mitted unto them, and consume all their substance. For
when the sacraments of the altar and of baptism are
to be administered, or when tlie first, the seventh, the
thirteenth, and the year-day must be kept ; when auricular
confession cometh to be heard, the dead to be buried, or
any other ceremony whatsoever about the funeral is to
be done, they will not do it freely, but extort and exact
so much money, as the miserable commonalty is scarce able
to disburse ; and daily they do increase and augment
these their exactions, driving the simple poor people to the
payment thereof, by threatening them with excommuni-
cation, or by other ways compelling them to be at such
charge : which otherwise through poverty are not able to
maintain obsequies, year-mind;^, and sucli other like ce-
remonies, as to the funerals of the dead be a))pertaining.
Priests compelled to pay Tribute for Concubines.
Also in many places the bishops and their officials do
not only suffer priests to have concubines, so that they
pay certain sums of money, but also compel continent
aud chaste priests, which live without concubines, to
pay tribute for concubines, affirming that the bishop
hath need of money, which being paid, it shall be lawful
for them either to live chaste, or to keep concubines.
How wicked a thing this is, every man doth well under-
stand and know.
These, with many other burthens and grievances to
the number of an hundred, the secular states of Ger-
many delivered to the pope's legate, having, as they
said, many more grievous grievances besides these,
which had likewise much need of redress ; but be-
cause they would not e.\ceed the limits of reasonable
brevity, they would content themselves, they said, with
these hundred, reserving the rest to a more apt and more
convenient opportunity, steadfastly trusting and hoping
that when those hundred grievances should be abolished,
the other would also decay and fall with them. This
was about A. D. 1.52.3. ^^'hich being done, the assem-
bly of Nuremburg broke up for a time, and was pro-
rogued to the next year.
In the meantime Pope Adrian died. After him suc-
ceeded Pope Clement VII., who, A. D. 1524, sent down
his Ifgate, Cardinal Campejius, to the council of the
German princes assembled again at Nuremburg, with
letters also to Duke Frederick, full of many fair petitions
and . sharp complaints, &c. But as to the grievances
above-mentioned, no word nor message at all was sent,
neither by Campejius, nor by any other. Thus, when
any thing was to be comjilained of against Luther, either
for suppression of the liberty of the gospel, or for up-
holding of the pope's dignity, the pope was ever ready
with all diligence to call upon the princes ; but when any
redress was to be required for the public weal of chris-
tian people, or touching the necessary reformation of the
church, the pope gives neither ear nor answer.
And having thus discoursed of what passed between
the pope and princes of Germany, at the diet of Nurem-
burg, let us now proceed again to the history of Luther,
of which you have heard before, how he was kept secret
and solitary for a time, by certain nobles in Saxony, be-
cause of the emperor's edict. In the meantime, while
Luther had thus absented himself from Wittenberg,
Andrew Carolostad, proceeding more roughly and
eagerly in matters of religion, had excited the people to
throw down images in the temples. Luther, returning
again to the city, greatly reproved the rashness of Caro-
lostad, declaring that such proceedings were not orderly,
but that pictures and images ought tir^t to be thrown out
of the hearts and consciences of men, and that the people
ought first to be taught, that we are saved before God,
and please him only by faith, and that images serve to
no good purpose. This being done, and the people
being well instructed, there would be no danger in
images, but they would fall of their own accord. Not
that he would maintain images, or suffer them ; but that
their removal ought to be done by the magistrate, and
not by every private man without order and authority.
The cause why Luther ojjposed that violent throwing
down of images, and against Carolostad, seems partly
to arise because Po])e Adrian, in his letters to the
princes and states of Germany, grievously complains and
charges the followers of Luther with sedition and
tumults, and rebellion against magistrates, as subverters
and dtstroyers of all order and obedience. Therefore
Luther, to stop the mouth of such slanderers, and to pre-
vent such sinister suspicions, was forced to proceed as
much as was possible with order and authority.
But while Luther, for these causes differed from the
more vehement proceedings of Carolostad, he also dif-
fered somewhac from Zuinglius. Now though Luther
went a little astray, and dissented from Zuinglius in
this one matter of sacrament ; yet in all other doctrines
they accorded, as appeared in the synod at Marpurg,
which was A. D. 1529, where both Luther and Zuinglius
were ])resent, and conferring together, agreed in these
articled :
1. On the unity and trinity of God. 2. In the incar-
nation of the Word. 3. In the passion and resurrection
of Christ. 4. In the article of original sin. 5. In the
article of faith in Christ Jesus. 6. That this faith
cometh not of merits, but by the gift of God. 7. That
this faith is our righteousness. 8. Touching the external
word. y. Likewise they agreed in the articles of bap-
tism. 10. Of good works. 11. Of confession. 12. Of
magistrates. 13. Of men's traditions. 14. Of baptism
of infants. 15. Lastly, concerning the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper : this they did believe and hold ; first,
that both the kinds thereof are to be ministered to the
people according to Christ's institution, and that the
mass is not the means by which a man may obtain grace
both for the quick and the dead. Also that the sacra-
ment (which they call of the altar) is a true sacrament
of the body and blood of the Lord. And that the spi-
ritual eating of his body and blood is necessary for every
christian man. And furthermore, that the use of the
sacrament tends to the same efl'ect as the word, given
and ordained by Almighty God, that thereby infirni
consciences may be stirred to belief by the Holy
Ghost, &c.
In all these sums of doctrine Luther and Zuinglius
consented and agreed, nor were their opinions so dif-
ferent in the matter of the Lord's Supper, but that in the
principal points they accorded. For if the question be
asked of them both, what is the material substance
of the sacrament, which our outward senses be-
hold and feel ? they will both confess bread, and not
the accidents only of bread. Further, if the question
be asked, whether Christ be there present .' they will
both confess his true presence to be there, only in
the manner of presence they differ. Again, ask whether
the material substance laid before our eyes in the sacra-
ment, is to be worshipped ? they will both deny it, and
judge it idolatry. And likewise for transubstantiation,
and the sacrifice of the mass, they both do abhor, and do
deny them ; as also they agree that the communion in
both kinds should be administered.
Only their difference is in this, concerning the sense
and meaning of the words of Christ, Hoc est corput
meuni, This is my body, &c. which words Luther ex-
poundeth to be taken nakedly and simply as the letter
standeth, without trope or figure, and therefore holdeth
the body and blood of Christ truly to be in the bread
and wine, and so also to be received with the mouth.
Uldric Zuinglius, with John Oecolampadius, and others
do interpret these words otherwise, as to be taken no;
literally, but with a spiritual meaning, and to be ex-
pounded by a trope or figure, so that the sense of these
words : " This is my body," is thus to be expounded :
this signifieth my body and blood. With Luther the
Saxons consented. The Helvetians coincided with Zu-
inglius. And as time went on, so the division of these
438
THE ACTS AND LIFE OF ZUINGLIUS,
[Book VII.
opinions increased and spread farther ; the one part be-
ing called from Luther, Lutherans ; the other having the
name of Sacramentaries. Notwithstanding, in this one
unity of opinion, both the Lutherans and Sacramentaries
accorded and agreed, that the bread and wine there pre-
sent is not transubstantiated into the body and blood of
Christ, but is a true sacrament of the body and blood.
Luther lived until the age of sixty-three, and liad con-
tinued writing and preaching about twenty-nine years.
As to his death, the words of Melancthou are these :
" In the year of our Lord L")4(), and on the 17th of
February, Dr. Martin Luther sickened a little before
supper of his accustomed malady, the oppression of
humours in the orifice or opening of the stomach, of
which I remember I have seen him often diseased in
this place. This sickness became violent after supper,
lie struggling against it, and retired into his chamber, and
there rested on his bed two hours, during all which time
his pains increased. And as Dr. Jonas was lying in his
chamber, Luther awakened, and prayed him to rise,
and to call up Ambrose his children's schoohnaster, to
make fire in another chamber. When he entered it,
Albert earl of Mansfield, with his wife, and others, at
tiiat instant came into his chamber. Finally, feeling
Lis fatal hour approach, before nine o'clock in the
morning, February 18th, he commended himself to God
with this devout prayer.
The Prayer of Luther at his death.
" My heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God, thou
hast manifested unto me thy dear Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ ; I have taught him, I have known him, I love
him as my life, my health, my redemption ; whom the
wicked have persecuted, maligned, and with injury af-
flicted. Draw my soul to thee."
"After this he said, thrice : ' I commend my spirit into
thy hands, thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth.
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever belicveth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life.' John iii. Iti.
" Having repeated oftentimes his prayers, he was called
to God, to whom he so faithfully commended his spirit,
to enjoy, no doubt, the blessed society of the patriarchs,
prophets, and apostles in the kingdom of God, the
Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Let us now love the
memory of this man, and the doctrine that he taught.
Let us learn to be modest and meek: let us consider
tiie wretched calamities and marvellous changes, that
f^hall follow this sorrowful event. I beseech thee, O
Son of God, crucified for us, the risen Emmanuel,
govern, preserve, and defend thy church."
Frederick Prince Elector died long before Luther, in
the year of our Lord 1525, leaving no issue behind him,
for he lived a single life, and was never married ; and
was succeeded by John Frederick duke of Saxony.
After this council of Nuremburg, immediately followed
another sitting at Ratisbone, where were present Ferdi-
nand, Campejius, the cardinal of Salisburg, the two
dukes of Bavaria, the bishops of Trent and Ratisbone ;
also the legates of the bishops of Bamberg, Spires, Stras-
Lurgh, Augsburgh, Constance, Basil, Frising, Passame,
and Brixime. By whom in the said assembly it was
concluded :
That forasmuch as the emperor, at the request of
Pope Leo, had condemned, by his public edict set forth
at Worms, the doctrine of Luther as erroneous and
wicked ; and also as it was agreed upon in both the assem-
blies of Nuremburg, that the said edict should be
obeyed of all men ; they likewise, at the request of Car-
dinal Campejius, do will and command the aforesaid
edict to be observed througli all their fines and pre-
cincts : that the gospel, and all other holy scriptures,
should be taught in churches according to the interpre-
tation of the ancient fathers : that all they who revive
any old heresies before condemned, or teach any new
thing contumeliously, either against Christ, his blessed
mother and holy saints, or which may breed any occa-
sion of sedition, are to be punished according to the
tenor of the edict abovesaid : that none be admitted to
preach without the licence of his ordinary : that they
who are already admitted, shall be examined how, and
what they preach : that the laws which Campejius is
about to set forth for reformation of manners shall be
observed : that in the sacraments, in the mass, and all
other things, there shall be no innovation, but all things
to stand as in before time they did : that all they which
approach to the Lord's Supper without confession and
absolution, or do eat flesh on da\s forbidden, or which
do run out of their order ; also priests, deacons, and
sub-deacons, that be married, shall be punished : that
nothing shall be printed without consent of the magis-
trate : that no book of Luther, or any Lutheran shall
be printed or sold, &c. And lest it might be said, that
this faction of Luther takes its origin in the corrupt Ufa
of priests, Campejius, with his assistants iu the convo-
cation of Ratisbone, charges and commands, that priests
should live honestly, go in decent apparel, play not the
merchants, haunt not the taverns, be not covetous, nor
take money for their ministration ; and that such as
keep concubines should be removed ; the number also
of holy-days was to be diminished, &c.
These things Campejius wished to have had enacted
in a full council, and with the consent of all the em-
pire : but when he could not accomplish it, because the
minds of many were gone from the pope ; he was fain
there to get it ratified in this conference, with the as-
sents of the bishops above named.
The matters which have been discoursed upon may
more fully be seen in the commentaries of John Sleidan ;
it now remains for us, after having finished the history of
]Martin Luther, to touch upon the history of Zuinglius,
and the Helvetians.
The Acts and Life of Zvinfflius ; and of the receiting the
Gospel in Switzerland.
In the treating of Luther's history, mention was made
of Ulric Zuinglius, who first lived at Glarona, in a place
then called our Lord's hermitage, from thence he removed
to Zurich, about A. D. 1519, and there began to teach,
dwelling in the Minster, among the canons or priests of
that close, using with them the same rites and ceremo-
nies during the space of two or three years, where he
continued reading and explaining the scriptures to the
people, with great pains and no less dexterity. And as
Pope Leo the same year had renewed his pardons again
through all countries, Zuinglius zealously withstood them,
detecting such abuses by the scriptures, and such other
corruptions as reigned then in the church, and so he con-
tinued for the space of two years and more, till at length
Hugo, bishop of Constance, wrote his letter to the senate
of the said city of Zurich, complaining grievously of
Zuinglius. He also wrote another letter to the college of
canons, where Zuinglius was dwelling, complaining of
those new teachers wliO troubled the church, and exhorted
them earnestly to beware, and to take diligent heed to
themselves. And as both the pope and the imperial
majesty had condemned all such new doctrine, by their
decrees and edicts, he willed them therefore to admit no
such new innovations of doctrine, without the common
consent of those to whom they appertained. Zuinglius
hearing of this, refers his cause to the judgment and hear-
ing of the senate, not refusing to render to them au-ac-
count of his faith. And as the bishop's letter was read
openly in the college, Zuinglius directs another letter to
the bishop, declaring that the said letter proceeded not
from the bishop, and that he was not ignorant who were
the authors thereof, desiring liim not to follow their sin-
ister counsels ; because truth, said he, is a thing invinci-
ble, and cannot be resisted. After the same tenor, certain
other persons of the city likewise wrote to the bishop,
desiring him that he would attempt nothing that should
be prejudicial to the liberty and free course of the gos-
pel ; requiring, moreover, that he would restrain the hithy
A. r>. 1524.]
THE ACTS AND LIFE OF ZUINGLIUS.
439
and infamous U^fs of the priests, and chat he sho.uld per-
mit them to have tneir lawful wives, &c. This was
A.D. lo22. , ,
Besides this, ZuingUus wrote also another letter to the
whole nation of the Swiss, admonishing them in no case
t 1 hinder the course of pure doctrine, nor to bring any
trouble u;ion the priests that were married. For as for the
vow of their single life, it came, saith he, from the devil,
a.ul a devilish thing it is. And, therefore, as the Swiss had
a right and custom in their towns, that when they re-
ceived a new priest into their churches, tliey used to
advise him to take his concubine, ZuingUus exhorted
them to grant permission to them to take their wives in
honest nmtiiniony, rather than to take concubines, against
the precept of God. A
Thus, as Zuingiius continued some years, labouring
in the word of the Lord, offence began to rise at
this doctrine, and the Dominican friars began to preach
against him. But he, ever keeping himself within the
scriptures, protested that he would make good by the
•word of God what he taught. Upon this, the magis-
trates and senate of Zurich sent forth a command to all
priests and ministers within their dominions, to repair to
the city of Zurich, against the nine-and-twentieth day of
January next ensuing, (A.D. 1523,) and there every one
to speak freely, and to be heard quietly, touching these
controversies of religion, directing also their letters to
the bi.shop of Constance, that he would either repair
there himself, or else send his deputy. When the ap-
pointed day came, the bishop's vicefrerent, John Faber,
was present. The consul first stating the object of this
assembly, required that if any one had to object against
the doctrine of Zuingiius, he should freely and quietly
declare his mind.
Zuingiius had set forth all his doctrine in order, to the
number of sixty-seven articles, which articles he pub-
lished, that they who were so disposed might be the bet-
ter prepared for the disputation. Faber began to state
the cause of his being sent there, and argued that neither
the time nor the place were fit for discussing such mat-
ters, but that the matter belonged to a general council.
Zuingiius, however, still continued requiring him, that if
he had any thing to say, he would openly and freely
say it. To this he answered, that he would confute his
doctrine by writing. After this, when no man appeared
to dispute, the assembly broke up. Upon which the
senate of Zurich caused it to be proclaimed through all
their dominion, that the traditions of men should be
abandoned, and that the gospel of Christ should be
purely taught out of the Old and New Testament.
After these things the cantons of Switzerland direct
their public letters to the men of Zurich, wherein they
made much lament, and complain of this new broached
doctrine, which had set all men together by the ears,
through the occasion of certain rash and new-fangled
heads, who have greatly disturbed both the state of the
church and of the commonwealth, and have scattered the
seeds of discord. For now all fasting was laid down, and
all days are alike to eat both flesh and eggs, as well one
as another. Priests and religious persons, both men and
women, broke their vows, ran out of their order, and fell
to marrying. God's service was decayed, singing in the
church left, and prayer ceased. Priests grew in con-
tempt. Religious men were thrust out of their cloisters.
Confession and penance was neglected, so that men would
not stick to presume to receive at the holy altar, without
any confession previously made to the priest. The holy
mass derided and scorned. Our blessed lady, and other
saints, blasphemed. Images cast down and broken in
pieces. Neither was there any honour given to the sa-
crament. To make short, men had now assumed such a
licence and liberty, that even the Koly Ghost could not
be safe in the priest's hands, &c.
All this disorder, as it is of no small importance, so it
(1 ) If the pro e of doctrine be well marked botween the pnpists
and the piotestants, it will not be h-.ird for wny man to judse
which is the true doctrine. For the whole end and scoi e of the
pope's di'Ctrine lendeth to set up t!ie honcur and wealth of man,
as may appear by tlie doctrine of supremacy, of confession, of the
uass of the sacrameut of the altar, iic. All whicli do tend to the
was, said they, so grievous and lamentable, that they
thought it their duty to suffer it no longer. They
sent unto them before the like admonition, and also
wrote to them by certain of the clergy, and craving their
aid in the same; which seeing it is so, they did now again
earnestly call upon them touching the premises, desiring
them to put an end to such doings, and to take a
better way, continuing in the religion of their ances-
tors which were before them. And if there were any
such thing, wherein they were grieved and offended
against the bishop of Rome, the cardinal, bishops, or
other prelates, either for their ambition in heaping, ex-
changing and selling the dignities of the church, or for
their oppression in emptying men's purses by their in-
dulgences, or else for their usurped jurisdiction and
power, which they extend too far, and corruptly apply it
to matters external and political, which only ought to
serve in such cases as be spiritual. If these, and such
other abuses, were the causes wherewith they were so
grievously offended, they promised that for the correc-
tion and reformation thereof, they would also themselves
join their diligence and good-will thereto ; for so much
therefore they would confer with them, how and by what
way such grievances might ofst be removed.
To this effect were the letters of the Helvetians written
to the senate and citizens of Zurich. To which, their
answer was as follows : —
An Answer again of the Men of Zurich.
" First, declaring, how their ministers had la-
boured and travelled among them, teaching and preach-
ing the word of God for the space of five years ; whose
doctrine at first seemed to them very strange and novel,
because they never heard it before. But after they
understood and perceived the scope' of that doctrine
only to tend to this, to set forth Christ Jesus to us, as
the pillar and refuge of our salvation, who gave his life
and blood for our redemption, and who only delivers us
from eternal death, and who is the only advocate of
mankind before God ; they could not do otherwise, but
receive with ardent affection sct wholesome and joyful a
message.
" The holy apostles and faithful christians, after they
had received the gospel of Christ, did not fall out in
debate and variance, but lovingly agreed and consented
together : and so they trusted (said they) that they
should do, if they would likewise receive the word of
God, setting aside men's doctrines and traditions dif-
ferent from it.
" Whatever Luther or any other man teaches, whether
it be right or wrong, is not such for the names of the
persons, but only because it agrees or disagrees with the
word of God.
" And if Christ only is worshipped, and men are
taught to repose their confidence solely in him, neither
the blessed Virgin, nor any saint, receives any injury.
"And whereas they charge their ministers with
wresting the scriptures after their own interjiretation,
God had stirred up such a light now in the hearts of
men, that the most part of their city have the bible in
their hand, and diligently peruse it: so that their
preachers cannot so wrest the scriptures, but it would
quickly be perceived.
" And whereas they have accused them of error, yet
there was never any man who could prove any error in
them : although the bishops of Constance, of Basil, of
Curiake, with others of the univei;ijities, and themselves
also had desired to do so ; yet to this day neither they
nor any other did so. .'
" And if the bishops object and say that the word of
God ought not to be handled by vulgar people, they an-
swered that it was not consistent with equity and
reason. For although it belonged to the bishop's office
masnifvins; of priests; like as purgatory, obsequies, pardons, and
such others as serve for ilicir prorit. Contriiriwise, the teachinp of
the jirotestants, us well loucliinir ji'stificalion, orisinal sin, as also
the sacraments and invocation, and all oilier such like, tend only
to the setting up of Clirist alone, und casting down of mau.
— FoXE.
440
COMPLAINT OF THE MEN OF ZURICH.— REFORM THEIR RELIGION. [Book VIL
to provide that the sheep should not go astray ; yet be-
causf. they will not see to their charge, but leave it un-
done, referring every thing to the fathers and to councils ;
therefore it was right thnt they should hear and learn, not
what man determines, but what Christ himself commands
in the scripture. Neither have their ministers given any
occasion for this division ; but rather they, who for
their own private lucre and preferments, contrary to the
word of the Lord, seduce the people into error, and
grievously offending God, provoke him to plague them
with in inifold calamities.
" As for the eating of flesh and eggs, it was free to all
men, and forbidden to none by Christ.'
" And as to matrimony, God himself was the author
of it, and he hath left it tree for all men. Also St. Paul
desires a minister of the church to be the husband of one
wife.
" And seeing that bishops for money permit their
priests to have concubines, which is contrary to God's
law, and to good example, why then might they not as
well obey God in permitting lawful matrimony, which
he has ordained, as resist God in forbidding it .' The
same is to be said also of women vowing celibacy.
" And as for monasteries, and other houses of canons,
they were first given for relief only of the poor and
needy ; whereas now those wlio inhabit them are
wealtliy, and able to live on their own patrimony. Yet
nevertlieless the men of Zurich have used such modera-
tion, that they have permitted the inhabitants of those
monasteries to enjoy their possessions during the term
of their natural life, lest any one should have cause of
just complaint.
"Ornaments of churches serve nothing towards God's
service ; but it agrees well with the service of God that
the poor should be relieved. Christ commanded the
young man in the gospel not to hang up his riches in the
temple, but to sell them, and distribute them to the
needv.
" The order of priesthood they do not condemn; such
priests as will discharge their duty, and teach soundly,
they prize and magnify. As for the other rabble, who
serve to no public good, but rather damnify the com-
morr.venltli, if the number were diminished by little and
little, and tbeir livings put to better use, they doubted
not but it would be a service well done to God.
" As for secret confession, in which men tell their
sins in the priest's ear, of what virtue this confession is
they leave it in suspense. But that confession, whereby
repenting sinners fly to Christ, our only intercessor,
they account not only as profitable, but also necessary
to all troubled consciences. As for satisfaction, which
priests use, they reckon it but a jiractice to get money,
and not only erroneous, but also full of impiv'ty. True
penance and satisfaction is, for a man to amend his
life.
" The orders of monks come only by the invention of
man, and not by the institution of God.
" And as to the sacraments, such as are of the Lord's
institution, they do not despise, but receive with all
reverence. And so with reverence they use the sacra-
ment of the Lord's sujiper, according as the word of
God iirescribes, not as many abuse it, making it an ob-
lation and a sacrifice.
" ^^ lierefore, as before, so now again they desire that
if they think this their doctrine repugnant to the holy
scripture, they would gently shew and teach them their
error." And thus much was contained in the answer of
the men of Zurich unto the litter of their colleagues of
Helvetia.
In the meantime the bishop of Constance, with tlie
advice of Ids council, answered them as be was requested
to do, in a book, wherein he declnres what images and
pictures those were which the jirofane Jews and Gen-
tiles adored, and what images these are which the
church has received and admitted ; and what difference
tliere is between those idols of the Jews and Gentiles,
(1) It was the i)0)ie's I:iw tli ri, that in Lent no man should eat
flcs'i, or (".; s, noi- any otiicr white meat; wherein it may seem to
b« verified wliut St. Paul iiiul iirophesicj, 1 Tim. iv. " ]n tlie latter
and thgse images of the christians. The conclusion was,
that whereas the scripture speaks against images, and
permits them not to be suffered, that, said he, is to be
understood of such images and idols as the Jews and
idolatrous Gentiles used ; and not such images and pic-
tures as the church has received.
From this he enters into the discourse of the mass,
where he endeavours to prove by the pope's canons and
councils, that the mass is a sacrifice and oblation.
This book lie sent to the senate of Zurich, about
the beginning of June, exhorting them not to suffer their
images, or the mass to be abrogated ; and shortly after-
wards he published the book in print, and sent it to the
l)riests and canons of the Minster of Zurich, requiring
them to Ibllow the custom of the church.
The senate, in answer to the bi.-hop's book, about
the middle of August wrote to him ; declaring that they
had i-ead over and over again his book with al! diligence:
and that they were glad that he had sent it abroad in
print, because the whole world thereby would the better
judge between them. After this, they explained to him
the judgment and doctrine of their ministers and preach-
ers : and finally, by the authority and testimonies of the
scriptures, proved the doctrine of his book to be false.
But before they sent their answers to him, about the
thirteenth day of June, they commanded all the images
within the city, and through all their dominions, to be
taken down and burned quietly, and without any tumult.
And in the month of April following, the magistrates
and senate of the city of Zurich, commanded the mass,
with all its ceremonies, to be suppressed, both within
the city, and throughout all their jurisdiction : and instead
thereof was placed the Lord's supper, the reading of the
prophets, prayer, and preaching.
All this while the gospel was not as yet received in
any other part of Helvetia, but only in Zurich. Where-
fore the other twelve towns appointed a meeting at
Baden : where were present among the divines, John
Faber, Eckius, and Murnerus. The bishops also of
Lucerne, Basil, Coire, and Lausanne, sent their de-
puties there. The questions there propounded were
these.
That the true body and blood of Christ is in the
sacrament.
That the mass is a sacrifice for the quick and dead.
That the blessed Virgin, and other saints, are to be
invoked as mediators and intercessors.
That images ought not to be abolished.
That there is a purgatory.
Which conclusions or assertions, Eckius took upon
him to defend. Against him reasoned Oecolampadius,
(who was then chief preacher at Basil) with others.
Zuinglius at that time was not present, but by wTiting
confuted the doctrine of Eckius ; declaring the causes of
his absence : which were, that he durst not, for fear of
his life, commit himself to the hands of his enemies : and
that he refused not to dispute, but only the place of the
disputation ; and that if they would assign the place of
disputation, either at Zurich, or at Berne, or at Saintgal-
lum, he would not refuse to come. The conclusion of
the disputation was this, that all should remain in that
religion which they had hitherto kept, and should follow
the authority of the council, and should not admit any
new doctrine within their dominions, &c.
As the time proceeded, and dissension about religion
increased, it followed the next year after, (A.D. 1527,) in
the month of December, that the senate and people of
Berne assigned another disputation within their city, and
called to it all the bishops near them ; warningtheni both to
come themselves, and to bring their divines with them,
or else to lose all such possessions as they had within
the bounds of their jirecinct. After this they appointed
certain ecclesiastical persons to dispute, prescribing and
determining the whole disputation to be decided only by
the authority of the old and new testament. To all that
would come, they granted a safe conduct. Also, they
times some shall depart from the faith, sjivins heed to seducing
si)irits, and doctrines of devils, forhidding to marry, and com-
manding to abstain from meats," &c.
A.D. 1527.] DISPUTATION AT BADEN.— REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.
411
appointed, tint all things should be done modestly, with-
out iniury and brawling words; and that every one
should hive leave to speak his mind freely, and with such
delibs-ration, that every man's saying might be received
by tlie notary, and penned ; with this proviso previously
arranged, that whatever should be agreed upon, should
be ratified and observed through all their dominions :
and that men might come there better prepared, they
propounded in public writing, ten questions to be de-
fended of their ministers by the scriptures ; tlie ministers
were, Francis Colbus, and Berthold llalletus. The
questions were these.
1. That the true church, whereof Christ is the head,
rises out of God's word, and continues in the same, and
hears the voice of no other.
2. That the same church makes no laws without the
word of God.
3. That the traditions, ordained in the name of the
church, do not bind, but so far as they are consonant to
God's word
4. That Christ only has made satisfaction for the sins
of the world : and therefore if any man say that there is any
other way of salvation, or any other means to put away
sin, he denies Christ.
5. That the body and blood of Christ cannot be re-
ceived really and corporally, by the testimony of the
scripture.
6. That the use of the mass, in which Christ is said to
be present and offered up to his heavenly Father, for the
quick and the dead, is against the scri])ture, and injuri-
ous to the s;icrifice which Christ made for us.
7. That Christ only is to be invoked, as the mediator
and advocate of mankind with God the Father.
8. That there is no place to be found in the holy
scripture, wherein souls are purged after this life ; and,
therefore, all those prayers and ceremonies, yearly
dirges, and obits, which are bestowed upon the dead ;
also lamps, tapers, and such other things, profit nothing
at all.
9. Tliat to set up any picture or image to be worship-
ped, is rejiugnant to the holy scripture ; and, therefore,
if any such are erected in churches for that intent, they
ought to be taken down.
10. That matrimony is prohibited to no state or order
of men, but for avoiding fornication generally is com-
manded and permitted to all men by the word of God.
And as all immoral persons are excluded from the com-
munion of the church, therefore this unchaste and filthy
single life of priests, is most of all inconvenient for the
order of priesthood.
When the senate and people of Berne had sent abroad
their letters with these questions to all the Helvetians, ex-
horting tliem both to send their learned men, and to suf-
fer all others to pass safely through their countries :
several of the cantons refused to take any part, or suffer
their divines to take any part, in the proposed discus-
sion, saying, that it was not lawful for any nation or
province to alter the state of religion, but that it be-
longed to a general council : wherefore, they desired
them that they would not attempt any such wicked act,
but continue in the religion which their parents and
elders had observed: and in fine, they concluded, that
they would neither send, nor suffer any of their learned
men to com.e, nor yet grant safe-conduct to any others
to pass through their country.
Notwithstanding this, the lords of Berne proceeding
in their jmrpose, upon the day prescribed (which was
January 7) began their disputation. Of all the bishops
there was not one piesent ; but the city of Basil, Zurich,
Strasburg, Augsburg, Constance, and others, sent their
ambassadors to it.
The doctors of the city of Berne began the disputa-
tion. There were present Zuinglius, Oecolampadius,
Bucer, Capito, Biaurerus, with others, — all of whom de-
fended the affirmative of the conclusions propounded.
On the other side, the chief was Conrad Tregerus an
Augustinian friar, who, when he, to prove his assertion,
was driven out of the scriptures, sought helji of other
authority, but the moderators of the disputation would
not permit it, (as being contrary to the order before ar-
ranged,) s^o he departed, and would dispute no more.
The disputation continued nineteen days ; in the end
it was agreed by the assent of the most part, that the
conclusions were consonant to the truth of God's word,
and should be ratified not only in the city of Berne, but
also i)roclaimed by the magistrates in other cities ad-
joining ; and that masses, altars, and images, in all
places, should be abolished.
At the city of Constance, some things began to be
altered a little before. And now, after tliis disputation
at Berne, the images and altars, with ceremonies and
masses, were abolished at Constance.
They of Geneva also, were not behind in following the
example of the city of Berne, in extirpating images and
ceremonies. By reason of which the bishop and clergy
left the city in no small anger.
To commemorate this event, they caused a pillar to be
erected, and thereupon to be placed in golden letters,
the day and year when this reformation from po])ery to
true Christianity began among them, as a pe-rpetual me-
mori il to all posterity to come. This was A. D. ir)28.
After the account of this disputation at Berne had
reached other cities, the ministers of Strasburg began
likewise to affirra and teach, that the mass was wic-ked,
and a great blasphemy against God's holy name, and
therefore should be abolished, and the right use of the
Lord's su])per restored. On the other baud, the bishop
of Rome's clergy held that the mass was good and holy ;
which kindled great contention on both sides : when the
senate and magistrates of that city would have brought
the matter to a discussion, but they could not, because
the priests would not consent; they therefore commanded
them to silence.
For a long time the bishop of Strasburg succeeded
in putting off the change of religion, till at last the
senate of Strasburg, seeing the matter hang in contro-
versy for the space of two years, and the jireachers daily
calling ujion them for a reformation ; and petition also
having been made to them by the citizens, assembled in
their great council to the number of three hundred, as
they are accustomed to do on great matters of importance.
And there debating the case with themselves, some declar-
ing on one side, if they abolished the mass, what danger
they should incur from the emperor. On the other side, if
they did not, how much they should offend God ; and,
therefore, giving time to consult, required them, at the
next meeting, to declare their sentence in the matter.
When tile day came the voices and judgments of those
who went against the mass, prevailed. Upon which im-
mediately a decree was made, the twentieth of Feliruary,
A. D. 1,")29, that the mass should be suspended till the
Romanists could prove by good scrijiture, the mass to be
a service availalile and acceptable before God.
Tills decree being established by the consent of the
whole city, the senate soon commanded it to be pro-
claimed, and to take full effect, so far as their limits and
dominion extended ; and afterward by letters certified
their bishop touching the matter.
Thiie the mass was overthrown in Zurich, in Berne,
and Geneva, and in Strasburg, you have heard. Now,
what followed in Basil, remains to be stated. In Basil
was Oecolampadius, a preacher, by whose diligent labour
and travel, the gospel began to take such effect, that
there arose great dissension among the citizens about
religion, and especially about the mass. Upon this the
senate of Basil appointed, That after an open discussion
it should be determined by voices, what was to be done.
Owing to the intrigues of some of the senate, tiiis dis-
cussion was delayed, and the reformation retarded. The
citizens proceeded to violent measures, armed themselves,
and ])roceeded to coerce the senate. It happened the very
same day, that certain of the citizens, such as were appointed
to go about the city to see things in order, came into the
church, where one of them thrusting at a certain image
with his staff, it fell down and broke. Other images also
were served after the same sort of devotion. ^\ hen the
priests came running to them, the citizens, as they would
not go beyond their commission, departed.
When word was brought to the citizens in the market-
44f
REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND.
[Book VII.
place, the matter seemed worse to them than it really
was, so they sent three hundred armed men to rescue
their fellows in the church, sujiposing them to be in dan-
ger. On coming to the church, and not finding iheir
fellows there, and all things quiet, save only a few
images broken down, they, likewise, lest they should
have lost all their labour, threw down all the other idols
and imiges which they found standing there; and so pas-
sing through all tlie churches in the city, did the same.
And when some of the senate came forth to appease the
tumult, the citizens said, "What you have been consulting
and advising about for these three years, whether it were
best to be done or not, we have despatched in one hour,
that from henceforth no more contentions may arise be-
tween us for images;'' and so the senate permitted them
free leave, without any more resistance. A decree at the
same time was made, that as well within the city of Basil
as without, throughout their whole jurisdiction, the mass,
with all idols, should be abandoned ; and, further, that in
all such matters and cases as concerned the glory of God
and the affairs of the public weal, besides the number of
the other senators, two hundred and sixty of the burghers
or citizens should be appointed out of every ward in the
city to sit with them in council. These decrees being
established, after they had kept watch and ward about
the city three days and nights, every one returned again
to his house, quiet and joyful, without any blood or
stroke given, or anger wreaked, but only upon the
images.
On the third day, which was Ash Wednesday, all the
wooden images were distributed among the poor of the
city, to serve them for firewood. But when they could
not well agree in dividing the prey, but fell to brawling
among themselves, it was agreed that the images should
be burned all together ; so that, in nine great heaps, all
the stocks and idols were the same day burned to ashes
before the great church door. And thus, by God's ordi-
nance, it came to pass, that the day in which the pope's
priests shew forth all their mourning, and mark men's
foreheads with ashes, in remembrance that they are but
ashes, was to the whole city a festival, and joyful day,
for turning their images to ashes ; and so the day is ob-
served and celebrated every year still, to this present
time, with all mirth, plays, and pastimes, in remembrance
of the ashes, which day may there be called rightly, Ash
Wednesday of God's own making.
All this time the emperor and the French king were
together occupied in wars and strife ; which, as it turned
to the great damage and detriment of the French king,
who was taken prisoner by the emperor, so it happened
most opportunely for the success of the Gospel ; for
otherwise, these Helvetians, and other Germans, should
not hive had tliat leisure and rest to reform religion, and
to link themselves in league together, as they did. But
thus Almighty God, of his secret wisdom, disposes times
and occasions to serve his will and jiurpose in all things.
Although Ferdinand, the emperor's brother, and deputy
in Germany, lost no time nor diligence to do what he
could iu resisting the proceedings of the Protestants, as
appeared both by the decree set forth at Ratisbone, and
also at Spires, in which council of Spires, Ferdinand,
at the same time, (A.D. 1529, ~) had decreed against the
Protestants in eftect, as follows : —
" First, That the edict of the emperor made at Worms,
should be in force through all Germany, till the general
council, which .«hould shortly follow. Also, that they
who had already altered their religion, and now could
not revoke the same for fear of sedition, should attempt
no more innovations till the time of the general council.
" Also, That the doctrine of those who hold tlie Lord's
supper otherwise than the church teaches, should not
be re(;eived, nor the mass altered. And that all minis-
ters of the church should be enjoined to use no interpre-
tation of holy scripture, but the exposition of the clmrch
doctors ; while other matters that were disputable, were
not to be touched. Also, that all persons and states
should keep peace, so that for religion neither party
should molest the other. All who should transgress
these decrees, were to be outlawed and exiled."
. To this session at Spires the ambassadors of Strasburg
were not admitted, but refused by Ferdinand, because
they had rejected the mass. And, therefore, the city of
Strasburg refused to pay any contribution against the
Turk, unless they, with the other German states, were
admitted to the councils. The other ])rinces which
were received, and who opposed the decree, and shewed
their case in an elaborate protestation, written for that
purpose, were— John, duke of Saxony ; (ieorge, elector of
Brandenburg ; Ernest and Francis, earls of Lunenburg ;
the Landgrave of Hesse ; and the prince of Anhalt. Ail
such cities as subscribed and consented to the protesta-
tion of these j)rinces, soon joined themselves in a com-
mon league with them, ui)on which they received the
name, and were therefore called Protestants. The
names of the cities were these, — Strasburg, Nureniber",
Ulm, Constance, Rottigen, Windseim, Memmingen,
Lindaw, Kempten, Heilbron, Wissemburg, Nortlingen,
Saint Gall.
As to the council of Augsburg, which followed the year
after the assembly of Spires, (A.D. ISiiO,) how the
])rinces and protestants of Germany exhibited their con-
fession in the council, and what labour was sought to
confute it, and how constantly duke Frederick persisted
in defence of his conscience, against the threatening
words and replies of the emperor ; also, in what danger
the princes had been, had not the Landgrave privately, by
night, slijiped out of the city, need not, as yet, be detailed.
To return, therefore, to Zuinglius and the Helvetians.
The two cantons of Zurich and Berne, wiio had reformed
tlieir religion, were grossly insulted by the five other can-
tons,who insultingly hanged the arms of those two cities on
a gallows, which led to a war between them, (A.D. 1531.)
The French king, with other townships of Switzerland,
laboured to bring them to agreement, drawing out cer-
tain conditions of peace between them, which conditions
were : — That all contumelies and injuries should be for-
gotten. That, hereafter, neither part should molest the
other. That they who were banished for religion, should
again be restored. That the five cantons might remain
without disturbance in their religion, so that none should
be restrained among them from the reading of the Old
and New Testament. That no kind of disturbance should
be raised against those of Berne and Zurich ; and that all
should confer mutual helps together, one to succour the
other, as in times past. But the five cantons would not
observe these covenants. Wherefore the men of Zurich
and Berne, declaring, first, their cause in public writing,
to excuse the necessity of their war, being pressed with
so many wrongs, and constrained to take the sword in
hand, beset the highways and passages, that no victuals
or other forage should come to the other cantons. When
they of the five towns began to be pinched with want and
penury, they armed themselves secretly, and set forward
in warlike array towards the borders of Zurich. There
was a garrison of the Zurich men there, to the number
of a thousand and more. And word was sent to the city of
Zurich to succour their men with speed ; but their ene-
mies apjiroached so fast that they could hardly come to
rescue them : for, when they were come to the top of the
hill, they saw their fellows in great distress in the valley
under thfm. Upon which, they encouraging themselves,
made down the hill with more haste than order, striving
who might go fastest ; but the nature of the hill was
such, that there could but one go down at once, and so
were discomfited and overmatched by the multitude.
Among the slain was Ulric Zuinglius, the blessed servant
and saint of God.
As to the cause which moved Zuinglius to go out with
his citizens to the war, it is sufficiently declared and ex-
cused by Sleidan, and es])ecially by Oecolampadius. It
was an old received custom among the Zurich men, that
when they went forth in warfare, the chief minister of the
church went with them. Zuinglius, also, being a man of
courage, considering if he should remain at home when
war was attempted against his citizens, and if he, who m
his sermons so encouraged others, should now faint so
cowardly, and tarry behind when the time of danger came,
thought that he ought not to refuse to take part with hil
brethren.
Oecolampadius adds, that he went out, not as a cap-
A.D. 1531.] DEATH OF ZUINGLIUS.— HENRY VOES AND JOHN ESCH BURNED.
443
tain of the field, but as a good citizen with his citizens,
and a good shepherd ready to die with his flock. And
which of them all, saith he, that most cry out against
Zuiiflius, can shew any such noble heart to do the like?
A<^ain, neither did he go out of his own accord, but rather
desired not to go, foreseeing, belike, what danger thereof
would ensue. But the senate being importunate upon
him, would have no refusal, urging him to go ; among
whom were thought to have been some false betrayers,
objecting to him, that he was a dastard if he refused to
accompany his brethren, as well in time of danger as in
peace. When he was slain, great cruelty was shewn
upon the dead corpse by his popish enemies ; such was
their hatred to him, that their malice could not be satis-
fied, unless also they should burn his dead body.
The report goes, that after his body was cut, first in
four pieces, and then consumed with fire, three days
after his death his friends came to see whether any part
of him was remaining, and they found his heart in the
ashes, whole and unburned, in much the same way as was
also the heart of Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury,
which, as it is reported, was found unconsumed in the
ashes.
Such, too, was the rage of these five popish cantons,
against the abbot Cappello, who was also killed, that they
took his dead body, and putting out both its eyes, clothed
it in a monk's cowl, and set it in the pulpit to jjreach, rail-
ing and jesting upon him in a most despiteful manner.
Ulric Zuinglius was, when he died, forty-four years of
age — younger than Martin Luther by four years.
Oecolampadius the preacher of the city of Strasburg,
hearing of the death of Zuinglius his dear friend, took
thereat inward grief and sorrow, so that it is thought to
have increased his disease, and so he also departed this
life, Nov. A.D. 1.5.".l, being of the age of forty-nine years,
elder than Martin Luther by one year. Although tl\is
Oecolampadius then died, yet his learned and famous
commentaries upon the propliets, with other works
which he left behind him, live still, and shall never die.
The year following, which was A.D. 1532, in the
month of August, died also the worthy and memorable
prince John Frederick Duke of Saxony, who for testi-
mony of Christ and of his gospel, sustained such trials
and so vehement conflicts with the emperor, and that
especially at the council assembled at Augsburg, that
unless the almighty hand of the Lord had sustained him,
it had not been possible for him, or any prince, to have
endured so constant and unmoveable against so many
persuasions and assaults, as he did to the end. After
him succeeded John Frederick his son, &c.
And thus have you the history of Zuinglius, and of the
church of Switzerland, with their proceedings and troubles,
from the first beginning of their reformation of religion.
From the beginning of this book, good reader, thou
hast heard of many troubles in the church of Christ, con-
cerning the reformation of various abuses and great errors
that had crept into the church of Rome. What godly
man has there been, within the space of these five hun-
dred years, either virtuovisly disposed, or excellently
learned, who has not disapproved the disorderly doings
and corrupt examples of the see and bishop of Rome
from time to time, to the coming of Luther ? It may
well be wondered at, that as this Romish bishop hail
great enemies from time to time, speaking and working,
preaching and writing against him, yet no one could
ever succeed till the coming of Luther. The cause of
this S'^ems to be, that while others before him, when
speaking against the pomp, pride, and avarice of the bi-
sliopofRome, charged him only, or chiefly, with the
nnnner of life. Luther went further, charging him not
only with evil life, but also with evil learning ; not with his
doings, but with his doctrine ; not picking at the rind,
hut 1 ducking up the root ; not seeking the man, but
shaking his seat ; yea and charging him with plain
heresy, as prejudicial and injurious to the blood of
Chr'st, contrary to the true understanding of the sacred
tcstatiient of God's holy word. For while the founda-
tion of our faith, grounded upon the holy scripture,
teaches and leads us to he justified only by the merits of
Christ, and the price of his blood ; the pope, with a con-
trary doctrine, teaches us to seek our salvation not by
Christ alone, but by the way of men's meriting and de-
serving by works. Whereupon rose divers sorts of or-
ders and religious sects among men, some professing one
thing and some another, and every man seeking his own
righteousness, but few seeking the righteousness of him
who is appointed by God to be our wisdom, righteous-
ness, sanctification, and redemption.
Martin Luther, therefore, reducing all things to the
foundation and touchstone of the scripture, opened the
eyes of many who before were drowned in darkness. It
cannot be expressed what joy, comfort, and consolation
came to the hearts of men, some lying in darkness and
ignorance, some wallowing in sin, some in despair^ some
macerating themselves by works, and some presuming
u]ion their own righteousness, to behold that glorious
)jrivilege of the great liberty and free justification in
Christ Jesus. And to speak briefly, the more glorious
did the benefit of this doctrine appear to the world after
long ignorance, so the greater was the persecution that
followed. And where the elect of God took most occa-
sion of comfort and of salvation, there the adversaries
found most matter for vexation and disturbance, as
we commonly see the word of God bring with it dissen-
sion and trouble ; and therefore truly it was said of
Christ, that he came not to send peace on earth but
the sword. And this was the cause why, after the doc-
trine and preaching of Luther, so great troubles and per-
secutions followed in all quarters of the world : thence
there arose great disquiet among the prelates, and many
laws and decrees were made to overthrow the truth, by
the cruel handling of many good and christian men.
Thus while authority, armed with laws and rigour,
strove against the truth, it was lamentable to hear how
many christian men were troubled, and went to wreck,
some tost from ])lace to place, some exiled out of the
land for fear, some forced to abjure, some driven to
caves in woods, some wracked with torment, and some
pursued to death with fire and fagot. Of whom we
have now to treat, beginning with some that suffered in
Germany, and then returning to our own histories and
martyrs in England.
Henry Voes and John Esch, Augustinian Friars.
In A.D. 1523, two young men were burnt at Brussels,
the one named Heniy Voes, at the age of 24 years ; and
the other John Esch, who formerly had been of the or-
der of the Augustinian friars. They were degraded the
first day of July, and spoiled of their friars' weeds, at the
suit of the pope's inquisitor ; and the divines of Lou-
vaine, because they would not retract the doctrine of the
gospel, which the papists called Lutheranism. Their
examiners were Hochestratus and others, who demanded
of them, what they believed .' They said, the books of
the Old Testament and the New, wherein were contained
the .articles of the creed. Then were they asked, whe-
ther they believed the decrees of the councils, and of
the fathers ? They said, such as were agreeing to the
scripture they believed. After this they proceeded fur-
ther, asking, whether they thought it any deadly sin to
transgress the decrees of the fathers, and of the bishop
of Rome ? That, said they, belongs only to the com-
mandment of God, to bind the conscience of man ; when
they constantly persisted and would not retract, they were
condemned to be burned. Then they began to give
thanks to God their heavenly Father, who had delivered
them through his great goodness, from that false and
abominable priesthood, and made them priests of his
holy order, receiving them to himself as a sacrifice of
sweet odour. Then there was a bill written, which was
delivered unto them to read openly before the people, to
declare what faith and doctrine they held. The greatest
error that they were accused of was, that men ought to
trust only in God, as men are liars and deceitful in all
their words and deeds, and therefore there ought no
trust or confidence to be put in them.
As they were led to the place of execution, on the first
of July, they went joyfully and cheerfully, making con-
tinual protestation "that they died for the glory of God,
444
HENRY SUTPHEN PUT TO DEATH AT DIETIIMAR.
[Book VII.
and the doctrine of the gospel, as true christians, be-
lieving anJ following the holy church of the Son of
God, saying also that it was the day which they had
long desired. After they were come to the place where
they were to be burned, and were despoiled of their gar-
ments, they tarried a long time in their shirts, and joy-
fully embraced the stake they were to be bound to, pa-
tiently and joyfully enduring whatever was done to
them, praising God with " We praise thee, O God,"
&c., and singing psalms, and rehearsing the creed, in
testimony of their faith. A certain doctor, beholding
their cl)eerfulness, said to Henry, tliat lie should not so
foolisldy glorify himself: he answered, " God forbid that
I should glory in anything, but oidy in the cross of mv
Lord Jesus Christ." Another counselled him to have
God before his eyes : he answered, " I trust that I carry
him truly in my heart." One of them seeing that fire was
kindled at his feet, said, " Methinks ye do strew roses
under my feet." Finally, the smoke and the flame
mounting up to their faces, choked them.
Henry being demanded among other things, whether
Luther had seduced him or no .' " Yea," said he,
"even as Christ seduced his apostles." He said also,
that it was contrary to God's law, that the clergv should
be exempted from the power and jurisdiction of the ma-
gistrate ordained of God ; for such as were ordained
in office by the bishops have no power, but only to
preach the word of God, and to feed their flock.
After their death, their monastery was dissolved at
Antwerp.
Henry Sufphen, monk, put to death in Diethmar.
The next year after the burning of those two chris-
tian martyrs at Brussels, above mentioned, with like
tyranny also was martyred and burned, without all order
of judgment or just condemnation, about the city of
Diethmar, on the borders of Germany, one Henry Sut-
phen, monk, A.D. 1524. This Sutphen had been with
Martin Luther, and coming to Antwerp was excluded
from thence for the gospel's sake, and came to Bremen,
not to preach, but to go to Wittenburg, being driven
from Antwerp. Whilst at Bremen, he was there asked
by certain godly citizens to make one or two brief ex-
hortations upon the gospel. Through the earnest love
and zeal that was in him, he was easily assured and per-
suaded to do this. He preached his first sermon to the
people on the Sunday before St. Martin's day. When
the people heard him preach the word of God so sin-
cerely, they desired him to preach again the second
time, and were so in love with his doctrine, that the
vhole parish required him to tarry among them to
preach the gospel ; but being afraid of danger he refused
for a time. When the religious orders learned this,
especially the canons, monks, and priests, they sought
to oppress him, and to thrust him, and also the gospel of
Christ out of the city, which was their chief seeking.
They went to the senate, desiring that such an heretic
might be banished from the town, as in his doctrine he
preached against the catholic church. Upon the com-
plaint of the canons, the senate sent for the wardens
and head men of the parish where Henry had preached,
who being come together, the senate declared to them
the complaint of the canons, and al! the other religious
men. The citizens of Bremen, taking their preacher's
part, answered, that they had hired a learned and
honest man to preach to them, and to teach them sin-
cerely and truly the word of God ; however, if the chap-
ter-house, or any other, could bring testimonial or wit-
ness, that the preacher had taught anything which
either savoured of heresy, or was repugnant to the word
of God, that then they were ready with the chapter-
house to persecute him, for God forbid that they should
maintain an heretic. But if the canons of the chapter-
house, and the other religious orders will not declare
and sliew that the preacher, whom they had hired, had
taught any error or heresy, but if they were set on
only through malice to drive him away, they ought not
therefore by any means to suff'er it. So they petitioned
the senate, with all humble obedience, that thev would
not require it of them, but grant them equity and jus-
tice, sayimr, that they were disposed to assist their
preacher always, and to plead his cause.
When the monastic orders learned that they could not
prevail, they burst out into a fury, and began to threaten,
and went to the archbishop to certify that the citizens
of Bremen were become heretics.
When the bishop heard of these things, he sent two
of his council to iiremen, requiring that Henry should
be sent to him witliout delay. When they were asked
why they should send him, they answered. Because lie
jireached against the holy church. Being a:;ain de-
manded in what articles, they had nothing to say. One
of these counsellors was the bishop's suffragan, a
naughty pernicious hypocrite, who sought by all possi-
ble means to carry away Henry a captive. The answer
of the senators was, that as the jjreacher had not beea
convicted for any lieresy, they could by no me ins con-
sent that Henry should be carried away; so tliey ear
nestly pressed the bishop that he would si)eeuily send
his learned men to Bremen to dis]nite with him, and if
he were convinced, they jiromised without any delay that
he should be j)\mislied and sent away, if not, they would
in no wise let him depart. The suffragan answered, by
requiring that he might be delivered into his hands for
the quietness of tlie whole country ; but the senate
continued still in their former mind. The suffragan
being moved with anger at this, departed from Bremen,
and would not confirm their children.
When thus the popish prelates were disj»ppointed,
they held a provincial council at Buckstade. To this
council were called the prelates and learned men of the
diocese, to determine what was to be belicvtd.
Henry also was called to the council, dlthough they
had already decreed to proceed against h'.m, as against a
heretic ; wherefore the rulers of the ciiy, together with
the commonalty, detained him at home, foreseeing and
suspecting the malice of the council. Then Henry
gathered his doctrine into a few articles, and sent it
with his letters to th,i archbishop ; excusing his innd-
eenev, oflfering himself as ready, if he were convicted of
any error by the testimony of the holy scripture, to re-
cant it, earnestly requiring that his errors might be
convicted by the holy scriptures, by the testimony of
which he had hitherto proved his doctrines, and doubted
not hereafter to confirm them. Henry contemning their
madness, proceeded daily in preaching the gospel, ad-
ding always this protestation, that he was ready willing-
ly to give account touching his faith and doctrine to
every man that would require it. In the meantime the
holy Romans could not be idle, but sent their chaplains
to every sermon to entrap him in his words. But God,
whose footpaths are in the midst of the floods, would
have his marvellous power to be seen in them, for he
converted many of them, so that the greater part of
those who were sent to hearken, openly acknowledged
his doctrine to be God's truth, against which no man
should contend, and such as in all their lives before they
had not heard. But the chief priests, canons, and
monks were so hardened and blinded with Pharaoh, that
they became worse for these admonitions. When God
saw fit that Henry should confirm the truth that he had
preached, he sent him among the cruel murderers ap-
pointed for that slaughter, on the occasion that follows.
It happened in the year 1524, that this Henry was
sent for by letters, by Nicholas Boy, parish priest, and
other faithful christians of the parish of Meldorph,
which is a town in Diethmar, to preach the gospel to
them, and deliver them out of the bondage of anticlirist.
These letters being received upon St. Catherine's even-
ing, he called together six brethren, lionest citizens, and
ojiened to them how he was sent for by them of Dieth-
mar to preach the gosjiel ; adding, that he was not only a
debtor to them, hut to all others who recjuired his aid.
Wherefore he thought good to go to Diethmar, to see
what God would work by him, requiring also that they
would help him WMth their advice by what means he
might best take his journey.
Having prepared all things for his journey, on the
twenty-second of October he departed and came to Mel-
A.D. 15;51.]
HENRY SUTPIIEN PUT TO DEATH AT DIETHMAR.
445
; dor])h, where be was joyfully received by the parish priest
and others. Although he had not yet preached, the devil
I with his members began to fret and fume for anger. Above
all other, one Augustine Tornborch, prior of the Black
j Friars, began to take counsel with others what was
to be done. It was agreed by them, above all things,
to witlistand the beginnings, and that he should not
have licence to preach : for if he preached, and the peo-
ple should hear him, it was to be feared that the wicked-
ness and craft of the priests and monks should be ex-
posed, which being manifest, they knew plainly that it
I would be but a folly to resist, remembering what had
1 happened so lately before in Bremen. The ))rior eaily
j on the following morning (for he had not slept well all
niglit for care) went with great speed unto Heida, to
speak with the forty- eight presidents of the country, to
! whom with great complaints he shewed how that a se-
I ditious fellow, a monk was come from Bremen, who
1 would seduce all the people of Diethmar as he Lad done
I those of Bremen. There were others that assisted this
) prior in persuading the forty-six, who were simple and
I unlearned men, that they would obtain great favour and
I good-will of the bishop of Bremen, if they would put
I this heretical monk to death. When these men heard
these words, they decreed that the monk should be put
j to death, without being heard or seen, much less con-
victed.
When this was notified to him he said that he ought
to obey the word of God rather than man. And that
if it pleased God that he should lose his life there, it
was as near a way to heaven as in any other place.
■ The next day Henry went up into the pulj)it, and
i preached a sermon, expounding the place of Paul, Rom.
' i. 9. " God is my witness,'' &c. After the sermon, the
: whole congregation being called together, the prior
Augustine delivered the letters that were sent by tlie
fi'ity-eight presidents, the tenor whereof was this: that
th. y of Meldorph should be fined with a fine of a
thousand gilders, if they suffered the monk to preach.
^^ hen they heard these letters read, they were much
moved. And they all determined with one voice, to
keep Henry as their preacher, and to defend him : for
when they heard the sermon, they were greatly offended
with the prior.
xVfter dinner Henry preached again, expounding the
] place of St. Paul, Rom. xv. 1. " We who are strong
ought," &c. The next day the citizens of Meldoiph
I sent messengers to Heida, offering to answer in all cases
j before all men, for their preacher, whom they had re-
ceived. Besides that, the messengers declared what
christian and godly sermons they had heard him preach.
The parish priest also wrote letters by the messengers
to the forty-eight rulers, in wdiich he excused himself,
that it was never his wish, nor the intention of Henry
to move sedition, but only to preach sincerely the word of
God, and he offers himself as ready to answerfor Henry to
all men, whenever he should be called on; and earnestly
desiring them not to give credit to the monks, who
being blinded with hatred and avarice, had determined
to oppress the truth : adding also, that it was against all
reason, that a man should be condemned before the
truth was tried, and his cause declared ; and that if,
after due inquisition, he should be convicted, then he
i should suffer punishment. This submission with the
I public testimonial was not regarded ; but in the end one
I of the council, Peter Dethleve recommended the whole
I matter should be referred to the next general council.
1 With this answer they were all very well contented ; and
the messengers returned to Meldorph with great joy
j and gladness, declaring to the whole congregation the
I answer tliat was made.
I Upon St. Nicholas day Henry preached twice, with
such a spirit and grace, that all men held him in admi-
I ration, praying God most earnestly that they might
I long have such a jireacher. Upon the day of " the
i Conception of our Lady," he also preached two sermons
upon the first chapter of Matthew ; wherein he rehearsed
the promises made by God to our forefathers, and under
what faith our fathers had lived ; adding also, that all
; reference to works being set apart, we must be justified
by the same faith. All these things were spoken with
such boldness of siiirit, that all men greatly marvelled
at liim, giving thanks to God for his great mercy, in
having sent them such a preacher, desiring him uiore-
over, that he would tarry with them all Christmas to
jjreach.
In the meantime, the prior Augustine Tornborch
and Master John Schink were not idle : for the prior
went to the Franciscan monks, and minors, for hi Ip and
council, lor those kinds of friars above all others are
best instructed by their hypocrisy to deceive the poor
and simple people. These friars straightway sent for
those persons, who had all the rule and authority, and
especially Peter Hannus, Peter Swine, and Nicholas
Roden ; to whom they declared, with great com])laints,
what an heretical monk had preached, and how he had
obtained the favour of all the simple people ; whicdi if
they did not sjjeedily provide for, and withstand in the first
beginnings, and j)ut the heretic to death, it would come
to pass, that soon the honour of the Virgin Mary, and
all saints, together with the two abbeys, would come to
utter ruin and decay.
When these men heard these words, they were greatly
moved. Peter Swine answered, that they had before
written to the parish priest and to Henry what was best
to be done ; but if they thought good, they would write
again. " No," said the prior, " this matter nmst be
attemi)ted another way : for if you write to the heretic,
he will by and by answer you again. And it is to be
feared, that the contagion of his heresy may infect
some of you, being uidearned men : for if you give
him leave to speak, and to answer, there is no hop.e that
you shall overcome him." So they finally determined
to take Henry by night, and burn him before the people
should know it. This device pleased them all, but es-
l)ecially the Franciscan friars. Peter Hannus, who was
the jjiior's chief friend, wishing to get the chief jiraise
and thanks in the matter, associated with him other
rulers of the neighbouring towns. And all these being
assembled together in the parish of the new church, in
the house of Mr. Gunter, where the chancellor con-
sulted with them how they might burn Henry secretly.
They concluded that on the day after " tlie Con-
ception of our Lady," they would meet at Henning,
which is five miles from Meldorjjh, with a great l)and of
husbandmen. There assembled above five hundred men,
unto whom was declared the cause of their assembling,
and also instructed them in what was to be done ; for
before that no man knev.' the cause of the assenddy ;
but only the presidents. When the husbandmen under-
stood it, they would have returned back again, refusing
such a detestable and horrible deed. But the presidents
with most bitter threats ke])t them in obedience; and in
order that they should be the more courageous, they
gave them three barrels of Hamburgh beer to drink.
About midnight they came in arms to Meldorph ; the
monks having prepared torches for them, that Henry
should not slip away in the dark. They had also with
them a traitor, named Hennegus, by whose treason they
had j)erfect knowledge of every thing. With great
violence they burst into the house of the parish priest,
breaking and spoiling every thing, as is the manner of
drunken people. If they found either gold or silver they
took it away. When they had spoiled all things, they
violently fell upon the parish priest, and with great noise
cried out, " Kill the thief, kill the thief 1" Some of them
took him by the hair of tne head, and pulled him out
into the dirt, forcing him to go with them as a prisoner :
others cried out, saying, that the parish priest was not
to be meddled with, for they had no commission to take
him. After they had satisfied their violence upon the
parish priest, with great rage and fury they ran upon
Henry, and drawing him naked out of his bed, bound
his hands behind him : being so bound, they drew him
to and fro so long, that Peter Hannus, wlio otherwise
was unmerciful and a cruel persecutor of the word of
God, desired them that they should let him alone; for that
he would follow of his own accord. When he was
brought to Hemmingsted, they asked him how and for
what intent he came to Diethmar ? He gently declared
446
HENRY SUTPHEN PUT TO DEATH AT DIETIIMAR
"Book Ylf.
the whole cau„. of his coming : but they all in a rage cried
out, " Away with him, Away with him ! for if we hear him
talk any longer, it is to be feared that he will make us
also heretics." Then being very weary and faint, he
asked to be set on horseback, for his feet were all cut
and hurt with the ice, for he was led all night barefoot.
When they heard him say so, they mocked and laughed
at him, saying, " Must we hire a horse for a heretic .' he
shall go on foot whether he will or no." Becau.se it was
night they carried him naked to Heida. Afterwards they
brousjht him to a certain man's house nan\ed Calden, and
bound him there with chains in the stocks. The master
of the house seeing the cruel deed, taking compassion
upon Henry, would not suffer it. So he was carried
away to a priest's house, and shut up in a cupboard, and
•was kept there by the rude people, who all the night
mocked and scorned him. Amongst others that came
to him, were Simon in Altennord, and Christian, parish
priest of the new church, both alike ignorant and wicked
persecutors of the word of God, demanding why he had
forsaken his holy habit? He answered by the scriptures;
but those ignorant persons understood nothing about
■what he said. Gunter also came to him, inquiring
whether he had rather be sent to the bishop of Bremen,
or receive his punishment in Diethmar ? Henry an-
swered, " If I have preached any thing contrary to God's
word, or done any wicked act, it is in their hands to
punish me." Gunter answered, " Hark, 1 pray you, good
friends, hark, he desires to suffer in Diethmar." The
common people continued all that night in immoderate
drinking.
In the morning about eight o'clock, they gathered to-
gether in the market-place to consult what they should
do : where the rustic people boiling with drink, cried
out, " Burn him ' burn him ! — to the fire with the
heretic ! Without doubt, if we do it, we shall this day
obtain great glory and praise both of God and man ;
for the longer he lives, the more he will seduce with his
heresy." Why need many words ? Sure he was to die ;
for they had condemned this good Henry without any
judgment, without hearing his cause, to be burned. At
last they commanded the crier to proclaim, that every
man who was at the taking of him, should be ready in arms
to bring him forth to the fire. Among the others the
Franciscan friars were present, encouraging the drunken
rude people, saying, " Now you go the right way to
work." Then they bound Henry, hands, feet, and ueck,
and with great noise brought him forth to the fire. As
he passed by, a woman standing at her door, who wept
abundantly at seeing this pitiful sight, Henry turned
to her and said, " I pray you, wt-ep not for me." When
he came to the fire, he sate down for very weakness
u]ion the ground. There was present one of the presi-
dents named May, who condemned Henry to be burned,
pronouncing this sentence upon him :
" Forasmuch as this thief hath wickedly preached
against the worship of our blessed Lady, by the com-
maHdment and sufferance of our reverend father in
C:hrist, the bishop of Bremen, and my lord, I condemn
him here to be burned and consumed with fire." Henry
answered, "I have done no such thing:" and, lifting
up his hands towards Heaven, he said, " O Lord, for-
give them, for they offend ignorantly, not knowing what
they do : thy name, O Almighty God, is holy."
In the meantime a woman, the wife of Jungar, and
sister of Peter Hannus, offered herself to suffer a
thousand strijies, and to give tliem much money, if they
would stay the process, and keep him in prison, until
that he could plead his cause before the whole convoca-
tion of the country. When they had heard these words,
they waxed more mad, and threw the woman down
under their feet, and trod upon her, and beat Henry
xmmcrcifully. One of them struck him behind on the
liead with 9. sharp dagger. John Holmes, of the new
church, struck him with a mace. Others thrust him in
the back, and in the arms. And this was not done only
once or twice, but as often as he began to speak. Master
Gunter cried out, encouraging them, saying, " Go to,
boldly, good fellows, truly God is present with us."
After this, he brought a Franciscan friar to Henry,
that he should confess to him. Henry asked him in
this manner; " Brother, when have I done you an in-
jury, either by word or deed, or when did I ever pro-
voke you to anger ?" " Never," said the friar. "What
then should 1 confess to you," said he, " that you
think you miL'ht forgive me?" The friar, being affected
at these words, departed. The fire as often as it was
kindled, would not burn. However they satisfied their
minds ujion him, by striking and pricking him with all
kinds of weapons. Henry standing in the meantime in
liis shirt before all this rude people ; at last, having got
a ladder, they bound him to it. And when he began to
pray, and to repeat his creed, one struck him upon the
face with his fist, saying, " Thou shalt first be burnt,
and afterwards pray and ])rate as much as thou wilt."
Then another treading upon his breast, bound his neck
so hard to a stej) of the ladder, that the blood gushed
out of his mouth and nose.
After he wis bound to the ladder, he was set upright.
Then one running to him, set his halbert for the ladder
to lean against, but the ladder, slipping away from the
point of the halbert, caused that the halbert struck him
through the body. Then they cast this good man, lad-
der and all upon the wood. Then John Holmes ran to
him, and struck him with a mace upon the breast, till
he was dead and stirred no more. Afterwards they
roasted him upon the coals ; for the wood, as often as
it was set on fire, would not burn out. And thus this
godly preacher finished his martyrdom, A.D. 1524.
About the same time many other godly persons, and
such as feared God, for the testimony of the gospel,
were thrown into the Rhine, and into other rivers, where
their bodies were afterwards found, and taken up. Also
in the town of Diethmar another faithful saint of God,
named John, suffered the like martyrdom. Thus these
two blessed and constant martyrs, as two shining lights
set up by God, in testimony of his truth, offered up the
sacrifice of their confession sealed with their blood, in a
sweet savour unto God.
At the town of Hala likewise, another preacher named
George, for ministering the sacrament of the Lord's Sup-
per in both kinds, i. e. in both bread and wine, was mar-
tyred by the monks and friars.
At Prague also, in Bohemia, another, for changing his
monkery into matrimony, did suffer in like manner. Ex
Lud. Rab.
In the same year, 1524, Oct. 22, the town of
Miltenberg in Germany was taken and ransacked, and
several of the inhabitants slain, and many imprisoned
for maintaining and keeping with them Carolostad as
their preacher.
In the same catalogue of holy a.artyrs is to be placed
Gasper Tamber, and also another named George, who
were both burned at Vienna.
Tie lamentahle Martyrdom of John Clerk, of Melden
in France.
Melden is a city in France, ten miles from Paris,
where John Clerk was apprehended, A.D. 1523, for
setting up upon the church door a writing against the
pope's pardons lately sent there from Rome, in which
he named the pope to be antichrist, for which his
])unishment was this, that three several days he should
be whipped and afterwards have a mark branded on
his forehead, as a note of infamy. His mother being
a christian woman, although her husband was an adver-
sary, when she beheld her son thus piteously scourged,
and ignominiously deformed in the face, constantly and
boldly encouraged her son, crying with a loud voice,
"Blessed be Christ, and welcome be these prints and
marks."
After this punishment, John went to Metz, where he
remained at his trade, being a wool-carder. The people
of that city used to go, on a certain day to the suburbs
to worship certain blind idols near by, after an old cus-
tom amongst them ; so he, being inflamed with zeal,
went out of the city on the preceding day, to the place
where the images were, andbrokethem all in pieces. The
next day, when the canons, priests, and monks, keeping
A. D. 1524.]
JOHN CASTELLANE DEGRADED AND BURNED.
44 r
their old custom, had bi ought with them the people out
of llie citv to the place of idolatry, to worship as they
weie \v(M!t,, thev found all their blocks and stocks broken
upon the i^rouud. They were enraged at this, and seized
Joha ('l;iike, wlio confessed the act. The people, being
not Vk't acciuainted with that kind of doctrine, were won-
di rfiillv moved against him, crying out upon him in a
great rage. He was soon tried and condemned, and led
to the place of execution, where he sustained extreme
torments. For first his hand was cut off from his
right arm, then his nose with sharp pincers was vio-
lently plucked from his face ; after that both his arms
and iiis paps were likewise plucked and drawn with the
same instrument. To all those who stood by it was an
horror to behold the grievous and doleful sight of his
pains : again to behold his patience, or rather the grace
of God giving him the gift to suffer, it was a wonder.
Thus quietly and constantly he endured in his torments,
pronouncing, or in a manner singing the verses of the
hundred and fifteenth Psalm: "Their idols are silver
and gold, the work of man's hand," &c. His rent body
was committed to the fire and consumed. This was about
A.D. 1524.
John Castellane.
In A.D. 1524, Master John Castellane, born at
Tournay, a doctor of divinity, after he was called to the
knowledge of God, and had become a true preacher of his
word, and had preached in France, and had laid some
foundation of the doctrine of the gospel in the town of
Metz, in returning from thence was taken prisoner by
the cardinal of Lorraine's servants, by whom he was car-
ried to the castle of Nommenie ; at this the citizens of
JMetz took great displeasure, and were grievously olfended
to have their preacher apprehended and imprisoned, so
they took some of the cardinal's subjects and kept them
prisoners. John Castellane was moit cruelly handled
from the fourth day of May until the twelfth day of
January ; during all which time he persevered constantly
in the doctrine of the Son of God. Thence he was car-
ried to the castle of Vike, persevering constantly in the
profession of the same doctrine ; so that they proceeded
to the sentence of his degradation, that he might be de-
livered over to the secular power. And as the form of
the sentence and process of degrading is remarkable, we
have thought good to annex it here to shew the horrible
blasphemies joined with gross and brutish subtlety in
those high mysteries whicli the enemies of the truth use
in their processes against the children of God, whereby
every man, even the most ignorant, may perceive the
horrible blindness that these papists are blinded with.
TJie Sentence of Degradation.
"Concerningthe process incpaisitory, formed and given
in form of an accusation against thee John Castellane,
priest and religious man of the friars Eremites of the
order of St. Augustine, and understanding likewise thy
confession, which thou hast made of thine own good
will, of maintaining false and erroneous doctrine ; and
marking also besides this, the godly admonitions, and
charitable exhortations which we made unto thee in the
town of Metz, which thou like unto the adder hast re-
fused and given no ear unto ; also considering thine an-
swers made and reiterated to interrogatories, by means
of thine oath, in which thou hast devilishly hidden and
kept back not only the truth, but also, following the
example of Cain, hast refused to confess thy sins and
mischievous offences. And finally, hearing the great
number of witnesses sworn and examined against thee,
their persons and depositions diligently considered, and
all other things worthy of consideration being justly ex-
amined, the Reverend Master Nicholas Savin, doctor of
divinity, and incpiisitor of the faith, assistant unto us,
hath entered process against thee, and given full infor-
mation thereof ; this our purpose and intent being also
communicated unto divers masters and doctors both of
the civil and canon laws here present, which have sub-
scribed and signed thereto, whereby it appeareth, that
thou John Castellane hast oftentimes, and in divers
places, openly and manifestly spread abroad and taught
many erroneous propositions, full of the heresy of Lu-
ther, contrary and against the catholic faith, and the
verity of the gospel, and the holy apostolic see, and
so accursedly looked back and turned thy face, that thou
art found to be a liar before almighty God. It is or-
dained by the sacred rules of the canon law, that such
as through the sharp darts of their venomous tongue
do pervert the scriptures, and go about with all their
power to corrupt and infect the souls of the faithful,
should be punished and corrected with most sharp cor-
rection, to the end that others should be afraid to
attemjjt the like, and apply themselves the better to
the study of christian concord^ through the example
set before their eyes, as well of severity as of clemency.
For these causes, and others rising upon the said pro-
cess, by the apostolic authority, and also the authority
of our said reverend lord the cardinal, which we do use
in this our sentence definitive, which we sitting in our
judgment-seat declare in these writings, having God
only before our eyes, and surely considering, that what
measures we mete unto others, the same shall be mea-
sured to us again. We pronounce and declare senten-
tially and definitively thee John Castellane, being here
present before us, and judge thee because of thy deserts,
to be excommunicated with the greatest excommunication,
and therewithal to be culpable of treason against the di-
viae majesty, and a mortal enemy of the catholic faith
and truth of the gospel ; also to be a manifest heretic,
and a follower and partaker of the execrable ' cruelty of
Martin Luther, a stirrer up of old heresies already con-
demned ; and therefore as thou oughtest to be deposed
and dej)rived (;f all priestly honour and dignity, of all
thy orders, of thy shaving and religious habit, also of
thy ecclesiastical benefices, if thou hast any, and from
all privilege of the clergy. So we here presently do de-
pose, deprive, and separate thee, as a rotten member,
from the communion and company of all the faithful ;
andbtingso deprived, we judge that thou oughtest to be
actually degraded ; that done, we leave thee unto the
secular powers, conmiitting the degradation and actual
execution of this our sentence unto the reverend lord and
bishop here present, with the authority and command-
ment aforesaid."
This sentence being thus ended with their sermon also,
the bishop of Nicopolis sitting in poutificalibus in the
judgment-seat, being asuftragan of Metz, with the clergy,
nobles, and people about him, proceeded to the degrading
(as they called it) of John Castellane. Thus John Cas-
tellane being prepared and made ready for his degrada-
tion by the officers of the bishop, was apparelled in his
priestly attire, and afterwards brought forth from the
chapel by the priests, with all his priestly ornaments
upon him, and holding his hands together, he knelt
down before the bishop. Then the officers gave him the
chalice in his hand, with wine and water, the patine and
the host ; all which things the bishop who degraded him,
took from him, saying, " We take away from thee, or
command to be taken from thee, all power to offer sacri-
fice unto God, and to say mass, as well for the quick as
the dead."
Moreover, the bishop scraped the nails of both his
hands with a piece of glass, saying, " By this scraping
we take away from thee all power to sacrifice, to conse-
crate, and to bless, which thou hast received by the
anointing of thy hands." Then he took away from
him the chesile, saying, "We do deprive thee of this
priestly ornament, which signifies charity ; for cer-
tainly thou hast forsaken the same, and all innocency."
Then taking away the stole, he said, " Thou hast viUan-
ously rejected and despised the sign of our Lord, which
is represented by this stole ; wherefore we take it away
from thee, and make thee unable to exercise and use the
office of priesthood, and all other things appertaining to
priesthood." The degradation of the order of priest-
(1) If Luther be to be noted of cruelty, who teachelh all men,
and killeth no man, what then is to be noted in the pope, who
killeth all God's children and teaclieth none 1 — Foxe.
448
JOHN DIAZIUS MURDERED.
[Book VII.
hood bein^tlius ended, tliey proceeded to the order of dea-
con. Thin tiieniinistersgavehinithe book of thegospels,
which the bishop took away, saying, "We take away
from thew all po ver to read the gospels in the church
of God, for it ap])ertai ns only to such as are worthy."
After this he spoiled him of the dalraatike, which is the
vesture that the deacons use, saying, " We deprive thee
of this Levitical order ; for thou hast not fultilled thy
ministry and office." After this the bishop took away
the stoU- from behind his back, saying, " We justly take
away from thcc- the white stole which thou didst receive
undefiled, which also thou oughtest to have carried in
the presence of our Lord; and to the end that the
people dedicated unto the name of Christ, may take ex-
ample by tliee, we prohibit thee any more to exercise
or use the office of deaconship. Tben they proceeded to
degrade him from the subdeaconship, and taking away
from him the book of the epistles, and his sub-
deacon's vesture, deposed him from reading of the epis-
tles in the church of God : and so proceeding to all
the other orders, degraded him from the order of
Benet and Collet, from the order of exorcist, from the
lectorship, and last of all, from the office of door-keeper,
taking from him the keys, and commanding him here-
after not to open or shut the vestry, nor to ring any
more bells in the church. That done, the bishoj) went
forward to degrade him from his first shaving, and tak-
ing a.vay his surplice, said, " By the authority of God
Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
and by our authority we take away from thee all clerical
habit, and despoil thee of all ornament of religion : also,
we depose and degrade thee of all order, benefit, and
privilege of the clergy, and as one unworthy of that pro-
fession, we commit thee to the servitude and ignominy
of the secular state." Then the bishop took the shears
and began to clip his head, saying in this manner,
*' We cast thee out as an unthankful child of the Lord's
heritage, whereunto thou wast called, and take away
from thy head the crown, which is the royal sign of
])riesthood, through thine own wickedness and malice."
The bishop also added these words : " That which thou
nast sung with thy mouth, thou hast not believed with
thy heart, nor ac(;omplished in work, wherefore we take
from thee the office of singing in the church of God."
The degrading being thus ended, the procurator fiscal
of the court and city of Metz, required of the notary an
instrument or copy of the degrading ; then the ministers
of the bisliop stripped him of his clerical habit, and put
upon him tlie apparel of a secular man. That done, the
bishop that degraded him proceeded no further, but said,
" We pronounce that the secular court shall receive thee
into their charge, being thus degraded of all clerical
honour and privilege."
Then the bishop, after a manner, intreated the secular
judge for him, saying " My lord judge, we pray you as
heartily as we can, for the love of God, and from tender
pity and mercy, and for respect of our prayers, that you
will not in any point do any thing that shall be hurtful
to this miserable man, or tending to his death, or maiming
of his body." These things being thus done, the secular
judge of the town of Vike, confirming the sentence, con--
demned Mr. John Castellane to be burned, which death
he suffered on the twelfth day of January, L525, with
such a constancy, that not only a great company of
ignorant people were thereby drawn to the knowledge of
the truth, but also a great number who had already some
knowledge of it, were greatly confirmed by his constant
valiant death.
John Diazius, a Spaniard, martyred, A.J). L546.
John Diazius, a Spaniard, having been at Paris
thirteen years, returned from thence to Geneva, then
to Basil, and afterwards to Strasburg ; from whence
he was sent ambassador with Bucer and others, to the
council at Ratisbon, where, talking with Peter Malvenda,
the pope's factor, he stated his views of religion to him,
80 that Malvenda wrote to the friar, who was the empe-
ror's confessor, about him ; at the reading of which let-
ters, Marquina was present. And so Alphonso Diazius,
brother to John Diazius, one of the pope's lawyers in
Rome, learned tlie oi)iuioii of his brother John.
After the council of Ratisbon, John Diazius was occu-
pied in Germany in the printing of Bucer's book, and his
brother Alphonso having come from Rome to Ratisbon,
where Malvenda was, and having brought witli him a
notorious ruffian or assassin belonging to the city of
Rome, Malvenda and Alphonso consulting about their
devilish purpose, laboured to ascertain from t.e friends
of Diazius where he was to be found ; hereof Alpbonso
and the homicide having knowledge by certain of his
secret friends, pretending great matters of importance,
came to Newljurgh, where Diazius was printing of Bu-
cer's book. Having succeeded in this they came to him,
and after long debating on religion between tlie two bro-
thers, Alphonso seeing the heart of his brother John,
planted so constantly on the sure rock of God's truth,
that he could not be moved from his opinion, or per-
suaded to ride in his company (being so advised by
Bucer and his friends), pretended to take his leave of his
brother in a friendly spirit, and to depart ; but shortly
afterwards, he returned secretly with his assassin, and
on the way tliej' purchased a hatchet.
When this was done, Alphonso sends his man in dis-
guise with letters to his brotlier, he himself following af-
terwards. And as John Diazius in the morning was rising
out of his bed to read the letters, the man with his hat-
chet clove his head to the brains, leaving the hatchet in
his head ; and so he and Alphonso took to their horses,
which stood without the city gate, with as much speed as
they could. The people of Newburgh hearing of the
horrible act, sent out horsemen after them, who, com-
ing to Augsburgh, and hearing tliat the murderers had
passed through, gave up the pursuit, and retuined. One
in the company, however, more zealous than the rest,
would not return, but pursued them still, and in the city
of Oenipont, caused them to be arrested andput into prison.
Otto, the elector Palatine, hearing of their arrest, writes to
the magistrates of Oenipont for judgment ; but through
the intrigues of the papists, and the crafty lawyers, the
judicial sentence was so delayed, from day to day, then
from hour to hour, that the emperor's letters came at
last, requiring the matter to be reserved to his hearing.
And thus the terrible murder of Cain and his fellow, was
bolstered up by the papists. The like of which, from the
memory of man. was never heard of since the first exam-
ple of Cain, who slew his own brother Abel. But although
true judgment in this world be perverted, yet such bloody
Cains, with their wilful murder, shall not escape the hands
of Him who shall judge truly both the committers, and the
bolsterers up of all mischievous wickedness.
In 154fi, Charles, the emperor, held an armed council
at Augsburgh, after his victory in Germany. Where
some endeavoured to make concord between the gospel
of Christ, and the tradiiions of the pope, that is, to
make a medley of them both, and so framed a new form
of religion, called the Interim. Upon this began a new
form of persecution in Germany. For the emperor pro-
ceeded strictly against those who would not receive the
Interim, intending to have overcome the reformers, but
the Lord disajjpointed his purpose.
Among those who withstood this Interim, besides
others, were the citizens of Constance. For which
three thousand Spaniards came by night against the
town of Constance, where they killed three of the watch-
men, who watching in the suburbs, went to ascertain the
noise which they heard in the woods. The device of the
Spaniards was, that when the citizens were at the ser-
mon, suddenly to set upon the city and take it. But, as
the Lord would, some began to suspect it in the night,
so that the citizens had intelligence and were in readi-
ness. When the morning came, the Spaniards were at
the gate to break into the city. But being driven from
thence, and their cajitain Alphonso slain, they went to the
bridge over the Rhine. But being beat also from thence,
and a great number of them drowned in the river, the
Spaniards broke down the bridge to prevent pursuit.
At the same time many godly ministers of the churches
in Germany, were in great danger, especially such as re-
A.D. 1527.]
WOLFGANG, HUGLEIN, AND CARPENTER, MARTYRS.
449
fused to receive the Interim ; of whom some were cast
into prison. In which number of prisoners was Martin
Frectius, vnth four other preachers, also his brother
George, for coming to his house to comfort him. Mus-
culus at the same time, with other preachers, went from
AuRsburgh, Brentius from Halle, Blaurerus from Con-
stance, Jiucer from Strasburg.
It would fill another volume, to include the acts and
histories of all who in other countries suffered for the
gospel. But praised be the Lord, every region al-
most has its own historian, who has sufficiently dis-
charged that duty ; so that I shall the less need to over-
charge this volume : it shall suffice to collect three or
four histories, recorded by Oecolampadius and the rest,
to bring it mto a brief table, and so I shall return to oc-
cupy myself with our own matters at home.
Wolfgang Schr(ch, a German m Lot /taring, Martyr.
Wolfgang Schuch, coming to St. Hj^ppolite, a town
in Lotharing, and being received as their pastor, laboured
to extirpate out of the hearts of the people idolatry and
superstition ; which, through the grace of Christ working
with him, he in a short time brought to pass ; so that the
observance of Lent, images, and all idols, with the abo-
mination also of the mass, was utterly abolished. It
was not long before rumour of this came to the duke
Anthony, prince of Lorraine, (under whose dominion
they were,) through the report of the adversaries misre-
presenting these people ; as, though they, in relinquish-
ing the doctrine and faction of the pope, went about to
reject and shake off the authority of princes and all
governors. By means of which sinister report they in-
censed the prince so, that he threatened to destroy the
town with sword and fire. Wolfgang being informed of
this, wrote to the duke's uncle, in a most humble and
obedient way, in defence both of his ministry, of his
doctrine, and of the whole cause of the Gospel.
In which epistle he excused the people, and said, that
those slanderous reporters were more worthy to be punished
for their false rumours and forged slanders. And he also
opened and explained the cause of the Gospel, and of our
salvation, as consisting only in the free grace of God,
through faith in Christ his Son, comparing also the same
doctrine of the gospel, with the doctrine of the church of
Rome.
That done, he touched upon our obedience, honour,
and worship, which first we owe to God and to Christ,
next under him to the princes, whom God hath raised
up and endued with authority, and to whom they offered
themselves now, and at all times, most ready with all
service and duty, &c.
But with this epistle Wolfgang availed nothing ; so,
■when he saw no other remedy, rather than fhe town
should come into any danger on his account, the good
man, of his own accord, rendered a confession of his
doctrine, and delivered the town from danger, by taking
all the danger upon himself.
As soon as he was come to Nantz, hands were imme-
diately laid on him, and he was cast into a stinking pri-
son, where he was sharply and bitterly handled. In
that prison he continued for the space of a whole year,
yet would not be moved from his constancy, neither with
the straightness of the prison, nor with the harshness of
his keepers, nor yet with the compassion of his wife and
children, of which he had about six or seven. Then was
he removed to the house of the Gray Friars, where he
learnedly confuted all that stood against him.
There was a friar named Bonaventure, provincial of that
order, whose person was monstrously overgrown, but much
more gross in blind ignorance, and a man utterly rude, a
contemner of all civility and honesty ; who, being long
confessor to the duke, and of great authority in Lorraine,
as he was an enemy to virtue and learning, so was he
ever persuading the duke, to banish out of the court
and country, all learned men. The sum of all his
divinity was this, that it was sufficient to salvation only,
to know the Pater Noster, (Our Father,) and Ave Maria,
(Hail, Mary !) And thus was the duke brought up and
trained, and in nothing else, as the duke himself oft-
times confessed. This Bonaventure being judge, where
Wolfgang disput"d, or was examined, had nothing else in
his mouth, but " Thou heretic, Judas, Beelzebub, &c."
Wolfgang bearing ))atiently those injuries which referred
to himself, jirocccded mightily in his disputation by the
scriptures, confuting or rather confounding his adversa-
ries ; viho, being no otherwise able to make their party
good, took his bible, with his notes in the margin, into
their monastery, and burned it ! At the last disputation
duke Anthony himself was ))resent, altering his apparel,
so that he might not be known, who, although he under-
stood not Wolfgang, who spoke in Latin, yet, perceiving
him to be bold and constant in his doctrine, gave sen-
tence that he should be burned, because he denied the
church and sacrifice of the mass. Wolfgang hearing the
sentence of his condemnation, began to sing the hun-
dred and twenty-second psalm.
As he was led to the place of execution, and when pass-
ing by the house of the Gray Friars, Bonaventure, who
was sitting at the door, cried out to him, " Thou here-
tic, do thy reverence here to God, and to our lady, and
to his holy saints," shewing to him the idols standing
at the Friars' gate. To whom Wolfgang answered,
"Thou hypocrite, tliou painted wall, the Lord shall
destroy thee, and bring all thy false dissimulation to
light." When they were come to the place of his mar-
tyrdom, first his books were thrown into the fire ; then
they asked him, " Whether he would have his pain di-
minished and shortened?" He said, "No," bidding
them to do their will, "for," said he, " as God has been
with me hitherto, so I trust now he will not leave me,
when I shall have most need of him ;" concluding his
words thus, " that they should ])ut the sentence in exe-
cution." And so. beginning to sing the fifty-first psalm,
he entered into the place, heaped up with fagots and
wood, continuing to sing his psalm, till the smoke and
flame took from him both his voice and life.
The singular virtue, constancy, and learning of this
blessed man, as it refreshed and greatly edified the
hearts of many good men, so it astonished the minds of
his adversaries, and wrought to their confusion.
John Hugleln, Martyr.
John Iluglein, a priest, was burned at Merspurg,
(A.D. 152f),) by the bi.^hop of Constance, because he
did not hold the bishop of Rome's doctrine in all
points.
George Carpenter, Martyr.
On the 8th of February, (A.D. 1527,) George Car-
penter of Emering, was burned in Munchen, in Bavaria.
When he came before the council his offences were read,
contained in four articles : —
First, That he did not believe that a priest could for--
give a man's sins.
Secondly, That he did not believe that a man could call
God out of heaven.
Thirdly, That he did not believe that God was in the
bread, which the priest hangs over the altar, but that it
was the bread of the Lord.
Fourthly, That he did not believe that the very element
of the water itself in baptism gives grace.
Which four articles he refused to recant. Then came
to him a certain schoolmaster, saying, " My friend
George, dost thou not fear the death and punishment
which thou must suffer .' If thou wert let go, wouldst
thou return to thy wife and children ?" He answered,
" If I were at liberty, whither should I rather go, than to
my wife and beloved children ?" Then said the school-
master, " Revoke your former opinion, and you shall be
set at liberty." George answered, "My wife and my
children are so dearly loved by me, that they cannot be
bought from me for all the riches and possessions of the
duke of Bavaria; but for the love of the Lord God I will
willingly forsake them.'' Wlien he was led to the place
of execution, the schoolmaster spake to him again, say-
ing, " Good George, believe in the sacrament of the
altar ; do not affirm it to be only a sign." He answered,
" I believe this sacrament to be a sign of the body of
Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for us." Then said
the schoolmaster, " What dost thou mean, that thou
G g2
450
KEYSER AND WENDELMUTA, MARTYRS
[Book VII.
dost so little esteem baptism, knowing that Christ suf-
fered himself to be baptised in Jordan ?" He answered,
and shewed the true use of baptism, and the end why
Christ was baptised in Jordan, and how necessary it was
that Christ should die and suffer upon the cross. " The
same Christ," saidhe, "will I confess this day before the
whole world ; for he is my Saviour, and in him I believe."
After this came one Master Conrade Scheter, the vicar
of the Cathedral church, saying, " George, if thou wilt
not believe the sacrament, yet put all thy trust in God,
and say, ' I trust my cause to be good and true, but if I
should err, truly I would be sorry and repent.' " George
Car])enter answered, " God, suffer me not to err, I be-
.seech thee." Then Master Conrade began the Lord's
prayer: — "Our Father which art in heaven." When
Carpenter answered, " Truly thou art our Father, and no
other, this day I trust to be with thee." Then Master
Conraile went forward with the prayer, saying, " Hal-
lowed be tliy name." Carpenter answered, " O, my
God, how little is thy name hallowed in this world !"
Then said Conrade, " Thy kingdom come." Carpenter
answered, " Let thy kingdom come this day to me, that
I also may come to thy kingdom." Then said Conrade,
" Thv will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Car-
penter answered, " For this cause, O Father 1 am I now
here, that thy will might be fulfilled, and not mine."
Then said Conrade, "Give us this day our daily bread."
Carpenter answered, " The only living bread, Jesus
Christ, shall be my food." Then said Conrade, " And
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass
against us." Carpenter answered, "With a willing mind
do 1 forgive all men, both my friends and adversaries.''
Then said Master Conrade, " And lead us not into temp-
tation, but deliver us from all evil." Carpenter answered,
*' O, my Lord ! without doubt thou shalt deliver me, for
upon thee only have I laid all my hope." Then he began
to rehearse tlie creed, saying, " I believe in God the
Father Almighty." Carpenter answered, " O, my God !
in thee alone do I trust; in thee, only, is all my confi-
dence, and upon no other creature." In this manner he
answered to every word. His answers, if they should be
described at length, would be too long. The school-
master said, " Dost thou believe so truly and constantly
in thy Lord and God with thy heart, as thou dost cheer-
fully seem to confess him with thy mouth ?" He an-
swered, " It were a very hard matter for me, if I, who am
ready here to suffer death, should not believe that with
my heart, which I openly profess with my mouth ; for I
knew before that I must suffer persecution if I would
cleave unto Christ, who saith, ' Where thy treasure is,
there will thy heart be also.' " Then said Master
Conrade to him, " Dost thou think it necessary after thy
death, that any man should pray for thee, or say mass
for thee ?" He answered, " So long as the soul is joined
to the body, pray God for me, that he will give me grace
and patience, with all humility, to suffer the pains of
death with a true christian faith ; but when the soul is
separate from the body, then I have no more need of
jour prayers." Then he was desired by certain chris-
tian brethren, that, as soon as he was cast into the fire,
he should give some sign or token what his faith was.
He answered, " This shall be my sign and token, that so
lo!ig as I can open my mouth, I will not cease to call upon
the name of Jesus."
Behold what an incredible constancy was in this godly
man. His face and countenance never changed colour,
but he went cheerfully to the fire. " In the midst of the
town this day," said he, "will I confess my God before the
whole world." When he was laid upon the ladder, and
after the executioner had put a bag of gunpowder about his
neck, he said, " Let it be so, in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." When they
thrust him into the fire , he with a loud voice cried out,
" Jesus ! Jesus !" Then the executioner turned him
over, and again he cried, "Jesus! Jesus!" and joy-
fully yielded up his sjiirit.
L''onard Keyser.
Here also is not to be passed over the wonderful con-
stancy of Mr. Leonard Keyser, of Bavaria, who was
burned for the gospel. This man, being at his study in
Wittenburg, was sent for by his brethren, who certified
to him, that if he ever wished to see his father alive, he
should come with speed, which he did. He was scarcely
come thither, when, by the command of the bishop of
Passaw, he was taken. The articles upon which he was
accused, and for which he was most cruelly put to death,
and shed his blood for the testimony of the truth, were
these : —
That faith only justifies.
That works are the fruits of faith.
That the mass is no sacrifice or oblation.
That he rejected confession, satisfaction, the vow of
chastity, purgatory, difference of days, snd affirmed only
two sacraments, and denied invocation .f saints.
Sentence was given against him, that he should be de-
graded, and put into tlie hands of the secular power.
The good and blessed raartj'r, early in the morning,
being rounded and shaven, and clothed in a short gown,
and a black cap set ujion his head, all cut and jagged,
was delivered to the officer. As he was led out of the
town to the place where he was to suffer, he boldly
spake, turning his head first on the one side, and then
on tlie other, saying, " () Lord Jesus, remain with me,
sustain, and help me, and give me force and power."
Then the wood was made ready, and he began to cry
with a loud voice, " O Jesus, I am thine, have mercy
ujjon me, and save me ;" and then he felt the fire begin
sharply under his feet, his hands, and about his head :
and because the fire was not great enough, the execu-
tioner plucked the body, half burnt, with a long hook
from under the wood. Then he made a great hole in
the body, through which he thrust a stake, and cast
him again into the fire. This was August KJ, A.D.
1526.
Wendelmuta, Martyr.
In Holland also, in the year 1527, was martyred and
burned a good and virtuous widow, named Wendelmuta.
This widow receiving to her heart the brightness of God's
grace, by the appearing of the gospel, was apprehended
and committed to the castle of Werden, and shortly
after was brought to appear at the general sessions of
that country. Several monks were appointed to talk
with her, that they might convince her, and win her to
recant ; but she constantly persisting in the truth would
not be removed. Many also of her kindred were suf-
fered to persuade with her. Among whom there was a
noble matron, who loved and favoured dearly the widow
in prison. This matron coming, and communing with
her, said, " My Wendelmuta, why dost thou not keep
silenre, and think secretly in thine heart these things
which thou believest, that thou mayest prolong here thy
days and life ?" She answered, " Ah, you know not
what you say. It is written, ' With the heart m.an be-
lieveth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth con-
fession is made unto salvation.' " (Rom. x. 10.) And
thus remaining firm and steadfast in her belief and con-
fession, the twentieth day of November she was con-
demned by sentence as an heretic, to be burned to ashes,
and her goods to be confiscated, she taking the sentence
of her condemnation mildly and quietly.
After she came to the jilace where she was to be exe-
cuted, a monk had brought out a cross, desiring her to
kiss and worship her God. " I worship," said she,
" no wooden god, but only that God who is in heaven :"
and so with a joyful countenance she went to the stake.
Then taking the powder, and laying it to her breast, she
gave her neck willingly to be bound, and with an ardent
prayer commending herself to the hands of God. "VMien
the time came that .she should be strangled, she modestly
closed her eyes, and bowed down her head as one that
would take a sleep. The fire then was put to the wood,
and she, being strangled, was burned afterwards to ashes,
instead of this life, to get the immortal crown in heaven,
(A.D. 1527.)
Peter Flistedin, and Adolphus Clarebach.
In the n\imber of these German martyrs, are also Peter
Flistedin and Adolphus Clarebach, two men of singular
A LIST OF THE MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED IN GERMANY.
4:,l
learain?, and knowledge of God's holy word. In the
year 1529, because they dissented from the pajn^rts in
divers points, and especially on the supper of the Lord,
and the pope's other traditions and cerfnionies, after
they had enduaed imprisonment a year and a half by the
command of the archbishop and senate, they were put to
death and burned in Cologne, not without the great
grief and lamentation of many good christians ; all the
fault being put upon certain divines, who at that time
{)reaohed tliat the punishment and death of certain
wicked persons should jjacify the wrath of God, which
then pl.cgued (Germany with a strange disease, for at that
season the sweating sickness mortally raged throughout
all Germany.
A LIST OF THE NAMES AND CAUSES OF THE MARTYRS,
^110 GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THE TESTIMONY OF THE GOSPEL, IN GERMANY, FRANCE,
SPAIN, ITALY, AND OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRIES, SINCE LUTHER'S TIME.
THE MARTYRS OF GERMANY.
One Nicholas of Antwerp.
The curate of Melza, by Antwerp, used to preach to a
great number of jieople without that town ; and the em-
peror hearing of it, gave leave to take the uppermost
garment of all who came to hear, and offered thirty
guilders to whoever would take the priest. Afterwards,
when the people were gathered, and the curate not
there, this Nicholas stepped up in his place and iireached.
Wherefore he, being ajiprehended, was put in a sack,
and drowned at Antwerp, 1521.
Joan Pisiorixs, a leai-ned man of Holland.
Pistorius was a priest ; then he married, and after that
he preached against the mass and pardons, and against
the subtle abuses of priests. He was committed to
prison with ten malefactors, whom he comforted ; and
to one, being half naked, and in danger of cold, he gave
his gown. His father visiting him in prison, did not
dissuadf him, but bade him be constant. At last he
was condemned, and degraded, having a fool's coat put
upon him. His fellow-prisoners at his death sung,
" V/e praise thee," &c. Coming to the stake, he was
first strangled, and then burned, saying at his death,
" O death, where is thy sting.' O grave, where is thy
victory .'" (I Cor. xv. 55.)
Matthias Weibell, Schoolmaster.
For saj'ing somewhat against the abbott's first mass,
and against the carrying about relics, he was hanged in
Suevia.
A certain godly Priest.
This priest being commanded to come and give good
advice to sixteen countrymen that were about to be be-
headed, was afterwards bid himself to kneel down to
have his head cut off, no cause nor condemnation fur-
ther being laid against him, but only of mere hatred
against the gospel.
George Scherter.
After this George had instructed the people in know-
ledge of the gospel in Rastadt, he was accused and put
in prison, where he wrote a confession of his faith. He
was condemned to be burned alive ; but means were made
that first his head should be cut off, and his body after-
wards cast into the fire.
Henry Fleming, A.D. 1535.
This Henry, a friar, of Flanders, forsook his habit,
and married a wife. Being offered life if he would con-
fess his wife to be a harlot, refused to do so, and was
burnt at Tournay.
Twenty -eight Christian Men and Women of Lonvaine ;
Paul a Priest ; two aged Women , at Antonia. Two
Men at Lonvaine. A.D. 1543.
When some of the city of Louvaine were suspected of
Lutheranism, the emperor's procurator came from Brus-
sels to make inquisition. After inquisition, hands of
armed men came and beset their houses in the night,
many were taken in their beds, plucked from their
wives and children, and divided into different prisons.
Through terror many citizens returned again to idolatry.
But there were twenty -eiglit who remained constant in
that persecution. The doctors of Louvaine, especially
the inquisitor, came and disputed with them, thinking
either to confound them, or to convert them. But the
Spirit of the Lord wrought so strongly with his saints,
that they went away rather confounded themselves.
Among them there was one Paul, a priest, about the
age of sixty years ; the rectors, with their colleagues,
brought him out of prison to tlie Austin friars, where
he was degraded. But at length for fear of death he
began to stagger in his confession, and so was con-
demned to perpetual prison, in a dark and stinking
dungeon, where he was suffered neither to reE\d nor
write, nor any man to cotne to him, and only to be fed
with bread and water. There were two others who were
put to the fire and burnt.
Then was an old man and two aged women con-
demned, the man to be beheaded, the two women to be
buried alive, which death they suffered very cheerfully.
Other prisoners, who were not condemned to death,
were deprived of their goods, and commanded to come to
the church in a white sheet, and there kneeling with a
taper in their hand, to ask forgiveness ; and they who
refused to do so, and to abjure the doctrine of Luther,
were put to the fire.
Master Perseral at Louvaine, A.D. 1544,
Not long after this, one Master Perseval of the univer-
sity of Louvaine, was thrown into prison for condemning
certain popish superstitions, and speaking in commenda-
tion of the gospel. Then being accused of Lutheranism,
he was adjudged to perpetual prison, there to be fed
only \vith bread and water, which punishment he took
patiently for Christ's sake. But what became of him
no man could learn nor understand. Some think that
he was starved to death, or that he was secretly drowned.
Justus Jushurg , at Britssels,A.D. 1544.
Justus Jusburg, a skinner of Louvaine, being sus-
pected of Lutheranism, was found to have the New Tes-
tament in his house, and certain sermons of Luther, for
which he was committed. There were at the same time
in the prison, Egidius, and Francis Encenas, a Spaniard,
who secretly came to him, and confirmed him in the
cause of righteousness. Thus is the providence of the
Lord never wanting to his saints in time of necessity.
Shortly after the doctors and masters of Louvaine came
to examine him touching religion, on the pope's supre-
macy, sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, and the sacra-
ment. WTien he had answered plainly and boldly accord-
ing to the scriptures, he was condemned to the fire ; but
through intercession made to the queen, his burning was
pardoned, and he was only beheaded.
452
A.N ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRS WHO SUTFERED IN GERMANY. [Book VII.
Giles Tilleman, at Brussels, A. J). 1514.
This Giles was born in Brussels of honest parents. He
began to receive the light of the go<\)e\ through the read-
ing of the holy scriptures, and increased therein exceed-
ingly. And as he was fervent in zeal, so he was humane,
mil'l, and pitiful. Whatever he had, that necessity
could spare, he gave away to the poor, and only lived by
his trade. Some he refreshed with his meat ; some with
clothing ; to some he gave his shoes ; some he helped
with household stuff; to others he ministered whole-
some exhortation of good doctrine. One poor woman
was brought to bed, and had no bed to lie upon, where-
upon he brought his own bed to her, and was contented
himself to lie upon straw.
Egidius, being detected by a priest, was taken at
Louvaine for that religion which the pope calls heresy.
And after having being detained eight months in prison,
he was sent to Brussels to be judge, where he comforted
some who were in prison, and exhorted them to the con-
stancy of the truth and to the crown which was prepared
for tliem.
Certain of the Gray friars sometimes were sent to him,
but he would always desire them to depart from him :
and when the friars at any time called him names, he
held his peace at such personal injuries, that those
blaspliemers would say abroad, that he had a dumb devil
in him. But when they talked of religion, there he
spared not, but answered them fully by evidences of the
scripture, so that many times they would depart wonder-
ing. At various times he might have escaped from the
doors having been set open, but he would not bring his
keeper into peril.
lie was condemned to the fire, privately, contrary to
the use of the country ; for they durst not openly con-
demn him for fear of the people, so well was he beloved.
When tidings of tlie sentence came to him, he gave
hearty thanks unto God, that the hour was come when
he might glorify the Lord.
Standing at the stake the blessed martyr, lifting up
his eyes to heaven in the middle of the flame, died,
to the great lamentation of all. So that after that time,
when the friars would go about for their alms, the peo-
ple would say, " It was not meet for them to receive
alms with bloody hands."
Persecution at Ghent and Brussels, A.D. 154.'?, 1544.
When the Emperor Charles was in Ghent, the friars
and doctors obtained, that the edict made against the
Lutherans, might be read openly twice a-year. Which
being obtained, great persecution followed ; so that there
was no city nor town in all Flanders, where some were
not banished, or beheaded, or condemned to perpetual
prison, or had not their goods confiscated : neither was
there any respect of age or sex.
Afterwards the emperor coming to Brussels, there
was terrible slaughter, and persecution of God's people,
in Brabant, Heunegow, and Artoise ; the horror and
cruelty of which is almost incredible ; so that at one time
as good as two hundred men and women together were
brought out of the country into the city, of whom some
were drowned, some buried alive, some privately made
away with, others sent to perpetual prison.
Martin Ilaurblock, Fishmonger at Ghent, A.D. 1545.
This Martin, through a sermon of his parish priest,
beginning to taste some workings of grace and re-
pentance, went out of Ghent for the space of three
months, seeking the company of godly christians, who
used the reading of the scriptures : and being more
instructed he returned again to the city of Ghent, where
all his neighbours first began to maivel at the sudden
change of this man. The Franciscans who knew him
before, now seeing him so altered from their ways and
superstition, and seeing him visit the captives in prison,
to comfort them in persecution, and to confirm tl'.em in
the word of God, they conspired against him, and seized
and imprisoned him. The Iriars examined him in the
sacrament, asking him why he was so earnest to have it
in both kinds, seeing (said they) that it is but a naked
sacrament, as you say ? Ke answered, that the elements
were naked, but the sacrament was not naked, as the
elements of bread and wine being received after the in-
stitution of Clirist, do now make a sacrament and a
mystical representation of the Lord's body, communi-
cating hnnself with our souls. And a^ touching the
receiving in both kinds, because it is the institution of
the Lord, Who is he (said Martin) that dare alter the
same ? Then was he brought before the council of Flan-
ders. The causes laid against him were the sacrament,
purgatory, and praying for the dead • and for these he
was condemned and burned at Ghent, and all his goods
confiscated. As he stood at the stake, a I'ranciscan
friar said to him, " Martin, unless thou dost turn, tiiou
shalt go from this fire to everlasting fire." " It is not
in you," said Martin, " to judge." For this the friars
were afterwards so hated, that many rhymes were written
against them.
Nicholas Vanpotde, John de Buck and his wife, at
Ghent, A.D. 1545.
The day after the burning of Martin, which was the
ninth of May, these three also were burned for the same
cause, for which the other was condemned and burned
the day before ; but only that the woman was buried
alive. All of whom took their martyrdom with much
cheerfulness.
Ursula, and Maria, at Delden, A.D. 1545.
Delden is a town in Lower Germany, three miles from
Daventry, where these two virgins of noble parentage
were burned. After diligently frequenting churches
and sermons, and being instructed in the word of the
Lord, they believed, that as the benefit of salvation
comes only by our faith in Christ, all the other mer-
chandise of the jiope, which he sells to the people for
money, was needless. Mary, being the younger, was
put first into the fire ; where she prayed ardently for her
enemies, commending her soul to God. The judges
greatly marvelled at her constancy.
Then they exhorted Ursula to turn, or if she would
not, at least that she should require to be beheaded.
She said, that she was guilty of no error, nor defended
any thing, but what was consonant to the scripture, in
which she trusted to persevere to the end. And as to
the kind of punishment, she said, she feared not the
fire, but rather would follow the example of her dear
sister that went before.
Andrew Thiessen, Katharine his wife, Nicholas Thiessen,
Francis Thiessen, brethren, at Mechlin, A.D. 1545.
Andrew Thiessen, citizen of Mechlin, had three sons
and a daughter, whom he instructed diligently in the
doctrine of the gospel, and despised the doings of
popery. Being hated and persecuted of the friars and
priest there, he went to England and there died. Fran-
cis and Nicholas his two sons went to Germany to
study ; and returning again to their mother, and sister,
and younger brother, by diligent instruction brought
them to the right knowledge of God's gospel : the par-
son there taking counsel together with William de Clerk,
the head magistrate of the town of Mechlin, and others,
agreed, that the mother with her four children should be
sent to prison : where great labour was employed to
reclaim them to their church. The two younger, being
not yet settled either in years or doctrine, inclined to
them, and were delivered. The mother, who would not
consent, was condemned to perpetual prison. The other
two, Francis and Nicholas, standing firndy to their con-
fession, defended, that the catholic church was not the
church of Rome ; that the sacrament was to be minis-
tered in both kinds ; that auricular confession was to no
purpose ; that invocation of saints was to be left ; that
there was no purgatoiy. The friars they called hypo-
crites, and contemned their threatenings. The magis-
trates, after dis))utations, tried torments, to learn of
them who was their master, and what companions they
had. " Their master," they said, " was Christ which
bare his cross before. Friends they had innumerable,
and dispersed in all places." At last they were brought
A.D. 1527—1555.] AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED IN GERMANY. 453
to the judges : their articles were read, and they were
condemned to be burned. Comin? to the place of exe-
cution, as they began to exhort the people, gags were
thrust into their mouths, which they through vehemency
in speaking thrust out again, desiring for the Lord s
sake that they might have leave to speak. And so s.ng-
in- witli a loud voice, " I believe in one God, &c.
thev wer- fastened to the stake, praying for their perse-
cutors and exhorting one another, to bear the fire
patiently The one feeling the flame to come to his
beard " '^h I" said he, " what a small pain is this, to
be compared to the glory to come !" Tiius the patient
martyrs committed their spirit to the hands of bod.
Marion, Wife of Adrian Taylor, Toumay, A.D. 1545.
In the same jiersecution was apprehended also one
Adrian and Marion his wife. The cause of their trouble,
as also of the others, was the emperor's decree made in
the council of Worms against the Lutherans. Adrian,
being not so strong a man. gave back from the truth,
and was only beheaded ; but his wife being stronger than
a woman, withstood their threats, and therefore was en-
dosed in an iron grate and laid in the earth and buried
alive, according to the usual punishment of that country
for women.
Master Peter Bruley, Preacher, A. D. 1545.
Master Peter Bruley was preacher in the French
church at Strasburg. At the earnest request of faithful
brethren he came down to visit the lower countries
about Artois and Tournay in Flanders ; where he most
diligently preached the word of God to the people in
houses, the doors standing open.
When the magistrates of Tournay had shut the gates
of the town, and had made search for him three days, he
was privately let down the wall in a basket during the
night • and, as he was let down to the ditch ready to
taKe his way, one of them who let him down, leaning
over the wall to bid him farewell, caused unawares a
Stone to slip out of the wall, which, falling upon him,
broke his leg, by which he was heard by the watchmen
complaining of his wound, and so was taken, giving
thanks to God, by whose Providence he was there staid
tc serve the Lord in that place. So long as he re-
mained in prison, he ceased not to fulfil the part of a
diligent preacher, teaching, and confirming all that came
to him in the word of grace. Being in prison he wrote
his own confession and examination, and sent it to the
brethren. He remained in prison four months. His
sentence was given by the emperor's comniissioners at
Brussels That he should be burned to ashes, and his
ashes thrown into the river. He cheerfully and con-
stantly took his martyrdom, and suffered it.
Peter Miocius, Bergilan, Tournay, A. D. 1545.
The coming of Master Peter Bruley into the country of
Flanders, did"* much good among the brethren. This
Peter, before he was called to the gospel, had led a
wicked life, but after the gospel began to work in him
it altered his character so much, that he excelled all
other men in godly zeal and virtue. In his first exami-
nation he was asked, " Whether he was one of the
scholars of Peter Bruley?" He said he was, and that
he had received much fruit by his doctrine. ' ^Wilt
thou then defend his doctrine ?" said they. " Yea, said
he " for it is consonant both to the Old Testament and to
the New." And for this he was let down into a deep
dunc'eon under the castle-ditch, full of toads and filthy
vermin Shortly afterwards the senate, with certain
friars came to examine him, to see whether they could
convert him. He answered and said, " That when he
had lived such an ungodly life, they never spake a word
against him : but now, for favouring the word of God,
they sought his blood."
There was also one Bergiban in the prison at the same
time, who had been an active man in the gospel, before
the coming of Bruley ; but the commissioners having
threatened him with cruel torments, and horror ot
death, he began by little and little to waver and shrink
from the truth, at the fair words of the false friars and
priests, wno promised to have his punishment changed
into being beheaded, and at this he was fain to grant
their requests : upon which the adversaries taking their
advantage, came to Miocius, and told them of Bergiban'a
retractation, wishing him to do the like. But he stoutly
persisting in the truth, endured to the fire, where, having
powder put to his breast, he was dispatched. The friars,
iiearing the crack of tlie powder upon his breast, told
the people, that the devil came out of him and car-
ried away his soul !
A Priest of Germany.
John Gastius writes of a certain prince, but does not
name him, who put out the eyes of a priest in Germany
for no other cause than that he said tlie mass was no sa-
crifice, in the sense in which many priests take it.
Neither did the cruel prince immediately put him to
death, but first kept him in prison for a long time, af-
flicting him with torments. Then he was brought forth
to be degraded, after a barbarous manner. First, they
shaved the crown of his head, then rubbed it hard with
salt, so that the blood came running down his shoulders.
After that they raised and paired the tops of his fingers
with cruel pain, that no savour of the holy oil might re-
main. At last the patient and godly martyf , four days
after, yielded up his life and spirit.
A godly Priest in Hungary.
In Hungary a godly priest preached, that the eating
of flesh is not prohibited in the scripture : for which the
cruel bishop, after he had imprisoned him some weeks,
caused him to be brought out, and his body to be tied
over with hares, geese, and hens hanging round about
him : and so the beastly bishop made dogs be set upon
him, which cruelly rent and tore whatever they could
catch : and thus the good minister of Christ, being
driven about the city with the barking of dogs, died, and
was martyred. But within a few days after, the im-
pious bishop, by the stroke of God's just hand, fell sick
and became mad, and so raving without sense or wit,
died miserably.
Master Nicholas Finchnan. Marion, Wife of Augustine,
A.D. 1549.
Master Nicholas, and Barbara his wife ; also Augus •
tine a barber, and Marion his wife, after they had been
at Geneva, came into Germany, to pass over into Eng-
land. By the way coming to Hainault, Augustine
desired Master Nicholas to come to Bruises to visit and
comfort certain brethren there ; which he willingly did.
From thence they continued their journey toward Eng-
land. But in the way Augustine and his wife, beinj
known, were detected. Augustine escaped that time
out of their hands, and could not be found. The
soldiers then laying hands upon Nicholas and the two
women, brought them back again to Tournay. In re-
turning by the way, when ISIaster Nicholas at the table
gave thanks (as the manner is of the faithful) the wicked
ruler scorning them, and swearing like a tyrant, said,
•• Now let us see, thou lewd heretic, whether thy God
can deliver thee out of mv hand." Nicholas answering
again modestly, asked, " What had Christ ever offended
him, that he with his blasphemous swearing did so tear
him in pieces ?" desiring him, " that if he had any thing
to say against Christ, that he would rather wreak his
anger upon his poor body, and let the Lord alone."
After this, they bound their hands and feet, and laid
them in the dungeon.
Nicholas shortly after was brought before the judges,
and condemned to be burned to ashes. On which sen-
tence Nicholas blessed the Lord, who had countwl hitn
worthy to be a witness in the cause of his dear and well-
beloved Son, and then patiently taking his death, com-
mended up his spirit unto God in the midst of the fire.
Marion, Wife of Augustine. A.D. 1549.
After the martyrdom of this Master Nicholas, Marion
the wife of Augustine was called for. With her they had
454
AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED IN GERMANY. [Book Vll.
much talk about the manner and state of Geneva, asking
her how the sacraments were administered there, and
•whether she had celebrated there the Lord's supper?
She answered, that the sucraments there were celebrated
after the Lord's institution, of which she was no cele-
brater, but a partaker. The sentence of her condemna-
tion was, that she should be interred alive. When slie
was let down to tiie grave, kneeling, she desired the
Lord to help her ; and before she should be thrown
down, she desired her face might be covered with a nap-
kin or some linen cloth ; being so covered, and the earth
thrown ujion her face and body, the executioner stamped
upon her with his feet, till her breath was past.
Augustine the Husband of Marion, A.D. 1549.
We heard before how Augustine escaped at the taking
of Nicholas and the two women, but having returned
to the town of Beaumont in Hainault, he was known
and detected to the magistrate. Being taken, lie was
examined, and valiantly standing to the defence of
his doctrine, he answered his adversaries with great
boldness.
Among others who came to him was the warden of the
Gray friars, who persuaded him to relent, or he should
be damned in hell-fire perpetually. Augustine answering
said, " Prove that which you said by the authority of
God's word, that a man may believe you. You say
much, but you prove nothing, rather like a doctor of
lies, than of truth," &c. At last, being condemned to
be burnt, he was brought to the inn where he was to take
horse; where was a certain gentleman, a stranger, who,
drinking to him in a cup of wine, desired him to have
pity upon himself; and if he would not favour his life,
yet that he woidd favour his own soul. Augustine said,
after he had thanked him for his good will, " What care
I have," said he, " of my soul, you may see by this,
that I had rather give my body to be burned, than to do
that which was against my conscience.'' When the day
of his martyrdom came, the people being offended at
his constancy, cried out to have him drawn at a horse's
tail in place of burning ; but the Lord would not suffer
that. In fine, being tied to the stake, and fire set to
him, he prayed to the Lord, and so in the fire patiently
departed.
A certain Woman at Augsburyh, A.D. 1550.
At Augsburgh a woman dwelling there, seeing a priest
carry the host to a sick person with taper-light, as the
manner is, asked him what he meant by going with
candle-light at noon-day. For this she was apprehended,
and in great danger, had it not been for the earnest suit
and prayers of the women of that city, and at the inter-
cession of Mary the emperor's sister.
TSvo Virgins in the Diocese of Batnberge. A.D. 1551.
In the diocese of Bamberge, two virgins were led out to
slaughter, which they sustained with patient hearts and
cheerful countenances. They liad garlands of straw put
on their heads on going to their martyrdom, on which
one comforting the other said, " Seeing Christ for us
bare a crown of thorns, why should we stick to bear a
crown of straw .' no doubt but the Lord will render us
better than crowns of gold." Some said that they were
anabaptists ; and it might be, said Melancthon, that they
had some fond opinion ; yet they held, saith he, the
foundation of the articles of our faith, and they died
blessedly, in a good conscience, and knowledge of the
Son of God. Few live without errors. Flatter not your-
selves, thinking yourselves so clear that you cannot err.
Hostius, otherwise called George, at Ghent, A.D. 1555.
This Hostius had been in the French c'nurch in England,
during the reign of King Edward. After the coming of
Queen Mary, he went to Friesland, with his wife and
children. From thence he came to Ghent, where he
heard that there was a Black friar who used to preach
good doctrine, and being desirous to hear him, he came
to his sermon. The friar, contrary to his expectation,
preached in defence of transubstantiation, at which his
heart was so full that he could scarcely refrain from
speaking until the sermon was finished. As soon as
the friar had come down from the pulpit, he burst out
and charged him with false doctrine, persuading the
people as well as lie could be heard, by the scriptures,
that the bread was but a sacrament only of the Lord's
body. He had not gone far, when Ilesselius the cham-
berlain overtook him, and carried him to prison. Then
were doctors and friars brought to reason with him, of
the sacrament, of the invocation of saints, and purga-
tory. He ever stood to the trial only of the scripture,
which they refused. When he was condemned, he was
commanded not to speak to the people. The officer
made great haste to have him dispatched. Wherefore
he, mildly like a lamb, praying for his enemies, gave
himself to be bound ; first they strangled him, and then
consumed his body with fire.
Bertrand de Bias, at Tournay, A.D. 1555.
The story of Bertrand is lamentable, his torments in-
credible, the tyranny shewed to him horrible, the con-
stancy of the martyr admirable. Tliis Bertrand, bein"
a silk weaver, went to Wesell for the cause of religion,
and being desirous to draw his wife and children from
Tournay to Wesell, he came thrice to persuade her to go
with him. When she could not be entreated, he, re-
maining a few days at home, set his house in order,
and desired his wife and brother to pray that God
would establish him in the enterprise which he went
about. He went upon Christmas day to the high church
of Tournay, where he took the cake out of the priest's
hand, as he would have lifted it over his head at mass,
and stamped it under his feet, saying, that he did it to
shew the glory of that god, and what little power he had ;
witli other words more to the people, to persuade them
that the cake or fragment of bread was not Jesus their
Saviour.
At the sight of this the peojile stood all amazed. At
length such a stir followed, that Bertrand could hardly
escape with life. The noise of this was soon carried
to the bailiff of Hainault, and governor of the castle
of Tournay, who lay sick of the gout at Biesie. He
like a madman cried out, that God would ever be so
patient as to suffer that contumely to be trodden under-
foot ; adding, that he would revenge his cause, so that it
should be an example for ever to all posterity ; and forth-
with the furious tyrant commanded himself to be carried
to the castle of Tournay. Bertrand being brought before
him, was asked, whether he repented of his act, or whe-
ther he would so do, if it were to be done again ? Who
answered, that if it were an hundred times to be done,
he would do it ; and if he had an hundred lives, he
would give them in that quarrel. Then was he thrice
tormented most miserably. They then proceeded to
the sentence, more like tyrants than christian men. By
the tenor of which sentence, this was his punishment : —
First, he was drawn from the castle of Tournay to the
market-place, having a ball of iron put into his mouth.
Then he was set upon a stage, where his right hand,
wherewith he took the host, was crushed and pressed be-
tween two hot irons, with sharp iron cages fiery red, till
the form and fashion of his hand was misshapen. In
like manner they brought irons for his right foot, made
fire-hot, which of his own accord he put to his foot,
to suffer as his hand had done, with wonderful con-
stancy and firmness of mind. That done they took the
ball of iron out of his mouth, and cut off his tongue, who
notwithstanding, with continual crying, ceased not to
call upon God ; whereby the hearts of the people were
greatly moved. Upon this the tormentors thrust the
iron ball into his mouth again. Then his legs and his
arms were bound behind him with an iron chain going
about his body, and so he was let down flat upon the fire.
The aforesaid governor standing by and looking on,
caused him to be let up again, and so down and up again,
till at last the whole body was spent to ashes, which he
commanded to be cast into the river ; when this was
done, the chapel where this mass-god was so treated
was locked up, and the board whereu))on the priest stood
was burnt, and the marble stone upon which the host
fell was broken in pieces.
A. D. 1527—1335.] MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED IN GERMANY AND FRANCE.
In the same year, 1353, two hundred ministers and
preachers of the gospel were banished out of Bohemia
for preaching against the superstition of the bishop of
Rome, and extolling the glory of Christ.
453
The Preachers of Locranc exiled.
Locrane is a place between the Alps, yet subject to the
Helvetians. When these had received the gospel, and
the live cantons of the Helvetians were not well pleased,
but would have them punished, and great contention
was among the Helvetians about it, it was concluded
at length, that the ministers should be exiled.
Francis Warluf, Alexander Dayken, at Tournay,
A. D. 1362.
After these two good men had been conversant in the
reformed churches in other countries, at last, for con-
science sake, they returned home to do good in their own
country of Tournay.
So, as the people there resorted to a field or wood
without the city, with a preacher, to hear the word of
God, and to pray ; the adversaries so pursued them, that
they took above thirty, of whom these two among the
rest were apprehended ; and thinking no less but that they
should be burned, they began to sing psalms. At length
being brought forth, first one, then the other, they were
both beheaded. And where the judges had intended to
quarter their bodies, and to set them up by the high
ways, yet was it so provided, God working in the hearts
of the people, that they were both committed to sepul-
ture.
Gillotiis Virer, James Falter his father-in-law, Mi-
chael Fabcr son of James, Anna, wife of Gillotus, and
daughter of James Faber, suffered in the cause of the
gospel at Valence. James Faber, being an old man,
said that although he could not answer or fortify them
in reasoning, yet lie would constantly abide in the truth
of the gospel. Anna, his daughter, being with child,
was respited ; after she was delivered she followed her
husband and father in the like martyrdom.
Michella Caignoucle, at Valence, A.D. 1350.
Michella, wife of James Clerk, who was before burned
when she was offered to be married, and to be carried
out of the country to some reformed church, refused so
to do, but would abide her vocation, and so was con-
demned with Gillotus to be burned.
Godfrid Hamelle, at Tournay, A.D. 1532.
This Godfrid, a tailor, was taken and condemned at
Tournay. When they had condemned him by the name
of an heretic: "Nay," said he, "not an heretic, but
an unprofitable servant of Jesus Christ." When the exe-
cutioner went about to strangle him to diminish his
jiunisliment, he refused it, saying, " That he would abide
the sentence that the judges had given."
Beside these Germans there were a great number both
in the higher and lower countries of Germany, who
were secretly drowned, or buried, or otherwise made
away with in prison, whose names altliough they are not
known to us, yet they are registered in the book of life.
In the Dutch book of Adrian, others are numbered in the
catalogue of these German martyrs, who suffered in
several places of the low country : the names of some
of these are : —
John Malo, Damian Witrocke, Waldrew Caller, John
Porceau, Julian, Vanden Swerde, Adrian Lopphen,
Eawdwine. At Bergen, were burnt, in the year 1553,
John Malo, Damian Witrocke, Waldrew Calier ; buried
alive, John Porceau. At Aste also suffered one Julian.
1541, and Adrian Lopphen, 1535, At Brussels, 1559,
one Bawdwine, beheaded. Another called Gilleken
Tilleman burnt, 1551.
Add moreover to the catalogue of Dutch martyrs burnt
in the Low Countries under the emperor's dominion, the
names of these following : William Swole burnt at
Mechlin, 1529. Nicholas Van Pole, at Ghent, beheaded.
Robert Ogvier, and Joan bis wife, with Baudicou, and
Martin Ogvier, their children, who suffered at Lisle,
1556. Master Nicholas burnt at Mons in Hainault :
Lawrence, of Brussels, at Mons ; John Fasseau at Mons ;
Cornelius Volcart at Bruges, 135:?. Hubert, the printer,
and Philebert Joyner, at Bruges, 133.'?. A woman buried
with thorns under her ; Peter le Roux at Bruges, 1552.
At Mechlin suffered Francis and Nicholas, two brethren,
1555. At Antwerp were burnt Adrian, a painter, and Henry,
a tailor, 1555. Also Cornelius Halewine, locksmith, and
Herman Janson the same year. John du Camp, school-
master, 1537, with a number of others, who in the book
are to be seen and read.
In 1325, we read also in the French history, of a cer-
tain monk, who, because he forsook his abominable or-
der, and was married, was burned at Prague.
A Preacher poisoned at Erfurt.
In the collections of Henry Patalion, we read also of
a certain godly preacher who was poisoned for preaching
the word of truth, by the priests of Erfurt.
And here ceasing with these persecutions in Germany,
we will now, Christ willing, proceed further to the
French martyrs, comprehending in a like manner the
names and causes of such as in that kingdom suffered for
the word of God, and the cause of righteousness.
THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
James Pavane, Schoolmaster, at Paris, A.D. 1524.
This James, being taken by the bishop of Meux, was
compelled to recant. Afterward returning again to hia
confession, he was burned at Paris, in the year 1525,
Dionysius de Rieux, at Meux, A.D. 1528.
This Denis was one of them who was burned for say-
ing that the mass is a plain denial of the death and pas-
sion of Christ. He was always wont to have in his
mouth the words of Christ: " He that denieth me be-
fore men, him I will also deny before my Father ;" and to
muse upon the same earnestly. He was burnt with a
slow fire.
John de Cadurco, Bachelor of the Civil Law, A.D. 1533.
This John, for making an exhortation to his country-
men upon Allhallows-day, and after sitting at a feast where
it was propounded that every one should bring forth some
sentence, because he brought forth this ; "Christ reigns
in our hearts," and prosecuted it by the scriptures, he
was accused, taken, and degraded, and afterwards
burned. At his degradation, one of the Black friars of
Paris preached, taking for his text the words of St. Paul,
1 Tim. iv. 1. " The Spirit speaketh expressly that injthe
later times, men shall depart from the faith, giving heed
to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," &c. And
in handling that place, either he could not, or would not
proceed further in the text. Cadurco cried out to him
to proceed, and read further. The friar stood dumb and
could not speak a word.
Then Cadurco, taking the text, continued it : "Teach-
ing lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding
to abstain from meats which God hath created to be re-
ceived with thanksgiving," &c.
Bartholomeiv Myler, a lame cripple : John Biirges,
merchant, the receiver of Nantz ; Henry Hoille of Cou-
beron ; Cafella, a schoolmistress ; Stephen de la Forge,
merchant, \b?>^. These five here specified, for certain
papers circulated abroad against the abomination of the
mass, and other superstitious absurdities of the pope,
were condemned and burned in the city of Paris. Henry
of Couberon had his tongue bored through, and tied
fast to one of his cheeks with an iron wire ; he likewise
with the others was burned.
Alejander Canus, Priest, otherwise called Laurentixig
Cruceus, at Paris, A.D. 15.i3.
For the sincere doctrine and confession of Christ'*
4*6
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARri'RS.
TBooK VII.
true relijrion, Tie ^vas burned in Paris ; having but a small
fire he suflfeied much torment.
John Pointer, Surgeon, at Paris, A.D. 1533.
This sursreon hein-j detected and accused by the friars,
was first condemned to be stransrled, and then burned ;
but afterwards, because he would not do homage to a
certain idol at the command of a friar that came to con-
fess him, his sentence was changed to have his tongue
cut out, and so to be burned.
Peter Gavdet, Knight of EhodeR, A.D. 1533.
This Peter, being at Geneva with his wife, was put in
prison for defence of the gospel ; and, after long tor-
ments, was burned.
Qvoqvillard, A.D. 1534.
At Bezanfon, in Bursrundy, tliis Quoquillard was
burned for the confession and testimony of Christ's
gospel.
Nicholfr.'i, a scrivener ; Jotin de Pniir ; Stephen Bvrlef,
1534. These three were executed and burned for the
cause of the gospel, in the city of Arras.
Mari/ Beraiidella, at Fovntaigne, A.D. 1534.
This Mary being virtuously instructed by her master
where "^^f lived ; and being afterwards at a sermon
where ■< friar preached, she found fault with his doc-
trine, and refuted the same by the scriptures. He
l>rocured her to be burned at Fountaigne.
John Comon, 1535.
John Cornon was a husbandman of Mascon, and un-
lettered ; but one to whom God gave such wisdom, that
his judees were amazed, when he was condemned by
their sentence and burned.
Martin Gonin, in Dauphine, A.D. 1536.
This Martin being taken for a spy on the borders of
France, towards the Alps, was committed to prison. In
his going out, his jailor es])ied about him the letters of
Farrell, and of Peter Viret. Therefore being examined
by tlie king's procurator, and of the inquisitor, touching
his faith, he was cast into the river and drowned.
daiidiiis Painter, a Goldsmith, at Paris, A.D. 1540.
Claudius going about to convert his friends and kins-
folks in his doctrine, was committed and condemned
to be burned : but the high parliament of Paris, cor-
recting that sentence, added, that he should have his
tongue cut out before, and so be burned.
Stephen Brnne, a Husbandman, at Rntiers, A.D. 1540.
Stephen Brune after confession of his faith, was ad-
judged to be burned. "Which punishment he took so
constantly, that it was a wonder to them. His adver-
saries commanded after his death, that none should
make any more mention of him, under pain of heresy.
Constantius of Rouen, with three others, A.D. 1542.
These four, for the defence of the gospel being con-
demned to be burned, were put in a cart. They said,
that they were reputed here as tlie ofTscouring of the
world, but yet their death was a sweet odour unto God.
John du Becke, Priest, A.D. 1543.
For the doctrine of the gospel he was degraded, and
constantly abode the torment of fire in the city of
Troyes in Champagne.
Aymond de Lauog, at Bnnrdeanx , A.D. 1543.
Aymond preached the gospel at Saint Faith's in An-
jou, wliere he was accused by the parish priest, and
by other (iriests, as havino; taught false doctrine. When
the magistrates of Bourdeaux had given command to
apprelu-nd him, he was desired by his friends to fly :
but hf would not, saying, he had rather never have
been born, than to do so. It was the office of a good
shepherd, he said, not to fly in time of peril, but rather
to abide the danger, lest the flock should be scattered :
or lest in so doing, he should leave some scruple in their
minds, to think, that he fed them with dreams and
fables, contrary to the word of God. Wherefore he
told them, that he feared not to yield both body and
soul for the truth which he had taught ; saying, with
St. Paul, " That he was ready, not to be bound only,
but also to die for the Lord Jesus."
W^hen the somner came to arrest him, the people
rose, in defence of their preacher, and flew upon the
somner, to deliver him out of his hands. But Aymond
desired them not to prevent his martyrtlom, for as it
was the will of God that he should suff'er, he would not
resist. So Aymond was carried to Bourdeaux. Many
witnesses, chiefly priests, came against him, with Mr.
Riverack : who had said often before, that if it should
cost him a thousand crowns, he would have him burned.
He made many exceptions against the false witnesses,
but they would not be taken. The amount of their ac-
cusation was only that he had denied purgatory.
He continued about nine months in prison, bewailing
exceedingly his former life, though no man could charge
him outwardly with any crime. After that, he was ex-
amined with torments. One of the head presidents
came to him, and shaking him by the beard, bade him
tell what fellows he had of his religion. To whom he
answered, that he had no other fellows, but such as
knew and did the will of God his Father. In these
torments he continued two or three hours, comforting
himself with these words; "This body," said he, "once
must die, but the spirit shall live: the kingdom of God
abideth for ever." In the time of his tormenting, he
fainted, but afterwards on coming to himself again, he
said, " O Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me .'"'
To whom the president, " Nay, wicked Lutheran, thou
hast forsaken God." Then said Aymond, "Alas, good
masters, why do you thus miserably torment me .' O
Lord, I beseech thee forgive them, they know not what
they do.'' So constant was he, that they could not
force him to utter one man's name.
On the next Saturday following, sentence of condem-
nation was given against him. Then certain friars were
appointed to hear his confession ; he refused them,
choosing some of his own order, the parish priest of
St. Christoi>her's, bidding the friars depart, for he
would confess Ids sins to the Lord. "Do you not see,"
said he, " how I am troubled enough with men, will ye
yet trouble me more ? Others have had my body, will
ye also take from me my soul .' Away from me, I pray
you." At last, when they refused to let him have the
parish priest, he took a Carmelite ; with whom he had
long converse, and at last converted him to the truth.
Shortly after, the judges, Cassanges, and Longa, with
others, came to him ; Aymond began to preach to them
and declare his mind touching the Lord's Supjier : but
Longa, interrupting him, demanded of him thus.
Judge. — First declare to us your mind, what you
think of purgatory ?
Martyr. — In scripture all these are one, to purge, to
cleanse, and to wash. Whereof we read in Isaiah, in
the epistles of St. Paul, and of St. Peter ; " He hath
washed you in his blood. Ye are redeemed, not with
gold, but with the blood of Christ," &c. Heh. ix. 12.
1 Peter i. 18. And how often do we read, in the epis-
tles of St. Paul, that we are cleansed by the blood of
Christ from our sins, &c.
Judge. — These epistles are known to every child.
Martyr. — To every child? Nay, I fear you have scarce
read them yourself.
A friar. — With one word you may satisfy them, if you
will say, that there is a place where the souls are purged
after this life.
Martyr. — That I leave for you to say, if you please.
What, would ye have me damn my own soul, and say
that which I know not ?
Judge. — Dost not thou think, that when thou art dead,
thou shalt go to purgatory ? And that he that died iu
venial sin, shall pass straight into paradise?
A. D. 1527—1555.]
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
457
Martyr. — Such trust I have in my God, that the same
day when I shall die, I shall enter into paradise.
Another judge.— Where is paradise 7
j^^artvT. — There where the majesty and glory of God is.
judo-e. The canons make mention of purgatory, and
you in your sermons have used always much to pray for
the poor.
Martyr. — 1 have preached the word of God, and not
the canons.
Judge. — Dost thou believe in the church ?
Martyr. — I believe as the churcli regenerated by the
blood of Christ, and founded in his word, hath ap-
pointed.
Judge. — What church is that ?
Martyr. — The church is a Greek word, signifying as
muQh as a congregation or assembly : and so I say, that
whensoever the faithful do congregate together, to the
honour of God, and the extending of christian religion,
the Holy Ghost is verily with them.
Judge. — By this it should follow, that there are many
churches : and where any rustic clowns assemble to-
gether, there must be a church.
Martyr. — It is no absurd thing to say that there are
many churches or congregations among christians : and
so speaks St. Paul, to all the churches which are in
Galatia, &c. And yet all these congregations make but
one church.
Judges. — The church wherein thou believest, is not
the same church which our creed calls the holy church ?
Martyr. — I believe the same.
Judge. — And who should be head of that church ?
Martyr. — Jesus Christ.
Judge. — And not the pope ?
Martyr. — No.
Judge. — And what is he then ?
Martyr. — A minister, if he be a good man, as other
bishops : of whom St. Paul thus writes ; "Let a man so
account of us, as ministers of Christ, and stewards of
the mysteries of God," &c. 1 Cor. iv. 1.
Then the judges leaving him with the friars, departed,
counting him as a damned creature. Aymond, however,
putting his trust in God, was full of comfort, saying
with St. Paul, " "Who shall sei)arate me from the love of
God ? Shall tlie sword, hunger, or nakedness ? No,
nothing shall pluck me from him. But rather I have
pity on you," said he, and so they departed. Not
long after, he was brought to the place of execution,
singing by the way the hundred and fourteenth Psalm.
He thanked moreover the keeper, and desired him to be
good to his ])oor prisoners. And so taking his leave of
them, and desiring them to pray for him ; also giving
thanks to the mistress-keeper for her gentleness to him,
he proceeded to his execution. As he came near the
church of St. Andrew, they desired him to ask mercy of
God, and of blessed St. Mary, and of St. Justice. " I
ask mercy," said he, "of God, and his justice, but
the Virgin, blessed St. Mary, I never offended, nor did
any thing for which I should ask her mercy. In passing
a certain image of the Virgin Mary, great offence was
taken against him, because he called upon Christ Jesus
only, and made no mention of her. So he lifted up his
voice to God, praying that he would never suffer him to
invocate any other. Coming to the place where he was
to suffer, he was tumbled out of the cart uppn the
ground, testifying to magistrates and to the people
standing by, that he died for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He would have spoken more, but he was not suffered,
by the officers, crying, " Dispatch him 1 dispatch him !
let him not speak." Then spe king a few words softly
in the ear of the Carmelite whom he had converted, he
was bid to step up to the stage. There the people be-
ginning to listen to him, he said thus ; " O Lord, make
haste to help me, tarry not, do not despise the works of
thy hands : and you, my brethren, that are students and
scholars, I exhort you to study and learn the gospel :
for the word of God abideth for ever : labour to know
the will of God, and fear not them that kill the body,
but have no power upon your souls: my flesh," said he,
*' striveth against the spirit, but I shall shortly cast it
away. My good masters, 1 beseech you pray for me.
O Lord my God, into thy hands I commend my soul.""
As he was often repeating the same words, tlie execu-
tioner took and strangled him. And thus that blessed
saint gave up his life ; his body afterwards was consumed
with hre.
Francis Bribard, A.D. 1544, was said to be the secre-
tary of tlie cardi >al of Ballaie. Being condemned for
the gosjjel, his tongue was cut off, and with great con-
stancy he suffered martyrdom by burning.
WilliamHitsson, an apothecary at Rouen, in 1544, went
to the palace, and there scattered certain books concern-
ing cliristian doctrine, and the abuse of human tradition.
The council was so moved at this, that they com-
manded all the gates of the city to be locked, and dili-
gent search to be made to find out the author, so that
William Husson was taken by the way riding to Dieppe,
and brought again to Rouen. Being there examined,
he declared his faith boldly, and how he came jjurposely
to disperse those books in Rouen, and went to do the
like at Diejjpe.
The week ensuing he was condemned to be burnt
alive. After the sentence he was brought in a cart, ac-
companied with a doctor, a Carmelite friar ; and when
before the great church they put a torch into his hand,
and required him to do homage to the image of the Vir-
gin Mary, and because he refused to do this they cut out
his tongue. The friar then preached a sermon, and
when he spoke anything of the mercies of God, tl>e said
William hearkened to him ; but when he spoke of the
merits of saints, and other dreams, he turned away his
head. The friar looking upon the countenance of Hus-
son, lifted up his hand to heaven, saying, with great ex-
clamation, that he was damned, and was possessed with
a devil. W'hen the friar had ceased his sermon, this
godly Husson had his hands and feet bound behind his
back, and with a puUy was lifted up into the air ; and
when the fire was kindled he was let down into the
flame, where the blessed martyr with a smiling and cheer-
ful countenance looked up to heaven, never moving or
stirring till he let down his head, and gave up his spirit.
All the people there present were not a little astonished,
some saying that he had a devil ; others maintained the
contrary, saying, if he had a devil, he would have fallen
into despair.
This Carmelite friar was called Delanda, who after-
wards was converted, and preached the gospel.
James Cobard, a schoolmaster, and many others taken
at the same time, 1545. — Tliis James, schoolmaster in the
dukedom of Barens in Lorraine, disputed vvitii three
priests, that the sacrament of baptism, and of the supper
did not avail, unless they were received with faith ;
which was as much as to say, that the mass profited
neither the quick nor the dead. For which, and also for
his confession, which he sent while in jjrison by his
mother to the judge, he was burned, and most quietly
suffered.
Also in 1546, atMeaux, a city in France, near to Paris,
where William Briconatus was bishop, this bishop did
much good, and brought to them the light of the gospel,
and reformed the church ; but afterw?rds, though he
apostatised, yet there were many who remained con-
stant. Then came the burning of James Pavane ; and
as superstition began to grow more and more, those who
had continued steadfast began to assemble in Mangin's
house, and to set up a church for themselves, after the
example of the French church in Strasburg. They be-
gan with twenty or thirty, and increased in a short time
to three or four hundred. On the matter being known
to the senate of Paris, the chamber was beset where those
persons were, and they were taken. Sixty-two men and
women were bound and brought to Paris, singing psalms,
especially the seventy-ninth Psalm. To these it was
chiefly objected, that they being laymen, ministered the
sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord.
Of these sixty-two, fourteen were specially steadfast,
and were condemned, and racked to compel them to
458
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
[Book VII.
confess more of their fellows, but would not do so ; the
rest were scourged and banished the country. These
fourteen were sent to sundrj' monasteries to be con-
verted ; but that would not answer ; they then were
sent ill a cart to Meaux to be burned ; and when on the
way, about three miles from Paris, they met by chance
a weaver of Couberon, who cried to them aloud, biddintf
them to be of good cheer, and to cleave fast to tlie
Lord. This man was also taken, and bound and put in
the cart with tlieni. On coming to the place of execu-
♦■ion, wliich was before Mangin's house, they were told,
chat those who would oe confessed should not have their
tongues cut out, but that the others shoukl. Of the
fourteen there were seven who to save their tongues
confessed ; the other seven refused. As they were burn-
ing, the people sung psalms. The priests would also
sing tlieir songs: " O saving Host," &c. and " Hail,
O Queen of heaven," &c. while the sacrifice of these
holy martyrs was finished. Their wives being compelled
to see their husbands in torments, were afterwards put
in jnison, whence they promised to be freed if they would
only say that their husbands were damned, but they re-
fused.
At Paris, in 1546, Peter Chapot, a printer, after hav-
ing been at Geneva, came into France, and brought with
him some books of the holy scripture, which he dispersed
abroad among the faithful, when his great zeal caused
him to he ajjprehended.
On being brought before the commissaries, he ren-
dered an account of his faith, and exhibited a supplica-
tion, or writing, in which he learnedly informed the
judges to do their office uprightly. Then were three
doctors of the Sorbonne assigned to dispute with him,
who when they could find no advantage, but rather
shame at his hands, were angry with the judges for
making them dispute with heretics.
This done, the judges consulting on his condemnation,
could not agree, so that Chapot might have escaped,
had not a wicked person wrought his condemnation,
that he should be burned. At his execution, friar Mail-
lard called upon him not to speak to the people, but he
desired him to pray. Then he bade him ))ray to our
Lady, and confess her to be his advocate. He confessed
that she was a blessed Virgin, and recited the Lord's
Prayer and the Creed, and was about to speak of the
mass, hut Maillard would not let him, making haste to
his execution, and said, unless he would say the " Hail
Mary," he should be burnt. Then Chapot prayed, " O
Jesus Son of David, have mercy upon me." Maillard
then bade him say, " Jesus, Maria," and that he should
be only strangled. Chapot was so weak that he could
not speak. " Say," said Maillard, " Jesus Maria, or
else thou shalt be burned." As Chapot was thus striv-
ing with the friar, suddenly, as it happened, tliat Jesus
Maria, slipped from his mouth ; but he instantly re-
pressing himself, "O God," said he, "what have I
done ! pardon me, O Lord, to thee only have I sinned."
Then Maillard commanded the cord to be put about his
neck to strangle him. After all things were done, Mail-
lard, full of anger, went to the council-house, declaring
v/hat an uproar had almost happened among the jieople ;
saying, that he would complain of the judges for suffer-
ing those heretics to have their tongues. Immediately
a decree was made, that all who were to be burned, un-
less they recanted at the fire, should have their tongues
cut off ; which law was afterwards diligently observed.
Sainiinm Nivet at Paris, in 1. '546.— After the burning
of the fourteen, described before, this Saintinus, who
was a cripple, had removed away from Meaux, but
after a time he returned, and, as he was selling certain
finiall wares in the fair, he was known again and appre-
liended. Information having been given, he was ex-
amined, and at first he confessed all, and more than
they were willing to hear. But as they were examining
him on certain points of religion, and asked him whether
he would stand to what he said, or not, he gave this
answer, which is worthy to be registered in all men's
hearts, saying, " And I ask you again, lord judges.
dare you be so bold as to deny what is so plain and
manifc'st by the open words of the scripture ?" So
little regard had he to saving his own life, that he de-
sired the judges, for (jod's sake, that tiiey wouhl rather
take care of their own lives and souls, and consider how
much innocent blood they spilled daily in fightino
against Christ Jesus and his gospel.
At last, being brought to Paris, he there suffered mar-
tyrdom : no kind of cruelty was wanting, which the in-
nocent martyrs of Christ Jesus were wont to undergo.
Strp/ien PoUiot, in l.')46, on coming out of Normandy,
where he was born, to Meaux, was compelled to fly, but
was ajiprehended and brought to Paris, and there cast
into a foal and dark prison. In which prison he was
kept in hands and fetters a long time, where he saw al-
most no light. At length being called before the senate,
and his sentence being given to have his tongue cut out,
and to be burned alive, his books hanging about his
neck in a bag, " O Lord," said he, " is the world in
blindness and darkness still ?" At last the worthy mar-
tyr of Jesus Christ was put into the fire, where with
much patience he ended this transitory life.
John Enf/Ush, in ir)47, was executed and burned at
Sens in Burgundy, being condemned by the high court
of Paris, for confessing the true word of God.
Michael MicheJote, a tailor, in 1547, wns appre-
hended for the gospel's sake, and sentenced if he would
turn, to be beheaded ; and if he would not turn, then to
be burned alive. On being asked, which of these two
he would choose ? answered, that he trusted, that he
who had given him grace not to deny the truth, would
also give him patience to endure the fire. He was burned.
Leonard de Prato, in 1547, when going from Dijon to
Bar, a town in Burgundy, with two false brethren, and
talking with them about religion, was betrayed by them,
and afterwards burned.
Seven Martyrs, A. D. 1457.
John Taffin(/ton, and Joan his wife, Simon Mareschal,
and Joan his wife, William Michaut, James Botderau,
and James Bretany. — All these seven being of the city of
Langres, were committed to the fire for the word and
truth of Jesus Christ, in which they died with much
strength and comfort ; but especially Joan, who was
Simon's wife, being reserved to the last, because she
was the youngest, confirmed her husband, and all the
others with words of singular consolation ; declaring to
her husband, that they should the same day be married
to the Lord Jesus, to live with him for ever.
Michael Mareschall, John Camns, Great John Camus,
and John Serarphin, in the same year, and about the
same time, for the like confession of Christ's gospel,
were condemned by the senate of Paris, and in the same
city also with the like cruelty were burned.
Oclovien Blondel, a merchant of precious stones at
Paris, 1548. — This Octovien was well known both
at court and elsewhere ; he was a singularly honest man
of great integrity, and also a favourer of God's word.
Being at his host's house at Lyons, he rebuked the filthy
talk, and superstitious behaviour, which he heard and
saw there. The host, bearing to him a griidge, had
some talk with one Gabriel, concerning the riches, and a
sumptuous collar set with rich jewels belonging to this
Octovien.
Thus these two consulting together, suborned a person
to borrow of him a sum of crowns ; which, because
Octovien refused to lend, the other caused him to be
ajtprehended for heresy, thinking thereby to make at-
tachment of his goods. But such order was taken by
Blondel's friends, that they were frustrated in their
purpose. Then Blondel being examined as to his faith,
gave a plain and full confession of that doctrine, which
he had learned : for which he was committed to prison,
where be did much good to the prisoners.
A. D. 152/— 1555.]
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
459
For =ome that were in debt, he paid their creditors
and loosed ther.i out. To some he gave meat, to others
raiment. At length, throutrh the importune persuasions
of his parents and friends, he gave over and changed his
confession. However, tlie Presenteur Gabriel appealed
up to the high court of Paris. There Octovien being
asked again, touching his faith, which of his two confes-
sions he would stick to ? he being before admonished of
his fall, and of the offence given by it to the faithful,
said he would live and die in his first confession, which
he defended as consonant to the truth of God's word.
He was therefore condemned to be burned, and his ex-
ecution was hastened lest his friends at court might save
his life.
Huhert Cheriet, alias Burre, tailor, at Dijon, 1549.
— Hubert, being a young man of the age of nineteen
years, was burned for the gospel at Dijon ; who neither,
by any terrors of death, nor allurements of his parents,
could be otherwise persuaded, but constantly to remain
in the truth unto death.
Master Florent Venote, priest at Paris, 1549. — This
Florent remained in prison in Paris, about four years.
During wliich time there was no torment which he did
not overcome. Besides other torments, he was put in a
narrow prison so straight, that he could neither stand nor
lie, which they call the hose or boot, because it is
straight beneath, and wider above. In this he remained
seven weeks, where the tormentors affirm, that no thief
or murderer could ever endure fifteen days, but was in
danger of life or madness. At last, when there was a
great shew in Paris at die king's coming to the city, Florent
and other martyrs were put to death. He had liis tongue
cut off, and was brought to see tlie execution of them all ;
then, last of all, he was put in the fire and burned the
ninth of July, in the place called Maulbert.
Ann Audelert, an apothecary's wife and widow at
Orleans, 1549. — Going to Geneva, she was taken and
brought to Paris, and by the council adjudged to be
burned at Orleans. When the rope was put about her,
she called it her wedding-girdle wherewith she should be
married to Christ. And as she was to be burned upon
a Saturday, upon Michaelmas-even: " Upon a Satur-
day,'' said she, " I was first married, and upon a Satur-
day I shall be married again." And seeing the cart
brought in which she was to be carried, she rejoiced
thereat, shewing such constancy in her martyrdom as
made all the beholders to marvel.
A poor Tailor of Paris, 1549.
Among many other godly martyrs that suffered in
France, the history of this poor tailor is not the least nor
worst to be remembered. His name is not yet sought
out in the French histories through want of diligence in
those writers. The history is this : Not long after the
coronation of Henry II., the French king, at whose
coming into Paris several good martyrs were brought
out and burned for a spectacle : a certain poor tailor,
who then dwelt not far from the king's palace, was ap-
prehended, because upon a certain holy-day he followed
his occupation, and worked for his living. Before he was
led to prison, the officer asked him, " Why he laboured
giving no observance to the holy-day ?" he answered,
" That he was a poor man, living only upon his labour :
and as for the day, he knew no other but only the Sun-
day, wherein he might not lawfully work for his living.''
Then the officer began to ask of him many questions :
which the poor tailor so answered, that he was soon clapt
in prison. After that, the officer coming into court to
shew what good service he had done for holy church, de-
clared how he had taken a Lutheran working upon a
holy-day. When the rumour was noised in the king's
chamber, the poor man was sent to appear, that the king
might hear him
Only a few of the chief peers remained about the
king when the simple tailor was brought. The king
sitting in his chair, commanded Peter Castellan, bishop
cf Mascon, (a maa very fit for such inquisitioas) to
question him. The tailor being entered, and nothing
appalled at the king's majesty, after his reverence done
to the prince, gave thanks to God, that he had so
greatly dignified him, as to bring him where he might
testify his truth before such a mighty prince. Then Cas-
tellan, began to reason with him touching the great and
chief matters of religion. The tailor, without fear, or
any halting in his speech, with wit and memory,
answered excellently in behalf of the sincere doctrine
and simple truth of God's gospel.
The nobles who were present, with cruel taunts and
rebukes, did what they could to dash him out of counte-
nance. Yet all this terrified him not, but with boldness
of heart and free liberty of speech, he defended his
cause, or rather the cause of Christ the Lord, neither
flattering their persons, nor fearing their threats ; which
was to them a matter of astonishment to behold that
simple poor artificer stand so firm and bold, answering
before a king, to the questions propo\inded against him.
When the king seemed to muse with himself, as one
who might have been led to further knowledge, the
bishop and other courtiers seeing the king in such a
muse, said, he was an obstinate and stubborn person,
and therefore should be sent to the judges, and
punished : and so, within a few days after, he was con-
demned to be burned alive.
Claudius Thierry, at Orleans, 1549. — The same
year, and for the same doctrine of the gospel, one Clau-
dius also was burned at the town of Orleans, being ap-
prehended by the way coming from Geneva to his
country.
Leonard Galimard, at Paris, 1549.— This Leonard,
fur the confession likewise of Christ and his gospel, was
taken and brought to Paris, and there, by the sentence
of the council, was judged to be burned the same time
that Florent Venote, above-mentioned, suffered at Paris.
Macaus Moreou, at Troyes, 1549.— He was burned in
Troyes in Champaine, remaining constant to the end ia
the gospel, for which he was apprehended.
Joannes Godeau, Gabriel Beraudimi^, A. D. 1550. —
These two were of the church of Geneva. Godeau,
standing to his confession, was burned. Gabriel, though
he began a little to shrink for fear of the torments, yet,
being confirmed by the constant death of Godeau, re-
covered again, and standing likewise to his confession,
first had his tongue cut out. And so these two, after
they had confirmed many in God's truth, gave their life
for Christ's gospel.
Thomas Sanpaulinns at Paris, 1551. — This young
man, of the age of eighteen years, coming from Geneva
to Paris, rebuked there a man for swearing. For which
cause, being suspected for a Lutheran, he was watched
and brought before the council of Paris, and put ia
prison, where he was racked and miserably tormented,
so that he might either change his opinion, or confess
others of his profession. His torments and rackings were
so sore that the sight of them made Aubert, one of the
council, a cruel and vehement enemy against the gospel,
to turn his back and weep. The young man, when he
had made the tormentors weary with racking, and yet
would utter none, at last was brought to Maulbert place,
in Paris, to be burned ; being in the fire, he was plucked
up again upon the gibbet, and asked whether he would
turn ? he said, " That he was in his way towards God,
and therefore desired them to let him go.'' Thus this
glorious martyr glorified the Lord with constant confes-
sion of his truth.
Mauricius Secenate in Provence, 1551. — Being inter-
rogated by the lieutenant of that place, this martyr made
his answers so that no great advantage could be taken
of them. But he being greatly troubled in his con-
science for dissembling with the truth, and being caUed
afterwards before the chief judge, he answered so di-
rectly, that he was condemned and burned in Provence.
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
469
John Pirtte, or de Puteo, sirnamed Medicus, at Uzez
in Languedoc, lool. — This Medicus had a controversy
about a certain pit with a citizen of the town of Uzez,
where he dwelt. He, to cast Medicus in the law, ac-
cused him of heresy, bringing for his witnesses those
labourers whom Medicus had hired to work in his vine-
yard : being examined on the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, he was condemned and burned at Uzez in
Languedoc.
Claudius Monerius at Lyons, 1551.
Tliis man being well instructed in the knowledge of
God's word, came to Lyons, and there taught children.
Hearing of the lord president's coming to the city, he
went to give warning to a certain friend of his, and con-
ducted hiin out of the town. In returning again to
comfort the man's wife and children, he was taken in
his house : and so he confessing that which he knew to
be true, and standing to that which he confessed, after
much afflictions in prisons and dungeons, was con-
demned and burned at Lyons. Certain of the judges
could not forbear weeping at his death.
In prison he wrote some letters, but one especially
very comfortable to all the faithful. He wrote also the
questions of the official, with his answers, which we have
here contracted as follows : —
Official. — What believe you of the sacrament .' Is the
body of Christ in the bread, or no ?
Martyr. — I worship Jesus Christ in heaven, sitting at
the right hand of God the Father.
Official. — What say you about purgatory ?
Martyr. — Forsomuch as there is no place of mercy after
this life, therefore there is no need of any purgation ;
but it is necessary that we be purged before we go hence.
Official. — What think you of the pope ?
Martyr. — I say he is a bishop as other bishops are,
if he be a true follower of St. Peter.
Official. — What say you of vows ?
Martyr. — No man can vow to God so much, but the
law requires much more than he can vow.
Official. — Are not saints to be invoked ?
Martyr. — They cannot pray without faith, and there-
fore it is in vain to call upon them. And again, God
has appointed his angels about us, to minister in our ne-
cessities.
Official — Is it not good to salute the blessed Virgin
with the " Hail Mary !"
Martyr. — When she was on earth she had need of the
angel's greeting ; for then she had need of salvation, as
well as others ; but now she is so blessed, that no more
blessing can be wished to her.
Official. — Are not images to be had .'
Martyr. — The nature of man is so prone to idolatry,
ever occupied in those things which lie before his eyes,
rather than upon those which are not seen ; images
therefore are not to be set before christians. You
know nothing is to be adored, but that which is not
seen with eyes, that is, God alone, who is a Spirit, and
him we must worship only in spirit and in truth.
In 1552, Renat Poyet, the son of William Poyet, who
was chancellor of France, for the true and sincere pro-
fession of the word of God, constantly suffered martyr-
dom, and was burned in the city of Salmure.
John Joyer, and his servant at Toulouse, 1552. — These
two coming from Geneva to their country with certain
books, were apprehended and brought to Toulouse, where
the master was first condemned. The servant being
young, was not so prompt to answer them, but sent
them to his master, saying, that he should answer them.
When they were brought to the stake, the young man
first going up, began to weep. The master fearing lest
he would give over, ran to him, and he was comforted,
and they began to sing. As they were in the fire, the
master standing upright to the stake, shifted the fire
from him to his servant, being more careful for him than
for himself ; and when he saw him dead, he bowed down
into the tlame. and so expired.
[Book \\\.
Hugonius Gravier, a schoolmaster and minister after
of Cortillon, in the country of Newcastle. At Burg in
Bresse, a day's journey from Lyons, in 1552, this
Gravier was burnt. He coming from Geneva to New-
castle was there elected to be minister. On going to see
his wife's friends at Mascon, he was taken, with all his
company ; and desiring the women and the rest of the
comi)any to lay the fault on him for bringing them out,
he was sentenced to be burned, although the lords of
Berne sent their heralds to save his life, and the official
declared him to be an honest man, and to hold nothing
but agreeing with the scriptures.
Martial Alha, Petrus Srriha, Bernard Segnine, C/iarlea
Faber, Peter Navihere, at Lyons, 155.5.
These five students, after they had remained in the
university of Lausanne a certain time, agreed amongst
themselves, being all Frenchmen, to return home
every one to his country, that they might instruct
their parents and friends in such knowledge as the Lord
had given them. So taking their journey they came to
Geneva, where they remained a while. From thence
they went to Lyons, where they were apprehended and
led to prison, and where they continued a whoiu year.
As they were learned in the scriptures, every ons of
them exhibited severally a learned confession of his faith ;
and, through the jiower of the Lord's Spirit, confounded
the friars, with whom they disputed.
They were examined as to the sacrament of the Lord's
body, of purgatory, confession and invocation, free will,
and the supremacy, &c. Although they proved their
cause by scripture, and refuted their adversaries in rea-
soning, yet right being overcome by might, sentence
was given, and they were burnt at Lyons. When set
upon the cart, they began to sing psalms. As they passed,
by the market-place, one of tliem with a loud voice sa-
luted the people with the words of the last chapter to
the Hebrews, " The God of peace which brought again
from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep by the
blood of tlie everlasting covenant," &c. Coming to the
place, the two youngest went up upon the heap of
wood to the stake, and there were fastened, and so after
them the rest. Martial Alba being the eldest, was the
last ; being stripped of his clothes, and brought to the
stake, he desired this petition of the governor — that he
might go about to his companions tied at the stake, and
kiss them : which being granted, he went and kissed
every one, saying, " Farewell, my brother." The other
four, following the example, bad each one, " Farewell,
my brother '' With that, fire was commanded to be
put to them. So the blessed martyrs, in the midst of
the fire, sjiake one to another to be of good cheer, and
so departed.
The Examinations briefly touched.
Friar. — Thou sayest, friend, in thy confession, that
the pope is not supreme head of the church. I will
prove to the contrary. The pope is successor of Peter,
and therefore he is supreme head of the church.
Martyr. — I deny that he is successor to Peter.
Then another friar. — Thou sayest St. Peter is not the
head of the church, 1 will prove he is ; for our Lord said
to Peter, ''Thou shalt be called Cephas;" which Cephas is
as much as to say in Latin, a head ; and therefore Peter
is head of the church.
Martyr. — Where find you that interpretation.' St.
John in his first chapter doth expound it otherwise :
" Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpre-
tation a stone."
Then the judge Villard, calling for a New Testament,
turned to the place, and found it to be so. Upon which
the friar was utterly dashed and stood mute.
Friar. — Thou sayest in thy confession, that a man hath
no free will, I will prove it. It is written in the gos-
pel, how a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho fell
among thieves, and was spoiled, maimed, and left half
dead, &c. Thomas Aquinas expounds this parable to
mean free-will, which he saith is maimed ; yet not SO
but that some power remains in man to work.
Martyr. — This interpretation 1 refuse and deny.
A.D. 1527—1555.]
A LIST OF FRENCH MARTYRS.
4fi|
Friar. — What ! thinkest thou thyself better learned
than St. Thomas ?
Martyr. — I arrogate no such learning to myself. But
I say this parable is not to be so expounded, but is set
forth by the Lord to commend charity towards our neigh-
bour, how one should help another.
Prmr. Thou sayest in thy confession, that we are
justified only by faith, I will prove that we are justitied
by works. St. Paul, Hebrews xiii. \6, saith, "To do
good and to distribute forget not ; for with such sacri-
fices God is merited." Now as we merit God by our
works, so we are justified by our works.
Martyr. — The words of St. Paul in that place are to
be translated thus : — " With such sacrifices God is well
pleased."
Vilard the judge turned to the book, and found the
place even as the prisoner said. Here the friars were
marvellously appalled and troubled in their minds. One
asked then, what he thought of confession ?
To whom the martyr answered, That confession is to
be made to God only ; and that those places wljich
they allege for auricular confession, out of St. James
and others, are to be expounded of brotherly reconcilia-
tion between one another, and not of confession in the
priest's ear. And here again the friars had nothing to
say against it.
A Black friar. — Dost thou not believe the body of
Christ to be locally and corporally in the sacrament ? I
will prove the same : Jesus Christ taking bread said,
"This is my body."
Martyr. — The verb " is" is not to be taken here sub-
stantively in its own proper signification, as shewing the
nature of a thing in substance, but as noting the property
of a thing, signifying, after the manner and phrase of the
scripture ; where one thing is wont to be called by the
name of another, so as the sign is called by the name of
the thing signified, &c. So is circumcision called by the
name of the covenant, and yet it is not the covenant.
So the lamb has the name of the passover, yet it is not
the same. In which two sacraments of the old law you
see the verb "is," must be taken, not as shewing the
substance of being, but the property of being in the thing
that is spoken of. And so likewise in the sacrament of
the new law.
Friar. — I will prove that they of the Old Testament
were not partakers of the same grace with us. " The
law," saith St. Paul, " worketh wrath;" and they that
are under the law are under a curse ; therefore they of
the old law and testament were not partakers of the
same grace with us.
Martyr. — St. Paul here proves that no man can be
justified by the law, but that all men are under the an-
ger and curse of God thereby, forasmuch as no man per-
forms that which is comprehended in the law, so there-
fore we have need every man to run to Christ, to be
saved by faith, seeing that no man can be saved by the law.
For whoever trusts to the law, hoping to find justifica-
tion thereby, and not in Christ only, the same remains
still under the curse ; not because the law is cursed, or
that any particular time is under the curse, but because
of the weakness of our natures, which are not able to
perform the law.
The official, seeing the friar here at a point, said,
Thou heretic ! dost thou deny the blessed sacrament .'
Martyr. — No, sir, but I embrace and reverence the
sacrament, as it was instituted of the Lord, eind left by
his apostles. ,
Official. — Thou deniest the body of Christ to be in the
sacrament, and thou callest the sacrament bread.
Martyr. — The scripture teaches us to seek the body
of Christ in heaven, and not in earth, where we read,
Coloss. iii. 1. "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God," &c. And whereas I aflirm the sacrament
not to be the body, but bread, speaking of bread remain-
ing in its own substance, I do no other than St. Paul
does, who (1 Cor. xi. 26.) calls it bread likewise four or
five times together.
Official. — Thou naughty heretic 1 Jesus Christ said
that ho was a viue, and a door, £cc., where he speaks
figuratively. But the words of the sacrament are not to be
so expounded.
Martyr. — Those testimonies which you alleged make
more for me than for you.
Official. — What sayest thou, heretic ! is the bread of
the Lord's Sujiper, and the bread that we eat at home,
all one, and is there no difference between them ?
Martyr. — In nature and substance there is no differ-
ence ; in quality and in use there is much difference.
For the bread of the Lord's table, though it be of the
same nature and substance as the bread that we eat at
home, yet when it is applied to be a sacrament, it takes
another quality, and is set before us to seal the promise
of our spiritual and eternal life.
About the same time, when these five students above
specified were ajjprehended, Peter Bergerhis also was
taken at Lyons, and examined, and made the like con-
fession with them, and shortly after them suffered the
same martyrdom. He had a wife and children at Geneva,
to whom he wrote sweet and comfortable letters. In the
dungeon w'ith him there was a certain thief and malefactor
wlio had lain there seven or eight months. This thief,
for pain and torment, cried out to God and cursed his
parents that begat him, being almost eaten up with lice,
miserably handled, and fed with such bread as dogs and
horses had refused to eat. So it pleased the goodness
of Almighty God, that through the teaching and prayer
of Bergerius, he was brought to repentance of himself,
and knowledge of God, learning much comfort and
patience by the word of the gospel preached to
him.
Stephen Peloquine, Dionysius Peloquine, at Lyons,
155;i. — Stephen Peloquine, brother to Dionysius, was
taken, with Ann Audebert, and martyred for the gospel
at the same time, with a small fire. After whom fol-
lowed Dionysius Peloquine, in the same martyrdom.
The articles for which he was condemned, were the
mass, the sacrament, auricular confession, purgatory,
the Virgin Mary, and the pope's supremacy. He suf-
fered in the year lo5;5. In his martyrdom, such pati-
ence and fortitude God gave him that when he was half
burned, yet he never ceased holding up his hands to
heaven, and calling upon the Lord, to the great admira-
tion of them that looked on.
Levis Marsacvs, Michael Gerard, Stephen Gravot, at
Lyons, 1553. — At Lyons, in the same year, these three
also were apprehended and sacrificed. Lewis had served
the king in his wars. He was trained up in the know-
ledge and doctrine of the Lord. He was examined upon
several articles, as invocation of saints, and of the
Virgin Mary, free will, merits, and good works, auricular
confession, fasting, the Lord's Supper. In his second
examination, they inquired of him, and also of the other
two touching vows, the sacraments, the mass, and the
vicar of Christ. In all which articles, because their
judgment dissented from the doctrine of the pope's
church, they were condemned.
When the sentence of condemnation was given against
these three, they were so glad that they went out praising
God, and singing psalms.
When brought out of prison to the stake, the execu-
tioner tied a rope about the necks of the other two.
Marsac seeing himself spared because of his order and
degree, asked that he also might have one of the preci-
ous chains about his neck, in honour of his Lord, which,
being granted, these three blessed martyrs were com-
mitted to the fire, where, with meek patience, they
yielded up their lives into the hands of the Lord, in testi-
mony of his gospel.
Matthew Dimonettts, at Lyons, A.D. ISS.l.
This merchant first lived a vicious and detestable life,
but being called notwithstanding by the grace of God, to
the knowledge and favour of his word ; he was shortly after-
wards taken by the lieutenant, and the official, and after
a little examination was sent to prison. Being ex-
amined by the incjuisitor and the official, he refused
4')2
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
[Book VII.
to yield any answer, knowing no authority they had
over him, except to the lieutenant.
His answers were, that he believed all that the holy
universal church of Christ did truly believe, and all the
articles of the creed. To the article of the holy catholic
church, being bid to add also Roman, that is, the church
of Rome, he refused. Advocates he knew none, but
Christ alone. Purgatory he knew none, but the cross
and passion of the Lamb, which purgeth the sins of all the
■world. True confession, he said, ougiit to be made not
to the priest once a year, but every day to God, and to
such whom we have offended. The eating of the flesh
and blood of Christ he took to be spiritual ; and the sa-
crament of the flesh and blood of Christ to be eaten with
the mouth, and that sacrament to be bread and wine
under the name and signification of the body and blood
of Christ ; the mass not to be instituted by Christ, be-
in" a thing contrary to his word and will. For the head
of the church, he knew none but only Christ. Being
in prison, he had great conflicts with the infirmity of his
flesh, but especially with the temptation of his parents,
brethren, and kinsfolks, and the sorrow of his mother ;
nevertheless, the Lord so assisted him, that he endured
to the end. At his burning he spake much to the peo-
ple, and was heard with great attention. He suff'ered
July loth, 1553.
William Neel, a friar, suff'ered in the same year, and
was burned at Eureux in France. His trouble arose
first for rebuking of the vicious demeanor of the priests
there, and of the dean ; for which the dean caused him
to be sent to Eureux to the prison of the bishop.
Simon Laloe, a spectacle-maker at Dijon, in 1553,
soming from Geneva into France, was arrested by the
bailiff" of Dijon. Three things were demanded of him.
First, where he dwelt. Secondly, what was his faith.
Thirdly, what fellows he knew of his religion. His
dwelling, he said, was at Geneva. His religion was such
as was then used at Geneva. As for his fellows, he
said, he knew none, but only those of the same city of
Geneva, where his dwelling was. ^Vhen they could get
no other answer but this, with all their racking and tor-
ments, they jjroceeded to his sentence, and pursued the
execution of it, which was November 21, 1553.
The executioner, who was named James Silvester,
seeing the great faith and constancy of that heavenly
martyr, was so touched with repentance, and fell into
such despair of himself, that they had much ado, with
all the i)romises of the gospel, to recover any comfort.
At last, through the mercy of Christ, he was comforted
and converted, and so he with all his family removed to
the church at Geneva.
Nicholas Nayle, a shoemaker, at Paris, in 1553, was
apprehended, and stoutly persisting in confessing the
truth, was tried with so cruel torments, to induce him
to inform what companions he had of his profession, that
his body was almost separated one joint from another ;
but so constant was he in his silence that he would re-
veal none. As they brought him to the stake, they first
put a gag or piece of wood in his mouth, wliich they
bound with cords to the hinder part of his head, so hard
that his mouth on both sides gusJied out with blood. By
the way they passed by an hospital, where they desired
him to worship the jjicture of St. Mary standing at the
gate ; but he turned his back as well as he could, and
would not ; for which the blind people were so enraged
that they would have fallen upon him. After he was
brought to the fire they so smeared his body with fat
and brimstone, that at the first taking of the fire, all his
skin was burned, and the inward parts not touched.
With that the cords burst which were about his mouth,
whereby his voice was heard in the midst of the flame,
praising the Lord, and so the blessed martyr departed.
At Toulouse, in 1553, Peter Serve, was first a priest,
then changing his religion he went to Geneva and learned
the trade of a shoemaker. Afterwards he came to his
brother at Toulouse, to do bun good. His brother had
a wife, who was not well pleased v.-ith his religion and
coming. She told another woman, one of lier neigh-
bours of this. What does she, but goes to the official
and makes him privy of all. The official laid hands upon
Peter, and brought him before the inquisitor ; to wjiom
he made such declarations of his faith, that he seemed to
reduce the inquisitor to some feeling of conscience, and
began to instruct him in the principles of true religion.
Notwithstanding, he was condemned by the chancellor
to be degraded, and committed to the secular judge.
The judge inquiring of what occupation he was, he said,
that of hite he was a shoemaker. Whereby the judge,
understanding that he had been of some other faculty
before, required what it was. He said he had been of
another faculty before, but he was ashamed to utter it,
or to remember it, being the worst and vilest science of
all others in the world besides. The judge and the people,
supposing that he had been some thief, inquired to know
what it was ; but he for shame and sorrow stopped his
mouth, and would not declare it. At last, through their
importunate rlamour, he was constrained to declare the
truth, and said, that he had been a priest. The judge
thereupon was so moved, that he condemned him ; first,
enjoining him in his condemnation to ask the king for-
giveness, tlien judged him to have his tongue cut out,
and so to be burned.
As he went to burning, he passed by the college of St.
Martial, where he was bid to honour the picture of the
Virgin standing at the gate. On refusing so to do, the
judge commanded his tongue to be cut off; and so being
put into the fire, he stood so quiet, looking up to hea-
ven all the time of the burning, as though he had felt
nothing, bringing such admiration to the people, that one
of the parliament said, that to bring the Lutherans to
the fire would do more hurt than good.
Stephen King, Peter Denochevs, at Chartres, in 1553.
These two were suspected of Lutheranism, and so were
apprehended by the marshal, and carried to Chartres,
where, after their constant confession, on their exami-
nation, they were committed to prison for a long time.
During which time, Stephen King composed many hymns
in the praise of the Lord, to refresh his spirit in that
doleful captivity. At length they were condemned, and
executed with the cruel punishment of fire.
Antony Magnns, at Paris, in 1554, was sent by those
W'ho were in prison at Lyons, and by others also who
were in captivity at Paris, to Geneva, to commend them
to their prayers to God for them. He returned again
into France, and there within three hours of his coming
was betrayed and taken by certain priests at Bourges, and
delivered to the official ; after a few days, the king's
justices took him from the official, and sent him to Paris ;
where, after great rebukes and torments suffered in
the prison, and firmly persisting in the profession of the
truth, he was adjudged, by their capital sentence, to have
his tongue cut out, and to be burned at Paris.
William Alencon, a bookseller, did much good in the
provinces of France by carrying books. Coming to
Montpellier, he was there ensnared by false brethren,
detected, and laid in prison. In his faith he was firm
and constant to the end of his martyrdom, being burnt
in 1554.
There was at the same time at Montpellier a certain
clothworker, who was enjoined by the judges to make
public recantation, and to be present also at the burning
of Alencon. At beholding his constancy and death, it
pleased God to strike into this man such boldness, that
he desired the judges, that either he might burn with
this Alencon, or else be brought again into prison.
Wherefore within three days after, he was likewise con-
demned to the fire and burned.
Paris Panier, in 1554. — At Dola was beheaded a
good and godly lawyer, named Paris Panier, for constant
standing to the gospel of Christ.
Peter du Val, shoe-maker, at Nifimes, in 1554, sus-
A.D. 1527—10^5.
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
4@
tained grievous rackings and torments ; with which his
body being broken, dislocated, and maimed, he yet man-
fully bore all their extremity, and would name and re-
veal no one. Then he was taken to the fire, and there
consumed.
John Filieul, carpenter — Julian le ViUe, jioint-maker,
in ir)r)4. — These two blessed and constant martyrs, as
they were going toward Geneva, witli one of their sons
and a daughter, were apj)rehended by the marshal ; who
in the way overtaking them, and most wickedly and
Judas-like pretending great favour to them, and to their
religion, which he. as he said, supposed them to be of,
with these and many other fair words allured them to
confess what was their faith ; whither they went with
their children ; and also tluit their wives were at Geneva.
When they had declared this, the wretched traitor gave a
sign to the horseman, and so tliese simple saints of
Christ were entrapped and brought to the castle of Ni-
vern. Being in prison, they were examined, and they
answered ujirightly according to their faith.
Toucliing the sacrament, they affirmed the transub-
stantiation of the bishop of Rome to be against the ar-
ticle of the Creed, which says, that Christ is gone up to
heaven, and there sitteth on the right hand of God ; and
therefore the bread and wine must needs remain in their
proper nature, being, however, a sacrament or a holy
sign of the body and blood of the Lord. For as by
bread and wine the heart of man is comforted, so the
body of Christ crucified, and his blood shed spiritually,
has the like operation in the souls of believers.
As for the mass, they said it was a most superstitious
thing, and mere idolatry. And if we put any salvation
therein, it was utterly robbing the passion of Christ
the Son of God, and that it was not once to be named in
a christian's mouth. Also, that tliey who say that Peter
either was pope, or author of the mass, are far deceived.
And as for turning bread into the body of Christ, by the
words of consecration, it was an error, tliey said, more of
madmen than anytliing else ; for God is neither subject
to men, nor to the tongues or exorcisms of men. Pur-
gatory they denied, save only through the blood of Jesus
Christ.
As they would not deprive the saints of God of their
due honour, so neither the saints themselves, said they,
will be contented to rob God of the honour due only to
him.
As to confession, their opinion was, that the wounds
and cases of conscience belong to no man but only to
God.
After these answers given and written, they were sent
to the monastery of Sanpeter, there to be disputed with.
Then the matter came to be debated among the judges,
what was to be done with them. Some would have
their goods to be taken by inventory, and themselves to
be banished. But Bergeronius at last caused it to be
determined, that they should be burned, and first to hear
mass.
The officer, to cause them to recant, threatened them
with torments. When all that would not turn them, he
sent them to a friar to press them in disputation. But
as he could do no hurt to them, so they could do no
good to him. When their execution approached, the
officer put into their hands, being tied, a wooden cross,
which they took with their teeth and flung away ; for
which the officer commanded both their tongues to be
cut off. At last when the tormentor came to smear them
with brimstone and gunpowder, "Go to," they said, "salt
on, salt on the stinking and rotten flesh." Finally, as the
flame came bursting up to their faces, they persisting
constant in the fire, gave up their lives, and finished their
martyrdoms.
Denis Vayre, in this "year 1.554, suffered at Rouen;
who, first leaving his popish priesthood, went to Geneva,
where he learned the art of bookbinding, and brought
many times books into France. After that, in the reign
of King Edward VL he came to Jersey, and there was
minister, and preached. He came into Normandy with
his books, into a town called Fueille : and when he
went to hire a cart, William Langlois, with John Lang-
lois, came and stopped his books, and him who had the
custody of them. Denis, although he might have
escaped, yet hearing the keeper of his books was in
trouble, came, and presenting himself, was committed,
and the other was delivered. After two months and a
half imprisonment he was charged with being a spy, be-
cause he came out of England. Then he was removed
to the bishop's jirison, and then to Rouen, where sen-
tence was given that he should be burned alive, and
thrice lifted up and let down again into the fire. After
the sentence given they threatened him with many ter-
rible torments, unless he would disclose such as he
knew of that side. He answered, that the sounder part
of all France, and of the senate, was of that religion :
notwithstanding he would reveal no man's name to
them. And as for their torments, he said, he cared
not ; for if he were killed with racking, then he would
not feel the burning of the fire. When they saw him
care so little for their torments, they proceeded to his
burning ; and first, they put a cross in his hands, which
he would not hold. Then because coming by the image
of the Virgin Mary he would not adore it, they cried,
" Cut out his tongue:" and so they cast him into the
fire, where he should be thrice taken up ; but the flame
went so high that the executioner, being unable to
come near him, cried to the people standing by to
help, and tlie officers with their staves laid upon the
people, to help their tormentors, but never a man would
stir. And this was the end and martyrdom of that
blessed Denis.
There was a rich merchant of Paris, who said in jest
to the friars of St. Francis, " You wear a rope about
your bodies, because St. Francis once should have been
hanged, and the pope redeemed him upon this condition,
that all his life after he should wear a rope." Upon
this the Franciscan friars of Paris caused him to be ap-
prehended, and laid in prison, and so judgment passed
upon him that he should be hanged : but he, to save his
life, was contented to recant, and did so. The friars
hearing of his recantation, commended him, saying, if
he continued so, he should be saved ; and so calling
u])on the officers, caused them to make haste to the
gallow's, to hang him up while he was yet in a good way,
said tliey, lest he should fall again ! And so was this
merchant, notwithstanding his recantation, hanged for
jesting against the friars.
Thomas Calbcrgne, a coverlet-maker, 1554. — This
Thomas had copied certain spiritual songs out of a book
in Geneva, which he bro\ight with him to Tournay, and
lent to one of his friends. This book being seen, he
was summoned before the justice, and examined about
the book, which he said contained nothing but what
v/as agreeing to the scripture, and that he would stand
by it.
Then he was confined in the castle, and after nineteen
days was brought to the town-house, and there adjudged
to the fire ; he went cheerfully to it, singing psalms. As
he was in the flame, the warden of the friars stood cry-
ing, " Turn, Thomas, Thomas, it is yet time, remember
him that came at the last hour." To whom he cried
out of the flame with a loud voice, " And I trust to be
one of that sort," and so calling upon the name of the
Lord, gave up his spirit.
Richard Feurus, a goldsmith, when in England, in
1554, received there the knowledge of God's word.
Then he went to Geneva, where he remained nine or ten
years. From thence returning to Lyons, he was appre-
hended and condemned, but escaped.
After that, continuing at Geneva about the space of
three years, he came upon business to the province of
Dauphiny, and there as he found fault with the grace
being said in Latin, he was detected, and taken in his
inn in the night, by the under marshal. The next day
he was sent to the justice, and from him to the bishop ;
who ridding their hands of him, he was brought to the
lieutenant who sent his advocate with a notary, to ex-
H B
454
A LIST OF THE FRENCH M^^RTYRS.
[Book VII.
amiae him about his faith. The whole process of his
examiuations, with his adversaries and the friars, is
long, the principii contents come to this e.Tect.
Inquisitor. — Uost thou believe the church of Rome ?
Martyr. — No, I do believe the catholic and universal
church.
Itiquisitor. — What catholic church is that ?
Martyr. — The congregation or communion of chris-
tians.
LKjuisitor. — What congregation is that, or of whom
doth it consist .''
Martyr. — It consisteth in the number of God's elect,
whom (ioJ liath chosen to be the members of his Son
Jesus Christ, of whom he is also the liead.
Inquisitor. — Wliere is the congregation, or how is it
known ?
Martyr. — It is dispersed through the universal world,
in divers regions, and is known by the spiritual direction
wherewith it is governed, that is to say, both by the word
of God, and by the right institution of Christ's sacra-
ments.
Inquisitor. — Do you think the church that is at Ge-
neva, Lausanne, Barne, and such other places, a more
true cliurch than tlie holy church of Rome .'
Martyr. — Yea, verily, for these have the notes of the
true church.
Inquisitor. — What difference then make you between
those churches and the chur'ili of Rome.
Martyr. — Much ; for the church of Rome is governed
only by traditions of men, but those are ruled only by
the word of God.
Inquisitor. — Dost thou not believe the Virgin Mary
to be a mediat.'ix and advocate to God for sinners .'
Martyr. — I believe, as iu the word of God is testified,
Jesus Clirist to be the only mediator and advocate for
all sinners ; altliough the Virgin Mary be a blessed
woman, yet the office of an advocate belongs not to her.
Inquisitor. — The saints that are in paradise, have
they no power to pray for us ?
Martyr. — No, but 1 judged them to be blessed, and
to be contented with that grace and glory which they
have.
Inquisitor. — And what then judge you of those who
follow the religion of the church of Rome ? Think you
them to hi christians .'
Martyr. — No, because that church is not governed by
the Spirit of God, but rather fights against the same.
Inquisitor. — Do you then esteem all them who separate
themselves from the church of Rome to be christians ?
Martyr. — I have not to answer for others, but only
for myself. " Every man (saith St. Paul) shall bear his
own burden.''
At the next examination a Franciscan friar was brought
to him, who, first touching the words that he sj)ake in
his inn, asked him, " why grace might not be said in
Latin .="' "Because," said he, "by the word of God
christians are commanded to pray with heart and with
spirit, and with that tongue which is most understood,
and serves best to the edification of the hearers."
Friar. — God understands all tongues, and the church
of Rome hath prescribed this form of praying, receiving
the same from the ancient church and the fathers, who
used then to pray in Latin. And if any tongue is to be
observed in prayer, one more than another, why is it not
as good to pray in the Latin tongue, as to pray in the
French .'
Martyr. — My meaning is not to exclude any kind of
language from prayer, whether it be Latin, Greek, He-
brew, or any other, so that the same be understood, and
may edify the hearers.
Inquisitor. — Dost thou believe in the holy host which
the priest consecrates at the mass or no ?
Martyr. — I believe neither in the host, nor in any such
consecration.
Inquisitor. — Why ? Dost thou not believe the holy
sacrament of the altar, ordained of Christ Jesus himself.'
Martyr. — Touching the sacrament of the Lord's Su])-
per, I believe that whenever we use the same according
to the prescription of St. Paul, we are refreshed spi-
ritually with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the true spiritual meat and drink of our
souls.
Friar. — Tlie friar then adduced the words of St.
John's gospel, saying, " My flesh is meat indeed," &c.,
and said, that the doctors of the churcli had decided that
matter already, and had approved the mass to be an
holy memory of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Martyr. — The sacrament of the supper I believe to be
ordained of the Lord for a memorial of his death, and
for a stirring up of our thanksgiving to him. In which
sacrament we have nothing to otter up to him, but do re-
ceive with all thanksgiving the benefits ofl'ered to us most
abundantly in Christ Jesus his Son.
Inquisitor. — Dost thou believe in any purgatory ?
Martyr. — I believe tliat Christ with his precious
blood hath made an end of all purgatory, and purgatioa
of our sins.
Inquisitor. — And dost thou tliink then there is no
place after this life, where souls of men departed remain
till they have made satisfaction for their sins ?
Martyr. — No ; but I acknowlege one satisfaction once
made for the sins of all men, by the blood and sacrifice
of Jesus Christ our Lord, which is the propitiation and
purgation for the sins of the whole world.
Friar. — In the eighteenth cliapter of Matthew, Christ
speaking by way of a parable or similitude, of a certain
cruel servant, who, because he would not forgive his
fellow- servant, was cast into prison, saith, that he shall
not come out from thence till lie hath paid the uttermost
farthing. By which similitude is signified unto us a
certain middle place, which is left for satisfaction to be
made after this life for sins.
Martyr. — First, the satisfaction for our sins by the
death of Christ is plain and evident in the scriptures ;
as in these places: " Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," Matt. xi. 28.
" I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved," John x. 9. " I am the way, the truth, and the
life," John xiii. " Blessed are the dead that die in the
Lord, for they rest from their lal.oiirs," Rev. siii. 13.
Also to the thief who hanged with the Lord, it was
said, "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise," &c.
Secondly ; as to this similitude, it has no other object
but to admonish us of our duty, in shewing charity,
and forgiving one another, which unless we do, there is
no mercy to be looked for at the hands of God.
Friar. — Christ gave to St. Peter power to bind and
loose, whose successor, and vicar of Christ, is the
pope, for the government of the church, that it might
have one head in the world, as it hath in heaven. And
though the pastors do not live according to the word
which they preach, yet their doctrine is not therefore to
be refused, as Christ teaches.
Martyr. — If the pope and his adherents would preach
the word purely and sincerely, mixing no inventions of
their own, nor obtruding laws of their own devising, I
would then embrace their doctrine, however their life
were to the contrary : according as Christ tells us of the
scribes and pharisees, admonishing us to follow their doc-
trine, and not their lives, Matt, xxiii. 3. But there
is great difference, whether they sit in Moses's chair, or
else in the chair of abomination, spoken of by Daniel,
and also by St. Paul, where he saith, " Tliat the man of
sin, the son of j)erdition shall sit in the temple of God,
exalting himself above all that is called God," 2 Thess.
ii. 3.
And as touching the keys of binding and loosing,
given to Peter, Christ therein assigned to Peter and the
other apostles, the office of preaching the word of the
gospel, which tliey well observed, in ))reaching nothing
else but only the word, in which word is all tlie power
contained of binding and loosing. Nor is it to be granted
that the church has two heads, one in heaven, another
in earth; the head is but one, even Jesus Christ, whom
the Father hath appointed to be head alone both in
heaven and earth.
The friar. — Y'ou have no understanding how to ex-
pound the scriptures, but the old doctors have ex-
pounded the scriptures, and holy councils, whose judg-
A.D. 1527—1557.]
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
465
ments are to be followed. But what say you to auricu-
lar confession ?
The ma>-tvr. — I know no other confession but that
which is to be made to God, and reconciliation towards
our neij^hbour, which Christ and his apostles have com-
mended to us.
Friar. — Have you not read in the gospel, how
Christ doth bid us to confess to the priest, where he
commanded the leper, being made whole, to shew him-
self to the priest?
Martyr. — The true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ never observed this strange kind of confession,
to carry our sins to the priest's ear. And though the
church of Rome has intruded this manner of confessing,
it follows not that it is to be received. And as to the leper
■whom the Lord sent to the priest, he was not sent to
■whisper his sins in the priest's ear, but only as a testi-
mony of his health received, according to the law.
Of the other confession which is to be made to God,
we have both the examples and testimonies of David in
the Psalms, where he saith, that he confessed his sins
unto the Lord, and received forgiveness of the same,
(Psalm xxxii. 5. — li. 4.)
And thus was this godly Feurus remanded again by
the deputy to the bishop's prison, and from thence
shortly after removed to Lyons.
After he was come to Lyons, they proceeded at last to
the sentence, condemning him first to have his tongue
cut out, and then to be burned. All which he received
willingly and quietly for righteousness sake, thus finishing
his martyrdom, July 7, A.D. 1554.
Nicholas du Chesne, A.D. 1554
The occasion why this Nicholas came into trouble,
■was. that going from Lausanne, to his sister, and her
husband, and other of his friends, as he went from Be-
sanson, toward the town of Gry, he did not pay homage
to a cross in the way, where a monk, which was an in-
quisitor, overtook him, and thereby suspected him. He
was guided by t!ie monk, craftily dissembling his re-
ligion, to a lodging in Gry : where the justice of the
place took him. Nicholas seeing how he was betrayed
by the monk, " O false traitor," said he, " hast thou be-
trayed me ?'' Then after examination he was condemned.
Being carried to the place of martyrdom, he was pro-
mised, that if he would kneel down and hear a mass,
he sliould be let go. But Nicholas, armed with perse-
verance, said, he would rather die than commit such an
act. Calling upon the name of the Lord, he took his
death patiently.
John Bertrand, a Forester, A.D. 1556.
For the religion and gospel of Christ this John was
apprehended, and led bound to Blois, where he was
examined on divers points : as, whether he had spoken
at any time against God, against the church, and the
he-saints, and the she-saints of paradise.' He said. No.
Whether at any time he had called the mass abomina-
ble ? Which he granted, because he, finding no mass in
all the scripture, was commanded by St. Paul, that if an
angel from heaven would preach any other gospel than
that which was already received, he should be accursed.
After his condemnation they would have him confess,
and presented to him a c?oss to kiss. But he bade the
friars with theii- cross depart ; " That is not the cross,"
said he, " that I must carry." Entering into the cart
before the multitude, he gave thanks to God, that he
was not there for murder, theft, or blasphemy, but only
for the cause of our Saviour. Being tied to the post,
he sung the twenty-fifth Psalm. He was young, his
countenance was exceeding cheerful and amiable, his
eyes looked up to heaven. " O the happy journey,"
said he, seeing the place where he should suffer, " and
the fair place that is prepared for me !" When the fire
was kindled about him, "O Lord," cried he, "give
thy hand to thy servant ; I commend my soul unto
thee ;" and so meekly yielded up his spirit. His patient
and joyful constancy astonished the people.
Peter Rousseau, being constant in his confession, was
put to the rack three times, which he suffered con-
stantly with great torments. Afterwards he had his
tongue cut off, and a ball of iron put in his mouth. Thi)«
broken and maimed, he was drawn upon a hurdle to the
fire, where he was lifted up into the air, and let down
three times. When he was half-burned, the ball fell
from his mouth, and he with a loud voice called on the
name of God, saying, " Jesus Christ assist me." And
so this blessed martyr gave up his life to God, A.D.
1.556.
Arnold Moniere and John de Cazes, A. D. 1556. — Af.
ter Arnold Moniere was taken and laid in prison, John
de Cazes hearing of him, though warned that if he
visited him he would be impeached of heresy, went to
comfort him, and was imprisoned. After many examina-
tions, sentence was given upon them to be burned.
When the time of their martyrdom came, they were
drawn through the dirt upon an hurdle to the place,
accompanied with a number of bills, glaves, gunners,
aud trumpeters. ^^'hen the blessed martyrs were
bound to the post, they rejoicing that they were made
worthy to suffer for Clirist, made confession of their
faith, and gave many exhortations to the people. But
to prevent the people hearing these saints the trum-
peters were commanded to sound, which never ceased
during all the time of their suffering.
Bartholomew Hector, A.D. 1556. — This Hector came
into Piedmont, to get his living by selling books, he
was taken by a certain gentleman, and there arrested
and sent to Turin, then examined, and at last con-
demned. Being condemned, he was threatened, that if
he spake any thing to the people his tongue should be
cut off; nevertheless he ceased not to speak. After his
prayer, wherein he prayed for the judges, that God
would forgive them and open their eyes, he was offered
his pardon at the stake if he would recant, which he
refused. Then he prepared himself for death, which
he took patiently. Whereat many of the people wept,
saying, " Why doth this man die, who speaks of nothing
but of God.'"
Philip Cene, and James his companion, A. D. 1557.
— This Philip Cene was ari apothecary at Geneva. He
was taken at Dijon, imprisoned, and there burned with
one James his companion. As Philip went to his death
singing psalms, a friar stopped his mouth with his hand.
Most of the people wept bitterly, saying, "Be of
good courage, brethren, be not afraid of death." Which
when one of the adversaries heard, he said to one of the
magistrates, " Do you not see how almost half the
people are on their side, and comfort them ?"
Archambant Ceraphon, and Matthew Nicholas du
Russeau, A.D. 1557. — These two were in prison also at
Dijon. Archambant heard of certain prisciiers at Di-
jon, to wliom he wrote to comfort them with his letters.
The next day he was searched, and letters were found
about him. Then he was brought to Dijon, where he,
with the other, called Master Nicholas du Russeau,
suffered with great constancy.
Philhert Hamlin was first a priest, then he went to
Geneva, where he exercised printing. After that he was
made minister at the town of Allenart, where he did
much good in edifying the people. At last he was
apprehended, and with him his host, a priest, whom he
had instructed in the gospel; and after confession of his
faith, he was carried with the priest to Bourdeaux be-
fore the president. While he was in prison, a priest
came in on a Sunday to say mass, when Philbert came
and plucked his garments from his back with such zeal
and vehemency, that the mass-garments, with the
chalice and candlesticks, feU down and were broken,
sa)'ing, " Is it not enough for you to blaspheme God in
churches, but you must also pollute the prison with
your idolatry ?" The gaoler hearing this, ir his fury
laid upon him with his staff. He was removed to the
common prison, and laid in a low pit, laden with great
H H 2
466
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
[Book VII.
irons, so that his legs were swollen, and therfe he con-
tinued eight days.
At last Philbert was brought to the place of his mar-
tyrdom, and as he was exhorting the people the trum-
pets blew without ceasing, that his words might not be
heard ; and so being fastened to the post, this holy
martyr, praying and exhorting the people, was strang-
led, and his body consumed with fire on Palm Sunday
eve, 1557.
In 1557 Nicholas Sartorius, of the age of twenty-six
years, came to Cambray, where a warden of the friars
in the town of Ost had preached on Good Friday upon
the Passion. The report of which sermon being re-
cited to this Sartorius, he reprehended the error and
blasphemies of it, which were against the holy Scrip-
tures. Shortly after the party that told him went to a
secretary named Ripet, who came to entrap Nicholas.
" And did not our preacher," said he, " preach well ?"
— " No," said Nicholas, " but he lied falsely." Ripet
asked, " And do you not believe the body of the Lord
to be in the host ?" Nicholas answered, " That would
be against our Creed, which saith, ' That lie ascended
up, and sitteth,' &c." Ripet went forthwith to the
friar to cause him to be apprehended. The friends of
Nicholas perceiving the danger, wished him to fly and
save himself, and accompanied him out of the town
about three leagues. But he was taken at the town of
St. Reniy, at the foot of the mountain of Great St. Ber-
nard. They brought him to the rack, and when the
sergeant refused to draw the cord, the bailiff himself,
and the receiver, with a canon, put him to the rack
with tlieir own hands. They pronounced sentence that
he should be burned ; which sentence he received with
such constancy, that neither the king's receiver, nor all
the other enemies, could divert him from the truth of
the gospel, which he manfully maintained while any
spirit remained in his body.
George Tardif, with one of Toiirs, an embroiderer,
and Nicholas, a shoemaker of Joinville, A. D. 1558. —
The historian of the French martyrs makes memorial of
George Tardif, an embroiderer of Tours, and Nicholas of
Joinville, declaring that these three were together in
prison, and afterward suffered in sundry places one
from the other. George Tardif was executed at Sens.
The embroiderer of Tours, as he was coming with five
or six others out of a wood, being at prayer, was taken,
and thereupon examined. Before he should be ex-
amined, he desired the judges that he might pray;
which being granted, after his prayer made, wherein he
prayed for the judges, for the king, and all estates, and
for tlie necessity of all Christ's saints, he answered
for himself with such grace and modesty, that the hearts
of many were broken to the shedding of tears, seeking
(as it seemed) nothing else but his deliverance. How-
ever he was sent at last to Tours, and there was crowned
with martyrdom.
The third, which was Nicholas, was condemned and
set in a cart, when his father, coming with a staff,
would liave beaten him, but the officers not suffering it
would have struck the old man ; but the son cried to the
officers, and desired them to let his father alone, saying,
that his father had power over him to do with him what
he would. And so going to the place where he was to
suffer, having a ball of iron put in his mouth, he was
brought at length to the fire, in the town of Joinville,
whei-e he patiently received his death and martyrdom.
Ike Conrirpgation of Paris perseriiteil, to the nvmher of
three or four hundred, at Paris, A.D. 1558.
On the fourth of September, 155S, a company of
the faitlifnl, to the number of three or four hundred,
were assembled at Paris in a liouse to communicate to-
gether tlie Lord's Supjier ; but they were discovered
by certain priests, who beset the house, and made an
outcry, that the watch might come to take them, so that
in a short time almost all the city was in arms, thinking
some conspiracy to have been in the city. Then per-
ceiving that they were Lutherans, a great part of them
were in extreme rage, furiously seeking their blood,
and stopped the streets and lanes with carts, and made
fires to see that none should escape. The faithful see-
ing the suddenness of their fury, were in great fear ; but
being exhorted by the leaders of the congregation went
to prayer. It was then resolved, that the men who had
weapons should venture through the press : the women
and children remained in the house, and a few men who
were less bold than the others, to the number of six or
seven score. Those that went out with weapons all
escaped save only one, who was beaten down with
stones, and so destroyed. The women, who were all
gentlewomen, or of great wealth, only six or seven ex-
cepted, seeing no hope, and perceiving the fury of the
people, went up to the windows, crying, " Mercy,"
and shewing their innocence, required ordinary justice.
The king's attorney, with the commissaries and ser-
geants, with much ado appeased the people, and entereS
into the house, where viewing the women and children,
and the other furniture prepared for that congregation,
perceived sufficient testimonies Sjf their innocence, so
that for pity his eyes could not refrain from tears. How-
ever, proceeding in his office, he brought them all to
prison. I omit here the furious usage of the people by
the way, how despitefully they plucked and hailed the
women, tore their garments, thrust off their hoods from
their heads, and disfigured their faces with dust and
dirt.
Besides these wrongs and oppressions done to these
poor innocents, there followed the cruel and slanderous
reports of the friars and priests, who, in their railing
sermons uttered horrible falsehoods and calumnies
against their morals. These rumours and defamations
were no sooner given out, but they were received, anc?
spread far, not only among the vulgar, but also among
the court, and even to the king's ears.
Here the enemies began to triumph, thinking that the
gospel was overthrown for ever. On the other side
there was no less perplexity and lamentation among the
brethren, sorrowing not so much for themselves, as for
the imprisonment of their companions. However, they
lost not their courage altogether, but they exhorted one
another, considering the great favour and providence of
God, in delivering them so wonderfully out of the danger.
Some comfort they experienced, consulting together in
this order, that first they should humble themselves to
God in their own private families : secondly, to stop the
slanders against their holy assemblies, they should write
apologies, one to the king, another to the people.
Thirdly, that letters of consolation should be written
and sent to their brethren in prison.
The first apology was written to the king, and con-
veyed so secretly into his chamber, that it was found
and read openly in the hearing of the king and all his
nobles. The christians learnedly and discreetly cleared
themselves of those reports, and shewed the malice of
their enemies, especially of Satan, who ever from the
beginning of the church has, and still goes about to
overturn the right ways of the Lord. Nevertheless, this
apology to the king served to little purpose. But the
other apology to the people did inestimable good, in sa-
tisfying the rumours, and defending the true cause of the
gospel.
As the faithful christians were thus occupied in writ-
ing their apologies, and in comforting their brethren in
prison with their letters, the a'dversaries were not idle,
but sought all possible means to hasten the execution,
giving diligent attendance about the prison and other
])laces, to satisfy their uncharitable desire with the death
of those whose religion they hated.
Finally, a commission was directed out by the king,
and ])residents and councillors appointed to oversee the
matter. Ujion which many of the poor afflicted chris-
tians were brought forth to their judgment and martyr-
dom.
Of this godly company thus brought to judgment and
to martyrdom, the first was Nicholas Clinet, of the age
of sixty years. He was suspected by the judges to be a
minister, and therefore was set to disjmte against the
A. D. lo2r— 1558.]
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
467
chief of the Sorbonists, especially Maillard, whom he so
confuted, both by the scriptures and also by their own
sorbonical divinity, (wherein he had been well exercised
and expert) in the presence of the lieutenant-civil, that
the lieutenant confessed that he never heard a man
better learned, and of more intelligence.
Another was named Tavrin Gravelle, a lawyer. He
was first a student of the law at Toulouse ; after that he
■was made an advocate in the court of Paris : lastly, for
his godliness he was ordained an elder to the congrega-
tion, with Clinet. This Taurin having a certain house,
and seeing the congregation destitute of room, received
them into his house. And when he perceived the house
to be compassed with enemies, though he might have
escaped, yet he would not, being prepared to answer for
receiving the assembly into the house. The constancy
of this man was invincible, in sustaining his conflicts
with the sorbonists. In fine, these two godly elders
finished their martyrdom in the cruel pains of the fire.
Next to Clinet and Gravelle was brought out Mixiress
Philip, gentlewoman, of the age of twenty-three years.
She was a widow, who ceased not to serve the Lord in
his church. She had many conflicts with the judges
and the sorbonists, namely, Maillard. To the judges
her answer was, " That she had learned the faith wliich
she confessed in the word of God, and would live and
die in the same." And being demamled whether the
body of Christ was in the sacrament : " How is that jios-
sible," said she, " to be the body of Christ to whom all
power is given, ^nd which is exalted above all heavens,
when we see the mice and rats, apes and monkeys, play
with it, and tear it in pieces?'' Her petition to tliem
was, that as they had taken her sister from her, they j-et
would let her have a Bible or Testament to comfort her-
self. Her wicked neighbours, although they could
touch her conversation with no part of dishonesty, yet
they laid many things to her charge, as that there was
much singing of psalms in her house, and twice or thrice
an infinite number of persons were seen to come out of
her house. Also, when her husband was dying, no
priest was called for ; neither was it known where he was
buried ; neither did they ever hear any word of their
infant being baptized.
These three holy martyrs were condemned, Septem-
ber 27, and being put in a chapel, doctors were sent to
them, but their constancy remained immoveable. After
that they were sent in a dung-cart to the place of
punishment. Clinet ever cried by the way, protesting,
that he said or maintained nothing but the truth of
God.
The gentlewoman, seeing a priest come to confess her,
said, " That she had confessed unto God, and had re-
ceived of him remission : other absolution she found
none in scripture." And when certain councillors did
urge her to take in her hands the wooden cross, alleging
how Christ commanded every one to bear his cross : she
answered, " ^ly lords," said she, " 3011 make me in
very deed to bear my cross, condemning me unjustly,
and putting me to death in the cause of my Lord Jesus
Christ ; who willeth us to bear our cross, but no such
cross as you speak of."
Gravelle looked with a smiling countenance, and
shewed a cheei-ful colour, declaring how little he re-
gretted his condemnation : and being asked of his friends
to what death he was condemned; " I see well (said he)
that I am condemned to death, but to what death or tor-
ment I regard not." And coming from the chapel,
when he perceived they went about to cut out his tongue,
he oft'ered his tongue willingly to be cut.
The gentlewoman also, being required to give her
tongue, did so likewise, with these words : — " Seeing I
do not refuse to give my body, shall I refuse to give my
tongue ? No, no." The constancy of Gravelle was ad-
mirable, casting up his sighs and groans to heaven, de-
claring thereby his ardent affection in praying to God.
Clihet was somewhat more sad than the other, by reason
of the feebleness of nature and his age. But the gentle-
woman yet surmounted all the rest in constancy, chang-
ing neither countenance nor colour.
After the death of her husband, she used to go in a
mourning weed, after the manner of the country. But
the same day, going to her burning, she put on her
French hood, and decked herself in her best array, as
going to a new marriage, to be joined to her spouse
Jesus Christ. And thus the three, with singular con-
stancy, were burned ; Gravelle and Clinet were burned
alive. Philip the gentlewoman was strangled, after she
had a little tasted the flame with her feet and visage ;
and so she ended her martyrdom.
Of the same company was also Nicholas Cene, a phv-
sician, and Peter Gal/art : who, about five or six days
after the other three, were brought forth to their death.
\\ hen the time of their execution was come, they per-
ceived that the judges intended, that if they would re-
lent, they should be strangled, if not, they should be
burned alive, and their tongties be cut from them.
Being content to suff"er these torments for our Saviour
Jesus Christ, they offered their tongues willingly to be
cut. Gabart began to sigh because he could no more
praise the Lord with his tongue. Then they were drawn
out of prison in the dung-cart to the suburbs of St.
Germain. The people, in rage and madness, followed
with cruel injuries and blasiihemies, as though they would
have done the execution themselves upon them. The
cruelty of their death was such as has seldom been
seen : for they were held in the air over a small fire, and
their lower parts burnt off", before the higher parts were
much harmed with the fire. Nevertheless these blessed
saints ceased not in all these torments to turn up their
eyes to heaven, and to shew infinite testimonies of their
faith and constancy.
In the same fire many Testaments and Bibles also
were burnt.
Frederick Danvile, and Francis Rebezies, neither of
them past twenty years of age, were among the com-
pany. How valiantly they behaved themselves in those
tender years, sustaining the cause of our Lord Jesus
Ch'ist, what confession they made, what conflicts they
hac*, disputing with the doctors of the Sorbonne, their own
letters left in writing make record : the eff'ect whereof
Ijriefly to touch is this ; and first, concerning Frederick
Danvil.
On the 12th of Sept. Frederick was brought before
Benedict Jacobin, and his companion, a Sorbonist, who
thus began to argue with him : —
Doctor. — Which think you to be the true church, the
church of the Protestants, or the church of Paris .'
jMartyr. — I recognize that to be the true church
where the gospel is truly preached, and the sacraments
rightly ministered, as they were left by Jesus Christ and
his apostles.
Doctor. — And is the chuixh of Geneva such a one as
you speak of ?
Martyr. — I so judge it to be.
Doctor. — And what if I prove the contrary, will you
believe me .'
Martyr. — Yea, if you shall prove it by the Scripture.
Doctor. — Or will you believe St. Augustine and other
holy doctors innumerable ?
Martrr. — Yea, so they dissent not from the scripture
and the word of God.
Doctor. — By the authority of St. Augustine, the
church is there, where is the succession of bishops.
On this I frame this argument : — There is the church,
where is the perpetual succession of bishops ? In the
church of Paris there is such succession of bishops, and
therefore the church of Paris is the true church.
Martyr. — I answer, That if St. Augustine mean the
succession of such as are true bishops indeed, which
truly preach the gospel, and rightly administer the sa-
craments ; such bishops I suppose to be at Geneva,
where the gospel is truly preached, and the sacraments
duly ministered, and not in the church of Paris. But if
St. Augustine mean the succession of false bishops, such
as neither preach nor minister according to God's word,
it is in nowise to be granted.
Doctor. — What say jou by auricular confession?
468
A LIST OF THE FRENCH MARTYRS.
[Buo.i Ml.
Martyr. — The same that I said before to monsieur
lieutenant, that is. That I take it for « plantation, not
planted by God ia his word.
The Examination of Francis Reoezies.
Rebezies had three examinations : the first with the
civil lieutenant ; the second with the presidents and
the councillors ; tlie third with the friars. He was
asked, whether he did not like to resort to the beautified
temples to hear mass, or whether he did not take tlie
mass to be an holy thing, and ordained of God ? He
answered that he believed it was a great blasphemy
against God, and a service set up by the devil. Whe-
ther he did not acknowledge purgatory ? Yea, that
purgatory which is the death and passion of Christ,
which takes away the sins of the world. " The death of
Christ is the principal," said they, " but thou must also
believe another." " Alas," said he, " can we never
content ourselves with the simplicity of the gospel, but
man always will be putting to something of his own brain.
In so many places of the scripture we see the blood of
Jesus Christ to be sufficient." When they objected and
rejieated the words of the jiarable. Mat. v., " Thou shalt
not come out till thou hast \rud tha last farthing," he
answered, "That the words of that parable had no rela-
tion but to civil matters; and that this v,-ord (until) means
there, as much as never." The president asked, if he was
not afraid to be burned, and bring liis parents into such
dishonour.' He answered, that he knew well, " That all
who would live godly in Christ Jesus, should suffer perse-
cution." And that to him either to live or die was an
advantage in the Lord. And as to his parents, " Chri.st,"
said he, '• himself forewarns, ' That whosoever loveth fa-
ther or mother more than him, is not worthy of him.' "
— "Jesus Maria!" said the president, "what youth is
this now-a-days, who cast themselves so headlong into
the fire !"
He was brought before Benet, master of the doctors of
the Sorbotme, and another called Jacobine, the 14th of
October. The doctor began thus to object as follows :
Doctor. — I know well you hold the church to be,
where the word is truly preached, and the sacraments
sincerely ministered, according as they are left of Christ
and his ajiostles.
Martyr.— That do I believe, and in that will I live and
die.
Doctor.^Do you not believe, that whoever is without
that church cannot obtain remission of his sins ?
Martyr. — Whoever separates himself from that church,
to make either sect, part, or division, cannot obtain re-
mission of his sins.
Doctor. — Now let us consider two churches, the one
wherein the word is rightly preached, and the sacraments
administered; the otiier, wherein the word and sacra-
ments be used otherwise. Wliich of these two ought we
to believe .'
Martyr. — The first.
Doctor.— Well said. Next is now to speak of the
gifts given to the church : as the power of the keys,
confession for the remission of sins, ai'ter we are confess-
ed to a priest. Also we must believe the seven sacra-
ments in the church truly administered, as they are here
in the churches of Paris, where the sacrament of the altar
is ministered, and the gospel truly preached.
Martyr.— Sir, now you begin to halt. As for my
part, I do not receive in the church more than two
sacraments, which were instituted for the whole commu-
nity of ciiristians. And as concerning the power of
keys, and your confession, I believe that for remission
of our sins, we ought to go to none other but only to
God, as we read, 1 John i. 9, " If we confess our sins,
*^«)d is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." tkc.
Doctor. — Should I not believe that Christ, in the time
of his apostles, gave to them power to remit sins?
Martyr. —The power that Christ gave to his a])ostles,
if it will be well considered, is notiiing disagreeing to
my saying : and therefore I began to say, which here I
confess, that the Lord gave to his apostles to preach the
word, and so to remit sins by the same word.
Doctor. — Do you then deny auricular confession ""
Mnrtyr. — Yea, verily I do.
Doctor. — Ought we to pray to saints ?
Martyr. — I believe not.
Doctor. — Jesus Christ being here upon the earth, was
he not then as well sufficient to hear the whole world
and to be intercessor for all, as he is now .'
Martyr. — Yes.
Doctor. — But we find that when he was here on earth,
his apostles made intercession for the people : and why
may they not also do the same as well now ?
Martyr. — So long as they were in the world, they ex-
ercised their ministry, and prayed one for another ; but
now they being in paradise, all their prayer that they
make is this, that they wish that they who are yet on
earth may attain to their felicity : but to obt lin any
thing at the Father's hand, we niUo't have recourse only
to his Son.
Doctor. — If one man have such charge to pray for
another, may not he then be called an intercessor ?
Martyr. — I grant.
Doctor. — Well, then, you say there is but one inter-
cessor. Whereupon I infer, that I, being bound to ])ray
for anotlier, need not now to go to Jesus (Christ to have
him an intercessor, but to God alone, setting Jesus Christ
apart ; and so ought we verily to believe.
Martyr. — You understand not, sir, that if God do
not behold us in the face of his own well-beloved Son,
then shall we never be able to stand in his sight. For
if he shall look upon us, he can see nothing but sin.
And if the heavens be not pure in his eyes, what shall be
thouglit then of man, so abominable and unprofitable,
" Wlio drinketh in iniquity like water," as Job says ?
Then the other friar, seeing his fellow have nothing to
answer to this, inferred as follows :
Doctor. — Nay, my friend, as touching the great mercy
of God, let that stand, and now to speak of ourselves:
this we know, that God is not displeased with them who
have recourse to his saints.
Martyr. — Sir, we must not do after our own wills,
but according to that which God wills and commands.
Doctor. — iVs no man comes into the presence of an
earthly king or prince, witliout means made by some
about him ; so, or rather much more, to the heavenly
king above, &c.
Martyr. — To this earthly example I will answer with,
another heavenly example of the prodigal son, who
sought no other means to obtain his father's grace, but
came to the father himself.
Doctor. — Touching the mass, what say you ? believe
you not that when the priest has consecrated the host,
our Lord is there as well as he was hanging upon the
cross ?
Martyr. — No, verily ; but I believe that Jesus Christ
is sitting at the right hand of his Father ; as appears
from Heb. x., 1 Cor. xv.. Col. iii. : and therefore to
make short with you, I hold your mass for none other
but a false and counterfeited service, set up by Satan,
and retained by his ministers, by which you annihi-
late the precious blood of Christ, and his oblation once
made of his own body ; and you know right well that it
is sufficient, and ought not to be reiterated.
Doctor. — You deceive yourselves in the word reitera-
tion, for we do not reiterate it so as you think ; as by ex-
ample I will show you. You see me now in this reli-
gious garment ; but if I should put on me a soldier's
weed, then should I be disguised, and yet for all that I
should remain the same still within my doublet, that I
was before in my friar's weed. So is it with the sacri-
fice : we confess and grant that naturally he was once
offered in sacrifice ; but sujiernaturally, we sacrifice the
same without reiteration.
Martyr. - Sir, this I say, that such a disguised sacri-
fice, is a diabolical sacrifice ; and this you may take for
a resolution.
Doctor.— And how is your belief touching the holy
supper ?
Martyr.— That if it be ministered to me by the mi-
nister, as it has been left by Christ and his apostles,
preaching also the word purely withal, I believe that, in
A.D. 1527—1558.]
A LIST OF THE SPANISH MARTYRS.
469
receiving the material bread and wine, I receive with
livs^ly faith the body and blood ot■.le^us Christ spiritually.
Doctor. — Say corporally.
Martyr. — No, sir, for his words are spirit and life ; and
let this content you.
]>octor. — What say you, is it lawful for a priest to
marry .•'
Martyr. — I believe it to be lawful for him, as the
apostle saith, " Whoever has not the gift of continence,
let him marry; for it is better to marry than to burn."
And if this do not content you, you may read what he
writes of bishops and elders, 1 Tim. iii., and Tit. i.
And thus these doctors, affirming that he denied
priesthood, gave him leave to depart, saying, " God have
mercy on you." He said, " Amen."
After this, Rebezies and Frederick Danville were
brought to be racked, that they might inform of the rest
of the congregation. In the chamber they found three
councillors, who thus began with them: — " Lift up thy
hand. Thou shalt swear by the passion of Jesus Clirist,
whose image thou seest here,'' shewing him a great pic-
ture. Rebezies answered, " I swear to you by the
passion of Christ, which is written in my heart."
"Why dost thou not swear" said the councillors, " as
we say to thee .'" " Because," said he, " it is a great
blasphemy against the Lord." Then the councillors
read the depositions, and beginning with Rebezies, said,
" Wilt thou not tell us the truth, what companions thou
knowest to be of this assembly?" Rebezies named
Gravelle, C'linet, who were already burned, and John
Sansot. They said, that the court had ordered that if
they would give no other answer but that, he should be
put to the torture or rack ; and so he was commanded
to be stripped to his shirt, having a cross put in his
hand, being bid to commend himself to God and the
Virgin Mary ; but he neither would receive the cross,
nor commend himself to the Virgin Mary, saying, that
God was able enough to guard him, and to save liim out
of the lion's mouth, aud so, being drawn and stretched,
lie began to cry, " Come Lord, and shew thy strength,
that man do not prevail," &.c. But they cried, " Tell
the truth, and thou shalt be let down." Nevertheless,
he continued still in his calling and prayer to the Lord,
so that they could get nothing from him. After they
had long tormented him, the councillors said, " Wilt thou
say nothing else.'" "I have nothing else," said he,
" to say.'' And so they commanded him to be loosed,
and be put by the hreside. Being loosed, he said to them,
" Do you handle thus the poor servants of God .'" The
like was done to Frederick Danvile also, of whom they
could have no other answer. So mightily did God assist
and strengthen his servants.
These constant and true martyrs of Christ, after they
had returned from the torture unto their fellow prisoners,
ceased not to thank and praise the Lord for his assis-
tance. Frederick sighed often, and being asked why he
did so ? he said it was not for the evil that he had suf-
fered, but for the evils that he knew they should suffer
afterwards. " Notwithstanding," said he, " be strong,
brethren, and be not afraid, assuring yourselves of the
aid of God, who succoured us, and also will comfort
you." Rebezies with the rack was .so drawn and
stretched, that one of his slioulders was higher than the
other, and his neck drawn on one side, so that he could
not move himself. When the night came they rejoiced
together, and comforted themselves with meditation of
the life to come, and contempt of this world, singing
psalms together till it was day.
The next day they were again required to inform ;
which when they refused, the sentence was read, that
they should be brought in a dung-cart to Maulbert place,
and there, having a ball in their mouths, be tied each
one to his post, and afterward strangled, and so burned
to ashe .
Being brought to the place of execution, a cross again
was offered them, which they refused. Then a priest
standing by, bade them believe in the Virgin Mary.
" Let God,'' said they, " reign alone.'' The peojjle
standing by, " Ah, mischievous Lutheran !" said they :
" Nay, a true christian I am," said he. When they
were tied to their stakes, after their praj'ers, and they
were ordered to be dispatched, one of tliein comforting
the otiier, said ; "Be strong, my brother, be strong :
Satan away from us !" One standing by, said, " These
Lutherans do call upon Satan." One John Morel, who
afterward died a martyr, answered, " 1 pray you let us
hear what they say, and we shall hear them invoke the
name of God." Upon this the people listened better to
them, to hearken, as well as they could, what they said :
they crying still as much as their mouths being stopped
could utter ; " Assist us, O Lord." And so they, ren-
dering uj) their spirits to the hands of the Lord, did
consummate their martyrdom.
After the martyrdom of these two above said, the in-
tention of the judges was to dispatch the rest one after
another, and had procured process against twelve or
thirteen. But a certain gentlewoman, then a prisoner
among them, had presented causes of exceptions against
them, by which the cruel rage of the enemies was staid to
the mouth of July following. In the mean time, as this
persecution was spread into other countric's, the faithful
cantons of Switzerland, perceiving these good men to be
afflicted for the same doctrine which they preached in
their ciiurches, sent their ambassadors to the king to
make supplication for them.
At the same time also came letters from the county
palatine elector, to solicit the king for them. The king
standing then in great need of the Germans for his wars,
was contented at least, that they should proceed more
gently with them ; and so the tire for that time ceased.
Most of them were sent to abbeys, where they were
kept at the charge of the priors, to be constrained to be
present at the service of idolatry, especially the young
scholars ; of whom some shrunk back, others being
more loosely kept, escaped away.
Many of this godly company of French protestants
were afterwards condemned, and suffered the rack, and
were martyred, glorifying God by their faithfulness unto
death. We have the account and history of above thirty
martyrs in France, but it would occupy too much space
to detail them all.
ACCOUNT OF THE SPANISH MARTYRS.
Franciscus San Romanus.
In the year 1540 this Francis was sent by certain
Spanish merchants oi Antwerp, to Brenie, where, hear-
ing the prior of the Austin friars preach, he was so
touched through the marvellous working of God's Spirit,
that he proceeded further, searching and conferring with
learned men, so that in a shc)rt time he was grown ripe
in knowledge in the word of life.
In the mean time the Spanish merchants of Antwerp
understanding by his letters, his change of religion,
sent him letters, pretending outwardly much good-will,
but secretly practising his destruction. For at the day
appointed for his coining, some friars were set ready to
receive him, who took iiim coming down from his horse,
ritled his books, brought him into a merchant's house
near at hand, where they examined him ; when they
found him not agreeing to their faith, they bound him
hand and foot, and burnt his books before his face,
threatening to burn himself also. At this disputation
within the house divers Spaniards were present, which
made tlie friars more bold. Being demanded of what
faith and religion he was ; " My faith," said he, " is to
confess and preach Christ Jesus only, and him crucified,
which is the true faith of the universal church of Christ
through the whole world ; but this faith and doctrine
you have corrupted, taking another abominable kind of
life, and by your impiety have brought the most jiart of
the world into most miserable blindness." And to ex.
plain his faith to them more expressly, he recited all the
articles of the creed.
Which done, then the friars asked, whether he be-
lieved the bishop of Rome to be Christ's vicar, and
head of the church, having all the treasures of the
church in his own power, being able to bind and loose }
Also to make new articles, aud abolish the old, at bis
470
A LIST OF THE SPANISH MARTYRS.
[Book VIL
own will ? Francis answered, "That he believed none of
all this, but tlie contrary, namely, that the pope was anti-
christ, born of the devil, the enemy of Jesus Christ,
transferring to himself God's honour, and being incited
by the devil, turning all things upside down, and cor-
rupting the purity of Christ's religion, partly by his
false pretences beguiling, and partly by his extreme
cruelty destroying the poor flock of Christ," &c. With
the lilce boldness he uttered his mind against the mass
and purt^atory. The friars suffered him to speak, till he
came to the pope, and began to speak against his dignity,
and their profit ; and then they could bear it no longer,
but thundered against him words full of cruelty and
terror. As they were burning of his books, and began
also to cast the New Testament into the tire, Francis
seeing that, began to thunder out against them again.
The Spaniards supposing him not to be in his right
senses, conveyed him to a tower six miles from Antwerp,
where he was detained in a deep cave or dungeon, with
much misery, for the space of eight months. In which
time of his imprisonment many grave and discreet
persons came to visit him, exhorting him that he would
change his opinion, and sjjeak more modestly. Francis
answered again, that he maintained no opinion erroneous
or heretical ; and if he seemed to be somewhat vehe-
ment with the friars, that was not to be ascribed to him
so much as to their own importunity ; hereafter he
would frame himself more temperately. Whereupon the
Spaniards thinking him come to himself, discharged him
out of prison, A.D. 1.541.
San Romane being thus freed out of prison, came to
a certain friend of his, named Franciscus Dryander (who
afterward died a martyr) with whom he had much con-
ference about religion : who gave him counsel. As to
religion his counsel was, that he should say or do
nothing for favour of men, whereby the glory of God
should be diminished ; but he required a sound and
r^ht judgment conformed to the rule of God's word,
lest it might chance to him, as it did to many, who,
being carried away with an inconsiderate zeal, leave
their proper callings, and while they think to do good,
and to edify, destroy and do harm, and cast themselves
needlessly into danger. " It is God," said he, " that
hath the care of his church, and will stir up faithful
ministers for it ; he cares not for such as rashly intrude
themselves into that function without any calling.''
This advice, Francis willingly accepted, promising to
moderate himself more considerately : but this promise
was shortly broken, as you shall hear. For, passing
from Dryander he went to Ratisbone, and there having
opportunity to speak to the emperor, he stepped boldly
to him, beseeching him to deliver his country and sub-
jects of Spain from false religion, and to restore again
the purity of Christ's doctrine, declaring and protesting,
that the princes and protestants of Germany were in the
truer part, and that the religion of Spain, drowned in
ignorance and blindness, was greatly different from the
true and perfect word of God. The emperor all this
while gave him gentle hearing, signifying that he would
consider upon the matter, and so act, as he trusted
should be for the best. This quiet answer of the em-
peror ministered to him no little encouragement, he
went the second, and also the third time, to the em-
peror, who quietly answered him as before. And yet
Francis, not satisfied in his mind, sought the fourth time
to speak to the emperor, but was repulsed by the Spaniards
about the emperor, who would have thrown him head-
long into the Danube, had not the emperor stopped
them, and commanded him to be judged by the laws of
the empire. Then Francis, with other captives, was de-
livered to the inquisitors ; by whom he was laid in a
dark prison under ground. Many times he was called
for to be examined, and suffered great injuries and con-
tumelies, but ever remained in his conscience firm and
immovable. The articles whereon he stood, and for
which he was condemned, were these :
That life and salvation in the sight of God, comes to
no man in his own strength, works or merits, but only
by the free mercy of God, in the blood and sacrifice of
hu Son our Mediator.
That the sacrifice of the mass, whic'r. the papists do
recount available, ew opere operatu, for the remission of
sin, both to the quick and the dead, is hornble blas-
phemy.
That auricular confession with numbering up of sins,
that satisfaction, purgatory, pardons, invocation of
saints, worshipping of images, are mere blasj)hemy
against the living God.
That the blood of Christ is profaned and injured in
these popish doctrines.
After the inquisitors perceived that he could by no
means be reclaimed from liis assertions, they jiroceeded
to the sentence, condemniiig him to be burned for an
heretic. Many other malefactors were brought also
with him to the place of execution, but they were all
pardoned ; he only, for the gospel, was taken and burned.
As he was led to the place of suffering, they put upon
him a mitre of ))aper, painted full of devils.
As he was brought out of the city-gate to be burned,
there stood a wooden cross by the way : Francis was re-
quired to do homage to it ; which he refused, answer-
ing, that " The manner of christians is not to worship
wood, and he was a christian." Upon tliis arose great
clamour among the vulgar people. But this was turned
into a miracle. Such was the blind rudeness of the
people, that they imputed this to the divine virtue, that
it would not suffer itself to be worshipped by an heretic !
and immediately, from the opinion of that miracle, the
multitude with their swords hewed it in pieces, every
man thinking himself happy that could carry away some
chip or fragment of the cross !
As he was laid ujion the wood, and the fire kindled
about him, he lifted up his head toward heaven, which,
wlien the inquisitors perceived, hoping that he would re-
cant, they caused him to be taken from the fire. But
when they perceived themselves frustrated in their ex-
pectation, they commanded him to be thrown in again,
and so he was immediately dispatclied.
After the martyrdom of this blessed man was thus
consummated, the inquisitors proclaimed openly, that
he was damned in hell, and that none should pray for
him ; yea, and that all were heretics whoever doubted of
his damnation.
Rochus, 1545. — Rochus was a carver, or graver of
images, who, as soon as he began to taste the gospel,
ceased to make such images as used to serve for idolatry
in the temples, and occupied himself in making seals, only he
keptstandingon his stallanimageof the Virgin Mary, arti-
ficially graven, as a sign of his occupation. It happened that
a certain inquisitor passing by, and beholding the carved
image, asked of Rochus what was the price, which, when
Rochus had set, the inquisitor offered him scarce half
the money. The other answered, that he could not live
at such a price. But still the inquisitor urged him to
take his offer. Rochus said, " It shall be yours if you
will give me what my labour and charges stand me in,
but I cannot afford it at that price ; I had rather break
it in pieces." " Yea," saith the inquisitor ; " break it ;
let me see thee." Rochus with that took up a chisel,
and dashed it upon the face of the image, so that the
nose, or some otlier part of the face was blemished. The
inquisitor cried out as if he was mad, and commanded
Rochus forthwith to prison. Rochus said that lie might
do what he liked with his own works. And if the work-
manship of the image were not after his fancy, what was
that to them "i But all this could not help Rochus, and
witliin three days after sentence was given that he should
be burned, and so he was committed to the execu-
tioners.
I understand that there were many others in Spain
whose hearts God had illuminated and stirred up both
before and also after the establishment of the inquisi-
tion, to stand in defence of his gospel, and who were so
persecuted, and died in prison. We will come now to
this inquisition, speaking something of the ceremonial
pomp, and also of the barbarous abuse and cruelty of it.
The execrable Inquisition of Spain.
The cruel and barbarous inquisition of Spain first be-
^taction of Mivouiiale.
Paso 4S3.
Corfurts of tljc ?(iiqin.sitioir.
A.D. 152/— 1558.]
THE SPANISH INQUISITION.
471
gan under King Ferdinand, and Elizabeth his wife, and
was instituted against the Jews, who, after tlieir baptism,
maintained again their own ceremonies. But now it is
employed against those who are ever so little suspected
to favour the truth of the Lord. The Spaniards, and
especially the great divines there, hold, that this holy
and Sacred inquisition cannot err, and that the holy fa-
thers, the inquisitors, cannot be deceived.
Three sorts of men are principally in danger of these
inquisitors. They that are rich, for the spoil of their
goods. They that are learned, because they will not
have their secret abuses detected. They that are in
honour and dignity, lest they should work some shame
or dishonour against them.
Tlie abuse of this inquisition is most execrable. If
any word shall pass out of the mouth of any, which may
be taken in evil part ; yea, thougii no word be spoken,
yet if they bear any grudge or evil will against the party,
they command him to be taken, and put in a horrible
prison, and then find out crimes against him at their
leisure, and in tlie meantime no man living is so hardy
as once to open his mouth for him. If the father speak
one word for his child, he is also taken and cast into
prison as a favourer of heretics. Nor is it permitted to
any person to go to the prisoner ; but there he is alone
where he cannot see so much as the ground where he is ;
and is not suffered either to read or write, but there con-
tinues in darkness palpable, in horrors infinite, in fear
miserable, wrestling with the assaults of death.
By this it may be imagined what trouble and sorrow,
wliat pensive sighs and thoughts they undergo, who are
not thoroughly instructed in holy doctrine. "We must
add, moreover, to these distresses and horrors of the
prison, the injuries, threats, whippings, scourgings,
irons, tortures, and racks which tliey endure. Some-
times they are brought out, and shewed in some high
place to the people, as a spectacle of rebuke and infamy.
And thus they are detained there, some many years, and
murdered by long torments, and whole days together
treated much more cruelly out of all comparison than if
they were in the hangman's hands to be slain at once.
During all this time what is done in the process no per-
son knows, but only the hol)^ fathers and the tormentors
who are sworn to execute the torments. AU is done in
secret. And after all these torments endured so many
years in the prison, if any man is saved, it must be
known only by guessing. For all the proceedings of the
court of tiiat execrable inquisition are open to no man,
but all is done in close corners, by windings, by covert-
ways, and secret counsels : the accuser is secret, the
crime secret, the witness secret, whatever is done is se-
cret, and the poor prisoner is never informed of any
thing.
By this inquisition many good true servants of Jesus
Christ have been brought to death, especially in these
later years, since the royal and peaceable reign of this
our Queen Elizabeth. The names and histories of whom
we will here in part recite, as we have faithful records
of such as have come to our hands by writing.
A.D. loot), Way 21st, in the town of VaUadolid,
where the council of the inquisition is wont to be kept,
the inquisitors had brought together many prisoners,
both of high and low estate, to the number of thirty ;
also the coffin of a certain noble woman, with her pic-
ture lying upon it, who had been dead long before,
there to receive judgment and sentence. To the hear-
ing of which sentence, tliey had ordained in the said
town three mighty theatres or stages. Upon the first
was placed Dame Jane, sister to King Philip, and chief
regent of his realms ; also Prince Charles, King Philip's
son, with other princes and states of Spain. Upon the
other scaflbld was mounted the archbishop of Seville,
prince of the synagogue of the inquisitors, with the council
of the inquisition ; also other bishops of the land, and
the king's council with them.
After the princes and other spiritual judges and coun-
cillors were thus set in their places, with a great guard
of archers and halberdiers, and armed soldiers, with four
lieralds-of-arms giving their attendance, and the earl
marshal bearing the naked sword, all the maiket-place
where the stages were, being filled with an infinite mul-
titude of all sorts standing there, and gazing out of
windows and houses to hear and see the sentences and
judgments of this inquisition ; then after all were
brought forth, as a spectacle and triumph, the poor ser-
vants and witnesses of Jesus Christ, to the number of
thirty, clothed with their vesture of yellow cloth, com-
ing both before them and behind them, spangled with
red crosses, and having burning tapers in their hands ;
also before them was borne a crucifix covered with black
linen cloth, in token of mourning. They who were to
receive the sentence of death had mitres of paper upoa
their heads. Thus they were placed in their order, one
under another.
Things being thus settled, there followed a sermon by a
Dominican friar, which endured about an hour. After
the sermon, the procurator general, with the archbishop
went to the stage where the princes and nobles stood, to
administer a solemn oath to them upon the crucifix ; the
tenor of which oath was this : " Your majesties shall
swear, that you will favour the holy inquisition, and also
give your consent unto the same ; and not only that you
shall by no manner of way hinder and impeach the
same, but also you shall employ the utmost of your help
and endeavour hereafter to see all them to be executed,
who shall swerve from the church of Rome, and adjoin
themselves to the sect of the Lutheran heretics, without
all respect of any person or persons of what estate, de-
gree, quality, or condition soever they be."
And thus much for the first article of the oath ; the
second was as follows :
" Your majesties shall swear, that you shall constrain
all your subjects to submit themselves to the church of
Rome, and to have in reverence all the laws and com-
mandments of the same ; and also to give your aid
against all them whoever shall hold of the heresy of the
Lutherans, or take any part with them."
In this sort and manner, when all the princes and
states every one in their degree had received their oath,
then the archbishop, lifting up his hand, gave them his
benediction, saying, " God bless your highnesses, and
give you long life." This solemn pageant thus finished,
at last the poor captives and prisoners were called out,
the procurator fiscal, or the pope's great collector, first
beginning with Dr. Cacalla, and so proceeding to the
other in order.
They then proceeded to the trial and condemnation of
twenty-seven godly christians, including thirteen pious
females, whose only sin was that they loved the gospel
of Jesus Christ, as contained in his holy word, instead
of the traditions of the papacy. It would be too tedious
to mention all in detail. At last they came to the coffin
and j)icture of the lady.
This poor coffin contained the corpse of dame Leonora
de Bivero, already long dead. Above her coffin was her
picture laid, which was also condemned with her dead
corpse to be burned for an heretic ; and yet I never
heard of any opinion that this picture did hold, either
with or against the church of Rome. This good mother,
while she hved, was a worthy maintainer of Christ's
gpspel, with great integrity of life, and retained divers
assemblies of the saints in her house for the preaching
of the word of God. In fine, her corpse and image
also, being brought before the fiscal, was condemned
likewise to be burned for a Lutheran heretic, and all her
goods to be seized, and her house to be cast down to the
ground ; and for a memorial of the same, a marble
stone was appointed to be set u)) in the house, wherein
the cause of her burning should be engraved.
After these sentences were thus pronounced, tliey,
who were condemned to be burned, with the coffin of the
dead lady and her ])icture upon it, were committed to
the secular magistrate, and to their executioners. Then
were they all taken, and every one set upon an ass,
their faces turned backward, and led with a great garri-
son of armed soldiers to the place of punishment, which
was without the gate of the town called Del Campo.
W hen they were come to the place, there were four-
teen stakes set up of equal distance from one another,
to which every one being fastened, they were all firs?
472
A LIST OF THE ITALIAN MARTYRS.
[Book VIL
strangled, and then burnt to ashes, save only Anthony
Huezuello, who, because he Lad, both within and with-
outthe prison, vehemently detested the pope's spirituality,
therefore was burned alive, and his mouth stopped from
speaking. And thus these faithful christians, for the
verity and pure word of God, were led to death as sheep
to the shambles ; who not only most christianly com-
forted one another, but did so exhort all them that were
present, that all men marvelled greatly, both to hear
their singular constancy, aud to see their quiet and
peaceable end.
THE ITALIAN MARTYRS.
Encenas, otheririse called Dryandcr, A.D. 1546.
This Encenas, or Dryander, a Spaniard, was sent by
his sMperstitious jjarents, when young, to Rome ; there
growing up in age ami knowledge, instructed by the
Lord in tlie truth of his word, after he was known to
dislike the pope's doctrine, and the impure doings at
Ronu% he was api)rehended by some of his own country-
men at Rome. He was brought before the cardinals, and
committed to prison. Afterwards he was brought forth
to give testimony of his doctrine, which in the presence
of the cardinals, and in tlie face of all the jiope's reti-
nue, lie boldly and constantly defended. So that not
only the cardinals, but especially the Spaniards being
offended, cried out that he should be burned. The car-
dinals, before the sentence of death should be given,
came to him, offering life if he would take the badge of
reconciliation. But Encenas, still constant in the ])ro-
fession of trutli, refused to receive any other condition
or badge but the badge of the Lord, which was to seal
the doctrine of his religion with the testimony of his
blood. At last the faithful servant and witness of
Christ was condemned to the fire ; where he, in the
sight of the cardinals, and in the face of the apostolic
see, gave up his life for the testimony of the gospel.
And as mention has been made both in this history
and others of Francis Encenas his brother, here is not
to be omitted how Francis being a man of notable learn-
ing as ever was in Spain, being in the emperor's court
at Brussels, offered the emperor, Charles V., the New
Testament of Christ translated into Spanish. For which
he was cast into prison, where he remained in sorrowful
captivity and calamity the space of fifteen months, look-
ing for nothing more than present death. At last,
through the providence of Almighty God, the first day of
February, A.D. 1.54.5, he found the doors of the prison
open ; and so he, issuing out of the prison, escaped, and
■went to Germany.
Faninns, A.D. 15,50.— Faninus, through the reading of
godly books translated into the Italian tongue, was con-
verted from great blindness to the wholesome knowledge
of Christ and of his word. There was no diligence want-
ing in him to communicate to others that which he had
received of the Lord ; being persuaded that a man, re-
ceiving by the Spirit of God the knowledge and illu-
mination of his truth, ought in no case to hide it in si-
lence, as a candle under a bushel. And therefore,
being occupied diligently in that, although he used not
publicly to preach, but by private conference to teach,
he was at length apprehended and committed to prison.
He remained not long in prison, for by the earnest per-
suasions and prayers of his wife, his children, and other
frieiuls, he was so overcome that he gave over, and so was
dismissed shortly out of ])rison. Afterthis, itwas not long
until he fell into horrible distraction of mind ; so that un-
less the great mercy of God had kept him up, he had fallen
into utter desperation, for falling from the truth, and pre-
ferring the love of his friends and kindred before the
service of Jesus Christ, whom he had professed so ear-
nestly before. This wound went so deep into his heart,
that he could in no case be (|uieted, before he had fully
fixed and determined in liis mind, to hazard his life
more faithfully in the service of the Lonl.
Being thus iuliamed with zeal of spirit, he went about
all the country publicly preaching the pure doctrine of
the gospel with great fruit and effect. As he was thus
labouring, he was apprehended again, A.D. 1547, and
condemned to be burned. But he said his hour was not
yet come, and so it was not ; for shortly after he was re-
moved to Ferrara, where he was detained two years At
last the inquisitors of the pope's heresies condemned him
to death, A.D. 1549 ; and yet his time being not come,
he remained after that to the month of Sejitember, A.D,
1550. In the meantime many faithful and good mea
came to visit him ; for which the pope commanded him
to be inclosed in stricter custody; in wliieh he suffered
great torments for eighteen months, and yet he would
have suffered greater, if the Dominican friars could have
got him into their hands.
At length he was brought into a prison, where there were
divers great lords, captains, and noble j)ersonages com-
mitted for stirring up commotions and factions (as the
country of Italy is full of such) who at first hearing him
speak began to set him at nought, and to deride him,
supposing that it was but a melancholy humour that
troubled his brain. Such as seemed more sage amongst
them, began to exhort him to leave his opinion, and to
live with men as other men do, and not to vex his mind,
but to suspend his judgment till the matter was decided
in the general council. Faninus, first giving them thanks
for their friendly good will, modestly and quietly de-
clared to them, how the doctrine which he professed was
no humour nor opinion of man's brain, but the pure
truth of God, founded in his word, and revealed to mea
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and especially now in these
days restored ; which truth he had fully determined in
liis mind never to deny. And as in his soul, which was
redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, he was free
from all bondage ; so likewise, as touching councils, he
looked for no other sentence nor authority but that only
which he knew to be declared to us by Christ Jesus in
his gospel, which he both preached with his word, and
confirmed with his blood, &c. With these and such
other words, he so moved their minds, that they were
wholly altered to a new life, having him now in admira-
tion whom they before had in derision. He proceeded
still to preach tlie word of grace, declaring and confes-
sing himself to be a miserable sinner ; but by the faith of
the Lord Jesus, and through the grace only of him, he
was fully persuaded and well assured his sins were for-
given ; as all their sins also shall be remitted to them
through their faith only in Christ, they believing hisgospel.
There were others also besides these, who, having
lived before a more delicate kind of life, could not well
bear with the sharpness and the hardness of the prison.
These also received such comfort from Faninus, that not
only they were quietly contented, but also rejoiced in
their captivity, by the occasion of which they had re-
ceived and learned a better liberty than they ever
knew before.
When the imprisonment of Faninus was known to his
parents and kinsfolk, his wife and sister came to him
with weeping persuasions, to move him to consider and
have a care for his poor family. He answered, that his
Lord and Master had commanded him not to deny him
by looking to his family ; and that it was enough for them
that he had once for their sakes fallen into that coward-
liness which they knew. Wherefore he desired them to
depart in peace, and solicit him no more, for his end,
he said, he knew drew near, and so he commended them
unto the Lord.
About the same time died Pope Paul III., and after
him succeeded Julius 111., who sent letters and com-
mandment that Faninus should be executed. M hen one
of the magistrate's officers brought him word tlu'uxt
day, he rejoiced at it, and gave the messenger liatik-;,
and began to preach a long sermon to them that wore
about him on the felicity and beatitude of the life to
come. Then the messenger exhorted him that, in case
he would change his opinion, he should save both his
present life, and enjoy that which was to come. Ano-
ther asked liim how he should leave his little children
and his wife ? Faninus answered, that he had left them
with an overseer, who would see to them sufficiently ; and
A.D. 1527—1558.]
A LIST OP THE ITALIAN MARTYRS.
473
bein? asked who he was ? "The Lord Jesus Christ,"
said he, " a faithful keeper and preserver of all tli;it is
committed to him." After the messenger was departed
from Faniims, all full of tears and sorrow, the day follow-
in" he was removed into the common prison, and deli-
vered to the secular magistrate. In all his ways, his
words, his gestures, and countenance, he shewed such
constancy of faith, such modesty of manners, and tran-
quillity of mind, that they who previously were violent
against him, thinking him to have a devil, began now
favourably to hearken to him, and to commend him.
With such grace and sweetness he talked, ever speaking of
the word of God, that several of the magistrates' wives in
hearing him could not abstain from weeping. The execu-
tioner iiimself also wept. One of the public scribes came
to him and said, that if he would relent from his opinion,
the pope's pleasure was that he should be saved : but
that he refused. This was surprising, that he recited
so many places of scripture without book, and that so
truly and promptly, as though he had studied nothing
else. One seeing him so cheerful and happy going to
his death, asked, why he was so cheerful at his death,
seeing Christ himself sweat blood and water before his
passion ? " Christ," said he, " sustained in his body all
the sorrows and conflicts with hell and death due to us :
by whose suffering we are delivered from sorrow and fear
of them all." Early in the morning he was brought
forth. After his prayers most earnestly made to the
Lord, he meekly and patiently gave himself to the stake,
where with a cord drawn about his neck he was strangled
by the executioner in the city of Ferrara, three hours be-
fore day, that the people should not see him, nor hear
him speak ; and about noon his body was burned.
Dominick de Basana, at Placentia, A.D. 1550.
The .same year Dominick also suffered in the city of
Placentia. This Dominick was in Germany, when he
received the first taste of Christ's gospel. Wherein he
increased more and more, by conferring and reasoning
with learned men, so that in a short time he was able to
instruct many, and he did so, till in the year 1550, coming
to the city of Naples, he there preached the word, and
then proceeding to Placentia, preached there likewise to
the people, of true confession, of purgatory, and of
pardons. The next day he treated of true faith and good
works, how far they are necessary to salvation, promising
the day after to speak of antichrist, and to paint him
out in his colours. When the hour came that he should
begin his sermon, the magistrate of the city commanded
him to come down from the chair in the market-place,
and delivered him to the officers. Dominick was willing
and ready to obey the commandmtent, saying, " That
he much wondered that the devil could suffer him so
long in that kind of exercise." He was led to the
bishop's chancellor, and asked whether he was a priest,
and how he was placed in that function. He answered,
" Tint he was no priest of the pope, but of Jesus Christ,
by whom he was lawfully called to that office.'' Then
was he demanded, whether he would renounce his doc-
trine .' He answered, " That he maintained no doc-
trine of his own, but only the doctrine of Christ, which
also lie was ready to seal with his blood, and also gave
liearty thanks to God, who so accounted him worthy to
glorify his name with his martyrdom." Upon this he
was committed to a filthy and stinking prison, where,
after he had remained a few months, he was exhorted to
revoke, otherwise he should suffer ; but still he remained
constant in his doctrine. When the time came assigned
for his punishment, he was brought to the market-place,
where he had preached, and there was hanged ; and
most heartily praying tor his enemies, he so finished his
days in this miserable wretched world.
Galeazius Trecius, A.D. 1551.
In St. Angelo was a house of Augustinian friars, to
whom a certain friar used to resort, named Maianard, aman
expert in the study of scripture, and of a godly conver-
sation. By this Maianard several, not only of fri rs, but
also of other townsmen, were brought to the love and
knowledge of God'« word, and to the detestation of the
pope's abuses. Among whom was this Galeazius, a gen-
tleman of good calling, ;yid wealthy in worldly substance,
and VL-ry benevolent to the poor. In j)rocess of time, as
this Galeazius increased in judgment and zeal, in selling
forward the wholesome word of God's grace ; as a light
shining in darkness he could not so lie liid, l)ut at last,
in the year 15.')1, certain persons were sent to arrest and
bring him to the bishop's palace, where he was kept ia
bonds.
When the time came that he should be examined, he
was brought before the commissioners, where he ren-
dered reasons of his faith, answering to their interroga-
tories with such evidence of scriptures, and constancy of
mind, that he was an admiration to them that heard
him. Not long after, through the importunate j)ersua-
sion of his kinsfolk and friends, and otiier cold gosj)ellers,
laying many considerations before his eyes, he was
brought at length to assent to certain points of the pope's
doctrine. But yet the mercy of God, which thus began
with him, left him not, but brought him again to such
repentance, and bewailing of what he had done, that he
became afterward still more valiant in defence of Christ ;
affirming that he never felt more joy of heart than at the
time of his examinations, where he stood to the constant
confession of the truth ; and that he never tasted more
sorrow in all his life, than when he slipped from the
same by dissimulation. Declaring to his brethren, that
death was much more sweet to him, with testimony of
the truth, than life with the least denial of truth, and
loss of a good coiiscience.
As Galeazius thus continued in the prison, looking for
some occasion to recover from his full, the inquisitors
and priests again repaired to him, supposing that he
would confirm now that which before he had granted to
them. Galeazius returned again to the defence of his
former doctrine, with much more boldness of spirit con-
fessing Christ, and declaring his detestation of images,
affirming and proving that God only is to be wor-
shipped, and that in spirit and in truth ; also that there
are no mediators but Christ alone, and that he only and
sufficiently by his suffering has taken away the sins of
the whole world ; and that all they vvho depart hence in
this faith, are certain of everlasting life ; they who do
not, are under everlasting damnation ; with such other
matter as was utterly repugnant to the pope's proceedings.
With this confession, as his mind was greatly refreshed,
so the adversaries went away as much ajjpalled, who, at
last perceiving tliat he could not be revoked, caused him
to be committed to the secular judge to be burned.
Thus Galeazius, early in the morning, being brought
out of prison to the market-place, was there left stand-
ing bound to the stake till noon, as a gazing-stock for
all men to look upon. In the meantime many came
about him. exhorting him to recant, and not to cast away
his life, whereas with ten words he might save it. But
nothing could stir the mind of this valiant martyr. Fire
was commanded at last to be put to the dry wood about
him, and he was consumed, without any noise or crying,
save only these words heard in the middle of the flame :
"Lord Jesus!" This was A.D. 1551, November
twenty-fourth.
Touching the story of this blessed martyr, this is to be
given for a memorandum, that ^ little before Galeazius
was burned, there was a controversy between the major
of the city, and the bishop's clergy, for the expenses of
the wood that should go to his burning. He, hearing of
it, sent word to both the parties to agree, for that he
himself of his own goods would see the cost of that
matter discharged.
Doctor John MoUius, a Gray Friar, and a certainWeaverf
A.D. 1553.
John MoUius Montilcinus, when but twelve years
old, with his brother Augustinus, was placed by his pa-
rents in the house of the Gray Friars, where, in a short
time, having a fresh wit, he far excelled his fellows in
all languages and sciences. So growing up to the age
of eighteen, he was ordained priest, and sang his first
mass. After that he was sent to Ferrara to study, where
he so profited in the space of six years, that be was as-
474
A LIST OF THE ITALIAN MARTYRS,
[Book VII.
S'gned, by Vigerius, general of that order, to be doctor,
aud then reader iii divinity ; arid lie then, with his so-
phistry, opposed himself to the gospel. Afterwards he
was connected with several universities with much dis-
tinction. In the meantime God wrought in his soul such
light of his woril, and of true religion, that he began se-
cretly to expound the Epistle of St. Paul to the Uomaus
to a few ; wtiicli being known, his auditors increased so
fast, that he was compelled to read openly in the temple.
As the number of his audience daily augmented, so the
eac'er fervency of their minds increased, so that every
man almost came with his pen and ink to write : this was
about tlie year 15;i8. There was at the same time, at
Bononia, one Cornelius, an arrogant babbler, who, envy-
ing John, took upon him, at the request of Cardinal
Campejus, to expound the same epistle of St. I'aul,
confuting and disproving the explanation of John, and
extolling the pope with all his traditions. John extolled
and commended only Christ and his merits to the people.
But tiie purpose of Cornelius came to nothing. For the
auditors who first came unto him, began by little to fall
from him, while the concourse of the other man's audi-
tors increased more and more.
When Cornelius perceived this, he persuaded Campe-
jus, that unless he dispatched that man, the estimation
of the church of Rome would greatly decay. But when
they could not openly bring about their purpose, this
secret way was devised, that Cornelius and John should
come to open disputation ; which disputation endured
till three of tbe clock after midnight. At length, when
neither party could agree, John was bid to return home
to his house. As he was come down to the lower steps,
where the place was most confined, so that his friends
could not come to rescue him, (although by drawing
their swords they declared their good wills,) he was
taken and laid in prison. When the day came, such tu-
mult and stir was in the whole city, that Cornelius was
driven to hide himself. Also Campejus, the cardinal,
with the bishop, were both contemned of the students.
The next day the bishop of Bononia sent his chancellor
to John in the prison, to signify to him, that either he
must recant, or be burned. But he, being of a bold and
cheerful spirit, would in nowise be brought to recant.
This one thing grieved him, that he should be condemned
without his cause being heard.
In the meantime, Laurentius Spatha, general of the
order, jiosted up to Rome, and there so practised with
the cardinal of the Holy Cross, the proctor in the court
of Rome for the Gray friars, that the pope wrote down
liis letters to Campejus, that he should deliver John out
of prison ; so that he, within three months after, should
personally appear at Rome. The friends of MoUius
gave him counsel not to go to Rome, and ottered him
money to go to Germany ; but he would not, saying,
"That the gospel must also be preached at Rome."
After he was come to Rome, and appeared before Pope
Paul 111., he humbly desired, that the cause might come
in public hearing, but that could not be obtained. Then
he was commanded to write his mind in articles, and to
bring his proofs, which he diligently performed, treating
of original sin, justification by faith, free will, purgatory,
and such like ; proving the said articles by the authority
of the scripture, and of the ancient fathers, and exhibited
them to the bishop of Rome. Upon this, certain car-
dinals and bishops were assigned to give the cause a
hearing : they disputed with him three days, and could
not feel that which he had proved. At last answer was
made to him thus : that it was truth which he affirmed,
nevertheless the same was not meet for this present time ;
for that it could not be taught or published without the
detriment of the apostolic see ; wherefore he should ab-
stain hereafter from the epistles of St. Paul, and so re-
turn again safe to Bononia, and there profess pliilosophy.
Thus as he was returned to Bononia, and all men there
were desirous to know of his case, how he si>ed at Rome,
openly in the pulpit he declared all things in order as
thev were done, and gave God thanks.
Herewith Campejus, being more oflcTided than before,
obtained of the pope, that the general of the order should
remore the said John Mollias from Bononia, and place
him somewhere else. So Mollius was sent to Naples,
and there was ajjpointed i-eader and preacher in the mo-
nastery of St. Laurence. But Peter, the viceroy there,
not abiding his doctrine, so nearly sought his death, that
he had much ado to escape with life, and so departing
from thence, he went wandering in Italy, from j)lace to
place, jireaching (Jhrist wherever he came. Not long
after this, when Cardinal Campejus was dead, he was
called again to Bononia, by a good abbot named De
Grassis, A.D. 1543, where he renewed again the reading
of St. Paul's epistles after a secret sort, as he did before ;
but that could not be long undiscovered. By means of
Cardinal de Capo, and by Bonaventura the general, he
was aj)prehended the second time, and brought to
Faventia, and laid there in a filthy and stinking prison,
where he continued four years, no man having leave to
come to him. At length, through the intercession of
the Earl Petilian, and of the good xVbbot De Grassis, he
was again delivered, and sent to Ravenna, where he
made his abode a few months, and there again taught
the gospel of Christ as before ; and whenever he spake
of the name of Jesus, his eyes dropped tears, for he was
fraught with a mighty fervency of God's Holy Spirit.
In process of time, when this abbot was dead, his
sureties began to be weary of their bond, and so he was
again now tiie third time reduced to prison by the pope's
legates. There were then four men of great authority,
who, being stirred up of God, had pity upon him, and
bailed him out of prison. Of whom, one of the sureties
took Mollius home, to instruct his children in the doc-
trine of religion and good letters. Furthermore, at the
fame of this man, such a concourse of people came to see
him, that the adversaries began to consult with them-
selves to kill him, lest his doctrine should disperse fur-
ther abroad, to the detriment of the church of Rome.
Whereupon commandment was sent to the pope's
legate to lay hands upon him, and to send him up fast
bound to Rome. Where again, now the fourth time, he
was imprisoned in the castle of Rome, and there con-
tinued eighteen months, being greatly assaulted, some-
times with flattering promises, sometimes with terrible
threats, to give over his opinion : but his building could
not be shaken, for it was grounded upon a sure rock.
Thus Dr. Mollius, being constant in the defence of
Christ's gospel, was brought, with other men (who
were also apprehended for religion) into the temple of
St. Mary (called De Minerva) the fifth day of Septem-
ber, 1553 ; either to revoke or to be burned. There sat
six cardinals in high seats, besides the judge : before
whom preached a Dominican friar, with cruelty inveigh-
ing against the poor prisoners, incensed the cardinals,
with all the vehemency he might, to their condemna-
tion. The poor men stood holding a burning taper in
their hands : some for fear of death revolted. But this
Doctor Mollius, with a weaver of Perusium, remained
constant. Then Mollius began an earnest sermon in the
Italian tongue, wherein he confirmed the articles of the
faith by the sacred scriptures, declaring also that the
pope was not the successor of Peter, but antichrist, and
that his sectaries do figure the whore of Babylon. He
cited them up to the tribunal seat of Christ, and threw
away the burning taper from him. They condemned
him with the weaver to the fire, and commanded them
to be had away. So they were carried to the field,
called Florianum, where they remained cheerful and
constant. First, the weaver was hanged : Mollius then
began to exhort the people to beware of idolatry, and to
have no other saviours but Christ alone : for he only is
the Mediator between God and man. And so he was
also hanged, commending his soul to God, and afterwards
laid in the fire and burned.
Two Monks, (A.D. 1554.) — In the same city of
Rome, and about the same time, in the monastery of
St. Austin, were found two monks in their cells, with
their tongues and their heads cut off, only for rebuking
the immoderate and outrageous excess of the cardinals.
In the same year, Francis Gamba, after he had re-
ceived the knowledge of the gospel, went to Geneva, to
A.D. ir)2r— 1558.]
A LIST OF THE ITALIAN MARTYRS.
475
confer with the wise and learned in that church, and
there at the same time communicated with them.
Afterward, in his returnin;? home, as he was passing
over the Lake of Como, he was taken and brous^ht to
Como, and committed to ward. During the time of his
imprisonment, nobles and otliers, with doctors also,
especially priests and monks, resorted to him, labouring
by all manner of means, and most fair promises, to re-
duce him from his opinions : which seemed to some but
fantasies coming of some humour : to some they seemed
uncatholic or heretical. But he, constantly disputing
with them by the manifest scriptures, declared the
opinions which he defended not to be any vain specula-
tions or imaginary fantasies of man's doting brain, but
the pure truth of God, and the evident doctrine of Jesus
Christ, expressed in his word, necessary for all men to
believe, and also to maintain unto death: and, therefore,
for his part, rather than he would be found false to
Christ and his word, he was there ready not to deny,
but to stand to Christ's gospel, to the shedding of his
blood.
When he could in no wise be reclaimed from the doc-
trine of truth, letters came from the senate of Milan,
that he should be executed ; but through intercession of
his friends, one week's respite was granted him, to
prove whether he might be won again to the pope's
churcli, that is to say, lost from God. Thus he being
long and mightily, both assailed by friends, and terrified
by enemies, yet by no persuasions would be overcome,
but gave thanks to God, that he was made worthy to
suffer the rebukes of this world, and cruel death, for the
testimony of his Son ; and so he went cheerfully to his
death. Then came certain Franciscan fiiars to him to
hear his confession, which he refused. They brought in
their hands a cross for him to behold, to keep him from
desperation at the feeling of the fire ; but his mind, he
said, was so filled with joy and comfort in Christ, that
he needed neither their cross, nor them. After this, as
he was declaring many comfortable things to the people,
of the fruition of those heavenly joys above, which God
hdth prepared for his, that he should speak no more
to the people, his tongue was bored through ; and im-
mediately being tied to the stake, he was strangled to
death ; every man there, who saw his constancy, giving
testimony, that he died a good man.
Pomponius Algerhis, at Rome, A. D. 1555.
Pomponius Algerius, a young man of great learning,
was student in the university of Padua, where, not being
able to conceal and keep close the truth of Christ's
gospel, he ceased not both by doctrine and example of
life, to inform as many as he could, and to bring them
to Christ ; for which be was accused of heresy to Pope
Paul IV. Who, sending immediately to the magistrates
of Venice, caused him to be apprehended at Padua, and
carried to Venice, where he was long detained in prison,
tUl at last the pope commanded the magistrates there to
send him bound to Rome. After he was brought to
Rome, manifold persuasions and allurements were tried
to remove this virtuous and blessed young man from his
opinions. But when no persuasions could prevail
against the operation of God's Spirit in him, then was
he judged to be burned alive , which death he sustained
most constantly, to the great admiration of all that be-
held him.
Being in prison at Venice, he wrote an epistle to the
afflicted saints ; which, for the notable sweetness and
most wonderful consolation contained in it, in shewing
forth the mighty operation of God's holy power working
in his aftiicted saints that suffer for his sake, I have
thought good and expedient to communicate, as a prin-
cipal monument amongst all other martyrs' letters, not
only with the other letters which shall be inserted here-
after (the Lord willing) in the end of the book, but also
in this present place to be read, to the intent that both
they who are, or shall be hereafter in affliction, may take
consolation ; and also they that yet follow the trade of
this present world, in comparing the joys and commo-
dities thereof, with these joys here expressed, may learn
and consider with themselves, what differeace there is
between them both, and thereby may learn to dispose
themselves in such sort, as may be to their edification
and per])etual felicity of their souls. The copy of the
letter, first written in Latin, we have translated iuto
English, the tenor whereof here ensues.
A comfortable Letter of Pomponius Algerius, an Italian
Martyr.
To his dearly beloved Brethren and fellow Ser\ants of
Christ, who are departed out of Babylon into Mount
Sion : grace, peace and health, from God our Father,
by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savioui .
" To mitigate your sorrow, which you take for me,
1 cannot but impart unto you some j)ortion of my de-
light and joys, which 1 feel and find, that you may re-
joice with me and sing before the Lord, giving thanks
unto him, I shall utter that which no man will believe
when I shall declare it. 1 have found a nest of honey
and honey-comb in the entrails of a lion. Who will
ever believe what I shall say, or what man will ever
think in the deep dark dungeon to find a paradise of
pleasure, in the jjlace of sorrow and death, — to dwell in
traiHiuillity and hope of life, — in an infernal cave to find
joy of soul, — and where other men do weep, there to be
rejoicing, — where others shake and tremble, there
strength and boldness to be plenty .' Who will ever
think, or who will believe this .' in such a woful state
such delights .' in a place so desolate, such society of
good men ? in strait bands and cold irons, such rest ?
AH these things the sweet hand of the Lord, my
brethren, doth miniyter unto me. Behold, he that was
once far from me, now is present with me. Whom
once 1 scarce could feel, now I see more apparently ;
whom once 1 saw afar off, now I behold near at hand ;
whom once 1 hungered for, the same now apjiroacheth
and reacheth his hand unto me. He doth comfort me,
and filleth me with gladness ; he driveth away all bitter-
ness, he ministereth strength and courage, he healeth
me, refresheth, advanceth, and comforteth me. O how
good is the Lord, who suffereth not his servants to be
tempted above their strength ! O how easy and sweet
is his yoke ! Is there any like unto the Highest, who
receiveth the afflicted, healeth the wounded, and nou-
risheth them .' Is there any like unto him .' Learn ye,
wellbeloved, how amiable the Lord is, how meek and
merciful he is, who visiteth his servants in temptations,
neither disdaineth he to keep company with us in such
vile and stinking caves. Will the blind and incredulous
world, think you, believe this .' Or rather will it not
say thus ? No, thou wilt never be able to abide long
the burning heat, the cold snow, and the pinching hard-
ness of that place, the manifold miseries, and other in-
numerable grievances ; the rebukes and frowning faces of
men how wilt thou suffer .' Dost thou not consider and
revolve in thy mind thy pleasant country, the riches of
the world, thy kinsfolk, the delicate pleasures and
honours of this life .' Dost thou forget the solace of thy
sciences, and fruit of all thy labours ? Wilt thou thus
lose all thy labours which thou hast hitherto sustained,
— so many nights watched, — thy painful travels, and all
thy laudable enterprizes, wherein thou hast been exer-
cised continually even from thy childhood .■" Finally,
fearest thou not death, which hangeth over thee, and
that for no crime committed ? O what a fool art thou,
which for one word speaking mayest save all this, and
wilt not ? What a rude and unmannerly thing is this,
not to be intreated at the instant petitions and desires of
such, so many and so mighty, so just, so virtuous, so
prudent and gracious senators, and such noble person-
ages, &c,
" But now to answer ; Let this blind world hearken
to this again : What heat can there be more burning,
than that fire which is prepared for thee hereafter ?
And likewise, what snow can be more cold than thy
heart which is in darkness, and hath no light .' What
thing is more hard, and sharp, or crooked, than this
present life which here we lead .' What thing more
odious and hateful than this world here present? aiid let
476
LETTER OF POMPONIUS ALGERIUS.
[Book VII.
these worldly men here answer me : WTiat country can
•we have more sweet than the heavenly country above ?
What treasures more rich or jirecious than everlasting
life ? And who are our kinsmen, but they who hear the
word of God ? where are greater riches, or dignities
more honourable, than in heaven ? And as to the
sciences, let this foolish world consider, are they not
ordained to learn to know God, wliom, unless we do
know, all our labours, our uiglit watchina^s, our studies,
and all our enterprises serve to no use or purpose ? all
is but labour lost. Furthermore, let the miserable
worldly man answer m.e ; What remedy or safe refuge
can there be to him, if he lack God, who is the life and
medicine of all men ? And how can he be said to fly
from death, when he himself is already dead in sin ? If
Christ be the way, the truth, and the life, how can there
be any life without Christ ? The heat of the prison to
me is coldness ; the cold winter to me is a fresh spring-
time in the Lord. He that fears not to be burned in
the fire, how will he fear the heat of the weather ? or
what cares he for the pinching frost, who burns with
the love of the Lord ? The place is sharp and tedious
to them that are guilty, but to the innocent and guiltless
it is mellifluous. Here drops the delectable dew, here
flows the pleasant nectar, here runs the sweet milk, here
is plenty of all good things. And although the place it-
self is desert and barren, yet to me it seems a large
■walk, and a valley of pleasure ; here to me is the better
and more noble part of the world. Let the miserable
worldling say and confess, if there be any plot, pasture,
or meadow, so delightful to the mind of man, as here.
Here I see kings, princes, cities, and people ; here I see
wars, where some are overthrown, some are victors,
some thrust down, some lifted up. Here is the Mount
Sion, here I am already in heaven itself. Here standeth
first Christ Jesus in the front. About him stand the
old fathers, prophets, and evangelists, apostles, and all
the servants of God. Of whom some do embrace and
cherish me, some exhort, some open the sacraments
unto me, some comfort me, others are singing about me.
And how then shall I be thought to be alone, among so
many and such as these be, the beholding of whom to
me is both solace and example ? Here I see some cruci-
fied, some slain, some stoned, some cut asunder, and
some quartered, some roasted, some broiled, some put
in hot cauldrons, some having their eyes bored through,
some their tongues cut out, some their skin plucked
over their heads, some their hands and feet chopped off,
some put in kilns and furnaces, some cast down head-
long and given to the beasts and fowls of the air to feed
upon ; it would ask a long time if I should recite all.
" To be short, I see many with many torments ex-
cruciated : yet, not\vithstanding, all living, and all safe.
One plister, one salve cures all their wounds : which
also gives to me strength and life, so that I sustain all
these transitory anguishes and small afflictions, with a
quiet mind, having a greater hope laid up in heaven.
Neither do I fear mine adversaries who here persecute
me and oppress me : for he that dwelleth in heaven shall
laugh them to scorn, and the Lord shall have them in
derision. I fear not thousands of people who compass
me about. The Lord my God shall deliver me, my
hope, my supporter, my comforter, who lifts up my
head. He shall smite all them that stand up against
me without cause, and shall dash the teeth and jaws of
sinners asunder: for he only is all blessedness and
majesty. The rebukes for Christ's cause makes us joy-
ful ; for so it is written, " if ye be persecuted and re-
viled for Christ's sake, happy be you ; for the glory and
Spirit of God rests ujion you," 1 Pet. iv. 14. Be you
therefore sure, that our rebukes which are laid upon us,
redound to the shame and barm of the rebukers. In
this world there is no abiding mansion ; and therefore I
will travel up to the New Jerusalem which is in heaven,
aaid which ofiers itself to me without paying any fine or
income. Behold, I have entered already on my journey,
where my house stands prepared for me, and where I
shall have riches, kinsfolks, delights, and never failing
honours. As for these earthly things here present, they
»re transitory shadows, vanishing vauours, and ruinous
walls. Briefly, all is but very vanity of vanities, whereas
hope and the substance of eternity to come are wanting ;
which the merciful goodness of the Lord has given as
companions to accompany me, and to comfort me, and
now do the same begin to work and to bring forth fruits
in me. I have travelled hitherto, laboured and sweated
early and late, watching day and night, and now my
travels begin to come to effect. Days and hours have I
bestowed upon my studies. Behold, tlie true counte-
nance of God is sealed upon me, the Lord hath given
mirth in my heart. And, therefore, in the same will I
lay me down in peace and rest, Psalm iv. And who
then shall dare to blame this our age consumed, or say
that our years are cut off? What man can now c;avil
that these our labo>u-s are lost, who have followed and
found out the Lord and ^laker of the world; i.nd who
have changed death with life .' My portion is tiie Lord
(saith my soul) and therefore I will seek and wait fur
him. Now then, if to die in the Lord be not to die, but
to live most joyfully, where is this wretched worldly
rebel, who blames us of fully, for giving away our lives
to death ? O how delectable is this death to nie, to
taste the Lord's cup, which is an assured pledge of true
salvation ! for so hath the Lord himself forewarned us,
saying, ' The same that they have done to me, they will
n||so do mito you.' Wherefore, let the doltish world,
with its blind worldlings (who, in the bright sunshine
yet go stumbling in darkness, being as blind as beetles)
cease thus unwisely to carp against us for our rash suf-
fering, as they count it. To whom we answer again
with the holy apostle. That neither tribulation nor
stripes, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor perse-
cution, nor sword, shall be aljle ever to separate us from
the love of Christ : we are slain all the day long, we are
made like sheep appointed to the slaughter, Rom. viii.
;i5. 38. Thus we resemble Christ our Head, who said,
' That the disciple cannot be above his Master, nor the
servant above his Lord.' The same Lord has also com-
manded, tliat every one shall take up his cross and fol-
low him, Luke ix. Rejoice, rejoice, my dear brethren,
and fellow-servants, and be of good comfort, when ye fall
into sundry temptations. Let your patience be perfect
in all parts. For so it has been foreshewn to us before,
and is written. That they which shall kill you, shall
think to do God good service. Therefore afflictions
and death are as tokens and sacraments of our election
and life to come. Let ns then be glad and give thanks
unto the Lord, when as we, being clear from all just ac-
cusation, are persecuted and given to death. For better
is it, that we in doing well do suffer, if it so be the will
of the Lord, than doing evil, 1 Pet. iii. 17. We have
for our example Christ and the prophets, who spake in
the name of the Lord, whom the children of iniquity did
murder. And now we bless and magnify them that
then suffered ; let us be glad and rejoice in our inno-
cency and uprightness. The Lord shall reward them
that persecute us ; let us refer all vengeance to him.
" I am accused of foolishness, for that I do not
shrink from the true doctrine and knowledge of God.
and do not rid myself out of these troubles, when with
one word I may. O the blindness of man ! who sees not
the sun shining, neither remembers the Lord's words !
consider therefore what he saith, ' Ye are the light of
the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid; neither
do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but
upon a candlestick, that it may shine and give light to
them in the house.' And in another place he saith,
' You shall be led before kings and rulers ; fear ye not
them who kill the body, but him who killeth both
body and soul : whosoever shall confess me before men,
him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven.
And he that denieth me before men, him will I also deny
before my Heavenly Father.' Wherefore seeing the words
of the Lord are so plain, how, or by what authority will
this wise counsellor then approve this his counsel which
he gives ? God forbid that I should relinquish the com-
mandments of God, and follow the counsels of men :
for it is written ; ' Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
A. D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTION IN CALABRIA.
477
Psalm i. 1. God forbid that I should deny Clirist,
where I ought to confess hira. I will not set more by
my life than by my soul : neither will I exchana^e the
life to come, for this present world. O how foolishly
speaks he who accuses me of foolishness.
" Neither do I take it to be a tiling so uncomely, or
unseeining for me, not to obey in this matter the requests
of those so honourable, just, prudent, virtuous, and
noble senators, whose desire (he saith) were enouajh to
command me : for so are we taught of the apostles ;
'That we ought to obey God, rather than men.' After
that we have served and done our duty first unto God,
then are we bound next to obey the ])0\vers of this
world ; whom I wish to be perfect before the Lord.
They are honourable ; but yet are they to be made more
perfect in the Lord. They are just ; but yet Christ, the
seat oi" justice, is lacking in them. They are wise ; but
where is in them the beginning of wisdom, that is, the
fear of the Lord .' They are called virtuous, but yet I
wish them more absolute in christian charity : they are
good and gracious, but yet 1 miss in them the founda-
tion of goodness, which is the Lord God, in whom
dwelleth all goodness and grace. They are honourable;
yet they have not received the Lord of glory, who is
our Saviour, most honourable and glorious. Under-
stand, you kings, and learn, you that judge the eardi.
Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with trem-
bling. Hearken to doctrine, and get knowledge, lest
you fill! into God's displeasure, and so perish out of
the way of righteousness. Why fret you, why rage )'0u,
O gentiles ! O you people, why cast you in your heads
the cogitations of vanity ? You kings of the earth, and
you princes, why conspire you together against Christ
and against his only one ? Psalm ii. How long will you
seek after lies, and hate the truth ? Turn you to the
Lord, and harden not ycur heart. For this you must
needs confess, that they who persecute the Lord's ser-
vants, do persecute the Lord himself. For so he saith
himself ; whatsoever men shall do to you, I will count
it to be done not as unto you, but to myself.
" And now let these carnal counsellors and disputers of
this world tell, wherein have they to blame me ; if in
my examinations I have not answered so after their
mind and affection as they required of me ? seeing it is
not ourselves that speak, but the Lord that speaketh in
vts ; as he himself doth forewitness, saying; 'when
you shall be brought before rulers and magistrates, it is
not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you,' Matt. x. 18. 20. Wherefore if the
Lord be true and faithful to his word, as it is most cer-
tain, then there is no blame in me : for he gave the
words that I did speak ; and who was 1 that could resist
his w-ill ? If any man shall reprehend the tilings that I
said, let him then quarrel with the Lord, whom it
pleased to work so in me. And if the Lord be not to
be blamed, neither am 1 herein to be accused, who did
what I purposed not, and what I forethought not of.
The things which there I uttered and expressed, if they
were otherwise than well, let them shew it, and then
will I say, that they were my words, and not the Lord's.
But if they were good and approved, and such as cannot
justly be accused, then must needs be granted, in spite of
their teeth, that they proceeded of the Lord, and then
who are they that shall accuse me ? A people of pru-
dence ! or who shall condemn me .' Just judges ! and
thougli they so do, yet nevertheless the word shall not
be frustrated, neither shall the gospel be foolish, or
therefore decay ; but rather the kingdom of God shall
the more prosper and flourish unto the Israelites, and
shall pass the sooner unto the elect of Christ Jesus :
and they who shall so do, shall pr6ve the grievous judg-
ment of God ; neither shall they escape without punish-
ment who are persecutors and murderers of the just.
My well beloved, lift up your eyes, and consider the
counsels of God. He showed unto us an image of his
plague, which was for our correction: and if we shall
not receive him, he will draw out his sword, and strike
with sword, pestilence, and famine, the nation that shall
rise against Christ.
*' These have I written for your comfort, dear breth-
ren. Pray for me. I kiss in my heart, with an holj
kiss, my eood masters, Sylvius, Pergula, Justus, also
Fidtl Rocke, and him that bearetli the name of Leila,
whom I know, although being absent. Also the gover-
nor of the university, Syndicus, and all others, whose
names are written in the book of life. Farewell all mv
fellow servants of God ; fare you well in the Lord, and
pray for me continually.
From the delectable orchard of Leonine prison, 12lh
August, A.D. 15.55.
It is written of one Thebrotus, that when he had read
the book of Plato, De Jmmortnlitnte Auhna>, he was so
moved and persuaded therewith, that he cast himself
headlong down from an high wall, to be rid out of this
present life. If those heathen philosojihers, havirig no
word of God, nor promise of any resurrection and life
to come, could so soon be persuaded, by reading the
works of Plato, to condemn this world and life here
present ; how much more is it to be required in chris-
tians, instructed with so many evidences and promises of
God's most perfect word, that they should learn to cast
off the carnal desii-es and affections of this miserable
pilgrimage, and that for a double respect, not only in
seeing, reading, and understanding so many examples
of the miseries of this wretched world ; but also much
more in considering and pondering the heavenly joys
and consolations of the other world remaining for us
hereafter in the life to come. For a more full evidence
thereof, T thought it good to give out the letter of Altrerius
above-prefixed, for an earnest of the same, and for a lively
testimony for all true christians to read and consider.
Now let us proceed further f the Lord willing) in our list
of Italian martyrs.
Ei(/htif-eigM martijrs in one day, vith one butcherly knife,
slain like sheep. — A hundred and sixty others also con-
demned, at Calabria, A.D. 15(i0.
In Calabria likewise suffered a blessed number of
Christ's well beloved saints, both old and young, put
together in one house, even eighty-eight persons ; all of
whom, one after another, were taken out of the house,
and so being laid upon the butcher's stall, like the sheep
in the shambles, with one bloody knife were all killed in
order. A spectacle most tragical for all posteritv to re-
member, and almost incredible to believe. Wherefore
for the more credit of the matter, lest we should seem
either light of credit, to believe what is not true, or
rashly to commit to pen things without due proof and
authority ; we have here annexed a piece of an epistle
written by Master Simon Florius.
The end of a certain letter of Master Simon Florius,
cuncerniny a lamentable slanyhter of eiyhiy-eight
Christian Saints in the j) arts of Calabria.
" As concerning news I have nothing to write, but
only that I send you a copy of certain letters, printed
either at Rome or at Venice, concerning the martyrdom
or persecution in two several towns of Calabria, eighty
Italian miles from the borders of Consentia ; the one
called St. Sixtus, within two miles of Montalto, under
the seigniory of the duke of Montalto ; the other called
Guardia, situate upon the sea-coast, and twelve miles
from St. Sixtus : which two towns are utterly destroyed,
and eight hundred of the inliabitants there, or (as some
write from the city of Rome) no less than a full thou-
sand. He that wrote the letter, was servant to Ascanius
Carracciolus. The country and people there I well
knew to take the first original of their good doctrine
and honest life from the Waldenses. For before my de-
parture from Geneva, at their request, I sent them two
schoolmasters, and two preachers. The last year the
two preachers were martyred, the one at Rome, named
Joannes Aloisius Pascalis, a citizen of Cunium : the
other at Messina, named James Bovell, botl» of Pied-
mont : this year the residue of that godly fellowship
were martyred in the same place. I trust this good
seed sown in Italy, will bring forth good and plentiful
fruit."
478
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE.
[Book VII.
Now follows the copy of the letters sent from Mon-
talto, a town in Calabria, eight miles distant from Con-
sentia, bearing date the 11th of June, 1560. The writer
of which letters, as ye may perceive, was one of them
who call themselves catholics, and followers of the
pope. The words of the letter are these.
Here followeth the copy of a letter sent from Mon-
talto in Calabria, by a Romanist, to a certain friend of
his in Rome, containing news of the persecution of
Christ's people in Calabria, by the new Pope Pius the
Fourth :—
" Hitherto, most noble lord, I have certified to you,
what hath been done here daily about these heretics.
Now I come next to certify to your lordship the horrible
judgment begun this day, the eleventh of June, and ex-
ecuted very early in the morning against the Lutherans :
which when I think upon, I verily quake and tremble.
And truly the manner of their putting to death, was to
be compared to the slaughter of calves and sheep. For
they being all thrust up in one house together as in a
sheepfold, the executioner comes in, and amongst them
takes one and blindfolds him with a muffler about his
eyes, and so leads him forth to a place near adjoining,
where he commands him to kneel down ; which being
done, he cuts his throat, and leaving him half dead,
and taking his butcher's knife and muffler all full of blood
comes again to the rest, and so leading them one after
another, he dispatched them all to the number of eighty-
eight. How doleful and horrible this spectacle was I
leave to your lordship's judgment ; for to write of it, I
myself cannot choose but weep. Neither was there any
of the beholders there present wlio seeing one die, could
abide to behold the death of another. But so humbly
and patiently they went to death, as is almost incredible
to believe. Some of them, as they were dying, affirmed,
that they believed even as we do ; notwithstanding, the
most part of them died in their obstinate opinions. All
the aged persons went to death more cheerfully ; the
younger were more timorous. I tremble and shake even
to remember how the executioner held his bloody knife
between his teeth, with the bloody muffler in his hand,
and his arms all in clotted blood up to the elbows, going
to the fold, and taking every one of them, one after an-
other, by the hand, and so dispatching them all, no
Otherwise than a butcher kills his calves and sheep.
" It is moreover appointed, and the carts are come al-
ready, that those so put to death should be quartered,
and conveyed in carts to parts of Calabria, where they
shall be hanged upon poles in the highways and other
places even to the confines of the same country. Unless
the pope's holiness and the lord viceroy of Naples shall
give in command to the lord marquis of Buccianus, go-
vernor of the said province, to stay his hand and go no
further, he will proceed with the rack and torture, exa-
mining all others, and so increase the number, that he
will nigh dispatch them all.
" This day it is also determined, that an hundred of the
more ancient women should appear to be examined and
racked, and after to be put to death, that the mixture
may be perfect, for so many men so many women.
And thus have you all that I can say of this justice.
Now it is about two of the clock in the afternoon ; short-
ly we shall hear what some of them said when they went
to execution. There are some of them so obstinate, that
they will not look upon the crucifix, nor be confessed to
the priest, and they will be burned alive.
" The heretics that are apprehended and condemned
are to the number of one thousand six hundred, but as
yet no more tlian these eighty-eight are already exe-
cuted. This people have their original of the valley
named Angrognia, near to Subaudia, and in Calabria are
called Ultraniontani. In the kingdom of Naples there
are four other places of the same people, of whom whe-
ther thejt live well or no, as yet we know not ; for they
are but simple people, without learning, wood-gatherers
and husbandmen ; but, as I hear, very devout and reli-
gious, giving themselves to die for religion's sake. — From
Montalto the 11th of June."
Marquess Buccianus above specified, had a son or bro-
ther, to whom the pope promised a cardinalship at
Rome, if all the Lutherans were extirpated and rooted
out in that province. That was jirobably the cause of
his inhuman persecution and effusion of christian blood.
After this lamentable slaughter in Calabria, we must
insert here the tragical persecution and horrible murder
of the faithful flock of Christ, inhabiting Merindole in
France, and the adjacent towns, in the time of Francis I.
The furious cruelty of which persecution, although it
cannot be set fortli too much at large, we have con-
tracted, omitting nothing which might seem worthy to be
recorded. The history here follows : —
A iinfable Mstor;/ nf the pcntecittion and destruction of
tite people of Merindole and Cabriers in the count ly of
Provence, tvhere not a few persons, hut whole villages
and townships, with the most part of all the country,
both men, women, and children, were jmt to all kind
ofcrueltij, and suffered martyrdom for the profession
of the gospel.
They that write of the beginning of this people say,
that about two hundred years ago, they came out of the
country of Piedmont to inhabit Provence, in certain vil-
lages destroyed by wars, and other i)laces ; they used
such labour and diligence, that they had abundance of
corn, wine, oil, honey, almonds, with other fruits of the
eartli, and much cattle. Before they came there, Merin-
dole was a barren desert, and not inhabited. But these
good people, in whom God always had reserved some seed
of piety, were compelled to dwell in that waste and wild
desert, whicli, througli tlie blessing of God, became ex-
ceeding fruitful. The world, in the meantime, so de-
tested and abhorred them, and railed against them in
such a manner, that it seemed as if they were not wor-
thy that the earth should bear them. For they had long
refused the bishop of Rome's authority, and observed a
more perfect doctrine than others, ever since A.D.
1200.
For this cause they were often accused to the king,
as despisers of the magistrates, and rebels. Wherefore
they were called by divers names, according to the
countries and places where they dwelt. For in the
couTitry abo\it Lyons, they were called the " poor people
of Lyons ;" in the borders of Sarmatia and Livonia,
and other countries toward the north, they were called
"Lollards;" in Flanders and Artois, " Turelupins,'' J
from a desert where wolves haunt. In Dauphiny thtj
were called " Chagnards," because they lived in placesi
open to the sun. But most commonly they were calledf
" Waldois," from Waldo, who first instructed them ii
the word of God ; which name continued until the name
of Lutherans began.
Notwithstanding all this, the people dwelling at the I
foot of the Alps, and also in Merindole and Cabriers,!
and thereabout, always lived so godly, so uprightly, and!
justly, that in all their life and conversation, there!
appeared to be in them a great fear of God. That!
little light of true knowledge which God had given them,|
they laboured to kindle and increase daily more and!
more, sparing no charges to procure the holy scrip-
tures, or to instruct the most intelligent in learning andl
godliness ; or else to send them into other countries,!
even to the farthest part of the earth, where they had]
heard that any light of the gospel had begun to shine.
For in the year 1.5;50, imderstanding that the gospel!
was preached in Germany and Switzerland, they sent]
there two learned men, George Maurell and Peter LatomI
to confer with the wise and learned ministers of the!
churches there, in the doctrine of the gospel, and toj
know the whole form and manner which those churches!
used in the service and worshipping of God ; and parti-
cularly to have their advice upon certain points onl
which they were not agreed. These two, after long con-
ference with the cliiefest in the church of God, namely,]
Oecolampadius at Basil, and Bucer and Capito at Stras-I
burg ; and at Berne, with Bathold Haller, as they were]
returning through Burgundy homeward, Peter Latom I
was taken at Dijon and cast into prison ; Maurell escaped, j
and returned alone to Merindole with the books andl
letters which he brought with him from the churches of j
A.D. l.r.T— la(;o.]
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE.
479
Germany ; and declared to his brethren all his commis-
Fion, and opened to them, how many and great errors
they were in.
"\Vhen the people heard these, they were moved with
so much zeal to have their churches reformed, that they
sent for the most ancient brethren, and the chiefest in
knowledge and experience in all Calabria and Apulia
to consult with them touching the reformation of the
cliurch. This matter was so handled, that it stirred up
the bishops, priests, and monks in all Provence with
great rage against them. Amongst others tliere was one
cruel wretch called John de Roma, a monk, who obtain-
ing a commission to examine those who were suspected to
be of the Waldois or Lutheran profession, ceased not to
afflict the faithful in all kind of cruelty that he could
devise or imagine. Amongst other torments, this was
one which he most delighted in, and most constantly
practised ; he filled boots with boiling grease, and put
them upon their legs, tying them backward to a form,
with their legs hanging down over a small fire, and so
he examined them. Thus he tormented very many, and
in the end most cruelly put them to death.
After the death of this cruel monster, the bishop of
Aix, by his official, continued the persecution, and put
a great number of them in prison ; of whom some by
force of torments turned from the truth ; the others who
continued constant, after he had condemned them of
heiesy, were put into the hands of the ordinary judge,
■who without any form of process or order of law, put
them to death with most cruel torments.
After this, those of Merindole were cited personally to
appear before the king's attorney. But they, hearing
that the court had determined to burn them without
any further process or order of law, diu'st not appear at
the day appointed. For which the court awarded a cruel
sentence against Merindole, and condemned all the inha-
bitants to be burned, both men and women, sparing none,
no not even the little children and infants ; the town to
be razed, and their houses pulled to the ground ; also the
trees to be cut down, as well olive trees as all other, and
nothing to be left, to the intent it should never be in-
habited again, but remain as a desert or wilderness.
This bloody decree seemed so strange and wonderful,
that in every place throughout all Provence there was
great disputation concerning it, especially among the ad-
vocates and men of learning ; so that many durst boldly
and openly say, that they greatly marvelled how that
court of parliament could be so mad, or so bewitched
to give out such a decree, so manifestly injurious and
unjust, and contrary to all right and reason, yea, to all
sense of humanity ; also contrary to the solemn oath
which all such as are received to office in courts of par-
liament are accustomed to make, that is to say, to judge
justly and uprightly, according to the law of God, and
the just ordinances and laws of the realm, so that God
thereby might be honoured, and every man's right re-
garded, without respect to persons.
Some of the advocates or lawyers, defending the de-
cree said, that in case of Lutheranism, the judges are not
bound to observe either right or reason, law or ordinance ;
and that the judges cannot fail or do amiss, whatever
judgment they do give, so that it tend to the ruin and
extirpation of all such as are suspected to be Lutherans.
To this the other lawyers and learned men answered,
that in this way it would follow that the judges should
now follow the same manner and form against the christians
accused to be Lutherans, which the gospel witnesses that
the priests, scribes, and pharisees followed in pursuing and
persecuting, and finally condemning our Lord Jesus Christ.
The archbishop of Aries, the bishop of Aix, and divers
abbots, priors, and others, assembled themselves toge-
ther, to consult how this decree might be executed with
all speed, intending to raise a new persecution ; for
otherwise, said they, our state and honour is likely to
decay ; we shall be reproved, contemned, and derided
of all men. And if none should thus vaunt and set
themselves against us, but these peasants, and such like,
it were but a small matter ; but many doctors of divinity,
and men of the religious order, divers senators and ad-
voi^tes, many wise and well learned men, also a great
part of the nobility, yea, even of the chiefest peers in all
Europe, begin to contemn and despise us, counting us
to be no true pastors of the church ; so that except we
see to this mischief, and provide a remedy in time, it
is greatly to be feared, that we shall not only be com-
pelled to forsake our dignities, possessions, and livings,
which we now enjoy, but also the church being spoiled
of her pastors and guides, shall hereafter come to miser-
able ruin, and utter desolation.
Then the archbishop of Aries gave his advice as fol-
lows : " Against the nobility," said he, " we must take
heed that we attempt nothing rashly, but, rather we
must seek all the means we can how to please them ;
for they are our shield, — our fortress and defence. And
albeit we know that many of them do both speak and
think evil of us, and that they are of these new gospel-
lers, yet we must not reprove them, or exasperate them ;
we must rather seek how to win them, and to make them
our friends again by gifts and presents ; and by this
policy we shall live in safety under their protection."
" it is well said," said the bishop of Aix ; '' but I can
shew you a good remedy for this disease ; we must go
about with all our endeavour and power, and policy, and
all the friends we can make, sparing no charges, but
spending goods, wealth, and treasure, to make such a
slaughter of the INIerindolians and rustic peasants, that
none shall be so bold hereafter, whatever they be, yea,
although they be of the blood royal, once to open their
mouths against us, or the ecclesiastical state. And to
bring this matter to pass, we have no better way than to
withdraw ourselves to Avignon, in which city we shall
find many bishops, abbots, and other famous men, who
will employ their whole endeavour to maintain and up-
hold the majesty of our holy mother, the church. This
counsel was well liked by them all. Whereupon the
said archbishop of Aries, and the bishop of Aix, went
with all speed to Avignon, there to assemble out of
hand the bishops, and other men of authority and credit,
to consult of this matter. In this pestilent conspiracy,
the bishop of Aix, a stout champion, and a great de-
fender of the traditions of men, taking upon him to be
the cliief orator, began in a manner as follows : —
" O, ye fathers and brethren, ye are ignorant, that a
great tempest is raised up against the little bark of
Christ Jesus, now in great danger, and ready to perish.
Tlie storm cometh from the north, whereof all these trou-
bles proceed. The seas rage, the waters rush in on every
side, the winds blow and beat upon our house, and we
without speedy remedy are like to sustain shipwreck and
loss of all togetlier. For oblations cease, pilgrimage and
devotion waxeth cold, charity is clean gone, our estima-
tion and authority is debased, our jurisdiction decayed,
and the ordinances of the church despised. And where-
fore are we set and ordained over nations and kingdoms,
but to root out and destroy, to subvert and overthrow
whatsoever is against our holy mother, the church ?
Wherefore let us now awake ; let us stand stoutly in the
right of our own profession, that we may root out from
the memory of men for ever, the whole rout of the
wicked Lutherans ; those foxes, I say, which destroy
the vineyard of the Lord ; those great whales which go
about to drown the little bark of the Son of God. We
have already well begun, and have procured a terrible
decree against these cursed heretics of Merindole. Let
us therefore employ our whole endeavour, that nothing
happen which may hinder that which we have so happily
begun ; and let us take good heed that our gold and
silver do not witness against us at the day of judgment,
if we refuse to bestow the same, that we may make so
good a sacrifice unto God. And for my part I offer to
wage and furnish of mine own costs and charges, a hun-
dred men well horsed, with all other furniture to them
belonging, and that so long, till the utter destruction and
subversion of these wretched and cursed caitiffs is fully
finished."
This oration pleased the whole multitude, saving one
doctor of divinity, a friar jacobin, named Bassinet, who
then answered again with this oration : —
480
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE.
[Book VII.
" This is a wpi^lity matter," said he, " and of great
im])ortaunft ; we must therefore proceed wisely, and in
the fear of Ood, and beware that we do nothing rashly.
For if we seek the death and destruction of these poor
and miserable ))eople wrongfully, when the king and the
nobility shall he?r of such a horrible slaughter, we shall
be in great danger, lest they do to us as we read in the
scriptures was done to the priests of Baal. For my part
I must say, and unfeignedly confess, that I have too
rashly and lightly signed many processes against those
who have been accused of heretical doctrine ; but now I
do protest before God, who seeth anjl knoweth the hearts
of men, that, seeing the lamentable end and effect of
mine assignments, I have had no quietness in my con-
science, considering that the secular judges, at the report
of the judgment and sentence given by me and other
doctors my companions, have condemned all those to
most cruel deaths, whom we have adjiulged to be heretics.
And the cause why in conscience I am thus disquieted,
is this, that now of late, since I have given myself more
diligently to the reading and conteini)lation of the holy
scriptures, 1 have perceived that the most part of those
articles, which they that are called Lutherans do main-
tain, are so conformable and agreeing to the scriptures,
that for my part I can no longer gainsay them, except I
should even wilfully and maliciously resist and strive
against the holy ordinances of God. It seemeth to me,
that we ought not any more to proceed in this matter as
we have done in time past. It shall be sufficient to pu-
nish with fine, or to banish them, who shall speak
against the constitutions of the church, and of the pope.
And such as shall be plainly convicted by the holy scrip-
ture to be blasphemous or obstinate heretics, to be con-
demned to death according to the enormity of their
crimes or errors, or else to perpetual prison. And this
is my advice and counsel."
With this counsel of Bassinet all the company was of-
fended, but especially the bishop of Aix, who, lifting up
his voice above all the rest, said thus unto him : " O
thou man of little faith ! wliereof art thou in doubt ?
Dost thou repent thee of that thou hast well done ?
Thou hast told here a tale that smelleth of fagots and
brimstone. Is there any difference, thinkest thou, between
heresies and blasphemies spoken and maintained against
the holy scriptures, and opinions holden against our
lioly mother the church, and contrary to our holy father,
the pope, a most undoubted and true God on earth ?
' Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest thou not
these things .'' "
" It is true," said Bassinet again, "thatmy lord, the bi-
shop of Aix, has well set out the manners and state of the
clergy, and has aptly reproved the vices and heresies of this
present time; and therefore so soon as mention was made of
the ship of Christ Jesus, it came into my mind first of
all of the high bishop of Jerusalem, the priests, the doc-
tors of the law, the Scribes and Pharisees, who once had
the government of this ship. But when they forsook
the law of God, and served him with men's inventions
and traditions, he destroyed those hypocrites in his
great indignation ; and having compassion and pity upon
the ])eople, who were like sheep without a shepherd, he
sent diligent fishers to fish for men, faithful workmen
into his harvest, and labourers into his vineyard, who
sliall all bring forth true fruits in their season. Secondly,
considering the purpose and intent of the reverend lord
bi>hop of Aix, I called to mind the saying of the apostle
in his first epistle to Timothy, (chap, iv.), 'That in the
latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed
to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.' And the
apostle gives a mark by which a man shall know them.
Likewise our Lord Jesus Christ, in the seventh chapter
of Matthew, saiih, ' That the false prophets shall come
clothed in sheepskins, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves, and by their fruits they shall be known.' By these,
and such other places, it is easy to understand who are
they that go about to drown this little bark of Christ. Are
they not those who fill the same with filthy and unclean
things, with mire and dirt, with puddle and stinking
water ? Are they not tlio?e who have forsaken Jesus
Christ, the fountain of living water, and have digged
unto themselves pits or cisterns which will hold no
water ? Truly, are they not those who vaunt themselves
to be the salt of the earth, and yet have no savour at all;
who call themselves pastors, and yet are not true pastors,
for they minister not unto the sheep the true pasture
and feeding, neither divide and distribute the true bread
of the word of life. And, if I may be bold to speak it,
would it not be at this present time as great a wonder
to hear a bishop preach, as to see an ass fly? Are
they not accursed of God who glory and boast that they
themselves have the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
neither enter in themselves, nor suffer them that would
enter, to come in ? They may be known right well by
their fruits ; for they have forsaken faith, judgment,
and mercy, and there is no honest, clean, or undetiled
thing in them, but their habit, their rochet, and their
surplice, and such other. Outwardly they are exceed-
ing neat and trim, but within they are full of all abomi-
nation, rapine, gluttony, lust, and all manner of unclean-
ness ; they are like painted sepulchres, which outwardly
appear beautiful and fair, but within they are full of filth
and corruption. A man shall know, I say, these raven-
ing wolves by their fruits, who devour the quick and the
dead under the pretence of long prayers ; and as I am
enforced to give place to the truth, and that you call me
a master in Israel, 1 will not be afraid to prove by the
holy scriptures, that your great pilot and patron the
pope, and the bishops, the mariners, and such others
who forsake the ship of Christ Jesus, to embark them-
selves in pinnaces and brigantines, are pirates and rob-
bers of the sea, false prophets, deceivers, and not true
pastors of the church of Jesus Christ."
When Doctor Bassinet had thus freely and boldly ut-
tered his mind, the whole multitude began to gather
about him, and spitefully railed at him. But the bishop
of Aix, above others, raging and crying out as he had
been mad : "Get thee out," said he, " from amongst
us, thou wicked apostate ; thou art not worthy to be in
this company. We have burned daily a great many who
have not so well deserved it, as thou hast ; we may now
perceive that there is none more steadfast and fervent in
the faith than the doctors of the canon law. And there-
fore it were necessary to be decreed in the next general
council, that none should have to do in matters of reli-
gion but they alone ; for these knaves and beggarly
monks and friars will bring all to naught." Then the
other doctors of the same order boldly reproved the bi-
shop of Aix for the injury he had done to them. After
this there arose a great dissension among them, so that
there was nothing at that time determined. After din-
ner all these reverend prelates assembled together again,
but they suffered neither friar nor monk to be among
them, except he were an abbot. In this assembly they
made an agreement and confirmed it viith an oath,
that every man should himself endeavour that the decree
of Merindole should be executed with all expedition, and
that every man should furnish out men of war, according
to his ability. The charge whereof was given to the bi-
shop of Aix, and to the president of the canons, to so-
licit the matter, and to persuade by all possible means
the presidents and councillors of the court of ])arliament,
without fear or doubt, to execute the decree with drums,
ensigns displayed, artillery, and all kind of furniture of
war.
This conspiracy being concluded and determined, the
bishop of Aix departed to Aix, to perform the charge
which was given to him. They desired him to be, the
next day after the council, at a banquet which should be
made at the house of the bishop of Rieux. To this ban-
quet such as were known to be the fairest and most
beautiful women in all Avignon were called, to refresh
and solace these good prelates, after the great pains and
travel which they had taken for our holy mother, the
church. After they had dined, they fell to dancing,
playing at dice, and such other pastimes as are commonly
wont to be used at the banquets and feasts of these holj
prelates. After this they walked abroad to solace them-
selves, and to pass the time till supper.
A. D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE
481
As they passed through the streets, they saw a man
who sold lewd images and pictures, with filthy rhymes
and ballads. All these pictures were bought up by the
bishops. In the same place, as they walked along, there
was a bookseller who had set out to sell some bibles in
Frenr h and Latin, with divers other books, which, when
the prelates beheld, they were greatly moved thereat,
and said unto him, " Darest thou be so hardy to set out
such merchandise to sell here in this town .' Dost thou
not know that such books are forbidden ?" The book-
seller answered : " Is not the holy Bible as good as these
goodly pictures which you have bought for these gentle-
women ?" He had scarce spoken these words, when the
bishop of Aix said, " I renounce my part of Paradise, if
this fellow be not a Lutheran." " Let him be taken,"
said he, " and examined what he is ;" and instantly the
bookseller was taken and carried to prison, and spite-
fully handled ; for a company of knaves and ruffians,
which waited upon the prelates, began to cry out : "A
Lutheran, a Lutheran! — to the fire with him, to the fire
with him !" and one gave him a blow with his fist,
another pulled him by the hair, and others by the beard,
in such sort that the poor man was all imbrued with
blood before he came to prison.
The morrow after, he was brought before the judges, in
the presence of the bishops, and was examined in the
following manner: " Ilast thou not set forth for sale
the Bible and the New Testament in French?" The
prisoner answered, that he had done so. And being
demanded, whether he understood or knew not, that it
was forbidden throughout all Christendom to print or
sell the Bible in any other language than in Latin ? He
answered, that he knew the contrary, and that he had
sold many Bibles in the French tongue, with the empe-
ror's privilege, and many others printed at Lyons ; also
New Testaments printed by the king's privilege. Fur-
thermore, he said that he knew no nation throughout all
Christendom, which had not the holy scriptures in their
vulgar tongue; and afterwards with a bold courage thus
he spake to them : " O you inhabitants of Avignon ! are
you alone in all Christendom those men who despise
and abhor the Testament of the Heavenly tather ? Will
ye forbid and hide that which Jesus Christ hath com-
mnnded to be revealed and published ? Do you not
know that our Lord Jesus Christ gave power unto his
apostles to speak all manner of tongues, to this end, that
his holy gospel should be taught unto all creatures in
every language ? And why do you not forbid those books
and pictures, which are full of filthiness and abomination,
and provoke God's vengeance and great indignation upon
you all ? What greater blasphemy can there be, than to
forbid God's most holy books, which he ordained to in-
struct the ignorant, and to reduce and bring again into
the way such as are gone astray ? What cruelty is this,
to take away from the poor weak souls their nourishment
and sustenance ? But, my lords, you shall give a heavy
account, who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet, who
maintain abominable and detestable books and pictures,
and reject that which is holy."
Then the bishop of Aix and the other bishops began
to rage and gnash their teeth against this poor prisoner.
" What need you,'' said they, " any more examination ?
Let him be sent straight unto the fire without any more
words." But the judge, Laberius, and certain others,
were not of that mind, neither found they sufficient cause
to put him to death, but went about to have him put
to his fine, and to make him confess and acknowledge the
bishop of Aix, and others, to be the true pastors of the
church. But the bookseller answered, that he could not
do it with a good conscience, forasmuch as he did see
before his eyes, that these bishops maintained filthy
books and abominable pictures, rejecting and refusing
the holy books of God, and therefore he judged them ra-
ther to be the priests of Bacchus and Venus, than the
true pastors of the church of Christ. Whereupon he
was immediately condemned to be burnerf, and the sen-
tence was executed the very same day. And for a sign
or token of the cause of his condemnation, he carried two
fiibles hanging about his neck, the one before, and the
Other behind him ; but this poor man had also the word
of God in his heart, and in his mouth, and ceased not
continually by the way, until that he came to the place of
execution, to exhort and admonish the people to read the
holy scriptures, so that several were thereby moved to
seek after the truth.
The bishop of Aix returned to prosecute the execution
of the decree against Merindole. The president an-
swered him, that it was no small matter to put the de-
cree of Merindole in execution ; also that the decree ..was
given out more to kee]) the Lutherans in fear, than to ex-
ecute it. Moreover, he said that the decree of Merin-
dole was not definitive, and that the laws and statutes of
the realm did not permit the execution thereof without
further process. Then said the bishop, "If there be
either law or statute which do hinder or let you, we carry
in our sleeves to dispense therewithal." The president
answered : " It were a great sin to shed the innocent
blood." Then said the bishop: " The blood of them of
Merindole be upon us, and upon our successors.' ' Then
said the president : " I am very well assured, that if the
decree of Merindole be put in execution, the king will not
be well pleased to have such destruction made of his sub-
jects." Then said the bishop: " Although the king at
the first do think it evil done, we will so bring it to pass,
that within a short space he sluill think it well done ; for
we have the cardinals on our side, and especially the most
reverend cardinal of Toulon, who will take upon him
the defence of our cause, and we can do him no greater
pleasure, than utterly to root out these Lutherans ; so
that if we have any need of his counsel or aid, we shall be
well assured of him ; and is not he the principal, the most
excellent and prudent adversary of these Lutherans, which.
is in all Christendom ?''
By this and such other like talk the bishop of Aix per-
suaded the president and councillors of the court of par-
liament, to put the said decree in execution, and by thia-
means, through the authority of the court, the drum
was sounded throughout all Provence, the captains were
prepared with their ensigns displayed, and a great num-
ber of footmen and horsemen began to set forward, and
marched out of the town of Aix in order of battle, against
Merindole, to execute the decree. The inhabitants of
Merindole being advertised hereof, and seeing nothing
but present death, with great lamentation commended
themselves and their cause to God by prayer, making
themselves ready to be murdered and slain, as sheep led
unto slaugliter.
Whilst they were in tliis grievous distress, piteously
mourning and lamenting together, the father with the
son, the daughter with the mother, the wife with the
husband, suddenly there was news brought to them, that
the army was retired, and no man knew at that time
how, or by what means ; yet, notwithstanding, after-
wards it was known that the lord of Alene, a wise man,
and learned in the scrijitures, and in the civil law, being
moved with great zeal and love of justice, declared to the
president Cassanes, that he ought not to proceed against
the inhabitants of Merindole by way of force of arms,
contrary to iill form and order of justice, without judg-
ment or condemnation, or without making any differ-
ence between the guilty and the innocent.
Then the Merindolians understanding that the army
was retired, gave thanks to God, comforting one another
with admonition and exhortation always to have the fear
of God before their eyes, to be obedient to his holy com-
mandments, subject to his most holy will, and every man
to submit himself to his Providence, patiently attending
and looking for the hope of the blessed, that is to say,
the true life, and the everlasting riches, having always
before their eyes for example our Lord Jesus Clirist the
very Son of God, who hath entered into his glory by
many tribulations. Thus the Merindolians prepared
themselves to endure and abide all the afflictions that
it should please God to lay upon them : and such was
their answer to all those that either pitied, or else sought
their destruction. Whereupon the noise was so great,
as well of the decree, as of the enterprise of the execu-
tion, and also of the patience and constancy of the Me-
rindolians, that it was not hidden or kept oecret from
king Francis, a king of noble courage and great judg-
Ii2
482
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE.
[Book VII.
ment ; who gave command to the noble and virtuous
lord Monsieur de Langeay, who then was his lieute-
nant in Turin, a city in Piedmont, that he should dili-
gently inquire and search out the truth of all this matter.
Whereupon the said Monsieur de Langeay sent unto
Provence two men of fame and estimation, giving them
in charge to bring unto him the copy of the decree, and
diligently to inquire out all that followed and ensued
thereupon ; and likewise to make diligent inquiry as to
the life and manners of the Merindolians, and others
which were persecuted in the country of Provence.
These deputies brought the copy of a decree, and of
all that happened thereupon, unto the said Monsieur de
Langeay, declaring unto him the great injuries, pollings,
extortions, exactions, tyrannies, and cruelties, which the
judges, as well secular as ecclesiastical had used against
them of Merindola, and others. As touching the be-
haviour and disposition of those which were persecuted,
they reported that the inhabitants of Merindole, and the
others that were persecuted, were peaceable and quiet
people, beloved of all their neighbours, men of good
behaviour, constant in keeping of their promise, and
paying of their debts, without traversing or pleading at
the law : that they were also charitable men, giving
alms, relieving the poor, and suffered none amongst
them to lack, or to be in necessity. Also they gave
alms to strangers, and to the poor passengers, harbour-
ing, nourishing, and helping them in all their necessities,
according to their power. Moreover, that they were
known by this, throughout all the country of Provence,
that they would not swear, nor name the devil, or easily
be brought to take an oath, except it were in judgment,
or making some solemn covenant. They were also
known by this, that they could never be moved nor pro-
voked to talk of any dislionest matters, but in what com-
pany soever they came, where they heard any wanton
talk, swearing or blasphemy to tlie dishonour of God,
they straightway departed out of that company. Also they
said, that they never saw them go to their business, but
first they said tlieir ju-ayers. The said people of Pro-
vence furthermore affirmed, that when they came to any
fairs or markets, or came to their cities on any occasion,
they never in any manner were seen in their churches : and
if they were, when they prayed they turned away their
faces from the images, and neither offered candles to
them, nor kissed their feet. Neither would they worship
the relics of saints, nor once look upon them. And,
morec?»,er, if they passed by any cross or image of the
crucifix, or any other saint by the way as they went,
they would do no reverence unto them. Also the priests
did testify, that they never caused them to say any
masses, neither dirges, neither yet de prqfundis, nei-
ther would they take any holy water ; and if it were
carried home unto their houses, they would not say once,
' God have mercy ;' yea, they seemed utterly to abhor it.
To go on pilgrimage, to make any vows to saints, to buy
pardons or remission of sins with money, yea, though it
might be gotten for a halfpenny, they thought it not
lawful. Likewise when it thundered or lightned, they
would not cross themselves, but casting up their eyes
unto heaven, fetch deep sighs. Some of them would
kneel down and pray, without blessing themselves with
the sign of the cross, or taking of holy water. Also
they were never seen to offer, or cast into the bason
any thing for the maintenance of lights, brotherhoods,
churches, or to give any offering either for the quick or
the dead. But if any were in affliction or poverty, those
they relieved gladly, and thought nothing too much.
This was the wliole tenor of the report made unto
Monsieur de Langeay, touching the life and behaviour of
the inhabitants of Merindole, and the others who were
persecuted. Of all those tilings the said Monsieur de
Langeay, according to the charge that was given him,
advertised the king, who understanding these things, as
a good prince moved with mercy and pity, sent letters
of grace and pardon, not only for those who were con-
demned for lack of appearance, but also for all the rest
of the country of Provence, who were accused and sus-
pected in like cases.
On the ©th'T part, the bjsliojis of Aix and Cavaillon
pursued still the execution of the decree of Merindole.
Then it was ordained by the court of parliament, that,
according to the King's letters, John Durand, counsellor
of the court of pailidmeut, with a secretary, and the
bishop of Cavaillon, witix a doctor of divinity, should go
unto Merindole, and there declare to the inhabitants the
errors and heresies which tliey knew to be contained ia
their confession, and make them apparent by good and
sufficient information ; and having so convicted them by
the Word of God, they should make them to renounce
and abjure the heresies ; and if the Merindolians did
refuse to abjure, then they should make relation thereof,
that the court might ajjpoint how they should further
proceed. After this decree was made, the bisliop of
Cavaillon would not tarry till the time which was ap-
pointed by the court for the execution of this matter •
but he himself, with a doctor of Divinity, came to Me-
rindole to make them abjure. The Merindolians an-
swered, that he enterprised against the authority of the
parliament, and that it was against his commission so to
do. Notwithstanding he was very earnest with them
that they should abjure, and promised them, if they
would do so, to take them under his wings and protec-
tion, even as the hen doth her chickens, and that they
should be no more robbed or spoiled. Then they re-
quired that he would declare to them what they should
abjure. The bishop answered, that the matter needed
no disputation, and that he required but only a general
abjuration of all errors, which would be no damage or
prejudice to them ; for he himself would not hesitate to
make the like abjuration. The Merindolians answered
him again, that they would do nothing contrary to the
decree and ordinance of the court, or the king's letters,
wherein he commanded that first the errors should be
declared to them, whereof they were accused : where-
fore they were resolved to understand what those errors
and heresies were, that being informed thereof by the
Word of God, they might satisfy the king's letters ;
otherwise it were but hypocrisy and dissimulation to do
as he required them. And if he could make it to ap-
pear to them by good and sufficient information, that
they had held any errors and heresies, or should be con-
victed thereupon by the Word of God, they would wil-
lingly abjure ; or if in their confession there were any
word contrary to the scriptures, they would revoke the
same. On the other hand, if it were not made manifest
to them, that they had held any heresies, but that they
had always lived according to the doctrine of the gospel,
and that their confession was grounded upon the same,
then they ought by no means to move or constrain them
to abjure any errors which they held not, and that it
were plainly against all equity and justice so to do.
Then the Bishop of Cavaillon was marvellously angry,
and would hear no word spoken of any demonstration to
be made by the word of God, but in a fury cursed and
gave him to the devil that first invented that means.
Then the doctor of divinity, whom the bishop brought
thither, demanded what articles they were that were pre-
sented by the inhabitants of Merindole, for the bishop of
Cavaillon had not yet shewn them to him. Then the
bishop of Cavaillon delivered the doctor the confession,
which after he had read, the bishop of Cavaillon said,
" What! this is full of heresy." Then they of Merin-
dole demanded, " In what point?" the bishop knew not
what to answer. Then the doctor demanded to have
time to look upon the articles of the confession, and to
consider whether they were against the scriptures or no.
Thus the bishop departed.
After eight days the bishop sent for this doctor, to
understand how he might order himself to make their
heresies appear which were in the said confession.
Whereunto the doctor answered, that he was never so
much abashed ; for when he had beheld the articles of
the confession, and the authorities of the Scriptures that
were there alleged, he had found that those articles were
wholly agreeable and according to the holy scriptures ;
and that he had not learned so much in the scriptures
all the days of his life, as he had in those eight days, in
looking upon those articles, and the authorities alleged.
Sliortly after the Bishop of Cavaillon came to Merin-
Itrsccatioits in IH'
Page 483.
A. D. 1527—1560,]
PERSECUTION IN PROVENCE.
483
d<ile, and calling before him the children both great and
small, gave them money, and commanded them with fair
words to learn the Lord's prayer and the creed in Latin.
The most part of them answered, that they knew the
Lord's prayer and the creed already in Latin, but they
could make no reason of that which they spake, but only
in the vulgar tongue. The bishop answered that it was
not necessary they should be so cunning, but that it was
sufficient that they knew it in Latin ; and that it was
not requisite for their salvation, to understand or to
expound the articles of their faith ; for tliere were many
bishops, curates, and doctors of divinity, whom it would
trouble to expound the Lord's prayer and the creed.
Here the bailifl' of Merindole, named Andrew Maynard,
asked, to what purpose it would serve to say the Lord's
prayer and the creed, and not to understand tl.e same ?
for in so doing they should but mock and deride God.
Then said the bishop, " Do you understand what is sig-
nified by these words, ' I believe in God ?' " The bailiff
answered, " I should think myself very miserable if I
did not understand it ;" and then he began orderly to
give an account of his faith. Then said the bishop, " I
would not have thought there had been so great doctors
in Merindole." The bailiff answered, " Tiie least of
the inhabitants of Merindole can do it yet more readily
than I; but, I pray you, question but one or two of these
young children, that you may understand whether they
be well taught or no." But the bishop either knew not
how to question them, or at the least would not.
Then one named Pieron Roy said, " Sir, one of these
children may question one another, if you think it so
good," and the bishop was contented. Then one of the
children began to question with his fellows, with such
grace and gravity as if he had been a schoolmaster ; and
the children one after another answered so to the purpose,
that it was marvellous to hear ; for it was done in the
presence of many, among whom there were four religious
men, that came lately out of Paris, of whom one said to
the bishop, I must needs confess, that I have often been
at the common schools of the Sorbonne in Paris, where
I have heard the disputations of the divines ; but yet
I never learned so much as I have done by hearing these
young children. Then said William Armant, " Did you
never read that which is written in Matthew xi. 25, 2f),
where it is said, ' I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the
wise and jirudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so. Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.' ''
Then every man marvelled at the ready answers of the
children of Merindole.
When the bishop saw he could not thus prevail, he
tried another way, and went about by fair and flattering
words to bring his purpose to pass. Causing the
strangers to go apart, he said, that he now perceived
they were not so evil as many thought them to be ; not-
withstanding it was necessary that they should make
some small abjuration, which only the bailiff, with two
officers, might make generally in his presence, in the
name of all the rest, without any notary to record the
same in writing ; and in so doing they should be loved
and favoured of aU men, and even of those who now
persecuted them.
The bailiff, and the two officers, with divers other
ancients of the town, answered, that they were fully re-
solved not to consent to any abjuration, however it were
to be done, except that (which was always their excep-
tion) they could make it appear to them by the word of
God, that they had held or maintained any heresy ; mar-
velling much that he would go about to persuade them
to lie to God and to the world.
After this, John Miniers, lord of Opide, near Merin-
dole, forged a most impudent lie, giving the king to un-
derstand, that they of Merindole, and all the country
near about, to the number of twelve or fifteen thousand,
were in the field in armour with their ensigns dis-
played, intending to take the town of Marseilles, and to
make it one of the cantons of the Switzers ; and to stay
tliis enterprise, he said, it was necessary to execute the
decree : and by this means he obtained the king's let-
ters patent, through the help of the cardinal of Tou-
lon, commanding the sentence to be executed against
the Merindolians.
After this he gathered all the king's army, which was
then in Provence ready to go against the Englishmen,
and took up all besides, that were able to bear armour,
in the chief towns of Provence, and joined them with
the army which the jiope's legate had levied for that
purpose in Avignon, and all the country of Venice, and
employed the same to the destruction of Merindole,
Cabriers, and other towns and villages, to the number
of twenty-two, giving commission to his soldiers to
spoil, ransack, burn, and to destroy all together, and to
kill man, woman, and child, without mercy.
But this arch-tyrant, before he came to Merindole,
ransacked and burnt certain towns, namely, La Roche,
St. Stephens, Ville Laure, Lormarin, La Motte, Ca-
briers, St. Martin, Pijjin, and other places more, not-
withstanding that the decree extended but only to
Merindole, where the most of the poor inhabitants were
slain and nmrdered without any resistance ; women with
child, and little infants born and to be born were most
cruelly murdered ; the paps of many women were cut
Off, which gave suck to their children, who looking for
suck at their mother's breast, died for hunger. There
never was any such cruelty and tyranny seen before.
The Merindolians seeing all on a flaming fire round
about them, left their houses, and fled into the
woods.
Not long after it was shewn them how that jNIiniers
was coming with all his power to give the charge upon
them. This was in the evening, and that they might
go through rough and cumbersome places, and hard to
pass by, they all thought it most expedient for their
safeguard to leave behind them all the women and chil-
dren, with a few others, and among them also certain
ministers of the church ; the residue were appointed to
go to the town of Mussi. And this they did upon the
hope that the enemy would show mercy to the multitude of
women and children who were destitute of all succour. No
tongue could express what sorrow, what tears, what sigh-
ing, what lamentation there was at that woful departing,
when they were compelled to be thus separated asunder,
the husband from his dear wife, the father from his sweet
babes and tender infants, the one never like to see the
other again alive. Notwithstanding after the ministers
had ended their ordinary sermons, with evening prayers
and exhortations, the men departed that night, to avoid
a greater inconvenience.
In the mean time Miniers came to Merindole, which
was taken, ransacked, burnt, razed, and laid even with
the ground.
When he had destroyed Merindole, he laid siege to
Cabriers, and battered it with his ordnance ; but when
he could not win it by force, he, with the lord of the
town, and Poulin, his chief captain, persuaded the in-
habitants to open their gates, solemnly promising, that if
they would so do, they would lay down their armour,
and also that their cause should be heard in judgment
with all equity and justice, and no violence or injuiy
should be shewed against them. Upon this they opened
their gates, and let in Miniers, with his captains, and all
his army. But the tyrant when he was once entered,
falsified his promise, and raged like a beast. For first
of all he picked out about thirty men, causing them to
be bound, and carried into a meadow near to the town,
and there to be miserably cut and hewn in pieces.
Then he exercised his fury and outrage upon the
women, and caused forty of them to be taken, of whom
several were great with child, and put them into a barn
full of straw and hay, and caused it to be set on fire ;
and when the women, running to the great window
where the hay is wont to be cast into the barn, would
have leaped out, but they were kept in with pikes and
halberts. Then there was a soldier who, moved with
pity at the crying out and lamentation of the womeij,
opened a door to let them out ; but as they were coming
out, the tyrant caused them to be slain and cut in pieces.
Many fled into the wine-cellar of the castle, and many
hid themselves in caves, whereof some were carried into
the meadow, and, after beigg stripped naked, were slain ;
484
PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES,
[Book Vll.
others were bound two and two together, and carried
into the hall of the castle, where they were sliin by the cap-
tains, who rejoiced in tlieir cruel and inhuman slaughter.
That done, this tyrant, more cruel than ever was
Herod, commanded captain John de Gay witli a band of
ruffians to go into the church, where there was a great
number of women, children, and young infants, and to kill
all that he found there ; which the captain refused at first
to do, saving, that was a cruelty unusual among men of
war. Whereat Miniers being displeased, charged him
■npon pain of rebellion and disobedience to the king, to
do as he commanded him. The captain fearing what
might ensue, entered with his men, and destroyed them
all, sparing neither young nor old.
In the mean while certain soldiers went to ransack the
houses for the spoil, where they found many poor men
that had there hidden themselves in cellars, and other
places, flying upon them, and crying out, " Kill, kill !"
The other soldiers that were without the town, killed all
that they could meet with. The number of those that
■were unmercifully murdered, were about a thousand )ier-
sons of men, women, and children. The infants that
escaped their fury, were baptized again by their enemies.
In token of this victory, the pope's officers caused a
pillar to be erected in Cabriers, on which was engraven
the year and the d\y of the taking and sacking of this
town, by John ]\liniers, lord of Opide, and chief pre-
sident of the parliament of Provence, for a memorial
for ever of that barliarous cruelty, the like vi'here-
of was never before heard of. Whereupon we v^•ith all
our posterity have to understand what are the reasons
and arguments wherev/ith the antichrist of Rome is wont
to uphold the impious seat of his abomination ; who now
is come to such excess and profundity of all kinds of
iniquity, and all justice, equity, and verity being set
aside, he seeketh the detVnce of his cause by no other
thing but only by fore? and violence, terror, and op-
pression, and shedding of Idond
In the mean while tlie inhaliitants of Merindole, and
other j)laces, were among the mountains and rocks, in
great necessity of victuals, and in much affliction ; they
had procured some men who were in some favour and
authority with Miniers, to mike request to him, that
they mi^'ht depart safely whither it should jdease f!od to
lead them, with their wives and children, although they
had no more but their shirts to cover their nakedness.
Miniers made this answer : "I know what I have to do ;
not one of them shall escape my hands ; I will send them
to dwell in hell among the devils.''
Thus hast thou heard, loving reader, the terrible
troubles and slaughters committed by the bishops and
cardinals, against these faithful men of Merindole.
Now, touching the people of Merindole, is briefly to
be noted, that this was not the first time that these men
were vexed. For these inhabitants of Provence, and
other coasts bordering about France and Piedmont, had
their continuance from ancient times, and received their
doctrine first from the Waldenses, or Albigenses, who
were (as some say) about A. D. 1170; or (as others
reckon) about A.I). I'ilG.
These Waldenses, otherwise called poor men of Lyons,
beginning from Peter Waldo, being driven out of Lyons,
were dtsjiersed in divers countries, some fled to Massilia,
some to Germany, some to Sarmatia, Livonia, Pohemia,
Calabria, and Apulia ; several strayed to France, especially
about Provence and Piedmont, of whom came these Me-
rindolians, and the Angroirnians with others. They who
were in the country of Toulouse, were called Albii, or Al-
bigenses, from the ]i)nce where they frequented. Against
the Albigenses, I'riar Dominic was a great actor, la-
bouring and preaching against them ten years tog, ther ;
and caused many of them to Vje burned, for which he was
highly accepted and rewarded in the ai>ostolical court,
and at length, by Pope Ilonorius III. was made patriarch
of the Dominican friars.
These Albigenses. against the pope of Rome, had set
up to themselves a bishop of their own, named Baitlio-
lomew. For which the see of Rome took great indigna-
tion against the Albigenses, and caused all the faithful
catholics, and subjects of the church, to rise up iu ar-
mour, and to take tlie sign of the holy cross upon them,
and to fight against them, A. D. 120(j ; great multitudes of
them were cruelly murdered, not only about Toulouse •
and Avignon, but also in all (piarters, miserable slaugh-
ters and burnings long contiinied, from the reign of
the emperor Frederick II., almost to this present time,
through the instigation of the Romm ])opes.
Among other authors who write of those Waldenses,
John Sleidan, treating of their continuance and doctrine,
thus writes of them : "There are," saith he, "in the
French Provence a people called Waldoi. These of an
ancient custom among them do not acknowledge the
bishop of Rome, and have ever used a manner of doc-
trine more pure than the rest, but especially since the
coming of Luther, they have increased in more know-
ledge and ])erfection of judgment."
Concerning the confession and the doctrine of the
Merindolians received of ancient time from their fore-
fathers the Waldenses, thus it follows in the said book
and place of John Sleidan.
" At last, after he had described what great cruelty
was shewed against them, when the re])ort hereof was
spread in (Sermany, it offended the minds of many : and
indeed the Switzers, who were then of a contrary reli-
gion to the pope, entreated the king that he would shew
mercy to such as had fled. The year before he had re-
ceived from his subjects of Merindole a confession of
their faith and doctrine : the articles whereof were, that
they, according to the Christian faith, confessed, first
God the Father, Creator of all things : the Son, the only-
Mediator and Advocate of mankind : the Holy Spirit,
the Comforter, and Instructor of all truth. They con-
fessed also the church, which they acknowledged to be
the fellowship of God's elect, whereof Jesus Clirist is
head. The ministers also of the church they allowed, wish-
ing that such as did not their duty should be removed.
" And as touching magistrates, they granted likewise
the same to be ordained of God to defend the good,
and to punish the transgressors. And how they owe to
him, not love only, but also tribute and custom, and no
man herein to be excepted, even by the example of
Christ, who paid tribute himself, &c.
" Likewise of baptism, they confessed the same to be
a visible and an outward sign, but rejiresents to us the
renewing of the spirit, and mortification of the members.
" As touching the Lord's supper, they said and con-
fessed the same to be a thanksgiving, and a memorial of
the benefit received through Christ.
" Matrimony they affirmed to be holy, and instituted
of God, and to be prohibited to no man.
" That good works are to be observed and exercised
by all men, as the holy scripture teaches.
" Tliat false doctrine, which leads men away from the
true worship of God, ought to be eschewed.
" Finally, the order and rule of their faith they con-
fessed to be the Old and New Testament ; protesting
that they believed all such things as are contained in the
apostolic creed : desiring moreover the king to give cre-
dit to this their declaration of their faith ; so that what-
soever was informed to him to the contrary was not true,
and that they would well prove, if they might be heard."
T/ie History <f the Pcrsecvfinns and Wars ar/ainsf the
people called Waldenses or Waldois, in the Vallei/s r./
Anr/roffne, Ivcerne, St. Martin, Peronse, and at hers,
in the countri/ of Piedmont, from the year 1555 to
1561.
To proceed now in the persecution of these Waldois,
or Waldenses, you have heard how they, dividing them-
selves into various countries, fled to Provence, to Tou-
louse, of which sufficient hath been said. Some went to
Piedmont, and the valley of Angrogne, of whom it fol-
lows now to treat.
Thus these good men, by long persecution, being
driven from place to place, were in all j)laces afflicted,
but yet could never be utterly destroyed, nor yet com-
])elled to yield to the superstitious and false religion of
tlie church of Rome : but ever abstained from tln-ir cor-
ruption and idolatry, as much as was possible, and gave
A D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES.
485
themselves to the word of God, as a rule both truly to
sene hiin, and to direct their lives accordingly.
They had many books of the Old and New Testa-
ments translated into their language. Their ministers
histructed them secretly, to avoid the fury of their
enemies who could not abide the light. They lived in
great simplicity, and by the sweat of their brows. They
were quiet and peaceable among their neighbours, ab-
staining from blasphemy, and the profaning of the name
of God by oaths, and such other impiety : from games,
dancing, songs, and other vices and dissolute life, and
conformed their life wholly to the rule of God's word.
Their principal care was always, that God might be
rightly served, and his word truly preached : so that in
our time, when it jjleased God to sef forth the light of
his gospel more clearly, they never spared any thing to
establish the true and pure ministry of the word of God
and his sacraments. Which was the cause that Satan
with his ministers so persecuted them of late more
cruelly than he ever did before, as ajipears by the cruel
and horrible persecutions which have been, not only in
Provence, against those of Merindole and Cabriers ; but
also against those remaining in the valleys of Angrogne,
and of Lucerne, and also in the valley of St. Martin and
Perouse, in Piedmont. Which people of a long time
were persecuted by the papists, and especially within
these few years they have been vexed, so that it seems
almost incredible : and yet God hath miraculously de-
livered them.
The people of Angrogne had before this time some to
preach the word of God, and to minister the sacraments
unto them privately ; yet in the year 1555, in the be-
ginning of the month of August, the gospel was openly
preached in Angrogne. The ministers and the people
intended at first to keep themselves still as secret as
they might : but there was such concourse of people
from all parts, that they were compelled to preach
openly abroad. For this cause they built a church in
the midst of Angrogne, where assemblies were made,
and sermons preached.
At this time the French King held these valleys, and
they were under the jurisdiction of the parliament of
Turin. In the end of December following, news
was brought, that it was ordained by the parliament,
that certain horsemen and footmen should be sent to
spoil and destroy Angrogne. Some who pretended great
friendship to this people, counselled them not to go for-
ward with their enterprise, but to forbear for a while,
and to wait for better opportunity. But they, notwith-
standing, calling upon God, determined with one accord
constantly to persist in their religion, and in hope and
silence to abide the good pleasure of God : so that this
enterprise against Angrogne was soon dashed. The
same time they began also openly to preach in Lucerne.
In the month of March 1556, the ministers of the
valley of St. Martin preached openly. At that time
certain gentlemen of the valley of St. Martin took a good
man named Bartholomew, a bookbinder, prisoner, as he
passed by the said valley, and sent him to Turin ; and
there, with a marvellous constancy, after he had made a
good confession of his faith, he suffered death ; so that
several of the Parliament were astonished and appalled
at his constancy.
From thence they went to the valley of St. Martin,
and remained there a good while, tormenting the poor
people, and threatening their utter ruin and destruction.
After that they came to Lucerne, troubling and vexing
the people there in like manner. From thence they
went to Angrogne, accompanied with many gentlemen,
and a gre«t rabble of priests.
After they were come to Angrogne, the president hav-
ing visited the two temples, caused a monk to preach in
the one, the people being there assembled ; who pre-
tended nothing else, but only to exhort them to return
to the obedience of the see of Rome. The aforesaid
monk, with the president, and all his whole retinue,
kneeled down twice, and called upon the Virgin Mary ;
but the ministers and all the people stood still, and
would not kneel, making no sign or token of reverence.
As soon as the monk had ended his sermon, the peoide
requested instantly that their minister might also be suf-
fered to preach, affirniing that the monk had spoken
many things which were not according to the word of
God. But the president would not grant their request.
After that the president admonished them, in the name of
the king and tlie parliament of Turin, that they should
return to the obedience of the pope, upon pain of loss of
goods and life, and utter destruction of their town. And
he recited unto them the jiiteous discomfiture of their bre-
thren and friends, which had been done before in Merin-
dole and Cabriers, and other places in the country of
Provence. The ministers and the people answered, that
they were determined to live according to the word of
God, and that they would obey the king and all their
superiors in all things, so that God thereby were not dis-
pleased ; and if it were shewn to them by the word of
God, that they erred in any point of religion, they
were ready to receive correction, and to be reformed.
This talk endured about six hours together, even until
night. In the end, the president said there should be a
disputation appointed for those matters, to which the
peo])le gladly agreed.
Here he remained fourteen days, daily practising new
devices to vex and torment them with new proclama-
tions ; now calling to him the syndics and head-officers,
now severally, and now altogether, that so for fear he
might make them relent ; causing also assemblies to be
made in every parish by such as he appointed, thinking
thereby to divide the people. Notwithstanding he pre-
vailed nothing with all that he could do ; but still they
continued constant. Insomuch that they with one ac-
cord presented a brief confession of their faith, with aa
answer to certain interrogatories propounded by the pre-
sident, in which they confessed, —
That the religion wherein both they and their elders
had been long instructed and brought up, was the same
which is contained both in the Old and New Testament,
and which is also briefly comprised in the twelve articles
of the Christian belief.
Also, that they acknowledged the sacraments insti-
tuted by Christ, whereby he distributes abundantly his
graces and great benefits, his heavenly riches and trea-
sures to all those who receive the same with a true and
lively faith.
Furthermore, that they received the creeds of the four
general councils ; that is to say, of Nice, Constanti-
nople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, and also the creed of
Athanasius, wherein the mystery of the Christian faith
and religion is i)lainly and largely set out.
Also, the ten commandments expressed in the 20th
chapter of Exodus, and the 5th of Deut., in which the
rule of a godly and holy life, and also the true service
which God requires of us, is briefly comprised ; and
therefore following this article, they suffered not by any
means (said they) any gross iniquities to reign amongst
them ; as unlawful swearing, jjerjury, blasphemy, curs-
ing, slandering, dissension, deceit, wiong dealing, usury,
gluttony, drunkenness, theft, murder, or such like ; but
wholly endeavoured themselves to live in the fear of God,
and according to his holy will.
Moreover, they acknowledged the superior powers, as
princes and magistrates, to be ordained of God ; and
that whosoever resisteth the same, resisteth the ordi-
nance of God ; and therefore humbly submitted them-
selves to their superiors with all obedience, so that they
commanded nothing against God.
Finally, they protested, that they would in no point
be stubborn, but if that their forefathers or they had
erred in any one jot concerning true religion, the same
being proved by the word of God, they would williugly
yitld and be reformed.
Their interrogatories were concerning the mass, auri-
cular confession, baptism, marriage and burials, accord*
ing to the institution of the church of Rome.
To the first they answered, that they received the
Lord's supper as it was instituted by him and celebrated
by his apostles ; but as touching the mass, excejjt the
same might be proved by the word of God, they would
not receive it.
To the second, touching auricular confession, they
4S6
PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES.
[Book VII.
said, that for their part they confessed themselves daily
unto God, acknowledging themselves before him to be
miserable sinners, desiring of him pardon and forgiveness
of their sins, as Christ instructed his in the prayer
which he taught them. " Lord. forgive our sins ;*' and as
St. John saith, " If we confess our sins to God, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all uurigliteousness ;" and according to that which
God liimself saith by his prophet, " O Israel, if thou re-
turn, return unto me ;" and again, " O Israel, it is I, it
is I wlio forgiveth thee thy sins." So that, seeing they
ought to return to God alone, and it is he only who f r-
g^ves sins, therefore they were bound to confess them-
selves to God only, and to no other. Also it appears,
tiiat David in his Psalms, and the Prophets, and other
faitliful servants of God, have confessed themselves
both generally and particularly unto God alone ; yet if
the contrary might be proved by tlie word of God,
they would (said they) receive the same with all humble-
ness.
Thirdly, as touching baptism, they acknowledged and
received that holy institution of Christ, and administered
the same with all simplicity, as he ordained it in his
lioly gospel, without any changing, adding or diminish-
ing in any point, and that all this they did in their
mother-tongue, according to the rule of St. Paul, who
directs that in the church every thing be done in the
mother-tongue, for the edification of our neighbour,
1 Cor. xiv. ; but as for their conjurations, oiling, and
salting, except the same might be proved by the sacred
scripture, they would not receive them.
Fourtlily, as touching burials, they answered, that
they knew there was a difference between the bodies of the
true christians and the infidels, as the first are the mem-
bers of Je.sus Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, and
partakers of the glorious resurrection of the dead, and
therefore they are accustomed to follow their dead to the
grave reverently, with a sufficient comjjany, and exhor-
tation out of the word of God, as well to comfort the
parents and friends of the dead, as also to admonish all
men diligently to prepare them.selvps to die. But as for
the using of candles or lights, praying for the dead, ring-
ing of bells, except the same might be proved to be ne-
cessary by the word of God, and that God is not offended
therewith, they would not receive them.
Fifthly, as touching obedience to men's traditions,
they received and allowed all those ordinances which,
as St. Paul says, serve for order, decency, and reve-
rence of the ministry. But as for other ceremonies,
•which have been brought into the church of God, either
as a part of divine service, or to merit remission of sins,
or else to bind men's consciences, because they are re-
pugnant to the word of God, they could by no means
receive them.
And whereas the commissioners affirmed the said tra-
ditions to have been ordained by councils ; first, they an-
swered, that the greatest part of them were not ordained
by councils. Secondly, that councils were not to be
preferred above the word of God, which saith, "If any
man, yea, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you
otherwise than that which hath been received of the Lord
Jesus, let him be accursed." And therefore, said they,
if councils have ordained any thing dissenting from the
■word of God they would not receive it.
Wherefore they required the commissioners, that a
disputation miglit be had publicly, and in their presence,
and then if it might be proved, by the word of God, that
they erred, either in doctrine, or conversation, and man-
ner of living, they were content with all humbleness to
be corrected and reformed. Beseeching them to con-
sider also that their religion had been obser\ed and kept
from their ancestors, until their time, many hundred
years together ; and yet, for their parts, being convicted
by the infallible word of God, they would not obstinately
stand to the defence thereof. Saying moreover, that
they, together with the said lords' deputies, confessed
all one God, one Saviour, one Holy Ghost, one law, one
baptism, one hope in heaven ; and, in sum, they af-
firmed that their faith and religion was firmly founded
and grounded upon the pure word of God.
To be short, seeing it is permitted to the Turks, Sara-
cens, and Jews (which are mortal enemies to our Saviour
Christ,) to dwell peaceably in the fairest cities of Chris-
tendom, by good reason they should be suffered to live in
the desolate mountains and valleys, having their whole re-
ligion founded upon the holy gospel, and worshipping the
Lord Jesus, and therefore they most humbly besought
them to have pity and compassion upon them, and to
suffer them to live quietly in their deserts ; protesting
that they and theirs would live in all fear and reverence
of (lod, with all due subjection and obedience to their
lord and prince, and to his lieutenants and officers.
The president, and the rest of the commissions, per-
ceiving that they laboured in vain, returned to Turin with
the notes of their proceedings ; which immediately were
sent to the king's court, and there the matter remained
one year before there was any answer made thereunto.
During which time the Waldois lived in great quietness,
as God of liis infinite goodness is wont to give some com-
fort and refresliing to his j)oor servants, after long
troubles and afflictions. The number of the faithful so
augmented, that throughout the valleys God's word was
purely preached, and his sacraments duly administered,
and no mass was sung in Angrogne, nor in divers other
jjlaces. Tlie year after, the president of St. Julian,
with his associates, returned to Pignerol, and sent for the
cliief rulers of Angrogne, and of the valley of Lucerne,
that is, for six of Angrogne, and for two of every parish
besides, and showed to them, how that the last year they
had jjresented their confession, which was sent to the
king's court, and there diligently examined by learned
men, and condemned as heretical. Therefore the king
willed and commanded them to return to the obedience of
the church of Rome, upon pain of loss both of goods and
life ; enjoining them moreover to give him a direct answer
within three days. From thence he went to Lucerne,
and caused the householders, with great threatenings, to
assemble themselves before certain by him appointed ;
but they with one assent persisted in their former con-
fession. And lest they should seem stubborn in the de-
fence of any erroneous doctrine, they desired that their
confession might be sent to all the universities of Chris-
tendom, and if the same in any part were disproved by
the word of God, it should immediately be amended ;
but contrariwise, if that were not done, then they to be
no more disquieted.
The president, not contented with this, the next morn-
ing sent for six persons of Angrogne, and for two out of
every other parish, whom he and the gentlemen of the
country tlireatened very sorely, and warned twelve of the
chief of Angrogne, and of the other parishes, to appear
personally at the parliament of Turin, and to bring before
the judges of the parliament their ministers and school-
masters, thinking, if they were once banished the country,
that then their enterjirise might soon be brought to an
end. To which it was answered, that they could not,
nor ought not to obey such a commandment.
A little while after proclamation was made in every
place, that no man should receive any preacher coming
from Geneva, but oidy such as were appointed by the
archbishop of Turin, and others his officers, upon pain of
confiscation of tlieir goods, and loss of their lives, and
that every one should observe the ceremonies, rites, and
religion used in the church of Rome. Furthermore, if
any of the aforesaid preachers of Geneva came into
tliose quarters, that they should immediately be appre-
hended, and that none of tliem should be concealed by
any one.
Now after four years, viz., A.D. lo.")'), there was a
peace concluded between the French king and the king of
."^pain ; when the country of Piedmont (certain towns cx-
cejjted) was restored to the Duke of Savoy ; under whom
the churches, and all other faithful people in Piedmont,
continued in great quietness, and were not molested ;
and the duke himself was content to suffer them to live
in their religion, knowing that he had no subjects more
faithful and obedient than they were. But Satan hating all
quietness, by his ministers stirred up the duke against the
churches of Piedmont, and his own natural subjects. For
the pope and the cardinals, seeing the good inclination
A.D. 1527— 1560.J
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
48;
of the duke towards this people, incensed him to do tliat
which otherwise he would not. The pope's legate also,
who then followed the court, and others that favoured
the church of Rome, laboured by all means to persuade
the duke that he ought to banish the Waldois ; alleging
that he could not suffer such a people to dwell v/ithin
his dominion, without prejudice and dishonour to the
ai)ostolic see. Also that they were a rebellious people
against the holy ordinances and decrees of their holy
mother the church. And briefly, if he would indeed
show himself a loving and obedient son, that he might
no longer suffer the people, being so disobedient and
stubborn against the holy father.
Such devilish instigations were tlie cause of these
horrible and furious persecutions, wherewith these poor
people of the valleys, and in the country of Piedmont, were
so long vexed. And because they foresaw the great cala-
mities which they were likely to suffer, to find some
remedy for the same, if it were possible, all the churches
of Piedmont with one common consent wrote to the
duke, declaring in effect, that the only cause why they
were so hated, and for which he was by their enemies so
sore incensed against them, was their religion, which was
no new or light opinion, but that wherein they and their
ancestors had long continued, being wholly grounded upon
the infallible word of God, contained in the Old and New
Testament. Notwithstanding, if it might be proved by
the same word that they held any false or erroneous
doctrine, they would submit themselves to be reformed
with all obedience.
But it is not certain whether this advertisement was
delivered unto the duke ; for it was said that he would
not hear of that religion. But however, in the month
of March following, there was a great persecution
raised against the poor christians who were at Carignan.
Amongst whom there were certain godly persons taken
and burnt within four days after.
Shortly after, these churches of the Waldois, that is
to say, Le Larch, Meronne, Meane, and Suse, were
wonderfully assaulted. To recite all the outrage, cruelty,
and villany that was there committed were too long ; for
brevity's sake we will recite only certain of the principal
and best known. The churches of Meane and Suse
suffered great affliction. Their minister was taken among
others. Many fled away, and their houses and goods
were ransacked and spoiled. The minister was a good
and faithful servant of God, and endued with excellent
gifts and graces, who in the end was put to a most
cruel and shameful death. The great patience which he
shewed in the midst of the fire, greatly astonished the
adversaries. Likewise the churches of Larch and Me-
ronne were marvellously tormented and afflicted. For
some were taken and sent to the galleys, others consented
and yielded to the adversaries, and a great number of
them fled away. It is certainly known, that those who
yielded to the adversaries were more cruelly liandled
than the others who continued constant in the truth.
Whereby God declares how greatly he detests all such as
play the apostate, and shrink from the truth.
But for the better understanding of the beginning of
this horrible persecution against the Waldois, here note,
that first of all the proclamations were made in every
place, that none should resort to the sermons of the Lu-
therans, but should live after the customs of the church
of Rome, upon pain of forfeiture of their goods, and to
be condemned to the galleys for ever, or lose their lives.
Three of the most cruel persons that coidd be found,
were ajipointed to execute this commission.
At tliat time Charles de Comptes, of the valley of Lu-
cerne, and one of the lords of Angrogne, wrote to the
commissioners to use some lenity towards them of the
valley of Lucerne. By reason whereof they were a
while more gently treated than the rest. At that season
the monks of Pignerol and their associates tormented
grievously the churches near about them. They took
the poor christians as they passed by the way, and kept
them prisoners within their abbey. And having assem-
bled a company of ruffians, they sent them to spoil those
ol the churches, and to take prisoners men, women, and
childien ; and some they so tormented, that they were
compelled to swear to return to mass ; others they sent
to the galleys, and some they cruelly burnt. They who
escaped were afterwards so sick, that they seemed to
have been poisoned.
The gentlemen of the valley of St. Martin treated their
tenants very cruelly, threatening them and commanding
them to return to mass ; also spoiling them of their goods,
im])risoning them, and vexing them by all the means they
could. But above all the others, there were two especially,
that is to say, Charles Truchet, and Boniface his brother,
who the second day of April, before day, with a company
of ruffians, spoiled a village of their own subjects named
Renclaret ; which as soon as the inhabitants of the
village perceived, they fled to the mountains, then covered
with snow, naked and without victuals, and there re-
mained until the third night after. In the morning, his
retinue took a minister of tiie valley prisoner, and led
him to the abbey, where he was burnt soon after, with one
other of the valley of St. Martin.
In the end of June next following, the lord of Raco-
nig and the lord of laTrinite came to Angrogne, there to
mitigate, as they said, the sore persecution, and caused
the chief rulers and ministers to assemble together, pro-
pounding several points of religion concerning doctrine,
the calling of ministers, the mass, and obedience to-
wards princes and rulers ; and declared to them, that
their confession had been sent to Rome by the duke, and
that they daily looked for an answer. To all these
points the ministers answered. After this they demanded
of the chief rulers, if the duke should cause mass to be
sung in their parishes, whether they would submit to the
same or not ? They answered simply, that they would not.
Then they demanded of them, if the duke would appoint
them preachers, whether they would receive them ?
They answered, that if they preached the word of God
purely, they would hear them. Thirdly, If that they
were content that in the meantime their ministers should
cease, and if they who should be sent preached not the
word of God sincerely, then their ministers to preach
again. If they would agree to this, they were promised
that the persecution should cease, and the prisoners
should be restored again. To this question, after they
had conferred with the people, they answered, that they
could by no means suffer that their ministers should for-
bear preaching.
The two lords, not contented with this answer, com-
manded, in the duke's name, that all the ministers who
were strangers should instantly be banished the coun-
try, saying, that the duke would not suffer them to
dwell within his dominions, for they were his enemies.
This done, immediately proclamations were made,
and the persecution began to be more furious than be-
fore. Among others, the monks of Pignerol at that
time were most cruel, for they sent out a company of
hired riiffians, who daily spoiled and ransacked houses,
and all that they could lay hands of ; took men, women,
and children, and led them captives to the abbey, where
they were most spitefully afflicted and tormented. At
the same time they sent also a band of ruffians by night
to the minister's house of St. Germain, in the valley of
Perouse, being led there by a traitor that knew the
house, and had used to haunt there secretly ; who
knocking at the door, the minister knowing his voice,
came forth immediately, and perceiving himself be-
trayed, fled ; but he was soon taken and sore wounded,
and yet they pricked him behind with their halberts
to make him hasten his pace. At that time also
they slew many, many they hurt, and others they
brought to the abbey, where they kept them in prison,
and cruelly handled them. The good minister endured
sore imprisonment, and after that a most terrible kind
of death with a wonderful constancy, for they roasted
him by a small fire ; and when half his body was burnt,
he confessed and called upon the Lord Jesus with a loud
voice.
The inquisitor, Jacomel, with his monks, and the col-
lateral Corbis amongst others, shewed one jiractice of
most barbarous cruelty against this poor man, who,
when he should be burned, caused two poor women of
St. Germain to carry fagots to the fire, and to speak
4m
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
[Book VII.
these words to their pastor : — " Take this, thou wicked
heretic, in reconipence of thy naughty doctrine which
Ihou hast taught us.'' To whom tlie good minister
answered, " Ah, good woman ! I liave taught yon well,
but you have learned ill." To he hrief, they so af-
flicted and tormented those poor people of St. Germain,
and the places thereabout, that after they were spoiled
of their goods, and driven from their houses, they were
compelled to tly into the mountains to save their lives.
So great was the spoil of these poor people, that many
who before had been men of great wealth, and with
their riches had ministered succour and comfort to
Others, were now hrought to such misery, that they were
compclletl to crave succour and relief of othei's.
Now forasmuch as the said monks, with thfir troops
of ruffians (which were counted to be in number about
three hundred), made such spoil and havoc in all the
country, that no man could live there in safety, it was
demanded of the ministers, whether it was lawful to de-
fend themselves against the insolence and furious rage
of the said ruffians .' The ministers answered, that it
was lawful, warning them in any case to take heed of
bloodshed. This question being once solved, they of
the valley of Lucerne and of Angrogne, sent certain men
to them of St. Germain to aid them against the sup-
porters of these monks.
In the month of July they of Angrogne, b.iiig one
morning at harvest upon the hill- side of St. Germain,
perceived a company of soldiers spoiling them of St.
Germain, and doubting lest they sho\dd go to Angrogne,
made an outcry. Then the i)eople of Angrogne assem-
bled together upon the mountain, and some ran to St.
Germain over the hill, and some by the valley. They
who went by the valley met with the spoilers coming
from St. Germain, loaded with spoil which they had got-
ten, and being but fifty, set upon them, amounting to
the number of one hundred and twenty men, well-ap-
pointed, and gave them soon the overthrow. The pas-
sage over the bridge being stopped, the enemy was
forced to take the river Ciiison, where many were sore
hurt, others drowned, and some escaped with great dif-
ficulty ; and such a slaughter was made of them, that
the river was dyed with the blood of those who were
wounded and slain, but none of the Angrognians were
even hurt. If the river had been as great as it was wont
commonly to be, there had not one man escaped alive.
The noise of the harquebusses was great, and within
less than one hour's »])ace there were three or four hun-
dred of the Waldois gathered together upon the river ;
and at the same time they had purposed to fetch away
their prisoners who were in the abbey, but tliey would
not do it without the counsel of their ministers, and so
deferred the matter until the next day. But their minis-
ters counselled them not to venture any such thing, but
to refrain themselves, and so they did. Yet they
doubted not, but if they had gone immediately after
that discomfiture to the abbey, they might have found
all o])en, and easily have entered ; for the monks were
so afraid, that they fled to save their relics and images.
The next day the commander of St. Anthony de Fos-
san came to Angrogne, accompanied with several gen-
tlemen, saying, that he was sent by the duke ; and hav-
ing assembled the chief rulers and ministers of An-
grogne, and of the valley of Lucerne, after he had de-
clared to them the cause of his coming, he read their
supplication directed to the duke, which contained their
confession, demanding of them, if it were the same
vhich they had sent to the duke ? They answered, yea.
Then he began to dispute, being sent, as he said, to
inform them of their errors, not doubting but they would
amend according to their promise. Then he entered
into a disjnitation of the n-.ass, in a great heat, deriving
the sune from the IIt:brew word Massa, which signified
(as he supposed) consecration, and shewed that this
word Massa might be found in ancient writers. The
ministers answered, that he ill ajiplied the Hebrew
word ; and further, that they disputed not of the word
Massa, but of that which is signified by the same, which
he ought first to prove by the word of God. Briefly,
that he could not prove either by the word of God, or
the ancient fathers, their private mass, their sacrifice
expiatory or propitiatory, their transubstantiation, their
adoration, their application of the same for the quick
and the dead, and such other matters which are jjrinci-
pal parts of the said mass. The commander having
here nothing to reply, fell into a marvellous choler,
railing and raging as if he had been mad, and told them
that he was not come to dispute, but to banish their
ministers, and to place others in their stead, by the
duke's commandment, which he could not, unless their
ministers were first driven out of the country.
From thence he went to the abbey of I'ignerol, where
he and Jacomel caused a number of the poor inhabit-
ants of Campillon, and of Fenil, to be taken prisoners,
s|)oiling them of their goods, driving away their cattle,
and forcing them to swear and forswear, and in the end
ransomed them for great sums of money. About that
time a gentleman of Campillon agreed with those who
were fled, for thirty crowns to be paid into his hand,
that he would warrant them from any further vexation
or trouble, so that they remained quiet at home ; but
when he had received the money, he caused the com-
mander of Fossan with his men by night to come to his
house, and then sent for the j)oor men, thinking traitor-
ously to have delivered them into the haiuls of their
mortal enemy, following therein the decree of the coun-
cil of Constance, which is that no promise is to be kept
with heretics. But God, knowing how to succour his
peo])le in their necessity, prevented this danger ; for one
of them had intelligence of the commander's coming,
and so they all fled.
After this, there were many commandments and in-
junctions given out through all the country, to banish
these poor Waldois, with the doctrine of the gospel, if it
were possible, out of the mountains and valleys of Pied-
mont ; but the poor people still desired, that according
to that which they had so often before protested by word
and writing, they might be suffered to serve God purely,
according to the rule prescribed in his word, simply
obeying their Lord and Prince always, and in all things.
In the end of October following, the rumour went that
an army was levying to destroy them ; and in very deed
there were certain bands levied, ready to march at an
hour's warning. Those malefactors, who heretofore had
fled or were banished for any offence or crime com-
mitted, were called home again, and pardoned of all to-
gether, if they would take them to their weapons, and
go to destroy the Waldois. The ministers and chief
rulers of the valleys of Lucerne and Angrogne, tliere-
upon assembled together oftentimes to take advice what
in such an extremity was best to be done. In the end
they determined, that for certain days following there
should be kept a general fast, and the Sunday after a
communion ; also, that they should not defend them-
selves by force of arms, but that every one should with-
draw himself to the high mountains, and every one to
carry away such goods as they were able to bear ; and if
their enemies pursued them thither, then to take such
advice and counsel as it pleased God to give them.
This article of not defending themselves seemed very
strange to the people, being driven to such an extre-
mity, and the cause being so just ; but yet every one be-
gan to carry their goods and victuals into the moun-
tains, and for the space of eight days all the ways were
filled with comers and goers to the mountains, like ants
in summer, which provide for winter. All this they did
in this great perplexity and danger, with a wonderful
courage and cheerfulness, praising of God, and singing
of psalms, and every one comforting another.
A few days after certain other ministers, hearing
what they of Angrogne and Lucerne had concluded,
wrote to them, that this resolution seemed very strange
to some, that they ought not to defend theniselvea
against the violence ol their enemies, alleging many rea-
sons, that in such extremity and necessity it was lawful
for them so to do, esjiecially the (juarrel being just, that
is, for the defence of true religion, and for the preserva-
tion of their own lives, and the lives of their wives and
children, knowing that it was the pope and his ministers
which were the cause of all these troubles and cruel wars,
A. D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
48a
and not the duke, who was stirred up thereunto only by
their instigations. Wherefore they might well and with
good conscience withstand such furious and outrageous
violence.
On the twenty-second of October the lord of Angrogne
went from Lucerne to Mondevis, where he was then
governor for the duke, and sent for the chief rulers of
Angrogne at several times, declaring the great perils and
dangers wherewith they were environed, the army being
already at hand ; yet promising them, if they would
submit themselves, he would send immediately to stay
the army. They of Augrcgne answered, that they all de-
termined to stand to that which they, two days before in
their assembly, had put in writing. With this answer
he seemed at that present to be content. The next day
the rumour was, that they of Angrogne had submitted
themselves to the duke. On the morrow, which was
Sunday, there was nothing but weeping aud mourning
in Angrogne. The serrnon being ended, the rulers were
called before the ministers and the people, who affirmed
that they wholly cleaved unto their former writing ; and
they sent secretly to the notary for the co])y of that which
was passed in the council-house at their last assembly
before the Lord de Comptes, in which was comprised,
that Angrogne had wholly submitted herself to the good
pleasure of the duke. The people hearing that, were
sore astonished, and protested rather to die than obey
the same. .\nd hereupon it was agreed, that at that
very instant certain should be sent to the lord of An-
grogne to signify to him, that the determination of the
council was falsified, and that it might })lease him the
next morning to come to Angrogne to hear the voice of
the people, not only of the men, but also of the women
and children. But he himself went not thither, having
intelligence of the uproar, but sent thither the judge of
that place. Then that which had been falsified was
duly corrected ; the judge laying all the blame upon the
notary.
During this time the adversaries cried out through all
the country of Piedmont : " To the tire with them, to
the fire with them !" The Thursday after, Angrogne, by
proclamations set up in every place, was exposed to the
fire and sword. On Friday after, being the second of
November, the army approached to the borders of the
valley of Lucerne, and certain horsemen came to a i)lace
called St. John, a little beneath Angrogne. Then the
people retired into the mountains. Certain of St. John
perceiving that the horsemen not only spoiled their
good.s, but also took their fellows prisoners, set upon
them. It is not certain what number of their enemies
were there slain ; but suddenly they retired to Bubiane,
where tiieir camp then was, and not one of them of St.
John was slain or hurt. It happened at the same time,
that two of the horsemen, being sore amazed, galloped
before ti^e rest towards the army, being ready to march
towards Angrogne, crying, "They come, they come!"
At whose cry the whole army was so astonished, that
every man fled his way, and they were all so scattered,
that the captains that day were not able to bring them
in order again, and yet no creature followed them.
On the Saturday in the morning the army mustered near
Angrogne. They of Angrogne had sent certain of their men
to keep the passes, and stop the army that they should
not enter, if it were possible. In the meantime the peo-
ple retired into the meadow of Toure, and little thought
of the coming of the army so soon, or that they would
have made such a sudden assault ; for they were yet car-
rying victuals and other stuff, so that few of them kept
the passes. Now they who kept the straits, perceiving
that their enemies prepared themselves to tight, fell
iown u])on their knees, and made their prayers to God,
that it would please him to take pity upon them, and not
to look upon their sins, but to the cause which they main-
tained, and to turn the hearts of their enemies, and so to
work, that there might be no effusion of blood ; and if it
were his will to take them, with their wives and infants
out of this world, that he would then mercifully receive
them into his kingdom. In this sort most fervent
prayers were made by all those that kept the passes,
with exhortation that they should all together cry unto
God, and crave his succour and assistance in this great
distress.
Their prayers thus ended, suddenly they perceived
their enemies coming towards them through the vines to
win the top of the mountain of Angrogne. In the
mean time the prior of St. John and Jacomel were
within the temjile of Angrogne, and communed with the
rulers touching an agreement. These were sent thither
by the lord of la Trinite to keep the people occu])ied. To
be short, the combat began in several places, and en-
dured for a long space in the passes of Angrogne.
The poor Waldois being but few in number, and some
of them having but slings and cross-bows, were sore
pressed by the multitude of their enemies. At length
they retired to the top of the mountain, where they de-
fended themselves rnitil night.
When they had found a place where they might with*
stand their enemies who were still pursuing them, they
turned themselves, and slew some of them, and v/ounded
many. When the evening came, their enemies rested,
and were about to encamp themselves, there to sup and
lodge all night. \\ Inch thing when the Angrognians
perceived, they went to ju-ayer, desiring God to as.sist and
succour them, but their enemies mocked them aud
laughed them to scorn. Then the poor i)ec)])le devised
to send a drum into a little valley hard by ; and as they
were making their prayers unto God, and the drum
sounded in the valley, tlie lord of la Trinite caused his
soldiers, which were about to encamp themselves, to
remove thence ; which was a great advantage to the
poor people, who now were sore wearied with travel, all
wet with sweating, and very thirsty, and in great peril
if God had not given them some little breathing time.
Many of their enemies that day were slain, and many
wounded, of which very few escaped ; so they reported
that the shot was poisoned, which this poor simple people
never used to do in all these wars. Of the Angrognians
that day there were but three slain, and one wounded,
who afterwards was healed again. This combat gave
great courage to the Waldois, and astonished their ad-
versaries. At the same time when the army retired, they
burnt many houses, and made great spoil as they went,
destroying also the wines which were in the presses.
The lord of la Trinite with his army encamped in a
village beyond Toure, at the foot of the hill, between
Angrogne and the other towns of the valley of Lu-
cerne, which professed the gospel. They of the said
village were always sore against the Waldois, and
haters of true religion, and were glad of this out-
rage and violence done against the possessors thereof:
but they had their just jjlague, for they were all destroyed.
After this the said lord of la Trinite caused the fortress to
be built again, which the Frenchmen had raised, and
placed there a garrison, and afterwards sent another to
tiie fort of Vilhirs, wiiich is of the valley of Lucerne ;
and another he sent to the fortress of Perouse, and a
fourth garrison he placed in the castle of St. Martin.
They of Angrogne (seeing themselves to be now, as it
were, in a sea of troubles) after they had recommended
themselves unto God by prayer, and committed their
cause unto him, sent to them of Perouse, St. Martin,
and of Pragela, for aid and succour ; who sent them all
the help tliey were able.
The next day there came letters to Angrogne from the
lord of la Trinite : the effect whereof was this ; that he
was sorry for what was done the day before, and that he
came not thither to make war against them, but only to
view if it were a place convenient to build a fort therein
to serve the duke. Furthermore, that his soldiers seeing
the people assembled, as it were to defy them, upon that
occasion only were stirred up to give assault, and to set
upon them. Also that he was sorry that such spoil was
made of their goods, and such hurt done by fire. But
if they would shew themselves obeditnt to the duke,
he had good hope that all would be well, and trusted
some good agreement would be made. The Angrog-
nians answered, that they were marvellously grieved to
be so assaulted, spoiled and tormented by the subjects
of their liege and natural prince : and as they had often-
times before ofl'ered themselves to be more obedient aud
490
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
[Book VII,
faithful to their sovereign prince the duke, than any of
all his subjects besides ; so yet they still offered the
same obedience. Also they most humbly besought him,
not to tiiink it strange if they, being constrained by
such extreme necessity, defended themselves. Finally,
as to their religion, they affirmed, that it was the pure
word of God, even as it was preached by the prophets
and apostles, and the same which their predecessors had
observed for some hundred years past. Moreover, that
the cause was not concerning tlie goods of this world,
but the honour and glory of God, the salvation or de-
struction of the souls both of them and theirs. And
therefore it were much better for them to die altogether,
than to forsake their religion. And yet if it might be
proved out of the word of God, that they were in error ;
not by force of arms, by blood and fire, they would then
yield themselves with all obedience ; most humbly be-
seeching him, and all others the lords of the country of
Piedmont, to be their intercessors and advocates to the
duke in this behalf.
Upon Monday, being the fourth day of November,
the lord of la Trinite sent his army to Miliars and Tail-
leret. The lesser company ascended towards Villars.
The people seeing their enemies approaching, after they
had called upon God with fervent prayer, strongly de-
fended themselves, and slew many : many also were
hurt, and the rest tied. The other company ascended
towards Tailleret ; and although they of that place were
but few in number, and that part of the army the greater,
yet making their prayers unto God, and commending their
cause unto him, they defended themselves likewise
valiantly.
In the meantime, they of Villars being emboldened
by their late victory, came to assist their neighbours, and
being assembled together, they courageously pursued
their enemies, and put them to flight. In tliis pursuit
it chanced that this poor people, by an ambush of their
enemies who came another way, were suddenly enclosed
on every side, and like to be destroyed ; but yet they
all escaped, and not one of them was slain, only three
were hurt, who were soon cured again. On the enemy's
side there were so many slain, that they were laid to-
gether by whole cart-loads. This was the reward of
those who were desirous to shed innocent blood.
After the lord of la Trinite had received the letters of
the Angrognians, he sent to them his secretary, ac-
companied with a gentleman of the valley ; whose
charge was to cause the chief rulers to send certain
to commune with him, saying, that he had good tidings
to declare to them ; and, moreover, that he would de-
liver them a safe conduct to come and go. Whereupon
they sent four to him, whom he intreated very courte-
ously, and rehearsed to them, how the duke at his de-
parture from the court, told him, that although the
pope, the princes and cities of Italy, yea, his own coun-
cil were fully resolved, that of necessity they of the said
religion should be destroyed, yet notwithstanding, God
otherwise put into his mind, and that he had taken
counsel of God what he should do in this matter ; that
is, that he would use them gently. Furthermore, he
declared to them, that the duchess bore them good af-
fection, and favoured them very much, and that she had
commended their cause to the duke, persuading him to
have regard to that poor people, and that their religion
was ancient and old, with many such other things.
" Moreover, they had," said he, "great friends in the
duke's court, not doubting but if they should send cer-
tain to the court with a supplication, they should obtain
more than they themselves would require ; and he for
his part would employ himself in their affairs to the
nttennost of his power : and so he ])romised that he
would retire himself with his army. This he seemed to
speak uufeignedly. The peojde desiring but to live
jiBaceably in their religion, and under obedience to
their lawful prince, were content to follow his counsel.
About this season they of Angrogne perceived that a
part of the army ascended the hiil of Tailleret, (which
is the half way between Angrogne and those of the
valley of Lucerne) and the other part had already got-
ten away, which led to the meadow of Toure, by which
they of Angrogne might easily have been enclosed.
Therefore they sent certain immediately to keep the way,
who soon after encountered with their enemies and ob-
tained the victory, pursuing and chasing them to their
camp, not without great loss of their men. The number
of their enemies slain, was not known ; for their custom
was immediately to carry away those who were slain.
Not one of Angrogne perished that day, nor yet was
hurt. It was feared that this combat would have hin-
dered the agreement; but the lord of la Trinite could well
dissemble the matter, and excustd the day's journey,
putting the fault upon them of Tailleret, whom he
charged to have slain certain of his men in the high-
way, and amongst others his barber.
On Saturday following, being the ninth of November,
the lord of la Trinite sent again for them of Angrogne,
to consult with them touching the agreement, using the
like communication as before ; and added thereunto,
that in token of true obedience they should carry their
armour into two of the houses of the chief rulers, not
fearing but that it should be safe ; for it should remain
in their own keeping, and if need were, they should
receive it again. Also, that he upon Sunday (which was
the next day) would cause a mass to be sung within the
temple of St. Lawrence in Angrogne, accompanied with
a very few, and thereby the duke's wrath would be as-
suaged.
The next morning he went into the temple (whereat
they were sore aggrieved, however they could not with-
stand him) his army marching before him : and having
caused a mass to be sung, he desired to see the meadow
of Toure, so much spoken of, that thereof he might
make a true report to the duke ; and thither the rulers
with a great troop of his own men went, the residue of
his company remaining behind. The lord being entered
into the meadow of Toure, the people began to make a
commotion ; whereof he having intelligence, returned
immediately. All that day he shewed himself very
courteous to all whom he met.
The people in the meantime perceived themselves to
be in great danger, and were moved at the sight of the
army, the spoil of the soldiers, the taking away of their
armour, but especially because the lord of la Trinite had
viewed the meadow of Toure, foreseeing his traitorous
meaning and purpose. A few days after the lord of la
Trinite sent his secretary Gastaut to Angrogne to talk
with them concerning the agreement, which was read ui
the assembly by the secretary as follows.
To the most excellent and worthy Prince, the duke of
Savoy, i^~c. our sovereign lord and natural Prince.
" Most noble and renowned prince, we have sent cer-
tain of our n:en unto your highness, to give testimony
of our humble, hearty, and vmfeigned obedience unto
the same, and with all submission desire pardon touch-
ing the bearing of armour by certain of our people in
their extreme necessity, and for all other our trespasses,
for the which your sovereign grace might conceive any
offence against us.
Secondly, to desire in most humble wise your said
highness, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it
would please the same, to suffer us to live with freedom
of conscience in our religion, which also is the religion
of our ancestors, observed for certain hundred years
past. And we are persuaded, that it is the pure gospel
of our Lord Jesus, the only truth, the word of life and
salvation, which we profess. Also, that it may please
your most gracious clemency not to take in ill part, if
we, fearing to otl'end and displease God, cannot consent
to certain traditions and ordinances of the church of
Rome, and herein to have jiity upon our poor souls, and
the souls of our children, to the end that your highness
be not in any wise charged in the just judgment of God
for the same, where all men must appear to answer for
their doings.
" On our jiart, we protest that we will seek nothing but
to be the true servants of God, to serve him according
to his holy word ; and also to be true and loyal subjects
to your highness, and moie obedient than any others,
being always ready to give our goods, our bodies, our
A. D. 1527-1500.]
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
491
lives, and the lives of our children, for your noble grace,
as also our religion teaches us to do : only we desire
that our souls may be left at liberty to serve God, ac-
cording to his holy word.
" And we j^our poor humble subjects shall most heartily
pray our God and Father for the good and long pros-
perity of your highness, for the most virtuous lady your
wife, and for the noble house of Savoy."
To this supplication they of St. John, of Roccapiata,
of St. Bartholomew, and of Perouse, with those of the
valley of Lucerne, agreed. For it was concluded, that
the agreement made should extend to all the confede-
rates of the same religion. While they were treating of
this agreement, the lord of la Trinite vexed cruelly them
of Tailleret under this pretence, because they had not
presented themselves to treat of this agreement : he
tormented them after this sort ; first he commanded that
all their armour should be brought before him, and then
they on their knees, should ask him pardon, because
they came not to treat of the agreement with the rest ;
which notwithstanding the most part of them did.
The next morning the chief of the householders went
to the village named Bouvet, the appointed place,
and when they had heard a sermon, and called upon
God, they began to write their names. The enrolling
of their names not being fully ended, word was brought
that the soldiers had got the top of the mountain, and
had taken all the passes ; whereat they of Tailleret
■were sore amazed, and ran with all speed to defend their
wives and children. Some they saved ; the most part,
with their goods, were in their enemies' hands already.
At this time with sacking, spoiling and burning, they
did much mischief.
After this the lord of la Trinite sent word to them who
were fled, that if they would return, he would receive
them to mercy. The poor people for the most part,
trusting on his promise, returned, and yet the next
morning the soldiers came to apprehend them and their
ministers, and beset the place on every side. Such
as were swift of foot, and could shift best, escaped.
The rest were all hurt or taken, and yet they all escaped
by a marvellous means : for it happened that there was
an old man who could not run fast, to whom one of the
soldiers came with a naked sword in his hand to have
slain him. The old man seeing the imminent danger,
caug'.t the soldier by the legs, overthrew him, and drew
him by the heels down the hill.
The soldier cried out, *' Help, help! this villain will
kill me.'' His fellows hearing him cry, made haste to
rescue him ; but in the mean time the old man escaped.
The rest seeing what the old man had done, took courage,
and though their armour and weapons were taken from
them, yet with stones and slings they so beat and dis-
comfited their enemies, that for that time they carried
no prisoners away.
The day following the soldiers returning to the said
Tailleret, robbed, spoiled, and carried away all that they
could find, and so continued three days together ; which
was very easy for them to do, because the poor men,
fearing lest they should be charged with violating the
agreement, made no resistance, but retired towards Villars.
The fourth day the lord of la Trinite, to torment the
poor Taillerets yet more cruelly, sent his army again be-
fore day to the mountain, and into the same place, and
because the people of the said village were retired to-
wards Villars, and scattered in the high mountains, the
soldiers not yet satisfied with spoiling and sacking the
rest that they found in the said Tailleret, ranging about
the confines thereof, sacked and made havoc on every
side of whatsoever they could lay hands on, taking
prisoners, both men and women.
The same day two women, the mother and the
daughter, were found in a cave in the mountain, wounded
to death by the soldiers, and died immediately after.
So likewise a blind man, a hundred years of age, who
had fled into a cave with his son's daughter, being
eighteen years old, who fed him, was slain by the ene-
n'.ie.-i, and as they pursued the maiden, she escaped from
them, and fell from tlie top of tlie mountain, and died.
Shortly after, this lord sent his army to the temple of
St. Lawrence in Angrogne, pretending to sing a mass
there, and suddenly the soldiers besieged the minister's
house. The minister being warned, assayed to escape.
The soldiers attempted nothing by force, but used gentle
persuasions to the contrary, for there were not yet many
of them. But the minister pushed on further, and the
soldiers followed him half a mile, but fearing the people,
durst go no further. The minister withdrew himself
into the rocks upon the mountain, accompanied with
five others. The army was by and by at his heels, and
sought a good while in the houses and cottages on every
side, cruelly handling the people whom they took, to
make them confess where their minister was, spoiling
their houses, taking some prisoners, and beating others :
but yet they could not learn of them where their mi-
nister was. At length they esjiied him among the
rocks, where they thought to have enclosed him, and
so they pursued him in the rocks, all covered with snow,
until it was night, and could not take him. Then they
returned and spoiled his house, and diligently searched
out all his books and writings, and carried them to the
lord of la Trinite in a sack, who caused them all to be
burnt in his presence. That day they spoiled forty
houses in Angrogne, broke their mills, and carried away
all the corn and meal that they found.
About midnight the soldiers returned with torch-light
to the minister's house to seek him, and searched every
corner. The next morning commandment was given to
the rulers of Angrogne, that within twenty-four hours
they should deliver their minister, or else Angrogne
should be put to fire and sword. The rulers answered,
that they could not so do, for they knew not where
he was, and that the soldiers had chased him over the
mountains. After certain days, when the soldiers had
burned houses, spoiled the people, broke their mills,
and did what mischief they could, the army retired.
The poor Waldois were in great captivity and distress,
but especially because they had not the preaching of
God's word among them as they were wont to have ; and
therefore taking to them good courage, they determined
to begin preaching again. The messengers which were
sent to the duke were detained six weeks, and all that
while were cruelly handled by the popish doctors, and
were constrained by force and violence to promise to re-
turn to the mass. Now, when the messengers were re-
turned, and the people understood that there was a nevr
command that they should return to the mass : also that
popish j)reachers were appointed, there was wonderful
lamentation, weeping, and mourning, for this great ca-
lamity.
Hereupon, they of the valley of Lucerne and of Bouvet,
being assembled together, by one assent sent two minis-
ters, with others of the people, to the churches of
Pragela, to signify to them the piteous estate of the poor
churches of the valleys of Piedmont, to have their
counsel and advice how to prevent the great dangers at
hand if it were possible. For this cause they all went
to prayer, and after they had long called upon God, de-
siring his grace, and the spirit of discretion and counsel,
well to consider of those weighty and urgent affairs
wherewith they were oppressed ; in the end it was con-
cluded, that all the people dwelling in the valleys and
mountains of Piedmont, and those of Dauphiny should
join in a league together. They all promised by God's
grace and assistance, to maintain the pure preaching of
the gospel, and administration of thfe holy sacraments ;
the one to aid and assist the other, and to render all
obedience to their superiors, so far as they were com-
manded by the word of God. Moreover, that it should
be lawful for none of the valleys to promise or conclude
any thing touching religion, without the consent of the
rest of the valleys. And for confirmation of the league,
certain of the ministers and elders of the churches of
Dauphiny were sent to the valley of Lucerne, to ascer-
tain if they would give their consent.
These messengers, being arrived in the evening at the
village of Bouvet, and the people being assembled, word
was brought that the next day every householder should
appear in the council-house, to know whether they would
492
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
[Book VII.
return to the mass or no ; and that they who would re-
ceive the mass, should quietly enjoy their houses ; and
they who would not, should be delivered to the justices,
and condemned to be burned, or sent to the galleys.
The people were brought to this extremity, either to
die or flee, or else to renounce God. To flee seemed to
them best, if the great snow had not prevented them ;
therefore seeing themselves iti such distress, they gladly
consented to the league. After this, they exhorted one
another, saying, " As we shall all be called upon to-mor-
row to renounce and forsake our God, and revolt again to
idolatry, let us now make solemn protestation, that we will
utterly forsake the false religion of the pojie, and that we
will live and die in the maintenance and confession of
God's holy word. Let us all go to-morrow to the
temple, to hear the word of God, and then let us cast
down to the ground all the idols and altars." To this
every man agreed, saying, " Let us do so, yea, and
that too at the very same hour in which they have ap-
pointed us to be at the council-house."
The next day they assembled themselves in the church
of Bouvet, and as soon as they came into the temple,
without any further delay, they beat down the images
and east down the altars. After the sermon they went
to Villars to do the like there. By the way they en-
countered a band of soldiers, who were going to spoil a
village named Le Valle Guichard, and to take the poor
inhabitants prisoners. The soldiers, seeing them so ill
appointed, mocked them, and discharged their pistols at
them, thinking to have jnit them to flight. But they
valiantly defended themselves, and with stones chased
them to the fortress. When they came to Villars, they
beat down their images and altars, and afterwards be-
sieged the fortress, and demanded the prisoners who
were detained there.
The same day the judge of Lucerne, called Podesta,
went to the council-house, to enroll the names of those
who would return to the mass ; but seeing what was
done, he was afraid, and desired the people to suffer him
to return quietly, which they willingly granted. Several
gentlemen also of the valley came thither with the judge,
to make their poor tenants forsake God ; but seeing the
tumult, they were glad to flee to the castle, where they
and the garrison were besieged ten days together, not
without great danger of their lives. The second day of
the siege, the captain of Toure went with a company of
soldiers to raise the siege ; but they were either slain or
discomfited. As much was done the third day. The
fourth day he returned with three bands, and with the
garrison of Toure, which caused a furious combat ; many
of their enemies were slain, and a great number wounded,
and yet of those who besieged the fort there was not one
man hurt.
In the time of this siege they attempted by various means
to take tlie fortress, but without ordnance it was impos-
sible to do so. The lord of la Triuite, returning with his
army, came to the valley of Lucerne, and tl)e next
day might easily have raised the siege. Wherefore when
the garrison, not knovi'ing that the lord of la Trinite was
so near, desired that they might dejiart with bag and
baggage, which recjuest was granted. In this siege
half of the soldiers were slain, and many were wounded,
as well with harquebusses as with stones, and the
soldiers for lack of water were constrained to make
their bread with wine, which tormented their stomachs,
and caused great diseases. Here is not to be forgotten,
that the soldiers who a while before so cruelly persecuted
the poor ministers, seeking by all possible means to de-
stroy them, now beseeched them to save their lives.
The same night the fortress was razed.
The second day of February the lord of la Trinite en-
camped at Lucerne, and placed a garrison in the priory
of St. John, a village of the Waldois between Lucerne
and Angrogne. The next day in the morning the said
lord of la Trinite sent word to them of Angrogne, that if
they would not take part with the rest, they should be
gently handled. All the week before they were solicited
by him to consent to the same, but they would give no
answer. The same day they of Angrogne, and the rest
of the valleys, fully agreed and determined to defend their
i religion by force, and that the one should aid the other,
and no agreement be made by any one without the consent
of the rest. About noon the lord of la Trinite marched
with his army by St. John, to enter into the borders of
Angrogne by a place called La Sonnilette, wliere they
had fought before. The people had made certain bul-
warks of earth and stone, not more than three feet high,
wlure they defended themselves valiantly against their
enemies. When the enemy were so weary that tliey cotdd
figiit no longer, they put fresh soldiers into their places,
so that the combat endured till night, and all that day
the army could not enter the borders of Angrf^gne. Manv
of the enemy were slain, and a great many hurt ; and but
two men of Angrogne were slain, of whom one was slain
by his own folly, because he was too greedy upon the
spoil. The army, being beaten and tired, rested awhile.
The following Friday, which was the seventh of Febru-
ary, at the break of day, the army marched towards An-
grogne by five several places. Tlie people of Angrogne
were not yet asseml)led, and there were none to resist, but
only a few who kept watch, who seeing their enemies
coming upon them in so many places, and perceiving
that they went about to enclose them, after they had va-
liantly fought for a space, recoiled by little and little to
a high place where the combat was renewed with greater
fierceness than before. But the lord of la Trinite seeing
the loss of his men, and above all, that one of great
credit and autliority in the duke's court was wounded to
death, blew a retreat, and descended to Angrogne, and
there destroyed and burnt all the wines, victuals, and
the rest of the goods that he could find ; so that in a
short space he had burnt about a thousand houses of
Angrogne.
Toure is a little valley upon the borders of Angrogne,
environed about with mountains two miles in length, but
very narrow. On both sides, and in the midst thereof,
there are about two hundred small houses and cottages ;
also meadows, pastures for cattle, ground for tillage,
trees, and goodly fountains. On the south side and oa
the north the mountains are so high, that no man can
that way approach the valley. On the otlier sides, a man
may enter by seven or eight ways. This place is not
more than two miles from Angrogne ; the way is very
narrow and hard to pass, because of the hills on both
sides. There is also a river close by, but very small, and
the banks are very high in many places. The jjeojile had
carried there very few victuals, partly because the way
was so difficult, and also through the sudden return of
the army.
In the meantime the lord of la Trinite, after he had now
twice assaulted Angrogne, sent to burn Rosa, and to
discover the ways which led to the valley of Lucerne ;
but tlie soldiers were driven back four days together by
those who kt]it the passes. Upon which he sent his whole
army, whom they valiantly withstood from morning till
night. Then they of Lucerne sent new aid. During
this combat, an ambuscade of soldiers descended froni
the top of the mountain, by a place so hard to pass by,
that no man would have suspected it. The poor jieople,
seeing themselves so environed by their enemies, saved
themselves, some running through the midst of their
enemies, and others among the rocks.
The enemy being entered into Rosa, consumed all
with fire and sword. The rest of the people fled by tlie
secret way leading to the valley of Lucerne, and wan-
dered all that night upon the mountains full of snow,
laden with their stuff, carrying tluir little infants in their
arms, anil leading the others by the hands. When tiiey
of the valley saw them, they ran to them, praising Gjd
for their deliverance, for they thought they had all been
slain. Although these poor peo])le were here in such
great extremity, yet they were joyful, and comforted
themselves, witliout any lamentation or mourning, except
the poor little infants who cried out for cold.
A few days after the lord of la Trinite entered into the
valley of Lucerne by three ways, that is to say, by Rosa,
by the jilains, and by the sides of Tailleret. They who
kept the passes, at first resisted their enemies valiantly,
but perceiving that they were assailed on every side, they
retired to Villars, and there defended themselves awhile.
A.D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTiOls (;F Ti iK WALDENSES.
-ti)3
But because they saw that their enemies had already
passed the plain, and got above Villars towards Bouvet,
they gave over, and left Villars, and fled to the moun-
tains The soldiers being entered, burned the houses,
nnd slew all that they could find. The poor people who
were tied into the mountains, seeing the village on fire,
praised God, and gave him thanks, that he had made them
worthy to suffer for his name, and for his cause; and
also they were glad to see the village on fire, lest their
enemies should encamp themselves there. Then the
soldiers in great rage mounted the hills on every side,
pursuing the poor people in great fury ; but a few of them,
after they had ardently called upon God, took courage,
and beat back their enemies to Villars. This done, the
army retired.
A few days after, the meadow of Toure was assaulted
by three several ways on the east side. The combat
endured a long time, many of the enemy were wounded,
and many slain. But none of this jioor peojile were
slain on tliat day, only two were wounded, who were
soon healed again. But to declare the conflicts, assaults,
skirmishes, and alarms, which were at Angrogne and
other places thereabouts, were too long ; for brevity's
sake it shall be sufficient to touch upon the most principal,
and those which are most worthy of memory.
On Saturday, which was the 14th day of February,
the people who were in the uppermost part of the mea-
dow of Toure, perceived that a company of soldiers
were ascended up tlie hill to Angrogne, and burning the
rest of the houses there : they suspected that it was the
policy of their enemies to draw them there, and in the
meantime to set on them from behind, and so to win the
meadow of Toure from them. Therefore they sent only
six harquebusses against those soldiers ; who having the
higher ground, and not espied of their enemies, dis-
charged all their guns together. Immediately the sol-
diers fled, although no man j)ursued them ; whether they
fled frcm policy, or for fear, it was not known.
Shortly after they of the meadow of Toure, who
were on the watch on the top of the mountain, because
every morning there was a sermon made, to which the
people resorted, and they could see afar off round about
them, espied a troop of soldiers marching on that side
of the hill which is between the east and the north, and
soon after that discovered another cornpaay, who marched
on the north side towards the troop. The first were
ascended an hour before the other, and fought on the
top of the mountain called Melese, but they were goon
discomfited ; and because they could not run fast by
means of the deep snow, and difficulty of the ways, in
flying they fell down often upon the ground. ^Vhilst
they who pursued them were earnest in the chase, and
had taken from them their drum, behold, there came to
them some crying out, that the other troop was en-
tered into the meadow of Toure, so they gave over the
chase, or else not one of their enemies had escaped.
The other troop which came by the north side, took a
high hill on the top of the mountain, which seemed to be
almost inaccessible from the snow and ice which was
there. When they were come to the top of the hill, they
caused seven soldiers to go down the hill and to view the
way, and to see whether the troop might descend that
way or not. These seven went down almost to the
houses. They sent also others to occupy the rest of tlie
high places which were ntar to the foot of the hill and
the rocks. In the meantime the ministers and the peo-
ple, who were in the midst of the valley of the meadow,
saw all this, and were much discouraged ; so they went
to prayer, and called upon God ardently, not without
great sighs, lamentation and tears even until night.
The seven spies who came down to discover the way
cried to their captain Truchet " Come down, come down,
this day Angrogne shall be taken.'' The other cried to
them again, " Ascend, ascend, and return, or else you
shall be slain every one of you." Immediately issued
out five against these spies, and took some and ch ised
the rest. The first of the five v/ho set upon them, cast
4wo of them down upon the ground. Soon after, eight
men of Angrogne issued out against the whole troop,
and it was wonderful to see them go wich such courage
and boldness to assail such a multitude, and it seemed
that they should have been ail destroyed nnd hewu in
pieces. The first of the eight went a good xny before
the otliers to discover the enemies, and carried a great
staff somewhat bigger than an halhert ; the other follow-
ed by two and two together, with harquebusses. These
eight went from rock to rock, from hill to hill a!, out the
mountain, and chased their enemies valiantly. Then
came twelve others, who, joining with the rest, fought
with wonderful courage, and made great sla\ighter
of their enemies. Soon after there came from the vallty
of Lucerne an hundred harquebusses, with one of their
ministers, according to their manner, who were wont to
send out a minister with them as well for ])rayer and
exhortation as to keep the people in order, that they
exceed not measure, as it came to pass that day.
At length they saw them also coming, who returned
from the discomfiture of the former troop, making a great
noise, and having a drum sounding before them, which
they had taken from their enemies ; they joined with
them of the valley of Lucerne, and having made their
earnest prayer to God, immediately came to succour the
others that now were encountering valiantly the enemy.
Then the enemy seeing such a company marching against
them, with such courage and boldness, their heart.s were
so taken from them, that they suddenly fled. But as
they could not well save themselves by running away,
they tuined back twice and fought, and some in the
meantime fled.
He that carried the staff, and discovered the enemy,
was but a very young and simple man, and was esteemed
to be one that could do nothing but handle a hatchet,
and keep cattle ; and yet he, with those that followed,
so discomfited the enemy, that it was wonderful to be-
hold. He brake his great staff with laying upon them,
and after that broke four of their own swords in pursuing
them. There was a boy of eighteen years of age, and of
small stature, who slew the lord of Monteil, master of
the camp to the king ; at which the enemy was astonished
and discouraged. Another simple man, who one would
have thought durst not once have looked Truchet in the
face, for he was a very large man, strong and valiant,
and one of the chief captains of the whole army, threw
down Truchet wifh the stroke of a stone. Then a young
man leaped ujion him, a.ud slew him with his own sword,
and cleft his heiiA in pieces.
This Trach.tt was one of the principal authors of the
war, and one of the chief enemies of true religion, and
of the poor Waldois, that could then be found. It ^\as
said also, that he vaunted and promised before hand to the
lord of la Trinite, that he would dehver into his hands
the meadow of Toure. But God soon brought his proud
boasting to nought. And for his spoiling of the poor
j)eople, he lay spoiled and naked in the wild mountain
of Angrogne. Two of the chief among them offered
to pay a great sum of crowns for their ransom, but they
could not be heard. They were pursued more than a
mile, and were so discomfited, that they fled without any
resistance, and if the night had not hindered them,
they had pursued them further.
"The minister, when he saw the great effusion of
blood, and the enemy retreating, cried to the people,
saying, that it was enough, and exhorted them to give
thanks to God. They who heard him obeyed, and went
to ])rayer ; but they who were further off, and heard him
not, cliased the enemy till dark ; insomuch, that if the
rest had done the like, very few of their enemies had
escaped. That day they had spoiled their enemies of
a great part of their armour and ammunition. So God
restoied in this combat, and in others, to the poor Wal-
dois the armour which the lord of la Trinite had taken
from them before. Tiianks weie given to God in every
}ilace ; and every man cried, " Who is he who sees not
that God fighteth for us ?" This victory gave great cou-
rage to the poor Waldois, and greatly astonished theii
enemies.
On the eighteenth of February, the lord of la Trinite,
not satisfied with burning and destroying the greatest part
of Villars, returned to burn all the little villages round
about which appertain to the same, and especially to
494
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
[Book VIT
pursue the poor people who had fled to the mountains,
and dividing his army into three parts, he entered by
three several ways. The two first companies joined to-
gether between Villars and Bouvet, and having a great
company of horsemen. From thence they went to seek the
people who were in the mountain of Combe, by such a
way as they did not expect, and where there were no
warders to defend the place. Notwithstanding, the
warders who were next, seeing their enemies ascending
that way, speedily ran before them, and calling upon
God for his aid and succour, they set themselves against
their enemies ; and although they were but thirty in
number, yet they valiantly beat them back twice,
coming out of their bulwarks, that is to say, certain
houses which at that time served them for that purpose.
Many of the enemies were slain at those two combats.
The lord of la Trinite, seeing his men so fiercely driven
back, sent out the greatest part of his army, who were
esteemed to be fifteen hundred men. There came also
about an hundred to succour the warders. The combat
was very cruel and fierce. At length the poor people
were assaulted so vehemently, that they were fain to
forsake their bulwarks, losing two of their men. Then
the enemy thouglit all to be theirs, and blew their
trumpets, triumphing that they had put the people to
flight. But the people retiring not farther than a stone's
cast, took courage, and crying altogether to the Lord for
succour, they turned themselves to the face of their
enemies, and with great force and power they hurled
stones at them with their slings.
After this their enemies rested themselves a while,
and by and by they gave a furious assault, but -yet they
were again mightily resisted. Yet once again their
enemies rested, and in the meantime the people went to
prayer, calling upon God altogether, with their faces
lifted up towards heaven, which terrified their enemies
more than any thing else. After this they gave yet an-
otlier great assault, but God by the hands of a few drove
them back. Yea, God here shewed his great power,
even in the little children also, who fervently called
upon God, threw stones at their enemies, and gave
courage to the men. So did also the women, and the
vulgar sort, that is to say, those who were meet for no
feats of war, remaining upon the mountain ; and be-
holding these furious combats, kneeled upon the ground,
and having their faces lifted up towards heaven, with
tears and groanings they cried •' Lord help us !" Who
heard their prayers.
After these three assaults were given, there came one
to them crying, "Be of good courage, God hath sent
those of Angrogne to succour us." He meant, that_
they of Angrogne were fighting for them in another
place, that is to say, towards Tailleret, where the third
part of the army was. The people perceiving that they
of Angrogne were come to that place to succour them,
began to cry, " Blessed be God, who hath sent us suc-
cour : they of Angrogne are to succour us." Their
enemies hearing this were astonished, and suddenly
blew a retreat, and retired into the plain.
That troop which was gone towards Tailleret, divided
themselves into three companies. The first marched by
the side of the mountain, burning many houses, and
joined with the main army. The second company,
amounting to seven score, marched higher, thinking to
take the people unawares. But they were strongly re-
sisted by seven men and driven back. The third com-
pany attained the top of the mountain, thinking to in-
close the people ; but as God would, they of Angrogne,
who came to succour them, encountered them, and put
them to flight.
They of Villars, of whom mention is made before,
after they had refreshed themselves with a little bread
and wine (for the most part of them had eaten nothing
all that day)chascd their enemies till it was almost night,
so fiercely, that the master of the camp was obliged to send
to tlie lord of la Trinite, who was at Toure, for succour,
or else all would have been lost. Which he did ; and im-
mediately he rode with all speed to Lucerne to save him-
self, hearing the alarm which was given at St. John by
those of Angrogue, and fearing lest the way should have
been stopped. The army retired with great difficulty,
notwithstanding the new aid which was sent them, and
with great loss of men.
On Monday, being the 17th of March following, the
lord of la Trinite, to be revenged of ihote of the meadow
of Toure, assembled all the force that he could make
with the gentlemen of the country. So that whereas
before his army was commonly but four thousand, it was
now between six and seven thousand : and secretly in
tlie night he encamped with part of his army in the
midst of Angrogne, from whence the poor inhabitants
were fled. The next morning, after the sermon and
prayers were ended, they perceived the other j)art of the
army encamped at the foot of the mountain of Angrogne
on the east side. Soon after they perceived how both
parts of the army coasted the hill's side, one towards the
other, being such a multitude, so glittering in their
harness, and marching in such array, that the poor
peoi)le at first were astonished. Notwithstanding, the
assembly fell down upon their knees three or four times,
crying, "Help us, O Lord," beseeching him to have
regard to the glory of his holy name, to stay the efi"usion
of blood, if it were his good pleasure, and to turn the
hearts of their enemies to the truth of his holy gospel.
These two parts of the army joined together near to the
bulwarks of the meadow of Toure, and gave the assault
in three several places. One of the bands mounted
secretly by the rocks, thinking to have inclosed the peo-
ple in their bulwarks. But as soon as they who kept
the bulwark Vjelow had espied them, they forsook the
place, and marched straight towards them ; and as they
marched, they met with the aid which was sent to them
from the valley of Ijucerne, very luckily, and coming as
it were from heaven : who joining together, soon dis-
comfited tlieir enemies with stones and musketry. They
pursued them fiercely in the rocks, and vexed them
wonderfully, because the rocks are so steep that no man
can ascend or descend without great pain and difliculty.
There was also another band which kept the top of the
hill, to assault the bulwarks from thence. The middle-
most bulwark was then assaulted, in which were very
few to defend it : they, seeing the number of their ene-
mies, retired, leaving only five to defend it. There was
a huge rock not far from the bulwark ; behind it a great
number of the enemy were hid. And shortly there
issued out two ensigns, assuring themselves to win the
bulwark ; but immediately one of their ensign-bearers
was wounded to death. Whereupon many fell back ;
the otlier set up his ensign upon the bulwark. They
wlio were within had neither halbert, nor any other
long weapon, but only one pike, without any iron ; which
one of the five took, and threw down the ensign, and
manfully beat back the scalers, and threw them down to
the ground. Some of the enemy had entered into the
bulwark by a door below, and slew one of the five who
kept the middle part of the bulwark. The other four
expected to be destroyed at once. Then one of the four
chased away those who had entered below, with stones ;
and the other three leaving their pistols, defended them-
selves likewise with great stones : and perceiving the
band who were on the rocks to flee, they took courage,
and withstood their enemies valiantly till their com-
panions were returned from the chase.
In the mean time the bulwark which was upon the
side of the mountain, was furiously assailed by one-half
of the army. Those that were within, suff"ered their
enemies to approach near to the bulwark, without any
gunshot or other defence : at which the enemy much
marvelled : but when they were at hand, they fell upon
them, some with throwing stones, others with rolling
down mighty stones, and some with musketry. There
was a huge stone rolled down, which passed tliroughout
the whole army, and slew many. The soldiers at that
time had won a little cottage near the bulwark, which
did much hurt to the poor men. But among them one
devised to roll down a great huge stone against the cot-
tage, which so shook it, and amazed the soldiers, -that
they thought they had been all destroyed, and they fled,
and never would enter it again.
Then the soldiers made fences of wood, five feet long,
//
iailing bofoit % great Stone.
Page 494.
A.D. 1527— 15C0.]
PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES.
495
three feet broad, and of the thickness of three boards :
but they were so sore vexed with the shot of the nius^
ketry, that they were obliged to lay all those fences aside.
The miners also made other defences of earth for the
soldiers. But all the skill of the enemy availed them
nothing : for the slaughter was so great, that in some
places you might have seen three lying dead one upon
another. The shot of a musket came so near the lord of
la Trinite's head, that it broke a wand which he bore in
his hand, and made him to retire six score paces ; and
seeing his soldiers in such great numbers murdered and
wounded on every side, he wept bitterly. Then he re-
tired. That day he thought assuredly to have entered
into the meadow of Toure. Moreover, he was deter-
mined, if that day's journey had not succeeded, to en-
camp thereby, and the next morning very early to re-
new the assault. Many gentlemen and others came
there to see the discomfiture of the poor Waldois : and
likewise those of the plain looked for nothing, but to
hear the piteous ruin and desolation of this poor jieople.
But God disposed it otherwise, for the lord of Tiinity
had much ado to save himself and his : and seeing the
mischief which they intended to do to others was fallen
now upon their own heads, they were wonderfully asto-
nished. They of the plain also, when they saw the
number of dead bodies and the wounded to be so great
(for from noon until the evening they ceased not to carry
them away) were likewise exceedingly dismayed.
Many marvelled why the people did not follow the
army, but especially the soldiers, seeing the great dis-
comfiture which they had done, and that they had gotten
such advantage of them already ; but this was done for
two causes. The one was, because they had already de-
termined not to follow the army wl en once it retired, to
avoid the effusion of blood, meaning only to defend
themselves. The other cause was, that they were
weary, and had spent all their ammunition : for many of
them had shot off about thirty times, and none of them
under twenty.
The next day one of the principal captains of the
army surrendered his charge to the lord of la Trinite,
saying to him, that he would never figiit against this
people any more ; and upon that he departed. It is a
marvellous thing, and worthy of perpetual memory, that
in that combat there were but two of the Waldois slain,
and two wounded. Through the whole country of
Piedmont, every man said, God fights for them. One
of the captains confessed, that he had been at many fierce
assaults and combats, and sundry well fought battles,
but he had never seen soldiers so faint-hearted and
amazed : yea, the soldiers themselves told him, they
were so astonished, that they could not strike. They
said, that this people never shot, but they wounded or
killed some of the soldiers. Others said, that the mi-
nisters by their prayers conjured and bewitched them,
that they could not fight : and indeed wonderful is it,
marvellous are the judgments of God, that notwith-
standing so many combats and conflicts, so great as-
saults and adventures, so much and so terrible shot,
continually made against this poor people, yet all in a
manner came to no effect : so mightily God's holy power
wrought for his people. Insomuch that, for all the
combats, skirmishes, and so many conflicts of the An-
grognians there were but nine only that failed, and the
■whole number of those that were slain amounted only to
fourteen persons.
The lord of la Trinite sent two gentlemen of the valley
of Lucerne to them of Angrogne, to ask them if they
would come to any agreement. To whom answer was
made, that they would stand to their first answer. From
that time he sent very often to treat of the agreement :
but what his meaning was might well appear. For
■when the poor people hoped for some agreement, they
were most furiously assaulted. Upon this there was a
day assigned in the valley of Lucerne, to confer touching
the agreement with certain men belonging to the lord of
Raconig, and a safe conduct was promised and granted.
The night before the ministers and rulers of Angrogne
were to take their journey, they perceived a company of
toldiers going up a hill, by which the people of Angrogne
should pass, and hid themselves in houses on the way side,
thinking to take them of Angrogne unawares, who were
sent to treat of the agreement. But they, having intel-
ligence of this conspiracy, watched and guarded. It was
an easy matter, as some thought, that night to have
taken the lord of la Trinite, and to have spoiled his whole
camp. But they of Angrogne and Lucerne would not
execute this enterprise, lest thereby they should offend
God, and pass the bounds of their vocation, taking upon
them no more than to defend themselves.
At that time a pitiful case happened in the meadow of
Toure. The lord of Raconig, seeming to be sorry for
this war, sent into the meadow of Toure an honest man,
Francis of Gilles, to consult what means were best to
further the agreement, who, after conferring with the
ministers and rulers, returned homeward that day ac-
cording to his master's command, and having sent back «
one who conducted him, was murdered soon after at the
foot of Angrogne, by two men of Angrogne, who otherwise
seemed to be honest, and of good parentage. Soon after,
one of the two who had committed this act, entered into
the meadow of Toure, and was immediately apprehended
and bound. lie confessed the deed without any further
delay. Immediately the other also was taken.
The Waldois were marvellously troubled and grieved
with this act, and wrote to the lord of Raconig, declaring
to him the whole circumstance, that they had the of-
fenders in ward, and that if it would please him to send
some to examine the matter, they for their part would
so execute justice in the punishment of them, that their
innocence to all men should appear. The lord of Ra-
conig wrote to them that they should deliver to him the
offenders, and that he would do such justice upon them
as the case required. To which they of Angrogne an-
swered, that upon three conditions they should be deli-
vered according to bis request. First, that the prisoners
should be compelled to do nothing against their consci-
ences ; and as toiiching religion, nothing should be
spoken to them, but out of the word of God. Secondly,
that speedy and sharp justice should be executed upon
them ; and that hereafter this should be no prejudice to
the liberties and privileges of the people of Angrogne.
The third, that the execution of them should be upon
the borders of Angrogne, for an example to all others.
This being accorded with one assent (yea, without con-
tradiction of thcii- yarents"), they sent them prisoners,
accompanied with sixty gunners, to the confines of Lu-
cerne, and there delivered them into the hands of the
lord of Raconig. This redounded to the great commen-
dation of the people of Angrogne.
After this, the lord of la Trinite, having left garrisons
about Angrogne, and the valley of Lucerne, went to
Perouse, near the valley of St. Martin, to succour the
garrison there, being in great danger, and remained there
a month. During which time, they of Angrogne, and
the valley of Lucerne, lived in more quietness than be-
fore ; but yet they were much afflicted, by reason of the
scarcity of victuals which sore pressed them, and those
of the meadow of Toure, for they were spoiled of their
victuals. This poor people lived on milk and herbs, hav-
ing very little bread. But afterwards, when they were
like to be famished, God of his goodness sent them bet-
ter succour, both of corn and bread than they had be-
fore. Their enemies thought to have taken the meadow
of Toure by famine ; for they took away the victuals that
were to be had in all places round about. Every house-
hold was suffered to have no more than should sustain
them that day, and that also was very little, that they
should not succour this poor people.
Afterwards, the lord of la "Trinite, being returned from
Perouse to Lucerne, sent some to treat of an agreement,
and required to commune with some of the people. Then
they began to consult and devise by all means how they
might come to some good agreement. But on Monday,
the 17th of April, by break of day, he sent certain bands
of Spaniards, which he had there, with the garrison of
Toure, to the mountain of Tailleret, by the way which
leadeth to the meadow of Toure, on the south side. They
murdered themen, women, andchildren of Tailleret whom
they found in their beds. Then they marched on along
496
THE WALDOIS PETITION THE DUCHESS OF SAVOY.
[Book VII.
upon the mountain, towardsthe meadow of Toure. Shortly
after, the people perceived two other companies of sol-
diers, marchiti'^byAngrogne by two several ways, to assault
the meadow of Toure. In tlie morning as soon as they
rose, they blew their horns, for they saw them already
entered. When they had ollered their prayers, every
man ran to meet the enemy, some on the east side, and
others on the south. They who first resisted the enemy
(who were already past the bulwarks), were in the begin-
ning but twelve gunners, and a few others whom they
caused to go up the hill, and roll down great stones.
These twidve, having found a fit place for their purpose
to stay the enemy, began to shoot at them. They, seeing
themselves so assaulted both above and beneatii, and
the pl^ce so narrow and strait, turned back, and retired
as fast as they could by the same way by which they
»came. If they had tarried a little longer, they had been
enclosed between the two mountains, for the place was
so narrow, that they could not have escaped. The
people chased them to their camp, which was at Toure.
Within a few days after, the people of Angrogne were
advertised by the lord of la Trinite's letters, that he fully
determined to cut down their trees and vines, and de-
stroy their corn on the ground : and that two forts
should be built at Angrogne. The day was assigned, and
horsemen appointed, with all speed to execute this mis-
chievous enterprise. The poor people tliought that they
should be assailed as sore as ever, and have to fight as
hard as ever they did before. But (iod prevented this
cruel attempt ; for the night before that this was intended
to be executed, the lord of la Trinite received letters
from the duke, which stopped this enterprise. They of
the meadow of Toure being advertised that the lord of la
Trinite now intended to send ordnance to beat down the
bulwarks which were made of stones, they made a bul-
wark of earth, which was in compass about five hundred
paces, which they might easily see from Lucerne. They
in the meadow of Toure told the lord of la Trinite's men,
that if they brought any artillery, they should not so
soon carry it away again ; and shortly after the ordnance
was sent back.
About this time, the chief rulers and ministers of the
Waldois earnestly requested the lord of Raconig to pre-
sent a supplication which they had made to the duchess
of Savoy, for they had intelligence that she was dis-
pleased that her subjects were so cruelly treated. In
ivhich supplication they declared the equity of their
cause, protesting all due obedience to the duke, their
Bovereicri lord, and if it might be proved by the pure
word of 'jfod that they held any error, they would with all
humble submission receive correction, and be reformed,
hamb'r beseeching her grace to appease the displeasure
which the duke had conceived against them, by the un-
true S'irmises of their adversaries ; and if there were any
thing wherein they had oifended him, they most humbly
craved his gracious pardon.
About the same time the lord of la Trinite, by sickness,
was in great danger of his life. Soon after the supplica-
tion was delivered the duchess sent an answer to the
Waldois, by the lord of Raconig. The etfect thereof was,
that she had obtained of his grace, the duke, all that
they demanded in their supplication, upon such condi-
tions as the lord of Raconig would propose to them.
But when they understood that the conditions were very
rigorous, they sent another supplication to the duchess,
in which they humbly besought her grace to interpose in
their behalf, that the conditions and articles might be
moderated. The articles here follow : —
1. Tliat they should banish their ministers.
2. That they should receive the mass, and other cere-
monies of the Romish church.
3. That they should pay a ransom to the soldiers for
some of their men whom they had taken.
4. That they should assemble and preach no more as
they were used to do.
5. That the duke would make fortresses at his plea-
sure in all that country, with other like things.
The people made humble request in this their last sup-
plication, that it would please the duchess to give the
duke, her husband, to understand how that these condi-
tions were strange and rigorous. And as for their parts,
although they had good trial of their ministers, that they
were good men, and fearing God, of sound doctrine, of
good life, and honest conversation ; yet, nevertherless,
they were contented to do so, if he would give leave to
some of them to remain ; requesting this, that it might
be permitted to them to choose some other good minis-
ters in their places, before they departed, lest their
churches should remain without pastors.
Concerning the mass and other ceremonies of t!ie
church of Rome, if the duke should cause them to be
ministered in their parishes, they neither would nor
could withstand the same, and for their part, they would
do no injury or violence to those that should minister
tbem, or be present at them ; notwithstanding they be-
sought him, that they might not be constrained to be
present themselves at the ministration of them, or to
pay any thing to the maintenance of them, or to yield
either countenance or consent to them.
As to the ransom which was demanded of them for
their prisoners, considering the extreme jjoverty that
tliey were in, and the great calamities and damages
which they had suffered, it was to them a thing imjiossi-
ble. Yea, if his highness were truly informed what loss
they had sustained by burning, spoiling, and sacking of
their houses and goods, without either mercy or jiity, he
would not only not require of them any such thing, but as a
gracious and merciful prince, he would succour and s\ip-
port them, that they miglit be able to maintain their
poor families, whom they nourished (as they were I;ouiid
to do) to the service of God, and of their lord and prince;
and therefore they desired that it might please him, that
their poor brethren remaining in captivity and prison,
and such as were sent to the galleys for the profession of
their religion, might speedily be delivered and set at
liberty.
As for their assemblies and preachings, they were con-
tented that they should be kept only among themselves,
in their accustomed phices, and in other valleys where
any assembly of the faithful might be, who were desirous
to hear the preaching of the gospel.
Touching the fortresses, forasmuch as by those that
were already made, they had suffered great molestation
and trouble, as well as concerning their goods, as also
their religion ; they were assured that if he did build
up new forts, they would never be able to bear the
troubles, miseries, and calamities that would follow ; and
therefore they most humbly desired the duchess to be
so good and gracious to them, as to obtain of the duke,
that he would accept their persons in the stead of forts ;
and that, seeing those places were by nature and of
themselves strong and well fortified, it might please their
lord the duke to receive them into his protection and
safeguard ; and by the grace and assistance of God they
would serve him themselves for such walls and forts, that
he should not need to build any other. And bec-ause
many of those who dwelt near about them had robbed
and spoiled them, not only of their household goods and
such other things, but also driven away their cattle ; that
it might please him to give them leave to recover the
goods by way of justice, and to buy again that which
the soldiers had sold, and that for the same price for
which it was sold.
Briefly, they also besought their lord, that it might
please him to be so gracious to them, as to grant them a
confirmation of all their franchises, immunities, and pri-
vileges, as well general as particular, given to them as
well by him as by his predecessors ; and likewise of tiiose
which as well they as their ancestors had bought of their
lords, and to receive them, as his most humble and obe-
dient subjects, into his protection and safeguard.
And because in time past, instead of good and speedy
justice, all iniquity was committed by those that had the
administration of justice in their valleys, and as their
purses were emptied and punished rather than the
malefactors, that it might please him to give order that
such justice might be done among them ; whereby the
wicked might be punished with all severity, and the in-
nocent defended and maintained in their right.
Finally, forasmuch as divers of this poor people (being
A.D. 1.527— ISfiO.j
PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO THE WALDOIS.
497
astonished at tlie coming of the army, and fearing lest tliey
fhoulil not oiiiy be spoiled of all their goods, but also that
thev with their wives and children should be utterly de-
stroyed') had made promise as^ainst their consciences, to live
according to the traditions of the church of Rome ; they
ifere troubled and tormented ia spirit, and did nothing
out languish in that distress. Wherefore they humbly
besouclit the duchess to take pity upon them, and to ob-
tain for them, that they might not be compelled to do
anv thing against their consciences, and that it might
please the duke to permit them to live in liberty and
freedom of conscience ; aiao, i aat all cei ,jO(»i bn -hroi
banished for the cause of religion migtit return home to
their houses ; and that all confiscations and penalties
made against them might be abolished. And for their
part, they promised to give all due reverence and ho-
nour to God and his holy word, and to be true and faith-
ful subjects to their lord and prince ; yea, more thin any
Others. Underneath the supplication there was written :
'' Your faithful and humble subjects, the poor afflicted of
the valleys of Lucerne, Angrogne, St. Martin, and
Perouse, and generally all the people of the Waldois,
who inhabit the country of Piedmont."
After this supplication was viewed and read of the
duchess, she so persuaded the duke, that answer was
made with these conditions, declared in these articles
following :
Conclufiions and Articles lasili/ agreed vpon between the
Rif/ht Honnurahle the Lord of Raconig on the part
of his Highness the Dt'fce, and them of the Valleys of
Piedmont, called the Waldois.
That there shall shortly be mide letters patent by
hi.i highness the duke, by which it miy appear that he
Is forgiven and jiardoned them of the valleys of An-
;:; i.rne, Bouvet, Villars, Valquichard, Rora, Tailleret, La
lUii de Bouvet (bordering upon Toure}, St. IMartin, Pe-
Tviiise, Rnecapiata, St. Bartholomew, and all such as
li've aided them ; of all such faults as they have com-
Kiitted as well as bearing arms against his highness, as
ap:ainst tlie lords and certain other gentlemen whom he
rel. lined and kept in his protection and safeguard.
That it shall be lawful for them of Angrogne, Bouvet,
Villars, Val(|'nch ird, Rora, (members of the valley of
Lucerne.) and for them of Rodoret, Marcele, Manaillon,
and Salsa, members of the valley of St. Martin, to have
their congregations, sermons, and other ministries of
their religion in places accustomed.
That it shall be lawful for them of Villars (members
of ihe valley of Lucerne) to have the same, but that only
until the time that his highness doth build a fort in tlie
same place. But while the said fort is in building, it
fihall not be lawful to have their preachings and assem-
l 'lies within the precinct of the place, but it shall be law-
ful for them to build a place for that purpose near at
lim 1, where they shall think good, on that side towards
I'liuivet. Nevertheless it shall be permitted to their minis-
tr!s to come within the precinct aforesaid, to visit the
s.i;k, and exercise other things necessary to their reli-
cirin, so that they preach not, nor make any assembly
there.
It shall also be permitted to them of Tailleret, La Rua
de Bouvet, bordering upon Toure, to have their sermons
and assemblies in the accustomed places, so that they
enter not for that purpose into the rest of the confines
of Toure.
That it shall not be lawful for the said members of
the valleys of Lucerne and St. Martin, to come to the
rest of their borders, nor any other of his highness's
dominions ; nor to have their preachings, assemblies, or
disputations, out of their own borders, they having liberty
to have them therein. And if they be examined of their
faith, it shall be lawful for them to answer without dan-
ger of punishment in body or goods.
The like shall be lawful for them of the parish of
Perouse, who at this present time are fled because of
their religion, and were wont to have their assemblies
and preachings, and other ministries according to their
religion, at the place called Le Puis ; so that they come
not to other places and borders of the said parish.
It shall be permitted to them of the parish of Piaachia,
of the valley of Perouse, who at this present time are
fled because of their religion, and were wont to go to
sermons and assemblies, and other ministries of tl-.eir re-
ligion, to have the like, only at the place called Le Gran-
doubion.
It shall be permitted to them of the parish of St. Ger-
main, of the valley of Perouse, and to them of Rocca-
piata, who at this present period are fled because of their
Jigi /I , . d onti a j e < me, to have only one
uiinisicr, wuo may on oi.e u.^y j^.^ach at St. Germain, at
the place called Le Adonnil cux, and the other day at
Roccapiata, at the place called Vandini only.
it shall be permitted to all them of the towns and vil-
lages of the valleys, who at this present time are fled,
and continue in their religion, notwithstanding any pro-
mise or abjuration made before this war against the said
religion, to repair and return to their houses with their
households, and to live according to the same, going and
coming to the sermons and assemblies which shall be
made by their ministers in the places above specified, so
that they obey that wliich is above-said.
And because that many of the said towns and villages
dwell out of the precinct of the preaching, having need
to be vijited, and of other things according to their re-
ligion, their ministers, who dwell within the precinct,
shall be suffered, without prejudice, to visit and duly aid
them of such ministries as shall be necessary for them,
so that they make no sermons or assemblies.
By especial grace it shall be permitted to all them of
the valley of Meane, and them of St. Bartholomew,
neighbours to Roccapiata, and are fled and continue in
their religion, peaceably to enjoy the grace and libertie.s
granted in the next article before, so that they observe
all which tliey before promised to observe.
The goods already seized as forfeited, shall be restored
to all the inhabitants of the said valleys, and to all that
are fled and continue in their religion, as well of them of
the said valleys, as of Roccapiata, St. Bartholomew, and
of Meaue, so that they be not seized for any other cause
than for their religion, and for the war present and lately
past.
It shall be lawful for them aforesaid to recover by way
of justice, of their neighbours, their moveable goods and
cattle, so it be not of soldiers ; and that which hath been
sold, they shall also recover by way of justice, so that
they restore the price for which it hath been sold. Their
neighbours shall have the like against tliem.
All the franchises, freedoms, and privileges, as well
general as particular, granted as well by his highness'
predecessors, as by himself, and obtained of other in-
ferior lords, wliereof they shall make proof by public
writing, shall be confirmed unto them.
The said valleys shall be provided for, to have good
justice ministered unto them, whereby they may knov?
they are kept in safeguard by his highness, as well as all
his other subjects.
The inhabitants of the said valleys shall make a roll
of all the names and sirnames of all them of the valleys,
who are fled for religion, as well such as have abjured as
others, to the end that they may be restored and maintained
in their goods and households, and enjoy such grace and
benefits as their prince and lord h.ath bestowed on them.
And insomuch as it is known to every man, that the
prince may build fortresses in his country, where it shall
please him without contradiction, nevertheless to take all
suspicion out of the minds of the aforesaid Waldois, it is
declared, if at any time hereafter his highness will make
a fort at Villars, the inhabitants of the said place shall
not be constrained to bear the charges, but only as they
shall think good, lovingly to aid their prince.' M'hich
fort being builded (by God's aid) a governor and captain
shall therein be appointed, who shall attempt nothing
but the service of his highness, without oflence to the
inhabitants, either in their goods or consciences.
It shall be lawful for thein, before the discharging of
such of their ministers, as it shall please his hignness to
have discharged, to choose and call others in their steads ;
K K 2
498
CHARACTER OF THE WALDOIS.
[Book YIl.
so that they choose not Master Martin de Pragela, nor
change from one place to another of the said valleys, any
of them who are discharged.
The mass, and other service after the usage of Rome,
shall be kept in all the parishes of the said valleys, where
the sermons, assemblies, and other ministries of their
relin-ion are made ; but none shall be compelled to be
present thereat, nor to support, aid, or favour such as
shall use that service.
All the expenses and charges borne by his highness in
this war, shall be forgiven and released to them for ever ;
also the 8000 crowns wherein the inhabitants of the said
valleys were behind, as part of l(j,000 crowns which they
had promised in the war passed. And his highness will
command that the writings for that cause made, shall be
annulled and cancelled.
All the prisoners shall be rendered up and restored
who shall be found to be in the hands of the soldiers, on
paying a reasonable ransom, according to the goods
which they may possess; and those who shall be adjudged
to be wrongfully taken, shall be released without ransom.
Likewise all they of the said valleys, who for religion,
and not for other causes, are detained in the galleys, shall
be released without ransom.
Finally, it shall be lawful for all them of the said val-
leys, those of Meane, Roccapiata, and St. Bartholomew,
of what degree, estate and condition soever they be (ex-
cept ministers) to accompany and dwell, and to be in
daily conversation with the rest of his highness's sub-
jects, and to tarry, go, and come in all places of his
highness's country, to sell and buy, and use all trades of
merchandize, in all places in his highness's country, as
before is said, so that they preach not, nor make any
assemblies or disputations, as we have before said ; and
that they who be of the limits dwell not out of them ;
and tliey who be of the towns and villages of the said
valleys dwell not out of them, nor of their borders ; and
in so doing they shall not be molested by any means,
and shall not be offended or troubled in body or goods,
but shall remain under the protection and safeguard of
his highness.
Furthermore, his highness shall give orders to stay all
troubles, inconveniencies, secret conspiracies of wicked
persons, after such sort, that they shall remain quietly in
their religion. For observation whereof, George Mo-
nastier, one of the elders of Angrogne ; Constantion
Dialestini, otherwise called Rembaldo, one of the elders
of Villars ; Pirrone Arduiuo, sent from the commonalty of
Bouvet; Michael Ramondet, sent from the commonalty
of Tailleret, and of La Rua de Bouvet, bordering upon
Toure ; John Maienote, sent from certain persons of
St. John ; Peter Paschall, sent from the commonalty of
the valley of St. Martin ; Thomas Romam of St. Germaine,
sent from the commonalty of the same place, and of all
the valley of Perouse, promise for them and their com-
monalties severally, that the contents of these conclu-
sions aforesaid shall be inviolably kept, and for breach
thereof do submit themselves to such punishment as shall
please his highness ; promising likewise to cause the
chief of the families or the commonalties to allow and
confirm the said promise.
The honourable lord of Raconig doth promise, that his
highness the duke shall confirm and allovv the aforesaid
conclusions to them, both generally and particularly, at
the intercession and special favour of the noble lady the
princess.
In testimony whereof, the aforesaid lord of Raconig
hath confirmed these present conclusions with his own
hand ; and the ministers have likewise subscribed in the
name of all the said valleys ; and they who can write, in
the name of all their commonalties.
At Cavor, the 5th day of June, l.TGL
Philip nfSavoij, Francis Valla, Minister of Vil-
lars, Claudius Berijins, Minister of Tailleret,
Georgius Monasterius, Micliuel liaymundet .
This accord being thus made and passed, by means of
the duchess of Savoy, the ])Oor Waldois have been in
quiet to this present time ; and God of his infinite good-
ness having delivered them out of so many troubles and
conflicts, hath set them at liber'y to serve him purely
and with quietness of conscience.
Wherefore there is not one at this present time but he
sees and well perceives that God would make it known
by experience to these poor Waldois, and all other faith-
ful peoj)le, that all things turn to the best to them who
love and fear him ; for by all these afflictions which
they suffered their heavenly Father hath brought them
to repentance and amendment of life ; he hath effectu-
ally taught them to have recourse to his fatherly mercv,
and to embrace Jesus Christ for their only Saviour and
Redeemer. He hath taught them to tame the desires
and lusts of the flesh, to withdraw their hearts from the
world, and lift them to heaven ; and to be always in a
readiness to come to him, as unto their most loving and
gracious Father. To be short, he has sent them to the
school of his children, to the end that they should profit
in patience and hope; to make them to mourn, weej), and
cry unto him. And above all, he has made them so
often to prove his succours in time of need, to see them
before their eyes, to know and touch them with their
hands (as a man would say) after such sort, that they
have had good occasion, and all the faithful with them,
never to distrust so good a Father, and so carsful for the
health of his children, but to assure themselves they
shall never be confounded, what thing soever hajipens.
And yet to see this more manifestly, and that every
man may take profit therein, it shall be good to under-
stand what this poor people did whilst they were in these
combats and conflicts. So soon as they saw the army
of their enemies approach, they cried all together for
aid and succour to the Lord ; and before they came to
defend themselves, they went to prayer, and in fighting
lifted up f-heir hearts, and sighed to the Lord. As long
as the enemy were at rest, every one of these poor peo-
ple on their knees called upon God. When the combat
was ended, they gave him thanks for the comfort and
succour which they had felt. In the meantime the rest
of the people, with their ministers, made their hearty
prayer to God, with sighs and tears, and that from the
morning until the evening. When night was come,
they assembled again togther : they who had fought,
rehearsed the wonderful aid and succour which God had
sent them, and so altogether rendered thanks to him for
his fatherly goodness. Always he changed their sorrow
into joy. In the morning trouble and affliction ap-
peared before them, with great terror on all sides ; but
by the evening they were delivered, and had great cause
of rejoicing and comfort.
As for the monks and priests, who by such means
thought to advance themselves, and to bring their trum-
pery in estimation, they have lost the little rule which
they had over that people, and are confounded, and their
religion brought to disdain. Thus God beateth down
those who exalt themselves above measure, and maketh
his adversaries to fall into the pits which they them-
selves have made. Let us pray to him therefore, that
it would please him likewise to stretch out his mighty
arm at this day to maintain his poor afflicted church,
and to confound all the devices of Satan and his mem-
bers, to the advancement of his glory and kingdom.
CONCLUSION.
Having thus comprehended the troubles and persecu-
tions of such godly saints, and blessed martyrs, which
have suffered in other foreign nations above mentioned:
here now ending with them, and beginning the eighth
book, we are, God willing, to return again to our own mat-
ters, and to prosecute such acts and records, as to our
own country of England do appertain. In the process
whereof, among many other things, may appear the
marvellous work of God's power and mercy in suppres-
sing and banishing out of this realm, the long usurped
sujjremacy of the pope : also in subverting and over-
throwing the houses of monks and friars, with divers
other matters appertaining to the reformation of Christ's
true church and religion. All which things as they have
been long wished, and greatly prayed for in times past
A.D. 1527—15 60.1
ANTICHRIST CLEARLY REVEALED.
4S9
by many godly and leanied men : so much more ought
we now to rejoice and give God thanks, seeing these
days of reformation whicli God hath given us If John
Husse, or good Jerome of Prague, or John Wicklitf
before them both, or William Brute, Thorpe, Swin-
derby, or the Lord Cobham ; if Zisca with all the com-
pany of the Bohemians ; if the Earl Raymund, with all
the Toulousians ; if the Waldois, or the Albigenses,
with infinite. others, had been either in these our times
iiDW, or else had seen then this ruin of the pope, and
revealing of antichrist, which the Lord now hath given
unto us, what joy and triumph would they not have made !
Wherefore now beholding that which they so long time
have wished for, let us not think the benefit to be small,
but reader most humble thanks to the Lord our God ;
who by his mighty power, and the brightness of his
word, has revealed this great enemy of his so manifestly
to the eyes of all men, who before was so hid in the
church, that few christians could discover him. For
who would ever have judged or suspected in his mind,
the bishop of Rome (commonly received and believed,
almost of all men, to be the vicar and vicegerent of
Christ here on earth) to be antichrist, and the great ad-
versary of God, whom St. Paul so expressly prophesies
of in these latter days to be revealed by the brightness
of the Lord's coming, as all men now for the most part
may see it is come to pass ? Wherefore to the Lord, and
Father of lights, who revealeth all things in his due
time, be praise and glory for ever. Amen.
THE END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK VIII.
CONTINUING
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AFFAIRS APPERTAINING BOTH TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND
CIVIL STATES.
Mixtress Smith, widow; Robert Hatches, a shoemaker ;
Aacher, a shoemaker ; Hawkins, a shoemaker : Thomas
Bund, — a shoemaker ; Wrigsham, a glover ; Landsdale,
a hosier, at Coventry, A.D. 15 ly
The principal cause of the apprehension of these per-
sons was, their teaching their children and family the
Lord's Prayer and ten coinmnndnients in English, for
which they were upon Ash-Wednesday put in prison,
till the Friday following.
Then they were sent to a monastery railed Mackstock
Ahhey, six miles from Coventry. During which lime
their children were sent to the Gray Friars in Coventry,
before the warden, called Friar Stafford : who examin-
ing them of their belief, and what heresies their fathers
bad taught them, charged them upon pain of suffering
death, to meddle no more with the Lord's Prayer, the
creed, and tfie ten commandments in English.
U])on Palm Sunday the fathers of these children were
brougtit agnin to Coventry, and there the week before
Easter they were condemned to be burned. Mistress Smith
only was dismissed for the present. And because it was in
the evening, being somewhat dark, Simon Mourton of-
fered to go home with her. Now as he was leading her
by the arm, and heard the ratling of a scroll within her
sleeve, saitli he, "What have ye here?" And so he
took it from her, and saw that it was the Lord's Prayer,
the articles of the creed, and the ten commandments in
Enx;lish ; which when the wretched somner understood,
he brought her back to the bishop, where she was im-
mediately condemned, and burned with the six men be-
forenained, on the 4th April, A.D. 1.511).
When these were dispatched, the sheriffs went to
the.r houses, and took all their goods and cattle for their
own use, not leaving their wives and children any thing.
And as the people began to complain of the cruelty,
and the unjust death of these innocent martyrs, the
bishop, with his officers and priests, caused it to be
noised abroad by their tenants, servants, and farmers,
that they were not burned for having the Lord's Prayer
and the commandments in Englisli, but because they
ate flesh on Fridays and other fast days !
Robert Silkeb, 1521. — In the number of these men was
Robert Silkeb, who fled, and for that time escaped.
But about two years after he was taken again, and
brought to C'oventry, where he was burned about the
13th day of January, 1521.
Patrick Hamilton, A.D. 1527.
Patrick Hamilton, a Scotchman, of an high and
noble stock, and of the king's blood, young, and of
flourishing age, called abbot of Fern, coming out of
his country with three companions, to seek godly learn-
ing, went to the university of Marpurg in Germany ;
there, in conference and familiarity with learned men,
like Francis Lambert, he so ))rofited in knowledge, and
mature judgment in matters of religion, that he was the
first in all that university of Marpurg who publicly did
set up conclusions there to be disputed of, concerning
faith and works : arguing also no less learnedly than
fervently upon the subject.
This learned Patrick increasing daily more and more
in knowledge, and inflamed Vi'ith godliness, at length
began to revolve with himself his return to liis country,
being desirous to impart to his countrymen, some of the
knowledge which he had received abroad. There not
bearing the ignorance and blindness of that people,
after he had valiantly taught and ])reaclied the truth,
was accused of heresy, and afterwards constantly and
stoutly sustaining the cause of God's gospel, against the
high priest and archbisliop of Saint Andrews, named
James Beaton, was cited to ai)pear before him and his
college of priests, the first day of March, 1527. He
being not only forward in knowledge, but also ardent in
s])irit, not tarrying for the appointed hour, came very
early before he was looked for. and there mightily dis-
j)uting against them, when he could not by the scrip-
tures be convicted, he was ojijiressed by force : and tiie
sentence of condemnation being given against him, the
same day after dinner, he was led away to the fire, and
there burned.
We think good to express here his articles, as we
received them from Scotland, out of the registers.
The Articles and Opinions objected againstMaster Patrick
Hamilton, by James Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrewt,
That man hath no free-will.
A.D. lo2-— 1560]
MARTYRS IN SCOTLAND.
501
Tliat there is no purgatory.
Tint the holy patriarchs were in heaven before Christ's
passion.
That the pope hath no power to loose and bind ;
neither had any pope that power after St. Peter.
That tiie pope is Antichrist, and that every priest hath
the power that the pope hath.
That Master Patrick Hamilton was a bishop.
That it is not necessary to obtain any bulls from any
bishop.
That the vow of the pope's religion is a vow of wick-
edness.
That the popes' laws are of no strength.
That all christians, worthy to be called christians, do
know that they are in the state of grace.
That none are saved, but those who are previously
predestinate.
Whoever is in deadly sin, is unfaithful.
That God is (.",■«', cause of sin in this sense, that is, that
he withdraweth his grace from men, whereby they sin.
That it is devilish doctriae, to enjoin to any sinner
actual penance for sin.
That the said Master Patrick himself doubteth whether
all children, departing immediately after their baptism,
are saved or condemned.
That auricular confession is not necessary to salva-
tion.
These articles above written, were given in, and laid
against Master Hamilton, and inserted in their registers,
for which also he was condemned. But other learned
men, who communed and reasoned with him, testify, that
these articles following, were the very articles for which
he suffered : —
1. Man hath no free-will.
2. A man is only justified by faith in Christ.
'^. A man, so long as he liveth, is not without sin.
4. He is not worthy to be called a christian, who be-
lieveth not that he is in grace.
5. A good man doth good works. Good works do not
make a good man.
6. An evil man bringeth forth evil works. Evil works
being faithfully repented of, do not make an evil man.
7. Faith, hope, and charity, are so linked together,
that one of them cannot be without another in any one
man in this life.
Henry Forrest. — Within a few years after the martyr-
dom of Master Patrick Hamilton, one Henry Forrest, a
young man, affirmed, that Master Patrick Hamilton
died a martyr, and that his articles were true. For this
he was apprehended, and put in prison by James Beaton,
archbishop of St. Andrew's, who, shortly after, caused a
friar, named Walter Lang, to hear his confession. To
whom, when Henry Forrest, in secret confession, had de-
clared his conscience, how he thought Master Patrick to
be a good man, and wrongfully put to death, and that his
articles were true and not heretical, the friar came and
uttered to the bishop the confession that he had heard.
It followed, that his confession being brought as suffi
cieut probation against him, he was summoned before
the council of the clergy and doctors, and there con-
cluded to be an heretic, equally with Master Patrick
Hamilton, and there decreed to be given to the secular
judges to suffer death.
When the day of his death came, and that he should
first be degraded, and was brought before the clergy, as
soon as he entered at the door, and saw the face of the
clergy, he cried with a loud voice, saying, " Fie on false-
hood ! Fie on false friars ! Revealers of confession !
After this day, let no man ever trust any friars, contem-
ners of God's word, and deceivers of men!" When
they proceeded to degrade him, he said, with a loud
voice, "Take from me not only your own orders, but
also your own baptism," meaning, whatever is besides
that which Christ himself instituted, whereto there are
great additions in baptism. Then, after his degradation,
they condemned him as an heretic. And so he suffered
death for his faithful testimony of the truth of Christ
and of his Gospel, at the north-church s-tile of the
Abbey Church of St. Andrew.
James Hamilion, Irtjtlier to Patrick ; Catharine Hamil.
ton ; a wife of Leitfi ; David titration ; Master
Norman Gurley.
Within a year after the martyrdom of Henry Forrest, all
these five were called to the Abbey church of Holyrood-
house, in Edinburgh, in presence of King .James V., who,
upon the day of their accusation, was clad in red a))pa-
rel. James Hamilton was accused as one that main-
tained the opinions of Master Patrick, his brother. To
whom the king gave counsel to depart, and not to ap-
pear, for, in case he appeared, he could not help him ;
because, the bishops had persuaded him, that the cause
of heresy did in no wise appertain to him. And so
James tied, and was condemned as an heretic, and all his
goods and lands were confiscated, and given unto others.
Catharine Hamilton, his sister, appeared upon the
scaffold, and b^^ing accused of an horrible heresy, to wit,
that her own works could not save her, she granted the
same ; and after long reasoning between her and Mas-
ter John Spens, the lawyer, she concluded in this man-
ner, " Work here, work there, what kind of working is
all this .' I know perfectly, that no kind of work can
save me, but only the works of Christ my Lord and
Saviour." The king hearing these words, turned himself
about and laughed, and called her to him, and caused
her to recant, because she was his aunt, and she escaped.
The woman of Leith was accused, that when the mid-
wife in time of her labour, bade her say, " Our Lady help
me," she cried, " Christ help me! Christ help me! ia
whose help 1 trust !" She also was caused to recant, and
so escaped without confiscation of her goods, because
she was married.
Master Norman Gurley, for that he said there was no
such thing as purgatory, and that the pope was not a
bishop, but Antichrist, and had no jurisdiction in Scot-
land.
David Stratton said, "There was no purgatory, but
the passion of Christ, and tlie tribulations of this world;''
and because that when Master Robert Lawson, vicar of
Eglesrig, asked his tithe-fish of him, he cast them to him
out of the boat, so that some of them fell into the sea.
Therefore, he accused him as one that had said, that no
tithes should be paid. These two, because after great
solicitation made by the king, they refused to abjure and
recant, were therefore condemned as heretics, and were
burned between Leith and Edinburgh, that the inhabi-
tants of Fife seeing the fire, might be struck with
terror, so as not to fall into the like.
In ISS.T, Tfiomas Harding, dwelling at Chesham, in
the county of Buckingham, with Alice, his wife, was
first abjured by William Smith, bishop of Lincoln (A.D..
1506), with others, who, at the same time, for speaking
against idolatry and superstition, were taken and com-
pelled, some to bear fagots, some burned in the cheeks
with hot irons, some condemned to perpetual prison,
some thrust into monasteries, and robbed of all their
goods ; some compelled to make pilgrimage to the great
block, otherwise called our lady of Lincoln, some to
Walsingham, some to St. Romuld of Buckingham, some
to the Rood of Wendover, some to St. John Shorne, &c. ;
of whom we have made mention before.
At last Harding (A.D. 1322), about the Easter holi-
days, when the other people went to the church to en-
gage in their wonted idolatry, took his way into the
woods, there solitarily to worship the true living God, in
spirit and truth. As he was occupied with a book of
English prayers, leaning or sitting upon a stile by the
wood side, it chanced that one saw him, and came in
great haste to the officers of the town, declaring, that he
had seen Harding in the woods looking on a book.
Upon this, immediately a rude rabble ran desperately to
his house to search for books, and in searching under the
boards of his floor, they found EngHsh books of the holy
Scripture. Whereupon tliis godly father, with his books,
was brought before John Longland, bishop of Lincoln,
then lying at Woburn, who, with his chaplains, caUing
father Harding to examination, began to reason with
him, proceeding rather with checks and rebukes, than
502
PERSECUTIONS IN THE DIOCESE OF LINCOLN.
[Book VIII.
with any sound arguments. Thomas Harding seeing
their folly and rude behaviour, gave them but few words,
but fixing his trust and care in the Lord, did let them
say what they would. Thus at last they sent him to the
bishop's prison, where he lay with hunger and pain
enough for a certain space, till at length the bishop,
sitting in his tribunal, condemned him for relapsing, to
be burned to ashes, committing his martyrdom to Roland
Messenger, vicar of Great Wickham, which Roland, at
the day appointed, with a rabble of others like to him-
self, brought father Harding to Chesham again. The
next day after his return, Roland made a sermon in
Chesham church, causing Thomas Harding to stand
before him all the time he was preaching ; which sermon
was nothing else but the maintaining of the jurisdiction
of the bishop of Rome, and the state of the Apostolical
See, with the idolatry, fancies, and traditions belonging
unto the same. When the sermon was ended, Roland
took him up to the high altar, and asked, whether he
believed that in the bread, after the consecration, there
remained any other substance than the substance of
Christ's natural body born of the Vii'gin Mary. To this
Thomas Harding answered, " The articles of our belief
do teach us, that our Saviour Christ was born of the
Virgin Mary, and that he suffered death under Pilate,
and rose from death the third day ; that he then ascended
into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, in the
glory of his Father."
Then he was brought into a house in the town, where
he remained all night in prayer and godly meditations.
So, the next morning, came Roland again, with a com-
pany of bills and staves, to lead this godly father to
his burning. A great number both of men and women
followed him, of whom many bevvailed his death, and the
wicked rejoiced at it. He was brought forth, having
thrust into his hands a little cross of wood, but no idol
Upon it. Then he was chained to the stake, and desiring
the people to pray for him, and forgiving all his enemies
and persecutors, he commended his spirit to God, and
took his death most patiently and quietly, lifting up his
hands to heaven, saying, " Jesus, receive my spirit !''
When they had set fire on him, there was one that
threw a billet at him, and dashed out his brains ; for what
purpose he did so is not known, but it was supposed it
was that he might have forty days of pardon ; for pro-
clamation was made, as at the burning of William Tilse-
worth, " That whosoever did bring a fagot or a stake to
the burning of an heretic, should have forty days of
pardon." Many ignorant people caused their children
to bear billets and faggots to their burning.
Mistress Alice Doly. — Elizabeth Wighthill being
brought before Dr. London, in the parsonage at Stan-
ton Harcourt, and there put to her oath, deposed against
Mistress Alice Doly, her mistress. That Mistress Doly,
speaking of John Hacker, water-bearer, said, " That he
was very expert in the gospels, an<l all other things be-
longing to divine service, and could express and declare
it, and the Pater Noster, i. e., the Lord's prayer, in
English, as well as any priest, and it would do one
good to hear him." Saying, moreover, " That she
wished in no case that this were known, lest it should
hurt the poor man."
Over and besides, Elizabeth deposed, " That Mistress
Doly, her mistress, shewed unto her that she had a book
which lu'ld against pilgrimages ; and, after that, she
caused .Sir John Booth, parson of Brittwell to read upon
a book which he called the Golden LegendSj and one
saint's life he read, which did speak against pilgrimages.
And after that was read, her mistress said unto her, ' Lo,
daughter, now ye may hear as I told you, that this book
speaks against j)ilgrimages'.'
It was deposed against Mistress Doly, by this Eliza-
beth, that she being at Sir William Barenten's place, and
seeing there in the closet, images new gilded, said to the
said Elizabeth, " Look, here be my lady Barenten's gods."'
To whom the said Elizabeth answered again, " That they
were set for remembrance of good saints.'' Then said
she, "If I were in a house where no images wer<>. I
could remember to pray unto saints as well as if I did
see the in-ages." " Nay," said the other, " images do
provoke devotion." Then said her mistress, " Ye should
not worship that thing that hath ears and cannot hear,
and hath eyes and cannot see, and hath mouth and can-
not speak, and hath hands and cannot feel."
Note here, good reader, in this time, which was above
forty-six years ago, what good matter was there here to
accuse and molest good women for !
Roger Hachman, A.D. 1525. — Against this Roger
Hachman it was laid by deposition, that he sitting at the
Church -aisle at Norfolk, said these words, " 1 will never
look to be saved for any good deed that ever I did, nei-
ther for any that ever I will do, unless I may have my
salvation by petition, as an outlaw shall have his pardon
of the king" ; and said, that if he might not have his
salvation so, he thought he should be lost.
Robert West, A.D. 1529.— Against this Robert West,
priest, it was objected, that he had commended Martin
Luther, and thought that he had done well in many
things, as in having wife and children, &c.
Also for saying, " That whereas the doctors of the
church have commanded priests to say matins and even-
song, they had no authority to do so." For which he was
abjured, and was enjoined penance.
John Ryhum, A.D. 1530. — It was testified against
John Ryburn, by his sister Elizabeth Ryburn, being put
to her oath, that she coming to him upon the Assumption
eve, found him at supper with butter and eggs, and being
bid to sit down and eat with him, she answered, that it
was not a convenient time then to eat. To whom he said
again, " That God never made such fasting days; but
you,'' quoth he, " are so far in Limbo Patrum, that you
can never turn again." And in further communication,
when she said that she would go on pilgrimage to the
holy cross at Wendover ; he said again, that she did
wrong, " For there is never a step," said he, "that you
take in going on pilgrimage, but you go to the devU ;
and you go to church to worship what the priest holds
above his head, which is but bread ; and if you cast
it to the mouse he will eat it ;" and said, that he would
never believe that the priest has power to make his Lord.
Also, it was testified by another sister named Alice
Ryburn, tliat she, being with her brother in a close
called Brimer's-close, heard him say these words, " That
a time shall come when no elevation shall be made."
Whereunto she answering again, asked, " And what ser-
vice shall we have then ?'' He said, " That service that
we have now."
JoJin Simonds. — It was laid against John Simonds, for
saying that men walk all day in purgatory in this world,
and when they dejiart out of this world, there are but
two ways, either to hell or heaven.
He said, too, that priests should have wives.
It was reported by the confession of John Simonds,
that he converted to his doctrine eight priests, and had
helped two or three friars out of their orders.
William Wingra%-e, Thomas Hawks of Hichenden, Ro-
bert Hawks of Westivycomb, John Taylor, John
Hawks, Thomas Hern of Cobshill, Nicholas Field,
Richard Dean, Thomas Clerk the younger, William
Hawk.s- of Chesham, A.D. 1530.
These persons, with others, were examined, excommu-
nicated and abjured, for being together in John Taylor's
house at Hichenden, and there hearing Nicholas Field
of London read a portion of scripture in English, and
the expounding many things to them ; for saying, that
they who went on pilgrimage were accursed ; that it
booted not to pray to images, for they were but stocks
made of wood, and could not help a man ; that God Al-
mighty biddeth us work, as well on one day as another,
saving the Sunday, for six days he wrought, and the
seventh day he rested ; that they needed not to fast so
many fasting days, except the embering days ; for hn
had been beyond the seas in Germany, and there they
used not so to fast, nor to make such holidays.
A.D. 1527—1560.]
CARDINAL WOUEY.
503
That offerings do no good, for tliey have them that
have no need thereof. And when it was answered again
by one, that they maintained God's service, "Nay,"
said Nicliohis, " it maintained great houses, as abbeys
and others."
That men should say their Paternoster and Ave Maria
in Enf'lish, with the creed, and declare the same in
English.
That the sacrament of the altarwas not, as it was pre-
tended, the flesh, blood, and bone of Christ, but a sacra-
ment, that is, a typical signification of his holy body.
To William Wingrave moreover it was objected, that
he should say, that there was no purgatory ; and if there
were any purgatory, and every mass that is said should
deliver a soul out of purgatory, there should be never a
soul there ; for that there were more masses said in a
day than bodies buried in a month.
Simon Wisdom, of Bvrfnrd was charged in judgment
for having three books in English, one was the gospels
in English, another was the psalter, the third was the
sum of the holy scripture in English.
James Alyar of Aiger, .d.7).1530. — It was stated and
objected to James Algar, first, that he speaking to a cer-
tain doctor of divinity named Aglionby, said, that every
true christian man living after the laws of God, and
observing his commandments, is a priest as well as
he, &c.
That he would not have his executors to pay a penny
for his soul after his death ; for he would do it with his
own hands while he was alive ; and that his conscience
told him, that the soul, so soon as it departs out of the
body, goes straight either to heaven or hell.
When Dr. Aglionby had alleged to him the place of
?t. Matthew, chap, xvi., " Thou art Peter," Sec, he
answered him again with that which followeth in the
gospel after, " Get thee behind me, Satan," &c.
The said .lames, hearing of a certain church to be
robbed, said openly, it made no great force, for the church
hath enough already.
Now, passing from the abjurations of those poor men,
we will speak something of the life and doings of the
Other party who were their persecutors, and chief rulers
then of the church, that it may be better discerned and
judged what manner of church that was which then so
persecuted the true doctrine of Christ, and the members
of his church.
A brief Discourse concerning the history of Thomas
Wolsey, cardinal of York ; wherein is to be seen the
express image of the proud, vain-glorious church of
Rome, how far it differs from the true church of
Christ Jesus.
Although it be not very pertinent to our history, nor
very requisite in these weighty matters of Christ's holy
martyrs to discourse much of Thomas Wolsey, cardinal
of York ; yt t, as there are many who are carried away
with a wrong opinion and estimation of that false glitter-
ing church of Rome, therefore, that the vain pomp and
pride of that ambitious church, so far differing from all
pure Christianity and godliness, may appear to all men,
1 shall describe the ridiculous and pompous tiualities,
and demeanour of this Thomas W^olsey. For as the
Lacedemonians, in times past, were accustomed to show
drunken men to their children, to behold and look upon,
that througli the foulness of that vice, tliey might intlarae
them the more to the study and desire of sobriety ; even
•so it shall not be hurtful sometimes to set forth examples
which are not honest, that others might gather the in-
structions of better and more upright dealing.
And first to begin with the first coming of this car-
dinal, and his fellow-cardinal Campegio into England :
it was about the time that Pope Leo, intending to make
•war againt the Turks, sent three legates together from
Rome; one went into Germany, another into France,
Campegio into England. When he was come to Calais
and the cardinal of York had knowledge of it, he sent
certain bishops and doctors, with as much speed as he
could, to meet the legate, and to shew him that if he
would have his embassy effectual, he should send to
Rome to have the cardinal of York made legate, and
joined with him in the commission. He much affected
this, doubting, lest his own authority might perhaps be
diminished through tlie coming of the legate ; and there,
fore required to be joined with him in the embassy.
Campegio being a man easy of belief, and suspecting
nothing, sent to Rome with such speed, that within
thirty days after, the bull was brought to Calais, in which
they were both equally joined in commission.
When all things were ready, Campegio passed the seas
and landed at Dover, and proceeded towards London.
At every town he was received with procession, accom-
panied with all the lords and gentlemen of Kent. And
when he came to Blackheath, the duke of Norfolk met
him with a great number of prelates, knights, and gen-
tlemen, all richly apparelled, and brought him into
a rich tent of cloth of gold, where he put on a cardinal's
robe furred with ermines, and so took his mule, and rode
towards London. Now mark the great humility in this
church of the j)ope, and compare the same with the other
church of the martyrs, and see which of them is most
gospel- like.
This Campegio had eight mules of his own, laden with
goods and treasures ; but the cardinal of York not think-
ing them sufficient for his state, he sent him, the night be-
fore he came to London, twelve mules more, with empty
coffers covered with red. The ne.xt day these twenty
mules were led through the city, as though they had
been laden with treasures, apparel, and other necessaries,
to the great admiration of all men, that they should re-
ceive a legate with so great a treasure and riches. For
so the common people always judged and esteemed the
majesty of the clergy, by nothing but by their outward
shew and pomp ; but in the midst of this great admira-
tion, there happened a ridiculous spectacle, to the great
derision of their pride and ambition. For as the mules
passed through Cheapside, and the people were pressing
about them to behold and gaze, it happened that one of
the mules breaking his collar, ran upon the other mules,
by which it happened, that they running so together,
and their girths being loosed, overthrew their burthens,
and there appeared the cardinal's gay treasure, not with-
out great laughter and scorn of many, especially of boys
and girls, some of whom gathered up pieces of meat,
others some pieces of bread and roasted eggs, some found
horse -shoes and old boots, with such other baggage,
crying out, " Behold here is my lord Cardinal's trea-
sure !" The muleteers being greatly ashamed, gathered
together their treasure again as well as they could and
went forward.
About three o'clock, the 29th day of July, the cardina.
himself was brought through the city, with great pomp
and solemnity, to St. Paul's church, where when he had
blessed all men with the bishop's blessing, as the manner
is, he was guided to the cardinal of York's house, where
he was received by the cardinal, and by him on the next
day, being Sunday, was conducted to the king, to fulfil
his embassy against the Turk, who might have destroyed
all Hungary, while they were studying with what solem-
nity to furnish out their embassy.
'The cardinal of York being thus a legate, set up a
court, and called it the court of the legate, and proved
testaments, and heard causes, to the great hinderance
of all the bishops of the realm. He visited bishops, and
all the clergy, exempt and not exempt; and under co-
lour of reformation, he got much treasure, and nothing
was reformed, but came to more mischief ; for by exam-
ple of his pride, priests and all spiritual persons waxed so
proud, that they w^ore velvet and silk both in gowns,
jackets, doublets, and shoes, and bare themselves so
highly that no man durst rejjrove anything in them, for
fear of being called heretic, and then they would make
him smoke or bear a faggot. And the cardinal himself
was so elated, that he thought himself equal to the king ;
and when he had said mass, he made dukes and earls to
serve him with wine, and to hold the basin while he
washed.
This glorious cardinal in his tragical doings exceeded
all measure of a good subject, and became more like t>
50 1
CARDINAL WOLSEY.
[Book VIII.
p.-iure tinn a priest. When he had well .-stored his own
coiTci-s, lie IVt'ched the greatest part of the king's trea-
sure o It 'jf the realm, in twelve greac barrels full of gold
and silver, to serve the pope's wars ; and as his avari-
cio'js mind was never satisfied with getting, so his rest-
less he:id was so busy medJIing in pubhc matters, that
he never ceased before he had set England, France, Flan-
ders, Sp:un and Italy together by the ears.
Thus the Icate, following the steps of his master the
pope, and both of them well displaying the nature of
their reli^'ion, under the pretence of the church prac-
tised great hypocrisy, and under the authority of the
kin-' used great extortion, with excessive taxes and loans,
and valuation of every man's substance, so ])lundering
the couimons and merchants, that every man comjilained,
but no redress was had. Nor yet were the churchmen
altogether free from this cardinal, who under his lega-
tine po'.ver gave by anticipation all beneliccs belonging
to spiritual persons ; by which it is hard to say whetiier
he purchased to himself more riches or hatred of the
clergy. So far his licence stretched, that he had power
to suppress divers abbeys, priories, and monasteries ;
and he did so, taking from them all their goods, move-
ables, and immovables, except it were a little pension
left to the heads of certain houses. By the legatine
power, he held general visitations through the realm,
sending Doctor John Alein, his chaplain, riding in his
gown of velvet, and with a great train, to visit all
religious houses, at which the friars observant much
complained, and would not submit to it ; so that they
were publicly cursed at St. Paul's cross, by friar Forrest,
one of the same order ; so that the cardinal at
length prevailed both against them and all others.
Great hatred arose against him among the people,
perceiving how, by visitations, making of abbots,
probates of testaments, granting of faculties, licences,
and other meins, he had made his treasure equal with
the king's, and every year sent great sums to Rome.
Anil this was their daily talk against the cardinal.
Besides many other matters and grievances which
stirred the hearts of the commons against the cardinal,
there was thisone which much incensed them ; the cardinal
had sent out commissions in the king's name that every
man should pay the sixth part of his goods. Whereupon
there followed great muttering among the commons, so
that it had almost grown to some riotous commotion or
tumult, especially in parts of Suffulk, had not the dukes
of Norfolk and Suffolk with wisdom and gentleness stept
in and appeased the same.
Another thing that caused the anger of many, or
rather which moved them to laugh at the cardinal, was
his insolent presumption to take upon him, as the king's
chief counsellor, to seta reformation in the king's house-
hold, making and establishing new ordinances in it.
He likewise made new officers in the house of the duke
of Richmond. In like manner he ordained a council,
and estanlished another household for the Lady Mary,
beii\g then princess. All this, with much more, he took
upon him. making the king believe that all should be to
his honour, and tiiat he needed not to take any pains, so
that the charge '•" all things was committed to him.
And now tn express some jiart of the practices and
busy iiilermeddlings of this cardinal injirinces' wars, first
here is to be noted, that after long v.'ars between England
and Fr.iiice, in \'i2'\ it happened that the French king,
coming with his army towards Milan, at the siege of
Pavia, was there taken by the duke of Bourbon, and
viceroy of Naples, and so led prisoner into Spain. All
this while the cardinal held with the emperor, hoping
by him to be made pope; but when that could not be
obt.iined, he went clean from tlie emperor to the French
king.
After this victory, and the French king being taken
prisoner, through great labour and solicitation, as well
of others as of the cardinal and king Henry, conditions
were proposed between the French king and the em-
peror ; among which conditions it svas agreed, ttiat they
should resist the Turks and ojjpress the Lutherans, and
so the king was set at liberty, leaving behind him his
two eldest sons for pledges. But shortly after he re-
voked his oath, being absolved by the bishop of Rome,
and he said that he was forced to swear, or else he
should never have been delivered. A. D. 1526. Pope
Clement VII., seeing the French king restored to li-
berty, and doubting the power of the emperor in Italy,
absolves the French king from his oath, joins together a
confederacy of Venetians and other princes against the
emperor, bearing great hatred against all them that
favoured the emperor's part, especially the family of
Colonna in Rome ; and therefore to she-.v his hacreJ
against them, Clement said to Pompey, cardinal of that
family, in threatening words, " That he would take away
his cardinal's hat." To whom the cin-.Iinal answered,
" That if he did, he would put on a helmet to overthrow
the pojie's triple crown." Whereby it may appear what
holiness and virtue lies in the pope and cardinals of that
catholic see of Rome.
Thus the jiope, under the lying title of holiness, was
the father of much mischief and of great wars. For the
duke of Bourbon, and others of the emp.n-or's ca])tains,
having intelligence of the pope's pur])ose and confederacy,
gathered their army together, and after much bloodshed
and fighting, about Mdin and Cremona, at length ap-
proached and laid siege to Rome, and after three sharp
assaults obtained the city, with the whole spoil ; they J
besieged the pojie with his cardinals, in the castle of St. I
Angelo, and took him prisoner, A. D. ir>27. The cause "
of the besieging of Rome you have heard ; the manner of
the taking of Rome ind of the pope is thus described :
T7ie sackiny of Rome and taking of Pope Clement.
The emperor's army departing from Florence, took
counsel to go to Rome, and they travelled by night and
day, commonly travelling forty miles in a day and night, so
that on the sixth day of May, with banners displayed, they
came before the city of Rome, the Romans made bul-
warks, ramparts, and other defences, and placed ordnance
on the walls, and shot at them fiercely.
The duke of Bourbon determined that it was not best
to lie still and be slain with ordnance, considering that
they were all simple people, and without great ordnance ;
wherefore he determined to give the assault, and they
manfully approached the walls. But the Romans va-
liantly defended them with guns, pikes, stones, and
other weapons, so that their enemies were compelled to
retreat. Then the Jionians were glad and set many
fair banners on their towers and bulwarks, and made
great shouts ; which the duke of Bourbon seeing, cried
to a new assault. Then every man with a ladder
mounted the walls ; and at the first encounter, again
the Romans drove them back, which the duke of Bour-
bon perceiving, cried, ' God and the emi)eror !'' Then
every man manfully set on. There was a sore fight ;
many an arrow shot, and many a man slain ; but at last
the emperor's men got the wall. At the three assaults
were slain t'nree hundred Switzers of the pope's guard.
In this last assault the duke of Bourbon was wounded in
the thigh with a gunshot, of which he shortly after died ;
and notwithstanding this, the army entered into Rome,
and took the pope's palace, and set up the emperor's
arms.
The same day that these three assaults were made,
Pope Clement thought little of the emperor's army ; for
he had cursed them on the Saturday before ; and when
he was hearing mass, suddenly the Germans entered into
the church, and slew his guard and others. He fled in
all haste by a secret way to the castle of St. Angelo, and
all that followed him and could not enter, were slain ;
and if he had been taken he had been slain. The car-
dinals and other prelates fled to the castle of St. Aueelo,
over the bridge, where many of the common people were
trodden down as they gave way to the cardinals and
other estates, that passed toward the castle for succour.
The pope was in the castle of St. Angelo, and with
him were four-and-twinty cardinals, one thousand pre-
lates and priests, five hundred gentlemen, and five hun-
dred soldiers ; immediately the captains determined to
lay siege to the castle of St. Angelo. In the mean time
the soldiers fell to spoil. Never was Rome so plundered
A.D. 1527—1560.]
CARDINAL WOLSEY.
505
either by the Goths or Vandals ; for the soldiers were
not content with the spoil of the citizens, but they robbed
the churches, broke up the houses of close religious per-
sons, and overthrew the cloisters.
The duke D'Urbino, with fifteen thousand men, came
to aid the pope ; but hearing tliat Rome was taken, he
tarried forty miles from Rome, till he heard as;ain. The
marquis of Saluce, and Sir Frederico de Bodso, with
fifteen thousand footmen, and a thousand horsemen,
were at Virterbo, where, hearing that the city of Rome
•was taken, they also tarried. The cardinal of Colonna
came with an army of Neapolitans to help the emperor's
men, but when he saw tiie cruelty of the soldiers, he
did little to help them, but he hated them much.
The bishop of Rome was thus besieged till the 8th of
July ; at which day he yielded ; and then he was re-
stored to give graces, and grant bulls as he did before ;
but he tarried still in the castle of St. Angelo, and had a
great number of Germans and Spaniards to keep him ;
but the Spaniards bare most rule in the castle, for no
man entered, nor came out of the castle but by them.
When the month of July came, corn began to fail in
Rome, and the pestilence began to wax strong ; where-
fore the great army removed to a place called Nervia,
' forty miles from Rome, leaving behind them such as
i kept the bishop of Rome.
When the cardinal here in England heard how his
father of Rome was taken prisoner, he began to bestir
himself, and he laboured with the king all that he might,
to stir him up to fight with the pope against the em-
peror, and to be a defender of the church, which if he
would do, the cardinal persuaded him that he should
receive great reward at God's hand. The king an-
swered and said, " My Lord, I more lament this evil
chance than my tongue can tell ; but when you say that I
am the defender of the faith, I assure you, that this war
between the emperor and the pope is not for the faith,
but for temporal possessions and dominions ; and now
if Pope Clement is taken by men of war, what should I
do ? My person nor my people cannot rescue him ;
but if my treasure may help him, take that which seems
to you most convenient."
Thus the cardinal, when he could not obtain at the
king's hands what he wished, in stirring him up to
mortal war, he made out of the king's treasure twelve
score thousand pounds, which he carried over the sea
with him. After this, the cardinal sent his commission
as legate, to all the bishops, commanding fastings and
solemn processions to be had.
The cardinal, passing the seas with these sums of
money, departed from Calais, accompanied with Cuth-
bert Tonstal, bi-hop of London, the lord Sands, the
king's chamberlain, the earl of Derby, Sir Henry Guild-
ford, and Sir Thomas More, with many other knights
and squires, to the number of twelve hundred horse,
and having in his carriage fourscore wagons, and three-
score mules and horses of burden.
It were long to discourse in this place of the manifold
abuses and treasons which he practised when he came to
the French court, in converting the great sums of money
which he had obtained of the king for the relief and ran-
som of Pope Clement, who at that time was prisoner in the
emperor's army, and in bestowing it in the hiring of sol-
diers, and furnishing out the French king's army ; ap-
pointing also certain English captains, in the king of
England's name, to go against the emperor, to rescue
the pope ; all which army was paid with the king of
England's money.
Besides that, he privily by his letters caused Clarent,
king-at-arms, to join with the French herald, and
openly to defy the emperor ; by which there began
great displeasure between the emperor and the king.
Wlien, as the Spanish ambassador complained to the
cardinal, he laid all the fault upon Clarent ; saying that
Clarent had defied the emperor, without the king's
knowledge, at the request of the herald of France : and
therefore at his return he should lose his head at Calais.
Clarent being informed of this, took shipping and came
to England, into the king's presence before the cardinal
knew of it. Where he shewed the king the cardinal's
letter of commission, and declared the whole circum-
stances. When the king heard the whole circumstances,
and had a while mused upon it, he said, " O Lord Jesus !
he that I trusted most, told me all these things dif-
ferently. Well, Clarent, I will no more be so light of
credence hereafter ; for now I see well that I have been
made believe the thing that was never done." And
from that time forward the king never put any more
confidence in the cardinal.
The cause why the cardinal bore the emperor all this
malice appears to be tiiis, that when Pope Clement was
t;iken prisoner, he wrote to the emi)eror and requested
that he should make him pope. Hut when he received an
answer that did not pLase him, he waxed furious, and
sought all means to displease the emjieror, writing
many menacing letters, that if he would not make hioi
pope, he would make such a strife betwixt Christian
princes as had not been for a hundred years before, so
as to make the emperor repent it, even though it should
cost the whole realm of England.
The emperor made answer in a little book to the
many menacings of the cardinal, but especially to his
threat, that if ho would not make him pope, he would
fetch such a strife betwixt Chrisiirm princes as had not
been for a hundred years, though it should cost the
whole realm of England. The emperor bid him look
well about him, lest through his attem])ts he might bring
the matter in that case, that it should cost him the realm
of England indeed.
You have heard before, how that when Pope Clement
was prisoner in the emperor's arm> , the cardinal re-
quired the king, because he bore the title of " Defender
of the faith," that he would rescue the pope. Now,
by what means, and upon what occasion this title of
the "defender of the faith was given to the king, w^e
think it good to say somewhat in this place. When
Martin Luther had denounced and opposed tlie abomi-
nation of the pope and his clergy, and many books were
come into England, the cardinal here thinking to find a
remedy, sent immediately to Rome for this title of " de-
fender of the faith."
When this glorious title was come from Rome, the
cardinal brought it to the king at Greenwich ; and though
the king had had it already, and had read it, yet against
the morning were all the lords and gentlemen sent for, that
could in so short a space be gathered, to come and receive
it with honour. In the morning the cardinal vi-ent
through the back way into the friars observants, and
part of the gentlemen went round about, and welcomed
him from Rome : part met him half way, and some at
the court-gate. The king himself met him in the hall,
and brought him up into a great chamber, where was a
seat prepared on high for the king and the cardinal to
sit en, wliile the bull was read, ^^'liich pomj) all men
of wisdom and understanding laughed to scorn.
This done, the king went to his chapel to hear mass,
accompanied with many nobles of his realm, and am-
bassadors of sundry princes. The cardinal being re-
vested to sing mass, the earl of Essex brought the
bason of water, the duke of Suffolk gave the assay, and
the duke of Norfolk held the towel, and so he proceeded
to mass. When mass was done, the bull was again
published, the trumpets blew, the shawms and sack-
buts played in honour of the king's new title. Then the
king went to dinner ; in the midst of which the king of
heralds and his company began the largess, crying " Hen-
ricvs, Dei Gratia, Rex Anylice et Francice, Defensor
Fidel, et Dotninicns Hil/ernice.'" Thus were all things
ended with great solemnity.
All this while the cardinal was aspiring to be made
pope, and with that view he had Stephen Gardiner
shortly after sent ambassador to Rome, in the time of
Pope Clement VII.; and that for two special causes,
one was about the king's divorce, the other for pro-
moting the cardinal to be pope As touching the
divorce we will speak hereafter. In the meantime as
concerning the advancement of the cardinal, great labour
was made, as may appear in the letters, sent from the
cardinal to Stephen Gardiner, in which letters he soli-
cited Gardiner, by all means to pursue the suit, desiring
606
CARDINAL WOLSEV,
[Book VIII.
him to stick at no cost, so far as six or seven thousand
pounds would stretch ; for more, he said, he would not
give for the triple crown. Mark here, christian reader,
what an holy catholic church this is !
But we may here learn, how man purposes one thing
and how God disposes another. For the king's jjurpose
was to have the cardinal and legate of York placed in the
papal see, thinking by that means, if this cardinal had
been pope, his divorce might more easily be compassed,
which otherwise he thought impossible to contrive. But
God omnipotent, who only is the director of all affairs,
brought it otherwise to pass, not as the king devised,
but after his own wisdom ; so that both the divorce was
concluded, and yet neither Cardinal Wolsey was made
pope, nor yet had Pope Clement died. Yea, he so
ruled the matter, that notwithstanding Pope Clement
was alive, yet both the divorce proceeded, and also the
jiope's authority was thereby utterly extinct and abolished
out of this realm of England, to the singular admiration
of God's wondrous works, and perpetual praise to his
merciful goodness. Of which divorce, and suppressing
of tiie pope's authority, we have to make declaration.
But first, as we have begun with the cardinal of York,
so we will make an end of him. That done, we
will address ourselves to other matters of more jm-
jjortance.
As the ambassadors were travelling to Rome to pro-
mote the cardinal to be pope, although the poj)e was not
yet dead, the cardinal in the meantime was playing the
popish i)ersecutor here at home. For first, he, sitting
in his pontifical robes in the cathedral church of St.
Pavd's, under his cloth of state of rich cloth of gold,
caused Friar Barnes, an Augustinian Friar, to bear a
fagot, for some points which he called heresy. Also he
caused two merchants to bear fagots for eating flesh on
a Friday. At this time, the bishop of Rochester made
a sermon against Martin Luther, who had written against
the power of the bishop of Rome. This bishop in his
sermon spake so much of the honour of the pope and
his cardinals, and of their dignity and pre-eminency,
that he forgot to speak of the gospel which he took in
band to declare.
After this, the cardinal, A.D. 1528, sitting at West-
minster as legate, called before him the whole clergy,
and there promised that all abuses of the church should
be amended : but nothing else was done, save only he
caused Thomas Arthur, Thomas Bilney, Geoffery Loni,
and Thomas Gerrard, to abjure for speaking against the
pope's authority, and his pompous pride.
The next year, (A.D. 1529,) the question of the king's
marriage began to be revived. Upon which Cardinal
Campegio was sent again into England from Rome, for
the hearing and debating of the matter. He with Car-
dinal Wolsey, consulting with the king, although at first
he seemed to incline to the king's wishes, yet afterwards
perceiving the consequence of the case, that it might
shake perhaps the chair of the pope's authority, if this
case were thoroughly decided by the truth of God's
word ; he therefore, slipping his neck out of the collar,
craftily betook himself out of the realm, before the ap-
pointed day came for determination. The king, thus
seeing himself disappointed with false promises, and
craftily deluded by the cardinals, and after so many de-
lays and long expectation, and nothing concluded ; he
was grieved in his mind with them, but especially with
Cardinal Wolsey, whom he had before so highly exalted,
and promoted to so many great dignities ; as to the arch-
bishoprick of York, the bishojjrick of Winchester, of
Durham, the abbey of St. Alban's, besides the chancel-
lorsliip of England, and many other high offices and
preferments in the realm ; this induced him to cast him
out of favour, so that after that time he never came
iiidre into the king's jjresence.
Then followed a council of the nobles, which was sum-
moned for the Istof October. During which council all the
lords and others of the king's council, resorted to Wind-
sor to the king, and informed the king, that almost all
things which Wolsey had done, by his legatine )iower, were
in the case of praemunire : and that the cardinal iiad there-
by forfeited all his lands, tenements, goods and chattfds
to the king : so the king caused his attorney, Christo-
pher Hales, to sue out a writ of praemunire against him.
And on the 17th of November, he sent the two dukes
of Norfolk and Suffolk to his palace of Westminster, to
bring the great seal of England ; which he was unwil-
ling to deliver.
Besides this, the king sent Sir William Fitzwilliams,
knight of the garter, and treasurer of his house, and
Doctor Stephen Gardiner, newly-made secretary, to see
tliat no goods should be embezzled out of his house :
and further ordained, that the cardinal should remove to
Esher, beside Kingston, there to wait the king's plea-
sure, and to have all things delivered to hiiii, which
were necessary for him, but not after his old pon;pous
and superfluous fashion ; for all his goods were seized
to the king's use. When the seal was thus taken from
the cardinal, the dukes of Norfolk and Suflblk, with
many earls, bishops, and Iwrons, came to the Star-
chamber on the 19th of October, when the duke of Nor-
folk declared, that the king's highness for many and
various offences had taken from him his great seal and
deposed him from all his offices : and lest men might
complain for lack of justice, he had appointed him and
the duke of Suffolk, with the assent of the other lords, to
sit in the chamber, to hear and determine causes : and
so that week they sate in the Star-chamber, and deter-
mined causes.
A few days after, in the same month, the cardinal
removed out of his house called York place : and so he
took his barge, and went to Putney by water, and there
took his horse and rode to Esher, where he remained
till after Lent.
During which time, being called for an answer in the
king's bench to the praemunire, for giving benefices by
pre-emption, in disturbance of men's inheritance, and
other open causes in the prjEmunire, according to the
king's license, he constituted John Scute and Edmond
Jenney, apprentices of the law, his attorneys, who by
his own warrant signed with his own hand, confessed all
things concerning the suit, for they were too open to be
cloaked or hidden ; and so judgment was given, that he
should forfeit all his lands, tenements, goods, and chat-
tels and should be out of the king's protection ; but for
all that, the king sent him a sufficient protection, and of
his gentleness left to him the bishoprics of York and
Winchester, and gave him plate and stuff convenient
for his degree ; and the bishopric of Durham he gave to
Doctor Tonstal bishop of London, and the abbey of
St. Alban's he gave to the prior of Norwich : and to
London he promoted Doctor John Stokesley, the am-
bassador to the universities, for the marriage, as you have
heard before. For all this kindness shewed to the car-
dinal, yet still he maligned the king, as we shall here-
after relate. But first we will proceed in the course of
these matters, as they passed in order.
The following year, A.D. 1530, in the month of No-
vember, was summoned a general parliament, to be held
at Westminster. In which year, about the 23rd day of
October, the king came to his manor of Greenwich, and
there consulted with his council, for a meet man to be
his chancellor, so that in no wise he were a man of the
clergy : and so after long debate, the king resolved to
appoint Sir Thomas More, knight, chancellor of the duchy
of Lancaster, a man well learned in the languages, and
also in the common law ; whose wit was fine, and full of
imagination.
We stated before, how a council of the nobles was
appointed by the king in October, to assemble in the
Star-chamber about the cardinal's matter : and also how
a parliament was summoned to begin in the month of
November, in the following year, 1530. At the begin-
ning of which parliament, after More the new chancel-
lor had finished his oration, the commons were com-
manded to choose a speaker, who was Thomas Audley,
Esquire, and attorney to the duchy of Lancaster. Thus
the parliament being begun the sixth day of November,
at Westminster, where the king with all the lords were
set in the parliament chamber, the commons, after they
had presented tlieir speaker, assembled in the lower
house, and began to debate upon their grievances, where-
A.D. 152/— 1560.] CHARGES AGAINST THE CLERGY OF ENGLAND.
507
with the clergv had grievously oppressed them, contrary
both to all right, and to the law of the reahn, and es-
pecially in these six great causes.
Grievances against the Clergy of England.
1. The first, for the excessive fines which the ordi-
naries took for probates of testaments, so that Sir Henry
Guilford, knight of the garter, and controller of the
king's house, declared in the open parliament, that he
and others being executors to Sir William Compton,
knigiit, paid for the probate of his vpill, to the cardinal
and the archbishop of Canterbury, a thousand marks
sterling.
2. The second cause was, the great taxing and extreme
exaction which the spiritual men used, in taking of pre-
sents, or mortuaries.
3. The third cause was, that priests being surveyors,
stewards, and officers to bishops, abbots, and other
spiritual heads, held and occupied farms, granges, and
grazing in every county, so that the poor husbandmen
could have nothing but from them, and yet for that they
paid dearly.
4. The fourth cause was, that abbots, priors, and spiri-
tual men kept tan-houses, and bought and sold wool,
cloth, and all manner of merchandise, as other temporal
merchants did.
5. The fifth cause was, because the spiritual persons who
were promoted to great benefices, and having their livings
of their flock, were lying in the court in lords' houses,
and took every thing from their parishioners, and spent
nothing on them : so that for want of residence both
the poor of the parish lacked refreshing, and universally
all the parishioners lacked preaching and true instruc-
tion of God's word, to the great peril of their souls.
6. The sixth cause was, because one priest, being little
learned, had ten or twelve benefices, and was resident
on none, and many well learned scholars in the univer-
sity, who were able to preach and teach, had neither
benefice nor exhibition.
These things before this time might in no wise be
touched, nor yet talked of by any man, except he would
be made an heretic, or lose all that he had : for the
bishops were chancellors, and had all the rule about the
king, so that no man durst once presume to attempt any
thing contrary to their profit or commodity.
But now, wlieii God had illuminated the eyes of the
king, and the time so served, that men dare more boldly
express what they had long conceived in their heart
against the clergy; the burgesses of the parliament ap-
pointed men learned in the law, to draw one bill of the
probates of testaments, another for mortuaries, and the
third for non-residence, pluralities, and taking farms by
spiritual men.
Now to return to the cardinal again. During the time
of the parliament, there was brought down to the com-
mons the book of articles which the lords had put up to
the king against the cardinal. The chief articles were
these.
Articles objected against Cardinal Wolsey.
1. First, that he without the king's consent had pro-
cured himself to be appointed a legate, by which he took
away the right of all bishops and spiritual persons.
2. In all writing that he wrote to Rome, or to any other
prince, he wrote Ego et Rex mens, " I and my king,"
as one who would say, that the king was his servant.
3. That he slandered the church of England to the
court of Rome : for his suggestion to be legate, was to
reform the church of England.
4. He without the king's consent carried the king's
great seal with him into Flanders, when he was sent am-
bassador to the emperor.
5. Without the king's consent he sent a commission to
Sir Gregory de Cassali, knight, to conclude a league
between the king and the duke of Ferrara.
6. That he caused the cardinal's hat to be put on the
king's coin.
7 . That he had sent innumerable substance to Rome,
for the obtaining of his dignities, to the great impover-
ishment of the realm. With many other things which
are touched more at large in chronicles.
These articles, with many more, being read in the
commons' house, were confessed by the cardinal, and
signed with his hand. Also there was shewn another
writing sealed with his seal, by which he gave to the
king all his possessions.
You have heard, how the cardinal was attainted in
the prsemunire, and how he was put out of the office of
the chancellor, and lay at Esher : which was in 1530.
The next year after, in the Lent season, the king by the
advice of his council, licensed him to go into his diocese
of York, and gave him command to kee]) within his
diocese, and not to return southward, without the king's
special license in writing.
So he made great provision to go northward, and
newly apparelled his servants, and bought many costly
things for his household. But some of his servants at
this time departed from him to the king's service, and
especially 'TJiomas Cromwell, one of his chief council,
and princi))al agent for him in the suppression of abbeys.
After all things necessary for his journey were prepared,
he took his journey northward, till he came to South-
well, which was in his diocese, and there he continued
that year, but the lands he had given to his colleges in
Oxford and Ipswich were now come to the king's hands,
by his attainder in the praemunire : and yet the king of
his gentleness, and for favour that he bore to good learn-
ing, erected again the college in Oxford, and where it
was named the Cardinal's College, he called it the King's
College, and endowed it with fair possessions, and or-
dained new statues and ordinances ; and because the
college of Ipswich was thought not to be profitable, he
left that dissolved.
Notwithstanding that the cardinal of York was thus
attainted in the praemunire, yet the king being good to
him, had granted him the bishoprics of York and Win-
Chester, with great substance, and had licensed him to
abide in his diocese of York, where he so continued the
space of a year. But in the year following, which was
A.D. 1531," he wrote to the court of Rome, and to other
princes, letters in reproach of the king, and, as much as
in him lay, he stirred them to revenge his cause against
the king and his realm, so that opprobrious words against
the king were spoken to Doctor Edward Karne, the king's
ambassador at Rome. And it was said to him, that on the
cardinal's account the king should have the worse speed in
the suit of his divorce and marriage. The cardinal also
would speak fair to the people, to win their hearts, and
declared ever that he was unjustly and untruly dealt
with. Which fair speaking made many men believe that
he spoke truly. And to gentlemen he gave great gifts
to allure them to him ; and to be had in more reputation
among the people, he determined to be installed, or en-
throned at York, with all the pomp that might be, and
caused a throne to be erected in the cathedral church
to such a height and fashion as was never seen, and sent
to all the lords, abbots, priors, knights, esquires, and
gentlemen of his diocese, to be at his manor of Cawood,
on the sixth day of Nov., and so to bring him to York
with all manner of pomp and solemnity.
The king, who knew of his doings, dissembled the
matter, to see what he would do at length, till finding
his proud heart so highly exalted, that he would be tri-
umphantly installed without making the king privy, yea,
and in a manner in disdain of the king, he thought it
not meet nor convenient to sufTer him any longer to con-
tinue in his malicious and proud purposes. Wherefore
he directed his letters to the earl of Northumberland,
commanding him with all diligence to arrest the cardinal,
and to deliver him to the earl of Shrewsbury, great
steward of the king's household. When the earl had
seen the letters, he with a convenient number came to the
manor of Cawood, on the 4th of Nov., and when he was
brought to the cardinal in his chamber, he said to him :
" My lord, I pray you be patient, for here I arrest you.'
" Arrest me 1" said the cardinal. " Yea, said the earl ;
" I have a commandment so to do." " You have no
«cch power," said the cardinal ; " for I am both a car-
508
CARDINAL WOLSEY ARRESTED.— HIS DEATH.
[Book VIII.
dinal, and a legate De Latere, and a peer of the college
of Rome, and ought not to be arrested by any temporal
power ; for I am not subject to that power ; wlierefore,
if you arrest me I will withstand it." " Well," said the
earl, " here is the king's commission, and therefore T
charge you to obey." The cardinal somewhat remem-
bered himself, and said : " Well, my lord, I am content
to obey ; but although by negligence I ftU into the ])u-
nishiiient of the prsemunire, and lost by the law all my
lands and goods, yet my person was in the king's protec-
tion, and I was pardoned that offence ; wherefore I
marvel why I now should be arrested, and especially
considering that I am a member of the see apostolic, on
whom no temporal man ought to lay violent hands. 1
see the king lacketh good counsel." " Well," said the
earl ; " when I was sworn warden of the marshes, you
yourself told me, I might with my staff arrest all men
under the degree of a king ; and now I am stronger,
for I have a commission so to do, whicli you have seen."
The cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in a privy
chamber, and his goods seized, and his officers dis-
charged.
M'hen the cardinal was thus arrested, the king sent
Sir William Kingston, knight, captain of the guard, and
constable of the Tower of London, with yeomen of the
guard to Sheffield, to fetch the cardinal to the Tovver.
When the cardinal saw the captain of the guard, he was
astonished, and shortly became sick ; for he perceived
some great trouble coming on him, and he took so much
of a strong purgation, that his nature was not able to bear
it. But Sir William Kingston comforted him, and by
easy journeys brought him to the abbey of Leicester, on
the 27th of Nov., where, for very feebleness of nature,
caused by purgations and vomits, he died the second
night following, and lies buried in the abbey.
By the ambitious pride and excessive worldly wealth
of this one cardinal, all men may easily understand and
judge what the state and condition of all the rest of the
same order was in those days, as well in all other places
of Christendom, as especially here in England, where
the princely possessions and great pride of the clergy
did not only far exceed the common measure and order
of subjects, but also surmounted over kings and princes,
and all other estates.
Among other acts of the cardinal, this is not to be for-
gotten, that he founded a new college in Oxford, for the
supply of which he had gathered together all the best
learned men he could, among which number were these :
Clark, Tindal, Sommer, Frith, and Taverner, with
Others, who, holding an assembly together in the college,
were accounted to be heretics, and were cast into a pri-
son of the college where salt fish lay, and through the smell
of which the most part of them were infected, and Clark
being a tender young man, and the most singular in
learning among them all, died in the prison.
And thus having detained the reader enough, or rather
too much, with this vain-glorious cardinal, now we will
bring back our history again to more fruitful matter,
and, as the order of time requireth, we will first begin
with Master Humphry Mummuth, a virtuous and a good
alderman of London, who in the time of the cardinal was
troubled, as in the history here followeth :
The trouble of Humphry Mummuth, Alderman of
London.
Master Humphry Mummuth was a right godly and
sincere alderman of London, who in the days of Cardinal
Wolsey was troubled and put in the Tower, for the
gospel of Christ, and for maintaining them that favoured
it.
Stokesley, then bishop of London, objected articles to
him, to the number of four-and-twenty ; as for adher-
ing to Luther and his opinions ; for having and reading
heretical hooks and treatises ; for giving exhibition to
William Tindal, Joy, and such others ; for helping them
over the sea to Luther ; for ministering private help to
translate, as well the Testament, as other books into
English; for eating flesh in Lent ; for affirming that faith
only justifies ; for derogating from men's constitutions;
for not praying to saints, not allowing pilgrimage, auri-
cular confession, or the pope's pardons ; brieti)% for be-
ing an advancer of all Martin Luther's opinions, &c.
Being examined and cast into the Tower, he at last
was compelled to make his suit or purgation, writing to
the cardinal, then lord chancellor, and the whole council,
out of the Tower. In which he answered to the accu-
sation of those who charged him witii certain books re-
ceived from beyond the sea ; also for his ac<iuaiiitance
with Master Tindall. He said, that he denied not, but
that four years then past he had heard Tindall preacii two
or three sermons at St. Dunstan's in the West, and th itaf-
terwards meeting with Tindal, he had certain communica-
tion with him concerning his living, and was tlien told by bim
that he had none at all, but trusted to be in the bishop of
London's service ; for he then laboured to be his chap-
lain. But being refused by the bi.shop, he came ag;i!n to
Mummutli, and besought him to help him, who the same
time took him into his house for half a year; wnere
Tindal lived like a good priest, studying bo'rh night and
day. Me would eat but sodden meat by his good will
nor drink but small single beer, lie was never seen in
tiiat house to wear linen about him, all the space of his
being there. Whereupon Mummuth had the better lik-
ing to him, so that he promised him ten pounds, as he
then said, for his father's and motlier's souls, and all chris-
tian souls, with which money he afterwards sent him over
to Hamburgh according to his promise. And yet not to
him alone he gave this exhibition, but to others likewise
who were not heretics ; as to Doctor Royston, the bishop
of London's chaplain, he exhibited forty or fifty pounds;
to Doctor Wodiall, provincial of the Augustinian friars ;
as much or more to Doctor Watson, the king's chaplain ;
also to other scholars and priests ; besides other charges
bestowed upon religious houses, as upon the nunnery of
Denney, above fifty pounds sterling.
And as touching liis books, of which some were left with
him by William Tindal, some he sent to him, and some
were brought into his house, by whom he could not tell ;
these books, he said, did lie open in his house, for the space
of two years together, he suspecting no harm to be in them.
And moreover the same books being desired by different
persons, as of the abbess of Denney, a friar of Green-
wich, the father confessor of Sion, and many others, he
let them have them, and yet never heard friar, priest, or
laymen, find any fault with the books.
Thus he excusing himself, and moreover complaining
of the loss of his credit by his imprisonment in the
Tower, and of the injury to his trade, who was wont
formerly to send abroad five hundred pieces of cloths, and
set many clothiers to work in Suffolk, and in other places,
of whom he bought all their cloths, who were now almost
all undone ; at length he was set at liberty, being forced
to abjure, and after he was made knight by the king, and
sheriflf of London.
The History of Thomas Hitten,
Touching the memorial of Thomas Hitten, nothing
remains in writing, but only his name, save that William
Tindal in his apology against More, and also in another
book intituled "The practice of prelates," once or twice
makes mention of him. He vvas, says he, a preacher at
Maidstone, whom the bishop of Canterbury, William
Warham, and Fisher, bishop of Rochester, had long
kept and tormented in prison with sundry torments, and
notwithstanding that he continued constant ; at last they
burned him at Maidstone, for the constant and manifest
testimony of Jesus Christ, and of his free grace and sal-
vation, A.D. 1530.
Thomas Bilney, and Thomas Arthur, who abjured at
Norwich, A.D. 1531.
In the history of Cardinal Wolsey, mention was made
of some whom the Cadinal caused to abjure ; as Bilney,
Geoffery Loni, Garret, Barnes, and others, of whom we
have now specially to treat. This Thomas Bilney was
brought up in the University of Cambridge, even from
a child, profiting in all kind of liberal sciences, even to
A.D. 1527—1560.] THE EXAMINATION OF THOMAS BILNEY AND THOMAS ARTHUR.
the profession of both laws. But at last havinij got a
better school-master, even the Holy Spirit of Christ, who
endued his heart with the knowledge of better and more
wholesome things, he came at last to this point, th it,
forsaking the knowledge of man's laws, he converted his
study to those things which ti«ided more unto godliness
thin profit
As he was greatly inflamed with the love of true re-
llo-ion and godliness, even so there w;is in his heart an
incredible desire to allure many to the same, desiring
nothing moi-e, thin that he might stir up and encourage
any to the love of Christ and sincere religion. Neither
were his libours vain ; for he converted many of his
followers to the knowledge of the gospel, among which
number was Thomas Arthur, and Master Hugh Latimer;
Latimer at that time was cross-keeper at Cambridge,
bringing it forth upon procession days. At last, Bilney,
forsaking tlie University, went to many places, teaching
and preaching, being associated with Arthur, who accom-
panied him from the University. Tlie authority of
Thomas Wo'sey cardinal of York, of whom mention
hds been made before, at that time was great in Eng-
land, but his pomp and pride much greater. Where-
upon Bilney, with other good men, marvelling at the
incredille iu>olence of the clergy, whom they could now
no longer suffer or abide, began to shake and reprove
this excessive pomp of the clergy, and also to question
the authority of the bishop of Rome.
Then it was time for the cardinal to awake, and
speedily to look about his business. Neither lacked he
in this point any craft or subtlety of a serpent ; for he
understood well enough upon what slender a foundation
their ambitions dignity was grounded, neither was he
ignorant that their luciferous and proud kingdom could
not long continue against the manifest word of God ; espe-
cially if the lij,ht of the gospel should once open the eyes
of men. For otherwise he did not greatly fear the power
and displeasure of kings and princes. Orily this he
feared, the voice of Christ in his gospel, lest it should
disclose and detect their hypocrisy and deceits, and force
them to come into godly discipline: wherefore he thought
good speedily in time to withstand the:.e beginnings.
So he caused Bilney and Arthur to be apprehended and
east into prison.
After this, on the 27th Nov. A.D. 1527, the cardinal
accompanied with a great number of bishops, as the
archbishop of Canterbury, Cuthbert of London, John of
Rochester, Nicholas of Ely, John of Exeter, John of
Lincoln, John of Bath and Wells, Henry of St. Asaph,
■with many other divines and lawyers, came into the
chapter-house of Westminster, where master Thomas
Bilney, and Thomas Arthur were brought before them,
and the cardinal inquired of Master Bilney, whether he
had, jirivattly or publicly, preached or taught to the
people the ojjinions of Luther or any other condemned
by the church, contrary to the determination of the
church. Bilney answered, that knowingly he had not
preached or taught any of Luther's opinions, or any
other, contrary to the catholic church. Then the car-
dinal asked him, whether he had not once made an oath
before, That he should not preach, rehearse, or defend
any of Luther's opinions, but should impugn the same
every where .■' He answered. That he had made sui h an
oath, but not lawfully. The cardinal then caused him
to swear, to answer plainly to the articles and errors
preached and set forth by him ; as well in the city and
diocese of London, as in the diocese of Norwich and
other places, and that he should do it without any craft,
qualifying or leaving out any part of the truth.
After he was thus sworn and e.\amined, the cardinal
proceeded to the examination of Master Thomas Arthur,
causing I'.im to take the like oath. Which done, he asked
of him whether he had not once told Sir Thomas More,
Kt., that in the sacrament of the altar there was not the
very body of Christ .' M hich interrogatory he denied.
Then the cardinal gave him time to deliberate till noon,
and to bring in his answer in writing.
The second day of December, the bishops assembled
again, and sware witnesses against Master Bilney. That
done tliey called for Master Arthur ; to whose charge
they laid these articles following.
Articles against Thomas Arthur.
1. That he exhorted the j)eople in his praycs, to pray
specially for those that are now in prison. Which article
he denied.
2. That he said. Though men are restrained from
preaching now-a-days, yet I may preach : First, By the
Hutliority of my lord cardinal ; for I have his license.
Secondly, By the authority of the University. Thirdly,
By the pope. Fourthly, By the authority of God,
wliere he saith, " Go preach the gospel to every crea
ture." By which authority every man may preach, and
there is neither bishop nor ordinary, nor yet the pope,
that may make any law to prevent any man preaching the
gospel. This article he confessed
'.'). He said that when there were but a few holy and de-
vout laws in the church, then men were afraid to oflend
tliem. Afterwards they made many laws for their advan-
tage; and such as were pecuniary, those they observed ; and
such as are not pecuniary, those they regard not : and so
now-a-days there are so many laws, that whether a man
do ill or well, he shall be taken in the law. He con-
fessed that he spake thus.
4. He said. Good people, if I should suffer persecu-
tion for the preaching of the gospel of God, yet there are
seven thousand more that would preach the gospel of
God as I do now. Therefore, good people, think not
that if these tyrants and persecutors put a man to death,
the preaching of the gospel is therefore to be forsaken.
This article he confessed, except that he made no men-
tion of tyrants,
5. That every man, yea, every layman, is a priest.
He confessed that he spake such words, declaring in his
sermon, ihat every christian man is a priest, offering up
the sacrifice jf piayer.
6. That men should not pray to saints in heaven, but
only to God; and they should use no other mediator
bit Christ Jesus our only Redeemer. This article he
denied.
7. He preached that they should not worship images
of saints, which were nothing but stocks and stones.
This he also denied. *
8. He preached upon Whitsimday last, within the
LTniversity of Cambridge, That a bachelor of divinity
admitted of the University, or any other person having
or knowing the gospel of God, should go forth and
preach in every place : and if any bishop did accurse
them for so doing, their curses woidd turn to the con-
demnation of themselves. He confessed this.
Wliich answers thus made and acknowledged, master
Arthur did revoke and condemn the articles objected
against him, and submitted himself to the punishment
and judgment of the church.
The third day of December, the bishop of London
with the other bishops assembling again, after Bilney
had refused to return to the church of Rome, the bishop
of London in discharge of his conscience (as he said)
lest he should hide any thing that had come to his hands,
exhibited to the notaries, in the presence of Master Bil-
ney, certain letters, to wit, five letters or epistles, with
one schedule in one of the epistles, containing his
articles and answers folded therein, and another epistle
folded in manner of a book, with six leaves; all which
he commanded to be written out and registered, and the
originals to be delivered to him again.
Here Jblloirs a Sitmmary of certain Depositions, on the
inquiry of Master Bilney' s Doctrine and Preaching.
First, it was deposed, That in his sermon in Christ's
church in Ipswich, he should preach and say, our Sa-
viour Christ is our Mediator between us and the Father:
what should we need then to seek any saint for a
remedy } Wherefore, it is great injury to the blood of
Christ, to make such petitions, and blasphemes our Sa-
510
BILNEY'S ANSWER TO THE ARTICLES OBJECTED AGAINST HLM, [Book VIII.
That man is so imperfect of himself, that he can in no
wise merit by his own deeds.
Also, that the coming of Christ was long prophesied
before, and desired by the prophets : but John Baptist,
being more than a prophet, did not only prophesy, but
with his finger shewed him : " Behold the Lamb of God
wliich taketh away the sin of the world." Then if this
were the very Lamb that taketh away the sins of the
world, what an injury it is to our Saviour Christ, for any
one to say that to be buried in St. Fninci.->' Cowl slioukl
remit four jiarts of penance ! what is then left to our Sa-
viour Christ, who taketh away the sins of the world ? Tliis
1 will justify to be a great blasphemy to the blood of Christ.
Also, that it was a great folly to go on pilgrimage, and
that preachers in times past have been antichrists ; and
now it hath pleased God somewhat to shew forth their
falsehood and errors.
Also, that the miracles done at Walsingham, at Can-
terbury, and in Ipswich, were done by the devil, through
the sufferance of God, to blind the poor people : and
that the pope hath not the keys that Peter had, e.xcept
he follow Peter in his living.
Moreover, it was deposed against him. That he was
notoriously suspected as a heretic, and twice pulled out
of the pulpit in the diocese of Norwich.
Also, it was deposed against him, That he, in the
parish-church of Willesden, exhorted the people to put
away their gods of silver and gold, and leave off their
offerings to them. Also, that Jews and Saracens would
have become christian men long ago, had it not been for
the idolatry of christian men, in offering of candles, wax,
and money to stocks and stones.
Over and besides these matters deposed against him,
here follow other articles gathered out of his sermon,
which lie preached in the parish church of St. Magnus,
in Whitsun week, (A. D. 1527.)
He said, pray only to God, and not to saints, in re-
hearsing the Litany; and when he came to " Holy
Mary, pray for us," he said, Stop there.
He said, that christian men ought to worship God
only, and not saints.
He said, that christian people should set up no lights
before the images of saints : for saints in heaven need no
light, fwid the images have no eyes to see.
He said, as Hezekiah destroyed the brazen serpent
that Moses made by the commandment of God ; even so
should kings and princes now-a-days destroy and burn
the ima.'^es of saints set up in churches.
These five hundred years there has been no good
pope, nor in all the times past can we find but fifty ; for
they have neither preached, nor lived well, or conform-
ably to their dignity. Wherefore, till now they have
born the keys of simony. Against whom, good people,
we must preach to you. For we cannot come to them ;
it is a great pity : they have sore slandered the blood of
Christ.
The people have foolishly of late gone upon pilgrim-
ages, who had been better had they been at home.
Many have made vows, which are not possible for
them to fulfil.
The preachers before this have been antichrists, and
now it has j)leased our Saviour Christ to shew their false
errors, and to teach another way and manner of the holy
gospel of Christ, to the comfort of your souls.
I trust that there shall and will come others besides
me, who s-hall shew and preach to you the same faith
and manner of living that I shew and preach to you,
which is the very true gospel of our Saviour Christ, and
the mind of the holy fathers, whereby you shall be
brought from their errors, wherein you have been long
seduced : for before this there have been many that
have slandered you, and the gospel of our Saviour
Christ.
These and many other such like charges were deposed
against him by the deponents and witnesses. But now,
before we return again to his examination, we here in-
sert a dialogue between a friar named John Brusierd,
and Master Thomas Bilney, as written down by the
friar himself.
A Dialogvp hefween Friar John Brusierd and Master
Thomas Bilnei/, in Jjjstvich, concerning worshipping of
Images.
Brusierd. — Although you have blasphemed most perni-
ciously the immaculate flock of Christ with certain blas-
phemies, yet, being moved partly with our gentle peti-
tions, partly pitying your case, I am come here to talk
with you secretly. When you began to shoot the dart
of your pestiferous error, more vehemently than you
ought, against the breast of the ignorant multitude, you
seem to pour upon the ground the precious blood of
Christ, as with a certain vehement violence out of the
miserable vessel of your heart. Where you said that
none of the saints make intercession for us, nor obtain
for us any thing, you have blasphemed the efficacy of
the whole church, consecrated with the precious blood
of Christ. Which thing you can not deny, especially as
there is such incessant knocking at the gates of heaven,
through the continual intercession of the saints, as ap-
pears in the sevenfold Litany.
Bilney. — I mar^-el at you, and cannot marvel enough,
but that the vain custom of superstitious men, thinking
themselves not heard but in much talking, doth put an a
end to my wonder. For our heavenly Father knoweth
what we have need of before we ask. Also it is written,
" There is one Mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus." If then there be but one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, where is
our blessed lady .' Where is then St. Peter and other
saints .'
Brusierd. — I suppose that no man is ignorant, but
that the divines of the primitive church have all affirmed
that there is one Mediator between God and men.
Neither could any at any time praise or pray to the
saints, when yet they were living in the calamities of
this body, and, wrestling with the winds of this world,
were not yet come to the port of rest to which they were
travelling. Paul (I grant) did rightly affirm that there was
but one Mediator between God and men, for as yet there
was no saint canonized or put into the Calendar. But
now seeing the church knows, and certainly believes,
through the undoubted revelations of God, that the
blessed Virgin and other saints are placed in the bosom
of Abraham, she, therefore, like a good mother, has
taught, and that most diligently, her children, to praise
the Omnipotent Jesus in his saints ; and also to offer up
by the same saints our petitions to God. It is that that
the psalmist saith, " Praise ye the Lord in his saints."
Rightly also do we say and affirm, That saints may pray
for us. One man may pray for another, therefore, much
more may saints that do enjoy the fruition of his High
Majesty. For so it is written, " God is my witness,
whom I serve in my spirit, in the gospel of his Son, that
without ceasing I remember you in my prayer always
for you," &c. Rom. i. 9.
Bilney. — I marvel that you, a learned man, are not
yet delivered out of the dungeon of heresy through the
help of the holy gospel : especially seeing that in the
same gospel it is written, " Verily, verily, I say unto
you, whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will
give it you," John xvi. 23. He saith not, whatsoever
ye ask the Father in the name of St. Peter, St. Paul, or
other saints, but in mg name. Let us ask therefore
help in the name of Him, who is able to obtain for us
whatever we ask, lest, peradventure, hereafter in the end
of the world, at the judgment, we shall hear, " Hitherto
in my name ye have asked nothing."
Brusierd. — Where ye marvel that I, a learned man, as
you say, am not delivered yet from the dungeon of
heresy through the help of the gospel : much more do
you, who are far better learned than I, cause me to
marvel at your foolish wonder. Nor can I choose but
laugh at you, as one rapt to the third heaven of such
high mysteries, and yet see not those things which are
done here in the lower parts of philosophy : for what a
ridiculous thing is it for a man to look so long upon the
sun, that he can see nothing else but the sun .' More-
over, what student is there in all Cambridj^e, be he never
A. D. 1527—1560.] A DIALOGUE BETWEEN BILNEY AND FRIAR BRUSIERD.
511
so young, that knows not, that the argument of au-
thority, brought out negativelj', has no force ?
Bihiey. — As the pharisees took Christ, so you take
my words otherwise than I meant.
Brusierd. — Your words, which wander far from the
scope of scripture, I do not like. What is in your
meaning, and lies inwardly in your mind, I cannot tell.
Bilney. — Such as invoke the help either of Christ, or
of any other saint, for any corporal infirmity, may be
well resembled to delicate patients, who, being under
the hand of physicians, and having medicines ministered
for their diseases, not abiding the pain tliereof, fling all
away : therefore, I say, no man ought to implore the
help of God, or of any saint, for corporal infirmity.
Brusierd. — O most pernicious and perilous heresy of
all that ever I have heard ! Thus you escaping from the
smoke, fall into the fire, and, avoiding the danger of
Scylla, you run upon Charybdis. O heart of man
wrapped in palpable darkness ! 1 wish. Master Bilney,
that you would but once search out the first origin of
tnese Rogation days : for so we read in the churcli his-
tory, that they were first ordained by Pope Gregory,
with fasting, prayers, and holy processions, against the
pestilencp. then reigning among the people. At which
time, the people going in the procession, a certain image
like to our blessed Lady, painted with the hands of St.
Luke the evangelist, went before them, about which
image, in the honour of the Virgin, angels sung this
anthem : " O queen of heaven be glad," &c. To
which anthem, the pope also adjoined this, " Pray to
the Lord for us." Wherefore, seeing the angels
worshipped the image of the dorious Virgin Mary, and
seeing the holy father. Pope Gregory, with all the
clergy, did pray for corporal infirmity, it appears mani-
festly that we ought to worsliip the saints, and also
to give honour in a manner to their images : further,
also, to pray to Almighty God and all saints for corpo-
ral infirmity, that we may be delivered from the same, so
that they may say the like for us, which is said in the
gospel, " Send them away, because they cry after us."
And although there are infinite places in the" holy scrip-
ture, wherewith we might easily resist your error, yet,
standing herewith content, as sufficient, we will proceed
to your second pestiferous error, wherein you, like an
ungrateful child, go about to tear out the bowels of your
mother. For whom you affirm blasphemously,' the
bishop of Rome to be the very antichrist, and that his
privileges have no force against the gates of hell : in so
saying, what do you but like a most unkind and un-
natural child, spoil your loving mother of all her trea-
sures, and wound her most miserably upon the earth ?
But as there is nothing so absurd, or so heretical, but
shall be received by some itching ears : I would therefore
now hear you declare, how he sits in the temple of God,
as God, being exalted and worshipped above all that is
named . God, or how he sheweth himself as Lord in
power and signs, and deceitful wonders.
Bilney.— Although incredulity does not suffer you to
understand these things, yet I will help your incredulity,
through the aid of the Lord, beseeching you, that set-
ting all superstition apart, you wiU understand those
things that are above. Do ye know the table of the
ten commandments .'
Brusierd.— According as the catholic doctors do ex-
pound them, I know them : but how you expound them
I cannot tell.
Bilney.— And do you know also the constitutions of
men, which are devised only by the dreams of men, to
which men are so straightly bound, that under pain of
death they are compelled to observe them ?
Brusierd. — I know certain sanctions of the holy
fathers, but such as you speak of as devised by men's
dreams, I know none.
Bilney.— Now then let us set and compare these two
together, and you shall easily understand that the bishop
of Rome, whom they call the pope, sits in the temple of
God, as God, to be extolled above all that is named God.
It is written, " The temple of the Lord is holy, which
temple ye are." Therefore the conscience of man is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, in which temple, I will prove
the pope to sit as God, and to be exalted above all that
is called God. Whoso condemns the decalogue, or the
table of the commandments of God, there is but a small
punishment for him, neither is that punishment to death,
but he that shall contemn or violate the constitutions,
which you call the sanctions of men, is counted by aU
men's judgment guilty of death ! What is this, but
that the bishop of Rome sits and reigns in the temple of
God ; that is, in man's conscience, as God ?
Brusierd. — Although this exposition seems unworthy
for christian ears, yet I would hear you further how he
shews himself in signs and deceitful wonders.
Bilney. — These wonders, which they call miracles, are
wrought daily in the church, not by the power of God,
as many think, but by the illusion of Satan, who, as the
scripture witnesseth, has been loose five hundred years,
according as it is written in the book of the Revelation,
" After a thousand years Satan shall be loosed," &c.
Neither are they to be called miracles of true christian
men, but illusions rather, whereby to delude men's
minds, to make them put their faith in our Lady, and in
other saints, and not in God alone, to whom be honour
and glory for ever.
Brusierd. — But that I believe and know that God and
all his saints will take everlasting revenge upon thee, I
would surely with these nails of mine be thy death, for
this horrible and enormous injury against the precious
blood of Christ. God saith, " 1 will not the death of a
sinner, but rather that he be converted and live." And
thou blasphemest him, as though he should lay secret
snares of death for us that we should not know them.
Which, if it were true, we might well say with Hugh de
Saint Victore in this manner: — " If it be an error, it is
of thee, O God, that we are deceived ; for they be con-
firmed with such signs and wonders, as cannot be don^
but by Thee." But I am assured it is untrue and hereti-
cal : and therefore I will leave this matter, and will talk
with you concerning the merits of saints. For once I
remember, in a certain sermon of yours you said, " That
no saint, though his suffering were never so great, and
his life most pure, deserved any thing for us with God,
either by his death or his Ufe." Which is contrary to
St. Augustine.
Bilney. — Christ saith one thing, St. Augustine another ;
Whether of these two shall we believe .' For Christ,
willing to deliver vis out of this dark dungeon of ignor-
ance, gave forth a certain parable of ten virgins, of
which five were fools, and five were wise. By the five
foolish virgins, wanting the oil of good works, he meant
us all sinners. By the wise virgins he meant the com-
pany of all holy saints. Now let us hear what the five
wise virgins answered to the five foolish, asking oil of
them; " No," say they, "lest, peradventure, we have
not sufficient for us, and for you. Go you rather to
them that sell, and buy for yourselves." Wherefore, if
they had not oil sufficient for themselves and also for
the others, where then are the merits of saints where-
with they can deserve both for themselves and for us ?
I cannot see.
Brusierd. — You wrest the scriptures from the right
understanding to a reprobate sense, that I am scarce able
to hold mine eyes from tears, hearing with mine ears
these words of you. Fare ye well.
The Submission of Master Thomas Bilney.
The fourth day of December, the bishop of London,
with the other bishops his assistants, assembled again in
the chapter-house of Westminster ; where, also. Master
Bilney was brought, and was exhorted and admonished
to abjure and recant. Who answered, " That he would
stand to his conscience." Then the bishop, after de-
liberation, putting off his cap, said, " In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered:" and,
making a cross on his forehead and his breast, by the
counsel of the other bishops, he gave sentence against
Master Bilney in this manner : —
I, by the consent and counsel of my brethren here
512
THE RECANTATION «^^i MASTER THOMAS BILNEY.
[Book VIII.
present, do pronounce thee, Thomas Bilney, who hast
been accused of divers articles, to be convicted of
heresy ; and for the rest of the sentence we take delibe-
ration till to-morrow.
The fifth day of December the bishops assembled there
atrain ; bt-fore whom i'.iliiey was brought : whom the
bishop asked if he would yet return to the unity of the
churclj, and revoke his heresies which he had i)re:iched.
Whereujion, IMlnfy answ.-red, " That he would not be a
slandtT 10 tlie gos])!-!, trusting that he was not separate
from the churc'i ; and that, if the multitude of witnesses
niiijlit be credited, he might have thirty men of honest
life on his jiart, ai^ainst one to the contrary brought
against him ; whi.;h witnesses the bishop said came too
late ; for after publication they could not be received by
the law.
In the afternoon, the bishop of London again asked him
wliether he would return to the cliurch, and acknowledge
his heresies. Bilney answered, that he trusted he was
not separate from the church, and required time and
place to bring in witnesses, which was refused. Then
the bishop once again recpiired of him, whether he would
return to the Catholic church ? He answered, that if
they could teacli and prove sufficiently that he was con-
victed, he would yield and submit himself, and desired
again to have time and space to bring in again his
refused witnesses, and otlier answer he would give
none.
Being again asked whether he would return, or else
the sentence must be read, he required the bishop to
give him licence (o deliberate until the morrow, whether
he might aljjure the heresies wherewith he was defamed,
or no. The bishop granted him that he should have a
little time to deliberate. But Bilney required space till
the next morrow. But the bishop would not grant him
his request, lest he should appeal. But at last the bishop
granted him two nights respite to deliberate, that is to
say, till Saturday, at nine o'clock, forenoon, and then to
give a plain determinate answer.
The 7th day of December, the bishop of London, with
the other bishops being assembled, Bilney also person-
ally a))peared. The bishop of London asked, whether
he would now return to the unity of the church, and
revoke the errors and heresies whereof he stood ac-
cused, detected, and convicted. Who answered, that
now he was persuaded by his friends, he would submit
himself, trusting that they v.-ould deal gently with him,
ooth in his abjuration and penance. Then he desired
that he might read his abjuration, which the bishop
granted. When he had read the same secretly by him-
self, and was returned, being demanded what he would
do in these premises, he answered, that he would abjure
and submit himself, and there ojienly read his abjura-
tion, and subscribed and delivered it to the bishop, who
then absolved him, and for his- penance enjoined him,
that he should abide in prison appointed by the cardinal,
till he were released by him ; and, moreover, tlie next day
lie should go before the procession in the cathedral church
of St. Paul's bare-headed, with a fagot on his shoulder,
and should stand before the preacher at St. Paul's Cross,
daring the sermon.
After which abjuration, made about A. D. 1.528, Bilney
felt sncii repentance and sorrow, that he was near the point
of utter despair, as is credibly testified by jMaster Latimer,
whose words 1 here annex, written in his seventh sermon,
preached before king Kdward : — " I knew a man iryself,
Bilney, little Bilney, that blessed martyr of God, who
what time he had borne his fagot, and was come again
to Cand)ridge, had such conflicts within himself, (behold-
ing this image of death,) that his friends were afraid to
let him be alone. They were fain to be with him diy
and night, and comfort him as they could, but no com-
forts would serve. And as for the comfortable places of
scripture, to bring them to him, it was as though a man
8ho\dd run him through the heart with a sword. Yet,
for all this, he was revived, and took his death patiently,
and died well against the tyrannical See of Rome."
Again, Master Latimer, speaking of Bilney in another
of his sermons preached in Lincolnshire, has these
words • — " That same Master fiiluey, who was burned here
in England for the s ike of God's word, was induced and
persuaded by his friends to bear a fagot at the time when
the cardinal was aloft, and boie the swinge. Now, when
Bilney came to Canibridge again, a whole year after, he
was in such an anguish and agony, that nothing did him
good, neither eating nor drinking, nor any other com-
munication of God's word, for he thought that all the
whole scriptures were against him, and sounded to his
condemnation. So that I many a time communed with
him, (for I was familiarly ae()uaiatod with him), but all
things whatever any man could allege to his comfort
seemed to him to make against him. Yet, for all that,
he afterwards came again. God endued him with such
strength and i)erfectness of faith, that he not only con-
fessed his faith in the gospel of our Saviour Jesus
Ciirist, but also suffered his body to be burned for that
same gospel's sake which we now preach in England, &c."
Furthermore, in the first sermon of Master Latimer,
before the Duchess of Suffolk, he infers as follows : —
" Here 1 have," said he, "occasion to tell you a story
which happened at Cambridge. Master Bilney was the
instrument whereby God called me to knowledge. For
I may thank him, next to God, for that knowledge that I
have in the word of God ; for I was as obstinate a paj)ist
as any in England, insomuch, that when 1 should be made
bachelor of divinity, my whole oration went against
Philifi Melancthon, and against his opinions. Bilney
heard me at that time, and perceived that 1 was zealous
without knowledge, came to me afterwards in my
study, and desired me for God's sake to hear his confes-
sion. I did so, and, to say the truth, by his confession
1 learned more than before in many years. So, from that
time forward, I began to inhale tlie word of (jod, and
forsake the school-doctors and such fooleries, &c."
By this it ajipeareth how vehemently this good man
was pierced with sorrow and remorse for his abjuration,
for the space of neaiJy two years, that is, from the year
1521* to the year IS.'il. It followed then that he, by God's
grace and good counsel, came at length to some quiet
conscience, being fully resolved to give over his life for
the confession of that truth which he had renounced.
And thus being fully determined in his mind, he, in
Trinity hall, at ten o'clock at night, took his leave of
his friends, and said, that he would go to Jerusalem,
alluding to the words and example of Christ in the
gospel, going up to Jerusalem, when he was apjiointed
to suffer his passion. And so Bilney, meaning to give
over his life for the testimony of Christ's gospel, told his
friends that he would go up to Jerusalem, and would see
them no more : and immediately departed to Norfolk,
and there preached, first privately in households, to con-
firm the brethren and sisters. Then he preached openly
in the fields, confessing his sin, and preaching publicly
the doctrine which he had abjured, to be the very truth,
and desired all men to learn by him, and never to trust
to their fleshly friends in causes of religion. And so
setting forward in his journey toward the celestial
Jerusalem, he departed from thence to Norwich, upon
which he was apprehended and carried to prison.
Thomas Bilney, after his examination and condem-
nation before Doctor Bellas, doctor of law, and Chan-
cellor, was first degraded by Suffragan Underwood,
according to their popish manner, by the assistance of
the friars and doctors. Which done, he was imme-
diately committed to the lay power, and to the two
sheriffs of the eitj', of whom Thomas Necton was one.
This Thomas Necton was Bilney's especial friend, and
sorry to receive him to such execution as followed. But
sucii was the tyranny of that time, and dread of the
chancellor and friars, that he could not do otherwise,
but needs must receive him. Who notwithstanding, as
he could not hear in his conscience himself to be present
at his death ; so, for the time that he was in his custody,
he caused him to be more friendly looked to, and more
wholesomely kept concerning his diet, than he was be-
fore.
After this, the Friday following, at night, which was
before the day of his execution, Bilney had his friends
resorting to him in the Guildhall, where he was kept.
Some put him in mind, that though the fire, which h«
A.D. 1527—1560.]
THOMAS BILNEY BURNED AT NORFOLK.
513
should suffer the next day, should be of great heat to his
body, yet tlie comfort of God's Spirit should cool it to
his everlasting refreshing. At this word Thomas Biliiey
putting his hand lo the flame of the candle burning
before them, and feeling the heat, O, said lie, 1
feel by experience, and have known it long by i)hil()-
sophy, that fire by God's ordinance is naturally hot, but
yet I am persuaded by God's holy word, and l)y the ex-
perience of some, mentioned in that word, that in the
flame they felt no heat, and in the tire they felt no con-
sumption: and I constantly believe, however the stubble
of this my body shall be wasted by it, yet my soul and
spirit shall be purged thereby ; a pain for the time,
whereon notwithstanding followeth joy unspeakable.
And here he much treated of in this place of scrijiture.
" Fear not, For I have redeemed thee, and called thee
b)' thy name, thou art mine. When thou goest through
the water I will be with thee, and the strong floods shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest in the Are, it
shall not burn thee, and the flame shall not kindle upon
thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the holy One of Is-
rael."— Is. xliii. 1. Which he most comfortably treat-
ed of, as well in respect of himself, as applying it to the
particular use of his friends. Of whom some took such
sweet fruit that they caused the whole sentence to be
fair written on tables, and some in their books. The
comfort of which (on some of them) was never taken
from them to their dying day.
Tlie Saturday following, when the officers of execution
with their gloves and halberts were ready to receive him,
and to lead him to the place of execution without the
city gate, called Bishop's Gate, in a low valley, com-
monly called The Lollards' Pit, under Saint Leonard's
Hill, environed about with great hills, (which place was
chosen for the people's quiet, sitting to see the execu-
tion) at the coming forth of Thomas Bilney out of the
prison door one of his friends came to him, and with
few words, spake to him, and prayed him in God's be-
half to be constant, and to take his death as patiently as
he could. Bilney answered, with a quiet and mild coun-
tenance, " Ye see when the mariner is entered his ship
to sail on the troubled sea, how for a while he is tossed
in the billows, but yet in hope, that he shall once come
to the quiet haven, he bears in better comfort the perils
which he feels : so am I now toward this sailing, and
whatever storms I shall feel, yet shortly after shall my
ship be in the haven, as I doubt not by the grace of
God, desiring you to help me with your prayers to the
same effect.''
And so he going forth in the streets, giving much alms
by the way by the hands of one of his friends, and ac-
companied with one doctor Warner, doctor of divinity,
and parson of Winterton, whom he chose, as his old
acquaintance, to be with him for his ghostly comfort ;
he came at last to the place of execution, and descended
from the hill, apparelled in a layman's gown with his
sleeves hanging down ; and his arms out, his hair having
been piteously mangled at his degradation, and drew
near to the stake, and desired that he might speak some
words to the people, and standing there, he said : —
" Good people, I am come hither to die, I was born to
live under that condition, naturally to die again, and
that ye might testify that I depart out of this present
life, as a true christian man, in a right belief towards
Almighty God, I will rehearse to you the articles of my
creed :" and then he began to rehearse them in order,
as they are in the common creed, with often elevating
his eyes and hands to Almighty God, and at the article
of Christ's Incarnation, having a little meditation in
himself, and coming to the word crucified, he humbly
bowed himself and made great reverence, and then pro-
ceeding in the articles, and coming to these words, " I
believe the Catholic church," there he paused, and spake
these words, " Good people, I must here confess to have
offended the church, in preaching once contrary to her
prohibition, at a poor cure belonging to Trinity Hall, in
Cambridge, where I was a fellow, earnestly intreated to
do so by the curate and other good people of the parish,
shewing, that they had no sermon there for a long time
before : and so moved in my conscience. I did make a poor
collation to them, and thereby ran into the disobedience
of authority in the church ;" however 1 trust at the ge-
neral day, charity that moved me to this act, shall bear
me out at the judgment sdt of God;" and so he pro-
ceeded, without any words of recantation, or charging
any man for procuring him his death.
This once done, he put oft' his gown, and went to the
stake, and kneeling upon a little ledge coming out of the
stake, on which he was afterwards to stand, to be better
seen, he made his prayer with such earnest elevation of
his eyes and hands to heaven, and in so good quiet
behaviour, that he seemed not much to consider the
terror of liis death, and ended at the last, his private
prayers, with the 14;ird Psalm, beginning, " Hear my
prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications :" and the
next verse, he repeated in deep meditation, thrice, " And
enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in tliy sight
shall no man living be justified:" and so finishing that
Psalm he ended his jjrivate prayers.
After that he turned himself to the officers, asking
them if they were ready, and they answered. Yea. He
then put olf his jacket and doublet, and stood in his
hose and shirt, and went to the stake, and the chain was
cast about him ; Doctor Warner came to him to bid him
farewell, who spake but few words for weeping.
Thomas Bilney most gently smiled, and inclined his
body to speak to him a few words of thanks, and the
last were these, " Feed your flock, feed your flock, that
when the Lord cometh, he may find you so doing : and
farewell good master doctor, and pray for me ;" and so
he departed without any answer, sobbing and weeping.
And while he thus stood upon the ledge at the stake,
certain friars, doctors, and priors of their houses being
present (as they were uncharitably and maliciously pre-
sent at his examination and degradation, &c.) came to
him and said, " O Master Bilney, the people are per-
suaded that we are the causers of your death, and that
we have procured it, and it is likely that they will with-
draw their charitable alms from us all, except you de-
clare your charity towards us, and discharge us of the
matter." Upon this Thomas Bilney spake with a loud
voice to the people, " I pray you, good people, be never
the worse to these men for my sake, as though they were
the authors of my death ; it was not they :" and so he
ended.
Then the officers put reeds and fagots about his
body, and set fire to them, which made a very great
flame, and deformed his face, he holding up his hands,
and knocking upon his breast, crying sometimes, " Je-
sus," sometimes " I believe." The flame was blown
away from him by the violence of the wind, which was
that day, and two or three days before very great : and
so for a little pause he stood without flame, but soon the
wood again took the flame, and then he gave up the
ghost, and his body being withered, bowed downward
upon the chain. Then one of the officers with his hal-
bert smote out the staple in the stake behind him, and
suffered his body to fall into the bottom of the fire, lay-
ing wood on it, and so he was consumed.
Thus have ye the true history, and martyrdom of this
good man.
Master Stafford of Cambridge.
As the death of this godly Bilney did much good in
Norfolk, where he was burned ; so his diligent travel, in
teaching and exhorting others, and exam))le of life cor-
responding to his doctrine, left no small fruit behind
him in Cambridge, being a great means of framing that
University, and drawing many to Christ. Through him
and partly also another called Master Stafford, the word
of God began to spread there. Among them was Master
Latimer, Doctor Barnes, Doctor Thistel of Pembroke
Hall, Master Fooke, of Bennet Coll-ge, and Master
Soude of the same college, Doctor Warner above men-
tioned, with others.
This Master Stafford was then the public reader of
the divinity lecture in that University : v>lio, as he was
a professor of Christ's gospel, so was he a dihgent fol-
lower of tiiat which he professed.
As the plague was then sore in Cambridge, and among
614
THE SUPPLICATION OF BEGGARS.
[Book VlU
others a priest called Sir Henry Conjurer, lay sick of the
plague, Master Stafford hearing of it, and seeing the
horrible danger that his soul was in, was so moved in
conscience to help the dangerous case of the priest, that,
neglecting his own bodily health, to recover the other
from eternal damnation, he came to him, exhorted, and
so importuned him, that he would not leave him before
he had converted him, and saw his conjuring hooks
burned before his face. Which done, Mr. Stafford went
home, and immediately sickened, and shortly after most
christianly died.
Concerning this Master Stafford moreover it is to be
noted, that Master Latimer, being yet a servant and a
2ealous papist, standing in the schools when Master Staf-
ford read, persuaded the scholars not to hear him : and
also preaching against him, exhorted the peo])le not to
believe him ; and yet Latimer confessed himself, tliat he
gave thanks to God, that he asked him forgiveness before
he departed.
And thus much, by the way, of good Master Stafford,
■who, for his constant and godly perseverance in such a
cause, may seem not unworthy to go with blessed Bilney
in the fellowship of holy and blessed martyrs.
Account of Master Simon FisJi.
Before the time of Bilney, and the fall of the cardinal,
I aliould have placed the story of Simon Fish, with the
book called The Supplication of Beggars, declaring how
and by what means it came to the king's hand, and
what effect followed, in the reformation of many
things, especially of the clergy. But the missing of a
few years in this matter breaks no great square in our
history. The manjier and circumstance of tlie matter
is this.
After the light of the gospel, working mightily in
Germany, began to spread its beams also in England,
great stir and alteration followed in the hearts of many:
so that coloured hypocrisy, and false doctrine, and
painted holiness began to be discovered more and more
by the' reading of God's word. The authority of the
bishop of Rome, and the glory of his cardinals was not
80 high, but such as had fresh wits, sparkled with God's
grace, began to discern Christ from antichrist ; that is,
true sincerity from counterfeit religion. In the number
of whom was Master Simon Fish, a gentleman of Gray's
Inn. It happened the first year that this gentleman
came to London, which was about A. D. I.i2.5, that
there was a play or interlude made by one Master Roo, of
the same Inn, in which play was matter against the
Cardinal Wolsey. And when none durst take upon
them to play that part which touched the cardinal, this
Master Fish took upon him to do it. Upon this, great dis-
pleasure ensued against him upon the cardinal's part, so
that being pursued by the cardinal, the same night that
this tragedy was played, he was comjjelled to leave his
•own house, and fled over the sea to Tindal. The year
following this book was printed (being about the year
1527), and not long after, was sent over to the lady Anne
Boleyn, who then lived at a place not far from the court.
Which book her brother seeing in her hand, took it and
read it, and gave it to her again, desiring her earnestly
to give it to the king, which she did.
This was about A. D. 1.528. The king, after he
had received the book, demanded of her who wrote it.
She answered, " A subject of his, one Fish, who was fled
out of the realm for fear of the cardinal." After the
king had kept the book in his bosom three or four days,
information was given by the king's servants to the wife
of Simon Fish, that she might send for her husband with-
out danger. She, being encouraged, came first and
made suit to the king for the safe return of Iicr husband.
Who, understanding whose wife she was, shewed a very
gentle countenance towards her, asking wliere her hus-
band was. She answered, " If it jilease your Grace
not far off." "Then," saith he, " fetch him, and he
shall come and go safe without peril, and no man shall
do him harm.'' Saying, moreover, " that she had been
much wronged, that he was absent from her so long ;"
he had been absent now two years and a half. In the
mean time the cardinal was deposed, and More sat in the
chancellorship.
Thus Fish's wife went immediately to her husband,
who was lately come over, and lying privily within a
mile of the court, and brought him to the king, about the
year \WM. When the king saw him, and understood
he was the author of the book, he received him with
loving countenance. Who altera long talk for the space
of three or four hours, as they were riding together a
hunting, the king at length dismissed him, and bade
him take home his wife, for she had taken great pains
for him. He answered tlie king and said, he dare not
do so, for fear of Sir Thomas More, the chancellor, and
Stokesley, the bishop of London.
The king, taking the signet off his finger, desired him
to have him recommended to the lord chancellor, charg-
ing him not to be so hard as to do him any harm. Mas-
ter Fish, receiving the king's signet, went and declared
his message to the lord chancellor, who took it as suffi-
eient for his own discliarge, but he asked him if he had
any thing for the discharge of his wife ; for she a little
before had by chance displeased the friars, for not suf-
fering them to say their gospels in Latin in her house,
as they did in others, unless they would say it in Eng.
lish. Upon which tlie lord chancellor, though he had
discharged the man, yet not ceasing his dislike to the
wife, the next morning sent for her to appear before
him, who, had it not been for her young daughter, who
then lay sick of the plague, had probably suffered much
trouble. Of which plague her husband. Master Fish,
died within half a year, and she afterwards married
Master James Bainham, who was burned not long after.
Now comes anotlier statement of Edmund Moddis, the
king's footman, on the same matter.
This Moddis being with the king, talking of religion,
and of the new books that were come from beyond the
seas, said, " If it miglit j)lease his grace to pardon him,
and such persons as he w'ould bring to his grace, he
should see svich a book as was wonderful to hear of 1"
The king demanded who .they were. He said, two of
your merchants, George Elyot and George Robinson.
Tfie king appointed a time to speak with them. When
they came before his presence in the privy chamber, he
demanded what they had to say, or to shew him. One
of them said, " That there was a book come to their
hands, which they had there to shew his grace." When
he saw it, he demanded if any of them could read it.
" Yea," said George Elyot, "if it please your grace to
hear it." "I think so," said the king, " for if need
were, thou canst say it without book."
The whole book being read out, the king made a long
pause, and then said, " If a man should pull down an
old stone wail, and begin at the lower part, the upper
part might chance to fall upon his head." And then he
took the book and put it into his desk, and commanded
them upon their allegiance that they should not tell to
any man that he had seen the book, &c. The copy of
the book here ensucth ;
A certain look, intitnled " The Supplication of Beggars"
thrown and scattered at the Procession in West-
minster, on Candlemas day, before King Henry the
Eighth, for him to read, made by Master Fish.
To the King our Sovereign Lord,
I\Iost lamentably complaineth their woful misery unto
your highness, your poor daily headmen, the wretched
hideous monsters, on whom scarcely for honour any eye
dare look, the foul unhappy sort of lepers, and other
sore people, needy, impotent, blind, lame and sick, that
live only by alms, how that their number is daily so sore
increased, that all the alms of all the well disposed peo-
]de of this your realm is not half enough for to sustain
them, but that for very constraint they die for hunger.
And this most jiestilent mischief is come upon your said
poor headmen, by the reason that there is, in the times
of your noble predecessors passed, craftily crept into
this your realm, another sort, not of impotent, but of
strong puissant and counterfeit holy and idle beggars
and vagabonds, which since the time of their first entry,
A. i). 1527—1560.]
THE SUPPLICATION ()!• BEGGARS."
515
by all the craft and wilyness of Satan, are now in-
creased under your sight, not onlj' into a gieat number,
but also into a kingdom.
These are not the herds, but the ravenous wolves
goino- in herds' clothing, devouring the flock, — bishops,
abbots, priors, deacons, archdeacons, suflVagans, priests,
monks, canons, friars, pardoners, and somners. And who
is. able to numljer this ravenous idle sort, who (setting
all labour aside) have begged so importunatel}', that
they have gotten into their hajids, more than the third
part of all your realm ? The goodliest lordships, ma-
nors, lands, and territories are theirs ; besides this, they
have the tenth part of all the corn, meadow, pasture,
grass, wood, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese and
chickens. Over and besides, the tenth part of every
servant's wages, the tenth part of w'ool, milk, honey,
wax, cheese and butter ; yea, and they look so narro^A ly
upon their profits, that the poor wives must be ac-
countable to them for every tenth egg, or else she
getteth not her riglits at Easter, and shall be taken as
an heretic. Hereto have they their four offering days.
What money do they pull in by probates of testaments,
privy tithes, and by men's oft'erings to their pilgrimages,
and at their first masses ! every man and child that is
buried must pay somewhat for masses and dirges, to be
sung for him, or else they will accuse their friends and
■executors of heresy. What money get they by mortu-
aries, by hearing of confessions (and yet they keep
thereof no counsel) by hallowing ot churches, altars,
superaltars, chapels and bells, by cursing of men, and
absolving them again for money. What a multitude of
money gather the pard.oners in' a year ! How much
money get the somners by extortion in a year, by citing
the people to the commissaries' court, and afterwards
releasing the apparents for money ! Finally, the infinite
number of begging friars, what get they in a year ?
Here, if it please your grace to mark, you shall see a
thing far out of joint. There are within your realm of
England 52,000 parish churches. And this standing,
that there be but ten households in every parish, yet
are there 520,000 households. And of every of these
households hath every of the five orders of friars, a
penny a qua'rter for every order ; that is, for all the five
orders, five pence a quarter for every house ; that is,
for all the five orders, twenty pence a-year of every
house; i. e., five hundred and twenty thousand quarters
of angels ; that is, 2f)0,000 half angels, or 130,000 an-
gels. Total, 430,333/. 6".s. 8d. sterling ! Whereof not
400 years past, they had not one penny.
Oh grievous and painful exaction, thus yearly to be
paid ! from which, the people of your noble predeces-
sors, the kings of the ancient Britons, ever stood free.
And this will they have, or else they will procure him
who will not give it to them to be taken as an heretic.
What tyrant ever oppressed the people, like this cruel
and vengeful generation ? What subjects shall be able
to help their prince ; that is, after this fashion yearly
polled ? What good christian people can be able to
succour us poor lepers, blind, sore, and lame, that are
thus yearly oppressed ? Is it any marvel that your people
so complain of poverty ? Is it any marvel that the
taxes, fifteenths and subsidies that your grace most ten-
derly, of great compassion, hath taken among your
people to defend them from the threatened ruin of their
commonwealth, have been so slothfuUy, yea painfully,
levied, seeing almost the uttermost jienny, that might
have been levied, hath been gathered before, yearly, by
this ravenous insatiable generation ? Neither the Danes
nor the Saxons, in the time of the ancient Britons,
should ever have been able to have brought their armies
from so far hither into your land to have conquered it,
if they had at that time such a sort of idle gluttons to
feed at home. The noble king Arthur had never been
able to have carried his army to the foot of the moun-
tains, to resist the coming down of Lucius, the emperor,
if such yearly exactions had been taken of his people.
Tlie Greeks had never been able to have so long con-
tinued at the siege of Troy, if they had had at home such
an idle sort of cormorants to feed. The ancient Romans
had never beea able to have put all the whole world
under their obedience, if fheir people had been thus
yearly oppressed. The Turk now in your time should
never have been able to get so much ground of Christen-
dom, if he had in his empire such a sort of locusts to
devour his substance. Lay then these sums to the fore-
said third part of the possessions of the realm, that ye
may see whether it draw nigh unto the half of the whole
substance of the realm or not ; ye shall find that it
draweth far above.
Now let us then compare the number of this imkind
idle sort, to the number of the lay people, and we shall
see whether it be indi.Terently shifted, or not, that they
should have half. Compare them to the number of men,
so are they not the hundredth person. Compare them
to men, women and children, so are they not the four
hundredth jicrson in number. One part therefore, into
four hundred i)arts divided, were too much for them,
except they did labour. What an unequal burthen is it,
that they have half with the multitude, and are not the
four hundredth person of their number .' What tongue
is able to tell, that ever there was any commonwealth so
sore ojipressed since the world first began .•■
And what doth all this greedy sort of sturdy, idle,
holy thieves, with these yearly exactions that they take
of the ])eople ? Truly nothing, but exempt themselves
from the obedience of your grace. Nothing but trans-
late all rule, power, lordship, authority, obedience and
dignity, from your grace to them. Nothing but that all
your subjects should fall into disobedience and rebellion
against your grace, and be under them, as they did to
your noble predecessor king John ; wlio because that he
would have punished certain traitors that had conspired
with the French king to have deposed him from his
crown and dignity (among which a clerk called Stephen,
whom afterwards against the king's will, the pope made
bishop of Canterbury, was one) interdicted his land.
For which matter your most noble realm wrongfully (alas
for shame!) hath stood tributary not to any kind of
temporal prince, but to a cruel devilish blood-sucker,
drunken in the blood of the saints and martyrs of Christ
ever since.
Here were an holy sort of prelates, that thus cruelly
could punish such a righteous king, all his realm and
succession, fordoing rijrht ! Here were a charitable sort
of holy men, that could thus interdict a whole realm,
and pluck away the obedience of the people from their
natural liege lord and king, for none other cause but for
his righteousness ! Here were a blessed sort, not of
meek herds, but of blood-suckers, that could set the
French king upon such a righteous prince, to cause him
to lose his crown and dignity, to make effusion of the
blood of his people, unless this good and blessed king of
great compassion, more fearing and lamenting the shed-
ding of the blood of his people, than the loss of his
crown and dignity, against all right and concience, sub-
mitted lumself unto them !
O case most horrible, that ever so noble a king, realm
and succession, should thus be made to stoop to such a
sort of blood-suckers ! Where was his sword, power,
crown and dignity become, whereby he might have done
justice in this matter ? Where was their obedience
become that should have been subject under his high
power in this matter ? yea, where was the obedience of
all his subjects become, that for maintenance of the
commonwealth should have holden him manfully to
have resisted these blood-suckers to the shedding of
their blood ? Was it not altogether by their policy
translated from this good king unto them ?
\ ea, and what do they more .' Truly nothing but ap-
ply themselves, by all the sleights they may, to have to
do with every man's wife, every man's daughter, and
every man's maid, that the worst vices should reign
over all among your subjects, that no man should know
his own child, to put right-begotten children clean be-
side their inheritance, in subversion of all estates and
godly order. These be they, that by their abstaining
from marriage to hinder the generation of the people,
whereby all the realm at length, if it should be con-
tinued, shall be made desert and uninhabitable.
Where is your sword, power, crown, and dignity be.
516
"THE SUPPLICATION OF BEGGARS.
[Book VIII.
come, that should punish by punishment of death, even
as other men are punished, the felonies, rapes, murders
and treasons committed by this sinful generation ? Where
is their obedience become, that should be under your
hi^h power in this matter ? Is it not altogether trans-
lated and exempt from your grace unto them ? Yes
truly, what an infinite number of people might have been
increased to have peopled the realm, if tiiis sort of folk
had been married like other men ? Whit breach of ma-
trimony is there brought in by them ? such truly as was
never since the world began, among the whole multitude
of the heathen. What a sort are there of them that
marry priests' sovereign ladies, but to cloak the priests
incontinency, and that they may have a living of the
priests themselves for their labour ? How many thou-
sand doth such lubricity bring to beggary, theft and
idleness, which should have kept their good name, and
have set themselves to work, had not there been this exces-
sive treasure of the spiritualty ? What honest man dare
take any man or woman into his service, that hath been
at such a school with a spiritual man ?
O the grievous shipwreck of the commonwealth, which
in ancient time, before the coming of these ravenous
wolves, was so prosperous that then there were but few
thieves ; yea, theft at that time was so rare, that C:esar
was not compelled to make penalty of deatli upon felony,
as your grace may well perceive in his institutes. There
was also at that time but few poor people, and yet they
did not beg, but there was given them enough unasked ;
for there was at that time none of these ravenous wolves
to ask it from them : as it appeareth in the Acts of the
Apostles. Is it any marvel though there be now so
many beggars, thieves, and idle people? Nay truly.
What remedy ? Make laws against them ? I am in
doubt whether ye be able. Are they not stronger in
your own parliament-house than yourself? What a
number of bishops, abbots, and priors are lords of your
parliament ? Are not all the learned men of your realm
in fee with them, to speak in your parliament-house for
them, against your crown, dignity, and commonwealth
of your realm, a few of your own learned council only
excepted ? What law can be made against them that
may be available ? Who is he, though he be grieved
▼cry sore, that for the murder of his ancestor, ravish-
ment of his wife, of his daughter, robbery, trespass,
maim, debt, or any other offence, dare lay it to their
charge by any way of action ? And if he do, tiien is he
by and by, by their wilyness, accused of heresy ; yea,
they will so handle him ere he pass, that except he will
bear a fagot for tlieir pleasure, he shall be excommu-
nicated, and then by all his actions dashed.
So captire are your laws unto them, that no man whom
they list to excommunicate, may be admitted to sue any
action in any of your courts. If any man in your ses-
sions dare be so hardy as to indict a priest of any such
crime, he hath ere the year go out, such a yoke of heresy
laid on his neck, that it makes him wish he had not done
it. Your grace may see what a work there is in London ;
how the bishop rages for indicting of certain curates of
extortion and incontinency, the last year in the Ward-
mote quest. Had not Richard Hunne commenced an ac-
tion of priemunire against a priest, he had been yet alive,
and no heretic at all, but an honest man. Did not
divers of your noble progenitors, seeing their crown and
dignity run into ruin, and to be thus craftily translated
into the hands of this mischievous generation, make
divers statutes for the reformation thereof, among which
the statute of Mortmain was one, to the intent that after
that time they should have no more given unto them ?
But what availed it ? Have the v not gotten into their hands
more lands since then than any duke in England hath,
the statute notwithstanding ' Yea, have they not for all
that translated into their hands, from your grace, half
your kingdom through, only the name remaining to you
for your ancestors' sake ? So you have the name, and
they the profit. Yea, I fear, if I should weigh all things
to the utmost, they would also take the name to them,
and of one kingdom make twain ; the spiritual kingdom,
as they call it, for they will be named first, and your
temporal kingdom. And which of these two kingdoms,
suppose you, is like to overgrow the other, yea, to put
the otiier clean out of memory ? Truly the kingdom of
the blood suckers, for to them is given daily out of your
kingdom ; and tiiat that is once given, never cometh
from tliem again. Such laws have they, that none of
them may either give or sell any thing. What law can
be made so strong against them, that they, either with
money, or else with other policy, will not break or set at
nought ? What kingdom can endure, that ever giveth
thus from him, and receiveth nothing again ? O how all
the substance of your realm, your sword, power, crown,
dignity, aiul obedience of your people, runneth headlong
into the insatiable whirlpool of these greedy gulfs, to be
swallowed and devoured !
Neither have they any other colour to gather these
yearly exactions into their hands, but that they say they
pray for us to God, to deliver our souls out of the
pains of purgatory ; without whose prayers, they say, or
at least without the pope's pardon, we could never be
delivered thence. Which, if it be true, then it is good
reason that we give them all these things, although it
were an hundred times as much. But there be many
men of great literature and judgment, that for the lo/e
they have to the truth and to the commonwealth, have
not feared to put themselves into the greatest infamy
that may be, in abjection of all the world, yea, in peril
of death, to declare their opinion in this matter ; which
is, that there is no purgatory, but that it is a thing
invented by the covetousness of the spiritualty, only
to translate all kingdoms from other princes unto them,
and that there is not one word spoken of it in all the
holy scripture. They say also, that if there were a pur-
gatory, and also if that the pope with his pardons may
for money deliver one soul from thence, he may deliver
him as well without money ; if he may deliver one, he
may deliver a thousand : if he may deliver a thousand,
he may deliver them all, and so destroy purgatory, and
then he is a cruel tyrant, without all charity, if he keep
them there in prison and in pain till men will give him
money.
Likewise, say they, of all the whole sort of the
spiritualty, that if they will pray for no man but for
them that gave them money, they are tyrants, and lack
cliarity, and suffer those souls to be punished and pained
uncharitably for lack of their prayers. This sort of
folks they call heretics ; these they burn ; these they rage
against, put to open shame, and make them bear fagots ;
but whether they be heretics or no, well 1 know that this
purgatory and the pope's pardons are all the cause of
the transferring of your kingdom so fast into their hands.
Wherefore it is manifest it cannot be of Christ ; for he
gave more to the temporal kingdom, he himself paid
tribute to Caesar ; he took nothing from him, but taught
that the high powers should be always obeyed ; yea, him-
self, although he was most free lord of all, and inno-
cent, was obedient to the high powers unto death. This
is the great sore why they will not let the New Testa-
ment go abroad in your mother tongue, lest men should
espy that they by their cloaked hypocrisy do translate
thus fast your kingdom into their hands ; that they are
not obedient unto your high power ; that they are cruel,
unclean, unmerciful, and hypocrites; that they seek not
the honour of Christ, but their own ; that remission of
sins is not given by the pope's pardon, but by Christ,
for the sure faith and trust that we have in him.
Here may your grace well perceive, that except you
suffer their hypocrisy to be disclosed, all is like to run
into their hands ; and as long as it is covered, so long
shall it seem to every man to be a great impiety not to
give them. For this I am sure, your grace thinketh, as
the truth is, I am as good a man as my father ; why may
I not as well give them as much as my father did ? And
of this mind I am sure are all the lords, knights, squires,
gentlemen, and yeomen in England ; yea, and until it be
disclosed, all your people will think that your statute of
Mortmain was never made with any good conscience,
seeing that it taketh away the liberty of your people,
in that they may not as lawfully buy their souls out of
purgatory by giving to the spiritualty, as their prede-
cessors did in times past.
A.D. 1527—1560.]
THE SUPPLICATION OF BEGGARS.
517
Wherefore if you will eschew the ruin of your crown
and dignity, let their hypocrisy be uttered, and that tihall
be more speedful in this matter than all the laws that
can be made, be they ever so strong ; for to make a
law to punish any offender, except it were more to give
other men an example to beware how tliey commit such
like offence, what would it avail ? Did not Doctor
Allen most presumptuously, now in your time, against
his allegiance, do all that ever he could to pull from you
the knowledge of such pleas as belong unto your high
courts, unto another court, in derogation of your crown
and dignity ? Did not also Doctor Horsey and his ac-
complices, most heinously, as all the world knoweth,
murder in prison that honest merchant Richard llunne,
for that he sued your writ oi pranmnire against a priest
that wrongfully held him in plea in a spiritual court, for
a matter whereof the knowledge belonged unto your
high courts ? And what punishment was there done that
any man may take example of, to beware of like offence ?
Truly none, but that the one paid five hundred pounds,
as it is said, to the building of your chamber ; and when
that payment was once made, the captains of his king-
dom, because he fought so manfully against your crown
and dignity, have heaped upon him benefice upon benefice,
so that he is rewarded ten times as much. The other,
as it is said, paid six hundred pounds for himself and his
accomplices ; which, because that he had likewise fought
so manfully against your crown and dignity, was imme-
diately, on having obtained your most gracious j)ardon,
promoted by the captains of his kingdom, with benefice
upon benefice, to the value of four times as much.
Who can take example of punishment to beware of such
like offence .' Who is he of their kingdom that will not
rather take courage to commit the like offence, seeing the
promotions that fell to those men for their so offending ?
so weak and blunt is your sword to strike at one of the
offenders of this crooked and perverse generation.
And this is by reason that the chief instrument of
your law, yea, the chief of your council, and he who hath
your sword in his hand, to whom also all the other in-
struments are obedient, is also a spiritual man, who
hath ever such an inordinate love unto his own kingdom,
that he will maintain that, though all the temporal king-
doms and commonwealths of the w-orld should there-
fore utterly be undone. Here we leave out the great-
est matter of all, lest that we declaring such an hor-
rible carrion of evil against the ministers of iniquity,
should seem to declare the one only fault, or rather the
ignorance of our best beloved minister of righteousness,
which is to be hid till he may have learned by these
small enormities that which we have spoken of, to know
it plainly himself.
But what remedy is there to relieve us your poor, sick,
lame, and sore beadsmen? To make many hospitals for
the relief of the poor people ? Nay truly. The more the
worse: for ever the fat of the whole foundation hang-
eth on the priests' beards. Divers of your noble pre-
decessors, kings of this realm, have given lands to
monasteries, to give a certain sum of money yearly to
the poor people, whereof for the remoteness of the
time, they give never one penny. They have likewise
given to them, to have a certain number of masses
said daily for them, whereof they never say one. If
the abbot of Westminster should sing every day as many
masses for his founders, as he is bound to do by his
foundation, a thousand monks were too few. Where-
fore if your grace will build a sure hospital that never
shall fail, to relieve us all your poor beadsmen, then take
from them all these things. Send these sturdy loobies
abroad in the world to get them wives of their own, to
get their living with their labour in the sweat of tlieir
faces, according to the commandment of God (Gen.iii. 19.)
and to be an example to other idle people to go to labour.
Tie these holy idle thieves to the carts, to be whipped
naked about every market-town, till they fall to labour,
that they by their importunate begging, take not away
the alms that the good christian people would give to us
sore, impotent, miserable people, your beadsmen. Then
shall the number of the aforesaid monstrous sort, be re-
duced, as of whores, thieves, and idle people. Then shall
these great yearly exactions cease. Then shall not vour
sword, power, crown, dignity, and obedience of your
people be transferred from you. Then shall you have full
obedience of your people. Then shall the idle people
be set to work. Then shall matrimony be much better
kept. Then shall the generation of your people be in-
creased. Then shall your commons increase in riches.
Then shall the gospel be preached. Then shall none beg
our alms from us. Then shall we have enough, and
more than shnll suffice us ; which shall be the best hos-
pital that ever was founded for us. Then shall we daily
pray to God for your most noble estate long to endure."
Against this book of the beggars. Sir Thomas More
shortly after wrote another book in answer to it, under
the title of " The Poor Silly Souls Pewling out of
Purgatory.'' In which, after More had first divided
the whole world into four parts, that is, into heaven,
hell, earth and purgatory ; then he makes the dead men's
souls, by a rhetorical promjtrqxtia to speak out of pur-
gatory, sometimes lamentably complaining, sometimes
pleasantly dallying and scoffing at the author of the beg-
gars' book ; sometimes scolding and railing at him, call-
ing him fool, witless, frantic, an ass, a goose, a mad
dog, an heretic, and all that. And no wonder, if these
silly souls of purgatory seem so fumish and testy ; for
heat is testy, and soon inflames anger. But yet these
purgatory souls must take good heed how they call a
man a fool and heretic so often ; for if the sentence of
the gospel pronounce them guilty of hell fire, which say,
" thou fool," it may be feared lest those poor, siUy,
melancholy souls of purgatory, calling this man fool so
often, bring themselves thereby out of purgatory fire
to the fire of hell ; so that neither the five wounds of
St. Francis, nor all the merits of St. Dominick, nor
yet of all the friars, can release the poor wretches. But
yet as I do not, nor cannot think that those departed
souls either would so far overshoot themselves if they
were in purgatory, or else that there is any such fourth
place of purgatory, at all, unless it be in Master More's
Utopia, I cease therefore to burden the souls departed,
and lay all the wit on Master More, the author and con«
triver of this poetical book.
After the clergy of England, and especially the cardi-
nal, understood these books of the Beggars' Supplica-
tion to be strewed abroad in the streets of London, and
also before the king, the cardinal caused not only his
servants diligently to gather them up, that they should
not come into the king's hands, but also when he un-
derstood that the king had received one or two of
them, he came to the king's majesty, saying, " If
it shall please your grace, here are divers seditious
persons who have scattered abroad books containing ma-
nifest errors and heresies ; desiring his grace to beware
of them." Whereupon the king, putting his hand ia
his bosom, took out one of the books, and delivered it to
the cardinal. Then the cardinal, together with his bi-
shops, consulted how they might provide a speedy re-
medy for this mischief, and determined to give out a
commission to forbid the reading of all English l)ooks,
and especially this book of " The Supplication of Beg-
gars,'' and the New Testament of Tindal's Translation.
This commission was done out of hand by Cuthbert Ton-
stal, bishop of London, who sent out his prohibition unto
his archdeacons with all speed, for the forbidding of that
book and others ; the tenor of which prohibition is as
follows : — '
A pro/tibition sent out by Cuthbert Tonstal, Bishop of
London, to the Archdeacons of his Diocese, for the
catling in of the New Testaments translated into
Tlnylish, with many other books.
" Cuthbert, by the permission of God, bishop of
London, unto our well-beloved in Christ, the arch-
deacon of London, or to his official, health, grace, and
benediction. By the duty of our pastoral office, we are
bound diligently with all our power to foresee, provide
(1) The same prohibition was published by every bishop in hi*
diocese. — Buknet.
518
TINDAL TRANSLATES THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO ENGLISH.
[BookVIH.
for, root out, and put away all those things which seem
to tend to the peril and danger of our subjects, and es-
pecially the destruction of tlieir souls. Wherefore we
Laving understanding by the report of several credible
persons, and also by the evident aj^pearance of the mat-
ter, that many children of iniquity, maintainers of
Luther's sect, blinded through extreme wickedness,
wandering from the way of truth, and the catholic
faith, have craftily translated the New Testament into
our English tongue, intermixing therewith many here-
tical articles, and erroneous opinions, pernicious and
offensive, seducing the simple people, attempting by their
wicked and perverse interpretations, to profane the ma-
jesty of the scripture, which hitherto hath remained un-
detiled, and craftily to abuse the most holy word of God,
and the true sense of the same, of which translation there
are many books printed, some with glosses, and some
■without, contaiiiinji in the English tongue that ])estifer-
ous and most pernicious poison dispersed throughout all our
diocese of London in great number, which truly, without
it be foreseen, without doubt will contaminate and infect
the flock committed unto us, with most deadly poison
and heresy, to the grievous peril and danger of the souls
committed to our charge, and the offence of God's Di-
vine Majesty ; wherefore we, Cuthbert, the bishoj) afore-
said, grievously sorrowing for the ])remises, willing to
withstand the craft and subtlety of tlie ancient enemy
and his ministers, who seek the destruction of my flock,
and with a diligent care to take heed unto the flock com-
mitted to my charge, desiring to provide speedy remedies
for the premises, do charge you jointly and severally,
and by virtue of your obedience straightly enjoin and
command you, that by our authority you warn, or cause
to be warned all and singular, as well exempt as not ex-
empt, dwelling within your archdeaconries, that within
thirty days' space, whereof ten days shall be for the first,
ten for the second, and ten for the third and peremptory
term, under pain of excommunication, and incurring the
suspicion of heresy, they do bring in, and really deliver
unto our vicar general, all and singular such books as
contain the translation of the New Testament in the
English tongue; and that you do certify to us, or our said
commissary, within two months after the day of the date
of these presents, duly, personally, or by your letters,
together with these presents, under your seals, what
you have done in the premises, under pain of con-
tempt.
" Given under our seal, the three-and-twentieth day
of October, in the fifth year of our consecration,
A.D. ir)26."
The like commission in like manner and form was
sent to the other three archdeacons of Middlesex, Essex,
and Colchester, for the execution of the same matter,
under the bishoj) 's seal.
Many other books were forbidden at this time, toge-
ther with the New Testament. And among them were
The Supplication of Beggars ; The Revelation of Anti-
christ, of Luther ; The New Testament of Tindal ; The
Wicked Mammon ; The Obedience of a Christian Man ;
An Introduction to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans ; A
Dialogue betwixt the Father and the Son ; and nearly
one hundred other books besides — written by the re-
formers.
The New Testament, above recited, began first to be
translated by William Tindal, and was printed at Ant-
werp, and sent over into England in the year l.'j'iti.
Cuthbert Tonstal, bishop of London, and Sir Thomas
More, being aggrieved, devised how they could destroy that
false erroneous translation, as they called it. It happened
that there was one Augustine Packington, an English mer-
chant, at Antwerp at that time, when the bishop was there
in 1.529. This man favoured Tindal, but pretended other-
wise to the bishop. The bishop being desirous to bring his
purpose to pass, said, that he would gladly buy the New
Testaments. Packington hearing him say so, said, " My
Lord, 1 can do more in this matter than most merchants
can do, if it be your pleasure, for I know the Dutchmen
and strangers that have bought them of Tindal, and have
them here to sell ; so, if it be your Lordship's pleasure to
obtain them, I must spend money to pay for them, or
else I cannot have them, but if it is your pleasure to do
so I will secure to you every book that is printed
and unsold." The bishop said, " Do your diligence,
gentle Master Packington ; get them for me, and I
will pay whatever is their cost, for I intend to burn
and destroy them all at St. Paul's cross." This
Augustine Packington went to William Tindal, and
declared the whole matter, and so, upon compact made
between them, the bishop of London had the books,
Packington had the thanks, and Tindal had the money.'
After this Tindal corrected the New Testament, and
caused it again to be newly reprinted, so that they came
thick and threefold over into England. When the bishop
perceived that, he sent for Packington, who, by
that time, had returned to England, and said to
him, " How comes this, that there are so many New
Testaments abroad ? You promised me that you would
buy them all." Then answered Packington, " Surely,
I bought all that were to be had, but I perceive that they
have reprinted more since. I see it will never be better
so long as they have letters and stamps ; wherefore, you
had better buy the stamps too, and so then you shall be
sure." At which answer the bishop smiled, and so the
matter ended.
It happened, in the following year, that George Con-
stantine was apprehended by Sir Thomas More, on suspi-
cion of heresy ; and after several examinations, among
other things. More asked him, saying, " Constantine, I
would have thee be plain with me in one thing that I will
ask, and I promise thee, I will shevV thee favour in all
other things whereof thou art accused. There is beyond
the sea Tindal, .Joy, and a great many others ; I know
they cannot live witliout help. There are some that help
and succour them with money, and thou being one of "them,
hadst thy part thereof, and therefore thou knowest from
whence it came. I pray thee, tell me, who are they that
help them thus ?" " My Lord," quoth Constantine, " I
will tell you truly ; it is the bishop of London that hath
helped us, for he hath bestowed among us a great deal of
money to buy up tiie New Testaments to burn them, and
that has been, and yet is, our only succour and comfort."
" Now, by my troth,'' quoth More, " I think even the
same, for so much I told the bishop before he went
about it."
Of this George Constantine, it is reported by Sir
Thomas More, that he being takert, seemed well con-
tented to renounce his former doctrine, and not only to
disclose others of his fellows, but also studied how these
books, which he himself and others of his fellows had
bougl'.t and shipped, might come to the bishop's hands to
be burned, by whom the books were taken and burned.
Constantine afterwards, by the help of some of his
friends, escaped out of prison over the seas, and after
that, in the time of king Edward, troubled the good
bishop of St. David's, who was burned in Q.ueen Mary's
time.
On the return of Tonstal from Antwerp, he caused all
the New Testaments which he had bought, to be publicly
burned in St. Paul's church-yard, which gave great
offence to many of the people ; and to remove this feeling,
the bishops gave out that they intended to set out a true
translation of it. The bishops, by many complaints, and
under the pretence that the translations of Tindal and
Joy were not truly translated ; and, besides, that in
them were prologues and prefaces, that smelled of heresy,
and railed against the bishojjs. They obtained a
l)roclamation from the king, prohibiting the teach-
ing or preaching of any thinir against the dignity and
ordinances of the church of Rome, and prohibiting tlie
reading of any books contrary to the church of Rome.
But the king commanded the bishops to call to them the
best learned men of the \iniversities, and that they should
make a new translation, so that the peojde might not be
1
1
(1 ) Tindal was very (rlad of it ; for, heins; convinced of some faults
in his work, he was desiijning a new and correct edition, but lie
was poor, and the former iuijiression not being sold ot}', lie coulti
not (JO about it; so he gave Packington all the copies that l-.iy in
his hands, for which the bishop paid the price, and brought them
over to be burned. — BuuNtx.
A.D. 1527—1560.]
PERSECUTION OF lllCHARD BY FIELD.
519
ignorant in the law of God. Notwithstanding this com-
mand, the hishojjs did nothing at all to the setting forth
of any new translation. But on the contrary, on the 24th
of May, 15;}0, there was a paper drawn up, and agreed to
by arclibishop Warham, chancellor More, bishop Tonstal
and others, which every incumbent was called upon to
read to his parish, as a warning to prevent the contagion
of heresy. In this paper it was declared that it was not
necessary to set forth the scriptures in the vulgar tongue.
Many of'the people were so disappointed at this, that they
only became the more eager to read findal's translation,
by reason of which many things came to light. Soon
after this time great trouble and persecution was raised
up against the poor innocent flock of Christ.
Richard Byfield, Martyr.
This Richard Byfield, a monk of St. Edmuntlsbury,
was converted by Dr. Barnes, and Master Maxwell, and
Master Stacey,two godly men of London, brickmakers, and
wardens of theircompany,whowere grafted in thedoctrine
of Jesus Christ, and through their godly conversation of
life, had converted many men and women, both in London
and in the country ; and once a year at their own cost,
they went about to visit the brethren and sisters scattered
abroad. Doctor Barnes at that time much resorted to
the abbey of Bury, where Byfield was, to one Doctor
Ruffam. At this time it happened that this Byfield the
monk was chamberlain of the house to provide lodging
for the strangers, and to see them well entertained ; he
delighted much in Doctor Barnes and in other lay-
men's conversation ; and at last. Doctor Barnes gave him
a New Testament in Latin, and the other two gave him
Tindal's Testament in English, with a book called,
"The Wicked Mammon," and "The Obedience of a
Christian Man ;" he had learned so much in two years,
that he was cast into prison, sore whipped, and a gag put
into his mouth, and then put into the stocks, and so con-
tinued three quarters of a year before Doctor Barnes could
get him out ; which he brought to pass, by the means of
Doctor Ruffam, before-mentioned, and so he was com-
mitted to Doctor Barnes to go to Cambridge with him.
By that time he had tasted so well of good letters, that
he never returned home again to his abbey, but went to
London to Maxwell and Stacey, where tliey kept him
secretly a while, and then conveyed him beyond the sea.
Doctor Barnes, himself, being by this time in the Fleet
prison for God's word. This Byfield mightily prospered
in the knowledge of God, and was serviceable to Master
Tindal, and Master Frith ; for he brought substance with
him, and bought all their works, and the Germans' works,
and sold them both in France and in England ; and at
last coming to London, he was there betrayed, and carried
to (he Lollards' Tower, and from thence to the Coalhouse.
This Richard Byfield being in the Coaliiouse, was
worse handled than he was before in the Lollards' Tower ;
for there he was tied by the neck, middle, and legs,
standing upright by the walls, and manacled, to make him
accuse others that had bought his books ; but he accused
none, but stood to his religion and confession of his
faith, even to the very end, and was, in the consistory of
St. Paul's, thrice put to his trial, whether he would abjure
or not ? He said he would dispute for his faith, and so
he did to their great shame ; Stokesley being his judge,
with the assistance of Winchester, and other bishops.
The articles laid to Richard Byfield, by the aforesaid
bishops, were these, (A.D. 1531, November 10.)
Articles laid to Richard Byfield.
First, that Ire had been many years a monk, professed
of the order of St. Benedict, of St. Edmundsbury, in the
diocese of Norwich.
2. That he "was a priest, and had ministered and con-
tinued in the same order for the space of nine or ten years.
'.\. That since the feast of Easter last,, he being be-
yond the sea, bought and procured divers and many
books and treatises of sundry sorts, as well of Martin
Luther's own works, as of others of his daijinable sect,
and of Oecolampadius the great heretic,' and other here-
tics, both in Latin and English ; the names of which
books were contained in a little bill written with his own
hand.
4. That in the year of our Lord 1528, he was de-
tected and accused "to Cuthbert, tlien bishop of London,
for affirming and holding certain articles contrary to the
holy church, and especially that all laud and praise
should be given to God alone, and not to saints or crea-
tures.
5. That every priest might preach the word of God
by the authority of the gospel, and not to run to the
pope or cardinals for license, as it appeared (said they)
by his confession before the said bishop.
6. That he judicially abjured the said articles before
the said bishop, and did renounce and forswear them and
all other articles contrary to the determination of holy
church, promising that from henceforth he would not
fall into any of them, nor any other errors.
7. That he made a solemn oath upon a book, and the
holy evangelists, to fulfil such penance as should be en-
joined him by the bishop.
8. After his abjuration it was enjoined to him for pen-
ance, that he should go before the cross in procession,
in the parish church of St. Botolph's, at Billingsgate, and
bear a fagot of wood upon his shoulder.
9. It was enjoined him in penance, that he should
provide an habit requisite and meet for his order and
profession, as shortly as he might, and that he should
come or go nowhere without such an habit ; which he
had not fulfilled.
10. That it was likewise enjoined him in penance, that
he should, some time before the feast of the Ascension,
then next ensuing his abjuration, go home unto the mo-
nastery of Bury, and there remain according to the vow
of his profession ; which he had not fulfilled.
11. That he was appointed by the bishop of London to
appear before the said bishop, on the 25th day of April
next after his abjuration, to receive the residue of his
penance, and after his abjuration, he fled beyond the
sea, and appeared not.
12. That on the 20th day of June next following his
abjuration, he did appear before the said Bishop Tonstal,
in the chapel of the bishop of Norwich's palace, and there
it was newly enjoined him in part of penance, that he
should provide him an habit convenient for his order
and profession, within eight days then next following ;
which he had not done.
13. That it was there again enjoined him, that he
should depart from the city, diocese, and jurisdiction of
London, and no more to come within it, without the
special license of the bishop of London, or his succes-
sor for the time being ; which he had not fulfilled.
The sentence given against him.
In the name of God, Amen ! We, John, by the suf-
ferance of God, bishop of London, in a case of inquisi-
tion of heresy, and relapse of the same, &c.
Forsomuch as by the acts enacted, inquired, pro-
pounded, and alleged, and by thee judicially confessed,
we do find that thou hast abjured certain errors and
heresies, and damnable opinions by thee confessed, as
well particularly as generally, before our reverend fellow
and brother, then thy ordinary, according to the form
and order of the church. And that one Martin Luther,
together with his adherents and accomplices, receivers
and favourers, whatsoever they be, was condemned as an
heretic, by the authority of Pope Leo the Tenth, of most
happy memory, and by the authority of the Apostolic
See ; and the books, and all writings, schedules and ser-
mons of the said Martin Luther, his adherents and
accomplices, whether they be found in Latin, or in any
other languages, printed or translated, for the manifold
heresies and errors, and damnable opinions that are in
them, are condemned, reproved, and utterly rejected,
and inhibition made by the authority of the said See, to
all faithful Christians, under the pain of excommunica-
tion, and other punishments in that behalf, to be in-
curred by the law, that no man, by any means, presume
to read, teach, hear, print, or publish, or by any means
defend, directly, or indirectly, secretly or openly, in their
houses, or in any other public or private places, any
520
THE PERSECUTION AND SENTENCE OF RICHARD BYFIELD.
FBooK VIII.
such manner of writings, boolcs, errors, or articles, as
are contained more at large in the apostolic letters, drawn
out in form of a public instrument ; whereuiito, and to
the contents thereof, we refer ourselves, as far as is ex-
pedient, and no otherwise. And forsomuch as we do
perceive that thou didst understand the premises ; and
yet these things, notwithstanding after thy abjuration
made, as is aforesaid, thou hast brought in divers and
sundry times, many books of the said Martin Luther,
and his adherents and accomplices, and of other heretics,
the names, titles, and authors of which books here follow,
and are these : — Martin Luther, Of the Abrogating of
the Private Mass ; The Declarations' of Martin Luther
upon the Epistles of St. Peter; Luther ujion the Epistles
of .St. Paul and Jude ; Luther upon Monastical Vowers;
Luther's Commentary upon the Epistle of St. Paul to
the Galatians; John Oecolampadius upon the exposi-
tion of these words, " This is my body ;" the Annota-
tions of Oecolampadius upon the Epistles of St. Paul
unto the Romans, &c. &c.
Of all which kind of books, both in Latin and English,
translated, set forth, and printed, containing not only
Lutherian heresies, but also the damnable lieresies of
other condemned heretics ; forasmuch as thou hast
brought over from the parts beyond the sea, a great
number into this realm of England, and especially to our
city and diocese of London, and hast procured them
to be brought and conveyed over ; also, hast kept by
thee, and studied those books, and hast published and
read them unto divers Christian men ; and many of those
books also hast dispersed, and given to divers persons
dwelling within our city and diocese of London, and hast
confessed and affirmed before our official, that those
books of Martin Luther, and other heretics, his accom-
plices and adherents, and all the contents in them, are
good and agreeable to the true faith, saying, that they
are good, and of the true faith ; and by this means and
pretence hast commended and praised Martin Luther,
his adherents and accomplices, and hast favoured and
believed their errors, heresies, and opinions. Therefore,
we, John, the bishop, aforesaid, first calling upon the
name of Christ, and setting God only before our eyes,
by the counsel and consent of the divines and lawyers,
with whom in this behalf we have conferred, do declare
and decree thee, the aforesaid Richard Bytield, other-
wise called Somersam, for the contempt of thy abjuration,
asafavourerof the aforesaid Martin Luther, his adherents,
accomplices, favourers, and other condemned heretics,
and for commending and studying, reading, having, re-
taining, publishing, selling, giving, and dispersing the
books and writings, as well of the said IMartin Luther,
his adherents and disciples, as of other heretics before-
named, and also for crediting and maintaining the errors,
heresies, and damnable opinions contained in the said
books and writings, wortliily to be, and have been an
heretic ; and that thou, by the pretence of the premises,
art fallen again most damnably into heresy ; and we
pronounce that thou art, and hast been, a relapsed here-
tic, and hast incurred, and oughtest to incur, the pain
and punishment of a relapse. And we so decree and
declare, and also condemn thee thereunto, and that by
the pretence of the premises, thou hast even, by the law,
incurred the sentence of the greater excommunication ;
and, thereby, we pronounce and declare thee to have been
and to be excommunicate, and clearly discharge, exone-
rate, and degrade thee from all privilege and prerogative
of the ecclesiastical orders, and also deprive thee of all
ecclesiastical office and benefice. Also, we pronounce
and declare thee, by this our sentence or decree, the
which we here promulgate and declare in these writings,
that thou art actually to be degraded, deposed, and de-
prived, as followeth : —
In the name of God, Amen. V,'e., John, by the per-
mission of God, bishop of London, rightfully and law-
fully proceeding in this behalf, do dismiss thee, Richard
Bytield, alias Somersam, being ))ronounced by us a re-
lapsed heretic, and degraded by us from all ecclesiastical
privilege out of the ecclesiastical court, pronouncing that
the secular power here present should receive thee under
their jurisdiction ; earncatly requiring and desiring in
the bowels of Jesus Christ, that the execution of this
worthy j)unishment to be done upon thee, and against
thee in this behalf, may be so moderated, that there be
neither overmuch cruelty, neither too much favourable
gentleness, but that it may be to the health and salvation
of thy soul, and to the extir})ation, fear, terror, and conver-
sion of all other heretics unto the unity of the Catholic
faith. This, our final decree, by this our sentence de-
finitive, we have caused to be published in form aforesaid.
On Monday the 20th day of November, (A.D. l.'iM,)
in the Quire of the Cathedral church of .St. Paul's, the
bishop of London, called to him John, ;>bbot of West-
minster ; Robert, abbot of Waltham ; Nicholas, prior of
Christ church of the city of London ; ISIaster J. Cox,
auditor and vicar-general to the archbishop of Canter-
bury ; Peter Ligham, official of the court of Canterbury;
Thomas Bagh, chancellor of the church of St. Paul's;
William Cliefe, archdeacon of London ; John Inocent,
canon residentiary of the same ; W^illiam Briton, Robert
Birch, and Hugh A-price, doctors of both laws, &c. ;
which religious persons, and other ecclesiastical men,
thought it good that the bishop should pronounce, and
give the sentence against him ; and so he was delivered
to the sherifls to be taken to Newgate, they being com-
manded to bring him again upon Monday following into
St. Paul's upper quire, there to give attendance upon the
bishop of London ; and by and bye the sherifls were
commanded to have him into the vestry, and then to
bring him forth in Antichrist's apparel, to be degraded
before them. When he had degraded him kneeling upon
the highest step of the altar, he took his crosier staff,
and smote him on the breast, so that he threw him down
backwards, and brake his head that sounded it. When
Byfield came to himself again, he thanked God that he
was delivered from the malignant church of Antichrist,
and that he was come into the true sincere church of
Jesus Christ militant here in earth ; " And I trust anon,"
said he, " to be in heaven with Jesus Ciirist, and the
church triumphant for ever ;" and he was then led forth
through the quire to Newgate, and there rested about an
hour in prayer ; and afterwards went to the fire in his
apparel, manfully and joyfully, and there, for lack of a
speedy fire, was half an hour alive ; and when the left
arm was on fire and burned, he rubbed it with his right
hand, and it fell from his body, and he continued in
prayer to the end without moving. He was burned in
Smithfield.
John Tewkesbury, Leather-seller of London, Martyr.
John Tewkesbury was converted by the reading of
Tindal's Testament, and "The Wicked Mammon." He
had the bible. In all points of religion he openly dis.
puted in the bishop's chapel in his palace, and in the
doctrine of justification, and all other articles of his faitli,
was very prompt in his answers, so that Tonstal, and all
his learned men were ashamed that a leather-seller
should dispute with them, with such power of the scrip-
tures and heavenly wisdom, that they were not able to
resist him. This disputation continued a week. The
process of examinations and answers here follow, as they
are extracted out of the bishop's register.
On Wednesday, 21st April, (A. D. l.'jap,) John
Tewkesbury was brought into the Consistory at London,
before Cuthbert, bishoj) of London, and his assistants,
Henry, bishop of St. Asaph, and John, abbot of West-
minster. The bishop of London then declared that he had
often exhorted him to recant the errors and heresies which
he held and defended, even as he did then again exhort
him, not to trust too much to his own wit and learning,
but unto the doctrine of the holy mother, the church.
He made answer, that in his judgment he did not err
from the doctrine of the holy mother the church. And,
at the last, being examined upon errors, which, they
said, were in the book called "The Micked Mammon,"
he answered ; — "Take ye the book and read it over, and
I think, in my conscience, ye shall find no fault in it."
And, being asked by the bishop, whether he had rather
give credit to this book or to the gospel ; he answered that
the gospel is, and ever has been true.
The bishop said further to John Tewkesbury: — "I
A.D. 1527— 15G0.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN TEWKESBURY, ETC.
521
tell thee, before God, and those here present, that the
articles contained in the book are false, heretical, and
condemned by the holy church— how thinkest thou ?"
He commanded him to answer determinately, under pain
of the law, saying, that if he refused to answer, he must
declare him an open and obstinate heretic, according to
the order of the law.
He answered, " That he thought, in his conscience,
there was nothing in the book but that which is true ;
and to this article objected, that is, that faith only justi-
fies without works, he answers, " That is well said," and
added, " I pray God, that the condemnation of the
Gospel, and translation of the Testament be not to your
shame, and that you be not in peril for it ; for the condem-
nation of it and of the other is all one." He said, that he
had studied the holy scriptures for the space of these
seventeen years, and as he could see the spots of his
face in the glass, so, in reading the New Testament, he
knew the faults of his soul.
The bishop exhorted him to recant his errors. John
Tewkesbury answered, " I pray you reform yourself,
and if there be any error in the book, let it be reformed;
I think it is good enough." The bishop ajjpointed him
to determine with himself against the morrow.
After some days, with advice of his friends, he sub-
mitted himself, and abjured his opinions, and was en-
joined penance, as follows.
That he should keep well his abjuration, under pain
of relapse.
That the Sunday following, in St. Paul's Church in
the open procession, he should carry a fagot, and stand
at St. Paul's Cross with the same.
That on the Wednesday following he should carry the
same fagot about Newgate- Market and Cheapside.
That on the Friday after, he should take the same fagot
again at St. Peter's Church in Cornhill, and carry it
about the market of Leaden- hall.
That he should have two signs of fagots embroidered,
the one on his left sleeve, and the other on his right
sleeve, and that he should wear them all his life time,
unless he were otherwise dispensed with.
That on Whit-Sunday eve he should enter into the
monastery of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, and there
abide, and not come out unless he were released by the
bishop of London.
That he should not depart out of the city or diocese
of London, without the special license of the bishop or
his successors. Which penance he commenced the 8th
day of May, 1529.
And thus much concerning his first examination,
which was in the year 1521), when he was induced
through infirmity, to retract and abjure his doctrine.
Being afterwards confirmed by the grace of God, and
moved by the example of Byfield, who was burned in
Smithfield, he returned and constantly remained in the
testimony of the truth, and suffered for it. Uecovering
more grace and better strength at the hand of the Lord,
two years after being apprehended again, he was brought
before Sir Thomas More, and the bishop of London ;
where certain articles were objected of him : the chief
of which we briefly recite.
I. That he confessed that he was baptized, and in-
tended to keep the catholic faith.
II. That he affirms, that the abjuration, oath, and
subscription that he made before Cuthbert, late bishop
of London, was done by compulsion.
III. That he had the books of " the Obedience of a
Christian Man," and of " the Wicked Mammon," in his
custody, and had read them since his abjuration.
IV. That he affirms that he suffered the two fagots
that were embroidered on his sleeve, to be taken from
him, for that he deserved not to wear them.
V. He Sdith, that faith cmly justifies, which has charity.
VI. He saith, that Christ is a sufficient mediator for
us, and tlierefore no prayer is to be made to saints.
Whereupon they laid unto him this verse of the anthem ;
*' Hail queen of heaven, our advocate.'' To which
he answered, that he knew no other advocate but Christ
alone.
VII. He affirms that there is no purgatory after this
life, but that Christ our Savour is a sufficient purgation
for us.
VIII. He affirms, that the souls of the faithful, de-
parting this life, rest with Christ.
IX. He affirms, that a priest, by receiving orders,
receives more grace, if his faith be increased, but other-
wise, not.
X. And last of all, he believes, that the sacrament of
the flesh and blood of Christ, is not the very body of
Christ, in flesh and blood, as it was born of the Virgin Mary.
Then the chancellor caused the articles to be read
openly, with the answers unto the same ; after which
the bishop pronounced sentence against him and de-
livered him to the sheriffs of London ; who burned him
in Smithfield, 20th of December, 1531.
The apprehension of one Edward Freese, a painter.
Edward Freese was apprentice to a paititer, and by
working for his master in Bearsie Abbey, was known to
the abbot, for he was a boy of talent and knowledge, and
the abbot favoured him so much, that he would have
made him a monk. The lad not liking that kind of
living and not knowing how to get out because he was
a novice, ran away, and came to Colchester in Essex,
and remaining there according to his former vocation,
was married and lived like an honest man. After he
had been there a good time, he was hired to paint cer-
tain cloths for the new inn in Colchester, and in the
upper border of the cloths he wrote certain sentences
of scripture, and by that he was plainly known to be
one of those whom they call heretics.
He was taken and brought to London, and so to
Fulham, to the bishop's house, where he was cruelly
imprisoned, with others of Essex; one Johnson and his
wife, Wylie and his wife, and his son, and father Bate of
Rowshedge. They were so straightly kept, that their
wives and their friends could not come to them. After
the painter had been there a long space, he was removed
to the Lollard'sTower. While he was at Fulham, his wife
being desirous to see her husband, and pressing to come
in at the gate, being then with child, the porter
lifted up his foot and kicked her on the belly, that at
length she died of the same, but the child was destroyed
immediately.
After that they were all put in the stocks for a long
time, and then they were let loose in their prisons.
Some had horselocks on their legs, and some had
other irons. This painter would ever be writing on the
walls with chalk or a coal ; and because he would be
writing many things, he was manacled by the wrists, 'SO
long, till the flesh of his arms was grown higher than
his irons. By means of his manacles he could not comb
his head, so that his hair was folded together.
After the death of his wife, his brother sued to the
king for him, and he was brought out in the consistory
at St. Paul's, and (as his brother reported) they kept
him tliree days without meat before he came to his an-
swer. Then, what by the long imprisonment and cruel
treatment, and for lack of sustenance, the man could
not say anything, but looked and gazed upon the peo-
ple like a wild man, and if they asked him a question,
he only answered, " My lord is a good man." And
thus, when they had ruined his body, and destroyed his
senses, they sent him back again to Bearsie Abbey ; but
he came away again from thence, and would not tarry
amongst them : although he never came to his perfect
mind, to his dying day.
His brother, whose name was Valentine Freese and his
wife, gave their lives at one stake in York, for the tes-
timony of Jesus Christ.
Also the wife of Father Bate, while he was at Fulham,
made many supplications to the king without redress,
and at the last she delivered one into his own hands,
and he read it himself, whereupon she was appointed to
go into Chancery Lane, to one, whose name (as it is
thought) was Master Selyard, and at last she got a
letter of Selyard to the bishop, and when she had it,
she thought all her smt well bestowed, hoping that some
good should come to her husband by it. And because
the wicked officers in those days were crafty, and de«
522
PERSECUTION OF JAMES BAINHAM, A LAWYER,
[Book VIII.
sirous of his blood, some of her friends desired to see
the contenta of her letter, and not suffer her to deliver
it to the bishop : and as they thought, so they found
indeed : for it was after this manner.
After commendations had, &c. " Look what you can
gather against Father Bate, and send ine word by your
trusty friend, Sir William Saxie,that 1 may certify it to the
king's majesty, &c." Thus the poor woman, when she
thought her suit had been done, was in less hope of her
husband's life than before. But it pleased God soon to
deliver him : for he got out in a dark night, and was
caught no more, but died within a short time after.
James Bainkam, Lawyer and Martyr.
James Bainham, gentleman, was virtuously brought
up by his parents, in the study of good letters, and had
a knowledge both of the Latin and the Greek tongue.
He gave himself to the study of the law, and was
esteemed a man of virtuous disposition, and godly con-
versation, mightily addicted to prayer, an earnest reader
of scripture, a great maintainer of the godly, a visitor
of prisoners, liberal to scholars, very merciful to his
clients, using equity and justice to the poor, very dili-
gent in giving counsel to all the needy, widows, father-
less, and afflicted, without money or rewards ; indeed a
singular example to all lawyers.
This INIaster Bainham married the widow of Simon
Fish, for which he was the more suspected, and at last
was accused to Sir Thomas More, and arrested, i.nd
carried out of the Middle Temple to the chancellor's
house at Chelsea, where he continued in prison a while,
till Sir Thomas More, finding he could not prevail on
him to recant, cast him into prison in his own house,
and whipping him at the tree in his garden, called the
" Tree of Troth,'' and afterwards sent him to the Tower
to be racked;, and so he was. Sir Thomas INIore being
present himself, till he had lamed him, because he
would not accuse the gentlemen of the Temple of his
acquaintance, nor shew where his books lay ; and be-
cause his wife denied them to be at his house, she was
seat to the Fleet, and their goods confiscated.
After they had thus practised against him what they
could by tortures and torments, then was he brought
before John Stokesley, bishop of London, the fifteenth
day of December, A.D. 1531, in Chelsea, and there exa-
mined upon the following articles and interrogatories : —
1. Whether he believed there were any purgatory of
soUls hence departed ?
He made answer as follows : " If we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowshij) one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we de-
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we con-
fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John i. 7—9.
2. Whether saints hence departed are to be honoured
and prayed to, to pray for us ?
He answered : " My little children, these things write
I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins : and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world." 1 John ii. 1, 2. And further, upon occasion of
these words, " All ye saints of God pray for us," being
demanded what he meant by these words, " All ye
saints," he answered, that he meant by them those that
were alive, as St. Paul did by the Corinthians, and not
by those that are dead : for he prayed not to them, he
said, because be thought that they who are dead cannot
pray for him. Also, when the whole church is gathered
together, they pray oije for another, or desire one to
pray for another, with one heart ; and that the will of
the Lord may be fulfilled, and not ours. " And I pray,"
said he, " as our Saviour Christ jn-ayed at his last
hour : ' O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me : nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.' "
Matt. xxvi. 39.
3. He was demanded, whether he thought that any
souls departed were yet in heaven or not .'
He answered, that he believed that they are there
where it pleased God to have them, that is to say, in
the faith of Abraham, and that herein he would commit
himself to the church.
4. It was demanded, whether he thought it necessary
to salvation, for a man to confess his sins to a priest ?
His answer was this, that it was lawful for one to
confess and acknowledge his sins to another. As for
any other confession he knew none. And farther, he
said, that if he came to the sermon, or any other place,
where the word of God is preached, and there rei)ented
for his sin, he believed his sins forthwith forgiven of
God, and that he needed not go to any confession.
5. That he should say and affirm, that the truth of the
holy scriptures has been hid, and hath not appeared for these
eight hundred years, neither was it known before now.
To this he said, that he meant no otherwise, but that
the truth of holy scrijiture was never, these eight hun-
dred years past, so plainly and expressly declared to the
people as it has been within these six years.
6. He was demanded further, for what cpuse the holy
scripture has been better declared within these six
years, than it hath been these eight hundred years before .'
He ansv.'ered, to say ])lainly, he kne.w no man to have
preached the word of God sincerely and purely, and
after the true meaning of scripture, except Master
Crome and Master Latimer, and that the New Testa-
ment, now translated into English, preaches and teaches
the word of God; and that before that time men did
only preach that folks should believe as the church be-
lieved, and then if the church erred men should err too.
" However the church,'' said he, "of Christ cannot err :
and that there were two churches, that is, the church of
Christ militant, and the church of antichrist ; and that
this church of antichrist may and doth err, but the
church of Christ doth not."
7. Whether he knew any person that died in the true
faith of Christ, since the apostles' time ?
He said, he knew Byfield, and thought that he died
in the true faith of Christ.
8. He was asked what he thought of purgatory .'
He answered, if any such thing had been mentioned
to St. Paul about purgatory after this life, he thought
St. Paul would have condemned it for an heresy. And
when he heard Master Crome preach and say, that he
thought there was a purgatory after this life, he thought
in his mind that Master Crome lied, and spake against
his conscience ; and that there were an hundred more
who thought the same as he did ; saying, that he had
seen the confession of Master Crome in print, a very
foolish thing, as he judged.
And as concerning vows, he granted that there were
lawful vows, as Ananias vowed (Acts v.) ; for it was in
his own power, whether he would have sold his posses-
sion or not, and therefore he did offend. But vows of
chastity, and all godliness, is given of God by his abun-
dant grace, which no man of himself can keep, but it
must be given him of God ; and therefore a monk, friar,
or nun, that hath vowed the vows of religion, if they
think after their vows are made, that they cannot keep
their promises that they made at baptism, they may go
forth and marry, so that they keep, after their marriage,
the promise that they made at baptism. And finally, he
concluded, that he thought there were no other vows,
but only the vow of baptism.
9. He was demanded, whether Luther being a friar,
and taking a nun and marrying her, did well or no, and
what he thought therein ?
He answered, that he thought nothing. And when
they asked him, whether it was immoral or not ? he
made answer, he could not say'so.
As concerning the sacrament of extreme unction ;
he said, it was but a ceremony, neither did he know
that a man should be the better for such oiling and
anointing. The best of it was, that some good prayers
were said at it.
Likewise, touching the sacrament of baptism, his
words were these : —
A.D. 1527—1560.]
MARTYRDOM OF JAMES BAINHAM, ETC.
523
" Tliat as many as repent, and put on Christ, shall
be saved : that is, as many as die concerning sin, shall
live by faith with Christ. Therefore it is not we that
live after that, but Christ in us. And so, whether we
live or die, we are God's by adoption, and not by the
water only, but by water and faith ; that is, by keeping
the promise made. ' For by grace are ye saved through
faith,' saith St. Paul ; ' and that not of yourselves : it is
the gift of God.' " Eph. ii. 8.
He was asked moreover of matrimony, whether it was
a sacrament or not, and whether it confers grace, being
commanded in the old law, and not yet taken away .'
His answer was, " That matrimony is an order or law,
that the church of Christ hath made and ordained, by
which men may take to themselves wives and not
sin."
Lastly, for his books of scripture, and for his judg-
ment of Tindal, because he was urged to confess the
truth, he said, that he had the New Testament tran-
slated into the English tongue by Tindal within this
month, and thought he oftended not God in using and
keeping the same, notwithstanding that he knew the
king's proclamation to the contrary, and that it was
prohibited in the name of the church at St. Paul's Cross.
But for all that he thought the word of God had not for-
bid it ; confessing, moreover, that he had in his keep-
ing within this month these books : — " The Wicked
Mammon," " The Obedience of a Christian Man,"
" The Practice of Prelates," " The Answer of Tindal
to Thomas More's Dialogues," " The Book of Frith
against Purgatory," " The Epistle of George Gee, alias
George Clerk ;" adding, that in all these books he
never saw any errors. And if there were- any such in
them, then if they were corrected, it were good that the
people had the books. And as concerning the New
Testament in English, he thought it very good, and that
the people should have it as it is. Neither did he ever
know that Tindal was a naughty fellow. And to these
answers he subscribed his name. This examination was
the fifteenth day of December.
Now was the time either to save, or else utterly to
cast himself away. Which of these ways he would take,
the case present now required a present answer, for else
the sentence definitive was ready there to be read, &c.
To conclude a long matter in few words : Bainham
■wavering in a doubtful perplexity, between life on the
one hand, and death on the other, at length giving over
to the adversaries, gave answer to them that he was con-
tented to submit himself in those things wherein he had
offended, excusing that he was deceived by ignorance.
Then the bishop requiring him to state his mind plainly
as to his answers above declared, and demanded what he
thought thereof, whether they were true or not.
To this Bainham said, that it was too high for him to
judge. And then being asked of the bishop, whether
there was any purgatory ? he answered and said, he
could not believe that there was any purgatory after this
life.
Upon other articles being examined and demanded, he
granted as follows : that he could not judge whether
Byfield died in the true faith of Christ or no ; that a
man making a vow, cannot break it without deadly sin ;
that a priest promising to live chaste, may not marry a
■wife ; that he thinketh the apostles to be in heaven ;
that Luther did nought in marrying a nun ; that a child
is the better for confirmation ; that it is an offence to
God, if any man keep books prohibited by the church,
the pope, the bishop, or the king ; and said, that he pon-
dered those points more now than he did before, &c.
The chancellor offering to him a bill of his abjuration,
required him to read it, he did so.
After the reading of it, he burst out into these words,
saying, that because there were many words in the ab-
juration, which he thought obscure, he protested that by
his oath he intended not to go from such defence, which
he might have had before his oath. The chancellor
asked him why he made that protest. Bainham said,
" For fear, lest. any man of ill will accuse me hereafter."
" Well, Master Bainham," said the chancellor, "take
your oath, and kiss the book, or else I will do mine
office against you ;'' and so immediately he took the
book in his hand and kissed it, and subscribed.
Which done, the chancellor receiving the abjuration
at his hand put him to his fine, first to pay twenty pounds
to the king. After that, he enjoined him j)enance, to
go before the cross in procession at St. Paul's, and to
stand before the preacher during the sermon at St. Paul's
Cross, with a fagot upon his shoulder, on the next Sunday,
and to return to the prison again, there to abide the
bishop's determination ; and so on the 17th day of Feb.
he was released. It was scarce a month when he be-
wailed his abjuration, and was never quiet in his mind
and conscience until he had acknowledged his full to all
his acquaintance, and asked God and all the world forgive-
ness before the congregation, in a warehouse in Bow-
lane ; and immediately on the next Sunday after he came
to St, Austin's, with the New Testament in his hand in
English, and the " Obedience of a Christian Man" in his
bosom, and stood up there before the people in his pew,
there declaring openly with weeping tears, that he had
denied God, and prayed all the people to forgive him,
and to beware of his weakness, and not to do as he did ;
for," said he, " if I should not return again to the truth
(having the New Testament in his hand) this word of
God would damn me both body and soul at the day of
judgment." And there he prayed every body rather to
die than to do as he did ; for he would not feel such an
hell again as he did feel, for all the world's goods. Be-
sides this, he wrote letters to the bishop, to his brother,
and to others ; so that shortly after he was apprehended,
and committed to the Tower of London.
In due time he was tried as a relapsed heretic, and
then the vicar-general, after he had taken deliberation
and advice with his learned assistants, read the definitive
sentence against him ; -whereby amongst other things,
besides his abjuration, he pronounced and condemned
him as a relapsed heretic, damnably fallen into sundry
heresies, and so to be left unto the secular power ; that
is to say, to one of the sheriffs there present. After
this sentence given, James Bainham was delivered into
the hands of Sir Richard Gresham, sheriff, then being
present, who caused him by his officers to be carried
to Newgate, and he was burned in Smithfield the last
day of April, A.D. 1532.
This Master Bainham, during his imprisonment, was
very cruelly handled. For almost the space of a fortnight
he lay in the bishop's coal-house in the stocks, with irons
upon his legs. Then he was carried to the lord chan-
cellor's, and there chained to a post two nights. Then
he ■tvas carried to Fulham, where he was cruelly handled
for the space of a fortnight. Then to the Tower, where
he lay a fortnight, scourged with whips, to make him
revoke his opinions. From thence he was carried to
Barking, theji to Chelsea, and there condemned, and
so to Newgate from thence to be burned !
Jofin Bent, a tailor, about this time, or not long before,
was burned in the town of Devizes, in the county of
Wiltshire, for denying of the sacrament of the altar, as
they term it.
One Trapnel, Martyr. — Also about the same time was
burned, in a town called Bradford, within the same
county.
The History of three men hanged for the burning of the
Rood of Dovercourt, collected out of a letter of Robert
Gardiner, who was one of the doers of the same.
In the same year, 1532, there was an idol named the
rood of Dover-court, to which there was a great resort of
people. For at that time there was a rumour spread
abroad amongst the ignorant sort, that the power of the
idol of Dover-court was so great, that no man had
power to shut the church-door where he stood, and
therefore they let the church-door, both night and day,
continually stand open, for the greater credit of their
rumour. This seemed a great wonder to many ignorant
men ; but by others, whom God had blessed with his
Spirit, it was greatly suspected, especially by those whose
names follow : — Robert King of Dedham, Robert Deb-
nam of Eastbergholt, Nicholas Marsh of Dedhiim, and
524
THE PERSECUTION OF JOHN FRITH,
[Book VIIL
Robert Gardiner of Dedliam, whose consciences were
bm;hened to see the honour and power of the Almiglity
God so blasphemed by such an idol. Therefore they
were resolved to travel out of Dedham in a goodly night,
both hard frost and fair moonshine, although the night
before and the night after were exceeding foul and rainy.
It was, from the town of Dedham, to the place where the
rood stood, ten miles. They went these ten miles, and
found the church door open, which happened well for
their purpose ; for they found the idol, which had as
much power to keep the door shut as to keep it open.
They took the idol from his shrine, and carried him a
quarter of a mile from the place where he stood, without
any resistance of the idol. Then they struck fire with a
flint-stone, and suddenly set him on fire, and he burned
so brightly that he lighted them homeward one good
mile out of the ten.
This done, there went a great talk abroad that they
should have great riches in that place ; but it was very
untrue, for it was not their thought or enterprise, as they
themselves afterwards confessed, for there was nothing
taken away but his coat, his shoes, and ta])ers. The
tapers helped to burn him, the shoes they had again,
and the coat one Sir Thomas Rose burned, but they had
neither penny, half-penny, groat, gold, nor jewel.
Three of them, however, were afterwards indicted of
felony, and hanged in chains within half a year after, or
thereabout; which three persons, at their death, through
the Spirit of God, did more edify the people in godly
learning, than all the sermons that had been preached
there for a long time before.
The fourth man of this company, named Robert Gar-
diner, escaped their hands and fled ; whom the Lord
preserved, to whom be all honour and glory, world with-
out end.
The same year, and the year before, there were many
images cast down and destroyed in many places ; as the
image of the crucifix in the highway by Coggleshall, the
image of St. Petronilla in the church of Great Horkes-
ley, the image of St. Christopher by Sudbury, and
another image of St. Petronilla in a chapel at Ipswich.
Also John Seward of Dedham overthrew the cross in
Stoke-park, and took two images out of a chapel in the
park, and cast them into the water.
The History, Examination, Death, and Martyrdom of
John Frith.
Amongst all other evils there has been none for a long
time which seemed to me more grievous than the la-
mentable death and cruel usage of John Frith, so learned
and excellent a young man, who had so profited in all
kind of learning and knowledge, that there was scarcely
his equal among all his companions ; and besides he had
such a godliness of life joined with his doctrine, that it
was hard to judge in which of them he excelled, being
greatly praiseworthy in them both. But as to his doc-
trine, by the grace of Christ, we will speak hereafter.
Notwithstanding his other singular gifts and ornaments
of the mind by which he might have opened an easy way
to honour and dignity, yet he chose rather to consecrate
himself wholly to the church of Christ, shewing forth
and practising the precept so highly commended of the
philosophers, touching the life of man ; which life, they
say, is given to us in such sort, that how much better
the man is, so much the less he should live to himself,
but that we should think a great part of our birth due
to our parents, a greater part to our country, and the
greatest part of all bestowed upon the church, if we will
be counted good men. First of all he began his study
at Cambridge. Nature had planted in him, while a
child, a great love of learning. He had also a wonderful
promptness of wit, and a ready capacity to receive and
understand any thing. Neither was there any diligence
wanting in him, by which it came to pass, that he was not
only a lover of learning, but also became a very knriied
man. When he had diligently laboured for certain years,
■with great profit to himself in the study of Latin Jind
Greek, he at last became acquainted with \\ illiaui
Tindal, through whose inslfuctions he first received into
his lieart the seed of tlie gospel and sincere godliness.
At tliat time Thomas "\Volsey, cardinal of York, pre-
pared to build a college in Oxford, which had the name
and title of Frideswide, but now named Christ's Church,
not so much (as it is thought) for the love and zeal that
he bore to learning, as for an ambitious desire of glory
and renown, and to leave a perpetual name to posterity.
This ambitions cardinal gathered together into that col-
lege whatever excellent things there were in the whole
realm, cither vestments, vessels, or other ornaments,
besides provision of all kind of precious things. He also
appointed to it all such men ns were found to excel in
any kind of learning and knowledge.
These men, conferring together upon the abuses of re-
ligion, at tliat time crept into the church, were therefore
accused of heresy to the cardinal, and cast into a prison.
John Fritli was dismissed from prison, upon condition
that he would not pass above ten miles out of Oxford.
Frith, after hearing of the examination of Dalaber and
Garret, who bore fagots, went over the sea, and after two
years he came over for exhibition of the prior of Read-
ing (as was thour;ht) and had the prior over witli him.
Being at Reading, it happened that he was there
taken for a vagabond, and brought to examination :
where the simple man, who could not craftily enough
colour himself, was set in the stocks. Where, after he
had sate a long time, and was almost pined with hunger,
and yet would not declare what he was, at last he de-
sired that the schoolmaster of tlie town might be
brought to him, who at that time was one Leonard Cox,
a man very well learned. As soon as he came to him,
Frith, by and by began in the Latin tongue to bewail his
captivity.
The schoolmaster by and by, being overcome with las
eloquence, did not only take pity and compassion upon
him, but also began to love and embrace such an excel-
lent wit and disposition, especially in such misery.
Afterwards conferring more together upon many things,
as touching the universities, schools, and tongues, they
fell from the Latin into the Greek : in which Frith in-
flamed the love of that schoolmaster towards him,
especially when the schoolmaster heard him so promptly
by heart rehearse Homer's verses out of his first book
of the Iliad. Upon this the schoolmaster went with all
speed to the magistrates, grievously complaining of the
injury which they shewed to so excellent and innocent a
young man.
Thus Frith, through the help of the schoolmaster, was
freely let out of the stocks, and set at liberty without
further punishment. Yet his safety continued not long,
owing to the great hatred and deadly pursuit of Sir
Thomas More, who at that time being chancellor of
England, persecuted him both by land . and sea, beset-
ting all the ways and havens, yea, and promising great
rewards, if any man could bring him any news or tidings
of him.
Thus Frith being on every side beset with troubles, and
not knowing which way to turn, seeks for some place to
hide himself in. Thus fleeing from one place to another,
and often changing both his garments and his place, heyet
could be in safety in no place ; not long even among his
friends : so that at last, being traitorously taken, he was
sent to the Tower of London, where he had many con-
flicts with the bishops, but especially in writing with Sir
Thomas More. The first occasion of his writing was
this : he had a communication with a certain old familiar
friend of his, about the sacrament of the body and blood
of Christ. The whole disputation consisted especially in
these four points : —
" 1. That the matter of the sacrament is no neces-
sary article of faith under jiain of damnation.
" 2. That forsoinuch as Christ's natural body in like
condition hath all jiroperties of our body, sin only ex-
cfjited, it cannot be, neither is it agreeable to reason,
thnt he should he in two jilaces or more at once, con-
tr.iry to the nature of our body.
" ;i. Moreover, it shall not seem meet or necessary,
A. D. 1527—1560.]
THE PERSECUTION OF JOHN FRITH.
525
that we should in this place understand Christ's words
according to the literal sense, but rather according to
the order and phrase of speech, comparing phrase with
phrase, according to the analogy of the scripture.
" 4. Last of all, how that it ought to be received ac-
cording to the true and right institution of Christ, al-
though that the order which at this time is crept into
the church, and is used now-a-days by the priests, do
never so much differ from it."
And, as the treatise seemed somewhat long, his friend
desired him that he would briefly commit it to writing,
and give it to him for the help of his memory. Frith,
although he was unwilling, and not ignorant how danger-
ous a thing it was to enter into such a matter, at the
last, overcome by the entreaty of his friend, complied.
There was at that time in London, a tailor, named
William Holt, who, feigning great friendship toward this
party, urgently begged of him to let him read over that
writing of Frith's; which, when he did, the other by and
by carried it to More the chancellor. This was the oc-
casion of great trouble, and also of death to Frith.
This was the whole sum of the reasons of Frith's book ;
first, to declare the pope's belief of the sacrament to be
no necessary article of our faith ; that is to say, that it is
no article of our faith necessary to be believed under
pain of damnation, that the sacrament should be the
natural body of Christ ; which he thus proveth. For
many so believe, and yet in so believing the sacrament
to be the natural body are not thereby saved, but receive
it to their own damnation.
Again, in believing the sacrament to be the natural
body, yet that natural presence of his body in the bread
is not that which saves us, but his presence in our
hearts by faith. And likewise, the not believing of his
bodily presence in- the sacrament, is not the thmg that
shall condemn us, but the absence of him out of our
hearts, through unbelief. And if it be objected, that it
is necessary to believe God's word under pain of damna-
tion : to that he answers, " That the word taken in the
right sense, as Christ meant, maintains no such bodily
presence as the pope's church teaches, but rather a sa-
cramental presence. And that," saith he, " may be
further confirmed thus : —
" None of the old fathers, before Christ's incarnation,
were bound, under pain of damnation, to believe this
point.
" Now can we not be saved by the same faith that the
old fathers were ?
" And, therefore, none of us are bound to believe this
point under pain of damnation.
" The first part," saith he, " is evident of itself. For
how could they believe that which they never heard nor
saw ?
" The second part," saith he, " appears plainly by
St. Augustine, writing ad Dardanum, and also by a
hundred places more. Neither is there any thing that
he doth more often inculcate than this, that the same
faith that saved our fathers, saves us also ; and, there-
fore, upon the truth of these two parts thus proved,
must the conclusion needs follow."
Again, he argues thus : —
" None of the old fathers, before Christ's incarnation,
did eat Christ corporally in their signs, but only mysti-
cally, and spiritually, and were saved.
" Now, we all eat Christ even as they did, and are
saved as they were.
" And, therefore, none of us eat Christ corporally,
but mystically, and spiritually, in our signs as they did.
For the proof of the first part, Frith declares how the
ancient fathers, before Christ's incarnation, never be-
lieved any such point of this gross and carnal eating of
Christ's body ; and yet, notwithstanding, they did eat
him spiritually and were saved : as Adam, Abraham,
Moses, Aaron, Phinehas, and other godly Israelites be-
sides. All which, saith he, did eat the body of Christ,
and did drink his blood as we do. But this eating and
drinking of theirs was spiritual, pertaining only to faith,
and not to the teeth : " For they were under the cloud,
and drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them .
and that Rock was Christ," which was promistj t'leni
to come into the world. And this promise was lirst
made to Adam, when, as it was said to the serpent ; " I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be-
tween thy seed and her seed," &c. And afterwards
again, to Abraham : " In thy seed shall all nations be
blessed," &c. Adding also the sacrament of circumci-
sion, whicrh was called the covenant ; not because it was
so, indeed, but because it was a sign and a token of the
covenant made between God and Abraham, admonishing
us thereby, how we should judge and think touching the
sacrament of body and blood ; to wit, that although ii be
called the body of Christ, yet we should properly under-
stand thereby the fruit of our justification, which plenti-
fully flows to all the faithful, by his most blessed body
and blood. Likewise the same promise was made to
Moses, the most meek and gentle captain of the
Israelites, who did not only himself believe upon Christ,
who was so often promised, but also prefigured him both
by the manna which came down from heaven, and also
by the water which issued out of the rock, for the re-
freshing of the bodies of his people.
Neither is it to be doubted, but that both the manna
and the water had a prophetical mystery in them, de-
claring the very self-same thing then, which the bread
and the wine do now declare unto us in the sacrament.
They all did eat the same spiritual meat, and all did
drink the same spiritual drink : all one spiritual thing,
but not all one corporal matter (for they did eat manna,
and we another thing) but the self-same spiritual thing
that we do, and although they drank the same spiritual
drink that we do, yet they drank one thing, and we
another : which, nevertheless, signified all one thing in a
spiritual sense. How did they drink all one thing }
The apostle answers, " Of the spiritual Rock which fol-
lowed them, for the Rock was Christ." The manna
which came down from heaven, was the same unto tliem
that our sacrament is unto us, and that by either of
them is signified, that the body of Christ came down
from heaven ; and yet, notwithstanding, never any of
them said, that the manna was the very body of the
Messiah, as our sacramental bread is not indeed the body
of Christ, but a mystical representation of the same.
For, as the manna which came down from heaven, and
the bread which is received in the supper, nourish the
body, even so the body of Christ coming down from
heaven, and being given for us, quickens the spirits of
the believers unto life everlasting. Then, if the salva-
tion of both people be alike, and their faith also one,
there is no cause why we should add transubstantiation
to our sacrament, more than they believed their manna
to be altered and changed. Moreover, because they are
named sacraments, even by the signification of the name
they must needs be signs of things, or else of necessity
they can be no sacraments.
When More had got a copy of this treatise, he sharp-
ened his pen to make answer unto this young man (for
so he calls him throughout his whole book) but when
the book was once set forth. Frith got a copy, by means
of his friends, and answered him out of the prison,
omitting nothing that any man could desire to the per-
fect handling of the matter.
WTiat knowledge and genius, and excellency of doctrine
was in him may appear not only by his books which he
wrote on the sacrament, but also in those whicli he
wrote on purgatory. In which controversy he withstood
the violence of three opponents, viz., Rochester, More,
and Rastal, one by the help of the doctors, the other
by wresting of the scriptures, and the third by the help
of natural philosophy, had conspired against him.
But he, as a Hercules, fighting not against two only,
but even wnth all three at once, did so overthrew and
confound them, that he converted Rastal.
Besides all these commendations of this young man,
there was also in him a friendly and prudent modera-
tion in uttering of the truth, joined with a learned
godliness. Which has always so much prevailed in
the church of Christ, tliat without it, all other good
gifts of knowledge, he they ever so great, c.mnot
greatly profit, but oftentimes do very much hurt.
52S
JOHN FRITH' S ACCOUNT OF HIS EXAMINATION.
TBooK VIII.
And would to God that all things in all places were so
free from all kinds of dissension, that there were no men-
tion made amongst christians of Zuinglians and Luthe-
rans, as neither Zuinglius nor Luther died for us, but
that we might be all one in Christ. I do think that
nothing could more grieve those worthy men, than that
their names should be so abused to sects and factions,
who so greatlv withstood and strove against all factions.
But now, as we treat of the history of John Frith, I
cannot choose, but must needs earnestly and heartily
embrace the prudent and godly moderation which was
in that man, who maintaining his controversy of the
sacrament of the Lord's supper, no less godly than
learnedly, yet did it so moderately, tliat he never seemed
to strive against the papists, except he had been driven
to it. In all other matters where necessity did not force
him to contend, he was ready to grant all things for the
sake of quietness.
When More brought against him £he authority of
Doctor Barnes, for the presence of the body and blood
in the sacrament, he answered, that he would promise
under this condition — that the sentence of Luther and
Barnes might be held as ratified — he would never speak
more of it : for they agreed with him, that the sacra-
ment was not to be worshipped, and that idolatry
being taken away, he was content to permit every man
to judge of the sacrament, as God should put it into their
hearts ; for then there remained no more poison that
any man ought or might be afraid of.
After he had now sufficiently contended in his writings
with More, Rochester and Rastal, he was at last carried
to Lambeth, before the archbishop of Canterbury, and
afterwards to Croydon, before the bishop of Winches-
ter, to plead his cause. Last of all, he was called be-
fore the bishops in a common assembly at London.
The order of his judgment, with the manner of his ex-
amination and articles which were objected against him,
are comprised and set forth by himself in a letter written
to his friends, whilst he was a prisoner in the Tower.
A Letter of John Frith to his Friends, concerning his
troubles : wherein after he had first with a brief pre-
face saluted them, entering then into the matter, he
writes thus: —
" I doubt not, dear brethren, but that it doth greatly
vex you to see the one part to have all the words, and
freely to speak what they list, and the other to be put to
silence, and not be heard. But refer your matters to
God, who shortly shall judge after another fitshion. In
the meantime 1 have written to you as briefly as I may,
what articles were objected against me, and what were
the principal points of my condemnation, that you might
iinder»-tand the matter certainly.
" The whole matter of this my examination was com-
prehended in two special articles, that is to say, of pu"r-
gatory, and of the substance of the sacrament.
" And first of all, as touching purgatory, they inquired
of me whether I believed there was any place to
purge the spots and filth of the soul after this life.
But I said, that I thought there was no such place :
for man, said I, consists and is made only of two
parts, that is to say, of the body and the soul ; the
one is purged here in this world, by the cross of Christ,
which he lays upon every child that he receives, as afflic-
tion, worldly oppression, persecution, imprisonment,
&c. ATid last of all the reward of sin, which is death, is
laid upon us ; but the soul is purged with the word of
God, which we receive through faith, to the salvation
both of body and soul. Now if you can shew me a third
part of man besides the body and the soul, I will also
grant to you the third place, which you call purgatory.
But because you cannot do this, I must also of necessity
deny to you the bishop of Rome's purgatory. Never-
theless, I count neither j)art a necessary article of our
faith, to be believed under pair, of damnation, whe-
ther there be such a purgatory or not.
" Secondly, they examined me touching the sacrament
of the altar, whether it was the very body of Christ
or not.
" I answered, that I thought) it was both Christ's
body and also our body, as St. Paul teaches us in the
first epistle to the Corinthians, and tenth chapter. For
in that it is made one bread of many grains of corn, it
is called our body, which being divers and many mem-
bers, are associated and gathered together into one fellow-
ship or body. Likewise the wine, which is gathered of
many clusters of grapes, and is made into one liquor.
But the same bread again, in that it is broken, is the
body of Christ, declaring his body to be broken and
delivered to death, to redeem us from our iniquities.
" Furthermore, in that the sacrament is distributed,
it is Christ's body, signifying that, as verily as the
sacrament is distributed to us, so verily is Christ's body
and the fruit of his passion distributed to all faithful
people.
" In that it is received it is Christ's body, signifying
that as verily as the outward man received the sacra-
ment with his teeth and mouth, so verily doth the in-
ward man, through faith, receive Christ's body and fruit
of his passion, and is as sure of it as of the bread which
he eateth.
" Well, said they, dost thou, not think that his very
natural body, flesh, blood, and bone, is really contained
under the sacrament, and there present without all figure
or similitude ? ' No,' said I, ' I do not think so : not-
withstanding I would not that any should count, that I
make my saying, which is the negative, any article of
faith. For even as I say, that you ought not to make any
article necessary of the faith on your part, which is an
affirmative, so I say again, that we make no necessary ar-
ticle of the faith on our part, but leave it indifferent for all
men to judge therein, as God shall open their hearts, and
no side to condemn or despise the other, but to nourish in
all things brotherly love, and one to bear another's
infirmity.'
" After this they alleged the place of St. Augustine,
where he saith, ' He was carried in his own hands.'
" I answered, that St. Augustine was a plain inter-
preter of himself; for he says in another place, ' He
was carried as it were in his own hands;' which is
a phrase of speech not of one that simply affirms, but
only of one expressing a thing by a similitude. And
although St. Augustine had not thus expounded himself,
yet he writing unto Boniface plainly admonishes all men,
that the sacraments represent and signify those things
whereof they are sacraments, and many times even of the
similitudes of the tilings themselves they take their names.
And therefore, according to this rule it may be said, he
was borne in his own hands, when he bare in his hands the
sacrament of his body and blood.
Then they alleged a place of Chrysostom, which at the
first blush may seem to make much for them, who in a
certain homily upon the supper vyriteth thus , ' Dost thou
see bread and wine .' Do they depart from thee into the
draught, as other meats do .' No, God forbid ; for as m
wax, when it cometh to the fire, nothing of the substance
remains nor abides : so likewise think that the mysteries
are consumed by the substance of the body, &c.'
" These words I expounded by the words of the same
doctor, which in another homily says on this manner,
' The inward eyes,' saith he, ' as soon as they see the
bread, they flee over all creatures, and do not think of
the bread that is baked of the baker, but of the bread of
everlasting life, which is signified by the mystical bread.'
Now compare these places together, and you shall per-
ceive that the last expounds the first plainly. For he
saith, dost thou see the bread and wine ? I answer by
the second. Nay, for the inward eyes, as soon as they
see the bread, do pass over all creatures, and do not any
longer think upon the bread, but upon him which is
signified by the bread. And after this manner he seeth
it, and again he seeth it not : for as he seeth it with his
outward and carnal eyes, so with his inward eyes he
seeth it not, that is to say, regardeth not the bread, or
thinketh not upon it, but is otherwise occupied. Even
as when we play or do anything else negligently, we
commonly are wont to say, we see not what we do ;
but that indeed we do not see that which we go about,
not because our mind is fixed on some other thing,
A D. 1527— 15J0.] THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN FRITH AND ANDREW HEWET.
527
and doth not attend unto that which the eyes do not
see. In like manner may it be answered to that which
follows, ' Do they depart from thee,' saith he, ' in the
draught as other meats do ?' I will not so say, for other
meats passing through the bowels, after they have of
themselves given nourishment unto the body, be voided
into the draft : but this is a spiritual meat, which is
received by faith, and nourishes both body and soul unto
everlasting life, neither is it at any time voided as other
meats are."
" Here peradventure many would marvel, that forso-
much as the matter touching the substance of the sacra-
ment, being separate from the articles of the faith, and
binding no man of necessity either to salvation or damna-
tion, whether he believe it or not, but rather may be left
indifferently unto all men, freely to judge either on tlie
one part or on the other, according to his own mind, so
that neither part do contemn or despise the other ; but
that all love and charity be still holden and kept in this
dissension of opinions : what then is the cause, why I
would therefore so willingly suffer death ? The cause
why 1 die is this, I cannot agree with the divines and
other head prelates, that it should be necessarily deter-
mined to be an article of faith, and that we should be-
lieve under pain of damnation, the substance of the
bread and wine to-be changed into the body and blood
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the form. and shape only
not being changed. Which thing if it were most true
(as they shall never be able to prove it by any authority
of the scriptures or doctors) yet shall they not so bring
to pass, that that doctrine, be it ever so true, should be
held for a necessary article of faith. For there are many
thingsboth in the scriptures and other places, which we are
not bound of necessity to believe as an article of faith.
" So it is tiiie, that I was a prisoner and in bonds
when I wrote these things, and yet for all that I will
not hold it as an article of faith, but that you may with-
out danger of damnation, either believe it, or think the
contrary.
" But as touching the cause why I cannot affirm the
doctrine of transubstantiation, various reasons lead me
thereto.
First, I do plainly see it to be false and vain, and not
to be grounded upon any reason, either of the scriptures
or of approved doctors.
" Secondly, by my example I would not be an author
to christians to admit anything as a matter of faith,
more than their necessary points of the creed, wherein
the whole sum of our salvation consists, especially such
things, the belief of which have no certain argument, of
reason.
" I added, moreover, that their church, as they call
it, hath no such power and authority, that it either ought
or may bind us under the peril of our souls, to the be-
lieving of any such articles.
" Thirdly, Because I will not, for the favour of our
divines or priests, be prejudicial in this point, to so
many nations, of Germans, Helvetians, and others, who
altogether rejecting the transubstantiation of the bread
and wine into the body and blood of Christ, are all of
the same opinion that I am, as well those that take
Luther's part, as those that hold with Oecolampadius.
Which things standing in this case, I suppose there is
no man ot any upright conscience, who will not allow
the reason of my death, which I am put to for this only
cause, that I do not think transubstantiation, although
it were true indeed, should be established for an article
of faith."
But when no reason would prevail against the force
and cruelty of these furious foes, on the 20th day of June,
(A. D. 1533,) he was brought before the bishops of
London, Winchester, and Lincoln. When he could not
be persuaded to recant, or be brought to believe that the
sacrament is an article of faith, he was condemned by the
bishop of London to be burned, and sentence was given
against him.
The sentence being read, the bishop of London di-
rected his letter to Sir Stephen Peacock, mayor of
London, and the sheriffs of the city, for receiving John
Frith into their charge, who, being so delivered over to
them, on the4th day of July, 1533, was carried to Smithfield
to be burned, and when he was tied to the stake, it suffi-
ciently appeared with what constancy and courage he
suffered death ; for when the fagots and fire were put to
him, he willingly embracecl, them, thereby declaring with
what uprightness of mind he suffered bis death for
Christ's sake, and the true doctrine, whereof that day he
gave with his blood a perfect and firm testimony. The
wind made his death somewhat the longer, as if
bore away the flame from him to his companion, who
was tied to his back ; but he had established his
mind with such patience, God giving him strength, that
even as though he had felt no pain in that long torment,
he seemed rather to rejoice for his companion, than to
be careful for himself.
Thus truly is the power and strength of Christ, strir-
ing and vanquishing in his saints ; who sanctify us toge-
ther with them, and direct us in all things to the glory
of his most holy name. Amen.
Andrew Hewet.
Andrew Hewet, a young man of the age of four-and-
twenty years, was apprentice with Master Warren, a
tailor ; and as he went, upon a holiday, into Fleet-street,
towards St. Dunstan's, he met with William Holt, and
being suspected by Holt, who was a dissembling wretch,
to be one that favoured the gospel, after a little talk with
him, he went into a bookseller's house to avoid him.
Then Holtseiit for certain officers, and searched the house,
and finding Andrew, apprehended him, and carried him
to the bishop's house, where he was cast into irons.
Being there a good while, he had a file conveyed to him,
with which he filed off his irons, and got out of the gate.
But being a man unskilful to hide himself, he met with
one Witliers, who was an hypocrite, as Holt was.
Withers pretending a fair countenance to him, willed him
to go with him, promising that he "should be provided
for ; and so he kept him in the country till Whitsuntide,
and then brought him to London, to the house of one
John Chapman, and there left him for the space of two
days.
Then he came to Chapman's house again, and brought
Holt with him ; and when they met Andrew they seemed
as if they meant to do him much good, so they
would needs sup there that night, and prepared meat at
their own charges. They came at night and brought
guests with them. Wlien they had supped, they went
their way, and Holt took out of his purse two groats;
and gave them to Andrew, and embraced him in his
arms. Within an hour after the bishop's chancellor,
and Serjeant Weaver came, and brought with them the
watch, and seaEched the house, where they found John
Chapman, and Andrew, and John Tibauld, whom they
bound with ropes, and so carried them to the bishop's
house. But Andrew Hewet they sent to tlie ' Lollard's
Tower, and kejit Chnjiman and Ti'oauld asunder. The
next day bishop Stokesley came from Fulham, and after
they were examined with a few threatening words. Chap-
man was committed to the stocks, with this threat, that
he should tell another tale, or else he should sit there
till his heels should drop from his body ; and Tibauld was
shut up in a close chamber ; but Andrew Hewet, after a
long and cruel imprisonment, was condemned to death,
and burned with John Frith.
It was objected against Andrew Hewet, that he be-
lieved the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration,
to be but a signification of the body of Christ, and that
the host consecrated was not the very body of Christ.
So, being demanded what he thought of the sacrament of
the Lord's supper, he answered, " Even as John Frith
thinks." Then one of the bishops asked, " Dost thou
not believe that it is really the body of Christ, born
of the Virgin Mary.'" " So," he said, " I do not be-
lieve." " Why not ?" said the bishop, "Because,"
said he, " Christ commanded me not to give credit rashly
to all men, who say, ' Behold here is Christ, and there is
Christ, for many false prophets shall arise.'"
Then the bishops smil. d at him ; and Stokesley, the
bishop of London, said, " Why, Frith is an heretic, and
M M
528
THE MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS BENET.
[BoosVm
already judged to be burned, and except thou revoke
thine opiuiou, tliou shalt be burned also with him." He
saith, " 1 aiu content.'' Then the bishop asked him if
he would forsake his opinions. He answered, " He
would do as Frith did.'' He was sent to the prison to
Frith,audafterwards they were carried together to the fire.
The bishops used many persuasions to allure this good man
from the truth, buc he, manfully persisting in the truth,
would not recant. Wherefore, on the 4th day of July, in
the afternoon, he was carried into Smithtield with Frith,
and there burned.
When they were at the stake, one Dr. Cook, a parson
in London, openly admonished all the people that they
should in no wise pray for them, no more than they
would do for a dog. At which words. Frith smiling, de-
sired tlie Lord to forgive them. These words not a lit-
tle moved the people to anger. Thus, these two blessed
martyrs committed their souls into the hands of God.
Thomas Benef, burned at Exeter.
This Thomas Benet was bom in Cambridge, and made
master of arts, a man very well learned, and of a godly
disposition. This man, the more he grew and increased
in the knowledge of God and his holy word, the more he
disliked and abhorred the then corrupt state of religion ;
and, therefore, being desirous to live in more freedom of
conscience, he forsook the university, and went into
Devonshire, (A.D. 1524.) He came to the city of
Exeter, and hiring a house, commenced teaching chil-
dren, and by that means sustained his wife and family.
He was of a quiet behaviour, of a godly conversation,
and of a very courteous nature, humble to all men, and
offensive to nobody. His greatest delight was to be at all
sermons and preachings, of which he was a diligent and
attentive hearer. The time which he had to spare from
teaching, he gave wholly to his private study in the
scriptures, having no- dealings nor conferences with any
body, saving with such as he could learn and understand
to be favourers of the gospel, and zealous of God's true
religion.
But as every tree and herb has his due time to bring
forth his fruit, so did it appear by this man ; for, daily
seeing the glory of God blasphemed, idolatrous religion
embraced and maintained, and that most false usurped
power of the bishop of Rome extolled, he was so grieved
in his conscience, and troubled in spirit, that he could
not be quiet till he uttered his mind therein. He
plainly opened and disclosed how blasphemously and
abominably God was dislionoured, his word contemned, and
his people, whom he so dearly bought, were by blind guides
carried headlongto everlasting destruction ; and, therefore,
he could no longer endure, but must needs testify against
their abominations ; and, for his own part, for the testi-
mony of his conscience, and for the defence of God's true
religion, would yield himself most patiently, as God
would give him grace, to die and to shed his blood there-
in, alleging that his death should be more profitable to
the church of God, and for the edifying of his people,
than his life should be. To whose persuasions, when his
friends had yielded, they promised to pray to God for
him, that he might be strong in the cause, and continue
a faithful soldier to the end ; which done, he gave order
for the bestowing of such books as he had, and very
shortly after, in the month of October, he wrote his mind
on certain scrolls of paper, which he set upon the doors
of the cathedral church ; in which was written, " The
pope is Antichrist, and we ought to worship God only,
and no saints."
These bills being found, there was no small ado, and
no little search made for the heretic that had set up
these bills : and the mayor and his officers were not
busy to find out this heretic ; but to keep the people in
their former blindness, order was taken that the doctors
should resort to their pulpits every day, and confute this
heresy. Nevertheless this Thomas Benet, keeping his
own doings in secret, went the Sunday following to the
cathedral church to the sermon, and by chance sate
down by two men, who were the busiest in all the city
iu seeking qnd searching for heretics ; and they behold-
ing Benet, said the one to the otlier ; surely this fellow
by all likelihood is the heretic that hath set up the bills,
and it were good to examine him. Nevertheless when
they had well beheld him, and saw the quiet and sober
behaviour of the man, his attentiveness to the preacher,
his godliness in the church, being always occupied
in his book, wiiich was a testament in the Latin tongue,
were astonished, and had no power to speak to him, but
departed and left him reading in his book.
In the meantime the canons and priests, the officers
and commons of the city were very earnestly busied,
how, or by what means such an enormous heretic, who
had put up those bills might be espied and known ; but
it was long first. At last, the priests found out a way
to curse him, whoever he was, with book, bell, and can-
dle ; which curse at that day, seemed most fearful and
terrible. The manner of the curse was after this sort.
One of the priests apparelled all in white, ascended
the pulpit. The other priests, with certain of the two
ordeis of friars, and certain superstitious monks of St.
Nicholas' house standing round about, and the cross (as
the custom was) being holden up with holy candles of
wax fixed to the same, he began his sermon, which was
not so long, as tedious and superstitious : and concluded,
" That that foul and abominable heretic who had put
up such blasphemous bills, was for his blasphemy dam-
nably cursed, and he besought God, our Lady, St. Peter,
patron of that church, with all the holy company of
martyrs, confessors, and virgins, that it might be
known what heretic had put up such blasphemous bUls,
that God's people might escape the vengeance."
The manner of the cursing of Benet was extraordi-
nary : the prelate said, " By the authority of God the
Father Almighty, and of the blessed Virgin Mary, of
St. Peter and St. Paul, and of the holy saints, we ex-
communicate, we utterly curse and ban, commit and de-
liver to the devil of hell, him or her, whosoever he or
she be, that have in spite of God and of St. Peter, whose
church this is, in spite of all holy saints, and in spite
of our most holy father the pope, God's vicar here on
earth, and in spite of the reverend father in God, John
our diocesan, and the worshipful canons, masters, and
priests, and clerks, who serve God daily in this cathe-
dral church, fixed up with wax such cursed and heretical
bills full of blasphemy, upon the doors of this and other
holy churches within this city. Excommunicated plainly
be he or she, or they, and delivered over to the devil, as
perpetual malefactors and schismatics. Accursed may
they be, and given body and soul to the devil. Cursed
be they, he or she, in cities and towns, in fields, in ways,
in paths, in houses, out of houses, and in all other
places, standing, lying, or rising, walking, running,
waking, sleeping, eating, drinking, and whatsoever thing
they do besides. We separate them, him or her, fron)
the threshold, and from all the good prayers of the
church, from the participation of the holy mass, from
all sacraments, chapels, and altars, from holy bread, and
holy water, from all the merits of God's priests, and
religious men, and from all their cloisters, from all their
pardons, privileges, grants, and immunities, which all
the holy fathers, popes of Rome, have granted to them ;
and we give them over utterly to the power of the fiend,
and let us quench their souls, if they be dead, this
night in the pains of hell fire, as this candle is now
quenched and put out (and with that he put out one of
the candles :) and let us pray to God (if they be alive)
that their eyes may be put out, as this candle light is (so
he put out the other candle :) and let us pray to (jodand
to our Lady, and to St. Peter and St. Paul, and all holy
saints, that all the senses of their bodies may fail them,
and that they may have no feeling, as now the light of
this candle is gone (and so he put out the third candle:)
except they, he or she, come openly now and confess
their blasphemy, and by repentance (as in them shall
lie) make satisfaction unto God, our Lady, St. Peter, and
the worshipful company of this cathedral church ; and
as this holy cross staff now falleth down, so might they,
except they repent, and shew themselves ;" and one
first taking away tlie cross, the staff fell down. But
oh, what a shout and noise was there, what terrible fear.
A.D. 1527— 15 !0.] THE EXAMINATION AND MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS BENET.
529
what holding up of hands to heaven, that curse was so
terrible !
Now this fond foolish mockery being done and played
off, Benet could no longer forbear, but fell to great
laughter, but within himself, and for a long time could
not cease, by which the poor man was observed. For
those that were next to him, wondering at that great
curse, and believing that it could not but light on one
or other, asked good Benet, for what cause he did so
lauo-h. " iMy friend,'' said he, " who can forbear, see-
in"' such merry conceits and interludes played by the
priests ?" Straightway a noise was made, " Here is the
heretic ! here is the heretic 1 hold him fast, hold him
fast ! with that, there was a great confusion of voices,
and much cla])ping of hands, and yet they were uncer-
tain whether he were the heretic or not. Some say, that
upon that he was taken and apprehended. Others re-
port, that his enemies, being uncertain of him, departed,
and so he went home to his house.
He was soon after apprehended, and on the morrow
the canons and heads of the city examined him. When
he confessed and said, "It was even I that put up those
bills, and if it were to do, I would do it again ; for in
them I have written nothing but what is very truth."
" Couldst not thou," said they, " as well have declared
thy mind by mouth, as by putting up bills of blas-
phemy ?" " No," said he, " I put up the bills, that
many should read and hear what abominable blasphe-
mers you are, and that they might the better know your
antichrist, the pope, to* be that boar out of the wood,
who destroys and throws down the hedges of God's
church ; for if I had been heard to speak but one word,
I should have been clapped fast in prison, and the mat-
ter of God hidden. But now I trust more of your
blasphemous doings will thereby be opened and come to
light ; for God will so have it, and no longer will suffer
you."
The next day he was sent to the bishop, who first
committed him to the prison, called the bishop's prison,
where he was kept in stocks and strong irons, with as
much favour as if he were a dog. Then the bishop,
and others of his clergy and friars, began to examine
him and charge him, that contrary to the catholic faith
he denied praying to saints, and also denied the supre-
macy of the pope. He answered in such sober manner,
%nd so learnedly proved and defended his assertions,
Ihat he not only confounded and put to silence his ad-
versaries, but also brought them into great admiration of
him, the most part having pity and compassion on him.
Among other priests and friars, Gregory Basset was mo^c
busy with him.
The principal point between Basset and him ws con-
cerning the supremacy of the bishop of Rome whom he
named antichrist, the thief, the mercenao. ^^'^ mur-
derer of Christ's flock : and these di^'iitations lasted
about eight days, where there repaired to him both the
Black and Gray Friars, with priest^ and monks of that
city. They that had some lear-->ing persuaded him to
believe the church, and shewe* by what tokens she is
known. The unlearned rail^id, and said, that the devil
tempted him, and spit ufon him, calling him heretic :
but he only prayed Go<? to give them a better mind, and
to forgive them : " For," said he, " I will rather die,
than worship such a beast, the very whore of Babylon,
and a false usur/'cr, as manifestly appears by his doings.''
They asked, " What he did, that he had not power and
authority to do, being God's vicar ?" " He doth,"
quoth he. " sell the sacraments of the cliurch for money,
he selle^h remission of sins daily for money, and so do
you I'^ewise : for there is no day but you say masses for
sou's in feigned purgatory : yea, and you snare not to
ipake lying sermons to the people, to maintain your
false traditions, and foul gains. The whole world be-
gins now to note your doings, to your utter confusion
and shame." "The shame," say they, "shall be to
thee, and such as thou art, thou foul heretic. Wilt thou
allow nothing done in holy church ? What a perverse
heretic art thou !" " I am," said he, " no heretic, but
a christian man ; I thank Christ, and with all my heart
will allow all things done and used in the church to the
glory of God, and edifying of my soul : but I see
nothing in your church, but what maintains the devil."
"What is our church.'"' said they. "It is not my
church," quoth Benet, " God give me grace to be of a
better church, for verily your church is the plain church
of antichrist, the malignant church, the second church,
a den of thieves, and as far wide from the true universal
and apostolic church, as heaven is distant from the
earth." " Dost not thou think," said they, "that we
pertain to the universal church."' "Yes,'' quoth he,
" but as dead members, unto whom the church is not
benehcial : for your works are the devices of man,
and your church a weak foundation ; for ye say and
preach, that the pope's word is equal with God's word
in every degree." " Why," said they, " did not Christ
say to Peter, ' To thee I will give the keys of the king-
dom of heaven ?' " " He said that," quoth he, " to all
the apostles as well as to Peter, and Peter had no more
authority given him than they, or else the churches
planted in every kingdom by their preaching are no
churches. Doth not St. Paul say, ' Upon the founda-
tion of the apostles ajid prophets ?' Therefore I say
plainly, that the church tliat is built upon a man, is the
devil's church or congregation, and not God's. And hs
every church this day is appointed to be ruled by a
bishop or pastor, ordained by the word of t'od in preach-
ing and administration of the sacraments under the
prince the supreme governor under God : so to say,
that all the churches with their princes and governors
are subject to one bishop is detestable heresy, and the
pope your God, challenging this power to himself, is the
greatest schismatic that ever was in the church, and
the most foul whore : of whom John in the Revelation
speaketh."
" O thou blind and unlearned fool," said they, " is not
the confession and consent of all the world as we confess
and consent ; That the pope's holiness is the supreme
head and vicar of Christ?" " T^at is," said Benet,
" because they are blinded and taow not the scriptures:
but if God would of his me^cy open the eyes of princes
to know their office, his f-'lse supremacy would soon de-
cay." " We think," .said they, " thou art so malicious
that thou wilt confess no church." " Look," said he,
'here the/ are that confess the true name of Jesus
Christ, acd where only Christ is the head, and under
him tb'; prince of the realm, to order all bishops, mi-
nist"S and preachers, and to see them do their duties
ip setting forth the only glory of God by preaching the
word of God ; and where it is preached, that Christ is
our only advocate, mediator, and patron before God his
Father, making intercession for us, and where the true
faith and confidence in Christ's death and jiassion, and
his only merits and deservings are extolled, and our own
depressed ; where the sacrament is duly without super-
stition or idolatry administered in remembrance of his
blessed passion, and only sacrifice upon the cross once
for all, and where no superstition reigneth, of that
church will I be.'' " Doth not the pope," said they,
" confess the true gospel? do not we all the same?"
" Yes,'' said he, " but ye deny the fruits thereof in
every point. Ye build upon the sands, not upon the
rock." " And wilt thou not believe, indeed," said they,
" that the pope is God's vicar :" " No," said he, " in-
deed.'' " And why .■■" said they. " Because," ne answer-
ed, " he usurpeth a power not given him of Christ, no
more than to other apostles ; and also because he doth by
force of that usurped supremacy blind the whole world,
and doth contrary to all that ever Christ ordained or
commanded." " What," said they, " if he do all things
after God's ordinance and commandment, should he
then be his vicar?" "Then," said he, " would 1 be-
lieve him to be a good bishop at Rome over his own
diocese, and to have no further power. And if it pleased
God, I would that every bishop did this in their diocese :
then should we live a peaceable life in the church of
Christ, and there should be no such seditions therein.
If every bishop would seek no further power than over
his own diocese, it were a goodly thing. Now because
all are subject to one, all must do and consent to all
wickedness as he doth, or be none of his. This is the
M M 2
INQUIRY INTO THE LEGALITY OF KING HENRY'S MARRiAGE. [Book VIII.
5S0
cause of great superstition in every kingdom. And what
bishop soever he be that preaches the gospel, and main-
tarns the truth, is a true bishop of the church." " And
doth not," said thev, " our holy father the pope main-
tain the gospel?" "" Yea," said he, " I think he doth
read it, and i)eradventure believe it, and so do you also ;
but neither he nor you do fix the anchor of your sal-
vation therein. Besides that, you bear such a good will
to it, that you keep it close, that no man may read it but
yourselves. And when you preach, God knows how you
handle it : insomuch, that the people of Christ know
no gospel, but the pope's gospel ; and so the blind lead
the blind, and both fall into the pit. In the true gospel
of Christ confidence is none, but only in your popish
traditions, and fantastical inventions." Then said a
Black friar to him, " Do we not preach the gospel daily?"
" Yes," said he, " but what preaching of the gospel is
that, when with it, you extol superstitious things, and
make us believe that we have redemjitions through par-
dons and bulls from Rome, a poena ct cnlpa, as you term
it : and by the merits of your orders you make many
brethren and sisters, you take money yearly of them,
yoji bury them in your coats, and in confession you be-
guile them : yea, and do a thousand superstitious things
more; a man may be weary to speak of them.'' " I
see," said the friar, " thou art a vile heretic, I will have
no more talk with thee."
Then stepped to him a Gray friar, a doctor, and laid
before him great and many dangers. "I take God to
record ;" said Benet, " my life is not dear to me, I am
content to depart from it, for I am weary of it, seeing
your detestable doings, to the utter destruction of God's
ilock ; and for my part, I can no longer forbeai ; I had
rather by <leath (which I know is not far off) depart this
life, that I Uiay no longer be partaker of your detestable
idolatries and superstitions, or be subject unto antichrist
your pope." " 0\ir pope," said the friar, " is the
vicar of God, and our ways are the ways of God." " I
pray you,'' said Benet, " ci«part from me, and tell me not
of your ways. He is only lay way, which saith, ' I am
the way, the truth, and the lit*.' In this way will I
walk, his doings shall be my examplt, not yours, nor
your false popes. His truth will I embrace, not the lies
jind falsehood of you and your pope. His everlasting
life will I seek, the true reward of all faithtcl people.
Away from me, I pray you. Vex my soul no longer, you
shall not prevail. There is no good example in you, no
truth in you, no life to be hoped for at your hands. Yo;>
are all more vain than vanity itself. If I should hear
and follow you thus, everlasting death should hang over
me,— a just reward for all them that love the life of this
world. Away from me, your company liketh me not."
When these canons and priests with the monks and
friars, had done what they could, and had perceived that
he would by no means recant ; then they proceeded to
judgment, and drew out their sentence against him, con-
demning him to be burned. This christian martyr, re-
joicing that his end approached so near, yielded himself
* as a .sheep before the shearer,' with all humbleness to
abide and suffer the cross of persecution. And being
brought to his execution, he made his most humble con-
fession and prayer to Almighty God, and reqviested all
the ])eople to do the like for him, whom he exhorted
■with such gravity and sobriety, and with such a pithy
oration to seek the true honouring of God, and the true
knowledge of him, as also to leave the devises, fantasies,
and imaginations of men's inventions, that all the be-
holders of him were astonished and in great admiration :
Insomuch that the most part of the people, as also the
Fcribe who wrote the sentence of condemnation against
him, did pronounce and confess that he was God's ser-
vant, and a good man. '
Two esquires, namely, Thomas Carew, and John
Bamehouse, standing at the stake by him, first with
fair promises and good words, but at length, through
threatcnings, desired him to revoke his errors, and to
call upon our Lady and the saints. 'J'o whom he with
all meekness answered, " No, no, it is God only upon
whose name we must call and we have no other advo-
cate with him, but only Jesus Christ, who died for ns,
and now sits at the right hand of the Father to be an
advocate for us ; and by him must we offer our prayers
to God, if we will have them to take place and be heard."
With which answer Barnehouse was so enraged, that he
took a furze-bush upon a pike, and settmg it on fire,
thrust it into his face, saying, " Ah, heretic, pray to our
Lady, or I will make thee do it."
To whom Thomas Benet, with an humble and a meek
spirit, most patiently answered, " Alas, sir, trouble me
not." And holding up his hands, he said, " Father,
forgive them." After which the gentlemen caused the
wood and furzes to be set on fire, and this godly man
lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, saying, " O Lord
receive my spirit." And so continuing in prayer, he never
stirred, but most patiently abode the torments of the
fire, until his life was ended. For which let the Lord
God be praised, and send us his grace and blessing,
that at the latter day we may with him enjoy the bliss
and joy provided and prepared for the elect children of
God.
The Marriage hetwepn King Henry VIII. and Anne
Boleyn ; and Queen Cat/iarine divorced
After the death of prince Arthur, the lady Catharine,
widow of prince Arthur, by the consent both of her
father and his, and also by the advice of the noliles of
this realm, that her dowry might remain still within the
realm, was espoused after the decease of her husband,
to his next brother, who was King Henry VIII.
This marriage seemed very strange for one brother to
marry the wife of another. But what in this earth can
be so hard or difficult, with which the pope, the omni-
potent vicar of Christ, cannot dispense, if it please him ?
The pope who then ruled at Rome was Julius II., by
whose dispensation this marriage, which neither nature *
would admit, nor God's law sanction, was concluded,
approved, and ratified, and so continued as lawfu., with-
out any doubt or scruple for the space of near twenty
years, till a doubt began first to be moved by the
Spaniards, A. D. 15'2.'i, when the Emperor Charles
promised to marry the lady Mary, daughter to the king
of England. With this promise, the Spaniards were
not contented, objecting, among other causes, that the
lady Rlary was begotten of the king of England by his
brother's wife.
Upon this the emperor married the lady Isabel. a
daughter to Emanuel, tlie late king of Portugal, and the
sister of John III., AD. 1526. King Henry, being dis-
afuointed thus by the emperor, endeavoured through the
Frei.-h ambassadors, that lady Mary should be married
to the Trench king's son, the duke of Orleans. After long
debating, at length the matter was put off by the presi-
dent of Paru raising a doubt, whether the marriage be-
tween the king ,rid the mother of this lady ]Mary, who had
been his brother's^ife before, were good or not.
The king, upon tUs, began to consider the case more
deeply, first with himself, afterwards with his nearest
council ; there were two things which chiefly troubled
his mind, the one touched Us conscience, the other con-
cerned the state of his realm. For if that marriage with
his brother's wife stood unlawful by the law of God, then
neither was his conscience clear in letaining the mother,
nor yet the state of the realm safe bj succession of the
daughter. It happened at the time that '.he cardinal, who
was then nearest about the king, had fallen out with the
emperor, for not assisting him to the papacy, for which
cause he helped to set the matter forward. Thus the
king, perplexed in his conscience, and careful for the
commonwealth, and incited by the cardinal, couW not
rest, but inquired further to know what tne word of
God and learning would say to it. Nor was the case to
hard, after it began once to become a public question,
but that by the word of God, and the judgments of the
best learned clerks, and also by the censure of the chief
universities of all Christendom, to the number of ten and
more, it was soon declared to be unlawful.
All these censures, books and writings of so many
doctors, clerks, and universities, sent from all quarters
of Christendom to the king, although they might suffice
4. D. 1527— 15 0.] INQUIRY INTO THE LEGALITY OF KING HENRY'S MARRL\GE.
53V
to have resolved, and did indeed resolve, the king's con-
science, touching this scruple of his marriage ; yet he
would not straightway use that advantage which learning
cave him, unless he had the assent of the pope, and the
emperor ; in which he perceived no little difficulty.
For the pope, he thought, seeing the marriage was
authorized before by the dispensation of his predecessor,
would hardly turn his keys about to undo that which the
pope before him had locked, and much less would he
sufler those keys to be foiled, or come in any doubt,
wliich was likely to come, if that marriage were proved
incapable of dispensation by God's word, which his pre-
decessor through his plenary power, had licensed.
Again, the assent of the emperor he thought would be no
less difficult, as the lady Catharine was the emperor's
aunt, and a Spaniard. Nevertheless, his purpose was
to ascertan what they would say to it, and therefore he
sent Stephen Gardiner to Rome to treat with pope Cle-
meut. To the emperor he sent Sir Nicholas Harvey,
knight, ambassador to the court of Ghent. First, pope
Clement, not weighing the full importance of the matter,
seat cardinal Campegio (as is said into England), joined
with the cardinal of York.
At the coming of the legates, the king, first opening to
them the grief of his conscience, seemed, with great
reasons and persuasions to have sufficiently drawn the
good will of those two legates to his side. Who also,
of their own accord, pretended to shew a willing incli-
nation to further the king's object. But yet the mouths
of the common people, and especially of the women, and
such others as favoured the queen, were not stopped.
He, therefore, willing that all men should know his pro-
ceedings, caused all his nobility, judges, and counsellors,
with divers other persons, to resort to his palace on the
8th of Nov. 1529, where he openly spoke in his council
chamber as follows : —
The King's Oration to his Subjects.
" Our trusty and wellbeloved subjects, both you of the
nobility, and you of the meaner sort, it is not unknown
unto you, how that we both by God's pro\'ision, and
true and lawful inheritance, have reigned over this realm
of England almost the term of twenty years. During
which time we have so ordered us (thanks be to God)
that no outward enemy hath oppressed you, nor taken
any thing from us, nor have we invaded any realm, but
we have had victory and honour, so that we think that
you nor none of your predecessors ever lived more
quietly, more wealthy, nor in more estimation under
any of our noble progenitors. But when we remember
our mortality, and that we must die, then we think that
all our doings in our lifetime are clearl)' defaced, and
wortliy of no memorj', if we leave you in trouble at the
time of our death ; for if our true heir be not known
at the time of our death, see what mischief and trouble
shall succeed to you and to your children. The ex-
perience thereof some of you have seen after the death
of our noble grandfather, king Edward the Fourth,
and some have heard what mischief and manslaughter
continued in this realm between the houses of York and
Lancaster, by which dissension this realm was Uke to
have been nearly destroyed.
And although it hath pleased Almighty God to send
us a fair daughter of a noble woman, and of me begotten,
to our great comfort and joy, yet it hath been told us by
divers great clerks, that neither she is our lawful daugh-
ter, nor her mother our lawful wife, but that we live
together abominably and detestably in open adultery ;
insomuch that when our ambassador was last in France,
and motion was made that the duke of Orleans should
marry our said daughter, one of the chief councillors to
the French king, said, ' It were well done to know whe-
ther she be the king of England's lawful daughter or
not ; for well known it is, that he begot her on his bro-
ther's wife, which is directly against God's law and his
precepts.' Think you, my lords, that these words touch
not my body and soul ? Think you that these things
do not daily and hourly trouble my conscience, and vex
my spirits ? Yes, we doubt not but if it were vour
cause, every man would seek remedy, when the peril oi
your soul, and tiie loss of your inheritance is openly laiU
unto you. lor this only cause 1 protest before Gou,
and on the word of a prince, I have asked counsel of tne.
greatest clerks in (Christendom, and for this cause I
iiave sent for this legate, as a man indifferent, only to
know the truth, and so to settle my conscience, and for
none other cause, as God can judge. And as touching
the queen, if it be adjudged by the law of God that she
is my lawful wife, there was never any thing more pleasant
nor more acceptable to me in my life, both for the dis-
charge and clearing of my conscience, and also for the
good qualities and conditions which I know to be in
her. For I assure you all, that beside her noble pa-
rentage of which she is descended (as you well know)
she is a woman of most gentleness, of most humility and
buxomness ; yea, and of all good qualities appertaining
to nobility, she is without comparison, as I these twenty
years almost have had the true experience ; so that, if I
were to marry again, if the marriage might be good, I
would surely choose her above all other women. But if
it be determined by judgment, that our marriage was
against God's law, and clearly void, then shall I not only
sorrow the departing from so good a lady and loving
comjianion, but much more lament and bewail my un-
fortunate cliance, that 1 have so long lived in adultery
to God's great displeasure, and have no true heir of my
body to inherit this realm. These be the sores that vex
my mind, these be the pangs that trouble my conscience,
and for these griefs I seek remedy. Therefore I require
you all, as our trust and confidence is in you, to declare
to our subjects our mind and intent, according to our
true meaning, and desire them to pray with us that the
very truth may be known, for the discharge of our con-
science and saving of our soul, and for the declaration
hereof I have assembled you together, and now you may
depart."
Shortly after this oration of the king, with which he
stirred the hearts of a number, the two legates, being re-
quested of the king, for the discharge of his conscience, to
judge and determine upon the cause, went to the queen
and declared to her how they were deputed as impartial
judges between the king and her, to hear and determine
whether the marriage between them stood with God's
law or not. When she understood the cause of their
coming, being somewhat astonished at first, after a little
pausing with herself, she thus began :
"Alas, my lords," said she, "is it now a question
whether I be the king's lawful wife or not, when I have
been married to him almost twenty years, and never
question was made before ? Many prelates yet alive,
and lords also, and privy counsellors with the king at
that time, then adjudged our marriage lawful and honest,
and now to say it is detestable and abominable, I think
very strange ; and especially when I consider what a wise
prince the king's father was, and also the love and na-
tural affection that king Ferdinand, my father, bore to
me, I think that neither of our fathers were so uncir-
cumspect, so unwise, and of so small imagination, but
that they foresaw what might follow our marriage ; and
the king, my father, sent to the court of Rome, and
there, after long suit, with great cost and charge, ob-
tained a licence and dispensation, that I being the one
brother's wife, might, without scruple of conscience,
marry with the other brother lawfully, which licence I
have in my possession yet to shew ; which things make
me to say and believe that our marriage was lawful,
good and godly. But for all this trouble I have only to
thank you, my lord cardinal of York, because I have
wondered at your high pride and vain glory, and abhorred
your voluptuous life and abominable immorality, and
little regarded your presumptuous power and tyranny,
therefore from malice you have kindled this fire, and set
this matter abroad, and especially for the great malice
you bear to my nephew the emperor, whom I perfectly
know you hate worse than a scorpion, because he would
not satisfy your ambition and make you pope ; and
therefore you have said more than once, that you would
trouble him and his friends, and you have kept your
promise ; for all his wars and vexations he may thank
532
INQUIRY INTO THE LEGALITY OF KING IIENKi'S MARRIAGE. [Book VIH.
you only. And as for me, his poor aunt and kinswoman,
what trouble you have put me to by this new found
doubt, God knoweth, to whom I commit my cause ac-
cording to the truth."
The cardinal of York excused himself, saying, that he
was not the beginner nor the mover of the doubt, and
that it was much against his will that ever the marriage
should come in question, but he said that by his supe-
rior, the bishop of Rome, he was deputed as a judge to
hear the cause : which he swore on his profession to hear
impartially ; but whatever was said she believed him
not ; and so the legates took their leave of her and departed.
These words were spoken in French, and written by
cardinal Campegio's secretary, who was present.
In the next year, l^M, at the Blackfriars of London,
was prepared a solemn place for the two legates : who
coming with their crosses, and all other Ilomisli cere-
monies, were set in two chairs covered with cloth of
gold, and cushions of the same. When all things were
ready, then the king and the queen were cited by Er.
Sampson to a])pear before the legates on the ;Ust of May ;
where (the commission of the cardinals being first read,
wherein it was appointed by the court of Rome, that
they should be the hearers and judges in the cause be-
tween them both) the king was called by name ; who
appeared by two proctors : then the queen was called,
who being accompanied with four bishops, and others of
her council, and a great company of ladies, came per-
sonally before the legates : who there, after her obeisance,
with a sad gravity of countenance, uttering not manv
words, but appealed from the legates, as judges not com-
petent, to the court of Rome, and so departed. Not-
withstanding this aj)peal, the cardinals sat weekly, and
every-day arguments on both sides were brought, but
nothing definitive was determined.
As the time passed on, in the month of June, the
king being desirous to see an end, came to the court,
and the queen also, where he standing under his cloth of
estate, uttered these or like words in effect as follows :
" My lords, legates of the see apostolic, who are de-
puted judges in this great and weighty matter, I most
heartily beseech you to ponder my mind and intent,
which only is to have a final end for the discharge of
my conscience. For every good christian man knoweth
what pain and what unquietness he suffereth who hath
his conscience grieved. For I assure you on my honour,
that this matter hath so vexed my mind, and troubled
my spirits, that 1 can scarcely study any thing which
should be profitable for my realm and people : and to
have a quietness in body and soul is my desire and re-
quest, and not for any grudge that I bear to her that I
have married ; for I dare say, that for her womanhood,
wisdom, nobility, and gentleness, never prince had such
another : and therefore if I would willingly change I
were not wise. Wherefore my suit is to you, my lords,
at this time, to have a speedy end, accordino- to rin-lit
for the quietness of my mind and conscience only, and
for no other cause, as God knoweth."
When the king had spoken, the queen departed with-
out saying any thing. Then she was called to know
whether she would abide by her appeal, or answer there
before the legates. Her proctor answered, that she
would abide by her appeal. Notwithstanding, the coun-
cillors on both sides met almost every day and debated
this matter, so that at last the divines were all of opinion
that the marriage was against the law of God, if she were
carnally known by the first brother ; which she clearly
denied. But to that it was answered, that prince Arthur,
her husband, confessed the act. And at the time of the
death of prince Arthur, she thought and judged that she
Was with child, and for that cause the king was deferred
from the title and creation of the Prince of Wales almost
half a year.
Thus when the divine-s on her side were beaten from
the ground, then they fell to persuasions of natural rea-
sons, how this should not be undone for three reasons :
one was, because if it should be broken, the only child
of the king would be illegitimised, which were a great
mischief to the realm. Secondly, tlie separation wouKl
be a cause of great enmity between her kindred and this
realm. And the third reason was, that the continuance
for so long a time had made the marriage good. These
persuasions, with many others, were set forth by the
queen's counsel, and especially by the bishop of Roches-
ter, who stood firm in her cause. But yet God's precept
was not answered ; so they left that ground, and fell to
pleading, that the court of Rome had dispensed with
this marriage. To this some lawyers said, that no
earthly person is abL- to dispense with the positive law
of God.
When the legates heard the opinions of the divines,
and saw where tlie end of this question would tend, as
men began to dispute the authority of the court of
Rome, and especially because the cardinal of York per-
ceived the king cast favour on the lady Anne, whom he
knew to be a Lutheraii, they thought best to rid them-
selves out of that difficulty in tiuie ; and so cardinal
Campegio, dissembling the matter, conveyed himself
home to Rome again. The king seeing himself thus
deluded liy the cardinals, took no little grief: — the fall
of the cardinal of York lolloped not loiig after.
This was in the year l.');;0. Shortly after it happened
that the king by his ambassadors was advertised, that
the emperor and the pope were both together at Bononia.
So he directed Sir Thomas BuUen, created earl of Wilt-
shire, and doctor Sto!<esley (afterward bishop of Lon-
don) and doctor Lee (afterwards archbishop of York) with
his message to the pope's court, where the emperor
was. Pope Clement fearing wliat might follow, if
learning and scripture should here take place against the
authority of their dispensations, and suspecting the em-
peror's displeasure, avoided the matter, answering the
ambassadors, that he would not hastily decide in this
case, but would hear the full matter disputed when he
came to Rome, and would do justice according to right.
Although the king owed no such service to the pope,
to stand to his arbitration either in this case, or in any
other, having both the scripture to lead him, and his
law in his own hands to warrant him, yet for quietness
sake, and for that he might not rashly break order, he
bare so long as conveniently he might. At length, after
long delays and much dissembling, when he saw no hope
of redress, he began somewhat to quicken and to look
about him, what was best both for his own conscience,
and the establishment of his realm.
No man here doubts, but that all this was wroixght not
by man's device, but by the secret purpose of the Lord
himself, to bring to pass further things, which his Di-
vine Providence was disposed to work. For as to the
king's intent and purpose, he never meant nor minded
any such thing as to seek the ruin of the pope, but ra-
ther sought all means contrary, how both to establish the
see of Rome, and also to obtain the good will of the same
see and court of Rome. And therefore intending to
seek his divorce from Rome, at the beginning ; his device ■
was by Stephen Gardiner, his ambassador at Rome, to fl
exalt the cardinal of York, as we before shewed, to be ■
made pope and universal bishop, to the end that he rul-
ing that apostolic see, the matter of his unlawful mar-
riage, which so troubled his conscience, might come to
a quiet conclusion without any further rumour of the
world. Which purpose of his, if it had taken effect as
he had devised it, and the English cardinal had once
been made poj)e, no doubt but the authority of that see
had never been exterminated out of England. But God
being more merciful to us, took a better way. For both
v.'iUiout, and contrary to the king's expectation, he so
brought things to pass, that neither the cardinal of York
was pope ; and yet nevertheless the king succeeded in
his puqiose. For he was rid, by lawful divorce, not only
from t\iat unlawful marriage which troubled his C(mscl-
ence, but also from the miserable yoke of the pope's
usur])ed dominion, which clogged the whole realm.
Thus God's holy Providence ruling the matter, as I
said, when the king could get no favourable grant of the
pope touching his cause, being so good and honest, he
was enforced to take the redress of his right into his own
hands, and seeing this Gordian knot would not be loosed
at Rome, he was driven against his will, to play the no-
ble Alexander himself, and with the sword of his princely
A.D. 1527—15 0.] THE PARLIAMENT DECREES THE POPE'S ANNATES, &c. TO CEASE. 533
authority cut the knot. For where the doctors and
canonists had long disputed, and yet could never tho-
rouglily discuss the largeness and fulness of the pope's
two swords both temporal and spiritual, the king with
one sword did so cut off both his swords, that he dis-
patched them both clean out of England. But first the
king, like a prudent prince, following his own proverb,
as one going about to cast down an old rotten wall, will
not begin with the foundation first, but with the stones
that lie on the top, so he, to pre])are his way better to
the pope, first began with the cardinal, casting him, by
the law of praemunire, out of his goods and possessions.
Shortly after this, about the year I3:il, the king gave
forth this proclamation :
" The king's highness straightly chargeth and com-
mandeth, that no manner of person, what estate, degree,
or condition soever he or they be of, do purchase, or at-
tempt to purchase from the court of Rome, or elsewhere,
nor use and put in execution, divulge, or publish any
thing heretofore, within this year passed, purchased, or
to be purchased hereafter, containing matter prejudicial
to the high authority, jurisdiction, and prerogative royal
of this his said realm, or to the let, hindrance, or im-
peachment of his grace's noble and virtuous intended
purposes in the premises, upon pain of incurring his
highness' indignation, and imprisonment, and further
punishment of their bodies for their so doing, at his
grace's pleasure, to the dreadful example of all others."
After this, the king, proceeding further, caused the rest
of the spiritual lords to be called by process into the King's
Bench, as the whole clergy of England, in supporting and
maintaining the legantine power of the cardinal, were all
entangled in the prfemunire, and therefore were called
into the King's Bench to answer. But the prelates in
convocation at Canterbury concluded among them-
selves a humble submission in writing, and offered the
king a subsidy or contribution, that he would be their
good lord, and release them of the prsemunire by act of
parliament, first to be gathered in the province of Can-
terbury a hundred thousand pounds. And in the pro-
vince of York eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty
pound and ten pence. Which offer was accepted, and
their pardon promised. In this submission the clergy
called the king supreme he^d of the cliurch of England,
which thing they never confessed before.
Mention was made a little before of a parliament be-
gun the loth of January, A.D. 1533, in which the com-
mons had put up a supplication, complaining of the
straight dealing of the clergy in their proceeding e^r officio.
This complaint, although at the first it seemed not to be
greatly tendered of the king, yet in prorogation of the
parliament the time so wrought withal, that the king
having more clear understanding of the abuses and enor-
mities of the clergy, and especially of the corrupt autho-
rity of the see of Rome, provided certain acts against the
same. First, as concerning the laws, decrees, ordinances,
and constitutions made and established by the pretended
authority of the bishops of Rome, to the advancement
of their worldly glory, that who so did or spake any
thing either against their usurped power, or against the
said laws, decrees, or constitutions of theirs, not ap-
proved nor grounded upon holy scripture, or else being
repugnant to the king's royal prerogative, should there-
fore stand in no danger, nor be impeachable of heresy.
And likewise touching such constitutions, ordinances,
and canons provincial or synodal, which were made in
this realm in the convocation of bishops being either
prejudicial to the king's prerogative, or not ratified be-
fore by the king's assent, or being otherwise onerous to
the king and his subjects, or in any wise repugnant to
the laws and statutes of this realm, they were committed
to the judgment of two-and-thirty persons chosen by the
king out of the higher and lower house, to be determined
either to stand in strength, or to be abrogated at their
discretion ; and further, that all the clergy of this realm
submitting themselves to the king, should and did pro-
mise in verba Sacerdutii, never hereafter to presume to
assemble in their convocations without the king's writ,
or to enact or execute such constitutions without hii
royal assent, &c.
Further, in the same parliament was enacted and de-
creed, that in causes and matters happening in contention,
no person should api)eal, provoke, or sue out of the
king's dominions to the court of Rome, under pain of
provisors, provision, or praemunire.
In the same parliament was defined and concluded,
that all exportation of annates and first fruits of arch-
bishoprics and bishoprics out of this realm to the see of
Rome for any bulls, breves, or palls, or expedition of any
such thing, should utterly cease.
Also for the investing of archbishops, bishops, or others
of any ecclesiastical dignity, such order in the said par-
liament was taken that the king should send a license un-
der the great seal, with a letter missive to the prior and
convent, or to the dean and chapter of those cathedral
churches where tlie see was vacant : by virtue of which
license, or letters missive, they within twelve days should
choose the person nominated by the king, and none
other, and that election to stand effectual. Which elec-
tion being done, then the party elect making first his
oath and fealty to the king, if it were a bishop that was
elect, then the king by his letters patent to signify the
election to the archbishop of that province, and two
other bishops, or else to four bishops within this realm
to be assigned to that office, without any other suing,
procuring, or obtaining any bulls, breves, or other
things from the see of Rome.
Moreover, against all other exactions and great sums of
money which usedtobejiaid out of this realm to the bishop
of Rome, in pensions, censures, Peter-pence, procura-
tions, fruits, suits for provisions, and expeditions of bulls
for archbishops and bishops, for delegacies and rescripts
in causes of contentious and appeals, jurisdictions lega-
tive ; also for dispensations, licenses, faculties, grants,
relaxations, writs called Perinde valere, rehabilitations,
abolitions, canonizations, and other infinite sorts of bulls,
breves, and instruments of sundry natures, the number
whereof were tedious to be recited ; in the parliament it
was ordained, that all such uncharitable usurpations, ex-
actions, pensions, censures, portions, and Peter-pence
which used to be paid to the see of Rome, should utterly
cease, and never more be levied ; so that the king with
his honourable council should have power and authority
from time to time, for the ordering, redress, and reforma-
tion of all manner of indulgences, privileges, &c., within
this realm.
All these things being thus defined and determined in
this parliament, and also being in the same parliament
concluded, that no man of what estate, degree, or con-
dition soever, hath any power to dispense with God's
laws, it was therefore by the authority aforesaid, agree-
ing with the authority of God's word, assented, that the
marriage aforetime solemnized between the king and the
lady Catharine, being before wife to prince Arthur the
king's brother, should be absolutely deemed and adjudged
to be unlawful and against the law of God, and also re-
puted and taken to be of no value nor effect ; and that
the sejjaration thereof by Thomas Cranmer Archbishop
of Canterbury, should stand good and effectual to all in-
tents ; and also that the lawful matrimony between the
king and the lady Anne his wife, should be established,
approved, and ratified for good and consonant to the
laws of Almighty God. And further also, for the esta-
blishing of the king's lawful succession, it was fully by
the parliament adjudged, that the inheritance of the
crown should remain to the heirs of their two bodies,
that is, of the king and queen Anne his wife.
Not long after that, the king, perceiving the minds of
the clergy not much favouring his cause, sent for the
Speaker, and twelve of the commons-house, having with
them eight lords, and said to them, " \\'ell-l;eloved sub-
jects, we had thought that the clergy of our realm had been
our subjects wholly, but now we have well perceived
that they are but half our subjects, yea, and scarce oup
subjects. For all the prelates at their consecration make
an oath to the pope, contrary to the oath that they make
to us, so that they seem to be his subjecfs, and not
ours ;" and so the king, delivering to them the ct) <Ji'
534
HENRY VIII. MARRIES ANNE BOLEYN— ELI2 VBETH BORN. [Book VIII.
both the oaths, required them to invent some order that
lie might not thus be dt-luded of his spiritual subjects.
The Speaker thus departed, and caused the oaths to be
/ead in the commons-house.
The Oaths of the Clergy to the Pope.
*' I, John, bishop or abbot of A., from tliis hour for-
ward, shall he faithful and obedient to St. Peter, and to
the holy church of Rome, and to my lord the pope, and
his successors canonically elected. I shall not be of
counsel nor consent, that they shall lose either life or
member, or shall be taken or suffer any violence, or any
wrong by any means. Their counsel confided to me by
them, their messengers or letters, I shall not willingly
discover to any person. The popedom of Rome, the
rules of the holy fathers, and regalities of St. Peter, I
shall help, and maintain, and defend against all men.
The legate of the see apostolic going and coming, I shall
honourably treat. The rights, honours, privileges,
authorities of the church of Rome, and of tlie pope and
his successors, I shall cause to be conserved, defended,
augmented and promoted, I shall not be in counsel,
treaty, or any act, in which any thing shall be imagined
against him or the church of Rome, their rights, seats,
honours, or powers ; and if I know any such to be
moved or compassed, I shall resist it to my power, and
as soon as I can, I shall advertise him, or such as may
give him knowledge. The rules of the holy fathers,
the decrees, ordinances, sentences, dispositions, re-
Bervations, provisions and commandments apostolic,
to my power I shall keep, and cause to be kept, of
others. Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our holy
father and his successors, I shall resist and persecute to
my power. I shall come to the synod when I am
called, except I be letted by a canonical impediment.
The thresholds of the apostles I shall visit yearly per-
sonally, or by my deputy. I shall not alienate or sell
my possessions without the pope's council. So God
me help, and the holy evangelists."
This oath of the clergymen, which they were wont to
make to the bishop of Rome, was abolished by statute,
and a new oath ministered, wherein they acknowledged
the king to be the supreme head under Christ in this
church of England.
Tlie Oath of the Clergy to the King.
" I, John B. of A. utterly renounce and clearly for-
sake all such clauses, words, sentences, and grants which
I have or shall have hereafter of the pope's holiness, of
and for the bishopric of A. that in any wise hath been,
is, or hereafter may be hurtful or prejudicial to your
highness, your heirs, successors, dignity, privilege, or
estate royal : and also I do swear that I shall be faith-
ful and true, and faith and truth I shall bear to you my
sovereign lord, and to your heirs kings of the same, of
life and limb, and earthly worship above all creatures,
to live and die with you and yours against all people ;
and diligently I sliall be attendant to all your needs and
business, after my wit and power ; and your counsel
I shall keep and hold, acknowledging myself to hold
my bishopric of you only ; beseeching you for restitution
of the temporalties of the same ; promising (as before)
that 1 shall be a faithful, true, and obedient subject unto
your said highness, heirs, and successors during my life ;
and the services and other things due to your highness,
for the restitution of the temporalties of the same
bishopric, I shall truly do, and obediently perform. So
God me help and all saints."
These oaths being thus recited and opened to the
people, were the cause that the pope lost all his juris-
diction here in England. The matter falling out more
and more against the pope. Sir Thomas More, a great
maintainer of the pope, and a heavy troubler of Christ's
people, and now not liking well this oath, was forced
to realign his chancellorship, and to deliver up the
greit seal of England into the king's liands. After
whom succeeded Sir Thomas Audley, keeper of the
great seal, a maa incomparable in eloquence and
gifts of tongue, also with a godly disposed mind, and
favourable inclination *o Christ's religion.
These things being done in the parliament, the king
within a short time after (November, A.D. 1532), pri-
vately married the lady Anne Boleyn, mother to our
most noble queen (Ehzabetii), who without all contro-
versy was a special comforter and aider of all the professors
of Christ's gospel, as well of the learned as the unlearned.
Queen Anne, shortly after her marriage had been
publicly recognised, was crowned with high solemnity at
Westminster ; and not long after her coronation, on the
7th of Sept., A. D. 1533, she was delivered of a fair
lady ; for whose good deliverance Te Deum was sung in
all places, and great preparation made for the christening.
The mayor and his brethren, with forty of the chief
citizens were commanded to be present, with all the
nobles and gentlemen. The king's palace, and all the
walls between that and the Friars, and the Friars' church,
was hung with tapestry ; also the font was of silver, and
stood in the midst of the church, three steps high : it was
covered with a fine cloth, and several gentlemen, with
a])rons and towels about their necks, gave attendance
about it. Over the font hung a fair canopy of crimson
satin fringed with gold. About it was a rail covered
with say. Between the quoir and the body of the church
was a close place with a pan of fire to make the child
ready in. These things thus ordered, the child was
brought into the hall, and then e-'ery man set forward,
first the citizens, two and two ; then the gentlemen es-
quires, and chaplains. Next after followed the aldermen,
and the mayor alone. Next the mayor, followed the
king's council. Then the king's chaplains. Then
barons, bishops, and earls. Then came the earl of
Essex, bearing the covered gilt basons. After him the
Marquis of Exeter, with the taper of virgin-wax. Next
him the marquis of Dorset, bearing the salt. Be-
hind him the lady Mary of Norfolk, bearing the chry-
some, which was very rich of pearl and stone. The old
duchess of Norfolk bare the child in a mantle of purple
velvet, with a long train furred with ermine. The duke
of Norfolk with his marshal's-rod, went on the right hand
of the duchess, and the duke of Suffolk on the left hand.
Before them went the officers of arms. The countess
of Kent bare the long train of the child's mantle. Be-
tween the countess and the child, went the earl of
Wiltshire on the right hand, and the earl of Derby on
the left hand, supporting the train. In the midst over
the child, was borne a canopy by the lord Rochford, the
lord Hussey, the lord William Howard, and the lord
Thomas Howard the elder. In this order they came to
the church door, where the bishop of London met it,
with divers abbots and bishops, and began the observ-
ances of the sacrament. The archbishop of Canterbury
was godfather, and the old duchess of Norfolk, and the
old marchioness of Dorset, widows, were godmothers,
and the child's name was Elizabeth.
After all things were done at the church door, the
child was brought to the font and christened. This done,
garter the chief king-at-arms, cried aloud, " God of his
infinite goodness, send prosperous life and long, to the
high and mighty princess of England, Elizabeth." Then
the trum])ets blew, and the child was brought up to
the altar, and immediately confirmed by the archbishop,
the marchioness of Exeter being godmother. Then
the archbislioj) of Canterbury gave the princess a stand-
ing cup of gold. The duchess of Norfolk gave her a
standing cup of gold, fretted with pearl. The mar-
chioness of Dorset, three gilt bowls pounced, with a
cover. The marchioness of Exeter three standing bowls
gilt and graven, with a cover. And so after a solemn
banijuet ended with hypocras, waters, and such like in
great plenty, they returned in like order again to the
court with the princess, and so departed.
At the birth of this noble lady, as there was no small
joy to all good and godly men, and no less hope of pros-
perous success to God's true religion ; so on the other
hand, the papists were not w'anting in their malicious
and secret attempts, and in tlieir devilish devices, may
sufficiently apjiear by the false hypocrisy and feigned
holiness of a false hypocrite, who was this year found
A.D. 1527— 1 540.]
THE POWER OF THE POPE ABOLISHED IN ENGLAND.
531
out. For certain monks, friars, and other evil-dis))osed
persons, of a devilish intent, had put into the heads of
many of the king's subjects, that they had a revela-
tion of God and bis saints, that he was highly dis-
pleased with king Henry for the divorce of the lady
Catharine; and surmised amongst otlier tilings, that
God liad revealed to a nun, named Elizabeth Barton,
whom they called the holy maid of Kent, that in case
the king proceeded in the divorce, he should not be king
of this realm one month after, and in the reputation of
God not one day nor hour. This Elizabeth Barton, by
false dissimulation practised and shewed to the people
stiaiige alterations of her visage, and other parts of her
body, as if she had been wrapt or in a trance, and in
these feigned trances^ (as though she had been inspired
of God,) slie spake many words in rebuking sin, and re-
proving the gospel, which she called heresy ; and uttered
many things to the great reproacli of the king and queen,
and to the establishing of idolatry, pilgrimage, and the
derogation of God's glory. Her naughtiness being espied
out by tlie great labour and diligence of the archbishop
of Canterbury, the Lord Cromwell, and Master Hugh
Latimer, she was condemned and put to death, in April,
15;J3.
About the same time died also William Warham,
archbishop of Canterbury, in whose place succeeded
Tliomas Cranmer, viho was the king's chaplain, and a
great disputer against the marriage of lady Catharine.
Ye heard before, how the parliament had enacted that
no person after a certain day, should appeal to Rome for
any cause. Notwithstanding which act, the queen, now
called princess dowager, had aj^pealed to the court of
Rome bei'ore that act was made ; so that it was doubted
whether that appeal was good or not. This question
was well liandkd in parliament, but much better in the
convocation ; and yet, in both houses it was alleged, yea,
and by books shewed, that in the councils of Chalcedon,
Africa, Toledo, and other famous councils in the pri-
mitive church ; yea, in the time of St. Augustine, it was
affirmed, declared, and determined, that a cause arising
in one province, sliould be determined in the same, and
that neither the patriarch of Constantinople should med-
dle in causes moved in the jurisdiction of the patriarch
of Antioch, nor any bishop should intermeddle within
another's province or country. Which things were so
learnedly opened, and so ably set forth, that every
man that had sense, and was determined to follow the
truth, and not wilfully wedded to his own opinions, might
plainly see, that all appeals made to Rome were clearly
void, and of none eft'ect ; which doctrines and councils
were shewn to the lady Catharine, who ever continued
trusting more to the pope's partiality, than to the deter-
mination of Christ's truth.
Whereupon the archbishop of Canterbury (Cranmer),
accompanied by the bishops of London, Winchester,
Bath, Lincoln, and other dignitaries, in a great number,
rode to Dunstable, which is six miles from Ampthill,
where the princess dowager lay ; and thereby she was cited
to appear before the archbishop, in cause of matrimony,
in the town of Dunstable. And, at the day appointed,
she would not appear, but made default, and so was
called peremptorily every day, fifteen days together, and
at last, on the 23d of May, A.D. 1533, for lack of ap-
pearance, and for contumacy, by the assent of all learned
men there present, she was divorced from the king, and
their marriage declared to be void and of none eft'ect ;
which sentence given, the archbishop, and all the others
returned back again.
The Power of the Pope abolished '.n England.
These things thus finished and dispatched, concerning
the marriage of queen Anne, and divorce of lady Catha-
rine, next follows the year 1534, in which was assem-
bled the high court of parliament, after many proroga-
tions, upon the 3d day of February, wlierein was made
an act of succession for the greater security of the crown,
to which every cerson, being of lawful age, was to be
sworn. Every Sunday, during the sitting of parliament,
a bishop preached at St. Paul's cross, who declared the
pope not to be head of the church.
After this, commissions were sent over all England, to
take the oath of all men and women to the act of succes-
sion ; to which few objected, except .Dr. John Fisher
bishop of Rochester ; Sir Thomas More, late lord chan-
cellor ; and Dr. Nicholas Wilson, parson of St. Thomas
the Apostle in London. Wherefore, these three persons,
after long exhortation to them, made by the bishop of
Canterbury at Lambeth, refusing to be sworn, were sent
to the Tower, where they remained, and were often asked
to be sworn ; but the bishop and Sir Thomas More ex-
cused themselves by their writings, in which they said,
that they had written before, that lady Catharine was
queen, and therefore could not well go from that which
they had written.
From the month of March, this parliament furthermore
was prorogued to the 3d day of November abovesaid.
At which time, amongst other statutes, most graciously,
and by the blessed will of God it was enacted, that the
pope, and all his college of cardinals, with his pardons
and indulgences, which so long had clogged this realm
of England, to the miserable slaughter of so many good
men, and which never could be removed away before,
was now abolished, eradicated, and expelled out of this
land, and sent home again to their own country of Rome,
from whence they came. God be everlastingly praised I
Amen 1
Act concerning the King's Highness to be the supreme
head of the Church of England, and to have authority
to reform arid redress all errors, heresies, and abuses in
the same. Cap. 1.
" Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightly is, and
ought to be supreme head of the church of England, and
so is recognised by the clergy of this realm in their con-
vocations ; yet, nevertheless, for corroboration and con-
firmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's
religion within this realm of England, and to repress and
extirpate all errors, heresies, and other enormities and
abuses in the same, be it enacted, by authority of this
present parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord, his
heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken,
accepted, and reputed the only supreme head in earth of
the church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia, and
shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial
crown of this realm, as well the title and stile thereof, as
all honours, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privi-
leges, authorities, immunities, profits and commodities to
the said dignity of supreme head of the same church,
belonging and appertaining. And that our said sove-
reign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm,
shall have full power and authority, from time to time,
to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain,
and amend all such errors, abuses, offences, contempts,
and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any man-
ner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought, or may
lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, cor-
rected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of
Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion,
and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tran-
quillity of this realm ; any usage, custom, foreign laws,
foreign authority, prescription, or any thing or things, to
the contrary hereof notwithstanding."
That no man may cavil or surmise that this fatal fall
and ruin of the pope came rashly upon the king's own
partial affection, or by any temerity of a few; and not by
the grave and advised judgment, approbation, and con-
sent, generally and publicly, as well of the nobles and
commons temporal, as also upon substantial grounds,
and the very strength of truth, by the discussion and
consultation of the spiritual and most learned persons in
this realm, it shall be requisite to add, that the arch-
bishops and bishops did solemnly and openly swear to
the king, as supreme head of the church of England, to
the exclusion of the usurped pretensions of the bishop of
Rome, giving to the king alone the stile of supreme head,
next under Christ, of the church of England, renounc-
ing and abjuring, utterly and voluntarily, the pope's too
long usurped jurisdiction in this realm, testifying more-
536
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.— SUPREMACY OF POPE LEWIS. [Book VIII.
over the same both with their own hand, and also with
their seal.
Besides th.ese confirmations and oaths of the bishops,
you shall hear tin- decree and imblic sentence of the uni-
versity of Cambridge, written and subscribed, and signed
with the public seal of their university, the tenor of
which their letter here foUoweth : —
A Letter of the T''nirersiti/ of Camlridc/e ac/ainst the
usurped power of the Bis/iop of Rome.
"To all and singular the children of the holy mother
church, into whose hands these presents shall come, tlie
whole society of regents, and not regents of the univer-
sity of Cambridge, sendeth greeting in our Saviour Jesus
Christ.
" Whereas of late a question having arisen among us,
as to the power v.hicli the bishop of Rome claims to
himself by the holy scriptures, over all provinces and
nations in Christendom, and which he hath now exercised
for a long time in England : and as our opinion con-
cerning this question has been required, to wit, whether
the bishop of Rome hath any power or authority in this
kingdom of England, allotted to him by God in the
scriptures, more than any other foreign bishop, or not :
We thought it therefore good reason, and our duty for
the searching out of the truth of the said question, that
we should employ therein our whole endeavour and
study, whereby we might render and publish to the
world, wlJSit our reason and opinion is, touching the
premises. For therefore we suppose, that universities
were first provided and instituted of princes, to the end
that both the people of Christ might in the law of God
be instructed, and also that false errors, if any did rise,
miglit through the vigilant care and industry of learned
aivines be discussed, extinguished, and utterly rooted out.
For which cause we in our assemblies and convocations
(after our accustomed manner) resorting and conferring
together upon the question aforesaid, and studiously de-
bating and deliberating with ourselves how and by what
order we might best proceed for the finding out of the
truth of the matter ; and at length choosing out certain
of the best learned doctors and bachelors of divinity, and
other masters, and having committed to them in charge,
studiously to search and peruse the places of holy sciip-
ture; by the viewing and considering of which places to-
gether, they might certify to us what is to be said to the
question propounded.
" Forasmuch therefore, as we having heard, and well
advised, and thoroughly discussed in open disputations,
what may be said on both sides of the question, those
reasons and arguments do appear to us more probable,
stronger, truer, and more certain, and agreeing raucli
more near to the pure and native sense of scriptures,
which do deny the bishop of Rome to have any such
power given him of God in the scripture. By reason
and force of which arguments we being persuaded, and
joining together in one opinion, have with ourselves thus
decreed to answer unto the question aforesaid, and in
these writings thus resolutely do answer in the name of
the whole University, and for an undoubted conclusion
do affirm, approve, and pronounce, that the bishop of
Rome hath no more state, authority, and jurisdiction
given him of God in the scriptures, over this realm of
England, than hath any other foreign bishop. And in
testimony and credence of this our answer and affirma-
tion, we have caused our common seal to be put to these
our aforesaid letters accordingly. At Cambridge in our
regent house: A.D. lo.'U."
Now, for a further declaration of their judgments and
opinions, you shall hear what the bishops in their own
books, prologues, and sermons, have written and pub-
lished, touching the pope's supremacy; and we shall
begin with Stephen Gardiner's book " on True Obedi-
ence," and briefly note out a few of his own words, where-
in he not only confutes the pope's usurped authority,
but also proves the marriage between the king and
queen Catharine his brother's wife, was not lawful, in
liiese words.
" And amongst these, if there is a commandment
that a man shall not marry his brother's wife, what
could the king's excellent majesty do otherwise, than
that which he did by the whole consent of the people,
and the judgment of his church, that is, to be divorced
from unlawful marriage, and to use lawful and jiermitted
marriage, and obeying (as meet it was) conformably to
the commandment, to cast her off, whom neither law
nor right permitted him to retain, and take himself to
chaste and lawful marriage? Wherein, alt!,o;>gh the
sentence of God's word (whereunto h1! things ought to
stoop) might have sufficed ; yet his majesty was content
to have the assisting consent of the most notable and
grave men, and the censures of the most famous uni-
versities of the whole world ; and all to the intent that
men should see that he did both what he might do, and
ouglit to do uprightly, seeing that the best learned and
most woi'thy men have subscribed to it, and shewing
therein such o})edience as God's word requireth of every
good and godly man ; so as it may be said, that both
he obeyed God, and obeyed him truly."
In his book, he also alleges the old distinction of
the papists, wherein they give to the prince the govem-
nient of things temporal, and to the cliurch that of
things spiritual, comparing the one to the greater light,
the other to the lesser light, he confutes and derides
the distinction, declaring that the sword of the church
extends no further, than to teaching and excommu-
nication, and refers all pre-eminence to the sword of the
prince : alleging for this the second psalm ; "Be wise
now therefore, O ye kings : be instructed ye judges of
the earth.''
Also the example of Solomon, who being a king, " ap-
pointed, according to the order of David his father, the
course of the priests to their service, and the Levites
to their charges, t^ praise and minister before the
priests, as the duty of every day required : the porters
also by their courses at every gate : for so had David the
man of God commanded." — 2 Chr. viii. 14.
Besides this, he alleges also the example of king
Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxix. He alleges moreover the
example of Justinian, who made laws touching the faith,
bishops, clerks, heretics and others.
Aaron obeyed Moses. Solomon gave sentence upon
Abiathar the high priest.
Alexander the king, in the first of Maccabees writes
to Jonathan ; " Now we have made thee this day the
high priest of thy people, &c." So did Demetrius to
Simon.
And where he reasons of the king's stile and title,
being called king of England and of France, defender
of the faith, lord of Ireland, and supreme head in earth
of the church of England, immediately under Christ, &c.
thus he adds his mind and censure, saying, that he sees
no cause in this title, why any man should be offended,
that the king is called head of the church of England,
rather than of the realm of England ; and adds his reason
thereunto saying. If the prince and king of England be
the head of his kingdom, that is, of all Englishmen his
subjects, is there any cause why the same English sub-
jects should not be subject to the same head likewise in
this respect, because they are Christians, that is to say,
for the title of godliness, as though that God, who is the
cause of all obedience, should now be the cause of re-
bellion .'
At length he thus concludes with an exclamation say.
ing, " To say that a king is the head of the kingdom,
and not of the church, what an absurd and a foolish
saying is this !"
•' The lightof thegospel,"saithhe, " sospreads its beams
in all men's eyes, that the works of the gospel may be
known, and the mysteries of Christ's doctrine opened ;
both learned and unlearned, men and women, be-
ing in England, do see and perceive, that they have
nothing to do with Rome, nor with the bishop of Rome,
but that every prince in his own dominions is to be taken
and accepted as a vicar of God, and vicegerent of Christ
in his own bounds."
To these extracts from the books of Gardiner wo
A.D. 1527—1540.] TONSTAL'S REASONS AGAINSl THE POPE'S SUPREMACY.
»37
shall add a part of the preface to that book, which
was written by Bonner, to sh3w how the judgments of
men are changed by the vain glory and pomp of this
world.
The Preface of Edmnnd Bonner, Archdeacon of Leices-
ter, prefixed before Stephen Gardiner's Book, " On
True Obedience."
" Forasmuch as there may be some who think that
the controversy which is between the king's royal ma-
jesty, and the bishop of Rome, consists in this point,
that his majesty hath taken the most excellent and most
virtuous Lady Anne to wife, but which is far otherwise :
we, to the intent, therefore, that all true hearty favourers
of the gospel of Christ, who hate not, but love the truth,
may the more fully understand -the chief point of the
controversy, and because they shall not be ignorant what
is the unanimous opinion and resolute determination of
the best and most learned bishops, with all the nobles
and commons of England, not only in that case of ma-
trimony, but also in defending the doctrine of the gospel :
here sliall be published the oration of the bishop of
Winchester (a man excellently learned in all kind of
learning) entitled ' On True Obedience.' But, as to
this bishop's worthy praises, there shall be nothing
spoken by me at this time, not only because they are
infinite, but because they are far better known to all
Christendom, than becomes me here to rehearse. And
as for the oration itself (which, as it is most learned, so
is it most elegant) to what purpose should 1 make any
words of it, seeing it praises itself enough, and requires
no recommendation ? But yet, in this oration, whoever
thou art, most gentle reader, thou shalt, beside ( ther
matters, see it notably and learnedly handled, of what
importance, and how invincible the power and excel-
lency of God's truth is, which, as it may now and then
be pressed of the enemies, so it cannot possibly be op-
pressed and darkened after such sort, but it sheweth it-
self again at length more glorious and more welcome.
Thou shalt see also, touching obedience, that it is sub-
ject to truth, and what is to be judged true obedience.
Besides this, of men's traditions, which are for the
most part most repugnant to the truth of God's law.
And there, by the way, he speaks of the king's highness'
marriage, which, by the ripe judgment, authority, and
privilege of the most and principal universities of the
world, and then, with the consent of the whole church of
England, he contracted with the most excellent, and
most noble lady. Queen Anne. After that, touching the
king's majesty's title, as pertaining to the supreme head
of the church of England. Last of all, of the false pre-
tended supremacy of the bishop of Rome in the realm of
England most justly abrogated : and how all other
bishops being fellow-like to him in their function, yea,
and in some points above him within their own pro-
vinces, were before-time bound to the king by their
oath.
" But be thou most surely persuaded of this, good
reader, that the bishop of Rome, if there were no other
case but only this marriage, would easily content him-
self, and especially on his having some good morsel or
other given to him to chew upon. But when he sees so
mighty a king, being a right virtuous and learned prince,
so sincerely and so heartily favour the gospel of Christ,
and perceiving the yearly and great prey (yea, so large a
prey, that it came to as much almost as all the king's
revenues) snapped out of his hands, and that he can no
longer exercise his tyranny m the king's majesty's realm
(alas ! heretofore, too cruel and bitter) nor make laws,
as he hath done many, to the contumely and reproach of
the Majesty of God, which is evident thfit he hath done
in time past, under the title of the catholic church, and
the authority of Peter and Paul (when, notwithstanding,
he was a very ravening wolf, dressed in sheep's clothing,
calling himself the servant of servants) to the great
damage of the christian commonwealth."
In adding to these the judgment and arguments of
Bishop Tonstal, we shall see how he agrees with them,
or rather exceeds them. La his sermon nreached before
King Henry VIII. upon Palm Sunday: in this ser-
mon he disputes against the supremacy of the bishop
of Rome, and proves by manifest grounds, out of the
scripture, ancient doctors, ai.d councils, that the bishop
of Rome has no such authority by the word of God; and
he also reproves and condemns him with great zeal and
ardent spirit, to be a proud Lucifer, disobedient to the
ordinary jjowers of God set over him, contrary to Christ
and Peter: and, finally, in raising up war against us for
the same, he rebukes and defies him, as a most detest-
able sower of discord, and a murderer of christian men.
First, by the scripture he reasons, that all good men
ought to obey the powers and governors of Uie world, as
emperors, kings, and princes of all suits . for so St.
Peter plainly teaches us, 1 Pet. ii. saying, " Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors,"
&c. So that St. Peter, in his epistle, commands all
princes in their office to be obeyed as the ministers of
God, by all christian men : and St. Paul, Rom. xiii.
saith, '• Let every soul be subject to the higher powers ;
for the powers that be are ordained of God, and whoso-
ever j-esisteth the powers, resisteth the ordinance of
God, and shall receive unto himself damnation."
Also, another express commandment we have of
Christ, Lukexxii. who, upon the occasion of his disciples
striving for superiority, discusses the matter, saying,
"The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them;
and tliey that exercise authority upon them are called
benefactors. But ye shall not be so : but he that is
greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and be
that is chief, as he that doth serve," &c.
And again, Christ speaking to Pilate of his kingdom,
declares that his kingdom is not of this world, and,
therefore, saith Tonstal, those tliat go about to make of
Christ's spiritual kingdom a worldly kingdom, do fall
into the error of some heretics that expect that Christ,
after the day of judgment, shall reign with all his saints
here in the earth carnally in Jerusalem ; the Jews
believe that Messias is yet to come, and that when he
shall come, he shall reign worldly in Jerusalem.
By these and such other places it may well appear,
that Christ, neither before nor after his incarnation, (as
Tonstal saith) did ever alter the authority of worldly
kings and princes, but by his own word commanded
them still to be obeyed by their subjects, as they had
been in the ancient time, &c. and for example of the
same he alleges, first, the example of Christ himself,
Matt, xxii., who, being asked of the Jews, whether they
should give tribute to Csesar or not, he bade them give
to CfEsar the things which are his, and to God the things
that are his ; signifying, that tribute was due to Caesar,
and that their souls were due to God, &c.
Also, it appeareth that Christ bade Peter pay
tribute for him and his disciples, when it was demanded
of him. And why.' Because he would not change
the order of obedience which was due by subjects to
their princes.
Another example of Christ he cites out of the sixth of
John, where, after Christ had fed five thousand and
more, with a few loaves, and fewer fishes, and that the
Jews would have taken him and made him their king, he
fled from them, and would not consent to it : for the
kingdom, saith he, that he came to set here in earth,
was not a worldly and a temporal kingdom, but a
heavenly and spiritual kingdom ; that is, to reign spirit-
ually by grace and faith in the hearts of all christian and
faithful people, of what degree, or of what nature soever
they may be, and to turn all people and nations, who, at
his coming, were carnal, and lived after the lusts of the
flesh, to be spiritual, and to live after the Spirit, that
Christ, with his Father in heaven, might reign in the
hearts of all men, &c.
And here, in these examples of Christ's humility,
farther it is to be noted, how Christ the Son of God did
submit himself not only to the rulers and powers of this
world, but also humbled himself, and in a manner be-
came servant to his own apostles : so far off was he from
■ all ambitious and pompous seeking of worldly honour :
1 for so it appeareth in him, not only by washing tne feet
538
TONSTAL'S REASONS AGAINST THE POPE'S SUPREMACY.
[Book VIII.
of his apostles, but also, when the apostles, a little be-
fore his passion, fell out and contended among them-
selves, who amonj; them should be superior, Christ sets
before them the example of his own subjection, and asks
this question : " Whether is greater, he that sitteth at
aieat, or he that serveth ? is not he that sitteth at meat ?
Sut I am among you as he that serveth," &c.
Again, in Peter, what an example of reverent humility
is seen in this, that notwithstanding he, with other
apostles, having commission to go over all the world,
yet, nevertheless, he being at Joppa, and sent for by
Cornelius, durst not go to him, without the vision of a
sheet let down from heaven, by which vision he was ad-
monished not to refuse the Gentiles : or else he knew in
himself no such primacy over all people and places, nor
any such commission above the others, &c.
Peter, being rebuked by Paul his fellow brother, took
no offence, but was content, submitting himself to due
correction. Gal. ii.
But here, saith Tonstal, steps in the bishop of Rome
and saith, " That Peter had authority given him above
all the ajiostles, and alleges the words of Christ spoken
to him. Matt. xvi. ' Thou art Peter, and upon this
ock I will build my church, and to thee will I give the
Keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven,' &c.
This, Christ said, saith the pope, and St. Peter is buried
at Rome, whose successor I am, and I therefore ought
to rule the church, as Peter did, and be the porter of
the gates of heaven as Peter was, &c. And Christ said
also to Peter, after his resurrection, ' Feed my sheep ;'
which he spake to him only, so that thereby he had
authority over all Christ's flock ; and I, as his successor,
have the same. And, therefore, whoso will not obey
me, king or prince, I will curse him, and deprive him of
his kingdom ; for all power is given to me that Christ
has, and I am his vicar-general as Peter was here on
earth over all, and none but I, as Christ is in heaven."
To open, therefore, the true sense of the scripture in
the places aforesaid, and first to begin with the sixteenth
chapter of Matthew. It is to be observed, that the
question being put in general of Christ to all his apos-
tles, what they thought or judged of him, Peter answer-
ing for them all (as he was always ready to answer) said,
" Thou art the Chrir.t, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I
say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." Matt. xvi. 16 — 18. That is to
say, upon this rock of thy confession of me to be the Son
of God I will build my church. For this faith contains
the whole summary of our faith and salvation, as it is
written, " The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth,
and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we
preach ; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,"
&.C. Rom. X. 8, 9. And this confession being uttered
by the mouth of St. Peter, upon this confession of his,
and not ujion the person of St. Peter, Christ builds his
church, as St. Chrysostom expounds that place in the
twenty-sixth sermon of the Feast of Pentecost, saying,
" Not upon the person of St. Peter, but upon his faith
Christ hath builded his church. And what is this faith ?
This, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
What is it to say, ' Upon this rock ?' That is, upon
this confession of St. Peter," &c. And with this saying
of Chrysostom ancient expositors (saith Tonstal) treat-
ing of that place, do agree ; for if we should expound
that place, that the church is builded upon the person of
St. Peter, we should put another foundation of the
church than Christ, which is directly against St. Paul,
saying, " For other foundation can no mnn lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," Sec. 1 Cor. iii. 11.
And as St. Peter was the first of thein that confessed
Christ to be the .Son of God, so was he most ardent in
his faith, and bold, and hardy in Christ, as appears liy
tus coming out of the ship in the great tempest, and also
in his being most vehement in his Master's cause, as
appeared by his drawing out his sword ; and after the
Lord's resurrection, he is declared out of the second,
third, and fourth chapters of the Acts, where the Jews
withstanding the apostles' preaching the faith of Christ,
St. Peter, as most ardent in faith, was ever most ready
to defend the faith against the impugners thereof, and
for s])eaking for all of them unto the people, tkc, and
therefore have these honourable names been given to
him by the ancient interpreters ; that sometimes he is
called, the mouth of the apostles ; the chief of the
apostles ; sometimes the prince of the apostles ; some-
times the president of the whole church ; and soiuetimes
the name of primacy or priority has been attributed to
him. And yet that St. Peter, notwithstanding these
honourable names given to him, never had a rule or a
judicial power given to him above all the other apostles,
as is jilain by St. Paul, and many others.
First, St. Paul, in writing to the Galatians, plainly
declareth, " But contrariwise, when they saw that the
gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me,
as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter ; for he
that wrought eff"ectually in Peter to the aj)ostleship of
the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards
the Gentiles." Gal. ii. 7, 8. Hereby it appeareth that
St. Paul knew no primacy of St. Peter concerning people
and places, except among the Jews. And St. Ambrose,
expounding that place, saith thus : " The primacy of
the Jews was given chiefly to St. Peter, although St.
James and St. John were joined with him ; as the pri-
macy of the Gentiles was given to St. Paul, although
St. Barnabas was joined with him, so that St. Peter had
no rule over all."
That all the apostles had like dignity and authority,
appears by St. Paul, where he saith, " Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow,
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ;
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-
stone." Eph. ii. 19, 20. Here he saith, that they are
builded not upon the foundation of St. Peter only, but
upon the foundation of the apostles, so that all they be-
ing in the foundation set upon Christ the very rock,
whereupon standeth the whole church.
In Rev. xxi. 14, the new city, and the heavenly Jeru-
salem of Almighty God, is described of the Holy Ghost
not with one foundation only of St. Peter, but with
twelve foundations, after the number of the apostles.
St. Cyprian gives testimony likewise to the same ef-
fect, that the apostles had equal power and dignity given
to them by Christ : and because all should preach one
thing, therefore the beginning first came by one, who
was St. Peter, who confessed for them all, that Christ
was the Son of the living God. Saying further, that in
the church there is one office of all the bishops, whereof
every man hath a part allowed wholly to himself. Now,,
if the bishop of Rome may meddle over all, where hel
will, then every man has not wholly his part, for thei
bishop of Rome may also meddle in his part jointlyl
with him ; so that now he has it not wholly, which isj
against Cyprian.
St. Augustine likewise, expounding the gospel of John, \
in the fiftieth treatise, speaks of the keys of St. Peter, J
which he saith were given by Christ to St. Peter, not fori
himself alone, but for the whole church.
St. Cyril expounding the last chapter of St. John,
and there sjjcaking of the words of Christ spoken to St.
Peter, " Feed my sheep," &c., thus understands them ;
that because St. Peter had thrice denied Christ, he
thought that he had lost his apostleship, but Christ, to
comfort him again, and to restore him to his ofl^ce that
he had lost, asked him thrice whether he loved him, and
so restored him again to his office, which otherwise he
durst not have presumed, saying to him, " Feed my
sheep,'' &c. With which exposition the ancient holy
ex])ositors of that place agree. So that by these words
of feeding Christ's sheep, the bishop of Rome can take
no advai^tage to maintain his universal pastorality over
all christian dominions
Again, whereas the bishop of Rome saith, that Peter,
A. D. 1527— 1540.] THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE DENIES THE POPE'S PRIMACY.
539
by these words of Christ spoken to him, hath a pre-
eminence above the others, St. Paul, Acts xx. 28, proves
the contrary ; where he, speaking to the bishops as-
semb'ed at Miletus, saith to them, " Take heeil there-
fore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which
the Ho'y Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood."
And Peter himself, likewise, (I Peter v. 2.) saith,
" feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof," &c.
So that by these scriptures conferred together, it may
appear, that neither Matthew xvi. nor John xxi., proves
that Peter had power, authority, or dignity given to him
of Christ over all the other, nor that they should be
under him : and yet, notwithstanding, his primacy still
continues, in that he, first of all the apostles, confessed
Christ to be the Son of the living God, in which confes-
sion all the other apostles, joined and preached with him.
And thus the power of the bishojjs of Rome over all,
which they would prove by those places wrongfully al-
leged for this purpose, utterly fails, and is not proved.
And thus much for the scriptures and doctors.
Now, further proceeding in this matter, Tonstal
Cometh to councils and examples of the primitive
church, as foUoweth : —
Faustinus, legate to the bishop of Rome, in the sixth
council of Carthage, (A. D. 42.i,) alleged that the bishop
of Rome ought to have the ordering of all great matters
in all places by his supreme authority, bringing no scrip-
ture for him (for at that time no scripture was thought
to make for it) but alleged for him, and that untruly,
the first council of Nice, to make for his purpose. After
this, when the book was brought forth, and no such
article found in it, but the contrary, yet the council at
that time sent to Constantinople, Alexandria, and An-
tioch, where the patriarchal sees were, to have the true
copy of the council of Nice, which was sent to them.
And another copy also was sent from Rome, whither
also they sent for the same purpose.
After the copy was brought to them, and no such
article being found in it, but, on the contrary, in the
fifth chapter, that all causes ecclesiastical, should either
be determined within the diocese, or else, if any were
still aggrieved, then to appeal to the council provincial,
and there the matter to take full end, so that for no such
causes men should go out of their provinces ; the whole
council of Carthage wrote to Celestine, at that time
bisliop of Rome, That since the council of Nice had no
such article in it, as was untruly alleged by Faustinus,
but the contrary, they therefore desired him to abstain
hereafter from making any such demand, denouncing to
him that they would not suffer any cause, great or small,
to be brought by appeal out of their country ; and there-
upon made a law. That no man should aj)peal out of the
country of Africa, upon pain of being accursed. Where-
with the bishop of Rome ever after held himself content,
and made no more business with them, seeing he had
nought to say for himself to the contrary. And at this
council St. Augustine was present, and subscribed his
hand.
It was determined also in the sixth article of the said
council of Nice, That in the East the bishop of Antioch
should be chief; in Egypt the bishop of Alexandria;
about Rome the bishop of Rome ; and likewise in other
countries the metropolitans should have their pre-emi-
nence : so that the bishop of Rome never had meddling
in those countries.
And, in the next article following, the bishop of Jeru-
salem (which city had Oeen destroyed and lay desolate)
was restored to his old prerogative, to be the chief , in
Palestine and in the country of Judea.
By this you see how the patriarch of Rome, during all
this time of the primitive church, had no such primacy
above other patriarchs, much less over kings and em-
perors, as may appear by Agatho, bishop of Rome, in
whose time was the sixth council general, who, after his
election, sent to the emperor at Constantinople, to have
his election allowed, before he could be consecrated, as
was the custom at that time so used, (A. D. 4711.)
The like did St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory, and other
j)opes before him. During all which time the bishops
of Rome followed well the doctrine of St. Peter and
St. Paul, left to them, to be subjects, and to obey their
princes.
Thus, after that Bishop Tonstal, both by scriptures
and ancient doctors, also by sufficient examj)les from the
primitive church, proved and declared, how the bishops
of Rome ought to submit themselves to the higher
powers whom God has appointed over every creature in
this world to be obeyed.
Now for tlie confirming this matter, and satisfying the
reader, it shall not.be much out of purpose to adduce
also the public and general agreement of tlie wliole clergy
of England, confirmed and ratified in their own public
book, made and set forth by them about the same time,
called then "The bishop's book." In which, although
many things were very imperfect, yet as touching the
bishop of Rome's regality, we shall hear what was their
whole opinion and provincial determination, as by their
own words is to be seen as follows, subscribed also by
their own names : —
" We think it convenient that all bishops and preachers
shall instruct and teach the people committed unto their
spiritual charge ; that whereas certain men do imagine
and affirm, that Christ should give unto the bishop of
Rome power and authority, not only to be head and go-
vernor of all priests and bishops in Christ's churcli; but
also to have and occupy the whole monarchy of the world
in his hands ; and that he may thereby lawfully depose
kings and princes from their realms, dominions, and
seigniories, and so transfer and give the same to such
persons as he pleases ; all which is utterly false and un-
true ; for Christ never gave to St. Peter, or unto any of the
apostles, or their successors, any such authority. And
the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, do teach and com-
mand, that all christian people, as well priests and
bishops as others, should be obedient and subject unto
the princes and potentates of the world, even although
they were infidels.
And as for the bishop of Rome, it was many hundred
years after Christ, before he could acquire or get any
primacy or governance above any other bishops, out of
his province in Italy ; since which time he has ever
usurped more and more. And although some part of
his power was given to him by the consent of the emperors,
kings, and princes, and by the consent also of the clergy
in general councils assembled ; yet surely he attained the
most part thereof by marvellous subtlety and craft,
and especially by conspiracy with great kings and
princes ; sometimes by training them into his devotion by
pretence and colour of holiness and sanctity, and some-
times constraining them by force and tyranny. Whereby
the said bishops of Rome aspired and rose at length unto
such greatness in strength and authority, that they pre-
sumed and took upon them to be heads, and to enact
laws by their own authority, not only unto all other bi-
shops within Christendom ; but also unto the emperors,
kings, and others the princes and lords of the world ; and
that under the pretence of the authority committed unto
them by the gospel. Wherein the said bishops of Rome
do not only abuse and pervert the true sense and mean-
ing of Christ's word ; but they do also, clean contrary to
the use and custom of the primitive church ; and so do
manifestly violate, as well the holy canons made in the
church immediately after the time of the apostles, as
also the decrees and constitutions made in that behalf by
the holy fathers of the catholic church, assembled in the
first general councils. And finally, they do transgress
their own profession, made in their creation. For the
bishops of Rome always, when they are consecrated and
made bishops of that see, do make a solemn profession
and vow, that they shall inviolably observe and keep all
the ordinances made in the eight first general councils ;
among the which it is specially provided and enacted,
that all causes shall be finished and determined within
the province where the same began ; and that by the bi-
shops of the same province, and that no bishop shall ex-
ercise any jurisdiction out of his own diocese or pro-
vince ; and divers such other canons were then maUa
S40
STOKESLEY AND TONSTAL'S LETTER TO CARDINAL POLE.
[Book VIII.
and confirmed by the said councils to repress and take
away out of the church all such prima<;y and jurisdiction
over kiiiss and bishops, as the bishops of Rome pre-
tend now to have over the same. And we find that
divers good fathers, bishops of Rome, did greatly reprove,
yea, and abhor, as a thing clean contrary to the gospel,
and the decrees of the church, that any bishop of
Rome, or elsewhere, should presume, usurp, or take
Upon him the title and name of the universal bishop, or
of the head of all priests, or of the highest priest, or
any such like title. For confirmation whereof, it is out
of all doubt, that there is no mention made either in the
scriptures, or in the writings of any lauthentic doctor or
author of the church, being within the time of the apos-
tles, that Christ did ever make or institute any distinc-
tion or difference to be in the pre-eminence of power,
order, or jurisdiction between the apostles themselves, or
between the bishops themselves ; but that they were all
equal in power, order, authority, and jurisdiction. What-
ever difference there is now among the bisliops, since the
time of the apostles, it was devised by the ancient fathers
of the primitive church, not because it was according to
scripture, but for the conservation of good order and
unity of the catholic church, and that either by the con-
sent and authority, or else at the least l)y the permission
and sufferance of the princes and civil powers for the
time ruling," &c.
Judge now for thyself, loving reader, if either Martin
Luther himself, or any other Lutheran, co\dd or did ever
say more against the usurpation of the bishop of Rome,
than these men have done. If they dissembled other-
wise than they meant, who could ever dissemble so deeply ?
If they meant as they spake, who could ever turn head
to tail so suddenly and so shortly as these men did ?
But as we write these things for edification, let us mark
their reasons, and let the persons go.
And although the proofs and arguments heretofore
alleged, might suffice to the full discussion of this mat-
ter against the pope's usurped primacy ; yet we shall
cite a certain epistle sent by bishop Tonstal, and by
John Stokesley bishop of London, to Cardinal Pole,
for a more ample confutation of the usurped power.
About this time Cardinal Pole, brother to the Lord
Montague, was attainted of high treason, and fled
to Rome, where, within a short time after, he was made
cardinal, (of whom more is to be spoken hereafter, the
Lord so permitting, when we come to the time of Queen
Mary.) Whiie remaining at Rome, there was directed
to him a certain epistle by Stokesley, bishop of London,
and Tonstal, bishop of Durham, persuading him to relin-
quish and abandon the supremacy of the pope, and to con-
form himself to the religion of his king. It is as follows : —
" For the good will that we have borne to you in
times past as long as you continued the king's true sub-
ject ; we cannot a little lament and mourn, that you
neither regarding the inestimable kindness of the king's
highness heretofore shewed to you in your bringing up,
nor tiie honour of the house that you be come of, nor
the wealth of the country that you were born in, should
so decline from your duty to your prince, that you should
be seduced by fair words and vain promises of the bishop
of Rome to wind with him, going about by all means
possible, to pull down and put underfoot your natural
prince and master ; to the destruction of tlie country
that hath brought you up, and for the vain-glory of a
red hat to make yourself an instrument to set forth his
malice, who hath stirred up, by all means that he could,
all such christian princes as would give ear unto him,
to depose the king's highness from his kingdom, and to
offsr it as a prey for them that should execute his
malice, and to stir, if he could, his subjects against him,
in stirring and nourishing rebellions in his realm, where
the office and duty of all good christian men, and namely
of us that be priests, should be to bring all comtuotioo
to tranquillity, all trouble to quietness, ail discord to
concord; and in doing contrary, we wouhl shew ourselvt:s
to be but the ministers of Satan and not of Chiist, who
ordained all us that be priests to use in all |)iiires tiie
legation of peace, and not of discord. Bat since that
cannot be undone that is done, second, it is to make
amends, and follow the doing of the prodigal son spoken
of in the gospel, who returned home to his father, and
was well accepted ; as no doubt you might be, if you
will say as he said in acknowledging your folly, and do
as he did in returning home again from your wandering
abroad in service of them, who little care what come o£
you so that their purpose by you be served. And if you
be moved by your conscience, that you cannot allow the
king your master to be supreme head of the church of
England, because the bishop of Rome hath heretofore
for many years usurped that name universally over all
the churcli, under pretence of the gospel of .St. Matthew,
saying, ' Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build
my church ;' surely that te.xt many of the most holy
and ancient expositors take to be meant of tlie faith,
then first confessed by the mouth of Peter ; upon which
faith, confessing Christ to be the Son of (lod, the
church is builded, Christ being the very lowest founda-
ti():i stone, whereujion both the apostles themsehes, and
also the whole faith of the churcli of Christ, by tbetn
preached through the world, is founded and built : and
no other foundation can there be, but that only, as St.
Paul saith, ' For other foundation can no man 1 ly than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,' 1 Cor. iii. li.
" And where you think that Luke xxii. ,S2, proves the
authority of the bishop of Rome, when Christ says, Peter,
' I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren ;'
surely that sj)eaks only of the fall of Peter, known to
Christ by his godly prescience, of which he gave an
inkling, that after his fall Peter should not despair,
but return again and confirm his brethren, as he
ever, being most fervent was wont, to do. The place
plainly opens itself that it cannot be otherwise taken but
with this meaning, and not to be spoken but to Peter ;
for otherwise his successors must first fail in the faith,
and then convert and so confirm their brethren. And
whereas you think that this place of the gospel of John,
' Feed my sheep,' was spoken only to Peter, and that
those words make him she])herd over all, and above all ;
St. Peter himself testifies the contrary in his canonical
epistle, where he saith to all priests, ' Feed the flock
of Christ which is among you,' which he bad them do
by the authority that Christ had put them in as follows :
' And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall re-
ceive the incorruptible crown of eternal glory.' The
same likewise St. Paul in the Acts testifies, saying, ' Take
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over
the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to
feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his
own blood,' Acts xx. 28. Where, in the original text, the
word signifying to govern, or oversee, is the same that is
spoken to Peter, feed, for it signifies both in the scripture.
And that by these words he was not constituted a shepherd
over all, is very plain by the fact that St. Peter durst not
commence such intercourse among the Gentiles, but es-
chewed it as a thing unlawfid, and much rather prohibited
than commanded by God's law, until he was admonished
by the revelation of the sheet, mentioned in Acts xi. .i — / ;
whereas, if Christ by these words, ' Feed my sheep,' had
given such an universal government to Peter, then
Peter, being more fervent than any other of the apostles
to execute Christ's commandment, would of his ovm ac-
cord have gone before without any such new admonition,
or having been sent for by Cornelius ; except peradventure
you would say, that Pett- r did not understand the words of
Christ, for Inik of the light which the later men have ob-
tained, and thereby understand the words of Christ to Peter
better than Peter himself did. And strange also it were to
condemn Peter as a high traitor to his Master after his
ascension ; as if he indeed were worthy, if his Master
had signified to him that the bishojis of Rome, by his
dying there, siiould be heads of all the church ; and he
knowing tlie same by these words ' Feed my sheep,'
yet notwithstarulini; his Master's high legacy and eoin-
maudmiiit, wciuld flee as he did from Rome, until hij»
M lister encountering iiim by the way, with terrible words,
caused him to return."
Arter many references and arguments connected
A. D. 152/— 1540.] BISHOP FISHER AND SIR THOMAS MORE EXECUTED.
541
with tlie ancient history of the church, the letter thus
concl'.ide.- : —
" Chri.^tian kings are sovereigns over the priests, as
over all their subjects, and may command the priests to
do their offices, as well as they do others ; and ought by
their supreme office to see that all men of all degrees do
their duties, whereunto they are called either by God or
by the king ; and those kings that so do chiefly do ex-
ecute well their office. So that the king's highness,
taking upon him, as supreme head of the church of
England, to see that as well spiritual as temporal men
do their duties, doth neither make innovation in the
church, nor yet trouble the order thereof; but doth as
the chief and best of the kings of Israel did, and as all
good christian kings ought to do. Vv'hich office good
christian emperors always took upon them, in calling
the universal councils of all countries in one place and
at o.\t time to assemble together, to the intent that all
heresies troubling the church might there be extirpated,
calling and commanding as well the bisliop of Rome as
other patriarchs and all primates, as well of the East as
of the West, of the South as of the North, to come to
the said councils : as Marcian the emperor did in calling
the greit council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, one of the
four chiif and first general councils, and in commanding
Leo, the I bishop of Rome, to come unto the same. And
altliough Leo neither liked the time, and would have
wished it deferred for a season, nor yet the place, for he
would have had it in Italy ; yet the emperor by his own
command summoned the council to meet at Chalcis, in
Asia : yet Leo answered the emperor, that he would
gladly o!)ey his comma;id, and sent thither his agents to
appear there for him, as appears in the forty-first, forty-
seventh, and forty-eighth epistles of Leo to Marcian,
and in the forty-ninth epistle to Pulcheria the empress.
Marcian likewise desires Theodosius, the emperor of the
West, to summon a council of bishops to be called in
Italy, for taking away such contentions and troubles, as at
that time troubled the quietness of the churches. And
in many epistles of Leo it manifestly appears, that the
emperors always assembled general councils by their
command : and in the sixth general council it appears
very plainly, that at that time the bishops of Rome made
I no claim, nor used any title to call themselves heads
universal over all the catholic church, as appears in the
superscription or salutation of the aforesaid synodical
preamble, which is in these words :
" 'To the most godly lords and most noble victors and
conquerors, the well-beloved children of God and our
Lord Jesus Christ, Constantine the great, emperor, and
Heraclius ani Tiberius, Csesars : bishop Agatho, the
servant of the servants of God, with all the convocations
subject to the council of the see apostolic, sendeth greet-
ing.'— And he expresses what countries he reckoned
and comjirehended in that superscription or salutation ;
for it followeth, that those were under his assembly,
which were in the North and East parts, so that at that
time the bishop of Rome made no such pretence to be
over and above all, as he now does by usurpation, vindi-
cating to himself the spiritual kingdom of Christ, by
which he remains in the hearts of all faitliful people',
and then changes it to a temporal kingdom over and
above all kings, to depose them for his pleasure, preach-
ing thereby the ilesh for the spirit, and an earthly king-
dom for an heavenly, to his own damnation, if he repent
not : whereas he ought to obey his prince by the doc-
trine of St. Peter iu his first epistle, saying, ' Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,
whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors,
as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of
evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.'
1 Pet. ii. i;5, 14. Again, St. Paul, ' Let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers.' Rom. xiii. 1. With
other things before aUeged. So that this his pretended
usurpation as being above all kings is directly against the
scriptures, given to the church by the apostles, whose
doctrine whoever overturns, can be neither the head, nor
yet the least member of the church.
" Wherefore, although ye have hitherto adhered to the
Wringfiilly usurped power, moved as you write, by your
conscience ; yet since now that you see further, if you wish
to regard the pure truth, and such ancient authors as have
been written to you of in times past, we would exhort
you, for the health of your soul, to surrender into the
hands of the bishop of Rome your red hat, by which he
seduced you, trusting so to make you, being come of a
noble blood, an instrument to advance his own vain glory ;
whereof by the hat he made you participant, to allure
you thereby the more to his purpose.
" In which doing you shall return to the truth from
which you have erred ; do your duty to your sovereign lord
from whom you have declined, and please thereby Almighty
God, whose laws you have transgressed : and in not do-
ing so you shall remain in error, offending both Almighty
God, and your natural sovereign lord, whom chieflv you
ought to seek to please. Which thing, for the 'good
that we heretofore have borne you, we pray Almighty
God of his infinite mercy that you do not. Amen ! "
When all the king's subjects and the learned of the
realm had taken the oath of the king's supremacy, only
Fisher, the bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More,
refused to be sworn : therefore they were committed to
the Tower, and executed, A. D. 15:^5.
Among other acts of Fisher, he had been a great
enemy and persecutor of John Frith, the godly and
learned martyr of Jesus Christ, whom he aiid Sir
Thomas More caused to be burned a year and a half
before. For his learning and other virtues this bishop
was well reputed and reported of by many, and also
much lamented by some. But whatever his learning
was, it was a pity that he, being endued with that know-
ledge, should be so far drowned in such superstition ; and
the more pity that he was so obstinate in his ignorance ;
but most pity of all, that he so abused the learning he
had to such cruelty. But this we commonly see come
to pass, as the Lord saith, "That whoso striketh with
the sword, shall perish with the sword," and they that
stain their hands with blood seldom bring their bodies
unbloody to the grave ; as commonly appears by the
end of bloody tyrants, and especially such as were per-
secutors of Christ's poor members ; in the number of
whom was this bishop and Sir Thomas More, by whom
good John Frith, Tewkesbury, Thomas Hitton, Byfield,
with other saints of God were brought to their death.
It was said, that the pope, to recompense bishop Fisher
for his faithful service, had elected him cardinal, and
sent him a cardinal's hat as far as Calais ; but the head
that it should stand upon was cut off before the pope's
hat could come to it.
Of Sir Thomas More something hath been said before.
He was accQunted a man both witty and learned ; but
whatever he was beside, he was a bitter persecutor of
good men, and a wretched enemy to the truth of the
gospel, as by his books may appear, wherein he most
slanderously and contumeliously writes against Luther,
Zuinglius, Tindal, Frith, Barnes, Byfield, Bainham,
Tewkesbury, and the articles and doctrines which they
professed.
Briefly, as he was a sore persecutor of them that
stood in the defence of the gospel, so on the other side he
had such a blind devotion ifor the see of Rome, and so
wilfully stood in the pope's quarrel against his own
prince, that he would not give over until he brought
himself to the scaffold.
The like also is to be said of the three monks of the
charter-house, Ermew, Middlemore, and Nudigate, who
the same year in the month of June were arraigned at
Westminster for speaking traitorous words against the
king's crown and dignity ; for wliich they were hanged,
drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.
In the same year and for the same treason, with the
like punishment, were executed John Houghton, prior
of the Charter-house in London, Robert Laurence,
prior of the charter-house of Belvail, Austen Webster,
prior of the charter-house of Hexham.
Besides, and with these priors, suffered likewise two
other priests, one called Reignold, brother of Sion, the
other named John Haile, vicar of Thistleworth.
Shortly after the pope's supremacy was rejected, the
64'J
AN ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM TINDAL.
LBooK Tin,
ruin of abbeys and religious houses in England began to
follow in a right order and method, by God's divine pro-
vidence. For the fall of the monasteries could not have
followed, unless the suppression of the pope's supre-
macy had gone before ; neither could any true reforma-
tion of the church have been attempted, unless the sub-
version of those superstitious houses had taken place.
Upon which, in the same year, in the month of October,
the king having then Thomas Cromwell in his council,
sent Dr. Lee to visit the abbeys, priories, and nunneries
in all England, and to set at liberty all such religious
persons as desired to be free, and all others that were
under the age of four-and-twenty years ; providing that
such monks, canons, and friars as were dismissed, should
have given to them by the abbot or prior, instead of
their habit, a secular priest's gown, and forty shillings of
money. And likewise the nuns to have given to them
such apparel as secular women then commonly used,
and also suffered to go where they would. At which
time their chief jewels and reliques were taken from the
abbeys and monasteries.
When the king had thus established his supremacy, and
all things were quieted within the realm, he like a wise
prince, and having wise counsel about him, forecasting
with himself what foreign dangers might fall by other
countries, which were all as yet in subjection to the bishop
of Rome ; save only a few German princes ; and not doubt-
ing the malice of the pope, he thought it good to keep in
by all possible means with other princes, and accordingly
he sent ambassadors to the king of Scotland, the king of
France, and to the emperor, to justify his proceedings
respecting his marriage, and the suppression of the pope's
supremacy.
But that we may be able to go foi-ward with our his-
tory, we shall now relate the history of the good martyr
of God, William Tindal, who was betrayed and put to
death, (A.D. 15:56. j Which William Tindal, as he was
appointed a special organ of the Lord, to shake the in-
ward roots, and foundation of the pope's proud prelacy,
so the great prince of darkness, with his impious imps,
having a special malice against him, left no way unsought
to craftily entrap him, and falsely to betray him, and
maliciously to take his life, as by the following process
of his history here may appear.
Thi> Life and History of the true Servant and Marttjr pf
God, William Tindal, mho, for hi.i notable jjains and
travail may veil be called the Apostle of England in this
our later age.
William Tindal, the faithful minister and constant
martyr of Christ, was born about the borders of Wales,
and brought up from a child in the university of Oxford,
where he grew up, and increased in the knowledge of
tongues, and other liberal arts, but more especially in
the knowledge of the scriptures, to which his mind was
singularly addicted ; so that in Magdalen-ha!l he read
privately to certain students and fellows of Magdalen
college some divinity, instructing them in the knowledge
and truth of the scripture. His life and conversation
were such, that all they that knew him, reputed and
esteemed him to be a man of most virtuous disposition,
and of life unspotted.
Thus he, in the university of Oxford, increasing more
and more in learning, removed from thence to the uni-
versity of Cambridge, where after he had likewise made
his abode some time, and being now furtlier ripened in
the knowledge of God's word, he left tliat university
also, and resorted to one Master Welch, a knight of
Gloucestershire, and was there schoolmaster to his chil-
dren. To this gentleman there resorted abbots, deans,
archdeacons, with other doctors and great beneficed men,
who, there together with Master Tindal, sitting at the
same table, used often to enter into communication, and
talk of learned men, as of Luther and Erasmus; also of
other controversies and questions upon the scripture.
Then, Master Tindal, as he was learned and well
practised in God's matters, so he spared not to shew
simply and plainly his judgment ; and when they, at any
time, varied from Tindal in opinion and judgment, he
would shew them in the book, and lay plainly before
them the open and manifest i)laces of the scrijitures, to
confute their errors, and confirm his sayings. And thus
they continued for some time reasoning and contending
together, until at length they entertained a secret dislike
in tlieir hearts against him.
Not long after this, it happened that some of these
great doctors had invited Mr. Welch and his wife to a
banquet, where they talked at will and pleasure, uttering
their blimluess and ignorance without any resistance.
Then Master Welch and his wife coming home, and cal-
ling for Mr. Tindal, began to reason with him about
those matters, which the priests had talked about at
their l)anquet. Master Tindal, answering by scripture,
maintained the truth, and reproved their false opinions.
Then said the Lady Welch, a stout and a wise woman,
" Well, there was such a doctor who could expend an
hundred po>iiids, and another two hundred pounds, and
another three hundred pounds ; and what, is it reason,
think yon, that we should believe you before them?"
Master Tindal gave her no answer at that time, and after
tliat he talked but little in those matters. At that time
he was about the translation of a book, written by Eras-
mus, called "The Manual of a Christian Soldier," which
he delivered to liis master and lady. After they had well
perused it, the doctors and prelates were not .so often in-
vited to the house, neither had they the cheer and coun-
tenance when they came, as they had before.
As this grew on, the priests of the country clustering
together, began to storm against Tindal, and railed against
him in alehouses and other places. They raged and
railed against him, affirming that his sayings were heresy ;
adding to his sayings more tlian ever he S])ake, and so
accused him secretly to the chancellor, and others of the
bishop's officers.
It followed not long after this, that there was a sitting
of the bishop's chancellor, and warning was given to the
priests to appear, amongst whom jMaster Tindal was also
warned to be there. And whether he had any misdoubt
by their threatenings, or knowledge given to him that
they would lay some things to his charge, it is uncer-
tain ; but he prayed heartily to God, to give him strength
to stand fast in the truth of his word.
Then when the time of his ajipearance before the
chancellor came, he threatened him grievously, reviling
and rating at him as though he had been a dog, and laid
to his charge many things, though no accuser could be
produced. Master Tindal, after this examination, escap-
ing out of their hands, departed home.
There dwelt not far oft' a doctor, who had been chan-
cellor to a bishop ; he had been a familiar acquaintance
with Master Tindal, and favoured him well. To him
Tindal went and opened his mind u))on some questions
of tlie scripture, for to him he durst be bold to disclose
his heart. To whom the doctor said, " Do you not know
that the pope is very Antichrist, whom the scripture
speaketh of? But beware what you say, for if you shall
be perceived to be of that opinion, it will cost you your
life;" and said moreover, " 1 have been an officer of his,
but I have given it up, and defy him and all his works."
It was not long after, that Master Tindal happened to
be in the company of a certain divine, and in disputing
with him, the doctor burst out into these blasphemous
words : — " We were better to be without God's laws than
the pope's." Tindal hearing this, full of godly zeal, and
not bearing that blasphemous saying, replied, " I defy
the pope and all his laws," and added, "That if God
spared him life, ere many years, he would cause a boy
that drives the plough to know more of the scripture
than he did."
After this, the dislike of the priests increasing still
more and more against Tindal, they never ceased barking
and rating at him, and laid many things to his charge,
saying, that he was an heretic in sophistry, an heretic in
logic, and an heretic in divinity.
To be short, Tindal being so molested and vexed, by
the priests, was constrained to seek another place, and
so coming to Master Welch, he requested that of his
good will he would permit him to depart from him, say-
ing, " Sir, I perceive that I shall not be suffered to tarry
A.D. 1527—1550.]
AN ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM TINDAL.
543
long in this country, neither shall you be able, though
you would, to keep me out of the hands of the spiritualty ;
and, also, what displeasure might grow thereby to you by
keeping me, God knoweth, for which I should be right
sorry." So that, in fine, Tindal, with the good will of
his master, departed, and soon after came up to London,
and there preached a while, according as he had done in
the country before, and especially about the city of
Bristol. At length he bethinking himself of Cuthbert
Tonstal, then bishop of London, especially for the great
commendations of Erasmus, who, in his annotations, so
extols him for his learning, that Tindal thought that if he
could attain to his service, he w^ould be a happy man. And
so, coming to Sir Henry Guilford, the king's comptroller,
and bringing with him an oration of Isocrates, which
he bad translated out of Greek into English ; he de-
sired him to speak to the bishop of London for him,
■which he did, and desired him to write an epistle to the
bishop, and to go himself with it. But God, who
secretly disj)0ses the course of things, saw that this was
not the best for Tindal's purpose, nor for the profit of
his church, and therefore gave him to find little favour in
the bishop's sight. And so he remained in London
almost a year, marking the course of the world, and
especially the demeanour of the preacliers ; how they
boasted themselves, and set up their authority and king-
dom ; beholding also the pomp of the prelates, with other
things which greatly displeased him. Insomuch, that he
understood not only that there would not be room in the
bishop's house for him to translate the New Testament,
but also tliat there was no place to do it in all England ;
and, therefore, finding no place for his purpose within
the realm, and having some aid and j)rovision, by God's
providence, given to him by Humphrey Mummuth, above
recited, and other good men, he took his leave of the
realm, and departed into Germany; where the good man,
being inflamed with a tender care and zeal for his coun-
try, refused no travail nor diligence, so that by any pos-
sible means he could convey to his brethren and country-
men of England, the same understanding of God's holy
word as the Lord had endued him with.
Whereupon considering in his mind, and partly also
by conferring with John Frith, he thought no way
more likely to conduce to this, than by translating the
scriptures into the vernacular tongue, that the poor
people might also read and see the plain simple word of
God. He perceived, by experience, how it was not pos-
sible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the
scriptures were so plainly laid before their eyes in their
mother tongue, that they might see the meaning of the
text ; for otherwise, whatsoever treth sliould be taught
them, these enemies of the truth would quench it again,
either with apparent reasons of sojihistry and traditions
of their own making, founded without scripture ; or else
juggling with the text, and expounding it in such a sense,
as would never be received, if the right order and mean-
ing were seen.
Again, he perceived and considered that this only, or
chiefly, was the cause of all the mischief in the church ;
that the scriptures of God were hid from the people's
eyes; for then the abominable doings and idolatries
maintained by the pharisaical clergy could not be seen,
and therefore all their labour was with might and main to
keep the scriptures down, so that it should not be read at
all, or if it were, that they should darken the sense with
the mist of their sophistry, and so entangle them, who
rebuked or despised their abominations, with arguments
of philosophy and with worldly similitudes, and appa-
rent reasons of natural wisdom.
For these, and such other considerations, this good
man was moved, (and no doubt stirred up by God,) to
translate the scriptures into his mother tongue, for the
public utility and profit of the simple common people of
the country, first setting in hand with the New Testa-
ment, which he translated (A.D. 1526.) After that he
took in hand to translate the Old Testament, finishing
the five books of Moses, to which he added most learned
and godly prologues prefixed before each book worthy
to be read again and again by all good christians, as he
ii4. also with the New Testament.
He wrote also other works under various titles, among
which is that most worthy monument of his, entitled,
" The Obedience of a Christian Man," by which, with
singular dexterity, he instructs all men in the office and
duty of Christian obedience ; also other treatises, as
" The Wicked Mammon," " The Practice of Prelates,"
with expositions upon certain parts of the scriptures, and
other books, answering Sir Thomas More, and other
adversaries.
The books of William Tindal having been published,
and sent over into England, it cannot be described what a
door of light they opened to the eyes of the whole
English nation.
At liis first departing out of the realm, he took his
journey into the further parts of Germany, as also into
Saxony, where he had a conference with Luther, and
other learned men, where, after he had continued a cer-
tain season, he came into the Netherlands, and mostly
lived in Antwerp, till the time of his apprehension.
When these godly books of Tindal, especially his
translation of the New Testament, began to come
into men's hands, they wrought great profit to the
godly ; so the ungodly, envying and disdaining that
the poor people should be any thing wiser than they,
and again, fearing lest by the shining beams of truth,
their false hypocrisy and works of darkness should be
discerned, began to bestir themselves. But especially
Satan the prince of darkness, maligning the happy
course and success of the gospel, set his might also, to
impeach and hinder the blessed labours of that man.
For when Tindal had translated the fifth book of Moses,
intending to print it at Hamburgh, he sailed for that
place ; but by the way upon the coast of Holland, he
suffered shipwreck, by which he lost all his books, writ-
ings and copies, and was compelled to begin all again.
Thus having lost by that ship, his money, his copies
and his time, he came in another ship to Hamburgh.
There Master Coverdale waited for him, and helped him
in the translating of the whole five books of Moses, from
Easter to December, A.D. 1529.
When God's will was that the New Testament in the
common tongue should come abroad, Tindal the transla-
tor added to the end a certain epistle, wherein he de-
sired the learned to amend it, if ought were found amiss.
Therefore if any such default had been in it, deserving
correction, it had been the part of courtesy and gentle-
ness, for men of knowledge and judgment to have
shewed their learning therein, and to have corrected it.
But the spiritual fathers then, being not willing to have
that book to prosper, cried out upon it, that there were
a thousand heresies in it, and that it was not to be cor-
rected, but utterly suppressed ! Some said it was not
possible to translate the scriptures into English ; some
that it was not lawful for the lay people to have it in
their mother-tongue ; some that it would make them all
heretics. And to induce the temporal rulers also to
their purpose, they said that it would make the people
rebel and rise against the king. All this Tindal himself,
in his own prologue before the first book of Moses de-
clares, shewing what great pains were taken by them in
examining that translation, and comparing it with their
own imaginations and terms, that with less labour, they
might have translated themselves a great part of the
bible : shewing that they examined every tittle and point
in the said translation so narrowly, that there was not
one (i ) in it, but if it lacked a point over its head, they
noted it, and numbered it to the ignorant people for an
heresy ! So great were the devices of the clergy (who
should have been the guides of light to the people) to
drive the people from the text and knowledge of the
scripture, which they would neither translate themselves,
nor yet suffer it to be translated by others; to the intent
(as Tindal saith) that the world being kept still in dark-
ness, they might live in the consciences of the people
through vain superstition and false doctrine, to satisfy
their wishes, their ambition, and insatiable covetousness,
and to exalt their own honour, above king and emperor,
yea and above God himself.
The bishops and prelates of the realm, thus incensed
and inflamed iu their minds, against tne Old and New
NN
fl4
LETTERS OF WILLIAM TINDAL TO JOHN FRITH.
[Book VIII.
Testament of the Lord as translated by Tindal, and con-
spiring together with all their heads and counsels, how
to suppress it, never rested, till they had brought the
king to consent. A procdamation in all haste was de-
vised and set forth, tliat the Testament of Tindal's
translation, with other works of his and of other writers,
were jirohibited. This was about the year 1")27. And
yet not contented witli this, they proceeded to entangle
him in their nets, and to deprive him of his life.
William Tindal, when at Antwerp, lodged in the house
of Thomas Pointz, an Englishman. And there came out
of England, one whose name was Henry Phillips, hav-
ing the appearance of a gentleman, and accompanied by
a servant, but wherefore he came, or for what purpose
he was sent, no man could tell.
Tindal was often invited to dinner and supper amongst
the mercliants ; by means of which this Henry Phillips
became acquainted with liim, and in a short time Tiiulal
nad a great confidence in him, and brought him to his
lodging to the house of Thomas Pointz, and had him
also once or twice with him to dinner and supper.
Througli the means of this Heury Phillips was William
Tindal betrayed. After dining together at the house of
Ttiomas Pointz, as they were leaving it, Tindal was
seized by two officers whom Phillips had brought there
for that purpose, and then this traitor delivered him up
to the emperor's partisans, his books were all seized and
himself cast into prison. Tindal being brought to his
answer, was offered to have an advocate and a proctor,
but he refused, saying, that he would answer for himself;
and so he did.
At last, after much reasoning, although he deserved
no death, he was condemned by virtue of the emperor's
decree, made in the assembly at Augsburgh, and brought
forth to the place of execution ; he was there tied to
the stake, and then strangled by the hangman, and after-
ward consumed with fire in the town of Vilvorde, A.D.
15,')6, crying thus at the stake with a fei-vent zeal, and
a loud voice, " Lord ! open the king of England's
eyes."
Such was the power of his doctrine, and sincerity of
his life, that during the time of his imprisonment
(which endured a year and a half) it is said, he con-
verted his keeper, his daughter, and others of his house-
hold. Also the rest that were conversant with him in
the castle reported of him, that if he were not a good
christian, they could not tell whom to trust.
The procurator general, the emperor's attorney, being
there, left his testimony of him, that he was "a learned,
a good and a godly man."
As to his translation of the New Testament, at which
his enemies carped so much, and pretended that it was
full of heresies, thou shalt hear what faithful deaUng,
and sincere conscience he used in the work, by the
testimony and allegation of his own words written in
his epistle to John Frith.
The Testimony of John Frith in his BnoJi of the Sacra-
ment, concerning William Tindal.
" And Tindal, I trust, lives, well content with such a
poor apostle's life, as God gave his Son Christ, and his
faithhil ministers in this world, who is not sure of so
many mites, as ye are yearly of pounds, although I am
sure that for his learning and judgment in scripture, he
v/as mori- worthy to be promoted than all the bishops
in England. I received a letter from him, which was
v\ritten since Christmas, wherein among other matters
he writes this : —
" ' I call God to record against the day we shall ap-
pear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our
doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's word
against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all
that is in earth, whether it be honour, pleasure, or
riches, might be given to me. Moreover I take God to
witness to my conscience, that I desire of God to my-
seh' in this world, no more than that without which I
cannot keep his laws,' &c.
" Judge, christian reader, whether these words be not
spoken of a faithful clear innocent heart. And as for
his behaviour, it is such, that, I am sure no man can
reprove him of any sin ; although no man is innocent
before God, who beholdeth the heart."
And thus being about to conclude the life and history
of William Tindal, it remaineth for us to present to the
reader certain of his private letters, which he wrote to
Jo)in Frith ; one under his own name, and the other
under the name of Jacob, written and delivered to John
Frith, being then a prisoner in the Tower.
A Letter sent from Tindal, tinto Master Frith, being then
in the Tower.
" The grace and peace of God the Father, and of Jesus
Christ our Lord be with you. Amen. Dearly beloved
brother John, I have heard say, how the hypoc^rites now
that they have overcome that great matter which pre-
vented them, or at the least have stopped it, they return
to their old nature again. The will of God be fulfilled,
and that which he hath ordained to be ere the world was
made, may that come, and his glory reign over all.
"Dearly beloved, however the matter be, commit your-
self wholly and only unto your most loving Father, and
most kind Lord: fear not men that threaten, nor trust
men that speak fair ; but trust him that is true of pro-
mise, and able to make his word good. Your cause is
Christ's gospel, a light that must be fed with the blood
of faith. The lamp must be dressed and snuffed daily,
and oil poured in every evening and morning, that the
liglit go not out. Though we be sinners, yet is the
cause right. If when we be buffeted for well doing, we
suffer patiently and endure, that is acceptable to God.
For to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his
steps, who did no sin. Hereby have we perceived love,
that he laid down his life for us ; therefore we ought
also to lay down our lives for the brethren. Rejoice
and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For
we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with
him : who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the
working whereby he is able even to subject all things
unto him.
" Dearly beloved, be of good courage, and comfort your
soul with the hope of this high reward, and bear the
image of Christ in your mortal body, that it may at his
coming be made like to his immortal ; and follow the
example of all your other dear brethren, who choose to
suffer in hope of a better resurrection. Keep your
conscience pure and undefiled, andsp^ak nothing against
that. Stick at necessary things, and remember the
blasphemies of the enemies of Christ, saying, they find
none that will not abjure rather than suffer the extre-
mity. Moreover, the death of them that come back
again after tliey have once abjured, though it be ac-
cepted with God, yet it is not glorious: for the hypo-
crites say, he must needs die, and abjuring will not help.
But if it might have helped, they would have abjured five
hundred times, but seeing it would not help them, there-
fore of pure pride, and mere malice together, they spake
with their mouths what their con science knoweth to be false.
If you give yourself, cast yourself, yield yourself, commit
yourself wholly and only to your loving Father, then shall
his power be in you and make you strong, and that so
strong, that you shall feel no pain, in that which should
be to another instant death; and his Spirit shall speak in
you, and teach you what to answer, according to his
promise : he shall set out his truth by you wonderfully,
and work for you above all that your heart can imagine;
yea, and you are not yet dead, though the hypocrites all,
with all that they can make, have sworn your death.
To look for no man's help, brings the help of God to
them that seem to be overcome in the eyes of the hy-
pocrites : yea, it shall make God to carry you through
thick and thin for his truth's sake, in spite of all the
enemies of his truth. There falleth not a hair till his
hour be come; and when his hour is come, necessity
carries us hence though we be not willing. But if we
be willing, then have we a reward and thanks.
" Fear not the threatening, therefore, neither be over-
come of sweet words ; with w* ich the hypocrites shall a»-
A. D. 1527—1560.]
LETTERS OF WILLIAM TINDAL TO JOHN FRITH.
545
sail you. Neither let the persuasions of worldly wisdom
bear rule in your heart, no, though they be vour friends
that counsel you. Let Bilnev be a warninsr to you.
Let not your body faint. He that endureth to the
I end sliall be saved. If the pain be above vour strentrth,
I remember, ' WTiatsoever ye shall ask in my name,
: I will give it you.' And pray to your Father in that
name, and he shall cease your pain, or shorten it.
The Lord of peace, of hope, and of faith, be with you,
! Amen.
" William Tindal."
! AtiothpT notable and worthy Letter of Mnxfer William
i Tindal, sent to the said John Frith, under the name
of Jacob.
" The erace of our Saviour Jesus, his patience, meekness,
humbleness, circumspection, and wisdom, be with
your heart, Amen.
" Dearly beloved brother Jacob, mine heart's desire in
our Saviour ,Tesus, is that you arm yourself with
patience, and be bold, sober, wise and circumspect, and
that you bow yourself to the si'ound, avoidine^ hiarh
questions, that pass the common capncitv. But ex-
i pound the law truly, and open the veil of Moses to con-
, demn all flesh, and prove all men sinners ; and all deeds
; under the law, before mercy have taken away the con-
j (lemnatinn thereof, to be sin and datflnable ; and then as
I a faithful minister, set abroad the mercy of our Lord
,Iis\is, and let the wounded consciences drink of the
1 r of him. And then shall your preaching be with
^r, and not as the doctrine of the hypocrites ; and
t'it Spirit of God shall work with you, and all con-
sciences shall bear record unto you, and feel that it is
SM. And all doctrine that casteth a misf:,on those two,
t ' shadow and hide them, I mean the law of God, and
nit riy of Christ, that resist you with all your power.
S icraments without sig:nification refuse. If they put
-iLTuifications to them, receive them, if you see it may
l.elp. though it he not necessary.
■' Of the presence of Christ's body in the sacrament,
irip'ldle as little as you can, that there appear no division
iiiKdig us. Barnes will be hot against you. The
> ixons be sore on the affirmative ; whether constant or
• li.stinate I remit it to God, Philip Melancthon is said
to l)e with the French king. There are some in Antwerp
that say, that they saw him come into Paris with an
ihundred and fifty horses, and that they spake with him.
If the Frenchmen receive the word of God, he will plant
the affirmative in them. George Joy would have put
forth a treatise of that matter, but I have stopt him as
yet : what he wiU do if he get money, I wot not. I
bflieve he would make many reasons little serving to
that purpose : My mind is that nothing be put forth
till we hear how you shall have sped. I would have the
right use preached, and the presence to be an indifferent
filing, till the matter might be reasoned in peace at
Itisure of both parties. If you be required, shew the
phrases of the scripture, and let them talk what they
nil!. For to believe that God is every where, hurteth
110 man that worshippeth him nowhere but within the
Jieart, in spirit and verity : even so to believe that the
body of Christ is every where (though it cannot be
proved) hurteth no man that worshippeth him nowhere
save in the faith of his gospel. You perceive my mind:
tiowbeit if God sKew you otherwise, it is free for you to
lo as he moveth you.
" I guessed long ago, that God would send a madness
iiito the head of the spiritualty, to catch themselves in
their own subtlety, and I trust it is come to pass. And
nnw me thinketh I smell a counsel to be taken, little for
; air profits in time to come. But you must under-
stand, that it is not of a pure heart and for love of the
jtruth, but to avenge themselves, and to eat the whore's
flesh, and to suck the marrow of her boiice Wherefore
cleave fast to the Rock of the help of God, and commit
the end of all things unto him: and if God shall call
you, that you may then use the wisdom of the worldly,
Sfi f ar as you perceive the glory of God may come there-
of, refuse it not ; and ever thrust in, that the scripture
may be in the mother tongue, and learning set up in the
universities. But if ancht be required contrary to the
glory of God, and his Christ, then stand fast, and com-
mit yourself to God, and be not overcome of men's
pcsuasions ; which haply shall say, We see no other
way to bring in the truth.
" Brother Jacob, beloved in my heart, there liveth
none in whom I have so good hope and trust, and in
whom my heart rejoiceth, and my soul comforteth her-
self, as in you ; not the thousandth part so much for your
learning, and what other gifts else you have, as because
you will creep slow by the ground, and walk in those
things that the conscience may feel, and not in the ima-
ginations of the brain: in fear, and not in boldness: in
open necessary things, and not to pronounce or define
of hid secrets, or things that neither help nor binder,
whether it be so or not, in unity, and not in seditious
opmions : insomuch that if you be sure you know, yet
in things that may abide leisure, you will defer, or say
(till others agree with you) methinks the text requireth
this sense or understanding. Yea, and if you be sure
that your part be good, and another hold the contrary,
yet if it be a thing that maketh no matter, you will
iaugh and let it pass, and refer the thing to other men,
and stick you stiffly and stubbornly in earnest and
necessary tilings. And 1 trust you will be persuaded even
so of me : for I call God to record against the day we
shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning
of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's
word against my conscience, nor would this day, if all
that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honour, or
riches, might be given me. Moreover, I take God to
witness to my conscience, that I desire of God to myself
in this world, no more than that without which I cannot
keep his laws.
" Finally, if there were in me any gift at hand, that
could help and aid you if need required, I promise you I
would not be far off, and commit the end to God. My
soul is not faint, though my body be weary. But God
hath made me evil favoured in this world, and without
grace in the sight of men, speechless and rude, dull and
slow witted ; your part shall be to supply what lacketh
in me : remembering, that as lowliness of heart shall
make you high with God, even so meekness of words
shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature
giveth age authority, but meekness is the glory of youth,
and giveth them honour. Abundance of love maketh me
exceed in babbling.
" Sir, as concerning purgatory and many other things,
if you be demanded, you may say, if you err, the spiri-
tualty hath so led you, and that they have taught you
to believe as you do. For they preached to you aU such
things out of God's word, and alleged a thousand texts,
by reason of which texts you believed as they taught
you, but now you find them liars, and that the texts
mean no such things, and therefore you can believe
them no longer, but are as you were before they taught
you, and believe no such thing : howbeit you are ready
to believe, if they have any other way to prove it ; for
without proof you cannot believe them when you have
found them with so many lies, &c. If you i)erceive
wherein we may help, either in being still or doing
somewhat, let us have word, and 1 will do mine utter-
" My lord of London hath a servant called John Tisen,
with a red beard, and a black reddish head, and was
once my scholar ; he was seen in Antwerp, but came
not among the Englishmen: whither he is gone as a
secret ambassador I do not know.
" The mighty God of Jacob be with you, to supplant
his enemies, and give you the favour of Joseph; and the
wisdom and the spirit of Stephen be with y""-- I'^art,
and with your mouth, and teach your lips what they
shall say, and how to answer to all things. He is our
God. if we despair in ourselves, and trust in him : ana
his is the glory. Amen.
" Wili^am Tindal.
«' I hope our redemption « nigh."
546
THE DEATHS OF LADY CATHARINE AND QUEEN ANNE.
[Book VIII.
The Deaths of Lady Catharine, and of Queen Anne.
In the same year in which William Tindal was burned,
died the lady Catharine, princess dowager, in the month
of January, 1536.
After whom, in the same year, in the month of May,
followed the death also of Queen Anne, who had been
married to the king about three years. In certain re-
cords we find, that the king being in his justs at Green-
wich, suddenly with a few persons departed to West-
minster, and the next day after Queen Anne his wife was
conveyed to the Tower, with the lord Rochford her
brother and others ; and on the ninteenth day after was
beheaded. The words of this worthy and Christian lady
at her death were these : —
" Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for,
according to the law, and by the law I am judged to
death, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I
am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything
of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but
I pray God to save the king, and send him long to reign
over you, for a gentler or more merciful prince was there
never ; and to me he was a very good, a gentle, and a
sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle with my
cause, I require them to judge for the best. And thus I
take my leave of the world, and of you all, and I heartily
desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on
me ! To God I commend my soul." And so she
kneeled down, saying, " To Christ I commend my soul ;
Jesus, receive my soul." Repeating the same several
times, till at length the stroke was given, and her head
was struck off.
And this was the end of that godly lady and queen.
Godly I call her, whatever the cause was, or charge ob-
jected against her. Her last words spoken at her death
declared no less her sincere faith and trust in Christ,
than did her quiet modesty utter forth the goodness of
the cause and matter, whatsoever it was. Certain this
was, that for the rare and singular gifts of her mind so
well insti-ucted, and given toward God, with such a fer-
vent desire unto the truth and setting forth of sincere
religion, joined with like gentleness, modesty, and pity
toward all men, there have not many such queens before
her borne the crown of England. Principally this one
commendation she left behind her, that during her life,
the religion of Christ most happily flourished, and had a
right prosperous course.
Many things might be written more of the manifold
virtues, and the quiet moderation of her mild nature ;
how lowly she would bear, not only to be admonished,
but also of her own accord would require her chaplains
plainly and freely to tell whatever they saw in her amiss.
Also how bountiful she was to the poor, passing not only
the common example of other queens, but also the re-
venues almost of her estate ; insomuch that the alms
which she gave in three quarters of a year, in distribu-
tion, is summed up to have amounted to fourteen or fifteen
thousand pounds. Besides the great sum of money
which her grace intended to have sent into four sundry
quarters of the realm, as for a stock there to be em-
ployed for the behoof of poor artificers and occujiiers.
Again, what a zealous defender she was of Christ's gos-
pel, all the world knows, and her acts do and will declare
to the end of the world.
This I cannot but marvel at, why the parliament held
this year, that is, in the twenty-eighth year of the king
(which parliament three years before had established and
confirmed this marriage as most lawful) should now so
suddenly, and contrary to their own doings, repeal and
annul the marriage again as unlawful. But in this act
of parliament lay (no doubt) some great mystery ; which
I will not pause to discuss, but only that it may be sus-
pected tliat some secret practising of the papists was in
it, considering what a mighty check she was to their pur-
poses, and what a strong bulwark slie was for the main-
tenance of Christ's gospel.
All this scvms to be the drift of the wily papists, who
seeing the pope repulsed out of England, by means
chieriy of this queen, and fearing always the succession
I of this marriage, thought to prevent that peril by whis-
j pering in the king's ears.
Again, Stephen Gardiner (who was a secret worker
against that marriage, and a perpetual enemy to the
lady Elizabeth) being then abroad with the French king,
and the great master of France, ceased not in his letters
still to put the king in fear, that the foreign princes and
powers of the world, with the pope, would never be re-
conciled to the king, neither should he ever be in
security, unless he repealed the acts before passed, for
the ratification of that succession. Which when they had
now brought it to pass after their own desire and had got
both now the queen beheaded, and Elizabeth the king's
daughter disinherited, they thought all things were forever
sure. But yet God's providence still went beyond them,
and deceived them ; for after the sufi'ering of queen
Anne, the king within three days after married lady Jane
Seymour, of whom came king Edward, as great an
enemy to God's enemy the pope, as ever his father was,
and greater too.
In the mean time, when these things were doing in
England, Paul III., bishop of Rome, was not slow to help
forward his own advantage. Who seeing his kingdom
and seat darkened in Germany and in England, thouglit
it high time to bestir himself ; and therefore to provide
some remedy against further dangers, appointed a gene-
ral council at Mantua, in Italy, requiring all kings and
princes either personally to be there, or else to send their
ambassadors under .fair pretences, so as to suppress
heresies, and to restore the church, and to war against
the Turk, &c. This bull was subscribed with the hands
of six-and-twenty cardinals, and set up in the great cities,
that it might be known and published to the whole
world. To this bull the protestants of Germany answered ;
that as the council was to be convened at Mantua, in the
pope's own country ; that that alone would be a suffi-
cient cause why they should refuse to resort to it.
Our king also entered his protest against this council,
and declined to attend it. This protest was as follows :—
A Protestation in the name of the King, and the whole
Council and Clergy of England, why they refuse to
come to the Pope's Council at his call.
" Seeing that the bishop of Rome is convening learned
men from all parts, inducing them by great rewards,
making as many of them cardinals as he thinks meet,
and ready to defend frauds and untruths ; we could not
but with much anxiety cast with ourselves, what so
great a preparation should mean. As chance was, we
guessed even as it followed. We have been so long ac-
quainted with Romish subtleties and popish deceits,
that we well and easily judged the bishop of Rome to
intend an assembly of his adherents, and men sworn to
think all his wishes to be laws ; we were not deceived.
Paul, the bishop of Rome, has called a council, to which
he knew well either few or none of the Christian princes
could come. Both the time that he convened it, and
also the place where he appointed it, might assure him
of this. But whither wander not these popish bulls ?
whither go they not astray? what king is not cited and
summoned by a proud minister and servant of kings, to
come to bolster up errors, frauds, deceits, and untruths,
and to set forth this feigned general council ? For who
will not perceive that Paul, the bishop of Rome, goes
sooner about to make men believe that he pretends a
general council, than that he desires one indeed .■' No,
who can less desire it, than they that despair of their
cause, except they are judges, and give sentence them-
selves against their adversaries ? We who greatly against
our will at any time leave off the procuring to the realm
any advantage, need neither come ourselves, nor yet send
our proctors there, nor yet make our excuse for either.
For who can accuse us, that we come not at his call,
who has no authority to call us ?
" But for a moment let us grant that he may summon
us, and that lie has authority so to do, yet (we piay you)
may not all men see, what avails it to come to this
council, where you shall have no place, except you are
known both willing to oppress truth, and also ready to
A.D. 152r— lo40.j HENRY VIII. PROTESTS AGAINST THE POPE'S SUMMONS.
547
confirm and establish errors ? Do not all men perceive
as well as we, with what integrity, fidelity, and religion,
these men go about to discuss matters in controversy,
that take them in hand in so troublesome a time as this
is ? Is it not plain what fruit Christendom may look for,
when Mantua is chosen as the place to hold his council
in ? Is there any prince not being of Italy, yea, is there
any of Italy, prince, or other differing from the pope,
that dares come to this assembly, and to this place ? If
tliere come none that dare speak for truth, none that
will venture his life ; is it strange if the bishop of Rome
bein"' judge, and no man repining, no man gain-saying ;
the defenders of the papacy obtain that popish authority,
nowwhich is quailing and almost fallen, to be setup again ?
" Is this the way to help things afflicted ? to redress
troubled religion ? to lift up oppressed truth ? Shall men
in this way know, whether the Roman bishops (who in very
deed are, if ye look upon either their doctrine or their
life, far under other bishops) ought to be made like their
fellows, that is, to be pastors in their own diocese, and
so to use no other power; or else, whether they may
make laws, not only for other bishops, but also for kings
and emperors ? O boldness, meet to be beaten down
with force, and not to be convinced with arguments !
Can either Paul, that now lords it, or any of his parti-
zans go about in earnest to heal the sicknesses, to take
away the errors, to pluck down the abuses that now are
crept into the church, and are bolstered up in it, by such
councils as now is likely to be at Mantua ?
" Is it very likely, that those who prowl for nothing but
profit, will right gladly pull down all such things as their
forefathers made, only for the increase of money ?
Whereas their forefathers, when their honour, power,
and primacy were called in question, would either in de-
spite of God's law maintain their dignity, or to say
better, their intolerable pride : is it likely that these will
not tread in their steps, and make naughty new canons,
whereby they may defend old evil decrees ? Howbeit,
what need we to care, either what they have done, or
what they intend to do hereafter, forasmuch as England
hatU taken her leave of popish crafts for ever, never to
be deluded with them hereafter ? Roman bishops have
nothing to do with English people ; the one doth not
traffick with the other ; at the least, though they will
have to do with us, yet we will have none of their mer-
chandize, none of their stuff. We will receive them into
our council no more. We have sought our hurt, and
bought our loss a great while too long. Surely their
decrees, either touching things set up or put down, shall
have no other place with us, than all bishops' decrees
have, that is, if we I'ke them, we admit them ; if we do
not, we refuse them. But lest men shall think that we
follow our own senses too much, and that we, moved by
small or no just causes, forsake the authority, censures,
decrees, and popish councils, we thought it best here to
shew our mind to the whole world. Wherefore we pro-
test before God and all men, that we embrace, profess,
and will ever so do, the right and holy doctrine of Christ.
All the articles of his faith, no jot omitted, are all so
dear to us, that we should much sooner stand in jeopardy
of our realm, than see any point of Christ's religion in
jeopardy with us. We protest that we never went from
the unity of his faith, neither will we depart an inch
from it. No, we will much sooner lose our lives, than
any article of our belief shall decay in England. We
who, in all this cause, seek nothing but the glory of God,
the profit and quietness of the world, protest that we can
suffer deceivers no longer. We never refused to come
to a general council ; no, we promise all our labour,
study, and fidelity, to the setting up of trampled truth,
and troubled religion, in their place again ; and to do all
that shall lie in us, to finish such controversies as have
too long vexed Christendom. Only we wish all Christian
men to be admonished, that we can suffer no longer that
they should be esteemed wrilling to take away errors,
who, by all the ways their wits will serve them, go about
that no man, under pain of death may speak against any
error or abuse.
*' We would have a coancil, we desire it, yea, and crave
nothing so oft of God, as that we may have one. But yet
we wish that it be suchas christian men ought to hive, tii;it
is, frank and free, where every man withoutfear may say his
mind. We desire that it be an holy council, where every
man may go about to set up godliness, and not apply all their
study to oppressing the truth. We wish it to be general,
that is to say, kept at such time, and in such place,
that every man who seeks the glory of God may be pre-
sent, and there frankly open his mind. For how can
it seem general, when either every man that dissents
from the bishop of Rome is compelled to be from it ; or
when they that are present are hindered by terror, from
saying boldly what they truly think ; for who would not
gladly come to such a council, except it be the pope, his
cardinals, and popish bishops ? On the other side, who
is so foolish, where the chief point that is to be handled
in this council is the pope's own cause, power, and pri-
macy, as to grant that the pope should reign, should be
judge, should be president of this council ? if he, who
indeed can never think himself able to defend his cause
before any other judge, be evermore made his own judge
and so controversies not decided, but errors set up, what
can be devised in the commonwealth of Christendom more
hurtful to the truth tlian general councils ?
" And here to touch somewhat their impudent arro-
gancy, by wliat law, power, or honest title take they
upon them to call kings, to summon princes to appear,
where their bulls command them .' In time past all
councils were api)ointed by the authority, consent and
commandment of the emperor, kings and princes ; why
now tak'-.s the bishop of Rome this ujion him .' Some
will say, it is more likely that bishops will more attend
to the cause of religion, and be more glad to have errors
taken away, than emperors, kings, and princes. The world
hatli good experience of them, and every man sees how
faithfully they have handled religious matters ! Is
there any man that does not see how virtuously Paul
now goes about by this occasion to set up his tyranny
again .' Is it likely that he who chooses such a
time as this is to keep a council, much intends the re-
dress of things that are amiss .' that he seeks the re-
storing of religion who now calls a council, while the
emperor and the French king, two princes of great
power, are so bent on wars that neither they, nor any
other christian prince can, in a manner, do anything
but look for the end of this long war ? Go to, go to,
bishop of Rome ; the occasion long-wished-for offers her-
self to you ; take her, she opens a window for your frauds
to creep in at. Call your cardinals, your own creatures,
shew them that this is a jolly time to deceive princes in."
And so the king, proceeding in his protestation, de-
clared how the pope, after he had summoned his council
first at Mantua, shortly after directed out another
bull proroguing the same council to the month of No-
vember, pretending for his excuse that the Duke of
Mantua would not suffer him to keep any council there,
unless he maintained a number of warriors for defence
of the town, and the king thus concludes : —
" No, we will the pope and his adherents to un-
derstand that which we have oft said, and now say,
and ever will say, he nor his hath neither authority
nor jurisdiction in England. We give him no more
than he has, that is, none at all. That which he has
usurped against God's law, and extorted by violence,
we by good right take from him again. But he and his
will say, we gave them a primacy. We hear them well :
we gave it you indeed ! If you have authority upon us
as long as our consent gives it you, and you will
make your plea upon our consent, then let it have even
an end where it began ; we consent no longer, your
authority must needs be gone. If we being deceived
by false pretence of evil-alleged scriptures, gave to you
what we ought to have refused, why may we not, our
error now perceived, and your deceit espied, take il
again ? We princes wrote ourselves to be inferior to
popes. As long as we thought so, we obeyed them as
our superiors. Now we write not as wc did, and
therefore they have no great cause to marvel, if we here-
after do not as we did ; both the laws civil, ana also tno '
648
THE KING MARRIES LADY JANE SEYMOUR.
[Book YIII.
laws of God be on our side. For a freeman born does
not lose his liberty, nor hurts the plea of his liberty,
though he write himself a bondman.
" Again, if they lean to custom, we send them to Saint
Cyprian, who saith, that custom, if truth be not joined
with it, it is nothing, but ' An old error.' Christ said,
' I am the" way, the truth, and the life.' He never
said, ' I am the custom.' Wherefore, seeing custom
serves you on one side, and scripture us on the other ;
are ye able to match us ? In how many places does
Christ admonish you to seek no primacy ? No, but to
be obedient to all creatures ? Your old title, ' Servant
of servants,' agrees badly with your new forged dignity.
But we will not tarry in matters so plain : we only de-
sire God, that Caesar, and other christian princes, would
agree upon some holy council, where truth may be tried,
and religion set up, which has been hurt by nothing so
sore, as by general not general councils ; errors and abuses
grow too fast. Get you learning, you that judge the
earth, and invent some remedy for these so many diseases
of the sick church. They that be wisest, do despair of
a general council. Wherefore we think it now best,
that every prince call a council provincial, and every
prince redress his own realm. We make all men jirivy
what we think best to be done, for the redress of reli-
gion. If they like it, we doubt not but they will follow
it, or some other better. Our trust is, that all princes
will so handle themselves in this behalf, that princes
may enjoy their own, and priests of Rome content them-
selves with what they ought to have. Princes, as we trust,
will no longer nourish wolves' whelps; they will subscribe
no more to popish pride, to the papacy, &c.
" Favour our doings, O christian princes. Your honour
and ancient majesty is restored. Remember there is
nothing pertaining so much to a prince's honour, as to
set forth truth, and to help religion. Take you heed
that their deceits work not more mischief than your
virtue can do good ; and everlasting war we wish all
princes had with this papacy. As for their decrees, so
hearken to them, that if in this Mantuan assembly things
be well done, you take them, but not as authorised by
them ; but that truth and things that maintain religion,
are to be taken at all men's hands. And even as we
will admit things well made, so if there be any thing
determined in prejudice of truth, for the maintenance of
their evil grounded primacy, or that may hurt the autho -
rity of kings, we protest to the whole world that we
neither shall allow it, nor will at any time allow it.
" You have, christian readers, our mind concerning the
general council. We think you all see, that Paul and
his cardinals, bishops, abbots, monks, friars, with the
rest of the rabblement, do nothing less intend, than the
knowledge and search of truth. You see that this is not a
proper time to meet, and thatMantua is no placefora gene-
ral council. And though they were both meet, yet except
some other authority call this council, we neither need to
come, nor to send. You have now heard how every prince
in his own realm may quiet such things as are amiss. If
there be any of you that can show us a better way, we pro-
mise with all hearty desire, to do thatwhichshall bethought
best for the settling of religion, and that we will leave our
own advices, if any man show us better. Which mind of
ours, we most heartily pray God that gave it to us, not
only to increase in us, but also to send it to all christian
princes, all christian prelates, and all christian people."
A little before the death of Queen Anne, there was a
parliament at Westminster, in wliich was given to the
king by consent of the abbots, all such houses of re-
ligion, as were under three hundred marks. Which was
a shrewd omen of the ruin of greater houses, which
followed shortly after, as was and might easily be per-
ceived by many, who then said, that the low bushes and
brambles were cut down before, but great oaks would
follow after.
Although the proceeding of these things did not well
please the pope's friends in England, yet they began to
take some comfort, when they saw Queen Aime dis-
patched. Nevertheless tliey were frustrated of their
purpose. For the Lord raised up another queen, not
greatly for their purpose, with her son King Edward.
And also the Lord Cromwell at the same time began to
grow in authority. Who, like a mighty pillar set up ia
the church of Christ, was enough alone to confound and
overthrow all the malignant devices of the adversaries,
so long as (iod gave him life.
Shortly after this marriage of the king with Queea
Jane Seymour, in the month of June, during the con-
tinuation of the parliament, by the consent of the clergy
holding then a solemn convocation in the church of St.
Paul's, a book was set forth containing certain articles of
religion necessary to be taught to the people ; in which
tliey treated specially of three sacraments, baptism,
penance, and the Lord's supper. Other things were
jiublislied concerning the alteration of certain points of
religion, as that certain holydays were forbidden, and
many abbeys suppressed. For which cause the rude
multitude of Lincolnshire, fearing the utter subversion
of their old religion, wherein they had been so long
fostered, rose up in great commotion, to the number of
near twetity thousand, having for their captain a monk
called Doctor Mackerel, calling himself then Captain
Cobler ; but those rebels being repressed by the king's
power, and desiring pardon, soon dispersed.
After this, followed a new insurrection in Yorkshire
for the same causes, through the instigation of seditious
persons, especially monks and priests, making them be-
lieve, that their silver chalices, crosses, jewels and other
ornaments, should be taken out of their churches ; and
that no man should be allowed to be married, or to eat
any good meat in his house, but should first give
tribute there for to the king. But their especial malice
was against Cromwell and certain other councillors.
The number of these rebels was near forty thousand,
having for their badges the five wounds, with the sign
of the sacrament, and Jesus written in the midst.
This their devilish rebellion they termed by the name
of a holy pilgrimage, but they served a wrong and a
naughty saint. They had also in the field their streamers
and banners, whereupon was painted Christ hanging
upon the cross on the one side, and a cnalice with a
painted cake in it on the other side, with other such
ensigns of like hypocrisy, pretending thereby to fight
for the faith, and holy church.
As soon as the king was certified of this new seditious
insurrection, he sent with all speed the duke of Norfolk,
duke of Suffolk, marquis of Exeter, earl of Shrewsbury,
and others with a great army, forthwith to encounter
with the rebels.
These noble captains and councillors being well fur«
nished with munition of war, approaching towards the
rebels, and understanding both their number, and their
intention to gi\e battle, first with policy went about to
appease all without bloodshed ; then by the great wisdom
and policy of the captains, a communication was iiad,
and a pardon of the king's majesty obtained for all the
captains, and chief doers of this insurrection, and they
promised that in such things as they found themselves
aggrieved with, they should gently be heard, and their
reasonable petitions granted, and that their articles
should be presented to the king, that by his highness'
authority, and the wisdom of his council, all things
should be brought into good order and conclusion ; aud
with this order every man quietly departed.
In the time of this commotion in Yorkshire, and
while the king was at Windsor, there was a butcher
dwelling within five miles of Windsor, who caused a
priest to preach that all they that took part with the
Yorkshiremen, whom he called God's people, did fight
in God's cause ; for which both he and the priest were
apprehended and executed.
Other priests also, with other persons, about the same
time committing like treason against the king, suffered
execution. Such a business haJ t!ie king then to rid the
realm from the servitude of the Romish yoke. But God's
hand did still work in upholding his gospel and truth,
against all seditious stirs, commotions, and rebellions.
In the following year, after the great execution had
been done upon certain rebellious priests, and a teW
other laymen, with certain noble persons also and geu-
A.D. 1527—1540.]
PRINCE EDWARD BORN— HIS MOTHER DIES.
54J>
tlemen ; amongst whom was the lord Darcy, the lord
Hussy, Sir Robert Constable, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir
Francis Bygot, Sir Stephen Hamilton, Sir John Bulmer,
and his wife, William Lomeley, Nicholas Tempest, with
the Abbots of Gerney, and of Rivers, &c. In the month
of October, 15;}7, was born prince Edward. His mo-
ther, queen Jane, died a few days after his birth, and
left the king again a widower, in which estate he con-
tinued for the space of two years.
Hereby the way it is to be understood, that during all
this season, since the time that the king of England had
rejected the pope out of the realm, both the emperors,
the French king, and the king of Scots, with other
foreign potentates (who were yet in subjection under
the pope) bore him no great good favour inwardly, what-
ever they pretended outwardly.
Yet notwithstanding all this, the Lord defended his
cause against them all. For although the French king
was for a long time set on by the pope, yet hearing now
of the birth of Prince Edward, the king's son by queen
Jane, and understanding also by the death of queen
Jane that the king was a widower, and perceiving that
the king might join in marriage with the Germans, he
began to give much more gentle words, and to demean
himself more courteously, labouring to marry the queen
of Navarre, his sister, to the king.
The ambassadors for the king, resident then in France,
were Stephen Gardiner, with doctor Thirleby, &c. What
Stephen Gardiner wrought secretly for the pope I have
not expressly to charge him. Whether he did so, or
what he did, the Lord knoweth all. But this is certain,
that when doctor Bonner, then archdeacon of Leicester,
was sent into France by the king to succeed Stephen
Gardiner in the embassy, which was about the ^ear of
our Lord 1538, he found such dealing in the bishop of
Winchester, as was not greatly to be trusted.
It is long to recite from the beginning, and few men
peradventure would believe the brawling matters, the
privy complaints, the contentious quarrels, and bitter
dissensions between these two, and especially what de-
spiteful contumelies doctor Bonner received at the hands
of Winchester. For understand, good reader, that this
doctor Bonner all this while remained yet, as he seemed,
a good man, and was a great furtherer of the king's pro-
ceedings, and a favourer of Luther's doctrine, and was
advanced only by the lord Cromwell. He was arch-
deacon of Leicester, parson of Bladon, of Dereham,
Cheswick, and Cheriburton. Then he was made bishop
of Hereford, and at last preferred to be bishop of Lon-
don. The chief of which preferments and dignities were
conferred upon him only by means of the lord Cromwell,
who was then his chief and only patron ; as Bonner him-
self in all his letters protests and declares.
This doctor Bonner, in the time of his first springing
up, shewed himself a good man, and a steadfast friend to
the gospel of Christ and to the king's proceedings : and
on the other hand Stephen Gardiner halted then both
with God and with the king. The contention between
these two was very great, when the king sent Bonner to
be his ambassador in France instead of Gardiner.
Which being so, we wonder greatly what should be
the cause, that Bonner, seeing all his advancement was
by the gospel, and by those of the gospel's side, and
being then so hated by Stephen Gardiner, and being also
at that time such a furtherer and defender of the gospel,
could ever be so ungrateful and unkind as afterwards to
join with Gardiner against the gospel, and now to per-
secute so vehemently that which he defended before so
openly.
But to refer this to the book of His accounts, who
shall judge one day all things uprightly, let us proceed
in this Bonner's legation. Being now ambassador at
the court of France, Bonner had given him in commission
from the king to treat with the French king for the
printing of the New Testament in English, and the
Bible at Paris ; also for slanderous preachers, and ma-
licious speakers against the king ; for goods of merchants
taken andspoiled, and for the king's pension to be paid, &c.
Bonner employed his diligence to the satisfaction of the
king, and in discharge of his duty, save only that the
French king one time took some displeasure with him, for
bearing himself somewhat more seriously and boldly
before the king, in the cause of Grancetor the traitor.
So that the French king, sending a special messenger
with his letters to the king of England, willed him to
revoke and call this ambassador home, and to send him
another.
The king of England sent answer again by other letters,
in which he revoked and called home bishop Bonner,
giving unto him about the same time the bishoprick of
London, and sent in supply of his place Sir Jolin Wallop,
a great friend to Stephen Gardiner. Which was in
February, about the beginning of the year 1540. Here
now follows the oath of Bonner to the king, when he
was made bishop of London.
The Oath of Doctor Edmnnd Bonner, when he was made
Binhoj) oj" London, againxt the Pope of Rome.
" You shall never consent nor agree that the bishop of
Rome shall practise, exercise, or have any manner of
authority, jurisdiction, or power within this realm, or
any other the king's dominion, but you shall resist the
same at all times, to the uttermost of your power : and
from henceforth you shall accept, repute, and take the
king's majesty to be the only supreme head on earth of
the church of England, and to your cunning, wit, and
uttermost of your power, without guile, fraud, or other
undue means, you shall observe, keep, maintain, and de-
fend the whole effects and contents of all and singular
acts and statutes made, and to be made, within this
realm, in derogation, extirpation, and extinguishment of
the bishop of Rome, and his authority, and other acts
and statutes made, and to be made, in reformation and
corroboration of the king's power of supreme head on
earth of the church of England : and this you shall do
against all manner of persons, of what estate, dignity,
degree, or condition they be, and in nowise do nor at-
tempt, nor to your power suffer to be done or attempted,
directly or indirectly, any tning or things, privily or
openly, to the let, hinderance, damage, or derogation
thereof, or of any part thereof, by any manner of means,
or for any manner of pretence : and in case any oath
be made, or hath been made, by you, to any person or
persons, in maintenance or favour of the bishop of
Rome, or his authority, jurisdiction, or power, yoa
repute the same as vain and annihilated : so help you
God," &c.
Ecclesiastical Matters, A. D. 1538.
It will be judged, that I have lingered perhaps too
much in these affairs of princes and ambassadors.
Wherefore I purpose to put my history in order again,
shewing such injunctions and articles as were devised
and set forth by the king, for the benefit of his subjects.
The king, when he had taken the title of supremacy
from the bishop of Rome, and had transferred it to him-
self, then was a full prince in his own realm, (al-
though he perceived, by the wisdom and advice of the
Lord Cromwell and his council, that the corrupt state of
the church had need of reformation in many things), yet
because he saw how stubborn and untoward the hearts
of many ])apists were to be brought from their old per-
suasions and customs, he durst not reform all at once,
but proceeded by little and little, to bring greater pur-
poses to perfection (which he no doubt would have done,
if the Lord Cromwell had lived) and therefore he began
with a book of articles bearing this title : " Articles de-
vised by the King's Highness to establish Christian
quietness and unity among the People,'' &c.
Articles devised ly the King.
In the contents of this book, he first set forth the
articles of our christian creed, which are necessarily and
expressly to be believed by all men. Then, with the
king's preface, follows the declaration of the three sacra-
ments ; of baptism, of penance, and of the sacrament of
the altar. In drawing up which, he alters nothing
from the old trade and system received from the church
of Rome
BhO
THE KING'S INJUNCTIONS FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF HOLY-DAYS. [Book VIII.
Then, proceeding to the cause of our justification, he
declares, " Tliat the mercy and grace of the Father
promised freely to us for his Son Jesus Christ's sake,
and for the merits of his pissioa and blood, are the only
sufficient and meritorious causes of our justification : yet
good works, with contrition, hope, and charity, and all
other spiritual graces and motions, are necessarily re-
quired, and must needs concur also in remission of our
sins ; that is, our justification ; and afterwards we being
justified, must also have good works of charity, and obe-
dience towards God, in the observing and fulfilling out-
wardly of his laws and commandments, &c.
As to images, he desires all bishops and preachers to
teach the peojile how they may be safely used in churches,
and not abuse them to idolatry, as thus : That they re-
present virtue and good example, and also may stir
up men's minds and make them remember themselves,
and lament their sins ; so far he permits them in
churches. But otherwise, for avoiding idolatry, he
ch:irges all bishops and preachers diligently to in-
struct the people, that they commit no idolatry to them,
in incensing of them, in kneeling and offering to
tiiem, with other similar worshippings, which ought not
to be done, but only to God.
And, likewise, for honouring of saints, the bishops and
j>reachers are commanded to inform the people how
saints hence departed ought not to be reverenced
or honoured. That is, that they are to be praised
and honoured as the elect servants of Clirist, or rather
Christ is to be praised in them for their excellent vir-
tues, and for their good example left to us, in teaching us
to live in virtue and in goodness, and not to fear to die
for Christ. And also as assistants of our prayers, but
yet no confidence, nor any such honour was to be given
to them, as is only due to God : and so charging the
spiritual persons to teach their flock that all grace and
remission of sins and salvation, can no otherwise be ob-
tiined but from God only, by the mediation of our
Saviour Christ, who is a suificient Mediator for our sins;
th-it all grace and remission of sin must proceed only
by the mediation of Christ and no otlier.
From that he comes to speak of rites and ceremonies
in Christ's church, as in having vestments used in God's
.service, sprinkling of holy water, giving of holy bread,
hearing of candles on Candlemas-day, taking of ashes,
bearing of palms, creeping to the cross, setting up the
sepulchre, hallowing of the font, with other like cus-
tims, rites, and ceremonies; all which old rites and
castoms the book doth not repeal, but admits them for
{rood and laudable, so far as they put men in remem-
brance of spiritual things.
And so concluding with purgatory, he makes an end
of those articles, thus saying : " That because the book
of Maccabees allows praying for souls departed, he
therefore disproves not so laudable a custom, which has so
long continued in the church. But because there is no
certain place expressed in scripture, he therefore thinks it
necessary such abuses should be put away, which, under
the name of purgatory, have been advanced : as to make
men believe, that, by the pardons of the bishop of
Rome, or by masses in any place, or before any image,
souls might be delivered out of purgatory, and from the
pains thereof, to be sent straight to heaven, and such
other like abuses, &c.
These were the contents of that book of articles de-
vised, and passed by the king's authority, a little before
the stir of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. In which book,
although there were many and great imperfections and
untruths not to be permitted in any truly reformed
church, yet the king and his council, to bear with the
weaklings which were newly weaned from their mother's
milk of Rome, thought it might serve somewhat for the
time, till better should come.
And so, not long after these articles, some other in-
junctions were given out about the year 1536, by which
the number of holy-days were abrogated ; and especially
such as fell in the harvest time : the keeping of which
greatly hindered the gathering in of the corn, hay, fruit,
•nd other such necessary commodities.
T/ie King's Injunctions.
" Forasmuch as the number of holy-days is so exces.
sively grown, and yet daily more and more by men's de-
votion, yea, rather superstition, was likely to increase
further, that the same was and should be not only pre-
judicial to the commonweal, because it is an occasion as
well of much sloth and idleness, the very nurse of
thieves, vagabonds, and of divers other unthriftiness and
inconveniences, as of decay of good trades and arts,
profitable and necessary for the commonweal, and loss
of man's food, being frequently destroyed through the
superstitious observance of the holy-days, in not takiu"-
the opportunity of good and serene weather in time of
harvest, but also pernicious to the souls of many men,
who (being enticed by the licentious vacation and liberty
of those holy-days) do commonly use and practise then
more excess, riot, and superfluity, than upon any other
days. And since the Sabbath-day was used and or-
dained but for man's use, and therefore ought to give
place to the necessity of the same whenever the occasion
shall occur, much rather ought any other holy-day insti-
tuted by man : it is therefore by the king's highness
authority, as supreme head on earth of the church of
England, with the common assent and consent of the
prelates and clergy of this his realm, in convocation law-
fully assembled and congregated, amongst other things,
decreed, ordained, and established :
" First, That the feast of dedication of churches shall
in all places throughout this realm, be celebrated and
kept on the first Sunday of the mouth of October for
ever, and upon none other day.
" Also, that the feast of the patron of every church
within this realm, called commonly the church holy-day,
shall not from henceforth be kept and observed as a
holy-day, as heretofore have been used ; but that it shall
be lawful to all and singular persons resident or dwelling
within this retilm, to go to their work, occupation, or
mystery, and truly to exercise and occupy the same upon
the said feast, as upon any other work-day, except the
said feast of church-holy- day be such as must be for
other causes universally observed and kept as a holy-
day by this ordinance following.
" Also, that all those feasts or holy-days which shall
happen to fall, or occur, either in the harvest time,
which is to be accounted from the first day of July,
unto the twenty- ninth day of September, or else in the
term time at Westminster, shall not be kept or ob- a
served from henceforth as holy-days, but that it may be fl
lawful for every man to go to his work or occupation 1
upon the same, as upon any other work-day, except al-
ways the feasts of the Apostles, or of the blessed Virgin,
and of St. George, and also such feasts as those wherein
the king's judges at Westminster do not use to sit in
judgment. All which shall be kept holy and solemn of
every man, as in lime past have been accustomed. Pro-
vided always, that it may be lawful to all priests and
clerks, as well secular as regular, in the aforesaid holy-
days, now abrogated, to sing or say their accustomed
service for those holy-days, in their churches ; so as they
do not the same solemnly, nor do ring to the same, after
the manner used in high holy-days, nor command or in-
dict the same to be kept or observed as holy-days.
" Finally, That the feasts of the nativity of our Lord,
of Easter-day, of the nativity of St. John the Baptist,
and of St. Michael the archangel, shall be from hence-
forth counted, accepted, and taken for the four general
offering days.
" And for further declaration of the premises, be it
known that Easter Term beginneth always the eighteenth
day after Easter, reckoning Easter-day forone,and endeih
the Monday next following the Ascension-day.
" Trinity Term beginneth always the Wednesday next
after the octaves of Trinity Sunday, and endeth the
eleventh or twelfth day of July.
" Michaelmas Term beginneth the ninth or tenth day
of October, and endeth the 28th or 29th day of Novem-
ber.
" Hilary Term beginneth the twenty-third or twenty-
A.D. 1527—1540.] THE KING S INJUNCTIONS FOR REFORMATION OF THE CLERGY.
551
fourth day of January, and endeth the twelfth or thir-
teenth day of February.
In Easter Term, upon the Ascension-day; in Trinity
Term, upon the nativity of St. John Baptist; in Michael-
mas Term, upon AUhallow-day ; in Hilary Term, upon
Candlemas-day; on which days the king's judges al
Westminster do not use to sit iu judgment, nor upon any
Sunday."
After these articles and injunctions were thus given
out by the king and his council, then follow as time
served, other injunctions concerning images, relics, and
miracles ; and for abrogating jjilgrimages, devised by su-
perstition, and maintained for lucre's sake ; also for the
Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,
and the Bible to be translated into English, with other
points necessary for religion : The words of which in-
junctions here ensue : —
Other Injunctions given htj the anthoriti/ of the King's
Highness, to the Clergy of this Realm.
" In the name of God, Amen. In' the year 1536, and of
the most noble reign of our sovereign Lord Henry VIII.
king of England and of France, defender of the faith,
lord of Ireland, and in the earth supreme head of the
church of England, the twenty- eighth, &c. I, Thomas
Cromwell, knight, lord Cromwell, keeper of the privy
seal of our said sovereign lord the king, and vicegerent
to the same, for and concerning all his jurisdiction eccle-
siastical within this realm, to the glory of Almighty God,
to the king's highness' honour, the public weal of this
realm, and increase of virtue in the same, have appointed
and assigned these injunctions ensuing to be kept and
observed of the dean, parsons, vicars, curates, and sti-
pendiaries, resident or having cure of souls, or any other
spiritual administration within this deanery, under the
pains hereafter limited and appointed.
" The first is ; that the dean, parsons, vicars, and
others, having cure of souls any where within this dean-
ery, shall faithfully keep and observe, and as far as in
them may lie, shall cause to be kept and observed of
all others, all and singular the laws and statutes of this
realm, made for the abolishing and extirpation of the bi-
shop of Rome's pretended and usurped power and juris-
diction within this realm. And for the establishment and
confirmation of the king's authority, and jurisdiction
within the same, as of the supreme head of the church
of England ; and shall to the uttermost of their wit,
knowledge, and learning, purely, sincerely, and without
any colour or dissimulation, declare, manifest, and open
for the space of one quarter of a year now next ensuing,
once every Sunday, and after that at the least twice every
quarter of a year, in their sermons and other collations,
that the bishop of Rome's usurped power and jurisdiction
having no establishment nor ground by the law of God,
was for most just causes taken away and abolished; and
that therefore they owe to him no manner of obedience
or subjection ; and that the king's power is within his
dominion the highest potentate and power under God,
to ^\hom all men within the same dominion, by God's
commandment owe most loyalty and obedience before
and above all other potentates in earth.
" Also, whereas certain articles were lately devised
and set forth by the king's authority, and agreed to by
the prelates and clergy of this his realm in convocation
assembled, whereof part were necessary to be held and
believed for our salvation, and the other part concerns
and touches certain laudable ceremonies, rights, and
usages of the church, which are meet and convenient
to be kept and used for a decent and politic order in the
same. It is ordered that the said dean, parsons, vicars,
and other curates shall so open and declare, in their ser-
mons and other collations, the said articles unto *hem
that are under their cure, that they may plainly know
and discern which of them are necessary to be believed
and observed for their salvation ; and what are not
necessary, but only do concern the decent and politic
order of the said church : according to such command-
ment and admonition as hath been given unto
them heretofore, by the authority of the king in that
behalf.
" Moreover, that they shall declare unto all such as are
under their cure the articles likewise devised, set forth
and authorised of late, for and concerning the abrogating
of certain sujierlluous holydays, according to the effect
and purjiort of the said articles and persuade their pa-
rishioners to keep and observe the same inviolably, as
things honestly provided, decreed, and established by
the common consent and public authority for the benefit
of this realm.
" Besides this, to the intent that all superstition and
hypocrisy, which hath crept into divers men's hearts may-
vanish away, it is decreed that they shall not set forth
or extol any images, relics, or miracles, for any su-
perstition or lucre, nor allure the people by any encou-
ragement to make pilgrimages to any saint otherwise
than is permitted in the articles lately put forth by the
authority of the king, and agreed to by the prelates
and clergy of this realm in convocation assembled : as
though it were proper or peculiar to that saint to give
this or that commodity, seeing all goodness, health, and
grace ought to be both looked and- asked for only of
God, as of the very author of the same, and of none
other, for -without him it cannot be given : But they
shall exhort as well their parishioners, as other pilgrims,
that they do rather apply themselves to the keeping of
God's commandments, and the fulfilling of his works
of charity ; persuading them that they shall please God
more by the true exercise of their bodily labour, travel,
or occupation, and providing for their families, than if
they went about to the said pilgrimages ; and it shall
profit more their souls' health, if they do bestow that
on the poor and needy, which they would have bestowed
upon the said images or relics.
"Also in their sermons and other collations, the parsons,
vicars, and other curates, shall diligently admonish the
fathers and mothers, masters, and governors of youth,
being within their cure, to teach or cause to be taught
their children and servants, even from their infancy, the
Lord's Prayer, the articles of our faith, and the ten com-
mandments in their mother tongue : And the same being
taught, that they shall cause the said youth oft to repeat
and understand. And to the intent that this may be
more easily done, the said curates shall, in their sermons,
deliberately and plainly recite the Lord's Prayer, articles,
or commandments, one clause or article one day, and
another another day, till the whole be taught and learned
by little and little ; and shall deliver the same in writing,
or shew where printed books containing the same are to
be sold to them that can read, or will desire the same ;
and that the fathers and mothers, masters and go-
vernors, do bestow their children and servants, even
from their childhood, either to learning, or to some
honest exercise, occupation, or husbandry ; exhorting,
counselling, and by all the -ways and means they may,
as well in their sermons and collations, as otherwise,
the said fathers, mothers, masters, and other governors
being under their cure and charge, diligently to pro-
vide and foresee that the youth be in nowise kept or
brought up in idleness, lest at any time afterward they be
driven, for lack of some mystery or occupation to live
by, to fall to begging, stealing, or some other unthrifti-
ness ; as we may daily see, through sloth and idleness,
divers able-bodied men fall to — some to begging, some to
theft and murder ; who after being brought to calamity
and misery, impute a great part thereof to their friends
and governors, who suffered them to be brought up so
idly in their youth ; when if they had been brought up
and educated in some good literature, occupation, or
mystery, they should, besides being rulers of their own
families, have profited as well themselves as divers other
persons, to the great benefit of the country.
"Also, that the said parsons, vicars, and other curates
shall diligently provide that the sacraments and sacra-
mentals be duly and reverently ministered in their pa-
rishes. And if at any time it happen either in any of
the cases expressed in the statutes of this realm, or of
special licence given by tlie king's majesty, that they
552
THE KING'S INJUNCTIONS FOR REFORMATION OF THE CLERGY.
[Book VIIT.
are absent from their benefices, they shall leave their
cure not to a rude or unlearned person, but to an honest
well-learned and expert curate, that may teach the rude
and unlearned of their cure wholesome doctrine, and re-
duce them to the right way, that they do not err ; and
always let them see, that neither they nor their vicars
do seek more their own proht, promotion, or advantage,
than the profit of the souls that they have under their
cure, or the glory of God.
" Also, that every parson or proprietary of any parish
chun-h within this realm shall on this side the feast of
St. Peter next coming, provide a book of the whole
bible both in Litin and also in English, and lay the same
in the ipiire, for every man that chooses to look and read
therein, and shall discourage no man from the reading of
any part of the bible, either in Latin or English ; but
rather comfort, exhort, and admonish every man to read
the same, as the very word of God, and the spiritual
food of man's soul, whereby they may the better know
their duties to (iod, to their sovereign lord the king, and
their neighbour ; ever gently and charitably exhorting
them, that using a sober and a modest behaviour in the
reading and inquisition of the true sense of the same,
they do in nowise stilly or eagerly contend or strive one
with another about the same ; but refer the declaration
of those places that are in controversy to the judgment
of them that are beter learned.
" Also the said dean, parsons, vicars, curates, and
other priests shall in no wise, at any unlawful time, nor
for any other cause than for their honest necessity, haunt
or resort to any taverns or ale-houses ; and after their
dinner and supper they shall not give themselves to
drinking or riot, spending their time idly by day or by
night, at tables or card playing, or any other unlawful
game ; but at such times as they shall have such leisure,
they shall read or hear somewhat of holy scripture, or
shall occupy themselves with some other honest exercise;
and that they always do those things which appertain to
good behaviour and honesty, with profit of the common-
weal, having always in mind, that they ought to excel
all otliers in purity of life, and should be examples to adl
others to live well and christianly.
"Furthermore, because the goods of the church are
called the goods of the poor, and in these days nothing
is less seen than the poor to be sustained with the same ;
all parsons, vicars, prebendaries, and other beneficed men
within this deanery, not being resident upon their bene-
fices, who may expend yearly twenty pounds or above,
either within this deanery or elsewhere, shall distribute
hereafter yearly amongst their poor parishioners or
other inhabitants there, in the presence of the church-
wardens or some other honest men of the parish, the
fortieth part of the fruits and revenues of their said
benefices; lest they be worthily noted of ingratitude,
who, reserving so many parts to themselves, cannot
vouchsafe to impart the fortieth portion among the poor
people of that parish, that is so fruitful and profitable to
them.
" And to the intent that learned men may hereafter
increase the more, for the executing of the said premises :
Every jiarson, vicar, clerk, or beneficed man within this
deanery, having yearly to expend inbenefices or other pro-
motions of the church, an hundred pounds, shall give com-
petentexhibition to one scholar ; and for as many hundred
pounds more as he may have to expend, to so many
scholars more, shall give like exhibition in the university
of Oxford or Cambridge, or some grammar-school; which
after they have profited in good learning, may be partners
of their patron's cure and charge, as well in preaching as
otherwise ; in the execution of their offices, or may
when need shall be otherwise, profit the commonwealth
with their council and wisdom.
" Also that all parsons, vicars, and clerks, having
churches, chapels, or mansions within this deanery, shall
bestow yearly hereafter upon the same mansions or
chancels of their churches being in decay, the fifth part
of their benefices, till they shall be fully repaired ;
and the same so repaired they shall always keep and
maintain in good state.
" All which and singular injunctions shall he inviol-
I
ably observed of the said deans, parsons, vicars, curates,
stipendiaries, and other clerks and beneficed men, under
pain of suspension, and sequestration of the fruits of their
benefices, until they have done their duties according to
these injunctions.''
These injunctions and articles were given in the years
15;i() and l.');{7 ; and in the following year other injunc-
tions also were published for the further instruction of
the people in the proceedings of religion, 1,'y which both
the parsons of churches, and the pansli.> together, were
enjoined to provide in every church a Bible in English:
also for every parishioner to be taught by the minister, to
understand and to say the Lord's prayer and creed, in
their own vulgar tongue, with other necessary and most
fruitful injunctions, as follows :
Injunctions exhibited, A.D. 1538.
" In the name of God, Amen. By the authority and
commission of the most excellent Prince lienry, by the
grace of God, king of England and of France, defender
of the faith ; lord of Ireland ; and in earth supreme
head, under Christ, of the church of England, I, Thomas
Lord Cromwell, lord privy seal, vicegerent to the king,
for all his jurisdiction ecclesiastical within this realm, do,
for the advancement of the true honour of Almighty
God, increase of virtue, and discharge of the king's
majesty, give and exhibit unto you N. these injunc-
tions following to be kept, observed and fulfilled upon
the pains hereafter declared.
"First, that ye shall truly observe and keep all and
singular the king's injunctions, given unto you heretofore
in my name, by his grace's authority ; not only upon
the pains therein expressed, but also in your default
after this second monition continued, upon further pu-
nishment to be straightly extended towards you by the
king's arbitrament, or his vicegerent aforesaid.
" Also, that ye shall provide on this side the feast of
N. next coming, one book of the whole Bible of the
largest volume in English, and the same set up in some
convenient place within the church, that you have cure
of, where your parishioners may most conveniently resort
to the same and read it. The charges of which book
shall be rateably borne between you the parson and
parishioners aforesaid, that is to say, the one half by
you, and the other half by them.
" Also, that ye shall discourage no man privily, nor
openly from the reading or hearing of the said Bible,
but shall expressly provoke, stir, and exhort every per-
son to read the same, as that which is the very lively
word of God, that every christian person is bound to
embrace, believe, and follow, if he look to be saved, ad-
monishing them nevertheless to avoid all contention, and
altercation therein, and to use an honest sobriety in the
inquiry into the true sense of the same, and to refer the
explanation of the obscure places, to men of higher judg-
ment in scripture.
" Also, that you shall every Sunday and holy-day
through the year openly and plainly recite to your pa-
rishioners, twice or thrice together, or oftener if need
require, one article or sentence of the Lord's prayer or
creed in English, to the intent that they may learn the
same by heart, and so from day to day, to give them one
like lesson or sentence of the same, till they have learned
the whole Lord's prayer and creed in English by rote;
and as they are taught every sentence of the same by
rote, you shall expound and declare the understanding
of the same unto them, exhorting all parents and house-
holdeis to teach their children and servants the same, as
they are bound in conscience to do ; and that done, you
shall declare unto them, the ten commandments, one by
one, every Sunday and holy-day, till they be likewise
peiiect in the same.
" Also, that you shall in confessions, every Lent exa-
mine every person that cometh to confession to you,
whether they can recite the articles of our faith, and the
Lord's prayer in English, and hear them say the same
particularly ; wherein if they be not perfect, you shall de-
clare to them, that every christian person ougiit to know
the same before they should receive the blessed sacra-
I
A.D. 1527—1510.1 THE KING'S INJUNCTIONS FOR REFORMATION OF THE CLERGY.
553
ment of the altar ; and admonish them to learn the same
more perfectly by the following year, or else, that they
ought not to presume to come to God's Board without
perfect knowledge of the same (and if they do, it is to
the great peril of their souls), — so you shall declare unto
them that you look for other injunctions from the king,
by that time, to stay and repel all sucli from God's
Board, as shall be found ignorant ; wherefore do you
thus admonish them, to the intent that they should avoid
the peril of their souls, and also the worldly rebuke that
they might incur hereafter by the same.
" Also, that you shall make, or cause to be made, in the
church, and every other cure you have, one sermon
every quarter of a year at the least, wherein you shall
purely and sincerely declare the very gospel of Christ,
and in the same exhort your hearers to the works of
charity, mercy, and faith, especially prescribed and
commanded in scripture, and not to repose their trust
or affiance in other works devised by men's fancies be-
sides the scriptures ; as in wandering to pilgrimages, of-
fering of money, candles, or tapers to feigned relics, or
images, or kissing, or licking the same, saying over a
number of beads, or such like superstition ; for the do-
ing of which you not only have no promise of reward in
scripture, but contrariwise great threats and maledic-
tions of God, as things tending to idolatry and supersti-
tion, which of all other offences, God Almighty doth
most detest and abhor, for that the same diminisheth
most his honour and glory.
" Also, that such feigned images as you know in any of
your cures to be so abused with pilgrimages or offerings
of any thing made thereunto, you shall, for avoiding of
that most detestable offence of idolatry, forthwith take
down, and without delay ; and shall suffer from henceforth
no candles, tapers, or images of wax, to be set before
any image or picture, but only the light that com-
monly goeth across the church by the rood loft, the light
before the sacrament of the altar, and the light about
the sepulchre ; which, for the adorning of the church and
divine service, you shall suffer to remain still, admonish-
ing your parishioners, that images serve for no other
purpose, but as the books of unlearned men, that can
read no letters, whereby they might be admonished of
the lives and conversation of them, that the images re-
present. Which images if they abuse, for any other in-
tent than for such remembrances, they commit idolatry in
the same, to the great danger of their souls ; and there-
fore the king's highness, graciously tending to the good
of his subjects' souls, hath in part already, and more
will hereafter travel for the abolishing of such images,
as might be the occasion of so great an offence to
God, and so great danger to the souls of his loving
subjects.
" Also, that in all such benefices or cures as you have,
whereupon you are not yourself resident, you shall appoint
such curates in your stead, as both can by ability, and
■will also promptly execute these injunctions, and do
their duty otherwise, ihat you are bound to do in every
behalf accordingly, and profit their cure no less with
good example of living, than with declaration of the word
of God, or else their lack and defaults shall be imputed
unto you, who shall straightly answer for the same, if
they do otherwise.
" Also, that you shall admit no man to preach within
any of your benefices or cures, but such as shall appear
vinto you to be sufficiently licensed thereunto by the
king's highness, or his grace's authority, or the bishop
of the diocese, and such as shall be so licensed, you
shall gladly receive, to declare the word of God without
any resistance or contradiction.
" Also, if you have heretofore declared to your
parishioners any thing to the extolling or setting forth
of pilgrimages to feigned relics or images, or any such
superstition, you shall now openly before the same re-
cant and reprove the same, shewing them, as the truth
is, that you did the same upon no ground of scripture,
but as being led and seduced by a common error and
abuse which had crept into the church, through the suf-
ferance and avarice of such as felt profit by the same.
" Also, if ye do or shall know any man within your pa-
rish, or elsewhere, that is an opposer ofthe word of God to
be read in English, or sincerely preached, or of the exe-
cution of these injunctions ; or a favourer of the pretended
power of the bishop of Rome, now by the laws of this
realm justly rejected and extirpated ; you shall detect the
same to the king, or to his honourable council, or to his vice-
gerent aforesaid, or to the justice of peace next adjoining.
" Also, that you and every parson, vicar, or curate,
within this diocese, shall for every church keep one book
of register, wherein you shall write the day and year of
every wedding, christening, and burying, made within
your parish for your time, and so for every man succeed-
ing you likewise, and also therein set every person's
name that shall be so wedded, christened, or buried ; and
for the safe keeping of the same book, the parish shall
be bound to provide of their common charges one sure
coffer with two locks and keys, whereof the one to re-
main with you, and the other with the wardens of every
such parish wherein the said book shall be laid up ;
which book you shall every Sunday take forth, and in the
presence of the said wardens, or one of them, vvrite and
record in the same, all the weddings, christenings, and
buryings, made during the previous week ; and that
done, to lay up the said book in the said coffer as before,
and for every time the same shall be omitted, the party
that shall be in the fault thereof, shall forfeit to the said
church three shillings and four pence, to be employed
for the repair of the church.
" Also, that you shall once every quarter of a year,
read these and the other former injunctions given unto
you by authority of the king, openly and deliberately be-
fore all your parishioners, to the intent that both you may
be the better admonished of your duty, and your said
parishioners the more incited to ensue* the same for
their part.
" Also, forsomuch as by a law established, eveiy man
is bound to pay the tithes ; no man shall by colour of
duty omitted by their curates, detain their tithes, and so
redouble one wrong with another, and be his own judge,
but shall truly pay the same, as hath been accustomed, to
their parsons and curates without any restraint or dimi-
nution ; and such lack and default as they can justly
find in their parsons acd curates, to call for reformation
thereof, at their ordinaries and other superiors' hands,
who upon complaint and due proof thereof, shall reform
the same accordingly.
" Also, that no parson shall from henceforth alter or
change the order and manner of any fasting-day that is com-
manded, and indicted by the church, nor of any prayer,
nor of divine service, otherwise than is specified in the
said injunctions, until such time as the same shall be so
ordered and transported by the king's authority : the
evens of such saints, whose holy-days are abrogated, only
excepted, which shall be declared henceforth to be no
fasting days, except also the commemoration of Thomas a
Becket, sometime archbishop of Canterbury, which shall
be entirely omitted, and instead thereof, the Ferial ser-
vice used.
" Also, that the knolling of the Aves after service, and
certain other times, which hath been brought in and be-
gun by the pretence of the bishop of Rome's pardon,
henceforth be left and omitted, lest the people do here-
after trust to have pardon for the saying of their aves
between the said knolling, as they have done in times past.
" Also, where in times past men have used in divers
places in their processions, to sing Orapro nobis to so
many saints, that they had no time to sing the good suf-
frages following ; as Parce -lObis Domine, and Libera nos
Domine, it must be taught and preached, that it would
be better to omit it, and to sing the other suffrages, being
more necessary and effectual. All which singular in-
junctions, I minister to you and to your parishioners, by
the king's authority to be committed in this part, which
I charge and command you by the same authority to
observe and keep, upon pain of deprivation, sequestra-
tion of your fruits, or such other coercion as to the king
or his vicegerent for the time being shall seem con-
venient."
I By these articles and injunctions thus coming forth
654
JOHN LAMBERT'S TRIAL FOR HERESY.
[Book VIIL
one after another, for the necessary instruction of the
people, it may appear, how well the king then deserved
the title of his supreme government, given to him over
the church of England ; by which title and authority, he
did more good for the redressing and advancing of
Christ's church and religion in England, in these three
years, than the pope, the great vicar of Christ, with all
his bislv)ps and prelates had done in the previous three
hundred years. Such a vigilant care was then in the
king and his council, that they were desirous by all
ways and means to redress religion, to reform errors, to
correct corrupt customs, to help ignorance, and to reduce
the misleading of Christ's flock drowned in blind
popery, superstition, customs, and idolatry, to some bet-
ter form of more perfect reformation. He provided not
only these articles, precepts, and injunctions above speci-
fied, to inform the rude people ; but also procured the
bishops to help forward the cause of decayed doctrine,
with their diligent preaching and teaching of the people,
according as you have before heard, that in the year
L5.i4, during the whole time of parliament, there was ap-
poin ed every Sunday a bishop to preach at St. Paul's
Cross, against the supremacy of the bishop of Rome.
By the king's injunctions, A.D. 15;58, all such images
and pictures as were abused with pilgrimage or offerings
of any idolatry were abolished : by virtue of which in-
junctions, several idols, and especially the most notable
stocks of idolatry, were taken down in the same year ; as
the images of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the lady
of Willesdon, Thomas ;i Becket, with many others, which
had machinery to make their eyes open and roll about,
and other parts of their body to stir, and many other
false juggliugs, with which the simple people had been a
long time deceived. All which were detected, and de-
stroyed.
Among these foul idols, there was also a certain old
idolatrous image in Wales, named Darvel Gatheren :
which in the month of May, in the year above mentioned,
was brought up to London, and burned in Smithfield.
With the idol also was burnt at the same time and
hanged for treason, Friar Forrest, of whom some men-
tion was partly made before in the history of Cardinal
Wolsey.
Friar Forrest,
This Forrest was a friar, and had secretly in confes-
sions declared to many of the king's subjects that the
king was not supreme head of the church ; and being
ajjprehended, he was examined how he could say that the
king was not the supreme head of the church, when he
himself had sworn to the contrary ? He answered,
"That he took his oath with his outward man, but his
inward man never consented thereto." And being
accused of many damnable articles, and convicted ; he
submitted himself to the punishment of the church.
Upon his submission, having more liberty than before
to talk with whom he chose, he departed as far as ever
from his submission. And when his abjuration was
read to him, he refused it, and persevered in his
errors : wherefore he was condemned, and fastened up
i:i Smithtield, upon a gallows, by the middle and arms,
and fire was put under him, and so he was consumed.
In the place of execution, there was a scaffold pre-
jinred for the king's most honourable council, and the
nobles of the realm to sit upon, to grant liim pardon,
if he had any spark of repentance in him. There was
also a pulpit prepared, where the right reverend father,
Hugh Latimer, bishop of Worcester, declared his errors,
and manifestly confuted them by scripture, with many
godly exhortations to move him to repentance. But
he neither would hear, nor speak. A little before, the
inia:,'^, called Darvell Gatheren, was brought to the
gtdlovvs, and there also with the friar, was set on fire :
the A\'elchmen much worshipped it, and had a prophecy
among them, that this image should set a whole forest
on fire. Which prophecy took effect ; for he set this
Friar Forrest on fire, and consumed liim to nothing.
The friar, when he saw the fire come, and that present
death was at band, caught hold of the ladder, and would
not let it go ; he so impatiently took his death, as never
any man that put his trust in God had done at any
time. So in that manner he ungodly and unquietly ended
his life.
In the month of October and November in the same
year, shortly after the overthrow of these images and
pilgrimages, followed also the ruin of the abbeys and
religious houses, which, by the special motion of the
Lord Cromwell (or rather and principally, by the singular
blessing of Almighty God) were suppressed — they hav-
ing been granted a little before by act of parliament unto
the king's hand ; wlicreupon not only the houses were
razed, but their possessions also distributed among the
nobility; so that all friars, monks, canons, nuns, and
other sects of religion were then so rooted out of this
realm from the very foundation, that there seemed, by
God's grace, no possibility left for the generation of
those strange weeds to grow any more ; according to the
true verdict of our Lord and Saviour Christ in his
gospel, saying, " Every plant which my Father hath not
planted, shall be rooted out," &c.
The Hixtory of the worthy Martyr of God, John Lambert,
otherunne named Nicohon, with his Troubles, Exami.
nations and Ansirers, as u-ell before the archbishop
of Canterbury, Warham, and other bisho2)s : as also
before King Henry VIII., by whom at lengtli he was
condemned to death, and burned in Smithjield, in
A.D. 1538.
Immediately upon the ruin and destruction of the
monasteries, followed the condemnation of John Lam-
bert, the faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and martyr of
blessed memory. This Lambert was first converted by
Bilney, and studied in the university of Cambridge.
Where after that he had sufficiently profited by the
study of Latin and Greek, and had translated out of
both tongues sundry things into English : being forced
at last by violence of time, he departed beyond the seas
tff Tindal and Frith, and there remained for the space of
a year and more, being preacher and chaplain to the
English House at Antwerp ; till he was disturbed by Sir
Thomas More, and by the accusation of one Barlow.
He was carried from Antwerp to London, and brought
to examination first at Lambeth ; then at the bishop's
house at Oxford, before Warham, archbishop of Can-
terbury, and other adversaries, and had five-and-forty
articles exhibited against him, to which he gave answers
in writing. As the answers contain great learning, and
give some light to the better understanding of the com-
mon questions of religion now in controversy, we shall
here give them.
The Answer of John Lambert.
To your first article, wherein you ask ■whether I was
suspected of heresy ? I answer, that I am not certain
what all persons at all seasons have deemed or suspected
of me, perhaps some better, some worse ; as the opinions
of the people were never united, but thought variously
of all the famous prophets, and of the apostles, yea, and
of Christ himself: as appears in St. John, when Christ
came into Jerusalem there arose a great noise, some
saying, " That he was a very good man," others said,
" nay,'' and called him a deceiver, because he led the
people away from the law of Moses. Seeing therefore
that all men could not speak well of Christ, who is the
author of verity and truth, yea the very truth itself, and
likewise of his best servants : why should I regard it, if
at some time, some person for a like cause should sus-
pect me amiss, and report evil of me. It is said in the
gospel, " Woe be unto you, when all men speak well
of you: for so did their fathers to the false prophets."
If therefore at any season such infamy was put upon
me, I am glad that I have so little regarded it, that I
have forgotten it. And even though I did remember any
such charge, yet I would be more than twice a fool to
tell you of it : for it is written in your own law, " No
man is bound to betray himself."
To your second article, where you inquire whether I
i
A.D. 1527—1540.] THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES.
555
had any of Luther's books, since they were condemned ;
and how long I kept them, and whether I have spent
anv study in them ? I say that I have indeed had tliem,
and that both before they were condemned and also
since, but I never will, nor can tell you, how long I liave
kept them ; but the truth is, that I have studied them,
and I thank God that 1 did so, for by them has God
shewed to me, and also to a multitude of others, such
light, as the darkness of those that call themselves the
holy church, cannot abide. He covets above all things,
as all his adversaries well know, that all his writings,
and the writings of all his adversaries, might be trans-
lated into all languages ; that all ])eople might see and
know, what is said on every side, by which men should
the better judge what is the truth. And in this, I think,
he requires nothing but equity ; for tlie law would have
no man condemned, or justified, until his cause were
heard and known.
To your third article, wherein you ask whether I
was constituted a priest, and in what diocese, and of
what bishop ; I say that I was made a priest in Norwich,
and of the bishop's suffragan of the same diocese.
To the fourth, wherein you demand whether it be
lawful for a priest to marry a wife, and whether a priest
in some case be bound by the law of God to marry a
wife ? I say that it is lawful, yea, and necessary for all
men that have not given to them of God the gift of
chastity, to marry a wife, and that both Christ and
St. Paul shew. In the nineteenth of Matthew, Christ
speaking to the Pharisees that came to tempt him,
saith, " WTiosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication, and shall marry another, com-
mitteth adultery : and whoso marrieth her which is
put away, doth commit adultery." Matt. xix. 9. To
that his disciples say unto him, if the case of the
man be so with his wife, it shall be hurtful and not ex-
pedient to contract matrimony; Christ answers, " All
men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is
given," Matt. xix. 11. ; meaning, that every man could
not abide single or unmarried, but such only to whom
it was given of God by a special grace so to continue.
To this St. Paul assents, when he had persuaded the
Corinthians to single life; he concludes thus: " This
I speak for your own profit ; not that I may cast a
snare upon you." 1 Cor. vii. 'Ao. And a little before,
" I would," says he, " that all men were even as I my-
self. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one
after this manner, and another after that." 1 Cor. vii. /.;
shewing thereby, that unto some it is given of God to
live continent, and to others to engender and procreate
children. He proceeds further, and would have all men,
none excepted, to marry, who want the gift of conti-
nency. " I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows,
it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they
cannot contain, let them marry : for it is better to
marry than to burn.'' 1 Cor. vii. 8, 9. And again,
" To avoid fornication, let every man have his own v^dfe,
and let every woman have her own husband." 1 Cor.
vii. 2. He saith here, " every man and every woman,"
and not " some man or some woman ;" he excepts
neither priest nor nun, but every one both man and
woman is bound, for avoiding of fornication, to marry,
not having the gift of chastity.
Unto the fifth, where you do ask, whether I do be-
lieve that whatever is done by man, whether it be good
or ill, comes of necessity; that is, whether man has free
will, so that he may deserve joy or pain ? 1 say, that
to the first part of your riddle, I neither can, nor will
give any definitive answer ; as it surmounts my capacity,
trusting that God shall send, hereafter, others that shall
be of better learning and wit than 1, to answer it. As
concerning the second part, where you interpret; whe-
ther man has free will or not, so that he may deserve joy
or pain ; as for our deserving specially of joy, I think it
very little or none, even when we do the very command-
ments and law of God ; and that am I taught by our
Saviour in St. Luke, where he saith thus: " But which
of you, having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will
say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field.
Go and sit down to meat ? And will not rather say unto
him. Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thy-
self, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken ; and
afterwards thou shalt eat and drink ? Doth he thank
that servant because he did the things that were com-
manded him ? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye
shall have done all those things which are commanded
you, say. We are unprofitable servants : we have done
that which was our duty to do." Luke xvii. 7 — 10.
In which words you may clearly see, that he would
not have us greatly esteem our merits, even when we
have done what is commanded by God ; but rather
reckoning ourselves to be but servants unprofitable to
God, for so much as he has no need of our well doing
for his own advancement, but only that he loves to see
us do well for our own sake : and moreover, that when
we have done his bidding, we ou'^ht not so to magnify,
either our self, or our own free will, but praise him with
a meek heart, through whose benefit we have done (if
at any time we do it) his will and pleasure ; not regard-
ing our merit, but his grace and benefit ; whereby only
is done aU that in any wise is acceptable to him. And
thus if we ought not to see merit in doing the com-
mandments of God, much less should we look for merit,
for observing our own inventions or traditions of men,
to which there is no benefit promised in all scripture,
which Paul calls the word of truth and of faith.
But here may be objected against me, that the reward
is promised in many places to them that observe the
precepts of God. Still such reward shall never be at-
tained by us, except by the grace and benefit of him who
worketh all things in all creatures.
Whereas in your sixth article, you inquire whether
the sacrament of the altar be a sacrament necessary unto
salvation ; and whether after the consecration of the
bread and wine by the priest, as by the minister of God,
there is the very body and blood of Christ in likeness of
bread and wine ; I neither can nor will answer one word,
otherwise than I have told since I was delivered into
your bands. Neither would I have answered one whit
then to this point, knowing so much as 1 do now, till
you had brought forth some person that would have
accused me to have erred in the question ; which I am
certain you cannot do, bringing any one that is honest
and credible.
As concerning the other six sacraments, I make you
the same answer that I have done to the sacrament of
the altar, and none other. That is, I will say nothing
until some men appear to accuse me in the same ; unless
I know a more reasonable cause than I have yet heard,
why I ought to do so. But as to the form and fashion,
I shall answer willingly so far as my rudeness will serve;
I hold that such as are duly elected ministers in the
church ought to baptize ; except necessity require other-
wise : and that the form used in the church is in mine
opinion not uncommendable. Nevertheless it would
edify much more, if it were uttered in the English in-
stead of the Latin language ; and it would cause people
in the baptism of children more effectually to thank
God for his institution of it, and for the high benefit
represented in it.
In like manner, I also deem the same of the ministra-
tion in all the others ; that it should be expedient to
have them ministered openly in the English language,
for the edifying of the people.
As touching private auricular confession, I say, that
the common fashion now used was never ordained by
Christ's law that is written in the Bible ; neither can
you prove by any authority from it, that we ought to
confess all our offences particularly, with the circum-
stances of all to any man. I never said, nor will say,
but that men seeing themselves aggrieved in conscience
with some great temptation, may go to those whom they
know and trust to be of steadfast credit, and to have good
skill in the law of God, opening their grief to them,
that they may have thorough advice, some ease, and re-
medy. .
But in this, I mean not that they ought to go to their
curate, or to any other priest, whose credit they deem
not at all trusty, or their counsel sage, but to any persoa
whom they know to be wise and discreet. .
556
THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES. [Book VIII.
To the other part of your question, where you ask
whether a priest may loose a sinner confessed and con-
trite for his sin, enjoining him wholesome penance ? I
say that Christ only looses a sinner who is contrite, by
his word and promise ; and the priest does nothing but
shew and declare the word : Neither does declaration or
ministry of the priest avail to loose any person, unless
he that should be loosed give credence to the word mi-
nistered and shewed by the priest, which word or pro-
mise of Christ is called " The word of reconciliation," or
atonement between God and man. And this testified
St. Paul, where he saith, " God hath reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ.'' 2 Cor. v. 18. See how it is
God that looses us from sin, who is to make recon-
ciliation or atonement betwLxt us and him, and that
through Christ whom he caused to die for that purpose.
" And he hath given unto us the ministry of recon-
ciliation." See how Christ's apostles called not them-
selves the authors of binding and loosing, but ministers ;
" For he (that is, God) reconciled the world unto him-
self, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Where
you may know what reconciling is. " And hath com-
mitted (saith Paul) unto us the word of reconciliation,"
or tidings of atonement or reconciling.
Also that the power, by which men are loosed from
sin, is not the priest's power, you may know by the
vulgar saying, which is right true ; yea, and with leisure,
I doubt not, but that I can shew the samein the decrees,
which is thus, " Only God forgiveth and pardoneth us
of bur sins."
Concerning enjoining of penance, I know of none that
men need to admit, nor you to put or enjoin, except it be
renovation of living in casting away old vice, and taking
them to new virtue ; which every true penitent intends,
or ought to intend, verily by the grace and assistance of
our Saviour Christ, to shew and perform.
Unto the eleventh article I say, that grace is given to
them that duly receive the sacraments of Christ and his
church, but whether by them or not, that I cannot define;
for God sends his grace where he pleases, either with
them, or without them, and when he pleases ; so that it
is at his will, and how and when. Moreover, many a
person receives the sacrament that is destitute of grace
to his confusion. So that I cannot affirm that the sacra-
ments give grace ; yet, in due receiving of the sacra-
ments, I suppose and think that God gives grace to them
that so take them, as he does to all good persons, even
without them.
Whereas, in your twelfth article you ask, whether all
things necessary to salvation are in holy scripture ; and
whether things there only are sufficient ; and whether
some things are to be believed and observed as necessary
10 salvation, which are not expressed in scripture. This
is the question which is the head of all others ob-
jected against me. Yea, this is both the helm and stern
of all together, and that which they contended to im-
pugn.
But touching an answer unto this question, I suppose
verily, that if I had Saint Cyril's works by me, I should
not need to shew any other answer in this, than he hath
shewed aforetime, writing upon this saying of St. John,
" There are many things more which Jesus did." Not-
withstanding, forsomuch as every man at all seasons can-
not have what he would, and therefore must make other
shifts ; I hold that the first part of your question is very
true, and therefore is to be affirmed, to wit, that all
things needful for man's salvation, are mentioned in holy
scripture; and that those things only which are there, are
sufficient for the soul's health.
But why should I treat of this, except I would recite
all scripture, which in every part is full of admonitions,
exhorting and warning us to cleave fast to this way, which
is the doctrine of the gospel ? Which God, I beseech,
grant us all both to know and love, taking heed that in
no wise we be seduced therefrom by laws and doctrines
of men. Look also to Colossians, chap, ii., and in the
epistle* to Timothy and Titus. So that I conclude, in
holy scripture is contained sufficiently enouj^h of doctrine,
for the salvation of our souls ; and this, because learned
men call it the head article laid against me, I would that
all men should well note it, and record my saying, what-
ever shall happen to me, for the truth is so, that hereon
hangs the sum of all. Therefore, I shall recite it once
again. I say, "That in holy scripture, and in it only,
is contained the doctrine which is sufficient for the sal-
vation of Christian men's souls.'' God give us grace
that we may know it, to build our faith steadfastly upon
it.
As to the latter part of your question, I say, that there are
many things both to be observed and to be believed, that
are not expressed in scripture ; as the civil laws of princes
and commonalties, ordained for civil government of the
body, and all others; so that they are not hurtful to faith
or charity, I reckon that we ought to keep them, not
only for fear of punishment, but also for conscience
sake, although such ordinances are not expressly and
particularly required in scripture.
To the thirteenth article, where you ask whether I
believe that there is a purgatory, and whether souls de-
parted are there tormented and purged .-' I say that
there is a purgatory in this world, which the scripture,
and also the holy doctors call the fire of tribulation,
through which all christians shall pass, as testifies St.
Paul, in the second chapter of the second epistle to
Timothy, whose testimony is notable and true, although
few know it, and fewer, perhaps, will believe it. Mark
you the words, good people, and know, that the words
are his, and not mine : " All that will live godly in
Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution." In this purgatory
do I now reckon myself to stand. God enable me to
persevere to his honour ! Of this speaks also St. Peter,
in these words, which pertain to the instruction of all
Christian people ; — " You," saith he, " who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time ; wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations : that the trial of your
faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ," &c. 1 Pet.i. 5 — 7.
To the fourteenth article, where you ask whether holy
martyrs, ai)ostles and confessors departed from this
world, ought to be honoured, called upon, and prayed to?
I answer, with the words of St. Augustine, in his book
" On True Religion," in his last leaf, where he says,
'' That we should worship no departed men, be they never
so good and holy, for they seek no such honour, but
would have us worship God alone ; no, nor yet an angel,
nor honour them, but only in the imitation of them ;
following their good acts in our living, as they followed
our most nierciful God while they were alive ; not build-
ing churches in the name, or to the honour of them, for
they would have no such honour done unto them ; it is
to them no pleasure, but contrariwise. No, the angels
wish not that we should build any churches in reverence
of them ; but wish that we should honour the original
maker and performer of all." Thus saith St. Augustine,
" We shall follow their good acts, by helping the poor
or helpless with alms and mercy, and dealing truly in
word and deed, according to our state and calling, both
towards God and man ; which is no light matter to them
that consider the thing well. But whoever shall truly
and duly follow it, shall feel it as the burden of Christ's
cross was to him, right weighty and grievous, when he
bare it to Calvary ; saving that we need not fear, for he
hath promised to be with us in tribulation."
As to invocation, that is, calling upon them, we learn in
scripture how we should call upon Almighty God in all
necessities and tribulations. As in the Psalms every
where, as in this, " Call upon me in the time of trouble,
and I shall deliver you." Mark, how he saith here, "Call
upon me," apjjointing neither one saint nor another. And
also, in another place, " The Lord is nigh unto them that
call upon him, that call upon him truly."
And thus used the holy prophets, patriarchs, apostles,
and other good faithful people in old time, in all tribula-
tion and anguish, to resort to the head Fountain, who is
of grace infinite, as is shewn in many places in this wise.
" In my trouble 1 called upon the Lord," saith David,
A.D. 1527—1540] THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES.
557
*• and he heard me graciously ; when I was troubled, I
cried unto the Lord, and he mercifully heard me ;" also, 1
lift mine eyes unto the mountains, but from whence shall
help come unto me? "Mine help," said he, "shall
come from the Lord that made both heaven and earth.''
Also, it is reported in the New Testament, by autho-
rity deduced out of the Old, where it is written, " Every
one that calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved." And mark, it is said, " upon the name of the
Lord," without sending us either to St. Christopher, or to
St. Patrick's purgatory in Ireland, or to St. James in
Galicia, or yet to any other saint ; but he would have us
that we should call upon Almighty God, and upon his
name, for the love that he bears to Clirist, who is always
our advocate before our Father, to purchase mercy for
our sins.
You argue that when one should desire to come to
our sovereign to obtain some boon of him ; he must first
purchase the favour of his chamberlains or officers to
bring him to the king's presence. In like manner it is
betwixt God and us ; of whom, if we would purchase
any benefit, we must first go to the saints, making them
our friends to go betwixt God and us, as mediators and
intercessors. But I answer that I think such reasoners
are deceived, in that they resemble God and the king to-
gether. For though the king be a full gracious prince,
yet he is not in graciousness to be compared with God ;
and though he were as gracious as possible, yet hath he
not the knowledge that is in God, for God knew of all
things before the beginning of the world, and is every
where, to see not only our outward dealing, but also all
secret thoughts of all men's hearts ; so that he needs no
mediators to inform him of our desires, as the king
needs. And he is full of infinite mercy, that I may as
lightly, or as soon, obtain of him that which is for my
good ; as I should win by praying holy saints to be in-
tercessors to him for me.
Therefore I take me to the sample of antiquity, I mean
of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and authority
of scripture, which teach that we need not to fear, but
may boldly resort to Christ himself, and his holy father,
forasmuch as he bids us to do so, saying, " Come unto
me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." Mat. xi. 28. Mark how he bids us
resort to himself without fear. For he and his Father,
who are all one, gives abundantly of all goodness to all
men, and upbraideth no man for their un worthiness.
But if we intend to obtain of him, we must lay all
doubtfulness apart, and with a sure confidence in his
mercy, ask of him that which we would have ; so that 1
leave to others what they choose to do, praying Jesus
that we all may wish for that which is most pleasing to
him.
To the fifteenth article, you demand whether the saints
in heaven, as mediators, pray for us ? I say, that I
believe saints in heaven do pray for us ; for I suppose
they know, generally, that all men living upon earth
are wrapped in manifold miseries, like as they themselves
also were. But I think they know not what particular
miseries men upon earth are intangled with ; therefore
I believe that they pray for us as petitioners, but not as
mediators, so far as I can see. For scripture speaks
but of one Mediator, which I think signifies a maker
of peace, or atonement betwixt God the Father and man.
" There is one God, and one Mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus."
In the sixteenth article, you demand whether I believe
that oblations and pilgrimages may be devoutly and me-
ritoriously done to the sepulchres and relics of saints ?
I say that, what they may be, I cannot tell ; for God
can so work, that to those whom he hath chosen to be
inheritors with him, all things shall turn to a good con-
clusion, as saith St. Paul, " All things shall work to-
gether for good to them that love God." Rom. viii. 28.
Therefore, whether they may be done meritoriously or
not, I will not define, God knoweth. But this I say,
that God did never institute any such thing as pilgrim-
ages in the New Testament, which is the truth and rule
for all christian people to follow and believe.
As concerning the relics and tombs of saints, I have
said before, what I think of the milk of our Lady, the
blood which they say is at Norwich and other places,
with such other things, with which I trust you do what
ought to be done. And I beseech God you may do
therein as your office requires, shewing example to other
prelates to follow your lordship in good doing ; as it is
comely for a jirimate to do ; remembering always, as
St. Paul saith, " the time is short," and therefore it
were good to set to hand in time.
Finally, holy Moses when he died would be so buried,
that no man should know which was his grave, as it is
witnessed in Deuteronomy ; and, as the expositors tes-
tify, that the Jews, who were prone to new tangled wor-
shipping, should not fall into idolatry, worshipping him
as God, on account of the great and manifold miracles
that were wrought by him while he was alive.
To conclude, 1 say, it is no point of my belief, to
think that oblations and pilgrimages at saints' graves
and relics are meritorious works, or that there is any
devotion in so doing. That is godly which is instituted
by scripture. If you think otherwise, I would desire to
know for mine instruction, what part of scripture should
make against me.
In the seventeenth article you ask, whether the fast in
Lent, and others appointed by the common law, and re-
ceived in the common usage, are to be observed ? I say,
that they are to be observed, and fasting discreetly is
commendable.
Yet the breaking of these fasts shall not make a man
a deadly sinner, except in his mind there be some other
malicious affection, because no law of man, made with-
out foundation of scripture, may bind any person, so
that in breaking it, he shall therefore sin deadly. And
of this sort made by man is the fast of Lent ; and other
days ordained in your laws without authority of scrip-
ture, which wills us to fast perpetually, eating and drink-
ing only when need requires (not for any voluptuousness,
as many, that recount themselves great fasters, I fear
have done) yea, and that sparingly, foreseeing always
that our stomachs be never cloyed " with drunkenness or
surfeiting," as is commanded by our Saviour.
And (to tell the truth) I suppose the prelates should
better have persuaded the people to pure fasting by in-
stant preaching of the word of God ; and fatherly ex-
hortations, than by ordaining of so great a multitude of
laws and constitutions.
To the eighteenth article yon ask, whether it be
laudable and profitable that worshipful images should be
set up in churches for the remembrance of Christ and
his saints .' I say, that I know of no images that ought
to be worshipped, such as are made by the hand of men ;
for, " Confounded be all they that serve graven images,
that boast themselves of idols." Psalm xcvii. 7.
And as concerning the exciting of men's memory;!
would suppose that if Christ's doctrine were so shewn
and opened by preaching and teaching that people might
clearly understand it, (and that is the principal office of
prelates and curates) I think we should have little need
of any other images, than that which should by whole-
some doctrine be shewn to us by word of mouth and
writing : Nothing is so effectual to exercise the remem-
brance of disciples, as the lively voice ot good teachers.
So that I suppose if this lively doctrine of God has
aforetime been diligently opened to the people, as curates
ought to have done, we should not have needed to con-
tend for setting up or taking down dumb stocks and
lifeless stones, carved or made by men : and if prelates
would begin to set up Christ's word (which, alas for pity 1
is not looked upon, but rather trodden down and de-
spised ; so that many are not ashamed to say, I will have
no more learning in Christ's law than my predecessors ;
for they that magnify it must be sore punished, and taken
for heretics, with such other grievous words) if this doc-
trine were yet set up in churches, I say, and truly
opened, that all men might have their judgment thereby-
reformed and made clear ; I think we should not greatly
need the profit that comes by images made by men, to
excite our remembrances to live to Christianity.
For that word which came from the breast of Christ
I himself, and was written by them that wrote and spake
558
THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES.
[Book VI IL
by the suggestion of his Spirit, the Holy Ghost, shows
perfectly his will, which is the true and certain image of
his miud and device. Tf this, therefore, vvere diligently
inculcated, 1 think we should be transformed anew, ac-
cording to the mind of St. Paul, who, writing to the
Colossians, says, " Lie not one to another, seeing that
ye have put otF the old man with his deeds ; and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him." Col. iii. 9, 10.
Unto the nineteenth article you ask, whether 1 be-
lieve that prayers of men living profit souls departed,
and in purgatory ? I made answer in the thirteenth
article.
Unto the twentieth article you ask, whether men
merit and deserve both by their fasting, and also by other
deeds of devotion ? I have shewn what I think thereof,
in the fifth article.
In the twenty-first article you ask, whether I believe
that men prohibited by bishops to preach, as suspected
of heresy, ought to cease from preaching and teaching,
until they have purged themselves of suspicion ? I say,
that men may be wrongfully suspected of heresy, either
because they never believed such errors, as men by false
suspicion deem them to believe ; or else, when men, by
sinister judgment think that to be an error, which is the
very truth. And of this speaketh Isaiah, " Woe unto
them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put dark-
ness for light, and light for darkness." Isaiah v. 20.
As the bishops and the priests, with their orator Ter-
tullus, called St. Paul, saying thus before Felix, we " pray
thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few
words. For we have found this man a pestilent fellow,
and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout
the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes :
who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom
we took, and would have judged according to our law.
But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with
great violence took him away out of our hands, com-
manding his accusers to come unto thee : by examining
of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these
tilings, whereof we accuse him." Acts xxiv. 4 — 8.
This is to call, by perverse judgment, truth falsehood.
And thus did their predecessors speak of the pro-
)ihets, yea, and of Christ himself, calling him a
seducer and preacher of heresy ; men being thus sus-
j)ccted ought in no wise therefore to cease either from
preaching or teaching.
We have another example of this in Acts, when Peter
and John had done a miracle upon a man that had been
l)me from his nativity (whom, by the power of Christ
they healed, and caused to go where he jileased,) the peo-
ple hearing of this, came running about Peter and John.
Peter seeing this, did exhort the people in a sermon,
that they should not think that he or his companion St.
John, had done this wonderful thing by their own power
or holiness, but by the virtue of Christ, whom they and
ttieir head rulers had slain.
While they were thus speaking with the people, there
came upon them the priests and officers of the temple,
accompanied with the Sadducees ; who being sore dis-
pleased that they should teach the people, and preach that
nicn should arise from the dead by the name of Christ,
whom they had caused to be crucified ; and they there-
with laid hands upon them, and put them in prison until
the next day. On the following day they sent for the
iTpostles, and demanded by what power, and in whose
name they did this miracle ? " Then Peter, filled with
the Holy Ghost, said unto them. Ye rulers of the people,
and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the
good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he
/s made whole ; be it known utitoyou all, and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the
dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you
whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of
vou builders, which is become the head of the corner."
Acts iv. !5— 12.
These great men wondered that Peter should speak so
freely, seeing that he and his fellow, John, were simple
men, without any pompous apparel, or great guard
of servants, and being unlearned men. At last they
commanded them to depart out of their council-
house, until they should commune more freely of the
matter. Afterwards they called the apostles before them
again, commanding them that they should no more
preach or teach in the name of Jesus. " But Peter and
John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right
in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto
(iod, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard." Acts iv. 19,20. Then
the head priests threatening them sore gave them straight
charge not to break their prece])t, and so let them go,
not knowing any cause why they might punish them ;
for they feared lest the people would have taken part
with the apostles, for the people gave glory to God for
the miracle shewn by them.
Notwithstanding ail tliese great threats, Peter wrought
miracles still amongst the people ; doing them to show
that glory ought to be given to Jesus, by whose power
and name they were done. Wherewith the hearts of the
people melted for joy ; so that they followed after the
aj)ost!es whithersoever they went.
The primate of the priests, and all that were about him,
on hearing of this, were filled with indignation, and laid
hands upon the apostles, putting them into the common
prison. But the angel of God in the night opened the
prison doors, and brought them out, saying, " Go, stand
and speak in the temple to the people all the words of
this life." That is to say, Christ's doctrine ; and so
they did early in the morning. Then came forth the
chief priest, and they whom they used to have about
him, and called a council, in which were all the priests
of Israel, or ancients of Israel. So they sent to the
prison-house to have the apostles brought forth before
them. When their servants came to the prison-ho
and found the apostles gone from thence, they returnee
to their masters, saying, we found the prison fast shut
round about in every part, and the keepers watching at
the doors without fail diligently. But when we had
opened the prison, we could find no body within.
Then as the high priests and officers of the temple
heard this, they were in a great perplexity, doubting
what would thereof come. Then came one unto them
and showed them, saying. Behold the men that you put
in prison are standing in the temple, preaching unto the
people. Then went they thither, and brought the
apostles with them without any violence ; but they were
aiVaid lest the people would have beaten them down
witli stones.
Then they caused the apostles to be brought into their
council house, the high priest beginning his proposition
against the apostles in this form : Have we not straightly
commanded you (>aid he) that you should not preach in
the name of Christ ? And see, you have filled all Jeru-
salem with your doctrine. Will you bring this man's
blood upon us ? " Then Peter, and the other apostles
answered and said. We ought to obey God rather than
men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with
his right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, for to give
repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts v.
2<J— 32.
These great rulers hearing this, were cut to the heart,
and consulted together to slay the apostles. But one
good man among their number advised them other-
wise, whose advice they did approve. Then they called
the apostles again before them, and causing them to be
scourged, commanded them not to preach and teach in
the name of Jesus, and so allowed them to depart.
Then went they away out of the council, rejoicing that
God had made them worthy to suffer such rebukes for
his name's sake. But yet they never ceased to teach
and preach of Jesus Christ every day in the temple, and
in all houses that they came into. This is written in the
fourth, fifth, and sixth of the Acts of the Apostles, and for
our instruction, doubt you not ; for such practice is shewn
in all ages. So that hereby you may see, when men be
wrongfully suspected or accused of heresy, and so pro-
hil)ited by bishops to preach the word of God, that they
ought notfor man's commandment to leave orstop, though
AD. 1527—1540.] THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES.
559
they never purge themselves before them, for such will
not admit any just purgation many times, but judge in
their own causes, and that as they please.
In the twenty-second article you demand, whether I
believe that it is lawful for all priests freely to preach
the word of God or not ; and that in all jilaces, and to
all persons to whom they shall please, although they are
not sent ? I say, that priests are called in scripture by
two distinct words, that is to wit, preshi/teri and sacer-
doles. The first is to say, ancient men, seniors, or
elders, or presbyters, and by that word the secular
judges, or such like head-ofticers, are sometimes also
called ; as we read in Daniel, that they were so called
who defamed and wrongfully accused Susanna ; that this
is seldom, and nothing so customable as those to be
calledp7'esb>/teri ,- but it is generally applied to those who
are set in the church to guide the same by the word of
God and his blessed doctrine.
The others are called priests in the New Testament,
by this word, sarerdotes, that is to say, I think, sacrificers.
And thus, as Christ was called king and priest, so all
christian men in the New Testament are called kings and
priests. The words in Rev. i. 5, (J. are, " Unto Jesus
Christ that loved us, and washed us from our sins in liis
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever
and ever. Amen." Thus saith St. John, speaking of all
christian people. In like manner it is said, (1 Peter ii. 9.)
where he writes unto all christian men, " Ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar people."
But this may seem a strange thing, that all persons
should be called priests, and that in scripture, which
cannot lie. Truth it is indeed, it may seem strange to
some, as it did to me and many others, when we read it
first, because we never read or heard of it before ; and
BO did Christ's doctrine seem new to his apostles and to
his audience, when he himself first preached it.
In the twenty-third article you ask, whether I believe
that it is lawful for laymen of both kinds, that is to wit,
both men and women, to sacrifice and preach the word
of God ? I say, that it is meet for none to preach openly
the word of God, except they be chosen and elected to
the same, either by God, or solemnly by men, or else by
both ; and therefore St. Paul calls himself in all his epis-
tles, an apostle of God, that is to wit, a messenger of
God. And to the Galatians he writes thus, " Paul, an
apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the
dead." Also to the Romans, " How shall men preach,
except they be sent ?''
Notwithstanding, I say this, both by support of
God's law, and also of laws written in the decrees,
that in time of great necessity lay people may preach,
both men and women.
As concerning sacrificing, I say that it is lawful for all
men and women to sacrifice ; but I mean not by sacri-
fice to say mass as priests do ; but, as christian people
who are sacerdotes, that is to say, sacrificers ; so ought
they to offer spiritual sacrifices, as writes St. Paul to the
Romans, saying, " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your rea-
sonable service. And be not conformed to this world ;
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God," Rom. xii. 1, 2.
Another manner of sacrifice which he requires is,
that we should always offer to God the sacrifice of praise,
that is, the " fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name ;"
or, as liosea calls it, the sacrifice of " the calves of our
lips," giving praise unto his name ; and that we should
not forget to do good, and to be serviceable to our
neighbours ; for in such sacrifices, saith he, God is well
pleased.
In the twenty-fourth article you ask, whether excom-
munication, denounced by the pope against all heretics,
obliges and binds thi;m before God .^ I say, that it binds
them before God, if it be lawfully denounced, that is, if
they be in very deed, as they be named ; and if he de-
nounces them with the consent of others, gathered
with him in Christ's name, for the behalf of Christ's
church.
The same declares the gospel, (Mat. xviii. 15—20,)
" Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone :
if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But
if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or
two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses
every word may be established. And if he shall neglect
to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen
man and a publican. Verily I say unto you. Whatso-
ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ;
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. Again, I say unto you. That if two of you shall
agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask,
it shall be done for them of my Father which is in hea-
ven. For where two or three aie gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them." So that
such excommunication ought to be done, as I think, by
the congregation assembled together with their pastor,
whose advice they ought principally to esteem and fol-
low, if it be virtuous and godly.
And thus is it convenient to be done. For the pope
is made of flesh, as well as other men, and therefore he
may sometimes judge wrong ; cursing the blessed, and
blessing the cursed. And likewise may other prelates,
judging the christian to be heretics, and the heretics
christian.
In the twenty-fifth article you ask, whether every
priest is bound to say daily his matins and evening-song,
according as it is ordained by the church ; or whether
he may leave them unsaid, without offence or deadly sin ?
I say that prayer in scripture is much commended, and
many great and unmeasurable benefits are shewed to en-
sue therefrom, that men should the more give themselves
to it. With prayer doth St. Paul bid us fight in divers
places, continuing in the same against our ghostly ene-
mies. A figure of this we read in Exodus, when the
Israelites fought in battle against a nation of infidels ;
I believe their captain was called Amalek. Moses stood
upon a mountain to behold what should be the conclu-
sion, and lifting up his hands prayed that it might well
succeed with the Israelites; but in long holding them up,
at last his fervour began to grow cold and faint, and his
hands lagged downward ; and as his hands grew heavy,
which signifieth that his afiTection in praying abated and
waxed cold, the infidels prevailed ; but as he kept them
upward (whereby was meant the intent prayer of a de-
vout mind) he purchased victory to the Israelites.
Aaron and Hur, who endited the law to the people, and
were the interpreters, stood with Moses ; who always,
as they saw his arms to faint, did hold them up, so
that finally the victory came unto Israel.
But no promise is made by God to them that daily
say matins. Neither are we certain by the word of God,
that we shall be blessed by him for sayinir matins ; no
more than we are certain that for repeating the fif-
teen O's once every day during the whole year, we
shall see our Lady aid us before our death ; as is testified
in the scripture of the primer, but not by the scripture
of the Bible ; or that we shall have a like benefit for
saying her psalter upon the ten beads, that conies from
the crossed friars ; or upon the five beads, hallowed at
the charter-house ; or fasting the ladies' fast, as men
call it ; or for fasting on the Wednesday; as is shewed
by a book that is allowed to be printed and read, for
it is neither the New Testament nor the Old.
In the twenty-sixth article you ask, whether I believe
that the heads or rulers, by necessity of salvation, are
bound to give to the people the holy scriptures in their
mother language .' I say that I think they are bound
to see that the people may truly know holy scripture,
and I do not know how that can be done so well, ai
by giving it to them truly translated into the mothet
tongue ; that they may have it by them at all times to
pass the time godly, whenever they have leisure.
I think it were' profitable and expedient, that th»
holv scriptures were delivered by authority of the head
560
THE ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES.
[Book VIIX.
rulers to the people, truly translated into the vernacular
tongue. And whereas you add, whether they be boujid
by necessity of salvation to give them to the people ;
I will not so narrowly touch that point now ; but I say
that they are bound, by right and equity, to cause it to
be dflivered to the people in the vulgar tongue, for
tlieir edifying and consolation
In the twenty-seventh article you demand, whether
it be lawful for the rulers, for some cause, upon their
reasonable advice, to ordain that the scripture should
not be delivered to the people in the vulgar language ?
All men may here see, that whoever devised these
questions, thought that it is good for the people to have
the scri])tures in the vernacular tongue, and that I so
saying could not be well reproved ; and therefore they
have laid out all these additions as it were to entrap
me. " Whether the heads be bound, and that by neces-
sity of salvation, to deliver it to the people .'" and
" whether they may restrain it for some cause, and by
some reasonable advice ?"
The scripture is the spiritual food and sustenance of
man's soul. This is shewed to be true in many places
of scripture ; like as other meat is the food of the
body. Then if he be an unkind father that keeps bodily
meat away for the space of a week or a month from his
children ; it should seem that our bishops are not gentle
pastors or fathers if they would keep away the food of
men's souls from them, especially when others offer it,
both for months, years, and ages. Neither do I see any
opportunity of time or reasonable advice that should cause
it to be withdrawn and taken away, but the contrary; for
it is reasonable, convenient, and needful for men to eat
their meat when they are hungry, and blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after the word of God, whi^h
teaches to know him and do his pleasure at all times.
In the twenty-eighth article you ask, whether I be-
lieve the consecrations, hallowings, and blessings used
in the church are to be praised ? I say that I know not
all of them, and therefore I will not dispraise them, nei-
ther can I speak very much for them, seeing I know
them not ; such as are the hallowing of bells, the hal-
lowing of pilgrims when they go to Rome, the hallowing
of beads, and such like. But those which I am advised
of, and do remember, are in my opinion good; such as
this — when the priest having consecrated the holy bread ;
hesaith, " Lord bless this creature of bread, as thou didst
bless the five loaves in the desert, that all persons tasting
thereof may receive health," &c. Which I would wish
every man might say in England, when he should go to
meat, I like it so well.
Also this is a right good one, that is said over him
that shall read the gospel : " The Lord be in your
heart, and in your mind and mouth, to pronounce and
show forth his blessed gospel." Which is also spoken
over a preacher taking benediction when he shall go into
a pulpit. And such good things I like very well, and
think them commendable, wishing that all people might
know what they mean, that they with joy of heart might
pray joyfully with us, and delight in all goodness; which
should be, if they were uttered in English, according to
the mind of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. ID, where he wisheth,
in the church rather to speak five words with under-
standing that by his voice he might teach others, than
ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
In the twenty-ninth article you ask, whether I believe
that the j)ope may make laws and statutes to bind all
christian men, to the observance of the same, under the
pain of deadly sin ; so that such laws and statutes be
not contrary to the law of God ? I say, if it be true
that is written in the decrees, that laws are never con-
firmed, until they are approved by common consent of
them that shall use them, then the pope's laws cannot
bind all christian men, for the Greeks and the Bohemians
never admitted them ; but refuse them utterly : so that
I do not find that his laws may bind all christian men.
Finally, I cannot see that he hath autliority to make
laws ; which will bind men to the observance of them
under pain of deadly sin, any more than has the king
or the emperor. On the contrary, I think verily that the
church was more full of virtue before the decrees or de-
cretals were made than it has been since. May God re-
pair it, and restore it again to its ancient purity and
perfection.
In the thirtieth article you ask, whether I believe
that the pope and other prelates, and their deputies in
spiritual things, have power to excommunicate priests,
and lay-people, that are disobedient, from entering the
church ; and to suspend them from the ministration of the
sacraments .' I think that the pope and other prelates
have power to excommunicate both priests and laymen,
such as be rebellious against the ordinance of God, and
disobedient to his law. For such are separated from
God. And the prelates should pronounce of sinners as
they find them ; that is to pronounce such to be ex-
communicated of God, and unworthy to administer any
sacraments, or to be in communion with christian folk,
who will not amend.
I am not?*certain that prelates generally have any such
power. And though they had, 1 doubt whether charity
should permit them to shew it forth and execute it
without singular discretion. For in churches the word
of God ought to be declared and preached ; that the
sturdy who come thither and hearing it, may soon be
smitten with compunction and repentance, and there-
upon come to amendment.
IMoreover, when you speak of prelates' deputies ; I
think that such prelates are of little use to Christ's flock.
It is necessary and right, that as the prelates themselves
will have the revenues, tithes, and oblations of their
benefices, that they themselves should labour and teach
diligently the word of God, and not to shift the labour
from one unto another till all be left undone.
In the thiity-first article you ask, whether faith only,
without good works, may suffice to a man who has fallen
into sin after his baptism, for his salvation and justifying .'
I say, that it is the usage of scripture to say, faith only
justifies and works salvation, before a man can do
any other good works. And truly I do think in this
matter, that a man fallen into sin after baptism shall be
saved through faith, and have forgiveness by Christ's
passion ; although he does no more good deeds ; as
when a man having a short life, lacks leisure to exercise
other deeds of mercy. Notwithstanding true faith is of
such virtue and nature, that when oi)portunity comes, it
cannot but work plenteously deeds of charity ; which are
a testimony and witness-bearer of man's true faith.
This declares St. Augustine, " Good works make not a
just or a righteous man, but a man once justified doth
good works."
In the thirty-second article you ask, whether a priest
marrying a wife, without the dispensation of the pope,
sins dead'y ? I say, that he doth not so much offend as
those whj give dispensations for money to priests to
take concubines. Neither does he ofl^end so much as
the purchasers of such dispensations ; for they clearly
commit fornication and adultery, which is utterly for-
bidden by God's law ; and the priest of whom your de-
mand speaks, offends only man's law.
In the thirty-third article you ask, whether a priest,
being sore and oft troubled with incontinence, and
therefore marrying a wife for a remedy, do sin deadly ?
I cannot see but that a priest may marry. Therefore,
following the law of God, I make the same answer that
I made before of all priests ; that a priest, not having
the gift of chastity, is bound to marry.
In the thirty-fourth article you ask, whether I ever
prayed for John WicklifF, John IIuss, and for Jerome of
Prague, who were condemned of heresy at the council of
Constance, or any one of them, since they have been dead ;
and whether I have openly or secretly done any such deeds
of charity for them ; and affirming them to be in bUss ar.d
saved ? I say, that I never prayed for any of them, so
far as I can remember. And though I had, it follows
not, that in so doing I should be an heretic. For you
Know well, that there is a great country called Bohemia,
where the people follow that same doctrine which their
ancestors were taught by John IIuss and Jerome of
Prague ; whom (as I know) neither the pope nor you
consider as heretics and infidels.
In the thirty -fifth article you ask, whether I have ac-'
A D. 1527—1540.]
ANSWER OF JOHN LAMBERT TO THE BISHOP'S ARTICLES,
561
counted them or any of them to be saints ; and wor-
shipped them as saints ? I say that in secret things,
which I do not perfectly know, I follow the counsel of
St. Paul, who desires that we should not judge too soon ;
but to abide to the coming of the Lord, who shall illu-
minate and shew forth clearly things that now lie hid in
darkness. Therefore have I neither judged with them,
nor ao-ainst them ; but have resigned such sentence to
the knowledge and determination of God, whose judg-
ment is infallible.
And whereas you say, they were condemned of heresy,
at the council of Constance ; if the council did right,
God shall allow it. So that it is not need to ask of me,
whether the acts of the same are commendable or not ?
Neither can I give any direct answer ; for I do not know
them. And although I did, yet am I not persuaded,
because the council hath condemned them, that 1 must
therefore believe them to be damned ; for a council, as
I believe, may sometimes decide erroneously.
In the thirty-sixth article you ask, whether I believe
that every general council, and the council of Con-
stance, represent the universal congregation or church ?
I say, that what such councils represent, I cannot cer-
tainly tell ; and therefore believe neither yea nor nay.
I know of no scripture to certify me of the same, nor
yet any sufficient reason. The church I take to be all
those that God hath chosen or predestinated to be in-
heritors of eternal bliss and salvation ; whether they
be temporal or spiritual, king or subject, bishop or
deacon, father or child, Grecian or Roman. And this
church spreads throughout the universal world, where-
ever any call upon the name of Christ ; and there they
most grow and assemble, where his blessed word is purely
and openly preached and declared.
In the thirty-seventh article you ask, whether I be-
lieve that the same thing which the council of Constance,
representing the universal church, hath approved, and
doth approve for tlie maintenance of faith and souls'
health, is to be approved and held of all christian people ;
and that that which the same council hath condemned and
doth condemn, to be contrary to faith and good manners,
ought of the same christian people to be believed and
affirmed for a thing condemned ? I say, that whatever
the same council or any other have approved, being
worthy of approbation, is of all christian people to be
likewise approved. And again, whatever the same or
any other has condemned, being worthy of condem-
nation, ought to be condemned by all christian people.
In the thirty-eighth article you demand, whether the
condemnations of John Wickliff, John Huss, and Je-
rome of Prague, done upon their persons, books, and
docruments, by the holy general council of Constance,
were duly and rightfully done .' I answer, that it passes
my knowledge, and I cannot tell ; and I and all chris-
tian men may well suspend our sentence, being thereof
ignorant, affirming neither the one nor the other, neither
yea nor nay.
In the thirty-ninth article you ask, whether I believe
that John Wickliff of England, John Huss of Bohemia,
and Jerome of Prague, were heretics ; and their books
and doctrines to be perverse ; for which they were con-
demned by the holy council of Constance as heretics ?
I say, that I know not whether they be heretics or not ;
nor whether their books be erroneous or not ; nor
whether they ought to be called heretics or not.
In the fortieth article you ask, whether I believe and
affirm, that it is not lawful in any case to swear? I
say, that I neither so believe, nor affirm, nor ever did.
In the forty-first article you ask, whether I believe
that it is lawful at the command of a judge, to make an
oath to say the truth ; or any other oath, for purgation of
infamy .' I answer, that I never said to the contrary ;
but that I think and have thought it lawful to give an
oath before a judge ; to say the truth, if the judge so re-
quire it ; and that by request lawful and convenient.
As when a thing is in controversy betwixt two persons,
upon which they sue unto a judge for sentence ; when the
judge cannot otherwise arrive at the truth ; he may re-
quire an oath. As when the two women who contended
before Solomon, to avoid the crime of murder ; which the
one had committed in pressing her child to death ; and
would have done the same upon the other, if Solomon
had not by his wisdom otherwise discovered the truth,
Solomon might, I suppose, to come by the more certain
information of the thing, have caused one of them, or
both, seeing it ex])edient for him, to swear. In this
case the women would have been bound to obey him ;
but judges have need to be careful in requiring of oaths.
In the forty-second article you ask, whether a chris-
tian person despising the receiving of the sacraments of
confirmation, extreme unction, or solemnising of matri-
mony, do sin deadly .' I say the same of the receiving
of the sacraments themselves, as I have said before of
the third article, and none otherwise.
In the forty-third article you ask, whether I believe
that St. Peter was Christ's vicar, and having power on
earth to bind and loose ? I say, that I do not perceive
clearly what you mean by this term " vicar ;" for Christ
never called St. Peter, nor any other so in scripture.
If you mean, that after the departing hence of Christ,
when he arose from the dead in his immortal body, and
so went into heaven ; that, he so being away, St. Peter
occupied his room : then, I say, it is not true that St.
Peter was his vicar, in any other manner than was St.
Paul, or the other apostles. The one was no less a
vicar than the other.
I think that St. Peter and all the rest of the apostles were
Christ's vicars : if you mean by this word vicar, a deputy ;
or such like to preach his gospel, to minister sacraments,
and to do divine service in God's church. And thus they
were worthy to be called, as the scripture names them ;
Christ's true apostles, bishops, priests, Sec,
In the forty-fourth article you ask, whether I believe
that the pope is the successor of St. Peter .' I say, that it
seems to me a thing of no great value, whether a man
believe so or not. I cannot see that it should be num-
bered amongst the articles of our faith ; however, I will
shew my rude thouglit on it, which is this : —
The pope may succeed in St. Peter's stead or office,
and do the same duly in diligently feeding Christ's flock,
and shewing virtuous example of living ; and so in doing,
he may and ought to be thought and named, a true suc-
cessor of St. Peter. And thus is your lordship St. Peter's
successor, performing the conditions, with other proper-
ties requisite to your order and duty : yea, and as many
others as do truly their duty, and duly the office of a
bishop. But otherwise the pope cannot be called the
successor of St. Peter; merely because he is entered into
St. Peter's office, not regarding what is requisite, nor
following the track of virtue, but the contrary. Why
should men call St. Peter's successors those that play the
pagans, and follow Caiaphas, Simon Magus, or Judas ?
Such, verily, cannot rightly claim to be Peter's succes-
sors, no more than the night can claim to be the succes-
sor to the day. Yea, they ought rather to be called
Peter's adversaries, forsomuch as they do not do his
will, which is shewn by his own acts and writings, but
work against the same.
So, the pope is the successor of St. Peter, if he follows
St. Peter's godly living.
In the forty-fifth article you ask, whether I have pro-
mised at any time by my oath, or made any confederacy
or league with any person or persons, that 1 wouUl
always hold and defend certain conclusions or articles,
which seemed to you right and consonant to the faith?
I say, that I do not remember that I ever made pact or.
confederacy with any person or persons ; nor made any
promise by oath, that I would always hold and deftnd
any conclusions or articles, which seemed to me ai,d
others right and consonant to the faith ; unless it hath
chanced to me to say in this form, that I would never,
with the aid of God, forsake or decline from the truth,
neither for fear, nor yet for love of man or men.
And concerning opinions or conclusions, I can tell
you of none other than I have shewed ; the sum of
which I reckon to be concluded in two propositions ;
which both are written in the New Testament.
The first in the Acts of the Apostles :— " This is the
stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is
become the head of the corner; neither is there salvatioa
o o 2
862
JOHN LAMBERT ANSWERS DOCTOR TAILOR'S SERMON.
[Book VIII.
in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved," Acts iv.
11, 12. This is one of the propositions wherein is com-
prehended my saying, which St. Paul thus expresses,
" But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30. And in another place,
" For other foundation can no man lay than that is Ifiid,
which is Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. iii. 11.
The other proposition is written by the prophet Isaiah,
and recited by our Saviour in the gospel of Mark, in
these words : " Howbeit, in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ; for,
laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tra-
dition of men, as the washing of pots and cups ; and
many other such like things ye do. And he said unto
them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that
ye may keep your own tradition," Mark vii. 7, 8, 9. Of
this writes St. Paul very largely in divers places ; among
others in the second chapter of Colossians, where he
warneth the Colossians to take heed that no man do
spoil them ; to steal them away by philosophy or vain
deception, according to the constitutions of men, and
ordinances of this world.
Thus I certify to all ot yua the opinions and conclu-
sions which I intend, or have intended to sustain, being
contained in the above two propositions. Other hold I
none, but such as are mentioned in the creed ; both that
which is sung at mass, and also in the other creed, that
all people say every day. Finally, you require to know
the names and surnames of them that were adherents to
me. I say, that I know of none particularly that I re-
member, without 1 should note a great multitude, which
you may know and hear of through all regions and realms
of Christendom ; and though I did, I would not detect
nor betray anyone of them ; foi I am bound to obey God
rather than man. May God be with us, and grant the
truth to be known ! Amen !
These answers of John Lambert to the forty-five
articles, had been directed and delivered to Dr. Warham,
archbishop of Canterbury, as it appeared, about A.D.
15.S2, when Lambert was in custody in the archbishop's
house at Oxford. But so the providence of God wrought
for Lambert, that within a short space after, (Aug. 15:52,)
the archbishop Warham died ; whereby, it seems, that
Lambert for that time was delivered. In the meantime,
Cranmer was sent over on an embassy with the earl of
Wiltshire, Dr. Stokesley, Dr. Karne, Dr. Benett, and other
learned men, to the bishop of Rome, to dispute the mat-
ter of the king's marriage openly ; first in the court of
Rome, then in the court of the emperor. Where, after
sundry promises and appointments made, yet when the
time came, no man there appeared to dispute with them
on these two propositions — first, that no man could or
ought to marry his brother's wife; secondly, that the bishop
of Rome by no means ought to dispense to the contrary.
After the death of William Warham, Cranmer suc-
ceeded to that see. Lambert, in the meantime, being
delivered, partly by the death of this archbishop, partly
by the coming in of Queen Anne, returned to London,
and there exercised himself in teaching children both in
the Greek and Latin tongues.
Thus then after that John Lambert had continued in
this vocation of teaching, with great commendation, it
happened, (A.D. 1.538,) that he was present at a sermon
which was preached in St. Peter's churcli, in London, by
Dr. Tailor ; a man in those days not far from the gospel ;
and afterwards, in the time of King Edward, made bishop
of Lincoln, and at last in the time of Queen Mary de-
prived, and so ended his life among the confessors of
Jesus Christ.
When the sermon was done, Lambert having gotten
opportunity, went gently to the preacher to talk with
him, and uttered divers arguments wlierein he desired to
be satisfied. All the matter or controversy was concern-
ing the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.
Tailor excusing himself at that time for other business,
desired him to write his mind ; and to come again when
be had more leisure.
Lambert was contented, and so departed ; who, within
a short time after, when he had written his mind, came
again unto him. The sum of his arguments were ten,
which he comprehended in writing ; partly by the scrip-
tures, and partly by good reason, and by the doctors. The
arguments men reported to be of great force and authority.
If, saith he, these words, " This cup is the New Tes-
tament," do not change either the cup or the wine cor-
porally into the New Testament, it is not agreeable that
the words spoken of the bread, should turn the bread
corporally into the body of Christ.
Another reason was this, — that it is not agreeable to a
natural body to be in two places or more at one time ;
wherefore, it must follow of necessity, that eitlier Christ
had not a natural body ; or else truly, according to the
common nature of a body, it cannot be present in two
places at once ; and much less in many, that is to say in
heaven and in earth, on the right hand of his Father, and
in the sacrament.
Moreover, a natural body cannot be without its form
and shape, conditions and accidents, like as the accidents
and conditions also cannot be without their subject or
substance. Then, forasmuch, as in the sacrament there
is no quality, quantity, or condition of the body of Christ,
and. finally, no appearance at all of flesh, who doth not
very plainly perceive that there is no substantiated body
of his in the sacrament ? And to reason by the contrary,
all the proper conditions, signs, and accidents, whatever
they be, pertaining to bread, we do see to be present in
the sacrament, which cannot be there without the sub-
ject ; therefore, we must of necessity confess the bread to
be there. He added also many other allegations out of
the doctors. But to be short, this Tailor, the preacher,
willing and desiring, as is supposed, to satisfy Lambert
in this matter, conferred with Dr. Barnes. Barnes,
although he did othem-ise favour the gospel, and was
an earnest preacher, notwithstanding seemed not greatly
to favour this cause ; fearing it would breed some hinder-
ance among the people to the preaching of the gospel,
which was now in a good forwardness. He persuaded
Tailor to put up the matter to archbishop Cranmer.
In this manner Lambert's affair first began, and was
brought to this point, that it began of a private talk to
be a public and common matter. For he was sent for by
the archbishop, and brought into the open court, and
forced to defend his cause openly ; for the archbishop had
not yet favoured the doctrine of the sacrament, of which
afterwards he was an earnest professor. In that disputa-
tion, it is said, that Lambert appealed from the bishops to
the king ; but however the matter was, the rumour of
that disputation was spread throughout the whole court.
I told you before, how king Henry, for two years past,
shewing the part of an hard husband, had beheaded
queen Anne, his wife (A.D. 1536) ; which not only greatly
displeased the German princes, who, for that only cause
had broken off the league with him, but also many good
men in England.
Moreover, how that, after abbeys began to be sub-
verted, and all their goods to be confiscated, the com-
mons had conceived a very evil opinion of him, so that the
seditious sort rebelled against him.
At that time, Stephen Gardiner, then bishop of Win-
chester, was in authority among the king's counsellors,
who, as he was of a cruel nature, so was he no less of a
subtle and crafty wit, ever gaping for some occasion how
to hinder the gospel. He went to the king privately,
admonishing him, and with fair flattering words giving
him most pernicious counsel, declaring bow great hatred
and suspicion was raised upon him in all places.
First, for abolishing the bishop of Rome's authority,
then for subversion of the monasteries, and also for the
divorce of queen Catharine ; and now the time served, if
he would take it, easily to remedy all these matters, and
pacify the minds of them which were displeased and
offended with him, if only in this matter of John Lam-
bert he would manifest to the people how stoutly he
would resist heretics ; and by this new rumour, he
would extinguish all other former rumours, and also dis-
charge himself of all suspicion, in that he now began to
be reported to be a favourer of new sects and opiuioi;!.
A.D. 152/-— 1540.]
LAMBERT'S DISPUTATION BEFORE THE KING.
563
The king, giving ear more willingly, than prudently or
godly to this, iinmediately received the wicked counsel of
the bishop, and sent out a general commission, com-
manding all the nobles and bishops of his realm, to come
with all speed to London, to assist the king against
heretics and heresies, upon which the king himself would
sit in judgment.
These preparations being made, a day was set for
Lambert to appear, and a great assembly of the nobles
was gathered from all parts of the realm, not without
much wonder and expectation in this so strange a case.
All the seats and places were full of men round about the
scaffold.
By and by the godly servant of Christ, Jolin Lambert,
was brought from the prison with a guard of armed men,
even as a lamb to fight with many lions, and jilaced right
over against where the king's royal seat was ; so that now
they tarried but for the king's coming.
At last the king himself did come as judge of that great
controversy, with a great guard, clothed all in white,
and covering by that colour all bloody judgment.
On his right hand sat the bishops, and behind them
the famous lawyers, clothed all in purple, according
to the manner. On the left hand sat the peers of the
realm, justices, and other nobles in their order, behind
whom sat the gentlemen of the king's privy chamber.
And this was the manner and form of the judgment,
which although it was terrible enough to abash any inno-
cent man, yet the king's look, his cruel countenance,
and his brows bent unto severity, did not a little augment
this terror ; plainly declaring a mind full of indi^uatiou,
far unworthy such a prince ; especially in such a matter,
and against so humble and obedient a subject.
When the king was seated on his tlirone, he looked
at Lambert with a stern countenance ; and then turning
himself to his counsellors, he called Dr. Day, bishop of
Chichester, commanding him to declare unto the people
the causes of this assembly and judgment.
The whole effect of his oration tended to this purpose,
that the king would have all estates, degrees, bishops, and
all others to be admonished of his will and pleasure; that
no man should conceive such an opinion of him, as that
the authority and name of the bishop of Rome being
now utterly abolished, he would also extinguish all
religion, or give liberty to heretics to trouble the churches
of England without punishment ; and, that they should
not think that they were assembled to make any disputa-
tion upon the heretical doctrine ; but only for this pur-
pose, that the heresies of Lambert, and the heresies of
all such, should be refuted, or openly condemned in the
presence of them all.
M'hen he had made an end of his oration, the kingstand-
ing up, and leaning upon a cushion of white cloth of tis-
sue, and turning himself towards Lambert, with his brows
bent, as it were threatening some grievous thing to him,
said these words ; " Ho, good fellow, what is thy name ?"
Then the humble lamb of Christ, humbly kneeling down
upon his knee, said, " My name is John Nicholson,
although by many I am called Lambert." " What,"
said the king, " have you two names ? I would not trust
you, having two names, although you were my brother."
" O, most noble prince !" replied Lambert, " your
bishops forced me to change my name." And after much
talk in this manner, the king commanded him to go to
the matter, and to declare his mind and opinion, what
he thought as touching the sacrament of the altar.
Then Lambert beginning to speak for himself, gave
God thanks who had so inclined the heart of the king,
that he would not disdain to hear the controversies of
religion, because it happened often through the cruelty of
the bishops, that many good and innocent men were
privily murdered and put to death, without the king's
knowledge.
But now, forsomuch as that high and eternal king of
kings, in whose hands are the hearts of all princes, hath
inspired and stirred up the king's mind, that he himself
will be present to understand the causes of his subjects,
especially whom God of his divine goodness hath so
abundantly endued with so great gifts of judgment and
knowledge, he doth not mistrust but that God will
bring some great thing to pass through him, to the set-
ting forth of the glory of his name.
Then the king, witli an angry voice, interrupting his
oration, " I came not hither," said he, " to hear mine
own praises thus painted out in my presence, but briefly
to go to the matter without any more circumstance."
This he spake in Latin.
But Lambert being abashed at the king's angry words,
contrary to all men's expectation, paused a while, con-
sidering.
But the king being hasty, with anger and vehemency
said, " Wliy standest thou still ? Answer as touching
the sacrament of the altar, whether dost thou say, that it
is the body of Christ, or wilt deny it .-"' And with that
word the king lifted up his cap.
Lambert. " I answer with St. Augustine, that it is the
body of Christ, after a certain manner."
The King. " Answer me neither out of St. Augustine,
neither by the authority of any other, but tell me plainly,
whether thou sayest it is the body of Christ or no .'"
These words the king spake again in Latin.
Lambert. " Then I do not deny it to be the body of
Christ."
Tlie King. " Mark well, for now thou shalt be con-
demned even by Christ's own words, ' This is my body.' '•
Then he commanded Cranmer, archbishop of Canter-
bury to refute his assertion : who, first making a short
preface to the hearers, began his disputation with Lam-
bert, very modestly, saying, " Brother Lambert, let this
matter be handled between us impartially, that if I
shew your argument to be false by the scri})tures, you
will willingly refuse it ; but if you shall prove it true
by the manifest testimonies of the scripture, .1 promise
that I will willingly embrace it."
The argument was taken out of the Acts of the Apos-
tles, where Christ appeared to St. Paul : disputing that
it is not disagreeable to the word of God, that the body
of Christ may be in two places at once ; who being in
heaven was seen by St. Paul at the same time on earth ;
and if it may be in two places, why may it not be in
more places ?
Lambert answered, saying, that it was not proved,
that Christ's body was in two places, or more, but re-
mained rather still in one place. For the scripture does
not say, that Christ being upon the earth did speak to
St. Paul : but that suddenly alight from heaven did shine
round about him, and he falling to the ground, heard a
voice, saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest," &c. Here this
place proves nothing but that Christ, sitting in heaven,
might speak to St. Paul, and be heard upon earth.
The archbishop said, St. Paul himself witnesses, Acts
xxvi. that Christ did appear to him in the vision.
But Lambert again said, that Christ witnessed in the
same place, that he would again appear unto him, and
deliver him out of the hands of the gentiles : yet we
read in no place that Christ did corporally appear to
him.
Thus, when they had contended about the conversion
of St. Paul, and Lambert so answering for himself, that
the king seemed greatly moved ; and the bishop himself
that disputed, seemed to be entangled, and all the audi-
ence amazed ; then the bishop of Winchester alleged the
twelfth chapter of the Corinthians, where St. Paul saith,
Have I not seen Jesus.' And again, in the fifteenth chap-
ter : he appeared unto Cephas : and afterwards unto
James, then to all the apostles, but last of all he ap-
peared unto me as one born out of due time.
Lambert answered, he did not doubt but that Christ
was seen, and did appear, but he did deny that he was
in two or in divers places, according to the manner of
his body. . ,
Then Winchester again repeated the place out of
2 Cor. V, 16. " Wherefore henceforth know we no man
after the flesh : yea, though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.'
Lambert answered. That this knowledge is not to be
understood as a bodilv knowledge, and that it so ap-
peared sufficiently by'St. Paul, who speaking of his
own revelation, saith, " I knew a man, (whether in the
S64
MARTYRDOM OF JOHN LAMBERT. ETC.
[Book VIIL
body or out of the body, I cannot tell ; God knoweth ;)
which was caught up into the third heaven ; and whether
in the body or out of the body, God knoweth." Where-
by, a man sliall easily gather, that in this revelation
he was taken up in spirit into the heavens, and did
see those things, rather than that Christ came down
corporally from heaven, to shew them to him: especially,
because it was said by the angel. That even as he as-
cended into heaven, so he should come again. And
St. Peter saith. Whom the heavens must receive, it
behoved to dwell in the heavens. And moreover ap-
pointing the measure of time, he addeth, " Until the
times of the restitution of all things,'' &c.
After the bishop of Winchester had done, Tonstal
bishop of Durham, spoke much of God's omnipotency,
and saying. That if Christ could perform what he
spake, touching the converting of the body into bread,
without doubt he would speak nothing, but that he
would perform.
Lambert answered. That there was no evident place
of scripture, wherein Christ at any time says. That he
would change the bread into his body : But this is a
figurative speech, every where used in the scripture,
when the name of the thing signified is attributed to
the sign. By which figure of speech, circumcision is
called the covenant, the lamb the passover, besides six
hundred such other.
Now it remains to be settled, whether we shall judge
nil these, after the words pronounced, "to be straight-
way changed into another nature." Then they began
to rage against Lambert ; so that if he could not be over-
come with arguments, he should be vanquished with
rebukes and taunts.
Then again the king and the bishops raged against
Lambert ; so that he was not only forced to silence, but
also might have been driven into a rage, if his ears had
not been acquainted with such taunts before. After this
the other bishops, every one in his order, as they were
appointed, supplied their jdaces of disputation.
There were appointed ten in number, for the perform-
ing of this tragedy, for his ten arguments, which were
delivered to Tailor the preacher. It were too long in
this place to repeat the reasons and arguments of every
bishop ; and no less superfluous were it to do so, espe-
cially as they were all but common reasons.
Lambert, compassed in with so many and great per-
plexities, vexed on one side with checks and tslunts, and
pressed on the other side with the authority and threats
of the personages ; and partly being amazed with the
majesty of the place and the presence of the king, and
especially being wearied with standing no less than five
hours, from twelve of the clock, until five at night, chose
rather to hold his peace.
Whereby it came to pass that these bishops, who last
disputed with him, spoke what they chose without in-
terruption, save only that Lambert would now and then
allege somewhat out of St. Augustine for the defence of
his cause; in which author he seemed to be very prompt
and ready. But for the most part being overcome with
weariness and other griefs, he remained silent.
At last, when the day was passed, and torches began
to be lighted, the king said to Lambert, " What sayest
thou now after all these great labours which thou hast
taken upon thee, and all the reasons and instructions of
these learned men : Art thou not yet satisfied ? Wilt
thou live or die ? What sayest thou ? Thou hast yet
free choice."
Lambert answered ; " I yield and submit myself
wholly unto the will of your majesty." " Then," said
the king, "commit thyself unto tne hands of God, and
not unto mine."
^ Lambert. " I commend my soul unto the hands of
God, but my body I wholly yield and submit unto your
clemency." Then said the king, " if you do commit
yourself to my judgment, you must die ; "for I will not be
a patron to heretics;" and by and by turning himself to
Cromwell, he said, " Cromwell, read tlie sentence of
condemnation against him." This Cromwell was at
that time the chief friend of the gospellers. And here it
is much to be marvelled at, to see how unfortunately it
came to pass in this matter, that through the pestiferous
and crafty counsel of this one bishop of Winchester
Satan did here perform the condemnation of this Lam-
bert by no other ministers, than gospellers themselves,
Tailor, Barnes, Cranmer, and Cromwell, who after-
wards, in a manner, all suft'ered the same for the gos-
jjel's sake.
This undoubtedly was the malicious and crafty subtlety
of the bishop of Winchester, who desired rather that the
sentence might be read by Cromwell, than by any other;
so that if he refused to do it, he should have incurred
the like danger. But to be short, Cromwell, at the king's
command, took up the schedule of condemnation, and
read it.
Thus was John Lambert, in this bloody session, by
the king judged and condemned to death ; whose judg-
ment now remaineth with the Lord against that day,
when as before the tribunal seat of that great Judge both
princes and subjects shall stand and appear, not to judge,
but to be judged, according as they have done and de-
served. Ex testimonia cujusdam avTrtTZTov, A.G.
Upon the day that was appointed for this holy mar-
tyr of God to suffer, he was brought out of the prison
at eight of the clock in the morning to the house of the
Lord Cromwell, and so carried into his chamber; and
it is reported by many, that Cromwell desired of him
forgiveness, for what he had done. There Lambert,
being admonished that the hour of his death was at
hand, he was greatly comforted and cheered ; and being
brought out of the chamber into the hall, he saluted the
gentlemen, and sate down to breakfast with them, shew-
ing no manner of sadness or fear. When the breakfast
was ended, he was carried straightway to the place of
execution ; where he should offer himself to the Lord a
sacrifice of sweet savour, who is blessed in his saints,
for ever and ever. Amen.
As to the terrible manner of the burning of this blessed
martyr there is to be noted, that of all which have been
burned and offered up at Smithfield, there was yet none
so cruelly and piteously handled as he. For after his
legs were consumed and burned up to the stumps, and
the wretched tormentors and enemies of God had with-
drawn the fire from him, so that but a small fire
was left under him, then two that stood on each side
of him with their halberts pitched him upon their
pikes, as far as the chain would reach. Then he, lifting
up such hands as he had, and his finger's ends flaming
with fire, cried to the people in these words, " None
but Christ, none but Christ!" and so being set down
again from their halberts, fell into the fire, and there
ended his life.
During the time that he was in the archbishop's
ward at Lambeth, which was a little before the dispu-
tation before the king, he wrote an excellent confession
or defence of his cause to king Henry.
Li that treatise he confirmed his doctrine touching
the sacrament by testimonies of the scriptures ; by which
he proves the body of Christ, whether it rises or ascends,
or sits, or is conversant here, to be always in one place.
Then gathering the opinions of the ancient doctors,
he proves and declares the sacrament to be a mystical
matter. Yet he did not deny but that the holy sacra-
ment was the very natural body of our Saviour, and the
wine his natural blood ; and that moreover his natural
body and blood were in those mysteries, but after a
certain manner, as all the ancient doctors interpret it.
His argument is as follows :
" Christ is ascended bodily into heaven, and sits upon
the right hand of the Father ; that is to say, is with the
Father in glory ; that by the infallible promise of God,
he shall not return before the general doom, which shall
be at the end of the world. And as he is no more cor-
porally in the world, so I cannot see how he can be cor-
porally in the sacrament. And yet I acknowledge and
confess, that the holy sacrament of Christ's body and
blood is the very body and blood, in a certain manner,
which shall be showed hereafter with your grace's favour
and permission, according to the words of our Saviour,
who when instituting the same holy sacrament, says,
.^wi'^^H'^*^^
iuriimg of Cotobribfif.
Page 5(55.
A.D, 1527—1540.]
THE DEATH OF ROBERT PACKINGTON, ETC.
566
' Take, eat ; this is my body.' And again, ' This is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many
for the remission of sins.' Matt. .vxvi. 2<i— 28.
" The scriptures for the continuation of my opinion, are
these : ' lie was taken up ; and a cloud received him
out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by
them,' &c. Here it is evident that Christ departed and
ascended in a visible and circumscribed body. That
this departing was visible and in a visible body, these
words do testify : ' Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven .' This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.' Acts i. [) — 11.
Here we see that Jesus is taken away into heaven. And
then it must be from out of the world, according to that
which we read, John xvi. 28. ' 1 came forth from the
Father, and am come into the world : again, I leave
the world, and go to the Father.'
" It is showed further, after what manner he shall come
again, by these words, ' He shall so come in like man-
ner as ye have seen him go into heaven.' Which is, as
you did visibly see him ascend to heaven, a cloud em-
bracing him and taking him from among you : even so
shall you visibly see him come again in the clouds, as we
read, Matt. xxvi. 64. ' Hereafter shall ye see the Son
of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming
in the clouds of heaven.' And again, Matt. xxiv. M).
' And they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory.'
" My sentence is this : that Christ ascended into heaven,
and so hath forsaken the world, and there shall abide,
sitting on the right hand of his Father, without return-
ing hither again, until the general doom ; at which time
he shall come from thence, to judge the dead and tlie
living. All this I do believe is done in the natural body,
which he took of the blessed Virgin Mary his mother,
in which he also suffered passion for our safety and re-
ddmption upon a cross ; which died for us, and was
biiric'd : in which he also did rise again to life immortal.
TliiiL Christ is thus ascended in his manhood and natural
body, and so taken up into heaven, we may soon prove ;
forsomuch as the godhead of him is never out of heaven,
but ever re^ lenishing both heaven and earth ; and be-
sides that, is infinite and interminable or uncircum-
scnptible, so that it neither can properly either ascend
or descend, being without all alteration, and immutable,
or immovable.
"So that now his natural body being taken up from
among us, and departed out of the world, the same can no
more return from thence to the end of the world. For as
Peter witnesseth. Acts iii. 21. 'Whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began.' And the same doth the article
of our creed teach us, which is, from thence (i. e. from
heaven) shall he come, to judge the quick and the dead.
Which time St. Paul calls the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, (1 Tim. vi.)
" S-ieing then that this natural body of our Saviour,
which was born of his motlier the Virgin Mary, is wholly
taken up into heaven, and departed out of this world ;
and so saith St. Peter, he must remain in heaven until
the end of the world, which he calleth the time when
all things must be restored ; this 1 say, seen and be-
lieved according to our creed and the scriptures, I can-
not perceive how his natural body can be in the world,
and in the sacrament. And yet notwithstanding is this
true, that the holy sacrament is Christ's body, and blood,
as after shall be declared.''
Hie Death of Robert Packington.
Among other matters done this present year, (A.D.
1538,) was the lamentable death of Robert Packington,
mercer of London, caused by the enemies of God's
word. The story is this : Robert Packington, being a
man of substance, and dwelling in Cheapside, used
every day at five o'clock, winter and summer, to
go to pray at a church then called St. Thomas of Acres,
but now named Mercers' Chapel. Wlien, one very misty
morning, such as lias seldom been seen, as he was cross-
ing the street from his house to the church, he was sud-
denly shot with a gun, but the murderer was a great
while unknown. Although many in the mean time were
suspected, yet none could be found faulty therein; till at
length by the confession of Doctor Incenc, dean of St.
Paul's, on his death-bed, it was made known, and by
him confessed, that he himself was the author, by hiring
an Italian, for forty crowns, to do the deed.
The cause why he was so little favoured with the
clergy, was, that he was known to be a man of great
courage, and one that could both speak, and also would
be heard : for at the time he was one of the burgesses
of the parliament for the city of London, and had talked
somewhat against the covetousness and cruelty of the
clergy, wherefore he was had in contempt with them ;
and it was thought that he also had had some talk with
the king, for which he was tiie more had in disdain with
them ; and murdered by Doctor Inceut, as has beea
declared.
And thus much of Robert Packington, who was the
brother of Augustine Packington, who deceived Bishop
Tonstal, in buying the new translated Testament of
Ttiidal. This piteous murder, although it was privy
and siulden, yet has it pleased the Lord not to keep it
in darkness, but to bring it at length to hght.
The hum'ing of one Collins at London.
Neither is there here to be omitted the burning of one
Collins, sometime a lawyer and a gentleman, who also
suffered this year in Sinithfield, (A.D. 1538.) Whom al-
though I do not here recite as in the number of God's
professed martyrs, yet neither do I think him to be cleaa
sequestered from the company of the Lord's saved flock
and family, notwithstanding that the church of Rome did
condemn and burn him for an heretic : but rather do
recount him as one belonging to the holy company of
saints. At least this case of him and of his end, may
well reprove and condemn their cruelty and madness,
in burning without all discretion this man, being mad
and deprived of his perfect wits, as the following will shew.
This gentleman had a wile of exceeding beauty and
comeliness, but notwithstanding of so light behaviour
and unchaste conduct (nothing corresponding to the
grace of her beauty) that she forsook her husband ; who
loved her entirely, and betook herself to another.
Which, when he understood, he took it very grievously
and heavily to heart ; and at last being overcome with
exceeding grief and heaviness, he became mad, being at
that time a student of the law in London. When he
was thus deprived of his wits, by chance he came into a
church, where the priest was saying mass ; and when he
came to the place where they use to hold up and show
the sacrament, Collins seeing the priest holding up the
host over his head, and showing it to the people ; he, in
like manner counterfeiting the priest, took up a little
dog by the legs and held him over his head, showing him
to the people. And for this he was by and by brought
to examination, and condemned to the fire, and was
burned, and the dog with him, in the same year iu which
John Lambert was burned.
The luming of Cowhridge at Oxford, A.D. 1538.
With this Collins may also be associated the burning
of Cowhridge, who likewise being mad and beside his
right senses, was either in the same or the next year fol-
lowing condemned by Longland bishop of Lincoln, and
committed to the fire at Oxford. What the opinions
and articles were wherewith he was charged, it is not ne-
cessary here to rehearse. For as he was then a man mad,
and destitute of sense and reason, so his words and say-
ings could not be souu'!. Yea rather, what wise maa
would ever collect articles against him, who said he
could not tell what. And if his articles were so horrible
and mad as Cope in his dialogues declares them to have
been, then was he in my judgment a man more fit to be
sent to Bedlam than to have been sent to the fire in Smith-
fielJ to be burned. For what reason is it to require
666 THE KING'S LETTER TO THE EMPEROR AND OTHER CHRISTIAN KINGS. [Book VIII.
reason of a creature mad or unreasonable, or to make
heresy of the words of a senseless man, not knowing
what he affirmed ?
William Leiton and Puftedew, Martyrs.
About the same time, one Puttedew also was con-
demned to the tire, for having gone into a church ; and
there merrily telling the priest, that after he had drunk up
all the winei he blessed the hungry peo])le with the empty
chalice. He was immediately apprehended and buined.
William Leiton, was a monk of Eye, in Suffolk, and
was burned at Norwich, for speaking against a certain
idol which was accustomed to be carried about in pro-
cessions at Eye ; and also for holding that the sacra-
mental supper ought to be administered in both kinds.
In the burning of another man, named Peke, at
Ipswich, I find it recorded, that when he was bound to
a stake, and the furze set on fire about him : that one
Doctor Reading who was standing there, with Doctor
Hevre and Doctor Springwell, and having a long white
wand in his hand, knocked him upon the shoulder, and
said, " Peke, recant, and believe that the sacrament of
the altar is the very body of Christ, flesh, blood, and
bone, after the priest hath spoken the words of conse-
cration over it, and here have I authority in my hand to
absolve thee of thy unbelief;" and holding up a scroll
of paper in his hand. When he had spoken these words,
Peke answered, and said, " I reject it, and thee also ;"
and he spit blood, for his veins brake in his body for ex-
treme anguish. And when Peke had so spoken, then
Doctor Reading said, "To as many as shall cast a stick
to the burning of tliis heretic, is granted forty days of
pardon by my lord bishop of Norwich."
Then Baron Curson, Sir John Audley, knight, with
many others there i)resent, rose from their seats, and
with their swords cut down boughs, and threw them
into the fire, and so did all the multitude of the people.
In the year before this, which was 1.537, it was stated
how Pope Paul III. called a general council, to be held
at Mantua. The king of England, among other princes,
refused either to go or to send at the pope's call ; and for
defence of himself put out a public protestation, rendering
just and sufficient reasons, why he would not, nor was
bound to obey the pope's command. Which protesta-
tion is before to be read. This council, appointed to be-
gin the 23d of May, was stopped by the duke of Mantua,
pretending that he would suffer no council there, unless
the pope would protect the city with a sufficient army,
&c. For which cause the pope prorogued the council to
the month of November following, appointing at the first
no certain place. At length he named and determined
the city of Trivirence, in the Venetian territory ; to
which, when the king v.-as requested by the emperor and
Other states, to resort thither, either by himself, or to
send ; he again refused (as he had done before), and sent
his protestation to the emperor and other christian
princes.
■' Henry VITL, by the Grace of God, King of England
and France, i<(c. salutefh the Emperor, Christian
Princes, and all true Christian men, desiring Peace and
Concord amongst them.
" WTiereas, not long since, a book came forth in our
and all our council's names, which contained many
causes why he refused the council, then, by the bishop
of Rome's usurped power, first indicted at Mantua, to
be kept the three-and-twentieth day of May, after pro-
rogued to November, no place appointed where it should
be kept : and, whereas, the same book doth sufficiently
prove, that our cause could take no hurt ; neither with
any thing done or decreed in such a company of men
addicted to one sect, nor in any other council called by
his usurped power ; we think it unnecessary, so oft to
make new protestations, as the bishop of Rome and his
courts, by subtlety and craft, do invent ways to mock
the world by new pretended general councils. Yet,
notwithstanding, because that some things now occurred,
either upon occasion given us by change of the place, or
else through other considerations, which now being
known to the world, may do much good, we thought we
should do but even as that love enforceth us, which we
owe unto Christ's faith and religion, to add this epistle.
And yet we protest that we neither put forth that book,
neither yet we would this epistle to be set before it, that
thereby we should seem less to desire a general council
than any other prince or potentate ; but rather to be
more desirous of it, so it were free for all parts, and uni-
versal. And further, we desire all good princes, poten-
tates, and people, to esteem and think, that no prince
would more willingly be present at such a council than
we ; such a one we mean, as we spoke of in our protesta-
tion made concerning the council of Mantua.
" Truly as our forefathers invented nothing more holy
than general councils, used as they ought to be, so there
is almost nothing that may do more hurt to the Christian
commonwealth, to the faith, to our religion, than gene-
ral councils, if they be abused to lucre, to gain, to the
establishment of errors. They are called general, and
even by their name admonish us, that all Christian men,
who dissent in any opinion, may in them openly, frankly,
and without fear of punishment or displeasure say their
mind. For seeing such things as are decreed in general
councils, touch equally all men that give assent to them,
it is meet that every man may boldly say there what he
thinks. And verily we suppose, that it ought not to be
called a general council, where only those men are heard
who are determined for ever, in all points, to defend the
popish part, and to arm themselves to fight in the quar-
rel of the bishop of Rome, though it were against God
and his scripture. It is no general council, neither
ought it to be called general, where the same men are
both advocates and adversaries, accusers and judges ; no,
it is against the law of nature, either that we should con-
descend to so unreasonable a law against ourselves, or
that we should suffer ourselves to be left without all de-
fence, and being oppressed with greatest injuries, to have
no refuge to succour ourselves at. The bishop of Rome
and his are our great enemies, as we and all the world
may well perceive by his doings.
" He desireth nothing more than our hurt, and the de-
struction of our realm ; do not we then violate the judg-
ment of nature, if we give him power and authority to
be our judge ? His pretended honour, first gotten by
superstition, after increased by violence, and other ways
as evil as that ; his power set up by pretence of religion,
indeed both against religion, and also contrary to the
word of God : his primacy, born by the ignorance of the
world, nourished by the ambition of the bishops of Rome,
defended by places of scripture falsely understood ; these
three things, we say, which are fallen with us, and are
like to fall in otlier realms shortly, shall they not be es-
tablished again, if he may decide our cause as it pleases
him ? If he may at his pleasure oppress a cause most
righteous ? Certainly he is very blind that sees not what
end we may look for of our controversies, if such our
enemy may give the sentence.
"We desire, if it were in anywise possible, a council,
where there would be some hope that those things shall
be restored, which now, being depraved, are likely (if not
amended) to be the utter ruin of the Christian religion.
And as we do desire such a council, and think it meet
that all men in all their prayers should desire and crave
it of God, even so we think it appertains to our office,
to provide that these popish subtleties hurt none of our
subjects, and also to admonish other christian princes,
that the bishop of Rome may not by their consent abuse
the authority of kings, either by the extinguishing of the
true preaching of scripture, (that now beginneth to
spring, to grow, and spread abroad) or to the troubling
of princes' liberties, to the diminishing of kinsjs' au-
thorities, and to the great blemish of their ]irinceiy
majesty. We doubt not but an impartial reader will
soon approve such things as we here write, not so much
for our excuse, as that the world may perceive both tlie
sundry deceits, crafts, and subtleties of the papists, and
also how much we desire that controversies in matters
of religion may once be taken away.
" What other princes will do we cannot tell ; but we
A.D. 1527—1540.] THE KING'S LETTER TO THE EMPEROR AND OTHER CHRISTIAN KINGS. 567
will never leave our realm at this time ; nor will we trust
any proctor with our cause, wherein the whole stay and
wealth of our realm stands, but rather we will be at the
handling thereof ourself. For except another judge be
agreed unon fur those matters, and a more commodious
place be provided for the debating of our causes ;
althou'^h all other things were as we would have them,
yet we may lawfully refuse to come or send any to this
pretended council. We will in no case make him our
arbiter, who, not many years past, (our cause not heard,)
gave sentence against us. We require that such doc-
trine, as we, following the scripture, profess, be rightly
examined, discussed, and brought to the scripture, as to
the only touchstone of true learning.
" We will not suffer them to be abolished before they
are discussed, or oppressed before they are known ; much
less will we suffer them to be trodden down, being so
clearly true. No, as there is no jot in Scripture but we
will defend, though it were with jeopardy of our life, and
peril of this our realm ; so there is nothing that op-
presses this doctrine, or obscures it, but we will be at
continual war with it. As we have abrogated all old
popish traditions in this our realm, which either helped
his tyranny, or increased his pride ; so if the grace of
God forsake us not, we will foresee that no new naughty
traditions be made with our consent, to bind us or our
health.
" If men will not be willingly blind, they shall easily see
even by a due and evident proof in reason, though grace
doth not yet by the word of Christ enter into them,
how small the authority of the bishop of Rome is, by
the lawful denial of the duke of Mantua for the place.
For if the bisliop of Rome did earnestly intend to keep
a council at Mantua, and hath power of the law by God
to call princes to what place he liketh : why hath he not
also authority to choose what place he listeth ? The
bishop chose Mantua : the duke kept him out of it. If
Paul the bishop of Rome's authority be so great as he
pretendeth, why could he not compel Frederick the
duke of Mantua, that the council might be kept there .'
The duke would not suffer it. No, he forbade him his
town.
" How chanceth it, that here excommunications flee
not abroad ? Why doth he not punish this duke ? Why
is his power that was wont to be more than full, here
empty ? Wont to be more than all, here nothing ? Doth
he not call men in vain to a council, if they that come at
his calling be excluded the place to the which he calleth
them ? i\Iay not kings justly refuse to come at his call,
when the duke of Mantua may deny him the place that
he chooseth ? If other princes order him as the duke of
Mantua had done, what place shall be left him, where
he may keep his general council .''
" Again, if princes have given him this authority to
call a council, is it not necessary that they give him also
all those things, without the which he cannot exercise
that his power ? Shall he call men, and will ye hinder him
to find a place to call them unto ? Truly he is not wont
to ajipoint one of his own cities, a place to keep the
council in. No, the good man is so faithful and friendly
towards others, that seldom he desires princes to be
Lis guests."
The protestation then concludes as follows : —
"Whether these our writings please all men or no,
we think we ought not to pass much. No, if that which
indifferently is written of us may please indifferent rea-
ders, our desire is accomplished. The false censure and
mistaking of things by partial men shall not move us, or
else very little. If we have said aught agaijjst the de-
ceits of the bishop of Rome, that may seem spoken too
sharply, we pray you impute it to the hatred we bear unto
Lis vices, and not to any evil will that we bear him. No,
that he and all his may perceive that we are rather at
strife with his vices than with him and his ; our prayer
is, that it may please God at the last to open their eyes,
to n)ake soft their hard hearts, and that they once may
with us (their own glory set apart) study to set forth
the everlasting glory of the ever-living God.
" Thus, mighty emperor, fare you most heartily well,
and you christian princes, the pillars and state of Chris-
tendom, fare you heartily well. Also all you, what peo-
ple soever you are, who desire that the gospel and glory
of Christ may flourish, fare you heartily well."
As the Lord of Lis goodness Lad raised up Thou.as
Cromwell to be a friend and patron to the gospel ; so,
on the contrary side, Satan had his organ also, which
was Stephen Gardiner, by all wiles and subtle means to
put back the same. Who, after he had brought his pur-
pose to pass in burning good John Lambert, proceeding
still in his crafts and wiles, and thinking under the
name of heresies, sects, anabaptists, and sacramentaries,
to exterminate aU good books, and faithful professors
of God's word out of England, so wrought upon the king,
that the next year, which was A.D. 1539, he gave out
these injunctions.
Certain other Injunctions set forth by the Authority of
the King, ayainst Enylish Books, Sects, and Sacra-
mentaries also, with putting down the Day of Thomas
a Becket.
" First, that none, without special licence of the king,
transport or bring from outward parts into England any
manner of English books ; neither yet sell, give, utter,
or publish any such, upon pain to forfeit all their goods
and chattels, and their bodies to be imprisoned, so long
as it shall please the king's majesty.
" Also, that none shall print, or bring over any English
books witL annotations or prologues, unless such books
be before examined by the king's privy-council, or
others appointed by his highness : and yet not without
these words be put thereto. Cum Privilegio Reyali,
and also. Ad imprimendum solum. Neither yet to im-
print it, without the king's privilege be printed therewith
in the English tongue, that all men may read it. Neither
shall they print any translated book, without the plain
name of the translator be to it, unless the printer is to be
made the translator, and to suffer the fine and punish-
ment thereof at tTie king's pleasure.
" Also, that none of the occupation of printing shall
within the realm print, utter, sell, or cause to be pub-
Lshed any English book of scripture, unless the same be
first viewed, examined, and admitted by the king's
highness, or one of his privy-council, or one bishoj)
within the realm, whose name shall therein be expressed ;
upon pain of the king's most high displeasure, the loss
of their goods and chattels, and imprisonment so long as
it shall please the king.
" Also, those who are in any error, as sacramentaries,
anabaptists, or others, shall not sell any books having such
opinions in them ; otherwise on being once known, both
the books and such persons shall be detected and dis-
closed immediately unto the king's majesty, or one of
his privy councU ; to the intent to have them pun-
ished without favour, even with the extremity of the law.
" Also, that none of the king's subjects shall reason,
dispute, or argue upon the sacrament of the altar ; upon
pain of losing their lives, goods, and chattels, without
any favour : only those excepted that be learned in di-
vinity, and they to have such liberty only in their schools
and other places appointed for sucL matters.
" Also, that the holy bread and holy water, proces-
sion, kneeling and creeping on Good Friday to the
cross, and Easter-day, setting up of lights before the
Corpus Christi, bearing of candles on Candlemas-day,
purification of women delivered of child, offering of
chrysomes, keeping of the four offering-days, paying
their tithes, and such-like ceremonies, must be ob-
served and kept till it shall please the king to change or
abrogate any of them. (This article was made because
many of the people were not satisfied or contented with
the ceremonies then used.)
" Finally, that all those priests that are married, and
such of them as are openly known to have wives, or that
hereafter do intend to marry, shall be deprived of all
spiritual promotion, and from doing any of the duties of a
priest, and shall have no manner of office, dignity, cure,
privilege, profit, or commodity, in anything appertaining
to the clergy ; but from thenceforth shall be taken, had.
5^8
INJUNCTIONS SET FORTH BY THE KING.
[Book VIII.
and reputed to be lay-persons, to all purposes and intents ;
and those that shall after this proclamation marry, shall ex-
pose themselves ti his grace's indignation, and suffer pun-
ishment and imprisonment at his grace's will and pleasure.
" Also, he chargeth all archbishops, bishojis, arch-
deacons; deacons, provosts, parsons, vicars, curates,
and other ministers, and every of them in their own jier-
sons, within their cures diligently to preach, teach, o])en,
and set forth to the people, the glory of God, and the truth
of his word ; and also considering the abuses and super-
stitions that have crept into the hearts and minds of
many, by reason of their fond ceremonies, he chargeth
them upon pain of imprisonment, at his grace's plea-
sure, not only to preach and teach the word of God ac-
cordingly ; but also sincerely and jiurely declaring the
difference between things commanded by God, and the
rites and ceremonies in their church then used, lest the
people thereby might grow into further sus])icion.
" Also, forasmuch as it appears now clearly, that
Thomas a Beoket, formerly archbishop of Canterbury,
stubbornly withstanding the wholesome laws established
against the enormities of the clergy, by the king's noble
progenitor King Henry II., for the well-being, rest, and
tranquillity of this realm, did, of his froward mind, flee
into France, and thence to the bishop of Rome, who was
a maintainer of tliose enormities, to procure the abroga-
tion of the said laws, whereby arose much trouble in
this said realm. His death they untruly call a martyr-
dom ; but that happened upon a rescue having been at-
tempted, and on which occasion (as it is written) he
gave opprobrious words to the gentlemen, who then
counselled him to give up his stubbornness and to
avoid the commotion of the people, who had risen up to
attempt a rescue ; and he not only called one of them
by a bad name, but also took Tracey by the bosom, and
violently shook him, and plucked him in such a manner,
that he had almost thrown him down on the pavement
of the church ; so that in this affray, one of their com-
pany perceiving the same, struck him, and so in the
throng Becket was slain : and further, that this canoni-
zation was made only by the bishop of Rome ; because
Becket had been a chamjiion to maintain his usurped
authority, and anencourager of the iniquity of the clergy.
"For these, and for other great and urgent causes,
which it would be too tedious to recite, the king's
majesty, by the advice of his council, had thought it
expedient to declare to his loving subjects, that notwith-
standing the said canonization, there appeareth nothing
in his life and exterior conversation, whereby he should
be called a saint, but rather esteemed to have been a
rebel and traitor to his prince.
" Therefore his grace straightly chargeth and com-
mandeth, that from henceforth the said Thomas a Becket
shall not be esteemed, named, reputed, and called a
saint, but Bishop Becket ; and that his images and pic-
tures through the whole realm shall be pulled down
and thrown out of all churches, chapels, and other
places ; and that from henceforth the days which were
used to be a festival in his name, shall not be observed ;
neither shall the service, office, antiphons, collects, and
prayers, be read in his name, but razed and put out of all
their books ; and that all the festival days, already abro-
gated, shall be in nowise solemnized, but his grace's ordi-
nances and injimctions thereupon observed ; to the intent
his grace's loving subjects shall be no longer blindly led
and abused to commit idolatry, as they have done in times
past ; upon jiain of his majesty's indignation, and im-
prisomeut at his grace's pleasure.
Finally, his grace straightly charges and commands
that his subjects keep and observe all and singular these
injunctions made by his majesty, upon the pain therein
contained."
Here, followeth how Religion began to go backward.
To many who are yet alive, and who can testify to these
things, it is not unknown, how variable the state of reli-
gion stood in these days,; how hardly and with what dif-
ficulty it came forth, what chances and changes it suf-
fered. Even as the king was ruled and gave ear some-
time to one, sometime to another ; so one while it went
forward, at another time as much backward again, and
sometimes altered and ciianged for a season, according
as those could prevail who were about the king. So
long as Queen Anne lived, the gospel had success.
After, by sinister instigation of some about the king,
she was made away with, the course of the gospel began
again to decline ; but the Lord then stirred up the lord
Cromwell to help it, who no doubt would have done much
for the increase of God's true religion, and had bron.'ht
much more to perfection, if the pestilent adversaries had
not craftily undermined him and supplanted his virtuous
proceedings. By means of which adversaries it came to
pass that lord Cromwell was accused of high treason by
the duke of Norfolk, in the king's name, and arrested
and sent to the Tower. He was hated Ijy the popish
party, for it was through him that many of the most im-
portant reforms were made. A bill of attainder was
passed against him in June, and he was beheaded on J
Tower-hill, 28th July, 1.54U. I
Among these adversaries, the chief was Stephen Gar-
diner, bishop of Winchester, who, with his confederates
and adherents, dissatisfied with the state of the lord
Cromwell, and at the late marriage of the lady Anne of
Cleves, (who, in the beginning of the year l.')40, was mar-
ried to the king), as also grieved at the dissolution of the J
monasteries, and fearing the growing of the gospel, M
sought all occasions to interrupt these happy beginnings,
and to train the king to their own purpose.
It happened that the lord Cromwell, for the better
establishing of sincere religion, had devised a marriage
for the king, to be concluded between him and the lady
Anne of Cleves, whose other sister was already married
to the duke of Saxony. By this marriage it was supposed
that a perpetual league, amity, and alliance would be
nourished between this realm and the princes of Ger-
many ; and so godly religion might be made more strong
on both parts against the bishop of Rome, and his ty-
rannical religion. But the devil, ever envying the pros-
perity of the gospel, laid a stumbling-block in the way for
the king to stumble upon. For when the parents of the
noble lady were conferred with for the furtherance of
the marriage, the duke of Saxony, her brother-in-law,
disliked the marriage. The crafty bishop of Winchester,
taking advantage of this, so alienated the king's mind
from the duke, that he brought the king at length out of
credit with that religion and doctrine which the duke J
had maintained for many years before. I
This wily Winchester, with his crafty assistants, and
also by other pestilent persuasions, ceased not to seek
all means to overthrow religion. First, bringing the king,
in hatred with the German princes, then putting him in
fear of the emperor, of the French king, of the pope, of
the king of Scotland, and other foreign powers ; but
especially of civil tumults and commotions within his
own kingdom ; which above all things he most dreaded,
by reason of these innovations of religion, and the dis-
solving of abbeys, and the abolishing of rites, and other
customs of the church, which had so fast a hold on the
minds of the people, that it was to be feared that their
hearts were or would be shortlystirred up against him, un-
less some speedy remedy were provided. The bishop ex-
horted the king for his own safeguard, and tranquillity of
his realm, to see how and by what policy so manifold
mischiefs might be prevented. He suggested that no
other way or shift could be better devised, than to shew
himself sharp and severe against the new sectaries, the
anabaptists, and sacramentarians (as they called them) ;
and that he should also set forth such articles, confirming
the ancient catholic faith, as might recover his credit with
christian princes, and that all the world might see and
judge him to be a right and perfect catholic. By these
and such suggestions the king was too much led away ;
and he then began to withdraw his defence from the re-
formation of true religion, supposing to procure to liim-
self more safety in his own realm, and also to avoid such
dangers as might happen by other princes. And there-
fore, although he had rejected the pope out of this realm,
yet because he would declare himself nevertheless to be
a good catholic son of the mother church, and a with-
stander of new innovations and heresies (as the blind
A.D. 1527—1540.]
THE SIX ARTICLES ARE ENACTED BY PARLIAMENT.
569
opinion of the world then did esteem them) he stretched
out his liand to the condemning and burning of Lam-
bert ; tlien he gave out those injunctions above prefixed ;
and now to increase this opinion with all men, in the
year following, which was 1540, he summoned a par-
liament at Westminster, on the twenty-eighth day of
Aiiril, of all the states and burgesses of the realm ; also
a synod or convocation of all the archbishops, bishops,
and other learned of the clergy of this realm, to be in
like manner assembled.
• The Act of the Six Articles.
In this parliament, synod, or convocation, certain
articles, matters, and questions, touching religion, were
decreed by certain prelates, to the number of six, com-
monly called The Six Articles, to be received among the
king's subjects for the purpose of unity. But uhat
unity followed, the groaning hearts of a great number,
and also the cruel death of many, both iu the days of
King Henry, and of Queen Mary, can so well declare,
that as I pray God the like may never be felt hereafter.
The doctor of these wicked articles is worthy of no
memory among christian men, but rather deserves to be
buried in perpetual oblivion, yet the office of history
compels us, for the light of posterity, faithfully and truly
to comprise things done in the church, as well at one
time as at another ; this we shall do briefly, and recapitu-
late the sum of the six articles as they were given out.
The First Article.
The first article agreed upon in this present parlia-
ment was this, that in the most blessed sacrament of the
altar by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty
■word (it being spoken by the priest) is present really,
under the form of bread and wine, the natural body and
blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as conceived of the
Virgin Mary ; and after the consecration there remains
no substance of bread or wine, or any other substance,
but the substance of Christ, God and man.
The Second Article.
Secondly, that the communion in both kinds is not
necessary for salvation to all persons by the law of God ;
and that it is to be believed, and not doubted of, but
that in the flesh, under form of bread, is the very blood,
and with the blood, under form of wine, is the very flesh
as well separate as they were both together.
The Third Article.
Thirdly, that priests, after the order of priesthood,
may not marry by the law of God.
The Fourth Article.
Fourthly, that the vows of chastity or widowhood, by
man or woman made to God advisedly, ought to be ob-
served by the law of God ; and that it exempteth them
from other liberties of christian people, which otherwise
they might enjoy.
The Fifth Article.
Fifthly, that it is meet and necessary that private
masses be continued and admitted in this English church
and congregation ; and in them good christian people,
ordering themselves accordingly, do receive both godly
and goodly consolations and benefits ; and it is agreea-
ble also to God's law.
The Sixth Article.
Sixthly, that auricular confession was expedient and
necessary, and ought to be retained and continued in
the church of God.
After these articles were concluded, the prelates per-
ceiving that such a foul and violent act could not prevail,
unless straight and bloody penalties were set upon them,
caused to be ordained and enacted by the king and the
lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in the
said parliament;
" That if any person or persons within this realm of
England, or any other the king's dominions, after the
twelfth day of July uext coming, by word, writing, im-
printing, cyphering, or any otherwise, should publish,
preach, teach, say, affirm, declare, dispute, argue or hold
any opinion, that in the blessed sacrament of the altar,
under form of bread and wine (after the consecration
thereof), there is not present really the natural body and
blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as conceived of the
Virgin Mary ; or that after the said consecration there
remaineth any substance of the bread or wine, or any
other substance of Christ, God and man ; or after the
time abovesaid, publish, preach, teach, say, affirm, de-
clare, dispute, argue, or hold opinion, That in the flesh,
under the form of bread is not the very blood of Christ,
or that with the blood of Christ, under the form of wine,
is not the very flesh of Christ, as well apart, as though
they were both together ; or by any of the means above-
said, or otherwise, preach, teach, declare, or affirm the said
sacrament to be any other substance than is abovesaid, or
by any means contemn, deprave, or despise the said blessed
sacrament ; that then every such ))erson so offending, their
aiders, comforters, counsellors, consenters, and abettors
therein (being thereof convicted in form underwritten, by
the authority abovesaid) should be deemed and adjudged
heretics, and every such off"ence should be adjudged as
manifest heresy; and that every such off'enderand ofl'enders
should therefore have and suffer judgment, execution,
pain and pains of death by way of burning, without any
abjuration, benefit of the clergy, or sanctuary, to be
therefore permitted, had, allowed, or suffered ; and also
should forfeit and lose to the king's highness, his heirs
and successors, all his or their honours, manors, castles,
lands, tenements, rents, reversions, services, possessions,
and all other his or their hereditaments, goods and
chattels, farms and freeholds, whatever they were,
through any such offence or offences committed or done,
or at any time after, as in any case of high treason.''
And as to the other five articles, the penalty de-
vised for them was this: "That every such person or
persons that preach, teach, obstinately affirm, uphold,
maintain, or defend, after the twelfth of July of the said
year, any thing contrary to the same ; or if any being in-
orders, or after a vow advisedly made, did marry, or
make marriage, or contract matrimony, in so doing they
should be adjudged as felons, and lose both life, and forfeit
goods, as in the case of felony, without any benefit of the
clergy, or privilege of the church or of the sanctuary," &c.
Also, "That every such person or persons, who after the
day aforesaid, by word, writing, printing, cyphering, or
otherwise, do j)ublish, declare or hold opinion contrary
to the five articles above expressed, being for any such
ofl^ence duly convicted or attainted, for the first time,
besides the forfeit of all his goods, and chattels, and pos-
sessions whatsoever, should suffer imprisonment of his
body at the king's pleasure ; and for the second time,
being accused, presented, and thereof convicted, should
suffer as in the case aforesaid of felony.''
Also, " If any within the order of priesthood, before the
time of the said parliament, had married or contracted
matrimony, or vowed widowhood, the said matrimony
should stand utterly void and be dissolved.''
Also, " That the same danger that belonged to priests
marrying wives, should also redound to women who are
married to the priests."
Furthermore, for the more effectual execution of the
premises, it was enacted by the said parliament, " That
full authority of inquisition of all such heresies, felonies,
and contempts, should be committed and directed down
into every shire, to certain persons specially appointed ;
that such persons, three at the least (provided always the
archbishop, or bishop, or his chancellor, or his com-
missary be one) should sit four times at least in the
year, having full power to take information and accu-
sation, by the depositions of any two lawful persons at
the least, as well as by the oaths of twelve men, to ex-
amine and inquire of all and singular the heresies, felo-
nies, and contempts above remembered ; having also as
ample power to make process against every person or
persons indicted, presented, or accused before them ;
also to hear and determine the aforesaid heresies, felonies,
contempts, and other offences, as weU as if the matter
had been presented before the justices of peace in theii
570
OBJECTIONS TO THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VIII
sessions. And also that the said justices in their ses-
sions, and every steward or under-steward, or his de-
puty, in their law-days, should have power by the oaths
of twelve lawful men to inquire likewise of all and
singular the heresies, felonies, contempts, and other
offences, and to hear and determine the same, to all
effects of this present act," &c.
" Provided that no person or persons thereupon
accused, indited or presented, should be admitted to
challenge any that should be empanelled for the trial of
any matter or cause, other than for malice or envy ;
which challenge should forthwith be tried iu like man-
ner, as in cases of felony, &c.
" Provided moreover, that every person that should be
named commissioner in this inquisition, should first take
oatii, the tenor of which oath here ensueth.
The Oath of the Commissioners.
" You shall swear, that you to your cunning, wit and
power, shall truly and indifferently execute the autho-
rity to you given by the king's commission, made for
correction of heretics and other offenders mentioned in
the same commission, without any favour, affection,
corruption, dread, or malice, to be borne to any person or
persons, as God you help and all saints.''
And thus much is briefly collected out of the act and
originals, which are to be seen in the Stat. Anno 31.
Reg. Hen. 8. concerning the six articles, which other-
wise for the bloody cruelty thereof, are called " The
Whip with six strings," set forth after the death of
queen Anne, and of good John Lambert, devised by
the cruelty of the bishops, but especially of the bishop
of Winchester, and at length also subscribed by king
Henry.
These six articles above specified, although they con-
tained manifest errors, heresies, and absurdities against
all scripture and learning ; yet such was the miserable
and unhappy state of that time, and the powerof darkness,
that the simple cause of truth and of religion was utterly
left desolate, and forsaken of all friends. For every man
seeing that the king wished to have these articles passed,
few in all that parliament would either appear to
perceive what was to be defended, or durst defend
what they understood to be true ; save only Cranmer,
archbishop of Canterbury, who then being married (as is
supposed), like a constant patron of God's cause, took
upon him the defence of that truth, which was so op-
pressed in the parliament, and for three days together
continued disputing against these six wicked articles.
Cranmer behaved himself with such humble modesty,
and with such obedience, towards his prince, and pro-
testing that the cause was not his, but tlie cause of
Almighty. God, that his courage was not disliked of the
king, and his reasons and allegations were so strong,
that they could not well be refuted. The king, (who
ever bare special favour to him) admired his zealous
defence, and only desired him to depart out of the
parliament house into the council chamber, for a time,
(for safety of his conscience) till the act should pass ;
which Cranmer, notwithstanding, with humble protes-
tation refused to do.
After the parliament was finished, and that matter
concluded, the king considering the constant zeal of the
archbishop, in defence of his cause, and partly also
weighing the many authorities and reasons by which he
had confirmed the same ; sent the lord Cromwell, the
dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and all tlie lords of the
parliament, to dine with him at Lambeth : where they
signified to him, that it was the king's pleasure, that
they all should, in his highness' behalf, cherish, comfort,
and animate him, as one that in that parliament had de-
clared himself, both greatly learned, and also a man dis-
creetly wise ; and therefore they willed him not to be
discouraged in any thing that was passed in that parlia-
ment contrary to his allegations.
Cranmer most humbly thanked, first the king's high-
ness for his singular good affection towards liim, and
then all of them for their pains ; addinsj, moreover, that
he hoped in God, that hereafter his allegations and
authorities would be employed for the glory of God, and
the advantage of the kingdom. Which allegations and
authorities of his, I wish were extant to be seen and
read. No doubt but they would stand, in time to come,
in great good stead for the overthrow of the wicked and
pernicious articles aforesaid.
Allegations against the sijn Articles.
In the meantime, forasmuch as these heretical articles
are not so lightly to be passed over, whereby the rude
and ignorant multitude hereafter may be deceived in the
false and erroneous doctrine of them any more, as they
have been in times past, for lack of right instruction,
and experience of the ancient state and course of times
in our forefathers' days ; I thought, therefore, (the Lord
thereunto assisting) so much as antiquity of histories
may help to the restoring again of the truth and doc-
trine which is now decayed, to annex some allegations
out of ancient records, which may throw some light for
understanding of these new-fangled articles and heresies.
And first, as to the article of transubstantiation,
wherein this parliament enacts, that the sacrament of
the altar is the very natural body of Christ, the self same
which was born of the Virgin Mary ; and that there re-
mains no substance of bread and wine, after the i)riest's
consecration, but only the body and blood of Christ,
under the outward forms of bread and wine : here it is to
be noted, that this monstrous article of theirs was never
obtruded, received, or held, either in the Greek church,
or in the Latin church, for a catholic article of doctrine,
until the time of the Lateran council at Rome, under
Pope Innocent III., (A. D. 1215.)
And as it has been commonly understood by most
people, that this article has ever been, since the time of
Christ, a true catholic and general doctrine, commonly
received and taught in the church, being approved by
the scriptures and doctors, with the consent of all ages
to this present time ; therefore, that the contrary may
appear, and that the people may see how far they have
been beguiled, we will here make a little pause in our
history, and examine this article.
This monstrous paradox of transubstantiation was
never received publicly in the church before the time of
the Lateran council, under Pope Innocent III., A. D.
1215, or at most before the time of Lanfranc, archbishop
of Canterbury, 1070.
In the time of this Lanfranc, I deny not but tl at this
question of transubstantiation began to come into contro-
versy, and was reasoned upon, among certain learned of
the clergy. But that this article of transubstantiation
was publicly determined or authorized in the church for
a general law or catholic doctrine of all men, necessarily
to be believed, before the time of Innocent III., maybe
proved to be false.
And though our adversaries allege out of the old doc-
tors certain speeches and phrases, which they wrest and
wring to their purposes, as if this doctrine of transub-
stantiation stood upon the consent of the whole uni-
versal church, of all ages and times, of nations and
people, and that the judgment of the church was never
other than this : yet if the old doctors' sayings be well
weighed and examined, it will be found that this prodi-
gious opinion of transubstantiation had no such ground
of consent and antiquity as they imagine ; nor yet that
any heresy or treason was made of denying of transub-
stantiation before the time of Innocent III., or at the
farthest of Lanfranc.
But in our church of England it is most certain, that
transubstantiation was unknown till a very late period,
as is most evident from the epistles and homilies of
Elfric. This Elfric was made archbishop of Canterbury
about the year of our Lord 1)1)6, in the time of king
Ethelred II., and of Wulfsine, bishop of Sherborne.
Elfric was of such estimation in those days amongst
the most learned, for his learning, authority, and elo-
quence, that his writings were accepted and autlioriztd
amongst the canons and constitutions of the ilnircli in
that time, as hereby may appear ; for where the bishops
A.D. 1527—1540.]
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE SIX ARTICLES.
571
and priests before the coming of William the Conqueror
had collected a certain book of canons and ordinances to
govern the clergy, gathered out of general and particular
councils, out of the book of Gildas, out of the penitential
books of Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, out of the
writings of Egbert, archbishop of York, out of the epis-
tles of Alcuin, as also out of the writings of the old
fathers of the primitive church, &c. — among the canons
and constitutions are placed two e])istles of Elfric.
Besides this he translated two books containing eighty
sermons out of the Latin into the Saxon language, which
used then generally to be read in churches on Sundays and
other festival days of the year.
^n Epistle of Elfric to Wnlfstane, touching the Sa-
crament of the Lord's Supper.
" Christ himself blessed the eucharist before his suf-
fering ; he blessed the bread and brake it, thus speaking
to his apostles, 'Take eat; this is my body.' And
again, he blessed one chalice with wine, and also said
unto them, ' Drink ye aU of it, for this is my blood
of the New Testament, which is shed for many for
the remission of sins.' The Lord who hallowed the eu-
charist before his suffering, and said, that the bread
was his own body, and that the wine was truly his blood,
hallows daily by the hands of the priests, bread to be
his body, and wine to be his blood, in spiritual mystery,
as we read in books. Yet notwithstanding that lively
bread is not bodily so, nor the self-same body that
Christ suffered in ; nor so that holy wine the Saviour's
blood which was shed for us in bodily things; but in
spiritual understanding. Both are truly ; that bread is his
body ; and that wine also is his blood ; as was the hea-
venly bread which we call manna, that fed for forty years
God's people in the wilderness. And the clear water
which did then run from the Rock in the wilderness
was truly his blood, as St. Paul wrote in one of his
epistles : All our fathers did eat in the wilderness the
same spiritual meat, and drink the same s])iritual drink ;
they drank of that spiritual Rock, and that Rock was
Christ. The apostle hath said, as you have heard, that they
all did eat the same spiritual meat ; that they all did
drink the same spritual drink. He saith not bodily, but
spiritually ; as Christ was not yet born, nor his blood
shed, when the people of Israel did eat that meat, and
drink of that Rock. The Rock was not bodily Christ,
though he said so. It was the same mystery in the old
law, and they did spiritually signify that spiritual eucha-
rist of our Saviour's body which \vt consecrate now."
Besides the epistles of Elfric, which fight directly
against transubstantiation, mention was also made of
certain sermons, to the number of eighty, translated by
Elfric out of the Latin into the Saxon, that is, into
our English tongue. Of which eighty sermons, twenty-
four were chiefly selected to be read, as homilies or trea-
tises to the people.
There was one appointed to be read upon Easter day ;
which sermon being translated by Elfric, we have here
exhibited it in English, that the christian reader may
judge how the fantastical doctrine of transubstantiation,
in those days of Elfric, and before his time, was not yet
received nor known in the church of England.
The following are the words of this sermon for Eas-
ter-day, so far as relates to transubstantiation: — "He
blessed bread before his suffering, and divided it to his
disciples, thus saying, ' Take eat ; this is my body : this
do in remembrance of me.' Also he blessed the wine in
a cup, and said, ' Drink ye all of it :' ' For this is my
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for
the remission of sins.' The apostles did as Christ com-
manded, that is, they blessed bread and wine for the
eucharist, and gave it to be received in remembrance of
him. Even so also their successors, and all priests by
Christ's commandment, do bless bread and wine for the
eucharist in his name with the apostolic blessing. Now
men have often searched, and do yet often search, how
bread that is gathered of corn, and through the heat of
lire baked, may be turned to Christ's body ; or how wine
that is pressed out of many grapes is turned through one
blessing into the Lord's blood. Now say we to such men,
some things are spoken of Christ by signification, and some
are things certain. True this is, and certain, that Christ
was born of a Virgin, and suffered of his own accord, and
was buried, and on the third day arose from death. He
is said to be bread by signification ; and a lamb ; and a
lion, and a mountain. He is called bread, because he
is our life, and angel's life. He is said to be a lamb
for his innocency ; and a lion for strength, wherewith
he overcame the strong devil. But Christ is not so
notwithstanding after true nature ; neither bread, nor a
lamb, nor a lion. Why is then the holy eucharist called
Christ's body, or his blood, if it be not truly what it is
called ? Truly the bread and wine which in the supper
by the priest is hallowed, show one thing without to
human understanding, and another thing within to be-
lieving minds. Without, there is seen bread and wine
both in figure and in taste ; and they are truly after
their hallowing Christ's body and blood, through spiritual
mystery. An heathen child is christened, yet he alter-
eth not his shape without, though he be changed within.
He is brought to the font sinful through Adam's disobe-
dience, howbeit he is washed from all sin within, though
he hath not changed his shape without. Even so the
holy font water, that is called the well-spring of life, is
like in shape to other waters, and is subject to corrup-
tion ; but the Holy Ghost's might cometh to the corrup-
tible water through the priest's blessing, and it may
after wash the body and soul from all sin, through
spiritual might. Behold now we see two things in this
one creature ; after crue nature, that water is corruptible
moisture ; and after spiritual mystery, hath wholesome
virtue. So also if we behold the holy eucharist, after
bodily understanding, then we see that it is a creature cor-
ruptible and mutable. If we acknowledge therein spiritual
might, then understand we that life is therein, and that it
giveth immortality to them that eat with belief. Much is
betwixt the invisible might of the holy eucharist, and the
visible shape of proper nature. It is naturally corrup-
tible bread, and corruptible wine, and is by might of
God's word truly Christ's body and blood ; not so not-
withstanding bodily, but spiritually. Much is betwixt the
body of Christ which he suffered in, and the body which
is hallowed for the eucharist. The body truly that Christ
suffered in, was born of the flesh of Mary ; with blood
and with bone ; with skin and with sinews ; in human
limbs ; with a reasonable soul living ; and his spiritual
body, which we call the eucharist, is gathered of many
corns, without blood and bone, without limb, without
soul ; and therefore nothing is to be understood therein
bodily, but all is spiritually to be understood. Whatsoever
is in that eucharist, which giveth substance of life, that
is of the spiritual might, and invisible doing. There-
fore is that holy eucharist called a mystery, because
there is one thing in it seen, and another thing understood.
That which is there seen, hath bodily shape ; and that
we do there understand hath spiritual might. Certainly
Christ's body, which suffered death and rose from death,
never dieth henceforth, but is eternal and incorruptible.
That eucharist is temporal, not eternal, corruptible and
divided into sundry parts, chewed between the teeth, and
sent into the belly ; howbeit, nevertheless after spiritual
might it is all in every part. Many receive that holy
body, and yet notwithstanding it is whole in every part
after spiritual mystery. Though some chew the less, yet
is there no more might notwithstanding in the most part,
than in the less ; because it is whole in all men after the
invisible might. This mystery is a pledge and a figure :
Christ's body is truth itself. This pledge we do keep
mystically, until we come to the truth itself, and then is
this pledge ended. Truly it is, as we before have said,
Christ's body, and his blood ; not bodily, but spiritually.
But now hear the apostle's word about this mystery.
St. Paul the apostle speaketh of the old Israelites, thus
writing in his epistle to faithful men, ' Moreover, bre-
thren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that
all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea j and did all eat the same soiritual
572
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VIII.
meat : and did all drink the same spiritual drink : (for
they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them ;
and that Rock was Christ.)' Neither was that stone,
then, from which the water ran, bodily Christ, but it
signified Christ, who called thus to all believing and faith-
ful men : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and
drink ;" and " out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." This he said of the Holy Ghost, which they re-
ceived who believed on him. The apostle Paul saith, that
the Israelites did eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the
same sj)iritual drink, because that heavenly meat that fed
them forty years, and that water which from the rock did
flow, had signification of Christ's body, and his blood
that is now offered daily in God's church. It was the
same which we now offer, not bodily, but spiritually."
After the time of Elfric, transubstantiation began first
to be talked of among a few superstitious monks ; so
that as blindness and superstition began to increase,
this gross opinion more and more prevailed ; and about
the year lOHO, the denying of transubstantiation began
to be accounted heresy.
Berenger, a Frenchman and archdeacon of Anjou,
of all christian men was the first called and accounted an
heretic for denying of transubstantiation.
This Berenger lived about the year 1060. The sub-
stance of his history is this ; that when Berenger had
professed the truth of the sacrament, and had stood in
the open confession of it, according to the ancient doc-
trine received before in the church, he was so handled by
superstitious monks, that, by evil entreaty, and for fear
of death, he began to shrink and recant the truth. Of
t'aese malicious enemies against him, the chief troubler
■was Lanfranc, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury ; and
Hildebrand, afterwards bishop of Rome.
By these and other monks, the error and heresy of
transubstantiation began first to be defended. The first
that began to set up that faction in writing seems to be
Paschasius, who lived a little before Berenger, about
the time of Bertramn ; and Lanfranc was the first that
brought it into England.
On the other hand, the first that was openly troubled
for denying transubstantiation, was this Berenger ;
with wiiom Lanfranc was supposed at first to hold and
take part, but afterwards, to clear himself, he stood
openly against him in the council, and wrote against
him.
It follows in the act of the council, when the synod of
archbishops, bishops, abbots, and other prelates were
assembled together, the greater number held that the
bread and wine were turned substantially into the body
and blood of Christ. Others there were who held the
contrary with Berenger, but at last were driven to
give over. Berenger, among the rest, after he had
long stood in the constant defence of the truth, at last
submitted to their wills, and desired pardon of the council.
And this was (as seems to William of Malmesbury) his
first giving over. Afterwards, returning to himself again
after the death of Pope Leo, and pricked with the sting of
conscience, he was driven again to recognize the truth,
which he had denied.
The pope, perceiving this, would not leave him so ;
but sent his cardinal chaplain, Hildebrand, into France,
who so handled Berenger that he recanted again.
Again, Pope Nicholas II., congregating a council at
Rome, (A. D. 1059,) sent for Berenger, who, being
present, argued what he could for the justness of his
cause ; but all would not serve. Berenger being borne
down on every side, when no remedy would serve,
but he must needs recant again, desired to know what
other confession of the sacrament the po])e would have
of him, besides that which he had confessed. Then
Pope Nicholas committed that charge to Humbert, a
monk of Lotharing, and afterwards a cardinal, that he
should draw out in formal words the order of his recan-
tation, which he should read and publicly profess before
the people. The form of which words is registered in
the decrees to the following effect: — "That he pre-
teudeth with heart and mouth to profess, that he, ac-
knowledging the true, catholic, and apostolical faith,
doth execrate all heresy, namely, that wherewith he
hath lately been defamed, as holding that the bread and
wine upon the altar, after the consecration of tlie priest,
remain only a sacrament, and are not the very body and
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ; neither can be handled
or broken with the priest's hands, or chewed with tiie
teeth of the faithful, otherwise than only by manner of a
sacrament : consenting now to the holy and apostolical
church of Rome, he professed with mouth and heart to
hold the same faith touching the sacrament of the Lord's
mass, which the lord Pope Nicholas, with his synod
here present doth hold, and commandeth to be holden
by his evangelical and apostolical authority; that is, that
the bread and wine upon the altar, after consecration,
are not oidy a sacrament, but also are the very true and
self-same body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
are sensibly felt and broken with hands, and chewed with
teeth : swearing by the holy evangelists, that whosoever
shall hold or say to the contrary, he shall hold them
perpetually accursed, and if he himself shall hereafter
presume to preach or teach against the same, he shall
be content to abide the severity and rigour of the
canons," &c.
This cowardly recantation of Berenger, as it of-
fended a great number of the godly sort, so it gave to
the other party no little triumph.
Some time after this, Pope Hildebrand summoned a
new council at Rome in the church of Lateran, to revive
again the affair of Berenger, about the year, as some
hold, 1079.
Thus Berenger, being tossed by these monks and
pharisees, was so confounded, and baited on every side ;
that partly for worldly fear, restraining him on the one
side ; partly for shame and grief of conscience that
he had now twice denied the truth ; he (as is re-
ported) forsaking his goods, his studies, learning, and
former state of life, became a labourer, and wrought
with his hands for his living, all the residue of his life.
The opinion which Berenger maintained, touching
the sacrament (as by his own words in Lanfranc's book
may appear) was this : — ' ' The sacrifice of the church
consisteth of two things : the one visible, the other in-
visible, that is, of the sacrament, and of the thing or
matter of the sacrament. Which thing (meaning the
body of Christ) if it were here present before our eyes,
it were a thing visible and to be seen : but being lifted up
into heaven, and sitting on the right hand of his Father,
until the timeof restitution of all things (as St. Peter saith)
it cannot be called down from thence. For the person
of Christ consists of God and man; the sacrament of the
Lord's table, consists of bread and wine ; which, being
consecrated, are not changed ; but remain in their sub-
stances, having a certain resemblance or similitude of
those things whereof they be sacraments," &c.
By these words of Berenger's doctrine, all indifferent
readers may see and judge, that he afiirmed nothing but
what was agreeable to the holy scriptures, believing with
St. Augustine, and all other ancient elders of the church ;
that in the holy supper all faithful believers are refreshed
spiritually with the body and blood of the Lord, unto
everlasting life.
The rude and mis-shapen doctrine of these monks
concerning transubstantiation, as we have heard when
and by whom it first began to be broached ; so if we
would now know by what learning and scripture they
confirmed and established it, we must understand that
their chief ground to persuade the people was at this
time certain miracles forged by them, and pubUshed
both in their writings and preachings.
Many fabulous miracles are to be found in popish
histories, counterfeited and forged under divers and sun-
dry names ; some referred to Gregory ; some to Pascha-
sius, and others ; to recite which would fill a whole volume
full of lies and fables. Among many, one is thus invented
by Paschasius. There was a priest named Plegildus,
who saw and handled with his hands visibly the siiajie of
a child upon the altar, and after he had embraced and
kissed him, it returned again to the likeness oi' bread
A.D. 1527—1540.]
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE SIX ARTICLES.
573
When this miracle was objected against Berenger, he
merrily deriding the fable answered, "A godly piece of
a varlet, that whom he kissed before with his mouth, by
and by he goeth about to tear him with his teeth."
Another miracle is reported of a Jew-boy, who, upon
enterinn- the church with another lad who was his play-
fellow, saw upon the altar a little child broken and torn
in piec^es, and afterwards in portions distributed among
the people. When the young Jew coming home told
this to his father, he was condemned to be burned.
Bein" inclosed in a house, and the door fast where he
was to be burned, he was found and taken out from thence
by the christians, not only alive, but also not having
one hair of his head hurt with the flames. Being asked
by the christians how he was so preserved from the
burning tire : " There appeared," said he, " to me a beau-
tiful woman sitting in a chair, whose son the child was
which was divided and distributed in the church among the
people, who reached to me her hand in the burning flame,
and with her gown kej)t the flame from me ; so that I
was preserved from perishing," &c.
And these were then commonly the arguments of the
monks, wherewith they persuaded the people to believe
their transubstantiation. But to leave these monks'
fictions, and to return to Berenger. Malmesbury re-
ports of him, that after he had once or twice recanted,
yet this doctrine of the sacrament remained still in the
minds of his hearers.
Although in the time of Berenger, which was about
A.D. 1060, this error of transubstantiation began to
grow in strength, by the support of certain monks ; as
Lanfranc, Guimund, Hugh bishop of Lincoln, Fulbert
(of whom it is said in histories, that, when he was sick,
our Lady gave him suck with her own breasts), and
others ; yet all the while transubstantiation was not
decreed for public law, or doctrine to be held by any
general consent, either by the cliurch of Rome, or any
other council, before the council of Lateran, under Pope
Innocent III., who, A.D. 1215, made the decree, as
follows : —
" There is one universal church of the faithful, with-
out which none can be saved ; in the which church the
self-same Jesus Christ is both priest and also the sacri-
fice ; whose body and blood are truly contained in the
sacrament of the altar, under the forms of bread and wine ;
the bread being transubstantiated into the body, and the
wine into the blood, by the power and working of God.
So that to the accomplishing of this mystery of unity,
we might take of his, the same which he hath taken of
ours. And this sacrament none can make or conse-
crate, but he that is a priest lawfully ordained, according
to the keys of the church, which Jesus Christ hath left
to his apostles, and to their successors," &c.
And thus was the foundation laid for the building of
transubstantiation, and the doctrine intruded for an
article of faith into the church, necessarily to be be-
lieved of all men under pain of heresy !
But yet all the while, notwithstanding that the sub-
stance of bread and vrine was now banished out of the
sacrament, and utterly transcorporated into the sub-
stance of Christ's very body and blood ; yet this body
was not elevated over the priest's head ; nor adored by
the people till the days of Pope Honorius III., who, by
his council, commanded adoration and elevation to be
joined with transubstantiation, as one idolatry com-
monly brings forth another.
Again, the sacrament of the I^ord's Supper being
now consecrated, transubstantiated, elevated, and adored,
yet it was not offered up for a sacrifice propitiatory for
the sins of the quick and the dead ; nor for a remedy of
the souls in purgatory ; nor for a merit operis operati,
give bono motu utentis, &c., before other popes, coming
afterwards, added still new additions to the former in-
ventions of their predecessors.
And thus we have the whole order and origin of
these idolatrous parts of the mass, which first began
with consecration. Then came transubstantiation byln-
nocent ; and afterwaids elevation and adoration oy Hono-
rius ; and last of all came tlie oblation mei'itorious and
propitiatory for the quick and the dead in remission of
sins, e.r opere operato !
Which things being thus constituted by the usurped
authority of the church of Rome, shortly after followed
persecution, tyranny, and burning among the christians ;
first beginning with the Albigenses, and the faithful con-
gregation of Toulouse, about the time of Pope Innocent.
The second Article
As to the second article, which debars from the lay-
people one-half of the sacrament, understanding that
under one kind both parts are fully contained (as the
world well knows that this article is but young in-
vented, decreed, and concluded no longer since, than at
the council of Constance, A.D. 1414,") I shall not need
to dwell long upon the matter ; especially as sufficient
has been said before in our discourse on the Bohemian
history.
First, let us see the reasons of the adversaries in re-
straining the laity from the cup of this sacrament.
When they allege the place of St. Luke, where
Christ was known in breaking of bread, &c. citing,
moreover, many other places of scripture, wherein men-
tion is made of breaking of bread ; we answer, although
we do not utterly deny but that some of these places
may be understood of the sacrament : yet that being
granted, it follows not that only one part of the sacra-
ment was ministered to the people without the other,
when by the common use of speech under the naming of
one part the whole action is meant. Neither does it
follow that because that bread was broken among the
brethren, therefore the cup was not distributed to them.
For we find by the words of St. Paul, (1 Cor. xi. 26),
that the use of the Corinthians was to communicate not
only in breaking of bread, but in participating of the cup
also.
It can be proved and demonstrated that this new-found
custom differs from all antiquity and prescription of
use and time ; and even although the custom were ancient,
yet no custom may countermand the open and exjjress
commandment of God, which saith to all men, '' Drink
ye all of this," &c.
Again, seeing the cup is called the blood of the New
Testament, who is he that dare or can alter the testa-
ment of the Lord, when none may be so hardy to alter
the testament of a man, being once approved or ratified ?
Further, as concerning those places of scripture before
alleged, of breaking of bread, whereupon they think
themselves so sure that the sacrament was then admi-
nistered but in one kind : in answer we say, first, it may
be doubted whether all those places in scripture are to
be referred to the sacrament. Secondly, admitting the
same, yet they cannot infer, because one part is men-
tioned, that the full sacrament was 7iot ministered. The
common manner of the Hebrew phrase is, under break-
ing of bread to signify generally the whole feast or
supper : as in tlie prophet Isaiah, these words,
" Deal thy bread to tlie hungry," do signify as well
giving drink as bread, &c. And thirdly, however tliese
places be taken, yet it makes little for them, but ra-
ther against them. For if the sacrament were adminis-
tered "in breaking of bread," then they must needs
grant, that if bread was there broken, there was hrvnd ;
forasmuch as neither the accidents of bread witliout
bread can be broken ; neither can the natural body cf
Christ be subject to any breaking by the scripture, which
saith, " a bone of him shall not be broken." &c.
They object further and say, that the church, upon due
consideration, may alter as they see cause, in rites, cere-
monies, and sacraments.
Answer. The histitution of this sacrament starule*^h
upon the order, example, and commandment of ( luist.
He divided the bread severally from the cuj), and al'ter-
wards the cup severally from the bread. This be d A
to give us example how to do the same after him, in re-
membrance of his death to the end of the world. Aul
574
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VII <.
besides this example, he added an express commandment,
" Do this," and " Drink ye all of this," &c. Against
this order, example, and commandment of the gospel,
no church nor council of men, nor angel in heaven has
any power or authority to change or alter ; according as
we are warned, " If any preach unto you any other
gospel besides that ye have received, let him be ac-
cursed," &c.
Among other objections, they allege certain perils as
spilling, shedding, or shaking the blood out of the cup,
or souring, or else sticking upon men's beards, &c. For
which they say it is well provided that the half commu-
nion shall suffice.
To this it is soon answered, that as these causes were no
hindrance to Christ, to the apostles, to the Corinthians,
and to the brethren of the primitive church ; but that in
the public assemblies they received all the whole com-
munion, as well in the one part as in the other ; so
neither are these causes so important now, to annul and
make void the necessary commandment of the gospel ;
if we were as careful to obey the Lord, as we are curious
to magnify our own devices ; to strain at gnats ; to stumble
at straws ; and to seek knots in rushes, which rather are
growing in our own fantasies, than there whei'e they are
sought.
The Third Article.
Private masses, trental masses, and dirge masses, as
they were never used before the time of Gregory, six
hundred years after Christ, so they are against our
christian doctrine. The mass is a work or action of the
priest, applied to men for meriting of grace, ex opere
operato, in which action the sacrament is first wor-
shipped, and tiien offered up as a sacrifice for remission
of sins (apwna et culpa), for the quick and the dead.
This definition eigrees not with the rules of christian
doctrine.
1. The first rule is, sacraments are instituted for
some end and use, out of which use they are no sa-
craments. As the sacrament of baptism is a sacrament
of regeneration and forgiveness of sins to the person that
is baptized ; but if it be carried about to be worshipped
and shewed to others, as meritorious for their remission
and regeneration, to them it is no sacrament.
2. A sacrament or ceremony profits them only who
take and use them.
3. Only the death of Christ, and the work of his sacri-
fice upon the cross is to be applied to every man by
faith, for salvation of his soul. Besides this, to apply
any action or work of priest, or any other person, as me-
ritorious of itself, and conducible to salvation, or to re-
mission of sins, is derogatory to the covenant of God,
and prejudicial to the blood of Christ.
4. To make idols of sacraments, and to worship dumb
things for the living God, is idolatry.
5. Every good work that a man does profits only
liimself, and cannot be applied to other men.
6. No man can apply to another the sacrifice of
Christ's death, but every man must apply it to himself
by his own believing.
7. The passion of Christ once done, is a full and a
perfect oblation and satisfaction for the sinsof the whole
world, both original and actual ; by the virtue of which
passion the wrath of God is pacified towards mankind for
ever. Amen.
8. The jia.ssion of Christ once done, is the only ob-
ject of that faith of ours which justifies us. And there-
fore whoever sets up any other object, beside that pas-
sion once done, for our faith to apprehend and behold
the same, teaches damnable doctrine, and leads to
idolatry.
Against all these rules private mass is directly opposed.
For, beside that they transgress the order, example, and
commandment of Christ (which divided the bread and
cup to them all) they also bring the sacrament out of
the right use to which it was ordained. For whereas
that sacrament is instituted for a testimonial and re-
membrance of Christ's death, the private mass transfers
it to another purpose ; either to make of it a gazing idol ;
or a work of application meritorious ; or a sacrifice ptv>-
pitiatory for remission of sins ; or a commemoration for
souls departed in purgatory.
Furthermore, the institution of Christ is broken ia
this, that whereas the communion was given in common,
the private mass suffers the priest alone to eat and drink
up all, and when he has done, to bless the people with
the empty cup.
2. Whereas sacraments properly profit none but them
that use them ; in the private mass the sacrament is re-
ceived in the behalf not only of him that receives it, but
of them also who are far off, or the dead in purga-
tory.
3. When nothing is to be applied for remission of sins,
but only the death of Christ, the private mass comes in
as a meritorious work done by the priest ; which b^ing
applied to others, is available ex opere operato, both
to him that does it, and to them for whom it is done.
4. Private masses and all other masses now used of
the sacrament make an idol ; of commemoration make
adoration ; instead of a receiving, make a deceiving ; in
place of shewing forth Christ's death make new oblations
of his death, and of a communion make a single sup»
ping, &c.
5. Whereas in this general frailty of man's nature, no
man can merit by any worthiness of working for himself,
the priest in his private mass takes upon him to merit
both for himself, and for many others.
6. It stands against scripture, that the sacrifice and
death of Christ can be applied any otherwise to our be-
nefit and justification, than by faith. Wherefore it is
false that the action of the mass can apply the benefit of
Christ's death unto us, by the mere act of its being
offered.
7. Whereas the benefit of our salvation and justifying
stands by the free gift and grace of God, through our
faith in Christ ; the application of these popish masses
stops the freeness of God's grace, and makes that this
benefit first comes through the priest's hands to us.
The eighth contrariety between private mass and God's
word is in this ; that where the scripture saith, Unica
oblatione conmtmmavit eos, qui sanctificantur in per-
petuiim, "With one offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified ;" the private mass proceeds
in a contrary doctrine ; makes of one oblation a daUy
oblation, and that which is perfectly done and finished
now to be done again ; and finally, that which was
instituted only for eating and for a remembrance of that
oblation of Christ once offered, the popish mass maketh
an oblation and a new satisfaction daily to be offered for
the quick and the dead.
To conclude, both the private and public masses of
priests turn away the object of our faith from the body
of Christ crucified, to the body of Christ in their masses.
And where God annexes the promise of justification but
only to our faith in the body of Christ crucified, they do
annex promise of remission from both the guilt and pu-
nishment of sin, to their masses by their application ;
besides divers other horrible and intolerable corruptions,
which spring of their private and public masses.
The Fourth and Fifth Articles, — of Vows and Priests'
Marriage.
As we have discoursed before of the antiquity of tran-
substantiation, of the half communion, and of private
masses ; so now coming to the article of vows, and of
priests' marriage, the reader will wish to be satisfied in
this likewise, and to be certified from what time these
vows and unmarried life of priests have continued. For
the better establishing of the reader's mind against this
wicked article of priests' marriage, it shall be no great
labour lost, here briefly to recapitulate in the recitation
of this matter, either what before hath been said, or what
more is to be added. And that the world may see the
law and decree of priests' single life, to be a doctrine of
no ancient standing in this realm, but only since the
time of Anselm, I will first allege the words of Henry
Huntington, here following:
" The same year, at the feast of St. Michael, Anselm,
A.D. 1527—1540.1
THE ANTIQUITY OF PRIESTS' MARRIAGE.
575
the archbishop of Canteroury, held a synod at London ;
in which synod he prohibited priests here in England to
have wives, which they were not prohibited before to
have. Which constitution seemed to some persons very
pure and chaste. To others, again, it seemed very dan-
gerous, lest, while men should seem to take upon them
such celibacy more than they should be able to bear, by
that occasion they might fall into horrible filthiness,
which should redound to the exceeding slander of the
christian profession," &c.
I deny not that before the time of Anselm, both Odo,
and after him Dunstan archbishops of Canterbury, and
Ethelwold bishop of Winchester, and Oswald bishop of
Worcester, in the days of king Edgar, (A.D. 963,) as
they were all monks themselves, so were they great
opposers of the marriage of priests. Yet the priests who
were then married, jvere not constrained to leave their
wives, or their preferments, but only at their own choice.
But yet this restraint of priests' lawful marriages was
never publicly established for a law here in the church of
England, before the coming of Anselm, (in the days of
William Rufus, and king Henry I.) who wrote in these
words : " Boldly I command by the authority which I
have by my archbishoprick, not only within my arch-
bishoprick, but also throughout England, that all priests
that keep women, shall be deprived of their churches,
and all ecclesiastical benefices," &c. as ye may read
more at large before. Which was about the same time,
when Hildeljrand, at Rome, began the same matter ; and
others, till Calistus II. ; by whom the act against priests'
marriage was brought to full perfection, and so has con-
tinued ever since.
It were tedious to number up the names of all such
bishops and priests, who have been married since that
time ; but as to the time of this devilish prohibition for
priests to have their wives, it is to be noted that in the
year of our Saviour, 1076, when pope Hildebrand oc-
cupied the papal chair, this oath first began to be taken
of archbishops and bishops, that they should suffer none
to enter into the ministry, or into any ecclesiastical
function, having a wife ; and likewise the clergy to be
bound to promise the same. This was, as I said, about
the year 1076. Whereby the prophesy of St. Paul
appears truly to be verified, speaking of these latter
times, (1 Tim. iv. 1.) where he writes in these words:
" Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing sjiirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies
in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot
iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
from meats, which God hath created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth."
In this prophecy of St. Paul two things are to be ob-
served ; First, the matter which he prophesieth of; that
is, the forbidding of marriage ; and forbidding of meats,
which God generally has left free to all men. The
second thing in this prophecy, is the time when this
prophecy shall fall, that is, in the latter times of the
world. So that this concurs right well with these years
of pope Hildebrand, being a thousand years complete
after the ascension of our Saviour ; so that they may
well be called the latter times.
This prophecy of St. Paul thus standing, as it does,
firm and certain, that is, the forbidding of marriage
must happen in the latter times of the world, then must
it needs follow, that the married life of priests is more
ancient in the church than is the single life, — than the
law, I mean, commanding the single life of priests.
"Which may soon be proved to be true.
1. For, at the council of Nice, it is notorious that
this devilish law for restraining marriage was stopped
by Paphnutius.
2. Before this council of Nice, in the year 197, we
read of Polycrates bishop of Ephesus, who dissenting
from pope Victor about a certain controversy of Easter-
day, alleges for himself that his progenitors before him,
seven together, one after another, succeeded in that seat,
and he now, the eighth after them, was placed in the
game ; using this his descent from his parents not only
as a defence of his cause, but also as a glorj' to him-
self.
3. Pope Sericius, about the year of our Lord 390,
wrote to the priests of Spain about the matter of putting
their wives from them, if his epistle be not counterfeit.
These Spanish priests had then with them a bishop of
Tarragona, who answering to Sericius, alleged the tes-
timouies of St. Paul, that priests might lawfully retain
their wives, &c. To this Sericius replied again, (if his
writing is not forged) most arrogantly, and no less
ignorantly, reproving the priests that were married ; and
for the defence of his cause, alleging this sentence of
St. Paul, " If ye shall live after the flesh, ye shall die,"
&c. Whereby may appear not only how they in Spain
then had wives, but also how blind these men were in the
scriptures, who shewed themselves so great adversaries
against priests' marriages.
4. To be short, the further we go, and the nearer we
come to the ancient and primitive time of the church,
the less ancient shall we find the deprivation of lawful
matrimony amongst christian ministers ; beginning even
with the apostles, who, although they were not all mar-
ried, yet many of them were, and the rest had power and
liberty to have and keep their wives ; witness St. Paul,
where he writes of himself; " Have we not power to
lead about a sister, a wife, as also the other apostles
have ?" Whereby it is to be seen, both what he might
do, and what the other apostles did.
It can be sufficiently proved, and indeed is admitted,
that the deprivation of priests' lawful marriage did not
enter into the church, either Greek or Latin, at least it
took no full possession, before pope Hildebrand's time,
1075; and especially pope Calistus' time, 1120; these
were the first open objectors to priests' marriages.
Aventine, a faithful writer of his time, concerning
the council of Hildebrand, has these words; " In those
days priests commonly had wives, as other christian
men had, and had children also ; as may appear by an-
cient instruments and deeds of gift, which were then
given to churches, to the clergy, and to religious houses:
In which instruments both the priests, and their wives
also with them, (which there be called Presbyterissae), I
find alleged as witnesses." It happened moreover at
the same time, (saith Aventine,) " that the emperor had
the investing of divers archbishopricks, bishopricks,
abbeys, and nunneries within his dominions. Pope Hil-
debrand disdaining both these sorts, that is, both them
that were invested by the emperor, and also all those
priests that had wives, provided so in his council at
Rome, that they who were promoted by the emperor
to livings of the church, were accounted to come in by
simony ; the others, who were married priests, were
counted for Nicholaitans. Whereupon pope Hildebrand,
in writing to the emperor, to dukes, princes, and other
great prelates and potentates, namely, to Berthold
Zaringer, to Rodulph of Suevia, to Welphon of Ba-
varia,°to Adalberon, and to their ladies, and to divers
others to whom he thought good; also to bishops, namely,
to Otto, bishop of Constance, with other priests and lay
people,— willed them in his letters to refuse and to keep
no company with those simoniacs, and those Nicholaitaa
priests (for so they were termed then), who had either
any ecclesiastical living by the emperor, or who had
wives ; to avoid their masses ; neither to talk ; nor to eat
or drink with them ; nor once to speak to them ; nor to
salute them ; but utterly to shun them, as men execrable
and wicked, even as they would eschew the plague or
pestilence. ^ m- ..■
" By this there ensued a mighty schism and affliction
among the flock of Christ : For the priests went against
their bishops, the people against the priests, the laity
against the clergy. Briefly, aU fell into confusion. Men
and women, as every one was set upon mischief, wicked-
ness, contention, and avarice, took thereby occasion,
upon every light suspicion, to resist their minister, and
to spoil the goods of the church. The vulgar people
contemned the priests who had married wives, despised
their religion, and aU things that they did ; yea, and m
many places would purge the place where they had beeu
with holy water. Also such was the mischief, that they
576
THE ANTIQUITY OF PRIESTS' MARRIAGE.
[Book VIII.
would talce the holy mysteries which those married
priests had consecrated, and cast them in the dirt, and
tread them under their feet: For so had Hildebrand
taught, them, that those were no priests, neither were
they sacraments which they consecrated. So that by
this occasion many false prophets arose, seducing the
people from the truth of Christ by forged fables, and
false miracles, and feigned glosses, wresting the scriptures
as best served their own purposes."
To this testimony of Aventinus, above mentioned, we
will also add the record of Gebuilerus, a writer of this
our latter time, and one also of their own crew, who
doth testify that in the time of the emperor Henry IV.
(A.D. 1057,) the number of twenty-four bishops, both
in Germany, Spain, and in France, were married, as well
as the clergy also of their dioceses.
Of these Spanish bishops we read also in Isidore (who
died about A.D. 636), in his book, De Clericorum Vita,
that they ought either to lead an honest, chaste life ; or
else to have kept themselves within the bands of matri-
mony, &c. By this it is evident that the single life
of priests was either then voluntary, or else that their
marriage was not then restrained by any law.
Thus, if either the voice of scripture miglit have weight
with these men ; or if the examples of the apostles might
move them (whom St. Ambrose witnesses to have been
all married, except only St. Paul and St. John) ; or else
if the multitude of married bishops and priests might
prevail with them ; it may be here stated :
That TertuUian was a married priest, as witnesses
Jerome.
Spiridion, bishop of Cyprus, had a wife and children.
Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, was also married.
Gregory, bishop of Nyssa ; Gregory, bishop of Na-
fianzem ; Prosper, bishop of Rhegium ; Cheremon, bi-
shop of Nilus. All these were married bishops ; and
also Polycrates, and his seven ancestors, bishops.
Epiphanius, bishop of Constantinople in the time of
Justinian, was the more commended, iiecause his father
and ancestors had been married priests and bishops.
Jerome saith, that in his time many priests were mar-
ried men.
Pope Damasus recites a great number of bishops, or
popes of Rome, who were priests' sons, during the first
ten centuries after Christ : as, Felix III. ; Gelasius I. ;
Boniface ; Agapetus ; Silverius ; Theodorus, whose
father was bishop of Jerusalem ; Adrian II. ; John X.
John XV.
And besides these bishops of Rome, many other bishops
and priests in other countries might be annexed to this
catalogue, if our leisure was such as to admit our making
a roll of them all.
The law forbidding priests to marry was never gene-
rally received in the church of Rome until the time of
Gregory VII. (Hildebrand), that is, since A.D. 1073.
This pope Hildebrand was, of all others, the chief and
principal enemy against the marriage of priests. For
whereas all other approved canons and councils only
enacted, that any clergyman, having a wife before his
entering into his ministry, might enjoy the liberty of his
marriage, so that he married not a widow, or a known
harlot, or kept a concubine, or were twice married: now
comes in pope Hildebrand, making the marriage of
priests to be heresy, and further enacting, " That what-
ever clerk, deacon, or minister had a wife, either before
his orders, or after, should utterly put her from him, or
else forsake his ministry," &c.
And thus much for the antiquity and the bringing in of
the celibacy of the priests. It first began, about the
time of pope Nicholas 1058, and Alexander II. 1061, to
be a custom ; and afterwards it was made into a law by
pope Hildebrand, and so spread from Italy into other
countries, and at length also into England.
Whilst pope Nicholas and Hildebrand were busy at
Rome, in introducing that practice, so Lanfranc, arch-
bishop of Canterbury was likewise engaged in bringing
about the same matter in England, although he did not
begin altogether so roughly as pope Hildebrand did, as
it appears by his council held at Winchester : where,
though he prohibited such as were prebendaries of
cathedral churches to have wives, yet he did permit, in
his decree, that such priests as dwelt in towns and vil-
lages, and had wives, should retain them still, and not
be compelled to be separated from them ; and that they
who had none, should be prohibited from marrying ; en-
joining moreover the bishops to take care hereafter, that
they presumed not to admit into order any priests or
deacons, unless they should first make a solemn profes-
sion not to marry.
Then after Lanfranc succeeded Anselm in the see of
Canterbury, who fiercely and eagerly laboured in this
matter, abrogating utterly the marriage of priests, dea-
cons, sub-deacons, and of the clergy generally; not
permitting (as Lanfranc did) priests that had wives in
villages and towns to keep them atill, but utterly com-
manding, and that under great penalties, not only priests
and deacons, but sub-deacons also, (which is against the
council of Lateran,) who were already married, to be
separated, and that none should be received into orders
hereafter, without profession of perpetual celibacy.
And yet notwithstandmg all this, the priests did not
give much heed to these unlawful injunctions, but still
kept their wives almost for two hundred years after,
refusing and resisting for a long time the yoke of that
servile bondage, to keep still their freedom from such
vowing, professing, and promising ; as may well appear
by those priests of York, of whom Gerard, archbishop
of York, speaks, in writing to Anselm, in these words:
" I much desire the purity of my clergymen : yet,
except it be in a very few, I find in them the deafness of
the adder, and the inconstancy of Proteus. With their
stinging tongues they cast out sometimes threats, some-
while taunts and rebukes. But this grieveth me less in
them that are further off. This grieveth me most of all,
that they who are of mine own church, as in mine own
bosom, and prebendaries of mine own see, contemn our
canons, and argue like sophistical disputers, against the
statutes of our council. The prebendaries, who irre-
gularly have been taken into orders heretofore, without
making vow or profession, refuse utterly to make pro-
fession to me. And they that are priests or deacons,
having before openly married wives or concubines, will
not be removed from them by any admonition from the
altar. And when I call upon any to receive orders,
they obstinately deny to profess celibacy in their order-
ing," &c.
Thus, for all this rigorous austerity, Anselm was un-
able to enforce his decree made at London, against the
marriage of priests ; nor had the same monk greater
success, either in his life time, or after his death. For
although sundry priests, during his life-time, were com-
pelled by his extremity to renounce their wives, yet
many refused to obey him.
Many were contented rather to leave their benefices
than their wives. A great number were permitted by
king Henry VIII. for money to enjoy their wives ; but
this became so chargeable unto them, (saith Edmer, in
his fourth book,) that at length two hundred priests, in
their albes and priestly vestments, came barefoot to the
king's palace, crying to him for mercy ; and especially
making their suit to the queen, who, though moved with
compassion towards them, yet durst not make any in-
tercession for them.
It is therefore evident, that this violent restraint of
the lawful marriage of priests, within this realm of
England, is of no such antiquity as hath been thought
by many ignorant of the course of history. A brief
summary will enable the reader to comprehend the whole
matter.
First, about the year 946, the profession of single life,
and displacing of marriage, began to come into practice in
England by reason of St. Benet's monks, who then began
to increase very much about the time of king Edgar, and
especially by means of Oswald, bishop of York, Odo and
Dunstan, archbishops of Canterbury, and Ethelwold,
bishop of Winchester ; so that in divers cathedral
A. D. 1527—1540.]
OBSERVATIONS ON AURICULAR CONFESSION,
577
churches and bishops' sees, monks with their professed
siiiRleness of life crept in, and married ministers (who
were then called secular priests) with their wives, were
dispossessed out of sundry churches, not from their
wives only, but from their places also ; and yet not m
all churches, but only in those which have been men-
°Not lon<r after that, about the time of pope Nicholas
HAD 1060, of Alexander II. and Hildebran-l, there
came into the see of Canterbury another monk called
Lanfranc, who also, being a promoter of this professed
celibacy, made the decree more general, that all pre-
bendaries of any churches who were married should be
displaced ; yet that the priests in towns and villages should
not be compelled to leave their married wives, unless
they wished to do so ; and last of all followed the monk
Anselm, A.D. 1106, who made the laws which we have
stated before.
I shall now conclude my observations on these articles
with some remarks on the sixth article, touching auri-
cular confession : —
Of confession three things we find expressed and ap-
proved in the scriptures. The first is our confession
privately and publicly made to God alone ; and this con-
fession is necessary for all men at all times. Wherefore
St. John speaketh, " If we confess our sins, he is faith-
ful and just to forgive," &c.
The second is the confession which is openly made
in the face of the congregation. And this confession
also has place when any thing is committed, which gives
a public offence and slander to the church of God.
The third kind of confession is that which we make
privately to our brother. And this confession is requi-
site, when we have injured our brother. Whereof the
gospel speaks, " Go and reconcile thyself first to thy
brother," &c. Also St. James says, " Confess your
faults one to another," &c. Or else this confession may
also have place, when any thing lies on our conscience,
in which we need the counsel and comfort of some
faithful brother. But we must use discretion in avoid-
ing these points of bliad superstition. First, that we
put therein no necessity for remission of our sins, but
that we use our own voluntary discretion, according as
we see it expedient for the satisfying of our troubled
mind. The second is, that we are not bound to any
enumeration of our sins. The third, that we bind not
ourselves to any one person more than to another,
but that we use our free choice, whom we think can
give us the best spiritual counsel in the Lord.
But as there is nothing in the church so good which
through superstition may not be perverted ; so this con-
fession also has not lacked abuses. First, the secret
confession to God alone, as it has been counted insuffi-
cient ; so has it been but lightly esteemed by many.
The public confession to the congregation has been turned
to a standing in a sheet, or else has been bought off for
money. The secret opening of a man's mind to some
faithful or spiritual brother, in disclosing his infirmity
or temptations, for counsel and godly comfort, has been
turned into au:icular confession in a priest's ear, for
absolving of his sins.
Now, after having discussed these matters which refer
to the six wicked articles, it follows next, in returning
to the order of our history, to declare those events which
ensued after the setting out of these articles. This
brings us to the time and history of the lord Cromwell,
a man whose great fame and deeds are worthy to live
renowned in perpetual memory.
The History concerning the Life, Acta, and Death of
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex.
Thomas Cromwell, although bom of a simple parent-
age, and of an obscure house, through the singular ex-
cellency of wisdom, united with industry of mind, and
deserts of life, rose to high preferment and authority.
By steps of office and honour, he ascended, at length,
that not only he was made earl of Essex, but also secret
counsellor to King Henry VIIL, and vicegerent to his
person.
In the simple estate and beginnings of this man, we
may learn that the excellency of noble virtues and heroic
prowess which advance to fame and honour, stand not
merely upon birth and blood, but proceed from the gift
of God, who " raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and
liftcth the needy out of the dunghill ; that he may set
him with princes, even with the princes of his people."
Although the humble condition and poverty of this
man was, at the beginning, a great liindrance for virtue
to shew herself, yet such was the activity and ripeness of
nature in him ; so full and ready in wit ; in judgment,
discreet ; in tongue, eloquent ; in service, faithful ; in
spirit, courageous ; in his pen, active ; that being con-
versant in the sight of men, he could not be long ne-
glected ; nor yet be unjirovided of favour and help of
friends to set him forward in j)lace and office. Neither was
there any place or office for which he was not qualified.
Nothing was so hard which with wit and industry he
could not compass ; neither was his capacity so good,
but his memory was as great in retaining whatever he had
attained ; which well appears in his repeating the whole
text of the New Testament, as translated by Erasmus,
without any book, in his journey in going and coming
from Rome.
Thus in his growing years, as he increased in age and
ripeness, he derived a delight in visiting foreign coun-
tries, that he might see the world, and to learn experi-
ence. In this manner he learned such tongues and
languages as might the better serve for his use here-
after.
He spent his youth at Antwerp, in the situation of
secretary, or in some such condition, to the English
merchants.
It happened then that the town of Boston thought
good to send to Rome, to renew their two pardons ; one
called the great pardon, the other the lesser pardon ;
v/hich although it should stand them in great expenses
of money, (for the pope's merchandise is always dear
ware,) yet they had felt such sweetness thereof, that they
like good catholic merchants, and the pope's good cus-
tomers, thought to spare no cost, to have their pardons
renewed. Yet all this was good religion then; such was
the lamentable blindness of that time !
It being thus determined and decreed among my
countrymen of Boston, to have their pardons renewed
from Rome, one Geoffrey Chambers, with another, was
sent, well supplied with writings and money, and with
all otlier tilings considered necessary for so chargeable
and costly an exploit ; who, coming in his journey to Ant-
werp, conferred and persuaded with Thomas Cromwell
to associate himself in that legation, and to assist in the
contriving of it. Cromwell, having some skill of the
Italian language, and as yet not grounded in religion
in those his youthful days, was content to undertake
the adventure, and took his journey to Rome. Crom-
well, loth to spend much time, and more loth to spend
his money, and perceiving that the pope must be served
with some present or other, (for without rewards there is
no doing at Rome,) began to think with himself, what
to devise wherein he might best serve the pope's de-
votion.
At length having knowledge how that the pope greatly
delighted in new fangled delicacies, and dainty dishes, it
came into his mind to prepare certain fine dishes of
jelly, after the best English fashion, which to them of
Rome was not known nor seen before.
This done, Cromwell observing his time, as the pope
had returned to his pavilion from hunting, approached
with his English presents brought in with a song in the
English tongue, and all after the English fashion. The
pope suddenly marvelling at the strangeness of the song,
and understanding that they were Englishmen, and that
they came not empty handed, desired them to be called
in. Cromwell there shewing his obedience, and offering
his junkets, such as kings and princes only, said he, in
the realm of England use to feed upon, desired the same
to be accepted in benevolent part, which he and his com-
panions, as poor suitors to his hohness, had there
brought and presented, as novelties meet for his recrea.
tioa, &c.
pp2
578
AN ACCOUNT OF THE LTFE OF LORD CROMWELL.
[Book VIII.
Pope Julius, seeing the strangeness of the dishes,
commanded, by and by, his cardinal to try them, who in
tasting liked it so well, and so likewise the pope after
him, that knowing what their suits were, and requiring
them to make known the way for making that meat,
he, without any more ado, sealed both their pardons, as
well the greater as the lesser.
And thus were the pardons of the town of Boston
obtained. The copy of which pardons (which I have in
my hands) comes to this effect : That all the brethren
and sisters of the guild of our Lady in St. Botolph's
church at Boston, should have free licence to choose
for their confessor or spiritual fatlier whom they would,
either secular priest, or religious person, to assoil them
pleuarily from all their sins, except only in cases re-
served to the pope.
Also that they should have licence to carry about with
them an altar-stone, whereby they might have a priest to
say mass, or other divine service where they would, without
prejudice of any other church or chapel, though it were
also before day; yea, and at three of the clock after
midnight in the summer time.
Furthermore, that all such brethren and sisters of the
said guild, which should resort to the chapel of our Lady
in St. Botolph's church at the feast of Easter, Whit-
suntide, Corpus Christi, the Nativity or Assumption of
our Lady, or in the octaves of them ; the feast of St.
Michael ; and first sunday in Lent ; should have pardon
no less than if they themselves personally had visited the
stations of Rome.
Provided that every such person, man or woman,
entering into the same guild, at his first entrance should
give to the support of seven priests, twelve choristers,
and thirteen beadsmen, and to the lights of the same
brotiierhood, and a grammar scliool, six shillings and
eight-pence; and for every year after twelve-pence.
And these premises being before granted by pope In-
nocent, and pope Julius II., these pope Clement also
confirmed; granting moreover, that whatever brother or
sister of the same guild, through poverty, sickness, or
any other hindrance, could not resort personally to the
chapel, yet he should be dispensed with, as well for that
as for all other vows, irregularities, censures canonical
whatsoever ; only the vow of going the stations of Rome,
and going to St. James of Compostella excepted, &c.
He also granted unto them power to receive full re-
mission a pana et culpa, once in their life ; or in the
hour of death.
Also, that having their altar-stone, they might have
mass said in any place, though it were unhallowed.
And in the time of interdict, to have mass or any sacra-
ment ministered : and also being departed, that they
might be buried with christian burial, notwithstanding
the interdict.
Extending moreover his grant to all such brethren
and sisters, in resorting to the chapel of our Lady upon
the Nativity, or Assumption of our Lady, and giving
support to the chapel, at every such school festival day
to have full remission of their sins. Or, if they could
not be present at the chapel, yet if they came to their
own parish church, and there said one Pater-noster, and
an Ave Maria, they should enjoy the same remission ; or
whoever came every Friday to the same chapel, should
have as much remission, as if he went to the chapel of
our Lady, called, " the Ladder of Heaven."
Furthermore, that whatsoever christian people, of
what estate or condition soever, either spiritual or tem-
poral, would aid and support the chamberlains or sub-
stitutes of the guild, should have five hundred years of
pardon.
Also, to all brothers and sisters of the guild was
granted free liberty to eat in time of Lent, or other fast-
ing days, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and also flesh, by the
co'insel of their spiritual father and physician, without
any scruple of conscience.
Also, that all partakers of the guild, who, onre a
quarter, or every Friday or Saturday, either in the chaiiel
in St. Botol[)h's church, or in any other chnpel, shall say
a Pater-noster, Ave Maria, and Creed, or shall say or
cause to be said masses for souls departed in i)urgatory,
shall not only have the full remission due to them who
visit the chapel of " The Ladder of Heaven," or of St.
John Lateran, but also the souls in purgatory shall en-
joy full remission, and be released of all their pains.
Also, that all the souls departed of the brothers and.
sisters of the guild, also the souls of their fathers and
mothers, shall be partakers of all the prayers, suffrages,
almoses, fastings, masses, and matins, pilgrimages, and
all other good deeds of all the holy church militant for
ever, &c.
These indulgences, pardons, grants, and relaxations
were given and granted by Nicholas V. Pius II. Sixtus
IV. and Julius II. ; of which Julius II. it seems that
Cromwell obtained this pardon about the year 1510;
which pardon afterwards, through the request of king
Henry VIII. in ir)26, was confirmed by pope Clement
VII. And thus much concerning the pardon of Boston,
renewed by the means of Thomas Cromwell.
All this while it appears, that Cromwell had yet no
sound taste nor judgment of religion, but was wild and
youthful, without sense or regard of God and his word,
as he himself was wont ofttimes to declare to Cranraer
archbishop of Canterbury, shewing what he was in
his young days, and how he was in the wars of the
Duke of Bourbon at the siege of Rome ; also what a
great doer he was with Geoffrey Chambers in publishing
and setting forth the pardon of Boston every where in
churches as he went ; and so continued, till at length by
learning the text of the New Testament translated by
Erasmus in his going and returning from Rome, he be-
gan to be touched and called to abetter understanding.
In the meantime cardinal Thomas Wolsey began to
bear a great name in England, and to rule alu.ost all un-
der the king, or rather with the king.
In his establishment Thomas Cromwell was advanced,
and there was about the same time in the household of
the cardinal, Thomas More, afterwards knight and chan-
cellor of England, and Stephen Gardiner, afterwards
bishop of Winchester. All these three were brought up
in one household, and all of the same standing ; their
ages were also not greatly discrepant ; nor their wits
much unequal ; so neither was their fortune and ad-
vancement greatly different. And though in More and in
Gardiner there was more skill of learning, yet there was
in this man a more heavenly light of the mind, and more
prompt and ])erfect judgment, equal eloquence, and more
heroical and princely disposition.
It happened that Cromwell was solicitor to the cardi-
nal, who had then in hand the building of certain col-
leges in Oxford now called Christ's church. By reason
whereof certain small monasteries and priories were sup-
pressed, and the lands seized into the cardinal's hands.
The doing of this was committed to Thomas Cromwell,
who shewed himself so very forward and industrious, that
he procured to himself much grudge with the supersti-
tious sort, and with some also of noble calling about the
king. And thus was Cromwell first set to work by the
cardinal to sujipress religious houses ; which was about
the year 152.'i.
After the fall of Wolsey, Cromwell was for a time in
disgrace with the king, but finding that none could so
well serve him against the pope, he sent for him, willing
to talk with him, to hear and know what he could say.
Cromwell being informed that the king wished to
talk with him, and thereupon providing before hand for
the interview, he had in readiness a copy of the oath,
which the bishops use to make to the pope at their con-
secration ; and so being called for, was brought to th«
king in his garden at Westminster, which was about
A.U. 15;?0.
Cromwell, after most loyal obeisance to the king, made
his declaration in all points ; especially making manifest
to his highness that his authority was abused in his own
kingdom by the pope and his clergy, who being sworn to
him, were afterwards dispensed from the same, and sworn
anew to the pope ; so that he was but half a king, and
they but half his subjects, in his own land : which, said
he, was derogatory to his crown, and utterly prejudicial
to the common laws of his realm. Declaring thereupon
in what manner his majesty might accumulate to him-
A.D. 1527—1540.] AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF LORD CROMWELL.
579
self great riches, so much as all the clergy in his realm
was worth, if it so pleased hira to take the occasion
now ottered. The king giving good ear to this, and
liking right well his advice, required if he could give any
evidence for that which he spake. All this, he said,
he could establish ; and that he had the copy of the oath
to the pope there present to shew ; and that no less also
he could prove, if his highness would give him leave ;
and therewith shewed the bishops' oath to the king, and
also their oath to the pope.
The king, following the spirit of his counsel, took
his ring off his finger, and first admitting him his service,
sent him to the convocation house among the bishops.
Cromwell, having the authority of the king, boldly went
into the clergy house ; and there placing himself among
the bishops (William Warham being then archbishop)
began to make his oration ; declaring to them the autho-
rity of a king, and the office of subjects, and especially
the obedience of bishops and churchmen to the public
laws, which were necessary to provide for the profit and
quiet of the commonwealth. Which laws, notwithstand-
ing they had all transgressed, and highly offended in de-
rogation of the king's royal estate, and falling under the
law of praemunire, in that they had not only consented
to the power legatine of the cardinal, but also in that
they had all sworn to the pope, contrary to the fealty of
their sovereign lord the king ; and therefore had for-
feited to the king all their goods, chattels, lands, posses-
sions, and whatever livings they had. The bishops hear-
ing this were not a little amazed, and first began to ex-
cuse and deny the fact. But after Cromwell had shewed
to them the very copy of the oath which they had made
to the pope at their consecration ; the matter was thus
so plain that they could not deny it ; and they began to
shrink and to fall to entreaty, and desiring time to pause
upon the matter. The end of it was, that to be quit of
that praemunire by act of parliament, they had to pay
to the king no less a sum than one hundred and eighteen
thousand, eight hundred and forty pounds, (A.D. 1531.)
After this, A.D. 1532, Sir Thomas Cromwell growing
in great favour with the king, was made knight and
master of the king's jewel-house ; and shortly after was
admitted also into the king's council, which was about
the coming in of queen Anne Boleyn. Within two years
after the same, (A.D. 1534,) he was made master of the
Rolls, Dr. Tailor being discharged.
Cromwell increasing in favour and honour, after this,
'in the year 1537, a little before the birth of king Edward,
was made knight of the garter, and not long after was
advanced to the earldom of Essex, and made great cham-
berlain of England. Besides all which honours, he was
constituted also vicegerent to the king, representing his
person. Which office, although it stands well by the
law, yet seldom has there been seen in it any besides this
Cromwell.
Now somewhat should be said of the noble acts, the
memorable examples and worthy virtues that were in
him. Among which his worthy acts and manifold vir-
tues, in this one thing above all others rises his com-
mendation for his singular zeal and labour in restoring
the church of Christ, and subverting the synagogue of
antichrist, the abbeys, I mean, and religious houses of
the friars and monks. For so it pleased Almighty God,
by means of Lord Cromwell, to induce the king to sup-
press first the chantries, then the friars' houses and
small monasteries, till at length all the abbeys in England,
both great and small were utterly overthrown and plucked
up by the roots. These acts of his, as they may give a
precedent of singular zeal to all christian realms, which
no prince yet to this day dare follow ; so to this realm
of England, it wrought such benefit, as the fruit yet re-
mains, and will remain still in the realm of England,
though we seem little to feel it.
But here I must answer the complaint of certain of
our countrymen. For so I hear of many who speak of the
subversion of these monasteries, as evil and wicked.
The buildings, say they, might have been converted into
schools and houses of learning; the goods and possessions
might have been bestowed to much better and more
godly use of the poor, and maintaining of hospitality.
Neither do I deny but that these things are well spoken,
and could willingly embrace their opinion with my whole
heart, if I did not consider a more secret meaning of
God's holy providence, than at the first blush appears
to all men.
And first to omit the wicked and execrable life of these
religious orders, full of all vice, which were found out
by the king's visitors, and in their registers recorded,
so horrible to be heard, so incredible to be believed,
so stinking before the face of God and man, that it is
no marvel if God's vengeance from heaven would not
suffer any stone or monument of these abominable houses
to be left.
Whosoever finds himself aggrieved with Crt^mwell's
suppressing these monasteries of monks and friars, let
him wisely consider. First, the doctrine, laws, and tradi-
tions of these men, whom we shall find in rebellion against
the religion of Christ ; pernicious to our salvation ; de-
rogatory to Christ's glory ; and full of much blasphemy
and damnable idolatry. Secondly, let him well con-
sider the liorrible and execrable lives of the cloisterers,
as appears in the rolls and registers of matters found out
by incjuisition in the time of king Henry VIII. ; which
cannot jiere be spoken of, unless we speak as Matthew
Paris speaks of the court of Rome, " Whose filthy
stink," saith he, " did breatiie up a most pestiferous
fume, even to the clouds of heaven," &c.
Then all things being considered, what marvel is it, if
God in his just judgment did set up lord Cromwell to
destroy tliese sinful houses, whom their own corru{)tions
could suffer no longer to stand .' And as to the disper-
sing of their lands and possessions, if it was agreeable to
the king, to bestow these abbey lands upon his nobles
and gentlemen, or to restore them again to them from
whom they came, or otherwise to gratify his nobility ;
what was that to Cromwell ? But, you say, they might
have been much better employed to other more useful pur-
poses. To this I answer, that in such a kingdom as this,
where laws and parliaments are very much subject to
the disposition of the prince ; and where it is not cer-
tain always what princes may come ; the surest way to
get rid of monkery and popery was to pack it out of the
realm ; or at once to do with their houses and posses-
sions as king Henry then did. For otherwise, who can-
not see that in queen Mary's time, if either the houses
of monks had stood, or their lands had not been other-
wise disposed of into the hands of such as they were,
that then many of them had been restored and reple-
nished again with monks and friars .' And if dukes,
barons, and the nobility were scarce able to retain the
lands and possessions of abbeys, which had been dis-
tributed to them by king Henry, from the devotion of
queen Mary, — who sought again to build the walls of
Jericho, — what then should the meaner sort have done,
let other men conjecture. Wherefore it is not unlike-
ly, but that God's heavenly providence did foresee and
dispose these things before, in the destruction of these
abbeys. Or, otherwise we might have had such nu-
merous swarms of friars and monks in their nests again
before this day in England, as that ten Cromwells after-
wards could not have unhoused them.
After the power and authority of the bishop of Rome
was banished out of England, the bishops of his sect
never ceased to seek all occasion either to restore it again,
or at least to keep upright the things which remained.
It happened, that after the abolishing of the authority of
the pope that certain tumults began about religion ;
when it seemed good to king Henry that an assembly
of learned men and bishops should be appointed, who
should soberly and modestly consider and determine
those things which pertained to religion. All the learn-
ed men, but especially the bishops, to whom this matter
seemed chiefly to belong, having assembled, Cromwell
purposed also to be present himself at this convoca-
tion, and meeting by chance with Alexander Alesse, a
Scotchman, brought him with him to the convocation
house, where all the bishops were assembled together,
(A.D. 1537.) The bishops and prelates, who were
waiting for the coming of Cromwell, as he came in, rose
up and did obeisance to him as to their vicar-general;
580
ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF LORD CROMwELL.
[LioK Vlll.
and he again saluted every one in their degree, and sate
down in the highest place at the table, according to his
degree and office ; and after him every bishop in his
order, and doctors. First over against him sate the
archbishop of Canterbury ; then the archbishop of York ;
the bishops of London, Lincoln, Salisl)ury, Bath,
Ely, Hereford, Chichester, Norwich, Rochester, Wor-
cester, &c. There Cromwell, in the name of the king,
(whose secret councillor he was, and loid privy seal,
and vicar-general of the realm) spake these words as
follows : —
" Right reverend fathers in Christ : The king's ma-
jesty gives you high thanks that you have so diligently,
without any excuse, assembled hither according to his
commandment. And you are not ignorant that you are
called hither to determine certain controversies, which
at this time are moved concerning the christian religion
and faith, not only in this realm, but also in all nations
througliout the world. For the king studies day and
night to promote quietness in the church ; and he cannot
rest until all such controversies are fully debated and
ended, through the determination of you and his whole
parliament. For although his special desire is to set a
stay for the unlearned people, whose consciences are in
doubt what they may believe, and he himself by his
excellent learning knows these controversies well enough ;
yet he will suffer no common alteration but by the con-
sent of you and his whole parliament. By which you
may perceive his high wisdom, and also his great love
towards you. And he desires you, for Christ's sake, that
all malice, obstinacy, and carnal respect set apart, you
will friendly and lovingly dispute among yourselves of
the controversies moved in the church, and that you
will conclude all things by the word of God, without any
brawling or scolding ; neither will his majesty suffer the
scriptures to be wrested and defaced by any glosses ;
any papistical laws ; or by any authority of doctors or
councils ; and much less will he admit any articles or
doctrine not contained in the scriptures, but approved
only by continuance of time and old custom, and by un-
written verities, as you were wont to do. You know
well enough that you are bound to shew this service to
Christ, and to his church, and yet his majesty will give
you high thanks, if you will establish and conclude a
■godly and a perfect unity : whereunto this is the only
way and means, if you will determine all things by the
scriptures, as God commands you in Deuteronomy ;
which thing his majesty exhorts and desires you to
do."
When Cromwell had finished his speech, the bishops
rose up altogether, giving thanks to the king's majesty,
not only for his great zeal towards the church of Christ,
but also for his most godly exhortation, so worthy of a
christian prince.
Then they immediately commenced the disputation ;
when Stokesley, bishop of London, the first of all, being
the most earnest champion and maintainer of the Romish
decrees, (whom Cromwell a little before had checked by
name, for defending unwritten verities,) endeavoured out
of the old school glosses, to maintain the seven sacraments
of the church ; the archbishop of York, the bishops of
Lincoln, i5ath, Chichester, and Norwich, also favoured
his part. On the contrary part, was the archbishop of
Canterbury, the bishops of Salisbury, Ely, Hereford,
Worcester, with many others.
After much communication on both sides, and after a
long controversy about the testimony of the doctors,
who, as it seemed to them, dissented and disagreed
among themselves, the archbishop of Canterbury, at last,
spoke as follows :
" It becomes not men of learning and gravity to make
much babbling and brawling about bare words, so that we
agree in the very substance and effect of the matter.
For to brawl about words is the jjroperty of sophisters,
and such as mean deceit and subtlety, who delight in
the debate and dissension of the world, and in the miser-
able state of the church ; and not of them who should seek
the glory of Christ ; and should study for the unity and
quietness of the church. There are weighty controversies
now moved and put forth, not of ceremonies and light
things, but of the true understanding, and of the right
difference of the law and of the gospel ; of the manner
and way how sins are forgiven ; of comforting doubtful
and wavering consciences, by what means they may be
certified that they please God ; seeing they feel the
strength of the law accusing them of sin ; of the true
use of the sacraments, whether the outward work of
them doth justify man, or whether we receive our justi-
fication by faith. Also, which are the good works, and
the true service and honour which please God ; and
whether the choice of meats, the difference of garments,
the vows of monks and priests, and other traditions which
have not the word of God to confirm them ; whether
these, I say, are right good works, and such as make a
perfect christian man, or not ? Also, whether vain ser-
vice and false honouring of God, and man's traditions,
bind men's consciences, or not? Finally, whether the'
ceremony of confirmation, of orders, and of annealing,
and such others (which cannot be proved to be instituted
of Christ, nor have any word in them to certify us of re-
mission of sins) ought to be called sacraments, and to be
compared with baptism and the supper of the Lord,
or not?
"These are no light matters, but even the principal
points of our christian religion. Wherefore we contend
not about words and titles, but about high and earnest
matters. Christ saith, ' Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God.' And St,
Paul, writing unto Timothy, commands bishops to avoid
brawling and contention about words, which are profit-
able to nothing but unto the subversion and destruction of
the hearers ; andadmonishes him especially, that he should
resist with the scriptures, when any man disputes with
him of the faith ; and he adds a cause where he says,
' Doing this thou shalt save both thyself, and them who
hear thee.' Now, if you will follow these counsellors,
Christ and St. Paul, all contention and brawling about
words must be set apart, and you must establish a godly
and a perfect unity and concord out of the scriptures.
Wherefore in this disputation we must first agree on the
number of the sacraments, and what a sacrament signifies
by the holy scriptures ; and when we call baptism and the
svipper of the Lord, sacraments of the gospel, we must de-
cide what we mean thereby. I know right well that St.
Ambrose and other authors call the washing of the disJ
ciples' feet and other things, sacraments, which I am sure
you yourselves woulil not suffer to be numbered among
the other sacraments."
When he had ended his speech, Cromwell commanded
Alesse, who stood by, to give his mind and opinion, de-
claring first to the bishops that he was the king's scho-
lar, and therefore desired them to hear him.
Alesse, after he had first done his obeisance to the
lord Cromwell, and to the other prelates of the church,
then spoke as follows :
"Right honourable and noble lord; and you most
reverend fathers and prelates of the clmrch ; although
I come unprepared to this disputation, yet trusting in
the aid of Christ, who promises to give both mouth and
wisdom to us when we are questioned of our faith, I will
utter my judgment of this disputation. And 1 think
that my lord archbishop hath given you a profitable ex-
hortation, that you should first agree on the signification
of a sacrament, and whether you will call a sacrament a
ceremony instituted of Christ in the gospel, or merely to
signify a special or a singular virtue of the gospel, and
of godliness (as St. Paul names remission of sins to be) ;
or whether you mean every ceremony generally, whicli
may be a token, or a signification of a holy thing, to be
a sacrament ? For according to this latter signification,
I will not object to grant to you that there are seven sa-
craments, and more too, if you will. But yet St. Paul
seems to describe a sacrament after the just signification,
wliere he saith, "That circumcision is a seal of the
righteousness of faith." This definition of one parti-
A.D. 1527—1540.]
AN ACCOUNT OF TFIE LIFE OF LORD CROMWELL.
581
cnlar sacrament must be understood to appertain to all
I sacraments generally ; for the Jews had but one sacra-
ment only. And he describes baptism after the same
manner, in Epbesians v. 26, ' That Christ might sanc-
tify tin- church, and cleanse it with the washing of
■water by the word.' For here also he adds the word
and promise of God unto the ceremony. And Christ
also requires faith where he says, ' Whosoever believeth
and is baptized shall be saved.'
" And St. Augustine describes a sacrament thus : —
' The word of God coming into the element maketh the
sacrament.' And in another place he says, ' A sacra-
ment is a thing wherein the power of God, under the
form of visible things, dotli woi'k secretly salvation.'
And the ' Master of the Sentences ' doth describe a
sacrament no otherwise: ' A sacrament,' says he, 'is
an invisible grace, and hath a visible form ; and by this
invisible grace I mean remission of sins.' Finally, St.
Thomas denies that any man has authority to institute
a sacrament. Now if you agree to this definition of a
sacrament, it is an easy thing to judge of the number of
those sacraments which have the manifest word of God,
and are instituted by Christ, to signify unto us the re-
mission of our sins."
When Alesse had concluded, after a learned account
of the judgment of St. Augustine, the bishop of London,
who could scarcely refrain himself all the while, broke
out in this manner : " First of all," said he, " where you
allege, that all the sacraments which are in the church
were instituted by Christ himself, and have either some
manifest ground in the scriptures, or ought to shew
some signification of remission of sin, it is false, and not
to be allowed."
Then said Alesse, that he would prove it, not only by
manifest authorities of scripture, but also by evident tes-
timonies of ancient doctors and school-writers.
But the bishop of Hereford (who had then lately re-
turned from Germany, where he had been ambassador
from the king to the protestants), being moved with the
bishop of London's frowardness, turning himself first
to Alesse, desired him not to contend with the bishop in
such manner, by the testimonies of doctors and school-
men ; forasmuch as they do not all agree ; neither are
they steadfast among themselves in all points ; but vary ;
and in many points are utterly repugnant. Wherefore
if tliis disputation shall be decided by their minds and
verdicts, there shall be nothing established. Further-
more, we are commanded by the king, that these
controversies should be determined only by the rule
and' judgment of the scriptures. This he spoke to
Alesse. Then turning himself to the bishops, he like-
wise admonished them in a grave speech, as follows : —
" Think you," said be, " that we can by any sophis-
tical subtleties steal out of the world again the light
which every man sees ? Christ hath so lightened the
world at this time, that the light of the gospel hath put
to flight all misty darkness, and it will shortly have the
higher hand of all clouds, though we resist in vain ever
so much. The lay-people do now know the holy scrip-
tures much better than many of us. And the Germans
have made the text of the Bible so plain and easy by the
Hebrew and Greek tongues, that now many things may
be better understood without any glosses at all, than by
all the commentaries of the doctors. And they have so
opened these controversies by their writings, that women
and children may wonder at the blindness and falsehood
that has been hitherto. Wherefore you must consider
earnestly what you will determine in these controver-
sies, that you make not yourselves to be mocked and
laughed to scorn of all the world ; and that you bring
them not to have this opinion of \ou, to think that you
have neither one spark of learning, nor yet of godliness
in you. And thus shall you lose all your estimation and
authority with them, who before took you for learned
men and profitable members to the commonwealth of
Christendom. For that which you hope for, that there
was never a heresy in the church so great, but that
process of time with the pow^r and authority of the
pope, has quenched it, is nothing to the purpose. But
you must change your opinion, and think, that there is
nothing so feeble and weak, so that it be true ; but it
shall find place, and be able to stand against all false-
hood. Truth is the daughter of Time, and Time is the
mother of Truth. And whoever is besieged by truth
cannot long continue ; and upon whose side truth stands,
that ought not to be thought transitory ; or that it will
ever fall. All things consist not in painted eloquence,
and strength or authority. For the truth is of so great
power, strength, and efficacy, that it can neither be de-
feated with words, nor be overcome by any strength ;
but after she has hidden herself for a long time, at
length she puts up her head and appears, as it is written
in Esdras, ' A king is strong ; wine is strong ; yet women
are more strong ; but truth excelleth all.' " 1 Esdras iv.
To this effect, and much more, did he speak and
utter in that convocation, both copiously and discreetly.
Through whose speech Alesse, being encouraged, pro-
ceeded further, to urge the bishop with arguments.
When he had spoken, the bishop of London inter-
rupted him, and said, " Let us grant that the sacra-
ments may be gathered out of the word of God ; yet you
are deceived if you think that there is no other word of
God. And if you think that nothing pertains to the
christian faith, but that only which is written in the
Bible, then you err plainly with the Lutherans ; for St.
John saith, ' that Jesus did many things which are not
written.' John xxi. 25. And St. Paul commands the
Thessalonians to observe and keep certain unwritten
traditions and ceremonies. Moreover, he himself did
preach not the scriptjires only, but even also the tra-
ditions of the elders. Finally, we have received many
things of the doctors and councils, which, although they
are not written in the Bible, yet we ought to grant that
we received them of the apostles ; and that they are of
like authority with the scriptures ; and finally, that they
may worthily be called the unwritten word of God."
Now, when the lord Cromwell, the archbishop, with
the other bishops, who defended the pure doctrine of the
gospel, heard this, they smiled a little one to another, as
they saw him fly off, even in the very beginning of the dis-
putation, to his old rusty sophistry and unwritten verities.
Then Alesse would have proceeded further to have con-
futed these sophistries, but the lord Cromwell bade him
be content ; and so he made an end with this protestation.
'* Right reverend bishop, you deny that our christian
faith and religion leans only upon the word of God, which
is written in the Bible : which, if I can prove and de-
clare, then you will grant me that there are no sacra-
ments but those that have the word of God to confirm
them." To this he consented, and then immediately
the assembly was dissolved for that day.
The next day, when the bishops had met, the arch-
bishop of Canterbury sent his archdeacon, and com-
manded Alesse to abstain from any further disputation.
Whereupon he wrote his mind, and delivered it to Crom-
well, who afterwards shewed the same unto the bishops.
Thus, through the industry of Cromwell, the discussions
were brought to this end ; that although religion could
not then wholly be reformed, yet at that time there was
some reformation throughout all England.
How desirous and studious this CromweU was in the
cause of Christ's religion, examples need not be brought.
His whole life was nothing else but a continual care how-
to advance the right knowledge of the gospel, and to re-
form the house of God. He caused the people to be in-
structed in the Lord's prayer and in the apostles' creed
in English. He also procured the scriptures to be trans-
lated and set forth in the same language, so that they
might be read and understood by every Englishman :
after that, to rescue the vulgar people from damnable
idolatry, he caused certain of the grossest places of pil-
grimage to be destroyed. And further, for the benefit of
the poorer sort, who get their living by their daily labour,
and by the work of their hands, he provided that various
idle holydays should be abolished. He procured for
them liberty to eat eggs and white meat in Lent. It
was by him also provided, for the better instruction of
582
ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF LORD CROMWELL.
[Book VIII.
the people, that beneficed men should be resident in
their cures and parishes, to teach and to keep hospi-
tality ; as well as many other regulations for the refor-
mation of religion : as by the proclamations, injunc-
tions, and necessary articles of christian doctrine, which
were set forth, by his means, in the king's name, may
more abundantly appear.
It would require a long discourse to add his private
benefits in helping good men and women out of troubles
and great distresses ; his whole life was full of such ex-
amples, being a man ordained of God to do many men
good ; and especially such as were in danger of persecu-
tion for religion's sake.
It were long to recite what innumerable benefits this
worthy counsellor wrought and brought to pass in the
realm, and especially in the church of England ; what
good orders he established ; what wickedness l>e sup-
pressed ; what corruptions he reformed ; what abuses he
brought to light ; what crafty jugglings ; what idolatrous
deceptions, and superstitious delusions he detected and
abolished out of the church. What will posterity think
of the church of the pope, whicli, for so many years,
abused the jjcople's eyes with an old rotten stock (called
the Rood of Grace) in which were one hundred wires to
make the image goggle with the eyes ; to nod with the
head ; to hang the lip ; to move and shake his jaws, ac-
cording to the value of the gift which was offered ? If it
■were a small piece of silver he would hang a frowning
lip ; if it were a piece of gold, then would his jaws go
merrily ! Thus miserably were the people of Christ
abused ; their souls seduced ; their senses beguiled ; and
their purses spoiled ; until this idolatrous forgery was
disclosed by Cromwell's means, and the image, with all
its machinery, openly exhibited at St. Paul's cross, and
there torn in pieces by the people. The same was done
with the blood of Hales, which, in the same way, was
brought by Cromwell to St. Paul's cross, and there
proved to be the blood of a duck !
What shall I speak of Darvel Gartheren ; of the
Rood of Chester ; of Thomas Becket ; our Lady of Wal-
singham ; with an infinite multitude of the same kind ?
All which stocks and blocks of cursed idolatry Cromwell
removed out of the way of the people, that they might
■walk more safely in the sincere service of Almiarhtv
God. ^ ^
While the Lord Cromwell was thus occupied in profit-
ing the commonwealth, and purging the church of Christ,
it happened to him, as commonly it does to all good
uien, that where any virtue appears, there envy creeps
in, and where true piety seeks most after Christ, there
some persecution follows.
This, I say, as he was labouring in the commonwealth
and doing good to the poor afflicted saints, and helping
them out of trouble, the malice of his enemies was con-
tinually employed in liunting out for matter against him,
and in this they never ceased, till in the end, by false
trains and crafty surmises, they brought him out of the
king's favour.
The chief and principal enemy against him was Stephen
Gardiner bishop of W inchester ; who, ever envying the
state and felicity of the Lord Cromwell, and taking his
occasion by the marriage of Lady Anne of Cleves being
a stranger and foreigner, whispered in the king's ears what
aperfect thing it would be to the quiet of the realm, and
establishment of the king's succession, to have an Eng-
lish (|ueen, and a prince purely English; so that the king's
affection, the more it wasdiminished from Anne of Cleves,
the less favour he bare to Cromwell.
After this, in tlie month of April 1,540, was held a
parliament, which after divers prorogations was continued
till the month of July. In which month the Lord
Cromwell being in the council-chamber, was suddenly
apprehended and committed to the Tower, Many good
men lamented and prayed heartily for him ; so there were
others on the contrary that rejoiced, especially of the
religious sort, and of the clergy, such as had been of
some dignity before in the church, and now by his means
were put from it. For such was his nature, that in all
his doings he could not abide any kind of popery, or
false rehgion under the garb of hypocrisy, and less could
he abide the ambitious pride of popish prelacy, which
while professing deep humility was so elated with pride,
that kings could not rule in their own realms for them.
These prelates he never could abide ; so on the other
hand they hated him as much, which was the cause of
the shortening of his days ; for he was afterwards attainted
by parliament.
In the attainder many crimes, surmises, and accusa-
tions were brought against him ; but chiefly and above all
others he was charged and accused of heresy, as a sup-
porter of them whom they accounted heretics; as Barnes,
Clark, and others, whom, by his authority and letters
written to sheriffs and justices, he had discharged out of
prison. Also that he did disperse abroad among the
king's subjects a great number of books, containing, as
they said, manifest heresy ; that he caused to be trans-
lated into our English tongue books comprising matter
expressly against the sacrament of the altar ; and that
after the translation, he commended and maintained the
same for good and christian doctrine. Over and besides
all this, they brought in certain witnesses who esj)ecially
charged him with having spoken words against the kingin
the church of St. Peter the Poor, in the month of March,
in the thirtieth year of the king's reign (15;5y) ; which,
if true, there are three things I have much to marvel at.
First, if his adversaries had such sure matter against him,
then what should move them to make such haste to have
him dispatched out of the way, and not allow him to
come to his purgation.' Secondly, if the words had
been so heinous against the king as his enemies pretend,
why then did those witnesses who heard the words con-
ceal such treason for the space of almost two years?
Thirdly, if the king had known and believed these
words to be true, and that Cromwell had indeed been
such a traitor to his person, why then did the king so
shortly afterwards lament his death, wishing to have
Cromwell alive again .' What prince will wish the life
of him whom he imdoubtedly suspects to have been
a traitor to his life and person .'
So long as Cromwell went with full sail of fortune,
how moderately and how temperately he always bore
himself, hath been declared before. So now the Lord
Cromwell, being overthrown by the contrary wind of ad-
versity, received the same with no less constancy and
patience of a christian heart ; nor yet was he so unpro-
vided with counsel, but that he foresaw this tempest long
before it fell, and prepared for it ; for two years before,
suspecting the conspiracy of his adversaries, and fearing
what might happen, he called his servants, and there
shewing to them in what a slippery state he stood, and
also perceiving some stormy weather to gather already,
required them to look diligently to their order and doings,
lest through their fault any occasion might arise against
him. And before the time of his apprehension, he in-
troduced such order among his servants, that many of
them, especially the younger, who had little else to take
to, had left for them in their friends' hands means to
relieve them, whatever should befal him. CromweU
was such a loving and kind mast-jr to his servants,
that he provided beforehand almost for them all ; in-
somuch that he gave to twelve children who were his
musicians, twenty pounds a piece, and so committed
them to their friends.
When a prisoner in the Tower, it is worthy noting how
quietly he bare it ; how valiantly he behaved himself;
how gravely and discreetly he answered the commission-
ers sent to him. Whatever articles and interrogatories
they ])ropounded, they could put nothing to him, either
concerning matters ecclesiastical or temjjoral, wherein
he was not more rijjened and more furnished in every
condition than they themselves.
Among the rest of those commissioners who came to
him, there was one whom the Lord Cromwell desired
to carry for him a letter to the king, who, when he re-
fused, by saying that he would carry no letter to the king
from a traitor ; then the Lord Cromwell desired him at
least to convey from him a message to the king. To
that the other was content, so that it were not against
his allegiance. Then the Lord Cromwell taking witness
of the other lords what he had promised, " You shall
K.D. 1540—1547.]
DEATH OF LORD CROMWELL.
583
commend me," said he, " to the king, and tell him that
when he has so well tried, and thoroughly proved you as I
have done, he will find you as false a man as ever came
about him."
Besides this, he wrote a letter from the Tower to the
king ; and when none durs'. take the carriage of it. Sir R.
Sadler, whom he had preferred to the king before, being
ever trusty and faithful to him, went to the king to un-
derstand his pleasure, whether he would permit him to
brino- the letter or not ; which, when the king granted,
Sadler presented the letter, which he commanded thrice
to be read to him ; so much did the king seem to be
moved therewith.
Notwitlistanding, by reason of the act of parliament
before passed, the v/orthy and noble lord Cromwell, op-
pressed by his enemies, and condemned in the Tower,
and not coming to his answer, was brought to the scaffold
on Tower Hill, on the 28th day of July 1540, when he
said these words : —
" I am come hitherto die, and not to clear myself, as
some think perhaps that I will. For if I should do so,
1 would be a very wretch. I am by the law condemned
to die, and thank my Lord God that appointed me this
death for mine offence. For since the time that I have
had years of discretion, I have lived a sinner, and of-
fended my Lord God, for which I ask him heartily for-
giveness. And it is not vxnknown to many of you, that
1 have been a great traveller in this world, and being
but of a base degree, was called to high estate ; and
since the time I came tliereto, I have offended my prince,
for which I ask him heartily forgiveness, and beseech
you all to pray to God with me, that He will forgive me.
And now I pray you that are here to bear me record,
that I die in the catholic faith, not doubting in any
article of my faith ; no, nor doubting in any sacrament
of the church. Many have slandered me, and reported
that I have been a bearer of such as have maintained evil
opinions, which is untrue. But I confess, that like as
God by his Holy Spirit doth instruct us in the truth, so
the devil is ready to seduce us, and I have been seduced ;
but bear me witness that I die in the catholic faith of
the holy church : and I heartily desire you to pray for
the king's grace, that he may long live with you in
health and prosperity ; and that after him, his son,
prince Edward, that goodly child, may long reign over
you. And once again I desire you to pray for me, that
so long as life remains in this flesh, I may waver nothing
in my faith." And so making bis prayer, kneeling on
bis knees, he spake these words.
" O Lord Jesus, who art the only health of all men
living, and the everlasting life of them who die in thee ;
I, a wretched sinner, do submit myself wholly unto thy
most blessed will, and being sure that the thing cannot
perish which is committed unto thy mercy, willingly
now 1 leave this frail and wicked flesh, in sure hope that
thou wilt in better wise restore it to me again at the last
day in the resurrection of the just. I beseech thee most
merciful Lord Jesus Christ, that thou wilt by thy grace
make strong my soul against all temptation, and defend
me with the buckler of thy mercy against all the assaults
of the devil. I see and acknowledge that there is in
myself no hope of salvation, but all my confidence, hope
and trust is in thy most merciful goodness. I have no
merits nor good works which I may allege before thee.
Of sins and evil works, alas! 1 see a great heap ; but
yet, through thy mercy, I trust to be in the number of
them to whom thou wilt not impute their sins ; but wilt
take and acce{)t me for righteous and just, and to be
the inheritor of everlasting life. Thou, merciful Lord,
was born for my sake ; thou didst sufl'er both hunger
and thirst for my sake ; thou didst teach, pray, and fast
for my sake ; all thy holy actions and works thou
wroughtest for my sake; thou sufl'eredst most grievous
pains and torments for my sake ; finally, thou gavest thy
most precious body and thy blood to be shed on the
cross for my sake. Now, most merciful Saviour, let all
these things profit me, which thou hast thyself given for
me. Let thy blood cleanse and wash away the spots
and fulness of my sins. Let thy righteousness hide and
cover my unrighteousness. Let the merits of thy passion
and blood-shedding be satisfaction for my sins. Give me,
Lord, thy grace, that the faith of my salvation in thy blood
waver not in me, but may ever be firm and constant.
That the hope of thy mercy and life everlasting may
never decay in me ; that love wax not cold in me. Fi-
nally, that the weakness of my flesh be not overcome
with the fear of death. Grant me, mercifid Saviour,
that when death hath shut up the eyes of my body, yet
the eyes of my soul may still behold and look upon thee ;
and when death hath taken away the use of my tongue,
yet may my heart cry and say unto thee. Lord, into thy
hands 1 commend my soul ; Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." Amen.
And thus, his prayer made, after he had godly and
lovingly exhorted them that were about him on the scaf-
fold, he quietly committed his soul into the hands of God,
and so patiently suffered the stroke of the executioner.
Of the Bible in English, printed in the large volume ;
and of Edmund Bonner preferred to the bishoprick of
London, hy the means of the Lord Crojnwell,
About the time when Edmund Bonner, bishop of Here-
ford, and ambassador to France, was first nominated and
preferred by means of the lord Cromwell to the bishoprick
of London, it happened, in November, 1531), that Cromwell
procured of the king his gracious letters to the French
king, to permit and license a subject of his to print the
bible in English in the university of Paris, because paper
was there more meet and apt to be had than in the realm,
of England, and also that there were more good workmen
for the dispatch of the same. And the king wrote to
his ambassador, who then was Edmund Bonner, in Paris,
that he should aid and assist in the work. The bishop
outwardly shewed great friendship to the printers ; and
he was so fervent, that he caused the Englishmen to put
in print a New Testament in English and Latin, and
himself took a great many of them, and paid for them,
and gave them to his friends. And it chanced in the
mean time, while the bible was printing, that king
Henry VIII. preferred Bonner from the bishoprick of
Hereford to be bishop of London ; at which time Bonner,
according to the statute law of England took his oath to
the king, acknowledging his supremacy, and called one of
the Englishmen that printed the Bible, whom he then
loved, although afterwards upon the change of the world
he did hate him as much, whose name was Richard Graf-
ton ; to whom Bonner said, when he took his oath,
" Master Grafton, so it is, that the king's most excellent
majesty has by his gracious gift presented me to the
bishoprick of London, for which 1 am sorry ; for if it
would have pleased his grace, I could have been well
content to have kept mine old bishojirick of Hereford."
Then said Grafton, "I am right glad to hear of it, and
so I am sure will be a great number of the city of Lon-
don ; for though they do not know you, yet they have
heard so much goodness of you, that they will be glad."
Then said Bonner, " I pray God I may content them.
And to tell you, Master Grafton, before God, (for that
was commonly his oath,) the greatest fault that ever I
found in Stokesley was, that he vexed and troubled poor
men, as Lobeley the bookbinder and others, for having
the scriptures in English ; and, God willing, he did not
so much hinder it as I will further it, and I will have set
up in the church of St. Paul's at least six of the bibles,
and I will pay you honestly for them, and give hearty
thanks. But now I have especially called you to witness,
that upon this translation of the bishops' sees, I must,
according to the statute, take an oath to the king's ma-
jesty, acknowledging his supremacy, which, before God,
I take with my heart, and so think him to be ; and I be-
seech Almighty God to save him, and long to prosper
his grace. Hold the book. Sir, and read you the oath,"
(said he to one of his chaplains,) and he laid his hand
on the book, and so he took his oath : and after this he
shewed great friendship to Grafton, and to his partner
Edward Whitchurch, but especially to Miles Coverdale,
who was the corrector of the great Bible.
After the king's letters were delivered, the Frendi
584
AN ACCOUNT OF THE LARGE BIBLE IN ENGLISH.
[Book VIIL
king give very good words, and was well contented to
))ermit the v/ork ; and so the printer went forward and
printed the book even to tlie last part, and then a
quarrel was picked against tlie printer, and he was sent
for to tlie inquisitors, and there charged with articles of
heresy. Then the Englishmen were sent for that were
at the cost and charge, and also such as had the correc-
tion of tlie same, who was Miles Coverdale ; but having
some warning what v/ould follow, the Englishmen posted
away as fast as they could to save themselves, leaving
behind tliem all their Bibles, which were to the number
of two tliousand five hundred, called the Bibles of the
great volume, and never recovered any of them, save
that the lieutenant -criminal having them delivered to
him to burn in Paris, sold some of them to a haljerdasher
to fold caps in, and tiiose were bought again ; but the
rest v.-ere burned, to the great loss of those that bore the
charge. But notwithstanding the loss, after they had
lecovered some of the liooks, and were comforted and
encouraged by the lord Cromwell, the Englishmen went
again to Paris, and there got the ])resses, letters, and
servant:; of the printer, and brought them to London;
and tliere they became printers themselves, (which before
they never intended,) and printed out the Bible in Lon-
don, and after that printed several impressions of them ;
but yet not without great trouble and loss, for the hatred
of the bisliops, namely, Gardiner and his fellows.
Here by the way, let me request the reader to note and
undcr.staiid, that in those days there were two Bibles in
Etigli>h, bearing different titles, and printed in different
jdaces ; the first was called Thomas Mathews' bible,
jiriiited at Hamburgh, about A.D. 15.'^2, the corrector of
which w:is then John Rogers. The printers were Richard
Grafton and Whitchurch. In the translation of this
bilde the greatest helper was William Tindal, who, with
the lielp of Miles Coverdale had translated all the books,
txcejit the Apocrypha, and certain notes in the margin,
which were added after. But as William Tindal was
apprehended before this Bible was fully perfected, it
was thought good to change the name of William Tin-
dal, because that name was then odious, and to fur-
ther it by a strange name of Thomas Mathews, John
Rogers at the same time being corrector to the press,
who liad then translated the rest of the Apocrypha, and
added also certain notes in the margin ; and therefore it
came to be called Thomas Mathews' Bible. Which
Bible of Thomas Mathews, after it was printed and
presented to the lord Cromwell, and the lord Cranmer
archbishop of Canterbury, v,ho both liked it very well,
Cromwell presented it to the king ; and obtained that it
might be read freely by his majesty's subjects ; so that
there was jninted upon the book one line in red letters,
with these words, " Set forth with the King's most
gracious Licence."
After the restraint of this Bible of Mathews, another
Bible began to be printed at Paris, (A..D. L'J40,) which
was called " The Bible of the large Volume." Thejirin-
ters were Richard Grafton and Whitchurch, who bore
the charges. The lord Cromwell was a great helper.
The chief overseer was Miles Coverdale, who taking the
translation of Tindal, compared it with the Hebrew, and
amended many things.
After this the bishops, bringing their purpose to pass,
brought the lord Cromwell out of favour, and shortly
to death ; and not long after, great complaint wa."-. made
to the king against the translation of the Bible ; and of
the preface ; and then was the sale of the Bible com-
manded to be stayed, the bishops promising to amend
and correct it ; but they never jierformed their promise.
Then Grafton was called, and charged with the printing
of Mathews' Bible ; but he being fearful of trouble,
made excuses for himself in all things. Then he was
examined of the great Bible, and what notes he was to
make. To which he answered, that he knew none. For
his purpose was to have retained learned men to have
made the notes ; but when he perceived the king's ma-
jesty and his clergy not willing to have any, he pro-
ceeded no further. But for all these excuses Grafton
was sent to the Fleet, and there remained six weeks ; and
before he came out was bound in three hundred pounds
that he should neither sell, nor print, nor cause to be
printed, any more Bibles, until the king and tlie clergy
should agree upon a translation. And thus was the
Bible from that time stayed, during the remainder of the
reign of King Henry VIII.
But yet one thing more is to be noted, that after the
printers had lost their Bibles, they continued suitors to
Bonner, to be a means to obtain of the French king
their books again ; but they continued suiters, and
Bonner ever fed them with fair words, inouiisiiig them
much, but doing nothing for them, till at last Bonner
was discharged of his enibassay, and returned home,
where he was welcomed by the lord Ciomwcdl, who
loved him dearly, and had a marvellous good opinion of
him. And so long as Cromwell remainei. in authority,
so long was Bonner at his beck, and friend to his friends,
and enemy to his enemies : as he was at that time to Gar-
diner bishop of Winchester, who never favoured Crom-
well, and therefore Bonner could not favour him ; so he and
Winchester were the greatest enemies that could be. 1
But so soon as Cromwell fell, immediately Bonner and
Winchester pretended to be the greatest friends that
lived ; and not a good word could Bonner speak of Crom-
well, but used the vilest and bitterest that he could sj)eak,
c.illing him the rankest heretic that ever lived ; and then
such as Bonner knew to have been in good favour with J
Cromwell, he could never abide their sight. Insomuch, '
the very next day after Cromwell was apprehended, Graf. i
ton, who before had been very familiar with Bonner, met
him suddenly, and said to him. That he was sorry to hear of
the news that was abroad. "What is that?" said he.
" Of the apprehension of lord Cromwell," replied Grafton.
" Are you sorry for that?" said he ; " it had been good
that he had been dispatched long ago." With that Graf-
ton knew not what to say ; but came no more to Bonner.
However, afterwards, Grafton being charged for the
printing of a ballad made in favour of Cromwell, was
called before the council, where Bonner was present; and
there Bonner charged him with the words that he spake
to him of Cromwell, and gave a long account of the
matter. But lord Audley, who was then lord chancel-
lor, discreetly and honourably cut off the matter, and
entered into other talk.
The History of Doctor Robert Barnes, Thomas Gerrard,
and William Jerome, Divines.
As in battles the chief point of victory consists in the
safety of the general or captain : even so when the valiant
standard-bearer and stay of the church of England,
Thomas Cromwell, was taken out of the way, miserable
slaughter of good men and good women ensued. For
Winchester, having now got his full purpose, and free
course to exercise his cruelty, it was wonderful to see
what troubles he raised in the Lord's vineyard. And
lest by delay he might lose the occasion offered, he
straightway made his first assaults upon Robert Barnes,
Thomas Gerrard, and William Jerome, whom, within
two days after Cromwell's death, he caused to be exe-
cuted. First of all we will speak of Dr. Barnes, whose
particular history here follows :
This Barnes, after he came from the University of
Louvain, went to Cambridge, where he was made prior
and master of the house of the Augustines. At that
time the knowledge of good letters was scarcely entered
into the University. Barnes having a taste for good
learning and authors, began to read Terence, Plautus,
and Cicero ; so that what with his industry, pains, and
labour, he caused the university shortly to flourish with
good letters, and made a great part of the students
learned. After those foundations had been laid, then
he read openly St. Paul's epistles, because he would have
Christ and his holy word taught there ; and thereby in
a short time he made some good divines. The same
order of disputation which he kept in his house, he ob-
served likewise in the university abroad, where he dis-
puted with any man in the common schools. The first
man that answered Dr. Barnes in the scriptures, was
Master Stafford, on being examined for his form to be a
bachelor of divinity, whicn disputation was marvellous
A.D. 1510—154;.]
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DR. BARNES AND OTHERS,
S85
in the sight of the doctors, and joj'ful to the godly in
Bjiirit.
Thus Barnes, with his reading, disputation, and preach-
inn-, Ijt'oame famous and mighty in the scriptures, always
preachins: against bishops and hyiiocrites ; and yet did
not see his inward and outward idolatry, which he both
taii"-ht and maintained, till that good Master Bilney with
others, (as is related in the life of Master Bilney,) con-
verted him wholly to Christ.
The first sermon that ever he preached of this truth
was on the Sunday before Christmas day, at St. Edward's
church, belonging to Trinity Hall in Cambridge. For
that sermon he was immediately accused of heresy by
two fellows cf the King's Hall. Then the godly and
learned in Christ, both of Pembroke Hall, St. John's,
Peter's House, Queen's College, the King's College,
Gunwel Hall, and Benet College, shewed themselves,
and flocked together openly, both in the schools and at
sermons in St. Mary's ; and at the Austins ; and at other
disjiutations ; and then they conferred continually to-
gether.
At tliis time much trouble began to ensue. The ad-
versaries of Barnes accused him in the Regent-house
before the vice-chancellor ; and presented articles against
him ; to these he promised to make answer at the ne.\t
convocation. Then Nottoris, a violent enemy to Christ,
moved Barnes to recant ; but he refused to do so, until
within six days of Shrovetide. Then suddenly there was
sent down to Cambridge a sergeant-at-arms, who arrested
Dr. Barnes openly in the convocation-house, to make all
others afraid.
But good Dr. Farman, of Queen's College, sent word
to the chambers of those that were suspected of pos-
sessing Luther's books, who were in number thirty
persons. But, God be praised, they were conveyed
away by the time that the sergeant-at-arms, the vice-
chancellor, and the proctors wereat every man's chamber.
In the morning he was carried by the sergeant-at-arms
to cardinal Wolsey, at Westminster ; and there-after
waiting all day, he could not speak with him till night.
Then by reason of Doctor Gardiner, secretary to the
cardinal, and Master Fox, master of the Wards, lie spake
the same night with the cardinal in his chamber of es-
tate, kneeling on his knees. Then said the cardinal to
them, " Is this Dr. Barnes, your man that is accused of
heresy ?" " Yea, and please your grace, and we trust
you shall find him reformable, for he is both well learned
and wise.' " What, Master Doctor," said the cardinal,
" had you not a sufficient scope in the scriptures to
teach the people ; but that my golden shoes, my pillars,
my golden cushions, my crosses did so offend you, that
you must make us ridiculous amongst the people .' We
were that day laughed to scorn. Verily it was a sermon
more fit to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit."
And he answered, " I spake nothing but the truth out of
the scriptures, according to my conscience, and accord-
ing to the old doctors ;" and then he delivered him
six sheets of paper written, to confirm and corroborate
his statements.
He received them smiling, saying, "We perceive, then,
that you intend to stand to your articles, and to shew
your learning."
"Yea," said Barnes, "that I do intend, by God's
grace, with your lordship's favour." He answered, " I
will ask you a question : Whether do you think it more
necessary that 1 should have all this royalty, because I
represent the king's majesty's person in all the high
courts of this realm, to the terror and keeping down of
all rebellious treasons, traitors, all the wicked and cor-
rupt members of this commonwealth ; or to be as simple
as you would hiive us ; to sell all these things, and to give
it to the poor ; and to throw away this majesty of a
princely dignity, which is a terror to all the wicked?"
He answered ; " I think it necessary that it be sold and
given to the jjoor. For this is not comely for your call-
ing ; nor is the king's majesty maintained by your pomp
and poll-axes, but by God."
Then answered he : " Lo, master doctors, here is the
learned wise man that you told me of.'' Then they
kneeling down, said, " We desire your grace to be
good unto him, for he will be reformable."
Then said he ; " Stand you up ; for your sakes and
the university we will be good unto him. How say you,
master doctor, do you not know that I am a legate, and
that I am able to dispense in all matters concerning reli-
gion within this realm, as much as the pope may .'" He
said ; " I know it to be so." " Will you then be ruled
by us, and we will do all things for your welfare, and for
the welfare of the university ?'' He answered ; " I
thank your grace for your good will : I will abide by the
holy scriptures, according to the simple talent that Gel
has lent me." " Well," said he, " thou shalt have thy
learning tried to the utmost, and thou shalt have the
law."
Then he required him that he might have justice
with equity ; and forthwith he would have been sent to
the Tower ; but Gardiner and Fox became his sureties
that night ; and so he returned to Mr. Parnel's house,
where he commenced writing again, and slept not ; Mas-
ter Coverdale, ]\Iaster Goodwin, and Master Field, being
his writers ; and in the morning he came to Gardiner
and Fox, and was committed to the sergeant-at-arms
to bring him into the chapter-house at Westminster,
before the bishops and the abbot of Westminster.
At the same time, when Doctor Barnes was to appear
before the cardinal, there were five men to be examined
for Luther's book and LoUardy ; but after they saw
Barnes they set the other aside, and asked the sergeant-
at-arms what was his errand. He said lie had brought
one Doctor Barnes to be examined of heresy, and pre-
sented both his articles and his accusers. Then imme-
diately after a little talk, they sware him, and laid his ar-
ticles to him. Then they called the master of the Fleet,
and he and five others were committed to the Fleet.
Then they called Doctor Barnes again, and asked him
whether he would subscribe to his articles or not ; and he
subscribed willingly ; when they committed him and young
Master Parnel to the Fleet also with the others. There
they remained till Saturday morning, and the warden of
the Fleet was commanded that no man should speak witt
Barnes.
On the Saturday he came again into the chapter-
house, and there remained till five o'clock at night.
And after long disputations, threatenings, and scorn-
ings, about five o'clock at night they called him,
to know whether he would abjure or be burned.
He was then in a great agony, and thought rather
to burn than to abjure. But aftenvards he was per-
suaded rather to abjure than to burn. Upon that,
falling upon his knees, he consented to abjure, and the
abjuration being put into his hand, he abjured as it was
there written, and then he subscribed it with his own
hand ; and yet they would scarcely receive him into
the bosom of the church as they termed it. Then they
put him to his oath, and charged him to execute, do, and
fulfil all that they commanded him ; and he promised so
to do.
They then commanded the warden of the Fleet to carry
him and his fellows to the place from whence he came,
to be kept close in prison, and in the morning to pro-
vide five fagots for Dr. Barnes, and the other men. The
fifth man was commanded to have a taper of five pounds
weight provided for him to offer to the rood of Northen in
St. Paul's ; and all these things to be ready by eight of the
clock in the morning ; and that he, with all that he could
muster with bills and glaves, and the knight marshal, with
all his tipstaffs that he could gather, should bring them to
St. Paul's and conduct them home again. In the
morning they were all ready by the hour appointed, in
St. Paul's church, the church being so full that no man
could get in. The cardinal had a scaftbld made on the
top of the stairs for himself, with thirty-six abbots, and
mitred priors, and bishops ; and he in his pomp sate
there enthroned, with his chaplains and spiritual doctors
in gowns of damask and satin, and he himself in purple,
even like a bloody antichrist. And there was a new
pulpit erected, on the top of the stairs also, for the
bishop of Rochester to preach against Luther and Dr.
586
PROCEEDlMGh AGAINST DR. BARNES AND OTHERS.
[Book VIII.
Barnes ; and great baskets full of books were standing
before them within the rails, which were commanded,
after the great fire was made before the rood of Nor-
then, to be burned there, and these heretics, after the
sermon, to go thrice about the fire, and to cast in their
fagots.
Now, during the sermon. Dr. Barnes and the others
were commanded to kneel down and ask forgiveness of
God, the catholic church, and the cardinal ; and after
that he was commanded at the end of the sermon to de-
clare that he was more charitably handled than he de-
served, his heresies were so horrible and so detestable ;
and be once again kneeled down, desiring the people to
pray for him ; and so the cardinal departed under a
canopy, with all his mitred men with him, till he came
to the second gate of St. Paul's, and then he took his
mule, and the mitred men came back. Then these poor
men being ordered to come down, the bishops com-
manded the knight marshal and the warden of the Fleet
to carry them about the fire ; and after this they were
brouiiht to the bishops, and there kneeled down for ab-
solution. Rochester stood up and declared unto the
j)eople how many days of pardon and forgiveness of sins
they had for being at tliat sermon, and there absolved
Dr. Barnes with the others.
This done, the warden of the Fleet and the knight
marshal were commanded to convey them to the Fleet
again.
Barnes continued in the Fleet the space of half a year ;
and at length he was committed as a free prisoner to tlie
Austin friars, in London, who complained of him to the
lord cardinal ; upon which he was removed to the
Austin friars of Northampton, and there to be burned.
At last, one Master Home, who had brought him up,
and who was his especial friend, having intelligence that
a writ would shortly be sent down to burn him, gave him
counsel to feign himself to be insane, and that he should
write a letti-r to the cardinal and leave it on his table, to
declare that he was gone to drown himself in a certain
place, and then to leave his clothes in the place ; and
another letter to the mayor to search for him in the
water, because he had a letter written in parchment
about his neck, closed in wax for the cardinal. Upon
this they were seven days in searching for him, but he,
in the meantime was conveyed to London in a poor man's
apparel, and took shipping and went to Antwerp, and
so to Luther, and there fell to study till he had made an
answer to all the bishops of the realm, and had written a
book intituled, "Acta Romanorwn Puntificiim,'' and
another book with a supplication to king Henry.
Dr. Barnes was made strong in Christ, and got favour
both with the learned in Christ and with the foreign
princes in Germany, and was intimate with Luther,
Melancthon, and others, and with the duke of Saxony,
and with the king of Denmark, who in the time of
More and Stokesley sent him with the Lubecks as an
ambassador to Henry VIII.
Sir Thomas More, then chancellor, would gladly have
entrapped him, but the king would not let him, for
Cromwell was his great friend. And ere he went, the
Lubecks and he disputed with the bishops of this realm
in defence of the truth, and so he departed again with
the Lubecks. After his going again to Witteraberg to
the duke of Saxony, and to Luther, he remained there to
forward his works in print which he had begun, from
whence he returned in the beginning of the reign of queen
Anne Boleyn, and continued a faithful preacher in the
city, being all her time well entertained and promoted.
After that he was sent ambassador by king Henry VIII.
to the duke of Cleves, to negociate a marriage between
himself and the lady Anne of Cleves ; he was well accept-
ed in the embassy, and in all his doings, until the time
that Stephen Gardiner came out of France ; but after he
came, neither religion prospered, nor the queen's ma-
jesty, nor Cromwell, nor the preachers ; for, after the
marriage of the lady Anne of Cleves, he never ceased until
he had grafted the marriage on another stock.
Not long after, Dr. Barnes, with his brethren, were
apprehended and carried before the king at Hampton
Court, and there examined. Gardiner sought by all
subtle means how to entangle and to entrap them into
further danger, which not long after was brought to
pass. They were enjoined to preach three sermons; at
whic^h Stephen Gardiner was present, with the mayor,
either to bear record of their recantation, or else, as the
Pharisees came to Christ, to entrap tliem in their words.
When these tliree had thus preached their sermons,
Barnes, preaching the first sermon, and seeing Stephen
Gardiner there present, humbly desired him in the face
of all the audience, if lie forgave him, to hold up his
hand ; and Gardiner held up his finger ; yet, shortly
after, they were sent for to Hampton Court ; and from
thence were carried to the Tower, whence they never
came out till they came to their death.
And thus hitherto concerning the history of Barnes.
Now let us, likewise, consider the history and doings of
Thomas Gerrard.
as written
The History of T/iomas Gerrard or Garret,
by Anthony Dalaber.
" About A.D. 1526, Master Gerrard, curate in Honey
Lane, in London, came to Oxford, and brought with him
sundry books in Latin, treating of the scriptures, with
the first part of ' Unio dissidentiurn,' and Tindal's first
translation of the New Testament in English, which
books he sold to the scholars in Oxford.
" After he had been there a while, it was not unknown
to cardinal Wolsey, and to the bishop of London, and
to others, that Master Gerrard had a great number of
those books, and that he was gone to Oxford to make
sale of them there, to such as he knew to be lovers of
the gospel. Wherefore they determined forthwith to
make a search through all Oxford, to appreliend and
imprison him, and to burn all and every his books,
and himself too if they could. But at that time one of
the proctors. Master Cole, of Magdalen College, was
well acquainted with him, and therefore he gave secret
warning to a friend of Master Gerrard, and advised that
he should, as secretly as he could, depart out of Oxford;
for if he were taken, he would be forthwith sent up to
the cardinal, and be committed to the Tower.
" I, Anthony Dalaber, having books of Master Ger-
rard, had been in my county in Dorsetshire, where I had,
a brother, parson of the parish, who was very desirous to
have a curate from Oxford ; it seemed good that Master
Gerrard, changing his name, should be sent, with my
letters, into Dorsetshire to my brother, to serve him
there for a time, until he might secretly from thence
convey himself somewhere over the sea. Accordingly,
I wrote letters to my brother, for Master Gerrard to be
his curate, but not declaring what he was, for my brother
was a rank papist, and afterwards was the most mortal
enemy that ever I had for the gospel's sake.
" Accordingly, on the Wednesday, Mr. Gerrard de-
parted out of Oxford toward Dorsetshire, with his
letters. How far he went, and by what occasion he re-
turned, I know not. But on the next Friday, in the
night-time, he came back ; and so, after mid-night, in the
search which was then made for him, he was appre-
hended and taken in his bed by the two proctors, and in
the morning was delivered to one Dr. Cottisford, master
of Lincoln college, then being a commissary of the uni-
versity, who kept him as a prisoner in his own chamber.
There was great joy and rejoicing among all the jiapists
at his apprehension. I was utterly ignorant of Mr.
Gerrard's sudden return, and that he was taken, until
he came into my chamber and said he was undone, for
he was taken. Thus he spake unadvisedly in the pre-
sence of a young man that came with him./ M'hen the
young man was departed, I asked him what he was, and
what acquaintance he had with him. He said, he knew
him not ; but he had been to seek a monk of his ac-
quaintance in that college, who was not in his chamber,
and desired his servant to bring him to me : and so he
declared how he was returned and taken that night, and
that now, when the commissary and all his company
were gone to even-song, and had locked him alone in his
A.D. 1540—1547.]
AN ACCOUNT OF THOMAS GERRARD, MARTYR.
587
chamber, he hearing nobody stirring in the college, put
back the bar of the lock with his finger, and so came
away.
" Then said I to him, ' Alas, Mr. Gerrard, by this
your uncircumspect coming to me, and speaking so be-
fore this young man, you have disclosed yourself, and
utterly undone me.' 1 asked him, why he went not to
mv brother with my letters accordingly. He said, after
that he was gone a day's journey and a half, he was so
fearful, that he returned again to Oxford. But now with
deep sighs and plenty of tears, he prayed me to help to
convey him away, and so he cast off his hood and his
gown, wherein he came unto me, and desired me to give
him a coat with sleeves, if 1 had any, and told me that
he would go into Wales, and thence convey himself into
Germany, if he might. Then I put on him a sleeved
coat of mine. He would also have had another manner
of cap of me, but I had none but priest-like, such as his
own was.
" Then we both kneeled down together ui)on our
knees, and lifting up our hearts and hands to God our
heavenly Father, we entreated him with plenty of tears
so to conduct and prosper him in his journey, that he
might well escape the danger of all his enemies, to the
glory of his holy name, if it was his good pleasure and
will so to do ; and then we embraced and kissed each
other, and the tears so abundantly flowed out from both
our eyes, that our faces were all wet with them, and
scarcely for sorrow could we speak one to another ; and
so he departed from me apparelled in my coat, being
committed unto the guidance of our Almighty and
Merciful Father.
" When he was gone down the stairs from my cham-
ber, I straightways did shut my chamber-door, and
went into my study, and to k the New Testament in my
hands, kneeled down on my knees, and with many a
deep sigh and salt tear I did with much deliberation
read over the tenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel ;
and when I had so done, with prayer I did commit unto God
our dearly beloved brother Gerrard, earnestly beseech-
ing him, in and for Jesus Christ's sake, his only begot-
ten Son, our Lord, that he would viivichsafe not only
safely to conduct and keep our said dear brother from
the hands of all his enemies ; but also that he would en-
due his tender and lately born little flock in Oxford
with heavenly strength by his Holy Spirit, that they
miglit be well able thereby valiantly to withstand to his
glory all their fierce enemies, and also might quietly, to
their own salvation, with all godly patience, bear Christ's
heavy cross, which I now saw was presently to be laid
on their young and weak backs, unable to bear so great
a burthen, without the help of his Holy Spirit.
" This done, I laid aside my book, folded up Master
Gerrard's gown and hood, and laid them in my press
among mine apparel, and so having put on my short
gown, shut up my study and chamber-doors, and went
toward Frideswides, to speak with that worthy martyr of
God, Master Clark, and others, and to declare to them
what had happened. But of purpose I went by St.
Mary's church, to go first to Corpus Christ! college, to
speak with Diet and Udal, my faithful brethren and
fellows in the Lord there. By chance I met by the way
with a brother of ours, one Master Eden, fellow of
Magdalene College, who, as soon as he saw me, came
with a pitiful countenance, saying, that we were all un-
done, for Master Gerrard was returned again to Oxford,
and was taken the previous night, and was in prison with
the commissary. I said it was not so. He replied it
was so. I told him it could not be so ; for I was sure
he was gone. He answered, " I know he went with your
letters, but he came again yesterday evening, and was
taken in his bed at Kadleis this night. But I told him
again, tliat I was well assured he was gone, for I spake
with him later than either the proctor or the commissary
did : and then I declared the whole matter to him ; how
and when he came to me ; and how he went his way, de-
siring him to declare the same to our brethren whom he
should meet with ; and to give God hearty thanks for his
wonderful deliverance, and to beseech him also that he
would grant him safely to pass away from all his ene-
mies, and I told him that I was going unto IMaster
Clark of Frideswides, to declare unto him tliis matter ;
for I knew and thought verily that he and others there
were in great sorrow for this matter.
"Then I went straight to Frideswides ; and even-song
was begun, and the dean and the other canons were
there. As I stood there, in comes Dr. Cottisford the
commissary, as fast as he could, bareheaded, and as
pale as ashes, and he goes to the dean, where lie was
sitting in his stall, and talked with him very sorrow-
fully. I went aside from the choir-door, to hear and
see more. The commissary and dean came out of the
choir wonderfully troubled. About the middle of the
church Dr. London met them, puffing, blustering, and
blowing, like a hungry and greedy lion seeking his
prey. They talked together awhile, but the commissary
was much blamed for keejiing his prisoner so negli-
gently, so that he wept for sorrow : and it was known
abroad that Master Geri'ard had escaped ; bvit whither
no man could tell. The doctors departed, and sent
their servants and S])ies every where. Master Clark,
about the middle of Compline, came out of the choir :
I followed him to his chamber, and declared what had
happened. He was glad, and sent for one Master Sum-
ner, and Master Belts, fellows and canons there. In
the meanwhile he gave me a very good exhortation,
praying God to give me, and all the rest of our brethren,
' the prudence of the serpent, and harmlessness of the
dove,' for we should shortly have much need of it, as
he thought.
" When we had ended our supper, and committed
our whole cause with fervent sighs and hearty prayers
unto God our heavenly Father, I went to Alborn Hall,
and there lay that night. In the morning I was up
very early, and as soon as I could get out of the door I
went straight towards Gloucester College to my cham-
ber. It had rained that morning, and I had sprinkled
my hose and shoes with mire. When I was come to
Gloucester College, which was about six o'clock, I
found the gates fast shut ; at which I much marvelled,
for they were wont to be opened daily long before that
tinie. Then I walked up and down a whole hour before
the gates were opened. In the meanwhile my musing
head being full of forecasting cares, and my sorrowful
heart flowing with doleful sighs, I fully determined in
my conscience before God, that if I should chance to
be taken and examined, I would accuse no man, nor
declare anything further than I did already perceive
was manifestly known before. And so when the gate
was opened, thinking to change myself, and to put on a
longer gown, 1 went in towards my chamber, and going
up the stairs, would have opened my door, but I could
not do it ; by which I perceived that my lock had been
meddled with ; and yet at last with much ado I opened
the lock ; but when I came in, I saw my bed all tossed
and tumbled, my clothes in my press thrown down, and
my study-door open. I was much amazed, and thought
verily that some search was made there that night for
Master Gerrard, and that it was known of his being with
me, by the monk's man that brought him to my chamber.
" Now there was lying in the next chamber to me a
monk, who, as soon as he had heard me in the chamber,
came to me, and told how Master Gerrard was sought
for in my chamber that night, and what ado there was
made by the commissary and the two proctors, with
bills and swords thrust through my straw bed, and how
every corner of my chamber was searched for Master
Gerrard. And although his gown and his hood lay
there in my press with my clothes, yet they perceived
them not. Then he told me he was commanded to
bring me, as soon as I came in, to the prior of the stu-
dents, named Anthony Dunstan, a monk of Westmin-
ster. This so troubled me, that I forgot to make clean
my hose and shoes, and to put on another gown ; and
therefore all dirty as I was, and in my short gown, I
went with him to the prior's chamber, where I found
the prior standing and looking for my coming. He
asked me where I had been tliat night : I told him I
lay at Alborn Hall with my old fellow Fitzjames, but he
would not believe me. He asked me if Master Gerrard
588
AN ACCOUNT OF MASTER GERRARD, MARTYR.
[Book VIIJ.
■were with nie yesterday ? I told him, ' Yea.' Then
he would know where he was,, and wherefore he came to
me. I told him ' I knew not where he was, except he
were at Woodstock. For so,' I continued, ' he had
shewed me that he would go thither, because one of the
keepers there was his friend, and had promised him a
piece of venison to make merry with at the Shrovetide ;
and that he would have borrowed a hat and a pair of
high shoes of me, but I had none to lend him.' Tlien
he observed on my finger a big ring of silver very well
double gilt, with two letters A. D. engraved in it for
my name ; 1 suppose he thought it to be gold. He re-
quired to see it. I took it to him. When he had it in
his hand, he said it was his ring, for therein was his
name : an A. for Anthony, and a D. for Dunstan.
When I heard him say that, I wished in my heart to be
as well delivered from and out of his company, as I was
assured to be delivered from my ring for ever.
" Then he called for pen, ink, and paper, and com-
manded me to write when and how Gerrard came to me,
and where he was gone. I had scarcely written three
words, when the chief beadle, with two or three of the
commissary's men were come to the prior, requiring him
to bring me away to Lincoln College to the commis-
sary, and to Dr. London. When I was brought into
the chapel, there I found Dr. Cottisford, commissary.
Dr. Higdon, then dean of the Cardinal's College, aiid
Dr. London, warden of the New College, standing to-
gether at the altar in the chapel. When I was brought
to them, after salutations given and taken between
them, they called for chairs and sat down, and then
called for me to come to them. First they asked what
my name was. I told them that my name was An-
thony Dalaber. Then they also asked me how long I
had been a student in the university .' and I told them
almost three years. And they asked me what I studied.
I told them I had read sophistry and logic in Alborn
Hall, and now was removed to Gloucester College to
study the civil law. Then they asked me whether I
knew Master Gerrard, and how long I had known him ?
I told them I knew him well, and had known him al-
most a twelvemonth. They asked me when he was with
me ? I told them yesterday afternoon.
" Now by this time, while they had me in this talk,
one came to them, witli pen, ink, and paper ; I think it
was the clerk of the University. As soon as he was
come, there was a board with a form for him to sit on,
set between the doctors and me, and a great mass-book
laid before me ; and I was commanded to lay my right
hand on it, and to swear that I should truly answer such
interrogatories as I should be by them examined upon.
I hesitated at first ; but afterwards, being persuaded by
them, partly by fair words, and partly by great threats,
I promised to do as they would have me ; but in my
heart meant not to do so. So I laid my hand on the book,
and one of them gave me my oath ; and that done,
commanded me to kiss the book. Then they made great
courtesy between them who should examine me, and put
interroiiatories to me. At the last, the greatest papis-
tical Pharisee of them all, Doctor London took upon
himself to do it.
" Tlien he asked me by my oath, where Master Gerrard
was, and whither I had conveyed him. I told him I
bad not conveyed him, nor yet knew where he was ; nor
whither he was gone, except he were gone to Wood-
stock, as I had before said, as he told me he would.
Then he asked me a;ain when he came to me ; how he
came to me ; what and how long he talked with me ;
and whither he went from me. I told him he came
to me about the time of even-song, and that one brought
him to my chamber-door, whom I knew not ; and that
he told me he would go to Woodstock for some venison
to make merry with this Shrovetide ; and that he would
h ivi- borrowed a hat, and a pair of high shoes of me ;
but I had none to lend him ; and then he straight went
his way from me, but whither I know not. All these
my s-iyings the scribe wrote in a book.
" Th,"n they earnestly required me to tell them
whither I had conveyed him ; for surely, they said, 1
brought him somewhere this morning, as they might per-
ceive by my foul shoes and hose, I had travelled with
him the most part of this night. I answered plainly
that I lay at Alborn Hall, and that I had good witness
thereof there. They asked me where I was at even-song.
1 told them at Frideswides, and that I saw first Master
Commissary ; and then Dr. London come thither at that
time to the dean of Frideswides ; and that I saw them
talking together in the church there. Dr. London and
the dean threatened me, that if I would not tell tlie truth
where I had taken him, or whither he was gone, I should
surely be sent to the Tower of London, and there be
put to the torture. But INIaster Commissary entreated
me with gentle words, to tell him where he was, that he
might secure him again, and that he would l)e my very
great friend, and deliver me out of trouble. 1 told him
I could not tell where he was. Thus they did occupy
and toss me almost two hours in the chapel ; sometimes
with threatenings and foul words ; and then with fair
words and fair jjromises. Then he tliat brought Mr.
Gerrard to my chamber was brought before nie, and
caused to declare what Mr. Gerrard said to me at his
coming to my cliamber ; but I said plainly 1 heard him
say no such thing ; for I thought my nay to be as good
as his yea, seeing it was to rid and deliver my godly
brother of trouble and peril of his life.
" At last, when they could get nothing from me to
hurt or accuse any man, or know any thing of that
which they sought, they all three together brought me
up into a great chamber over the commissary's chamber,
wherein stood a great pair of very high stocks. Then
Master Commissary asked nie for my purse and girdle ;
took away my money and my knives, and then put both
my legs into the stocks, and so locked me fast in them ;
in which I sat, my feet being almost as high as my
head ; and so, leaving me alone, after locking the cham-
ber-door, they departed, (I think to their abominable
mass). When they were all gone, then came to my re-
membrance the worthy forewarning and godly declara-
tion of that most constant martyr of God, Master John
Clark, my father in Christ, who well nigh two years be-
fore that, when I earnestly desired him to permit me to
be his scholar, and that I might go with him continually
when and wherever he should teach or preach, said to
me much after this sort : Dalaber, you desire you know
not what, and tliat which you are, I fear, unable to take
upon you : for though now my preaching be sweet and
pleasant to you, because there is yet no persecution laid
on you for it, yet the time will come, and that peradven-
ture shortly, if we continue to live godly therein, that
God will lay on you the cross of persecution to try you,
whether you can as pure gold abide the fire, or as stubble
and dross be consumed. For the Holy Ghost plainly
affirms by St. Paul, ' If any man will live godly, he
shall suffer persecution.' 2 Tim. iii. 12. Yea, you shall
be called and judged an heretic ; you shall be abhorred
of the world ; your own friends and kinsfolk will for-
sake you, and also hate you ; and you shall be cast into
prison ; and no man shall dare to help or comfort you ;
and you shall be accused and brought before the bishops
to your reproach and shame, to the great sorrow of all
your faithful friends and kinsfolk. Then will you wish
you had never known this doctrine ; then will you curse
Clark, and wish that you had never known him ; be-
cause he had brought you into all these troubles.
" At which words 1 was so grieved, that I fell down
on my knees at his feet, and with abundance of tears and
sighs, even from the very bottom of my heart I earnestly
besought him, that for the tender mercy of God shewed
to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, he would not refuse me,
but receive me into his company, as 1 had desired, say-
ing that I trusted verily, that he who had begun this
in me would not forsake me, but give me grace to con-
tinue therein unto tlie end. Wlien he heard me say
tliis, he came to me and took me up in his arms and
kissed me, — the tears trickling down from his eyes ; —
and said to me, ' The Lord Almighty grant )-ou so to
do ; and from thenceforth for ever take me for your
father, and I will take you for my son in Christ.' Now
there were at this time in Oxford several graduates and
scholars at the colleges and halls, whom God had called
A. D. 1540—1547.]
AN ACCOUNT OF MASTER GERRARD, MARTYR.
589
to the knowledge of his holy word, who all resorted to
Mr. Clark's disputations and lectures in divinity; and
when they might not come conveniently, I was by Mr.
Clark appointed to resort to every one of them weekly,
and to know what doubts they had in any place of the
scripture, that by me from him they might have the true
understanding of the same. Which exercise did me
much good and profit, to the understanding of the holy
scriptures, which I most desired.
" This forewarning and godly declaration, (I say,) of
this most godly martyr of God, Mr. Clark, coming to
my remembrance, caused me with deep sighs to cry to
God from my heart, to assist me with his Holy Spirit,
that I might be able patiently and quietly to bear and
suffer whatsoever it should please him of his Fatherly
love to lay upon me, to his glory, and the comfort of my
dearly beloved brethren, whom I thought now to be in
great fear and anguish, lest I should be an accuser of
them all ; for to me they were all well known, and all their
doings in that matter. But, God be praised, I was fully
bent never to accuse any of them, whatever should hap-
pen to me. Before dinner Master Cottisford came up
to me, and requested me earnestly to tell him where Mas-
ter Gerrard was, and if I would do so, he promised me
straightways to deliver me out of prison. But I told
him I could not tell where he was ; no more indeed I
could. Then he departed to dinner, asking me if I
could eat any meat ; I told him, yea, right gladly. He
said he would send me some. When he was gone, his
servants asked me many questions, which I do not now
remember ; and some of them spake to me fair words,
and some threatened me, calling me heretic, and so de-
parted, locking the door fast upon me."
Thus far Anthony Dalaber has prosecuted this history,
who, before finishing it, died in 1562, iu the diocese of
Salisbury.
After this, Gerrard was apprehended and taken by
IMaster Cole, the proctor, as his men were going west-
ward, at a jilace called Hinksey, a little beyond Oxford,
and so being brought back again was committed to ward ;
he was brought before the commissary. Dr. London, and
Dr. Higdon, dean of Frideswides, (now called Christ's
College,) in St. Mary's church, where they, sitting in
judgment, convicted him according to their law as a
heretic, and afterwards compelled him to carry a faggot
in open procession from St. Mary's church to Frides-
wides, and Dalaber likewise with him, Gerrard having
his red hood on his shoulders like a master of arts.
After tliat, they were sent to Osney, there to be kept in
prison till further orders were taken.
Besides these, there were a great number also sus-
pected to be infected with heresy, as they called it, for
having such books of God's truth as Master Gerrard
sold to tiiem ; and many were forced to forsake
their colleges and return to their friends. Against the
procession time they made a great fire, into wliich all
such as were in the procession, who had been convicted
or susi)ected of heresy, were commanded every man to
cast a book as they passed, in token of repentance and
renouncing of their errors.
After this, Master Gerrard, flying from place to place,
escaped their tyranny, till this jiresent time, when he
was again apprehended and burned in Smithfield with
Doctor Barnes and William Jerome, vicar of Stephney.
Thus, these three godly men, with great constancy, en-
dured martyrdom iu the fire.
The Life and History of William Jerome, Vicar of
Stephney, and Martyr of Christ.
The third who suffered with Barnes and Gerrard, was
Wm. Jerome, vicar of Stephney. This Jerome being a
diligent preacher of God's word, for the comfort and
edification of the people, had preached many sermons,
iu which he laboured to weed out the roots of men's
traditions, doctrines, dreams, and fantasies. In so doing
he could not otherwise but provoke much hatred against
him amongst the adversaries of Christ's gospel.
It so happened, that on preaching one Sunday at St.
Paul's, he made there a sermon, wherein he recited and
mentioned Hagar and Sarah, declaring what these two
signified. He siiewed how Sarah and her child Isaac
and all they that were Isaac's, and born of the free
woman Sarah, were freely justified : and they that were
born of Hagar, thebond woman, were bound and under the
law, and could not be freely justified. In these words,
what was there said, but what St. Paul himself expounds
in his epistle to the Galatians (fourth chapter), or what
could liere be gathered, but what was consonant to sound
doctrine? The point was this ; he was accused of preacliing
erroneously at St. Paul's cross, teaching the peojjle tliat
all that were born of Sarah were freely justified ; speak-
ing there absolutely without any condition, either of
baptism or of ])enance, &c. Who doubts here, but if
St. Paul himself had been at St. Paul's cross, and had
preached the same words to Englishmen, which he wrote
to the Galatians, he had been apprehended for an here-
tic for preaching against the sacrament of baptism and
repentance .'
And thus much concerning the several histories of
these three good men. Now let us see the order of their
martyrdom, joining them together ; what was the cause
of their condemnation ; and what were their protesta-
tions and words at their suffering.
Barnes, Jerome, and Gerrard, being committed to the
Tower after Easter, remained there till the oOtii day of
July, which was two days after the death of the Lord
Cromwell. Then process was issued against them by
the king's council in parliament ; to which process
Gardiner confessed himself that he was privy. "NMiere-
upon these three good saints of God, on the thirtieth
day of July, not coming to any answer ; nor yet know-
ing any cause of their condemnation, without any public
liearing, were brought together from the Tower to
Smithfield, where, while preparing themselves for the
fire, gave there at the stake many and sundry exhorta-
tions, among whom Dr. Barnes first began with this
protestation following : —
" I am come hither to be burned as an heretic, and
you shall hear my belief; whereby you shall perceive
what erroneous opinions I hold. I take God to record,
I never, to my knowledge, taught any erroneous doctrine
but only those things which scripture led me to ; and
that in my sermons I never maintained any error, nei-
ther moved nor gave occasion of any insurrection. Al-
though I have been slandered for preaching that our
Lady was but a saffron-bag, which I utterly protest
before God that I never meant it, nor preached it ; but all
my study and diligence hath been utterly to confound
and confuteall men of that doctrine, as are the anabaptists,
who deny that our Saviour Christ did take any flesh of
the blessed Virgin Mary, which sect 1 detest and abhor.
And in this place there have been burned some of them,
whom I never favoured nor maintained ; but always with
all diligence did I study to set forth the glory of God ;
the obedience to our sovereign lord the king ; and the
true and sincere religion of Christ: and now hearken to
my faith :
" 1 believe in the holy and blessed Trinity, three Per-
sons in one Godhead, that created and made all the
world ; and that this blessed Trinity sent down this
second Person, Jesus Christ, into the womb of the most
blessed and purest Virgin Mary. And here bear me
record, that I do utterly condemn that abominable and
detestable opinion of the anabaptists, who say that Christ
took no flesh of the Virgin. For I believe that without
man's will or power he was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, and took flesh of her, and that he suffered hunger,
thirst, cold, and other passions of our body, sin excepted,
according to the saying of St. Paul, ' He was made in all
things like unto his brethren,' except sin. And I be-
lieve that his death and passion was the sufficient ran-
som for the sin of all the world. And I believe that
through his death he overcame sin, death, and hell, and
that there is none other satisfaction unto the Father, but
this his death and passion only, and that no work of
man did deserve anything of God, but only his passion,
as touching our justification, for I know the best work
that ever 1 did is impure and imperfect." And with
this he cast abroad his hands, and desired God to for«
590
AN ACCOUNT OF BARNES, GERRARD, AND JEROME.
[Book Yiri.
give him his trespasses. "For although perchance,"
said he, " you know nothing by me, yet do I confess,
that my thoughts and cogitations be innumerable ;
•wherefore I beseech thee, 6 Lord, not to enter into
judgment with me, according to the saying of the pro-
phet David, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant,
O Lord.' And in another place, ' If thou. Lord,
shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand?'
Wherefore I trust in no good work that ever I did, but
only in the death of Christ. I do not doubt through
him to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Take me not
here tliat I speak against good works, for they are to be
done; and verily they that do them not shall never come
into the kingdom of God. We must do them, because
they are commanded us of God, to show and set forth
our profession, not to deserve or merit ; for that is only
the death of Christ.
" I believe that there is a holy church; and a com-
pany of all them that do profess Chrijt ; and that all
that have suffered and confessed his name are saints, and
that they all do praise and bless God in heaven, more
than I or any man's tongue can express ; and that al-
■ways 1 have spoken reverently, and praised them as much
as scripture willed me to do. And that our Lady, I say,
was a virgin immaculate and undefiled ; and that she is
the most pure virgin that ever God created, and a vessel
elect of God, of whom Christ should be born." Then
said ]\Ir. Sheriff, "You have said well of her before."
And being afraid that 3Mr. Sheriff had been or should
be aggrieved with any thing that he should say, he said,
' Mr. Sheriff, if 1 speak any thing that you will me not,
do no more than beckon me with your hand, and I will
straightway hold my peace ; for I will not be disobe-
dient in any thing, but will obey."
Then there was one that asked him his opinion of
praying to saints. Then said he, " Now of saints you
shall hear my opinion. I have said something before, I
think, of them, how that I believe they are in heaven
with God; and that they are worthy of all the honour
that scripture willeth them to have. But I say, through-
out scripture we are not commanded to pray to any
saints. Therefore I neither can nor will preach to you
that saints ought to be prayed to ; for then should I
preach to you a doctrine of my own head. Notwithstand-
ing whether they pray for us or no, that I refer to God.
And if saints do pray for us, then I trust to pray for you
within this half hour, Mr. Sheriff, and for every chris-
tian man living in the faith of Christ, and dying in the
same as a saint. Wherefore if the dead may pray for
the quick, I will surely pray for you."
"Well have you anything more to say ?" Then spake
he to Mr. Sheriff, and said, " Have you any articles
against me for which I am condemned?" And the
sheriff answered " No." "Then," saidhe, " is there here
any man else that knows why I must die, or that by my
preaching has been led into error ? Let them now speak,
and I will give them an answer." And no man answered.
Then said he, " Well, I am condemned by the law to
die, and as I understand by an act of Parliament ; but
wherefore I cannot tell, but probably for heresy, for we
are likely to burn. But they who have been the occasion
of it, 1 pray God to forg-ve them, as I woidd be forgiven
myself. And Stephen bishop of Winchester that now is.
if he have sought or wrought this my death either by word
or deed, I pray God to forgive him, as heartily, as freely,
as charitably, and without feigning, as ever Christ forgave
them that put him to death. And if any of the council,
or any other have sought or wrought it through malice
or ignorance, I pray God to forgive their ignorance, and
illuminate their eyes that they may see and ask mercy for
it. I beseech you all to pray for the king as 1 have done
ever since I was in prison ; and do now that God may
give him prosjjerity, and that he may long reign among
you; and after him that godly Prince Edward may so
reign, that he may finish those things that his father has
begun. I have been reported to be a preacher of sedi-
tion and disobedience to the king's majesty ; but here I
say to you that you are all bound by the commandment
of God to obey your prince with all humility, and with
all your heart ; yea, not so much as in a look to show
yourselves disobedient to him, and that not onlv for fear
of the sword, but also for conscience sake before God."
Then spake he to tht^ sheriff, and said, " Mr. Sheriff,
I require you on God's behalf to have me commended
unto the king, and to shew him that I require of his
grace these five requests : first, that where his grace hath
received into his hands all the coods and substance of the
abbeys — " Then the sheriff desired him to stop there,
lie answered Mr. Sheriff: " I warrant you I will speak
no harm ; for I know it is well done that all such super-
stition be dean taken away ; and the king hath well
done in taking it away. But his grace is made a whole
king, and obeyed in his whole realm as a king (which
neither his father nor grandfather, neither his ancestora
that reigned before him ever had), and that through the
preaching of us and such other wretches as we are, who
always have applied our whole studies, and given our-
selves for the setting forth of the same, and this is now
our reward. Well, it makes no matter. Now he reigns
among you ; I jiray God that he may long live and reign
among you. Would to God it may please his grace to
bestow the said goods, or some of them, to the comfort
of his poor subjects, who surely have great need of them.
The second that I desire his grace is, that he will see that
matrimony be had in more reverence than it is ; and
that men for every light cause invented cast not off their
wives, and live in adultery and fornication. The third,
that abominable swearers maybe punished ; for the ven-
geance of God will come on them for their mischievous
oaths. The fourth, that his grace would set forth Christ's
true religion ; and seeing he has begun, go forward and
make an end ; for many things have been done, but
much more is to do ; and that it would please his grace
to look on God's word himself, for that it has been ob-
scured with many traditions invented of our own
brains." "Now," said he, "how many petitions have
I spoken of ?" And the people said, "Tour." "Well,"
said he, " even these four are sufficient, which I desire
you, that the king's grace may be certified of, and say,
that I most humbly desire him to look earnestly upon
them ; and that his grace take heed that he be not de-
ceived with false preachers and teachers and evil counsel,
for Christ saith, that such false prophets shall come in
sheep's clothing.''
Then he desired all men to forgive him, and if he had
said any evil at any time unadvisedly, whereby he had
offended any man ; or given any occasion of evil that
they would forgive it him, and amend that evil they took
of him ; and to bear him witness that he detested and
abhorred all evil opinions and doctrines against the word
of God ; and that he died in the faith of Jesus Christ, by
whom he doubted not but to be saved. And with these
words he desired them all to pray for him ; and then he
turned him about, and put off his clothes, making ready
for the fire, there patiently to take his death.
The like confession made also Jerome and Gerrard,
professing in like manner their belief, reciting all the
articles of the christian faith, briefly declaring their
minds upon every article ; whereby the people might
understand that there was no cause nor error in their
faith ; protesting that they denied nothing that was
either in the Old or New Testament, set forth by their
sovereign lord the king, whom they prayed the Lord
long to continue among them, with his most dear son,
Prince Edward. Which done, Jerome added this ex-
hortation in the few words, which follow :
" I say unto you, good brethren, that God has bought
us all with no small price, neither with gold nor silver ;
or other such things of small value, but with his most
precious blood. Be not unthankful therefore to him ;
but do as much as to christian men belongs, to fulfil his
commandments, that is, ' Love your brethren.' Love
hiirteth no man, love fulfilleth all things. If God hath
sent thee plenty, help thy neighbour that hath need. Give
him good counsel. If he lack, consider, if you were in
necessity, thou wouldst gladly be refreshed. And, again,
bear your cross with Christ. Consider what reproof,
slander, and reproach he suffered of his enemies, and
how patiently he suffered all things. Consider that all
A.D. 1540—154".] AN ACCOUNT OF BARNES, GEURARD, AND JEROME,
591
that Christ did was of his own goodness, and not of our
desen'inff. For if we could merit our own salvation,
Christ would not have died for us. But for Adam's
breaking of God's precepts we had been all lost, if Christ
had not redeemed us again. And as Adam broke the
precepts, and was driven out of Paradise ; so we, if we
break God's commandments, shall have damnation, if
we do not repent and ask mercy. Now, therefore, let
all christians put no trust or confidence in their works,
but in the blood of Christ ; to whom I commit my soul,
beseeching you all to pray to God for me, and for my
brethren here present with me, that our souls, leaving
these wretched carcasses, may depart in the true faith of
Christ."
In a similar manner Gerrard protested, and exhorted
the people ; and ended his protestation as follows :
" I also detest, abhor, and refuse all heresies and
errors ; and if, either by negligence or ignorance, I have
taught or maintained any, 1 am sorry for it, and ask
mercy of God ; or if I have been so vehement or rash in
preaching, whereby any person has taken any offence,
error, or evil opinion, I desire him, and all other persons
whom I have in any way offended, forgiveness. Not-
withstanding to my remembrance I never preached wit-
tingly, or willingly, any thing against God's holy word,
or contrary to the true faith ; to the maintenance of errors,
heresies, or vicious living, but have always, for my little
learning, set forth the honour of God, and the right obe-
dience to his laws ; and also the king's. And if I could
have done better, I would. Wherefore, Lord, if 1 have
taken in hand to do that thing which I could not per-
fectly perform, I desire thy pardon for my bold pre-
sumption. And I pray God send the king's grace good
and godly counsel, to his glory, to the king's honour,
and the increase of virtue in this his realm. And thus
now I yield my soul up unto Almighty God, trusting and
believing that he of his infinite mercy, for his promise
made in the blood of his Son, our most merciful Saviour,
Jesus Christ, will take it, and pardon me of all my sins ;
whereby I have most grievously from my youth offended
his majesty ; wherefore I ask him mercy, desiring you
all to pray with me and for me, that I may patiently
suffer this pain, and die steadfastly in true faith, perfect
hope and charity."
And so, after they bad engaged in prayer, wherein they
desired the Lord Jesus to be their comfort and consola-
tion in this their affliction, and to establish them with
perfect faith, constancy, and patience through the Holy
Ghost, they taking each other by the hands, and kissing
one another, quietly and humbly offered themselves to
the hands of the tormentors ; and so took their death
both christianly and constantly, with such patience as
might well testify the goodness of their cause, and quiet
of their conscience.
Wherein is to be noted how mightily the Lord works
with his grace and fortitude in the hearts of his servants,
especially in such as suffer with a guiltless conscience
for religion's sake, above others who suffer for their de-
serts. For whereas they who suffer as malefactors, are
commonly heavy and pensive in their death ; so the
others with heavenly alacrity and cheerfulness, abide
whatever it pleaseth the Lord to lay upon them.
A note of three Papists executed the same time with
Barnes, Jerome, and Gerrard.
At the same time, and in the same place, three others
also were executed, though not for the same cause, but
rather the contrary, namely, for denying the king's su-
premacy, whose names were Powel, Fetherstone, and
Abel. This spectacle happening on the same day,
brought the people into a marvellous doubt of their re-
ligion, which part to follow, as might well happen among
ignorant people, seeing two contrary parties suffering ;
the one for popery , the other against popery, — -both at
one time. This circumstance happened by reason of a
certain division among the king's council, who were so
equally divided among themselves, that the one half
seemed to hold with the one religion, and the other half
with the contrary.
The names of those, although it is not necessary to
express them, yet, for the setting forth of the truth, we
have thought good here to annex : —
PROTESTANTS.
Canterbury.
Suffolk.
Beauchamp.
Lisle.
Russel, treasurer.
Paget.
Sadler.
Audlev.
Winchester.
Durham.
Norfolk.
Southampton.
Anthony Browii.
William Paulet.
John Baker.
Richard, chancellor of the
Augmentation.
Wingfield, vice-chancellor.
This division and separation of the council among
themselves, caused both these parties above mentioned
to suffer, the one for one religion, and the other for
another. For, as the one part of the council called for
the execution of Barnes, Gerrard, and Jerome, so the
other part likewise called for the execution of the law
upon Powel, Fetherstone, and Abel.
Thus, having discussed the six articles, with other
matters, in the parliament, concerning the condemna-
tion of Lord Cromwell, of Dr. Barnes, and his com-
panions, let us now consider what great vexations en-
sued after the setting forth of these articles, through
the whole realm of England. First is to be mentioned
the severe commissions sent forth by the king's autho-
rity, to the bishops, chancellors, officials, justices,
mayors, and bailiffs, in every shire, and other commis-
sioners ; and especially to Edmund Bonner, bishop of
London, and to the mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, to
inquire diligently for all heretical books, and to burn
them. Also to inquire for all such persons whatsoever,
as were culpable or suspected of such felonies, heresies,
contempts, or transgressions, or speaking any words
contrary to the act of the six articles.
Upon this commission being given to Edmund
Bonner, he came to the Guildhall with other commis-
sioners, to sit upon the statute of the six articles. He be-
gan soon to put his authority in execution. And first
he charged certain juries to take their oath upon the
statute ; who, bein^ sworn, had a day appointed to give
their verdict. On which day they indicted sundry
persons, who, shortly after, were apprehended ; and
after remaining there a while, were, by the king and his
council, discharged at the Star Chamber, without any
further punishment.
Not long after this. Sir William Roch being mayor,
Bonner, with other commissioners, sate at the Guildhall.
When the juries were sworn, Bonner took upon him
to give the charge, and began with a tale of Anacharsis,
by which he admonished the juries to spare jio persons,
of what degree soever they were ; and at the end of his
charge, he brought to the bar a boy, whose name was
Mekius, declaring how grievously he had ofl'ended by
speaking certain words against the state, and of the
death of Dr. Barnes, and produced to the court two
witnesses, who were there sworn in the face of the court.
So a day was assigned upon which the juries should
give their verdict ; at which day both the commissioners
and the juries met at Guildhall. Then the clerk of the
peace called on the juries by their names, and when their
appearance was taken, Bonner bade them put in their
presentments. Then said the foreman of the jury,
whose name was William Robins ; " My lord, we have
found nothing." At which words he raged as one in an
agony, and said, " Nothing! have you found nothing .'
What, nothing .' By the faith I owe to God 1 would
trust you upon your obligation, but by your oath I will
trust you nothing." Then said some of the commis-
sioners ; " My lord, give them a longer day." "No,"
said he, " in London they ever find nothing ; I pray you,
what do you say to Mekins ?" " My lord," replied the
foreman, " we can say nothing to him for we find tiie
a Q.
592
PERSECUTION IN LONDOx\ FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VIH.
witnesses to disagree. One affirms that he said the
sacrament was nothing but a ceremony ; and the other,
nothing but a signification." "Why," said Bonner,
" did he not say that Barnes died holy .'" Then pausing
a while, he bade them call the other jury. " Put in your
verdict," said he. "My lord," said one, "we have
found nothing." "Jesus!" said he, "is not this a
strange case ?"
Then one of the jury, whose name was Ralph Foxley,
said, " My lord, when you gave us charge, we desired to
have the parsons and curates of every parish to give us
instructions, and it was denied us." Then stood up the
recorder, and said, " It vv'as true, indeed, what he had
spoken," and there withal said, " this last year were
charged two juries, who did many things naughtily and
foolishly, and did as much as in them lay to make an
uproar among the king's people, and therefore it was
thought not meet that they should give information to
you." " Nay, nay," said Bonner, " this was the cause:
If the parson or curate should give infurmation accord-
ing to his knowledge, then what will they say ? I must
tell my confession to knave-priest, and he shall go by
and by and open it." " What," said my lord mayor,
" there is no man, I trow, that will say so." " Yes, by
my troth," answered Bonner, " knave priest, knave-
priest." Then said my lord mayor somewhat smiling,
" There be some of them slippery fellows ; and as men
find them, so will they oft-times report." Bonner, not
well contented with those words, said to the jury, " My
masters, what say you to Mekins ?" They answered,
" The witnesses do not agree, therefore we do not allow
them." " Why," said Bonner, " this court hath allow-
ed them." Then said one of the jury to the recorder,
" Is it sufficient for our discharge, if tliis court do allow
them ?" " Yea," said the recorder, " it is sufficient ;"
and said, " go you aside together awhile, and bring in
your verdict." After the jury had talked together a
little while, they returned to the bar again with their in-
dictment, which at Bonner's hand was friendly received;
so both they and the other jury were discharged. Thus
ended the court for that day. Shortly after they sate
for life and death. Mekins being brought to the bar,
and the indictment read, Bonner said to him; " Mekins,
confess tlie triitli, and submit thyself to the king's law,
timt thy death maybe an example to all others."
This Richard Mekins being but a child, who had not
passed the age of fifteen years, as he had heard some
other folks talk, so he chanced to speak against the
sacrament of the altar. Which coming to Bonner's
ears, he never left him before he had brought him to the
fire. During the time of his imprisonment, neither his
poor father nor mother durst aid him with any relief,
by whii:h he endured great misery. When he was
brought to the stake, he was taught to speak much good
of the bishop of London, and of the great charity he
shewed to him, and to defy and detest all heretics and
heresies, but especially Doctor Barnes, to whom he im-
puted the learning of that heresy, which was the cause
of his deatli. The poor lad would for his life have gladly
said that the twelve apostles had taught it to him ; such
was his childish innocency and fear. But many spake
and said, " It was a great shame for the bishop ; whose
part atid duty it had been rather to have laboured to
save his life, than to procure that terrible execution,
seeing that he was such an ignorant soul, that he knew
not what the affirming of heresy was."
Richard Spencer, Ramsei/, and Heivet, ivho suffered at
Salishury.
About the same time also, a certain priest was burned
at Salisbury, who, leaving his papistry, had married a
wife, and became a player, with one Ramsey and liewet,
which three were all condemned and burned ; against
whom, and especially against Spencer, was laid matter
concerning the sacrament of the altar, lie suffered at
Salisbury.
Although this inquisition was meant especially con-
cerning the six articles, yet so it fell out, tliat doubts
began to arise, and to be moved, whether they might
inquire as well of all other opinions, articles, and causes,
or for speaking against the holy bread, holy water, or for
favouring the cause of Barnes, of Friar, of Ward, Sir
Thomas Rose, &c. Whereujion great perturbation fol-
lowed in almost all parishes throughout London, in the
year 1541.
A brief account of the Troubles at London in the time of
the Six Articles ; and a list of the Names of some of
the Persons who were persecuted for speaking against
them.
John Dixe, was never observed to confess in Lent, nor
to receive at Easter, and to be a sacrainentary.
Richard Chepeman, for eating flesh in Lent, and for
working on holy-days, and not coming to the church.
Mistress Cicely Marshall, for not bearing her palm,
and despising holy bread and holy water.
Michael llaukes, for not coming to the church, and
for receiving young men of the new learning.
John Browne, for bearing with Barnes.
Mistress Annes Bedikes, for desjdsing our tiuSy, and
not praying to saints.
Andrew Kempe, William Pahen, Richard Manerd,
for disturbing the service of the church with babbling out
of the New Testament.
William Wyders, denied, two years before, the sacra-
ment to be Christ's body, and said that it was but only
a sign.
William Stokesley, for rebuking his wife at the church
for taking holy water.
Roger Davy, for speaking against worshipping of
saints.
Master Blage, for not coming to his parish church,
nor confessing, or receiving.
William Clinch, for saying, when he saw a priest pre-
paring for the mass, " You shall see a priest now go to
masking." Also, for calling the bishop of Winchester,
" False flattering knave." Also, for burying his wife
without a dirge.
William Plaine, seeing a priest going to mass, suid,
" Now you shall see one in masking." Also, when he
came to the church, he disturbed the divine service by
reading aloud the English Bible.
Herman Johnson, Jerome Akon, Giles Ilostermnn.
Richard Bonfeld, Thomas Couper, Humphrey Skinu-^r,
John Sneudnam, Richard Phillips, and John Celos. —
These nine persons were presented, because they weie
not confessed in Lent, nor had received at Easter.
John Jones, William Wright, Peter Butcher, and
Roger Butcher. — These four were presented for net
keeping the divine service in the holy-days.
Mistress Brisley, for reasoning on the new learning,
and not attending the church.
Mistress Castle, for being a meddler and a reader of the
scriptures in the church.
Master Galias of Bernard's Inn, for withstanding the
curate in censing the altars on Corpus Christi even, and
saying openly, that he did wrong.
Master Pates, of David's Inn, and Master Galias, for
vex
the
so that he had much ado to make an end.
William Beckes and his wife, were suspected to be
sacramentaries, and for not kneeling to the cross on
Good Friday.
Thomas Langham, William Thomas, Richard Beckes,
and William Beckes. — These four were presented for
interrupting the divine service.
Ralph Symonds, for not keeping our Lady's mass,
which he was bound to keep.
John Smith an apprentice, for saying, " that he had
rather hear the crying of dogs, than priests singing ma-
tins or even-song.
Thomas Bele, John Sturgeon, John Wilshirc, Thomas
Simon, Ralph Clervis, and his wife, James Banaster,
Nicholas Barker, John Sterky, Christopher Smith, and
Thomas Net.— These eleven persons of St. Magnus pa-
rish, were presented and accused for maintaining certain
preachers (as it was called) of the new learning.
ing the curate in the body of the church, in declaring
king's injunctions, and reading the bishop's book ;
A.D. 1540—1547.] PERSECUTION IN LONDON FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
593
Nicholas Philips, for maintaining heresies and scrip-
ture books, and for neither using fasting nor prayer.
Richard Bigges, for despising holy bread, putting it
in the throat of a dog, and for not adoring at the eleva-
tion.
Mistress Elizabeth Statham, for maintaining in her
house Latimer, Barnes, Gerrard, Jerome, and others.
John Duffet, for marrying a woman who was thought
to he a nun.
Milliard and Duffet, for maintaining Barnes, Jerome,
and Gerrard, with others.
Grafton and Whitchurch, suspected not to have been
confessed.
John Greene, Mother Palmer, Christopher Coots,
William Selly, Alexander Frere, William Bredi, John
Bush, William Somerton, George Durant, and Davids,
an apprentice. — All these being of the parish of St. Mar-
tin's, were presented for contemning the ceremonies of
the church. Also some for walking in the time of con-
secrating mass, with their caps on. Some for turning
their heads away ; some for sitting at their doors when
sermons were in the church, &c.
Robert Andrew, for receiving heretics into his house,
and keeping disputation of heresy there.
John Williamson, Thomas Buge, Thomas Gilbert,
William Ilickson, Robert Daniel, and Robert Smitton.
— These six were suspected of being sacramentaries and
rank heretics, and procurers of heretics to preach, and
to be followers of their doctrine.
John Mayler, for being a sacramentary, and a railer
against the mass.
Richard Bilby, draper, was presented for saying these
words, " That Christ is not present in the blessed sacra-
ment !"
Henry Patinson, and Anthony Barber. — These two
were detected for permitting their boys to sing a song
against the sacrament of the altar. Also Patinson came
not to confession.
Robert Norman, also refused to come to confession,
saying, " That none of his servants should be absolved
by a knave priest."
John Humfrey, for speaking against the sacraments,
and ceremonies of the church.
William Smith and his wife, and John Cooke and his
wife. — These two couples were presented for not coming
to service in their parish church ; and for saying it was
lawful for priests to have wives.
William Gate or Cote, William Aston, John Hum-
frey, and John Cooke. — These four were presented,
for saying, " That the mass was made of pieces and
patches.'' Also for despising of matins, mass, and
even-song.
John Miles and his wife, John Millen, John Robinson,
Richard Millar, John Green and his wife, and Arnold
Chest. — All these were put up for railing against the
sacraments and ceremonies.
John Crosdall, John Gierke, and John Owel.— These
three labouring men were presented for not coming to
divine service on holy-days, and for labouring on the
same.
Thomas Grangier, and John Dicticr ; noted for com-
mon singers against the sacraments and ceremonies.
John Sutton and his wife, and John Segar. — These
three were noted to be despisers of auricular confes-
sion.
John Rawlins, John Shiler, William Chalinger, John
Edmonds, and John Richmond and his wife, for de-
spising holy bread and holy water, and not attending
divine service.
Margaret Smith, for dressing flesh meat in Lent.
Thomas Trentham, for reasoning against the sacra-
ment of the altar, and saying that the sacrament was a
good thing, but it was not very God.
Robert Granger, William Petingale, William May and
his wife, John Harrison and his wife, Robert Welch,
iJohn Benglosse, John Pitley, Henry Foster, Robert
iCausy, and William Pinchbeck and his wife. — All these
[thirteen were put up by the inquisition, for not observing
;proper reverence at the celebration of the mass.
i The wife of Martyn Bishop was presented by her cu-
rate, fornot going to confession in Lent, or receiving at
Easter. Also she slighted the curate, when he told her
of it.
Robert Plat and his wife. — These were great reasoners
in scripture, saying, that confession avails nothing ; and
that he, though not able to read, would not use beads to
say his prayers on.
Thomas Aduet, John Palmer, and Robert Cooke.^
The charge laid to these three persons, was for reasoning
about the scriptures and the sacraments.
The register says, that they denied all the sacraments.
But this popish hyperbole will find little credit, where
experience, acquainted with popish practices, sits as the
judge.
John Cockes. — This man was noted for a great
searcher out of new preachers, and a maintainer of
Barnes's opinions.
John Boultes, for forbidding his wife to use beads in
saying her ])rayers.
Thomas Kelde. — He refused to take penance and
absolution ; and did eat flesh upon a Friday before
Lent.
Nicholas Newell, a Frenchman, presented as a man far
gone in the new sect ; and that he was a great jester at
the saints and at our Lady.
John Hawkins and his servant, Thomas Chamberlaine
and his wife, John Curteys, Mr. Dissel, his wife, and
his servant. — These eight were great reasoners, and
despisers of ceremonies.
The curate of St. Katherine Coleman. — He was noted
for calling suspected persons to his sermons by a beadle,
without ringing of any bell ; and when he preached he
left his matters doubtful.
Also, for preaching without the commandment of his
parson.
Also, for that he was a Scottish friar, driven out of
his country for heresy.
Tulle Bustre, his wife, and his son-in-law. — These
were noted for seldom attending the church, and many
times were seen to labour upon the holy-days.
William Ettis and his wile. — Ettis and his wife were
noted for maintaining certain preachers ; and for caus-
ing one Taverner, a priest, to preach against the king's
injunctions.
Merifield and his son-in-law ; Nicholas Russel, of the
Saracen's Head in Friday-street, William Callaway, and
Thomas Gardiner, with three apprentices. — Against this
company presentation was made for assembling together
in the evening ; and for bringing ill preachers, that is to
say, good preachers, amongst the people.
Thomas Plummer was presented for saying, " That
the sacrament was blessed to him that doth take it ; and
not blessed to him that doth not."
Shermons, of the Carpenter's-hall in Christ's parish^
was presented for procuring an interlude to be openly
played, in which priests were railed at, and called
knaves.
Lewis Morall, a servant, and James Ogule and his
wife. — Noted not to have confessed certain years before.
Thomas Babam was accused not to have confessed in
his parish church.
The parson and curate of St. Antholin's, for not using
the ceremonies in making holy water ; nor keeping their
processions on Saturdays.
Lewis Bromfield, for not taking the sacrament ; and
for absenting himself from the church on holy-days.
John Sempe, and John Goffe, for dispraising a certain
anthem of our Lady, beginning Te matrem, &c., saying,
that there is heresy in the same.
Gilbert Godfrey, for absenting himself from the
church on holy-days.
Thomas Cappes, for saying these words, " That the
sacrament of the altar was but a memory and a remem-
brance of the Lord's death."
John Mailer, grocer, for calling the sacrament of the
altar the baked God ; and for saying that the mass wa«
called beyond the sea, missa, for that all is amiss in it.
John Hardyman, a parson of St. Martin's in Iron-
monger-lane, presented for preaching openly, that con-
fession is confusion and deformation ; and that the cere-
a a 2
PERSECUTION IN LONDON FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VIII.
monies of the church were to be abhorred. Also for
Baying, that it was a mischief to esteem the sacraments
to be of such virtue ; for in so doing they take the glory
of God from him : and for saying, that faith in Christ
is sufficient, without any other sacraments, to justify.
Christopher Dray, plumber, for saying of the sacra-
ment of the altar, that it was not offered up for remis-
sion of sins ; and that the body of Christ was not there,
but only by representation and signification.
Robert Ward, shoemaker, presented by three wit-
nesses for speaking against the sacrament of the altar :
he died in prison in Bread-street.
Nicholas Otes, for not coming to the sacrament at
Easter ; he was sent to Newgate.
Herman Peterson, and James Gosson, for not coming
to absolution and the sacrament at the time of Easter.
These were committed to prison in Bread-street.
Richard White, haberdasher, for saying, that he did
not think that Christ was in tlie sacrament of the altar
within the sepulchre, but in heaven above.
Giles Harrison being in a place without Aldgate, and
merrily jesting in a certain company of neighbours,
where some of them said, " Let us go to mass;" " I
say, tarry," said he ; and so taking a piece of bread in
his hands, lifted it up over his head : and likewise taking
a cup of wine, and bowing down his head, made there-
with a cross over the cup, and so taking the cup in both
his hands, lifted it over his head ; saying these words,
" Have ye not heard mass now ?" For which he was
presented to Bonner, then bishop of London.
Richard Bostock, priest, for saying that auricular
confession killed more souls than all the bills, clubs,
and halters had done since King Henry was king of
England, &c. Also for saying, that the water in the
Thames has as much virtue as the water that the priests
hallow.
Margaret Ambsworth, for having no reverence for the
sacrament ; and for instructing maids ; and being a
great doctress.
John Leicester, William Raynold, Christopher Townes-
end, Thomas David Skinner, Thomas Mabs, Thomas
Starckey, Christopher Holybread, Martyn Donam, and
William Derby. — All these were noted and presented
for maintaining of Barnes, and such other preachers ;
and many of their wives for not taking holy bread ; nor
going in procession on Sundays.
Lawrence jMaxwel, bricklayer, for speaking and rea-
soning against auricular confession.
John Coygnes, or Livelonde, for holding against the
sacrament of the altar, and not receiving at Easter.
Gerard Frise was presented by two witnesses, for af-
firming that a sermon preached is better than the sacra-
ment of the altar ; and that he had rather go to hear a
sermon than to hear a mass.
Dominic Williams, a Frenchman, for not receiving
the saci-ament of the altar at Easter.
Thomas Lancaster, priest. — He lay in the Compter
in the Poultry, for compiling and bringing over pro-
hibited books. Also, Gough, a stationer, was troubled
for resorting to him.
Friar Ward was put in the Compter in Bread-street,
for marrying after his vow of celibacy.
Friar Wilcock, a Scotch friar, was imprisoned in the
Fleet, for preaching against confession ; holy water ;
against praying to saints, and for souls dejjarted ; against
purgatory ; and for holding that priests might have
wives, &c.
John Taylor, doctor in divinity, was presented for
preaching at St. Bride's in Fleet-street, that it is as
profitable for a man to hear mass and see the sacrament,
as to kiss Judas's mouth, which kissed Christ our
Saviour, &c.
W^. Tolwine, parson of St. Antholin's, was presented
and examined before Edmund Bonner, for permitting
Alexander Seton to preach in his church, having no
license ; and also for allowing the said Alexander Seton,
in his sermons, to preach against Dr. Smith.
It was also objected, that he used to make holy water,
leaving out the general exorcism.
Against this objection Tolwine defended himself, say-
ing, " That he took occasion to do so by the king's in-
junctions, which say, ' That ceremonies should be used,
all ignorance and superstition set apart.' "
In the end, Tolwine was forced to stand at St. Paul's
Cross to recant.
At the same time Robert Wisedom, parish priest of
St. Margaret's, in Lothbury ; and Thomas Becon, were
brought to St. Paul's Cross, to recant and to revoke
their doctrine, and to burn their books.
Sir George Parker, parson of St. Pancras, and curate
of Little Allhallows, was noted, suspected, and brought
before the ordinary, for having certain books.
Sir John Byrch, priest of St. Botolpli's-lane, was
complained of for being a busy rcasoner in certain
opinions, which agreed not with the pope's churcli.
Alexander Seton, a Scotchman, was denounced, de-
tected, and jiresenttd, by tliree priests ; of whom one
was fellow of Whittington College, called Richard Taylor ;
another was John Smith ; the third was John Hunting-
don, who afterwards was converted to the same doctrine
himself.
This Seton was chaplain to the duke of Suffolk ; and
from his sermons his adversaries raised against him
fifteen objections, or rather cavils, which I shall here
exhibit to the reader ; that men may see how consonant
the doctrine Seton then preached was with the scrip-
tures.
Certain Places or Ai'ikles gathered ov.t of Seton's
Sermons by his Adversaries.
"There is nothing in heaven or earth, creature or other,
that can be any means towards our justification ; nor
can any man satisfy God the Father for our sins, save
only Christ, and the shedding of his blood.
" He that preaches that works have merit ; or are any
means to our salvation ; or are any part of our justifica-
tion, preaches a doctrine of the devil.
" If any thing else, save only Christ, be a means to-
wards our justification, then Christ only does not jus-
tify us.
" 1 say, that neither thy good works, nor any thing
that thou canst do, can be one jot or tittle towards thy
justification. For if they be, then is not Christ a full
justifier ; and that I will prove by a familiar example :
" They that preach that works have merit, do make
works the tree ; which are only the fruits of justification
wrought by him who is justified.
" I woiild ask a question, whether he that works is a
good man, or bad; for he must be one of them. If he
be a good man, he cannot but bring forth good fruits ;
if he be a bad man, he cannot bring forth but ill fruit ;
for a good tree cannot bring forth ill fruit.
" He that says that works do merit any thing towards
our salvation, makes works helpmate with Christ, and
plucks from Christ what is his, and gives it to works.
Some will ask, wherefore, then, should I do good works .'
I answer, good works are to be done for no cause else,
but only for the glory of God, and not that they may
merit anything ^t all. And he that says that good works
are to be done for any other cause, than for the glory
of God only ; and will have them to merit ; or be any
means towards our justification, I say he lies, and I be-
lieve him not.
" He that can shew me from any part of scripture,
that works do merit, or are any means to our justifica-
tion, for the first scripture I will lose both mine ears;
for the second, my tongue ; and for the third, my neck.
" Men say that we deny good works, and fasting and
prayer. They lie on us ; we deny nothing but popish
works, and popish fasting, and popish prayer ; and he
that preacheth that works do merit, or fiisting doth
merit, or prayer doth merit, preaches a popish doctrine.
" If you ask, if good works shall be rewarded, I say
yea, and with no less than eternal glory ; but for no
merit that they deserve ; for they deserve nothing ; but
only because God hath promised, not for the merit of
the work, but for his promise sake, and he will not break
his promise."
To these and other objections he made answer in
PERSECUTION IN LONDON FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
A.D. 1540—154/.]
writing; first denying many things presented, taking
upon his conscience, that he never spake some of those
words ; and again, many things that he never meant to
such an end or purpose. But notwithstanding all this,
the ordinary proceeded in his judgment, ministering to
him certain interrogatories (after the Popish course) to
the number of ten articles. The greatest matter laid
against him, was for preaching free justification by faith
in Christ Jesus, against false confidence in good works,
and man's free will. Also for affirming that private
masses, dirges, and other prayers profited not the souls
departed ; so that in the end, he was caused to recant at
St. Paul's cross, 1541.
Add to these. Doctor Tailor, parson of .St. Peter's,
Cornhill : South, parish priest of Ailhallows, Lombard-
street : Some, a priest : Giles, the king's brewer :
Thomas Lancaster, priest. All of whom were im-
prisoned likewise for the six articles.
To be short, such a number in London and Calais,
and other quarters, were then apprehended through the
inquisition, that all the prisons in London were too
small to hold them ; so that they were obliged to lay
them in the halls. At last, by means of the good lord
Audley, such pardons were obtained of the king, that
they were all discharged, being bound only to appear in
the star-chamber the next day after All-souls, there to
answer if they were caUed upon.
An Account of John Porter, cruelly martyred for
reading the Bible.
John Porter, in the year 1541, was cruelly handled for
reading the Bible in St. Paul's church. It was stated
already that Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, being
then ambassador at Paris, was a great actor in setting
forward the printing of the Bible ; promising that he
would have sis of those Bibles set up in the church of
St. Paul in London ; which also at his coming home he
performed.
The Bibles thus standing in St. Paul's church by the
command of the king, and the appointment of Bonner,
many well-disposed people used to resort there, espe-
cially when they could get any that had an audible voice
to read to them. After Cromwell was dead, it hap-
pened, amongst several godly persons, who frequented
there the reading of the Bible, that John Porter used
sometimes to be occupied in that godly exercise, to the
edifying of himself as well as others. This Porter was a
comely young man, and of high stature; who by dili-
gent reading of the scriptures, and by hearing of such
sermons as were then preached by those who were the
setters forth of God's truth, became very expert. The
Bible then being set up by Bonner's command upon
several jiiUars in St. Paul's church, fixed to them with
chains for all men to read them that wished, great multi-
tudes would resort to hear this Porter, because he could
read well, and had an audible voice. Bonner and his
chaplains being grieved, (and the world beginning then
to frown upon the gospellers,) sent for Porter, and re-
buked him very sharply for his reading : but Porter
answered him that he trusted he had done nothing con-
trary to the law ; neither contrary to the advertise-
ments which he had ordered to be fixed in print over
every Bible.
Bonner then laid to his charge that he had made ex-
positions upon the text, and had gathered great multi-
tudes about him to make tumults. He answered, he
trusted that that could not be proved. But Bonner sent
him to Newgate, where he was cruelly fettered with irons
about his legs and arms ; and with a collar of iron about
his neck fastened to the wall in the dungeon : being there
so inhumanly handled, that he was compelled to send
for a kinsman of his, whose name was also Porter,
who, seeing his kinsman in this miserable case, en-
treated Jewet, then keeper of Newgate, that he might
be released out of those cruel irons; and so through
friendship and money, had him up among other pri-
soners, who lay there for felony and murder, where
Porter being among them, hearing and seeing their
wickedness and blasphemy, exhorted them to amend>
595
ment of life, and gave to them such instnictions as he
had learned of the scriptures ; for which he was com-
plained against and so carried down, and laid in the
lowest dungeon of all, oppressed with bolts and irons,
where within six or eight days after he was found dead.
Thomas Sommers, imprisoned for the Gospel.
Amongst these Londoners thus troubled by the clergy,
we will add also a note of a merchant called Thomas
Sommers, who died in the Tower of London for the gos-
pel. Being a very honest and wealthy merchant, he was
sent for by the lord cardinal, and committed to the
Tower, because he had Luther's books ; and his judg-
ment was, that he should ride from the Tower to
Cheapside, carrying a new book in his hand, and with
books hung round about him, with three or four other
merchants. And when Master Sommers was to be set
on a collier's nag, as the rest of his fellow-prisoners
were, a friend of his brought him a very good horse,
with bridle and saddle ; and when the bishop's officers
came to dress him with books, as they had trimmed the
others, and would have made holes in his garment to
have thrust the strings of the books in ; "Nay," said
Sommers, " I have always loved to go handsomely in
my apparel," and taking the books and opening them, he
bound them together by the strings, and cast them about
his neck (the leaves being all open) like a collar ; and
being on horseback, rode foremost through the streets,
till they came about the standard in Cheapside, where a
great fire was made to burn their books in, and a pillory
set up there for four persons.
When they came to the fire, every one of them having
a book in his hand, they were commanded to cast their
books into the fire. But when Master Sommers saw that
his New Testament should be burned, he threw it over
the fire ; which was seen by some of God's enemies ;
and brought to him again commanding him to cast it
into the fire ; which he would not do, but cast it through
the fire. Which was done three times. But at last a
stander-by took it up, and saved it from burning. — But
not long after, Master Sommers was cast again into the
Tower by the cardinal, through the cruelty of the bishops
and their adherents, and soon after died in the prison
for the testimony of his faith.
Wliat trouble and vexation happened among the godly
brethren in London for the six articles, we have thus
concisely detailed. But this rigorous inquisition was
not confined to this city only, but extended to Salisbury,
Norfolk, Lincoln, and through all shires and quarters of
the realm.
About the same time, John Longland, bishop of Lin-
coln, burned two men upon one day ; the one named
Thomas Bernard, and the other James Morton : one for
teaching the Lord's prayer in English, and the other for
possessing the epistle of St. James translated into Eng-
lish.
In Oxford also, about the same time, recanted one
Master Barber, master of arts of that university, a man
excellently learned. AVho being called up to Lambeth
before the archbishop Thomas Cranmer, was so firm
in the cause of the sacrament, and so learnedly defended
himself that neither Cranmer himself, nor any other
could answer his objections out of Augustine : in which
he was so prompt, that the archbishop, with the rest of
his company, greatly admired him. He, however, at
last relented ; and, returning again to Oxford, was there
caused to recant.
A merry and pleasant Narration, touching a false
report of Fire, raised among the Doctors and Mas-
ters of Oxford in St. Mary's Church, at the Recanta-
tion of Master Malary, Master of Arts of Cam-
bridge.
This recantation of Master Barber, in the University
of Oxford, brings to remembrance another recantation,
happening not long before, which I thought I ought not to
pass over, as a merry ridiculous spectacle, not unworthy
5S6
A RIDICULOUS PAGEANT IN OXFORD.
[Book VIII.
to be remembered, and here inserted ; to recreate and
refresh by the way the weary mind of the reader, after
so many bloody and lamentable stories, executions, re-
cantations, and tragedies. The story is this : —
There was one Master Malary, a Master of Arts of
Cambridge, and scholar of Christ's College, who for hold-
ing opinions contrary to the determination of the holy
mother church of Rome ; that is, for the right truth of
Christ's Gospel, was brought before the bishops, and in
the end sent to Oxford ; there openly to recant, and to
bear his fagot, to the terror of the students of that
University. The time and place was appointed when he
should be brought solemnly into St. Mary's church
upon a Sunday, where a great number of the head doc-
tors and divines, and others of the university, were as-
sembled ; besides a great multitude of citizens, who
came to behold the sight. In order that solemnity might
not ])ass without some effectual sermon for the mother
church of Rome, doctor Smith, then reader of the divinity
lecture, was appointed to preach the sermon at this re-
cantation. There was assembled a mighty audience of
all sorts of degrees, as well of students as others. Few-
were absent who loved to hear or see any news ; so that
there was no place in the whole church which was not
filled with the concourse of people.
All things being thus prepared and set in readiness,
Malary comes forth with his fagot upon his shoulder.
Not long after, the doctor proceeds into the pulpit, to
deliver his sermon, the argument of which was wholly
upon the sacrament. The doctor, for the more confir-
mation of his words, had provided the holy wafer, and
the sacrament of the altar, to hang by a string before
him in the pulpit. Thus the doctor, commencing his
sermon, had scarcely proceeded into it, the people giving
great reverence to his doctrine, when suddenly was heard
in the church the voice of one crying in the street,
"Fire! fire!" The occasion was this: a man coming
from AUhallows parish, saw a chimney on fire, and so
passing in the street by St. Mary's church, cried " Fire!
fire !"
This sound of fire being heard in the church, went
from one to another, that at length it came to the ears
of the doctors, and at last to the preacher himself; who,
as soon as they heard it, being amazed with sudden fear
and marvelling what the matter meant, began to look
up to the top of the church, and to the walls. The others
seeing them look up, looked up also. Then they began
to cry out with a loud voice, •' Fire ! fire." " Where.'"
saith one ! "Where?" saith another. " In the church,"
saith a third. The mention of the church was scarcely
pronounced, when, as in one moment, there was a com-
mon cry among them, " The church is on fire ! the
church is on fire by heretics !" &c. And although no
man saw any fire at all, yet as all men cried out, so every
man thought it true. Then there was such fear and
tumult through the whole church, that it cannot be de-
scribed in words.
Thus this strong imagination of fire being fixed in
their heads, as nothing could move them to think but
that the church was on fire, so every thing that they
saw or heard increased this suspicion in them. The first
and chief occasion that augmented this suspicion, was
the heretic there bearing his fagot, which led them to
imagine that all other heretics had conspired with him
to set the church on fire.
After this, through the rage of the people, and run-
ning to and fro, the dust was so raised, that it seemed
as if it had been smoke. Which, together with the out-
cry of the people, made them so afraid, that leaving the
sermon, they began all to run away. But such was the
press of the multitude, running together, that the more
they laboured, the less they could get out. For whilst
they ran all headlong to the doors, every man striving to
get out first, they thrust one another, and stuck so fast,
that they who were without, could not get into the
church, and they that were within could nut get out.
So that one door being stopped, they ran to another on
the north side. But there again was the like or greater
throng. So the people clustering and thronging to-
gether, it put many in danger, and brought many to
their end, by bruising of their bones or sides. There
was yet aiiotlier door towards the west, which could not
be opened for the j)ress of people.
At last, when they were past all hope to get ouf, then
they were exceedingly amazed, and ran up and down,
crying out upon the heretics who had conspired their
death. The more they ran about and cried out, the
more smoke and dust rose in the church. I think some
were howling and weeping, some were running up and
down, and ))Iaying the madman, now hither, now thi-
ther, as being tossed to au'J fro with waves and tempests,
trembling and quaking, raging and fearing, without any
manifest cause ; the doctors laden with so many badges
of wisdom, were seeking holes and corners to hide them-
selves in, gasping, breathing, and sweating, and for very
horror almost beside themselves. Whilst one said that
he plainly heard the noise of the fire ; another affirmed
that he saw it with his eyes ; and another swore that he
felt the molten lead dropping down upon his head and
shoulders. Such is the force of imagination, when it
is once grafted in men's hearts through fear. In all
the whole company, there was none that behaved him-
self more modestly than the heretic that was there to do
penance ; who casting his fagot off from his shoulders,
kept himself quiet.
All the others never made an end of running up and
down and crying out. None cried out more earnestly
than the doctor that preached, who first of all cried out
in the pulpit, saying, "These are the trains and sub-
tUities of the heretics against me ! Lord have mercy
upon me ! Lord have mercy upon me !" In all this there
was nothing more feared than the melting of the lead,
which many affirmed that they felt dropping upon their
bodies. Now in this sudden terror and fear, which took
from them all reason, none acted more ridiculously than
such as seemed the greatest and wisest men, save that
in one or two somewhat more quietness of mind appeared.
Among whom was one Claymund, president of Corpus
Christi College (whom for reverence and learning's sake
I do here name) and a few other aged persons with
him, who for their age and weakness durst not thrust
themselves into the throng among the rest, but kneeled
down quietly before the high altar, committing them-
selves and their lives to the sacrament. The others,
who were younger and stronger, ran up and down through
the press, marvelling at the uncivility of men, and angry
with the unmannerly multitude that would give no room
to the doctors, bachelors, masters, and other graduates
and regent masters. But as the terror and fear was com-
mon to all, so was there no difference made of persons
or degrees, every man scrambling for himself. The
violet cap, or purple gown did there nothing avail the
doctor; neither the master's hood nor the monk's cowl
was respected.
Yea, if the king or queen had been there at that pre-
sent and in that perplexity, they had been no better
than a common person. After they had long striven and
assayed all manner of ways and saw no remedy, neither
by force, neither authority to prevail, they fell to en-
treating and ofl'ering of rewards, one offering twenty
pounds, another his scarlet gown, so that any man would
pull him out.
Some stood close to the pillars, thinking themselves
safe under the vaults of stone from the dropping of the
lead. Others, being without money, knew not which
way to turn themselves. One, a president of a college
pulling a board from the pews, covered his head and
shoulders with it against the scalding lead, which they
feared much more than the fall of the church. Another,
who had a grand jiaunch, a monk, seeing the doors
stopped and every way closed up, thought to get out
through a glass window ; but the iron grates prevented
him ; however, he would make the attempt. Wlien he
had broken the glass, and was come to the sjiace be-
tween the grates, he thrust in his head with one shoulder,
and it went through easy enough. Then he laboured to
get the other shoulder after ; but there was a great
labour about that, for he stuck long by the shoulderB,
though at last he succeeded. For what does not labour
overcome ." Thus fur he was now got. But by what
A.D. 1540-1547.] MARRIAGE OF LADY CATHARINE HOWARD WITH HENRY VIII.
597
part of his body he afterwards stuck fast, I am not going
to say; but this is most certain that he did stick fast be-
tween tlie grates, and could neither get out nor in.
After some time there was at last a way found for the
crowd, so that some going over the heads of others got out.
Here also happened another incident to one of the
monks : there was a young lad, who, seeing the doors
fast stopped with the press or multitude, and that he
had no way to get out, climbed up ujion the door, and
there staving ujiou the top of the door, was forced to re-
main quiet. For he durst not come down into the
church again for fear of the fire, and he could not leap
down coward the street without danger. By chance,
among them that got out over men's heads, he saw a
monk who had a great wide cowl hanging at his back.
This the boy thought to be a good occasion for him to
escape by. When the monk came near to him, the boy
■who was on the top of the door, slipped down into the
monk's cowl, thinking that if the monk escaped, he
should also get out with him. At last the monk got
out, and feeling his cowl heavier than it was accustomed
to be, and hearing the voice of one speaking behind, he
was more afraid than before, thinking that the evil spirit
which had set the church on fire had got into his cowl,
so he began to play the exorcist; " In the name of God,"
said he, " and all saints, I command thee to declare
what thou art, that art behind at my back." To whom
the boy answered, " I am Bertram's boy." " But I,"
said the monk, " adjure tliee in the name of the insepar-
able Trinity, that thou wicked spirit do tell me who
thou art, and that thou get hence." With that his
cowl began to crack upon his shoulders, and the boy
took to his legs and ran away as fast as he could.
At length, after much delay, all were got out of the
church, and discovered the folly of their false alarm.
The fourth and fifth Marriages of King Henry VIII.
In the same year, and immediately after the appre-
hension of Lord Cromwell, the king was divorced from
Lady Anne of Cleves (July 1540). The cause of which
separation being wholly committed to the clergy of the
convocation, it was by them defined, concluded, and
granted, that the king being freed from that pretended
matrimony (as they called it) might marry whom he
would, and so might she likewise; who, consenting to
the divorce herself, by her letters, was no more called
queen, but only Anne of Cleves. The king, in the same
month, was married to his fifth wife, who was the lady
Catharine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk, and
daughter to the Lord Edmund Howard, the duke's
brother. But this marriage, likewise, did not continue
long.
In the month of August, and in the same year, I find
in some records, besides the chapter-house monks above
recited, whom Cope sanctifies for holy martyrs, for suf-
fering in the denial of the king's supremacy, six others,
who were also brought to Tyburn and there executed in
the like charge of rebellion. Of whom the first was the
prior of Doncaster ; the second, a monk of the Charter-
house of London, called Giles Horn, some call him
William Horn; the third, one Thomas Ipsam, a monk of
Westminster, who had his monk's garment plucked
from his back, being the last monk in King Henry's days
that wore the monkish dress ; the fourth, one Philpot ;
the fifth, one Carew ; the sixth was a friar.
Now, as to the marriage between the king and the
Lady Howard, it endured not long ; for in the year fol-
lowing, the Lady Catharine was accused to the king for
violation of the marriage vows, and was beheaded on
Tower-hill on the I'ith of February, 1542.
After the death of this lady, the king, calling to re-
membrance the words of the Lord Cromwell ; and miss-
ing now more and more his old councillor ; and partly
also suspecting somewhat the ways of Winchester ; be-
gan a little to set his foot again in the cause of religion.
And although he ever bare a special favour to Thomas
Cranmer. archbishop of Canterbury, yet now the more
he missed the Lord Cromwell, the more he inclined to
the archbishop, and also to the right cause of religion.
And therefore, in the month of October, after the ex-
ecution of this queen, the king understanding that some
abuses yet remained unreformed, namely, pilgrimages
and idolatry, and other things, directed his letters to
the archbishop of Canterbury, for the speedy reforma-
tion of the same.
The King'' s Letters to the Archbishop , for the abolishing
of Idolatry .
" Right reverend father in God, right trusty and well-
beloved, we greet you well, letting you know, that
whereas, heretofore, upon the zeal and remembrance
which we had to our bounden duty towards Almighty
God, perceiving sundry superstitions and abuses to be
used and embraced by our people, whereby they grie-
vously offended him and his word, we not only caused
the images and bones of such as they resorted and of-
fered to, with the ornaments of tlie same, and all such
writings and monuments of feigned miracles, wherewith
they were deceived, to be taken away in all places of the
realm, but also by our injunctions commanded that no
offering or setting up of lights or candles should be suf-
fered in any church, but only to the blessed sacraments
of the altar : it is lately come to our knowledge, that,
notwithstanding this our good intent and purpose, the
shrines, coverings of shrities, and monuments of those
things do yet remain in sundry places of this realm,
much to the slander of our doings, and to the great dis-
pleasure of Almighty God, being means to allure our
subjects to their former hypocrisy and superstition, and
also that our injunctions be not kept. For the due and
speedy reformation whereof, we have thought meet, by
these our letters, expressly to vvill and command you,
that immediately upon the receipt hereof, you shall not
only cause due search to be made in the cathedral
church for those things, and if any shrine, covering of
shrine, table, monument of miracles, or other pilgrim-
ages, do there continue, to cause it to be so taken away,
as that there may remain no memory of it ; but also that
you shall take order with all the curates, and others
having charge within your diocese to do the same, and
to see that our injunctions be duly kept, without failing,
as we trust you, and as you will answer to the contrary.
" Given under our signet, at our town of Hull, the
fourth day of October, in the thirty -fourth year of our
reign (1542)."
Another proclamation was given out, in the fol-
lowing year, by the king's authority, v/herein the
pope's law, forbidding white meats to be eaten in Lent,
was repealed.
A Proclamation concerning eating of White Meats, made
the ninth of Febrttary, in the thirty-fourth year of the
Reign of the King's most Royal Majesty.
" Forasmuch as by divers and sundry occasions, as
well herrings, lings, saltfish, salmon, stockfish, as other
kinds of fish have been this year scant, and also en-
hanced in prices above the old rate and common estima-
tion of their value, so that if the king's loving subjects
should be enforced only to buy and provide herring, and
other salt store cf fish, for the necessary and sufficient
sustentation and Uidntenance of their household and
families all this holy time of Lent, according as they
have been wont in times past to do, and should not be
by some other convenient means relieved therein, the
same might and should undoubtedly redound to their
insupportable charge and detriment ; and forasmuch as
his highness considers how this kind and manner of
fasting, that is to say, to abstain from milk, butter, eggs,
cheese, and other white meats, is but a mere positive
law of the church, and used by a custom within this
realm, and of no other force or necessity, but the same
may be upon considerations and grounds altered and dis-
pensed with from time to time, by the public authority
of kings and princes, whenever they shall perceive the
same to tend to the hurt and damage of their people :
THE TROUBLES OF ROBERT TESTWOOD.
[Book VIII.
the king s highness, therefore, most graciously consider-
ing and tendering the wealth and commodity of his
people, has thought good, for the considerations above
rehearsed, to release and dispense with the said law and
custom of abstaining from white meats in this holy time
of Lent, and of his special grace and mere motion giveth
and granteth unto all and singular his subjects within
this his realm, and in all his grace's dominions, free
liberty, faculty, and licence, to eat all manner of white
meats, as milk, eggs, butter, cheese, and such like,
during the time of this Lent, without any scruple or
gr^idge of conscience, any law, constitution, use, or
custom to the contrary, notwithstanding.
" Wherein, nevertheless, his highness exhorts, and in
the nime of God requires all such his faithful subjects,
as may, will, or shall enjoy this his grant or faculty, that
they be in nowise scrupulous or doubtful thereof, nor
abuse or turn the same into a fleshly or carnal liberty ;
but rather endeavour themselves to their possible
powers, with this liberty of eating of white meats, to
observe also that fiist which God most especially re-
quireth of them, that is to say, to renounce the world
and the devil, with all their pomps and works ; and also
to subdue and repress their carnal affections and the
corrupt works of the flesh, according to their vow and
profession made at the font-stone ; for in these points
especially consists the very true and perfect abstinence
or fasting of a christian man ; thus to endure and con-
tinue from year to year, till the king's highness' pleasure
shall, by his majesty's proclamation, be published to the
contrary."
The TVouble and Persecution of fonr Windsor-men,
Robert Test wood, Henry Filmer, Anthony Pearson, atid
John Marbeck, persecuted for Riyhteousness' sake, and
for the Gospel.
We come now to the history of the four Windsor-
men, persecuted for the true testimony of God's word ;
three were martyred and sacrificed in the fire; the fourth
("named Marbeck) had his pardon. First. I have to shew
the origin of their troubles ; secondly, the manner and
order of their death as they suffered together ; which
was A. D. I,')4,'5.
The Origin of Testwood's Trouble.
In A.D. 1.5.33 there was one Robert Testwood, in the
city of London, who for his knowledge in music had so
great a name that the musicians in Windsor college
thought him a worthy man to have a room among them.
Whereupon they informed Dr. Sampson their dean. But
as some of the canons had at that time heard of Test-
wood, that he smelled of the new learning, as they called
it, it would not be consented to at the first. Notwith-
standing on some entreaty on the part of the musicians,
Testwood was sent for to be heard. And being there
four or five days among the choirmen, he was so well
liked both for liis voice and skill, that he was admitted,
and settled in Windsor, and held in good estimation with
the dean and canons a great while ; but when they per-
ceived, for he could not well dissemble his religion, that
he leaned to Luther's sect, they began to dislike him.
It was his chance one day to be at dinner with one of
the canons, named Dr. Riwson ; at which dinner, among
Others, was one of King Edward's four chantry priests,
named Ely. This Ely bea^an to rail against laymen who
took upon them to meddle with the scriptures, and
to be better learned than they wlio liad been students in
the universities of Oxford and Cambridge all the days of
their lives. Then Testwood, perceiving he meant him,
said, " Master Ely, T think it no hurt for a layman, as I
am, to read and to know the script"»-es."
"Which of you," said Ely, " tliat are unlearned
knows them or understands them .' St. Paul saith, ' If
thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him
drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on
his head.' Now, Sir, what means St. Paul by those
coals of fire ?" " Marry, Sir," saidTestwood, " he means
nothing, as I have learned, but burning love and kind-
ness ; that by doing good to our enemies we should
thereby win them." "Ah, sir," quoth he, " you are
an old scholar, indeed."
After this they fell into further communication about
the pope, whose supremacy was much spoken of at that
time, but not known to be so far in question in the Par-
liament house as it was. And in their talk Ely demand-
ed of Testwood, whether the pope ought to be head of
their church, or not } Against which Testwood durst
not say his full mind, but reasoned within bounds a great
while. But when Testwood, forgetting himself, chanced
to say. That every king, in his own realm and dominion,
ought to be the head of the church under Christ, Ely
was so chafed, that he rose from the table in great fume,
calling him " heretic," and all that was bad, and so
went brawling and scolding away, to the great disquieting
of the company.
Then was Testwood very sorry to see the old man take
it so grievously. Whereupon after dinner he went and
sought Master Ely, and found him walking in the body of
the church, thinking to talk with him charitably, and so
to be friends again ; but as Testwood pressed towards
him, the other shunned him, and would not come nigh
him, but spit at him ; saying to others that walked by,
" Beware of this fellow, for he is tlie greatest heretic
and schismatic that ever came into Windsor."
After Ely had made his complaint to the dean's de-
puty, and others of the canons, they were all against
Testwood, purposing at the dean's coming home to have
punished Testwood. But it was not ten days after tliat
the king's supremacy passed in the parliament-house ;
upon which the dean (Dr. Sampson) came home suddenly
in the night, and sent his verger to all the canons and
ministers of the college, from the highest to the lowest,
commanding them to be in tlie charter-house by eight of
the clock in the morning. Then Ely consulted with the
canons overnight, and thought on the next day to have
put Testwood to a great plunge. " But he that layeth a
snare for another man," saith Solomon, " shall betaken
in it himself." And so was Ely. For when the dean
and every man were come and placed in the chapter-
house, and the dean had commended the ministers of
the church for their diligence in attending the choir, he
began, contrary to every man's expectation, to inveigh
against the bishop of Rome's supremacy and usurped
authority, confuting it by manifest scriptures and proba«
ble reasons, so earnestly, that it was a wonder to hear ;
and at length declared openly, that by the whole consent
of the parliament-house, the pope's supremacy was
utterly abolished out of this realm of England for ever,
and so commanded every man there, upon his allegiance,
to call him po))e no more, but bishop of Rome ; and what-
ever he were tliat would not do so, or did from that day
forth maintain or favour his cause by any means, he
should not only lose the benefit of that house, but be re-
puted as an utter enemy to God, and to the king. The
canons hearing this, were all struck dumb. Yet Ely's
heart was so full, that he would utter his spite against
Testwood ; but the dean called him old fool, and took
him up so sharply, that he was glad to hold his peace.
Then the dean commanded all the pope's pardons which
hung about the church to be brought into the chapter-
house, and cast into the fire, and burnt before their
faces, and so departed.
Testwood was one day walking in the church, and be-
held the pilgrims, especially of Devonshire and Corn-
wall, how they came in with candles and images of
wax in their hands, to offer to good King Henry of
Windsor, as they called him. It grieved him to see
such great idolatry committed, and how vainly the peo-
))le had spent their goods in coming so far to kiss a spur,
and to have an old hat set upon their heads ; so that he
could not refrain, but, seeing a coinjiany who had made
their offerings stand gazing about the church, went to
them, and with all gentleness began to exhort them to
leave such false worshipping of dumb creatures, and to
learn to worship the true living God aright, putting them
in remembrance what those things were which they wor-
sliipped, and liow (Jod many times had jilagucd his peo-
ple for running to worship such stocks and stones, und
A.D. 1540—1547.]
THE TROUBLES OF TESTWOOD AND OP FILMER.
S9S
would plague them and their posterity, if they would not
leave it.
After this way he admonished them till at last his
words took such place in some of them, that they said
they never would go on a pilgrimage any more. Then
he w.'nt further, and found another set licking and kiss-
in" a white lady made of alabaster, which image was
carved in a wall behind the high altar, and bordered
about with a pretty border, which was made like
branches with hanging apples and flowers. And when
he saw them so superstitiously use the image as to wipe
their hands upon it, and then to stroke them over their
head? and faces as though there had been great virtue
in touching the picture, he raised his hand, in the
which he had a key, and struck a piece of the border
about the image, and with the glance of the stroke
chanced to break off the image's nose. " Lo, good peo-
ple," cried he, " you see that it is nothing but earth
and dust, and cannot help itself ; and how then will you
have it to help you ? For God's sake, brethren, be no
more deceived." And so he gat him home to his house,
for the uproar was so great, that many came to see the
image how it was defaced. And among others came one
William Simons, a lawyer, who seeing the image without
a nose, took the matter grievously, and looking down
upon the pavement, he spied the nose where it lay, which
he took up and put into his purse, saying it should be a
dear nose to Testwood.
Many were offended with Testwood — the canons for
speaking against their profit, the wax sellers for hinder-
ing their market, and Simons for the image's nose.
And some of the canons threatened to kill him. So
Testwood kept his house, and durst not come forth,
but sent the whole matter in writing by his wife, to
Cromwell, the king's secretary, who was his special friend.
The canons hearing that Testwood was about to send to
Cromwell, sent the verger to him to come to the
church ; who sent them word again that he was in fear
of his life, and therefore would not come. Then they
sent two of the eldest minor canons to entreat him, and
to assure him that no man should do him harm. He
made them a plain answer, that he had no trust in their
promises, but would complain to his friends. Then they
knew not what shift to make, for of all men they
feared Cromwell, but sent in post-haste for old Master
Ward, a justice of peace, dwelling three or four miles
off, who being come, and hearing the matter, was
very loth to meddle in it. But notwithstanding, through
their entreaty, he went to Testwood, and after much
persuasion and faithfully promising him, by the oath
he had made to God and the king, to defend him from all
danger and harm, Testwood was content to go with him.
And when Master Ward and Testwood were come to
the church, and were going toward the chapter-house,
one of the canons drew his dagger at Testwood, and
would have been upon him, but Master Ward with his
man resisted, and got Testwood into the chapter-house.
Now Testwood, being alone in the chapter-house,
with the canons and Master Ward, was gently treated,
and the matter so pacified, that Testwood was allowed
quietly to come and go to the church, and do his duty
as he had done before.
Upon a relic Sunday, as they named it, when every
minister, after their old custom, should have borne a relic
in his hand in a procession, one was brought to Test-
woo I. Which relic, as they said, was a rochet of Bishop
Becket's. And as the sexton would have put the rochet
in Testwood's hands, he pushed it from him, and so the
rochet was given to another.
In the days of Master Franklen, who succeeded Doctor
Sampson in the deanery of Windsor, there was set up
at the choir door a foolish printed paper, all to the praise
and commendation of our Lady, ascribing to her our jus-
tification, our salvation, our redemption, the forgive-
ness of sins, &c., to the great derogation of Christ.
Which paper, one of the canons named Magnus, caused
to be set up in despite of Testwood and his sect. When
Testwood saw this paper, he plucked it down secretly.
The next day another was set up in the same place. Then
Test wood coming into the church, and seeing another paper
set up, and also the dean coming a little way off, made
haste to be at the choir door, while the dean staid to take
holy water, and reaching up his hand as he went, plucked
away the paper with him. The dean being come to
his stall, called Testwood to him, and said, that lie mar-
veiled greatly how he durst be so bold as to take down the
paper in his presence.' Testwood answered again, that
he marvelled much more, that his mastership would
suffer such a blasphemous paper to be set up, beseechiug
him not to be offended with what he had done, for he
would stand to it. So the dean being a timorous man,
made no more ado with him. After this no more papers
were set up, but poor Testwood was abused among them
at every meal, and denounced as an heretic, and would
carry a fagot one day, &c.
A story is told of one Robert Philips, gentleman of
the king's chapel, and Testwood ; which, though it was
but a merry prank of a singing man, yet it grieved his
adversary wonderfully. The matter was this : Robert
Philips was so notable a singing man, that wherever he
came, the best and longest song, with most counter-
verses in it, were set up at his coming. And so he
chancing to be at Windsor, a long song was set up,
called Lauda Vivi. In which song there was one coun-
terverse toward the end that began with " 0 redemptrix
et salvatrix ;" which verse, of all others, Robert Philips
would sing, because he knew that Testwood could not
abide it. Now, Testwood knowing his mind well
enough, joined with him on the other part ; and when
he heard Robert Philips begin to fetch his flourish with,
" 0 redemptrix et salvatrij;,^' Testwood was as quick to
answer him again with " Non redemptrix, nee salva-
trix;" and so striving there with " 0" and " iVow,"
who should have the mastery, they ma le an end of the
verse. At this there was good laughing in the sleeves
to some ; but Robert Philips, with others of Testwood's
enemies, were much offended.
Within fourteen days after this, the lords of the gar-
ter (as their yearly custom is), came to Windsor to keep
St. George's feast, at which feast the duke of Norfolk
was president ; to whom the dean and canons made
a grievous complaint. Testwood being called before the
duke, he took him up, and reviled him, as though ha
would have sent him to be hanged. Yet Testwood so be-
haved himself to the duke, that in the end he let him go,
to the great discomfort of the dean and canons.
These are the causes which moved Testwood's ene-
mies to seek his destruction.
The Origin of Henry Filmer's Troubles.
About A.D. 1540, after all the orders of superstitious
and begging friars were suppressed, it happened that one
Sir Thomas Melster, who had been a friar, and changed
his friar's coat, but not his friar's heart, was appointed
vicar of Windsor. Tnis priest made a sermon to his
parishioners, in which he declared many old friars' tales,
as that our LaJy held out her breasts to St. Bernard, and
spouted her milk into his eyes, with such like tales, that
many honest men were offended, and especially this
Henry Filmer, who was then one of the churchwardens,
who was so zealous for God's word, that he could not
abide to hear the glory of Christ so defaced with super-
stitious fables. So he took an honest man or two with
him, and went to the priest, with whom he talked so
honestly and so charitably, that in the end the priest gave
him hearty thanks, and was content to reform himself
without any more ado, and they parted friends.
Now there was one in the town called William Si-
mons, a lawyer, who hearing that Filmer had been
with the priest, and reproved him for his sermon, got
him to the vicar, and so excited him, that he slipped
away from the promise he had made to Filmer. Then
Simons meeting with Filmer, reviled him, saying he
would bring him before the bishop. Filmer hearing the
matter renewed, which he iiad thought had been sup-
pressed, stood against Simons, and said that the vicar
had preached false and unsound doctrine, and he would
say as much to the bisho;) whenever he came before him.
Tlien Simons went to the mayor, and procured a letter
in the priest's favour, and departed to go to the bishop,
(M)0
THE TROUBLES OF TESTWOOD AND OF FILMER.
[Book VIII.
(whose name was Doctor Capon), and took the priest with
them.
Filmer consulted with his friends what was best to do,
who drew out certain notes of the vicar's sermon, and
prepared themselves to be at Salisbury as soon as
Simons, or before him. Thus, both parties being in
readiness, it chanced that they set forth from Windsor
all in one day. But as the priest, being an impotent
man, could not ride very fast, Filmer and his company
got to the town before Simons, and went to the bishop,
and delivered up their bill to him ; which bill, when the
bishop had seen and perused it well, he gave them great
thanks for their pains, saying the priest had preached
heresy, and should be punished.
Then Filmei- declared to the bishop the form of tlie
talk he iiad with the priest, and the end of it, and how
the matter, being renewed again by Simons, forced him
and his company to trouble his lordship with it.
" 'Well," said the bishop, " you have done like honest
men. Come to me soon again, and you shall know
more ;" and so they departed from the bishop to their
inn. And while they were there reposing themselves,
Simons, with his company, came to the town, and (not
knowing the otlier to be come), got themselves up to the
bishop in all haste, taking the priest with them.
The bishop, hearing of more Windsor men, demanded
who they were, and being informed that it was the vicar
of tlie town, with others, he caused the vicar to be
brought in. To whom he said, " Are you the vicar
of Windsor?" "Yea, my lord," said he. "How
chances it," asked the bishop, " that you are complained
of ? for there have been with me certain honest men of
your town who have delivered up a bill of erroneous
doctrine against you. If it be so, I must needs punish
you ;" and opening the bill, he read it to him. " How
say you," questioned the bishop ; " is this true or not ?"
The vicar could not deny it ; but humbly submitted
himself to the bishop's correction. Then was his com-
pany called in, and when the bishop saw Simons, he
knew him well ; and said, " Wherefore come ye. Master
Simons ?'' " Please your lordship," said he, "we are
come to speak in our vicar's cause, who is a man of
good conversation and honesty, and doth his duty so well
in every ])oint, that no man can find fault with him, ex-
cept a fellow we have in our town, called Filmer, who is
so corrupt with heresy, that he is able to poison a whole
country ; and truly, my lord, there is no man that can
preach or teach any thing that is good and godly, but he
is ready to control it ; wherefore we beseech your lord-
ship that he may be punished as an example to others, that
our vicar may do his duty C|uietly, as he has done before
this busy fellow troubled him. And that your lordsliip
may the better credit my words, I have brought with me
these honest men of the town ; and a testimonial from
the mayor and his brethren, to confirm the same ;" and
so he lield the writing out in his hand.
Then said the bishop; "So God help me. Master
Simons, you are greatly to hlame, and most worthy to be
punislicd of all men, that will so impudently go about to
maintain your priest in his error, who has preached
heresy, and has confessed it ; wherefore I may not, nor
will not let it go unpunished. And as for that honest
man, Filmer, of whom you have complained, I tell you
plainly that he hath in this point shewed himself to be a
great deal more honest than you. But in hope you will no
more bear out your vicar in his evil doings, I will remit all
things this time, saving that he shall next Sunday re-
cant his sermon openly before all his parishioners in
Windsor church ;" and so the bishop called in Filmer
and his company, who waited without, and delivered the
priest's recantation to them ; with a great charge to see
it truly observed in all points. Then Simons took his
leave of the bishop, and dejiarted, disappointed of his
purpose, and sore ashamed. For this cause Simons
could never brook Filmer ; but when he met him at any
time after, would hold up his finger, and say, " 1 will be
even with you one day ; trust me !"
The Origin of Anthony Pearson's Troubles.
There was a priest, named Anthony Pearson, who
much frequented Windsor, about the year 1540, and
using tlie talent that God had given him in preaching,
was greatly esteemed among the people, who Hocked so
much to his sermons, that the great priests of the castle,
with other papists in the town, especially Simons, were
much ortended ; so that Simons at the last began to
gather his sermons, and to mark his auditors : from
which followed the death of several, and the troubles of
many honest men. For, about a year after, a minister of
Satan, called Doctor London, warden of t'.ie New Col-
lege, in Oxford, was admitted one of ll.e prebendaries
of Windsor. At his first residence dinner which he
gave to the clerks, his whole talk to two gentlemen
strangers at his board, was nothing else Init of heretics,
and what a desolation they would bring tiie realm to, if
they were suffered. " And by St. Mary, masters," says
he, at last, " I cannot tell, but there goes a strange
report abroad of this house." Some made answer;
" It was undeserved." " I pray God it be so," says he.
" I am but a stranger, and have but small experience
among you ; but I have heard it said before I came
hither, that there are some in this house, that will neither
have prayer nor fasting."
Then spake Testwood : " By my truth, sir," says he,
" I think that was sjjoken of malice ; for prayer, as your
mastersiiip knows better than I, is one of the first lessons
that Christ taught us." " Yea marry, sir," replied he ;
"but the heretics will have no invocation to saints, which
all the old fathers allow." '" What the old fathers do
allow," says Testwood, " I cannot tell; but Christ ap-
points us to go to his Father, and to ask our petitions of
him in Christ's name.'' " Then you will have no medi-
ator between you and God," said Doctor London.
" Yes, sir," replied Testwood ; " our mediator is Christ,
as St. Paul saith, ' There is one mediator between God
and man, even Jesus Christ.' " Upon this Doctor Lon-
don said grace, and turned the conversation.
When Doctor London had been at Windsor a while,
and learned what Testwood was, and also wliat heretics were
in the town, and how tliey increased daily by reason of a
priest, called Anthony Pearson, he was so bent against
them, that he gave himself wholly to the devil to do mis-
chief. And to bring his wicked purpose about, he con-
spired with Simons and others, how they might com-
pass the matter: first, to have all the arch-lieretics, as
they termed them, in Windsor, indicted for heresy. ■
They had a good ground to work upon, as they thought, f
which was the six articles ; so they began to build and
practise thus : First, they drew out certain notes of
Anthony Pearson's sermons, which he had preached j
against the sacrament of the altar, and their jiopish ■
mass. That done, they put in Sir William Hobby, with ■
the good lady his wife ; Sir Thomas Cardine ; Mr. Ed-
mund Harman ; Mr. Thomas Weldon ; with Snowbal
and his wife, as chief aiders, helpers, and maintainers of
Anthony Pearson. They also noted Doctor Ilaynes,
dean of Exeter, and a prebendary of Windsor, to be a
receiver of all suspected persons. They wrote also the
names of all such as (Commonly attended Anthony Pear-
son's sermons, and of all such as had the Testament,
and favoured the gospel.
Then they had spies to walk up and down the church,
to hearken and hear what men said, and to mark who
did not worship the sacrament, at the elevation. Some
of these spies were chantry priests. When they had
gathered as much as they could. Doctor London, with
two of his brethren, gave them up to the bishojt of Win-
chester, Stephen Gardiner, with a great complaint against
the heretics that were in Windsor, declaring how the
town was disquieted through their doctrine and evil ex-
am])le. Wherefore they besought his lordshijj's help,
in purgiiig the town and castle of such wicked j)ersons.
The bishop, hearing their complaint, praised their do-
ings, and bade them go forward, and they should not
lack his help. Then they plied the matter, sparing
neither for money nor pains.
Bishop Gardiner, seizing a convenient time, went to
the king, comj)laining what heretics his grace had in hia
realm, and how they had not only crept into every
corner of his court, but even into kis privy chamoer, be-
.D. 1540—1547.]
THE EXAMINATION OF JOHN MARBECK.
601
geeching therefore his majesty that his laws might be
prosecuted ; the king, giving credit to these words, was
content his laws should be executed on such as were
offenders. Then the bishop forthwith procured a com-
mission for a private search to be had in Windsor for
books and letters ; which commission the king granted
to takeplace in the town of Windsor, but not in the castle.
At this time, the canons of Exeter had accused Doctor
Haynes, their dean, to the council, for preaching against
holy bread, and holy water ; and for saying in one of
his sermons, that marriage and hanging were destiny ;
upon which they gathered treason against him, because
of the king's marriage. The bishop of Winchester had
also informed the council of Master Hobby, how he was a
great maintainer of heretics. Whereupon both he and
Doctor Haynes were appreliended and sent to the Fleet.
But it was not very long after, that, by the mediation of
friends, they were both delivered.
Now, as to the commission for searching for books,
Mr. Ward, and one Fachel of Reading, were appointed
commissioners, who came to Windsor the Sunday before
Palm Sunday, 154;i, and began their search at night.
In which search were apprehended Robert Benet, Henry
Filmer, John Marbeck, and Robert Testwood, for cer-
tain books and writings found in their houses, against the
si.x articles, and kept in ward till the Monday after, and
then brought up to the council, all save Testwood, with
whom the bailitfs of the town were charged, because he
lay ill of the gout. The other three, being examined
before the council, were committed to prison ; Filmer
and Benet to the bishop of London's gaol, and Marbeck
to the Marshalsea ; whose examination is here set out,
to declare the great goodness of the council, and the
cruelty of the bishop.
Ejcamination of John Marbeck.
This Marbeck had begun a great work in English,
called the Concordance of the Bible: which book, being
not half finished, was, among his other books, taken
to the council. And when he came before them to be
examined, the work lay before the bishop of Winchester.
Who beholding the poor man a while, said, " Marbeck,
dost thou know wherefore thou art sent for ?" " No,
my lord," said he. "No!" said the bishop? " that is
a marvellous thing.'' " Forsooth, my lord,'' said he,
" unless it be for a certain search made of late in Wind-
sor, I cannot tell wherefore it should be." " Then thou
knowest the matter well enough,'' said the bishop, and
taking up a quire of the Concordance in his hand, said,
*' underscandest thou the Latin tongue?" " No, my
lord," said he, " but simply." " No!" said the bishop.
And with that spake Master Wrisley, (then secretary to
the king) " he saith, but simply." " I cannot tell," said
the bishop, "but the book is translated word for word
out of the Latin Concordance," and so began to declare
to the rest of the council, the nature of a Concordance,
and how it was first compiled in Latin by the great dili-
gence of the learned men for the ease of preachers ; con-
cluding with this reason, that if such a book should go
forth in English, it would destroy the Latin tongue.
And so casting down the quire again, he reached another
book, which was the book of Isaiah the prophet, and
turning to the last chapter, gave the book to Marbeck,
and asked him who had written the note in the margin.
The other looking upon it, said, " Forsooth, my lord, I
wrote it.'' " Read it," said the bishop. Then he read
it thus, " Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool.'' " Nay," said the bishop, " read it as thou
hast written it." "Then shall I read it wrong," said
he, "for I had written it false." " How hadst thou
written it," said the bishop. " I had written it," said
he, " thus ; Heaven is my throne, and the earth is not
my footstool." " Yea," said the bishop, " that was
thy meaning." " No, my lord, it was but an oversight
in writing ; for, as your lordship seeth, this word (not)
is blotted out." At this time other matters came into
the council, so that Marbeck was had out to the next
chamber.
On the next day, one of the bishop of Winchester's
gentlemen brought two great books under his arm, and
finding Marbeck walking up and down in the chapel,
demanded of the keeper why he was not in irons. " I
had no such commandment," said he, " for the messen-
ger who brought him from the council, said, " It was
their pleasure he should be gently used;" and so he
called for a room, to which he carried the prisoner, and
said, " Marbeck, my lord favours thee well for certain
good qualities that thou hast, and hast sent me to ad-
monish thee to beware, and lest thou cast away thyself
wilfully. If thou wilt be plain, thou shalt do thyself
much good ; if not, thou shalt do thyself mucli harm.
I assure thee, my lord laments thy case, for he has
always heard good report of thee ; now see to tliyself, and
play the wise man. Thou art acquainted with a great
many heretics, as Hobby and Haines, with others, and
knowest much of their secrets ; if thou wilt now tell of
them, he will procure thy deliverance out of hand, and
prefer thee to a better living."
" Alas, sir," said he, " what secrets do I know ? I
am but a poor man, and was never worthy to be con-
versant either with Master Hobby or Master Haines, to
know their minds." " Well," said the gentleman,
" make it not so strange, for my lord knows well enough
in what estimation they had both thee and Anthony
Pearson." " For Anthony Pearson," said he, " I can
say nothing, for I never saw him with them. And as
for myself, 1 cannot deny but that they have always
taken me for an honest poor man, and shewed me much
kindness ; but as for their secrets, they were too wise to
commit them to any such as I am."
" Peradventure," said the gentleman, " thou fearest
to utter any thing of them, because they were thy friends,
lest they, hearing thereof, might hereafter withdraw
their friendship from thee : which thou needest not fear,
I warrant thee, for they are sure enough, and never like
to pleasure thee any more, nor any man else."
With that the water stood in Marbeck's eyes. " WTiy
weepest thou,'' said the gentleman? "Oh, sir," said
he, " I pray you pardon me ; these men have done me
good, wherefore I beseech the living God, to comfort
them as I would be comforted myself."
" Well,'' said the gentleman, " I perceive thou vrilt
play the fool ;" and then he opened one of the books,
and asked him if he understood any Latin. "A little,
sir," said he. " How is it then,'' said the gentleman,
" that thou hast translated thy book out of the Latin
Concordance, and yet under»tandest not the tongue ?"
" I will tell you," said he: " in my youth I learned the
princi]iles of my grammar, whereby 1 have some under-
standing, though it be very small." Then the gentle-
man began to try him in the Latin Concordance and
English Bible whic'n he had brought : and when he was
satisfied, he departed, leaving Marbeck alone in the
chamber.
About two hours after, the gentleman came again,
with a sheet of paper folded in his hand, and set him
down upon the bed's side, as before, and said. " By
my troth, Marbeck, my lord sees so much wilfulness in
thee, that he saith it is pity to do thee good." " Sir,"
said he, " there is nothing that I can do and say with a
safe conscience, but I am ready to do it at his lordship's
pleasure." " What tellest thou me,'' said the gentle-
man, " of thy conscience? Thou mayest with a safe
conscience, reveal those that be heretics, and thoa
canst do God and the king no greater service." " If I
knew, sir,'' said he, " who were an heretic, indeed, it
were well ; but if I should accuse him to be an heretic
that is none, what a worm would that be in my con-
science so long as I lived? Yea, it were a great deal
better for me to be out of this life, than to live in such
torment." " In faith," said the gentleman, " thou
knowest as well who are heretics of thy fellows at home,
and who are not, as I know this to be paper in my hand.
Peradventure thy wits are troubled, so that thou canst
not call things to remembrance ; I have brought thee
ink and paper, that thou mayest write such things as
shall come to thy mind ;" and so laid down the ink and
paper, and went his way.
Now was Marbeck so full of heaviness and woe, that
he knew not what to do, nor how to set a pen to the book
03
THE EXAMINATION OF JOHN MARBECK.
[Book VIII.
to satisfy the bishop's minJ, unless he accused men to
the wounding of his own soul. And thus being com-
passed about with nothing but sorrow and care, he cried
out to God in his heart, and fell down on his knees,
with tears, and said, —
" O most merciful Father of heaven, thou that know-
est the secret doings of all men, have mercy upon thy
poor prisoner, who is destitute of all help and comfort.
Assist me, O Lord, with thy special grace, that, to save
this frail and vile body, which shall turn to corruption at
his time, I may have no power to say or to write any thing
that may be to the casting away of my christian brother ;
but rather, O Lord, let this vile flesh suffer at tliy will
and pleasure. Grant this, O most merciful Father, for
thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake.''
Then he rose up and began to search his conscience
what he miglit write, and at last framed out these words :
" Whereas your lordship will have me to write such
things as I know of my fellows at home; please it your
lordship to understand, that I cannot call to remem-
brance any manner of thing whereby I might justly ac-
cuse any one of them, unless it be that the reading of
the New Testament, which is common l»o all men, be an
oft'ence ; more than this I know not."
Now the gentleman, about the hour appointed, came
again, and found Marbeck walking up and down the
chamber. " How now," said he, " hast thou written
nothing ?" " Yes, sir," said he, " as much as I know."
" Well said," observed the gentleman ; and took up the
paper. Which when he had read, he cast it from him in
a great rage, swearing by our Lord's body, that he
would not for twenty pounds carry it to his lord and
master. " Therefore," said he, " go to it again, and
advise thyself better, or else thou wilt set my lord against
thee, ami then art thou utterly undone." *' By my
troth, sir," said Marbeck, " if his lordship shall keep
me here these seven years, I can say no more than I
have said." " Then thou wilt repent it," said the gen-
tleman ; and so departed.
The next day, the bishop sent for Marbeck to his
house, and as he was entering into the bishop's hall, he
saw tlie bishop himself coming out at a door at the upper
end, with a roll in his hand, and going towards the
great window, he called the poor man to him, and said,
" Marbeck, wilt thou cast away thyself?" " No, my
lord," said he, " I trust not." " Yes," said the bishop,
" thou goest about it, for thou wilt utter nothing. What
tempted thee to meddle with the scriptures ?" And
with that he went away from the window, out of the hall,
and the poor man following him from place to place, till
he had brought him into a long gallery; when there, the
bishop began: "Ah, sir, the nest of you is broken."
And unfolding his roll, he said, " Behold, here are your
captains, both Hobby and Haynes, with all the whole
pack of thy sect about Windsor]! and yet thou wilt tell of
none of them." " Alas, my lord, how should I accuse
them, of whom I know nothing?" "Well," said the
bishop, " if thou wilt needs cast away thyself, who can
prevent thee ?"
And in speaking these words, one of his chaplains,
(called Master Medow) came up, to whom the bishop
said, " Here is a marvellous thing; this fellow has taken
upon him to set out the Concordance in English, which
book, when it was set out in Latin, was not done with-
out the help and diligence of a dozen learned men, at least,
and yet he asserts that he has done it alone. But say what
thou wilt," said the bishop, " except God himself would
come down from heaven and tell me so, I will not believe
it." And so going forth to a window wliere two great bi-
bbs liy upon a cushion, the one in Latin and the other
in English, he called Marbeck to him, and pointing his
finger to a place in the Latin Bible, said, " Canst thou
English this sentence ?" " Nay, my lord,'' said he,
" but I can fetch out the English in an I'higlish Bible."
Then Marbeck turning over the English Bible, found
out the place, and read it to the bishop. So he tried
him three or four times, till one of his men came up and
told him the priest was ready to go to mass.
When the bishop was come from mass, he said, " This
is a marvellous sect, for nothing can make one of
them betray another." Then there was nothing said
among the bishop's gentlemen, as they were making him
ready to go to the court, but " Crucify him," upon the
j)Oor man. And when the bishop's white rochet was ou
him, " Well Marbeck," said he, " 1 am now going
to the court, and had purposed, if I had found thee
tractaljle, to have spoken to the king's majesty for thee,
and to havegiven thee thy meat, drink, and lodging here in
mine house ; but seeing thou art so wilful and so stub-
born, thou shalt go to the devil."
It was not half an hour after, until the bishop sent
one of his gentlemen to the under-keeper, commanding
him to jmt irons upon Marbeck, and to keep him fast
shut up in a chamber alone, and when he should bring
him down to dinner or supper, to see that he spoke to no
man, and no man to him.
About three weeks before Whitsunday Marbeck was
sent for to the bishop of London's house, where sat ia
commission Dr. Capon, bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Skip,
bishop of Hereford, Dr. Goodrick, bishop of Ely, Dr.
Okiiig, Dr. May, and the bishop of London's scribe,
having before them all Marbeck's books. Then said the
bishop of Salisbury, " Marbeck, we are here in com-
mission, sent from the king's majesty to examine thee
of certain things, whereof thou must be sworn to an-
swer us faithfully and truly." Then the bishop of Salis-
bury laid forth before him his three books of notes, de-
manding whose hand they were. He answered, they
were his own hand, and notes which he had gathered
out of other men's works, six years ago. " 1 or what
cause," said the bishop of Salisbury, " didst thou ga-
ther them ?'' — " For none other cause, my lord, but to
come by knowledge. For I being unlearned, and de-
sirous to understand some parts of scripture, thought by
reading of learned men's works to come the sooner
thereby : and where I found any place of Scripture
opened and expounded by them, that I noted, as you
see, with a letter of his name in the margin, who was the
author of the work.'' Then the bishop of Salisbury
drew out a quire of the Concordance, and laid it before
the bishop of Hereford, and asked, "Whose help hadst
thou in setting forth this book ?" — " My lord," said
he, " no help at all." — " How couldst thou," said the
bishop, " invent such a book, or know what a Concord-
ance meant, without an instructor ?" — "When," said
I, " Thomas Mathews' Bible came out in print, I was
desirous to have one of them : and being a poor man,
and not able to buy one, determined to borrow one, and
to write it out. And when I had written out the five
books of Moses on fair great paper, and was entered into
the book of Joshua, my friend Master Turner chanced
to see me writing out the Bible, and asked me what I
meant ? And when I told him the cause, ' Tush,' said
he, ' thou goest about a vain and tedious labour. But
this were a profitable work for thee, to set out a Con-
cordance in English.' — ' A Concordance,' said I, ' what
is that ?' Then he told me it was a book to find out
any word in the whole Bible by the letter, and that there
was such a one in Latin already. And this, my lord, is
all the instruction that ever I had before or after." —
" A good wit with diligence," said the bishop of Here-
ford, " may bring hard things to pass." — " It is a
great pity," said the bishop of Ely, " he had not the
Latin tongue." — " I cainiot believe," said the bishop of
Salisbury, " that he hath done any more in this work,
than written it out after some other that is learned."
" My lords,'' said Marbeck, " I shall beseech you all
to pardon me what I shall say, and to grant my request
if it shall seem good to you. I do marvel greatly
wherefore I should be so examined for this book, and
wherein I have committed offence in doing of it ? If I
have offended, then were I sorry that any other should
be molested or punished for my fault. Therefore to
clear all men in this matter, this is my request ; that
you will try me in the rest of the book that is undone,
^'ou see that I am yet but at the letter L ; beginning
now at M, and take out what word you will of that
letter, and so in every letter following ; and give me
A.D. 1540—1547.]
PERSECUTIONS IN WINDSOR.
603
the words on a piece of paper, and set me in a place
alone where it shall please you, with ink and paper, the
Eu'dish Bible, and the Latin Concordance : and if I
brins you not these words written in the same order and
form that the rest before is, then was it not I that did
it, but some other."
" By my truth, Marbeck," replied the bishop of Ely,
" that is honestly spoken ; and then thou shalt bring
many men out of susyiicion."
WTien dinner was done, the bishop of Salisbury came
down into the hall, commanding ink and paper to be
given to Marbeck ; and bein^^ now in his prison-cham-
ber, he fell to his business so expertly, that by the next
day when the bishop sent for him, he had written so
much, in the same order and form as he had done the
rest before, as filled three sheets of pa])er and more ;
which, when he had delivered to the bishop of Salis-
bury, he marvelled, and said, " Well, Marbeck, thou
hast now pnt me out of all doubt."
Upon Whitsunday Marbeck was sent for once again,
where he found Dr. Oking with another gentleman,
with a chain of gold about his neck, sitting together in
one of the stalls, looking upon an epistle of John Cal-
vin's, which Marbeck had written out ; and when they
saw the prisoner, they rose and had him up to a side
altar, leaving his keeper in the body of the church.
Now as soon as Marbeck saw the face of the gentleman,
he saw it was the same person that first examined him
in the Marshnlsea, but never knew bis name, till now he
heard Dr. Oking call him Master Knight. This Master
Knight held the paper to Marbeck, and said, " Look
Tjpon this, and tell me whose hand it is." When Mar-
beck had taken the paper, and seen what it was, he con-
fessed it to be all his hand, saving the first leaf and the
notes in the margin.
Here they wanted him to prove that it was the hand-
writing of Meines, and they threatened him with the
torture to comi)el him. " By my truth, sir," said
]\I,irbeck, " if you do tear my whole body in pieces, I
trust iii God you shall never make me accuse any man
wrongfully." — " If thou be so stubborn," said Dr.
Oking, " thou wile die for it." — " Die, Master Oking!"
said he ; " wherefore should I die ? You told me the
last day I was before the bishops, that as soon as I had
made nn end of the piece of the Concordance, I should
be d-ilivered ; and shall I now die ? But whenever you
shall put nie to death, I doubt not but I shall die God's
true man and the king's." — " How so ?" said Knight.
" How canst thou die a true man to the king, when thou
hast offended his laws ? Is not this epistle, and most of
the notes thou hast written, directly against the six
articles ?" — " No, sir,'' said Marbeck, " I have not
offended the laws of the king ; for since the first time I
began witli the Concordance, which is almost six years
ago, I have been occupied in nothing else. So that
both this epistle, and ad the notes I have gathered,
were written a great while before the .Six Articles came
forth ; and are clearly remitted by the king's general
pardon." — " Trust not to that," said Knight, " for it
will not help thee.'' And so they committed him to
his keeper, who conveyed him away again to prison.
The Manner of their Condemnations, and how theij died.
Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, had so com-
passed his matters, that no man bore so great swav about
the king as he did. The saying went abroad, that the
bishop had bent his bow to shoot at some of the head
deer. But in the meantime three or four of the poor
were caught ; namely, Anthony Pearson, Henry Filmer,
and John Marbeck, who were sent to Windsor, and im-
prisoned in the town gaol ; and Testwood (who had
kept his bed) was brought out of his house upon
crutches, and laid with them ; but as for Benet (who
should have been the fifth man) he happened to be sick
of the pestilence, and he was left behind, whereby he
escaped the fire.
Now these men being brought to Windsor, there was
a sessions specially procured to be held ; against which
eessious all the farmers belonging to the college of
Windsor were warned to appear, because they could not
select papists enough in the town to go upon the jury
when the trial came on.
The prisoners were separately indicted and convicted,
and now being condemned, they prepared to die on the
morrow, comforting one another in the death and pas-
sion of their Master, Christ, who had led the way before
them, trusting that the same Lord, who had made them
worthy to suffer so far for his sake, would not now with-
draw his strength, but give them steadfast faith and power
to overcome those fiery torments, and of his free mercy
and goodness (without their deserts) for his promise
sake, receive their souls. Thus they lay all the night,
till sleep overpowered them, calling upon God for his
aid and strength, and praying for their persecutors ; that
God of his merciful goodness would forgive them, and
turn their hearts to the love and knowledge of his blessed
and holy word : yea, such heavenly talk was among them
that night, that the hearers who were watching the
prison without, whereof the sheriff himself was one, with
other gentlemen, were constrained to shed tears, as they
themselves confessed.
On the morrow, which was Friday, as the prisoners
were all preparing themselves to go to suffer, word was
brought to them that they should not die that day. The
cause was this : the bishop of Salisbury, and others among
the commissioners, had sent a letter by one of the
sherifTs gentlemen, called Mr. Frost, to the bishop of
Winchester (the Court being then at Oking) in favour
of INIarbeck. At the sight of which letter, the bishop
straightway went to the king, and obtained his pardon.
Which being granted, he caused a warrant to be made
out of hand for the sheriff's discharge, delivering the
same to the messenger, who returned with speed and
great joy (for the love he bare to the party), bringing
good news to the town, of Marbeck's pardon.
On the Saturday morning, when the prisoners were to
go to execution, they took their leave of Marbeck (their
fellow -prisoner), and praised God for his deliverance ;
wishing to him the increase of godliness and virtue ; and
last of all besought him to help them heartily with his
prayer unto God, to make them strong in their afflic-
tions ; and so kissing him one after another, they de-
parted.
Now as the prisoners passed through the throng ia
the streets, they desired all the faithful people to pray
for them, and to stand fast in the truth of the gospel,
and not to be moved at their afflictions ; for it was the
happiest thing that ever came to them. And whenever
Doctor Blithe and Arch (who rode on each side the
prisoners) endeavoured to persuade them to turn to their
mother church ; " Away," would Anthony cry, " away
with your Romish doctrine and all your trumpery, for
we will no more of it." When Filmer was come to his
brother's door, he staid and called for his brother; but
he could not be seen, for Dr. London had kept him out
of sight. And when he had called for three or fouj
times, and saw he came not, he said, " And will he not
come .' then God forgive him, and make him a good
man." And so going forth, they came to the place of
execution, where Anthony Pearson, with a cheerful
countenance, embraced the post in his arms, and kissing
it, said, " Now, welcome mine own sweet wife; for this
day shalt thou and 1 be mairied together in the love and
peace of God."
When these three godly martyrs were bound to the
post, a certain young man of Filmer's acquaintance
brought him some drink, asking him if he would drink ;
"Yea," said Filmer, "I thank you. And now, my
brother," said he, " I shall desire you in the name of
the living Lord to stand fast in the truth of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, which you have received;" and then he
asked his brother Anthony, if he would drink. "Yea,
brother Filmer," said he, " I pledge you in the Lord."
\nd when he had drank, he gave it to Anthony, and
he likewise gave it to Testwood. Of which drinking their
adversaries made a jesting-stock, and reported abroad
that they were all drunk, and knew not what they said ;
when they were no otherwise drunk then were the
apostles when the people said they were full of new
604
PERSECUTION OF ADAM DAMLIP AND OTHERS.
[Book VIII.
wine, as their deeds declared ; for when Anthony and
Testwood had both drank, Filmer rejoicing in the Lord,
said, " Be merry, my brethren, and lift up your hands
unto God ; for after this sharp breakfast, I trust we shall
have a good dinner in the kingdom of Christ our Lord
and Redeemer." At these words, Testwood, lifting up
his hands and eyes to heaven, desired the Lord above to
receive his spirit. And Anthony Pearson, pulling the
straw to him, laid a good deal of it upon the top of his
head, saying, " Now am I dressed like a true soldier of
Christ, by whose merits only I trust this day to enter
into his joy." And so they yielded up their souls to
the Father of heaven, in the faith of his dear Son Jesus
Christ, with such humility and steadfastness, that many
who saw their patient sufl'ering, confessed that they
could have found in their hearts to have died with them.
Soon after these martyrdoms, the whole conspiracy
between Dr. London and Simons, for the putting these
good men to death, was found out and exposed, for they
conspired also to indite some of the council.
After this the king withdrew his favour from the
bishop of Winchester, and being more and more in-
formed of the conspiracy of Dr. London and Simons, he
commanded certain of his council to search out the
ground of it.
Whereupon, Dr. London and Simons were appre-
hended and brought before the council, and examined
upon their oath of allegiance : and for denying their mis-
chievous and traitorous purpose, which was manifestly
proved to their faces, they were both perjured, and, in
fine, adjudged as perjured persons, to wear papers in
Windsor ; and Ockam to stand upon the pillory in the
town of Newbury where he was born.
The judgment of all these three was to ride about
Windsor, Reading, and Newbury, with papers on their
heads, and their faces turned to the horses' tails, and to
stand upon the pillory in each of these towns, for false
accusation of the forenamed martyrs, and for perjury.
And thus much touching the persecution of these
good saints of Windsor, according to the copy of their
own acts, received and written by John Marbeck, who is
yet alive.
The Persecution in Calais, with the Martyrdom of
Adam Damlip and others.
In the year 15.39, there came to Calais one George
Bucker, alias Adam Damlip, who had been in time past
a great papist, and chaplain to Fisher, bishop of Roches-
ter ; and after the death of the bishop had travelled
through France and Italy ; and as he went, conferred
with learned men concerning matters of controversy in
religion ; and so proceeding in his journey to Rome,
where he thought to have found all godliness and sincere
reHgion, in the end, he found there, (as he confessed)
such blasphemy of God, contempt of Christ's true re-
ligion, looseness of life, and abundance of all abomina-
tions and filthiness, that his heart and conscience ab-
horred to remain there any longer ; although he was
grf atly requested by Cardinal Pole to continue, and to
read three lectures in the week in his house ; for which
he ottered him great entertainment, which he refused ;
and so returning homeward, having a piece of money
given him by the cardinal at his departure, came to
Calais, who, as he was waiting there for a passage to
England, was perceived by William Stevens and Thomas
Lancaster, to be a learned man ; and that he having
been of late a zealous papist, was now turned to a more
perfect knowledge of true religion ; he was by them
heartily entreated to stay at Calais for some time, and to
read there a day or two, to the intent that he might do
some good to the people after his painful travel. To
this request Adam gladly consented. Stevens brought
him to the lord Lisle, the king's deputy of the town and
marches of Calais, and declared thoroughly w-hat confer
ence and talk had been between Adam Damlip and him-
self. The lord deputy desired Damlip to stay there, and
to preach three or four days or more at his pleasure,
Baying, that he should have both his licence and the
commissary's also. Where, after he had preached three
or four times, he was so well liked both for his learning,
his utterance, and the truth of his doctrine, that not
only the soldiers and commoners, but also the lord de-
puty and a great part of the council, gave him great
praise and thanks for it ; and the lord deputy offered
him a chamber in his own house ; to dine and sup every
meal at his own mess ; to have a man or two of his
servants to wait upon him ; and to have whatever he
wanted, if it were to be had for money ; yea, and what
he might desire in his purse to buy books or otlierwise ;
so that he would tari7 there among them, and preach
only so long as it should seem good to himself. Who,
refusing his lordship's great offer, most heartily thanked
him, and besought him to be only so good to liim, as to
appoint him some quiet and honest place in the town,
where he might not be disturbed or moleste<l, but have
opportunity to give himself to his book, and he would
daily, once in the forenoon, and again by one o'clock in
the afternoon, by the grace of God, preacli among them
according to that talent which God had given him. At
which answer the lord deputy greatly rejoiced, and
thereupon sent for William Stevens, whom he earnestly
required to receive and lodge Damlip in his house ;
promising to see paid to the utmost whatever he should
demand.
This godly man, for the space of twenty days or more,
once every day, at seven of the clock, preached very
godly, learnedly, and plainly, the truth of the blessed
sacrament of Christ's body and blood, mightily inveigh-
ing against all jjojiery, and confuting the same ; but
especially those two most pernicious errors or heresies,
transubstantiation and the propitiatory sacrifice of the
Romish mass, by true conference of the scriptures, and
applying of the ancient doctors : he earnestly exhorted
the people to turn from popery, declaring how popish he
himself had been ; and how, by the detestable wicked-
ness that he saw universally in Rome, he was returned so
far homewards, and had now become an enemy, through
God's grace, to all popery, shewing that if gain or am-
bition could have moved him to the contrary, he might
have been entertained of Cardinal Pole ; but for very
conscience sake, joined with true knowledge, grounded
on God's most holy word, he now utterly abhorred all
popery, and wished them most earnestly to do the same.
And thus he continued for some time to read in the
chapter-house of the White friars ; but the place not
being large enough, he was desired to read in the pulpit;
and so proceeding in his lectures, (wherein he declared
how the world was deceived by the Roman bishops, who
had set forth the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation,)
he came at length to speak against the pageant or pic-
ture of the resurrection, which was in St, Nicholas
church, declaring it to be mere idolatry.
Upon which sermon, or lecture, there came a commis-
sion from the king to the lord deputy ; Master Green-
field ; Sir John Butler, commissary ; the king's mason
and smith; with others: that they should search whether
there were three hosts lying upon a marble stone be-
sprinkled with blood, as was set forth in the papal bull
of indulgences to that altar ; and if they found it not so,
that immediately it should be plucked down. In search-
ing, as they brake up a stone in a corner of the tomb,
they, instead of three hosts, found soldered on the cross
of marble lying under the sepulchre, three plain white
counters, which theg had painted like hosts, and a bone
that is in the tip of a sheep's tail ! All which trumpery
Damlip chewed to the people on the next day, which was
Sunday, out of .the pulpit, and afterwards they were
sent by the lord deputy to tlie king.
Envy soon stirred up the prior of the White friars,
to bark against him. Yet, after Adam had confuted the
friar's erroneous doctrine of transubstantiation, and of
the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass ; the friar out-
wardly seemed to give place, ceasing openly to inveigh,
and secretly practised to impeach him by letters sent to
the clergy in England : so that, within eight or ten days
after, Damlip was sent for to appear before the arch-
bishop of Canterbury, with whom was Gardiner bishop
of Winchester, Sampson bishop of Chichester, and
others ; before whom be most constantly affirmed and
J
A.D. 1540—1547.] PERSECUTIONS IN CALAIS FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
605
defended the doctrine which he had taught, answering,
confuting, and solving the objections of his adversaries.
Then the bishops began to threaten to confute him
with their accustomed arguments, — fire and fagot, — if he
would still stand to the defence of what he had spoken.
Damlip answered, that he would on the next day deliver
fully in writing what he had said. On the morrow they
intended to have apprehended him, but he had secret
intimation from the archbishop of Canterljury, that if
he personally appeared, he would be committed toward,
and not likely then to escape death. He therefore sent four
sheets of pfiper learnedly written in the Latin tongue,
containing his faith and his arguments ; proofs from the
scriptures ; and allegations from the doctors. Which
done, he went into the west country, and there kept all
tlie time, while great trouble kindled against God's peo-
ple in Calais.
In the meantime, William Smith, a curate at Calais,
continued to preach the gospel against popery, as did
Champion and Garret, whom the king sent there to in-
struct the people, till at last God's enemies wrote to some
in Engluid, making grievous complaints to the lords of
the privy council, against some of the town of Calais,
affirming that they were horribly infected with heresies
and pernicious opinions.
A great persecution against many persons followed
this : and that the same may the better appear, we will
give a brief account of Ralph Hare, a man so unlearned
that he could scarce read ; yet through God's grace was
very zealous ; and therewith led so godly and temperate
a life, as not one of his enemies could accuse or blame
his sober life and conversation. He was charged as one
tliat had spoken against auricular confession, against
holy bread and holy water ; and that he was one who
would not lightly swear an oath ; nor engage in any
manner of pastime ; but was always in a corner by him-
self, looking on his book. This poor simple man being
charged by the commissioners, that he was a naughty
and erroneous man, was desired to take good heed to
himself, lest through obstinacy he turned his erroneous
oi)inions into plain heresy ; for au error defended is
heresy.
" My good lords," said the poor man, " I take God
to record, I would not willingly maintain any error or
heresy. Wherefore I beseech you let my accusers come
face to face before me. For if they charge me with that
which I have spoken, I will not deny it. Moreover, if
it be truth, I will stand to it ; and otherwise, if it be an
error, I will with all my heart utterly forsake it ; I mean
if it be against God's holy word, for the Lord is my
witness ; I seek and daily pray to God, that I may know
the truth, and flee from all errors ; and I trust the Lord
will save me and preserve me from them."
" Aha 1" said the bishop of Winchester, " do you not
hear what he saith, my lord ? I perceive now that thou
art a naughty fellow." "Alas, my lord," said Ralph
Hare, " what evil said I ?" " Marry sir, you said ' the
Lord, the Lord,' and that is a sign of a heretic," replied
Winchester. " What is that, my lord ? for God's sake
tell me," said Hare. " Thou art naught, thou art
naught," said he. At which words the simple man
began to tremble, and seemed much dismayed and
driven into a great agony and fear. Which Winchester
perceiving, said to him, " Ralph Hare, Ralph Hare, by
my troth, I pity thee much. For in good faith, I think
thee to be a good simple man, but thou hast had shrewd
and subtle schoolmasters, who have seduced thee, good
poor simple soul, and therefore I pity thee ; and it were
indeed a pity that thou shouldst be burnt ; for thou art
a good fellow, a tall man, and hast served the king right
■well in his wars. I have heard thee well commended,
and thou art yet able to do the king as good service as
ever thou wast ; and we all will be a means to his grace to
be a good gracious lord unto thee, if thou wilt take pity
on tliysclf, and leave thy errors. For I dare say for us
all that are commissioners, that we would be loath that
thou shouldst be cast away. For, alas I poor simple
man, we perceive thou hast been seduced by others.''
" How sayest thou, therefore, thou knowest my lord
of Canterbury is a good gentle lord, and would be loath
thou shouldst be cast away ? Tell me, canst thou be
content to submit thyself unto him, and to stand to such
order, as he and we shall take in this matter ? howr
sayest thou, man ? speak.'' The poor man falling upon
his knees, and shedding tears, answered, speaking to the
archbishop of Canterbury in this wise, " My good lord,
for Christ's sake be good unto me ; and 1 refer myself
unto your grace's order, to do with me what you please."
The archbishop of Canterbury, considering what dan-
ger he was ready to fall into, and pitying the same
(though the simplicity of the man was so great that he
])erceived it not) said, " Nay, Ralph Hares, stand up
and advise thyself, and commit not thyself to me, for I
am but one man, and in commission but as the others
are ; so that it lieth in me to do nothing. But if thou
do commit thyself to all, then thou committest thyself
to the laws ; and the law is ordained to do every man
right." " Go to, Ralph Hare," said Winchester, " sub-
mit thyself to my lord and us : it is best for thee to do
so." Whereupon he fell upon his knees again, and
said, '' My lords and masters all, I submit myself wholly
unto you." And therewith a book was held to him,
and an oath given him to be obedient to them and to all
ecclesiastical laws. And straightway he was enjoined
to abjure, and to bear a fagot three several days :
moreover, the poor man lost his whole living that he
had at Calais.
This simple man, on hearing his penance, at the first
earnestly refused to stand to it, and with piteous ex-
clamation, said, "O my lord of Winchester! my lord
of Winchester ! have you made me a log ready to be
laid upon the fire, whenever any wicked man of malice,
by provocation of the devil, shall falsely lay any small
trifle to my charge? Or shall I be thus handled, with
nothing proved to my face against me ? Alas, 1 have
always hated errors and heresies." " Content thyself,
Hare : there is now no remedy ; thou must either do
thy penance, or be burnt," said the commissioners.
The History of William Smith.
William Smith, curate of Our Lady parish, in Calais,
was called before them, and charged with the same errors
and opinions that were objected against Ralph Hare ;
and it was added, that he had spoken and preached
against our blessed Lady ; against praying to saints ;
against doing good works ; and many other such things :
and one Richard Long, a man-at-arms at Calais, proved
against Smith, and Brooke, by an oath taken upon a
book, that Smith and Brooke did eat flesh together in
Lent in Brooke's house. " For a miller's boy," said
he, " came into Brooke's kitchen and saw half a lamb
lying roasting at the fire." Whereas the truth is, that
William Smith, during all the time of Lent, never came
once within Brooke's house.
After all these things had taken place, the minds of
the adversaries were not yet satisfied ; but still suggested
new complaints to the king's ears against the town of
Calais ; making the king believe, that through new
opinions the town was so divided, that it was in great
danger. Whereupon, shortly after, commissioners were
sent over by the king to Calais, with special instructions
signed by the king's majesty's own hand. Upon their
arrival. Doctor Curain preached a notable sermon, ex-
horting all men to charity, having nothing in his mouth
but charity, charity. But as it seemed afterwards, such
a burning charity was in him and the rest of the com-
missioners, that, had not God pitied his innocent ser-
vants, there had been an hundred burnt or hanged
shortly after.
On the morrow, after the sermon, all the commis-
sioners solemnly received the sacrament : and at after-
noon the council assembled with the conmiissioners ;
and after their consultation, tipstaffs summoned above
fourscore persons to appear on the morrow at eight of
the clock before the council, who at their appearance,
were commanded upon their allegiance to present all
such heretics, schismatics, and seditious persons, as
they did know, and in no wise to doubt or dread to do
so ; for they should have great advantage thereby ; yea.
606
PERSECUTIONS IN CALAIS FOR THE SIX ARTICLES.
[Book VJU.
they should either have their livings or their goods ; and
besides that, they should have great thanks at the king's
majesty's hand, and his honourable council.
These things were not so secretly done but they were
betrayed, and came to honest men's knowledge. Where-
upon such fear and distrust overtook all men, that neigh-
bour distrusted neighbour, the master the servant, the
servant the master, the husband the wife, the wife tlie
husband, and almost every one the other, that it was
lamentable to see how mournful men and women went
in the streets, hanging down their heads, shewing evi-
dent tokens of the anguish of their hearts.
On the Wednesday in Easter week, sundry inquests
were charged on their oaths to make inquisition for all
manner of lieretics, erroneous opinions, and seditions :
as, an inquest of aldermen; another of men-at-arms, and
another of constables and vintners ; another of common
soldiers, and another of commoners. And shortly after
their presentments, on Good Friday, tliere were brought
before the commissioners, and straight were sent to
close prison, Anthony Pickering, gent., Henry Turner,
gent.. Sir George Dar.by, priest, John Slie])heard, Wil-
liam Pellam, William Keverdale, .lolin Whitwood, John
Boote, Robert Clodder, Coppen de llane, and Matthew
de Hound: concerning whom were sundry reports : some
said they would be hanged ; some said burnt ; some said
hanged, drawn and quartered ; some said nailed to the
pillory : so that it was pitiful to see the lamentation that
their wives, their cliildren, servants, and friends, madvj
secretly where they durst; for they found every where
words of discomfort, and no wliere of comfort.
William iitevens. after his return from London, be-
sides many other articles laid to him for religion to
the number of forty, was cliarged by the lord deputy,
that he had supported Adam Danilip, hired him to
preach, and had given him meat, drink, and lodging;
and then Hrooke was brought before tlie commissioners,
and committed to close prison in tlie mayor's gaol.
This kind of handling of Brooke made all his
*"riends, but esjiecially his wife, greatly afraid of the
malice of liis enemies: moreover, all his goods and lands
were seized, and his wife thrust into the meanest place
in all his house, with her children and family ; the keys
of all the doors and chests also taken from her. She
was rigorously treated at Sir Edward Kingley's hand,
controller of the town, saying to her, that if she liked
not the room, he would thrust her quite out of the doors.
" Well, sir," said she, " well, the king's slaugliter-house
was wronged when you were made a gentleman ;" and
with all speed she wrote a letter to the lord Cromwell,
therein discoursing liow hardly those jiooi- men were
handled, that were committed to ward and clo-e prison ;
and that all men feared (what through the malice of the
papistical enemies, and the great rigour and ignorant
zeal of those that were in authority) they should shortly
for their faith and consciences be put to death ; but
chiefly her husband, who was yet more extremely handled
than any other : So that unless his honour vouchsafed
to be a means to tiie king's majesty, that they with their
causes might be sent over to England, they were but dead
men.
Lord Cromwell immediately wrote to the commis-
sioners, declaring, that the king's majesty's jileasure
and commandment was, that the traitor and heretic
Brooke, with a dozen or twenty accomj)lices, should
with their accusers be immediately sent over, that here
in England they might receive their judgment, and there
at Calais, to the great terror of like offenders hereafter,
suffer according to their demerits.
Now by the time that the said commissioners had re-
ceived these letters, they had made out precepts for eight
or ninescore more honest men to be cast into prison.
But these letters so appalled them, that they stayed
and afterwards sent no more to prison ; making, however,
as diligent inquisition as was possible, to have found
some matter against them. They sent the thirteen pri-
soners through the market, Brooke going before with
irons on his legs, as the chief captain ; tlie rest follow-
ing him two and two without irons, till on shipboard, and
tLea they were all coupled in irorw two and two together.
When in the ship, because they were loath to go under
the hatches. Sir John Gage with a staff smote some of
them cruelly ; whereupon Anthony Pickering said to
him, " Sir, I beseech you be as good to us as you would
be to your horses or dogs ; let us have a little air that
we may not be smothered." Yet that request could
not be obtained, but the hatches were put down close,
and they guarded and kept with a great company of men;
and so sailing forward, by God's merciful providence,
were within four-and-twenty hours at anchor before
the Tower of London.
When the lord Cromwell understood they were come,
he commanded their irons to be smitten off at the Tower
wharf, and the prisoners to be brought unto him. When
he saw them, he smiled upon them, steadfastly beholding
each of them, and then said, " Sirs, you must take pains
for a time, and go your way to the Fleet, and submit
yourselves prisoners there, and shortly you shall know
more." So indeed they did ; and that evening he sent
them word to be of good cheer, for if God continued
him life, they should shortly go home with as much ho-
nour as they came with siiame.
While these thirteen persecuted men lay in the Fleet,
and William Stevens in the Tower, to wit the nineteenth
day of July, A.D. 1541, the lord Cromwell, for treasoul
laid against him, was beheaded at Tower-hill, as is be-
fore specified. Then had the poor Calais men great]
cause to fear, if they had not altogether depended on]
the merciful providence of their heavenly Father, whose]
blessed will they knew directed all things. But he in
the midst of these troubles and miseries so comforted
them, that even as their dangers and troubles increased, i
so likewise did their consolation and joy abound. Mat-
thew de Hound, one of these thirteen, who was in trou- 1
ble only because he heard Copen de Hall read a chapter I
of the New Testament, and was as deep in punishment,
and in banishment from his wife, children, and country,
as the rest, got in a short time such instruction, that
having his mind fraught with godly zeal unto God's
glory, and the true doctrine of Christ, within a few
months after his deliverance out of the Fleet, was
cruelly, in a most constant faith and patience, burned
in Flanders, for inveig'ning constantly against the wicked
honouring of images, and praying to departed saints.
Now when all hope in man was past, the right
honourable Lord Audley, lord chancellor of England,
without furtlier examination, discharged the thirteen
that were in the Fleet, and at length, two years after, he
released William Stevens also, by the king's own motion,
out of the Tower, saying at the discharging of those
thirteen, '• Sirs, pray for the king's majesty ; his plea-
sure is that you shall all be presently discharged. And
though your livings be taken from you, yet despair not,
God will not see you lack. But for God's sake, sirs,
beware how you deal with popish priests ; for, so God
save my soul, some of them be knaves. Sirs, I am
commanded by the council to tell you, that you are dis-
charged by virtue of the king's general pardon ; but that
pardon excepts and fortjids all sacramentaries, and the
most part, or all of you, are called sacramentaries :
therefore I cannot see how that pardon does you any
good. But pray for the king's highness, for his grace's
pleasure is that I should dismiss you, and so I do, and
pity you all. Farewell, Sirs."
So giving God most hearty thanks for his mighty and
merciful delivering of them, they departed.
T/ie Second Apprehension and Martyrdom of Adam
Darnlip.
Concerning Adam Darnlip, otherwise called George
Bucker, you heard before how he was called before the
bishops, and being secretly warned not to appear again
before the bishops, departed into the west country, and
there continued teaching a school about a year or two.
After that the good man was again apprehended by the
inquisition of the six articles, and brought up to Lon-
don, where he was sent to the Marshalsea, by Stephen
Gardiner, and there lay two years or thereabout.
During the imprisonment of this George in the Mar-
A.D. 1540—154".] THE PARLIAMENT MITIGATE THE SIX ARTICLES.
607
shalsea, John Marbeck also v.-as committed to the same
prison. The custom of that time required, that at
Easter every person must needs come to confession.
Whereupon Marheck, with the rest of the prisoners
there, was forced to come upon Easter-day to Adam
Damlip, who was then confessor to the whole house, to be
confessed. Bv this occasion John Marbeck, who had never
seen him before, entering into conference with him, per-
ceived who he was, what he had been, what troubles
lie sustained, and how long he had lain there in prison.
This Damlip; for honest and godly behaviour, was be-
loved of all the whole house ; but especially by the
keeper ; and being suffered to go at liberty within the
house, he did much good among the common sort of
prisoners, in rebuking vice and sin ; and kept them in
such good order that the keeper thought himself to have
a great treasure of him.
Now when he had drawn out an epistle to the bishop,
earnestly desiring to be brought to his examination, he
delivered it to the keeper, desiring him to deliver it at
the court to the bishop of Winchester ; and he did so.
The keeper came home at night very late, and when
the prisoners, who had tarried supper for his coming,
saw him so sad and heavy, they deemed something to
be amiss. At last the keeper, casting up his eyes upon
George, that is, Adam Damlip, said, " O George ! 1 can
tell thee tidings." "What is that. Master?" said he.
"Upon Monday next thou and I must go to Calais."
"To Calais, master! What to dor" " I know not,"
replied the keeper, and pulled out of his pocket a piece
of wax with a little parchment hanging thereat, which
seemed to be a precept. And when George saw it, he
said, " Well, well, now I know what the matter is."
"What?" said the keeper. "Truly I shall die in
Calais." "Nay," said the keeper, "I trust it be not
so." " Yes, yes, it is most true, and I praise God for
his goodness therein." And so the keeper and they
went together to supper, with heavy cheer for George,
as they called him ; who notwithstanding was merry
himself, and did eat his meat as well as ever he did in
all his life : so that some said to him, that they marvelled
how he could eat his meat so well, knowing he was so
near his death. " Ah, masters," said he, "do you think
that I have been God's prisoner so long in the Marshal-
sea, and have not yet learned to die ? Yes, yes, and I
doubt not but God will strengthen me therein."
And so on Monday, early in the morning, before day,
the keeper, with three of the knight marshal's servants,
conveyed Adam Damlip to Calais, and there committed
him to the mayor's prison. Upon which day John
Butler, the commissary, and Daniel the curate of St.
Peter's were also committed to the same prison, and
commandment given for no man to speak with
Butler.
Saturday next was the day of execution for Damlip.
The crime which first they laid to his cliarge, was heresy.
But because by an act of parliament all such offences,
done before a certain day, were pardoned, yet for re-
ceiving the money of Cardinal Pole, as you heard be-
fore, he was condemned of treason, and in Calais cruelly
put to death, being drawn, hanged, and quartered.
The day before his execution, there came to him Master
Mote, then parson of Our Lady church in Calais, saying,
" Your four quarters shall be hanged at four parts of the
town." " And where shall my head be ?" said Damlip.
" Upon the lantern gate," said Mote. Damlip an-
swered, "Then I shall not need to provide for my
buri:d." At his death. Sir R. Ellerker, knight, then
knight-marshal, would not suffer the innocent and godly
man to declare either his faith, or the cause he died for ;
but said to the executioner " Despatch the knave ; have
done."
Uod, a Scotchman, burned in Calais.
There was about this time a Scotchman, named Dod,
who, coming out of Germany, was taken with certain
German books about him, and being examined, and
standing constantly to the truth that he had learned,
was condemned to death, and biirned in Calais, within the
space of a year, or thereabout, after the other godly
martyr above mentioned.
During the time of these six articles, which brought
many good men to death, it happened by another act
for the king's supremacy, that the contrary sect of the
papists was not undisturbed. For, besides the death of
More, and the bishop of Rochester, and the Charter-
house monks, friars, and priests above specified, about
this year also was condemned and executed two others,
of whom one was a priest of Chelsea, named Lark, who
was put to death at London for defending the bishop oi'
Rome's supremacy above the king's authority : the
other was Germaine Gardiner (near kinsman to Ste-
phen Gardiner, and yet more near to his secret counsel,
as is supposed), who likewise in intriguing for the pope
against the king's jurisdiction, was taken and brought
to the gibbet.
Upon the detection of Germaine Gardiner, being
secretary to Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, his kins-
man, it seemed to some, and it was so insinuated to the
king, that (lermaine neither would nor durst attempt
any such matter of pojiery, without some setting on, or
consent of the bishop, he being so near to him, and ia
all his secrets : the king began somewhat to doubt the
bishop ; but yet Gardiner so managed matters, that he
kept ia favour with the king, to the great troubling of
the realm, and especially of Christ's church.
In the dreadful law of the six articles, a penalty was
appointed for the breach of the same, as treason and
felony, so that no recantation would serve. This seve-
rity was a little mitigated by another parliament, A.D.
1544, by which it was decreed, that such offenders as
were convicted for the first time should recant and re-
nounce their opinions ; and if the party refused to re-
cant in such form as should be laid by his ordinary, or
after his recantation if he soon offended again, then for
the second time he should abjure and bear a fagot.
Which if he refused to do, or else, being abjured, if he
a third time offended, then he was to sustain punish-
ment according to the law, &c. Although the straight-
ness and rigour of the former act was thus somewhat
tempered, yet the venom and poison of the errors of
those articles remained still. By the last-mentioned
parliament, moreover, many things were provided for
the advancement of popery, under the colour of re-
ligion ; so that all manner of books of the Old and New
Testament, bearing the name of William Tindal, or any
others having prologues, or containing any matters, an-
notations, preambles, words or sentences, contrary to
the six articles, were prohibited. In like manner all
songs, plays and interludes, with all other books in
English, containing matter of religion, tending any way
against the six articles, were prohibited.
It was moreover provided, that the text of the New
Testament, or of the Bible, being prohibited to all
women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-
men, yeomen, husbandmen, and labourers ; yet was per-
mitted to noblemen, and gentlemen, and gentlewomen,
to read and peruse, to their edifying, provided they did
it quietly without arguing, discussing, or expounding
upon the scripture.
Besides this, where, before, the offender or defendant
might not be suffered to bring in any witnesses to clear
himself ; in this parliament it was permitted to the
party detected, or complained of, to try his cause by
witnesses, as many, or more in number, as the others
who deposed against him, &c.
By these and other qualifications of the six articles, it
may appear that the king began to disfavour Gardiner,
and to discountenance his doings, by which he was the
more forward to further the desolate cause of religion,
as may appear by other provisions of the parliament,
A.D. 1545, wherein it was decreed by an act, that the
king should have full power and authority to appoint
thirty-two persons, to wit, sixteen of the clergy, and
sixteen of the temporalty, to peruse, over-see, and
examine the canons, constitutions, and ordinances of the
canon law, as well provincial as synodal ; and so, ac-
cording to their discretions, to set and establish an
K R
EXAMINATION OF KERBY AND KOGER CLARKE, MARTYRS, [Book YllF.
608
order of the ecclesiastical laws, such as should be
thought by the kiu^ and them convenient to be re-
ceived and used within this realm. Which statute, as
it is most needful for the government of the church of
England, so, would God it had been brought to per-
fection !
Kerby, and Roger Clarke, of Suffolk, Martyrs.
Coming now to the year 1546, first noticing the
priest, whose name was Saxy, who was hanged in the
porter's lodge of Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winches-
ter, and that, as it is sup])osed, not without the con-
sent of the bishop and tlie secret conspiracy of that
bloody generation ; also one Henry with his servant,
burned at Colchester ; I will proceed to the history of
Kerhy, and Roger Clarke of Mendelsham, who were
apprehended at Ipswich, A.D. 154'), and brought be-
fore the lord Wentworth, with other commissioners,
appoint.'d there to sit upon their examinations.
In the meantime, Kerby and Rogers being in the
gaoler's house, there came in Master Robert Wingfield
with Master Bruess, of Wenneham ; who having con-
ference with Kerby, Master Wingfield said to Kerby,
" Remember, the fire is hot ; take heed of thine enter-
prise, that thou take no more upon thee than thou shalt
be able to perform. The terror is great, the pain will
be extreme, and life is sweet. Better it were to stick to
mercy, while there is hope of life, than rashly to begin,
and then to shrink," with such like words of persua-
sion. To whom he answered again, " Ah, Master
Wingfield, be at my burning, and you shall say, there
standeth a christian soldier in the fire : for I know that
fire and water, sword, and all other things, are in the
hands of God ; and he will suffer no more to be laid
upon us than he will give strength to bear." — " Ah,
Kerby." said Master Wingfield, "if thou be at that
point, I will bid thee farewell ; for I promise thee I am
not so strong that I am able to burn." And so both
the gentlemen saying that they would pray for them,
ghook hands with them, and departed.
When Kerby and Clarke came to the judgment-seat,
the lord Wentworth, with all the rest of the justices,
were there already ; the commissary also, by virtue of
the statute, ex-offirin, sitting next to the lord Went-
worth, Kerby and Clarke lifted up their eyes and hands
to heaven with great devotion, making their prayers
secretly to God.
That done, their articles were declared to them with
all circumstances of the law : and then it was demanded
and required of them, whether they believed, that after
the words spoken by a priest (as Christ spoke them to
his apostles) there were not the very body and blood of
Christ, flesh, blood, and bone, as he was born of the
Virgin Mary, and no bread after.
To which words they answered and said, No, they did
not so believe ; but that they did believe the sacrament
which Christ Jesus did institute at his last supper, was to
put all men in remembrance of his precious death and
blood-shedding for the remission of sins, and that there
was neither flesh nor blood to be eaten with the teeth,
but bread and wine, and yet more than bread and wine,
for that it is consecrated to an holy use. Then with
much persuasions, both with fair means and threats be-
side, were these two poor men hardly treated. But they
continued both faithful and constant, choosing rather to
die than to live, and so continued to the end.
Then sentence was given upon them both, Kerby to
be burned in the town on the next Saturday, and Clarke
to be burned at Bury the Monday after. Kerby, when
his judgment was given by the lord Wentworth, with
most humble reverence holdmg up his hands and bowing
himself devoutly, said, " Praised be Almighty God!"
and so stood still without any more words.
The next day, about ten of the clock, Kerby was
brought to the market-place, where a stake was ready,
and wood, broom, and straw, and put off his clothes to
his shirt, having a night-cap upon his head, and so was
fastened to the stake with irons ; there being in the gal-
lery the lord Wentworth. with the most of the jus-
tices of those parts, where they might see his execution,
how everytiiing should be done, and might hear what
Kerby would say ; and also a great number of people,
about two thousand. There was also standing in the
gallery by the lord Wentworth, Doctor Rugham, who
was once a monk of Bury, and sexton of the house,
having on a surplice and a stole about his neck.
All this while Kerby was being compassed with irons
and faggots, broom and straw, nothing changing in
countenance, but with a most meek spirit glorifying God.
Then Doctor Rugham preached upon the sixth cliapter
of St. John ; and in handling his text, as often as he
alleged the scriptures, and applied them rightly, Kerby
told the people that he said true, and bade the people
believe him. But when he did otherwise, he said, " You
say not true, believe him not, good people." Upon
which the voice of the people judged Doctor Rugham to
be a false prophet. So when he had ended, he said to
Kerby, " Thou good man, dost not thou believe that
the blessed sacrament of the altar is the very flesh and
blood of Christ, and no bread, even as he was born of
the Virgin Mary?" Kerby answering boldly, said, "I
do not so believe." " How doest thou believe .'" said
the Doctor. Kerby said, "I do believe that in the
sacrament that Jesus Christ instituted at his last supper,
is his death, and passion, and bloodshedding for the re-
demption of the world, to be remembered, and (as I said
before) yet bread, and more than bread, for it is conse-
crated to a holy use."
Then said the undersheriff to Kerby, " Hast thou any-
thing more to say ?" " Yea, Sir," said he, " if you will
give me leave.'' " Say on," said the sheriff".
Then Kerby, taking his night-cap from his head, put
it under his arm, as though it should have done him ser-
vice again : but remembering himself, he cast it from
him, and lifting up his hands, he said the hymn, " We
praise thee, O God," &c., and the creed, with other
prayers in the English tongue. The lord Wentworth,
while Kerby was doing thus, concealed himself behind one
of the posts of the gallery, and wept, and so did many
others. Then said Kerby, " I have done : you may execute
your office, good Mr. Sheriff"." Then fire was set to the
wood, and with a loud voice he called unto God, knock-
ing on his breast, and holding up his hands so long as A
his remembrance would serve, and so ended his life, the Jl
people giving shouts, and praising God with great ad-
miration of his constancy.
On Monday, about ten o'clock, Roger Clarke was
brought out of prison, and went on foot to the gate,
called Southgate, in Bury, and by the way the proces-
sion of the host met them ; but he went on, and would J
not bow cap, nor knee, but with most vehement words 9
rebuked that idolatry and superstition, the officers being
much off'ended. Without the gate, where was the place
of execution, the stake being ready, and the wood
lying by, he came and kneeled down, and said, " My
soul doth magnify the Lord," &c., in English, making
as it were a paraphrase upon the same, wherein he de-
clared how that the blessed Virgin Mary, who might as
well rejoice in pureness, as any other, yet humbled her-
self to our Saviour. " And what sayest thou, John Bap-
tist," said he, "the greatest of all men's children?
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world." And thus with a loud voice he cried to the
people, while he^ was being fastened to the stake, and
then the fire was set to him, where he suffered pains un-
mercifully ; for the wood was green, and would not
burn, so that he was choked with smoke ; and moreover,
being set in a pitch barrel, he was sorely pained, till he
had got his feet out of the barrel. And at length one
standing by, took a fagot-stick, and striking at the
ring of iron about his neck, happened to hit him upon
the head, so that he sunk down into the fire, and so was
dispatched.
This year also it was ordained and decreed, and
solemnly given out in proclamation by the king's name
and authority, and his council, that the English proces-
sion should be used throughout all England, according
as it was set forth by his council, and none other, to ba
used throughout the whole realm.
A.D. 1540—1547.]
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW.
609
About the latter end of this year 1545, in the month
of November, after the king had subdued the Scots, and
joining together with the emperor, had invaded France,
and got from them the town of Boulogne, he summoned
his high court of parliament, la which was granted to
him, besides other subsidies of money, all colleges,
chantries, free chapels, hospitals, fraternities, brother-
hoods, guilds and perpetviities of stipendiary priests, to
be disposed of at his will and pleasure. Whereupon in
December following, the king, after his wonted manner,
came into the parliament-house to give his royal assent
to such acts as were passed ; where, after an eloquent
oration made to him by the speaker, he answered again
not by the lord chancellor (as the manner was) but by
i himself. In which oration, first eloquently and lovingly
] he declared his grateful heart to his loving subjects for
I their grants and supplies offered to him. In the second
part, wiih no less veheniency he exhorts them to con-
I cord, peace, and unity. Whereto if he had also joined
J the third jiart, that is, as in words he exhorts to unity,
eo he had himself first begun to take away the occasion
(if division, disobedience, and disturbance from his sub-
jcrts, that is, had removed the stumbling-block of the
six articles out of the people's way, which set brother
ai;,iiust biother, neighbour against neighbour, the supe-
rior against the subject, and the wolves to devour the
jHior flock of Christ ; then he had not only spoken, but
also done like a worthy prince.
When these chantries and colleges thus by act of par ■
liament were given into the king's hands in December,
1.') 15, the Lent following. Doctor Crome, preaching in
Hit; Mercer's cliapel, among other reasons and per-
suasons to rouse the peojjle from the vain opinion of
purgatory, argued thus : that if trentals and chantry
masses could avail souls in purgatory, then the parlia-
iiKiit did not act well in giving away monasteries, col-
li ;;es, and chantries, which served principally to that
purpose. But if the parliament did well (as no man
rould deny) in dissolving them, and bestowing the same
vjion the king, then it is plain, that such chantries and
]irivate masses do nothing to relieve those in purgatory.
'i'liis dilemma of Doctor Crome, no doubt, was unan-
sv.erable. But still the charitable prelates, notwith-
standing the king's e.xhortation to charity, were so cha-
ritable to him, that on Easter they so handled him, that
tiiey made him recant. And if he had not, they would
have dissolved him and his argument in burning fire, so
' burning hot was their charity, according as they did
i Anne Askew and her companions in the month of July
i the year following. Whose tragical history and cruel
handling now, the Lord willing, you shall hear.
I The first cxamivation of Mrs. Anne Askew, lefore the
I Inrjuisitors, A.D. 1545.
" To satisfy your expectation, good people," said she,
" this was my first examination in the year of our Lord,
1545, and in the month of March.
"1. Christopher Dare examined me at Sadler's Hall,
and asked, if I did not believe that the sacrament hang-
jing over the altar was the very body of Christ really.
IThen I asked this question of him in return: ' Where-
fore was St. Stephen stoned to death .'' and he said,
I' He could not tell.' Then I answered, ' That no more
; would I answer his question.'
" 2. He said that there was a woman who testified
that I read how God was not in temples made with
[hands. Then 1 shewed him the seventh and seventeenth
(chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, what St. Stephen
land St. Paul had said there. Upon which he asked me
jhow I understood those sentences? I answered; 'I
'would not throw pearls amongst swine, for acorns were
i^dod enough.'
■' '.\. He asked me why I said I had rather read five lines
in tlie Bible, than hear five masses in the temple : I con-
tc,-.-ed that I said so ; not for the dispraise of either the
ejiistle or the gospel, but because the one did greatly
jedify me, and the other nothing at all. As St. Paul
isays in the fourteenth chapter of his first epistle to the
[Corinthians : ' If the trumpet give an unccrtsdn sound,
jwho will prepare himself to the battle ?'
" 4. He laid to my charge, that I said, ' If a bad
priest ministered, it was the devil, and not God.' My
answer was, that I never spake any such thing. But
this was my saying ; ' That whoever he were that minis-
tered to me, his ill conditions could not hurt my faith,
but in spirit I received nevertheless the body and blood
of Christ.'
" 5. He asked me what I said concerning confession :
I answered him, that my meaning was as St. James
saith, ' That every man ought to acknowledge his faults
to others, and pray one for the other.'
" (J. He asked me what I said about the king's book ?
And I answered him, that I could say nothing about it,
because I never saw it.
" 7; He asked me if I had the Spirit of God in me : I
answered, I had not. I was but a reprobate or cast-
away. Then he said he had sent for a priest to examine
me, who was here at hand.
" The priest asked me what I said to the sacrament of
the altar, and required much to know my meaning.
But I desired him again to hold me excused concerning
that matter : no other answer would I make him, be-
cause I perceived him to be a papist.
" 8. He asked me, if I did not think, that private
masses helped the souls departed : I said, ' It was great
idolatry to believe more in them, than in the death that
Christ died for us.'
" Then they brought me to my lord mayor, and he ex-
amined me, as they had before, and I answered him di-
rectly in all things as I answered before. Besides this,
my loid mayor laid one thing to my charge, which was
never spoken by me, but by them; and that was,
whether a mouse, eating the host, received God or not .'
This question 1 never asked, but they asked it of me ;
and I made them no answer, but smiled.
" Then the bishop's chancellor rebuked me, and said
that 1 was much to blame for uttering the scriptures.
' For St. Paul,' he said, ' forbade women to speak or to
talk of the word of God.' I answered him that I knew
Paul's meaning as well as he, which is in the 1 Corin-
thians xiv., that a woman ought not to speak in the con-
gregation in the way of teaching : and then I asked him
how many women he had seen go into the pulpit and
preach ? lie said he never saw any. Then I said, he
ought to find no fault in poor. women, except they ha.\
offended the law.
" Then the hu'd mayor commanded me to prison :
I asked him if sureties would not serve me ; and he
made me a short answer, that he would take none. Then
was I taken to the Compter, and there remained eleven
days, no friend being admitted to speak with me. But
in the meantime there was a priest sent to me, who said
that he was commanded by the bishop to examine me,
and to give me good counsel. He first asked me for
what cause I was put in the Compter, and I told him I
could not tell. Then he said, it was a great pity that I
should be there without cause, and concluded that he-
was very sorry for me.
" 2. He said it was told him that 1 denied the sacra-
ment of the altar. And I answered again, ' That which
I have said, I have said '
" 3. He asked me if I were content to be confessed
and absolved. I told him, that if I might have one of
these three. Doctor Crome, William Whitehead, or
Huntington, I was contented, because I knew them to
be men of wisdom.
" 4. He asked, if the host should fall, and a beast did
eat it, whether the beast received God or not ? I an-
swered ; ' Seeing that you have taken the pains to ask
the question, I desire you to answer it yourself; for I
will not do it, because I perceive you come to tempt me.'
And he said it was against the order of schools, that he
who asked the question should answer it. I told him I
was but a woman, and knev/ nothing of the order of
schools.
" 5. He asked me if I intended to receive the sacra-
ment at Easter, or not ? I answered, that otherwise I
were no christian woman ; and I rejoiced that the time
was so near at hand. And then he departed with many
fair words.
R R 2
a»
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW.
[Book VIII.
"The twenty, third day of March, my cousin Britain
came to the Compter to me, and asked me whether 1
might be put to bail, or not ? Then he went immedi-
ately to my lord mayor, desiring him that I might be
bailed. My lord answered him, and said that he would
be glad to do the best that in him lay. However he
could not bail me, without the consent of a spiritual offi-
cer, requiring him to go and speak with the chancellor
of London. For he said, that as he could not commit
me to prison without the consent of a spiritual officer,
no more could he bail me without the consent of the
same.
" So he went to the chancellor. lie answered him,
that the matter was so heinous, that he durst not of
himself do it without my lord of London were made
privy thereunto. But he said he would speak unto my
lord in it, and bade him repair to him on the morrow, and
he should then know my lord's pleasure. And upon the
morrow he came thither, and spake both witli the chan-
cellor, and with the bishop of London. The bishop de-
clared to him that he was very well contented tliat I
should come forth to communication, and appointed me
to appear before him the next day at three of tlie o'clock
at afternoon. Moreover, he said to him, that he wi-hed
there should be at the examination such learned men as
I was partial to, that they might see, and rei)ort that I
was handled with no rigor. He answered him, that he
knew no man that I had more affection to than to another.
Then said the bishop ; ' Yes, as I understand, she is
partial to Crome, Whitehead, and Huntington, that they
might hear the matter, for she knew them to be learned,
and of a godly judgment.' Also, he required my Cousin
Britain, that he should persuade me to utter even the
very bottom of my heart ; and he sware by his fidelity,
that no man should take any advantage of my words,
neither yet would he lay aught to my charge for any
thing that I should there speak.
" On the morrow, the bishop of London sent for me at
one o'clock, his hour being appointed at three ; and as I
came before him, he said he was very sorry for my trouble,
and desired to know my opinions in such matters as were
laid against me. He required me also to utter the se-
crets of my heart, bidding me not to fear in any point,
for whatever I did say in his house, no man should hurt
me for it. I answered, ' As your lordship appointed
three of the clock, and my friends will not come till that
hour, I desire you to pardon me of giving answer till
they come.' 'fhen he said that he thought it meet to
send for those men. Then I desired him not to put
them to trouble, because the two gentlemen who were
my friends, were able enough to testify what I should
say. He commanded his archdeacon to commune with
me, who said to me, ' Mistress, wherefore are you accused
ami thus troubled here before the bishop ." To whom I
answered : ' Sir, ask, I pray you, my accusers, for I know
not as yet.' Then he took my book out of my hand, and
said, ' Such books as this have brought you to tlie trou-
ble that you are in. ' Beware,' said he ; ' beware, for
he that wrote this book, was a heretic, I warrant you,
and burned in Smithlield.' And then I asked him if
he were certain and sure that that was true that he had
spoken. And he said he knew well the book was by
John Frith. Then I asked him if he were not ashamed
to judge of the book before he saw it. I said also, that
such unadvised hasty judgment is a token of a very slen-
der knowledge. Then I opened the book and shewed it
him. He said he thought it had been another, for he
could find no fault therein. Then I desired him to be
no more so unadvisedly rash and swift in judgment, till
he thoroughly knew the truth, and so he departed from
me. Immediately after came my Cousin Britain, with
others, as Master Hall of Gray's Inn, and others.
Then my lord bishop of London said to me, that he
wished I should take the counsel of such as were my
friends and well-wishers, which was, that I should utter
all things that burdened my conscience ; for he assured
me, that I need not fear to say any thing. For, as he
had promised then, he promised me, and would per-
form it ; which was, that neither he, nor any man for liim
ghould take advantage of me for any word that I should
speak, and therefore be bade me say my mind withoutfear.
1 answered him, that I had nought to say, for my con-
science, I thanked God, was burdened with nothing.
" Then he brought forth this unsavory similitude;
that if a man had a wound, no surgeon would cure it be-
fore he had seen it. 'In like manner,' saith he, ' I can
give you no good counsel, unless I know wherewith your
conscience is burdened.' 1 answered, that my consci-
ence was clear in all things, and to lay a plaster unto
the whole skin, appeared much folly.
" ' Then you drive me,' saith he, ' to lay to your charge
your own report, which is this ; you said, that he that
receives tlie sacrament by the hands of an ill priest, or a
sinner, receives the devil, and not God.' To that I an-
swered, that ' 1 never spake such words. But, as 1 said
before, botli to the inquest and to my lord mayor, so say
I now again, that the wickedness of tlie pnest should
not hurt me, but in spirit and faith I received no less
than the body and blood of Christ.' Then said the bi-
shop to me, ' What is this in xpirit ? I will not take
you at the advantage.' Then 1 answered : ' My lord,
without faith and spnit, I cannot receive him worthily.'
" Tlien he told uie, that 1 had said that the sacrament
remaining in the pix, was but bread. I answered, that
I never said so, but that indeed the inquest asked me
such a question, and I would not answer it, I said, till
such a time as they had answered me this question of
mine : wherefore was Stephen stoned to ueath ? They
said they knew not. Then said 1 again, no more would
I tell them what it was.
" Then said my lord to me, that I alleged a certain
text of the scriptures, and I answered that I alleged none
other but St. Paul's own saying to the Athenians, in the
eighteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, ' That
God dwelleth not in temples made with hands.' Then
he asked me what my faith and belief was in that mat-
ter .'' I answered him, ' I believe as the scripture teaches
me.'
" Then he inquired of me, ' WTiat if the scripture
says, that it is the body of Christ? ' I believe,' said I,
' as the scripture teaches me.' Then he asked again,
' What if the scripture says that it is not the body of
Christ .■■' My answer was still, ' I believe as the scrip-
ture informs me.' And upon this he tarried a great
while, to drive me to make him an answer to his own
mind. However, I would not, but concluded with him,
that I believed therein and in all other things, as Christ
and his apostles left them.
" Then he asked me why I had so few words ? And I
answered, ' God has given me the gift of knowledge, but
not of utterance : and Solomon saith, That a woman of
few words is the gift of God.'
" Fifthly, my lord laid to my charge, that I said that
the mass was superstitious, wicked, arid no better than
idolatry. I answered him, ' No, I said not so. How-
ever 1 said the inquest did ask me whether private mass
did relieve souls dejiarted or not ? To whom I answered,
O Lord, vi'hat idolatry is this, that we should rather be-
lieve in private masses than in the healthsome death of
the dear iJon of God !' Then said my lord again, ' What
an answer is thatl' 'Though it be but mean,' said I,
' yet it is good enough for the question.'
" Then I told my lord, that there was a priest who
heard what I said there before my lord mayor and
them. With that the chancellor answered, ' Who was.
the same priest?' 'So she spake it in very deed,*
saith the priest, ' before my lord mayor and me.'
" Then were there certain priests, as Dr. Standish
and others, who tempted me much to know my mind.
And I answered them always thus ; ' What I said to
my lord of London, I have said.' Then Dr. Standish
desired my lord to bid me say my mind concerning
the text of St. Paul, that I, being a woman, should
interpret the scriptures, especially where there were so
many wise and learned men.
" Then my lord of London said, he was informed
that one asked of me, if 1 would receive the sacra-
ment at Easter, and that I made a mock of it.
" Then I desired that mine accuser might come
forth, which my lord would not. But he said again
A.D. 1540—1547.]
THE EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW.
611
to me,«' I sent one to give you good counsel, and at
the first word you called him papist.' That I denied
not, for I perceived he was no less.
•" Then he rebuked me, and said that I reported,
that there were against me threescore priests at Lin-
coln. ' Indeed,' quoth I, ' I said so. For my friends
told me, if I came to Lincoln, the priests would as-
sault me and put me to great trouble : and when I
heard it, I went there indeed, not being afraid, because
I knew my cause to be good. Moreover I remained
there nine days, to see what would be said to me.
And as I was in the minster reading the Bible, they
resorted to me by two and two, by five and by six,
to have spoken to me, yet they went their ways again
without speaking.'
" Then my lord asked if there were not one that did
speak to me. I told him ' Yes, that there was one of
them at last who did speak to me.' And my lord then
asked nie what he said ' I told him his words were
of small effect, so that I did not now remember them.
Then said my lord ' There are many that read and
know the scripture, and yet follow it not.' I said
again, ' My lord, I would wish that all men knew my
conversation and living in i/A points ; for I am sure,
myself, this hour, that there are none able to prove
any dishonesty by me. If you know that any can do
it, I pray you bring them forth.' Then my lord went
away, and said he would write somewhat of my mean-
ing, and so he wrote a great deal. But what it was
I have not in my memory : for he would not suffer me
to have the copy. Only I remember this small por-
tion of it :
" ' Be it known, of all men, that I, Anne Askew, do
confess this to be my faith and belief, notwithstanding
many reports made to the contrary. I believe that
they who receive the sacrament at the hands of a priest,
whether his conversation be good or not, do receive
the body and blood of Christ in substance really. Also
I do believe, that after the consecration, whether it
be received or reserved, it is no less than the very
body and blood of Christ in substance. Finally, I do
believe in this and in all other sacraments of holy
church in all points, according to the old catholic
faith of the same. In witness whereof, I the said Anne
have subscribed my name.'
" There was somewhat more in it, which, because I
had not the copy, I cannot now remember. Then he
read it to me, and asked me if I agreed to it. And
I said again, ' I believe so much of it, as the holy
scripture agrees to : wherefore I desire you, that you
will <add that to it.' Then he answered, that I should
not teach him what he should write. With that he
went into his great chamber and read it before the
audience, who wished me to set my hand to it, saying,
that 1 had favour shewed me. Then s .id the bishop,
' I might thank others, and not myself, for the favour
that I found at his hand : for he considered, that I
had good friends, and also that I came of a worship-
ful stock.'
" Then answered one Christopher, a servant to Mas-
tet Denny T ' Rather ought you, my lord, to have done
it for God's sake than for man's.' Then my lord sat
dbwn, and I wrote after this manner : ' I Anne Askew,
do believe all manner of things contained in the faith
of the catholic church.'
" Then because I added to it ' the catholic church,'
he ran into his chamber in a great fury. With that,
my cousin Britain followed, desiring him for God's sake
to be a good lord to me. He answered, that I was a
woman, and that he was nothing deceived in me. Then
my cousin Britain desired him to take me as a woman,
and not to set my weak woman's wit to his lordship's
great wisdom.
" Then Dr. Weston went in to him, and said, that
the cause why I wrote there ' the catholic church,' was,
that I understood not the church written before. So
with much ado they persuaded my lord to come out
again, and to take my name, with the names of my sure-
ties, which were my cousin Britain and Master Spilman
of Gray's Inn,
" Tliis being done, we thought that I should have
been put to bail immediately, according to the order
of the law. Howbeit he would not suffer it, but com-
mitted me from thence to prison again until the
morrow, and then he desired me to appear in the guild
hall, ami so I did. Notwithstanding they would not put
me to bail there neither, but read the bishop's writing to
me, as before, and so commanded me again tOiprison.
Then were my sureties appointed to come before them
on the morrow, in St. Paul's church, who did so.
Notwithstanding, they would once again have broken off
with them, because they would not be bound also for
another woman at their pleasure, whom they knew not,
nor yet what matter was laid to her charge. Notwith-
standing at last, after much ado and reasoning to and
fro, they took a bond of them of recognizance for my
forthcoming : and thus I was at the last delivered.
" Written by me, Anne Askew."
T/ie second Apprehension and Evamination of the worthy
Martyr of God, Mintrems Anne Ankew, A.D. 1546.
" 1 do perceive, (dear friend in the Lord) that thou art
not yet persuaded thoroughly in the truth, concerning
the Lord's supper, because Christ said to his apostles ;
' Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you.'
" In giving forth the bread as an outward sign or
token received with the mouth, he wishes them in per-
fect belief to receive that body which should die for the
people, and to think the death thereof to be the only
health and salvation of their souls. The bread and wine
were left us for a sacramental communion, or a mutual
participation of the inestimable benefits of his most pre-
cious death and bloodshedding, and that we should be
thankful together for that most necessary grace of our
redemption. For he said, ' This is my body, which is
given for you ; this do in remembrance of me.' Luke
xxii. 9. Again, ' As often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.'
1 Cor. xi. 26. Otherwise we should have been forgetful
of what we ought to have in daily remembrance, and also
have been altogether unthankful for it ; therefore it is
meet that in our prayers we call unto God to graft in our
hearts the true meaning of the Holy Ghost concerning
this communion. For St. Paul saith, ' The letter kill-
eth ; but the spirit giveth life.' 2 Cor. iii. 6. Mark
well the sixth chapter of John, where all is applied to
faith : note also the fourth chapter of St. Paul's second
Epistle to the Corinthians, and in the end you shall find,
that the things which are seen are temporal, but they
that are not seen are eternal. Yea, look in the third
chapter to the Hebrews, and ye shall find that Christ as
a Son (and no servant) ruleth over his house, whose
house are we, and not the dead temple, if we hold fast
the confidence and rejoicing of our hope to the end.
Wherefore, as said the Holy Ghost, ' To-day, if ye will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts,' &c. Ps. xcv.
" Your request as concerning my fellow-prisoners, I
am not able to satisfy, because I heard not their exami-
nations. But the effect of mine was this : Being asked
before the council concerning Master Kyme, I answer-
ed, that my lord chancellor knew already my mind in
that matter. They with that answer were not content-
ed, but said it was the king's pleasure that I should open
the matter to them. I answered them plainly, I would
not do so ; but if it were the king's pleasure to hear me,
I would shew him the truth. Then they said it was not
meet for the king to be troubled with me. I answered,
that Solomon was reckoned the wisest king that ever
lived, yet he refused not to hear two poor common
women, much more his grace a simple woman and his
faithful subject. So in conclusion, I made them no
other answer in that matter. Then my lord chancellor
asked me mv opinion of the sacrament. My answer was
this : ' I believe that as often as I in a christian congre-
gation do receive the bread in remembrance of Christ's
death, and with thanksgiving, according to his holy in-
stitution, I received therewith tha fruits also of his most
glorious passion.' The bishop of Winchester bade me
make a direct answer. I said 1 would not smg a ne«r
612
THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF ANNE ASKEW.
[Book VIII.
song of the Lord in a strange land. Then the bishop
said I spoke in parables. I answered, ' It is best for
you, for if 1 shew you the open truth, you will not ac-
cept it.' Then he said 1 was a parrot. I told him
again, I was ready to suffer all things at his hands, not
only his rebukes, but all that should follow besides, yea,
and all things gladly.
" Tken I had rebukes from the council, because I
would not express my mind in all things as they would
have me. But they were not, in the mean time, un-
answered for all that, which now to rehearse were too
much, for 1 was with them there about five hours.
" The next day I was brought again before the coun-
cil. Then they would needs kiiovv- of me what I said to
the sacrament. I answered, that I already liad said
what I could say. Then after many words tliey bade me
go aside. Then came my lord Lisle, my lord of Essex,
and the bishop of Winchester, requiring me earnestly
that I should confess the sacrament to be flesh, l)lood,
and bone. Then I said to my lord Parr, and my lord
Lisle, that it was a great shame for them to give counsel
contrary to their knowledge.
"Then the bishop said he would speak with me fa-
miliarly. T said, vSo did Judas, when he betrayed
Christ. The bishop desired to speak with me alone ;
but I refused that. He asked me why ? I said, that
i'l the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter should
be established, after Christ's and Paul's doctrine. Matt,
xviii., 2 Cor. xiii.
" Then my lord chancellor began to examine me
again of the sacrament. I asked him how long he would
halt on both sides. Then he went his way. The bishop
said I should be burnt. I answered, ' Tliai I had searched
all the scriptures, yet I never find that either Christ or
his apostles put any creature to death. Well, well,' said
I, ' God will laugh your threatenings to scorn.' Then
was I commanded to stand aside, and Dr. Cox, and Dr.
Robinson came to me. In conclusion, we could not
agree.
" Then they made me a bill of the sacrament, desiring
me to set my hand to it ; but I would not. Then on
the Sunday I was sick, thinking no less than to die.
Then I desired to speak with Master Latimer, but it was
not allowed. Tlien I was sent to Newgate in the ex-
tremity of sickness ; for in all my life before I was
never in such pain. Thus may the Lord strengthen us
in the truth. Pray, pray, pray !
The Confession of me, Anne Askew, for the time I was
in Newyate, concerning my Belief.
" I find in scripture that Christ took the bread and
gave it to his disciples, saying, ' Take, eat, this is my
body which is broken for you,' meaning in substance,
his own very body, the bread being the sign or sacra-
ment of it. For after like manner of speaking he
said he would break down the temple, and in three
days build it up again, signifying by the temple his own
body, as St. John declares it, John ii. 21 ; and not
the stony temple itself. So that the bread is but a
remembrance of his death, or a sacrament of thanks-
giving for it ; whereby we are knit to him by a commu-
nion of christian love, although there are many that
raimot perceive the true meaning of it ; for the veil that
Moses put over his face before the children of Israel,
that they should not see the clearness thereof ; (Exod.
xxiv., and 2 Corinth, iii.) ; I perceive the same veil re-
maineth to this day. But when God shall take it away,
then shall these blind men see. For it is plainly ex-
pressed in the history of Bel in the bible, that God
dwells in no thing material. ' O king,' says Daniel,
' be not deceived, for God will be in nothing that is
made with hands of men.' ' Ye stiffnecked and uncir-
cumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye.' Acts vii. 51.
"Written by me, Anne Askew, that neither
wishes death, nor fears his might, and as joyful
as one that is bound towards heaven."
"Truth is laid in prison, Luke xxi. The law is
turned to wormwood, Amos vi. And there can no right
judgment go forth, Isa. lix.
" Take away all iniquity, and receive us graeiously :
so will we render the calves of our lips. Neither will we
say any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods:
for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." Hosea xiv. 2;'.i.
" Oh if they will do this, saith the Lord, I will
heal their backsliding ; I will love them freely.' And
' Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more
with idols ? I have heard him and observed him : I am
like a green fir-tree ; from me is thy fruit found. Who
is wise, and he shall understand these things ? pru-
dent, and he shall know them ? for the ways of the
Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them : but the
transgressors shall fall therein." Hosea xiv. 8, 9.
" ' Solomon,' saith St. Stephen, 'built an house for
the God of Jacob. Howbeit the Most High dwelleth
not in temples made with hands ; as saith the prophet,
Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool : what
house will ye build me ? saith the Lord : or what is the
place of my rest ? Hath not my hand made all these
things." Acts vii. 48 — 50.
" ' Woman beheve me,' saith Christ to the Samari-
tan, " the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what : we know what we wor-
shij) : for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh,
and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh
such to worship liim. God is a Spirit : and they that
worship him nmst worship him in spirit and in truth.'
John iv. 21—24.
" ' Labounnot,' saith Christ, ' for the meat that perish-
eth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of ]\Ian shall give unto you : for him
hath God the Father sealed.' John vi. 27."
The sum of the Condemnation of me, Anne Aakew, at
the Guildhall.
" They said that I was an heretic, and condemned by
the lave, and demanded if I would stand in mine opinion ? I
answered, ' That I was not an heretic ; neither yet deserved
I any death by the law of God. But as concerning the ^j
faith which I uttered and wrote to the council, I would W
not,' I said, ' deny it, because I knew it to be true.'
Then would they know if I denied the sacrament to be
Christ's body and blood. I said ' Yea. For the same
Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary is now
glorious in heaven, and will come again from tlience at
the latter day in like manner as he ascended, (Acts i. 11.)
And as for what you call your God, it is a piece of
bread. For a proof of it, mark it when you choose, let
it lie in the box three months, and it will be mouldy and
so turn to nothing that is good ; so that I am persuaded
it cannot be God.'
" After that, they wished me to have a priest. And
then I smiled. Then they asked me if it were not good ;
I said I would confess my faults unto God, for I was
sure that he would hear me with favour. And so we
were condemned.
" My belief which I wrote to the council was this :
That the sacramental bread was left us to be received
with thanksgiving, in remembranue of Christ's death,
the only remedy of our souls' recovery ; and that thereby
we also receive the whole benefits and fruits of his most
glorious passion. Then would they know, whether the
bread in the box were God or not. I said, ' God is a
Spirit, aud they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth,' (John iv.) Then they demanded,
'Will you plainly deny Christ to be in the sacran)ent ?'
I answered, that ' I believe faithfully the eternal Son of
God not to dwell there ;' in proof of which I recited
again the history of Bell, and the nineteenth chapter of
Daniel, the seventh and seventeenth of the Acts, and the
twenty-fourth of Matthew : concluding thus ; ' I neither
wish death, nor yet fear his might, God have the praise
with thanksgiving.' "
My Letter sent to the Lord Chancellor.
"The Lord God, by whom all creatures have their
beginning, bless you with the light of his knowledge.
Amen.
A.D. 1540—1547.]
THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ANNE ASKEW.
613
" My duty to your lordship remembered, &c. It
mi^ht please' you to accept this my bold suit, as the suit
of one which upon due consideration is moved to the
same, and hopes to obtain it. My request to your lord-
ship is only that it may please you to be a mediator for
me to the king's majesty, that his grace may be certified
of these few lines which I have written concerning my
belief, which, when it shall be truly compared with the
hard judgment given against me for the same, I think
his grace shall well perceive me to be weighed in an
uneven pair of balances. But I remit my matter and
cause to Almighty God, who rightly judges all secrets.
And thus I commend your lordship to the governance of
him, and fellowship of all saints. Amen.
" By your handmaid, Axne Askew."
My Faith briefly ivritten to the King's grace.
" I Anne Askew, of good memory, although God has
given me the bread of adversity, and the water of afflic-
tion, yet not so much as my sins hive deserved, de-
sire this to be known to your grace, that forasmuch as I
am by the law condemned as an evil doer ; here I take
heaven and earth to record, that I shall die in my iniio-
cency. And according to what I have said first and will
say last, I utterly abhor and detest all heresies. And
as concerning the supper of the Lord, I believe so much
as Christ has said, which he confirmed with his most
blessed blood. I believe so much as he willed me to
follow, and believe so much as his catholic church
teaches. For 1 will not forsake the commandment of
his holy lips. But look, what God has charged me with
by his mouth, that have I shut up in my heart. And
thus briefly for lack of learning. " Anne Askew."
The effect of my Examination and handling since my
Departure from Newgate.
" Then there came to me Nicholas Shaxton, and
counselled me to recant as he had done. I said to him.
That it would have been good for him never to have
been born.
" Then Master Rich sent me to the Tower, where I
remained till three o'clock.
" Then came Master Rich as one of the council, charg-
ing me upon my obedience to show if I knew any man
or woman of my sect. My answer was that I knew none.
Then they asked me of my lady of Suffolk, my lady of
Sussex, my lady of Hertford, jny lady Denny, and my
lady Fitzwilliams. To whom I answered, ' If I pronounce
anything against them, I am not able to prove it.'
" Then they said that there were gentlewomen who
gave me money. I said I knew not their names.
" Then they put me on the rack, because I confessed
no ladies or gentlewomen to be of my opinion ; and
there they kept me a long time, and because I lay still
and did not cry, my lord chancellor and Master Rich
took pains to rack me with their own hands till I was
nigh dead.
" Then the lieutenant caused me to be loosed from the
rack. Immediately I swooned away, and then they re-
covered me again. After that I sat two long hours rea-
soning with my lord chancellor upon the bare floor.
But my Lord God, I thank his everlasting goodness, gave
me grace to persevere, and will do, I hope, to the very
end.
" Then was I brought to a house, and laid in a bed,
with weary and painful bones, I thank my Lord God for
it. Then my lord chancellor sent me word if I would
leave my opinion, I should want nothing ; but if I would
not, I should forthwith be sent to Newgate, and so be
burnt. I sent him word again, that I would rather die
than break my faith.
" Thus the Lord open the eyes of their blind hearts,
that the truth may take place. Farewell, dear friend,
and pray, pray, pray !"
The manner of her racking in the Tower was thus ;
first, she was led down into a dungeon, where the lieu-
tenant commanded the jailor to pinch her with the rack.
Which being done so much as he thought sufficient, he
went to take her down, supposing that he had done
enough. ButWriothesley the chancellor, not contented
that she was loosed so soon, and having confessed no-
thing, commanded the lieutenant to strain her on the
rack again. Which because he refused to do, pitying the
weakness of the woman, he was threatened byWriothesley,
saying, that he would signify his disobedience to the
king : and so he and Master Rich, throwing off their
gowns, played the tormentors themselves ; first asking
her if she were with child. To whom she answered
again, " Ye shall not need to spare me for that, but do
your will upon me ;" and so quietly and patiently pray-
ing to the Lord, she bore their tyranny, till her bones and
joints were almost pulled asunder, so that she was car-
ried away in a chair. When the racking was over,
Wriothesley and his fellow took their horses, and rode
towards the court.
In the meantime, while they were making their way
by land, the lieutenant taking boat, went to the court in
all haste to speak with the king before the others, and
did so. Who there making his humble suit to the king,
desired his pardon, and showed him the whole matter,
and of the racking of Mrs. Askew, and that he was threat-
ened by the lord chancellor, because at his command-
ment, not knowing his highness's pleasure, he refused
to rack her ; which he for compassion could not find in
his heart to do, and therefore humbly desired his high-
ness's pardon. Which when the king had understood,
he seemed not very well to like their extreme handling
of the woman, and also granted to the lieutenant his
pardon, desiring him to return and see to his charge.
Great expectation was in the mean season among
the warders and officers of the Tower, waiting for his
return. When they saw him come so cheerfully, declar-
ing how he had sped with the king, they were not a
little joyous, and gave thanks to God.
Anne Askew''s Answer to John Lacel's Letter.
" O friend, most dearly beloved in God, I marvel not
a little what should move you to judge in me so slender
a faith as to fear death, which is the end of all misery.
In the Lord I desire you not to believe of me such
weakness. For I doubt it not, but God will perform his
work in me as he has begun. I understand the council
is not a little displeased, that it should be reported
abroad that I was racked in the Tower. They say now
that what they did there was but to frighten me ;
whereby I perceive they are ashamed of their uncomely
doings, and fear much lest the king's majesty should
have information thereof, wherefore they would no man
to noise it. Well, for their cruelty God forgive them !
" Your heart in Christ Jesus. Farewell, and pray."
The Purgation or Answer of Anne Askew, against the
false surmises of her Recantation.
" I have read the process which is reported of them,
that know not the truth, to be my Recantation. But,
as the Lord liveth, I never meant to recant. Notwith-
standing this, I confess, that in my first troubles 1 was
examined by the bishop of London about the sacra-
ment. Yet had they no confession of my mouth but this,
That I believed therein as the word of God did bind me
to believe. More they never had of me. Then he
made a copy, which is now in print, and required me
to set my hand thereto ; but I refused it. Then my two
sureties did wish me not to hesitate, for they said it was
no great matter.
"Then, with much ado, at last I wrote thus: 'I,
Anne Askew, do believe this, if God's word do agree to
the same, and the true catholic church.' Then the
bishop being in great displeasure with me, because I
made doubts in my writing, commanded nis to prison,
but afterwards by the means of friends I came out again.
Here is the truth of that matter. And as concerning
the thing that ye covet most to know, resort to the
si.?th of John, and be ruled always tliereby. Thus fare
ye well.
"Anne Askew."
614
THE CONFESSION OF ANNE ASKEW.
[Book VIII,
The Confession of the Faith u-hich Anne Askew tnade
in Newgate before she suffered.
" I, Anne Askew, of good memory, although my mer-
ciful Father hath given me the bread of adversity, and
the water of trouble, yet not so much as my sins have
deserved, — do confess myself here a sinner before the
throne of his heavenly majesty, desiring liis forgiveness
and mercy. And forasmuch as I am by the law un-
rio-hteously condemned for an evil doer concerning opi-
nions, I take the same most merciful God of mine,
who hath made both heaven and earth, to record, that
I hold no opinions contrary to his most holy word.
And I trust in my merciful Lord, who is the giver of
all grace, that he will graciously assist me against all
evil opinions which are contrary to his blessed truth.
For I take him to witness, that I have, and will, unto
my life's end, utterly abhor them to the uttermost of my
power.
" But this is the heresy which they report me to hold,
that after the priest hath spoken the words of consecra-
tion, there remaineth bread still. They botti say, and
also teach it for a necessary article of faith, that after
these words are once spoken, there remaineth no bread,
but even the self-same body that hung upon the cross on
Good Friday, both flesh, blood, and bone. To this
belief of theirs I say nay. For then were our common
creed false, which saith, that he sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father Almighty, and from thence shall come
to judge the quick and the dead. Lo ! this is the he-
resy that I hold, and for it must suffer death. But as
touching the holy and blessed supper of the Lord, I be-
lieve it to be a most necessary remembrance of his glo-
rious sufferings and death. Moreover, I believe as much
therein as my eternal and only Redeemer Jesus Christ
would I should believe.
" Finally, I believe all those scriptures to be ti-ue, which
he hath confirmed with his most precious blood. Yea,
and as St. Paul saith. Those scriptures are sufficient for
our learning and salvation, that Christ hath left here
with us ; so that I believe we need no unwritten verities
to rule his church with. Therefore look what he hath
said unto me with his own mouth, in his holy gospel,
that I have with God's grace closed up in my heart ; and
my full trust is, as David saith, ' That it shall be a lamp
unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
" There are some that do say I deny the eucharist or
sacrament of thanksgiving ; but those people do untruly
report of me. For I both say and believe it, that if it
were administered like as Christinstitutedit andleft it, a
most singular comfort it were to us all. But as con-
cerning your mass, as it is now used in our days, 1 do
say and believe it to be the most abominable idol that is
in the world. For my God will not be eaten with teeth,
neitlier yet dieth he again. And upon these words that
I have now spoken, will I suffer death.
" O Lord, I have more enemies now than there be
hairs on my head : yet. Lord, let them never overcome
me with vain words, but fight thou. Lord, in my stead ;
for on thee I cast my care. With all the spite they can
imagine, they fall upon me, who am thy poor creature.
Yet, sweet Lord, let me not sit by them who are against
me ; for in thee is my whole delight. And, Lord, I
heartily desire of thee, that thou wilt of thy most mer-
ciful goodness forgive them that violence which they do
and have done unto me. Open also thou their blind
hearts, that they may hereafter do that tiling in thy
sight, which only is acceptable before thee, and to set
forth thy truth aright, without all vain fantasy of sinful
men. So be it, O Lord, so be it.
" By me, Anne Askew."
A few words remain to be said concerning her end and
martyrdom. After she, born as she was of such kin-
dred, that she might have lived in great wealth and
prosperity, if she would rather have followed the world
than Christ, had now been so tormented, that she could
neither live long in so great distress, neither yet be suffer-
ed to die in secret ; the day of her execution being ap-
pointed, ?he was brought into Smithfield in a chair, be-
cause she could not go on her feet, on account of her
great torments. Wlien she was brought to the stake,
she was tied by the middle with a chain that held up her
body. When all things were thus prepared. Doctor
Shaxton, wlio was appointed to preach, began his sermon,
Anne Askew hearing, and answering him ; where he
said well, she confirmed the same ; where he said amiss,
" There," said she, " he misses, and speaks without the
book."
The sermon being finished, the martyrs, standing
there, tied at three several stakes, began their prayers.
The concourse of the people was very great, the place
where they stood being railed about to keep out the press.
Upon the bench, under St. Bartholomew's church, sate
Wriothesley, chancellor of England, the old duke of Nor-
folk, the old earl of Bedford, the lord mayor, with
others.
Wriothesley, lord chancellor, sent to Anne Askew, of-
fering to her the king's pardon if she would recant. Who,
refusing once to look upon them, made answer, that she
came not tliither to deny her Lord and Master. Then
were the letters likewise offered unto the others, who in
like manner, following the constancy of the woman, re-
fused not only to receive them, but also to look upon
them. Whereupon the lord mayor, commanding fire to
be (lut to the fagots, cried with a loud voice, " Let jus-
tice be done."
Thus the good Anne Askew, with these blessed mar-
tyrs, having passed through so many torments, now
ended the long course of her agonies, being compassed
in with flames of fire, as a blessed sacrifice unto God ;
she slept in the Lord, A. D. 154(i, leaving behind ber a
singular example of christian constancy for all men to
follow.
John Lassels, John Adams, and Nicholas Belenian,
were the names of those burnt along with her. Be-
lenian was a priest of Shrojishire, Adams a tailor, and
Lassels, a gentleman of the court and household of king
Henry.
It happened well for them, that they died together
with Anne Askew. For tliough they were strong and
stout men, yet, through the example and exhortation of
her, they received great comfort in that painful kind of
death : and beholding her invincible constancy, and also
stirred up through her persuasions, shewed no kind of
fear.
Thus confirming one another with mutual exhortations,
their bodies were consumed in the fire, about the month
of June, 154G.
As Winchester and other bishops did set on king
Henry against Anne Askew and her fellow-martyrs, so
Doctor Repse, bishop of Norwich, incited no less the
old duke of Norfolk against one Rogers ; who about the
same time was condemned and suffered martyrdom for
the six articles, in Smithfield.
The History of Queen Catharine Parr.
After these stormy histories, we must now treat of the
afflictions of the virtuous and excellent lady, queen Ca-
tharine Parr, the last wife of king Henry.
About a year after the king returned from Boulogne,
he was informed that queen Catharine Pair was very
much given to the reading of the holy scriptures, and
that she had learned and godly persons to instruct her
in them ; with whom she used to have private confer-
ence touching spiritual matters ; but esjiecially that in
Lent, every day in the afternoon for the space of an
hour, one of her chaplains delivered a sermon in her
privy chamber, to her and the ladies of ber privy
clianiber, or others that were disjjosed to hear. W hich
things, as they were not secretly done, so neither were
the preachings unknown to tlie king ; who seemed to
like it very well. This made her the more bold (being
indeed very zealous towards the gospel) to debate with
tl.e king toucliing religion ; oftentimes desiring, and even
persuading the king, that as he had, to the glory of God,
and his eternal fame, begun a good and a godly work ia
A.D. 1540—1547.]
AN ACCOUNT OF QUEEN CATHARINE PARR.
615
banishini? that monstrous idol of Rome (the pope), so
he would thoroughly perfect and finish tiie same, cleans-
ing and purging his church of England, wherein as yet
remained great superstition.
And although the king, towards his latter end, grew
very stern and obstinate, so that it was only of few he
could be content to be taught, but least of all to be con-
tended with by argument ; still to her he refrained
himself, and treated her with great respect, either
through reverence for the cause, or else for the singular
affection which, till a very short time before his death,
he always bore to her. For besides the virtues of her
mind, she was endued with very rare gifts of nature, as
singular beauty, favour, and a comely personage ; things
wherein the king was greatly delighted ; and so she en-
joyed the king's favour, and would have done great good,
had not the malicious practice of certain professed ene-
mies against the truth prevented her ; even to the utter
alienating of the king's mind from religion, and almost
to the extreme ruin of the queen and others with her,
if God had not succoured her in her distress. The con-
spirers and practisers of her death were Gardiner bishop of
Winchester, Wriothesley then lord chancellor, and others.
These men, for the furtherance of their ungodly purpose,
sought to revive, stir up, and kindle evil and pernicious
humours in their prince and sovereign lord, to the intent
to deprive her of the great favour which she then stood in
with the king, (which they not a little feared would turn
to the utter ruin of their aiitichristian sect, if it should
continue.) They made their wicked entry upon their
mischievous enterprise, after this manner. They knew
the king disliked to be contended with in any argument.
This humour of his, although the queen would not cross
in smaller matters, yet in cases of religion as occasion
served, she would not confine herself to reverent terms
and humble talk, entering with him into discourse, with
sound reasons of scripture. This the king was so well
accustomed to, that he took all in good part, which
greatly appalled her adversaries ; who perceiving her so
thoroughly grounded in the king's favour, they durst not
for their lives once open their lips to the king in any
respect to touch her, either in her presence, or behind
her back.
It happened, however, in the time of the king's sick-
ness, that he had left off his accustomed manner of visit-
ing the queen : and therefore she sometimes was sent
for, and sometimes of herself would come to visit him.
At which time she would not fail to use all occasions to
move him, zealously to proceed in the reformation of
the church. The sharpness of the disease had increased
the king's accustomed impatience, so that he began to
shew some tokens of dislike ; and contrary to his manner,
one d\y breaking off the conversation, he took occasion
to enter into other talk, which somewhat amazed the
queen. To whom, notwithstanding, in her presence he
gave neither evil word nor countenance, but knit up all
arguments with gentle words and loving countenance ;
and after other pleasant talk, she for that time took her
leave of his majesty ; who after his manner bid her fare-
well " Sweet heart ;" for that was his usual term to the
queen.
At this visit the bishop of Winchester chanced to be
present, as also at the queen's taking her leave, (who
did not fail to observe the king's sudden interrupting of
the queen in her talk, and falling into other matter,)
and thought that if the iron were struck whilst it was
hot, and the king's humour were helped, such disliking
might follow to the queen, as might overthrow both her
and all her endeavours ; and he only awaited some oc-
casion to renew in the king's memory the former dis-
liked argument. His expectation in that respect did
nothing fail him ; for the king even at that time shewed
himself no less prompt and ready to receive information,
than the bishop was maliciously bent to stir up the king's
indignation against her. The king, immediately upon
her departure from him, used these or like words, " A
good hearing it is when women become such clerks, and
a thing much to my comfort, to come in mine old days
to be taught by my wife.''
The bishop hearing this, seemed to dislike that the
queen should so much forget herself, as to take upon
her to stand in any argument with his majesty, whom he
to his face extolled for his rare virtues, and especially for
his learned judgment in matters of religion, above not
only princes of that and other ages, but also above pro-
fessed doctors in divinity ; and said that it was an un-
seemly thing for any of his majesty's subjects to reason
and argue with him so impudently ; and grievous to him
for his part, to hear of it, as well as others of his majesty's
counsellors and servants ; inferring, moreover, how dan-
gerous and perilous a matter it is, and ever hath been,
for a prince to suffer such insolent words at his subject's
hands : who, as they take boldness to oppose their sove-
reign in words, so they want no will, but only power and
strength, to overthrow them in deeds.
Besides this, that the religion so stiffly maintained by
the queen did not only disallow and dissolve the policy
and government of princes, but also taught the people
that all things ought to be in common ; so that what
colour soever they pretended, their opinions were indeed
so odious, and for the prince's estate so perilous, that
(saving the reverence they bore unto her for his ma-
jesty's sake.) he durst be bold to affirm that the greatest
subject in this land, speaking those words that she did
speak, and defending likewise those arguments that she
did defend, had with justice by law deserved death.
Howbeit for his part, he would not, nor durst not,
without good warrant from his majesty, speak his know-
ledge in the queen's case, although very apparent reasons
urged him, and such as his dutiful affection towards his
majesty, and his zeal for the preservation of his state,
would scarce give him leave to conceal, though the utter-
ing of it might, through her and her faction, be the
utter destruction of him, and of such as chiefly tended
to the prince's safety, without his majesty would take
upon him to be their protector. Which if he would do,
he with other faithful counsellors could disclose such
treason, cloaked T\'ith this cloak of heresy, that his ma-
jesty should easily perceive how perilous a matter it is
to cherish a serpent in his own bosom.
These and such other phrases whetted the king to
anger and displeasure towards the queen. Thus Win-
chester with his flattering words so far insinuated him-
self with the king at that time, and so filled the king's
distrustful mind, that before they separated, the king had
given command, with warrant to certain of them, to con-
sult together about the drawing up of certain articles
against the queen, wherein her life might be touched ;
which the king pretended he fully resolved not to spare.
With this commission they departed, resolved to put
their pernicious practice into as mischievous exe-
cution.
During the time of deliberation about this matter,
they failed not to use all kind of mischievous practices,
as well as to suborn accusers, as otherwise to betray
her, in seeking to ascertain what books forbidden by law
she had in her closet. And the better to bring their
purpose to pass, because they would not upon the sud-
den but gradually deal with her , they thought it best, at
the first, to begin with some of those ladies, whom they
knew to be intimate with her. and of her blood. The
chief, and most in estimation, and privy to all her
doings, were these : the lady Herbert, afterwards
countess of Pembroke, and sister to the queen, and
chief of her privy chamber ; the lady Lane, being of her
privy chamber, and also her cousin-german ; the lady
Tyrwhitt, of her privy chamber, and for her virtuous dis-
position in very great favour and credit with her.
It was devised that these three should first of all have
been accused and brought to answer to the six articles ;
and upon their apprehension in the court, their closets
and coffers should have been searched, that somewhat
might have been found by which the queen might be
charged ; which being found, the queen herself presently
should have been taken, and likewise carried by night
by barge to the Tower.
The" king at that time lay at Whitehall, and used
verv seldom, being unwell, to 'stir out of his chamber or
private gallery ; and few of his council, but by especial
command, resorted to him. This purpose was handled
616
AN ACCOUNT OF QUEEN CATHARINE PARR.
[Book VIII.
BO secretly, that it grew now witliin a few days of the
time for the execution of the matter, and the poor queen
neither knew nor suspected anything at all ; and
therefore used after her accustomed manner, wlien she
came to visit the king, still to deal with him touching
religion as before. The king all this while gave her
leave to utter her mind at the full without contradiction.
Thus after her accustomed conference with the king,
when she had taken her leave of him, it cliaiiced that
the king brake tlie whole matter to one of his physi-
cians, pretending to him, as though he intended not any
longer to be troubled with such a doctress as she was ;
and also declaring what trouble was in working against
her by her enemies ; but yet charging liim witlial, uj)on
peril of his life, not to utter it to any creature living :
and thereupon declared to him the parties above-named,
with all circumstances, and when and what the final re-
solution of the matter should be.
The C|ueen all tliis while, compassed about with ene-
mies and persecutors, perceived nothing of all this, nor
what was working against her, and wliat traps were laid
for her by Winchester and his fellows. But see what
the Lord God did for his poor handmaiden, in rescuing
her from the pit of ruin, wlicreinto she was ready to
fall unawares. For as the Lord would, so came it to
pass, that the bill of articles drawn up against the queen,
and subscribed with the king's own hand (although
dissemblingly you must understand), falling from the
bosom of one of the councillors, was found by some
godly person, and brought immediately to the queen.
Who reading there the articles against her, and per-
ceiving the king's own hand to tile same, fell imme-
diately into a great agony, bewailing and talking on in
such sort, as was lamentable to hear and see, as certain
of her ladies and gentlewomen being yet alive, who were
then present about her, can testify.
The king hearing what perplexity she was in, almost
to the peril and danger of her life, sent his physicians
to her ; who seeing what extremity she was in, did what
they could for her recovery. Then Wendy, the physi-
cian to whom the king had spoken, perceiving by her
words what the matter was, for the comforting of her
mind, began to break with her in secret, touching the
articles against her, which he himself, he said, knew
right well to be true ; although he stood in danger of
his life, if ever he were known to utter it to any living
creature. Nevertheless, partly for the safety of her
life, and partly for the discharge of his own conscience,
having remorse to consent to the shedding of innocent
blood, he could not but give her warning of that mis-
chief that hung over her head, beseeching her to use
all secresy, and exhorted her to frame and comport her-
self to the king's mind, saying, he did not doubt, but if
she would do so, and shew her humble submission to
him, she should lind him gracious and favourable to her.
It was not long after this, that the king hearing of the
dangerous state in which she still remained, came to
her himself. To whom, after that she had uttered her
grief, fearing lest his majesty, she said, had taken dis-
pleasure with her, and had utterly forsaken her, he, like
a loving husband, with sweet and comfortable words, so
refreshed and appeased her mind, that she began some-
what to recover ; and so the king, after he had tarried
there about the space of an hour, departed.
After this the queen, remembering with herself the
words that Mr. Wendy had said to her, devised how by
some good opportunity she might repair to the king's
presence. And so first commanding her ladies to con-
vey away their books which were against the law, the
next night after suj)per, she, waited upon only by the
lady Herbert her sister, and the lady Lane, who carried
the candle before her, went to the king's bedchamber,
whom she found sitting and talking with several gentle-
men of his chamber. Whom when the king beheld, he
very courteously welcomed her, and breaking off the
talk, which before her coining he had with the gentle-
men, began of himself, contrary to his manner, to en-
ter into talk of religion, seeming, as it were, desirous
to be resolved by the queen of certain doubts which he
propounded.
The queen perceiving to what purpose this talk
tended, not being unprovided in what sort to behave
herself towards the king, resolved his questions as the
time and opportunity required, mildly, and with re-
verent countenance, answering again after this manner :
" Your majesty," said she, " does right well know,
neither am I myself ignorant, what great imperfection
and weakness by our first creation is allotted to us
women, to be ordained and appointed as inferior and
subject to man as our head, from whicli head all our
direction ought to proceed ; and that as Clod made man
to his own shape and likeness, whereby he, being in-
dued witli more special gifts of perfection, miglit rather
be stirred to the contemplation of heavenly things, and
to the earnest endeavour to obey his o mmandments,
even so also made he woman of man, otwhoiu and by
whom she is to be governed, commanded, and directed.
Thus womanly weaknesses and natural imperfection
ought to be tolerated, aided, and borne v\ithal, so that
by wisdom such things as be lacking in her ought to be
supplied.
" Since, therefore, that God has appointed such a
natural difference between man and woman, and your
majesty being so excellent in gifts and ornaments of
wisdom, and 1 a silly poor woman, so much inferior in
all respects of nature to you, how then comes it now to
pass that your majesty, in such causes of religion, will
seem to require my judgment ? M'hich when 1 have
uttered and said what 1 can, yet must I, and will I, re-
fer my judgment in this, and in all other cases, to your
majesty's wisdom, as my only anchor, supreme head
and governor liere in earth, next under God, to lean to."
" Not so, by St. Mary," replied the king, " you are
become a doctor, Kate, to instruct us, as we take it, and
not to be instructed or directed by us."
" If your majesty take it so," said the queen, " then
has your majesty very much mistaken, who have ever
been of the opinion, to think it very unseemly, and pre-
posterous for the woman to take upon her the office of
an instructor or teacher to her lord and husband, but
rather learn of her husband, and to be taught by him.
And where I have, with your majesty's leave, hereto-
fore been bold to hold talk with your majesty, wherein
sometimes in opinions there has seemed some difference,
1 have not done it so much to maintain opinion, as I
did it rather to minister talk, not only to the end your
majesty might with less grief pass over this painful time
of your infirmity, being attentive to our talk, and
hoping that your majesty should reap some ease by
it ; but also, that I hearing your majesty's learned dis-
course might receive to myself some profit. Wherein,
1 assure your majesty, I have not missed any part of
my desire in that behalf, always referring myself in all
such matters to your majesty, as by ordinance of nature
it is convenient for me to do."
" .\nd is it even so, sweetheart?" answered the king,
" and tended your arguments to no worse end ? Then
perfect friends we are now again, as ever at any time
heretofore." And as he sate in his chair, embracing
her in his arms, and kissing her, he added this, saying,
" That it did him more good at that time to hear those
words out of her own mouth, than if he had been in-
formed that an hundred thousand pounds in money had
fallen to him." And with great signs and tokens of
marvellous joy and affection, with promises and assur-
ances never again in any sort more to mistake her, he
entered into other very pleasant discourse with the queen
and the lords, and the gentlemen standing by, and then
in the end he gave her leave to depart.
Now then, God be thanked, the king's mind was
quite altered, and he detested in his heart (as afterwards
he plainly shewed) this tragical practice of those cr\iel
Caiaj)hases ; who not understanding the king's mind,
and good disposition towards the queen, were busily
occupied about thinking and providing for their next
day's labour; which was the day on which they had de-
termined to have carried the queen to the Tower.
The day, and alniost tlie hour appointed, being come,
the king being disposed in the afternoon to take tlie
air, (waited upon by two gentlemen only of his bed-
il>t,
IJmrj \\t (!figj}t(j luti^ t^c CljaiifcKor.
Pige f)I7.
A.D. 1540—1547.] BISHOP GARDINER'S INTRIGUES AGAINST THE REFORMATION.
617
chamber), went into the garden, whither the qr.een also
came, having been sent for by the king himself, accom-
panied by the three ladies above named to wait ujion her ;
with whom the king at that time disposed liimself to be
as pleasant as ever he was in all his life before. . When
suddenly, in the midst of their mirth, the hour deter-
mined being come, in comes the lord chancellor into the
garden, with forty of the king's guards at his heels, to
have taken the queen, together with the three ladies, whom
they had before purposed to apprehend alone ; the king
Sternly beholding them, broke off his mirth with the
queen, and stepping a little aside, called the chancellor
to him. Who upon his knees spake certain words to the
king, but what they were (for they were softly spoken,
and the king a good distance from the queen), is not
well known ; but it is most certain that the king's reply
to him was, " Knave ;" yea, " Arrant knave, beast,
and fool ;" and with that the king commanded him pre-
sently to begone out of his presence. Which words,
although they were uttered somewhat low, yet they were
so vehemently whispered out by the king, that the
queen with her ladies overheard them ; which had been
not a little to her comfort, if she had known at that
time the whole cause of his coming, so perfectly as after-
wards she knew it. Thus departed the lord chancellor
out of the king's presence as he came, with all his train,
the whole device being utterly broken.
The king, after his departure, immediately returned
to the queen ; whom she perceiving to be very much
chafed (albeit coming towards her, he forced himself to put
on a cheerful countenance), with as sweet words as she
could utter she endeavoured to qualify the king's dis-
pleasure, with a request to his majesty in behalf of the
lord chancellor, whom he seemed to be offended with ;
saying, for his excuse, " That although she knew not
what just cause his majesty had at that time to be of-
fended with him, yet she thought that ignorance, not
will, was the cause of his error, and so besought his
majesty (if the cause were not very heinous) at her hum-
ble suit to take it."
" Ah, poor soul," said he, " thou little knowest how
iU he deserve^ this grace at thy hands. Of my word,
sweetheart, he 'fias been towards thee an arrant knave,
and so let him go." To this the queen in charitable
manner replying in few words, ended that talk ; having
also by God's blessing happily, for that time and ever,
escaped the dangerous snares of her bloody and cruel
enemies for the gospel's sake.
The pestiferous purpose of this bishop, and of such-
like bloody adversaries practising thus against the queen,
puts me in remembrance of such another story of his
wicked working, in like manner, a little before ; but
much more pernicious and pestilent to the public church
of Jesus Christ, than this was dangerous to the })rivate
estate of the queen. Which story I thought here, as
in a convenient jjlace, to be notified to all posterity,
according as I had it faithfully recorded to me by one who
heard it from Archbishop Cranmer's own mouth.
A Discourse, tovching a certain Policy used by Stephen
Gardiner, Bisttop of Winctiester, in staying King
Henry VIII. front redressing certain Abuses of Cere-
monies in the C/iurcb, being Ambassador beyond the
Seas. — Also the Comrminication of King Henry VIII.
with the Ambassador of France, at Hampton-comi,
concerning the Reformation of Religion, as well in
France as in England. August, A.D, 154(j.
It chanced in the time of King Henry Vlll., when
his highness, not many years before his death, con-
cluded a league between the emperor, the French king,
and himself, that the bishop of Winchester, Stephen
Gardiner by name, was sent as ambassador beyond the
seas for that purpose. In whose absence Thomas Cran-
mer, archbishop of Canterbury, attending upon the
king's court, sought occasion to further the reformation
of religion. For as the archbishop was always diligent
and forward to prefer and advance the sincere doctrine
of the gospel ; so was that other bishop a contrary in-
itrumeut, continually spurning against it, in whatever
part of the world he remained. For even now lie be-
ing beyond the seas, in tiie temporal affairs of the
realm, forgot not, but found the means, as a most
valiant champion of the bishop of Rome, to stop and
hinder, as well the good diligence of the archbishop, as
the godly disposition of the king's majesty, which thus
happened :
Whilst the bishop of Winchester was now remaining
beyond the seas, the king's majesty and the archbishop
having conference together for reformation of some su-
perstitious enormities in the church ; among other
things, the king determined forthwith to pull down the
roods in every church, and to suppress the accustomed
ringing on AUhallow's-iiight, with a few such-like vain
ceremonies ; and, tlierefore, when the archbishop took
his leave of the king, to go into his diocese, his highness
desired him to remember, that he should cause two
letters to be devised : " By me," said the king, " to
be signed ; the one to be directed to you, my lord, and
the other to the archbishop of York, wherein 1 will
command you both to send forth your precepts to all
other bishops within your provinces, to see those enor-
mities and ceremonies reformed without delay, that we
have communed of."
So upon this, the king's pleasure being known, when
the archbishop of Canterbury was come into Kent, he
caused his secretary to write tiiese letters according to
the king's mind ; and being in readiness, he sent tliem
to the court to Sir Anthony Denny, for him to get them
signed by the king. When Master Denny had moved
the king thereto, the king made answer, " 1 am now
otherwise resolved ; for you shall send my lord of Can-
terbury word, that since I spake with him about those
matters, I have received letters from my lord of Win-
chester, now on the other side of the sea, about the
conclusion of a league between us and the emperor, and
the French king ; and he writes plainly to us, that the
league will not prosper, nor go forward, if we make any
other innovation, change, or alteration, either in re-
ligion or ceremonies, than heretofore has been already
commenced and done. Wherefore my lord of Canter-
bury must take patience herein, and forbear, until we
may espy a more apt and convenient time for that
purpose."
Which matter of reformation began to be revived
again, when the great ambassador from the French king,
came to the king's majesty at Hampton Court, not long
before his death ; where no gentleman was permitted
to wait upon his lord and master, without a velvet coat
and a chain of gold. And for the entertainment of the
ambassador, there were built in the park three very
great and sumptuous banqueting houses. At tirst it
was purposed, that the ambassador should have been
three nights very richly banqueted. But as it chanced,
that the French king's great affairs became suddenly
changed, so that this ambassador was sent for home La
haste, before he had received half the noble entertain-
ment that was prepared for him ; and he had but the
fruition of the first banqueting house.
Now, what prince-like order was there used in the
furniture of the banquet, as well in places of the noble
estates, namely, the king's majesty, and the French
ambassador, with the noblemen both of England and
!• ranee on the one part, and of the queen's highness and
the lady Anne of Cleves, with other noble women and
ladies of the other part, as also touching the great and
sumjjtuous preparation of costly and fine dishes there
displayed, it is not our purpose here to treat of; but only
to consider and note the conference and communicatioa
had the first night after the banquet was finished, be-
tween the king's majesty, the ambassador, and the arch-
bishop of Canterbury (the king's highness standing
openly in the banqueting-house, in the open face of aU
the people, and leaning one arm upon the shoulder of
the archbishop of Canterbury, and the other arm upoa
the shoulder of the ambassador) touching the esta-
blishing of godly religion between those two princes ia
both their realms : as by the report of the archbishop ta
his secretary, upon occasion of his service to be done in
618
DIALOGUE BETWEEN CRANMER AND HIS SECRETARY.
[Book VIU.
King Edward's visitation, then being register in the vi-
sitation, relation was made on that behalf as follows: —
When the visitation was put in a readiness, before the
commissioners should proceed in their voyage, the arch-
bishop sent for the register to Hampton Court, and de-
sired him to make notes of certain things in the visita-
tion ; he gave to him instruction, having then further
talk with him touching the good effect and success of the
visitation. Upon which occasion the register said to his
master the archbishop ; "I remember, that you not
long ago caused me to write letters, which King Henry
VIII. should have signed and directed to your grace
and the archbishop of York, for the reformation of cer-
tain enormities in the churches, as taking down of the
roods, and forbidding of ringing on Allhallow-night, and
such like vain ceremonies. Which letters your grace
sent to the court to be signed by the king's majesty, but
as yet I think that there was never any thing done."
" Why," said the archbishop, " did you never hear
that those letters were suppressed and stopped?" The
archbishop's servant answered ; "as it was," said he,
" my diity to write those letters, so was it not my part to
be inquisitive what became of them." " Indeed," re-
plied the archbishop, " my lord of Winchester being then
beyond the seas, about the conclusion of a league between
the emperor, the French king, and the king our master,
and fearing that some reformation should here pass in
the realm, touching religion in his absence, wrote to the
king's majesty, bearing him in hand, that the league
would not prosper nor go forwards on his majesty's be-
lialf if he made any other innovation, or alteration, in
religion, or ceremonies in the church ; which caused the
king to stay the signing of those letters, as Sir Anthony
Denny wrote to me by the king's command."
Tiien said his servant again to him ; " Forsomuch as
the king's good intent did not then take place, now your
grace may go forward in those matters, as the opportunity
of the time is much better serving than in King Henry's
days."
" Not so," said the archbishop. " It was better to
attempt such reformation in King Henry's day than
at tliis time, the king being in his infancy. For if
the king's father had set forth any thing for the refor-
mation of abuses, who was he that durst gainsay it .'
Indeed, we are now in doubt how men will take the
change, or alteration of abuses in the church ; and,
therefore, the council has forborne especially to speak of
it, and of other things which gladly they would have re-
formed, referring all those, and such like matters, to the
discretion of the visitors. But if King Henry VIII.
had lived to this day with the French king, it had been
past my lord of Winchester's power to have influenced
the king's highness, as he did when he was about the
same league."
" I am sure you were at Hampton Court," replied
the archbishop, " when the French king's ambassador
was entertained there at those solemn banqueting
houses, not long before the king's death ; namely, when
after the banquet was done the first night, the king lean-
ing upon the ambassador and me, if I should tell what
communication passed between the king's highness and
the ambassador, concerning the establishing of sincere
religion, a man would hardly have believed it. Nor had
I myself thought the king's highness had been so forward
in those matters as he then appeared. I may tell you
it concerned naore than the pulling down of roods, and
suppressing the ringing of bells : I take it, that few in
England would have believed, that the king's majesty
and the French king had been at this point, not only
within half a year after to have changed the mass in
both the realms into a communion (as we now use it),
but also utterly to have extirpated and banished the
bishop of Rome, and his usurped power, out of both
their realms and dominions. Yea, they were so
thoroughly and firmly resolved in that behalf, that they
meant also to exhort the emperor to do the like in
Flanders and his other countries and seigniories, or else
they would break off from him. And herein the king's
highness commanded me (said the archbisho])) to pen a
form to be sent to the French king to consider of. But
the deep and most secret Providence of Almighty God
visiting this realm with a sharp scourge for our ini-
quities, prevented for a time this their most godly de-
vice and intent, by taking to his mercy both these
princes."
A brie/ Narration of the TVouble of Sir George Blage.
Here may something be said of Sir George Blage, one
of the king's privy chamber, who, being falsely accused
by Sir Hugh Caverley, knight ; and Master Littleton ;
was sent for by Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, and carried
to Newgate, and thence to Guildhall, where he was con-
demned and appointed to be burned. The words which
his accusers laid to him were these ; " What if a mouse
should eat the bread .' Then, in my opinion, they
should hang the mouse." Whereas, to the end of his
life, he protested that he never spoke these words. But
the truth, as he said, was this ; that they, walking with
him in St. Paul's church after a sermon of Doctor
Crome's, asked if he were at the sermon. He said,
" Yea." " I heard," saith Master Littleton, " that he
said in his sermon. That the mass profits neither for the
quick nor for the dead." " No," saith Master Blage,
" wherefore then? perhaps for a gentleman when he
rides in hunting, to keep his horse from stumbling!"
And so they departed, and immediately after he was ap-
prehended and condemned to be burned. When this
was heard among those of the Privy Chamber, the king
hearing them whispering (which he could never abide)
commanded them to tell him the matter. Upon which
the matter being told, and suit made to the king,
especially by the good earl of Bedford, then lord privy
seal, the king being very offended that they would come
so near him, into his Privy Chamber, without his know-
ledge, sent for Wriothesley, commanding him immediately
to draw out the pardon himself, and so he was set at
liberty. Blage coming afterwards into the king's pre-
sence; " Ah, my pig," saith the king to him, for so he
used to call him. " Yea," said he, " if your Majesty
had not been better to me than your bishops were, your
pig had been roasted ere this time."
Then the popish leaders, when they had martyred Mrs.
Askew and the others, and being now in their triumph,
like the pharisees when they had brought Christ to his
grave, devised among themselves how to keep him down
still, and to over-tread truth for ever. On consulting
with certain of the council, they made out a hard pro-
clamation, authorized by the king's name, for abolishing
the scriptures, and all such English books as might set
forth God's true word, and grace of the gospel.
A Proclamation f 07- the almlinhing of English Books, the
eighth day of July, A. D. 1546.
" The king's most excellent majesty understanding
how, under the pretence of expounding and declaring
the truth of God's scripture, divers evil disjwsed persons
have taken upon tliem to utter and sow abroad, by ijooks
printed in the English tongue, sundry pernicious and de-
testable errors and heresies, not only contrary to the
laws of this realm, but also repugnant to the true sense
of God's law and word, by reason whereof certain men
of late, to the destruction of their own bodies and souls,
and to the evil example of others, have attemiited, ar-
rogantly and maliciously, to impugn the truth, and
therewith trouble the sober, quiet, and godly religion,
united and established under the king's majesty in this
his realm ; his liighness minding to foresee the dangers
that might ensue of the said books, is enforced to use his
general prohibition, commandment, and proclamation,
as follows : —
" First, That from henceforth no man, woman, or
person, of what estate, condition, or degree soever he or
they be, shall, after the last day of August next ensuing,
receive, have, take, or keep in his or their possession,
the text of the New Testament of Tindal's or Cover-
dale's translation in English, nor any other than is per-
mitted by the act of jiarlinment made in the session of
the parliament held at Westminster in the four-and-
AD. 1540—1547.1 PROCLAMATION FO^ DESTROYING ENGLISH BOOKS.
619
thirtieth and five-and-thirtieth year of his majesty's
most noble reign ; nor after the said day shall receive,
have, take, or keep, in his or their possession, any
manner of books printed or written in the English
tonoue, which be, or shall be set forth in the names of
Frith, Tindal, Wickliff, Joy, Roy, Basil, Bale, Barnes,
Coverdale, Turner, Tracy, or by any of them, or any
other book or books, containing matter contrary to the
said act made in the year thirty-four or thirty-five ; but
shall, before the last day of August next coming, deliver
the same English book, or books, to his master in that
household, if he be a servant, or dwell under any other,
and the master or ruler of the house, and such other as
dwell at large, shaU. deliver all such books of these sorts
as they have, or shall come to their hands, delivered as
before or othervrise, to the mayor, bailiff, or chief con-
stable of the town where they dwell, to be by them de-
livered over openly, within forty days next following
after the said delivery, to the sheriff of the shire, or to
the bishop's chancellor, or commissary of the same
diocese, to the intent the said bishop, chancellor, com-
missary, and sheriff, and every of them, may cause them
immediately to be openly burned: which thing the king's
majesty's pleasure is, that every of them shall see ex-
ecuted in most effectual sort, and of their doings thereof
make certificate to the king's majesty's most honour-
able council, before the first day of October next
coming.
" And to the intent that no man shall mistrust any
danger of such penal statutes as are passed in this behalf,
for the keeping of the said books, the king's majesty is
most graciously contented by this proclamation to
pardon that offence to the said time appointed by this
proclamation for the delivery of the said books, and
commands that no bishop, chancellor, commissary,
mayor, bailiff, sheriff, or constable, shall be curious to
mark who brings forth such books, but only order and
burn them openly, as is in this proclamation ordered.
And if any man, after the last day of August next
coming, shall have any of the said books in his keeping,
or be proved, and convicted by sufficient witness before
four of the king's most honourable council, to have hid-
den them, or used them, or any copy of any of them, or
any part of them, whereby it should appear that he will-
ingly hath offended the true meaning of this proclama-
tion, the same shall not only suffer imprisonment and
punishment of his body at the king's majesty's wiU and
pleasure, but also shall make such fine and ransom to
his highness for the same, as by his majesty, or four of
his grace's said council, shall be determined, &c.
" Finally, His majesty straightly charges and com-
mands, that no person or persons, of what estate, de-
gree, or condition, soever he or they be, from the day of
this proclamation, presume to bring any manner of
English book, concerning any manner of christian re-
ligion, printed in the parts beyond the seas, into this
realm, to sell, give, or distribute, any English book
printed in outward parts, or the copy of any such book,
or any part thereof, to any person, dwelling within this
his grace's realm, or any other his majesty's dominions,
unless the same shall be specially licensed so to do by
his highness' express grant to be obtained in writing for
the same, upon the pains before limited, and therewithal
to incur his majesty's extreme indignation.''
Having procured this proclamation, they proceeded to
prohibit all the books that taught the true gospel of
Christ, under pretence that they taught heresy and every
evil thing ; and thus they slandered, under names of
heresy and blasphemy, the writings and doctrine, and
persons, of the protestants : and while they thus pro-
hibited all true doctrine, they themselves published many
books against the protestants, in which they most falsely
and untruly call them heretics, charging them as blas-
phemers of God, contemners of God and men, church
robbers, cruel, false liars, crafty deceivers, unfaithful,
promise-breakers, disturbers of the public peace and
tranquillity, corrupters and subverters of the common-
wealth, and all else that is bad.
In much Like sort was Socrates accused by his coun-
trymen for a corrupter of the youth, whom Plato not-
withstanding defends. Aristides, the Just, lacked not
his unjust accusers. Was it not objected to St. Paul,
that he was a subverter of the law of Moses, and that
we might do evil that good might come .' How was it
laid to the christian martyrs in the primitive church for
worshipping of an ass's head, and for sacrificing of in-
fants ? And to come more near to these our latter days,
you heard likewise how falsely the christian congregation
of the Frenchmen gathered together in the night at
Paris, to celebrate the holy communion, were accused
of horrible wickedness, wliich we must not name, and
were condemned to the fire, and burned. Finally, what
innocency is so pure, or truth so perfect, which can be
void of these slanders and criminations, when our Sa-
viour Christ himself was noted for a wine-drinker, and
a common haunter of the publicans, &c.
Even so likewise it pleases our Lord and Saviour
Christ to keep and to exercise his church under the
like kind of adversaries now reigning in the church, who
under the name of the church will needs maintain a
portly state and kingdom in this world ; and because
they cannot uphold their cause by plain scriptMre and
the word of God, they bear it out with railing and slan-
dering, making princes and the simple people believe,
that all are heretics, schismatics, blasphemers, rebels,
and subverters of all authority and government, whoever
dare reply with any scripture against their doings.
It is written of Nero, that when he himself had caused
the city of Rome to be set on fire, and it had burned
seven nights, he made open proclamation that the in-
nocent christians had set the city on fire, to stir the
people against them, whereby he might burn and destroy
them as rebels and traitors.
Not much unlike seems the dealing of these papists,
who when they are the true heretics themselves, and
have burnt and destroyed the church of Christ, make
out their exclamations, bulls, briefs, articles, books,
censures, letters, and edicts against the poor protestants,
to make the people believe, that they are the heretics,
schismatics, and disturbers of the whole world. Who if
they could prove them, as they reprove them to be
heretics, they were worthy to be heard. But now they
cry out upon them "heretics!" and can prove no
heresy ; they accuse them of error, and can prove no
error ; they call them schismatics, and what church since
the world stood hath been the mother of so many schisms
as the mother church of Rome ? They charge them with
dissrinsion and rebellion ; and what dissension can be
greater than to dissent from the scriptures and word of
God .' Or what rebellion is so great as to rebel against
the Son of God, and against the will of his eternal Tes-
tament ? They are disturbers, they say, of peace and
public authority ; which is as true, as that the christians
set the city of Rome on fire. What doctrine did ever
attribute so much to public authority of magistrates, as
do the protestants ? or who ever attributed less to ma-
gistrates, or deposed more dukes, kings, and emperors,
than the papists .•' They, that say the bishop of Rome
is no more but the bishop of Rome, and ought to wear
no crown, is not a rebel against his king aiid magistrates,
but rather a maintainer of their authority ; which in-
deed the bishop of Rome cannot abide. Briefly, wilt
thou see who are the greater heretics, the protestants or
papists ? Let us try it by a measure, and let this mea-
sure be the glory only of the Son of God, who cannot
fail. Now judge, I beseech thee, whosoever knows the
doctrine of them both, whether of these two do ascribe
more or less to the majesty of Christ Jesus our King and
Lord ; the protestants, which admit none other head of
the church, nor justifier of our souls, nor forgiver of
our sins, nor advocate to his Father, but him alone ; or
else the papists, who can abide none of tln-se articles,
but condemn them for heresy, ^^'hich being so (as they
themselves will not deny) now judge, good reader, who
hath set the city of Ronie on fire, Nero, or the christians.
But to return again to our former puri)Ose, wliich was
to shew the proclamation of the bishops for abolishing
English books, as being corrupt and full of heresy,
which notwithstanding we have declared to coutaiu no
620
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
[Book VIII.
heresy, but sound and wholesome doctrine, according to
the pt-rtect word and scripture of God.
Now, when the prelates of the pope's side had pro-
cured this proclamation for the condemnation of all such
Enj^lish books, printed or unprinted, as made against
their advantage, they triumphed not a little, tliinking
they had overthrown the gospel for ever, and that they
had firmly established their kingdom. Who would have
tiiou^lit, after so straight, so precise, and so solemn a
proclamation, set forth and armed with the king's terrible
authority ; also after the cruel execution of Anne Askew,
Lasscls, and the rest, who would have thought, I say, but
that the gosjiel must needs be overthrown ? seeing what
sure work the papists had made, in setting up their
cause, and throwing down the cause of truth.
l]ut it is not a new thing with the Lord, to shew his
power against man, who, when he counts himself the
nio.^t sure, is then furthest off; and when he supposes
to have done all, is then to begin again. So was it in
the primitive church before Constantine's time, that
when Nero, Domitian, Maximin, Decius, and other
emperors impugning the gospel and profession of Christ,
did not only institute laws and make proclamations
against the christians, but they also did engrave the same
laws ill tables of brass, minding to make all things firm for
ever ; yet we see, how with a little turning of God's hand
all their mighty devices, and brazen laws were turned to
wind and dust. So little does it avail for man to wrestle
against the Lord and his proceedings. Man's building
is mortal and ruinous, of brittle brick, and mouldering
stones ; yet that which the Lord takes in hand to build,
neither can time waste, nor man pull down. What God
sets up, there is neither power nor striving to the con-
trary. What he intends, stands ; what he blesses, pre-
vails. And yet man's presum})tion will not cease still to
erect up towers of Babel against the Lord, which tlie
higher they are built up, fall with the greater ruin. For
what can stand, that stands not with the Lord .'
The proclamation, though it was terrible for the time,
yet not long after, by reason of the king's death (whom
the Lord shortly afterwards took to his mercy) it be-
came of no avail. So that where the prelates thought
to make their jubilee, it turned to a day of lamentation.
Such are the admirable workings of the Lord of Hosts,
whose name be sanctified for ever.
Tills do I not infer for any other purpose, but only
that the works of the Lord may be seen ; admonishing
thee, good reader, that as to the king, (who in this pro-
clamation had nothing but the name only,) here is
nothing spoken but to his honour and praise. Who,
of his own nature and disposition, was so inclinable
and forward in abolishing the almost invincible au-
tliority of the pope, in suppressing monasteries, in re-
pressing idolatry and pilgrimage, &c., which enterprises
as never king of England did accomplish (though some
began to attempt them) before him ; so yet to this day
we see but few in other realms dare follow the same.
If princes have always their counsel about them, that
is but a common thing. If sometimes they have evil
counsel ministered, that I take to be the fault rather of
such as are about them, than of princes themselves. So
long as queen Anne, Thomas Cromwell, bishop Cran-
r.ier, Master Doctor Ruts, with ;uch like were about
hira, and could prevail with him, what organ of Christ's
glory did more good in the church than he ; as is appa-
rent by such monuments, instruments, and acts set forth
by him ; in setting up the Bible in the church ; in ex-
pioding the pope with liis vile pardons ; in removing di-
vers superstitious ceremonies ; in bringing into order
the inordinate orders of friars and sects ; in putting
chantry priests to their pensions ; in permitting white
meat in Lent; in destroying pilgrimage worship ; in
ai.rogatiug idle and superfluous holydays, both by pub-
lic acts, Kud also by private letters sent to Bonner tend-
iu^' to ihis efTect. One of these letters we here subjoin :
By the King.
" Right reverend father in God, right trusty and well-
beloved, we greet you well. And whereas considering
the manifold inconveniences which have ensued, and
daily do ensue to our subjects by the great superfluity of
holydays, we have by the assent and consent of all
you the bisliops and other notable personages of the
clergy of this our realm, in full congregation and assem-
bly had for that purpose, abrogated and abolished such
as be neither canonicil, nor meet to be suffered in a
commonwealth ; for the manifold inconveniences which
do ensue of the same, as is rehearsed, and to the intent
our determination therein may be duly observed and
accomplished, we have thought convenient to command
you immediately upon the receipt hereof, to address
your commandments in our name to all the curates, re-
ligious houses, and colleges within your diocese, with a
copy of the act made for the abrogation of the holydays
aforesaid, a transcri])t whereof ye shall receive herewith,
commanding them and every of them, in no wise, either
in the chnrch or otherwise, to indict or speak of any of
the said days and feasts abolished ; whereby the peoi)le
might take occasion either to murmur, or contemn the
order taken therein, and to continue in their accustom-
ed idleness, the same notwithstanding ; but to pass over
the same with such secret silence, as they may have like
abrogation by disuse, as they have already by our au-
thority in convoc^Uion. And forasmuch as the time of
harvest now approaches, our pleasure is, you shall with
such diligence and dexterity put this matter in execution,
as it may immediately take ))lace for the benefit of our
subjects at this tisne accordingly without failing, as ye
will answer unto us for the contrary.
" Given under our signet, at our monastery of
Cliertsey, the eleventh day of August."
Thus while good counsel was about him, and could be
heard, he did much good. So again when sinister and
wicked counsel, under subtle and crafty pretences, had
the ascendancy over him, thrusting truth and charity
out of the ]irince's ears ; so much did religion and all
good things go prosperously forward before, and so much
on the contrary side all revolted backward again. Where-
upon proceeded this proclamation above-mentioned, con-
cerning the abolishing and burning of English books.
Which proclamation bearing the name of the king's
majesty, but being tlie very deed of the popish bishops,
no doubt had done much hurt in the church among the
godly sort, bringing them either into great danger, or else
keeping them in much blindness, had not the shortness
of the king's days stopped the malignant purposes of the
prelates, causing the king to leave that by death to the
people, which by his life he would not grant. For within
four months after, the proclamation coming out in
August, he died on the 27th day of January (A.D. I.i47)
after having reigned nearly thirty-eight years, leaving
behind him three children, who succeeded him in his
kingdom, king Edward, queen Mary, and queen Eli-
zabeth ; of whom it remains now to prosecute (by the
permission and sufferance of Christ our high Lord and
Prince) in the process of this history, according to the
order of their succession, and the acts done by them in the
church shall require : after I shall have first prosecuted
certain other matters by the way.
T/ie Hisfonj ioncldng the Persecution in Scotland.
Thus having finished the time and reign of king
Henry VIII., it remains now, according to my promise
made before, here to place and adjoin so much as doth
come to our hands, touching the persecution of Scotland,
and of the blessed martyrs of Christ, who in that coun-
try likewise suffered for the true religion of Christ, and
testimony of their faith.
To ]H-oeeed therefore in the history of the affairs of
Scotland, next after the mention of David Stratton and
Master Nicolas Gourlay, with whom we ended before,
the order of time re([uires us to advert to the memory of
.Sir John Borthwick, knight, commonly called Captain
Borthwick. Who being accused of heresy, as the papists
c;iU it, and cited to answer for the same, A. D. 1540,
did not appear, but escaped into other countries : though
absent, however, he was condemned by the sentence of
A.D. inio— ir,47.]
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
621
David B?-iton, archbishop of St. Andrews, and other
prelates of Scotland, and all his goods confiscated, and
his picture at last burned in the ojjcn market-place.
The Smtence of Condemnation against Sir John Bnrth-
wick, knir/ht, by the Cardinal, Bishops, and Abliats
in Scotland, A.D. 1540.
[After reciting the articles with which he was charged,
it thus concludes :]
" Of all which the premises, and many other errors
by him holden, spoken, published, affirmed, preached,
and taught, the common fame and report is, that the
said S'.r John Borthwick is holden, reputed, and ac-
counted of very many as a heretic, and principal
heretic, who holdeth evil opinions of the catholic faith.
Where we, David, by the title of St. Stephen, in
Mount Celio, prelate and cardinal of the holy church of
Rome, archbishop of St. Andrews, primate of the whole
kingdom of Scotland, and born legate of the apostolic
see, sitting after the manner of judges in our tribunal
seat, the most holy gospels of God being laid before us,
that our judgment might proceed from the face of God,
and our eyes might behold and look upon equity and
justice, having only God, and the verity and truth of tlie
catholic faith before our eyes, his holy name being first
called upon, having, as is before said, hereupon holden a
council of wise men, as well divines as lawyers, we pro-
nounce, declare, decree, determine, and give sentence,
that the said Sir John Borthwick, called Captain Borth-
wick, being suspected, infamed, and accused of the
errors and heresies before said, and wicked doctrines
manifoldly condemned, as is aforesaid, and by lawful
proofs against him in every of the premises had, being
convicted and lawfully cited and called, not appearing,
but as a fugitive, runaway, and absent, even as though
he were present, to be a heretic ; and is, and hath been
convicted as a heretic; and as a convict heretic and here-
siarch to be punished and chastened with due punish-
ment, and afterwards to be delivered and left unto the
secular power. Moreover, we confiscate and make for-
feit, and by these presents declare and decree to be con-
fiscr;i.ed aid made forfeit all and singular his goods,
moveables, and unmoveables, howsoever and by whatso-
ever title tl.ty be gotten, and in what place or part so-
ever they be, and all his offices whatsoever he hath
hitherto had, reserving notwithstanding the dowry and
such part und portion of his goods, as by the law, cus-
tom, ara right of this realm unto persons confiscate
cv.^ht to appertain. Also, we decree that the picture of
the said John Borthwick being formed, made, and
paiuted to his likeness, be carried through this our city,
to our cathedral church ; and afterwards to the market
cross of the same city ; and there in token of maledic-
tion and curse, and to the terror and example of otiiers ;
and Tor a perpetual remembrance of his obstinacy and
condemnation, to be burned. Likewise we declare and
decree, that notwithstanding, if the said John Borthwick
be hereafter ajjprehended and taken, he shall sufl"er such
like punishment due by order of law unto heretics,
without any hope of grace, or mercy to be obtained in
that I.ehalf. Also we plainly admonish and warn, bv the
terjur of these presents, all and singular faithful cliris-
tians, both men and women, of what dignity, state, de-
cree, order, condition, or pre-eminence soever they be,
or with whatever dignity, or honour ecclesiastical, or
temporal they be honoured, that from this day forward
they do not receive or harbour the said Sir Jolin
Bortliwick, commonly called Captain Borthwick, be-
ing accused, convicted, and declared a heretic, and
arch-heretic, into their houses, hospitals, castles,
cities, towns, villages, or other cottages, whatever they
be, or by any manner of means admit him thereunto,
either by helping him with meat, drink, or victuals, or
any other thing whatever it be, they do shew unto him
any m:iimer of humanity, help, comfort, or solace, under
the jiaiii and penalty of greater and further excommuni-
cation, confiscation and forfeitures ; and if it happen
that they be found culpable or faulty in the premises,
that tliey shall be accused therefore as the favourers, re-
ceivers, defenders maintainers, and abettors of heretics,
and shall be punished therefore according to the order of
law, and with such pain and punishment as shall be due
unto men in such behalf.''
And now to prosecute such others as followed, begin-
ning first in order with Thomas Forrest and his fellows :
their history is as follows :
Not long after the burning of David Straiton and
Master (iourlay, in the days of David Beaton, cardinal,
and archbisliop of St. Andrews ; and George Crichton,
bishop of Dunkeld ; a canon of St. Colme's Inche, and
vicar of Dolone, called Dean Thomas Forrest, preached
every Sunday to his parishioners out of the epistle or
gospel, as it fell for the time ; which, then, was a great
novelty in Scotland, to see any man preach, excejit a
Black friar, or a Gray friar ; and therefore the friars
envied him, and accused him to the bishop of Dunkeld
(in whose diocese he remained) as a heretic, and one
that shewed the mysteries of the scriptures, to the vulgar
people, in English, to make the clertry detestable in the
sight of the people. The bishop of Dunkeld, moved by
the instigation of the friars, called Dean Thomas, and
said to him ; " Dean Thomas, I love you well, and there-
fore I must give you counsel, how you shall rule and
guide yourself." To whom Thomas said: "I thank
your lordship heartily." Then the bishop began his
counsel after this manner. —
" Dean Thomas, I am informed that you preach the
epistle, or gospel, eveuy Sunday to your parishioners,
and that you take not the cowl, nor the uppermost cloth
from your parishioners, which thing is very prejudicial
to the churchmen ; and therefore. Dean Thomas, I would
you took your cowl, and your uppermost cloth, as other
churchmen do, or else it is too much to preach every
Sunday ; for in so doing you may make the people think
that we should preach likewise. But it is enough for
you, when you find any good epistle, or any good gos-
pel, that sets forth the liberty of the holy church, to
preach that, and let the rest alone."
Thomas answered ; " IMy lord, I think that none of
my parishioners will complain that I take not the cowl,
nor the uppermost cloth, but will gladly give me the
same, together with any other thing that they have, and
I will give and communicate with them any thing that I
have, and so, my lord, we agree right well, and there is
no discord among us.
"And where your lordship saith, it is too much to
preach every Sunday ; indeed I think it is too little, and
also would wish that your lordship did the like."
" Nay, nay. Dean Thomas," said the bishop ; " let that
be; for we are not ordained to preach." Then said
Thomas ; " Where your lordship bids me preach, when
I find any good epistle, or a good gospel, truly, my lord,
I have read the New Testament and the Old, and all the
epistles and gospels, and among them all I could never
find an evil epistle, or an evil gospel ; but if your lord-
ship will shew me the good epistle, and the good gospel,
and the evil epistle, and the evil gospel, then I shall
preach the good, and omit the evil." Then spake my
lord stoutly, and said, " I thank God that I never knew
what the New and Old Testament was" (and of these
words rose a proverb which is common in Scotland :
' Ye are hke the bishop of Dunkeld, that knew neither
new nor old law'), "therefore. Dean Thomas, 1 will know
nothing but my mass book, and my pontifical. Go your
way, and leave oft' all these fantasies ; for if you perse-
vere in these erroneous opinions, you will repent it v.hen
you may not mend it." Thomas said; "I trust my
cause is just in the presence of God, and therefore I care
not much what follows;" and so my lord and he se-
parated at that time. And soon after a summons was
directed from the cardinal of St. Andrews, and the bi-
shop of Dunkeld, upon the Dean Thomas Forrest, upon
two Black friars, called Friar John Kelore, and another
called Beverage, and upon a priest of Stirling, called
Duncan Simpson, and one gentleman called Robert
Forster, in Stirling, with 'other three or four with them
of the town of Stirling, who, at the day of their appear-
ance, were condemned to death vrithout any oppor-
tunity for recantation, because fas was alleged) they
622
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
[Book VIIT.
were heresiarch, or chief heretics and teachers of heresy ;
and especially because many of them were at tlie ijridal
and marriage of a priest, wlw was vicar of Twybody,
beside Stirling ; and did eat flesh in Lent, at the bridal,
and so they were all together burnt upon the castle hill,
Edinburgh, where they that were first bound to the
stake godly and marvellously comforted them who came
behind.
The persecution, by the Cardinal of Scotland, against
certain persons in Perth.
There was a certain act of parliament made in the
government of the lord Hamilton, earl of Arran, and
governor of Scotland, giving privilege to all men of the
realm of Scotland, to read the scriptures in their mother
tongue ; forbidding, nevertheless, all reasoning, confer-
ence, or convocation of people to hear the scriptures read
or expounded. Which liberty of private reading, being
granted by public proclamation, bore fruit ; so that in
several parts of Scotland there were opened the eyes
of the servants of God to see the truth, and abhor the
papistical abominations.
At this time there was a sermon made by Friar Spense,
in Perth, afhrming prayer made to saints to be so neces-
sary, that without it there could be no hoi)e of salvation
to man. Which blasphemous doctrine, a burgess of the
town, Robert Lamb, could not bear, but accused him
publicly of erroneous doctrine, and adjured him in God's
name to utter the truth. This the friar, being stricken
with fear, promised to do ; but the trouble, tumult, and
stir of the people increased so, that the friar could have
no audience, and yet Robert, with great danger of his
life, escaped the hands of the multitude, especially of the
■women, who were proceeding to extreme cruelty against
him.
At this time, (A.D. 1543,") the enemies of the truth
procured John Charters, who favoured the truth,
and was provost of the city and town of Perth, to
be deposed from his office by the governor's authority,
and a papist called Master Alexander Marbeck chosen
in his room, that they might accomplish the more easily
their wicked and ungodly j)urpose.
After deposing the former provost, and electing the
other, in the month of January there came to Perth the
goveanor, the cardinal, the earl of Argyle, justice Sir
John Campbell, of Lundie, knight, and Justice Defort,
the lord Botthwick, the bishops of Dunblane, and
Orkney, with others of the nobility. And although
there were many accused for the crime of heresy, as they
called it, yet the following persons only were apprehended
at that time ; Robert Lamb, William Anderson, James
Hunter, James Reveleson, James Founleson, and Hellen
Stirke, his wife, and were cast that night into the Spay
Tower of the city, on the morrow after, to receive judg-
ment.
The next day when they appeared, and were brought
forth to judgment, there was laid in general to all their
charge the violating of the act of parliament before ex-
pressed, and their conference and assemblies in hearing
and expounding of the scriptures against the tenor of the
act. Roliert Lamb was accused especially for interrupt-
ing the friar in the pulpit, which he not only confessed,
but also confirmed constantly, that it was the duty of no
man, who understood and knew the truth, to hear the
same impugned without contradiction ; and therefore
many who were there present in judgment, who hid the
knowledge of the truth, should bear the burden in God's
presence for consenting. This Robert, also, with Wil-
liam Anderson, and James Raveleson, were accused for
hanging up the image of St. Francis in a cord, nailing
rams' horns to his head, and a cow's rump to his tail,
and for eathig of a goose on AUhallow even.
James Hunter, being a simple man and without learn-
ing, could be charged with no great knowledge in doc-
trine, yet because he often frequented that suspected
company, he was accused.
The woman, Hellen Stirke, was accused because in
her childbed she was not accustomed to call upon the
name of the Virgin Mary, but only upon God for Jesu9
Christ's sake, and because she said, that if she herself
had been in the time of the Virgin INIary, God might
have looked to her humility and base estate, as he did
to the virgin's, in niaking her the mother of Christ;
thereby meaning, that there were no merits in the
virgin, which procured her that honour to be made the
mother of Christ, and to be preferred before other
women, but only God's free mercy exalted her to that
estate. Which words were counted most execrable in the
face of all the clergy, and of the whole multitude.
James Raveleson, when building a house, set upon
the top of his fourth stair the three crowned diadem of
Peter, made of wood, which the cardinal took as done in
mocking of his cardinal's hat, and this procured no fa-
vour to James at their hands.
These persons were condemned and judged to death,
and that by an assize, for violating, as was alleged, the
act of parliament, in reasoning and conferring upon the
scriptures ; for eating flesh upon days forbidden ; for
interrupting the holy friar in the pulpit ; for dishonour-
ing images, and blaspheming the Virgin Mary.
After their sentence was given, their hands were bound,
and the men cruelly treated. Which the woman behold-
ing, desired likewise to be bound by the sergeants with
her husband for Christ's sake.
There was great intercession made by the people of
the town for the life of these persons to the governor,
who of himself was willing to have done so, that they
might have been delivered. But the governor was so
under subjection to the cruel priests, that he could not
do what he would. Yea, they threatened to assist his
enemies and to depose him. except he assisted their
cruelty.
There were some priests in the city, who ate and
drank before in these honest men's houses, to whom the
priests were much bound. These priests were earnestly
desired to intreat for them at the cardinal's hands ; but
they altogether refused, desiring rather their death than
preservation. So cruel are these wicked men from the
lowest to the highest.
Then they were carried by a great band of armed men,
(for they feared rebellion in the town except they had
their men of war) to the place of execution, which was
common to all thieves, and that to make their cause ap-
pear more odious to the people.
Robert Lamb, at the foot of the gallows, made his ex-
hortation to the people, desiring them to fear God, and
leave the leaven of papistical abominations. So every
one comforting another, and assuring themselves that
they should sup together in the kingdom of heaven that
night, they commended themselves to God, and died
constantly in the Lord.
His wife desired earnestly to die with her husband,
but she was not suffered ; yet following him to the place
of execution, she gave him comfort, exhorting him to
perseverance and patience for Christ's sake, and parting
from him with a kiss, said, " Husband, rejoice, for we
have lived together many joyful days ; but this day in
which we must die, ought to be most joyful unto us both,
because we must have joy for ever ; therefore I will not
bid you good night, for we shall suddenly meet vrith joy
in the kingdom of heaven." After that she was taken
to a place to be drowned, and although she had a child
sucking at her breast, yet this moved not the unmerci-
ful hearts of her enemies. So after she had commended
her children to the neighbours of the town for God's
sake, and the child was given to the nurse, she sealed
the truth by her death.
The Condemnation of Master George Wishart, ivko
suffered Martyrdom, A.D. L546.
I will solicit the attention of the reader to the un-
charitable manner of the accusation of Master George
Wishart, by the bloody enemies of Christ's faith. Note
also the articles of which he was accused, and his meek
answers. Finally, ponder on the furious rage and tragical
cruelty of the malignant church of Rome, in persecuting
this blessed man of God ; and his humble, patient, and
most godly answers made to them at the moment, without
regarding their menacings and threats, but not moving
his countenance nor changing his visage.
A. D. 1540—1547.]
GEORGE WISHART.
623
But before I advert to his articles, I thought it not
impertinent to touch somewhat cocicerning the life and
conversation of this godly man, according as it came to
my hands, certified in writing by a scholar of Wishart,
named Emery Tylney, whose words, as he wrote them
to me, here follow : —
" About the year 1543, there was in the University
of Cambridge one Mr. George Wish.irt, commonly
called Mr. George of Benet's college, a man of tall sta-
ture ; judged by his physiognomy to be of a melancholy
disposition, black-haired, long-bearded, comely of per-
son, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous,
lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn, and well-
travelled ; never having on him for his habit or clothing
but a mantle or frieze-gown to the shoes, a black millian
fustian doublet, and plain black hose, coarse new can-
vass for his shirts, and white falling bands and cutfs at
his hands. All which apparel he gave to the poor, some
weekly, some monthly, some quarterly, as he liked,
saving his French cap, which he kept the whole year of
my being with him.
" He was a man modest, temperate, fearing God,
hating covetousness ; for his charity had never end,
night, noon, nor day ; he forbore one meal in three, one
day in four for the most part, except something to com-
fort nature. He lay hard upon a puff of straw, and
coarse new canvass sheets, which, when he changed, he
gave away. He had commonly by his bedside a tub of
water, in which (his people being in bed, the candle put
out, and all quiet) he used to bathe himself, as I being
very young, being assured, often heard him, and in one
light night discerned him ; he loved me tenderly, and I
him, for my age, as effectually. He taught with great
modesty and gravity, so that some of liis people thought
him severe, and would have slain him ; but the Lord was
his defence. And he, after due correction for their
malice, by good exhortation, amended them and went his
way. O that the Lord had left him to me his poor boy,
that he might have finished what he had begun ! For
in his religion he was as you see here in the rest of his
life, when he went into Scotland, with some of the no-
biUty, that came for a treaty to king Henry VIII. His
learning was no less sufficient than his desire ; always
pressed and ready to do good in that he was able, both
in the house privately, and in the school publicly, pro-
fessing and readirig divers authors.
" If I should declare his love to me, and all men, his
charity to the poor, in giving, relieving, caring, helping,
providing, yea, infinitely studying how to do good unto
all, and hurt to none, I should sooner want words than
just cause to commend him.
" All this 1 testify with my whole heart, and truth of
this godly man. He that made all, governeth all, and
shall judge all, knoweth that I speak the truth, that the
simple may be satisfied, the arrogant confounded, the
hypocrite disclosed.
" Emery Tylney."
Master George Wishart was in captivity in the castle
of St. Andrews, where the dean of the town was sent by
command of the cardinal to summon him, that he should
upon the morning foUovring appear before the judge, to
give an account of his seditious and hei'etical doctrine.
To whom Master George answered, " What need my
lord cardinal to summon me to answer for my doctrine
before him, under whose power and dominion I am thus
bound with irons ? May not my lord compel me to an-
swer by his power .' Or believes he that I am unpre-
pared to render account of my doctrine ?"
On the next morning, the cardinal caused his servants
to dress themselves in their most warhke array, wdth all
their arms, more prepared for war than for the preaching
of the word of God. And when these armed champions,
marching in warhke order, had conveyed the bishops
into the abbey church, they sent for Master George, who
was conveyed into the church by the captain of the
castle, accompanied by a hundred men-at-arms ; like a
lamb they led him to the sacrifice. As he entered into
the abbey church door, there was a poor man lying
there afflicted with great infirmities, who asked of him
alms, to whom he Hung his purse. And when he came
before the lord cardinal, the subprior of the abbey,
called dean John Winryme, stood up in the pulpit, and
made a sermon to all the congregation, taking his mat-
ter out of Matthew xiii., whose sermon was divided into
four principal parts.
The first part was a brief and short declaration of the
evangelist.
The second part of the interpretation of the good seed.
And because he called the word of God the good seed,
and heres}' the evil seed, lie declared what heresy was,
and how it may be known; wliich he defined in this
manner, " Heresy is a false opinion defended with per-
tinacity, clearly contrary to the word of God."
The third part of the sermon was, the cause of heresy
within that and other realms. The cause of heresy is
the ignorance of those who have the cure of souls ; to
whom It necessarily belongs to have the true understands
ing of the word of God, that they may be able to win
the false teachers of heresies, with the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God ; and not only to win
again, but also to overcome them, as says St. Paul :
" For a bishop nmst be blameless, as the steward of God ;
not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no
striker, not given to filthy lucre ; but a lover of hospi-
tality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate ;
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort
and to convince the gainsayers." Titus i. 7— y.
The fourth part of his sermon was how heresies should
be known. Heresies (said he) are known after this
manner : as the goldsmith knows the fine gold from the
imperfect by the touchstone, so bkewise may we know
heresy by the undoubted touchstone, that is, the true,
sincere, and undefiled word of God. At last he added,
that heretics should be put down in this present life :
which proposition the gospel appeared to contradict.;
" Let them grow together till the harvest ;" the harvest is
the end of the world. Nevertheless, he affirmed that
they should be put down by the civil magistrate and
the law. And when he ended his sermon, they caused
Master George to ascend the pulpit, there to hear his
accusation and articles. And right against them stood
John Lauder, laden fuU of curses written on paper ;
who took out a roll, both long and full of cursings,
threats, maledictions, and words of devilish spite and
malice, saying to the innocent Master George so many
cruel and abominable words, and he hit him so spite-
fully with tTie pope's thunder, that the ignorant people
dreaded lest the earth would have speedily swallowed
him up. Notwithstanding he stood still with great
patience, hearing their sayings, not once moving or
changing his countenance.
When this well-fed priest had read through all his
menacings, his face running down with sweat, and
frothing at his mouth like a boar, he spit at Master
George's face, saying, " What answerest thou to these
sayings, thou runagate traitor, tliief, which we have duly
proved by sufficient witness against thee ?'' Master
George hearing this, kneeled down upon his knees in
the pulpit, making his prayer to God. When he had
ended his prayer, sweetly and christianly he answered
to them all as follows : —
" Many horrible sayings and many abominable words
ye have spoken here this day, which not only to teach,
but also to think, I thought a great abomination.
Wherefore I pray you quietly to hear me, that you may
know what were my sayings and the manner of my doc-
trine. This my petition, my lord, I desire to be heard
for three causes.
" The first is, because through preaching of the word
of God^ his glory is made manifest. It is reasonable,
therefore, for the advancing of the glory of God, that
you hear me, teaching truly the pure word of God,
without any dissimulation.
"The second reason is, because that your salvation
springs from the word of God ; for he works all things
by his word. It were therefore an unrighteous thing if
«24
GEORGE WISHART.
[Book VIII.
you should stop your ears from me, teaching truly the
word of God.
" The third reason is, because your doctrine utters
many blasphemous and abominable words, not coming
from the inspiration of God, but of the de\'il, with no less
peril tlian that of my life. It is just, therefore, and
reasonable that you should know what my words and
dortrine are, that I perish not unjustly, to the great
peril of your souls. Wherefore, both for the glory and
honour of God, your own salvation, and safety of my
life, I beseech you to hear me, and I shall recite my
doctrine without any colour.
" First and chiefly, since the time I came into this
realm I taught nothing but the commandnients of God,
the twelve articles of the creed, and the Lord's prayer
in the mother tongue. INIoreover, in Dundee I taught
the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. And I shall
show you faitlifuUy what manner I used when I taught.
Then suddenly with a loud voice, the accuser cried,
" Thou heretic, runnagate, traitor, and thief, it was not
lawful for thee to preach. Thou hast taken the power into
thine own hand, without any authority of the cliurch.
We forethink that thou hast been a preacher so long."
Then all the whole congregation of the prelates, with
their accomplices, exclaimed, " If we give him license
to preach, he is so crafty, and in the holy scripture so
exercised, that he will persuade the people to his
opinion, and raise them against us."
Master George seeing their malicious and wicked in-
tention, appealed from the lord cardinal to the lord
governor, as to an indifferent and equal judge. To
whom the accuser, John Lauder, answered, " Is not
my lord cardinal the second person within this realm,
chancellor of Scotland, archbishop of St. Andrews,
bishop of Meropois, commendator of Aberbrothwick, le-
gatus natns, legatus a latere? And so reciting a long
list of titles, he asked, " Is not my lord cardinal an
equal judge .' Whom other desirest thou to be thy
judge .'"
To whom this humble man answered, " I refuse not
my lord cardinal ; but I desire the word of God to be
my judge, and the temporal estate ; with some of your
lordships mine auditors ; because I am here my lord
governor's piisoner." Wliereupon the proud and scorn-
ful people that stood by mocked him, saying, " Such
man, such judge I speaking seditious and reproachful
words against the governor, and others the nobles,
meaning them also to be heretics." And without delay
they would have given sentence upon Master George,
without further process, had not certain men counselled
the cardinal to read the articles, and to hear his an-
swers, that the people might not complain of his con-
demnation.
These were the articles following, with his answers, as
far as they would give him leave to speak. For when he
intended to answer their charges, and shew his doctrine,
they stopped his mouth with another article.
1. " Thou false heretic, runnagate, traitor, and thief,
deceiver of the people, thou despisest the holy church,
and in it contemnest my lord governor's authority.
And this we know for surety, that when thou preached
in Dundee, and was charged by my lord governor's
authority to desist, nevertheless thou wouldst not obey,
but persevered in the same; and, therefore, the bishop of
Brechin cursed thee, and delivered thee into the devil's
hands, and gave thee in commandment that thou shouldst
preach no more. That, notwithstanding, thou didst con-
tinue obstinately."'
" My lords, 1 have read in the Acts of the Apostles,
that it is not lawful to desist from the preaching of the
gospel for the threats and menaces of men. Therefore
it is written, ' We ought to obey God ratbfr than men.'
(Acts V. 29.) I have also read in the prophet Malachi,
' I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse
your blessings.' (Mai. ii. 2.) Believing firmly, that
the Lord will turn your cursings into blessings."
2. "Thou false heretic didst say, that the priest stand-
ing at the altar saying mass, was like a fox wagging his
taU."
** My lords, I said not so ; these were my sayings :
The moving of the body outward, without the inward
moving of the heart, is nought else but the playing of
an ape, and not the true serving of God. For God is a
searcher of men's hearts ; therefore who will truly
adore and honour God, he must in spirit and truth
honour him."
,'5. " Thou false heretic didst preach against the sacra*
ments, saying, tliat there were not seven sacraments."
" My lords, if it be your pleasures, I never taught of
the number of the sacraments, whether they were seven
or eleven. So many as are instituted by Christ are
shewed to us by the gospel. I profess them openly ;
and except it be the word of God I dare affirm nothing."
4. " Thou false heretic hast openly taught, that auri-
cular confession is not a blessed sacrament. And thou
sayest that we should only confess to God, and to no
priest."
" My lords, I say, that auricular confession, seeing
that it has no promise of the gospel, cannot be a sacra-
ment. Of the confession to be made to God, there are
many testimonies in scrijiture, as when David saith,
' I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my
sin.' (Psalm xxxii. 5.) Here confession signifies the
secret knowledge of our sins before God. When I ex-
horted the people in this manner, I reproved no manner
of confession. And further, St. James saith, ' Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed.' " (James iii. 16.)
When he had said these words, the bishops and their
accomplices cried, and gnashed their teeth, saying,
" See you not what colours he has in his speaking, that
he may beguile us, and seduce us to his opinion .■■"
5. " Thou heretic didst openly say, that it was neces-
sary to every man to know and understand his baiiti.«m,
and what it was, contrary to general councils, and the
estate of the holy church."
" My lords, I believe there are none so unwise here,
that will make merchandise with a Frenchman, or any
other unknown stranger, except he know and under-
stand first the condition or promise made by the French-
man, or stranger : so, likewise, I would that we under-
stood what we promise to God, in the name of the in-
fant in baptism. For this cause I believe you have
confirmation."
Then said Master Bleiter, chaplain, that he had the
devil within him, and the spirit of error. Then a child
answered him, saying, " The devil cannot speak such
words as yonder man speaks."
6. " Thou heretic, traitor, thief, thou saidst that the
sacrament of the altar was but a piece of bread baked
upon the ashes, and nothing else ; and aU that is there
done, is but a superstitious rite against the command-
ment of God."
" Oh Lord God ! so manifest lies and blasphemies
the scripture does not teach you. As concerning the
sacrament of the altar, my lords, I never taught any-
thing against the scriptures, which I shall by God's grace
make manifest this day ; being ready to suffer death
for it.
" The lawful use of the sacrament is most acceptable
to God ; but the great abuse of it is very detestable to
him. But what occasion they have to say such words
of me, I shall shew your lordships. I once chanced to
meet with a Jew, when I was sailing on the Rhine.
I inquired of him what was the cause of his pertinacity,
that he did not believe that the true Messias was come,
considering that they had seen all the prophecies which
were spoken of him fulfilled ? Moreover the prophecies
taken away, and the sceptre of Judah, and by many
other testimonies of the scripture I proved to him that
Messias was come, whom they called Jesus of Nazareth.
This Jew answered again, ' When Messias comes, he shall
restore all things, and he shall not abrogate the law,
which was given to our forefathers, as ye do. For why ?
we see the poor almost perish through hunger amongst
you ; yet you are not moved with pity toward them ;
but amongst us Jews (though we are poor), there are no
beggars found. — Secondly : it is forbidden by the law
A.D. ir)40— 15-ir.]
GEORGE WISHART.
625
to feign any kind of imagery of things in heaven above,
or in the earth beneath, or in the sea under the earth,
but one God only is to be honoured ; but your sanc-
tuaries and churches are full of idols. — Thirdly : a piece
of bread baken upon the ashes you adore and worship,
and say, that it is your God.' I have rehearsed here
but the sayings of the Jew, which I never affirmed to be
true."
Then the bishops shook their heads, and spit on the
earth.
7. " Thou false heretic didst say, that extreme unction
was not a sacrament."
" My lords, I never taught anything of extreme unc-
tion in my doctrine, whether it were a sacrament or
not."
8. " Thou false heretic saidst, that holy water is not
so good as wash, and such like. Thou didst condemn
conjuring, and said, that holy church's cursings avail
not."
" My lords, as for holy water, I taught nothing about
it in my doctrine. Conjurings and exorcisms, if they
were conformable to the word of God, I would commend
them ; but as they are not conformable to the com-
mandment and word of God, I reprove them."
9. " Thou false heretic and runnagate hast said, that
every layman is a priest, and such-like. Thou saidst,
that the pope hath no more power than any other man.''
" My lords, I taught nothing but the word of God.
I remember that I have read in some places in St. John
and St. Peter, of whom one says, ' And hath made us
kings and priests.' (Rev. i. G.) The other says, ' But ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.' (1 Pet. ii. 9.)
Wherefore I have affirmed, that any man being skilful
in the word of God, and the true faith of Jesus Christ,
has this power from God, and not by the power or vio-
lence of men, but by the virtue of the word of God,
which word is called ' The power of God,' (Rom. i.
16.) as witnesses St. Paul e\'idently enough. And
again I say, that any iinlearned man, not exercised in
the word of God, nor yet constant in his faith, whatever
estate or order he be of, I say, he has no power to bind
or loose, seeing he wants the instrument by which he
binds or looses, that is to say, the word of God."
After that he had said these words, all the bishops
laughed, and mocked him. When he beheld their
laughing, " Laugh ye," said he, " my lords ? Though
these sayings appear scornful, and worthy of derision
to your lordships, nevertheless they are very weighty
to me, and of great value, because they concern not
only myself, but also the honour and glory of God."
In the meantime, many godly men beholding the great
cruelty of the bishops, and the invincible patience of
Master George, greatly mourned and lamented.
ro. " Thou false heretic saidst, that a man hath no
free will, but is like to the Scoics, who say, that it is not
in man's will to do anything ; but that all concupiscence
and desire comes by God, whatever kind it be of."
" My lords, I said not so, truly ; 1 say, that as many
as believe in Christ firmly, to them is given liberty,
conformable to the saying- of St. John, ' If the Son,
therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.'
(John viii. 36.) On the contrary, as many as believe
not in Christ Jesus, they are bond-servants of sin.
* Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.' "
(John viii. 31.)
11. " Thou false heretic saidst, it is as lawful to eat
flesh upon the Friday, as on Sundays."
" I have read in the epistles of St. Paul, that who is
clean, unto him all things are clean. On the contrary,
to the filthy man all things are unclean. A faithful
man, clean and holy, sanctifies by the word, the creature
of God. But the creature makes no man acceptable to
God. So tliat a creature may not sanctify any impure
and unfaithful man. But to the faithful man all things
are ' sanctified by the word of God and prayer.' "
(1 Tim. iii. 5.)
After these sayings of Master George, then said all
the bishops with their accomplices, " What need we any
witness against him ? Has he not openly here spoken
blasphemy .'"
12. " Thou false heretic didst say, that we should not
pray to saints, but to God only. Say whether thou hast
said this, or not ; speak shortly."
For the weakness and infirmity of the hearers he
said, without doubt plainly, that saints should not be
honoured. " My lord," said he, " there are two things
worthy of note. The one is certain ; the other uncer-
tain. It is found plainly and certain in scripture, that
we should worship and honour one God, according to
the saying of the first commandment, ' Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve.' (Matt. iv. 10.) But as for praying to and
honouring of saints, there is great doubt among many
whether they hear or not invocation made to them.
Therefore I exhorted all men equally in my doctrine,
that they should leave the unsure way, and follow that
way which was taught us by our Master Christ. He is
our only Mediator, and makes intercession for us to
God his Father. He is the door by which we must en-
ter in. He that entereth not in by tiiis door, but
clirabeth up another way, is a thief and a murderer.
He is the Truth and the Life. He that goeth out of
this way, there is no doubt but he shall fall into the
mire ; yea, verily, is fallen into it already. This is my
doctrine, which I have ever followed. Verily, that
which I have heard and read in the word of God I
taught openly, and in no corners. And now ye shall
witness the same, if your lordships will hear me. Ex-
cept it stand by the word of God, I dare not be so bold
as to affirm anything."
13. " Thou false heretic hast preached plainly, say-
ing, that there is no purgatory ; and that it is a feigned
thing, that any man after tliis life can be punished in
purgatory."
" My lords, as I have oftentimes said heretofore,
without witness and testimony of the scriptures I dare
affirm nothing. 1 have oftentimes read over the Bible,
and yet such a term I never found, nor yet any place of
scripture applicable to it. Therefore I was ashamed to
teach that which I could not find in the scriptures."
Tlien said he to Master John Lauder," his accuser,
" If you have any testimony of the scriptures, by which
you may prove any such place, shew it now before this
auditory." But this accuser had not a word to say for
himself, but was as dumb as a beetle in that matter.
14. " Thou false heretic hast taught plainly against
the vows of monks, friars, nuns, and priests; saying,,
that whoever was bound to such vows, they vowed,
themselves to the estate of damnation. Moreover, that
it was lawful for priests to marry wives, and not to live
single."
" My lords, I have read in the gospel, that as many
as have not the gift of chastity, nor yet have overcome
the concupiscence of the flesh, nor have vowed chas-
tity, should marry. You have experience, although I
should hold my peace, to what inconvenience they have
vowed themselves."
When he had said these words, they were all dumb,
thinking it better to have ten concubines, than one mar-
ried wife.
15. " Thou false heretic and runnagate saidst, thou
wilt not obey our general nor provincial councils."
" My lords, what your general councils are I know
not, I was never exercised in them ; but to the pure
word of God I gave my labours. Read here your ge-
neral council, or else give me a book wherein they are
contained, that I may read them. If they agree with,
the word of God, I will not disagree.''
Then the ravening wolves said, " W'herefore let him
speak any further ? Read forth the rest of the articles,
and stay not upon them."
Among these cruel tigers there was one false hypo-
crite, a seducer of the people, called John Graifind
Scot, standing behind John Lauder, hastening him to
read the rest of the articles, and not to tarry upon his
godly answers. " For we may not listen to them," said
he, " any more than the devil may abide the sign of
the cross.''
16. " Thou heretic saidst, that it is in vain to build to
the honour of God costly churches, seeing that God re-
s s 2
626
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
mains not in the churches made with men's hands, nor
yet can God be in so little space as between the priest's
hands." •
" My lords, Solomon says, ' Behold, the heaven and
heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how much less
this house that I have builded ?' (1 Kings viii. 27.)
And Job consents to the same sentence ; ' Canst thou
by searching find out God .' canst thou find out the
Almighty unto perfection ? It is high as heaven ; what
canst thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst thou
know ? The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea.' (Job xi. 7 — 9.) So that
God cannot l)e comprehended in one place, because he
is intiiiite. Notwithstanding these sayings, I never said
that churches should be destroyed ; but of the contrary
I afSnn ever, that churches should be sustained and up-
holden ; that the people should be congregated into
them, tliere to hear of God. And moreover, whereso-
ever is true preaching of the word of God, and the law-
ful use of the sacraments, undoubtedly there is God
himself; so that both these sayings are true together;
God cannot be comprehended in any place, and where-
soever two or three are gathered together in his name,
there is he present in the midst of them.''
Then said he to his accuser, " If you think any
otherwise than I say, shew forth your reasons before
this auditory." Then he without all reason being
dumb, and not answering one word, proceeded forth in
bis articles.
17. " Thou false heretic contemnest fasting, and said
thou should not fast."
" My lord, I find that fasting is commended in the
scripture ; therefore I were a slanderer of the gospel, if
I contemned fasting. And not only so, but I have
learned by esperience, that fasting is good for the health
of the body ;'but God knows who fasts the true fast."
18. " Thou false heretic hast preached openly, saying,
that the soul of man shall sleep till the latter day of
judgment, and shall not obtain life immortal until that
day."
" God, full of mercy and goodness, forgive them that say
such thhigs of me : I know surely by the word of God,
that he who has begun to have the faith of Jesus Christ, |
and believes firmly in him, I know surely that the soul
of that man shall never sleep, but shall live an immortal
life. Which life from day to day is renewed in grace
and augmented ; nor yet shall ever perish or have an end,
but shall ever live immortal with Christ. To which life
all that believe in him shall come, and rest in eternal
glory. Amen."
When the bishops with their accomplices had accused
this innocent man in this manner, they condemned him
to be burnt as an heretic, having no respect to bis godly
answers and true reasons, nor yet to their own con-
sciences, thinking verily they should do to God good
sacrifice, conformable to the saying in St. John, " They
sViall put thee out of the synagogues : yea, the time
Cometh, that whosoever killech you will think that he
doeth God service." Johnxvi. 2.
The Prayer of Master George Wishart.
" O immortal God, how long shalt thou suffer the
great cruelty of the ungodly to exercise their fury upon
thy servants who further thy word in this world, seeing
they desire to be contrary, that is, to choke and destroy
the true doctrine and verity, by the which thou hast
shewed thyself unto the world, which was all drowned in
blindness and ignorance of thy name. O Lord, we
know surely that thy true servants must needs suffer,
for thy name's sake, persecution, affliction and troubles
in this present life, which is but a shadow, as thou hast
shewed to us, by thy prophets and ai)ostles. But yet
we desire thee heartily, that thou keep, defend and
help thy congregation, which thou hast chosen before
the beginning of the world, and give them thy grace to
hear thjfcword^ and to be thy true servants in this pre-
sent life."
Then they caused the common people to dejiart, whose
[Book VIII.
desire was always to hear that innocent man speak.
Then the sons of darkness pronounced their sentence,
not having respect to the judgment of God. And when
all this was done, the cardinal caused his warders to
pass again with the meek lamb into the castle, until such
time as the fire was made ready. When he was come
into the castle, then tliere came two gray fiends, friar
Scot and his mate, saying, " Sir, you must make your
confession to us.'' He answered and said, " I will make
no confession to you. Go fetch me yonder man that
preached this day, and I will make my confession to
him.'' Then they sent for the sub-prior of the abbey,
who came to him witb all diligence, but what he said
in this confession, I cannot snew.
When the fire was made ready, and the gallows erected,
at the west part of the castle near to the priory, the lord
cardinal dreading lest Master George should be taken away
by his friends, commanded that all the ordnance of the
castle should be turned against that part, and that all
his gunners should be ready and stand by their guns.
until such time as he was burned. All this being done,
they bound Master George's hands behind his back, and
led him forth with their soldiers from the castle, to tlie
place of execution. As he came forth from the castle
gate, there met him certain beggars asking him alms for
God's sake. To whom he answered, " I want my hands
wherewith I should give you alms, but the merciful Lord,
of his benignity and abundance of grace, vouchsafe to
give you necessaries both to your bodies and souls."
Then afterward met him two false fiends, I should say,
friars, saying, " Master George, pray to our Lady, that
she may be mediatrix for you to her Son.'' To whom he
answered meekly, " Cease, tempt me not, my brethren."
After this he was led to the fire with a rope about his
neck, and a chain of iron about his middle.
W^hen he came to the fire, he went down upon his
knees and rose again, and thrice lie said these words,
" O thou Saviour of the world, have mercy on me ! Fa-
ther of heaven, I commend my spirit into thy holy
hands.'' When he had made this prayer, he turned him
to the people and said these words :
" I beseech you, christian brethren and sisters, that
you be not offended in the word of God for the affliction
and torments, which ye see already prepared for me.
But I exhort you that you love the word of God, and
suffer patiently and with a comfortable heart for the
word's sake, which is your undoubted salvation, and
everlasting comfort.
" Moreover, I pray you shew my brethren and sisters,
who have heard me often before, that they cease not,
nor leave off the word of God which I taught to them,
after the grace given to me, for any persecutions or
troubles in this world, which last not ; and shew to tjiera
that my doctrine was no old wife's fables after the con-
stitutions made by men. And if I had taught men's
doctrine, I had gotten great thanks by men. But for the
world's sake and true gospel, which was given to me by
the grace of God, I suffer this day by men, not sorrow-
fully, but with a glad heart and mind. For this cause I
was sent, that I should suffer this fire for Christ's pake.
Consider, and behold my visage, you shall not see me
change my colour. This grim fire 1 fear not. And so I
pray you to do, if any persecution come to you for the
word's sake, and not to fear them that slay the body,
and afterward have no power to slay the soul. Some
have said of me, that I taught, that the soul of man
did sleep until the last day. But I know surely, and
my faith is such, that my soul shall sup with my Saviour
Christ this night, ere it be six hours." Then he prayed
for them who accused him, sajang, " I beseech thee,
Father of heaven, to forgive them that have, of any igno-
rance, or of any evil mind, forged any lies upon me ; I
forgive them with all my heart. I beseech Christ to
forgive them that have condemned me to death this day
ignorantly."
And last of all he spoke to the people in this manner ;
" I beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort your
]irelates to the learning of the word of God, that they at
last may be ashamed to do evil, and learn to do good.
And if they will not convert themselves from their
/
,^
\m\\ of Slisl)itti
Page 6-26.
A.D. 1540—1560.]
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
527
wicked errors, there shall hastily come upon them the
wrath of God, which they shall not escape." Many
faithful words said he iu the mean time, taking no heed
or care of the cruel torments, which were then prepared
for him.
And at last the hangman, that was his tormentor, sat
down upon his knees, and said; " Sir, I pray you for-
give me, for I am not guilty of your death." To whom
he answered, " Come hither to me." When he was
come to him, he kissed his cheek, and said, " Lo, here
is a token that I forgive thee. Do thine office ;" and by
and by he was put upon the gibbet and hanjed, and there
burnt to powder. When the people beheld the great
torment, ttiey could not withhold from piteous mourn-
ing and complaining of tens innocent iamb's slaugh-
ter.
The Martyrdom of Adam Wallace.
On a platform erected at the Black friars' church in
Edinburgh, there was the lord governor: behind him sat
Master Gawin Hamilton, dean of Glasgow, representing
the metropolitan pastor. Upon a seat on his right hand
sat the archbishop of St. Andrews. At his back stood
the official of Lothian. Next to the archbishop of St. An-
drews, sat the bishop of Dunblane, the bishop of Murray,
the abbot of Dunfermline, the abbot of Glenluce, with
other churchmen of that city : and at the other end of
the seat sat Master Ouchiltrie : on his left hand sat the
earl of Argyle, justice, with his deputy Sir John Camp-
bell, of Lundie. Next him the earl of Huntley. Then
the earl of Angus, the bishop of Galloway, the prior of
St. Andrews, the bishop of Orkney, the lord Forbes,
dean John Winryme, sub-prior of St. Andrews; and be-
hind the seats stood the whole senate, the clerk of the
register, &c.
At the further end of the chancel wall, in the pulpit,
was placed Master John Lauder, parson of Marbottle
the accuser, clad in a surplice and red hood, and a great
congregation of the people in the body of the church,
standing on the ground.
After that Adam Wallace was brought in, a simple
poor man in appearance, and was commanded to look to
the accuser ; who asked him what was his name ; he
answered, " Adam Wallace." Tlie accuser said he had
another name, which he granted, and said he was com-
monly called Feane. Then he asked where he was born ?
•' Within two miles of Fayle," said he, " in Kyle."
Then said the accuser, " I am sorry that such a poor
man as you should put these noble lords to so great in-
convenience this day by your vain speaking." " And I
must speak," said he, " as God gives me grace, and I
believe I have said no evil to hurt any body." " Would
God," said the accuser, "you had never spoken ; but
you are brought forth for such horrible crimes of here-
sies, as were never imagined nor heard of in this country
before, and shall be sufficiently proved, that you cannot
deny it."
" Adam Wallace, alias Feane: thou art openly accused
for preaching, saying, and teaching of the blasphemies
and abominable heresies under -written. First, thou
hast said and taught that the bread and wine on the
altar, after the words of consecration, are not the body
and blood of Jesus Christ."
He turned to the lord governor, and lords aforesaid,
saying; " I never said, nor taught any thing but what
1 found in this book (having there a Bible at his belt in
French, Dutch, and English) which is the word of God,
and if you will be content that the Lord God and his
word be my judge, where I have said wrong, I shall take
that punishment you shall put upon me ; for I never
said any thing concerning this that I am accused of,
but that which I found in this book."
" What didst thou say?" said the accuser. " I said,
answered he, " that after our Lord Jesus Christ had
eaten the paschal lamb in his last supper with his apos-
tles, and fulfilled the ceremonies of the old law, he in-
stituted a new sacrament in remembrance of his death
then to come. " And, as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his
disciples, and said. Take, eat; this is my body. And ho
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, say-
ing. Drink ye all of it : for this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remissioti
of sins." Matt. xxvi. 26 — 28. And in St. Luke it is
added, " This do in remembrance of me." Luke xtii.
19.
Then said the bishop of St. Andrews and the official
of Lothian, with the dean of Glasgow, and many other
prelates, " We know this well enough." The Earl of
H\intly said, " Thou answerest not to that which is laid
to thee ; say either nay or yea to it." He answered,
" If you will admit God and his word s))oken by the
mouth of his blessed vSon Jesus Christ our Lord and Sa-
viour, you will admit that which I have said ; for 1 have
said and taught nothing but what the Word, which is
the trial and touchstone says ; which ought to be judge,
to me, and to all the world."
" Why," said the Earl of Huntly, " Hast thou not a
judge good enough ? and think you that we know not God
and his word? Answer to that which is spoken to thee."
And then they made the accuser speak the same thing
over again. "Thou sayest," said the accuser, "and
hast taught, that the bread and wine in the sacrament of
the altar, after the words of the consecration, are not
the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ."
He answered, " I never said more than the written
word says ; for I know w-ell by St. Paul when he saith,
' Vrherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink
this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord. For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself, not discerning the Lord's body.' And there-
fore when I taught, which was but seldom, and to them
only who required and desired me, I said, ' That if the
sacrament of the altar were truly administered, and used
as the Son of the living God did institute it, where that
was done, there was God himself by his divine power.' "
The bishop of Orkney asked him, " Believest thou
not that the bread and wine in the sacrament of the altar,
after the words of consecration, is the very body of
God, flesh, blood, and bone ?''
He answered, " 1 know not what that word consecra-
tion means. I have not much Latin, but I beUeve that
the Son of God was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and
born of the Virgin Mary, and has a natural body, with
hands, feet, and other members, and in the same body
he walked up and down in the world, preached and
taught ; he suffered death under Pontius Pilate, was cru-
cified, dead, and buried, and that by his godly power
he raised that same body again the third day ; and the
same body ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the
right hand of the Father, who shall come again to judge
both the quick and the dead. And that this body is
a natural body, with hands and feet, and cannot be in
two places at once, he sheweth well himself; for which
everlasting thanks be to him who makes this matter clear.
When the woman brake that ointment on him, answer-
ing some of his disciples who grudged it, he said, ' The
poor you have always with you, but me ye have not al-
ways :' meaning his natural body. And likewise at his
ascension he said to the same disciples who were fleshly,
and would ever have had him remaining with them corpo-
rally, ' It is needful for you that I go away, for if I go
not away, the Comforter (the Holy Ghost) will not come
unto you;' (meaning that his natural body must betaken
away from them.) ' But be of good cheer ; for I am
with you always, until the end of the world.'
" And that the eating of his very flesh profits not.
may be well known by his words which he spake in
St. John ; where, after he had said, ' Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you ;' they murmured thereat, and
he reproved them for their gross and fleshly taking of
his words, and said, ' What and if ye shall see the Son of
Man ascend up where he was before ? It is the Spirit
that quickeneth; 'he flesh profiteth nothing;' to be eaten
as they took it, and even so take you it." (,vi. .i.j—b.i.,
" It is a horrible heresy," said the bishop of Orkney.
Then he was bid to hear the accuser, who propounded
C2S
SCHISM IN SCOTLAND ABOUT THE PATER-NOSTER.
[Book VIiI.
the second article, and said, " Thou saidst likewise, and
didst oi)enly teach that the mass is very idolatry, and
abominable in the si^ht of God."
" He answered and said, " I have read the word of
God in three tongues, and have understood tliem so far
as God gave me grace, and yet 1 never read that word
mass in it all : but I found that the thing that was high-
est and most in estimation amongst men, and not in the
word of God, was idolatry, and abominable in the sight
of God. And I say that the mass is holden greatly in
estimation amongst men and is not founded on the
Word ; there I said it was idolatry, and abominable in
the sight of God. But if any man will find it in the
scripture, and prove it by God's word, I will acknow-
ledge ray error, and will submit to all lawful correction
and punishment."
" Go to the third article," said the archbishop.
Then said the accuser, "Thou hast openly taught,
that the God whom we worship is but bread, sown of
corn, grown of the earth, baked of men's hands, and
nothing else.''
He answered, "I worship the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, three Persons in one Godhead, who
made and fashioned the heaven and earth, and all that
is therein ; but I know not what God you worship ; and
if you will show me whom you worship, I will show
you what he is, as I can by my judgment.''
" Believest thou not," said the accuser, " that the
sacrament of the altar, after the words of consecration
betwixt the priest's hands, is the very body and blood of
the Son of God, and God himself.'" " What the body
of God is," said he, "and what kind of body he has, I
have shewed you ; so far as I have found it declared in
the scriptures."
Then said theaccuser, " thouhast preached, and openly
taught other great errors and abominable heresy against
all the seven sacraments, which for shortness of time I
omit and pass over. Dost thou admit the articles that
thou art accused of or not .'" And then the accuser re-
peated the above three articles, and asked him whether
he granted or denied them ?
He answered as he had before said, and that he had
said nothing but what agreed with the holy word as
lie understood it, so God judge him, and his own con-
science accuse him ; and by that would he abide till the
time he were better instructed by the scriptures, even to
the death : and he said to the lord governor and other
lords, " If you condemn me for holding by God's word,
my innocent blood shall be required at your hands, when
ye shall be brought before the judgment-seat of Christ,
who is mighty to defend my innocent cause, before
whom you shall not deny it ; nor yet be able to resist
his wrath ; to whom I refer the vengeance, as it is
written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the
Lord.' "
Then they passed sentence, and condemned him, and
so left him to the secular power, in the hands of Sir John
Campbell, justice deputy, who delivered him to the pro-
vost of Edinburgh to be burned on the Castle-hill. He
was put in prison with irons about his legs and neck,
and given in charge to Sir Hugh Terry, to keep the
key, an ignorant minister, and a ready servant of
Satan and of the bishops ; who, by direction, sent to the
poor man two Gray friars to instruct him, with whom
he would not enter into any communication. Soon
after there was sent to him two Black friars, an English
friar, and another subtle sophist. Wallace would
have reasoned and declared his faith by the scriptures
■with the English friar; but he answered that he had no
commission to enter into disputation with him, and so
departed.
Then there was sent to him a worldly-wise man, though
nngodly in the understanding of the truth, the dean of
Roscalrige, who gave him christian consolation ; he
exhorted him to believe the reality of the sacrament after
the consecration ; but he would consent to nothing that
had not evidence in the holy scriptures, and so passed
over that night in singing and praising God to the tears
of many hearers, having learned tlie psalter of David
without book. For they had before spoiled him of his
bible, which, till after he was condL'mued, was alwavs
with him wherever he went. After Sir Hugh kue\v
that he had certain books to rend and comforc his spirit,
he came in a rage, and took the same from him, leaving
him destitute of consolation, and gave ungodly and in-
jurious provocations, in order to pervert the poor man
from the patience and hope he had in Christ his Saviour ;
but God suffered him not to be moved.
Thus this godly man abode in irons all night and all
the next morning ; when provision was commanded to be
made for his burning against the next day. Which day
the lord governor, and all the principal, both spiritual
and temporal lords, departed from Edinburgh to their
other business.
After they were departed, came the dean of Roscal-
rige to him again, and reasoned with him ; but Wallace
answered as before, that he would say nothing concern-
ing his faith, but as tlie scripture testifies, yea, though
an angel came from heaven to persuade him to the same ;
saving that he confessed himself to have received good
consolation of this dean in other respects as becomes a
christian.
Then came in Sir Hugh Terry again, and examined
him, and said he would make devils come out of him
before evening. He answered, " You should rather be
a godly man to give me consolation in my case. When
I knew you were come, I prayed God I might resist
your temptations ; which, I tliank him, he has made
me able to do ; therefore I pray you, let me alone in
peace." Then he asked of one of the officers who stood
by, " Is your fire making ready?" Who told him it
was. He answered, " As it pleaseth God. I am ready
sooner or later as it shall please him ;'' and then he
spake to a faithful one in that company, and bade him I
commend him to all the faithful, being sure to meet to-
gether with them in heaven. From that time to his
coming to the fire, no man spake with him.
When he was brought out of prison, the provost, with
great menacing words, forbade him to speak to any man,
or f>ny man to him. Coming from tlie town to the castle
hill, the common people said, "God have mercy upon
him." " And on you too," said he. Being beside
the fire, he lifted up his eyes to heaven twice or thrice,
and said to the people, " Let it not offend you that I
suffer death this day for the truth's sake ; for the dis-
ciple is not greater than his master." Then was the
provost angry that he spake. Then looked ke to
heaven again, and said, "They will not let me speaV.''
The cord being about his neck, the fire was lighted, and
so he departed to God with great constancy.
The Schism that arose in Scotland about the Pater-
noster.
After Richard Marshall, doctor of divinity, and prior
of the Black friars at Newcastle, in England, had de-
clared in his preaching at St. Andrews, in Scotland, that
the Lord's Prayer (commonly called the Pater-noster)
should be said only to God, and not to saints, or to any
other creature ; the doctors of the university of St.
Andrews, together with the Gray friars, who had lonj
ago taught the people to say the Pater-noster to saints,
had great indignation that their old doctrine should be
opposed, and stirred up a Gray friar, called Friar
Toittis, to preach again to the people, that they should
and miglit pray the Pater-noster or our Lord's Prayer to
saints ; who, finding no part of the scriptures to found
his purpose upon, yet came to the pulpit on the first of
November, being the feast of Allhallows, (A.D. 1551),
and took the text from the gospel that day read in their
mass, in the fifth of Matthew, containing these words :
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of lieaven."
Tiiis feeble foundation being laid, the friar began to
reason most impertinently, that the Lord's Prayer might
be oflf'ered to saints, because every petition appertains to
them. " For if we meet an old man in the street,'' said
he, " we will say to him, ' Good day, father,' and therefore
much more may we call the saints our fathers ; and be-
cause we grant also that they are in heaven, so we may
A.D. 1540— 15R0.] THE HISTORY AND EXAMINATION OF WALTER MILLE.
62'J
say to every one of them, ' Our Father which art in hea-
ven.' Our Father, God, has made their names holy,
and therefore ought we as followers of God, to hold their
names holy, and so we may say to any of the saints,
' Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.'
i And for the same cause," said the friar, "as they are in
1 the kingdom of heaven, so that kingdom is theirs by pos-
! session ; and so praying for the kingdom of heaven, we
i may say to them, and every one of them, ' Thy kingdom
J come.' And except their will had been the very will of
I God, they had never come to that kingdom. And
' therefore seeing their will is God's will, we may say to
every one of them, ' Thy will be done.' "
' But when the friar came to the fourth petition, touch-
ing our daily bread, he began to be astonished and
ashamed, so that he did sweat abundantly ; partly be-
; cause his sophistry began to fail him, not finding such a
colour for that part as for the other which went before,
and partly because he spoke against his own knowledge
and conscience ; and so he was compelled to confess
that it was not in the saints' power to give us our daily
bread, but that they should pray to God for us, said he,
I that we may obtain our daily bread by their intercession ;
and so he commented on the rest of the prayer to the
end. Not yet content with this detestable doctrine, he
affirmed most blasphemously, that St. Paul's napkin,
and St. Peter's shadow did miracles, and that the virtue
of Elijah's cloak divided the waters, attributing nothing
to the power of God ; with many other errors of the pa-
pists, horrible to be heard.
Upon this, followed a dangerous schism in the church
of Scotland, not only to the clergy, but the whole people
were divided among themselves, one defending the truth,
and another the papistry ; so that there arose a proverb ;
" To whom say you yonr pater-noster ?" And al-
though the papists had the upper hand as then (so great
was the blindness of that age), yet God so inspired the
hearts of the common people, that so many as could un-
derstand the bare words of the Lord's Prayer in English
(which was then said in Latin), utterly detested that
opinion, holding that it should in nowise be said to
saints ; so that the tradesmen and others, when the
friar came among them, put him to great shame, crying
'* Friar Pater-noster! Friar Pater-noster !" who, at last,
being convicted in his own conscience, and ashamed of
his former sermon, he was compelled to leave the town of
St. Andrews.
At length the christians were so offended, and the
papists, on the other side, so proud and wilful, that it
was necessary that the clergy at last should be assembled
to dispute and conclude the whole matter, that the lay-
people might be put out of doubt. Which being done,
and the university agreed, there ensued much subtle so-
phistry. For some of the popish doctors affirmed that
it should be said to God formaliter, and to saints mate-
rialitir. Others, ultimate et non ultimate. Others said
it should be said to God principalittr, and to saints
tninuM principality r. Others that it should be said to God
primarii, and to saints secnndarie. Others that it should
be said to God capiendo stride, and to saints capiendo
larr;e. Which vain distinctions being heard and consi-
dered by the people, they that were simple re-
mained in greater doubt than they were in before ;
so tliat a well aged man, and a servant to the
subprior of St. Andrews, called the subprior's Thome,
being asked to whom he said his Pater-noster ; he
answered, " To God only." Then they asked him again
what should be said to the saints ; he answered, " Give
them plenty of aves and creeds, for that will suffice
them well enough, although they spoil God of his right."
Others said, that because Christ, who made the Pater-
noster, never came into the isle of Britain, and so un-
derstood not the English tongue, therefore it was that
the doctors concluded it should be said in Latin.
This trouble and open slander yet continuing, it was
thought good to call a provincial council to decide the
matter. Which, being assembled at Edinburgh, the
papists, being destitute of reason, defended their parts
with lies, alleging that the university of Paris had con-
cluded that the Lord's Praver should be said to the
saints. But as that could not be proved, and they could
not prevail by reason, they used their will instead. Friar
Scot, being asked to whom he should say the Pater-
noster, answered : " Say it to the devil." So the
council, perceiving they could profit nothing by reason-
ing, were compelled to omit voting.
But then they that were called churchmen were found
divided among themselves. For some bishops, with the
doctors and friars, consented that the Pater-noster
should be said to the saints ; but the bishops of St.
Andrews, Caithness, and Atheins, with other learned
men, refused to subscribe to it. Finally, with consent
of both parties, commission was given by the holy church
to Dean John Winrame, then subprior of St. Andrews,
to declare to the people how and after what manner they
should pray the Lord's Prayer ; who, accepting of the
commission, declared that it should be said to God, with
some other restrictions, which are not necessary to re-
late. And so, by little and little, the tumult ceased.
The Martyrdom of Walter Mille.
Among the rest of the martyrs of Scotland, the con-
stancy of Walter Mille is not to be passed over with si-
lence. Out of whose ashes sprang thousands of the
same opinion and religion in Scotland, who altogether
chose rather to die than to be any longer trodden upon
by the tyranny of the cruel and ignorant bishops, abbots,
monks and friars ; and so the church of Scotland began
to debate the true religion of Christ against the French-
men and papists ; for the controversy ensued soon after
the martyrdom of Walter Mille.
In the year 1558, in the time of Mary, queen
regent of Scotland, and John Hamilton being bi-
shop of St. Andrews, and primate of Scotland, this
Walter Mille (who in his youth had been a papist) after
he had been in Germany, and had heard the doctrine
of the gospel, returned again into Scotland, and, setting
aside all papistry and constrained celibacy, married a
wife, which brought him under the suspicion of the bi-
shops of Scotland for heresy ; and after long watching
for him he was taken by two popish priests, and brought
to St. Andrews, and imprisoned in the castle. When
in prison, the papists earnestly laboured to seduce him,
and threatened him with death and torments, to cause
him to recant and forsake the truth. But seeing tliat he
remained still firm, and constant, they laboured to jier-
suade him by fair promises; and offered to him a monk's
portion for all the days of his life, in the abbey of Dun-
fermline, if he would deny the things he had taught, and
grant that they were heresy ; but he, continuing in the
truth even to the end, despised their threatenings and
fair promises.
Then assembled together the bishops of St. Andrews,
Murray, Brechin, Caithness, and Atheins, the abbots of
Dunfermline, Landors, Balindrinot, and Towpers, with
the doctors of theology of St. Andrews, as John Greson,
Black friar, and John Winrame, subprior of St. An-
drews, William Cranston, provost of the Old College,
with divers other friars. Black and Gray. These being
assembled, and having consulted together, he was taken
out of prison, and brought to the metropolitan church,
where he was put in a pulpit before the bishops, on the
20th day of April. Being brought into the church, and
climbing up into the pulpit, he appeared so weak and
feeble of person, partly by age, and partly by ill treat-
ment, that he could not climb up without help ; then they
gave up the hope of hearing him, for weakness of voice.
But when he began to speak, he made the church
ring and sound again, with so great courage and stout-
ness, that the christians who were present were no less
rejoiced than the adversaries were confounded and
ashamed. He being in the pulpit, and on his knees at
prayer, Andrew Oliphant, one of the bishops' priests,
commanded him to arise, and to answer to his articles,
saying on this manner : " Walter Mille, arise and answer
to the articles, for you delay my lord here too long."
To whom Walter, after he had finished his prayer, an-
swered, saying, "We ought to obey God rather than man ;
I serve one more mighty, even the Omnipotent Lord.
Now say what thou hast to say."
630
THE MARTYRDOM OF WALTER MILLE.
[Book VIII.
Oliphant. — " Wliat tliink you of priests' marriage ?"
Mille. — " I hold it a blessed bond ; for Christ him-
self maintained it, and approved the same, and also made
it free to all men ; but you think it not free to you ;
you abhor it, and in the meantime take other men's
wives and dauj;hters, and will not keep the bond that
God has mace. You vow chastity, and break it. St.
Paul had rather marry than burn ; which I have done,
for God never forbade marriage to any man, of what
state or degree soever he were."
Oliphant. — " Thou sayest there are not seven sacra-
ments."
Mille. — " Give me the Lord's supper and baptism,
and tak"? you the rest, and part them among you. For
if there be seven, why have you omitted one of them, to
wit, marriage, and given yourselves to ungodly immora-
lities ?"
Oliphant. — " Thou art against the blessed sacrament
of the altar, and sayest that the mass is wrong, and is
idolatry."
Mille. — " A lord or a king sends and calls many to a
dinner, and when the dinner is in readiness, he causes a
bell to be rung, and the men come to the hall, and sit
down to be partakers of the dinner ; but the lord, turning
his back to them, eats all himself, and mocks them ; so
do ye."
Oliphant. — " Thou deniest the sacrament of the altar
to be the very body of Christ really in flesh and blood."
Mille. — " The scripture of God is not to be taken
carnally, but spiritually ; and stands in faith only : and
as for the mass, it is wrong, for Christ was once offered
on the cross for man's trespass, and will never be offered
again, for then he ended all sacrifice."
Oliphant. — " Thou deniest the office of a bishop."
Mille. — " I affirm that they, wlnrr ye ca!l bishops.
do no bishops' works, nor use the office of bishops, (as
St. Paul biddeth, writing to Timothy), but live after
their own sensual pleasure, and take no care of the flock,
nor yet regard they the word of God, but desire to be
honoured and called ' ISIy lords.' "
Oliphant. — " Thou spakest against pilgrimage."
Mille. — "I afiirm and say, that it is not commanded
in the scripture, and that there is no greater immorality
committed in any place, than at your pilgrimages."
Oliphant. — " Thou preachedst secretly and privately
in houses, and openly in the fields."
Mille. — " Yea, man, and on the sea also, sailing in
a ship."
Oliphant. — "Wilt thou not recant thy erroneous
opinions ? And if thou wilt not, I will pronounce sen-
tence against thee."
Mille. — " 1 am accused of my life ; I know I must
die once, and therefore as Christ said to Judas, what
thou doest, do quickly. Ye shall know that I will not
recant the truth, for I am corn, I am no chaff; I will
not be blown away with the wind, nor burst with the
flail; but 1 will abide both."
Then Andrew Oliphant pronounced sentence against
him, that he should he delivered to the temporal judge,
and punished as a heretic, which was to be burnt. His
boldness and constancy so moved the hearts of many,
that the bishoji's steward of his regality, provost of the
town, named Patrick Learmont, refused to be his tem-
poral judge, to whom it properly appertained. Also the
bishop's chamheilain, being charged therewith, would
in nowise take u))()n him so ungodly an office. Yea,
the whole town was so offended with his unjust con-
demnation, that the bishop's servants could not get,
even for money, so much as a cord to tie him to the
stake, or a tar barrel to burn him ; but were consti'ained
to cut the cords of their master's own pavilion to serve
their turn.
Nevertheless, one servant of the bishop's, more igno-
rant and cruel than the rest, called Alexander Simmer-
wail, acting the office of a temporal judge, conveyed him
to the fire, where his boldness and hardiness did more
and more increase, so that the Spirit of God, working
miraculously in him, made it manifest to the people,
th;it his cause and articles were most just, and he inno-
cently martyred.
When all things were ready for his death, and he
brought with armed men to the fire, Oliphant bade him
pass to the stake ; and he said, " Nay, but wilt thou
put me up with thy hand, and take part of my death ?
thou shalt see me pass up gladly ; for by the law of God
I am forbidden to put hands upon myself." Then Oli-
phant put him up with his hand, and he ascended
gladly, and desired that he might have opportunity to
speak to the jjcople ; but this Oliphant and other of
the burners refused, saying that he had spoken too
much, for the bishops were offended that the matter was
so long continued. Then some of the young men com-
mitted both the burners, and the bishops, their masters,
to the devil, saying that they believed they should lament
that day, and desired Walter to sjjeak what he pleased.
And so after he made his humble supplication to God
on his knees, he arose, and standing upon the coals,
said ; " Dear friends, the cause why 1 suffer this day is
not for any crime laid to my charge (although I be a
miserable sinner before God), but only for the defence of
the faith of Jesus Christ, set forth in the Old and New
Testaments ; for which, as the faithful martyrs have of-
fered themselves gladly before, being assured after the
death of their bodies of eternal felicity ; so this day I
praise God, that he has called me of his mercy among
the rest of his servants to seal up his truth with my life ;
which, as I have received it of him, so I willingly offer
it to his glory. Therefore, as you would escape the
eternal death, be no more seduced with the lies of
priests, monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the
rest of the sect of antichrist, but depend only upon
Jesus Christ and his mercy, that you may be delivered
from condemnation." All the while there was great
mourning and lamentation among the multitude ; for
{i.pv po'-ceiv'ng hi« patience, constancy, and hardiness,
were noc oniy moved and stirred up, but their hearts
also were so inflamed, that he was the last martyr that
died in Scotland for religion. After his prayer, he was
hoisted up upon the stake, and being in the fire, he said,
" Lord have mercy on me ! Pray, people, while there
is time;" and so he endured his cruel end with con-
stancy.
In the same place where Walter Mille was burnt, the
images of the great church of the abbey were burnt in
the time of the Reformation.
And thus much concerning the martyrs who suffered
in the realm of Scotland for tUe faith of Jesus Christ,
and testimony of his truth.
Persecutions in Kent.
In looking through the registers of William Warham,
archbishop of Canterbury, I find, besides those above
comprehended, in the time and reign of King Henry,
the names of others, of whom some suffered martyrdom
for the testimony of God's word, and some recanted,
who, although they here come a little out of order, and
should have been placed before, in the beginning of
King Henry's reign ; yet, rather than they should en-
tirely be omitted, 1 judged fit here to give them a place,
being no less worthy to be registered and preserved
from oblivion, than others before them, especially as
they were martyred here in England, before the appear-
ing and preaching of Martin Luther.
The martyrs alluded to are William Carder of Ten-
terden, weaver ; Agnes Grebil of Tenterden ; Robert
Harrison of Halden ; John Brown of Ashford ; Edward
Walker of Maidstone, cutler.
The Articles vjwn u-hich the above five Messed Martyr*
were accused and condemned.
1. For holding that the sacrament of the altar was
not the very true body of Christ, but only material
bread in substance.
2. That auricular confession was not to be made to a
priest.
3. That no power is given by God to priests, of
ministering sacraments, saying mass, or other Divine
service, more than to laymen.
A. D. 1540—1547.]
PERSECUTIONS IN KENT.
631
4. That the solemnization of matrimony is not neces-
sary to salvation of souls, neither was it instituted of
God, (as a sacrament, they meant.)
5. That the sacrament of extreme unction is not
available or necessary to the soul's salvation.
6. That the images of the cross, of the crucifix, of
the blessed Virgin, and other saints, are not to be wor-
shipped ; and that they who worship them commit
idolatry.
7. That pilgrimages to holy places, and holy relics,
are not necessary, nor meritorious to the soul's salva-
tion.
8. That invocation is not to be made to saints, but
only to God, and that He only heareth their prayers.
y. That holy bread and holy water have no more
virtue after their consecration than before.
10. That they have believed, taught, and held all and
every of the same damnable opinions before ; as they
did at that present time.
11. That though tliey nov have confessed their errors,
they would not have so done but only for fear of mani-
fest proofs brought against them ; neither would they
ever have confessed the same of their own accord.
12. That they have communed and talked of the said
damnable errors heretofore with divers other persons,
and have possessed books concerning the same.
T/ie order and form of Process t(sed against these five
Martyrs, A.D. 1511.
William Carder being brought before William War-
ham, archbishop, and his chancellor Cuthbert Tonstall,
Doctor Sylvester, Doctor Welles, Clement, Brown, with
others, the notaries being William Potking, and David
Cowper, the articles and interrogatories above specified
were laid to his charge. Which articles he denied, af-
firming that he never did ; nor does hold any such
opinion, otherwise than becomes what every christian
man should do, who is ready to conform himself in all
points to their doctrine ; and therefore to clear himself
the better against those interrogatories objected against
him, he stood in denial of them. The other four
martyrs after him did the same.
Notwithstanding all which, the uncharitable arch-
bishop brought in against him such witnesses, as were
abjured before, whom he knew, for fear of relapse, durst
do no other but disclose whatever they knew ; to wit,
Christopher Grebil, William Rich, Agnes Ive, John
Grebil, Robert Hills, and Steven Castelin. Whose de-
positions being taken, and Carder being asked what he
could say for himself, he said he had nothing to produce
against their attestations ; but submitted himself to their
mercy ; adding, that if he had any disbelief of the sacra-
ments of the church, contrary to the common holding of
the catholics, he now was sorry and repented him.
Which being done, the archbishop, notwithstanding his
submission, and notwithstanding that the register makes
no mention of any relapse contrary to law, at least con-
trary to all christian charity, proceeded to the reading of
his sentence, and condemned him to be burnt.
Then, after him, Agnes Grebil was called and ex-
amined on the twelve articles, which she in like manner
denied, as the other had done, putting her adversaries to
their proof. Then the archbishop called for John Grebil,
her husband, and Christopher and John Grebil her two
sons, and caused them upon their oath to depose against
their own natural mother !
First, John Grebil, her husband, being examined by
virtue of his oath, to say how Agnes, his wife, believed
of the sacrament of the altar, of going on pilgrimage,
offerings, and worshipping of saints, images, &c. and
how long she had held such opinion : deposed, that first,
about the end of King Edward IV. 's days, in his house,
by the teaching of John Ive, she was brought to that be-
lief, and so from thence, daily, until the time of detec-
tion, she continued.
And besides that, said he, " when my children, Chris-
topher and John, being about seven years of age, were
then taught by me in my house, the error of the sacra-
ment of the altar, and by Agues, my wife, she was alway.s
of one mind in the disbelief of the sacrament of the altar,
that it was not Christ's body, flesh, and blood, but only
bread." Further, being examined how he knew that she
was steadfast in the said error ; he said that she always,
without contradiction, affirmed this teaching, and said
the opinion was good, and that she was well contented
that her children should be of the same opinions against
the sacrament of the altar, &c.
The bishop, with his popish doctors, not contented
with this, to set the husband against the wife, proceeding
further in their popish zeal and caused her two children,
Christopher and John, to be produced ; one of the age of
two-and-twenty, the other of nineteen, against their own
mother ; who, being pressed with their oath, witnessed,
and said, that Agnes, their mother, held, believed,
taught, and defended, that the sacrament of the altar was
but bread, and not the very body of Christ's flesh and
blood ; that baptism was no better in the fount than out
of the fount ; that confirmation was of no effect ; that the
solemnization of matrimony was no sacrament ; that
confession to God alone was sufficient ; also that going
on pilgrimage, and worshipping of saints and images,
was of none effect, &c. That their father, and Agnes,
their mother, had held, taught, and communed of these
errors within their house for three years past, as well on
holy-days, as working days, affirming and teaching that
these opinions were good and lawful, and to be held and
maintained ; and agreement was made among them, that
none of them should discover of the other. Finally,
that they never heard their father and mother holding or
teaching any other opinions, than the said errors against
the sacrament of the altar, and pilgrimages, oflTcrings,
worshipping of saints and images, as far as they could
remember, &c.
Here hast thou, christian reader, before thine eyes, a
horrible spectacle of impiety ; first, of an unnatural hus-
band, witnessing against his own wife ; and of as unna-
tural children, accusing and witnessing against their own
mother. Which although they had so done, the cause
being of itself just and true, (as it was not,) yet it seems
more than nature would have led them to do. Now the
case being such, as by God's word standeth firm, sound,
and perfect, what impiety was it for men to accuse a
poor woman of heresy, which is no heresy ? And yet
the greatest impiety of all rests in these papists and
popish priests, who were the authors of all this mischief.
The cause why this good woman stood in the denial of
these articles, was this, that she never thought that her
husband and her own children, who alone were privy of
her religion, would testify against her. And thus the
archbishop, with his doctors, having now gained the end
that they sought for, although she was ready to deny all
errors, and to conform herself to their rehgion, yet they
proceeded to their sentence, and condemned her to
death.
After her condemnation, next was brought to examina-
tion Robert Harrison, who, because he stood in his de-
nial, witnesses against him were produced. After the
deposition of which witnesses, although he submitted
himself to repentance and conformity, yet it would not
be received, but sentence was read, and he was con-
demned with the other two to the fire.
Thus these three were condemned and burned, and
certificate given up to the king, from Warham the arch-
bishop, upon the same, (A. D. 1511.)
Besides these three godly martyrs, I find in the re-
gisters of William Warham two other godly martyrs also
in the same year, and for the same twelve articles, con-
demned upon the depositions of certain witnesses.
Their names were John Brown and Edward Walker.
Besides these five blessed saints of God, whom they
so cruelly by their sentence condemned to death in the
year 1511, we find also in the same registers of William
Warham, a great number of others whom they for the
same doctrine and like articles caused to be apprehended
and put to open recantation ; the names of which per-
sons are given in the following list :
John Grebil, the elder, of Bcneuden.
632
THREE SORTS OF PAPISTICAL JUDGMENTS,
[Book VIII.
Christopher Grehil, his son.
John Grebil, son of John the Elder, of Benenden
W. Olbert, the eUler, of Godmersham.
Agnes Ive, of Canterbury.
Agnes Chytenden, of Canterbury,
Thomas Manning, of Benenden.
Joan Colyn, of Tenderden.
Robert Hills, of Tenterden.
Alice Hills, his wife.
Thomas Harwood, of Rolvenden.
Joan Harwood, his wife.
Philip Harwood,
Stephen Castelyn, of Tenterden,
W. Baker, of Cranbrook.
Margaret Baker, his wife.
William Olbert, the younger, of Godmersham.
Agnes Reynold, of Cranbrook,
Thomas Field, of Boxley.
Joan Olbert, wife to W. Olbert, the elder, of God-
mersham.
Elizabeth White, of Canterbury.
Thomas Church, of Great Charte
Vincent Lynch, of Halden,
John Rich, of Wittisham.
Joan Lynch, of Tenterden,
Thomas Browne, of Cranbrook,
John Franke, of Tenterden,
Joyce Bampton, wife of John Bampton, of Berstede.
Richard Bampton, of Boxley,
Robert Bright, of Maidstone,
William Lorkyn, of East Farley.
John Bannes, of Boxley, 1512,
John Buckherst, of Staplehurst
Joan Dodd, wife of John Dodd.
John Benet, of Staplehurst,
Rebecca Benet, his wife,
Joan Lowes, wife of Thomas Lowes, of Cranbrook,
Julian Hills, wife of Robert Hills, of Tenterden,
Robert Franke, of Tenterden.
The articles laid to these abjurers appear in the re-
gisters to be the same which were objected to the other
five martyrs ; by which articles and abjurations we may
understand what doctrine of religion was most prevalent
in England, before the time that the name of Martin
Luther was ever heard of here amongst us ,• for all this
is in the archbishop of Canterbury's Registers for A.D,
1511,
Three sorts of Judgments amongst the Papists against
Heretics.
As to the penance and penalty enjoined to heretics as
also to all others, the popish fathers, in their processes of
heretical pravity, have three distinct kinds of judgments
and proceedings.
Some they judge to be burned, that others being
brought into terror by them, might more quietly main-
tain their kingdom, and reign supreme. And thus they
condemned the five martyrs above-mentioned, although
they were willing to submit themselves to the mother
church ; yet they could not be received, as by the words
of the register, and by the tenor of their sentence ap-
pears.
And this sort of persons, thus condemned, consists
either of such as have been before abjured, and fallen
into relapse ; or else such as stand constantly in their
doctrine, and refuse to abjure ; or else such as they in-
tend to make a terror and example to others, notwith-
standing, that they may be willing and ready to submit
themselves, and yet cannot be received : and of the last
sort were the five martyrs last named. So was also
John Lambert, who, submitting himself to the king,
could not be accepted. So was likewise Richard Me-
kins, and the three women of Guernsey, whose submission
would not serve to save their lives, with many others.
Against this sort of persons, the process which the pa-
pists use is this : — First, after they began once to be
suspected, they were denounced and cited ; then by
virtue of inquisition they are taken and clapt fast in
irons in prison ; from thence they are brought forth at
last to examination, if they be not before killed by fa-
mine, cold, or strictness of miprisonment ; then articles
are drawn, or rather wrested, out of their writings or
preachings ; and they are put to their oath, to answer
truly to every point and circumstance articulated against
them. Which articles, if they seem to deny, or solve
by true expounding, then witnesses are called in ; and
no matter what witnesses they are, be they ever so in-
famous in character. Or, if no other witnesses can be
found, then is the husband brouglit in and forced to
swear against the wife, or the wife again.st the husband,
or the children against the mother, ^ ii\ the example of
Agnes Grebil. Or if no witness at all can be found,
then are they strained upon the rack, or by other tor-
ments forced to confess their knowledge, and to impeach
others. Neither might any be suffered to come to them,
nor any public audience be given them to speak for
themselves ; till at last sentence is read against them, to
give them up to the secular arm, or to dograde them, if
they are priests, and then to burn them.
And yet the malignity of these adversaries does not
here cease. For after the fire has consumed their bo-
dies, they fall upon their books, and condemn them in
like manner to be burned ; and no man must be so hardy
as to read their books, or keep them, under pain of heresy.
But before they have destroyed these books, they first
gather articles out of them, and so perversely wrest them
to their own purposes, falsely, and contrary to the right
meaning of the author, making them to appear to be the
most heretical and execrable. Which being done, and
the books destroyed, that no man may compare them
with the articles, to discover their falsehood, they then
set abroad these articles, that princes and people may see
what heretics they were.
To the second order belongs that sort of heretics whom
these papists do not condemn to death, but assign to
monasteries, there to continue, and to fast all their life,
with bread and sorrow, and water of affliction ; and that
they should not remove one mile out of the precinct of
the monastery so long as they lived, without they were
otherwise dispensed with by the archbishop or his suc-
cessors.
The third kind of heretics were those whom these pre-
lates judged not to perpetual prison, but only enjoined
them penance, either to stand before the preacher, or
else to bear a fagot about the market, or in procession ;
or to wear the picture of a fagot on their left sleeves,
without any cloak or gown over it ; or else to kneel at
the saying of certain masses, or to say so many pater-
nosters, aves, and creeds, to a certain saint ; or to go
in pilgrimage to a certain place ; or to bear a fagot to
the burning of some heretic ; or to fast certain Fridays
on bread and water ; or, if it were a woman, to wear
woollen alone on Fridays.
And thus much, out of the register of William War-
ham, archbishop of Canterbury. Many more examples
might be collected out of other bishops' registers, if
either leisure would serve me to search, or if the large-
ness of this volume would allow all to be inserted that
might be found. Yet the history and mart)rdom of
Launcelot and his companions should not be forgotten.
The Martgrdom of Launcelot, one of the King's Guards;
John, a Painter ; and Giles German.
About the year 15.'i9, one John, a painter, and Giles
German, were accused of heresy, and while they were in
examination at London before the bishop and other
judges, by chance there came in one of the king's ser-
vants named Launcelot, a very strong and tall man, and
of no less godly mind and disposition.
This man standing by, seemed by his countenance and
gesture to favour both the cause and the poor men his
friends. Whereupon, he being apprehended, was ex-
amined and condemned together with them. And the
next day, at five o'clock in the morning, he was carried
with them into St. Giles-in-the-fields, and there burned,
there being but a small concourse of people at their
death.
A.D. IjIO— 1:47.]
PARTICULARS OF KING HENRY'S DEATH.
637
The Story of one Stile, a Martyr.
In the company and fellowship of the blessed saints
and martyrs of Christ, who innocently suffered in
king Htnry's reign, for the testimony of God's word
and trutii, another good man, named Stile, also comes
t(i my mind, who was with like cruelty oppressed and
burned in Smithfield about the latter end of the time of
C'uthbert Tonstall, bishop of London. With him there
was burned also a book of the Apocalypse, which pro-
bably he was accustomed to read. When he saw this
book fastened to the stake, to be burned with him, lift-
ing up his voice, he said, " O blessed Apocalypse,
how happy am I, that I shall be burned with thee?"
And so this good man and the blessed Apocalypse were
both together consumed in the fire.
And thus (through the gracious support of Christ our
Lord) we have run over these thirty-seven laborious
years of king Henry's reign. Under whose time and
government, such acts and records, troubles, persecu-
tions, recantations, practices, alterations, and reforma-
tions as then happened in the church, we have here dis-
coursed, not omitting the statutes, injunctions, and pro-
clamations, that were set forth by him in matters apper-
taining to the church. Although not comprehending all
things so fully as might be, yet omitting as few things as
we could.
Closing this eighth book with the death of king Henry
VIII. we will next proceed to the time and reign of king
Edward his son ; first interposing a few words touching
the death of king Henry.
After long languishing, infirmity growing more and
more upon him, he lay from St. Steven's day to the latter
end of January. His physicians at length perceiving
that he was failing, and yet not daring to discourage him
with thoughts of death, for fear of the act passed before
in parliament, that none should speak any thing of the
king's death (the act being made only for soothsayers,
and talkers of prophesies) moved those that were about
the king to put him in remembrance of his mortal state
and fatal infirmity. Which when the rest were in dread
to do. Master Denny, who was specially attendant upon
him, boldly coming to the king, told him the state he was
in, and that to man's judgment he was not likely to live,
and therefore exhorted him to prepare himself for death,
calling to remembrance his former life ; and entreating
him to call upon God in Christ for grace and mercy, as
becomes every good christian man.
Although the king was loath to hear any mention of
death, yet perceiving that it was the judgment of his
physicians, and feeling his own weakness, lie disposed
himself to hearken to the words of Denny's exhortation,
and to consider his past life. Which although he much ac-
cused, yet, said he, " is the mercy of Christ able to pardon
me all my sins, even though they were greater than they
are." Master Denny being glad to hear liim speak thus,
asked to know his pleasure, whether he would have any
learned man sent for to confer with, and to open his mind
to. The king answered again, that if he had any, he
■would have Doctor Cranmer, who was then at Croydon.
And therefore. Master Denny asking the king whether
be would have him sent for, " I will first," said the king,
" take a little sleep, and then according as I feel myself
I will advise upon the matter."
After an hour or two, the king awaking, and feeling
feebleness increasing upon him, commanded Doctor
Cranmer to be sent for ; but before he could come, the
king was speechless, and almost senseless. Notwith-
standing, perceiving Doctor Cranmer, he reached his
hand to him, held him fast ; but could utter no words
to him, and scarce was able to make any sign. Then the
archbishop exhorting him to put his trust in Christ, and
to call upon his mercy, desired him, though he could
not speak, yet to give some token with his eyes, or with
his hand, that he trusted in the Lord. Then the king,
holding him with his hand, wrung his hand in his as
hard as he could, and shortly after departed, after he had
reigned in this land the term of thirty-seven yeai-s ano
nine months, leaving behind him three children, Edward,
Mary and Elizabeth.
We conclude this book with the following history of
certain friars in France, A.D. 1534, as illustrative of the
priestcraft of those times.
The wife of the mayor of the city of Orleans provided
in her will, to be buried without any pomp or solemnity.
For when any departs there, the bellmen are hired to go
about the city, and in the places most frequented to as-
semble the people with the sound of the bell, and to
declare the names and the titles of the parties deceased ;
also where and when they are to be buried, exhorting
the people to pray for them. And when the corpse is
carried forth, numbers of the begging friars go with it
to the church, with many torches and tapers carried be-
fore them ; and the more pomp and solemnity is used,
the more is the concourse of people. But this woman
would have none of all this pomp done for her. Where-
fore her husband, who loved her well, followed her mind,
and gave to these greedy cormorants, the friars, who
waited for their prey, six crowns for a reward ; yet they
gaped for a great deal more. Afterwards when he cut
down a wood and sold it, the friars craving to have part
of it, freely without money, he refused them : this they
took grievously, and as they loved him not before, they
devised now a way to be revenged, saying, that his wife
was damned everlastingly '
The workers of this tragedy were Colyman and Steven
of Arras, both doctors of divinity ; and the first indeed
was a conjurer by profession, and had all his trinkets and
his furniture concerning such matters in readiness, and
they settled the matter thus :
They set a young man, who was a novice, above
the vault of the church, and when they came to say their
matins at midnight, after their accustomed manner, he
made a wonderful noise and shrieking aloft. Then this
Colyman went crossing and conjuring, but the other
above would not speak. When charged to make a sign
to declare if he were a dumb spirit, he rustled and made
a noise again, and that was the sign.
When they had laid this foundation for their priest-
craft, they went to certain of the chief men in all the city,
and to such as favoured them the most, they related what
a sad affair had happened ; yet they did not say what it
was, but entreated them to take the pains to come to
their service at night. When they were come, and the
service was begun, he that was aloft made a great noise.
It was demanded what he wanted, and what he was, he
signified that he could not speak : then he was com-
manded to answer to their interrogatories by signs and
tokens. Now, there was a hole made for the purpose,
and by laying his ear to it, he might hear and under-
stand what the conjurer said. There was also a table
at hand, and when any question was asked, he struck
and beat upon the table, so that he might be heard be-
neath. Then the conjurer demanded whether he was
any of those that had been buried in that church. After
that, reckoning up many of their names in order, whose
bodies had been buried there, he at last named the
mayor's wife. Here the young man who was perched
above in the roof, and who was playing the ghost, made
a sign that he was the spirit of that woman. Then the
friar asked whether she was damned, and for what of-
fence ? whether it were for covetousness, pride, or not
doing the works of charity, or else for this new heresy
and Lutheranism ? What was the cause that he made
such a noise, and was so unquiet ? Whether it were
that the body being buried within holy ground should be
digged up again, and carried to some other place? To
all these things this pretended ghost answered by signs
as he was commanded ; afl&rming or denying eveiy thing
by striking twice or thrice upon the table.
When he had thus signified that Luther's heresy was
the cause of her damnation, and that her body must be
taken up, the friars desired the citizens that were pre-
sent, to bear witness of such things as they had seen
and heard, and set their hands to it in writing. But
they taking advice lest they should both offend tli«
63 1
A STORY OF CERTAIN JUGGLING FRIARS IN ORLEANS.
[Book VIII.
nriyor, and bring themselves into trouble, refused to
subscribe. Notwithstanding, the friars took the pix
with the host, and the Lord's body (as they call it),
and all their saints' relics, and carried them to another
pk;-e, and there they said their mass ; which they are
wont to do by the pope's law, when a church is susjjend-
ed and must be hallowed again : when the bishop's
official heard of this, he came there to understand the
matter better, and associating to him certain honest men
he commanded the friar to conjure up the ghost in his
presence, and he purposed to have appointed certain to
go up to the vault, to see if any spirit appeared there.
But Steven of Arras was against it, and exhorted tliem
earnestly that they should not so do, saying, that tlie
spirit ought not to be molested. And altliough the of-
ficial earnestly urged them to conjure it up before him, yet
he could not bring them to it. In the mean time the
mayor, making his friends privy as to what he would do,
went to the king, and informed him of the whole matter.
And because the friars, trusting to their immunities and
privileges, refused to come into judgment, the king
chose certain out of the court of parliament at Paris, to
examine the matter, and gave them full authority so to
do. Whereupon they were carried to Paris, and con-
strained to make answer, but they would confess no-
thing.
Tlien they were sent again to prison, and kept apart,
one from another ; and the novice was kept in the house
of Fumeus, a senator, and being often examined, he
would confess nothing, fearing lest he should afterward
be murdered by them for speaking against their order.
But when the judges promised him that he should have
no harm, and should come no more into tlie friars'
hands, he declared to them the whole matter, and bi;ing
brought before the others, he avouched the same. But
they, although they were convicted, yet refused their
judges, and relied on their privileges : but it was alto-
gether in vain, for they were condemned in open judjr-
nient, that they should be carried again to Orleans, and
committed to prison, and afterwards brought openly to
the cathedral church, and so to the place of punishment,
where malefactors are executed, and there they should
make open confession of their wickedness.
THE END OF THE EIGHTH BOOK.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK IX.
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF THE ACTS AND EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD VI.
After the death of King Henry VIII., succeeded King
Edward his son, of the age of nine years. He began his
reign on the twenty-eighth day of January, A.D. 1547,
" and reigned six years and eight months, and eight
da.ys. He died on the sixth day of July, A.D. I55;i.
Of whose excellent virtues and singular graces wrought
in him by the gift of God, although enough cannot be
said to his commendation ; yet because the renowned
fame of such a worthy prince should not pass our his-
tory without some grateful remembrance, I propose
briefly to touch some portion of his praise, taken out of
the many things which might be described. For to
stand upon all that might be said of him, would be too
long : and yet to say nothing, were too unkind. If
kings and princes, who have wisely and virtuously
governed, have found in all ages writers to panegyrise
and celebrate their acts and memory, such as never
knew them, nor were subject to them, how much then
are we Englishmen bound not to forget our diity to
King Edward ? A prince, though but of tender years,
yet for his sage and mature ripeness in all princely or-
naments, as I see but few to whom he may not be equal,
so again I see not many to whom he may not justly be
preferred.
And here to use the example of Plutarch in com-
paring kings and rulers, the Latins with the Greeks to-
gether, if I should seek with whom to match this noble
King Edward, I find none with whom to make my com-
parison more aptly, than with good Josiah. For as one
began his reign at eight years of age, so the other began
at nine. Neither were their acts and zealous proceed-
ings in God's cause very unlike. For as mild Josiah
pulled down the high altars, cut down the groves, and
destroyed all monuments of idolatry in the temple ; so
the like corruptions, dross, and deformities of popish
idolatry, which had crept into the church of Christ, this
King Edward removed, and purged the true temple of
the Lord. Josiah restored the true worship and ser-
vice of God in Jerusalem, and destroyed the idolatrous
priests ; King Edward, in England, likewise abolished
idolatrous masses and false invocation, reduced again
religion to a right sincerity, and would have brought
it more to perfection if life and time had answered his
godly purpose. And though he killed not, as Josiah
did, the idolatrous sacrificers, yet he put them to si-
lence, and removed them out of their places.
Moreover, in King Josiah's days the holy scriptures
and book of God's word was utterly neglected and cast
aside, which he most graciously repaired and restored
again. And did not King Edward do the like, with the
self-same book of God's blessed word, and with other
wholesome books of christian doctrine, which before
were decayed and extinguished in his father's days ?
Briefly, in all points and respects, no great difference is
to be found between Josiah and this our godly king, but
only in length of reign. Who, if he might have reached
(by the sufterance of God) to the continuance of Josiah's
reign, proceeding in those beginnings which in his
youth appeared, no doubt but by his acts and doings
some great perfection would have ensued to this church
and realm. But the manifold iniquities of Englishmea
deserved another plague, as in the sequel of this history
shall be declared.
In the meantime, to proceed with the excellent virtues
of this young christian Josiah, as we have begun, we
will give a taste of the noble nature and princely quali-
ties of this king, whereby the reader may judge for him-
self what is to be thought of the rest of his doings. And
first to begin with that which is the chief property of
all other external things in a prince, that is, to be loved
of his subjects ; such were the hearts of all English
people towards this king, that there never was a prince in
this realm more highly esteemed, or more dearly and ten-
derly beloved of all his subjects, but especially of the
good and learned sort ; and as he was beloved of his
subjects, so he loved them again ; of nature and dis-
position meek, and much inclined to clemency. He
always spared and favoured the life of man, insomuch
that when Joan was to be burned, all the council could
not move him to put his hand to the warrant, but were
obliged to get Dr. Cranmer to persuade him, and yet
neither could he induce the king to do so, saying,
"What, my lord, will you have me to send her quick
to the devil in her error ?" So that Dr. Cranmer him-
self confessed, that he had never so much to do in all
his life, as to cause the king to sign his hand, saying,
that he would lay all the charge thereof upon Cranmer
before God. There wanted in him no promptness of
wit, gravity of sentence, or ripeness of judgment. Fa-
vour and love of religion was in him from his childhood.
And besides these notable excellences, and other great
virtues in him, add moreover skill and knowledge of
636
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER OF KING EDWARD VI,
[Book IX.
tongues and other sciences, wherein he excelled far be-
yond his years.
Of all his justices, magistrates, and gentlemen, that
bare any authority within this realm, he knew their
names, their housekeeping, their religion, and conversa-
tion what it was. There were few sermons in his court,
especially in the lord protector's time, which he did not
attend ; and those he was present at, he noted them
with his own hand.
But ahove all other examples of his commendation, and
which is the chief point which ought most to concern all
men, he was zealous in maintaining, promoting, prefer-
ring, embracing, and defending the true cause of Christ's
holy gospel ; and it was his study, his zealous fervency,
and his admirable constancy therein, that, by his example,
he promoted it in others.
In the days of this King Edward VI., the emperor
Charles made a request to the king and his council, to
permit the Lady Mary (who afterwards succeeded to the
crown) to have mass in her house without prejudice of the
law. And the council on a time, sitting upon matters of
policy, and having that in question under consideration,
sentCranmer, then archbishop of Canterbury, and Ridley,
then bishop of London, to intreat the king for it. Who
coming to his grace, alleged their reasons and persuasions
for the accomplishing of it. So the king hearing what they
could say, replied out of the scriptures so gravely and
wisely, that they were forced to give place to his reply, and
acknowledge its truth. Then they, after long debating
■with his majesty, alleged what dangers the refusal might
bring upon his grace ; what breach of amity of the em-
peror's part ; what troubles ; what unkiudness, and
what occasions it would enforce, &c. To whom the
king answered, desiring them to content themselves, for
he would, he said, rather spend his life and all he had,
than agree to and grant what he knew certainly to be
against the truth. Which when the bishops heard, they
urged him still to grant it. Then the good king seeing
their importunate suit, his tender heart bursting out into
bitter weeping, and sobbing, he desired them to be con-
tent. Then the bishops themselves, seeing the king's
zeal and constancy, wept as fast as he, and took their
leave of his grace ; and on coming from him, the archbishop
took Master Cheek, his schoolmaster, by the hand, and
said, " Ah, Master Cheek, you may be glad all the
days of your life that you have such a scholar, for he
hath more divinity in his little finger, than all we have
in all our bodies." Thus the Lady Mary's mass for that
time was prevented.
Besides these heavenly graces and virtues, which are
required in all faithful and Christian magistrates who have
the government of Christ's flock, neither was he unpro-
vided with such outward gifts and knowledge as appertain
to the political government of his realm. So that he was
not inexpert or ignorant of the exchange, and all the cir-
cumstances of the same touching doings beyond the sea,
but was as skilful, and could say as much therein, as
the chief doers in his affairs. Likewise in the entertain-
ing of ambassadors, to whom he would give answer, and
that to every part of their oration, to the great wonder
of them that heard him, doing that in his tender years
by himself, which many princes at their mature age
seldom are wont to do but by others. And as he was a
great noter of things that pertained to princely affairs,
so he had a chest for every year, for the keeping of such
records and matters as were passed and concluded by
the council. He also would require from them a reason
and cause for everything that passed their judgments.
And of this chest he always kept the key about him.
His notes also he cyphered in Greek letters, that those
■who waited on him should not read nor know what he
had written. He had moreover great respect for justice,
and to the despatch of poor men's suits, and would ap-
point hours and times with Master Cox, then Master
of his requests, how and by what order they might be
helped in their causes without long delay and attendance ;
and so also debate with him, that their matters might
be heard and judged with equity.
Thus after the godly disposition of this kin^' being de-
clared, now we will describe the order and proceedings
which he followed in his administration and government
of both the states, as well political as ecclesiastical.
Who, after the decease of his father, coming to the crown,
because he was of young and tender age, was committed
to sixteen governors. Among whom, especially, the Lord
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, his uncle, was ap,
pointed as protector and overseer of him and of tlie coni-
monwealth ; a man not so highly advanced for his con-
sanguinity as for his noble virtues, and especially for his
favour to God's word. Through the endeavour and in.
dustry of Seymour, first, that monstrous hydra with si.x
heads, the six articles I mean, (which devoured up so
many men before,) was abolished and taken away.
Then he restored the holy scriptures in the mother
tongue, and masses he extinguished and abolished. After
small beginnings, by little and little, greater things fol-
lowed in the reformation of the churches. Then such
as were in banishment for the danger of the truth, were
again received to their country. To be short, a new
face of things began now to appear, as it were in a stage,
new players coming in, the old ones being thrust out.
For the most part the bishops of churches and dioceses
were changed. Such as had been dumb prelates before,
were compelled to give place to others who would preach
and take pains.
Besides, men of learning and notable knowledge were
sent for out of foreign countries, and cordially received
and promoted in this country, among whom was Peter
Martyr, Martin Bucer, and Paul Phagius. Of whom the
first taught at Oxford ; the other two professed at Cam-
bridge, and with no small commendation of the whole uni-
versity. Of the old bishops, some were committed to one
ward, some to another. Bonner, bishop of London, was
committed to the Marshalsea, and soon after, for his con ■
tempt and misdemeanour was deposed from his bishopric.
Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, with Toustal, bishop of
Durham, was cast into the Tower for his disobedience,
where he kept his Christmas three years together, more
worthy of some other place without the Tower, if it had
pleased God otherwise not to have meant a further plague
to this realm by that man.
But these meek and gentle times of king Edward,
under the government of this noble protector, have tliis
one commendation, that among the whole number of the
popish sort, of whom some stole privily out of the realm,
many were crafty dissemblers, some were open and mani-
fest adversaries, yet of all that multitude there was not
one man that lost his life. In short, during the whole
time of the six years of this king, much tranquillity, and
as it were a breathing -time, was granted to the whole
church of England : so that the rage of persecution ceas-
ing, and the sword being taken out of the adversary's hand,
there was now no danger to the godly, unless it were
only by wealth and prosperity, which often brings more
damage in corrupting men's minds, than any time of per-
secution or affliction.
Briefly, during all this time, neither in Smithfield nor
in any other quarter of this realm, was any heard to suffer
for any matter of religion, either papist or protestant,
either for one opinion or another, except only two ; one
an Englishwoman, called Joan of Kent, and the other a
Dutchman, named George.
Besides these two, there was none else in all king
Edward's reign tliat died in any cause of religion; but
one Thomas Dobbe, who in the beginning of this king's
reign was apprehended and imprisoned for speaking
against the idolatry of the mass, and died in the same
prison.
This Thomas Dobbe, being a student and a master of
arts in Cambridge, was brought up in the college called
St. John's College, and was a fellow of the same, where he
increased in the study of good letters ; among his equals
very forward ; of nature and disposition simple and
modest ; of zeal towards God fervent ; patient in injuries,
and injurious to no man. At length this godly man, in-
tending within himself to enter the Christian state of ma-
trimony, resorted to a certain maiden not far ofi" from
where he dwelt. On which account he was greatly
molested ; and wickedly abused by three of that college,
whose names were Hutchinson, Pindare, and Tajier.
A.D. 1547—1553.] KING EDWARD'S COMMISSION REGARDING THE CHURCH.
who with their malicious handling, scornful dealing, re-
' bukes, and contumelies, so much vexed the virtuous
simplicity of the man, that they never left liiiu ; till
' at length they wearied him out of the college. Who
■ there having no rest nor quietness, by the unreasonable
and virulent handling of his adversaries, was compelled
I to seek some other place to settle himself. On coming
! up to London, he chanced to pass through St. Paul's
church where it happened that at the south side of the
1 church there was a priest celebrating mass, being at the
elevation as he passed by. The young man, replete
' with godly zeal, pitying the ignorance and idolatry of
' the people, iu honouring so devoutly what the priest
lifted up, was not able to forbear, but opening his mouth
and turning to the people, he exhorted them not to
I lionour the visible bread as God, which neither was God,
nor yet ordained of God to be honoured, &c. For which
I he was apprehended by the Mayor, and accused to the
I archbishop r f Canterbury, and committed to the Compter,
I where filling into a sickness, he died. Whose pardon
; notwithstanding was obtained of the lord Protector, and
', would have been brought him if he had lived. And thus
I much concerning Thomas Dobbe.
I find tl\at in the first year of the reign of king Ed-
'ward, there was one John Hume, servant to Master
Lewuax, of Wresel, apprehended, accused, and sent up
i to the archbishop of Canterbury for these articles :
' 1. First for denying the sacrament (as it was then called
I of the altar) to be the real flesh and blood of Christ.
j 2. For saying that he never would take off his bonnet
to it, even if he were to be burned for it.
I 3. For saying that if he should hear mass, he should
jbe burned.
i For this he was sent up by his master ay.d mistress,
1 aforesaid, with special letters to the archbishop, requir-
ing him to be punished by law. But because I find no
I execution following, I therefore pass over this story.
637
' These things premised, when this virtuous and godly
young prince (endued as you have heard with special
graces from God) was now peaceably established in his
kingdom, and had a council about him, grave, wise, and
zealous iu God's cause, especially his uncle the duke of
I Somerset, he then most earnestly desired, as well the ad-
vancement of the true honour of Almighty God, and the
I planting of his sincere religion, as also the utter sup-
! pression and extirpation of all idolatry, superstition,
! hypocrisy, and other enormities and abuses, throughout
his realms and dominions : and therefore following, as
is before expressed, the good example of king Josiah,
he determined forthwith to enter into some reformation
of religion in the church of England.
And as at his first entry, (notwithstanding his father's
good beginning in abolishing the usurped power of anti-
christ,) he yet found most of his laws greatly against this
zealous enterprise ; he therefore purposed by the advice
of his wise and honourable council, and of his own re-
gal power and authority, somewhat to prosecute his
godly purpose, until such time as by the consent of the
whole estate of parliament he might establish a more
free, perfect, and uniform order therein.
Whereupon, intending first a genersJ. visitation over
all bishoprics within his realm, to redress the abuses in
the same, he chose out certain wise, learned, discreet,
and worshipful personages to be his commissioners in
that behalf, and so dividing them into several companies,
assigned to them several dioceses to visit ; appointing
likewise to eveiy company one or two godly learned
preachers, who at every session should in their preach-
ing both instruct the people in the true doctrine of the
gospel of Christ, and in all love and obedience to it, and
also earnestly warn them against their old superstition
and wonted idolatry. And that they might be more or-
derly directed in this commission, there were delivered
to them certain injunctions and ecclesiastical orders
drawn out by the king's learned council, which they
siiould both inquire of, and also command in his ma-
jesty's behalf to be thenceforth observed by every per-
son, to whom they severally appertained witliin their
circuits.
In which it was first enjoined, that all ecclesiastical
persons sliould tliemselves observe, and cause to be ob-
served by others, all such statutes as were made for the
abolishing of the bishop of Rome's usurped power, and
establishing of the king's supreme authority, and that
they should every one, four times in the year at least, in
their public sermons declare to the people, that the one,
being most arrogantly usurped against the word of God,
was now justly taken away, and the other was to be
obeyed of all his grace's subjects.
And again, that every ecclesiastical person, having a
cure, should preach, or cause to be preached within
their several cures, one sermon every quarter of a year.
In which they should sincerely set forth the word of God,
and exhort tiie people to the works of faith and mercy
prescribed in the scriptures, and not to works devised
by man's imagination, as going on pilgrimages and other-
like idolatrous superstitions, which they should also to
the utmost of their power reprove and speak against, de-
claring that all grace and goodness ought only to be
sought for at God's hand, and not at any other crea-
ture's ; and that they should not only forthwith take
down and destroy all such images as had been heretofore
abused by pilgrimage or offerings within their cures ; but
also should not thenceforth suffer any lights or other
idolatrous oblation to be made or set up before any image
that was yet suffered in the church.
Also that every holy-day (^having no sermon in their
church) they should immediately after the gospel dis-
tinctly read in the pulpit the Lord's Prayer, the Belief,
and the Ten Commandments in the English tongue, ex-
horting the people not only to learn them, but also to
teach them to their children and families, and also
should charge all parents and governors of households,
to bring up their youth in some good exercise or occu-
pation, whereby they might afterwards serve the com-
monwealth, and not run about like vagabonds and idle
loiterers, and thereby incur the danger of the laws.
And furthermore, that persons, having a cure, should
see the holy sacraments of Christ reverently administered
within their cures, and that if any of them (by special li-
cence or other cases expressed in the statutes of this
realm) should be at any time absent from their benefices,
that then they should leave in their rooms some godly,
learned, and discreet curate, that was able to instruct
the people in all truth and godliness, not seeking them-
selves, but rather the profit of their flock.
And likewise, that they should see provided and set
up in some most convenient and open place in every
church, one great Bible in English, and one book of the
paraphrases of Erasmus upon the gospels, both in En-
glish, that the people might reverently, without any
argument or contention, read and hear the same at such
times as they chose, and not to be prohibited by the
parson and curate, but rather to be the more encouraged
thereto.
And that the parsons and curates should not at any
time (but for necessary causes) haunt any tavern or ale-
house ; neither should spend their time idly in unlaw-
ful games ; but at every convenient leisure should
give themselves to the reading or hearing of the holy
scriptures.
Moreover, that in the time of confession, in every pe-
riod of Lent, they should examine their parishioners,
whether they could say the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com-
mandments, and the articles of the christian faith ; and
that if they could not, they should then reprove them, de-
claring further to them, that they ought not to presume
to come to the Lord's table, without the true knowledge
thereof, and earnest desire to fulfil them.
Also, that they should not admit any man to preach
within their cures, but such as were lawfully licensed ;
and that those who had at any time before extolled and
praised any idolatrous pilgrimage, or other superstition,
should now openly recant before the peojile.
And if there were any open hinderer or disturber of
the reading or preaching of the word of God within their
parishes, that then they should forthwith bring the same
unto the king's council, or to some justice of peace.
And further, that learning and knowledge might be
IXSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY EDWARD IV. REGARDING THE CHURCH. [Book VIII.
the better maintained, it was al.-io ordained, that every
beneficed person that could yearly spend twenty pounds
or upwards, and was not resident upon their cures,
should pay, towards the relief of the poor within their
parish every year, the fortieth part of their fruits and
profits ; and likewise that every such as could spend one
hundred pounds yearly, or more, should for every hun-
dred pounds give a competent exhibition to some poor
scholar within one of the universities of Oxford or
Cambridge, or else in some other grammar-school of the
realm.
And also that every priest, being under the degree of
a bachelor of divinity, should have of his own one New
Testament in English and Latin, with the paraphrases
of Erasmus upon the same, and should diligently read
and study it, and should collect and keep in memory all
such comfortable places of the scriptures, as set forth
the mercy, benefits, and goodness of Almighty God to-
wards all penitent and believing persons, that they might
comfort their flock in all danger of death, despair, or
trouble of conscience ; and that therefore every bishop
in their visitations should from time to time try and ex-
amine them how they had profited in their studies.
And although the mass was then still by the law re-
tained, yet was it enjoined, that at every high ma.ss the
sayer or singer should openly and distinctly read the
gospel and the epistle in English, in the pulpit, or
in some other convenient place that the jieople might
hear. And in like place and manner sliould read every
holy-day and Sunday, at matins, one chapter of the
New Testament in English, omitting three of their nine
Latin lessons, with their responds ; and at even-song
likewise, immediately after Magnificat, one chapter of
the Old Testament instead of their wonted responds
and memories.
Furthermore, because of the vain contentions that of-
ten fall among the people for going on procession, it
was ordained, that thenceforth the priest and clerks
should kneel in the midst of the church, and there dis-
tinctly sing or read the Litany in English, set forth by
the authority of King Henry VIII., and that no person
should depart out of the church in the time of reading
the Scripture or the Litany, or during the time of any
sermon, without just and urgent cause.
Likewise that the people should spend the holy-days
in hearing the word of God ; in private and public
prayers ; in acknowledging their offences unto God, and
amendment of the same ; in reconciling themselves cha-
ritably to their neighbours where displeasure has been
given ; in often receiving the communion of the body
and blood of Christ ; in visiting the poor and sick, and
in all sober and godly conversation ; and not in vanity,
idleness, or drunkenness ; neither yet in any bodily la-
bour, otherwise than in the time of harvest, to save the
fruits of the earth, if necessity so required ; and that no cu-
rate should admit to the receiving of the holy communion
any person who had maliciously and openly contended
with his neighbours, unless he first openly reconciled
himself again, and remitted all rancour and malice what-
ever.
Moreover, it was ordained that every dean, arch-
deacon, master of collegiate church, or hospital, and
prebendary, being a priest, should himself personally
preach twice every year at least, in some such place
where he had jurisdiction and living ; and that they and
all other curate.s should teach the people, that no man
of any private affection ought maliciously to violate any
ceremony in the church, then not abrogated by the king's
authority ; so likewise they ought not on the other side
to use them superstitiously or idolatrously, in attribut-
ing to them remission of sins, driving away of evU spirits,
and other such like dreams and fancies of men, or else
in piuiing any confidence of salvation in them. And
further that they should utterly take away and destroy
all shrines and monuments of feigned miracles, pilgri-
mages, and other idolatrous superstition, as well in their
ithurches, as within their private houses.
Also that they should see provided within their
churches a strong and fit chest for the safe keeping of the
people's alms given towards the relief of the poor, and
that the curates should earnestly exhort and entreat their
parishioners Cespecially at the making of their wills)
that as they had been therefore willing to bestow much
of their substance upon vain, superstitious, and blind
devotions contrary to God's word, so now they would
be much more ready to give some portion to their poor
and needy brethren, knowing the same to be not only
commanded in the word of (iod, but also promised to be
rewarded. And for the better relief of the poor, it was
also appointed that all money and profits arising upon
fraternities, images, or given tc th > finding of idolatrous
lights, should be converted to tne same use. Last of all,
for tlie want of learned curates, and other good preachers,
it was enjoined that the curates (having no sermon)
should every Sunday read to the people in their
churches one of the homilies which should be shortly
set forth for that purpose by the king's authority.
There were also other articles in the injunctions ap.
pointed for comeliness and due order in the churches ;
as for repairing of chancels, and priests' houses ; for
keejiing of a register book of weddings, christenings,
and burials ; for reading of these injunctions every quar-
ter ; for due paying of tithes ; for forbidding of any
other alteration of service in the church, or fasting days;
for making of comely pulpits for the preachers ; for
avoiding of simony in buying and selling of benefices ;
for the charitable using of priests ; for praying only upon
the English and Latin primers set forth by King
Henry VIII.; for the teaching of grammar in the com-
mon schools ; and lastly, that the chantry priests should
teach young children either to write and read, or else
some other good and profitable exercises.
Besides the general injunctions for the whole estate
of the realm, there were also others particularly ap-
pointed for the bishops, which being delivered to the
commissioners were likewise at their visitations com-
mitted to the bishops, with charge to be inviolably ob-
served and kept upon pain of the king's majesty's
displeasure ; the effect whereof is as in manner fol-
lowing :
First, that they should to the uttermost of their wit
and understanding see and cause all the king's injunc-
tions in their diocese duly, faithfully, and truly to be
kept and observed, and that they should personally
preach within their diocese, at least once in every quarter
of a year : that is to say, once in their cathedral churches,
and thrice in several other places of their dioceses, as
they should see it most convenient and necessary, ex-
cept they had a reasonable excuse to the contrary.
Likewise, that they should not retain in their service
or household any chaplain, but such as were learned, or
able to preach the word of God.
Moreover, that they should not give orders to any person,
but such as were learned in the holy scriptures ; neither
should they refuse orders to them that were learned in the
same, being of honest conversation and living. And
lastly, that they should not at any time or place preach,
or set forth to the people any doctrine contrary to the
king's highness' homilies, neither yet should admit or
give licence to any to preach within their diocese, but to
such as they should know (or at least assuredly trust)
would do the same. And if at any time by hearing, or
by report reproved, they should perceive the contrary,
they then should not only prohibit that person so
offending, but also punish him and revoke his licence.
Now, during the time that the commissioners were
occupied abroad in their circuits about the speedy and
diligent execution of these godly and zealous orders and
decrees of the king and his council, his majesty (with
the advice of the same) yet still desiring a further refor-
mation as well in religion, as also in his civil govern-
ment, appointed a parliament of the three estates of his
realm to be summoned to meet on the fourth day of No-
vember, in the first year of his reign, (A. D. l.'')47,) which
continued to the twenty-fourth day of December. In
which session, forasmuch as his highness desired the
governance and order of his people to be in perfect unity
and concord in all things, and especially in the true
faith and religion of God, and therewith also duly
weighed the great danger that his loving subjects were
A.D. 1517— l.-;o3.] LAWS ENACTED FOR THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH.
539
in for confessing the gospel of Christ, through many
cruel statutes made by his predecessors against the same,
(which, being still left in force, might both cause the
obstinate to contemn his grace's godly proceedings, and
also the weak to be fearful of their christian-like pro-
fession,) he therefore caused it, among other things, by
the aiitliority of the same parliament to be enacted.
That all acts of parliament and statutes touching, men-
tionin<', or in any wise concerning religion or opinions,
that is to say, as well the statute made in the first year
of the reign of King Richard II. ; and the statute made
in the second year of the reign of King Henry V, ; and
the statute made in the tive-and -twentieth year of the
reign of King Henry VIII., concerning punishment and
reformation of heretics and Lollards, and every provision
therein contained; and tlie statutes made for the abolisli-
ing of diversity of opinions in certain articles concerning
christian religion, commonly called the Six Articles, made
in the one- and-thirtieth year of the reign of King Henry
VIII. ; and also the statute made in the ))arliament be-
gun the sixteenth day of January in the three-and-
thirtieth year of the reign of the said King Henry VIII.,
and afterwards prorogued unto the one-and-twentieth
day of January in the four-and-thirtieth year of his said
reign, touching, mentioning, or in any wise concerning
books of the Old and New Testament in English, and
the printing, uttering, selling, giving, or delivering of
books or writings, and retaining of English books or
writings, and reading, preaching, teaching, or expound-
ing the scriptures, or in anywise touching, mentioning, or
concerning any of the said matters ; and also one other
statute made in the five-and-thirtietli year of the reign
of the said king Henry tlie Eighth, concerning the qua-
lification of the statute of the six articles ; and all and
every other act or acts of parliament, cojicerning doctrine
or matters of religion, and all and every branch, article,
sentence, matter, pains, or forfeitures contained, men-
tioned, or in anywise declared in any of the same acts
and statutes, should from thenceforth be utterly repealed,
made void, and of none effect.
By occasion of this, all his godly subjects, then abid-
ing within the realm, had free liberty publicly to profess
the gospel ; and many learned and zealous preachers,
before banished, were now not only licensed freely to
return home again, but also encouraged boldly and faith-
fully tcf travel in tlieir function and calling ; so that God
■was much glorified, and the people in many places greatly
edified.
Moreover, in the same session his majesty, with the
lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in the
same parliament assembled, thoroughly understanding
by the judgment of the best learned, that it was more
agreeable to the first institution of the sacrament of the
most precious body and blood of our Saviour Christ,
and also more conformable to the common use and
practice, both of the apostles and of the primitive
church, for the space of five hundred years and more
after Christ's ascension, that the holy sacrament should
be administered to all christian people under both kinds,
of bread and wine, than under the form of bread only ;
and also that it was more agreeable to the first institu-
tion of Christ, and the usage of the apostles and pri-
mitive church, that the people being present should re-
ceive the same with the priest, than that the priest
should receive it alone ; did, by their authority, enact,
that the holy sacrament should be from thenceforth
commonly delivered and administered to the people,
throughout the churches of England and Ireland, and
other the king's dominions, under both kinds, of bread
and wine, except necessity otherwise required : and also
the priest, who should administer the same, should, at
least one day before, exhort all persons who should be
present, to prepare themselves to receive the same. And
at the day prefixed, after some godly exhortation made
by the minister, wherein should be further expressed the
benefit and comfort promised to them who worthily re-
ceive this holy sacrament, and the danger and indigna-
tion of God threatened to them which presume to receive
the same unworthily, to the end that every man might
try and examine his own conscience before he should
come to it ; the minister should not, without a hwful
cause, refuse it to any one person that would devoutly
and humbly desire it.
After this consent of the parliament, the king
being no less desirous to have the form of aumiuislra-
tion of the sacrament truly reduced to the right rule of
the scriptures and the first use of the primitive church,
than he was to establish the same by the authority of
his own regal laws ; he appointed certain of the most grave
and best learned bishops, and others of his realm, to as-
semble together at his castle of Windsor, and there to argue
and treat upon this matter, and to conclude and set forth
one perfect uniform order according to the rule and use
aforesaid.
And in the meantime, while the learned were thus oc-
cupied about their conferences, the lord protector and
the rest of the king's council, further remembering that
the time of the year then approached, wherein were
practised many superstitious abuses and blasphemous
ceremonies against the glory of God, and the truth of his
word ; they determined the utter abolishing thereof, and
directed their letters to Cranmer, then archbishop of Can-
terbury, and metropolitan of England, requiring him that
he should command every bishop within his province,
forthwith to charge all the curates of their dioceses, that
neither candles should be any more borne upon Candle-
mas day, nor yet ashes used in Lent, nor palms upon
Palm Sunday.
\\'hereupon the archbishop, zealously favouring the
good and christian-like purpose of the king and Lis
council, immediately wrote to all the rest of the bishops
of that province, and among them to Edmund Bonner,
then bishop of London. Ot whose rebellious and ob-
stinate contumacy as we have hereafter more to say, I
shall not now speak, but only by the way note his for-
mer dissimulation and cloaked hypocrisy, in outwardly
consenting as well to this, as also to all the king's pro-
ceedings ; but whether for fear or for any other subtle
pretence I know not.
About the same period report was made to the lords of
the council, that great contention and strife daily arose
among the common people in various parts of this realm,
for the pulling down and taking away of suc'n images out
of the churches, as had been idolatrously abused by pil-
grimages, offerings, or otherwise, some affirming that
one image was abused, others another, and most that
neither of them was abused ; so that if speedy remedy
were not had, it might turn to further inconvenience.
Wherefore, thinking it best, for avoiding of discord
and tumult, that all manner of images should be clean
taken out of all churches, and none suffered to remain,
they again wrote their letters to the archbishop of Can-
terbury, requiring his ready aid in manner following: —
Letter of the Council sent to the Archbishop of Can-
terburif, for the abolishing of Images.
" After our right hearty commendations to your good
lordship : whereas now of late in the king's majesty's
visitations, among other godly injunctions commanded
to be generally observed through all parts of this his
highness's realm, one was set forth for the taking down
of all such images as had at any time been abused
with pilgrimages, offerings, or censings ; albeit that this
said injunction hath in many parts of this realm been
quietly obeyed and executed, yet in many other places
much strife and contention hath arisen and daily ariseth,
and more and more increaseth about the execution of
the same ; some men being so superstitious, or rather
wilful, as they would by their good will retain all such
images still, although they have been most manifestly
ahused. And in some places also the images which by
the said injunctions were taken down, are now restored
and set up again ; and almost in every place is con-
tention for images, whether they have been abused or
not. And while these men go on both sides, contend-
ing whether this or that image hath been oflVred unto,
kissed, censed, or otherwise abused, proceedings have in
some places taken place in such sort, as further incon-
veniences are like to ensue, if remedy be not found iu
T T
040
ORDER FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT.
[Book IX.
time. Considering therefore, that almost in no place of
this realm is any sure quietness, but where all images
are clean taken away and pulled down already, to the in-
tent that all contention in every part of the realm for
this matter, may be put down, and that the lively image
of Christ should not contend for the dead images, which
are things not necessary, and without which the churches
of Christ continued most godly for many years ;
we have thought good to signify unto you, that his high-
ness's pleasure, with the advice and consent of us the
lord protector, and the rest of the council, is, that im-
mediately upon the sight hereof, with as convenient dili-
gence as you may, you shall not only give orders that all
the images remaining in any church or chapel within your
diocese, be removed and taken away, but also by your
letters signify unto the rest of the bishops within your
province, his highness's pleasure, for tlie like order to
be given by them and every one of them within their several
dioceses. And in the execution hereof, we require both
you and the rest of the said bishops to use such fore-
sight as that the same may be quietly done, with as good
satisfaction of the people as may be. Thus fare your
good lordship heartily well.
" From Somerset-place, the 11th February, 1548."
When the archbishop had received these letters, he
forthwith directed his precept to Bonner, bishop of
Loiulon, requiring, and in the king's name commanding
him, tluit with all speed he should as well give in charge
unto the rest of the bishops within the province of Can-
terbury, to look immediately without delay to the dili-
gent and careful execution of the contents of the letter
througli all parts of the diocese ; as also that he himself
should do the like within his own city and diocese of
London. Whereupon he seeming then, with like out-
ward consent as before, to allow these doings, presently
(by virtue of the precept) did send out his mandate as
well to the rest of the bishops, as also again to the bishop
of Westi.'iinster.
By the time that these things were thus determined,
the. learned men whom the king had appointed to assem-
ble together for the true and right manner of administci'-
ing the sarrament of the body and blood of Christ ac-
cording to the rule of the scriptures of God, and the first
usage of the primitive church ; they after their long,
learned, wise, and deliberate counsels, finally concluded
and agreed upon one godly and uniform order, not much
differing from the manner at present used and authorized
within this realm and church of England, commonly
called The Communion. Which agreement being exhi-
bited to the king, and most gladly accepted, was publicly
printed, and by his majesty's council sent to every
bishop of the realm; requiring and commanding them by
letters on the king's majesty's behalf, that both they in
their own persons should forthwith pay diligent and care-
ful respect to the due execution thereof, and also should
with all diligence cause the books which they then sent
tiiem, to be delivered to every parson, vicar, and curate
within their diocese, that they likewise might well and
sufficiently qualify themselves for the better distribution
of the communion (according to the tenor of the book)
against the feast of Easter then next ensuing, as more
fully appears by their letters here following : —
Letters missive from the Council to the Bishops of the
Realm, concerning the Communion to be administered
in both kinds.
" After our most hearty commendations unto your
lordship, whereas in the parliament lately holden at West-
minster, it was amongst other things most godly esta-
blished, that according to the first institution and use of
the primitive church, the most holy sacrament of the
body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ should be
distributed to the people under the kinds of bread and
wine; according to the effect whereof the king's majesty,
minding, with the advice and consent of the lord pro-
tector's grace, and the rest of the council, to have the
said statute well executed in such sort, or like as is
agreeable with the word of God (so the same may be
also faithfully and reverently received of his most loving
subjects, to their comfort and well-doing) hath caused
sundry of his majesty's most grave and well-learned pre-
lates, and other learned men in the scriptures, to assem-
ble themselves for this matter : who, after long con-
ference together, have, with deliberate advice, finally
agreed upon such an order to be used in all places of
the king's majesty's dominions in the distribution of the
said most holy sacrament, as may appear to you by the
book thereof, which we send herewith unto you. Know-
ing your lordsliip's knowledge in the scriptures, and
earnest good will and zeal to the setting forth of all
things according to the truth thereof, we are well-assured,
you will of your own good will, and out of respect to
your duty, diligently set forth this most godly order
here agreed upon, and commanded to be used by the
authority of the king's majesty : yet remembering the
crafty jiracticc of the devil, who ceases not to work, by
all ways and means, the hindrance of all godliness ; and
considering furthermore, that a great number of the
curates of the realm, either for lack of knowledge can-
not, or for want of good mind will not, ba so ready to
set forth the same, as we would wish, and as the im-
portance of the matter and their own bounden duties re-
quires, we have thought good to pray and require your
lordship, and nevertheless, in the king's majesty's our
most dread Lord's name, to command you to have an
earnest diligence and careful respecc both in your own
person, and by all your officers and ministers also, to
cause these books to be delivered to every parson, vicar,
and curate within your diocese, with such diligence as
that they may have sufficient time well to instruct and
advise themselves, for the distribution of the most holy
communion, according to the order of this book, before
this Easter time, and that they may, by your good means,
be %vell directed to use such good, gentle, and charitable
instruction of their simple and unlearned parishioners,
as may be to all their good satisfaction as much as may
be ; praying you to consider, that this order is set forth
to the intent there should be in all parts of the realm,
and among all men, one uniform manner quietly used.
The execution whereof, like as it shall stand very much
in the diligence of you and others of your vocation ; so
do we forthwith require you to have a diligent respect
thereunto, as ye tender the king's majesty's pleasure,
and will answer for the contrary. And thus we bid
your lordship right heartily farewell. From Westminster,
the thirteenth of March, l.")48."
By means of this letter, and the godly order of the
learned, and also of the statute and act of parliament
before mentioned, all private blasphemous masses were
now by just authority fully abolished throughout this
realm of England, and the right use of the sacrament of
the most precious body and blood of our Saviour Jesus
Christ truly restored instead of them. But, never-
theless, as at no time can any thing be so well done by
the godly, but that the wicked will find some means
subtlely to deface it ; so at this time, through the per-
verse obstinacy and dissembling frowardness of many of
the inferior priests and ministers of the cathedral, and
other churches of this realm, there arose a marvellous
schism and variety of fashions in celebrating the common
service and administration of the sacraments, and other
rites and ceremonies of the church. For some, zealously
allowing the king's proceedings, gladly followed the
order ; and others, though not so willingly admitting
them, yet dissembling, used some part of them ; but
many, carelessly contemning all, would still exercise
their old accustomed popery.
Whereof the king and his councQ having good intelli-
gence, and fearing the great inconveniences and dangers
that might happen through this division, and being loath
to use any great severity towards his subjects, but
rather desirous, by some quiet and godly order to bring
them to some conformity, did, by their prudent counsel
again appoint the archbishop of Canterbury, with certain
of the best learned and discreet bishops and other
learned men, diligently to consider and ponder the pre-
mises : and thereupon, having as well an eye and re-
spect to the most sincere and pure christian religion
A.D. 1547—1553.]
AN UNIFORM ORDER OF THE COMMON PRAYER.
641
taught by the holy scriptures, as also to the usages of the
primitive church, to draw and make one convenient and
meet order, rite, and fashion of Common Prayer, and
administration of the sacraments, to be had and used
within this realm of England, and the doiuniions of the
same. Who, after most godly and learned conferences,
through the aid of the Holy Ghost, with one uniform
agreement concluded, set forth, and delivered to the
king's highness, a book in English, entitled, " A Book
of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sa-
craments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the
Church, after the use of the Church of England."
Which his highness receiving, with great comfort and
quietness of mind, forthwith exhibited to the lords and
commons of the parliament then assembled at West-
minster, about the fourth of November, in the second
year of his reign, and in the year 1548, and continuing
to the fourteenth day of March, then next ensuing.
Whereupon, the lords spiritual and temporal, and
the commons of the parliament assembled, well and
thoroughly considering, as well the most godly concern
of the king's highness, of the lord protector, and other
of his majesty's council, in gathering together the arch-
bishops, bishops, and other learned men, as the godly
prayers, orders, rites, and ceremonies in the said book
mentioned, with the consideration of altering those
things which were altered, and retaining those things
which were retained in the book ; as also the honour of
God, and great quietness, which, by the grace of God,
sliould ensue upon that one and uniform rite and order
ill sucli common prayer, rites, and ceremonies to be
n^:'d tlirousjhout England, Wales, Calais, and the
M iiches of the same : they first gave to his highness most
i'Kvly and hearty thanks for the same, and then most
liuaiily prayed him that it might be ordained and en-
ai ic-d by iiis majesty with the assent of the lords and
> millions in that parliament assembled, and by the au-
t!i iiity of the same. That not only every person and
]■ isons who had offended concerning the premises
I irher than such as were then remaining in ward in the
'i'liwer of London, or in the Fleet) might be pardoned, but
also that all and singular the ministers in any cathedral,
or parish churches, or other places within the realm of
England, Wales, Calais, and the Marches of the same,
or other the king's dominions, should from and after the
feast of Pentecost next coming, be bound to say and use
jeach of the matins, evensong, celebration of the Lord's
Supper, and administration of the sacraments, and all
other common and public prayers, in such order and form
I as was mentioned in the book, and none otherwise.
I And although they were so godly and good, that they
I gave occasion to every honest and conformable man
I most willingly to embrace them ; yet, lest any obstinate
persons, who willingly would disturb so godly an order
.and quiet in this realm, should go unpunished; they
I further requested. That it might be ordained and enacted
Iby the authority aforesaid, that if any manner of parson,
vicar, or other minister whatever, that ought or should
say or sing Common Prayer, mentioned in the book, or
administer the sacraments, should, after the feast of
Pentecost, then next coming, refuse to use the Common
Prayer, or to administer the sacraments in such cathedral
or parish churches, or other places, as he should use or
minister the same, in such order and form as they were
mentioned, and set forth in the book ; or should use wil-
fully, and obstinately standing in the same, any other
rite, ceremony, order, form, or manner of mass, openly
or privily, or matins, evensong, administration of the
sacraments, or other public prayer than was mentioned
and set forth in the said book ; or should preach, de-
clare, or speak any thing in derogation or discredit
of the said book, or any thing therein contained, or of
any part thereof, and should be thereof lawfully con-
victed according to the laws of this realm by verdict of
itwelve men, or by his own confession, or by the notori-
'ous evidence of the fact, should lose and forfeit, unto
the king's highness, his heirs and successors, for his
I first offence one whole year's profit of such one of his
benefices or spiritual promotions, as it should please the
king's highuess to assign and appoint ; and also for the
same offence should sufl'er imprisonment for six months
without bail or mainprize. But if any such person, after
Ills first conviction, should soon ofl'end again, and be
lawfully convicted, then he should, for his second of-
fence, suifer imprisonment for one whole year, and
should also be deprived, ipso facto, of all his si)iritual
promotions for ever, so that it should be lawful for the
patrons and donors to give the same again unto any
other learned man, in like manner as if the party so of-
fending were dead. And if any person or persons should
ofl'end a third time, and be lawfully convicted, then he
should, for the same third offence, suffer imprisonment
during his life. If any such person or persons aforesaid,
so oftending, had not any benefice or spiritual promotion,
that then he should for his first oflence suffer imprison-
ment for six months without bail or mainprize ; and for
his second olfeuce, imprisonment during life. Which
request, or rather actual agreement of the lords and
commons of the parliament, being once understood of
the king, was also soon ratified and confirmed by his re-
gal consent and authority, and thereupon the book of
Common Prayer was presently printed, and commanded
to be used throughout the whole realm and dominion,
according to the tenor and effect of the statute.
Moreover, in the same session of the said parliament,
it was enacted and established by the authority thereof.
That, for as much as great, horrible, and unspeakable
inconveniences had, fiom time to time, arisen amongst
the priests, ministers, and other officers of the clergy,
through their compelled chastity, and by such laws as
prohibited them the godly and lawful use of marriage,
that therefore all and every law and laws positive, ca-
nons, constitutions, and ordinances heretofore made by
the authority of man only, which did prohibit or forbid
marriage to any ecclesiastical or spiritual person or per-
sons, of what estate, condition, or degree soever they
were, or by what name or names they were called, which
by God's law may lawfully marry, in all and every
article, branch, and sentence concerning only the prohi-
bition of the marriage of the persons aforesaid, should
be utterly void and of none effect. And that all mannei
of forfeitures, pains, penalties, crimes, or actions, which
were in the laws contained, and of the same did follow,
concerning the prohibition of the marriage of the eccle-
siastical persons, should be thenceforth also clearly and
utterly void. By occasion of which, it was thence after
lawful for any ecclesiastical person most godly to live in
the pure and holy estate of matrimony according to the
laws and word of God.
But if the first injunctions, statutes, and decrees of
the prince were by many but slenderly regarded, with
much less good affection were these (especially the book
of Common Prayer) now received by several ; yea, and
that by some who had always before in outward show
willingly allowed the former doings, as appears plainly
by Bonner the bishop of London. Who although, by
his former letters, and other mandates, he seemed to
favour all the king's proceedings ; yet did he (notwith-
standing both the statute for the establishing of the
communion, and the abolishing of all private masses,
and also this statute of the ratifying and confirming of
the book of Common Prayer) still suffer sundry idola-
trous private masses of peculiar names (as the Apostles'
mass, the Lady mass, and such like) to be daily solemnly
sung within certain peculiar chapels of the cathedral
church of St. Paul's, cloaking them with the names of
the Apostles' communion, and our Lady's communion,
not once finding any fault with them, until such time as
the lords of the council were obliged by their letters to
command and charge him to look better thereunto.
Over and besides all this, the lord protector, with the
rest of the king's privy and learned council assembling
together in the Star Chamber ; for the advancement of
the king's godly proceedings, called before them all the
justices of peace, where was pronounced to them, by
the lord Rich, then lord chancellor, an eloquent and
learned admonition, requiring them to see to the due ex-
ecution of the king's laws.
It is apparent from these acts what zealous care was in
this young king, and in the lord protector, concerning ths
T T 2
642
BONNER'S LETTER TO THE CHAPTER OF ST. PAUL'S
[Book LX..
reformation of Christ's church, bj' these injunctions,
letters, precepts, and exhortations. By which we liave to
note, not so much the careful diligence of the king and
his learned council; as the lingering slackness of justices
and lawyers, but especially of bishops, and old popish
curates, by whose cloaked contempt, wilful connivance,
and stubborn disobedience, the book of the common
prayer, long after its publication, was either notknown at
all, or else very irreverently used through many places
of the realm. When the king, by the complaint of seve-
ral persons, perfectly understood this, he was not a
little grieved to see the godly agreement of the learned,
and the willing consent of the parliament, and his grace's
own zealous desire having so little effect among his subj ects ;
he therefore decreed, with the advice of his whole coun-
cil, to write again to all the bishops of his realm, for
speedy and diligent redress in this matter : commanding
them that they themselves should have a more special
regard to the execution of his wishes, and also that all
others, within their several precincts and jurisdictions,
should by their good instructions and example be the
more frequently and with the better devotion, moved to
use and frequent the same ; as further appears by the
ensuing letter : —
A Letter directed by the King, and his Council, to Bonner,
Bishop of London.
" Right reverend father in God, right trusty and well-
beloved, we greet you well: and whereas after great
and serious debating and long conference of the bishops
and other grave and well-learned men in the holy scrip-
tures, one uniform order for common prayers and ad-
ministration of the sacraments hath been, and is most
godly set forth, not only by the common agreement and
full assent of the nobility and commons of tlie late ses-
sion of our late parliament, but also by the like assent of
tlie bishops in the same parliament, and of all other the
learned men of this our realm in their synods and con-
vocations provincial : as it was much to our comfort, to
understand the godly labour then taken diligently and
willingly for the true opening of tilings mentioned in
the said book, whereby the true service and honour of
Almighty God, and tlie right ministration of the sacra-
ments being well and sincerely set forth, according to
the scriptures and use of the primitive church, much
idolatry, vain superstition, and great and slanderous
abuses were taken away : so it is no small occasion of sor-
row to us, to understand by the complaints of many,
that our said book, so much laboured for, and also sin-
cerely set forth, remaineth in many places of this our
realm, either not known at all, or not used, or at the
least if it be used, very seldom, and that in such light
and irreverent sort, as the people in many jilaces either
have heard nothintr, or if they liear, they neither under-
stand, nor have that spiritual deliglit in the same, that
to good Christians appertaineth. The fault whereof, as
we must of reason imjjute to you and other of your voca-
tion, called by God, through our appointment, to due
resjiect to this and such like matters ; so considering
that by these and such like occasions, our loving subjects
remain yet still in their blindness and sujierstitious
errors, and in some places in as irreligious forgetfulness
of God, whereby his wrath may be provoked upon us
and them ; and remembering withal, that amongst other
cures committed to our princely charge, we think this
the greatest, to see the glory and true service of Him
maintained and extolled, by whose clemency we acknow-
ledge ourselves to have all that we have, we could not
but, by advice and consent of our dearest uncle, Edward
Duke of Somerset, governor of our person, and protec-
tor of our realm, dominions, and subjects, and the rest
of our privy council, admonish you of the premises.
Wherein, as it had been your office to have used an
earnest diligence, and to have preferred the same in all
places within your diocese, as the case required ; so have
we thought good to pray and require you, and neverthe-
less straightly to charge and command you, that from
henceforth ye have an earnest and special regard to re-
duce these things, so as the curates may do their duties
more often and in more reve-ent sort, and the people
be occasioned, by the good advices and examples of your-
self, your chancellor, archdeacons, and other inferior
ministers, to come oftener and with more devoton to
their said common prayers, to give thanks to God, and
to be partakers of the most holy communion. Wherein
by showing yourself diligent, and giving good example in
your own person, you shall both discharge your duty to
the great Pastor, to whom we all have to account, and
also do us good service : and on the other side, if we
shall hereafter (these our letters and commandments
notwithstanding) hear complaint, and find the like fault
in your diocese, we shall have just cause to impute the
fault thereof, and of all that ensueth thereof, to you,
and consequently be occasioned thereby to see otherwise
to the redress of these things ; whereof we would be
sorry. And therefore we do charge and command you,
upon your allegiance, to look well upon your duty herein,
as you respect our pleasure.
" Given under our signet at our manor of Richmond,
the three and twentieth day of July, the third
year of our reign, 1549. "
The bishop of London, among the rest of the bishops,
receiving these letters, did (as before) in outward shew
willingly accept them ; and therefore immediately with
the said letters directed the following precept unto
the dean and chapter of his cathedral church of St.
Paul's, commanding them to look to the due accomplish-
ing thereof accordingly.
A Letter of Bonner, to the Dean and Chapter of
St. PauVs.
" Edmund by the grace of God, &c. To my well be-
loved brethren the dean and chapter of the cathedral
church of St. Paul in London, and to the other minis-
ters there and every of them, do send greeting. And
whereas of late I have received letters of our sovereign
lord the king, of such tenor as is hereunto annexed, and
according to my most bounden duty am right well will-
ing, and desiring that the said letters should be in all
points duly executed and observed according to the
tenor and purport of the same, as appertaineth : These,
therefore, are to require, and also straightly to charge
you and every of you on his majesty's behalf, &c., that
you do admonish and command, or cause to be ad-
monished or commanded, all and singular parsons,
vicars, and curates, of your jurisdiction, to observe and
accomplish the same from time to time accordingly ;
furthermore requiring and likewise charging you, and
every of you, to make certificate herein to me, my chan-
cellor or other my officers in this behalf, with such con-
venient celerity as appertaineth, both of your proceedings
in the execution hereof, and also the persons and names
of all such as from henceforth shall be found negligent in
doing their duties in the premises, or any of them.
" Given at my house at Fulham, the 26th day of
July, in the year of our Lord 154^, and in the
third year of his majesty's reign."
Moreover, as the king at this time hearing the mut-
tering of rebellion then stirring, (whereof more shall here-
after be said,) and also being credibly informed that,
through the evil example, slackness of preaching, and
administering the sacraments, and careless contempt of
bishop Bonner, not only many of the people within the
city of London, and other places of his diocese, were
very negligent and forgetful of their duties to God, in
frequenting the divine service then established and set
forth by the authority of parliament ; but also that others,
utterly despising it, did in secret places of his diocese
often frequent the popish mass, and other foreign rites
not allowed by the laws of this realm, therefore the king
thought it good to appoint the lord protector and the
rest of his privy council to call the bishop before them,
and to deal with him according to their wise and dis-
creet judgment.
Upon the 11th of August, 1549, they sent a messen-
ger for him, and upon his appearance made declaration
A.D. 1547—1553.]
COMMOTION IN DEVONSHIRE.
613
of such informations and complaints as had been brought
against hira. And then, after sharp admonitions and
reproofs for his evil demeanours, they delivered to him,
from the king, (for his better reformation and amend-
ment), certain private injunctions to be foUowed and
observed by himself. And as, in the first branch of
the injunctions, he vras personally assigned to preach at
St. Paul's Cross on Sunday come three weeks then next
ensuin", (because both the dangerous and fickle state of
the times, and also partly his own suspicious behaviour
so required,) they further delivered to him in writing
such articles to treat upon in his sermon, as they thought
then most meet and necessary for the time. All which
injunctions and articles I here insert : —
Certain private Injunctions and Articles given to Bonner
by the Council.
fk " Forasmuch as we are advertised, that among other
disorders of our subjects at this present time, there are
several in our city of London, and other places within
your diocese, who being very negligent and forgetful of
their duty to Almighty God, from whom all good things
are to be looked for, do assemble themselves very sel-
dom, and fewer times than they were heretofore accus-
tomed, to common prayer, and to the holy communion
(being now a time when it is more needful with heart
and mind to pray to our heavenly Father for his aid and
succour,) and for which we are right sorry : so we un-
derstand that through your evil example, and tlie slack-
ness of your preaching and instructing of our people to
do their duties, this offence to God is most generally
committed. For where heretofore upon all principal
feasts, and such as were called majus diiple.e, you your-
self were wont to execute in person, now since the time
that we by the advice of our whole parliament have set
a most godly and devout order in our church of England
and Ireland, ye have very seldom or never executed upon
such other days, to the contempt of our proceedings, and
evil example of others. And forasmuch as it is also
brought to our knowledge, that many, as well in Lon-
don as in other places of your diocese, frequent and
haunt foreign rites of masses, and such as are not al-
lowed by the orders of our realm, and contemn and
forbear to praise and laud God, and pray after such rites
and ceremonies, as in this realm are approved and set
out by our authority ; and further, that adultery and
fornication is maintained and kept openly and com-
monly in the city of London, and other places of your
diocese, whereby the wrath of God is provoked against
our people ; of which things you being heretofore ad-
monished, yet hitherto have made no redress, as to the
pastoral office, authority and cure of a bishop apper-
tains. We, therefore, to whom the supreme cure and
charge of this church appertains, to avert from us the
high indignation of Almighty God, by the advice of our
most entirely beloved uncle the lord protector, and the
rest of our privy council, have thought it no less than
our most bounden duty, peremptorily to admonish,
charge, and warn you, that you most strictly look upon
the premises, and see them so reformed that there may
appear no negligence on your behalf, upon such pain as
by our laws ecclesiastical and temporal we may inflict
upon you, to deprivation or otherwise, as shall seem to
us reasonable, according to the offence. And to the
intent you should the better see to the reformation of
the said abuses, we have thought good to give you these
injunctions following : —
" 1. Ye shall preach at St. Paul's Cross, in London,
in proper person, on Sunday come three weeks from
the date hereof, and in the same sermon declare and set
forth the articles hereunto annexed ; and ye shall preach
hereafter once every quarter of the year there, exhorting
in your sermon the people to obedience, prayer, and
godly living ; and ye shall be present at every sermon
hereafter made at St. Paul's cross, if sickness or some
other reasonable cause do not hinder you.
" 2. You yourself in person shall from henceforth on
every day which heretofore was accounted in this church
of England a principal feast, or Majus duplex, and at all
such times as the bishops of London your predecessors
were wont to celebrate and sing higli mass, now celebrate
and execute the communion at the high altar in St. Paul's,
for the better example of all others, except sickness hin-
der you.
" 3. Ye shall yourself, according to your duty, and
the office of a bishop, call before you all such as do not
come and frequent the common prayer, and service in
the church, or do not come to God's table, and receive
the conmiunion at the least once a year, or whoever do
frequent or go to any other rite or service than is ap-
pointed by our book, either of matins, even- song, or
mass, in any church, chapel, or other private places
within your diocese ; and ye shail see all such ott'eudera
brought before you and punished, according to the eccle-
siastical laws, with severe and strict punishment. Like-
wise ye shall see one only order used in your diocese,
according to our said book, and none other.
" 4. Ye shall both by yourself, and all your officers
under you, search out and bring before you, more diU-
gently than heretofore, (as appertaiueth to your office)
all adulterers, and see them punished according to the
ecclesiastical laws, and the authority given you in that
behalf.
" 5. 'We have heard also complaints, that the church of
St. Paul's, and other churches in London are of late more
neglected, as well in reparation of the glass, as other
buildings and ornaments, than they were heretofore
and that many persons in the city of malice deny the
payment of their due tithe to their curates, whereby the
curates are both injured and made not so well able, and
in a manner discouraged to do their duties. \\ Inch
thing also our will and commandment is, ye shall dili-
gently look to, and see redressed as appertaineth.
" 6. And for so much as all these complaints are made
as most done and committed in London, to the intent
you may look more earnestly, better, and more diligently
to the reformation of them, our pleasure is that you shsdl
abide and keep residence in your house there, as in the
city, see, and principal place of your diocese, and no
where else, for a certain time, until you shall be other-
wise licensed by us.''
And thus having brought Bishop Bonner home to bis
own house, we shall there leave him a while to take his
ease in his own lodging, till we return to him again, we
will in the mean time make a little digression into Corn-
wall and Devonshire, to relate some part of the disloyal
doings of those men against their meek and excellent
prince. They were not contented with him, but con-
trary to all order, reason, nature and loyalty, advanced
themselves in a rebellious conspiracy against him, and
against his proceedings, through the pernicious instiga-
tion of popish priests, who hating the injunctions and
godly order of reformation set forward by the king, and
especially mourning to see their old popish church of
Rome decaying, ceased not by all sinister and subtle
means, under God's name and the king's, and undercolour
of religion, to persuade the people, and to assemble in
companies, to gather captains, and at last to burst out in
rank rebellion. Neither were there wanting among the
lay sort, some as seditiously disposed to rebellion as they
to mischief and madness.
Of whom the chief captains were, Humfrey Arundel,
governor of St. Michael's Mount, James Rosogan, John
Rosogan, John Pain, Thomas Underbill, John Soleman,
William Segar. Of priests who were principal stirrers,
and some of them governors of the camps, and afterwards
executed, there were to the number of eight, whose
names were Robert Bochim, John Temson, Rogei
Baratt, John Wolcock, William Asa, James Mourton,
JohnBarow, Richard Bennet, besides a multitude of other
popish priests. The number of those concerned in re- ^
bellion, amounted to little less than ten thousand stoat
traitors.
Their first intent was, after they had spoiled their own
districts most miserably, to invade the city of Exeter,
and so all other parts of the realm. But they were re-
pulsed from Exeter, and then fell on spoiling and robbing
where or whatever they might catch. At length laying
04-4
THE KING'S ANSWER TO THE REBELS OF DEVONSHIRE.
[Book IX.
their traitorous heads together, they consulted upon cer-
tain articles to be sent up. But such difference of opi-
nion prevailed among them, that their plans utterly
failed. Some seemed more tolerable. Others altogether
unreasonable. Some would have no justice. Some
would have no state of gentlemen. The ])riests ever
harped upon one string, namely, to bring in the bishop
of Rome into England again.
After much ado, at last, a few articles were agreed
upon, to be forwarded to the king.
The Articles of the Commons of Devomhire, and Corn-
wall, sent to the King.
" 1. Forasmuch as man, except he be born of water
and the Holy Ghost, cannot enter into the kingdom of
God, and forasmuch as the gates of heaven be not opened
without his blessed sacrament and baptism, therefore, we
will that our curates shall minister this sacrament at all
times of need, as well in the week-days, as on the holy-
days.
" 2. We will have our children confirmed of the
bishop, whenever we shall, within the diocese, resort
to him.
" 3. Forasmuch as we constantly believe, that after
the priest has spoken the words of consecration being at
mass, there celebrating and consecrating the same, there
is very really the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, God and man. and that no substance of bread
and wine remaineth after, but the very self same body
that was born of the Virgin Mary, and was given upon
the cross for our redemption ; therefore we will have
mass celebrated as it has been in times past, without any
man communicating with the priest ; as many, rudely
presuming unworthily to receive the same, put no dif-
ference between the Lord's body and other kind of meat;
some saying that it is bread before and after, some saying
that it is profitable to no man except he receive it, with
many other abusive terms.
"4. We will have the consecrated host reserved in
our churches.
" We will have holy bread and holy water in remem-
brance of Christ his precious body and blood.
" 5. We will that our priests shall sing, or say with
an audible voice God's service in the choir of the parish
churches, and not God's service to be set forth like a
Christmas play.
" fi. Forsomuch as priests be men dedicated to God,
for ministering and celebrating the blessed sacraments
and preaching God's word, we will that they shall live
chaste without marriage, as St. Paul did, being the elect
and chosen vessel of God, sajing unto all honest priests,
' Be ye followers of me.'
" We will that the six articles which our sovereign
lord king Henry the eighth set forth in his latter days,
shall be used and so taken as they were at that time.
" We pray God save king Edward, for we be his, both
body and goods."
The Answer sent by the King's Majesty, to certain of his
people assembled in Devonshire.
" Although knowledge hath been given to us and our
dearest uncle Edward duke of Somerset, governor of our
person, and jjrotector of all our realms, dominions and
subjects, and to the rest of our privy council, of some
assemblies made by you, who ought to be our loving
subjects, against all order, law, and otherwise than ever
any loving and kind subjects have attempted against
their natural and liege sovereign lord ; yet we have
thought it meet at this time, not to condemn or reject
you, as we might justly do, but to use you as our sub-
jects, thinking that the devil has not that power in you,
to make you, of natural born Englishmen, so suddenly
become enemies to your own native country ; or, of our
subjects to make you traitors ; or under pretence to
relieve yourselves, to destroy yourselves, your wives,
children, lands, bouses, and all other commodities of
this your life. This we say, we trust that although ye
be seduced by ignorance, ye will not be obstinate upon
knowledge. And though some among you (as ever there
will be some tares amongst good wheat) forget God,
neglect their prince, esteem not the state of the realm,
but as careless, desperate men delight in sedition, tumult
and wars ; yet nevertheless, the greater part of you will
hear the voice of us your natural prince, and will by
wisdom and counsel be warned, and cease your evils in
the beginning, whose ends will be, even by Almighty
God's order, your own destruction. Wherefore, as to
you our subjects, seduced by ignorance, we speak, and
are content to use our princely authority, like a father
to his children, to admonish you of your faults, not to
punish them, to put you in remembrance of your duties,
not to avenge your forgetfulness.
" First, As to your disorderly rising in multitudes,
and assembling yourselves against other our loving
subjects, to array yourselves to war, who amongst you
all can answer the same to Almighty God, charging you
to obey us in all things ? Or how can any English good
heart answer us, our laws, and the rest of our very loving
and faithful subjects, who indeed by their obedience make
our honour, estate, and degree .'
" Ye use our name in your writings, and abuse the
same against ourself. What injury you do us, to call
those who love us, to your evil purposes by the authority
of our name ! God hath made us your king by his
ordinance and providence, by our blood and inheritance,
by lawful succession and our coronation ; but not to this
end, as you use our name. We are your most natural
sovereign lord and king, Edward the Sixth, to rule you,
to preserve you, to save you from all your outward
enemies, to see our laws well ministered, every man to
have his own ; to suppress disorderly people, to punish
traitors, tliieves, pirates, robbers, and such like, yea, to
keep our realms from foreign princes, from the malice
of the Scots, of Frenchmen, and of the bishop of Rome.
Thus, good subjects, our name is written ; thus it is
honoured and obeyed ; this majesty it hath by God's
ordinance, and not by man's. So that of this your offence
we cannot write too much ; and yet doubt not but this
is enough from a prince to all reasonable people, trom a
king to all kind-hearted and loving subjects, from a
puissant king of England to every natural English-
man.
" Your pretences, which you say move you to do these
things, and wherewith you seek to excuse this disorder,
we assure you, are either all false, or so vain, that we
doubt not but, after ye shall understand the truth, ye
will all with one voice acknowledge yourselves ignorantly
led, and seduced by error; and if there are any that will not,
they are rank traitors, enemies of our crown, seditious
people, heretics, papists, or such as care not how they
seek to provoke an insurrection, and who cannot become
so rich with their own labours, and with peace, as they
can do with spoils, with wars, with robberies, and such
like ; yea, with the spoil of your own goods, with the
living of your labours, the sweat of your bodies, the food
of your own households, wives and children. Such they
are, for a time, using pleasant persuasions to you, and in
the end will cut your throats for your own goods.
You are persuaded that your children, even when ne-
cessity requires it, shall not be christened but uj)on the
holydays. How false this is, learn of us. Our book
which we have set forth by the free consent of our jjar-
liament, in the English tongue, teaching you the con-
trary, even in the first leaf, yea, the first side of the leaf
of that part which treats of baptism. Good subjects,
for to others we speak not, look and De not deceived.
They who have put this false opinion into your ears,
mean not the christening of children, but the destruction
of you our christened subjects. Be this known to von,
our honour is so much, tliat w-e may not be found faulty
of our word. Prove it, if by our laws ye may not
christen your cliildren upon necessity, every day or hour
in the week, then might you be offended ; but seeing
you may do it, liow can you believe them who teach you
the contrary .' What think you do they mean in other
things, who move you to break your obedience against
us your king and sovereign, upon these false tales and
persuasions. Therefore you all who will acknowledge
X.D. 1547— 155:i.] THE KING'S ANSWER TO THE REBELS OF DEVONSHIRE.
645
us your sovereign lord, and who will hear the voice of
us your natural king, may easily perceive how ye are de-
i ceived, and how subtlely traitors and papists with their
1 falsehood, seek to achieve, and bring their purpose to
I pass. Every traitor will be glad to dissemble his trea-
son, and feed it secretly, every papist his popery, and
nourish it inwardly ; and in the end, make you, our sub-
jects, partakers of treason and popery, under the pre-
tence of a commonwealth and holiness.
" And how are you seduced by those who put in your
heads, that the blessed sacrament of Christ's body does
not differ from other common bread ? If our laws, pro-
clamations, and statutes, are all to the contrary, why
shall any man persuade you against them ? We do our-
selves in our own heart, our council in all their profession,
our laws and statutes in all purposes, our good subjects
in all their doings, most highly esteem that sacrament, and
use the communion to our comfort. We make so much
difference between it and other common bread, that we
think no profit of other bread but to maintain our bo-
dies. But of this blessed bread we take it to be the very
food of our souls to everlasting life. How think you,
good subjects, shall not we being your prince, your lord,
your king by God's appointment, more prevail vvith truth
than certain evil persons with open falsehood ? Shall
any seditious person j>ersuade you that the sacrament is
despised, which is by our laws, by ourself, by our coun-
cil, by all our good subjects, esteemed, used, participated,
and daily received? If ever ye were seduced, if ever
deceived, if ever traitors were believed, if ever papists
poisoned good subjects, it is now. It is not the christen-
ing of children, not the reverence of the sacrament, not
the health of your souls that they shoot at, good sub-
jects. It is seditioH, it is high treason, it is your de-
struction they seek, how craftily, how piteously, how
cunningly soever they do it. With one rule judge ye
the end, which must come upon your purposes. Al-
mighty God forbids, npon pain of everlasting damnation,
disobedience unto us your king. If we sliould be slow,
would God err ? If your oflence be towards God, do you
think it pardoned without repentance? Is God's judg-
ment mutable ? Your pain is damnation, your judge
is incorruptible, your fault is most evident.
" Likewise are ye evil informed in other articles, as
for confirmation of your children, for the mass, for the
manner of your service of matins and even-song. What-
ever is therein ordered, has been long debated and con-
sulted by many learned bishops, doctors, and other
men of great learning in this realm ; in nothing was so
much labour and time spent, nothing so fully ended.
" As for the service in the English tongue, it has
manifest reason for it. And yet percliance it seems to
you a new service, yet indeed it is nothing other but the
old. The self same words are in English which were
in Latin, saving a few things taken out, which were so
childish that it had been a shame to have heard them
in English, as all they can judge who choose to report
the truth. The difference is, that you our subjects may
understand in English, being our natural country tongue,
that which was heretofore spoken in Latin, then serving
only for those who understood Latin, and now for all
you who are born English. How can it with reason
offend any reasonable man, that he shall understand
what any other saith, and consent with the speaker ?
If the service of the church was good in Latin, it re-
mains good in English : for nothing is altered, but to
speak with knowledge that which was spoken with ig-
norance, and to let you understand what is said to you,
to the intent you may further it with your own devo-
tion ; an alteration to the better, except knowledge be
worse than ignorance. So that whoever has moved you
to dislike tliis order, can give you no reason, nor answer
yours, if ye understood it.
" Wherefore, you our subjects, remember, we speak
to you, being ordained your prince and king by Almighty
God. If in anywise we could advance God's honour
more than we do, we would do it : And see that ye be-
come subject to God's ordinances, obeying us your
prince, and learn of them who have authority to teach
you, who have power to rule you, and will execute our
justice if we be provoked. Learn not of them whose
fruits are nothing but wilfulness, disobedience, obstinacy,
dissimulation, and destruction of the realm.
" For the mass, we assure you, no small study or pains
has been spent by all the learned clergy therein, and to
avoid all contention, it is brought even to the very use
as Christ left it, as the apostles used it, as the holy
fathers delivered it ; but it is indeed somewhat altered
from what the popes of Rome for their gain had made
it. And although ye may hear the contrary of some evil
popish men, yet our majesty, who for our honour may
not be blemished, nor stained, assures you, that they
deceive you, abuse you, and blow these opinions into your
heads, to accomplish their own purpose.
" And so likewise judge you of confirmation of chil-
dren ; and let them answer you this one question: Do
they think that a child christened is damned, because it
dies before confirmation ? They are confirmed when
they have arrived at the years of discretion, to learn that
which they professed by baptism ; taught in age that
which they received in infancy ; and yet no doubt but
they are saved by baptism, not by confirmation ; and
made Christ's by cliristening, and taught how to con-
tinue by confirmation. Wherefore in the whole, mark,
good subjects, how our doctrine is founded upon true
learning, and theirs upon shameless errors.
"To conclude, beside our gentle manner of informa-
tion to you, whatever is contained in our book, either
for baptism, sacrament, mass, confirmation, and service
in the church, is by our parliament established, by the
whole clergy agreed, yea, by the bishops of the realm de-
vised, and further, by God's word confirmed. And how
dare ye trust, yea, how dare ye give ear, without trem-
bling, to any person — to disallow a parliament — a subject
to persuade against our majesty — a man of his singular
arrogancy against the determination of the bishops, and
all the clergy — any invented argument against the word
of God ?
" But now we resort to you our subjects, and say of
your blindness, of your unkindness and unnatural con-
duct, that if we thought it had not begun of ignorance,
, and been continued by persuasion of certain traitors
among you, who we think few in number, but busy in
their doings, we could not be persuaded but to use our
sword, and do justice, and, as we are ordained by God,
redress your errors by revenge. But tliough love and
zeal overcomes our just anger ; yet how long that will be
God knoweth, in whose hand our heart is ; or rather for
your own sakes, being our christened subjects, we would
ye were persuaded rather than vanquished, informed thaa
forced, taught than overthrown, quietly pacified than
rigorously prosecuted.
" Ye require to have the statute of six articles re-
vived ; and do ye know what ye require? or know ye
what ease you have with the loss of them ? They were
laws made, but quickly repented ; they were too bloody
to be borne by our peojile. and yet at the first indeed
made of some necessity. Oh subjects ! how are ye en-
trapped by subtle persons ? We, of pity, because they
were bloody, took them away ; and you now will igno-
rantly ask them again. Y ou know full well, that they
helped us to extend rigour, and gave us cause to draw
our sword very often ; they were as a whetstone to our
sword, and for your sakes we ceased to use them. And
since our mercy moved us to write our laws with mild-
ness and equity, how are ye blinded to ask them in
blood ?
" But leaving this manner of reasoning and resorting
to the truth of our authority, we let you know these
have been annulled by our parliament, with great re-
joicing of our subjects, and not now to be called in ques-
tion by subjects. Dare then any of you with the name of
a subject stand against an act of parliament — a law of the
whole realm ? What is our power, if laws should be
thus neglected ? yea, what is your surety, if laws be not
kept ? Assure yourselves, that we of no earthly power
under heaven make such a reputation, as we do of
our power, to have our laws obeyed, and this cause
of God, which we have taken in hand, to be thoroughly
maintained, from which we will never remove a hair'a
616
THE KING'S ANSWER TO THE REBEI-S OF DEVONSHIRE.
LBooK IX.
breadth, nor give place to any creature living, much less
to any subject, but therein will spend our royal person,
our crown, treasure, realm, and all our state ; whereof
we assure you by our high honour. For herein indeed
rests our honour, herein stands our kingdom, herein do
all kings acknowledge us a king. And shall any of you
dare breathe or think against our honour, our king-
dom, our crown ?
" In the end of this your request (as we are given to
understand) ye would have them stand in force until
our full age. To this we think, if ye knew what ye
spake, ye would never have uttered that notion, nor ever
have given breath to such a thought. For what think you
of our kingdom .' Are we of less authority for our age ?
Are we not your king now, as we shall be .' Or shall ye
be subjects hereafter, and are ye not now .' Have not
we the right we shall have ? If we would suspend and
hang our doings in doubt until our full age, ye must
first know, as a king, we have no difference of years nor
time, but as a natural man and creature of God, we
have youth, and by his sufferance shall have age : We
are your rightful king, your liege lord, your king
anointed, your king crowned, the sovereign king of
England, not by our age, but by God's ordinance, not
only when wp shall be of twenty -one years, but when we
are of ten years. We possess our crown, not by years,
but by the blood and descent from our father King
Henry VIII. You are our subjects, because we are your
king ; and rule we will, because God hath willed. It
jo og great a fault in us not to rule, as in a subject
not to obey.
" In truth, they who move this matter, if they durst
utter themselves, would deny our kingdom. But our
good subjects know their prince, and will increase, not
diminish his honour ; enlarge, not abate his power ; ac-
knowledge, not defer his kingdom till certain years. All
is one, to speak against our crown, and to deny our
kingdom, as to require that our laws may be broken,
until we attain twenty-one years. Are we not your
crowned, anointed, and established king .' Wherein
then are we of less majesty, of less authority, or less
state, than were our progenitors, kings of this realm,
except your unkindness, your unnaturalness will dimi-
nish our estimation ? We have hitherto, since the death
of our father, by the good advice and counsel of our dear
and entirely beloved uncle, kept our state, maintained
our realm, preserved our honour, defended our people
from our enemies ; we have hitherto been feared and
dreaded of our enemies ; yea, of princes, kings, and na-
tions ; yea, herein we are nothing inferior to any of our
])rogenitors, which grace we acknowledge to be given to us
from God, and how else, but by good obedience of our
people, good counsel of our magistrates, due execution
of our laws ? By authority of our kingdom, England
hitlierto hath gained honour ; during our reign, it hath
won of the enemy, and not lost.
" It has been marvelled, that we of so young years,
should have reigned so nobly, so royally, soepiietly. And
how (^liances it, that you our subjects of that our county
of Devonshire, will give tlie first occasion to slander this
our realm of England, to give courage to the enemy, to
brand our realm with the evil of rebellion, to make it a
prey to our old enemies, to diminish our honour, which
God hath given, our father left, our good uncleand coun-
cil preserved unto us ? What greater evil could ye
commit tlian even now, when our foreign enemy in Scot-
land, and upon the sea, seeks to invade us, to rise in
this manner against our law, to provoke so justly our
wrath, to ask our vengeance, and to give us occasion to
spend that force upon you, which we meant to bestow
upon our enemies, to begin to slay you with that sword
which we drew against the Scots and other enemies, to
make a conquest of our own peojile, wliich otherwise
should have been of the whole realm of Scotland .'
" Thus far ye see we have descended from our high
majesty for love, to consider you in your base and simple
ignorance, and have been content to seiul you an in-
struction like a fatherly prince, who of justice might
have sent you your destruction like a king to rebels ; and
now let you know, that as ye see our mercy abunda it,
so if you provoke us fartlier, we swear to you by t:ie
living God, by whom we reign, ye shall feel tiie power
of the same God in our sword ; which, how migiUy it
is, no subject knoweth ; how puissant it is, no jjiivate
man can judge ; how mortal it is, no English heart dare
think. But surely, surely, as your lord and prince,
your only king and master, we say to you, repent
yourselves, and take our mercy without delay, or else
we will forthwith extend our princely power, and execute
our sharp sword against you, as against very infidels and
Turks, and rather endanger our own royal person, state
and power, than the same shall not be executed.
" And if ye will prove the example of our mercy, learn
of those who lately did arise, pretending some griev-
ances, and yet acknowledging their offences, who have
not only received most humbly their pardon, but feel
also, by our order, to whom all public order only per-
tains, redress devised for their grievances. In the end
we admonish you of your duties towards God, to whom ye
shall answer in the day of the Lord, and of your duties
towards us, to whom ye shall answer by our order, and
take our mercy whilst God so inclines us, lest when ye
shall be constrained to ask, we shall be too mucli har-
dened in our heart to grant it to you ; and where ye shall
now hear of mercy, mercy and Ufe, ye shall then hear of
justice, justice and death.
" Given at Richmond, the 8th day of July, the third
year of our reign."
Besides the articles of these Devonshire men, the
rebels sent up also, not long after, a supplication to the
king, to which answer again was made by the king's
learned council.
Besides, to behold the malicious working of those
popish priests, to kindle more the spark of sedition in
the people's hearts, what rumours did they raise up
against the king and his council ! making the vulgar
multitude to believe, that they should be made to pay,
first for their sheep, next for their geese and pigs also,
and such other things ; and whatever they had in store,
or should put into their mouths, they must pay a tax for
it to the king ! Of all which a word was never either
thought or meant. But this seemed fit matter for such
priests, by which to set the prince and his subjects to-
gether by the ears.
Against this seditious company of rebels, was sent by
the king and his council, Sir Jolin Russel, knight, lord
privy seal, as lieutenant-general of the king's army, on
whom chiefly depended the charge and conduct of sup-
pressing this insurrection. To him also were joined, as
in part of ordinary council in those affairs put under
him, Sir William Herbert, Sir J. Pawlet, Sir Hugh Paw-
let, Sir Thomas Speck, with the lord Gray, and others.
Thus the lord privy seal, accompanied by the lord
Gray, advancing his power against the rebels, altliough
not equal in numlier of soldiers, yet through the Lord's
helj), about the latter end of July, 1549, he gave them
the rejiulse. They, notwithstanding, recovering them-
selves again, encountered the second time with the lord
privy seal, about tlie beginning of August, by whom
they were utterly vanquished and overthrown ; so that
the popish rebels not only lost the field, but a great part
of them also lost their lives ; lying there slain miserably
in the chase for the space of two miles.
These rebels, to make their party more sure by the
help and presence of their consecrated god, brouglit with
them into the battle the jiix, with the host in it, under
his canopy, and instead of an altar, set him riding in a
cart. Neither was there any want of masses, crosses,
banners, candlesticks, with holy bread also, and ))lcnty of
holy water, to defend them from devils and all adversa-
ries; which in the end neither could help their friends,
nor yet could save themselves from the hands of their ene-
mies. The consecrated god, and all the trumpery al)out
him, was very soon after taken in the cart, and there
thrown into the dust, leaving a notable lesson not to
put their confidence hereafter in such vain idols, but
only in the true and living God, and immortal Maker,
A.D. 1547—1553.]
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
ei7
serving him according to his prescribed word, and that
only in the faith of his Son, and not after their own
dreaming fantasies.
This event brings to my remembrance another similar
popish field of battle (called Musselburgh field) fought
in Scotland in the year before this, where the Scots
likewise encamping themselves against the lord protector,
and the king's power, brought with them to the battle
the consecrated gods of their altars, with masses, crosses,
banners, and all their popish array, having full con-
fidence by virtue of them, to have a great victory against
the English army. The number of the Scots army so
far exceeded ours, and they were so appointed with their
pikes in the front ranks against our horsemen (who gave
the first onset) that our men were fain to retreat, not
without the loss of divers gentlemen. Notwithstanding,
the mighty arm of the Lord so turned the victory, that
the Scots, in the end, with all their masses, pixes, and
idolatrous trinkets, were put to the rout. Of whom in
that field were slain between thirteen and fourteen thou-
sand, and not more than a hundred Englishmen. The
original cause of this war was the promise of the Scots,
made before to king Henry, for the marriage of the young
Scottish queen to king Edward, which promise the Scots
afterwards broke.
During this commotion amongst the popish rebels in
Cornwall and De\ onshire, another disturbance began to
be engendered in Oxford and Buckinghamshire, but that
was soon appeased by lord Gray, who chased the rebels
to their houses. Of whom two hundred were taken,
and a dozen of the ringleaders delivered to him, whereof
some were executed.
In Norfolk and parts thereabout, although the origin
of their tumultuous stirring was not for the like cause,
yet the obstinate hearts of that unruly multitude seemed
no less bent upon mischief, and to dii>turb the public
peace.
The rude and confused rabble was overthrown and
slain, to tlie number, as is supposed, at the least of four
thousand. And the chief stirrers and authors of that
commotion were taken and executed, and one of them
(Ket) was hanged in chains.
Besides these insurrections, about the latter end of
July, 1549, another commotion began in Yorkshire.
The causes moving them to raise this rebellion were these :
first and principally, their traitorous hearts, grudging at
the king's proceedings, in advancing and reforming the
true honour of God, and his religion. Another cause
was, trusting to a blind and fantastical prophecy, where-
with they were seduced, thinking the prophecy would
shortly come to pass. The tenor of which prophecy,
and the purpose of the traitors, was, " That there should
no king reign in England ; that the noblemen and gentle-
men should be destroyed ; and that the realm should be
rulfd by four governors, to be elected and appointed by
the commons holding a parliament, to begin at the
south and north seas of England '' &c. They imagined
that tins their rebellion in the North, and the other of
the Devonshire men in the West, meeting (as they in-
tended) at one place, should be the means to bring
about their traitorous devilish device.
Plotting together how they might find out more com-
pany to join with them in their detestable designs, their
plan was to rise at once in two places, the one distant
seven miles from the other, and at the first rush to kill
and destroy such gentlemen and men of substance about
tliern, as were favourers of the king's proceedings, or
who would resist them.
It would be tedious to recite what riot these rebels
Sfive themselves to, ranging about the country from
town to town, to enlarge their rebellious band, taking
those with force who were not willing to go, and leaving
in no town where they came any man above the age of
sixteen years. Thus their numbers were so increased,
that in a short time they had gathered three thousand to
favour their wicked attempts, and were like to have
gathered more, had not the Lord's goodness, through
prudent circumspection, interrupted the course of their
furious beginning.
For first t)ame the king's gracious and free pardon,
discharging and pardoning them and the rest of the re-
bels of all treasons, murders, felonies, and other ofiences
done to his majesty, before the one-and-twentieth of
August, A.D. 1549. This pardon influenced many of
the rebels, and though the leaders contemptuously re-
fused it, yet they were soon taken and executed, and
this rebellion suppressed.
Matters concerning Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London.
Let us now return to Bonner, bishop of London, where
we left him before, that is, in his own house, where he
was commanded by the council to remain.
For the better understanding of the circumstances re-
lating to Bonner, it will be requisite to retrace matters
from the beginning of King Edward's time. King
Edward, in the first year of his reign, A.D. 1547, for
the order of his visitation, directed certain commis-
sioners, as Sir AnthonyCook, Sir John Godsalve, knights ;
Mr. John Godsalve, Christopher Nevinson, doctors of
the law ; and John Madew, doctor of divinity ; who sat
in St. Paul's church upon their commission, there being
present at the same time, bishop Bonner, John Royston,
Polydore Virgil, Peter Van, and others. After the ser-
mon made, and the commission read, they administered
an oath to the bishop of London, to renounce the bishop
of Rome, with his usurped authority, and to swear obe-
dience to the king, according to the form of the statute
made in the thirty-first year of king Henry VIII. Also
that he should present and redress all such things as
were needful to be reformed within the church.
Whereupon the bishop humbly and instantly desired
them that he might see their commission, only for this
purpose (as he said) that he might the better fulfil and
put in execution the things wherein he was charged by
them or their cotnmision. To whom the commis^sioners
answering, said they would deliberate more upon the
matter, and so they called the other ministers of the
church before them, and administered the like oath unto
them, as they did to the bishop. To whom, moreover,
certain interrogatories and articles of inquisition were
read by Peter Lilly the public notary. Which done,
after their oaths taken, the commissioners delivered to
the bishop certain injunctions, as well in print as written,
and homilies set forth by the king. All which things
the bishop received, under the words of this protesta-
tion, as followeth : —
" I do receive these injunctions and homilies with this
protestation, that I will observe them, if they be not
contrary and repugnant to God's law, and the statutes
and ordinances of the church." And immediately he
added, with an oath, that he never read the homilies and
injunctions.
This protestation being made, Bonner instantly desired
Peter Lilly, the registrar, to register it. And so the com-
missioners delivering the injunctions and homilies to
Master Bellassere, archdeacon of Colchester, and Gil-
bert Bourn, archdeacon of London, Essex, and Middle-
sex, and enjoining them to put them into speedy execu-
tion, and also reserving other injunctions to be adminis-
tered afterwards, as well to the bishop as to the arch-
deacons, according as they should see cause, &c., so
continued the visitation till three o'clock the same day.
At which hour and place, the commissioners sitting,
and the canons and priests of the church appearing
before them, and being examined upon virtue of their
oath, for their doctrine and conversation; first John
Painter, one of the cathedral church, there and then
openly confessed that he lived vitiously and immoially.
In which crimes divers other canons and priests of the
church confessed in like manner, and could not deny
themselves to be culpable.
After the commissioners had delivered to Master
Royston, prebendary, and to the proctor of the dean and
chapter of the cathedral church of St. Paul, the king's
injunctions, and the book of homilies, enjoining them to
see them executed, they prorogued their visitation until
seven o'clock the next day.
By this visitation, it appears how Bonner made his
protestation after receiving the king's injunctions. And
648
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER,
[Book IX.
furtlier, we may perceive the immoral life and conversa-
tion of these unmarried priests of popery. The bishop
shortly after his protestation, whetlier for fear, or for
consci^'iice, repenting himself, went to the king, where
he submitted himself, and recanting his former protesta-
tion, craved pardon of tiie king for his demeanour toward
his grace's commissioners. Which pardon although it
was granted to him by the king, for acknowledging his
fault, yet, for example, it was thought good that he
should be committed to the Fleet.
The Form of Bonner's Recantation.
" Whereas I, Edmund, bishop of London, have at such
time as I received the king's majesty's injunctions and
homilies of my most dread sovereign lord, at the hands
of his highness's visitors, did unadvisedly make such
protestation, as now upon better consideration of my
duty of obedience, and of the evil example that might
ensue unto others thereof, appeareth to me neither
reasonable, nor such as might well stand with the duty
of an humble subject : forsomuch as the same protesta-
tion, at my request, was then by the register of that visi-
tation, enacted and put in record ; I have thought it my
duty not only to declare before your lordships, that I do
now upon better consideration of my duty, renounce
and revoke my said protestation, but also most humbly
beseech your lordships, that this my revocation of the
same may be likewise put in the same records for a
perpetual memory of the truth, most humbly beseeching
your good lordships, both to take order that it may take
effect, and also that my former and unadvised doings
may be, by your good mediations, pardoned by the king's
majesty.
"Edmund, London."
Thus we see how he, upon his humble submission,
received his pardon of the king, and yet for example
sake was commanded to the Fleet ; where he did not
long continue, but according to the king's pardon, was
restored both to his house and living again, in the first
year of the king, l.")48.
It will be remembered how, in the second, and a great
part of tlie third year of the king, lie demeaned himself,
not advancing the king's proceedings : and yet acting in
such a way as that no advantage could be taken against
him by law, both in swearing his obedience to the king,
and in receiving his injunctions; also in confessing his
assent and consent touching the state of religion then ;
and in directing out his letters, according to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury's precepts, to Cloney his sumner,
to the bishop of Westminster, and other bishops, for
abolishing images, for abrogation of the mass, for bibles
to be set up in the churches, and for administering the
sacrament in both kinds, with such other matters of re-
formation ; till at length hearing of the death of the
lord admiral, the lord protector's brother, and afterwards
of the insurrection of the king's subjects, he began some-
what to draw back and slack in his pastoral diligence,
so that in many places of his diocese and in London,
the people were not only negligent in resorting to divine
service, but also frequented and haunted foreign rites of
masses, and he also himself, contrary to his wonted
manner, upon principal feasts refused in his own person
to officiate. Whereupon being suspected and complained
of, and brought before the king's council, (as was said
before,) after sharp admonitions and reproofs, had cer-
tain private injunctions sent to him to compel him on
certain days to preach at St. Paul's Cross,
The delivery of these injunctions and articles to the
bishop (with the time of liis preaching ajijiointed) was
goon after known among the citizens and commons within
the city of London, so that every man expecting the
lime, wished to liear the preaching. The time being
come, the bishop, according to the injunctions, publicly
preached at the cross of St. Paul's on the first day of Sep-
tember. However, as hypocrisy never lurks so secretly
in the hearts of the wicked, but that at one time or an-
other, God in his most righteous judgment makes it open
to the wor'd ; so his long cloaked obstinacy, and hatred
against the king's godly proceedings, was most plainly
manifested in his sermon.
For whereas he was commanded to treat only upon
such special points as were mentioned in his articles ;
he, in order to withdraw the minds of the people as
much as in him lay, from the right and true understand-
ing of the holy sacrament admininistered in the holy
communion then set forth by the authority of the king's
majesty, (according to the true sense of the holy scrip-
ture,) spent most part of his sei-jiion aliout the gross,
carnal, and papistical presence of Christ's body and blood
in the sacrament of the altar, and also not only slenderly
touched on the rest of his articles, but with a rebelhous
and wilful carelessness utterly omitted the whole last
article, concerning the lawful authority of the king's
highness during his non-age ; although he was by special
command chiefly appointed to treat upon this, because
it was the traitorous opinion of the popisli rebels.
This contemptuous and disobedient dealing, as it
greatly offended most of the king's faithful and loving
subjects there present, so did it much displease that
faithful and godly preacher, John Hooper, afterwards
bishop of Worcester and Gloucester, and lastly a most
constant martyr for the gospel of Christ, and also
William Latimer, bachelor of divinity : and, there-
fore, they well weighing the foulness of the act, and
their bounden allegiances to their prince, did thereon
exhibit to the king's highness, under both their names,
a bill of complaint or denunciation against the bishop.
The king's majesty having thus, by the information
of these two credible persons, perfect intelligence of the
contemptuous and perverse negligence of this bishop, in
not accomplishing his highness' command, thought it
necessary with all convenient speed to look more se-
verely to the punishment of such dangerous and rebel-
lious obstinacy ; and therefore, by the advice of the
lord protector, and the rest of his honourable council, he
directed his commission under his great seal to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Rochester, and to
other grave and trusty personages and counsellors, ap-
pointing and authorising them to call before them, as
well the bishop of London, as also the denouncers, and,
upon due examination and proof, to proceed against him
summarily, according to law, either to suspension, ex-
communication, committing to prison, or deprivation.
The commission being sealed with the king's great
seal, was by his highness's council forthwith delivered
at the court to Thomas Cranmer, arclibishop of Canter-
bury, and the rest of the commissioners being there all
together present ; who, ujioti the receipt of it, deter-
mined to sit at the archbishop's house at Lambeth on the
Wednesday next ensuing, which was the eltventh day of
September, and they appointed the bishop of London
to be summoned before them. The manner of his be-
haviour at his appearance, because it both declares the
froward nature and stubborn condition of the j)erson,
and also what estimation and authority he thought the
commissioners to be of, must be descril)ed.
At his first entry into the place within the arch-
bishop's house at Lambeth, where the archbisiiop and
the commissioners sat, he passed by them with his cap
upon his head (as if he saw them not), until some one
plucked him by the sleeve, desiring him to do reverence
to the commissioners. He laughingly turned himself,
and spoke to the archbishop on this wise : " What, my
lord, are you here? by my troth I saw you not.'' —
" No," said the archbishop, " you would not see." —
" Well," said he, " you sent for me ; have you any-
thing to say to me ?" — " Yes," said the commissioners,
" we have here authority from the king's highness to
call you to account for the sermon you made lately at
St. Paul's Cross, because you did not there publish to
the people the article which you were commanded to
preach upon." At which words the bishop, either be-
cause he did not like to hear of this matter, or else be-
cause he wished to make his friends believe that he was
called to account only for his opinions in religion, be-
gan to s])eak of other matters, and said to the arch-
bisiiop, " In good faith, my lord, I wish one thing were
I had in more reverence thaa it is." — " What is it?''
A.D. 1547—1553.]
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
G49
said the archbishop. — " The blessed mass," said he. —
I " You have written very well of the sacrament : 1 mar-
! vel you do not more honour it." The arclibishop of
i Canterbury perceiving his subtlety, said to him again,
" If you think it well, it is because you understand it
not." The other then, adding to his ignorance an ob-
i stinate iinpudency, answered, " I think I understand it
' better than you that wrote it." To which the arch-
' bishop replied, " Truly I will easily make a child that
is but ten years old to understand therein as much as
you. But what is this to the matter?"
When they began to enter the judicial prosecuting of
their commission, and had called upon the denouncers
to propose such matter as they had to object against
him, he hearing them speak, fell to scorning and taunt-
ing them, saying to the one, that he spake like a goose;
and to the other, that he spake like a woodcock, and ut-
terly denying their accusations to be true. The archbishop
seeing his peevish malice against the denouncers, asked
him, whether, if he would not believe them, he would
credit the people there present ? And then (because
many of those present were at the bishop's sermon at
St. Paul's Cross) he stood up and read the article of the
king's authority, saying to them, " How say you, my
masters, did my lord of London preach this article .'"
They answered, " No, no." At which the bishop, turn-
ing himself about, deriding said, ' Will you believe
this foolish people .'"
Besides this, he used many irreverent, unbecoming,
obstinate, and froward words towards the commissioners
(in defacing their authority with the terms of pretended
commissioners, pretended witnesses, and unjust, un-
lawful, and pretended proceedings, terming some of
them daws, woodcocks, fools, and such like) which I
will here omit, for they appear in the sequel of the
history.
Upon Wednesday, the eleventh day of September,
1549, in the third year of the reign of King Edward VI.,
Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, metro-
politan and primate of all England, with Nicholas Rid-
ley tlien bishop of Rochester, Sir William Petre, knight,
one of the king's two jjrimipal secretaries, and Master
William May, doctor of the civil law, and dean of St.
Paul's, by virtue of the king's commission, sat judi-
cially, upon the examination of Edmund Bonner, bishop
of London, within the archbishop's chamber of pre-
sence, at his house in Lambeth, before whom there then
also personally appeared the said bishop. At which
time the archoishop, in the name of the rest, declared
to the bishop, that a grievous complaint had been here-
tofore made and exhibited against him in writing, to
the king's majesty and his most honourable council,
and that therefore his highness, with their advice, had
committed the examination thereof to him, and his col-
leagues there present ; and there shewed a bill of com-
plaint, exhibited to the king by William Latimer, and
John Hooper, ministers, which they requested Sir Wil-
liam Petre to read.
These things ended, the bishop, like a subtle lawyer,
having secret intelligence before of these matters (what-
ever he pretended to the contrary) pulled out of his
bosom a solemn protestation ready written, which he
exhibited to the commissioners, requesting that the
same might be openly read.
The protestation being read, he requested the com-
missioners that he might have the bill of complaint de-
livered to him. Which when he had well perused, he
said, that the same was very general, and so general, as
that he could not directly answer it. The archbishop
answered, that the special cause of the complaint against
him was, that he had transgressed the king's command,
given to him by his council, in that he in his sermon made
at St. Paul's Cross, did not set forth to the people the
king's highness' royal power in his minority, according
to the tenour of the article delivered to him for that
purpose ; and for proof thereof he called William Lati-
mer and John Hooper, who had put up the biU of com-
plaint to the king against him.
W hen the bishop had earnestly looked upon them, he
said, " As for this merchant, Latimer I know him very
well, and have borne with him, and winked at his doings
a great while, but I have more to say to him hereafter.
But as to this other merchant. Hooper, I have not seen
him before, however I have heard much of his naughty
preaching." And then turning himself to the arcn-
bishop (on purj)ose, most like, to make his friends
think that he was not called thither to answer for his
contemptuous disobedience, but for matters of religion i.
said to him, " Ah, my lord, now 1 see that the cause of
ray trouble is not for the matter tliat you pretend
against me, but it is because 1 preached and set forth in
my late sermon the true presence ot the most olessea
body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ to be in the
sacrament of the altar. For as for these my accusers,
as they are evil, infamous, notorious, and criminal per-
sons, so are they manifest and notable heretics and se-
ducers of the people, especially touching the sacrament
of the altar : and most of all this Hooper. For whereas
in my late sermon at St. Paul's Cross, 1 preached, that
in the blessed sacrament of the altar, after the words of
consecration, there is the true body and blood of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, the self-same in substance that
was hanged and shed upon the cross ; — he, tiie same day
at afternoon, having a great rabble with him of his dam-
nable sect, openly in the pulpit in my diocese, preached
erroneously to the people against it ; and maliciously
inveighing against my sermon, denied the verity and
presence of Christ's true body and blood to be in the
sacrament, and also falsely and untruly interpreted and
expounded my words. And especially, where 1 preached
and affirmed the very true body and blood of our Saviour
Jesus Christ to be in the sacrament, the self-same sub-
stance that was hanged and shed upon the cross, he,
like an ass — as he is an ass indeed — fnlseJ}' changed and
turned the word tfiai into as, like an ass, saying, that I
had said as it hanged, and as it was shed upon the cross."
The archbishop perceiving the bishop's drift, and
hearing him talk so much of the presence of Christ's
body and blood in the sacrament, said to him, " My
lord of London, you speak much of a presence in the
sacrament ; what presence is there, and of what pre-
sence do you mean?" The bishop being somewhat
stirred and moved in mind, as appeared by his choleric
countenance, spake again to the archbishop very earnestly,
and said, "What presence, my lord? I say and believe
that there is the very true presence of the body and
blood of Christ. What believe you, and how do you
believe my Lord ?" The archbishop, minding to nip
the gross absurdities of the papists, asked him further,
" Whether he were there, face, nose, mouth, eyes, arms,
and lips, with other lineaments of his body." The
bishop shaking his head, said, " Oh, I am right sorry
to hear your grace speak these words," and boldly urged
the archbishop to shew his mind therein. Who wisely
weighing the presumption of the party, with the place
and occasion of their assembly, refused to do so, say-
ing, that their being there at that time was not to
dispute of those matters, but to prosecute their com-
mission committed to them by their prince, and therefore
desired him to answer to such things as were objected
against him.
Upon which Bonner required to have a copy both of
the commission, and also of the denunciation, with time
to answer. Which the commissioners willingly granted,
assigning him to appear again before them upon Friday
then next following, at eight o'clock before noon, and
then to answer the tenor of the denunciation.
On Friday, the thirteenth of September, four commis-
sioners, with Sir Thomas Smith Knight, the other of
the king's two principal secretaries, and joint commis-
sioner with them, sat judicially in the archbishop's
chapel in his house at Lambeth ; before whom appeared
the bishop of London : to whom the archbishop, in the
name of the rest, first said, " My lord of London, the
last time you were before us, we laid certain articles and
matter to your charge touching your disobedience to the
king's majesty, and you have this day to make your an-
swer : wherefore, now shew us what you have to say
for your defence."
* The bishop first asking the archbishop if he had said
650
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
[Book IX.
all, and he agsun saying, "Yea," made this answer;
" My lord, the last day that I appeared before you, I
remember there sat in the king's majesty's commission,
your grace, you my lord of Rochester, you Master Se-
cretary Petre, and you Master Dean of St. Paul's, but now
I perceive there sits also Master Secretary Smith, who
because he sat not at the beginning, nor took there the
commission upon him, ought not to do so : for by the
law, they who begin must continue the commission."
The archbishop answered, that he was no lawyer, and
therefore could not shew what the law wills in that case,
but, said he, if the law be so indeed, surely I take it to
be an unreasonable law.
" Well," said the bishop, " there are here those that
know the law, and yet I say not this to stand or stick a-uch
in this point with you, but to tell it you, as it were, by
the way ; for I have here mine answer ready."
Then said Master Secretary Petre to the bishop, "My
lord, in good sooth, I must say to you, that although
I have professed the law, yet by discontinuance and dis-
use thereof, and having been occupied a long time in
other matters, I have perhaps forgotten what the law
will do precisely in this point : but admit the law were
as you say, yet yourself knows, my lord, that this is our
certain rule in law. Quod consnetudo est juris interpres
opthnus, and I am sure you will not, nor cannot deny,
but that the custom is commonly in this realm in all
judgments and commissions used to the contrary ; and
in very deed we all together at the court, having the
commission presented to us, took it upon us ; and there-
fore you to stick in such trifling matters you shall rather
in my judgment hurt yourself and your matter than
otherwise."
" Truly, Master Secretary," said the bishop, " I have
also of long while been disused in the study of law, but
having occasion, partly by reason of this matter to turn
to my books, I find the law to be as I say, and yet, as I
said, I tell you hereof by the way, not minding to stick
much with you in that point."
At which words, Master Secretary Smith said also to
the bishop, " Well, my lord of London, as cunning as
you make yourself in the law, there are here that know
the law as well as you : and for my part I have studied
the law too, and I promise you these are but quirks in-
vented to delay matters, but our commission is to pro-
ceed summarily, and to cut off such frivolous allegi-
tions."
" Well,'' said the bishop again, '' look well on your
commission, and you shall find therein these words, 'To
proceed according to the law and justice :' and I ask both
law and justice at your hands."
Then Master Secretary Petre desired him to stand no
more thereupon, but to proceed to his answer. Where-
upon he took forth a writing, wherein was contained his
answer to the denunciation exhibited the day before by
Latimer and Hooper, and delivering it to the archbishop,
said, that it was of his own handwriting, and for lack of
sufficient time written so hastily and cursorily, that it
could scarcely be read by any other ; and therefore he
desired to read it himself; and so taking it again, read
it openly.
The purport of his answer was, that Hooper and Lati-
mier were heretics, and therefore infamous and not to be
believed or admitted as witnesses ; and, further, that the
injunctions given to him were not sealed with the broad
seal, or signed by the king, and that, notwithstanding,
he did preach against rebellion and in behalf of the
king's autiiority ; alleging thus, that the witnesses were
not to be believed, and that the charge was not true.
Whilst he was reading the answer, objecting against
his denouncers such causes, for which he would have
had the denouncers repelled by the commissioners ; the
archbishop of Canterbury replied: " That if there were
any such law, he thought it not to be a good or godly
law, but a law of the bishop of Rome."
" No, sir," said the bishop of London, " it is the
king's law used in this realm."
" Well, my lord," said the archbishop, " ye are too
full of your law : I would wish you had less knowledge
in that law, and more knowledge in God's law, and of
your duty."
With that. Secretary Petre desired the bishop to pro.
ceed in reading his answers ; who did so, and when he
had finished, Latimer delivered a writing to the arch-
bishop and the rest of the commissioners ; who then said
to the bishop of London, " here are certain articles
which we intend to administer unto you."
The commissioners assigned him Monday the six-
teenth of September then next following, to appear be-
fore them, and to make his full answers to all the
articles administered to him by them this day.
On Monday, thesixteeiith of September, the archbishop,
associated with the bishop of Rochester ; Secretary
Smith ; and Dr. May, dean of St. Paul's, — sat judiciedly
within his chapel at Lambeth : before whom there and
then appeared the bishop of London, as assigned in the
last session : at which time he exhibited to the commis>
sioners, in writing, his answers to the articles.
But before the same were read, the archbishop said to
him, that his late answers, made the thirteenth of Sep-
tember to the denunciation, were very obscure, and con-
tained also much matter of slander against Latimer and
Hooper, and much untruth, and therefore they desired
to purge themselves. Whereupon Latimer, obtaining
leave to speak, said, that the bishop of London had most
falsely, untruly, and uncharitably accused him, laying to
his charge many feigned and untrue matters, and such
as he would never be able to prove. For, whereas, he
alleged, that William Latimer and John Hooper, with
other heretics conspiring against him, did, the first day
of September, after the bishop's sermon, assemble them-
selves together unlawfully against the bishop ; that say-
ing was most untrue. For neither that day, nor yet be-
fore that day, nor until certain days after, did he ever
know or speak with Hooper. And as to his preaching
there, he never held, taught, or preached any thing con-
cerning the blessed sacrament, otherwise than he ought
to do, nor otherwise than according to the scriptures,
and true catholic faith of Christ's church ; and therefore
offered himself to be tried by the archbishop, or other
such learned men as it should please the king's majesty,
or the commissioners to appoint ; and further, to submit
to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, if the bishop could
justly prove true the things that he had there shamefully
laid to his charge. Then Master Hooper, upon like
licence obtained, said to this effect.
" This ungodly man,'' pointing to the bishop, " has
most uncharitably and ungodly accused me before your
grace and this audience, and has laid to my charge that
1 am an heretic. Whereas, I take God to record, I
never spoke, read, taught, or preached any heresy, but
only the most true and pure word of God. And where-
as, he says, I frequent the company of heretics ; I do
much marvel of his so saying ; for it has pleased my lord
protector's grace, my singular good lord and my lady's
grace, to have me with them, and I have preached be-
fore them, and much used their company, with divers
other worshipful persons, and therefore I suppose this
man means them. And further, whereas he saith that I
have made heretical books against the blessed sacrament
of the body and blood of Christ, calling it mathematical,
I perceive that this man knows not what this word ma-
thematical there means, and therefore understands not
my book : which, I take God to be my judge, 1 have
made truly and sincerely, and according to liis holy
word : and by the same his holy word and scriptures I
am always and shall be ready to submit myself to your
grace's judgment and the superior powers to be tried ;"
with many such more words of like importance. Which
ended, the archbishop asked the bishop, how lie could
prove that Hooper and Latimer assembled together
against him on the first of September, as he had alleged,
seeing they now denied it, and therefore willed him to
answer forthwith.
The bishop then answered that he would duly prove
it, if he might be admitted to do it according to law ; and
with that he pulled out of his sleeve certain books, say-
ing, " 1 have this varlet's books which he made against
A.D. ir)47— 1553.]
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
651
the blessed sacrament which you shall hear.'' Then as
' he was turning certain leaves thereof, Hooper began
' afjaiu to speak : but the bishop, turning himself towards
' him, tauntingly said, " Put up your pipes, you have
spoken for your part, 1 will meddle no more with you,"
and therewith read a certain sentence frpm the book.
Which done, he said, " Lo, here you may see his opinion,
' and what it is." At which words, the people standing
; behind, and seeing his irreverent and unseemly demean-
' our and railing, fell suddenly into great laughing.
Whereat, the bishop being moved, and perceiving not
the cause why they laughed, turned h.im towai'ds them in
! a great rage, saying, " Ah, woodcocks, woodcocks ! "
I Then said one of the commissioners, " Why say you
80, my lord?'' " Indeed," replied he, " I may well
call them woodcocks, that thus will laugh, and know not
i what at, nor yet heard what I said or read."
" Well, my lord of London," said the archbishop,
I " then I perceive you would persuade this audience, that
I you were called here for preaching your belief in the sa-
j crament of the altar, and therefore you lay to these
men's charge (meaning Hooper and Latimer) that they
have accused you of that. However, there was no such
. thing laid to your charge, and therefore this audience shall
' hear openly read the denunciation that is put up against
you, to the intent that they may the better perceive
• your dealing herein." And therewithal he said unto the
people, " My lord of London would make you believe,
' that he is called hither for declaring and preaching his
opinion touching the sacrament of the altar : but to the
intent j^ou may perceive how he goes about to deceive
I you, you shall hear the denunciation that is laid in
against him, read to you;" and thereupon he delivered
the denunciation unto Sir John Mason, knight, who read
it openly. Which done, the archbishop said again unto
t'.i' audience, " Lo, you hear how the bishop of London
i> I ailed for no such matter as he would persuade you."
With this the bishop, being in a raging heat, as one
void of all humanity, turned himself about unto the
)>eopl3, saying, " Well, now hear what the bishop of
Loudon saith for his part." But the commissioners,
seeing his inordinate contumacy, forbid him to speak
aiiv more, saying, " That he used himself very disobe-
diriitly."
Notwithstanding, he still persisting in his irreverent
manner of dealing with the commissioners, pulled out of
his sleeve another book, and said to the archbishop ;
" My lord of Canterbury, I have here a note out of your
books that you made touching the blessed sacrament,
wherein you affirm the verity of the body and blood of
Christ to be in the sacrament ; and I have another book
also of yours of the contrary opinion ; which is a marvel-
ous matter."
To which the archbishop answered, that he made no
books contrary one to another, and that he would de-
fend his books ; however, he thought the bishop under-
stood them not; "for I promise you," said he, "I
will find a boy of ten years old, that shall be more apt to
understand that matter than you, my lord of London."
Thus, after a great many words, the commissioners,
thinking it not good to spend any more time with him,
desired him to shew his answers to the articles objected,
the last day, against him. He, having them ready, read
the same to them. Wherein he laments that one of his
vocation, at the malicious denunciation of vile heretics,
should be used after such a strange manner, having
nevertheless done the best he could to declare his obedi-
ence to the king's majesty for the discouraging of rebel-
lion ; and also for the truth of Christ's true body, and
his presence in the sacrament of the altar ; for which
alone the malicious denouncers, with their accomplices,
had studied to trouble him.
Then in reply to the charge of omitting to defend the
authority of the king, during his minority, he said, for
the better setting forth of the king's majesty's power and
authority in his minority, he had collected as well out
of histories, as also out of the scriptures, the names of
several young kings, who, notwithstanding minority, were
faithfully and obediently honoured, and reputed for verv
true aud lawful kings; as Henry 111. being but nine
years old; Edward III. being but thirteen years, Ri-
chard II. being but eleven years ; Henry VI. being not
fully one year ; Edward V. being but eleven years ;
Henry VIII. being but eighteen years of age. And
out of the Old Testament, Uzziah, who was but six-
teen years old ; Solomon and Manasseh being but
twelve years ; Josiah, Jehoiachim, and Joash being but
eight years of age when they entered their reigns. All
which notes, with many others, he had purposed to de-
clare, if they had come to his memory, as indeed they
did not, because he was disturbed ; partly for lack of
use of preaching, and partly by reason of a bill that was
delivered to him from the king's council, to declare the
victory then had against the rebels in Norfolk and
Devonshire, which being of some length, confounded his
memory ; and partly also because his book in his ser-
mon fell from him, wherein were his notes which he hid
collected for that purpose ; so that he could not remem-
ber what he intended, but yet in general he persuaded
the people to obedience to the king's majesty, whose mi-
nority was manifestly known to them and to all others.
When he had ended the reading of his ans.vers, the
commissioners said unto him that he had in tlie same
very obscurely answered to the article beginning thus :
" You shall also set forth in your sermon that our autho-
rity," &c. He answered, tiiat he had already made as
full and sufficient an answer in writing, as he was bound
to make by law.
The judges again demanded of him, whether he would
otherwise answer, or not .' To the which he said, " No,
unless the law did compel him.'' Then they asked him
whether he thought the law did compel him to answer
more fully, or not .' He answered, " No ;" adding fur-
ther that he was not bound to make answer to such
positions.
The commissioners then seeing his froward contumacy.
told him plainly, that if he persisted thus, and wculd
not otherwise answer, they would, according to tiie law,
take him as if he had confessed it. He said, as before,
that he had already fully answered them ; but when the y
requested to have the notes, which he had made of his ser-
mon, he said they should have them if they would strid
for them. And as in his answer he had stated tisat he
did not know what the opinion of the rebels was, the
judges declared to him that their opinion was, " That
the king's majesty, before his grace came to the age of
one-and -twenty years, had not so full authority to mike
laws and statutes, as when he came to further vears ;
and that his subjects were not bound to obey the laws
and statutes made in his young age." The bishop an-
f'svered, that he was not of the opinion of the rebels
mentioned in that article, as appeared by his answers, as
well to the denunciation, as also to the fifth article ob-
jected against him.
Which ended, they admitted for witnesses upon the ar-
ticles objected against him. Master John Cheek, Henry
Markham, John Joseph, John Douglas, and Richard
Chambers, whom they bound with an oath upon the
holy evangelists, truly to answer and depose upon the
same articles in the presence of the bishop, who, like a
wily lawyer, protested against the receiving, admitting,
and swearing those witnesses, demanding also a compe-
tent time to minister interrogatories against them, with
a copy of all the acts of that day. With this the dele-
gates were well pleased, and assigned him to administer
his interrogatories against Master Cheek on that day,
and against the rest on the next day.
After this the judges delegate assigned the bishop to
appear again before them upon Wednesday then next en-
suing, between the hours of seven and eight of the clock
before noon, in the hall of the archbishop's manor of
Lambeth, there to shew cause why he should not be de-
clared ^ro confesso, upon all the articles whereto he had
not answered, and to see further process done in the
matter ; and so (he still protesting against the validity of
all their proceedings) they departed.
In the meanwhile the commissioners certified to the
king's majesty and his council, of the bishop's demeanour,
and what objections he had made against their proceed-
ings, making doubts whether by the tenor of his ma«
b52
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
[Book IX.
jesty's commission, the commissioners might proceed
not only at the denunciation, but also at their mere of-
fice ; and also whetluT they might as well determine or
hear the cause. His majesty, for the better understand-
ing thereof, did on the seventeenth of September send to
the commissioners a full and perfect declaration of his
will and j)Ieasure in the commission, giving them full
authority to proceed at their own discretion.
After this declaration had been sent down to, and re-
ceived bacti from the king, the bishop of London ap-
peared again before them upon Wednesday, the 18tli
of September, in the great hall at Lambeth. Where he
declared, that although he had already sufficiently an-
swered all things, yet further to satisfy the term assigned
unto him, to shew cause why he ought not to be declared
pro confesso upon the articles, to which he had not
fully answered, he had then a writing to exhibit why he
ought not to be so declared, wliich he read there openly.
W^herein under his accustomed irreverent terms of pre-
tended, unjust, and unlawful process and assignment, he
said he was not bound by the law (for good and reason-
able causes) to obey the same, especially their assign-
ment.
When his frivolous objections were read, the arch-
bishop seeing his inordinate and intolerable contempt of
manner and language towards them, charged him very
sharply, saying, " My Lord of London, if I had sat here
only as archbishop of Canterbury, it had been your duty
to have used yourself more lowly, obediently, and reve-
rently towards me than you have ; but seeing that 1 with
my colleagues sit here now as delegates from the king's
majesty, I must tell you plainly, you have behaved
yourself too inordinately. For at every time that we
have sat in commission, you have used such unseemly
fashions, without all reverence and obedience, giving
taunts and checks as well to us, with the servants and
chaplains, as also to certain of the most ancient that are
here, calUng them fools and daws, with such like ex-
pressions, as that you have given to the multitude an
intolerable example of disobedience. And I assure you,
my lord, there is you and another bishop whom I could
name, that have used yourselves so contemptuously and
disobediently, as the like I think has not before been
heard of, by which ye have done much harm."
At which words the bishop said scornfully to the
archbishop, " You show yourself to be a meet judge."
The archbishop then reminded him how indiscreetly
the last day in the chapel he had called all the people
" woodcocks."
He answered, that William Latimer, one of the de-
nouncers, had practised with the audience, that when
he lifted up his hand to them, they should say as he
said, and do as he did ; as, one time, upon the lifting up
of his hand, " Nay, nay;" and at another time, " Yea,
yea," and laughed they could not tell at what.
To which words Latimer replied, saying, " That he
lifted not up his hand at any time, but only to cause
them to hold their peace."
Then secretary Smith said to the bishop, that in all
his writings and answers he did not once acknowledge
them as the king's commissioners, but used always pro-
testations, calling them pretended commissioners, pre-
tended delegates, pretended commission, pretended ar-
ticles, pretended proceedings, so that all things were
pretended with him. " Such terms,'' said he, " proc-
tors use to delay matters for their clients, when they will
not have the truth known. But you, my lord, to use us
the kiiig's majesty's commissioners, with such terms,
do very naughtily. And I pray you what else did the
rebels do but act in the same way ? For when letters
and pardons were brought them from the king and his
council, they would not credit them, but said they were
none of the king's or his council's, but gentlemen's
doings, with such like terms. But now, my lord, be-
cause we cannot make you confess whether, in your ser-
mon, you omitted the article touching the king's ma-
jesty's authority in his tender age or not, but still have
said that you will not answer otherwise than you have
done, and that you have already sufficiently answered,
SO that we can by no means induce you to confess plainly
what you did, yea or nay ; therefore I say, to the intent
we may come to the truth, we have dilated the matter
more at large, and have drawn out other articles where-
unto you shall be sworn, and then I trust, you will dally
with us no more as }ou have done."
Then the delegates ministered to him certain new ar-
ticles and injunctions, and did there bind him with an
oath in form of law to make a full and true answer. The
bishop notwithstanding still protested the nullity and
invalidity of these articles, injunctions, and process, de-
siring also a copy with a competent time to answer.
The judges decreed a copy, commanding him to come
to his examination the next day.
Then the commissioners received for witness Sir John
Mason, Sir Thomas Chalenor, knights. Master William
Cecil, Armigal Wade, and William Hunnings, clerks to
the king's council, whom they bound with a corporal
oath in the presence of the bishop.
These articles being thus administered to the bishop of
London, the next day, being Thursday the lyth of
September, the before-named commissioners sate in the
archbishop's chamber of presence at Lambeth, attending
the coming of the bishop of London. Before whom
there appeared Robert Johnson the bishop's registrar,
who declared to the commissioners that the bishop his
master could not at that time personally appear before
them without great danger of his bodily health, because
he feared to fall into a fever by reason of a cold that he
had taken by too much cverwatching himself the night
before, whereby he was compelled to keep his bed :
nevertheless, if he could without danger of his bodily
health, he would appear before them the same after-
noon. This excuse the judges were content to take
in good part. Master Smith remarked, that " if he were
sick indeed, the excuse was reasonable, and to be al-
lowed ; but," said he, " I promise you, my lord has so
dallied with us, and used hitherto such delays, that we
may mistrust that this is but a feigned excuse. How-
ever, upon your faithful declaration, we are content to
tarry until one o'clock this afternoon,'' and so they did,
desiring Master Johnson to signify then to them whether
the bishop could appear or not.
At which hour Robert Johnson and Richard Rogers,
gentlemen of the bishop's chamber appeared again be-
fore the commissioners, declaring that, for the causes
before alleged, their master could not appear at that
time. Whereupon Master secretary Smith said to them,
" My lord of London, your master, has used us very
homely, and sought delays hitherto, and now, perhaps,
perceiving these last articles to touch the quick, and
therefore loth to come to his answer, he feigns himself
sick. But because he shall not so deceive us any more,
we will send the knight marshal to him, commanding
him if he be sick, indeed, to let him alone ; for that is a
reasonable excuse ; but if he be not sick, then to bring
him forthwith to us ; for I promise you he shall not
use us as he has done ; and therefore Master Johnson
you do the part of a trusty servant as becomes you ; but
it is also your part to show my lord his stubborn heart
and disobedience, which does him more harm than he
is aware of. What, thinks he to stand with a king in
his own realm ? Is this the part of a subject ? Nay, I
suppose we shall have a new Thomas a Becket. Let him
take heed, for if he j)lay these parts, he may happen to
be made shorter by the head. He may appeal if he think
good ; but whither 'i To the bishop of Rome .' I say
he cannot appeal but to the same king who has made
us his judges, and to the bench of his council ; and
how they will take this matter when they hear of it, I
doubt not. He would make men believe that he was
called before us for preaching his opinion of the sacra-
ment ; wherein I assure you he did both falsely and wick-
edly, and more than became him, and more than he had
in commandment to do, for he was not desired to speak
of that matter ; but yet we will lay no such thing to his
charge, and therefore we will not have him delay us."
Which ended, the delegates decreed to tarry for him
until the next day at two o'clock, being Friday, the 20th
of September.
At which day and time the bishop appeared himself
|A.D. 1547— 1553.J
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER
653
(personally before tliem in the same chamber of presence ;
(where he exhibited his answers to the last articles.
I After this, perceiving that Master secretary Smith was
Imore quick with him than others of the commi^jsioners,
and that he would not suffer him any longer to dally out
the matter with his vain subtleties in law, but urged him
ito go directly to his matter, and sometimes sharply re-
ibuking him for his ill and stubborn behaviour towards
ithem ; he, to destroy his authority, exhibited in writ-
ling a recusation of the secretary's judgment against him,
in which he rejects the secretary as a prejudiced and
'hostile person, unfit to sit in judgment upon him.
1 When this was read by the bishop, the secretary told
jhim plainly, that he would proceed in his commission,
;and would be still his judge ; and said further, " My
;lord, you say, in your recusation, that I said ' That you
'were acting like thieves, murderers, and traitors,' indeed
|1 said it, and will so say again, since we perceive it by
lyour doings."
The bishop in a great rage replied, saying, "Well,
?ir, because you sit here by virtue of the king's com-
mission, and are secretary to his majesty, and also one
of his highness' council, I must and do honour and
reverence you ; but, as you are but Sir Thomas Smith,
'and say as ye have said, ' That I do like thieves, mur-
tlerers, and traitors,' 1 say, ye lie, and I defy you ; and
do what you can to me, I fear you not, and therefore
what thou doest do quickly."
• The archbishop with the other commissioners said to
him, that for such his irreverent behaviour he was wor-
thy imprisonment.
Then the bishop, in more mad fury than before, said
aaaiii, " In God's name ye may send me whither you
will, and I must obey you, and so will, except you send
pie to the devil, for thither I will not go for you. Three
irhings I have : a small portion of goods, a poor carcase,
ami mine own soul : the two first ye may take, but as
fur my soul, ye shall not get it."
" Well,'' said the secretary then, " ye shall know
tliat there is a king."
''Yea, sir," said the bishop, "but that is not you,
neither, I am sure, will you take it upon you.*'
" No sir," said the secretary, " but we will make you
know who it is ;" and with that the commissioners
commanded the bishop and all the rest to depart the
chamber, until they called for him again.
Now that the commissioners were in consultation,
the bishop, with Gilbert Bourn, his chaplain, Robert
Warnington his commissary, and Robert Johnson his
'egistrar, were tarrying in a vacant place before the
loor of the chamber ; the bishop leaning on a cupboard,
md seeing his chaplains very sad, said, " Sirs, what mean
\(iu? Why show you yourselves to be sad and heavy
n mind, as appears to me by your outward gestures
mil countenances ? I would wish you, and I require
jvou to be as merry as I am, (laying therewith his hand
upon his breast) for before God I am not sad nor heavy,
but merry and of good comfort, and am right glad and
■ivfal of this my trouble, which is for God's cause, andit
es me nothing at all. But the great matter that
s me and pierces my heart is, that this Hooper
i;i i such other vile heretics and beasts are suffered and
l!(( used to preach at Paul's Cross, and in other places
wifliin ray diocese, most detestably preaching and railing
at the blessed sacrament of the altar, and denying the
\ .rity and presence of Christ his true body and blood to
In- there, and so infect and betray my flock. But I say
it i-i there in very deed, and in that opinion I will live
aivl 'die, and am ready to suffer death for the same.
Wherefore, ye being christian men, I do require you,
and also charge and command you in the name of God,
nnd on his behalf, as ye will answer him for the con-
tiaiy, that ye go to the mayor of London, and to
his brethren the aldermen, praying and also requiring
them earnestly in God's name and mine, and for mine
'own discharge on that behalf, that from henceforth,
when any such detestable and abominable preachers
(and especially those who hold opinions against the bles-
sed sacrament of the altar) do come to preach to them,
they forthwith depart out of their presence, and do not
hear them, lest that they, tarrying with such preacVitrs,
should not only hurt themselves in receiving tlieir poi-
soned doctrine, but also give encouragement to otliers,
who thereby might take an occasion to think and believe
that their erroneous and damnable doctrine is true and
good."
And then, turning himself about, and beholding; two of
the archbishop's gentlemen, who kept the chamber door
where the commisi--ioners were in consultation, and ))er-
ceiving that they had heard all his talk, he spake to them
also and said, " And, sirs, ye be my lord of Canterbury's
gentlemen, I know ye very well ; and therefore I also
require and charge you in God's behalf, r.nd in his name,
that ye do the like, where you shall chance to see and
hear such corrupt and erroneous preachers, and also
advertise my lonl your master of the same, and of these
my sayings that I have now spoken here before you, as
ye are christian men, and shall answer before God for
the contrary."
With this the commissioners called for the bishop
again, who read unto them an instrument, containing an
appeal to the king.
Then the delegates proceeded to the examination of the
last answers, and finding them imperfect, they demanded
of him on what special day of August he was sent for by the
lord protector ? To whom he obstinately answered, that
he was not bound to make any other answer than he haJ
already made, neither would he otherwise answer as long
as Master secretary Smith was present, whom he had
before recused, and would not recede from his recu-
sation.
The secretary, seeing him so wilful and perverse, said
sharply to him, " My lord, come off and make a full and
perfect answer to these articles, or else we will take other
order with you."
" In faith, sir," then said the bishop, " I thought ye
had been learned ; but now before God I perceive well
that either ye are not learned, or else ye have forgotten
it : for I have so often answered lawfully and sufficiently
and have shewed causes sufficient and reasonable, that
I must needs judge that you are too ignorant herein."
" Well," said Master secretary, " ye will not then
otherwise answer?"
" No," said the bishop, " except the law do compel
me."
" Then," said the secretary, " call for the knight
marshal, that he may be had to ward."
With that all the rest of the commissioners charged
the bishop, that he had very outrageously and irreve-
rently behaved himself towards them, sitting on the
king's majesty's commission, and especially towards Sir
Thomas Smith, his majesty's secretary, and for that and
other contumelious words which he had spoken, they de-
clared they would commit him to the Marshalsea.
By this time the marshal's dejnity came before them,
whom Master secretary commanded to take the bishop
as prisoner, and so to keep him, that no man might
come to him.
When the secretary had ended, the bishop said to him,
" Well, sir, it might have become you right well, that
his grace of Canterbury, here present, being first in com-
mission, and your better, should have done it."
Then the commissioners assigning him to be brought
before them on Monday, to make full answer to these
articles, or else to shew cause why he should not be de-
clared guilty by confession, concluded the session.
Now, as the bishop was departing with the under-
marshal, he turned himself in a great fury toward the
commissioners, and said to Sir Thomas Smith, " Sir,
where ye have committed me to prison, ye shall under-
stand, that I wiU require no favour at your hands, but *
shall willingly suffer what shall be put to me, as bolts on
my heels ; yea, and if ye will, iron about my middle, or
where ye will."
Then departing again, he yet returned once more, and
said to the archbishop; "Well, my lord, I am sorry
that I, being a bishop, am thus handled at your grace's
hand ; but more sorry that ye suffer abominable heretics
to practise as they do in London and elsewhere, infecting
and disquieting the king's liege people : and therefore I
54
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOP BONNER.
[Book IX
do require you, as you will answer to God and the kin^,
that ye will henceforth abstain from doing thus ; for if
you do not, I will accuse you before God and the king's
majesty." And so he departed, using many reproachful
words against the common people, who stood and spake
to him by the way as he went.
The sixth action or process against Bonner, Bishop of
London.
It was assigned, that upon Monday, the twenty-third
of the same month, the bishop should again appear be-
fore the commissioners, to shew a final cause wliy he
should not be declared ju?-o confesso, upon all the articles
whereto he had not fully answered.
Accordingly, the bishop was brought before them by
the under-marshal, and there declared that his appear-
ance at that time and place was not voluntary; for
that he was against his will brouglit there by the keeper
of the Marshalsea; and he then intimated a general re-
cusation of all the commissioners, alleging that because
the archbisho]) with nil his colleagues had neither ob-
served the order of tbcir commission, nor proceeded
against him after any laudable form of judgment, but
attempted many thinss unlawfully against his person,
dignity, and state, especially in committing him to pri-
son; and he therefore did refuse and decline from the
judgment of the archbishop and his colleagues, and ex-
cept against their jurisdiction; )vnd therefore, according
to his appeal, he purposed to submit himself to the
tuition, protection, and defence of the king's majesty;
for whose honour and reverence sake, he said, they
ought not to proceed any further against him.
The archbishop, however, with the others, told liim
plainly that they would be still his judges, and proceed
against him according to the king's commission.
Then'the bishop, seeing that tliey would still proceed
against him, intimated an appeal to the king's majesty.
The commissioners, notwithstanding, stood to their
commission, and urged him straightly to make a more
full answer to his articles than be had done.
The bishop said, that be would stand to his recusa-
tions and appeal, and would not make any other answer.
Then the delegates demanded of him what cause he
had to allege, why he ought not to be declared pro con-
fesso, upon the articles whereto he had not fully answer-
ed ; the bishop still answering (as before) that he would
adhere to his ajipeal and recusation.
Whereupon the archbishop, with consent of the rest,
seeing his pertinacity, pronounced him contumacious,
and declared him guilty, ujion all the articles which he
had not answered.
This done, Master secretary Smith sliewed a letter
which the bishop of London had sent unto the lord
mayor, and the aldermen of the city of London, as fol-
lows : —
To the right honourable and my very good Lord, the
Lord Mayor of London, tcith all his n-orshipfid
Brethren, my very dear and worshipiful Friends, with
'* Right honourable, with my very humble recom-
mendations : whereas I have perceived of late, and heard
with mine ears, what vile beasts and heretics have
preached to you, or rather like themselves prated and
railed against the most blessed sacrament of the altar,
denying the truth, and jjresence of Christ's true body
and blood to be there, giving you and the people liberty
to believe what ye list, teaidiing you detestably, that
faith in this behalf must not be constrained, but that
every man may believe as he will ; by reason whereof,
lest my presence and silence might to some have been
seen to have allowed their heretical doctrine, and given
credit to them, betraying my flock of the catholic sort,
ye know I departed yesterday from the heretic praters'
uncharitable charity, and so could have wished that you
and all others that are catholic should have done, leaving
those there with him that are already cast away, and
will not be recovered. For you tarrying with him still,
shall not only hurt yourselves in receiving his poisoned
doctrine, but also shall give countenance that tbeir doc-
trine is tolerable by reason that ye are content to hear
it, and say nothing against it. And because I cannot
tell when I shall speak with you to advertise you hereof,
therefore I thouglit good for mine own discharge and
yours, thus much to write to you, requiring and praying
yoii ag^iin and again in God's behalf, and for mine own
discharge, that ye suflTcr not yourselves to be abused
with such wicked preachers and teachers, in hearing
tlieir evil doctrine that you shall perceive them go about
to sow. And thus our blessed Lord long and well pre.
serve you all with this noble city in all good rest, god-
liness, and prosperity. Written in haste, this Monday
morning, the sixteenth of September, 1549.
" Your faithful beadsman and poor bishop,
" Edmund Bonner."
This letter being read, the secretary demanded of him
whether he wrote it or not. To whom he would not other,
wise answer, hut that he would still adhere and stand
to his former recusations and appeals. Which the com-
missioners seeing, determined to continue this case until
Friday then next following, assigning the bishop to be
there, to hear a final decree of this matter.
On Friday the commissioners did not sit in commis-
sion according to their appointment, but deferred it till
Tuesday, the first of October Upon which day the
bishop appearing before them, the archbishop declared
to him, tiiat although upon Friday last they had ap-
pointed to pronounce their final decree and sentence in
this matter, yet as they thought that that sentence (al-
though they had just cause to give it,) would be very
severe against him, they had not only deferred it until
tliis day, but desiring to be friendly to him, and to use
more gentle reformation towards him, had made such
suit for him, that although he had grievously offended
the king's majesty, yet if he would have acknowleged his
fault, and have made some amends in submitting himself,
he should have found much favour ; the sentence would
not have been so extreme against him, as it was likely
to be now.
The bishop not at all regarding this gentle and friendly
admonition, but persisting still in his contumacy, made
another protest against the commissioners, and then ap-
pealed from them to the king, refusing to make ans\\er,
on the plea tliat he was not free, but a prisoner.
lie then handed in both his protests and his appeal
in writing, after having publicly read them.
These things ended, the archbishop said to him, " My
lord where you say that you come compelled, or else you
would not have appeared, I much wonder. For you
would thereby make us and this audience here believe,
that because you are a prisoner, you ought not therefore
to answer ; which, if it were true, were enough to con-
found the whole state of this realm. For I dare say,
that of the greatest prisoners and rebels that ever your
keeper there (meaning the under marshal) had under him,
he cannot show me one that has used such defence as yott
have done."
"Well," said the bishop, " if my keeper were learned
in the laws, I could shew him my mind."
"Well," said the archbishop, " I have read over all
the laws as well as you, but to another end and purpose
than you did, and yet I can find no such privilege in this
matter."
Then Master Secretary Smith charged him very
severely how disobediently and rebelliously he had be-
haved himself towards the king's majesty and authority.
The bishop answered again, " That he was the king's
majesty's lawful and true subject, and did acknowledge
his highness to be his gracious sovereign lord, or else he
would not have appealed to him as he did, yea, and
would gladly lay his hands, and his neck also, under his
grace's feet, and therefore he desired that his highness'a
laws and justice might be administered to him.''
" Yea," replied Master Secretary, " you say well
my lord, but I pray you what else have all these rebels
in Norfolk, Devonshire, and Cornwall, and other places
done? Have they not said the same thing ? We are
A.D. loir— 1553.]
BONNER DEPRIVED OF HIS BISHOPRIC.
655
the kind's true subjects, we acknowledge him for our
king, and we will obey his laws, with sucli like phrases ;
and vet when either commandment, letter, or pardon
was brought to them from his majesty, they did not be-
lieve it, but said it was forged and made under a hedge,
and was gentlemen's doings, so that they neither would
nor did obey anything."
" Ah, sir,'' said the bishop, " I perceive your mean-
ing ; you would say that the bishop of London is a rebel
like them."
" Yea, by my troth,'' said the secretary. Whereat
the people laughed.
Then the dean of St. Paul's said to him, " That he
marvelled much, and was very soiry to see him so un
tractable, that he would not suffer the judges to speak."
To whom the bishop disdainfully answered ; " Well,
Master Dean, you must say somewhat." And likewise
at another time as the dean was speaking, he interru]ited
him and said, "You may speak wlien your turn comes."
Then said the secretary Smith, " I would you knew
your duty."
" 1 would," retorted he again, " you knew it as
well ;" with an infinite deal more of such stubborn and
contemptuous behaviour. Which the commissioners
weighing, determined that the archbishop, with their
whole consent, should openly read and publish their
final decree or sentence definitive against him. Which
he did, pronouncing him thereby to be clean deprived
from the bishopric of London.
The sentence specified that the bishop of London had
neglected the king's injunctions in his diocese, and espe-
cially had not complied with his majesty's command to
preach in behalf of the king's authority as impeached by
the rebels ; and the sentence embodied the words of the
royal injunctions, which he thus neglected, and which
are as follows t —
" Ye shall also set forth in your sermon, that oar au-
thority of our royal power is (as of truth it is) of no
less authority and force in this our younger age, than is
ind was of any of our predecessors, though the same
were much elder, as may appear by example of Josiah
and other young kings in scripture. And therefore all
our subjects to be no less bound to the obedience of
our precepts, laws, and statutes, than if we were thirty
or forty years of age."
When this sentence of deprivation was ended, the bi-
shop immediately appealed by word of mouth : —
" I, Edmund, bishop of London, brought in and kept
here as aprisoner against my consent and will, do under my
former protestation, and to the intent it may also appear,
that I have not consented nor agreed to any thing done
against me and in my prejudice, allege and say that this
sentence given here against me, is lex nulla ; and so
far forth as it shall appear to be ahqva, I do say it is
iniqua and injusta; and that therefore I do appeal to the
most excellent and noble king Edward VI., by the grace
of God, king of England, France, and Ireland, defender
of the faith, and of the church of England, and also
Ireland, next and immediately under God here on earth,
supreme head, and unto his court of chancery or par-
liament, as the law, statutes, and ordinances of this
realm will suffer and bear in this behalf, desiring instantly
first, second, and third, according to the laws, letters,
reverential or dimissory, to be given and delivered unto
me in this behalf, with all things expedient, requisite, or
necessary in any wise.''
The judges said, " that they will declare and signify to
the king's majesty what is done in this matter."
The archbishop considering that most of the audience
did not understand the meaning of the sentence which
was read in the Latin tongue, said to them, " Because
there may be many of you here that understand not the
Latin tongue, and so cannot tell what judgment has been
given, I shall therefore shew you its effect ;" and there-
with declared in English the causes expressed in the
sentence, adding these words : —
" Because my lord of London is found guilty in these
matters, therefore we have here by our sentence de-
prived him of our bishopric of London ; and this we
shew to you that from henceforth you snail not esteem
him any more as bishop of London."
Then Bonner desired the archbishop to declare like-
wise how he had appealed. But the other, seeing his
froward contempt, refused it, saying, "you may do it
yourself." Whereupon very disdainfully again he said,
" What will your grace do with me, touching my im-
prisonment ? Will you keep me still in prison ?"
To whom the commissioners answered that they per-
ceived now more in the matter than they did before, and
that his behaviour was greater rebellion than he was
aware of, and therefore they would not <li5c]iarge him,
but committed him again to his. keeper to be Iccpt in
prison. Where he most justly remained until the death
of that most worthy and godly prince king Edward V].
After which time he wrought most horrible mischief and
cruelties against the saints of God, as will appear hereafter,
throoghout the w'hole reign of queen Mary.
Immediately after his deprivation, he wrote out of the
Marshalsea other letters supplicatory to the lord chan-
cellor, and the rest of the king's council. Wherein he
complained, that by reason of the great enmity that the
duke of Somerset and Sir Thomas Smith bare to him,
his earnest suits unto the king and his council could not
be heard. He therefore most humbly desired tlieir
lordships to consider him, and to let him have liberty
to prosecute this matter before them, and he would
daily pray for the good preservation of their honours ;
and afterwards wrote in the same way to the king's ma-
jesty.
The king, on receiving his petition, gave in charge
and commandment to certain men of honour and wor-
ship, and persons skilful in the law, as to the lord Rich,
high chancellor, the lord treasurer, the marcjuis of
Dorset, the bishop of Ely ; Lord Wentworth, Sir An-
thony Wingfield, Sir William Herbert, knights ; doctor
Rich, Wooton, Edward IMontague, lord chief justices ;
Sir John Baker, knight ; with judge Hale, John Gosnold,
doctor Oliver, and also doctor Layson, that they perus-
ing all such acts, matters, and muniments of Bonner by
him exhibited, produced, propounded, and alleged, with
all his protestations, recusations, and a])peals, should
upon mature consideration give their direct answer,
whether the appeal of Bonner were to be deferred to,
whether the sentence against him stood by the. law suf-
ficient and effectual or not. Who soon after diligent dis-
cussion, and considerate advice, gave their answer, that
the appeal of Edmund Bonner was null and unreason-
able, and in no wise to be deferred to ; and that the sen-
tence by the commissioners against him was rightly and
justly pronounced. And this was the conclusion of
Bonner's whole matter and deprivation.
Thus then leaving Doctor Bonner a while in the Mar-
shalsea, we will proceed further in the course of our his-
tory, as the order of years and time requireth. And
although the trouble of the lord protector falls here jointly
with the deprivation of Doctor Bonner ; yet as he was
shortly again delivered, I will therefore delay to treat oi
it till his second trouble, which was two years after ;
and so in the meantime, intend to continue the matter,
touching the king's godly proceedings for reformation
of religion in the year 1549.
And here first a note should be made of Peter Martyr
and of his learned labours, and disputation in the Uni-
versity of Oxford this year with Doctor Chedsey, and
others about the sacrament ; which was, that the sub-
stance of bread and wine was not changed in the sacra-
ment, and that the body and blood of Christ was not
carnally and bodily in the bread and wine, but united to
the same sacramentally.
In like manner, some mention here also should be
made of the ecclesiastical laws, for the compiHng of
which thirty-two persons were assigned by act of par-
liament, 1549. But because these are rather matters of
treatise than historical, I mean to defer the further con-
sideration of them to the end of the history of this king's
days, and so to pass forward to other matters in the
meanwhile.
V V
656
THE KING'S LETTER TO BISHOP RIDLEY.
[Book IX..
Books of Latin service called in and abolished.
It follows in our history, that certain of the vulgar
multitude, hearing of the apprehension of the lord pro-
tector, and supposing that the alteration of public ser-
vice into English, and the administration of the sacra-
ment and other rites lately appointed in the church,
had been the act chiefly or only of the lord protector,
began now to spread abroad the report that they should
now have their old Latin service with holy bread and
holy water, and their other superstitious ceremonies
again : therefore the king, with the privy council, di-
rected out his letters of request, and straight command-
ment to the bishops, in their diocese, to cause the deans
and prebendaries of their cathedral churches, all parsons,
vicars, and curates, with the church-wardens of every
parish within their diocese, to bring in and deliver up
all antiphoners, missals, grailes, processionales, manuals,
legends, pies, porthoses, journals, and ordinals after the
use of Sarum, Lincoln, York, Bangor, Hereford, or any
other private use ; and all other books of service, which
might be any hindrance to the service now set forth in
English, charging also and commanding that all such as
shall be found disobedient in this behalf should be com-
mitted to ward.
And because the king was informed that there was
among the people a refusal to pay toward tlie finding of
bread and wine for the holy communion, by which the
communion in many places was omitted, the bishops in
like manner had given in charge to provide for redress
of this, and to punish them who should refuse. By
which it appears that no wafer cakes, but common bread
was then by the king's appointment ordinarily received
and used in churches. This was about the latter end of
December, A.D. 1549.
Taking down of Altars^ and setting up the Table instead
thereof.
In the year next, 1550, other letters were sent for
taking down altars in churches, and setting up the table
instead, to Nicholas Ridley, who, being bishop of Ro-
chester before, was now made bishop of London in
Bonner's place. The copy and contents of the king's
letters are these :
The King's Letters to Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of
London, Sfc.
" Right reverend father in God ; right trusty and well-
beloved, we greet you well. And whereas it is come to
our knowledge, that the altars within the most part of
the churches of this realm being already upon good and
godly considerations taken down, there do yet re-
main altars standing in other churches, by occasion
whereof much variance and contention ariseth among sun-
dry of our subjects, who, if good foresight were not had,
might perchance engender great hurt and inconvenience ;
we admonish you, that minding to have all occasion of
contention taken away, which many times groweth by
those and such like diversities, and considering that
amongst other things belonging to our royal office and
cure, we do account the greatest to be, to maintain the
common quiet of our realm ; we have thought good by
the advice of our council to require you, and neverthe-
less especially to charge and command you, for the
avoiding of all matters of further contention and strife
about the standing or taking away of the said altars, to
give substantial order throughout all your diocese, that
with all diligence all the altars in every church or chapel,
as well in places exempted as not exem])ted within your
diocese, be taken down, and instead thereof a table to
be set up in some convenient part of tlie chancel, within
every such church or chapel, to serve for the administra-
tion of the blessed communion. And to the intent that the
same may be done without the offence of such of our lov-
ing subjects as are not yet so well persuaded in that be-
half as we would wish, we send unto you herewith cer-
tain considerations gathered and collected, that make for
the purpose ; which and such others as you shall think
meet to be set forth to persuade the weak to embrace
our proceedings in this jiart, we pray you to cause them to
be declared to the people by some discreet preachers, in
such places as you shall think meet, before the taking
down of the said altars ; so as both the weak consciences
of others may be instructed and satisfied as much as may
be, and this our pleasure the more quietly executed.
For the better doing whereof, we require you to open
the aforesaid considerations in our cathedral church
in your own person, if you conveniently may, or other-
wise by your chancellor, or some other grave preacher,
l)oth there and in such other market towns and most
notable places of your diocese, as you may think most
requisite.
" Given under our signet at our palace of West-
minster, the '24th day of November, in the
fourth year of our reign.''
Reasons why the Lord's Board should rather be after the
form of a Table, than of an Altar.
I. The form of a table shall more move the simple
from the superstitious o])inions of the popish mass to the
right use of the Lord's .Supper. For the use of an altar
is to make sacrifice ; the use of a table is to serve for
men to eat upon. Now, when we come to the Lord's
board, what do we come for ? To sacrifice Christ again,
and to crucify him again ? or to feed upon him that was
only once crucified and offered up for us .' If we come
to feed upon him, spiritually to eat his body, and sjjirit-
ually to drink his blood, which is the true use of the
Lord's Supper, then no man can deny but the form of
a table is more meet for the Lord's board than the form
of an altar.
II. Whereas it is said, that the Book of Common Prayer
makes mention of an altar ; therefore it is not lawful
to abolish that which the book allows. To this it is thus
answered, the Book of Common Prayer calls the thing
whereupon the Lord's Supper is administered indiffer-
ently a table, an altar, or the Lord's board, without pre-
scribing any form, either of a table, or of an altar ; so that
whether the Lord's board have the form of an altar, or of a
table,thebookof Common Prayer calls it both an altar and
a table. For as it calls it an altar, whereupon the Lord's
Supper is administered, a table and the Lord's board, so
it calls the table, where the holy communion is distri-
buted with praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord, an
altar, for there is offered the same sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving. And thus it appears that here is nothing
either said or meant contrary to the Book of Common
Prayer.
III. The popish opinion of mass was, that it might
not be celebrated but upon an altar, or, at least, upon a
super altar, to supply the fault of the altar, which must
have had its prints and characters, or else it was thought
that the thing was not lawfully done. But this supersti-
tious opinion is more holden in the minds of the simple
and ignorant by the form of an altar, than of a table ;
therefore it is more meet for the abolishing of this super-
stitious opinion, to have the Lord's board after the form
of a table than of an altar.
IV. The form of an altar was ordained for the sacri-
fices of the law, and the Greek word so implies. But
now both the law and the sacrifices thereof cease ; and
therefore the form of the altar used in the altar ought to
cease with it.
V. Christ instituted the sacrament of his body and
blood at his last supper at a table, and not at an altar,
as appears manifestly by the three Evangelists. And
St. Paul calls the coming to the holy communion, the
coming to the Lord's Supjjer. And also it is not read,
that any of the apostles, or the primitive church, did
ever use any altar in the ministration of the holy com-
munion.
Wherefore seeing the form of a table is more agreea-
ble to Christ's institution, and with the usage of the
ai>ostles, and of the primitive church, than the form of
an altar, therefore the form of a table is rather to be
used than the form of an altar in the administration of
the holy communion.
A.D. 1547—1553.]
THE LADY MARY'S LETTER TO THE COUNCIL.
657
VL It is said in the preface to the Book of Common
Prayer, that if any doubt arise in the use and practising
of the ' same book ; to appease all such diversity, the
matter shall be referred 'to the bishop of the diocese, who
by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and
appeasing of tlie same, so that the same order be not
contrary to any thing contained in that book.
After these letters and reasons were received, Ni-
cholas Ridley, bishop of London, held his visitation ;
wherein, among other injunctions, the bishop exhorted
those churches in his diocese, w^here the altars then re-
mained, to conform themselves to those other churches
which had taken them down, and had set up instead
of the multitude of their altars, one decent table in every
church.
There arose a great diversity about the form of the
Lord's board, some using it after the form of a table,
and some of an altar. Wherein when the bishop was
required to determine what was most meet, he declared
he could do no less of his bounden duty, for the appeasing
of such diversity, and to procure one godly uniformity,
but to exhort all his diocese to that which he thought
best agreed with scripture, with the usage of the apos-
tles, and with the primitive church, and to that which is
not only not contrary to any thing contained in the Book
of Common Prayer, but also might highly further the
king's most godly proceedings in abolishing of vain and
superstitious opinions of the popish mass out of the
hearts of the simple, and to bring them to the right use
taught by the holy scriptures of the Lord's Supper ; and
so he appointed the form of a table to be used in his
diocese ; and in the church of St. Paul he broke down the
wall then standing by the high altar.
Now we will enter into those matters which happened
between King Ed^^ard and his sister Mary, as by their
letters here following are to be seen :
To my Lord Protector and the rest of the Kinff's
Majesty's Council.
" My lord, I perceive by the letters which I lately re- \
ceived from you, and others of the king's majesty's coun-
cil, that ye are all sorry to find so little conformity in
me touching the observation of his majesty's laws. I
am well assured, that I have offended no law, unless it
be a late law of your own making, for the altering of
matters in religion, which in my conscience is not worthy
to have the name of a law, both for the king's honour-
sake, the welfare of the realm, and giving an occasion of
an evil report through all Christendom, besides the par-
tiality used in the same, and (as my conscience is very
well persuaded) the offending of God, which passes all the
rest ; but I am well assured that the king's father's laws
were all allowed and consented to without compulsion by
the whole realm, both spiritual and temporal, and all you
executors sworn upon a book to fulfil the same, so that
it was an authorised law, and I have obeyed that, and
will do so with the grace of God, till the king's majesty,
my brother, sh^U have sufficient years to be a judge in
these matters himself. Wlierein, my lord, I was plain
with you at my last being at the court, and declared to
you at that time whereto I would stand, and now do assure
you all, that the only occasion of my stay from altering
mine opinion, is for two causes.
*' One principally for my conscience sake ; the other,
that the king, my brother, shall not hereafter charge me
to be one of those that were agreeable to such alterations
in his tender years. And what fruits daily grow by such
changes, since the death of the king, my father, to every
indifferent person it well appears, both to the displea-
sure of God, and unquietness of the realm.
"Notwithstanding, I assure you all, I would be as
loath to see his highness take hurt, or that any evil should
come to this his realm, as the best of you all, and none
of you have the like cause, considering how I am com-
pelled by nature, being his majesty's poor and humble sis-
ter, most tenderly to love and pray for him, and to this
his realm (being born within the same) wish all health
ind prosperity to God's honour. x
"And if any judge of me the contrary for mine opi.
nion's sake, as I trust none doth, 1 doubt not in the end,
with God's lieip, to prove myself as true a natural and
humble sister, as they of the contrary opinion, with all
their devices and altering of laws, shall prove themselves
true subjects ; praying you, my lord, and the rest of the
council, no more to trouble and unquiet me with matters
touching my conscience, wherein I am at a full point,
with God's help, whatever shall happen to me, intend-
ing, with his grace, to trouble you little with any worldly
suits, but to bestow the short time I think to live in quiet-
ness, and pray for the king's majesty, and all of you,
heartily wishing that your proceedings may be to God's
honour, the safeguard of the king's person, and quiet-
ness to the realm.
" Moreover, where your desire is, that I shall send
my controller, and Doctor Hopton, to you, by whom
you would signify your minds more amply, to my con-
tent and honour ; it is not unknown to you all, that the
chief charge of my house rests only upon the labours of
my controller, who has not been absent from my house
three whole days since the setting up of the same, unless
it were for my letters patent ; so that if it were not for
his continual diligence, I think my little portion would
not have stretched so far. And my chaplain, by occasion
of sickness has been long absent, and is not yet able to
ride.
" Therefore as I cannot forbear my controller, and
my priest is not able to journey, so shall I desire you,
my lord, and all the rest of the council, that having any
thing to be declared to me, except on matters of religion,
you will either write your minds, or send some trusty
person, with whom I shall be contented to talk, and
make answer as the case shall require ; assuring you
that if any servant of mine, either man or woman, or
chaplain, should move me to the contrary of my consci-
ence, I would not give ear to them, nor suffer the like to
be used within my house. And thus, my lord, with my
hearty commendations, I wish to you and the rest as
well to do as myself.
" From my house at Kenning Hall, the two-and-
twentieth day of June, 1549.
" Your assured friend to my power,
" Mary."
To this letter the council replied, giving instructions
to Doctor Hopton, who should himself inform the prin-
cess of the mind of the council, after which the king
wrote to her as follow :
The King's Letter to the Lady Mary, twenty -fourth
of January, 1550.
" Right dear, &c. We have seen by letters of our
council, sent to you of late, and by your answer touch-
ing your chaplains having offended our laws in saying
mass, the good and convenient advices of our council,
and your fruitless and indirect mistaking the same :
which moves us to write at this time, that where good
counsel from our council has not prevailed, yet the like
from ourself may have due regard. The whole matter
we perceive rests in this, that you being our next sister,
in whom above all others our subjects, nature should
place the most estimation of us, would wittingly and
purposely, not only break pur laws yourself, but also
have others maintained to do the same. Truly, however,
the matter may have other terms, other sense it has not:
and although by your letter it seems you challenge a
promise made to you, that you may do so, yet surely we
know the promise had no such meaning, either to main-
tain, or to continue your fault. You must know this,
sister, you were at first, when the law was made, borne
with, not that you should disobey the law, but that by
our lenity and love you might learn to obey it. We
made a difference between you and our other subjects,
not that all others should follow our laws, and you only
oppose them, but that you miffht be brought as far by
love, as others were by duty. The error in which you
rest is double, and so great, that neither for the love of
God can we suffer it unredressed, neither for the love of
u u 2
C58
THE KING'S LEI TER TO THE LADY MARY.
[Book IX.
you can we but wish it amended. First, you retain a
fashion in honouring of God, who indeed, is thereby
dishonoured, and you err in zeal for lack of knowledge,
and having knowledge offered to you, you refuse it, not
because it is knowledge, we trust (for then should we
despair of you) , but because you think it is not. And surely
in this we can best reprehend you, because we learn daily
in our school, that therefore we may learn things, because
we know them not, and we are not allowed to say we know
not those things, or we think they are not good, and
therefore we will not learn them. Sister, you must
think nothing can commend you more than reason, ac-
cording to which you have been hitherto used ; and now
for very love we will, ourself, offer you reason. If
you are persuaded in conscience contrary to our laws,
you or your persuaders shall freely be suffered to say
what you or they can, so that you will hear what shall be
said again.
"In this point you see I pretermit my estate, and
talk with you as your brother, rather than your supreme
lord and king. Thus should you, being as well content
to hear of your opinions as you are content to hold them,
in the end thank us as much for bringing you to light
as now, before you learn, you are loath to see it. And if
thus much reason with our natural love shall not move
you, whereof we would be sorry, then we must consider
the other part of your fault, which is the oflence of our
laws. For though hitherto it has been sufl'ered, in hope
of amendment, yet now, if there be no hope, how shall
there be sufferance? Our charge is to have the same
care over every man's estate, that every man ouglit to
have over his own. And in your own house as you
would be loath openly to suffer one of your, servants,
being next you, most manifestly to break your orders, so
must you think in our state it shall miscontent us to
permit you, so great a subject, not to keep our laws.
Your nearness to us in blood, your greatness in estate,
the condition of this time makes your fault the greater.
The example is unnatural, that our sister should do less
for us than our other subjects. The cause is slanderous
for so great a personage to forsake our majesty.
" Finally, It is too dangerous in a troublesome com-
.monwealth, to make the people to mistrust a faction.
We are young, you think, in years to consider this.
Truly sister, it troubles us the more ; for it may be, this
evil suffered in you is greater than we can discern, and
so we are as much troubled because we doubt whether
we see the whole peril, as we do for what we do see. In-
deed we will presume no further than our years gives us ;
that is, in doubtful things not to trust our own judgment,^
but in evident things we think there is no difference. If
you should not do as other subjects do, were it not
evident that you would not be a good subject ? Were it
not plain in that case, that you would use us not as your
sovereign lord ? Again, if you should be suffered mani-
festly to break our laws, would it not be a covert for
others to do so ? Andif our law be broken, and contemned,
where is our estate ? These things are so plain, as we
couid almost have judged them six years past. And in-
deed it grieves us not a httle, that you, who should be
our greatest comfort in our young years, should alone give
us occasion of discomfort. Think you not but it must
needs trouble us, and if you can so think, you ought,
sister, to amend it. Our natural love towards you with-
out doubt is great, and therefore diminish it not yourself.
If you will be loved by us, shew some token of love to-
wards us, that we say not with the Psalm, "They render-
ed me evil for good." If you will be believed when by
writing you confess us to be your sovereign lord, hear
that which in other things is often alleged, " Sliew me
thy faith by thy works." In the answer of your letter to
our council, we remember you liold only ujjon one reason
divided into two parts. The first is, that in uiatters of
reli°-ion your faith is no other, than as all Christendom
does confess. The next is, you will assent to no alteration,
but wish things to stand as they did at our father's death.
If you mean in the first to rule your faith by that which
vou call Christendom, and not by this clmrch of England,
wherein you are a member, \vu shall err in many points,
such as our father's would not have suffered, what-
ever you may say of the standing still of things as they
were left by him. The matter is too plain to write, what
may be gathered, and too perilous to be concluded
against you. For the other part, if you like no altera-
tion by our authority, of things not altered by our father,
you should do us too great an injury. We take ourself,
for the administration of this our commonwealth, to have
the same authority which our father had, diminished
in no part, neither by example of scripture, nor by univer-
sal laws. The histories in scripture are plenteous, which
show us that almost the best ordered church of the Israelites
was by kings younger than we are. Well, sister, we will
not in these things interpret your writings to the
worst ; love and charity shall expound them. But yet
you must not be bold to offend in that whereunto you
see your writings might be wrested. To conclude, we
exhort you to do your duty, and if there be any impe-
diment, not of purpose, you shall find a brotherly affec-
tion in us to remedy the same. To teach and instruct
you we will give order, and so procure you to do your
duty willingly, that you shall perceive you are not used
merely as a subject, and only commanded ; but as a
daughter, a scholar, and a sister, taught, instructed, and
persuaded. For which cause, when you have considered
this our letter, we pray you that we may shortly hear
from you.''
The Lady Mari/s Answer to the King.
" My duty most humbly remembered to your majesty,
please it the s:mie to understand that I have received
your letters by Master Throgniorton, this bearer. The
contents whereof do more trouble me than any bodily
sickness, though it were even to the death ; and the
rather for that your highness doth charge me to be both
a breaker of your laws, and also an encourager of others
to do the like. I most humbly beseech your majesty to
think that I never intended towards you otherwise than
my duty compelleth me unto; that is, to wish your high-
ness all honour and prosperity, for which I do and
daily shall pray. And where it pleaseth your majesty to
write, that I make a challenge of a promise made other-
wise than it was meant, the truth is, the promise could
not be denied before your majesty's presence, at my last
waiting upon you. And although, I confess, the ground
of faith (whereunto I take reason to be but an handmaid)
and my conscience also hath and do agree with the same:
yet touching that promise, for so much as it hath pleased
your majesty (God knoweth by whose persuasion) to
write, it was not so meant. I shall most humbly desire
your highness to examine the truth thereof indifferently,
and either your majesty's ambassador, now being with
the emperor, shall inquire of the same, if it be your
pleasure to have him move it, or else to cause it to be
demanded of the emperor's ambassador here, although
he were not within this realm at that time. And thereby
it shall appear that in this point I have not offended your
majesty, if it may please you so to accept it. And
albeit your majesty (God be i)raised) hath at these years
as much understanding, and more, than is commonly
seen in that age, yet considering you do hear but one
part (your highness not offended) 1 would be a suiter to
the same, that till you were grown to more perfect years,
it might stand witii your pleasure to stay in matters
touching the soul. So undoubtedly should your majesty
know more, and hear others, and nevertheless be at your
liberty and do your will and pleasure. And whatsoever
your majesty hath conceived of me, either by letters to
your council, or by their report, I trust in the end to
l)rove myself as true to you, as any subject within your
realm, and will by no means stand in argument with
your majesty, but in most humble wise beseech you, even
for God's sake, to suffer me, as your highness hath done
hitherto. It is for no worldly respect I desire it, God is
my judge ; but rather than to offend my conscience, I
would desire of God to lose all that I have, and also my
life ; and nevertheless, live and die your humble sister
and true subject. Thus, after pardon craved of joy
A.D. 1547—1553.] THE KING'S INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR, &c.
659
majesty for my rude and bold writing, I beseech Al-
mighty God to preserve the same in honour with as
long continuance of health and life, as ever had noble
king.
" From Beaulien, the third of February.
" Your majesty's most humble and
" unworthy sister, Mary."
\fter many other letters from the council to the
princess Mary, and from her in reply, as also to his
majesty, the king wrote the following : —
The King's Letter to the Lady Mary.
*' Right dearly and right entirely beloved sister, we greet
you well, and let you know that it grieves us much to
perceive no amendment in you, of that, which we for
God's cause, your soul's health, our conscience, and the
common tranquillity of our realm, have so long desired ;
assuring you that our sufferance hath much more de-
monstration of natural love, than contentment of our
conscience, and foresight of our safety. Wherefore
although you give us occasion, as much almost as in you
is, to diminish our natural love ; yet we are loath to feel
it decay, and mean not to be so careless of you as we are
provoked to be.
" And therefore meaning your weal, and therewith
joining a care not to be found guilty in our conscience
to God, having cause to require forgiveness that we have
so long, for respect of love toward you, omitted our
bounden duty, we send at this present our right trusty
and right well-beloved councillor, the lord Rich, chan-
cellor of England, and our trusty and right well beloved
councillors. Sir Anthony Wingfield, knight, controller of
our household, and Sir William Paget, knight, one of
our principal secretaries, in message to you, touching
tbs order of your house, willing you to give them firm
credit in those matters they shall say to you from us,
and do there, in our name.
" Given under our signet, at our castle of Windsor,
the 24th day of August, in the first year of our
reign."
A Copy of the King's Instructions, given to the said
Lord Chancellor, Sir Anthony Wingfield, and Sir
William Paget, knights, i^'c, the 24th of August, 1551.
" You the said lord chancellor and your colleagues
shall immediately repair to the lady Mary, giving to
her his majesty's hearty commendations, and shew the
cause of your coming to be as follows : —
" Although his majesty has a long time, as well by
his majesty's own mouth and writing, as by his council,
endeavoured that the lady being his sister, and a prin-
cipal subject and member of his realm, should both be
indeed, and also shew herself conformable to the laws
and ordinances of the realm, in the profession and rites
of religion, using all gentle means of exhortation and
advice that the reformation of the fault might willingly
come of herself, as was the expectation and desire of
his majesty, and all good and wise men ; yet notwith-
standing his majesty sees that hitherto no manner of
amendment has followed ; but by the continuance of the
error, and manifest breach of his laws no small peril may
happen to the state of his realm, the sufferance of such
a fault being directly to the dishonour of God, and the
great offence of his majesty's conscience, and that of
all other good men ; and therefore of late, even with the
consent and advice of the whole state of his privy coun-
cil, and divers others of the nobility of his realm, whose
names you may repeat, if you think convenient, his ma-
jesty did resolutely determine it just, necessary, and
expedient, that her grace should not in anywise use
or maintain the private m^ss, or any other manner of
service, than such as by the law of the realm is au-
thorized and allowed : and to signify this his majesty's
determination to her grace, it was thought in respect of
a favourable proceeding with herself, to have the same
not only to be manifested by her own officers and servants,
being most esteemed with her, but also to be executed
with them in her house, as well for the quiet proceeding
in the very matter, as for the less molesting of her grace
with any message by strangers, in that time of her
solitariness, wherein her grace was then by reason of
the late sickness. For which purpose, her three ser-
vants, Rochester, Englefield, and Waldgrave were sent
in message in this manner. First, to deliver his ma-
jesty's letter to her ; next to discharge the complaints of
saying mass, and prohibiting all the household from
hearing any. Wherein the king's majesty perceives
upon their own report being returned to the court, how
negligently, and indeed how falsely they have executed
their commandment and charge, contrary to the duty of
good subjects, and to the manifest contempt of his ma-
jesty. Insomuch as they have before his majesty's
council refused to do that which pertains to every true
faithful subject, to the offence so far of his majesty, and
derogation of his authority, that the punishment of them
could in nowise be forborne, and yet in the manner of
the punishment of them, bis majesty and his council
hath such consideration and respect of her person, being
his sister, that without doubt his majesty could not with
honour have had the like consideration or favour in the
punishment of the dearest councillor he has, if any of
them had so offended ; and therefore his majesty has
sent you three not only to declare to her grace the causes
of his sending thither of late his oflicers in message, but
also the causes of their absence now presently. And
further, in the default of the officers, to take order, as
well with her chaplains, as with the whole household,
.that his majesty's laws may be there observed. And in
the communication with her, you shall take occasion to
answer in his majesty's name certain points of her letter
lately sent to his majesty. The copy of which letter
is now also sent to you to peruse, for your better in-
struction how to proceed therein. First, her allegation
of the promise made to the emperor must be so an-
swered as the truth of the matter serves, whereof every
one of you have often heard sufficient testimony in the
council. For her offering of her body at the king's
will, rather than to change her conscience, it grieves his
majesty much that her conscience is so settled in error,
and yet no such thing is meant of his majesty, nor of
any of his council, once to hurt or will evil to her
body ; but even to the bottom of their hearts they wish to
her a sound mind in a sound body. And therefore you
shall do well to persuade her grace, that this proceeding
cometh only of the conscience, the king hath to avoid
offence to God, andof necessary counsel and wisdom to see
his laws in so weighty cavises executed. Also, because it
is thought that Rochester had the care and consideration
of her grace's provision of her household, and by his ab-
sence the same might be disordered or disfumished ;
his majesty hath sent a trusty skilful man of his own
household, to serve her grace for the time. Wlio also
is sufficiently instructed by Rochester of the state of
things in her household. And if there shall be any-
thing lacking in the same, his majesty's pleasure is,
that his servant shall advertise his own chief officers of
his household, to the intent that the same may be sup-
plied from any store here, or otherwise conveniently
helped, so that her grace shall not lack.
" Having thus proceeded with her grace, for the declara-
tion of the causes of your coming, you shall then cause
to be called before you the chaplains, and all the rest of
the household there present, and in the king's majesty's
name most straightly forbid the chaplains either to say or
use any mass or kind of service other than by the law is
authorised ; and likewise you shall forbid all the rest of
the company to be present at any such prohibited ser-
vice, upon pain of being most severely punished ; as de-
servedly falling into the danger of the king's indignation,
and alike charge them all, that if any such offence shall
be openly or secretly committed, they shall advertise
some of ills majesty's council. In which case you shall
use the reasons of "their natural duty and allegiance that
they owe as subjects to their sovereign lord, which de-
rogates all other earthly duties.
" Also, if you shall find any of the priests, or any
other person disobedient to this order, then you shall
660
ARTICLES SENT BY THE COUNCIL TO BISHOP GARDINER.
[Book IX.
commit them forthwith to prison, as ye shall think con-
venient.
" Also, forasmuch as ye were privy to the determina-
tion at Richmond, and there understood how necessary
it was to have reformation herein ; his majesty upon the
great confidence he hath in your wisdom and upright-
ness, remits to your discretion the manner of proceed-
ing herein ; and if any thing shall chance to arise there
otherwise than according to these instructions, then to
assist vou in the execution of your charge, our instruc-
tions in one sum are, to avoid the use of the private
mass, and other unlawful service in the house of the lady
Mary.
" Also, you shall devise hy some means as you tliink fit,
lO have understanding after your departure, how the
order you give is observed, and, as you shall judge fit, to
ctrtify the same to me."
Some Acconnt of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of
Winchester.
Although the first imprisonment of Stephen Gardiner,
bishop of Winchester, was before the deprivation of
bishop Bonner, yet as he was not deposed from his
bishopric till the next or second year after, (A.D. 1551,)
I have therefore put off his history to this present place.
When the king's injunctions for a visitation of the
wl»ole realm were sent forth, this bishop displayed a
spirit of neglect and disobedience ; and warned, in his
sermons, the people against the preachers of the gospel,
and generally against the king's proceedings. Having _
disobeyed the king's injunctions, he was sent to the
Fleet, and there so misconducted himself, as also before
the council, that he was committed to the Tower.
Certain of the council, by the king's appointment,
had many times access to him in the Tower, to persuade
him ; the duke of Somerset, the lord treasurer, the lord
privy seal, the lord great chamberlain, and Master Se-
cretary Petre. Who repairing to him on the tenth day of
June, A.D. 1550, he desired of them to see the king's
book of proceedings ; upon the sight of which he would
make a full answer, seeming to be willing in all things
to conform himself to the king's proceedings, and pro-
mising that in case anything offended his conscience,
he would open it to none but to the council. Upon
which it was agreed, that the book should be sent to him
to see his answer, that his case might be resolved upon,
and that he should have the liberty of the gallery and
garden in the Tower, when the duke of Norfolk should
be absent.
The answer of the bishop being received, through the
report of the lords which had been with him, declaration
was made the eighth of July, 1550, that his answers were
doubtful. Therefore it was determined, that he should
be directly examined, whether he would sincerely con-
form himself to the king's proceedings or not.
The following articles were therefore sent to him for
his subscription as a proof of his conformity.
"WTiereas I, Stephen, hishop of Winchester, having
been suspected as one too much favouring the bishop of
Rome's authority, decrees, and ordinances, and as one
that did not approve or allow the king's majesty's pro-
ceedings in alteration of certain rites in religion, was
summoned before the king's highness's council, and ad-
monished thereof ; and having certain things appointed
for me to do and preach for my declaration, have not
done that as 1 ought to do, although I promised to do
the same ; whereby I have not only incurred the king's
majesty's indignation, but also divers of his highness's
subjects have by my example taken encouragement (as
his grace's council is certainly informed) to repine at
his majesty's most godly proceedings ; I am right sorry
therefore, and acknowledge myself c6ndignly to have
heen punished, and do most heartily thank his majesty,
that of his great clemency it hath pleased iiis higliness to
deal with me, not according to rigour, but mercy. And
to the intent it may appear to the world how little I do
repine at his highness's doings, which be in religion most
godly, and to the commonwealth most profitable, I lo
affirm and say freely of mine own will, without any
compulsion, as ensueth : —
" I. That by the law of God, and the authority of
the scriptures, the king's majesty, and his successors, are
the supreme heads of the churches of England and of
Ireland.
" II. That the appointing of holy-days and fasting
days ; as Lent, Ember days, or any such like, or to
dispense therewith, is in the king's majesty's autho-
rity and power : and his highness as suj)reme head of
the churches of England and Ireland, and governor
thereof, may appoint the manner and time of the holy-
days and fasting days, or dispense therewith, as to his
wisdom shall seem most convenient for the honour of
God and the wealth of this realm.
" III. That the king's majesty hath most christianly
and godly set forth, by and w^ith the consent of the w-hole
parliament, a devout and christian book of service of the
church, to be used by the church ; which book is to be
accepted and allowed of all bishops, pastors, curates, and
all ministers, ecclesiastical of the realm of England, and
so of him to be declared and commended in all places
where he shall happen to preach or speak to the j)eople
of it, that it is a godly and christian book and order,
and to be allowed, accepted, and observed of all the
king's majesty's true subjects.
" IV. I do acknowledge the king's majesty, tliat now is
(whose life God long preserve), to be my sovereign
lord and supreme head, under Christ, to me as a
bishop of this real, and natural subject to his majesty,
and now in this his young and tender age, to be my
full and entire king; and that I, and all other his
highness's subjects, are bound to obey all his majesty's
proclamations, statutes, laws, and commandments, made,
promulgated, and set forth in his highness's young
age, as well as though his highness were at this pre-
sent thirty or forty years old.
" V. I confess and acknowledge, that the statute
commonly called the Statute of the Six Articles, for just
causes and grounds, is by authority of parliament re-
pealed and disannulled.
" VI. That his majesty and his successors have au-
thority in the churches of England, and also of Ire-
land, to alter, reform, correct, and amend all errors
and abuses, and all rites and ceremonies ecclesiastical,
as shall seem from time to time to his highness and his
successors most convenient for the edification of his
people, so that the same alteration be not contrary or
repugnant to the scriptures and law of God.
" Subscribed by Stephen Winchester, with
the testimonial hands of the council to the
To these articles, although Winchester with his own
hand subscribed, granting the supremacy of the king,
yet, because he stuck so much in the first point touch-
ing his submission, and would in no case subscribe,
but only made his answer in the margin, it was there-
fore thought good, that the master of the horse, and
Master Secretary Petre should repair to him again, ex-
horting him to look better upon it, and at the same time
his subscription or answers were required to the follow-
ing articles : —
Co;;y of the last Articles sent to the Bishop of Win-
chester.
" Whereas I, Stephen, bishop of Winchester, have
been suspected as one that did not approve or allow the
king's majesty's proceedings in alteration of certain rites
in religion, and was convented before the king's high-
ness's council, and admonished thereof, and having cer-
tain things ajipointed for me to do and preach for my
declaration, have not done therein as I ought to do,
whereby I have deserved his majesty's displeasure ; I am
right sorry therefore. And to the intent it may appear
to the world how little I do repine at his highness's
doings, which are in religion most godly, and to the
A.D. 1547—1553.] ARTICLES SENT BY THE COUNCIL TO BISHOP GARDINER.
661
commonwealth most profitable, I do affirm as fol-
lows : —
" 1. Tliat the late king, of most famous memory, king
Henry the eighth, our' late sovereign lord, justly and of
good reason and ground hath taken away, and caused to
be suppressed and defaced, all monasteries and religious
ho|ises, and all conventicles and convents of monks,
friars, nuns, canons, bonhoms, and other persons called
religious, and that the same being so dissolved, the per-
sons therein bound and professed to obedience to a
person, place, habit, and other superstitious ritei and
ceremonies, upon that dissolution and order appointed
by the king's majesty's authority as supreme head of the
church, are clearly released and acquitted of those vows
and professions, and at their full liberty, as though tliose
unwitty and superstitious vows had never been made.
" II. That any person may lawfully marry, without
any dispensation from the bishop of Rome, or any other
man, with any person whom it is not prohibited to con-
tract matrimony with, by the Levitical law.
" III. That the vowing and going on pilgrimage to
images, or the bones or relics of any saints, hath been su-
perstitiously used, and the cause of much wickedness and
idolatry, and therefore justly has been abolished by the
late king, and the images and relics so abused have been
(great and godly considerations) defaced and destroyed.
" IV. That the counterfeiting of St. Nicholas, St.
Clement, St. Catharine, and St. Edmund, by children
heretofore brought into the church, was a mere mockery
and foolishness, and therefore justly abolished and taken
away.
"V. It is convenient and godly, that the scriptures of
the Old and New Testament, that is, the whole Bible,
be had in English and published, to be read of every
man, and that whosoever doth repel and discourage men
from reading thereof, doeth evil.
" VI. That the said late king, of just ground and
reason, did receive into his hands the authority and dis-
position of chantries, and such livings as were given
for the maintenance of private masses, and did well
change divers of them to othw uses.
" VII. The king's majesty that now is, by the advice
and consent of the parliament, did upon just ground and
reason, suppress, abolish, and take away the said chan-
tries, and such other livings as were used and occupied
for maintenance of private masses, and masses satis-
factory for the souls of them that are dead, or finding
of obites, lights, or otlier like things : The mass that
was wont to be said of priests was full of abuses, and
had very few things of Christ's institution, besides the
epistle, gospel, the Lord's prayer, and the words of the
Lord's supper ; the rest, for the greater part, were invented
and devised by bishops of Rome, and by other men of the
same sort, and therefore justly taken away by the sta-
tutes and laws of this realm ; and the communion which
is placed instead thereof, is very godly, and agreeable to
the scriptures.
" VIII. That it is most convenient and fit, and ac-
cording to the first institution, that all christian men
should receive the sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ in both the kinds, that is, in bread and wine.
" IX. And the mass, vrherein only the priest receiveth
and others do but look on, is but the invention of man,
and the ordinance of the bishop of Rome's church, but
not agreeable to the scriptures.
" X. That upon good and godly considerations it is
ordered in the said book and order, that the sicrament
should not be lifted up, and shewed to the people to be
adored, but to be with godly devotion received, as it was
when first instituted.
" XL That it is well, politically, and godly done, that
the king's majesty by act of parliament, hath command-
ed all images which have stood in churches and chapels,
to be abolished and defaced, lest hereafter at any time
they should give occasion of idolatry, or be abused, as
many of them heretofore have been, with pilgrimages,
and sxich idolatrous worshipping.
' ""'II. That, by the same authority of parliament, all
mass- ooks, and other books of the service in Latin,
heretofore used, should be abolished and defaced, as well
for certain superstitions contained in them, as also to
avoid dissension : And that the said service in the church
should be through the whole realm in one uniform con-
formity, and no occasion through those old books to
the contrary.
" XIII. That bishops, piiests, and deacons, have no
comniaiuhnent of the law of God, either to vow chastity,
or to abstain continually from marriage.
" XIV. That all canons, constitutions, laws positive,
and ordinances of man, which prohibit or forbid mar-
riage to any bishop, priest, or deacon, be justly, and
upon godly grounds and considerations taken away and
abolished by authority of parliament.
" XV. The homilies lately commanded and set forth
by the king's majesty, to be read in the congregation of
England, are godly and wholesome, and do teach such
doctrine as ought to be embraced of all men.
" XVI. The book set forth by the king's majesty, by
authority of parliament, containing the form and manner
of making and consecrating of archbishops, bishops,
priests, and deacons, is godly, and in no point contrary
to the wholesome doctrine of the gospel, and therefore
ought to be received and approved of by all the faithful
members of the church of England, and especially the
ministers of God's word, and by them commended to
the people.
" XVII. That the orders of sub-deacon, Benet and
Colet, and such others as were commonly called minores
ordines, are not necessary by the word of God to be
reckoned in the church, and are justly left out in the said
book of orders.
" XVIII. That the holy scriptures contain sufficiently
all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ, and that nothing is to be
taught as required of necessiry to eternal salvation, but
that which may be concluded and proved by the holy
scriptures.
" XIX. That upon good and godly considerations it
was and is commanded by the king's majesty's injunc-
tions, that the parajihrases of Erasmus in English,
should be set up in some convenient place in every
parish church of this realm, that the parishioners may
most commodiously resort to read the same.
" XX. And because these articles aforesaid, do contain
only such matters as are already published, and openly
set forth by the king's majesty's authority, by the advice
of his highness' council, for many great and godly con- .
derations; and amongst others, for the common tranquiJ
lity and unity of the realm : his majesty's pleasure, bv th'i
advice aforesaid, is, that you the bishop of Winchester,
shall not only affirm these articles with subscription of
your hand, but also declare and profess yourself well
contented, willing, and ready, to publish and preach the
same at such times and places, and before such audience,
as to his majesty from time to time shall seem conve-
nient and requisite, upon pain of incurring such penal-
ties and punishments as for not doing the same, may by
his majesty's laws be inflicted upon you.
" These articles were sent to him on the fifteenth of July.
The bishop of Winchester receiving and perusing these
articles, made this answer again : — That first touching
the article of submission, he would in no wise consent,
affirming, as he had done before, that he had never
offended the king's majesty in any such sort as should
give him cause thus to submit 'himself; praying ear-
nestly to be brought to his trial, wherein he refused the
king's mercy, and desired nothing but justice. And for
the rest of the articles, he answered, that after he was
jiast his trial on the first point, and was at liberty, then
it should appear what he would do ; if not being rea-
sonable, as he said, that he should subscribe them in
prison.
Of this answer, when the king and his council ha'!
intelligence, it was agreed that he sliould be sent for 'if-
fore the whole council, and peremptorily required '■•
subscribe the articles which had been sent to him : :
this he refused to do. Upon tliis the fruits of his b:-
THE TROUBLES OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.
[Book IX.
'lopric were sequestered, and he was required to con-
■nn himself to their orders, withia three months, upon
liii of de])rivat!On.
After this sequestration, the bishop was brought to
'.ambeth before tlie king's commissioners, namely, the
•-chbishop of Canterburj^ ; Nicholas bishop of London,
'homas bishop of Ely, Henry bishop of Lincoln ; Se-
■ i-etary Petre, judge ; Sir James Hales, knight; Dr. Ley-
m. Dr. Oliver, Lawyers ; and John Gosnold, esquire,
;c., to be examined by them on nineteen articles which
..•ere objected against him, charging him with direct
disobedience to the royal injunctions.
After the articles were exhibited to him, and he had
leave to answer, he used all the wary shifts and remedies
of the law, by way of protesting, recusing, and excepting
against the commission, and requiring also the copies
both of the articles and of his protestation, of the ac-
tuaries ; yea, he so cavilled and dallied from day to day
to answer directly, that at last he ai)pealed from them,
reputing them not to be competent and impartial judges
to hear and determine his cause, to the king's royal per-
son ; and in the end the commissioners proceeded to the
sentence definitive against him, deposing him from
all the rights and emoluments of the see of Win-
chester.
This sentence being given, the bishop of Winchester
excepted against it as unjust, and of no effect in law, and
then and there, immediately after the pronouncing of the
sentence, by word of mouth, appealed to the king's
royal majesty.
And here we leave Winchester for a while, till we
come to treat of his death hereafter. Whom as we num-
ber amongst good lawyers, so is he to be reckoned
among ignorant and bad divines, proud prelates, and
bloody persecutors, as both by his cruel life and phari-
saical doctrine may appear.
The Tragical History of the worthif Lord Edward
Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector.
After having recorded so many troublous matters, we
come now to the lamentable and tragical history of the
lord Edward, duke of Somerset, the king's uncle, and
protector of his person, and of his realm ; and purpose to
relate in order the origin and whole occasion, even from
■;he beginning.
King Edward, after both his father and mother were
u 'al, had three uncles by his mother's side, Edward,
Tuomas, and Henry Seymour ; of the two first, one was
made protector of the realm and the other high admiral.
These two others so long as they were joined together in
amity and concord, preserved both themselves, the
king their nephew, and the whole commonwealth, from
the violence and fear of all danger. But the subtle old
serpent always envying man's felicity, through slanderous
tongues, sought to sow discord between them ; then
suspicion ; and last of all extreme hatred ; so that the
protector suffered his brother to be condemned, and to
lose his head. By which it came to pass by God's judg-
ment upon him, or because he, after the death of his
brother and the king, (being yet but young and tender of
age, was the less able to shift for himself) that not long
after, he was overthrown by his enemies, and imprisoned
in the Tower, and at last lost his head also, to the great
lamentation of many good men.
For the better introduction of this history, we will
begin with the brother of the lord ])rotector. Sir Thomas
Seymour, high admiral of England, who had married
ciueen Catharine, late wife to king Henry VIIL Now
ic happened (upon what occasion I know not) that a dif-
ference took place between the queen and the duchess
1)1 Somerset, and then also in behalf of their wives, dis-
()leasure began between the brothers. Which although
through the persuasion of friends it was for a time ap-
p.-ased, yet in a short period after it broke out again,
both to the trouble of the realm, and especially to the
i-.onfusion of themselves. First, it was laid to the lord
:;dmirars charge, that he ptirposed to destroy the young
khig, and to transfer the crown to himself, and being at-
tainted and condemned, he suffered at Tower-hill on the
twentieth of March, 1549. As there were many who
reported that the duchess of Somerset had wrought his
death, so there were many who thought and affirmed
that the fall of one brother would be the ruin of the
other.
It was not long after the beheading of the lord ad-
miral, that insurrections began in divers quarters of the
realm. By occasion of which, the lord Russel, loft
privy seal, was sent to the West parts, and the lord
Dudley, earl of Warwick, was sent with an army into
Norfolk ; where both he and a great number of gentle-
men that were with him, meeting with the rebels, were
in great danger : notwithstanding, in the end the rebels
were overthrown, which was about the beginning of Sep-
tember, 1549. After this victory, in the month follow-
ing, at the return of the earl of Warwick, there was
great working and consultation among the lords, who
assembled themselves in the house of Mr. York, and at
Baynard's Castle, and in the lord mayor's house at Lon-
don, against the lord protector, who then remained with
the king at Hampton Court. Of which business and trou-
ble thus the lord protector writes in his letters to the lord
Russel in the West country.
A Letter of the Lord Protector, to the Lord Russel,
Lord Privy Seal, concerning troubles working against
him.
"After our right hearty commendations to your good
lordship, here hath of late risen such a conspiracy
against the king's majesty and us, as never hath been
seen, the which they cannot maintain but with such
vain letters and false tales surmised, as was never meant
nor intended of us. They pretend and say, that we
have sold Boulogne to the French, and that we withhold
wages from the soldiers, and such other tales and letters
they spread abroad (of which, if any one thing be true,
we would not wish to live) ; the matter now being brought
to a marvellous extremity, such as we would never
have thought it could have come unto, especially ol
those men towards the king's majesty and us, of whom
we have deserved no such thing, but rather much favour
and love. But the case being as it is, this is to require
and pray you to hasten hither to the defence of the king's
majesty, with such force and power as you may, to shew
the part of a true gentleman, and of a sincere friend :
which thing we trust God shall reward, and the king's
majesty in time to come, and we shall never be unmind-
ful of it too. We are sure you shall have other letters
from them ; but as you tender your duty to the king's
majesty, we require you to make no stay, but immedi-
ately repair with such force as you have to his highness's
Castle of Windsor, and cause the rest of such force as
you may command to follow you. And so we bid you
right heartily farewell.
" From Hampton Court, the sixth of October.
" Your Lordship's assured loving friend,
"Edv.'ard Somerset."
To this letter of the lord protector, sent the (ith of
October, the lord Russel returning answer upon the 8t!i,
first laments the heavy dissension between the nobility
and him, which he takes for such a plague, as a greater
could not be sent by Almighty God upon this realm,
being the next way, saith he, "to make us conquerors,
slaves, and like to induce upon the whole realm an uni-
versal calamity and thraldom, unless the merciful good-
ness of the Lord help, and some wise order be taken in
staying these great extremities." And as to the duke's
request in his letters, forasmuch as he heard before of
this broil of the lords, and fearing lest some conspiracy
liad been meant against the king's person, he hastened
forward with such force as he could command for the
safety of the king.
But to return to the matter of the lords, who, toge-
ther with the earl of Warwick, were assembled at Lon-
don against the lord protector ; when the king with his
council at Hampton Court heard of this, secretary Petre,
with the king's message, was sent to them ; but the lords
detained him with them, making no answer to the mes-
A.D. 1547—1553.]
TROUBLES OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.
€C,^
sao-e. Then the lord protector wrote to them as
follows :
" My lords, we commend us most heartily unto you ;
and whereas the king's majesty was informed that you
were assembled in such sort as you do now also remain,
and was advised by us and such other of his council as
were then here about his person, to send Master Se-
cretary Petre unto you, with such message as thereby
mi"-ht have ensued the surety of his majesty's person,
with preservation of his realm and subjects, and the
quiet both of us and yourselves, as Master Secretary can
well declare to you : his majesty and we of his council
here do not a little marvel that you detain with you the
said Master Secretary, and have not vouchsafed to send
answer to his majesty, neither by him nor any other.
And for ourselves, we do much more marvel and are
right sorr)', as both we and you have good cause to be,
to see the manner of your doings bent with violence, to
bring the king's majesty and us to these extremities.
Now we do intend, if you will take no other way but
violence, to defend as nature and our allegiance doth
bind us, to extremity of death, and to put all into God's
hand, who giveth victory as it pleaseth him : so that if
any reasonable conditions and offers would take place
(as hitherto none have been signified unto us from you,
nor do we understand what you do require or seek, or
what you do mean), and that you do seek no hurt to the
king's majesty's person ; as touching all other private
matters, to avoid the effusion of christian blood, and to
preserve the king's majesty's person, his realm, and his
subjects ; you shall find us agreeable to any reasonable
condition that you will require. For we do esteem the
king's safety and the tranquillity of the realm more than all
other worldly things ; yea, more than our own life. Thus
praying you to send your determinate answer herein by
Master Secretary Petre, or if you will not let him go, by this
bearer. We beseech God to give both you and us grace
to determine this matter, as may be to God's honour,
the preservation of the king, and the quiet of us all,
which may be, if the fault be not in you. And so we
bid you most heartily farewell.
From the king's majesty's Castle of Windsor, the
seventh of October, 1549."
After these letters received, and the reasonable con-
dition of the lord protector, — yet not much regarded of
the lords, — they, persisting still in their purpose, took
this advice ; first to keep themselves in the city of Lon-
don, as strong as they might ; and therefore calling upon
the mayor and aldermen, they commanded them in any
case to provide a good and substantial watch by night,
and a good ward by day, for the safeguard of their city,
and the ports and gates ; which was consented unto, and
the companies of London in their turn kept watch and
ward accordingly.
Then these lords and councillors demanded of the
lord mayor and his brethren five hundred men to aid
them to fetch the lord protector out of Windsor from
the king : but the mayor answered, that he could grant
no aid without the assent of the common council of the
city. So the nest day a common council was warned. But
in the meantime the lords of the council assembled
themselves at the lord mayor's house, who then was Sir
Henry Amcottes, fishmonger ; and William Lock, mer-
cer, and Sir John Aileph, were sheriffs ; and there the
council did agree and publish a proclamation against the
lord protector, charging him as follows :
First, that the lord protector, by his malicious and
evil government, was the occasion of all the sedition that
of late happened within the realm.
2. The loss of the king's pieces in France.
3. That he was ambitious and sought his own glory,
as appears by building of most sumptuous and costly
houses in the time of the king's wars.
4. That he esteemed not the grave counsel of the coun-
cillors.
5. That he sowed division between the nobles, the
gentlemen, and commons.
6. That the nobles have assembled themselves to-
gether at London for no other purpose but to cause the-
protector to live within limits, and to take such order
for the surety of the king's majesty as was fit, whatever
the protector's doings might be ; which they said were
unnatural, ungrateful, and traitorous.
7. Tliat the protector slandered the council to the
king, and did what in him lay, to cause variance between
the king and the nobles.
8. That he was a great traitor, and therefore the lords
desired the city and commons to aid them, to take him
from the king.
And in witness and testimony of the contents of the
proclamation, the lords subscribed their names.
After the proclamation, the lords, or the most part of
them, continuing in London, came the next day to the
Guildhall, during the time that the Lord Mayor and his
brethren sat in their court or inner chamber, and com-
muned a long while with the mayor : and at last the
mayor and his brethren came forth to the common coun-
cil, where was read the king's letter sent to the mayor
and citizens, commanding them to aid him with a thou-
sand well appointed men out of their city, and to send
them with all speed to his castle at Windsor.
This letter was directed to Sir Henry Amcottes,
knight, lord mayor, to Sir Rowland Hill, knight, mayor
elect, and to the aldermen and common council of the
city of London. The day and date of the letter was the
sixth of October, in the third year of his reign, being
signed with the hand of the king, and of the lord
protector.
This letter of the king and of the lord protector was
not so secretly devised, nor so speedily sent, but the
lords still remaining in London had knowledge imme-
diately of it (by the means, as some suppose, of the lord
Paget, who was then with the king and the protec-
tor), being there ready furnished with their own bands
of serving-men, and other soldiers and men-at-arms.
The lords fortliwith addressed their letters to the said
lord mayor and aldermen also, in the king's name, not
only for a support of armed men to serve their pur-
poses, and for a sufficient watch to fortify their city,
but also that they should not obey any such letters, pro-
clamations, or injunctions sent to them from the duke.
These letters of the lords came to the lord mayor and
his brethren, the sixth day of the month of October.
After the receipt of these two letters, the one from
the king, the other from the lords, which came both at
one time, with contrary commandment to the lord
mayor and citizens of London, they were perplexed
what measures to take. On one side the name and
authority of the king was much ; on the other side the
power of the lords, lying then in London, was not little,
and seemed then to be such as would have no refusal.
The case thus standing in doubt, the recorder re-
quested, that the citizens would grant their aid rather
to the lords, for that the protector had abused both the
king's majesty and the whole realm, and that unless he
were taken from the king, and made to understand his
folly, this realm was in great hazard ; he therefore re-
quired that the citizens would assent to aid the lords
with five hundred men.
By a great part in the common council no other an-
swer was made but silence. But the recorder (who at
that time was Mr. Brook) still looked to them for an
answer. At last stepped up a wise and good citizen,
named George Stadlow, and said -. —
" In this case it is good for us to think of things past,
to avoid the danger of things to come. I remember,"
said he, " in a story written in Fabian's Chronicle, of
the war between the king and his barons, which was in
the time of King Henry III., and then the barons (as
our lords do now) demanded aid of the mayor and city
of London, and that in a rightful cause for the common-
wealth, which was for the execution of divers good laws
against the king, who would not suffer those laws to be
put in execution ; and the city did aid them, and it
came to an open battle, and the lords prevailed against
the king, and took tlie king and his son prisoners, and
upon certain conditions the lords restored the king and
his son again to their liberties ; and among aU other
conditions this was one, that the king should not only
^
TROUBLES OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.
[Book IX.
grant his pardon to the lords, but also to the citizens of
London ; which was granted, yea, and the same was
ratified by act of parliament. But what followed ? Was
it forgotten ? No surely, nor forgiven neither, during
the king's life. The liberties of the city were taken
away, strangers appointed to be our heads and governors,
the citizens given away, body and goods, and with one
persecution or another were most miserably afflicted.
Such a thing is it to enter into the wrath of a prince, as
Solomon saith, ' The wrath and indignation of a prince
is death.' Wherefore, as this aid is required of the
king's majesty, whose voice we ought to hearken to
rfor he is our high shepherd) rather than to the lords,
and vet I would not wish tlie lords to be clearly shaken
off; my counsel is, that they with us, and we with them
may join in suit, and make our most humble petition to
the king's majesty, that it would please his highness to
hear such complaint against the government of the lord
protector, as may be justly alleged and proved, and I
doubt not but this matter will be so pacified, that neither
shall the king nor yet the lords have cause to seek for
further aid, nor we to offend either of them."
After this the commons stayed, and the lord mayor
and his brethren for that time brake up, till they had
further communed with the lords. The conclusion was,
that the lords (upon what occasion I know not) sac the
next day in council in the star-chamber, and from thence
sent Sir Philip Hobby with the letter of credence to
the king's majesty, beseeching and requesting his ma-
jesty to give credit to that which Sir Philip should de-
clare to his majesty in their names ; and the king gave
him liberty to speak, and most gently heard all that he
had to say. Who so handled the matter, declaring his
message in the name of the lords, that in the end the
lord protector was commanded from the king's pre-
sence, and shortly was committed to ward in a tower
within the castle of Windsor ; and soon after were ar-
rested Sir Thomas Smith, Mr. Whalley, Mr. Fisher, and
many other gentlemen that attended upon the lord
protector. The same day the lords of the council re-
sorted to the king, and the next day they brought from
thence the lord protector, and the others that were there
arrested, and conveyed them through the city of Lon-
don to the Tower, and there left them.
And thus much concerning the first trouble of the
lord protector duke of Somerset. Though his enemies
seemed to intend no less than the spilling of his blood,
yet the Lord above, the only Disposer of all men's pur-
poses, so ordered the matter by means of the interces-
sion of the king, that the proclamation which had made
him a traitor, within three days after was called in
again ; and the duke was restored to liberty, which
lasted two years and two days.
After which time, the duke of Somerset was again
apprehended and committed to the Tower, and with him
also Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Myles
Partridge, and others. At length the time of his ar-
raignment being come, the duke being brought from the
Tower, was conveyed through London with the axe of
the Tower before him, and with great preparation of
bills, halberds, pikes, &c. A watch also was set and
appointed before every man's door through the High
street of London, and thus he was brought into West-
minster-hall, where the lords of the council sitting as
his judges in the middle of the hall, he was arraigned
and charged both with treason and felony.
I pass over the unseemly speeches, the vile taunts,
and despiteful rebukes used by certain of the sergeants
and justices, and some others sitting there ; all which
he patiently and quietly suffered, and like a lamb, fol-
lowing the true Lamb and example of all meekness, was
contented to take all things at their hands ; and with
DO less patience to bear now their ungentle and cruel
railings, than he did before their fulsome words and
flatterings in time of his high estate and prosperity.
And as the patience of this good duke was marvellous
towards his enemies, so also was his discretion and tem-
perance no less displaved in answering the articles ob-
jected to him; to these he replied, putting himself in
the end to be tried by his peers. "Who then framed
their verdict thus: "That as concerning treason,,
wherewith he was charged, they discharged him, but
they accounted him guilty of felony." When the
people (who were present in great numbers) heard the
lords say, " Not guilty," (meaning of the treason)
supposing that he had been entirely acquitted by these
words, and especially seeing the axe of the Tower car-
ried away, for great joy and gladness made an outcry,
declaring their loving affection and hearty favour to the
duke, whose life they greatly desired. But the people
were deceived, and the innocent duke condemned to die
for felony. Which act of felony had been made a little
before against the rebels and unlawful assemblies, such
as should seek or procure the death of any counsellor,
so that every such attempt and procurement, according
to the act, should be adjudged felony. By virtue of
which act the duke being accused, with others, to intend
and purpose the death of the duke of Northumberland,
and of others beside, was condemned of felony, and sent
back to the Tower.
At whose passage through the city great exclamations
and outcries were made by the people, some rejoicing
that he was acquitted, some bewailing that he was
condemned.
He continued in the Tower till the twenty-second of
January ; upon which day, at the coming down of the
letter of execution from the king and the council, the
duke and uncle to the king being found no traitor, only
being cast by the act of felony, was delivered unto the
sheriffs, and so brought to the place of execution.
The order and manner of the execution have been re-
lated to us by a certain noble personage, who was there
present, and near to him on the scaffold, beholding all '
things with his eyes, and with his pen also reporting 1
them : j
" On the twenty-second of January. 15.52, in the
sixth year of Edward VI., the noble duke of Somerset,
uncle to king Edward, was brought out of the Tower of
London, and delivered to the sheriffs of the city ; and, ,
surrounded by a great number of armed men both of the
guard and others, he was brought to the scaffold on
Tower-hill, where he nothing changing either voice or
countenance, as calmly as if at home, kneeling down, and
lifting up his hands, commended himself to God.
" After he had ended a few short prayers, standing
up again, and turning himself toward the east side of the
scaffold, not at all abashed, neither with the sight of the
axe, nor yet of the executioner, nor of present death ; but
with alacrity and cheerfulness of mind and countenance
as before times he was accustomed to hear the causes
and supplication of others, and especially the poor
(towards whom, as it were with a certain fatherly love
to his children, he always shewed himself most attentive)
he uttered these words to the people :
" ' Dearly beloved friends, I am brought hither to
suffer death, although I never offended against the king
either by word or deed, and have been always as faith-
ful and true to this realm as any man has been. But
forasmuch as I am by a law condemned to die, 1 do ac-
knowledge myself, as well as others, to be subject there-
to. Wherefore, to testify my obedience, which I owe to
the laws, I am come hither to suffer death ; whereto I
willingly offer myself, with most hearty thanks to God,
that has given me this time of repentance, who might,
through sudden death, have taken away my life, that
neither I should have acknowledged him nor myself.
" ' Moreover, dearly beloved friends, there is yet
somewhat that I must put you in mind of, as touching the
christian religion ; which, so long as I was in authority,
I always diligently set forth and furthered to my power.
Neither do I re))cnt me of my doings, but rejoice there-,
in, since now the state of the christian religion comes
much nearer to the form and order of the primitive church.
Which thing I esteem as a great benefit given of God
both to you and me ; most heartily exhorting you all,
that this which is most purely set forth to you, you will
with like thankfulness accept and embrace, and set out
(^^(utioii of \\t §\\k of Somerset.
Pni'e (i(U.
A- D. 1547—155.3.]
EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET
665
the same in your living. Wliich thing, if you do not,
without doubt greater mischief and calamity will follow.'
" When he had spoken these words, suddenly tliere
was a terrible noise; and there came a great fear upon all
men. This noise was as if it had been the noise of some
great storm ; as if a great deal of gunpowder enclosed in
a magHzine had exploded. To some again it seemed as if
it had been a great multitude of horsemen running to-
gether, or coming upon them. So great was the noise
in the ears of all men, although they saw nothing, that
all the people being amazed without any evident cause,
or any man seen, ran away, some into the ditches and
puddles, and some into the houses ; others being afraid
of the horror and noise, fell down grovelling to the
ground, with their pole-axes and halberds ; and most of
them cried out, ' Jesus save us, Jesus save us 1 ' Those
who stood stiU knew not where they were ; and I myself
who was there present among the rest, being also afraid
in this confusion, stood still altogether amazed, expect-
ing that some one would knock me on the head.
" In the mean time, the people by chance spied Sir
Anthony Brown riding under the scaffold ; which was
the occasion of a new noise ; for when they saw him
coming, they conjectured that which was not true, but
notwithstanding which they all wished for, — that the
king, by that messenger, had sent his imcle pardon ;
and therefore with great rejoicing and casting up their
caps they cried out, ' Pardon, pardon is come ; God
save the king ! ' Thus this good duke, although he was
destitute of man's help, yet he saw, before his departure,
in how great love and favour he was with all men. And
truly I do not think that in so many deaths of dukes as
have been in England within these few years, there were
so many weeping eyes at one time ; and not without
cause. For all men saw in the fall of this duke the
public ruin of England.
" But now to return. The duke standing still in the
same place, modestly, and with a grave countenance,
made a sign to the people with his hand, that they would
Keep themselves quiet. Which being done, and silence
obtained, he spake to them in this manner.
" ' Dearly beloved friends, there is no such matter
here in hand as you vainly hope or believe. It seems
thus good to Almighty God, whose ordinance it is meet
and necessary that we all be obedient toe Wherefore I
pray you all to be quiet, and to be contented with my
death, which I am most willing to suffer ; and let us
now join in prayer to the Lord for the preservation of
the king's majesty, to whom hitherto I have always
shewed myself a most faithful and true subject. I have
alvzays been most diligent about his majesty in his af-
fairs both at home and abroad, and no less diligent in
seeking the common commodity of the whole realm ! '
At which words all the people cried out and said, ' It is
most true ! '
" Then the duke proceeding, said, ' To whose majesty
i wish continual health, with all felicity and all prosper-
ous success.'
The people again cried out, ' Amen ! '
" ' Moreover, I do wish to all his councillors the
grace and favour of God, whereby they may rule in all
things uprightly with justice. To whom I exhort you
all in the Lord to shew yourselves obedient, as it is your
bounden duty, under the pain of condemnation, and also
most profitable for the preservation and safeguard of the
king's majesty.
" ' Moreover, forasmuch as heretofore I have had
oftentimes affairs with divers men, and it is hard to
jilease every man, therefore if there be any that has
been offended and injured by me, I most humbly require
and ask him forgiveness, but especially Almighty God,
whom throughout all my life I have most grievously of-
fended ; and all others, whatever they be, that have of-
fended me, I do with my whole heart forgive them.
Now I once again require you, dearly beloved in the
Lord, that you will keep yourselves quiet and still, lest
through your tumult you might trouble me. For al-
though the spirit be willing and ready, the flesh is frail
and wavering, and through your quietness I shall be
much more quiet. Moreover, I desire you all to bear
me vritness that I die here In the faith of Jesus Christ ,
desiring you to help me with your prayers, that I may
persevere constant in the same to my life's end.'
" After this he, turning himself again about like a
meek lam'o, kneeled down upon his knees. Then Doctor
Cox, who was there present to counsel and advise him,
delivered a scroll into his hand, wherein was contained a
brief confession to God. Which being read, he stood
up again upon his feet, without any trouble of mind (as
it appeared) and first bade the sheriffs farewell; then the
lieutenant of the Tower, and others, taking them all by
the hands who were upon the scaffold with liini. Tlien
he gave the hangman certain money. Which done, he
put off his gown, and kneeling down again in the straw,
untied his shirt -strings. After that, the hangman
coming to him, turned down his collar round about his
neck, and all other things which hindered him. Then
lifting up his eyes to heaven, where only is hope, and
covering his face with his own handkerchief, he laid
himself down, shewing no token of trouble or fear,
neither did his countenance change ; but before his eves
were covered there began to appear a red colour in the
midst of his cheeks.
" Thus this most meek and gentle duke lying along,
and looking for the stroke, because his doublet covered
his neck, he was commanded to rise up and put it off;
and then laying himself down again upon the block, and
calling thrice upon the name of Jesus, saying, ' Lord
Jesus save me ! ' as he was the third time repeating the
same, even as the name of Jesus was in uttering, in a
moment he was bereft both of head and life, and slept in
the Lord Jesus, being taken away from all dangers and
evils of this life, and resting now in the peace of God ;
in the promotion of whose truth and gospel he always
shewed himself an excellent instrument and member,
and therefore has received the reward of his labours."
As to the manners, disposition, life, and conversation
of the duke, what shall we need to say, when he can-
not be sufficiently commended according to the dignity
of his virtues ? There was always in him great huma-
nity, and such meekness and gentleness, as is rare to be
found in so high estate. He was prone and ready to
give ear to the complaints and supplications of the poor,
and no less attentive to the affairs of the common-
wealth ; and if he, together with King Edward, had lived,
they were like to have done much good in reforming many
disorders within this realm. He was utterh' ignorant of
all craft and deceit, and as far void of all pride and am-
bition, as he was from doing of injury. He was of a
gentle disposition, not coveting to be revenged ; more
apt and ready to be deceived, than to deceive. He ever
showed his nobility along with love and zeal for the
gospel and for religion. The proof of which was suffi-
ciently seen in his constant standing to God's truth, and
zealous defence of it, against tlie bishops of Chichester,
Norwich, Lincoln, London, and others, in the consulta-
tion at Windsor, in the first year of the king's reign.
But as there is nothing in this world so perfect in all
respects, which is not blotted or darkened with some
spot of vice ; so among the manifold commendations of
this duke, there was one thing which both stained his
honour and estimation much, and also more endangered
his own life ; which was, that he, in consenting to the
death of his brother, followed too rashly the persuasion
of others, and weakened his own power, and also pro-
voked the chastisement of God's scourge.
Before we conclude the history of this good king, this
place seems not unfit to mention a few other things con-
cerning the church and religion. Religion began to
grow well, and to come happily forward during this
king's days, had not the unhappy troubles of the state,
owing to the lords not agreeing among themselves, dis-
quieted the good prospect. But the malice of the devil,
how subtlely it works ! So long as the lords agreed
among themselves, Winchester and Bonner, with all
that faction, were cut short, and began to yield to con-
formity. But afterwards perceiving the nobles to be
divided, the lord protector displaced, his brother the ad-
666
DISPUTATION AT CAMBRIDGE ABOUT THE SACRAMENT.
[Book CL
miral beheaded, and the young king now left to himself,
they began to take more heart. And thus, though
nothing else will lead us, yet experience may teach us
what discord works in public weals ; and contrariiy,
what a necessary thing concord is to the advancement
especially of God's matters appertaining to his church.
For. as to the success of the gospel of peace, wLile
public peace and the gospel joined together, it wds won-
derful how error and popery were confounded, and
ashamed to shew their faces. So that both Dr. Smith,
Chadsey, Stamlish, Young, Oglelhorpe, with many
others, recanted their former ignorance. Bonner, with
his own hand, subscribed to the king's supremacy, and
promoted his injunctions. The same also did Stephen
Gardiner, subscribing with his own hand the lirst book
of the king's proceedings, and uo doubt had done the
same to the second book also, had not the unfortunate
discord fallen among the nobles in so unfortunate a time.
I shewed before, how in these peaceable days
Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, Paul Phagius, with other
learned men, were entertained and provided for in the
two universities of this realm, Oxford and Cambridge ;
and how they there, with their diligent industry, did
much good. The learned and fruitful disputations of
whom I have likewise present in my hands here to insert,
but that the largeness of this volume compels me to make
short, especially seeing the length of their disputations.
First, Peter Martyr, being called by the king to the
public reading of the divinity lecture in Oxford, amongst
his other learned exercises set up in the public schools
three conclusions of divinity to be disputed and tried by
argument. At which disputations were present the
king's visitors, to wit, Henry, bishop of Lincoln; Doctor
Cox, chancellor of that university ; Dr. Hains, dean of
Exeter ; Richard Morison, Esq. ; and Christopher Ne-
vinson, doctor of civil law. The conclusions propounded
were these : —
"1. In the sacrament of thanksgiving there is no
transubstautiation of bread and wine into the body and
blood of Christ.
"2. The body and blood of Christ is not carnally or
corporally in the bread and wine ; nor, as others use to
say, under the kinds of bread and wine.
" 3. The body and blood of Christ be united to bread
and wine sacramentally."
They wlio were the chief disputers against him on the
contrary side, were Doctor Tresham, Doctor Chadsey,
and Morgan.
The like disputation also about the same time was
appointed and commenced at Cambridge, concerning the
matter of the sacrament, the king's visitors being directed
down for the same purpose by the king. The names of
which visitors were these, Nicholas Ridley, bishop of
Rochester ; Thomas, bishop of Ely ; Master John Cheek,
the king's schoolmaster ; Doctor May, civilian ; and
Thomas Wendy, the king's physician. The conclusions
in that disputation propounded were these : —
Transubstantiation cannot be proved by the plain and
manifest words of scripture, nor can thereof be neces-
sarily collected, nor yet confirmed by the consents of
the ancient fathers for these thousand years past.
Tliis disputation continued tliree days. In the first.
Dr. Madew answered ; against whom disputed Dr. Glin,
Mr. Langdale, Mr. Segewick, Mr. Young. In the
second disputation Dr. Glin answered ; against whom
disputed Mr. Grindal, Mr. Perne, Mr. Gest, Mr. Pil-
kington. In tlie third disputation Mr. Perne answered ;
against whom disputed one Mr. Parker (not Dr. Mat-
thew Parker), Mr. Pollard, Mr. Vavisor, Mr. Young.
At length, the disputations being ended, the bishop of
Rochester, Dr. Nicholas Ridley, after the manner of
the schools, made the following determination upon the
conclusions : —
There has been an ancient custom among you, that
after disputations in your schools there should be some
determination made of the matters so disputed and de-
bated, especially touching the Christian religion. It has
seemed good to these worshipful assistants joined with
me in commission from the king's majesty, that I should
perform the same at this time ; I will by your favourable
patience declare, both what 1 think and believe myself,
and what also others ought to think of the same. Which
I wish that afterwards ye would with diligence weigh
and ponder, every man at home.
The principal grounds or rather head-springs of this
matter are specially five : —
The first is the authority, majesty, and truth of holy
scripture.
The second is the most certain testimonies of the an-
cient catholic fathers, who after my judgment do suffi-
ciently declare this matter.
The tliird is the definition of a sacrament.
The fourth is the abominable heresy of Eutiches, that
may follow out of transubstantiation.
The fifth is the most sure belief of the article of our
faith, " he ascended into heaven."
I. This transubstantiation is clearly against the words
of the scriptures, and consent of the ancient catholic
fathers. The scripture saith, " I will not drink here-
after of this fruit of the vine," &c. Now the fruit of
this vine is wine ; and it is manifest that Christ spake
these words after the supper was finished, as it appears
both in Matthew, Mark, and also in Luke, if they be
well understood. There are not many places of scrip-
ture that confirm this, neither is it very material : for it
it is enough if there is any one plain testimony for it.
Neither ought it to be measured by the number of scrip-
tures, but by the authority, and by the truth of the
scriptures. And the majesty of this truth is as ample in
one short sentence of the scripture as in a thousand.
Christ took bread, he gave bread. In the Acts-, St.
Luke calls it bread. So St. Paul calls it bread after the
sanctificatiou. Both of them speak of breaking, which
belongs to the substance of bread, and in no wise to
Christ's body, for the scripture says, " A bone of him
shall not be broken." Christ says, "Do ye this in
remembrance of me." St. Paul also says, " Do ye this
in remembrance of me." And again, " As often as ye
shall drink of this cup, do it in remembrance of me." And
our Saviour Christ, in the sixth of St. John, speaking
against the Capernaums, saith, " Labour not for the
meat which perisheth." And when they asked, " What
shall we do that we might work the works of God ?" He
answered them thus, " This is the work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath sent." You see how he
exhorts them to faith, " For faith is that work of God."
Again, "This is the bread which came down from
heaven." But Christ's body came not down from heaven.
Moreover, " He that eateth my flesh, and drinktth my
blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. My flesh," saith
he, " is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."
When they heard this they were offended ; and whilst
they were ofl'ended, he said to them, " What and if ye
shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ?"
Whereby he went about to draw them from the gross
and carnal eating. This body, saith he, shall ascend
up into heaven, meaning altogether, as St. Augustine
saith, " It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh pro-
fiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit and they are life," and must be spiritually
understood. These are the reasons which persuade me
to incline to this sentence and judgment.
II. Now my second ground against this transubstan-
tiation are the ancient fathers a thousand years past.
And so far are they from confirming transubstantiation,
that they seem plainly to me to think and speak the
contrary.
Dionysius in many places calls it " bread." The places
are so manifest and plain, that I need not recite them.
Ignatius to the Philadelphians says, " I beseech you,
brethren, cleave fast to one faith, and to one kind of
lireaching, using together one kind of preaching, using
together one kind of thanksgiving ; for the flesh of the
Lord Jesus is one, and his blood is one which was shed
for us: there is also one bread broken for us, and one
cup of the whole church."
Irenfeus writes thus, " Even as the bread that comes
of the earth receiving God's name is now no more com-
mon bread, but sacramental bread, consisting of two
.D. 1547—1553.] DISPUTATION AT CAMBRIDGE ABOUT THE SACRAMENT.
6G7
ahires, earthly and heavenly, even so our bodies re-
beiving the eucharist, are now no more corruptible, hav-
ing hope of the resurrection."
I Tertullian is very plain, for he calls it a figure of his
E)ody, &c.
Chrysostom writes to Caesarius the monk, although he
s not received by some, yet will I read the j)lace to im-
(press it more deeply in your minds, for it seems to shew
jplainly the substance of bread to remain. The words
^re these : — " Before the bread is sanctified, we name it
jbread : but by the grace of God sanctifying the same,
jthrougli the ministry of the priest, it is delivered from
'the name of bread, and is counted worthy to bear the
iname of the Lord's body, although the very substance of
bread notwithstanding still i^mains therein, and now
lis taken not to be two bodies, but one body of the
!Son," &c.
I Cyprian saitli, " Bread is made of many grains. And
fs that natural bread, and made of wheat ? Yea, it is so
(indeed."
The book of Theodoret in Greek was lately printed at
Rome, which if it had not been his, it should not
have been set forth there, especially seeing it is directly
against transubstantiation ; for he saith plainly, that
bread still remaineth after the sanctification.
I Gelasius also is very plain in this manner, " The
sacrament,'' saith he, "which we receive of the body
md blood of Christ, is a divine matter ; by reason of
which we are made partakers by the same of the divine
[nature, and yet it ceases not still to be the substance of
bread and wine. And therefore the representation and
similitude of the body and blood of Christ are celebrated
iu the action of the mysteries," &c.
After this he recited certain places out of Augustine
md Cyril which were not noted.
Isichus also confesses that it is bread.
Also the judgment of Bertram in this matter is very
plain and manifest. And thus much for the second
[ground.
r III. The third ground is the nature of the sacrament,
which consists of three things, that is unity, nutrition,
and conversion.
As touching unity, Cyprian thus writes, " Even as of
many grains is made one bread, so are we one mystical
body of Christ." Wherefore bread must still needs re-
main, or else we destroy the nature of a sacrament.
, Also they that take away nutrition, which comes by
.'bread, take away likewise the nature of a sacrament. For
as the body of Christ nourishes the soul, even so does
bread likewise nourish the body of man.
Therefore they that take away the grains or the union
of the grains in the bread, and deny the nutrition or
substance of it, in my judgment are sacramentaries ;
for they take away the similitude between the bread and
the body of Christ. For they who affirm transubstan-
tiation are indeed sacramentaries and Capernaites.
As touching conversion, that as the bread which we
receive is turned into our substance, so are we turned
into Christ's body, Rabanus and Chrysostom are suffi-
cient witnesses.
IV. They who say that Christ is carnally present in
the euchai-ist, take from him the truth of man's nature.
Eutyches granted the divine nature in Christ, but his
human nature he denied. So they that defend transub-
stantiation ascribe that to the human nature which only
belongs to the divine nature.
V. The fifth ground is the certain persuasion of this
article of faith : " He ascended into heaven, and sitteth
at the right hand," &c.
Augustine says, " The Lord is above, even to the end
of the world ; but yet tlie truth of the Lord is here also.
For his body wherein he rose again must needs be in one
place, but his truth is spread abroad every where."
Also in another place, he saith, " Let the godly also
receive 'tliat sacrament, but let them not be anxious
(speaking there of the presence of his body.) For as to
his majesty, his providence, his invisible and unspeak-
able grace, these words are fulfilled which he spake, ' I
um with you unto the end of the world.' But according
to the flesh which he took upon him, according to that
which was born of the Virgin, was apprehended of the
Jews, was fastened to a tree, taken down again from the
cross, wrapped in linen clothes, was buried and arose
again, and apj)eared after his resurrection, so ' you shall
not have me always with you,' and why ? because as con-
cerning his flesh he was conversant with his disciples
forty days, and they accompanying him, seeing him, but
not following him ; he went up into heaven, and is not
here, for he sitteth at the right hand of his father, and
yet he is here, because he is not departed hence, as con-
cerning the presence of his Divine Majesty."
Mark and consider well what St. Augustine says:
" He is ascended into heaven, and is not here," says he.
Believe not them therefore who say that he is here still
on the earth.
Moreover, " Doubt not," saith the same Augustine ;
" but that Jesus Christ, as concerning the nature of his
manhood, is there from whence he shall come. And re-
member well and believe the profession of a christian
man, that he arose from death, ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the riglit hand of his Father, and from that
place and none other (not from the altars) shall he
come to judge the quick and the dead, and he shall come
as the angel said, as he was seen to go into heaven ;
that is to say, in the same form and substance, unto
which he gave immortality, but changed not his nature.
After this form (meaning his human nature) we may
think that it is every where.''
And in the same epistle, he says, " Take away from our
bodies limitation of places, and they shall be nowhere ;
and because they are nowhere, they shall not be at all."
Virgilius says, " If the word and the flesh be both of
one nature, seeing that the word is every where, why
then is not the flesh also every where ? For when it
was in earth, then verily it was not in heaven ; and now
when it is in heaven, it is not surely in earth. And it is
so certain, that it is not in earth, that as concerning the
same we look for him from heaven, whom, as concerning
the word, we believe to be with us on earth."
Also the same Virgilius says, " Which things seeing
they be so, the course of the scriptures must be searched
of us, and many testimonies must be gathered, to shew
plainly what a wickedness and sacrilege it is to refer
those things to the property of the divine nature,
which do only belong to the nature of the flesh ; and
contraryTvise, to apply those things to the nature of the
flesh, which do properly belong to the divine nature."
Which thing the transubstantiators do, whilst they affirm
Christ's body not to be contained in any one place, and
ascribe that to his humanity, which properly belongs to his
divinity, as they do who will have Christ's body to be
limited in no one certain place.
Now, in the latter conclusion concerning the sacrifice,
because it depends upon the first, I will in a few words
declare what I think. For if we did once agree in that,
the whole controversy in the other would soon be at an
end. Two things there are which persuade me that this
conclusion is true ; that is, certain places of the scrip-
tures, and also certain testimonies of the fathers. St.
Paul saith, (Hebrews ix. 11, 12.), "Christ being become
a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building ; neither by the blood of goats and
calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemptionforus," &c.
And "now once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
And again, " Christ W'as once offered to bear the
sins of many."
Moreover, he saith, " For by one ofl'ering he hath per-
fected for ever them that are sanctified."
These scriptures persuade me to believe that there is
no other oblation of Christ (although I am not ignorant
there are many sacrifices), but that which was once
made upon the cross.
The testimonies of the ancient fathers, which confirm
the same, are out of " Augustine ad Bonif." epistle 23.
Again in his Book of Forty-three Questions, in the
668
A DIALOGUE BETW^EEN CUSTOM AND TRUTH.
[Book IX*
Forty-first Question. Also in his Twentieth Book
against Faustus the Manichaean, cap. xxi. And in the
same book against Faustus, cap. xxviii. thus he
writes : " Now the christians keep a memorial of the
sacrifice past, with a holy oblation and participation of
the body and blood of Christ."
Fulgentius, in his Book " De Fide," calls the same
oblation a commemoration. And these things are suffi-
cient for tliis time for a scholastical determination of
these matters.
Disputations of Martin Bucer.
Beside these disputations, others were also held at
Cambridge shortly after, by Martin Bucer, upon these
conclusions following :
1. Tlie canonical books of holy scripture alone do
sufficiently teach the regenerated all things necessarily
belonging unto salvation.
2. Thei'e is no church in earth ■which errs not in
manners as well as in faith.
3. We are so justified freely of God, that before our
justification it is sin, and provokes God's wrath against
us whatever good work we seem to do. Then being
justified, we do good works.
In these three propositions against Bucer disputed
Mr. Sedgewick, Young, and Pern. Which disputa-
tions, because they are long, I mind to reserve them to
some other convenient place. In the meantime, because
great controversy has been, and is yet among the
learned, and much effusion of christian blood about the
words and meaning of the sacrament ; to the intent that
the truth of it may more openly be explained, and all
doubtful scruples discussed, it shall not be out of place
to adjoin a certain learned treatise in form of a dialogue,
as appertaining to the argument, compiled, as it seemed,
out of the writings of Peter Martyr, and other authors,
by a learned and reverend person of this realm, who,
under the persons of Custom and Truth, lays before our
eyes, and teaches all men not to measure religion by
custom, but to try custom by truth and the word of
God ; for else custom may soon deceive, but the word
of God abides for ever.
A Dialogue explaining the Words of Christ : " This is
my Bodg.''
Custom. — I marvel much what madness is creeping
into those men's hearts, who now a-days are not ashamed
so violently to tread down the lively word of God, yea,
and impudently to deny God himself.
Truth. — God forbid there should be any such. Indeed
I remember that the Romish bishop was wont to have
the Bible for his footstool, and so to tread down God's
word when he stood at his mass. But thanks be to
God he is now detected, and his abominations opened
and blown throughout all the world. And I hear of no
Others that oppress God's word.
Custom. — No more ? Yes, doubtless there are an
hundred thousand more, and it is your duty to withstand
them.
Truth. — As to my duty, you know it agrees not with
XLj nature to bear with falsehood. But what are they .'
Disclose them if you will have them reproved.
Custom — What ! are you so great a stranger in these
quarters ? Hear you not how men daily speak against
the sacrament of the altar, denying it to be the real
body of Christ ?
Truth. — In good sooth I have been a great while
abroad, and returned but lately into this country. So
you must pardon me if my answer be to seek in such
questions. But go on in your tale. You have been
longer here, and are better acquainted than I. What
say they more than this .'
Custom. — Than this .' Why what can they possibly
say more .'
Truth. — Yes, there are many things worse than this :
for this seems in some respects to be tolerable.
Custom. — What ! methinks you dally with me.
Seems it tolerable to deny the sacrament .'
Truth. — They do not deny it, so far as I can gather
by your words.
Custom. — Nay, then fare you well : I perceive you
will take their part.
Truth. — I am not partial, but indifferent to all parties :
for I never go further than the truth.
Custom. — I can scarcely believe you. But what is
more true than Christ, who is truth itself ? Or who
ever was so hardy before as to charge Christ with a lie
for saying these words, "This is my body?'' The
words are evident and plain : there is not in them
so much as one obscure or dark letter ; there is no cause
for any man to cavil. And yet, though CJirist himself
affirmed it to be his bodj, men now-a-days are not
abashed to say, " Christ lied, it is not his body." The
evangelists all agree, the old writers stand on our side,
the universal and catholic church has been in this mind
these fifteen hundred years and more. And shall we
think that Christ himself, his evangelists, all the whole
catholic church has been so long deceived, and the truth
now at length begotten and born in these days ?
Truth. — You have moved a matter of great force and
weight, and to it, without many words, I can make no
full answer. Notwithstanding, because you provoke me
to it, I will take part with them of whom you have made
false report, for none of them ever reproved Christ of any
lie. But on the other hand, they say, that many men
of late days, not understanding Christ's words, have
built>and set up many fond lies in his name. Therefore,
first I will declare the meaning of these words, " This is
my body ;" and next in what sense the church and the old
fathers have evermore taken them. First therefore you
shall understand, that scripture is not to be taken always
as the letter sounds, but as the intent and purpose of the
Holy Ghost was, by whom the scripture was uttered.
For if you follow the bare words, you will soon shake
down and overthrow the greatest part of the christian
faith. What is plainer than these words, " My Father is
greater than I ?" Of those plain words sprang up the
heresy of the Arians, who denied Christ to be equal with
his Father. What is more evident than this saying,
" I and my Father are one ?" Yet thence arose the
heresy of them who denied three distinct persons.
" They all had one soul and one heart," was spoken by the
apostles : yet each of them had a soul and heart peculiar
to himself. " They are now not two, but one fiesh,"
is spoken of the man and his wife ; yet hath both the
man and his wife their own bodies. " He is our very
flesh," said Reuben of his brother, who notwithstand-
ing was not their real flesh. " I am bread," said Christ,
yet was he flesh, and no bread. " Christ was the stone,"
says St. Paul, and yet was no material stone. " Mel-
chizedeck had neither father nor mother," and yet in-
deed he had both. "Behold the Lamb of God," says
John the Baptist of Christ, notwithstanding Christ was
a man, and not a lamb. Circumcision was called the
covenant, whereas it was but a token of the covenant.
The lamb was named the passover, and yet was it eaten in
remembrance only of the passover. Jacob raised up an
altar, and called it " The mighty God of Israel." Moses,
when he had conquered the Amalekites, set up an altar,
and called it by the names of God, Jehovah, and Tetra-
gramatum. " We are all one bread," says St. Paul, yet
were they not thereby turned into a loaf of bread.
Christ hanging upon the cross, pointed out St. John to
his mother, saying, " Behold thy son," and yet was he
not her son. "So many as are baptised into Christ,"
says St. Paul, " have put on Christ," and so many as are
baptized into Christ, are washed with the blood of
Christ. Notwithstanding no man took the font water
to be the natural blood of Christ. "The cup is the new
testament," says St. Paul, and yet is not the cup indeed
the very new testament. You see, therefore, that it is
not strange, nor a thing unusual in the scriptures, to call
one thing by another's name. So that you can no more
prove the changing of the bread into Christ's body in the
sacrament, because of the words, " This is my body,"
than prove the change of the wife's flesh into the natural
and real body and flesh of the husband, because it is
written, " They are not two, but one flesh ;" or the altar
A.D. 1547—1553.]
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN CUSTOM AND TRUTH.
r>69
of stone to be very God, because Moses pronounced it
ito be the mighty God of Israel. However, if you will
ineeds stick to the letter, you make for me, and hinder
yourself. For I will reason thus, and use your own wea-
pon against you. The scripture calls It " bread.'" The
evangelists agree in calling it " bread.'^ St. Paul nanieth
it " bread' ^ five times in one passage ; wherefore I con-
tlude by your own argument, that we ought not only to
say, but also to believe that in the sacrament there re-
mains bread.
'■ Custom. — Methinks your answer is reasonable, yet
ll cannot be satisfied. Declare you therefore more at
large, what moves you to think this of the sacrament.
For I think you would not withstand a doctrine so long
■held and taught, unless you were forced by some strong
reasons.
. Truth. — First, in examining the words of Christ, I
look to the meaning and purpose for which they were
spoken. I see that Christ meant to have his death and
passion kept in remembrance. For men of themselves
■are forgetful of the benefits of God. And therefore it
Was necessary that they should be admonished and stirred
up with some visible and outward tokens, as with the
passover lamb, the brazen serpent, and the like. For
the brazen serpent was a token, that when the Jews
were stung and wounded with serpents, God restored
them and made them whole. The passover lamb was
a memory of the great benefit of God, which, when he
destroyed the Egyptians, saved the Jews, whose doors
Were sprinkled with the blood of a lamb. So likewise
Christ left us a memorial and remembrance of his death
and passion in outward tokens, that when the child should
itiemaud of his father, what the breaking of the bread
jjnd drinking of the cup means, he might answer him,
uiat like as the bread is broken, so Christ was broken
iiul rent upon the cross, to redeem the soul of man. And
likewise as wine restores and comforts the body, so doth
the blood of Christ cherish and relieve the soul. And
|this do I gather by the words of Christ; and by the in-
stitution and order of the sacrament. For Christ
charged the apostles to do this in remembrance of him.
I therefore argue that as nothing is ever done in mere
remembrance of itself ; and as the sacrament is used in
remembrance of Christ ; therefore the sacrament is not
Christ, or it would be a memorial of itself. And I again
argue that Christ never devoured himself, and yet Christ
lid eat the sacrament with his apostles ; and therefore
i\'e may conclude that the sacrament is not Christ himself.
Besides this, I see that Christ ordained not his body,
put a sacrament of his body. A sacrament, as St. Au-
gustine declares, is an outward sign of an invisible grace.
His words are Sacramentum est invisibilis yratice visibile
'lignum. Out of which words I gather two arguments.
The first is this ; the sign of the body of Christ is not
the thing signified, therefore they are not one. And again,
bne thing cannot be both visible and invisible ; but the
feacrament we know is visible, and the body of Christ
invisible ; and we may therefore conclude that they are
aot one, and the same.
I remember that Christ ministered this sacrament not
to great and deep philosophers, but to a sort of ignorant
and unlearned fishermen, who notwithstanding under-
tood Christ's meaning right well, and delivered it, even
as they took it at Christ's hand, to the people, and
fully declared to them the meaning. But neither they,
nor scarcely the apostles themselves, could understand
what is meant by transubstantiation, impanation, di-
mensions, accidents, without subjects, &c. This is no
learning for the unlearned and rude people, wherefore it
is likely that Christ meant some other thing than has
been taught of late days. Further, Christ's body is food,
not for the body, but for the soul ; and therefore it must
be received with the instrument of the soul, which is
faith. For as you receive sustenance for your body by the
mouth, so the food of your soul must be received by
faith, which is the mouth of the soul. And for that St.
Augustine sharply rebukes them that think to eat Christ
with their mouth, saying, " Why makest thou ready thy
tooth and thy belly? believe, and thou hast eaten
Christ." Likewise speaking of eating the Sfwie body,
he saith to the Capernaites, who understood him grossly
as men do now a-days : " The words that I speak are
spirit and life. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh
profiteth nothing."'
Custom. — What mean you by this spirit, and by spi-
ritual eating .' I pray you utter your mind more plainly.
For I know well that Christ has a body, and therefore
must be eaten, as I think, with the mouth of the body.
For the spirit and the soul as it has no body and flesh, so
it has no mouth.
Truth. — You must understand, that a man is shaped of
two parts, of the body and of the soul. And each of
them has his life and his death, his mouth, his teeth, his
food, and abstinence. For as the body is nourished and
fostered with bodily meats, or else cannot live ; so must
the soul have his cherishing, otherwise it will decay and
pine away. And therefore we justly say that tlie Turks,
Jews, and heathen are dead, because they lack the lively
food of the soul. But how then, or by what means will
you find the soul ? Doubtless not by the instrument of
the body, but of the soul. For that which is received
into the body, has no passage from thence into the soul.
For Christ saith, " That whatsoever entereth In at the
mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the
draught." And whereas you say that the spirit has
no mouth, as it has no body or bones ; you are
deceived. For the spirit has a mouth, or el.se how
could a man eat and drink justice For undoubtedly
his bodily mouth is not a fit instrument for it.
Yet Christ saith, that he is blessed that hungers and
thirsts for righteousness. If he hunger and tliirst for
righteousness, he must both eat and drink it, for
otherwise he neither abates his hunger, nor quenches his
thirst. Now, if a man may eat and drink righteousness
with his spirit, no doubt his spirit hath a mouth.
Whereof I argue that as the mouth of the soul is spiri-
tual, so must be the food.
And in like manner Christ, speaking of the eating of
his body, names himself "The bread," not for the bodv,
but "of life," for the soul; and saith, "He that cometh
to me shall never hunger ; and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst." Wherefore, whoever will be relieved
by the body of Christ, must receive him as he will be re-
ceived, w;ith the instrument of faith, and not with his
teeth or mouth. And vrhereas I say that Christ's body
must be received and taken with faith, I m§an not thr.t
you shall pluck down Christ from heaven, and put him
in your faith, as in a visible place ; but that you must
with your faith rise and spring up to him, and leaving
this world dwell above in heaven, putting all your trust,
comfort, and consolation in him, who suffered grievous
bondage to set you at liberty, creeping into his wounds,
which were so cruelly pierced and deftted for your sake.
So shall you feed on the body of Christ, so shall you
suck the blood that was poured out and shed for wu.
This is the spiritual, the very true, the only eating v.i
Christ's body. And, therefore, St. Gregory calls it
" The food of the mind, and not of the stomach." And
St. Cyprian saith likewise, " We sharpen not our tooth,
nor prepare our stomach."
Now to return. Seeing it is plain that Christ's body
is meat for our spirit, and has nothing to do with our
body, I will say that the sacrament is bodily food and
increases the body ; and therefore the sacrament is
not the very body of Christ. That it nourishes the body
is evident ; for Christ calleth it the fruit of the vine,
whose duty is to nourish. And for a proof, if you con-
secrate a whole loaf, it will feed you as well as your
table bread. And if a little mouse get a host, he will
crave no more meat to his dinner. Wherefore, as I said
before, seeing that Christ's body is spiritual meat, and
the bread of the sacrament bodily meat, I may conclude
that the sacrament is not Christ's body. Besides this,
where it was forbidden in the old law that any man sliould
eat or drink blood, the apostles notwithstanding took
the cup at Christ's hands, and drank of it, and never
staggered, or shrunk at the matter ; whence it may be
gathered, that tiiey took it for a mystery, for a token.
670
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN CUSTOM AND TRUTH.
[Book IX.
and a remembrance, far otherwise than it has of late
been taken.
Again, when the sacrament was given, none of them
all crouched down, and took it for his God, forgetting
him that sate there present before their eyes ; but tooli
it, and eat it, knowing that it was a sacrament and re-
membrance of Christ's body. Yea, the old councils com-
manded that no man should kneel down at the time of
the communion , fearing that it should be an occasion of
idolatry. And long after the Apostles' time, as Tertul-
lian writeth, women were suffered to take it home with
them, and lay it up in their chests. And the priests
many times sent it to sick persons by a child, which no
doubt would have given more reverence to it, if they
had taken it for their God. But a great while after
about three hundred years ago, Honorius III., bishop of
Rome, took him and hanged him up, and caused men
to kneel and crouch down, and all to deify him.
If the bread be turned and altered into the body of
Christ, doubtless it is the greatest miracle that God
ever wrought. But the apostles saw no miracle in it.
Nazianzen, an old writer, and St. Augustine, treating
of all the miracles that are in the scripture, do not
number the sacrament for one. As for the apostles, it
appears that they took it for no marvel, for they never
mused at it, neither demanded how it might be ;
whereas in other things they evermore were full of
questions. As to St. Augustine, he not only skipped
over it, as no wonder, but by plain and express words
testifies that there is no marvel in it.
A little before the institution of the sacrament, Christ
spake of his ascension, saying. " Yet a little while, and
the world seeth me no more." " Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid," because I go from
you : " I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that
I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto
you :'■ with many other like warnings of his departure.
St. Stephen saw him sitting at the right hand of his
Father, and thought it a special revelation of God ; but
he never said that he saw him at the communion, or that
he made him every day himself. And in the Acts of the
Apostles, St. Peter saith, " That the heaven must re-
ceive Christ until the times of restitution of all things."
Isaiah, Solomon, and St. Stephen say, " That God
dwelleth not in temples made with man's hand." St.
Paul wisheth that he were dissolved and dead, and were
with Christ ; not in the altar, doubtless, where he might
be daily, but in heaven. And to be brief, it is in our
creed, and we do constantly believe, that Christ is
ascended into heaven, and sitteth at his Father's right
hand ; and no promise have we that he will come down
at every priest's calling.
Custom. — Fye, you be far deceived, I can in nowise
brook these words. You shut up Christ too straightly,
and imprison him in one corner of heaven, not suffering
him to go at large. He has deserved more gentleness
at your hand, than to be tied up so short.
Truth. — I do neither lock up, neither imprison Christ
in heaven, but according to the scriptures declare that
he has chosen a blessed place, and one most worthy to
receive his majesty ; in which place whoso is enclosed,
thinks not to be a prisoner ; but if you take it for so
heinous a thing that Christ should sit in heaven in the
glory of his Father, what think you of them that im-
prison him in a little box, yea, and keep him in captiv-
ity so long, until he be mouldy and overgrown with
vermin, and when he is past men's feeding on, are not
contented to hang him till he stink, but will have him to
a new execution, and burn him too ? This is wonderful
and extremely cruel imprisoning. But to return to
the matter, we are certainly persuaded by the word of
God, that Christ, the very Son of God, vouchsafed to
take upon him the body and sJiape of man, and that he
walked and was conversant among men in that one, and
not in many bodies ; and that he suffered death, rose
again, and ascended to heaven in the selfsame body ;
and that he sitteth at his Father's right hand in his
manhood, in the nature and substance of that body.
This is our belief ; this is the very word of God. Where-
fore they are far deceived, who, leaving heaven, will
grope for Christ's body upon the earth.
Custom. — Nay, sir, but I see now you are far ont of
the way. For Christ has not so gross and fleshly a body
as you think, but a spiritual and ghostly body, and
therefore without repugnance it may be in many places
at once.
Truth. — You say right well, and grant that Clirist'a
body is spiritual. But I pray you answer me by the
way ; can any other body than that which is spiritual
be at one time in sundry places?
Custom. — No, truly.
Truth. — Have we that selfsame sacrament that Christ
gave to his disciples, or not ?
Custom. — Doubtless we have the same.
Truth. — When was Christ's body spiritual ? was it so
even from his birth ?
Custom. — No ; for doubtless before he arose from
death his body was earthly, as other men's bodies are.
Truth. — Well, but when gave Christ the sacrament
to his disciples? Before he rose from the dead, or
afterwards ?
Custom. — You know yourself he gave it before his
resurrection, the night before he suffered his passion.
Truth. — Why then, methinks, he gave the sacrament
at that time when his body was not spiritual.
Custom — Even so.
Truth. — And was every portion of the sacrament
dealt to the apostles, and received they into theii
mouths the very real and substantial body of Christ ?
Custom. — Yea, doubtless.
Truth. — Mark well, what ye have said, for you have
granted me a great contradiction. First, you say that
no body being not spiritual can be in several^laces at
once. Then you say that Christ's body, at the last
supper was not spiritual : and yet you hold, that he
was there present visibly before the apostles' eyes, and
in each of their hands and mouths all at once.
Custom. — Indeed you have driven me into the stralla
before I was aware of you ; and I know not how I may
escape your hands honestly. But the best refuge that
I have is this, that I will not believe you.
Truth.— I desire you not to give credit to me, believe
the word of God. yea, believe your own creed ; for they
both witness against you, that Christ's body is taken
up into heaven, and there shall remain until he come
to judge.
Custom. — Tush, what speak you of the word of God?
there are many dark sayings in it which every man
cannot attain to.
Truth. — I grant you there are obscure places in the
scripture, yet not so obscure but that a man with the
grace of God may perceive them ; for it was written
not for- angels, but for men. But, as I understand,
custom meddles but very little with the scripture.
How say you of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Am-
bro.se ? what if they stand on our side ?
Custom. — No, no, I know them well enough.
Truth. — Well, as you know them, if they be called
to witness it, they will give evidence against you. For
St. Augustine, in all his books declares that Chrisf.s body
is placed in one room. Dei, i. he says, " Do not doubt
the man Jesus Christ to be there, from whence lie .'rball
come. And remember well, and faithfully believe the
christian confession, that he is risen, ascended into
heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father, and
from thence he .shall come, and from no other place, to
judge the quick and the dead. And shall come in the
same substance of body, to which he gave immortalitty
and took not the nature from it. After this form he is
to be thought not to be dispersed in all places ; for we
must beware so to defend his divinity that we destroy
not his humanity." All the old fathers witness the
same. Now. to return to the matter ; seeing that the
word of God in many and sundry places, the creed,
seeing all the old fiithers do agree, that the body of
Christ is ascended into heaven, and there remains at
the right hand of the Father, and cannot be in more than
in one place, I do conclude that the sacrament is not
the body of Christ ; tirst, because it is not in heaven,
A.D. 1547—1553.]
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN CUSTOM AND TRUTH.
671
neither sitteth at the Father's right hand ; moreover,
because it is in an hundred thousand boxes, whereas
Christ's body fiUeth but one place. Furthermore, if the
bread were turned into the body of Christ, then would
it necessarily follow that sinners and unpenitent persons
receive the body of Christ.
Custom. Marry, and so they do. For St. Paul saith
plainly, that they receive the body of Christ to their own
confusion.
Truth. — No, not so. These are not St. Paul's words,
but he saith, " Wherefore whosoever shall eat this
bread, and drink this cup of tlic Lord, unworthily, shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Rut let a
man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread,
and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
' not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Cor. xi. 27 — 29.)
I Here he calls it in plain words bread. And although
! the sacrament be very bread, yet the injury redounds
to the body of Christ. As if a man break the king's
I mace, or tread the broad seal under his foot, although
1 he have broken and defaced nothing but silver and
[ wax ; yet is the injury the king's, and the doer shall be
j taken as a traitor. He that reads the gospel, wherein
is declared the passion and death of Christ, and lives
contrary to the gospel, shall doubtless be the more
guilty of the death of Christ, because he hears and
reads the word of God, and regards it not. In a certain
country the manner is, that when the gospel is read, the
king shall stand up with a naked sword in his hand,
. declaring thereby that he bears his sword in defence of
I the gospel. But if he himself oppresses the gospel, he
bears the sword against himself ; for the gospel shall
turn to his judgment and condemnation. So will Christ
BO much more extremely punish a man, who knowing
himself to be wicked and without repentance, and
I tlierefore none of the flock of Christ, yet- notwithstand-
ing will impudently creep into the company of Christian
men, and receive the sacraments with them, as though
be were one of the number. And this St. Paul meant,
by the unworthy receiving of the sacrament of Christ's
body. Wherefore a man may unworthily take the sa-
crament, and be guilty of the death of Christ, although
he receive not Christ's body into his mouth, and chew it
with his teeth. But what if I prove that every massing
priest is guilty of the body and blood of Christ ?
Custom. — I dare say you cannot prove it.
Truth. — But if I do prove it, will you believe me ?
Custom. — I may well enough, for it is impossible to
do it. For priests commonly are confessed before they
go to mass, and how can they then take the sacrament
unworthily ?
Truth. — Indeed confession, if it be discreetly used, is
a laudable custom, and to the unlearned man and feeble
conscience is as good as a sermon ; but because it was
i never commanded by Christ, nor received by the apos-
tles, nor much spoken of by the old doctors, it cannot
make much for the due receiving of the sacrament. But
how do you like these words of St. Ambrose, "He
takes it unworthily, that takes it otherwise than Christ
ordained it ?"
Custom. — That I like very well. But what do you
gather from it ?
Truth. — This will I gather. The massing priest
takes the sacrament othervcise than Christ either com-
manded or taught, and thus be takes it unworthily, and
60 consequently to his condemnation.
Custom. — That is not so, for he does altogether as
Christ commanded him.
Truth. — That shall appear. For Christ commanded
it to be done in remembrance of him ; the priest does
it in remembrance of dead men. Christ took bread,
and left it bread ; the priest takes bread and conjures it
away. Christ took bread and gave thanks ; the priest
takes bread and breathes upon it. Christ took bread
and brake it ; the priest takes bread and hangs it up.
Christ took bread and dealt it to his apostles ; the priest,
because he is an apostle himself, takes bread and eats it
every whit alone. Christ in the sacrament gave his own
body to be eaten in faith ; the priest for lack of faith
receives accidents and dimensions. Christ gave a sa-
crament to strengthen men's faith ; the priest gives a
sacrifice to redeem men's souls. Christ gave it to be
eaten ,- the priest gives it to be U'orshi2}ped. And to
conclude, Christ gave bread; the priest saith he gives
a God. Here is difference enough between Christ and
the priest. Yet, moreover, Christ at his supper spake
his words out and in a plain tongue ; the priest speaks
nothing but Latin or Greek, which tongues he often
perceives not, and he whispers lest any poor man should
perhaps perceive him. So it comes to i)ass, that the priest
often knows no more what he himself says, than what
he does. Thus you may see that the massing priest
receives the sacrament of Christ's body far otherwise
than ever Chrisi minded, and so unworthily and to his
condemnation. Now if you think yourself satisfied, I
will return to my former question, and prove more at
large, that Christ's body cannot be eaten by the wicked,
which must necessarily ensue if the bread were turned
into the body of Christ. Christ in the sixth of St. John,
speaking of the eating of his body, says, " He that eateth
of this bread shall live for ever." (verse 58.) But sinful
men take the sacrament of their condemnation, and live
not for ever, therefore in the sacrament they receive not
the body of Christ.
The sacrament in holy scripture is named " the
breaking of bread;" which, to say the truth, were but
a cold breaking, if there remained no bread to break,
but certain fantasies of white and round. Yet whereas
they with words, crossings, blessings, breathings, leapings,
and much ado, can scarcely make one God ; but they
have such virtue in their fingers, that at one cross they
are able to make twenty gods ; for if they break the
sacrament, every portion, yea, every mite must needs be
a God. After the apostles' time there arose up heretics,
who said that Christ walking here among men bodily
upon the earth, had no real body, but a thing like a
body ; and so therewith dimmed men's sight. Against
whom the old fathers used these arguments : Christ in-
creased in growing, fasted, hungered, ate, wept, sweat,
was weary, and in conclusion died, and had all other
properties of a very body ; wherefore he had a body. I
will use the same kind of reasoning : it feeds, it tastes
like bread, it looks like bread, the little silly mouse
takes it for bread, and to be short, it has all the pro-
perties and tokens of bread. The old fathers, when
there remained any part of the sacrament more than was
spent at the communion, they used to burn it, and of it
there came ashes. But there is nothing in the sacra-
ment that can turn to ashes but only bread (for I think
they burned not Christ's body to ashes). The emperor
Henry, the sixth of that name, was poisoned in the
host, and Victor the bishop of Rome in the chalice. But
poison cannot hang in God's body and blood. What
needs many words in a matter so evident .'' If you de-
mand either God's word, or the doctors and the ancient
writers, or your reason, or your eyes, or nose, oi
tongue, or fingers, or the mouse, all these agree in one,
and answer together, " There is bread.''' Wherefore,
if you reject so many and so constant witnesses, and
so well agreeing in their tale, especially being such as
will lie for no man's pleasure, I wiU. appeal from you,
and take you as no indifferent judge. If all these wit-
nesses suffice you not, I will call the sacrament itself to
record : it cries to you, and plainly advertises you what
you should think of it : "I am," it saith, " grated with
the teeth ; I am conveyed into the belly ; 1 perish ; 1
can live no time ; 1 canker ; I suffer green mould ;
blue mould, red mould ; I breed worms ; I am kept in
a box for fear of rats ; if you leave me out all night,
I shall be devoured before morning, for if the mouse get
at me I am gone ; I am bread, I am no God ; believe
them not." Thus cries the sacrament daily, and bears
witness itself.
Custom. — The devil on such reasons ! and therefor^I
will never trouble my brains to make you answer : but if
it be true what you have said, why is the sacrament by
Christ himself, as by his apostles, and the old fathers,
called the body of Christ .'
Truth. — Because it is no strange thing in scripture lO
X X
67i
DEATH OF EDWARD THE SIXTH.
[Book IX-
to speak, as I have declared before. But will you
Btand to St. Augustine's arbitration in this matter.'
Custom. — To no man sooner.
Truth. — St. Augustine, in an epistle to his friend Boni-
face, gives a good cause why the sacrament, although it
be not the body of Christ, is, notwithstanding, called
the body of Christ: his words are these : " If sacraments
had not a certain similitude of those things whereof
tliey may be sacraments, then were they no sacraments.
Of which similitude many times they take their name.
Wherefore, after a certain manner the sacrament of the
body of Christ is the body of Christ, and the sacrament
of tlie blood of Christ is the blood of Christ," &c.
Now, I think you are satisfied concerning the meaning
of tliese words, " This is my body."
Custom. — Yet one thing moves me very much.
Truth.— What is that .'
Custom. The doctors and old writers, men inspired
with the Holy Ghost, have evermore been against your
doctrine ; yea, and in these days the wisest men and
best learned call you heretics, and your learning heresy.
Truth. — As to the old writers, I remember well they
speak reverently of the sacraments, as every man ought
to do ; but where they deliver their mind with their
right liand, you. Custom, receive it with the left. For
where they say, that it is the body of Christ, and that
it must be truly eaten, meaning that it effectually lays
before the eyes Christ's body, and that it is to the
faithful man no less than if it were Christ himself, and
that Christ must be eaten in faith, not torn nor rent with
the teeth : you say that however it is taken, it is Christ's
body, and that there is no other eating but with the
mouth.
And that the fathers meant no other thing than I have
said, shall appear by their words. But as touching the
learned and wise men of these days, I cannot blame them
if they call my doctrine heiesy ; fot thev would condemn
all ancient writers of heresy, if they were now alive. But
I will answer you as to them directly. In the mean-
while, mark you how well their learning agrees. They
say you must follow the letter, you must stick to the
letter. But Origin saith, "If ye follow after the letter
that which is written (unless ye shall eat the flesh of
the Son of Man, there shall be no life in you) this
letter killeth." Augustine says, " If the commanding
speech be such as commandeth a thing wicked and
horrible to be done, or a charitable thing to be undone,
then this is a figurative speech ; unless ye shall eat the
flesh of the Son of Man, and shall drink his blood, there
shall be no life in you : because in this speech he seemeth
to c< mmaud a wicked thing, it is therefore a figurative
speech, commanding that we should communicate with
the passion of our Lord, and sweetly to retain it in our
remembrance.''
Athanasius says, on John vi., " The words that Christ
here speaketh are not carnal, but spiritual. For what
body might have sufficed for all that should eat, to be a
nourishment of the whole world .' But therefore he
maketh mention of the ascension of the Son of Man into
heaven, to the intent to pluck them away from that cor-
poral oogitalion." And it is in this way that all the
ancient fathers explain these ^ords.
But what need I speak of the old fathers ? It is not long
since the sacrament grew out of its right understanding.
For this word transubstantiation, whereby they signify
the turning of the bread into the body of Christ, was
never either spoken or heard, or thought of among the
ancient fathers, or in the old church. But about fiOO
years past, Pope Nicholas II. (about 1059), confirmed
that opinion of the changing of bread, and would have it
made an article of faith ; but this was not done until it
was so declared by the council of Lateran (A.D. 121.'),)
in Rome. After which time ensued Coi-pus Christi day,
masses of Corpus Christi reservation of the sacrament,
'^•ith honour, with canopies, with incensing, with kneel-
ing, with worshipping and adoration, &c. For they
thought they could not do too much to him after the
bishop of Rome had allowed him for a God.
But not quite 200 years before that time, when this
doctrine first began to bud, (and yet notwithstanding
had not so prevailed, but that a great number of learned i
and good men could know the sacrament to be a sacra- '
ment, and not Christ himself), Charles the Great, king
of France, and emperor of Germany, demanded of a
learned man, whose name was Bertram, what he thought
of that strange kind of calling down Christ from heaven,
and turning a little bit of bread into his natural body.
To whom Bertram made answer in this wise " This we
say, that there is a great difference betivixt the body in
which Christ suffered, and the blood wliich he shed upon
the cross, and tills body which every day is celebrated
in the mystery of the passion of Christ. For tliis body
is a pledge and similitude, but the other is the very
truth itself. It appeareth that tliese are separated
asunder by no less difference than is between a jilcdge
and the thing whereof the pledge is given ; or than is
betwixt an image of a thing and the thing itself, whereof
the image is ; or than is between the form of a thing,
and the truth itself." Thus wrote Bertram, Druthiiiur,
and many others, and yet in all their time they were never
once re])roved of heresy. Thus wrote Jolm Scotus also,
but in about 200 years after his death he was judged and
condemned for an heretic, and his books burned. Since
which time, even till this day, although idolatry had
great increase, yet there never wanted some good men
who boldly would profess and set forth the truih, although
they were well assured that their worldly reward should
be spite, malice, imprisoning, sword, fire, and all kiiuls
of torments. Thus so shortly, and in so few words as I
could, I have declared unto you what Christ meant by
these words, " This is my body ;" what tlie apostles
taught therein, and in what sort they delivered thejin to
their successors ; in what sense and meaning the holy
fathers and old writers, and the universal and catholic
church hath evermore taken them.
T/ie End and Death of King Edward the Sixih.
Thus having discoursed of events in the reign <.f kinjr
Edward, we will now draw to the end and deatJi of fdis
blessed king, our young Josiah. Who, aboui a year m
and a half after the death of the duke of Somerset, his ^
uncle, in the year l.')53, entering into the seventeenLh
year of his age, and the seventh year of his reign, in the
month of June, was taken from us, for our sins, nn
doubt ; whom if it had so j)leased the good will of tiie
Lord to have spared with longer life, it was not uniikeJv
that he would have so reformed the connnonv.ealtti
here in the realm of England, as by good cause it
might have been said of him that was said in tne o<u
time of the noble emperor Augustus, in reformini aiici ad-
vancing the empire of Rome ; which empire he receivea
of brick, but he left it of fine marble. But the condition
of this realm, and the behaviour of the English people
deserved not the benefit of so blessed a reformation, hut
rather such a plague of deformation as happened after
his reign, as will appear in the history of his successor.
The time having now approached when it pleased
Almighty God to call this young king from us. we are
told that about three hours before his death, this godly
child, his eyes being closed, speaking to himself, and
thinking none to have been near him, was heard to
pray thus : — .
The Prayer of King Edward before his Death.
" Lord God, deliver me out of this miserable and
wretched life, and take me among thy chosen : howbeit,
not my will, but thy will be done : Lord, I commit my
spirit to thee : O Lord, thouknowest how hap})y it were
for me to be with thee : yet for thy chosen's sake send
me life and health, that I may truly serve thee. O my
Lord God, bless thy peojile, and save thine inheritance.
O Lord God, save thy cliosen people of England. Oh
my Lord God, defend this realm from papistry, and
maintain thy true religion, that I and my people may
praise thy holy name, for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake. '
Then he turaed bis face, and seeing who was by him,
said to them, " Aj » you so nigh.' I thought yuu had
A.D. 1547—1553.] DIALOGUE BETWEEN BISHOP RIDLEY AND LADY MARY.
673
been further off." Then Dr. Owen said, " We heard
you speak to yourself. He then smilingly said, I was
praying to God." The last words of his pang^s w'ere
these, " I am faint, Lord have mercy upon me, and take
my spirit." And thus he yielded up the ghost on the
fith of July, 1553, and left a woeful kingdom behind to
his sister. Although in his will he had excluded his sis-
ter Marv from the succession of tlie crown, because of
her corrupt religion ; yet the plague, which God had
destined to this sinful realm, could not so be avoided,
but that she, being the elder daughter to King Henry,
succeeded in possession of the crown. Of whose dread-
ful and bloody government it remains now to discourse.
This briefly it may suffice to understand, that for all
the writing, sending, and practising with the lady Mary,
by the king and his council, and also by bishop Ridley,
yet she would not be reclaimed from her own opinion to
give any hearing to the word and voice of truth. Which
positive will of the lady Mary, both this young king
and also his father king Henry before him, knew right
well, and were both much dis]ileased against her for it ;
so that not only lier brother did utterly sequestrate her
in his will, but also her own father, considering her in-
clination, conceived such heart against her, that for a
great space he secluded her from the title of princes-.s ;
yea, and seemed so eagerly incensed against her, that he
was fully inclined to proceed further with her, had not
the intercession of Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop,
reconciled the king again to favour and pardon his own
daughter.
As you have heard already of the stout courage of the
lady Mary toward her father, and also by her letters to
her brother King Edward and his council: so now let us
infer somewhat of the stout talk and demeanour of the
lady Mary toward Doctor Ridley, bishop of London,
who gently coining to her of mere good will, had this
communication with her, and she with him, as here
follows ; —
About the eighth of September, 1552, Dr. Ridley,
then bishop of Ijondon, lying at his house at Hadham,
in Hertfordshire, went to visit the lady Mary, then at
Hunsden, two miles oft'; and was gently entertained of
Sir Thomas Wharton, and other her officers, till it was
almost eleven o'clock, about whicii time the lady Mary
came forth into her chamber of presence, aud then the
bishop saluted her grace, and said, that he was come
to do his duty to her grace. Then she thanked him for
his pains, and for a quarter of an hour talked with him
very pleasantly, an-d said, that she knew him in the court
when he was chaplain to her father, and could well re-
member a sermon that he made before king Henry her
father, at the marriage of my lady Clinton that now is,
to Sir Anthony Brown, &c., and so dismissed him to
dine with her officers.
After dinner was done, the bishop, being called for by
M<try, resorted again to her grace, between whom this
communication was ; first the bishop begins in manner |
as follows : —
Bishop. — "Madam, I came not only to do my duty
to see your grace, but also to offer myself to preai^h
before you on Sunday next, if it will please you to hear
me." At this her countenance changed, and, aftir
silence for a space, she answered thus :
Mary. — " My lord, as for this last matter I pray you
make the answer to it yourself."
Bishop. — " Madam, considering mine office and call-
ing, I am bound in duty to make to your grace this olfer,
to preach before you."
IVIary. — " Well, I pray you make the answer (as I
have said) to this matter yourself; for you know the
answer well enough. But if there be no remedy but 1
must make you answer, this shall be your answer ; tlie
door of the parish church adjoining shall be open for
you if you come, and you may preach if you list ; but
neither I nor any of mine shall hear you."
Bishop. — " Madam, I trust you wiU not refuse God's
word."
Mary. — " I cannot tell what you call God's word ; that
is not God's word's now, that was God's word in my
father's days."
Bisho]). — " God's word is all one in all times, but
has been better understood and practised in some a;^es
than in others."
Mary. — " You durst not for your ears have avouched
that for God's word in my father's days that you now
do. And as for your new books, I thank God 1 never
read any of them ; 1 never did, nor never will."
And after many bitter words against the form of reli-
gion then established, and against the government of t!ie
realm, and the laws made in the youth of her bruiiiL-r,
which she said she was not bound to obey till her iirotiitr
came to perfect age, when, she affirmed, she would oijey
them ; she asked the bishop whether he were one of
the council : he answered, " No." " You ni!.;hl
well enough," said she, "as the council goes now
a-days.''
And so she concluded with these words : " My lord,
for your gentleness to come and see me, 1 thank you ; but
for your offering to preach before me, I thauK you never
a whit."
Then the bishop was brought by Sir Thomas Whar-
ton to the place where they dined, and was desired to
drink. And after he ha<l drank, he paused a while, look-
ing very sadly, and suddenly broke out into these words :
"Surely I have done amiss." "Why so?" said Sir
Thomas Wharton. " For I have drank," said he, "in
that place where God's word, offered, has been refused :
w'hereas, if I had remembered my duty, I ought to have
departed immediately, and to have shaken off the dust
of my shoes for a testimony against this house." These
words were spoken by the bishop with such vehemence,
that some of the hearers afterwards confessed their hair
to stand upright on their heads. This done, the bishop
departed, and so returned to his own house.
THS.END OF THE NINTH hOotU
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK X.
CONTAINING
THE FIRST ENTERING OF QUEEN MARY TO THE CROWN, WITH THE ALTERATION OP
RELIGION IN THE REALM.
DuEiNG the time of his sickness, when King Edward
began to appear more feeble, a marriage was solem-
nized in the month of May, between the lord Guilford,
Bon to the duke of Northumberland, and the lady Jane,
the duke of Suffolk's daughter ; whose mother oeing
then alive, was daughter to Mary, king Henry's second
sister, who was first married to the French king, and af-
terwards to Charles duke of Suffolk. The marriage being
concluded, and rlie king waxing every day more sick, and
when there seemed to be no hope of recovery, it was
brought to pas3 by the consent not only of the nobility,
but also of the chief lawyers of the realm, that the
king by his testament should appoint the lady Jane,
daughter to the duke of Suffolk, to be inheretrix to the
crown of England, passing over his two sisters, Mary
and Elizabeth.
To this all the king's council subscribed, and the
chief of the nobility, the mayor and city of London,
and almost all the judges and chief lawyers of this realm,
saving only justice Hales, of Kent, a man both favouring
true religion, and also as upright a judge as any in this
realm, wiio, giving his consent to lady Mary, would in
no case subscribe to lady Jane. Of this man (God
willing) you shall hear more in the sequel of this
history.
The causes laid against lady Mary, were that it was
feared she would marry a stranger, and thereby entangle
the crown ; and also that she would alter the religion,
used both in the days of King Henry her father, and
also in those of her brother King Edward, and so bring
in the pope, to the utter destruction of the realm,
wWch indeed afterwards came to pass, as by the sequel
of this history will well appear.
When king Edward was dead, this lady Jane was
established in the kingdom by the consent of the
nobles, and was forthwith proclaimed queen at Lon-
don, and in other cities. Between this young damsel
and king Edward there was little difference in age,
though in learning and knowledge of the tongues she
was not only equal, but also superior to him, being in-
structed by a master right nobly learned.
In the mean time, while these things were working
at London, lady Mary, who had knowledge of her
brother's death, wrote to the lords of the council, as
follows : —
A Utter of the Lady Mary, sent to the Lords cf the I
Council, wherein she claims the crown after the de-\
cease of King Edward.
'' My lords, we greet you well, and have received sure I
advertisement, that our dearest brother the king, our lata
sovereign lord, is departed to God's mercy, which news
how woeful they be unto our heart. He only knoweth, to
whose will and pleasure we must, and do humbly submit !
us and our wills. But in this so lamentable a case, that
is to wit, now after his majesty's departure and death,
concerning the crown and governance of this realm of |
England, with the title of France, and all things thereto
belonging, what hath been provided by act of parliament,
and the testament and last will of our dearest father,
besides other circumstances advancing our right, you
know, the realm, and the whole world knoweth, the
rolls and records appear by the authority of the king our '
said father, and the king our said brother, and the sub-
jects of this realm ; so that we verily trust that there is
no good true subject, that is, can, or would pretend to
be ignorant thereof: and of our part we have of our-
selves caused, and, as God shall aid and strengthen us,
shall cause our right and title in this behalf to be pub-
lished and proclaimed accordingly. And albeit this so
weighty a matter seemeth strange, that our said brother
dying upon Thursday at night last past, we hitherto had i
no knowledge from you thereof, yet we consider your
wisdom and prudence to be such, that having oftentimes ;
amongst you debated, pondered, and well weighed this [
present case with our estate, with your own estate, the j
commonwealth, and all our honours, we shall and may
conceive great hope and trust, with much assurance in
your loyalty and service, and therefore for the time in-
terpret and taKe things not for the worst ; and that yott j
will, like noblemen, work the best. Nevertheless, we
are not ignorant of your consultations, to undo the pro-
visions made for our iiref'erment, nor of the great bands
and provisions forcible, wherewith ye be assembled and
prepared, by whom and to what end, God and you
know, and nature cannot but fear some evil. But be it
that some political ctnisideration, or 'vhatsoever thing
else hath moved you thereto, yet doubt you not, my
lords, but we can take all these your doings in gracioui
part, being also right ready to rem.t and fully pardon
A.D. 1553.]
MARY IS SUPPORTED IN NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK.
675
the same, and that freely to eschew bloodshed and ven-
eeance against all those ihat can or will intend the same,
trusting also assuredly you will take and accept this
(trace and virtue in good part as appercaineth, and that
we shall not be forced to "se the service of others our
true subjects and friends, which in this our just and
right cause, God, in whom our whole affiance is, shall
send us. Wherefore, my lords, we require you. and
charge you, and every of you, that of your allegiance
which you owe to God and us, and to none other, for
our honour and the safety of our person only employ
yourselves, and forthwith upon receipt hereof, cause our
right and title to the crown and government of this
realm to be proclaimed in our city of London, and other
places, as to your wisdom shall seem good, and as to
this case appertaineth, not failing hereof as our very
trust is in you. And this our letter, signed with our
hand, shall be your sufficient warrant in this behalf.
" Given under our signet, at our Manor of Kenning:
Hall, the ninth of July, 1553."
To this letter of the lady Mary, the lords of the
council made answer again, as follows : —
Answer of the Lords to the Lady Mary^s Letter.
" Madam, wehavereceived your letter, dated the ninth
of this instant, declaring your supposed title, which you
judge yourself to have to the imperial crown of this
realm, and all the dominions thereunto belonging. For
answer whereof, this is to advertise you, that forasmuch
as our sovereign lady queen Jane is, after the death of
our sovereign lord Edward the Sixth, a prince of most
noble memory, invested and possessed with the just and
right title to the imperial crown of this realm, not only
by good order of the ancient laws of this realm, but also
by our late sovereign lord's letters patent, signed with
his own hand, and sealed with the great seal of England
In presence of the most part of the nobles, councillors,
judges, with several others, grave and sage personages,
assenting and subscribing to the same : We must there-
fore, as of the most bounden duty and allegiance, assent
unto her said grace, and to none other, except we
should (which faithful subjects cannot) fall into grievous
and unspeakable enormities. Wherefore we can do no
less, but for the quiet both of the realm and you also, to
advertise you, that forasmuch as the divorce made be-
tween the king of famous memory, king Henry the
Eighth, and the lady Catharine your mother, was neces-
sary to be had both by the everlasting laws of God, and
also by the ecclesiastical laws, and by the most part of
the noble and learned universities of Christendom, and
confirmed also by the sundry acts of parliaments remain-
ing yet in their force, and thereby you were justly made
illegitimate and unheritable to the crown imperial of this
realm, and the rules, and dominions, and possessions of
the same, you will upon just consideration hereof, and of
divers other causes, lawful to be alleged for the same,
and for the just inheritance of the right line and godly
order taken by the late king our sovereign lord king
Edward the Sixth, and agreed upon by the nobles and
great personages aforesaid, cease by any pretence to vex
and molest any of our sovereign lady queen Jane her
subjects from their true faith and allegiance due unto her
grace : Assuring you, that if you will for respect shew
yourself quiet and obedient (as you ought) you shall
find us all and several ready to do you any service that
we with duty may, and glad with your quietness to pre-
serve the common state of this realm wherein you may
be otherwise grievous unto us, to yourself, and to them.
And thus we bid you most heartily farewell.
" From the Tower of London, in this ninth of July,
1553.
*' Your ladyship's friends, shewing yourself an one-
dient subject.
William Northampton.
Thomas Ely, chancellor.
Northumoerland.
Henry Suffolk.
Henry Arundel.
Shrewsbury.
Pembroke.
Cobham.
R. Cotton.
John Gates.
W. Petre.
W. Cecil.
John Cheke.
John Mason.
Edward North.
R. Bowes.
Tliomas Canterbury.
The marquis of Win-
chester.
John Bedford.
R. Rich.
Huntington.
Darcy.
Cheyney.
After this answer the lady Mary stole secretly away
from the city, resting chieHy upon the good will of the
commons, and yet perchance not destitute altogether of
the secret advice of some of the nobles. When the
council heard of her sudden departure, they speedily
gathered an army, and assigned that the duke of Suffolk
should take that enterprise in hand. But afterwards
altering their minds, they thought it best to send the
duke of Northumberland, with other lords and gentle-
men, and that the duke of Suffolk should keep the
Tower, where the lord Guilford and the lady Jane were
lodged.
Mary in the meanwhile withdrew into Norfolk and
Suffolk, where she understood the duke's name was in
much hatred, for the service he had done there under
king Edward, in subduing the rebels, and there gather-
in? to her aid such of the commons as she rould. at the
same time keeping herself close within Framhn^ham
Castle. To her, first of all, there resorted the Suffolk
men ; who being always forward in promoting the gos-
pel, promised her their aid and help, provided she would
not attempt an alteration of the religion, which her
brother king Edward had before established by law pub-
licly enacted, and received by the consent of the whole
realm.
To this condition she soon agreed, with such promises
to them that no innovation should be made in the matter
of religion, so that no man would or could then have
doubted her. Which promise, if she had as constantly
kept, as they willingly preserved her with their bodies
and weapons, she had done a deed both worthy her blood,
and had also made her reign more stable to herself.
For though a man be never so mighty of power, yet
breach of promise is an evil upholder of quietness, fear is
worse, but cruelty is the worst of all.
Thus Mary being guarded by the power of the pro-
testants of Suffolk, vanquished the duke, and all those
that came with her. In return for which it was
(methinks) an heavy word that she answered to the
Suffolk men afterwards, who made supplication to her
grace to perform her promise : " Forasmuch," saitli
she, " as you, being but members, desire to rule your
head, you shall one day well perceive, that members
must obey their head, and not look to bear rule over
it." And not only that, but also to cause the more
terror to others, a certain gentleman named Master
Dobbe, for reminding her of her promise, was punished,
being three times set on the pillory to be a gazing stock
to all men. Others delivered to her books and suppli-
cations made out of the scriptures, to exhort her to con-
tinue in the true doctrine then established ; and these
were sent to prison. But such is the condition of man's
nature that we are for the most part more ready always
to seek friendship when we stand in need of help, than
ready to requite a benefit once past and received.
The greatest help that made for the cause of the lady
Mary was the short journeys of the duke, which by com-
mission were assigned to him before. For the longer
the duke lingered in his voyage, the lady Mary the more
increased in power ; the hearts of the people being
mightly bent to her : which after the council at London
perceived, and understood how the common multitude
withdrew their hearts from them to stand with her, and
that certain noblemen began to go over to her, tbey
changed also, and proclaimed the lady Mary queen.
And thus the duke of Northumberland was left desn-
tute and forsaken at Cambridge with some of his sons
and a few others, among whom the earl of Hunting,
ton was one, where they were arrested and brought to
the Tower of London, as traitors to the crown.
Thus Mary was made queen, and the sword of autuo-
6V6
THE LADY MARY PRO«JLAIMED QUEEN.
[Book X.
ritv put into her hand. Wlien she had been thus ad-
vnnc(^(l by the Protestants of SuHblk, and saw all things
qnii.'t, as her enemies were conquered, and the duke sent
to tlie Tower, she followed not long after, being brought
on the third day of August to London, to the great
reioi(n(ig of many men, but with a greater fear of many.
Thus coming up to London, she took her first lodging
at the Tower, where the lady Jane, with her husband the
ioru iiuiirortl, a little before her coming, were imprisoned ;
and where they remained waiting her pleasure for more
than six months. But the duke of Northumberland,
wi'^liin a month after his coming to the Tower, being
a'judjc'I to death, was brought forth to the scaffold,
and the-e beheaded^ August 22. Having received a
ptiimise and hope of pardon tliat if he would recant
and hear mass, he consented, and denied in words that
true religion which before in king Henry VIIL and in
king Edward VL's days he had declared himself both
to favour and promote ; exhorting also the people to
return to the Catholic faith, as he termed it.
At the same lime, the duke of Northumberland, with
Sir John Gates, and Sir Thomas Palmer, were put to
death. This Palmer, on the other side, confessed his
faith, which he had learned in the gospel, and lamented
that he had not lived more gospel-like. In the mean-
time ciueen Mary entering thus upon her reign with the
blood of these men, besides hearing mass in the lower,
gave a sad sign, especially by the delivering of Stephen
Gardiner out of the Tower, that she would not stand to
that which she had promised so faithfully to the Suffolk
men, concerning tlie not altering the state of religion.
Other things also followed, which every day more and
more discomforted the people, shewing that the queen
bore no good will to the present state of religion: she
not only released Gardiner, but made him lord chancellor
of England and bishop of Winchester (doctor Poynet
being put out), and alsjo Bonner was restored to his bi-
shopric again, and Doctor Ridley displaced. Doctor
Day was appointed to the bishopric of Chichester; J.
Scory being put out. Doctor Tonstal to the bishopric
of Durham ; Doctor Heath to the bishopric of Worcester,
(Hooper being committed to the Fleet.) Doctor Veysey
was appointed to Exeter, and Miles Coverdale put out.
These things being perceived, great heaviness and dis-
comfort grew more and more among all good man ; so
that there was now to be seen a miserable face of things
in the whole commonwealth of England. Tliey that
could dissemble took no great care how the matter went ;
but those whose consciences were joined with the truth,
perceived already the coals to be kindled, which would
be the destruction of many a true christian man. In
the meanwhile, queen INIary removed from the Tower to
Hampton Court, and caused a parliament to be sum-
moned for the 10th of October.
You heard before how several bishops were removed,
and others placed in their sees : among whom was Doctor
Ridley bishop of London, a worthy man both of fame
and learning. This Doctor Ridley, in the time of queen
Jane, had made a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, declaring
his mind to the people as to the lady Mary, and dissuad-
ing them, alleging there the incominodities and incon-
veniencies which might arise by receiving her as their
queen, prophesying as it were before that which afterwards
came to pass, that she would bring in a foreign power to
reign over them ; besides the subverting also of the
christian religion then established ; showing too, that
Mary being in his diocese, he, according to his duty, had
laboured much with her to turn her to his religion ; and
notwithstanding in all other points of civility she shewed
herself sensible and tractable, yet in matters that con-
cerned true faith and doctrine, she shewed herself so stiff
and obstinate that there was no otlier hope of her, but that
she would disturb and overturn all that had been confirmed
and planted by her brother before. Shortly after this
sermon, queen Mary was proclaimed, upon which he
repaired to Fremingham to salute the queen, but had
such cold welcome, that, being spoiled of all his dignity,
he was sent back upon a lame halting horse to the
Tower.
Queeu Mary seeing things not yet going on aftei
her mind as she desired, devised with her council to
bring that to pass by other means which by open law
she could not accomplish ; setting forth a prohibition by
proclamation, that no man should preach or read openly
in churches the word of God, besides other things alao
in the same proclamation.
A Prohibition of the Queen for Preaching, Printing,
i)-C.
" The queen's highness well remembering what great
inconveniencies and dangers have grown to this her
highness' realm in times past, through the diversity of
opinions in questions of religion, and hearing also that
now of late, since the beginning of her most gracious
reign, the same contentions are again much revived,
through certain false and untrue reports and rumours
spread by some light and evil disposed persons, hath
thought good to make known to all her highness' most
loving subjects, her most gracious pleasure in nianne"*
following : — " First, her majesty, being now, by the alone
goodness of God, settled in her just possession of the
imperial crown of this realm, and other dominions there-
unto belonging, cannot now hide that religion which
God and the world knoweth she hath ever professed from
her infancy. Wiiich as lier majesty is minded to ob-
serve and maintain for herself by (Jod's grace, during
her time, so dom her highness much desire, and would
be glad the same were by all her subjects quietly and
charitably embraced.
" And yet slie signifies to all her mairsty's loving sub.
jects, that of her most gracious disjiosition and clemency
her highness mindeth not to compel any of her said sub-
jects thereunto, until sucii time as further order by com-
mon assent may be taken therein : forbidding neverthe-
less all her subjects of all degrees, at their perils, to move
seditions, or stir unquietness in her people, by interpret-
ing the laws of this realm after their brains and fancies,
but quietly to continue for the time, till (as before is
said,) further order may be taken, and therefore willeth
and straightly chargetli and coramandeth all her said
good loving subjects to live together in quiet sort and
christian charity, leaving those new found devilish terms
of papist or heretic, and such like, and applying their
whole care, study, and travel to live in the fear of God,
exercising their conversations in such charitable and
godly doing, as their lives may indeed express that great
hunger and thirst of God's glory and holy word, which
by rash talk and words many have pretended : and in
so doing they shall best please God, and live without
danger of the laws, and maintain the tranquillity of the
realm. Whereof as her highness shall be most glad, so
if any man shall rashly presume to make any assem-
blies of people, or at any public assemblies, or other-
wise shall go about to stir the people to disorder or dis-
quiet, she inindeth aecording to her duty, to see the same
most severely reformed and punished according to her
highness' laws.
" And furthermore, forasmuch as it is also well known,
that sedition and false rumours have been nourished and
maintained in this realm, by the subtlety and malice of
some evil-disposed persons, who take upon themselves
without sufficient authority to preach and to interpret
the word of God after their own heads in churches, and
other places both public and private, and also by playing
of interludes, and printing of false-found books, ballads,
rhymes, and other improper treatises in the English
tongue, concerning doctrine, in matters now in question
and controversy, touching the high points and mysteries
of christian religion ; which books, ballads, rhymes, and
treatises are chiefly by the printers and stationers set
out to sale to her grace's subjects, of an evil zeal for
lucre and covetousness of vile gain. Her highness
therefore straightly chargeth and commandeth all and
every of her said subjects, of whatever state, condition,
or degree they be, that none of them presume from
henceforth to preach, or by R-ay of reading in churches,
or other public or private places, except in schools of
the university, to interpret or teach any scriptures, or
liny manner of points of doctrine concerning rel.gion,
neither also to print any books, matter, ballad, rhyme.
\.D. 1553.]
MARY PROHIBITS PREACiliNG, PRINTING, Mc.
677
interlude, process or treatise, nor to play any interlude,
except they have her grace's special lii<euce in writins^ for
the same, upon pain to incur her highness' indij^inution
and displeasure.
" And her highness also further chargeth and com-
mandeth all ind every her subjects ; th;it none of them
of their own authority do j)re.sume to punish, and to
rise against Hfiy offender in the causes aforesaid, or any
other otfender in words or deeds in the Lite rebellion
committed oj done by the duke of Northumberland, or
his accomplices, or to seize any of tlieir goods, or vio-
lently to use any such offender by striking, imprisoning,
or threatening the same, but wholly to rctVr the punish-
ment of allsuch ofTenders unto her highness and the public
authority, whereof her majesty mindeth to see due pun-
ishment according to the order of her highness' laws.
" Nevertheless, as her highness intendeth not hereby
to restrain and discourage any of her loving subjects, to
give from time to time true information against any such
offenders in the causes aforesaid, unto her grace or her
council, for the punishment of every such offender,
according to the effect of her highness' laws provided in
that part : so her said highness exhorteth and strictly
chargeth her subjects to observe her commandment and
pleasure in every part aforesaid, as they will avoid her
highness' indignation and most grievous displeasure.
The severity and vigour whereof, as her highness sliall
be most sorry to have cause to put in execution, so doth
she utterly determine not to permit such unlawful and
rebellious doings of her subjects, whereof may ensue
the danger of her royal estate, to remain unpunished,
but to see her said laws touching these points to be
thoroughly executed: which extremities she trusteth all her
said subjects will foresee, dread, and avoid accordingly :
her higlmess straightly charging and commandingall may-
ors, sheriffs, justices of peace, bailiffs, constables, and all
other public officers and ministers, diligently to see to the
observing and executing of her commandments and plea-
sure, and apprehend all such as shall wilfully offend in this
part, committing the same to the next gaol, there to re-
main without bail or mainprize, till upon certificate made
to her highness, or her privy council, of their names and
doings ; and upon examination had of tlieir offences, some
further order shall be taken for their punisliment to the
example of others, according to the effect and tenor of
the laws aforesaid.
" Given at our manor of Richmond, the 18th day of
August, in the first year of our most prosperous reign."
Master Botime PreacJnng at St. Paul's Cross.
About this time, or not long before, Bonner, bishop
of London, being restored, appointed Master Bourne,
a canon of St. Paul's, to preach at the Cross ; he after-
wards was bishop of Bath and Wells. Bourne taking
occasion of the gospel of that day to speak something
largely in justifying Bonner who was then present ; "which
Bonner," said he, " had preached before upon the same
text in that place, that day four years, and was for the same
most cruelly and unjustly cast into the most vile dun-
geon of the Marshalsea, and there kept during the time
of king Edward." His words sounded so ill in the
ears of the hearers, that they could not keep silence,
pnd began to murmur and stir so that the mayor and al-
dermen, who were then present, greatly feared an uproar.
One person hurled a dagger at the preacher, but who it
was could not then be proved ; though afterwards it be-
came known.
Indeed, the stir was such, that the preacher drew
in his head, and durst appear no more in that place.
The matter of his sermon tended much to the dispraise
of king Edward, which the people could not bear. Then
Master Bradford, at the retpiest of the preacher's bro-
ther and others, stood forth and spake so mildly, chris-
tianly, and effectually, that with a few words he appeased
all : and afterwards he and Master Rogers conducted the
preacher between them from the pulpit to the grammar
school, where they left him safe. But for this they were
shortly after both rewarded with long imprison) ij.ent, and
last of all with tire in Smithfield !
By reason of this tumult at St. Paul's Cross nn order
was made by the lords of the council, and sent to the
mavor and aldermen of London, desiring that they should
call tlie next day following a common council of ihe city,
and should charge every householder to cause their
children, apjirentices, and other servants to keep their
own parish churches upon the holvdays, and not to
suffer them to attemj)t to break the peace. Command-
ing them also to signify to the assemljly the queen's
determination, which was, that her grace meant m^t to
compel other men's consciences otherwise than God sliall
put into their hearts a persuasion of the truth that she
herself believed in.
It was also ordered, that every alderman in his ward
should forthwith send for the curates of every parish,
and warn them not only to forbear to preach them-
selves, but also not to sutler any others to preaoi ; or
make any open or solemn reading of the scriptures
in their churches, unless the preachers were, licensed by
the queen.
On the next day after this sermon at St. Paul's Cross,
the queen's guard was at the Cross with their wenpons
to guard the preacher. And when the people withdrew
themselves from the sermon, an order was given by
the mayor, that the elders of all companies should be
present so as to make a congregation, lest the ju-eacher
should be discouraged by his small auditory.
On the l.ith of August, A.D. 1553, one William llutler
was committed to the Marshalsea, for uttering words
against Master Bourne, for his sermon at St. Paul s Cross.
On the Kith of August, Humfrey Palden was commit-
ted to the Compter, for words against Bourne's sermon
at St. Paul's Cross.
A letter was sent to the sheriffs of Buckinghamshire
■and Bedfordshire, to apprehend Fisher, parson of Am-
mersham, a preacher.
Another letter was sent to the bishop of Norwich, not
to suffer any preacher or other to preach or exjiound the
scriptures openly without special license from the queen.
The same day Master Bradford, Master Vernon, and
Master Beacon, preachers, were committed to the charge
of the lieutenant of the Tower.
The same day also Master John Rogers, preacher, was
commanded to keep himself prisoner in his own house
at St. Paul's, without having any conference with any
others than those of his own houst;hold.
On the 22nd of August there were two letters direct-
ed to Master Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, and Muster
Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, to repair forthwith to the
court, and there to attend the council's pleasure.
The same day Fisher, parson of Ammersham, made
his appearance before the council, according to their
letter of the Kith of August, and was appointed the next
day to bring in a note of his sermon.
On the 24th of August, one John jNIelvin, a Scotchman
and preacher, was sent to Newgate, in London, by the
council.
On the 28th of August there was a letter sent to the
mayor of Coventry and his brethren, for the apprehen-
sion of one Sanders, then vicar of St. Michael's, in
Coventry, and to send him up to the council, with his
examinations and other matters they could charge him
with ; with a commission to punish all such as had by
means of his preaching used any talk against the queen's
proceedings.
On the 26th of August, Master Hooper, bishop of Wor-
cester, made his personal appe«rance before the council,
according to their letters of the 22nd of August.
On the31st of August, Master Coverdale, bishop of Ex-
eter, made his appearance before the council, according
to their letters of the 22nd of August.
On the 1st of September, Master Hooper and Master
Coverdale appeared again before the council, when
Master Hooper was committed to the Fleet, and Master
Coverdale commanded to attend the lords' pleasure.
On the 2nd of September, Master Hugh Sanders, vicar
of St. Michael's, in Coventry, was before the council for
a sermon, and was commanded to appear n^^ wi'^n the
Monday following.
678
DISPUTATION IN THE COm'OCATION-HOUSE.
[Book X,
The 4th of Septemher, a letter was directed from the
rotxicilto Master Hugh Latimer for his appearance before
them..
About the 5th of September, Peter Martyr came to
London from Oxford, where for a time he had been
commanded to keep his house, and found there the
archbishop of Canterbury, who offered to defend the
doctrine of the book of Common Prayer, both by the
scriivtures and the doctors, assisted by Peter Martyr
ana a few others, as hereafter ye shall hear. But while
t'ley wpr^ in hope to come to disputations, the arch-
bis'iop and others were imprisoned, but Peter Martyr
was suffered to return.
The same day there was a letter sent to the mayor of
Coventry to set Hugh Symonds at liberty, if he would
recant his sermon, or if not, to detain him in prison.
On the i;ith September, Mr. Hugh Latimer appeared
before the council, according to their letter of tlie 4th of
September, and was committed as a close prisoner to
the Tower.
The same day the archbishop of Canterbury appeared
before the council, and was commanded to appear on the
next day before them in the star-chamber.
On the 14th of September, the archbishop of Canter-
bury made his appearance before the lords in the star-
chamber ; where they, charging him with treason and
spreading abroad seditious bills to the disquieting of the
state, committed him to the Tower of London, there to
remain till further sentence, or order, at the queen's
pleasure.
On the 15th of September, there was a letter sent to
Master Horn, dean of Durham, for his appearance before
them, and another was sent to him on the i th of October,
for his speedy appearance.
On the Kith of September, there were letters sent to
the mayors of Dover and Rye, to suffer all Fienchpro-
(estants to pass out of this realm, except such as should
be signified to them by the French ambassador.
On the first day of October, queen Mary was crowned
at Westminster, and on the tenth day of the same month
began the parliament with the solemn mass of the Holy
Ghost, after the popish manner, which was celebrated
with great pomp in the palace of Westminster. To
which mass, among the other lords, according to the
custom, the bishops should have come. Those bishops
who yet remained undeposed were the archbishop of
York; Doctor Taylor, bishop of Lincoln; John Harley,
bishoj) of Hereford. Of these bishops, Taylor and
Harley, presenting themselves according to their duty,
took their places among the lords, but after they saw the
mass begin, and not bearing the sight, they withdrew :
for which the bishop of Lincoln being examined, and
jn'otesting his faith, was commanded to attend ; but not
long afterwards died by sickness. Harley, because he
was married, was excluded both from the parliament and
from his bishopric.
Mass being done, the queen, accompanied by the
estates of the realm, was brought into the parliament-
house, to enter and begin the consultation : at which
consultation or parliament were repealed all statutes
made in the time of king Henry VI II. for premunire,
and statutes made by king Edward VI. for the adminis-
tration of common prayer and the sacrament in the
]?nglish tongue : and further, the attainder of the duke
of Northumberland was confirmed by this parliament.
In the meanwhile many men were forward in erecting
altars and masses in churches. And of such persons as
would adhere to the laws made in king Edward's time,
till others should be established, some wore marked and
some aiiju'ehended. Among whom Sir James Hales, a
knight of Kent, and justice of the Common Pleas, was one,
who, although he had ventured his life in queen Mary's
cause, in that he would not subscribe to the disinheriting
of her by the king's will, yet because at a quarter sessions
he charged upon the statutes made in the time of king
Henry Mil. and Edward VI. for the supremacy and
religion, he was imprisoned, and so cruelly handled and
]>ut in fear by the talk that the warden of the Fleet used
to nave in his healing, of such torments as were prepar-
ingfor heretics, (or for what other cause God knoweth,)
him he sought to rid himself out of this life by wound-
i.i^ himself with a knife ; and afterwards was contented
to say as they desired him : upon which he was dig.
charged ; but he never rested till he had drowned him-
self in a river, half a mile from his house in Kent.
During the time of this parliament, the clergy like-
wise held a convocation, with a disputation also, ap.
pointed by the q^ieen's command, at St. Paul's church
in London. In the convocation, Master John Harps-
field, bachelor of divinity, made a sermon to the clergy.
After the sermon, it was agreed by the bishops, that they
of the clergy -house, for avoiding confusion of words,
should choose a prolocutor. To which office, by common
assent, was named Doctor Weston, dean of Westminster,
and presented to the bishops with an oration by Master
Pye, dean of Chichester, and Master Wimbisley, arch-
deacon of London. Which Doctor Weston being chosen
and brought to the bishops, made his oration to the
house, with an answer again by Bishop Bonner.
After these things arranged in the convocation-house,
they proceeded next to the disputation appointed, by
the queen's command, about the matter of the sacra-
ment. Which disputation lasted six days. Wherein
Doctor M^eston was chief on the pope's part ; who be-
haved himself outrageously in taunting and checking.
Such as disputed on the other side were compelled some
to fly, some to deny, and some to die, though to most
men's judgments tliat heard the disputation they had the
advantage, as may appear by the report of the disputa-
tion, the copy of which we here annex : —
The trrip Beport nf the Dispvlation had and beffvn in the
Cotivocafion-hovse at London, the 18/// of Oct. A.D.
15r>;<, written by one vho was 2}re!ient at it.
Act of the First Day.
First upon Wednesday, being the 18th of October,
Doctor Weston the prolocutor certified thehouse, " tliat it
was the queen's pleasure, that they, being learned men,
should debate of matters of religion, and constitute laws,
which her grace and the parliament would ratily. And
as there is a book of late set forth, called the Catechism
bearing the name of this honourable synod, and yet put
forth without your consent as I have learned, being a
very pestiferous book, and full of heresies, an<l likewise
a book of common ])rayer very abominable, I thought it
therefore best to begin with the articles of the catechism
concerning the sacrament of the altar, to confirn\ the
natural presence of Christ in the same, and also ttan-
substantiation. Wherefore, it shall be lawful on Friday
next ensuing for all men freely to speak their conscience
in these matters, that all doubts may be removed, and
they fully sitisfied therein."
Act of the Second Day,
On Friday, being the 20th of October, when men
thought they should have entered on the disputation of
the questions proposed, the prolocutor exhibited two
bills to thehouse ; one for the natural presence of Christ
in the sacrament of the altar ; the other concerning the
catechism, that they did not agree thereto : requiring all
to subscribe to the same, as he himself had done. The
whole house immediately assented, except six, who were
Philips, dean of Rochester; Haddon, dean of Exeter;
Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester; Cheyney, archdeacon
of Hereford ; Ailmer, archdeacon of Stow ; and Young,
chanter of St. David's. And while the rest were about
to subscribe these two articles, John Philpot stood up
and spake concerning the articles of the catechism,
that it beareth the title of the synod of London last
before this, although many of them who then were
present were never made privy thereof in setting it
forth ; because this bouse had granted authority to make
ecclesiastical laws to certain persons appointed by the
king's majesty ; therefore it might be well said to be
done in the synod of London, although such as be of
this house novv had no notice of it before the promulga-
tion.
And he said, concerning the article of the natural
A.D. 1553.] DISPUTATION IN THE COm'OCATION-HOUSE ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE, 679
presence in the sacrament, that it was against order, and
also vtry prejudicial to the truth, that men should be
moved to subscribe before the matter was thoroughly
examined ; he therefore made this request to the prolo-
cutor ; that as there were so many learned men present
on that side, and as on the other side there were
rot past five or six that had not subscribed ; therefore,
that equality might be had in this disputation, he de-
sired that the prolocutor would arrange that some of
those that set forth the catechism, might be brought to
the house to shew what moved them to set it forth ; also
that Doctor Ridley and Master Rogers, with two or three
more, might have leave to be present at this disputation,
and be associated with them. This request was thought
reasonable, and was proposed to Bishop Bonner, but it
was refused to be allowed by him.
Ttie Act of the 'l^/iird Day.
On ^Monday the 2.3rd of October, at the time ap-
pointed, in the presence of many earls, lords, knights,
gentlemen, and others of the court and of the city, the pro-
locutor made a protestation, that the house had appointed
this disputation, not to call the truth into doubt, but that
these gainsayers might be resolved of their argument.
Then he demanded of Master Haddon, whether he
would reason against the questions proposed or not. He
made answer, that he had certified him before in writing,
that he would not, since the request of such learned men
as were demanded to be assis'.ant with them would not
be granted. Master Ailmer likewise was asked, who made
the prolocutor the same answer ; adding, that they had
done too much prejudice already to the trutli, to sub-
scribe before the matter was discussed : and that it would
avail little or nothing to reason for the truth, since
they were now determined to the contrary. After this he
demanded of Master Cheyney whether he would propose
his doubts concerning transubstantiation or not, "Yea,"
said he, " I would gladly my doubts were resolved,
which move me not to believe transubstantiation.
" The first is out of St. Paul to the Corinthians, who,
speaking of the sacrament of the body and blood 6f
Christ, calls it often ' bread' after the consecration.
" The second is out of Origen, who, speaking of this
tacrament, saith, ' That the material part goes down to
the excrements.'
" The third is out of Theodoret, who, makine: mention
of the sacramental bread and wine after the consecra-
tion, saith, " That they go not out of their former sub-
stance, form, and shape.' "
Then the prolocutor assigned Doctor Moreman to
answer him, who, to St. Paul, answered thus ; " That
the sacrament is called by him bread indeed : but it is
thus to be understood. That it is the sacrament of bread,
that is, the form of bread."
Then Master Cheyney alleged, that Plesychius called
the sacrament both bread and flesh.
" Yea," said Moreman, " Hesychius calls it bread,
because it was bread, and not because it is so." And
passing over Origen, he came to Theodoret, and said,
" That men mistook his authority, by interpreting a ge-
neral into a special, as Peter Martyr hath done, inter-
preting ovfria, for substance, which is a special significa-
tion of the word ; whereas ov(j'ia is a general word, as
well to accidents as to substance ; and therefore I answer
thus to Theodoret, That the sacramental bread and
wine do not go out of their former substance, form, and
shape ; that is to say, not out of their accidental sub-
stance and shape."
After this Master Cheyney sat down, and Master Ailmer
stood up as one that could not bear to hear such an
answer to so grave an authority ; and reasoned upon the
authority of Theodoret alleged before by Master Cheyney,
and declared, " That Moreman' s answer to Theodoret
was no just nor sufficient answer, but an illusion and
subtle evasion, contrary to Theodoret's meaning. For,
if oiidia, ' substance,' should signify an accident in the
place allleged, then were it a word superfluous there, as
there follow two other words which sufficienth'' signify the
accidents of the bread, which are, ' shape' and 'form.' "
After this John Philpot stood up and said, " That
Doctor Moreman's interpretation wps incorrect, and
that it could not be taken to signify an accidental
substance, as he would interpret it. For the occasion
of Theodoret's writing plainly shewed that was a vain
cavil ; for the dispute was with Eutyches, an heretic,
whether the body and human nature of Christ had yet
an existence distinct from the divine nature ? Eu-
tyches said, that Christ, in his human nature, hav-
ing ascended into heaven, and being there joined to
the divinity, was aI)sorbed or swallowed up, so that
Christ became of one divine substance only. Against
which opinion Theodoret writes, and, by the similitude
of the sacrament, proves the contraiy against the
heretic : That like as in the sacrament of the body of
Christ, after the consecration, there is the substance of
Christ's humanity, with the substance of bread remain-
ing as It was Detore, not Oemg aftsoroert Dy tiie hu-
manity of Christ, but joined by the divine operation ;
even so in the person of Christ, being now in heaven, in
whom this sacrament is a representation, there are two
substances, that is, his divinity and humanity united in
one person, which is Christ, the humanity not being ab-
sorbed by the conjunction of the divinity, but remaining
in his former substance.
" Ann this similitude," said Philpot, " brought in by
Theodoret to confound Eutyches, proved nothing at all,
if the very substance of the sacramental bread did not
remain as it did before. But if Doctor Moreman's in-
terpretation might take place for transubstantiation,
then should the heretic have made a strong argument, to
maintain his heresy, and to prove himself a good chris-
tian man, and he might weU say thus to Theodoret :
That as after the consecration in the sacrament, the sub-
stance of the bread is transubstantiated into the human
body of Christ, so in the sacrament it is now but one sub-
stance of the humanity, and not the substance of bread
as it was before; even so, likewise, the humanity ascend-
ing up by the power of God into heaven, and joined to
the Deity, was turned into one substance with the Deity ;
so that now there remains but one divine substance m
Christ, which is no more than in the sacramental signs ot
the Lord's Supper, after the consecration, there remains
but one substance, according to that construction."
In answering to this, Doctor Moreman staggered,
whose defect Philpot perceiving, said, " Well, Master
Moreman, if you have no answer at present ready, 1
pray you devise one, if you can conveniently, against
our next meeting here again.''
With tliat the prolocutor was grievously offended,
telling him that he should not boast there ; but that he
would be fully answered. Then said Philpot, " It is the
thing that I desire, to be answered directly in this be-
half; and 1 desire of you, and of all the house, that I
may be sufficiently answered, which I am sure you are
not able to do." No other answer was then made to Phil-
pot's argument, except that he was commanded to silence.
Then stood up the dean of Rochester, offering himself
to argue against the natural presence, wishing that the
scriptures, and the ancient doctors, in this point miglit
be weigVied and followed. And against this natural pre-
sence, he thought the saying of Christ, in St. Matthew,
sufficient ; who said of himself. That the poor you have
always with you, but me you have not always : " which,"
said he, " was spoken concerning the natural presence
of Christ's body, therefore we ought to believe as he
taught, That Christ is not naturally present on earth in
the sacrament of the altar."
To this it was answered by the prolocutor, " That we
should not have Christ always present to exercise alms
deeds upon him, but upon the poor, which is all that
was here intended to be meant."
But the dean prosecuted his argument, and shewed it
out of St. Augustine further. That that interpretation
of the scriptures was no sufficent answer, who writes in
the fiftieth Treatise of St. John, on this wise, on the
same sentence ; " When, as he said," saith St. Au-
gustine, ' Me you have not always with you,* he spake
of the presence of his body. For, by his majesty,
by his providence, by his unspeakable and invisible
grace, that is fulfilled which is said of him, Behold I
680
DISPUTATION IN THE CONVOCATION ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE. [Book X.
am with you until the consuinmation of the world. But
in the fiesh wiiich the Word took upon him, in tliat
which was born of the Virpin, in that which was appre-
hended of the Jews, which was crucified on the cross,
which was let down from the cross, which was wrajiped
in grave clothes, whii'ii was hid iu the sepulchre, wiiich
was manifested in the resurrection, You shall not liave
me alwaj-s with 3'ou. And why ? For, after a bodily
l)resence he was conversant with his disciples forty days,
and they accompanying him, seeina; and not following
him, he ascended, and is not here ; for there he sitteth at
the right hand of the Father ; and yet here he is, be-
cause he is not departed in the presence of his majesty.
After another manner we have Christ always by the pre-
Bcnee of his majesty, but after liie presence of his flesh
it is rightly said, You shall not verily have me always
with you. For the church had him in the jjresence of
his flesh a few days, and now by faith it apprehendeth
him, and seeth him not with eyes."
To this authority Doctor Watson took upon him to
answer, and said, "He would answer St. Augustine by
St. Augustine ; and having a book of notes in his hand,
he alleged out of the seventieth Treatise ujion St. John,
that after that mortal condition and manner we have not
now Christ on earth, as he was before his passion."
Against whose answer John Philpot replied, and said,
" That Master Watson had not fully answered St. Augus-
tine by St. Augustine, as he would seem to have done ;
for that in the place above mentioned by the Dean of
Rochester, he doth not only teach the mortal state of
Christ's body before his passion, but also the immortal
condition of the same after his resurrection : in which
mortal body St. Augustine seems plainly to affirm. That
Christ is not present upon the earth, neither in form visi-
bly, nor in corporal substance invisibly."
To this nothing else being answered, the dean of Ro-
chester proceeded in his argument, and read out of a
book of annotations sundry authorities for the confirma-
tion of it. To which Moreman, who was appointed to
answer him, made no direct answer, but bade him make
an argument, saying, "That the Dean had recited
many words of doctors, but he had not made one argu-
ment."
Then said the dean, " The autliorities of the doctors
by me rehearsed, are sufficient arguments to prove my
intent, to which my desire is to be answered by you."
But still Moreman cried, make an argument, to shift off
the autliority which he could not answer. After this
the dean made this argument out of the institution of the
sacrament ; " ' This do ye in remembrance of me : and
thus ye shall shew forth the Lord's death until he come.'
The sacrament is the remembrance of Christ ; and there-
fore the sacrament is not very Christ; for he is not
yet come. For these words, ' Until he come,' plainly
signify the absence of Christ's body." Then the prolo-
cutor went about to show that these words, " Until he
come," did not import any absence of Christ on the
earth ; but he answered nothing directly to the purpose.
In conclusion, the dean fell to questioning with More-
man, whether Christ did eat the paschal lamb with his
disciples or not .' He answered, "Yea." Further, he
demanded whether he did eat likewise tlie sacrament
with them, as he did institute it ? Moreman answered,
•'• Yea." Then he asked what he did eat, and whether
he did eat his own natural body, as they imagine it or
not? Which when Moreman had aflirmed, then said
tne dean, " It is a great absurdity ;" and so he sat down.
Against this absurdity Philpot stood up and argued,
saying, he could prove by good rchson deduced out of
the scriptures, that Christ ata not his own natural body
at the institution of the sacrament ; and the reason is
this :
The receiving of Christ's body has a promise of
remission of sins annexed to it, but Christ's own
eating the sacrament had no promise of remission of
sin, and therefore Christ in the sacrament did not eat
his own body.
To this reason Moreman answered, denying that the
sacrament had a promise of remission of sins annexed
to it.
Then Philpot shewed the promise in the sacrament
" Which is given for you, which is shed for you, for the
remission of sins." But Moreman would not acknow.
ledge that to be any promise, so that he drove Philpot
to the sixth of St. John, to vouch his saying with these
words : " The bread which I will give is my flesh, which
I will give for the life of the world."
Moreman answering nothing directly to this argument,
Harpsfield started uj) to supply that wiiich was wanted
in his behalf; and thinking to answer Philpot, cou-
firmed more strongly his argument, saying, " Ye mistake
the promise which is annexed to the body of Christ in the
sacrament : for it pertained not to Clirist, but to his
disciples, to whom Clirist said, ' 1'his is my body which
is broken for you,' and not for Clirist hiniself."
" You have said well for me," replied Philpot, " for
that is my argument. The promise of tlie body of Christ
took no effect in Christ : I conclude tlierefore Christ ate
not his own body."
Then the prolocutor said the argument was naught.
For by the like argument he niiglit go about to prove,
that Christ was not baptized, because the remission of
sin, which is annexed to baptism, took no efl'ectin Christ.
To wiiich Philpot replied, that as Christ was baplized,
so he ate the sacrament ; but he took on him baptism,
not that he had any need of it, or that it took any effect
in him, l)ut as our Master to give tlie church an exam-
ple to follow him in the administration of tlie sacrain< nt,
and thereby to exhibit himself to iix, and not to give
himself to himself.
No more was said in this. But afterwards tlie pro-
locutor demanded of Philpot, whether he wonlii argue
against the natural presence or not? He an.-wered,
" Y'^ea, if he would hear his argument without interrup-
tion. and assign one to answer him, and not many, which
is a confusion to the opponent, and especially for him
that was of an ill memory." By this time the night
was come on ; wherefore the prolocutor broke up the
disputation for that time, and appointed Philpot to be
thft first that should begin the disputation the next day,
concerning the presence of the sacrament.
The Act of the Fourth Day.
On Wednesday, the 2oth of October, John Philjct
was ready for the disputation, intending first to have
made a certain oration, and a true declaration iu Latin,
of the matter of Christ's presence, which was then in
question. Which the prolocutor perceiving, forbade
Philpot to make any oration or declaration of any matter,
commanding him also that he should make no argument
in Latin, but to conclude his argument in Englisii.
Then said Philpot ; "This is contrary to your order
taken at the beginning of this disputation. For tlien
you appointed that all the arguments should be made in
Latin, and thereupon I have drawn and devised all mine
arguments in Latin." But the prolocutor bade him sfill
form an argument in English, or else to hold his peace.
Then said Philpot ; " You have sore disappointed n;e,
thus suddenly to go from your former order ; but I will
comply with your command, leaving mine oration apnrt ;
and I will come to my arguments. But before I submit
any argument, I will in one word declare what manner
of presence I disallow in the sactament, that the hearers
may the better understand to what end and effect my
arguments shall tend ; not to deny utterly the presence
of Christ in his sacrament, truly ministered according to
his institution ; but only to deny that gross and (larnal
presence, which you of this house have already sub-
scribed to, to be in the sacrament of the altar, contrary
to the true and manifest meaning of the scriptures ; that
by transubstantiation of the sacramental bread and wine,
Christ's natural body .should, by virtue of the words
pronounced by the priest, be contained and included
under the forms or accidents of bread and wine. This
kind of presence imagined by men I do deny," con-
tinued Philpot, " and against this I will reason." But
before he could make an end of what he would have
said, he was interrupted by the jjrolocutor, and com-
manded to come to his argument. Philpot, being of-
fended, fell down upon Lis knees before the earls and
A. D. 153.).] DISPUTATION IN THE CONVOCATION ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE.
lords who were there present, of whom some were of the
queen's council, beseeching them that he might liave li-
I berty to prosecute his arguments, without interruption
of any man; which was gently granted him of the lords.
But the prolocutor would not permit him, but still cried,
" Hold your peace, or else make a short argument."
" I am about it," said Philpot ; " if you will let me
alone. But first, I must needs ask a question of my re-
spondent (who was Doctor Chedsey) concerning a word
or two of your supposition, that is, of the sacrament of
the altar, what he means thereby, and whether he takes
1 it as some of the ancient writers do, terming the Lord's
■ Supper the sacrament of the altar; partly because it is a
; sacrament of that lively sacrifice which Christ offered for
our sins upon the altar of the cross, and partly because
that Christ's body, crucified for us, was that bloody sa-
crifice, which the blood-shedding of all the beasts offered
ujion the altar in the old law, did prefigure and signify
to us ; or whether you take it otherwise ; as for the sa-
crament of the altar, which is made of lime and stone,
over wliich the sacrament hangs, and to be all one with
tlie sacrament of the mass, as it is at this present in
many places. This done, I will direct my arguments
according as your answer shall give me occasion.
Then Chedsey made this answer, tliat iti their suppo-
sition they took the sacrament of the altar, and the
sacrament of the mass, to be all one.
" Then," said Philpot, " I will speak plain English, as
?.Taster Prolocutor wishes me. and make a short resolution
of it, that the sacrament of the altar, which ye reckon to
be all one with the mass, once justly abolished, and now
]>ut in full use again, is no sacrament at all : neither is
Clirist iu any wise present in it ;" and this his saying he
I'uVred to prove before the whole house, if they chose
t(i call him to it. And likewise he offered to vouch the
.same before the queen's grace, and her most honourable
ciiiincil, before the face of six of the best learned men of
tiie house of the contrary opinion, and would e:;cept
none. " Arid if I shall not be able," said he, " to main-
tain by Gjd's word what I have said, and confound
those si/ T^ho shall take upon them to withstand me iti
this poiii' , let me be burdened ■srith as many fagots as are
in Londjn. before the court gates." This he uttered
with grf;at venemency of spirit.
At this the prolocutor, with others, were very much
offended, demanding of him whether he knew what he
said, or not? " Yea," said Philpot, " I wot well what
I say," desiring no man to be offended with his saying :
for that he spake no more than by God's word he was
able to prove. " And praised be God," continued he,
" that the queen's grace has granted us of this house (as
onr prolocutor has informed us) that we may freely utter
our consciences in these matters of controversy in religion ;
and therefore I will speak here ray conscience freely,
grounded upon God's holy word, for the truth, although
some of you here present dislike it."
Then several of the house, beside the prolocutor,
taunted and reprehended him for speaking thus against
the sacrament of the mass ; and the prolocutor threatened
him, that he would send him to prison, if he would not
cease speaking in that manner.
Philpot seeing himself thus abused, and not permitted
v.ith free liberty to declare his mind, fell into an excla-
mation, casting his eyes up towards heaven, and said,
" O Lord, what a world is this, that the truth of thy
holy word may not be spoken and adhered to?" And
for very sorrow and heaviness the tears trickled out of
his eyes.
After this, the prolocutor being moved by some that
were about him, was content that he should make an ar-
gument, provided he would be brief. " 1 will be as
brief," said Philpot, " as I may conveniently be in utter-
ing all that I have to say. And I will begin to ground
my arguments upon the authority of the scriptures,
whereupon all the building of our faith ought to be
grounded ; and I shall confirm the same by ancient doc-
tors of the church. And I take the firstarguraentouc of the
twcnty-ei:;ht chapter of St. Matthew, of the raying of the
augel at t!ie sepulchre, saying, ' He is risen, he is not
here ;' aad in St. Luke, in the tweuty-ihiiJ chapter,
G81
the angel asks why they sought the living among the
dead ? Likewise the sc.ipture testifies, that Chrtst is
risen, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on tlie right
hand of the Father : all which is spoken of his natural
body ; and therefore his natural body is not on earth
included in the sacrament.
" I will confirm this yet more effectually, by the say-
ing of Christ in the sixteenth chapter of St. John ;
' I came forth from the Father, and am come into the
world.' ' Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.'
Which coming and going he meant of his natural body.
Therefore we may a(hrm that it is not found in the
world.
" But I expect here," continued he, " to be answered
with d distinction of visi!)ly and invisibly ; that he is
visibly departed in his humanity, but invisibly he remains
notwithstanding in the sacrament. But I will prove that
no such distinction ought to take away the force of that
argument, by the answer which Christ's disciples gave to
him, speaking these words ; ' Now thou sjieakest plainly
and utterest no proverb.' Which words St. Cyril inter-
preting, saith, ' That Christ spake without any manner
of ambiguity and obscure speech.' And therefore I con-
clude that if Christ spake plainly, and without parable,
saying, ' Again, I leave the world and go to the Father ;'
then that obscure, dark and imperceptible presence of
Christ's natural body in the sacrament upon earth invi-
sibly, contrary to the plain words of Christ, ought not
to be allowed. For nothing can be more uncertain or
more parabolical and insensible, than to say so."
Tlien Doctor Chedsey took upon him to answer.
First, to the saying of the angel, " That Christ is not
here." " And, why seek ye the living amongthe dead ?"
He answered, that these sayings pertained nothing to the
presence of Christ's natural body in the sacrament, but
that they were spoken of Christ's body in the sepulchre,
when they thought him to have been in the grave still.'
And therefore the angel said : " Why do ye seek the
living among the dead ?" And to the authority of the
sixteenth chapter of St. John, where Christ saith, " Now
I leave the world and go to the Father;" he meant that
of his ascension. And so likewise did Cyril, interpreting
tne saying of the disciples, tlwt knew plainly that Chrisc
would visibly ascend into heaven, but that does not ex-
clude the invisible presence of his natural body in the sa-
crament. For St. Chrysostom, writing to the people of
Antioch, affirms the same, comparing Elijah and Ciirist
together, and Elijah's cloak and Christ's flesh. " Eli-
jah," said he, " when he was taken up in the fiery cha-
riot, left his cloak behind him unto his disciple Elisha.
But Christ, ascending into heaven, took his tlesh with
him, and left also his flesh behind him." Whereby we
may right well gather, that Christ's flesh is visibly
ascended into heaven, and invisibly abideth still in the
sacrament of the altar.
To this Philpot replied, " You have not directly an-
swered the saying of the angel : ' Christ is not here, but
is risen,' because you have omitted that which was the
chief point of all. For I proceed further, as thus : He
is risen, ascended, and sitteth at the right hand of God
the Father, and therefore he is not remaining on the
earth. Neither is your answer to Cyril sufficient. But
by and by I will return to your interpretation of Cyril,
and moi-e plainly declare the same, after I have first dis-
posed of the authority of Chrysostom, which is one of
the chief arguments that you allege, to make for your
gross carnal presence in the sacrament ; which being
well weighed and understood, pertains nothing to it."
At that the prolocutor startled, that one of the chief
pillars in this point should be overthrown ; and therefore
recited tlie authority in Latin first, and afterwards En-
glished the same, willing that all who were present to
note that saying of Chrysostom, which he thought in-
vincible on their side. "But I will make it appear,"
said Philpot, "that it makes little for your purpose."
And as he was about to declare his mind, the prolocutor
interrupted him, as he did almost continually. PhUpot,
not Iteing content, said ; " Mr. Prolocutor thinks that
he is in a sophistry school, where he knows right welltho
manner is. that when the respondent perceives that he is
682
DISPUTATION IN THE CON^YOCATION ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE, [Book X.
likely to be forced with an argument, to which he is not
able to answer, he does what he can with cavil and inter-
ruption to drive him from it." This saying of Philpot
»vas ill taken by the prolocutor and his adherents ; and
the prolocutor "said, that Philpot could bring nothing to
Avoid that authority, but his own vain imagination.
" Hear," said Philpot, "and afterwards judge. For I
will do in this as in all other authorities, wherewith you
shall charge me in refuting any of my arguments, answer-
ing either by sufficient authorities of scripture, or else by
some other testimony with yours, and not of mine own
imagination. And concerning the saying of Chrysostom,
1 have two ways to beat him from your purpose ; the
one out of the scriptures, the other out of Chrysostom
himself, in the place alleged by you.
" First, where he seemeth to say, that Christ ascend-
ing took his flesh with him, and left also his flesh be-
hind him, it is truth ; for we all confess and believe that
Christ took on him our human nature in the womb
of the Virgin IVIary, and through his passion has united
us to his flesh, and thereby are we become one flesh with
him, so that Chrysostom might right well say, that
Christ ascending took his flesh, which he received of the
Virgin Mary, away with him ; and also left his flesh be-
hind him, which is we that are his elect in this world,
who are the members of Christ, and flesh of his flesh ; as
St. Paul, in the fifth chapter to the Ephesians, testifies
saying, ' We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of
his bones.' And if any man will reply, that he treats there
of the sacrament ; so that this interpretation cannot so
aptly be applied to him in that place, then will I yet in-
terpret Chrysostom another way by himself. For in that
place, a few lines before those words which were here
now lately read, are these words : that Christ after he
asrended into heaven, left to us, indued with his sacra-
ments, his flesh in mysteries, that is, sacramentally.
And that mystical flesh Christ leaves as well to his church
in the sacrament of baptism, as in the sacramental bread
and wine. And that St. Paul justly witnesses, saying ;
' As many of us as are baptised into Christ have put on
Christ.' And thus you may understand that St. Chry-
sostom makes nothing for your carnal and gross pre-
sence in the sacrament, as you wrongfully take him."
Now, in the meanwhile Master Pye whispered the prolo-
cutor in the ear, to put Philpot to silence, and to appoint
some other, distrusting lest he would shake their carnal
presence, if he held on long, seeing in the beginning
he gave one of their chief foundations such a blow.
Then the prolocutor said to Philpot that he had reasoned
enough, and that some other should now supply his
room. But he was not well content, saying, " Why,
sir, I have a dozen arguments concerning this matter to
be proposed, and I have yet scarce gone over my first
argument."
"Well," said the prolocutor, "you shall speak no
more now; and I command you to hold your peace."
"You perceive," replied Philpot, "that I have stuff"
enough for you, and am able to withstand your false sup-
position, and therefore you command me to silence."
" If you will not give place,'' said the prolocutor, "I
will send you to prison." "This is not," answered
Philpot, " according to your promise made in this house ;
nor yet according to your boast made at St. Paul's Cross,
that men should be answered in this disputation to
whatever they can say, since you will not suffer me out
of a dozen arguments to prosecute one."
Then Master Pye took upon him to promise that he
should be answered another day. Philpot, seeing he
might not proceed in his purpose, being justly offended,
ended, saying thus: " A number of you here, who hi-
therto have lurked in corners, and dissembled with God
end the world, are now gathered together to suppress the
sincere truth of God's holy word, and to set forth every
false device, which you are not able to maintain by the
catholic doctrine of the scriptures.''
Then stepped forth blaster Ailmer, chajilain to the
duke of Suffolk, whom Master Mori man tuok upon him
to answer. Master Ailmer objected several authorities
for the confirming of the argument he took in hand the
day before, to prove that " substance" in the sentence
of Theodoret, brought in by Master Cheyney, must
needs signify ' substance,' and not 'accidents.' Whose
reasons, because they were all grounded and brought out
of the Greek, I pass over, because they want their
grace in English, and also their proper understanding.
But his allegations so incumbered Doctor Moreman, that
he desired a day to reply to them, for at that instant hn
was without a convenient answer.
Then the prolocutor called Master Haddon, dean of
Exeter, and chaplain to the duke of Suffolk, who prose-
cuted Theodoret's authority in confirming Master Ail-
mer's argument. To whom Doctor Watson took upon
him to give an answer ; who was confounded, that he
was not able to answer to the word 'Mysterium.' But
as he seemed to doubt therein, Master Haddon took out
of his bosom a Latin author to confirm his saying, and
shewed it to Master Watson, asking him whether he
thought that translation true, or that the printer were in
any fault. "There may be a fault in the printer," said
Watson, "for I am not remembered of this word."
Then Master Haddon took out of his bosom a Greek
book, wherein he shewed with his finger the same words,
which Master Watson could not deny.
Then stept forth Mr. Perne, and made declaration of
his mind against transubstantiation, whom the prolocutor
answered, saying, " I much marvel, Mr. Perne, that you
will say thus ; for on Friday last you subscribed to the
contrary." Which Master Palmer disliked, saying to the
prolocutor, " That he was to blame so to reprehend any
man, partly because this house is an house of free liberty
for every man to speak his conscience, and partly be-
cause you promised yesterday, that notwithstanding any
man had subscribed, yet he should have free liberty to
speak his mind."
T/ie Act of the Fifth Day.
On Friday, the 27th of October, Dr. Weston, the
prolocutor, first propounded the matter, shewing that the
convocation had spent two days in disputation already
about one only doctor, who was Theodoret, and aboul
one only word, which was " substance." Yet were they
come the third day to answer all things that could be ob-
jected, so that they would shortly put together their
arguments. So Master Haddon, dean of Exeter, desired
leave to oiT^JOse Master Watson, who, with two others
more, that is, jNIorgan and Harpsfield, was appointed to
answer : Master Haddon demanded this of him, whether
any substance of bread or wine remained after the con-
secration ? Then Master W^atson asked of him again,
whether he thought there was a real presence of Christ's
body or not? Master Haddon said, " It was not meet
nor order-like that he who was appointed to be respondent
should be opponent, and he whose duty was to object
should answer." Yet Master Watson a long while would
not agree to answer, but that being granted, at last an
order was set, and Master Haddon had leave to proceed
with his argument.
Then he proved by Theodoret's words, that the sub-
stance of bread and wine remained. For these are his
words, " The same they were before the sanctification,
which they are after." Master Watson said, that Theodo-
ret meant not the same substance, but the same essence.
Whereupon they were driven again unto the discussing
of the Greek word " substance." Then Master Watson
answered that it had not that signification only. But
INIastir Haddon proved that it must needs signify so in
that place. Then he asked Master Watson, when the
bread and wine became symbols ? He answered, " after
the consecration, and not before." Then Master Iladdou
argued that Theodoret says, that what the bread and wine
were before they were symbols, the same they remain
still in nature and substance, after they are symbols ;
and as thus they were bread and wine before, therefore
bread and wine they are afterwards still.
Tlien Mr. Watson fell to the denial of the author,
and said he was a Nestorian ; and he desired that he might
answer to Master Cheyney who stood by, because he was
more meet to dispute in the matter, because he had
granted and subscribed to the real presence. Master Chey-
ney desired patience of the honourable men to hear Liui,
A.D. 1553.]
DISPUTATION IN THE CONVOCATION ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE.
68?-
trusting that he should so open the matter, that the
truth should appear ; that he would be no author of
schism, nor hold any thin? contrary to the holy mother
the church, which is Christ's spouse. Doctor Weston
liked this well, and commended him highly, saying that
he was a well-learned and sober man, and well exercised
in all good learning and in the doctors ; and finally, a
man meet for his knowledge to dispute in that place :
" I pray you hear him," said he. Then Master Cheyney
desired such as were there present to pray two words
with him to God, and to say, vincat Veritas, " may truth
prevail,' and have the victory ; and all that were pre-
sent cried with a loud voice, " Vincat Veritas, vincat
Veritas "
Then said Doctor Weston to him, that it was hypo-
critical Men may better say, replied he, vicit Veritas,
•' truth hath got the victory." Master Cheyney said, if
he would give him leave, he would bring it to that
point, that he might well say so.
Then he began with Master Watson after this sort :
" You said that Master Haddon was unmeet to dis-
pute, because he grants not the natural and real pre-
sence, but I say you are much more unmeet to answer,
because you take away the substance of the sacrament "'
Master Watson said. " He had subscribed to the real
presence, and should not go away from that." So said
Weston also, and the rest of the priests ; so that for a
great while he could have no leave to say any more, till
the lords spake, and desired that he should be heard.
Then he told them what he meant by his subscribing
to the real presence, far otherwise than they supposed.
So then he went forward, and prosecuted Master Haddon's
argument, and said that when they could not answer,
they went to deny the author, and therefore he proved
the author to be a catholic doctor; and that being prov-
ed, he confirmed that which was said of the nature and
substance further.
Then was Master Watson forced to say, that the sub-
stance of the body, in the former part of the similitude
of Theodoret signified quantity, and other accidents of
sacramental tokens, and not the very substance of the
same ; for according to philosophy, the accidents of
things are seen, and not the substances.
Then Master Cheyney appealed to the honourable men,
and desired that they would give no credit to them in so
saying : for if they would think as they teach, after their
lordships had rode forty miles on horseback, they would
not be able to say at night, that they saw not their
horses all the day, but only the colour of their horses ;
and by this reason Christ must go to school, and learn of
Aristotle to speak. For when he saw Nathanael under
the fig-tree, if Aristotle had stood by, he would have
said, " No, Christ, thou sawest not him, but the colour
of Mm."
Tnen it was said by Watson : " Suppose that Theodo-
ret is with you, who is one that we never heard of printed
till two or three years ago ; yet is he only but one, and
what is one against the whole consent of the church ?''
After this. Master Cheyney inferred, that not .only Theo-
doret was of that mind, that the substance of bread and
wine do remain, but others also.
Then was Master Harpsfield called in to see what he
could say in the matter ; who told a fair tale of the om-
nipotency of God, and of the imbecility and weakness of
man's reason ; he said, " That it was convenient what-
ever we saw, felt, or tasted, not to trust our senses."
And he told a tale out of St. Cyprian, how a woman saw
the sacrament burning. "And that which burned there,"
said Harpsfield, " burns here, and becomes ashes ; but
what that was that burnt he could not tell." But Master
Cheyney continued and forced them with this question :
•' What it was that was burnt ? It was either the sub-
stance of bread, or else the substance of the body of
Christ, which was too great an arbsurdity to grant." At
length they answered, "That it was a miracle.''^ Master
Cheyney smiled and said, " That he could at that rate
say no more."
Then Master Weston asked of the company present
whetlier those men were sufficiently answered or not ?
Certain priests cried, " Yea ;" but they were not heard at
all for the great multitude, who cried "No, no." Which
cry was heard almost to the end of St. Paul's. Doctor
Weston being much moved, answered bitterly, "That
he asked not the judgment of the rude multitude and
unlearned people, but of them who are of the house.
Then asked he of Master Haddon and his fellows, whe-
ther they would answer them three other days ? Haddon,
Cheyney, and Ailmer said, "No." But Philpot, arch-
deacon of Winchester, stood up and said, that they should
not say so, for they should be answered ; and though all
others refused to answer them yet he would not ; but of-
fered to answer them all one after another : with whose
proffer the prolocutor was not content, but railed on
him, and said, " That he should go to Bedlam." To
whom the archdeacon soberly made this answer, " That
he was more worthy to be sent thither, who used him-
self so ragingly in that disputation.'' Then rose Dr.
Weston and said :
" All the company have subscribed to our article, sav-
ing only these men. What their reasons are you have
heard. We have answered them three days, upon pro-
mise (as it pleased him to descant, without truth, for no
such promise was made) that they should answer us
again as long as the order of disputation requires, anii
if they are able to defend their doctrine, let them Ho so,"
Then Master Ailmer stood up, and proved how vam a
man Weston was ; for he affirmed that they never pro-
mised to dispute, but oidy to open and testify to the
world what they believed in their consciences. For
when they were required to subscribe, they refused, and
said that they would shew good reasons which moved
them, tjiat they could not in their consciences subscribe,
as they had partly already done, and were still ablt" to
do more sufficiently. "Therefore,'' said he, "it hath been
ill called a disputation, and they were worthy to be
blamed that were the authors of that name. Yor we
meant not to dispute, nor now mean tc answer till our
arguments, which we have to propound, be solved, ac-
cording as was appointed. For by answering we should
but incumber ourselves, and profit nothing ; since the
matter is already decreed upon and determined, what-
ever we shall prove to the contrary."
The Act of the Sixth Day.
On Monday following, being the .30th of October, the
prolocutor demanded of John Philpot, archdeacon of
Winchester, whether he would answer to the questions
before propounded to their objections or not ? "To whom
he made this answer, that he would willingly do so,
if according to their former determination, they would
first answer to some of his arguments, as they had pro-
mised to do, whereof he had a dozen, not half of the first
being yet decided. And if they would answer fully and
sufficiently to one of his arguments, he promised that
he would answer to all the objections that they should
bring forth.
Then the prolocutor bade him propound his argu-
ment, and it should be answered by one of them ; to
which Master Morgan was appointed. "U/ion Wednesday
last," said he, " I was forced to silence before I had
prosecuted half mine argument ; the sum whereof was
this (as was gathered by the just context of the scripture)
that the human body of Christ was ascended into heaven,
and placed on the right hand of God the Father : where-
fore it could not be situated upon earth in the sacrament
of the altar, invisible after the imagination of man."
The argument was denied by Morgan. Philpot said,
that this was it wherewith he had to confirm his first
argument, if they would have suttered him the other
day, as now he trusted they would ; it was to this effect :
that to be bodily present, and to be bodily absent ; to be
on earth, and to be in heaven ; and all at one and the
same time are things contrary to the nature of a human
body. And therefore it cannot be said of the human
body of Christ, that the self-same body is both in heaven
and also on earth at one instant, either visibly or in-
visibly.
Morgan in answer denied the first part of the argu-
ment. Philpot said, that as one of our bodies cannot
receive in itself any thing contrary to the nature of a
684
DISPUTATION IX THE CONVOCATION ABOUT THE REAL PRESENCE.
[Book X.
body, as to be in St. Paul's Churcli and at Westmin>-ter
at one instant, or to be at Loiulon visibljs and at Lincoln
invisibly, at one time ; for that is contrary to the nature
of a body ; so he concluded that the body of Clui.st could
not be ia more places than one ; it is in heaven, and
therefore cannot be contained in the sacrament of the
altar.
Philpots added that St. Peter in the sermon that he
made in the third of the Acts, making mention of Christ,
used these words, " Whom the heavens must receive
until the restitution of all things,*' &c. Which words
are spoken of his humanity. If heaven must hold
Christ, then he cannot be here on earth, in the sacra-
ment, as is pretended.
Then Morgan laughing at this, and giving no answer,
Harpsfield stood up, being one of thebisho)) of London'':
chaplains, and took it upon him to answer to the say.
ing of St. Peter, and demanded of Philpot, whether he
would of necessity force Christ fo any j)lacp, or not ?
Philpot said, that he would not otherwise force Christ
of necessity to any place, than he is taught by the words
of the Holy Ghost, which say, that Christ's human
body must abide in heaven until the day of judgment.
"Why," said Harpsfield, "do you not know that
God is omnipotent .'" " Yes," said Philpot, " I know
that right well, neither doubt I any thing at all of his
omnipotency. But of Christ's omnipotency what he
may do is not our question, but rather what he doth.
1 know he may make a stone in the wall a man, if lie
will, and also that he may make more worlds, but doth
iij tiu-refore do so ? It were no good consequent so to
conclude ; he may do this or that, therefore he does it."
"Why," said the prolocutor, " then you will put
Christ in prison in heaven." To which Philpot an-
sttjred, " Do you reckon heaven to be a prison? God
giant us all to come to that prison."
Afier some further arguing, Morgan asked Philpot
wiierher he would be ruled by the universal church, or
not ?
" Yes," said he, " if it be the true catholick church.
And since you speak so much of the church, I would be
glad if you would declare what the church is .'"
"The church," replied Morgan, " is diffused and dis-
per.sed throughout tlie whole world." " That is a diffuse
'L:rinition," said Philpot, "for I am yet as uncertain as
I was before, what you mean by the church : but I ac-
li.iowledge no church but that which is grounded and
fou:ided on (Jod's word, as St. Paul sai'.h, ♦ Upon the
fiiundation of the apostles and prophets,' and upon the
sci-iptiires of God."
" What," answered Moreman, " was the scripture
before the church .'" " Yea," said Philpot. " But I
will prove nay," replied Moreman. "The church of
Christ was before any scripture was written."
Philpot said, " That all prophecy uttered by the Spirit
of God, was counted to be scripture before it was writ-
ten in paper and ink, because it was written in the hearts,
and graven in the minds, yea, and inspired in the mouths
of good men, and of Christ's apostles by the Spirit of
Christ ; as the s&lutation of the angel was tlit scripture
of Christ, and the word of God, before it was written."
At that Moreman cried, " Fie, fie!" wondering that the
scripture of God should be counted scripture before it
was written, and affirmed, that he had no knowledge who
could speak so.
Philpot answered, "That concerning knowledge for
the trial of the truth about the questions in controversy,
he would wish himself no worse matched than with
Moreman."
At which the prolocutor was grievously offended,
saying. That it was arrogantly spoken by Philpot to
compare himself with such a worshipful learned man
as Moreman was, being himself a man unlearned, yea, a
madman, meeter to be sent to Bedlam than to be amoii"-
such learned and grave men as were there assembled,
and a man that never would be answered, and one th^it
troubled the whole house ; and therefore he commanded
him no more to come into the house, demanding of the
house, whether they would agree to this. A great com-
pany answered, " Yea." Then said Philpot again, that
he might think himself a happy man that was out of
tliis cumj)any.
After this Morgan rose up and whispered to the pro.
locutor in the ear. And then again the prolocutor spake
to Philpot, and said, "Lest thou shouldst slander the
house, and say that we will not suffer you to declare
your mind, we are content you should come into the
house as you have done before, provided you be ajipa-
rclled with a long gown and a tipjiet, as we are, and tiiat
you shall not speak but when I command you." " Then,''
said Philpot. " 1 had rather be absent altogether."
Weston concluded all by saying, " You have the word,
but we have the sword;" which shewed the ojjinion in
which this disputation was carried on.
They carried on reasoning in this manner until at
length, about the l.Uh of December, queen Mary sends
her commands to Bonner bishop of London, that he
should dissolve and break up the convocation.
During the time of this disputation, on the 20th day
of November, the mayor of Coventry sent up to the lord's
of the council, Baldwin Clarke, J. Carelesse, Thomas
Wilcocks, and Richard Estelin, for their behaviour upon
Alhallow -day. Carelesse and Wilcocks were committed
to the Gatehouse, and Clarke and Estelin to the Mar-
shalsea.
On the sanre day there was a letter directed to Sir
Christopher Ileydon, and Sir W'illiam Farmer, knights,
for the apprehension of John Huntington, preacher, for
making a rhyme against Dr. Stokes and the saiTament.
Vv'iio appearing before the council on the third of De-
cember next, was, upon his humble submission and pro-
mise to amend as well in docti'ine as in living, again
suffered to depart.
In the days of king Henry VIII., and also king Ed-
ward VI. after him, some noblemen, bishops, and others,
were cast into the Tower ; some charged with treason, as
Lord Courtney and the Duke of Norfolk ; some for the
pope's supremacy, and suspicious letters tending to se-
dition, as Tonstal bishop of Durham ; and others for
other things, all of whom continued prisoners till queen
Mary ascended the throne. The queen granted tlieii'
pardon, and restored them to their former dignities.
Gardiner bishop of Winchester, she not only delivered
out of captivity, but also advanced to be high chan-
cellor of England. To the lord Courtney she shew-
ed such favour, that she made him Earl of Devonshire,
so that there was a suspicion that she would marry him,
but that proved otherwise.
At the same time Bonner also had been prisoner in the
Marshalsea ; whom likewise Queen Mary delivered, and
restored Vj the bishopric of London again, displacing
Dr. Ridley, with other good bishops, as is above-
mentioned ; namely, Cranmer, from Canterbury ; the
archbishop of York ; Poinet from Winchester ; John
Hooper from "Worcester ; Barlow from Bath ; Harley
from Hereford ; Taylor from Lincoln ; Ferrar from St.
Davids ; Coverdale from Exeter ; Scory from Chichester,
&c., with a great number of archdeacons, deans, and
brieily all such beneficed men as were married, or ad-
hered to their profession. All were removed from their
livings, and others of the contrary sect placed in them ;
as Cardinal Pole, who was then sent for, Gardiner,
Heath, White, Day, Troublefield, Sec.
As to Cranmer, as there was rumour spread of him in
London, that he had recanted, and caused mass to be
said at Canterbury ; to clear himself he published a de-
claration of his constancy, protesting that he neither had
done so, nor intended to do so. Adiling, that if it would
so ])lease the queen, he, with Peter Martyr and others
would in open disputation sustain the cause of the doc-
trine taught and set forth in the days of king Edward
A'L, against all persons. But while he was in expecta-
tion to have this disputation, he, with' other bisliops,
was laid fast in the Tower, and Peter Martyr permitted
to dejjart the realm.
After this, in the month of November, archbishop
Cranmer, though he had refused to subscribe to the
king's will in disinheriting Mary, alleging many grave
reasons for her legitimacy, was arraigned in the Guild-
hall of Loudon, and attainted of treason, with the lady
A.D.1554.]
A CONVERSATION BETWETlN FECKNAIM AND LADY JANE,
685
:jane, and tliree of the duke of Northumberland's sons,
-who at the entreaty of certain persons, were had agaif.
jto the Tower, and there kept. Cranmer bein? pardoned
'of the treason, stood only in the action of d(-ctrine,
i which they call';d heresy, of which he was right glad.
\ I This being done in November, the people, and e-pe-
^icially the churchmen, perceiving the queen so eagerly
I iset upon her old religion, they likewise began in their
i quires to set up the pageant of St. Catharine, and of St.
Nicholas, and of their processions in Latin, after all their
old solemnity.
And when the month of December was come, the par
liament broke up. In which parliament also communi-
cation was moved of the queen's marriage with king
Philip the emperor's son.
In the meanwhile cardinal Pole being sent for by
! queen Mary, was requested by the emperor to stay with
him, that his presence in England should not be a hin-
drance to the marriage which he intended between
his son Philip and queen Mary. For making of which
he sent a most ample embassy, with full power to cou-
Itract the marriage.
On the 13th of January, A.D. 1554, Dr. Crome, for
his preaching upon Christmas-day without license, was
committed to the Fleet.
On the 21st of January, Master Thomas Wootton was
for matters of religion committed a close prisoner to the
Fleet.
The death of the lady Jane Gray having now been de-
termined upon, the queen sent, two days before her death,
INIaster Fecknam, afterwards abbot of Winchester, to
commune with her, and to turn her from the doctrine of
Christ to queen Mary's religion. The effect of which
communication here follows : —
The Communication had between the Lady Jane and
Fec.'cnam.
Fecknam. — Madam, I lament your heavy case, and
et I doubt not, but that you bear out this sorrow of
ours with a constant and patient mind.
Jane. — You are welcome to me, sir, if your coming be
0 give christian exhortation. And as for my heavy case.
1 thank God) I do so little lament it, that I ratlier am-
ount it a more manifest declaration of God's favour to
me, than ever he shewed me at any time before. And
therefore there is no cause why either you, or others
who bear me good will, should lament or be grieved
with my case, being a thing so profitable for my soul's
lii-alth.
Fecknam. — I am come to you, sent trom the queen
and her council, to instruct you in the true doctrine of
the right faith : although I have so great confidence in
you, that I shall have, I trust, little need to labour with
you much therein.
Jane. — I heartily thank the queen's highness, which is
not unmindful of her humble subject : and I hope like-
wise that you will no less do your duty both truly and
tairhfnlly, according to that you were sent for.
Fecknam — What is then required of a christian man ^
Jane. — That he should believe in God the Father, the
^on, and the Holy Ghost, three persons in one God-
iiead.
Fecknam. — What ? Is there nothing else to be re-
i^uired or looked for in a christian, but to believe in him ?
Jane. — Yes, we must love him with all our heart, with
ill our soul, and with all our mind, and our neighbour as
3urself.
Fecknam. — Why ? Then faith jus'''<^'*s' T'ot "«•• s»vf>e
not.
Jane. — Yes, verily, faith only (as St. Paul saith) jus-
;ifies.
Fecknam. — Why? St. Paul saith, If we have all faith
vithout charity, it is nothing.
Jane. — It is true; for how can I love him whom I
rust not ? or, how can I trust him whom I love not ?
i^aith and love go together, and yet love is comprehended
n faith.
Fecknam. — How shall we love our neighbour?
I Jane. — To love our neighbour is to teed the hungry,
to clothe the naked, and give drink to the thirsty, and to
do to liim as we would do to ourselves.
Fecknam. — ^^'hy ? then it is necessary to salvation
to do good works also, and it is not sufficient only to
believe.
Jane. — I deny that, and I affirm that faith only saves :
but it is meet for a christian, in token that he follows
his Master, Christ, to do good works, yet may we not say
that they profit to our salvation. For " when we have
done all, yet we are all uni)rofitable servants," and faith
only in Christ's blood saves us.
Fecknam. — How many sacraments are there?
Jane. Two. T!ie one the sacrament of baptism, and
the other the sacrament of the Lord's supper.
Fecknam. — No, there are seven.
Jane. — By what scripture find you that?
Fecknam. — Well, we will talk of that hereafter. But
what is signified by your two sacraments ?
Jane. — By the sacrament of baptism I am washed with
water, and regenerated by the Spirit, and that washing is
a token to me that I am the child of God. The sacra-
ment of the Lord's supper offered to me, is a sure seal
and testimony that I am, by the blood of Christ, which
he shed for me on the cross, made partaker of the ever-
lasting kingdom.
Fecknam. — Why ? what do you receive in that sacra-
ment ? Do you not receive the very body and blood of
Christ ?
Jane. — No, surely, I do not so believe. I think that
at the supjier 1 neither receive flesh nor blood, but bread
and wine • which bread when it is broken, and the wine
when it is drunk, puts me in remembrance how that for
my sins the body of Christ was broken, and his blood
shed on the cross, and with that bread and wine I receive
the benefits that come by the breaking of his body, and
shedding of his blood for our sins on the cross.
Fecknam. — Why? Doth not Chitst speak these words,
" Fake, eat, this is my body?" Require you any plainer
words ? Doth he not say it is his body?
Jane. — I grant he saith so ; and so he saith, " I am
the vine," " I am the door:" but he is never the more the
door nor the vine. Doth not St. Paul say, " He calletli
things that are not as though they were ?" God forbid
that I should say, that I eat the very natural body and
blood of Christ : for then either I should pluck away
my redemption, or else there were two bodies, or two
Christs. One body was tormented on the cross, and if
they did eat another body, then had he two bodies : or if
his body were eaten, then it was not broken upon the
cross, or if it was broken upon the cross, it was not eateu
by his disciples.
Fecknam. — Why ? is it not as possible that Christ by
his power could make his body both to be eaten and
broken, and to be born of a woman without seed of man,
as to walk upon the sea, and other such like miracles as
he wrought by his power only ?
Jane. — Yes, if Goil wished to have performed any
miracle at his supper, he might have done so : but I say
L;iai tnen he intended no work nor miracle, but only to
break his body, and shed his blood on the cross for our
sins. But I pray you to answer me to this one question*
Where was Christ, when he said, " Take, eat, this is my
body?" Was he not at the table when he said so? he
was at that time alive, and suffered not till the next day.
What took he but bread, what brake he but bread '
And what gave he but bread? Look, what he took, he
brake : and look, what he brake, he gave ; and look,
what he gave, they did eat : and yet all this while he
himself was alive, and at supper before his disciples, or
o.tc tiiov iscirt, uCv-eived.
Fecknam. — You ground your faith upon such authors
as say and unsay both in a breath, and not upon the
church, to which you ought to give credit.
Jane. — No, I ground my faith on God's word, and not
upon the church. For if the church be a good church,
the faith of the church must be tried by God's word, and
not (-od's word bv the church, nor yet my faith. Shall
I believe the church because of antiquity ? or shall I
give credit to the church that takes away from me the
half-part of the Lord's supper, and wiU not let any mao
68 fi
LETTERS OF LADY JANE TO HER FATHER AND SISTER.
[Book X.
receive it in both kinds ? Which things, if they refuse
to us, then they refuse to us part of our salvation. And
I sav, that it is an evil church, and not the spouse of
Christ, but the spouse of the devil, that alters the Lord's
supper, and both takes from it, and adds to it. To that
church, say \, God will add plagues, and from that church
will he take their part out of the book of life : (Rev. xxu.
1>* ) Do they learn that from St. Paul, when he admi-
m^cered to the Corinthians in both kinds? shall I believe
this church ? God forbid.
Fecknam.— That was done for a good intent of the
church, to avoid a heresy that sprung up from it.
Jane. Why.' shall the church alter God's will and
ordinance for good intent ? How did king Saul ? The
Lord God forbids it.
With these and such like persuasions he would have
had her lean to the church of Rome, but he could not
prevail. There were many more things of which they
reasoned, but these were the chief.
After this, Fecknam took his leave, saying, that he
was sorry for her : " For I am sure," said he, " that we
two shall never meet."
"True it is," said she, " that we shall never meet, except
God turn your heart. For I am assured, unless you
repent and turn to God, you are in an evil case : and
I pray God, in his infinite mercy, to send you his Holy
Spirit : for he hath given you his great gift of utter-
ance, if it pleased him also to open the eyes of your
understanding."
A Letter of the Lady Jane sent to her Father.
" Father, although it hath pleased God to hasten my
death by you, by whom my life should rather have been
lengthened ; yet I can so patiently take it, as I yield
God more hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days,
Vhan if all the world had been given to my possession
with life lengthened at my own will. And although I
iim well assured of your impatient temper, redoubled
manifold ways, both in bewailing your own woe, and
especially (as I hear) my unfortunate state, yet, my dear
father, (if 1 may, without offence, rejoice in my own
misfortunes,) methinks in this I may account myself
blessed, that washing my hands with the innocency of
my fact, my guiltless blood may cry before the Lord,
" Mercy to the innocent." And yet, though I must
needs acknowledge, that being constrained, and, as you
know well enough, continually assayed, in taking upon
me I seemed to consent, and therein grievously offended
the queen and her laws : yet do 1 assuredly trust, that
this my offence towards God is so much the less, in that,
being in so royal estate as 1 was, my forced honour never
blended with my innocent heart. And thus, good father,
I have opened unto you the state wherein I at present
stand. Though death is at hand, which to you, perhaps,
it may seem right woeful, to me there is nothing that
can he more welcome, than from this vale of misery to
aspire to that heavenly throne of all joy and pleasure
with Christ our Saviour. In whose steadfast faith (if it
may be lawful for the daughter so to write to the father)
the Lord that hitherto hath strengthened you, so con-
tinue you, that at the last we may meet in heaven with
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
A Letter written by the Lady Jane, in the eiid of the
New Testament in Greek, which she sent to her sister
the Lady Catharine i -^ i.iyhi bff^re she suffered.
" I have here sent to you, good sister Catharine, a
book, which although it be not outwardly trimmed with
'old, yet inwardly it is more worth than precious stones.
It is the book, dear sister, of the law of the Lord. It is
his testament and last will which he bt (|ueathed to us
wretches : which shall lead you to the ])ath of eternal
•oy, and if you with a good mind read it, and with
an earnest mind do purpose to follow it, it shall bring
you to an immortal and everlasting life. It shall teach
you to live, and learn you to die. It shall win ynu more
than you should have gained by the possession of your
wofvil father's lands. For as, if God had prospered him,
you should have inherited his lands ; so if you apply di.
ligently this book, seeking to direct your life after it, you
shall be an inheriter of such riches, as neither the cove-
tous shall withdraw from you, neither thief shall steal,
neither yet the moths corrupt. Desire with David, good
sister, to understand the law of the Lord God. Live still
to die, that you by death may purchase eternal life. And
trust not that the tenderness of your age shall lengtheo
your life ; for as soon, if God call, goeth the young as
the old ; and labour also to learn to die. Defy the world,
deny the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight your,
self only in the Lord. Be penitent for your sins, and
yet despair not ; be strong in faith, and yet presume
not ; and desire with St. Paul to depart, and to be
with Christ, with whom even death is life. Be like
the good servant, and even at midnight be waking, lest
when death cometh and stealeth upon you as a thief in
the night, you be, with the evil servant, found sleeping ;
and lest for lack of oil, you be found like the five fool-
ish virgins ; and like him that had not on the wedding,
garment, and then you be cast out from the marriage.
Rejoice in Christ, as I do. Follow the steps of your '
Master, Christ, and take up your cross : lay your sins on
bis back, and always embrace him. And as to my death,
rejoice as I do, good sister, that I shall be delivered of
this corruption, and put on incorruption. For I am as>
sured, that I shall for losing of a mortal life, win an
immortal life, which I pray to God to grant to you, and to
send you of his grace to live in his fear, and to die in the
true christian faith, from which, in God's name, I exhort
you, that you never swerve, neither for hope of life, nor
for fear of death. For if you will deny his truth for to
lengthen your life, God will deny you, and yet shorten
your days. But if you will cleave unto him, he will
prolong your days to your comfort and his glory. To
which glory God brings me now, and you hereafter, when
it pleaseth him to call you. Fare you well, good sister,
and put your only trust in God, who only must help
you."
We here give a certain prayer, made by the lady Jtne,
in the time of her trouble :
" O Lord, thou God and Father of my life, hear me, s
poor and desolate woman, who flieth unto thee only, in
all troubles and miseries. Thou, O Lord, art the only
defender and deliverer of those who put their trust in
thee ; and therefore, I being defiled with sin, encum-
bered with affliction, unquieted with troubles, wrap-
ped in cares, overwhelmed with miseries, vexed with
temptations, and grievously tormented with the long im-
prisonraent of this vile mass of clay, my sinful body, do
come unto thee, O merciful Saviour, craving thy mercy
and help, without which so little hope of deliverance is
left, that I may utterly despair of any liberty. Although
it is expedient, that seeing our life standeth upon trying,
we should be visited sometime with some adversity,
whereby we might both be tried whether we be of thy
flock or not, and also know thee and ourselves the better;
yet thou that saiilst thou wouldst not suffer us to be
tempted above our power, be merciful unto me now, a
miserable wretch, I beseech thee; who with Solomon does
cry unto thee, humbly desiring thee, that I may neither
be too much puffed up with prosperity, neither too much
pressed down with adversity, lest I being too full, should
deny thee my God, or being brought too low, should
despair, and blaspheme thee my Lord and Saviour. O
merciful God. considcmv a-.i«ery, best known unto thee ;
and oe thou now unto mc a strong tower of defence, I
humbly require thee. Suffer me not to be tempted
above my power ; but either be thou a deliverer unto
me out of this great misery, or else give me grace pa-
tiently to bear thy heavy hand and sharp correction.
It was thy right hand that delivered the people of
Israel out of the hands of Pharaoh, which for the spac«
of four hundred years did oppress them, and keep them
in bondage. Let it therefore likewise seem good to thy
Fatiierly goodness, to deliver me, a sorrowful wretch,
for whom tliy Son Christ shed his precious blood on the
cross, out of this miserable captivity and bondage, where -
in I am now. How long wilt thou be absent ? for ever ?
A.D. 1554.]
PRAYER OF THE LADY JANE— HER BEHAVIOUR AT DEATH, &c.
0 Lord, hast thou forgotten to be gracious, and hast
thou shut up thy loving-kindness in displeasure ? Wilt
thou be no more entreated ? Is thy mercy clean gone for
ever, and thy promise come utterly to an end for ever-
more ? Whv dost thou make so long tarrying ? Shall
1 despair of thy mercy, O God ? far be that from me.
I am thy workmanship created in Christ Jesus ; give me
grace therefore to tarry thy time, and patiently to bear
thy works, assuredly knowing, that as thou canst, so
thou wilt deliver me when it shall please thee, nothing
doubting or mistrusting thy goodness towards me ; for
thou knowest better what is good for me than I do :
therefore do with me in all things what thou wilt, and
plague me what way thou wilt. Only in the meantime
arm me, I beseech thee, with thine armour, that I may
stand fast, my loins being girded about with truth, hav-
ing on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod with
the shoes prepared by the gospel of peace ; above all
things, taking to me the shield of faith, wherewith I shall
be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and
taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is thy most holy word ; praying always with
all manner of prayer and supplication, that 1 may refer
myself wholly to thy will, abiding thy pleasure, and
comforting myself in those troubles that it shall please
thee to send me. Seeing such troubles be profitable
for me, and seeing I am assuredly persuaded that it
cannot be but well all that thou doest. Hear me, O
merciful Father, for his sake, whom thou wouldst should
oe a sacrifice for my sins. To whom with thee, and the
Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory. Amen. "
It remains now to describe the manner of her execu-
tion, with her words and behaviour at the time of her
death.
When she ascended the scaffold, she said to the peo-
ple standing thereabout; "Good people, I am come
hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the
same. The fact against the queen's highness was un-
lawful, and the consenting thereunto by me : but touch-
ing the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my
behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency before
God, and the face of you, good christian people, this
day." And therewith she wrung her hands, wherein
she had her book. Then said she, " I pray you all,
good christian people, to bear me witness that I die a
true christian woman, and that I do look to be saved by
no other means but only by the mercy of God in the
blood of his only Son Jesus Christ. And I confess,
that when I did know the word of God, I neglected
the same, loved myself and the world, and therefore this
plague and punishment is happily and worthily hap-
pened unto me for my sins. And yet I thank God, that
of his goodness he hath thus given me a time and
respite to repent. And now, good people, while I am
alive, I pray you to assist me with your j)rayers."
And then kneeling down, she turned her to Fecknam,
saying, " Shall I say this psalm ?" And he said,
" Yea." Then she repeated the psalm " Have mercy
on me, O God," &c., in English, in the most devout
manner throughout to the end ; and then she stood up,
and gave her maiden Mistress Ellen her gloves and
handkerchief, and her book to Master Bruges ; after which
she untied her gown, and the hangman pressed upon
her to help her off with it ; but she desiring him to let
her alone, turned towards her two gentlewomen, who
helped her off therewith ; and also with her frowes,
paaft, and neckerchief, giving to her a fair handkerchief
to fold about her eyes.
Then the hangman kneeled down and asked her for-
giveness, whom she forgave most willingly. Then he
desired her to stand upon the straw ; which doing, she
saw the block. Then she said, " I pray you dispatch
me quickly." Then she kneeled down,' saying, "Will
you take it off before I lay me down ?" And the hang-
man said, " No, madam." Then she tied the handker-
chief about her eyes, and feeling for the block, she said,
" What shall I do ? Where is it ? Where is it ? One of
the standers bye guiding her, she laid her head down upon
the block, and then stretched forth her body, and said,
687
" Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and so
finished her life, in the year 1554, on the 12th day of
February.
Thus was beheaded the lady Jane, and with her also
the lord Guilford her husband, one of the duke of Nor-
thumberland's sons, two innocents in comparison with
them that sat upon them. For they ignorantly accepted
that which the others had willingly devised, and by open
proclamation consented to take from others, and give to
them.
And not long after the death of the lady Jane, upon
the 21st of the same month, was Henry Duke of Suflblk
also beheaded at Tower Hill, on the fourth day after
his condemnation. About which time also were con-
demned for this conspiracy many gentlemen and yeo-
men, whereof some were executed at London, and some
in the country. In the number of whom was also the
lord Thomas Gray, brother to the duke. Sir Nicholas
Throgmorton very hardly escaped.
The 24th of the same month (A.D. 1554) Bonner,
bishop of London sent down a commission, directed to
all the curates and pastors of his diocese, for taking
of the names of such as would not come during the fol-
lowing Lent to auricular confession, and to the receiving
at Easter. The copy of which monition here follows : —
A Monition of Bonner Bishop of London, sent down
to all and singular Curates of his Diocese, for the
certifying of the Names of snich as would not come
in Lent to Confession, and receiving at Easter.
" Edmund by the permission of God, bishop of Lou-
don, to all parsons, vicars, curates, and ministers of
the church within the city and diocese of London, send-
eth grace, peace, and mercy, in our Lord everlasting.
Forasmuch as by the order of the ecclesiastical laws and
constitutions of this realui, and the laudable usage and
custom of the whole caUiolic church, by many hundred
years ago, duly and devoutly observed and kept, all
faithful people bemg of lawful age and discretion, are
bound once in a year at least, except reasonable cause
excuse them, to be confessed to their own proper curate,
and to receive the sacrament of the altar, with due pre-
paration and devotion. And forasmuch also as we are
credibly informed, that sundry evil-disposed and unde-
vout persons, given to sensual passions, and carnal appe-
tites, following the lusts of their body, and neglecting
utterly the health of their souls, do forbear to conxe to
confession according to the said usage, and to receive
the sacrament of the altar accordingly, giving thereby
pernicious and evil example to the younger sort, to ne-
glect and contemn the same. We minding the reforma-
tion hereof for our own discharge, and desirous of good
order to be kept, and good example to be given, do will
and command you by virtue hereof, that immediately
upon the receipt of this our commandment, you and every
one of you within your cure and charge, do use all your
diligence and dexterity to declare the same, straightly
charging and commanding all your parishioners, being of
lawful age and discretion, to come before Easter next
coming, to confession, according to the said ordinance
and usage, with due preparation and devotion to receive
the said sacrament of the altar ; and that you do note the
names of all such as are not confessed unto you, and do
not receive of you the said sacrament, certifying us or
our chancellor or commissary thereof before the sixth
day of April next ensuing from the date hereof ; that so
we knowing thereby who did not come to confession, and
receiving the sacrament accordingly, may proceed against
them, as being persons culpable, and transgressors of
the said ecclesiastical law and usage. Further also cer-
tifying us, our said chancellor or commissary, before the
day aforesaid, whether you have your altars set up, cha-
lice-book, vestments, and all things necessary for mass,
and the administration of sacraments and sacramentals,
with procession, and all other divine service prepared
and in readiness, according to the order of the catholic
church, and the virtuous and godly example of the
queen's majesty. And if you so have not, you then with
the churchwardens cause the same to be provided for
Y T
(583
THE LORD MAYOR'S PRESCRIPT
[Book X.
signifyincT by whose fault anil neQ,li!?ence the same want
or frtiilt havh proceeded, and generally of the not coining
of your parishioners to church, undue walking, talking,
or using of themselves there irreverently in the time of
(Jvine service, and of all other open faults and misde-
meanours, not omitting thus to do, and certify as before,
as you will answer upon your peril for the contrary.
" Given at Loudon, 2,'}d of February, in the year 1554."
The month following, which was the month of March,
and the fourth day of the said month, there was a letter
sent from the queen to Bonner nishop of London, vrith
certain articles annexed, to be put in speedy execution,
recpiiring among other things that all the clergy who had
married should be removed from their parislies, unless
tliey abandoned their wives and did penance for their
marriage, as may appear by these articles.
" Every bishop, and all other persons aforesaid, pro-
ceeding summarily, and with all celerity and despatch,
may and shall deprive, or declare deprived, and remove,
according to their learning and discretion, all such per-
sons from their benefices and ecclesiastical promotions,
who, contrary to the state of their order, and the laud-
able custom of the church, have married and used women
as their wives, or otherwise notably and slanderously
disordered or abused themselves : sequestering also,
during the said process, the fruits and profits of the said
benefices and ecclesiastical promotions.
" The said bisliop, and all other persons aforesaid,
shall use more lenity and clemency with such as have
married, whose wives are dead, than with others whose
wives do yet remain alive. And likewise such priests,
as with the consent of their wives or women openly in
the presence of the bishop do profess to abstain, to be
used more favourably. In which case, after the pe-
nance effectually done, the bishop, according to his dis-
cretion and wisdom, may upon just consideration receive
and admit them again to their former administration, so
it be not in the same place, appointing them such a por-
tion to live upon, to be paid out of their benefice whereof
they are deprived, by discretion of the said bishop or his
officer, as he shall think may be spared of the said
benefice.
" Every bishop, and all other persons aforesaid, shall
foresee that they suffer not any religious man, having
solemnly jjrofessed celibacy, to continue with his woman
or wife, but that all such persons after deprivation of
tneir benefice or ecclesiastical promotion, be also divorced
every one from his said woman, and due punishment
otherwise taken for the offence therein.''
The queen also sent her rescri})t to the lord mayor
of London to the same effect, who issued the following
letter accordingly to the aldermen, &c. : —
"On the queen our most gracious and most benign
sovereign lady's behalf, we most straightly charge and
command you, that you the said aldermen, fail not per-
sonally to call before your own person in such place
within your said ward, as to you shall seem most con-
venient and meet, \ipon Wednesday next coming, which
shall be the "th day of this present month, at seven
o'clock in the morning of the same day, all and every
the householders both poor and rich of your said ward,
and then and there openly and plainly for your own dis-
charge, and for the eschewing the perils that to you
might otherwise be justly imputed and laid, do not only
straightly admonish, charge, and command, in the queen
our said sovereign lady's name and behalf, all and every
tlie said householders, that both in their own persons,
and also their wives, children, and servants, being of the
age of twelve years and upwards, and every of them, do
at all and every time and times from henceforth, and
namely at the holy time of Easter, now approaching,
honestly, quietly, obediently, and catholicly, use and
behave themselves like good and faithful Christian
people, in all and every thing and things touching and
concerning the true faith, profession and religion of his
catholic church, both according to the laws and precepts
of Almighty God, and also their bounden duty of obe-
dience towards our sovereign lady the queen, her laws,
and statutes, and her highness' most good example and
gracious proceeding according to the same, and accoid-
ing to the right, wholesome, charitable, and godly ad-
monition, charge, and exhortation, late set forth and
given by the right reverend father in God, the bishop of
London, our diocesan and ordinary, to all the parsons,
vicars, and curates, within his diocese, but also that
they and every of them do truly, without delay, adver-
tise you of the names and surnames of all and every per.
son and persons, that tbey or any of thj:n, can or may
at any time hereafter know, perceive, or understand to
transgress or offend in any point or article concerning
the premises at their utmost perils. T;iat ye immedi-
ately after such notice thereof to you given, do forthwith
advertise us thereof. Fail you not thus to do with all
circumpection and diligence, as you will answer to our
said most dread sovereign lady the queen for the contrary
at your peril.
" Given at the Guildhall of the city of London,
the fifth day of March in th^ first year of
the reign of our said sover»ieu lady and
queen.
" And likewise do you give to every of tlie said house-
holders straightly in commandment, that they or their
wives depart not out of the said city, until this holy time
of Easter be past.
" Blackwell."
About the same time, when Doctor Bonner set forth
this prescript, there came from the queen another pro-
clamation against strangers and foreigners within this
realm.
Upon this proclamation not only the strangers in king
Edward's time received into the realm for religion,
among whom was Peter Martyr and John Alasco, uncle
to the king of Poland ; but many Englishmen fled, some
to Friezland, some to Cleveland, some to Germany,
where they were scattered into companies and congrega-
tions, at Wesel, at Frankfort, Embden, Mai-kpurgh,
Transborough, Basil, Arovv, Zurich, Geneva, and other
places : where, by the providence of God, they were all
sustained, and there entertained with greater fa\our
among strangers abroad than they could be in their own
country at home, amounting nearly to the number of
eight hundred ])ersons, students, and others together.
In the month of Plarch, the lord Courtney, earl of
Devonshire, wliom the queen had delivered out of the
Tower, and the lady Elizabeth also the queen's sister,
were both apprehended and committed to the Tower,
on suspicion of having consented to Wyat's conspiracy a
short time before.
Touching the im])risonment of the lady Elizabeth and
lord Courtney, thou shalt note here for thy learning,
good reader, a politic point of practice in Steven Gardi-
ner, bishop of Winchester, not unworthy to be con-
sidered, "rhis Gardiner being always an enemy to the
lady Elizabeth, and thinking now by the occasion of
Master Wyat's disturbance in Kent, to pick out some mat-
ter against the lord Courtney and so in the end to en-
tangle the lady Elizabeth, devised a pestilent practice of
conveyance, as in the history here following may appear.
The story is this. The same day that Sir Thomas
Wyat died, he desired the lieutenant to bring him to
the presence of the lord Courtney. Who there before
the lieutenant and the sheriffs kneeling down upon his
knees, besought the lord Courtney to foigive him, for
that he had falsely accused both the lady Elizabeth
and him, and so being brought from thence to the scaf-
fold to suflTer there o])enly in the hearing of all the peo-
ple, he cleared the lady Elizabeth and the lord Courtney,
to be free and innocent from all suspicion of that com-
motion. At which confession Doctor Weston, standing
by, cried to the people, saying, " Believe him not, good
people, for he confessed otherwise before unto the council.
Not long after this, ((ueen Mary, partly fearing the
Londoners on account of Wyat's cons))iracy, and partly
perceiving that most of the city, for rebgion's sake, did
not greatly favour her proceedings, summoned a par-
liament to be held at Oxford, as if to gratify that city,
where the university, town, and country had shewed
A.D, 1554.]
ARCHBISHOP CRANMER, &c. CONVEYED TO OXFORD.
689
I themselves very obedient, especially in restoring the
popish religion. For this purpose great proviidon was
j made, both by the queen's officers, as well as by the
I townsmen and inhabitants of Oxford, and the country
I about.
I But the queen's mind soon changed, and the par-
j lianuMit was held at Westminster in the April following.
Then the queen proposed her marriage with king Philip ;
' and the restoring the pope's sujjreraacy. Her marriage
I was agreed upon ; but the other request could not then
I be obtained.
Wheii this parliament was summoned, she also sum-
\ moned a convocation of the bishops, and of the clergy,
1 writing to Bonner (whom she had made vicegerent
I instead of Cranmer, who was then in the Tower) after
I the tenor and form of a new stile, differing from the old
stile of king Henry and king Edward, in the omission of
the title of " Supreme Head" of the church of England
■ and Ireland.
I In this convocation, Bonner, bishop of London, being
I vicegerent and president, made an oration to the clergy,
I in which he seems to shew a piece of profound and deep
learning, in setting forth the most incomparable and
isuper-aiigelical order of priesthood, as may appear by
this parcel or fragment of his oration.
" Wherefore it is to be known,'' said Bonner, " that
:priests and elders are worthy to be worshipped by all
men, for the dignity which they have from God ; as in
Matthew xvi. ' Whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth,'
!&c. ; and ' whatsoever ye shall bind,' &.c. For a priest by
some means is like the Virgin Mary, and this is shewed
'by three poinls. As the blessed Virgin by five words
■did conceive Christ, as it is said, /iat mi/ii secundxm
^lerlum tmnn ; that is, ' Be it unto me according to thy
Eford,' (Luke i.) so the priest by five words doth make
he very body of Christ. Even as immediately after
he consent of Mary, Christ was all whole in her womb ;
so immediately after the speaking of the words of con-
isecration, the bread is transubstantiated into the veiy
body of Christ. Secondly, as the Virgin carried Christ
p her arms, and laid him in an ox-stall after his birth ;
even so the priest after the consecration lifcs up the body
jaf Christ, and places it, and carries it, and handles it
With his hands. Thirdly, as the blessed Virgin was
sanctified before she had conceived ; so the priest, being
jDrdained and anointed before he doth consecrate, be-
cause without orders he could consecrate nothing : there-
fore the layman cannot do that thing, although he be
pver so holy, and do speak the self- same words of con-
secration. Therefore here may be seen, that the dignity
pf priests by some means passes the dignity of angels,
jbecause there is no power given to any of the angels to
make the body of Christ. W^hereby the least priest
pn earth may do, that which the greatest and highest
angel in heaven cannot do, as St. Bernard saith, ' O
worshipful dignity of priests, in whose hands the Son of
pod is, as in the womb of the Virgin he was incarnate.'
^t. Augustine saith, that angels in the consecration
)f the sacred host do serve him, and the Lord of heaven
lescendeth to him. Whereupon St. Ambrose upon
Luke saith, ' Doubt thou not the angels to be where
L'hrist is present upon the altar.' W^herefore priests
ire to be honoured before all kings of the earth, princes,
ind nobles. For a priest is higher than a king, happier
:han an angel, maker of his Cieator," &c.
On the 10th of iMarch a letter was sent to the lieutenant
)f the Tower to deliver the bodies of Cranmer, arch-
lishop of Canterbury, and bishops Ridley and Latimer,
:o Sir John Williams, to be conveyed by him to Oxford.
On the 26th of March, there was a letter directed to
Sir Henry Doell, and one Foster, to attach the bodies
if Taylor, parson of Hadley, and of Henry Askew, and
:o send them up to the council.
About the 10th of April, Cranmer, archbishop of
Canterbury, Ridley, bishop of London; and Hugh
Latimer, sometime bishop of Worcester, were conveyed
4s prisoners from the Tower to Windsor ; and thence to
the University of Oxford, to dispute with the divines
and learned men of both the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, about the presence, substance, and sacrifice
of the sacrament. The names of the doctors and gra-
duates a])pointed to dispute against them, were these :
of Oxford, Weston, prolocutor, Tresham, Cole, Ogle-
thorpe, Pye, Harpsfield, and Fecknam ; of Cambridge,
Young, vice-chancellor, Glin, Seaton, Watson, Sedge-
wick, Atkinson, ice. The articles or questions upon
which they should dispute were these :
1. Wiiether the natur.il body of Christ was really in
the sacrament, after the words spoken by the priest, or
not.'
2. \ATiether in the sacrament, after the words of con-
secration, any other substance did remain than the sub-
stance of the botly and blood of Christ .'
3. Whether in the mass there was a propitiatory
sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead ?
After those from Cambridge were incorporated into
the University of Oxford, on the 12th, and after a
convocation on the 14th, and a solemn mass, they signed
the articles.
The mass being done, they went in procession : First,
the choir in their surplices followed the cross ; then the
first-year regents and jjroctors ; then the doctors of law,
and their beadles before them ; then the doctors of di-
vinity of both universities intermingled, the divinity and
arts-beadles going before them ; the vice-chancellor and
prolocutor going together. After them the bachelors of
divinity, regentea et non rcgentes, in their array ; and hst
of all, the bachelors of law and art. After whom followed
a great company of scholars and students who had not
graduated. And thus they proceeded through the street
to Christ's church, and there the choir sung a psalm,
and after that a collect was read. This done, the cora-
miflsioners, doctors, and many otliers, departed to Lin-
coln college, where they dined with the mayor of the
town, one alderman, four beadles. Master Say and the
Cambridge notary. After dinner they went all again
to St. IVlary's church ; and there, after a short consul-
tation in a chapel, all the commissioners came into the
choir, and sat all on seats before the altar, to the num-
ber of thirty-three persons : and they sent to the mayor,
that he should bring in Cranmer, who was brought to
them by a number of bill-men.
Thus the reverend archbishop, when he was brought
before the commissioners, reverenced tliem with much
humility, and stood with his staft' in his hand, a stool was
offered him, but he refustd to sit. Then the prolocutor,
sitting in the midst in a scarlet gown, began with a short
oration in praise of unity, and especially in the church of
Christ ; he spoke of the bringing up of Cranmer and of
his taking degrees in Cambridge, and also how he was
promoted by king Henry VIII., and had been his coun-
sellor and a catholic man, one of the same unity, and a
member thereof in times past, but of late years had
separated and cut himself off from it, by teaching and
setting forth of erroneous doctrines, making eveiy year a
new faith : and therefore it pleased the queen's grace,
to send them of the convocation and other learned men,
to bring him to this unity again, if it might be. Then
the prolocutor informed him how they of the convoca-
tion-house had agreed upon certain articles to which
they wished him to subscribe.
The archbishop answered to the preface very ably,
modestly, and learnedly, shewing that he was very glad
of an unity, forasmuch as it was " the preserver of all
commonwealths, as well of the heathen as of the chris-
tians ;" and so he dilated the matter with one or two
stories of the Roman commonwealth. Which when he
had done, he said, that he was very glad to come to an
unity, provided it were in Christ, and agreeable to his
holy word.
When he had thus spoken, the prolocutor caused the
articles to be read to him, and asked him, if he would
subscribe to them. Then the archbishop of Canterbury
after having read them over three or fourtimes.and touch-
ing the first article, he asked what they meant by the terra,
" natural body," " Do you not mean," saith he, " a
sensible body .'" Some answered, " The same that was
born of the Virgin," but very confusedly; some saying
one thing, some another. Then the arclihishop denied
690
ARCHBISHOP CRANMER DISPUTES AT OXFORD
[Book X.
it utterly, and when he had looked upon the other two, he
said they were false, and against God's holy word : and
therefore he could not agree in a unity with them. The pro-
locutorassigned him to answer the articles on Monday next
(April IGth), and so committed him to the mayor again,
permitting him to name what books he wished for, and
he should have them brought to him. The archbishop
was greatly commended by every body for his modesty :
so that some masters of art of the university were seen
to weep for him, though in judgment they were contrary
to him.
Then Dr. Ridley was brought in, who, hearing the
articles read, answered without any delay, saying, " They
were all false ; and tliat they sprang out of a bitter and
sour root." His answers were sharp, witty, and very
earnest. Then they laid to his charge a sermon that he
made when he was bishop of Rochester, in which, they
faid. he suoke in favour of transubstantiation. He de-
nied it utterly, and asked whettier they could bring any
that heard .him, who would say and affirm it; but they
could bring no proof of it at all.
Then he was asked, whether he would dispute or not.
He answered, that as long as God gave him life, he
should not only have his heart, but also his mouth and
pen to defend his truth; but he required time and books.
'J'liey said he should dispute on Tuesday, and till that
time he should have books. He said it was not reason-
able that he should not have his own books, and time
also to look for his disputations. Then they gave him
the articles, and bade him write his mind about them
that night.
Last of all came in Latimer, with a handkerchief, and
two or three caps on his head, his spectacles hanging by
a string at his breast, and a staff in his hand; he was
set in a chair. And, after his denial of the articles, Wed-
nesday was appointed for his disputation, but he alleged
age, sickness, disease, and lack of books, saying, That he
was almost as fit to be a captain of Calais as to dispute,
but he would, he said, declare his mind either by writing
or by word of mouth, and would stand to all they could
lay upon his back ; comjilaining, that he was permitted
to have neither pen nor ink, nor books, except the New
Testament there in his hand, whi(;h he said he had read
over seven times deliberately ; and yet could not find
the mass in it; neither the marrow-bones nor sinews of
the same. At which words t!ie commissioners were not
a little offended ; and Dr. Weston said, that he would
make him grant that the mass had both marrow-bones
and sinews in the New Testament. Master Latimer
said, " That you will never do, IMaster Doctor," and so
forthwith they put him to silence ; so that when he was
desirous to tell what he meant by those terms, he could
not be suffered.
On Monday, the 16th of April, 1554, Doctor Weston,
with the visitors, censors, and opponents, repairing to
the divinity school, installed themselves in their places.
Doctor Cranmer was brought there, and set in the an-
swerer's place, with the mayor and aldermen sitting by
him. Doctor Weston, prolocutor, after the custom of
the university, began the disptitation with an oration.
His words, as he spake the n, were these : " Ye are
assembled here, brethren, this day, to confound the de-
testable heresy of the truth of the body of Christ in the
sacraments," &c. At wliich words thus pronounced by
the prolocutor unawares, many of the learned men there
present burst out into laughter, as, even in the entrance
of the disputations, he had betrayed himself, and his re-
ligion, in calling the opinion of the truth of Christ's body
in the sacrament a detestable heresy. The rest of his
oration tended all to this effect, that it was not lawful
by God's word to call these questions into controversy.
Doctor Cranmer answered in tliis wise: "We are as-
sembled to discuss tliese doubtful controversies, and to
lay them open before the eyes of the world, of what ye
think it unlawful to dispute. It is, indeed, not reason-
able, that we should dispute about tliat which is deter-
mined before the truth be tried. And if these questions
are not called into controversy, surely my answer is
looked for in vain."
Then Chedsey, the first opponent, began in this wis©
to dispute.
" Reverend Master doctor, these three conclusions
are put forth to us at present to dispute uj)on :
" 1. In the sacrament of the altar is the natural body
of Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary, and also his
blood present really under the forms of bread and wine
by virtue of God'* word jironounced by the priest.
" 2. There remaineth no substance of bread and wiiip
after the consecration, nor any other substance, but the
substance of God and man.
" A. The lively sacrifice of the church is in the mass
propitiatory, as wt-11 for the living as the dead.
'' These are the conclusions propounded, upon whicU
our controversy rests. Now that we might not doubt
how you take them, you have already given to us your
opinion. I term it your opinion, because it disagrees
from the catholic opinion. I argue that as your opi-
nion difiers from the scripture, therefore you are Ud-
ceived.''
Cranmer. — "I deny that my opinion differs from scrip,
ture."
Chedsey. — " C'lirist, when he instituted his last sup-
per, spake to his disciples, saying, ' Take, eat, this is
my body which is broken for you.' This is his true
body."
Cranmer. — " His true body is tnilypresent to them that
truly receive him ; but spiritKally. And so it is taken
after a .tpirilual sort. For when he said, ' This is my
body, it is all one as if he had said, 'This is the breaking
of my body ; this is the shedding of my blood. As
often as you shall do this, it shall put you in remem-
brance of the breaking of my body, and tlie shedding of
my blood : that as truly as you receive this sacrament,
so truly shall you rective the benefit promised by re-
ceiving the same worthily.'
Chedsey. — " Your ' opinion differs from the church,
which saith, that the true body is in the sacrament, and
therefore your opinion is false."
Cranmer. — '' I say and agree with the church, that the
body of Christ is in the sacrament effectually, because
the passion of Christ is effectual."
Chedsey. — " Christ, when he spake these words, ' This
is my body,' spake of the substance, but not of the
effect."
Cranmer. — "I grant he spake of the substance, and not
of the effect after a sort : and yet it is most true that
the body of Christ is efieotually in the sacrament. Eut
I deny that he is there truly present in bread, or that
his organical body is under the bread. It is still that
bread which is taken out of the fruit of the ground, and
by man's hand brought to that visible shape, being round
in form and without sense or life, nourishing the body,
and strengthening the heart of man ; of this bread, and
not of any uncertain and wandering substance, as you
say, the old fathers say that Christ spake these words,
' Eat, this is my body.' And likewise also of the
wine, which is the fruit of the vine pressed out of grapes,
and makes man's heart merry, of the very same wine, I
say, Christ spake, ' Drink, this is my blood.' And so
the old doctors call this speaking of Christ tropical,
figurative, anagogical, allegorical, which they interpret
thus : that although the substance of bread and wine
remain, and are received by the faithful, yet notwith-
standing Christ changed the name of it, and called the
bread by the name of his flesh, and the wine by the
name of his blood, ' Not tha*. .^ is so in very deed, but
sir/nificd in a myster;/.' So that we should consider,
not what they are in their own nature, but what they
import to us and signify, and we should understand the
sacrament not carnally, but spiritually, and should at-
tend not to tlie visible nature of the sacraments, neither
have respect only to the outward bread and cup. But
that, lifting up our minds, we should look up to the
blood of Christ with our faith, should touch him with
our mind, and receive him with our inward man, and
that being like eagles in this life, we should fly up into
heaven in our hearts, where that Lamb is resident at
the right hand of his Father, ' which taketh away the
sin of the world,' ' by whose stripes we are healed,'
AD. 1554.]
ARCHBISHOP CRANMER DISPUTES AT OXFORD.
691
by whose passion we are filled at his table, and whose
blood we receiving out of his holy side, do live for ever,
being made the guests of Christ, "having him dwelling in
us throui'h the grace of his true nature, and through the
virtue and efficacy of his whole passion, being no less
assured and certified, that we are fed spiritually unto
eternal life by Christ's flesh crucified, and by his blood
shed, the true food of our minds, than that our bodies
are fed with meat and drink in this life : and of this the
mystical bread on the table of Christ, and the mystical
wine, being administered and received after the institu-
tion of Christ, are to us a memorial, a pledge, a token,
a sacrament, and a seal.
" And as for your third article, which declares the mass
to be a propitiatory sacrifice or oblatio!i, I do not hold
it to be an oblation of Christ. He offered himself to God
the Father once to death upon the altar of the cross for
our redemption, which was of such eflicary, that there is
no more need of any sacrifice for the redemption of
the whole world, for all the sacrifices of ^he old law he
took away, performing in himself that in very deed,
which they signified and promised. Whoe'er, there-
fore, shall fix the hope of his salvation in any other
sacrifice, he falls from the grace of Christ, and is con-
tumelious against the blood of Christ. For ' He was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him ;
and with his stripes we are healed.' ' Neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us.' ' For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us : Nor yet that he should
offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the
holy place every year with blood of others ; For then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the
world ; but now once, in the end of the world, hath he
appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment ; so Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.'
' ^Yho, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for
ever sat down on the right hand of God. For by one
offering he halh peilected for ever them tnat are sancti-
fied. Now, where remission of these is, there is no
more offering for sin.' But this only sacrifice of Christ,
whoever shall seek any other propitiatory sacrifice for
sin, makes the sacrifice of Christ of no validity, force, or
efficacy. For if it be sufficient to remit sins, what need
is there of any other ? For the necessity of another
argues and declares this to be insufficient. Almighty
God grant that we may truly trust in one sacrifice of
Christ, and that we to him again may repay our sacri-
fices of thanksgiving, of praise, of confessing his name,
of true amendment, of repentance, of mercifulness to-
wards our neighbours, and of all other good works of
charity 1 For by such sacrifices we shall declare our-
selves neither ungrateful to God, nor altogether unworthy
of this holy sacrifice of Christ. And thus you have the
true and sincere use of the Lord's holy supper, and the
fruit of the true sacrifice of Christ. Which, however,
through captious or wrested interpretations, or by men's
traditions, shall go about, otherwise than Christ or-
dained them, to alter or transubstantiate, he shall answer
to Christ in the latter day, when he shall understand
("but then too late) that he has no participation with the
body and blood of Christ, but that out of the supper of
eternal life he has eaten and drank eternal condemnation
to himself.''
Chedsey. — "The Scriptures in many places affirm, that
Christ gave his natural body, Matthew xxvi., Mark xiv.,
Luke xxii."
Cranmer. — " If you understand by the natural body,
one that has such proportion and members as he had
when living here, then I answer in the negative."
Chedsey. — " The scripture makes against you, for the
circumstance teaches us not only that there is the body,
but also teaches us what manner of body it is, and saith,
' The body shall be given which was not bread, but
that which was crucified."
Cranmer — " I grant he said it was his body, which
should be given. ' Tiie body,' saith he, ' that shall
be given for you.' As if he said, ' This bread is the
breaking of my body, and this cup is the shedding of
my blood.' What will ye say then ? is the bread the
breaking of his body, and the cup the shedding of hig
blood really "'"
After some further disputation Chedsey withdrew,
and Oglethorpe began in his stead to question Cranmer.
Oglethorpe. — " Your judgment differs from all
churches.''
Cranmer. — " Nay, I disagree with the papistical
church."
Oglethorpe. — " This you do through ignorance of
logic."
Cranmer. — " Nay, this you say through the ignorance
of the doctors."
Weston. — " 1 will go i)lainly to work by the scriptures.
What took he ?"
Cranmer. — " Bread."
Weston. — " What gave lie ?"
Cranmer. — " Bread."
Weston. — " What brake he ?"
Cranmer. — " Bread."
Weston, — " What did he eat ?"
Cranmer. — " Bread."
Weston. — " He gave bread, therefore he gave not his
body.''
Cranmer. — " I deny the argument."
Cole. — " This argument holds good : It is bread,
therefore it is not the body."
Cranmer. — " Tlie like argument may be made. He is
a Rock, therefore he is not Christ."
There was much further disputation on this question,
chiefly confined to the ascertaining the opinions of the
primitive church, which would be too long to insert
here.
This disorderly disputation, sometimes in Latin, some-
times in English, continued almost till two o'clock.
When it was finished, and the arguments written and
delivered to Master Say, the prisoner was taken away by
the mayor, and the doctors dined together at the uni-
versity college.
Dispvtation at Oxford between Doctor Smith, with his
other Colleagues and Doctors, and Bishop Ridley.
The following day (April 17) Doctor Ridley was brought
forth to dispute, with Doctor Smith for his principal
opponent.
Besides this Smith, there was Weston, Tresham, Ogle-
thorpe,Glin, Seaton, Cole,Ward, Harpsfield, Watson, Pye,
Harding, Curton, and Fecknam : to all these opponents
Ridley answered very learnedly. He made a preface to
the questions, but they would not let him go on with it,
saying it was blasphemy ; and they would not suffer
him to speak his mind. Smith could get nothing at his
hands ; so that others took his arguments and prosecuted
them. He shewed himself to be learned, and a great
divine. They could bring nothing, but what he knew
as well as they.
Weston, prolocutor. — " Good christian people and
brethren, we have begun this day our school, by God's
good speed I trust, and are entering into a con-
troversy, whereof no question ought to be moved con-
cerning t'ne truth of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
in the eucharist. Christ is true, who said the words.
The words are true which he spake ; yea, truth itself
that cannot fail. Let us therefore pray unto God to
send down unto us his Holy Spirit, which is the true in-
terpreter of his word ; which may purge away errors,
and give light, that truth may appear."
Smith.— "This day three questions are propounded,
whereof no controversy among christians ought to be
moved, to wit :
' ' 1 .Whether the natural body of Christ our Saviour, which
was conceived of the Virgin, and offered for man's re-
demption upon the cross, is verily and really in the sacra-
ment by virtue of God's word spoken by the priesU, &c
6D2
BISHOP RIDLEY DlSl'LTES AT OXFORD.
[BOOE X4
*' 2. Whether, in the sacrament, after the words of con-
secration, there is any other substance. Ike.
" 3. Whether there is in the mass a sacrifice propitia-
tory, &c.
" Touching which questions, although you have pub-
licly and partly professed your judgment. Yet being
not satisfied with your answer, 1 will demand your
opinion on the first question, whether the true body of
Christ, after the words pronounced, be really in the
eucharist, or onl) the figure."
The Answer of Ridley.
" In matters appertaining to God we may not speak
according to the sense of man, nor of the world. This
first proposition is framed after another manner of
phrase or kind of speech tlian the scripture uses ; and
it is very obscure and dark, by means of words of doubt-
ful signiiication.
" First, there is a double sense in these words : ' by
virtue of God's word ;' for it is doubtful what word of
God this is.
" Again, there is a doubtfulness in these words : ' of
the priest ;' whether any man may be called a ])riest but
he who has authority to make a propitiatory sacrifice for
the living and tlie dead."
Weston. — " Let this be sufficient."
Ridley. — " If we lack time at present, there is time
euougli hereafter."
W eston. — " These are but evasions ; you consume the
time in vain."
Ridley. — " I cannot start far from you, I am captive
and bound."
Weston. — " Fall to it, my masters."
Smith. — " That which you have spoken may suffice at
present."
Ridley. — " Let me alone, I pray you, for I have not
much to say."
Weston. — " Go forward."
Ridley. — " Moreover, there is ambiguity in this word
' really,' which may be variously interpreted, so that
the whole proposition is formed of phrases that are not
scriptural, but are of doubtful signification.
" Now the error and falseness of the proposition, in
the sense in which the Romish church takes it, may ap-
pear, in that they affirm the bread to be transubstantiated
and changed into the flesh assumed by the word of God,
and that too by virtue of a phrase which they have them-
selves devised, and which cannot be found in any of the
scriptures. Which position is the foundation of tran-
substantiation, a foundation monstrous, and against rea-
son, and destroying the analogy of the sacraments : and
therefore this proposition also, which is built upon this
rotten foundation, is false, erroneous, and a detestable
heresy."
Weston. — " We lose time."
Ridley. — " You shall have time enough."
Weston. — " Fall to reasoning. You shall have some
other day for this matter."
Ridley. — " 1 have no more to say concerning my ex-
plication. If you will give me leave and let me alone,
1 will only speak a word or two in confirmation of this."
Weston. — " Go to ; say on."
Ridley. — " No doctrine ought to be established in the
church of Ciod, which dissents from the word of God,
from the rule of faith, and draws with it many absurdi-
ties that cannot be avoided.
" Yet the doctrine of transubstantiation maintains a
real, corporeal, and carnal jjresence of Christ's flesh,
assumed and taken by the word, to be in the sacrament
of the Lord's supper, and that not by virtue and grace
only, but also by the whole essence and substance of the
body and flesh of Christ. Now such a presence dis-
agrees with God's word, from the rule of faith, and can-
not but draw with it many absurdities.''
Weston. — " You consume time, which might be better
bestowed on other matters. Waster opponent, I pray
you, to your argument."
Smith. — " I will here reason with you upon transub-
gtantialion, which you say is contrary to the rule and
analogy of faith. I prove the contrary by tht scrip-
I tures and the doctors. But before I enter into argument
wan you, 1 demand first, whether in the sixth chapter
of !St. John tliere is any mention made of the sacrament,
or of the real piesence of Christ in tiie sacrament .'"
Ridley. — " It is against reason that I should be pre-
vented prosecuting that which I have to speak in this
assembly, being not so long but that it may be com-
prehended in a few words."
Weston. — " Let him go on."
Ridley. — " This carnal presence is contrary to the irord
of God, as appears in John xvi. 7, ' I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not
avr'ay, the Comforter will not come unto you.' Acts iii. 21.
' Whom the heaven must receive until the times of resti-
tution of all things which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all his holy prophets.' Mat. ix. 1.5. ' Can
the cliildren of the bridegroom mourn as long as the
bridegroom is with them .'' but the days will come, when
the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then
shall they fast.' John xvi. 22. ' But I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice.' Mat. xiv. 2'o. 28. ' If any
man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there ;
believe them not. For wheresoever the carcase is,
there will the eagles be gathered together.'
" It differs from the articles of faith : ' He ascended
into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the
Father, from whence he shall come to judge both the
quick and the dead.'
" // destroys the institution of the Lord's supper, which
was connnanded only to be used and continued until the
Lord himself should come. If therefore he be really
present in the body of his flesh, then must the supper
cease : for a remembrance is not of a thing present,
but of a thing absent. Artd there is a difference be-
tween remembrance and presence, and (as one of tiie
fathers saith) a figure is in vain where the thing figured
is present.
" It makes preciorts things common to profane and un-
godly persons, and constrains men to confess many ab-
surdities. Yov it affirms, that wicked and ungodly per-
sons, yea, (and as some of them Iwld), the wicked and
faithless mice, rats, and dogs, also may receive the very
real and corporeal body of the Lord, wherein the fulness
of the Sjiirit of light and grace dwells ; contrary to the
manifest words of Christ in sis places and sentences of
the sixth chapter of St. John.
" It confirms also and maintains that beastly kind of
cruelty of the Anthropophagi, that is, the devourers of
man's flesh. For it is a more cruel thing to devour a
living man, than to slay him."
Pye. — " He requires time to speak blasphemies ! Leave
your blasphemies !"
Ridley. — " I had little thought to have had such re-
proachful words at your hands."
Weston. — "All is quiet. Go to your arguments."
Ridley. — " I have not many more words to say."
Weston. — "You utter blasphemies with a most impu-
dent face : leave off, and get you to the argument."
Ridley. — " It forces men to maintain many monstrots
miracles, without any necessity and authority of God's
vord. For at the coming of this presence of the body
and flesh of Christ, they thrust away the substance of
bread, and affirm that (he accidents remain without any
subject, and instead of it, they place Christ's body
without his qualities and the true manner of a body.
And if the sacrament be reserved so long until it mould,
and worms breed in it, some say that the substance of bread
miraculously returns again, and some deny it. Others
affirm that the real body of Christ goes down inro the
stomach of the receivers, and there abides so long only
as they shall continue to be good ; but others hold, that
the body of Christ is carried into heaven, so soon as the
fi^rms of bread are bruised with the teeth ! O workers
of ^niracles ! Truly, and most truly I see that fulfilled in
the^^e men, whereof St. Paul prophesied : 2 Thes. ii.
10—^12. ' Because they received not the truth, that they
might be sa\ed,' ' God shall send them strong delusion,
that thev should believe a lie, that they all might be
damn(*id'who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness.' This gross presence has brought
A.D. 1651.]
DISPUTATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY AT OXFORD.
633
forth that foolish fantasy of concomitance, by which is
broken at this day and abrogated the commandment of
the Lord for distributing of the Lord's cup to the laity.
" It gives occasion to heretics to maintain and defend
their errors ; as to Marcion, who said that Christ had but
a fantastical body ; and to Eutyches, who wickedly con-
founded the two natures in Christ.
" Finally, It falsifies the sayings of the godly fathers
and the catholic faith of the church, which Vigilius, a
martyr, and grave writer saitli, was taught of the apostles,
confirmed with the blood of martyrs, and was continually
maintained by the faithful until his time. By the say-
ing of the fathers, I mean of Justin, Irenseus, Tertul-
lian, Origen, Eusebius, Emisene, Athanasius, Cyril, Epi-
phanius, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Vigilius, Ful-
gentius, Bertram, and other most ancient fathers. All
those places, as I am sure, I have read making for my
•purpose, so I am well assured that I could shew the
same, if I might have the use of my own books, which
I will undertake to do, even upon the peril of my life,
and loss of all that I may lose in this world.
" But now, my brethren, think not, because I dis-
allow that presence which the first jjroposition main-
tains, as a presence which I take to be forged, fantasti-
cal, and contrary to God's word, perniciously brought
into the church by the Romanists, that I therefore go
about to take away the true presence of Christ's body
in his supper rightly and duly administered, which is
grounded upon the word of God, and made more plain
by the commentaries of the faithful fathers. They who
think thus of me, the Lord knoweth how far they are
deceived. And to make the same evident, I will in a
few words declare what true presence of Christ's body
in the sacrament of the Lord's supper I hold and
affirm.
" I say and confess with the evangelist Luke, and
with the apostle Paul, that the bread on which thanks
are given, is the body of Christ in remembrance of him
and his death, to be set forth perpetually by the %ith-
ful until his coming again.
" I say and confess that the bread which we break is
the communion and partaking of Christ's body.
" I say and believe that there is not only a significa-
tion of Christ's body set forth in the sacrament, but
also that there is given to the godly and faithful the
grace of Christ's body, that is, the food of life and im-
mortality.
" I say also, with St. Augustine, that we eat life and
we drink life : with Emisene, that we feel the Lord to
be present in grace ; — with Athanasius, that we receive
celestial food, which comes from above ; — the propriety
of natural communion, with Hilary ; — the nature of
flesh and benediction which gives life in bread and
wine, with ('yril ; — and with the same Cyril, the virtue
of the very flesh of Chiist, life and grace of his body,
the property of the only begotten, that is to say, life, as
he himself in plain words expounds it.
" I confess also with Basil, that we receive the mysti-
cal advent and coming of Christ, grace and virtue of
his very nature — the sacrament of his very flesh, with
Ambrose— the body by grace, with Epiphanius — spiritual
flesh, but not that which was crucified, with Jerome —
grace flowing into a sacrifice, and the grace of the
spirit, with Chrysostom — grace and invisible verity,
grace and communioa of the members of Christ's body,
with Augustine.
" Finally, with Bertram, who was the last of all these,
I confess that Christ's body is in the sacrament in this
respect ; namely, as he writes, because there is in it the
spirit of Christ, that is, the power of the word of God,
•which not only feeds the soul, but also cleanses it. But
of these I suppose it may clearly appear to all men, how
far we are from that opinion, of which some go about
falsely to slander us, saying, we teach that the godly and
faithful receive nothing else at the Lord's table, but a
figure of the body of Christ.
" As to the second proposition, which asserts that
* After the consecration there remaineth no substance of
bread and wine, neither any other substance, than the
•abs^'auce of Gcd and man,' I answer, that it is mani-
festly false, directly against the word of God, the nature
of the sacrament, and the most evident testimonies cf
the godly fathers ; and it is the rotten foundation of the
other two conclusions propounded by you, both of the
first, and also of the third. I will not therefore now tarry
upon any further exjilanation, being contented with that
which is already given to the answer of the first propo-
sition.
" The circumstances of the scripture, the analogy and
proportion of the sacraments, and the testimony of the
faithful fathers ought to rule us in taking the meaning of
the holy scriptures touching the sacrament. Now the
words of the Lord's supper, the circumstances of the
scripture, the analogy of the sacraments, and the sayings
of the fathers, do most eftectually and ])lainly prove a
figurative speech in the words of the Lord's supper.
" The circiimstances of the scriptures, ' Do this in re-
membrance of me.' ' As often as ye eat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.'
' Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that
bread, and drink of that cup.' ' They came together to
break bread ;' and they 'continued in breakhig of bread.'
' The bread which we break,' &c. ' For we being many,
are one bread and one body,' &c. 1 Cor. x. 14 — 17.
" The analogy of the sacraments is necessary: for
the sacraments must have some similitude or likeness of
the things whereof they be sacraments.
" T'he sayings of the fathers declare it to be a figura-
tive speech, as it appears in Origen, TertuUian, Chry-
sostom, Augustine, Ambrose, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen,
Hilary, and most plainly of all in Bretram, The say-
ings and places of all the fathers, whose names I have
before recited against the assertion of the first proposi-
tion, quite overthrow transubstantiation. But of all
most evidently and plainly, Irenseus, Origen, Cyprian,
Chrysostom to Cesarius the monk, Augustine against
Adamantus, Gelasius, Cyril, Epiphanius, Chrysostom ;
again on Matthew xx., Rabanus, Damascene and
Bertram.
" I have for the proof of what I have spoken what-
ever was written by Bertram, a learned man, of sour.d
and upright judgment, and ever counted a catholic for
these seven hundred years until this our age. Whoso-
ever shall read and weigh his treatise, considering the
time of the writer, his learning, godliness of life, the
allegations of the ancient fathers, and his manifold and
well-grounded arguments, I cannot but marvel, if he
have any fear of God at all, how he can with good con-
science speak against him in this matter of the sacra-
ment. This Bertram was the first person that arrested
my attention, and that first brought me from the com-
mon error of the Romish church, and caused me to
search more diligently and exactly both the scriptures
and the writings of the old ecclesiastical fathers in this
matter. A^ndthis I protest before the face of God, who
knows I lie not in the things I now speak.
" As to the third proposition, which is, that ' In the
mass is the lively sacrifice of the church, projiitiatory and
available for the sins as well of the quick as of the dead.'
" I answer this third proposition as I did the first.
And moreover I say, that being taken in such sense as
the words seem to import, it is not only erroneous, but
so much to the derogation and nullifying of the death
and passion of Christ, that I judge it may and ought
most worthily to be counted wicked and blasphemous
against the most precious blood of our Saviour Christ.
" Concerning the Romish mass which is used at this
day, or the lively sacrifice, piopitiatory aud available
for the sins of the li\ing and tbe dead, the holy
scripture hath not so much as one syllable.
"As to these words, 'The lively sacrifce of the
church,' there is a doubt whether they are to be under-
stood figuratively and sacramentaliy.
" ^Moreover, in these wor«!s ' as well as,' it maybe
doubted whether they be spoken in mockery, us men arc
wont to say in sport, of a fooli.sh or ignorant person,
that he is apt as well in conditions as iu kno-^ledge ;
being apt indeed in neither of them.
" There is also a doubt in the word ' propitiatory,'
whether it signifies here that whiiih takes away siu. or
694
DISPUTATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY AT OXFORD.
[Book X*
that which may be made available for the taking away of
sin ; that is to say, whether it is to be taken in the ac-
tive or in the passive sijjjnitication.
" Now the falsene.-s of the proposition, after the
meaning of the Romish Church, and the impiety in that
sense which the words seem to imjjort, is this, that they,
leaning to the foundation of their fond transubstantia-
tion, would make the quick and lively body of Christ's
tlesh, united and knit to the Divinity, to lie hid under
the accidents and outward shews of bread and wine,
which is very false, as I have said before ; and they,
building u]iou this foundation, hold tliat the same body
is olfered unto (iod by the jiriest in his daily masses to
put away tlie sins of the livjng and the dead; whereas
by the words of the aj)ostle to the Hebrews it is evi-
dent that there is but one oblation, and one true and
lively sacrifice of the church olfered upon the altar of
the cross, which was, is, and shall be for ever the
propitiation for the sins of tlie whole world ; and
where there is remission of the same, ' there is', saith
the apostle, ' no more offering for sin.'
" No other priest but Christ can sacrifice for sin ; and
thiL no man is called to this degree of honour but Christ
alone, is evident. For there are only but two orders of
priesthood allowed in the word of God : namely, the order
of Aaron, and the order of jNIelchisedec. But now the
order of Aaron is come to an end, and of the order of
Melchisedec there is but one priest alone, even Christ the
Lord, who has a priesthood that cannot pass to any other.
" Again, after eternal redemption is obtained, there
is need of no more daily offering for it. And Christ
flavmg obtained for us this eternal redemption by the
offering of himself, there is needed no more daily obla-
tion for the living and the dead.
" Again, all remission of sins comes only by shedding
of blood ; but in the mass, which they call an unbloody
sacrifice, there is no shedding of blood ; and therefore in
the mass there is no remission of sins ; and consequently
there is no propitiatory sacrifice.
" Attain, where Christ does not suffer, he is nor truly
offered ; for the apostk saith, ' Not that he might offer
up himself often (for then must he often have suffered
since beginning of the world),' now where Christ is not
offered, there is no propitiatory sacrifice ; and therefore,
In the mass there is no i)ro])itiatory sacrifice ; ' But now
once, in the end of the world, liath he appeared, to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is ap-
pointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg-
ment ; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of
many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear
the second time, without sin, unto salvation.'
" ' By the which will,' saith the apostle, ' we are
sanctified, through the ottering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.' And in the same place, ' But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever
sat down on the right hand of God. For by one offer-
ing he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified ;
and ' when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high.' I beseech you
to mark these words ' by himself,' which, if well weighed,
will without doubt ))ut an end to all controversy.
" ' He hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh.'
Mark, I beseech you, he saith not, in the mystery of his
body ; but in the body of his flesh.
" 'If any uian sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the pro-
pitiation of our sins, and not for ours only, but for the
sins of the whole world.'
" I know that all these ))lares of the scriptures are
avoided by two manner of subtle shifts : the one is by
the distinction of the bloody and unbloody sacrifice ; as
it our unbloody sacrifice of tlie church were anything
else than the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; a
commemoration ; shewing forth ; and a sacramental re-
presentation of that one only bloody sacrifice, offered uj)
once for all. The other is by depraving and wresting
the sayings of the ancient fathers to such a strange kind
of sense, as the fatliers tliemselves ne\er meant. For
the meaning of the fathers was evidently that the re-
in full effect for ever, and works without ceasing to the
end of the world, that the sacrifice once offered cannot
be consumed ; that the Lord's death and passion is as
etfectual, the virtue of that blood once shed, as fresh at
this day for the washing away of sins, as it was even the
same day that it flowed out of the blessed side of our
Saviour: and finally, that the whole substance of our
sacrifice, which is frequented of the church in the Lord's
supper, consists in prayers, praise, and giving of thanks,
and in remembering and sliewing forth of that sacrifice
once offered upon the altar of the cross.
" These are the things which I could answer to your
three propositions, though I am destitute of all help in
this shortness of time, and want of books. And because
ye have lately given most unjust and cruel sentence
against me, 1 do here appeal to a more just judgment of
some other com])etent and lawful judge, according to the
aiijiroved state of the church of England. If this appeal
may not be granted to me upon earth, then do 1 fly
(even as to my only refuge and alone haven of health)
to the sentence of the Eternal Judge, that is, of the Al-
mighty God, to whose most merciful justice towards us,
and most just mercifulness, 1 do wholly commit myself
and all my cause, not at all despairing of the defence of
mine advocate and alone Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom,
with the everlasting Father, and the Holy S})irit, the
Sanctifier of us all, be now and for ever all honour and
glory. Amen."
Smith. — '"You have occasioned me to go otherwise
to work with you than I had thought to have done.
You abuse the testimonies of scripture concerning the
ascension of Christ, in order to take away his presence
in the sacrament, as if this were a strong argument to
enforce your matter."
Ridley. — " If you take the real presence of Christ ac-
cording to the real and corporeal substance which he took
of the "Virgin, that j)resence being in heaven, cannot be
on the earth also. But if you mean a real presence of
some property or attribute of his body, the ascension
and abidmg in heaven are no hindrance to that presence,-'
Weston. — " I will cut off all equivocation and doubt.
For whenever we speak of Christ's body, we mean that
which he took of the Virgin."
Ridley. — " Christ's ascension and abiding in heaven
cannot consist with such a presence."
Smith. — " His ascension and abiding in heaven, was
no hindiance to his having visited the earth corporeally,
and therefore is now no hindrance to his real presence
in the sacrament."
Ridley. — " I do not so strictly tie Christ up in heaven,
that he may not once come into the earth at his pleasure.
For whenever he will, he may come down from heaven,
;,nd be on the earth ; but I affirm, that it is not possible
for him in that cor])oreal way to be both in heaven and
on earth at one time."
Smith. — " Mark, I jiray you, my masters, what he
answers. First he saith, that the sitting of Christ at
the right hand of the Father, is a hindrance to the real
presence of his body in the sacrament, and then after-
wards he flies from it again."
Ridley. — " I would not have you think that I imagine
or dream of any such manner of sitting, as these men
here sit in the school."
Smith. — " It is lawful for Christ, then, to be here
present on the earth, when he chooses himself."
Ridley. — " Yea, when he chooses.''
Smith. — "Therefore, he, ascending into heaven, does
not restrain his real presence in the sacrament."
Ridley. — " I do not gainsay but that it is lawful for
him to ajipear on the earth when he chooses ; but prove
you that he chooses it."
Smith. — " Then your answer depends upon the will
of Christ, I jierceive : therefore I will join with you in
that argument. Christ, after his ascension, was seen
really and corjioreally upon the earth ; and, therefore,
notwithstanding his ascension and abiding with his
Father, he may be corporeally in the sacrament."
Ridley. — "I grant that he was seen on earth, but 1
deny tliat he may therefore be in the sacrament. I
demptiou once made lor the salvation of man, continues 1 grant this ; because I knovvthat there are ceriaia ancient
A.D. 1544.]
DISPUTATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY AT OXFORD.
695
fathers of that opinion : so that I am content to let you
use that proposition as true. But let us first ai^rce about
the continual sitting at the right hand of the Father."
Sniifli. — " Does he so sit at the richt hand of his
Father, that he never forsakes the same ?"
RiiUfy. — " Nay, I do not bind Christ in heaven so
stric'tlv. If you mean by his sitting in heaven, to reign
vith his Father, he may be both in heaven and also in
earth. But if you understand his sitting to be after a
corporeal manner of sit tine/, then is he always in lieaven.
For Clirist to be corporeally here on earth, when cor-
poreally he is resident in heaven, is contrary to the
holy scriptures."
Smith. — " In Acts iii. vre read that Christ shall sit
perpetually at the right hand of God, until the consum-
mation of the world."
Weston. — " I ])erceive you are come here to this issue,
whether the body of Christ may be together both in
earth and in heaven. I tell you that Christ is both in
earth and in heaven together, and at one time, both one
and the same natural Christ, in the truth and substance
of his very body."
Ridley. — " I deny that."
Smith. — " I will prove that he appeared here in earth
after his ascension."
Ridley. — " He appeared, I grant; but how he ap-
peared, whether being then in heaven or in earth, is
uncertain. He api)eared to Stephen, being then cor-
poreally sittiiig in heaven. For, speaking after the true
manner of man's body, when he is in heaven, he is not
at the same time in earth ; and when he is in earth, he
is not at the same time corporeally in heaven."
Smith. — " Christ has been both in heaven and in
earth all at one time. He was seen of St. Paul, after
his ascending to heaven." 1 Cor. xv. 8.
Ridley. — ■" He was seen really and corporeally indeed :
but whether being in heaven or earth, is a doubt. And
of doubtful things we must judge doubtfully. You
should prove that he was in heaven at the same time,
that he was corporeally on earth."
Tresham. — " He was seen so, that he might be heard,
and therefore he was corporeally on the earth, or else
how could he be heard ?''
Ridley. — " He who enabled Stephen to behold him in
heaven, even he could bring to pass that Paul might hear
him out of heaven."
Smith. — " Others s>s well as Paul saw him visibly and
corporeally."
Ridley. — " I grant he was seen visibly and corporeally:
but you have not proved that he was seen in earth.^'
After this. Doctor Glin began to reason, who (not-
withstanding Master Ridley had always taken him for
his old friend) made a very contumelious preface against
him. This preface Master Ridley therefore did the
more take to heart, because it proceeded from him.
However, he thought, that Doctor Glin's mind was to
serve the time. For afterwards he came to the house
wherein Master Ridley was kept, and, as far as Master
Ridley could call to remembrance, before Doctor Young
and Doctor Oglethorpe, he desired him to pardon his
words. Which Master Ridley did even from the very
heart, and wished earnestly, that God would give not
only to him, but to all others, the true and evident
knowlc'lge of God's evangelical sincerity, that all offences
put apart, they being perfectly and fully reconciled,
might agree and meet together in the house of the
heavenly Father.
Glin. — " I see that you elude or shift away all scrip-
ture and the fathers : I will go to work with you after
another way. Christ has here his church known in
earth, of which you were once a child, although now
you speak contumeliously of the sacraments."
Ridley. — " This is a grievous contumely, that you call
me a shifter away of the scripture, and of the doctors :
As to the sacraments, I never yet spoke contumeliously
of them. I grant that Christ has here his church in
earth : but that church ever received and acknowledged
the euchaiist to be a sacrament of the body of Christ,
yet not the body of Christ really, but the body of Christ
by grace."
Glin. — " Then I ask this question ; whether the
Catholic church has ever or at any time been idola-
trous ?"
Ridley. — " The church is the pillar and ground of
truth, and never yet has been idolatrous in respect of
the irhole church, but perhaps in respect of some part
of it, which sometimes may have been seduced by evil
pastors, and through ignorance."
Glin. — " That church has ever worshipped the flesh
of Christ in the eucharist, and according to you, must
theiefore have been idolatrous."
Ridley. — " And I also worship Christ in the sacra-
ment, but not because he is included in the sacrament :
As I worship Christ also in the scriptures, not because
he is really included in them. Notwithstanding I say,
that the body of Christ is i)resent in the sacrament, but
yet sacramentally and spiritually, according to his grace
giving life, and in that respect really, that is, according
to his benediction giving life.
" Furthermore, I acknowledge gladly the true body of
Christ to be in the Lord's supper, in such sort as the
church of Christ (which is the spouse of Christ, and is
taught of the Holy Ghost, and guided by God's word),
doth acknowledge. But the true church of Christ ac-
knowledges a presence of Christ's body in the Lord's
supper to be communicated to the godly by grace, and
spiritually, as I have often shewed, and by a sacramental
signification, but not by the corporeal presence of the
body of his flesh."
Glin. — " But all the church adores Christ, verily, and
really in the sacrament."
Ridley. — " You know yourself that the eastern church
would not acknowledge transubstantiation, as appears in
the council of Florence."
Cole. — " That is false. For they acknowledged tran-
substantiation, although they would not treat of the
matter, for they had not in their commission so to
do."
Ridley. — " Nay, they would determine nothing of the
matter when the article was propounded to them."
Cole. — " It was not because they did not aclcnow-
ledge it, but because they had no commission to do
so."
Watson. — " Good sir, I have determined to have re-
spect of the time, and therefore I ask this question;
when Christ said in the si.xth of John, ' He that eatetli
my flesh, &c.' doth he signify in those words the eating
of his true and natural flesh, or else of the bread and
symbol ?''
Ridley. — " I understand that place of the very flesh of
Christ to be eaten, spiritr(ally . And further I say, that
the sacrament also pertains to the spiritual eating. For
without the spirit to eat the sacrament, is to eat it un-
profitably. For whoso eateth not spiritually, he eateth
his own condemnation."
Watson. — " I ask then whether the eucharist be a
sacrament .'"
Ridley. — " The eucharist, taken for a sign or symbol,
is a sacrament.''
Watson. — " Is it instituted of God.'"
Ridley. — " It is."
Watson. — " Where ?"
Ridley. — " In the supper."
Watson. — " With what words is it made a sacrament'"
Ridley. — " By the words and deeds which Christ said
and did, and commanded us to say and do."
Watson. — " It is a thing commonly received, that the
sacraments of the new law give grace to them that wor-
thily receive."
Ridley. — " It is true, that grace is given by the sacra-
ment, as by an instrument. The inward virtue and
Christ give the grace through the sacrament."
Watson. — " What is a sacrament?"
Ridley. — " I remember there are many definitions of
a sacrament in Augustine: but I will take that which
seems most fit to our present purjiose, — A sacrament is
a visible sign of invisihle grace."
Watson. — " Grace is given to the receivers."
Ridley. — " The fellowship or communion with Christ
through the Holy Ghost is grace, and by the sacrament
696
DISPUTATION OF HUGH LATIMER AT OXFORD.
[Book X.
we are made the members of the mystical body of Christ,
for by the sacrament the part of the body is grafted in
the head."
Watson. — " But there is a difference between the
mystical body, and natural body."
Ridley. — " There is a difference, but the head of them
both is one."
Watson. — " But no promise of grace is made to bread
and wine."
Ridley. — " I grant that grace belongs to the eucha-
rist, according to this saying, ' The bread which v,-e
break, is it not the communi(;ation or partaking of the
body of Christ .''' And as he that eateth, and he that
drink.'th unworthily the sacrament of the body and
blood of the Lord, eateth and drinketh his own dam-
nation ; even so he that eateth and drinketh worthily,
eatetli life, and drinketh life. I grant also that there
is no promise made to bread and wine. But inasmuch
as they are sanctified, and made the sacraments of
tiie body and blood of the Lord, they have a pro-
mise of grace annexed to them ; namely, of spiritual
partaking of the body of Christ to be communicated
and given, not to the bread and wine, but to them
who worthily receive the sacrament."
After much more disp\itation of this kind, Doctor
Treshain began to speak with zeal, and desired that he
niiglit be in stead of John the Ba])tist, in converting the
hearts of the fathers, and in reducing bishop Ridley again
to tlie motlier church. Now at first, not knowing the
person, he thought he had been some good old man,
who had the zea! of God, although not according to
knowledge, and began to answer him with kindness and
reverence. But afterwards he smelled a fox under
sheep's clothing.
Tresham. — " God Almighty grant that ft may be fulfilled
in me, that wliich was spoken by the prophet Malachi of
John Baptist, that I may turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the hearts of the children to their
father.-;, that you at length may be converted. The wise
man saith, ' Son, honour thy father, and reverence thy
mother.' But you dishonour your Father in heaven,
and pollute your mother the holy church here on earth,
while you sit not by it."
Ridley. — " These by-words pollute your school."
Tresham. — " If there were an Arian who had that
subtle wit that you have, he might soon shift off the
authority of the scriptures and fathers.''
Weston. — " Either dispute, or else hold your peace,
I pray you."
Tresham. — " I bring a place here out of the council
of Lateran, which council represented the universal
church, wherein were congregated three hundred bi-
shops, and seventy metropolitans, besides a great mul-
titude of others ; they decreed that bread and wine,
bv the jiower of God's word, was transubstantiated
into th ■ hody and blood of the Lord. Therefore who-
ever saith contrary, cannot be a child of the church, but
an Heretic."
RidI -y. — " Good sir, I have heard what you have
cited out of the council of Lateran, and remember that
tliere wa< as K'eat a multitude of bishops and metropoli-
tins as you say : But yet you have not numbered how
iii-uiy abbots, priors, and friars, were in that council,
who were to the number of eight hundred."
A notary here said, "What! will you deny then the
authority of • that council, on account of the multitude of
tuose priors .■"'
Ridley. — " No, sir, not so much for that cause, as
because the doctrine of that council agreed not with the
word of God, as appears by the acts of that council,
which was held under Innocent the Third, a man (if we
believe the histories) most pernicious to the church and
commonwealth of Christ.''
Tresham. — " What ! do you not receive the council of
Lateran?" Then he with others cried out, "Write,
write that down ! "
Ridley. — " No, sir, I receive not that council ; so
write, and write it again."
Smith. — " I brin^ a canon out of the council of Nice:
' None of the apostles said, this is a figure of the body
of Christ : None of the reverend elders said, the un-
bloody sacrifice of the altar was a figure.' "
Ridley. — "This canon is not in the council of Nice.
For I have read over this council many times."
Then came in another, whom Master Ridley knew not,
and said, " The universal church, both of the Greeks and
Latins, of the East and the West, have agreed in the
council of Florence, uniformly in the doctrine of the
sacrament, that in the sacrament of the altar there is llie
true and real body."
Ridley. — " I deny the Greek and the Eastern church
to have agreed either in the council at Florence, or at
any other time, with the Romish church in the doctrine
of transubstantiation of bread into the I'ody of Christ.
For there was nothing in the council of Florence, where-
in the Greeks would agree with the Romanists; although
hitherto it was left free for every church to use, as they
were wont, leavened or unleavened bread."
Here Doctor Cole cried out, and said, " they agreed
together concerning transubstantiation of bread into the
body of Christ.''
IMaster Ridley said that could not be.
Here started up another person, unknown to Master
Ridley, who affirmed with him, that there was nothing
decreed concerning transubstantiation ; the council left
that, as a matter not meet nor worthy to disturb the
peace and concord of the church. To whom Master
Ridley answered again, saying, that he said the truth.
After some further disputation, Weston as prolocutor,
dissolved the meeting, saying, " Here you see th.e stub-
born, the boasting, the crafty, the inconstant mind of
this man. Here you see, this 'day, that the strength of i
the truth is without foil. Therefore I beseech you all
most earnestly to blow the note;" he began, and they
followed, "Truth hath the victory, truth hath the vic-
tory !"
The Disputation had at Oxford, on Wednesday the
eighteenth day of April, \nsA, between Master Hugh m
Latimer answerer, and Master Smith, and other op- I
posers. •
On the next day after these disputations with bishop
Ridley, Master Hugh Latimer was brought out to dis-
pute.
There replied to him Smith, Cartwright, and Harps-
field ; some others had snatches at him, and gave him
bitter taunts. He did not escape hissings and scornful
laughings, any more than they that went before him.
He was very faint, and desired that he might not be kept
long. He could not drink for fear of vomiting.
Weston. — " Men and brethren, we are come together
this day, (by the help of God,) to vanquish the argu-
ments and opinions of adversaries, against the truth
of tlie real ]iresence of the Lord's body in the sacra-
ment. And therefore, you, father, if you have any thing
to answer, I admonish that you answer in short and few
words."
Latimer. — " I pray you, good Master Prolocutor, do
not exact that of me, which is not in me, I have not
these twenty years much used the Latin tongue."
Weston. — " Take your ease, father.''
Latimer. — " I thank you, sir, 1 am well ; let me here
protest my faith, for I am not able to dispute j and after-
wards do your pleasure with me."
The Protestation of Master Hugh Latimer, giveii up in
writing to Doctor Weston.
" The conclusions whereunto I must answer, are
these : —
" The first is. That in the sacrament of the altar by
the virtue of God's word pronounced by the priest, there
is really present the natural body of Christ, conceived of
the Virgin Mary, under the kinds of the appearance of
bread and wine ; in the like manner his blood.
" The second is. That after consecration there re»
maineth no substance of bread and wine, nor any other
substance, but the substance of God and man.
A.D. 15540
DISPUTATION OF HUGH LATIMER AT OXFORD.
CI 7
*' The third is, That in the mass there is the lively
( sacrifice of the church, which is propitiatory, as well for
I the sins of the quick, as of the dead.
" Concerning the first conclusion, methinks it is set
i forth with new found terms that are obscure, and do not
, sound according to the words of the scripture. How-
ever, I answer plainly, that to the right celebration of
I the Lord's supper there is no other presence of Christ
required, tlian a spiritual presence : and this presence is
' sufficient for a christian man, as a presence by which we
1 abide in Christ, and Christ abideth in us, to the obtain-
ing of eternal life, if we persevere. And this same pre-
- sence may be called most fitly a real presence, that is, a
■ presence not feigned, but a true and faithful presence.
i I here state this, lest some scorner should suppose me
I to make nothing else of the sacrament, but a naked and
a bare sign.
" Concerning the second conclusion, I dare be bold to
say, that it has no ground in God's word, but is a thing
invented and found out by man ; and therefore is to be
regarded as foolish and false : and I had almost said,
as the mother and nurse of the other errors. It were
good for my lords and masters of transubstantiation, to
take heed lest they conspire with the Nestoriaus, for I do
not see how they can avoid it.
" The third conclusion seems to sow sedition against the
offering which Christ himself offered for us in his own
proper person, according to that pithy place of St. Paul,
where he saith, ' That Christ when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high.' (Heb. i. ',i.) And afterwards 'Wherefore in all
things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren ;
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people.' (Heb. ii. 17.) So that the expi-
ation or taking away of our sins may be thought rather
to depend on this, that Christ was an offering bishop,
than that he was offered, were it not that he was offered
by himself; and therefore it is needless that he should
be offered by any other. I will speak nothing of the
wonderful presumption of man, to dare to attempt this
■without a manifest vocation, especially as it tends to the
overthrowing and making fruitless (if not wholly, yet
partly) the cross of Christ ; for truly it is no base or
mean thing to offer Christ. And therefore worthily a
man may say to my lords and masters the offerers, ' By
what authority do ye this ? and who gave you this autho-
rity .' Where ? when ?' A man cannot (saith John Bap-
tist) take any thing except it be given him from above :
mucli less then may any man presume to usurp any
honour, before he be called thereto. Again, ' If any
man sin,' (saith St. John,) 'we have' — not a master
or offerer at home, who can sacrifice for us at mass;
but 'we have an advocate, Jesus Christ,' who once
offered up himself; of which offering tlie efficacy and
effect is endurable for ever, so that it is needless to have
such offerers.
" I have taken the more pains to write, because I re-
fuse to dispute, in consideration of my debility : that all
men may know, how I have done so, not without pain,
though having no man to help me, as I have never before
been debarred from having. O, sir, you may chance to
live till you come to the age and weakness that I am of.
I have sjjoken in my time before two kings more than
once, two or three hours together, without interruption :
But now, that I may speak the truth (by your leave), I
could not be suffered to declare my mind before you,
no, not by the space of a quarter of an hour, without
snatches, revilings, checks, rebukes, taunts, such as I
have not felt the like, in such an audience, all my life
long. Surely it cannot be but an heinous offence that I
have given. But what was it ' Forsooth I had spoken
of the four marrow-bones of the mass ; which kind of
speaking I never read to be a sin against the Holy Ghost.
" I could not be allowed to shew what I meant by my
metaphor : But, sir, now by your favour I will tell your
mastership what I mean.
" The first is the popish consecration, which had been
called God's body-making.
" The second is transubstantiation.
" The third is massal oblation.
" The fourth, adoration.
" These chief and principal portions, parts, and points
belonging to the mass, I call the marrow-bones of the
mass ; which you, by force, might, and violence, intrude
as parts of the scriptures, with racking and cramping, in-
juring and wronging the same.
' ' There are some persons that speak many false things
more probable, and more like to the truth, than the
truth itself."
" But what mean you," saith one interrupting him,
" by this talk, so far from the matter .'"
" Well, I hope, good masters, you will suflTer an old
man a little to play the child, and to speak one thing
twice. You have changed the most holy communion
into a private action ; and you deny t9 the laity the
Lord's cup, contrary to Christ's commandment : and
you blemish the annunciation of the Lord's death till he
come : For you have changed tlie common prayer, called
the divine service, with tlie administration of tlie sacra-
ments, from the vulgar and known language, into a
strange tongue, contrary to the will of the Lord revealed
in his word. God open the door of your hearts, to see
the tilings you should see herein ! I would as fain obey
my sovereign as any in this realm : but in these things
I can never do it with an upright conscience. God be
merciful unto us. Ainen ! "
W^eston. — "Then do you refuse to dispute.' Will
j'ou subscribe ? "
Latimer. — " No, good Master ; I pray be good to an
old man. You may, if it please God, be once old, as I
am : you may come to this age, and to this debility.''
Weston. — " You said, ui)on Saturday last, that you
could not find the mass, nor the marrow-bones of it in
your book : but we will find a mass in that bonk."
Latimer. — " No, good Master doctor, you cannot."
Weston. — " What find you, then, there?"
Latimer. — " I find a communion there."
Weston. — " Which communion, the first or the
last ?"
Latimer. — " I find no great diversity in them ; they
are one supper of the Lord : but I like the last very
well."
Weston. — " The first was naught, belike."
Latimer. — " 1 do not well remember wherein they
differ."
Weston. — " Then cake bread, and loaf bread, are all
one with you. You call it the supper of the Lord ; but
you are deceived in that : for they had done the sujiper
before, and therefore the scripture saith, ' After they
had supped.' For you know that St. Paul finds fault
with the Corinthians, for that some of them were
drunk at this supper ; and you know no man can be
drunk at your communion."
Latimer. — " The first was called The Jewish Supper,
when they did eat the paschal lamb together ; the other
was called The Lord's Supper."
Weston. — " That is false."
Smith. — " I will propose three questions as they are
put to me. And first I ask this question of you, al-
though it ought not to be called in question ; but such
is the condition of the church, that it is always vexed
by the wicked. I ask, I say, whether Christ's body
be really in the sacrament ?"
Latimer.—" I trust 1 have obtained of Master Prolo-
cutor that no man shall exact of me that which is not in
me. And I am sorry that this worshipful audience
should be deceived of their expectation. I have given
up my mind in writing to Master Prolocutor."
Smith.—" Whatever you have given up, it shall be
registered among the acts."
Latimer.—" Disputation requires a good memory :
my memory is clean gone, and marvellously weakened,
and never the better for the prison."
Weston.—" How long have you been in pnson?
Latimer.—" Three quarters of a year."
Weston.-" And I was in prison six yeari
Latimer. — " The more pity, sir.''
DISPUTATION OF HUGH LATIMER AT OXFORD.
698
Weston. — " How long have you been of this opinion ?"
Latimer.—" It is not long, sir, that 1 have been of
this opinion."
Weston.—" The time hath been when you said mass
full devoutly."
Latimer.—-' Yea, I cry God's mercy heartdy for it.'
Weston.—" Where learned you this new-iangled-
Latimer. " I have long sought for tlie truth in this
matter of the sacrament, and have not been of this mind
past seven years : and my lord of Canterbury's book has
esjjecially confirmed my judgment in it. If I could re-
member all contained in it, 1 would not fear to answer
any man."
Tresham. — " There are in that book six hundred
errors."
Weston. — " You were once a Lutheran."
Latimer. — " No ; I was a papist ; for I never could
perceive how Luther could defend his opinion without
transubstantiation. ' '
Weston. — " Luther said that the devil reasoned with
him, and persuaded him that the mass was not good ; so
that Luther said mass, and the devil dissuaded him from
it."
Latimer. — "I do not take in hand here to defend
Luther's sayings or doings. If he were here, he would
defend himself well enough, I trow."
Weston. — " Do you believe this, as you have written ?"
Latimer. — " Yea, sir."
Weston. — " Then you have no faith."
Latimer. — " Then would I be sorry, sir."
Tresham. — " It is written ( John vi. 53), ' Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you.' Which when the Capernaites
and many of Christ's disciples heard, they said, ' This is
a hard saying,' &c. Now that the truth may better ap-
pear, here I ask of you, whether Christ, speaking these
words, did mean of his flesh to be eaten with the mouth,
or of the spiritual eating of the same .'"
Latimer. — " I answer (as St. Augustine understands)
that Christ in that passage meant of the spiritual eating
of his flesh."
Tresham. — " Of what flesh meant Christ ; liis true
flesh, or not?"
Latimer. — " Of his true flesh, spiritually to be eaten
in tlie supper by faith, and not corporeally."
Tresham. — " Of what flesh mean the Capernaites .'"
Latimer. — " Of his true flesh also ; but to be eaten
with the mouth ; not the bodily mouth ; but of the
mouth of the spirit, mind, and heart."
Weston. — " You shall see what worshipful men you
hang upon ; one that has been of your mind, shall dispute
with you. Master Cartwright, I pray you dispute."
Cartwright. — " Reverend father, because it is given
me in command to dispute with you, I will do it gladly.
But first understand ere we go any further, that I was
in the same error that you are in ; but I am sorry for it,
and do confess myself to have erred, I acknowledge
mine ofi'ence, and 1 wish and desire God that you may
also repent with me."
Latimer. — " Will you give me leave to tell what has
caused you to recant ? It is the pain of the law, which
has brought you back, and converted you, and many
more, which hinders many from confessing God. And
this is a great argument, there are few here can solve
it."
Cartwright. — " That is not my case ; but I will make
you this short argument, by which I was converted from
mine errors, namely, that if the true body of Christ be
not really in the sacrament, all the whole church hath
erred from the a})ostles' time."
Latimer. — " The popish church has erred, and still
errs. I think for the s]>ace of six or seven hundred
years, there was no mention made of any eating, but
spiritually ; for, before these five hundred years, the
church ever confessed a spiritual eating. But the
Romish church begat the error of transubstantiation.
My lord of Canterbury's book handles that very well,
and by him I could answer you if 1 had it."
Cartwright.—" Linus, and all the rest, confess the
[Book X.
body of Christ to be in the sacrament ; and St. Augus-
tine grants that it is to be worshipped."
Latimer. — " We worship Christ in the heavens, and we
worship him in the sacrament ; but tlie mass-worship is
not to be used.''
Cole. — " Is it not a shame for an old man to lie ?
You say you are of the old fathers' faith where they say
well; and yet you are not."
Latimer. — " 1 am of their faith when they say well ;
I refer myself to my lord of Canterbury's book wholly
herein."
Smith. — " Then you are not of Chrysostom's faith,
nor of St. Augustine's faith.''
Latimer. — " I have said, when they say well, and
bring scripture for them, 1 am of their faith ; and fur-
ther St. Augur.tine recpiires not to be believed. Where
have you authority given you to offer sacrifice.'"
Weston. — " Hoc facile, do this; for J'acite in that
place is taken for offerte, that is, otl'eryou."
Latimer. — " \sfacere nothing but nacrificare to sacri-
flee .' Why, then, no man must receive the sacrament
but priests only ; for there no other may offer but priests.
Weston. — " Your argument is to be denied."
Latimer. — " Did Christ then off'er himself at his sup.
per ?"
Pye. — " Yea, he offered himself for the whole world." '
Latimer. — "Then if this vmvA facile, 'do ye,' signify]
sacrificale, sacrifice, it follows, as I said, that none but'
priests only ought to receive the sacrament, to whom itj
is only lawful to sacrifice ; and where find you that, I
pray you .'"
Weston. — " Forty years ago, whither could you have!
gone to have found your doctrine ?"
Latimer. — " Tlie more cause we have to thank God,
that has now sent the light into the world."
Weston. — "The light! nay light and wicked!
preachers ; j'ou altered and changed so often your com- '
munions and altars, and all for this one end, to spoil '
and rob the church."
Latimer. — " These things pertain nothing to me; I must '
not answer for other men's deeds, but only for mine
own."
Weston. — "Well, Master, this is our intention, to'
wish you well, and to exhort you to come to yourself,
and remember, that without Noah's Ark there is no
health. Remember what they have been who were the
beginners of your doctrine ; none but a few flying apos-
tates, running out of Germany for fear of the fagot.
Remember what they have been who have set forth the '
same in this realm : a sort of fling-brains and light
heads, who were never constant in any one thing, as it
was to be seen in the turning of the table, where, like a
sort of ajies, they could not tell which way to turn their
tails, looking one day west, and another day east, one
that way, and another this way. They will be like, they
say, to the apostles ; ihey will have no churches. A
hovel is good enough for them. They come to the
communion with no reverence. They get them a tan-
kard, and one saith, ' I drink, and I am thankful;' ' the
more joy of thee,' saith another. And in them was it
true that Hilary saith, ' We make, every year and every
month, a faith.' A renegade Scot took away the adora-
tion or worshipping of Christ in the sacrament, by whose '
procurement that heresy was ])ut into the last commu-
nion book ; so much prevailed that one man's au- '
thority. Your stubbornness comes of vain glory, which |
is to no purpose ; for it will do you no good when a i
fagot is in your beard. And we see all, by your own
confession, how little cause you have to be stubborn.
The queen's grace is merciful, if you will turn."
Latimer. — " You shall have no hojjc in me of turning.
I pray for the queen daily, even from the bottom of myi
heart, that she may turn from this religion." j
Weston. — " Here you all see the weakness of heresy!
against the truth ; he denies all truth, and all the oldl
fathers."
And thus thou hast, reader, the whole action of thisj
disputation against these three worthy confessors and]
martyrs of the Lord ; wherein thou niayest behold tha^
A.D. 1554.J
SENTENCE PASSED ON CRANMER, RIDLEY, AND LATIMER.
699
disordered usage of the university men, the unmannerly
custom of the school, the rude tumult of the multitude,
I the fieiNjeness and interruption of the doctors, the full
■ ground of all their arguments, the censures of the judges,
the railing language of the prolocutor, l)eing both the
) actor, the moderator, and also judge himself.
Such disturbance and confusion, more like a conspi-
racy than any disputation, without all form and order,
was in the schools during tiie time of their answering,
that neither could the answerers utter their minds, nei-
' tber would the opponents be satisfied with any reasons.
I Concerning which misruled disputation, Ridley himself
I reports as follows : —
The Report and Narration of Bishop Ridlet/, conceiTiing
the Disputation against him and his fellow -prisoners
at Ojford.
" I never yet, since I was born, saw or heard anytliing
done or handled more vainly or tumultuously, than the
disputation held with me in the schools at Oxford. Yea,
verily, I could never have thought that it had been pos-
sible to have found amongst men accounted to be men of
knowledge and learning in this realm, any so brazen-
faced and shameless, so disorderly and vainly to behave
themselves, more like stage-players in interludes to set
forth a pageant, than grave divines in school, to dispute
about religion. The clamours of the Sorbonne, which at
Paris I have seen in times past, when popery most
reigned, might be worthily thouglit, in comparison with
this thrasonical ostentation, to have had much modesty.
And no great marvel, seeing they who should have been
moderators and overseers of others, and who should
have given good examples in words and gravity, them-
selves, above all others, gave worst example, and did, as
it were, blow the trumpet to the rest, to rave, roar, rage,
and cry out. By reason whereof it manifestly appears
that they never sought for any truth or verity, but only
for the glory of the world, and their own bragging vic-
tory. But lest by the innumerable railings and re-
proachful taunts, wherewith I was baited on every side,
our cause — yea, rather God's cause and his church's —
should be evil spoken of, and slandered to the world
through false reports, given out concerning our dispu-
tation, and so the truth might sustain some damage, I
thought it no less than my duty to write my answe.rs,
that whosoever is desirous to know the truth may by tliis
perceive as well those things which were chiefly ob-
jected, as summarily that which was answered by me to
them. However I confess this to be most true, that it
is impossible to set forth either all that was tumul-
tuously and confusedly objected on their parts, there
being so many speaking at one time, and so fast, that
one could not very well hear another, neither could all
that was answered on my behalf to so many opponents
be heard.
" A great part of the time appointed for the disputa-
tions was vainly consunred in opprobrious checks and
reviling taunts, with hissing and clapping of hands;
using tlie English tongue, to procure the people's favour.
All which, when I with great grief of heart beheld, pro-
testing openly that such excessive and outrageous dis-
order was unseemly for those schools, and men of such
leuniing and gravity, and that they who were the doers
and stirrers of such things, did nothing else but betray
the slenderness of their cause, and their own vanities ;
1 was so far off by this my humble complaint, from
doing any good, that I was forced to hear such rebukes,
checks, and taunts for my labour, as no person of any
honesty, without blushing, could abide to hear the like
spoken by a most vile varlet, against a most wretched
ruffian.
" At the beginning of the disputation, when I should
have confirmed mine answer to the first pro])ositinn in
a few words, and that, after the manner and law of
schools, before I could make an end of my first proof,
which was not very long, even the doctors tliemselves
cried out, ' He speaketh blasphemies, he speaketh blas-
phemies !' And when on my knees I besought them
that they would vouchsafe to hear me to the end, at
which the prolocutor being moved, cried out, ' Let him
read it, let him read it.' Yet, when I began to read,
there followed immediately such shouting, such noise,
and tumult, such confusion of voices, crying ' Blasphe-
mies, blasphemies !' as I, to my remembrance, never
heard or read the like, except it be that one which was,
in the acts of the apostles, stirred up of Demetrius
the silversmith, and other of his occupation, crying out
against Paul, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! great
is Diana of tlie F::>j)hesians !' And except it be a certain
disputation which the Arians had against the orthodox,
and such as were of godly judgment in Africa, where it
is said (according to Victor) that such as the president
and rulers of the disputation were, such was the end of
the disjmtations. Ail were in a hurly-burly, and so
great were the slanders which the Arians cast out, that
nothing could quietly be heard.
" The cries and the tumults against me so prevailed,
that I was forced to leave off reading my proofs, although
they were short. If any man doubt of the truth of this,
let him ask any one that was there, and not utterly per-
verted in ])opery, and, I am assured, he will say 1 fall far
short of the facts in my statement. But I will cease to
complain of these things further.''
He concludes his report with these words: "And
thus was ended this most glorious disputation of the most
holy fathers, saciificers, doctors, and masters, who fought
most manfully, as ye may see, for their God and goods,
for their faith and felicity, for their country and kitchen,
for their beauty and belly, with triumphant applauses
and favour of the whole university."
The disputation of Master Latimer being ended on the
18th April, the commissioners sat on the 20th, in
St. Mary's church ; and Doctor Weston used dissua-
sions with every one of them, and would not suffer them
to ansv\'er unless directly and peremptorily, as his words
were, to say whether they would subscribe or not. He said
to the archbishop of Canterbury that he was overcome
in disputation. The archbishop answered, " That where
Doctor Weston said, he had answered and opposed, and
could neither maintain his own errors, nor impugn the
truth ; all that he thus said was false. For that he was
not suffered to oppose as he wished, nor could he answer
as he was required, unless he would have brawled like
them. Four or five continually inteniipted him, so thst
he could not speak.'' Master Ridley and Master Lati-
mer were asked what they would do. They replied,
" That thev would stand to what they had said." Then
they were all called together, and the sentence read over
them, declaring they were no more members of the church.
And also that their favourers and patrons were con-
demned as heretics. In reading the sentence, they were
asked, whether they would turn or not : and they bade
them read on in the name of God, for they were not
minded to turn. So they were all three condemned.
After which sentence of condemnation being awarded
against them, they answered again every one in his turn
as follows ; the archbishop first beginning thus : —
The Archbishop of Canterbury.
" From this your judgment and sentence, I appeal to
the just judgment of Almighty God, trusting to be pre-
sent with him in heaven, for whose presence in the altar
I am thus condemned."
Doctor Ridley.
" Although I be not of your company, yet doubt I not
but my name is written in another place, whither this
sentence wiW send us sooner than we should by the course
of nature have come.''
Master Latimer
" I thank God most heartily, that he has prolonged
my life to this end, that 1 may in this cause glorify God
by that kind of death."
Doctor Weston's Answer unto Latimer.
" If you go to heaven in this faith, then^I will ncTer
come thither, as I am at present persuaded."
700
CRANMER'S LETTER TO THE COUNCIL.
[Book X.
After the sentence pronounred, they were separated
one from another. The archbishop was returned lo
Bocardi), Ridley was carried to the sheritrs house ; Lati-
mer to the baihff's.
On the Saturday following, they had a mass, with a ge-
neral procession and great solemnity. Doctor Craniner
was forced to behold the procession out of Bocardo ;
Doctor Ridley out of the sheriff's house. Latimer also,
being brought to see it from the bailiff's house, thought
that he was going to be burnt, and spoke to one Augus-
tine Cooper, a catchpole, to make a quick tire. But
when he came to Carfox, and saw the matter, he ran as
fast as his old bones would carry him, to one Spencer's
shop, and would not look towards it. Last of all. Doctor
Weston carried the sacrament, and four Doctors carried
the canopy over him.
Immediately after the sentence was given, Doctor
Ridley writes to the prolocutor as follows : —
Doctor Ridley to the Prolocutor.
" Master prolocutor, you remember, I am sure, how
you promised me openly in the schools, after my protes-
tation, that I should see how my answers were there
taken and written of the notaries whom you appointed
to write what should be said, that I should have leave to
add to them, or to alter them, as upon more deliberation
should have seemed best. You granted me also, at the
delivery of my answer to your first proposition, a copy
of the same. These promises are nnt performed. If
your sudden departure be any part of the cause of this,
yet I pray you remember that they may be performed ;
for performance of a promise is to be looked for at a
righteous judge's hands. Now I send you here my an-
swers, in writing, to your second and third propositions,
and do desire and require earnestly a copy of the same,
and I shall by God's grace procure the pains of the wri-
ter to be paid for, and satisfied accordingly. Master
Prolocutor, in the time of my answer in the schools, when
I would have confirmed my sayings with authorities and
reasons, you said then openly, that I should have time
and place, to say and bring whatsoever I could an-
other time, and the same your saying was then and there
confirmed of others of the commissioners: yea, and, I
dare say, the audience also thought then that T should
have had another day, to have brought and said what I
could of the declaration and confirmation of mine as-
sertions. Now, that this was not done, but sentence so
suddenly given before the cause was perfectly heard, I
cannot but marvel," &.c.
On Monday, the 2.W of April, Doctor Weston, prolo-
cutor, took his journey to London, with the letters cer-
tificatory from the university to the Queen, by whom the
archbishop of Canterbury directed his letters supplica-
tory to the council. Which letters, after the prolocutor
had received, and had carried them well-near half-way
to London, he opened, and seeing the contents, sent
them back again, refusing to carry them, &c.
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Letter to the Council.
" In right hurablewise shews unto your honourable
lordships, Thomas Cranmer, late arclibishop of Canter-
bury, beseeching the same to be a means for me to the
queen's highness for her mercy and pardon. Some of
you know by what means I was brought and trained to
the will of our late sovereign lord king Edward VI., and
what I spake against the same, wherein I refer nie to the
reports of your honours and worships. Furthermore,
this is to signify to your lordships, tliat upon Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday last past, were open disputa-
tions here in Oxford against me, Master Ridley, and
Master Latimer, in thret matters concerning the sacra-
ment. First, of the real presence : Secondly, of tran-
substantiation : and Thirdly, of the sacrifice of the mass.
Upon Monday, against me: upon Tuesday, against doc-
tor Ridley; and upon Wednesday, against Mr. Latimer.
How the other two were ordered, I know not ; for we
were separated, so that none of us knew what the
other said, nor how they were ordered. But as con-
eeming myself, I can report. Doctor Chedsey was ap-
pointed to dispute against me, but the disputation wag
so confused tliat I never knew the like ; every man
bringing forih what he liked without order ; and such
haste was made, that no answer was suffered to be fully
given to any argu.nent. before another brought forward
a new argument. And in such weighty matters the dig.
jtutation must needs be eud"d in one day, which could
scantily be ended in three months. And when we had
answered them, they would not apjioint us one day to
briiig fortli our j)roat'», that tht-y might answer us,
being recjuired by me to do so, whereas I myself have
more to say than can be well discussed, as I sup])ose, la
twenty days. The right means to resolve the truth
had been to have suffered us to answer fully to all that
they could say, and then they again to answer us fully
to all that we can say. But why they would not answer
us, what other cause can there be, but that either they
feared their matter, that they were not able to answer
us, or else lor some consideration they made such haste
not to seek the truth, but to condemn us, that it must
be done in post haste before the matters could bo
thoroughly heard. For in haste we were all three con-
demned of heresy. Thus much I thought good to sig.
nify unto your lordships, that you may know the in-
different handling of matters, leaving the judgment
thereof unto your wisdom. And I beseech your lord-
ships to remember me, a poor prisoner, unto the queen's
majesty ; and I shall pray, as I do daily, unto God, for
the long preservation of your lordships in all godliness
and felicity." April 215.
Now let us return for a little to our history, as regards
other things that happened in other parts of the realm,
in this tumultuous time of queen Mary. As events in that
time were so numerous, it is hard to keep a perfect or-
der in reciting them. Therefore to insert things left
out before, we have thought here a little to interrupt
the order of time, returning again to the month of Jul)
the year before, viz. l.^.'io, at which time I showed be-
fore how the duke of Northumberland was apprehended
by the guard, and brought to London by the earl of
Arundel and otlier lords and gentlemen who had been
appointed for that purpose on the 2r)th JiJy, being St.
James' day. The duke was sent to tlie Tower, where he
remained.
Tlie earl of Warwick, his eldest son, lord Ambrose and
lord Henry Dudley, two of his younger sons, the earl of
Huntington, lord Hastings, sir Jolm Gates, sir Henry
Gates, sir Andrew Dudley, sir Thomas Palmer, and Dr.
Sands, chancellor of Cambridge, were all sent to the
Tower at the same time.
On the 26th, the lord marquis of Northampton, the
bishop of London, lord Robert Dudley, and sir Richard
Corbes were committed to the Tower.
On the 27th, the lord chief justice of England, and
the lord Mountacute, chief justice of the common pleas,
were committed to the Tower.
On Friday the 28th, the duke of Suffolk, and sir John
Cheek were committed to the Tower.
On the ;50th, the lord Russel was committed to the
sheriff of London's custody.
On the olst, the earl of Rutland was committed to
the Fleet ; and the same day the duke of Suffolk was de-
livered out of the Tower again.
On Thursday the 3d of August, the queen entered
into the city of London at Aldersgate, and so to the
Tower, where she remained seven days, and then re-
moved to lli('hmond.
On Saturday the 5th the Lord Ferris was committed
to the Tower, and on the same day Doctor Bonner
was delivered out of the Marshalsia; and at night
Doctor Cocks was committed to tiie Marshalsea, and one
Master Edward Underbill to Newgate. Also the same
day Doctor Tonstall and Stephen Gardiner were delivered
out of the Tower, and (iardiner received into the queen's
privy council, and made lord chancellor.
On Sunday the (Jth, Henry Dudley, cajitain of the guard
at Guisnes, who before had been sent to the French
king, by his cousin the duke of Northumberland, after
the despatch of his embassy to the French king.
A.D. 1553.]
CRANMER DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST CERTAIN SLANDERS.
701
returned to Guisnes, and was taken, and this day brought
to the Tower.
On Monday the 7th, a dirge in Latin was suns; with-
in the Tower by all the king's chapel, and the bishop of
Wiiichestc- was chief minister; the queen was present,
and most part of the council.
On Tuesday the 8th, the kinij's body was brought
to Westminster, and there buried; doctor Day, bishop
of Chichester, pre^iched. The same day a mass of re-
qu'iem was sung within the Tower by the bishoji of Win-
chester, who had ou his mitre, and did all things as in
times past was done. The queen was ])resent.
On Thursday the Duke of Norfolk ca.ne forth of the
Tower, with whom the Duchess of Somerset was also
delive/ed.
On Sunday the I3th, doctor Bourne preached at St.
Paul's Cross.
Ill the week following command was given throughout
the city that no apprentices should come to the sermon,
nor bear any knife or dagger.
On Wednesday, being the 16th day of August, Master
Bradford, Master Beacon, and Master Vernon, were
! committed to the Tower: with whom also Master
I Sampson should have been committed, and was sought
(fur the same time at Master Elsing's house in Fleet-
street, where ^Master Bradford was taken ; and because
lie was not found, the bishop of Winchester fumed like
a prelate with the messenger.
On Friday the 18th, the duke of Northumberland,
the martjuis of Northampton, and the earl of Warwick,
were arraigned at Westminster, and there the same day
condemned, the duke of Norfolk that day being the high
judge.
Ou the Saturday the 19th, sir Andrew Dudley, sir
John Gates, sir Henry Gates, and sir Thomas Palmer,
were arraigned at Westminster, and condemned the
same day, the marquis of Winchester being high judge.
The sime day a letter was sent to sir Henry Tyrrell,
Antony Brown, and Edmund Brown, esquires, praying
them to commit to ward all such as shall contemn the
queen's order of religion, or shall keep themselves from
church, there to remain until they be conformable, and
to signify their names to the council.
On Sunday the 20th, Dr. Watson, the bishop of Win-
chester's chaplain, preached at St. Paul's Cross, at
whose sermon was present the marquis of Winchester,
the earl of Bedford, the earl of Pembroke, the lord
Rich, and two hundred of the guard with their halberds,
lest the people should have made any stir against the
preicber.
On Monday the 21st, the duke of Northumberland,
ithe marquis of Northampton, sir Andrew Dudley, sir
iJohn Gates, and sir Thomas Palmer, heard a mass
iWithin the Tower, and after mass they all five received
jthe sacrament in one kind only, as in the popish time
iwas used. On which day also Queen Mary set forth
a proclamation, signifying to the people, that she could
not hide any longer the religion which she from her in-
f ^r.cy had professed, &c. Inhibiting in the proclama-
;i n, printing and preaching.
(ill Tuesday the 22d, the duke of Northumberland,
sir John Gates, and sir Thomas Palmer, were beheaded
'■•n Tower-hill. The same day certain noble personages
h- ;ud mass within the Tower, and likewise after mass
re rived the sacrament in one kind.
On Sunday the 27th, Doctor Chedsey preached at
St. Paul's Cross, and on the same day the archbishop of
.Canterbury, Sir Thomas Smith, and the dean of St.
Paul's, were cited to appear the week following before
the queen's commissioners in the bishop's consistory
within St. Paul's.
About this time it was noised abroad by rumours
falsely and craftily devised, either to establish the credit
of the mass, or else to bring Thomas Cranmer, arch-
|bishop of Canterbury into discredit, that he, to curry fa-
vour witli Queen Mary, had promised to say dirge mass
I after the old custom for King Edward, and that he had
I already said mass at Canterbury, &c. Wherefore to
?top these slanders, Cranmer, on the 7th of September,
stC forth the following letter, which was printed.
A Pvr(]at\on of Thomas Archbishop of Cdnterbvry,
ar/ainst certain Slandem falsely raised against him.
" As the devil, Christ's ancient adversary, is a liar,
and the father of lies, even so hath he stirred up his ser-
vants and members to ])ersecute Christ and his true
word and religion with lying : which he ceaseth not to
do most earnestly at this present time. For whereas the
prince of famous memory King Henry VIII., seeing the
great abuses of the Latin mass, reformed some thing.s
therein in his lifetime ; and afterwards, our late sove-
reign lord, King Edward VI. took the same wholly
away, for the manifold and great errors and abuses ot
the same, and restored in the place thereof Christ's
holy supper, according to Christ's own institution, and
as the apostles used the same in the primitive church :
the devil goeth about now by lying to overthrow tlis
Lord's Supper again, and to restore his Latin satisfac-
tory mass, a tiling of his own invention and device
And to bring the same more easily to pass, some have
abused the name of me, Thomas archbishop of Canter-
bury, bruiting abroad, that I have set up the mass at
Canterbury, and that I offered to say mass at the burial
of our lite sovereign prince King Edward VI., and that
I offered to say mass before the queen's highness, and
at St. Paul's church, and elsewhere. And although I
have been well exercised these twenty years to suffer
and bear evil reports and lies, and have not bi^e:)
much grieved thereat, but have borne all things
quietly ; yet when untrue reports and lies turn to
the liindrance of God's truth, they are in nowise to
be suffered. Wherefore these be to signify unto the
world, that it was not I that set up the mass at Canter-
bury, but it was a false, flattering, l)'ing, and di.~sem -
bling monk, which caused mass to be set up there with-
out my advice or counsel ; Rerfdat illi Dominvs in die
illo. And as for offering myself to say mass before the
queen's highness, or in any other place, I never did it,
as her grace well knowetli. But if her grace will give
me leave, I shall be ready to prove, against all that will
say the contrary, that all that is contained in the holy
communion, set out by the most innocent and godly
prince King Edward VI., in his high court of parlia-
ment, is conformable to that order which our Saviour
Christ did both observe, and command to be observed,
and which his apostles, and the primitive church used
many years ; whereas the mass, in many things, not
only hath no foundation of Christ, his apostles, nor the
primitive church, but is manifestly contrary to the
same, and containeth many horrible abuses in it. And
although many, either unlearned or malicious, do re-
port, that Peter Martyr is unlearned, yet if the queen s
highness will grant thereunto, I, with the said Peter
Martyr, arid other four or five, which I shall choose,
will, by God's grace, take upon us to defend, not only
the common prayers of the church, the ministration of
the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies, but also
all the doctrine and religion set out by our sovereign
lord King Edward VI., to be more pure, and according
to God's word, than any other that hath been used in
England these thousand years : so that God's word
may be judge, and that the reasons and proofs of both
parties may be set out in writing, to the intent, as well
that all the world may examine and judge thereon, as
that no man shall start back from his writing. And
where they boast of the faith, that hath been in the
church these fifteen hundred years, we will join with
them in this point ; and that the same doctrine and
usage is to be followed, which was in the church fifteen
hundred years past ; and we shall prove that the order
of the church, set out at this present time, in this realm
by act of parliament, is the same that was used in the
church fifteen hundred years past, and so shall they be
never able to prove theirs."
On Thursday, the Tth of September, Lord Mountacute,
chief justice, and the lord chief baron were delivered out
of the Tower.
On the i;5th of September, the reverend father, master
Hugh Latimer was committed to the Tower.
702
NEW BISHOPS, DEANS, &c. APPOINTED.
[Book X.
On the 1 4th of September, the archbishop of Canter
bury was committed to the Tower.
On the 2<)th of September, one Master Gray, of Cam-
bridge, called before him one Master Garth, for that he
would not suffer a boy of Peter-house to help him to say
mass in Pembroke-hall, which was before any law was
established for that behalf.
The queen came to the Tower of London on Thurs-
day, being the 28th of September, and upon the Satur-
day following she rode from the Tower through the city
of London, where were made many pageants to receive
her, and so she was triumphantly brought to Whitehall,
in \\'cstminster.
On Sunday, the 1st day of October, the queen's
liighness went from Whitehall to Westminster-abbey,
accompanied with the most part of the nobility of this
realm, namely, these: the duke of Norfolk, the earl of
Arundel, the earl of Shrewsbury, the marqu's of Win-
chester, the earls of Derby, Bedford, Worcester, Cum-
berland, Westmorland, Oxford, Sussex, Devonshire,
Pembroke, the lord Dacres of the north, lord Ferris,
lord Cobham, lord Abergavenny, lord Wentworth,
lord Scroop, lord Rich, lord Vaux, lord Howard,
lord Conias, lord Morley, lord Paget, and the lord
Willoughby ; with other nobles, and all the ambassadors
of divers countries, the mayor of London, with all the
aldermen. Also out of the abbey, to receive her, there
came three silver crosses, and to the number of four-
score, or nearly, of singing men, all in very rich and
gorgeous copes. Amongst whom was the dean of West-
minster, and several of her chaplains, wlio bare every
one some ensign in their hands, and after them followed
ten bishops all mitred, and their crosier staves in their
hands, and rich copes u])on every one of them. And in
this order they returned from Westminster-hall before
the queen to the abbey, where she was crowned by
Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chan-
cellor of England. At the time of the coronation. Doc-
tor Day, bishop of Chichester, made a sermon to the
queen's majesty, and to the rest of the nobility.
Al-o there was a general pardon proclaimed within
the abb>'y at the time of her coronation, out of which
proclamation all the prisoners of the Tower and of the
Fleet were excepted, and sixty-two more.
On the Tuesday the vice-chancellor of Cambridge
challenged one Mr. Pierson, because he ministered
still the communion in his own parish, and received
strangers of other parishes to the communion, and
would not say mass. Upon which, within two days
after, he was dismissed from farther administering in his
cure.
On the Wednesday following the archbishop of York
was committed to the Tower.
On the Thursday, the queen rode to the parliament
in her robes, and all the nobility with her ; and when
they were met in the parliament-house, the bishop of
Winchester made a solemn oration, and sergeant Pol-
lard was chosen speaker of the parliament. The
same day the bishops of Lincoln, Hereford, and West-
chester, were dismissed from the parliament and con-
vocation.
Also on the 10th, the earl of Huntington was de-
livered out of the Tower.
On the Sunday after, being the L^th, Lawrence
Saunders preached at Allhallows in Bread-street in the
morning, where he declared the abomination of the
mass, with divers other matters, very notably and godly ;
whereof more shall be said when we come to his history.
As he shewed himself to be God's faithful minister, so
is he sure not to be defrauded of God's faithful promise,
who says, " Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me be-
fore men, him will I also confess before my Father
which is in heaven." (Matt. x. ;52.) But about noon
of the same day he was sent for by the bishop of Lon-
don, and then committed to the Marshalsea.
On the Sunday following, being the 22nd, Doctor
Weston preached at St. Paul's Cross. In the begin-
ning of his sermon he desired the people to ])ray for the
souls departed: " You shall pray for all them that arc
dejiarted, that are neither in heaven, nor in hell, but in
another place, being not yet sufficiently purged to come
to heaven, that they may be relieved by your devout
prayers." He called the Lord's table, where we cele-
brate our communion, an oyster-board ! He said, that
the catechism in Latin, lately set out, was abominable
heresy, and likened the compilers of the catechism to
Julian the A))ostate, and the book to a dialogue set out
by Julian, in which Christ and Pilate were the speakers •
with many other things. JNIaster Coverdale, at the
time, learnedly confuted this sermon by writing.
In the week following began the disputations in the
convocation-house in St. Paul's church, of which suth-
cient has been before declared.
On the 2(ith, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge went
to Clare-hall, and in the presence of Doctor Walker
displaced Doctor Madew, and placed IMaster Swyborne
in the mastership there, by the lord chancellor's let-
ters, because he was (as they termed it) tuoralus, that
is, " married."
On the 28th, the papists in King's college, Cambridge,
had their whole service again in the Latin tongue, con-
trary to the law then in force.
On the 3d of November the vice-chancellor sent for '
tlie curate of the Round parish in Cambridge, com-
manding him not to officiate any more in the English ]
tongue, saying, he would have one uniform order of ser-
vice throughout the town, and that in Latin, with mass, I
which was established on the 12th of this month.
On the 28th of November the archdeacon's official
visited Hinton, where he gave charge to present all
such as disturbed the queen's proceedings, in hindering
the Latin service, the setting up of their altars, and say-
ing mass. It was easy to see how these fellows meant
to proceed, having the law once on their side, wlio thus
against a manifest lavr, would attempt the punishment
of any man.
On the 15th of December there were two proclama-
tions at London : the one for the repealing of certain
acts made by King Edward, and for the setting up of
the mass, on the 20th of December then next follow-
ing ; the other was, that no man should interrupt any
of (hose that would say mass.
The parliament beginning about the 5th of October,
continued till the 6th of December, 1553. In which par-
liament were repealed aU the statutes of prarmmire,
passed in the time of King Henry VIII. , &c. Also other
laws and statutes coiicerning religion and the adminis-
tration of sacrameiits, decreed under King Edward VI.
In this parliament was appointed, that on the 20th of
December next ensuing, tlie same year 1553, all the old
form and manner of church-service, used in the last
year of King Henry, should again be restored.
About this time a priest of Canterbury said mass on
the one day, and the next day after he came into the
pulpit, and desired all the people to forgive him ; for
he said, he had betrayed Christ, not as Judas did, but
as Peter did, and there made a long sermon against the
mass.
About this time a great number of new bishops, deans,
&c. were chosen, more than were made at one time
since the Conquest. Their names are these : —
Holyman, bishop of Bristol.
Coatts, bishop of Westchester.
Hopton, bishop of Norwich.
Bourne, bishop of Bath.
White, bishop of Lincoln.
Mores, bishop of Rochester.
Morgan, bishop of St. David's.
Poole, bishop of St. Asaph.
Brookes, bishop of Gloucester.
Moreman, coadjutor to the bishop of Exeter.
Glin, bishop of Bangor.
Fecknam, dean of St. Paul's.
Rainolds, dean of Bristol ; with others.
On the 12th of January, the vice-chancellor of Cam-
bridge called a general congregation, where, among
other things, he shewed, that the queen would have
there a mass of the Holy Ghost upon the 18th of
February following, for it was her birth-day.
A.D. 15r)4.j
EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK.
70s
On Saturday, the 13th, Doctor Crome was com-
mitted to the Fleet. Also on the Sunday following
Mr. Addington was committed to the Tower ; and
iuforniation was also given in the court publicly by the
bishop of Winchester, that the marriage between the
queen's majesty and the king of Spain was concluded.
On the day following, being Monday, the mayor,
with the aldermen and certain commons were at the
court, and they were commanded by the lord chancel-
lor to prepare the city to receive the king of Spain,
declaring to them what a catholic, mighty, prudent, and
wise prince, the said king was.
On the Saturday following, being the 20th of January,
the court of the first fruits and tenths was dissolved.
On Thursday the 2,5th, the lord marquis of North-
ampton was again committed to the Tower, and Sir
Edward Warner with him.
On Saturday the 27th, Justice Hales was committed to
the Marshalsea, and on the same day Mr. Rogers was com-
mitted to the Newgate. Upon the Saturday, and on the
Sunday, aijd Monday following, the Londoners prepared
a number of soldiers, (by the queen's command) to go
into Kent against the commons : which soldiers, when
they came to Rochester-bridge, where they should have
set upon their enemies, most of them left their own
captains and came over to the Kentish men, and so tlie
captains returned to the court without men or victory,
leaving behind them six pieces of ordnance and treasure.
About the latter end of January, the duke of Suffolk
departed into Leicestershire. 'I'lie earl of Huntington
was sent to take him and bring him to London, who
proclaimed the duke traitor by the way.
On Friday the 2:5d of February, ir)54, about nine
o'clock in the forenoon, the lord Henry Gray, duke of
Suffolk, was brought from the Tower to the scaffold on
Tower Hill ; Doctor Weston accompanied him as his
ghostly father, against the will of the duke. When the
duke went up to the scaffold, Weston being on the left
hand, pressed to go up with him. The duke, with his
hand, put him down again off the stai/s : and Weston,
taking hold of the duke, forced him down likewise.
And as they ascended the second time, the duke again
put him down.
Then Weston said, that it was the queen's pleasure he
should do so. At this the duke casting his hands
abroad, ascended the scaffold, and paused a while.
And then said, " ^Masters, I have offended the queen
and her laws, and thereby am justly condemned to (iie,
and am wUling to die, desiring all men to be obedient,
and I pray God that this my death may be an example
to all men, beseeching you all to bear me witness, that I
die in the faith of Christ, trusting to be saved by his
blood only, and by no trumpery ceremonials. He died
for me, and for all them that truly repent, and stedfastly
trust in him. And I do repent, desiring you all to pray
t ) God for me ; and that when you see my breath depart
from me, you will pray to God that he may receive my
S'lul." And then he desired all men to forgive him,
living, that the queen had forgiven him.
Then Dr. Weston declared with a loud voice, that the
queen's majesty had forgiven him. With that the
stnnders-by said, with good and audible voice, " Such
fort;iveness God send thee!" meaning Dr. Weston.
Then the duke kneeled down and said the psalm, " O
liod be merciful unto me," &c. to the end, holding up
his hands, and looking up to heaven. And when he had
ended the psalm, he said, " Into thy hands I commit
my spirit," &c. Then he arose and stood up, and de-
livered his cap and his scarf to the executioner.
Then the executioner kneeled down, and asked the
duke forgiveness. And the duke said, " God forgive
thee, and I do : and when thou dost thine office, I pray
thee do it well, and send me out of this world quickly, and
God have mercy upon thee." Then there stood up a man
and said, " My lord, what shall I do for the money that
you do owe me?" And the duke said, " Alas 1 good
fellow, I pray thee trouble me not now, but go thy way to
my officers." Then he knit a handkerchief about his face,
I and kneeled down and said, " Our Father which art in
1 heaven," &c. to the end. And then he said, " Christ
have mercy upon me,'' and laid down his Head on the
block, and the executioner took the axe, and at the first
chop struck off his head, and held it up to the people,
&c.
On this same day a number of prisoners had their par-
don, and came through the city with their halters about
their necks. They were in number above two hundred.
In this week, all such priests within the diocese of
London as were married, were divorced from their liv-
ings, and commanded to bring their wives within a fort-
night, that they might be likewise divorced from them.
This the bishop did of his own power.
On Tuesday, in the same week, being the 27th of
February, certain gentlemen of Kent were sent into
Kent, to be executed there. Their names were these ;
the two Mantels, two Knevets, and Bret ; with these
Mr. Rudston also and others were condemned, and
should have been executed, but they had their pardon.
As to Mr. Mantel the elder, here is to be noted, that
as he was led to execution, and at his first casting under
the gallows, the rope broke, l^ien they wanted him to
recant the truth, and receive the sacrament of the altar
(as they term it), and then they said he should have the
queen's pardon : but Mr. Mantel, like a worthy gentle-
nuin, refused their insidious counsel, and chose rather to
die than to live to the dishonouring of God. As he was
reported falsely to have fallen from the constancy of his
profession ; to clear himself, and to reprove the sinister
surmise of his recantation, he wrote this brief apology.
The Apology of Master Mantel.
" Perceiving that already certain false reports are
raised concerning my answer in the behalf of my belief,
while I was prisoner in the Tower of London, and con-
sidering how sore a matter it is to be an occasion of of-
fence to any of those little ones that believe in Christ : I
have thought it the duty of a christian man, as near as I
can (with the truth) to take away this offence. It
pleased the queen's majesty to send me Doctor Bourne,
to whom at the first meeting I acknowledged my faith in
all points to agree with the four creeds ; that is, the
Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Atbanasian
Creed, and the Te Deum.
" Further, as concerning confession and penance, I
declare that I could be content to shew to any learned
minister of Christ's church any thing that troubled my
conscience, and of such a man I would most willingly
hear absolution pronounced.
" Touching the sacrament of the altar (as he termed
it), I said that I believed Christ to be there present as
the Holy Ghost meant, when these words were written,
" This is my body."
" Further, when this would not satisfy, I desired him
to consider, that I was a condemned man to die by law,
and that it was more meet for me to seek a readiness
and preparation to death. And insomuch as I dissent-'d
not from him in any article of the christian faith neces-
sary to salvation, I desired him, for God's sake, no more
to trouble me with such matters, to believe which is
neither salvation ; nor not to believe, damnation. He
answered, that if I dissented but in the least matter
from the chatholic church, my soul was in great danger;
therefore much more in this great matter, alleging this
text, ' He that offendeth in the least of these, is guilty
of them all.' ' Yea,' said I, ' this is true of the com-
mandments of God.' To this I desired him to consider
it was not my matter, nor could I in these matters keep
disputation, nor did I intend to do so ; and therefore to
take these few words for a full answer, that I, not only
in the matter of the sacrament, but also in all other matters
of religion, believe as the holy catholic church of Christ
(grounded upon the prophets and apostles) believes.
But upon this word ' church' we agreed not ; for 1 took
exception at the antichristian popish church.
" Then we fell into talk about the mass, wherein we
agreed not: for I, both for the occasion of idolatry, and
also the clear subversion of Christ's institution, thought it
naught ; and he, upon certain considerations supposed it
^. tl . I found fault that it was accounted a propitia-
z i
YOl
THE APOLOGY OF WALTER MANTEL.
[Book X.
tory sacrifice for sin, and at certain other applications of
it- But lie said that it was not a propitiatory sacrifice
for sin (for the death of Christ only was the sacrificed
and this but a commemoration of the same. ' Then,' I
replied, ' if you think so, (certain blasphemous collects
L'ft out) 1 could be content (were it not for offending
my poor brethren that believe in Christ, which know not
so mucli) to hear your mass.' ' Sea,' said he, ' how
vain glory touches you.' ' Not so, sir,' replied I, ' I
am not now, I thank God, in a case to be vain glorious.'
" Then I found further fault with it, that it was not a
communion. ' Yea,' saith he, ' one priest saying mass
here, and another there, and the third in anotlier ])lace,
&c. is a communion.' ' This agrees scarcely with these
words of St. Paul,' said I, ' Yecome together not for the
better, but for the worse.' ' Yea, and it is a commu-
nion too,' said he, ' when they come together. Now
draws on the time' (continued he) ' tiiat I must depart
from you to the court, to say mass before the queen,
and must signify unto her in what case I find you, and
methinks I find you sore seduced.' Tlien I said, ' I
pray you report the best : for I trust you find me not ob-
stinate.' ' What shall I say? are you content to hear
mass, and to receive the sacrament of the mass .■" ' I
beseech you,' said I, ' signify unto her majesty, that I
am neither obstinate nor stubborn ; for time and iiersua-
sion may alter me, but as yet my conscience is such,
that I can neither hear mass, nor receive the sacrament
after that sort.' Thus, after certain requests made to
the queen's majesty concerning other matters, he de-
parted.
" On the next day he came to me again, and brought
with him St. Cyprian's works ; for so I had required
him to do the day before, because I would see his
sermon De Mortalitate. He had in this book turned
and interlined certain places, both concerning the church
and the sacrament, which he wished me to read. I read
as much as my time would serve, and at his next com-
ing I said, that I was wholly of Cyprian's mind in the
matter of the sacrament. Doctor Weston and Doctor
Mallet then came to me, whom I answered much after
that sort as I did the other. Doctor Weston brought in
the place of St. Cyprian, ' Panis iste non effigie, sed na-
tura mutatus,' &c. I asked of him how natnra was
taken in the convocation-house, in the disputation upon
the place of Theodoret.
" To be short. Dr. Bourne came often to me, and I
always said to him, that I was not minded, nor able to
dispute in matters of religion: but I believed as the holy
catholic church of Christ, grounded upon the prophets
and apostles, believes : and in the matter of the sacra-
ment, as the holy fathers, St. Cyprian and St. Augustine
write, and believed ; and this answer and none other had
they from me in effect ; what words soever have been
spread abroad of me, that I should be conformable to
all things, &c. The truth is, I never heard mass, nor re-
ceived the sacrament during the time of my imprisonment.
" One time he wished me to be confessed. 1 said, ' I
am content.' We kneeled down to pray together in a
window. I began without the ' Benedicite,' desiring
him not to look at my hand for any su))erstitious enu-
meration of my sins. Then he was called away to the
council. Thus much I bear only for my life, as God
knows. If in this I have ofiended any christian, from
the bottom of my heart I ask them forgiveness. I trust
Christ hath forgiven me, who knows that I durst never
deny him before men, lest he should deny me before his
Heavenly Father.
" Thus I have left behind me, written with mine own
hand, the substance of all the talk, esjjecially of the worst
that ever I granted to, to the utmost I can remember, as
God knoweth. All the whole communication I have not
written ; for it were both too long and too foolish so to
do. Now I beseech the living God, who hath received
me to his mercy, and brought to pass, that 1 die steadfast
and undefiled in his truth, at utter defiance and detesta-
tion of all papistical and antichristian doctrine ; I be-
seech him (I say) to keep and defend all his chosen for
his name's sake, from the tyranny of the bishop of
Rome — that antichrist, and from the assault of all his sa-
tellites. God's indignation is known : he will try and
prove who are his. Amend your lives. Deny not
Christ before men, lest he deny you before his heavenly
Father. Fear not to lose your lives for him ; for ye
shall find them again. May God hold his merciful hand
over this realm, and avert tlie impending plagues from the
same ! May God save the queen, and send her knowledge
in his trutli. Amen. Pray, pray, pray, ye christians, and
comfort yourselves with the scriptures.
" Written the 2d of March, A. D. l.'>o4, by me,
Walter IMantel, prisoner, whom both God and
the world hath forgiven his ofiences. Amen."
In Loudon, on the I7th of March, every householder
was commanded to appear before the aldermen of their
ward, and were enjoined that they, their wives and ser-
vants, should prepare themselves to go to confession,
and receive the sacrament at Easter, and that neither
tliey, nor any of them should depart out of the city,
until Easter was past.
On the 18th, being Sunday, the lady Elizaiieth, the
queen's sister, was brought to the Tower.
On the 2r)th day (being Easter-day), in the morning,
at St. Pancras, in Cheapside, the crucifix, with the pix,
were taken out of the sepulchre, before the priest rose
to the resurrection : so that when, after his accustomed
manner, he put his hand into the sepulchre, and said
very devoutly, " He hath risen, he is not here," he
found his words true, for he was not there indeed ! Being
dismayed, they consulted among themselves whom they
thought to be likeliest to have done this thing. They
remembered one Marsh, who a little before had been
put from his parsonage because he was married, and to
his charge they laid that. But when they could not
prove it, they charged him with having kept companv
with his wife since they were divorced. He answered,
" That he thought the queen had done him wrong to
take from him both his living and his life." These
words were taken very grievously, and he and his wife
were both committed to prison.
On the 8th of April there was a cat hanged upon a
gallows at the cross in Cheapside, apparelled like a priest
ready to say mass, with a shaven crown. Her two fore-
feet were tied over her head, with a round paper like a
wafer-cake put between them. The queen and the
bishops were very angry ; and therefore, in the same
afternoon, there was a proclamation issued, tiiat whoever
could bring forth the party that hanged up the cat, siiould
have twenty nobles, which reward was afterwards in-
creased to twenty marks, but none could or would earn it.
As to the first setting up of this gallows in Clieap-
side, we may observe, that after the sermon of the
bishop of Winchester before the queen, for the execulioa
of Wyat's soldiers, immediately on the Kith of February,
there were set up a great number of gallows in diiiV rent
places of the city ; namely, two in Cheapside, one at
Leaden-hall, one at Billingsgate, one at St. Magnus church,
one in Smithfield, one in Fleet-street, four in South-
wark, one at Aldgate, one at Bishopsgate, one at Alders-
gate, one at Newgate, one at Ludgate, one at St. James's
Park Corner, one at Cripplegate : all which gibbets and
gallows, to the number of twenty, remained there from
the 13th of February till the 4th of June, and then at
the coming in of King Philip were taken down.
On the 11th of April Sir Thomas Wyat was be-
headed and quartered at the Tower-hill, where he uttered
these words touching the lady Elizabeth and the earl of
Devonshire: "Concerning," said he, " what I have said
of others in my examination, to charge any others as
partakers of my doings, I accuse neither my lady Eliza-
beth's grace, nor my lord of Devonshire. I cannot ac-
cuse them, neither am I able to say, that to my know-
ledge they knew anything of my rising." And when
Doctor Weston told him, that his confession was other-
wise before the council, he answered, "That which I
said then, I said; but that which I say now, is true."
Concerning the condemnation of Thomas, archbishop
of (;anterbury, of Doctor Ridley, and Master Latimer,
which took place on the 20th of April, we have already
said enough.
A.D. 1554.] A DECLARATION OF THE PREACHERS CONCERNING THEIR DOCTRINE.
70b
On Friday the 27th of April, Lord Thomas Gray, the
late duke of Suffolk's brother, was beheaded at Tower-
hill.
In the month of May it was given out that a solemn
disputation should be held at Cambridge between Brad-
ford, Sanders, Rogers, and others of that side, and the
doctors of both the universities on the other side, as had
been in Oxford before. Upon this the godly preachers
who were in prison having word of it, although they were
destitute of their books, neither were ignorant of the
purpose of the adversaries, and how the cause was pre-
judiced ; also how the disputations were confusedly
handled at Oxford ; nevertheless they resolved not to
refuse the offer of disputation, provided they might be
quietly heard ; and therefore wisely pondering the mat-
ter with themselves, by a public consent directed out of
1 prison a declaration of their mind by writing, on the
I 8th of May. First, as touching the disputation, although
I they knew that they should do no good, as all things
I were determined beforehand, yet they would not deny
jto dispute, provided the disputation might be either
I before the queen, or before the council, or before either
houses of parliament, or else that they might dispute
• by writing : for if the matter were brought to the doc-
tors, they had sufficient proof, they said, by the expe-
rience of Oxford, thaC little good would be done at Cam-
bridge ; and so declaring the faith and doctrine of their
religion, and exhorting the people to submit themselves
Xvith all patience and humility to the higher povyers,
ithey appealed from them as their judges.
yl Copy of a Declaration drawn up and sent out of Prison
by Bradford, Sanders, and other godly Preachers,
concerning their Disputation, and the Doctrine of their
Religion.
'* because we hear that it is determined of the magis-
!.rates, and such as are in authority, especially of the
(•lergy, to send us speedily out of the prisons of the
liCing's Bench, the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and Newgate,
where we are at present, and some of us have been for a
long time, not as I'ebels, traitors, seditious persons,
ihieves, or transgressors of any laws of this realm, in-
hibitions, proclamations, or commandments of the
ueen's highness, or of any of the council's (God's name
fe praised therefore), but only for the conscience we
ave to God, and his most holv word and truth, upon
lost certain knowledge : because, we say, we hear that it
5 determined, that we shall be sent to one of the univer-
ities of Cambridge or Oxford, there to dispute with such
s are appointed : as we purpose not to dispute other-
[ise than by writing, except it may be before the queen's
|ighness and her council, or before the parliament-
ouses; and therefore perchance it will be rumoured
broad, that we are not able to maintain, by the truth of
tod's word, and the consent of the true and catholic
liurch of Christ, the doctrine we have generally and
Kverally taught, and some of us have written and set
)rth, by which the godly and simple may be offended,
nd somewhat weakened ; we have thought it our
ounden duty now, whilst we may, by writing to publish
r>d notify the causes why we will not dispute otherwise
lan is above said, to prevent the offence which might
ome thereby.
" 1. Because it is evidently known to the whole
orld, that the determinations of both the universities
> matters of religion, especially wherein we should dis-
iite, are directly against God's word, yea, against their
.vn determinations in the time of our late sovereign
>rd and most godly prince. King Edward : and further
is known they are our open enemies, and have already
jnderaned our causes, before any disputation had of
le same.
"2. Because the prelates and clergy do not seek
tther us or the truth, but our destruction and their
!ory. For if they had sought us (as charity requires)
len they would have called us forth before their laws
^ere so made, that frankly and without peril we might
lavespoken our consciences. Again,if they had sought for
le truth, they would not have concluded controversies
before they had been disputed ; so that it easily appears,
that they seek their own glory and our destruction, and
not us and the truth : and therefore we have good cause
to refuse disputation, as a thing which shall not further
prevail than to the setting forth of their glory, and the
suppression of the truth.
" ;{. Because the censors and judges (as we hear who
they be) are manifest enemies to the truth, and what is
worse, obstinate enemies, before whom pearls are not to
be cast, by the commandment of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, and by his own example. That they are such,
their doings of late at Oxford, and in the convocation .
house in October last, most evidently prove.
" 4. Because some of us have been in prison these
eight or nine months, where we have had no books, no
paper, no pen, no ink, or convenient place for study, we
think we should do wrong, thus suddenly to descend into
disputation with them, who may allege, as they chose,
the fathers and their testimonies, because our memories
have not that which we have read, so readily, as to re-
prove, when they shall report and wrest the authors to
their purpose, or to bring forth what we may have there
for our advantage.
" 5. Because in disputation we shall not be permitted
to prosecute our arguments, but be stopt when we
should speak ; one saying this, another that, the third
his mind, &c. As was done to the godly learned fathers,
especially Doctor Ridley, at Oxford, who was not per-
mitted to declare his mind and meaning of the proposi-
tions, and had oftentimes half a dozen at once speaking
against him, always preventing him from prosecuting his
argument, and answering accordingly : we will not
speak of the hissing, scoffing and taunting, which no-
toriously then was used. If in this sort, and much
worse, they handled these fathers, much more will they
be shamelessly bold with us, if we should enter into
disputation with them.
" 6. Because the notaries, that shall receive and write
the disputations will be of their appointment, and such
as either do not, or dare not, favour the truth, and
therefore must write either to please them, or else they
themselves (the censors and judges we mean), at their
pleasure will put to, and take from that which is written
by the notaries ; who cannot, or must not have in their
custody that which they write, longer than the disputa-
tion endureth, as their doings at Oxford declare. No
copy nor scroll could any man have by their good will.
For the censors and judges will have all delivered into
their hands. Yea, if any man was seen there to write,
as the report is, the same man was sent for, and his
writings taken from him : so must the disputation serve
only for the glory, not of God, but of the enemies of his
truth.
" For these causes we all think it so necessary not to
dispute with them ; as, if we did dispute, we should do
that which they desire and purposely seek, to promote
the kingdom of antichrist, and to suppress (as much as
may be) the truth. We will not speak of the offence
that might come to the godly, when they should hear,
by the report of our enemies, our answers and argu-
ments framed (you may be sure) for their fantasies, to
the slandering of the truth.
" Therefore we publish, and by this writing notify to
the whole congregation and church of England, that for
these causes we will not dispute with them, otherwise
than with the pen, unless it be before the queen's high-
ness and her council, or before tlie houses of tlie parlia-
ment. If they will write, we will answer, and by writ-
ing confirm and prove out of the infallible truth, even
the very word of God, and by the testimony of the good
and most ancient fathers in Christ's church, this our
faith and every piece thereof, which hereafter we, col-
lectively, do write and send abroad purposely, that our
good brethren and sisters in the Lord may know it : and
to seal up the same, we are ready, through God s help
and grace, to give our lives to the halter or hre, or other-
wise; as God shall appoint : humbly requiring, and m
the bowels of our Saviour Jesus Christ beseeching, aU
that fear God, to behave themselves as obedient subjecU
to the queen's highness and the superior powers, which
$96
THE LADY ELIZABETH COMMITTED TO THE TOWER,
[Book X.
are ordained of God under her, rather after our example
to gi^e their heads to the block, than in any point to
rebel, or once to mutter against the Lord's anointed ;
we mean our sovereign lady Queen Mary, into whose
heart we beseech the Lord of mercy plentifully to pour
the wisdom and grace of his Holy Spirit, now and for ever,
Amen.
"1. We confess and believe all the canonical books
of the Old Testament, and all the books of the New
Testament, to be the very true word of God, and to be
•written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and are
therefore to be heard accordingly, as the judge in all
controversies and matters of religion.
" 2. We confess and believe that the catholic church,
which is the spouse of Christ, as a most obedient and
loving wife, doth embrace and follow the doctrine of
these books in all matters of religion, and therefore she
is to be heard accordingly ; so that those who will not
hear this church thus following and obeying the word
of her husband, we account as heretics and schismatics,
according to this saying, ' If he will not hear the church,
let him be to thee as a heathen.'
" 3. We believe and confess all the articles of faith
and doctrine set forth in the symbol of the apostles,
■which we commonly call the creed, and in the symbols
of the councils of Nice, kept A.D. 32') ; of Constanti-
nople, A.D. ;i81 ; of Ephesus. kept A.D. 4.U ; of Chal-
cedon, kept A.D. 4.')1 ; of Toledo, first and fourth.
Also in the symbols of Athanasius, Irenaeus, TertuUian,
and of Damascenus, who died about the year / CO, we
confess and believe (we say) the doctrine of the symbols
generally and particularly ; so that whosoever doth
otherwise, we hold the same to err from the truth.
" 4. We believe and confess concerning justification,
that as it comes only from God's mercy through Christ,
so it is perceived and had by none, who are of years of
discretion, otherwise than by faith only : which faith is
not an opinion, but a certain persuasion wrought by
the Holy Ghost in the mind and heart of man, whereby
as the mind is illuminated, so the heart is inclined to
submit itself to the will of God unfeignedly, and so
shews forth an inherent righteousness, which is to be
discerned in the article of justification, from the righte-
ousness which God endues us withal, justifying us, al-
though inseparably they go together. And this we do
not fur curiosity or contention's sake, but for concience's
sake, that it might be quiet, which it can never be, if we
confound without distinction forgiveness of sins, and
Christ's righteousness im])uted to us, with regeneration
and inherent righteousness. By this we disallow the
papistical doctrine of free will, of works of supereroga-
tion, of merits, of the necessity of auricular confession
and satisfaction towards God.
" 5. We confess and believe concerning the exterior
service of God, that it ought to be according to the
word of God ; and therefore in the congregation, all
things public ought to be done in such a tongue as may
be most to edify, and not in Latin, where the people
understand not the same.
" (). We confess and believe that God only by Christ
Jesus is to be prayed unto and called upon ; and there-
fore we disallow invocation or prayer to saints departed
this life.
" 7. We confess and believe, that as a man departs
this life, so shall he be judged in the last day generally,
and in tlie. meantime is entered either into the state of
the blessed for ever, or damned for ever ; and therefore
is either past all help, or else needs no help of any in
this life. By reason whereof we affirm purgatory,
masses of the ladder of heaven, trentals, and such suf-
frages as the popish church obtrudes as necessary, to
be tlie doctrine of antichrist.
" 8. We confess and believe the sacraments of Christ,
which are baptism and the Lord's supper, that they
ought to be ministered according to the institution of
Christ, concerning the substantial parts of them ; and
that they are no longer sacraments, than they are had
in use, and used to the end for which they were in-
stituted.
" And here we plainly confess, that the mutilation of
the Lord's supper, and the subtraction of the one kind
from the lay people, is antichristian ; and so is the
doctrine of transubstantiation of the sacramental bread
and wine after the words of consecration, as they are
called ; also the adoration of the sacrament with honour
due to God ; the reservation and carrying about of the
same ; also the mass as a propitiatory sacrifice for the
living and dead, or a work that pleases God.
" All these we believe and confess to be antichrist's
doctrine, as is the inhibition of marriage, as unlawful to
any state. And we doubt not, by God's grace, but we
shall be able to prove all our confessions here to be
most true by the truth of God's word, and consent of
the catholic church, which follows and has followed the
government of God's Spirit, and the judgment of his
word.
" And this through the Lord's help we will do, in
disputation by word before the queen's highness and
her council, either before the parliament houses, of
whom we doubt not but to be indifferently heard, or
else with our pens, whenever we shall be by them that
have authority, required and commanded.
" In the meantime, as obedient subjects, we shall hum-
ble ourselves towards all that are in authority, and not
cease to pray to God for them, that he would govern
them all, generally and particularly, with the spirit of
wisdom and grace. And so we heartily desire, and hum-
bly pray all men to do, in no point consenting to any
kind of rebellion or sedition against our sovereign lady
the queen's highness : but where they cannot obey,
without disobeying God, there to submit themselves
with all patience and humility to suffer, as the will and
pleasure of the higher ))owers shall adjudge : as we are
ready, through tlie goodness of the Lord, to suffer what-
ever they shall adjudge us to, rather than we will consent
to any doctrine contrary to this which we here con-
fess, unless we shall be justly convinced of it, either
by writing or by word, before such judges as the
queen's highness and her council, or the parliament
houses shall appoint. For the universities and clergy
have condemned our cause already by the greater, but
now by the better part, without any disputation of the
same ; and therefore w-e most justly may and do appeal
from them as our judges in this behalf except it may be
in writing, that the matter may appear to all men. The
Lord of mercy endue us all with the Spirit of his truth
and grace of perseverance therein unto the end. Amen.
" The 8th day of May, A.D. 1554,
Robert Menaven, alias
Robert Ferrar.
Rowland Taylor.
John Philpot.
John Bradford.
Glouc. Episcopus, alias
John Hooper
John Wigorne.
Edward Crome.
John Rogers.
Lawrence Sanders.
Edmund Lawrence,
J. P.
T. M.
"To these things above said, do I, INIiles Coverdale,
late of Exon, consent and agree, with these mine afflicted
brethren, being prisoners, signed with mine own hand."
On the 19th day of May, the lady Elizabeth, sister to
the queen, was brought to the Tower, and committed to
the custody of Sir John Williams, afterwards lord
Williams, of Tame, of whom her highness was gently
and courteously treated : she afterwards was taken to
Woodstock, and there committed to the keeping of Sir
Henry Benifield, knight, of Oxborough, in Norfolk ;
who, on the other side, both forgetting her estate and his
own duty, shewed himself more hard and strict to her,
than right.
On the Friday following, being the 20th of July
and St. Margaret's day, the prince of Spain laiuled at
Southamjiton. The prince himself was the first that
landed ; who immediately as he set foot upon the land,
drew out his sword, and carried it naked in his hand a
good way.
Then met him, a little witliout the town, tli« mayor
of Southampton, with certain commoners, who delivered
the keys of tlie town to the prince, who removed his
sword, (naked as it was) out of his right into his left
A.D. 1554.]
THE QUEEN MARRIES PHILIP OF SPAIN.
707
hand, and received the keys of the mayor without speak-
ing anv word, or appearance of thankfulness, and after a
while, delivered the keys to the mayor attain. At the
i town gate, the earl of Arundel and the lord Williams
met him, and so he was brought to his lodging.
On the Wednesday following, being St. James's day,
and the 2.Tth of July, Philip, prince of Si)ain, and Mary,
i queen of England, were married together solemnly in
the cathedral church at Winchester, by the bishop of
Winclieiter, in the presence of a great number of noble
men of both the realms. At the time of this marriage
I Use emperor's ambassador being present, opetdy pro-
I nounced, that in consideration of that marriage, the
emperor had granted and given unto his son the king-
dom of Naples, itc.
■Whereupon, on the first day of August following, there
was a proclamation, that from that time forth the stile of
all manner of writings should be altered, and this fol-
lowing should be used:
" Pliilip and Mary, by the grace of God, king and
queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Ire-
land ; defenders of the faith, princes of Spain and Sicily,
archdukes of Austria, dukes of Milan, Burgundy, and
Brabant, Counts of Hapsburgh, Flanders, and Tyrol."
After the marriage, they removed from Winchester to
other places, and by easy journeys came to Windsor
Castle, where he was installed in the order of the garter,
on Sunday, the 12th of August. At which time an herald
took down the arms of England at Windsor, and in the
place of them would have set up the arras of Spain, but
)u- was commanded by certain lords to set them up
i- lin. From thence they both removed to Richmond,
Mil from thence by water to London, and landed at the
t ii>liop of Winchester's house, through which they
I ^^^ed into Southwark park, and so to Southwark house,
Hilled Suffolk place, where they lay that night, Augiist
irth.
The next day, being Saturday, the 18th of August, the
king and queen's majesties rode from Suffolk place (ac-
ci)in])anied with a great number, as well of Tioblemen as
ci'iitlemen) tlirough the city of London to Whitehall,
and at London bridge, as he entered at the draw-bridge,
there was a great spectacle set up ; two images, present-
ing two giants, one named Corineus, and the other Gog-
"niagog, holding between them certain Latin verses, which
for tiieir vain ostentation of flattery I pass over.
And as they rode over the bridge, there was a number
of ordnance shot off at the Tower, such as by old men's
report the like had not been heard or seen for a hundred
yearr- past.
From London Bridge they passed the Conduit in Grace-
church - street, which was finely painted, with among
other things, the nine Worthies, whereof King Henry
the Eighth was one. He was painted in armour, having
lu one hand a sword, and in the other a book, upon
■Which was written Verbum Dei, i. e. The u'ord of God,
delivering the book to his son King Edward, who was
painted in a corner by him.
But upon this there was no small contention raised :
for tlie bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor, sent for
the painter, and not only called him knave for painting a
book in King Henry's hand, and especially for writing
on it Verbum Dei, but also rank traitor and villain, say-
ing to him that he should rather have put the book into
the queen's hand (who was also painted there), for she
had reformed the church and religion, with other things
according to the pure and sincere word of God.
Tiie jiainter answered and said, that if he had known
tha'. was the matter for which his lordship had sent for
him, he could have remedied it, and not have troubled
liis lordship.
The bishop answered and said, that it was the queen's
majesty's will and command that he should send for
him : and so commanding him to wipe out the book and
Ver/ji/m Dei too, he sent him home. So the jiainter
departed ; but fearing lest he should leave some part
either of the book, or of Verhvm Dei in King Henry's
hand ; he wiped away a niece of his fingers with it !
I pass over other pageants and pastimes, displayed to
him in passing through London, with the flattering
verses set up in Latin, in which were blazoned out in
one place the five Philips, as the nve worthies of the
world : Pbili)i of Macedon, Philip the emjieror, Philip
the bold, Philip the good, Philip of Spain and king of
England.
In another poesy, King Philip was represented by an
image of Orpheus, and all English people likened to
brute and savage beasts following Orpheus' harp, and
dancing after King Phili|)'s pipe !
But one thing I cannot pass over touching the young
flourishing shrine, newly set up at this time to welcome
King Philip into St. Paul's church.
Bonner was there in his royalty, and all his preben-
daries about him in St. Paul's choir, the shrine laid
along upon the pavements, and also the doors of St.
Paul's being shut, the bishop with others said and sung
divers prayers by it: that being done, they anointed it
with oil in several places, and after the anointing, crept
unto it, and kissed it.
After that they took it, and set it in its old accus-
tomed place, and all the while the whole choir sang Te
Deum, and when that was ended, they rang the bells,
not only for joy, but also for the notable and great feat
thev had done.
Not long after this, a merry fellow came into St. Paul's
and spied the shrine with Mary and John newly set up;
among a great assembl ge of people, he made a low
courtesy to it, and said, " Sir, your mastership is wel-
come to town. I had thought to have talked further
with your mastership, but that ye are here clothed in the
queen's colours. 1 hojie that ye are but a summer's
bird, as ye be dressed in white and green.''
The ])rince being in the church of St. Paul's, after
Doctor llarpsfield had finished his oration in Latin, set
forward through Fleet-street, and so came to Whitehall,
where he with the queen remained four days, and from
thence removed to Richmond.
After this, all the lords had leave to depart into their
counties, with commandment to bring all their arms and
artillery into the Tower of London. There remained no
English lord at the court, but the bishop of Winchester.
From Richmond they removed to Hampton Court, where
the hall door within the court was continually shut, so
that no man might enter, unless his errand was first
known, which seemed strange to Englishmen, that had
not been used thereto.
About the eighth day of September, Bishop Bonner
began ins visitation, who charged six men in every pa.,
rish to enquire (according to their oath) and to present
before him, the day after St. Matthew's dav, beinz the
twenty-third of September, all sucn persons as eu.nei'
had or should offend in any of his articles, which he had
set forth to the number of thirty-seven.
On the seventeenth of September, there was a pro-
clamation in London, that all vagabonds and masteriess
men, as well strangers as Englishmen, should depart
the city within five days ; and strictly charging all inn-
holders, victuallers, taverners, and alehouse keepers,
with all others that sell victuals, that they (after the said
five days) should not sell any meat, drink, or any kind
of victual to any servingman what-ever, unless he brought
a testimonial from his master to declare wnose ser-
vant he was, and were in continual household with his
master, upon pain to run in danger of the law, if they
offended.
Upon Corpus Chrisfi dav, the procession being made
in Smithfield, where the priest with his box went under
the canopy, by chance there came a simple man, named
John Street, who having some haste in his business, and
finding no other way to pass through, went under the
canopy by the priest. The poor man, being forthwitli
apprehended, was had to prison, the priest accusing him
to the council, as if he had come to slay him. Then ne
was taken to Newgate, where he was cast into a dungeon,
chained to a post, cruelly and miserably handled, and
so extremely dealt with, that being but simple before, he ,
was now frightened out of his wits altogether, and so
was taken to Bedlam.
The bishop passing through the county of Essex, on
his visitation, and being attended with divers worship-
708
THE VISITATION OF BISHOP BONNER.
[Book X'
fill of the shire (for so they were commanded) arrived
at Stertford in Hertfordshire, where he rested cer-
tain days, solacing himself after that painful pere-
grination with no small feasting and banqueting, with
his attendants, at the house of one Parsons his nephew,
whose wife he commonly called his fair niece, (and
fair she was indeed) ; he took there great pleasure
to hear her play upon the virginals (wherein she
excelled), insomuch that every dinner (sitting by his
6ide) she arose and played three several times at his re-
quest, for his good and spiritual devotion towards her.
He next proceeded in his popish visitation towards Had-
ham, his own house and parish, not more than two miles
from Stertford, the bells being there most solemnly rung
out, as in all other places wliere he passed. At length
drawing near to Hadham, when he heard no stirring in
honour of his holiness, he grew into some choler, and
the nearer he approached, the hotter was his lit : and the
quieter the bells were, the unquieter was his mood.
Thus he rode on, chafing and fuming with himself.
" What means," saith he, " that knave the clerk, that
he rings not? and the parson that he meets me not?"
with sundry other furious words. There this patient
prelate, coming to the town, alighted, calling for the key
of tlie church, which was then all unready, because (as
they pretended) he had anticipated his time by two
hours, upon this he grew from choler to melancholy, so
that no man would willingly deal with him to qualify
his humour. At last, the church door being opened,
tlie bishop entered, and finding no sacrament hanging
up, nor shrine-loft decked after the popish precept
(which had commanded about the same time a well
favoured shrine, and of tall stature, to be set up uni-
versally in all churches) curtailed his small devotions, and
fell from all choler and melancholy to flat madness,
sweari.ig and raging with an oath or two, that in his own
churcli, where he hoped to have seen best order, he
found most disorder, to his honour's most heavy dis-
comfort, as he said, calling the parson (whose name was
Doctor Bricket), " Knave, and heretic." Who there
humbled himself, and yielded, as it were, to his fault,
saying'. He was sorry his lordship was come before he
and his parish looked for him, and therefore could not
do tlieir duties to receive him accordingly : and as for
tho^e things which were wanted, he trusted in a short
time he should compass that, which hitherto he could
not bring about. Therefore if it pleased his lordship to
come to his poor house (where dinner was prepared) he
would satisfy him in those things which liis lordship
thought amiss. Yet this reasonable answer could not
satisfy nor assuage his passion. For the prelate utterly
defied him and his cheer, commanding him out of his
sight, saying, " Before God, thou art a knave ; avaunt,
heretic !" and then thrusting or striking at him, his
hand gave SirTliomas Josselin, knight, (who stood next
the bishop) a good blow full upon the ear: who was
somewhat astonished. "What means your lordship?
have you been trained in Will Sommers' school, to
strike him that stands next you.'"
Then Master Feckmim, dean of St. Paul's, seeing the
bishop still in this bitter rage, said, " O Master Josselin,
you must bear with my lord, for truly his long impri-
sonment in the Marshalsea, and the misusing of him
there hath altered him, that in these passions he is not
ruler of himself, nor boots it any man to give him counsel
until his heat be past, and then assure yourself. Master
Josselin, my lord will be sorry for those abuses that now
he cannot see in himself." He merily replied and said,
" So it seems, Master Fecknam, now that he is come
forth out of the Marshalsea, he is ready to go to Bed-
lam." At which merry conceit some laughed, and
more smiled, because the nail was so truly hit upon the
head. The bishop, nothing abashed at his own folly,
gave a deaf ear.
After this worthy combat thus finished and achieved,
this martial prelate presently betook him to his horse
again, although he had purposed to tarry at Hadham
three or four days, and so had made provision in his
CAvn house, but leaving his dinner he rode that night
vitb a fmall company to Ware, where he was not look-
ed for till three days after, to the great wonder of all the
country, why he so anticipated his day.
At this hasty posting away of this bishop, his whole
train of attendants left him. Also his doctors and chap-
lains, a few excepted, tarried behind, and dined at Doctor
Bricket's, as merrily, as he rode towards Ware all chaf-
fingly.
A Start/ of a Shririe set up in Lancashire.
We have mentioned the precept which commanded in
every parish a shrine or image to be erected, both well-
favoured and of a tall stature. This brings to mind what
happened in a town in Lancashire called Cockerham.
whire the parishioners and churchwardens, having alike
charge for the erecting of an image in their parish
church, had maile their bargain and agreed upon a price
with one that could cunningly carve and paint such idols,
for the framing of their shrine ; who, according to his
promise, made them one, and set it up in their church.
This done, he demanded his money ; but they, disliking
his workmanship, refused to pay him ; whereupon he
arrested them, and the matter was brought before the
mayor of Lancaster, who was a very meet man for such
a purpose, and an old favourer of the gospel, which was
rare in that country. Then the carver began to declare
how they covenanted with him for the making of a
shrine and image, ready carved and set up in their church,
which he according to his promise had done, and now
demanding his money, they refused to pay him. " Is
this true," quoth the mayor to the wardens ? ' Yea,
sir," said they. " And why do you not pay the poor
man his due?" said he. " And if it please you, master
mayor," said they, " because the one we had before was
a well-favoured man, and he promised to make us such
another : but this that he has set us up now is the worst-
favoured thing that ever you set your eyes on, gaping
and grinning in such sort, that none of our children
dare once look him in the face, or come near him."
The mayor, thinking that it was good enough for that
purpose if it had been worse ; " My masters," said he,
" however it may please you, the poor man's labour hath
been never the less, and it is a oity that he should have
any hindrance or loss thereby. Therefore I will tell
you what you shall do ; pay him the money you promised
him, and go your ways home and look on it, and if it will
not serve for a god, make no more to do, but clap a pair
of horns on his head, and so he will make an excellent
devil." This the parishioners took well ; the poor man
had his money, and many laughed well at it ; but so did
not the Babylonish priests.
This mayor above-mentioned continued a protestant
almost fifty years, and was the only reliever of March
the martyr, wliose history follows hereafter, with meat,
drink, and lodging, while he lay in Lancaster castle, for
the space of three quarters of a year, before he was had
to Chester to be burned, &c.
About this time there came a precept or mandate
from Bonner bishop of London, to all bishops and cu-
rates within his diocese, for the abolishing of such
scriptures and writings as had been painted on church
walls in king Edward's days. The copy of which pre-
cept or mandate here we thought good to express, that
the world might see the wicked proceedings of their im-
pious zeal, or rather their malicious rage against the
Lord and his word, and against the edifying of christian
people ; by which it might appear, by this blotting out of
scripture, not only how blasphemously they spoke against
the holy scriptures of God, but also how studiously they
sought by all manner of means to keep the people still
in ignorance.
A Mandate of Bonnor, Bishop of London, to abolish the
Scriptures and Writinys painted upon the Church
Walk.
" Edmund, by God's permission bishop of London,
to all and every the parsons, vicars, clerks, and lettered
within the parish of Hadham, or within the precinct of
our diocese of London, wheresoever being, sendeth
greeting, grace and benediction.
A.D. 1554.] SCRIPTURE TEXTS, &c., OBLITERATED FROM CHURCH WALLS.
" Because some children of iniquity, given up to car-
nal desires and novelties, have by many ways enteriirised
to banish the ancient manners and orders of the church,
and to bring in and establish sects and lieresies ; taking
from thence the picture of Christ, and many things be-
sidi^s instituted and observed of ancient time laudably in
the same, placUio; in the room thereof such things as in
such a place it behoved them noe to do, and also have
procured as a stay to their heresies, as they thought,
certain scriptures wrongly applied to be painted ujion the
church walls ; all which persons tend chiefly to this end ;
that they might uphold the liberty of the flesh, and mar-
riage of the priests, and destroy, as much as lay in them,
the reverent sacrament of the altar, and might extinguish
and enervate holydays, fasting days, and other laudable
discipline of the catholic church, opening a window to
all vices, and utterly closing up the way to virtue.
Wherefore we being moved with a christian zeal, judging
that the premises are not to be long suffered, do for the
discharge of our duty, commit unto you jointly and se-
verally, and by the tenor hereof do straightly charge and
command you, that at the receipt hereof, with all speed
convenient, you do warn, or cause to be warned, first,
second, and third time, and peremptorily, all and sin-
gular churchwardens and parishioners whosoever within
our foresaid diocese of L<nidon, wheresoever any such
scriptures or paintings have been attempted, that they
abolish and extinguish such manner of scriptures, so
that by no means they be either read or seen, and
therein to proceed moreover as they shall see good and
laudable in this behalf. And if after the said monition,
the said churchwardens and parishioners shall be found
remiss or negligent, or culpable, then you jointly and
severally shall see the aforesaid scriptures to be razed,
abolished and extinguished forthwith : citing all and
singular those churchwardens and parishioners (whom
we also for the same do cite here by the tenor hereof)
that all and singular the churchwardens and parishioners
being slack and negligent, culpable therein, shall appear
before us, our vicar-general and principal official, or our
commissary special in our cathedral church of St. Paul
at London, in the consistory there, at the hour appointed
for the same, the sixth day next after their citation, if it
be a court-diy, or else at the next court-day after en-
suing, where either we or our official or commissary
shall sit : there to say and allege for themselves some
reasonable cause, if they have or can tell of any, why
they ought not to be excommunicated, or otherwise
punished for their such negligence, slackness, and fault,
to say and to allege, and further to do and receive, as
law and reason requireth. And what vou have done in
the premises, do you certify us, or our vicar, principal
official, or our commissary, diligently and duly in all
things, and through all things, or let him among you
tluis certify us, who hath taken upon him to execute
this mandate. In witness whereof we have set our seals
to these presents. — Dated in the bishop's palace at Lon-
don, the 2.5th day of the month of October, A.D. 1554,
and of our translation the Kith."
709
In the university of Cambridge, and also of O.xford,
by reason of the bringing in of these things, and espe-
cially for the alteration of religion, many wise and learned
men departed the universities: of whom, some of their
own accord gave over, some were thrust out of their
fellowships, some were miserably handled : insomuch
that in Cambridge, in the college of St. John, there were
four-and-twenty places void together, in whose rooms
■were taken in four-and-twenty others, who neither in
virtue nor in religion seemed equal to their predeces-
sors.
About the fifth of October, and within a fortnight
following, several householders, and servants and appren-
tices were apprehended, and committed to prison, for
having and selling certain books sent into England by
the preachers that fled into Germany and other coun-
tries : within one fortnight there were little less than
threescore imprisoned for this matter.
On Sunday the fourth of November, five priests did
peDance at St. Paul's Cross, who were content to put
away their wives. Every one of them had a taper in
his hand, and a rod, wherewith the preacher did strike
them.
On Friday the ninth of November, Barlow late bishop
of Bath, and Master Cardmaker, were brought before
the council in the Star Chamber, and were committed to
the Fleet.
Cardinal Pole landed at Dover upon the 21st of Nov.,
on wliich day one act passed in the parliament for his
restitution in blood, utterly repealing as false and most
slanderous iliat act made against him in Henry VIII.'s
time ; and on the next day, the king and the queen
came both to the parliament-bouse to give their royal
assent, and to establish this act.
On Saturday the 24th of Nov., the cardinal came by
water to London, and so to Lambeth-house.
On the Wednesday following, there wag a general
procession in St. Paul's for joy that the queen was
likely to become a mother, as it was declared in a letter
sent from the council to the bishop of London.
The same day were present at this procession ten
bishops, with all the prebendaries of St. Paul's, and also
the lord mayor with the aldermen, and a great number
of commons of the city in their best array. The copy
of the council's letter here follows :
Copy of a Letter from the Council to Edmund Bonner,
Bishop of London, concerning Queen Mary's preg-
nancy.
" After our hearty commendations unto your good
lordship : whereas it hath pleased Almighty God amongst
other his infinite benefits of late most graciously poured
upon us and this whole realm, to extend his benediction
upon the queen's majesty in such sort, as she is con-
ceived and quick of child ; whereby (her majesty being
our natural liege lady, queen, and undoubted inheritor of
this imperial crown) good hope of certain succession in
the crown is given unto us, and consequently the great
calamities, which for want of such succession might
otherwise have fallen upon us and our posterity, shall by
God's grace be well avoided, if we thankfuhv acknow-
ledge this benefit of Almighty God, endeavouring our-
selves with earnest repentance to thank, honour, and
serve him as we are most bounden. These are not only
to advertise you of these good news, to be by you pub-
lished in all places within your diocese, but also to j)ray
and require you, that both yourselves do give GoJ
thanks with us for this especial grace, and also give or-
der that thanks may be openly given by singing of Te
Detim in all the churches within your said diocese ;
and that likewise all priests and other ecclesiastical mi-
nisters, in their masses, and other divine services, may
continually pray to Almighty God so to extend his holy
hand over her majesty, the king's highness, and this
whole realm, as that this thing, being by his omnipo-
tent power graciously thus begun, may by the snme be
well continued, and brought to good eff"ect, to the glory
of his name. Whereunto, albeit we doubt not voa
would of yourself have had special regara wunoui these
our letters, yet for the earnest desire we have to have
this thing done out of hand, and diligently continued,
we have also written these our letters, to put you in re-
membrance ; and so bid your lordship most heartily well
to fare.
" From Westminster thfi 27th of November, 1554."
Consequent upon this, there were certain prayers
commanded to be publicly off"ered up for the saie deli-
very of the queen, and for the child to be a male, comely
and well-favoured — so general was the expectation of a
child.
The same day cardinal Pole came to the parliament-
house, which was then kept in the great chamber of the
court at Whitehall, for the queen was then sick, and
could not go abroad : where the king and the queen^s
majesty, sitting under the cloth of state, and the cardi-
nal sitting on the right hand, with all the other estates
of parliament being present, the bishop of Winchester
being lord chancellor, began in this manner :
710
CARDINAL POLE ABSOLVES THE REALM OF ENGLAMD.
[Book X.
" My lords of the upper house, and you, my masters
of the nether house, here is present the right reverend
father in God my lord cardinal Pole, come from the
apostolic see of Rome, as ambassador to the king and
queen's majesties, upon one of the weightiest causes
that ever happened in this realm, and which pertaineth
to the glory of God, and your universal beuertt. The
whicli embassage their majesties' ))leasure is to be sig-
nified unto you all by his own mouth, trusting that you
will receive and accept it in as benevolent and thankful-
wise as their highnesses have done, and that you will give
an attentive and inclinable ear unto him."
When the lord chancellor had ended, the cardinal be-
gan his oration, wherein he declared the causes of his
coming, and what were his desires and requests. Set-
ting forth how he possessed power from the [wpa to
absolve them all of their sins.
The next day the three estates assembled again in the
great chamber of the court at Westminster; where the
king and queen's majesties and the cardinal being pre-
sent, they did exhibit (all kneeling on their knees) a
supplication to their highnesses, the tenor whereof en-
sueth.
" We, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the com-
mons in this present parliament assembled, representing
the whole body of the realm of England and dominions
of the same, in our own names particularly, and also of
the said body universally, in this supplication directed
to your majesties with most humble suit, that it may by
vour gracious intercession and means, be exhibited to
the most reverend father in God, the lord cardinal Pole,
legate, sent specially here by our most holy fither pope
Julius in. and the see apostolic of Rome, do declare
ourselves very sorry and repentant for the schism and
disobedience committed in this realm and dominions of
the same, against the said see apostolic, either by making,
agreeing, or executing any laws, ordinances, or com-
mandments against the supremacy of the said see, or
otherwise, doing or speaking that might impugn the
same ; offering ourselves, and promising by this our
supplication, that for a token and knowledge of our
said repentance, we be, and shall be always ready,
under and with the authority of your majesties, to the
uttermost of our power, to do that which shall be in us
for the abrogation and repealing of Hie said laws and or-
dinances in this present parliament; as well for our-
selves, as for the whole bodv whom we represent.
" Whereupon we most humbly beseech j'our majes-
ties, as persons undefiled in the offence of this body to-
wards the said see, which nevertheless God by his pro-
vidence hath made subject unto your majesties, so to set
forth this our most humble suit, that we may obtain from
the see apostolic, by the said most reverend father, as
well particularly as universally, absolution, release, and
discharge from all danger of such censures and sentences,
as by the laws of the church we have fallen in, and
that we may as children repentant, be received into the
bosom and unity of Christ's church, so as this noble
realm, with all the members thereof, may in unity
and perfect obedience to the see apostolic, and pope
for the time being, serve God and your majesties, to
the furtherance and advancement of his honour and
glory. Amen."
The supplication having been read, the king and queen
delivered it to the cardinal, who received it most gladly
from their majesties ; and after he had in few words
given thanks to God, and declared what great cause he
had to rejoice that his coining from Rome into England
had taken most happy success ; lie, by the pope's au-
thority, then gave them this absolution.
An Absolution pronounced by Cardinal Pole to the whole
Parliament of Eiiyland, in the Pretsence of the King
and Queen.
" Our Lord Jesus Christ, who, with his most precious
blood has redeemed and washed us from all our sins and
iniquities, that he might purchase to himself a glorious
spouse without spot or wrinkle, and whom the Father
hath appointed head over all his church, he by his mercy
absolve you. And we, by apostolic authority given unto
us (by the most holy lord Pope Julius the third, his vice-
gerent inearth) do absolve and deliver you, and every of
you, with the whole realm and doininions thereof, from
all heresy and schism, and from all and every judgment,
censures, and pains, for that cause incurred ; and also
we do restore you again unto the unity of our mother
the holy church, as in our letters more plainly it shall
appear : in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
tiie Holy Ghost."
When all this was done, they went into the chapel,
and there singing TeDeum, with great solemnity, declared
the joy and gladness that was pretended for this recon-
ciliation.
The report of this was, with great speed, sent unto
Rome ; as well by the king's and the cardinal's letters,
as otherwise. Whereupon the pope caused processions
to be made at Rome, and thanks to be given to God with
great joy for the conversion of England to his church;
and praising the cardinal's diligence, and the devotion
of the king and queen, on Christmas eve, by his bulls
he set forth a general pardon to all such as did truly re-
joice for the same.
About this time a messenger was sent from the par-
liament to the pope, to desire him to confirm and esta-
blish the sale of the abbey-lands and chantry-lands ; for
the lords and the parliament would grant nothing in
favour of the pope till their jjurchases of those lands
were fully confirmed.
On Thursday the 6th of December, the whole convo-
cation, both bishops and others, were sent for to Lam-
beth to the cardinal, who forgave them all their perjuries,
schisms, and heresies, and they all there kneeled down
and received his absolution, and after an exhortation and
gratulation for their conversion to the catholic church
by the cardinal, they departed.
On new-year's day, A.D. l.ooo, in the evening, certain
honest men and women of the city, to the number of
thirty, and a minister with them named Master Rose,
were taken as they were in a house in Bow-churchyard
at the communion, and all committed to prison.
As to the taking of this Master Rose and his fellows,
word was brought to Master Hooper, then in the Fleet.
Upon which Master Hooper sent a letter of consolatioa
to the prisoners.
A Letter of Consolation sent from Master Hooper to
the Godly Brethren taken in Bow -Church -yard in
Prayer.
" The grace, favour, consolation, and aid of the Holy
Ghost, be with you now and ever. So belt,
" Dearly beloved in the Lord, ever since your im-
prisonment I have been marvellously moved witli great
affections and passions, as well of mirth and gladness,
as of heaviness and sorrow. Of gladness in this, that I
perceived how ye be bent and given to prayer and invoca-
tion of God's help in these dark and wicked proceedings
of men against God's glory. I have been sorry to per-
ceive the malice and wickedness of men to be so cruel,
devilish, and tyrannical to persecute the people of God
for serving of God, saying and hearing of the holy
psalms, and the word of eternal life. These cruel doiiigs
do declare, that the papists' church is more bloody and
tyrannical than ever was the sword of the heathens and
gentiles.
" When I heard of your arrest, and what ye were
doing, wherefore, and by whom ye were taken, I remem-
bered how the C hristiiins in the primitive church were
used by the cruelty of unchristened heathens, in the time
of Trajan the emperor, about 77 years after Christ's
ascension into heaven : and how the Christians were
j)ersecuted very sorely as though they had been traitors
and movers of sedition. Whereupon the gentle em-
peror Trajan required ti know the true cause of Cliristiaii
men's trouble. A very learned man named Pliny wrote
A.D. 1555.1
HOOPER'S LETTER TO II IS BRETHREN IN AFFLICTION.
711
unto him, and said : ' It was because the Christians said
le rtain psaln.s before day unto one called Christ, whom
I tliey worshipped for God.' When Trajan the emperor
understood it was for nothing but for conscience and
religion, he caused by his commandments everywhere,
that no man should be persecuted for serving God.
IVit the pope and his church have cast you into prison,
l)eing taken even doing the work of God, and one of the
cxcellentest works that is required of christian men :
that is, to wit, whilst ye were in prayer, and not in such
wicked and superstitious prayers as the papists use, but in
the same prayer that Christ hath taught you to pray.
And in his name only ye gave God thanks for that ye
hive received, and for his sake ye asked for such things
as j'e want, O, glad may ye be that ever ye were born,
to be apprehended whilst ye were so virtuously oc-
cujiied ! Blessed be they that suffer for righteousness'
sake. For if God had suffered them that took your
bodies, then to have taken your life also, now had you
been following the Lamb in perpetual joys, away from
the company and assembly of wicked men. But the
Lord would not have you suddenly so to depart, but re-
serveth you, gloriously to speak and maintain his truth
to the world.
" Be ye not careful what yc shall say, for God will go
out and in with you, and will be present in your hearts
and in your mouths to speak his wisdom, although it
seemeth foolishness to the world. He that hath begun
this good work in you, continue you in the same unto
the end ; and pray unto him that ye may fear him only,
who hath power to kill both body and soul, and to cast
them into hell-fire. Be of good comfort. All the hairs
Of your head are numbered, and there is not one of
them can perish, except your heavenly Father suffer it
to perish. Now ye are in the field, and placed in the
fore-front of Christ's battle. Doubtless it is a singular
favour of God, and a special love of him towards you,
to give you this forward station and pre-eminence, as a
sign that he trusteth you before others of his people.
Wherefore, dear brethren and sisters, continually fight
this fight of the Lord. Your cause is most just and
godly ; ye stand for the true Christ (who is after the
flesh in heaven), and for this true religion and honour,
which is amply, fully, sufficiently, and abundantly con-
tained in the holy Testament, sealed with Christ's own
blood. How much are ye bound to God who puts you
in trust with so holy and just a cause !
" Remember what lookers-on you have to see and be-
hold you in your fight, — God and all his angels, who are
ready always to take you up into heaven, if ye be slain
in his fight. AUo you have standing at your backs all
the multitude of the faithful, who shall take courage,
strength, and desire to follow such noble and valiant
christians as you are. Be not afraid of your adversaries :
for he that is in you is stronger than he that is in them.
Shrink not, although it be pain to you ; your pains are
not now so great as hereafter your joys shall be. Read
the comfortable chapters to the Romans viii. 10, 15,
Hebrews xi. 12, and upon your knees thank God that
ever ye were accounted worthy to suffer anything for
his name's sake. Read the second chapter of St. Luke's
gospel, and there you shall see how the shepherds
that watched their sheep all night, as soon as they
heard that Christ was born at Bethlehem, by and by went
to see him. They did not reason nor debate with them-
selves, who should keep the wolf from the sheep in the
mean time, but did as they were commanded, and com-
mitted their sheep unto him, whose pleasure they obeved.
So let us do now we are called ; commit all other things
to him that callethus. He will take heed that all things
shall be well. He will help the husband, he will com-
fort the wife, he will guide the servants, he will keep
the house, he will preserve the goods ; yea, rather than
it should be undone, he will wash the dishes, and rock
the cradle. Cast therefore all your care upon God, for
he careth for you,
" Besides this, you may perceive by your imprison-
ment, that your adversaries' weapons against you are
nothing but flesh, blood, and tyranny. For if they were
able, they would maintain thwr wicked religion by God's
word : but for lack of that, they would violently compel
us as they cannot by holy scripture persuade, because
the holy word of God, and all Christ's doings, are con-
trary unto them. I pray you, pray for me, and I will
pray for you. And although we be asunder after the
world, yet in Christ, I trust, for ever joining in the
spirit, and so shall meet in the palace of the heavenly
joys, after this short and transitory life is ended.
God's peace be with you. Amen. The 14th of January,
1555."
On the Tuesday following, the 22nd of January, all
the preachers that were in prison were called before the
bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor, and others ; after
being asked whether they would recant and enjoy the
queen's pardon, or else stand to what they had taught ;
they all answered, that they would stand to what they
had taught, and were committed to closer prison than
before, with charge that none should be allowed to speak
with them.
On the 25th there was a general and solemn proces-
sion through London, to give God thanks for their con-
version to the Komish church. To set out their glorious
pomp, there were ninety crosses, a hundred and sixty
priests and clerks, who had every one of them copes upon
their backs, singing very lustily. There followed also
eight bishops, and last of all came Bonner, the bishop
of London, carrying the popish pix, containing the host,
under a canopy.
Besides, there were also present the mayor, aldermen,
and all the livery ; the king also, and the cardinal, came
to St. Paul's Church on the same day. After the proces-
sion there was also commandment given to make bon-
fires at night.
On the Monday following, being the 28th of January,
the bishop of Winchester, and the other bishops, had
commission from the cardinal to sit unon, and order, ac-
cording to the laws, all sucli preachers and heretics
(as they termed them) as were in prison, and according to
this commission, on the same day the bishop of Winches-
ter and the other bishops, with certain of the council,
called before them these three, Master Hooper, Master
Rogers, and Master Cardmaker, who were brought
thither by the sheriffs ; after some communication they
were committed to prison till the next day. but Card-
maker submitted himself to them.
On the 29th, Hooper, Rogers, Taylor, and Bradford
were brought before them, when sentence of excom-
munication and judgment ecclesiastical was pronounced
upon Hooper and Rogers, by the bishop of Winchester,
who sat as judge, who drove them out of the church,
according to their law and order. Taylor and Bradford
were committed to prison till the next day.
On the 30th, Taylor, Crome, Bradford, Sanders, and
Ferrar, sometime bishop of St. David's, were brought
before the bishops, and Taylor, Sanders, and Bradford
were likewise excommunicated, and sentence pronounced
upon them, and so committed to the sheriffs. Crome
desired two months' respite, and it was granted him ;
and Ferrar was again committed to prison till another
time. All these men shewed themselves to be learned,
as indeed they were : but what avails either learning,
reason, or truth itself, where will bears rule .'
After the examination and condemnation of these good
men and preachers, commissioners and inquisitors were
sent abroad into all parts of the realm : by reason
whereof, a great number of most godly and true chris-
tians (especially out of Kent, Essex, Norfolk, and Suf-
folk) were apprehended, brought up to London, cast
into prison, and afterwards most of them either con-
sumed cruelly by fire, or else died in the prisons, and
were buried on the dung-hUls abroad in the fields, or in
the prison.
We will, in another book, relate the tragical proceed-
ings against the blessed martyrs and witnesses of Jesus
Christ, in the bloody persecution of this time. We shall
first recite a general supplication, given up.in the name
of the preachers lying in prison, to the king and queen
during the time of the parliament.
712 PERSECUTED MINISTERS' SUPPLICATION TO THE KING AND QUEEN.
[Book X.
To the Ivin^ and queen's most excellent majesties,
nntl to their most honourable and high court of
parliament : —
" In most humble and lamentable wise complain unto
your majesties, and to your high court of parliament,
your poor desolate, and obedient subjects, H.F., T.B.
P. R. S., &c. That whereas your said subjects, living
under the laws of God, and of this realm, in the days
of the late most noble King Edward VI., did in all
things shew themselves true, faithful, and diligent sub-
jects, according to their vocation, as well in the sincere
ministering of God's most holy word, as in due obedi-
ence to the higher power, and in the daily practice of
such virtues and good demeanour, as tlie laws of God at
all times, and the statutes of the realm did then allow :
Your said subjects, nevertheless, contrary to all laws of
justice, equity, and right, are, in a very extreme manner,
not only cast into prison (where they have remained
now these fifteen or sixteen months) but their livings
also, their houses and possessions, their goods and books
are taken from tlipm, and they are slandered to be most
heinous heretics, their enemies themselves being both
witnesses, accusers, and judges, belying, slandering, and
misreporting your said subjects at their pleasure; whereas
your said subjects, being strictly kept in prison, cannot
yet be suffered to come forth, and make answer accord-
ingly.
" In consideration whereof, it may please your most
excellent majesties, and this your high court of parlia-
ment, graciously to tender the present calamity of your
said poor subjects, and to call them before your pre-
sence, granting them liberty, either by mouth, or writing
in the plain English tongue, to answer before you, or
before indifferent arbiters to be appointed by your ma-
jesties, unto such articles of controversy in religion as
their said adversaries have already condemned them of,
I as of heinous heresies : provided, that all thinsrs mav be
done with such moderation and quiet behaviour, as be-
cometh subjects and children of peace, and that your
said subjects may have the free use of all their own
books, and conference together amone: themselves.
" Which thing being granted, your said subjects doubt
not but it shall plainly appear, that your said subjects
are true and faithful christians, and neith-er heretics nor
teachers of heresy, nor cut off from the true cithi'lic
universal churcli of Christ ; yea, that rather their ad-
versaries themselves be unto your maje.-ties as were the
charmers of Egypt to Pharaoh, Zedecliiis and his ad-
herents unto the king of Israel, and Barjesu to the pro-
consul Sergius Paulus. And if your s.rd subjects be
not able by the testimony of Christ, his prophets, apos-
tles, and godly fathers of his church, to i)rove, that the
doctrine of the church, homilies, and service taught and
set forth in the time of our late most godly prince
and king, Edward VI., is the true doctrine of Christ's
catholic church, and most agreeable to the articles of
the christian faith ; your said subjects offer themselves
then to the most heavy punishment that it shall please
your majesties to appoint.
" Wherefore for the tender mercy of God in Christ
(which you look for at the day of judgment) ynur said
poor subjects in bonds most humbly beseech your most
excellent majesties, and this your high court of parlia-
ment, benignly and graciously to hear and grant this
their petition, tending so greatly to the glory of God, to
the edifying of his church, to the honour of your ma-
jesties, to the commendation and maintenance of justice,
right, and equity, both before God and man. And your
said subjects, according to their bounden duty, shall not
cease to pray unto Almighty God for the gracious pre-
servation of your most excellent majesties long to en-
dure."
THE END OF THE TENTH BOOK.
ACTS AND MOJNUMEWTS.
BOOK XL
COMFRISINO
THE HISTORY OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM AND PERSECUTIONS
IN THE TIME OF QUEEN MARY
The History, Life, and Martyrdom of John Rogers.
On the fourth day of February the constant martyr of
;God, Master John Rogers, suffered death; concerning
I whose life, examinations, and sufferings, we give the
I following account : —
j John Rogers was brought up in the University of
I Cambridge, where he was profitably exercised in learning,
• and at length was chosen, by the merchants adventurers,
to be tlieir chaplain at Antwerp, in Brabant. He hap-
I pened there to fall in company with that worthy servant
land martyr of God, William Tindal, and with Miles
ICoverdale, who, both for the hatred they bore to popish
I superstition and idolatry, and love to true religion, had
forsaken their native country. In conferring with them
on the scriptures, he came to a great knowledge in the
j gospel of God, so that he cast off the heavy yoke of
popeiy, perceiving it to be impure and filthy idolatry,
and joined himself with them in that painful and most
profitable labour of translating the Bible into the Eng-
'lish tongue. He, knowing by the scriptures, that un-
lawful vows may lawfully be broken, and that matrimony
is both honest and honourable among all men, joined
himself in lawful matrimony, and so went to Witten-
I berg, in Saxony, where he, with much soberness of liv-
ing, not only greatly increased in all good and godly
I learning, but also so much profited in the know'ledge of
I the Dutch tongue, that the charge of a congregation was
I committed to his cure.
I In which ministry he diligently and faithfully served
I many years, until it pleased God, by the faithful labours
' of his chosen and dear servant, King Edward the VI.,
i utterly to banish all popery out of England, setting
I God's gospel at liberty. He then having a conscience
and a ready will to help forward the work of the Lord in
. his native country, came to England to preach the gos-
I pel. After he had for a time diligently and faithfully
I laboured, Ridley, then bishop of London, gave him a
I prebend in the cathedral church of St. Paul ; and the dean
; and chapter chose him to be the reader of the divinity
lesson there. He diligently exercised himself there
until such time as Queen Mary obtaining the crown,
banished the gospel and true religion, and brought in
' the antichrist of Rome, with its idolatry and supersti-
tioo.
After the queen was come to the Tower of London, lie
being called there, made a godly and vehement sermon
at St. Paul's Cross, confirming such true doctrine as he
and others had taught in King Edward's days, exhorting
the people constantly to remain in it, and to beware of
all pestilent pojjcry, idolatry, and superstition. The
council being then overmatched with popish and bloody
bishops, called him to account for his sermon : to whom
he made a stout, witty, and godly answer, and yet in
such sort demeaned himself, that at that time he was
clearly dismissed. But after proclamation was set
forth by the queen to prohibit true preaching, he was
called again before the council ; for the bishops thirsted
after his blood. The council quarrelled with him con-
cerning his doctrine, and in conclusion commanded hira
as a prisoner to keep his own house, and he did so, al-
though by flying he might easily have escaped their
cruel hands. He saw the recovery of religion in Eng-
land, for the present, desperate ; he knew he could not
want a living in Germany, and he could not forget his
wife and ten children. But all these things were set
aside : after he was called to answer in Christ's cause,
he would not depart, but stood in defence of the same,
and for that truth was content to hazard his life.
Thus he remained in his own house as a prisoner a long
time, till at length, through the uncharitable procure-
ment of Bonner, bishop of London, he was removed
from his own house to the prison called Newgate, where
he was lodged among thieves and murderers : during
which time, what communication he had with the ad-
versaries of Christ is not known, nor yet any certainty
of his examinations, further than he has himself left in
writing.
The Edaminnfion and Answer of John Rogers made to
the Lord Chancellor, and to the rest of the Council
on the '2'ld of January, A.D. 1555.
First, the Lord Chancellor Gardiner said to me thus :
" Sir, you have heard the state of the realm, in which it
stands now."
Rogers. — " No, my lord, I have been kept in close
prison, and except there has been some general thing
said at the table when I was at dinner or supper, I have
heard nothing upon which any special thing might be
grounded."
714
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF JOHN ROGERS.
[Book XI
" Tlien," said the lord chancellor, mockingly, "ge-
neral things ! general things ! You have heard of my lord
cardinal's coming, and that the parliament has received
his blessing, not one resisting it, but one man who did
speak against it. Such an unity and such a miracle has
not been seen : and all they, of whom there are eight-
score in one house, (said one that was by, whose name
I know not,) have with one assent and consent received
jiardoii of their offences, for the schism that we have
had in England, in rt-fusing the holy father of Rome to
be tlie head of the catholic church. How say you ? Are
you content to unite and knit yourecU" to tl»o ft«itK of the
catholic church with us, in the state in which it is now
in England ? Will you do that .•"'
Rogers. — " The catholic church 1 never did uur will
dissent from."
Ld. Chan. — " Nay, but I speak of the state of the
catholic church, in that way in which we stand now in
England, having received the pope as supreme head."
Rogers. — " I know no other head but Christ, of his
catholic church, neither will . I acknowledge the bishop
of Rome to have any more authority than any other
bishop has by the word of God, and by the doctrine of
the old and {)ure catholic church four hundred years
after Chriy',"
Ld. Chan. — " \Miy didst thou then acknowledge King
Henry VIII. to be the supreme head of the church, if
Christ be the only head ?''
Rogers. — " I never granted him to have any su-
premacy in spiritual things, such as the forgiveness of
gins, giving of the Holy Ghost, authority to be a judge
abo\e the word of God."
Ld. Chan. — " Yea, if thou hadst said so in the days
of Tonstal, bishop of Durham," (and they nodded
tlie head at me with a laugh) " thou hadst not been
alive now."
Which thing I denied, and would have told him
how he was said and meant to be the supreme head;
But they looked and laughed one upon another, and
made such a business, that I was constrained to let it
pass. There lies also no great weight upon it ; for all
the world knows what the meaning was. The lord
chancellor also said to the lord William Howard, that
there was no inconvenience in having Christ as supreme
head, and the bishop of Rome also : and when I was
ready to have answered, that there could not be two
heads of one church, and to have more plainly declared the
vanity of his reason, the lord chancellor said, "What
sayest thou .' Make us a direct answer whether thou
wilt be one of this catholic church or not, with us in
that state in which we are now ?"
Rogers. — " My lord, I cannot believe, that you your-
selves think in your hearts that he is supreme head in
forgiving of sin, &c., seeing you and all the bishops of
the realm have now for twenty years preached, and some
of you also written, to the contrary, and the parliament
has so long ago condescended to it." And there he in-
terrupted me thus.
Ld. Chan. — "Tush! Parliament was with great
cruelty constrained to abolish and put away the primacy
from the bishop of Rome."
Rogers. — " With cruelty ? Why, then, I perceive
that you take a wrong way when you try to persuade
men's consciences with cruelty. For it would appear
by your doings now, that the cruelty then used has not
persuaded your consciences. How would you then have
our consciences j)ersuaded with cruelty .'"
Ld. Chan.—" I talk to thee of no cruelty, but that
they were so often and so cruelly called upon in that
parliament to let the act go forward ; yea, and even with
force driven to it, whereas in this parliament it was
uniformly received."
Here my lord Paget told me more plainly what my
lord chancellor meant. I answered : " My lord, what,
then, will you conclude that the first parliament was of
less authority, because but few yielded to it ? And this
last parliament of great authority, because more have
yielded to it ? It goes not, my lord, by the greater or
lesser part, but by the wiser, truer, and godlier part."
And I would have said more, but the lord chancellor in-
terrupted me, desiring me once again to answer hini
" For," said he, " we have more to speak with thea
thou, who must come in after thee." And so there
were indeed ten persons more from ^jewgate, besides two
that were not called. Of which ten, one was a citizen
of London, who s\ibmitted to them, and nine refused:
they all came to prison again, and refused the cardinal's
blessing, and the authority of his church, except that
one of the nine was not asked the question, otlierwise
tlian, " Whether he would be an honest man as his
father was before him,'' and he answering, "Yea," he
was discharged. He bade me tell him what I would do;
whether I would enter into the one church with the
whole realm or not? " No," said I, " I will first see it
proved by the scriptures. Let me have pen, ink, and
book.s, &(•., and I shall take upon me plainly to set out
the matter, sn that the contiary shall be jiroved to be
true, and let any man that chooses confer witli me by-
writing."
Ld. Chan. — " Nay that shall not be permitted thee.
Thou shalt never have so much offered thee as thou hast
now, if thou refuse it, and will not now yield and agree
to the catliolic church. Here are two things, mercy and
justice: if thou refuse the queen's mei-cy now, then shalt
thou have justice administered to thee."
Rogers. — " I never offended, nor was disobedient to
her grace, and yet I will not refuse her merey. But if
it shall be denied me to argue by writing, and to search
out the truth, then it is not well, but too far out of the
way. You yourselves (all the bishops of the realm)
brouglit me to the knowledge of the pretended primacy
of the bishop of Rome, when I was a young man twenty
years past : and will you now without confidence have me
to say and do the contrary ? I cannot be so persuaded."
Ld. Chan. — " If thou wilt not receive tine bishop of
Rome to be supremehead of the catholic church, then thou
shalt never have her mercy, thou mayst be sure of that.
And as touching conference and examination, I am for-
bidden by the scriptures to use any conference and ex-
amination with thee. For St. Paul teaches me, that I
should shun and eschew a heretic after one or two ad-
monitions, knowing that such a one is perverted and
faulty, as he is condemned by his own judgment."
Rogers. — " My lord, I deny that 1 am a heretic;
prove you that first, and then allege the text."
Ld. Chan. — " If thou wilt enter into one church with
us, &c., tell us so, or else thou shalt never have so much
offered thee again as thou hast now."
Rogers. — " I will find it first in the scripture, and see
it tried by that, before I receive him to be supreme
head."
Worcester. — " Why ? Do you not know what is in
your creed, ' I believe in the holy catholic church?' "
Rogers. — " I find not the bishop of Rome there. For
catholic signifies not Romish church . it signifies the
consent of all true teaching churches of all times and all
ages. But how should the bishop of Rome's church be
one of them, who teaches so many doctrines that are
plainly and directly against the word of God ? Can that
bishop be the true head of the catholic church that does
so ? that is not possible."
Ld. Chan. — " Shew me one, — let me hear one."
Rogers. — " Among so many I can easily shew you
one."
Ld. Chan. — " Let me hear that, let me hear that."
Rogers. — " The bishop of Rome and his church say,
read, and sing, and all that they do in their congrega-
tions in Latin, which is directly and plaiidy against the
fourteenth chapter of the first of Corinthians, which
says, ' For he that S|)eaketh in an unknown tongue
speaketh not imto men, but unto God : for no man
understandeth him,' &c."
Ld. Chan. — " I deny that, I deny that that is against
the word of (Jod. Let nie see you jirove that ; how
prove you that ?"
Rogers. — " To speak in a strange tongue, as in Latin
or Greek, &c., is not to speak to men but to God;
and as you S))eak in Latin, which is a strange touguCi
therelbi-e you sp>'ak not to men but to fJod."
Ld. C'hai). — " Well, then, it is in vain to men."
A.D. IJ.-.,-).]
THE SECOND CONFESSION OF JOHN ROGERS,
710
I Ro:rers. — " No, not in vain. For one man speaks
in one tongue, and another in anotlier tongue, and all
I well."
i Lil. Chan. — " Nay, I will prove, then, that he speaks
( neither to (Jod nor to man, but to the wind."
j T wa.s willing to have declared how these two texts
I agreed, (for they must agree, both being the sayings of
i the Holy Ghost,) as, to speak not to men, but to Gorl,
' and to speak to tTie wind : and so to have gone forward
I with the proof of my matter ; but here arose a noise
, and confusion.
! Ld. Chan. — " To speak unto God, and not unto God,
I ie impossible."
I Rogers.— " I will prove them possible."
] "No," said my luid Williaui Howard to my lord
chancellor ; " now I -will bear you witness that he is out
I of the way : for he granted first, that they who speak in
j a strange tongue speak unto God ; and now he saith the
I contrary, that they speak neither to God nor to man."
Rogers. — " I have not granted nor said," turning me
I to my lord Howard, " as you report. I have alleged one
text, and now I am come to the other. Tiiey must
agree, and I can make them agree. But as for you,
I you understand not the matter."
Ld. Howard. — " I understand thus much, that that is
not possible."
" This is a point of sophistry," said Secretary Bourne.
Then the lord chancellor began to tell the lord Ho-
ward, that when he was in High Dutchland, they at
Halle, who had before prayed and used their service all
in Dutch, began then to turn part into Latin, and part
into Dutch.
^^'orcester. — " Yea, and at Wittenberg too."
Rogers. — " Yea," (but I could not be heard for the
noise) " in a university, where men for the most part
understand the Latin, and yet not all in Latin." And
I would have told the order, and have gone forward
! both to have answered my lord, and to have proved
I the thing that I had tsken in hand : but perceiving
their talk and noise to be too great, I was fain to
think this in my heart, suffering them in the mean-
I while to talk one of them one thing, and another an-
other. Alas ! neither will these men hear me if I
speak, nor yet will they suffer me to write. There is
I no remedy, but let them alone, and commit the matter
I to God. Yet I began to go forward, and said, that I
would make the texts agree, and prove my purpose well
enough.
Ld. Chan. — " No, no, thou canst prove nothing by
the scripture. The scripture is dead : it must have a
lively expositor."
Rogers. — " No, the scripture is alive. But let me go
forward with my purpose."
Worcester. — " All heretics have alleged the scriptures
for them, and therefore we must have a lively expositor
for them."
Rogers. — " Yea, all heretics have alleged the scrip-
tures for them : but they were confuted by the scrip-
tures, and by no other expositor."
Worcester, — " But they would not confess that they
were overcome by the scriptures, I am sure of that."
Rogers. — " I believe that : and yet they were over-
come by them, and in all councils they were disputed
with and overthrown by the scriptures." And here I
would have declared how they ought to proceed in these
days, and so have come again to my purpose, but it was
impossible : for one asked one thing, another said an-
other, so that I was fain to hold my peace, and let them
talk. And even when I would have taken hold on my
proof, the lord chancellor remanded me to prison again ;
and "Away, away," said he, "we have more to talk
with : if you will not be reformed," (so he termed it,)
" away, away !" Then up I stood, for I had kneeled
all the while.
Then Sir Richard Southwell, who stood by in a win-
dow, said to me, " Thou wilt not burn in this cause when
it comes to the purpose, I know that well." To this I
replied, " Sir, I cannot tell, but I trust in my Lord
God, that I shall."
Then my lord of Ely told me much of the queen's
majesty's pleasure, and set it out with fine words, say-
ing, " That she took them that would not receive the
bishop of Rome's supremacy, to be unworthy to have
her mercy," &c.
I said I would not refuse her mercy, and that I had
never offended her in all my life : and that 1 now
besought her grace, and all their honours, to be good to
nrif>, rpeprviiig my conscience.
Divers spoke at once. " No," cried they; and espe-
cially Secretary Bourne; "A married priest! and yet
have not offcnclcd the law !"
I said 1 had not broken the queen's law, nor yet the
law of the realm : for tliat 1 married when it was lawful.
Divers at once cried, " Where was that.'" thinking
that it was unlawful in all places.
Rogers. — "In Holland: and if you had not in
England made a public law that priests might have
wives, I never would have come home again ; for I
brought a wife and eight children with me : which you
might be sure I would not have done, if the laws of the
realm had not permitted it." ,
Then there was a great noise, some saying that 1 was
come too soon : 1 should find a sad coming of it ; and
some said one thing, and some another. One said that
there never was a catholic man or country that allowed
a priest to have a wife.
I said, " The catholic church never denied marriage
to priests, nor yet to any other man." This I said as I
was going out of the chamber, along with the sergeant
who brought me there.
The bishop of Worcester turned his face towards me,
and said that he did not know where that church was or is.
1 said, " Yes, I could tell where it was,'' — but the ser.
geant took me out at the door.
Tliis was the puipoi t of all that was spoken to me,
and all that 1 answered.
And liere would 1 gladly make a more perfect answer
to all the objections, as also a full proof of what 1 had
taken in hand : but I was informed that I should to-
morrow come to further answer. Wherefore 1 am com-
pelled to leave out that which I would most gladly have
done, desiring the hearty and unfeigned help of the
prayers of all Christ's true members, the true children
of the true unfeigned catholic church, that the Lord God
of all consolation may now be my comfort, aid, strength,
buckler, and shield : as also of all my brethren that are
in the same distress, that 1 and they all may despise all
manner of threats and cruelty, and even the bitter burn-
ing fire, and the dreadful dart of death, and stick like
true soldiers to our dear and loving Captain, Christ, our
only Redeemer and Saviour, and the only true head of
the church, who worketh all in us all, which is the very
property of a head, (and is a thing that all the bishops
of Rome cannot do,) and that we do not traitorously
run out of his tents, or out of the plain field from him,
in the jeopardy of the battle, but that we may per-
severe in the fight, (if he will not otherwise deliver us,)
till we are most cruelly slain by his enemies. For this I
most heartily, and at this present, with weeping tears
most instantly and earnestly desire and beseech you all
to pray : and also if I die, to be good to my poor and
most honest wife, being a poor stranger, and all my little
souls, hers and my children. Whom, with all the whole
faithful and true catholic congregation of Christ, the
Lord of life and death save, keep, and defend in all the
troubles and assaults of this vain world, and bring at the
last to everlasting salvation on the true and sure inheri-
tance of all crossed christians. Amen, amen.
" The 27th day of January at night."
The Second Confession of John Rogers.
First I was asked again by the lord chancellor,
whether I would come into one church along with the
bishops and the whole realm, as *is now converted to
the catholic church of Rome, and confirmed by par-
liament, and so receive the mercy before prolTerred
to me, arising again with the whole realm out of the
schism and error in which we had long been, with
recantation of my errors, &c., I answered, that pre-
716
SECOND EXAMINATION OF JOHN ROGERS.
[l^ooK XL
Yiously I could not tell what his mercy meant, but
now 1 understand that it was the mercy of the autichris-
tian church of Rome, which I utterly refused, and that
the rising which he spake of. was indeed a fall into error
and false doctrine. Also that I had and would be able,
by God's grace, to prove that all the doctrine which I
had ever taught was true and catholic, and that by the
scriptures and the authority of the fathers, who liveJ
four hundred years after rhrist's death. He answered
that thai should not might not — nor ought to be
granted to me ; for I was but a piLvdtc man, and oUoulfl
not be heard against the determination of the whole
realm. " When a parliament," said he, "has .^on
eluded a thing, should any private person have authority
to discuss, whether they had done right or wrong? No,
that cannot be."
I answered shortly, that all the laws of men could not
rule the word of God, but that they all must be dis-
cussed and judged by it, and obey it : and that neither
my conscience, nor any christian man's, could be satis-
fied with such laws as disagree from that word : and so
I was willing to have said much more. But the lord
chancellor began a long speech to very little purpose
concerning mine answer ; — that there was nothing in me
for which I should be heard, but arrogancy, pride, and
vain glory. I granted mine ignorance to be greater than
I could express, or than he took it : but declared that I
feared not, by God's assistance and strength, to be able
by writing to perform my word, neither was I (I thanked
God) so utterly ignorant as he would make me; but
that all was of God, to whom be thanks rendered. I
denied that I was a proud man, or yet vain glorious.
All the world knew well, where and on which side pride,
arrogancy, and vain glory was. It was a poor pride,
that was or is in us, God knows.
Then he said, that I at the first dash condemned the
queen and the whole realm as of the church of anti-
christ, and burdened me highly with this. I answered,
That the queen's majesty (God save her grace !) would
have done well enough, if it had not been for his counsel.
He said, the queen went before him, and it was her own
motion. I said, I neither could, nor would ever be-
lieve it.
Then Doctor Aldrife, the bishop of Carlisle, said that
the bishops would bear him witness. " Yea," said I,
" that I believe well," and the people laughed : for
that day there were many ; but on the morrow they kept
the doors shut, and would let none in, but the bishops'
adherents and servants. Then master comptroller and
secretary Bourne would have stood up also to bear wit-
ness, and did so.
I said it was no great matter : and to say the truth, I
thought that they were good helpers themselves : but I
ceased to say any more therein, knowing that they were
too strong and mighty of power, and that they would
be believed before me, yea, and before our Saviour
Christ, and all his prophets and apostles too, in these
days.
Then after many words, he asked me what I thought
concerning the blessed sacrament ; and stood up, and
put off his cap, and all his fellow bishops (of whom there
were a great number, new men, of whom I knew few),
whether I believed that in the sacrament there was the
very body and blood of our Saviour Christ, that was
born of the Virgin Mary, and hanged on the Cross,
really and substantially.
I answered, I had often told him that it was a matter
in which I was no meddler, and therefore suspected of
my brethren to be of a contrary opinion. " Notwith-
standing, as the most part of your doctrine in other
points is false, and the defence of it only by force and
cruelty : so in this matter I think it to be as false as the
rest. For I cannot understand " really and substan-
tially," to signify otherwise than corporeally : but cor-
poreally, Christ is dfty in heaven, and so Christ cannot
be corporeally also in your sacrament." And here I
upbraided his want of charity after this manner : " My
lord," said I, " you have dealt with me most cruelly :
for you have put me in prison without law, and kept nie
there now almost a year and a half. For I was almost
half a year in my house, where T was obedient to you,
God knoweth, and spake with no man. And now I liavo
been a full year in Newgate at great costs and charges,
having a wife and ten cliildren to support, and 1 never
had a prnny out of my livings ; all which was against
the law."
lie answered, that Ridley, who had given them to me,
was an usurper, and therefore 1 was the unjust possessor
of them.
" Was the king then an usurper," asked T, " who
gave Kulley the bishopric ?"
" Yea,'' replied lie ; and bcgnn to set out the wrongs
tliaL the l<iiie; had done to the bishop of London, and to
himself also. " But yet I do misuse my terms," said he,
" to call the king an usurper." But the word was gone
out of the abundance of the heart before : and 1 think
that he was not very sorry for it in his heart. I might
have said more concerning that matter, but I did not.
1 asked him why he put me in prison? lie said, be-
cause I preached against the queen.
I answered, that it was not true: and I would be bound
to prove it, and to stand to the trial of the law, that no
man should be able to disprove it, and would set my
life on it. " I preached,'' said I, " a sermon at the
cross, after the queen came to the Tower ; but there
was nothing said against the queen, 1 take all the audi-
ence to witness, which was not few in number." I
alleged also that he had, after examination, let me go
at liberty after the preaching of that sermon.
" Yea, but thou didst read thy lectures after," said
he, " against the commandment of the council."
"That I did not," replied 1; "let that be proved,
and let me die for it. Thus have you now, against the
law of God and man, wronged me, and never sent for me,
never conferred with me, never spoke of any learning,
till now that you have got a whip to whip me with, and a
sword to cut off my head, if I will not condescend to
your mind. This charity all the world understands."
I would have added, if 1 had been suflered to speak,
that it was time enougii to take away men's livings, and
to imprison them, after they had offended the laws ;
and that they were good citizens that break not laws,
and worthy of praise, and not of punishment. But
their purjiose was to keep men in prison, until they
made laws to catch them, and so to kill them. I could
and would have added the example of Daniel, who by
a craftily devised law was cast into the lion's den. I
would have declared, that I had most humbly desired to
be set at liberty, and had sent my wife to him with a
supplication, when she was great with child, and with
her, eight honest women, or thereabouts, to Richmond,
at Christmas, while I was yet in my own house.
1 wrote two supplications to him out of Newgate, and
sent my wife many times to him ; and also Master Gos-
nold, tliat worthy man, who is now departed in the Lord,
laboured for me, and so did other worthy men also
take pains in the matter. These things declare my lord
chancellor's antichristian charity, which is, that he has
and does seek my blood, and the destruction of my poor
wife and my ten children.
This is a short sum of the words which were spoken on
the 28th day of January, in the afternoon, after Master
Hooper had been the first, and Master Cardmaker the
second in examination before me. The Lord grant us
grace to stand together, fighting lawfully in his cause,
till we are smitten down together, if the Lord's will be
so to permit it. For there shall not a hair of our heads
perish against his will, but with his will. The Lord
grant us to be obedient unto the end, and in the end,
Amen ! Sweet, mighty, and merciful Lord Jesus, Son
of David and of God : Amen 1 Amen 1 let every true
christian say and pray.
Tlieii it being, as I guessed, about four o'clock, the
lord chancellor said that he and the church must yet use
charity with me (what manner of charity it is, all true
christians well understand, to wit, the same that the fox
has for the chickens, and the wolf for the lamb), and
gave me respite till the next day, to see whether I would
remember myself well, and whether I would return to
the catholic church (for so he calls his aatichristiaa
A.D. 1555.]
THIRD EXAMINATION OF JOHN ROGERS.
717
church), and repent, and they would then receive me
to mercy.
I said that I was never out of the true catholic church,
nor would be : but into his church would I, by God's
grace, never come.
" Well," said he, " then our church is false and anti-
christian.''
" Yea," replied I.
" And what is the doctrine of the sacrament ?"
" False," said I, and cast my hands abroad.
Then one said, that I was a player. To whom I an-
swered not.
" Come again," said the lord chancellor, " to-morrow,
between nine and ten."
" I am ready to come again, whenever you call," re-
plied I.
And thus I was brought up by the sheriffs to the
Compter in Southwark, Master Hooper going before me,
a great multitude of people being present, so that we
had much difficulty to pass in the streets.
Tin-; 'nnp)i wns done on tlie 28th day of January.
On the third day, which was the 29th of January,
we v.'ere sent for in the morning about nine o'clock,
and by the sheriffs fetched from the Compter in Soutli-
wark to the church again, where we were tlie day before.
And when Master Hooper was condemned, as I under-
stood afterward, then they sent for me. Then my lord
chancellor said unto me : —
" Rogers, here thou wast yesterday, and we gave
thee then a night to remember thyself, whether thou
wouldst come to the holy catholic church of Christ again
or not. Tell us now what thou hast determined, whe-
ther thou wilt be repentant and sorry, and wilt return
again and take mercy."
" My lord," said I, " I have considered right well,
what you yesterday said to me, and I de-sire you to give
me leave to declare my mind, what I have to say there-
to ; and thrt done, I shall answer to your demanded
questions.
" When I yesterday desired that I might be suffered
by the scriptures and the authority of the first, best,
and purest church to defend my doctrine by writing,''
(meaning not only about the primacy, but also about all
the doctvine that I had ever preached) "you answered
me, thac it might not, nor ought not to be granted to
me, for I was a private person ; and that the parliament
was above the authority of all private persons, and there-
fore the sentence might not be found faulty and value-
less, by me being but a private person. And yet my
lord," continued I, " I am able to shew examples, that
one man has come into a general council, and after the
whoie had determined and agreed upon an act or article,
som"^ man coming in afterwards, has by the word of God
decl.ired so pithily that the council had erred in de-
creeing the said article, that he caused the whole council
to change and alter their act or article before determin-
ed. /. nd of these examples," said I, " I am able to
shew two. I can also shew the authority of St. Augus-
tine ; thai: when he disputed with an heretic, he would
neither hinuelf, nor yet have the heretic to lean to the
dete'-.nniation of two former councils, of which the one
made for him, aad the other for the heretic that disputed
r.gainst him ; but said that he would have the scriptures
to be their judtre, t.'hich were common and indifferent for
them both, and not proper toeither of them.
" I could shew, also, said I, "the authority of a
learned lawyer Panormitan, who saith, that to a simple
layman that brings the word of God with him, there
ought more credit to be given, than to a whole council
gathered together. By these things 1 will prove that I
ought not to be denied to say my mind, and to be heard
against a whole parliament, bringing the word of God
for me, and the authority of the old church four hundred
years after Christ, although every man in the parliament
had willingly and without respect of fear and favour
agreed thereto, which I doubt not a little of; especially
seeing the like had been permitted in the old church,
even in general councils, yea, and that in one of the
chiefest councils that ever was, to which neither any acts
of this parliament, nor yet any of the late general conn-
cils of the bishops of Rome ought to be compared.
For," said I, " if Henry the Eighth were alive, and
should call a parliament, and begin to determine a tliii;g"
(and here I would have alleged the examj)le of tlie act
of making the queen a bastard, and of making himself
the superior head ; but I could not, being interrupted by
one, wiiom God forgive) " then will ye,'' (pointing to
my lord chancellor,) " and ye, and ye, and so ye all,"
(pointing to tlie rest of the bishops) " say, Amen."
Here my lord chancellor would not suffer me to speak
more ; but bade me sit down mockingly, saying, " that
I was sent for to be instructijd by them, and I would
take upon me to be their instructor."
" My lord," cried I, " I stand, and sit not. Shall I
not be suffered to speak for my life .'''
" Shall we suffer thee to tell a tale, and to prate ?"
said he. And with that he stood up, and began to face
me, after his old arrogant proud fashion, for he perceived
that I was in a way to have touched them somewhat,
wliich lie thought to hinder by dashing me out of my
argument, and so he did. For I could never be suffered
to fome to my vindication again, no not one word of it;
hut he had much like communication with me, as he had
tlie day before, and as his manner is, with taunt upon
taunt, and check ujion check. For in that case, being
God's cause, I told him he should not make me afraid to
speak.
Lord Chancellor. — "See what a spirit this fellow
hath," said he, " finding fault at my accustomed ear-
nestness, and hearty manner of speaking."
Rogers. — " I have a true sjiirit," replied I, " agreeing
and obeying the word of God," and would further have
said, that I was never the worse, but the better, to be
earnest in a just and true cause, and in my Master,
Christ's matters; but I could not be heard. And at the
length he proceeded towards the excommunication and
condemnation, after I had told him that his church of
Rome was the church of antichrist, meaning the false
doctrine and tyrannical laws, with the maintenance of
them by cruel persecutions used by the bishops of the
church (of which the bishop of Winchester and the rest
of his fellow bishops, now in England, are the chief
members.) " Of latcs I mean," said I, " and not all
men and women who are in the pope's church." Like-
wise when I was said to have denied their sacrament
(whereof which he made his wonted reverent mention,
more to maintain his kingdom, than for true reverence
of Christ's institution, — more for his own and his popish
generation's sake, than for religion or God's sake) I told
him after what order 1 did speak of it, (for the manner
of his speaking did not apply to my words, which are
before recited in the communication that we had on the
28th of January,) wherewith he was not contented, but
he asked the audience whether I had not simply denied
the sacrament. They would have said, and did, what he
chose, for the most of them were his own servants on
that day, the 29th of January I mean. At last I said,
" 1 will never deny what I said — that is, that your doc-
trine of the sacrament is false ; but yet I tell you after
what order I said it."
To be short, he read my condemnation before me,
particularly mentioning therein only two articles ; first,
that I affirmed the Romish catholic church to be the
church of antichrist ; and that 1 denied the reality of
their sacrament. He caused me to be degraded and
condemned, and put into the hands of the laity; and so
gave me over into the sheriffs hands, which were much
better than his.
The Sentence condemnatory against John Rogers.
" In the name of God, Amen. We Stephen by the
permission of God bishop of Winchester, lawfully and
rightly proceeding with all godly favour by authority and
virtue of our office, against thee, John Rogers priest, alias
called Matthew, before us personally here present, be-
ing accused and detected, and notoriously slandered of
heresy, having heard, seen, and understood, and with all
diligent deliberation weighed, discussed, and considered
718
THE CONDEMNATION OF JOHN ROGERS.
Book XI.
the merits of the cause, all things observed, which by
us in this behalf in order of law ought to be observed,
sitting in our judgment-seat, the name of Christ being
first called upon, and having only God before our eyes,
because by the acts enacted, propounded, and exhibited
in this matter, and by thine own confession judicially
made before us, we do find that thou hast taught, holden,
and affirmed, and obstinately defended divers errors,
heresies, and damnable opinions, contrary to the doctrine
and determination of the holy church, as namely these :
That the catholic church of Rome is the church of anti-
christ : also, that in the sacrament of the altar there is
not substantially nor really the natural body and blood
of Christ. Which aforesaid heresies and damnable opi-
nions being contrary to the law of God, and determina-
tion of the universal and apostolical church, thou hast ar-
rogantly, stubbornly, and wittingly maintained, held, and
affirmed, and also defended before us, as well in this
judgment, as also otherwise, and with the like obsti-
nacy, stubbornness, malice and blindness of heart, both
wittingly and willingly hast affirmed, that thou wilt be-
lieve, maintain, and hold, affirm and declare the same.
We therefore Stephen Winchester, bishop, ordinary, and
diocesan aforesaid, by the consent and assent, as well of
our reverend brethren the lord bishops here present and
assistant, as also by the counsel and judgment of divers
worshipful lawyers and professors of divinity, with whom
we have communicated in this behalf, do declare and
pronounce thee, the said John Rogers, otherwise called
Matthew, through thy demerits, transgressions, obsti-
nacies, and wilfulness (which through manifold ways
thou hast incurred by thine own wicked and stubborn
obstinacy) to have been and to be guilty of the
detestable, horrible, and wicked offences of heretical
pravity, and execrable doctrine ; and that thou hast be-
fore us sundry times spoken, maintained, and wittingly
and stubbornly defended the said cursed and execrable
doctrine in the sundry confessions, assertions, and re-
cognitions here judicially before us oftentimes repeated,
and yet still dost maintain, affirm, and believe the
same, and that thou hast been and art lawfully and ordi-
narily convicted in this behalf. We therefore, I say,
albeit following the example of Christ, who desireth not
the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be con-
verted and live ; we have gone about oftentimes to correct
thee, and by all lawful means that we could, and by all
wholesome admonitions that we did know, to reduce
thee again unto the true faith and unity of the univer-
sal catholic church, notwithstanding we have found thee
obstinate and stiff-necked, willingly continuing in thy
danmable ojjinions and heresies, and refusing to return
again unto the true faith and unity of the holy mo-
ther church, and as the child of wickedness and dark-
ness so to have hardened thy heart, that thou wilt not
understand the voice of thy shepherd, which with a fa-
therly affection doth seek after thee, nor wilt be allured
with his fatherly and godly admonitions : we, therefore,
Stephen the bishop aforesaid, not willing that thou who
art wicked should now become more wicked, and infect
the Lord's flock with thine heresy, which we are greatly
afraid of, with sorrow of mind and bitterness of heart
do judge thee, and definitively condemn thee, the said
John Rogers, otherwise called Matthew, thy demerits
and faiilts being aggravated through thy damnable obsti-
nacy, as guilty of most detestable heresies, and as an
obstinate impenitent sinner, refusing penitently to re-
turn to the laj) and unity of the holy mother church, and
that thou hast been and art by law excommunicated, and
we do jironounce and declare thee to be an excommunicate
person. Also we pronounce and declare thee, being an
heretic, to be cast out from the church, and left unto the
judgment of the secular power, and now presently so do
leave thee as an obstinate heretic, and a person wrapped
in the sentence of the great curse, to be degraded wor-
thily for thy demerits (refpiiring them, notwithstanding,
in the bowelsof our LordJesus Christ, that this execution
and punishment worthily to be done upon thee, may so
be moderated, that the rigour thereof be not too extreme,
nor yet the gentleness too much mitigated, but that it
be to the salvation of thy soul, to the extirpation, terror,
and conversion of the heretics, to the unity of the catho-
lie faith,) by this our sentence definitive whii'h we here
lay upon and against thee, and do with sorrow of
heart [iromnlgate in this form aforesaid."
After this sentence had been read, he sent us (Master
Hooper 1 mean, and me) to the Clink, there to remain
till night : and when it was dark, they carried us, Master
Hooper going before with one sheriff, and I following
with the other, with bills and weapons, and led us
through the bishop's house, and so through St. Maiy
Overy's church-yard, into Southwark, and over the bridge
in procession to Newgate through the city. But I must
shew you this also, that when he had read the condem-
nation, he declared that 1 was in the great curse, and
that it was a dangerous matter to eat and drink with us
that were accursed, or to give us any thing; for all that
did so, should be partakers of the same great curse.
" Well, my lord," said I, " here I stand before God
and you, and all this honourable audience, I take him
to witness, that I never wittingly or willingly taught any
false doctrine ; and therefore have I a good conscience
before God and all good men. I am sure that you and
I shall come before a judge that is righteous, before
whom I shall be as good a man as you: and I nothing
doubt but that I shall be found there a true member of
the true catholic church of Christ, and everlastingly
saved. And as for your false church, you need not to
excommunicate me from it. I have not been in it these
twenty years, the Lord be thanked there for. But now
you have done what you can, my lord, I pray you yet
grant me one thing."
" What is that r" asked he.
" That my poor wife, being a stranger, may come and
speak with me so long as I live. For she hath ten chil-
dren that are hers and mine, and I would somewhat
counsel her, what were best for her to do."
" No," said he, " she is not thy wife."
" Yes, my lord,'' rejoined 1, " and has been these
eighteen years."
" Should 1 grant her to be thy wife ?" asked he.
" Choose you," said I, " whether you will or not, she
shall be so nevertheless."
" She shall not come at thee," said he.
"Then 1 have tried out all your charity," said 1,
" You make yourself highly displeased with tlie matri-
mony of priests, but you maintain open concubinage :
as in Wales, where every priest has his concubine openly
dwelling with him, even as your holy father suffers all
the priests in Holland and in France to do the like."
To this he answered not, but looked as it were asquint at
it : and thus I departed, and saw him for the last time.
After John Rogers had been long imprisoned, lodged
in Newgate among thieves, often examined, and very
uncharitably treated, and at length unjustly and most
cruelly condemned by wicked Winchester, on the fourth
of February, in the year 1555, being Monday, in the
morning, he was warned suddenly, by the keeper's
wife of Newgate, to prepare himself for the fire : being
then sound asleep, he could scarcely be awaked. At
length being awaked, and bid to make haste, " then,''
said he, " if it be so, I need not tie my points ;" and so
was taken first to Bonner to be degraded. That done,
he craved of Bonner one petition. And Bonner asking
what that should be, " Nothing," said he, " but that
he might talk a few words with his wife before his burn-
ing." But that could not be obtained of him 1 Now
when the time came, that he, having been delivered to
the sheriffs, was brought out of Newgate to Smithfield,
the place of his execution. Master Woodroofe, one of the
sheriffs, calling Master Rogers to him, asked him if he
would revoke his abominable doctrine, and his evil
opinion of the sacrament of the altar. Master Rogers
answered and said, " That which I have preached I will
seal with my blood." " Then," said Master Woodroofe,
" thou art an heretic." " That shall be known," re-
plied Rogers, " at the day of judgment." " Well,"
said Master Woodroofe, " I will never pray for thee."
" But I will pray for you," rejoined Rogers; and so
was brought on Monday, the fourth of February, by
A.D. 1555.]
HISTORY OF LAWRENCE SANDERS.
719
the sheriffs, towards SmithfielJ, repeatins^ the Fifty-first
psalm by the way, all the people wonderfully rejoicing
at his constancy, with great praises and thiinks to God
for it: and there, in the presence of Rochester, comp-
troller of the queen's household, Sir Richard Southwell,
the sheriffs, and a wonderful number of peo])le, he was
burned to ashes, washing his hands in the flame as he
was burninir. A little before his burning at the stake,
his pardon was brought, if he would have recanted, but
he utterly refused it. He was the first martyr of all the
blessed company that suffered in Queen Mary's time
at the fire. His wife and children, being eleven in num-
ber, ten able to walk, and one sucking on her breast, met
him by the way as he went towards Smithfield. This
sorrowful sight of his own flesh and blood could not
move him, but he constantly and cheerfully took his
death with wonderful patience, in the defence of Christ's
gospel.
The Histnrjf and Martyrdom of Lavrence Sanders,
bvrned for the defence of the Gospel, at Coventry/,
Fehrtiarii 8. A. D.'l'<.')5.
After Queen Mary, by public proclamation in the first
year of her reign, liad prohibited the sincere preaching
of God's holy word, several godly ministers of the word,
who had the cure and charge of souls committed to
them, did notwithstanding, according to their bounden
dwty, feed their flock faithfully, not as preachers autho-
rized by public authority, as the godly order of the realm
was in the happy days of blessed King Edward, but as
the private pastors of particular flocks, among whom
Lawrence Sanders was one, a man of honourable pa-
rentage. His bringing up was in the school of Eton ;
from whence he was chosen to go to the King's College
in Cambridge, where he continued scholar of the college
three whole years. Shortly after he forsook the uni-
versity, and went to his parents, upon whose advice he
intended to become a merchant ; for his mother, who was
a gentlewoman of good estimation, being left a widow,
and having a good portion for him among his other
brothers, she thought to set him up wealthily, and so he,
coming up to London, was bound apprentice to a
merchant, named Sir William Chester. But Almighty
God, who has his secret working in all things, saw better
for his servant ; for the Lord so wrought inwardly in his
heart, that he could find no liking in that vocation.
It happened that his master, being a good man, and
hearing his apprentice in his secret prayers inwardly to
mourn by himself, called him to him, to know what was
the cause of his solitariness and lamentation ; and per-
ceiving his mind not to fancy that kind of life (for so
Sanders declared to him) and his whole purpose was
bent to the study of his book and spiritual contem-
plation, like a good man, he directed his letters to his
friends, and set him free ; and thus Lawrence Sanders,
being delighted with the love of learning, and especially
with the reading of God's word, shortly returned to
Cambridge again to his study. Then gave he himself
wholly to the study of the holy scriptures, to qualify
himself for the office of a preacher.
In the beginning of King Edward's reign, when God's
true religion was begun to be restored, he began to
preach, and was so well liked by them who had au-
thority, that they appointed him to read a divinity
lecture in the college at Fotheringay, where he edified
the godly ; drew many to God's true knowledge, and
stopped the mouth of the adversaries. He married
about that time, and led a life unblameable before all
men. The college of Fotheringay being dissolved, he
was placed to be reader in the minster at Lichfield,
where he so behaved himself in teaching and living, that
the very adversaries gave him a full report as well of
learning as of much godhness. After a time, he de-
parted from Lichfield to a benefice in Leicestershire,
called Churchlangton, where he taught diligently ; then
he was called to take a benefice in the city of London,
named Allhallows, in Bread-street. Then he resolved to
give over his cure in the country ; and therefore, after
he had taken possession of his benefice in London, he
departed from London into the country, to discharge
himself from it. And about that time began the broil
about the claim that Queen Mary made to the crown,
by reason of which he could not accomplish his purpose.
In this disturbance he preached at Northampton, not
meddling with the state, but boldly uttered his con-
science against ])opish doctrine and antichrist's damn-
able errors, which were like to spring up again in Eng-
land, as a just i)lagiie for the little love which the Eng.
lish nation bore to the blessed word of God. The
queen's men who were there and heard him, were
highly displeased with him for his sermon ; and for it
kept him among them as a prisoner. But partly for
love of his brethren and friends, who were chief doers
for the (pieen among them, partly because there was no
law broken by his preaching, they dismissed him. He,
seeing the dreadful davs at hand, inflamed with the fire
of godly zeal, preached with diligence at both those be-
nefices, as time could serve him, seeing he could resign
neither of them now but into the hand of a papist.
Thus he passed to and fro, preaching, iintil that pro-
clamation was put forth, of which mu'tion is made in
the beginning. At which time he was at iiis beneticr in
the country, where lie (notwithstanding ttiis proclama-
tion) taught diligently God's truth, confirming the i)eople
in it, and arming them against false doctrine, until he
was not only commanded to cease, but also resisted with
force, so that he could not proceed in preaching. Some
of his friends, perceiving such fearful menacing, coun-
selled him to flee out of the realm, which he refused to
do. But seeing he was by violence kept from doing
good in that place, he returned towards London to visit
the flock of which he had there the charge.
On Saturday, the 14th of October, as he was coming
to the city of London, Sir John Mordant, a counselloi
to Queen Mary, overtook him, and asked him whither
he went. "I have," said Sanders, "a cure in Lon-
don, and now I go to instruct my people according to
my duty." " If you will follow my counsel," said Master
Mordant, " let them alone, and go not to them.'' To
this Sanders answered, " How shall I then be dis-
charged before God, if any be sick, and desire consola-
tion, if any want good counsel and need instruction, or
if any should slip into error and receive false doctrine?"
" Did you not," said Mordant, " preach on such a day,
(naming the day) in Bread-street, in London ?" " Yes,
verily," said Sanders, " that same is my cure." " I
heard you myself," said Master Mordant: "and will
you preach now there again?" "If it please you,"
said Sanders, "to-morrow you may hear me again in
that same place, where I will confirm, by the authority
of God's word, all that I said then, and whatever before
that time I taught them."
" I would counsel you," said Master Mordant, " not
to preach." " If you can and will forbid me by lawful
authority, then must I obey," said Sanders. " Nay,"
replied he, "I will not forbid you, but I do give you
counsel." And thus they both entered the city, and
departed each from the other. Master Mordant, of an
uncharitable mind, went to give warning to Bonner,
bishop of London, that Sanders would preach in his
cure the next day. Sanders resorted to his lodging,
with a mind bent to do his duty, ^^'nere, because he
seemed to be somewhat troubled, one who was about
him asked him how he did. " In very deed," said he,
" I am in j^-ison, till I be in prison ;" meaning that his
mind was unquiet until he had preached, and that he
should have quietness of mind, though he were put in
prison.
The next day, which was Sunday, in the forenoon, he
made a sermon in his parish, treating on that place which
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: 2 Cor. xi. 2, '^. " I
have espoused you to one husband, that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But 1 fear, lest by any
means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ." He recited that true christian doc-
trine, through which they were coupled to Christ, to re-
ceive of him free justification through faith in his blood.
The papistical doctrine he compared to the serpent's de-
ceiving ; and lest they should be deceived by it, he
3 A
720
AN ACCOUNT OF LAWRENCE SANDERS.
[Book XI.
made a comparison between the voice of God, and the
voice of the popish serpent ; descending to a more par-
ticular declaration of it, as it were, to let them plainly
see t!ie diftVrence that is between the order of the church
service set forth by King Edwaixi in the English tongue,
and comparing it with the popish service then used in
the Latin tongue.
The tirst he said was good, because it was according
to the word of God (1 Cor. xiv.) and the order of the
primitive cliurch. The other he said was evil ; and
though in that evil are intermingled some good Latin
words ; yet was it but as a little honey or milk mingled
with a great deal of poison, to make them drink it all.
This was the sum of his sermon.
In the afternoon he was ready in his church to have
given another exhortation to his people. But the bishop
of London interrupted him, by sending an officer for
him. This officer charged him, upon the pain of dis-
obedience and contumacy, forthwith to come to the
bishop his master. Thus, as the apostles were brought
out of the temple, where they were teaching, unto the
rulers of the priests, so was Lawrence Sanders brougiit
before this bishop, who had in his company the afore-
named Sir John Mordant and some of his chaplains.
The bishop laid no more to Lawrence Sanders's charge
than treason for breaking the queen's proclamation,
and heresy and sedition for his sermon.
Atter much talk, the bishop desired him to write what
he believed of transubstantiation. Lawrence Sanders
did so, saying, " My lord, you seek my blood, and you
shall have it : I pray God that you may be so baptized in
it. that you may thereafter loath blood-sucking, and be-
come a better man." This writing the bishop kept for
his purpose, even to cut the writer's throat, as shall ap-
pear hereafter. The bishop sent Lawrence Sanders to
the lord chancellor, as Annas sent Christ to Caiaphas ;
and like favour found Sanders, as Christ his Master
did before him. But the chancellor not being at home,
Sanders was constrained to tarry for him for the space
of four hours, in the outer chamber, where he found a
chaplain of the bishop's very merrily disposed, with cer-
tain gentlemen playing at the tables, with others of the
same family or house occupied there iu the same ex-
ercise.
All this time Sanders stood very modestly and so-
berly at the screen or cupboard bare-headed. Sir John
Mordant, bis guide or leader, walking up and down by
him, who was then one of the council. At last the bishop
returned from the court, whom, as soon as he was en-
tered, he met and received a great many suitors ; so that
before he could get out of one house into another, half
an hour was passed. At the last he came into the cham-
ber where Sanders was, and went through into another
chamber, where, as he passed, Sanders' leader gave
him a writing, containing the cause, or rather the accu-
sation of the said Sanders : which when he had perused,
"Where is the man?" said the bishop. Then San-
deri, being brought forth to the place of examination,
first most lowly and meekly kneeled down, and made
curtesy before the table where the bishop did sit : unto
whom the bishop spake in this wise :
" How happeneth it," said he, "that, notwithstand-
ing the queen's proclamation to the contrary, that you
have continued to preach ?"
Sanders denied not that he had preached ;.^ying, that
forsomuch as he saw the perilous times now at hand, he
did but (according as he was admonished, and warned
by Ezekiel the prophet) exhort his flock and parishioners
to persevere and stand steadtastly in the doctrine which
they had learned ; saying also, that he was moved and
pricked forward to it by the place of the apostle, wherein
he was commanded rather to obey God than man ; and
moreover, that nothing more moved or stirred him
thereto, than his own conscience.
"A goodly conscience, surely!" said the bishop.
" This your conscience could make our queen a bastard,
or misbegotten : would it not I pray you ?"
Then said Sanders, *' We do not declare or say
that the queen is base, or misbegotten, neither go about
fcny such matter. But let those take care whose writings
are yet in the hands of men, witnessing to the same :"
taunting the bishop himself, who had, to get the favour
of Henry VIII., written a book on true obedience, in
which he had oi)enly declared Queen Mary to be illegi-
timate. Then Master Sanders going forwards in his
purj)ORe, said, "We do only profess and teach the sin-
cerity and purity of the word ; which, although it is now
forbidden us to preach with our mouths, yet notwith-
standing, I do not doubt, but that our blood hereafter
shall manifest." The bishop being touched, said, " Carry
away this frenzied fool to prison." Sanders answered,
" That he did give God thanks who had given him at
last a place of rest and quietness, where he might pray
for the bishop's conversion."
Sanders continued in prison a whole year and three
months. During which time he sent letters to Cran-
mer, Ridley, and Latimer ; to his wife, and also to
others, certifying to them both of the public calamity
of the times, and also of his private afflictions, and
of his conflicts with his adversaries. In writing to his
friends, he speaks of Weston conferring with him in
prison. The chancellor sent him to the prison of the
Marshalsea. Of his cause and estate we shall now see
what Sanders himself did write.
A part of a Letter of Larvrertce Sanders, which was
sent to the Binhop of Winchester.
" Touching the cause of my imprisonment, T doubt
whether I have broken any law or proclamation. In
my doctrine I did not. forasmuch as at that time it was
permitted by the proclamation to use, according to our
consciences, such service as was then established. My
doctrine was then agreeable unto my conscience and the
service then used. The act which I did" (he meaiieth
public teaching of God's word in his own parish, called
AUhallows, in Bread-street, in the city of London)
" was such as, being indifferently weighed, sounded to
no breaking of the proclamation, or at the least no wilful
breaking of it, forasmuch as I caused no bell to be rung,
neither occupied I any place in the pulpit, after the order
of sermons or lectures. But be it that I did break the
proclamation, surely this long time of continuance in j)ri-
son may be thought to be more than a sufficient punirh-
ment for such a fault.
" Touching the charging of me with my religion, I
say with St. Paul : Acts xxiv. 14. ' This I confess unto
thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so wor-
ship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which
are written in the law and in the prophets. And have
hope towards God,' &c. And herein I study to have
always a clear conscience towards God and towards men ;
so that I call God to witness I have a conscience ;
and this my conscience is not grounded upon vain fan-
tasy, but upon the infallible truthof God's word, with the
witnessing of his chosen church agreeable unto the same.
" It is an easy thing for them, who take Christ for
their true pastor, and are the very sheep of his pasture,
to discern the voice of their true .Shepherd, from the voice
of wolves, hirelings, and strangers : forasmuch as Christ
saith, ' My sheep hear my voice ;' yea, and thereby they
shall have the gift to know the right voice of the true
Shepherd, and so to follow him, and to avoid the con-
trary, as he also says, ' The sheep follow the Shepherd ;
for they know his voice : a stranger will they not fol-
low, but will fly from him ; for they know not the voice
of a stranger.' Such inward inspiration doth the Holy
Ghost put into the children of God, being indeed taught
of God, but otherwise unsble to understand the true
way of their salvation. And although the wolf (as Christ
saith) comes in sheep's clothing, yet he saith, ' By their
fruits ye shall know them.' For there are certain fruits
whereby the wolf is betrayed, notwithstanding that
otherwise, in sundry parts of devout holiness in outward
shew, he seems never so simple a sheep. That the Ro-
mish religion is ravenish and wolfish, it is apparent in
three principal points :
" First, it robs God of his true and only honour.
"Secondly, it takes away the true comfort of con-
science, in obscuring, or rather burying of Christ and
his office of salvation.
A.D. 1555.]
LETTERS OF SANDERS TO HIS WIFE, AND TO CRANMER, &c.
r.'i
•' Thirdly, it spoils God of his true worship and ser-
vice in spirit and in truth, appointed in his written com-
I mandn-.ents, and drives men to that inconvenience, against
, which, Christ, with the prophet Isaiah, speaketh sharply :
' This people honoureth me with their lips, bvit their
; hearts are far from me.' ' In vain they worship me,
' teachitu'- for doctrines the commandments of men.'
I A.nd in "another place, 'Ye reject the commandment of
I God. that you may keep your own tradition.'
I "Wherefore I in conscience weighing the Romish reli-
gion, and by impartial discussing of it, finding the foun-
' dation un<teadfast, and the building but in vain : and on
I the other side having my conscience framed after a right
j and uncorrupt religion, ratified and fully established by
I the word of God, and the consent of his true church, I
1 neither may, nor do intend, by God's gracious assistance,
I to be pulled one jot from the same ; no, though an angel
jout of heaven should preach anotlier gospel than that
which I have received of the Lord."
The above will enable us to understand how good was
'the cause and the state of mind of this blessed child of
'God, now suffering imprisonment for the cause of Christ,
for the defence of which he wholly resigned himself,
so that he forbade his wife to sue for his delivery; and
jwhen others of his friends had by suit almost obtained
it, he discouraged them, as by his letter here set forth
tnay appear : —
A Letter of Lawrence Sanders to his Wife.
I " Grace, mercy, and peace in Christ our Lord, entirely
l;eloved wit'e, even as vmto my own soul and body, so
no I daily in my hearty prayer wish to you, for 1 do
Haily, twice at the least, in this sort remember you.
(And I do not doubt, dear wife, but that both I and you,
bs we are written in the book of life, so we shall to-
gether enjoy tlie same everlastingly, through the grace
bnd mercy of God our dear Father, in his Son our Christ.
And for this present life, let us wholly devote ourselves
:o the will of our good God, to glorify him either by life
)r by death ; and even that same merciful Lord make
is worthy to honour him either way as pleaseth him,
\men. I am happy, I thank my God and my Christ,
n whom and through v,-hom I shall, I know, be able to
ight a good fight, and finish a good course, and then
•eceive the crown which is laid up in store for me,
md all the true soldiers of Christ. Wherefore, wife,
et us, in the name of our God, fight lustily to over-
'ome the flesh, the devil, and the world. What our
irms and weapons should be in this kind of fight, look
nto the 6th chapter to the Ephesians, and pray, pray,
iray. I would that you make no suit for me in any-
vise. Thank, you know whom, for her most sweet and
i-omfortable putting me in remembrance of my journey
Thither I am passing. God send us all good speed, and
I joyful meeting. I have too few such friends to fur-
her me in that journey, which is indeed the greatest
riendship. The blessing of God be with you all. Amen.
i prisoner in the Lord," " L. Sanders."
This his constancy is sufficiently commended and de-
lared by his valiant confronting two mighty enemies,
antichrist and death. To neither of these did he give
)lace ; but by suffering their malice, got the victory
iver them both. One of the conflicts which he had with
.nticbrist and his members, I have gathered out of a
etter of his own handwriting. It was with Doctor
Yestou. Of this, Sanders thus writes in a letter which
le sent to one of his friends, who wrote to him to
enow what Doctor Weston did at the Marshalsea.
" Master Weston came to confer with Master Gri-
noald. What he has concluded with him I know not.
'. wish it may be to God's gloi^. Amen, Amen. Master
tVeston of his gentleness visited me, and oflered me
friendship in his worldly, and wily way, &c. I had not so
nuch good manners as to take it at his hands ; for I
aid, that 1 was well enough, and ready cheerfully to
ibide the extremity, to keep thereby a good conscience.
Ye are asleep in sin,' said he. ' I would awake,' re-
plied I, 'and not forget to watch and pray.' 'What
church was there thirty years past ?' ' \\ hat church was
there,' rejoined I, ' in Helias' time .'' ' Joan of Kent,'
said he, 'was of your church.' 'No,' said I, 'we did
condemn her as an heretic'
" ' Who was of your church,' said he, ' thirty years
past ?' ' Such,' replied I, ' as the Romish antichrist and
his rabble have reputed and condemned as heretics.'
'Wicklilf,' said he, 'Thorp, Oldcastle, &c.' 'Yea,'
said I, ' with many more, as histories do tell.'
"'The bishop of Rome hath,' said he, ' for a long
time played a part in your railing sermons : but now,
you may be sure, he will play another part.' ' The
more pity,' replied 1, ' and yet some comfort it is to see
how that the best learned, wisest, and holiest of you all,
have heretofore had him to play a part likewise in yo\ir
sermons and writings, though now, to please the world,
you do turn with the weather-cock.' ' Did you ever,'
said he, ' hear me preach against the bishop of Rome .''
' No,' replied I, ' for I never heard you preach. But I
trow you have been no wiser than others,' &c., v/ith
more about the sacrament. Pray, pray. God keep
your family, and bless it."
What blessed taste this good man hath of God's Holy
Spirit may appear by his letters.
" To the Archbinhoj) Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, and Mauler
Latimer, now impriaoned ia Oa;iord.
"In my most humblewise 1 salute you, most reverend
fathers in Christ Jesus our Lord. Immortal thanks and
everlasting praises be given unto the Father of mercies,
' which hath made us meet to be partakers of the in-
heritance of the saints in light : who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into
the kingdom of his dear Son ; in whom we have re-
demption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins." O most happy estate, that in an unspeakable
manner our life is hid with Christ in (lod. But when-
soever Christ, which is our life, shall show himself,
then shall we also appear with him in glory. In the
mean season, as our sight is but as in a glass, even in a
dark saying, so we walk in faith, not after outward ap-
pearance. \A'hich faith, although, for want of outward
appearance, reason reputes but as vain, yet the chosen
of God do know the effect thereof, to bring a more sub-
stantial state and lively fruition of very felicity and per-
fect blessedness than reason can reach, or senses re-
ceive. By this faith we have in our possession all good
things, yea even them ' which the eye hath not seen,
and the ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into
the heart of man,' &c. Then if hereby we do enjoy all
good things, it follows that we must needs possess, have,
and enjoy you, most reverend fathers, who be no small
part of the joy and good things given us of God. We
heretofore have had the fruition of you by bodily pre-
sence to our inexplicable benefit, praise be to our most
gracious God therefor. And now in spirit we have the
experience of unspeakable comfort by your reverend fa-
therhoods, for that in this so glorious sort ye become a
town set upon a hill, a candle upon acandlestick, a spec-
tacle unto the world, both to the angels and unto men.
So that, as we to our great comfort do feel, you also may
assuredly with St. Paul say, that the things which hap-
pen unto us, do fall out unto the furtherance of the gos-
pel, so that our bonds in Christ are manifest, not only
throughout all the judgment-hall, but in all Europe ; in-
somuch that many of the brethren in the Lord, being
encouraged through our bonds, dare more boldly speak
the w ord without fear. And herein as you have with
St. Paul greatly to rejoice, so we rejoice with you, and
we do indeed with you give thanks for this worthy ex-
cellent favour of our God towards you, that Christ is
thus magnified in you, yea, and hereafter shall be mag-
nified in your bodies, whether it be through life or death.
Of which being truly we are assured in our prayers for
you, and ministering of the Spirit. And although for our
own parts, Christ is unto you in life and death advan-
tage, and that your desire is, (as indeed it were better
for you) to be loosed, and to be with Christ, yet for the
3a2
722
LETTERS OF SANDERS TO HIS WIFE, &c.
[Book XI.
church of Christ it were much more necessary, that ye
should abide in the flesh. Yea, that merciful God, even
for his Christ's sake, grant that ye may abide and con-
tinue for the furtherance of the church, and rejoicing of
faith, that the rejoicing thereof may be the more abun-
dant through Christ by your restoring. Amen, Amen.
" But if it seem better otherwise unto the divine wis-
dom, that by speedy death he hath appointed you to
glorify him, the Lord's will be done ! Yea, even as we
do rejoice both on your behalf, and also on our own,
that God is magnified by life, and should be more abun-
dantly glad for the continuance thereof; so we shall no
less rejoice to have the same wrought by death. We
shall give thanks for this honour given unto you, re-
joicing tliat ye are accounted worthy to suffer for the
name of Christ, and that ' it is given to you of God, not
only that ye should believe in him, but also that ye
should suffer for his sake.' And herein we shall have to
rejoice in behalf of the church of Christ, whose faith
may be the faster fixed upon God's truth, being eonfirm-
ed with three such worthy witnesses. O thanks be to
God for this his unspeakable gift !
" x\nd now most reverend fathers, that you may
understand the truth of us, and o\ir estate, how we stand
in the Lord. I do assure your reverences, partly by
what I perceive by such of vour brethren as be here in
bonds with me, paitly by what I hear from them who
are in other places, and partly by that inward expe-
rience wliich I, most unworthily, have of God's good
comfort (more abundance whereof I know there is in
others), you may be assured (I say) by God's grace,
that you shall not he frustrated of your hope of our
constant coutinuanee in the cheerful confession of God's
everlasting truth. For even as we have received the
word of truth, even the gosjiel of our salvation, wherein
we, believing, are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
whicJi is the earnest of our inheritance, (wliich spirit
certifies our spirit, that we are the children of God, and
therefore God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father;) so after such ]iortion as
God measures unto us, we with the whole church of
Christ, and with you reverend fathers, receiving the same
spirit of faith, according as it is written, ' I believed, and
therefore I have spoken,' we also believe, and there-
fore speak. For which we in this dangerous bondage
and other afflictions, have even such a sight as we have
seen in you, and have heard of you, are in no wise afraid
of our adversaries.
" And forasmuch as we have such an office, even as
God hath had mercy on us, we go not out of kind, but
even with you, after our little power, we labour to main-
tain the faith of the gospel, knowing most certainly,
that though ' we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God, and
not of us;' yet shall we not be dashed in pieces. For
the Lord will put his hand under us, as saith St. Paul
in his second epistle to the Corinthians (iv. 8 — 10.) ' We
are troubled on every side, yet not depressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not for-
saken ; cast down, but not destroyed.' But to commu-
nicate with our sweet Saviour Christ in bearing the
cross, it is appointed unto us, that even with him also
we shall be glorified : for it is a true saying ; ' If we be
dead with him, we shall also live with him ; If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him : If we deny him, he also
will deny us.' Wherefore be we of good cheer, ' Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
body :' ' Knowing that he which raised up the Lord
Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present
us with you.' ' For which cause we faint not ; but
though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which .ire not
seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but
the things which are not seen are eternal.'
" We testify to you, reverend fathers, that we draw
these matters with joy out of the wells of the Saviour.
And I trust we shall continually, with you, bless the
Lord, and give thanks imto the Lord out of the wells of
Israel ; we trust to be happy togetlier at that great
supper of the Lamb, whose spouse we are by faith, and
there to sing that song of everlasting Halelujah, Amen.
Yea, come. Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you. Amen.''
We add another letter, written to his wife, wherein is
to be seen how this worthy warrior prepared himself for
the appointed fight, and to keep his standing in Christ's
camp.
Laxcrence Sanders to his Wife,
" Grace and comfort in Christ Jesus, our oidy com-
fort in all extreme assaults, Amen.
" Fain would this flesh make strange of that which
tlie spirit doth embrace. Oh ! Lord, how loath is this
loitering sluggard to pass forth in God's path ! Were
it not for the force of faith which pulleth it forward by
the rein of God's most sweet promise, and of hope which
pricks on behind, there would be great chance of fainting
by tiie way. But blessed, and everlastingly blessed, be
that heavenly Father of ours, who, in his Christ, our suf-
ficient Saviour, hath vouchsafed to shine in our hearts,
that he giveth us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ : and ' having this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God, and not of us.' ' We are (ac-
cording to his good will) ' troubled on every side, yet
not distressed ; we are perplexed, but not in despair ;
persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not de-
stroyed ; always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body.' Wherefore by the grace of our
Christ we shall not be wearied, neither be dismayed by
this our probation through the fire of affliction, as
tliough some strange thing had happened unto us : But
by his power we shall rejoice, inasmuch as we are par-
takers of Christ's passion, that when he doth aj)pLar, we
may be merry and glad, knowing that ' our light afflic-
tion, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen : for the things which are seen are
temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal.'
' They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him.' Then, then shall the Lord wipe away all
tears from our eyes. Then, then shall be brouglit to
pass that saying which is written ; ' Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting ? O grave,
where is thy victory ?' ' But thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'
" In the mean time it remains for us to follow St. Pe-
ter's bidding ; ' Let them,' saith he, ' that sufler accord-
ing to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls
to him with well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.' He
is our Maker, we are his handy-work and creatures,
whom now when he has made, he doth not leave and
forsake, as the shipwright doth the ship, leaving it at
all adventures to be tossed in the tempest, but he com-
forts us his creatures, and in him we live, move, and
have our being : yea, not only that, but that now he hath
in Christ repaid us, being before utterly decayed, and re-
deemed us, purging us to himself as a peculiar jieople by
the blood of his Son, he hath put on a most tender good
will and fatherly affection towards us, never to forget us:
to whom by such promises he hath plighted such faith,
that though it were possible that the mother could forget
her infant, and not be tender-hearted to the child of her
womb, yet may not it be, that his faithful believers
should be forgotten of him. He bids us to cast our care
on him, and saith, that assuredly he careth for us. And
what though for a season he doth suffer us to be tur-
moiled in the troublous tempests of temptation, and
seemeth as in much anger to have given us over, and
forgotten us? let us not for all that leave off' to put
A.D. 1555.]
CONDEMNATION OF SANDERS.
723
our trust in him, but let us with godly Job conchide in
ourselves and say ; ' Even though he slay me, yet will I
put my trust in him.' Let us with the blessetl Abraham,
in hope, even contrary to hope, by belief lean unto that
our loving Lord, who though for our probation he
Miftereth us to be afflicted, yet ' He will not always
chide ; neither will he keep his anger for ever. For he
knoweth our frame: he remernbereth that we are dust.'
Wherefore ' As the heaven is high above the earth, so
great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as
the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.' Oh!
what great cause of rejoicing have we in our most gra-
cious God ! We cannot but burst forth in the praising
of such a bountiful benefactor, and say with the same
Psalmist ; ' Praise the Lord, O my soul, and a'l that is
within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my
soul, and forget not all his benefits.'
" Dear wife, riches I have none to leave behind me,
wherewith to endow you after the worldly manner : But
that treasure of tasting how sweet Christ is unto hungry
consciences, (whereof, I thank my Christ, I do feel part,
and would feel more,) that I bequeath unto you, and to
the rest of my beloved in Christ, to retain the same in
sense of heart always. Pray, pray. I am happy, and I
trust 1 shall be, in spite of the teeth of all the powers of
hell. I utterly refuse myself, and resign myself unto my
Christ, in whom I know I shall be strong, as he seeth
needful. Pray, pray, pray !
" Lawrence Sanders."
And now, to come to the examination of this good
man, after the bishops had kept him one wliole year and
a quarter in prison, at length they called him, as they
did the rest of his fellows, openly to be examined. Oi
which examination the effect and purport was as follows :
The Examination of Lawre^ice Sanders.
Praised be our gracious God, who preserveth his from
evil, and gives them grace to avoid all such offences as
might hinder his honour, or hurt his church, Amen.
Being brought before the queen's most honourable
council, and sundry bishops being present, the lord chan-
cellor began to speak as follows : —
Lord Chancellor. — " It is not unknown that you have
been a prisoner, for such abominable heresies and false
doctrine as hath been sown by you ; and now it is thought
good that mercy be shewed to such as seek for it.
Wherefore if now you will shew yourself conformable,
and come home again, mercy is ready. We must say
that we all have fallen : but now have risen again, and
returned to the Catholic church ; you must rise with
us, and come home to it. Give us forthwith a direct
answer."
Sanders. — " My lord, and my lords all, may it please
your honours to give me leave to answer with delibe-
ration."
Ld. Chan. — " Leave off your painting and pride of
speech: for such is the fashion of you all, to please
yourselves in your glorious words. Answer yea, or
nay."
Sanders. — " My lord, it is no time for me now to
paint. And as for pride, there is no great cause why it
should be in me ; my learning I confess to be but small:
and as for riches or worldly wealth I have none at all.
Notwithstanding, 1 am ready to answer to your demand
circumspectly, considering that one of these two extreme
perils are likely to fall upon me : the losing of a good
conscience, or the losing of this my body and life. And
I tell you in truth, I love both life and liberty, if I could
enjoy them without the hurt of my conscience."
Ld. Chan. — "Conscience! You have none at all,
but pride and arrogancy."
Sanders. — " The Lord is the knower of all men's
consciences. And where your lordship lays to my charg-e
this dividing myself from the church, I do assure you,
that I live in the faith wherein I have been brought up
since I was fourteen years old ; being taught that the
power of the bishop of Rome is but usurped. Yea, this
I have received even at your hands that are here present,
as a thing agreed upon by the catholic church and public
authority."
Ld. Chan. — " Yea, but I pray you, have you received
by consent and authority all your heresies of the blessed
sacrament of the altar .'"
Sanders. — " My lord, it is a less offence to cut ofT an
arm, hand, or joint of a man, than to cut off the head.
For the man may live though he do lack an arm, hand,
or joint, and he cannot without his head. But you, all
the whole sort of you, had agreed to cut off the supre-
macy of the bishop of Rome ; whom now you will have
to be the head of the church again."
Bp. ofLond. — "1 have his hand-writing against the
blessed sacrament. How say you to that?"
Sanders. — " What I have written, that I have writ-
ten ; and further I will not accuse myself. Nothing
have you to burden me with, for breaking of your laws
since they were in force."
Ld. Chan. — " Well, you are obstinate, and refuse
liberty."
Sanders. — " My lord, I cannot buy liberty at such
a price : but I beseech your honours to be a means to
the queen's majesty for such a pardon for us, that we
may live and keep our consciences unclogged, and we
shall live as most obedient subjects. Otherwise 1 must
say for myself, that by God's grace I will abide the
utmost extremity that man may do against me, rather
than act against my conscience."
Ld. Chan. — " Ah sir, you will live as you list. The
Donatists desired to live in singularity ; but they were
not meet to live on earth : No more are you, and that
you shall understand within these seven days ; and there-
fore away with him !"
Sanders. — "Welcome be it, whatever the will of
God shall be, either life or death. And 1 tell you truly,
I have learned to die. But 1 exhort you to beware of
shedding of innocent biood. Truly it will cry. The
Spirit of God rest upon all your honours. Ameu."
This is the sum and form of my first examination.
Pray, &c.
This examination being ended, tlie officers led him out
of the place, until the rest of his fellows were likewise
disponed of, that they might convey them all together to
prison. Sanders standing among the officers, and seeing
there a great multitude of people, opened his mouth and
spake freely, warning them all of that which by their
falling from Christ to antichrist they deserved, and there-
fore exhorting them by repentance to rise again, and
to embrace Christ with stronger faith, to confess him to
the end, in the defiance of antichrist, sin, death, and
the devil : so should they retain the Lord's favour afid
blessing.
After he was excommunicated and delivered to the
secular power, he was brought by the sheriff of Lon-
don to prison.
On the 4th of February, the bishop of London came
to the prison where he was, to degrade him : which when
he had done, Sanders said to him, " I thank God I am
not of your church."
On the following morning, the sheriff of London,
delivered him to the queen's guard, who were ap-
pointed to carry him to the city of Coventry to be
burned.
After they were come to Co 7entry, a poor shoemaker,
came to him, and said; "O my good master, God
strengthen and comfort you." " Good shoemaker,"
cried Master Sanders, " pray for me ; for I am the un-
meetest man for this high office, that ever was appointed
to it; but my gracious God and dear Father is able to
make me strong enough.'' That same night he was put
into the common gaol among other prisoners, where he
slept little, but spent the night in prayer, and instructing
others.
On the next day, which was the 8th of February, he
was led to the place of execution in the park without tlie
city. He went in an old gown and shirt, and bare.
MARTYRDOM OF SANDERS.— AND HIS LAST LETTERS.
[Book XI.
footed, and he often fell flat on tl^e ground, and prayed.
When he was come nigh to the place, the otficcr. who was
apjjointed to see the execution done, said that he was one
of those who marred the queen's realm with false doctrine
and heresy, " wherefore thou hast deserved death," said
he ; " but yet if thou wilt revoke tiiine heresies, the
queen hath pardoned thee : if not, yonder fire is pre-
jjared for thee." To whom Sanders answered ; " It is
not I, nor my fellow preachers of God's truth, that have
hurt the queen's realm, but it is yourself, and such as
you are, who have always resisted God's holy word ; it
is you who have and do mar the queen's realm. I do
hold no heresies, but the doctrine of God, the blessed
gosi)el of Clirist ; that I hold, that I believe, that I have
taught, and that I will never revoke." With that, this
I'jrineutor cried, " Away with him!" And away from
him went Master Sanders, with courage toward the
hre. He fell to the ground, and prayed ; and when he
rose up again, he took the stake to which he was to be
chained, in his arms, and kissed it, saying, " M^elcome
the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life:" and being
fastened to the stake, and the fire put to him, he sweetly
slept in the Lord.
And thus have you the full history of Lawrence San-
ders, whom I may well compare to any of the old
martyrs of Christ's church ; both for his fervent zeal
for the truth and gospel of Christ, asid the most constant
patience in his suffering, as also for the cruel torments
that he sustained in the flame of fire. For so his cruel
enemies treated him, that they burned him with green
wood, and other smothering rather than burning fuel,
wiiich put him to much more pain, but that the grace
and most plentiful consolation of Christ, who never for-
sakes his servants, gave patience above all that his tor-
ments could work.
Tins blessed man of God, when in prison, did not
pa.-ss his time in unfruitful idleness, but from time to
tiuie euilied his friends, and especially his wife, with
many letters full of godly instruction and consolation.
Three of which we insert here.
Two LfittPrs from Lairrence Sanders to his Wife after
nu cundemnation, written on the last day of Janvary,
A. D. loao, out of the Compter in Bread-street.
" Tlie grace of Christ, with the consolation of the
Holy Ghost, to the keeping of the faith and a good con-
science, confirm and keep you for ever as a vessel to God's
glory, Amen.
" Oh ! what worthy thanks can be given to our gra-
cious God for his immeasurable mercies plentifully pour-
ed ujjon us "i And I a most unworthy wretch cannot but
pour forth at this present, even from the bottom of my
heart, the bewailing of my great ingratitude and unkind-
ness towards so gracious and good a God and loving
Father. I beseech you all, as for my other many sins, so
especially for that sin of my unthankfulness, crave pardon
for me in your earnest prayers, commending me to God's
great mercies in Christ.
" To number these mercies in particular, were to
number the drops of water which are in the sea, the
sands on the shore, or the stars in the sky. O my dear
wife, and you, the rest of my friends, rejoice hi't'./u.e, I
say rejoice with thanksgiving for this my present pro-
bation, ill that I am made worthy to magnify my God,
toot only in my life, by my slow mouth and unc'ircum-
cised lips, bearing witness unto his truth, but also by
my blood to seal the same, to the glory of my God, and
confirming of his true church : And as yet I testify unto
you, that the comfort of my sweet Christ dotii drive
from my mind the fear of death. But if my dear hus-
band Christ doth for my trial leave me alone a little to
myself, alas, I know in what case I shall be then: but if
for my proof he do so, yet I am sure he will not be long
oi- lar irom me. Tnougli he stand behind the wall and
hide himself (as Solomon saith in his mystical song,)
yet will he peep in by a crevice to see how I do. He is a
very tender-hearted Joseph ; though he speak roughly to
his brethren, and handle them hardly ; yea, that he
thrcateu grievous bondage to his bc^-.t beloved brother
Benjamin : yet can he not contain himself from weeping
with us and upon us, with falling on our iiccKs, and
sweetly kissing us. Such, such a brother is our Christ
unto all. Wherefore hasten to go unto him, as Jacob
did with his sons and family, leaving their country and
acquaintance. Yea, this our Josej)!! iiath obtained for
us, that Pharaoh the infidel shall minister unto us cha-
riots, wherein at ease we may be carried to conn; unto
him : as we have experience how our very adversaries do
help us unto our everlasting bliss by their speedy dis-
patch ; yea, and how all things have been helping here-
u:ito ; blessed be our God ! Be not afraid of terrors
which lie in the way. Fear rather the everlasting fire :
fear the serpent which hath that deadly sting, of which
by bodily death they shall be brought to taste which are
not grafted in Christ, wanting faith and good conscience,
and not acquainted with Christ, the killer of death.
But oh, my dear wife and friends ! we, whom God hath
delivered from the jiower of darkness, and hath trans-
lated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, by putting
off the old man, and by faith putting on the new, even
our Lord Jesus Christ, his wisdom, holiness, righteous-
ness, and redemption ; we, I say, have to triumph
against the terribly spiteful serpent the devil, sin, hell,
doath, and damnation. For Christ our brazen eerpent
hath pulled away the sting of this serpent, so that nov. we
may, in beholding it sjjoiled of its sting, boldly triumph
and with our Christ, and all his elect, say, ' O death,
where is thy sting .' O grave, where is thy victory ? But
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.'
" Wherefore be happy, my dear wife; and all my dear
fellow heirs of the everlasting kingdom, always remem-
ber the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in tribula-
tion ; continue in prayer, and pray for us now appointed
to the slaughter, that we may be unto our heavenly
Father a fit oti'ering, and an acceptable sacrifice. I can
hardly write to you. Wherefore let these few words be
a witness of my commendations to you and all them
who love us in the faith ; and namely, unto my flock,
among whom 1 am resident by God's providence, but as
a prisoner.
" And although I am not so among them, as I have
been, to preach to them out of a pulpit, yet doth God
now preach unto them by me, by this my imprisonment
and captivity, which now 1 suffer among them for the sake
of Christ's gospel, bidding them to beware of the Romish
antichristian religion and kingdom, requiring and charging
them to abide in the truth of Christ, which is shortly to
be sealed with the blood of their pastor : who, though
he be unworthy of such a ministry, yet Christ their high
pastor is to be regarded, whose truth liiirh been taught
them by me, is witnessed by my chaiiis, and shall be by
my death, through the power of that high pastor. Be
not careful, good wife ; cast your care upon the Lord, and
commend me unto him in repentant prayer, as I do you
and our Samuel ; whom, even at the stake, I will offer
as myself unto God. Fare ye well all in Christ, in hope
to be joined with you in joy everlasting. This hope
is put up in my bosom, Amen, Amen, Amen ! Prayi
pray."
Another Letter to his Wife,
" Grace and comfort, &c. Wife, you shall do best not
to come often unto the grate where the porter mav see.
you. Put not yourself in danger where it needs noi :
you shall, I think, shortly come far enough into danger
by keeping faith and a good conscience ; which (dear
wife) I trust you do not hesitate to make reckoning and
account upon, by exercising your inward man in medi-
tation of God's most holy word, being the sustenance of
the soul, and also by giving yourself to humble prayer :
for these two things are the very means how to be made
members of our Christ, meet to inherit his kingdom.
" Do this, dear wife, in earnest, and not leaving off";
and so we two shall, with our Christ and all his chosen
children, enjoy the blessed world in that everlasting im-
mortality ; whereas here will nothing else be found but
extreme misery, even of them which most greedily seek
A.D. 1555.]
LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HOOPER.
725
this world's wealth ; and so, if we continue God's chil-
dren grafted in our Christ, the same blessing of GoJ
which we receive shiil also settle upon our Samuel.
Though we do shortly depart hence and leave the (to
our seeming) poor infant at all adventures, yet shall he
have our gracious God to be his God ; for so bath he
said, and he cannot lie : 'I will be thy God,' saith he,
' and the God of thy seed.' Yea, if you leave him in the
wilderness destitute of all help, being called of God to
do his will, either to die for the confession of Christ, or
any work of obedience ; that God who heard the cry of
the poor little infant of Hagar, Sarah's hand-maiden, and
did succour it, will do the like to the child of you or
any other who fear him, and put their trust in him.
" And if we lack faith, as we do indeed many times,
let us call for it, and we shall have the increase both of it
and also of any other good grace which is needful for
us ; and be joyful in God, in whom also I am very joyful.
O Lord, what great cause of rejoicing have we, to think
upon that kingdom, which he vouchsafeth for Jesus
Christ's sake freely to give us, forsaking ourselves and
following him ! Dear wife, this is truly to follow him,
even to take up our cross and follow him ; and then, as
we suffer with him, so shall we shortly reign with him
everlastingly. Amen."
Letter to Messrs. Robert and John Glover, written the
same morning that he was burnt.
" Grace and consolation in our sweet Saviour Christ.
Oh my dear brethren, whom I love in the Lord, being
loved of you also in the Lord, be merry and rejoice for
me, who am now ready to go up to mine inheritance, which
I myself indeed am most unworthy of, but my dear
Christ is worthy, who hath purchased the same for me
with so dear a price. Make haste, my dear brethren,
to come unto me, that we may be merry with that joy
which no man shall take from us. O wretched sinner,
that I am, not thankful unto this my Father, who hath
vouchsafed me worthy to be a vessel unto his honour.
But, O Lord, now accept my thanks, though they pro-
ceed out of a not enough circumcised heart. Salute my
good sisters your wives ; and, good sisters, fear the Lord'.
Salute all others that love us in the truth. God's bless-
ing be with you always. Amen. Even now towards
the offering of a burnt sacrifice, O my Christ, help, or
else I perish.
" Ljiwrexce Sanders."
The Life and Martyrdom of John Hooper, bishop of
Worcester and Gloucester, burnt for the defence of
the yospel at Gloucester, Feb. 9, A.D. 1555.
John Hooper, a student and graduate in the University
of Oxiord, through God's secret calling, was stirred with
fervent desire to the love and knowledge of the scrip-
tures. In the readiifg and searching of which, as there
WIS wanting in him no diligence joined with earnest
prayer ; so neither did the grace of the Holv Ghost fail
to satisfy his desire, and to open to him the light of true
divinity.
Thus Master Hooper growing more and more, by
God's grace, in ripeness of spiritual understanding, and
shewing some signs of his fervent spirit about the time
of the beginning of the Six Articles, in the reign of
King Henry VilL, fell soon under the displeasure and
hatred of certain rabbins, in Oxford, who began to stir
up strife against him, by which, and especially by the
procuremeiit of Doctor Smith, he was compelled to leave
the university ; and so removing from thence, was re-
tained in the house of Sir Thomas Arundel, and there
was his steward, till the time that Sir Thomas Arundel,
having intelligence of his opinions, which he did not
favour, sent him on a message to the bishop of Win-
Chester, writing his letter privily to the bishop.
Winchester, after long conference with Master Hooper,
! for four or five days together, when he perceived that
he could not do what he thought to him, sent him home,
commending his learning and knowledge, but yet bearing
ia Ins breast a bad feeling against Master Hooper.
. It followed not long after this, as malice is always
working mischief, that intelligence was given to Master
Hooper to provide for himself, for that danger was work-
ing against him. Upon which Hooper leaving Arundel's
house, and borrowing a horse of a friend (wliose life he
had saved a little before from the gallows) took his
journey to the sea-coast to go to France ; he sent back
the horse by one, who did not deliver it to the owner.
Hooper being at Paris, tarried there not long, but in a
short time returned to England again, and was retained
by Master Sentlow, till the time that he was again mo-
lested ; by which he was compelled (under the pretence
of being captain of a ship going to Ireland) to take to
sea, and so he escaped through France to the higher
parts of Germany. When there he made acquaintance
with the learned, and was by them friendly and lovingly
entertained, both at Basil, and especially at Zurich, by
his particular friend. Master Bullinger. Where also he
married his wife, and applied himself very studiously to
the Hebrew tongue.
At length, when God saw it good to stay the bloody
time of the Six Articles, and to give us King Edward to
reign over this realm, with some peace and rest unto
the gospel. Hooper along with many other English
exiles, prepared to return homeward, so that they might
help forward the Lord's work to the uttermost of their
ability. And so coming to Master Bullinger, and others
of his acquaintance in Zurich, to give them thanks for
their kindness and humanity toward him, he took his
leave of them.
When Master Hooper had taken his farewell of Mas-
ter Bullinger and his friends in Zurich, he repaired to
England, where coming to London, he used continually
to preach, generally twice, but at least once every
day.
In his sermons, according to his manner, he corrected
sin, and sharply inveighed against the iniquity of the
world, and corrupt abuses of the church : the people in
great flocks and companies daily came to hear his voice ;
insomuch, that oftentimes when he was preaching, the
church would be so full, that none could enter further
than the doors. In his doctrine he was earnest, in
tongue eloquent, in the scriptures perfect, in pains in-
defatigable.
Moreover, besides his other gifts and qualities, this is
in him to be marvelled, that even as he began, so he
continued still unto his life's end. For neither could
his labour and pains-taking break him, neither promo-
tion change him, neither dainty fare corrupt him. His
life was so pure and good, that no kind of slander (al-
though divers went about to reprove it) could fasten any
fault upon him. He was of a strong body, his heaiih
whole and sound, his wit very pregnant, his invincible
patience able to sustain whatsoever sinister fortune and
adversity could do. He was constant of judgment, a
good justice, spare of diet, sj)arer of words, and sparest
of time. In house-keeping very liberal, and sometimes
more free than his living would extend unto. Biiefiy,
of all those virtues and qualities required in a good bishop
by St.' Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, I know not one
wanting in this good bishop. He bore in countenance
and talk always a certain severe and grave grace, which
might perhaps be wished sometimes to have been a little
more popular in him ; but he knew best what he had to
do himself.
After he had thus practised himself in this popular
and common kind of preaching, at length, and that
not without the great profit of many, he was called to
preach before the king's majesty, and soon after made
bishop of Gloucester by the king's command. In that
office he continued two years, and behaved himself
so well, that his very enemies (except it were for his
good doings, and sharp correcting of sin) could find no
fault with him ; and afterwards he was made bishop of
Worcester.
But I cannot tell what sinister and unlucky conten-
tion concerning the ordering and consecration of bi.
shops, and of their apparel, with such other hke trifles,
began to disturb the good beginning of the godly bishop.
For notwithstanding the godly reformation of religion
that began in the church of England, besides other cere-
726
LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP HOOPER.
[jjOOK. XI.
monies more ambitious than profitable, or tending to
edification, they used to wear such garments and appa-
rel as the popish ))ishops were wont to do : first a chy-
mere, and under that a white rochet, then a mathematical
cap with four angles, dividing the whole world into four
parts. These trifles, tending more to superstition than
otherwise, as he could never abide, so in nowise could
he be persuaded to wear them. For this cause he made
supplication to the king's majesty, most humbly desiring
his higlmess, either to discharge him of the bishoprick,
or else to dispense with him for such ceremonial orders.
Whose petition the king granted immediately, permitting
him to dispense with such ceremony.
But notwithstanding this grant of the king, the bi-
Bl'ops still stood earnestly in the defence of these cere-
/ monies, saying it was but a small matter, and that the
fault was in the abuse of the things, and not in the things
themselves ; adding, moreover, that he ought not to be so
stubborn in so sliglit a matter, and that his wilfulness
was not to be endured.
To be short, whilst both parties thus contended about
this matter more than they ought, occasion was given
to ifue christians to lament, and to the adversaries
to rejoice. In conclusion, this theological contention
came to this end, that the bishops having the upper
hand, Master Hooper was fain to agree to this condi-
tion, that sometimes he should in his sermon shew him-
self api)arel]ed as the other bishops were. Wherefore,
being appointed to preach before the king, he came ap-
parelled as desired.
Hooper, after all these vexations about his vestures,
at length entering into his diocese, there employed his
time under King Edward's reign, with such diligence,
as may be an example to all bishops who shall ever
hereafter succeed him, not only in that place, but in
every diocese through the whole realm of England ; so
careful was he in his cure, that he left neither pains
untaken, nor ways unsought, how to train up the ikick
of Christ in the true word of salvation. Other men
commonly are wont, for lucre or promotion's sake, to
aspire to bishopricks, some hunting for them, and some
purchasing or buying them, as men used to purchase
lordships ; and when they have them are loath to leace
tbem.
From this sort of men Hooper was very different.
He abhorred nothing more than gain, labouring always
to save and preserve the souls of his flock. Being bi-
shop of two dioceses, he so ruled and guided either of
them, and both together, as though he had in charge
but one family. No father in his household, no gar-
dener in his garden, nor husbandman in his vineyard,
was more or better occupied, than he in his diocese
amongst his flock, going about his towns and villages in
teaching and preaching to the people.
Every where he kept one religion and one uniform
doctrine and integrity. So that if you entered into the
bishop's palace, you would suppose yourself to have
entered into some church or temple. In every corner
thereot there was some savour of virtue, good example,
honest conversation, and reading of the holy scriptures.
There was not to be seen in his house any courtly riot-
ing or idleness ; no pomp at all, no dishonest word, no
swearing could there be heard.
As for the revenues of his bishopricks, he pursed no-
thing, but bestowed it in hospitality. I was twice, as I
remember, in his house in Worcester, where, in his
common hall, I saw a table spread with good store of
meat, and beset full of beggars and poor folk ; and I
asking his servants what this meant, they told me, that
every day their lord and master's manner was to have
usually to dinner a certain number of poor folk of the
city in turns, who were served by four at a mess, with
wholesome meats ; and when they were served (being
previously examined by him or his deputies in the Lord's
prayer, the articles of their faith, and ten command-
ments) then he himself sat down to dinner, and not be-
fore.
After this manner Hooper executed the office of a
most careful and vigilant pastor, for the space of two
years and more, so long as religion ia King Edward's
time safely flourished : and I would to God that all
other bishops would use the like diligence, care, and
observance in their function. After this. King Edward
being dead, and Mary being crowned queen of England,
religion being subverted and changed, this good bishop
was one of the first that was sent for to come to London.
On the 19th of March, 1554, he was called before
the bishops of Winchester, London, Durham, Landafi",
Chichester, and other the queen's commissioners, when,
not being permitted to plead his cause, he was deprived
of his bishopricks. In what order this was done may
be seen by the report of one, who being present, com-
mitted it to writing.
" At Master Hooper's coming in, the lord chancellor
asked whether he was married ?
" Hooper. — ' Yea, my lord, and will not be unmarried,
till death unmarry me.'
" Durham. — ' That is cause enough to deprive you.'
" Hooper. — ' That it is not, my lord, except you act
against the law.'
" The matter concerning marriage was no more
talked of then for some time ; but the commissioners,
and such as stood by, began to make such outcries, and
laughed, and used such gestures as were unseemly for
the place, and for such a matter. Doctor Day,
bishop of Chichester, called Hoojier 'hypocrite,' with
vehement words and scornful countenance. Tonstall
culled him ' beast,' so did Smith, one of the clerks of
the council, and others that stood by. At length, the
bishop of Winchester said, that all men might live
chaste that would, and brought in the text : Mat. xix.
12. ' For there are some eunuchs, which were so born
from their mother's womb ; and there are some eunuchs,
which were made eunuchs of men ; and there be eunuchs,
which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it. Jet him
receive it.'
" Hooper said, that text proved not that all men
could live chaste, but such only to whom it was given ;
and read the ])receding verse. But there was a clamour
and cry, mocking and scorning, with calling him ' beast,'
so that the text could not be examined. Then Hooper said,
that it appeared by the old canons, that marriage was
not forbidden to priests, and named the decrees. But
the bishop of Winchester sent for another part, namely,
the Clementines, or the Extravagants. But bishop
Hooper said, that that book was not the one he named.
" Then the bishop of Winchester said, * You shall
not have any other, until you are first judged by this.'
And then tViere began such a noise, tumult, and speaking
together, that nothing was done, nor spoken orderly, or
charitably. Afterwards judge Morgan began to rail at
Hooper a long time, with many opprobrious and foul
words. After that, Doctor Day, bishop of Chichester,
said, that the council of Ancyra, which was before the
council of Nice, was against the marriage of priests.
" Then cried out my lord chancellor, and many with
him, that Hooper had never read the councils.
"'Yea, my lord,' said Hooper, 'and my lord of
Chichester, Doctor Day, knoweth that the great council
of Nice, by means of Paphnutius, decreed that no
minister should be separated from his wife.' But such
clamours and cries were used, that the council of Nice
was not considered.
" After this, Tonstall, bishop of Durham, asked
Hooper, whether he believed in the corporeal presence in
the sacrament. And Master Hooper said plainly, that
there was none such, neither did he believe any such
thing.
" Then the bishop of Durham would have read out of
a book, (what book it was I cannot tell) but there was
such a noise and confused talk on every side, tliat he
did not read it. Then Winchester asked Hoojier what
authority induced him not to believe in the corporeal pre-
sence ? He said, the authority of God's word, and al-
iened this text : " Whom the heavens must receive until
the time of the restitution of all things."
" Then the bi,-ho]i of Winchester said, he might be in
heaven, and in the sacrament also.
A.D, 1555.]
AN ACCOUNT OF BISHOP HOOPER.
727
" Hooper would have said more to have opened the
text, but those that stood about the bishop so disturbed
him with clamours and cries, that he was not permitted
to say*any more against the bishop. Upon which they
bade the notaries write that he was married, and said,
that he would not separate from his wife, and that he did
not believe in the corporeal presence in the sacrament ;
therefore he was worthy to be deprived of his bishoprick.
" This is the truth of the matter (as far as I can truly
remember) of the confused and troublesome talk that
w-is between them."
T!ie true Report of Hooper''s treatment in the Fleet,
vritten with his own hand, the seventh of January,
1551.
" On the first of September, 1553, I was committed to
the Fleet from Richmond, to have the liberty of the
prison ; and within six days after I paid for my liberty
live pounds sterling to the warden of fees ; who, imme-
diately upon the payment, complained to Stephen Gar-
diner, bishop of Winchester, and so I was committed to
close prison one quarter of a year in the tower chamber
of the Fleet, and used very extremely. Then by the
means of a good gentlewoman, I had liberty to come
down to dinner and supper, though not suffered to
fspeak with any of my friends ; but as soon as dinner
end supper was done, to repair to my chamber again.
Notwithstanding, whilst I came down thus to dinner
and supper, the warden and his wife picked quarrels
with me, and complained untruly of me to their great
friend the bishop of Winchester.
" After one quarter of a year, and somewhat more,
Babington the warden aud his wife fell out with me for
the wicked mass ; and thereupon tne warden resorted to
the bishop of Winchester, and obtained leave to put me
into the wards, where I have continued a long time,
having nothing appointed to me for my bed but a little
pad of straw and a rotten covering, with a tick and a
few feathers therein, the chamber being vile and stink-
ing ; until by God's means, good people sent me bedding
to lie in. On the one side of which prison is the sink
and filth of the house, and on the other side the town
ditch, so that the stench of the house hath infected me
with sundry diseases.
" During all the time I have been sick ; and the doors,
bars, hasps, and chains being all closed, and made fast
upon me, I have mourned, called, and cried for help.
But the warden, when he hath known me many times
ready to die, and when the poor men of the wards have
called to help me, hath commanded the doors to be
kept fast, and charged that none of his men should
come to me, saying, ' Let him alone, it were a good rid-
dance of him.' And, amongst many other times, he did
thus on the 18th of October, 1553, as many can witness.
" I paid always like a baron to the said warden, as
well in fees, as for my board, which was twenty shillings
a week, besides my man's table, until I was wrongfully
deprived of my bishoprick, and since that time, I have
paid him as the best gentleman doth in his house ; yet
hath he used me worse, and more vilely than the veriest
slave that ever came to the hall commons.
" The said warden hath also imprisoned my man
William Downton, and stripped him of his clothes to
search for letters, and could find none but only a little
remembrance of good people's names, that gave me
their alms to relieve me in prison ; and to undo them
also, the warden delivered the same bill unto the said
Stephen Gardiner, God's enemy and mine.
" 1 have suffered imprisonment almost eighteen
months, my goods, living, friends, and comfort taken
from me ; the queen owing me by just account eighty
pounds or more. She hath put me in prison, and
giveth nothing to support me, neither is there suffered
any one to come to me whereby I might have relief. I
am with a wicked man and woman, so that 1 see no
remedy (saving God's help) but I shall be cast away in
prison before I come to judgment. But I commit my
just cause to God, whose will be done, whether it be by
life or death."
Thus much wrote he himself.
Another Examination of Bishop Hooper.
On the 22d of January, 1555, Babington, the warden of
the Fleet, was commanded to bring Hooper before the
bishop of Winchester, with other bishops and commis-
sioners at Winchester's ho-use, at St. Mary's Overbury
(St. Saviour's) where in effect thus much was done.
The bishop of Winchester, in the name of himself and
the rest, moved Hooper earnestly to forsake the evil
and corrupt doctrine (as he termed it) preached in the
days of King Edward YI., and to return to the unity of
the catholic churcli, and to acknowledge the pope's holi-
ness to be head of the same church, according to the
determination of the whole parliament, promising, that
as he himself, with others his brethren, had received the
pope's blessing, and the queen's mercy ; even so mercy
was ready to be shewed to him and others, if he would
arise with them, and condescend to the pope's holiness.
Hooper answered, that forasmuch as the pope taught
doctrine, altogether contrary to the doctrine of Christ, he
was not worthy to be accounted as a member of Christ's
church, much less to be head of it ; wherefore he would
in nowise condescend to any such usurped jurisdiction,
neither esteemed he the church, whereof they call him
head, to be the catholic church of Christ ; for the church
alone hears the voice of her spouse Christ, and flies the
strangers. " However," saith he, " if in any point, to
me unknown, I have offended the queen's majesty, I shall
most humbly submit myself to her mercy, if mercy may
be had with safety of conscience, and without the dis-
pleasure of God."
Answer was made, that the queen would shew no
mercy to the pope's enemies. Whereupon Babington
was commanded to take him to the Fleet again.
On the 28th of January, Winchester and others of the
commissioners sat i'l judgment at St. Mary's Overbury,
where Hooper appeared before them in the afternoon
again, and there, after much reasoning and disputation,
he was commanded aside, till Rogers had been likewise
examined. The examinations being ended, the two sheriffs
of London were commanded, about four o'clock, to
carry them to the compter, in Southwark, there to re-
main till the morrow at nine o'clock, to see whether they
would relent and come home again to the catholic church.
So Hooper went before with one of the sheriffs, and
Rogers came after with the other, and being out of the
church-door. Hooper looked back, and staid a little till
Rogers drew near, to whom he said, " Come, brother
Rogers, must we two take this matter first in hand, and
begin to fry these faggots ?" "Yea, sir," said Master
Rogers, " by God's grace." " Doubt not,'' said Hooper,
" but God will give strength." So going forward, there
was a great press of people in the streets, who rejoiced
at their constancy.
On the next day, the 29th of January, they were again
brought by the sheriffs before the bishop and commis-
sioners. And after long and earnest talk, when they
perceived that Hooper would by no means yield to them,
they condemned him to be degraded, and read unto him
his condemnation. That done, Rogers was brought be-
fore them, and treated in like manner, and so they de-
livered both of them to the secular power, the two
sheriffs of London, who were ordered to carry them to
prison.
When it was dark. Hooper was led by one of the
sheriffs, with many weapons, first through the bishop of
Winchester's house, and so over London bridge, through
the city to Newgate. And some of the sergeants were
ordered to go before, and put out the costei mongers'
candles, who used to sit with lights in the streets ;
either fearing that the people would have made some
attempt to have taken him away from them by force, if
they had seen him go to that prison ; or else, being
burdened with an evil conscience, they thought dark-
ness to be more fit for such a business.
But notwithstanding this device, the people having
some foreknowledge of his coming, many of them caa»e
forth at their doors with lights, and saluted him, prais-
ing God for his constancy in the true doctrine which he
i had taught them, and desiring God to strengthen him
728
AN ACCOUNT OF BISHOP HOOPER.
[Book XI.
in the fsiitne to the end. Hooper passed by, and re-
fjuirv-d the jjeojile to make their earnest prayers to God
for him, and so went through Cheapside to the place
appointed, and was delivered as close prisoner to the
keeper of Newgate, where he remained six days, no
body being permitted to come to him, or talk with him,
saving his keepers, and such as should be appointed
thereto.
Daring this time, Bonner, bishop of London, and
<ithers at his ai)pointment, as Feckenham, Chedsey, and
Harpstield, is:c. resorted to him to try if by any means
thev i:ou!d persuade him to relent, and become a member
of their antichrisiian church. When they perceived that
they could not reclaim him with such offers as they
used for his conversion, then they went about by
false rumours of recantation to bring him and the doc-
trine of Christ which he professed, out of credit with
the ])eople. The report being spread abroad, and be-
lieved by some of tlie weaker sort, it at last came to
Hooper's ears. He was not a little grieved, that the
peoj)le should give credit to such rumours, as appears by
a letter he wrote upon that occasion.
A Letter of Hooper for t/ie stopping of certain false
rumours spread abroad of his Recantation.
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all
them that unfeignedly look for the coming of our Sa-
viour Christ. Amen.
" Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, and my fel-
low prisoners for the cause of God's gospel, I do much
rejoice and give thanks unto God for your constancy
and perseverance in affliction, unto whom I wish con-
tinuance unto the end. And as I do rejoice in the
faith and constancy in affliction, of such as are in prison j
even so do I mourn and lament to hear of our dear
brethren that yet have not felt such dangers for God's
truth, as we have, and do feel, and are daily like to suf
fer more, yea, the very extreme and vile death of the
fire ; yet such is the rejjort abroad (as I am credibly
informed) that I, John Hooper, a condemned man for
the cause of Christ, now after sentence of death (being
in Newgate a prisoner, and looking daily for execution)
recanted and abjured that which heretofore I have
preached. And this talk arises from the fact, that the
bishop of London and liis chaplains resort to me. Doubt-
less, if our brethren were as godly as I could wLsh thv:m,
they would think, that in rase 1 refused to talk with
them, they might have just occasion to say that I was
unlearned, and durst not speak with learned men, or
else proud, and disdained to speak with them. There-
fore to avoid just suspicion of both, I have, and do daily
speak with them when they come, not doubting but that
they report that I am neither proud nor unlearned.
And I would wish all men to do as I do in this point.
For 1 fear not their arguments, neither is death terrible
to roe, praying you to make true report of the same, as
occasion sliall serve ; and that I am more confirmed in
the truth which I have preached heretofore, by their
coming.
"Therefore, ye that may send to the weak brethren,
pray them that they trouble me not with such reports of
recantations as they do. For I have hitherto felt all
the tilings of the world, and suffered great pains and
imprisonment, and 1 thank God 1 am as ready to suffer
death, as a mortal man can lie. It were better for them
to pray for us, than to credit or report such rumours
that be untrue. We have enemies enough of such as
know not God truly. But yet the false report of weak
brethren is a double cross. I wisli you eternal salvation
in Jesus Christ, and also retiuire your continual j)rayers,
that he who hath begun in us, may continue it to tlie end.
" 1 have taught the truth witli my tongue, and with
my jien heretofore, and hereafter shall confirm the same
by God's grace with my blood. Newgate, 2nd of Feb.
A. D. ISo-Ji. Your brother in Christ,
" John Hooper."
On Monday morning (February 4) the bishop of Lon-
don came to Newgate, and there degraded Hooper, and he
was ordered to be taken to Gloucester, to be there burned ;
to which place he accordingly was removed under a
guard.
Many persons came there to speak with him ; amongst
others. Sir Anthony Kingston, knight, was one. Who,
having been formerly his friend, was on this occasioa
appointed by the queen's letters to be one of the com-
missioners, to see execution done upon him. Kingstoa
being brought into the chamber, found him at his
prayers: and as soon as he saw Hooper, he burst
forth in tears. Hooper at the first Idusli knew liim not.
Then said Kingston, " Why, my lord, do you not know
me, an old friend of yours, Anthony Kingston ?"
" Yes, Master Kingston, I do now know you well,
and am glad to see you in health, and do praise God for
the same."
" But I am sorry," said Kingston, " to see you in
this case ; for, as I understand, you are come hither to
die. But, alas ! consider that life is sweet, and death
is bitter. Therefore, seeing life may be had, desire to
live ; for life hereafter may do good."
" Indeed," said the bishop, " it is true. Master King-
ston, 1 am come hither to end this life, and to suffer
death here, because I will not deny the truth that I have
heretofore taught amongst you in this diocese, and else-
where ; and I thank you for your friendly counsel, al-
though it is not so friendly as I could have wished it,
True it is, Master Kingston, that death is bitter, and
life is sweet : but, alas ! consider that the death to come
is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet.
Therefore for the desire and love 1 have for the one, and
the terror and fear of the other, I do not so much regard
this death, nor esteem this life, but have settled myself,
through the strength of God's Holy Spirit, patiently to
pass through the torments and extremities of the fire
now prepared for me, rather than to deny the truth of
his word, desiring you and others, in the mean time, to
commend me to God's mercy in your prayers."
" Well, my lord,'' said Kingston, " I perceive there is
no remedy ; and therefore I will take my leave of you :
and I thank God that I have known you ; for God ap-
pointed you to call me, being a lost child : and by your
good instructions, where previously I was both an evil
liver and immoral man, God hath brought me to forsake
and detest my sins."
" If you have had the grace so to do," said Hooper,
" I do highly praise God for it : and if you have not,
I pray God you may have it, and that you may conti
nually live in his fear." After these and many othei
words they took leave of each other ; Kingston with
bitter tears. Hooper with tears also trickling down his
cheeks. At his departure Hooper told him, that all the
troubles he had sustained in prison, had not caused him
to utter so much sorrow.
On the same day in the afternoon, a blind boy, after
long intercession made to the guard, obtained leave to be
brought unto Hoojjer's presence. The same boy not
long before had sufl'ered imprisonment, at Gloucester, for
confessing the truth. Hooper, after he had examined
him concerning his faith, and the cause of his imprison-
ment, beheld him steadfastly and (the water ap))eariiig in
his eyes) said unto him, " Ah, poor boy ! God hatti
taken from thee thy outward sight, for what reason he
best knoweth : but he hath given thee another siglit
much more precious, for he hath endued thy soul with
the eyes of knowledge and faith. God give thee grace
continually to pray unto him, that thou lose not that
sight, for then shouldest thou be bhnd both in body and
soul."
On the same night he was committed to the custody of
tlie sheriffs of Gloucester. The name of the one was
Jenkins, and of the otlier Bond, who with the mayor and
aldermen repaired to Hoojier's lodging, and saluted him,
and took him by the hand. Hooper spake in this man-
ner. " Master Mayor, I give most hearty thanks to you,
and to the rest of your brethren, that you have vouch-
safed to take me, a prisoner and a condemned man, by
the hand ; whereby, to my rejoicing, it is apparent that
your old love and friendship towards me is not alto-
gether extinguished ; and I trust also that all those
things are not utterly forgotten, which, as your bishop
A.D. 1555.]
AN ACCOUNT OF BISHOP HOOPER.
■3 '29
and pastor appointed by the late godly king, I taught
you in times past. For which most tru*-. .tud sincere
doctrine, because I will not now account it falsehood
and heresy, as many other men do, I am sent hither by
the queen's commandment, to die, and am come where I
taught it, to confirm it with my blood. And now. Master
sheriffs, my request to you shall be only, that there may
be a quick fire, and in the mean time I will be as
obedient to you, as yourselves would wish. If you
think I do amiss in any thing, hold up your finger, and
I will have done. For I am not come here as one in-
forced or compelled to die ; for it is well known, I might
have had my life with worldly gain ; but as one willing
to offer and give my life for the truth, rather than con-
sent to the wicked papistical religion of the bishop of
Rome, received and set forth by the magistrates of Eng-
land, to God's high displeasure and dishonour ; and I
trust by God's grace to-morrow to die a faithful servant
of God, and a true obedient subject to the queen."
These and such words Master Hooper used to the
mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, at which many of them
mourned and lamented. Notwithstanding the two she-
riffs were determined to have lodged him in the common
gaol, if the guard had not made earnest intercession for
him : declaring how quietly, mildly, and patiently he had
behaved himself' in the way; adding, that any child
raigiit keep him well enough, and that they themselves
would rather take pains to watch with him, than that he
should be sent to the common prison. So it was deter-
miui.'J tbat he should still remain in Robert Ingram's
house ; and the sheriffs and the Serjeants and other
officers appointed, watched with them that night them-
selves. His desire was, that he might go to bed that
night betimes, saying, that he had many things to re-
member ; and so he did, at five o'clock, and slept one
sleep soundly, and bestowed the rest of the night in
pr.iyer. After he got up in the morning, he desired
1 :hat no man should be suffered to come into the chamber,
I ihal he might be solitary till the hour of execution.
I At nine o'clock Hooper was to prepare himself, for
the time was at hand. Immediately he was brought
down from the chamber by the sheriffs. When he saw
the multitude of weapons, he spoke to the sheriffs to
this effect : " Master Sheriffs," said he, " I am no
I traitor, neither need you to have made such preparation
I to bring me to the place where I must suffer : For if ye
I had desired me, I would have gone alone to the stake,
land have troubled none of you all.'' Afterwards look-
ing upon the multitude that were assembled, to the
I number of seven thousand, he spake to those that were
I about him, saying; "Alas! why are tliese people as-
sembled and come together? Peradventure they think
. to hear something of me now, as they have in times past,
ibut, alas! speech is prohibited me. Notwithstanding,
I the cause of my death is well known to them. When I
was appointed here to be their pastor, 1 preached to
them true and sincere doctrine, out the word of God:
i Because I will not now account the same to be heresy
jand untruth, this kind of death is prepared for me."
So he went forward, led between the two sheriffs (as it
iwere a lamb to the place of slaughter) in a gown of his
ihost's, his hat upon his head, and a staff in his hand to
jsupport himself with. For the pain of the sciatica, which
ihe had taken in prison, caused him somewhat to halt.
All the way, being straitly charged not to speak, he
1 could not be perceived once to open his mouth, but be-
I holding the people all the way, who mourned bitterly
ifor him, he would sometimes lift up his eyes towards
i heaven, and look very cheerfully upon such as he knew :
and he was never known, during the time of his being
amongst them, to look with so cheerful and ruddy a
iconnteniuce as he did then. When he came to the
jplace appointed, where he was to die, he smiling beheld
the stake and the preparation made for him, which was
;near the great elm tree, over against the college of
ipriests, where he was wont to preach. The place round
about the houses, and the boughs of the trees were filled
with people ; and in the chamber over the college gate
stood the jiriests of the college. Then he kneeled down
(as he could not be suffered to speak to the people) to
prayer, and beckoned six or seven times to one whom he
knew well, to hear the prayer, so as to make report of it
in time to come, the tears falling upon his ^houiu^.'rs and
on his bosom : this prayer he made upon the whole
creed, and be continued in it the space of half an hour.
After he was some time in prayer, a box was brought
and laid before him, upon a stool, with his pardon (or at
least it was said to be his pardon,) from the queen, if lie
would recant. He cried, " If you love my soul, away
with it ! if you love my soul, away with it !" The box
being taken away, the lord Chandos said, " Seeing there
is no remedy, dispatch him quickly." Hooper said,
" Good, my lord, I trust your lordship will give me leave
to make an end of my prayers."
Then said the lord Chandos to Sir Edmund Bridges'
son, who was listening to Hooper's prayer at his re-
quest : " Edmund, take heed that he do nothing else
but pray : if he do, tell me, and I sliall quickly dispatch
him." While this was going on, there stepjied one or
two uncalled, who heard him speak these words :
" Lord, I am hell, but thou art heaven ; I am a sink
of sin, but thou art a gracious God and a merciful Re-
deemer. Have mercy therefore upon me, mo^'t mise-
rable and wretched offender, after thy great mcey, and
according to thine inestimable goodness. Thou art as-
cended into heaven, receive me, a hell as I a;n, to be
partaker of thy joys, where thou sittest in eoial glory
with thy Father. For well thou knovvest, Lorl, where-
fore I am come hither to suffer, and why the wicked
persecute this thy poor servant ; not for my sins and
transgressions committed against thee, but beciuse I will
not allow their wicked doings, to the contarc ination of
thy blood, and to the denial of the knosvlelge of thy
truth, wherewith it did please thee by thy Holy Spirit to
instruct me : which, with as much diligence as a poor
wretch might, I have set forth to thy glory. And well
thou seest, my Lord and God, what terrible pains and
cruel torments are prepared for thy creature : such,
Lord, as without thy strength none is able to bear, or
patiently to pass. But all things, that are impossible
with man, are possible with thee. Therefore strengthen
me of thy goodness, that in the fire I break not the
rules of patience ; or else assuage the terror of the pains,
as shall seem most to thy glory."
As soon as the mayor had espied these men who were
listening to the prayer, they were commanded away, and
were not suffered to hear any more. Prayer being done,
he prepared himself for the stake, and put off his host's
gown, and delivered it to the sheriffs, requiring them to
see it restored to the owner ; and then he put off the rest of
his gear, to his doublet and hose, in which he wished to
be burned. But the sheriffs would not j)ernut that, and
his douijlet, hose, and waistcoat, were taken off. Then,
being in his shirt, he took a point from his hose himself,
and trussed his shirt between his legs, where he had a
pound of gunpowder in a bladder, and under each arm
the like quantity delivered to him by the guard. So de-
siring tlie people to say the Lord's Prayer with him, and
to pray for him, who performed it with tears, during the
time of his pains, he went up to the stake. Now when
he was at the stake, three irons were brought to bind
him to the stake ; one for his neck, another for his
middle, and the third for his legs. But he refusing them,
said, " You have no need thus to trouble yourselves.
For I doubt not, but God will give me strength sufficient
to abide the extremity of the fire, without bands : notwith-
standing, suspecting the frailty and weakness of the flesh,
but having assured confidence in God's strength, I am
content that you do as you shall think good."
So the hoop of iron prepared for his middle was
brought, which being made somewhat too short, he shrank
and put in his belly with his hand, until it was fastened :
and when they ofiFered to have bound his neck and legs
with the other hoops of iron, he refused them, and would
have none, saying, " I am well assured I shall not
trouble you."
Thus being ready, he looked upon the people, of whom
he might be well seen, for he was both tall, and stood
730
THE BURNING OF HOOPER.— ACCOUNT OF DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR. [Book XI.
also on a high stool, and beheld all round about him : and
in every cori>er there was nothing to be seen but weep-
ing and sorrowful people. Then lifting up liis eyes and
hands to heaven, he prayed to himself. By and by, he
that was appointed to make the fire, came to him, and
asked him forgiveness. Of whom he asked why he
should forgive him, saying, that lie knew not any of-
fence that, he liad committed against him. " O sir," said
the man, " I am appointed to make the fire." Hoojier
said, " Thou dost not offend me; God forgive thee thy
sins, and do thine office, I pray thee."
Then commandment was given that the fire should be
kindled. But there were brought no more green fagots
than two horses could carry upon their backs, so it
was a good while before it burned. At length it burned
about him, but the wind blew the flame from him, so
that he was only touched by the fire.
A few dry faggots were then brought, and a new fire
kindled, and that burned at the lower parts, but had
small power above, because of the wind, except that it
burned his hair, and scorched his skin a little. Wliile
he was thus suffering, he prayed, saying mildly and not
very loud, " O Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
upon me, and receive my soul." He wiped botli his
eyes with his hands, and beholding the people, said with
a loud voice, " For God's love, good people, let me have
more fire :" and all this while his lower parts burned :
for the fagots were so few, that the flame did not burn
strongly at his upper parts.
A third fire was shortly after kindled, which was more
extreme than the others : and then the bladders of gun-
powder broke, but this did him little good, as they wervT
so misplaced, and the wind had such power. In this
fire he prayed with a loud voice, " Lord Jesus have
mercy upon me ! Lord Jesus have mercy upon me !
Lord Jesus receive my spirit !" And these were the
last words he was heard to utter. But even when he
was black in tlie mouth, and his tongue swoln, so that
he could not speak, yet his lips moved till they were
shrunk to the gums : and he knocked his breast with
his hands, until one of his arms fell off, and then
knocked still with the other, when the fat, water, and
blood dropped out at his fingers' ends, until by renew-
ing the fire, his strength was gone, and bis hand did
cleave fast in knocking to the iron upon his breast.
So immediately, bowing forwards, he yielded up his
spirit.
He was three-cpiarters of an hour or more in the fire.
Even as a lamb, he patiently bore the extremity thereof,
neither moving forwards, backwards, or to any side :
but having liis lower parts burned, and his bowels fallen
out, he died as quietly as a child in his bed: and he now
reigneth as a blessed martyr, in tlie joys of heaven pre-
pared for the faithful in Christ, before the foundation of
tiie world : for whose constancy all christians are bound
to praise God.
The History of Doctor Rowland Taylor, who suffered
for the truth of God's Word, under the Tyranny of
the Roman Bishop Gardiner, on the 9th day of Feb-
ruary, A. D. 1555.
The town of Hadleigh, in Suffolk, was one of the first
that received the word of God in all England, by the
preachingof^IasterThomasBilney : by whose industry the
gospel of Christ had such gracious success, and took such
root, that a great number in that parish became well
learned in the holy scriptures, as well women as men, so
that there were among tliem many that had often read the
whole Bible through, and that could have said a great
part of St. Paul's epistles by heart; and very well and
readily have given a godly judgment in any matter of
controversy. Their children and servants were also
brought up and trained so diligently in the right know-
ledge of God's word, that the whole town seemed rather
an university of the learned, than a town of cloth- making
or labouring people : and what is more to be commended,
they were for the most part faithful followers of God's
word in tlu'ir living.
Doctor Rowland Taylor, doctor in both the civil and
canon law, and a right perfect divine, was parson of thi.s
town of Hadleigh : and at his first entering into his bene-
fice, did not, as the common sort of beneficed men do, let
out his benefice to a farmer, to gather up the profits, and
]mt in an ignorant unlearned priest to serve the cure, and
so that they have tlie fleece, caring little or nothing for
the flock : but he made his abode and dwelling in Hadleigh
among the peojile committed to his charge ; where he, as
a good shepherd, abiding and dwelling among his sheep,
gave himself wholly to the study of the holy scriptures,
most faithfully endeavouring himself to fulfil that charge,
which the Lord gave unto Peter saying, ' Peter, lovest
thou me? Feed my sheep.' This love of Christ so
wrought in him, that no Sunday nor holiday passed,
nor other time when he could get the people together,
but he preached to them the word of God, and taught
them the doctrine of their salvation.
Not only was his preaching blessed to them, but all
his life and conversation was an example of unfeigned
christian life and true holiness. He was void of all
pride, humble and meek, as any child: so that none
were so poor but they might boldly, as to their father,
resort to him ; but none was so rich but he would tell
him plainly his fault, with such earnest and grave re-
bukes as became a good curate and pastor. He was
very mild, void of all rancour, grudge or ill-will; ready
to do good to all men, readily forgiving his enemies, and
never seeking to do evil to any.
To the poor that were blind, lame, sick, or that had
many children, he was a very father, a careful patron and
diligent provider ; so that he caused the parishioners to
make a general provision for them : and he himself (be-
side the continual relief that they always found at his
house) gave a portion yearly to the common alms-box.
Thus dwelt this good shepherd among his flock,
governing and leading them through the wilderness of
this wicked world, all the days of the most innocent and
holy king of blessed memory, Edward VI. But after it
pleased God to take King Edward from this vale of
misery to his most blessed rest, the papists who ever
dissembled, both with King Henry VIII. and King )
Edward, now seeing the time convenient for their pur- (
pose, uttered their false hypocrisy, openly refused all
reformation made by these two kings, violently over-
threw the true doctrine of the gospel, and persecuted with >
sword and fire all those that would not agree to receive
again the Roman bishop as supreme head of the univer- '
sal church, and allow all the errors, superstitions, and
idolatries, that by God's word were disproved and justly
condemned, as if now they were good doctrine and
true religion.
In the beginning of this reign of antichrist, a certain
gentleman, a lawyer, called Foster, being a steward and
keeper of courts, a man of no great skill but a bitter
persecutor, with one John Clerk, conspired to bring
in the pope and his mummery again into Hadleigh
church. lor as yet Doctor Taylor, as a good shepherd,
had retained and kept in his church the godly church
service and reformation made by King Edward, and
most faithfully and earnestly preached against the popish
corruptions, which had infected the whole country round
about.
Therefore, Foster and Clerk hired John Averth, a
very mammonist, a blind leader of the blind, a popish
idolater, and an openly immoral man, to come to Had-
leigh, and there to begin again the jiopish mass.
To this purpose they built, with all possible haste, the
altar, about Palm Monday. But their device took no
effect ; for in the night the altar was beaten down. So
they built it up again a second time, and laid diligent
watch, lest any should again break it down.
On the day following came Foster and John Clerk,
bringing with them their popish sacrificer, who brought
with him all his implements and garments to play his
popish pageant ; they and their men guarded him with
swords and bucklers, lest any man should disturb him in
his missal sacrifice.
When Doctor Taylor, who (according to his custom)
sat at his book studying the word of God, beard the
bells ring, he arose and went to tho church, supposing
A.D. 1555.]
AN ACCOUNT OF DR. ROWLAND TAYLOR.
731
that there was something to be done in his pastoial
office : and coming to the church, he found the church
doors fast barred, except the chancel door, which was
only latched. On entering, he saw a popish sacrificer
in his robes, with a broad, new-shaven crown, ready to
begin his popish sacrifice, beset round about with drawn
Bwords and bucklers, lest any man should approach to
disturb him.
Then said Doctor Taylor, "Thou devil ! who made thee
so bold as to enter iiito this church of Christ to pro-
fane and defile it with this abominable idolatry ?'' With
that, up started Foster, and with an angry and furious
countenance said to Doctor Taylor, " Thou traitor !
what doest thou here, to disturb the queen's proceed-
ings ?" Doctor Taylor answered, " I am no traitor, but
I am the shepherd that God my Lord Christ hath ap-
pointed to feed this his flock : wherefore I have good
authority to be here ; and I command thee, thou popish
wolf, in the name of God, to go hence, and not to pre-
sume here with such popish idolatry to poison Christ's
flock."
Then said Foster, "Wilt thou, traitorously, heretic,
make a commotion, and resist violently the queen's pro-
ceedings ?"
Doctor Taylor answered, " I make no commotion, but
it is 50U papists that make commotions and tumults.
I resist only with God's word against your popish
idolatries, which are against God's word, the queen's
honour, and tend to the utter subversion of this realm of
England. And further, thou doest against the law, which
commandeth that no mass be said but at a consecrated
altar."
When the parson of Aldham heard that, he began to
shrink back, and would have left his mass : then up
started John Clerk, and said, " Master Averth, be not
afraid, you have a superaltar ; go on with your business."
Then Foster, with his armed men, took Taylor and
led him by force out of the church, and then the
popish priest proceeded in his Romish idolatry. Tay-
lor's wife, who followed her husband into the church,
when she saw her husband thus violently thrust out of
his church, kneeled down and held up her hands, and
with a loud voice said, " I beseech God, the righteous
Judge, to avenge this injury that this popish idolater dotii
to the blood of Christ." Then they thrust her out of
the church also, and shut the doors ; for they feared that
the people would have torn their sacrificer in pieces.
Notwithstanding one or two threw in great stones at the
windows.
Thus 5'ou see how, without consent of the people, the
popish mass was again set up with battle array, with
swords and bucklers, with violence and tyranny : which
1 practice the papists have ever used. As for reason, law
: or scripture, tliey have none.
I Wifiiin a day or two after, Foster and Clerk made a
jcompl liu!: asjainst Taylor, by a letter written to Gardiner,
I bishop of Winchester.
I When the bishop heard this, he sent a letter to Taylor,
I commanding him to appear before him upon his alle-
'• giance, to answer such complaints as were made against
i him.
] When Doctor Taylor's friends heard of this, they were
I exceeding sorry ; and foreseeing to what end the matter
! would come, and seeing also that all truth and justice were
trodden under foot, and falsehood with cruel tyranny were
, set up: his friends, I say, came to him and earnestly coun-
: selled him to fly, declaring that he neither would be
i heard to speak his conscience and mind, nor yet could
I look for justice or favour at the chancellor's hands, who
was most fierce and cruel ; and that he must expect only
imprisonment and a cruel death at his hands.
"Then said Taylor to his friends, " Dear friends, I most
heartily thank you for your tender care over me. And
although I know that there is neither justice nor truth to
be expected at my adversary's hands, but rather imprison-
ment and a cruel death : yet I know my cause to be so
good and righteous, and the truth so strong upon my
side, that I will, by God's grace, go and appear before
them.
Then said his friends, ' ■ Doctor, we think, it not best
so to do. You have sufficiently done your duty, and
testified the truth both by your godly sermons, and also
in resisting the parson of Aldham, with others that came
here to bring in the popish mass. And as our Saviour
Christ bids us, that when they persecute us in one city,
we should fly into another : we think, in flying at this
time, you would do best, keeping yourself against another
time, when the church shall have great need of such
diligent teachers and godly pastors."
" Oh," said Taylor, " what will ye have me to do ?
I am old, and have already lived too long to see these
terrible and most wicked days. Fly you, and do as your
conscience leads you ; I am fully determined (with God's
grace,) to go to the bishop, and to his beard to tell him
that he acts wickedly. God will hereafter raise up
teachers for his people, who shall with much more dili-
gence teach them than I have done. For God will not
forsake his church, though now for a time he tries and
corrects us.
" As for me, I believe before God, I shall never be
able to do God so good a service, as I may do now.
What christian man would not gladly die against the
pope and his adherents ? I know that the papacy is the
kingdom of antichrist, altogether full of lies, altogether
full of falsehood, so that all their doctrine is nothing but
idolatry, superstition, errors, hypocrisy, and lies.
" Wherefore, I beseech you, and all other my friends,
to pray for me : and I doubt not but God will give me
strength and his Holy Spirit, that all mine adversaries
shall have shame of their doings."
When his friends saw him so constant, and fully de-
termined to go, they, with weeping eyes, commended
him unto God ; and he within a day or two prepared
himself for his journey, leaving his cure with a godly
old priest, named Richard Yeoman, who afterwards, for
God's truth, was burnt at Norwich.
There was also in Hadleigh one Alcocke, a very godly
man, well learned in the holy scriptures, who, after
Richard Yeoman was driven away, used daily to read a
chapter, and to say the English litany in Hadleigh
church ; but tliey took him up to London, and cast him
into prison in Newgate ; where after a year's imprison-
ment he died.
But let us returrv to Doctor Taylor again, who being
accomjmnied with a servant of his own, named John
Hull, took his journey towards London. By the way,
this John Hull laboured to counsel and persuade him
very earnestly to fly, and not come to the bishop, and
off'ered himself to go with him to serve him, and in all
perils to venture his life for him and with him.
But in no wise would Doctor Taylor consent, but
said, " Oh John, shall I give place to this thy counsel
and worldly persuasion, and leave my flock in this
danger .' Remember the good shepherd, Christ, who
not alone fed his flock, but also died for his flock. Him
I must follow, and with God's grace will."
Tlius they came up to London, and shortly after
Taylor pre>enttd himself to the bishop of Winchester,
then lord chancellor of Elngland.
Now when Gardiner saw Taylor, he, according to his
common custom, reviled him, calling him " knave, trai»
tor, heretic," with many other villainous reproaches ;
all which Taylor heard patiently, and at last said to
him :
" My lord, I am neither traitor nor heretic, but a true
subject, and a faithful christian man, and am come ac-
cording to your command, to know what is the reason
that your lordship hath sent for me."
Tlien said the bishop, " Art thou come, thou villain*
How darest thou look me in the face for shame .' Know-
est thou not who I am .'"
" Yes," quoth Taylor, "I know who you are. You
are Doctor Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,
lord chancellor, and yet but a mortal man. But if I
should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear you not
God, the Lord of us all .' How dare ye for shame look
any christian man in the face, seeing ye have forsaken
the truth, denied our Saviour Christ and his word, and
done contrary to vour own oath and writing ? W ith
what countenance will ye appear before the judgment-
732
DR. TAYLOR'S EXAMINATION— DEFENDS PRIESTS' MARRIAGES.
[Rook XI
seat of Christ, and answer to your oath made first to
that blessed King Henry VIII., of famous memory, and
aftiMwards to blessed King Edward VI."
The bishop answered, " Tush ! .tush ! that was He-
rod's ath, unlawful ; and therefore worthy to be bro-
ken : I have done well in breaking it ; and I thank God,
I am come home again to our mother the catholic church
of Rome, and I wish thou shouldst do so also."
Taylor answered, " Should I forsake the church of
Christ, which is founded upon the true foundation of
the apostles and prophets, to approve those lies, errors,
superstitions and idolatries, that the popes and their com-
pany at this day so blasphemously approve ? Nay, God
forbid. Let the pope and his followers return to our
Saviour Christ and his word, and thrust out of the
church such abominable idolatries as he maintains, and
then will christian men turn to him. You wrote truly
against him, and were sworn against him.''
" I tell thee," cried the bishop of Winchester, "it
was Herod's oath, unlawful ; and therefore ought to be
broken, and not kept ; and our holy father the pope has
discharged me of it."
Then said Taylor, " But you shall not so be dis-
charged before Christ, who doubtless will require it at
your hands, as a lawful oath made to our liege and so-
vereign lord the king, from whose obedience no man
can absolve you, neither the pope nor any of his."
" I see," said the bishop, " thou art an arrogant
knave and a very fool."
" My Lord," replied Taylor, " leave your unseemly
railing at me, which is not meet for such an one in au-
thority as you are. For I am a christian man, and, you
know, that ' he that saith to his brother, Raca, is in
danger of the council, and he that saith, thou fool, is in
danger of hell fire.' "
The bishop answered, " Ye are false, and liars all of
you." " Nay," said Taylor, " We are true men, and
know that it is written, ' The mouth that lieth, slayeth
the soul.' And again, ' Lord God, thou shalt destroy
all that speak lies.' And therefore we abide by the
truth of God's word, which ye, contrary to your own con-
sciences, deny and forsake."
" Thou art married," cried the bishop. "Yea," re-
plied Taylor, " that I thank God I am, and have had
nine children, and all in lawful matrimony, and blessed
be God that ordained matrimony, and commanded that
every man, that hath not the gift of continency, should
marry a wife of his own, and not live in sin.''
Then said the bishop, " Thou hast resisted the queen's
proceedings, andwouldst not suffer the parson of Aldham,
a very virtuous and devout priest, to say mass in Had-
leigh." Taylor answered, "My lord, I am parson of
Hadleigh, and it is against all right, conscience, and laws,
that any man should come unto my charge, and presume
to infect the flock committed unto me, with venom of the
popish idolatrous mass.''
With that the bishop grew very angry, and said,
" Thou art a blasphemous heretic indeed, that blas-
phemest the blessed sacrament," (and putting off his
cap) " and speakest against the holy mass, which is a
sacrifice for the quick and the dead." Taylor answered,
" Nay, I blasplieme not the blessed sacrament which
Christ instituted, but I reverence it as a true christian
man ought to do, and confess, that Christ ordained the
holy communion in remembrance of his d«'ath and pas-
sion, wiiich when we keep according to hrs ordinance,
we (through faith) eat the body of Christ, and drink his
blood, giving thanks for our redemption, and this is our
sacrifice for the quick and the dead, to give thanks for
his merciful goodness shewed to us, in that he gave his
Son Clirist to the death for us."
" Thou sayest well," rejoined the bishop. " It is all
as thou hast said, and more too ; for it is a propitiatory
sacrifice for the quick and the dead." Then Taylor an-
swered, " Christ gave himself for our redemption upon
the cross, whose body there offered was the propitiatory
sacrifice full, perfect, and sufficient to salvation for all
them that believe in him. And this sacrifice our Sa-
viour Christ offered in his own person once for all, nei-
ther can any priest any more offer him, nor need we any
more propitiatory sacrifice ; and therefore I say with
Chrysostom, and all the doctors, our sacrifice is only
commemorative in the remembrance of Christ's death
and passion, a sacrifice of thanksgiving ; therefore the
fathers called it the eucharist. And no other sacrifice
has the church of God."
"It is true," said the bishop, "the sacrament is
called the eucharist, a thanksgiving, because we there
give thanks for our redemption, and it is also a propi-
tiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead, which thou
shalt confess ere thou and I have done." Then the bi-
shop called his men and said, " Take this fellow hence,
and carry him to the King's Bench, and charge the
keeper that he be strictly kept."
Then Taylnr kneeled down, and held up both his
hands, and said, " Good Lord, I thank thee ; and from
the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his detest-
able errors, idolatries, and abominations, good Lord de-
liver us. And God be praised for good King Edward."
So they carried him to prison, where he lay a prisoner
almost two years.
While in prison, Doctor Taylor spent all his time in
prayer, reading the holy scriptures, and writing, preach-
ing, and exhorting the prisoners, and such as resorted tO'
him, to repentance and amendment of life.
Within a few days after, many other learned and
godly men in sundry counties of England were com-
mitted to prison for religion's sake, so that almost all tlie
prisons in England were become schools and churches ; and
there was no greater comfort for christian hearts, than to
come to the jirisons to behold their virtuous conversa-
tion, and to hear their prayers, preachings, most godly
exhortations, and consolations.
At this time tliere were ))laced in churches blind and
ignorant mass mongers, with their Latin babblings and
foolish ceremonies ; who, like cruel wolves, spared not
to put to death all such as once whispered against po-
pery. As for the godly preachers wlio were in King
Edward's time, they had either fled the realm, or else,
as the prophets did in King Aiiab's days, they were pri-
vily concealed. As many as the papists could lay hold
on were sent to])rison, atid there remained as lambs wait-
ing for the butciiers to call them to the slaughter.
When Doctor Taylor was come into the prison, he
found there Master Bradford, the virtuous and vigilant
preacher of God's word ; which man, for his innocent
and godly living, his devout preaching, was worthily ac-
counted a miracle of our time, as even his adversaries
must confess. Finding this man in prison, he began to
exhort him to faith, strength, and patience, and to re-
main constant to the end. Bradford hearing this,
thanked God that he had provided him such a comfort-
able fellow- prisoner ; and so they together lauded God,
and continued in ])rayer, reading, and exhorting one
another ; insomuch that Taylor told his friends that
came to visit him, that God had most graciously pro-
vided for him, sending him to that prison where he
found such an angel of God to comfort him.
After Doctor Taylor had lain in prison a while, he
was cited to apjiear in the arches at Bow church, to
answer to such matters as should be objected against
him. At the day appointed he was led there. When
he came, he stoutly defended his marriage, affirming by
the scripture of God, by the doctors of the primitive
church, by laws both civil and canon, that it is lawful
for priests to marry. This he so plainly proved, that
the judge could give no sentence of divorce against him,
but gave sentence that he should be deprived of his be-
nefice, because he was married.
" You do me wrong then," said Doctor Taylor, and
alleged many laws and constitutions for himself, but all
prevailed not. For he was again carried to prison, and
had his livings taken away, and given to others. As for
Hadleigh benefice, it was given or sold, to one Master
Newall, whose qualifications were altogether unlike
to Doctor Taylor, his predecessor, as the poor parish-
ioners full well have found.
After a year and three Quarters, in which time the
papists got certain old tyrannical laws, which were re-
pealed by King Henry VIII. and by King Edward, to ba
A.D. 1555.] DR. TAYLOR'S EXAMINATION— DEFENDS PRIESTS' MARRIAGES.
733
j again revived by parliament ; so that now they might,
I ex officio, cite whom they would, upon their own sus-
picion, and charge him with what articles they chose,
I and burn them. When these laws were once re-esta-
! blished, they sent for Taylor, with other prisoners, who
' were again brought before the chancellor and other com-
' missioners about the 22d of January. The purport and
i effect of what took place is sufficiently described by hirn-
I self in his own letter.
A Letter of Doctor Tat/lor reporting the vords which
passed hetveen him and the Lord Chnncellor and other
Commissioners, on the 22d of January.
" As you would have me to write the conversation be-
tween the king and the queen's most honourable coun-
cil and me, on Tuesday, the 22d of January, so far as
I remember : first, my lord chancellor said, ' You,
among others, are at this present time sent for, to enjoy
the king and queen's majesties favour and mercy, if you
will now rise again with us from the fall which we gene-
rally have received in this realm, from which (God be
praised !) we are now clearly delivered, miraculously. If
you will not rise with us now, and receive mercy now
offered, you shall have judgment according to your de-
merit.' To this I answered, ' That so to rise, would be
the greatest fall that ever I could receive ; for I should
then fall from riiy dear Saviour Christ to antichrist. For
I do believe, that the religion set forth, in King Edward's
days, was according to the meaning of the holy scrip-
ture, which contains fully all the rules of our christian
religion, from which I do not intend to depart so long as
I live, by God's grace.'
" Then Master Secretary Bourne said, ' Which of the
religions do you mean .' For ye know there were divers
books of religion set forth in King Edward's days.
There was a religion set forth in a catechism by my lord
of Canterbury. Do you mean that you will stick to
that ?'
" I answered, ' My lord of Canterbury made a cate-
chism to be ti'anslated into English, which book was not
of his own making ; yet he set it forth in his own name ;
and truly that book for the time did much good. But
there was after that set forth by the most innocent King
Edward (for whom God be praised everlastingly) the
whole church service, with great deliberation, and the
advice of the best learned men in the realm, and autho-
rised by the whole parliament, and received and pub-
lished gladly by the whole realm ; which book was never
reformed but once, and yet by that one reformation it
was so fully perfected, according to the rules of our
christian religion in every behalf, that no christian con-
science could be offended with any thing therein con-
tained ; I mean of that book reformed.'
" Then my lord chancellor said, ' Didst thou never
read the book that I set forth on the sacrament .'"
" I answered, that I had read it.
" Then he said, ' How likest thou that book ?' — With
that one of the council (whose name I know not) said,
* My lord, that is a good cjuestion ; for I am sure, that
book stops all their mouths.' Then said I, ' My lord, 1
think many things are wide from the truth of God's
4word in that book.'
"Then my lord said, ' Thou art a very varlet.' To
ithat I answered, 'That is as ill as Raca.' Then my
i'lord said, ' Thou art an ignorant beetle-brow.'
" To that I answered, ' I have read over and over again
the holy scriptures, and St. Augustine's works through,
I St. Cyprian, Eusebius, Origen, Gregory Nazianzen, with
I other books ; therefore, I thank God, I am not utterly
I ignorant. Besides these, my lord, I professed the civil
I law, as your lordship did ; and I have read over the
; canon law also.'
I " Then my lord said, ' With a corrupt judgment thou
j readest all things : touching my profession, it is divinity,
1 in which I have written several books.' Then said I,
' My lord, you wrote one book on true obedience ; I
I wish you had been constant in that ; for you never
shewed a good conscience that I heard of, but in that
one book.'
" Tlien my lord said, ' Tut, tut. tut ! I wrote against
Bucer on priests' marriages ; but such books please not
such wretches as thou art, who hast been married many
years.'
" To that I answered, ' I am married indeed, and I
have had nine children in holy matrimony, I thank God;
and this I ayi sure of, that your proceedings now against
priests' marriages, is the maintenance of the doctrine of
devils, against natural law, civil law, canon law, general
councils, canons, of the apostles, ancient doctors, and
God's law.'
" Then my lord chancellor said, ' Thou sayest that
priests may be married by God's law. How provest
thou that ?'
" I answered, ' By the plain words and sentences of
St. Paul, both to Timothy and to Titus, where he s])eaks
most evidently of the marriage of priests, deacons, and
bishops. And Chrysostom writing upon the epistle to
Timothy, saith. It is an heresy to say that a bishop may
not be married.'
" Then said my lord chancellor, ' Thou liest of Chry-
sostom. But thou dost, as all thy companions do, bely
without shame both the scriptures and the doctors.
Didst thou not also say, that by the canon law priests
may be married ? which is most untrue, and the contrary
is most true.'
" I answered, * We read in the decrees, that the four
general councils, Nicene, Constantinopolitan, Ephesian,
Chalcedon, have the same authority that the four evan-
gelists have. And we read in the saii.e decrees (which
is one of the chief books of the canon lnw) that the
council of Nice, by means of one Paphnntius, Jul allow
priests' and bishops' marriages : Therefore, by thb '.lest
part of the canon law, priests may be married.'
"Then my lord chancellor said, ' Thou falsifiest the
general council. For there is express mention in the
said decree, that priests should be divorced from their
wives.'
" Then said I, ' If those words are there, as you say,
then I am content to lose this head of mine ; let the
book be fetched.'
" Then spoke my lord of Durham, ' Though they bs
not there, yet they may be in the ecclesiastical history,
which Eusebius wrote, out of which book the decree was
taken.'
" To that said I, ' It is not likely that the pope would
leave out any such sentence, having such authority, and
making so much for his purpose.'
" Then my lord chancellor said, ' Gratian was but a
patcher, and thou art glad to snatch tip such a patch as
maketh for thy purpose.'
" And I said, ' By God's grace I will never depart
from Christ's church.' Then I required that I might
have some of my friends to come to me in prison : and
my lord chancellor said, 'Thou shalt have judgment
within this week :' and so I was delivered again to my
keeper. My lord of Durham wished that 1 should be-
lieve as my father and my mother did. I alleged from
St. Augustine, that we ought to prefer God's word before
that of all men.''
Besides this letter he directed another writing to an-
other friend of his concerning the causes why he was
condemned.
Another Letter relating to his Assertions concerning the
Marriage of Priests, and other causes for which he
was condemned.
" It is heresy to defend any doctrine against the holy
scriptures. Therefore the lord chancellor and bishops
consenting to his sentence against me, are heretics.
For they have given sentence against the marriage of
priests, knowing that St. Paul writes plainly to Timothy
and Titus, that bishops, priests, and deacons, may
be married : knowing also that, by St. Paul's doctrine,
it is the doctrine of devils to inhibit matrimony. And
St. Paul desires every faithful minister to teach the
people so. (1 Tim. iv.)
" These bishops are not ignorant that it is not only
St. Paul's advice, but God's commandment also to
marry, for such as cannot otherwise live chaste.
rat
DTI, TAYLOR'S LAST DAYS,
[Book XI.
" They know that such as marry do not sin,
" They know tliat God, before sin was, ordained ma-
trimony in paradise, between man and woman.
" They know what spirit they have who say it is evil
to marry, (seeing God said. It is not good for man to be
alone without a wife,) having no special gift, contrary to
the general commandment and ordinance in the book of
Genesis, to increase and multiply.
" Tliey know that Abi'aham carried into the land of
Canaan his old and yet barren wife, the virtuous Sarah
with him, leaving father, and mother, and country, at
God's commandment. For though father, and mother,
and other friends are dear and near, yet none are so
dearly and nearly joined together as min and wife in
matrimony, which must needs be holy, for it is a figure
and similitude of Christ and his church.
" Tiiey know that St. Paul gives great praise to ma-
trimony, calling it honourable, and that not only to and
among many, but to and among all men without excep-
tion, whoever have need of God's remedy, for man's
or woman's infirmity.
" They know that the having of a wife was not an
impediment for Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob, David,
&c., to talk with God, neither to the Levites', bishops',
and priests' offices in the time of the old testament or
the new.
" They know that Christ was not conceived, or born
of his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary, until she was
espoused in marriage, according to his own ordinance.
" They knov Saat Christ with his blessed mother and
the apostlp^ were at a marriage, and beautified and
honoured the same with his presence, and first miracle.
"1o be short, they know that all that I have here
Vxitten touching the marriage of priests, is true ; and
they know that the papists themselves do not observe,
as to that matter, their owm laws and canons, and yet
they continue seared in conscience with a hot iron, as
detestable heretics in this behalf. The Lord give them
grace to repent, if it be his good will. Amen.
" My second cause why I was condemned as a heretic
is, that I denied transubstantiation and concomitance,
two juggling words of the papists by which they believe,
and compel all others to believe, 'that Christ's natural
body is made out of bread, and that the godhead is
joined to it, so that immediately after the words (called
the words of consecration) there is no more bread and
wine in the sacrament, but the substance only of the
body and blood of Christ together with his godhead : so
that, being now Christ, both God and man, it ought to
be worshipped with godly honour, and offered to God,
both for the quick and the dead, as a sacrifice propitia-
tory and satisfactory for the same !' This matter was
not long debated : but because I denied the papistical
doctrine (yea rather, plain, most wicked idolatry, blas-
phemy and heresy) I was judged an heretic.
'' I also affirmed the pope to be antichrist, and popery
antichristianity.
" And I confessed the doctrine of the Bible to be
sufficient doctrine, touching all matters of christian re-
ligion, and of salvation.
" I also alleged that the oath against the supremacy
of the bishop of Rome, was a lawful oath, and so was
the oath made by us all, touching the king's or queen's
pre-eminence. For Chrysostom saith, that apostles,
evangelists, and all men in every realm were ever, and
ought to be ever, in subjection to the kingly authority,
who has the sword in his hand, as God's principal
officer and governor in every realm. I desired the
bishops to rei)ent for bringing the realm from Christ
to antichrist, from light to darkness, and from truth to
vanity.
" Thus you know the sum of my last examination and
condemnation. . Pray for me, and I will pray for you.
" God be praised, since my condemnation 1 was never
afraid to die ; God's will be done. If I shrink from
God's truth, I am sure of another manner of death than
judge Hales had But God be praised, even from the
bottom of my heart, I am immovably settled upon the
rock, nothing doubting, but that God will perform and
finish the work he hath begun in me and others. To
him be all honour both now and ever, through Christ
our only and whole Saviour. Amen."
And thus much wrote Taylor, concerning this matter
to his friend.
About the end of January, 1555, Taylor, Bradford,
and Sanders, were again called before the Bishops of
Winchester, of Norwich, of London, of Salisbury,
and of Durham, and there charged with heresy and
schism, and therefore a determinate answer was re-
quired ; whether they would suijmit themselves to the
Roman bishop, and abjure their errors, or else they
would according to their laws proceed to their condemna-
tion.
When Taylor, and Bradford, and Sanders heard thi>,
they answered stoutly and boldly, that they would not
depart from the truth which they had j)reached in King
Edward's days, neither would they submit themselves
to the Romish antichrist ; but they thanked God for so
great mercy, that he would call them to be worthy to
suffer for his word and truth.
When the bishops saw them so boldly, constantly,
and immovably fixed in the truth, they read the sentence
of death upon them, which when they had heard, they
most joyfully gave God thanks, and stoutly said to the
bishops, " We doubt not, but God the righteous judge
will require our blood at your hands, and the j)roudest
of you all shall repent this receiving again of antichrist,
and the tyranny that you now shew against the flock of
Christ.''
When the keeper brought Taylor towards the prison,
the peo])le flocked about to gaze upon him : to whom
he said, " God be praised, good peo])le, 1 am come away
from tliem undefiled, and will confirm the truth with my
blood."
When Taylor had lain in the Compter in the Poultry
for some days a prisoner, on the 4th day of February,
A.D. 1555, Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, with
others, came to degrade him, bringing with them such
ornaments as appertain to their mass-mummery. He
called for Taylor to be brought to him. At his coming,
the bishop said, " Master Doctor, I would you would
remember yourself, and turn to your holy mother church ;
so may you do well enough, and I will sue for your
pardon." Taylor answered, " I would you and your
fellows would turn to Christ. As for me, I will not
turn to antichrist." " Well," said the bishop, " I am
come to degrade you : therefore put on these vestures."
" No," replied Taylor, "Iwillnot." "Wilt thou not?"
said the bishop ; " I shall make thee ere I go." To
which Taylor retorted, "You shall not, by the grace of
God." Then he charged him upon his obedience to do
it, but he would not do it for him. So he desired them
to be forced upon him, and then he degraded him in the
usual way.
The night after that he was degraded, his wife and his
son came to him, and were by the gentleness of the
keepers permitted to sup with him. For this difference
was ever found between the keepers of the bishops'
prisons, and the keepers of the king's prisons, — that the
bishops' keepers were ever cruel, blasphemous, and
tyrannical like their masters ; but that the keepers of
the king's prisons shewed, for the most part, as much
favour as they possibly could.
At their coming in to sup with him, they kneeled
down and prayed, saying the litany.
After supper, walking up and down, he gave God
thanks for his grace that had so called him, and given
him strength to abide by his holy word ; and turning to
his son Thomas, " My dear son," said he, " Almighty
God bless thee, and give thee his Holy Spirit, to be a
true servant of Christ, to learn his word, and constantly
to stand by his truth all thy life long. And, my son,
see that thou fear God always. Flee from all sin, and
wicked living : be virtuous, serve God with daily j)rayer,
and apply to thy book. In anywise see that tliou be
obedient to thy mother ; love her and serve her; be ruled
by her now in thy youth, and follow her good counsel
A.D. 1555.]
DR. TAYLOR CONVEYED TO HADLEIGH FOR EXECUTION.
755
in all things. Beware of vicious comDany, of young men
that fear not God, but follow their lusts and vain appe-
tites. Fly from immorality, and hate all filthy living,
remembering that I thy father died in the defence of
holv marriage. When God shall bless thee, love and
cherish the poor people, and count that thy chief riches
is, to be rich in alms : and when thy mother is waxed
old, forsake her not ; but jirovide for her to thy power,
and see that she lack nothing : for so will God bless
thee, and give thee long life upon earth and prosperity :
which I pray God to grant thee."
Then turning to his wife, " My dear wife," said he,
" continue steadfast in the fear and love of God ; keep
yourself undefiled from tlieir pojiish idolatries and super-
stitions. I have been to you a faithful yoke-feliow, and
so you have been to me ; for which I pray God to re-
ward you, and doubt not, dear wife, but God will re-
ward it. Now the time is come that I shall be taken
from you, and you discharged of the wedlock-bond to-
wards me : therefore I will give thee my counsel what I
think most expedient for you. You are yet a child-
bearing woman, and therefore it will be most convenient
for you to marry. For doubtless you shall never have
a convenient stay for yourself and our poor children,
nor out of trouble till you be married. Therefore as
soon as God will provide it, marry with some honest,
faithful man that feareth God. Doubt you not, God
will provide an honest husband for you, and he will be a
merciful father to you and to my children : whom I pray
you bring up in the fear of God, and in learning, to the
Uttermost of your power, and keep them from this
Romish idolatry." When he had thus said, they with
weeping tears prayed together, and kissed each other:
and he gave to his wife a book of the church service,
set out by King Edward, which he in the time of his
imprisonment daily used. And to his son Thomas he
gave a Latin book containirtg the notable sajnngs of the
old martyrs ; and in the end of that book he wrote his
testament and last farewell, as hereafter foUoweth :
The last Will and Testament of Doctor Roivland Taylor,
Parson of Hadleigh.
" I say to my vrife, and to my children ; the Lord
gave you unto me, and the Lord hath taken me from
you, and you from me : blessed be the name of the Lord.
I believe they are blessed who die in the Lord. God
careth for sparrows, and for the hairs of our heads. I
have ever found him more faithful and favourable, than
any father or husband. Trust ye therefore in him by
the means of our dear Saviour Christ's merits : believe,
I love, fear, and obey him : pray to him, for he hath pro-
j mised to help. Count me not dead, for I shall certainly
j live, and never die. I go before, and you shall follow
I after, to our long home. I go to the rest of my children,
i Susan, George, Ellen, Robert, and Zacliary : I have be-
queathed you to the only Omnipotent.
" I say to my dear friends of Hadleigh, and to all others
who have heard me preach ; that I depart hence with a
quiet conscience, as touching my doctrine, for which
I I pray you thank God with me. For I have, after my
I little talent, declared to others those lessons that I ga-
thered out of God's book, the blessed Bible. There-
fore if I or an angel from heaven should preach to you
I any other gospel than that you have received, God's great
I curse be upon that preacher.
I " Beware, for God's sake, that you deny not God,
i neither decline from the word of faith, lest God decline
I from you, and so you everlastingly perish. For God's
( sake beware of popery, for though it appear to have in it
I unity, yet the same is vanity and antichristianity, and
j not in Christ's faith and truth.
I " Beware of the sin against the Holy Ghost, now
I after such a light opened so plainly and simply, truly,
I thoroughly and generally to all England.
i " The Lord grant all men his good and Holy Spirit,
I increase of his wisdom, contemning the wicked world,
hearty desire to be with God and the heavenly company,
through Jesus Christ, our only mediator, advocate,
righteousness, life, sanctification, and hope. Amen,
Amen. Pray, pray 1
" Rowland Taylor, departing hence in sure
hope, witliout all doubting of eternal sal-
vation, I thank God my heavenly Father,
through Jesus Christ my certain Saviour,
Amen. The 5th of February, A. D. 1555.
" The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom shall
I fear ? Psalm xxvii.
" It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth^
Rom. viii.
" In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust ; let me never be
ashamed. Psalm xxx."
On the morrow, the sheriff of London with his officers
came by two o'clock in the morning, and brought forth
Taylor, whose wife, suspecting that her husband should
that night be carried away, watched all night in St. Bo-
tolph's church porch, having with her two children, the
one named Elizabeth, of thirteen years of age (who,
being left without father or mother, Taylor had brought
up through charity from three years old,) the other named
jNIary, his own daughter.
Now, when the sheriff and his company came to St.
Botolph's church, Elizabeth cried, saying, " O my dear
father! Mother, mother, here is my father led away."
Then cried his wife, " Rowland, Rowland, where art
thou ?" for it was a very dark morning, that the one
could not see the other. Taylor answered, " Dear wife,
I am here," and stopped. The sherift''s men would have
led him forth ; but the sheriff said, " Stay a little, mas-
ters, 1 pray you, and let him speak to his wife," and so
they stayed.
Then she came to him, and lie took his daughter Mary
in his arms : and he, his wife and Elizabetli kneeled
down, and said the Lord's prayer. At which sight the
sheriff wept a])ace, and so did others of the company.
After they had j)rayed, he rose up and kissed his wife,
and shook her by the hand, and said, " Farewell my
dear wife, be of good comfort, for 1 am cpiiet in my
conscience. God shall stir up a father for my children."
And then he kissed his daughter Mary, and said " God
bless thee, and make thee his servant:" and kissing
Elizabeth, he said, " God bless thee. I pray you all
stand strong and steadfast to Christ and his word, and
beware of idolatry." Then said his wife, " God be
with thee, dear Rowland, I will, with God's grace, meet
thee at Hadleigh."
And so he was led forth to the inn, called the Wool-
pack, and his wife followed him. As soon as they came
there, he was put into a chamber, where he was kept
with four yeomen of the guard and the sheriff's men.
As soon as he was come into the chamber, he fell down
on his knees and gave himself wholly to prayer. The
sheriff then, seeing Taylor's wife there, would not grant
her to speak any more with her husband, but gently
desired her to go to his house and take it as her own,
and promised her he should lack nothing, and sent two
officers to conduct her there. Notwithstanding she de-
sired to go to her mother's, where the officers led her,
and they charged her mother to keep her there till they
came again.
Thus Taylor remained at the Woolpack, kept by the
sheriff and'his company, till eleven o'clock. At which
time the sheriff of Essex was ready to receive him :
and so they set him on horseback within the inn, the
gates being shut.
On coming out of the gates, John Hull, before spoken
of, stood at the rails with Thomas, Taylor's son. 'VMien
Taylor saw them, he called them, saying, " Come hither,
my son Thomas." And John Hull lifted the child up,
and set him on the horse before his father : and Taylor
put off his hat, and said to the people that stood there
looking on him, " Good people this is mine own son,
begotten of mv body in lawful matrimony ; and God be
blessed for lavvful niatrimonv." Then hfted he up his
eyes towards heaven and praved for his son, laid his hand
upon the child's head and blessed him, and so deliver.;d
^ 3 b
736
DR. TAYLOR'S CONDUCT ON HIS WAY TO EXECUTION,
[Book XI.
the cb'Id to John Hull, whom he took by the hand and
said, '■ Farewell, John Hull, the faithfullest servant that
ever nan had." And so they rode forth, the sheriff of
Essex, with four yeomen of the guard, and the sheriff's
men loading him.
When they were come almost to Brentwood, one
Arthur Faysie, a man of Hadleigh, met them, and lie,
supposing him to have been at liberty, said, " Master
Doctor, i am glad to see you again;" and came to him
and took him by the hand. " Soft sir," quoth the
sheriff, "he is a prisoner; what hast thou to do with
him?" " I cry mercy," said Arthur, " I knew not
so much, and 1 thought it no offence to talk to a true
man." The sheriff was very angry with this, and
threatened to carry Arthur with him to prison ; not-
withstanding, he bade him get quickly away, and so they
rode forth to Brentwood : where they caused to be made
for Taylor a close hood, with two holes for his eyes to
look out at, and a slit for his mouth to breathe at. This
they did, that no man should know him, nor he speak
to any man. Which practice they used also with others.
Their own consciences told them, that they led innocent
lambs to the slaughter. Wherefore they feared, lest if
the people heard them speak, or saw them, they might
have been much more strengthened by their godly ex-
hortations, to stand steadfast in God's word, and to fly
the superstitions and idolatries of the papacy.
All the way Taylor was joyful and happy, as one that
accounted himself going to a most pleasant banquet, or
bridal. He spake many notable things to the sheriff
and yeomen of the guard that conducted him, and often
moved them to weep through his much earnest calling
upon them to repent, and to amend their evil and wicked
living. Often also he caused them to wonder and re-
joice, to see him so constant and steadfast, void of all
fear, joyful in heart, and glad to die.
At Chelmsford the sheriff of Suffolk met them, to
carry him into Suffolk. At supper, the sheriff of Essex
very earnestly laboured him to return to the Popish re-
ligion, and said, " Good master doctor, we are right
sorry for you : God has given you great learning and
wisdom, wherefore you have been in great favour and
reputation in times past with the council and his highness
of this realm. Besides this, you are a man of goodly
personage, in your best strength, and by nature likely to
live many years, and without doubt, you should in time
to come be in as good reputation as ever ye were, or
rather better. For you are well beloved of all men, as
well for your virtues as for your learning : and it were
a great pity you should cast away yourself willingly, and
so come to such a painful and shameful death. You
would do much better to revoke your opinions, and
return to the catholic universal church of Rome, ac-
knowledge the pope's holiness to be the supreme head of
the church, and reconcile yourself to him. You may do
well yet, if you will : doubt you not but you shall find
favour at the queen's hands, 1 and all these your friends
will be suitors for your pardon.
Taylor paused awhile as if thinking what to answer,
and at last answered and said, " Master Sheriff, and my
masters all, I heartily thank you for your good will ; I
have hearkened to your words, and marked well your
counsels. And to be plain with you, I do perceive that
I have been deceived myself, and am like to deceive a
great many of Hadleigh of their expectation." With
that word they all rejoiced. " Yea, good master doctor,"
cried the sheriff, " God's blessing on your heart. It is
the most comfortable word that we have heard you speak
yet. What ! should you cast away yourself in vain ? Play
a wise man's part, and I dare warrant it, you shall find
favour." Thus they rejoiced very much at the word.
At last, "Good doctor," said the sheriff, " what meant
you by this, that you say you think you have been de-
ceived yourself, and think you shall deceive many one
in Hadleigh." " Would you know my meaning plainly ?"
quoth he. "Yea," replied the sheriff, "good doctor,
tell it us plainly."
Then said Taylor, " I will tell you how I have been
deceived, and as I think, I shall deceive a great many.
I am, as you see, a man that has a very great carcass.
which I thought should have been buried in Hadleigh
church-yard, if I had died in my bed, as I hoped I should
have done ; but herein I see I was deceived : and there
are a great number of worms in Hadleigh church-yard,
wliich would have had jolly feeding ujjon tliis carrion,
which they have looked for many a day. But now I
know we are deceived, both I and they ; for this carcass
must be burnt to ashes, and so shall they lose their bait
and feeding, that they looked to have had of it."
When the sheriff and his company heard him say so,
they were amazed and looked one on another, marvel-
ling at the man's constancy of mind, that thus without
fear made but a jest at the cruel torment and death
which was now at hand and prepared for him. Thus was
their expectation disappointed. And in this it aj)pears
what was his meditation in his chiefest wealth and pros-
perity ; namely, that he should shortly die, and feed worms
in his grave : wliich meditation, if all our bishops and
spiritual men had used, they had not for a little worldly
glory forsaken the word of God and truth, which they
in King Edward's days had preached and set forth, nor
yet, to maintain the bishop of Rome's authority, have
committed so many to the hre as they did.
Taylor was delivered to the sheriff of Suffolk, and by
him conducted to Hadleigh, where he suffered. When
they were come to Lavenham, the sheriff stayed there two
days ; and there came to him a great number of gentle-
men and justices upon horses, appointed to aid the
sheriff. These gentlemen laboured to reduce Taylor
to the Romish religion, promising him his pardon,
" which," said they, " we have here for you." They
promised him great promotions, yea, a bishopric if he
would take it : but all their labour and flattering words
were in vain. For he had not built his house upon the
sand in peril of falling at every puff of wind, but upon
Christ, the sure and immoveable rock.
When they reached Hadleigh, and came riding over
the bridge, at the bridge-foot waited a poor man with
five small children; who, when he saw Doctor Tay-
lor, he and his children fell down upon their knees, and
held up their hands, and cried with a loud voice, and
said, " O dear father and good shepherd. Doctor Taylor,
God help and succour thee, as thou hast many a time
succoured me and my poor children !" Such witness
had the servant of God of his virtuous and charitable
alms given in his life-time. For God would now that
the poor should testify of his good deeds, to his singular
comfort, to the example of others, and to the confusion
of his persecutors and tyrannous adversaries. J'or the
sheriff' and others that led him to death, were wonder-
fully astonished at this : and the sheriff rebuked the poor
man for so crying. The streets of Hadleigh were beset on
both sides of the way with men and women of the town
and country, who waited to see him : whom when they
beheld, led to deatii, with weeping eyes and lamentable
voices they cried, saying one to another, " Ah, good
Lord ! there goes our good shepherd from us, that so
faithfully hath taught us, so fatherly hath cared for us,
and so godly hath governed us ; O merciful God ! wliat
siiall we poor scattered lambs do .' What shall come of
this most wicked world ? Good Lord, strengthen him,
and comfort him!" with such other most lamentable
and piteous exclamations. Wherefore the people were
sorely rebuked by tlie sheriff and his men, thai led him.
And Taylor evermore said to the people, •' i ha\e
preached to you God's viord and trutii, and am come
this day to seal it witii my blood."
Coming ojiposite the almshouses, he cast to the poor
people the money, which remained of what good people had
given him in tiie time of liis imprisonment. As lor liis
living, they took it from him at liis first going to prison,
so that he was sustained all the time of his imprison-
ment by the charitable alms of good jieople that visited
him.
Therefore the money that now remained he put in a
glove ready for the purpose, and gave it to the poor
almsmen standing at their doors to see him. And
coming to the last of the almshouses, and not seeing the
poor that dwelt there, ready at their doors, as the others
were, he asked " Is the blind man and blind woman, that
A.D. 1555.]
DR. TAYLOR'S DEATH.— MANY OTHERS CONDEMNED.
737"
dwelt here, alive?" It was answered, " Yea, they are
there within." Then threw he the glove and all in at
the window, and so rode forth.
At last, coming to Aldham common, the place where
he was to suffer, and seeing a great multitude of people
gathered there, he asked, " What place is this, and what
means it that so many people are gathered here ?" It
was answered, " It is Aldham Common, the place where
you must suffer : and the people are come to look upon
you." Then said he, " Thanked be God, I am even at
home," and so he alighted from his horse, and with both
nis hands rent the hood from his head.
When the people saw his reverend and ancient face,
with a long white beard, they burst out a weeping,
and cried, saying, " God save thee, good Doctor Taylor,
Jesus Christ strengthen thee, and help thee ! The Holy
Ghost comfort thee !" with such other like godly wishes.
Then he would have spoken to the people, but the yeo-
men of the guard were so busy about him, that as soon
as he opened his mouth, one or other thrust a tipstaff
into his mouth, and would in no wise permit him to
speak.
Tl'.en desired he licence of the sheriff to speak ; but
the sheriff denied it to him, and bade him remember his
promise to the council.
" Well," quoth Doctor Taylor, " a promise must be
kept." What this promise was, is unknown : but the
common fame was, that after he and others were con-
demned, the council sent for them, and threatened them
they would cut their tongues out of their heads, except
they would promise, that at their deaths they would keep
silence, and not speak to the people. Wherefore they,
desirous to have the use of their tongues, to call upon
God as long as they might live, promised silence. For
the papists feared much, lest this change of religion,
from truth to lies, from Christ's ordinances to the popish
traditions, should not so quietly have been received as it
was, especially this burning of the preachers : but they,
measuring others' minds by their own, feared lest any
tumult or uproar might have been stirred, the people
having so just a cause not to be contented with their
doings, or else, what they most feared, the people should
have been confirmed by their godly exhortations to stand
steadfast against their vain popish doctrine and idolatry.
But thanks be to God, who gave to his witnesses faith
and patience, with stout and manly hearts to despise all
torments : neither was there so much as any one man
that once shewed any sign of disobedience towards the
magistrates;. They shed their blood gladly in the de-
fence of the truth, so leaving an example unto all men of
true and perfect obedience : which is to obey God more
than men, and if need require it, to shed their own
blood rather than to depart from God's truth.
Doctor Taylor perceiving that he would not be suffered
to speak, sat down, and seeing one named Soyce, he
called him, and said, " Soyce, I pray thee come and pull
oft' my boots, and take them /or thy labour. Thou hast
long looked for them, now take them." Then he rose
up and put off his clothes to his shirt, and gave them
away. Which done, he said with a loud voice, " Good
peojde, 1 have taught you nothing but God's holy word,
and those lessons that I have taken out of God's blessed
book, the Holy Bible : and I am come hither this day to
seal it with my blood." With that word. Homes, yeo-
man of the guard, who had used Doctor Taylor very
cruelly all the way, gave him a great stroke upon the
head with a waster, and said, " Is that the keeping of
thy promise, thou heretic?" Then he, seeing they
would not permit him to speak, kneeled down and pray-
ed, and a poor woman that was among the people stepped
in and prayed with him : but they thrust her away, and
threatened to tread her down with horses: notwith-
standing she would not remove, but remained and pray-
ed with him. When he had prayed, he went to the
stake, and kissed it, and set himself into a pitch-barrel,
which they had prepared for him to stand in, and so
stood with his back upright against the stake, with his
hands folded together, and his eyes toward heaven, and
80 he continually prayed.
The fagots were brought, and the fire kindled : and
one man cruelly cast a fagot at him, which lighted upon
his head, and brake his face, so that the blood ran down
his visage. Then said Taylor, " O friend, I have harm
enough, what needed that ?"
Sir John Shelton standing by, as Doctor Taylor was
speaking and saying the fifty-first psalm, " Have mercy
upon us," struck him on the lips; " Ye knave," said he,
" speak in Latin, or I will make thee." Taylor, holding
up both his hands, called upon God, and said, " Merciful
Father of heaven, for Jesus Christ my Saviour's sake, re-
ceive my soul into thy hands." So he stood still without
either crying or moving, with his hands folded together,
till Soyce, with a halberd, struck him on the head so
that the brains fell out, and the dead corpse fell down
into the fire.
Thus rendered the man of God his blessed soul into
the hands of his merciful Father, and his most dear and
certain Saviour Jesus Christ, whom he most entirely
loved, faithfully and earnestly preached, obediently fol-
lowed in living, and constantly glorified in death.
After Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, had got the
law and the secular arm on his side, with full power
and authority, and had brought these godly bishops and
reverend preachers under foot, namely, Cranmer arch-
bishop of Canterbury, Ridley bishop of London, La-
timer, Hooper bishop of Worcester and Gloucester,
Rogers, Sanders, Taylor, and Bradford, all of whom he
had condemned, and some of them he had burned ; he
supposed now that all had been sure, and that Christ had
been conquered for ever, so that the people, being terrified
by the example of these learned men, never would, nor
durst again stir against their violent religion : not much
unlike the manner of the Turks, who when they can-
not maintain their sect by good learning, and tlie truth
of God's word, think by violence of the sword to force
whom they can to their belief; and that done, afterwards
make laws, for no man, under pain of heresy, to dispute,
or once to call in question any of their proceedings.
Even so, Gardiner and his fellows, when they see they
cannot prevail by trial of God's word, and discourse of
learning, neither are disposed to seek for truth where
it is to be found, take exception against God's word,
affirming it to be intricate, obscure, and insufficient, and
therefore that of necessity it must be judged by the
pope's church; and so, having kings and queens on their
side, they seek not to persuade by the word of God, nor
to win by charity, but instead of the law of God, they
use death, fire, and sword, as the Turks do, to make men
believe what in very deed they will not believe. Thus
they condemned these godly learned preachers and
bishops, supposing, that all the rest would soon be over-
awed by their example. But they were deceived : for
within eight or nine days after Gardiner had given sen-
tence against Hooper, Rogers, Sanders, Taylor, and.
Bradford, being the Sdi of February, six other good men
were brought likewise before the bishops for the same
cause of religion, whose names were William Pigot, Ste-
phen Knight, Thomas Tomkins, Thomas Havvkes, John
Lawrence, a priest, and William Hunter.
Gardiner thus seeing his device disappointed, and that
cruelty in this case would not serve to his expectation,
gave over the matter as utterly discouraged, and from
that day meddled no more in sucli kind of condemnations,
but referred the whole to Bonner, bishop of London.
Bishop Bonner, taking the matter in hand, called before
him in his consistory at St. Paul's, with the lord mayor,
and certain aldermen, the six persons afore named, upon
the 8th day of February, and on the next day, being the
9th of February, read the sentence of condemnation
upon them, as appears in Bonner's own registers : such
quick speed did these men make in dispatching their
business at once.
Notwithstanding, the death of these condemned mar-
tyrs did not follow immediately; but what was the cause
that their execution was deferred after their condemna-
tion, I cannot precisely say, unless peradventure the
sermon of Alphonsus the Spanish friar and the king'8
confessor, did some good. For so I find, that when these
six persons aforesaid were cast upon Saturday the 9th of
^ 3b2
?38
THE PEOPLE ENJOINED TO RECEIVE ABSOLLTION.
[Book XI.
February, upon Sunday following, which was the 10th of
February, the said Alphonsus, a Grey friar, preached be-
fore the king : in which sermon he did earnestly inveigh
against the bishops for burning of men, saying plainly
that they learned it not in scripture, to burn any for
conscience sake ; but the contrary, that they should live
and be converted, with many other things more to the
same purport. But touching the deferring of these
men's death, as I cannot certainly affirm, so let it
pass.
Upon the 14th of February, Robert Ferrar, bishop of
St. David's was sent towards St. David's, there to be
condemned and executed. Touching whose martyrdom,
as it happened not before the month of March, we will
defer the history thereof till we come to the time of his
•suffering.
On this 14th day of February, the lord chancellor, and
liis fellow bishops, caused the image of Thomas Becket,
that old Romish traitor, to be set up over the Mercer's
chapel door in Cheajiside in London, in the form and
shape of a bishop, with mitre and crosier. However,
within two days after his erection. Ids two blessing fingers
were first broken away, and on the next day (being the
17th of February) his head was also stricken off: upon
this arose great trouble, and many were suspected :
among whom one Master John Barnes, a mercer, dwell-
ing ooposite the chapel, was charged with it, as he was
a professor of the trutli. Wherefore he and three of
his servants were committed to prison ; and at his de-
livery (although it could not be proved upon him) he was
bound in a great sum of money to build it up again as
often as it should be broken down, as also to watch and
keep the same. And therefore at his charge the image
was again set up on the 2nd day of March : but on the 14th
day of the same month, in the night, the head was again
t'ne second time broken off: which was so heinously
taken, that the next day, being the ir)th day, there was
a proclamation made in London, that whoever would tell
who struck off his head, should liave not only his jjardon,
but also one hundred crowns of gold, with hearty thanks.
But it was never known who did it.
On the 18th of February, Queen Mary, after long de-
lay, made answer to the King of Denmark's letters, who
had before written two letters to the queen, in behalf of
Master Coverdale, for his deliverance, and who was in
great danger, had he not been rescued by the great suit
and letters of the King of Denmark.
On the 19th of the same month, a certain intimation
was set forth and printed in the name of Bonner, where-
in was contMned a general monition, and strict charge
given to evevy man and woman within his diocese, to
prepare them «lves against Lent then near approaching,
to receive the glad tidings of peace and reconciliation
sent from the Pope Julius III. by Pole, his cardinal
and legate de latere, and so receive also the joyful be-
nefit of absolution, being sent first from the cardinal to
Bonner, and from him to every one of his archdeacons to
be administered to every private person within his diocese,
that would come at the holy time of Lent, to his pastor
or curate to be confessed, and to receive of him whole-
some counsel, penance, and absolution.
And therefore, all manner of doubts and obstacles set
aside, he commanded every man and woman to come to
confession, and to enjoy this benefit of reconciliation,
and absolution, against the first Sunday next after Easter
ensuing, and not to fail. For which purpose he had
especially commanded the pastors and curates of every
parisli to certify in writing the names of every man and
woman so reconciled, and so forth.
The Form of Alsolutmi to be kept by the pastors and
curates in private confessions, concerning this recon-
ciliation.
" Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and by the
apostolic autiiority to me granted and committed, I ab-
solve you from the sentences of excommunication, and
from all other censures and pains, into which you are
fallen by reason of heresy, or schism, or any other ways:
and I restore you unto tlie iiniiy of our holy mother the
church, and the communion of all sacraments, dispell,
sing with you for all manner of irregularity ; and by the
same authority 1 absolve you from all your sins. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen."
The History of Thomas Tomkins, burned by Bishop
Bonner, for the constant testimony of Christ's true
profession.
Mention was made before of six prisoners, brouglit and
examined before bishop Bonner, on the 8th of February,
whose names were Tomkins, Pigot, Knight, Hawkes,
Lawrence, and Hunter. It now remains severally to
treat of the martyrdom of these six persons. The first
was Thomas Tomkins, burned in Smithfield, the IGth of
March, A.D. l.-).5.j.
This Thomas Tomkins, a weaver by occupation, dwel-
ling in Slioreditch, was of such a godly conversation
and disposition, that if any woman had come to him
with her web, as sometimes they did, three or four in a
day, he would always begin with prayer. Or if any
other had come to talk of any matter, he would likewise
first begin with prayer. And if any went to him to
borrow money, he would shew him such money as he
had in his purse, and bid him take it. And when they
came to repay it again, so far off was he from seeking
any usury at their hand, or from exaction of his due,
that he would bid them keep it longer, until they were
better able to pay it.
Bonner had kept Tomkins in prison about half a
year : during which time the bishop was so rigorous
to him, that he beat him bitterly about the face. He
had him a prisoner with him at Fulham, in the month
of July, and set him with his other workmen to make
hay, and seeing him to labour so well, the bishop sit-
ting himself down, said, " Well, I like thee well, for
thou labourest well : 1 trust thou wilt be a good ca-
tholic." " My lord," said he, " St. Paul saith. He
that doth not labour, is not worthy to eat." Bonner
said, " Ah, St. Paul is a great man with thee." And
so after other talk, the bishop wished his beard off,
saying, that he would then look like a catholic. " .^ly
lord," said Tomkins, " before my beard grew, I was,
I trust, a good christian, and so I trust to be, my beard
being on." But Bonner sent for the barber, and caused
his beard to be shaved off. The real cause was that
Bonner had plucked out a piece of his beard before.
The rage of this biahop was great against him, but the
constancy of the man \;as much greater, with patience to
bear it : who, although he had not the learning as others
have, yet he was so endued with God's mighty Spirit,
and so constantly planted in the perfect knowledge of
God's truth, that he could by no means be moved from
the confession of truth. Upon this, Bonner being great-
ly vexed against the poor man, when he saw that by no
persuasion he could prevail with him, devised another
practice to try his constancy ; and seeing he could not
otherwise convince him by doctrine of scripture, thought
to overthrow him. by some terror of death. So having
with him Harpsfield, Pembleton, Chedsey, Willerton,
and others, he called for Thomas Tomkins, who coming
before the bishop, and standing as usual in defence of
his faith, the bishop fell from beating to burning.
Having a taper of wax candle of three or four wicks
standing upon the table, this popish bishop took Tom-
kins by the fingers, and held his hand directly over the
flame, supposing that, being terrified by the smart and
pain of the fire, he would leave off the defence of his
doctrine.
Tomkins thinking that he was about to die, began to
commend himself to the Lord, saying, " O Lord, into thy
hands 1 commend my spirit," &c. During the time that
his hand was burning, he never moved, till the veins
burst and the sinews shrunk, and the water spirted in
Master Harpsfield's face. So that Harpsfield, moved
A.. D. 1555.]
PERSECUTION OF THOMAS TOMKINS.
739
with pity, desired the bishop to stay, saying, that he had
tried him enough. This buniin- was la the hall at
Fulham. , _ . .,, .
But before we come to his final sufTenng, we will give
some part of his examination, with his answers, as is
recorded in the register.
Thomas Tomkins, after he had remained halt a year
in prison, about the 8th day of February, was brought
with others before Bonner, to be examined.
The bishop wished to persuade him to relinquish his
opinions, and to return to the unity of the catholic
ohurcii. promising if he would so do, to remit all that was
past. But he constantly refused so to do. When the
bishop saw he could not convince him, he read to him a
writing, containing articles and interrogatories, to which
he sho'uld the next day answer :
Articles ohjecfed against Thomas Tomkins, to which he
subscribed with his own hand.
" Thou dost believe, that in the sacrament of the altar,
under the forms of bread and wine, there is not, by the
omnipotent power of Almighty God, and his holy word,
really, truly, and in very deed, the very true and na-
tural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as touching the
substance thereof, which was conceived in the womb of
the Virgin Mary, and hanged upon the cross, suffering
passion and death there for the life of the world."
" I do so believe."
" Thou dost believe, that after the consecration of the
bread and wine prepared for the use of the sacrament of
the altar, there doth remain the substance of material
bread and material wine, not changed nor altered in sub-
stance by the power of Almighty God, but remaining as
it did before."
" I do so believe."
" Thou dost believe, that it is an untrue doctrine,
and a false belief, to think or say, that in the sacrament
of the altar, there is, after consecration of the bread
and wine, the substance of Christ's natural body and
blood, by the omnipotent power of Almighty God, and
his holy word "
" I do so believe."
" Tliou dost believe, that thy parents, kinsfolks,
friends, and acquaintance, and also thy godfathers, and
godmother, and all people did err, and were deceived, if
they did believe, that in the sacrament of the altar there
was, after the con=ecration, the body and blood of Christ,
and that there did not remain the substance of material
bread and wine."
" I do so believe."
" Thomas Tomkixs."
On the next day, being the 9th of February, Tomkins
was brought again before the bishop and his assistants,
where tjiese articles were proposed to him, and he sub-
scribed his name to them. The bishop drawing out of
his bosom another confession subscribed with Tomkins's
own hand, caused it to be openly read, and commanded
him to revoke his opinions ; which he refused to do ;
and therefore was ordered to appear before the bishop
again, in the afternoon.
This second confession was as follows : —
" I, Thomas Tomkins, of the parish of Shoreditch, in
the diocese of London, having confessed and declared
openly heretofore to Edmund, bishop of London, mine
ordinary, that my belief hath been many years past, and
is at this present, that the body of our Saviour Jesus
Christ is not truly and in very deed in the sacra-
ment of the altar, but only in heaven ; and so in heaven,
that it cannot now indeed be really and truly in the sa-
crament of the altar :
" And moreover, having likewise confessed and de-
dared to my said ordinary openly, many times, that
although the church, called the citholic church, hath
allowed, and doth allow the mass and sacrifice made and
done therein, as a wholesome, profitable, and a godly
tiling ; yet my helief hath been many years past, and
is at this present, that the said mass is full of super-
stition, plain idolatry, and unprofitable for my soul,
and so have 1 called it many times, and take it at this
present :
" Having also likewise confessed and declared to my
said ordinary, that the sacrament of baptism ought to be
only in the vulgar tongue, and not otherwise ministered,
and also without any such ceremonies, as customarily
are used in the Latin church, and otherwise not to bo
allowed :
" Finally, being many times and oft called openly be-
fore my ordinary, and talked with touching all my con-
fessions and declarations, both by mine ordinary and
other learned men, as well as his chaplains, and others,
and counselled by all of them to embrace the truth, and
to recant mine error in the premises, which they told
me was plain heresy, and manifest error; do testify and
declare hereby, that I do and will continually stand to
my confession, declaration, and belief, in all the premises
and every part thereof, and in no wise recant or go from
any part of the same. In witness whereof, I have sub-
scribed, and passed this writing, the 2(ith day of Sep-
tember, the year aforesaid.
" Thomas Tomkins."
The same day and place, in the afternoon, he was
brought before the bishops of London, Bath, and St.
David's, with others ; where he was earnestly exhorted
by the biiliop of Bath, to revoke his opinions. He
answered, " JNIy Lord, I was born and brought up in
io-norance until now of late years; ami now 1 know tiij
truth, and I will continue in it unto the death."
Then Bonner caused all his articles and confession to
be again openly read, and persuaded with him to rtcant.
He finally answered, " My lord, I cannot but see that
you would have me forsake the truth, and fall into error
and heresy." The bishop seeing he would not recant,
gave sentence of condemnation upon him.
Then he delivered him to the sheriff of London, who
carried him to Newgate, where he remained until the
16th of March: on which day, he was by the sheriff
conveyed to Smithfield, ar.d there sealed his faith in the
llaming fire, to the glory of (ii^d's holy name, and the
confirmation of the weak.
The History of William Hunter.
On the 26th day of March, 1555, followed the mar-
tyrdom of William Hunter, a right godly young man, cf
the age of nineteen years, and born of godly parents : by
whom he was not only instructed in true religion and
godliness, but also confirmed by them unto death, after
a rare and strange example, worthy to be had in ad-
miration of all parents. In this may appear a singular
spectacle, not only of a marvellous fortitude in one so
young; but also in his parents, to behold nature in them
striving with religion, and overcome by it, by which
christian parents may learn what is to be done, not only
in their children, but also in themselves, if need at any
time requires, or godliness should demand the duty of a
christian man against natural affection. This account
was faithfuUv drawn out by Robert Hunter, his own
brother, who was present with his brother William, till
his death, and who sent the account to us, as we have
here recorded it.
William Hunter, an apprentice in London, m the
first year of Queen Mary, was commanded at Easter to
receive the communion at a mass, by the priest of the
parish where he dwelt, called Coleman-street ; which be-
cause he refused to do, he was threatened that he should
be brought before the bishop of London. W ilhani
Hunter's master, Thomas Taylor, a silk-weaver, re-
quired W^iUiam Hunter to depart from him, lest he
should come in danger on account of him it be con-
tinued in his house. So he took leave of his master,
and came to Brentwood, where his father dwelt, with
whom he remained a few weeks.
no
PERSECUTION OF WILLIAM HUNTER, A LONDON APPRENTICE. [Book XI,
It happened within five or six weeks, that going into
the chapel of Brentvs-ood, and tiuding there a IJible lying
on a desk, he did read it. In the mean time there came
in one father Atwell, who hearing William read in the
Bible, said to him, " What meddlest tliou with the
Bible ? Knowest thou what thou readest ? and canst
thou expound the scriptures ?''
William answered, " I take not upon me to expound
the scriptures; but finding the Bible here when I came,
I read in it to my comfort." Father Atwell said, " It
lias not been a merry world since the Bible came abroad
in English."
William answered, " Say not so, for God's sake; for
it is God's book, out of which every one tliat has grace
may learn to know both what jileases God, and also what
displeases him." Then said father Atwell, " Could we
not tell before this time as well as now, how God was
served?" William answered, "No, not so well as we
can now do, if we have his blessed word amongst us
still as we had."
M'illiam Hunter added, " I pray God that we may
have the blessed Bible amongst us continually." Father
Atwell said, " I perceive your mind well enough ; you
are one of them that dislike the queen's laws : and there-
fore you came from London. You learned these ways
at London : but you must turn over another leaf, or else
yon, and a great number more heretics will broil for
this."
William said, " God give me grace, that I may
believe his word, and confess his name, whatsoever
come."
" Confess his name," said old Atwell. " No, no,
ye will go to the devil all of you, and confess his
name."
With these words he went out of the chapel in a great
fury, saying, " I am not able to reason with thee : but I
will fetch one who shall talk with thee, I warrant thee,
thou heretic." And, leaving William Hunter reading
in the Bible, he brought the vicar of Southwell ; who,
finding him reading in the Bible, took the matter very
heinously, saying, " Sirrah, who gave thee leave to read
in the Bible, and to expound it.'"
To whom Hunter answered, " I expound not the
smpturfs, sir, but read them for my comfort." " Why
meddlest thou with them at all, said the vicar ? It be-
comes not such as you to meddle with the scriptures."
Hunter answered, " I will read the scriptures, (God
willing) while I hve ; and you ought not. Master Vicar,
lo discourage any man in that manner, but rather exhort
men diligently to read t'ne scriptures for your discharge
and their own."
The vicar answered, " It becomes thee well to tell me
what I have to do ! I see thou art an heretic by thy
words." William said, " I am no heretic for speaking
the truth." But the vicar said, " It is a queer world when
such as thou art shall teach us what is the truth. Thou
art meddling, father Atwell tells me, with the sixth of
John, in which thou mayest perceive how Christ saith,
' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink
his blood, ye have no life in you.' "
Then father Atwell said, " When you read it, I said,
that you might there understand how in the sacrament
of the altar is Christ's very natural body and blood."
" Ah," said the vicar, " what say you to the blessed
sacrament of the altar ? Believest thou not in it, and
that the bread and wine is substantiated into the very
body and blood of Christ r" William answered, " I learn
no such thing in the sixth of John." And added " You
understand Christ's words much like the carnal Caper-
naites, who thought, that Christ would have given them
his flesh to feed upon: which oi)iiiion our Saviour (,"hrist
corrected, when he said, ' The words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are life.' "
" Now," said the vicar, " I have found you out : now
I gee that thou art an heretic indeed, and that thou dost
not believe in the sacrament of the altar."
Hunter answered, " I would that you and I were now
tied fast to a stake, to prove whether I or you would
stand strongest to our faith." But the vicar answered,
** It shall not be so tried.'' " No," replied Hunter, " for
I think I know who would soonest recant ; for I durst
set my foot against yours, even to the death." " That
we shall see," quoth the vicar, and so they departed ;
the vicar threatening Hunter that he would complain of
him.
Immediately after, the vicar told Master Brown of the
communication which Hunter and he had together.
Brown immediately sent for Hunter's father, and the
constable. For immediately after Hunter and the vicar
had reasoned together, he took his leave of his father
and fled, because the vicar threatened him. Now when
the constable and Hunter's father were come before
Master Brown, he asked where his son was. His father
answered, " If it please you, sir, I know not." Master
Brown said, " I will make thee tell where he is, and
fetch him forth also, ere I have done with thee."
J ustice Brown then threatened to send the old man to
prison unless he promised to seek his son and bring
him. After the old man had ridden two or three days'
journey to satisfy Brown's expectation, it happened that
William met his father, and told him he thought that he
was seeking for him : and then his father confessing it,
wept sore, and said, that Master Brown charged him to
seek him, and bring him to him ; but," said he, " I will
return home again, and say I cannot find you." But
William said, " Father, I will go home with you, and
save you harmless, whatever comes of it."
And thus they came home together ; but William, as
soon as he was come home, was taken by the consta-
ble, and laid in the stocks, and afterwards brought to
Brown.
When Hunter was come, Brown commanded the Bible ■
to be brought and opened it, and then he began to reason 1
with Hunter, saying, " I hear say you are a scripture-
man, and can reason on the sixth of John, and expound
it as pleases you," and he turned to the si.xth of John,
and then laid to his charge the exposition he made, when
the vicar and he had talked together. Hunter said, " He
urged me to say so much as I did."
" Well," (said Master Brown) " as you can expound
so well ; how say you to the twenty-second of St.
Luke ? Look here, for Christ saith, That the bread is
his body."
Hunter answered, " the text saith, that Christ took
bread, but not that he changed it into another substance,
but gave that which he took, and brake that which he
gave, which was bread, as is evident by the text. For
otherwise, he should have had two bodies, to affirm
which 1 see no reason."
At this answer Brown was very angry, and took up
the Bible and turned the leaves, and then flung it down
again, in a fury.
Then Brown said, " Thou naughty boy, wilt thou not
take things as they are, but expound them as thou wilt ?
Does not Christ call the bread his body plainly, and
thou wilt not believe that the bread is his body after
the consecration .' Thou goest about to make Christ
a liar."
But Hunter answered, " I mean not so, sir ; but I
mean rather more earnestly to search what is the mind ■
of Christ in that holy institution, in which he commends m
to us the remembrance of his death, passion, resurrtc-
tion, and coming again, saying, ' This do in remem-
brance of me.' And also though Christ call tl-.e bread m
his body, as he also says, that he is a vine, a door, &c. ■
yet is his body not turned into bread, any more than be fl
is turned into a door or a vine. Wherefore Christ calKd
the bread his body by a figure."
Then Brown said, " Thou art a villain, indeed ! Wilt
thou make Christ a liar still?" and was in such a fury
with Hunter, and so raged, that Hunter could not sj'.eak
a word, but he crossed him and scotTed at every woid.
Wherefore, seeing him in such fury, Hunter desired that
he would either hear him quietly, and sufi'er him t(i
answer for himself, or else send him away. Brown
answered, " Indeed I will send thee, to-morrow, to my
lord of London, and he shall have thee under examina-
tion.'' And wrote a letter immediately, and sent Hunter
with the constable to Bonner.
The bishop began to reason with him in this manaen
A.D. 1555.]
PERSECUTION OF WILLIAM HUNTER.
-41
" I understand, William Hunter, that you have had
certain communication with the vicar, about the blessed
sacrament of the altar, and that you could not agree ;
upon which Master Brown sent for thee to bring thee to
the catholic faith: if thou wilt be ruled by me, thou shalt
have no harm for any thing that thou hast said or done
in this matter."
Hunter answered, " I am not fallen from the catholic
faith of Christ (I am sure) but do believe it, and confess
it with all my heart."
" Why," said the bishop, "how sayest thou to the
blessed sacrament of the altar ? Wilt thou not recant
thy saying, how that Christ's body is not in the sacra-
ment of the altar, the same that was born of the Virgin
Mary .'"
Hunter answered, " My lord, I understand that Mas-
ter Brown has certified you of the talk which he and T
had together, and you know what I said to him, which,
bv God's help, I will not recant." Then said the bishop
" I think thou art ashamed to bear a fagot, and recmt
openJy ; but if thou wilt recant, I will promise thee that
thuu shalt not be put to open shame : but speak the
wutci here now between me and thee, and I will promise
tliee it shall go no further, and thou shalt go home again
without any hurt."
Hunter answered, " My lord, if you will let me alone,
E'la leave me to my conscience, I will go to my father
aua dwell with him, or else with my master again, and
S') if nobody will disquiet or trouble my conscience, I
will keep my conscience to myself."
Then said the bishop, " I am content, so that thou
wile go to the church, and receive and be shriven, and
so continue a good catholic christian." " No,'' replied
William, " I will not do so for all the world."
" Then,'' rejoined the bishop, " if you will not do so,
I will make you, sure enough, I warrant you." " Well,"
said Hunter, " you can do no more than God will per-
ifiit you."
Then the bishop commanded his men to put Hunter
in the stocks in his gatehouse, where he sat two days and
nights, with only a crust of browu bread and a cup of
water.
At the end of two days, the bishop came to him, and
finding the cup of water and the crust of bread still
by him upon the stocks, he said to his men, " Take
him out of the stocks, and let him break his fast
■with you." Then they let him out of the stocks, but
would not suffer him to eat with them, but called him a
heretic.
After breakfast the bishop demanded whether he would
recant. But Hunter made answer, that he would never
recant that which he had confessed before men, con-
cerning his faith in Christ.
The bishop said that he was no christian, but that he
denied the faith in which he was baptized. But Hunter
answered, " I was baptized in the faith of the Holy
Trinity, which I will not go from, God assisting me with
his grace."
The bishop then sent him to the convict prison, and
commanded the keeper to lay irons upon him as many as
he could bear : and asked him, how old he was ; and
Hunter said that he was nineteen years old.
" Well," said the bishop, " you will be burned ere
you be twenty years old, if you will not yield yourself
better than you have done yet." Hunter answered,
" God strengthen me in his truth."
He continued in prison three quarters of a year, and
was before the bishop five times, besides the time when
he was condemned, which was on the ilth day of Feb-
ruary : when his brother Robert Hunter was then present.
The bishop, sending for William, asked him if he would
recant, and then remarking how William confessed that
Le believed that he received Christ's body spiritually,
when he received the communion, " Dost thou mean,"
said the bishop, " that the bread is Christ's body spiri-
tually ?"
William answered, " I mean not so; but when I re-
ceive the holy communion rightly and worthily, I feed
upon Christ spiritually through faith in my soul, and am
made partaker of all the benefits which Christ hath
brought to all faithful believers through his precious
death, passion, and resurrection."
Then said the bishop, " Dost thou not think that for
example here of my cap, thou mayest see the squareness
and colour of it, and yet that not to be the substance, which
thou judgest by the accidents .■"'
William answered, " If you can separate the accidents
from the substance, and shew me the substance without
the accidents, 1 could believe." Then said the bishop,
" Thou wilt not believe that God can do any thing
above man's capacity." " Yes," said William, " I must
needs believe that : for daily e.xperience teaches all men
that thing plainly : but our question is not what God
can do, but what he will have us to learn in his holy
suj)per."
Then the bishop said, " I always have found thee at
this point, and I see no hope in tiice to reclaim thee to
the catholic faith, but thou wilt continue corrupt;" and
then he juonounced sentence upon hira, that he should
go from that place to Newgate for a time, and from
thence to Brentwood, "where," said he, " thou shalt be
burned."
Then the bishop called for another prisoner, and so
when he had condemned them all, being five in number,
he called for William Hunter, and argued with him,
saying, " If thou wilt yet recant, I will make thee a free
man in the city, and give thee forty pounds in good
money to set up thy trade with : or I will make thee
steward of my house, aiid set tiiee in office ; for I like
thee well; thou hast wit enough, and I will prefer thee
if thou recant."
But William answered, " I thank you for your great
offers : notwithstanding, my lord, if you cannot persuade
my conscience by scripture, I cannot find in my heart
to turn from God for tlie love of the world, for I count all
worldly things but loss and dung, in respect of the love
of Christ."
Then said the bishop, " If thou diest in this mind thoq
art condemned for ever." WiUiam answered, " God
judgeth righteously, and justifieth them whom man con-
demneth unjustly."
Thus Hunter and the bishop parted. Hunter and the rest
to Newgate, where they remained about a month ; after-
wards they were sent down. Hunter to Brentwood, and
the others into other places of the country. Now when
Hunter was come down to Brentwood, the Saturday be-
fore the Annunciation of the \ irgin Mary, he remaineil
till the day after, because they would not put him to
death then, for the holiness of the day.
In the mean time Hunter's father and mother came to
him, and desired heartily of God that he might continue
to the end in that good way wliich he had begun, and
his mother said to him, that she was glad that she was
so happy as to bear such a child, who could find iu his
heart to lose his life for Christ's name's sake.
Then M'illiam said to his mother, " For my little pain
which I shall suffer, which is but short, Christ has
promised me, niotlicr, a crown of joy; may you not
be glad of that, mother?" \\ ith that his mother kneel-
ed down on her knees, saying, " I pray God strengthen
thee, my son, to the end. Yea, I think thee as well
bestowed as any child that ever I bare."
At these words Mr. lligbedtook her in his arms say-
ing, " I rejoice," and so said the others, " to see you
in this mind, and you also have good cause to rejoice.''
And his father and mother both said, that they were
never of any other mind, but j)rayed for him, that as he
had begun to confess Christ before men, he might so
continue to the end. William's father said, " I was
afraid of nothing but that my son should have been
killed in the prison by hunger and cold, the bishop was
so hard to him."
Now when it was day, the sheriff set forward to the
burning of William Hunter. Then came the sheriff's
son to him, and took him by his right hand, saying,
" William, be not afraid of these men who are here
present with bows, bills, and weapons, prepared to b'-iiig
you to the place where you shall be burned." William
answered, " I thank God I am not atViiiu ; for 1 ha\e
laid my account what it will cost me already." At thii
742
THE MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM HUNTER.
[Book XT.
the sheriff's son could speak no more to him for
■weeping.
Then William Hunter phicked up his gown, and went
forward cheerfully, the sheriff's servant taking liiin by
one arm, and hisbrother by another. While on his way
he met his father, who spoke to his son, weeping and
saying, " God be with thee, son William :" and William
said, " God be with you, good father, and be of good
comfort; for I hope we shall meet again, when we shall
be haiipy." His father said, " I hope so, William."
So William went to the place where the stake stood, but
the things were not ready. Then William took a wet
broom fagot, and kneeled down, and read the olstPsalin,
till he came to these words, " The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise."
Then said Master Tyrill, "Thou liest ; thou readest
false ; for the words are an humble spirit." 13ut ^^'illiam
said, "The translation saith, a contrite heart." Master
Tyrill replied, " The translation is false. You translate
books as you like yourselves, like heretics." " Well,''
said William, " there is no great dift'erence in these
words." TJien said the sheritl", "Here is a letter from
the queen. If thou wilt recant, thou shalt live ; if not,
thou shalt be burnt." " No," answered William, " I
■will not reciuit, God willing." Then William rose and
went to the stake, and stood upright to it. Then came
one Richard Ponde, a bailiff, and made fast the chain
about him.
Then said Master Brown, " Here is not wood enough
to burn a leg of him." Then said William, " Good
people pray for me ; and make speed and dispatch me
quickly : and pray for me while you see me alive, good
people, and I will pray for you likewise.''
" Now,'' said Master Brown, " pray for thee .' I will
pray no more for thee, than I would pray for a dog."
William answered, " Now you have that which you
sought for, and I pray God it be not laid to your charge
in the last day. I forgive you." Then said Master
Brown, " I ask no forgiveness of thee." " Well," said
William, " If God forgive you, I shall not require my
blood at your hands."
Then William seeing the priest, and perceiving how
he would have shewed him the book, said, " Away, thou
false prophet ! Beware of them, good people, and come
away from their abominations, lest you be partakers of
their plagues." Then said the j)riest, " As thou burn-
est here, so shalt thou burn in hell." William an-
swered, " Thou liest, thou false prophet ; away, thou
false prophet, away."
Then said a gentleman present, " I pray God have
mercy upon his soul." The people said, " Amen,
amen.'' Immediately a tire was made.
Then William tiung his psalter into his brother's
hand, who said, " William, think on the holy passion of
Christ, and be not afraid of death." And William
answered, " I am not afraid." Then he lifted up his
hands to heaven, and said, " Lord, Lord, Lord, re-
ceive my s])irit;" and casting down his head again
into the smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth,
sealing it with his blood to the praise of God.
An Account of Thomas Hit/bed and Thomas Canst on.
This Master Higbed and Master Causton, two wor-
shipful gentlemen in the county of Essex, the one re-
siding at Horndon on the Hill, the other in the parish of
Thundersley, being zealous and religious in the true ser-
vice of God ; as they could not dissemble with the
Lord their God, nor flatter with the world, so in this time
of blind superstition and wretched idolatry, they could
not long lie hid and obscure among such a number of
malignant adversaries, accusers, and servants of this
■world ; but at length they were perceived and detected
to Bonner bishoj) of London.
Bonner, perceiving these two gentlemen to be of wor-
shipful estate, and of great estimation in that country,
est any tumult should arise, came there himself, accom-
.v.nied with Mr. Fecknain and others, thinking to re-
claim them; so that they used great labour and dili-
gence both by terrors, and threatenJngs, and flattering
promises, and all means to reduce them again to tha
unity, as they termed it, of the mother church.
In fine, when nothing could prevail to make these
godly men assent to their dogmas, they came to this
point, that they required time to consult with themselves
what was best to be done. Which time of deliberation
being expired, and they still remaining constant and
immovable, and moreover given out their confession in
writing, the bishop seeing no good to be done in tarrying
any longer there, dej)arted, and carried them both with
him to London, and with them other i)risoncrs also,
who about the same time were apprehended in those
quarters.
They were brought forth to open examination in St.
Paul's, on the 17th of February, A.D. 15.")5. Tliey were
demanded whether they would recant their errors, and
come into the unity of the popish church. Which,
when they refused to do, the bishop assigned them the
day to appear again.
On which day he read to them certain articles, and
gave them respite till the next day to answer to them,
and so committed them to prison. Having then an-
swered the articles, they were again remanded to prison.
On the 8th day of March, Thomas Causton was first
called to examination before the bishop, and there had
read to him the articles with his answers, and after cer-
tain exhortations to recant, and to be conformable to the
unity of their church, they promised to receive him again
into their communion. He answered, " You go about
to catch us in snares and gins. But mark, by what mea-
sure you measure us, you will be measured with the
same again at God's hands." The bishop still per-
suaded him to recant, but he answered, "No, I will not
abjure ; you said that the bishops who were lately
burnt were heretics : but I pray God may make me such
an heretic as they were.''
The bishop then leaving Causton, calls for Thomas
Higbed ; and tried with him the like persuasions. But
he answered, " I will not abjure. For I have been of
this mind and opinion that I am now these sixteen years,
and do what you can, you can do no more than
God will permit you to do ; and with what measure you
measure us, look for the same again at God's hands."
They were then removed, and on the following day
they were both again brought before Bonner. The
bishop caused Thomas Causton's articles and an-
swers to be read openly, and persuaded him to recant
and abjure his heretical opinions, and to come home
now at the last to their mother the catholic church,
and save himself. But Causton answered, " No, I will
not aljjure ; for I canie not here for that purpose,"
and then he exhibited in writing to the bishop, as well
in his own name, as also in Thomas Higbed's name, a
confession of their faith, to which they would stand ;
and he required leave to read it. This being granted,
he read it openly in the hearing of the people, as
follows ; —
" The Vovfession and Faith of Thomas Causton and
Thomas Higbed.
" 1. We believe and profess in baptism to forsake the
devil and all his works, and the pomps, and vanities of
tnis wicked world, with all the sinful lusts of the flesh.
" 2. \\'e 1)( lirve ail the articles of our christian faith.
"3. \\ e believe that we are bound to keep God's holy
will and cominandments, and to walk in the same all tlze
days of our life.
" 4. We believe, that there is contained in the Lord's
prayer all things necessary both for body and soul, and
that we are taught thereby to pray to our heavenly Fa-
ther, and not to either saint or angel.
" 5. We believe that there is a catholic church, even the
communion of saints, ' Built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief corner-stone.' For which church ' Christ gave
himself, that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ;
but that it should be holy and without blemish.'—
Eph. ii, 20, and 25—27.
A.D. 1555.] THE EXAMINATION OF TIIO-MaS CAUSTON AND THOMAS HIGBED.
743
"6. We believe, that this church of herself, and by
hpr own merits, is sinful, and must needs say, i ather
forgive us our sins : but through Christ and his merits,
she is freely forgiven. ' For he gave himself for it,'
saith St. Paul, ' that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word ; that he might
present it a glorious churcli.' ' Besides whom there iS
no Saviour,' saith the prophet ; ' Neither is there salva-
tion,' saith St. Peter, ' in any other name.'
" 7. We believe, as he is our only Saviour, so is he
our only ^lediator. T"or the apostle St. Paul saith,
' There is one God, and one Mediator between God and
man, the Man Jesus Christ.' Wherefore seeing none
has this name God and Man, but Jesus Christ, therefore
there is no mediator but Jesus Christ.
" 8. We believe that this church of Christ is and has
been persecuted, according to the words of Christ, ' As
they have persecuted me, so shall they persecute you :'
' For the disciple is not above his master.' ' For it is
not only given unto you to believe in Christ,' saith St.
Paul, ' but also to suffer for his sake.' All that will live
godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution.
" 9. We believe that the church of Christ teaches the
word of God truly and sincerely, putting nothing to, nor
taking any thing from it ; and also doth administer the
sacraments according to the primitive church.
" 10. We believe that this church of Christ suffers all
men to read the scriptures, according to Christ's com-
mandment, saying, ' Search the scriptures ; for they
are they which testify of me.' We read also in the
Acts, that when St. Paul preached, the audience searched
the scriptures daily, whether he preached truly or not.
Also the prophet David teaches all men to pray with
understanding : ' For how shall the unlearned,' saith
St. Paul, ' say Amen, at the giving of thanks,' when
they understand not what is said ? And what is more
allowed than true faith, which St. Paul saith, ' cometh
by hearing of the word of God ?'
"11. We believe, that the church of Christ teaches
that God ought to be worshipped according to his word,
and not after the doctrine of men. 'For in vain,' saith
Christ, ' ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the com-
mandments of men.'
" Also we are commanded of God by his prophet, say-
ing, ' Walk not in the traditions and precepts of your
elders ; but walk in my precepts ; do that I command
you ; put nothing thereunto, neither take any thing from
it.' Likewise saith Christ, ' You shall forsake father and
mother, and follow me.' Whereby we learn, that if our
elders teach otherwise than God commanded, in that
point we must forsake them.
" 12. We believe that the supper of the Lord ought
not to be altered and changed, forasmuch as Christ him-
self, being the wisdom of the Father, did institute it.
For it is written, ' Cursed is he that changeth my ordi-
nances, and departeth from my commandments, or taketh
any thing from them.'
"Now we find by the scriptures, that this holy supper
is much abused.
" First, In that it is given in one kind, where Christ
gave it in both.
" Secondly, In that it is made a private mass, where
Christ made it a communion : for he gave it not to one
alone, but to all the apostles in the name of the whole
church.
"Thirdly, In that it is made a sacrifice for the quick
and the dead, whereas Christ ordained it for a remem-
brance of the everlasting sacrifice, which was his own
body offered upon the altar of the cross once for all, as the
boly apostle saith, ' For by one offering he hath perfected
for ever them that are sanctified.' ' Now where remis-
sion of sins is, there is no more offering for sin.'
" Fourthly, In that it is worshipped contrary to the
commandment, saying, ' thou shalt not worship any thing
that is made with hands.'
" Fifthly, In that it is given in an unknown tongue,
whereby the people are ignorant of the rigiit use of it,
how Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our jus-
tification, by whom we art set at peace with God, and re-
ceived to his favour and mercy by his promise, of which
this sacrament is a sure seal and witness.
" Besides this, it is hanged up, and shut in a box, yea,
many times so long, that worms breed in it, and so it
j)utrifies ; by wjiich the rude people have an occasion to
speak irreverently of it, who otherwise would speak re-
verently. Therefore they that thus abuse it, bring up
the slander, and not we, who pray daily to God to re-
store it to the right use, according to Christ's insti-
tution.
" Now concerning Christ's words, ' This is my body,'
we deny them not ; but we say, that the mind of Christ
in them must be searched out by other scriptures, whereby
we may come to the spiritual understanding of them,
which shall be most to the glory of God : for as the apos-
tle saith, ' No scripture is of any private interpretation.'
Besides this, the scriptures are full of the like figurative
speeches : as for example, Christ saith, ' This cup is the
New Testament in n.y blood.' 'The Rock is Christ,'
saith St. Paul. ' Whosoever receiveth a child in my
name,' saith our Saviour Jesus Christ, ' receiveth me.'
Vrhich sentences must not be understood after the letter,
lest we do err, as the Jews did, who thought that Christ's
body should have been eaten with their teeth, when be
spake of the eating thereof; wliom Christ taught that
such a fleshly eating of his body profited nothing: say-
ing, ' it is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,
and they are life."
" Thus we see that Christ's words must be understood
spiritually, and not literally. Therefore he that comes
to the supper of the Lord, must not prepare his jaw, but
his heart ; neither tooth nor belly ; but ' believe,' saith
St. Augustine, ' and thou hast eaten it :' so that we must
bring with us a spiritual hunger, and as the apostle saith,
Let a man examine himself, whether our conscience
do testify unto us, that we do truly believe in Christ,
according to the scrij)tures ; which, if we are truly cer-
tified, of being born again from our old conversation ia
heart, mind, will, and deed, then may we boldly with this
marriage-garment of our faith come to the feast.
" In confirmation of which we have numerous scrip-
tures, as of Christ himself, ' This do in remembrance of
me.' And St. Paul, 'As often,' saith he, 'as ye eat
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's
death till he come.' Here is no change, but bread still.
And St Luke affirms the same. Also Christ has made a
promise, saying, ' Yet a little while am 1 with you, and
then I go unto him that sent me.' ' It is expedient for
you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send
him unto you.' So according to his promise he is as-
cended, as the evangelists testify. Also St. Peter saith,
' ^V horn the heaven must receive until the time of resti-
tution of all things.'
" Now as touching his omnipotent power, we confess
and say with St. Augustine, that Christ is both God and
man. In that he is God, he is every where ; but in that
he is man, he is in heaven, and can occupy but one place,
with which the scriptures agree. For his body was not
in all places at once when he was here ; for it was not in
the grave when the won)an sought it, as the angel saith ;
neitiier was it at Bethany, when Lazarus died, by Christ's
own words, saying, ' I am glad I was not there.' And
thus we conclude with the scriptures, that Christ is in
his holy supper sacranientally and spiritually in all them
that worthily receive it, and corporeally in heaven, both
God and man.
" And further, we make here our protestation before
God, whom we call to record in this matter, that wiiat we
have said, is neither from stubbornness, nor from a v.ilful
mind, as some judge of us, but even of our very consci-
ence, truly (we trust) grounded on God's holy word. For
before we took this matter in hand, we besought God
from the bottom of our hearts, that we might do no-
thing contrary to his holy and blessed word. And as he
has thus shewed his power in our weakness, we cannot
worthily praise him, to whom we give hearty thanks,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
744 THE MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS CAUSTON. THOMAS HIGBED, AND OTHERS. [Bock XI.
"VMien Causton had thus delivered and read their confes-
SJon, the bishop asked them whether they would stand to
this their confession and other answers ? Causton said,
" Yea, we will stand to our answers written with our
hands, and to our belief contained therein." After which
answer the bishop proceeded to pronounce sentence
against him.
Then he said, that it was rashness, and without love
and mercy to give judgment without answering to their
confession by the truth of God's word.
Then Smith said, that he would answer their confes-
sion. But the bishop would not suffer him, and desired
Harjjsfield to speak on account of the people ; but lie
neither touched nor answered one sentence of it.
Which done, the bishop pronounced sentence, first
against Thomas Causton, and then calling Thomas Hig-
bed, caused his articles and answers likewise to bp read.
In the reading of them, Higbed said, " You speak blas-
phemy against Christ's passion, and you go about to
trap us with your subtleties and snares. And though
my father and mother, and other my kinsfolk did believe,
as you say, yet they were deceived in so believing. —
And where you say, that my Lord, named Cranmer, late
archbishop of Canterbury, and others specified in the
articles, are heretics ; 1 do wish that I were such an he-
retic as they were." Then the bishop asked him again,
whether he would turn from his error, and come to the
unity of their church ? He said, " No ; I would you
should recant ; for I am in the truth, and you in error."
" Well," said the bishop, " if you will return, I will
gladly receive you."
" No,'' replied Higbed, " I will not return as you
wish me, to believe in the sacrament of the altar, your
God."
Upon this the bishop proceeded, and gave judgment
upon him. When all this was thus ended, they were
both delivered to the sheriffs, and sent to Newgate, where
they remained fourteen days, not so much in afflictions
as in consolations, praised be God I For the increase of
which they earnestly desired all their good brethren and
sisters in Christ to pray, that God, for his Son's sake,
would go forth with that great mercy, which he had
already begun in them, so that they might persevere unto
the end, to the praise of the eternal God, and comfort of
all tlieir brethren.
These fourteen days being expired, they were on the
23d of March brought from Newgate at four o'clock in
the morning, and led through the city to Aldgate, where
they were delivered to the sheriff of Esse.x, and there
being fast bound in a cart, were shortly after brought to
the api)ointed places of burning ; that is to say, Thomas
Higbed to Horndon on the Hill, and Thomas Causton
to llnpley, both in the county of Essex, where on the
2fith day of the month, tliey most constantly sealed their
futh with their blood by most cruel fire, to the glory of
God, and great rejoicing of the godly.
William Pijgot, Stephen Knight, and John Laurence.
In the history of Thomas Tomkins and his compa-
nions, mention was made of six who were examined, and
condemned together by bishop Bonner, the 9th day of
February. Of tJiese six condemned persons, two, viz.
Tomkins and William Hunter, were executed ; one was
pardoned, and the other three, to wit, William Pygot
and Stephen Knight, suffered upon the 28th ; and John
Lawrence the 29th of the month of March.
Touching these three martyrs, we have now something
to say of their examinations : it was first demanded of
them, what their opinion was of the sacrament of the
altar. They- severally answered, and subscribed, that in
the sacrament of the altar, under the forms of bread and
wine, there is not the very substance of the body and
blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, but a special partak-
ing of the body and blood of Clirist, the very body and
blood of Christ being only in heaven, and nowhere else.
The bishop caused certain articles to be read to them,
tending to the same effect as the articles against Tom-
kins and Causton, and they were answered in the same
constant way.
The next day, being the 10th of Feb., before their pub-
lic appearance, the bishop sent for William Pygot and
Stephen Knight into his great chamber in his palace,
where he persuaded them to recant, and deny their for-
mer profession. They answered, that they were not
persuaded in their consciences to return and abjure their
opinions. Shortly after this they were all three (with
Thomas Tomkins and William Hunter) brought openly
into the consistory, and there had the same articles pro-
pounded to them which were before propounded to
Thomas Tomkins. *
The bishop also talked to John Lawrt-nce alone ; but
he answered, that he was a priest, and was consecrated
and made a priest about eighteen years past, and that he
was sometime a professed black friar ; tliat also he was
betrothed to one whom he intended to have married.
Being demanded his opinion respecting the sacrament,
he said, that it was a remembrance of Christ's body,
and that many have been deceived in believing the true
body of Christ to be in the sacrament of the altar. And
after other fair words and threatenings, they were all of
them commanded to appear again in the afternoon.
At which hour they came again, and were exhorted to
recant and revoke their doctrine ; but they again con-
stantly answered that they would not, but would stick
to that faith which they had declared and subscribed;
for that they did believe it was truth ; but that the con-
trary was very heresy.
When the bishop saw that neither his fair flatlerings, ■
nor yet his cruel threatenings would prevail, he gave "
judgment : then they were committed to the custody of
the sheriffs of London, who sent them to Newgate,
where they remained until they were carried down into
Essex, and there, on the 28th day of March, William
Pygot was burned at Braintree ; and Stephen Knight at
Maldon, who, at the stake, kneeling upon the ground,
made the following prayer : —
" O Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love I willingly
leave this life, and desire rather the bitter death of thy
cross, with the loss of all earthly things, than to abide
the blasphemy of thy most Holy Name, or to obey men
in breaking thy holy commandment : thou seest, O
Lord, that where I might live in worldly wealth to
worship a false God, and honour thine enemy, I choose
rather the torment of the body, and the loss of this life,
and have counted all things but vile dust, and dung,
that I might win thee ; such death is dearer to uie than
thousands of gold and silver. Such love, O Lord, hast
thou laid up in my breast, that 1 hunger for thee, as the
deer that is wounded desireth the ground. Send thy
holy comforter, O Lord, to aid, comfort, and strengthen
this weak piece of earth, which is empty of all strength
of itself. Thou rememberest, O Lord, that I am but
dust, and alile to do nothing that is good ; therefore, O
Lord, as of thine accustomed goodness and love thou
hast bidden me to this banquet, and accounted me
worthy to drink of thine own cup amongst thine elect ;
even so give me strength, O Lord, against this thinej
element, which as to my sight it is most irksome and
terrible, so to my mind it may at thy commandment (asl
an obedient servant) be sweet and pleasant, that throughf
the strength of thy Holy Spirit, 1 may pass through th
rage of this fire into thy bosom, according to thy pro-
mise, and for this mortal receive an immortal, and for
this corruptible put on incorruption : accept this burnt
sacrifice and offering, O Lord, not for the sacrifice, but
for thy dear Son's sake my Saviour, for whose testi^l
mony I offer this free-will-oH'ering with all my heart andl
with all my soul. O, Heavenly Father, forgive me myj
sins, as I forgive all the world. O, sweet Son of God,l
my Saviour, sjjread thy wings over me. O, blessed andl
Holy Ghost, through whose merciful inspiration I ami
come hither, conduct me into everlasting life. Lord,}
into thy hands I commend my spirit. Amen."
The Death and Martyrdom of John Lawrence, Priest.
The next day, John Lawrence was brought to Col-
chester, and not being able to walk (for bis legs we
A.D. 1555.]
THE EXAMINATION OF BISHOP FARRAR.
745
sorely worn with heavy irons in prison, and his body
weakened with wants) was brought to the fire in a chair,
and so sitting, was in constant faith consumed.
At the burning of this Lawrence, as he was sitting in
the fire, the young children came about the fire, and
cried, as well as young children could speak, saying,
" Lord, strengthen thy servant, and keep thy promise ;
Lord, strengthen thy servant, and keep thy promise:"
which thing, as it is rare, so it is no small manifestation
of the glory of God, who wrought this in the hearts of
these little ones ; nor yet a little commendation to their
parents, who, from their youth, brought them up in the
knowledge of God and his truth.
The History of Dr. Robert Farrar, Bishop of St. David's.
The day after, which was the .'?Oth of March, followed
the martyrdom of the bishop of St. David's in Wales,
called Robert Farrar, who was the next bishop in this
catalogue of christian martyrs, that suffered after Hooper.
This Farrar, by the favour and good will of the lord
protector, was first called and promoted to that dignity.
I may well call him twice a martyr, not only for the
cruel death of the fire, which he suffered most constantly
in the days of Queen Mary, to the shedding of his blood,
but also for other injuries and troubles in King Edward's
time, which he no less firmly than undeservedly sus-
tained at the hands of his enemies after the fall of the
Duke of Somerset.
Through the contrivance of his adversaries, one Hugh
Rawlins, priest, and Thomas Lee, brother-in-law to
George Constantine, exhibited to the king's most
honourable council certain articles and informations, to
blemish the bishop's credit, and to pull him down from
his bishopric, and to bring hira under a praemunire ; by
reason of which, upon the unfortunate fall of the duke of
Somerset, by whom he had been before promoted and
maintained, he was detained in prison till the death of
King Edward, and at the coming in of Queen Mary and
the popisli religion, by which new troubles rose upon
him, w^is now accused and examined for his faith and
doctrine.
After the bishop of St. David's had been long de-
tained in custody in the reign of King Edward, not for
any just cause deserved on his part, but because he had
been promoted by the duke of Somerset ; and now after
his fall he found fewer friends to support him against
such as hunted after his bishopric, when, by the coming
in of Queen IMary, the state of religion began to be
changed and altered. He was now accused and ex-
amined, not for any matter of prsemunire, but for his
faith and doctrine. He was called before the bishop of
Winchester, with Hooper, Rogers, Bradford, Sanders,
and others, on the 4th of Feb. On which day he would
also have been condemned with them : but because
leisure did not so well serve the bishop then, his con-
demnation was deferred, and he sent to prison again,
where he continued till the 14th of Feb. His examina-
tions and answers before the bishop of Winchester, as
much as remained and came to our hands, I have here
annexed : —
At his first coming and kneeling before the lord chan-
cellor, the bishop of Durham, and the bishop of Wor-
cester, who sat at the table, — and Rochester, Southwell,
Bourne, and others standing at the table's end, — the lord
chancellor spoke to him —
Winchester. — " Now, sir, have you heard how the
world goes here?"
Farrar. — " If it please your honour, I know not."
Winchester. — " What say you ? Do you not know
things abroad, notwithstanding you are a prisoner?"
Farrar. — '' No, my lord, I know not."
Winchester. — " Lo ! what a froward fellow is this ! ''
Farrar. — " If it please your lordship, how should I
know any thing abroad, being a prisoner?"
Winchester. — " Have you not heajd of the coming in
of the lord cardinal ?"
Farrar. — " I know not my lord cardinal ; but I heard
that a cardinal was come in, but I did not believe it, and
I believe it not yet."
Worcester. — " I pray your lordship tell him yourself,
that he may know what is done."
Winchester. — " The queen's majesty and the parlia-
ment have restored religion to the same state it was in
at the beginning of the reign of our King Henry VIII.
Ye are in the queen's debt, and her majesty will be good
to you, if you will return to the catholic church."
Farrar. — " In what state I am concerning my debts
to the queen's majesty, in the court of Exchecjuer, my
lord treasurer knows : and the last time that I was be-
fore your honour, and the first time also, I shewed you
that I had made an oath never to consent or agree, that
the bishop of Rome should have any power or jurisdic-
tion within this realm : and further, I need not rehearse
to your lordship, you know it well enough."
Bourne. — " You once abjured for heresy in Oxford."
Farrar. — " I did not."
Bourne. — " You did."
Farrar. — " Never! it is not true."
Bourne. — " You went from St. David's to Scotland.''
Farrar. — " I did not."
Bourne. — " You did."
Farrar. — " I never did, but I went from York into
Scotland."
Bourne. — " Ah, so I said; you went with Barlow."
Farrar. — " That is true, bat never from St. David's.''
Bourne. — " You carried books out of Oxford, to the
archbishop of York."
Farrar. — " I did not.''
Bourne. — " You did.''
Farrar. — " I did not, but I carried old books from
Oswald's to the bishop of York."
Bourne. — " You supplanted your master."
Farrar. — " I never did in my life."
Bourne. — " By my faith you did."
Farrar. — " I did not, never in my life ; but I did shield
and save my master from danger, and I obtained it of
King Henry VIII., for my true service, I thank God for
it."
Bourne. — " I\Iy lord, he has an ill name in M'ales as
ever any man had."
Farrar. — " That is not so. Whoever saith so shall
never be able to prove it."
Bourne. — " He has defrauded the queen in several
sums of money."
Farrar. — " That is utterly untrue, I never defrauded
king nor queen of one penny in my life, and you shall
never be able to prove what you say."
Winchester. — " Thou art a false knave."
Then Farrar stood up ffor previously he kneeled) and
said, " No, my lord, I am a true man, I thank God for
it. I was born under King Henry VII., I served King
Henry VIII. and King Edward VI. truly, and have
served the queen's majesty, truly with my poor heart
and word : more I could not do, and I was never false,
nor shall be, by the grace of God."
Winchester. — " How sayest thou, wilt thou be re-
formal)le ?"
Farrar. — " My lord, if it please your honour, I have
made an oath to God, and to King Henry VIII., and
also to King Edward, and to the queen's majesty, which
I can never break while I live, were I to die for it."
Durham. — " You have made another oath before."
Farrar. — " No, my lord, I never made another oath
before."
Durham. — " You made avow."
Farrar. — " I did not."
Winchester. — " You made a profession to live with-
out a wife."
Farrar. — " No, my lord, if it please your honour, I
never did ; I made a profession to live chaste, but not
without a wife."
Worcester. — " You were sworn to him that was bead
of your house."
Farrar. — " I never was."
Winchester. — " Well, you are a froward knave: we
will have no more to do with you ; we will be short with
you, and that you shall know within this week."
Farrar. — " I am as it pleases your honour to call me;
but I cannot break my oath, which your lordship your-
746
THE MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP FARRAR.
[Book XI.
self made before me, and gave example, which confirmed
my conscience. I can never break that oatli whilst I
live."
Durham. — " Well, he stands upon his oath : call
another."
My lord chancellor then rang a little bell, and Farrar
said, " I pray God save the king and queen's majesties
long to continue in honour to God's glory and their
comfort, and to the comfort of the whole realm ; and
I pray God save all your honours ;" and so departed.
After these examinations. Bishop Farrar remained in
prison uncondenuied, till the 14th of February, and then
he was sent into Wales ; where it was proposed to him,
that if he would submit himself to the laws of this realm,
and conform himself to the unity of the universal catho-
lic church, he should be received and pardoned. When
Farrar would give no answer, the bishop ministered to
him these articles :
"1. Whether he believed the marriage of priests to
be lawful by the laws of God and holy church, or not ?
" 2. Whether he believed, that in the blessed sacra-
ment of the altar, after the words of consecration duly
pronounced by the priest, the very body and blood of
Christ is really and substantially contained, without the
substance of bread and wine ?"
To which articles the bishop required Farrar to an-
swer upon his allegiance.
To which he said he would answer when he saw a law-
ful commission, and would make no further answer at
that time. Then the bishop committed him to the
keeper, to be kept in prison.
On the 28th of February, Morgan the pretended bishop
of St. David's sitting as judge, ministered to bishop
Farrar, certain articles and interrogatories in writing :
which he refused to answer, till he might see a lawful
commission and authority. Then the pretended bishop
of St. David's pronounced him as contumacious, and
accounted him as one confessed, and so pronounced him
in writing. Which being done, he committed him to
custody, until the 4th of March.
On the day appointed, bishop Farrar appearing again
before the pretended bishop Morgan, humbly submitting
himself as ready to answer the articles, gently required
the copy of the articles, and a competent term to answer
for himself: which being granted, and the Thursday
next being assigned to him to answer, he was committed
again to custody.
On Thursday, as was appointed, he again appeared,
where he exhibited in writing, his answer. Then the
pretended bishop of St. David's offered him again the
articles : the tenor of which was to this effect :
" 1st. That he required him, being a priest, to re-
nounce matrimony.
" 2nd. To grant the natural presence of Christ in the
sacrament, under the forms of bread and wine.
" .kd. That the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for the
quick and the dead.
" 4th. That the general councils lawfully congregated
never did, nor can err.
" 5th. That men are not justified before God by faith
only, but that hope and charity are also necessarily re-
quired to justification.
" fith. That the catholic church, which alone has au-
thority to expound the scriptures, and to define contro-
versies of religion, and to ordain things appertaining to
public discipline, is visible, and like to a city set upon a
mountain, for all men to understand."
To these articles he refused to subscribe, affirming
that they were invented by man, and pertain not to the
catholic faith. After this, the bishop delivered to him
the copy of the articles, assigning him Monday next fol-
lowing, to answer and subscribe to the same, either aflSr-
tnatively or negatively.
On which Monday, being the 11th of March, he ap-
peaxing again before the bishop, exhibited in a written
paper his answer to the articles. Tiie bishop assigned
the next Wednesday, to hear his final and definitive
sentence.
On which day this good bishop and true servant of
God, was demanded by Henry Morgan the jiretended
bishop of St. David's, whether he would renounce and
recant his heresies, schisms, and errors, as he called them,
and subscribe to the catholic articles.
After this the godly bishop, Farrar, exliibited a sche-
dule written in English, appealing by express word of
mouth from the bishop, as from an incompetent judge,
to cardinal Pole.
Notwithstanding which. Bishop Morgan, proceeding
in his rage, pronounced the definitive sentence against
him : by which sentence he pronounced him an excom-
municated heretic, to be given up forthwith to the se-
cular power, namely, to the sheriff of the town of Car-
marthen.
Being condemned and then degraded, he was commit-
ted to the secular power, and not long after brought to
the place of execution in the town of Carmarthen, where,
in the market place at the south side of the market cross,
the 30th day of March, being Saturday next before pas-
sion Sunday, he most constantly sustained the torments
of the fire.
To shew the constancy of this blessed martyr, this
may be added, that one named Richard Jones, a knight's
son, coming to Farrar, a little before his death, seemed
to lament the painfulness of the death he had to suffer ;
the bishop answered, saying, that if he saw him once
to stir in the pains of his burning, he should then give
no credit to his doctrine. And accordingly he stood so
patiently, that he never move'd, but continued still, till
one Richard Gravell, with a staff, dashed him upon the
head, and so struck him down.
The History of .me Rawlins White.
As we have given the history of Farrar, burned at the
town of Carmarthen, in Wales, I adjoin the history also
of Rawlins White, who in the like cause, and in the same
countrv of Wales, and about the same month of March,
gave his life like a valiant soldier of Jesus Christ to
martyrdom, and was burned at Cardiff.
This Rawlins was a fisherman, for the space of twenty
years at least, in the town of Cardiff, being a man of a
very good name, and well accounted amongst his neigh-
bours. As to his religion, he was a great partaker of
the superstition and idolatry of the times, I mean in the
reign of King Henry VIII. But after God of his mercy
had raised up the light of his gospel, through the blessed
government of King Edward VI. this Rawlins began to
be a diligent hearer, and a great searcher out of the
truth.
But because the good man was altogether unlearned,
and very simple, he knew no ready way how he might
satisfy his great desire. At length it came in his mind
to take a special remedy to supply his necessity. He
had a little boy, his own son, whom he sent to school to
learn to read English. After the little boy could read
well, his father every night after supper, summer and
winter, would have the boy read a piece of the holy
scripture, and now and then some other good book. In
which virtuous exercise the old man had such a delight
and pleasure, that he rather practised himself in the
study of the scriptures, than in the trade whicli he had
followed, so that Rawlins within a few years, throu^li
tlie help of his little son, a special minister apjjointed by
God for that purpose, and through much conference
besides, profited so, that he was able not only to resolve
himself, touching his own former blindness and igno-
rance, but was also able to admonish, and instruct others;
and tlierefore wlien occasion served he would go fro a
one place to anotiier visiting others. By which he be-
came in that country, both a notable and ojien professor
of the truth, being at all times and in all such places,
not without the comjiany of his little boy, whom he used
as an assistance to tliis good purpose. To his great in-
dustry in the holy scriptures, God also added a singular
gift of memory, so that he could do that in vouching and
A.D. 1555.]
MARTYRDOM OF RAWLINS WHITE.
747
rehearsing the text, which men of riper and more pro-
found knowledge, by their notes and other helps of
memory could not easily accomplish. So that he,
upon the alleging of scripture, very often would cite the
book, the leaf, yea and the very sentence ; such was the
vvonderfid working of God in this simple and unlearned
father.
When he had thus continued in his profession five
years. King Edward died, upon whose decease Queen
Mary succeeded, and with her all kind of superstition
and papistry returned. Which being once perceived,
RhwIIus did not altogether use open instruction and ad-
monition, as before, and therefore oftentimes in some
private place he would call his trusty friends together,
and with earnest prayer and great lamentation pass away
the time, so that by his virtuous instructions, he con-
verted a great number, which number, no doubt, would
have greatly increased, had not the cruel storm of perse-
cution come on.
The force of this at last so pursued this good father
Rawlins, that he expected every hour to go to prison :
many of those, who had received comfort by his instruc-
tions, resorted to him, and by all means possible began
to persuade him to shift for himself, and to dispose of
his goods to the use of his wife and children, and by
that means escape the danger.
But Rawlins, not abashed through the iniquity of the
time, and not at all moved by these their fleshly persua-
sions, thanked them most heartily for their good will,
and told them plainly, that he had learned one good
lesson as to the confession and denial of Christ ; telling
them, that if he, by their persuasions, should deny his
master Christ, Christ in the last day would deny and
utterly condemn him : and therefore, that he would by
grace confess and bear witness of him before men, that
he might find in him everlasting life.
At last he was taken by the officers of the town, as a
man suspected of heresy, upon which he was brought
before the bishop of Llandaff, by whom after many con-
flicts with him and his chaplains, this good father Raw-
llins was committed to prison in Chepstow.
I At last he was removed from Chepstow to the castle
jof Cardiff, where he continued one whole year. During
|which time, although he was thus troubled, to his own
jundoing in this world, and to the utter decay of his poor
jwife and children, yet his heart was so set on the in-
jstruction and furtherance of others in the way of sal-
ivation, that he was never quiet but when he was per-
suading or exhorting such of his familiar friends as
teommonly came to him. So that on the Sundays and
other times of leisure, when his friends came to visit
him, he would pass away the time in prayer and exhor-
itations, admonishing them always to beware of false
;prophets, which come in sheep's clothing.
'•: When he had continued in Cardiff Castle one year,
the time of his trial was at hand. The bishop of Llan-
flaff caused him to be brought from the castle to his
pwn house, near Chepstow ; the bishop tried various
tivays to reduce him to conformity. But when threaten-
ing words, and flattering promises, were to no purpose,
^he bishop advised him to recant his opinions, and gave
lim a day for dcterminatinn. Which day being come,
:Ue bishop with his chaplains went into his chapel, with
I great number of others. When the bishop with his
•etinne were placed in order, poor Rawlins was brought
)efore them. The bishop used a long kind of talk to
dm, declaring the cause of his sending for him, which
vas that he was a man well known to hold heretical
(pinions, and that through his instruction many were led
nto blind error.
When the bishop had made an end, Rawlins spake
)oldly to him, and said, "My lord, 1 thank God I am
I christian man, and I hold no o]nnions contrary to the
^ord of God ; and if I do, I desire to be reformed out
jf the word of God, as a christian man ought to be."
i\fter much contention of a like nature, when Rawlins
ifould in nowise recant his opinions, the bishop told
lim plainly, that he must proceed against him by the
aw, and condemn him as an heretic.
** Proceed in your law, in God's name," said Rawlins ;
' ' but as an heretic you shall never condemn me while
the world stands." " But," said the bishop to his
company, " before we proceed any further with him,
let us pray to God that he would send some s))ark of
grace upon him ; and it may so chance, that God
through our prayer will here turn and convert hid
heart." When Rawlins heard the bishop say so : " Ah :
my lord," cried he ; " now you deal well, and like a
goodly bishop ; and I thank you most heartily for your
great charity and gentleness. Christ saith : ' Where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them :' and there are more than
two or three of you. Now, if your request be godly
and lawful, and you pray as you should pray, without
doubt God will hear you. And therefore, my lord, go
on ; pray to your God, and I will pray to my God : I
know that my God will both hear my prayer, and per-
form my desire."
By and by, the bishop, with his company, fell to prayer.
And Rawlins, turning himself to a pew that stood near
him, fell down upon his knees, covering his face with his
hands ; and when they had prayed a while, the bishop,
with his company, arose from prayer. And then also
arose Rawlins, and came before the bishop.
Then said the bishop : " Now, Rawhns, how is it
with thee ? Wilt thou revoke thy opinions, or not ?"
" Surely, my lord," said Rawlins, " Rawlins you left me,
and Rawlins you find me ; and, by God's grace, Rawlins
I will continue. Certainly if your petitions had been
just and lawful, God would have heard them ; but you
honour a false God, and pray not as you should pray ;
and therefore has not God granted your desire. But I
am one poor, simple man, as you see, aiid God has
heard my com]d;unt, and I trust he will strengthen me
in his own cause."
The bishop, when he jjerceived that this hypocrisy of
theirs had no effect, rti)roved him with angry words,
and forthwith was ready to read the sentence. How-
ever, upon some advice given to liim by his chaplains
that were present, he thought best first to have a mass,
thinking that by so doing some wonderful work should
be wrought in Rawlins, and thereupon a priest began a
mass.
In the meantime, poor Rawlins betook himself to
prayer in a secret place, until such time as the priest
came to the elevation, as they term it, which is a prin-
cipal point of their idolatry. When Rawlins heard the
elevation bell ring, he rose out of his place, and came to
the choir door, and there standing a while, turned him-
self to the people, speaking these words: " Good peo-
ple, if there be any brethren amongst you, or, at the
least, if there be but one brother amongst you, let the
same one bear witness at the day of judgment, that I
bow not to this idol,'' — meaning the host that the
priest held over his head.
The mass being ended, Rawdins was called for again.
The bishop used many persuasions ; but the blessed
man continued so steadfast, that the bishop's talk was
altogether in vain. Upon which, the bishop caused the
definitive sentence to be read. Which being done,
Rawlins was dismissed, and was by the bishop's com-
mandment carried again to Cardiff, there to be put into
the prison of the town, a very dark, loathsome, and
most vile prison.
Rawlins in the meantime passed the time in prayer,
and chiefly in singing of psalms : which kind of godly
exercise he always used, both at Cardiflf castle, and in
all other places.
When he perceived his time was near, he sent to his
wife, that she should make ready and send to him his
wedding garment, meaning a shirt, which he was after-
wards burned in. Which request, or, rather command-
ment of his, his wife with great sorrow and grief of
heart performed, and early in the morning sent it to
him : he received it most gladly and joyfully.
When the hour of his execution was come, this good
and constant father Rawlins was brought out of prison,
having on his body the long shirt, which he called his
wedding garment, and an old russet coat, which he was
wont to wear. Besides this, he had upon Ms legs an
QUEEN MARY'S RENUNCIATION OF ABBEY LANDS.
[Book XI.
old pair of leather buskins, which he had used long be-
fore. And thus being brought out of prison, he was
guarded with a great company of bills and gleaves.
Which, when he beheld: "Alas!" said he; "what
nieaneth all this ? All this was needed not. By God's
grace I will not start away ; but with all my heart and
mind I give to God most hearty thanks, that he hath
made me worthy to abide all this for his holy Name's
sake."
Coming to a place on his way, where his poor wife
and children stood weeping, and making great lamenta-
tion : the sudden sight of them so pierced his heart,
that the very tears trickled down his face. But he soon
after, as if he had disliked this infirmity of his flesh, be-
gan to be angry with himself ; and striking his breast
with his hand, he used these words : " Ah, flesh,
checkest thou me so ! wouldest thou fain prevail ?
Well, I tell thee, do what thou canst, thou shalt not,
by God's grace, have the victory." By this time this
poor innocent came to the very altar of his sacrifice, and
there found a stake ready set up, with some wood to-
ward the making of the fire. Which, when he beheld,
he went forward very boldly ; but in going toward the
stake, he fell down upon his knees, and kissed the
ground; and in rising again, the earth a little sticking
on his nose, he said these words : " Earth unto earth,
and duyt unto dust : thou art my mother, and unto
thee I shall return." Then he went cheerfully and
very joyfully, and set his back close to the stake ; and
when he had stood there a while, he cast his eye upon
the person who gave this account of his martyrdom, and
called him to him, and said, " I feel a great fighting be-
tween the flesh and the spirit, and the flesh would very
fain have his swing ; and therefore I pray you, when
you see me any thing tempted, hold your finger up to
me, and I trust I shall remember myself."
As he was thus standing with his back close to the stake,
a smith came with a great chain of iron ; whom, when
he saw, he lifted up his hand with a loud voice, and
gave God thanks. Then the smith put a chain about
liim, and as he was making it fast, Rawlins said to him :
" I pray you, good friend, knock in the chain fast ; for
it may be that the flesh would strive mightily, but God
of his great mercy give me strength and patience to
abide tiie extremity."
Now, when the smith had made him fast to the stake,
the officers began to lay on more wood, with a little
straw and reeds, in which the good old man was no less
occupied than the best ; for as far as he could reach his
hands, he would pluck the straw and reeds, and lay
them about him in places most convenient for his
speedy dispatch. Which he did with such a cheerful
countenance, that all men there present were in a manner
astonished.
Thus when all things were ready, so that there lacked
nothing but the fire, there was a standing erected directly
over against the stake, in the face of Rawlins, on which
steptup a priest, who addressed himself to the people who
were assembled in great numbers, as it was the market-
day. Then the priest went on in his sermon, and spake
of many things about the authority of the church of
Rome. Rawlins gave such good attention, that he
Beemed not at all moved or disquieted. At last, the
priest came to the sacrament of the altar, and there he
began to inveigh against Rawlins' opinions, and cited
the usual place of scripture, in support of his dogmas.
Rawlins perceived that he went about not only to
teach and preach the people false doctrine, but also to
confirm it by scripture; so he suddenly started up and
beckoned his hands to the ])eople, saying twice, " Come
hither, good people, and hear not a false prophet preach-
ing ;" and then said to the preacher, "Ah, thou
naughty hypocrite, dost thou presume to prove thy false
doctrine by scripture ? Look in the text that foUoweth :
Did not Christ say, " Do this in remembrance of me .'"
After which words, the priest being amazed, forthwith
held his peace.
Then some that stood by cried out, " Put fire, set
to fire!'' which being done, the straw and reed, cast
np both a great and sudden flame. In which this
good and blessed man kept his hands till the sinews
shrunk, and the fat dropped away, savin? that once he
as it were, wiped his face with one of them. All this
while, which was somewhat long, he cried with a loud
voice, " O Lord, receive my soul ; O Lord, receive my
spirit!" until he could not open his mouth. At last
the fire burned so vehemently against his legs, that thev
were consumed almost before the rest of his body was
burned, which made the whole body fall over the chain
into the fire sooner than it would have done. Thus died
this godly old man, Rawlins, for the testimony of God's '
truth, being now rewarded, no doubt, with the crown
of eternal life.
The sum of the irords sjmken hy Queen Man/ to certain 1 1
of the Councillors, March 28, ITifjo, touching the •'
restitution of Abbey Lands.
Before I pass over the month of March, I cannot but
leave a little memorandum of the words or consultation
of Queen Mary, to certain of the council on the 'iBth, .
about the restoring again of the abbey lands. After she' I
had called into her presence four of the privy council, "'
viz. William, lord marcpiess of Winchester, high trea-
surer of England ; Sir Robert Rochester, knight, the
cpieen's comptroller ; Sir William Peter, knight, secre-
tary ; Sir Francis Inglefield, knight, master of the
wards. Queen Mary said, " You are here of our council,
and we have desired you to be called to us that you
might hear of my conscience, and the resolution of my
mind, concerning the lands and possessions of monas-
teries, and of other churches now in my possession.
" First I consider, that the lands were taken away
from the churches in the time of schism, and by unlawful
means, such as are contrary both to the law of God and
of the church. For which cause my conscience does
not suffer me to detain them ; and therefore I here ex-
pressly refuse either to claim or to retain the lands, but
with all my heart freely and willingly, here and before
God I surrender and relinquish the lands and possessions,
or inheritances, and renounce them with this purpose,
that order and dis])osition thereof may be taken, as shall
seem best to our most holy lord the pope, or else his
legate, the lord cardinal, to the honour of God, and
wealth of this our realm.
" And although you may object, that considering the
state of my kingdom, and the dignity of it, my imperial
crown cannot be honourably maintained and furnished
without these possessions ; yet I set more by the salva-
tion of my soul, than by ten kingdoms ; and therefore
these possessions I utterly refuse here to hold, and give
most hearty thanks to Almighty God, who has given me
a husband like-minded, with no less good affection in this
behalf, than I am myself.
" Wherefore I charge and command, that my chan-
cellor (with whom I have conferred my mind in this
matter before) and you four, to-morrow, together resort
to the most reverend lord legate, and signify to him this
matter in my name, and give your attendance upon him
for the more full declaration of the state of my kingdom,
and of these possessions, as you yourselves understand
the matter, and can inform him in the same."
This intimation being given by the queen, first to the
councillors, and then to the cardinal, he drawing out a
copy in Latin, sent it to the pope : which copy coming
afterwards to my hand, I have thus translated into Eng-
lish.
In the preceding month, the bishop of Ely, with the
lord Montacute and one hundred and forty horse, were
sent as ambassadors from the king and queen to the
pope of Rome. For what cause is not expressed ; but
it maybe supposed to be about the abbey lands, as by the
sequel may appear.
It was not long after that the pope set forth ia
print a bull of excommunication for all such persons,
without exception, as kept any of the church or abbey
lands, by virtue of which bull, the pope excommunicated
not only those who had any of the church or abbey lands,
but also all princes, bishops, and noblemen, justices of
'14
A.D. 1555.]
PERSECUTION OF GEORGE MARSH AND OTHERS.
749
peace and others in office, who had not, or did not, forth-
with put the same bull in execution. Although this ex-
ecution (God be thanked), to this day was never put in
practice.
Here again is to be observed another popish device,
not unworthy of being noted. For where the papists may
overmaster by force, they spare no cost. This well ap-
peared, and still appears in burning the poor patient
christians, who, because they are destitute of power and
strength to resist them, and content with patience to re-
ceive whatever is put upon them, there they play the
lion, and make no end of burning and persecuting. But
where they find themselves to be overmatched, or fear to
receive a defeat in presuming too far, there they keep in,
and can stay the execution of their laws and bulls, be
they never so apostolical, till they perceive a convenient
time for their purpose, as in this case.
For notwithstanding that the pope's bull came with
full authority for the restitution of the abbey lands, and
thundered out his most terrible excommunication, not
only against them who detained any such lands, but also
against all others who did not see the pope's command-
ment executed ; yet neither Winchester, nor any of the
pope's clergy, would greatly stir in that matter, per-
ceiving the nobility to be too strong for them ; and
therefore they were contented to let the matter fall, or
at least to stay till circumstances might better serve
them.
Yea, and under a crafty pretence, that the nobility
and men of landed property at the first coming out of the
bull should not be exasperated too much against them,
they subtlely abused the pulpits, and dissembled with the
people, affirming that the pope's bull, set forth in print
for the restitution of abbey lands, was not meant for
■ England, but for other foreign countries! but that the
imeaiiing of that bull was only for England, and no coun-
ti-y else, is evident, both by the above intimation
lof queen Mary, as well as by many other causes, so that
lit is easy to understand what the purpose of those men
■was, if the time had served them.
{ John Awcoek.
I In the beginning of April, John Awcoek died in pri-
son : he was buried in the fields, as the manner of the pa-
tpists was to deny their christian burial to such as died
lout of their popish antichristian church.
I On the first day of April, 1555, a letter was sent to
jthe sheriff of Kent, to apprehend Thomas Wodgat and
iWilliam Maynard, for preaching secretly.
On the 7th, another letter was sent to the sheriff
for the apprehension of one Harwick, who went about
with a boy with him, preaching from place to place.
On the 15th a letter was directed to Sir Nicolas Hare
and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, desiring them to examine
Master Flower, alias Branch, as to what he meant by
wearing about his neck the words, "fear God, flee idols,''
praying them also to speak to Bonner, Bishop of Lon-
;ion, to proceed against him for his religion, and that the
Justice of peace of ixliddlesex should likewise proceed
Against him for shedding blood in the church, so that if
he continued in his opinion, he might be executed by
:he latter end of this week, and that his right hand, the
(lay before his execution, or the same day, should be
Stricken off.
I On the '22d there was a letter sent to the justices of
teace of Middlesex, with a writ for the execution of
Flower, commanding them to see his hand stricken
bff before he was burnt.
j On the 29th, Master Robert Horneby, a servant to
the lady Elizabeth, was brought before the council for
ills religion ; and standing constantly to the truth not-
Withstanding their threats and other persuasions, was
committed to the Marshalsea.
I
4» account of the Life, Examination and Burning of
George Marsh.
George Marsh was burnt in the parish of Deane, in
lie county of Lancaster. He was well brought up in
learning and trade, by his parents, and afterwards,
about tlie 2.")th year of his age, married a young woman
belonging to tlie county, with whom he lived for many
years, u})on a farm, and had several children. But on
the death of his wife, he went into the University of
Cambridge, where he studied and increased greatly in
It-ariiing and godly virtues, and became a minister of
God's lioly word and sacraments, and for a wliih? was
curate to Lawrence Sanders. In which condition of
life he continued for a time, earnestly setting forth God's
true religion, to the overthrowing of antichrist's false
doctrine, by his godly readings and sermons, both there
and in the parish of Dea!\e, and elsewhere, in Lan-
cashire.
At length he was apprehended by his adversaries, and
kept in prison, by the bishop of Chester, four months,
not being permitted to have relief and comfort of his
friends ; but charge being given unto the porter, to
mark who they weie that asked for him, and to signify
their names to the bishop, as appears by an account
written by himself, as foUovvs :
The Handling, Inlrealing, and Examination of George
Marsh.
" On the Monday before Palm Sunday, which was the
12th day of March, it was told me at my mother's house,
that Roger Wrinstone, with others of Master Barton's
servants, did make diligent search for me in Bolton, and
when they perceived that I was not there, they gave
strict charge to Robert Ward and Robert Marsh, to find
and bring me to Master Barton on the following day,
with others, to be brought before the honourable earl of
Derby, there to be examined in matters of religion, &c.
" 1 knowing this, by means of several of my friends,
was variously alfected ; my mother, and others of my
friends advising me to fly, aiid to avoid the peril as I had
intended to do after a week then next ensuing, if this in
the meanwhile had not happened ; seeing that if I were
taken, and would not recant in matters of religion (as
they thought I would not, and as, God strengthening
and assisting me with his Holy Spirit, I never will) it
woidd not only have put them to great sorrow, heavi-
ness and los.'ies, with costs and charges, to their shame
and rebuke in this world, but also mine ownself, after
troubles and painful imprisonment, to shameful death.
" This considered, they advised me and counselled me
to depart and fly the country, as I had intended to have
done, if this had not happened. To whose counsel my
weak flesh would gladly have consented, but my spirit
did not fully agree ; thinking and saying thus to myself,
that if I fled, it would be thought, reported, and said,
that I did not only fly the country, and my nearest
and dearest friends, but much rather from Christ's
holy word, according as these years past I had with my
heart, or at least with mine outward living professed,
and with my mouth and word taught, according to the
small talent given me of the Lord. Being thus with
their counsel and advice, and the cogitations and coun-
sels of mine own mind drawn as it were divers ways,
1 went from my mother's house, saying, I would come
again at evening.
" In the meantime I ceased not by earnest prayer to
ask and seek counsel of God (who is the Giver of all
good gifts) and of others of my friends, whose godly
judgments and knowledge I much trusted unto. After
this, I met with one of my said friends on Deane Moor,
about sunset, and after we had consulted together of my
business, not without hearty prayer, kneeling on our
knees, we departed ; I not fully determining what to do,
but taking my leave of my friend, said, I doubted not
but God (according as our prayer and trust was) would
give me such wisdom and counsel, as should be most to
his honour and glory, the profit of my neighbours and
brethren in the world, and obtaining of mine eternal
salvation by Christ in heaven.
" This done, 1 returned to my mother s house again,
where several of Master Barton's servants had been
seeking me ; who, when they could not find me, straitly
charged my brother and William Marsh to seek me thaw
fiO
THE PERSECUTION OF GEORGE MARSH.
[Book XI.
night, and to bring me to Smithy-hills the next day ; who
being so charged, were gone to seek me in Adderton,
or elsewhere. I intended before to have been all
night with my mother, but then considering that my
tarrying there would disquiet her, I departed, and went
beyond Deane church, and there tarried all night with an
old friend.
" At my first awaking, one came to me from a faith-
ful friend of mine with letters, which I never read nor
yet looked on, who .^aid this : my friend's advice was,
that I should in nowise fly, but abide and boldly con-
fess tlie faith of Jesus Christ. At whose words I was so
confirmed and established in my conscience, that from
thenceforth I consulted no more, whether it were better
to fly or to tarry ; but was at a point with myself, that I
would not fly, but go to Master Barton who sought
for me, and there present myself, and patiently bear
such cross as it should please God to lay upon my "shoul-
ders. Whereupon my mind and conscience before being
much disquieted and troubled, was now merry and in
quiet estate.
" So betimes in the morning I arose, and after I had
said the English Litany (as my custom was) with other
prayers, kneeling on my knees by my friend's bed-side,
I prepared myself to go towards Smithy-hills: and as I
was going there, I went into the houses of Henry Wid-
dowes, of my mother-in-law, of Ralph Yeton, and of the
wife of Thomas Richardson, desiring them to pray for
me, and have me commended to all my friends, and to
comfort my mother, and to be good to my little children ;
for, as I supposed, they should not see my face any
more before the last day, and so took my leave of them,
not without tears shed on both parts, and came to
Suiithy-hills about nine of the clock, and presented my-
sslf before Master Barton.
" He charged my brother and William Marsh to bring
and deliver me the next day by ten of the clock, before
the earl or his counsel.
" So we went to my mother's, and there praying, I
took my leave of my mother, the wife of Richard Marsh,
and both their households, they and I both weeping, and
so I departed from them, and came to Lathum early
next day.
" Then I was called to my lord and his council, and
brought into the chamber of presence, where was pre-
sent Sir William Nores, Sir Pierce Alee, Master Sher-
burn, the parson of Grapnal, Master More, with others.
My lord turned himself toward me, and asked what was
my name ; I answered. Marsh.
" Then he asked whether I was one of those that
sowed evil seed and dissension amongst the people.
Which I denied, desiring to know mine accusers, and
what could be laid against me.
" Then, said he, he would with his council examine
me themselves, and asked me whether I was a priest ; I
said, no. Then he asked me, what had been my living.
I answered I was a minister, served a cure, and taught a
school. Then said my lord to his council, this is a won-
derful thing. He said he was no priest, and now he
confesseth himself to be one. I answered, that ' by the
laws now used in this realm (as far as I do know) I am
none.'
" Then they asked me who gave me orders, or whe-
ther I had taken any at all. I answered, I received
orders of the bishop of London and Lincoln.
" They asked me how long I had been a curate, and
whether I had ministered with a good conscience. I
answered, that I had been a curate but one year, and
had ministered with a good conscience, I thanked God,
and if the laws of the realm would have suffered me, I
would have ministered still ; and if the laws at any
time hereafter would sufl'er me to minister after that
sort, I would minister again.
" At this they murmured, and the parson of Grapnal
said, this last communion was the most devilish thing that
ever was devised ! Then they asked me what my belief
was.
" I answered, I believed in God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, according as the scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments do teach, and according as the
four symbols or creeds do teach ; that is to wit, the
creed commonly called the Apostles' creed, the creed of
the Nicene council, the creed of Athanasius, and of
Austin, and Ambrose.
" And after a few words, the parson of Grapnal said
' But wliat is thy belief in the sacrament of the altar."
" I answered, ' I believed that whoever, according to
Christ's institution, did receive the holy sacrament of
Christ's body and blood, did eat and drink Christ's body
and blood with all the benefits of his death and resurrec-
tion to their eternal salvation ; for Christ,' said I, ' is
ever present with his sacrament.'
" Then they asked me, whether the bread and wine,
by virtue of the words pronounced by the priest, were
changed into the flesh and blood of Christ, and that the
sacrament, whether it were received or reserved, was the
very body of Christ .'
" I. made answer, ' I knew no further than I had
showed already. For my knowledge is imperfect,' said
I, ' desiring them not to ask me such hard and unpro-
fitable questions, by which to bring my body into danger
of death, and to suck my blood. At this they were not i
a little offended, saying, they were no blood-suckers,
and intended nothing to me but to make me a good
christian.
" So after many other questions, which I avoided as
well as I could, remembering the saying of St. Paul, ' fool-
ish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing they do but
gender strife,' my lord commanded me to come to the
board, and gave me pen and ink in my hand, and com-
manded me to write mine answers to the questions of
the sacrament : and I wrote as I had answered before.
At which he being much offended, commanded me to
write a more direct answer, saying, I should not choose
but do it.
" Then I took the pen and wrote, that I knew not
more. At this he, being sore grieved, after many tl.reat-
enings, said, I should be put to shameful death like a
traitor, with such like words ; and sometimes giving me
fair words, if I would turn and be conformable, how
glad he would be.
" In conclusion, after much ado, he commanded me
to prison in a cold, windy, stone-house, where there
was little room ; where I lay two nights without any
bed, saving a few canvass tent-clothes, and a pair of
sheets, but no woollen clothes, and so continued till
Palm Sunday, occupying m)'self as well as I could in
meditation, prayer, and study ; for no man was suffered
to come to me but my keeper, who came twice a-day,
when he brought me meat and drink.
" On Palm Sunday I was sent for to appear before my (
lord and his council, amongst whom was Sir John Be- '
ram, and the vicar of Prescot. So they examined me
again about the sacrament. And after I had communed
apart v/ith the vicar of Prescot concerning that matter, he
returned to my lord and his council, saying, that the an-
swer which I had made before, and then did make, was suf-
ficient for a beginner, and as one who did not profess a
perfect knowledge in that matter, until such time as I
had learned further. With this the Earl was very well
pleased, saying, he doubted not but by the means and
help of the vicar of Prescot I would be conformable in
other things. So after many fair words he commanded
I should have a bed, with fire, and liberty to go amongst jt
his servants, so that I would do no harm amongst them. M
"And so after much other communication I departed, '*
much more troubled in my spirit than before, because I
had not with more boldness confessed Christ, but had
done so in such a manner as that my adversaries thought
they should prevail against me; I was therefore much
grieved, and I cried more earnestly to God by prayer,
desiring him to strengthen me with his Holy Spirit with
boldness to confess him ; and to deliver me from their
enticing words, that I might not be spoiled through
their philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ.
" And so after a day or two I was sent for to the vicar
of Prescot and the parson of Grapnal ; where our com-
munication was concerning the mass : and he asked
A.D. 15o5.j
THE PERSECUTION OF GEORGE MARSH.
751
what offended me in the mass. I answered, the whole
mass offended me, first, because it was in a strange
languaa:e, whereby the people were not edified, contrary
to St. Paul's doctrine, in 1 Corinth, xiv., and because
of the manifold and intolerable abuses and errors con-
tained in it, contrary to Christ's priesthood and sacri-
fice. 1 also named some parts, which they went about
with gentle and far-sought interpretations to mitigate,
saying those were understood far otherwise than the
words purported, or than I took them. 1 answered, I
understood them as they purported, and as their own
books commented upon them.
" They said sacrifice or oblation did not in the mass
signify any thing else, than either a sacrince of praise and
thanksgiving, or else a memorial of a sacrifice or obla-
tion. So they caused a mass-book to be sent for, and
shewed me wherein some places of the mass was writ-
ten ' a sacrifice of praise.' I answered, that it followed
not from that, that in all places it signified a sacrifice
or oblation of praise or thanksgiving ; and although it
did, yet a sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving was not
to be offered for the sins of the people, for that Christ
by his own passion once offered on the cross : whereas
the words of the mass were, that the priest did offer an
oblation and sacrifice for the sins and oflences both of
himself and of the people ; for the dead, and for the sal-
vation of the living.
"After much exhortation to me that I should be con-
formable to the true cathohc church, which, as they meant
was the Romish church, I departed, not consenting to
them.
"Within a day or two after came Master More,
bringing with him certain articles to which Doctor
Crome had subscribed in the days of king Henry YIIL,
and asked me whether I would consent and subscribe to
those articles. I confessed plainly I would in nowise
consent and subscribe to those articles; and so he de-
parted,
" Shortly after the parson and vicar sent for me again,
saying, if I would not consent and subscribe, I must go
to prison. Those articles were as follows : —
" 1. Whether the mass now used in the church of
England was according to Christ's institution, and
with faith, reverence, and devotion to be heard and
seen .'
" 2, WTiether the Almighty, by the words pronounced
by the priest, did change the bread and wine after the
words of consecration, into the body and blood of Christ,
whether it were received or reserved ?
" 3. Whether the lay people ought to receive under
the form of bread only, and that the one kind was suffi-
cient for them .'
"4. Whether confession to the priest now used in
England were godly and necessary ?
" These four questions or articles they delivered to
me in writing, and bade me go to my chamber and sub-
scribe my answers with my own hand, and come again.
So within half an hour I came to' them again, and de-
livered them the questions with my answers. The first
I denied. The second I answered, as I did before. To
the third I answered, that the lay people, by Christ's
institution ought to receive under both kinds, and that
it suffices not to receive under the one kind only. To
the fourth I replied, that though auricular confession
were a convenient means to instruct the rude people,
yet it was not necessary nor commanded by God.
" They urgently exhorted me then to leave my opi-
nions, saying, I was much deceived, understanding the
scriptures amiss, and counselled me to follow the
catholic church of Christ, and to do as others did. I
answered that my faith in Christ was derived from his
holy word, and that I neither could nor would deny,
alter, or change my belief for any living creature, desir-
ing them to speak to my lord, that during my life and
imprisonment my poor friends might be suffered to re-
lieve me with necessary things according to their power.
And so after exhorting me again to do and believe as the
church did, we departed.
" Upon one of the Easter holydays Master Sherburn
and Master More sent for me, and persuaded me to
leave mine opinions ; saying, all the bringers up and
favourers of that religion had evil luck, and were either
put to death or in prison, and were in danger of their
lives. Again, the favourers of the religion now used
had wondrous good luck and prosperity in all things :
with many other worldly reasons of man's wisdom ; but
as for the scriptures Master Sherburn confessed himself
entirely ignorant.
" I answered, that I believed and leaned only to the
scriptures, not judging things by prosperity or adversity ;
but they earnestly advised me to recant my opinions,
and not to be prevented by any worldly shame.
" I replied, that what I did, I did it not for avoid-
ing of any worldly shame, saying, my soul and life were
dearer to me than the avoiding of any worldly shame ;
neither yet did I it for any vain praise of the world, but
in the reverend fear of God.
" Then More questioned with me, about receiving the
sacrament under the one kind. 1 said, Christ's institu-
tion was plain, that all men should drink of the cup.
Then he told me of the 2Jth chapter of Luke, and the
20th chapter of the Acts, where was mention of breaking
bre d only ; from which he gathered, that they received
the sacrament under one kind onlv.
"That I denied, saying, those places either did not
speak of the celebration of the Lord's supper, or else
under the name breaking of bread was signified and meant
the receiving of the sacrament, both of the body and blood
of Christ, according to his institution. So after much com-
munication on this subject, Sherburn said, it was a great
pity, that I, being a well-favoured young man, and one
that might have good living and do good, would so fool-
ishly cast myself away, sticking so hard to such fooUsh
opinions.
" I answered as I had done to my lord and to his coun-
cil, that my life, mother, children, brethren, sisters, and
friends, with other delights of life, were as dear and
sweet to me as to any other man, and that I would be
as loath to lose them as another would, if I might hold
them with a good conscience, and without dishonouring
the cause of Christ ; and seeing I could not do that,
my trust was, that God would strengthen me with his
Holy Spirit to lose them all for his sake : ' for I take my-
self,' said I, ' as a sheep appointed to be slain, patiently
to suffer what cross it shall please my merciful Father
to lay on me.' And so, after I had requested them that
if I were committed to prison my friends might be suf-
fered to relieve me, they departed.'
Such is the account which Marsh himself gives under
his own hand of his troubles. He adds many other things,
among which is the following : —
" While I was in ward at Lathum, a number of per-
sons at sundry times came unto me. Some said to me
that all my companions had recanted, and were gone
home, whereas indeed that was not so ; for I saw seve-
ral of them afterwards. Others said, that it was re-
ported amongst my lord's household, that I had con-
sented and agreed in all things with my lord and his
council.
" While I was at Lancaster, many came to talk with
me, some of good will towards me, but being without
knowledge gave me such counsel as Peter gave Christ as
he went up to Jerusalem, when he took him aside and
began to rebuke him, saying, ' Lord, this shall not be
ui\to thee.' But I answered with Christ's sharp answer
unto Peter again ; who turned about, and said unto
Peter, ' Get thee behind me, Satan :' and perceiving thac
they were an hindrance to me, and that they savoured
not the things which are of God, but the things that are
of men, I made them a plain answer, that I neither
could nor would follow their counsel ; but that by God's
grace I would both live and die with a pure conscience,
according as hitherto I had believed and professed.
For we ought in nowise to flatter and bear with those,
though they love us ever so well, who go about to turn
us away from the obedience that we owe to God and to
his word, but after Christ's example sharply to rebuke
them for their counsel.
" Some others, yea, even strangers also came to me,
far unlike these, who, after sober communication, con-
3 c
r52
THE MARTYRDOM OF GEORGE MARSH.
[Book XT,
rented with me in all things, lamenting much my trou-
bles, givinj; me comfortable words, and some money
too, and resorted to me often, for the space of two,
three, or four days. There came also many priests to
me, by two, tliree, four, five, or six at once, whose
mouths it was easy enough to stop ; for the priests
(which is much to be lamented) are not always the great-
est clerks, and best learned in the law of God. At
their departing they either consented with me, or else
had notliing to say against me, saying they could find no
fault witli my words. My communication with them was
about the sacrament. There came also into the prison
to me Master Westby, Master Ashtou of Hill, Master
Ashton, of Chatterton, and many more, both gentlemen
and others, to my great comfort ; to whom I had good
opportunity to utter a great part of my consenence ; for
God so strengthened me with his spirit of boldness, ac-
cording to my humble request and prayer (everlasting
thanks be given to him) that I was not afraid to
speak to any that came to me ; no, not even to judges
themselves, before whom 1 was thrice arraigned at the
bar, amongst thieves, with irons on my feet ; but yet
with boldness 1 spake unto them so long as they would
suffer me.
" They also sent for me the fourth time into their
chamber, where, amongst other things, they laid it
straightlyto my charge, that I had reported, that I knew
a whole mess of good gentlemen in Lancashire of mine
opinion, and straightly charged me, upon pain of alle-
giance to the queen's grace, to shew who they were.
But I denied that I had spoken any such thing (as it
■was indeed a false forged lie of some wicked wretches.)
After that, they threatened and rebuked me, for my
preaching to the people out of the prison, as they called
it, and for my praying and reading so loud, that the
people in the streets might hear. The truth is, I and
my fellow prisoner Warburton, every day on our knees,
did read morning and evening prayers, with the English
Litany every day twice, both before noon and after, with
other prayers ; we also read every day certain chapters
of the Bible, commonly towards night ; and we read with
such a loud voice, that the people without in the streets
might hear us, and would often in the evenings, come
and sit down in our sight under the windows and hear
us read."
After this, Marsh was several times brought before
Dr. Cotes, the bishop, and examined ; he answered to
every article very modestly, according to the doctrine
received by public authority, and taught in this realm at
the death of King Edward. After this, he was returned
to his prison again.
At last, after some weeks, the bishop and others be-
ing assembled in the chapel. Marsh was brought by the
keeper and others with bills and weapons before them ;
when the chancellor, by way of an oration, declared to
the people present the bishop's concern and charity, who
as a good shepherd watches over his flock, to see that
none of his sheep have any disease for infecting other
clean sheep, but will save and cure the diseased sheep :
so his lordship had sent for Marsh as a diseased sheep,
and had weeded him out for corrupting others, and had
done what he could in showing his charitable disposition
towards him, to reduce him from his naughty heresies ;
but all that he could do would not avail : so that he was
now determined, if Marsh would not relent and abjure,
to pronounce and give sentence definitive against him.
Wherefore he bade George Marsh to be now well ad-
vised what he would do, for it stood ujion his life : and
if he would not at that present time forsake his here-
tical opinions, it would be (after the sentence given) too
late.
Then the chancellor read all his former answers that
he made at his former examination, and at every one he
asked him, whether he would stick to the same or not?
To which he answered again, 'Yea, yea.'
" How say ye then to this ?" said the chancellor.
" In your last examination, amongst many other damn-
able and schismatical heresies you said, that the church
and doctrine taught and set forth ia king Edward's
time, was tie true church, and the doctrine of the true
church, and that the church of Rome is not the true and
catholic church.'"'
"I said so, indeed," re; lied Marsh, "and I believe it
to be true." Here also others took occasion to ask
him, as he denied the bishop of Rome's authority in
England, whether Linus, Anacletus, and Clement, w^ho
were bishops of Rome, were not good men, and he an-
swered, " Yes, and some others ; but they claimed no
more authority in England, than the bishop of Canter-
bury docs at Rome ; and I strive not with the place,
neither speak I against the person of the bishop, but
against his doctrine, which in most jioints is repugnant
to the doctrine of Christ."
" Thou art an arrogant fellow, indeed," said the bi-
shop. " In what article is the doctrine of the church
of Rome repugnant to the doctrine of Christ .'"'
George Marsh answered and said, " Oh, my lord, I
pray you judge not so of me : I stand now upon the
point of my life and death ; and a man in my case has
no cause to be arrogant, neither am I, God is my record.
And as concerning the disagreement of the doctrine,
among many other things the church of Rome errs in the
sacrament. For Clirist in the institution delivered the
cup as well as the bread, saying, ' Drink ye all of this,'
and Mark reports, that they drank of it : in like manner
St. Paul delivered it to the Corinthians. And in the
same way also, it was used in the primitive church for
tlie space of many hundred years. Now tlie church of
Rome takes away one part of the sacrament from the
laity. Wherefore, if I could be persuaded in my con-
science by God's word that it were well done, 1 could
gladly yield in this point.
Then said the bishop, " There is no disputing with an
heretic." And therefore when all his answers were
read, he asked him whether he would stand to them, or
forsake them.
He said, " That he held no heretical opinions, but ut-
terly abhorred all kind of heresy, although they so un-
truly slandered him." And he desired all the people
present to bear witness that in all articles of religion he
held no other opinion than was by law established, and
publicly taught in England at the death of king Edward
VL, and that in the same jiure religion and doctrine he
would, by God's grace, live and die.
The bishop then took a writing out of his bosom, and
began to read the sentence of condemnation ; but when
he had read almost half of it, the chancellor said, " Good,
my lord, stay, stay ; for if ye proceed any farther, it will
be too late to recal it," so the bishop stayed. Tlien his
popish priests, and others of the ignorant people, called
upon Marsh to recant. They bade him kneel down and
pray, and they would pray for him. So they knelt
down, and he desired them to pray for him, and said
that he would pray for them.
The bishop then asked him again, whether he would
not accept the queen|s mercy in time ; he answered,
"he loved her grace as faithfully as any of them ; but
yet he durst not deny his Saviour Christ, so as to lose
his everlasting mercy, and so win everlasting deatli."
Then the bishop put his spectacles upon his nose, and
read his sentence about five or six lines, and there again
the chancellor, with a smiling countenance, called to the
bishop, and said, " Yet good, my lord, once again stop,
for if that word is spoken, all is past, no relenting will
then serve:" and the bishop, pulling off his spectacles,
said, " I would stay, if it might be."
" How sayest thou," said he, "wilt thou recant.'"
Many of the priests and poor people urged him to do so,
and call to God for grace ; and pulled him by the sleeve,
and bade him recant and save his life. He answered
again, " I would as fain live as you, if in so doing I
should not deny my master Christ, and he deny me be-
fore his Father in heaven.''
So the bishop read out his sentence to the end, and said,
" Now would 1 no more pray for thee, than I would for
a dog." And Marsh answered, that notwithstanding
he would pray for his lordship. And after this the bi«
shop delivered him to the sheriffs.
Being in a dungeon or dark prison, no friend was
Ulitrtijriiom of Parslj.
I'jise 7.53.
A.D. 1555.]
LETTERS EXHORTATORY OF GEORGE MARSH.
753
allowed to speak with him ; aad some of the citizens
who loved him for the gospel's sake, would in the even-
ing, througfh a hole in the wall of the city belonging to
the prison, call to him, and ask him how he did. He
would answer them most cheerfully, that he did well,
and thanked God for vouchsafing his mercy to ajjpoint
liim to be a witness of his truth, and to suffer for the
same, whereat he rejoiced ; beseeching him that he would
give him grace not to faint under the cross, but pa-
tiently bear it to his glory and the comfort of his
churcli : with many other godly sayings, as one that
desired to be with Christ.
When the time appointed came that he was to suffer,
the sheriffs of the city brought out Marsh, who came
with them most humbly and meekly, with a lock upon
his feet. And as he came towards the place of execu-
tion, some folks protTered him money, and expected that
he should have gone with a little purse in his hand, as the
custom of felons was in that city in times past, at their
going to execution, to give to a priest to s:iy trentals or
masses for them after their death, by which they might,
as they thought, be saved. But Marsh said he would
not then be troubled with money, but desired some good
man to take the money, if the people were disposed to
give any, and to give it to the prisoners or poor people.
So he went all the way to his death with his book in his
hand, looking upon it : and many of the people said,
" This man goes not to his death as a thief or one who
deserves to die."
When he came to the place of execution without the
city, near to Spittle-boughton, one Cawdrey, the deputy
Chamberlain of Chester, shewed jNIarsh a writing under
a great seal, saying, that it was a pardon for him if he
would recant. Marsh answered, that he would gladly
accept it, and said farther, that he loved the queen, but
as it tended to pluck him from God, he would not re-
ceive it upon that condition.
After that he began to speak to the people, shewing
the cause of his death, and would have exhorted them to
hold fast to Christ. One of the sheriffs said, " We must
have no sermoning now." To whom he said, " Master,
I cry you mercy ;'' and so kneeling down made his
prayers, and then put off his clothes to his shirt, and be-
ing chained to the post, having a number of fagots
under him, and a thing made like a firkin, with pitch
and tar in it over his head. The fire was unskilfully
made, so that he suffered great extremity in his death,
but he endured it very patiently.
WTien he had been a long time tormented in the fire,
without moving, his flesh broiled and puffed up, so that
they who stood before him could not see the chain with
which he was fastened, and therefore supposed that he
had been dead, however he suddenly spread abroad his
arms, saying, " Father of heaven have mercy upon me,"
;and so yielded his spirit into the hands of the lord.
I Upon this, many of the people said that he was a mar-
Ityr, and died marvellously patient and godly ; which
icaused the bishop sliortly after to preach a sermon in
(the cathedral church, and he affirmed in it, that Marsh
jwas au heretic, burnt like an heretic, and was a fire-
brand in hell.
Letters of George Marsh.
This good man wrote sundry letters out of prison,
besides reports of his examinations. The first in order
Concerning his examinations is as follows : —
I " Here you have, dearly beloved friends in Christ, the
phief and principal articles of christian doctrine briefly
enumerated, which heretofore I have both believed, pro-
fessed, and taught, and yet do believe, profess, and
jteach, and am surely purposed by God's grace to con-
tinue in the same until the last day. I want both
time and opportunity to write out at large the proofs,
t:auses, parts, effects, and contraries or errors of these
Articles, which w-hoso desires to know, let them read
bver the comn.on- places of the godly learned men,
Philip Melancthon, Erasmus, and Sarcerius, whose judg-
nent in these matters of religion, I do chiefly follow and
ean to. The Lord give us understanding in all things,
ind deliver us from this present evil world, according to
his will and pleasure, and bring us again out of this hell
of affliction, into which it has pleased the merciful Lord
to throw us down ; and deliver us out of the mouth of
the lion, and from all evil doing, and keep us to his ever-
lasting and heavenly kingdom. Amen.
" Though Satan be suffered to sift us as wheat for a
time, yet our faith fails not through Christ's aid, but we
are at all times able and ready to confirm the faith of
our weak brethren, and always ready to give an answer
to every man that askt^th us a reason of the hope that is
in us, and that with meekness and reverence, having a
good conscience ; and when they backbite us as evil
doers, they should be ashamed, forasmuch as they have
falsely accused our good conversation in Christ. I
thought myself now of late years, for the cares of this
life, well settled with my loving and faithful wife and
children, and also well quieted in the peaceable pos-
session of that pleasant Euphrates ; I do confess it ;
but the Lord, who worketh all things for the best to
them that love him, would not there leave me, but took
my dear and beloved wife from me ; whose death was a
painful cross to my flesh.
" Also I thought myself now of late well placed under
my most loving and most gentle Master Lawrence San-
ders in the cure of Langton. But the Lord of his great
mercy would not suffer me long to continue there, al-
though for the small time I was in his vineyard, 1 was
not an idle workman. But he has provided me, I per-
ceive it, to taste of a far other cup ; for my violence
hath he yet once again driven me out of that glorious
Babylon, that I should not taste too much of her wanton
pleasures, but with his dearly beloved disciples have my
inward rejoicing in the cross of his S^n Jesus Christ ; the
glory of whose church, I see well, standeth not in the
harmonious sound of bells and organs, nor yet in the
ghstening of mitres and copes, neither in the shining of
gilt images and lights, as the blind papists judge it, but"
in continual labours and daily afflictions for his name's
sake.
" God at this present time in England hath his fan in
his hand, and after his great ftarvest, into which for
years past he has sent his labourers, is now sifting the
corn from the chaff, and purging his floor, and making
ready to gather the wheat into his garner, and burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire.
" Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Scribes
and of the Sadducees. I mean the erroneous doctrine
of the papists, who witli their glosses deprave the
scriptures. For as the apostle Peter teaches us, ' there
shall be false prophets also among the people, even as
there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruc-
tion. And many shall follow their pernicious ways ;
by reason of whom the way of trut'a shall be evil
spoken of ; and through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandize of you ;' and Christ ear-
nestly warns us, to beware of false prophets, who
come to us in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them.
The fruits of the prophets are their doctrine. In this place
are we christians taught, that we should try the preach-
ers, and others that come under colour to set forth true
religion unto us, according to the saying of St. Paul,
' Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.' Also
the evangelist St. John saith, ' Believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they are of God : because
many false prophets are gone out into the world.'
Therefore if thou wilt know the true prophets from the
false, try their doctrines by the true touchstone, which
is the word of God ; and as the godly Bereans did
'Search the scriptures daily,' whether those things
which are preached unto us be even so or :iot ; or else by
the outward conversation of them ye may be easily de-
ceived."
A Letter Exhortatory of George Marsh to the faithful
Professors of Langton.
" Grace be unto you, and peace be multiplied in the
knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
754
LETTERS EXHORTATORY OF GEORGE MARSH.
[Book XI.
" I thought it my duty to write to you, my beloved in
the Lord at Langton, to stir up your minds, and to call
to your remembrance the words which have been told you
before, and to exhort you (as that good man, and full of
the Holy Ghost, Barnabas did the Antiochians) that with
purpose of heart ye continually cleave unto the Lord,
and that ye stand fast, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, whereof, God be thanked, ye have
had plenteous preaching unto you by your late pastor.
Master Sanders, and other faithful ministers of Jesus
Christ, who now, when persecution ariseth because of
the word, do not fall away like shrinking children, and
forsake the truth, being ashamed of the gospel of which
they liave been preachers, but are willing and ready for
your sakes (who are Christ's mystical body) to forsake
not only the chief and principal delights of this life, —
I mean their native countries, friends, livings, &c. — but
also to fulfil their ministry to the utmost, that is, with
their painful imprisonments and blood sheddings, if need
6h;ill require, to confirm and seal Christ's gospel, where-
of tliey have been ministers; and, as St. Paul saith, they
are ready not only to be cast into prison, but also to be
killed for the name of the Lord Jesus.
" Whether these-, being that good salt of the earth, that
is, true ministers of God's word, by whose doctrine,
being received througli faith, men are made savoury unto
God, and who themselves lose not their saltness, now
when they are proved with the boisterous storms of ad-
versity and persecution ; or others being that unsavoury
salt which has lost its saltness, that is, those ungodly
ministers, who fall from the word of God into the dreams
and traditions of antichrist: whether of these, I say, is
more to be credited and believed, let all men judge,
" Wherefore, my dearly beloved, receive the word of
God with meekness, that is grafted in you, v.hich is able
to save your souls • And see that ye be not forgetful
hearers, deceiving yourselves with sophistry, but doers
of the word ; whom Christ likens to a wise man, who
builds his house on a rock, that wlien the great rain de-
scended, and the floods came, and beat upon the house,
it fell not, because it was founded upon a rock : that is,
that when Satan, with all his legion of devils, vnth all
their subtle suggestions, and the world, with all the
mighty princes thereof, with their crafty councils, do
furiously rage against us, we faint not, hut abide con-
stant in the truth, being grounded upon a most sure
rock, which is Christ, and the doctrine of the gospel,
against which the gates of hell, that is, the power of Sa-
tan, cannot prevail.
" And be ye followers of Christ and his apostles, and re-
cei^e the word in much affliction, as the godly Thessa-
lon ans did: for the true followers of Christ and the
ap( sties, are they who receive the word of God. They
only receive the word of God, who both believe it, and
also frame their lives after it, and are ready to suffer all
manner of adversity for the name of the Lord, as Christ
and all the apostles did, and as all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus must do : for there is none other way into
the kingdom of heaven, but through much tribulation.
And if we suff'er any thing for the kingdom of heaven's
sake, and for righteousness sake, wc have the prophets,
Christ, the apostles, and martyrs, for an example to
comfort us: for they all entered into the kingdom of
heaven at the strait gate and narrow way tliat leadeth
unto life, which few do find. And unless we be content
to deny ourselves, and take up the cross of Christ, and
his saints, it is an evident argument, that we shall never
reign with him.
" And again. If we can find in our hearts patiently to
suffer persecution and tribulations, it is a sure token of
the righteous judgment of God, that we are counted
worthy of the kingdom of God, for whicli we also suffer.
As the apostle saith, ' Seei.ig it is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you:
and to you who are troubled rest with us, \vl)en the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels.' 2 Thes. i. 6, 7. For after this life, the godly
being delivered from their tribulations and pains, shall
have a most quiet and joyful rest : whereas the wicked
and ungodly contrariwise shall be tormented for ever-
more with intolerable and unspeakable pains, as Christ
by the parable of the rich glutton and the wretched La-
zarus, plainly declares and teaches. These we ought to
have before our eyes always, that in the time of adver-
sity and persecution (of which, all that are the children
of God shall be partakers, and with which it has pleased
God to put some of us in practice already) we may stand
steadfast in the Lord, and endure even to the end, that
we may be saved. For unless we, like good warriors of
Jesus Christ, will endeavour ourselves to please him,
who hath chosen us to be soldiers, and fight the good
fight of faith even unto the end, we shall not obtain
that crown of righteousness, which the Lord, who is
a righteous judge, shall give to all them that love his
coming.
" Let us therefore receive with meekness the word
that is grafted in us, which is able to save our souls, and
ground ourselves on the sure rock Christ. As the apos-
tle saith, ' For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build U])on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be made
manifest • for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he
hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any
man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he
himself shall be saved; yet so as by tire.' 1 Coi. ni.
11 — 15.
" By fire here, the apostle understands persecution
and trouble, for they who truly preach and profess the
word of God, which is called the word of the Cross,
shall be railed upon and abhorred, hated, thrust out of
company, persecuted and tried in the furnace of adver-
sity, as gold and silver are tried in the fire.
" By gold, silver, and precious stones, he under-
stands them that in the midst of persecution abide stead-
fast in the word. By timber, hay, and stubble, are
meant such, as in time of persecution fall away from the
truth. And when Christ purges his floor with the wind
of adversity, these scatter away from the face of the
earth like light chaff, which shall be burned with un-
quenchable fire. If they then who believe do in time of
persecution stand steadfast in the truth, the builder, (I
mean the preacher of the word) shall receive a reward,
and the work shall be preserved and saved : but if they
go back and swerve, when persecution arises, the builder
shall suffer loss, that is to say, shall lose his labour and
cost, but yet he shall be saved, if he, being tried in the
fire of persecution, abides fast in the faith.
" Wherefore, my beloved, give diligent heed, tliat ye
as living stones be builded upon this sure rock, and be
made a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to offer up
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ.
For we are the true temple of God, and the Spirit of God
dwclleth in us, if so be that we continue in the doctrine
of the gospel. We are also an holy and royal priest-
hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices and oblations ; for
the sacrifices of the New Testament are spiritual and of
three kinds.
" The first is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,
which St. Paul calls the fruits of those lips which con-
fess the name of God.
" The second is mercy towards our neighbour, as the
prophet Hosea saith, ' 1 will have mercy and not sacri-
fice.' Read 2r)th chap, of Matthew.
" The third is, when we make our body a living
sacrifice, holy and acce])table unto God, that is, when
we mortify and kill our fleshly concupiscences and
carnal lusts, and so bring our flesh, through the help of
the Spirit, under the obedience of God's holy law. This
is a sacrifice most acceptable to God, v^hich tlie a])ostle
calleth our reasonable serving of God. And let us be
sure, that unless we now at this present time take better
heed to ourselves, and use thankfully the grace of God
offered to us by the gospel preached these years past,
whereby we are induced and brought to the knowledge
of the truth ; un'ess, I say, we keep Christ and hisTioly
word dwelling by faith in the house and temple of our
hearts, the same thing that C Lrist threatens to the Jews
A.D. 1555.]
LETTERS EXIIORTATORY OF GEORGE MARSH.
755
slxall happen to us ; that is. the unclean spirit of isjno-
rance, superstition, idolatry, infidelity, and unbelief,
the mother and head of all vices, which by the graoe of
God was cast out of us, brine^ini^ with hiin seven other
spirits worse than himself, shall to our utter destruction
return again unto us : and so shall we be in worse case
than ever we were before. ' For,' says St. Peter, ' if
after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness, than, after tliey have known it, to
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
But it is happened unto them according to the true pro-
verb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and
the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.'
2 Pet. ii. 20—22.
" And thus to continue and persevere in infidelity, and
to kick against the manifest and known truth, and so to
die without repentance, and with a despair of the mercy
of God in Jesus Christ, is to sin against the Holy Ghost,
which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither
ill the world to come. ' For it is impossible,' saith St.
Paul, ' for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to corae, if they
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance :
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame.' Heb. vi. 4 — 6.
" St. Paul's meaning in this place is, that they that
believe truly and unfeignedly God's word, do continue
and abide steadfast in the known truth.
" If any therefore fall away from Christ and his word,
it is a plain token that they were but dissembling hypo-
crites for all their fair faces outwardly, and never believed
truly ; as Judas, Simon Magus, Demas, Ilymeneus,
Philetus, and others were, who all fell away fro'n the
truth, and made a mock of Christ : which St. Paul calls
here, to crucify Christ anew, because that they, turning
to their old vomit again, did most blasphemously tread
the benefits of Christ's death and passion under their
feet. They that are such can in no wise be renewed by
repentance : For their repentance is fleshly, as the re-
pentance of Cain, Saul, and Judas was, vphich being
without godly comfort, breedeth desperation unto death.
These are not of the number of the elect : and as St.
John doth say, ' They went out from us, but they were
not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us : but tliey went out, that
they might be made manifest, that they were not all
of us.' 1 John ii. 19. Also the apostle Paul saith, in
another place, ' For if we sin w'ilfully after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour
the adversaries.' Heb. x. 26, 27.
" They sin willingly, who of a set malice and purpose
do hold the truth in unrighteousness and lying, kick-
ing against the manifest and open known truth, who
although they do perfectly know that in all the world
there is none other sacrifice for sin, but only that all-
suluoieiit sacrifice of Christ's death : yet they will not
commit themselves wholly to it, but rather despise it,
allowing other sacrifices for sin, invented by the imagi-
nation of man (as we see by daily experience) to whom,
if they abide still in their wickedness and sin, remaineth
a most horrible and dreadful judgment. This is that
sin unto death, for which St. John would not that a man
should pray.
" Wherefore, my beloved in Christ, let us (on whom
the ends of the world are come) take diligent heed unto
ourselves, that now in these last and perilous times (in'
the which the devil is come down, and hath great wrath
because he knoweth his time is but short, and whereof
the prophets, Christ and the apostles have so much
spoken, and given us aa earnest forewarning) we
hold not the truth in unrighteousness, believing, do-
ing', or speaking any thing against our knowledge and
conscience, or without faith. For if we so do, for what-
ever cause it be, it is a wilful aiul obstinate infidelity
and a sin unto death : and as our Saviour Christ saith,
' If ye believe not, ye shall die in your own sins.' For
unless we hold fast the word of life, both believing it,
and also bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance, we
shall with the unprofitalile fig-tree, which did but cum-
ber the ground, be cut down, and our talent taken from
us, and given unto another that shall put it to a better
use : and we, through our own unthankfulness, put from
the mercy of God, shall never be able to pay our debts,
that is to say, we shall altogether be lost and undone.
For the earth that drinketh in rain that cometh oft upon
it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them that dress it,
receiveth blessing of God : but that ground that beareth
thorns and briars, is reproved, and is nigh unto cursing,
whose end is to be burned.
" Nevertheless, dear friends, we trust to see better
things of you, and things which accompany salvation,
and that ye being the good ground, watered with the
moistness of God's word plenteously ])reached among you,
will with a good heart hear the word of God and keep it,
bringing forth fruit with patience. And be none of those
forgetful and hypocritical hearers, who although they
hear the word, yet the devil comoth, and catcheth away
that which was sown in their heart; either having no
root in themselves, endure but a season, and as soon aa
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word,
by and bye they are ofTeuded; or with the cares of
this world, and deceitfulness of riches choke the word,
and so are unfruitful. Read the parable of the sower,
and amongst other things note and mark, that most part
of the hearers of God's word are but hypocrites, and hear
the word without any fruit or jjrofit, yea, only to their
greater condemnation ; for only the fourth part of the
seed brings forth fruit. Therefore let not us that are
ministers, or professors, and followers of God's word, be
discouraged, though very few do give credit, and follow
the doctrine of the gospel, and be saved.
" Whoever therefore has ears to hear, let him hear:
for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall
have abundance : but whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken away, even that he hath : that is to say,
they that have a desire of righteousness, and of the
truth, shall be more and more illuminated of God : oa
the contrary part, they that do not covet after righteous-
ness and truth, are more hardened and blinded, though
they seem unto themselves most wise. For God doth here
follow an example of a loving father, who when he
seeth that fatherly love and correction doth not help to-
wards his children, useth another way. He ceaseth to
be beneficial unto them, and to minister unto them
fatherly correction: he giveth them over unto themselves
suffering them to live as they themselves please.
" But we trust to see better things of you, my dearly
beloved, and that ye, like very Gadarenes, for fear to lose
your worldly substance or other delights of this life, will
not banish away Christ and his gospel from among you;
but that ye with all diligence of mind will receive the
word of God, taught you by such ministers, as now when
persecution arises because of the word, are not ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord Jesus, but are content to
suffer adversity with the gospel, and therein to suffer
trouble as evil doers, even unto bonds. And if ye refuse
thus to do, your own blood will be uyion your own heads.
And as ye have had plenteous jireaching of the gospel,
more than others have had : so ye shall be sure, if ye re-
pent not and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, to
be sorer plagued, and to receive greater vengeance at
God's hand, than others, and the kingdom of God shall
be taken from you, and be given to another nation which
will bring forth the fruits thereof.
" Wherefore, my dearly beloved in Christ, take good
heed to yourselves, and ponder weU in your minds, how
fearful and horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of
the living God. And see that ye receive not the word
of God in vain, but continually labour in faith, and de-
clare your faith by your good works, which are infallible
witnesses of the true justifying faith, which is never idle,
but worketh by ciiarity. ind see that ye continually
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST "WILLIAM FLOWER.
I"EooK XL
give yourselves unto all manner of good works : Amongst
which, the chiefest are, to be obedient to the magistrates
(since they are the ordinance of God, whether they be
good or evil) unless they command idolatry and ungod-
liness, i. e. things contrary to true religion. For, then
ought we to sav with St. Peter, ' We ought to obey God
rather than nian.' But in any wise we must beware of
tumult, insurrection, rebellion, or resistance.
" The weapon of a christian in this matter, ought to
be the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word, and
yrayer, coupled with humility and due submission, and
with readiness of heart, rather to die than to do any
ungodliness. Christ also teaches us, that all power is
of God, yea, even the power of the wicked, whom God
causes oftentimes to reign for our sins and disobedience
towards him and his word. Whoever then resists any
power, resists the ordinance of God, and so purchases to
himself utter destruction and undoing.
" We must also by all means be promoters of unity,
peace, and concord. We must honour and reverence
princes, and all that be in authority, and pray for them,
and be diligent to set forth their profit and commodity.
" Secondly, we must obey our parents, or them that are
in their rooms, and be careful for our households, thatthey
be provided for and fed, not only with bodily food, but
much more with spiritual food, which is the word of God.
" Tliirdly, we must serve our neighbours by all
means we can, remembering well the saying of Christ,
' Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
do ye likewise unto them, for this is the law and the
propliets.'
" Fourthly, we must diligently exercise the necessary
work of prayer for all estates, knowing that God there-
fore hath so much commanded it, and hath made so
great promises unto it, and doth so well accept it.
After these works, we must learn to know the cross,
and what affection and mind we must bear towards our
adversaries and enemies, whatever they be, to suifer all
adversities and evils patiently, to pray for them that
hurt, persecute, and trouble us ; and by thus ordering
ourselves, we shall obtain a nope and certainty of our
vocation, that we be the elect children of God.
" And thus I commend you, brethren, unto God, and
to the word of liis grace, which is able to build you up,
and to give you an inheritance among all them whicii are
sanctified, beseeching you to help Master Sanders and
me, your late pastors, and all them that are in bonds
tor the gospel's sake, with your prayers to God for us,
that we may be delivered from all them that believe
not, and from unreasonable and froward men, and that
this our imprisonment and affliction may be to the
glory and profit of our christian brethren in the world,
and that Christ may be magnified in our bodies,
whether it be by death or by life. Amen.
" Salute from me all the faithful brethren ; and be-
cause I write not several letters to them, let them either
read or hear these my letters. The grace of our Lord be
■with you all. Amen. The 28th of June, by the unpro-
fitable servant of Jesus Christ, and now also his
prisoner, " George Marsh."
" Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Pray, pray, pray : never more need."
A Prayer of George Marsh, which he used to say daily.
" O Lord Jesus Christ, who art the only physician of
wounded consciences, we miserable sinners trusting in
thy gracious goodness, do briefly open to thee the evil
tree of our heart, with all the roots, boughs, leaves, and
fruits, and with all the crooks, and knots, all which thou
knowest ; for thou thoroughly perceivest as well the in-
ward lusts, doubtings, and denying thy providence, as
those gross outward sins which we commit inwardly and
deadly. Wherefore we beseech thee, according to the
little measure of our infirmity, although we are far un-
able and unapt to pray, that thou wouldest mercifully
circumcise our stony hearts, and for these old hearts
create new ones within us, and replenish us with a new
epirit, and water us, and moisten us with the juice of
tjieavenly grace, and weils of spiritual waters, whereby
the inward venom and noisome juice of the flesli may
be dried up, and the custom of the old man clianged,
and that our hearts, always bringing forth thorns and
briars to be burned with fire, from henceforth may bear
spiritual fruits in righteousness and holiness, unto life
everlasting. Amen."
The Life and History of William Flover, who, heing
apprehended for strikiny a priest, Jirst had his hand
cut off, and was afterwards martyred.
William Flower, otherwise named Branch, was born
at Snowhill, in the county of Cambridge, and then came
to the abbey of Ely, where he was a professed monk,
bearing'the habit of a monk, and observing the rules and
order of the house, until he came to one-and-twenty
years of age : before he came to that age, he was made
a priest also in the house, and there celebrated mass.
After that, he forsook the house, and casting from him
the monk's habit and religion, took upon him and
used the habit of a secular priest, and returned to
Snowhill, where he was born ; and there he celebrated
mass, and taught children for about half a year.
After some time, he moved to other places, and at
last to Gloucestershire, where after he had made his
abode in the country a while, he at length in Tewkesbury,
according to God's holy ordinance, married a wife, with
whom he ever after faithfully and honestly continued.
After this he settled in London, and on Easter he came
over the water from Lambeth to St. Margaret's church
at Westminster, where seeing a priest ministering and
giving the sacrament of the altar to the people, and be-
ing greatly offended in his conscience with the priest for
his doing so, struck and wounded him upon the head,
and also upon the arm and hand with his woodknife,
the priest having at the same time in his hand a chalice,
with some consecrated hosts, which were sprinkled with
the blood of the priest.
In so doing he acted neither well nor christian-like,
and therefore afterward, being examined before Bishop
Bonner, he confessed the same, submitting himself wil-
lingly to punishment. However, touching his belief in
the sacrament, and the popish ministration, he neither
would nor did submit himself ; but being examined be-
fore Rishop Bonner, the following articles were objected
against him :
Articles objected against William Branch, alias Flower.
" First, that thou being of a lawful age and discretion,
at the least of seventeen years old, wast professed a
monk in the late abbey of Ely, wherein after thy profes-
sion thou remainedst until the age of twenty-one years,
using all the meantime the habit and religion of the
same house, and wast reputed and taken notoriously for
such a person.
" Also, that afterwards thou wast ordained and made
priest, according to the laudable custom of the catholic
church, and afterward thou didst minister as a priest, and
wast commonly reputed, named, and taken for a priest.
" Also, that afterwards thou, forgetting God, thy
conscience, honesty, and the laudable order of the catho-
lic church, didst contrary to thy profession and vow,
take, as unto thy wife, one woman, commonly called
Alice Fulton, in the parish church of Tewkesbury in the
diocese of Gloucester.
" Also, that thou being a religious man and a priest,
didst contrary to the order of the ecclesiastical laws,
take upon thee to practise in divers places within the
diocese of London, physic and surgery, when thou wast
not admitted, expert, nor learned.
" Also, that upon Easter day last past, that is to
say, the fourteenth day of this present month of
April, within the jiarish church of St. Margaret's at
Westminster, within the county of Middlesex and dio-
cese of London, thou didst maliciously, outrageously,
and violently pull out thy weapon, that is, to wit, thy
woodknife or hanger. And whereas the priest and minis-
ter there, called John Chelton, was executing his cure
and charge, especially in doing his service, and minis-
tering the sacrament of the altar to communicants, then
didst thou wickedly and abominably smite with thy said
A.D. 1555.J
EXECUTION OF WILLIAM FLOWER.
757
weapon the said priest, first upon the head very sorely,
and afterwards upon his hands or other parts of his
body, drawing blood abundantly upon him, the said
priest then holding the said sacrament in his hand, and
givin" no occasion why thou shouldst so hurt him ; the
people being grievously offended therewith, and the said
church polluted thereby, so that the inhabitants were
compelled to repair to another church to communicate,
and to receive the said sacrament.
" Also, that by reason of the premises, thou wast and
art by the ecclesiastical laws of the church, amongst
other penalties, excommunicated and accursed, ipso
facto, and not to be associated with, neither in the
church, nor otherwise, but in special cases.
" Also, that thou, concerning the verity of Christ's
natural body and blood in the sacrament of the altar,
hast been by the space of these twenty years, and yet
art at this present time of this opinion ; that is to say,
that in the sacrament of the altar, after the words of
consecration, there is not really, truly, and in very deed
contained (under the forms of bread) the very true and
natural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
" Also, that thou for the hatred and disdain that thou
hadst and didst bear against the said sacrament, and the
virtue thereof, and against the said priest ministering
the same (as before) didst smite, wound, and hurt him
in manner and form as before is declared.
" Also, that thou, over and besides the pains due unto
tliee for the doing of that cruel act, art also by the order
of the ecclesiastical laws of the church, and the laudable
custom and ordinance of the same, to be reputed, taken,
and adjudged (as thou art indeed) a very heretic, and
to be punished by and with the pains due for heresy, by
reason of the said heresy and damnable opinion.
" Also, that all the premises are true, manifest, and
notorious, and famous, and that upon the same, and
every part thereof, there was and is within the said pa-
rish of St. Margaret's, and other places thereabout, a
public voice and fame."
After his examination, the bishop began with his fine
divinity to instruct him, and to exhort him to return
again to the unity of his mother the catholic church,
with such reasons as he commonly used to others, pro-
mising many fair things if he would do so, besides the
remitting of what was past.
William Flower thanked him for his offer : and where
it was in his power to kill or not to kill his body, he
was contented to let him do what he chose ; yet over his
soul he had no such power, which being once separated
from the body, is in the hands of no man, but only of
God either to save or destroy.
In the afternoon William Flower appeared again be-
fore the bishop. The bishop, sitting in his consistory,
spake these words : — " You were this forenoon here be-
fore me, and made answer to certain articles, and I re-
spited you till now, that you should consider and weigh
with yourself your state ; and remember, while you have
time, both your abominable act, and also that evil opi-
nion which ye have conceived touching the verity of
Christ's true natural body in the sacrament of the
altar."
He answered, " That which I have said, I will stand
to ; and therefore I require that the law may proceed
against me." Upon this, the bishop commanded his
notary again to read his articles ; which being read,
William Flower answered to all parts of the articles,
confessing, that whereiis he struck the priest on Easter
day last past, in St. Margaret's church in Westminster,
he has since that time, and yet does dislike himself in
that act, and does now judge and believe that the act
was evil and naughty.
On the twentieth of April, 1555, William Flower was
brought by the keeper of the Fleet, before Bonner, who,
after his wonted manner of persuasion, went about to
reduce him to his caiholic church, that is, from Christ
to antichrist ; sometimes with fair promises alluring,
sometimes with menaces and terrors frightening him.
To this Flower answering, said, " Do what you will, I
am determined • for the heavens shall as soon I'all. as I
will forsake mine opinion," &c. The bishop, after he
had commanded these words to be registered, called for
the depositions of certain witnesses, and thus speaking
to Flower, asked him if he knew any matter or cause
why his sentence should not be read, and he pronounced
as an heretic ? The martyr of God answered, " I have
nothing at all to say, for I have already said all that I
have to say ; and what I have said I will not go from :
and therefore do what you will."
When he had thus spoken, the bishop proceeded to
the sentence, condemning and excommunicating him for
an heretic, and afterwards pronounced him also to be
degraded, and so committed him to the secular power.
Upon the twenty-fourth day of April he was brought to
the place of martyrdom, which was in St. Margaret's
churchyard at Westminster, where the act was com-
mitted : and there coming to the stake, he made kis
prayer to Almighty God, with a confession of his chris*
tian faith.
A Prayer and Confession of William Flower.
" O eternal God, most mighty and merciful Father,
who has sent down thy Son upon the earth, to save me
and all mankind, who ascended up into heaven again,
and left his blood upon the earth behind him, for the
redemption of our sins, have mercy upon me, have
mercy upon me, for thy dear Son our Saviour Jesus
Christ's sake, in whom I confess only to be all salva-
tion and justification ; and that there is none other mean,
nor way, nor holiness, in which or by which any maa
can be saved in this world. This is my faith, which I
beseech aU men here to bear witness of."
Then he said the Lord's Prayer, and so made an
end.
His hand being held up against the stake, was striken
off, his left hand being stayed behind him. At the
striking off of his hand, some that were present observed
that he in no part of his body shrunk at the striking
thereof, but once a little he stirred his shoulders.
Then fire was set to him : as he burned, he cried with
a loud voice, " O Son of God have mercy upon me, O
Son of God receive my soul," three times ; and so he
spake no more, lifting up his stump with his other arm
as long as he could.
The Burning and Martyrdom of John Cardmaker and
John Wame.
Upon the thirtieth day of May suffered together ia
Smithfield John Cardmaker, otherwise called Taylor,
prebendary of the church of Wells ; and John Warne,
upholsterer, of the parish of St. John in Wallhrook.
Of whom it remains now to give an account, begin-
ning with Master Cardmaker, who was an observant
friar before the dissolution of the abbeys ; afterwards
was a married minister, and in King Edward's time ap-
pointed to be a reader in St. Paul's, where the papists
were so much aggrieved with him for his doctrine's
sake, that in his reading they cut and mangled his gown
with their knives. This Cardmaker being apprehended
in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, with Barlow
bishop of Bath, was brought to London, and laid in
prison in the Fleet, King Edward's laws yet being in
force. But after the parliament was ended, in which
the pope was again admitted as sujireme head of the
church, and the bishops had also gotten power and au-
thoritv, ejc-officio, to exercise their tyranny, these two
were brought before Winchester, and others appomted
by commission, to examine the faith of such as were
then prisoners. „ . ^u i „
To this they both made such answer, that the chan-
cellor with his fellow commissioners reported them as
cathohcs. Whether they in weakness so answered or
he in subtlety would so understand their answ-er, that
he might have some forged example of a shrmking
brother, to mention to those who were to be examined,
mav be perceived by this, that to all who followed m
examinat on, he objected the example of Barlow and
158
MARTYRDOM OF JOHN CARDMAKER AND JOilN WARNE.
[Book XI.
Cardmaker, commending their soberness, discretion, and
learning. But whatever their answer was, yet Barlow
was led again to the Fleet, from whence being delivered,
he by exile constantly bore witness to the truth of
Christ's gospel. Cardmaker was conveyed to the comp-
ter in Bread-street, the bisliop of London procuring it
to be published, that he shoujd shortly be delivered,
after he had subscribed to transubstantiation and cer-
tain other articles. To the same prison where Card-
maker was, Lawrence Sanders was brought (after the
sentence of excommunication and condemnation was
pronounced against him), where these two prisoners liad
such Christian conference, that in the end they both
siiewed themselves constant confessors and worthy mar-
tyrs of Christ.
Articles n'/jecfed hy Bonner against John TayJor, alias
Cardmaker, with his Answers to the same.
" First, I, Edmund bishop ot London, object against
thee John Taylor, alias Cardmaker, that thou wast and
art of the city and diocese of London, and so of the
jurisdiction of me Edmund bisliop of London.
" Also, that thou in times past didst profess the rule
of St. Francis, and didst by vow promise to keep po-
verty, chastity, and obedience, according to the rule of
St. Francis.
" Also, that thou in times past didst receive all the
orders of the church then used.
" Also, that thou after thy entry into religion, and
profession, and orders, didst take to wife a widow,
breaking thereby thy vow and order, and also the ordi-
nance of the church."
The remaining articles relate to his denial of transub-
stantiation.
Cardmaker calling to mind afterwards the ready cavil-
lings of the papists, and thinking himself not to have
fully and according to his true meaning answered the
latter part of the eighth article, the next day answered
these articles severally, and afterwards exhibited to the
bishop in a schedule this which follows : —
" Where in my answer to your articles I deny the
presence of Christ in the sacrament, I mean not his
sacramental presence, for that I confess ; but my denial
is of his carnal presence in the same. But yet farther,
because this word is oftentimes taken by the holy
fathers, not only for bread and wine, but also for the
whole administration and receiving of the same, accord-
ing to Christ's institution : so I say that Christ is pre-
sent spiritually too, and in all them which wortliily re-
ceive the sacrament ; so that my denial is still of the
real, carnal, and corporeal presence in the sacrament,
and not of the sacramental, nor spiritual presence.
" This have I thought good to add to my former an-
swer, because no man should misunderstand it.
"JottN Cardmaker.''
Ar/irlen ministered af/ainst John Warne, Upholsterer.
" First, that thou, John Warne, being of the age of
♦wenty-nine years, and of the parish of St. John, of
Walbrook, in London, hast believed, and dost believe
firmly and steadfastly, that in the sacrament, commonly
called the sacrament of ttie altar, there is not the very
true and natural body of our Saviour Christ in substance,
under the forms of bread and wine.
" 2. That thou hast believed, and dost believe, that after
the words of consecration spoken by the priest, there is
not, (as the church of England doth believe and teach)
the body of Christ ; but that there doth only remain the
substance of material bread, as it is before the conse-
cration, or speaking of the words of consecration ; and
that the bread is in no wise altered or changed.
" .'?. That thou hast said and dost believe, that if tlie
catholic church do believe and ttnicli, that tlicre is in the
mass, now used in England, and in other j)lace3 of
Christemlom, a sacrifice wherein there is a sacrament
containing the body and blood of Christ really and truly;
then that belief and faith of the church is naught, against
God's truth and the scriptures.
" 4. That thou hast said, that where, aijout a twelve
month ago, and more, a great rough water spaniel of
thine was siiorn on the head, and had a crown like a
priest made in tlie same, thou didst laugh at it and like
it, though thou didst it not thyself, nor knewest who
did it.
" 5. That thou, neitlier at Lent past, nor at any time
since the queen's majesty's reign, hast come into the
clmrch, or heard mass, or been confessed, or received
the sacrament of the altar ; and hast said, that thou art
not sorry that tliou hast so done, but thou art glad, be-
cause thou hast not tlierewith defiled thy conscience,
which otherwise thou shouldst have done."
John Warne being examined upon these articles by
the bishop, answered them, confessing and granting the
articles to be true. Such strength and fortitude had
God's Holy Spirit worked in him, to stand valiantly and
confidently to the defence of the sincere doctiine of his
Son.
After tlie bishop had exhorted him with macy words to
leave his heresies (as he called them) and to return to
the bosom of his mother the holy church, he commanded
him to appear again the next day.
On that day the bishop, seeing that notwithstanding
all his fair promises, and terrible threatenings, he could
not ])revail, finished this examination with pronouncing
the definitive sentence of condemnation against John
Warne.
On the .SOth of May, the day appointed for their ex-
ecution, John Cardmaker and John Warne, were brought
by the sheriffs to the place where they were to suffer.
Being come to the stake, the sheriffs called Cardmaker
aside, and talked with him secretly so long, that in the
mean time Warne had made his prayers, was chained to
the stake, and had wood and reeds set about him, so that
nothing was wanted but the torch ; but still Cardmaker
continued talking with the sheriffs.
The people who had heard that Cardmaker would
recant, and beholding this conversation, were in a
great sadness, thinking indeed that Cardmaker would
now recant at the burning of Warne. At length Card-
maker departed from the sheriffs, and came towards the
stake, and, in his garments as he was, kneeled dowa
and made a long prayer in secret : the people, seeing
him in his garments, praying secretly, and no appear-
ance of any burning, were confirmed in their opinion,
tiiat he woild recant.
His prayers being ended, he rose up, put off his
clothes to his shirt, went with courage to the stake, and
kissed it sweetly : he then took Warne by the hand, and
comforted him, and so gave himself to be also bound to
the stake most gladly. The people seeing this done so
suddenly, contrary to their expectations, cried out for
joy, saying, " God be praised, the Lord strengthen thee,
Cardmaker, the Lord Jesus receive thy spirit." And
this continued while the executioner put fire to them ;
and thus these godly men passed through the fire to the
blessed rest and peace among God's holy saints ana
martyrs, to enjoy the crown of triumph and victory pre-
pared for the elect soldiers and warriors of Christ Jesus
in his blessed kingdom. To whom be glory and ma-
jesty for ever. Amen.
The Confession of the Faith of John Waime, Citizen of
London, vhich he wrote the day before lie was burned,
on the SOih of May, A.D. 1555.
" I believe in God the Father Almighty, and maker
of heaven and earth."
" A Father, because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the everlasting Word, whom before all
worlds lie hath begotten of himself, which Word was made
tlesh, and therein also manifested to be his Son ; in whom
he hath adopted us to be his children, tiie inheritors of
his kingdom, and therefore he is our Father ; an Al-
mighty God, because he hath of nothing created all
things visible and invisible, both in heaven and in earth,
even all creatures contained therein, and goveraeth
them."
A..D. 1550.J
BELIEF AND CONFESSION OF JOHN WARNE.
759
" And in Jesus Clirist his only Son our Lord."
" The eternal Word, perfect God with his Father, of
equal power in all things, of the same substance, of like
glory, by whom all things were made, and have life, and
without whom nothing liveth : he was made also perfect
man, and so being very God and very man in one per-
son, is the only Saviour, Reileemer, and Ransomer of
them who were lost in Adam, our forefather. He is the
only means of our deliverance, the hope of our health,
the surety of our salvation."
" Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the
Virgin Mary."
" According to the Father's most merciful promise,
t'lis eternal Son of God, forsaking the heavenly glory,
humbled himself to take flesh of a virgin, according to
the scriptures, uniting the substance of the Godhead to
the substance of the manhood, which he took of the
substance of that blessed Virgin Mary in one person, to
become therein the very Messiah, the anointed King and
Priest, for ever appointed to pacify the Father's wratn,
which was justly gone out against us all for our sin."
" Sutiered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead,
and buried, and descended into hell."
" He was arraigned before Pontius Pilate, the ruler of
Judea, and unjustly accused of many crimes, of which
the ruler judged him innocent, and sought means to de-
liver him ; but contrary to known justice, he did let go
Barabbas, who had deserved death, and delivered Christ
to be crucified, who deserved no death ; who doth de-
clare unto us manifestly, that he suffered for our sins,
and was buffeted for our offences, as the prophets do
witness, thereby to have it manifested to all men, that
he is that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the
world. Therefore suffering for our sins, he received
and did bear our deserved condemnation, the pains of
death, the state of abjection, the very terror of hell,
yielding his spirit to his Father, his body to be buried
in earth."
" The third day he rose again from death to life."
' To make full and perfect the whole work of our re
demption and justification, the same crucified body which
was laid in the grave, was raised up again the third day
from death, by the power of his Father, and glory of his
Godhead : he became the first fruits of the resurrection,
and got the victory of death, that all by him might be
raised up from death. Through whom all true penitent
sinners may now boldly come unto the Father, and have
remission of their sins."
" He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right
hand of God the Father Almighty."
" After that in his death and resurrection he had
conquered sin, death, and the devil, and had been con-
versant forty days in the earth, being seen of the apos-
tles, and more than five hundred brethren at once, in
the same body in which he wrought the work of our sal-
vation, he ascended into heaven with eternal triumph,
for the victory over death, sin, hell, leaving the passage
open, by which all true believers may and shall enter
into his kingdom, where he now sitteth at his Father's
right hand, that is to say, in power and glory equal, in
majesty co-eternal."
" From thence he shall come to judge the quick and
the dead.''
" He shall appear again in great glory to receive his
elect unto himself, and to put his enemies under his feet,
changing all living men in a moment, and raising up all
t'lat are dead, that all may be brought to his judgment.
Then shall he give to each man according to his deeds.
They who have followed him in regeneration, who have
their sins washed away in his blood, and are clothed with
his righteousness, shall receive the everlasting kingdom,
and reign with him for ever ; and they, who after the
race of the corrupt generation of Adam have followed
flesh and blood, shall receive everlasting damnation with
the devil and his angels.''
" I believe in the Holy Ghost.''
" I do believe that the Holy Ghost is God, the third
person in the Trinity ; in unity of the Godhead equal
with the Father and the Son, given through Christ to in-
habit our spirits, by which wc are made to feel and un-
derstand the great power, virtue, and loving kindness of
Christ our Lord. For he illuminateth, quickeneth, and
certifieth our spirit, that by him we are sealed up until
the day of redemption, by whom we are regenerate and
made new creatures, so that by him and through him
we do receive all the abundant goodness promised us in
Jesus Christ."
" The h.ily catholic church."
" This is an holy number of Adam's posterity,
elected, gathered, waslied, and purified by the blood of
the Lamb from the beginning of the world, and is dis-
jiersed through the same by the tyranny of Gog and
Magog ; that is to say, the Turk and his tyranny,
and antichrist, otherwise named the bishop of Rome, and
his angels, as this day also doth teach."
" The Communion of Saints."
" Which most holy congregation (being, as St. Paul
teacheth, built ujion the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ being the head corner-stone), though
it is by the tyranny of Satan and his ministers perse-
cuted, some by imprisonment, some by death, and some
by other afflictions and painful torments ; yet doth it re-
main in one perfect unity, both in faith and fellowship :
which unity is knit in an unspeakable knot, as well of
them who are departed from this mortal life, as of them
who now are living, and hereafter shall be in the same,
and so shall continue until they all do meet in the king-
dom, where the head, Jesus Christ, with all his holy
member.s, of which number, through Christ, I assuredly
believe 1 am one, shall be fully complete, knit, and united
together for evermore."
" The forgiveness of sins."
" I do believe that my sins, and all their sins who do
rightly believe the Holy Scriptures, are forgiven only
through Jesus Christ, of whom only I do profess that I
have my whole and full salvation and redemption,
which St. Paul saith, cometh not through our works and
deservings, but freely by grace, lest any man should
boast. Through the blood of the cross all things in
heaven and earth are reconciled, and set at peace with
the Father ; without him no heavenly life is given, nor
sin forgiven."
" The resurrection of the body."
" I do believe, that by the same ray Saviour Christ, 1
and all men shall rise again from the dead ; for ' He,'
as St. Paul saith, ' is risen from the dead, and is be-
come the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by
man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead.' This man is Christ, through the power of whose
resurrection I believe that we all shall rise again in these
our bodies ; the elect clothed with immortality to live
with Christ for ever ; the reprobate also shall rise im-
mortal to live with the devil and his angels in death ever-
lasting."
" And the life everlasting."
" Through the same Jesus, and by none other, 1 am
sure to have life everlasting. He only is the way and
entrance into the kingdom of heaven. ' For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.' Which life 1 am sure to possess as soon
as I am dissolved, and departed out of this tabernacle,
and in the last day both my body and soul shall possess
the same for ever, to which God grant that all men may
come.
" I believe that the sacraments, that is to say, of
baptism and of the Lord's Supper, are seals ofG'od's
most merciful promises towards mankind. In b:i])tism,
as by the outward creature of water I am washed from
the iilthiness which hangeth on my flesh ; so do I as-
suredly believe, that I am bv Christ's blood wasiied clean
from my sins, through which I have sure confidence of
my salvation. In the partaking of the Lord's Supper,
as I receive the substance of bread and wine, the nature
of which is to strengthen the body, so do I by faith re-
ceive the redemption wrought in Christ's body broken
on the cross, life bv his death, resurrection by his resur-
rection, and in tine," all that ever Christ in hisbody suffered
for my salvation, to the strcnuthtning of my f.iitli in the
same. And I believe, that God hath appointed the eat-
760
AN ACCOUNT OF JOHN SIMSON AND JOHN ARDELEY.
[Book XI.
Ing and drinking of the creatures of bread and wine in
his holy supper according to his word, to move and to stir
up my mind to believe these articles above written.
" This is my faith ; this do I believe ; and I am con-
tent by God's grace to confirm and seal the truth of the
same with my blood. " John Warne."
The Hintorij of John Ardeley and John Siiuson.
Upon the same day, and in the same com])any, and
for the s;une cause, John Ardeley and John Simson were
also condemned. But before we come to their history,
we sliall give a letter of the kinj:; and queen, directed
from the court the same day, and sent to the bishop by
a post, early in the morning, in tenor and form as fol-
lows : —
*' To tlie right reverend father in God, our right trusty
and well-beloved, the bishop of London.
" Right reverend father in God, right trusty and
well-beloved, we greet you well. And where of late we
addressed our letters to the justices of the peace within
every of the counties of this our realm ; whereby, amongst
other instructions given therein for the good order and
quiet government of the country round about them, they
are directed to have a special regard to such disorderly
persons as (forgetting their duties towards God and us)
do lean to any erroneous and heretical opinions, refusing
to shew themselves conformable to the catholic religion of
Christ's church ; whom if they cannot by good admo-
nitions and fair means reform them, they are directed to
deliver them to tlie ordinary, to be by him charitably
dealt withal, and removed, if it may be, from their
naughty opinions ; or else if they continue obstinate,
to be ordered according to the laws provided in that
behalf : understanding now, to our no little marvel,
that many of the said disorderly persons, being by the
justices of peace, for their contempt and obstinacy,
brought to the ordinaries to be used as is aforesaid,
are either refused to be received at their hands, or if
they be received, are neither so dealt with, as christian
charity requireth, nor yet proceeded withal according to
the order of justice, but are suffered to continue in their
errors, to the dishonour of Almighty God, and dangerous
e-xample of others ; like as we find this matter very
strange, so have we thought convenient both to signify
our knowledge, and therewith also to admonish you to
have in this behalf such regard henceforth to the office
of a good pastor and bishop, as when any such offenders
shall be by the said officers or justices of peace brought
unto you, you use your good wisdom and discretion
in procuring to remove them from their errors, if it may
be, or else in proceeding against them, if they shall con-
tinue obstinate, according to the order of the laws ; so
as through your good furtlierance, both God's glory may
be better advanced, and the commonwealth the more
quietly governed.
" Given under our signet at Hampton Court, the 24th of
May, in the first and second years of our reigns."
This letter thus coming from the Court to the bishop,
made liim the more earnest and hasty to the condemna-
tion, as well of others as of these men, of whom now
we have presently to treat, namely, John Simson and
John Ardeley ; who being both husbandmen in the
town of Wigborough in Essex, and also almost both of
one age, for Smison was of the age of thirty-four, and
Ardeley thirty, were brought up both together by the
under-sheriff of Essex, to Bonner, bishop of London,
upon the accusation of heresy.
As the order and manner of their examinations before
the bishop, as well as the articles laid against them,
were much alike, so their answers were not much dis-
crepant in manner and form ; as we find them in the bi-
shop's own registers as follows : —
Articles objected ar/ainst John Simson and John Ardeley.
" First, that thou John Simson (or John Ardeley,)
husbandman, of the age of thirty-four years or there-
about, wast and art of the parish of Great Wigborough,
within the diocese of London, and thou hast not believed
nor dost believe, that there is here in earth one cathoUc
and universal whole church, which doth hold and be-
lieve all the faith and religion of Christ, and all the ne-
cessary articles and sacraments of the same.
" 2. That thou hast not believed, nor dost believe,
that thou art necessarily bounden, under the pain of
uamuation of thy soul, to give full faith and creaence
unto the said catholic and universal church, and to the
religion of the same, in all necessary jjoiuts ui the
said faith and religion, without waverin.^ or doubting in
the said faith or religion or in any part thereof.
" ;5. That thou hast not believed, nor dost believe,
that that faith and religion, which both the churches of
Rome, Italy, Spain, England, France, Li land, Scotland,
and all other churches in Europe, being the members
and parts of the said catholic and universal church, do
believe and teach, is both agreeing witii the said ca-
tholic and universal church, and the faith and religion of
Christ, and also is the very true faith and religion
which all christian people ought to believe, observe, fol-
low, and keep : but contrariwise thou hist believed,
and dost believe, that that faith and religion which the
said church of Rome, and all the other churches afore-
said have heretofore believed, and do now believe, is
false, errroneous, and naught, and in nowise ought
to be believed, observed, kept, and followed by any
christian man.
"4. That although it be true, that in the sacrament
of the altar there is in substance the very body and
blood of Christ under the forms of bread and wine, and
although that it be so believed, taught, and preached,
undoubtedly in the said church of Rome, and all other
the churches aforesaid, yet thou hast not so believed,
nor dost so believe; but contrariwise thou hast and dost
believe firmly and stedfastly, that there is not in the
said sacrament of the altar, under the said forms of
bread and wine, the very substance of Christ's body and
blood, but that there is only the substance of material
and common bread and wine, with the forms thereof ;
and that the said material and common bread and wine,
are only the signs and tokens of Chiist's body and blood,
and by faith to be received, only for a remembrance of
Christ's passion and death, without any such substance
of Christ's body and blood at all.
"5. That thou hast believed and taught, and thou
hast openly spoken, and to thy power maintained and
defended, and so dost believe, think, maintain, and de-
fend, that the very true receiving and eating of Christ's
body and blood, is only to make material and common
bread, and to break it, and to distribute it amongst the
people, remembering thereby the passsion and death of
Christ only.
" 6. That thou hast likewise believed, taught, and
spoken, that the mass now used in this realm of Eng-
land, and in the other churches aforesaid, is abominable
and naught, and full of idolatry, and is of the ordinance
of the pope, and not of the institution of Christ, and
hath no goodness in it, saving the Gloria in Excelsis,
and the epistle and the gospel ; and that therefore thou
hast not, nor will come to be present at the mass, nor
receive the sacrament of the altar, or any other sacra-
ment of the church, as they are now used in this realm
of England, and other the churches aforesaid.
"7. That thou hast in times past believed precisely,
and obstinately aflirmed and said, and so dost now be-
lieve and think, that auricular confession is not needful to
be made unto the priest, but that it is a thing superfluous
and vain, and ought only to be made to God, and to
none other person : and likewise thou hast condemned
as su})erfluous, vain, and unprofitable, all the ceremo-
nies of the church and the service of the same, and hast
said, that no service in the church ought to be said but
in the English tongue, and if it be otherwise said, it is
unlawful and naught.''
They answered to these articles with constancy and
christian boldness, and then the bishop endeavoured to
induce them to recant. John Ardeley answered Bonner
as follows : — " My lord, neither you, nor any other of
A.D. 1555.1
BONNER'S PROCEEDINGS AGAINST JOHN TOOLY.
7Cl
your veli2;ion, is of the catholic churcli ; for you are of a
false faitii : and I doubt not but you shall be deceived at
length. Ye will shed the innocent blood, and you have
killed many, and yet go about to kill more," &c.
And added further, saying, " If every hair of my head
were a man, I would suffer death in the opinion and
faith that I am now in." These, with many other
words, he spoke. Then the bishop yet demanded if he
would relinquish his erroneous opinions (as he called
them) and be reduced again to the unity of the church.
He ansv.-ered, " No, God forbid that I should so do, for
then T should lose my soul."
After this, the said bishop asked John Ardeley if he
knew any cause why he should not have sentence con-
demnatory against him ; and then read the condemna-
tion ; as he also did against John Simson, who stood
with the same constancy as John Ardeley : they both
were committed to the secular power ; that is, to the
hands of the sheriffs, to be conveyed to the place where
they should be executed.
At the time of the examination of this Simson and
John Ardeley, it happened that the bishop, being in a
heat with the stout and bold answers of the two pri-
soners, burst out his loud and angry voice, and said,
" Have him away, have him away !"
The people in the church, who were assembled in
great numbers, hearing these words, and thinking that
the prisoners had received judgment, being desirous to
see the prisoners, severed themselves, some running one
way, others another way, which caused such a noise in
the church, that they in the consistory were all amazed :
and the bishop being afraid of this sudden stir, asked
what it was. The standers-by answering, said, that
there was likely to be some tumult. When tlie bishop
heard this, his heart failed him, and leaving his seat, he,
with the rest of the court, took to their legs, hastening
with all speed possible to recover the door that went
into the bishop's house : but the rest being somewhat
lighter of foot than my lord, sooner reached the door,
and thronging hastily to get in, kept the bishop out, and
cried, " Save my lord, save my lord ! " but meaning yet
first to save themselves, by which they gave the standers-
by good matter to laugh at.
John Simson and John Ardeley being delivered to the
sheriffs, were shortly after sent down from London to
Essex, where they were both in one day (June 10, 1555)
put to death. John Simson suffered at Rochford, John
Ardeley at Railey.
The ridiculous handling and proceeding of Bishop Bonner
and his fellows against John Tooly.
In the same month that the two godly men, above
mentioned, were burned, a solemn process was made
about the pope's spiritualty against John Tooly, in a
[ case of heresy. The history is this : There was, about
I the time that the Spaniards began first to make a stir in
England, one John Tooly, a citizen and poulterer in Lon-
don, who conspired with certain others of his society, to
rob a Spaniard at St. James's : and although the deed
1 was heinous and wicked of itself, yet it was aggravated
I and made greater than it was, by being committed
I against such a person, and against such a country,
I which both the queen and her whole court did highly
I favour. The robbery being known, and brought into
judgment, this Tooly was found guilty, and judged to be
Tooly being led to the gallows, a little before he died,
standing upon the cart, read a certain prayer in a
printed book, and two other prayers written in two
papers : then having the halter about his neck, he de-
sired the people present to pray for him, and to bear
him witness that he died a true christian man, and that
he trusted to be saved only by the merits of Christ's
passion, and shedding of his precious blood, and not by
any masses, or trentals, images, or saints, which were
(as he said) mere idolatry and superstition, devised by
the bishop of Rome : and that as Tooly and his fellows,
who were there hanged with him, did steal and rob for
covetousEess, so the bishop of Rome did sell his masses
and trentals, with such other peltry, for covetousness'
aTid lie spoke witli a loud voice these words : " From
the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his detestable
enormities ; from false doctrine and heresy, and from
the contempt of thy word and commandment, good
Lord deliver us ! " He then spake to the people ; " All
you that are true christian men, say with me. Amen.''
And imniediateiy about three hundred persons or more,
to the judgment and estimation of those that were there
present, answered and said, " Amen,'' three times.
As soon as the account of this fact came to the ears
of the priests and mitred prelates, they were not a little
mad, thinking it not tolerable that so great a reproach
should be done against the holy father. At last they jdl
agreed that the violating of the pope's holiness should
be revenged with fire and fagot. And I do easily believe
that cardinal Pole was no small doer in this sentence :
for as Winchester and Bonner always thirsted after the
blood of the living, so Pole's lightning was for the most
part kindled against the dead ; and he reserved this
charge only to himself, I know not for what purpose,
except, peradventure, being loath to be so cruel as the
others ; he thought, nevertlieless, by this means to dis-
charge his duty towards the pope. By the same cardinal,
the bones of Martin Bucer and Paul Phagius, who had
lain almost two years in their graves, were taken up and
burned in Cambridge, as Tooly 's dead body was here at
London. And besides this, that he might shew some
token of his diligence in both universities, he caused
Peter Martyr's wife, a woman of worthy memory, to be
digged out of the church-yard, and to be buried on the
dunghill. Of these two acts we shall say more here-
after. But now to our purpose of Tooly, who, having
ended his prayer, was hanged and put into his grave,
out of which he was digged again, by the commandment
of the bishops ; and because he was so bold to derogate
the authority of the bishop of Rome, at the time of his
death, it pleased them to judge and condemn him as an
heretic, as may further appear as follows : —
The Writ or Mandate of Bonner, Bishop of London,
set tip at Charing Cross, on St. PauVs Church-door,
and at St. Martin' s-in-the -Fields, for the citing and
further enquiring into the case of John Tooly.
" Edmund, by the sufferance of God, bishop of London,
to all and singular parsons, vicars, curates, and others,
clerks and learned men, being within our diocese of
London, and especially unto Richard Clonic, our sworn
sumner, greeting, salutation, and benediction. Forso-
much as it is come to our hearing by common fame, and
the declaration of sundry credible persons, that one
John Tooly, late citizen and poulterer of London, the sou
of perdition and iniquity, coming to the ))rofuiidity of
malice in the selfsame time in which he should go to
hanging, according to the laws of the realm, for the
great theft lately by him committed, at which time
chiefly he should have cared for the wealth of his soul,
and have died in the unity of the catholic church, did
utter divers and sundry damnable, blasphemous, and
heretical opinions and errors, utterly contrary and re-
pugnant to the truth of the catholic faith, and unity of
the same ; and did exhort, stir up, and encourage the
people, there standing in great multitudes, to hold and
defend the same errors and opinions. And, moreover,
certain of the people there standing, as it did appear,
affected with errors and heresies, as abettors and de-
fenders of the said John, did confirm and give express
consent to the aforesaid words, propositions, and
affirmations, which thing we do utter with sorrow and
bitterness of heart.
"We, therefore, the aforesaid Edmund and bishop,
not being able, nor daring to pass over in silence, nor
wink at the aforesaid heinous act, lest by our negli-
gence and slackness the blood of them might be re-
quired at our hands at the most terrible day of judg-
ment, desiring to be certified and informed whether
the premises declared unto us, be of the truth, and lest
that any scabbed sheep, lurking amongst the simple
flock of our Lord, do infect them with pestitcroua
762
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THOMAS HAWKES.
[Book XI.
heresy. To you, therefore, we straightly charge and
command that you cite, or cause to be cited, all and sin-
gular, having or knowing the truth of the premises, by
setting up this citation upon the church-door of St.
Martin's -in-the-Fields, being within our diocese of
London, and also upon the cathedral church-door of
St. Paul's in London, leaving there the copy hereof; or
by other means or ways, the best you can, that this
citation and monition may come to their knowledge.
" AH wiiich and singular by the tenor of these pre-
, sents we cite and admonish that they appear, and every
one of them do appear before us, our vicar-general,
or commissary, whatsoever he be in that behalf, in
our cathedral church of St. Paul's in London, in the
consistory place, upon Thursday, the second day of May
next ensuing, betwixt the hours of nine and ten of tlie
clock in the forenoon of the same day, to bear witness
of the truth in this behalf, and to depose and declare
faithfully the truth that they know or have heard of the
premises, and moreover to do and receive what law and
reason doth recjuire.
" Further, we commit unto you as before, and
straightly enjoining you, do command that you will
generally cite the wife of the said Tooly that is dead,
and his children, and his kindred by father and mother,
his friends and his familiars specially, and all other and
every of them, if there be any that desire to defend and
purge the remembrance of the person in the premises,
that you admonish them after manner and form afore-
said ; whom we likewise, by the tenor of these presents,
do in such sort cite and admonish that they appear all,
and that every one of them do appear (under pain to be
compelled to keep silence for ever hereafter in this be-
half) before us, or our vicar-general in spiritual matters,
or such our commissary, at the day, hour, and place
aforesaid, to defend the good name and remembrance of
him that is dead, and to say, allege, and propose in due
form of law, a reasonable cause, if they have or can tell of
any, why the said John Tooly, that is dead, ought not to
be determined, and declared for such an heretic and ex-
communicate person, and his remembrance condemned,
in the detesting and condemning of so heinous a deed
and crime, aud his body or carcass to lack church burial,
as a rotten member cut off from the church, and the
same to be. committed to the arm and power secular,
and they compelled hereafter for ever to hold their
peace.
" And furthermore to do, receive, and suffer, as law
and reason will, and as the quality of such matter, and
the nature of themselves do constrain and require ; and
moreover that you cite and admonish, after the manner
aforesaid, all and every of the receivers, abettors, and
creditors of the said John Tooly that is dead, especi-
ally if any of them do incline and give consent to those
wicked and detestable affirmations, propositions, and re-
hearsals aforesaid, that on this side the said Thursday they
return and submit themselves unto us, and to the lap of
the mother holy church ; which thing if they do, we,
trusting \ipon the mercy of Almighty God, do promise
that we will receive them, being penitent for such their
errors and faults, with thanks, benignity, mercy, and
favour, to the comfort and health of their own souls, and
in that behalf save their persons to tlie uttermost of
our power ; otherwise, if they will not provide thus to
come of their own accord, but to abide tlie ordinary pro-
cess of the law, let those men know that we will ])unish
more severely this offence, according to the uttermost
of the law, and as far as the law will bear it. And what you
shall do in the jiremises, let him among you, who shall
execute this our present mandate, certify us, or our
vicar-general in spiritual matters, either by his own
person, or by his letters patents, together with these
authentically sealed.
" Dated at London, under our seal, the last day of
April, 1555, and the eleventh year of our
translation."
When the time of this citation was expired, and
Tooly, being cited, did not appear, next in order of
layf came the suspension (whereas one suspension had
been enough for him), and after that the excommunica-
tion, that is, that no man should eat and drink with
him ; or if any met him by the way, he should not bid
him good-morrow ; and besides that, he should be ex-
(duded from the communion of the church. These
things being jwepared in such a manner as in such
cases they used to do, at length one stood out for the
purpose, that made answer to certain articles, rehearsed in
judgment openly, and that in the behalf of the dead man.
But when the poor dead man could neither speak for
himself, nor sufficiently answer them to avoid the name
of an heretic, then he was condemned as an heretic, and
so committed to the secular power, namely, to the
sheriffs of London, who, with diligence, went about to
execute their charge. Therefore taking the man, being
previously suspended, excommunicated, condemned as
an heretic, and besides that, dead, they laid him on the
fire to be burned for a continual remembrance thereof.
This was done on the fourth day of June.
The History and Martyrdom of Thomas HaivTces.
Immediately after the history of Doctor Taylor, men-
tion was made of six men who were brought before
Bishop Bonner upon the 8t,h of February. The names
of which martyrs were Stephen Knight, William Pigot,
Thomas Tomkins, John Lawrence, William Hunter. In
which number was also Thomas Hawkes, who \fl^s con-
demned with them on the 9tli day of February.
As to his education and order of life, he was born of
honest parents, in Essex, in calling and profession a
courtier, brought up daintily from his childhood, and
ike a gentleman. He was comely of person, and tali
of stature, and endued with excellent qualities. But his
gentle behaviour toward others, and especially his fervent
study and singular love to true religion and godliness
surmounted all the rest. In these, as God did singu-
larly adorn him, even so he, being such a valiant mar-
tyr of God, may seem to ennoble the whole company of
other holy martyrs.
This Hawkes, following the fashion of the court as he
grew in years, entered into the service of the lord of
Oxford, where he remained for some time, being there
well esteemed and loved of all the household, so long as
Edward VI. lived. But he dying, all things began to
go backward, religion to decay, godliness not only to
wax cold, but also to be in danger every where, and
chiefly in the houses of good men. Hawkes disliking this
state of things, rather than he would change the profes-
sion of true godliness, which he had made, thought to
change the place ; and so, forsaking the nobleman's
house, departed to his own home, where he might more
freely give himself to God, and use his own conscience.
Shortly after this, Hawkes had a son born to him,
whose ba])tism he deferred to the third week, because
he would not suffer him to be baptized after the papis-
tical manner. So his adversaries, laying hands upon
him, brought him to the earl of Oxford, as not sound
in religion, in that he seemed to contemn the sacraments
of the church.
The earl, either intending not to trouble himself in
such matters, or else seeing himself not able to argue
with him in matters of religion, sent him up to London
with a messenger and letters, and so put him in tlie
hands of Bonner, bishop of London.
Then the bishop began to enter into communication
with Thomas Hawkes, first asking what should move
him to leave his child unchristened so long ?
Hawkes. — " Because we are bound to do nothing con-
trary to the word of God."
Bonner. — "Why; baptism is commanded by the
word of God .'''
Hawkes. — " His institution therein I do not deny."
Bonner. — " What deny you then ?''
Hawkes. — " I deny all things invented and devised
by man."
Bonner. — "What things be those that are devised by
man, that you are so offended withal.'"
Hawkes. — " Your oil, cream, salt, spittle, candle, aud
conjuring of water," &c.
A.l>. 1555.]
DIALOGUE BETWEEN HAWKES AND THE PRIESTS
•G3
Bonner. — "Will you deny that which all the whole
work! and your father has been contented with?"
Hawkes. — '• What my father and the whole world
have done, I have nothing to do with ; but what God hath
commanded me to do, to that I shall stand."
Bonner. — " Would not you be contented that your
child should be christened after the book that was set
out by King Edward ?"
Hawkes. — " Yes, with a good will ; it is a thing that
I desire."
Bonner. — " I thought so ; you would have the same
thing. The principle is in the name of the Father, the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and in the necessity it may
serve."
Hawkes. — " Christ did use it without any such neces-
sity ; and yet we lack the chiefest point."
Bonner. — " What is that .'"'
Hawkes. — " ' Go teach all nations, baptizing them,'
&c."
Bonner. — " Thou speakest that because I am no
preacher."
Hawkes. — " I quote the text ; I do not mean you."
» Bonner. — " Will you be content to tarry here, and
your child shall be baptized ?"
Hawkes. — " If I would so have done, I needed not to
have come to you."
Bonner. — " You seem to be a stout young man ; you
will not give your head for the washing ; you will stand
in the defence of it for the honour of your country. Do
you think that the queen and I cannot command it to be
done in spite of your teeth ?"
Hawkes. — " W'hat the queen and you can do I will
not say, but you shall get my consent never the sooner."
Bonner. — " Well, you are a stubborn young man; I
perceive I must work another way with you."
Hawkes. — " You are in the hands of God, and so
am I."
Bonner. — " Whatever you think, J will not have you
speak such words to me."
A Bialofftie letween Harpsfield and Thomas Hawkes.
Then the bishop brought Harpsfield, archdeacon of
London, to talk with him.
Harpsfield. — " Christ used ceremonies. Did he not
take clay from the ground, and took spittle, and made
the blind man to see .'"'
Hawkes. — " I know that well ; but Christ did never use
it in bap ii.>Ln. If you will needs have it, put it to the
use that Christ put it to."
Harpsfield. — " Suppose your child die unchristened,
what heavy a case stand you in ?"
Hawkes. — " I admit that if it do, what then ?"
Harpsfield. — " Why, then you are damned, and your
child too."
Hawkes. — " Judge you no farther than you may by
the scriptures."
Harpsfield. — " Do you not know that your child is
born in original sin ?"
Hawkes. — " Yes, that I do."
Harpsfield. — " How is original sin washed away?"
Hawkes. — " By true faith and belief in Christ Jesus.''
Harpsfield. — " How can your child, being an infant,
believe ?"
Hawkes. — " The deliverance of it from sin standeth in
the faith of his parents."
Harpsfield. — " How prove you that ?"
Hawkes, — " By St. Paul; in 1 Cor. vii. 14, where he
says,' For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife,
and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband :
else were your children unclean ; but now are they holy.' "
Harpsfield. — " I will prove that they whom thou put-
test thy trust in are against thee in this opinion."
Hawkes. — " Who are those ?"
Harpsfield. — " Your great learned men in O.xford."
Hawkes. — " If they do it by the scriptures, I will be-
lieve them."
Bouner. — " Recant, recant ; do you not know that
Christ said, ' Except ye be baptized ye cannot be
saved ?' "
Hawkes. — " Doth Christianity stand in outward cere-
monies or not ?"
Bonner. — " Partly it doth : what say you to that ?"
Hawkes. — " I say as St. Peter saith, ' Not the put-
ting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a
good conscience toward God.' "
Harpsfield. — " Beware of pride, brother, beware of
pride."
Hawkes. — " It is written, ' Pride serveth not for men,
nor yet for the sons of men.' "
Bonner. — " Let us make an end here. How say you
to tlie mass, sirrah?"
Hawkes. — " I say it is detestable, abominable, and
profitable for nothing."
Bonner. — " What, nothing profitable in it ! What
say you to the epistle and gospel ?"
Hawkes. — " It is good, if it be used as Christ left it
to be used."
Bonner. — " Well, I am glad that you somewhat re-
cant : recant all, recant all."
Hawkes. — " I have recanted nothing, nor will I."
Bonner. — " How say you to the confessional ?''
Hawkes. — " I say it is abominable and detestable, yea,
and a blasphemy against God and his son Christ, to call
upon any, to trust to any, or to pray to any, save only to
Christ Jesus."
Bonner. — " To trust to any, we bid you not ; but to
call upon them, and to pray to them, we bid you. Do
you not know when you come into the court you cannot
speak with the king and the queen, unless ye call to some
of the privy chamber that are next to the king and
queen?"
Hawkes. — " They that choose may receive your doc-
trine. You teach me that I should not believe nor trust
in any, but to call on them ; and St. Paul saith, ' How
shall they call on him in whom tliey have not believed ?' "
Bonner. — " \A ill you have no body to pray for you
when you be dead ?"
Hawkes. — " No, surely, except you can prove it by
the scriptures ; a man's prayers, you being dead, profit
nothing at all."
Bonner. — ' ' Will ye grant the prayer of the righteous
man to prevail ?"
Hawkes — " I grant it does for the living, but not for
the dead.''
Bonner. — " Not for the dead?"
Hawkes. — " No ; for David saith, ' None of them can
by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a
ransom for him : for the redemption of their soul is
precious, and it ceaseth for ever.' Also Ezekiel saith,
' Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were
in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord God.' "
Harpsfield. — " What books have you ?''
Hawkes. — " The New Testament, Solomon's Books,
and the Psalter."
Harpsfield. — " Will you read any other books ?"
Hawkes. — " Yea, if you will give me such books as I
will require."
Harpsfield. — " What books do you require ?"
Hawkes. — " Latimer's books, my Lord of Canterbury's
book, Bradford's Sermons, Ridley's books." '
Bonner. — "Away, away! he wiU have no books but
such as maintain his heresies." ,
The next day an old bishop attended, who had a pearl
in his eye, and he brought with him to my lord a dish of
apples and a bottle of wine ; for he had lost his living,
because he had a wife. Then the bishop called me again
into the orchard, and said to the old bishoj), " This young
man hath a child, and will not have it christened."
Hawkes. — " I deny not baptism."
Bonner (speaking in much anger). — " Thou art a fool ;
thou canst not tell what thou wouldst have."
Hawkes.—" A bishop must be blameless or faultless,
sober, discreet, no chider, nor given to anger.'
Bonner.—" Thou judgsst me to be angry ; no, by my
faith am I not. M hat say you to ln^ly water ?"
Hawkes. — " I say to it as to tiie rest, ai.d to all that
are of his making that made tlieni."
Bonner. — " The scriptures allow it."
764
DIALOGUE BETWEEN HAWKES AND THE PRIESTS.
[Book XI.
Hawkes. — " Where prove you that ?"
Bonner. — " In the book of Kings, where Elisha
threw salt into the water."
Hawkes. — " Ye say truth ; the children of the pro-
phets came to Elisha, saying, 'The dwelling of the
city is pleasant, but the waters be corrupted.' This
was the cause that Elisha threw salt into the water,
and it became sweet and good ; and so when our
waters be corrupted, if you can, by putting in of salt,
make them sweet, clear, and wholesome, we will the
better believe your ceremonies."
Bonner. — " We believe no doctrine but that which is
wrought by miracles.''
Hawkes. — " No, forsooth, for Christ saith, ' And
these signs shall follow them that believe ; in my name
shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak with new
tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.' "
Bonner. — " With what new tongues do you speak ?"
Hawkes. — " Forsooth, whereas before I came to the
knowledge of God's word I was a foul blasphemer and
filthy talker, since I came to the knowledge thereof, I
have lauded God, praised God, and given thanks unto
God, even with the same tongue : and is not this a new
tongue ?"
Bonner. — " How do you cast out devils ?"
Hawkes. — " Christ did cast them out by his word, and
he hath left the same word, that whosoever doth credit
and believe it, shall cast out devils."
Bonner. — " Did you ever drink any deadly poison ?"
Hawkes. — " Yea, forsooth, that I have ; for I have
drunken of the pestilent traditions and ceremonies of the
Bishop of Rome."
Bonner. — " Now you shew yourself to be a right
heretic."
Hawkes. — " I pray you, what is heretic ?"
Bonner. — "All things that are contrary to God's
word."
Hawkes. — " If I stand in any thing contrary to that
word, then I am worthy to be so called."
Bonner. — " Thou art one, and thou shalt be burned if
thou stand and continue in this opinion. Yes, yes, there
is a brotherhood of you, but I will break it, I warrant you."
Hawkes. — "Where prove you that Christ or his
apostles did kill any man for his faith ?"
Bonner. — " Did not St. Paul excommunicate?"
Hawkes. — " Yes, my lord ; but there is a great dif-
ference between excommunicating and burning ?"
Bonner. — " Have you not read of the man and the
woman in the Acts of the Apostles, whom Peter de-
stroyed ?"
Hawkes. — " Yes, forsooth, I have read of one Ana-
nias, and Sapphira his wife, who were destroyed for
lying against the Holy Ghost."
The next day Fecknam came to converse with him,
and asked " Are you he that will have no ceremonies ?"
Hawkes. — " What mean you by that ?"
Fecknam. — "You will not have your child christened,
unless in English, and you will have no ceremonies."
^awkes. — " Whatsoever the scripture commands to be
done I refuse not."
Fecknam. — " Ceremonies are to be used by the
scriptures."
Hawkes. — ""VMiich are those ?"
Fecknam. — " How say you by St. Paul's breeches ?"
Hawkes. — " I have read no such thing. "
Fecknam. — " Have ye not read in the Acts of the
Apostles, how things went from St. Paul's body, and
they received health thereby .'"
Hawkes. — " 1 have read in the nineteenth of the Acts,
how there went handkerchiefs or aprons from St. Paul's
body, is it that you mean ?"
Fecknam. — " Yea, the same is it : what say you to
those ceremonies ?"
Hawkis. — " I say nothing to the ceremonies. For
the text saith, that God did so work by the hands of St.
Paul, that there went handkerchiefs or aprons from him,
&c. So that it seems by the text, that it was God that
wrought, and not the ceremonies."
Fecknam. — " How say ye to the woman that came
behind Christ, and touclied tlie hem of his vesture ? did
not her disease depart from her by that ceremony ?"
Hawkes. — " No, forsooth : for Christ turned back,
and said to St. Peter, ' Who touched me ?' And St.
Peter said, ' Master, the multitude throng thee, and
press thee, and sayest thou. Who touched me ? And
Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me : for I perceive
that virtue hath gone out of me.' I pray you, whether
was it the virtue that healed this woman, or his vesture?"
Fecknam. — " Both."
Hawkes. — " Then is not Christ true? for he said,
' Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.' "
Bonner. — " Away, away to the sacrament, for these
are but mere trifles to that.''
Fecknam. — " How say ye, sirrah? Christ took bread
and brake it, and said, ' Take, eat, this is my body.' ''
Hawkes. — " I grant Christ said so."
Fecknam. — " And is it not so ?"
Hawkes. — " No, forsooth, I do not understand it so."
Fecknam. — " Why, then is Christ a liar ?''
Hawkes. — " I think ye will so prove him.''
Fecknam. — " Will I ? "W^hy I have spoken the words
that Christ spake."
Hawkes. — " Is every word to be understood as Christ
spake it ? Christ said, I am a door, a vine, I am a
king, a way, &c."
Fecknam. — " Christ spake these words in parables."
Hawkes. — " And why speaketh he this in parables
when he said, I am a door, a vine, a king, a way, &c.
more than this when he said, ' This is my body ?' For
after the same phrase of speech, as he saith, ' This is
my body,' so saith he, I am a door, a vine, a king, a
way; he saith not, I am like a door, like a vine, &c.''
The next day came Doctor Chedsey to him, and he,
as well as Bonner, entered into the following argument
with him.
Bonner. — " He thinketh that there is no church but
in England and in Germany."
Hawkes. — " And ye think that there is no church, but
the church of Rome."
Chedsey. — " What say ye to the church of Rome ?"
Hawkes. — " I say it is a church of vicious cardinsds,
priests, monks, and friars, which I will never credit nor
believe."
Chedsey. — " What say ye to the bishop of Rome ?"
Hawkes. — " From him and all his detestable enormi-
ties, good Lord deliver us."
Chedsey. — " Marry, so may we say, from King
Henry VIII. and all his detestable enormities, good
Lord deliver us."
Hawkes. — " Where were ye, while he lived, that ye
would not say so ?"
Chedsey. — " I was not far."
Hawkes. — " Where were ye in his son's days ?"
Chedsey. — " In prison."
Bonner. — " He will by no means come within my
chapel, nor hear mass : for neither the mass, nor the
sacrament of the altar can he abide, neither will he have
any service but in English.'*
Chedsey. — " Christ never spake in English."
Hawkes. — " Neither spake he ever any Latin, but
always in such a tongue as the people might be edified
thereby. And St. Paul says, that ' tongues profit us
nothing.' He makes a similitude between the pipe and
the harp, and except it be understood what the trum-
pet means, who can prepare himself to the battle. So
if I hear the tongue which I do not understand, what
profit have I by it ? No more than he has by the trum-
pet, that knows not what it means."
Bonner. — " The order was taken in the catholic
church that the Latin tongue should serve through the
whole world ; that they should pray all generally together
in one tongue, and that to avoid all contention and
strife, and to have one universal order through the whole
world.''
Hawkes. — " This your councils of Rome settled."
Bonner. — " Understand you what the general councils
of Rome meant ?"
Hawkes. — " Indeed all your general councils of Rome
A.D. 1555.]
THE CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS HAWKES.
765
are in Latin, I am an Englishman : therefore I have
nothing to do with them."
Chedsey. — " You are to blame, being an unlearned
man, to reprove all the councils througli the world."
Hawkes. — " I reprove them not, but St. Paul re-
bukes them, saying, ' If any man preach any other gos-
pel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed.' "
Chedsey. — " Hath any man preached any other doc-
trine unto you?"
Hawkes. — " Yea, I have been taught another gospel
since I came into this house."
Chedsey. — " What gospel have ye been taught .'"
Hawkes. — " Praying to saints, and to our Lady, and to
trust in the mass, holy bread, holy water, and in idols.''
Chedsey. — " He that teaches you so, teaches you not
amiss."
Hawkes. — " Cursed be he that teacheth me so : for I
will not trust him nor believe him."
Bonner. — " You speak of idols, and you know not
what they mean."
Hawkes. — " God hath taught us what they are : for
whatsoever is made, graven, or devised by man's hand,
contrary to God's word, the same is an idol. What say
you to that ?"
Chedsey. — " What are those that ye are so offended
with ?"
Hawkes. — " The cross of wood, silver, copper, or gold,
&c."
Jlonner. — " What say ye to that ?"
Hawkes. — " I say it is an idol. What say you to it .'"
Bonner. — "I say every idol is an image ; but every
image is not an idol.''
Hawkes. — " I say, what difference is there between
an idol and image .'"
llonner. — " If it be a false god, and an image made of
him, that is an idol ; but if an image be made of God
Ininself, it is no idol, but an image, because he is a true
God."
Hawkes. — " Lay your image of your true God and of
;your false god together, and you shall see the difference.
I Have not your images feet a-nd go not, eyes and see not,
lears and hear not, hands and feel not, mouths and
speak not ? and even so have your idols.''
) Chedsey.— "' God forbid,' says St. Paul, 'that I
jshould glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
iChrist.' "
1 Hawkes.—" Do you understand St. Paul so .'"
I Bonner. — " Where can we have a godlier remem-
brance when we ride by the way, than to see the cross?"
1 Hawkes. — " If the cross were such a profit to us, why
;did not Christ's disciples take it up and set it on a pole,
tind carry it in procession, with a salutation."
I Chedsey. — " It was taken up."
I Hawkes. — " Who took it up ? Helen, as you say ; for
fshe sent a piece of it to a monastery, where I was with
the visitors when that house was suppressed, and the piece
of the holy cross (which the monks had in such estima-
tion, and had robbed many a soul, committing idolatry
jto It) was called for, and when it was proved it was but
ji piece of a lath covered over with copper, double gilded
is if it had been clean gold."
Chedsey. — " It is a pity that thou shouldest live, or
iny such as thou art."
Hawkes. — " In this case I desire not to live, but ra-
her to die."
Chedsey. — " You die boldly, because you would glory
n your death."
After all these and other private conferences, persua-
sions, and long debatings, with Hawkes in the bishop's
louse, the bishop seeing no hope to win him over, was
'ully set to proceed openly against him after the ordinary
!0urse of his popish law.
I After the bill of confession was read, and he adhered
fo it, the bishop assigned him, with five others, the ninth
)f February to appear before him again, to give a final
inswer ; which day being come, and the prisoners seve-
•ally called before the bishop, at the appearing of Thomas
Sawkes, the bishop desired him to remember what was
aid to him yesteiday, and now while he had time to ad*
vise with himself what he would answer, for he stood
upon life and death. " Well," said Hawkes again,
" I will willingly receive whatever shall be put upon
me." Then were certain other interrogatories or ar-
ticles objected to him. Then being e.xhorted by the
bishop, with many fair words, to return again to the
bosom of the mother church, " No, my lord," said he,
" that I will not : for if I had an hundred bodies, I
would suffer them all to be torn in pieces, rather than I
will abjure or recant." Whereupon Bunner at the last
read the sentence of death upon him, and he was con-
demned on the ninth of February. His execution was
prolonged, and he remained in prison till the tentli day
of June.
A little before his death, there were some of his fa-
miliar acquaintance and friends, who seemed not a little
to be confirmed both by the example of his constancy,
and by his talk ; yet being frightened with the sharpness
of the punishment, they desired that in the midst of the
fianie he would shew them some token, if he could, by
which they might be more certain, vyhether the pain of
such burning were so great that a man might not therein
keep his mind (juiet and patient. Wliich thing he pro-
mised them to do : and so it was agreed secretly between
them, that if the rage of the pain were tolerable and
might be suffered, then he should litt up his hands
above his head toward heaven, before he gave up the
ghost.
Not long after, when the hour was come, Hawkes
was led away to the place appointed for the slaughter,
by the lord Rich and his assistants : at the stake he
mildly and patiently addressed himself to the fire, hav-
ing a chain cast about his middle amid a great multitude
of people assembled. To whom, after he had spoken
many things, especially to the lord Rich, reasoning
with him about the innocent blood of saints, at length,
after he had made fervent prayers and poured out liis soul
unto God, the fire was set to him.
When he had continued a long while in the fire, and
when his speech was taken away by the violence of th
flame, his skin also drawn together, and his fingers con-
sumed, so that all thought certainly he had beengone, sud-
denly and contrary to all expectation, this blessed servant
of God, being mindful of his promise before made, reached
up his burning hands over his head to the living God,
and with great rejoicing, as it seemed, struck or clappe 1
them three times together. At the sight of which ther^
followed such applause and outcry of the people, and
especially of those who understood the matter, that the
like hath not commonly been heard : and so the blessed
martyr of Christ, straightway sinking down into the
fire, gave up his spirit, June 10, A.D. 1555.
A Letter to the Congregation, ly Thomas Hawkea.
" Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ, be always with you all, my
dear brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, for
ever ; and his Holy Spirit conduct and lead you in all
your doings, that you may always direct your deeds ac-
cording to his holy word ; that when he shall appear to
reward every man according to his works, you may as
obedient children be found watching, ready to enter into
his everlasting kingdom, with your lamps burning ; and
when the Bridegroom shall shew himself, you need not
be ashamed of this life which God hath lent you, which
is but transitory, vain, and like unto a vapour, that for a
season appeareth and vanisheth away : so soon pass
away all our terrestrial honour, glory, and felicity.
' All flesh is grass (saith the prophet), and all the good-
liness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth ; because the spirit of the
Lord bloweth upon it : surely the people is grass.'
Isaiah xl. 6, 7. For in this transitory and dangerous
wilderness we are as pilgrims and strangers following
the footsteps of Moses, among many unspeakable dan-
gers, beholding nothing with our outward man, but all
vain vanities and vexation of mind, subject to hunger,
cold, nakedness, bonds, sickness, loss, labours, ba-
nisument, in dangerof that dreadful dragon, and his
766
THE HISTORY AND EXAMINATION OF THOMAS WATTS.
[Book XI.
sinful seed, to be devoured, tempted, and tormented,
who ceaseth not behind every bush to lay a bait, when
we walk awry, to have his pleasure upon us, — casting
abroad his apples in all places, times, and seasons, to
see if Adam will be allured and enticed to leave the
living God and his most holy commaiulinents, whereby
he is assured of everlasting life, — promising the world
at will, to all that will fall down in all ages, and for a
mess of pottage sell and set at naught the everlasting
kingdom of heaven. So frail is flesh and blood : ' And
especially Israel is most ready to walk awry, when he
is filled with all manner of riches,' as saith tlie prophet.
" Therefore I am bold in bonds, as entirely desiring
your everlasting health and felicity, to warn you, and
most heartily desire you to watch and pray : For our
state is dangerous, and requireth continual prayer. For
on the high mountains, doth not grow most plenty of
grass, neither are the highest trees farthest from danger,
but seldom sure, and always shaken of every wind that
blovveth. Such a deceitful thing, saith our Saviour, is
honour and riches, that without grace it choaketh up the
good seed sown in his creatuics, and so blindeth their
seeing, that they go groping at noon-day in darkness : it
maketh a man think himself something, that is nothing
at all. For though for our honour we esteem ourselves
and stand in our own light, yet w'hen we shall stand be-
fore the living God, there shall be no respect of persons.
For riches help not in the day oi' vengeance : neither can
we make the Lord partial for money. But as we have
ministered unto the saints, so shall we receive the reward,
which I am fully persuaded and assured shall be plen-
teously poured upon all, for the great goodness shewed
unto the servants of the living God. And I most hearti-
ly beseech Almighty God to pour forth a plenteous
reward upon you for the same, and that he will assist
you with his Holy Spirit in all your doings, that ye may
grow, as ye have begun, unto such a perfection as may
be to God's honour, your own salvation, and the strength-
ening of the weak members of Christ. For though the
world rage, and blaspheme the elect of God, ye know
that it did so unto Christ, his apostles, and to all that
were in the primitive church, and so will do unto the
world's end.
" Therefore believe in the light while ye have it, lest
it be taken away from you ; if you shall neglect the great
mercy of God that hath been opened unto you, and your
hearts consented unto it, that it is the very and only
truth pronounced by God's only Son J esus Christ, by
the good will of our heavenly Father. Therefore I say
in the bowels of my Lord Jesus Christ, stick fast unto it;
let it never depart out of your hearts and conversation,
that you with us and we with you at the great day,
being one flock, as we have one Shejjherd, may rise to
life immortal, through Jesus Christ our only Saviour.
Amen.
" Yours, in him that liveth for ever,
" Thomas Havvkes."
The History of Thomas Watts.
Thomas Watts, of Billericay, in Essex, was a linen
draper. Being in continual fear of seizure, he had sold
his cloth in his shop, and disposed his things to liis wife
and children, and gave away much to the poor.
On the '2(ith day of April, he was apprehended and
brought before the lord Rich, and other commissioners,
and there being accused lor not coming to church, was
examined before the lord Rich, and others.
At the sessions at Chelmsford, the lord Rich said to
him, " You are brought hither, because of disobedience
to the laws of the tjueen. Vou will not come to the
church, you will not hear mass, &c. contrary to the
king's and queen's proceedings."
Watts answered, " JNIy lord, if I have offended a law,
I am subject here to tne law.'' Then Anthony Brown,
justice, said to him, " I pray thee tell me who has been
thy schoolmaster, to teach thee thus ; or where didst
thou first learn this religion ?" Watts answered, " Even
of you, sir : you taught it me, and none more than you.
For in King Edward's days, in open session, you spake
against this religion now in fashion, no preacher could
say more. You then said the mass was abominable,
and all tlieir trumpery besides, earnestly exhorting that
none should believe in them, and that our belief should
be only in Christ : and you said then that whoever
should bring in any foreign j)Ower to rule here, it were
treason, and not to be suffered." Then said Brown to
my lord Rich, " lie belies me, my lord. What a knave
is tliis ? he will soon belie me behind my back, when he
does it before my face," and my lord Rich said, " I dare
say he does."
In conclusion, the commissioners being weary of him,
sent him to the bishop of London.
Articles objected ar;ainxt Thomas Waits, of Billericay,
in the county 0/ Essex, by Bishop Bonner.
" 1. That the said Thomas Watts was of Billericay,
and so of the jurisdiction of the bishop of London.
" 2. Also, that he believed not in the sacraments of
the holy and catholic church, as the catholic church of
Rome and all other churches members of the same, ever
hitherto have believed, and is taught of all good pnd
faithful people, nor has allowed the sacraments, rites,
usages, or ceremonies of the said church, but has de-
spised the same.
" 3. Also, that he believeth, and also taught others,
that the substance of material bread and wine remain in
the sacrament of the altar after the consecration, and
that the said material bread and wine are the siyns and
tokens of Christ's body hanged upon the cross, and of
his blood there shed, and that in the said sacrament
there is only a memory or remembrance of Christ's bodv
and blood, and nothing else.
" 4. Also, that he believeth and doth precisely affirm,
that the very true presence of Christ's body and blood in
substance, is not in the sacrament of the altar, but only
in heaven, and no where else.
" 5. Also, that he believeth, affirmeth, and saith, that
the mass now used in the church of Rome, here in Eng-
land, and other places, is full of idolatry, abomination,
and wickedness, and that Christ did never institute it,
nor ordain it, nor yet allow that it is a good and laudable
thing to be used in his church.
" 6. Also, that he believeth and affirmeth, that auri-
cular confession unto the priest is not necessary, but
superfluous : and that it is enough for a man to believe
only, and to confess himself unto God, without any
priest or minister at any time, though he may have the
priest to confess him unto.
" 7. Also, that he believeth that Luther, Wickliffe,
Barnes, and all others that have holden against the sacra-
ment of the altar, and suffered death by fire or otherwise
for the maintenance of the said opinion, were good men
and faithful servants and martyrs of Christ in so be-
lieving and dying.
" 8. Also, that he hath and doth believe, that to fast,
pray, or to do alms-deeds, is a thing utterly unprofitable ;
for if a man shall be saved, he shall be saved without
doing of them ; and if he shall be damned, they shall not
help him, or do him any good at all.
" y. Also, that the said Watts of late coming into
open court at the sessions before the lord Rich, Sir
Henry Tyrel, knight, Anthony Brown, Esquire, and
others, and being then and there examined, did openly
confess, that he had refused to come to the church, and
to hear there the divine service, and to receive the sacra-
ment of the altar, according to the order of the church :
because that, like as the service of the church set out in
the days of the late King Edward the Sixth, was said and
alleged to be abominable, heretical, schismatical, and all
naughty ; so he the said Thomas Watts then and there
said openly before the said commissioners, that all that
is now used and done in the church, is abominable,
heretical, schismatical, and altogether naughty : And that
he did also then utter before the said commissioners
other erroneous and arrogant words, to the hurt of his
soul, and to the evil example of the people there pre-
sent,
"10. Also, that he the said Thomas, by reason of the
A.D. 1555.]
THE HISTORY AND EXAMINATION OF THOMAS AVATTS.
767
premises, was and is to be taken, had. reputed, and
judged as a manifest and open heretic, and for the same,
by the order of ecclesiastical laws, is to be declared ac-
cursed ; and oeing obstinate and incorrigible, is to be
delivered to the secular power, there to be punished as
an heretic.
" 11. Also, rhathe, over and besides aH these offences
snd trespasses aforesaid, liad also added this trespass ;
tiiat is, tliat he had believed and deliberately spoken that
the church of Rome in her rites, ceremonies, sacraments
constitutions, and traditions, is the synagogue of Satan;
and therefore that he had consented and agreed in opi-
nion and belief with one John Tooly, of late hanged at
Charing Cross, who, at the time of his execution, desired
the peojjle lo pray to be delivered from the tyranny of
the bishop of Rome, with all his enormities ; as who
should say, that his authority and doings were tyranny,
and had all enormities and iniquities in them.
" 12. Also, that the premises and every part thereof
are true, notoriously, manifestly, and openly spoken and
talked of amone;st the honest and credible persons in
great multitude ; and that within Billericay aforesaid, and
Other places thereabout, being of the diocese of London,
there is a common -roice and fame thereof."
The answer of Thomas Waffs to the aforesaid Ar-
ticle';.
To the first, he confessed the same to be true in every
part thereof.
To the second article he answered, that he believeth in
all tne sacraments according to Christ's institution, and
the catholic cliurch ; but not according to the bishop of
Rome's church : and further said, that he does not be-
lieve now as he had done in time past ; for in time past
lie believed as the church then believed, but now he
does not so believe ; for the church of Rome had de-
ceived us, and therefore he said he did not believe as the
church of Rome believeth, but as Christ hath taught
him, and further said thfit he was so taught to believe by
the preaching of one Master Alvey, and others, whose
he remembered not ; which Alvey, he said, did preach
the word of God truly and sincerely.
To the third he answered, that he hath and doth be-
lieve, that Christ's body is in heaven, and no where else:
and further, that he will never believe that Christ's body
is in the sacrament.
To the fourth he answered, confessing and firmly be-
lieving the same to be true.
To the fifth, that he believed, that the mass is abo-
minable, arid that he will not go one jot from that his
belief.
To the sixth, that he neither did, nor yet doth be-
liL^'e, that the priest can absolve him of his sins: how-
Ijt'it, he denieth not it is good to ask counsel at the priest's
riiouth.
To the seventh he said, that he knew not what the
opinions of the said persons named in the said article
were ; and in case the said persons did believe that the
body and blood of Christ were really and in very deed
in the sacrament of the altar, then that they were not
good men. But in case they did believe that the body
and blood of Christ was not in *he sacrament of the altar
1 really and truly, then he believed that they were good
I christian men.
To the eighth, that he had not spoken as is contained
in this article, but said, that he hath and doth believe,
that fasting, prayers, and alms deeds be works of a lively
faith.
To the ninth he confessed, that he did utter and
speak, as in this article is contained, and further he
desiretl God that he might die in that faith and beUef,
wherein he now is.
To the tenth he answered and said, that he would sub-
mit himself herein to the order of the law : and further
said, that he trusted that with God he should be blessed,
although with men he should be accursed.
To the eleventh he said, that he believed that the
bishop of Rome is a mortal enemy to Christ and his
church. And as for Tooljj he said, he never saw or
knew him : but in case the said Tcoly dia srish ana pray
as is contained in the article, than he did likewise wish
and consent with him therein.
To the twelfth he answered, that all which before he
confessed to be true, is also true : and all that he hath
denied to be true, he denieth again to be true, and be-
lieveth the same to be according to such things as he
hath confessed.
These articles thus propounded and answered, the
bishop at another appearance of Watts in the consistory
began with him in this wise; " You know what I said to
you to-day. The time is now come: weigh and consider
with yourself, that you are but a man, and although you
wilfully cast away your body, yet cast not away your
soul, but while ye have time, return and confess tha
truth."
Watts answered, " I am weary of living in such ido-
latry as ye would have me to live in."
The bishop after many persuasions to recant, desired
him to depart, and to come again on Saturday. V.'hen
the bishop was absent. Doctor Nicholas Harpsfield, his
deputy, earnestly exhorted Watts to renounce his opi-
nions. To whom in the end he answered :
" Well, ye have a law to condemn me, and I submit
myself to the law ; but not to the laws of the church, as
you call it."
On the 10th of May, the bishop privately sent for
Watts into his chamber, and there with many fair pro-
mises tried him, whether he would revoke his errors, as he
termed them. But Watts answered, " I will not believe
your church, neither the Romish church, and therefore
you do but labour in vain with me." He was hereupou
again dismissed until Friday the ITth, and then com-
manded to appear in the consistory.
Thus being tossed to and fro from day to day, and
from hour to hour, he was at last, on the ISth of May,
brought into the consistory, and there being desired to
renounce his profession, made this final answer, " Gou
keep me from the doctrine that ye would have me to
come to, which ye have now declared. And 1 beseech
God that I may persevere in that, which I have done :
for I will stand to mine answers."
The bishop perceiving his fair flattering promises to
be useless, proceeded to pass sentence of condemnation.
Which being ended, he was delivered to the sheriffs of
London, and by them he was sent to Newgate, where he
remained until the 9th of June, or, (as some record) to
the 22nd of May : at which time he was carried to
Chelmsford, and there was brought to an inn in Clielms-
ford, where, as they were eating meat with Hawkes and
the rest that came "down to be burned, they prayed to-
gether, both before and after their meat.
Then Watts went and prayed privately, and afterward
came to his wife and six children, and said, "Wife, and
my good children, 1 must now depart from you. There-
fore henceforth I know you no more ; but as the Lord
hath given vou unto me, so I give you again unto the
Lord, whom I charge you to obey, and fear him: and
beware ye turn not to this abominable papistry, against
which I shall soon, by God's grace, give my blood.
Let not the murdering of God's saints cause you to
relent, but take occasion thereby to be the stronger in
the Lord's cause, and I doubt not but he will be a mer-
ciful Father unto vou." In this manner he spoke to
them, and they to him : two of them offered to be burnt
with him. In the end he bade them farewell, and kissed
them all, and was carried to the fire.
At the stake, after he had kissed it, he spoke thus to
Lord Rich, " My lord, beware! beware! for you act
against your own conscience in this, and unless you re-
pent, the Lord will revenge it : For you are the cause o.
my death."
An Account of the supposed pregnancy of Queen
Mary.
A persuasion had been in England, for the space of
half a year or more, that the queen was V^^S^^f^'
This report was made by the queen's physicians, and
* 3 D
res
THE QUEEN'S PREGNANCY.— PROCLAMATION AGAINST CERTAIN BOOKS. [Book XI.
others about the court : so that several were punished
for saying the contrary. And commandment was given,
that in all churches supplication and prayer should
be made for the queen's good delivery. And also,
provision was made in an act of parliament for the
child.
In the beginning of June, about Whitsuntide, the
time was thought to be nigh that this young master
should come into the world, and that midwives, rockers,
nurses, with the cradle and all, should be prepared and
in readiness. Suddenly, upon what cause or occasion
it is uncertain, a rumour was spread in London of tlie
prosperous deliverance of the queen, and the birth of the
child. So that the bells were wrung, bonfires and pro-
cessions made, not only in the city of London, and in
most other parts of the realm, but also at the town of
Antwerp, guns were fired upon the river by the English
ships, and the mariners rewarded with an hundred pis-
tolets or Italian crowns by the lady regent, who was
queen of Hungary. So great was the rejoicing and tri-
umph for the queen's delivery, and that there was a
prince born. Some preachers, as the parson of St.
Anne, within Aldersgate, after the procession and TeDevm,
took upon him to describe the proportions of the child,
how fair, how beautiful, and great a prince it was.
In the end, all proved clean contrary, and the joy
and expectations of men were much deceived. For the
people were certified, that the queen neither was then
delivered, nor was in hope of having any child.
About this time there was brought over into England
a certain English book, giving warning to Englishmen of
the Spaniards, and disclosing certain close practices for
the recovery of abbey lands, which book was called ' A
Warning for England.' Of which more shall be said
when we come to the Spanish inquisition. So that by
the occasion of this book, upon the 13th day of this
month, a certain proclamation was set forth in the name
of the king and queen, repealing and disannulling all
manner of books written or printed, tending to the dis-
paragement of the pope's dignity. The proclamation
here folio weth:
A Proclamation of the King and Qtteen, for the restrain-
ing of all Books and Writings, tending against the doc-
trine of the Pope and his Church.
" Whereas by the statute made in the second year of
King Henry IV. concerning the repressing of heresy,
there is ordained and provided a great punishment, not
only for the authors, makers, and writers of books con-
taining wicked doctrine, and erroneous and heretical
opinions, contrary to the catholic faith and determina-
tion of the holy church, and likewise for their favourers
and supporters ; but also for such as shall have or keep
any such books or writings, and not make delivery of
them to the ordinary of the diocese or his ministers,
within a certain time limited in the said statute, which
act or statute being by authority of parliament of late
revived, was also openly proclaimed, to the intent the
subjects of the realm upon such proclamation should the
rather eschew the danger and penalty of the said statute;
and as yet nevertheless in most parts of the realm the
same is neglected and little regarded. The king and
queen our sovereign lord and lady, therefore, straitly
charge and command, that no person or persons, of what
estate, degree, or condition soever he or they be, from
henceforth presume to bring or convey, or cause to be
brought or conveyed, into this realm, any books, writ-
ings, or works hereafter mentioned, that is to say, any
book or books, writing or works, made or set forth, by,
or in the name of, Martin Luther, or any book or books,
writings or works, made and set forth, by, or in the name
of, Oecolampadius, Zuinglius, John Calvin, I'omerane,
John Alasco, BuUinger, Bucer, Melancthon, Bcrnardinus,
Ochinus, Erasmus, Sarcerius, Peter Martyr, Hugh Lati-
mer, Robert Barnes, otherwise called friar Barnes, John
Bale, otherwise called friar Bale, Justus, Jonas John
Hooper, Miles Coverdale, William Tindal, Thomas Cran-
mer, late archbishop of Canterbury, William Turner, The-
odore Basil, otherwise called Thomas Beacon, John Frith,
Roy, and the book commonly called ' Hall's Chronicle,' or
any of them in tiie Latin tongue, Dutch tongue, English
tongue, Italian tongue, or French tongue, or any other
like book, paper, writing, or work, made, printed, or set
forth, by any other person or persons, containing false
doctrine contrary and against the catholic faith, and the
doctrine of the catholic church. And also that no per-
son or persons presume to write, print, uttei, sell, read,
or keep or cause to be written, printed, uttered, or
kept, any of the said books, papers, works, or writings,
or any book or books written or printed in the Latin or
English tongue, concerning the common service and
administration set forth in English to be used in the
churches of this realm, in the time of King Edward VI.,
commonly called the communion book, or book of com-
mon service, and ordering of ministers, otherwise called
' The book set forth by authority of parliament, for com-
mon prayer and administration of the sacraments, or to
be used in the mother tongue within the church of Eng.
land,' but shall within the space of fifteen days next after
the publication of this proclamation, bring or deliver, or
cause the said books, writings, and works, and every of
them remaining in their custody and keeping, to be
brought and delivered to the ordinary of the diocese
where such books, works, or writings be or remain, or to
his chancellor or commissaries, without fraud, colour or
deceit, at the said ordinaries' will and disposition, to be
burnt, or otherwise to be used or oi'dered by the said
ordinaries, as by the canons or spiritual laws it is in that
case limited and appointed, upon pain that every offender,
contrary to this proclamation, shall incur the danger
and penalties contained in the said statute, and as they
will avoid their majesties' high indignation and dis-
pleasure, and further answer at their uttermost perils.
"And their majesties, by this proclamation, give full
power and authority to all bishops and ordinaries, and
all justices of the peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs of
cities and towns corporate, and other head officers within
this realm and the dominions thereof, and expressly com-
mand and will the same and every of them, that they
and every of them, within their several limits and juris-
dictions, shall, in the default and negligence of the said
subjects, after the said fifteen days expired, inquire and
search out the said books, writings, and works ; and for
this purpose enter into the house or houses, closets, and
secret places of every person, of whatsoever degree, being
negligent in this behalf, and suspected to keep any such
book, writing, orworks, contrary to this proclamation ; and
that the said justices, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, and other
head officers above specified, and every of them within
their said limits and jurisdictions finding any of the
said subjects negligent and faulty in this behalf, shall
commit every such offender to ward, there to remain
without bail or mainprize, till the same offender or of-
fenders have received such punishment as the said sta-
tute doth limit and appoint in this behalf.
" Given under our signs manual, at our Honour of
Hampton Court, the 13th day of June, the first and
second years of our reigns.
" Imprinted by John Cawood, A.D. 1555."
Articles to he inquired into by the Wardens of every
Company, touching Seditious Books, especially touch-
ing the Book called, ' A Warning for England.'
" 1. Whether theyhave seen any of the aforesaid books.
" 2. Whether they have heard of any of the said books.
"3. Where they were, and in what place they have
seen them.
" 4. Whom they know to have lately come from be-
yond the sea, especially from Zurich, Strasburg, Frank-
fort, Wesel, Emden, and Disburgh.
"5. Whom they know or vehemently suspect to be
common carriers of letters, or money, thither from hence.
" 6. That they bring to my lord mayor all such sedi-
tious books as they have, or shall have found hereafter."
In this proclamation thou hast heard, christian reader,
the jirofoundand learned censure of the popish church of
England, what books they dislike and reject as heretical,
schismatical, and pernicious. Against which ceasure
A.D. 1555.]
EXTRACTS FROM THE POPISH PRIMER IN ENGLISH.
769
I do not now argue. Only it may please tlie reader to
allow me to set before him a balance, wherein to weigh
the books condemned on one side, with the books allowed
on the other side, that we, weighing the one with the
other, may discern the better between them, which part
weighs best with God's holy truth and true citholic
church, against manifest idolatry and paljiable abomina
tion. And now therefore, as they have in this present
proclamation given their condemnation of these books
above recited : so I desire thee to give thy censure of
the books allowed by them, and of the matter contained
in them.
And first to begin with the Primer in English ; for
children after the use of Salisbury, printed with a pri-
vilege according to the king and queen's majesties' letters
patent in the reign of Queen Mary. Let us survey
some part of the Primer, beginning with the first lesson
of our Lady, in these words :
" Holy Mary ; mother most pure of virgins all ;
Mother and daughter of the king celestial.
So comfort us in our desolation,
That by thy prayer and special mediation.
We enjoy the reward of thy heavenly reign," &c.
Compare this with the scriptures, good reader, and
judge rightly whether this doctrine be tolerable in the
church or not :
It follows further in the second lesson :
" Holy Mary, of all godly the godliest,
Fray for us, of all holy the holiest ;
That he our prayers accept may in good wise,
Which of thee was born, and reigaeth above the
skies," &c.
In the third lesson :
" Thy Son beseech with humble intercession,
To purge us clean of our transgression ;
That so being redeemed we may the place ascend,
Where thou dwellest with him world without end."
The versicle :
" Pray for the people, intreat for the clergy, make
intercession for the devout woman-kind ; let ail feel thy
help, that worthily solemnize thy memorial," &c.
Another versicle :
•' Holy mother of God, make thy petition, that we
may deserve Christ's remission," &c.
And in the anthem after Benedictus, thus it foUoweth :
" We beseech thee of thy pity to have us in remem-
brance, and to make means for us unto Christ, that we
being supported by thy help, may deserve to attain the
kingdom of heaven."
Furthermore in t'.ie collect after, it follows :
*' And grant, that through the gracious intercession of
the Virgin thy mother, we may be delivered from this
present heaviness, and have the fruition of eternal glad-
ness."
It follows moreover in the said primer thus, concern-
ing the material cross :
" O God, who hast ascended thy most holy cross,
and hast given light to the darkness of the world, vouch-
safe by the virtue of thy cross to illumine, visit, and
comfort both our hearts and bodies," &c.
Moreover, in the name of St. John Baptist thus it
prays :
" O Lord, defend us always through the continual suc-
cours of St. John Baptist. For the more frail we be, the
more need we have to be relieved with necessary prayers,"
&c.
In which words note, good reader, not only the ab-
surdity of doctrine, but also the folly of the reason. For
where their doctrine pretends that St. John Baptist
should pray for us, here we pray to God for St. John
Baptist, that he will hear his prayer praying for us. It
follows further in the name of Peter and Paul :
" Hear us mercifully, and grant that through the
merits of them both, we may obtain the glory everlast-
ing," &c.
Of St. Andrew :
" So let him, O Lord, be a continual petitioner for us
to thee," &.C.
Of St. Lawience, thus :
" St. Lawrence, the deacon, did work a great work.
For by virtue of the holy cross he gave sight to the
blind," &c.
And how can this be true, when the holy cross was
not yet found in tlie time of St. Lawrence ? For Helen
who first found the cross, as they say, came after St.
Lawrence more than forty years !
To Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury :
" By the blood of Thomas, which he for thee did spend,
Make us, Christ, to climb, whither Thomas did ascend."
Of St. Nicholas.
" O God, which hast glorified blessed Nicholas, thy
holy bishop, with innumerable miracles, grant, we be
seech thee, that by his merits and prayers we may be
delivered from the fire of hell."
Of Mary Magdalen.
" Grant, we beseech thee, through thy mercy, to let
her purchase for us the bliss everlasting," &c.
Another prayer to our Lady.
" The dolorous compassion of God's sweet mother,
Bring us to the bliss of Almighty God the Father, &c."
Another prayer in the said primer to our Lady.
" Establish us in peace and tranquillity.
And change the name of sinful Eva ?
Loose thy prisoners from captivity.
Unto the blind give sight again.
Deliver us from malignity.
To the end we may some grace attain.
Shew thyself to be a mother :
So that he accept our j)etition.
Deliver us from bondage of sin," &c.
Also,
" Holy mother succour the miserable, comfort the
weak-spirited, give courage to the desperate, pray for the
people, make intercession for the clergy, and be a mean
for the devout woman-kind," &c.
Another blasphemous prayer.
" O thou meek mother, have mercy therefore
On wretches, for whom thou hadst these pains aH,
Seeing thy Son that vine cluster pressed sore :
And from the pestilence of death eternal,
Keep us by voiding the fiend infernal.
And join us with them which rewarded be
Yvith eternal life, seeing the Deity."
Another blasphemy in the said primer.
" Mail queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness,
our hope. Unto thee do we cry and sigh, weeping and
wailing. Come off therefore our patroness, cast upon us
tliy pitiful eyes, and after this our banishment, show to
us the blessed fruit of thy womb. O gate of glory, be for
us a reconciliation unto the Father and the Son. From
the wretched their faults expel: wipe the spots of sins
unclean," &c.
Also to our Lady,
" The fruit of thy womb everlasting,
May we behold through thy deserving," &c.
Also,
" Grant we beseech thee, that by her merits and pray-
ers we may attain to that unspeakable joy. whereas she
being assumpt, doth now rejoice with thee in heaven for
ever."
And thus much for this popish primer, called "Our
Lady's Matins." To this, if it were not tedious for
the reader, we would also add our Lady's Psalter, that
all impartial readers, as they have seen what books these
popish fathers have condemned and do condemn for he-
retical ; so they may also see and judge, what books
on the other side they approve as lawful and catliolic.
And as perhaps it is not known to every one what " Our
Lady's Psalter" is, and some perhaps will deny that
" Our Lady's Psalter was approved, therefore we will
first produce the name of the author, who was Bonaven-
ture, a seraphical doctor, bishop also and cardinal,
canonized by pope Sixtus IV., A.D. 1482., for a saint
in the Calendar, who in his book has taken every
psalm of David's psalter, which was peculiarly made
and referred to Almighty God, and has in several psalms
and verses put out the name of the Lord, and has in-
serted in its stead the name of " Our Lady." This be-
in" done through the whole psalms, it is called " Our
770
EXTRACTS FROM " OUR LADY'S PSALTER.'
[Book XI.
Lady's Psalter," and was used to be sung and said in
the praise and service of our Lady. A little of which,
for example's sake, we thought here to exhibit to the
reader.
The Title in English of the Psalter.
" Here beginneth the Psalter of the blessed Virgin,
made by the seraphical Doctor St. Bonaventure, the
bishop of Alban, and Cardinal of the holy church
of Rome."
Psalm 1. — " Blessed is the man which understandeth
thy name, O Virgin Mary, thy grace shall comfort his
soul. Thou shalt bring forth in him the most plentiful
fruit of JAistice, being watered as it were with foun-
tains of water. All women thou passest in the beauty
of thy body ; all angels and archangels in the excellency
of thy holiness. Thy mercy and thy grace is magnified
everywhere, &c. Glory be to the Father," &c.
Psalm 2. — " Why do our enemies fret and imagine
vain things against us ? Let thy right hand defend us,
O mother of God, terribly confounding and destroying
them as a sword. Come unto her all ye that labour and
are troubled, and she will give rest unto your souls.
Come unto her in your temptations, and her loving
countenance shall stablisb and comfort you. Bless her
with all your heart ; for the earth is full of her mercy.
Glory be to the Father," &c.
Psalm 3. — "Why are they so many, O Lady, that
trouble me ? In thy fury thou shalt persecute and de-
stroy them. Loose the bonds of our impiety, and take
away the burden of our sins. Have mercy upon me, O
Lady, and heal my infirmity. Take away my sorrow
and the anguish of my heart. Deliver me not into the
hands of mine enemies, and in the day of my death
comfort my soul. Bring me unto the haven of salvation,
and restore my spirit unto my Maker and Creator. —
Glory be to the Father," &c.
Psalm 4.— "When I called to thee, thou heardest me,
O my Lady, and out of thy high throne thou didst
vouchsafe to think upon me. From the roaring of
them that prepare themselves to devour me, and out of
the hands of such as seek after my life, thy grace shall
deliver me. Because thy mercy and thy pity are great
towards all them that call upon thy holy name. Blessed
De thou, O Lady, for ever, and thy majesty for ever and
Jver. Glorify her all nations of the earth,'' &c.
Psalm 5. — " Hear my words, O Lady, &c. ; turn our
mourning into gladness, and our trouble into rejoicing.
Let our enemies fall before our feet, and with thy power
dash their heads in pieces."
Psalm C. — " O Lady, suffer me not to be rebuked in
God's anger, nor to be chastened in his heavy dis-
pleasure, &c. From the gate and deep pit of hell, with
thy holy prayers, deliver us. Let the everlasting gates
be opened, that we may shew forth thy marvellous
works for ever. Because the dead, nor they that be in
hell shall not praise thee, O Lady, but they which shall
obtain by thy grace life everlasting."
Psalm 7. — " O my Lady, in thee will I put my trust ;
deliver me from mine enemies, O Lady. Stop the mouth
of the lion, and bind the lips of the persecutors. Make
no tarrying for thy name's sake, to shew thy mercy
upon me. Let the brightness of thy countenance shine
upon us, that our conscience may be saved before the
most highest. If the enemy do persecute my soul, O
Lady, help me that he destroy me not."
Psalm y. — " I will give thanks to thee, O Lady, with
my whole heart, and will shew forth among the nations
thy praise and glory, &c. They shall find grace through
thee, the finder out of grace and salvation, the humble
and penitent groan for pardon and forgiveness ; heal
thou the sores of their hearts." &c.
Psalm 11. — " In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust, &n.
Seek her even from your youth, and she sliall glorify
you, &c. Her mercy take from us the multitude of our
sins, and give unto us pleuteousness of merits," &c.
Psalm 12. — "Save me, O mothir of love, and foun-
tain of mercy, &c. Thou thyself alone hast gone about
the compass of the earth, to help them that call upon
thee."
] Psalm 1.'?. — " How long dost thou forget me, O Lady,
and dost not deliver me in the day of my trouble ? How
long shall mine enemy triumph over me ? With thy
mighty power destroy him, tkc. We magnify thee the
finder and the author of grace, by whom the world is re-
paired," &c.
Psalm 16. — " Preserve me, O Lady, for in thee have I
put my trust, &c. Blessedbe thy breasts, with which thy
deifying milk didst nourish tlie Savioirr," &c.
Psalm 18. — " I will love thee, O Lady of heaven and
earth ; I will call upon thy name among the nations.
Confess yourselves unto her, ye that are troubled in
heart, and she shall strengthen you against your ene-
mies, &c. All ye cloisterers honour her, for she is your
helper and special advocate. Be thou our refreshing and
rest, for thou art the marvellous foundation of all reli-
gion."
Psalm 20. — " Hear us, O Lady, in the day of trouble,
&c. Cast us not away in the time of our death, but
succour our soul when it forsaketh the body. Send
an angel to meet it, that it may be defended from the
enemies, &c. In torments and pain let it feel tliy com-
fort, and grant to it a place among the elect of God."
Psalm 2o. — "To thee, O Lady, do I lift up my soul, &c.
Let not the snares of death prevail against me, &c. Be
thou my guide to the heavenly rest, and to the company
of angels associate me.''
Psalm 26". — " Judge thou me, O Lady, for I am fallen
from mine innocency : but because I put my trust in
thee, therefore I shall not fall," &c.
Psalm 27. — " O Lady, let the brightness of thy face
be my sight, and let the clearness of thy grace shine
unto my mind," &c.
Pslam 28. — " To thee, O Lady, &c. Have mercy
upon me in the day of my trouble, and in ftie light of
thy truth deliver me," &c.
Psalm 31. — " In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust,
let me not be confounded for ever, in thy glory receive
me. Thou art my strength and my refuge, my consola-
tion and protection, &c. Deliver me from the snare
that they have laid for me, because thou art my helper.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit," &c.
Psalm 34. — " I will always praise our Lady, &c.
In perils, in adversity, call upon her, and in time of
need ye shall find succour. Let her conversation be an
example unto you, and follow the virtue of her humility.
Because, therefore, O Lady, thou wast humble and lowly,
thou didst compel the Word uncreate to take flesh of
thee."
Psalm 3(). — " The wicked man said, &c. Let him de-
part from his evil purpose ; O mother of God, turn the
countenance of God towards us. Compel him to be
merciful unto sinners. Blessed be thy empire and do-
minion in heaven, and blessed be thy magnificence upoa ,
the earth."
Psalm 45. — " My heart is inditing a good matter, Oj
Lady, &c. By thy holineis let my sins be purged, byl
thy integrity let me obtain incorruption," &c.
Psalm 47. — " Clap your hands, all ye people, &.c. Fori
she is the gate of life, the door of salvation, the recon-
ciler of our life ; the hope of the penitent, the comfor
of the sorrowful, the blessed peace of hearts, and salva-J
lion. Have mercy upon me, O Lady, have mercy upon!
me ; for thou art the light and hope of aU that put theirJ
trust in thee."
Psalm 51. — " Have mercy upon me, O Lady, whicll
art called the Mother of Mercy, and in the bowels of thj
great compassion cleanse me from mine iniquities."
Psalm 54. — " O Lady, in thy name save me, and frOD
mine unrighteousness deliver me," &c.
Psalm 7\). — " Make liaste, O Lady, to help me, &c.j
Have mercy on thy servants, upon whom thy name
invocated," &c.
Psalm 71. — " In thee. Lady, have I put my trust : lei
me not be confounded for ever, in thy mercy deliver
me," tkc.
Psalm 79. — " O Lady, the Gentiles are come into the!
inheritance of God, whom thou didst join unto Christ byJ
thv merits," &c.
Psalm 80.—" Thou that rulest Israel, &c. The savour J
AD. 1555.]
REMARKS ON " OUR LADY'S PSALTER."
771
of life cometh from her, and all health floweth out of her
heart," &c.
Psalm 91.— Whoso dwelleth in the help of the Mother
of God, shall dwell in the shadow of her protection, &c.
Cry unto her in your dangers, and the scourge shall not
come near your tabernacle. The fruit of grace shall be
to liim whoso trusteth in her, and the gate of paradise
shall be open unto him."
Psalm 95. — " Come, let us rejoice to our Lady, &c.
Receive our souls at our last end, and bring them into
everlasting rest," &c.
Psalm 105. — "Praise our Lady, and call upon her
name, &c. Everlasting salvation is in thy hand, O
Lady," &e.
Psalm 110. — " The Lord said unto our Lady, ' Sit
here, my mother, on my right hand,' " &c.
Psalm 119. — " The whole earth is full of thy mercies,
and, therefore, I will search out the way of thy justifica-
tions, &c. I will covet for ever to praise thee, O Lady,
when thou shalt teach me thy justifications," &c.
Psalm 125. — "They that put their trust in thee, O
Motlier of God, shall not be afraid of the face of their
enemy,'' &c.
Psalm 127. — " Except our Lady shall build the house
of our heart, the building thereof shall not continue."
Psalm 128. — " Blessed is every one that feareth our
Lady, and blessed be all they which know to do her
will," &c.
Psalm 130. — " Out of the deep have I called unto
thee, O Lady ; O Lady, hear my voice," &c.
Psalm 132. — " O Lady, remember David, and all them
that call upon thy name," &c.
Psalm l.U. — " Behold and bless now our Lady, all ye
that put your trust in her holy name."
Psalm 136.—" At the floods of Babylon, &c. There
is no propitiation to be found without her," &c.
Psalm 140. — " Deliver me, O Lady, from all evil, and
from the infernal enemy defend me,'' &c.
Psalm 145. — " Our eyes look up and trust in thee
Do thou send us meat and food convenient, &c. My
tongue shall speak thy praise, and shall bless thee for
ever."
Psalm 148. — " Praise thou our Lady, O Jerusalem,
and glorify her also, O thou Sion ; for she buildeth up
thy walls, and blesseth thy children. Her grace maketh
thee fat, and giveth peace unto thy coasts," &c.
I could recite also much more of such blasphemy in
this " Psalter of our Lady,"by the seraphical doctor, St.
Bonaventure.
Is not here good popish stuff, christian reader ? Com-
pare, I beseech you, this doctrine with the doctrine of
the apostles, who teach us that we are fully complete in
Christ, and I will refer you to no better judge than to
your own conscience. And now, if any man has been in
doubt in times past of the doctrine of the Church of
Rome, whether it be rightly charged with blind errors,
with intolerable blasphemy and abominable idolatry, or
not, he may now be fully certified and resolved. For
where was ever idolatry or blasphemy to be found, if it
be not here in this " Matins" and " Psalter of Our
Lady?" If idolatry be the making an idol to be wor-
shipped as God, which is no god, what do we here but
make an idol of " our Lady," to be worshipped with no
less dignity, glory, authority, reverence, and service, than
the Lord God himself. And as he is called our Lord,
so she is called our Lady. And if he be king, she is the
queen of heaven. And though he have the name of God,
yet she bears the title of the Mother of God ; that as
mothers have authority over their children, so she is to
shew herself to be his mother, to cause him to grant our
petitions. Finally, if he be our patron, yet she is our
patroness. The commandment saith, " Thou shalt wor-
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
And what worship, or service, can we give to God more
than all this ascribes to her ? And what benefit is to be
asked at the hands of Christ, our Saviour, which is not
equally asked of her ? To save our souls, to give us
peace, to grant grace, to comfort the desperate, to loose
our captivity, to releasi: o»» viis, to deliver from the fiend,
to bring to heaven, &c. To her we pray, we cry, wo
\vee[), we sigh, we groan, we knock, and kneel ; to her
we trust, and if we believe not also in our Lady, we are
forthwith denounced as heretics.
Further, as Christ, our only Lord and Saviour, has his
church and congregation which profess his name, of
wliom we are called cliristians ; so neither is slie Ukewise
without her chapels, lier cloisters, her chapters, frater-
nities and brotherhoods, which, professing her name in
like manner, are called our Lady's brethren, or White
friars, besides an innumerable sort of other patrons (if
churches, of whom every one has his peculiar ciiurch and
religion by himself, yet all these together are included
under the general devotion of our Lady, their supreme
patroness and governess.
Now, to proceed further to the other part of the com-
mandment, which saith, " Him only shalt thou serve.'
What service has the Lord in all the church of Rome
that our Lady has not jointly witli him ? Her mass, her
matins, her even-song, her hours and complin, her
rosaries, her anthems, her collects, her primer, her
psalter, her holidays likewise, yea, five to one. Finally,
as the Lord has his prayer called the Lord's Prayer, so
hath she her ' Hail Mary', yea, ten Hail Marys to one Our
Father ; and read further in Bonaventure, and you shall
see her 'We praise thee,' her ' Blessed,' her' My soul doth
magnify,' and also her ' Whosoever will be saved,' &c.
If the Lord our (lod had not expressed to us his will
by plain words, limiting unto us, by express injunction,
what to believe, what to follow, and how to worship and
serve him, and how to receive from him our salvation,
but had left us to the imagination of our own minds,
every man to shift for himself, then perhaps this wav
taken by the pope's church, to make friends and media-
tors between God and us, for reconciliation, remission,
and salvation, might have some reason; but now God's
word binds us, prescribes and limits us, precisely in
every point touching salvation what to believe, and what
to do, shewing us plainly that we cannot be saved but by
the blood of his Son only, neither can be justified but by
faith only in the same Christ his Son : wherefore, not to
believe that which he has promised is infidelity, and to
follow any other belief than he hath sent us is plaia
idolatry ; which two special errors most commonly fol-
low the doctrine of the Romish church, as not only in
this primer and psalter of our Lady, but also in all
their proceedings, teaching and preaching besides, may
well appear. For where the scripture doth perfectly
promise and pronounce us to be justified through our
faith in Christ, and allows us to seek our salvation no
where else, but only in the merits of Jesus ; the institu-
tion of the church of Rome, neither will receive that
which God has freely given (wherein standeth infi-
delity), neither yet will seek the same where they should,
but in the merits and prayers of our Lady, of St. John
Baptist, St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Andrew, St. Nicho-
las, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and by the worthiness of
the material cross, and such other unlawful means,
wherein standeth plain idolatry. And yet such books as
these can be suffered among the papists to be current,
as good, wholesome, and lawful books ; whereas, the
others, which lead us the true way from infidelity and
blind idolatry to true Christianity, in no wise can be suf-
fered. But of this it is vain to complain. We will now
proceed in our history.
The History of Thomas Osmo7id, William Bamford, and
Thomas Osborne.
INIention was made before in the account of Thomas
Hawkes, of six prisoners besides, who were sent down
with him to Essex at the same time that he went to exe-
cution ; three were sent to be burned, the other three to
recant and to do penance, of whom it follows now to
treat. The names of the six were these :— Thomas Os-
mond, fuller ; William Bamford, alias Butler, weaver ;
Thomas Osborne, fuller ; Nicholas Chamberlam, weaver ;
Thomas BrodehiU, weaver; Richard -Webb, weaver,
being all of the town of Coxhall. A 11 which six Coxhall
men! next after the examinations of Thomas Hawkes
and Thomas Watts, were sent up to Bonner to be exa-
772
AN ACCOUNT OF JOHN BRADFORD.
[Book XI.
mined by tne Earl of Oxford and Sir I'hilij) Paris,
knight.
The prisoners being sent up, were brought before the
bishop, on the 17th of the month, to be examined upon
some articles objected against them ; to which they
were compelled to answer. The articles were similar to
those so frequently objected to other godly martyrs, and
were answered in like manner.
The articles being propounded and answered, they
were dismissed until the afternoon, when they again
aj)peared, and were examined by fair and flattering
speeches, as well by the bishop as by his assistants, and
talked to, to recant and revoke their opinions. They not-
withstanding remained firm in their opinions, and there-
fore, after the common usage of the ecclesiastical laws of
the papal church, were sent away again until the next
day, being the 18th day of May. Then in the forenoon
the bishop, according to his accustomed manner of i)ro-
ceeding, again dismissed them, and at last in the after-
noon condemned them as heretics, and so delivered
tliem to the sheriffs, in whose custody they remained un-
til they were delivered to the sheriff of Essex, and by
him were executed, — Chamberlain at Colchester, on the
14th of June ; Thomas Osmond at Manningtree, on tlie
l.jth, and William Bamford, alias Butler, at Harwich,
on the same day.
The History of the worthy Martyr and Servant of God,
Master John Bradford.
John Bradford was born at Manchester. His parents
brought him up in learning from his infancy, until he
attained such knowledge in the Latin tongue, and skill
in writing, that he was able to gain his own living. Ke
continued some years in an honest and good life, after
the course of this world, when the Lord, who had
eh'cted him to a better function, and preordained him to
preach the gospel of Christ in that hour of grace, which
in his secret council he had appointed, called his chosen
child to the vinderstanding and partaking of the gospel
of life. In which he was so truly taught, that his ef-
fectual call was perceived by the fruits. For Bradford
forsook his worldly affairs and worldly wealth, and gave
himself wholly to the study of the holy scriptures. To
accomplish his purpose the better, he departed from
the Temple at London, where the temporal law is
studied, and went to the University of Cambridge, to
learn by God's law how to further the building of the
Lord's temple. In Cambridge his diligence in study,
his profiting in knowledge and godly conversation so
pleased all men, that within one year after that he had
been there, the university gave him the degree of a master
of arts.
Immediately after the master and fellows of Pembroke
hall did give him a fellowship in their college ; that man
of God, Martin Bucer, so liked him, that he held him
not only most dear to him, but also often exhorted him
to direct his talent to preaching. He answered always
that he was unable to serve in that office, through waTit
of learning. To the which Bucer was used to rei)ly,
saying, " If thou have not fine manchet bread, yet give
the poor people barley bread, or whatsoever else the
I^ord hath committed unto thee." And while Bradford
was thus persuaded to enter into the ministry, Doctor
Ridley, that worthy bishop of London, and glorious
martyr of Christ, called him to take the degree of a
deacon. He obtained for him a license to jjreach, and
gave him a prebend in his cathedral church of St.
Paul's.
In this office by the space of three years, how faith-
fully Bradford walked, how diligently he laboured, many
parts of England can testify. He sharply opened and
reproved sin ; he sweetly preached Christ crucified,
pithily impugned heresies and errors, and earnestly per-
suaded the people to live godly lives. After the death
of our blessed young King Edward VI. when Queen Mary
had got the crown, Bradford still continued diligent in
preaching, until he was unjustly deprived both of his
office and liberty by the queen and her council.
The fact was this : en the l.'Uh of August, in the first
year of the reigti of Queen Mary, Master Bourne, then
bishop of Bath, made a sermon at St. Paul's Cross in
London, to set ))opery abroad, so that it moved the
people to no small indignation, being almost ready to
l)ull him out of the pulpit. Neither could the reverence
of the place, nor the presence of Bishop Bonner, nor
yet the commandment of the Mayor of London, whom
the people ought to have obeyed, stay their rage; but
the more they spoke, the more the peojjle were in-
censed. At length Bourne, seeing the ])eople in such a
mood, and himself in such peril, ended his sermon, fear-
ing lest he should there end his wretched life, and de-
sired Bradford, who stood in the pulpit behind him, to
come forth, and to stand in his place and speak to the
people. Good Bradford at his request spoke to the peo-
))le, and exhorted them to godly and quiet obedience.
As soon as the peo])le saw him begin to speak to them,
they were so glad to hear him, that they cried with a
great shout : "Bradford! Bradford! God save thy life,
Bradford !" Shewing not only what affection they bare
unto him, but also what regard they gave unto his words.
For after that he had preached to them, and exhorted
them to be quiet and patient, soon all the raging ceased,
and in the end each man departed quietly to his house.
Yet Bourne thought himself not yet full sure of his life
till he was safely housed, notwithstanding that the
mayor and sheriffs of London were at hand to help
them. Wherefore he desired Bradford not to depart
from him till he was in safety ; which Bradford, accord-
ing to his promise, performed. For while the mayor
and sheriffs led Bourne to the school-master's house,
Bradford went at his back, shadowing him from the
people with his gown, and so set him safe.
Within three days after, he was sent for to the Tower
of London, where the queen t'nen was, to appear before
the council. There he was charged with this act of
saving of Bourne, which act they called seditious, and
also objected against him for preaching. He was then
committed first to the Tower, then to other prisons,
out of which neither his innocence, godliness, nor cha-
ritable dealing could purchase to him liberty of body,
till by death (which he sufiered for Christ's cause), he
obtained the heavenly liberty, of which neither pope nor
papist shall ever deprive him. From the Tower he was
sent to the King's Bench in South ^rark; and after his
condemnation, he was sent to the Compter, in the
Poultry, in London; in which two ])laces he preached
twice a day continually, unless sickness hindered him ;
where also the sacrament was often administered ; and
through the kindness of the keeper to him, there was such
a resort of good ))eople daily to his lecture, and to the
ministration of the sacrament, that commonly his
chamber was well nigh filled. Preaching, reading, and
praying occupied his whole life. He did not eat above
one meal a day ; which was but very little when he took
it ; and his continual study was upon his knees. In the
midst of dinner he used often to muse with himself,
having his hat over his eyes, from whence came usually
plenty of tears. He was very gentle to man and child,
and in so good credit with his keeper, that at his de-
sire in an evening, being prisoner in the King's Bench
in Southwark, he had license upon b.is promise to re-
turn again that night, to go into London without any
keeper, to visit one that was sick. Neither did he fail
in his promise, but returned to his j)rison again, rather
anticipating his hour, than breaking his fidelity, so con-
stant was he in word and in deed.
In person he was somewhat tall and slender, spare
body, of a faint sanguine colour, with an auburn beard.
He slept commonly not above four hours in the night ;
and in his bed, till sleep came, his book was not out of
his hand. His chief recreation was not in gaining, or
other pastime, l)\it only in honest company, and profit-
able talk, in which he would spend a little time after
dinner, and then went to prayer and his book again.
He counted that hour not well spent, in which he did
not some good, either with his ]ien, study, or in tx -
horting others, &c. He was no nigg'ird of his jMirse,
but would liberally shiire what he had wiih his fellow-
prisoners. And commonly once a week he visited the
I
A.D. 155j.]
AN ACCOUNT OF JOHN BRADFORD.
in
thieves, pick-pocKets, and such others that were with
him in prison where he lay, to whom he would give
godly exhortation, to amend their lives by repentance,
and afterwards distribute among them some portion of
money to their comfort.
Wliile he was in the King's Bench, and Master
Smders in the Marshalsea prison, at the rear of those
tvvo prisons tliey met many times, and conferred toge-
thin- ; so mercifully did the Lord work for them, even in
tlie midst of their troubles ; and Bradford was so
trusted by his keeper, and had such liberty, that there
was no day but he might have easily escaped if he
would, but the Lord had other work for him. In the
summer, while he was in the King's Bench, he had li-
berty of his keeper to ride into Oxfordshire, to a mer-
chant's house of his acquaintance, and horse and all
things were prepared for his journey, and the party in
readiness who should ride with him ; but God prevented
him by sickness, so that he went not at all.
I >iie of his old friends and acquaintance came to him
whilst he was prisoner, and asked him, if he sued to get
him out, wliat he would do, or whither he would go ?
He made answer, as not caring whether he went out or
not ; but if he did, he said he would marry, and abide
still in England secretly, teaching the people, and occu-
pying himself in that way. He was had in so great re-
verence and admiration with all good men, that a mul-
titude, who never knew him but by fame, greatly
lamented his death ; yea, and a number also of the pa-
pists themselves wished heartily that his life should be
spared.
One afternoon as he was walking in the keeper's
chamber, the keeper's wife suddenly came to him,
as one set;ming in much trouble, and said : " Oh,
Master Bradford, I come to bring you heavy news."
" What is that ?" said he. '* Mairy," quoth she ; " to-
morrow you are to be burned ; and your chain is now
buying, and soon you must go to Newgate." With
that Master Bradford put off his cap, and lifting np his
eyes to heaven, said : "I thank God for it ; I have
looked for the same a long time, and therefore it cometh
not now to me suddenly, but as a thing waited for every
day and hour; the Lord make me worthy;" so thanking
h.;i- .or her gentleness, departed to his chamber, and
called his friend with him. When he came thither, he
went secretly himself alone a long time, and prayed ;
winch done, he came again to his friend, and gave him
several writings and papers, and shewed him his mind
in those things which he wished to have done. They
then continued together all the evening, when there
came to him half a dozen of his friends more, with
whom he spent the time in prayer and other good exer-
cise, they wondering to hear and see his doings.
A little before he went out of the Compter, he made
a notable j.rayer at his farewell, with such humility and
holy unction, that it ravished the minds of the hearers.
Also when he put on the shirt that was made for his
burning, he made such a prayer concerning the wedding
garment, that some of those present were in su^^h great
admiration, that their eyes were as thoroughly occupied
in looking on him, as their ears gave place to hear his
prayer. At his departing out of the chamber, he made
likewise a prayer, and gave money to every servant and
officer of the house, with exhortation to them to fear
and serve God, continually labouring to eschew all
manner of evil. That done, he turned himself to the
wali and prayed vehemently, that his words might no't
be spoken in vain, but that the Lord would work the
same in them effectually, for Christ's sake. When he
was in the court, all the prisoners cried out to him, and
bade him farewell, as the rest of the house had done be-
fore with tears.
The time they carried him to Newgate, was about
eleven or twelve o'clock in the night, when it was
thought none would be stirring abroad ; and yet, con-
trary to their expectation, there was in Cheapside and
Other places, between the Compter and Newgate, a great
multitude of people that came to see him, who most
gently bade him farewell, prajing for him with most la-
mentable and jsitiful tears, and he again as gently bade
them farewell, praying most heartily for them. Now,
whether it were a commandment from the queen and
her council, or from Bonner and his adherents ; or
whether it were devised by the lord mayor, aldermen,
and sheriffs of London, or not, I cannot tell ; but there
was a great noise over-night about the city, that Brad-
ford was to be burnt the next day in Smithfield, by four
o'clock in the morning, before it should be much known.
Some thinking the fear of the jjeople to be the cause of
this ; others thought that it was rather because the pa-
j)ists judged his death would convert many to the truth.
So some thought one thing, and some another. But
this was certain, the peojjle prevented the device sus-
pected ; for the next day, at the hour of four o'clock
in the morning, there was in Smithfield a great multitude
of men and women.
However, it was nine o'clock of the day before Master
Bradford was brought into Smithfield. He was led
forth with a great company of armed men, as the like
was not seen at any man's burning. Bradford, being
come to the place, fell flat to the ground, secretly mak-
ing his prayers to Almighty God. Then rising again,
and putting off his clothes to his shirt, he went to the
stake, and there suffered with a young man of twenty
years of age, whose name was John Leaf, joyfully and
constantly.
Communication lettveen John Bradford and the Lord
Chancellor and others in Commission with him, on the
22d of January, A. D. 1555.
After the lord chancellor, and the residue of the
queen's council in commission with him, had ended
their talk with Farrar, late bishop of St. David's, the
under-marshall of the King's Bench, was commanded t<f
bring in John Bradford : being come into the presence
of the council, he kneeled down on his knees ; but im-
mediately was bidden by the lord chancellor to stand up.
When he was risen, the lord chancellor earnestly
looked upon him : but he gave no place, that is, he
ceased not in like manner to look on the lord chancelloi,
save that once he cast up his eyes to heaven-ward, and
sighed for God's grace.
Then the lord chancellor, somewhat troubled, spake to
him to this effect ; " That for a long time he had been im-
prisoned justly for his seditious behaviour at St. Paul's
cross, on the 13th August, 1553, for his false preaching
and arrogance, taking upon him to preach without
authority. But now,'' he added, "the time of mercy is
come, and therefore the queen's highness, willing to
offer mercy, hath sent to declare and give the same, if
you will return : and if you will do as we have done, yoa
shall find as we have found, I warrant you." This was
the sum of his words, and in manner the same words
which he spake.
To these words John Bradford spake : " My lord, and
lords all, I confess that I have been long imprisoned,
and (with humble reverence be it spoken) unjustly, for
I did nothing seditiously, falsely, or arrogantly, in word
or deed, by preaching or otherwise ; but rather soughc
truth, peace, and all god'y quietness, as an obedient and
faithful subject both in going about to save Master Bourne,
now the bishop of Bath, who was preaching then at St,
Paul's Cross."
At these words, or rather before he had fully finished,
the lord chancellor said that " the act was seditious, as
you, my lord of London, can bear witness."
Bonner. — " You say true, my lord, I saw him with
mine own eyes, when he took upon him to rule and lead
the people malapertly, thereby proving that he was the
author of the sedition."
Bradford — " My lords, notwithstanding my lord
bishop's seeing and saying, yet I have told the truth, as
one day my Lord God Almighty shall reveal to all the
world, when we shall all come and appear before him :
In the mean time, as I caimot be btlieved by you, 1
must and am ready to suffer."
Lord Chancellor.—" I know thou hast a sl.o.vy and
glorious tongue, but all tliou sj.eakest is lies. 1 have
not for-^ot how stubborn thou was when thou wast be-
774
JOHN BRADFORD'S EXAMINATION BEFORE THE LORD CHANCELLOR. [Cook XI
fore us in the Tower, whereupon thou wast committed
to prison concerning religion : I Isave not forirocten tliy
behaviour and talk, for which thou hast worthily been
kept in prison, as one that would have done more hurt
than I will speak of."
Bradford. — " My lord, as I said before, so I say
again, that 1 stand as before you, so before God, and
one day we shall all stand before him : the truth then
will be the truth, though now you will not so take it.
Yea, my lord, I dare say, that my lord of Bath (Master
fJourne) will witness with me, that I sought his safety
at the peril of mine own life.''
Bonner. — " That is not true; for I myself did see
thee take upon thee too much."
Bradford. — " No, I took nothing upon me that was
not desired, and that too by Master Bourne himself, as,
if he were here present, I dare say he would affirm what
I say. For he desired me both to help him to pacify
the people, and also not to leave him till he was in
safety. If I said any tiling before your honours, in the
Tower, that did not beseem me, if your lordships would
tell me what it was, I should and would shortly make
you answer."
Chancellor. — "Well, leave this matter: Wilt thou
return again, and do as we have done, and thou shalt
receive the queen's mercy and pardon ?"
Bradford. — " My lord, I desire mercy with God's
mercy; but mercy with God's wrath, may God keep
me from : my conscience doth not accuse me. All that
ever I did or spake, was both agreeable to God's laws,
and the laws of the realm."
Chancellor. — " Well, if thou make this babbling roll-
ing in thy eloquent tongue, and yet being altogether
ignorant and vain glorious, and wilt not receive mercy
'ottered to thee, knovv for truth, that the queen is
mmded to make a ' purgation of all such as thou art.' "
Bradford. — " The Lord, before whom I stand, as well
as before you, knoweth what 1 have sought : his mercy I
desire, and also would be glad of the queen's favour, to
live as a subject without a clog of conscience. But
otherwise the Lord's mercy is better to me than life.
And 1 know to whom I have committed my life, even
into his hands who will keep it, so that no man may
take it away before it be his pleasure. Therefore his
good will be done; life in his displeasure is worse than
death ; and death with his true favour, is true life."
Chancellor. — " I know well enough, that we shall
have glorious talk enough from thee : be assured, there-
fore, that as thou hast deceived the people with false
and devilish doctrine, so shalt thou receive."
Bradford. — " I have not deceived the people, nor
taught any other doctrine, than by God's grace I am,
and hope shall be, ready to confirm with my life. And
as for the devilishness and falseness in the doctrine, I
would be sorry you could so prove it."
Durham. — " Why, tell me, what say you about the
ministration of the communion ?"
Bradford. — " My lord, here I must desire of your
lordshij), and of all your honours, a question, before I
dare make you an answer to any interrogatory or ques-
tion. I have been six times sworn that 1 shall in no
case consent to the practising of any jurisdiction, or any
authority on the bisiiop of Rome's behalf within this
realm of England. Now, before God, 1 humbly pray
your honours to tell me whether you ask me this ques-
tion by his authority, or not? If you do, I dare not, nor
may answer you any thing in his authority, which you
shall demand of me, except I would be forsworn, which
God forbid."
Secretary Bourn. — " Hast thou been sworn si.x times.'
what office hast thou borne ?"
Bradford. — " I was thrice sworn in Cambridge ; when
I was admitted master of arts, when 1 was admitted
fellow of Pembroke Hall, and when 1 was there, the
visitors came there, and sware the university. Again, I
was sworn wiien I entered into the ministry, when 1 had
a prebend given me, and when I was sworn to serve the
king a little before his death."
Chancellor. — " Tush ! Herod 's oaths a man should
make uo conscieuce at."
Bradford. — " But, my lord, these were no Herod's
oaths ; no unlawful oaths; but oaths according to God's
word, as you yourself have well affirmed in your book
' De vera obedientia.' "
Rochester. — " My lords, I never knew why this man
was in prison before now: but I see that it had not been
good that this man had been abroad : what the cause
was that he was put in prison, I know not ; but I now
well know that not without a cause he was and is to be
kept in prison."
Bourn. — " Yea, it was reported this parliament-time,
by the earl of Derby, that he has done more hurt by
letters, and exhorting those that have come to him, in
religion, than ever he did when he was abroad by f)reach-
ing. In his letters he curses all that teach any false
doctrine (for so he calls that which is not according to
what he taught) and most heartily exhorts them to
whom he writes to continue still in what they have re-
ceived from him."
Bradford.—" I have not written, nor spoken any
thing seditiously, nor I trust ever shall do."
Bourn. — " Yea, thou hast written letters."
Chancellor. — " Why speakest thou not? Hast thou
not written as he saith ?"
Bradford.- — " What I have written, I have written."
Southwell. — " Lord God ! what an airogant and stub-
born boy is this, that thus stoutly behaves himself be-
fore the queen's council ! "
Chancellor. — " We shall never have done with thee, I
perceive now : be short, be short ; wilt thou have
mercy ?"
Bradford. — " I jiray God to give me his mercy, and
if therewith you will extend yours, I will not refuse it ;
but otherwise I will none.''
Here now was much ado, one sneaking this, and
another that about his arrogance, in refusing the queen's
pardon.
He was again brought before them on the 29th of
July, when he was again offered mercy and pardon if he
would recant. After the lord chancellor's long talk
about the queen's pardon, Bradford began to speak,
" My lord, and my lords all, as now I stand before you,
so I humbly beseech your honours to consider, that you .
sit in the seat of the Lord, who (as David witnesses) is I
in the congregation of judges, and sittest in the midst of 1
them : and as you would your place to be now regarded
as God's place, so demonstrate yourselves to follow him
in your sitting, that is, seek no guiltless blood, nor hunt
not by questions to bring into the snare, them which are
out of the same. At this present I stand before you
guilty or guiltless, then proceed and give sentence ac-
cordingly : if guiltless, then give me the benefit of a sub-
ject, which hitherto I could not have."
Here the lord chancellor made much ado to purge
himself, as that he sought not guiltless blood ; and so
began a long process how that Bradford's act at St.
Paul's Cross, was presumptuous, arrogant, and shewed a
taking upon him to lead the people, and charged Brad-
ford with writing seditious letters.
Bradford. — "I have written no seditious letters; I
have not ])erverted the people ; but that which I have
written and spoken, I will, by God's grace, never deny.
And where ycnn- lordship saith, that I dare not answer
you ; that all men may know that I am not afraid, sav-
ing mine oath, ask me what you will, and I will plainly
make you answer, by God's grace, although I now see
jny life lieth thereon. But, O Lord, into thy hands I
commit it, come what will : only sanctify thy name in
me, as in an instrument of thy grace. Amen. Now ask
what you will, and you shall see I am not afraid, by
God's grace, plainly to answer."
Ld. Chanc. -" Well, then, how say you to the biessed
sacrament ? Do you not believe there Christ to be pre-
sent concerning his natural body ?''
Bradford. — " My lord, I do not believe that Christ is
corporeally present at and in the due administration of
the sacrament. By this word (corporeally) I mean that
Christ is there present corporeally unto faith."
Ld. Chanc — " Unto faith? We must have many
more words to make it plain."
A.D. 1555] JOHN BRADFORD'S EXAMINATION T'.EKORE THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
Bradford. — " You shall so : but first give me leave to
speak two words."
Ld. Chaiic. — " Speak on."
Bradford. — " I have been now a year and almost
three quarters in prison, and all this time you never
questioned with me about tliis, wlien I might have
spoken my conscience frankly without peril ; but now
you have a law to hang up and put to death, if a man
answer freely, and not to your wishes, and so now you
come to demand this question ! Ah, my lord, Christ
used not this way to bring men to faith.''
Here the lord chancellor was appalled, as it seemed,
and said most gently that he used not this means. " It
was not my doing,'' said he, " for I, for my part, have
been challenged for being too gentle."
Bradford. — " My lord, I pray you stretch out your
gentleness, that I may feel it, for hitherto 1 never felt
it. I was three-quarters of a year in the Tower ; you
forbade me paper, pen, and ink ; and never in all that
time, nor since, did I feel any gentleness from you. I
have rather hitherto found, as I looked for, extremity."
Here were several persons telling my lord it was din-
ner-time. And so he rose up, leaving Bradford speak-
ing, and saying, that in the afternoon he would speak
more with him. He was then brought into the vestry,
and was kept there till night, when he was conveyed
again to prison.
On the ne.xt day a gentleman, called Master Thomas
Hussey, came into the chamber in which John Bradford
lay, and he began a long oration, how that of love and
old acquaintance he came to him. " You," said he,
*' so wonderfully behaved yourself before the lord chan-
cellor, and other bishops yesterday, that even the veriest
enemies you have, did see that they have no matter
against you ; and I, therefore, advise you to desire a
time, and men to confer with, and so all men shall
think there is a wonderful wisdom, gravity, and godli-
ness in j'Ou, and by this means you shall escape present
danger.'' To this John Bradford answered, " I neither
can, nor will make such request. For then shall I give
occasion to the people, and to all others, to think that
I doubt of the doctrine which I confess, which I do
not."
As they were thus talking, the chamber-door was un-
locked, and Doctor Seton came in, with the very same
insidious design to deceive and entrap this godly man.
This Doctor Seton, after some talk of Bradford's age,
of his country, and such like, began a long sermon of
my lord of Canterbury, Master Latimer, and Master
Ridley, and how they at Oxford were not able to answer
anything at all ; and that therefore my lord of Canter-
bury desired to confer with the bishop of Durham and
others : all which talk tended to this end, that Bradford
should make the like request for a conference ; but to
this he briefly answered, as he before had done to
Hussey. With this answer neither Seton nor Hussey
were content ; and after many persuasions, Seton said,
*' I have heard much talk of you, and yesternight a gen-
tleman made report of you at the lord chancellor's
table, that you were able to persuade as much as any
one that he knew. And I thought your modesty was
such before the bishops, your behaviour and talk so
without malice and impatience, that I would be sorry
you should do worse than myself. And I tell you fur-
ther. 1 do perceive my lord chancellor has a regard for
you : wherefore be not so obstinate, but desire respite
and some learned man to confer with," &c.
But Bradford kept still one answer: " I cannot, nor
will I so offend the people. I do not doubt ; I am
most certain of the truth of the doctrine I have taught."
Here Doctor Seton waxed hot, and called Bradford
arrogant, proud, and vain glorious.
Then Bradford l)esought them both to give him leave
to talk with God, and to beg wisdom and grace of him :
" For," said he, "otherwise I am helpless;" and so
they with much ado departed. Then Bradford prayed
to God, which the Lord of his goodness did grai^iously
accept in his need, praised be his holy name ! Shortly
after they were gone, Bradford was led to the church,
and there tarried till eleven o'clock.
775
After the excommimication of Lawrence Sanders,
John Bradford was called in, and being brought before
the lord cliancellor and llie bishops, the lord chancellor
said, that if Bradford would answer with modesty and
luunility, and conform himself to the catholic church
with them, he yet might find mercy, because they would
be toath to use extremity. Therefore he concluded with
an exhortation, urging him to recant his doctrine.
After tlu- lord chancellor had ended, Bradford began
to speak thus : " As yesterday 1 besought your honours
to set in your sight tlie majesty and presence of God,
that you might follow him, who seeketh not to subvert
the simple by subtle questions :■ so I humbly beseech
every one of you to do this day ; for you know well
enoutch, that guiltless blood will cry for vengeance.
And this 1 pray your lordshi])s to do, not as one that
takes upon myself to condemn you, but that you might
be the more admonished to do that, which none does so
much as he should. For our nature is so corrupt, that
we are very forgetful of God. Again, as yesterday I
alleged mine oatli and oaths against the bishop of Rome,
that 1 should never consent to the practising of any
jurisdiction for him, or on his behalf in the realm of
England, so do I again at this day. And last of all, as
yesterday the answers I made were by protestation and
saving mine oath, so 1 would your honours should know
that mine answers shall be this day : and this I do, that
when death (which I look for at your hands) shall
come, I may not be troubled with the guiltiness of
perjury."
At these words the lord chancellor was wroth, and
said, that they had given him respite to deliberate till
this day, whether he would recant his errors of the
blessed sacrament, " which, yesterday," said he, " you
uttered."
Bradford.—" My lord, you gave me no time for any
such deliberation ; neither did I speak anything of the
sacrament which you disallowed. For when I had de-
clared a presence of Christ to be there to faith, youweiit
from that matter to purge yourself, that you were not
cruel, and so went to dinner."
Ld. Chanc. — " "V\Tiat ? I perceive we must begin all
again with thee. Did I not yesterday tell thee plainly,
that thou madest a conscience where none should be ?
Did I not make it plain, that the oath against the bishop
of Rome was an unlawful oath ?"
Bradford. — " No, indeed, my lord : you said so, but
you did not prove it."
Ld. Chanc. — " O Lord God, what a fellow art thou?
Thou wouldest go about to bring into the people's heads,
that we, all the lords of the parliament house, the
knights and burgesses, and all the whole realm be per-
jured ! O what an heretic is this ! Here, good people,
you may see what a senseless heretic this fellow is. If
I should make an oath I would never help my brother,
nor lend him money in his need, were this a good an-
swer to tell my neia;hbour desiring my help, that I had
made an oath to the contrary ? or that I could not do
it?"
Bradford. — " O, my lord, discern betwixt oaths that
be against charity and faith, and oaths that be according
to faith and charity, as this is against the bishop of
Rome."
Here the lord chancellor made much ado, and a long
time was spent about oaths, which were good and which
were evil ; but Bradford proved, that obedience in this
point to the queen, if she should demand an oath to the
bishop of Rome, being denied, was not a general denial
of her authority, and of obedience to her. " No more,"
said he, " than the sale, gift, or lease of a piece of a
man's inheritance, proves it a sale, gift, or lease of the
whole inheritance."
And thus great talk was made about this matter the
lord chancellor speaking much ; to whom Bradford re-
plied " That it was a wonder his honour weighed con-
science no more in this, and yet would be so earnest m
vows of priests' marriages made to bishops and be care-
less for solemn oaths made to God and to princes."
The lord chancellor said, the queen might dispense with
it and did so to aU the whole realm. But Bradford
77R
JOHN BRADFORD'S EXAMINATION BEFORE THE LORD CHANCELLOR. PBook XI.
said, that the queen's highness could do no more than
remit her own right ; as for the oath made to God, she
could never remit it, forasmuch as it was made unto
God."
At which words the lord chancellor chafed wonderfully
and s-iid, that in phiin sense Bradford slandered the realm
of perjury ; " and, therefore," observed he to the peo-
ple, " you may see how this fellow takes upon him to
have more knowledge and conscience than all the wise
men of England, and yet he hath no conscience at all."
Here came forth the chamberlain of Woodstock, and
spake to my lord chancellor, how that Bradford had
been a serving-man, and was with Master Harrington.
l.d. Chanc. — " True, and did deceive his master of
seven-score pounds ; and because of this, he became a
gospeller and a ])reacher, and yet you see how he pre-
tends conscience."
Bradford. — " My lord, I set my foot by his, whoever
he he, that comes forth and vouches to my face, that I
ever deceived my master. And as you are chief justice
by office in England, I desire justice upon them that so
slander me, because they cannot prove it.''
Here my lord chancellor and the chamberlain were
smitten blank, and said they heard it. " But," said my
lord chancellor, " we have another matter than this
agauist you : for you are an heretic."
" Yea," said the bishop of London, " he did write
letters to Master Pendleton, who knows his hand as
well as his own, your honour did see the letters."
Bradford. — "This is not true; I never did write to
Pendleton since I came to prison."
London. — " Yea, but you indited it."
Bradford. — " 1 did not, nor know what you mean."
Here came one of the clerks of the council, putting
the lord chancellor in remembrance of letters written
into Lancashire.
Ld. Chanc. — " You say true : for we have his \v\vA
to shew."
Bradford. — " I deny that you have my hand to shew
of letters sent into Lancashire, otherwise than such as I
will stand to, and prove them to be good and lawful."
Here all was answered, and then the lord chancellor
began a new matter. " Sir," said he, " in my house
tlie other day you did most contemptuously contemn
the qnc^en's mercy, and further said, that you would
maintain the erroneous doctrine in King Edward's days
against all men."
Bradford. — " Well, I am glad that all men see now
you have had no matter to imprison me before this day
justly. Now I say, that I did not contemptuously con-
temn the queen's mercy, but would have received it,
if I nii'^ht have had it with God's mercy ; that is, with-
out doing or saying anything against God and his truth.
And as for maintenance of doctrine, I said I was more
conMrmed in the religion set forth in King Edward's
days, than ever 1 was : and if God so would, I trust I
should declare it by giving my life for the confirmation
and testification thereof. So I said then, and so 1 say
now."
Ld. Chanc. — " Well, yesterday thou didst maintain
false heresy concerning the blessed sacrament, and
therefore we gave thee respite till this day to deliberate."
Bradford. — " INIy lord, I s|)ake nothing of tne sacra-
ment, but thit which you allovved, and reproved not, nor
gave nie aiiything to deliberate on."
Ld. Chanc. — " Why .' didst thou not deny Christ's
presence in tl>e sacrament ?"
Bradford. — " No, I never denied nor taught, but that
to fiith, a whole Christ, body and blood, was as present as
the i)read and wine to the due receiver."
Ld. Chanc. ^" Yea, but dost thou not believe that
Christ's body naturally and really is there, under the
forms of bread and wine ?"
Bradford. — " My lord, I believe Christ is present
there to the faith of the due receiver ; as for transub-
staiitiation, I plainly and fiatly tell you, I believe it
not."
Here was Bradford called a devil, a .slanderer : " for
we ask no question," said my lord chancellor " of
transubstantiation, but of Christ's presence.
Bradford. — " I deny not his presence to the faith oi
the receiver, but deny that he is included in the bread,
or that the bread was transubstantiated."
Another bishop asked, " Whether the wicked man re-
ceived Christ's very body or not ?" And Bradford an-
swered plainly, " No." At this the lord chancellor
made a long oration, how that it could not be that Christ
was present, except the evil man received it. But Brad-
ford put away all his oration in few words, that grace
was at that time offered to his lordshiji, althouga i.c re-
ceived it not ; so that (said he) the ree.iving makes not
the presence, as your lordship infers : but God's grace,
truth, and power is the cause of the presence, which
grace the wicked that lack faith cannot receive. And
here Bradford prayed my lord not to sepaiate that which
God had coupled together. He hath coupled all these
together; "Take, eat, this is my body;" he saith not,
" See, peep, this is my body," but " Take, eat." So
that it a;)pe irs this is a promise depending upon condi-
tion if we take and eat.
Here the lord chancellor and other bishops exclaimed
that Bradford had found out a toy of the condition, but
Bradford said, •' My lord, are not these words, ' Take,
eat,' a commandment ? Are not these words, ' This is
my body,' a promise ? If you will challenge the promise,
and do not the commandment, may you not deceive
yourself.'"
Here the lord chancellor denied Christ to have com-
manded the sacrament, and the use of it.
"Why, my lord," said Bradford, "I pray you tell
the people what mood ' Take, eat,' is ; is it not plain to
children that Christ, in saying so, commandeth ?"
At these words the lord chancelloi began triOing about
the imperative mood, and fell to parsing, or examining,
as he should teach a child, and so concluded that it was
no commandment.
But Bradford prayed him to leave trifling, and said,
" My lord, if it be not a commandment of Christ to take
and eat the sacrament, why dare any take upon them to
command and make that of necessity which God leaveth
free, as you do in making it a necessary commandment
once a year for all that be of discretion, to receive the
sacrament ?"
After much more examination and questioning, which
are too long to detail, the lord chancellor began to read
the excommunication. And in the excommunication,
when he came to the name of John Bradford, layman,
" Why," said he, " art thou no priest ?"
Bradford. — " No, nor never was either priest, or bene-
ficed, or married, or any preacher, before public autho-
rity had established religion, or preacher after public
authority had altered religion, and yet I am thus handled
at your hand ; but God, I doubt not, will give his bless-
ing where you curse." And so he fell down on his
knees, and heartily thanked God that he counted him
worthy to suffer for his name's sake. And so praying
God to give liim repentance and a good mind, after the
excommunication was read, he was delivered to the
sheriff of London, that he should be delivered from
thence to the Earl of Derby, to be conveyed into Jjanca-
shire, and there to be burned in the town of Manchester,
where he was born ; but their purpose concerning the
place was afterward altered, for they burned him in
London.
After the condemnation of John Bradford, which was
on the last day of January, being sent to prison, he there
remained until the first day of July, during all which time
he sustained other conferences with sundry adversaries,
who repaired to him in the prison. Of whom, first,
Bishoj) Bonner, coming to the Compter to degrade Dr
Taylor, on the fourth day of February, entered into talk
with Bradford, the effect whereof was as follows : —
Priratfi conferences vith John Bradford, by suc/i as thf
Prelates sent unto him, after the lime of his condemna
Hon; from his own writing.
On the fourth of Feb., that is, the same day on which
Master Rogers was burned, Bonner, bishop of London,
came to degrade Dr. Taylor, but before he spake to Master
A.D. 1555.]
VAIN ATTEMPTS TO INDUCE BRADFORD TO RECANT.
771
Taylor he called for John Bradford, and when he saw
him, he put off his cap, and gave him his hand, saying,
" Because I perceive that you are desirous to confer with
some learned men, therefore I have hrought Archdeacon
Harpsfield to you : and I tell you, you act like a wise
man.''
Bradford. — " My lord, I never desired to confer with
any man ; however, if you will have one to talk with me,
I am ready.''
"What,'' said Bonner in a passion to the keeper,
" did you not tell me that this man desired conference ?"
Keeper. — " No, my lord ; I told you that he would
not refuse to confer with any, but I did not say that it
was his desire."
Bonner. — " Well, Mr. Bradford, you are well-beloved,
I pray you consider yourself, and refuse not charity when
it is offered."
Bradford. — " Indeed, my lord, this is small charity,
to condemn a man as you have condemned me, who
never brake your laws."
Bonner. — " Well, well." And so he called for Doctor
Taylor, and Bradford went his way.
On another day, Mr. Willerton, chaplain of the bishop
of London, came to confer with Bradford, but when he
perceived that Bradford did not desire to see him, he
said " Well, Mr. Bradford, 1 pray you let us confer a
little, for perchance you may do me good, if 1 can do you
none.'' At these words Bradford consented, and they
entered into conversation about the doctors, the fathers,
and the sixth of St. John. He then departed, and in
the afternoon he came again, and they had a long talk to
little effect At length Willerton began to talk of the
church, saying that Bradford swerved from the church.
Bradford. — " No, 1 do not, but you do ; for the
church is Christ's spouse, and Christ's obedient spouse,
which your cliurch is not, which robs the people of the
Lord's cup, and of service in the English tongue."
Willerton. — " Why, it is not profitable to have the
service in English."
Bradford. — " Should not the people, then, have the
scriptures .' Wherefore serves this saying of Christ,
' Search the scriptures ." "
Willerton. — " This is not spoken to the people, but to
the scribes and learned men."
Bradford.—" Then the people must not have the
scriptures ?"
Willerton. — " No ; for it is written, ' They shall be
all taught of God.' "
Bradford. — " And must we learn all of the priests ?"
Willerton. — " Yes."
Bradford. — " Then I see you would bring the people
to hang up Christ and let Barabbas go, as the priests did
then persuade the people."
On the r2th of February, there came one of the Earl
of Derby's servants to Bradford, saying, " My lord hath
sent me to you ; he wishes you to tender yourself, and
he will be a good lord to you.''
Bradford. — " I thank his lordship for his good will
towards me, but in this I cannot tender myself more than
God's honour."
Servant. — " Ah, Mr. Bradford, consider your mother,
sisters, friends, kinsfolk, and country ; what a great dis-
comfort will it be to them to see you die as an heretic."
Bradford. — " I have learned to forsake father, mother,
brother, sister, friend, and all that ever I have ; yea,
even mine own self, for else I cannot be Christ's
disciple."
Servant. — " If my lord should obtain for you that you
might depart the realm, would you not be content to be
at the queen's appointment, where she would appoint
you beyond the sea ?"
Bradford. — " No, I had rather be burned in England
than be burned beyond the seas. For I know that if she
should send me to Paris, Louvain, or some such place,
forthwith they would burn me."
On the fourteenth of February, Percival Cresswell, an
olil acij[uaintance of Bradford's, came to hira, and said,
" Mr. Bradford, tell me what suit I should make for
you ?"
Bradford. — "What you do, do it not at my request,
for I desire nothing at your hands. If the queen will
give me life, I will thank her ; if she will banish me, I
will thank her ; if she will burn me, I .'ill thank her ;
if she will condemn me to perpetual imprisonment, I
will thank her."
Cresswell went away, and about eleven o'clock he and
the other man came again, and brought a book of More's
making, desiring Bradford to read it over.
Bradford, taking the book, said, " Good Percival, I
am fixed in this article."
Cresswell. — " Oh, if ever you loved me, do one thing
for me."
Bradford. — " What is it ?"
Cresswell. — " Desire and name what learned man, or
men, you will have to come unto you. My lord of York,
my lord of Lincoln, my lord of Bath, and others, will
gladly come to you."
Bradford.— " No, I never will desire them, or any
other, to come to confer with me, for I am as certain of
my doctrine as I am of anything ; but for your pleasure,
and that all men may know that I am not ashamed to
have my faith sifted and tried, bring whom you will, and
I will talk with them."
On the 15th of February, after a fruitless conference
with Harding on a previous day, Percival Cresswell
came with Harpsfield, archdeacon of London. After
formal salutations, he said that all men, even the infidels,
Turks, Jews, anabaptistr, and libertines, desire felicity as
well as the christians, and that every one thinks they
shall attain to it by their religion. To which Bradford
answered briefly that he spake not far amiss.
Harpsfield. — " But the way thither is not all alike ;
for the infidels come to heaven by Jupiter and Juno, the
Turk by his Alcoran, the Jew by his Talmud."
Bradford. — " You speak truly."
Harpsfield. — " Well, then, here is the matter, to know
the way to this heaven."
Bradford. — " We may not invent any ways. There is
but one way, and that is Jesus Christ, as he himself
witnesses, ' 1 am the way.'"
After some further conference on the church and suc-
cession of bishops, and on baptism, they departed.
On the irth of February, in the morning, the arch-
deacon, and two others with him, came again, and after
a few words they sat down.
The archdeacon began a very long oration, first re-
peating what they had said, and how far tliey had gone
over before, and began to prove the succession of bi-
shops here in England for eight hundred years : in
France, at Lyons, for twelve hundred years : in Spain,
at His})alen, for eight hundred years : in Italy, at Milan,
for twelve hundred years, labouring by this to prove his
church. He used all the succession of bishops in the
eastern church for the confirmation of his words, and so
concluded with an exhortation and an interrogation :
The exhortation, that Bradford would obey this church ;
the interrogation, whether Bradford could shew any
such succession for the demonstration of his church, for
so he called it, which followed.
To this long oration, Bradford made this short answer :
" My memory is bad, so that I cannot answer particularly
your oration. Therefore I will do it generally. If
Christ or his apostles here on earth, had been required
by the prelates of the church that then was, to have
made a demonstration of that church by a succession of
such high priests as had approved the doctrine which he
taught ; I think that Christ would have done as I do :
that is, have alleged that which upholds the church, eve^
the truth, the word of God taiight and believed, not by
the high priests, who of long time had persecuted it,
but by the prophets and other good men who perchance
were accounted for heretics of the church ; which church
was not tied to succession, but to the word of God."
Harpsfield. — " I can gather and prove succession in
Jerusalem."
778
CONFERENCE BETWEEN BRADFORD AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. [Book XT.
Bradford. — " I grant, but not such succession as al-
lowed the truth."
Harpsfield. — " Why, did they not allow Moses'
law .'"
Bradford — "Yes, and kept it, as touching the books
thereof, as you do the bible and holy scrij)tures. But
the true interpretation and meaning of it they corrupted,
as you have done and do, and therefore the persecution
■which they stirred up against the prophets and Christ,
■was not for the law, but for the interpretation of it.
For they taught as you do now, that we must receive
the interpretation of the scriptures at your hands. But
to conclude, I look daily for death ; yea, hourly, and I
think my time is but very short. Therefore, I had need to
spend as much time with God as I can, whilst I have it, to
pray for his help and comfort, and therefore, I pray you,
bear with me, that I do not now particular!} and in more
words answer your long talk. If I saw death not so near
me as it is, I would then weigh every piece of your oration ;
but because I dare not, nor will I, leave off preparing
for that which is at hand, I shall desire you to hold nie
excused, though I do as I do, and heartily thank you for
your gentle good will. I shall heartily pray God our
Father to give you the same light and life I do wish to
myself."
Then began the archdeacon to tell him he was in a
very perilous case, and that he was sorry to see him so
settled.
Bradford. — " I doubt not but that I shall die well ; for
as I hope and am certain my death shall please the Lord,
so I trust I shall die cheerfully to the comfort of his
children."
Harpsfield. — " But what if you be deceived?"
Bradford. — " What if you should say the sun did not
shine now .'" (The sun was shining through the window
where they sat.)
Harpsfield. — "Well, I am sorry to see you so secure
and careless."
Bradford. — "Indeed, I am more carnally secure and
careless than I should be. God make me more vigilant.
But in this case I cannot be too secure, for I am most
assured I am in the truth."
Harpsfield. — "You are not; for you are out of the
catholic church."
Bradford. — "No, though you have excommunicated
me out of your church, yet am I in the catholic church
of Christ, and am, and by God's grace shall be a child,
and an obedient child of it for ever. I hope Christ will
have no less care for me, than he had for the blind man
excommunicated by the synagogue. And I am sure
that the necessary articles of the faith, I mean the twelve
articles of the creed, 1 confess and believe with that
which you call the holy church, so that even your church
has taken too much upon her to excommunicate me for
tliat, which by the testimony of my lord of Durham, in
the book of the sacrament lately put forth, was free
many an hundred years after Christ, to believe or not
believe."
Harpsfield.—" What is that?"
Bradford. — " Transubstantiation."
Harpsfield. — " Why you are not condemned for that
only."
Bradford. — " For that and because I deny that wicked
men do receive Clirist's body."
After some further conference on transubstantiation,
they departed.
On the 2.'?d of the same month, the archbishop of
York, and the bishop of Chichester came to speak with
Bradford. When lie was come before them, they both, and
es])ecially the archinshoi) of York, used him very gently :
they would have him to sit down, and because he would
not, they also would not sit. So they all stood, and
whether he would or not, they insisted he should put on
not only his nightcap, but his upper cap also, saying to
him that obedience was better than sacrifice.
Now thus standing together, my lord of York began
to tell Bradford that they were not sent to him, but of
love and charity they came to him; and after commend-
ing Bradford's godly life, te concluded with this ques-
tion, " How he was certain of salvation and of his reli-
gion ?"
After thanks for their good will, Bradford answered,
" By the word of God, even by the scriptures, lam
certain of my salvation and religion."
York. — " Very well said. But how do you know the
word of God and the scriptures, but by the church ?"
Bradford. — " Indeed, my lord, tlie church was and is
a mean to bring a man more speedily to know the scrip-
tures and the word of God, as was the woman of Sa-
maria a mean that the Samaritans knew C'lrist : but
when they heard him speak, they said, ' Now we know
that he is Christ, not because of thy words, but because
we ourselves have heard him :' so after we come to the
hearing and reading of the scriptures showed unto us
by the church, we do believe them, and know them as
Clirist's sheep, not because the cliurch saith they are the
scriptures, but because they are so, being assured by the
same Spirit which wrote and spake them.''
York. — " You know that, in the apostles' time at the
first the word was not written.''
Bradford. — " True, if you mean it for some books of
the New Testament : but for the old Testament, Peter
tells us, ' We have a more sure word of prophecy.' "
York. — " That place of Peter is not so to be under-
stood of the written word.''
Bradford. — " Yea, sir, that it is, and of none other."
Chichester. — " Yea, indeed Mr. Bradford doth tell
you truly in that point," and then added, " I pray you
to tell me where the church which allowed your doctrine
was these four hundred years ?''
Bradford. — " I will tell you, my lord, or rather you
shall tell yourself, if you will tell me this one thing, wliere
the church was in Elijah's time, when Elijah said that he
was left alone ?"
Chichester. — "That is no answer."
Bradford. — " I am sorry that you say so : but this I
will tell your lordship, that if you had the same eyes
wherewith a man might have espied the church then,
you would not say it were no answer. The fault why
the church is not seen by you, is not because the church
is not visible, but because your eyes are not clear enough
to see it."
Here my lord of York took a book of paper of com-
mon places, and read a piece of St. Augustine, how that
there were many things that held him in the bosom of
the church : consent of people and nations ; authority
confirmed with miracles, nourished with hope, increased
with charity, established with antiquity : " Besides this,
there holds me in the church," said St. Augustine, " the
succession of priests from Peter's seat until this present
bishop. Last of all, the very name of catholic holds
me,^' &c.
Bradford. — " My lord, these words of St Augustine
make as much for me as for you ; although I might an-
swer, that all this, if they had been so urgent as you
make them, might have been alleged against Christ and
his apostles. For there was the law and the ceremonies
consented to by the whole people, confirmed with mira-
cles, antiquity, and continual succession of bishops from
Aaron's time till then."
York. — " But what say you to St. Augustine ? Where
is your church that has the consent of people and na-
tions ?"
Bradford. — Even all people and nations that are God'3
people have consented with me, and I with them in the
doctrine of faith."
York. — " St. Augustine here talks of succession, eveii ,
from St. Peter's seat."
Bradford. — " Yea, that seat then was not so corrupt
as it is now."
York. — " Well, you always judge the church."
Bradford. — " No, my lord, as Christ's sheep discern
Christ's voice, but judge it not ; so they discern the
church, but judge her not."
York. — " Yes, that they do."
Bradford. — " No ; and yet full well may one not only
doubt, but judge also of the Romish church ; for she
obeys not Christ's voice, as Christ's true church does."
York.—" Wherein ?"
A..D. 1555.] CONFERENCE BETWEEN BRADFORD AND TWO SPANISH FRIARS.
^79
Bradford. — " In Latin service, and robbing the laity
of Christ's cup in the sacrament, and in many other
things, in which it commits most horrible sacrilege."
Chichester. — " Why .' Latin service was in England
when the Pope was gone."
Bradiord.— " True ; the time was in England when
the pope was away, but not all popery ; as in King
Henry's days."
Chichester. — " Ye are too ready to blame, in saying
that the church robs the people of the cup."
Bradford. — "Well, my lord, term it as it may please
you ; all men know that the laity have none of it."
Chichester. — " Indeed, I would wish the church would
define again, that they might have it, for my part."
Bradford. — " If God make it free, who can define to
make it bond ?"
And so after more conversation of this kind, the bi-
shop left him.
On the 25th of February, two Spanish friars came to
Bradford, when one of them, who was the king's con-
fessor, asked him in Latin (for all their talk was in Latin)
whether he had not seen or heard of one Alphonsus
that had written against heresy ?
Bradford. — " I do not know him."
Confessor. — " Well, this man (pointing to Alphonsus)
is he. We are come to you out of love and charity, be-
cause you desire to confer with us."
Bradford. — " I never desired your coming, nor to con-
fer with you, or any other. But as you are come out of
charity, as you say, I cannot but thank you ; and as
touching conference, though I desire it not, yet I will
not refuse to talk with you if you will."
Alphonsus. — " It were requisite that you prayed unto
God, that you might follow the direction of God's Spirit,
that he would inspire you, so that you be not addicted to
your own self-will or wisdom."
Upon this Bradford offered up a prayer, and besought
God to direct all their wills, words, and works, as the
wills, words, and works of his children for ever.
Alphonsus. — " Yea, you must pray with your heart.
For if you speak but with tongue only, God will not give
you his grace."
1 Bradford. — " Sir, do not judge, lest you be judged.
You have heard my words, now charity would have you
leave the judgment of the heart to God."
Alphonsus. — " You must not be wedded to yourself,
but as one standing in doubt : pray, and be ready to re-
ceive what God shall inspire."
Bradford. — " Sir, my conviction of religion must not
' be doubting or uncertain, and I thank God I am certain
in that for which I am condemned : I have no cause to
doubt of it, but rather to be more certain of it, and
' therefore I pray God to confirm me more in it. For it
is his truth, and because it is so certain and true, that it
may abide the light. I dare behold to have it looked on,
and to confer about it with you, or with any man."
I Alphonsus. — " Do you not believe that Christ is pre-
jsent really and corporeally in the form of bread ?"
I Bradford. — " No, I do believe that Christ is present to
I the faith of the worthy receiver, as there is present
ibread a:nd wine to the senses and outward man."
I Alphonsus. — " 1 am sure you believe Christ's natural
Ibody is circurascriptible." And here he made a long
^harangue about two natures of Christ, how that the one
is every where, and the other is in his proper place,
.asking such questions as no wise man would have spent
jtime about. He then said, " Will you believe nothing
ibut that which is expressly spoken in the scriptures ?"
Bradford. — " Yes, sir, I will believe whatever you
ishall by demonstration out of the scriptures declare to
me."
" He is obstinate," said Alphonsus to his companion ;
and then turning to Bradford, said, " Is not God able
to do it .'"
Bradford. — " Yes, but here the question is of God's
will, and not of his power."
Alphonsus. — "Why.' doth he not say plainly, 'This
as my body ?' "
j Bradford. — " Yes ; and I deny not but that it is so, to
the faith of the worthy receiver."
Alphonsus. — " To the faith ? how is that .'"
Bradford. — " Forsooth, sir, as I have no tongue to ex.
press it, so I know you have no ears to hear and under •
stand it. For faith is more than man can utter."
Alphonsus. — " But I can tell all that 1 believe."
Bradford. — " You believe not much then. For if you
believe the joys of heaven, and believe no more thereof
than you can tell, you will not desire to come thither.
For as the mind is more capable than the mouth, so it
conceives more than tongue can express.''
Alphonsus. — " Christ saith it is his body."
Bradford. — " And so say I, after a certain manner."
Alphonsus. — " After a certain manner 1 that is, after
another manner than it is in heaven."
Bradford. — " Augustine tells it more plainly, that it
is Christ's body after the same manner as circumcision
was the covenant of God, and the sacrament of faith is
faith, or to make it more plain, as baptism and the
water of baptism is regeneration."
Alphonsus. — " Very well said, baptism and the water
is a sacrament of God's grace and Spirit in the water
cleansing the baptized."
Bradford. — " No, sir, away with your enclosing : but
this I grant, that in the same way as Christ's body is in
the bread, so the grace and Spirit of God is in the vvater."
Alphonsus. — " In wateristiod'sgrace by signification."
Bradford. — " So is the body in the bread in the sacra-
ment.''
Here the friar was in a wonderful rage, anrt spake so
high, that the whole house rang again. He had a great
name of learning, but surely he had little ))atience. For
if Bradford had been hot, one house could not have held
them. At length he came to this point, that Bradford
could not find in the scripture baptism and the Lord's
supper to bear any similitude together. And here he
triumphed, saying, that these men would receive nothing
but scripture, and yet were able to prove nothing by the
scripture.
Bradford. — " Be patient, and you shall see that by
the scriptures I will find baptism and the Lord's supper
coupled together."
Alphonsus. — " No, that thou canst never do. Let
me see a text of it."
Bradford. — " St. Paul saith, ' By one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body ; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit,' (1 Cor. xii. 13) meaning the cup
in the Lord's supper.''
Alphonsus. — " St. Paul hath no such words."
Bradford. — " Yes, he has.''
Confessor. — " He has not."
Bradford. — " Give me a Testament, and I will shew
you."
So a priest that sat by them gave him his Testament,
and he shewed them the plain text. Then they looked
one upon another.
Alphonsus, who had the Testament in his hand, de-
sirous to suppress this defeat, turned the leaves of the
book from leaf to leaf, till he came to the place, 1 Cor.
xi. 29. and there he read how that he was guilty, who
made no difference of the Lord's body.
Bradford. — " Yea, but therewith he saith, ' He that
eateth of the bread:' calling it bread still: and that
after consecration, (as you call it), as in the first of
Corinthians, (x. 16.) he saith, ♦ The bread which we
break,' " &c.
Alphonsus. — " Oh how ignorant you are, who know
not that things after their conversion do retain the same
names which they had before, as Moses' rod :" and
calling for a Bible, after he had found the place, he
began to triumph. But Bradford cooled him quickly,
saying,
Bradford. — " Sir, there is mention made of the con-
version in that case, and it appeared to the senses.
But here you cannot find it so. Find me one word how
the bread is converted, and I will then say, you bring
some matter that makes for you."
At these words the friar was troubled, and at length
he said, that Bradford depended on his own sense.
Bradford.—" No, I do not; for I will bring you the
fathers of the church for eight hundred years after Chnst,
to confirm what I say."
790
BRADFORD'S ARGUMENTS AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
[Book XI.
Aiphonsus. — " No, you have the church against
you."
Bradford. — "I have not Christ's church against
me. '
Aiphonsus. — " Yes, you have. What is the church ?"
Bradford. — "Christ's wife, the chair and seat of
truth."
Aiphonsus. — " Is she visible ?"
Bradford. — " Yea, that she is to them who will put
on the spectacles of God's word to look on her."
After much more passed between them, the friars de-
parted.
Certain reasons against Transubstantion, gathered by
John Bradford, and given to Doctor Weston, and
others.
" 1. That which is former (saith TertuUian) is true ;
that which is later is false. But the doctrine of tran-
substantiation is a late doctrine : for it was not defined
generally before the council of Lateran, about one thou-
sand two hundred and fifteen years after Christ's coming
under Pope Innocent III. of that name. For before
that time it was free for all men to believe it, or not to
believe it, as the bishop of Durham doth witness in his
book of the ' Presence of Christ in his Supper ' lately put
forth : Ergo, the doctrine of transubstantiation is false.
" 2. That the words of Christ's supper are figurative,
as the circumstances of the scripture, the analogy or
proportion of the sacraments, and the sentences of all
the holy fathers, who did write for the space of one
thousand years after Christ's ascension, do teach: where-
upon it follows, that there was no transubstantiation.
" 5. That the Eord gave to his disciples bread, and
called it his body, the scriptures do witness. For he
gave that, and called it his body ; which he took in his
hands ; whereon he gave thanks ; which also he brake,
and gave to his disciples, that is to say, bread, as the
fathers Irenseus, TertuUian, Origen, Cyprian, Epipha-
nius, Augustine, and all the residue who are of antiquity
do affirm : but in as much as the substance of bread and
wine is another thing than the substance of the body and
blood of Christ, it plainly appeareth that there is no
transubstantiation.
" 4. The bread is no more transubstantiated than the
wine : but that the wine is not transubstantiated, St.
Matthew and St. Mark do teach us : for they witness,
that Chiist said, that he would drink no more of the
fruit of the vine, which was not blood, but wine : and
therefore it follows, that there is no transubstantiation.
Chrysostora upon St. Matthew, and St. Cyprian, do
affirm this reason.
" .T. As the bread in the Lord's supper is Christ's
natural body, so it is his mystical body : for the same
Spirit that spake of it, ' This is my body ;' did say also,
' For we, being many, are one bread, and one body,' &c.
but now it is not the mystical body by transubstan-
tiation, and therefore it is not his natural body by tran-
substantiation.
" ('). The words spoken over the cup in Luke, and
in the Corii;thians, are not so mighty and effectual, as to
transubstantiate it : For then it, or that which is in it,
should be transubstantiated into the New Testament :
therefore the words spoken over the bread, are not so
mighty as to make transubstantiation.
" 7. All that doctrine which agrees with those churches
which are apostolic mother churches, or original churches
is to be counted for truth, in that it holdeth that which
these churches received of the apostles, the apostles of
Christ, Christ of God. But it is manifest, that the
doctrine taught at this present time by the church of
Rome, concerning transubstantiation, does not agree
with the apostolic and mother churches of Greece, of
Corinth, of Philippi, Colosse.Thessalonica, Ephesus, who
never taught transubstantiation ; yea, it agreeth not vvilh
the doctrine of the church of Rome taught in time past.
For Gelasius the pope, setting forth the doctrine which
that See did then hold, doth manifestly (confute the error
of transubstantiation, and reproveth them of sacrilege,
■who divided the mystery, and kept from the laity the
cup ; therefore the doctrine of transubstantiation agreeth
not wiih the truth."
These arguments were written out by Bradford, and
handed to Weston, who expressed a desire to confer
with him ; but the conlereuce, like all the othe:s, ended
in nothing but the confirming Bradford in the true faith
which he had professed.
Thus continued Bradford in prison until the month of
July, in labours and sufferings ; but when the time ap.
pointed for his death was come, he was suddenly con- ■
veyed in the night to Newgate, and from tlience lie was
carried on the following morning to Smithfield, wlit- re, as
was before narrated, he firmly adhered to the truth of
God, which he had confessed, earnestly exhorting the
people to repent, and to turn to Christ ; and sweetly
comforting the godly young man of the age of nineteen
or twenty years, who was burned with him, he cheerfully
ended his painful life, to live with Christ.
John Leaf, who was burned with Bradford, was an
apprentice to Humphrey Gawdy, tallow-chandler, of the
parish of Christ's Church, in London. He was born at
Kirkby Moreside, in the- county of York. On the
Friday before Palm Sunday he was committed to the
Compter in Bread-street, by an alderman of London
who had the rule and charge of that ward or j)art of
the city where John Leaf dwelt ; and when brought
before Bonner, he gave a firm and christian testimony of
his doctrine and profession, answering to such articles
as were objected to him by the bishop.
First, As touching his belief aiid faith in the sacra-
ment of the altar, he answered, that after the words of
consecration, spoken by the jiiiest over the bread and
wine, there was not the very true and natural body and
blood of Christ in substance — that the sacrament of the
altar, as it is now called, used, and believed in this realm
of England, is idolatrous and abominable— also, that he
believed, that after tlie words of consecration spoken by
the priest over the material bread and wine, there is not
the self-same substance of Christ's body and blood there
contained; but bread and wine, as it was before —
and further, that he believed, that when the priest de-
livers the material bread and wine to the communicants,
he delivers but oidy material bread and wine ; and the
communicants do receive the same in remembrance of
Christ's death and passion, and spiritually in faith they
receive Christ's body and blood, but not under the forms
of bread and wine ; and also affirmed that he believed
auricular confession not to be necessary to be made to a
priest ; for it is no point of the soul's health, nor that
the priest has any authority given him by the scriptures
to absolve and remit any sin.
On making these answers, he was dismissed at that time,
and ordered to appear on the Monday following, being
the 10th of June, then and there to hear the sentence of
his condemnation. Accordingly the bishop then pro-
pounding the articles again to him, endeavoured by all
manner of ways to turn him from truth to error, but
notwithstanding all his persuasions, threats, and pro-
mises, found him the same man still, so firmly jilanted
was he upon the sure rock of truth, that no words nor
deeds of men could remove him.
Then the bishop, after many words to and fro, at last
asked him, if he had been Master Rogers' scholar?
John Leaf answered, that it was so, and that he did be-
lieve in the doctrine of Rogers, and in the doctrine of
bishop Hooper, Cardmaker, and others of their opinion,
who of late were burned for the testimony of Christ, and
that he would die in that doctrine which they died for.
And after other replications again of the bishop, moving
him to return to the unity of the church, he with great
courage of spirit, answered again in these words : " My
lord, you call my opinion heresy ; it is the tme light of
the word of God." And again repeating the same, he
professed that he would never forsake his well-grounded
opinion while breath was in his body. The bislinp being
too weak, either to refute his sentence, or to remove
his constancy, proceeded to read the popish sentence of
cruel condemnation ; by which this godly and cimstant
llitttiirtoui of Ira^foi-i) ;iub ^f^-
Huge Tsl
A.D. 1505.]
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON.
■81
younjt man, being committed to the secular power of the
sherill's, was then adjudged, and not long after suftered
on tlie same day with John Bradford, confirming with
his death, that which he had spoken and professed in
his life.
It is reported of John Leaf, that after his examinations
bi'forc the bishop, when two bills were sent to him, one
cDntaiuing a recantation, the other his confessions, to
know to which of them he would put his h;ind, first
htarinc;- the bill of recantation read unto him, he refused
it ; aiid v;hen the other was read to liim, instead of a
pen he took a pin, and so pricking his hand, sprinkled
tlie blood upon the bill, desiring the reader to show the
bishoj) I hat he had sealed the same bill with liis blood
aireailr.
When these holy martyrs came to the stake in Smith-
field to be burned, Bradford lying prostrate on the
one side of the stake, and the young man John Leaf on
the other side, they lay flat on theirfaces, praying to them-
selves for the space of an hour. Then one of the sheriffs
said to Bradford, " Arise, and make an end ; for the
press of the peoj)le is great.''
At that word they both stood upon their feet, and
then Bradford took a fagot in his hand, and kissed it,
and so likewise the stake. And when he had done so,
he desired the sheriffs that his servant might have his
raiment. " For," said he, " I have nothing else to give
him; and besides that, he is a poor man." And the
sheriff said he should have it. And so forthwith
Bradford jiut off his raiment, and went to the stake :
and holding up his hands, and casting his countenance
to heaven, he said thus, " O England, England, repent
thee of thy sins, repent thee of thy sins. Beware of
idolatry ; bevvare of false Antichrists ; take heed they
do not deceive you !" And as he was speaking these
words, the sheriff bid them tie his hands, if he would
not be quiet. " O Master Sheriff," said Bradford,
" I am quiet. God forgive you this." And one of
the officers who made the fire, hearing Bradford so
speaking to the sheriff, said, " If you have no better
learning than that, you are but a fool, and had better
hold your peace." To which words Bradford gave
no answer ; but asked all the world forgiveness, and
forgave all the world, and requested the people to
pray for him. Then turning his head to the young
niau that suffered with him, he said, "Be of good com-
fort, brother ; for we shall have a happy supper with
the Lord this night." And spake no more words that
any man heard ; but embracing the reeds, said thus,
" Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth
to life, and few there be that find it."
And thus, like two lambs, they both ended their mor-
tal lives, without any alteration of their countenance,
being void of all fear, hoping to obtain the prize for
which tiiey had long run ; to which may Almighty God
happily conduct us, through the merits of Jesus Christ
our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
The Letters of Mr. John Bradford.
This gcdly and heavenly martyr, during the time of his
imprisonment, wrote several comfortable treatises, and
many godly letters, of which, some he wrote to the
city of London, to Cambridge, Walden, Lancashire and
Cheshire, and several to his private friends. By which
letters v.iil appear how piously this man occupied his
lime wliile a prisoner — what special zeal he bore to the
state o^ Christ's church — what care he had to perform
his office — how earnestly he admonished all men — how
tenderly he comforted the heavy-hearted — how faithfully
he confirmed them whom he had taught. I have thought
well to give a few of the most important of those letters ;
referring the reader for the rest to the book of the Letters
of the Martyrs, where they may be found.
♦' To the City of London.
" To all that profess the gospel and true doctrine of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the city of London,
John Bradford, a most unworthy servant of the Lord,
now not only in prison, but also excommunicated, and
condemned to be burned for the same tnae doctrine,
wishes mercy, grace, and peace, with increase of all
godly knowledge and piety from God the Father of
mercy, through the merits of our alone and all-suffi.
cient Redeemer, Jesus Christ, by the operation of the
Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.
" My dearly beloved brethren in our Saviour Christ,
although the time I have to live is very short (for hourly
I look when I shall be had hence to be conveyed into
Lancashire, there to be burned, and to render my life, by
the providence of God, where I first received it by the
same jjrovidence,) and although the charge is great to
keep me from all things whereby I might signify any-
thing to the world of my state ; yet having, as now I
have, pen and ink, through God's w-orking, in s\nte of the
head of Satan and his soldiers, 1 thought good to virite a
short confession of my faith, and thereto join a little ex-
hortation unto you all, to live according to your profes-
sion.
" First, for my faith, I do confess, and pray all the
whole congregation of Christ to bear witness with me of
the same, that I believe constantly, through the gift and
goodness of God (for faith is God's only gift), all the
twelve articles of the symbol and creed, commoidy attri-
buted to the collection of the apostles. This my faith I
would gladly particularly declare and expound to the
confirmation and comfort of the simple ; but, alas ! by
starts and stealth I write in the manner that I do, and,
therefore, I shall desire you all to take this brevity in
good part. And this faith I hold, not because of the
creed itself, but because of the word of God, which
teaclieth and confirmeth every article accordingly. This
word of God, written by the prophets and apostles, left
and contained in the canonical books of the whole Bible,
I do believe to contain plentifully all things necessary to
salvation, so that nothing (as necessary to salvation)
ought to be added thereto, and therefore the church of
Christ, nor none of his congregation, ought to be bur-
dened with any other doctrine than which hereout hath
his foundation and. ground. In testimony of this faith,
I render and give my life, being condemned as well for
not acknowledging the antichrist of Rome to be Christ's
vicar, general and supreme head of his catholic and uni-
versal church here or elsewhere upon earth ; as for deny-
ing the horrible and idolatrous doctrine of transubstan-
tiation, and Christ's real, corporeal, and carnal presence
in his supper, under the forms and accidents of bread
and wine.
" To believe Christ our .Saviour to be the head of his
church, and kings in their realms to be the supreme
powers, to whom every soul oweth obedience, and to be-
lieve that in the supper of Christ (which the sacrament
of the altar, as the papists call it, and use it, doth
utterly overthrow,) is a true and very presence of a
whole Christ, God and man, to the faith of the receiver,
but noc to the stander by and looker upon, as it is a
true and very presence of bread and wine to the senses
of men ; to believe this, I say, will not serve, and, there-
fore, as an heretic I am condemned, and shall be burned ;
wherefore I heartily ask God mercy, that I do no more
rejoice than I do, having so great cause, as to be an in-
strument wherein it may please my dear Lord God and
Saviour, to suffer.
" For though my manifold sins, ever since I came
into prison, have deserved at the hands of God, not only
this temporal, but also eternal fire in hell, much more
then my former sinful life, vihich the Lord pardon for
Christ's sake, as I know he of his mercy hath done, and
never will lay mine iniquities to my charge, to con-
demnation, so great is his goodness (praised, therefore,
be his holy name) although, I say, my manifold and
grievous late sins have deserved most justly all the ty-
ranny that man or devil can do unto me ; and therefore
I confess that the Lord is just, and that his judgments
are true and deserved on my behalf; yet the bishops
and prelates do not persecute them in me, but Christ
himself, his word, his truth, and religion. And there-
fore I have great cause, yea, great cause to rejoice
that ever I was born, and hitherto kept of the Lord ;
that by my death, which is deserved for my ains, it
782
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO THE CITY OF LONDON.
[Book > I
pleaseth my heavenly Father to glorify his name ; to tes-
tify his truth ; to confirm his word ; to repugn his ad-
versaries. O, good God and merciful Father ! forgive
my great unthankfulness, especially herein.
" And you, my dearly beloved, for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake, I humbly and heartily in his bowels and
blood do now, for my last farewell in this present life,
beseech you, and every of you, that you will consider
this work of the Lord accordingly : first by me be ad-
monished to beware of hypocrisy and carnal security ;
profess not tlie gospel with your tongue and lips only,
but in heart and truth ; frame and fashion your lives ac-
cordingly ; beware that God's name is not evil spoken
of, and tlie gospel less regarded by your conversation.
God forgive me that I have not so heartily professed it
as I should have done, but have sought much myself
therein. The gospel is a new doctrine to the old man ;
it is new wine ; and therefore cannot be put in old bot-
tles, witliout greater hurt than good to the bottles. If
we will talk with the Lord, we must j)at off our shoes
and carnal affections ; if we will hear the voice of the
Lord, we must wash our garments and be holy ; if we
will be Christ's disciples, we must deny ourselves, take
up our cross and follow Christ ; we cannot serve two
masters. If we seek Christ's kingdom, we must seek
for the righteousness thereof. To this petition : ' Let
thy kingdom come ;' we must join : ' Tliy v.'ill be done :'
done ' On earth as it is in heaven.' If we will not be
doers of the word, but hearers of it only, we sore de-
ceive ourselves. If we hear the gospel, and love it not ;
we declare ourselves to be but fools, and builders upon
the sand. The Lord's Spirit hateth feigning ; deceit-
fulness the Lord abhorreth : if we come to him, we must
beware that we come not with a double heart ; for then
perchance God may answer us according to the block
which is in our heart, and so we shall deceive ourselves
and others.
" To faith, see that we couple a good conscience, lest
we make shipwreck. To the Lord we must come with
fear and reverence. If we will be gospellers, we must
be Christ's ; if we be Christ's, we must crucify our flesh
with the affections and lusts thereof ; if we will be
under grace, sin must not bear rule in us. We may not
come to the Lord, and draw nigh to him with our lips,
and leave our hearts elsewhere, lest the Lord's wrath wax
hot, and he take from us the good remaining. In no
case can the kingdom of Christ approach to them that
repent not. Therefore, my dearly beloved, let us re-
pent and be heartily sorry that we have so carnally, so
hypocritically, so covetously, so vain-gloriously professed
the gospel. For all these I confess myself, to the glory
of God, that he may cover mine offences in the day of
judgment. Let the anger and plagues of God, most
justly fillen upon us, be applied to every one of our de-
serts, that from the bottom of our hearts, all of us may
say: ' It is I, Lord, that have sinned against thee : it is
my hypocrisy, my vain-glory, my covetousness, unclean-
ness, carnality, security, idleness, unthankfulness, self-
love, and sucii like, which have deserved the taking away
of our good king, of thy word and true religion, of thy
good ministers by exile, imprisonment, and death ; it
is my wickedness that causeth success and increase of
authority and peace of thine enemies. Oh, be merciful !
be merciful unto us ! Turn to us again, O Lord of
Hosts 1 and turn us unto thee ; correct us, but not in
thy fury, lest we be consumed in thine anger ; chastise
us not in thy wrathful displeasure ; reprove us not, but
in the midst of thine anger remember thy mercy. For
if thou mark what is done amiss, who shall be able to
abide it ? But with thee is mercifulness, that thou
mightest be worshijiped. Oli, then, be merciful unto
us, that we may truly worship thee ! Help us, for the
glory of thy name ! Be merciful unto our sins, for they
are great I O, heal us ! and help us for thine honour !
Let not the wicked people say, where is their God ! Ike.
" On this sort, my right dearly beloved, let us heartily
bewail our sins, repent us of our former evil life, heartily
and earnestly purpose to amend our lives in all things,
continually watch in prayer, diligently and reverently
attend, hear, and read the holy scriptures, labour after
our vocation to amend our brethren. Let us reprove
the works of darkness. Let us fiy from all idolatry.
Let us abhor the antichristian and Romish rotten ser-
vice ; detest the popish mass ; renounce their Romish
god ; prepare ourselves to the cross ; be obedient to aVi
that are in authority in all things that are not against
God and his word, for then answer with the apostles,
' it is meet to obey God rather than man.' Hoivever.
never for any thing resist, or rise against the magistrates.
Avenge not yourselves, but commit your cause to the
Lord, to whom vengeance pertaineth, and he in his time
will reward it. If you feel in yourselves a hope and
trust in God, that he will never tempt you above that he
will make you able to bear, be assured the Lord will be
true to you ; and you shall be able to bear all brunts.
But if you want this hope, fly and get you hence, rather
than by your tarrying, God's name should be dis-
honoured.
" In fine, cast your care on the Lord, knowing for
most certain, that he careth for you ; with him all the
hairs of your head are numbered, so that not one of
them shall perish without his good pleasure and will |
much more then, nothing shall happen to our bodies,
which shall not be profitable, however for a time it seem
otherwise to your senses. Hang on the providence of
God, not only when you have means to help you, but
also when you have no means, yea, when all means are
against you. Give him this honour, which of all other
things he most chiefly requireth at your hands ; namely,
believe that you are his children through Christ, that he
is your Father and God through him, that he loveth
you, pardoneth you all your offences, that he is v;ith you
in trouble, and will be with you for ever. When you
fall, he will put un.ier his hand, you shall not lie still :
before you call upon him he heareth you, out of the evil
he will finally bring you, and deliver you to his eternal
joy. Doubt not, my dearly beloved, herein ; doubt not,
I say, this will God your Father do for you, not in re-
spect of yourselves, but in respect of Christ your cap-
tain, your pastor, your keeper, out of whose hands none
shall be able to catch you, in him be quiet, and often
consider your dignity : namely, how that ye be God's
children, the saints of God, citizens of heaven, temples
of the Holy Ghost, the thrones of God, members of
Christ, and lords over all.
" Therefore be ashamed to think, speak, or do any
thing that should be unseemly for God's children, God's
saints, Christ's members, &c. Marvel not though the
devil and the world hate you, though you be persecuted
here ; for the servant is not above his master. Covet
not earthly riches, fear not the power of man, love not
this world, nor the things that are in this world ; but long
for the Lord Jesus' coming, at which time your bodies
shall be made like unto his glorious body ; when he ap-
peareth you shall be like unto him ; when your life shall
thus be revealed, then shall you appear with him in
glory.
" In the mean season live in hope thereof. Let the
life you lead be in the faith of the Son of God : ' For
the just shall live by faith,' which faith flieth from all
evil, and foUoweth the word of God as a lanthorn to her
feet, and a light to her steps ; her eyes are above where
Christ is ; she beholdeth not the things present, but
rather things to come ; she glorieth in affliction ; she
knoweth that the afflictions of this life are not to be
compared to the glory which God will reveal to us, and
in us. Of this glory God grant us here a lively taste ;
then shall we run after the scent it sendeth forth. It
will make us valiant men, to take to us the kingdom of
God ; whither the Lord of mercy bring us in his good
time, through Christ our Lord, to whom with the
Father and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God,
be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
" My dearly beloved, I would gladly have given here
my body to have been burned for the confirmation of tlie
true doctrine I have taught here unto you ; but that my
country must have. Therefore I pray you take in good
part this signification of my good will towards every on?
of you. Impute the want herein to time and trouble.
Pardon me mine offensive and negligent behaviour when
A.D. 1555.1 BRADFORD'S LETTER TO THE UNIVERSITY AND TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE. Tf 3
I was amongst you. With me repent, and labour to
amend. Continue in the truth which I have truly
taught unto you by preaching in all places where I have
come ; God's name therefore be praised. Confess
Christ when you are called, whatsoever cometh thereof,
and the God of peace be with us all. Amen. This 11th
of February, 1555.
" Your brother in bonds for the Lord's sake,
"John Bradford."
" To the University and Town of Cambridge.
" To all that love the Lord Jesus and his true doc-
trine, being in the university and town of Cambridge,
John Bradford, a most unworthy servant of the Lord,
now not only imprisoned, but also condemned for the
same true doctrine, wisheth grace, peace, and mercy,
■with increase of all godliness from God the Father of all
mercy, through the bloody passion of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, by the lively working of the Holy Spirit for
ever. Amen.
" Although I look hourly when I shall be had to the
stake, (my right dearly beloved in the Lord), and al-
though the charge over me is great and straight, yet having
by the providence of God secretly obtained pen and ink,
I could not but something signify unto you my solicitude
■which I have for you and every of you in the Lord,
though not as I would, yet as I may. You have often
and openly heard the truth (especially in this matter
■wherein I am condemned) disputed and preached, so
that it is needless to do any more but only to put you in
remembrance of the same ; but hitherto have you not
heard it confirmed, and as it were sealed up, as now you
do and shall hear by me, that is, by my death and burn-
ing. For although I have deserved (through my un-
cleanness, hypocrisy, avarice, vain-glory, idleness, un-
thankfulness, and carnality, whereof I accuse myself, to
my confusion before the world, that before God through
Christ I might, as my assured hope is I shall find
mercy) eternal death, and hell-fire, much more than this
afflicnon and fire prepared for me ; yet, my dearly be-
loved, it is not for these, nor anj'^ of these things, where-
fore the prelates persecute me, but for God's word and
truth; yea, even Christ himself is the only cause and
thing wherefore I am now condemned, and shall be
burned as an heretic, because I will not grant the anti-
christ of Rome to be Christ's vicar-general and supreme
head of his church here, and every where upon earth,
by God's ordinance, and because I will not grant such
corporeal, real, and carnal presence of Christ's body
and blood in the sacrament, as doth transubstantiate the
substance of bread and wine, and is received of the
■wicked . yea, of dogs and mice. Also, I am excommu-
nicated, and counted as a dead member of Christ's
church, as a rotten branch, and therefore shall be cast
into the fire.
" Therefore you ought heartily to rejoice with me,
and to give thanks for me, that God the eternal Father
hath vouchsafed our mother to bring up any child in
■whom it would please him to magnify his holy name as
he doth, and I hope, for his mercy's and truth's sake,
will do in me, and by me. Oh, what such benefit upon
earth can it be, as that I, which deserved death by rea-
son of my sins, should be delivered to a demonstration,
a testification, and confirmation of God's word and truth !
Thou, my mother, the university, hast not only had the
truth of God's word plainly manifested unto thee by
reading, disputing, and preaching publicly and privately;
but now, to make thee altogether excuseless, and, as it
were, almost to sin against the Holy Ghost, if thou put
to thy helping hand with the Romish rout to suppress
the truth, and set out the contrary, thou hast my life
and blood as a seal to confirm thee, if thou wilt be con-
firmed, or else to confound thee, and bear witness
against thee, if thou wilt take part with tlie prelates and
clergy, which now fiU up the measure of their fathers,
■who slew the prophets and apostles, that all the righte-
ous blood from Abel to Bradford, shed upon the earth,
xnay be required at their hands.
" Of this, therefore, I thought good before my death,
as time and liberty did suffer me (for love and duty I
bear unto thee) to admonish thee, good motlier, and my
sister the town, that you would call to mind from whence
you are fallen, and study to do the first works. You
know, if you will, tliese matters of the Romish supre-
macy, and the antichristian transubstantiation, wliereby
Christ's supper is overthrown ; his priestliood abolished ;
his sacrifice frustrated ; tlie ministry of his word un-
placed ; repentance repelled ; faith fainted ; godliness
extinguished ; the mass maintained ; idolatry sui)ported ;
and all impiety cherished : you know, I say, if you will,
that these opinions are not only beside God's word, but
even directly against it, and therefore to take part with
them, is to take part against God, against wliom you
cannot prevail.
" Therefore for the tender mercy of Christ, in his
bowels and blood I beseech you, to take Christ's coUy-
rium and eye -salve to anoint your eyes, that yon may
see what you do and have done in admitting, as I hear
you have admitted, yea, alas ! authorized, and by con-
sent confirmed, the Romish rotten rags, which once you
utterly expelled. O be not like the proverb : ' The dog
is turned to his own vomit again ; and tlie sow that was
washed to her wallowing in the mire.' Beware, lest
Satan enter in with seven other spirits, and then the
latter end shall be worse than the first. It had been
better you liad never known the truth, than after know-
ledge to run from it. Ah ! wo to this world and the
things therein, which hath now so wrought with you.
Oh, that ever this dirt of the devil should daub up the
eye of the realm ! For thou, O mother ! art as the eye
of the realm. If thou shine and give light, all the body
shall fare the better ; but if thy light be darkness, alas !
how great will the darkness be ? What is man whose
breath is in his nostrils, that thou should thus be afraid
of him ?
" Oh, what is honour and life here but baubles. What
is glory in this world, but shame ? Why art thou afraid
to carry Christ's cross ? Wilt thou come into his king-
dom, and not drink of his cup.' Dost thou not know
Rome to be Babylon ? Dost thou not know that as the
old Babylon had the children of Judah in captivity, so
hath this Rome the true Judah, that is, the confessors of
Christ ? Dost thou not know that as destruction hap-
pened unto it, so shall it happen unto this ? And
thinkest thou that God will not deliver his people now when
the time is come, as he did then ? Hath not God com-
manded his people to come out from her ? and wilt thou
give ensample to the whole realm to run unto her .'
Hast thou forgotten the woe that Christ threateneth to
ofl'ence-givers ? Wilt thou not remember that it were
better that a millstone were hanged about thy neck, and
thou thrown into the sea, than that thou shouldst offend
the little ones ?
"And, alas! how hast thou offended? Yea, and
how dost thou still offend ? Wilt thou consider things
according to the outward show ? Was not the sj'ua-
gogue more seemly and like to be the true church, than
the simple flock of Christ's disciples ? Hath not the
whore of Babylon more costly array, and rich apparel
externally to set forth herself, than the homely housewife
of Christ .' Where is the beauty of the king's daughter,
the church of Christ : without or within .' Doth not
David say within ? O, remember that as they are
happy which are not offended at Christ, so are they
happy who are not offended at his poor church. Can
the pope and his prelates mean honestly, who make so
much of the wife, and so little of the husband ? The
church they magnify, but Christ they contemn. If this
church were an honest woman (that is, Christ's wife) ex-
cept they would make much of her husband, Christ and
his word, she would not be made much of them.
" When Christ and his apostles were upon earth, who
was more like to be the true church, they or the prelat-es.
bishops, and synagogue ? If a man should have fol
lowed custom, unity, antiquity, or the more part, should
not Christ and his company have been cast out of the
doors ? Therefore, said Christ, ' Search the scriptures.'
And, good mother, shall the servant be above his
Master 1 Shall we look for other entertainment at the
784
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.
TBooK XI
hands of the world, than Christ and his dear disciples
found ? Who was t iken in Noali's time for the church ?
Poor Noah and his family, or others ? Who w.is taken
for God's church in Sodom ? Lot, or others ? and doth
not Clirist s ly ; As it was then, so shall it go now
towards the coiniiiij of the Son of Man ? What meaneth
Christ when he saith. Iniquity shall have the ujiper
hand ? Doth not he declare th;it charity shall wax cold?
And who seeth not a wonderful great lack of charity in
those, who would now be taken for Christ's church ?
All tiiat fear God in this realm truly can tell more of
this than I can write.
" Tlierefore, dear mother, receive some admonition of
one of thy poor children, now going to be burned for
the testimony of Jesus. Come again to God's truth;
come out of Babylon ; confess Christ and his true doc-
trine ; rejient that which is past ; make amends by de-
claring thy repentance by the fruits. Remember the
readings and preachings of God's prophet, the true
preacher, Martin Bucer. Call to mind the tlire:Uenings
of God, now something seen by thy children Leaver and
others. Let the exile of Leaver, Pilkington, Grindal,
Haddon, Horn, Scorie, Ponet, &c. something awake
thee. Let the imprisonment of thy dear sons, Cranmer,
Ridley, and Latimer move thee. Consider the martyr-
dom of thy chickens, Rogers, Sanders, Taylor. And
now cast not away the poor admonition of me going to
be burned also, and to receive the like crown of glory
with my fellows. Take to heart God's calling by us.
Be not as Pharaoh was ; for then will it happen unto
thee as it did unto him. What is that? Hardness of
heart. And what then ? Destruction eternally both of
body and soul. Ah I therefore, good mother, awake !
awake ! repent 1 repent 1 bestir thyself, and make haste
to turn to the Lord. For else it shall be more easy for
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for
thee. O, harden not your hearts ! O, stop not your
ears to-day in hearing God's voice ! though it be by a
most unworthy messenger. O, fear the Lord ! for his
anger is begun to kindle. Even now the axe is laid to
the root of the tree.
" You know I prophesied truly to you before the
plague came, what would come, if you repented not
your carnal gospelling. And now I tell you before I de-
part hence, that the ears of men will tingle to hear the
vengeance of God that will fall upon all, both town and
university, if you repent not, if you leave not your
idolatry, if you turn not speedily to the Lord, if you still
be ashamed of Christ's truth which you know.
" Oh, Perne repent', oh, Thompson, repent ! oh, you
doctors, bachelors, and masters, repent ! oh, mayor,
aldermen, and town-dwellers, repent ! repent ! repent !
that you may escape the near vengeance of the Lord.
Rend your hearts, and come apace, calling on the Lord.
Let us all say, ' We have all sinned ; we have done
wickedly ; we have not hearkened to thy voice, O Lord !
Deal not with us after our deserts, but be merciful to
our ini(puties, for they are great. Oh, pardon our of-
fences ! In thine anger remember thy mercy. Turn us
unto thee, O Lord God of hosts ! for tlie glory of thy
name's sake. Spare us and be merciful unto us. Let
not the wicked people say ; Where is now their God ?
O, for thine own sake, for thy name's sake, deal merci-
fully with us ! Turn thyself unto us, and us unto thee,
and we shall praise thy name for ever !
" If, in this sort, my dearly beloved, in heart and
mouth we come unto our Father and prostrate our-
selves before the throne of his grace, tlu-n surely we
shall find mercy. Then shall the Lord look graciously
upon us, for his mercy's sake in Christ : then shall we
hear him speak peace unto his people. For he is gra-
cious and merciful, of great pity and compassion : he
cannot be chiding for ever : his anger cannot last long to
the penitent. Though we weep in the morning, yet at
night we shall have our sorrow to cease. For he is ex-
orable, and hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner:
he rather would our conversion and turning.
" Oh, turn you now and repent yet once again, I
humbly beseech you, and then the kingdom of heaven
shall draw nigh. The eye hath not seen, the ear hath
not heard, nor the heart of man is able to conceive the
joys prepared for us if we repent, amend our lives, and
heartily turn to the Lord. But if ye rejient not, but be
as you were, and go on forwards with the wicked, follow-
ing the fashion of the world, the Lord will lead you on
with wicked doers ; you shall perish in your wickedness ;
your bload will be upon your own heads ; your portions
shall be with hypocrites, where shall be weeping and
gnasliing of teeth ; you shall be cast from the face of the
Lord for ever and ever: eternal shame, sorrow, woe, and
misery, shall* be both in body and soul to you world
without end. Oh, therefore, right dear to me in the
Lord, turn you, turn you, repent you, repent you,
amend, amend your lives, depart from evil, do good,
follow peace and pursue it. Come out from Babylon ;
cast off the works of darkness, put on Christ, confess
iiis trutli, be not ashamed of his gospel, jn-epare your-
selves for the cross, drink of {4od's cup before it come to
the dregs, and then shall I with you and for you, rejoico
in the day of judgment, which is at hand, and therefore
prepare yourselves thereto, I heartily beseech you. And
thus I take my farewell for ever of you in this pre-
sent life, mine own dear hearts in the Lord. The Lord
of mercy be with us all, and give us a joyful and sure
meeting in his kingdom. Amen, Amen.
" Out of prison the eleventh of February, A.D. 1555.
" Your own in the Lord for ever,
" John Bradford."
" To Lancashire and Cheshire.
" To all those that profess the name and true religion
of our Saviour Christ in Lancashire and Cheshire, and
especially abiding in Manchester and thereabout, John
Bradford, a most unworthy servant of the Lord, now not
only in bonds, but also condemned for the same true re-
ligion, wisheth mercy and grace, peace, and increase of
all godliness from God the Father of all pity, through
the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the working of
the most mighty and lively Spirit the Comfortei^ for
ever. Amen.
" I heard it credibly reported, my dearly beloved in
the Lord, that my heavenly Father hath thought it good
to provide, that as I have preached his true doctrine and
gospel amongst you by word, so 1 shall testify and con-
firm the same by deed, that is, I shall with you leave my
life, which by his providence 1 first received there (for
in Manchester I was born) for a seal to the doctrine I
have taught with you, and amongst you : so that if from
henceforth you waver in the same, you have none ex-
cuse at all. I know the enemies of Christ, who exercise
this cruelty upon me, (I speak in respect of mine
offence which is none to themwards) do think by killing
me amongst you to terrify you and others, lest they
should attempt to teach Christ truly, or, believe his doc-
trine hereafter. But I doubt not but my heavenly
Father will by my death more confirm you in his truth
for ever. And therefore I greatly rejoice to see Satan
and his soldiers supplanted in their own craftiness,
which is plain foolishness amongst the wise indeed, that
is, amongst such as have heard God's word, and do fol-
low it ; for they only are counted wise who have the
wisdom of God our Saviour.
" Indeed, if I should simply consider my life with
that which it ought to have been, and as God in his law
requireth, then could I not but cry as I do, ' Righteous
art thou, O Lord, and aU thy judgments are true. For
1 have much grieved thee, and transgressed thy holy
precepts, not only before my professing the gospel, but I
since also : yea, since my coming into prison I do not (
excuse, but accuse myself before God and all his church
that I have grievously offended my Lord God ; I have
not loved his gosjiel as I should have done ; I have
sought myself, and not simply and only his glory and
my brethren's welfare ; I have been too unthankful, se-
cure, carnal, hypocritical, vain-glorious, &c. All which
my evils, the Lord of mercy pardon me for Christ'g
sake, as I hojje and certainly believe he hath done for
his great mercy in Christ our Redeemer.
" But when I consider the cause of my coiidemnB-
A.D. 1555.] A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.
7S6
tion, I cannot but lament, that I do no more rejoice
than I do. For it is God's word and truth ; so that the
condemnation is not a condemnation of Bradford simply,
but rather a condemnation of Christ and of his truth.
Bradford is nothing else but an instrument in whom
Christ and his doctrine is condemned. And, therefore,
my dearly beloved, rejoice, rejoice and give thanks with
me and for me ; that ever God did vouchsafe so great a
benefit to our country, as to choose the most unwortliy
(I mean myself) to be one, in whom it would please him
to suffer any kind of affliction : much more this violent
kind of death, which I perceive is prepared for me with
you for his sake. All glory and praise be given unto
God our Father, for his great a:id exceeding mercy
towards me through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
" But, perchance, you will say unto me, what is the
cause for which you are condemned ? We hear say,
that ye deny all presence of Christ in his holy supper,
and so make it a mere sign and common bread, and
nothing else. INIy dearly beloved, what is said of me,
and what will be, I cannot tell. It is told me that Pendle-
ton is gone down to preach among you, not as he once
recanted (for you all know he hath preached contrary to
that he was wont to preach before I came amongst you)
but to recant that which he hath recanted. How he will
speak of me, and report before I come, when I am
come, and when I am burned, I care much not : for he
that is so uncertain, and will speak so often against him-
self, I cannot think he will speak well of me, except it
make for his purpose and prolit : but of this enough.
" Indeed, the chief thing which I am condemned for,
as a heretic, is because I deny in the sacrament of the
altar (which is not Christ's supper, but a plain pervert-
ing of it, being used as the papists now use it) to be a
real, natural, and corporeal presence of Christ's body
and blood, under the forms and accidents of bread and
wine, that is, because I deny transubstantiatiou, which
is the darling of the devil, and daughter and heir to anti-
christ's religion; whereby the mass is maintained;
Christ's supper perverted ; his sacrifice and cross made
imperfect ; his priesthood destroyed ; the ministry taken
away ; repentance repelled, and all true godliness a'oan-
doned. In the supper of our Lord, or sacrament of
Christ's body and blood, I confess and believe that there
is a true, and very presence of the whole Clirist, God
and Man, to the faith of the receiver (but not of the
itander by and looker on) as there is a very true pre-
sence of ijread and wine to the senses of him that is par-
taker thereof. This faith, this doctrine, which con-
eenteth with the word of God, and with the true testi-
mony of Christ's church, (which the popish church doth
persecute) I will not forsake, and therefore I am con-
demned as a heretic, and shall be burned. But, my
I dearly beloved, this truth (which I have taught, and you
! have received, I believed, and do believe, and therein
j give my life) I hope in God shall never be burned,
bound, nor overcome : but shall triumph, have victory,
and be at liberty, in spite of the head of all God's adver-
saries. For there is no counsel against the Lord, nor
can any device of man be able to defeat the truth in any
other than such as are children of unbelief, who have no
love to tlie truth, and therefore are given up to believe
lies. From which plague the Lord of mercy deliver you
and all the realm, my dear hearts in the Lord, I humbly
beseech his mercy. Amen.
" And to the end you might be delivered from this
plague, ri'flit dear to me in the Lord, I shall for my
farewell vi'ith you for ever in this present life, heartily
desire you all in the bowels and blood of our most
merciful Saviour Jesus Christ, to attend unto these
things which I now shall shortly write unto you out of
the holy scriptures of the Lord.
" You know an heavy pbgue (or rather plagues) of
God is fallen upon us, in taking away our good king,
and true religion, God's true prophets and ministers,
&c. And setting over us, sucli as seek not the Lord
after knowledge : whose endeavours God prospereth
wonderfully to the trial of many, that his people may
both better know themse'"cs, pnd be known. Now the
eause hereof is our iniquities and grievous sins. We i
did not know the time of our visitation : we were un
thankful unto God : we contemned the gospel, and car
nally abused it, to serve our hypocrisy, our vain-glory,
our viciousness, avarice, idleness, security, &c. Long
did the Lord linger, and tarry to have shewed mere?
upon us, but we were ever the longer the worse. There-
fore most justly hath God dealt with us, and dealeth
with us : yea, yet we may see that his justice is tempered
with much mercy, whereto let us attribute that we ai-e
not utterly consumed. For if the Lord should deal with
us after our deserts, alas ! how could we abide it ? lu
his anger, tlierefore, seeing he doth remember his mercy
undeserved (yea, undesired on our behalf) let us take
occasion the more speedily to go out to meet him, not
witli force of arms (for we are not so able to withstand
him, much less to prevail against him), but to besee»:h
him to be merciful unto us, and according to his wonted
mercy to deal with us.
" Let us arise with David, and say, ' Enter not into
judgment with thy servant, O Lord ; for in tliy sight siiall
no man living be justified.* Let us send ambassadors
with tlie centurion, and say, Lord, we are not worthy to
come ourselves unto thee ■ speak the word, and we shall
have peace. Let us penitently with the publican look
down on the earth, knock our hard hearts to burst them,
and cry oat, ' O God be merciful to us sinners,' Let
us with the lost son return and say, O Father, we
have sinned against heaven and before thee, and are
no more worthy to be called thy children. Let
us, I say, do on this sort, that is, heartily repent us
of our former evil life, and unthankful gospelling past, re-
pent, and turn to God with our whole hearts, hoping in
his great mercy through Christ, and heartily calling
upon his holy name, and then undoubtedly we shall find
and feel otherwise than yet we now feel, both inwardly
and outwardly. InwartUy we shall feel peace of con-
science between God and us, which peace passeth all un-
derstar.ding, and outwardly we shall ft-el much mitigation
of these miseries, if not an utter taking of them away.
"Therefore, my dearly beloved in the Lord, I your
poorest brother dow departing to the Lord, for my Vale
in iiturnum (i. e. my farewell for ever) for this present
life, pray you, beseech you, and even from the very bot-
tom of my heart, for all the mercies of God in ChrLst
shewed unto you, most earnestly beg and crave of you
out of prison (as often out of your pulpits I have done)
that j'ou would repent you, Itave your wicked and evil
life, be sorry for your offences, and turn to the Lord,
whose arms are wide open to receive and embrace you,,
whose stretched-out hand to strike to death stayeth that
he may shevr mercy upon you. For he is the Lord of
mercy, and God of a'l comfort, he wills not the death of
a sinner, but rather chat you should return, repent, and
amend. He hath no pleasure in the destruction of men ;
his long-suffering draweth to repentance before the time
of vengeance, and the day of wrath, which is at hand,
doth come.
" Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree utterly to
destroy the impenitent. Now is the fire gone out be-
fore the face of the Lord, and who is able to quench
it ? Oh therefore repent you, repent you. It is enough
to have lived as we have done. It is enough to
have played the wanton gospellers, the proud juotes-
tants, hypocritical and false christians, as, alas, we
have done. Now the Lord speaketh to us in mercy and
grace. Oh turn before he speaketh in wrath. Yet is
there mercy with the Lord, and plenteous redemption :
yet he hath not forgotten to shew mercy to them that
call upon him. Oh then call upon him while he may be
found. For he is rich in mercy, and plentiful to all them'
that call upon him. So that he that calleth on the name
of the Lord, shall be saved. If your sins be as red as
scarlet, the Lord saith, he will make them as white a»
snow. He hath sworn, and never will repent him
thereof, that he will never remember our iniquities : but
as he is good, faithful, and true, so will he be our God,
and we shall be his people : his law will he write in our
hearts, and ingraft in our miuJs, and never will he have
in mind our unrighteousne.s.'^.
" Therefore, my dear hearts in the Lord, turn you, turn
3k2
*196
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO HIS BRETHREN.
[Book XI.
you to the Lord your Father, to the Lord your Saviour,
to the Lord your Comforter. O why do you stop your
ears, and harden your hearts to-day, when you hear
his voice by me your poorest brother ? Oh forget not
how that the Lord hath shewed himself true, and me his
true preacher, by bringing to pass these plagues which
at my mouth you oft heard before they came to pass,
especially when I treated of Noah's flood, and when I
jireached on the twenty-second chapter of St. Matthew's
gospel, on St. Stephen's day, the last time that I was
with you. And now by me the Lord sendeth you
word, dear countrymen, that if you will go on forward in
your impenitency, carnality, hypocrisy, idolatry, covet-
ousness, swearing, gluttony, drunkenness, whoredom,
&c., wherewith, alas! alas ! our country floweth : if, I say,
you will not turn and leave off, seeing me now burned
amongst you, to assure you on all sides how Godseeketh
you, and is sorry to do you hurt, to plague you, to de-
stroy you, to take vengeance upon you, oh your blood
will be upon your own heads ! you have been warned,
and warned again, by me in preaching, by me in burning.
" As I said, therefore, I say again, my dear hearts
and darlings in the Lord, turn you, turn you, repent you,
cease from doing evil, study to do well, away with idola-
try, fly the Romish god and service, leave off from swear-
ing, cut off carnality, abandon avarice, drive away
drunkenness, fly from fornication and flattery, murder
and malice, destroy deceitfulness, and cast away all the
works of darkness. Put on piety and godliness, serve
God after his word, and not after custom ; use your
tongues to glorify God by prayer, thanksgiving, and con-
fession of his truth, &c. ; be spiritual, and by the Spirit
mortify carnal affections, be sober, holy, true ; loving,
gentle, merciful, and then shall the Lord's wrath cease,
not for this our doings' sake, but for his mercy's
sake. Go to therefore, good countrymen, take this
council of the Lord by me now sent unto you, as the
Lord's counsel, and not as mine, that in the day of
judgment I may rejoice with you, and for you ; the
which thing 1 heartily desire, and not to be a witness
against you. My blood will cry for vengeance, as against
the papists, God's enemies, whom I beseech God, if it
be his will, heartily to forgive, yea, even them which put
me to death and are the causers thereof, for they know
not what they do, so will my blood cry for vengeance
against you, my dearly-beloved in the Lord, if ye re-
l)ent not, amend not, and turn unto the Lord.
" Turn unto the Lord, yet once more I heartily be-
seech thee, thou Manchester, thou Ashton-under-Line,
thou Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Liverpool, Mottram. Steppor,
Winsley, Eccles, Priestwich, Middleton, Radcliff, and
thou city of 'VY'f stchester, where I have truly taught and
preached the word of God. Turn, I say unto you all,
and to all the inhabitants thereabouts, unto the Lord
our God, and he will turn unto you ; he will say unto
his angel, ' It is enotigh, put up the sword.' The
which thing that he will do, I humbly beseech his good-
ness, for the precious blood's sake of his dear Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Ah, good brethren, take in
good part these my last words unto every one of you.
Pardon me mine offences and negligences in behaviour
amongst you. The Lord of mercy pardon us all our
offences, for our Saviour Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
" Out of prison, ready to come to you, the eleventh
of February, A.D. liihb."
♦' To my loving Brethren, B.C. 6;c., their Wives and
whole Families.
" I beseech the everlasting God to grant you all, my
good brethren and sisters, the comfort of the Holy
Spirit, and the continual sense of his mercy in Christ
our Lord, now and for ever. Amen.
" The world, my brethren, seems to have the upper
hand, iniquity ovei-floweth, the truth and scri])ture
seemeth to be opj)ressed, and they who tnke part there-
with, are unjustly treated ; as they who love the truth
lament to see and hear as they do. The cause of all
this is God's anger and mercy : his angtT, because we
have grievously sinned against him ; his mercy, because
he here punisheth us, and as a Father uurturelh us. Wc
have been unthankful for his word ; we have contemned
his kindness ; we have been negligent in prayer ; we
have been so carnal, covetous, licentious, &c. We have
not hastened to heaven-ward, but rather to hell-ward.
We were fallen almost into an open contempt of God,
and all his good ordinances ; so that of his justice he
could no longer forbear, but make us feel his anger, as
now he hath done, in taking his word and true service
from us, and permitting Satan to serve us with anti-
christian religion, and that in such sort, that if we
will not yield to it, and seem to allow it in deed and
outward act, our bodies are like to be laid in prison,
and our goods given we cannot tell to whom.
" This should we look upon as a sign of God's anger
produced by our sins, which, my good brethren, every
of us should now call to our memories oftentimes, so
particularly as we can, that we might heartily lament
them, repent them, hate them, ask earnestly mercy for
them, and submit ourselves to bear in this life any kind
of punishment, winch God will lay upon us for them.
This should we do in consideration of God's anger ifl
this time. Now his mercy in this time of wrath is seen,
and should be seen in us, my dearly beloved, in this,
tliat God doth vouchsafe to punish us in this present
life. If he should not have punished us, do not you
think that we would have continued in the evils we were
in .' Yes, verily, we would have been worse, and have
gone forwards in hardening our hearts by impenitence
and negligence of God and true godliness. And then if
death had come, should not we have perished both soul
and body in eternal fire in perdition ? Alas, what misery
should we have fallen into, if God should have suffered
us to have gone on forward in our evils ? No greater
sign of damnation there is, than to lie in evil and siu
unpunished of God, as now the papists, my dearly be-
loved, are cast into Jezebel's bed of security, which of all
plagues is the most grievous that can be. They are bas-
tards and not sons, they are not under God's rod of cor-
rection.
" A great mercy it is, therefore, that God doth punish
us : for if he loved us not, he would not punish us.
Now doth he chastise us, that we should not be con-
demned with the world. Now doth he nurture us, be-
cause he favoureth us. Now may we think ourselves
God's house and children, because he beginneth his chas-
tising at us. Now calleth he us to remember our past
sins. Wherefore? That we might repent, and ask mercy.
And why ? That he might forgive us, pardon us, justify
us, and make us his children, and so begin to make us here
like unto Christ, that we might be like unto him else-
where, even in heaven, where already we are set by faith
with Christ, and at his coming in very deed we shall
then most joyrfully enjoy, when our sinful and vile bodies
shall be made like to Ciirist's glorious body, according
to the power whereby he is able to make all things sub-
ject to himself.
" Therefore, my brethren, let us in respect hereof not
lament, but praise God, not be sorry, but be merry ;
not weep, but rejoice and be glad, that God doth vouch-
safe to offer us his cross, thereby to come to him to
endless joys and comforts. For if we suffer, we shall
reign ; if we confess him before men, he will confess us
before his Father in heaven ; if we be not ashamed of his
gosjiel now, he will not be ashamed of us in the last day,
but will be glorified in us, crowning us with crowns of
glory and endless felicity : for, ' biassed are they that
suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.' 'If,' saith St. Peter, 'ye be
reproaciied for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for
the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.' After
that you are a little afflicted, God will comfort, strengthen,
and confirm you. And therefore, my good brethren, be
not discouraged for cross, for prison, or loss of goods for
confession of Christ's gospel and truth which you have
believed, and lively was tauglit amongst you in t'le days
of our late good king, and most holyprince. King Edward.
This is most certain, if you lose anything for Christ's sake,
aiul for contemning the antichristian service, set uj) again
amongst us : as you for your parts even in prison sliall
find God's great and rich mercy, far passing all woildly
A.D. 1555,]
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO HIS BRETHREN, &c.
737
wealth ; so shall your wives and children in this present
life, find and feel God's providence, more plentifully than
tongue can tell. For he will shew merciful kindness on
thousands of them that love him. The good man's seed
shall not go a begging his bread. You are good men, so
many as suffer for Christ's sake.
" I trust you all, my dearly beloved, will consider this
cross with yourselves, and in the cross see God's mercy,
which is more sweet, and to be esteemed, than life it-
self, much more than any pelf of this world. This
mercy of God should make you merry and cheerful ; for
the afflictions of this life are not to be compared to the
joys of the life prepared for you. You know the way to
heaven is not the wide way of the world, which windeth
to the devil, but it is a straight way which few walk in.
For few live godly in Christ Jesus ; few regard the life to
come ; few remember the day of judgment ; few remem-
ber how Christ will deny them before his Father, that do
deny him here ; few consider that Christ will be ashamed
of them in the last day, which are ashamed of his truth
and true service ; few cast their accounts, what will be
laid to their charge in the day of vengeance ; few regard
the condemnation of their own consciences, in doing that
which inwardly they disallow ; few love God better than
their goods.
" But I trust you are of this few, my dearly beloved : T
trust you are of that little flock, which shall inherit the
kingdom of heaven ; I trust you are the mourners and
lamenters who shall be comforted with that comfort,
which shall not be taken from you ; if now you repent your
former evils, if now you strive against the evils that are
in you, if now you continue to call upon God, if now
you defile not your bodies with any idolatrous service
used in the antichristian churches, if you molest not the
good Spirit of God, which is given you as a pledge of
eternal redemption, a counsellor and master to lead you
into all truth, which good Spirit I beseech the Father of
mercy to give to us all, for his dear Son's sake Jesus
Christ our Lord, to whom I commend you all, and to
the word of his grace, which is able to help you all, and
save you all that believe it, follow it, and serve God
thereafter.
"And of this I would you were all certain, that all
the hairs of your heads are numbered, so that not one of
them shall perish, neither shall any man or devil be able
to attempt any thing, much less to do any thing to you,
or any of you, before your heavenly Father, who loveth
you most tenderly, shall give them leave, and when he
hath given them leave, they shall go no further than he
will, nor keep you in trouble any longer than be will.
Therefore cast on him all your care, for he is careful for
yiju. Only study to please him, and to keep your con-
sciences clean, and your bodies pure from the idolatrous
service, which now every where is used, and God wUl
marvellously and mercifully defend and comfort you ;
which thing may he do for his holy name's sake in Christ
our Lord. Amen.
" Your afflicted poor brother and bondsman,
" John Bradford.''
To a Woman that desired to knotc his mind, whether she,
refraining from the Mass, might be present at the im-
pish Matins, or not.
' I beseech Almighty God our heavenly Father to be
erciful unto us, and to increase in you, my good sister,
the knowledge and love of his truth, and at this present
give me grace so to write to you something of the same,
as may make to his glory and our own comfort and con-
firmation in him, through Christ our Lord, Amen.
" Whether you may come with safe conscience to the
church now, that is, to the service used commonly, in
part, as at matins, or at even-song, or not, is j'our
desire to have me to write something for your further
guidance. My dearly beloved, although your benefits
towards me might peixhance make you think, that in
respect thereof I would bear with that which else were
not to be borne with ; yet by God's grace I am purposed,
simply and without all such respect in this matter, to
speak to you the truth according to my conscience, as I
may be able to stand unto, when 1 shall come before the Lord.
" First, therefore, go about to learn perfectly the first
lesson to be learned of all that profess Christ, that is, to
deny yourself, and in nothing to seek yourself.
"Secondly, Learn after this, to begin at the ne.xt
lesson to it, which is, to seek God in all things you do,
and leave undone.
" Thirdly, Know, that then 5'ou seek God, when ia
his service you follow his word, and not man's imagi-
nation, custom, multitude, &c., and when with your
brother you follow the rule of charity, that is, to do as
vou would be done by. In these is the sum of all the
counsel I can give you, if that hereto I admonish you of
the service now used, which is not according to God's
word, but rather against God's word directly, and in
manner wholly. So that your going to the service, is a
declaration that you have not learned the first lesson,
nor never can learn it, so long as you go thither; there-
fore the second lesson you shall utterly lose, if you cease
not the seeking of yourself, that is, if for company,
custom, fatlier or friend, life or goods, you seem to
allow that which God disalloweth. And this that you
the better may perceive, I purpose by God's gract
briefly to shew :
" First, the matins and even-song, is in a tongue
forbidden publicly to be used in the congregation that
perceiveth not the tongue. Read how St. Paul affirms
it, to pray in an unknown tongue, to be against God's
commandment. 1 Cor. 14. This one, indeed, were
enough, if nothing else were. For how can God's glory
be sought, where his word and commandment is wilfully
broken .' How can charity to man stand, when cha-
rity to God, which is obedience to his word, is over-
thrown ?
" Again, both in matins and in even-song is idolatry
maintained instead of God's service ; for there is in-
vocation and prayer made to saints departed this life,
which robbeth God of that glory which he will give to
none other.
" Moreover, this service, and the setters forth of it
condemns the English service as heresy, thereby falling
into God's curse, which is threatened to all such as call
good evil, and evil good, whereof they shall be partakers
that do communicate with them.
" Besides this, this Latin service is a plain mark of
antichrist's catholic synagogue ; so that the communicants
and approvers of it thereby declare themselves to be mem-
bers of the same synagogue, and so are cut off from Christ
and his church, whose exterior mark is the true adminis-
tration of God's word and sacraments.
" Furthermore, the example of your going thither to
allow the religion of antichrist (as doubtless you do in-
deed, however in heart you think) occasions the obstinate
to be utterly intractable, the weak papists to be more
obstinate, the strong gospellers to be sore weakened,
and the weak gospellers to be utterly overthrown : which
things, how great offences they be, no pen is able to
utter by letters. All these evils you shall be guilty of,
that company with those in religion externally, from
whom you are admonished to fly. If Christ be Christ,
follow him : gather with him, lest you scatter abroad,
serve God, not only in spirit, but also in body. Make
not your liody, now a member of Christ, a member of
antichrist. Come out from amongst them, saith the
Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Confess Christ and
his truth, not only in heart, but also in tongue, yea, in
very deed, which few gospellers do. Indeed they deny
him, and therefore had need to tremble, lest that Christ
will deny them in the last day : the which day, if it were
set before our eyes often, then would the pleasures and
treasures of this world be but trifles.
" Therefore, good sister, often have it before your
eyes, daily set yourself and your doings as before the
iudgment seat of Christ now, that hereafter you be not
called into judgment. Think that it will little profit you
to win the whole world, and to lose your own soul.
Mark Christ's lessons well, ' He that will save his life,
shall lose it.' The Father of heaven commands you to
hear Christ, and he saith, ' Follow me:' this can you not
do, and follow idolatry or idolaters. Fly from such,
saith the scripture.
;88
A LETTER OF JOHN BRADFORD TO A GENTLEWOMAN.
[Book XI.
" This God grant to vow, to mc. and to all God's
cliiklren, Amen. Thus in ha^te 1 have accomplished
your re(jue.-t. God grant that as you liavH done me
much good hodily, so that this may he a little mean to
do you some good s|nritually. Amen. If time would
serve, I would have written more at large. The 2nd of
March, A.D. l.'.oo.
To a certain qodhj Gentlewoman, trouhlcA and afflicted
bij her Friends for not comini/ to the Mans.
" I wish unto you, right worshipful and my dearly-be-
loved sister in the Lord, as to myself, the continual
grace and comfort of Christ, and of his holy word,
through the ojieration of the Holy Spirit, to strengthen
your inward man with the strength of God, that you
mav continue to the end in the faithful obedience of
God's gospel, whereto you are calle<l. Amen.
" I perceived by yourself the last day when you
were with me, how that you are in the school-house
and trial-parlour of the Lord ; which to me is (at the
least it should be) a great comfort to see the numljer of
God's elect by you increased, who are in that state
whereof God hath not called many, as St. Paul saith.
And as it is a comfort to me, so should it be a con-
firmation unto me, that the Lor<i for his faithfulness sake
•will make perfect and linisli the good he hath begun in
you to the end.
" If then your cross be to me a comfort or token of
your election, and a confirmation of God's continual fa-
vour, my dearly-beloved, how much more ought it to be
so to vou ? Unto whom he hath not only given to believe,
but also to come into the cause of suffering for his
sake, and that not merely of common enemies, but
even of your own father, mother, and all your friends,
I mean kinsfolks, as you told me. By which I see
Christ's words to be true, how that he came to give his
children such a peace with him, as the devil might not,
nor may abide, and therefore stirreth up father and mo-
ther, sister and brother, rather than it should continue.
But, my dear sister, if you cry with David to the Lord,
and comjilain to him, how that for conscience to him
your father and mother hath forsaken you, you shall
hear him speak in your heart, that he hath received you,
and by this would have you to see that he maketh you
here like to Christ, that elsewhere (in heaven) you might
be like unto him ; w-hereof you ought to be most assured,
knowing that in time, even when Christ shall appear,
you shall be like unto him. For he will make your body
which now you defile not with idolatrous service in going
to mass, like unto his own glorious and immortal body,
according to the power whereby he is able to do all
things. He will confess you before his Father, who do
not deny his truth in word nor deed, before your Fa-
ther; he will make you to reign with him, that now
suffer for him and with him ; he will not leave you com-
fortless, that seek no comfort but at his hand ; though
for a little time you are afflicted, yet therein he will
comfort and strengthen you, and at length make you to
rejoice with him in such joy as is infinite and endless.
He will wipe away all tears from your eyes ; he will
embrace you as your dear husband ; he will, after he
lialh proved you, crown you with a crown of glory and
immortality, such as the heart of man shall never be
able to conceive in such sort as the thing is. He now
beholdeth your steadfastness, and striving to do his good
will ; and shortly he will show yovi how steadfast he is,
and will be ready to do your will, after that you have
fully resigned it to his will.
" Pledge him in his cup of the cross, and you shall
pledge him in the cup of his glory. Desire to drink it
before it comes to the dregs, whereof the wicked shall
drink, and all those that for fear of the cross and jiledg-
ing the Lord, do walk with the wicked in bttraying in
act and deed that which their heart enibraceth for truth ;
which thing, if you should do (which (iod forbid), then
my dear mistress and sister in the Lord, you shall not
only lose all that I have before sjioken, and much
more of eternal joy and glory, but also be a cast-a-
way, and partaker of God's most heavy disjileasure in
hell fire eternally ; and so for a little ease, which yon
cannot tell how long it will last, to lose for ever and
ever all ease and comfort. ' For he that gathereth not
with me,' saith Christ, as no mass-gospeller doth, ' scat-
tereth abroad.' According to what we do in this body,
we shall receive, be it good or bad. If by our words
we shall be judged to condemnation or salvation, much
more then of our acts and deeds. You cannot be a par-
taker of God's religion and antichrist's service, whereof
the nuiss is most principal. You cannot be a member of
Chri.-t's church, and a member of the pope's church.
You nuist glorify God not only in soul and heart. i)ut
also in l)0(ly and deed. You may not think that God
reqnireth less of you his wife now, than your husband
did of you. If your husband would have, both heart and
body shall Christ have less, think you, who hath so bit-
teily and dearly bought it ? If your husband would
net have admitted an excuse that your heart was his
if he had found you faithless to him, do you think that
Christ will allow your body at mass, although your heart
consent not to it ?
" God csteemeth his children, not only by their hearts,
but by their ]\vire hands and works ; and therefore in
Elij-\h's time he counted none to be his servants and
])eople, but such as had not bowed their knees to Baal ;
so now he doth not in England account any to be his
servants who know the truth in heart, and deny it in
their deeds, as do our mass gospellers.
" We ought to desire above all things the sanctifying
of God's holy name, and the coming of his kingdom ; and
shall we then see his name blasphemed so horribly as it
is at mass, by making it a sacrifice propitiatory, and
setting forth a false Christ of the priest's and baker's
making, to be worshipped as God, and say nothing ?
The .Tews rent their clothes asunder in seeing or hearing
any thing blasphemously done or spoken against God,
and shall we yet come to church where mass is, and be
mute ? Paul and Barnabas rent their clothes to see the
peo})le of Lycaonia offering sacrifice unto them, and shall
we see sacrifice and God's service done to an inanimate
creature, and be silent ? What thing helpeth more or
so much antichrist's kingdom as doth the mass ? And
what destroyeth preaching and the kingdom of Christ
upon earth more than it doth ? And how can we then
say, ' Let thy kingdom come,' and go to mass? How
can we prav before God, 'Thy will be done on earth,'
when we will do our own will, and the will of our father
or friend ? IIow pray we, ' Deliver us from evil,' who
knowing the mass to be evil, do come to it ?
" But what go I about to light a candle in the noon-
day, that is, to tell you that we may not go to mass, or to
the congregation where it is, except it be to reprove it,
in that all men in so doing do but dissemble both with
God and man ? And is dissembling now to be allowed ?
How long will men yet halt on both knees .' saith God.
Halting, saith St. Paul, bringeth out of the way, that is
to say, out of (,'hrist, which is the way : so that he who
is not in him shall wither away, and be cast into hell
fire. Fo Christ will be ashamed of them before his Fa-
ther, who are now ashamed of his truth before this wicked
generation.
" Therefore, my good mistress, take good heed; for
it had been better for you never to have known the
truth, and through it to have escaped from papistical
uncleanness, than now to return to it, making thereby
your members, being members of righteousness, mem-
bers of unrighteoussness, as you do, if you do but go to
the church w here mass is. Be pure, therefore, and keep
vourself from all filthiness of the spirit, and of the flesh.
Abstain not only from all evil, but from all appearance
of evil.
" And so the God of peace shall be with you, the glory
of God shall govern you, the Spirit of God shall sanctify
you, and be with you for ever, to keep you from all evil,
and to comfort you in all your distress and trouble ;
which is hut short if you consider the eternity you shall
enjoy in glory and felicity in the Lord, which undoubtedly
you shall not fail to inherit for ever, if so be you, aa
the elect child of God, put your trust in his mercy,
call upon his name unfeignedly, and yield not yourself
A.D. 15550
ACCOUNTS OF MINGE, TREYISAM, BLAND, &c.
78<>
to the wicked world, but fight against it until the end.
God for his holy name's sake, which is properly the God
of the widows, be your good and dear Father for ever,
and help you always, as I myself would be helped at his
bauds in all things, and especially in this his own cause.
Amen, Amen. " John Bradfokd."
William Minge.
The nest day after Master Bradford and John Leaf
suffered in Smithfield, William Minge, priest, died in
prison at Maidstone, being there in bonds for religion,
and likely to have suffered also, if his life had continued ;
for he with as great constancy and boldness yielded up
his life in prison, as if it had pleased God to have
called him to suffer by the fire, as the other good and
godly men had done at the stake.
Jaines Trevisam buried in the Fields.
On Sunday, the third of July, A.D. 1555, died one
James Trevisam, in the parish of St. Margaret in Loth-
bury. Being impotent and lame, he kept his bed, for he
could not rise out of it a long time. This Trevisam had
a servant, one John Small, who read in the Bible ; and
as he was reading, Berd the promoter came to the house,
and insisted to go up stairs, where he found four per-
sons besides him and his wife, to wit, the young man
that read, and two men and a woman. All which folks
Berd apprehended and carried to the compter, where
they remained about a fortnight. Moreover, Berd
would have had also James the lame man himself to
Newgate in a cart (and brought the cart to the door),
cut for the neighbours. Nevertheless, the poor man
was made to put in two sureties for his forthcoming ; for
he could not go out of his bed, being not only impotent,
but also very sick. So within a few days, James lying
in extremity, the parson of the church, named Master
Farthing, came to him, and had communication with
him, and agreed well, and so departed. It happened
after the priest was come down into the street, there met
him one Toller. "Yea," said he, " are you agreed?
I will accuse you, for he denies the sacrament of the
altar." Upon that the parson went to him again, and
then the priest and he could not agree. And so the
parson went to the bishop of London and told him.
The bishop answered, that he should be burnt ; and if
he were dead he should be buried in a ditch. And so
when he died, the parson was against his wife as much as
he could, neither would he let her have the coffin to put
him in, nor anything else, but she was fain to bear him
upon a table to Moorfields, and there he was buried.
The same night the body was cast up above the ground,
and his sheet taken from him, and he left naked. After
this the owner of the field, seeing him, buried him again,
and a fortnight after the suramoner came to his grave,
and summoned him to appear at St. Paul's before his
ordinary, to answer to such things as should be laid
against him. But what more befel him, I have not cer-
tainly to say.
The History of John Bland.
On the twelfth of July, John Bland, John Frankesh,
Nicholas Sheterden, and Humphry Middleton, were all
four burned together at Canterbury for one cause.
Frankesh and Bland were ministers and preachers of the
word of God, the one being parson of Adisham, the
other the vicar of Rolvendon.
Mr. Bland was at first employed in bringing up children
in learning and virtue. After this, coming to the ministry
in the church of God, he was filled with earnest desire
to_ profit the congregation ; which may appear by this,
that when he was cast into Canterbury prison for
preaching the gospel, and was delivered once or twice
at the suit of his friends, yet he would preach the gos-
pel again as soon as he was delivered. Upon this, being
apprehended the third time, when his friends would
again have found means to have delivered him if he
would promise to abstain from preaching ; he would ad-
mit no such condition, shewing well to us the example
which we read in the Apostle Paul ; " Who shall sepa-
rate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword ?" etc. But as to the life and doings of
this godly martyr, it will be best to refer the reader to
his own account, which he sent to his father about his
troubles.
A Discourse of the whole Process and doings of John
Bland, vritien and rejjorted by himself to his Father
in his own Letter, as follows : —
" Dearly beloved father in Christ Jesus, I thank you
for your gentle letters. And to satisfy your mind, as
concerning the troubles whereof you have beard, these
shall both declare unto you all my vexations that have
befallen me since you were with me, and also since I
received your last letters. God keep you ever.
" Your son, John Bland."
" First, on Sunday, the third of September, after ser-
rice ended, before I had put off my surplice, John Aus-
ten came to the table (commonly called the Lord's
Table) and laid both his hands upon it, saying, ' Who
set this here again ?' Now they say, that they took the
table down the Sunday before, which I knew not,
neither do I know who set it up again. The clerk an-
swered, that he knew not. Then Austen said, ' He is
a knave that set it here.' I was then going down the
church, marvelling what he meant, and said, ' Good-
man Austen, the queen's highness has set forth a pro-
clamation, that you may move no sedition.' And be-
fore I could speak any more, he said, ' Thou art a
knave.' And I said, ' Well, goodman Austen, what I
have said, I have said.' — ' By God's soul,' said he,
' thou art a very knave.' Then my clerk spake to
him, but what I am not sure. But he said, ' Both of
you are heretic knaves, and have deceived us with this
fashion too long ; and if you say any service here again,
I will lay the table on his face :' and in that rage he
with others took up the table, and laid it on a chest in
the chancel, and set the tressels by it. Wherefore I
rode by and bye to Master Isaac, and shewed him how
sedkiously he had spoken and acted. Master Isaac di-
rected a warrant to the constable, which was imme-
diately observed, so that he was brought before him the
same night, and was bound by recognizance, with sure-
ties, to appear, if he were called. But we agreed so
well then, that it was never called for ; the table was
brought down, and was permitted, as before.
" On the twenty-sixth of November, being Sunday,
Richard Austen, and his brother Thomas came to tlie
table after the communion was done, and as I was going
past them, Richard said to me, ' Master Parson, we
have to speak to you.' And I said, ' What is your
will ?' And he said, ' You know that you took down
the tabernacle, wherein the rood did hang, and such other
things : we would know what recompense you will make
us. For the queeft's proceedings are, as you know, that
such must be put up again.'
" I answered 'I know no such proceedings as yet;
and as for what I did, I did it by commandment.'
" ' No,' said Thomas Austen, ' you will not know
the queen's proceedin;rs
" ' Yes,' said I, ' I refuse not to know them.'
" Then said Rich.'.rd, ' You are against the queep'i
proceedings ; for you say there are abominable uses and
devilishness in the mass.'
" ' Goodman Austen,' said I, ' if I so said, I will sny
it again, and God willing, stand to the proof of it.'
" ' Masters all,' exclaimed Richard Austen, ' bear
record of these words,' and went his way.
" Thomas Austen said. ' thou wilt as soon eat tnj«
book as stand to them.'—' No,' said I, ' not .«o soon.'
— ' Tell us,' said he, ' what that devilishness is, that u
in the mass.'
" ' I often preached it to you,' said I, ' and yott
have not believed it, nor borne it away ; nor wiii D''
neither, though I should tell you.'
-90
ACCOUIST OF JOHN BLAND.
[Book XI.
" He replied, ' Thou art an heretic, and hast taught
us nothing but heresy : for thou canst say nothing that
is true.'
" ' Yes, goodman Austen, I can say that God is in
heaven, and you will say, that is true, and so have 1
taught you truly.'
" ' Thou hast taught us like an heretic,' he answered,
' and hast said, that there is no devil in hell.'
" He gave many other taunts, too long to write.
And at the last he said, ' You pulled down the altar ;
■will you build it again ?' — ' No,' sai(' I, ' except I be
commanded ; for I was commanded to do what I did.'
" ' Well, if you will not,' said he, ' then I will ; for I
am churchwarden.'
" ' I charge you,' said I, ' that you do not, except
you have authority.' — ' I will not,' said he, ' refrain
for your charge. For we will liave a mass here on Sun-
day, and a preacher, that shall prove thee an heretic,
if thou dare abide his coming.'
" ' Yes,' said I, ' God willing, ' I will abide and hear
him ; for sure I am, that he cannot disjn-ove any doc-
trine that I have preached.'
" When the Sunday came, I looked for the preacher,
but he never came, so I preached in his absence.
" Upon Innocents' day, being the twenty-eighth of
December, they procured the priest of Stodmarsh to say
mass. He had nigh made an end of matins before I
came ; and when he had made an end of matins, he
said to me, ' Master Parson, your neighbour has desired
me to say matins and mass ; I trust you will not be
against the queen's proceedings.' — ' No,' said I, ' I will
offend none of tiie queen's majesty's laws, God willing.'
— ' What say you ?' said he ; and made as though he
had not heard. And I spake the same words to him
again with an higher voice ; but he would not hear,
though all the chancel heard. So I cried the third
time (so that all the church yieard) that I would not of-
fend the queen's laws ; and then he went to mass.
" And the priest came down into the stall where he
sat ; and I stood up in the chancel door, and spake to
the people of the great goodness of God, always shewn
to his people, unto the time of Christ's coming ; and in
him and his coming, what benefit they past, we present,
and our successors have ; and among other benefits, I
spake of the great and comforiable sacrament of«(|iis
body and blood. And after I had declared briefly the
institution, the promise of life to the good, and damna-
tion to the wicked, I spake of the bread and wine, af-
firming them to be bread and wine after the consecra-
tion. So that as our bodily mouths eat the sacramental
bread and wine, so doth the mouth of our souls (which
is our faith) eat Christ's flesh and blood. And when I
had made an end of that, I spake of the misuse of the
sacrament in the mass ; so that I judged it, in that form,
to be no sacrament, and shewed how Christ bade us all
eat and drink ; whereas one only in the mass eats and
drinks, and the rest kneel, knock, and worship : and
after these things, as briefly as I could, I spake of the
originators of the mass, and began to, declare who made
the mass, and recited every man's name, and the addi-
tion that he made to the mass ; and before I had re-
hearsed them all, the churchwarden and the constable,
his son-in-law, violently came, and took my book from
me, and pulled me down, and thrust me into the chan-
cel, with an exceeding roar and cry. Some cried, ' thou
heretic ;' some, ' thou traitor ;' some, ' thou rebel ;' and
■when every man had said his pleasure, and the rage was
something past, ' Be quiet, good neighbours,' said I,
' and let me sjjcak to you quietly. If I have offended
any law, I will make answer before them that are in
authority to correct me.' But they \vould not hear me,
and pulled, one on this side, and another on that, and
began again. Then Richard Austen said, ' Peace, mas-
ters, no more till mass be done ;' and they ceased.
Then said I to the churchwarden and the constable,
holding me by the arm, ' Masters, let me go into the
churchyard till your mass be done.' — ' No,' said the
churchwarden, ' thou shalt tarry here till mass be
done.' — ' I will not,' said I; 'but against my will.'
And they said, ' Thou shalt tarry, for if thou go out,
thou wilt run away.' Then said I to the constable,
' Lay me in the stocks, and then ye shall be sure ol
me ;' and turned my back to the altar. By that time
Richard Austen had devised what to do with me, and
bade them put me into aside chapel, and shut the door,
and there they made me tarry till mass was ended.
When the mass was ended, they came into the chapel to
me. Then Thomas Austen said, ' Thou keepest a
wife here amongst us, against God's lawand the queen's.'
— ' Goodman Austen,' said I, ' it is not against God's
law, nor, as I sujjpose, against the queen's.'
" Now, the 2.')rd or 24th of February, Sir Thomas
Finch, knight, and Master Hardes, sent for me and my
sureties to Master Finch's place, and took me from my
sureties, and sent me to the castle of Canterbury, by
commandment of Sir Thomas Moyles, where I lay ten
weeks, and then was bailed, and bound to appear at the
next sessions, to be held at Canterbury; but after that,
they changed it to be at Ashford, on the Thursday in
Whitsun-week, on the lyth of ]May : in the mean time
the matter was exhibited to the spiritual court.
" On the 18th day of May, Master IIari)sficld, arch-
deacon of Canterbury, had me brought before him, and
the commissary, into Christ's church. Then the arch-
deacon said, ' Art thou a priest?' And I said, ' I was.'
And he said, ' Art thou any graduate of any university?'
.\nd I said, ' Yea.' ' What degree,' said he, ' hast thou
taken ?' ' The degree,' said 1, ' of a master of art.'
' Thou hast been a licensed preacher ?' And 1 said, ' I
have.'
" ' What hast thou preached ?'
" And I said, ' God's word, to the edifying, I trust,
of his people.'
" ' No, no,' he replied, ' to the destroying of their
souls and thine too, except the mercy of God is all the
greater. I pray thee, what hast thou preached? tell me.'
" ' I told you what I have preached,' I answered.
" ' Nay, but tell me,' said he, ' what one matter hast
thou preached to the edifying of the people, as thou
sayest ?'
" I replied, ' I will tell you no particular matter ; for
I perceive you would have some matter against me.'
" ' For thou hast preached,' said he, ' that the blessed
sacrament of the altar is not the very body and blood of
.lesus Christ, after the consecration. Tell me, hast
thou not thus preached ? and is not this thine opinion ?'
" I answered, ' Sir, I ])erceive that you seek matter
against me, and therefore, I think I am not bound to
make you an answer.'
" Collins. — ' Do you not remember, that St. Peter
bids you make answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the faith that is m you ?'
" Bland. — ' 1 know that, and am content so to answer
as that text directs : but I know that Master Arch-
deacon does not ask me after that manner, but rather to
bring me into trouble.' They said, ' No, you shall not
be troubled for any thing that you say here.'
" Bland. — ' I am content for knowledge sake to com-
mune with you in any matter, but not otherwise.' And
so they comnieni-ed reasoning for more than the space of
an hour, al)out tlie sacrament.
" On the 21st of May, I again appeared in the Chap-
ter-house, where a great multitude of people had assem-
bled ; and the Archdeacon said to me, ' You are come
here according as you were appointed : and the cause i«,
that it hath i)leased the queen's highness to place me
liere to see God's holy word set forth, and to reform
those that are here fallen into great and grievous errors,
to the great disideasure of God, and the decay of Christ's
sacraments, and contrary to the faith of the catholic
church, whereof tliou art notably known to be one that
is poisoned with error, and hast infected and deceived
many with thy evil preaching, which if thou wilt re-
nounce, and come home again to the catholic church,
both I and many others more would be very glad ; and
I for my part shall be right glad to shew you the favour
that lies in me.'
" Bland. — ' I do jirotest before God and you all, that
neither is my conscience guilty of any error or heresy,
nor did I ever teach any error or heresy willingly.'
A.D. 1555.
EXAMINATION OF JOHN BLAND.
;9i
" Harpsfield. — ' Hear you what he saith ? His con-
science is clear ! I pray thee whereon groundest thou
thy conscience ? let me hear what thy faith is? '
" Bland. — ' I know not v/hy you should ask me a
reason of my faith, more than any other man in this
open audience .''
" Harpsfield. — ' Why, thou heretic, art thou asham-
ed of thy faith .' if it were a christiaa belief, thou needest
not to be ashamed of it.'
" Bland. — ' I am not ashamed of my faith. For I
believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
&c. with all the other articles of the creed ; and I do
bslieve all the holy scriptures of God to be most certain
and true.'
" Harpsfield. — ' Wilt thou declare no more than
this ? '
" Bland.—' No.'
" Harpsfield, — ' Well, I will tell thee whereon I
ground my faith : I do believe and ground my faith, and
conscience upon all the articles of the creed, and upon
all the holy scriptures, sacraments, and holy doctors of
the church, and upon all the general councils tliat ever
were since the apostles' time. Lo, upon this I ground
my faith.'
" When he could get no other answer from me, than
I had given before, he called for a scribe to make an act
against me. And I said, ' By what law and authority
will you proceed against me .''
" Collins said, ' By the canon law.'
" Bland. — ' I doubt whether it be valid or not. Yet
I pray you let me have a counsellor in the law, and I
will make answer according to the law.'
" Harpsfield. — 'Why, thou heretic, thou wilt not
confess thy faith to me, — I who have authority to de-
mand it of thee, and yet I have confessed my faith to
thee before all this audience. As concerning the bless-
ed sacrament of the altar, thou hast taught, that after
the consecration it is bread and wine, and not the body
and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. How sayest
thou, hast thou not thus taught .''
" Bland. — ' Sir, as concerning this matter of the sa-
crament, when I was with you and Master Collins, you
said then it was for other matters that I should come
hither : and further, that you would be content at my
desire, to confer out of the scriptures with me, to see if
you could win me ; and you said you would borrow my
lord of Dover's library, that I might have what book I
wished ; and now you require me thus to answer, con-
trary to your promise, ere any conference be had, and
seek rather to bring me into trouble, than to win me.' "
[Then they entered upon some arguments on tran-
substantiation, and then Bland was bound in sureties to
appear again.]
" Abo\it the 28th day of June I came to Master Com-
missary, and offered myself to satisfy the law, if it were
proceeded against me ; but Master Commissary said
gently, he had done nothing against me. And so ap-
pointed me to appear before him on Friday seven nights
after. In the meantime the sessions were held at Cran-
broke, where I was bound to appear.
" Sir Thomas Moyle said, ' Ah, Bland, thou art a
stiff-necked fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor
answer when thou art called.'
" So the bailiff set me in the stocks, with others, and
would not hear me speak. one word ; and so we remained
in the gaol of Maidstone^till a fortnight before Michael-
mas, or thereabouts ; ana then we were carried to Ro-
chester, to the assizes, where we were among the prisoners
two days : and when we were called, and the judges of
assize asked our causes, the clerk of the peace, said
that I was an excommunicated person.'
" Then the judges of assize said, ' Take them to
Maidstone again, and bring them to the sessions that
shall be held next at the town of Maldon.'
" We tarried at Maidstone till the sessions were held
at Greenwich, on the 18th and 19th of February. I and
Others being within the bar amongst the felons, and irons
upon our arms, were called out by the jailor and bailiffs,
and eased of our irons, and carried by them into the
town to Sir John Baker, Master Petit, Master Webb,
and two others whom I know not."
Another Examination of Master Bland before Sir John
Baker.
" Baker. — ' Bland, wherefore were you cast into
Your mastership cast
prison :
" Bland. — ' I cannot well tell,
me in.'
" Baker. — ' Yea, but wherefore were you in before that
time ?'
" Bland. — ' For an unjust complaint laid against me.'
" Baker. — ' What was the complaint ?'
" I then told him as truly and briefly as I could.
" Baker. — ' Let me see thy book ;' and I shewed him
a Latin Testament.
" Baker. — ' Will you go to church, and obey and fol-
low the queen's j)roceedings, and do as an honest man
should do.''
" Bland. — ' I trust in God to do no otherwise but as
an honest man should do.'
" Baker. — ' Will you do as I said ?'
" Bland. — ' Will it please your mastership to give me
leave to ask you a question ."
" Baker. — 'Yea.'
" Bland. — ' Sir, may a man do any thing that his con-
science is not satisfied is good ?'
" Baker. — 'Away, away!' and throwing down the book,
he said : 'It is no Testament.' And I said : 'Yes.'
And Master Webb took it up, and said unto me marvel-
lous gently ; ' I knew you when you were out of this
opinion. I would to God you would reform yourself;'
with better words than I will write. And I said : ' If
you have known me of another opinion than I am of
now, it was for lack of knowledge.'
" Baker. — ' Yea, sayest thou so ? by St. Mary, I will
give six fagots to burn thee with, ere thou shouldst be
unburned. Hence, knave, hence !'
"At night, when judgment was passed on the felons,
and all was done, we were called, and the judge said to
the jailor : ' Take them with you, and deliver them to
the ordinary, and if they will not be reformed, let them
be delivered to us again, and they shall have judgment
and execution.' And one of our company said : ' My
Lord, if we were killed at your hands for Christ's sake,
we shall live with him for ever.'
" Then we came to the castle of Canterbury, and
there we remained till the second day of ^larch, when
we were brought into the chapter-house of Cree-church,
where were set the suffragan of Canterbury, Master
Collins, Master Mills, with others ; and then went to
them Master Oxenden, Master Petit, Master Webb and
Master Hardes. justices. And when I was called, Master
Webb said : ' Here we present this man to you, as one
strongly suspected of heresy.'
" Bland. — ' You have no cause to suspect me of
heresy. I have been a prisoner this whole year, and no-
thing proved against me. I pray you, wherefore have I
been so long kept in prison ?'
" Webb. — ' Leave your arrogant asking of questions,
and answer to what is laid to your charge.'
" Bland. — ' I do so ; for I say you have no cause to
suspect me of heresy.'
" Webb. — ' Yes ; you refused to Sir John Baker, to be
conformable to the queen's proceedings.'
" Bland. — ' Is it a just cause to suspect me of heresy,
for asking a question with leave ?' So we had more
words there than I well remember.
" Then stood up Master Petit, and said : ' You were
cast into prison, because you fled away from your
ordinary.'
" Bland.— 'Then I have suffered wrongfully; for I
never fled, nor disobeyed mine ordinary, nor did any
thing contrary to the law. Let them now say if I did :'
but they said nothing. And when I saw they held their
peace, I said : ' Master commissary, ^have you been the
cause of this mine imprisonment.'' 'No,' .said he;
' you know that when you w.-nt from me, you were ap-
pointed to appear on the Friday afier the sessions.'
792
EXAMINATION OF JOHN BLAND.
[Book XI.
Here I was suffered to speak no more, bat shut up in a
corner till my companions were likewise presented, and
then we were sent to Westgate to prison, and were put
in several close holds, so that not one of us could speak
to anotlier, nor was any man permitted to come to us."
And thus passed the talk between Bland and the jus-
tices, and certain gentlemen of the shire. Now follows the
order of the reasoning between him and the clergymen, be-
fore whom he was examined. The chiefest doer andjudge
against him was the bishop of Dover, or suffragan of
Canterbury, called Doctor Richard Thornton. —
"Collins. — 'You know that you are presented tons
as one suspected of heresy. How say you, are you con-
tented to conform yourself to the laws of this realm, and
of t!ie holy church ?'
" Bland. — ' I deny that I am suspected justly of
heresy.'
" Dover — ' Only that I am one of the judges, I would
rise, and accuse thee to be a sacramentary, and bring
witnesses to prove it ; yea, and further, that thou hast
called the mass an abominable idol.'
" Bland. — ' You, my lord, never heard me say so ;
but I heard you once say, that in your conscience you
bad abhorred the mass three years.'
" Dover. — ' Thou liest ; I never said so.'
"Bland. — 'My lord, if they might be heard, I can
bring witnesses to prove it, with th(! day, time, and
place.'
" Collins. — ' You had better answer now, or you shall
to prison again, and be called on Monday, and have arti-
cles laid to you, and if you then will not answer directly,
you shall be condemned pro confesso, and that will be
worse for you.'
" Bland. — ' I will not refuse to answer to any thing
that you can lay to my charge by the law ; where-
fore I trust you will let me have the benefit of the
law.'
" Collins. — ' This is the law, that if you be required
by the ordinary, Reddere rationemfidei, you must not
refuse.'
"Bland. — 'Then I will answer. For I believe in
God tlie Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, with all the
other articles of the creed. And I believe all the articles
contained both in the creed, called the Nicene Creed, and
in the creed of Athanasius. And I do believe, that all the
holy scriptures, and all things therein contained, are
most true.'
" Collins. — ' This will not serve you ; you must an-
swer to all such articles in all these as shall be laid to
you, or asked of you.'
" Bland. — ' Let me know the law and I will answer.'
" Collins. — ' How say you, will you answer .''
" Bland. — ' Sir, I have answered you.'
" Dover. — ' Have him away ; he had better have an-
swerexl.'
" Bland. ^' My lord, I am ready to answer, if you
have any thing against me by the law.'
" Dover. — ' You have preached many heresies in
Adesham, where I am parson now; and therefore you
must make answer to them.'
" Bla.id. — ' Lay them to my charge by the law, and I
will answer them.'
" Collins. — ' All this will not serve you ; you must
answer, and it will be better for you to answer now, than
another time. Will you conform yourself, and go to
tlie church, and worship Christ in the blessed sacra-
ment of the altar ; and be obedient unto all the queen's
laws ? '
" Bland. — ' I pray you wherefore am I brought
hither ?'
"Collins. — 'To answer to such things as are de-
manded of you.'
" Bland. — ' Sir, I thought you had some matters
against me by the law.'
" Collins. — • Well, on Monday at nine o'clock you
shall ^ee the law, and liave articles laid to you. Do you
not believe that after the consecrat.on of the blessed
sacrament of the altar, there remains no substame of
bread, but the substance of Jesus Christ, both God and
man ?'
" Bland. — ' I know not by any law why you should
ask me that question more than any other man here.'
" Dover. — ' Doest not thou believe, after the consecra-
tion, that it is the body of Christ ?'
" Bland. — ' No. I do not so believe ; for the scriptures
do not teach me that there should remain the tli-sli of
Christ, to eat as a man should eat mat\'s fi'r:!i.'
" Faucet. — ' As you and I were broUi;iit up both in
one house, and born both in one parish, i would be glad
to do you good ; but you may not thus stand against the
church. For Christ saith, You must humble yourself,
and take up his cross and follow him. And to humble
yourself in this place, is to be content, ar.d not adhere
to your own judgment, but to humble yourself to the
holy church, which hath determined, that after the con-
secration there remains no bread, but the natural body
and blood of Christ.'
" Bland. — ' Master Doctor, if you take humbling of
ourselves in that place, to admit the determination of the
church, then must we know by the scriptures, that the
same church determined nothing but according to the
scriptures. I do not believe any transubstantiation, nor
never will.'
" Faucet. — ' Then I have done with you ; I would no
more pray for you than I would for a dog.'
" Glasier. — ' How think you ' Did St. Paul, when
he said, ' The bread which we break, is it not the com-
munion of the body of Christ ?' Did he mean baker's
bread .•"
" Bland. — ' Though he did not mean baker's bread,
that does not prove that he brake natural and real flesh.'
" Glasier. — ' No, by St. Mary, we say not so ; but we
say it is the natural body glorified, under the forms of
bread and wine.'
" Bland. — ' Then the apostles had it not in the same
state as we have ; or else his glorified body was crucified
for us.'
" Glasier. — ' Tush, you do not understand the scrip-
tures. For Christ's body was always glorified, because
it was so marvellously united to the Godhead ; yea, and
he shewed his body many times glorified, as on Mount
Thabor : and when he walked on the water, we see he
was light, and had no weight in him. Was not that then
a glorified body .-"
" Bland. — ' Then Peter's body was glorified, if walk-
ing on the water was the act of a glorified body ! and the
iron that Elisha made to swim on the water!'
" Dover. — ' Tush, that was d^ne by prayer.'
" Here they made such a noise with laughing, that I
heard no more what my lord said.
" Glasier. — ' I was glad, when I heard you say you
believed the catholic church, and now go you from
it?'
" Bland. — ' No, that I do not.'
" Glasier. — ' You know that Christ saith. Mat. xviii.
15 — 17. ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fa\ilt between thee and him alone ; if he
shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if
he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two
more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established. And if he shall neglect to
hear them, tell it unto the church, but if he neglect to
hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man
and a piri)lican.' 1 pray you i|^iere could you have found
this church of yours fifty years ago .''
" Bland. — ' Ye know that the true church did not at
all times flourish, but was wonderfully persecuted.'
" Dover. — ' No more ! I command you to hold youi
peace. Have him away and bring in another.'
" The Monday after we were brought to the same place
again ; and then Master Collins began to speak to me,
that I would conform myself. But as I did before, J
demanded what they had to lay to my charge, and to
see the law, which they said before I should see.
"Dover. — 'What needs that.' We have enough
against you. For you denied to me transubstantiation ia
the sacrament.' "
A.D. 1555.]
BLAND'S ARGUMENT AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
79;}
Being again dismissed, he had a conference, as follows,
with Milles :
" Milles. — ' We say, that Christ is in or under the
sacrament really and corporeally, which are the forms of
bread and wine ; and that there is his body contained
invisibly ; and the qualities which we do see, as white-
ness and rouTidness, are there without substance by
God's power, as quantity and weight are there also by
invisible measure.'
" Bland. — ' This is your own divinity, to make acci-
dents the sacrament, and Christ's real body invisibly
contained in them, and so to destroy the sacrament.
And yet you say, the matter of the sacrament is bread
and wine. I am ashamed to see you so destroy Christ's
sacrament, and trifle with God's work.'
" Milles. — ' To Christ is given all power in heaven
and in earth, so that by the omnipotent power of his
Godhead he may be, and is, where he chooses ; and is in
the sacrament really and corporeally without occupying
of place ; for a glorified body occupieth no place.'
" Bland. — ' Mark your own reason. All power is
given to Christ both in heaven and in earth ; by the om-
nipotent power of his Godhead he may be where he
chooses ; therefore he is in the sacrament really and cor-
poreally, without occupying of place ! I deny your ar-
gument, for I would learn of you, how you know that
Christ chooses to be present at every priest's bidding.
For if the priest choose not to say your mass, then
Christ chooses not to be there.'
" Milles. — ' We eat Christ's flesh and blood spiritually
when we receive it with faith and charity. And we also
do eat it corporeally in the sacrament ; and the body
that we so receive has life. For the Godhead is annexed
to it ; which although it be received together with the
body of Christ, yet it is not visible, and the flesh of
Christ that we receive is lively ; for it has the Spirit of
God joined to it. And if a man be drunken, it is not by
receiving of the blood of Christ ; for it is contrary to
the nature of Christ's blood. If he be drunken, it is by
the qualities and quantities of the wine, without the sub-
stance of blood.'
" Bland. — ' I am glad that you say that Christ's body
is alive in the sacrament ; it may bring you to the truth
in time to come. Methinks it is evil to keep Christ's
body alive in the pix, or else you must grant, that he is
alive in receiving, and dead in the pix. And you say
truth, that it is not the natural receiving of Christ's
blood that makes a man drunken ; for it is the nature of
wine that does that, which ye deny not. And a greater
truth you confess than you did think, when you said, ' If
a man be drunken, it is by the qualities and quantities
without the substance of blood ; for indeed blood hath
no such qualities with it ; by which it is evident that
there is no natural blood.' If a man be drunken with
consecrated wine, it must be a miracle, as you will have
it, that the accidents should be without their natural
substance, and work all the operations of both substance
and accidents ; and so it follows, that a man may be
drunken by miracle ! The body that you receive, you
say, is alive, because it is annexed to the Godhead, and
the flesh that you receive is lively, because it hath the
Spirit of God joined to it. This division is of your new
inventions, to divide the body and the flesh ; the one
alive by the Godhead, the other lively by God's Sj)irit,
and both one sacrament : you make of it a thing so fan-
tastical, that you imagine a body without flesh, and flesh
without a body, as you do qualities and quantities with-
out substance, and a living body without qualities and
quantities.'
" Milles. — ' If case so require, and there is a godly
intent in the minister to consecrate, after the consecra-
tion, thc-e is present the body and blood of Christ, and
no other substance, but accidents without substance to a
true believer.'
" Bland. — ' You grant three absurdities, that in a tun
of wine consecrated is nothing but accidents ; and to in-
crease it, you have brought in two inconveniences : first,
that it is not the word of God that doth consecrate, but
the intent of the priest must help it, and if that lack,
you seem to grant no consecration, though the priest
speak the word ; and yet your doctors say, that the
wickedness of the priest hinders not the saorament.
And to an unbeliever you seem to say, that it is not the
same, as it is to the true believer ; and then must the
believer have something to do in the consecration.'
" Milles. — ' The substance of Christ's body doth not
fill the mouse's belly. For although he receives the
outward forms of bread and wine, yet he does not re-
ceive the substance inwardly, but without violation. And
a mouse does not eat the body of Christ, to speak pro-
perly ; for it does not feed him spiritually or corporeally,
as it does man, because he does not receive it to anj in-
ducement of immortality to the flesh.'
" Bland. — ' You make not your doctrine plain to be
understood : we must know how a mouse ciu receive the
substance inwardly and outwardly. You say, lie does
not receive the substance inwardly, but without violation ;
therefore, with violation he receives the substance in-
wardly. You say that the mouse cannot violite Christ's
body ; but he violates the substance that he eats. And
this your speech does import as much, as that the mouso
should eat the sacrament to as great eft'ect, and the same
thing, as does the unworthy receiver For if that be the
cause that she properly eats not the body of Christ, be-
cause she does not feed upon it si)iritually nor corporeally,
nor receives it to any inducement of immortality, as you
say ; then it follows, that the unbeliever and the mouse
receive both one thing. And yet it cainiot be denied,
but the mouse will live by consecrated bread, and then
you must grant this absurdity, thit a substance is nou-
rished and fed only with accidents !'
" Milles. — ' Men's bodies are fed with Christ's body,
as with immortal meat, by reason of the Godhead an-
nexed, to eternal life; but men's bodies are corporeally
nourished with qualities and forms of bread and wine ;
and we deny that by the sacramental eating any gross
humour turned into blood, is made miraculously in the
body.'
" Bland. — ' Where it cannot be denied that a man
may live, and naturally be nourished in his natural body
with the sacramental bread and wine consecrated ; you
cannot avoid that : but then you turn to the spiritual nou-
rishing of man's body, by Christ's body and Godhead an-
nexed, which does not put away the absurdity that either
a man's natural body should be fed naturally with acci-
dents, or else to have them changed into gross humours.
But you say, men's bodies are corporeally nourished
with qualities and forms of bread and wine ; and then
you must needs grant, tliat qualities and quantities must
be made substance in man. For else all that is the nu-
triment in man is accidents and no substance.'
" Milles. — ' If the forms of bread and wine be burned,
or worms engendered, it is no derogation to the body of
Chri^t, because the presence of his body ceases to be
there.'
" Bland. — ' You grant here, that a substance may be
made of accidents, as ashes or worms ; but I think you
will have it by your miracles, and this I count a greater
absurdity than the other, that Christ's body should cease
to be there, and no substance to come again ; for no
word in all the whole Bible seems to serve you for the
ceasing of his presence, even though we granted to you,
which we do not, that it ever were there. God Almighty
open your heart, if it be his wiU and pleasure, to see
the truth.' "
Hitherto you have heard the troublesome handling of
this faithful and blessed servant of God, John Bland,
tossed to and fro, from prison to prison, from session to
session. At last he was brought before the bishop of
Dover, the commissary, and the archdeacon, at Can-
terbury, on the 13th day of June. The name of this
bishop was Richard Thornton. The commissary was
Robert Collins, whom the cardinal by his letters patent
had appointed before his coming over to England. The
archdeacon was Nicholas Harpsfield. Under these a
great number of innocent servants of Christ were cruelly
treated and slain at Canterbury, amongst whom John
Bland was one of the first ; who, being brought before the
said bishop, with his colleagues, who were John Frank-
J 94
EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS SIIETERDEN.
[Book XI.
esh, Nicholas Sheterden, Thomas Thacker, Humphrey
Middleton, and William Cocker, was examined of the
following articles :
Articles ministered by Richard, Bishop of Bover, to
John Bland, and lilceivise to the others after him.
" First, that thou art of the diocese of Canterbury,
and so subject to the jurisdiction of the archbishop there.
" 2. That thou art a christian man, and dost profess
the laws of God, and faith of Christ's catholic church,
and the determination of the same.
"3. That all persons which teach, preach, believe, affirm ,
hold, maintain, or say within the diocese of Canterbury,
otherwise than our holy mother the church doth, are ex-
communicate persons, and heretics, and as excommuni-
cate and heretics ought to be named, reputed, and taken.
"4. That thou, contrary to the catholic faith and deter-
mination of our mother holy church, within tlie diocese
of Canterbury, hast openly spoken, maintained, holden,
affirmed and believed, and yet dost hold, maintain, affirm,
and believe, that in the blessed sacrament of the altar, un-
der the forms of bread and wine, there is not the very body
and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ in substance ; but
only a token, sign, and remembrance thereof, and that
the very body and bood of Christ is only in heaven, and
nowhere else.
" h. That thou, contrary to the catholic faith and de-
termination of our mother holy church, hast within this
diocese of Canterbury openly spoken, said, maintained,
holden, affirmed, and believed, and yet dost hold, main-
tain, affirm, and believe, that it is against God's word,
that the sacrament of Christ's church should be minis-
tered in an unknown tongue ; and that no man safely
and with a good conscience, or without peril of sin,
receiveth any sacrament ministered in any tongue that he
understandeth not.
" 6. That thou, contrary to the catholic faith of our
mother holy church, hast, and yet dost hold opinion,
and say, that it is against God's word, that the sacra-
ment of the altar should be ministered in one kind ; and
that no man may with a safe conscience so receive it.
" 7. That the premises be true, and that there is a
common fame upon them within the diocese of Can-
terbury."
To all these articles he gave his consent and admis-
sion. So on the 25th day of the month of June he ap-
peared again in the chapter-house, and there openly and
boldly withstood the authority of the pope, whereupon
his sentence was read, and he was forthvdth condemned
and committed to the secular power.
The Prayer of John Bland before Ms Death.
" O! Lord Jesus, for whose love I do willingly leave
this life, and desire rather the bitter death of thy cross,
with the loss of all earthly things, than to abide the
blasphemy of thy holy name, or else to obey man in
breaking of thy commandments ; thou seest, O Lord,
that whereas I might live in worldly wealth to worship
false gods, and honour thy enemy, I choose rather the
torments of this body, and loss of this my life, and have
counted all things but vile dust and dung, that I might
win thee ; which death is more dear unto me, than tliou-
sands of gold and silver. Such love, O Lord, hast thou
laid up in my breast, that I hunger for thee, as the deer
that is wounded desireth the soil. Send thy holy com-
fort, O Lord, to aid, comfort, and strengthen this weak
piece of earth, which is void of all strength of itself.
Thou rememberest, O Lord, that I am but dust, and not
able to do anything that is good. Therefore, O Lord, as
thou of thy accustomed goodness hast bidden me to this
banquet, and counted me worthy to drink of thine own
cup amongst thine elect ; give me strength against tliis
element, that as it is to my sight most irksome and
terrible, so to my mind it may be at thy commandment,
as an obedient servant, sweet and pleasant ; and through
the strength of thy Holy Spirit, I may pass through the
flame of this fire into thy bosom, according unto thy
promise, and for this mortality to receive immortality.
and for this corruptible to put on incorruptible. Accept
this burnt-offering and sacrifice, O Lord, not for the sa-
crifice itself, but for thy dear Son's sake, my Saviour ;
for whose testimony I offer this freewill-offering with all
my heart and with all my soul. O heavenly Fatlier, for-
give me my sins, as I forgive the whole world. O sweet
Saviour, spread thy wings over me. O God, grant me
thy Holy S))irit, through whose merciful inspiration I
am come hither. Conduct me unto everlasting hfs.
Lord, into thy hands 1 commend my spirit ; Lord Jesus
receive my soul. So be it."
An Account of John Frnnkesh, Humphrey Middleton,
and Nicholas Sheterden.
Having now given the examinations of John Bland,
we sliall further proceed to give an account of the rest of
Ills fellow captives, who were joined the same time with
him in the like cause and like affliction, namely, John
Frankesh, Nicholas Sheterden, Humphrey Middleton,
Tliaoker, and Cocker, of whom Thacker only fell away.
The rest constantly standing to the truth, were con-
demned together by the suffragan of Canterbury, on the
2.Tth day of June, 1555. Touching whose examinations
it will not be necessary to enlarge, inasmuch as the arti-
cles ministered against them were all one ; so in their
answers tliey little or nothing disagreed. In the mean-
time, because Nicholas Sheterden in his examinations
had a little more talk with the archdeacon and the com-
missary, I will begin with him first :
The Examination of Nicholas Sheterden by Master
Harpsfield, archdeacon, and Master Collins, the com-
missary, for which they sent him to prison.
" Archdeacon. — ' The very words of Christ, when he
said, ' This is my body,' changed the substance, without
any other interpretation or spiritual meaning of the
words.'
" Sheterden. — ' Then belike when Christ said, ' This
cup is my blood,' the substance of the cup was changed
into his blood, without any other meaning, and so the
cup was changed, and not the wine.'
" Archdeacon. — ' Not so ; for when Christ said, ' This
cup is my blood,' he meant not the cup, but the wine
in the cup.'
" Sheterden. — ' If Christ spake one thing, and meant
another, then the bare words did not change the sub-
stance ; but there must be a meaning sought as well of
the bread, as of the cup.'
" Archdeacon. — 'There mustbeameaningsought of the
cup otherwise than the words stand. But of the bread
it must be understood only as it stands, without any
other meaning.'
" Sheterden. — ' Then you make one half of Christ's
institution a figure, or borrowed speech, and the other
half a plain speech, and so you divide Christ's supper.'
" Archdeacon. — ' Christ meant the wine, and not the
cup, though he said, ' Tliis cup is my blood.'
" Sheterden. — ' Then shew me whether the words,
which the priest speaks over the cup, do change the sub-
stance, or whether the mind of the priest does it ?'
" Archdeacon. — ' The mind of the priest does it, and
not the words.'
" Sheterden. — ' If the mind of the priest does it, and
not the words, then none of the people can tell when it
is Christ's blood, or when it is not, seeing the matter
stands in the mind of tlie priest. For no man can tell
what the jiriest means but himself; and so they are ever
in danger of committing idolatry.'
" Archdeacon — (somewhat moved, and sitting down)
' I |>ray you. Master Commissary, speak you to him,
for they are as unreasonable and perverse answers, as
ever I heard of.'
"Commissary. — ' Your argument is much against your-
self, for you grant that the bread is a figure of Christ's
body ; but the cup can be no figure of his blood, nor
yet his very blood ; and therefore Christ did not mean
the cup, but the wine in the cup.'
" Sheterden. — ' My argument is not against me at all ;
A.D. 1555.]
EXAMINATION OF NICHOLAS SHETERDEN.
795
for I do not speak it to prove that the cup is his blood,
nor the figure of his blood, but to prove that the bare
■words do not change the substance of the bread, any
more than they do the cup into blood.'
" Commissary. — ' It could not be spoken of the cup,
when he said, ' This cup is my blood ;' but he meant
the wine in the cup.'
" Sheterden. — ' Then it remains for you to answer my
question to the archdeacon, that is, whether the mind of
the priest when he speaks over the cup, does change it
into blood, or is it the bare words ?'
" Commissary. — ' Both together do it, the words and
the mind of the priest together ; yea, the intent and the
words together do it.'
" Sheterden. — ' If the words and intention together
change the substance, yet the cup must be his blood,
and not the wine, for the words are, ' This cup is my
blood,' and the intention, you say, was the wine, or
else the words take no effect, but the intention only.'
*' Commissary. — ' Itwas the intention of the priest be-
fore he went to mass, without the words ; for the priest
did intend to do as holy church had ordained ; then the
intent made the sacrament to take effect.'
" Sheterden. — ' If the sacraments take effect of the in-
tent of the priest, and not of God's word, then many
parishes having a priest that intends not, are utterly de-
ceived, both in baptizing, and also worshipping that to
be God, which is but bread, because for lack of the
priest's intention, the words take no effect in it, so that
by this it is doubtful, whether they worship Christ or
bread, because it is doubtful what the priests intend !'
After some farther conference the Commissary de-
parted.
Afterwards he was examined before the bishop of Win-
chester, then Lord Chancellor, of which he gives the
following account : —
" I was called into a chamber before the lord chan-
cellor, the suffragan, and others, priests I think for the
most part. The lord chancellor stood at the table, who
called me to him, and because I saw the cardinal was not
there, I bowed myself and stood near.
" Then said he, ' I have sent for you, because I hear
you are indicted for heresy ; and being called before the
commissioners, you will not answer nor submit yourself.'
" I said, I did not refuse to answer ; but I did plainly
answer, that I had been in prison a long time, and it was
reasonable that I should be charged or discharged for
that, and not to be examined of articles to cover my
wrong imprisonment, neither did I know any indictment
eigainst me. If there were any, it could not be just, for
I was not abroad since the law was made.
" Winchester. — He said, ' if thou wilt declare thyself
to the church to be a christian, thou shalt go, and then
you shall have a writ of wrong imprisonment,' &c.
" Sheterden. — I said ' I was not minded to sue
now, but required to have justice. It might be that my
conscience was not persuaded, nor would be in prison ;
seeing these things which I have learned were by God's
law openly taught and received by authority of the
realm.'
" Winchester. — He said ' it was never received, that I
might speak against the sacrament.'
" Sheterden. — I said ' against some opinion of the sacra-
ment it was openly taught, and that when they preached to
us, they took pains to set out the word of God in our tongue,
that we might read and judge w^hether they said true or
not; but now they take the light from us, and would
Have us believe it, because they say so, which is to me a
strong argument.'
" Winchester. — ' It was not a few that could be your
guide, but the doctors and all the whole church ; now
whom wouldst thou believe ? either the few or the
many ?'
" Sheterden. — ' I did not believe for the few, nor for
the many, but only for he that brings the word, and
shows it to me to be so according to it.'
" Winchester. — ' Well then if an Arian come to thee
with scripture, thou wilt believe him, if he shew this
text, ' My Father is greater than I ?'
"Sheterden. — I answered ' no, my lord, he must bring
me also the contrary place, and prove them both true,
where he saith, ' I and my Father aie one.'
" Winchester. — ' Yea, that is in love, as we are one
with him.'
" Sheterden. — I said ' that gloss would not stand with
the rest of the scripture.'
" So after many words he came to the church's faith
and ceremonies and images. And then I joined issue
with him about the commandment against images.'
" Winchester. — He said, ' that was done that no false
thing should be made, as the heathen would worship a
cat, because slie killed mice.'
" Sheterden. — I said ' that it was plain that the law
forbade not only such, but even to make an image of
God to any manner of likeness.'
" Winchester. — ' Where find ye that .''
" Sheterden. -' la the law where God gave them the
commandments : for he said, ' Ye saw no similitude,
but heard a voice only ;' and added a reason why, lest
they should make images. So that God would not shew
his shape, because they should have no image of him
who was the true God,' &c.
" Winchester. — He said, * I made a goodly interpreta-
tion. '
" Sheterden. — I said ' no, it was the tcxi.''
"Then was the English bible brought. He maae me
find it ; and so I read it aloud ; and then he said, ' Lo,
here thou mayest see, this is no more to forbid the
image of God than of any other beast, fowl, or fish,' (the
place was Deut. iv. l.")-18.) 'I said it did plainly forbid
to make any of these as an image of God, because no
man could know what shape he was of. Therefore, no
man might say of any image, this is an image of God.'
" Winchester. — ' Well ; yet by your leave, so much
as was seen we may re])resent, that is, of Christ and the
Holy Ghost. The Father appeared to Daniel like an
old man,' &c.
"Sheterden. — 'That is no proof that we may make
images contrary to the commandment : for though the
Holy Ghost appeared like a dove, yet he was not like in
shape, but in certain qualities, and therefore when 1 saw
tlie dove which is God's creature, indeed I might remem-
ber the Spirit to be simple and loving,' &c.
" Winchester, somewhat moved, said I had learned
my lesson, and asked who taught me, with many words ;
and he said he would prove how good and profitable
images were to teach the unlearned, &c."
And thus much touching the examinations of Nicholas
Sheterden and John Bland. Now to touch something
also of the other martyrs, who at the same time were
examined, and sufiered wilh them together, to wit,
Humphrey Middleton of Ashford, and John Frankesh,
vicar of Rolvenden, in the diocese of Kent.
To the articles propounded to these persons, John
Frankesh answered somewhat doubtfully, desiring fur-
ther respite of fourteen days to deliberate, which was
granted ; John Bland ansvtfered firmly and distinctly,
as you have heard before ; Nicholas Sheterden and Hum-
phrey Middleton answered also well. Middleton added,
that he believed in his own God. saying, " My living
God, and no dead God." Thacker only recanted, and
was content to perform penance. Thus the four were
condemned by the bishop of Dover, on the 25th day of
June, A.D. 1555.
And so being given to the secular power, they were
burned at Canterbury, on the 12th of July, at two
stakes, but all in one fire ; where they, in the sight of
God and of his angels, and before men, like true sol-
diers of Jesus Christ, gave a constant testimony to the
truth of his holy gospel.
The Prayer of Nicholas Sheterden before his death.
" O Lord my God and Saviour, who art Lord in
heaven and earth, maker of all things visible and invi-
sible, I am the creature and work of thy hands ; Lord
God look upon me, and others of thy people, who at
this time are oppressed by the worldly-minded for thy
law's sake; yea, Lord, thy law itself is now trodden
796
A LETTER OF NICHOLAS SHETERDEN TO HIS MOTHER.
[Book XI.
tinder foot, and men's inventions exalted above it, and
for that cause do I, and many thy creatures, refuse the
glory, praise and couiiuodities of this life, and do choose
to suffer adversity, and to he banished ; yea, to be burnt
•with tlie books of thy word, for the hope's sake that is
laid up in store. For, Lord, thou knowest, if we would
but seem to please men in things contrary to thy word,
we might by their permission enjoy those commodities
that others do, as wife, children, goods and friends,
which all I acknowledge to be thy gifts, given to the end
I should serve thee. And now, Lord, that the world
will not suffer me to enjoin them, except I offend thy
laws, behold I give unto thee my whole spirit, soul, and
body, and lo ! 1 leave here all the pleasures of tliis life,
and do now leave the use of them for the hope's sake of
eternal life purchased in Christ's blood, and promised to
all them who tight on his side, and are content to suffer
with him for his truth, whensoever the world and the
devil shall persecute the same.
" O, Father ! 1 do not presume to come to thee, in mine
own righteousness ; no, but only in the merits of thy
dear Son my Saviour. For which excellent gift of salva-
tion I cannot worthily praise thee, neither is my sacri-
fice worthy, or to be accepted witli thee, in comparison
of our bodies nioititied, and obedient unto thy will ; and
now. Lord, whatsoever rebellion hath been, or is found
in my members, against thy will, yet do I here give unto
thee my body to the death, rather than I will use any
strange worshipping, which I beseech thee accept at ray
hand for a pure sacrifice. Let this torment be to me
the last enemy destroyed, even death, the end of misery,
and the beginning of all joy, peace, and solace ; and when
the time of resurrection cometh, then let me enjoy again
these members then glorified, which now are spoiled and
consumed by the fire. O, Lord Jesus ! receive my
spirit into thy hands. Amen."
A Letter of Nicholas Sheterden to his Mother.
" After my humble and bounden duty remembered,
well-beloved mother, this shall be to wish you increase
of grace and godly wisdom, that you may see and per-
ceive the crafty bewitching of Satan, our mortal enemy,
which, as I have divers times declared unto you, doth
not openly shew himself in his own likeness, but under
colour of devotion deceives them that keep not a diligent
eye upon him ; but having confidence in men's traditions
and customs of the world, leaving the commandments of
God, and testament of his Son Christ Jesus our Lord,
do grow more into superstition and hypocrisy, than into
wisdom and true holiness. For this is most true, that
Satan, the enemy of souls, does by his ministers make
many believe, that those things, which they compel us
to tor their stomach's sake, have many godly significa-
tions, although they are most contrary to God's will, as
doubtless they are, even as did the serpent in Paradise to
our first niother. Eve. What (said he) hath God com-
manded you shall not eat of all the trees in the garden .'
The woman said, of the fruits of the trees in the garden
we may eat: but of the tree in the midst of the garden,
said God, see ye eat not lest you die. Even so our
ministers now-a-days, say, hath God commanded ye
shall not make you any image or likeness of any thing ?
Yea, forsooth. Tush, say they, what harm can they do?
May we not remember God the better, when we see his
image or picture ? For they are good books for the lay-
men ; but indeed they be better for the priests, because
they receive the offerings.
" And look how truly the promise of the serpent was
kept with Eve, so is the persuasion of our priests found
true to us. For as Adam and Eve did become like God
in knowing good and evil, so are we, in remembering
God by his image. For Adam's eyes were so open, that
he lost both innocency and righteousness, and was be-
come most miserable of all creatures : and even so we
remember Christ so well by images, that we forget his
commandments, and count his testament, confirmed in
his blood, for stark madness or heresy ; so miserably
ll&ve we remembered him, that of all people we are most
blind : and this follows upon our presumption, when we
remember God by breaking of his law : and therefore
surely except we repent, God will shortly remember us
in his wrath, and reward us with his plagues, as sure as
there is a God it will come to pass.
" But I know the craftiness of them herein, (I thank
God) who will say; Where went he to school ? Is he
wiser than our great doctors that studied all their hfe ?
And, lo, they say that it is good hay ; although we smell
it musty ourselves, yet must we believe it is sweet, and
then pay them well for their so saying, and all is safe.
But I might say again, \\'hat, sir, be ye wiser than
Christ, and God his Father, or the Holy Ghost ? What,
wiser than the prophets, and the holy apostles, and all
the holy martyrs ? I j)ray you, sir, where had you your
high learning ? Is it higher than God (being in heaven)
is able to reach, or have ye set it lower in hell than ever
Christ durst to venture ? For it is some strange learn-
ing belike, that Christ and his apostles could never at-
tain to the knowledge of it. But vain men are never
without some shift : for peradventure they will not be
ashamed to say, that Christ coming on his Father's mes-
sage, did forget half his errand by the way. For I dare
say, the greater half of their ceremonies were never
commanded by Christ : Yea, I doubt it would be hard
to find one in the church perfectly as he left it : so Ro-
mishly hath antichrist turited the church upside down for
lucre's sake.
" Beloved mother, as I have oftentimes said unto you,
even so now I beseech you from my very heart in Christ,
to consider your own soul's health is offered you ; do
not cast it off: we have not long time here. Why
should we deceive ourselves either for ease of our flesh, or
for the winning of this world's treasure : I know that
some will say to you, Whv should we condemn our
fathers that lived thus ? God forbid that we should con-
demn any that did according to their knowledge. But
let us take heed that they condemn us not, for if they
had heard the word as we have, and had been warned as
we have, it is to be thought that they would more thank-
fully have received it than we do : yea, they were more
faithful in what they knew, than many now are. There-
fore they shall be our condemnation, if we do not em-
brace this grace ofl'ered us. And surely look how many
of them God will accept and save, those we shall never
see, nor have any part among them : for our disobe-
dience is more great than their ignorance. Wherefore
if we will meet our fathers in bliss and joy, let us not ;
refuse his mercy ofl'ered more largely to us than to them, ,
even according to Christ's promise, which said, after
such great ignorance as to seek him from country to |
country, and find him not ; ' Yet shall the gospel,' saith '
he, ' be preached in all the world, and then shall the end ,
come.' .
" And now let us know the time of our visitation, and |
not turn back again, seeing we are once delivered : for I
surely God will not bear it at our hands to turn back- i
ward. O remember Lot's wife. God must needs punish 1
out of hand our shameful backsliding, either with indu«
ration and hardness of heart, so that they shall persecute j
his church and his true servants, or else reward it with j
open vengeance and plagues. And therefore, good mo- j
ther, accept this my simple letter as a fruit of my love
and obedience to you. Would God we might be so knit
in faith, and trust in God's word and promises here in
this life, as we might together enjoy the bliss and con-
solation of eternal life ; vdiich I desire and seek above
all worldly treasure, as ye partly know. If 1 would seek
the good will of men contrary to my conscience, I could
make some my friends which now peradventure are
jealous over me amiss. But I thank God, let them m
weigh the matter between God and their consciences, ,!
and they have no just cause so to do : Nevertheless I
pray they would yet refrain and put their matter and
mine into the balance of God's most holy word, there to
be weighed by the mind of the Holy Ghost, expressed
unto us by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and by
Jesus Christ our only Saviour and mediator, and by his
holy apostles ; and then I doubt not, but our matter
A.D. 1555.] LETTERS OF NICHOLAS SIIETERDEN TO HIS BROTHER AND MOTHER.
797
: shall be ended with peace, and joyfulness of heart ;
I which God grant us for his mercy sake. Amen,
i *' Your own child, Nicholas Sheterden,
prisoner for the truth, in Westgate, 1555."
A Letter to his Brother, Walter Sheterden.
" I wish you health in Christ, true knowledge of his
1 word, and a faithful obedient heart to the same. It is
shewed me, my brother, that you wished me by a letter
to a friend of yours, to persuade me, that I should be
ruled by mine uncle, who saith, he will bestow his goods
! very largely upon me, if I should not stand too high in
I mine own conceit. But, my good brother, I trust ye do
■ not judge so evil of me, that I should liave a faith to sell
i for money. For though he or you were able to give me the
' treasure of the whole country, yet I thank my Lord God,
I do judge it but a heap of dung, in respect of the trea-
', sure hid within ; yet I do esteem a buckle of your shoe,
if it come with good will. And for to be counselled and
ruled by him or you, or any other my friends, I do not,
\ neither have I refused it, if they require no more of me
than my power, and that which belongs to mortal men.
But if they require of me any thing which pertains to
God duly, there is neither high nor low, friend nor foe,
I trust in God, shall get it of me ; nor yet the angels in
heaven.
( " For though I be not learned, (as the vain men of the
j world call learning) yet, I thank my Lord God, I have
'learned out of God's book, to know God from his crea-
tures, and to know Christ from his sacraments, and to
iput a difference between the merits of Christ's passion
land his supper, and a difference between the water of
Ibaptism, and the Holy Ghost, and not to mix and mingle
jail things confusedly together : so that if one ask me a
iquestion or a reason of my faith, I must be so ignorant
ias to say thus, ' I believe as the holy church believes :' if
ihe ask me what is the order of that faith, I should be so
.ignorant that I could not discern God from his crea-
tures, nor Christ from his sacraments ; if I should so
imonstrously utter my faith, that I were not able to judge
Ibetween Christ's birth and his burial, nor which were
iftrst, his mortification, or his glorification, who would
Ibelieve that my faith were sound ?
I " For some aifirm that Christ did not give to his
apostles a mortal and a passible body, but an immortal
land glorified body, so that he should have a glorified
Ibody before his death, and so his glorification was be-
fore his resurrection ; and that he was lisen before he
iwas crucified, and crucified before his baptism, and then
'they may as well say, he was baptised before his birth,
,and born before he was conceived, and conceived before
ihe was promised, and that were even right antichrist to
iturn all things backward, and then say, ' Oh, ye must
[believe, for God is Almighty, he can do all things,' &c.
True it is, that God is Almighty indeed, and yet I may
iioi believe things contrary to his word, that Christ's
body was glorified before he died : for God's omnipo-
teiicy doth not Stand in things contrary to his will, but
in iierforming his will at his pleasure in time, neither
does he require of us to judge or believe of his Almighty
power, that he. hath made tb.e end of the world to come
ociore tlie beginning, or yet the fruit to come before the
blossom, and yet is he nevertheless Almighty.
" But if peradventure you shall think with yourself,
♦iiv they are learned ; it were a marvel but they should
iviiow wliat is the truth, as well as others, who never
kept any such study, &c. To that I answer, that if
.uey had studied God's word, the author of truth, as
they hive done logic, and duns, with the legend of
lies, they should have been as expert in the truth, as
tbey be now in weak reasons. But thus has God ful-
iiiied his jiromise, that such should be deluded with lies,
»Mio would not believe nor walk in his truth.
■• And again ; this is a good cause to make us think
Surely, that this was the cause that God gave them over
•" th? first to error, after the ajiostles' time by little and
iitde, as fhey grew in sin. For seeing we had his truth
now among us a few jears. because we did not obey
it, we see what a sudden change God huth brought
upon us for our sins' sake. And why should not we
think that this and such like diso'oedience was the cause
that God took his word from all Chiistendom at the first,
and cast a darkness upon them tliat would not w;dk in
his light ? For it is evident enough to see how utilike
their doings are to Christ's and his apostles' : ar.d that
seen, either we must judge Christ's doings very slender,
and theirs good, or else that indeed they are the very
antichrists, which should come and turn all thiiii's out
of frame. Thus I have been bold to trouble you, wliich
I trust shall not be altogether in vain. Pray for me as
I do for you.
" Your brother, Nicholas Sheterden,
prisoner for the truth, in Westgate."
Another Letter nf Nicholas Sheterden to his Mother.
" Oh! my good mother, whom I love with reverence in
the Lord, and according to my duty, I desire your favour-
able blessing and forgiveness, of all my misdeeds toivards
you, Oh ! my good mother, in few words, I wish you
the same salvation, which I hope myself to feel, and
partly taste of before this comes to you to read ; and in the
resurrection, I verily believe to have it more perfectly in
body and soul joined together for ever; and in that day
God grant you to see my face with joy : l;ut. d;Mr mo-
ther, then beware of that great idolatiy, and blasplicmoiis
mass. Oh ! let not that be your God, which mice and
worms can devour. Behold, I call heaven and earth to
record, that it is no God, yea, the fire that consumeth it,
and the moistness that causeth it to mould, and I take
Christ's testament to witness, that it is none of his or-
dinances, but a mere invention of men, and a snaj-e to
catch innocents' blood ; and now that God hath shewed
it unto you, be warned in time. Oh ! give over old cus-
toms, and become new in the truth. What state soever
your father be in, leave that to God ; and let us follow
the counsel of his word. Dear motl'.er, embrace it with
hearty affection, read it with obeditnce, let it be vour
pastime : but yet cast off all carnal affections, and love
of worldly things : so shall we meet in joy at the last day,
or else I bid you farewell for evermore: Oh! farewell my
friends and lovers all, God grant me to see your faces in
joy. Amen.
" From Westgate, the lltli of July, 1555. Your
Child, written with his hand, and sealed wita
his blood, Nicholas Sheterden, being
appointed to be slain."
The day after the condemnation of these godly men,
which was the 26th day of July, there were also condemned
for the same articles, W. Coker, W Hopper of Cam-
brook, Henry Laurence, Richard Wright of Ashford,
W. Stere of Ashford. But because the execution of
these martyrs pertaineth not to this month, more shiii
be said, the Lord willing, when we come to the month
of August.
In the same month followed the death and martyrdom
of Nicholas Hall, and Christopher Waid of Dartford,
who were condemned by Maurice, bishop of Rochester,
about the last day of the month of June. The six
articles ministered to them were of the same ordinary
course and effect with the articles of the other martyrs
before specified ; and sentence of condemnation was pro-
nounced by Maurice the bishop against them, after the
common course in condemning all other like servants of
Christ. Nicholas Hall was burned at Rochester about
the 19th day of July.
With Hall and Waid, in the same month of July,
three others were condemned by Maurice, the bishop
aforenamed, whose names were Joan Beach, widow; John
Harpol, of Rochester ; and Margery Policy. Of Margery
Policy, touching her examination and condemnation here
follows the account.
The Martyrdom of Margei-ij Policy.
Margery Policy, widow, was accused ana brought
before Maurice, bishop of Rochester, about the begin-
108
THE MARTYRDOM OF WAID, CARVER, AND LAUNDER.
[Cook XI.
nini^ of June. The bishop, according to the pontifical
solemnity of that church, rising up out of the chair, in
a high swelling style to dash the poor woman, began in
these words :
" We, Maurice, by the sufferance of God bishop of
Rochester, proceeding of our mere office in a cause of
heresy, against thee, Margery PoUey, of the parish of
Pepingl)ery, of our diocese and jurisdiction of Rochester,
tJo lay and object against thee all and singular these ar-
ticles ensuing. To the whicli, and to every parcel of
them, we require of thee a true, full, and plain answer,
by virtue of thine oath thereupon to be given," &c.
Thus the oath being administered, and the articles
commenced against her, which articles were the same
that were ministered to others before, she so framed her
answers, that she neither allowed the deity of their sa-
crament, nor the absurdity of tlieir mass. For which
sentence was read against her about the beginning of
June. But because her death followed not upon the
same, we will therefore defer treating of it to the due
place and time.
The Martyrdom of C/irisfopker Waid.
Christopher Waid, of Dartford, in the county of Kent,
linen-weaver, was condemned by Maurice, bishop of
Rochester, and appointed to be burned at Dartford.
At the day appointed for his execution, which was in the
month of July, there was early in the morning carried
out of the town, in a cart, a stake, and tlierewith many
bundles of reeds, to a place a quarter of a mile out of
the town, called the Brimth, into a gravel pit, the com-
mon place of the execution of felons. Thither, also,
was brought a load of broom-fagots, with other fagots
and tall wood, to which place the people of the country
resorted in great numbers, and there awaited his com-
ing. About ten o'clock, the sheriff, with a number of
other gentlemen, who were appointed to assist him,
came riding to the place ; and with them Waid, at whose
side was riding, pinioned, Margery Policy of Tunbridge,
who were both singing a psalm. Margery, as soon as
she saw afar off the multitude gathered about the place
where M'aid was to suffer, said to him very loud and
cheeifully, " You may rejoice, Waid, to see such a com-
pany gathered to celebrate your marriage this day."
And so passing by the place, they were carried to the
town, where Margery was kept until the sheriff returned
from Waid's execution. Waid being made ready, and
stripped of his clothes in an inn, he had brought to him
a long white shirt from his wife, which he put on ; he
was then pinioned, and led to tlie Brimth ; and coming
straight to the stake, he took it in his arms, embraced it,
and set his back to it, and stept into a pitch-barrel ;
then a smith brought a hoop of iron, and with two
staples made him fast to the stake under his arms.
As soon as he was thus fixed, he repeated, with his
hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, with a cheerful and
loud voice, the last verse of tlie Ixxxvi. Psalm, " Shew
me a token for good ; that they which hate me may see
it, and be ashamed ; because thou, Lord, hast helped
me, and comforted me." Near to the stake was a little
hill, and upon the top of it were erected four stayes,
with a covering round about like a pulpit : into this
place, as Waid was thus praying at the stake, a friar
entered with a book in his hand ; when Waid saw him
he cried earnestly to the peo])le, to take heed of the
doctrine of the wliore of Babylon, exhorting them to
embrace the doctrine of the gospel preached in King
Edward's days ; but the sheriff interrupted him, saying,
" Be quiet, Waid, and die patiently." " I am," said
he, " I thank God, quiet, master sheriff, and so trust to
die." All this while the friar stood still looking over
the coverlet, as though he would liave uttered some-
thing : but Waid very mightily admonished the people to
beware of that doctrine ; which, when the friar per-
ceived, whether he were amazed, or could have no
audience of the jieople, withdrew out of the place imme-
diately, without speaking a word, and went away down
to the town. Then the reeds being placed about him,
he pulled them, and embraced them in his arms, always
with his hands making an opening about his face, that
his voice might be heard. Then the lire being put to
him, he cried to God often, " Lord Jesus, receive my
soul ;" without any token or sign of impatience in the
fire; till at length, when the lire was thoroughly kindled,
he was not lieard to speak, but continued to hold up his
hands over his head towards heaven.
The hurning of Dirick Carver and John Larnider.
On the twenty-second of July, there was burned at
Lewes, in the county of Sussex, one Dirick Carver;
and, on the next day, was also burned at Slening,
anotlier man named John Launder. These two men,
with others, had been apprehended about the end ot
October, l.')54, while thty were at jirayer in the dwel-
ling-house of Dirick ; and were sent up to the queen's
council. After examination they were sent as prisoners
to Newgate, there to attend the leisure of Bonner,
bishop of London. They were brought by the keeper of
the prison on the eighth of June, into the bishop's
chamber at his house in London ; and there being ex-
amined upon many points of religion, they made tlieir
several confessions, subscribing and signiiig tiiem with
their own hands. Which being read, the bishop ob-
jected to them certain other articles, causing them to
swear truly and directly to answer thereto ; which
articles they confessed to be true, referring themselves
chiefly to their former confessions.
This done, after long persuasions and fair exhorta-
tions, they were demanded whether they would stand to
their answers. Launder said, " 1 will never go from
these answers so long as 1 live." The other also con-
firmed the same, and therefore they were commanded to
apjiear again before the bishop in the consistory of St.
Paul's, on the tenth day of the month.
The Confession of Dirick Carver, lefure Bonner,
" Dirick Carver, beer-brewer, of Brighthelmston, in
the county of Sussex, where he hath dwelt by the space
of eight or nine years ; born in the village of Dilson by
Stockom in the land of Luke, forty years of age, or
thereabout, and now prisoner in Newgate, where he
hath remained and continued at the council's command-
ment, since Allhallows day last past, being examined con-
cerning his faith and belief in the sacrament of the altar,
saith, that he hath, and doth believe, that the very sub-
stance of the body and blood of Christ is not in the said
sacrament, and that there is no other substance remain-
ing in tiie said sacrament after the words spoken by the
priest, but only the substance of bread and wine.
" Also, being examined concerning the mass in Latin,
now used in the popish church of England, he believeth
that there is no sacrifice in the mass, and that there is in
it no salvation for a christian man, except it should be
said in the mother tongue, that he might understand it ;
and concerning the ceremonies of the church, he saith
and believeth, that they are not profitable to a christian
man.
" Also, being examined concerning auricular confes-
sion, he answereth. That he hath and doth believe, that
it is necessary to go to a good priest for good counsel ;
but the absolution of the priest, laying his hand upon
any man's head, as is now used, is nothing profitable to
a christian man's salvation. And further lie saith, that
he hath not been confessed, nor received the sacrament
of the altar, since the coronation of the queen that
now is.
" Also, concerning the faith and religion now taught,
set forth, and believed in the said church of England, l.e
answereth and believeth, that the faith and doctrine
now taught, set forth, and used in the said church of
England, is not agreeable to God's word. And, further-
more, he saith, that Bishop Hooper, Cardmaker, Rogers,
and others of their opinion, who were of late burned,
were good christian men, and did preach the true doc-
trine of Christ as he believeth ; and saith that tne^ old
A.D. 1555.] THE CONFESSION OF DIRICK CARVER, AND JOHN LAUNDER.
799
shed their blood in the same doctrine, which was by the
power of God, as he saith and believeth.
" And further being examined, he saith, That since
the queen's coronation, he hath had the Bible and
Psalter in English, read in his house at Brighthelmston
divers times, and likewise since his coming into New-
gate : but the keeper hearing thereof, did take them
away ; and saith also, that about a twelvemonth now
past, he had the English procession said in his house,
with other English prayers. And further saith, that
Thomas Iveson, John Launder, and William Vesie,
being prisoners with him in Newgate, were taken with
this examinate in his house at Brighthelmston, as they
were hearing of the gospel, then read in English, a little
before AUliallows day last past, and brought into the
court : and being examined thereupon by the council,
were committed by them to prison in Newgate."
The Confession of John Launder, before Bonner.
" John Launder, husbandman, of the parish of God-
stone, in the county of Surrey, of the age of twenty-five
years, born at Godstone ; being examined, doth confess
and say, that about two days next before Allhallows-eve,
last past, this examinate and one Dirick Carver, Thomas
Iveson, William Vesie, with other persons to the num-
ber of twelve, (being altogether in their prayers, saying
the service in English, set forth in the time of King
Edward VI., in the house of the said Dirick, situate at
Brighthelmston in Sussex) were apprehended by one
Master Edward Gage, and by liim sent up hither to
London, to the king and queen's council, and by them
(upon his examination) committed to Newgate, where
he, with his said other companions, hath ever since re-
mained in prison.
" And further being examined, he doth confess and
say, that the occasion of his coming to tlie said Brigh-
thelmston was upon certain business there to be done for
his father : and so being there, and hearing that the said
Dirick was a man that did much favour the gospel, this
examinate did resort to his house and company, whom
before that time he did never see or know, and by reason
of that his resort, he was apprehended as before : And
further doth confess and believe, that there is here in
earth one whole and universal catholic church, whereof
the members are dispersed throughout the world, and
doth believe also, that the same church doth set forth
and teach only two sacraments, the sacrament of bap-
tism, and the sacrament of the supper of our Lord.
And whosoever doth teach or use any more sacraments,
or yet any ceremonies, he doth not believe that they are
of the catholic church, but abhors them from the bottom
of his heart : And doth further say and believe, that all
the service, sacrifices, and ceremonies, now used in this
realm of England (yea, and in all other parts of the
world, which hath been used after the same manner) are
erroneous and naught, and contrary to Christ's institu-
tion, and the determination of Christ's catholic church,
•whereof he believeth that he himself is a member.
" Also, he doth confess and believe, that in the sa-
crament, now called the sacrament of the altar, there is
not really, and truly contained, under the forms of
bread and wine, the very natural body and blood of
Christ in substance : but his belief and faith therein is,
that when he receives the material bread and wine he re-
ceives the same in remembrance of Christ's death and
passion, and so receiving it, he eats and drinks Christ's
body and blood by faith, and no other way as he be-
lieveth.
" And, moreover, he doth confess, say, and believe,
that the mass now used in the realm of England, or
elsewhere, in all Christendom, is naught and abominable,
and directly against God's word and his catholic church ;
and that there is nothing said or used in it good and
profitable. For he saith, that although the Gloria in ex-
celsis, the Creed, Sanctus, Paternoster, Agnus, and
other parts of the mass are of themselves good and pro-
fitable, j'et the same being used amongst other things
that are naught and superfluous in the mass, the same
good things do become naught also, as he believeth.
" Also, he doth believe and confess that auricular
confession is not necessary to be made to any priest, or
to any other creature, but every person ouglit to ac-
knowledge and confess his sins only to God ; and also
that no person hath any authority to absolve any man
from his sins, and also belie\ eth that the right and true
way (according to the scriptures) after a man hath fallen
from grace to sin, to arise to Christ again, is to be sorry
for his offences, and to do the same or the like no more ;
and not to make any auricular confession of them to the
j)riest, neither to take absolution for them at the priest's
hands. All which his said opinions he hath believed by
the space of these seven or eight years past, and in that
time hath divers and many times openly argued and de-
fended the same, as he saith," &c.
On the tenth of June these two persons, with others,
were brought by the keeper to the bishop's consistory,
where the bi.shop beginning with Dirick Carver, caused
his confession with the articles and answers to be read
to him, asking him whether he would stand to them.
Dirick answered, that he would : " For your doctrine,"
said he, " is poison and sorcery. If Christ were here,
you would put him to a worse death than he was put to
before. You say that you can make a god ; you can
make a pudding as well. Your ceremonies in the
church are beggary and poison. And further I say,
that auricular confession is contrary to God's word, and
very poison :" with divers other such words.
'The bishop seeing his constancy, and that neither his
accustomed flatteries, nor yet his cruel threatenings,
could move this good man to incline to their idolatry,
pronounced his usual and general blessing (i. e. sentence
of condemnation to be burned), both on Dirick Carver
and John Launder, who remained in the same con-
stancy, and therefore they were both delivered to the
sheriffs, and afterwards were conveyed to the places
above-named, and there most joyfully gave their bodies
to be burned in the fire, and their souls into the hands of
Almighty God, by Jesus Christ, who has assured them
of a better hope of life.
This Dirick was a man whom the Lord had blessed as
well with temporal riches, as with his spiritual trea-
sures. At his coming into the town of Lewes to be
burned, the people called upon him, beseeching God to
strengthen him in the faith of Jesus Christ. He thanked
them, and prayed to God, that of his mercy lie would
strengthen them in the faith. As he came to the stake,
he kneeled down and made his prayers, and the sheriff
made haste.
Then his book was thrown into the pitch-barrel, and
when he had stripped himself as a joyful member of
God, he went into the barrel himself. And as soon
as he came in, he took up the book and threw it
among the people ; and then the sheriff commanded in
the king and queen's name, on pain of death, to throw
in the book again ; and immediately Dirick spake with a
joyful voice, saying : —
" Dear brethren and sisters, witness to you all, that
I am come to seal with my blood, Christ's gospel, be-
cause I know that it is true : it is not unknown to all of
you, that it has been truly preached here in Lewes, and
in all places of England, and that now it is not. And
because I will not deny God's gospel, and be obedient
to man's >aws, I am condemned to die. Dear brethren
and sisters, as many of you as believe in the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, unto everlasting life, see
you do the works appertaining to such belief. And as
many of you as believe in the pope of Rome, or any of
his laws, which he sets forth in these days, you believe
to your utter condemnation; and except the great
mercy of God prevents you, you shall burn in hell
perpetually."
Immediately the sheriff spake to him, and said, " If
thou dost not believe on the pope, thou art damned body
and soul." And further the sheriff said to him, " Speak
to thy God, that he may deliver, thee now, or else to
strike me down for an example to this people." But
this faithful martyr said, " The Lord forgive you your
sayings."
800
THE MARTYRDOM OF IVESON, ALEWORTII, ABBEYS, &c.
[Book XI
And then he spiVe. again to all the people with a loud
|>'oice, siying, " Dear brethren, and all you whom I
have offsndf J in words or in deed, I ask you for the
Lord's sake to forgive me ; and I heartily forgive all
you, wlio have offended me in thought, word, or deed."
And he said farther in his prayer, " Oh Lord, iny God,
thou hast written, ' He that loveth father or mother
more thin me is not worthy of me ; and he that loveth
son or daughter more than me is not wortliy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and foUoweth after me
is not worthy of me.' (Matt. x. .S7, IW.) But thou
Lord kiiowest, that I have forsaken all, to come unto
thee. Lord, have mercy upon me, for unto thee do I
commend my spirit, and my soul doth rejoice in thee.
These were the last words of this faithful martyr of
Christ, before the fire was put to him. And after the
fire came to him, he cried, " Oh Lord, have mercy
upon me," and sprung up in the fire, calling upon the
name of Jesus, and died.
An Account of Thomas Iveson.
At Chichester, about the same month, was burned
one Thomas Iveson of Godstone, in the county of Sur-
rey, carpenter, whose apprehension, examination, and
condemnation, as it was at one time, and in one form,
with Dirick Carver and John Launder, I here omit,
referring the reader to their history.
Iveson being earnestly pressed to recant, he said, " I
would not recant and forsake my opinion and belief for
all the goods in London. I do appeal to God's mercy,
and will be none of your church, nor submit myself to
it : and what I have said, I will say again. And if
there came an angel from heaven, to teach me any other
doctrine than that which I am now in, I would not be-
lieve him.'' Which answer being thus made, he was
condemned as an heretic, and was committed to the
secular i)ower, as they term it, and at the place above-
mentioned was burned, persevering still in his constant
faith unto the end.
John Aleworth.
In the latter end of July, John Aleworth died in pri-
son, at the town of Reading, being there in bonds for
the cause and testimony of the truth of the Lord's
gospel, whom, although the prelates (according to their
usual solemnity) did exclude from christian burial, yet
^e see no cause why to exclude him out of the number
of Christ's holy martyrs, and heirs of his holy kingdom.
James Abbeys, a Martyr, for the true cause of Christ's
Gospel.
Among many that laboured in these troublesome days
to keep a good conscience, there was one James Abbeys,
a young man, who, through compulsion of the tyranny
then used, was forced to take part with his brethren in
wandering, and going from place to place, to avoid the
peril of arrest. But when the time came, that the Lord
liad another work to do for him, he was caught by the
hands of wicked men, and brought before the bishop of
Norwich, Doctor Hopton, who, examining him of his
religion, and charging him both with threats and fair
speech, at the last poor James yielded to their persua-
sions, although his conscience consented not.
When he was dismissed, and was about to go from the
bishop, the bishop called him again, and gave him a
piece of money, which, when James had received, and
was departed from the bishop, his conscience began in-
wardly to accuse his act, how he had displeased the
Lord by consenting to their persuasions. In which
combat with liimself, he went immediately to the bishop
again, and there threw him liis money, which he had re-
ceived at his hand, and said he repented that ever he
gave his consent to their wicked persuasions ; and also
that he gave his consent in taking his money.
Now, this being done, the bishop with his chaplains
laboured afresh to win him again, but in vain ; for
James Abbeys would, not yield, although he had played
Peter before through infirmity, yet he stood manfully in
his master's cause to the end, and abode the trial of the
fire, in the consuming of his body into ashes, which
burning took place at Bury, on the 2nd of August,
Ifjoo.
77ie Mai'tyrdom of John Denley, John Newman, and
Patrick Packingham.
In the midst of this tempestuous rage of malignant
adversaries, persecuting and destroying the poor flock
of Christ, there were many, who, though they were not
clergymen, yet thought to help this furious flame of per-
secution. Amongst whom was one Edmund Tyrel. esq.,
and at that time a justice of peace in the county of
Essex. As Tyrel came from the burning of certain
godly martyrs, he met with John Denley, gentleman,
and one John Newman, both of Maidstone in Kent,
travelling upon the way, and going to visit some of their
godly friends. Upon suspicion he apjjrehended, and
searched them ; and at last, finding the confessions of
their faith in writing about them, sent them up to the
cpieen's commissioners.
The following is from the confession of faith found on
the person of John Denley :
" The difference of doctrine between the faithful and
the papists concerning the sacrament is, that the ])ci]iists
say that Christ is corporeally under or in the forms of
bread and wine ; but the faithful say, that Christ is
not there, neither corr)oreally nor spiritually ; but in
them that worthily eat and drink the bread and wine, be
is spiritually, but not corporeally.
" For figuratively he is in the bread and wine, and
spiritually he is in them that worthily eat and drink the
bread and wine ; but really, carnally, and corporeally he
is only in heaven, from whence he shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
" As concerning the sacrament of the body and blood
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, my belief is this : that the
bread and wine is appointed unto a sacrament ; and
that after thanks given to God the Father, tlien it
doth represent unto me the very body and blood of our
Saviour Jesus Christ ; not that the bread is the body,
or the wine the blood, but tliat I in faith do see that
blessed body of our Saviour broken on the cross, and his
precious blood plenteously shed for the redemption of
my sins. Also in faith I hear him call us unto him,
saying, ' Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.' In faith I come unto
him, and I am refreshed, so that I believe that all that
do come unto the table of the Lord in this faith, fear,
and love, being sorry for their offences, intending earn-
estly to lead a godly life in this vale of misery, do re-
ceive the fruit of the death of Christ, which fruit is our
salvation.
" I do understand spiritually that as the outward man
doth eat the material bread wliich comforteth the body,
so doth the inward man, through faith, eat the b;idy of
Christ, believing that as the bread is broken, so was
Christ's body broken on the cross for our sins ; which
comforteth our souls unto life everlasting, and signifying
thereby, that even as that bread was divided r.mong
them, so should his body and fruit of his passion be
distributed unto as many as believed his words. But
the bread broken and eaten in the supper, admonishes
and puts us in remembrance of his death, and so excites
us to thanksgiving, to laud and praise God for the
benefits of our redemption.
" And thus we there have Christ present ; in the in-
ward eye and sight of our faith we eat his body, and
drink his blood, that is, we believe surely that his body
was crucified for our sins, and his blood shed for our
salvation.
" John Denley."
The commissioners receiving these prisoners, after
they saw they could little prevail with their own persua«
sions, sent them to Bishop Bonner, to be handled after
his discretion. On the 28th of June he caused Denley
and Newman, with one Patrick Packingham, to be
brought into his chamber within his palace, and there
examined them upon their confessions, objecting also
to them certain other articles of bis own. To which
1555.1
THE CONFESSION OF JOHN DENLEY.
801
they all answered in effect one thing, altliough Denley
answered more largely than the others.
The following are the articles objected. —
i. That he is of the diocese of London.
2. That he does not believe, that there is any catholic
church of Christ in earth.
3. That he does not believe, that this church of
England is any part of the catholic church.
4. That he believes, that the mass is full of idolatry
and evil, and plain against God's word.
5. That he believes that auricular confession is not
good, but contrary to God's word.
6. That he believes that absolution given by the priest
hearing confession is not good, nor allowable by God's word.
7. That he believes that christening of children, as it
is now used in the church of England, is not good, nor
allowable by God's word, but against it ; likewise con-
firming of children, giving of orders, saying of matins
and evensong, anointing or absolving of sick, persons,
making holy bread and holy water.
8. That he believes that there are but two sacraments
in Christ's catholic church, that is to say, the sacrament
of baptism, and the sacrament of the altar.
9. That he believes that as Christ is ascended up into
heaven ; therefore the very body of Christ is not in the
sacrament of the altar,
(Objected only to one.) That thou, Patrick Pack-
ingham, now being of the age of twenty-one at the
least, being within the house of the bishop of London
at St. Paul's, and by him brought to the great chapel to
hear mass there, on the said twenty-third of June, in
the year 1555, didst uureverendly stand in the said
chapel, having thy cap on thy head all the time of mass ;
and didst also refuse to receive holy water, and holy bread
at the priest's hands, there contemning and despising
both the mass, and the said holy water and holy bread.
The Answer of John Denley and the others.
" To the first article, I answer, it is very true.
*' To the second article, I answer, that it is not true ;
for I believe in the holy catholic church which is builded
upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Christ
being the head, which holy church is the congregation
of the faithful people, dispersed through the whole
world, the which church doth preach God's holy
word truly, and doth also minister the two sacraments,
that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord, ac-
cording to his blessed word.
"To the third article, I answer, that I do believe
that this church of England, using the faith and religion
which is now used, is no part or member of the afore-
said catholic church, but is the church of antichrist, the
bishop of Rome being the head thereof; for it is plain,
that they have altered the Testament of God, and set up
a Testament of their own devising, full of blasphemy
and lies ; for Christ's Testament is, that he would have
all things done to the edifying of the people, as appears
when he taught them to pray, Matt. vi. : and also it
appears by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 3, 4. ' But he that pro-
phesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhorta-
tion, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown
I tongue edifieth himself ; but he that prophesieth edifieth
the church.'
" Also he saith, 1 Cor. xiv. 9, ' So likewise ye, except
ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how
shall it be known what is spoken ? for ye shall speak
into the air,' that is as much as to say, in vain. Also
he saith, verse 17 — 19. ' For thou verily givest thanks
well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God,
I speak with tongues more than ye all : yet in the church
I had rather speak five words with my understanding,
that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten
thousand words in an unknown tongue.'
" Also it is written in Psalm xlvii. 7, ' For God
is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises with
nnderstanding,' &c. So it appears, that this church of
England, now used, is not builded upon Christ, if St.
Paul's words are true, and also the Psalms ; therefore
this church is not builded upon the prophets, apostles,
aor Christ, as I have declared beforei
" To the fourth article I answer, and I do believe
that the mass, now used in this realm of England, is
naught, and abominable idolatry and blasphemy against
God's holy word ; for Christ in his holy supper insti-
tuted the sacraments of bread and wine, to be eaten
together in remembrance of his death till he come, and
not to have them worshipped, and made an idol of
them : for God will not be worshipped in his creatures,
but we ought to give him praise for his creatures, which
he hath created for us. For he saith in the second com-
mandment, ' Thou shalt not mcLe unto thee any graven
image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth : Thou shalt not bow down thy-
self to them, nor serve them.' (Exod. xx. 4, 5.) So it
appears by this commandment, that we ought not to
worship the sacrament of bread and wine, for it is plain
idolatry ; for he saith, ' No similitude,' therefore, ' Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.'
I pray you, what do you call kneeling down, holding up
the hands, knocking of the breast, putting off the cap,
and making curtsey, with other such-like superstition .'
You would make men to be so blind as to believe, that
this is no worshipping.
" Peradventure you will object and say, you do not
worship the bread and the wine, but Christ's body,
which was born of the Virgin Mary, contained under the
forms of bread and wine. But that is a very lie ; for
Christ's body that was born of the Virgin Mary is in
heaven, if St. Paul's words are true, as undoubtedly
they are : for he saith in Hebrews x. 12, 13, ' But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever
sat down on the right hand of God ; from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.'
" Also in Heb. ix. 24, ' For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to ap-
pear in the presence of God for us.' Also, Philip, iii. 20,
' For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also
we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.'
1 Thess. i. 9, 10, ' For they themselves shew of us what
manner of entering in we had unto you ; and how ye
turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true
God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come.' Also John xvi. 28, ' 1 came
forth from tlie Father, and am come into the world :'
again, ' I leave the world, and go to the Father.' John
xvii. 11, ' And now I am no more in the world, but
these are in the world, and I come to thee.' All the.^'e
places of the scriptures, with others, prove plainly to
them that have ears to hear, that Christ's body, which was
born of the Virgin Mary, is in heaven, and not in the
sacramental bread and wine ; and therefore it is idola-
try to worship them, &c.
" To this fifth article, I answer, that I do believe
that auricular confession is not good, as it is now used.
As to my sins, wherein I have offended God, I must
seek to him for remission of them ; for our Saviour
Christ saith (Matt. xi. 28), ' Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
The prodigal son (Luke xv. 18, 19), saith, ' I will
arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am
no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of
thy hired servants.' Psalm xxxii. 5, ' I acknowledged
my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I
said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ;
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' Job xiii.
15, 16, ' But I will maintain mine own ways before him.
He also shall be my salvation : for an hypocrite shall
not come before him.' Wisdom xxxiv. saith, ' Who
can be cleansed of the unclean ." And there was bu»
one of the ten lepers that were cleansed, that came to
Christ to give him thanks. He asked for the other
nine. But if I have offended my neighbour, I must re-
concile myself to my neighbour : and if I be a noto-
rious sinner, after the first and second admonition, it
ought to be declared to the congregation, and the mi»ia
ter of the congregation hath power by the word to ts
3*2
802
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN DENLEY.
[Book XI.
communicate me, and I am to be taken as an heathen
person, not for a day, or forty days, but to such time as
I do openly in tlie congregation acknowledge my fault,
then the minister has power by the word to preach to
me or them the remission of our sins in the blood of
Jesus Christ, as it is written in the thirteenth of the
Acts of the Apostles, and in Matt, xviii. Other con-
fession I know none.
" To the sixth article I have answered in the fifth.
" To the seventh article I answer, that as touching
the sacrament of baptism, which is the christening of
children, it is altered and changed ; for John the Baptist
used nothing but the preaching of the word and the
water, as it appears, when Christ required to be bap-
tized of him, and others also who came to John to be
baptized, as it appeareth. Matt. iii. 5. 13 ; Mark i. 5. 9;
Luke iii. 7. 21 ; and Acts viii. 3(). the eunuch said,
* See, here is water ; what doth hinder me to be bap-
tized ." It appears here that Philip had preached to
him ; for he said, ' Here is water.' We do not read
that he asked for any cream, nor oil, nor for spittle, nor
conjured water, nor conjured wax, nor chrism, nor salt,
for it seemeth that Philip had preached no such things
to him ; for he would as well have asked for them as for
water, and the water was not conjured, but even as it
was before. Also Acts x. 46, 47, ' Then answered
Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not
be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as
well as we ." Acts xvi. 32, 33. And Paul and Silas ' Spake
unto him ' (the Philippian gaoler) ' the word of the
Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took
them the same hour of the night, and washed their
stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.'
Where you see nothing but preaching the word, and the
water. The like also is said of the rest of the ceremo-
nies of your church.
" To the eighth article I answer shortly, that there
are no more than two sacraments ; baptism, and the
sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, except ye
will make the rainbow a sacrament : for there is no
sacrament but hath a promise annexed unto it.
" To the ninth article I do answer you, that you have
my mind written already. For it was found about me
when I was taken, and also ye know my mind in the
fourth article, plainly expressed concerning the bodily
presence: for Christ's body is in heaven, and will not
be contained in so small a piece of bread. And as the
words which Christ spake are true indeed, so must they
also be understood by other of the scriptures which
Christ spake himself, and also the apostles after him.
And thus I make an end, &c.
" Byrne, John Denley."
On the first of July, the above three prisoners were
brought into the consistory in St. Paul's church, where
the bishop proceeded against them after the usual form,
and then tempting them, sometimes with fair promises,
othertimes with threatenings, which were always his
chief arguments and reasons to persuade with. In the
end, seeing their immoveable constancy, on the fifth of
July he condemned them as heretics, and gave them to
the sheriffs of London, as to his common executioners,
who kept them until they were commanded by writ to
send them to their several places of suffering ; namely,
John Denley to Uxbridge, where, on the eighth of Au-
gust, he was burned. When set in the fire, and the
flames about him, he sung a psalm with a joyful heart.
Then Doctor Story, wlio was present, commanded
one of the tormentors to hurl a fagot at him, whereupon
being hurt upon the face, so that he bled, he ceased his
singing, and clapped botli his hands on his face. ' Truly,'
said Doctor Story to him that hurled the fagot, ' thou
hast spoiled a good old song.'
Shortly, however, Denley put his hands abroad,
and sung again, yielding at last his spirit into the hands
of God, through his Son Jesus Christ.
After the martyrdom of John Denley at Uxbridge,
suffered also not long after Patrick Packingham at Ux-
bridge, about the twenty-eighth of August. This Pack-
ingham was charged by Bonner (as you heard in the
tenth article before) , for the behaviour he shewed in the
bishop's chapel, who would not put off his cap at the
time of mass, which was taken for a heinous offence.
Packingham being much intreated by Bonner to recant,
protested in these words to the bishop, that the popish
church he believed was no catholic church, but was the
church of Satan, and therefore he would never turn to ,
it, &c.
John Newman was burned on the 31st of August,
at Saffron Walden, in the county of Essex, whose exa-
mination and confession of his faith and belief, for which
he was cruelly persecuted and burnt, here follows, writ-
ten by himself.
First, we shall give his answer in writing to the
suffragan after his apprehension, as follows : —
" It may please you to understand, that for the space
of all the time of King Edward's reign we were dili-
gently instructed with continual sermons, made by such
men, whose faith, wisdom, learning, and virtuous living,
was commended unto all men under the king's hand
and seal, and under the hands of the whole council.
These men taught diligently a long time, persuading us
by the allegations of God's word, that there was no
transubstantiation, nor corporeal presence in the sacra-
ment. Their docrine was not believed of us suddenly,
but by their continual preaching, and also by our con-
tinual prayer unto God, that we might never be de-
ceived ; but if it were true, that God would incline our
hearts unto it: and if it were not true, that we might
never believe it. We weighed, what they preached with
God's word, and we asked the advice of our friends ;
neither could we find that they preached false doctrine.
We considered also, as we did learn, that the king's
grace and his council, and the most part of the whole
realm believed as they taught, because no man preached
the contrary. Also we know that the preachers were
commanded by the king and laws of the realm, to
preach unto us such doctrine, as was agreeable to the
authority of God's word, and no other; and by their
diligent setting forth of it by the king's commandment,
and the consent of the whole council, and by the autho-
rity of tlie parliament, we embraced it, and received it
as infallible truth, taught unto us for the space of seven
years. Wherefore, until such time as our consciences
are otherwise taught and instructed by God's word, we
cannot with safeguard of our consciences take it, as
many suppose at this time. And we trust in God that
the queen's merciful highness, neither yet her most
honourable council, will, in a matter of faith, use com-
pulsion or violence ; because faith is the gift of God,
and Cometh not of man, neither of man's laws, neither
at such time as men require it, but at such time as God
giveth it."
The Examination and Answers of John Newman, before
Doctor Thornton, and others.
First, one of the doctors, or one of the bench, either
the archdeacon or Fawcet, or some other, whose name
John Newman does not express, began asking in this
wise :
Doctor.—" How say you to this : ' This is my body
which is given for you .'' "
Newman. — " It is a figurative speech, one thing
spoken, and another meant, as Christ saith ; ' I am a
vine. I am a door, I am a stone,' &c. Is he, therefore,
a material stone, a vine, or a door .'"
Roctor. — " This is no figurative speech. For he
saith, ' This is my body, which is given for you,' and
he saith not so of the stone, vine, or door ; that is a figu-
rative speech."
Newman.—" Christ saith, ' This cup is the New les-
tament in my blood.' If you will have it meant literally,
then let them take and eat the cup." _
Poctor. — " Nay, that is not so meant; for it is a
common phrase of speech among ourselves : We say to
our friend, drink a cup of drink, and yet we mean h«
should drink the drink in the cup."
Newman. — " If you will have the one understood lite-
rally, you must understand the other literally."
A.D. 1555.]
THE EXAMINATION OF JOHN NEWMAN.
803
Doctor. — " Nay, it is a common use of speech, to
say, drink a cup of ale or beer. And therefore it is no
figurative speech."
Newman. — " The often using of a thing does not
make that thing otherwise than it is ; but wherever
one thing is spoken, and another meant, it is a figu-
rative speech."
Doctor. — " Well, we will not stand about this. How
sav you of the real presence ? Is not Christ's natural
body there, that was born of the Virgin Mary ?"
Newman. — " No, I do not so believe, neither can I so
believe ; for the soul of man does not feed upon natural
things as the body does."
Doctor. — " Why, how then does it feed?"
Newman. — " I think the soul of man feeds as the
angels in heaven, whose feeding is only the pleasure, joy,
felicity, and delight that they have in God : and so the
soul of man feeds and eats, through faith, the body of
Christ."
/Collins. — " Yea, but if the body do not feed upon
latural things, the soul cannot continue with the body :
therefore the body must needs feed upon natural things,
that both may live together.
Newman. — " I grant it to be true; but yet the soul
lives otherwise than the body, which perishes : there-
fore natural things do but feed the body only. I pray
fou what did Judas receive at the supper ?"
Collins. — " Judas received the very body of Christ,
kut it was to his damnation.
Newman. — Why ! was the devil entered into him be-
fore ? Then he had not the devil and Christ in him at
one time.
; Collins. — " Nay, the devil did enter into him after-
ward."
Newman. — Yea, and before too : what do you think ?
dad he but one devil ? Nay, I think he had rather a
legion of devils at the latter end. '
■ Collins. — " Well, suppose it be so : what say you to
|that?"
I Newman. — " If Christ and the devil were both in
IJudas at once, I pray you how did they two agree to-
gether ?"
} Collins. — " We grant that they were both in Judas at
];hat time : for Christ may be where the devil is, if he
mil ; but the devil cannot be where Christ is, except it
please Christ."
Newman. — " Christ will not be in an unclean person
j:hat hath the devil."
! Thornton. — " Why, will you not believe that Christ
Vas in hell ? and you will grant that the devil is there ;
ind so he might be in Judas, if it pleased him."
Newman. — " Christ would not suffer Mary Mag-
lalen to touch him, who sought him at his grave, and
lid love him entirely ; much less will he suffer an un-
;odly man to receive him into his unclean body."
Thornton. — " Yes, seeing God may do all things, he
iHay do what he pleases, and be where he will. And does
jot the Psalm say. He is in hell, and in all places ?
)*Vhy should we then doubt of his being there .'"
' Newman. — " Though his godhead be in all places,
fet that is not sufficient to prove that his humanity is
jn all places."
1 Thornton. — " No 1 do you not believe that God is
Omnipotent, and may do all things ? "
I Newman. — " I do believe that God is Almighty, and
pay do all that he chooses to do."
j Thornton. — " Nay, but if Le be omnipotent, he may
fo all things, and there is nothing impossible for him
10 do."
I Newman. — " I know God is Almighty, and can do
ill that he chooses : but he cannot make his Son a liar,
\e cannot deny himself."
' Thornton. — " What is that to your purpose ?''
\ Newman. — " Will you have the humanity of Christ in
'U places, as the deity is ?"
! Thornton. — " Yea, he is in all places as the deity is.
If it please him."
Newman. — " That seems to me a very great heresy,
yc heaven and earth are not able to contain the
ivine power of God, for it is in all places, as here
and in every place : and yet yon say, that wherever
the deity is, there is also the humanity, and so you
will make him no body, but a fantastical body, and
not a real body."
Thornton. — " Nay, we do not say he is in all places as
the deity is, but if it please him he may be in all places
with the deity."
Newman. — " That seems to me as great an heresy
as ever I heard, and I dare not grant it, lest I should
deny Christ to be a very man, and that were against
all the scriptures."
Thornton. — " Tush, what shall we stand reasoning
with him .' I dare say that he does not believe that
Christ was born of his mother. Do you believe that
Christ rose from the dead, and came through the
stone .''''
Newman. — "I do believe that Christ rose from
death ; but I do not believe that he came through the
stone, neither does the scripture so say."
Thornton. — " Lo, how say you? he does not believe
that Christ came through the stone ; and if he does
not believe this, how shall he believe the other ? If
he could believe this, it were easy for him to believe
the other."
Newman. — " The scripture does not say that he went
through the stone, but it saith the angel of God camo
down, and rolled away the stone, and for fear of him the
keepers did shake, and became as dead men."
Thornton. — " Ah fool, fool, that was because the
woman should see that he was risen again from
death."
Newman. — " Well, the scripture makes as much for
me, as it does for you, and more too."
Thornton. — " Well, let us not stand any longer about
this. Back again to the real presence. How say
you, is the body of Christ really in the sacrament,
or no ? "
Newman. — " I have answered you already."
Thornton. — " Well, do you not believe that it ifl
there really ?"
Newman. — " No, I believe it not."
Thornton. — " Well, will you stand to it ? "
Newman. — " I must needs stand to it, till I be per-
suaded by a further truth."
Thornton. — " Nay, you will not be persuaded, but
stand to your own opinion."
Newman. — " Nay, I stand not to mine own opinion,
I take God to witness, but only to the scriptures of God,
and that all those that stand here can witness with me,
and nothing but the scriptures : and I take God to
witness, that I do nothing of presumption, but that
what I do is only my conscience, and if there be a
further truth than I see, except it appear a truth to
me, I cannot receive it as a truth. And seeing faith
is the gift of God, and cometh not of man ; for it is
not you that can give me faith : therefore I trust you
will bear the more with me, seeing it must be wrought
by God, and when it shall please God to open a fur-
ther truth to me, I shall receive it with all my heart,
and embrace it."
Richard Hook, about the same season, and for the
same matter, gave up his life at Chichester.
The Examinations, Answers, and Condemnation of Wil-
liam Coker, William Hopper, Henry Laurence, Ri-
chard Collier, Richard Wright, and William Stere,
before the Bishop of Dover, and Harpsfeld, Arch-
deacon of Canterbury.
Mention has been made in the histories of John Bland
and Nicholas Sheterden, of certain other Kentish men,
who being at the same time with them called forth and
examined by Thornton, bishop of Dover; Harpstield,
Fawcet. and Collins : yet, because the condemnation
and execution of them was deferred till August, we
will now briefly give some part of their examinations
and answers, as we find them in the registers.^ The
names of these were, Coker, Hopper, Laurence, CcJier,
Wright, and Stere. What the arUcles objcrted .0
804
THE MARTYRDOM OF SIX GODLY MEN IN KENT.
[Book XI
Master Bland, and to them were, you heard before.
They answered for themselves severally, and with great
firmness.
WilllamOoker being offered a respite of six days re-
fused to take it, and so sentence of condemnation was
read against him on the 11th of July.
William Hopper at first seemed to yield to the solici-
tation of the popish church, and afterwards expressed
his determination to abide by the truth, and he was
condemned on the 16th of July.
Henry Lawrence answered boldly, denying auricular
confession, and said that he neither had nor would re-
ceive the sacrament of the popish church, because the
order of the holy scriptures is changed in the order of
the sacrament.
Concerning the sacrament given to Christ's disciples,
he affirmed that even as Christ gave his very body to
his disciples, and confessed it to be the same ; so like-
wise Christ himself said, he was a door, <S:c. , adding that
the sacrament of the altar is an idol, and no remem-
brance of Christ's passion. At last, being required to
put to his hand in subscribing to iiis answers, he wrote
these words under the bill of their examinations : " Ye
are all of antichrist, and him ye fol — " And here his
hand was stopped, or he would have written out " fol-
low,'' &c. Sentence was given against him on the 2nd
of August.
Richard Collier replied by saying, that he did not be-
lieve that after the consecration there is the real and
substantial body of Christ, but only bread and wine, and
that it is most abominable, most detestable, and most
wicked to believe otherwise, &c. Upon this the sen-
tence was read against him, and he was condemned on
the 16th of August. After his condemnation he sang
a psalm. Wherefore the priests and their officers railed
at him, saying, he was out out of his senses.
Richard Wright being required of the judge what he
believed of the real presence in the sacrament, an-
swered, that as to the sacrament of the altar and the
mass, he was ashamed to speak of it, or to name it, and
that he allowed it not, as it was used in the church of
Rome. Against him the sentence was also read on the
IGth of August.
William Stere, being required to make answer to the
charges laid to him by the judge, declared that Dover
had no authority to sit against him in judgment, alleg-
ing that the bishop of Canterbury (who then was in
prison) was his diocesan.
And the judge speaking of the sacrament of the altar
■with reverence, and putting off his cap. Stere said, that
ho needed not to reverence that matter so highly. And
thus the sentence was pronounced against him, and after
sentence was read, he said, that the sacrament of the altar
was the most blasphemous idol that ever was in vent ecl,<fec.
And thus these six godly martyrs and witnesses to the
truth being condemned by the suffragan and archdeacon
of Canterbury, Collins and Fawcet were burned all toge-
therin the same town of Canterbury, at three stakes,
but in one fire, about the latter end of August.
After this follows the persecution of ten other true
servants and saints of the Lord, not such saints as the
pope makes, or which are mentioned in " The Legend
of the Saints," or in "The Lives of the Fathers," or in
such fabulous books; but such as are spoken of in the
book of Revelations, of whom it is written : " These be
they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and
who have washed their robes, and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb," &c. Thus these saints are not
of the pope's making, or, rather, to say the truth, they
are of the pope's making — of the pope's making, I say,
in this respect, not that the saints of God are made by
the pope, but that the saints of God arc tried and
declared by the pope ; for as by the inflictions of
Satan, Job's patience was proved, and by Pharaoh,
God's power declared ; so in like manner, unltss by
antichrist good men had been destroeyd, they had not
been true martyrs of Christ. The names of these
were —
Elizabeth Warne, George Tankorvil, Robert Smith.
Stephen Harwood, Thomas Fust, William Hall, Thomas
Leyes, George King, John Wade, and Joan Lashford.
The prisons of London beginning now to be full with
God's saints, and still more and more coming in, the
council and commissioners, thinking to make dispatch
with the poor prisoners, caused these ten to be sent to
Bonner, bishop of London, to be examined, and at once
rid out of the way.
We will begin with the history of Elizabeth Warne,
the wife of John Warne who was burned, as before re-
corded. Elizabeth had been apprehended amongst
others, on the first of January, in a house in Bow
church-yard in London, as they were gathered together
in prayer, and was carried to the Compter, where she
lay as prisoner until the eleventh of June. She was
then brought to Newgate, and remained there till the
second of July. Then she was sent by the king and
queen's commissioners to Bonner, bishop of London,
who on the sixth of the same month caused her, with
others, as Robert Smith, George Tankervil, &c., to be
brought before him into his palace, and there examined
her upon articles, such as were administered to the poor
saints and martyrs of God.
The chief objection that he used both towards her,
and most of the others, was touching the real and cor-
poreal presence of the body and blood of Christ in the
sacrament of the altar, as the chief ground and founda-
j tion for their dignity. Many other matters he objected
I against them : as for not coming to the church ; for
speaking against the mass ; for despising their ceremo-
nies and new-found sacraments, with other fond and
trifling toys, not worth mentioning.
In the end, when she had been several times brought
before him and his adherents, and there earnestly ex-
horted to recant, she said : " Do what ye will. For if
Christ were in an error, then am I in an error.'' Upon
which answer she M'as on the twelfth of July adjudged
and condemned as an heretic, and so delivered to the
secular power, as they term it, to be by them put to
death, which thing was accomplished in August, at
Stratford-le-Bow, near London.
George Tankervil, of London, was born in the city of
York, and was in King Edward's days a papist, till the
time Queen Mary came to the throne, and then, perceiv-
ing the great cruelty of the pope's side, was brought to
doubt of their doings, and began in his heart to abhor
them. And as concerning the mass, of which he had
but a doubtful opinion before, and much striving with
himself; at length he fell to prayer, desiring l^od in
mercy to open to him the truth, that he might be
thoroughly persuaded therein, whether it were of God,
or not. If not, that he might utterly hate it in his
heart, and abhor it ; which according to his prayer the
Lord mercifully heard, working daily more and more in
him to detest and abhor it ; and so he was moved to
read the Testament, by which, as is said, the Lord
enlightened his mind with the knowledge of the truth,
working lively faith in him to believe the same, and ut-
terly to detest all papistry, and so he came no more to
their practices ; and not only that, but, also this lively
faith, enkindled such a flame in him, as would not
be kept in, but uttered itself reproving his own former
doings to his friends, exhorting them likewi.'ie to be con-
verted and turn to the truth with him, and thus he began
to be suspected among them, till at last he was sent for.
Tankervil being brought to prison, underwent the
usual examination before Bonner. To the articles he
answered unhesitatingly, constantly declaring his mind
both touching auricular confession, and also the sacra-
ment of the popish altar, and likewiseof themass, Ac ;
that he had not confessed to any priest for five years
past, nor to any other but only to God : for that he
found it not in Christ's book. And concerning the ear
A..D. 1555.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF GEORGE TANKERVIL.
80i
crament, commonly called here in England of .the altar,
he confessed that he neither had nor did believe, that in
the said sacrament there is the real body and blood of
Christ, because that the body is ascended into heaven,
and there doth sit at the right hand of God the Father.
And, moreover, he said, that the mass now used in the
church of England was naught, and full of idolatry and
abomination, and against the word of God ; affirming
also, that there are but tvf<b sacraments in the church of
Christ, baptism and the supper of the Lord, &c. And
to these assertions, he said, he would stand : and so he
did to the end.
And when at last the bishop began to read the sen-
tence, first exhorting him with many words to revoke
his professed opinion, which he called damnal)le and
heretical, he resisted all persuasions, answering the
bishop again in this form, " I will not," said he, " for-
sake mine opinions, except you, my lord, can refute
them by the scriptures ; and I care not for your divinity :
for you condemn all men, and prove nothing against
them." And after many fair words of exhortation,
whicli Bonner used to convert, or rather pervert him, he
answered boldly again, " That the church, whereof the
pope is supreme head, is no part of Christ's catholic
church:" and pointing to the bishop, he spake to the
people saying, " Good people bew^are of him, and such
as he is, for these are the people that deceive you," &c.
The bishop, reading the sentence of his popish con-
demnation, gave him to the secular power. And so this
blessed servant of God was sent to St. Alban's, and there,
with much patience and constancy, ended his life, on the
2()th of August, for the defence of the truth.
On his way to St. Alban's there was a great con-
course of people to see and hear the prisoner : some
were soiTy to see so godly a man brought to be burned,
others praised God for his constancy and perseverance
in the truth. There were, however, some who said, it
vras a pity he did stand in such opinions : and others,
both old women and men cried against him ; one called
him " heretic," and said it was a pity that he lived.
But George Tankervil did speak to them so effectually
out of the word of God, lamenting their ignorance, and
protesting to them his unspotted conscience, that God
softened their hardened hearts, so that some of them de-
parted with weeping eyes.
There also came to him a certain schoolmaster who
had a communication with him, touching the sacrament
of the altar, and other points of papistical religion : but
as he urged Tankervil with the authority of the doctors,
wresting them after his own will ; so, on the other side,
Tankervil answered him mightily by the scriptures,
not wrested after the mind of any man, but being inter-
preted after the will of the Lord Jesus, &c. And as
he would not allow such allegations as Tankervil
brought out of the scriptures without the opinions of the
doctors ; so again Tankervil would not credit his doc-
trine to be true, except he could confirm it by the scrip-
tures.
When the hour drew near when he was to suffer, he
desired the wine-drawer to give him a pint of Malmsey
and a loaf, that he might eat and drink in remembrance
of Christ's death and passion, because he could not have
it administered to him by others in such manner as
Christ commanded, and then he kneeled down, making
his confession to the Lord with all those who were in the
chamber with him ; and after he had prayed earnestly to
God, and had read the institution of the holy supper by
the Lord Jesus, out of the evangelists, and out of St.
Paul, he said, " O Lord, thou knowest it, I do not this
to derogate authority from any man, or in contempt of
those who are thy ministers ; but only because I cannot
have it administered according to thy word," &c. and
when he had spoken these and such like words, he re-
ceived it with giving of thanks.
He prayed his host to let him have a good fire in the
chamber ; he had so ; and then he sitting on a form be-
fore the fire, put off his shoes and hose, and stretched
out his leg to the flame, and when it had touched his
foot, he quickly withdrew his leg, shewing how the flesh
did persuade him one way, and the Spirit another way.
The flesh said, O, thou fool ! wilt thou bum and needest
not ? The Spirit said. Be not afraid, for this is nothing
in respect of fire eternal. The flesh said, Do not leave
the company of tliy friends and acquaintances, who love
thee, and will let thee lack nothing. The Spirit said,
The company of Jesus Christ and his glorious presence
doth exceed all fleshly friends. The flesh said, Do not
shorten thy time, for thou mayest live, if thou wilt, much
longer. The Spirit said. This life is nothing unto the
life in htfaven which lasteth for ever, &c. And all this
time the sheriffs were at a certain gentleman's house at
dinner, not far from the town ; whither, also, resorted
knights and many gentlemen out of the country, because
his son was married that day, and until they returned
from cUnner the prisoner was left with his host to be
kept and looked to. And George Tankervil all that
time was kindly and lovingly treated by his host ; and
considering that his time was short, his saying was. That
although the day was never so long, yet at the last it
rings to evening song.
About two o'clock, when the sheriffs were returned
from dinner, they brought George Tankervil out of his
inn unto the place where he should suffer, which is
called Romeland, being a green place nigh to the west
end of the Abby church : when he was come, he kneeled
down by the stake, and after he had ended his prayers
he arose, and with a joyful faith said, that although he
had a sharp dinner, yet he hoped to have a joyful supper
iu heaven.
M'hile the fagots were arranged about him, there
came a priest to him, and persuaded him to beheve oa
the sacrament of the altar, and he should be saved.
But George Tankervil cried out vehemently, and said,
" I defy the whore of Babylon, I defy the whore of
Babylon : fie of that abominable idol ; good people, do
not believe him ; good people, do not believe him !"
And then the mayor of the town commanded to set fire
to the heretic, and said, " If he had but one load of
fagots in the whole world, he would give them to bum
him." There was a certain knight by, who went unto
Tankervil, and took him by the hand, and said, "Good
brother, be strong in Christ," this he spake softly ; and
Tankervil said, " O sir, 1 thank you, I am so, I thank
God." Then fire was set to him, and he desired the
sheriff and all the people that they would pray for him ;
the most part of whom did so. And so embracing the
fire, he bathed himself in it, and calling on the name of
the Lord Jesus he was quickly out of pain, &c.
Robert Smith was brought to Newgate on the fifth Otii
November. Of stature he was tall and slender, active
about many things, but chiefly delighting in the art of
painting, which many times, rather for his mind's sake
than for any living or lucre, he practised. In religion
he was fervent, after he had once tasted the truth ; he
was much confirmed by the preaching and reading of
one Master Turner of Windsor, and others. Where-
upon, at the coming of Queen Mary, he was deprived of
his clerkship in Windsor college, by her visitors, and not
long after he was apprehended, and brought to examina-
tion before Bonner, as here follows, written and testi-
fied with his own hand.
" About nine o'clock in the morning, I was among the
rest of my brethren brought to the bishop's house ; and
I first of all was brought before him into his chamber, to
whom the bishop said as follows, after he had asked my
name : —
" Bonner. — ' How long is it since you were confessed
to any priest ?'
" Smith. — ' Never since I came to years of discretion.
For I never saw it needful, neither commanded of GcJ
to come to shew my faults to any of that sinful number,
whom you call priests.'
" Bonner. — 'Thou shewest thyself even at thefisf
chop to be a rank heretic, who, being weary of paintii g,
hast entered into divinity, and so fallen, through thy .e-
partingfrom thy vocation, into heresy.'
" Smith. — ' Although I have understanding in the '■•■■■
cupdtion, yet I praise God I have had little need aii n";
J6
THE EXAMINATION OF ROBERT SMITH BEFORE BONNER, &c.
[Book XI.
fe to live by the same ; but have lived without the same
I mine own house as honestly in my vocation, as ye
ive lived in yours, and yet used the same better than
er you used the puliiit.'
" Bonner. — ' How long is it since you received the
s- icrament of tlie altar, and what is your opinion of the
f ime ?'
" Smitli. — ' I never received the same since I arrived
■T years of discretion, nor never will, by God's grace;
either do I esteem the same in any point, because it
.\as not God's ordinance, either in name, or in other
usage, but rather is set up and erected to mock God.'
" Bonner. — ' Do you not believe that it is the very
body of Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary, natu-
rally, substantially, and really, after the words of conse-
cration ."
" Smith. — ' I shewed you before it was none of God's
ordinances, as you use it ; then much less can it be God,
or amy part of his substance, but only bread and wine
appointed to that use: yet, nevertheless, if you can prove
it to be the body that you spake of by the word, I will
believe it ; if not, I will, as I do, account it a detestable
idol ; not God, but contrary to God and his truth.'
" Bonner. — (After many raging words and vain ob-
jections said) ' There is no remedy but you must be
burned.'
" Smith. — ' You shall do no more to me, than you
have done to better men than either of us both. But
think not to quench the Spirit of God, nor to make your
matter good. For your sore is too well seen to be healed
80 privily with blood. For even the very children have
aU your deeds in derision ; so that although you patch
up one place with authority, yet shall it break out in
forty to your shame.'
" Bonner. — (After many railing sentences, throwing
away the paper of my examination) ' Well, even now,
Dy my troth, even in good earnest, if thou wilt go and
De shriven, I will tear this paper in pieces.'
" Smith. — ' It would be too much to your shame to
shew it to men of discretion.'
" After which answer, I was carried down to the
garden with my jailer, and there remained until my
brother Harwood was examined ; and then being again
brought up before Bonner, he demanded if I agreed with
Harwood in his confession, upon these articles follow-
ing ; —
" Bonner. — * What say you to the catholic church.'
Do you not confess there is one in earth ?'
" Smith. — ' Yes, verily, I believe that there is one
catholic church, or faithful congregation, which, as the
ipostle saith, ' is built upon the foundation of the prophets
and apostles, Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone?'
which church, in all her words and works, maintains the
word, and brings the same for her authority, and with-
out it doth nothing, nor ought to do, of which I am as-
sured 1 am by grace made a member.'
" Bonner. — ' You shall understand that I am bound,
when my brother offends, and will not be reconciled, to
bring him before the church ; now if your church be
the same, where may a man find it, to bring his brother
before it }'
" Smith. — ' It is written in the Acts of the Apostles,
that when the tyranny of men was so great against
the church, they were obliged to congregate in houses
:md j^rivate places, as they now do ; and yet they were
:ievcrtheless the church of God ; and seeing they had
:heir matters redressed being shut up in a corner, may
,!0t \ve do the like now a days ?'
" Bonner. — ' Yea, their church was known full well.
or St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, directing the
111 -in to be punished and excommunicated, that had com-
riiitted evil ; by which we may well perceive it was a
'.mown church ; but yours is not known.'
" Smith. — ' Then you could not persecute it as you do :
Jilt as you say the church of God at Corinth was mani-
sst both to God and St. Paul ; even so is this church of
jod in England, whom you persecute, both known to
>i)d, and also even to the very wicked, although they
:i;ow not , nor will not know their truth nor conver-
ation ; you, and your own sinful number have pro-
fessed their truth, and maintained the same a long
time.'
"Bonner. — 'Well, thou sayest that the church of
God was only at Corinth when St. Paul wrote to them,
and I will put it so in writing. Shall I?'
" Smith. — • I marvel greatly, my lord, that you are
not ashamed to lay snares for your brethren on this
manner. This is now the third snare you have laid for
me. First, to make me confe)(g that the church of Eng.
land is not the church of Christ. Secondly, to say it is
not known. Thirdly, to say the church of God is not
universal, but particular. This is not the office of a bi-
shop. For if an innocent had come in your way, you
would have done your best, I see, to have en-
tangled him.'
" Harpsfield. — 'Well, you are no innocent, as it
appears.'
" Smith. — ' By the grace of God, I am that T am ; and
this grace in me, I hope, is not in vain.'
"Bonner. — 'Well, (laughing), tell me what sayest
thou of the church ?'
" Smith. — ' I told you upon what the true church is
built, and I affirm that in England there is the congrega-
tion of God, and also in all the earth, as it is written,
' Their sound is gone forth into all the earth ;' and that
this is the afflicted and persecuted church, which you
cease not to imprison, slay, and kill. In Corinth there
was not all the congregation of God, but a number of
those holy and elect people of God. For neither St. Paul
nor St. Peter were present at Corinth when they wrote,
and yet they were of the church of God, as many thou-
sands more who also communicate in that Holy Spirit.'
" Bonner. — ' What do you call catholic, and what do
you call church ?'
" Smith. — ' Catholic is universal, and church is a
congregation knit together in unity.'
" Then after much like vain talk, it was laid to my
charge, that my fellow and I spoke false things. For
this 1 praised God, and was sent away.
" On Saturday I was brought to his chamber again,
and there examined as follows : —
" Bonner. — ' Thou, Robert Smith, &c., sayest, that
there is no catholic church here on earth.'
" Smith. — ' You have both heard me speak and seen
me write the contrary.'
" Bonner. — ' Yea, but I must ask thee this question.
How sayest thou ?'
"Smith. — 'If you will be answered, ask my articles
that were written yesterday, and they shall tell you that
1 have confessed a church of God as well in earth as in
heaven, and yet all one church, and one man's members,
even Christ Jesus.'
" Bonner. — ' Well, what sayest thou to auricular con-
fession ? Is it not necessary to be used in Christ's
church, and wilt thou not be absolved by the priest ?'
" Smith. — ' It is not needful to be used in Christ's
church, as I answered yesterday. But if it be needful
for any thing for your church, it is to pick men's purses.
And such pick-purse matters are all the whole rabble of
your ceremonies ; for all is but money matters that ye
maintain.'
"Bonner. — 'Why, how art thou able to prove that
confession is a pick-purse matter ? Art thou not
ashamed to say so .-''
" Smith. — ' I speak from experience; for I have both
heard and seen the fruits of it. For first it has been,
we see, a betrayer of kings' secrets, and the secrets of
other men's consciences ; who being delivered, and glad
to be discharged of their sins, have given to priests
great sums of money to absolve them, and sing masses
for their soul's health.'
" I began to say how when I was a child waiting on a
gentlemen of Norfolk, who being bound in conscience
through the persuasion of the priest, gave away a great
sum of his goods, and forgave to Master Gresham a great
sum of money, and to another as much. The priest had
for his part a sum, and the house had an annuity to keep
him, which when his brother heard, he came down to
London, and after declaration made to the council, how
by the subletv of the priest he had robbed his wife and
A.D, 1555.] THE EXAMINATION OF ROBERT SMITH BEFORE BONNER, &c.
807
children, recovered a great part again, to the value of
two or three hundred pounds ; but what he gave to the
house could not be recovered. This tale I began to tell.
But when my lord saw it savoured not to his purpose,
he began to revile me.
" Bonner. — ' By the mass, if the queen's majesty were
of my mind, you should not come to talk before any man,
but should be put into a sack, and a dog tied to it, and
so should be thrown into the water.
" Smith. — ' I know you speak by practice, as much
as by speculation ; for both you and your predecessors
have soii'^ht all means possible to kill Christ secretly.'
" Bonner. — ' How sayest thou to the seven sacra-
ments? Believest thou not that they be God's order,
that is to say, the sacrament of,' &c.
" Smith. — ' I believe that in God's church there are
but two sacraments, that is to say, the sacrament of re-
generation, and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ;
and as for the sacraments of the altar, and all your
sacraments, they may well serve your church, but God's
church hath nothing to do with them, neither have I any
thing to do to answer them, nor you to examine me
about them.'
" Bonner. — ' Why, is God's order changed in bap-
tism ? In what point do we dissent from the word of
God?'
" Smith. — ' In hallowing your water ; in conjuring it ;
in baptizing children with anointing and spitting in
their mouths, mingled with salt, and with many other
foolish ceremonies, of which not one point is able to be
proved in God's order.'
*' Bonner. — ' By the mass, this is the most unshame-
faced heretic that ever I heard.'
Smith. — ' Well sworn, my lord.'
"Bonner. — ' Well, you catch me at my words, but I
will watch thee as well, I warrant thee.'
"Mordant. — ' By my troth, my lord, I never heard
the like in all my life. But I pray you, my lord, mark
well his answer for baptism. He disallows holy oint-
ment, salt, and such other laudable ceremonies, which
no christian man will deny.'
"Smith. — 'It is a shameful blasphemy against
Christ to use any mingle-mangle in baptizing young
infants.'
" Bonner. — ' I believe, I tell thee, that if they die
before tliey are baptized, they are damned.'
" Smith. — ' You shall never be saved by that belief.
But I pray you, my lord, show me, are we saved by water
or by Christ?'
" Bonner. — ' By both.'
" Smith. — ' Then the water died for our sins ! and so
must you say, that the water hath life, and it being our
servant, and created for us, is our saviour ! This, my
lord, is a strange doctrine, is it not ?'
" Mordant. — ' By our Lady, sir, I believe that if my
child die without water, he is damned.'
" Bonner. — ' Yea, and so do I, and all catholic men,
good Master Mordant.'
" Smith. — ' Such catholic ! such salvation!'
" Bonner. — ' Well, sir, what say you to the sacrament
of orders ?'
" Smith. — ' You may call it the sacrament of mis-
orders : for all orders are appointed of God. But as for
your shaving, anointing, greasing, poling, and rounding,
there are no such things appointed in God's word, and
therefore I have nothing to do to believe your orders.
And as for you, my lord, if you had grace and intelli-
gence, you would not disfigure yourself as you do.'
" Bonner. — ' Sayest thou so ? now, by my faith, I
will go shave myself to vex thee.'
" And so Bonner sent for his barber, who imme-
diately came ; and before my face at the door of the next
chamber he shaved himself, desiring me before he went,
to answer to these articles.
"Bonner. — ' What say you to holy bread and holy
water, to the sacrament of anointing, and to all the rest
of such ceremonies of the church ?'
" Smith. — ' I say, they be baubles for fools to play
with, and not for the children of God to exercise them-
■elves in ; and, therefore, they may go among the refuse.'
" Then went away Master Mordant, and my lord
went to shaving, leaving there certain doctors, as he
called them, to try what they could do : by whom I was
baited for half an hour : of whom I also asked this
question, ' Where were all you in the days of King Ed-
ward, that ye spake not that which ye speak now ?'
" Doctor. — ' We were in England.'
" Smith. — ' Yea, but then you had the faces of men ;
but now you have put on lions' faces. You have for every
time a vizor ; yea, and if another King Edward should
arise, you would then say, ' Down with the pope, for he
is antichrist, and so are all his angels.'
" Then I was reviled, and sent away, and brought in
again before these men ; and one of them that baited me
before, asked me if I disallowed confession ?
" Smith. — ' Look in my articles, and they shall shew
you what I allow.'
" Doctor. — ' Your articles confess that you allow not
auricular confession.'
" Smith. — ' I allow it not, because the word allows it
not, nor commands it.'
" Doctor. — ' Why, it is written, thou shalt not hide
thy sins and offences.'
" Smith. — ' No more do I when I confess them to
Almighty God.'
" Doctor. — ' Why, you cannot say that you can hide
them from God, and therefore you must understand the
words are spoken to be uttered to them that do not know
them.'
" Smith. — ' You have made a good answer, then must
the priest confess himself to me, as I to him. For I
know his faults and secrets no more than he knows
mine. But if you confess to the priest, and not to God,
you shall have the reward which Judas had : for he con-
fessed himself to the priest, and yet went and hanged
himself by and by ; and so as many as do not acknow-
ledge their faults to God, are said to hide them.'
" Bonner.— (Returning.) — ' How stands it, master
doctors, have ye done any good ?'
" Doctor. — ' No, by my faith, my lord, we can do no
Smith.—' Then it is fulfilled which is written,
' How can an evil tree bring forth good fruit ?' '
" Bonner.^' Nay, naughty fellow, I set these gentle-
men to bring thee home to Christ.'
" Smith.—' Such gentlemen 1 such Christs ! As truly
as they have that name from Christ, so truly do they
teach Christ.'
" Bonner.—' Well, wilt thou neither hear them nor
me ?'
" Smith.—' Yes, I am compelled to hear you ; but you
cannot compel me to follow you.'
" Bonner. — * Well, thou shalt be burnt at a stake in
Smithfield, if thou wilt not tarn.'
" Smith.—' And you shall bum in hell, if you repent
not : but my lord, to put you out of doubt, because I am
weary, I will strain courtesey with you. I perceive you
will not, with your doctors come to me, and I am de-
termined not to come to you, by God's grace. For I
have hardened my face against you as hard as brass.'
" Then after many railing sentences I was sent away.
And thus have I left the truth of mine answers in writ-
ing, gentle reader, being compelled by my friends to do
it : that you may see how the Lord hath, according to
his promise, given me a mouth and wisdom to answer in
his cause, for which I am condemned, and my cause not
" On the twelfth of July I was, with my brethren,
brought into the consistory, and mine articles read be-
fore my lord mayor and the sheriffs, with aU the as-
sistants. , f , „„„
" Bonner.-' By my faith, my lord mayor, I have
shewed him as much favour as any man living couia
do : but I perceive all is lost, both in him and all his
''""'smith.-' My lord, it is written, ' Swear not at
^"" Bonner.-' Ah, are ye come ? By my troth, ma.-
ter speaker, ve shall preach at a stake.
" Smith.—' Well sworn, my lord.
8C8
A GODLY LETTER OF ROBERT SMITH.
[Book XI.
" Bonn.;r. — 'Well, I am no saint.'
" Smith. — ' No, my lord, nor yet a good bishop.
For a bishop, says St. Paul, should be faultless, and a
vessel dedicated unto God ; and are ye not ashamed to
sit in judgment, and be a blasphemer, condemning in-
nocents ?'
" Bonner. — ' Well, you are faultless.'
" Smith. — ' My lord mayor, I require you in God's
name, that I may have justice. We are here to-day, a
great number of innocent men, who are vprongfuUy ac-
cused of heresy. And I require you, if you will not
seem to be partial, let me have no more favour at your
hands, than the apostle had at the hands of Festus and
Agri])pa, who, being heathen and infidels, gave him
leave not only to speak for himself, but also heard the
probation of his cause. This require I at your hands,
who being a christian judge, I hope will not deny me
that right, which the heathen have allowed : if ye do,
then shall all this audience, yea, and the heathen speak
shame of your fact. ' For a city,' saith our Saviour,
' that is built on a hill cannot be hid :' if they, there-
fore, have the truth, let it come to light. For all that do
well come to the light, and they that do evil hate the light.'
" Then my lord mayor hanging down his head, said
nothing ; but the bishop told me, I should preach at a
stake ; and so the sheriff cried, with the bishop, ' Away
with him !'
" Thus came I in before them four times, desiring
justice, but could have none : and at length my friends
requiring with one voice the same, and could not have it,
we had the sentence read, and then being carried out,
were brought in again, and had it read every man seve-
rally. But before the bishop gave me sentence, he told
me in derision of my brother Tankervil, a tale be-
tween a gentleman and his cook. To which I answered,
' My lord, you fill the people's ears with fantasies and
foolish tales, and make a laughing matter at blood ; but
if you were a true bishop, you should leave these railing
sentences, and speak the words of God.'
" Bonner. — ' Well, I have offered to that naughty
fellow, that my chancellor should here instruct him, but
he has disdained it. How sayest thou, wilt thou have
him instruct thee, and lead thee in the right way ? You
cannot say, but I have offered you fair, to have instruc-
tion. And now, I pray thee, call me bloody bishop,
and say, I seek thy blood, if you will.'
" Smith. — ' Well, my lord, although neither I, nor
any of this congregation do report the truth of your act,
yet shall these stones cry out, rather than that it shall
be hidden.'
" Bonner. — ' Away with him ! away with him !'
" Woodrofe. — ' Away with him ! take him away !'
" Smith. — ' Well, good friends, ye have seen and
heard the great wrong that we have received this day, and
you are all witnesses that we have desired the probation
of our cause by God's book, and it hath not been
granted; but we are condemned, and our cause not
heard. Nevertheless, my lord mayor, forasmuch as here
you have exercised God's sword causeless, and will not
hear the right of the poor, I commit my cause to
Almiglity God, who shall judge all men according unto
right, before whom we shall both stand without autho-
rity ; and there will I stand in the right, and have true
judgment, to your great confusion, except ye repent,
which the Lord grant you to do, if it be his will.'
" Tlien was 1, with the rest of my brethren, carried
away to Newgate.
" Thus, gentle reader, as near as 1 can, I have set
out the truth of my examination, and the truth of my
unjust condemnation for the truth, requiring God that
it may not be laid to the charge of thee, O England.
Requiring your hearty prayers to God for his grace and
spirit of ijoldness ; with hope even shortly to set to my
seal, at Uxbridge, the eighth of August, by God's grace :
pray that it may be his honour, my salvation, and your
consolation, I pray you.
" Robert Smith."
Thus hast thou, good reader, not only to note, but
tlso to follow in this man a singular example of christian
fortitude, who so manfully and valiantly did stand in
the defence of his Master's cause. And as thou seest
him here boldly stand in examination before the bishop
and doctors, so he was no less comfortable also in the
prison among his fellows ; which is also to be observed
in his other fellow-prisoners, who, being there together,
had godly conference with themselves, with daily pray,
ing and reading, which they to their great comfort all
engaged in ; amongst whom Robert Smith was chief
doer. This said man was always solicitous, not only
for those of his own company, but also his diligence
was careful for other prisoners, whom he ceased not to
exhort and dissuade from their old accustomed iniquity,
and many he converted to his religion. He wrote se-
veral letters while in prison to sundry of his friends,
the following is one of them : —
" To all who love God unfeignedly, and intend to lead
a godly life according to his gospel, and to persevere
in his truth, unto the end : grace and peace from
God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
" Be not afraid, most dearly beloved in our Saviour
Jesus Christ, at these most perilous days, wherein by
the sufferance of God, the prince of darkness is broken
loose, and rageth in his members against the elect of
God with all cruelty, to set up again the kingdom of
antichrist : against whom, see that you be strong in faith
to resist his most devilish doctrine with the pure gospel
of God, arming yourselves with patience, to abide what-
soever shall be laid to your charge for the truth's sake,
knowing that thereunto you are called, not only to be-
lieve in him, but also to suffer for him. Oh ! how happy
are you who in the sight of God are counted worthy to
suffer for the testimony of Christ. Quiet therefore
yourselves, oh ! my loving brethren, and rejoice in himfor
whom you suffer ; for unto you do remain the unspeak-
able joys, which neither the eye hath seen, nor the ear
hath heard, neither the heart of man is able to com-
prehend in anywise. Be not afraid of the bodily death,
for your names are written in the book of life. And the
prophets do record, that precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. Watch, therefore, and
pray, that you be not prevented in the day of temptation.
Now cometh the day of your trial, wherein the waters
rage, and the stormy winds blow. Now shall it ap-
pear, whether you have built upon the fleeting sand, or
upon the unmoveable Rock, Christ, which is the founda-
tion of the apostles and prophets ; whereon every house
that is built, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord,
by the mighty working of the Holy Ghost. Now ap-
proacheth the day of your battle, wherein it is required
that you shew yourselves the valiant soldiers of Christ
Jesus, with the armour of God, that you may be able to
stand fast against all the crafty assaults of the devil.
Christ is your captain, and you are his soldiers, whose
cognizance is the cross, to the which he willingly hum-
bled himself even unto death, and thereby spoiled his
enemies, and now he triumphs over them in the glory of
his Father, making intercession for them that here re-
main to suffer the afflictions that are to be fulfilled in
his mystical body. It behoves, therefore, every one that
will be counted his scholar, to take up his own cross,
and follow him, as you have him for an ensample ; and I
assure you that he being on your side, nothing shall be
able to prevail against you. And that he wiU be with
you, even to the world's end, you have his promise in
Mat. xxviii. He will go forth with his host as a con-
queror to make a conquest. He is the man that sitteth
on the white horse, crowned with immortality, and you,
brethren, are his fellowship, whereof he is the head. He
hath your heart in his hand, as a bow bent after his godly
will ; he shall direct the same according to the riches of
his glory, into all spiritual and heavenly cogitations. He
is faithful and will not suffer you to be further assaulted,
than he will give you strength to overcome, and in the
utmost danger he will make a way, that you may be able
to bear it.
" Shrink not, therefore, dear hearts, when you shall
be called to answer for the hope that is in you ; for we
A.D. 1555.]
A GODLY LETTER OF ROBERT SMITH.
809
have the comforter, even the Spirit of truth who was
sent from the heavens to teach ns. He shall speak in
us, he shall strengthen us. Who is he then that shall
be' able to confound us ? Nay, what tyrant is he that
now boasteth himself of his strength to do mischief,
whom the Lord shall not with the same Spirit, by the
mouth of his servants, strike down to hell fire ? Yea,
suddenly will the Lord bring down the glory of the proud
Philistines, by the hands of his servant David. Their
strength is in the spear and shield, but our help is in the
name of the Lord who made both heaven and earth. He
is our buckler and wall, a strong tower of defence. He
is our God, and we are his people. He shall bring the
counsels of the ungodly to nought. He shall take them
in their own net. He shall destroy them in their own
inventions. The right hand of the Lord shall work this
wonder. His power is known among the children of
men. Their fathers have felt it, and are confounded.
In like manner shall they know that there is no counsel
againf.t the Lord, when their secrets are opened to the
whole world, and are found to be against the living God.
Work they never so craftily, build they never so strongly;
yet down shall their rabble fall, and the builders them-
selves shall then be scattered upon the face of the earth,
as accursed of God. The just shall see this and be glad,
and praise the name of the Lord, that so marvellously
hath dealt with his servants, as to bring their enemies
under their feet. Then shall the fearful seed of Cain
tremble and quake. Then shall the mocking Ishmaelites
be cast out of door. Then shall the proud Nimrod see
his labour lost. Then shall the beast of Babylon be
trodden under foot. Then shall the scribes and phari-
sees for madness fret and rage. Then shall their painted
wisdom be known for extreme folly. Then shall the
bloody dragon be void of his prey. Then shall the
whore of Babylon receive double vengeance. Then shall
they scratch their crowns for the fall of their mistress
harlot, whom they now serve for filthy lucre ; when no
man will buy their wares any more. Then shall the popish
priesthood cry away with care, even when the Lord shall
help his servants ; which day is not far off, the day
wherein the kingdom of antichrist shall have an end,
and never rise any more. In the meantime, abide in
certain and sure hope, cleaving unto the promises of
God, which in their own time shall be fulfilled.
" Acquit yourselves like men against the enemies of
God in all humbleness of mind ; be strong in spirit to ac-
knowledge one God, one only Saviour Jesus Christ, one
only, everlasting and suflScient sacrifice for the remission
of sins, even the precious body of the Lord Jesus, once
offered for all and for ever. Who now sitteth on the
right hand of God, and from thence shall he come to
judge both the quick and the dead at the last day ; and
until that time that blessed body occupies no other place
to dwell in, to be kept in, to be inclosed in, but only in
the heavens, even in the glorious majesty of God, per-
sonally abiding there in the flesh, not coming down from
thence till the last day. And as he never ceases to be
man, so doth he never lose the similitude of man ; his
body there hath his lineaments, he leaveth them not, so
hath that body there his highness, and shrinketh not,
and his manly shape he altereth not at anytime. He is,
in that he took of the Virgin Mary, a natural man in
all conditions, except sin.
" And what he took of his blessed mother, by the
working of the Holy Ghost, he took it for ever, and will
not exchange the same for any other. He took the
shape of a man with the substance of his manhood, in
one sacred womb. There were they two united together
by the Holy Ghost, never to be divided asunder. He
retaineth the one with the other, inseparably. As he
will not alter the substance of his flesh into the sub-
Stance of bread, no more will he alter the shape of his
body into the form of bread. There cannot be a greater
absurdity against the truth, than to think that he would
leave the shape that he took in the Virgin's womb, being
an accident unto his manhood, and join unto the same a
wafer-cake baken in an oven, or between a pair of irons.
As he is in heaven a very man, one only Mediator be-
tween God and man, even the man Christ Jesus, he it is
that is the propitiation for our sins. Be bold, therefore,
to confess this most pure and apostolical doctrine ; and
also that all favour, mercy, and forgiveness comes only
by him. He only of God the Father was made for us
all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
All these are the gifts of God the Father, freely given
unto us by Christ Jesus, God and man, through faith in
his blood, and not by the merits of men ; gifts they are,
I say, freely given unto us of favour, without our desert,
by believing, and not by deserving. To this do the law
and the prophets bear witness.
" This doctrine have all the blessed martyrs of Christ's
church witnessed with their blood to be true. To this
truth, have all the consciences of all true believers sub-
scribed ever since the ascension of Christ. This witness
is not of man, but of God. What better quarrel can
you then have to give your lives for, than the truth
itself? That man that gives his life for the truth, takes
the readiest way to life. He that hath the pope's curse
for the truth, is sure of Christ's blessing. Well then,
my brethren, what shall now hinder, but that you go
forward as you have begun ? Nay, rather run with the
runners, that you may obtain the appointed glory. Hold
on the right way, look not back, have the eye of your
heart fixed upon God, and so run, that you may get
hold of it. Cast away all your worldly pelf, and worldly
respects, as the favour of friends, the fear of men, sen-
sual affection, respect of persons, honour, praise, shame,
rebuke, wealth, poverty, riches, lands, possessions, car-
nal fathers and mothers, wife and children, with the love
of your ownselves ; and in respect of that heavenly trea-
sure you look for, let all these be denied, and utterly
refused of you, so that in no condition they do abate
your zeal, or quench your love towards God. In this
case make no account of them, but rather repute them
as vile, in comparison of everlasting life. Away with
them as thorns that choak the heavenly seed of the gos-
pel, where they are suffered to grow. They are burdens
of the flesh, which encumber the soul. Exchange them
therefore for advantage. Doth not he gain, that finds
heavenly and immortal treasure, for earthly and cor-
ruptible riches .' Loses that man any thing, who of his
carnal father and mother is forsaken, when therefore he
is received of God the Father to be his child and heir in
Christ ? Heavenly for earthly, for mortal immortal ;
for transitory, things permanent, is great gains to a chris-
tian conscience.
" Therefore, as I began, I exhort you in the Lord,
not to be afraid. Shrink not, my brethren; mistrust
not God ; be of good comfort ; rejoice in the Lord ;
hold fast your faith, and continue to the end. Deny
the world, and take up your cross, and follow him who
is your captain, and is gone before. If you suffer with
him, you shall reign with him. What way can you
glorify the name of your heavenly Father better, than by
suffering death for his Son's sake ? What a spectacle
shall it be to the world to behold so godly a fellowship
as you servants of God, in so just a quarrel as the gos-
pel of Christ is, with so pure a conscience, so strong a
faith, and so lively a hope, to offer yourselves to suffer
most cruel torments at the hands of God's enemies, and
so to end your days in peace, to receive in the resurrec-
tion of the righteous, life everlasting ?
" Be strong, therefore, in your battle : The Lord
God is on your side, and his truth is your cause ; and
against you are none but the enemies of the cross of
Christ, as the serpent and his seed, the dragon with his
tail, the marked men of the beast, the offspring of the
Pharisees, the congregation malignant, the generation of
vipers, murderers, as their father the devil hath been
from the beginning. To conclude, such ar^ they as the
Lord God hath always abhorred, and in all ages resisted
and overthrown. God, from whom nothing is hid,
knows what they are. He that searcheth the hearts of
men, he hath found out them to be crafty, subtle, full
of poison ; proud, disdainful, stiff-necked, devourers,
raveners, and barkers against the truth, filthy and shame-
less : and therefore, doth the Spirit of God, by the
mouths of his holy prophets and apostles, call them by
the names of foxes, serpents, cockatrices, lions, leopards,
610
MARTYRDOM OF ROBERT SMITH, &c.
[Book XI.
bulls, bears, wolves, dogs, swine, beasts ; teaching us
thereby to understand, what their natural inclination is ;
to deceive, poison, and destroy, as much as in them lies,
the faithful and elect of God. But the Lord with his
right arm shall defend his little flock against the whole
rabblement of these worldlings, who have conspired
against him : he hath numbered all the hairs of his
children's head, so that one of them shall not perish
without his fatherly will. He keepeth the sparrows,
much more will he preserve them whom he hath pur-
chased with the blood of the immaculate Lamb. He
will keep them unto the hour appointed, wherein the
name of God shall be glorified in his saints. In the
mean time let them work their wills, let them envy, let
them malign, let them blaspheme, let them curse, ban,
betray, whip, scourge, hang, and burn : for by these
means GoJ will try his elect as gold in the furnace ;
and by these fruits, shall they also bring themselves to
be known what they be, for all their sheep's skins. For
as he that in suffering patiently for the gospel of God, is
thereby known to be of Christ ; even so likewise is
the persecutor of him known to be a member of anti-
christ.
Besides this, their extreme cruelty shall be a mean the
sooner to provoke God to take pityupon his servants, and
to destroy them that so tyrannously treat his people;
as we may learn by the histories, as well in the bondage
of Israel under Pharaoh, in Eg3rpt, as also in the mi-
serable captivity of Judah, in Babylon: Where, when the
people of God were in most extreme thraldom, then did
the Lord stretch forth his mighty power to deliver his
servants. Though God for a time suffer them to be
exalted in their own pride, yet shall they not escape his
vengeance. They are his rods, and when he hath worn
them to the stumps, then will he cast them into the fire;
this shall be their final reward. Our duty, in the mean
while, is patiently to abide the wiU of God, which work-
eth all things for the best.
" Thus dealeth he with us, partly for our trial, partly
also for our sins, which we most grievously have com-
mitted to the great slander of his gospel, whereby the
name of God was evil spoken of among his enemies :
for the which he now punishes us with his fatherly cor-
rection in this world, that we should not be damned
with the world. By this means he seeks his sheep that
were lost, to bring them home to the fold again. By
this way he seeks to reform us, that we may be like unto
him after the image of his Son Jesus Christ, in all holi-
ness and righteousness before him. Finally, this way
useth his godly wisdom, to make us thereby to know
him, and ourselves in him, that aforetime had in a man-
ner forgotten him, praised be his name therefore. And
as for those Balaamites which now molest us, commit
them to the hands of God, give him the vengeance, and
he will leward them. Fall ye to prayer, and let these
belly -gods prate. For he is in heaven, and sleepeth not,
that keepeth Israel. He is in heaven that made the
seas calm, when the disciples were afraid. Let us now
faithfully call upon him, and he will hear us. Let us
cry unto the Lord, for he is gracious and merciful.
When we are in trouble he is with us, he will deliver us,
and he will glorify us. If we come unto him, we shall
find him turned unto us. If we repent us of our wicked-
ness done against him, then shall he take away the plague
that he hath devised against us.
" Let us therefore earnestly repent, and bring forth
tne worthy fruits of repentance. Let us study to be his,
then shall we not need to fear what these hypocrites do
against us, who with their pretended holiness deceive
the hearts of the simple, and abuse the authority of God
in his princes, causing them (by their procurement) to
testify their ambitious prelacy, and to erect up their idol
again with the Romish mass. God, in whose hands are
the hearts of kings, open the heart of the queen's high-
ness to espy them out what, they are, and so to weed
them out, that they no longer be suffered to trouble the
congregation of God, and to poison the realm with pope-
holy doctrine. God Almighty, for his Son Jesus Christ's
sake, deliver the queen's highness and this her church
and realm, from these proud prelates, who are as pro-
fitable in the church of Christ as a polecat in the midst i
of a warren of rabbits. ,
" To conclude, my brethren, I commit you to God, i
and to the power of his word : which is able to establish
you in all truth. His Spirit be with you, and work
always that ye may be mindful of your duties towards
him, whose ye are both body and soul. Whom see
that ye love, serve, dread, and obey, above all worldly
powers, and for nothing under the heavens defile your
conscience before God. Dissemble not with his word ;
God will not be mocked ; nay, they that dissemble with
him, deceive themselves. Such shall the Lord deny,
and cast out at the last day : such, I say, as bear two
faces in one hood, such as deny the known truth ; such
as obstinately rebel against him. All such with their
partakers shall the Lord destroy. God defend you from
all such, and make you perfect unto the end. Your
sorrow shall be turned into joy.
" Robert Smith."
This valiant and constant martyr of Christ, Robert
Smith, was condemned at London by Bishop Bonner,
on the 12th of July, and suffered at Uxbridge, on the
8th of August. As he had been an instrument of God
before to comfort all those who were in prison with him,
so now at the stake he did no less comfort the people
standing about him, desiring them to think well of his
cause, and not to doubt but that his body dying in that
quarrel, should rise again to life. And, said he, I doubt
not but that God will shew you some token thereof. At
length being nearly half burned, and black with the fire,
all men thinking him dead, he suddenly rose upright
before the people, lifting up the stumps of his arms,
and clapping the same together, declaring a rejoicing i
heart to them ; and so bending down again, and hang*
ing over the fire, slept in the Lord, and ended his
mortal life.
About this time also were burned Stephen Harwood
and Thomas Fust. Their death took place about the
same time as Robert Smith and George Tankervd ; i
they were also examined and openly condemned together i
with them. The process, because it was joined all in
one with the process of Robert Smith and the others,
I thought it superfluous to repeat. They were for their
faithful perseverance in the truth, condemned together,
by Bishop Bonner, as heretics, and sentenced to be
burned, the one at Stratford, and the other at Ware,
which occurred in the month of August, 1555.
Of the same company as the ten above recorded, who
were sent up to Bishop Bonner by Sir Nicholas Hare
and other commissioners, was also William Hale of
Thorp, in the county of Essex, who being examined
with the rest, on the 12th of July received sentence
of condemnation ; giving this exhortation to the lookers-
on : " Ah 1 good people," said he, "beware of this
idolater, and this antichrist," pointing to the bishop of
London. He was delivered to the sheriffs as an heretic
to be burned, and sent to Barnet, where he most con-
stantly sealed his faith in the midst of the fire, yielding
his soul unto the Lord Jesus, his only and most sure
Redeemer.
Of the ten persons sent to Bonner, six were executed
in several places, as has been shewed. Three others,
George King, Thomas Leyes, and John Wade, sickening |
in Lollard's Tower, were so weak that they were re- (
moved into houses within the city of London, and there
died. Their bodies were cast out into the fields, and
buried by night, by the faithful brethren, when none in ,
the day durst do it. The last that remained of this (
company was Joan Laysh or Layshford ; but as she was
reprieved to another time, her history and martyrdom
we will defer till the month of January, in the year
following.
William Andrew.
The like popish charity was also shewed to William
A D. lo55.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF ROBERT SAMUEL.
bll
1 Andrew, of Horsley, in the county of Essex, carpenter,
I who was brought to Newgate on the 1st of April,
I 1555.
i Being twice brought before Bonner for examination, he
i manfully stood in the defence of his religion. At length,
, through too severe treatment in the prison of Newgate,
; he lost his life, which his adversaries would liave taken
i away by fire ; and so, after the popish manner, his body
■ was cast out into the fields, and by night was privily
' buried by the hands of good men and faithful brethren.
The Martyrdom of Robert Samuel, Preacher.
j Master Foster, justice, dwelling at Cobdock, in the
< county of Suffolk, and a little distance from Ipswich,
being in continual hatred against the truth and its pro-
fessors, did not only not cease day nor night to study
how to bring those into captivity that were inclined to
religion ; but also whoever they were that once came
into his power, they escaped not without clog of consci-
ence, or loss of life, so greedy was he of blood. Among
many whom he had troubled, there was one Samuel, in
King Edward's days a very godly and faithful preacher
of God's word, who for his valiant and constant beha-
viour in his sermons, seems worthy of high admiration.
He was minister at Barfold, in Suffolk, where he taught
faithfully that flock which the Lord had committed to
I his charge.
At last, being removed from the ministry, and put
out of his benefice (as many other good pastors were)
when he could not avoid the raging violence of the
time, yet he would not give over his care that he had for
his flock, but would teach them privily and by stealth,
when he could not openly do so. When order was
given by the queen, that all priests who had married in
: King Edward's days, should put their wives from them,
and be compelled to return again to their celibacy and
single life ; this decree Samuel would not submit to,
for he knew it to be manifestly wicked and abominable ;
: but determining with himself that God's laws were not
'to be broken for man's traditions, he kept his wife at
: Ipswich, and gave diligence in the meantime to instruct
I others who were about him. At last Master Foster
having intelligence of this, slackened no time nor dili-
gence, but soon sent out his spies abroad, laying wait
' for Samuel, that if he came home to his wife at any
'time, they might apprehend him, and carry him to
i prison.
Accordingly, when such as sought to betray him,
I spied him at home with his wife, they immediately
flocked about his house, and beset it witli a great com-
pany, and took him in the night, because they durst not
do it in the day-time, for fear of trouble and tumult ;
although good Samuel did not withstand them, but
meekly yielded himself into their hands of his own ac-
cord. When they had thus caught him, they put him
into Ipswich jail, where he passed his time meekly
among his godly brethren, so long as he was permitted
to continue there. However, not long after he was car-
ried to Norwich, where Bishop Hopton exercised great
cruelty against him. Indeed, I never yet heard of any
who so far exceeded all bounds of pity and compassion
in tormenting their poor brethren, as this Hopton did.
The bishop, or else his chancellor, thinking that he
might prevail with Samuel, kept him in a very close
prison at his first coming, where he was chained bolt
upright to a great post, so that standing only on
tiptoe, he was obliged to stay up the whole weight of
his body thereby. And to make amends for the cruelty
or pain which he suffered, they added a far more griev-
ous torment, keeping him without meat and drink, by
which he was xmmercifully vexed through hunger and
thirst ; saving that he had every day allowed two or
three mouthfuls of bread, and three spoonfuls of water,
that he might be reserved to farther torment, rather
than that they would preserve his life. O, worthy con-
stancy of the martyr ! O, pitiless hearts of papists,
worthy to be complained of, and to be accused before
God and nature ! O, the wonderful strength of Christ
in his members ! Whose heart, though it had been
made of adamant stone, would not have relented at the
intolerable vexations, and extreme pains above na-
ture ?
At last he was brought forth to be burned, which was
but a trifle in comparison of those pains that he had un-
dergone in prison.
As this godly martyr was going to the fire, there came
a certain maiden to him, who took him about the
neck and kissed him, who being marked by those who
were present, was sought for the next day to be taken to
prison and burned, as the party herself informed me.
However, as God of his goodness would have it, she
escaped their hands, keeping herself secret in the town
a good while after. But though this maiden, called
Rose Nottingham, was preserved by the providence of
God, there were two other women who fell into the
rage and fury of that time. The one was a brewer's
wife, the other was a shoemaker's wife, but both toge-
ther now espoused to a new husband, even Christ.
With these two Rose Nottingham was very familiar
and well acquainted, who, on a time, giving counsel to
one of them, that she should convey herself away whUe
she had time and space, seeing she could not away with
the queen's unjust proceedings, received this answer at
her hands : — " I know well," saith she, "that it is
lawful enough to fly away, which remedy you may use,
if you like. But my case stands otherwise. I am tied
to a husband, and have some young children at home ;
and then I know not how my husband, being a worldly
man, will take my departure from him ; therefore, 1 am
minded, for the love of Christ and his truth, to stand to
the extremity of the matter."
And so the next day after Samuel suffered, these two
godly women, the one called Anne Potten, the other called
Joan Trunchfield, of Ipswich, were apprehended, and
taken to prison. As they were both by sex and nature
somewhat tender ; so they were at first less able to en-
dure the prison, and especially the brewer's wife, who
was cast into marvellous great agonies and trouble of
mind. But Christ, beholding the weak infirmity of his
servant, did not fail to help her when she was in this ne-
cessity ; at length they both suffered after Samuel,
February 19, A.D. 1556, as shall be declared hereafter.
A Letter or Exhortation to the patient suffering of
Afflictions for Christ's Cause, by Robert Samuel.
" A man knoweth not his time, but as the fish is
taken with the hook, and as the birds are caught with
the snare ; even so are men caught and taken in the
perilous time when it cometh upon them. The time
Cometh ; the day draweth near, Ezekiel vii. Better it
were to die (as the preacher saith) than to live and see
the miserable works which are done under the sun ; such
sudden and strange mutation, such woful, heinous, and
lamentable divisions approach so fast, and none, or very
few, thoroughly repent. Alas 1 for this sinful nation, a
people of great iniquity and seed of ungraciousness, cor-
rupting their ways. They have forsaken the Lord, they
have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, and are
gone backward. Who now liveth not in such security
and rest, as tliough all dangers were clean overpast ?
Who now blindeth and buffeteth not Christ, who seeth
me, and seeth me not ? Yea, who liveth not now in
such felicity, worldly pleasures, and joys, wholly seeking
the world, providing and craftily shifting for the earthly
clod and all carnal appetites, as though sin were clean
forgotten, overthrown, and devoured ? Like hoggish
Gergesenes, now are we more afraid and ashamed of
Christ our Messiah, fearing the loss of our filthy pigs, I
mean our transitory goods, and disquieting of our sinful
and mortal bodies in this short, uncertain, and miser-
able life, than of a legion of devils, seducing and driving
us from hearing, reading, and believing Christ, God's
eternal Son, and his holy word, the power to save o»ir
souls, unto vanities, lies, and fables, and to this be-
witching world.
" Oh ! perilous abundance of goods, too much abun-
dance of meats, wealth, and quietness, which destroyed
with so many souls, those goodly cities, Sodom and
Gomorrah ! Jeroboam, so long as he was but a poor
man, not yet advanced to his dignity, lived in the laws
812
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF ROBERT SAMUEL.
[Book XL
of God without reprehension ; but brought once to
■wealth and prosperous state, he became a wicked and
most shameful idolater. And what made the covetous
young man so loath to follow Christ, when he was bid-
den to forsake the worldly wealth which he then en-
joyed ? Woe be unto these false illusions of the world,
baits of perdition, hooks of the devil, which have so
shamefully deceived and seduced full many from the
right path unto the Lord, into the highways of confusion
and perpetual perdition.
" We might now worthily, dear christians, lament
and bewail our heavy state, miserable condition, and
sorrowful chance : yea, I say, we might well accuse our-
selves, and with Job curse these our troublous, wicked,
and bloody last days of this world, were it not that we
both see and believe, and find in God's sacred book,
that God hath in all ages reserved a remnant, I mean
the faithful, as many as have been from the beginning of
the world, exercised, whetted, and polished with divers
afflictions, troubles, and tossings, cast and dashed
against all perils and dangers, as the very dross and out-
casts of the earth, and yet will in no wise halt between
God and Baal ; for God verily abhorreth two men in
one : he cannot away with them that are between both,
but casteth them away as a filthy thing. Christ will
not part spoil with his mortal enemy the devil ; he will
have all, or lose all : he will not permit the devil to
have the service of the body, and he to stand contented
with the heart and mind : ' For ye are bought with a
price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, whicli are his,' as St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. vi. 20.
For he hath made, bought all, and dearly paid for all, as
St. Peter saith, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye
were healed.'
" Now what harm, I pray you, or what loss sustain
you by this ? Why are you, O vain men, more afraid of
Jesus your gentle Saviour, and his gospel of salvation,
than of a legion of cruel devils, going about with false
delusions, utterly to destroy you both bodies and souls.'
Think you to be more sure than under your captain,
Christ .' Do you promise yourselves to be more quiet
in Satan's service, than in Christ's religion } Esteem
you more these transitory and pernicious pleasures, than
God and all his heavenly treasures .-' Oh, palpable
darkness ! horrible madness ! and wilful blindness ! with-
out comparison, too much to be suffered any longer !
We see and will not see ; we know and will not know ;
yea, we smart and will not feel, and that our conscience
well knoweth. Oh, miserable and brainless souls !
which would for foolish pleasures and slippery wealth
lose the royal kingdom and permanent joys of God, with
the everlasting glory which he hath prepared for them
that truly love him, and renounce the world. The
children of the world live in pleasure and wealth ; and
the devil, who is their God and prince of this world,
keepeth their wealth which is proper unto them, and
letteth them enjoy it. But let us who are of Christ, seek
and inquire for heavenly things, which, by God's
promise and mercy in Christ, shall be peculiar unto us.
Let, I say, the Cretians, Epicures, and such other
earthly belials and carnal people, pass for things that
are pleasant for the body, and do appertain to this tran-
sitory life : Yet shall they once (as the kingly prophet
saith) run about the city of God, to and fro, howling like
dogs, desiring one scrap of the joys of God's elect, but
all too late, as the rich glutton did.
" Let us, therefore, pass for those things that do per-
tain to the Spirit, and are celestial. We must be here
(saith St. Paul) not as inhabiters, and home dwellers,
but as strangers ; not as strangers only, but after the
mind of St. Paul, as painful soldiers appointed of our
King to fight against the ruler of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly things.
The time is come ; we must to it ; the judgment must
tegin first at the house of God. Began they not first
with the green and sappy tree ? and what followed then
on the dry branches ? Jeremiah, speaking in the
person of God, saith, * Lo, I begin to bring evil on the
city which is called by my name:' but as for you (mean-
ing the wicked) you shall be as innocents, and not once
touched. Nay, the dregs of God's wrath, the bottom of
all sorrows, are reserved unto them in the end : but
God's household shall drink the flower of the cup of
his mercy. And, therefore, let us, like Hezekiah,
Play the men, aiul shrink not: Let us comfort ourselves,
for the Lord is with us our helper, and fighteth for us.
'The Lord is (saith he) with you, when you be with him ;
and when you seek him, he will be found of you : And
again, when you forsake him, he will forsake you.'
(2 Chron. xv. 2.)
" Wherefore we ought not to be dismayed, or dis-
courage ourselves, but rather to be of good comfort ; not
to be sad but merry ; not sorrowful, but joyful, in that
God of his goodness will vouchsafe to take us as his be-
loved children, to subdue our sinful lusts, our wretched
flesh and blood, unto his glory, the promoting of his holy
word, and edifying of his church. What if the earthly
house of this our habitation (saith St. Paul, meaning the
body) be destroyed ? We know assuredly we shall
have a building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens, with such joys as faith taketh
not, hope toucheth not, and charity apprehendeth not.
They pass all desires and wishes. Gotten they may be
by Christ ; esteemed they cannot be. Wherefore the
more affliction and persecution the word of God bring-
eth, the more felicity and greater joy abideth in heaven.
But the worldly peace, idle ease, wealthy pleasure, and
this present and pleasant transitory life and felicity,
which the ungodly foolishly imagine to procure unto
themselves, by persecuting, and thrusting away the
gospel, shall turn unto their own trouble, and at last
unto horrible destructions and mutations of realms and
countries, and after this life, if they repent not, unto
their perpetual infelicity, perdition, and damnation.
For they had rather with Nabal, and his temporal plea-
sures, descend to the devil, than with Christ, and
his bodily troubles, ascend unto the kingdom of God his
Father. But an unwise man (saith the Psalmist) com-
prehendeth them not, neither doth the foolish under-
stand them : that is, these bloody persecutors grow up
and flourish like the flower and grass in the field. But
unto this end do they so flourish, that they might be cut
down, and cast into the fire for ever. For as Job saith,
' Their joy lasteth but for a moment,' and death shall
lie gnawing upon them, as doth the flock upon the pas-
ture ; yea, the cruel worm, late repentance, (as St.
Mark saith) shall lie gnawing, tormenting, and accusing
their wretched conscience for evermore.
" Let us, therefore, (good Christians,) be constant in
obeying God rather than men. For although they slay
our sinful bodies (yea, rather our deadly enemies) for
God's truth ; yet they cannot do it, but by God's suf-
ferance and good will, to his praise and honour, and to
our eternal joy and felicity. For our blood shed for the
Gospel shall preach it with more fruit, and greater fur-
therance, than did our mouths, lives, and writings, as
did the blood of Abel, Stephen, with many others.
What though they laugh Christ and his word to scorn,
who sit in the chair of perverse pestilent scorners ? To
whom, as to the wise Gentiles of the world, the gospel of
Christ is but foolishness, as it was to the Jews a slander
and a stumbling-stone, whereas they now being fallen, have
provoked the wrath and vengeance of God upon them.
" These are the days of vengeance, saith St. Luke, that
all things written may be fulfilled. And surely it shall
be no less than a huge storm of evils that shall come
upon us, because that a long and cursed obstinate ma-
liciousness of us hath gone before, crying in the ears of
the Lord God of Hosts, who so many times and so many
ways have been provoked with the unspeakable riches
of his goodness, his patience, and long suffering, to
amendment, and have nevertheless contemned the same,
and proceeded forward to worse and worse, provoking
and stirring the presence of God's majesty unto anger. _
" Now, therefore, saith God, by the mouth of his
prophet, ' I will come unto thee, and I will send my
wrath upon thee :' upon thee, I say, O England, and
punish thee according to thy ways, and reward thee after
THE MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM ALLEN AND ROGER COO.
A.D. 1555.]
all thine abominations. Thou hast kindled the fire of
Obd's wrath, and hast stirred up the coals. For thou
wast once enhghtened, and hadst tasted of the heavenly
gift, and wast become partaker of the Holy Ghost, and
hadst tasted of the good word of God : yea, it is yet in
thy mouth, saith the prophet. Alas, O England, thou
knewest thy Lord and Master's will, but didst not obey it ;
' Thou must, therefore,' saith he, ' suffer many stripes,'
and many sharp strokes, and walk in the glittering and
hot flame of thine own fire, and on the coals that thou
hast kindled. This cometh to thee from my hand, saith
the Lord, namely, ' That thou shalt sleep in sorrow,'
yea, even so thou shalt. The plain truth telleth the
tale, the immutable justice of the everlasting God, and
the ordinary course of his plagues from the beginning,
confirmeth the same. The joy of our heart, saith Jere-
miah, is gone, our glory is fallen away, our merry sing-
ing is turned into mourning, the garland of our head is
fallen. Alas 1 alas ! that ever we sinned so sore. Woe
to all abominations and wickedness ; woe to cloaked hy-
pocrisy ; woe to our carnal liberty ; woe to our most
cursed idolatry. For, because of these things, saith
the Lord, ye shall perish with sword, hunger, and pesti-
lence.
" AMierefore, let all the wicked enemies of Christ,
and all the unbelievers, look to be tormented and vexed
with all plagues, and clean without hope of God's ac-
counting day, who know not God in Christ to be their
very righteousness, their life, their only salvation and
alone Saviour, nor believe in him. They must, saith St.
John, needs abide and perish with their sins in death and
in eternal damnation. But we are the children of saints,
as the early Tobias did answer, and look for another life,
which God shall give to all them who change not their
faith, nor shrink not from him. Rejoice, therefore, ye
Christian afflicted brethren, for they cannot take our
souls and bodies out of the hands of the Almighty, who
are kept as in the bosom of our most sweet and loving
Father : and if we abide fast in Christ, and turn not
away like weathercocks, surely we shall live for ever.
Christ affirmeth the same, saying, ' I am the good shep-
herd ; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am
knovrn of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father ; and I lay down my life for the
sheep.' No, nor yet this flattering world, with all its
vain pleasures, nor any tyrant with his great threats and
valiant boasts, can once move them out of the way of
eternal life. What consolation and comfort may we
have more pleasant and effectual than this ? God is on
our side, and fighteth for us ; he suffereth, he smarteth,
and is afflicted with us. As the world can do nothing
against his might, neither in taking away, or diminish-
ing of his glory, nor putting him from his celestial
throne ; so can it not harm nor hurt any one of his
children without his good will. For we are members of
his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, and as dear to
him as the apple of his eye.
" Let us, therefore, with an earnest faith take fast
hold and sure feeling upon the promises of God in the
gospel, and let us not be turned from the same by any
temptation, tribulation, or persecution. Let us consider
the truth of God to be invincible, inviolable, and im-
mutable, promising and giving us, his faithful soldiers,
life eternal. It is he only that hath deserved it for us ;
it is his only benefit, and of his mere mercy, and unto
him only must we render thanks. Let not, therefore,
the vain fantasies and dreams of men, and foolish baubles
and toys of the world, nor the crafty delusions of the
devil, drive and separate us from our hope of the crown
of righteousness, that is laid up in store for us against
the last day. Oh that happy and joyful last day 1 I
mean to the faithful, when Christ by his covenant shall
grant and give unto them that overcome, and keep his
words to the end, that they may ascend and sit with him,
as he hath ascended and sitteth on the throne with his
Father. The same body and soul that is now afflicted
with Christ, shall then be glorified with Christ ; now in
the butchers' hands, as sheep appointed to die ; then
sitting at God's table with Christ in his kingdom, as
813
God's honourable and dear children ; where we shall
have for earthly poverty, heavenly riches ; for huno-er
and thirst, the enjoyment of the pleasant presence of the
glory of God ; for sorrows, troubles, and cold irons
celestial joys, and the company of angels ; and fur a
bodily death, life eternal. Oh happy souls ! Oh precious
death, and evermore blessed, right dear in the eyes of
God ! to you the spring of the Lord shall ever be flourish -
ing. 'Therefore,' as saith Isaiah, ' the redeemed of the
Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head : they shall ob-
tain gladness and joy ; and sorrow and mourning shall
flee away.' Yea, I am he, saith the Lord, tliat in all
things giveth you everlasting consolation. To whom
with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory and praise
for ever, Amen.
" Robert Samuel."
Willia7n Allen.
After the suffering of Robert Samuel, about the be-
ginning of September, William Allen, a labouring man,
was burned in Walsingham. He being brought be-
fore the bishop, and asked why he was imprisoned ; an-
swered, that he was put in prison because he would not
follow the cross, saying, that he would never go on pro-
cession.
Then being commanded by the bishop to return again
to the catholic church ; he answered, that he would turn
to the catholic church, but not to the Romish church ;
and said, that if he saw the king and queen, and all other
follow the cross, or kneel down to the cross, he would
not. For which sentence of condemnation was given
against him on the 12th of August, to be burned
at Walsingham about the beginning, of September.
He manifested such constancy at his martyrdom, and
had such credit with the justices, by reason of his up-
right and well-tried conversation among them, that
he was suffered to go untied to his suffering, and there
being fastened with a chain, stood quietly without shrink-
ing, until he died.
The Martyrdom of Roger Coo.
Roger Coo, when brought before the bishop, was first
asked why he was imprisoned.
Coo. — " At the justice's commandment."
Bishop. — " There was some cause why."
Coo. — " Here is my accuser, let him declare.''
His accuser said that he would not receive the sacra-
ment.
Bishop. — " Why will you not receive ?"
Coo. — " Because that the bishop of Rome had changed
God's ordinances, and given the people bread and wine
instead of the gospel, and the belief of the same."
The bishop asked him if he could say his belief ?
Coo answered, " Yea,'' and repeated part of the creed,
and then said, he believed more ; for he believed the
ten commandments, that it was meet for all such as look
to be saved, to be obedient to them.
Bishop. — " Is not the holy church to be believed also ?"
Coo. — " Yes, if it be builded upon the word of God."
The bishop said to Coo, that he had charge of his
soul.
Coo. — " Have you so, my lord .' Then if you go to the
devil for your sins, what shall become of me ?"
Bishop. — " Do you not believe as your father did 1
Was not he an honest man ?"
Coo. — " It is written, that after Christ hath suffered,
' There shall come a people with the prince that shall
destroy both city and sanctuary.' I pray you show me
whether this destruction was in my father's time, or
now?"
The bishop not answering his question, asked him
whether he would not obey the queen's laws.
Coo. — " As far as they agree with the word of God, I
will obey them."
Bishop.—" Whether they agree with the word of God
or not, we are bound to obey them, if the king were an
infidel."
14
FIVE MARTTRS BURNED AT CANTERBURY.
[B'jCK XI
Coo. — " If Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego had so
done, Nebuchadnezzar had not confessed the living
God."
This Roger Coo, an aged father, after his troubles
and conflicts with his adversaries, at length was com-
mitted to the fire at Yoxford, in the county of Suf-
folk, where he most blessedly ended his aged years,
A.D. 1555.
Thomas Cob, Martyr.
Over and besides these martyrs, in the same year, on
the 12th of August, Thomas Cob, of Haverhill, butcher,
was also condemned, being brought before and examined
by Michael Dunnings, the bloody chancellor of Norwich ;
first, whether he beUeved that Christ is really and sub-
stantially in the sacrament of the altar; he answered,
that the body of Christ, born of the blessed Virgin, was
in heaven, and otherwise he would not answer, because
he had read it in the Scriptures, that Christ did ascend,
and did never descend since ; and therefore said, that
he had not learned in the Scripture, that Christ should
be in the sacrament. Furthermore, being demanded
whether he would obey the laws of the realm of England,
made for the unity of faith, or not ; he answered, that
his body should be at the King and Queen's command-
ment so far as the law of God would suffer, &c. He
was burned in the town of Thetford, in the month of
September, A.D. 1555.
The Martyrdom of George Catmer, Robert Streater,
Anthony Burward, George Brodhridge, and James
Tutty.
Having given an account of the martyrs in Norfolk
and Suffolk, we return again to the diocese of Canter-
bury ; and we first have to treat of five worthy martyrs,
whose blood, in the same year, and month of September,
was shed for the true testimony of Christ, and his gos-
pel's cause. The names of the five martyrs were these: I
—George Catmer, of Hythe ; Robert Streater, of Hythe ;
Anthony Burward, of Calete ; George Brodbridge, of
Bromfield ; and James Tutty, of Brenchley.
On the 3rd day of August they were brought before
Thornton, the bishop of Dover, and there were jointly
and severally examined upon certain articles, touching
the sacrament of the altar, auricular confession, and
other such like.
To which Catmer (being first examined) made answer
on this wise : — " Christ," said he, " sitteth in heaven
on the right hand of God the Father ; and therefore I
do not believe him to be in the sacrament of the altar :
but he is in the worthy receiver spiritually ; and the
sacrament as you use it, is an abominable idol."
Next to him Robert Streater was called forth, who
being also asked whether he did believe in the real pre-
sence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, said, that
he did not so believe ; for " You maintain heresy and
idolatry," said he, " in that you teach people to worship
a false God in the sacrament, enclosed in a box. It
is you that are the malignant church ; for in your
church there are twenty things used against the law
of God."
The like objection was made also against Anthony
Burward, who also said, that " Their sacrament was
made an idol."
After him George Brodbridge was demanded what he
said to those articles. Who answered, that " He would
not be confessed of a priest, because he could not for-
give his own sins." And further said, that " In the
sacrament of the altar there is not the real body of
our Saviour Christ, but bread given in the remem-
brance of him. Moreover, as for your holy bread,
your holy water, and your mass, I do utterly reject
them."
And last of all, James Tutty made and confirmed
their answers.
And therefore they were all five condemned to be
burned as heretics, and so were consumed in one fire
at Canterbury, about the sixth day of September.
Thomas Hayward and John Goreway, Martyrs,
Although the rage and vehemence of this terrible per-
secution in Queen Mary's days did chiefly exist in Lon-
don, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent, as hath been
partly already declared ; yet notwithstanding, besides
the same, we find but few parts of this realm free from
this fatal storm. And first to begin with the diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, there we find two godly men
condemned and also burned about the middle of the
month of September, at the town of Lichfield ; whose
names were Thomas Hayward, and John Goreway.
The persecution of Robert Glover, and of John
Glover. *
To this month of September, pertains the memorable
martyrdom of Robert Glover, gentleman, in the diocese
of Lichfield and Coventry. I must intermix with his
history some mention of his brother, Jolm Glover, for
this commission was chiefly sent down for John, and not
for Robert Glover, although it pleased Almighty God,
that John escaped, and Robert was apprehended instead.
I thought, therefore, in one history to comprehend them
both together, in describing some part of their virtuous
lives.
And first to begin with John, the eldest brother ; who
being a gentleman, and heir to his father, in the town of
Manchester, was endued with fair possessions of worldly
goods, but yet was much more enriched with God's
heavenly grace and inward virtues. Which grace of
God so working in him, he with his other brothers, Ro-
bert and William, not only received and embraced the
happy light of Christ's holy gospel, but also most zea-
lously professed, and no less diligently in their living
and conversation followed the same.
It pleased God to lay his heavy hand of inward aflSic •
tions and grievous passions upon this man, that though
he suffered not the pains of the outward fire, as his
brother and other martyrs did ; yet if we consider what
this man felt and suffered inwardly in spirit and mind, I
he may well be counted with his brother Robert for a i
martyr, being no less desirous with him of the same |
martyrdom. (
For as Robert was speedily dispatched with the sharp '
and extreme torments of the fire in a short time ; so '
this no less blessed saint of God, what and how much
more grievous pangs, what sorrowful torments, in his j
spirit, he inwardly felt and sustained, no language is able I
to express. I remember that, when I was young, I was
once or twice with him, and I perceived, and by mine
own eyes saw him so worn and consumed for the space
of five years, that he had no enjoyment of meat, quiet
of sleep, or pleasure of life. And yet the occasion
was not of great moment. But we see often among holy
and blessed men, how, the more devout and godly they
are, having the fear of God before their eyes, the more
suspicion and mistrust they have of themselves.
The occasion of this was, that he being first called by
the light of the Holy Spirit to the knowledge of the
gospel, and having received a sweet feeling of Christ's
heavenly kingdom, his mind, after that, falling a little
to some of his former affairs belonging to his vocation,
began by and by to doubt himself, on account of the words
written in the seventh chapter of the Hebrews ; " For it
is impossible that they which were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift," &c. Upon the
consideration of which words, he fully persuaded him- '
self that he had verily sinned against the Holy Ghost :
even so much, that if he had been in the deepest pit of
hell, he could not almost have despaired more of his
salvation. Here readily every good man may judge
of himself, what terrors, and convulsions filled his
breast.
And this I rehearse of him, that by his example we all
• A detailed ami interesting account of the sufferings of the
martyrs Glov Ell and Lewis, has been written by the Kev. Mr.
Kitcliin, incumbent of Manchester, to wliich the enquirer U M-
ferred, who desires more copious details.— Ed.
A.D. 1555.]
A LETTER OF ROBERT GLOVER TO HIS WIFE.
815
may with him glorify the Son of God, who suffers none
to be tempted above their strength, but so tempers the
asperity of evils, that what seems to us intolerable, he
not only removes or lightens, that we may bear it, but
also turns it to our further advantage than we can think.
Which well appeared in this good servant of God. Who
though he suffered many years so sharp temptations and
buffetings of Satan; yet the Lord, who graciously pre-
served him all the while, not only at last did rid him
out of all discomfort, but also framed him thereby to
such mortification of life, in that his conversation was
in heaven, and being dead to this world, he in word and
meditation led a life altogether heavenly, abhorring in
his mind all profane doings. Neither was his talk
different from his life, never using any idle or vain
language. The most part of his lands he distributed to
the use of his brethren, and committed the rest to the
management of his servants and officers, by which he
might the more quietly give himself to his godly study,
as to a continual sabbath rest. This was about the lat-
ter end of King Henry VIII. 's reign, and continued a
great part of the time of King Edward VI.
After this, in the persecuting days of Queen Mary,
as soon as the bishop of Coventry heard the fame of this
John, he wrote his letter to the mayor and officers of
Coventry, to apprehend him. But it chanced otherwise
by God's holy providence, disposing all things after his
own secret pleasure, who seeing his old and trusty ser-
vant so many years broken with many torments, would
In no wise heap too many sorrows upon one poor sheep :
neither would commit him to the flames of fire, who had
been already scorched with the sharp fires of inward
affliction, and had sustained so many burning darts and
conflicts of Satan : God, therefore, of his divine pro-
vidence, graciously provided, that Robert, his brother,
being both stronger of body, and also better furnished
with helps of learning to answer the adversaries (being a
master of art in Cambridge) should sustain that con-
flict.
As soon as the mayor of Coventry had received the
bishop's letter for the apprehending of John Glover, he
sent forthwith private word to John to convey himself
away : who, with his brother William was not so soon
departed out of his house, but that yet in the sight of
the sheriff, the searchers came and rushed in to take
him, according to the bishop's command.
But when John could not be found, one of the officers
going into an upper chamber, found Robert the other
brother lying on his bed, and sick of a severe disease ;
who was immediately brought before the sheriff. The
sheriff would fain have dismissed him, and did what he
could, saying, that he was not the man for whom they
were sent. Yet nevertheless the officer, contending with
him to have him stayed till the bishop's coming, he
was constrained to carry him away against his will.
We shall now give an account of the history of Robert
Glover. As the whole narration, in his own writing,
I was sent to his wife, we shall therefore give his own
letter as follows :
A Letter of Master Robert Glover to his Wife.
" To my entirely beloved wife, Mary Glover.
" The peace of conscience which passeth all under-
standing, the sweet consolation, comfort, strength, and
boldness of the Holy Ghost, be continually increased
in our heart, through a fervent, earnest, and steadfast
faith in our most dear and only Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
" I thanK you heartUy, most loving wife, for your
letters sent to me in my imprisonment. I read them
with tears, more than once or twice ; with tears, I say,
for joy and gladness, that God had wrought in you so
merciful a work ; first, an unfeigned repentance ; se-
condly, an humble and hearty reconciliation ; thirdly, a
willing submission and obedience to the will of God in
all things. Which when I read in your letters, and
judged them to proceed from the bottom of your heart,
I could not but be thankful to God, rejoicing with
tears for you, and these his great mercies poured upon
you.
" These your letters, and the hearing of your most
godly proceedings and constant doings from time to
time, much relieved and comforted me at all times, and
shall be a goodly testimony with you at the great day,
against many worldly and dainty dames, who set more
by their own pleasure and pelf in this world, than by
God's glory, little regarding (as it appears) the ever-
lasting health of their own souls or others. My prayer
shall be whilst I am in this world, that God, who of
his great mercy hath begun his good woik in you, will
finish it to the glory of his name, and by the mighty
power and inspiration of his holy Spirit so strengthen,
establish, and confirm you in all his ways to thQ,end,
that we may together shew forth his praises in the world
to come, to our unspeakable consolation everlastingly.
Amen.
" So long as God shall lend you continuance in this
miserable world, above all things give yourself con-
tinually to prayer, lifting up, as St. Paul saith, clean or
pure hands without anger, wrath, or doubting, for-
giving (as he saith also) if you have any thing against
any man, as Christ forgiveth us. And that we may
be the better willing to forgive, it is good often to call
to remembrance the multitude and greatness of our sins
which Christ daily and hourly pardons and forgives us,
and then we shall, as St. Peter affirms, be ready to
cover and hide the offences of our brethren, be they
never so many. And because God's word teaches us,
not only the true manner of praying, but also what we
ought to do, or not to do, in the whole discourse and
practice of this life, what pleaseth or displeaseth God,
and that, as Christ saith, ' The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in the last day.' Let your
prayer be to this end especially, that God of his great
mercy would open and reveal more and more daily to
your heart the true sense, knowledge, and understand-
ing of his most holy word, and give you grace in your
living, to express the fruits thereof.
" And forasmuch as it is, as the Holy Ghost calleth
it, the word of affliction, that is, it is seldom without
hatred, persecution, peril, danger of loss of life and
goods, and whatsoever seems pleasant in this world, as
experience teaches you in this time : call upon God
continually for his assistance always, as Christ teaches,
casting your accounts what it is like to cost you, en-
deavouring yourself, through the help of the Holy Ghost,
by continuance of prayer, to lay your foundation so sure,
that no storm or tempest shall be able to overthrow or
cast it down ; remembering always, as Christ saith.
Lot's wife ; that is, to beware of looking back to that
thing that displeaseth God. And because nothing dis-
pleases God so much as idolatry, that is, false worship-
ping of God, otherwise than his word commands ; look
not back, I say, nor turn your face to their idolatrous
and blasphemous massing, manifestly against the word,
practice, and example of Christ ; as it is most manifest
to all that have any taste of the true understanding of
God's word, that there remains nothing in the church of
England at this present time, profitable or edifying to
the church and congregation of the Lord, all things
being done in an unknown tongue, contrary to the express
commandment of the Holy Ghost.
" They object that they are the church, and therefore
they must be believed. My answer was. The church of
God knows and acknowledges no other head but Jesus
Christ the Son of God, whom ye have refused, and
chosen the man of sin, the son of perdition, the enemy
to Christ, the devil's deputy and Ueutenant, the pope.
" Christ's church hears, teaches, and is ruled by his
word, as he saith, ' My sheep hear my voice.' ' If you
abide in me, and my word abide in you, ye are my dis-
ciples.' Their church rejects God's word, and forces all
men to follow their traditions.
" Christ's church dare not add nor diminish, alter or
change his blessed testament ; but they are not afraid to
take away all that Christ instituted, and go a whormg
(as the scripture savs) with their own inventions;
3 o
816
A LETTER OF ROBERT tiLOVER TO HIS WIFE.
[Book XI
to glory and rejoice in the works of their own
hands.
" The church of Christ is, hath been, and shall be in
all ages, under the cross, persecuted, molested, and
afflicted, the world ever hating them, because they are
not of the world. But these persecute, murder, slay,
and kill such as profess the true doctrine of Christ, be
they in learning, living, conversation, and other virtues,
never so excellent.
" Christ and his church reserved the trial of their
doctrine to the word of God, and gave the people leave
to judge thereof by the same word, ' Search the scrip-
tures ;' but this church takes away the word from the
people, and suffers neither learned nor unlearned to exa-
mine or prove their doctrine by the word of God.
" The true church of God labours by all means to
resist and withstand the lusts, desires, and motions of
the world, the flesh, and the devil : these, for the most
part, give themselves to all voluptuousness, and secretly
commit such things, as St. Paul says, it is a shame to
speak of them.
" By these, and such like manifest proofs, they de-
clare themselves to be none of the church of Christ,
but rather of the synagogue of Satan. It shall be good
for you oftentimes to confer and compare their pro-
ceedings and doings with the practice of those whom the
word of God doth teach to have been true members of
the church of God, and it shall work in you both know-
ledge, erudition, and boldness to withstand with suffer-
ing their doings. I likened them, therefore, to Nimrod,
whom the scripture calleth a mighty hunter, or a stout
champion ; telling them that that which they could not
have by the word, they would have by the sword, and be
the church whether men will or not, and I called them
with good conscience, as Christ called their forefathers,
the children of the devil ; and as their father the devil
is a liar and a murderer, so their kingdom and church
(as they call it) stands by lying and murdering.
" Have no fellowship with them, therefore, my dear
wife, nor with their doctrines and traditions, lest you be
partakers of their sins, for whom is reserved a heavy
damnation, without speedy repentance. Beware of such
as shall advertise you something to bear with the world,
as they do, for a season. There is no dallying with
God's matters. ' It is a fearful thing,' as St. Paul says,
' to fall into the hands of the living God.' Remember
the words of the prophet Elijah, ' Why halt ye between
two opinions ?' Also what Christ says, ' No man, hav-
ing put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit
for the kingdom of God.' And seeing God hath hitherto
allowed you as a good soldier in the foreward, play not
the coward, neither draw back to the rearward. St.
John numbers among them that shall dwell in the fiery
lake, such as be ' fearful ' in God's cause. Set before your
eyes always the examples of such as have behaved them-
selves boldly in God's cause, as Daniel, the three chil-
dren, the widow's sons, St. Stephen, St. Peter, St.
Paul, and in your days, Ann Askew, Lawrence Sanders,
John Bradford, with many other faithful witnesses of
Christ. ' And in nothing terrified by your adversaries :
which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to
you of salvation, and that of God.' (Philipp. i. 28.)
Christ commanded the same, saying, ' Fear them not.'
Let us not follow the example of him who asked time
first to take leave of his friends. If we do so, we shall
find few of them that will encourage us to go forward in
our business, please it God never so much. We read
not that St. James and St. John, St. Andrew and St.
Simon, when they were called, put off the time till they
had known their fathers, and friends' pleasure. But
the scripture saitli, ' They forsook all, and followed
Christ.' Christ likened the kingdom of God to a pre-
cious pearl, the which whosoever findeth, sellcth all that
he hath to buy it. Yea, whosover hath but a little taste
or glimmering how precious a treasure the kingdom of
heaven is, will gladly forego both life and goods for the
obtaining of it. But the most part, now-a-days, are
like to yEsop's cock, which when he had found a pre-
cious stone, wished rather to have found a barley-corn.
So ignorant are they how precious a jewel the word of
God is, that they choose rather the things of this world,
which being compared to it, are less in value than a
barley-corn.
" If I would have given place to worldly reasons,
these might have moved me : first, the foregoing of you
and my children ; the consideration of the state of mv
children, being yet of tender age, apt and inclinable to
virtue and learning, and so having the more need of mj
assistance, being not altogether destitute of gifts to helj
them ; possessions above the common sort of men ; be-
cause I was never called to be a preacher or minister ;
and, because of my sickness, fear of death in imprison-
ment before I should come to my answer, and so my
death to be unprofitable.
" But these, and such like, I thank my heavenly
Father (which of his infinite mercy inspired me with his
Holy Spirit, for his Son's sake my only Saviour and
Redeemer) prevailed not in me : but when I had, by the
wonderful permission of God, fallen into their hands, at
the first sight of the sheriff, nature a little abashed, yet
before I came to the prison, by the working of God,
and through his goodness, fear departed. I said to the
sheriff, at his coming to me, ' What matter have you,
master sheriff, to charge me with?' He answered,
' You shall know when you come before the masters ;'
and so taking me with him, I looked to have been
brought before the masters, and to have heard what
they could have burdened me with : but contrary to my
expectation, I was committed forthwith to the gaol, not
being called to my answer, little justice being shewed
therein. But the less justice a man finds at their hands,
the more consolation in conscience shall he find from
God ; for whosoever is of the world, the world will love
him.
" After I came into prison, and had reposed myself
there a while, I wept for joy and gladness, musing much
of the great mercies of God, and (as it were) saying to
myself after this sort ; U Lord, who am I, on whom
thou shouldest bestow this thy great mercy, to be num-
bered among the saints that suffer for the gospel sake .'
And so beholding and considering on the one side my
imperfection, unableness, sinful misery, and unworthi-
ness, and on the other side the greatness of God's mercy,
to be called to so high promotion, I was, as it were,
amazed and overcome for a while with joy and gladness,
concluding thus with myself in my heart : O Lord, thou
shewest power in weakness, wisdom in foolishness,
mercy in sinfulness ; who shall hinder thee to choose
where and whom thou wilt .' As I have zealously loved
the confession of thy word, so I ever thought myself to
be most unworthy to be partaker of the affliction for the
same.
" Not long after came unto me, W. Brasbridgc, C.
Phineas, and N. Hopkins, endeavouring to prevail with
me to be dismissed upon bonds. To whom mj answer
was (to my remembrance) after this sort : Forasmuch as
the masters have imprisoned me, having nothing to bur-
den me with, if I should enter into bonds, I should in
so doing accuse myself ; and seeing they have no matter
to lay to my charge, they may as well let me pass with-
out bonds as with bonds.
" Secondly, if I shall enter bonds, covenant, and
promise to appear, I shall do nothing but excuse, colour,
and cloak their wickedness, and endanger myself never-
thel^s, being bound by my promise to appear. They
alleged many worldly persuasions to me to avoid the
present peril, and also how to avoid the forfeiture, if I
brake promise. I said unto them I had cast up my
pennyworth by God's help. They undertook also to
make the bond easy.
" And when they were somewhat importunate, I said
to Hopkins, that liberty of conscience was a precious
thing, and took, as it were, a pause, lifting up my heart
to God earnestly for his aid and help, that 1 might do
the thing that might please him. And so when they
had let their suit fall, my heart, methouglit, was won-
derfully comforted. Master Dudley communed with
me in like manner ; whom I answered in effect as 1 did
before.
" Afterwards debating the matter with myself, these
A.D. 1555.]
A LETTER OF ROBERT GLOVER TO HIS WIFE.
817
considerations came into my head ; I have from time to
I time, with good conscience (I take God to record) moved
all such as I had conference with to be no dalliers in
God's matters, but to shew themselves, after so great a
I light and knowledge, hearty, earnest, constant, and
j stable in so manifest a truth, and not to give place one
• jot contrary to the same. Now, thought I, if I shall
j withdraw myself, and make any shifts to pull my own
1 neck out of the collar, I shall give great offence to my
I weak brethren in Christ, and advantage to the enemies
i to slander God's word. It will be said, he hath been a
great <'mboldener of others to be earnest and fervent, to
. feai no worldly perils or dangers, but he himself will
I give no such example.
I *' Wherefore I thought it my bounden duty, both to
I God and man, being, as it were, by the great goodness
] of God, marvellously called and appointed hereunto, to
I set aside all fear, perils, and dangers, all worldly respects
I and considerations, and like as I had heretofore, accord-
I ing to the measure of my small gift within the compass
of my vocation and calling, from the bottom of my heart
unfeignedly moved, exhorted and persuaded all that i)ro-
jfessed God's word, manfully to persist in the defence of
the same, not with sword and violence, but with sufi'er-
ing and loss of life, rather than to defile thems^xTes
i again with the whorish abomination of the Romish anti-
christ ; so the hour being come, with my act and exam-
ple to ratify, confirm, and protest the same to th; hearts
I of all true believers : and to this end, by tbf; mighty
iassistance of God's Holy Spirit, I resolved myself, with
[much peace of conscience, willingly to sustain whatever
the Romish antichrist should do against me, and the
rather because I understood the bishop s coming to be
at hand, and considered that poor men's consciences
should be then sharply assaulted. So I remained a pri-
soner in Coventry for the space of ten or eleven days,
being never called to my answer of the masters, con-
trary to the laws of the realms, they having neither
statute, law, proclamation, letter, warrant, nor com-
mandment for my apprehension. They would have laid
all the matter upon the summoner : who being exa-
mined, denied it before their faces, as one of my friends
told me, saying, that he had no commandment concern-
ing me, but for my elder brother. God lay not their
extreme doings against me to their charge at the great day !
" The second day after the bishop's coming ta Coven-
try, Master Warren came to the Guildhall, and com-
manded the chief gaoler to carry me to the bishop. I
laid to Master Warren's charge the cruel seeking of my
death ; and when he would have excused himself, I told
(him he could not wipe his hands so ; he was as guilty of
!my blood before God, as though he had murdered me
jwith his own hands.
i " And so he departed from me, saying, I needed not
Ito fear if I would be of his belief. God open his eyes, if
it be his will, and give him grace to believe this, which
he, and all of his inclination, shall find, I fear, too true
(for their parts ; that is, that all they who cruelly, ma-
ficiously, and spitefully persecute, molest, and afflict
he members of Christ for their conscience sake, and for
[the true testimony of Christ's word, and cause them
jmost unjustly to be slain and murdered, without speedy
jTepentance, shall dwell with the devil and his angels in
jthe fierce lake everlastingly, where they shall wish and
[desire, cry and call, but in vain (as their right compa-
nion the rich man did) to be refreshed of them, whom
in this world they contemned, despised, disdained, as
slaves, misers, and wretches.
" When I came before the bishop, in one Denton's
house, he began with this protestation, that he was
my bishop for lack of a better, and willed me to submit
myself.
" I said to him, ' I am not come to accuse myself;
what have you to lay to my charge ?'
" He asked me whether I was learned ? I answered,
' Smally learned.'
" Master chancellor standing by, said, I was a master
of arts.
j " Then my lord l>iid to my charge my not coming to
the church.
" Here I might have dallied with him, and put him to
his proofs, forasmuch as I had not been for a long sea-
son in his diocese, neither were any of the citizens able
to prove any such matter against me. Notwithstanding
I answered him, tiirough God's merciful help, that I
neither had nor would come at their church as long as
their mass was used there, to save, if I had tliem, five
hundred lives. 1 desired him to shew me one jot or
tittle in the scriptures for the proof and defence of the mass.
" He answered, he came to teach, and not to be
taught.
" I was content, I told him, to learn of him, so far as
he was able to teach me by the word of God.
" Bishop. — ' Who shall judge the word ."
" Glover. — ' Christ was content that the people should
judge his doctrine by searching the scriptures, and so
was St. Paul ; methinks you should claim no further
privilege nor pre-eminence than they had.' "
[Thus spake Robert Glover, offering him further, that
he was content that the primitive church, next to the
apostles' time, should judge betwixt the bishop and
him ; but he refused also to be judged by that. Then
he said he was his bishop, and therefjre he must believe
him.]
" Glover. — ' If you say black is white, my lord, must
I also say as you say ; and believe the same, because
you say it is so .''
" The chancellor here said I was arrogant, because I
would not give place to my bishop.
" Glover. — ' If you will be believed because you are a
bishop, why find you fault with the people that believed
Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and the residue of them that
were bishops ?'
" Bishop. — ' Because they were heretics '
" Glover. — ' And may not you err, as well as they ?'
" I looked for learning at my lord's hand to persuade
me, and he oppressed me only with his authority. He
said I dissented from the church, and asked me where
my church was before King Edward VI's time ?
" I desired him to shew me where their church was
in Elijah's time, and what outward shew it had in
Christ's time.
" Bishop.— ' Elijah's complaint was only of the ten
tribes that fell from David's house, whom he called
heretics.'
" Glover. — ' You are not able to shew any prophets
that the other two tribes had at that time.'
" My lord making no answer to that. Master Rogers,
one of the masters of the city, comes in, taking upon
him as though he would answer the text. But my lord
forthwith commanded me to be committed to some
tower, if they had any besides the common gaol, saying,
he would at the end of his visitation of his diocese, weed
out such wolves. Master Rogers desired him to con-
tent himself for that night, till they had taken further
order for me. Even where it pleases you, I said to my
lord, I am content ; and so I was returned at that time
to the common gaol again from whence 1 came.
" On the Friday morning, being tlie next day after, I
had warning by one of the prisoners to prepare myself
to ride with my fellow-prisoners the same day to Lich-
field, there to be bestowed at the bishop's pleasure.
Which tidings at the first something discouraged me.
fearing lest I should by the means of my great sickness,
through extreme handling (which I looked for) have
died in the prison before I should come to ray answer ;
but I rebuked immediately with God's word this infi-
delity in myself, and by the same corrected mine own
mistrust and fantasy after this manner : — ' What make
I of God ? Is not his power as great in Lichfield as in
Coventry ? Does not his promise extend as well to
Lichfield as to Coventry ? Was he not with llabakkuk.
Daniel. Micah, and Jeremiah, in their most dangerous
imprisonments? He knoweth what things we have
need of. He hath numbered all the hairs of our head.
The sparrow falleth not on the ground, without our
heavenlv Father's will ; much more will he care for u»
if we be not faithless, whom he hath made worthy to ba
witnesses of his truth. So long as we put our trust in
him, we shall never be destitute of his help, neither u>
o o 2
818
HISTORY OF ROBERT GLOVER, MARTYR.
[Book XI
prison, neitlier in sickness, nor iu health, neither in
life, nor in death, neither before kings, nor before
bishops, nor the devil himself, much less one of his
ministers, shall be able to prevail against us.' With
such-like meditations I waxed cheerful, of good conso-
lation and comfort : so that hearing one say that they
could not provide horses enough for us, I said, ' Let
them carry us in a dung-cart for lack of horses, if they
please, I am well content for my part.'
" Certain sergeants and constables of Coventry, being
appointed to convey us to Lichfield, to be delivered
there to one Jephcot the chancellor's man, we were com-
manded to mount on horseback about eleven or twelve
o'clock on Friday, being market-day, that we might be
the more gazed and wondered at : and to kindle the peo-
ple's hearts more against us, they proclaimed a letter
concerning a proclamation made for calling in, and dis-
anulling of all such books as truly expound and inter-
pret the scriptures. We came to Lichfield about four
o'clock, and had leave to repose ourselves till our sup-
per-time. We stopped at the sign of the Swan, wliere
we were entertained in a friendly manner.
" Jephcot put me into a prison that night, where I
continued till I was condemned, in a place next to the
dungeon, in a narrow strong building, and very cold,
with little light, and being allowed only a bundle of straw,
instead of a bed, without chair, form, or convenience.
God of his mercy gave me great patience through prayer
that night, so that if it had been his pleasure, I could
have been contented to have ended my life : But Jephcot,
and one Percy, the bishop's man, who afterwards was
my continual keeper for the most part, came to me in
the morning, to whom I said, ' This is a great extremity ;
God send us patience ;' and no more.
" Then they were content that I should have a bed of
my own procuring. But I was allowed no help nei-
ther night nor day, nor company of any man, notwith-
standing my great sickness ; nor yet paper, pen, nor ink,
nor books, saving my New Testament in Latin, and a
prayer-book which I privately procured.
" Within two days after. Master Chancellor, and one
Temsey, a prebendary there, came to me in my prison.
Master Chancellor exhorted me to conform myself to my
lord and the church. He wished to my soul no more
hurt than to his own, perhaps because I had laid to his
charge at Coventry the seeking of my blood unjustly
and wrongfully. »
" A second time I answered Master Chancellor to his
exhortation, that I refused not to be ruled by that
..church that was content to be ordered and governed by
-the word of God.
" He asked me how I knew the word of God, but by
'the church.
" Glover. — ' The church shews which is the word of
'God ; therefore the church is above the word of God.'
— ' This is no good reason in learning,' said I to Master
Chaucelior. ' For it is like unto this ; John s'newed the
people who was Christ ; thei'efore John was above Christ.
Or else 1 have a man that knows not the king, and I tell
him who was the king : am I therefore above the king ?'
" Master Chancellor said, he came not to reason with
me, and so departed. Thus I remained without any
further conference of any man for the space of eight
and till the bishop's coming. All which time I gave
myself continually to prayer and meditation of the mer-
ciful promises of God, made to all, without exception of
person, that call uj)on the name of his dear Son Jesus
Christ. 1 found daily amendment of health of body,
increase of peace in conscience, and many consolations
from God, by the help of his Holy Spirit, and sometimes
as it were a taste and glimmering of the life to come ; all
for his only Son Jesus Christ's sake : to him be all praise
for ever and ever.
" The enemy ceased not many times sundry ways to
assault me, often objecting to my conscience mine own
unworthiness, through the greatness of the benefit to be
counted among the number of them that should suffer
for Christ, for his gospel's sake. Against him I replied
with the word of God on this sort : ' What were all those
whom God had chosen from the beginning, to be his
witnesses, and to carry his name before the world ? Were
they not men, as Paul and Barnabas said, as well sub-
ject to wickedness, sin, and imperfections, as other men ?
Even such were Noah, Abraham, David, and all the
rest. As St. Paul saith ' Who gave first unto him."
And also speaking to every man, ' What hast thou that
thou receivedst not r' Likewise John, ' All have re-
ceived of his fulness,' they were no bringers of any
goodness to God, but altogether receivers. They chose
not God first, but he chose them. They loved not God
first, but he loved them first. Yea, he both loved and
chose them when they were his enemies, full of sin
and corruption, and void of all goodness. He is
and will be still the same God, as rich in mercy, aa
mighty, as able, as ready, as willing to forgive sins
without respect of person, to the world's end, of all
them that call upon him. God is near, he is at hand,
he is with all, — with all, I say, and refuseth none, ex-
cepteth none that faithfully in true repentance call
upon him, in what hour, what place, or what time soever
it be. It is no arrogancy nor presumption in any man,
to burthen God, as it were, with his promise, and of
duty to claim and challenge his aid, help, and assistance
in all our perils, dangers, and distress, calling upon him
not in the confidence of our own godliness, but in the
trust of his promises made in Christ, in whom, and by
whom, andfor whose sake, whosoever boldly approaches to
the mercy-seat of the Father, is sure to receive whatso-
ever is expedient or necessary, either for body or soul, in
more ample, and large manner, than he can well wish,
or dare desire. His word cannot lie : ' Call upon me in
the day of trouble, and I will hear thee, and thou shall
praise me.'
" I answered the enemy also on this manner ; I am a
sinner, and therefore unworthy to be a witness of this
truth. What then ? Must I deny his word, because 1
am not worthy to profess it .' What bring I to pass in
so doing, but add sin to sin? What is greater sin than
to deny the truth of Christ's gospel ? as Christ himself
beareth witness, ' He that is ashamed of me or of my
words, of him I will be also ashamed before my Father
and all his angels.' 1 might also by like reason forbear
to do any of God's commandments.
" When I am provoked to pray, the enemy may say
to me, I am not worthy to pray, therefore I shall not
pray: and so in like manner of all the commandments,
shall I not forbear swearing, stealing, murdering, be-
cause 1 am not worthy to do any commandment of God.
These be the delusions of the devil, and Satan's sugges-
tions, which must be overcome by continuance of prayer,
and with the word of God applied, according to the mea-
sure of every man's gift, against all assaults of the devil.
" At the bishop's first coming to Lichfield, after mine
imprisonment, I was called into a chamber next to my
prison, to my lord. Before whom, when T came and saw
none but his officers, chaplains, and servants, except
it were an old priest, I was partly amazed, and lifted
up my heart to God for his merciful help and assistance.
" My lord asked me how I liked my imprisonment.
I gave him no answer touching that question, lie pro-
ceeded to persuade me to be a member of his church,
which had continued for so many years. ' As for our
church,' as he called it, ' it was not known, but lately in
king Edward's time.'
" ' I profess myself to be a member of that church,'
said I, ' that is builded upon the foundation of the apos-
tles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the head corner-
stone ;' and so alleged the place of St. Paul to the Ephe-
sians. ' And this church hath been from the beginning,'
said I, ' though it bear no glorious show before the
world, being ever, for the most part, under the cross and
affliction, contemned, despised, and persecuted.' My lord
on the other side, contended that they were the church.
" Glover. — ' So cried all the clergy against the pro-
phets of Jerusalem, saying, — The temjile of the Lord !—
the temple of the Lord !'
" And always when I was about to speak any tiling, my
lord cried, ' Hold thy peace ; I command thee by the
virtue of obedience to hold thv peace,' calling me a
proud arrogant heretic.
A. D. 1555
THE MARTYRDOM OF CORNELIUS BUNGEY.
819
'^ "I desired my lOrd to charge me with some spe-
cialties, and then to convince me with some scriptures
and good learning.
" Then my lord began to move certain questions. T
refused to answer him in corners, requiring that I might
make my answer openly. He said I should answer him
there. I stood with him upon that point until he said,
I should be sent to prison again, and there have neither
meat nor drink till I answered him.
" Then I lifted up my heart to God, that I might stand
and agree with the doctrine of his most holy word.
" Tlie first question was this, ' How many sacraments
hath Christ instituted to be used in the church ?'
" Glover, 'The sacrament of baptism, and the sacra-
ment that he instituted at his last supper.'
" Bishop. — ' No more ?'
" Glover. — 'To all those that declare a true and un-
feigned repentance, a sure hope, trust, and confidence in
the death of Christ, to such, I grant, ministers have au-
thority to pronounce, by the power of God's vford, the
remission of sins.'
" Here interrupting me, he would needs bear me in
hand that I called this a sacrament. I would not
greatly contend with him in that point, because that
matter was of no great weight or importance ; although
he in so doing did me wrong, for I called it not a sacra-
ment.
" He asked me further, whether I allowed their con-
fession .' I answered, ' No.'
" Then he would know my mind what I thought of the
presence of Christ's body in the sacrament.
" I answered, that their mass was neither sacrifice nor
sacrament ; because, said I, ' you havetaken away the true
institution, which when you restore again, I will tell you
my judgment concerning Christ's body in the sacra-
ment.' ''
And thus much did this worthy martyr of God leavebe-
hind him by his own hand in writing concerning his treat-
ment in prison, and also his contentions with the bishop
and his chancellor. More examinations he had, no doubt,
with the bishop in the public consistory, when he was
brought forth to be condemned, which also he would have
left unto us, if the hurry of his execution had permitted
him to finish what he intended ; but by reason of the writ
for his burning arriving from London, I could not
obtain even the records of his last examinations, where-
ever they are.
Cornelius Bungey, Martyr.
In the same fire with Glover was burned also Corne-
lius Bungey, a capper of Coventry, and condemned by
Radulph bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. The effect
of the articles which were objected against him, was as
follows : —
1. It was articled against him, that these years past,
in the city of Coventry and Lichfield, and other places
about, he did hold, maintain, argue and teach, that the
pricbt hath no power on earth to absolve any sinner from
his sins.
2. That by baptism sins are not washed away, because
he said that the washing of the flesh purges the flesh out-
wardly, and not the soul.
.'i. That there are in the church two sacraments, that
is, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
4. That in the sacrament of the popish altar, there was
not the real body and blood of Christ, but the substance
of bread and wine there remaining still, because St. Paul
calleth it bread and wine, &c.
5. That he within the compass of the said years and
time, did hold, maintain, and defend, that the pope is
not the head of the visible church here on earth, &c.
6. That he was of the diocese and jurisdiction of the
bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, &c.
7. That tiie premises are true, manifest and notorious,
and that upon the same there hath been and is a public
voice and fame, as well in the places above rehearsed,
as in other quarters also about, &c.
Upon these articles, Radulph, the bishop, read the
sentence, and so committed him, after the condemnation
of Master Robert Glover, to the secular power.
Thus tiiis Cornelius, falsely condemned by the bishop,
suffered at the same stake with the christian martyr.
Master Robert Glover, at Coventry, about the 20th of
September.
Account of John Glover and William Glover.
Now that we have given the history of Master Robert
Glover, something also may be said of his other two
brothers, John and William Glover. Who although
they were not called to finish their course by martyrdom
in the fire, as the other did ; yet for their constant ])ro-
fession of God's gospel to the end, they were exempted
after their death, and cast out of the same churcli, as
the other was ; I therefore thought them not unworthy
to be associated in history, who in one cause and the
same profession svere not divided.
And first concerning John Glover, the eldest brother,
what agonies he sustained by the ghostly enemy, has
been before described : what his bodily enemies wrought
against him, remains to be declared.
After the martyrdom of Robert Glover, John Glover,
seeing his brother apprehended for him, had little joy of
his life for the sorrow of heart wherewith he was op-
pressed, and would gladly have put himself in his bro-
ther's stead, if friends had not otherwise persuaded him,
shewing that in so doing he might entangle himself,
but would do his brotlicr no good. He endured great
care and vexation, yet notwithstanding persevered, till
at length, about the latter end of the reign of Queen
Mary, there was a new search made for him.
The sheriffs, with their under officers and servants,
being sent to seek John Glover, came into his house
where he and his wife were. It chanced, as he was in
the chamber by himself, the officers bursting into the
house, and searching other rooms, came to the chamber-
door, where he, holding the latch softly with his hand,
perceived and heard the officers bustling about the door,
amongst whom one of the officers, having the string in
his hand, was ready to draw and pluck at the door.
In the meantime another coming by (whose voice he
heard and knew) bade them come away, saying they had
been there before. Upon which they went to search
other corners of the house, where they found Agnes
Glover, his wife, who being taken to Lichfield, and there
examined before the bishop, at length, after much ado,
was constrained to give place to their tyranny : John
Glover in the meantime, partly for care of his wife,
partly through cold taken in the woods where he lay hid,
had an ague, and not long after gave up his life, which
the cruel papists so long had sought for.
Thus by the protection of Almighty God, John
Glover was delivered and defended from the hand of his
persecuting enemies during all the time of his life. Now
what befel after his death both to him and William his
brother, is not unworthy to be remembered. After he
was dead, and buried in the church-yard without priest
or clerk. Doctor Dracot, then chancellor, six weeks after,
sent for the parson of the town, and demanded how it
chanced that he was there buried. The parson answered
that he was then sick, and knew not of it. Then the
chancellor commanded the parson to go home, and to
cause the body of John Glover to be taken up, and to be
cast over the wall into the highway. The parson again
answered, that he had been six weeks in the earth, and
so smelled, that none was able to abide the stench of
him. "Well," said Doctor Dracot, "then take this
bill, and pronounce him in the pulpit a damned soul;
and a twelve-month after take up his bones (for then the
flesh will be consumed) and cast them over the wall,
that carts and horses may tread upon them, and then I
wiU come and hallow again that place in the church-
yard where he was buried." '
Similar usage was practised also by these chddren of
the mother church, upon the body of Wilham, the third
brother; whom, after it had pleased Almighty God
about the same season to call out of this vale of misery,
the good disposed people of the town of W em, in Shrop-
shire, where he died, brought the body mto the parish
820
THE MARTYRDOM OF WILLIAM WOLSEY AND ROBERT PYGOT. [Book XI.
church, intending there to have it buried. But one
Bernard, being then curate of the church, to stop the bu-
rial, rode tothebishop, named Ralph Baine, to certify him
of the matter, and to have his advice. The body in the mean-
time lay there a whole day, and in the night-time, one
Richard Maurice, a tailor, would have interred him. But
then came John Thorlyne, of Wem, with others, and
would not suffer the body to be buried ; shewing to
us the contrary examples of good Tobias : for as he was
religious in burying tne dead, so this man puts religion
in not burying the dead ; so that after he had lain there
two days and one night, Bernard, the curate, comes with
the bishop's letter, the contents of which letter being
copied out word for word, here follows :
" Understanding that one Glover, an heretic, is dead,
in the parish of Wem, which Glover hath for all the
time of my being in this country been known for a rebel
against our holy faith and religion, a contemner of the
holy sacraments and ceremonies used in the holy church,
and hath separated himself from the holy communion of
all good christian men, and never required to be recon-
ciled to our mother holy church, nor in his last days did
call for his ghostly father, but died without all those
rites belonging to a christian man ; I thought it good
not only to command the curate of Wem, that he should
not be buried with a christian man's burial, but also
will and comm-ind all the parish of Wem, that no man
procure, help, nor speak to have him buried in holy
ground ; but I do charge and command the church-
wardens of Weu^ in special, and all the parish of the
same, that they assist the said curate in defending and
rendering, and procuring that he be not buried either in
the church, or witliin the limits of tlie church-yard:
and likewise I charge those that brought the body to the
place, to carry it away again, and that at their charge,
as they will answer at tlieir peril. At Ecclesch, this
sixth of September, A.D. loSo.
" By your ordinary, Radulph Coventry
and Lichfield.''
It so fell out, that they who brought the corpse thither,
were at their own charges to carry it back again. But
as the body was corrupted, and smelt so strongly that
no mai\ might come near it, they were forced to draw it
witii hoises into a broom-field, and there he was buried.
The like example of charitable affection in these po-
pish churchmen, is also to be seen and noted in the
burying of one Edward Burton, Esq. who, in the same
diocese of Chester, departing out of this world the very
day before Queen Elizabeth was crowned, required of
his friends, as they would answer for it, that his body
should be buried in his parish church (which was St.
Chads, in Shrewsbury) so that no mass-monger should
be present thereat. Which being declared to the curate
of that parish, named John Marshall, and the body
being brought to the burial, upon the same day when
the queen was crowned, the curate being offended, said,
plainly, that he should not be buried in the church there.
One of his friends, named George Torpelley, answering,
said, " Tliat God would judge him in the last day," &c.
Then said the priest, "Judge God or devil, the body
shall not come there." And so tliey buried him in his
own garden, where he is no doubt as near the kingdom
of heaven, as if he had been buried in the midst of the
church.
Moreover, in the said county of Salop, I find that
one Oliver Richardine, of the parish of Whitchurch,
was burned in Haverford-west, Sir John Ygone being
sheriff at the time, which seems to be about the latter
year of King Henry VII I. Whose name, because it was
notmentioned before, I thought here tonotice him, having
now in hand to speak of the persecution within the dio-
cese of Coventry and Lichfield
The Martyrdom of William Wolsey and Robert Pygot.
After the suffering of Robert Glover and Cornelius
Bungey, at Coventry, next fjllows the condemnation of
two other blessed martyrs, who were judged and con-
demned at Ely, by John Fuller, the bishop's chancellor,
of Ely ; Doctor Shaxton, his suffragan ; Robert Steward,
dean of Ely ; John Christopherson, dean of Norwich,
October y, A.D. 1555. The names of these martyrs
were William Wolsey and Robert Pygot, dwelling both
in the town of ^^■isbeach : William Wolsey was a con-
stable, in the town of Wells, and was there brought to
death by Richard Everard, a justice, who caused him to
I)ut in sureties upon his good behaviour, until the next
general sessions to be held within the Isle of Ely ■ after-
wards he was commanded to the gaol.
In the Easter week following, there repaired to confer
with him Doctor Fuller, the chancellor, with Christo-
pherson, and one Doctor Young, who laid earnestly to
las charge that he was out of the catholic faith, desiring
him to meddle no further with the scriptures than it
became such a layman as he was. William Wolsey
standing still a great while, suffering them to say what
they pleased, at last answered in this wise : ' Good
Doctor, what did our Saviour Christ mean, when he
spake these words, written in Matthew's gospel, chapter
xxiii. 13. ' Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypo-
crites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven agamst
men ; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer yo
them that are entering to go in.' "
'•Yea," saith Dr. Fuller, "you must understand,
that Christ spake to the scribes and pharisees."
" Nay, Master Doctor," saith Wolsey, " Christ
spake even to you, and your fellows here present, and to
all others such as you."
" Away, Master Doctor," said Christopherson, " for
you can do no good with this man."
" Yet," saith Doctor Fuller, " I will leave thee a
book to read ; I promise thee of a learned man's doing,
that is to say, of Doctor Watson's doing;" who was
then bishop of Lincoln.
Wolsey, receiving the same book, diligently read it
over, which in many places manifestly appears contrary
to the known truth of God's word. At length, a fort-
night or three weeks after. Doctor Fuller, resorting
again to the prison to confer with Wolsey, asked him
how he liked the book, who answered him and said :
" Sir, I like the book no otherwise than I thought be-
fore I should find it." Whereupon the chancellor tak-
ing his book departed home.
At night, when Doctor Fuller came to his chamber to
look at it, he found in many places, contrary to his
mind, the book marked with a pen by Wolsey, which he
seeing, and being vexed, said : " Oh, this is an obsli-
nate heretic, and hath quite marred my book."
Then the assizes, holden at Wisbeach, drawing nigh,
Doctor Fuller comes again to Wolsey, and speaking to
him on this manner : ' ' Thou doest much trouble my con-
science, wherefore I pray thee depart, and rule thy tongue,
so that I hear no more co;Tii)laint of thee, and come to
the church when thou wilt, and if thou art complained
of, so far as I may, I promise thee I will not hear of it."
"Master Doctor," said Wolsey; "I was brought
hither by a law, and by a law I will be delivered."
Then being brought to the sessions, Wolsey was 2aid
in the castle at Wisbeach, where he and his friends
thought he would have sutiered, but it proved not so.
Then Robert Pygot, the painter, being at liberty, \yas
presented by some evil disposed persons for not coining
to the church.
Pygot, being called before the sessions, would not
absent himself, but appeared before Sir Clement
Hygham, judge, wjo said to him ; " Ah ! are you the
holy father, the painter ? How came ye not to the
church ?" " Sir, " said the painter, " I am not out of
the church, I trust in God."
" No, sir," said the judge. " This is no church, this
is a hall." "Yea. sir," said Pygot, "I know ver)
well it is a hall ; but he that is in the true faith of Jesus
Christ, is never absent, but present in the church of
God."
".\h, sirrah," said the judge, "you are too high
learned for me to talk with ; wherefore I will send you
to them that are better learned than I ;" straight ways
commanding him to the gaol, where Wolsey lay. So the
A.D. 1555.]
THE HISTORY OF BISHOP RIDLEY
821
ffssions being ended, Wolsey and Pygot were carried
again to Ely into prison, where they remained till the
day of their death.
In tlie meantime some of their neighbours came to see
how they did.
There came thither also a chaplain of Bishop Good-
rikes, a Frenchman born, one Peter Valentius, who said
to Wolsey and Pygot: "My brethren, according to
mine office I am come to talk with you, for 1 have been
almoner here these twenty years and above. Wherefore I
must desire you, my brethren, to take it in good part
that 1 am come to talk with you ; I promise you, not to
pull you from your faith. But I both require and de-
sire, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you stand to the
truth of the gospel and word, and I beseech the
Almighty God, for his Son Jesus Christ's sake, to pre-
serve both you and me in the same unto the end. For
I know not myself, my brethren, how soon I shall be at
the same point that you now are." Thus, with many
other like words, he made an end, causing all that were
there present to shed tears, contrary to the hope they
all had in him, God be praised therefore.
Then, within a short time after, Pygot and Wolsey
were called to judgment about the ninth day of October,
before Doctor Fuller, then chancellor, with old Doctor
Sliaxton, Christopherson, aud others in commission,
who bid earnestly to their charge for their belief in
articles, but especially of the sacrament of the altar.
Vf'hereunto their answer was, that the sacrament of the
aitar was an idol, aud that the natural body and blood
o{ Christ was not really present in the said sacrament,
;mI to this opinion they said they would stick, believing
jiLifectly the same to be no heresy, but the very truth.
After sentence of condemnation was read, and a
senuon preached, Pygot and Wolsey were brought to
the place of execution, and bound to the stake with a
<.haiu. Then Richard CoUinson, a priest, said to
Wolsey : " Brother Wolsey, the preacher has openly re-
ported itt his sermon this day, that you are quite out of
the catholic faith, and deny baptism, and that you err in
the holy scripture ; wherefore I beseech you for the
certifying of my conscience, with others here present,
that you declare in what place of the scripture you do err
or find fault."
Wolsey. — " I take the eternal and everlasting God to
witness, that I do err in no part or point of God's book,
the holy bible, but hold and believe in the same, to be
most firm and sound doctrine in all points most worthy
for my salvation, and for all other christians to the end
of the world. Whatsoever mine adversaries report by
me, God forgive them there for." With that comes one
to the fire with a great sheet full of books to burn, that
looked as if they had been New Testaments. " O,"
said Wolsey, " give rae one of them," and Pygot de-
sired another, both of them clapping them close to their
breasts, saying the hundredth and sixth Psalm, desiring
ait the people to say Amen, and so received the fire most
thankfully.
Doctor Nicholas Ridley, and Master Hugh Latimer,
both Biihops, Preachers, and Martyrs of Christ, with
their doings, conferences, and sufferings described.
In the same year, month, and day which tne two
martyrs, William Wolsey and Thomas Pygot, suffered at
Ely, which was October H>th, A.D. l.iao, follo»-ed also,
at Oxford, the slaughter of two other special and singu-
lar captains and principal pillars of Christ's church,
Master Ridley, bishop of London, and Master Hugh
Latimer, bishop of Worcester, of whose famous doings,
and memorable learning, and incomparable ornaments,
and gifts of grace, joined with no less commendable sin-
cerity of life, as all the realm can sufficiently witness ;
60 it needs not greAtly that we should stand at this time
setting forth a full description, but only to comprehend
briefly in a few words, touching the order of their lives,
so much as necessarily serves to the due instruction of
the reader, and makes to the use of this present history,
in declaring first their beginning and bringing up, then
tiieir studies and acts in the university, their prefer-
ments also by their studies to higher dignity ; at last
their troni)le and labour in setting forth religion, and in
maintaining the same to the shedding of their blood.
And first to begin with the life of Doctor Ridley, whose
history here ensueth.
Among many other worthy histories and notable acts
of such as have been murdered and martyred for the
true gospel of Christ in Queen Mary's reign, the tragi-
cal history and life of Doctor Ridley, I thought good to
leave to perpetual memory ; beseeching thee, gentle
reader, with care and study well to peruse, diligently
to consider, and deeply to print the same in thy breast,
seeing him to be a man endowed with such excellent
qualities, so spiritually inspired and godly learned, and
now written doubtless in the book of life, with the
blessed saints of the Almighty, crowned and throned
amongst the glorious company of martyrs. First, de-
scending of a stock right worshijjful, he was born in
Northumberland, and while a child learned his gram-
mar with great dexterity in Newcastle, and was removed
from thence to the university of Cambridge, where he ia
a short time became so famous, that for his singidar apt-
ness, he was called to higher functions and offices of the
university, and at length to be head of Pembroke Hall,
and there made doctor of divinity. After this, departing
from thence, he travelled to Paris, and at his return was
made chaplain to King Henry VIII., and promoted
afterwards by him to the bishopric of Rochester ; and
so from thence translated to the bishopric of London ia
King Edward's days.
In which calling and offices he so laboured and occu-
pied himself by preaching and teaching the true and
wholesome doctrine of Christ, that never child wat
more singularly loved of his dear parents, than he of his
flock and diocese. Every holiday and Sunday he
preached in some one place or other, except he were
otherwise hindered. To his sermons the people resorted,
swarming about him like bees, and coveting the sweet
flowers and wholesome juice of the fruitful doctrine,
which he not only preached, bat exemplified by his life,
as a lanthorn to the eyes and senses of the blind, in such
pure order and holiness of life, that even his very
enemies could not reprove him.
Besides this, he was well learned, his memory was
great, and of such reading, that he deserved to be com-
pared to the best of this our age, as his learned works,
pithy sermons, and disputations in both the universi-
ties, and also his very adversaries can testify, all of
whom will say no less themselves.
Besides all this, he was wise of counsel, deep of know-
ledge, and very judicious in all his doings. How merci-
ful and careful he was to reduce the obstinate papists
from their erroneous opinions, and by gentleness to win
them to the truth, his gentle ordering and courteous
handling of Doctor Heath, late archbishop of York, be-
ing prisoner with him in King Edward's time in his
house one year, sufficiently declares. In fine, he was
such a prelate, and in all points so good, godly, and
spiritual a man, that England may justly lament the loss
of so worthy a treasure. And thus hitherto concerning
these public matters.
Now I will speak something further of his person
and condition. He was a man right comely and well
proportioned in all points, both in complexion and line-
aments of the body. He took all things in good part,
bearing no malice nor rancour from his heart, but
straightways forgetting all injuries and offences done
against him. He was very kind and affectionate to his
kinsfolk, and jjet not bearing with them any thing
otherwise than right would require, giving them always
for a general rule, yea, to his ov;n brother and sister,
that they doing evil should seek or look for nothing
at his hand, but should be as strangers and aliens to
him ; and that they were liis brother and sister, who
lived honestly, and a godlv life.
Using all kinds of ways to mortify himself, he was
given to much prayer and contenipi ition : for every
morning, a? toon as' his ai-i)arel was i)ut on, he went to
his bed- chamber, and theic upon his knees prayed for
the space of half an Lour ; winch bcin^- doue, he went to
822
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
[Book XI.
his study, where he continued till ten o'clock, and then
came to " the common prayer," which was daily used in
his house. The prayers being over, he went to dinner ;
where he used little talk, and then it was sober, discreet
and wise, and sometimes clieerful, as cause required.
Thac done, he returned to his study, and there gene-
rally continued until five o'clock, and then came to
'• common-prayer," as in the forenoon : vviiich being
finished, he went to supper, conducting himself tliere as
at his dinner before. He would tlien return again to his
study ; continuing there till eleven o'clock at night,
whicli was his common hour to go to bed. At his manor
of Fulham, he read daily a lecture to his family, beginning
at the Acts of the Apostles, and so going through all
the epistles of St. Paul, giving to every man that could
read a New Testament, being scrupulously careful over
his family, that they might be a spectacle of all virtue
and honesty to others. To be short, as he was godly
and virtuous himself, so nothing but virtue and godliness
reigned in his house, feeding them with the food of our
Saviour Jesus Christ.
It now remains that a word or two should be declared
of his gentle nature and kindly pity in the usage of an
old woman called Mrs. Bonner, mother to Dr. Bonner,
sometime bishop of London, which I thought proper to
allude to, as well for the rare clemency of Dr. Ridley, as
the unworthy inhumanity and ungrateful disposition of
Dr. Bonner. When Bishop Ridley was at his manor of
Fulham, he always sent for Mrs. Bonner, who dwelt in
a house adjoining to his house, to dinner and supper,
with one Mrs. Mungey, Bonner's sister. She was ever
placed in the chair at the end of the table, being so
gently treated, welcomed, and taken, as thougli he had
heen born of her own body, being never displaced of her
seat, although the king's council had been present, say-
ing, when any of them were there, " By your lordships'
favour this ])lace of right and custom is for my mother
Bonner." How he was recompensed for this his singu-
lar gentleness and kindness afterwards at the hands of
her son. Dr. Bonner, our readers are well acquainted.
Dr. Ridley was first called to the favouring of Christ
and his gospel, by reading Bertram's book of the sacra-
ment ; and the conference with Bishop Cranmer, and
with Peter Martyr not a little confirmed him. After
the coming in of Queen Mary, he was soon laid hands
upon, and committed to prison, as has sufficiently been
expressed before : first in the Tower, then sent with the
archbishop of Canterbury and Master Latimer to Oxford,
wliere he was with them confined in the common gaol,
and afterwards was committed to custody in the house of
cue Irish, where he remained till the last day of his
martyrdom, which was from the year 1554 till the Kith
day of October 15.i5.
As to his disputations at Oxford, and also of his de-
termination at Cambridge ; also his labour in persuad
ing and instructing the lady Mary before she was queen ;
his reasons and conference likewise had in the Tower at
the lieutenant's board, enough has been said in a former
part of this book. Besides this, he had other confer-
ences in prison both with Doctor Cranmer, and Master
Latimer, as here follows : —
A Conference hetwixt Ridley and Latimer in Prison,
upon the Objection of Antonian, meaninij by that name
some Popish Persecutor, as Winchester.
Ridley. — " In writing again you have done me an
unspeakable pleasure, and 1 pray that the Lord may re-
quite it you in that day. For I have received great
comfort at your words: but yet I am nol so filled withal,
but that I thirst much more now tlian before, to drink
more of the cup of yours, wherein ye mingle unto me
profitable instruction with pleasant. I pray you, good
father, let me have one draught more to comfort my heart.
For surely except the Lord assist me with his gracious
aid, in the time of his service, I know I shall jilay but
the part of a white-livered knight. But truly my trust
is in him, tha*^ in my infirmity he will prove himself
strong, anil make the coward in his cause to fight like a
man.
" Sir, now I daily look when Diotrephes with his
v/arriors shall assault me : wherefore I pray you, good
father, for that you are an old soldier, and an expert
warrior, and God knoweth I am but a young soldier, and
as yet of small experience in these feats, help me, I
pray you, to buckle my harness. And now I would
have you to think, that these darts are cast at my head
by some one of Diotrephes, or Antonius' soldiers."
Oljjection.
" All men marvel greatly, why you, after the liberty
granted unto you, more than the rest, do not go to mass,
which is a thing, ?s you know, now much e.^^teemed of all
men, yea of the queen herself."
Answer.
Ridley. — " Because no man that layeth hia hand on
the plough, and looketh back, is fit for the kingdom of
God, and also for the self-same cause why St. Paul
would not suffer Titus to be circumcised, which is that
the truth of the gospel might remain with us uncorru]it,
Gal. ii. And again, ' If 1 build again the things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.' This is also
another cause : lest 1 should seem by outward act to
allow the thing, which I am persuaded is contrary to
sound doctrine, and so prove a stumbling-block to the
weak. But woe be to him by whom offence conieth :
it were better for him t))at a mill-stone were hanged
about his neck, and he cast into the midst of the sea.''
Latimer. — " Except the Lord help me, you say.
Truth it is. ' For without me,' saith he, ' ye can do
nothing,' much less suffer death by our adversaries,
through the bloody law now prepared against us. But
it follows, ' If you abide in me, and my word abide in
you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto
you.' Wliat can be more comfortable ? Sir, you make
answer yourself so well, that I cannot better it. Sir, I
begin now to smell what you mean by labouring thus
with me ; you use me as Bilney did once, when he con-
verted me : pretending as though he would be taught of
me, he sought ways and means to teach me, and so do
you. I thank you, therefore, most heartily. For, indeed,
you minister armour to me, whereas I was imarmed be-
fore and unprovided, saving that I give myself to prayer
for my refuge."
Objection.
"What is it, then, that offendeth you so greatly in the
mass, that you will not vouciisiife once either to hear it
or see it ? And from whence comi-rh this new religion
upon you ? have not you used in times jiast to say mass
yourself?"
Ansiver.
Ridley. — " I confess to you my fault, and ignorance ;
but know you that for these matters 1 have done penance
long ago, both at St. Paul's cross, and also openly in the
puljiit at Cambiidge, [('. e., he had openly confessed his
former error, and renounced popery in the jmljiit at
Cambridge,] and I trust God hath forgiven me this mine
offence : for I did it from ignorance. But if you be de-
sirous to know, and will vouchsafe to hear what things do
offend me in the mass, I will rehearse unto you those
things which are most clear, and seem to repugn most
manifestly against God's word, and they are these : the
strange tongue ; the want of the showing of the Lord's
death ; the breaking of the Lord's commandment of
having a communion; the sacrament is not communi-
cated to all under both kinds, according to the word
of the Lord ; the sign is servilely \vorship])ed for the
thing signified ; Christ's passion is injured, forasmuch
as this mass-sacrifice is affirmed to remain for the purg-
ing of sins ; to be short, the manifold superstitions, and
trifling fondness which are in the mass, and about the
same."
Latimer. — "Better a few things well pondered, than
to trouble the memory with too much ; you shall prevail
more with praying than with studying, though mixture
is best, for so one shall alleviate the tediousness of t'-
A.D. 1555.]
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
823
other. 1 intend not to contend much with them in
words, after a reasonable account of my faith given : for
it shall be but in vain. They will say, as tlieir fathers
said, when they have no more to say : We have a law,
and bv our law you ought to die. ' Be ye steadfast and
unmovable,' saith St. Paul : and again, 'Stand fast:'
And how ott is this repeated, ' If ye abide,' ' if ye abide,'
&c. But we shall be called obstinate, sturdy, ignorant,
headv, and what not ; so that a man hath need of much
patience, having to do with such men."
Objection.
" But you know how great a crime it is to separate
yourself from the communion or fellowship of the church,
and to make a schism or division. You have been re-
ported to have hated the sect of the Anabaptists, and
always to have impugned the same. Moreover, this was
the pernicious error of Novatus, and of the heretics
called Cathari, that they would not communicate with
the church."
Ansjver,
Ridley. — " I know that the unity of the church is to
be retained by all means, and the same to be necessary
to salvation. But I do not take the mass, as it is at
this day, for the communion of the church, but a popish
device, whereby both the commandment and institution
of our Saviour Christ, for the oft frequenting of the re-
membrance of his death, is eluded, and the people of God
are miserably deluded. The sect of the Anabaptists,
and the heresy of the Novatians ought of right to be
condemned, forasmuch as, without any just or necessary
cause, they wickedly separated themselves from the com-
munion of tlie congregation, for they did not allege that
the sacraments were unduly ministered, but turning
away their eyes from themselves, wherewith according
to St. Paul's rule they ought to examine themselves, and
casting their eyes ever upon others, either ministers or
communicants with them, they always reproved some-
thing for which they abstained from the communion, as
from an unholy thing."
Latimer. — " I remember that Calvin begins to con-
fute the interim after this sort with this saying of Hilary,
' The name of peace is beautiful, and the opinion of
unity is fair : but who doubteth that to be the true and
only peace of the church, which is Christ .■" I would you
had that little book, there should you see how much is
to be given to unity, St. Paul, when he requires unity,
withal adds, 'according to Jesus Christ,' no further.
Diotrephes now of late did ever harp upon unity,
unity. ' Yea, Sir,' said I, ' but in truth, not in popery.
Better is diversity than unity in popery.' I had
nothing again but scornful taunts, with commandment
to the Tower."
Objection.
" But admit there is in the mass, that which peradven-
ture might be amended, or at least made better ; yea, see-
ing you will have it so, admit there is a fault ; if you do
not consent thereto, why do you trouble yourself in vain ?
do you not know, both by Cyprian and Augustine, that
communion of sacraments doth not defile a man, but
consent of deeds ?"
Answer.
Ridley. — " If it were any one trifling ceremony, or if
it were some one thing of itself indifterent (although I
would wish nothing should be done in the church,
which doth not edify the same,) yet for the continuance
of the common quietness I could be content to bear it.
But, forasmuch as things done in the mass tend openly
to the overthrow of Christ's institution, I judge that by
no means, either in word or deed, I ought to consent to
it. As for that which is objected out of the fathers, I
acknowledge it to be well spoken, if it be well under-
stood. But it is meant of them who suppose they are
defiled if any secret vice be eitiier in the ministers, or in
them that communicate with them, and is not meant of
them that abhor superstition and wicked traditions of
men, and will not suffer the same to be thrust upon
themselves, or upon the church, instead of God's word
and the truth of the gospel."
Latimer. — "The very marrow-bones of the mass are
altogether detestable, and therefore by no means to be
borne with : so that of necessity the mending of it is to
abolish it for ever. For if you take away oblation and
adoration, which hang upon consecration and transub-
stantiation, the greatest papists of them all will not set a
button by the mass, as a thing which they esteem not,
but for the gain that follows ; for if the English com-
munion, which of late was used, were as gainful to them
as the mass has been heretofore, they would strive no
more for their mass ; from thence grows the grief."
Ol/jection.
" Consider into what dangers you cast yourself, if you
forsake the church ; and you cannot but forsake it, if
you refuse to go to mass. For the mass is the sacra-
ment of unity ; without the ark there is no salvation.
The church is the ark and Peter's ship. Ye know this
saying well enough ; he shall not have God to be his
father, who acknowledges not the church to be his
mother. Moreover, without the church, saith St. Augus-
tine, be the life never so well spent, it shall not inherit
the kingdom of heaven."
Answer.
Ridley. — "The holy catholic or universal church,
which is the communion of saints, the house of God, the
city of God, the spouse of Christ, the body of Christ,
the pillar and stay of the truth ; this church I believe,
according to the creed. This church I do reverence, and
honour in the Lord. But the rule of this church is the
word of God, according to which rule we go forward
unto life. And as many as walk according to this rule,
I say with St. Paul, Peace be upon them, and upon
the whole Israel of God. The guide of this church
is the Holy Ghost. The marks whereby this church
is known unto me in this dark world, and in the
midst of this crooked and froward generation, are these :
The sincere preaching of God's holy word, the due ad-
ministration of the sacraments, charity, and faithful ob-
serving of ecclesiastical discipline, according to the word
of God. And that church or congregation which is
garnished with these marks, is in very deed that heavenly
Jerusalem, which consisteth of those that are born from
above. This is the mother of us all, and by God's
grace I will live and die the child of this church. Out
of this (I grant) there is no salvation ; and I suppose
the residue of the places objected are rightly to be
understood of this church only. In times past, saith
Chrysostom, there were many ways to know the church
of Christ, that is to say, by good life, by miracles, by
chastity, by doctrine, by ministering the sacraments.
But from the time that heresies did take hold of the
church, it is only known by the scriptures which is the
true church. They have all things in outward shew,
which the true church hath in truth. They have
temples like unto ours. Wherefore only by the scrip-
tures do we know which is the true church. To that
which they say, that the mass is the sacrament of
unity, 1 answer ; The bread which we break, according
to the institution of the Lord, is the sacrament of the
unity of Christ's mystical body. For we being many,
are one bread and one body, forasmuch as we all are
partakers of one bread. But in the mass the Lord's
institution is not observed ; for we are not all partakers
of one bread, but one devours all, &c. So that, as
it is used, it may sefm a sacrament of singularity, and
of a certain special privilege for one sect of people,
whereby they may be discerned from the rest, rather
than a sacrament of unity, wherein our knitting to-
gether in one is represented."
Latimer.—" Yea, what fellowship hath Christ with
antichrist ? Th-refore, it is not lawful to bear the yoke
with papi^ts. Come out from among them, and se-
parate yourselves from them, saith the Lord. It is one
thing to be the church indeed; another thing to counter-
feit the church. Would God it were well known what
is the forsaking of the church ! In the king's days (that
824
CONFERENCE BETWEEN L.VTIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
[Book XI.
is dead) wTio was the church of England ? The king and
his favourers, or mass-mongers in corners ? If the king
and the favourers of his proceedings, why are not we
now the church abiding in the same proceedings ? If
mass-mongers might be of the church, and yet contrary
to the king's proceedings, why may not we as well be
of the church, though contrary to the queen's proceed-
ings ? Not all that are covered with the title of the
church, are the church indeed. Separate thyself from
them that are such, saith St. Paul ; from whom ? The
context answers the question : ' If any man teach other-
wise, and consent not to vvholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, \c. he is proud, know-
ing nothing,' 6iC. Weigh the whole text, tliat you may
jierceive what is the fruit of contentious disputations :
But wherefore are such men said to know nothing, when
they know so many things ? You know the old verses,
' Hoc est nescire, sine Christo plurima scire :
Si Christum bene seis, satis est, si csetera nescis.'
That is, * This is to be ignorant, to know many things
without Christ. If thou knowest Christ well, thou
knowest enough, though thou know no more.' There-
fore would St. Paul know nothing but Jesus Christ, and
him crucified, &c. As many as are papists and mass-
mongers, they may well be said to know nothing. For
they know not Christ, forasmuch as in their massing
they take much away from the benefit and merit of
Christ."
Objection.
" That church which you have described unto me is
invisible, but Christ's church is visible and known.
For else why would Christ have said, " Tell it unto the
church." For he had commanded in vain to go unto
the church, if a man cannot tell which it is."
Ansiver.
Ridley. — " The church which I have described is
visible ; it has members who may be seen ; and also I
have before declared, by what marks and tokens it may
be known. But if either our eyes are so dazzled, that
we cannot see, or that Satan has brought such darkness
into the world, that it is hard to discern the true church;
that is not the fault of the church, but either of our
blindness, or of Satan's darkness. But yet in this most
deep darkness there is one most clear candle, which of
itself alone is able to put away all darkness. Thy word
is a lamp unto ray feet, and a light unto my path."
Objection.
" The church of Christ is a catholic or universal
church, dispersed throughout the whole world, this
church is the great house of God, in this are good men
and evil mingled together, goats and sheep, corn and
chatf ; it is the net which gathers all kind of fishes : this
■•.hurch cannot err, because Christ has promised it his
Spirit, which shall lead it into all truth, and that the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; that he will be
with it unto the end of the world ; whatsoever it shall
loose or hind upon earth, shall be ratified in heaven, &c.
This church is the pillar and stay of the truth ; this is it
for the which St. Augustine saith, he believeth the
gospel : But this universal church alloweth the mass,
because the more part of the same alloweth it. There-
fore, &c."
Anstver.
Ridley. — " I grant the name of the church is taken
after three divers manners in the scriptures. Some-
times for the whole multitude of them which profess the
name of Chrisr, of which they are also named christians.
But as St. Paul saith of the Jews, not every one is a Jew,
that is a Jew outwardly, &c. ; neither yet all that are of
Israel, are counted the seed ; even so not every one
which is a christian outwardly is a christian indeed.
For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his. Therefore that church which is his body,
and of which Christ is the head, standeth only in living
stones, and true christians, not only outwardly in name
and title, but inwardly in heart and in truth. But for-
somuch as this church (which is the second meaning of
the church) as touching the outward fellowship, is con-
tained within the great house, and with the same
outward society of the sacraments and ministry of the
word, many things are spoken of that universal church
(which St. Augustine calls the mingled church) which
cannot truly be understood, but only of that pure
part of the church. So that the rule of Ticoiiins con-
cerning the mingled church, may here wi-U take place;
where there is attributed unto the wli «le church that
which cannot agree unto the same, but bv reason of the
one part thereof; that is, either for the multitude of
good men, which is the very true church indeed ; or for
the multitude of evil men, which is the malignaut
cliurch and synagogue of Satan. And tliere is also a
third taking of the church ; of which, although there he
sekiomer mention in the scriptures, in that signific.ition,
yet in the world, even in the most famous assemblies of
Christendom, this church hath borne the greatest sway.
This distinction presupposed of the three sorts of
churches, it is an easy matter, by a figure called synec-
doche, to give to the mingled and universal church, that
which cannot truly be understood but only of the one
part thereof. But if any man will stiffly aiSrm, that
universal doth so pertain to the church, that whatsoever
Christ hath promised to the church, it must needs be
understood of that, I would gladly know of the same
man, where that universal church was in the times of the
patriarchs and prophets, of Noah, Abraham, and Moses,
at such time as the people would have stoned him ; of
Elijah, of Jeremiah ; in the times of Christ, and the dis-
persion of the apostles in the time of Arius, when Con-
stantius was emperor, and Felix bishop of Rome suc-
ceeded Liberius. It is worthy to be noted, that Lyra
writes upon St. Matthew : ' The church,' saith he, ' doth
not stand in men by reason of their power or dignity,
whether it be ecclesiastical or secular. For many princes
and popes, and other inferiors, have been found to have
fallen away from God. Therefore the church consisteth
in those persons in whom is true knowledge and con-
fession of the faith and of the truth. Evil men (as it
is in a gloss of the decrees) are in the church in name,
and not in deed. And .St. Augustine saith : 'Whosoever i
is afraid to be deceived by the darkness of this question,
let him ask counsel at the same church of it: which!
church the scripture doth point out without any doubt-
fulness. All my notes which I havewriten and gathered '■
out of such authors as I have read in this matter, and
such like, are come into the hands of such as will notl
let lue have the least of all my written 'books ; wliereirij
1 am forced to complain of them unto God : for they 1
spoil me of all my labours, which I have taken in my
study these many years. My memory was never good,
for help whereof I have used for the most part to gather :
out notes of my reading, and so to place them, that
thereby I might have had the use of them when the time
required. But who knows whether this be God's will,
that I should be thus ordered, and spoiled of the poor
learning I had (as me thought) in store, to the intent
that I now, destitute of that, should from henceforth
learn only to know with St. Paul, Christ, and him cruci-
fied? The Lord grant me herein to be a good young
scholar, and to learn this lesson so well, that neither
death nor life, weal nor woe, &c., will make me ever
to forget that. Amen, Amen."
Latimer. — " I have no more to say in this matter, for
you yourself have said all that is to be said. That same
vehement saying of St. Augustine, ' I would not believe
the gospel,' &c. was wont to trouble many men ; as I
remember, I have read it well qualified by Philip Me-
lancthon; but my memory is altogether slippery. This
it is in effect — the church is not a judge, but a witness.
There were in his time those who lightly esteemed the
testimony of the church, and the outward ministry of
preaching, and rejected the outward word itself, sticking
only to their inward revelations. Such rash contempt
of the word provoked and drove St. Augustine into that
excessive vehemency. In which, after the bare sound
A.D. 1555.] CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
82i
j of the words, he might seem to such as do not attain
I unto his meaning, tliat he preferred the church far be-
i fore the gospel, and that the church hath a free authority-
over the same ; but that godly man never thought so.
■ It were a saying worthy to be brought forth against the
> Anabaptists, who think the open ministry to be a thing
not necessary, if they any thing esteemed such testi-
monies. I would not stick to affirm, that the more part
01 the great house, that is to say, of the whole universal
church, may easily err. And again, I would not stick to
' affirm, that it is one thing to be gathered together in
the name of Christ, and another thing to come together
with a mass of the Holy Ghost going before. For in the
' first, Christ ruleth, in the latter the devil beareth the
swing ; and how then can any thing be good that they
I go aljout .' From this latter shall our six articles come
i forth again into the light, they themselves being very
darkness. But it is demanded whether the sounder or
. better part of the catholic church may be seen of men,
: or not ? St. Paul saith, ' The Lord knoweth them that
are his.' What manner of speaking is this in commen-
, dation of the Lo«d, if we knew as well as he who are
' his .' Well, thus is the text : ' The foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
I that are his ; and let every man that nameth the name
of Christ depart from iniquity.' Now how many are
■ there of the whole popish church of England, who de-
, part from iniquity ? How many of the noblemen, how
many of the bishops or clergy, how many of the rich men,
' or merchants, how many of the queen's councillors, yea,
how many of the whole realm .' In how small room
I then, I pray you, is the true church within the realm of
j England.' And where is it? And in what state? I
I had a conceit of mine own well grounded, as they say,
when I began, but now it is fallen by the way."
Objection,
" General councils represent the universal church, and
have this promise of Christ : ' Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
i of them.' If Christ be present with two or three, then
much more where there is so great a multitude, &c.
But in general councils mass hath been approved and
used: Therefore, &c."
Answer.
Ridley. — " Of the universal church, which is mingled
of good and bad, thus I think : Whenever they who are
chief in it, who rule and govern the same, and to whom
the whole mystical body of Christ doth obey, are the
lively members of Christ, and walk after the guiding
and rule of his word, and go before the flock towards
everlasting life, then undoubtedly councils gathered to-
gether of such guides and pastors of the christian flock,
do indeed represent the universal churcli, and being so
gathered in the name of Christ, tliey have a promise of
the gift and guidance of his Spirit into all truth. But
that any such council hath at any time allowed the mass,
such an one as ours was of late, in a strange tongue, and
stuffed with so many absurdities, errors, and supersti-
tions ; that I utterly deny and affirm it to be impossible.
For like as there is no agreement l)etwixt light and dnrk-
ness, between Christ and Belial ; so surely superstition
and the sincere religion of Christ, will-worship and the
pure worshipping of God, such as God requireth of his,
that is, in spirit and in truth, can never agree together.
But ye will say, where so great a company is gathered
together, it is not credible but there will be two or three
gathered in the name of Christ. I answer — if there be
one hundred good, and two hundred bad (forasmuch as
the decrees and ordinances are pronounced according to
the greater number of the multitude of voices) what can
the less number of voices avail ? It is a known thing,
and a common proverb, oftentimes the greater partover-
cometh the better.''
Latimer. — " As touching general councils, at this pre-
sent I have no more to say than you have said. Only I
refer you to your owu experience, to think of our coun-
try parliaments and convocations, how and what ye have
seen and heard. The more part in my time did bring
forth the six articles ; for then the king would so have it,
being seduced of certain. Afterward, the more part did
repel the same, our good Josiah willing to have it so.
The same articles now again, alas ! another great, but worse
part, hath restored. Oh ! what an uncertainty is this ?
But after this sort most commonly at<» man's proceed
ings, God be merciful unto us! Wh,> shall di liver us
from such torments of mind ? Therefore is death the
best physician, unto the faithful, whom she together
and at once delivereth from all griefs. You must think
this written upon this occasion, because you would needs
have your paper blotted."
•
Objection.
" If the matter should go thus, that in general councils
men should not stand to the more number of the multi-
tude (1 mean of them who ought to give voices) then
should no certain rule be left unto the church, by the
which controversies in weighty matters might be deter-
mined ; but it is not to be bslieved, that Christ would
leave his church destitute of so necessary a help and
safeguard."
Ansiver.
Ridley. — " Christ, who is the most loving spouse of
his church, who also gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify it unto himself, did give unto it abundantly all
tilings which are necessary unto salvation ; but yet so,
that the church should declare itself obedient unto him in
all tilings, and keep itself within the bounds of his com-
mandments, and further not to seek any thing which he
teacheth not, as necessary unto salvation. Now further,
for determination of all controversies in Christ's reli-
gion, Christ himself hath left unto the church not
only Moses and the prophets, whom he directs his church
in all doubts to go unto, and ask counsel at, but also the
gospels, and the rest of the body of the New Testament ;
in which whatsoever is heard of Moses and the prophets,
and whatsoever is necessary to be known unto salvation,
is revealed and opened. So that now we have no need
to say. Who sliall climb up into heaven, or who shall go
down into the depth, to tell us whatis needful to be done ?
Christ hath done both, and hath commended unto us the
word of faith, which also is abundantly declared unto us
in his written word ; so that hereafter if we walk ear-
nestly in this way, to the searching out of the truth, it
is not to be doubted, but through the certain benefit of
Christ's spirit, which he hatli promised unto his, v.-e may
find it, and obtain everlasting life. Should men ask
counsel of the dead for the living ? saith Isaiah. Let
thein go rather to the law and to the testimony, &c.
Christ sends them who are desirous to know the truth,
unto the scriptures, saying, ' Search the scriptures.' I re-
member a like thing well spoken by Jerome : 'Ignorance
of the scriptures, is the mother and cause of all errors.'
And in another place, as I remember in the same
author : ' The knowledge of the scriptures, is the food
of everlasting life.' But now, methinks, 1 enter into a
very broad sea, in that I begin to shew, either out of the
scriptures themselves, or out of the ancient writers, how
much the holy scripture is of force to teach the truth of
our religion. But this it is, that I am now about, that
Christ would have the church, his spouse, in all doubts
to ask counsel at the word of his Father, written, and
faithfully left, and commended unto it in both Testa-
ments, the Old and New. Neither do we read, that
Christ in any place hath laid so great a burthen upon
the members of his spouse, that he hath commanded
them to go to the universal church. ' \A'hatsoever things
are written,' saith St. Paul, 'are written for our learning.'
And it is true that Christ gave unto his church, some
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, to the edifying of the saints, till we all
come to the unity of the faith, &c. But that all men
should meet together out of all parts of the world,
to define the articles of our faith, I neither find it
commanded of Christ, nor written in the word of God.
826
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
lBook xr.
Latimer. — " There is diversity between things per-
taining to God or faith, and politic and civil matters.
For in tht first we must stand only to the scriptures,
which are able to make us all perfect and instructed
unto salvation, if they are well understood. And they
offer themselves to be well understood only to them,
who have good wills, and give themselves to study and
prayer. Neither are there any -men less apt to under-
stand them, than the prudent and wise men of the world.
But in the other, that is, in civil or politic matters,
oftentiuies the magistrates do tolerate a less evil, for
avoiding of a greater, as they who have this saying oft
in their mouths ; ' Better an inconvenience than a mis-
chief.' And it is the property of a wise man, saith one,
' To dissemble many things,; and he that cannot dis-
semble, cannot rule.' In which sayings they betray them-
selves, that they do not earnestly weigh what is just,
and what is not. Wherefore forasmuch as man's laws,
if it be but in this respect only, that they are devised by
men, are not able to bring any thing to perfection, but
are forced of necessity to suffer many things out of
order, and are compelled sometimes to wink at the worst
things : seeing they know not how to maintain the com-
mon peace and quiet otherwise, they do ordain that the
more part shall take place. You know what these kinds
of speeches mean, ' I speak after the manner of men.'
' You walk after the manner of men.' ' All men are liars.'
And that of St. Augustine, ' If ye live after man's reason,
ye do not live after the will of God.' "
Objection.
" If you say, that councils have sometimes erred, or
may err, how then should we believe the catholic church .'
for that councils are gathered by the authority of the
catholic church."
Answer,
Ridley. — " From may be, to be indeed, is no good
argument ; but from being, to may be, no man doubteth
but it is a most sure argument. But now that councils
have sometimes erred, it is manifest. How many coun-
cils were there in the eastern parts of the world, who
condemned the Nicene council? and all those who would
not forsake the same, they called by a slanderous name
(as they thought) Homousians. Were not Athanasius,
Chrysostom, Cyril, Eustachius, men very well learned,
and of godly life, banished and condemned as famous
heretics, and that by wicked councils .-' How many
things are there in the canons and constitutions of the
councils, which the papists themselves do much dis-
like? But here, peradventure one m n will say unto me;
' We will grant you this in provincial councils, or coun-
cils of some one nation, that they may sometimes err,
forasmuch as they do not represent the universal church ;
but it is not to be believed, that the general and full
councils have erred at any time.' Here, if I had my
books of the councils, or rather such notes as I have
gathered out of those hooks, I could bring something
which should serve for this purpose. But now seeing I
have them not, 1 will recite one place only out of St.
Augustine, which (in my judgment,) may suffice in this
matter instead of many. ' Who knoweth not,' saith he,
' that the holy scripture is so set before us, that it is not
lawful to doubt of it, and that the letters of bishops may
be reproved by other men's words, and by councils,
and that the councils themselves, who are gathered by
provinces and countries, do give place to the authority
of the general and full councils ; and that the former
and general councils are amended by the latter, when as
by some experience of things, either that which was
shut up is opened, or that which was hid, is known ?'
Thus much out of St, Augustine. But I will plead with
our Antonian, upon matter confessed. Here witli us when
as papistry reigned, I pray you how doth that book,
which was called the bishops' book, made in the time of
King Henry the Eighth, whereof the bishop of Win-
cluester is thought to be either the first father, or chief
gatherer ; how doth it, I say, sharply reprove the Flo-
rentine council, in which was decreed the supremacy of
the bishop of Rome, and that with the consent of the
emperor of Constantinople, and of the Grecians ? So
that in those days our learned ancient father.^ and bishops
of Ei\gland did not stick to affirm, that a general council
might err. But metb'uks I hear another man despising
all that I have brought forth, and saying, these which
you have called councils, are not worthy to be called
councils, but rather assemblies, and conventicles of
heretics. I pray you, sir, why do you judge them
worthy of so slanderous a name ? Because, saith he,
they decree things heretical, contrary to true godliness
and sound doctrine, and against the faith of Christian
religion. The cause is weighty, for which they ought of
right so to be called. But if it be so that all councils
ought to be despised, which decree any thing contrary
to sound doctrine, and the true word, which is according
to godliness ; forasmuch as the mass, such as we had
here of late, is openly against the word of God, there-
fore it must follow of necessity, that all such councils
as have approved such masses, ought of right to be
avoided and despised, as conventicles and assemblies of
men that stray from the truth. Auotl^pr man allegeth
unto me the authority of the bishoji of Rome, without
which, neither can the councils, saith he, be lawfully
gathered, neither being gathered determine any thing
concerning religion. But this objection is only ground-
ed upon the ambitious and shameless maintenance of the
Romish tyranny and usurped dominion over the clergy;
which tyranny we Englishmen long ago, by the consent
of the whole realm, have expelled and abjured. And
how rightly we have done it, a little book set forth de
utraque potestafe (that is, of both the powers) doth
clearly shew. I grant that the Romish ambition hath
gone about to challenge to itself and to usurp such a
privilege of old time. But the council of Carthage, in
the year 417, did openly withstand it, and also the
council at Milevia, in which St. Augustine was present,
did prohibit any appellations to be made to bishops be-
yond the sea."
Objection.
" St. Augustine saith, the good men are not to be
forsaken for the evil, but the evil are to be borne withal
for the good. Ye will not say, I trow, that in our con-
gregations all be evil."
Answer.
Ridley. — " I speak nothing of the goodness or wicked-
ness of your congregations ; but I fight in Christ's quar-
rel against the mass, which doth utterly take away and
overthrow the ordinance of Christ. Let that be taken
quite away, and then the partition of the wall that made
the strife, shall be broken down. Now as to the place of
St. Augustine, for bearing with the evil for the good's
sake, there ought to be added other words, which the
same writer hath expressed in other places ; that is, if
those evil men do cast abroad no seeds of false doctrine,
nor lead others to destruction by their example."
Objection.
" It is perilous to attempt any new thing in the church,
which lacketh example of good men. How much more
perilous is it to commit any act, unto which the ex-
amj)le of the prophets, of Christ, and of the apostles are
contrary ? But unto this your act, in abstaining from
the church by reason of the mass, the example of the
prophets, of Christ, and of the apostles are clean con-
trary : Therefore, &c. the first part of the argument is
evident, and the second part I prove thus. In the times
of the prophets, of Christ, and his apostles, all things
were most corrupt. The people were miserably given to
superstition, the priests despised the law of God ; and
yet, notwithstanding, we read not that the prophets made
any schisms or divisions, and Christ himself frequented the
temple, and taught in the temple of the Jews. St. Peter
and St. John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of
l>rayer ; St Paul after the reading of the law, being desired
to say something to the people, did not refuse to do it.
Yea, further, no man can shew, that either the prophets,
A.D. 1555.1
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
827
or Christ, or bis apostles did refuse to pray together
V. ith others, to sacrifice, or to be partakers of the sacra-
uif ut of Moses' laws."
Answer,
Ridley. — " I grant the former part of your argument,
and to the second part I say, that although it contain
many true things, as of the corrupt state in the times of
the prophets, of Christ, and the apostles, and of the
temple being frequented by Christ and his apostles ; yet
notwithstanding, the second part of your argument is not
sufficiently proved. For you ought to have proved, that
I either the prophets, either Christ or his apostles, did in
the temple communicate with the people in any kind of
worshipping, which is forbidden by the law of God, or
i repugnant to the word of God. But that can nowhere
* be shewed. And as for the church, I am not angry with
' it, and I never refused to go to it, and to pray with the
': people, to hear the word of God, and to do all other
things whatsoever may agree with the word of God. St.
Augustine, speaking of the ceremonies of the Jews, (I
suppose in the epistle ad Jamiarium) although he grants
they grievously oppressed that people, both for the num-
ber, and bondage of the same, yet he calleth them bur-
dens of the law, which were delivered unto them in the
word of God, not presumption of men, which, notwith-
standing, if they were not contrary to God's w'ord, might
after a sort be borne withal. But now, seeing they are
contrary to those things which are written in the word of
God, whether they ought to be borne of any Christian or
not, let him judge who is spiritual, who feareth God
\ more than man, and loveth everlasting life more than
this short and transitory life. To that which was said,
that my act lacketh example of the godly fathers that
have gone before, the contrary is most evident in the
history of Tobias : of whom it is said, that when all
others went to the golden calves, which Jeroboam the
king of Israel had made, he himself alone fled all their
companies, and got him to Jerusalem unto the temple
of the Lord, and there worshipped the Lord God of
I Israel. Did not the man of God threaten grievous
' plagues both unto the priests of Bethel, and to the altar
which Jeroboam had there made after his own fantasy ?
Which plagues King Josias, the true minister of God,
did execute at the time appointed. And where do we
read, that the prophets or the apostles did agree with
i the people in their idolatry, when the people went a
I whoring with their hill altars .' For what cause, I pray
j you, did the prophets rebuke the people so much, as for
! their false worshipping of God after their own minds,
and not after God's word? For what was so much as
that was ? Wherefore the false prophets ceased not to
malign the true prophets of God : therefore they beat
them, they banished them, &c. How else, I pray you,
can you understand what St. Paul allegeth, when he saith,
what concord hath Christ with Belial .' Either what
part hath the believer with the infidel ? or how agreeth
the temple of God with images ? For you are the
temple of the living God, as God himself hath said ; " I
will dwell among them, and will be their God, and they
\ shall be my people." Wherefore, come out from among
! them, and separate yourselves from them, saith the
I Lord, and touch no unclean thing; so will I receive you,
I and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Judith, that
holy woman, would not suffer herself to be defiled with
the meats of the wicked. All the saints of God, who
truly feared God, when they have been provoked to do
any thing w'hich they knew to be contrary to God's laws,
have chosen to die, rather than to forsake the laws of
their God. Wherefore the Maccabees put themselves
ill danger of death for the defence of the law, yea, and
at length died manfully in the defence of the same. If
we do praise, saith St. Augustine, the Maccabees, and
that with great admiration, because they did stoutly
i stand even unto death, for the law of their country; how
much more ought we to suffer all things for our baptism,
! for the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, &c. ?
But the supper of the Lord, such a one, (I mean), as
Christ commands us to celebrate, the mass utterly abo-
lisheth, and corrupteth most shamefully."
Latimer. — "Who am I, that I should add any thing
to this which you have so spoken .' Nay, I rather thank
you that have vouchsafed to minister so plentiful armoirr
to me, being otherwise altogether unarmed, saving that
he cannot be left destitute of help, who rightly trusteth
in the help of God. I only learn to die in reading of
the New Testament, and am ever now and then praying
unto my God, that he will be an helper unto me in time
of need."
Objection.
" Seeing you are so obstinately set against the mass,
that you affirm, because it is done in a tongue not un-
derstood of the people, and for other causes, I cannot
tell what, therefore is it not the true sacrament
ordained of Christ ? I begin to suspect you, that you
think not catholickly of baptism also. Is our baptism,
which we do use in a tongue unknown unto the people,
the true baptism of Christ, or not .' If it be, then doth
not the strange tongue hurt the mass. If ic be not the
baptism of Christ, tell me how were you baptized. Or
whether will you, as the Anabaptists do, that all who
were baptized in Latin, slwuld be baptized again in the
English tongue ?"
Ansiver.
Ridley. — " Although I would wish baptism to be
given ill the vulgar tongue, for the people's sake who are
present, that they may the better understand thtir own
profession, and also be more able to teach their children
the same, yet notwithstanding there is not like necessity
of the vulgar tongue in baptism, as in the Lord's
Supper. Bajitisin is given to children, who, by reason
of their age, are not able to imderstand what is spoken
unto them, what tongue soever it l)e. The Lord's Sup-
per is, and ought to be given to them that are of age.
Moreover, in baptism, which is accustomed to be given
to children in the Latin tongue, all the substantial
points, as a man would say, which Christ commanded
to be done, are observed. And therefore I judge that
baptism to be a perfect and true baptism ; and that it is
not only not needful, but also not lawful for any man so
christened, to be christened again. But yet, notwith-
standing, they ought to be taught the catechism of the
christian faith, when they shall come to years of discre-
tion ; which catechism whosoever despiseth, or will not
desirously embrace and willingly learn, in my judgment
he playeth not the part of a christian man. But in the
popish mass are wanting certain substantials, that is to
say, things commanded by the word of God to be ob-
served in the ministration of the Lord's Supper ; of
which there is sufficient declaration made before."
Latimer. — " Where you say, ' T would wish,' surely I
would wish that you had spoken more vehemently, and
to have said, it is of necessity, that all things in the con-
gregation should be done in the vulgar tongue, for the
edifying and comfort of them that are present, notwith-
standing that the child itself is sufficiently baptized in
the Latin tongue."
Objection.
" Forasmuch as I jjfrceive you are so stiffly, I will not
say obstinately bent, and so wedded to your opinion, that
no gentle exhortations, no wholesome counsels, no other
kind of means can call you home to a better mind, there
remains that which in like cases was wont to be the only
remedy against stiff-necked and stubborn persons, that
is, you must be hampered by the laws, and compelled
either to obey whether you will or not, or else to suffer
that which a rebel to the laws ought to suffer. Do you
not know that whosoever refuseth to obey the laws of
the realm, he betray eth himself to be an enemy to his
country .' Do you not know that this is the readiest
way to stir up sedition and civil war ? it is better that you
should bear your own sin, than that, tljrough the example
of your breach of the common laws, the ':ommoa quiet
828
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
[Book XI.
should be disturbed. How can you say you will be
the queea's true subject, when you do openly profess
that you will not keej) her laws ?"
Anjswer.
Ridley. — " O, Heavenly Father, the Father of all
wisdom, understanding, and true strength, I beseech
thee, for thy only Son our Saviour Christ's sake, look
mercifully upon me, wretched creature, and send thine
Holy Spirit into my breast, that not only I may under-
stand according to thy wisdom, how this pestilent and
deadly dart is to be borne off, and with what answer it
is to be beaten back, but also when I must join to fight in
the field for the glory of thy name, that then I, being
strengthened with the defence of thy right hand, may
manfully stand in the confession of thy faith, and of thy
truth, and continue in the same unto the end of my
life, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ ! Amen.
" Now to the objection. I grant it to be reasonable,
that he who by words and gentleness cannot be made to
yield to what is right and good, should be bridled by
the straight correction of the laws ; that is to say, he
that will not be subject to God's word, must be punished
by the laws. It is true, what is commonly said, he that
will not obey the gospel, must be tamed and taught by
the rigour of the law. But these things ought to take
place against him, who refuseth to do what is right and
just according to true godliness, not against him, who
cannot quietly bear superstitions, but doth hate and de-
test from his heart such kind of proceedings, and that
for the glory of the name of God. To that which you
say, a transgressor of the common laws betrayeth him-
self to be an enemy of his country, surely a man ought
to look unto the nature of the laws, what manner of
laws they are which are broken. For a faithful chris-
tian ought not to think alike of all manner of laws.
But that saying ought only truly to be understood of
such laws as are not contrary to God's word. Other-
wise, whosoever love their country in truth, that is to say,
in God, they will always judge if at any time the laws
of God and man be contrary the one to the other, that
a man ought rather to obey God than man. And they
that think otherwise, and pretend a love to that country,
forasmuch as they make their country to fight, as it
were, against God, in whom consisteth the only stay
of their country, surely I do think that such are to be
judged most deadly enemies, and traitors to their
country. For they that fight against God, who is the
safety of their country, what do they else but go about
to bring upon their country a present ruin and destruc-
tion ? But they that do so are worthy to be judged
enemies to their country, and betrayers of the realm.
7'herefore, &c.
" But this is the readiest way, you say, to stir up se-
dition, to trouble the quiet of the commonwealth ; there-
fore are these things to be repressed in time, by force of
laws. Behold, Satan doth not cease to practise his
old guiles, and accustomed subtleties. He hath ever
this dart in readiness to hurl against his adversaries,
to accuse them of sedition, that he may bring them, if
he can, in danger of the higher powers. For so hath he
by his minister always charged the prophets of God.
Ahab said unto Elijah : ' Art thou he that troubleth
Israel ?' The false prophets also complained to their
princes of Jeremiah, that his words were seditious, and
not to be suffered. Did not the scribes and pharisees
falsely accuse Christ as a seditious person, and one that
spake against Caesar ? Did they not at the last cry :
'If you let this man go, ye are not Caesar's friend?'
The orator TertuUus : how doth he accuse St. Paul be-
fore Felix, the high deputy ? ' We have found this man,'
saith he, ' a pestilent fellow, and a stirrer up of sedition,
unto all the Jews in the whole world,' &c. But I prav you
were these men, as they were called, seditious persons,
Christ, St. Paul, and the prophets ? God forbid !
But they were of false men falsely accused. And where-
fore, I pray you, but because they reproved before the
people their guiles, superstition, and deceits ? And
when the other could not bear it, and would gladly have
bad them taken out of the way, they accused them as
seditious persons, and troublers of the commonwealth,
that being by this means made hateful to the people and
jiriaces, they might the more easily be snatched up to
be tormented and p\it to death. But how far they were
from all sedition, their whole doctrine, life, and conver-
sation, doth well declare. For that which was objected
last of all, that be canjiot be a faithful subject to his
prince, who professeth openly that he will not observe
the laws which the prince hath made ; here I would
wish that I might have an impartial judge, and one
that feareth God, to whose judgment in this cause I
promise I will stand. I answer, therefore, a man ought
to obey his prince, but in the Lord, and never against
the Lord. For he that knowingly obeyeth his prince
against God, doth not a duty to the prince, but is a de-
ceiver of the prince, and an helper unto bin to work
his own destruction. He is also unjust, who giveth not
to the prince what is the prince's, and to God what is
God's. Here cometh to my remembrance, that notable
saying of Valentinian, the emperor, for choosing the
bishop of Milan : ' Set him,' saith he, 'in the bishop's
seat, to whom if we, as man, do ofl'end at any time, we
may submit ourselves.' Polycarp, the most constant
martyr, when he stood before the chief rulers, and was
commanded to blaspheme Christ, and to swear by the
fortune of Caesar, &c. he answered with a mild spirit :
' We are taught,' saith he, ' to give honour unto princes ;
and those powers which are of God ; but such honour as
is not contrary to God's religion.' jj
" Hitherto you see, good father, how I have in words
only made, as it were, a flourish before the fight, which
I shortly look after, and how I have begun to i)repare
certain kinds of weapons to fight against the adversary
of Christ, and to muse with myself how the darts of the
old enemy may be borne off, and after what sort I may
smite him again with the sword of the Spirit. I learn also
hereby to be used to the armour, and to assay how I can
go armed. In Tindal, where I was born, not far from
the Scottish borders, I have known my countrymen to
watch night and day, in their harness, such as they had,
that is, in their jacks, and their spears in their hand
(you call them northern-gads), especially when they had
any jn-ivy warning of the coming of the Scots. And so
doing, although at every such bickering some of them
spent their lives, yet by such means, like brave men,
they defended tiieir country. And those that so died, I
think that before God they died in a good quarrel, and
their offspring and progeny were beloved by all the country
the better for their fathers' sake. And in the quarrel of
Christ our Saviour, in the defence of his own divine or-
dinances, by which he giveth unto us life and immorta-
lity ; yea, in the quarrel of faith and christian religion,
wherein resteth our everlasting salvation, shall we not
watch ? shall we not go always armed, ever looking
when our adversary, who, like a roaring lion seeketh
whom he may devour, shall come upon us by reason of
our slotbfulness ? yea, and woe be unto us, if he can
oppress us unawares, which undoubtedly he will do, if
he find us sleeping. Let us awake, therefore. For if
the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief
should come, he would surely watch, and not suffer his
house to be broken up. Let us awake, therefore, I say.
Let us not sutler our house to be broken up. ' Resist
the devil,' saith St. James, ' and he will flee from you.'
Let us, therefore, resist him manfully, and taking the
cross upon our shoulders, let us follow our Captain,
Christ, who by his own blood hath dedicated and hal-
lowed the way which leadeth unto the Father, that is,
to the light which no man can attain, the fountain of the
everlasting joys. Let us follow, I say, whither he
calleth and allureth us, that after these afflictions, which
last but for a moment, whereby he trieth our faith, as
gold in the fire, we may everlastingly reign and triumph
with him in the glory of the Father, and that through
the same our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; to whom
with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and
glory, now and for ever. Amen, Amen.
" Good father, forasmuch as I have determined with
myself, to pour forth these my cogitations into your
bosom, here, methiuks, I see you suddenly hfting up
A.D. 1555.]
CONFERENCE BETWEEN LATIMER AND RIDLEY IN PRISON.
829
your head towards heaven, after your manner, and then
looking upon me with your prophetical countenance,
and speaking unto rae, with these or like words : Trust
aot, my son (I beseech you vouchsafe me the honour of
this name, for in so doing I shall tliink myself both ho-
noured and beloved of you), trust not, I say, my son,
to these word- weapons, for the kingdom of God is not in
words, but in power. And remember always the words
of the Lord. Do not consider aforehand, what and how
you will speak ; for it shall be given you even in that
same hour, what you shall speak. For it is not you that
speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in
you. I pray you, therefore, father, pray for me, that
I may cast my whole care upon him, and trust upon him
in all perils. For I know, and am surely ])ersuaded,
that whatsoever I can imagine or think aforehand, it is
nothing, except he assist me with his Spirit, when the
time is. I beseech you, therefore, father, pray for me,
that such a complete harness of the Spirit, such boldness
of mind may be given unto me, that I may out of a true
faith, say with David : ' I will not trust in my bow,
neither shall my sword save me.' (Psalm xliv. 6.) ' He
delighteth not in the strength of the horse ; he taketh
not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his
mercy.' (Psalm cxlvii. 10, 11 .) I beseech you pray, pray,
that I may enter this fight only in the name of God, and
tliat when all is past, I being not overcome througli his
gracious aid, may remain and stand fast in him, till that
day of the Lord, in which to them that obtain tlie victory
shall be given the lively manna to eat, and a triumphant
oro>vn for evermore.
" Now, father, I pray you help me to buckle on this
S^ear a little better. For j'eknow the deepness of Satan,
being an old soldier, and you have collared with him ere
now : blessed be God, that hath ever aided you so well.
I sup;)0se he may well hold you at the bay. But truly
he will not be so willing, I think, to join with you as
with us younglings. Sir, I beseech you, let your servant
read this my babbling unto you, and now and then, as it
shall seem unto you best, let your pen run on my
book ; spare not to blot my paper ; I give you good leave."
Latimer. — " Sir, I have caused my man not only to
read your armour unto me, but also to write it out.
For it is not only no bare armour, but also well buckled
armour. I see not how it could be better. I thank you
even from the bottom of my heart for it, and my prayer
you shall not lack, trusting that you do the like for me ;
for indeed there is the help, &c. Many things make
confusion in my memory. And if I were learned as well
as St. Paul, I would not bestow much amongst them,
further than to gall them, and spur-gall too, when and
whereas occasion were given, and matter came to mind ;
for the law shall be their sheet-anchor, stay and re-
fuge. Therefore there is no remedy, now when they
have the master bowl in their hand, and rule the roast,
but patience. Better it is to suffer what cruelly they
will put upon us, than to incur God's high indignation.
Wherefore, my lord, be of good cheer in the Lord, with
due consideration what he requireth of you, and what he
doth promise you. Our common enemy shall do no more
than God will permit him. God is faithful, who will
not suffer us to be tempted above our strength, &c. Be
at a point what ye will stand unto : stick unto that, and
let them both say and do what they list. They can but
kill the body, which otherwise is of itself mortal.
Neither yet shall they do that when they list, but when
God will suffer them, when the hour appointed is come.
To use many words with them, it shall be but in vain,
now that they have a bloody and deadly law prepared
for them. But it is very requisite that you give a rea-
sonable account of your faith, if they will quietly hear
you, else you know in a wicked place of judgment, a
man may keep silence, after the example of Christ. Let
them not deceive you with their sophistical sophisms
and fallacies ; you know that false things may have
more appearance of truth, than things that are most
true. Therefore St. Paul giveth us a watch-word : ' Let
no man deceive you with beguiling words.' Neither is
vt requisite that with the contentious you should follow
strife of words, which tend to no edification, but to tiie
subver.sion of <he hearers, and the vain braggin" and
ostentation of the adversaries. Fear ot deatu most per-
suades a great nunber. Be well aware of that argu-
ment ; for that persuaded Shaxton, as many men
thought, after tliat he had once made a good prt)fession
openly before the judgment seat. The flesh is weak, but
the willingness of the spirit shall refresh the weakness of
the flesh.
" The number of the criers under the altar must needs
be fulfilled ; if we be congregated thereunto, hapjiy are
we. That is the greatest promotion that God gives in
this world, to be like the Philippians, 'To wlioni it is
given not only to believe, but also to suffer,' &c. But
who is able to do these things ? Surely all our anility,
all our sufficiency is of God. He retiuireth and jjio-
niiseth. Let us declare our obedience to his will, when
it shall be requisite in the time of trouble, yea, in the
midst of the fire.
" When that number is fulfilled, which I trust shall
be shortly, then have at the papists, when they shall say
peace, all things are safe, then Christ shall come to
keep his great i)arliament to the redres of all tilings
that be amiss. But he shall not come as the paj)ist3
imagine him, to hide himself, and to play bo-peej), as it
were, under a piece of bread : but he sliall come ghjri-
ously, to the terror and fear of all pai>ists ; but to the
great consolatio'i and comfort of all that will heie suffer
for him. Comfort yourselves one another with these
words.
" Lo, sir, here have I blotted your paper vainly, and
played tlie fool egregiously ; but so I thought bettrr
than not to do your request at this time. Pardon m^,
and pray for me, l)ray for me, I say, pray for me, J say.
For I am sometimes so fearful, that I would creep into a
mouse-hole ; sometimes God doth visit me again witli
his comfort. So he cometh and goeth, to teach me to
feel and to know mine infirmity, to the intent to give
thanks to him that is worthy, lest I should rob him of
his due, as many do, and almost all the world. Fare yi
well.
" What credence is to be given to papists, it may ap-
pear by their wracking, writing, wrinching, and mon-
strously injuring of God's holy scripture, as appears in
the pope's law. But I dwell here now in a school of
obliviousness. Fare you well once again, and be you
steadfast and unmoveable in the Lord. St. Paul loved
Timothy marvellous well, notwithstanding he saith unto
him : ' Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel :'
and again : ' Harden thyself to suffer afflictions.' ' Be
faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of
life,' saith the Lord."
A Letter of Nicholas Ridley to John Bradford.
" Brother Bradford, I wish you and your company in
Christ, yea, and all the holy brotherhood, that now suf-
fer with you in divers prisons, bearing patiently Christ's
cross for the maintenance of his gospel, grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord
Jesus Christ.
" Sir, concerning this state of chivalry and warfare,
wherein I doubt not but we are set to fight under Christ's
banner, and his cross, against our spiritual enemy the
devil, and the old serpent Satan, methinks I perceive
two things to be his most perilous and most dangerous
engines, which he hath to impugn Christ's truth, his
gospel, and his faith ; and the same two also to he tlie
most massy posts, and most mighty pillars, whereby he
maintains and upholds this satanical synagogue. Tliese
two, sir, are, in my judgment, first, his false doctrine and
idolatrous use of the Lord's supper ; and secondly, the
wicked and abominable usurpation of the primacy ot
the see of Rome. By these two Satan seems to me
principally to maintain and uphold his kingdom ; by
these two he drives down mightily (alas ! I fear me) the
third part of the stars in heaven. These two jioisoned
rotten posts he had so painted over with such a pre-
tence and colour of religion, of unity in Christ's church,
of the catholic faith, and such like, that the wily ser-
pent is able to deceive (if u were possible) even the
830
LETTERS OF BISHOP RIDLEY TO JOHN BRADFORD, AND OTHERS.
[Book XI.
elect of God. Wherefore St. John saith, not without
great cause, ' If any man know not the depths of Satan,
as they speak, I will put upon him none otlier burden.'
" Sir, because these are his principal and main posts,
whereupon stands all his falsehood, craft, and treac;hery,
therefore, according to the poor power that God hath
given me, 1 have bended mine artillery to shoot at the
same. I know it to be but little (God knoweth) that I
♦"•an do, and of my shot I know they pass not. Yet I
will not (God willing) cease to do the best I can, to
shake those cankered and rotten posts. The Lord grant
me good success, to the glory of his name, and the
furtherance of Christ's gospel. I have now already (I
thank God) for this present time spent a good part of
my powder in these scribblings, whereof this bearer shall
give you knowledge. Good brother Bradford, let the
wicked surmise and say what they list, know you for a
certainty, by God's grace, without all doubt, that in
Christ's gospel's cause, against and upon the aforesaid
God's enemies, I am fully determined to live and die.
Farewell, dear brother, and I beseech you and all the
rest of our brethren to have good remembrance of the
condemned heretics (as they call them) of Oxford, in
your prayers. The bearer shall certify you of our state.
Farewell in the Lord. From Bocardo.
" Your brother in Christ,
" Nigh. Ridley."
Another Letter of Doctor Ridley to John Bradford.
"Oh, dear brother, seeing the time is now come, wherein
it pleases the heavenly Father, for Christ our Saviour's
sake, to call upon you, and to bid you to come, happy
are you that ever you were born, thus to be found awake
at the Lord's calling, 'Well done, good and faithful
servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will
make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.' (Mat. xxvi. 2;5.)
" Oh, dear brother, what meaneththis, that you are sent
into your own native country ? The wisdom and policy of
the world may mean what they will, but I trust God will
so order the matter finally by his Fatherly providence,
that some great occasion of God's gracious goodness
shall be plentifully poured abroad amongst his servants,
our dear brethren in that country, by this your martyr-
dom, where the martyrs for Christ's sake shed their
blood, and lost their lives. Oh, what wondrous things
hath Christ afterward wrought to his glory, and the con-
firmation of their doctrine ! If it be not the place that
sanctifieth the man, but the holy man doth by Christ
sanctify the place, brother Bradford, then happy and
holy shall be that place wherein thou shalt suffer, and
shall be with thy ashes in Christ's cause sprinkled over
withall. All thy country may rejoice of thee, that it
ever brought forth such a one, who would render his
life again in His cause of whom he had received it. Bro-
ther Bradford, so long as 1 shall understand thou art
in thy journey, by God's grace, I shall call upon our
heavenly Father for Christ's sake, to set thee safely
home : and then, good brother, speak you, and pray for
the remnant who are to suffer for Christ's sake, accord-
ing to that thou then shalt know more clearly.
" We do look now every day when we shall be called
on, blessed be God ! I suppose I am the weakest, many
ways, of our company ; and yet, I thank our Lord God
and heavenly Father by Christ, that since I heard of our
dear brother Roger's departing, and stout confession of
Christ and his truth, even unto the death, my heart
(blessed be God) rejoiced at it, that since that time (I
say) I never felt any heaviness in my heart, as I grant
I have felt sometimes before. Oh, good brother, blessed
be God in thee, and blessed be the time that ever I
knew thee. Farewell, farewell.
" Yours, in Christ,
" NiCH. Ridley."
To the brethren remaining in captivity of the flesh, and
dispersed abroad in sundry prisons, but knit toge-
ther in unity of spirit and holy religion, in the bowels
of llie Lord Jesus.
" Grace, peace, and mercy be multiplied among you.
I What worthy thanks can we render unto the Lord for
you, my brethren, namely, for the great consolation
which, through you, we have received in the Lord, who
notwithstanding the rage of Satan, that goeth about by
all manner of subtle means to beguile the world, and
also busily laboureth to restore and set up his kingdom
again, that of late began to decay and fall to ruin ; you
remain yet still unmoveable, as men surely grounded
u])on a strong rock. And now, although that Satan by
his soldiers and wicked ministers, daily, (as we hear)
draweth numbers unto him, so that it is said of him
that he plucketh even the very stars out of heaven, while
he driveth into some men the fear of death and loss of
all their goods, and shcweth and oflereth to others
the pleasant baits of the world ; namely, riches, wealth,
and all kinds of delights and ])leasures, fair houses, great
revenues, fat benefices, and what not ; and all to the in-
tent they should fall down and worship, not the Lord,
but the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, that
great beast and his image, and should be enticed to com-
mit fornication with the harlot of Babylon, together
with the kings of the earth, with the lesser beast and
with the false prophets, and so to rejoice and be jilea-
sant with her, and to be drunken with the wine of her
fornication ; yet, blessed be God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath given unto you a manly courage,
and hath so strengthened you in the inward man, by the
power of his Spirit, that you can contemn as well all the
terrors, as also the vain flatterings and allurements of
the world, esteeming the n as vanities, mere trifles, and
things of nought ; who hath also wrought, planted, and
surely established in your hearts, so steadfast a faith
and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, joined with such con-
stancy, that by no engines of antichrist, be they ever so
terrible or plausible, will you suffer any other Jesus, or
any other Christ, to be forced upon you, besides him
whom the prophets have spoken of before, the apostles
have preached, the holy martyrs of God have confessed,
and testified with the effusion of their blood.
" In this faith stand you fast, my brethren, and suf-
fer not yourselves to be brought under the yoke of bon-
dage and superstition any more. For you know, bre-
thren, how that our Saviour warned his disciples before-
hand, that such should come as would point unto the
world another Christ, and would set him out with so
many false miracles, and with such deceivable and sub-
tle practices, that even the very elect (if it were possi-
ble) should thereby be deceived : such strong delusion
to come did our Saviour give warning of before. But
continue faithful and constant, be of good comfort,
and remember that our grand Captain hath overcome
the world ; for he that is in us, is stronger than he that
is in the world, and the Lord promiseth unto us that
for the elect's sake, the days of wickedness shall be
shortened. In the meanwhile abide you, and endure
v/ith patience as you have begun : endure, I say, and
reserve yourselves unto better times, as one of the
heathen poets said ; cease not to shew yourselves va-
liant soldiers of the Lord, and help to maintain the pure
faith of the gospel.
" ' For ye have need of patience ; that after ye have
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come,
and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith :
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no plea-
sure in him. But we are not of them who draw back
unto perdition ; but of them that believe to the saving
of the soul.' (Heb. x. 36 — 39.) Let us not suffer these
words of Christ to fall out of our hearts by any manner
of terror, or threatenings of the world. Fear not them
who kill the body — the rest you know. For I write not
unto you, as to men who are ignorant of the truth, but
who know the truth ; and to this end only, that we,
agreeing together in one faith, may take comfort one of
another, and be the more confirmed and strengthened
thereby. We never had a better or more just cause
either to contemn our life, or shed our blood for ; we can-
not take in hand the defence of a more certain, clear,
and manifest truth. For it is not any ceremony for
which we contend j but it toucheth the very substance
A.D. i:.55.]
AN EXnORTATORY LETTER OF BISHOP RIDLEY.
831
of our whole religion, yea, even Christ himself. Shall
we, or can we receive and acknowledge any other
Christ instead of him, who is alone the everlasting Son
of the everlasting Father, and is the brightness of the
glory, and a lively image of the substance, of the Father,
in whom only dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead
bodily, who is the only way, the truth, and the life ?
Let such wickedness, my brethren, let such horrible
wickedness be far from us. For although there be that
are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there
be many gods and many lords, yet unto us there is but
one God, who is the Father, of whom are all things, and
we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
I things, and we by him ; but every man hath not know-
ledge. 'This is life eternal,' says St. John, ' that v,-e
may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent.' If any, therefore, would force
upon us any other god, besides him whom St. Paul and
the apostles have taught, let us not hear him, but let us
flee from him, and hold him accursed.
" Brethren, you are not ignorant of the deep and pro-
found subtleties of Satan ; for he will not cease to range
about you, seeking by all means possible whom he may
devour : but play you the men, and be of good comfort
in the Lord. And although your enemies, and the ad-
versaries of the truth, armed with all worldly force and
power that may be, do set upon you ; yet be you not
faint-hearted, andshrinknot therefore, but trust unto your
captain, Christ, trust unto the Spirit of Truth, and trust
to the truth of your cause ; which though it may by the
malice of Satan be darkened, yet can it never be clean
put out. For we have (high praise be given to God
therefore) most plainly, evidently, and clearly on our
side, all the prophets, all the apostles, and undoubtedly
all the ancient ecclesiastical writers who have written,
until of late years past.
" Let us be hearty and of good courage, therefore,
and thoroughly comfort ourselves in the Lord. Be in
nowise afraid of your adversaries ; for that which is to
them an occasion of perdition, is to you a sure token of
salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given,
that not only you should believe on him, but also suffer
for his sake. And when you are railed upon for the
name of Christ, remember, that by the voice of St.
Peter, yea, and of Christ our Saviour also, you are
counted with the prophets, with the apostles, and with
the holy martyrs of Christ, happy and blessed : for
the glory and Spirit of God resteth upon you. On
their part our Saviour Christ is evil spoken of, but
on your part he is glorified. For what else can they do
unto you by persecuting you, and working ^11 cruelty
and villany against you, but make your crowns more
glorious, yea, beautify and multiply the same, and heap
upon themselves the horrible plagues and heavy wrath
of God ? and, therefore, good brethren, though they
rage never so fiercely against us, yet let us not wish evil
unto them again, knowing that whiles for Christ's cause
they vex and persecute us, they are like madmen, most
outrageous and cruel against themselves, heaping hot
burning coals upon their own heads ; but rather let us
wish well unto them, knowing that we are thereunto
called in Christ Jesus, that we should be heirs of the
blessing. Let us pray, therefore, unto God, that he
would drive out of their hearts this darkness of errors,
and make the light of his truth shine unto them, that
they acknowledging their blindness, may, with all hum-
ble repentance be converted unto the Lord, and together
with us confess him to be the only true God, who is the
Father of light, and his only Son Jesus Christ, worship-
ping him iu Spirit and truth. Amen. The Spirit of our
Lord Jesus Christ comfort your hearts in the love of
God, and patience of Christ. Amen.
" Your brother in the Lord, whose name this
bearer shall signify unto you, ready always by
the grace of God to live and die with you."
" To the brethren who constantly cleave unto Christ,
in suffering affliction with him, and for his sake ;
" Grace and peace from God the Father, and from
our Lord Jcsus Christ, be multiplied unto you. Amen.
" Although, brethren, we have of late heard nothing
from you, neither have at this present any news to send
to you ; yet we thought good something to write unto
you, whereby you might understand that we have good
remembrance of you continually, as we doubt not but
you have of us also. When this messenger, coming
unto us from you of late, had brought us good tidings of
your great constancy, fortitude, and patience in the
Lord, we were filled with much joy and gladness, giv-
ing thanks to God the Father, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath caused his face so to shine upon you, and
with the light of spiritual understanding hath so light-
ened your hearts, that now being in captivity and bonds
for Christ's cause, you have not ceased, as much as in
you lieth, by words, but much mors by deed and by
your example, to establish and confirm that thing,
which when you were at liberty in the world, you la-
boured to publish and set abroad by the word and doc-
trine : that is to say, holding fast the word of life, you
shine as lights in the W(jrld, in the midst of a wicked
and crooked nation, and that with so much the greater
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and profit of your bre-
thren, by how much now Satan cruelly more rageth, and
busily laboureth to darken the light of the gospel.
" And as for the darkness that Satan now bringeth
upon the church of England, who needeth to doubt
thereof.' Of late time our Saviour Christ, his apostles,
prophets, and teachers, spake in the temple to the peo-
ple of England in the English tongue, so that they
might be understood plainly, and without any hardness
by the godly, and such as sought for heavenly knowledge
in matters, which of necessity of salvation pertained to
the obtaining of eternal life ; but now those things,
which once were written of them for the edifying of the
congregation, are read in a strange tongue without in-
terpretation, manifestly against St. Paul's command-
ment, so that there is no man able to understand them,
who hath not learned that strange and unknown tongue.
" Of late days those heavenly mysteries, whereby
Christ hath engrafted us into his body, and hath united
us one to another, whereby also being regenerate, and
born anew unto God, he hath nourished, increased, and
strengthened us, whereby, moreover, either he hath
taught and set forth an order amongst them who are
whole, or else to the sick in soul or body, hath given, as
it were, wholesome medicines and remedies ; those (I
say) were all plainly set forth to the people in their
own language ; so tliat what great and exceeding good
things every man had received of God, what duty every
one owed to another by God' s ordinance, what every
one had professed in his vocation, and was bound to
observe, where remedy was to be had for the wicked and
feeble, he to whom God hath given a desire and willing
heart to understand those things, might soon perceive
and understand. But now all these things are taught
and set forth in such sort, that the people redeemed
with Christ's blood, and for whose sakes they were by
Christ himself ordained, can have no manner of under-
standing thereof at all.
" Of late (forasmuch as we know not how to pray as
we ought) our Lord Jesus Christ in his prayer, whereof
he would have no man ignorant, and also the Holy
Ghost in the psalms, hymns, and s})iritual songs which
are set forth in the Bible, did teach and instruct all the
people of England in the English tongue, that they
might ask such things as are according to the will of
the Father, and might join their hearts and lips in
prayer together ; but now all these things are com-
manded to be hid and shut up from them in a strange
tongue, whereby it must needs follow, that the people
can neither tell how to pray, nor what to pray for ; and
how can they join their hearts and voice together, when
they understand no more what the voice siguifieth than
a brute beast .'
'♦ Finally, I hear say, that the catechism which was
lately set forth in the English tongue, is now in every
pulpit condemned. Oh devilish maUce, and most
spitefully injurious to the salvation of mankind, pur-
chased by Jesus Christ ! Indeed, Satan could not long
suffer that so great l.ght should be spread abroad in the
3 H
832
A LETTER OF BISHOP RIDLEY TO MR. WEST.
[Book XI.
world. He saw well enough that nothing was able to
overthrow his kingdom so much, as if children, being
godly instructed in religion, should learn to know Christ
whilst they are yet young; whereby not only children,
but tlie elder sort also, and aged folks, that before were
not taught to know Christ in their childhood, should
now, even with children and babes, be forced to learn to
know him. Now, therefore, he roareth ; now he rageth.
But what else do they, brethren, who serve Satan,
and become his ministers and slaves in maintaining
of his impiety, but even the same which they did, to
whom Christ our Saviour threateneth this curse in
the gospel : ' But woe unto you, scribes and pha-
risees, hypocrites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men : for ye neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.'
(Matt, xxiii. 13.)
" And from whence shall we say, brethren, that this
horrible and mischievous darkness proceedeth, which is
now brought upon the world ? From whence, I pray
you, but even from the smoke of the great furnace of the
bottomless pit, so that the sun and the air are now
darkened by the smoke of the pit. Now, even now,
out of doubt, brethren, the pit is opened against us,
and the locusts begin to swarm, and Abaddon now
reigneth.
" You, therefore, my brethren, who pertain unto
Christ, and have the seal of God marked in your foreheads,
that is, who are sealed with the earnest of the Spirit to be
a peculiar people of God, quit yourselves like men, and be
strong ; for he that is in us, ' is stronger than he who
is in the world ; and you know that all that is born of
God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Let the world
fret ; let it rage never so much ; be it never so cruel and
bloody, yet be you sure that no man can take us out of
our Father's hands, for he is greater than all. ' He
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all
things ? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that con-
demneth ? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword ?' (Rom. viii. 32 — 35.) The rest ye know, bre-
thren. We are certainly persuaded with St. Paul, by
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that no kind of
thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Which thing, that
it may come to pass by the grace and mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to the comfort both of you, and of us all,
as we for our parts will continually (God willing) pray
for you ; so, dear brethren in the Lord, with all earnest
and hearty request we beseech you, even in the bowels
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will not cease to pray
for us. Farewell, dear brethren. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all evermore. Amen."
A Letter of Bishop Ridley, in answer to a Letter of one
Mr. West, sometime his Chaplain.
" I wish you grace in God, and love of the truth, with-
out the which truly established in men's hearts by the
mighty hand of Almighty God, it is no more jjossible to
stand by the truth in Christ in time of trouble, than it is
for the wax to abide the heat of the fire. Sir, you
know this, that I am (blessed be God) persuaded that
this world is but transitory ; and, as St. John says, ' The
world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' (I'johnii.
17.) I am persuaded Christ's words are true, ' Who-
soever therefore shall confess me before men, him will
I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.'
(Matt. X. 32.) And I believe that no earthly creature
shall be saved, whom the Redeemer and Saviour of the
world shall before his Father deny. This the Lord
grant, that it may be so grafted, established, and fixed in
Hjy heart, that neither things present, nor things to come,
high or low, life nor death, shall be able to remove me
thence. It is a goodly wish, that you wish me deeply
to consider the things pertaining unto God's glory ; but
if you had wished also, that neither fear of death, nor
hope of worldly prosperity should prevent my maintaining
God's word and his truth, which is his glory and true
honour, it would have liked me well. You desire me,
for God's sake, to remember myself. Indeed, sir, it ig
now time so to do ; for, so far as I can perceive, it
standeth me upon no less danger than of the loss both
of body and soul ; and I trow, then it is time for a man
to awake, if any thing will awake Iiim. He that will not
fear him that threateneth to cast both body and soul
into everlasting fire, whom will he fear ? (With this
fear, O Lord, fasten thou together our frail flesh, that
we may never swerve from thy laws.) You say, you
have made much suit for me. Sir, God grant tliat you
have not, in suing for my worldly deliverance, impaired
and hindered the furtherance of God's word and his
truth.
" You have known me long, indeed ; in which time it
hath chanced me, as you say, to dislike some things. It
is true, I grant ; for sudden changes, without substan-
tial and necessary cause, and the obstinate setting forth
of extremities, I never did love. Confession unto the
minister, who is able to instruct, correct, comfort, and
inform the weak, wounded, and ignorant conscience, in-
deed, I ever thought, might do much good in Christ's
congregation, and so, I assure yon, I think even at this
day. My doctrine and my preaching, you say, you have
heard often, and, after your judgment, have thought it
godly, saving only for the sacrament ; which thing, al-
though it was of me reverently handled, and a great deal
better than of the rest (as you say), yet in the main you
write warily, and in this world viisely ; and yet, me-
thought, all sounding not well. Sir, but that I see so
many changes in this world, and so much alteration,
else, at this your saying, T would not a little marvel. I
have taken you for my friend, and a man whom I
esteemed for plainness and fwithfulness, as nniob, I as-
sure you, as for your learning ; and have you kei)t this
so close in your heart from ms unto this day ? Sir, J
consider more things than one, a;;d will not sny all that
I think. But what need you to care what I thinlc, for
any thing I shall be able to do unto you, either good or
harm ? You give me good lessons, to stand in nothing
against my learning, and to beware of vain-glory. Truly,
sir, I herein like your counsel very well, and 'uy God's
grace I intend to follow it vmto my life's end.
"To write unto those whom you n:inie, I cannot see
what it will avail me. For this I would have you
know, that I esteem nothing available for me, which also
will not further the glory of God. And now, because I
perceive you have an entire zeal and desire for uiy de-
liverance out of this captivity and worldly misery, if I
should not bear you a good heart in God again, nu^hink
I were to blame. Sir, how nigh the day of my dissolu-
tion and departure out of this world is at hand, I cannot
tell : the Lord's will be fulfilled how soon soever it shall
come. I know the Lord's words must be verified on
me that I shall appear before the uncorrupt judge, and
be accountable to him for all my former life. And
although the hope of his mercies is my sheet-anchor of
eternal salvation, yet am I persuaded that whosoever
wittingly ncglecteth and regardeth not to clear liis con-
science, he cannot have peace with God, nor a lively
faith in his mercy. Conscience, therefore, movcth me,
considering you were one of my family, and one of my
household, of whom then I think I had a special cure,
and of all them who were within my house, which indeed
ought to have been an example of godliness to all the
rest of my cure, not only of good life, but also in pro-
moting of God's word to the uttermost of their power,
(but, alas ! now when the trial doth separate the chaff from
the corn, how small a portion it is, God knoweth, which
the wind doth not blow away, } this conscience, I say, do(h
move me to fear, lest the lightness of my fan)i]y sl.all lo
l.iid to my charge for lack of more earnest and diligent
instruction, wliich should have been done. But, blessed be
God, who hath given me grace to sec thii my default,
A.D. 1555.]
AN ACCOUNT OF BISHOP LATOIER.
SiJ
and to lament it from the bottom of mv heart, before my
departing hence.
'* This conscience doth move me also now to require
both you and my friend Doctor Harvey, to remember
your promises made to me in times past, of the pure
setting forth and preaching of God s word and his trutli.
These promises, although you shall not need to fear to
be charged with them by me hereafter before the world,
yet look for none other, (I exhort you as my friends,)
but to be charged with them at God's hand. This con-
science, and the love that I bear unto you, biddeth me
now say unto you both, in God's name; fear God, and
love not the world : for God is able to cast both body
and soul into hell-fire. ' When his wrath is kindled
but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him !'
And the saying of St. John is true, ' For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the
world. And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for
ever.' If this gift of grace, (which undoubtedly is ne-
cessarily required unto eternal salvation, ) were truly and
unfeignedly engrafted and firmly established in men's
hearts, they would not be so light, so suddenly to sh.iak
from the maintenance and confession of the truth as is
now, alas ! seen so manifestly of so many in these days.
But here, peradventure, you would know of me, what
is the truth. Sir, God's word is the truth, as St. John
saith, and that even the same that was heretofore. Fur
although man doth vary and clftinge as the moon, yet
God's word is stable, and abideth the same for evermore :
and of Christ it is truly said, ' Jesus Christ, the same yes-
terday, to-day, and for ever.'
" When 1 was in office, all that were esteemed learned
in God's word, agreed this to be a truth written in God's
word, that the common prayer of the church should be
had in the common tongue. You know I have conferred
with many, and I assure you, I never found a man (so far
as I do remember) either old or young, gospeller or
papist, of what judgment soever he was, in this thing to
be of a contrary opinion. If, then, it were a truth of
God's word, think you that the alteration of the world
can make it an untruth ? If it cannot, why then do so
many men shrink from the confession and maintenance
of this truth received once by us all .' For what is it, I
pray you, else to confess or deny Christ in this world,
but to maintain the truth taught in God's word, or for
any worldly respect to shrink from the same ? This one
thing have 1 brought for a sample ; other things are in
like case, which now particularly I need not mention.
For he that will forsake wittingly, either for fear or gain of
the world, any one open truth of God's word, if he be con-
strained, he will assuredly forsake God and all his truth,
rather than he will endanger himself to lose or to leave
what he loveth better indeed, than he doth God and the
truth of his word.
" I like very well your plain speaking, wherein you
say, I must either agree or die, and I think that you
mean of the bodily death, which is common both to good
and bad. Sir, I know I must die, whether I agree or
not. But what folly were it then to make such an agree-
ment, by which 1 could never escape this death which is
common to all, and also incur the guilt of death and
eternal damnation ? Lord, grant that I may utterly
abhor and detest this damnable agreement, as long as 1
live. And because, I dare say, you wrote of friendship
unto me this short earnest advertisement, and I think
verily, wishing me to live and not to die, therefore bear-
ing you in my heart no less love in God, than you do
nie in the world, I say unto you in the word of the Lord
(and vAia.t I say to you, I say to all my friends and
lovers of us in God,) that if you do not confess and
maintain to your power and knowledge that which is
grounded upon God's wcn'd, but will either for fear or
gain of the world shrink and play the apostate, indeed
?ou shall die tlie death ; you know what I mean. And
beseech you all true friends and lovers in God, remem-
ber what 1 say, for this may be the last time, peradven-
ture. that ever I shall write unto you.
" From Oiford, the 8th of April, 1555."
I An Account of the Life, Ac's, and Doings of Master
Htiyh Latimer.
After the life of Bishop Ridley, we must now relate
the life and doings of the worthy champion, and old
practised soldier of Christ, ]\Iaster Hugh Latimer ; of
whose acts, even from his first years and tender age, we
are here to treat. He was the son of one Hugli Lati-
mer, of Thurcaston, in the county of Leicester, a hus-
bandman of good estimation ; with whom also he was
brought up until he was of the age of four years or there-
abouts. At which time, his parents, seeing his ready,
prompt, and sharp wit, purposed to train him uj) in
erudition, and knowledge of good literature : wherein he
so profited in his youtli, at the common schools of his
own country, that at the age of fourteen years, he was
sent to the university of Cambridge ; where he gave
himself to the study of such school divinity, as the igno-
rance of that age did suffer.
He was then zealous in the popish religion, and so
scrupulous, as he himself confessed, that being a priest,
and using to say mass, he was so servile an observer
of the Romish decrees, that he thought he had never
sufficiently mingled his massing wine with water : and
that he should never be damned, if he were once a pro-
fessed friar, with such superstitious fancies. And in
this blind zeal he was a bitter enemy to the professors
of Christ's gospel ; as his oration delivered when he
obtained his degree of bachelor of divinity, against
Philip Melanothon, and also his other works, plainly
declared. His popish zeal could in no case abide good
Master Stafford, reader of the divinity lectures in Cam-
bridge, most spitefully railing against him, and desiring
the youth of Cambridge not to believe him.
Notwithstanding, such was the goodness and merciful
purpose of God, that though by the way he thought to have
ruined the professors of tlie gospel, and true church of
Christ, he was himself caught in tlie blessed net of God's
word. For Thomas Bilney (whose history has been be-
fore described,) being at that time a searclier out of Satan's
subtleties, and a secret overthrower of antichrist's king-
dom, seeing Latimer to be full of zeal, although without
knowledge, was stricken with a brotlierly pity towards
him, and thought by what means he might best v,-in this
zealous, though ignorant brother, to the true knowledge
of Christ. After a short time, he came to Latimer, and
desired him to hear him make his confession ; whicli he
willingly granted. He was, through the good Sj)irit of
God, so touched by what he then heard, that he forsook
bis former studying of tlie school doctors, and became
an earnest student of true divinity, as he himself con-
fesses. So that whereas before he was an enemy, and
almost a persecutor of Christ, he was now a zealous
seeker after him, changing his old manner of cavilling
and railing, into a diligent kind of conferring, both
with Bilney and others, and came also to Stafford before
he died, and desired him to forgive him.
After this, he was not satisfied with his own conver-
sion only, but, like a true disciple of the blessed Samari-
tan, pitied the misery of others, and therefore became
both a public preacher, and also a private instructor to
the rest of his brethren within the university, for the
space of three years, spending his time partly in the
Latin tongue among the learned, and partly amongst the
simple people in the English language. However, as
Satan never sleeps when he sees his kingdom beginning
to decay, so now, seeing that this worthy member of
Christ would be a shrewd .shaker of it, he raised up his
impious agents to molest and trouble him.
Amongst these tliere was an Augustinian friar, who
took occasion upon certain sermons that Latimer made
about Christmas 1529, as well in the church of St. Ed-
ward, as also in St. Augustine's, in the university of
Cambridge to object against him, for Latimer in the
sermons (alluding to the common usage of the season)
gave the people certain cards out of the fifth, sixth, and
seventh chapters of St. Matthew, whereupon they might,
not only then, but always else, occupy their time.
The handling of this matter was so proper for the
time, and so pleasantly applied, that it wrought in the
834
iiJSHOP LATIMER CITED BEFORE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. [Book XI.
hearers much fruit, to the overthrow of popish supersti-
tion, and setting up of pure religion.
Tliis was upon the Sunday before Christmay-day ; on
which day coming to the church, and causing the bell to
be tolled for a sermon, he entered into the pulpit, taking
for his text the words of the gospel read in the church that
day, " Who art thou ?'' &c. In delivering the cards, he
made the heart to be trump, exhorting and inviting all men
thereby to serve the Lord with inward heart and true af-
fection, and not with outward ceremonies : adding, more-
over, to the praise of that trump, that though it were never
so small, yet it would take up the best court card beside in
the bunch, yea, though it were the king of clubs, &c.
meaning thereby, how the Lord would be worshipped and
served in simplicity of heart and truth, wherein con-
sisteth true christian religion, and not in the outward
deeds of the letter only, or in the glistering shew of
man's traditions, or pardons, pilgrimages, ceremonies,
vows, devotions, voluntary works, and works of super-
erogation, foundations, oblations, the pope's supremacy,
&c., so that all these either were needless, where the
other is present ; or else were of small estimation, in
comparison of the other.
It would require a long discourse to declare what a stir
there was in Cambridge, upon this preaching of Master
Latimer. Satan began to feel himself and his kingdom
to be touched too near, and therefore thouglit it time to
look about him, and to make out his men of arms.
First came out the prior of the Blackfriars' called
Backenham, and afterwards a Dr. Venetus.
But why should I here stand deciphering the names
of his adversaries, when whole swarms of friars and doc-
tors flocked against him on every side, almost through
the whole university, preaching against him ? Amongst
whom was Dr. Watson, Master of Christ's College, whose
scholar Latimer had been. Dr. Notories, Master of Clare
Hall ; Dr. Philo, Master of Michael House, Dr. Metcalf,
Master of St. John's ; Dr. Blithe, of the King's Hall ; Dr.
Bullock. Master of the Queen's College ; Dr. ClifFe, of
Clement House ; Dr. Donnes, of Jesus' College ; Dr.
Psalms, of St. Nicholas Hostel; Bain, Rud, and Green-
wood, Bachelors of Divinity, all three of St. John's Col-
lege : also Brikenden, Bachelor of Divinity, of the same
house, and scholar sometimes to the said Latimer. Briefly,
there were almost as many as there were heads of houses,
so many impugners did this worthy standard-bearer of
Christ's gospel sustain.
Then came at last Dr. West, bishop of Ely, who
preaching against Latimer, at Barvel Abbey, forbade
him to preach any more within the churches of that
university. Notwithstanding, so the Lord provided,
that Dr. Barnes, prior of the Augustine friars, licensed
Latimer to preach in his church of the Augustines, and
he himself preached at the church by, called St. Ed-
ward's church, which was the first sermon of the gospel
which Dr. Barnes preached, being upon Christmas-eve,
on a Sunday.
Latimer being thus baited by the friars. Doctors, and
Masters of that university, about the year 1329, not-
withstanding these malignant adversaries, he continued in
Cambridge, preaching for the space of three years with
applause of the godly ; also with such admiration of his
enemies that heard him, that the bishop himself coming
in, and hearing him, wished himself to be equal to him.
After this, Latimer and Bilney continued in Cam-
bridge some time, where he, with Bilney, used much
to confer together, so that the place where they most
used to walk in the fields was called long after, the
Heretic's Hill.
The society of these two, as it was much remarked by
many in that university, so it was full of many good ex-
amples, to all such as would follow their doings, both in
visiting the prisoners, in relieving the needy, and in
feeding the hungry.
After Latimer had thus laboured in preaching and
teaching in the University of Camhridc;e about the space
of three years, he was at h^ngth called up before the car-
dinal for heresy, by the procurement of some of the uni-
versity, where he was content to subscribe, and agree
to such articles as then they propounded unto him, &c.
After that he returned to the university again, where
shortly after, by means of Dr. Buts, the king's physi-
cian, a singular poor man, and a special favourer of
good proceedings, he was in the number of those who
laboured in the cause of the king's supremacy. Then
he went to the court, where he remained a certain time
in Dr. Buts' chambers, preaching in London very often.
At last being weary of the court, having a benefice of-
fered him by the king, at the suit of Lord Cromwell and
Dr. Buts, he was glad of it, seeking by that means to be
rid of the court, and so having a grant of the benefice,
he departed, and resided on it.
This benefice was in Wiltshire, under the diocese of
Sarum ; the name of the town was called West Kingston
where this good preacher exercised himself with much
diligence to instruct his flock, and not only them, but
also all the country about. In fine, his diligence was so
great, his preaching so mighty, the manner of his teach-
ing so zealous, that he could not escape without ene-
mies. So true it is what St. Paul foretells us, " Whoso-
ever will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suff'er persecu-
tion." It so happened, that as he, preaching upon the
blessed Virgin, had declared his mind, referring and re-
ducing all honour only to Christ our only Saviour, cer-
tain popish priests, being offended, sought trouble against
him, drawing out articles which they untruly, unjustly,
falsely, and uncharitably imputed to him, that he preach-
ed agiinst our Lady, for that he reproved in a sermon
the superstitious rudeness of certain priests, who held
opinions respecting that blessed Virgin, as if she never
had any sin, nor were saved by Christ, the only Saviour
of the whole world. Also, that he said that saints were
not to be worshipped ; that Ave Maria was a salutation
only, and no prayer ; that there was no material fire in
hell ; that there was no purgatory, in saying that he had
rather be in purgatory than in Lollard's Tosver.
The chief molesters of him, besides the country priests,
were Dr. Povvel, of Salisbury ; Dr. Wilson, of Cambridge;
Master Hubberdin, and Dr. Sherwood. Of whom some
preached against hiui, some also wrote against him ; so
that by their procurement he was cited up and called to
appear before William Warrham, archbishop of Canter-
bury, and John Stokesley, bishop of London, January
29, A.D. lo;:il.
Against this citation, although Master Latimer ap-
pealed to his own ordinary, he was taken to London be-
fore Warham, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the
bishop of London, where he was greatly molested, and
detained a long space from his cure. There be being
called thrice every week before the bishops, to make
answer for his preaching, and certain articles or propo-
sitions drawn out and laid to him, to which they re-
quired him to subscribe. At length he writes to the
archbishop, j)artly excusing his infirmity, by which he
could not appear at their commandment, partly expos-
tulating with them for troubling and detaining him from
his duty for no just cause, but only for preaching the
truth against certain vain abuses crept into religion.
In this epistle he also alludes to certain articles, whe-
ther he subscribed to them or not, is uncertain. It ap-
pears by the epistle, that he durst not consent to tliem.
But yet whether he was compelled afterwards to assent,
through the cruel handling of the bishops, is doubtful ;
whether he so did or not is no great marvel, the inicjuity
of the time being such, that either he must needs do
so. or else abide the bishop's cruel sentence of death,
which he at that time (as he himself confessed,) was loath
to sustain for such matters as these were, unless it were
for necessary articles of belief. I conjecture that he did
subscribe, although it was long before he could be brought
to do so. Yet this by the way is to be noted, concern-
ing the crafty and deceitful handling of these bishops in
his examinations, what subtle devices they used to entrap
him in their snares. The truth of the story he shews him-
self in a sermon preached at Stamford, October 9, A.D.
1.5.50 : " I was once," said he, " ii^examination before five
or six bishops, where I had much vexation ; every week
I came thrice to examinations, and many snares and traps
were laid to entangle me. Now God knoweth 1 was
ignorant of the laws, but that God gave me answer and
A.D. 1555.]
AN ACCOUNT OF BISHOP LATIMER'S EXAMINATION, &c.
835
wisdom what I should speak'; it was God indeed, for
else I had never escaped them. At the last, 1 was
brought forth to be examined into a chamber liung with
arras, where I was wont to be examined : but now at
this time the chamber was somewhat altered. For
■whereas before there was wont ever to be a fire in the
chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an arras
hanged over the chimney, and the table stood near the
chimney's end. There was amongst the bishops that ex-
amined me, one with whom I had been very familiar,
and took him for my great friend, an aged man, and he
sat next the end of tiie table. Then, amongst all other
questions, he put forth one, a very subtle and crafty one,
such, indeed, as I could not think so great danger in.
And when I should have made answer, ' I pray you.
Master Latimer,' said one, ' speak out ; I .".m very thick
of hearing, and here be many that sit far off.' I mar-
velled at this, that I was bidden speak out, and began to
suspect, and gave an ear to the chimney ; and there I
heard a pen writing in the chimney behind the cloth.
They had appointed one there to write all mine answers ;
for they made sure that I should not start from them :
] there was no starting from them. God was my good
Lord, and gave me answer, I could never else have es-
caped it."
In these hard and dangerous straits and snares of
the bishops, it had been impossible to have escaped, had
not the Almighty, as he stirred him up, so preserved
Lim through the favour and power of his prince ; who
with much favour embraced him, and rescued and de-
livered him out of the crooked claws of his enemies.
At length, through the procurement, partly of Dr.
Buts, partly of good Cromwell, he advanced him to the
dignity of a bishop, making him bishop of Worcester,
and so continued a few years, instructing his diocese,
according to the duty of a diligent and vigilant pastor,
with wholesome doctrine and example of perfect con-
versation. It were long to dwell, particularly upon such
things as might here be brought to the commendation of
his pains ; as study, readiness, and continual carefulness
in teaching, preaching, exhorting, visiting, correcting,
and reforming, either as his ability could serve, or the
time would bear. But the days then were so dangerous
and variable, that he could not in all things do what he
would. Yet what he might do, that he performed to the
uttermost of his strength, so that although he could not
utterly extinguish all the relics of old superstition, yet
be so wrought, that though they could not be taken
away, yet they should be used with as little hurt, and
with as much profit as might be. As (for example) in
this and in other things, it appeared, that when it could
not be avoided, but that holy water and holy bread must
needs be received, yet he so prepared and instructed
those of his diocese, that superstition should be excluded,
as far as possible, in them.
He was not ignorant how the institution of holy water
and holy bread, not only had no ground in scripture,
but also how full of profane exorcisms and conjurations
they were, contrary to the rule and learning of the gos-
pel. Thus this good man acted in his diocese. But
-both in the university, and at his benefice, he was
harassed by wicked and evil-disposed persons ; and so
in his bishoprick also he was not clear of some that
sought his trouble. He continued in this laborious
function of a bishop the space of certain years, till the
coming in of the Six Articles.
Seeing that either he must lose the quiet of a good
conscience, or else forsake his bishoprick, he of his own
free accord resigned his see. At which time Shaxton,
the bishop of Salisbury, resigned likewise. And so
these two remained a long time unbishoped, keeping
silence till the time of King Edward, of blessed me-
mory.
Then coming up to London, he was molested and trou-
bled by the bishops, whereby he was again in no little
danger, and at length was cast into the Tower, where he
remained prisoner, till the time of King Edward, by
means of whom the golden mouth of this preacher, so
long shut up before, was now opened again. And so
beginning afresh to speed his plough, he continued all
the time of that king, labouring in the Lord's harvest
most fruitfully.
In this labour of love he occupied himself all King
Edward's days, preaching for the most part every Sun-
day twice, to the no small shame of other loitering and
luipreaching prelates, and so much the more to their
shame, because, having been hurt by the fall of a tree,
and above sixty-seven years of age, he yet took so little
ease and care of himself, to do the people good, preach-
ing every morning, usually, winter and summer.
Not long after the death of King Edward, Latimer
was arrested and brought to London, by command of
Queen Mary, and cast into the Tower, where he suffered
much. Thence he was transported to Oxford, with
Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, and Ridley, bishop
of London, there to dispute upon articles sent down
from Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, as before men-
tioned, as also, how and by whom Latimer, with his other
fellow -prisoners were condemned after the disputations,
and committed again to the prison, there continuing
from April to October ; where they were occupied,
either with brotherly conference, or with fervent prayer,
or with fruitful writing.
Altiiough Latimer, by reason of the feebleness of his
age, ftTote least of them all in this latter time of his
imprisonment ; yet in prayer he was fervently occupied :
And amongst other things, these were three principal
matters he prayed for. First, that as God had appointed
him to be a preacher of his word, so also he would give
him grace to stand to his doctrine until his death, that
he might give his heart's blood for the same. Secondly,
that (iod of his mercy would restore his gospel to J'3ng-
land once again ; and these words " once again, once
again," he did so inculcate and beat into the ears of the
Lord God, as tliough he had seen God before him, and
spoken to him face to face. The third matter was, to
pray for the preservation of the queen's majesty that
now is (Elizabeth), whom in his ])rayer he was wont
customarily to name, and even with tears desired God
to make her a comfort to this comfortless realm of Eng-
land. These were the matters he prayed for so earnest-
ly. Neither were these things desired in vain, fur the
Lord most graciously granted all his requests.
Concerning his constancy, even in the utmost extre-
mity, the Lord graciously assisted him. For when he
stood at the stake, at Oxford, and the tormentors were
about to set the fire to him, and to the learned and godly
Bishop Ridley, he lifted up his eyes towards heaven
with an amiable and comfortable countenance, saying
these words, " God is faithful, who doth not suflfer us to
be tempted above our strength ;" and so by and by
shed his blood in the cause of Christ.
How mercifully the Lord heard his second request, in
restoring his gospel once again to this realm, these pre-
sent days can bear record. And what then shall Eng-
land say now for her defence, which being so mercifully
visited and refreshed with the word of God, so slenderly
and unthankfully considers either her own past misery,
or the great benefit of God now present .' The Lord be
merciful unto us ! Amen.
Concerning his third request, it seems likewise most
effectually granted, to the great praise of God, the further-
ance of his gospel, and to the unspeakable comfort of
this realm. For whether at the request of his prayer,
or of other God's holy saints, or whether God was moved
with the cry of his whole church, the truth is, that when
all was in a desperate case, and so desperate that the
enemies mightily flourished and triumphed, God's word
was banished, Spaniards received, no place left for
Christ's servants to cover their heads, suddenly the Lord
called to remembrance his mercy, and forgetting our
former iniquity, made an end of all these miseries, and
wrought a marvellous change of things ; Queen Eliza-
beth was appointed and anointed, for whom this grey-
headed father so earnestly prayed in his imprisonment :
through whose true, natural, and imperial crown, the
brightness of God's word was set up again to confound
the dark and false visored kingdom of antichrist, the
true temple of Christ re-edified, the captivity of sorrow-
ful christians released, which so long was wished for in
83H
the prayers of so many good men, especially of this faith-
ful and true servant of the Lord, Bishop Latimer.
May the same God, who, at the requests of his holy
and fa'ithful saints, hath poured upon us such benefits of
nis mercy, peace, and tranquillity, assist our most vir-
tuous and christian princess, and her subjects, that we
m^y every one in his state and calling serve to his glory,
and walk in our vocation, that we lose not that which
they have obtained, but may proceed in all faithfulness,
to build and keep up the house and temple of the Lord,
to the advancine: of his glory, and our everlasting com-
fort in him ! Now after these things pertaining to the
events of Bishop Latimer's life, let us come to his
letters ; and first concerning the articles for which he
was troubled by the priests about his benefice at West
Kingston, of which he writes to Master Morice.
The following are extracts, for the whole were too long
to insert here, and the reader will perceive that even
then Latimer had not seen the full extent of the errors
of popery.
They objected that he had taught that our Lady
was a sinner. He says in his letter on this point as
follows : —
" I was led by some, not only laymen, but also
priests and beneficed men, who gave to our Lady so
much of devotion without judgment, as though she had
not needed Christ to save her: to prove Christ her
Saviour, to make Christ a whole Saviour of all that be,
or shall be saved : 1 reasoned after this manner ; that
either she was a sinner, or no sinner ; there is no mean:
if she were a sinner, then she was redeemed or delivered
from sin by Christ, as other sinners were : If she were
no sinner, then she was preserved from sin by Christ ;
».) that Christ saved her, and was her necessary Saviour,
whether she sinned or not. Now certain authors (said T)
fls Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, write as though
siie had been something faulty in her time. Also I said
that certain scriptures stand something to the same,
unless they are the more warily understood and taken,
(as in Rom. iii. 10. 20). ' All have sinned, every mouth
must be stopped, and all the world brought in guilty
before Cod.' And ' All have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God.' And in the fifth chapter, ' Death
parsed upon all, forasmuch as all have sinned.'
" They asked ' What need you to speak of this?' I
answered, ' A great need, when men cannot be content
that she was a creature saved, but as it were a saviouress,
not needing salvation, it is necessary to set her in de-
gree to the glory of Christ, Creator and Saviour of all
that be or shall be saved.'
" And for the Ave Maria, they lie falsely ; I never
denied it : I know it was a heavenly saluting or greeting
of our Lady, spoken by the angel Gabriel, and written
in holy scripture of St. Luke. But yet it is not properly
a prayer, as the Pater-noster is. Saluting or greeting,
lauding or praising, is not properly praying. The angel
was sent to greet our Lady, and to annunciate and sliew
the good will of God towards her, and therefore, it is
called the annunciation of our Lady, and not to pray
her, or to pray to her properly : Shall the Father of
heaven pray to our Lady .■' Wiien the angel spake it, it
was not properly a prayer. And is it not the same thing
now that it was then ? "
It was also objected that he taught that saints arc not
to be honoured. He answers thus : —
" I said this word ' Saints,' is differently understood
of the vulgar people. Images of saints are called saints,
and inhabitants of heaven are called saints. Now by
honouring of saints, is meant ])raying to saints. Take
honouring so, and images for saints ; so saints are not to
be honoured, that is to say, dead images are not to be
prayed unto ; for they have neither ears to hear with,
nor tongue to speak with, nor heart to think with,
&c.
" They can neither help me, nor mine ox, neither
tny head nor my tooth, nor work any miracle for me.
EXTRACTS FROM BISHOP LATIMER'S LETTERS.
[Book XI
one more than another : and yet I shewed the good use
of them to the laymen's books, as thev are called, reve-
rently to look xipon them, to remember the things that
are signified by them, &.c.
" And yet I would not have them so costly and curi-
ously gilt and decked, that the living image [i. e. the
believer] of God, (for whom Christ shed his l)lood,
and to whom whatsoever is done, Christ imputeth it
done to himself)' lack necessaries, and be unprovided
for, by that occasion, for then the layman doth abuse
his book.
" As touching the saints in heaven, I said, — they be
not our mediators by way of redemption ; for so Cinist
alone is our mediator and theirs both : so that the hlood
of martyrs hath nothing to do by way of redemption :
the blood of Christ is enough for a thousand worlds,
&c.
" But by way of intercession, saints in heaven may
be mediators, and pray for us, as I think they do when we
call not uj)on them ; for they are charitable, and need
no urging, and we have no open bidding of God in scrip-
ture to call upon them, as we have to call upon God,
nor yet may we call upon them without distrust in God ;
for God is more charitable, more merciful, more able,
more ready to help than them all ; so that tliough we
may desire the saints in heaven to pray God for us, yet
it is not so necessary to be done, but that we may pray
to God ourselves, without making suit first to them, and
obtain of him whatsoever we need, if we continue in
prayer ; so that whatsoever we ask the Fatiier, in the
name of Christ his Son, tiie Father will give it us.
Scripture doth set saints that are departed before our
eyes for examples, so that the chiefest and most
principal worship and honouring of the.m is to know,
their holy living, and to follow them, as they followed
Christ, &c.
" God biddeth us come to Lim viith prayer, and to do
his bidding is no presuming ; it is rather presuming to
leave it undone, than to do that he biildeth us not to do,
&c. We must have saints in reverend memoiy, and
learn from God's goodness towards them, to trust in God,
and mark well their faitli towards God and his word, their
charity towards their neighbour, their patience in nil ad-
versity, and pray to God who gave them grace so to do,
that we may do likewise, for which like doings we shall
have like success ; they are well honoured, when God
is well pleased. The saints were not saints by praying to
saints, but by believing in him that made them saints :
and as they were saints, so may we be saints, yea, there
are many saints who never prayed to saints."
It was objected to him that he held there is no fire in
hell ; and no purgatory after life. He answers : —
" I speak of divers opinions that have been written of
the nature of that fire ; some that it is a spiritual fire, or at
least a s))iritual i)ain in the corporeal fire ; for as it is
called a fire, so it is called a worm : now because they
think not that it is a corporeal worm, but a spiritual and
metaphorical worm, so they think of tliefire. Some that it
is a corporeal and natural fire ; some have thought dif-
ferently before the resurrection without body, and after
with body ; some that the soul without body suffereth in
the fire, but not of the fire ; some both in and of the fire.
The scholastical authors think, that the souls before the
resurrection, because they are sjnritual substance, do not
receive the heat of tlie fire into them, which is a sensible
and a corporeal quality ; so that Athanasius, a Greek au-
thor, calleth their jiain a heaviness or an anguish ; and
this oi)inion is jirobable enough. Some think that tliough
they are always in ])n\n, yet they are not always in fire,
but go from waters of snow to exceeding heat : but when
their bodies are there, whether in cold or in heat, in
water or in fire, in air or in earth, they lack no pain ;
their torment goeth with them, for they think that the
devils that tempt us, though they have pain with them,
yet they have not fire with them, for then they should be
known by heat of the fire.
" I am certain, saith St. Augustine, that there is a
fire in liell but what manner of fire, or in what part of
lA.D. 1555.]
THE USE OF THE SCRIPTURES, &c. PROHIBITED.
83?
, the world, no man can toll but he that is of God's privy
I council. I wovdd advise every man to be more can-ful
I to keep out of hell, than trust he shall find no fire in hell.
Chrysostom saith, that to be dej)rived of the fruition of
; the Godhead, is greater pain than the being in hell : there
is fire burning, there is the worm gnawing, there is heat,
tlitre is cold, there is pain without pleasure, torment
vf ithout easement, anguish, heaviness, sorrow, and pen-
siveness, which tarrieth and abideth for all liars and hin-
(lerers of the truth.''
" I had rather be in purgatory than in the bishop of
London's prison ; for in this I might die bodily for lack
, of meat : in that I could not. In this I might die
I ghostly for fear of pain or lack of good counsel : in that
j I could not. In this 1 might be in e.\treme necessity : in
that I could not, if extreme necessity be peril of perish-
' ing. And then you know what followeth ; if we be not
bounden to help but only them that be in extreme ne-
! cessity, we see not who needeth in purgatory, but we see
I who needeth in this world. And St. John saith, — ' Whoso
\ seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels
of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God
i in him ?' Here either we are, or we may be, in ex-
, treme necessity, both in body and soul : in purgatory,
; neither one nor other. Here we are bound to help one
; another, as we would be holpen ourselves under pain of
damnation. I am sure the souls in purgatory are so
charitable, and of charity so loath to have God dis-
' honoured, that they would have nothing withdrawn from
the poor here in this world, to be bestowed upon them,
which might occasion the dishonour of God, &c.
" Therefore, howsoever we do for purgatory, let u^
provide to keep out of hell. And had I a thousand
! pounds to bestow, as long as I saw necessary occasion
offered to me by God to dispense it upon my needy bro-
ther here in this world, according to God's command-
ment, I would not withdraw my duty from him for
any provision of purgatory, as long as I saw dangerous
ways unrepaired, poor men's daughters unmarried, men
beg for lack of work, sick and sore for lack of succour.
I would have difference betwixt that which may be done,
and that which ought to be done ; and this to go before
that, and that to come after this. If God command one
way, and my devotion moveth me another way, which
way should I go ? I may by no trentals, no masses, no
ladders of heaven make foundations for myself with other
men's goods ; goods wrongfully gotten must needs be re-
stored to the owners, if they can be known, if not, they be
poor men's goods. Debts must needs be paid, creditors
satisfied and content, God's ordinance towards my neigh-
bour here in this world discharged, all affections and
lusts moving to the contrary purged. Or else, though
our soul-priests sing till they be blear-eyed, say till they
have worn their tongues to the stumps, neither their
singings nor their sayings shall bring us out of hell,
whither we shall go for contemning of God's forbid-
dings."
A Pvhlic Tnsfrument of the Bishops, for the abolishing
and prohibiting of the Scrlptvres, and dirers other
Bonhs in English, in the time of King Heurg VIII.
A.D. 1531.
" In the name of God, Amen. Be it known to all
and singular, true and faithful people, to whom these
present letters testimonial, or this present, public, and
authentic instrument shall come, or shall see, read, hear,
or understand the same, and whom this underwritten
shall or may teach, or appertain in any manner of wise in
time to come. William, by the sufferance of Almighty
God archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all the realm
of England, sendeth greeting in our Lord God everlast-
ing:. ^^'e signify unto you all. and let you well, wit, and
know, by these presents, that whereas the king our
sovereign lord, hearing that many books in the English
tongue, containing many detestable errors, and damna-
ble opinions, printed in parts beyond the seas, are
brought into divers towns, and sundry parts, of this his
realm of England, and sown abroad in the same, to the
great decay of our faith Catholic, and the perilous cor-
ruption of his people, unless speedy remedy were briefly
provided ; his highness, willing evermore to employ all
his study and mind in the high degree which Almighty
God hath called him unto, to the wealth of his subjects,
that they might live not only in tranquillity and peace,
but also to be kept pure and clean of all contagion and
wrong opinions in Christ's religion. Considering, also,
that he, being defender of the faith, would be full loath to
suffer such evil seed sown amongst his people, and so take
root, that it might overgrow the corn of the catholic doc-
trine, before sprung up in the souls of his subjects ; for
the repelling of such books, calling xmto him of his great
goodness, and gracious disposition, not only certain of
the chief prelates and clerks of his realm, but also of
each university a certain number of the chief learned
men of them, proposed such of the books, as his grace
had ready therefore unto them to be read, requiring to
hear in that behalf their advice and judgment of them :
who both by great diligence and mature deliberation,
perusing over the said books, found in them many
errors and heresies, both detestable and damnable, be-
ing of such a sort that they were like briefly to corru))t
a great part of his people (if they might be suffered to
remain in their hands any space) gathering also out of
them many great errors, and pestilent heresies, and
noting them in writing, to the intent to shew for what
cause they reputed the said books damnable, of which
hereafter out of each book gathered, many do ensue.
Albeit many more there be in the said books, which
books totally do swarm full of heresies, and detestable
opinions.
Heresies and Errors contained in the Book, " Th»
Parable of the Wicked Mammon."
" Faith only doth justify us.
" The law doth make us to hate God, because we be
born under the power of the devil.
" It is impossible for us to consent to the will of God.
" The law requireth impossible things of us.
" The Spirit of God turneth us and nature, that we
do good as naturally as a tree doth bring forth fruit.
" Works do only declare unto thee that thou art
justified.
" Christ in all his deeds did not deser^'e heaven.
" Labouring in good works to come to heaven, thoa
dost shame to Christ's blood.
" Saints in heaven cannot help us thither.
" To build a church jn honour of our Lady, or any
other saint, is in vain, they cannot help thee, they be
not thy friends.
" Ail flesh is in bondage of sin, and cannot avoid to
sin continually."
[This instrument proceeds, at great length, to cite sen-
tences from the various books then circulated by tlie
reformers in the English language. It would be too te-
dious and unprofitable to recapitulate them here. The
instrument thus concludes.]
" All which great errors and pestilent heresies heinflj
contagious and damnable, with all the books containi:-;;
the same, with the translation also of the scriptures,
corrupted by William Tindal, as well in the Old Testa-
ment as in the New, and all other books in English con-
taining such error, the king's highness present in person,
by one whole advice and assent of the prelates and clerks,
as well of the universities, as of all others assembled
together, determined utterly to be repelled, rejected,
and put away out of the hands of his people, and not to
be suffered to go abroad among his subjects. And his
highness willeth further, that his pleasure and determi-
nation should be notified, by preachers abroad unto the
people, as well for putting' away of all such books, as
reading, retaining, or having hereafter of any other
like, delivering unto certain preachers the form of a
writing, to be published in effect unto the people in their
sermons, whereof the form here followeth.^ commanding
them in all his realm to publish the same. '
[Here followeth the bOl in English to be published bf
the preacher.]
838
A PROHIBITIOIS OF THE BISHOPS AGAINST ENGLISH BOOKS.
[Book XI.
" It is the office and duty of every preacher and
teacher of the word of God, not only to shew and de-
clare unto his audience that which might be profitable
and wholesome for the wealth of their souls, to be fol-
lowed and taken, but also to note and signify unto them
such things as are dangerous and contagious, to the in-
tent they might be avoided and eschewed ; and also, as
near as they can judge, who are teachers and authors
of the same. This example we have of our Saviour
Christ, where he says, ' Beware of false prophets,' &;c.
St. Paul likewise many times givetli warning to such as
he wrote unto, that they should beware of the false
apostles, that in his absence went about to corrupt the
do(>trine which he had taught them being present.
Wherefore considering that it hath pleased the king's
highness, like a noble and a virtuous prince, tendering
not oidy the present bodily wealth and tranquillity of
all his subjects, for his and their worldly commodity and
benefit, but most chiefly regarding the wealth of their
souls and their due order towards God, thereby to de-
serve and attain immortal glory, to assemble atid call to-
gether the chief personages of his prelates, and a great
number of learned men of both universities, charging
and commanding them for the discharge and exoneration
of his conscience, to find, read, examine, and discuss
the contents of such books as are now sjiread abroad
within this his grace's realm in the English tongue, con-
cerning the points and articles of our faith, and after
their learning and conscience to make relation unto
his highness, whether the same books are expedient and
profitable for his people, to the direction and ordering
of their conscience and soul, or else contagious and pes-
tiferous for the same : and whether the opinions con-
tained in them, were agreeable to God's word and doc-
trine, or not ; forasmuch as the said congregation and
assembly had free liberty and licence granted unto every
man to say as his conscience and learning served him
without any reproof or blame to be imputed for any
thing to be spoken there, whose person soever it
touched, or any necessity to agree to the more part, hut
only to say what his own learning and conscience could
maintain and justify : after mature deliberation and con-
sultation had, it was there by whole consent, no man
repugning or gainsaying, determined and agreed that
the books, now being abroad in the English tongue, con-
tain false traditions and corrupt doctrine, far discre-
pant from the true sense of the gospel and catholic un-
derstanding of scripture, only persuading pernicious
heresies to the destruction of the souls of good christian
men, and that the certainty hereof, I can report unto
you of mine ovra knowledge, being one of the said as-
sembly, and hearing and seeing the said opinions read,
declared, and examined, and by the true sense and
meaning of God's word reproved and rejected ; I think,
therefore, my duty is, taking upon me the office of a
preacher, following the example of our Master Christ,
and St. Paul, as is aforesaid, to warn and admonish you
by the words of Christ, as I spake before : ' Beware of
false prophets,' &c. And take heed of yourself, that
you be not infected by the contagion and infection of
such false apostles as have, in our English tongue, set
forth books to seduce you from the true knowledge
of God's laws, and bring you by their false interpreta-
tions of scripture into the detestable and abominable
heresies to the destruction of our souls. Wherefore you
that have the books, called ' The Obedience of a Chris-
tian man ;' 'The Sum of Scripture;' 'The Revelation
of Antichrist ;' 'The Supplication of Beggars;' 'The
Mammon of Iniipiity ;' ' The Matrimony of Tindal ;'
' The New Testament in English ;' of the translation
which is now printed, and such other books in English,
the authors whereof either dare not, or do not put to
their names, are pernicious books ; detest them, abhor
them, keep them not in your haiuls, deliver them to the
superiors, such as call for them ; and if by reading them
heretofore, any thing remaineth in your breasts of tliAt
teaching, either forget it, or, by information of the truth,
expel it and purge it, to the intent that you being so
purified and cleansed of that contagious doctrine and jies-
tiferous traditions, may be fit and apt to receive and re-
tain the true doctrine and understanding of Christ's
laws, to the comfort and edification of your souls ; thua
I move and exhort you in God to do, this is your duty
to do.
"The prelates of the church having the cure and
charge of your souls, ought to compel you, and your
prince to punish and correct you not doing of the same ;
unto whom, as St. Paul saith, the sword is given by
(iod's ordinance for that purpose ; you shall also further
understand, that the king's highness, forasmuch as it
was reported unto him that there is engendered an
opinion in many of his subjects, that it is his grace's
duty to cause the scriptures of God to be translated into
the English tongue to be communicated unto the peoi)le,
and that the prelates, and also his highness do wrong in
hindering of the same, his highness therefore directed
every man there present in the said assembly, freely and
frankly to shew and o])en unto him what might be
proved, and confirmed by scripture, and holy doctors in
that behalf, to the intent that his highness, as he there
ojienly protested, might conform himself thereunto,
minding to do his duty towards his people, as he would
they should do their duty towards him. In which matter,
after the scrijiture declared, holy doctors and authors
alleged, and read, and all things said, which might be
on both sides, and for both parts spoken, deduced, and
brought forth, finally it appeared, that the having of the
whole scripture in English is not necessary to christian
men, but that without having any such scripture, endea-
vouring themselves to do well, and to apply their minds
to take and follow such lessons as the jireaciier teacheth
them, and so learned by his movith, may as well edify
spiritually in their souls, as if they had the same scrip-
tures in English. And like as the having of the scrip-
tures in the vulgar tongue, and in the common peojde's
hands, hath been thought by holy fathers of the church
heretofore sometimes to be msct and convenient, so
at another time, it hath been thought to holy fathers
not expedient to be communicated amongst them,
wherein, forasmuch as the kiiig's highness, by tht
advice and deliberation of his council, and the agree-
ment of the great learned men, thinketh in his consci-
ence, that the divulging of the scripture at tlxis time in
the English tongue, to be committed to the people, con-
sidering such pestilent books, and so evil opinions as
are now spread amongst them, should rather be to their
further confusion and destruction, than the edification
of their souls, and that as holy doctors testify, upon
such like considerations, the same hath been done in
times past, it was thought there, in that assembly, to all
and singular in that congregation, that the king's high-
ness, and the prelates in so doing and not suffering the
scriptures to be divulged and communicated in the En-
glish tongue unto the j)eople, at this time doth well.
And also 1 think and judge the same, exhorting, and
moving you, that in consideration of what his highness
did there ojjenly say and j)rotest, that he would cause
the New Testament to be, by learned men faithfully and
purely translated into the English tongue, to the intent
he might have it in his hands, ready to be given to his
people, as he might see their manners and behaviour
meet, apt, and convenient to receive the same, that ye
will so detest these pernicious books, so abhor these
heresies, and new opinions, so decline from arrogancy of
knowledge and understanding of scripture after your
fantasies, and show yourself in cunning and reasoning so
sober, quiet, meet, and temperate, as all fear of misusing
the gift of scripture taken away, you may appear such in
your prince's eyes, and in the eyes of your prelates, as
they shall have no just cause to fear any such danger ;
persuading unto yourself in the meantime without grudg-
ing or murmuring, the very truth, which is this, that we
(■annot re(|uire or demand scripture to be divulged in
the English tongue, otherwise than upon the discretion
of the superiors, so as whensoever they think in their
conscience it may do you good, they may and do well
to give it unto you ; and whensoever it shall be seen
otherwise unto thein, they do amiss in suffering you to
have it. Of and ii])on the which decree, order and deter-
mination above recited, his gracious highness being in pet-
A.D. 1555.]
A LEITER OF LATIMER'S TO KING HENRY VIII.
Q3»
son in the chapel, called the old chapel, which sometime
was called St. Edward's chamber, sate oa the east side of
the parliament chamber, within his grace's palace at
Westminster, on the 24th day of May, in the year 15;')0,
and in the two-and-twentieth year of his reii^n, called
before his grace the three notaries here under written,
and tlien and there in the presence of all the personages
there assembled and gathered together, directed and
required the said three notaries to make public
and authentic instruments, and us to set there-
unto our seal accordingly, in and for witness and per-
petu tl memory and monument of this his grace's de-
sire, order and determination, and of all and singular
the premises, and all tlie personages then and there be-
ing present, to testify the same, and bear record and
testimony thereupon. In witness of all, and singular
the premises, we, William, archbishop, primate, and
legate aforesaid, have commanded and obtained these
preient letters testimonial, or present public, or au-
thentic instrument, containing therein the order, decree,
and determination above-said, to be made, and to be
subscribed, and signed by the hands of the notaries
hereafter named, and to be sealed with our own seal.
All which premises have been done in manner and form
above specified, then and there being present the noble
personage of Thomas ^Nloore, knight, great chancellor of
England ; our reverend brother in Christ, Cuthbert,
by the permission of God, bishop of Durham ; and wor-
shipful personages, Master StephenGardiner,Si.'cretary,"
&c. &c.
Here follows a letter of Latimer's written to King
Henry VIII. upon this occasion. You heard before of
two jiroclamations, set out by the bishops in the name
of King Henry, the one in the year 1531, and the other
set out A.D. lo4f). In which proclamations, being au-
thorized by the king's name, were prohibited all En-
glish books, either containing or tending to any matter
of the scriptures. Now Latimer, growing in some fa-
vour with the king, and seeing the great decay of
Christ's religion by reason of these proclamations, and
touched with zeal of conscience, directs to King Henry
this letter, endeavouring to persuade the king to set open
again the freedom of God's holy word amongst his
subjects.
A Letter of Latimer's to King Henry VIII.
"To the most Mighty Prince, King of England,
Henry VIII., grace, mercy, and peace from God
the Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ.
••' The holy doctor, St. Augustine, in an epistle which
he wrote to Casalanus, saith, 'That he who for fear of
any power hideth the truth, provoketh the wrath of
God to come upon him ; for he feareth men more than
God.' And according to the same, the holy man, St.
John Chrysostom, saith, ' Tliat he is not only a traitor
to tlie truth, who openly for truth teacheth a lie ; but
he also who doth not freely pronounce and shew the
truth that he knoweth.' These sentences, most re-
doubted king, when I read now of late, and marked
them earnestly in the inward parts of mine heart, they
made me sore afraid; troubled, and grievously ve.ved
me in my conscience, and at the last drave me to this
strait, that either I must shew forth such things as I
have read and learned in scripture, or else belong to
those who provoke the wrath of God upon them, and
are traitors unto the truth ; which thing, rather than
it should happen, I had rather suffer extreme punish-
ment.
" For what other thing is it to be a traitor unto the
truth, than to be a traitor and a Judas unto Christ, who
is the very truth, and cause of all truth ? and who saith,
that ' Whosoever denieth me before men, him will I
deny before my Father and his angels.' The which
denying ought more to be feared and dreaded than the
loss of all temporal goods, honour, and promotion,
fame, prison, slander, hurts, banishments, and all
manner of torments and cruelties, yea, and death itself,
be it never so shameful and painful. But, alas ! how
little do men regard those sharp sayings of these two
holy men ; and how little do they fear the terrible judg-
ment of Almighty God, and especially they who boast
themselves to be guides and captains unto others, and
challen','ing unto themselves the knowledge of holy-
scripture, yet will neither shew the truth themselves,
as they arc bound, neither suffer them that would. So
that unto them it may be said, that which our Saviour
Christ said to the JPharisees, (Matt, xxiii. 13.): 'But
woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites I for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for ye
neither go in yourselves, neither sutler ye them that are
entering to go in.' And they will, as much as in them
lies, debar not only the word of God, which David
calleth a light to direct and shew every man how to
order his atiections and lusts,' according to the com-
mandments of God, but also by their subtle wiliness
they instruct, move, and provoke in a manner, all kings
in Christendom, to aid, succour, and help them in this
their mischief ; and especially in this your realm they
have so blinded your liege people and subjects with their
laws, customs, ceremonies, and Banbury glosses, and
punished tliem with cursings, excommunications, and
other corruptions, (corrections, I would say,) and now
at the last, when they see that they cannot prevail
against the open truth (which the more it is persecuted,
the more it increascth by their tyranny) they have made
it treason to your noble grace to have the scriptures' in
English. •
" ilere I beseech your grace to pardon me a while,
and patiently to hear me a word or two ; yea, though it
be so that, as concerning your high majesty and regal
power whereunto Almighty God hath called your grace,
tnere is as great dift'eieace between you and me, as be-
tween God and man ; for you are here to me and to all
your subjects in God's stead, to defend, aid, and suc-
cour us in our right, and so I should tremble and quake
to speak to your grace. But again, as concerning that
you are a mortal man, in danger of sin, having in you
the corrupt nature of Adam, in which we all are both
conceived and born ; so have you no less need of the
merits of Christ's passion for your salvation, than I and
other of your subjects have, which are all members of
the mystical body of Christ. And though you be an
higher member, yet you must not disdain the lesser.
For as St. Paul teacheth, ' Those members that are taken
to be most vile, and had in least reputation, are as neces-
sary as the other, for the preservation and keeping of
the body. This, most gracious king, when 1 con-
sidered, and also your favourable and gentle nature, I
was bold to write this rude, homely, and simple letter
unto your grace, trusting that you will accept my true
and faithful mind even as it is.
" First, and before all things, 1 will exhort your
grace to mark the hfe and process of our Saviour Christ,
and his apostles, in preaching and setting forth of the
gospel, and to note also the words of our Master Christ,
which he said to his disciples when he sent them forth to
preach his gospel, and to these have ever in your mind
the golden rule of our Master Christ : ' The tree is
known by the fruit.' For by the diligent marking of
these, your grace shall clearly know and perceive who
are the true followers of Christ, and teachers of his gos-
pel, and who are not. And concerning the first, all
scripture sheweth plainly that our Saviour Jesus
Christ's life was very poor.
" Begin at his birth, and I beseech you, who ever
heard of a poorer, or so poor as he was .' It were too long
to write how poor Joseph and the blessed Virgin Mary
took their journey from Nazareth toward Bethlehem, in
the cold and frosty winter, having nobody to wait upon
them, but he both master and man, and she both mis-
tress and maid. How vilely, thinks your grace, were
they treated in the inns and lodgings by the way ; and
in how vile and abject place was this poor maid, the
mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ, brought to bed,
witliout company, light, or any other thing necessary
for a woman in that plight; was not here a poor be
ginning, as concerning this world.' \es, truly. And
according to this beginning was the process and end of
his life iu this world, and yet he might, by hia godlj
840
A LETTER OF LATIMER'S TO KING HENRY VIII.
[Book XI.
power, have had all the goods and treasures of this
world at his pleasure, when and where he would.
" But rhis he did to shew us, that his followers and
7ic;ars should not regard and value the riches and trea-
sures of this world, but after the saying of David we
ought to take them, which saiththus: 'If riches increase,
set not your heart upon them.' So that it is not against
the poverty in spirit which Christ preacheth in the gospel
of St. Matthew, (v. .3) to be rich, to be in dignity and in
honour, so that their hearts are not fixed and set upon them
80 much, that they neither care for God nor good men :
but they are enemies to this poverty in spirit, have they
never so little, that have greedy and desirous minds to the
goods of this world, only because they would live after
their own pleasures and lusts. And they also are privy
enemies (and so much the worse), which have pro-
fessed, as they say, wilful poverty, and will not be
called worldly men, and they have lords' lands, and
kings' riches ; yea, rather than they would lose one jot
of that which they have, they will set debate between
king and king, realm and realm ; yea, between the
king and his subjects, and cause rebellion against the
temporal power, to which our Saviour Christ himself
obeyed, and paid tribute, as the gospel declareth ; unto
whom the holy apostle, St Paul, teacheth every christian
man to obey. Yea, and beside all this, they will curse
and ban, as mucti as in them lies, even into the deep
pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite, whereby thev
tliink their goods, promotions, or dignities should
decay.
" Your grace may see what means and craft: the
spiritualty (as they will be called) imagine, to break
and withstand the acts which were made in your grace's
last parliament, against their superfluities. Where-
fore they that thus do, your grace may know them not
to be true followers of Christ. And although I named the
spiritualty to be corrupt with this unthirsty ambition ; vet I
mean not all to be faulty therein, for there are some good
of them. Neither will I that your grace should take
away the goods due to the church, but take away all evil
persons from the goods, and set better in their stead.
" I name nor appoint no person nor persons, but refer
your srace to the rule of our Saviour Christ, as men-
tioned in St. Matthew, vii. 20, ' By their fruits you shall
know them.' As touching the words that our Saviour
Christ spake to his disciples, when he sent them to preach
his gospel, we read in the fifteenth of St. Matthevv,
where he showeth, that here they shall be hated and
despised of all worldly men, and brought before kings
and rulers, and that all evil should be said of them,
for his name's sake ; but he exhorteth them to take
patiently such persecution by his own example, saying.
It becometh not the servant to be above the master.
And seeing they called me Beelzebub, what marvel is it,
if they call you devilish persons and heretics. Read the
fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, and there
your grace shall see that he promised to the true
preachers no worldly promotions or dignity, but persecu-
tion and all kinds of punishment, and that they should be
betrayed even by their own brethren and children. In St.
John, xvi. ;W. also, he saith, 'These things have I spoken
unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world
ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer : I have
overcome the world.' And in the tenth chapter of St.
Matthew's gosjjel our Saviour Christ saith also, ' Lo ! I
send you forth as sheep among wolves.' So that the
true jireachers go like harmless sheep, and are persecuted,
and yet they revenge not their wrong, but commit all
to (lod, so far is it off from them to persecute any other
hut with the word of God only, which is their weapon.
And so this is the most evident token that our Saviour
Jesus Christ would that his gospel and the preachers of it
should be known by, that it should be despised among
those worldly wise men, and that they should repute it
but foolishness, and deceivable doctrine, and the true
preachers should be persecuted and hated, and driven
from town to town, yea, and at the last lose both goods
and life.
" And yet they that did this persecution, should think
that they did well, and a great pleasure to God. And
the apostles, remembering this lesson of our Saviour
Christ, were content to suffer much persecutions, as you
may read in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles.
But we never read that they ever persecuted any man.
The holy apostle, St. Paul," saith, 'That every man that
will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suflTer persecution.'
And also he saith further in Philippians, i. 2!t, ' Unto
you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
in him, but also to suffer for his sake,'
"Wherefore take this for a sure con-lusion, thit
where the word of God is truly preached, there is perse-
cution, as well of the hearers as of th( teachers : and
vvhereas there is quietness and rest in worldly pleasure,
there is not the truth. For the world lovethall that are
of the world, and hateth all things that are contrary to it.
And, to be short, St. Paul calleth the gospel the word of
the cross, the word of punishment. And the holy scrip-
ture doth promise nothing to the favourers and followers
of it in this world, but trouble, vexation, and persecu-
tion, which these worldly men cannot suffer, nor bear
with.
" Therefore pleaseth it your grace, to return to this
golden rule of our Master and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
which is this, ' By their fruits you shall know them.'
For where you see persecution, there is the gospel, and
there is the truth ; and they that do persecute, be void
and without all truth ; not caring for the clear light,
which, as our .Saviour Jesus Christ teacheth in the third
chapter of St. John's Gospel, is come into the world,
and which shall utter and show forth every man's works.
And they whose works are evil dare not come to this
light, but go about to stop it and hinder it, hindering as
much as they can, that the holy scripture should not be
read in our mother tongue, saying, that it would cause
heresy and insurrection, and so they persuade, at least
they would fain persuade your grace to keep it back.
But here mark their shameless boldness, who are not
ashamed, contrary to Christ's doctrine, to gather figs of
thorns, and grapes of thistles, and to call light darkness,
and darkness light, sweet sour, and sour sweet, good evil,
and evil good, and to say, that that which teacheth all
obedience, should cause dissension and strife : but such
is their belly-wisdom, wherewith they judge and measure
everything, to hold and keep still this wicked mammon,
the goods of this world, which is their god, and hath so
blinded the eyes of their hearts that they cannot see the
clear light of the sacred scripture, though they talk never
so much of it.
" But as concerning this matter, other men have
shewed your grace their minds, how necessary it is to
have the scripture in English. The which thing also
your grace hath promised by your last proclamation :
the which promise I pray God that your gracious high-
ness may shortly perform, even to-day before to-mor-
row. Nor let the wickedness of these worldly men
detain you from your godly purpose and promise. Re-
member the subtle worldly-wise counsellors of Hanun,
the son of Nahash, king of the Ammonites, which when
David had sent his servants to comfort the young king
for the death of his father, by crafty imaginations coun-
selled Hanun, not only not to receive them gently,
but to entreat them most shamefully and cruelly, saying,
' That they came not to comfort him, but to espy and
search his land, so that after they had brought David
word how everything stood, David might come and con-
quer it.' And they caused the young king to shave
their heads, and to cut their coats by the points, and sent
them away like fools ; whom he ought rather to have
made much of, and to have entreated them gently, and
have given them great thanks and rewards : Oh, wretched
counsellors ! But see what followed of this carnal and
worldly wisdom. Truly nothing but destruction of all
the whole realm, and also of all those that took their
parts.
" Therefore, good king, seeing that the right David,
that is to say our Saviour Christ, hath sent his servants,
that is to say, his true preachers, and his own word also
to comfort our weak and sick souls, let not these worldly
men make your grace believe that they will cause insur-
rections and heresies, and such mischiefs as they imagine
A.D. 1555.]
A LETTER OF LATIMER TO KING HENRY VIII.
841
of their own mad brains, lest that he be avenged upon
i you and your reahn, as was David upon the Ammonites,
', and as he hatli ever been avenged upon them who have
I obstinately withstood and gainsayed his word. But, per-
I adventure, they will lay this against me, and say that
; experience doth shew, how that such men as call them-
i selves followers of the gospel regard not your grace's
i commandment, neither value your procUunitioii, and
i that was weU proved by tliose persons who of late were
I punislied in London for kee|)itig such books as your
1 grace had prohibited by proclamation ; and so like as
; they regarded not this, so they will not rt-gard or esteem
! other your grace's laws, statutes, or ordinances. But
. this is but a crafty persuasion. For your grace knoweth
that there is no man living, specially that loveth worldly
i promotion, that is so foolish to set forth, promote, or
I advance his enemies, whereby he should be hindere.d of his
I worldly pleasures and fleshly desires : but rather he will
i seek all the ways possible that he c-^n, utterly to con-
found, destroy, and put him out of the way. And so as
concerning your last proclamation, prohibiting such
j books, the very true cause of it, and chief counsellors
, (as men say, and of likeliliood it should be) were they,
: whose evil living and cloaked hypocrisy these books
; uttered and disclosed : and howbeit tliat there were
three or four, that would have had the scri])ture to go
forth in English, yet it happened there, as it is ever-
more seen, that the most part overcometli tlie better,
1 and so it might be that these men did not take tliis pro-
' claination as yours, but as theirs, set forth in your name,
: as they have done many times more, which hath put
I this your realm in great hindrance and troul)le, and
brought it in great penury, and would have done more,
I if God had not mercifully provided to bring your grace
to a knowledge of the falsehood and privy treason, which
their head and captain was about ; and be you sure not
without adherents, if the matter be duly searched. For
what marvel is it that they being so nigh of your counsel,
and so familiar with your lords, should provoke both
your grace and them to prohibit these books, which be-
fore by thjir own authority have forbidden the New
Testament, under pain of everlasting damnation : for
such is their manner, to send a thousand men to hell
ere they send one to God, and yet the New Testament
(and so I tiiink hy the other) was meekly offered to
every man that would and could, to amend it, if there
were any fault.
" Moreover, I will ask them the causes of all insur-
rections, wlucli have been in tnis realm heretofore. And
whence is it that there are so many extortioners, bribers,
murderers, and thieves, which daily do not only break
your grace's laws, ordinances, and statutes, but also the
laws and commandments of Almighty God ? I think
they will not say these books, but rather their pardons
which causeth many a man to sin in trust of them. For
as for those malefactors which I now rehearsed, you shall
not find one amongst a hundred, but that he will cry out
both against these books, and also against them that have
them, yea, and will be glad to spend the good which he
hath wrongfully gotten, upon fagots to burn both the
books, and them that have them.
" And as touching these men that were lately punished
for these books, there is no man, I hear say, that can
lay any word or deed against them that should sound to
the breaking of any of your grace's laws, this only ex-
cepted ; if it be yours, and not rather theirs. And be it
so that there are some that have these books, that are
evil, unruly, and self-willed persons, not regarding God's
laws, nor man's, yet these books are not the cause
thereof, no more than was the bodily presence of Christ
and his words the cause that Judas fell, but their own
froward mind and carnal heart, which should be amended
by the virtuous example of their curates, and by the
true exposition of the scriptures. If the lay people had
such curates that would thus do their office, neither these
books, nor the devil himself could hurt them to go out
of frame, so that the lack of good curates is the destruc-
tion and cause of all mischief. Neither do I write these
things, because that I will either excuse these men lately
Vunished, or to affirm all to be I rue that is written in
these books, which I have not all read, but to shew that
there cannot such inconvenience follow them, and spe-
cially of the scriptures, as they would make men believe
should follow.
" And though it be so that your grace may by other
books, and, namely, by the scripture itself, know and
perceive the hyjiocrite wolves clad in sheep's clothing,
yet I think myself bound in conscience to utter unto
your grace such things as God put in my niiiul to write.
And this 1 do (God judge me) not for hate of any per-
son or persons living, nor because I think the word of
God should go forth without persecutions, if your grace
had commanded that every man within your realm
should have it in his mother's tongue. For the gospel
must needs have persecution unto the time that it is
preached throughout all the world, which is the last
sign that Christ shewed to his disciples should come
before the day of judgment : so that if your grace had
once commanded that the scripture should be put forth,
the devil would set forth some wile or other to persecute
the truth. But my purpose is, for the love that 1 have
to God principally, and the glory of his name, which is
only known by his word, and for the true allegiance that
I owe unto your grace, and not to hide in the ground
of my heart the talent given me of God, but to put it
forth to others, that it may increase to the pleasure of
God, to exhort your grace to avoid and beware of these
mischievous flatterers, and their abominable ways and
counsels.
" And take heed whose counsels your grace doth take
in this matter ; for there are some that for fear of los-
ing their worldly worship and honour, will not leave
their opinion, which rashly, and th:At to jjlease men
withal, by whom theyhad great promotion, they took upon
them to defend by writing, so that now they think that
all their felicity, which they put in this life, should be
marred, and their wisdom not so greatly regarded, if that
which they have so slanderously oppressed should be now
put forth and allowed. But, alas ! let these men re-
member St. Paul, how fervent he was against the truth
(and that of a good zeal) before he wis called ; he
thought no shame to suffer punishment, and great per-
secutions for that which before he despised and called
heresy. And 1 am sure that their living is not more
perfect than St. Paul's was, as concerning the outward
works of the law, before he was converted.
" Also the king and prophet Da\id was not ashamed
to forsake his good intent in building of tlie temple, after
that the prophet Nathan had shewed him that it was not
the pleasure of God that he should build any house for
him ; and notwithstanding that Nathan had before al-
lowed and praised the purjiose of David, yet he was not
ashamed to revoke and eat his words auain, vvhfn he
knew that they were not according to God's will and
pleasure.
" Wherefore they are sore drowned in worldly wisdom,
that think it against their worship to acknowh-dge their
ignorance ; whom I pray to God that your grace may
observe, and take heed of their worldly wisdon;, which
is foolishness before God, that you may do that God
commandeth, and not that seerneth good in your own sight
without the word of God, that your grace may ).e I'ouud
acceptable in his sight, and one of the members of his
church, and according to the office that he hath called
your grace unto, you may be found a faithful mi-
nister of his gifts, and not a defender of his faith, for he
will not have it defended by man or man's power,
but by his word only, by the which he hath evermore
defended it, and that by a way far above man's power or
reason, as all the histories of the Bible make mention.
" Wherefore, gracious king, remember yourself, have
pity upon your soul, and think that the day is even at
hand when you shall give account of your office, and of
the blood that hath been shed with your sword. In the
which day that your grace may stand steadfastly, and
not be ashamed, but be clear and ready in your reckon-
ing, and to have (as they say) your rest, sealed with the
blood of our Saviour Christ, which only serveth at that
day, is my daily prayer to him that suffered death for
our sins, who also prayeth to bis Father for grace for
842 THE EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY BEFORE THE COMxMISSIONERS. [Book XI.
us continually. To whom be all honour and praise for
ever. Amen. The Spirit of God preserve your grace,
1st December A.D. 1530."
In this letter of Latimer to the king, many things we
have to consider : first, his good conscience to God ; his
good will to the king ; the duty of a right pastor to
truth ; liis tender care to the commonwealth, and espe-
cially to the church of Christ. Further, we have to
consider the abuse of prince's courts, liow kings many
times are abused with flatterers and wicked counsellors
about them, and especially we may note the subtle prac-
tices of prelates, in abusing the name and authority of
kings, to set forth their own malignant proceedings.
We may see, moreover, and rather marvel at, the great
boldness and divine strength of this man, who as yet
being no bishop, so freely and plainly without all fear of
death, adventuring his own life to discharge his con-
science, durst so boldly, to so mighty a prince, in such
a dangerous case, against the king's law and proclama-
tion set out in such a terrible time, take upon him to
write, and to admonish that, which no counsellor durst
once speak to him in defence of Christ's gospel. Whose
example, if the bishops and prelates of this realm for
their parts likewise, in like cases of necessity would fol-
low (as indeed they should), so many things peradven-
ture would not be so out of frame as they are.
Finally it is to be noted how blessedly Almighty God
wrought with his faithful servant's bold adventure, and
wholesome counsel, though it did not prevail through
the iniquity of the time, yet notwitlistanding God so
wrought with his servant in doing his duty, that no
danger, nor yet displeasure rose to him thereby, but
rather the thanks and good will of the prince, for not long
after he was advanced by the king to the bishopric of
Worcester.
During the time that Latimer was prisoner in Oxford,
we read not of much that he wrote, besides his con-
ference with Doctor Ridley, and his protestation at the
time of liis disputation. Otherwise, we find very few
letters tli.it lie wrote to his friends.
CoiiCLruing the memorable acts and doings of this
worthy man, this is not to be neglected, what a bold
enterjirise he attempted, in sending to King Henry a
present, in the following manner: Tliere was then, and
remains still an old custom received from the Romans,
that upon New-year's day, every bisliop with some
handsome New-year's gift should gratify the king ; and
so they did, some with gold, some with silver, some with
a purse full of money, and some one thing, some another:
but Latimer, bting bishop of Worcester then, among the
rest, presented a kew testament for his New-year's
gift, with a napkin liaving this sentence on it, Foruica-
tores et adulteros judicabit Dominus.
And thus hast thou, gentle reader, the whole life,
both of bishops Ridley and Latimer, two worthy doers in
the church of Christ, severally and by tliemselves set
forth and described, with their doings, writings, dispu-
tations, sufferings, their painful labours, faithful preach-
ings, studious service in Christ's church, their patient
imprisonment, and constancy in that which they had
taught, with all their proceedings from time to time,
to this present time and month of the reign of Queen
Mary, being the month of October, A. D. lo.').'). In
which month they were brought forth together, to their
final examination and execution. Wherefore as we have
heretofore declared both their lives severally and dis-
tinctly one from the other ; so now we shall couple them
both together, as they were joined in one society of
cause and martyrdom, and we will, by the grace of
Christ, prosecute the rest that remains concerning their
latter examination, degrading, and constant suffering.
The Examination of Ridley and Latimer, on the '^Qth
day of September, 1.^)55.
First, after the appearing of Cranmer, before the
pope's delegate, and the queen's commissioners in St.
Mary's church, at Oxford, about the 12th day of Sep-
tember, whe.-cof more shall be said when we come to
the death of the archbishop. On the 28th of September,
there was sent down to Oxford another coininission from
Cardinal Pole, to John White, bishop of Lincoln, Doctor
Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, and Doctor Uolyman,
bishop of Bristol, that they, or two of them, sliould have
full power and authority, to cite, examine, and judge
Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley, pretended bishops
of VV^orcester and London, for sundry erroneous opinions
which they held and maintained in open disputations, in
Oxford, in the months of May, June, and July, in the
year 15.')4. Which opinions, if these persons would now
recant, yielding tliemselves to the determination of the
universal and catholic church, planted by St. Peter, in
the blessed see of Rome, that then the judges should
have power to receive the penitent persons, and minister
to them the reconciliation of the holy father the pope ;
but if Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas RidKy, would de-
fend and maintain these their erroneous opinions, that
then the lords by their commission should proceed in
form of judgment, according to the law of heretics, that
is, degrading them from their dignity of bishops, priests,
and all other ecclesiastical orders, should jironounce
them as heretics ; and therefore cut them ofi' from the
church, and so yield them to receive the punishments due
to all such heresy and schism.
Wherefore on tlie last of September, Ridley and Latimer
were cited to appear before the lords, in the Divinity
School at Oxford. The lords placed themselves in
the high seat, made for public lectures and disputations,
according to the usage of that school, being then fair
set and trimmed with cloth of tissue, and cushions of
velvet : and after the lords were seated, Latimer and
Ridley were sent for : and first appeared Ridley, and
then Latimer. But because it seemed good to examine
them separately, Latimer was kept back until Ridley was
thoroughly examined. Therefore, soon after tlie coming
of Ridley into the school, the commission was openly
read. But Ridley standing bareheaded, as soon as he
heard the cardinal named, and the pope's holiness, put
on his cap. After the commission was read, the bishop
of Lincoln spake in sense following :
Lincoln. — " Master Ridley, although neither I, neither
my lords here, in respect of our own persons do look
for cap or knee, yet because we bear and represent such
persons as we do, that is, my lord cardinal's grace, legate
a latere to the pope's holiness, as well in that he is of a
notable parentage (and therewith Ridley moved his cap
with lowly obeisance) descending from the regal blood,
as in that he is a man worthy to be reverenced with all
humility, for his great knowledge and learning, noble
virtues, and godly life, and especially as he is here in
Englaiid deputy to the pojie's holiness, it should have
become you, at his name, to have uncovered your head.
Wherefore, except you will of your own self put your
hand to your head, and at the name, as well of the car-
dinal, as of the pope's holiness, uncover your head, lest
your contumacy should be prejudicial to these most re-
verend persons, we shall cause some man to pluck off
your cap from you."
Ridley. — " As touching what you said, my lord, that
you of your own persons desire no cap nor knee, but
only require them, in consideration that you represent
the cardinal's grace's person, I beg you to understand,
that I did put on my cap at the naming of the cardinal's
grace, neither for any contumacy that I bear towards
your own ))ersons, nor for any derogation of honour
toward the lord cardinal's grace. For I know him to be
a man worthy of all humility, reverence, and honour,
as he came of the most regal blood, and as he is a man
indued with many graces of learning and virtue, and as
touching these virtues and points, I with all humility
(therewith he put off his cap, and bowed his knee) will
reverence and honour his grace ; but as he is legate to
the bishoj) of Rome, (and therewith he put on his cap)
" whose usurped supremacy I utterly refuse and re-
nounce, I may in no wise give any obeisance or honour
to him, lest my so doing and behaviour might be pre-
judicial to mine oath, and in derogation of the truth of
God's word."
Lincoln. — '* Master Ridley, you excuse yourself of
A.D. 1555.] THE EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS, 843
that, with which we pressed you not, in that you protest
you keep on your cap, neither for any contumacy to-
wards us, neither for any contempt of this audience :
neither in derogation of any honour due to my lord car-
dinal's grace, for his regal descent, and excellent quali-
ties ; for although in all these honour is due, yet we
require no honour from you on this account, but only
because my lord cardinal's grace is here, in England, de-
puty of the pope's holiness," (at which word the lords
and others put off their caps, and Ridley putonhis,) "and
therefore we say to you the second time, that except you
put your hand to your head, and put otf your cap, you
shall put us to the pain of causing some man to take it
from you, except you allege some infirmity and sickness,
or other more reasonable cause."
Ridley. — " I spoke only that it might appear to your
lordships, and to this audience, why I used such be-
haviour, in not humbling myself to your lordships with
cap and kuee : and as for my sickness, I thank my Lord
God, that I am as well at ease, as I have been this long
seisou; and therefore I do not pretend that which is
1 )t, bit, that it might appear by this my behaviour,
t!iat I acknowledge in no point that usurped supremacy
of Rome, and therefore contemn and utterly despise all
authority coming from him. In taking off my cap,
do as it shall please your lordships, and I shall be
content.''
Then the bishop of Lincoln, after the third admoni-
tion, commanded one of the beadles to pluck his cap
from his head. Master Ridley bowing his head to the
o.Scjr, gencly permitted him to take away his cap.
After this the bishop of Lincoln in a long oration ex-
horted Ridley to recant, and submit himself to the uni-
versal faith of Christ, in this manner.
Lincoln. — " Master Ridley, I am sure you have suffi-
ciently pondered with yourself the effect of this our com-
mission, considering how authority is given to us, if you
shall receive tiie true doctrine of the church, which first
was founded by St. Peter at Rome, immediately after the
ddath of Christ, and from him by lineal succession has
been brought to this our time ; if you will renounce
your errors, recant your heretical and seditious opinions,
consent to yield yourself to the undoubted faith and truth
of tlie gospel, received and always taught by the catholic
and apostolic church, which the king and queen, all the
nobles of this realm, and commons of the same, all
christian jieople have and do confess, you only standing
alone by yourself. You understand and perceive, 1 am
sura, that authority is given us to receive you, to recon-
cile you, and upon due penance to adjoin and associate
you again into the number of the catholics' and Christ's
churcli, from which you have so long strayed, without
which no man can be saved ; which thing I and my lords
here, yei, and all, as well nobles and commons of this
realm most heartily desire, and I for my part" (where-
'i'ith he put off his cap) " most earnestly exhort you to
.0. Remember, it is no strange country whither I exhort
you to return. You were once one of us, you have
taken degrees in the school. You were made a priest,
and became a preacher, setting forth the same doc-
tri.ie which we do now. You were made bishop ac-
ling to our laws ; and to be short, it is not so long
. since you separated yourself from us, and in the time
(H lieresy became a setter forth of that devilish and se-
ditio IS doctrine which in these latter days was preached
ainoii'^^st us. For when the council, to win my lord
chancellor, sent you to him, and after you had talked
with my lord, and were departed, immediately my lord
declared certain points of your talk, and means of your
persuasion, and amongst others this was one, that you
should say, ' Tush, my lord, this matter of justification
is but a trifle, let us not stick to condescend in it to
them; but for God's love, my lord, stand stoutly in
the truth of the sacrament.' Also in a sermon of yours
at St. Paul's Cross, you as effectually and as catho-
licly spoke of that blessed sacrament as any man
might have done, whereby it appears that it is no
strange thing, nor unknown place whereunto I exhort
you. I wish you to return thither from whence
ycu caine : that is together with us to acknowledge the
church of God, wherein no man may err, to acknowledge
the supremacy of our most reverend father in God the
pope's holiness, which lineaUy takes his descent from
St. Peter, upon whom Christ promised before his death,
to build his church; the which supremacy or preroga-
tive, the most ancient fathers in all ages, in all times did
acknowledge. According to St. Augustine, who writes
in this manner, ' all the christian countries beyond the
sea are subject to the church of Rome.' Here you see,
tliat all Christendom is subject to the church of Rome.
What should prevent you, therefore, to confess the same
with St. Augustine and the other fathers ?"
Then Ridley requested j)ermission to speak somewhat,
lest the multitude of things might confound his memory;
and having obtained permission, he said : — " My lord, I
most heartily thank your lordship, as well for your gen-
tleness as also for your sobriety in talk, and for your
good and favourable zeal in this learned exhortation, ia
which 1 have marked especially three points, which you
used to persuade me to leave my doctrine and religion,
which I perfectly know and am thorouglily persuaded to
be grounded not upon man's imagination and decrees,
but upon the infallible truth of Clirist's gospel, and not
to look back, and to return to the Romish see, contrary
to mine oath, contrary to the prerogative and crown of
this realm, and especially, which moveth me most, con-
trary to the expressed word of God.
"The first poinJt is Ihis, that the see of Rome taking
his beginning from St. Peter, upon whom you »ay Christ
hath built his Church, hath in all ages lineally from
b^hop to bishop been brought to this tune.
" Secondly, tliat even tlie holy fathers from time to
time have in their writings confessed the same.
" Thirdly, that in that 1 was once of the same opinion,
and together with you I did acknowledge the same.
" First, as touching the saying of Cliiist, from whence
your lordship gathers the foundation of tue churcli upon
St. Peter, truly the place is not so to be understood as
you take it, as the circumstance of the place will declare.
For after Christ had asked his disciples whom men
judged him to be, and they had answered, that some had
said he was a prophet, some Elias, some one thing, some
another, then he said, ' Whom say ye that 1 am ?' Then
Peter answered, thou art Christ, the Son of God.
To whom Christ answered, 'Thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church ;' that is to say, upon
this rock, not meaning Peter himself, as though he would
have constituted a mortal man, so frail and brittle a
foundation of his staple and infallible church ; but upon
this rock-stjne, that is, this confession of thine, that I
am the Son of God, I will build my church. For this is
the foundation and beginning of ah Christianity, with
word, heart, and mind to confess that Christ is the Son
of God. Whoever believeth not this, Christ is not in
him ; and he cannot have the mark of Christ imprinted
in his forehead, who confesses not that Christ is tlie Son
of God.
" Therefore Christ said unto Peter, that upon this
rock, that is, upon this his confession, that he was Christ
the Son of God, he would build his church ; to declare
that without this faith no man can come to Chri»t ; so
that this belief, that Christ is the Son of God is the
foundation of our Christianity, and the foundation of our
church. Here you see upon what foundation Christ's
church is built, not upon the frailty of man, but upon
the staple and infallible word of God.
" iNow as to the lineal descent of the bishops in the
see of Rome, true it is that the patriarchs of Rome in the
apostles' time, and long after, were great maiutainers and
setters forth of Christ's glory, in which, above aU other
countries and regions, there especially was preached the
true gospel, the sacraments were most duly ministered ;
and as before Christ's coming it was a city so valiant in
prowess and martial affairs, that aU the world was m a
manner subject to it, and after Christ's passion, divers
of the apostles there suffered persecution for the gospel's
sake : so after the emperors, their hearts being lUuminated,
received the gospel, and became christians, the gospel
there, as well for the great power and dominion, as tor
the tame of the place, flourished most, whereby the
«144 THE EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS.
[Book XI.
bishops of that place were had in more reverence and ho-
nour, most esteemed in all councils anil assemblies, not
because they acknowledged them to be their head, but
because the place was most reverenced and spoken of for
its great power and strength. As now here in England,
the bishop of Lincoln in sessions and sittings hath the
pre-eminence of the other bishops, not that he is the head
and ruler of them, but for the dignity of the bishoprick,"
(and therewith the people smiled). " Wherefore the
doctors in their writings have spoken most reverently of
this see of Rome, and in their writings preferred it, and
this is the prerogative which your lordship did rehearse
the ancient doctors to give to the see of Rome.
" I cannot and dare not but commend, reverence, and
honour the see of Rome, as long as it continued in the
promotion and setting forth of God's glory, and in due
preaching of the gospel, as it did many years after Christ.
But after, the bishops of that see, seeking their own
pride, and not God's honour, began to set themselves
above kings and emperors, challenging to them the title
of God's vicars, the dominion and supremacy over all
the world, I cannot but with St. Gregory, a bishop of
Rome, confess that the bishop of that place is the very
antichrist, whereof St. John speaks by the name of the
whore of Babylon, and say with St. Gregory, ' he that
makes himself a bishop over all the world, is worse than
antichrist.'
" Now where you say St. Augustine should seem not
only to give such a prerogative, but also supremacy to
the see of Rome, in that he saith, all the christian world
is subject to the church of Rome, and therefore should
give to that see a certain kind of subjection : I am sure
that your lordship knows, that in St. Augustine's time
there were four patriarchs, of Alexandria, Constantinople,
Antioch, and Rome ; which patriarchs had under them
certain countries ; as in England tiie archbishop of Can-
terbury hath under him divers bishoprics in England and
Wales, to whom he may be said to be their patriarch.
Also your lordship knows right well, that when St. Au-
gustine wrote this book, he was then bishop in Africa.
Farther, you are not ignorant, that between Europe and
Africa lies the sea called the Mediterranean, so that all
the countries in Europe to him who is in Africa may be
called transmarine countries, or beyond the sea. Of this
it is St. Augustine saith, ' All the christian countries be-
yond the seas and far regions are subject to the see of
Rome.' If I should say all countries beyond the sea,
I do except England, which to me now being in Eng-
land, is not beyond the sea. In this sense St. Augustine
saith, all the countries beyond the sea are subject to the
see of Rome ; declaring thereby that Rome was one of
the sees of the four patriarchs, and under it Europe, by
what subjectio:! I pray you ^ only for a pre-eminence, as
we here in England say, that all the bishoprics in Eng-
lind are subject to the archbishoprics of Canterbury and
York.
" For this pre-eminence also the other doctors (as you
recited) say that Rome is the mother of churches, as the
bishopric of Lincoln is mother to the bishopric of Oxford,
because the bishopric of Oxford came from the bishop-
ric of Lincoln, and they were both once one, and so is
the archbishopric of Canterbury mother to the other
bishoprics which are in her province. In like sort the
irchbishopric of York is mother to the northern bishop-
rics ; and yet no man will say that Lincoln, Canterbury,
or York are supreme heads to other bishoprics ; neither
then ought we to confess the see of Rome to be supreme
bead, because the doctors in their writings confess the
see of Rome to be mother of churches.
" Now where you say, I was once of the same religion
which you are of, the truth is, I cannot but confess the
game. Yet so was St. Paul a persecutor of Clirist. But
when you say, tliat I was one of you not long ago, in that
1 doing my message to my Lord of Winchester, desired
liim to stand stout in that gross opinion of the supper of
the Lord ; in very deed I was sent from the council to
my Lord of Winchester to exhort him to receive also the
true confession of justification ; and because he was very
refractory I said to him, ' Why, my lord, what make you
you so great a matter herein ? You see many anabaptists
rise against tlie sacrament of the altar ; I pray you, my
lord, be diligent in confounding them ;' for at that time
my Lord of Winchester and I had to do with two ana-
ba|)Hsts in Kent. In this sense I willed my lord to be
stilf in the defence of tlie sacrament against the detestable
errors of anabaptists, and not in the confirmation of that
gross and carnal opinion now maintained.
" As to the sermon which I made at St. Paul's Cross,
you shall understand that there were at St. Paul's, and
divers other places, fixed railing bills against the sacra-
ment, terming it Jack of the box, the sacrament of the
halter, round Roijin, with such like unseemly terms ; for
which causes, in order to rebuke the unreverend beha-
viour of certain evil disposed persons, I preached as re-
verendly of that matter as I might, declaring wliat esti-
mation and reverence ought to be given to it, what danger
ensued the mishandling of it, affirming that s.icrament
to be truly and verily the body and blood of (Christ,
etfectually by grace and sjjirit : whicli woi-ds tiie un-
learned understanding not, supposed that 1 had meant
of tlie gross and carnal being which the Romish decrees
set forth, that a body having life and motion, should be
indeed under the sliapes of bread and wine."
With that the bishop of Lincoln somewhat interrupt-
ing him, said :— " Well, if I should stay upon this place
of St. Augustine, I could bring many more places of the
fathers for the confirmation thereof; but we have certain
instructions, according to which we must proceed, and
came not hither to dispute the matter with you, but only
to take your answers to certain articles, and used tliis in
the way of disputation, in which you interrupted me;
wherefore I will return again.
" You must consider that the church of Christ liet^
not hidden, but is a city on the mountain, and a candle
on the candlestick. Ponder with yourself, that the
church of Christ is catholic ; so that Christ's church is
universally spread throughout the world, not contained
in a prescribed locality, not comprehended in the circuit
of England, not contained in the compass of Germany
and Saxony, as your church is.
" W^herefore for God's love be not singular ; acknow-
ledge with all the realm the truth ; it shall not be, as you
allege, prejudicial to the crown; for the king and queen
their majesties have renounced that usurped power
taken by their predecessors, and justly have renounced
it. For I am sure you know that there are two po-.vers,
the one declared by the sword, the other by the keys.
The sword is given to kings and rulers of countries ; the
keys were delivered by Christ to St. Peter, and by hira
left to all his successors. As to our goods, possessions
and lives, we with you acknowledge us subjects to the
king and queen, who hath the temporal sword ; but as
concerning matters of religion, as touching God's quar-
rel and his word, we acknowledge another head : and
as the king and the queen their highnesses do in all
worldly affairs justly challenge the prerogative and pri-
macy, so in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters they ac-
knowledge themselves not to be heads and rulers, but
members of Christ's body. Why, therefore, should you
stick at that matter, which their majesties have forsaken
and yielded.
" Wherefore, you shall not only not do injury to the
crown, or be prejudicial to their majesty's honour, in
acknowledging with all Christendonj the pope's holiness
to be supreme head of Christ's church, here militant in
earth, but do a thing most delectable in their sight.
Thus if you will revoke all your errors, acknowledging
with the rest of the realm the common and the public
fault, you shall do what all men most heartily desire ;
you shall bring quietness to your conscience, and health
to your soul ; then shall we with great joy, by the au-
thority committed to us from the cardinal's grace, receive
you into the church again, acknowledging you to be no
longer a rotten, but a lively member : but if you shall
still be singular, if you shall still obstinately persevere
in your errors, stubbornly maintaining your former he-
resies, then we must, against our will, according to our
commission, separate you from us, and cut you off from
the church, lest the rottenness of one part in process of
time putrify and corrupt the whole body ; then must we
A.D. 1555.] EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS.
845
confess and publish you to be none of ours ; then must
we yield you up to the temporal judges, of whom, except
it otherwise please the king and queen's highness, you
must receive the punishment by the laws of this realm, due
for heretics. Wherefore, consider your state, remember
your former degrees, spare your body, especially consider
your soul, which Christ so dearly bought with his pre-
cious blood ; do not you rashly cast away that which was
precious in God's sight ; enforce not us to do all that
we may do, which is not only to publish you to be none
of us, to cut you off from the church : we do not, nor
cannot condemn you to die (as most untruly hath been
reported of us), for that is the temporal judge's office ;
we only declare you to be none of the church, and then
must you, according to the tenor of them, and ]ileasure
of the rulers, abide their determination, so that we, after
that we have given you up to the temporal rulers, have
no further to do with you."
Then Master Ridley, with frequent interruptions, at
length spake :
Ridley. — -" My lord, I acknowledge an unspotted
church of Christ, in which no man can err, without
which no man can be saved, which is spread throughout
all tlie world, that is, the congregation of the faithful ;
neither do 1 confine or bind it to any one place, as you
said, but confess it to be spread throughout all the world;
and where Christ's sacraments are duly ministered, his
gospel duly preached and followed, there does Christ's
church shine as a city upon an hill, and as a candle in
the candlestick : but rather it is such as you that would
have the church of Christ bound to a place, who appoint
it to Rome, that there and no where else is tlie founda-
tion of Christ's church. But I am fully persuaded that
Christ's cliurch is every where founded, in every place
where his gospel is truly received, and effectually fol-
lowed. And where the church of God is in doubt, I use
tlij wise counsel of Vincentius Lyrinensis, whom I am
'^ ue you will allow, who giving precepts how the catholic
'mrch may be known amid all schisms and heresies,
u rices in this manner: ' When,' saith he, ' one part is
corrupted with heresies, then prefer the whole world
before that one part ; but if the greater part be infected,
then prefer antiquity.'
" So now, when 1 perceive the greatest part of Chris-
tianity to be infected with the poison of the see of Rome,
1 repair to the usage of the primitive church, which I
find clean contrary to the pope's decrees ; as that the
priest receives alone, what it is made unlawful to the
laity to receive in both kinds, and such like: Where-
fore it requires, that I prefer the antiquity of the
primitive church, before the novelty of the Romish
church."
Lincoln. — " Master Ridley, these faults which you
charge the see of Rome with, are indeed no faults. For
first, it w IS never forbid the laity, but that they might,
if they demanded, receive under both kinds. You know,
also, that Christ after his resurrection, when he went
with his apostles to Galilee, opened himself by breaking
of bread. You know that St. Paul, after his long sail-
ing towards Rome, brake bread, and that the apostles
came together in breaking of bread, which declares that
it is not tinlawful to minister the sacrament under the
form of bread only : and yet the church had just occa-
sion to decree, tiiat the laity should rective in one kind
only, thereby to take away an opinion of the unlearned,
that Christ was not wholly both flesh and blood under
the form of bread. Therefore to take away their opi-
nion, and to establish better the people's faith, the Holy
Ghost in tlie church thought fit to decree, that the laity
should receive only in one kind ; and it is no new thing
for the church, upon just consideration, to alter rites and
ceremonies. For you read in the Acts of the Apostles
that St. Paul, writing to certain of the gentiles who had
received the gospel, bidding them to abstain from things
strangled, and from blood, so that this seems to be an
express commandment ; yet, who will say but that it is
lawful to eat blood ? how is it lawful, but by the per-
mission of the church ?"
Ridley. — " My lord, such things as St. Paul enjoined
to the gentiles for a sufferance, by a little and little to
win the Jews to Christ, were only commandments of
time, and respected not the successors : but Clirist's
commandment, ' Do this,' that is, that which he did in
remembrance, which was not to minister in one kind
only, was not a commandment for a time, but to per-
severe to the world's end."
But the bisiiop of Lincoln, not attending to this an-
swer, without any stay proceeded in this oration.
" So that the church seems to have authority by the
Holy Ghost, whom Christ said he would send alter his
ascension, which should teacii the apostles all trutli, to
have power and jurisdiction to alter such points of the
scripture, ever reserving the foundation : but we came
not, as 1 said before, to reason tlie matter with you, but
have certain instructions ministered to us, according to
the tenor of the which we must proceed, proposing cer-
tain articles, to wliicli we rc-quire your answer directly,
either affirmatively or negntively to every of Iheni, either
denying them or granting tlit-m without fnrtiier dispu-
tation or reasoning ; for we have already stretched our
instructions, in that we suflered you to debate and rea-
son the matter, as we have done: the articles you shall
hear now, and to-morrow we rtill require your answers,
and then proceed : and if you require a copy of them,
you" shall have it, pen, ink, and [iiper ; also such books
as you shall demand, if they are to be got in the uni-
versity."
The Articles.
" 1. We do object to thee, Nicholas Ridley, and to
tliee, Hugh Latimer, jointly ami severally; First, that
thou Nicholas Ridley, in this hiu'h University of 0.xford,
in the year 1554, in the months of April, May, June,
July, or in some one, or more of them, hast affirmed,
and openly defended and maintained, and in many other
times and places besides, that the true and natural body
of Christ, after the consecration of the priest, is not
really present in the sacrament of the altar.
" 2. That in the year and mouths aforesaid, thou hast
publicly affirmed and defended, that in the sacrament
of the altar remaineth still the substance of bread and
wine.
" ;}. That in the said year and months, thou hast
openly affirmed and obstinately maintained, that in
the mass is no propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and
the dead.
" 4. That in the year, place, and montlis aforesaid,
these the aforesaid assertions solemnly had been con-
demned, by the scholastic censure of this school, as
heretical and contrary to the catholic faith, by the
worshipful Doctor Weston, prolocutor then of the con-
vocation house, as also by other learned men of both
the universities.
" 5. That all and singular the premises be true, no-
torious, famous, and openly known by public fame, as
well to them near at hand, as also to them in distant
places far off."
Examination vpon the Articles.
All these articles are here placed together, that as
often as reference shall be necessary to any of them,
tlie reader may have recourse here, and peruse them,
and not to distract the history with several repetitions
of them.
After these articles were read, the bishops took
counsel together. At the last the bishop of Lincoln
said, " These are the very same articles which you, in
0])en disputation here in the university, did maintain and
defend. What say you to the first .' I pray you answer
affirmatively, or negatively."
Ridley. — " Why, my lord, I supposed your gentleness
had been such, that you would have given me space until
to-morrow, that upon good advice I might bring a de-
terminate answer."
Lincoln. — " Yea, Master Ridley, I mean not that
your answers now shall be prejudicial to your answers
to-morrow. 1 will take your answers at this time, and
yet notwithstanding it shall be lawful to you to add.
846
EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS. [Book XI.
diminish, alter, and change any part of these answers to-
morrow, as you will."
Ridley. — " Indeed, in like manner at our last dis-
putations I had many things promised, and few perform-
ed. It was said, that after disputations I should have a
copy of them, and license to change mine answers, as I
should think good. It was meet also that I should have
seen what was written by the notaries at that time. So
your lordsliip pretended great gentleness in giving me a
time ; but this gentleness is the same that Christ had from
the high priest. For you, as your lordship saith, have
no power to condemn me, neither at any time to put a
man to death : so in like sort the high priests said, that
it was not lawful for them to put any man to death, but
conmiitted Christ to Pilate, neither would suffer him to
absolve Christ, although he sought all means that he
might."
Doctor Weston. — " What I do you make the king
Pilate ?"
Ridley. — " No, Master Doctor; I do but compare
your deeds with those of Caiaphas and the high priests,
who would condemn no man to death, as ye will not,
and yet would not suffer Pilate to absolve and deliver
Christ.''
Lincoln. — " We intend that you shall enjoy the be-
nefit of answering to-morrow, and will take your answers
now as now; to-morrow you shall change, take out, add,
and alter wliat you will. In the mean time we require
you to answer directly to every article, either affirma-
tively or negatively."
Ridley. — " Seeing you appoint me a time to answer to-
morrow, and yet will take mine answers out of hand:
first, I require the notaries to take and write my pro-
testation, tliat in no point I acknowledge your authority,
or admit you to be my judges, in what you are autho-
rized from the pope. Therefore, whatever I .=hall say
or do, I protest, 1 neither say it, nor do it willingly,
thereby to admit the authority of the pope ; and if your
lordship will give me leave, I will shew the causes
which move me to this."
Lincoln. — " No; we have instructions to the contrary.
We may not suffer you."
Ridley. — " I will be short ; I pray your lordships
suffer me to speak in few words."
Lincoln. — " No, blaster Ridley, we may not abuse
the hearers' ears."
Ridley. — " Why, my Lord, suffer me to speak three
words."
Lincoln. — " Well, to-morrow you shall speak forty.
The time is far past ; therefore we require your answer
determinately. What say you to the first article .■" "
Ridley. — " My protestation always saved, that by this
mine answer I do not yield to your authority, as legate
to the pope, I answer thus : In a sense the first article
is true, and in a sense it is false; for if you take ' really'
for ' vere,' for spiritually by grace and efficacy, then it is
true that the natural body and blood of Christ is in the
sacrament ' vere et realiter, indeed and really ;' but if
you take these terms so grossly, that you would conclude
thereby a natural body having motion, to be contained
under the forms of bread and wine, vere et realiter, then
really is not the body and blood of Christ in the sacra-
ment, no more than the Holy Ghost is in the element of
water in our baptism." Because this answer was not
understood, the notaries did not know how to note it ;
wherefore the bishop of Lincoln desired him to answer
either affirmatively, or negatively, either to grant the
article, or to deny it.
Ridley. — " My lord, both you and I agree herein,
that in the sacrament is the very true and natural body
and blood of Christ, even that which was born of the
Virgin Mary, which ascended into heaven, wliich sitteth
on the right hand of God the Father, which shall come
from thence to judge the quick and the dead, we differ
only in the way and manner of being : we confess all
one thing to be in the sacrament, and dissent in the
manner of being there. I being fully by God's word
persuaded, confess Christ's natural body to be in the
sacrament indeed by Spirit and grace, because that who-
ever receives worthily that bread and wine, receives
effectually Christ's body, and drinks his blood, that is
he is made effectually partaker of his passion. You
make a grosser kind of being, enclosing a natural, a
lively, and a moving body, under the shape or form' of i
bread and wine. Now, this difference considered, I
answer, that in the sacrament of the altar is the natural
body and blood of Christ vere et realiter, indeed and I
really, for si)iritual!y by grace and efficacy ; for so every
worthy receiver receives the very true body of Christ:
but if you mean really and indeed, so that thereby you
would include a lively and a movable body under the
forms of bread and wine, then in tliat sense Christ's body
is not in the sacrament really and indeed.''
This answer, being taken and penned by the notaries, i
the bishop of Lincoln proposed the second question or j
article. "To whom he answered : !
Ridley. — " Always my protestation reserved, I answer
thus ; that in the sacrament is a certain change, in that
the bread, which was before common bread, is now
made a hvely presentation of Christ's body, and not
only a figure, but effectually representeth his body,
that even as the mortal body was nourished by that
visible bread, so is the internal soul fed with the heavenly
food of Christ s body, which the eyes of faith see, as the
bodily eyes see only bread. Such a sacramental mu-
tation I grant to be in the bread and wine, which truly
is no small change, but such a change as no mortal mao
can make, but only that omnipotency of Christ's word."
Tiien the bishop of Lincoln willed him to answer
directly, either affirmatively or negatively, without fur-
ther declaration of the matter. Then he answered :
Ridley. — " Notwithstanding the sacramental mutation
of the which 1 speak, and all the doctors confess, the
true substance and nature of bread and wine remains ;
with which the body is nourished, as the soul is by
grace and Spirit with the body of Christ. Even so
in baptism the body is washed with the visible water,
and the soul is cleansed from all filth by the invisible
Holy Ghost, and yet the water ceases not to be water,
but keeps the nature of water still. In like sort, in
the sacrament of the Lord's supper the bread ceases
not to be bread."
Then the notaries penned, that he answered affirma-
tively to the second article. The bishop of Lincoln de-
clared a difference between the sacrament of the altar
and baptism, because Christ said not by the water,
" This is the Holy Ghost,'' as he did by the bread, " This
is my body."
Then Ridley cited St. Austin, who compared both
sacraments the one with the other : but the bishop of
Lincoln recited the third article, and required a direct
answer. To whom Ridley said :
Ridley. — " Christ, as St. Paul writeth, made one
perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, neither
can any man reiterate that sacrifice of his, and yet is the
communion an acceptable sacrifice to God of praise and
thanksgiving ; but to say that by it sins are taken away,
which wholly and perfectly was done by Christ's passion,
of which the communion is only a memorial, that is a
great derogation of the merits of Christ's passion : for
the sacrament was instituted, that we receiving it, and
thereby recognising and remembering his passion, should
be partakers of the merits of it. For otherwise this
sacrament takes upon it the office of Christ's passion,
by which it might follow, that Christ died in vain."
The notaries penned this his answer to be affirmatively.
Then said the bishop of Lincoln :
"As you allege out of St. Paul, Christ made one
perfect oblation for all the whole world, that is, that
bloody sacrifice upon the cross : yet nevertheless he hath
left this sacrifice, but not bloody, in the remembrance
of that by which sins are forgiven ; which is no dero-
gation of Christ's passion."
Then the bishop of Lincoln recited the fourth article,
to which Ridley answered, "That in some part the
fourth was true, and in some part false ; true, in that
those his assertions were condemned as heresies, although
unjustly ; false, in that it was said they were condenmed
by the university, for the disputations were in such sort
ordered, that it was far from any school act."
A.D. 1555.] EXAMINATION OF BISHOP LATIMEH BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS. 847
Here Latimer, who before had leaned his head on his
hand, began somewhat to remove his cap aaa kerchief
from liis ears.
The bishop proceeded, saying, " For Christ spake ex-
pressly to Peter, saying, ' Feed my sheep, and rule my
lambs,' which not only declare a certain ruling of Christ's
flock, but includes also a certain pre-eminence and go-
vernment; so that in saying 'rule,' Christ declared a
power given to Peter, which jurisdiction and power Peter
delivered to Clement, and so in all ages has it remained
in the see of Rome. This, if you shall confess with us,
and acknowledge with all the realm your errors and
false assertions, then shall you do tliat which we most
desire, then shall we rest upon the first part of our
commission, tlien shall we receive you, acknowledge you
one of the church, and according to the authority given
to us, minister unto you, upon due repentance, the be-
nefit of absolution, to which the king and queen their ma-
jesties were not ashame<l to suljmit themselves, altliougli
they of theniselv.es were nnsj)otted, and therefore needed
no reconciliation ; yet lest the putrefaction and rotten-
ness of all the body might be noisome, and do damage
to the head also, they (as I said) most humbly suljuiitted
themselves to my lord cardinal his grace, by him, as a
legate to the pope's holiness, to be partakers of the re-
conciliation. But if you shall stubbornly persevere in
your blindness, if you will not acknowledge your errors,
if you, as you now stand alone, will be singular in your
opinions, if by schism and heresy you will divide your-
self from your church, then must we proceed to the
second part of the commission, which we would be loth
to do, that is, not to condemn you, for that we cannot
do (that, the temporal sword of the realm, and not we,
will do), but to separate you from us, acknowledge you
to be none of us, to renounce you as no member of the
church, to declare that you are a son of perdition, a lost
child, and as you are a rotten member of the church, so
to cut you off from the church, and so to commit you
to the temporal judges, permitting them to proceed
against you, according to the tenor of their laws."
After the bishop had paused, then Latimer lifted
up his head (for before he leaned on his elbow), and
asked whether his lordship had concluded ; and the
bishop answered, " Yea.''
Latimer. — " Then will your lordship give me leave to
speak a word or two .'"
Lincoln. — " Yea, Master Latimer, so that you use a
modest kind of talk, without railing or taunts."
Latimer. — " I beseech your Lordship, give me leave
to sit down."
Lincoln. — " At your pleasure, Master Latimer, take
as much ease as you will."
Latimer. — " Your Lordship gently exhorted me in
many words to come to the unity of the church. I
confess, my lord, a catholic church, spread throughout
all the world, in which no man may err, without which
unity of the church no man can be saved ; but I know
perfectly by God's word, that this church is in all the
world, and hath not its foundation in Rome only, as
you say ; and methought your lordship brought a place
out of the scriptures to confirm the same, that there
was a jurisdiction given to Peter, in that Christ bade him
' rule,' or govern his people. Indeed, my lord, St.
Peter did well and truly his office, in that he w'as bid to
rule : but since, the bishops of Rome have taken a new-
kind of ruling. Indeed they ought to rule ; but how
my lord .' not as they will themselves, but according to
the word of God. But the bishops of Rome have turned
the rule ' according to the word of God,' into the rule
' according to their own pleasures :' as there is a book
set forth which has several points in it, and amongst
others, this point is one, which your lordship went
about to prove by this word ' rule,' and the argument
which he brings for the proof of that matter, is taken
out of Deuteronomy, where it is said, if there ariseth
any controversy among the people, the priests, of the
order of Levi, shall decide the matter according to the
law of God. This book, perceiving this authority to be
given to the priests of the old law, takes occasion to
prove the same to be j,iven to the bishops and the other
Si
This answer being penned by the notaries, the bishop
of Lincoln rehearsed the fifth article. To which he
answered, that the premises were in such sort true, as
in these his answers he had declared. Whether that all
men spake evil of them, he knew not, in that he came
not so much abroad to hear what every man reported.
This answer also was written by the notaries, the
bishop of Lincoln then said :
" To-morrow, at eight of the clock, you shall appear
before us in St. Mary's church, and then, because we
cannot well agree upon your answer to the first article,
if it will please you to write your answer, you shall have
pen, ink, and paper, and books, such as you shall re-
quire ; but if you write anything except your answers to
these articles, we will not receive it. So he, charging
the mayor with him, declaring also to the mayor that he
should suffer him to have a pen and ink, dismissed
Ridley, and sent for Latimer, who being brought to the
divinity school, there tarried till they called for him.
Latimer's Appeararice before the Commissioners.
Now after Ridley was committed to the mayor, the
bishop of Lincoln commanded the bailiffs to bring in the
other prisoner, who, as soon as he was placed, said to
the lords :
Latimer. — " My lords, if I appear again I pray you
not to send for me until you be ready. For 1 am an
old man, and it is great hurt to minij old age to tarry so
long gazing upon the cold walls."
Latimer. — " Master Latimer, I am sorry you are
brought so soon, although it is the bailiff's fault, and
not mine ; but it shall be amended."
Then Latimer bowed his knee down to the ground,
holding his hat in his hand, having a kerchief on his head,
and upon it a night-cap or two (such as townsmen use,
with two broad flaps to button under the chin), wearing
an old threadbare Bristol frize gown, girded to his body
with a penny leather girdle, at which hung by a long
string of leather his Testament, and liis spectacles with-
out a case, depending about his neck upon his breast.
After this the bishop of Lincoln began in this manner :
Lincoln. — " Master Latimer, you shall understand,
that I and my lords here have a commission from my
lord cardinal Pole's grace, legate a latere to this realm
of England, fiom our most reverend Father in God, the
pope's holiness, to examine you upon certain opinions
and assertions of yours, which you, as well here openly
in disputations in the 3^ear 1554, as at other times, did
affirm, maintain, and obstinately defend. In which
commission are especially two points ; the one which we
must desire you is, that if you shall now recant, revoke,
and disannul these your errors, and together with all
this realm, yea, and all the world, confess the truth, we,
upon your due repentance, shall receive you, reconcile
you, acknowledge you no longer a strayed sheep, but
join you again to the unity of Christ's church, from
which you in the time of schism fell. So that it is no
new matter to which I exhort you ; I desire you to re-
turn thither from whence you went. — Consider, that
without the unity of the church is no salvation, and in
the church can be no errors. Therefore, what should
stay you to confess that which all the realm confesses,
to forsake that which the king and queen their majesties
have renounced, and all the realm recanted ? it was a
common error, and it is now by all confessed, it shall be
no more shame to j'OU, than it was to us all. Consider
that within these twenty years this realm also, with all
the world, confessed one church, acknowledged in
Christ's church an head, and by what means and for
what occasion it cut off itself from the rest of Christi-
anity, and renounced that which in all times and ages
was confessed, it is well known, and might be now de-
clared upon what good foundation the see of Rome was
forsaken, save that we must spare them that are dead,
to whom the rehearsal would be opprobrious : it is no
usurped power, as it hath been termed, but founded
Upon Peter by Christ, a sure foundation, a perfect
builder, as by divers places, as well of the ancient fa-
thers, as by the express word of God may be proved."
848
EXAMINATION OF LATIMER BEFORE THE COMMISSIONEKS.
[Book XI.
clergy of the new law : but in proving this matter, ' ac-
cording to God's law' is left out : my lords, we may Tiot
give such authority to the clergy, to rule all things as
they will. Let them keep themselves within their com-
mission. Now, I trust, my lord, I do not rail yet."
Lincoln. — " No, Master L'ltimer, your talk is more
like taunts tlian ruling ; but as I have not read the
book which you blune so much, nor know of any such,
1 can say nothing therein."
Latimer. — " Yes, my lord, the book is open to be
read, and is written by one who is bishop of Gloucester,
whom I never knew, neither did at any time see liim to
my knowledge."
Witli that the people laughed, because the bishop of
Gloucester sat there in commission. Then the bishop
of Gloucester stood up, and said it was his book.
Latimer. — " Was it yours, my lord ? indeed I knew
not your lordship, neither did I ever see you before,
neither yet see you now, through the brightness of the
sun shining betwixt you and me."
Then the audience laughed again ; and LiHme? spake
to them, saying, " Why, my masters, this is no laugh-
ing matter. I answer upon life and deatli : ' Woe unto
ye that laugh now, for ye shall weep.' ''
The bishop of Lincoln commanded silence, and then
said :
" Master Latimer, if you had kept yourself within
your bounds, if you had not used such scoffs and taunts,
this had not been done."
After this t^e bishop of Gloucester spoke in excuse of
his book.
Gloucester. — " Master Latimer, hereby every man
may see what learning you have."
Latimer. — " Lo, you look for learning at my hands,
who have gone so long to the school of oblivion, making
the bare walls my library, keeping me so long in prison
without book, or pen and ink ! and now you let me
loose to come and answer to articles. You deal with me
as though two were appointed to fight for life and death,
and over-night the one, through friends and favour, is
cherished, and hath good counsel given him how to en-
counter with his enemy ; the other, for envy or lack of
friends, all the whole night is set in the stocks. In the
morning when they shall meet, the one is in strength
and lusty ; the other is stiff in his limbs, and almost
dead for feebleness. Think you that to run this man
through with a spear is not a goodly victory ?"
But the bishop of Gloucester interrupting his answer,
proceeded, saying : — " I went not about to recite any
places of scripture in that place of my book ; for then if
I had not recited it faithfully, you might have had just
occasion of reprehension : but I only in that place formed
an argument ; that if in the old law the priests had power
to decide matters of controversy, much more then ought
the authority to be given to the clergy in the new law :
and I pray you in this point what availeth their re-
hearsal of, ' according to the law of God ?' "
Latimer. — " Yes, my lord, very much. For I acknow-
ledge authority to be given to the spiritualty to decide
matters of religion, and as my Lord said even now, to
rule, but they must do it according to the word and law
of (iod, and not after their own will, after their own
imaginations and fantasies."
But the bishop of Lincoln, not attending to this saying
of Latimer, proceeded in the rehearsing the articles in
form, as was declared before in the examination of the
articles proposed to Ridley, and required Latimer's an-
swer to the first. Then Latimer, making his protesta-
tion, that notwithstanding these his answers it should
not be taken thit thereby he would acknowledge any
authority of the bishop of Rome, saying, that he was the
king and cpieen's subject, and not the pope's, neither
could serve two masters at one time, except he should
now renounce one of them ; he required the notaries so
to take liis protestation, tliat whatever he should say or
do, it should not be taken as though he thereby agreed
to any authority that came from the bishop of Rome.
The bishop of Lincoln said, that his protestation should
be so taken ; but he required him to answer briefly, af-
firmatively, or negatively, to the first article, and so
recited the same again : and Latimer answered ai
follows : —
" I do not deny, my lord, that in the sacrament, hy
spirit and grace, is the very body and blood of Christ,
because every man, by receiving bodily that bread and
wine, spiritually receives the body and blood of Christ,
and is made partaker tliereby of tlie merits of Christ's
passion : but I deny that the body and blood of Christ
is so in the sacrament, as you would have it."
Lincoln. — " Then, Master Latimer, you answer af-
firmatively .'"
Latimer. — " Yea, if you mean of that gross and carnal
being, wliich you take."
Tiie notaries took his answer to be affirmatively.
Lincoln.—" What say you, Master Latimer, to the
second article ?"
Latimer. — " There is, my lord, a change in the bread
and wine, and such a cliange as no power, but the om-
nipotency of God can make, in that that which before
was bread, should now have tbediguity to exliiliit Clirist's
body, and yet the bread is still bread, and the win? still
wine : for the change is not in the nature, but in the
dignity, because that now which was common bread has the
dignity to exhibit Christ's body : for whereas it was
common bread, it is now no more conmion bread, neither
ought it to be so taken, but as holy bread sanctified by
God's word.'
Lincoln.—" Lo, Master Latimer, see what stedfastness
is in your doctrine. That which you abhorred and de-
spised most, you now most establish : for whereas you
most railed at holy bread, you now make your communion
holy bread."
Latimer. — " A rush for holy bread ! I say the bread
in the communion is holy bread indeed.''
But the bishop of Lincoln interrupted him, and said : —
" Oh 1 ye make a difference between holy bread and
holy bread. Well, Master Latimer, is not this your
answer, that the substance of bread and wine remains
after the words of consecration .'"
Latimer. — " Yes, verily, it must needs be so. For
Christ himself calls ic bread, St. Paul calls it bread, the
doctors confess the same ; the nature of a sacrament
confirms the same, and I call it holy bread, not because
I make no difference betwixt your holy bread and this,
but for the holy office which it bears, that is, to be a
figure of Christ's body, and not only a bare figure, but
effectually to represent the same."
So the notaries penned his answer to be affirmatively.
Lincoln. — " W'hat say you to the third question ?"
Latimer. — " No, no, my lord, Christ made one per-
fect sacrifice for all the whole world, neither can any
man offer him again, neither can the priest offer up
Christ again for the sins of man, which he took away
by offering himself once for all, as St. Paul saith, upon
the cross, neither is there any propitiation for our sins,
saving his cross only."
So the notaries penned his answer to this article also
to be affirmatively.
Lincoln. — " What say you to the fourth. Master Lati-
mer ?" After the recital, which Latimer answered not,
the bishop asked him whether he heard him or not ?
Latimer. — " Yes, but I do not understand what you
mean by it."
Lincoln. — " Only this, that these your assertions were
condemned by Doctor Weston as heresies ; is it not so,
Master Latimer ?"
Latimer. — " Yes, I think they were condemned. But
how unjustly. He that shall be judge of all knoweth."
.So the notaries took his answer to this article also to
be affirmatively.
Lincoln. — " What say you, Master Latimer, to the
fifth article ?"
Latimer. — " I know not what you mean by these
terms. I am no lawyer, I would you would propose the
matter plainly."
Lincoln. — " As we proceed according to the laws,
we must use their terms also. The meaning is this, that
these your assertions are notorious, evil spoken of, and
yet common and frequent in the mouths of the people."
Latimer. — " I cannot tell how much, nor what men
A.D. i:>r.5.]
SECOND LA\'S EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY,
849
talk of them. I come not «o niucli among them, for I
line be:-ii secluded a long lime. What men report of
tin .11 I know not, nor care not."
Tiiis aiijvver taken, the bishop of Lincoln said :—
■• Ma.-ter Latimer, we mean not that these your
.vers shall be prejudicial to you. To-morrow you
■1 appear before us again, and then it shall be
1 . > fal for you to alter and change what you will. We
ei> t' you respite till to-morrow, trusting that after you
iiiVL- pondered well all things against to-morrow, you
V ;;1 not be ashamed to confess the truth.''
Latimer. — " Now, my lord, I pray you give me license
to declare the causes why I have refused the authority
of the pope."
Lincoln. — "Nay, Master Latimer, to-morrow you
shall have license to speak."
Latimer. — " Nay, my lords, I beseech you to do with
me now as it shall please your lordships ; I pray you let
me not be troubled to-morrow again."
Lincoln. — " Yes, Master Latimer, you must needs
appear again to-morrow."
I Latimer. — " Truly, my lord, as for my part I require
jno respite, for I am at a point; you shall give me re-
spite in vain : therefore I pray you let me not trouble
you to-morrow.''
Lincoln. — " Yes, for we trust God will work with you
against to-morrow. There is no remedy, you must needs
appear again to-morrow, at eight of the clock, in St.
Mary's church."
The next day, which was the 1st of October, the
lords repaired to St. Mary's church, and after they were
s( t in a high throne well trimmed with cloth of tissue and
,-iik, then appeared Ridley, who was set at a framed
r.i lie a good space from the bishop's feet, which table
li 1 1 a silk cloth cast over it ; the place was compassed
rif»()ut with framed seats, partly for gentlemen who re-
]i liied thither, and the heads of the university to sit, and
l>;irtly to keep off the press of the audience : for the
whole body, as well of the university as of the town,
rinie to see the end of these two persons. After Ridley's
a|ijiearance, and the silence of the audience, the bishop of
Lincoln spake in manner following : —
i '■ Master Ridley, yesterday when we challenged you
Ifor not uncovering your head, j'ou excused yourself of
jthat of which no man accused you, in saying you did not
(put on your cap for any obstinacy towards us, who de-
isired no such obedience of you, but only in respect of
ithose whose persons we bear ; neither, you said, for
|any contempt that you bear to this worshipful audience,
iwhich, although it justly may, yet in this case requires no
isuch humility of you ; neither for any derogation of
'honour to my lord cardinal's grace, in that he is de-
iscended from the regal blood, in that he is a man most
inoble, both for his excellent qualities and singular learn-
ing : for as touching those points, you said, you with
all humility would honour, reverence, and worship his
grace ; but in that he is legate to the most reverend
father in God the pope's holiness," (with that the bishop
kith all then present, put off their caps, but Ridley
piovednot his,) "you said you neither could, nor would
]by any means be induced to give hira honour : but for-
asmuch as this is the point as we told you yesterday,
why we require honour and reverence of you, we tell you
pow as w'e did then, except you take the pains to move
your bonnet, we will take the pains to cause your bonnet
;o be taken from you, except you pretend sickness, as
Festerday you did not."
Ridley. — " 1 pretend now none other cause, than I
lid yesterday, that is, only that it may appear that not
bnly in word and confession, but also by all my gesture
and behaviour, in no point I agree or admit any authority
\)r power that shall come from the pope, and not for any
^ride of mind (as God is my judge), neither for contempt
f)f your lordships, or of this worshipful audience, neither
for derogation of honour due to my lord cardinal's grace,
is concerning those points which your lordship spake of,
that is, his noble parentage and singular graces in learn-
ing. And as for taking my cap away, your lordship may
io as it shall please you ; it shall not offend me, but I
ihall be content with your ordinance in that behalf."
Lincoln. — " Forasmuch as you do answer now as you
did yesterday, we must do also as we did then;" and
forthwith one of his beadles very hastily snatched his
cap from his head.
After this the bishop of Lincoln began the examina-
tion in the following manner : —
" Master Ridley, yesterday we took your answer to
certain articles, which we then proposed unto you : but
because we could not be thoroughly satisfied with your
answer then to the first article, neither could the notaries
take any determinate answer of you, we (you requiring
the same) granted you license to bring your answer in
writing, and commanded the mayor that you should
have pen, paper, and ink, yea, any books also that you
would require, if they were to be got ; we licensed you
then also to alter your former answers this day at your
pleasure : therefore we are come now hither, to see
whether you are in the same mind now that you were in
yesterday, (which we would not wish,) or on the other
hand, contented to revoke all your former assertions,
and in all points consent to submit yourself to the de-
termination of the universal church, and 1, for my part,
most earnestly exhort you, not because my conscience
pricks me, as you said yesterday, but because 1 see you
a rotten member, and in the way of perdition.
" Yesterday I brought forth amongst others, St.
Augustine, to prove that authority hath always been
given to the see of Rome, and you wrested the words far
contrary to his meaning, in that you would have ' the
whole world' to be applied only to Europe, which is but
the third part of all the world."
But Ridley still persevered in his former answer,
saying, " I am sure, my lord, you have some skill ia
geography, in which you shall understand that there is a
sea called the Mediterranean between Europe and
Africa. He was then in Africa, and he meant Europe
beyond the sea, even as I should say the whole world
beyond the sea, I would thereby be excepting England
in which I stand :" and here many words were spent
upon the interpretation of St. Augustine.
Then he came to St. Cyril, who, as he said, made
against Ridley in the sacrament, even by Melancthon's
own alleging, and he called for Melancthon, but in vain,
because all such books were burned a little before,
wherefore he passed it over. The bishop of Lincoln
continued : —
" St. Cyril also in another place, pi'oving to the Jews
that Christ was come, uses this reason : altars are
erected in Christ's name in Britain, and in far countries.
Therefore Christ is come. But we may use the con-
trary of that reason ; altars are plucked down in Britain :
therefore Christ is not come. A good argument a con-
trariis. I will stand to it in the schools by and by with
any man. You see what a good argument this your doc-
trine makes forthe Jews, toprove thatChristis not come."
Ridley (smiling). — " Your lordship is not ignorant
that this word 'altar' in the scriptures signifies, as well
the altar whereupon the Jews were wont to make their
burnt sacrifices, as the table of the Lord's supper. St.
Cyril means there by this word 'altar,' not the Jewish
altar, but the table of the Lord, and by that saying
(altars are erected in Christ's name, therefore Christ is
come) he means that the communion is ministered in
his remembrance, therefore Christ is come : for the
strength of his argument is, because the remembrance
of a thing cannot be, except itself be past : then all
countries oould not celebrate the communion in reraeni •
brance of Christ's passion, except Christ had been come
and suffered. As for the taking down of the aUais, it
was done upon just considerations, for they stenied to
come too nigh to the Jews' usage. Neither was the
supper of the Lord at any time better ministered, or more
duly received, than in those latter days when all things
were brought to the rites and usages of the primitive
church."
Lincoln. — " A goodly receiving, I promise you, to set
an oyster table instead of an altar, and to come fVoii\
puddings at Westminster to receive! and yet when yonr
table was constituted, you could never be" content, in
placing the same, now east, now north, now one way,
3 I 2
850
SECOND DAY'S EXAMINATION OF BISHOP RIDLEY.
[Book XI.
now another, until it pleased God of his goodness to
place it clean out of the church."
Ridley. — "Your lordship's irreverent terms do not
elevate the thing. Perhaps some men come more devoutly
from puddings, than other men now do from other things."
Lincoln. — " As for that, Master Ridley, you ought to
be judge of no man : but by this your reasoning you
cause us to stretch and enlarge our instructions. We
came not to reason, but to takeyour determinate answers
to our articles. Now, what say you to the first article .'
if you have brought your answer in writing, we will re-
ceive it ; but if you have written any other matter, we
will not receive it."
Then Ridley took a sheet of paper out of his bosom,
and began to read that which he had written : but the
bishop of Lincoln commanded the beadle to take it from
him. But he desired license to read it, saying, that it
was nothing but his answers, but the bishop would in no
wise suffer him.
Ridley. — " Why, my lord, will you require my an-
swer, and not suffer me to publish it ? I beseech you,
my lord, let the audience bear witness in tliis matter.
Your lordships may handle it at your pleasure : there-
fore let the audience be witness to your doings."
Lincoln. — " Well, Master Ridley, we will first see
what you have written, and then, if we shall think "t
good to be read, you shall have it published ; but except
you will deliver it first, we will take none at all of you."
With that Ridley, seeing no remedy, delivered it to
an officer, who immediately delivered it to the bishop of
Lincoln, who, after he had secretly communicated it to
the other two bishops, declared the sense, but would
not read it as it was written, saying, that it contained
words of blasphemy : therefore he would not fill the ears
of the audience with it, although Ridley desired very
urgently to have it published, saying, that except a line
or two, there was nothing contained but the sayings of
the ancient doctors for the confirmation of his asser-
tions.
After the bishops had secretly viewed the whole, then
the bishop of Lincoln said : " In the first part, Master
Ridley, there is nothing contained but your protestation,
that you would not have these your answers so to be
taken, as though you seemed thereby to consent to the
authority or jurisdiction of the pope's holiness."
Ridley. — " No, my lord, I pray you read it out, that
the audience may hear it." But the bishop of Lincoln
would in nowise: "Because," he said, "there were
contained in it words of blasphemy."
Then the bishop of Lincoln recited the first article,
and required Ridley's answer to it. Then Ridley said
that his answer was there in writing, and desired that it
might be published ; but the bishop would not read the
whole, but here and there a piece of it. So the notaries
took his answer, that he referred him to his answer in
writing, and also before at the time of disputation.
Doctor Weston being prolocutor.
In like manner the bishop of Lincoln recited the se-
cond article, and required an answer, and Ridley re-
ferred him to his answer in writing, exhibited now, and
also before at the time of disputation ; and like answers
were taken to all the residue of the articles.
Tliese answers being rehearsed, taken, and penned by
the notaries, the bishop of Gloucester began an exhorta-
tion to move Ridley to recant.
Gloucester. — " If you would once emjity your
stomach, captivate your senses, subdue your reason,
and together with us consider what a feeble ground of
vour religion you have, I do not doubt but you might
easily be induced to acknowledge one church with us, to
confess one faith with us, and to believe one religion
with us. For what a weak and feeble stay in religion is
this, I pray you ? Latimer leaneth to Cranmer, Cran-
mer to Ridley, and Ridley to the singularity of his own
wit : so that if you overthrow the singularity of Ridley's
wit, then must needs the religion of Cranmer and Lati-
mer fall also. You remember well. Master Ridley, that
the prophet speaketh most truly, saying : Woe be to
■ them which are wise in their own conceits. But you
will say here, it is true what the prophet saith ; but how
know you that I am wise in mine own conceit ? Yes.
Master Ridley, you refuse the determination of the ca-
tholic church ; you must needs be singular and wise in
your own conceit, for you bring scripture for the proof
of your assertions, and we also bring scriptures ; you
understand them in one sense, and we in another. How
will you know the truth herein ? If you stand to your
own interpretation, then you are singular in your own
conceit : but if you say you will follow the minds of the
doctors and ancient fathers in like manner, you under-
stand them in one meaning, and we take them in
another ; how will you know the truth herein ? If you
stand to your own judgment, then are you singular in
your own conceit, then you cannot avoid the woe which
the prophet speaks of. Wherefore if you have no stay
but the catholic church in matters of controversy, ex-
cept you will rest upon the singularity and wisdom of
your own brain : if the prophet most truly saith, Woe,
woe be to them that are wise in their own conceit ; then
for God's love. Master Ridley, stand not singular ; be
not you wise in your own conceit ; please not yourself
over much. How were the Arians, the Manichees,
Eutychians, with other divers heretics which have been
in the church, how, I pray you, were they suppressed
and convinced ? By reasoning in disputations ? No,
truly, the Arians had no more places of scripture for
the confirmation of their heresy, than the catholics for
the defence of the truth. How then were they con-
vinced ? only by the determination of the church. And
indeed except we do constitute the church our founda-
tion, stay, and judge, we can have no end of controver-
sies, no end of disputations. For in that we all bring
scriptures and doctors for the proof of our assertions, who
should be judge of this our controversy ? If we our-
selves then be singular and wise in our own conceits,
then cannot we avoid the woe that the prophet speaks
of. It remains, therefore, that we submit ourselves to
the determination of the church, with whom God pro-
mised to remain to the world's end, to whom he promised
to send the Holy Ghost which should teach it the truth.
M'herefore, Master Ridley, if you will avoid the woe that
the prophet speaks of, be not you wise in your judg-
ment : if you will not be wise and singular in your own
judgment, captivate your own understanding, subdue
your reason, and submit yourself to the determination
of the church."
This is briefly the sum of the oration of the bishop of
Gloucester, by which he endeavoured in many more
words, amplifying and enlarging the matter eloquently
with sundry points of rhetoric to move the affections, to
persuade Ridley to recant and forsake his religion.
Ridley answered in few words, that he said most truly
with the j)rophet, Woe be to him that is wise in his own
conceit, but that he acknowledged no .such singularity in
hin nor knew any cause why he should attribute so
much to himself.
Likewise the bishop of Lincoln with many words, and
gently holding his cap in his liand, desired him to turn.
But Ridley made an absolute answer, that he was fully
])ersuaded, the religion which he defended was grounded
upon God's word, and therefore without grtattiffmce
towards God, great peril and damage of his soul, he could
not forsake his Master and Lord God, but desired the
bishop to perform his grant, in that his loid.shi)) said the
day before, that he should have license to shew liis cau^e
why he could tiot with a safe conscience admit the autho-
rity of tlie pope. But the bi.^hop of Lincoln said, tliat
whereas then he had demanded license to speak three
words, he was contented then that he should sjieak iorty
and that grant he would perform.
Then stepped forth Doctor Weston, who sat by, and
said, "Why, my Lord, he hath spoken four hundred
already."
Ridley confessed he had, but they were not of his pre-
scribed number, neither on that matter. Ti.e bishop of
Lincoln bade him take his leave : but he should speak
but forty, and he would tell them upon his fingers, and
Ridley began to speak : but before he had ended half a
sentence, the doctors sitting by cried and said, that hi»
number was out, and with that he was put to silence.
A.D. 1555.]
THE EXAMINATION OF LATIMER BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS.
851
After this the bishop of Lincoln, who sat in the
midst, began to speak as follows :
" Now, 1 perceive. Master Ridley, you will not permit nor
sutTer us to stay in that point of our commission which we
- 1 desired. For indeed I, for my part, I take God to
iifss, am sorry for you." Whereupon Ridley answered :
■• I believe it well, my lord, forasmuch as one day
it will be burthensome to your soul."
Lincoln.—" Nay, not so, Master Ridley, but because
I am sorry to see such stubbornness in you, that by no
means you may be persuaded to acknowledge your errors,
and receive the truth : but seeing it is so, because you
will not suffer us to persist in the first, we must of ne-
cessity proceed to the other part of our commission.
Therefore I pray you hearken to what I shall say,"
and forthwith he read the sentence of condemnation,
which was written in a long process : the tenor of which,
because it is sufficiently already expressed before, we
thought meet in this place to omit, forasmuch as they
are rather words of lourse, than things devised upon
deliberation. The effect was, that as Nicholas Ridley
did affirm, maintain, and stubbornly defend certain
opinions, assertions and heresies, contrary to the word of
God, and the received faith of the church, as in denying
the true and natural body of Christ, and his natural
blood to be in the sacrament of the altar : secondly, in
affirming the substance of bread and wine to remain after
the words of consecration : thirdly, in denying the mass
to be a lively sacrifice of the church for the quick and the
dead, and by no means would be induced and brought
from these his heresies ; they therefore, the said John of
Lincoln, James of Gloucester, John of Bristol, did
judgj and condemn the said Nicholas Ridley, as an
heiY-tic, and so adjudged him presently both by word, and
also in deed, to be degraded from the degree of a bishop,
from jjriesthood, and all ecclesiastical orders ; declaring,
moreover, the said Nicholas Ridley to be no member of
the church, and therefore, committed him to the secular
power, to receive due punishment according to the tem-
poral laws : and, further, excommunicating him by the
great excommunication.
This sentence being published by the bishop of Lin-
coln, Ridley was committed as a prisoner to the mayor,
and immediately Latimer was sent for ; but in the mean-
time the carpet or cloth, which lay upon the table where
Ridley stood was removed, because Latimer had never
received the degree of a doctor, as Ridley had. But as
soon as Latimer appeared, perceiving no cloth upon the
liable, he laid his hat under his elbows, and immediately
spake to the commissioners, saying : —
j " My lords, I beseech your lordships to set a better
j arrangement here at the entrance ; for I am an old man,
! and have a very weak back, so that the press of the
multitude does me much harm."
Lincoln. — " I am sorry. Master Latimer, for your
hurt. At your departure we wiU see to better order."
With that Latimer thanked his lordship, making a
a very low courtsey. After this the bishop of Lincoln
began on this manner : —
" Master Latimer, although yesterday, after we had
taken your answers to those articles which we proposed,
we might have justly proceeded to judgment against you,
especially as you required it, yet we, having a good hope
of your returning, desiring not your destruction, but
rather that you would recant, revoke your errors, and
turn to the catholic church, deferred farther process tiU
this day ; and now, according to the appointment, we
have called you here before us, to hear whether you are
content to revoke your heretical assertions, and submit
yourself to the determination of the church, as we most
heartily desire ; and I, for my part, as I did yesterday,
most earnestly exhort you."
It seemed that the bishop would have further pro-
ceeded, but that Latimer interrupted him, saying : —
" Your lordship often re])eats the ' catholic church,' as
if I denied it. No, my lord, I confess there is a catho-
lic church, to the determination of which I will stand;
but not the church w'hich you call ' catholic,' which ought
sooner to be termed ' diabolic' And where you join to-
gether the Roman and the Catholic church, stay there.
I pray you. For it is one thing to say ' Roman church,'
and another thing to say ' Catholic church.' I must use
here the advice of St. Cyprian, who, when he was cited
before some bishops, that gave him leave to take delibe-
ration and counsel, to try and examine his opinion, he
answered them thus : ' In sticking and persevering in
the truth, there must no counsel nor deliberation be
taken.' And again, being demanded of them sitting in
judgment, which was most likely to be of the church of
Christ, whether he who was persecuted, or they who
did persecute? 'Christ,' said he, 'hath foreshewed,
that he w-ho follows him, must take up his cross and
follow him.' Clirist gave knowledge that the discij)les
should have persecution and trouble. How think you,
then, my lords, is it likely that the see of Rome, wliich
has been a continual persecutor, is rather the church,
or that small flo< k, which has continually been perse-
cuted by it, even i ) death ?''
Lincoln. — " Your cause and St. Cyprian's is not one,
but clean contrary : for he suffered j)ersecution for
Christ's sake and the gospel's ; but you are in trouble
for your errors and false assertions, contrary to the word
of God, and the received truth of the church."
Latimer (interrupting him). — " Yes, verily, my cause
is as good as St. Cyprian's : for his was for the word of
God, and so is mine."
Lincoln. — " Also at the beginning and foundation of
the church, it could not be but that the ajjostles should
suffer great persecution. Further, before Chrisfs
coming, continually there were very few who truly
served God ; but after his coming began the time of
grace, then began the church to increase, and was con-
tinually augmented, until it came to this perfection, and
now hath justly that jurisdiction which the unchristian
princes before by tyranny resisted : there is a different
consideration of the estate of the church now in the
time of grace, and before Christ's coming. But al-
though we had instructions given us determinately to
take your answer to such articles as we should propose,
without any reasoning or disputations, yet we, hoping by
talk somewhat to prevail with you, appointed you to
appear before us yesterday in the divinity school. And
whereas then, notwithstanding you had license to say
your mind, and were answered to every matter, yet you
could not be brought from your errors : we thinking
that from that time you would, with good advice, con-
sider your state, gave you respite from that time yes-
t'^rday when we dismissed you, until this time, and
noT have called you again here in this place, to learn
whether you are the same man you were then or not .'
Therefore we will propose to you the same articles
which we did then, and require of you a determinate
answer, without further reasoning."
Latimer. — " Always my protestation saved, that by
these mine answers it should not be thought that 1 con-
descended and agreed to your lordship's authority, in
that you are delegated by the authority of the pope, so
that thereby I might seem to consent to his jurisdic-
tion. To the first article I answer now as I did yester-
day, that in the sacrament the worthy partaker receives
the very body of Christ, and drinks his blood, by the
spirit and grace. But after a corporeal substance,
which the Romish church prescribes, Christ's body and
blood is not in the sacrament under the forms of bread
and wine."
The notaries took his answer to be affirmative. For
the second article he referred himself to his answers
made before.
After this the bishop of Lincoln recited the third
article, and required a determinate answer.
Latimer. — " Christ made one oblation and sacrifice
for the sins of the whole world, and that a perfect sacri-
fice ; neither needs there to be any other, neither can
there be any other propitiatory sacrifice."
The notaries took his answer to be affirmative.
In like manner he answered to the other articles, not
varying from his answers made the day before.
After his answers were penned by the notaries, and
the bishop of Lincoln had exhorted him to recant, as
H.Vi
DIALOGUE BETWEEN, DOCTOR BROOKS AND BISHOP RIDLEY. [Book XI.
ho did Ridley, and revoke his errors and false assertions,
Latimer answered, that he neither could, nor would
deny his Master, Christ, and his truth, the bishop de-
sired Latimer to hearken to him ; and then, Latimer
hearkening for some new matter, the bishop of Lincoln
read his condemnation ; after the publication of which
the three bishops broke up their sessions, and dismissed
the audience.
But Latimer required the bishop to perform his pro-
mise, in saying the day before, that he should have
license briefly to declare the cause why he refused the
pope's authority ; but the bishop said that now he could
not hear him, neither ought to talk with him. Then La-
timer asked him, whether it were not lawful for him to
appeal from his judgment. And the bishop asked him
again to whom he would appeal. " To the next general
council," said Latimer, " which shall be truly called in
God's name." "With that appeal the bishop was con-
tent ; but he said it would be a long time before such a
convocation, as he meant, would be called.
Then the bishop committed Latimer to the mayor,
saying, " Now he is your prisoner. Master Mayor."
And so Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer continued in
prison till the sixteenth of October.
4 Communication betwem Doctor Brooks and Doctor
Hitlh)/, in the house of Master Irish, the ffteenth of
Ociuber, at which time he was degraded.
In the meantime, on the fifteenth of October, in the
morning, the bishop of Gloucester (Doctor Brooks),
and the vice-chancellor of Oxford (Doctor Marshall),
wii h several others of the chief and heads of the uni-
versity, and many others accompanying them, came to
the house of Master Irish, then mayor of Oxford, where
Doctor Ridley, late bishop of London, was close pri-
soner. And when the bishop of Gloucester came into
tlie chamber where Ridley lay, he told him the purpose
of tlieir coming, saying, tliat yet once again the queen's
majesty did offer unto him, by them, her gracious
mercy, if he would receive the same, and come back
airain to the faith which he was baptized in, and revoke
his erroneous doctrine that he of late had taught abroad,
to the destruction of many. And further said, that if
he would not recant, and become one of the catholic
cl.urcli with them, then they must needs (against their
wills) proceed according to the law, which they were
very loath to do. " But," says he, " we have been
oftentimes with you, and have requested that you would
rtN-ant this your fantastical and devilish opinion ; there-
fore, good Master Ridley, consider with yourself the
d inger that shall ensue, both of body and soul, if you
shall so wilfully cast yourself away in refusing mercy
offered to you at this time."
" My lord," answered Ridley, " you know my mind
fully herein ; and as for the doctrine which I have
taught, my conscience assures me that it was sound, and
according to God's word (to his glory be it spoken),
which doctrine, the Lord God being my helper, I will
maintain so long as my tongue shall move, and breath is
within my body ; and in confirmation of which, seal the
same with my blood."
Brooks. — " Well, you were best. Master Ridley, not
to do so, but to become one of the church with us.
For you know this well enough, that whoever is out of
the catholic church, cannot be saved ; therefore, I say,
once again, that while you have time and mercy offered
you, receive it, and confess with us, the pope's holiness
to be the chief head of the same church."
Ridley. — " I marvel that you will trouble me with
any such vain and foolish talk. You know my mind
concerning the usurped authority of that Roman anti-
christ. As I confessed opeidy in the schools, so do I
now, that both by my behaviour and talk, 1 do no obe-
dience at all to the bishop of Rome, nor to his usurped
authority, and that for divers good and godly conside-
rations."
And here Ridley would have reasoned with the bishoji
of Gloucester about the bishop of Rome's authority,
but was not suffered ; and yet he spake so earnestly
against the pope, that the bishop told him, if he vio Id
not hold his peace, he slionld be compelled against his
will. " And seeing,'' said he, " that you will not re-
ceive the queen's mercy now offered to you, but stub-
bornly refuse the same, we must, against our wills,
proceed, according to our commission, to degrading,
taking from you the dignity of priesthood. For we take
you for no bishop, and, therefore, we will the sooner
have done with you : so, committing you to the secular
power, you know what dolh follow."
Ridley. — " Do with me as it shall please God to suf.
fer you ; I am well content to abide it with all my
heart."
Brooks. — " Put off your cap. Master Ridley, and put
upon you this surplice."
Ridley. — " Truly, 1 will not."
Brooks. — " But you must."
Ridley. — " I will not."
Brooks. — " You must, therefore, make no more ado,
but put this surplice u])on you."
Ridley. — " Truly, if it come upon me, it shall be
against my will.''
Brooks. — " Will you not put it upon you ?"
Ridley. — " No, that I will not."
Brooks. — " It shall be put ujion you by one or t!ie
other."
Ridley. — " Do therein as it shall please you, I am
well content with that ; and more than that, the servant
is not above his Master. If they dealt so cruelly with
our Saviour Christ, as the scripture makes mention,
and he suffered the same patiently, how much more
does it become us his servants !''
On saying these words, they put upon him the sur-
plice, with all the trinkets appertaining to the mass.
And as they were putting it on, Ridley vehemently in-
veighed against the Roman bishop, and all that foolish
apparel, calling him antichrist, and the apparel foolish
and abominable, so that Brooks was exceeding angry
with him, and bid him hold his peace. Ridley an-
swered him again, saying, " So long as my tongue and
breath will suffer me, I will speak against these abo-
minable doings, whatever happens unto me for so do-
ing."— " Well," said Brooks, " you were best to hold
your peace, lest your mouth be stopped." At which
words one Edridge, the reader then of the Greek lec-
ture, standing by, said to Doctor Brooks, " Sir, the law
is he should be gagged, therefore let him be gagged."
At which words Ridley, looking earnestly upon him,
shook his head at him, and made no answer, but with a
sigh said, " Oh well, well, well." So they proceeded
in their doings, yet, nevertheless. Doctor Ridley was
ever talking things not pleasant to their ears, although
one or the other bade him hold his peace, lest he should
be made so to do against his will.
When they came to that place where Ridley should
hold the chaHce and the wafer-cake (called the singing-
bread) they bade him hold it in his hands ; but Ridley
said, " They shall not come into my hands : for if they
do, they shall fall to the ground." Then there was
one ap])ointed to hold them in his hand, while Bisliop
Brooks read a certain paper in Latin, touching the
degradation of spiritual persons, according to the pope's
law.
Afterwards they put a book in his hand, and read
as follows, which was, "We do take from you the
office of preaching the gospel," &c. At which words
Ridley gave a great sigh, looking up towards heaven,
saying, " O Lord God, forgive them this their wick-
edness."
And as they put upon him the mass-robes, they be-
gan with the uppermost garment, in taking it away
again, reading a ])aper in Latin, according to the order
contained in the book of the pope's law. Now when all
was taken from him, save ordy the surplice left on his
back as they were reading and taking it away, Ridley
said to them, " What power have you, that you can
take from a man that which he never had ? I was
never a singer in all my life, and yet you will take from
me that which I never had !"
So when all this their ridiculous degradation was
A.D. 1555.]
DIALOGUE BETWEEN DOCTOR BROOKS AND BISHOP RIDLEY.
853
ended, Ridley said very solemnly to Doctor Brooks,
" Have vou done ? If you have done, then give me
leave to talk with you a little concerning these matters."
Brooks answered, " We may not talk with you, you are
out of the church ; and our law is, that we may not talk
with any that are out of the church." Then Ridley
said, " Seeing that you will not suffer me to talk,
neither will vouchsafe to hear me, I have no remedy but
patience ? I refer my cause to my heavenly Father,
who will reform things that are amiss, when it shall
please him."
At which words they would have departed, but Rid-
. ley snid, "My lord, I would wish that your lordship
would vouchsafe to read over and peruse a little book of
Bertram's writing concerning the sacrament. I pro-
mise you, you shall find much good learning in it, if
you will read it with an unprejudiced judgment."
Doctor Brooks made no answer to this, but would have
gone away. Then Ridley said, " Oh, I perceive that
vou cannot bear with this manner of talk. Well, it
boo^s not, I will say no more, I will speak of worldly
affairs. I pray you therefore, my lord, hear me, and
be a mean to the queen's majesty, in the behalf of a
grrat many poor men, and especially for my poor sister
a;i.l her husband who stands there. They had a poor
livine; granted to them by me, while I was in the see of
London, and the same is taken away from them, by him
who now occupies the same place, without all law or
ccnFcience. Here I hare a supplication to the queen's
inaie>ty in their behalf. You shall hear the same read,
fo you shall perceive the matter the better." Then he
read it, and when he came to the place in the supplica-
tion, that touched his sister by name, he wept, so that
for a little time he could not speak for weeping. After
he had left off weeping, he said, " This is nature that
moves me. But 1 have now done ;" and with that read
out the rest, and delivered it to his brother, command-
ing him to send it up to the queen's majesty, and to sue,
not only for himself, but also for such as had any leases
.ir grants by him, and were put from them by Doctor
Bonner. Brooks said, " Indeed, Master Ridley, your
request in this supplication is very lawful and honest :
therefore I must needs in conscience speak to the
queen's majesty for them."
Ridley. — " I pray you for God's sake do so."
Brooks. — " I think your request will be granted, ex-
C'"p^ one tiling prevents it, and that is, because you do
riot allow the ([ueen's proceedings, but obstinately with-
stand Hem, that it will hardly be granted."
Bidley. — " What remedy ? I can do no more but
speak and write. I trust I have discharged my con-
science, and God's will be done.''
Bir.fks. — " I will do what lies in me."
The (le<rrad--;tion benig over, and all things finished.
Doctor Brooks called the bailiffs, delivering to them
Ridlcv with this charge ; to keep him safely from any
ni-iii speaking with hiin, and that he should be brought
to the filice of execution when they were commanded.
Then Ridley praised God, and burst out with these
word.^, and said, " God, I thank thee, and to thy praise
be it spoken, there is none of you all able to lay to my
chai-;:e any open or notorious crime : for if you could, it
would surely be la d against me, I see very well."
Brooks said, he played tlie part of a proud pharisee, ex-
alting and praising himself.
But Ridley said, " No, no, no, as I have said before,
to God's glory be it spoken. T confess myself to be a
tnisirable wretched sinner, and have great need of God's
help and mercy, and do daily call and cry for the same :
th.erefore, I pray you, have no such opinion of me."
Then they dejiarted ; and, in going away, a warden of
a college bade Ridley repent, and forsake that erroneous
0]iinion. Ridley said, " Sir, repent you, for you are
out of the truth : and I pray God, if it be his blessed
will, to have mercy upon you, and grant you the under-
standing of his word." Then the warden, being in a
rage, said. " I trust that I shall never be of your erro-
nf ous and devilish opinion, nor yet to be in that place
whirher von shall go. You are the most obstinate and
wilful man that ever I heard tall' since 1 was horn."
The night before Ridley suffered, his beard and his legs
were washed, and as he sate at supper, in the house of
Master Irish, (who* was his keejier) he invited hi-s hos-
tess, and the rest of the board to his marriage : for, said
he, to-morrow I must be married, and shewed himself to
be as cheerful as ever he was before. And wishing his
sister to be at his marriage, he asked his brother sitting
at the table, whether she could find in her heart to be
there or not : and he answered, ' Yea, I dare say, with
all her heart :' at which he said, he was glad to hear so
much of her. So at this talk Mistress Irish wept.
But Ridley comforted her, and said, " O Mistress
Irish, you love me not now, I see well enough ; for as
you weep, it appears you will not be at my marriage,
neither are content with it. Indeed you are not so much
my friend, as I thought you had been. But quiet your-
self, though my breakfast shall be somewhat sharp and
painful, yet I am sure my supper shall be more pleasant
and sweet," &c.
When they arose from the table, his brother offered
him to watch all night with him. But he said, " No,
no, that you shall not. For I mind (God willing) to go
to bed, and to sleep as quietly to-night, as ever I did in
iiiy life." So his brother departed, exhorting him to be
of good cheer, and to take his cross quietly, for the re-
ward was great, &c.
The behaviour of Ridley and Latimer, at the time of
their death, October \6th, A.D. 1555.
The place appointed for the execution was on the north
side of the town, in the ditch over against Balliol Col-
lege : and for fear of any tumult that might arise, to
prevent their burning, the Lord Williams, and the
householders of the city, were commanded by the queen's
letters to be assistant, sufficiently armed ; and when
every thing was in readiness, the prisoners were brought
forth by the mayor and bailiffs.
Ridley had a furred black gown, faced with foins.
such as he was wont to wear as a bishop, and a tip])et of
velvet, furred likewise about his neck, a velvet night-cap
upon his head, and a corner-cap over it. He went in a
pair of slippers to the stake, between the mayor and -du
alderman, &c.
After him came Latimer in a poor Bristol frieze frock
all worn, with his buttoned cap, and a handkerchief ot.
his head, a new long shroud hanging over his hose down
to his feet : which at the first sight stirred men's hearts
to mourn ; beholding on one hand the honour they once
had, and on the other, the calamity to which they were
fallen .
Ridley, as he passed by the prison, looked up where
Cranmer lay, hoping to have seen him at the windov',
and to have spoken to him. But then Cranmer was
busy with Friar Soto, and his fellows, disjniting togellier,
so that he could not see him. Then Ridley, looking
back, saw Latimer coming after. To whom he s-iid,
" Oh, are ye there?'' "Yea," said Master Latimer.
" as fast as I can follow." At length they came to the
stake, the one after the other. Ridley first entered the
place, and earnestly holding up both his hands, looked
towards heaven : then shortly after seeing Latimer, with
a wondrous cheerful look, he ran to him, embraced ard
kissed him, and as they that stood near reported, com-
forted him, saying, " Be of good cheer, brother, for
God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else
strengthen us to abide it."
With that he went to the stake, kneeled down by it,
kissed it, and prayed ; and behind him Latimer kneeled,
earnestlv calling upon God. After they arose one taU.i-i
with the other a little while, till they who were api).>int-
ed to see the executions, removf'd (hemselves out of the
sun. What they said I cannot learn of any man.
Then Doctor" Smith, of whose recanfation in Kin^
Edward's time vou heard before, beg.'n his sermon to
them upon this te'xt of St. Paul, in CorinHnans, " Though
1 give my body to be burnt, and h;:ve imt ch.>nty. 1 am
nothing.'"' ll'e alleged that Hie goodness of the cause,
and not the manncrof the death, inikcs the hfdine^-, rf
the i)erson; which he confirmed by the exaaiples of
854
THE MARTYRDOM OF LATIMER AND RIDLEY
[Book XL
Judas, and of a woman in Oxford t'aat had lately hanged
herself, for that they and such like, might then be ad-
judged righteous, wtio desperately ^undered their lives
from their bodies, as he feared that those men that srood
before him would do. But he cried still to the people
to beware of them, for they were heretics, and died out
of the church. And on the other side, he declared their
varieties in opinions, as Lutherans, Oecolampadians,
Zuinglians, of which sect they were, he said, and that
was the worst : but the old church of Christ, and the
catholic faith believed far otherwise. At tliis statement
the two martyrs lifted up their hands and eyes to hea-
ven, as if calling God to witness of their truth Which
t'ley did in many other places of his sermon, where they
thought lie spake amiss. He ended with a very short
exiiortation to them to recant and come home again to
the church, and save their lives and souls.
Ridley said to Latimer, " Will you begin to answer
tlie sermon, or shall I ? " Latimer said, " begin you
first, I pray you." " I will," said Ridley.
Then Ridley and Latimer kneeled down upon their
knees towards my Lord Williams of Tame, the vice-
cnancellor of Oxford, and other commissioners appoint-
ed for that purpose, who sat upon a form near them.
Ridley said, " I beseech you, my lord, even for Christ's
sake, that I may speak but two or tliree words : " and
whilst my lord bent his head to the mayor and vice-
chancellor, to know, as it appeared, whether he might
give him leave to speak, the bailiffs and Doctor Marshall,
vice-chancellor, ran hastily to him, and with their hands
stopped his mouth, and said, " Master Ridley, if you
will revoke your erroneous opinions, and recant the same
you shall not only have liberty to do so, but also the
benefit of a subject, that is, have your life." " Not
otherwise ?" said Ridley. " No," replied Doctor Mar-
shall ; " therefore if you will not do so, then there is no
remedy but you must suffer for your deserts." " Well,"
said Ridley, " so long as the breath is in my body, I will
never deny my Lord Christ, and his known truth: God's
■will be done in me." And with that he rose up, and
said with a loud voice, " Well, then, I commit our cause
to Almighty God, who shall impartially judge all."
Latimer added liis own verse, " Well, there is nothing
hid but it shall be made manifest :" and he said, he
could answer Smith well enough, if he might be suffered.
Immediately they were commanded to make ready,
which they obeyed with all meekness : Ridley took his
.i,-i)wn and his tippet, and gave it to his brother-in-law.
Master Siiipside, who all his time of imprisonment, al-
though he was not suft'ered to come to him, lay there at
his own charges to provide him necessaries, which from
time to time he sent him by the serjeant that kept him.
Some other of his apparel that was little worth, he gave
away ; the bailiffs took other parts : besides he gave away
some other small things to gentlemen standing by, se-
veral of whom pitifully wept ; to Sir Henry Lea he gave
a new groat, and to some of my Lord Williams gentle-
nien ; some na]ikins, some nutmegs, and ginger, his dial,
and such other things as he had about him, to every one
that stood next him. Some even plucked the points off
his hose, and happy was he that could get any rag of
him.
Latimer gave nothing, but very quietly suffered his
keeper to pull oft" his hose, and his other apparel, which
■was very simple : and now being stripped to his shroud,
he seemed as comely a person to them who were present,
as one could desire to see ; and though in his clothes he
appeared a withered and crooked old man, he now stood
quite upright.
Then Ridley, standing as yet in his truss, said to his
brother, " It were best for me to go in my truss still."
" No," said his brother, " it will put you to more pain •
and the truss will do a j)Oor man good." Ridley said,
" Be it, in the name of God," and so unlaced himself.
Then, being in his shirt, he stood upon the stone, and
held up his liand and said, "Oh, heavenly Father, I give
unto thee most hearty thanks, for tliat thou hast called
me to be a professor of thee, even unto death. I be-
seech thee, Lord God, take mercy upon this realm of
England, and deliver the same from all her enemies."
Then the smith took a chain of iron, and fastened it
about both Ridley's and Latimer's middles : and as he
was knocking in a staple, Ridley took the chain in hia
hand, and shook it, and looking aside to the smith, said,
" Good fellow, knock it in hard, for the flesh will have
his course." Then his brother brought him gunpowder
in a bag, and would have tied it about his neck, but
Ridley asked what it was. His brother said, " gun-
powder." Then said he, "I will take it to be sent of
God, therefore, I will receive it as sent of him. And
have you any," said he, " for my brother," meaning
Latimer? "Yea, sir, that I have," said his brother :
" Then give it to him," said he, " lest you come too
late." So his brother went, and carried the gunpowder
to Latimer.
In the mean time Ridley spake to my Lord Williams,
and said, " My lord, I must be a suitor to your lordship
in the behalf of several poor men, and especially in the
cause of my poor sister. I have made a supplication to
the queen's majesty in their behalf's. I beseech your
lordship, for Christ's sake, to be a mediator to her grace
for them. My brother liere has tlie supplication ; and
will resort to your lordship to certify you of it. There
is nothing in all the world that troubles mv conscience,
1 praise God, this only excepted. While I was in the
see of London, some jioor men took leases of me, and
agreed with me for them. Now I hear that the bisliop
who now occupies the same place, will not allow my
grants to them, but contrary to all law and rcnscien.'c,
has taken from them their livings, and will not sufl'er
them to enjoy them. I beseech you, my lord, be a
mediator for them : you shall do a good deed, and God
will reward you."
Then they brought a fagot, kindled -with fire, and
laid it down at Ridley's feet. To whom Latimer spake
in this manner: "Be of good comfort, brother Ridley,
and play the man ; we shall this day light such
A candle by god's grace in ENGLAND, AS I TRUST
SHALL NEVER BE PUT OUT."
And so the fire being kindled, when Ridley saw the
fire llaming up towards him, he cried with a loud voice,
" Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit; Lord, re-
ceive my spirit," and repeated this latter part often in
English, " Lord, Lord, receive my spirit." Latimeri
crying as vehemently on the other side, " O Father of
heaven, receive my sovil ;" he received the flame as i^
embracing it. After he had stroaked his face with hisi
hands, and as it were bathed them a little in the fire, he
soon died, as it appears, with very little pain. And thusl
much concerning the end of this old and blessed servantl
of God, Bishop Latimer, for whose laborious services,!
fruitful life, and constant death, the whole realm has|
cause to give great thanks to Almighty God.
But Ridley lingered longerby reason of the badness of tha
fire, which only burned beneath, being kei)t down by the
wood, which when he felt, he desired them for Christ's sakel
to let the file come to him, which when his brother-in-lawj
heard, but not well understood, intending to rid him OS
his pain, but not well advised what he did, heaped fagotsj
upon him, so that he clean covered him, which made tha
fire more vehement beneath ; so that it burned all hi3|
lower parts, before it once touched the upper, and that
made him leaj) up and down under the fagots, and ofteal
desire them to let the fire come to him, saying, " I can-
not burn." Which was apparent : for after his legsj
were consumed, he shewed his other side toward us, J
shirt and all untouched with flame ! Yet in all thisj
torment he forgot not to call unto God still, having in]
liis mouth, " Lord have mercy upon me," intermingling
his cry, " let the fire come to me, I cannot burn." In]
which i)ain he suffered, till one of the standers by withj
his bill ])ulled off the fagots above, and where Ridley
saw the fire flame up, he leaned himself to that side.
And when the flame touched the gunpowder, he was)
seen to stir no more, but burned on the other side, (
falling down at Latimer's feet.
Some said that before he fell from the stake, he de- I
sired them to bold him to it with their bills. However
it was, surely it moved hundreds to tears, in beholding]
the horrible' sight. For I think there was none, that]
f atbucr itnb liliMnr.
A.D. 1555]
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS.
855
had not clean banished all humanity and merry, who did
not lament to behold the fury of the fire rage upon their
bodies. There were signs of sorrow on every side. Some
took it grievously to witness their deaths, whose lives
they held full dear. Some pitied their persons, who
thought their souls had no need of pity. His brother
moved the compassion of many men, seeing his mise-
rable case. But who that considered their preferments
in time past, the places of honour that they occupied
in Ihis commonwealth, the favour tliey were in with their
pr'ncjs and the learning they had, could refrain from
sorrow with tears, to see so great dignity, honour,
and estimation, so many godly virtues, the study of so
many years, such excellent learning, put into the fire,
and consumed in one moment! Well, they are gone,
and the reward of this world they have had already.
What reward remains for them in heaven, tlie day of
the Lord's glory, when he comes with his saints, shall
shortly, I trust, declare.
A Letter Lij Doctor Ridlej/, instead of /lis last Fareirell,
to all his True and Faithful Friends in God.
" At the name of Jesus, let every knee bow, both of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth, and let every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ
is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Amen.
" As a man intending to take a far journey, and to de-
part from his familiar friends commonly and naturally hath
a desire to bid his friends farewell before his departure : so
likewise now I looking daily, when I should be called to
depart hence from you (O all ye, my dearly beloved
brethren and sisters in our Saviour Christ, that dwell
here in this world,) having a like mind towards you all,
(and blessed be God for such time and leisure, whereof
I right heartily thank his heavenly goodness,) to bid you
all, my dear brethren and sisters, (I say in Christ) that
dwell upon the earth, after such manner as I can, farewell.
" Farewell my dear brother, George Shipside, whom
I have ever found faithful, trusty, and loving in all states
and conditions, and now in the time of my cross, over
all others, to me most friendly and steadfast, and that
which liked me best over all other things, in God's cause
ever hearty.
" Farewell, my dear sister Alice, his wife. I am glad
to hear of thee, that thou dost take Christ's cross, which
is laid now (blessed be God) both on thy back and mine,
in good part. Thank God that has given thee a godly
and loving husband : see thou honour him and obey
him, according to God's law. Honour thy mother-in-
law his mother, and love all those that pertain unto him,
being ready to do them good, as it shall lie in thy power.
As for thy children, I doubt not of thy husband, but
that he who hath given him a heart to love and fear God,
and in God them that pertain unto him, shall also make
him friendly and beneficial unto thy children, even as if
thuy had been gotten of his own body.
•' Farewell, my dearly beloved brother, John Ridley,
ot the Waltoun ; and you, my gentle and loving sister
Elizabeth : whom, besides the natural league of amity,
your tender love which you were said ever to bear to-
wards me above the rest of your brethren, doth bind me
to love. My mind was to have acknowledged this your
loving affection, and to have requited with deeds, and
not with words alone. Your daughter Elizabeth I bid
farewell, whom I love for the meek and gentle spirit that
God hath given her, which is a precious thing in the
sight of God.
" Farewell, my beloved sister of Unthank, with all
your children, nephews, and nieces. Since the depart-
ing of my brother Hugh, my mind was to have been
unto them instead of their father ; but the Lord God must
and will be their father, if they would love and fear him,
and live in the way of his law.
" Farewell, my well beloved and worshipful cousins,
Master Nicholas Ridley, of Willimountswicke, and your
wife, and I thank you for all your kindness showed both
to me, and also to all your own kinsfolk and mine.
Good cousin, as God hath set you in our stock and kin-
dred (not for any respect of your person, but of his abun-
dant grace and goodness,) to be, as it were, the bell-
wether to order and conduct the rest, and hath also
endued you with his manifold gifts of grace both heavenly
and worldly above others : so I pray you, good cousin,
(as my trust and ho])e is in you,) continue and increase
in the maintenance of the truth, honesty, righteousness,
and all true godliness, ani to the uttermost of your
povver, to withstand falsehood, untruth, unrighteousness,
and all ungodliness which is forbidden and condemned
by the word and laws of God.
"Farewell, my young cousin Ralph Whitfield. Oh!
your time was very short with me. My mind was to
have done you good, and yet you caught in that little
time a loss, but I trust it shall be recompensed, as it shall
please Almighty God.
" Farewell all my whole kindred and countrymen ;
farewell in Christ all together. The Lord, who is the
searcher of secrets, knoweth that according to my heart's
desire, my hojie was of late that I should have come
among you, and to have brought with me abundance of
Christ's blessed gospel, according to the duty of that
office and ministry, whereunto I was chosen among you,
named and ap])ointed by the mouth of that our late peer-
less prince. King Edward, and so also denounced openly
in his court, by his privy council.
" I warn you all, my well beloved kinsfolk and coun-
trymen, that ye be not amazed or astonished at the man-
ner of my departure and dissolution : for I assure you, I
think it the most honour that ever I was called unto in
all my life : and therefore I thank my Lord God heartily
for it, that it hath pleased him to call me of his great
mercy unto this high honour, to suffer death willingly
for his sake, and his cause ; unto the which honour he
hath called the holy prophets, and dearly beloved
apostles, and his blessed chosen martyrs. For know
you that I doubt no more, but that the cause wherefore
I am put to death is God's cause, and the cause of
the truth, than I doubt that the Gospel which St. John
wrote is the gospel of Christ, or that St. Paul's epistles
are the very word of God. And to have a heart willing
to abide, and stand in God's cause, and in Christ's quar-
rel even unto death, I assure thee, oh man ! it is an
inestimable and an honourable gift of God, given only
to the true elect, and dearly beloved children of God
and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. For the holy
apostle, and also martyr in Christ's cause, St. Peter,
saith. If ye suffer rebuke in the name of Christ, that is,
in Christ's cause, and for his truth's sake, then are ye
happy and blessed, for the glory of the Spirit of God
resteth upon you. If for rebuke's sake suffered in Christ's
name, a man is pronounced, by the mouth of that holy
apostle, blessed and happy : how much more happy and
blessed is he that hath the grace to suffer death also ?
Wherefore, all ye that be my true lovers and friends,
rejoice, and rejoice with me again, and render with me
hearty thanks to God our heavenly Father, that for his
Son's sake, my Saviour and Redeemer Christ, he hath
vouchsafed to call me, being else without his gracious
goodness, in myself but a sinful and vile wretch, to call
me, I say, unto this high dignity of his true prophets, of
his faithful apostles, and of his holy elect and chosen
martyrs, that is, to die and to spend this temporal life
in the defence and maintenance of his eternal and ever-
lasting truth.
" You who are my countrymen dwelling upon the
borders, wliere, alas ! the true man suffers oftentimes
much wrong at the thieves' hands, you know if it
chance a man to be slain by a thief, as it often doth
there, that lie who went out wilh his neighbour to help
him to reserve his goods again, and the more stead-
fastly he stuck by his neighbour in the fight against
the faith of the th'ief, the more favour and friendship
shall all his posterity have for the slain man's sake,
of all them that are true, as long as the memory of
this fact and his posterity doth endure : even so ye
that are my kinsfolk and countrymen, know ye (howso-
ever the blind, ignorant, and wicked world hereafter
shall rail upon my death, which thing they cannot do
worse than their fathers did, of the death of Christ our
Saviour, of his holy prophets, apostles, and martyrs,)
856
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO HIS FRIENDS,
[Book XI.
both know ye, I say, that before Gn^ and all them that are
godly, and that truly know and follow the laws of God,
ye have, and shall have, by God's grace, ever cause to
rejoice, and to thank God highly, and to think good of
it, and in God rejoice of me your flesh and blood, whom
God of his goodness hath ^iichsafed to associate unto
the blessed company of his holy martyrs in heaven :
and 1 doubt not in the infinite goodness of my Lord God,
nor in the faithful fellowship of his elect and chosen
people, but at both their hands in my cause, ye shall
rather find the more favour and grace : for the Lord
saitii, that he will be both to them and theirs that love
him, the more loving again in a thousand generations :
the Lord is so full of mercy to them, I say, i;nd theirs
who do love him indeed. And Christ saith again, that
no man can show more love than to give his life for his
friends.
" Now also know you, all my true lovers in God, my
kinsfolk and countrymen, that the cause wherefore I am
])ut to death, is even after the same sort and condition,
but touching more near God's cause, and in more weighty
matters, but in the general kind all one : for both are
God's cause, both are in the maintenance of right, and
botli for the commonwealtli, and both for the weal also
of the Christian brother, although yet there is in these
two no small difference, both concerning the enemies,
the goods stolen, and tlie manner of the fight. For
ye all know, tliat as there when the poor man is robber
by the thief of his truly gotten goods, (whereupon he
and his household should live,) he is greatly wronged,
and the thief in stealing and robbing with violence the
poor man's goods, doth offend God, doth transgress his
law, and is injurious both to the poor man, and to the
commonwealth : so I say, ye know that even here in the
cause of my death, it is with the church of England, I
mean the congregation of the true chosen children of
God in this realm of England, which I acknowledge not
only to be my neighbours, but rather the congregation
of my spiritual brethren and sisters in Christ, yea, mem-
bers of one body, wherein by God's grace, I am and
have been grafted in Christ. This church of England
hath of late of the infinite goodness, and abundant gi-ace
of Almighty God, great substance, great riches of
heavenly treasure, great plenty of God's true sincere
word, the true and wholesome administration of Christ's
holy sacraments, the whole profession of Christ's reli-
gion, truly and plainly set forth in baptism, the plain
declaration and understanding of the same, taught in
the holy catechism, to have been learned of all true
Christians.
" The church had also a true and sincere form and
manner of the Lord's supper, wherein according to
Jesus Christ's own ordinance, and holy institution,
Christ's commandments were executed and done. For
upon the bread and wine set upon the Lord's table
thanks were given, the commemoration of the Lord's
death was had ; the bread, in the remembrance of
Christ's body torn upon the cross, was broken, and the
cup in the remembrance of Christ's blood shed, was
distributed, and both communicated to all that were
present and would receive them, and also they were ex-
horted of the minister so to do.
" .\ll was done openly in the vulgar tongue, so that
everything might be most easily heard, and plainly un-
derstood of all the people, to God's high glory, and the
edification of the whole church. This church had of
late the whole divine service, all common and public
prayers ordained to be said and heard in tlie common
congregation, not only framed and fashioned to the true
meaning of holy scripture, but also set fortli according
to the commandment of the Lord, and St. Paul's doc-
trine for the people's edification, in their vulgar tongue.
" It had also holy and wholesome homilies in com-
mendation of the principal virtues, which are commended
in scripture ; and likewise other homilies against the
most pernicious and capital vices tiiat used, alas ! to
reign in this realm of England. This cliurch liad in
matters of controversy, articles so jienned and framed
after the holy scriptui-es, and grounded U|>on t!ie true
understanding of God's word, that in a short time if they
had been universally received, they would have been
able to have set in Christ's true religion, and to have
expelled many false errnrs and heresies, wherewitii this
church, alas ! was almost overgone.
" But, alas ! of late into this spiritual possession of
the heavenly treasure of these godly riches, thieves are
entered in, that have robbed and spoiled all this treasure
away. I may well complain of these things, and cry
out upon them with the prophet, saying, ' O Lord (4od,
the gentiles, heathen nations, are come into thy heritage;
They have defiled thy holy temple, and made Jerusalem
an heap of stones ;' that is, they have broken and
beaten down to the ground thy holy city. This hea-
thenish generation, these thieves are of Samaria, these
Sabans, and Chaldeans, these robbers h.;ve rushed out
of their dens, and have robbed the church of England of
all the foresaid holy treasure of God ; they have carried
it away, and overthrown it, and instead of God's holy
word, the true and right administration of Christ's holy
sacraments, as of bajitism, and others, they mixed their
ministry with man's foolish fantasies, and many wicked
and ungodly traditions withal.
" Instead of tlie Lord's holy table, they give the
people with much solemn disguising a thing which tliey
call their mass, but indeed and in truth, it is a very
masking and mockery of the true supper of the Lord, or
rather I may call it a crafty juggling, whereby these
false thieves and jugglers have bewitched the minds
of the simple people, that they have brought them
from tlie true worship of God unto pernicious idolatry,
and make tliern to believe that to be Christ our Lord and
Saviour, v^-hich indeed is neither God nor man, nor hatli
any life in itself, but in substance is the creature of
bread and wine, and in use of the Lord's table is the
sacrament of Christ's body and blood : and for his holy
use, for which the Lord hath ordained them in his table,
to represent unto us his blessed body torn upon the
cross for us, and his blood there shed, it pleased him to
call them his body and blood : which understanding
Christ declares to be his true meaning, when he says,
' Do this in remembrance of me.' And again, St. Paul
likewise doth set out the same more plainly, speaking of
the same sacrament, after the words of consecration,
saying, ' As often as ye eat this bread, and drink
tins cup, ye do shew' (he meaneth with the same) ' the
Lord's death till he come.' And here again these thieves
have robbed also the people of the Lord's cup, contrary
to the plain words of Christ, written in his gospel.
" Now, for the common public prayers which were in
the vulgar tongue, these thieves have brought in again a
strange tongue, whereof the people understand not one
word. Wherein what do they else, but rob the people of
their divine service, wherein they ought to pray togethe r
with the minister ? And to pray in a strange tongue,
what is it, but (as St. Paul calleth it) barbarousness, ,
childishness, unprofitable folly, yea, and plain madness ,
" For the godly articles of unity in religion, and for
the wholesome homilies, what do these thieves place in
the stead of them, but the pope's laws and decrees, lying
legends, feigned fables, and miracles to delude and aouse
the simplicity of the rude people .'' Thus this robbery
and theft is not only committed, nay, sacrilege and wicked
spoil of heavenly things, but also in the stead of the
same, is brought in and placed the abominable desolation
of the tyrant Antiochus, of proud Sennacherib, of the
shameless-faced king, and of the Babylonish beast, to
this robbery, this theft and sacrilege, because I cannot
consent, nor (God willing) ever shall, so long as the
breath is in my body, because it is blasphemy against
God, high treason unto Christ, our heavenly King, Lord,
Master, and our only Saviour and Redeemer; it is j)lainly
contrary to God s word, and to Christ s gosjjel; it i.^ the
subversion of all true godliness, and against the everlast-
ing salvation of mine own soul, and of all my brethren
and sisters, whom Christ my Saviour hath so dearly
bo\ight, with no less price than with the effusion and
shedding forth of his most precious blood : Therefore,
all you, my true lovers in God, my kinsfolks and country-
men, for (hi.s cause, 1 say, know you tliat 1 am put to
Uiatli, wiiicli Liy Goil's jjrace 1 shall willingly take, wiUi
A.D. 1555.]
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS.
i hearty thanks to God, in certain hope without any
I doubting, to receive at God's hand again, of his free
I mercy and grace, everlasting life.
" Although the cause of the true man slain by the
1 thief, helping his neighbour to recover his goods again,
I and the cause wherefore I am to be put to death, in a
generality is both one, as I said before ; yet know you
I that there is no small difference. These thieves against
whom I do stand, are much worse than the robbers and
■ thieves cf the borders. The goods which they steal are
I much more precious, and their kinds of fight are far dif-
ferent. These thieves are worse, I say ; for they are
more cruel, more wicked, more false, more deceitful and
crafiy : for those will but kill the body, but these will not
stick to kill both body and soul. Those, for the general
I theft and robbery, are called, and are indeed thieves and
robbers; but these, for their spiritual kind of robbery,
I are called sacrilegious ; as you would say, clmrch-rob-
jbers. They are more wicked : for those go about to
[spoil men of worldly things, worldly riches, gold and
.silver, and worldly suustance ; these go about in the ways
;of tiie devil, their ghostly father, to steal from the uni-
iversal ciiurch, and particularly from every man, all hea-
(venly treasure, true faith, true charity, and hope of sal-
ivation in tiie blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; yea, to
(spoil us of our Saviour Jesus Christ, of his gospel, of
■his heavenly Spirit, and of the heavenly heritage of the
•kingdom of heaven, so dearly purchased unto us, with
,the death of our Master and Saviour Christ. These are
jthe goods and godly substance whereupon the christian
Imust live before God, and without which he cannot live.
These goo(is, I say, these thieves, these church robbers,
go a'jout to spoil us of, which goods, as to the man of
God, they excel and far surpass all worldly treasure ; so
to withstand even unto the death such thieves as go
about to spoil both us and the whole church of such
goods, is most high and honourable service done unto God.
' These church-robbers are also much more false,
crafty, and deceitful than the thieves upon the borders ;
for these have not the craft so to commend their theft,
that they d-ire avow it, and therefore as acknowledg-
ing theaiselves to be evil, they steal commonly in the
night ; they dure not appear at judgments and sessions,
where justice is executed ; and when they are taken and
brought thither, they never hang any man, but they are
oft times hanged for their faults. But these church-
robbers can so cloak and colour their spiritual robbery,
that they can make people believe falsehood to be truth,
and trutu falsehood ; good to be evil, and evil good ; light
to be darkness, and darkness light ; superstition to be
true religion, and idolatry to be the true worship of God;
and that which is in substance the creature of bread and
wine, to be none other substance but only the substance
of Christ the living Lord, both God and man. And
■with this their falsehood and craft, they can so juggle and
bewitch the understanding of the simple, that they dare
iavow it openly in court and in town, and fear neither
hanging nor beheading, as the poor thieves of the borders
do ; but stout and strong like Nimrod, dare condemn to
be burned in flaming fire, quick and alive, whosoever will
go about to betray their falsehood.
" The kind of fight against these church-robbers, is
also of another sort and kind, than is that which is
against the thieves of the borders. For there the true
men go forth against them with spear and lance, with
bow and bill, and all such kind of bodily weapons as the
true men have : but here, as the enemies are of another
nature, so the watchmen of Christ's flock, the warriors
that fight in the Lord s war, must be armed, and fight
with another kind of weapons and armour. For here
the enemies of God, the soldiers of antichrist, although
the battle is set forth against the church by mortal men,
being flesh and blood, and nevertheless members of their
father tlie dtvil, yet as their grand-master is the power of
darkness, their members are spiritual wickedness, wicked
spirits, spirits of errors, of heresies, of all deceit and
ungodiiuess, spirits of idolatry, superstition and hypo-
crisy, which are called of St. Paul, principalities and
powers, lords of the world, rulers of the darkness of
this world, and spiritual wickednesses in high places,
therefore our weapons must be fit and meet to fight against
such ; not carnal nor bodily weapons, as spear and lance,
but spiritual and heavenly : we must fight against such
with the armour of God, not intending to kill their bodies,
but their errors, their false craft and heresies, their ido-
latry, superstition, and hypocrisy, and to save, as much
as lieth in us, both their bodies and their souls.
" And therefore, as St. Paul teacheth us, ' we fight
not against flesh and blood,' that is, we fight not with
bodily weapon to kill the man, but with the weapons of
God to put to flight his wicked errors and vice, and to
save both body and soul. Our weapons, therefore, are
faith, hope, charity, righteousness, truth, patience, prayer
unto God ; and our sword wherewith we smite our ene-
mies, beat, and batter, and bear down all falsehood, is
the word oi God. With these weapons, under the ban-
ner of the cross of Christ, we do fight, ever having our
eye upon our grand master, duke, and captain, Christ ;
and then we reckon ourselves to triumph and to win the
crown of everlasting bliss, when enduring in this battle,
without any shrinking or yielding to the enemies, after
the example of our grand captain, Christ our Master,
after the example of his holy prophets, apostles, and
martyrs, when, I say, we are slain in our mortal bodies
by our enemies, and are most cruelly and without all
mercy murdered like so many sheep, ^nd the more
cruel, the more painful, the more vile and si)iteful is the
kind of death whereunto we be put ; the more glorious
in God, the more blessed and happy we reckon (without
all doubts) our martyrdom to be.
" And thus much, dear lovers and friends in God, my
countrymen and kinsfolk, I have spoken for your com-
fort, lest of my death (of whose life you looked, perad-
venture, sometimes to have had honesty, pleasures, and
commodities) you might be abashed or think any evil :
whereas you have rafher cause to rejoice (if you love me
indeed) for that it hath pleased God to call me to a greater
honour and dignity than ever I did enjoy before, either
in Rochester, or in the see of London, or ever should
have had in the see of Durham, whereunto 1 was last of
all elected and named ; yea, I count it greater honour
before God indeed to die in his cause (whereof I nothing
doubt) than is any earthly or temporal promotion or
honour that can be given to a man in this world. And
who is he that knoweth the cause to be God's, to be
Christ's quarrel, and of his gospel, to be the common
weal of all the elect and chosen children of God, of all
the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ; who is he, I
say, that knoweth this assuredly by God's word, and the
testimony of his own conscience (as I through the infinite
goodness of God, not of myself, but by his grace ac-
knowledge myself to do) ; who is he, I say, that knoweth
this, and both loveth and feareth God in deed and in
truth, loveth and believeth his Master, Christ, and his
blessed gospel, loveth his brotherhood, the chosen chil-
dren of God, and also desireth and longeth for everlasting
life ; who is he, 1 say again, that would not or cannot
find in his heart in this cause to be content to die ? The
Lord forbid that any such should be that would forsake
this grace of God. I trust in my Lord God, the God of
mercies, and the Father of all comfort through Jesus
Christ our Lord, that he who hath put this mind, will,
and affection by his Holy Spirit in my heart, to stand
against the face of the enemy in his cause, and to choose
rather the loss of all my worldly substance, yea, and of
my life too, than to deny ..is known truth ; that he will
comfort me, aid me, and strengthen me evermore, even
unto the end, and to the yielding up of my spirit and soul
into his holy hands, whereof I most heartily beseech his
most holy sacred majesty of his infinite goodness and
mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
" Now that 1 have taken my leave of my countrymen
and kinsfolk, and the Lord doth lend me life, and giveth
me leisure, I will bid my other good friends m God of
other places also farewell. And whom first or before
others, than the University of Cambridge, where I have
dwelt longer, found more faithful and hearty friends, re-
ceived more benefits (the benefits of my natural parents
only excepted) than ever I did even in mine own native
country wherein 1 was born.
858
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS.
[Book XI.
" Farewell, therefore, Cambridge, my loving mother
and tender nurse. If I should not acknowledge thy ma-
nifold benefits, yea, if I should not for thy benefits at
the least love thee again, truly I were to be accounted
too ungrateful and unkind. What benefits hadst thou
ever, that thou usest to give and bestow upon thy best
beloved children, that thou thoughtest too good for me ?
Thou didst bestow on me all thy school degrees, the com-
mon offices, the cliaplainship of the University, the office
of the proctorship, and of a common reader ; and of thy
private commodities and emoluments in colleges, what
was it that thou madest me not partner of:" First to be
scholiir, tlien to be fellovv, and after my departure from
thee, thou calledst me again to a masfership of a right
worsh'pful college. I thank thee, my loving mother, for
all this thy kindness, and 1 pray God that his laws, and
the sincere gospel of Christ, may ever be truly taught
and f.iithfully learned in thee.
" Farewell Pembroke Hall, of late mine own college,
my cur? and my charge : wh:it case thou art in now, God
knoweth, 1 know not well. Thou wast ever noted since
I knew thee, which is not thirty years ago, to be studi-
ous, well learned, and a great setter forth of Christ's
gospel, and of God's true word; so I found thee, and,
blessed be God, so I left thee, indeed. Woe is me for thee,
mine own dear college, if ever thou suffer thyself by
any means to be brought from that trade. In thy orchard
(the walls, buts, and trees, if they could speak would
bear me witness), I learned without book almost all St.
Paul's epistles, yea, and I ween all the canonical
epistles, save only the book of Revelation. Of which
study, although in time a great part did depart from me,
yet the sweet smell thereof I trust I shall carry with me
into heaven ; for the profit thereof I think I have felt in
all my life time ever after, and I ween of late (whether they
abide now or not I cannot tell) there were them that did
the like. The Lord grant that this zeal and love towards
that part of God's word, which is a key and true com-
mentary to all the holy scriptures, may ever abide in that
college so long as the world shall endure.
" From Cambridge I was called into Kent by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, that most
reverend father and man of God, and of him by and by
sent to be vicar of Heme, in East Kent, Wherefore,
farewell. Heme, thou worshipful and wealthy ])arish, the
first cure whereunto I was called to ])reach God's word.
Thou hast heard from my mouth oft-times the word of God
preached, not after the popish manner, but after Christ's
gospel : oh, that the fruit had answered to the seed.
And yet I must acknowledge me to be thy debtor for the
doctrine of the Lord s Supper, which at that time I
acknowledge God had not revealed unto me : but I bless
God for all that godly virtue and zeal of God's word,
which the Lord by preaching of his word did kindle
manifestly both in the heart and in the life and works
of that godly woman there, my Lady Phines, the Lord
grant that his word took like effect there in many others
more.
" Farewell, thou cathedral cliurch of Canterbury, the
metropolitan see whereof I once was a member. To
speak things pleasant unto thee I dare not for danger of
conscience, and displeasure of my Lord God, and to
say what lieth in my heart w-ere now too much, and I
fear were able to do thee now but little good. Never-
theless, for the friendship I have found in some there,
and for charity sake, 1 wish thee to be washed clean of
all worldliness and ungodliness, that thou mayest be
found of God after thy name, Christ's Church, in deed and
ut truth.
" Farewell Rochester, sometime my cathedral see, in
whom, to say the truth, I did find much gentleness and
obedience, and I trust thou wilt not say the contrary, but
1 did use it to God's glory, and unto thine own profit in
God. O, that thou hadst and mightest liave continued
and gone forward in the trade of (Jod's law wherein I
did leave thee ; then thy charge and burden should not
have been so terrible and dangerous, as I suppose verily
it is like to be, alas ! in the latter day.
" To Westminster, other advertisement in God I have
not now to say, than I have said before to the cathedral
church of Canterbury, and so God give thee of his grace,
that thou mayest learn in deed and in truth to please him
after his own laws : and thus fare you well.
" O London, London, to whom now may I speak in
thee, or whom shall I bid farewell ? Shall 1 speak to the
prebendaries of St. Paul's.' Alas, all that loved God's
word, and were the true setters forth thereof, are now (as
I hear say) some burned and slain, some exiled and
banished, and someholden in hard prison, and apjjointed '
daily to be put to most cruel death for Christ's gos))el
sake. As for the rest of them, I know they could never
brook me well, nor could I ever delight in them.
" Shall I speak to the see thereof, wherein of late I
was placed, almost, for the space of three years .'
But what may I say to it, being (as I hear say I ara)
deposed and expelled by judgment as an unjust usurper of
that room. O judgment, judgment! Can this be just
judgment to condemn the chief minister of God's word,
the pastor and bishop of the diocese, and never bring him
into judgment, that he might have heard what crimes
were laid to his charge, nor ever suffer him to have
any place or time to answer for himself .' Thinkest thou
that hereafter, when true justice shall have place, this
judgment can ever be allowed either of God or man .'
Well, as for the cause or whole matter of my deposition,
and tlie spoil of my goods which thou possesses! yet, I
refer it unto God who is a just judge ; and I beseech
God, if it be his pleasure, that that which is but ray
personal wrong, be not laid to thy charge in the latter
day, this only I can pray for.
" O thou now wicked and bloody see, why dost thou
set up again many altars of idolatry, which by the word
of God were justly taken away ? Why hast thou over-
thrown the Lord's table .' Why dost thou daily delude
thy people, masking in thy masses instead of the Lord's
holy supper, which ought to be common as well (saith
Chrysostom, yea, the Lord himself), to the people as to
the priest .' How darest thou deny to the people of
Christ, contrary to his express commandment in the
gospel, his holy cup ? Why babblest thou to the people '
the Common Prayer in a strange tongue, wherein St.
Paul commandeth, in the Lord's name, that no man
should speak before the congregation, except it should
be by and by declared in their common tongue, that
all might be edified ? Nay, hearken thou whore of
Babylon, thou wicked limb of Antichrist, thou bloody >;
wolf, why slayest thou down, and makest havoc of the
prophets of God ? Why murderest thou so cruelly -
Christ's poor silly sheep, who will not hear thy voice,
because thou art a stranger, and will follow none other i
but their own pastor, Christ, his voice ? Thinkest thou .'.
to escape, or that the Lord will not require the blood of -
his saints at thy hands ? Thy God, which is the work ■
of thy hands, and whom thou sayest thou hast power to .
make, that thy deaf and dumb God (I say) will not ,
indeed, nor can (although thou art not ashamed to call
him thy Maker) make tliee to escape the revenging hand .
of the High and Almighty God. But be thou assured,
that the living Lord, our Saviour and Redeemer, who
sitteth on the right hand of his Father in glory, he seeth
all thy wicked ways and cruelty done to his dear members,
and he will not forget his holy ones, and his hands shalt
thou never escape. Instead of my farewell to thee, now
I say, Fie upon thee, fie upon thee, and all thy false
prophets.
" Yet thou, O London, I may not leave thee thus.
Although thy episcopal see, now being joined in league
with the seat of Satan, thus hath now both handled me
and the saints of God, yet I do not doubt, but in that
great city there are many privy mourners, who do daily
mourn for that mischief, who never did nor shall consent
to that wickedness, but do detest and abhor it as the
ways of Satan. But these privy mourners here I will
pass by, and bid them farewell with their fellows here-
after, when the place and occasion shall more conve-
niently require. Among the worshipful of the city, and
especially which were in office of mayoralty, yea, and in
other cities also, (whom to name now it shall not be
necessary), in the time of my ministry, which was from (
the latter part of Sir Rowland Hill's year, unto Sir
A.D 1555.]
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS.
859
George Barnes's year, and a great part thereof, I do
ncknowledge that I found no small humanity and gentle-
ness as I thought : but, to say the truth, that I do
r.steem above all others for true christian kindness,
w'lich is shewed in God's cause, and done for his sake.
"Wherefore, O Dobs, Dobs, alderman and knight, thou
in thy year didst win my heart for evermore, for that
honourable act, that most blessed work of God, of the
erection and setting up of Christ's holy hospitals, and
truly religious houses, which by thee, and through thee
were begun. For though, like a man of God, when the
matter was moved for the relief of Christ's poor weak
members, to be holpen from extreme misery, hunger,
and famine, thy heart, I say, was moved with pity, and
as Christ's high houourable officer in that cause, thou
callest together thy brethren, the aldermen of the city,
before whom thou breakest the matter for the poor ; thou
didst plead their cause, yea, and not only in thine own
person thou didst set forth Christ's cause, but to further
the matter, thou broughtest me into the council chamber
of the city before the aldermen alone, whom thou hadst
assembled there together to hear me speak what I could
say, as an advocate by office and duty, in the poor man's
cause. The Lord wrought with thee, and gave thee
the consent of thy brethren ; whereby the matter was
brought to the common council, and so to the whole
body of the city ; by whom, with an uniform consent,
it was committed to be drawn, ordered, and devised, by
a certain number of the most wise, and politic citizens,
endued also with godliness, and with ready hearts to
set forward such a noble act, as could be chosen in all
the whole city ; and they, like true and faithful ministers,
both to their city and their master Christ, so ordered,
devised, and brought forth the matter, that thousands
of poor members of Christ, who else for extreme hunger
and misery would have famished and perished, shall be
relieved, holpen, and brought up, and shall have cause
to bless the aldermen of that time, the common council,
and the whole body of the city, but especially thee, O
Dobs, and those chosen men, by whom this honourable
work of God was begun and wrought, and that so long
throughout all ages, as that godly work shall endure ;
which I pray Almighty God may be ever unto the world's
end. Amen.
" And thou, O Sir George Barnes, the truth is to be
confessed to God's glory, and to the good example of
others, thou wast in thy year not only a furtherer and
continuer of that which before thee by thy predecessor
was well begun ; but also didst labour so to have per-
fected the work, that it should have been an absolute
thing and perfect spectacle of true charity and godliness
unto all Christendom. Thine endeavour was to have set
up a house of occupations, both that all kind of poverty,
being able to work, should not have lacked whereupon
profitably they might have been occupied to their own
relief, and to the profit and commodity of the common-
wealth of the city, and also to have retired thither the
poor children brought up in the hospitals, when they
had come to a certain age and strength, and also all
those who, in the hospitals aforesaid, had been cured of
their diseases. And to have brought this to pass, thou
obtainest, not without great diligence and labour, both of
thee and of thy brethren, and of that godly King Ed-
ward, that christian and peerless prince's hand, his
princely palace of Bridewell, and what other things to
the performance of the same, and under what condition
it is not unknown. That this thine endeavour hath not
had like success, the fault is not in thee, but in the con-
dition and state of the time, which the Lord of his in-
finite mercy vouchsafe to amend when it shall be his
gracious will and pleasure.
" Farewell now, all you citizens that are of God, of
what state and condition soever you be. Undoubtedly
in London you have heard God's word truly preached.
My heart's desire and daily prayer shall be for you, as
for whom, for my time, I know to my Lord God I am
accountable, that ye never swerve, neither for loss of
life nor worldly goods, from God's holy word, and yield
unto antichrist : whereupon must needs follow the ex-
treme displeasure of God, and the loss both of your
bodies and souls into perpetual damnation for ever-
more.
" Now that I have gone through the pla es where I
have dwelt any space in the time of my pilgrimage here
upon earth, remembering that for the space of King
Edward's reign, which was for the time of m.ne o fice in
the sees of London and Rochester, 1 was a membjr
of the upper house of parliament ; therefore, seeing my
God hath given me leisure, and the remembrance tliere-
of, I will bid my lords of the temporalty farewell. They
shall have no just cause, by God's grace, to take what
I intend to say in ill j)art. As for the spiritua'. pr .lacy
that now is, 1 have nothing to say to thim, e.\c pt i
should repeat again a great part of what 1 have said
before now already to the see of London. To you,
therefore, my lords of the temporalty, will I speak, and
this would I have you first to understand, that when I
wrote this, I looked daily when I should be called to the
change of this life, and thought that this my writing
would not come to your knowledge, before the time of
the dissolution of my body and soul should be expired ;
and therefore know ye, that I had before mine eyes only
the fear of God, and christian charity toward you, which
moved me to write ; for of you hereafter I look not in
this world either for pleasure or displeasure. If my talk
shall do you never so much pleasure or profit, you can-
not promote me ; nor if I displease you, can you hurt
me, or harm me, for I shall be out of your reach. Now
therefore, if you fear God, and can be content to hear
the talk of him that seeketh nothing at your hands, but
to serve God, and to do you good, hearken to what I
say. I say unto you, as St. Paul said to the Galatians ;
I wonder my lords what hath bewitched you, that ye so
suddenly are fallen from Christ unto auticlirist, — from
Christ's gospel unto man's traditions, — from the Lord
that bought you, unto the bishop of Rome. I warn
you of your peril ; be not deceived, except you will be
found willingly consenters unto your own death. For if
you think thus ; — we are laymen, this is a matter of
religion, we follow as we are taught and led ; if our
teachers and governors teach us and lead us amiss, the
fault is in them, they shall bear the blame. — My lords,
this is true, I grant you, that both the false teachers,
and the corrupt governor, shall be punished for the
death of their subjects, whom they have falsely taught
and corruptly led ; yea, and his blood shall be required
at their hands : but yet, nevertheless, shall the subject
die the death himself also ; that is, he shall also be
damned for his own sin ; for if the blind lead the blind,
Christ saith, not the leader only, but both shall fall into
the ditch. Shall the synagogue and the council of the
Jews, think you, which forsook Christ, and consented to
his death, therefore be excused, because Annas and
Caiaphas, with the Sribes and Pharisees and their clergy,
did teach them amiss ? yea, and also Pilate their governor
and the emperor's lieutenant, by his tyranny, did with-
out cause put him to death. Forsooth no, my lords, no.
For notwithstanding that corrupt doctrine, or Pilate's
washing of his hands, neither or both shall excuse either
that synagogue, or council, or Pilate ; but at the
Lord's hand, for the effusion of that innocent blood, on
the latter day all shall drink of the deadly draught.
You are wise, and understand what I mean ; therefore I
will pass over this, and return to tell you how you
are fallen from Christ to his adversary the bishop of
Rome.
" And lest, my lords, you may peradventure think,
thus barely to call the bishop of Rome Christ's adver-
sary, or, to speak in plain terms, to call him antichrist,
that it is done in mine anguish, and that I do but rage,
and as a desperate man, do not care what I say, or upon
whom 1 do rail ; therefore that your lordships may per-
ceive my mind, and thereby understand that I speak the
words of truth and sobriety (as St. Paul said unto Festus)
be it known unto your lordships all, that as concerning
the bishop of Rome, I neither hate the person nor the
place. For I assure your lordships, the living Lord
Ijeareth me witness, before whom I speak, I do think
many a good and holy man, many martyrs and saints of
God have sat and taught in that place Christ's gospel
860
BISHOP RIDLEY'S FAREWELL LETTER TO HIS FRIENDS.
[Book XI.
truly, which therefore justly may be called apostolical ;
that is, they were true disciples of the apostles, and also
that church and congregation of christians was a right
apostolic church : yea, and that certain hundred years
after the same was first erected and builded upon Christ,
by the true apostolical doctrine taught by the mouths of
the apostles themselves. If ye will know how long that
was, and how many hundred years, to be curious in point-
ing the precise number of the years, I will not be too
bold, but thus I say; so long and so many hundred years
as that see d\A truly teach and preach that gospel, that
religion exercised that power, and ordered every thing
by those laws and rules which that see received of
the apostles, and (as Tertullian saith) the apostles of
Christ, and Christ of God, so long, I say, that see might
well have been called St. Peter and St. Paul's chair and
see, or rather Christ's chair, and the bishop thereof apos-
tolic, or a true disciple and successor of the apostles,
and a minister of Christ.
" But since the time that that see hath degenerated
from the rule of truth and true religion, which it received
of the apostles at the beginning, and hath preached
another gospel ; hath set up another religion ; hath ex-
ercised another power, and hath taken upon it to order
and rule the church of Christ by other strange laws,
canons, and rules, than ever it received of the apostles,
or the apostles of Christ, which things it doth at this
day, and hath continued so doing, alas, alas, for too long
a time ; since the time, I say, that the state and con-
dition of that see hath thus been changed, in truth it
ought of duty and of right to have the names changed,
both of the see and of the sitter therein. For under-
stand, my lords, it was neither for the privilege of the
place or person, that that see and the bishops thereof
were called apostolic ; but for the true rule of Christ's
religion, which was taught and maintained in that see
at the first, and of those godly men. And therefore, as
truly and justly as that see then, for that true rule of
religion, and consanguinity of doctrine with the religion
and doctrine of Christ's apostles, was called apostolic,
so as truly and as justly, for the contrariety of religion
and diversity of doctrine from Christ and his apostles,
that see and bishop thereof, at this day both ought to be
called, and are indeed, antichristian.
" The see is the see of Satan, and the bishop of the
same, that maintaineth the abominations thereof, is an-
tichrist himself indeed. And for the same causes this
see at this day is the same which St. John calleth in his
Revelations Babylon, or the whore of Babylon, and spiri-
tual Sodom and Egypt, the mother of fornication, and
of tl)e abominations upon the earth. And with this
whore doth spiritually commit most abominable adultery
before God, all those kings and princes, yea, and all
nations of the earth which do consent to her abomina-
tions, and use or practise the same ; that is (of the
innumerable multitude of them, to rehearse some for
example's sake) her dispensations, her pardons and
pilgrimages, her invocation of saints, her worshipping
of images, her false counterfeit religion in her monkery
iind friarage, and her traditions, whereby God's laws are
defiled ; as her massing and false ministering of God's
word and the sacraments of Christ, clean contrary to
Christ's word and the apostles' doctrine, whereof in
particular I have touched something before in my talk
had with the see of London, and in other treatises more
at large : wherein (if it shall please God to bring the
same to light), it shall appear, I trust, by God's grace,
plainly to the man of God, and to him whose rule in
judgment of religion is God's word, that that religion,
that rule and order, that doctrine and faith which this
whore of Babj'lon, and the beast whereupon she doth
sit, maintaineth at this day with all violence of fire
and sword, with spoil and banishment (according to
Daniel's prophesy), and finally, with all falsehood,
death, hypocrisy, and all kind of ungodliness, are as
clean contrary to God's word, as darkness is unto
light, or light unto darkness ; white to black, or black
to white ; or as Belial unto Christ, or Christ unto an-
tichrist himself.
" I know, my lords, and foresaw when I wrote this,
that so many of you as should see this my writing, not
being before endued with the spirit of grace, and the
light of God's word, so many, I say, would at these my
words lord-like stamp and spurn, and spit thereat. But
sober yourselves with patience, an be still, and know ye
that in my writing of this, my mind was none other, but
in God, as the living God doth bear me witness, both to
do you profit and j)leasure. And otherwise, as for your
displeasure, by that time this shall come to your know
ledge, I trust, by God's grace, to be in the hands
and protection of the Almighty, my heavenly Father,
and the living Lord, which is, as St. John saith, the
greatest of all, and then 1 shall not need, I trov, to
fear what any lord, no, nor what king or prince can do
unto me.
" My lords, if in times ))ast you have been contented
to hear me, sometimes in matters of religion before the
prince in the pul})it, and in the pai-liament-house, and
have not seemed to have despised what 1 ha\e said
(when as else if ye had perceived just 0(;ca.sion, ye niight
then have siis]iec;ted me in my talk, though it had been
reasonable, either from desire of vvorldly gain, or fear of
displeasure,) how liath then your lordships more cause to
hearken to my word, and to hear nie patiently, seeing
now ye cannot justly think of me, being in this case ap-
pointed to die, and looking daily when I shall be called to
come before the Internal Judge, otherwise but that 1 only
study to serve my Lord Gcd, and to say that thing which I
am persuaded- assuredly by God's word shall and doth
please him, and profit all them to whom God shall give
grace to hear and believewhat I do say? And I dosav,even
that I have said heretofore, both of the see of Rome and
of the bishoj) thereof, I mean after this tlieir present
state at this day, wherein if ye will not believe the minis-
ters of God, and true preachers of his word, verily I de-
nounce unto you in the word of the Lord, except ye do
repent betime, it shall turn to your confusion, and to
your grief on the latter day. Forget not what I say, my
lords, for God's sake, forget not, but remember it upoi|
your bed. For I tell you, moreover, as 1 know I must
be accoimtable of this my talk, and of my speaking thus,
to the eternal Judge, who will judge nothing amiss, SO
shall you be accountable of your duty in hearing, and
you siiall be charged, if ye will not hearken to God's
word, for not obeying the truth. Alas ! my lords, how
chanceth this, that this matter is now anew again to be
persuaded unto you ? Who would have thought of late,
but your lordshijis had been persuaded indeed sufficiently,
or that you could ever have agreed so uniformly with
one consent to the overthrow of the usurpation of the ';
bishop of Rome ? If that matter were then but a mat- !
ter of policy wherein the prince must be obeyed ; how is
it now made a matter wherein, as your clergy saith now, >
and so saith the pope's laws indeed, standeth the unity i
of the catholic church, and a matter of necessity of our
salvation .' Hath the lime, being so short since the death
of the two last kings, Henry vni. and Edward his son,
altered the nature of the matter .' If it have not, but
was of the same nature, and danger before God then, as
it is now, and be now (as it is said by the pope's laws,
and the instructions set forth in English to the curates of
the diocese of York) indeed a matter of necessity to
salvation ; how then chanced it that ye were all, () my
lords ! so light and so little fixed upon the catholic
faith, and the unity thereof, without which no man can
be saved, as for your princes' pleasures, which were but
mortal men, to forsake the unity of your catholic faith ; that
is, to forsake Christ and liis gospel? And furthermore,
if it were both then, and now is so necessary to salvation,
how chanced it also that ye, all the whole body of the
parliament agreeing with you, did not only abolish and
exj)el the bishop of Rome, but also did abjure him in
your own persons, and did decree in your acts great oaths
to be taken of both the spiritualty and temporalty, who-
soever should enter into any weighty and chargeable
oflice in the commonwealth ? But on the other side, if
the law and decree which maketh the supremacy of the
see and bishop of Rome over the universal church of
Christ, be a thing of necessity required unto salvation
by an antichristian law as it is indeed, and such
A.D. 1555.] BISHOP RIDLEY'S LAMENTATION ON THE STATE OF ENGLAND.
inbtnictioiis as are given to the diocese of York, be indeed
a settins; forth of the power of the beast of Babylon, by
the craft and falsehood of his false prophets (as by truth,
compared to God's word, and truly judged by the same,
it shall plainly appear that they are), then, my lords,
never think otherwise, but the day shall come when you
shall be cliarged with this your undoing of that which
once ye had well done, and with this your perjury and
breach of your oath, which oath was done in judgment,
justice, and truth, agreeable to God's law. The whore
of Babylon may well for a time dally with you, and make
you so drunken with the wine of her dispensations and
promises of pardon, that for drunkenness and blindness
ye may think yourselves safe- But be you assured, when
the living Lord shall try the matter by the fire, and
judge it according to liis word, then all her abominations
shall appear what they are, then my lords (I give
your lordships warning iii time), repent ye if ye will be
happy, and love your own souls' health ; repent, I say,
or else without all doubt, ye shall never escape the
hands of the living Lord, for the guilt of your perjury,
and breach of your oath. As ye have banquetted with
the harlot in the fornication of her dispensations, par-
dons, idolatry, and such like abominations ; so shall ye
drink with her (except ye repent betimes) of the cup of
the Lord's indignation and everlasting wrath, which is
prepared for the beast, his false prophets, and all their
partakers. For he that is partner with them in their
abominations, must also be partner with them in their
plagues, and in the latter day shall be thrown with them
into the lake burning with brimstone and unquenchable
fire. Thus fare ye well, my lords all. I pray God give
you understanding of his blessed will and pleasure, and
make you to believe and embrace the truth, Amen."
8C1
A lamentation of Bishop Ridley for the change of re-
ligion in England.
" Alas, what misery is thy church brought unto, O
].,ord, at this day ! Where of late the word of the Lord
was truly preached, was read and heard in every town,
in every church, in every village, yea, and almost in
every honest man's house, alas, now it is banished out of
the whole realm. Of late, who was not taken for a lover
of God's word, for a reader, for a ready hearer, and for
a learner of the same ? And now, alas, who dare bear
any open countenance towards it, but such as are content
in Christ's cause, and for his word's sake to stand to the
danger and loss of all they have .'
Of late there was to be found, many of every age, of every
degree and kind of people, that gave their diligence to
learn, as tliey could, out of God's word, the articles of
the Christian faith, the commandments of God, and the
Lord's prayer : the babes and young children were taught
these things of their parents, of their masters, and weekly
of their curates in every church : and the aged folk,
who had been brought up in blindness, and in ignorance
of those things, which every Christian is bound to know,
when otherwise they could not, yet they learned the
same by often hearing the children and servants repeating
the same : bat now, alas, and alas again, the false pro-
phets of Anticiirist, which are past all shame, do openly
preach in pulpits unto the people of God, that the cate-
chism is to be counted heresy ; whereby their old blind-
ness is brought home again : for the aged are afraid of
the higher powers, and the youth is abashed and ashamed,
even of that which they have learned, though it be God's
word, and dare no more meddle.
" Of late in every congregation throughout all England
prayer and petition was made unto God, to be delivered
from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his
detestable enormities ; from all false doctrine and heresy ;
and now, alas, Satan hath persuaded England by his
falsehood and craft, to revoke her old godly prayer, to
recant the same, and provoke the fearful wrath and indig-
nation of God upon her own head.
" Of late by straight laws and ordinances, with the
consent of the nobles and commonalty, and full agree-
ment and counsel of the prelates and clergy, was banished
hence the beast of Babylon ; with laws, I say, and with
oaths and all means that then could he devised for so
godly a ))urpose : but now, alas, all these laws are
trodden under foot ; the nobles, the commonalty, the
prelates and clergy, are quite changed, and all those
oaths, though they were made in judgment, justice, and
truth, and the matter never so good, doth no more hold
than a bond of rushes or of barley straw ; nor jjublic
perjury no more feareth them than a shadow upon the
wall.
" Of late it was agreed in England on all hands,
according to St. Paul's doctrine, and Christ's command-
ment, as St. Paul saith plainly, that nothing ought to be
done in the church, in the public congregation, but in
that tongue which the congregation can understand, that
all might be edified thereby, whether it were common
prayer, administration of the sacrament, or any other
thing belonging to the public ministry of God's holy and
wholesome word : but, alas, all is turned upside down,
St. Paul's doctrine is put apart, Christ's commandment
is not regarded : for nothing is heard commonly in the
church but a strange tongue, that the people doth not
understand.
" Of late all men and women were taught after Christ's
doctrine, to pray in that tongue which they could under-
stand, that they might pray with their heart that which
they should speak with their tongue : now, alas, the
unlearned people is brought in'o that blindness again, to
think that they pray, when they speak with their tongue
they caimot tell what, nor whereof their hearts is no-
thing mindful at all, for that it can understand never
a whit thereof.
" Of late the Lord's supper was duly administered
and taught to be made common to all that are true
Christians with thanksgiving and setting forth of the
Lord's death and passion unt.l his returning again to
judge both quick and dead : but now, alas, the Lord's
table is quite overthrown, and that which ought to be
common to all godly, is made private to a few ungodly,
without any kind of thanksgiving, or any setting forth
of the Lord's death at all, that the people is able to
understand.
" Of late all that were endued with the light of grace,
of understanding of God's holy mysteries, did bless God
who had brought them out of that horrible blindness and
ignorance, whereby in times past being seduced by
Satan's subtleties, they believed that the sacrament was
not the sacrament, but the thing itself whereof it is a sa-
crament, that the creature was the creator, and that the
thing which hath neither life nor sense (alas, such was
the horrible blindness) was the Lord himself, which made
the eye to see, and hath given all senses and under-
standing unto man : but now, alas, England is returned
again like a dog to her own vomit, and is in a worse
case than ever she was : for it had been better never to
have known the truth, than to forsake the truth once
received and known ; and now, not only that light is
turned into darkness, and God's grace is received in vain,
but also laws of death are made by high court of Parlia-
ment, masterfully to maintain by sword, fire, and all
kind of violence that heinous idolatry, wherein that ado-
ration is given unto the lifeless and dumb creature,
which is only due unto the everlasting God : yea, they
say they can, and do make of bread both man and God,
by their transubstantiation, O wicked men, and Satan's
own brood.
" Of late was the Lord's cup at his table distributed
according to his own commandment, by his express
words in the gospel, as well to the laity as to the clergy,
which order Christ's church observed so many hundred
years after, as all the ancient ecclesiastical writers do
testify, without contradiction of any one of them, that
can be shewed unto this day ; but now, alas, not only
the Lord's commandment is broken, his cup is denied
to his servants, to whom he commandeth it should be
distributed, but also with the same is set up a new blas-
phemous kind of sacrifice to satisfy and pay the price of
sins both of the living and of the dead, to the great and
intolerable contumely of Christ our Saviour, his death
and passion, which was and is the one only sufficient and
everlasting available sacrifice, satisfactory for all the elect
862
BISHOP RIDLEY'S LAMENTATION ON THE STATE OF ENGLAND.
[Book XI.
of God, from Adam the first, to the last that shall be
born in the end of the world.
" Of late the commandment of God, ' Thou shalt not
make thee any graven image, nor any likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth be-
neath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth ; thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them :'
(Deut. V. 8, 9.) This commandment of God, I say, was
graven almost every where in churches, and learned of
every body both young and old ; whereupon images that
provoked the simple and ignorant people unto idolatry,
as the wise man saith, were taken out of the churches,
and straightly forbidden that any should any where
either bow down to them or worship them ; but now, alas,
God's holy word is blotted and rased out of churches,
and stocks and stones are set up in the place thereof.
God commanded his word so to be ordered, that it might
be had in continual remembrance at all times, and in
every place ; and on the other side he forbade images and
idols so to be either made or set in any place, where any
should bow down or worship them ; but now, alas, that
which God commandeth is not looked upon, and that
which he forbiddeth, is masterfully maintained by false-
hood and craft, and wickedly upholden.
" Of late all ministers that were admitted to the public
office and ministry of God's holy word, in their admis-
sion made a solemn profession before the congregation,
that they should teach the people nothing, as doctrine,
necessary to attain eternal salvation, but that which is
God's own holy word, or may be thereon grounded
without any doubt ; whereby vanished and melted away
of themselves many vain, yea, wicked traditions of man,
as wax before the fire ; but now, at one brunt, they are
revived, and are in full hope also to return again in as
great strength as ever they have been. And how can
any man look for any otlier thing, but when you have
received the head, you must also receive the whole body
withall, or else how can the head abide ? The head,
under Satan, of all mischief, is Antichrist and his brood,
the same is he which is the Babylonish beast. The
beast is he whereupon the whore sitteth. The whore is
that city, saith St. John, in plain words, which hath em-
pire over the kings of the earth. This whore hath a
golden cup of abomination in her hand, whereof she
maketh to drink the kings of the earth ; and of the wine
of this harlot have all nations drunk, yea, and kings of
the earth have committed fornication with her ; and mer-
chants of the earth, by virtue of her pleasant merchan-
dise, have been made rich.
" Now, what city is there in all the whole world
that, when St. John wrote, ruled over the kings of the
earth ? or what city can be read of in any time that, of
tlie city itself, challenged the empire over the kings of the
earth, but only the city of Rome, and that since the
usurpation of that see hath grown to her full strength ?
And is it not read, that the old and ancient writers
understand St. Peter's former Epistle to be written at
Rome, and it to be called of him in the same epistle in
plain terms Babylon ? By the abomination thereof I
understand all the whole trade of the Romish religion,
under the name and title of Christ, which is contrary to
the only rule of all true religion, that is, God's word.
What word of God hath that wicked woman for the
maintenance of her manifold abominations, and to set to
sale such merchandise, wherewith (alas) the madness of
man the wicked harlot hath bewitched almost the whole
world .' Did not St. Peter, the very true apostle of
Christ (of whom this vile harlot beareth herself so
high, but falsely and without all just cause) did not he,
I say, give all the world warning of her pelf and trash,
of her false doctors and apostles, after this manner in
his latter epistle ? ' But there were false prophets also
among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring
upon thrniselves swift destruction. And many shall
follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through
covetousness shall they with feigned words make mer-
chandise of you :' (2 Pet. ii. 1 — 3.) And doth not St.
John likewise in his Revelation, after he hath reckoned
up a long catalogue of this mystical merchandise, at tl,e
last (as though he would knit uj) all his plain words
without any mystery at all, setting out the whore's mer-
chandise), reckon up amongst the rest, and concludeth
saying, ' and the souls of men too ?' Whereupon, I prav
you else rose this true proverb in Latin, ' all things for
money are set to sale at Rome.' Was not that a worthy
commendation of Christ's vicar in earth, that was written
of our holy father, one of the Alexanders, a Bishop ot
Rome, in Latin .'
" ' Vendit Alexander cruces, altaria, Christum :
Vendere jure potest ; emerat ille prius.'
" These two verses in Latin I have read thus trans-
lated into English rhyme : —
" ' Alexander our holy father the Pope of Rome,
Selleth for money both right and doom :
And all kind of holiness the holy father doth not stick,
To set to sale, ready money for to get.
And eke Christ himself he dare be bold.
To chop and change for silver and gold.
And why should any think this to be sore ?
For what doth he sell but that he bought before.'
" I grant these verses to be light gear ; and the verse
is but rude ; but, alas ! such conditions were more
wicked and lewd than any wit could express. If these
had been but the faults of one or a few in number, they
had been less pernicious, and might have been taken for
personal crimes, and not to be imputed unto that see ;
but now, alas ! the matter is more than evident to all
that have godly understanding, that these crimes are
grounded upon laws, are established by custom, and se*
forth by all kind of wicked doctrine, falsehood, and
craft ; and therefore now are not to be esteemed for any
one man's, or a fevv men's personal crimes, but are now
by laws, custom, and doctrine incorporated into that
wicked see, and maketh indeed the body of the beast
whereupon the abominable whore doth sit.
" But you would know which are those merchandises
which I said this whore setteth for to sell, for which all
her false prophets, with all their jugglings and crafty
glosses, cannot bring one jot of God's word. Surely,
surely, they are not only all these abominations which
are come into the church of England already (whereof I
have spoken somewhat before), but also an innumer-
able rabblement of abominations and wicked abuses,
which now must needs follow ; as popish pardons, pil-
grimages, Romish purgatory, Romish masses. Placebo'
and Diric/e, with trentals and Scala Cceli, dispensations
and immunities from all godly discipline, laws, and good
order, pluralities, unions, and toiies qnoties, with a
thousand more. Now shall come in the flattering friars,
and the false pardoners, and play their old pranks and
knavery as they were wont to do. Now shall you have
(but of the see of Rome only, and that for money),
canonizing of such saints as have stood stout in the
pope's cause, shrining of relics, and from any kind of
wickedness (if you will pay well for it), clear absolu-
tion a pana et culpa, for thousands of years, yea, and
at every poor bishop's hand and suffragan, ye shall have
hallowing of churches, chapels, altars, siiper-altars,
chalices, and of all the whole household stuflF and adorn-
ment which shall be used in the church after the Ro-
mish manner, for all these things they must be esteemed
of such high price, that they may not be done but by a
consecrated bishop only. O Lord, all these things are
such as thy apostles never knew. As for conjuring
(they call it hallowing, but it is conjuring indeed) of
water and salt, of christening of bells, and such like
things, what need I to speak ? for every priest that can
but read, hath power, they say, not only to do that, but
also hath such power over Christ's body, as to make
both God and man, once at least every day, of a wafer
cake.
" After the rehearsal of the said abominations, and
remembrance of a number of many more, which, the
Lord knoweth, grieveth me to think upon, and were too
long to describe ; when I consider on the other side the
eternal word of God that abideth for ever, and the undefiled
A.D. 1555.]
DEATH OF GARDINER, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.
8C3
law of the Lord which turneth the soul from all wicked-
ness, and giveth wisdom unto the innocent babes, I
mean that milic that is without all guile, as St. Peter
doth call it ; that good word of God, that word of truth
which must be graven within the heart, and then is able
to save men's souls ; that wholesome seed, not mortal,
but immortal, of the eternal and everla-iting God,
whereby the man is born anew, and made the child of
God; that seed of God, whereby the man of God so be-
ing born, cannot sin, as John saith ; (he meaneth so
long as that seed doth abide in him) that holy scripture
which hath not been devised by the wisdom of man, but
taught from heaven by the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, which is profitable to teach, to reprove, to cor-
rect, to instruct, and to give order in all righteousness,
that the man of God may be whole and sound, ready to
perform every good work : when, I say, I consider this
holy and wholesome true word, that teacheth us truly
our bounden duty towards our Lord God in every point,
what his blessed will and j)leasure is, what his infinite
great goodness and mercy is, what he hath done for us,
how he hath given us his own only dearly beloved Son
to die for our salvation, and by him hath sent us the
revelation of his blessed will and pleasure, what his
eternal word directeth us both to believe, and also to do,
and hath for the same purpose inspired the holy apostles
with the Holy Ghost, and sent them abroad into all
the world, and also made them and other disciples of
Christ inspired by the same Spirit, to write and leave
behind them the same things that they taught (which,
as they did proceed of the Spirit of truth, so by the con-
fession of all them that ever were endued with the Spirit
of God, were sufficient to the obtaining of eternal salva-
tion) ; and likewise when I consider, that all that man
doth profess in his regeneration when he is received into
the holy catholic church of Christ, and is now to be ac-
counted for one of the lively members of Christ's own
body, all that is grounded upon God's holy word, and
standeth in the profession of that faith and obedience of
those commandments which are all contained and com-
prised iu God's holy word ; and, furthermore, ^hea I
consider whom our Saviour Christ pronounceth in his
gospel to be blessed, and to whom Moses giveth his
benedictions in the law, what ways the law, the pro-
phets, the psalms, and all holy scriptures, both new and
old, do declare to be the ways of the Lord, what is good
for man to obtain and abide in God's favour, which is
that faith that justifieth before God, and what is that
charity that doth pass and excel all, which be the pro-
perties of heavenly wisdom, and which is that undefiled
religion which is allowed of God, which things Christ
himself calleth the weighty matters of the law, what
thing is that which is only available in Christ, and what
knowledge is that that St. Paul esteemed so much, that
he counted himsslf only to know, what shall be the
manner of the extreme judgment of the latter day, who
shall judge, and by what he shall judge, and what
shall be required at our hands at that fearful day, how
all things must be tried by the fire, and that that only
shall stand for ever which Christ's words shall allow,
which shall be the judge of all flesh to give sentence
upon all flesh, and every living soul, either of eternal
damnation, or of everlasting salvation, from which sen-
tence there shall be no place to appeal, no wisdom shall
serve to delude, nor any power to withstand or revoke :
when, I say, I consider all these things, and refer to the
same again and again all those ways wherein standeth
the substance of the Romish religion (whereof I spake
before), it may be evident and easy to perceive, that
these two ways, these two religions, the one of Christ,
the other of the Romish see, in these latter days are as
far distant the one from the other, as light and darkness,
good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ
and Belial. He that is hard of belief, let him note and
weigh well with himself the places of holy scriptures
which refer to these things, and whereupon this
is grounded, and by God's grace he may receive
some light. And unto the contemner I have nothing
now to say, but to rehearse the saying of the prophet
Isaiah, which St. Paul spake to the Jews in the end of
the Acts of the Apostles. After he had expounded to
them the truth of God's word, and declared unto them
Christ out of the law of Moses and the prophets, from
morning to night, he said unto them that would not be-
lieve, ' Well spake the Holy (ihost, by Esaias the
prophet, unto our fathers, saying, go unto this peo-
ple, and say, hearing ye shall hear, and shall not under-
stand ; and seeing ye shall see, and not ))ei'ceive : for
the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears
are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest
they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and should be con-
verted, and I should heal them,' (Acts xxviii. 2C, 27.)
" Alas ! England, alas ! that this heavy plague of God
should fall upon thee. Alas 1 my dearly beloved coun ■
try, what thing is it now that may do thee good .' Un-
doubtedly thy plague is so great, that it is utterly incur-
able, but by the bottomless mercy and infinite power of
Almighty God. Alas ! my dear country, what hast thou
done, that thou hast provoked the wrath of GoJ, and
caused him to pour out his vengeance upon thee for
thine own deserts. Canst tiiou be content to hear thy
faults told thee.' Alas! thou hast heard oft, and
wouldst never amend. England, thy faults of all de-
grees and sorts of men, of magistrates, of the ministers,
and of the common people, were never more plainly
told since thou baredst that name, than thou didst hear
them of late, even before the magistrates in King Ed-
ward's days, but thou heardest them only, and didst
amend never a whit. For even of thy greatest magis-
trates, some (the king's highness then, that innocent,
that godly-hearted and peerless young christian prince
excepted) evermore behaved unkindly and ungently to
those that went about most busily, and most whole-
somely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and
would not spare to speak evil of them, even unto the prince
himself, and yet would they towards the same preachers
outwardly bear a jolly countenance and a fair face."
There was much other matter in this treatise of Doc-
tor Ridley, which for its length we omit.
TTie Death of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.
The month after the burning of bishops Ridley and
Latimer, which was the month of November, Stephen
Gardiner, bishop and chancellor, a man hated of God and
all good men, ended his wretched life. Concerning the
qualities, nature, and disposition of this man, so as
somewhat has been declared before in the history of King
Edward's reign, I shall need therefore the less novv to
write about it. He came from the town of Bury, in
Suffolk, and was brought up in Cambridge ; his under-
standing, capacity, memory, and other eudownients of
nature were not to be complained of, if he had well used
and rightly applied the same ; for through this prompt-
ness, he profited not a little in studies ; at first in the civil
law, then in languages, and in those arts and faculties
which had any prospect to dignity and preferment. Be-
sides other helps of nature, memory rather than dili-
gence of study was useful to him.
To these gifts and qualities were joined again his great
or greater vices, which not so much burdened him, as
made him burdensome to the whole realm. He was of
a proud spirit, and high-minded in his own opinion and
conceit, flattering himself too much ; in wit, crafty and
subtle ; toward his superiors flattering and fair spoken,
to his inferiors fierce ; against his equals stout and envious,
if in judgment and sentence he any thing withstood him.
Upon his estimation and fame he stood too much, more
than was meet for a man of his calling, whose profeseion
was to be crucified to the world, which made him so
obstinate in maintaining whatever he had once begun.
As to divinity, he was so variable, wavering with time
and circumstances, that no one could tell what to make
of him. If his doings and writings were according to
his conscience, no man can rightly say whether he was
a right protestant or papist. If he wrote otherwise than
he thought, for fear, or to bear with time, then he was a
double deep dissembler before God and man, to say and
unsay, to write and unwrite, to swear and forswear as ho
3k
8«'.4
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN WEBBE, GEORGE ROPER, ETC. [Book XI.
(lifl For first, in the beginning of Queen Anne's time,
who was so forward or so busy in the matter of the king's
divorce as Steplien Gardiner, who was first sent to Rome,
and then to the emperor, as chief agent in the behalf of
tlie Luly Anne ? Again, at the abolishing of the Pope,
who so ready to swear, or so vehement to write against
the Pope as he, as not only by his sermons, but also by
his book " De Obedientia" may appear ? He so uttered
his judgment in writing against the usurped supremacy
of the Pope, that coming to Lovaine afterward, he was
there accounted a person excommunicated, and a schis-
matic, so that he was not permitted in their church to
say mass ; and, moreover, in their public sermons they
openlv cried out against him.
And thus he long continued firm and forward, so that
Winchester was a favourite during all tlie reign of Queen
Anne. After her decease, time by little and little car-
ried him away, till at length the emulation of Cromwell's
estate, and especially for his so much favouring Bonner
(whom Winchester at that time could not bear), made
him an enemy both against him and his religion : till
again, in King Edward's days, he began a little to abate
from certain points of popery, and to turn somew^hat to
the gospel, as both by his sermon before King Edward,
and also by his subscribing to certain articles, may ap-
pear : and this was a half turn of Stephen Gardiner
from popery again to the gospel ; and no doubt he would
liave further turned, had not the unlucky decay of the
duke of Somerset turned him away from true divinity
to jjlain popery ; in which he continued a cruel persecu-
tor to his death.
But whatever he was, he is now gone, and I refer him
to his Judge, to whom he shall stand or fall. As con-
cerning his death, I would they who were present would
testify to us what they saw. This we have all to think,
that his death happened so opportunely, that England
has cause to give thanks to the Lord : not so much for
tlie great injury he had done in times past in perverting
his princes, in bringing in the six articles, in murdering
God's saints, in defacing Christ's sincere religion, &c.
but also and especially, because he had thought to have
brought to pass the death of our noble queen that now is,
Elizabeth. For whatever danger of death she was in, it
no doubt proceeded from this bishop, who was the cause
of it. And if it be certain what we have heard, that
when her highness was in the Tower, a writ came down
from some of the council, for her execution, it is out of
controversy, that wily Winchester was the only framer of
that instrument, who in that one day had brought this
whole realm into woeful ruin, had not the Lord's most
gracious council, through one Bridges, the lieutenant,
coming in haste to the queen, certified her of the matter,
and prevented his bloody devices. For which, thanks
be to our Lord and Saviour in the congregations of all
English churches. Amen.
Of things uncertain, I must speak uncertainly, for want
of fuller information. But as Bonner, Story, Thornton,
Harpsfield, Dunning, with others, were occupied in put-
ting the poor branches of God's saints to death, so this
bishop for his part bent all his devises, and had spent
all his power in assailing the root, and in casting up
such a platform to build his popery upon, as he thought
should have stood for ever. But, as I said before, of
things uncertain I can speak but uncertainly. Where-
fore as touching the maimer and order of his death,
how rich he died, what words he spake, what little re-
pentance he shewed, &c., all this 1 leave it to the know-
ledge of them which know it better.
Having thus given the reader an account of Gardiner's
history, we will leave him to his great Judge, and return
again to the history of the residue of Christ's martyrs,
as now in order follows :
The Burning of John Wehhe, George Roper, and Gregory
Parke, at Canterbury.
After the death and constant martyrdom of the two
most worthy champions and standard-bearers of Christ's
army, Doctor Nicholas Ridley, and Master Hugh Lati-
mer, followed the martyrdom of three other stout and
bold soldiers, John Webbe, George Roper, and Gregory
Parke.
John Webbe was brought before the bishop of Dover
on the 16th of September, and had propounded unto him
such articles as were commonly administered by Bonner ;
and being commanded to depart, and to deliberate with
himself upon the matter against the next appearance, he
made answer, that he would no otherwise say, by God's
grace, than he had already said, which was this : " As to
the sacrament of Christ's body, I do believe," said he,
" it to be left to his church, in commemoration of his
death and passion, until his coming again. So that it is
left in remembrance of his body, and not by the words of
consecration made his body, really, substantially, and
the same body that was born of the Virgin Mary ; I
utterly deny that.''
After this, besides other times, on the third day of
October, John Webbe, and George Roper, and Gregory
Parke, were brought all three together before the judges ;
who there and then agreeing, and steadfastly allowing
the former answer made before by Webbe, were by the
bloody prelates adjudged heretics, and about the end of
the same month, or in the latter end of November, thev
were taken together and brought out of prison to the
place of martyrdom. By the way going to the stake,
they said certain psalms mournfully.
Roper was a young man, of a fresh colour, courage,
and complexion ; the other two were somewhat more
elderly, all going in white linen. Roper, at his coming to
tlie stake, putting off his gown, took a great lea]). So
soon as the flame was about him, he put out botli his
arms from his body like a cross, and so stood stead-
fast, continuing in that manner, not plucking his arms
in, till the fire had consumed them, and burnt them off.
And thus these martyrs of Christ being brought to the '
stake, and there compassed about with a chain, were
burnt and consumed all three together in one fire, at '
Canterbury, abiding most patiently their torments, and
counting themselves happy and blessed of the Lord, that
they were made worthy to suffer for Christ's gospel
sake.
William Wiseman.
On the 13th of December, in the Lollard's Tower,
died William Wiseman, a clothworker of London, where
he was in prison and bonds for the gospel and word of
God. How he died is not fully certain.
After William was departed, as is said, in the Tower,
the holy Roman churchmen cast him out into the tu Ids,
commanding that no man should bury him, according as
their manner is to do with all such as die in li'^e sort,
whom they account as profsne, and worthy of no burial,
but to be cast to dogs and birds.
James Gore.
In the same month, about the 7th of December, de-
ceased also James Gore, in the prison at Colchester, laid
there in bonds for the truth of God's word.
The History of John Philpot.
Next follows the martyrdom of John Philpot, of whom
partly you heard before in the beginning of Queen Mary's
time, in the disputation in the convocation-house. He
was of an honourable house, a knight's son, born in
Hampshire, brought up in the new college in Oxford,
where he studied the civil law, besides other liberal arts,
especially the languages, as the Hebrew, &c. In know-
ledge he was eminent and happy, of a singular courage,
in spirit fervent, in religion zealous, and also well prac-
tised and exercised in it ; of nature and condition plain
and open, far from all flattery, farther from all hypocrisy
and dissimulation. What his learning was, his own exa-
minations, penned by his own hand, can declare.
From Oxford, de.sirous to see other countries, he went
over into Italy, and places thereabouts, where, coming
from Venice to Padua, he was in danger, through a
Franciscan friar accompanying him in his journey, who,
A.D. 1555.]
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
865
coTin" to Padua, sought to accuse him of heresy. At
length" returning into England, as the time gnve more
i boldness to him in the days of King Edward, he had
I some conflicts with Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester.
After that, he was made archdeacon of Winchester,
under Doctor Poinet, who succeeded Gardiner in that
bishopric. Thus, during the time of King Edward, he
, continued to the no small profit of those parts. When that
'. blessed king was taken away, and Mary his sister came
' in, whose study was wholly to alter the state of religion
I in the woful realm of England, first she caused a con-
vocation of the prelates and learned men to be congre-
gated to accomplish her desire.
In which convocation, Master Philpot being present, he
' according to his degree, with a few others, sustained the
cause of the gospel manfully against the adversaries ;
for which, notwithstanding the liberty of the house had
■ been promised before, he was called to account before
Bishop Gardiner, the chancellor, being his ordinary.
From thence he was removed to Bonner, and other com-
missioners, with whom he had many conflicts, as may
appear in his examinations, written by himself.
i
• TAeFirsf Examination of John Philpot before the Queen's
Commissioners, Master Cholinley, Master Roper, and
Doctor Story, and one of the Scribes of the Arches,
at Newgate Sessions -Hall, October 2, 1555.
; " Doctor Story, before I was called into an inner par-
jlour where they sat, came out into the hall where I was,
to view me, among others thit were there ; and passing
by me, said, ' Ha, Master Philpot ;' and, in returning
iramediattly again, staid opposite to me, beholding me,
aiid saying that I was well fed indeed.
" PU'lpot. — ' If I be fat, and in good liking, Master
Doctor, it is no marvel, since I have been shut up in
l>rison this twelve months and a half, in a close corner.
I am come to know your pleasure wherefore you have
sent for me.'
" Stoiy. — ' We hear that thou art a suspected person,
'and of heretical opinions, and therefore we have sent for
thee.'
" Piii!jK)t. — ' I have been in prison thus long, only
upon (hs ocivision of a disputation made in the convoca-
(tion-house, and upju suspicion of setting forth the re-
(port of it.'
1 " Story. — ' If thou wilt revoke it, and become an ho-
liiest man, thou shalt be set at liberty, and do right well ;
lor els3 thou shalt be committed to the bishop of London.
How sayest thou, wilt thou revoke it or not ?'
' " Philpot. — ' I have already answered in this behalf to
'mine ordinary.'
" Story. — ' If thou answerest thus when thou comest
ibefore us anon, thou shalt hear more of our minds ;' and
iwith that he went into the parlour, and I within a little
'while after was called in.
" The Scribe. — ' Sir, what is your name .''
" Philpot. — ' My name is John Philpot.'
" Story. — ■' This man was archdeacon of Winchester,
of Doctor Poinet's presentment.'
" Philpot. — ' I was archdeacon indeed, but none of
jliis presentment, but by virtue of a former advowson,
Igiven by my lord chancellor.'
I " Story. — ' You may be sure that my lord chancellor
(would not make any such as he is archdeacon.'
" Roper. — ' Come hither to me. Master Philpot. We
I hear that you are out of the catholic church, and have
jbeen a disturber of it ; out of which whoso is, he cannot
Ibe the child of salvation. Wherefore, if you will come
jiuto it, you shall be received, and find favour.'
! " Philpot. — ' I am come before your worshipful mas-
jterships, at your appointment, understanding that you
I are magistrates authorised by the queen's majesty, whom
I I own and will do my due obedience to the uttermost.
I Wherefore I desire to know what cause I have ofl'ended
] in, wherefore I am now called before you. And if I
I cannot be charged with any particular matter done con-
trary to the laws of this realm, I desire your masterships
that 1 may have the benefit of a subject, and be delivered
I out of my long wrongful imprisonment, where I have
suffered this year and a half, without my being called to
answer before novr, and my living taken from me without
all law.'
" Roper. — ' Though we have no particular matter to
charge you with, yet we may, by our commission and by
the law, drive you to answer to the suspicion of a slan-
der going on you ; and besides this, we have statutes to
charge you with.'
" Philpot. — ' If I have offended against any statute,
charge me therewith, and if I have incurred the penalty
thereof, punish me accordingly.'
" Story. — ' I perceive whereabout this man goes. He
is plain in Cardmaker's case, for he made the self same
allegations. But they will not serve thee ; for thou art
a heretic, and boldest against the blessed mass ; how
sayest thou to that ?'
" Philpot. — ' 1 am no heretic'
" Story. — ' I will prove thee a heretic. WTioever
hath held against the blessed mass is a heretic : but
thou hast held against it, therefore thou art a heretic'
" Philpot. — ' That which I spake, and which you are
able to charge me with, was in the convocation, where
by the queen's majesty s will, and her whole council,
liberty was given to every man of the bouse to utter his
conscience, and to say his mind freely of such questions
in religion as there were propounded by the prolocutor,
for which now I thought not to be molested and impri-
soned as I have been, neither now be compelled of you to
answer to the same.'
" Story. — ' Thou shalt go to the Lollard's Tower, and
be handled there like a heretic as thou art, and answer
to the same that thou there didst speak, and be judged
by the bishop of London.'
" Roper. — ' You cannot deny, but that you spake
against the mass in the convocation-house.'
" Story. — ' Dost thou deny that which thou spakest
there, or no ?'
" Pliilpot. — ' ^ cannot deny what I have spoken there,
and if by the law you may put me to death for it, I am
here ready to suff"er whatever I shall be judged to.'
" Cholmley. — ' Act the wise man and be conformable,
and be not stubborn in your opinions, neither cast your-
self away. I would be glad to do you good.'
" Philpot. — ' I desire you, sir, with the rest here, that
I be not charged further at your hands, than the law
charges me, for what I have done, since there was no
law directly against that wherewith I am now charged.
And you, Master Doctor, an old acquaintance in Oxford,
I trust will show me some friendship, and not extre-
mity.'
" Story. — ' I tell thee, if thou wouldst be a good ca-
tholic man, 1 would be thy friend, and spend my gown
to do thee good ; but I will be no friend to a heretic, as
thou art, but will sj)e.'id both my gown and my coat, but
I will burn thee, /low sayest thou to the sacrament of
the altar ?'
" Philpot. — • Sir, I am not come now to dispute with
your mastership.
" Story. — ' Well, since thou wilt not revoke that thou
hast done, thou shalt be sent to the Lollard's Tower."
" Cholmley. — ' Let him go from whence he came.'
" Story. — ' No, let him lie in the mean while in the
Lollard's Tower ; for 1 will svieep the King's Bencb, and
all other prisons also of these heretics, they shall not
have that resort, as they have had, to scatter their here-
sies.'
" Philpot. — ' You have power to transfer my body
from place to place at your pleasure ; but you have no
power over my soul. And I care not whither you com-
mit me, for I cannot be worse treated than 1 am, kept
all day in a close chamber.'
" Story. — ' Marshal, take him home with you again,
and see that you bring him again on Thursday, and then
we shall rid your hands of him, and afterwards of your
other heretics.'
" Philpot.—' God hath appointed a day .shortly to
come, in the which he will judge us with rig'if.eoiisiie.'^;;,
howsoever you judge of us now.
" Roper.—' Be content to be n;led by Master Doctir.
and show yourself a catholic man.
THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Book XI.
*• Philpot. — if I do stand in any thing against that,
wherein any man is able to burthen me with one jot of
the scripture, I shall be content to be counted no catho-
lic man, or a heretic, as you please.'
" Story. — ' Have we scripture, scripture ?' and with
that he rose up, saving, ' Who shall be judge, I pray
you ? This man is like his fellow Woodman, who the
other day would have nothing else but scripture.' "
And this is the beginning of this tragedy.
The Second Examination of John Philpot before the
Queen's Commissioners.
" At my coming, a man of Aldgate of mine acquaint-
ance said to me, ' God have mercy on you, for you are
already condemned in this world ; for Doctor Story
said, that my Lord Chancellor had commanded to get
you away.' After a little consultation had between
them, Master Cholmley called me, saying : —
" ' Master Philpot, shew yourself a wise man, and
be not stubborn in your own opinion, but be con-
formable to the queen's proceedings, and live, and
you shall be well assured of great favour and reputa-
tion.'
" Philpot. — ' I shall do as it becomes a christian man.'
" Story. — ' This man is the rankest heretic that has
been in all my lord chancellor's diocese, and has done
more hurt than any man else there : and therefore his
pleasure is, that he should have the law proceed against
him, and I have spoken with my lord, and he desires
him to be committed to the bishop of London, and there
to recant or be burned. He howled and wept in the con-
vocation-house, and made such ado as never man did,
as all the heretics do when they lack learning to answer.
He shall go after his fellows. How sayest thou, wilt
thou recant ?'
" Philpot. — ' I know nothing I have done that I ought
to recant.'
" Story. — ' Well, then, I pray you, let us commit him
to the Lollard's Tower, there to remain until he be fur-
ther e.xamined before the bishop of London ; for he is
too fine fed in the King's Bench, and he has too much
favour there.'
" Cooke. — ' This man has most stoutly maintained
heresies since the queen's coming in, above any that I
have heard of ; therefore it is most meet he should be
adjudged by the bishop of London, for the heresies he
bath maintained.'
" Philpot. — ' I have maintained no heresies.'
" Cooke. — ' No, have you not ? Did you not openly
speak against the sacrament of the altar in the convoca-
tion-house ? Call you that no heresy ? wilt thou recant
that, or not?'
" Philpot. — ' It was the queen's majesty's pleasure
that we should reason upon it, not by my seeking, but
by other men's procuring, in the heaving of the council.'
" Cooke. — ' Did the queen give you leave to be a
heretic ? you may be sure her grace will not so do.
Well, we will not dispute the matter with you ; my lord
of London shall proceed by inquisition upon thee, and
if thou wilt not recant, thou shalt be burned.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord of London is not mine ordinary
in this behalf, and I have already answered to mine or-
dinary in this matter.'
" Story. — ' Take this man with you to the LoUard's
Tower, or else to the bishop's coal-house.'
" Philpot. — 'Sir, if I were a dog you could not appoint
me a worse and more vile place ; but I must be content
with whatsoever injury you do offer me. God give you a
more merciful heart ; you are very cruel upon one that
hath never offended you.'
" Story. — ' Shall we suffer this heretic thus to reprove
us ? have him hence !'
** Philpot. — ' God forgive you, and give you more
merciful hearts, and shew you more mercy in the time
of need ; what thou doest do quickly.'
" Story. — ' Do you not hear how he makes us Ju-
dases ?'
' Philpot. — ' That is after your own interpretation.'
*' After this, I with four others were brought to the
keeper's house, in Paternoster-row, where we supped
and after sujiper I was called up to a chamber bv the
archdeacon of London's servant, in his master's name
who offered me a bed for that night. I gave him thanks
saying, that it should be a grief to me to lie well one
night, and the next worse : wherefore I will begin, said
I, as I am likely to continue, to take such part as my
fellows do. Then we were brought through Paternoster,
row to my lord of London's coal-house ; to which is
joined a little dark house, with a great pair of stocks, ap-
pointed both for hand and foot : but thanks be to God
we have not been put into them yet, although some, be-
fore us, had tried them ; there we found a minister of
Essex, a married priest, a man of godly zeal, with one
other poor man. And this minister desired to speak
with me, and did greatly lament his own infirmity, for,
through extremity of imprisonment, he was constrained
by writing to yield to the bishop of London : whereupon
he was once set at liberty, and afterwards felt such a
hell in his conscience, that he could scarce refrain from
destroying himself, and never could be at quiet until he
had gone to the bishop's register, desiring to see his
bill again, which, as soon as he had received, he tore it
in pieces.'
" The bishop sent to me his registrar, with a mess of
meat, and a good pot of drink, and bread, saying, that
my lord had no knowledge of my being here, for which
he was sorry. I thanked God for my Lord's charity,
that it pleased him to remember poor prisoners.
" Within a while after, one of my lord's gentlemen
came for me ; and I was brought into his presence,
where he sat at a table alone, with three or four of his
chaplains waiting upon him, and his register.
" Bonner. — ' Master Philpot, you are welcome ; give
me your hand.'
" With that, because he so gently put forth his hand,
I, to render courtesy for courtesy, kissed my hand and
gave it to him.
" Bonner. — ' I am right sorry for your trouble, and
before these two hours, I knew not of your being here.
I pray you tell me what was the cause of your being
sent hither.'
" I shewed h'm the sum of the matter ; that it was
for the disputation in the convocation-house for which
1 was against all right molested.
" Bonner. — ' I marvel that you should be troubled for
that, if there was none other cause.'
" Philpot. — ' If it shall please your lordship, I am
burthened none otherwise than I have told you.'
" Bonner. — ' I ask of you what your judgment is of
the sacrament of the altar.'
"Philpot. — 'My lord, St. Ambrose saith, (hat the
disputation of faith ought to be in the congregation, in
the hearing of the peo])le, and that I am not bound to
render account of it to every man privately, unless it
be to edify.'
" Bonner. — ' 1 perceive you are learned ; I would have
such as you are about me. But you must come and be
of the church ; for there is but one church.'
" Philpot.—' God forbid I should be out of the
church ; 1 am sure I am within it, for I know as I am
taught by the scripture, that there is but one catholic
church, one dove, one spouse, one beloved congregation,
out of which there is no salvation.'
" Bonner. — ' How chances it then, that you go out of
it, and walk not with us ?'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I am sure I am within the
bounds of the cliurch whereupon she is built, which is
the word of God.'
" After some further converse I was carried to my lord's
coal-house again, where 1 with my six fellows did sleep
together in straw, as cheerfully, we thank God, as others
do in their beds of down."
The Fourth Examination of Master Phi/fot in the Arch-
deacon's hotixe of London, before theBin/tops of London,
Bath, Worcester, and Gloucester.
" Bonner. — ' It has pleased my lords to dine with
my archdeacon, and in dinner time it chanced us to have
A.D. 1555.]
THE FOURTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
867
communication about you, and yon were pitied here by
many that knew you in the new college, in Oxford ; and
therefore I have sent for you to come before them.
Now therefore utter your mind freely, and you shall with
all favour be satisfied.'
" Bath. — ' My lords here have not sent for you to
flatter you, but for charity's salce to exhort you to come
iiito the right catholic way of the church.'
" Worcester. — ' Before he begins to speak, it is best
that he call to God for grace, and to pray that it might
please God to open his heart, that he may conceive the
truth.'
" With that I fell down upon my knees before them,
and made my prayer on this manner : —
" Almighty God, who art the giver of all wisdom and
understanding, I beseech thee of thine infinite goodness
and mercy in Jesus Christ, to give me (most vile sinner
in thy sight), the spirit of wisdom to speak and make
answer in thy cause, that it may be to the content of the
hearers, before whom I stand, and also to my better un-
I derstanding, if I be deceived in any thing.'
i " Bonner. — ' Nay, my lord of Worcester, you did not
well to exhort him to make any prayer. For this is the
thing they have a singular pride in, that they can often
j make their vain prayers, in which they glory much. For
j in this point they are much like to certain arrant here-
; tics, of whom Pliny makes mention, that did daily sing
' Praises to God before dawning of the day."
" Philpot. — ' My lord, God make me and all you here
present such heretics as those were that sung those
morning hymns ; for they were right christians, with
whom the tyrants of the world were offended for their
well doing.'
" Bonner. — ' Say on, Master Philpot ; my lords will
gladly hear you.'
" Philpot. — ' I have, my lords, been this twelve month
and a half in prison, without any just cause that I know,
and my living taken from me without any lawful order,
and now I am brovight, contrary to right, from mine
own territory and ordinary, into another man's jurisdic-
tion, 1 know not why. Wherefore, if your lordships can
burden me with any evil done, I stand here before you
to purge me of the same. And if no such thing may be
justly laid to my charge, I desire to be released of this
wrongful trouble.'
" Bonner. — ' I have to lay to your charge, that you
have offended in my diocese by speaking against the
blessed sacrament of the altar ; and therefore I may call
you, and proceed against you to punish you by the law.'
" Philpot. — ' I have not offended in your diocese. For
that which I spake of the sacraments was in St. Paul's
church in the convocation-house, which is a peculiar ju-
risdiction, belonging to the dean of St. Paul's.'
" Bonner. — ' Is not St. Paul's church in my diocese ?
Well, I know it costs me a good deal of money by the
year, the leading of it."
" Philpot. — ' That may be, and yet be exempted from
your lordship's jurisdiction. And although I had so of-
fended in your diocese, yet I ought by the law to be
sent to my ordinary, and not to be punished by you that
are not mine ordinary.'
" Bonner. — ' You cannot say hereafter but that you
have been gently communed with by my lords here, and
yet you will be wilful and obstinate in your error, and in
your own opinions, and will not shew any cause why you
will not come into the unity of the church with us.'
" Philpot. — ' My lords, I do not declare my mind ac-
cording to your expectation, because I cannot speak
without present danger of my life. But rather than
that you should report me obstinate or self-willed, I will
open to you somewhat of my mind, desiring your lord-
ships, who seem to be pillars of the church of England,
to satisfy me in it ; and I will refer all other points in
wliich I dissent from you, to one or two articles, or ra-
ther to one, which includes them both ; in which if I
can ])}■ the scriptures be satisfied at your mouths, I shall
as willingly agree to you as any other in all points.'
" Bonner. — ' These heretics come always with their
i/s, as this man does now, saying. If he can be satisfied
by the scriptures ; so that he will always have this ex-
ception, I am not satisfied, although the matter is ever
so plainly proved against him. But will you promise to
be satisfied, if my lords take some pains about you ?'
" Philpot. — ' I say, my lord, I will be satisfied by the
scriptures. And 1 protest here before God. and his
eternal Son Jesus Christ, my Saviour, and the Holy
Ghost, and his angels, and you here present are judges
of what I speak, that I do not stand in any opinion
through wilfulness, but only upon my conscience, in-
formed by God's word, from which I dare not go for
fear of damnation ; and this is the cause of mine earnest-
ness in this behalf.'
" Bonner. — ' I will trouble my lords no longer, seeing
that you will not declare your mind.'
" Philpot. — ' My lords, it is not unknown to you, that
the chief cause why you do count me, and such as I am,
for heretics, is because we are not at unity with your
church. You say you are of the true church ; and we
say, we are of the true church. You say, that whoever
is out of your church, is damned ; and we thinlt on the
other side, that if we depart from the true church, whereoa
we are grafted in God's word, we should stand in the state
of damnation. Wherefore, if your lordship can bring
any better authority for your church than we can do for
ours, and prove by the scriptures that the church of Rome
is the true catholic churcli, and that all christian persons
ought to be ruled by her under pain of damnation, as
you say, and that that church, as you pretend, has au-
thority to interj)ret the scriptures, and that all men are
bound to follow such interpretations only, I shall be as
conformable to that church as you may desire me ; there-
fore I require you, for God's sake, to satisfy me in this.'
" Cole. — ' What will you say, if I can prove that it
was decreed by an universal council in Athanasius' time,
that all the christian church should follow the determi-
nation of the church of Rome .' but I do not now re-
member where.'
" Philpot. — ' If you can shew me this granted to the
see of Rome by the authority of the scripture, I will
gladly hearken. But I think you are not able to shew
any such thing ; for Athanasius was president of the
Nicene council, and there was no such thing decreed, I
am sure.'
" Cole. — ' Though it were not then, it might be at
another time.'
" Philpot. — ' I desire to see the proof.'
" Upon this Harpsfield, chancellor to the bishop
cf London, brought in a book of Irenaeus, with certain
leaves turned in, and laid it before the bishops to help
them in their perplexity, after the bishops of Bath and
Gloucester had read together, the bishop of Gloucester
gave me the book.
" I took the book, and read the place, after I had
read it, I said, ' It makes nothing against me, but against
the Arians and other heretics, against whom Irenaeus
wrote, proving that they were not to be credited, because
they did teach and follow strange doctrine in Europe,
and that the chief church of Europe was founded by
Peter and Paul, and had to this time continued by suc-
cession of the faithful bishops in preaching the true gos-
pel, as they had received of the apostles, and not like
these heretics, &c. Whereby he concludes against them,
that they were not to be heard, which if you, my lords,
are able to prove now of the church of Rome, then you
have as good authority against me as Irenaeus had against
those heretics. But the church of Rome has swerved
from the truth and simplicity of the gospel, which it
maintained in Irenceus's time ; wherefore your lordships
cannot justly apply the authority of Irenaeus to the church
of Rome, which is now so manifestly corrupted from the
primitive church.'
" Worcester. — ' It can be proved most manifestly by all
ancient writers, that the see of Rome has always followed
the truth, and never was deceived, until of late certain
heretics had defaced it.'
" Philpot. — ' Let that be proved, and I have done.'
" Worcester. — ' Nay, you are of such arrogancy, sin-
gularity, and vain glory, that you will not see it, be it
never so well proved.'
•' Philpot. — ' My lords, is it now time, think you, for
868
THE FOURTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PIIILPOT.
[Book Xl.
me to follow singularity or vain glory, since it is now
upon danger of my life and death, not only presently,
but also before God to come ? and I know, if I die not
in the true faith, I shall die everlastingly : and again I
know, if I do not as you would have me, you will kill
me, and many thousands more : yet I had rather perish
at your hands, than perish eternally.'
" Cole. — ' Where are you able to prove that the church
of Rome hath erred at any time ? and by what history ?
certain it is, by Eusebius, that the church was establish-
ed at Rome by St. Peter and St. Paul, and that St. Peter
was bishop of Rome twenty-five years.'
" Philpot. — ' I know well that Eusebius so writes :
but if we compare that which St. Paul writes to the
Galatians (chap, i.), the contrary will manifestly ajipear,
that he was not half so long there. He lived not more
than thirty-five years after he was called to be an apostle r
and St. Paul makes mention of his abiding at Jerusalem
after Christ's death more than thirteen years.'
" Cole. — ' What, did St. Peter write to the Galatians?'
" Philpot. — 'No; I say St. Paul makes mention of
St. Peter, writing to the Galatians, and of his abiding at
Jerusalem : and further, I am able to prove, both by
Eusebius and other historians, that the church of Rome
has manifestly erred, and at tliis present time errs, be-
cause she agrees not with that which they wrote. The
primitive church was according to the gospel, and there
needs no other proof but to compare one with tlie
other.'
" Bonner. — ' I may compare this man to a certain
man I read of, who fell into a desperation, and went into
a wood to hang himself; and when he came there, he
went viewing every tree, and could find none on which
he might vouchsafe to hang himself. But I will not
apply it as I might. I pray you. Master Doctor, go
on with him.'
" Cole. — ' My lord, there are, on every side, those
that are better able to answer him, and I love not to fall
into disreputation : for novv-a-days a man shall but sus-
tain shame and obloquy among the people. I had rather
shew my mind in writing.'
" Philpot. — ' And I had rather that you should do so
than otherwise, for then a man may better judge of your
Words, and I beseech you so to do. But you shall not
be able to shew what you have said, to be decreed by a
general coiuicil in Athanasius' time. For this I am sure
of, that it was concluded by a general council in Africa,
many years after, that none of Africa, under pain of
ext Diiimunication, should ajjpeal to Rome : which decree
1 am sure they would not have made, if by the scriptures
and by an universal council it had been decreed, that all
men should abide and follow the determination of the
church of Rome.'
" Cole. — ' But I can shew that they revoked that
error again.'
" Philjiot. — ' So you say, but I pray you shew me
where. 1 have hitherto heard nothing from you but
bare words without any authority.'
" Vv'orcester. — ' Do you think the universal church
may be deceived ?' .
" Philpot.—' St. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians,
prophesies that there should come a de])arting from the
faitli in the latter days, before the coming of Christ,
staying, Christ shall not come, till there come a falling
away first.'
" Cole. — ' How take you the departing there in St.
Paul ? it is not meant of faith, but of the departing from
the empire.'
" Philpot. — ' Apostassa' is properly a departing from
the faith, and thence comes ' apostate,' which properly
signifies one that departs from Ids faith.'
" Worcester. — ' 1 am sorry that you should be against
the christian world.'
" Philpot. — ' The world commonly, and such as are
called christians, have hated the truth.'
" Gloucester. — ' Why, Master Philpot, do you think
that the universal church has erred, aud you only to be
in the truth ?'
" Philpot. — ' The church that you are of was never
universal, for two parts of the world, which are Asia and
Africa, never consented to the supremacy of the bishop
of Rome, as at this day they do not, neither do they
follow his decrees.'
" Gloucester. — ' Yes, in the Florentine council thev
agreed.'
" Philpot. — ' It was said so, by false report, after they
of Asia and Africa were gone home : but it was not so
indeed, as the sequel proves.'
" Gloucester. — ' I pray you by whom will you be
judged in matters of controversy ?'
" Philpot. — ' By the word of God. For Christ saith,
in St. John, The word that he spake, the same shall be
judge in the latter day.'
" Gloucester. — ' What if you take the word one way,
and I another way : who shall be judge then ?'
" Philj)ot. — ' The primitive church.'
" Gloucester. — ' What if you take the doctors in one
sense, and 1 in another : who shall be judge then ?'
" Phil))ot. — ' Then let that be taken which is most
agreeable to Gr>d's word.'
" Worcester. — ' It is wonder you see how he standeth
with a few against a great multitude.'
" Phil]iot. — ' We have almost as many as you. For
we have Asia, Africa, Germany, Denmark, and a great
part of France, and daily the number of the gospellers
increases: so that I am credibly informed, that for this
religion in which I stand, and for which I am likely to
die, a great multitude daily comes out of France through
persecution, that the cities of Germany are scarce able
to receive them : and therefore your lordship may be
sure, the word of God will one day take place, do what
you can to the contrary.'
" Bonner. — ' My lords will trouble you no further at
this time, but you shall go from whence you came,
and have such favour in the mean while as I can shew
you : and upon Wednesday next you shall be called
again to be heard what you can say for maintenance of
your error.'
" Worcester. — ' God send you more grace.'
" Philpot. — ' And also God increase the same in you,
and open your eyes that you may maintain his truth, and
his true church.'
" Then the bishops rose up and consulted together,
and caused a writing to be made, in which I think my
blood was bought and sold by them, and to it they put
their hands, and after this 1 was carried to my coal-
house again."
The Fifth Examination of John Philpot, had before the
Bishops of London, Rochester, Coventry, St. Asaph,
and others.
" Bonner. — ' Come hither, INIaster Philpot, I have
desired my lords here, and other learned men, to take
some pains once again, to do you good. Therefore aot
the wise man, and be ruled by these learned men.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I look for none other but
death at your hands, and I am as ready to yield my life
in Christ's cause, as you are to require it.'
" Bonner. — ' Lo, what a wilful man is this ? By my
faith it is but folly to reason with him, or with any of
these heretics. I am sorry that you will be no more
tractable, and that I am compelled to shew e.vtremity
against you.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, you need not shew extremity
against me unless you wish ; nor by the law have you
any thing to do with me, for you are not mine ordinary,
although I am, contrary to all right, in your prison.'
" Bonner. — ' You maintained open heresy in my
diocese ; wherefore the commissioners sent you to me
that I should proceed against you.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I stand still upon my lawful
plea in this behalf ; that though it were a great heresy,
as you suppose it, yet I ought not to be troubled for it,
in respect of the privilege of tlie parliament house,
whereof the covocation-house is a member, where all
men in matters propounded may freely speak their
minds, and here is present a gentleman of the queen's
mnjesty that was present at the disputation, and can
testify that the questions which were then in controversy,
A.D. lojo.]
THE FIFTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
8$!>
were not set forth by me, but by the prolocutor, who re-
quired in the queen's majesty's name, all men to dis-
pute their minds freely in the same, that were of the
house.'
" After much dispute about the laws of the realm,
Philpot at last said, ' My lord, I stand not here to
reason matters of the civil law, although I am not alto-
gether ignorant of the same ; for I have been a student
in the law six or seven years ; but to answer to the
articles of faith, with which you may lawfully burden
me. And whereas you go about unlawfully to proceed,
I challenge, according to my knowledge, the benefit of
the law in my defence.'
"Bonner. — 'Why, thou wilt answer directly to
nothing thou art charged with.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I have declared my mind to
you, and to others of the bishops, desiring you to satisfy
me but of one thing, to which I have referred all other
controversies ; which if your lordships now, or other
learned men can resolve me of, I am as contented to be
reformable in all things as you shall require, which is to
prove that the church of Rome is the catholic church.'
" Coventry. — ' Why do you not believe your creed, —
* I believe in the holy catholic church ?'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, that I do ; but I cannot under-
stand Rome to be the same, or like it.'
" St. Asaph. — ' It is most evident that St. Peter
did build the catholic church at Rome. And Christ
said, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my church.' Moreover, the succession of bishops in
the see of Rome can be proved from time to time, which
is a manifest proof of the catholic church.'
" Philpot. — ' What you would have to be undoubted,
is most uncertain, and where you allege Christ saying
unto St. Peter, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church,' unless you can prove the rock
to signify Rome, you prove nothing. And although you
can prove the succession of bishops from St. Peter, yet
this is not sufficient to prove Rome the catholic church,
\inless you can prove the profession of St. Peter's faith,
whereupon the catholic church is builded, to have con-
tinued in his successors at Rome, and at this present
there to remain.'
" Bonner. — ' Are there any more churches than one
catholic church .' And I pray tell me into what faith
were you baptised ?'
" Philpot. — ' I acknowledge one holy catholic and
apostolic church, whereof I am a member, I praise God,
and am of that catholic faith of Christ whereinto I was
baptised.'
" Coventry. — ' I pray you, can you tell what this
word catholic doth signify ? shew if you can.'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, that I can, I thank God. The
catholic faith, or the catholic church, is not as now-
a-days the people are taught, that which is most univer-
sal, or received by most men, by which you do infer our
faith to hang upon the multitude, which is not so ; but
I esteem the catholic church to be, as St. Augustine de-
fines it: 'We judge,' saith he, ' the catholic faith that
which hath been, is, and shall be.' So that if you can
be able to prove that 3'our faith and church has been
taught from the beginning, and is, and shall be : then
may you count yourselves catholic, or otherwise not.'
" Coventry. — ' Let the book be seen.'
" Bonner. — ' I pray you, my lord, be content, or in
good faith I will break off and let all alone. Do you
think the catholic church, until these few years, has
erred ?'
" Philpot. — ' I do not think that the catholic church
can err in doctrine ; but I require you to prove this
church of Rome to be the catholic church.'
" Curtop. — ' I can prove that Irenseus, who was
within an hundred years after Christ, came to Victor,
then bishop of Rome, to ask his advice about the excom-
munication of certain heretics, which he would not have
done if he had not taken him to be supreme head.'
"Coventry. — 'Mark well this argument. How are
you able to answer the same ? Answer, if you can.'
" Philpot. — ' It is soon answered, my lord, for it is
of no force : this act of Ireneeus makes no more for the
supremacy of the bishop of Rome, than mine has done,
who have been nt Rome as well as he, and might have
spoken with the pope, if I had pleased ; and yet I wish
none in England favoured his supremacy more than I.'
" St. Asaph. — ' You are the more to blame, since all
the catholif church, until these few years, have taken
him to be the supreme head of the church,'
" Philpot. — ' That is not likely, that Irenaeus so took
him, or the primitive church ; for I am able to shew
seven general councils after Irenseus' time, wherein he
was never so taken, which may be a sufficient proof, that
the catholic primitive church never took him for supreme
head.'
" Coventry. — ' Why will you not admit the church of
Rome to be the catholic church ?'
" Philpot. — ' Because it follows not the primitive ca-
tholic church, nor agrees with it, no more than an apple
is like a nut.'
" Coventry. — ' Wherein doth it dissent ?'
" Philpot. — ' It were too long to recite all, but two
things I will name, the supremacy and transubstantiation.'
" Curtop. — ' As for transubstantiation, although it
was set forth and decreed for an article of faith not much
above three hundred years ago, yet it was always believed
in the church.'
" Bonner. — ' Yea, that it was. Very well said of you,
Master Curtop.'
" Philpot. — ' Ye have said right, that transubstantia-
tion is but a late plantation of the bishop of Rome, and
you are not able to shew by any ancient writer, that the
primitive church believed any such thing.'
" Coventry. — ' Can you disprove that the church of
Rome is the catholic church ?'
" Philpot. — ' Yea, that I am able, but I desire rather to
hear of you for the proof of it. And seeing I cannot
have my request at your hands, I will shew you good proof
why it is not. For if the primitive church were catholic,
then the church of Rome is not now the catholic church,
which dissents so far from it, both in doctrine and use of
the sacraments.'
" Coventry. — ' How prove you that the church of Rome
now dissents in doctrine and use of the sacraments from
the primitive church ?'
" Philpot. — ' Compare the one with the other, and it
shall soon appear ; as you may see both in Eusebius and
other ecclesiastical and ancient writers.'
" Coventry. — ' What have you to say more, why it is
not the catholic church ?'
" Philpot. — ' Because it is not universal, nor ever
was, although you falsely persuade the people that it is
so. For the world having been divided into three parts,
Asia, Africa, and Eurojie ; two parts, Asia and Africa,
professing Christ as well as we, never consented to tlie
church of Rome, which is of Europe ; which is a suffi-
cient testimony that your faith was never universal.'
" Coventry. — ' How prove you that ?'
" Philpot.—' All the historians who write of the pro-
ceedings of the church, do testify it. Besides, this pre-
sent time declares that to be true which I say. For at
this present time the churches of Asia and Africa do not
consent to the church of Rome. Yea, and besides all
this, most part of Europe does not agree to, or allow the
church of Rome ; as Germany, Denmark, Poland, a
great part of France, England, and Zealand, which is a
manifest proof that your church is not universal.'
" After this, the "bishop of London called away the
other bishops, and left with me some gentlemen, and
some of his chaplains, as Doctor Saverson, who begaa
with me in this manner :
" Saverson.— ' I remember you. Master Philpot, be-
yond sea, since the time you reasoned with a friar, a
notable learned man, coming from Venice to Padua, in a
barge.'
" Philpot.—' I cannot forget that ; for the friar
threatened.to accuse me of heresy as soon as he came to
Padua, because 1 talked with him so boldly of the truth.
He was no such learned man as you name him to be, but
only in his school points a good purgatory friar.'
" Saverson. — ' Well, he was a learned man for all
that. And I am sorry to hear that you, this day having
STO
THE FIFTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT
[Book XI.
communed with so many notable learned men, are not
more conformable to tliem than )'ou are.'
" Philiiot. — ' I will be conformable to all that are con-
formable to Christ in his word.'
" Saver.son. — ' I liave heard your arguments, and me-
thinks that a great many of the old ancient writers are
against you in that you do not allow tlie church of Rome,
nor the supremacy ; for St. Cyprian, who is an ancient
writer, allows the bishop of Rome to be the supreme
head of the church.'
" Philpot. — ' I aai sure he does not. For he, writing
to Cornelius, then bishop of Rome, calls him only his
companion and his fellow-bishop, neither attributed to
him the name of pope, or of any usurped terms which
ROW are ascribed to the bishop of Rome to set forth his
dignity.'
" Saver.«on. — ' You cannot shew that St. Cyprian
calls Cornelius his fellow-bishop.'
" Philpot. — ' I will wager that I can shew it in Cy-
prian.'
" Saverson. — ' I will lay no wager with you, but book
for book that it is not so.'
" Philpot. — ' I agree thereto, and I pray you let one
of my lord's chaplains bring lis Cyprian here.'
" One of them went to my lord's study and brought
Cyprian, and he turned to the first book of his epistles,
the third epistle, and there would seem to have gathered
i strong argument for the supremacy of the bi.shop of
Rome, because he saith ; ' It goes not well with the
church when the high priest is not obeyed, who supplies
".he stead of Christ, after God's w^ord, and the consent
of his fellow-bishops, and the agreement of the people.'
" Saverson. — ' How can you avoid this place, which
aiakes so plainly for the bishop of Rome's supre-
macy ?'
" Philpot. — ' It makes not so plain for your side, as
you suppose, as I will give you to understand. But,
first, I challenge the wager which we made, tlrat your
book is mine. For here, you may see, that he calls
Cornelius his fellow-bishop, as he does also in other
places. And now, for the understanding of that place,
you misconstrue it in taking the high priest for the bishop
of Rome alone. For there were by the Nicene council
four patriarchs appointed, the patriarcli of Jerusalem,
the patriarch of Constantinople, the patriarcli of Alex-
andria, and the patriarch of Rome, of which four, the
patriarch of Rome was placed lowest in the council, and
;io continued many years, for the time of seven or eight
general councils, as I am able to shew. Therefore, St.
Cyprian, writing to Cornelius, patriarch of Rome (whom
he calls his fellow-bishop), finds himself otTended, that
certain heretics being justly excommunicated by him (as
the Novatians were), fled from his diocese, who was their
chief bishop, refusing to be obedient to him, and to be
reformed to the bishop of Rome and to the patriarch of
Constantinople, and there were received in communion
of the congregation, in derogation of good order and
discipline in the church, and to the maintaining of
heresies and schisms.'
*' A chaplain. — ♦ Did not Christ build his church upon
St. Peter ? Cyprian saith so.'
" Philpot. — ' St. Cyprian, De simplicitate Prselatorum,
declares in what respect he so said, ' God gave in the
person of one the keys to all, that he might signify the
unity of all.' And also, St. Augustine saith in the tenth
treatise on St. John, ' If in Peter had not been the mys-
tery of the church, the Lord had not said to him, I will
give unto thee the keys. For if that were said to Peter,
the church has them not ; if the church have them when
Peter received them, he signified the whole church.'
And also Jerome, a priest of Rome, writing to Nepotian,
saith, ' That all churches lean to their own ])astors.'
And Evagrius, he saith, ' That wheresoever a bishop is,
whether he be at Rome, or at Evagium, or at Rhegium,
he is of one power and of one jurisdiction.'
" Saverson. — ' I wonder you will stand so Steadfast in
your error, to your own destruction.'
" Philpot. — ' I am sure we are in no error, by the
promise of Christ made to the faithful once, which is,
that he will give to his true church such a spirit of wis-
dom, that the adversaries thereof should never be able to
resist. And by this I know we are of the truth, for
neither by reasoning, nor by writing, your synagogue of
Rome is able to answer. Where is there one of you all
that ever hath been able to answer any of the godly
learned ministers of Germany, who have disclosed your
counterfeit religion ? Which of you all is able to answer
Calvin's Institutes ?'
" Saverson. — ' A godly minister, indeed, of cutpurses,
and runagate traitors ! I can tell you, there is such
contention between him and his own sects about predes-
tina^-ion, that he was glad to flee the town. I tell you
truth, for I came by Geneva hither.'
" Philpot. — ' I am sure you blaspheme that godly
man, and that godly church where he is minister ; as it
is your church's condition, when you cannot answer
men by learning, to opjiress them with blasphemies and
false reports. For in the matter of predestination he is
in no other opinion than all the doctors of the church
are, agreeing to the scriptures.'
" After this Doctor Story came in. To whom I said,
' you have done me great injury, and without law have
straitly imprisoned me, more like a dog than a man.
And besides this, you have not kept promise with me,
for you promised that I should be judged the next day
after.'
" Story. — ' I am come now to keep promise with thee.
Was there ever such a fantastical man as this is .' Nay,
he is no man, he is a beast, yea, these heretics are worse
than brute beasts : for they will, upon a vain singularity,
take upon them to be wiser than all men, being, indeed,
very fools and asses, not able to maintain that which out
of an arrogant obstinacy they stand in.'
" Philpot. — ' I am content to abide your railing judg-
ment of me now. Say what you will, I am content,
for I am under your feet to be trodden on as you list.
God forgive it you ; yet I am no heretic. Neither you
nor any other shall be able to prove that I hold any jot
against the word of God, otherwise than a christian man
ought.'
" Story. — ' The word of God ! forsooth the word of
God ! It is but a folly to reason with these heretics, for
they are incurable and desperate. But yet I may reason
with thee, not that I have any hope to win thee ; whom
wilt thou aj)point to judge of the word .''
" Philpot. — ' The word itself.'
" Story. — ' Do you not see the ignorance of this beastly
heretic? He wills the word to be judged of the word.
Can the word speak ?'
" Philjiot.— ' If I cannot prove that which I have said
by good authority, I will be content to be counted an
heretic, and an ignorant person, and further, what you
please.'
" Story. — 'Let us hear what wise authority thou canst
bring in.'
" Philpot. — ' It is the saying of Christ in St. John,
The word which I have spoken, saith Christ, shall
judge in the last day. If the word shall judge in the
last day, much more it ought to judge our doings now.
And I am sure I have my judge on my side, who shall
absolve and justify me in another world. However, now
it shall please you by authority unrighteously to judge
of me and others, sure I am in another world to judge
you.'
" Story. — ' ^V^lat 1 you purpose to be a martyr, and to
sit in judgment with Christ at the last day to judge the
twelve tribes of Israel !'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, sir, I doubt it not, having the pro-
mise of Christ, if I die for righteousness' sake, which you
have begun to ))ersecute lue for.'
" Story. — ' I tokl you it was but vain to argue with
this heretic ; he is drowned in his heresies.'
" Philjiot. — ' I have brought you, for what I said,
good authority out of God's book, to which you answer
nothing, but give railing judgment against me without
any cause.'
" Story. — ' Wilt thou not allow the interpretation of
the church upon the scriptures ?'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, if it be according to the word of the
true church : and this I say to you, as I have said here-
A.D. 1555.]
THE SIXTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
871
tofore, that if ye can prove the church of Rome to be the
true catholic church, which I ought to follow, I will be
as ready to yield thereto as you may desire me.'
" Story. — ' What a fellow is this ? he will believe
nothiug but what he chooses himself. Are we not in
possession of the church ? Have not our forefathers these
many hundred years taken this church for the catholic
church ? And if we had no other proof but this, it were
sufficient ; for the prescription of time maketh a good
title in the law.'
" Philpot. — ' You do well to allege prescription of
many years, for it is all you have to show for yourselves.'
" Story. — ' Well, you are like to go after your father
Latimer, the sophister, and Ridley, who had nothing to
allege for himself, but that he had learned his heresy of
Cranmer. When I came to him, he trembled as though
he had bad the palsy, as these heretics have always some
token of fear by which a man may know them, as you
may see this man's eyes tremble in his head. But I dis-
l>atched them ; and I tell thee that there has been yet
never a one burnt, but I have spoken with him, and have
been a cause of his death.'
" Philpot. — ' You have the more to answer for, as you
sliall feel in another world, how much soever you now
triuiaph in your proceedings.'
The Sixth Examination of John Philpot before the
Right HonmtraMe Lords, the Lord Chamberlain to
the Qveen's Majesty, Viscount Hereford, commonly
called Lord Ferras, Lord Rich, Lord St. John, Lord
IVindsor, Lord Chandos, Sir John Bridges, Lieutenant
oj" the Tower, and tiro more, with the Bishop of Lon-
don and Doctor Chedsey, on the &th of November,
15.')5.
" Before I was called before the lords, and while they
were sitting down, the bishop of London came aside
to me and whispered in mine ear, to act before the lords
of the queen's majesty's council prudently, and to take
heed what I said. After the lords and others were
seated, my lord of London placed himself at the end of
the table, and called me, and began to speak.
" Bonner. — ' I have heretofore both privately myself,
and openly before the lords of the clergy, more than
once caused you to be talked with to reform you of your
errors, but I have not found you yet so tractable as I
would wish : wherefore now I have desired these hon-
ourable lords to hear you, that they may be judges
whether I have sought all means to do you good or not :
and I dare be bold to say, that if you shew yourself con-
formable to the queen's majesty's proceedings, you shall
find as much favour as you can wish.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I thank God this day, that I
have such an honourable audience ; and I cannot but
commend your lordship's equity in this behalf, which
agrees with the order of the primitive church, which
was, if any body had been suspected of heresy, as I am
now, he should be called first before the archbishop or
bishop of the diocese where he was suspected ; secondly,
in the presence of others, his fellow bishops, and learned
elders ; and thirdly, in hearing of the laity : where after
the judgment of God's word, and with the assent of our
bishops and consent of the people, he was condemned
for an heretic, or absolved. And the secord point of
that good order I have found at your lordship's hands
already, in being called before you and your fellow
bishops, and now I have the third sort of men, at whose
hands I trust to find more righteousness in my cause
than I have found with my lords of the clergy ; God
grant I may have at last the judgment of God's word
concerning the same 1'
" Bonner. — ' I pray you, ere you go any further, tell
my lords here plainly, whether you were by me or by my
procurement committed to prison or not, and whether I
have shewed you any cruelty since you have been com-
mitted to my prison.'
" Philpot. — ' If it shall please your lordship to give
me leave to declare forth my matter, I will touch that
afterwards.'
" Rich. — ' Answer, first of all, to my lord's two ques-
tions, and then proceed forth to tne matter. How say
you ? were you imprisoned by my lord or not .' can you
find any fault with his cruel using of you ?'
" Philpot. — ' I cannot lay to my lord's charge the
cause of my imprisonment, neither may I say that he
hath used me cruelly, but rather for my part I may say
that I have found more gentleness at his lordship's hands,
than I did at mine own ordinary's ; for the time I have
been within his prison, he has called me three or four
times to my answer, to which I was not called in a
twelvemonth and a half before.'
" Rich. — ' Well, now go to your matter.'
" Philpot. — ' The matter is, that I am imprisoned for
the disputations had by me in the convocation-house
against the sacrament of the altar, which matter was not
moved principally by me, but by the prolocutor, with
the consent of the queen's majesty and of the whole
house, and that house, being a part of the parliament
liouse, ought to be a place of free speech for all men of
the house, by the ancient and laudable custom of this
realm. Wherefore, I think myself to have sustained
great injury, for being imprisoned for speaking my con-
science freely in such a place as I might lawfully do it : and
I desire your honourable lordship's judgment, who are of
the parliament-house, whether of right I ought to be im-
peached therefore, and sustain the loss of my living, as I
have done, and moreover ot my life, as it is sought ?'
" Rich. — 'The convocation-house is no part of the
parliament-house.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I have always understood the
contrary by such as are more expert men in things of
this realm than I.'
" Bonner. — ' My lords, he hath spoken there mani-
fest heresy ; yea, and stoutly maintained the same against
the blessed sacrament of the altar, (and with that Bonner
put off his cap, that all the lords might reverence and
vail their bonnets at that idol as he did,) and would not
allow the real presence of the body and blood of Christ
in it.'
' ' Rich. — ' How say you ? Will you acknowledge
the real presence of the body and blood of Christ, as all
the learned men of this realm do, in the mass, and as I
do, and will beUeve as long as I live, I do protest it ?
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I acknowledge, in the sacra-
ment of the body and blood of Christ, such a presence,
as the word of God allows and teaches me.'
" Bonner. — ' A sacrament is a sign of a holy thing ;
so that there is both the sign which is the accident '^as
the whiteness, roundness, and shape of bread,) and there
is also the thing itself, as very Christ, both God and
man. But these heretics will have the sacrament to be
but bai-e signs. How say you ? declare to my lords
here whether you do allow the thing itself in the
sacrament or not.'
" Philpot. — ' 1 do confess that in the Lord's supper
there is both the sign and the thing signified, when it is
duly ministered after the institution of Christ.'
" Bonner. — ' You may see how he goes about the
bush, and dare not utter his mind plainly.'
" Philpot. — ' If it please you, my lord of London, to
give me leave to proceed orderly, and to let me declare
my mind without interruption, I will thoroughly open
my mind therein.'
" Chandos. — ' I pray you, my lord, let him speak his
mind.'
" Philpot. — ' My lords, that I have not plainly declared
niy judgment to you the reason is this, I cannot speak
of it without the danger of my life.'
"Rich. — 'There is none of us here that seeks thy
life, or means to take any advantage of what thou shall
speak.'
" Philpot. — ' Although I distrust not your honourable
lordships that are here of the laity, yet here is one that
sitleth against me, (pointing to my lord of London,)
that will lay it to mv charge even to the death. Not-
withstanding, seeing your honours require me to declare
my mind, that ye may perceive that I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, nor maintain any opinion without
sufficient authority of the scripture, I will shew you
frankly my mind without all colour, whatever shall
8/2
THE SEVENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
ensue to me. That which I do intend to speak to you,
right honourable lords, I do protest here, first before
God and his angels, that I speak it not in vain glory,
nor 111 singularity, nor in wilful stubbornness, but truly
upon a good conscience, grounded on God's word,
against which I dare not act, for fear of damnation.
Neither do 1 disagree to the proceedings of this realm :
in religion, because I love not the cpieen, (whom I love
from the bottom of my heart.) but because I ought to
love and tear God in his word more than man In his
laws, though I stand, as I seem to do, in this considera- I
tion, and for none other, as I call God to witness
'"There are two things principally, by which the
clergy at this day deceive the whole realm ; they are
tha s.icrament of the body and blood of Christ, and the
name ot the catholic church : both which they usurp
As to their sacrament, which they terra of the altar, I
say now, as I said in the convocation-house, that it is
not the sacrament of Christ, neither in it is there any
manner ot Christ's presence. Wherefore they deceive
the qiieen's majesty, and you of the nobility of this
realm, in making you believe that to be a sacrament
which IS none and cause you to commit manifest
idolatry in worshipping that for God, which is no God
And in testimony of this, besides manifest proof, which
I am able to make to the queen's majesty, and to all
you of her nobility, I will yield my life : which to do if
It were not upon a sure ground, were to my utter dam-
nation. And where they take on them the name of the
catholic church, (whereby they blind many folks' eyes )
they nre not so, catling you from the true religion which
was revealed and taught in King Edward's time, to vain
superstition. And this I will say, that if they can prove
theniEelves to be the catholic church, as they shall never
be able to do, I will never be against their doings, but
revoke all that I have said. And I shall desire you, my
lords, to be a mean for me to the queen's majesty, that
I may be brought to the just trial upon this. Yea I
will not refuse to stand against ten of the best of them
in tins realm. And if they be able to prove other than
1 have said, either by writing or by reasoning, with good
and lawful authority, I will here promise to recant what-
ever 1 have said, and to consent to them in all points.'
In the declaration of these things more at lar?e,
which now I write in brief, the bishop of London would
have interrupted me, but the lords procured me liberty
to make out my tale, to the great grief of the lord bishop
ot London, as it appeared by the temper he was in.
' Bonner.—' It has been told me before, that you love
to make a long tale.'
" Rich.—' All heretics boast of the Spirit of God, and
every one would have a church by himself.'
" Bonner.—' I pray you, how will you'e.xplain these
two scriptures: Pafer mojnr me est ; et pater et eao
vrnnn summ I must interpret the same, because my
lor. s here understand not the Latin, that is to say, ' The
Father IS greater than I,' and ' I and the Father are one.'
But I beg pardon, iny lords, I have mis-spoken, in saying
you understand no Latin ; for the most part of you un-
derstand Latin as well as I. But I speak in considera-
tion of my Lord Chandos, and Master Bridges his bro-
ther, whom I take to be no great Latin scholars. Now
shew your cunning, and join these two scriptures by the
word II you can.' * ^
.' Philpot.-' Yes. that T can right well. For we
must understand that in Christ there are two natures,
the divinity and humanity, and in respect of his hu-
manity U is spoken of Christ, 'The Father is greater
than I. But m respect of his deity he said again, ' The
I'ather and I are one.'
" Bonner.—' What say you, then, to the second scrip-
ture ? how couple you that by the word to tlie other "
"Phil,mt.-'The text itself declares, that notwith-
standmg Christ abased himself in our human nature, vet
he IS still one in deity with the Father. And this St.
Paul to the Hebrews more at large sets forth. And as
I have by the scriptures joined these two scriptures to-
gether, so am I able to do in all other articles of faith
vhioh we ought to believe, and by the manifes: word of
«Jod to expi und them.'
[BroK XI,
" Bonner. — ' How can that be, seeing St. Paul «ays
that the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.' ^
" Philpot.— ' St. Paul means not the w-rd of God
written, in itself killeth, which is the word of life and
faithful testimony of the Lord ; but that the word is un-
profitable and killeth him that is void of the Spirit of
God, although he be the wisest man of the world and
therefore St. Paul said, that the gospel is to some a
savour of life unto life, and to others a savour of death
unto death. Also an example of this wc- have in the
sixth of John, of them who hearing tl.e word of God
without the Spirit were ofTended thereby; wherefore
Christ said, the flesh profiteth nothing, it is the Spirit
that quickeneth.' '
"Bonner. — ' What : do you understand that of St
Paul and of St. John so.''
" Philpot.—' It is not mine own interpretation, it is
agreeable to the word in other places ; and I have
learned the same of ancient fathers interpreting it like-
wise. And to the Corinthians it is written, ' The natural
man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
but the spiritual man judgeth all things.' '
" Bonner.—' You see, my lords, that this man will
have his own mind, and will wilfuUy cast away himself
I am sorry for him.'
" Philpot.—' The words that I have spoken are none
of mine, but the gospel, whereon I ought to stand. And
if you, my lord, of London can bring better autliority for
the faith you will draw me to, than that which I stand
upon, 1 will gladly hear it by you or bv any other in this
realm.'
" After further conference with the lords, and with
Doctor Chedsey in their presence, the bishop uf London
said, ' My lords, I am sorry I liave troubled vou so long
with this obstinate man, whh whom we can do no good ;
I will trouble you no longer now :' and with tlia"t the
lords rose up, none of them saying any evil word to me.
half amazed : may God work it to good !"
The Seventti Examination of John Philpot. on the 7iine-
teenth of November, before the Bishops of London and
Rochester, the Chancellor of Lichfield, and Doctor
Chedsey.
" Bonner.—' Sirrah, come hither ! How chance you
came no sooner .' Is it well done of you to make mas-
ter chancellor and me to tarry for you this hour .-' By
the faith of my body, half an hour before mass, and half
an hour even at mass, looking for your coming.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, it is not unknown to you that
I am a prisoner, and that the doors are shut upon me,
and I cannot come when I list ; but as soon as the doors
of my prison were open, I came immediately.'
" Bonner. — ' We sent for thee that thou shouldst
have come to mass. How say you, would you have
come to mass or not, if the doors had sooner been
opened ?'
" Philpot.—' My lord, that is another manner of ques-
tion.'
" Bonner. — ' Lo, master chancellor, I told you we
should have a froward fellow of him ; he will answer di-
rectly to nothing. Why answerest thou not directly,
whether thou wouldst have gone to mass or not, if thou
hadst come in time ?'
" Philpot. — ' Mine answer shall be thus : that if your
lordship can prove your mass, to which you would have
me to come, to be the true service of God, to which a
christian ought to come, I will come with a good will.'
" Bonner. — ' Look, I pray you ; the king and the
queen, and all the nobility of the realm come to mass,
and yet he will not. By my faith, thou art too well
handled : thou shalt be worse handled hereafter, I war-
rant thee.'
" Philpot. — ' If to lie in a dark coal-house may be
counted good handling, without fire and candle, then may
it be said I am well handled. Your lordship hath power
to treat my body as you please.'
" Bonner. — ' Now you think, because my lord chan-
cellor is gone, that we will burn no more : yes, I warrant
thee, I will dispatch you shortly, unless you recant.'
A.D. 1555.]
THE SEVENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
8r;j
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I had not thought that I should
have been alive now, neither so raw as I am, but well
roasted to ashes.'
" Chancellor. — ' Cast not yourself wilfully away, Mas-
ter Philpot. Be content to be ruled by my lord here,
and by other learned men of this realm, and you may do
well enough.'
" Philpot. — ' My conscience bears me record that I
seek to please God, and that the love and fear of God
causes me to do as I do ; and I were of all other creatures
most miserable, if, for mine own will only, I lose all the
comforts I might have in this life, and afterwards be cast
to damnation. But, I am sure, it is not my will, but
God's will, who will not suffer me to be cast away, I am
sure.'
" Bonner. — ' Well, since thou wilt not be conform-
able by fair means, I will proceed against thee ex officio ;
and therefore hearken here to such articles as I have
here written, and I charge thee to make answer to
them.'
" And with that he read a libel which he had in his
hand of divers articles, and when he had done he bade
me answer.
" Philpot. — ' Your libel, my lord, contains two spe-
cial points : the first pretends that I am of your diocese,
and therefore your lordship, upon suspicion of heresy
against me, is moved to proceed against me by your ordi-
nary office ; which is not true, for I am not of your
lordship's diocese : and the second is, that I being bap-
tised in the catholic church, and in the catholic faith,
am gone from them ; which is not so, for I am of that
catholic faith and church which I was baptised into.'
" Bonner. — ' What! art thou not of my diocese?
[ Where are you now, I pray you ?'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I cannot deny but I am in
i your coal-house, which is your diocese ; yet I am not of
your diocese.'
" Bonner. — ' You were sent hither unto me by the
queen's majesty's commissioners, and thou art now in
my diocese ; wherefore I will proceed against thee as thy
■ ordinary.'
. " Philpot. — ' I was brought hither through violence,
I and therefore my being present now in your diocese is
mot enough to abridge me of mine own ordinary's juris-
diction, neither makes it me willingly subject to your
'jurisdiction, since it comes by force, and by such men as
ihad no just authority so to do.'
" Bonner. — ' What sayest thou to the second article,
and to the others ?'
! " Philpot. — ' My lord, I say that I am not bound to
, answer the second, neither the rest, unless the first be
proved.'
" Bonner. — ' Well, suppose the first may be proved,
as it will be, what will you say then to the second, that
you are not of the same catholic faith, neither of the
same church now, as you were baptised in ?'
I " Philpot. — ' I am of the same catholic faith, and of
'the same catholic church which is of Christ, the pillar
and ground of the truth.'
" Bonner. — ' Your godfathers and godmothers were
of another faith than you are now.'
' " Philpot. — ' I was not baptised either into my god-
Ifather's faith or my godmother's, but into the faith and
linto the church of Christ.'
" Bonner. — ' How know you that?'
" Philpot. — ' By the word of God, which is the touch-
stone of faith, and the limits of the church.'
" Bonner. — ' How long has your church stood, I pray
you?'
" Philpot. — ' Even from the beginning, from Christ
and from his apostles, and from their immediate suc-
'cessors.'
" Chancellor. — ' He will prove his church to be before
Christ !'
" Philpot. — ' If I did so I go not amiss ; for there
was a church before the coming of Christ, which makes
one catholic church.'
" Chancellor. — ' It is so indeed.'
" Philpot. — ' I will desire no better rule than that
[which is often brought in by your side, to prove both my
faith and the catholic church ; that is, antiquity, univer-
sality, and unity.'
" Bonner. — ' Do you not see what a bragging fooli«h
fellow this is ! He would pretend to be very well versed
in the doctors, and he is but a fool. By what doctor art
thou able to prove thy church ? Name him, and thou
shalt have him.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, let me have all your ancient
writers, with pen, and ink, and paper, and I will prove
both my faith and my church out of every one of them.'
" Bonner. — ' No, that thou shalt not have. St.
C5'prian saith, ' There must be one high-priest, to whicli
the rest must obey ;' and they will allow no head, nor
vicar-general.'
" Philpot. — ' St. Cyprian saith not that there should
be a vicar-general over all. For, in his book ' De Sim-
plicitate Prselatorum,' he saith the contrary : ' There is
but one bishopric, which is wholly possessed of every
bishop in part.' '
" Bonner. — ' Bring the book, thou shalt see the place
against thee.'
" Doctor Chedsey brought the book, and turned to
the place in an epistle written to Cornelius, then bishop
of Rome, and recited tlie words, ' That it went not well
with the church, wliere the high-priest was not obeyed ;'
and so he concluded for the confirmation of the bishop's
saying.
" Philpot. — ' You misconstrue the place of St. Cy-
prian ; for he means not, by the high-priest, the bishop
of Rome, but every patriarch in his precinct, of whom
there were four appointed in his time. And in writing
to Cornelius he means by the high-priest, himself, who
was then chief bishop of Africa, whose authority the
heretics began to despise. Of which he complains to
Cornelius, and saith, the church cannot be well ordered,
where the chief minister by order after the judgment of
the scriptures, after the agreement of the peoiile and the
consent of his fellow bishops, is not obeyed.'
" Bonner. — ' Hath not the bishop of Rome always
been supreme head of the church, and Christ's vicar on
earth, even from St. Peter ?'
" Philpot.—' No, that he was not. For by the word
of God he has no more authority, than the bishop of
London has.'
" Bonner. — ' Was not St. Peter head of the church,
and has not the bishop of Rome, who is his successor,
the same authority ?'
" Philpot. — ' I grant that the bishop of Rome, as he
is the successor of St. Peter, has the same authority as
St. Peter had : but St. Peter had no more authority than
every one of the apostles had.'
" Chancellor. — ' Yes, thit St. Peter had ; for Christ
said specially unto him, ' I will give thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven ;' which he spake to no other or
his disciples, but to him.'
" Philpot. — ' St. Augustine answers otherwise t" the
objection, and saith. ' That if in St. Peter there had not
been the figure of the church, the Lord had not said to
him. To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of
heaven. Which if St. Peter received not, the church
hath them not. If the church hath them, then St. Peter
hath them not.' '
" A Doctor. — ' What will you say, if I can prove that
Christ built his church upon St. Peter, and that out
of St. Cyprian ? Will you then believe that the bishop
of Rome ought to be supreme head of the church ?'
" Philpot. — ' 1 know what St. Cyprian writes in that
behalf ; but he means nothing as you take it.'
" Bonner. — ' I will desire you. Master Chancellor, to
take some pains with Dr. Chedsey, about his examina-
tion, for I must go to the parliament house. And I will
desire you to dine with me.'
" Chancellor.—' St. Peter and his successors, from
the beginning have been allowed to be the supreme head
of the church, and that by the scriptures, for Christ said
to him, as mentioned by St. John thrice, ' Feed my
sheep.' '
" Philpot. — ' That is no otherwise to be taken, than,
' Go ye and preach,' which was spoken to all the
apostles, as well as unto St. Peter. And that Christ
B74
THE SEVENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Book XI
said thrice, ' Feed my sheep,' it signifies nothing else
but the earnest study that the ministers of God ought to
have in preaching tlie word. God grant that you of the
clergy would weigh your duty in this behalf more than
you do. Is this a just interpretation of the scripture, to
take the words, ' Feed my sheep,' to mean to be Lord of
the whole world?'
" In the meanwliile came in the Bachelor of Divinity,
who is a reader of Greek in Oxford, belonging to the
bishop, and he took upon him to help Master Chan-
cellor.
" Scholar. — ' WTiat will you say if I can shew you a
Greek author called Theophylact to interpret it so .'
Will you believe his interpretation ?'
" Philpot. — ' Theophylact is a late writer, and one
that was a favourer of the bishop of Rome ; and there-
fore not to be credited, since his interpretation is con-
trary to the manifest words of the scripture, and
contrary to the determination of many general coun-
cils.'
" Scholar. — ' In what general council was it other-
wise, that the bishop of Rome was not supreme head
over all?'
" Philpot. — ' In Nice council I am sure it was other-
wise ; for Athanasius was there the chief bishop and
president of the council, and not the bishop of Rome.'
" Scholar. — ' Nay that is not so.'
" Philpot. — ' Then I perceive you are better seen in
words than in knowledge of things : and I will gage with
you what you will, it is so, as you may see in the epi-
tome of the councils/
" Scholar. — ' I will fetch Eusebius and shew the con-
trary, and the book of general councils.'
" He went into my lord's closet, and brought Euse-
bius ; but the general councils he brought not, saying,
tliat he could not come by them, and there he would
have defended that it was otherwise in Eusebius, but
was not able to shew the same, and so shrank away con-
fouudeJ.
" Chancellor. — ' The church of Rome has been always
taken for the catholic church ; therefore I would advise
you to come into the same with us. You see all the
men of this realm condemn you. And why will you be
so singular ?'
" Pliilpot.— ' I have said, and still do say, that if you
are able to prove it to me, then I will be of the same.
But I am sure that the church, which you make so much
of, is a false church, and a synagogue of Satan. And
you, with the learned men of the realm, do persecute the
true church.'
" Chancellor. — ' Do you hear what he saith, that the
church of Rome is the devil ?'
" Chedsey.— ' I wish you did think more reverently
of the church of Rome. What will you say if I can shew
you out of St. Augustine, in his epistle written to pope
Innocent, that the whole general council of Carthage
did allow the church of Rome to be the chief over all
others ?'
" Philpot. — ' I am sure you can shew no such
thing.'
" And with that he brought the book of St. Augus-
tine, and turned to the epistle, but he could not prove
his assertion clearly, only by conjectures.
" Chedsey. — ' Here you may see. that the council of
Carthage, writing to Innocent, the bishop, calls the see
of Rome the apostolic see. And besides this they write
to him, certifying him of things done in the council for
the condemnation of the donatists, requiring his ap-
proval in the same, which they would not have done, if
they had not taken the church of Rome for the supreme
heail of others. And moreover you may see how St.
Augustine doth prove the church of Rome to be the
catholic church, by continual succession of the bishop
until his time, which succession we can prove until our
days : therefore, by the same reason of St. Augustine
we say now, that the church of Rome is the cathohc
church.'
" Philpot. — ' I have considered how you weigh St.
Augustine ; and contrary to his meaning and words, you
would infer your false conclusion. As concerning that
it was called by him the apostolical see, that is not
sufficient to prove the church of Rome now to be ths
catholic church. I will grant now that it is the apos-
tolic see, in respect that St. Paul and St. Peter did
once there preacli the gospel, and abode there for a cer-
tain season. I would you could prove it to be the same
apostolical see of true religion and sincerity as the
apostle left it, and did teach the same ; which if you
could do, you miglit boast of Rome as of the apostolical
see; otherwise it is now of no more force, than if the
Turk at Autioch and at Jerusalem should boast of the
apostolic sees, because the apostles once did tliere abide,
and founded tiie church of Christ. And whereas the
whole council of Carthage did write to Pope Innocent,
certifying him of what was done in the general council,
and desiring him to set his heljiing hand to the sujijjres-
sing of the donatists, as they had done; that fact of the i;
council proves not the supremacy of the bishop of Rome, fi
no more tlian if the whole convocation-jiouse now ga- m
thered together, and agreeing upon certain articles, might i|
send it to some bishop, who from some impediment is j
not present, asking him to agree, and to set them forth
in his diocese. Which fact doth not make any such
bishop of greater authority than the rest, because his i'
consent is T)rotherly required. And touching the sue •
cession of the bishops of Rome, brought in by St. Au- n
gustine, it makes nothing to prove it the catholic church, i
unless you can conclude with the same reason as St.
Augustine does. And the rehearsal of the succession of
the bishops tends to this only, to prove the donatists to
be heretics, because they began as well at Rome as in
Africa, to found another church of their own setting up,
besides that which was grounded by St. Peter and St. Paul,
and by their successors, who all taught no such doctrine, ■
nor such a church as the donatists. And if you are able
to prove by the bishops of Rome, that such doctrine has
not been taught by any of the successors of St. Peter's
see, as is now taught and believed by us, you have good
reason against us : otherwise it is of no force.'
" Chancellor. — ' Well, you see we can do no good in
persuading of him : let us administer the articles which
my lord left us. How say you, Master Philpot, to these
articles ?'
" Philpot. — ' You have no authority to inquire of me
my belief in such articles, because I am not of my lord i
of London's diocese; and to be brief with you, I will i'
make no further answer than I have already given to the •;
bishop.' i
" Chancellor. — ' Why then let ns go our ways, and ■
let his keeper take him away.' "
Two days afterwards the bishop of London sent for
Pliilpot, and after some conferen' c, said :
" ' I charge thee to answer to mine articles. Hold him
a book. Thou shalt swear to answer truly to all such
articles, as I shall demand of thee.'
" Philpot. — ' I will first know your lordship to be mine j
ordinary, before I swear herein.' j
" Bonner. — ' What ! we shall have an anabaptist of
thee, who thinks it not lawful to swear before a judge ?'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, 1 am no anabaptist, 1 think it
lawful to swear before a competent judge, being lawfully
required. But I refuse to swear in these causes before
your lordship, because you are not mine ordinary.'
" Bonner. — ' 1 am thine ordinary, and Iutc do pro-
nounce by sentence )>eremptory, that I am thine ordinary, .
and that thou art of my diocese : (and here he bade call ^
in more to bear him witness.) And I make the» (taking I
one of his servants by the arm) to be my notary, .^nd i;
now hearken to my articles,' to which (when he had '
read them) he admonished me to make answer, and said '
to the keejier, ' Bring me his fellows, and I shall make
them to be witnesses against him.'
" In the meanwhile came in one of the sheriffs of
London, whom the bishop (calling for two chairs) placed
by him, saying, ' Master Sheriff, I would you should un-
derstand how I do proceed against this man. Master
Sheriff, you shall hear vvhat articles this man doth
maintain,' and so he read a number of feigned arti-
cles. That I denied baptism to be necessary to then
A-D. 1555.]
THE EIGHTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
875
ithat were born of christian parents ; that I denied fast-
ing and prayer, and all other good deeds, and I main-
tained only bare faith to be sufficient to salvation what-
ever a man did besides, and I maintained God to be the
author of all sin and wickedness.
' " Philpot. — 'Ha! my lord, have you nothing of truth
to charge me with, but you must be obliged to imagine
these blasphemous lies against me ? You might as well
have said I had killed your father. The scripture says,
' That God will destroy all men that speak lies.' And
is not your lordship ashamed to say before this worship-
ful gentleman, that I maintain these abominaljle blas-
phemies which you have rehearsed .-' which if I did main-
tain, I were well worthy to be counted an heretic, and
to be burned an hundred times, if it were possible.'
I " Bonner. — ' I do object them to thee, to hear what
thou wilt say in them, and how thou canst purge thyself
of them.'
" Philpot. — ' Then it was not justly said of your lord-
ship in the beginning, that I did maintain them, since
{ hold scarcely one of these articles you have read, in
I'orm as they are written.'
' " Bonner. — ' How sayest thou .' Wilt thou answer to
hem or not ?'
" Philpot. — ' I will first know you to be mine ordi-
lary, and that you may lawfully charge me with such
hings, and then afterwards, being lawfully called in judg-
nent, I will shew my mind fully thereof, and not other-
,rise.'
I " Bonner. — ' Well, then, I will make thy companions
je witnesses against thee ? where are they ? come !'
: " Keeper. — ' They are here, my lord.'
I " Bonner. — ' Come hither, sirs : hold them a book,
i-ou shall swear by the contents of that book, that you
hall (aU manner of affections laid apart) say the truth of
.U such articles as you shall be demanded of concerning
,his man here present, which is a very naughty man,
'nd take you heed of him that he doth not deceive you,
s I am afraid he doth you much hurt, and strengthens
rod in your errors.'
P" Prisoners. — ' My lord, we will not swear, except
(ve know to what : we can accuse him of no evil, we
liave been but a while acquainted with him.'
t " Philpot. — ' I wonder your lordship, knowing the law,
.vill go about, contrary to the same, to have infamous
persons to be witnesses ; for your lordship doth take
;hem to be heretics, and by the law an heretic cannot
i)e a witness.'
I " Bonner. — ' Yes, one heretic against another may be
veil enough. And, Master Sheriff, I will make one of
;hem to be a witness against another.'
" Philpot. — 'You have the law in your hand, and
jou will do what you will.'
" Prisoners. — ' No, my lord.'
' " Bonner. — ' No, will you not ? I will make you
swear, whether you will or not. I ween they are ana-
baptists. Master Sheriff, they think it not lawful to swear
before a judge.'
I *' Philpot. — ' We think it fewful to swear for a man
judicially called, but not as we are now, in a blind cor-
ner.'
Bonner. — ' Why then, seeing you will not swear
against your fellow, you shall swear for yourselves, and
I do here, in the presence of Master Sheriff, object the
same articles unto you as I have done unto him, and do
,require you, under the pain of excommunication, to an-
swer particularly unto every one of them when you shall
Ibe examined, as you shall be by and by examined by
my register, and some of my chaplains.'
' " Prisoners. — ' My lord, we will not accuse ourselves.
'If any man can lay any thing against us, we are here ready
to answer thereto : otherwise we pray your lordship not
to burthen us ; for some of us are here before you, we
know no just cause why.'
" Bonner. — ' Master Sheriff, I will trouble you no
; longer with these froward men.'
" And so he rose up and was going away, talking with
Master Sheriff. And after this we were all commanded
to be put in the stocks, where I sat from morning till
1 night : and the keeper at night, upon favour, let me out.
On the Sunday after I was separated from the other pri-
soners, and sent to the Lollard's Tower."
The eighth Examination of John Philpot, lefore the
Bishop of London, the Bishop of St. David's, Master
Mordant, and others, in the Bishop's chapel.
" The next day I was called down into the chapel, be-
fore the bishop of London, the bishop of St. David's,
Master Mordant, one of the queen's council. Master
archdeacon of London, and many more, and the bishop
spake unto nie as follows :
" ' Sir, here I object and lay to you in the presence of
my lord of St. David's, and of Master Mordant, and of
these worshipful men, the articles here in this libel
contained,' and he openly read them.
"When I would have answered to some of his bias-
jihemies, he would not permit me, but said, I should have
leisure enough to say what 1 wished when he had spoken,
lie then added, ' 1 require thee to answer to the cate-
chism set forth in the scliismatical time of King Edward.
Also I will thee to answer to certain conclusions agreed
upon both in Oxford and Cambridge. And 1 here do
bring forth these witnesses against thee in thine own
presence, namely, ray lord of St. David's, Master Mor-
dant, and blaster Harpslield, with as many of you as
were present in the disputation he made in the convoca-
tion-house ; willing you to testify, on your oitlis taken
upon a book, the stubborn and irreverent behaviour he
did there use against the blessed sacrament of the altar.
Now, sir, you shall answer but two words, whether you
will answer to these articles which I have laid to you,
directly, yea or nay.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, you have told a long tale against
me, containing many lying blasphemies, which cannot be
answered in two words : besides this, you promise me at
the beginning, that 1 should say what I could for my de-
fence, and now will you not give me leave to speak ?
What law is this ?'
" Bonner. — ' Speak, yea or nay, for you shaU say no
more at this time.'
" The cause of this was, as 1 guess, that he saw so
many persons there gathered to hear the examination.
" Philpot. — ' Then the two words which you would
have me speak shall be, that 1 have appealed from you,
and take you not for my sufficient judge.'
" Bonner. — ' Indeed, Master Mordant, he has appealed
to the king and to the queen ; but 1 will be so bold with
her majesty, to slay that appeal in mine own hands.'
" Philpot. — ' You will do what you please, my lord,
you have the law in your hands.'
" Bonner. — ' Wilt thou answer or not?'
" Philpot. — ' I will not answer otherwise than I have
said.'
" Bonner. — ' Register, note his answer that he makes.'
" Philpot. — ' Knock me on the head with an hatchet,
or set up a stake and burn me out of hand, without fur-
ther law ; you may as well do so, as do that you do, for
all is without order of law : such tyranny was never seen
as you use now adays ; God, of his mercy, destroy your
cruel kingdom !' And whilst 1 spake this, the bishop
went away in haste.
" After this, at niglit, I was conducted again by three
or four into the coal-house."
The Ninth Examination of John Philpot before Bishop
Bonner and his Chaplains.
" In the morning of the next day I was brought again
into the wardrobe, where 1 remained till the bishop had
heard his mass, and afterwards he sent up for me into his
parlour, and there he called for a chair to sit down, and
brought his forged articles in his hand, and sat down,
desiring me to draw near him, and said :
" ' 1 am this day to tarry at home from the parliament
house, to examine you and your fellows upon these arti-
cles, and you stand dallying with me, and will neither
answer to nor fro.'
" Philpot.—' My lord, I have told you my mind plain
enough ; but yet I do not intend to lose that privilege
9f$
THE NINTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Book XI.
the law gives me, wliich is liberty not to answer where I
am not bound, and this privilege will I cleave to, until I
am compelled otherwise '
" Bonner. — ' Well, I perceive you will play the ob-
stinate fool. Lay thine appeal when thou comest in
judgment, and answer in the meanwhile to these
articles.'
" Philpot. — ' No, my lord, by your leave T will not
answer to them, until my lawful appeal is tried.'
" Bonner. — ' Well, thou shalt hear them,' and he be-
gan to read them.
" I shrank back into the window, and looked on a
book, and after he had read them over, he said to me :
" ' I have read them over, although it has not
pleased you to hear me. I marvel, in good faith, what
thou meanest to be so wilful and stubborn, seeing that
thou mayest do well enough if thou choose.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I speak unto you in the wit-
ness of God, before whom I stand, that I am neither
■wedded to mine own will, neither stand upon mine own
stubbornness or singularity, but upon my conscience in-
structed by God's word ; and if your lordship can shew
better evidence than 1 have for a good faith, 1 will
follow it.'
" He then urged me to return to his church, and per-
ceiving that he flattered me, I thought it good to give him
some shew of relenting, that I might give him and his
hypocritical generation a public foil, perceiving that they
dare reason openly with none, but with such as are un-
learned, and are not able to answer, or else with such as
they have a hope, that for fear or love of the world, will
recant : I said, ' My lord, it is not unknown to you, that
I have openly, in the audience of a great number, stood
to the maintenance of my opinions, and offered to de-
fend them ; therefore, my lord, I would it might openly
appear to the world that I am won by learning, or else
what will they say, but either for fear, or love of the
world, I am without any ground turned from the truth .'
and if I hear any kind of learning openly shewed, I shall
be as conformable as you may require me.'
" Bonner. — ' Yea, marry, now you speak somewhat
like a reasonable man. You might have had a great
deal more favour in my house, and liberty, than you
have had ; and you shall lack nothing that is within my
house ; call for it, and you shall have it. And what is
it that you would openly by learning somewhat be satis-
fied in .' tell me.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I have openly said, and do
believe it also, that your sacrifice of the mass is no
sacrament.'
" Bonner. — ' What, do you deny the presence of
Christ in the sacrament ."
" Philpot. — ' No, my lord, I deny not the presence
of Christ in the sacrament, but I have denied the sacra-
ment of the altar, as it is used in your mass, to be the
true sacrament of Christ's institution ; and first it must
be proved a sacrament before there can be any presence
granted.'
*' Bonner. — ' W^hy, do you deny the mass to be a
sacrament ? I pray you what is a sacrament .' Is it not
a sign of a holy thing, as St. Augustine defines it ?'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, verily, that it is.'
" Bonner. — ' Then I make this argument ; a sacra-
meiit is the sign of a holy thing : the mass is a sign of
a holy thing, therefore it is a sacrament.'
" Philpot. — * You must add this to your proposition,
as St. Augustine means, that a sacrament is the sign of a
holy thing imiituted of God, and commanded; for
otherwise it can be no sacrament, for all men cannot
make a sacrament.'
" Bonner. — ' I grant that ; and such a sign of a holy
thing is the mass of Christ's institution.'
" Philpot. — ' I deny that, my lord.'
" Bonner. — ' I will prove this by St. Augustine by
and by. I will shew you the book, and you shall have
any book 1 have that you will demand. Ho ! who is
without, there .' Call me Doctor Chedsey, Master Arch-
deacon, Master Cosiiis, and other chaplains here !'
" ' Here, my lord, Doctor Chedsey is gone to West-
tuinster, and the archdeacon was here even now.'
" Bonner. — ' Master Cosins, I pray you examine
him upon these articles, and write the answers he
makes to every one of them. I will go and examine his
fellows, and send you St. Augustine by and by. I find
this man more conformable than he was before.'
" Cosins. — ' I trust, my lord, you shall find him at
length a good catholic man. Marry, here be a sight of
heresies ; I dare say you will hold none of them, nor
stand in any of them. How say you to the first ?'
" Philpot. — ' Master Cosins, I have told my lord al-
ready, that I will answer to none of these articles he
hath objected against me ; but if you will with learning
answer to that which is in question between my lord and
me, I will gladly hear and commune with you.'
"Cosins. — ' No, will you ? Why, what is that then
that is in question between my lord and you.'
" Philpot. — ' Whether your mass be a sacrament or
not?'
"Cosins. — ' W'hat, the mass to be a sacrament?
Whoever doubted it?'
" Philpot. — ' If it be an undoubted truth, you may
the sooner prove it, for I doubt it much.'
" Cosins. — ' Wliy, I will prove it. It is the sign of
a holy thing ; therefore it is a sacrament.'
" Philpot. — ' I deny that.'
"Cosins. — ' What! then there is no reasoning with you.'
" Thus Master Cosins gave over for want of further
proof. And then the mass chaplain began to speak for
his occupation ; and Master Harpsfield came out from
my lord, with St. Augustine's epistles, saying:
" ' My lord hath sent you here St. Augustine to look
upon, and I pray you look what he saith in a certain
epistle whicli he writes ; I will read over the whole.
Here you may hear the celebration of the mass, and how
it reproves them that went a hawking and hunting be-
fore the celebration of the same, on the sabbath and
holidays. '
" Philpot. — ' I perceive the contents of this epistle,
and I see nothing against me, neither any thing
that makes for the proof of your sacrament of the
mass.' %
" Harpsfield. — ' No ; does he not mak-e mention of
the mass, and the celebration of it ? what can be spoken
more plain ?'
"Philpot. — ' St. Augustine means the celebration of
the communion, and of the true use of the sacrament of
the body and blood of Christ, and not of your private
mass, which you of late years have erected instead of it ;
for this word mass has been an old term attributed to
the communion even from the primitive church. And
I pray you tell me what Missa doth signify. I think
not many that say mass can well tell.'
" Cosins. — ' No ! cannot ? that is marvellous.'
" Philpot. — ' Then tell me if you can.'
" But Master Cosins and my mass chaplain were both
dumb, looking upon Master Harpsfield for help, and at
length he spake.'
"Harpsfield. — 'You think it comes of the Hebrew
word Massah, as if none Vere versed in the Hebrew but
you.'
" Philpot.- — ' I have not gone so long to school, as to
derive the signification of Missa, which is a Latin word,
out of Hebrew ! but I have learned to interpret Greek
words by Greek, and Latin by Latin, and Hebrew bv
Hebrew ; I take the communion to be called Missa, a
mittendo, of such things ns the celebration of the com-
munion were sent by such as were of ability, to the re-
lief of the poor, where the rich brought according to
their devotion and ability, and required the minister in
the celebration of the communion to pray to God for
them, and to accept their common alms, which they
sent for the help of their poor brethren and sisters ; and
for this cause was it called Missa. At which celebra-
tion, all that were present communicated under both
kinds, according to Christ's institution, as they did in
St. Augustine's time. But unless you can shew that
your mass is used as it was then, ye shall never by the
name of mass (which St. Augustine attributed to the true
use of the communion), prove your private mass to be a
sacrament.'
.D. 1555.] THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH EXAMINATIONS OF JOHN PIIILPOT.
877
" Harpsfield. — ' "WTiat ! deny you the mass to be a
sacrament ? for sbame ! speak it not.'
" Philpot. — ' I will not be ashamed to deny it, if you
cannot prove it.'
" Cosins. — ' You are such a fellow as I have never
heard of, you will not have the mass to be a sacrament !
you are no man for me to reason with. Come, let us
go.'
" Harpsfield. — ' Master Philpot, you and I have been
old acquaintance a long time ; we were school-fellows
both in Winchester and in Oxford, many years. Where-
fore I must wish you as well as myself, and 1 pray
you to think so of me.'
" Philpot. — ' I thank you for your good will towards
me. But if you be deceived, as I am sure you are, I
shall desire you not to wish me deceived with you. For
before God I tell you plainly, you are deceived, and
maintain false religion ; and if you do not repent, and
leave off your persecuting of Christ's truth, you will go
to the devil for it. Therefore consider it in time, I give
you warning, for else in the day of judgment I shall be
a witness against you, that I told you this, here talking
together. You know in the schools of Oxford, when we
were young men, we did strive much upon vain glory,
aud upon contention, more than for the truth ; but now
our years and our riper learning teach us to fall to a
truth, which must be our portion for ever. And if I
was then, in my time of ignorance, earnest in my own
cause, I ought now to be earnest in my Master Christ's
cause, and his truth.'
" Harpsfield. — ' What ! will you think yourself better
learned than all the learned men in this realm ?'
" Philpot. — ' My faith depends not upon the learned
of the world, but upon the learned in God's word.'
" Harpsfield. — ' Well, I will talk with you no more at
present, but pray to God to open your heart.'
" Philpot. — ' I pray God open both our hearts, to do
more his will than we have done in times past.'
" Harpsfield. — ' Ho ! Keeper, take him away with
you.' "
The Tenth Examination of John Philpot before Bishop
Bonner, his Register, and Others.
" The next day after dinner I was brought into my
lord's upper hall, and there he called me before him and
his register, and before Doctor Chedsey, in the presence
of two gentlemen and a priest. The bishop said,
" ' I here lay to this man in your presence, requiring
you to be a witness against him, these articles, this book
of the catechism made in King Edward's days ; also
these conclusions agreed upon both in Oxford and Cam-
Dridge ; also, I lay to him that he has despised the cen-
sures of the church, and has stood accursed more than
a year, and never sought absolution. How say you, wast
thou not accursed by my lord chancellor ?'
" Philpot. — ' I was excommunicated by him wrong-
fully, and without any just cause, and without order of
law, being never personally cited.'
" Bonner. — ' Didst thou not tell me the other day,
when 1 required thee to come to the mass, that thou wast
excommunicated, and therefore by the law couldst not
hear mass? How long hast thou been thus excommu-
nicat.d }'
" Philpot. — ' More than a twelvemonth and a half.'
*' Bonner. — ' Lo ! you may hear what he saith ; write
it.'
" Philpot. — ' Also let him write that I did require of
my lord chancellor, who excommunicated me, my abso-
lution, but he would not give it me, saying, that I was
excommunicated because I was an heretic, as it pleased
him to call me.'
" Gentleman. — ' "V^Tiy do you not require absolution
at my lord's hands here, now ?'
" Philpot. — ' Because he is not mine ordinary, neither
has by the law any thing to do with me.'
" Bonner. — ' What an obstinate fool is this ? I tell
thee I wUl be thine ordinary whether thou wilt or not.'
" Philpot. — ' And because of this your unrighteous
force towards me I have appealed from you, and require
you, Master Register, that my appeal may be entered in
writing.'
" Bonner. — ' Have you ever heard such a fro ward fellow
as this ? he seemed yesterday to be very tractable, and I
had a good hope of him. 1 tell thee thou art of my
diocese.'
" Philpot. — ' I am of Winchester diocese, and not of
London diocese.'
" Bonner. — ' I pray you, may not a man be of two
dioceses at once ?'
" Philpot. — ' No, he cannot.'
" Bonner. — ' Lo 1 will you see what an ignorant fool
this is .' I tell thee, a man may be of three dioceses at
once : as if thou wert born in London, thou shouldst be
of my diocese ; or if thou wert not born, but hadst a
dignity here, then thou art to be counted of my diocese,
or else by thy habitation in my diocese."
" Philpot. — ' In none of these respects I am of your
lordship's diocese.'
" Bonner. — ' What wager wilt thou lay ? Wilt thou
recant if I prove it ?'
" Philpot. — ' But what shall I win if you do not ?' •
" Bonner. — ' I will give thee my bishopric if I prove
it not.'
" Philpot. — ' Yea, but who shall deliver it to me if I
win ?'
' Bonner. — ' Thou art an arrogant fool; enter their
oaths, and take these witnesses' depositions. I must be-
gone to the parliament house.'
" After this, a priest standing by spake to me, asking
whether I was kin to my Lord Rich.
" Philpot." — ' He said so himself to me the other day,
but how I know not.'
" Chedsey. — ' I heard him say he was his near kins-
man.'
" Priest. — ' Why, then, you and I must be of kin,
for he is my near kinsman. How chance it that you and
I be of contrary judgments ?'
" Philpot. — ' It is no marvel ; for Christ prophesied.
' I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-
in-law against her mother-in-law,' for my truth's sake.'
" Priest. — ' You hold against the blessed sacrament
of the altar, and against the holy mass.'
" Philpot. — ' If you can prove it a sacrament, I will
not hold against you.'
" Priest. — ' What ! prove it a sacrament ! Does not
St. Paul say, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him?"
" Philpot. — ' That concerns not your sacrament, but
is meant of the heavenly joys that are prepared for all
faithful believers.'
" Priest. — ' Why, then, I perceive you understand
not St. Paul. By God, you are deceived.'
" Philpot. — ' You ought not to swear; 1 understand
St. Paul as well as you.' Then I showed him a Greek
Testament, with Erasmus's translation, and with the old
also, demanding him which text he was best acquainted
with.'
" Priest. — ' I knew Greek once as well as you, I care
not which you read.'
" Philpot. — ' You know them then all alike ; you un-
derstand the one as well as the other.' With this he
departed in a fury."
The Eleventh Examination of John Philjwt, on St.
Andrew's day, before the Bishop of Durham, the
Bishop of Chichester, the Bishop of Bath, the Bishop of
London, the Prolocutor, Master Christopherson ,- and
Doctor Chedseij ; Master Morgan, of Oxford ; Master
Hussey, of the Arches ; Doctor Weston; Doctor Harps-
field, Archdeacon; Master Cosins ; and Master Jolimon,
Register to the Bishop of London, in his Palace.
" The bishop of London met me in his hall, and
brought me before the lords, saying,
" ' My lords, I shall desire you to take some pains
with this man ; he is a gentleman, and I would he should
do well, but he will wilfully cast away himself.'
" Durham. — ' Will you conform yourself to the ;a»
879
THE ELEVENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Rook XI.
tholic faith, and leave all new-fangled opinions and he-
resies ? I was in Germany with Luther at the beginning
cf these opinions, and can tell how they began. Leave
tliem, and follow the catholic church throughout the
whole world, as the whole realm now does.'
*' Philpot. — ' My lord, I am in the catholic faith, and
desire to live and die in it. But it is not unknown to
vour lordship, that I, with others, these twenty years,
iiive been taught another manner of faith than you now
endeavour to compel us to ; wherefore it is requisite that
we h ive a time to weigh it, and to hear how it agrees
with (t )d's word. For St. Paul says, ' Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' '
" Cliichester. — ' And if you will give me leave, my
lt)nl, I will show him how he takes the saying of St.
P;iiil amiss, that they ought not to be compelled to believe.
St. Paul speaks of infidels, and not of the faithful ; and
so St. Augustine, writing against the donatists, saith
' That tlie faithful may be compelled to believe.' '
" Philpot. — ' St. Bernard takes the same sense of St.
Paul as 1 do, saying, that ' Faith must be persuaded to
a man, and not enjoined.' '
" Durham. — ' Will you be of the same catholic faith
and church with us which you were baptised in, and your
godfathers promised for you, and hold as we do, and then
you may be out of trouble ? I perceive you are learned,
and it is a pity but you should do well.'
" Philpot. — ' I am of the same catholic faith and
catholic church I was baptised into, and in that I will
live and die.'
" Durham. — ' That is well said ; if you hold there you
cannot but do well.'
" Chichester. — ' Yea, my lord, but he means otherwise
than you do ; are you of the same faith your godfathers
and godmothers were, or not?'
" Philpot. — ' I cannot tell, certainly, what faith they
were of, but 1 am of the faith I was baptised into, which
is the faith of Christ ; for I was not baptised in the faith
of my godfathers, but in the faith of Christ.'
" Durham. — ' How say you, will you believe as we do,
and all the learned of the realm, or not, and be of one
church with us ?'
" Philpot. — ' My lords, it is not unknown to you, that
there has been always two churches.'
" Chichester. — ' Nay, that is not so ; there is but one
catholic church.'
" Philpot. — ' I shall desire your lordships to hear my
meaning. For I know there is but one true church ; but
always from the beginning there has been joined to the
same true church, a false church ; and that was declared
at the first in Abel and Cain, for Cain persecuted and slew
his brother, in which (as St. Augustine witnesses) is
represented the false and true church. And after that,
as soon as God had chosen his peculiar people, and
shewed to them his sanctuary, holy statutes, and will,
then rose the false church, and ten of the twelve tribes
of Israel divided themselves from the true church of
Judah and Benjamin, and made to themselves an altar at
Bethel, and set up golden calves, and yet pretended there-
with to serve God, and so abused his word. Notwith-
standing, God was displeased with them, and ceased not
his wrath, until he had utterly destroyed them.'
" Chichester. — ' I will grant you before the coming of
Christ, there were two churches in the old law ; but in
the new law, since Christ's coming, you cannot shew it
to be so by the scriptures.'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, my lord, that I can, if you will
givff me leave. After Christ had chosen his twelve apos-
tles, was there not a Judas in the new law, and a Simon
Magus ? and were not they of the false church ?'
Chichester. — ' Yea, but 1 mean after the gospel was
■written, where can you find me two churches after Christ
had ascended, and sent the Holy Ghost ?'
" Philpot. — ' I remember in the New Testament men-
tion is made of two churches, as it appears in the Revela-
tions, and also St. Paul to the Thessalonians makes
mention that Antichrist, with his false generation, shall
sit in the temple of God.'
" Durham. — ' It is almost night, my lord of London ;
I must be gone.'
" Bonner. — ' Nay, my lord of Durham, I must di^sire
your lordship, and my lord of ChiL-hester, to tarry a
little while. I pray you tarry. My lords, I have earnest
matters to charge this man with, whereof I would your
lordships to be made privy, aiid 1 have them written
here in a libel, I pray you sit down again. First, I lay
to him here, that he hath written in a Cilile, which I
took from him, this erroneous saying, ' The Holy Ghost
is Christ's vicar on earth.' Wilt thou abide by tiiis sav.
ing of thine, that the Spirit is Christ's vicar on earth :'
" Phili)ot. — ' My lord, it is not my saying, it is a
better man's than mine : for I use not to write mine
own sayings, but the notable sayings of other ancient
writers. And as I remember, it is the saying of St.
Bernard, and a saying that I need not be ashamed of,
nor you offended at.'
" Bonner. — ' Also I lay to thy cliarge that thou killedst
thy father, and was accursed of thy mother in her death-
bed, as I can bring witness thereof.'
" Philpot. — ' O Lord ! what blasphemy is this ! Hath
your lordship nothing of truth to charge me with, but
such forged blasphemous lies ? If any of these can be
proved, I will promise here to recant at St. Paul's Cross,
whatever you will have me. My lords, I pray you con-
sider how my lord of London has proceeded against me.'
" Chichester. — ' They are beside the purpose.'
" Durham. — ' My lord, I must needs bid you fare-
well.'
" Bonner. — ' Nay, my lord, here is a letter which I
shall desire your lordship to hear before you go. This
man has taken upon him to write letters out of prison,
and to pervert a young gentleman, called Master Green,
in my house, and has made a false report of his examina-
tion, as you shall hear, not being content to be evil him-
self, but to make others as bad as himself. He tore the
letter when he saw my man went to search him, but yet
I have pieced it again together, and caused a copy to be
written.'
" He read the torn letter: the letter was the exami-
nation of Master Green, before the bishop of London, in
the presence of Master Fecknam, dean of St. Paul's, whose
ready answers in the scriptures and in the doctors were
wondered at by the dean himself, and many others.'
" Philpot. — ' Your lordship mistakes : this letter, as
your lordship may perceive, was not written by me, but
by a friend of mine, certifying me at my request, how
Master Green fared at the bishop of London's hands:
and there is nothing in the letter that either 1, or he that
wrote it, need fear.'
" Bonner. — 'Then tell me who wrote it, if you dare.'
" Philpot. — ' No, my lord, it is not my duty to accuse ;
my friend ; and especially seeing you will take all things
at the worst. Neither shall you ever know of me who ■
wrote it. Your lordship may see in the end of the let-
ter, that my friend did write to me upon the occasion of
my appeal, which I have made to the whole parliament ;
house about such matters as 1 am wrongfully troubled for.'
" Bonner. — ' I would like to see any man so hardy as
to put up thine appeal.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, T cannot tell what God will I
work. I have written it, fare it as it may.'
" Bonner. — ' My lords, I have used him with much
gentleness since he came to me. How sayest thou, have
I not?'
" Philpot. — ' If to lie in the vilest prison in this town
(being a gentleman, and an archdeacon) and in a coal-
house, for the space of five or six weeks already, without
fire or candle, be counted gentleness at your hands, I
must needs say I have found gentleness. But there
were never men so cruelly handled as we are in these
days.'
" Bonner. — ' Lo ! what a varlet is this ! Besides this,
yesterday he procured his man to bring a bladder of
black powder, I cannot tell for what purpose.'
" Philpot. — ' Your lordship needs not mistrust the
matter ; it is nothing but to make ink.'
" Bonner. — ' More than this, my lords, he caused a
pig to be roasted, and made a knife be put between the
skin and the flesh, for what purpose judge you ? How
sayest tiiou, didst thou not so ?' i
A.D. 1555.]
THE ELEA'ENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
879
" Philpot. — ' I cannot deny but that there was half a
pig sent me, and under the same a knife lying in the
sauce, but for no ill purpose that I know ; your lordship
may judge what you will. It was not to kill myself nor
any other, as you would have men to believe ; for I was
never yt:t without a knife since I came to prison. There-
fore all these are but false surmises, and not worth re-
nearsal.'
" Bonner. — ' I have here to lay to his charge, chiefest
of all, his book of the report of the disputation had in
the convocation-house, which is the rankest heresy that
may be, against the blessed sacrament of the altar. How
say you, Doctor Weston .■' did he maintain the same
there stubbornly, or not?'
" Weston. — ' Yea, my lord, that he did.'
" Durham. — ' My lord of London, I can tarry no
longer, I must needs bid you farewell. Master Philpot,
methinks you have said well that you will abide in the
catholic faith, and in the catholic church ; I pray you
do so, and you shall do right well.'
" Philpot. — ' I have purposed so to do, however I
fared, by God's grace.'
" Christopherson.— ' Master Philpot, I was acquainted
with you at Rome, if you remember, and talked some-
what with you of these matters, and I find you now the
same man that you were then, I wish it were other-
wise. For God's sake be conformable to men that are
better learned than you, and stand not in your own
conceit.'
"Philpot. — 'Where you say, you find me to be the
same man I was then, 1 praise God that you see me not
like a reed wavering with every wind. And where you
would have me follow better learned men than myself:
indeed, 1 ac'knowledge that you, with a great many
others, are far better learned than I, whose books, in re-
spect of learning, I am not worthy to carry after you ;
but faith and the wisdom of God consists not in learning
only, and therefore .St. Paul desires that our faith be not
grounded upon the wisdom of man. If you can shew
by learning out of God's book, that I ought to be of
auotlier faith than I am, I will hear you, and any other
man whntever he he.'
" Christopherson. — ' Will you believe St. Cyprian, if
I can shew out of him, ' That the church of Rome is such
that unbelief cannot approach it ?' '
" Phil;)ot. — ' I am sure you cannot shew any such
saying out of St. Cyprian.'
" Christojiherson. — ' What will you lay thereon ?'
" Philpot. — ' I will lay as much as I am able to make.'
'' Morgan. — ' Will you promise to recant, if I shew
his saying.'
" Philpot. — ' My faith shall not hang upon any doc-
tor's saying, further than he shall be able to prove the
same by God's word.'
" Christopherson then pointed out these words in one
of the epistles of St. Cyprian, ' But unto the Romans,
whose faith by the testimony of the apostle is praised,
unbelief can have no access.'
" Bonner (returning). — 'Where is the place ? let me
see. By my faith here is a place. Come hither, sir,
what say you to this ? Nay, I will help this place with
St. Paul's own testimony, where he saith, ' That their
faith is spoken of throughout the world ; how can you an-
swer this .''
" Philpot. — ' Yes, my lord, it is soon answered, if you
will consider all the words of Cyprian ; for he speaks of
such as in his time were faithful at Rome, and followed
the doctrine of St. Paul, as he had taught them, and as
it was notified throughout the world, by an epistle which
he had written in the commendation of their faith. With
such as are praised by St. Paul at Rome, for following
the true faith, unbelief can have no place. And if you
can shew, that the faith which the church of Rome holds
now, is that faith which the apostle praised and allowed
in the Romans in his time, then I will say that St. Cy-
prian then said, that infidelity can have no place there ;
but otherwise it makes not absolutely for the authority
of the church of Rome, as you take it.'
" Morgan. — ' All the doctors are on our side, and
•gainst you, altogether.'
" Philpot. — ' Y^ea, so you say when you ore in yor.r
pulpits alone, and none to answer you. But if vou will
come to cast accounts with me, I will venture with vou
a recantation, that I will bring more autliorities of anciei.t
doctors on my side than you shall be able for yours, and
he that can bring most, to him let the other side yield.
Are ye content ."
"Christopherson. — 'It is but folly to reason with
you, you will believe no man but yourself.'
" Philpot. — ' I will be'ieve you or any other learne-i
man, if you can bring any thing wortliy to be believni.
Y'ou cannot win me with vain words from my faith.'
" Morgan. — ' What say you, do we not believe well
of the sacrament ?'
" Philpot.- '-It is the thing which, among all others,
you most abuse.'
" Morgan. — ' Wherein, I pray you ?'
" Philpot. — ' I have told you before, in the convoca-
tion-house.'
" Morgan. — ' Yes, marry ; indeed you told us there
very well. For there you fell down upon your knees,
and fell to weeping.'
" Philpot. — ' I did weep indeed, and so did Christ
over Jerusalem, and am not to be blamed, if you consider
the cause of my weeping.'
"Morgan. — 'What! do you make yourself Christ?'
" Philpot. — ' No, sir, 1 make not myself Christ ; but
I am not ashamed to do as my Master and Saviour did,
to bewail and lament your infidelity and idolatry, which
I there foresaw through tyranny you would bring again
to this realm, as this day doth declare.'
"Christopherson. — ' Wherein do we abuse the sacra-
ment ?'
" Philpot. — ' As I may touch but one of the least
abuses, you minister it not in both kinds as you ought,
but keep the one half from the people, contrary to
Christ's institution.'
" Christopherson. — ' Why, is there not as much con-
tained in one kind, as in both ? And what need is it
then to minister in 'ooth kinds?'
" Philpot. — ' 1 believe not so ; for if it had, Christ
would have given but one kind only ; for he instituted
nothing superfluous, and therefore you cannot say that
the whole effect of the sacrament is as well in one kind,
as in both, since the scripture teaches otherwise.'
" Christopherson. — ' What if I can prove it by scrip,
ture, that we may minister it in one kind ? The apos-
tles did so, as it may appear in the Acts of the Apostles,
in one or two places, where it is written that the apos-
tles continued ' In prayer and in breaking of bread.,'
which is meant of the sacrament.'
" Philpot. — ' Do you not know that St. Luke, by
making mention of breaking of bread, means the whole
use of the sacrament, according to Christ's institution, by
a figure which yon have learned in grammar, synecdoche,
where part is mentioned, and the whole understood to
be done, as Christ commanded it ?'
" Morgan. — ' I would ask you how old your religion
is?'
" Philpot. — ' It is older than yours by a thousand
years and more.'
" Morgan. — ' I pray you where was it fifty years ago ?'
" Philpot. — ' It was in Germany, as appears by the tes-
timony of Huss, Jerome of Prague, and Wicklitf, whom
your generation a hundred years ago and more, did burn
for preaching the truth ; and before their time and since
has been, although by persecution it has been put to
silence.'
" Morgan. — ' That is a marvellous strange religion,
no man can tell certainly where to find it.'
" Philpot. — ' It ought to be no marvel to you to see
God's truth through violence oppressed ; for it has
been so from the beginning from time to time, as il
appears by history, and as Christ's true religion is now
to be found here in England, although hypocrisy haj
by violence the upper hand. And in the Apocalypse
you may see it was prophesied, that the true church
should be driven into corners, and into the wilderness,
and suffer great persecutions.'
" Morgan. — ' I tell thee, Philpot, thou art an heretic^
'6 L
880
THE TWELI=TH EXAMINVT'OX OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Boor XI.
and shall be burned for thine heresy, and afterwards go
to hell-fire.'
" Philpot.— ' I tell thee, thou hypocrite, that I pass
not this for thy fire and fagots, neither, I thank God, my
lord, do I stand in fear of them : my faith in Christ
shall overcome them. But the hell-fire which thou
threatenest me is thy portion, and is prepared for thee,
unless tliou speedily repent, and for such hypocrites as
tiiou art.'
" Morsan. — ' Wliat ! thou speakest upon wine, thou
hast tippled well to-day, by likelihood?'
"Philpot. — 'So, when the apostles were full of the
Holy Ghost, and speaking the wondrous works of God,
the Jews said they were drunk, when they had nothing
else to say.'
" Morgan. — ' Why, we do not burn you, it is the tem-
poral men that burn you, and not we.'
" Philpot.—' Thus you would, as Pilate did, wash
your hands of all your wicked doings. But you call
iipon the secular power to be executioners of your un-
righteous judgments. And have you not a title in your
law, De hcereticis comhurendis, to burn heretiics ?'
" Harpsfield, — ' I have heard you both a good while
reason together, and I never heard so stout a heretic as
you are, Master Philpot.'
" Cosins. — ' Neither I, in all my life.'
" Philpot. — ' You are not able to prove me a heretic,
by one jot of God's word.'
" They then ordered me back to my prison, and as I
was passing them I spoke to the bishop.
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I pray you, let me have my
bible, with other lawful books and writings which you
have of mine.'
" Bonner. — ' Your bible you shall not have, but I will
perhaps let you have another, and after I have perused
the rest, you shall have such as I think good.'
" Philpot. — ' I pray your lordship, then, that you
would let me have candle-light.'
" Bonner. — ' To what purpose, I pray you?'
" Phili)ot. — ' The nights are long, and I would fain oc-
(;uj)ymyself about somewhat, andnot spend my time idly.'
" Bonner. — ' You may pray, then.'
" Philpot. — ' I cannot well say my prayers without
light.'
" Bonner. — ' Can you not say your paternoster with-
out a candle ? I tell you, sir, you shall have some meat
and drink of me, but candles you get none.'
" Philpot. — ' I had rather have a candle than your
meat and drink, but seeing I shall not have my request,
the Lord shall be my light.'
T!ie Twelfth Examination of John Philpot, on Wednes-
dn>/, the Ath of December, before the Bishop tf Lon-
tion, the Bishop of Worcester, and the Bishop of
J'tGiinur.
" In the tnoming I was brought dovni to the ward-
robe adjoining the chapel, and a while after in came
three of the bishops' chaplains, saying: —
" Chaplains. — ' Master Philpot, my lord hath sent us
unto vou, to desire you to come to mass, certifying you
that there is a notable learned man, called Doctor Ched-
sey, going to mass : therefore we also pray you, good
Master Philpot, be content to come.'
" Philpot. — ' I wonder my lord would trouble you in
sending you about this matter, seeing he knows I am a
man (by your law) that cannot hear mass, because I
stand excommunicated.'
" Chaplains. — ' Your excommunication is but upon a
contumacy, and my lord will give dispensation if jou will
come.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord cannot, for he is not mine or-
dinary, and I will not seek any such thing at his hands.'
" And after mass the bishop called me before him into
his chapel, and there, in the presence of his register, re-
cited the articles.
" Bonner. — ' Sir, what can you now say, why I should
not proceed to give sentence against thee as an heretic?'
" Philpot. — ' Why my lord, will you proceed to give
sentence against me before your witnesses are examined ?
that is against your own law.'
" Bonner. — ' See, what a fool thou art in the law. I
need only recite the depositions of the witnesses, if I
choose.'
" Philpot. — ' It appears, indeed, you may do what you
choose.'
" Bonner. — ' Thou art a naughty fellow, and hast
done much hurt, and hast seduced other poor fellows
here in prison with thee, by thy comforting of them in
their errors, and hast made them rejoice and sing with
thee.'
" Philpot. — ' Yea, my lord, we shall sing, when you,
and such others as you, shall cry, woe ! woe ! except
you repent.'
" Bonner.—' What an arrogant fool is this ! I will
handle thee like a heretic and that shortly.'
" Philpot. — ' I fear nothing, I thank God, you can do
to me.'
" Bonner. — ' Have him away ; this is a knave indeed !'
" I was had into the wardrobe again by my keeper,
and within an hour after was sent for to come before
him and the bishops of Worcester and Bangor.'
" Bonner. — ' Sir, I have talked with you many times,
and have caused you to be talked with by many learned
men, yea, and honourable, both temporal and spiritual,
and it avails nothing with you. I am blamed that I
have brought thee before so many : for they s.iy, thou
gloriest to have many to talk with. Well, now it lieth ujion
thee to look to thyself; for thy time draweth near to an
end, if thou do not become conformable. And at this
present we are sent from the synod to offer you this
grace, that if you will come to the unity of the church of
Rome with us, and acknowledge the real presence of
Christ in the sacrament of the altar with us, all that is
past shall be forgiven, and you received to favour.'
" Worcester. — ' We are sent (as you here have heard
by my lord of London) from the synod, to offer you
mercy, if you will receive it ; and of the good-v.ill I bear
you, I wish you to take it, wliilst it is offered, and be Tiot a
singular man against a whole multitude of learned men,
who now in fasting and prayer are gathered together to
devise things to do you good. There have many very
learned men talked with you : why should you think
yourself better learned than them all ? Be not of such
arrogancy, but have humility, and remember there is no
salvation but in the church.'
" Bangor. — ' I thinic my lord hath said wonderfully
well unto you, that you should not think yourself so
well learned, but other men are as well learned as you,
neither of so good wit, but others are as wise as you,
neither of so good memory, but others have as good
memories as you. Therefore mistrust your own judg-
ment, and come home to us again. I never liked your
religion, because it was set forth by violence and tyranny,
and that is no token of true religion. And I was the
same manner of man then that I am now, and a great
many moi'e. For fear we held our peace, and bore with
the time. Wherefore, Master Philpot, I would yon did
well, for I love you ; and therefore be content to come
home with us again into the catholic church of Rome.'
" Philpot. — ' Where, my lord, you say, that religion
is to be disliked, which is set forth by tyranny, I pray
God you give men not occasion to think the same by yours
at this day, which had none other argument to stand by,
but violence. If you can shew me any good sufficient
ground, whereby to satisfy my conscience, that the
church of Rome is the true catholic church, I will gladly
be of it ; otherwise I cannot so soon change the religion
I have learned these many years.'
" Worcester. — ' I am very sorry that you will be so
singular. I never talked with any yet in my diocese,
but after once communication had with me, they have
been contented to revoke their errors, and to teach the
people how they were deceived, and so do much good,
as you may if you will. For as I understand you were
archdeacon of Winchester, you may do much good in
that part of the country if you would forsake your
errors, and come to the catholic church.'
" After dinner they called for me again, and demanded
of me whether I meant as I spake before dinner, and
would not go from it?'
A.D. 1555.]
THE THIRTEENTH EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
881
" Worcester. — ' Will you stand to tlie catholic church
of Rome ?'
" Philpot. — ' If you can prove that church to be the
catholic church, I will.'
" Worcester. — ' Did not Christ say to Peter, and to
all his successors of Rome, ' Feed my sheep, feed my
lambs ?' Which signifies that he gave him more autho-
rity than the rest.'
" Philpot. — ' That saying pertains not to the autho-
rity of Peter, above others, but declares what Christ re-
quires of his beloved apostles, that they should, with
all diligence, preach to the flock of Christ the way of sal-
vation. But the bishop of Rome little regards the
spiritual feeding, and does not feed Christ's flock as
Peter did.'
" Worcester. — ' How can you tell that .''
" Philpot. — ' I have been there, and I could not learn
of all his countrymen, that he ever preaches.'
" Worcester. — ' Though he preaches not one way, he
preaches another, by procuring good order for the
church.'
■" Philpot. — ' I am sure that it will be his damnation
before God, that he leaves what he is commanded by
Christ, and sets forth his own decrees to deface the
gospel. '
" Worcester. — ' It is the wickedness that you have
seen at Rome, that causes you to have this ill judgment
of the church of Rome. I cannot now tarry with you to
reason further.'
" Thus they departed, and after them came Doctor
Chedsey, and Doctor Wright, archdeacon of Oxford, with
a great many more.'
" Chedsey. — ' Here is the archdeacon of Oxford come
to you, to give you good counsel ; I pray you to hear
him.'
•' Philpot. — ' I will refuse to hear none that will
counsel me any good.'
" Wright. — ' I would wish you. Master Philpot, to
agree with the catholic churcli, and not to stand in your
own conceit ; you see a great many learned men against
you.'
" Philpot. — ' I am of the true catholic church, and
will live and die in it : and if you can prove your church
to be the true catholic church, I will be one of it.'
" Chedsey. — ' What proof would you have? I will
prove to you our church to have its beina: and foun-
dation in the scriptures, by tlie apostles, and by the
primitive church, confirmed witli the blood of martyrs,
and with the testimony of all confessors.'
" Philpot. — ' Give me your hand, doctor, prove that,
and I hold with you.'
'• Chedsey. — ' If I had my books here, I could soon
prove it. 1 hear you do confess a real presence : hue I
will be hanged if you will abide by it : You will deny it
by and by.'
" Philpot. — ' What I have said, I cannot deny, what-
ever you say.'
" Chedsey. — ' If there be a real presence in the sacra-
ment, then evil men receive Christ, which you will not
grant, I am sure.'
" Philpot. — ' 1 deny the argument, for I do not grant
by transubstantiation any real presence, as you falsely
imagine, but in the due administration to the worthy
receivers.'
" Chedsey. — ' I will prove that the evil and wicked men
eat the body of Christ, as well as the good men, by St.
Augustine.'
" In the beginning of his text St. Augustine seems
to approve his assertion ; but I bade him read to the
end, and there St. Augustine declares most evidently
that it was (quodammodo,) after a certain manner, that
evil men received tlie body of Christ, which is sacra-
mentally only in the outer sign, and not really, or in-
deed, as the good does. ' And thus,' said 1 , ' all the doctors
that you seem to bring in for your purpose, are quite
against you, if you did rightly weigh them.'
" Chedsey. — ' You shall be constrained to come to
Us at length, whether you will or not.'
" Philpot.--' Hold that argument fast; for it is the
best you have, for you hav; nothing but violence.'
T/ie Thirteenth Examination of John Phil^mt, before the
Archbishop of York, and several other Bishops.
" The Thursday after, I was called before the arch-
bishop of York, the bishop of Chichester, tlie bishop of
liath, and the bishop of London. The bishop of Chi-
chester began to talk with me.
" Chichester. — ' I am come of good will to talk with
you, to instruct you what I can to come to the catholic
church, and to learn to have humility, and by the same
to learn of others that are better learned than you,
as they did learn of such as were their betters before
them.'
" Philpot. — ' We must all be taught of God, and I
will with all humility learn of them that will inform me
by God's word, what I have to do. I confess I have but
little learning in respect of you, that botli by your years
and great exercise, do excel : but faith consists not only
in learning, but in simpHcity of believing that which
God's word teaches. Therefore I will be glad to hear
both by your lordship, and by any other, the true doc-
trine, and to thank you, that it pleases you to take pains
therein.'
" Chichester. — ' How do we believe the gospel, but
by the authority of tlie church, and because the same
hath allowed it ?'
" Philpot.—' St. Paul saith. He learned not the gos-
pel by men, neither of men, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Which is a plain and sufficient proof that
the gospel takes not its authority of man, but of God
only.'
" Chichester.' — ' Doth not St. Augustine say, ' I would
not believe the gospel if the authority of the church did
not move me thereto.' '
" Philpot. — ' I grant, that the authority of the church
moves the unbelievers to believe ; but yet the church
gives not the Word his authority ; for the Word has his
authority only from God, and not of men. For first,
the Word has his being before the church, and the Word
is the foundation of the church, and the foundation is
first sure, before the building can be steadfast.'
" Chichester. — ' I perceive you mistake me, I speak
of the knowledge of the gospel, and not of the autho-
rity ; for by the church we have all knowledge of the
gospel.'
" Philpot. — ' I confess that ; for faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word. And I acknowledge
that God now appoints an ordinary means for men to
come unto the knov.'ledge, and not miraculously, as he
hath done in times past ; yet we th:it are taught by men,
must take heed that we learn noUiiiig else but tliat which
was taught in the primitive church by revelatioii.'
" Here came in the archbishop of York and the bishop "
of Batli, and after they had saluted one another, and com-
muned a while together, the archbishop of York called
me unto them, saying :
" York. — ' Sir, we hearing that you are out of the
way, are come of charity to inform you, and to bring
you into the true faith, and to the catholic church again;
cliarging you first to have humility, and to be humble and
willing to learn of your bc'tters, for else we can do no
good with you. And God snitli by his prophet. On
whom shall I rest, but on the humble and on the meek,
and such as tremble at my word ?'
" Philpot. — ' I kno.v that humility is the door where-
by we enter unto Christ ; and I thank his goodness
I have entered in at the same unto him, and wi(h all
humility will hear whatever truth you shall speak unto
me.'
" York.— 'What are the matters you stand on, and.
require to be satisfied in ?'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, if it shall please your grace,
we were entered into a good matter before you came, of
the church, and how we should know the truth but by
the church.'
" York.—' Indeed, that is the head we need to begin
at, for the church being truly known wc shall sooner
agree.'
" Philpot.—' If your lordships can prove the cl-.urcb
of Rome to be the true catholic ciiurch, it shall do
.1 L 2
882
THE LAST EXAMINATION OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Book XI
much to persuade me to what you would have me in-
cline to.'
" York. — ' Why, let us go to the defiuition of the
church. What is it.''
" Philpot. — ' It is a congregation of people dispersed
through the world, agreeing together in the word of
God, using the sacraments, and all other things accord-
ing to the same.'
" York. — 'Your definition is of many words to no
purpose.'
" Philpot. — I ' do not precisely define the church, but
declare uuto you what I think the church is.'
" York. — ' Is the church visible or invisible.'
" Philpot. — ' It is both visible and invisible. The
invisible church is of the elect of God only ; the visible
consists both of good and bad, using all things in faith,
according to God's word.'
" York. — ' The church is a universal congregation
of faithful people in Christ through the world, which
this word catholic doth well express ; for what is catholic
else ? doth it not signify universal ?'
" Philpot. — ' The church is defined by St. Augustine to
be called catholic in this wise, ' The church is called
therefore catholic, because it is thoroughly perfect, and
halteth in nothing.' '
"York.— 'Nay, it is called catholic, because it is
universally received by all christian nation?, for the most
part.'
" Philpot. — ' The church was catholic in the apostles'
time, yet was it not universally received of the world ;
hut because their doctrine which they had received of
Christ was perfect, and appointed to be preached and
received of the whole world, therefore it is called the
catholic faith, and all persons receiving the same, were
counted the catholic church. And St. Augustine in
another place writes, that the catholic church is that
(\hich believes aright.'
" York. — ' If you will learn, I will shew you that St.
Augustine, writing against the donatists, proves the
catholic church by two principal points, which are
universality and succession of bishops in one apostolical
see from time to time.'
" Philpot. — ' I deny that the catholic church is only
known by universality and succession of bishops.'
" York. — ' I will prove it.'
*' With that he brought forth a book which he had
noted out of the doctors, and turned to his common
jilaces about the chm'ch, and recited one or two out of
St. Augustine, and especially out of his epistle written
against the donatists, where St. Augustine' manifestly
])roves that the donatists were not the catholic church,
because they have no succession of bishops in their opi-
nion, nor universality.'
" Philpot. — ' My lord, I have weighed the force of
that argument before now, and I perceive it makes
nothing against me, neither comes it to your purpose ;
for I will stand to the trial of St. Augustine for the
approbation of the catholic church whereof 1 am. For
he speaks of universality joined w ith truth, and of faith-
ful successors of St. Peter before corruption came into
the church. And so if you can deduce your argument
for the see of Rome now, as he might do in his time, I
would say it might be of some force, otherwise not.'
" York. — ' How answer you to this argument .' that
Rome hath known a succession of bishops ; which your
church hath not.'
" Philpot. — ' I deny, my lord, that succession of
bishops is an infallible point to know the church by ;
for there may be a succession of bisho]is known in a
])lace, and yet there be no church, as at Antioch, and
Jerusalem, and in other places, where the apostles abode
as well as at Rome. But if you put to the succession of
bishops, succession of doctrine also, (as St. Augustine
does) 1 will grant it to be a good proof for tlie catholic
church ; but a local succession only is not available.'
" York. — ' You will have no church then, I see
well.'
" Philpot. — ' Yes, my lords, I acknowledge the ca-
tholic church, as I am bound by my creed ; but I
cannot acknowledge a false church for the true.'
" Chichester. — ' Why, are there two catholic churches
then ?'
" Philpot. — ' No. I know there is but one catholic
church, but there have been, and are at this present,
those that take upon them the name of Christ and of
his church, which are not so, as it is written, ' There be
they that call themselves apostles, and are not, but
the synagogue of Satan, and liars.' And now it is
with us, as it was with the two women in Solomon's
time, which were together, and the one lost her child,
and afterwards went about to claim the true mother's
child,'
" The same day, before supper, the bishop sent forme
into his chapel, in the presence of the ar(;hdeacori
Harpsfield, Doctor Chedsey, and other his chaplains,
and his servants, he said :
" Bonner. — ' I have by sundry means gone about to
do you good, and I marvel you do so little consider it.
By my truth, I cannot tell what to say to you ; tell me
directly whether you will be a conformable man, or not,
and whereuj)on you chiefly stand.'
" Philpot. — ' I have told your lordship oftentimes
plain enough, whereon I chiefly stand, requiring a sure
jiroof of the church to which you call me.'
" Harpsfield. — ' St. Augustine, writing against the
donatists, declareth four special notes to know the
church by ; the consent of many nations ; the faith of
the sacrauients confirmed by antiquity ; succession of
bishops, and universality.'
" Philpot. — ' I like .St. Augustine's four points for the
trial of the catholic church ; for it can abide every
point together, which your church of Rome cannot.'
" Harpsfield. — •' Have not we the succession of bi-
shops in the see and church of Rome ? Wherefore
then do you deny our church to be the catholic
church ?'
" Philpot. — ' St. Augustine does not put succession
of bishops only to be sufficient, but he adds the use of
the sacraments according to antiquity, and doctrine uni-
versally taught and received by most nations from the
beginning of the primitive church, which your church
is far from. But my church can avouch all these
better than yours ; therefore by St. Augustine's judg-
ment, which you here bring, mine is the catholic church,
and not yours.'
," Harpsfield. — ' It is but folly, my lord, for you to
reason with him, for he is irrecoverable.'
" Philpot. — 'That is a good shift for you to run to.
when you are confounded in your own sayings, and have
nothing else to say.'
Thus have I at large set forth as many of John Phil-
pot's examinations and conferences as are come to light,
faithfully written with his own hand. And although he
was examined several other times after this, both openly
in the consistory at St. Paul's and also secretly in the
bishop's house ; yet what was there said is not suffi-
ciently known, either because Philpot w-as not himself
suffered to write, or else his writings are kept close, and
not brought forth, otherwise than as the bishop's regis-
ter has noted them, whose handling of such matters is
very slender, so that httle light can be gathered ; how-
ever, such as it is, 1 thought it good to put it forth.
The Last Examinafmis of John Philpot in Open Judg-
ment, with his Final Condemnation by Bishop Bonner,
in the Consistory at St. Paul's.
" On the thirteenth and fourteenth days of Decemb;r,
sitting judicially in the consistory at St. Paul's, Bishop
Bonner caused him to be brought thither before him and
others. The bishop, first speaking to Master Philpot, i
said :
" Bonner. — ' ]\Iaster Philpot, amongst other things
that were laid and objected to you, these three things
you were especially charged with : first, ' That you, be-
ing fallen from the unity of Christ's catholic church, do
refuse and will not come to be reconciled. Sccoiidly,
that you have blasphemously spoken against the
A.D. 1555.]
THE LAST EXAMINATION OF JOHN FHILPOT.
883
sacrifice of the mass, calling it idolatry. And thirdly,
that you have spoken against the sacrament of the altar,
denying the real presence of Christ's body and blood to
be in the same. And according to the will and pleasure
of the synod, you have been oft by me invited and re-
quired to go from your said errors and heresies, and to
return to the unity of the catholic churcli, vvhich if you
will now willingly do, you shall be mercifully and gladly
received, charitably used, and have all the favour I can
shew you. And now to tell you truly, it is assigned
and appointed me to give sentence against you, if you
stand herein, and will not return. Wherefore, if you so
refuse, I do ask of you, whether you have any cause
tiiat you can shew why I should not now give sentence
against you .-"
" Philpot. — ' Under protestation, not to go from my
appeal that I have made, and also not to consent to you
as my competent judge, I say, to your first objection
concerning the catholic church, I neither was nor am
out of it. And as to the sacrifice of the mass, and the
sacrament of the altar, I never spake against it. And
as concerning the pleasure of the synod, I say, that
these twenty years I have been brought up in the faith
of the true catholic church, which is contrary to your
church, and in that time I have been many times sworn
(as well in the reign of King Henry VIII. as in tbe reign
of good King Edward his son) against the usurped
power of the bishop of Rome, which oath I think that I
am bound in my conscience to keep. But if you, or any
of the synod, can by God's word persuade me that my
said oath was unlawful, and that I am bound by God's
law to come to your church, faith, and religion, I will
gladly yield, agree, and be conformable to you, other-
wise not.' "
Then Bonner, not being able with all his learned doc-
tors to accomplish this his offered condition, fell to
])ersuading of him, as well by his accustomed vain
promises, as also by bloody threatenings, to return to
their church.
"Philpot. — 'You, and all your sort, are hypocrites,
and I would all the world knew your hypocrisy, your
tyranny, ignorance, and idolatry.' "
Upon these words, the bishop dismissed him, com-
manding that on Monday, the sixteenth of the same
month, he should again be brought there, to have the
definitive sentence of condemnation pronounced against
him.
At which day and time, John Philpot being pre-
sented before the bishops of London, Bath, Worcester,
and Lichfield, Bonner, bishop of London, after a Latin
prayer and some conference as to his authority, began
to recite the following exhortation :
" ' Master Philpot, this is to be told you, that if you,
not being yet reconciled to the unity of the catliolic
church, from whence you did fall in the time of the late
schism here in this realm of England against the see
apostolic of Rome, will now heartily and obediently be
reconciled to the unity of the same catholic church, pro-
fessing and promising to observe and keep to the best
of your power the faith and christian religion observed
and kept of all faithful people of the same ; and more-
over, if you which heretofore, especially in the years
l")5.i, 1.t54, 1555, or in one of them have oflended and
trespassed grievously against the sacrifice of the mass,
calling it idolatry and abominable, and likewise have
oflended and trespassed against the sacrament of the
altar, denying the real presence of Christ's body and
blood to be there in the sacrament of the altar, affirming
also withal, material bread and material wine to be in
the sacrament of the altar, and not the substance of the
body and blood of Christ ; if you, I say, will be recon-
ciled as is aforesaid, and will forsake your heresies and
errors before touched, being heretical and damnable, and
will also allow the sacrament of the mass, you shall be
mercifully received, and charitably used with as much
favour as may be ; if not, you shall be reputed, taken,
and judged for an heretic, as you are indeed. Now do
you choose what you will do ; you are counselled herein
friendly and favourably.
" ' Ita est quod EJm. Bonner Ejiisc. Lond.'
" The bishop's exhortation thus ended, Master Philpot
turned to the lord mayor, and said :
" Philpot. — ' To you my lord mayor bearing the sword
I now speak, I am glad that it is my chance now to stand
before that authority that hath defended the gospel and the
truth of God's word ; but I am sorry to see, that that
authority, which representeth the king and queen's per.
sons, should now be changed, and be at the command-
ment of antichrist ; and you,' speaking to the bishops,
' pretend to be the followers of the apostles of Christ, and
yet are the very antichrists and deceivers of the people ;
and I am glad that God has given me power to stand
here this day, and to declare and defend my faith, which
is founded on Christ.
"Therefore, as touching your first objection, I say,
that I am of the catholic church, whereof I was never
out, and that your church, which you pretend to be the
catholic church, is the church of Rome, and so the
Babylonian, and not the catholic church ; of that church
[ am not.
" As touching your second objection, which is, that I
I should speak against the sacrifice of the mass, I do say,
that I have not spoken against the true sacrifice, but I
have spoken against your jirivate masses that you use in
corners, which is blasphemy to the true sacrifice; for
your sacrifice daily reiterati-d is a blasphemy against
Christ's death, and it is a lie of your own invention ; and •
that abominable sacrifice wliich you set upon the altar,
and use in your private masses instead of the living sa-
crifice, is idolatry, and you shall never prove it by God's
word ; therefore, you have deceived the people with your
sacrifice of the mass.
"Thirdly, where you lay to my charge, that I deny
the body and blood of Christ to be in the sacrament of
the altar, 1 cannot tell what altar you mean, whether it
be the altar of the cross, or the altar of stone ; and if
you call it the sacrament of the altar in respect of the
altar of stone, then I defy your Christ, for it is a rotten
Christ.
" And as touching your transubstantiation, I utterly
deny it, for it was brought up first by a pope. Now as
concerning your offer made from the synod, which is
gathere<l together in antichrist's name ; prove to me
that it is the catholic church, which you shall never do,
and I will follow you, and do as you would have me to
do. But you are idolaters, and daily commit idolatry.
You are also traitors ; for in your pulpits you rail
upon good kings, as King Henry, and King Edward,
who have stood against the usurped power of the bishop
of Rome ; against whom also I have taken an oath, which
if you can shew me by (Jod's law that I have taken un-
justly, I will then yield to you ; but I pray God to turn
the king and queen's hearts from your synagogue and
church, for you do abuse that good queen.'
" Here the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield began to
shew where the true church was, saying :
" Coventry. — ' The true catholic church is set upon
a high hill.'
" Philpot. — ' Yea, at Rome, which is the Babylonian
church.'
" Coventry. — ' No ; in our true catholic church are
the apostles, evangelists, and martyrs ; but before
Martin Luther, there was no apostle, evangelist, or
martyr of your church.'
" Philpot. — ' Will you know the cause why ? Christ
did prophesy that in the latter days there should come
false prophets and hypocrites, as you are.'
" ('oventry. — ' Your church of Geneva, which you call
the catholic church, is that which Christ prophesied of.'
" Philpot. — ' I allow the church of Geneva, and th".
doctrine of the same, for it is one, catholic, and apostolic,
and follows the doctrine that the apostles preached ; and
the doctrine taught and preached in King Edward's
days, was also according to it. And are you not
ashamed to persecute me and others for your church's
sake, contrary to the true catholic church ?' "
After further controversy, the bishops waxing weary,
and being not able either by God's word, or by the true
ancient catholic fathers, to convince and overcome him,
884
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF JOKh PIIILPOT.
[Book XI.
»;ndeavoured by fair and flattering speech to persuadi> with
him ; promising, that if he would revoke his opinions, and
come home again to their Romish church, he shouhi not
only be pardoned that which was past, but also they
would with all favour and cheerfulness of heart, receive
him again as a true member thereof. When Bonner
saw these words would take no effect, he demanded of
Philpot whether he had any just cause to allege why he
should not condemn him as a heretic. In the end the
bishop, seeing his immovable steadfastness in the truth,
pronounced publicly the sentence of condemnation
against him. In the reading of it, Philpot said, " I
thank God that I am a heretic out of your cursed church ;
I am no heretic before God. But God bless you, and
give you grace to repent your wicked doings, and let all
men beware of your bloody church."
While Bonner was about the midst of the sentence,
the bishop of Bath pulled him by the sleeve, and said,
" My lord, my lord, know of him first, whether he will
recantor not." Then Bonner said, " O, let him alone ;"
and so read the sentence. And when he had done, he
delivered him to the sheriffs, and then two officers
brought him through the bishop's house into Paternoster-
row, and there his servant met him, and when he saw
him, he said, " All, dear master I" Then Philpot said
to his man, " Content thyself, I shall do well enough ;
£ar thou shalt see me again." The officers thrust him
away, and took his master to Newgate ; and as he went,
he said to the people, " Ah, good people, blessed be
God for this day !" and so the officers delivered him to
the keeper.
Then Alexander, the chief keeper, commanded him
to be set upon the block, and to put as many irons upon
bis legs as he could bear.
On Tuesday, the 17th of December, there came
a messenger from the sheriffs, and bade Philpot
make ready, for the next day he should suffer, and be
burned at a stake with fire. Philpot answered and
paid, " I am ready ; God grant me strength, and a joy-
ful resurrection." And so he went into his chamber,
and poured out his spirit to the Lord God, giving him
most hearty thanks that he of his mercy had made him
worthy to suffer for his truth.
In thvi morning the sheriffs came according to the
order, abo\it eighc o'clock, and called for him, and he
most joyfully came down to them. And there his man
did meet him, and said, " Ah, dear master, farewell 1"
His master said to him, " Serve God, and he will help
thee.'' And so he went with the sheriffs to the place of
execution. When he was entering into Smithtield he
kneeled down, and said, " I will pay my vows in thee,
O Smithtield!"
And when he was come to the place of suffering, he
kissed the stake, and said, " Shall I disdain to suffer at
this stake, seeing my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer
most vile death upon the cross for me ?'' and then with
an obedient heart he said meekly the 106th, 107th, 108th
psalms : and when he had made an end of all his prayers,
he said to the officers, " What have you done for me ':"
and every one of them declared what they had done ;
and he gave to every one of them money.
Then they bound him to the stake, and set fire to the
fngots ; so on the 18th of December, suffered this holy
martyr, in the midst of the flames, yielding his soul into
the hands of Almighty God, and like a lamb gave up his
breath, his body being consumed to ashes.
Thus hast thou, an account of the life and acts of this
learned and worthy soldier of the Lord, John Philpot ;
with all his examinations that came to our hands : first
penned and written with his own hand, being marvel-
lously preserved from the sight and hand of his enemies ;
who by all manner of means sought not only to stop
him from all writing, but also to spoil and dejirive him
of that which he had written. For which cause he was
many times stripped and searched in the prison by his
keeper ; but yet so happily were these writings of his
conveyed and hid in places about him, or else his keeper's
eyes so blinded, that notwithstanding all this malicious
purpose of the bishop, they are yet remaining, and come
to light.
A Letter of John Philpot to the Christian Conr/re'/ation.
exhorting them to refrain from the idolatrous Ser-
vice of the Papists, and to serve God after his Word.
" It is a lamentable thing to behold at this present, in
England, the faithless departing both of men and women
from the true knowledge and use of Christ's sincere
religion, which they have been so plentifully taught, and
do know, their own consciences bearing witness to the
truth thereof. If that earth be cursed of God, which often
receiving moisture and pleasant dews from heaven, doth
not bring forth fruit accordingly ; how much more
grievous judgment shall such persons receive, which hav-
ing received from the Fatlier of Heaven the perfect
knowledge of his word by the ministry thereof, do not
show forth God's worship after the same? If the Lord
will require, in the day of judgment, a godly usury of all
manner of talents wliich he lendeth unto men and
women, how much more will he require the same of his
pure religion revealed unto us, (which is of all other
talents the chiefest and most pertaining to our exercise
in this life,) if we hide the same in u napkin, and set it
not forth to the usury of God's glory, and edifying of
his church by true confession ? God hath kindled the
bright light of his gospel, which in times past was sup-
pressed, and hid under the vile ashes of man's traditions,
and hsth caused the brightness thereof to shine \\\ our
hearts, to the end that the same might shine before men,
to the honour of his name. It is not only given us to
believe, but also to confess and declare what we believe in
our outward conversation. For as St. Paul saith (Rom. x.
10.), ' With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'
It is all one before God, not to believe at all, and not to
shew forth the lively works of our belief. For Christ
saith, ' Either make the tree good and his fruit good ;
or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt ; for
the tree is known by his fruits.' So that the person
who knowetli his master's will, and doeth it not, shall
be beaten with many stripes. And not all they who say,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God, but he
that doeth the will of the Father. And Christ says,
' Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my
words, in this adulterous and sinful generation ; of him
also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh
in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." After
that we have built ourselves into the true church of God,
it hath pleased him, by giving us over into the hands of
llivJ wicked synagogues, to prove our building, and to
have it known as well to the world as to ourselves, that
we have been wise builders in the true church of God,
building upon the rock, and not on the sand, and therefore
now the tempest is risen, and the storms do mightily blow
against us, that we might notwithstanding stand upright,
and be firm in the Lord, to his honour and glory, and
to our eternal felicity. There is no new thing happened
unto us, for with such terai)ests and dangerous weather
the church of God hath continually been exercised.
iS'ow once again, as the prophet Haggai tells us, ' The
Lord shaketh the earth, that those might abide for ever,
which are not overcome.'
" Ttierefore, my dearly beloved, be stable and im-
movable in the word of God, and in the faithful obser-
vation thereof, and let no man deceive you with vain
words, saying, that you may keep your faith to your-
selves, and dissemble wilh antichrist, and to live at rest
and quietness in the world, as most men do, yielding to
necessity. This is the wisdom of tlie flesh ; but the
wisdom of the flesh is death and enmity to God, as our
Saviour, for example, did declare to St. Peter, who ex-
horted Christ not to go to .lerusalem to celebrate the pas-
sover, and there to be slain, but counselled him to Ioo'k
better to himself.
" Likewise, the world would not have us to forsake it,
neither to associate ourselves to the true church, which
is the body of Christ, whereof we are lively mendjers,
and to use the sacraments after God's word with the
danger of our lives. But we must Icaru to answer the
world as Christ did Peter, and say, ' Git thee beiiind me,
Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be ol
A.D. 1555.]
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF JOHN PHILPOT.
88S
God.' ' Shall I not drink of the cup which the Father
giveth me ?' For it is better to be afflicted and to be
slain, in the church of God, than to be counted the son
of the king, in the synagogue of false religion. Death
for righteousness is not to be abhorred, but rather to be
desired, which assuredly bringeth with it the crown of
everlasting glory. These bloody executioners do not
persecute Christ's martyrs, but crown them with ever-
lasting felicity ; we were born into this world to be wit-
nesses unto the truth, both the learned and unlearned.
" Now since the time is come that we must shew our
fiith, and declare whether we will be God's servants in
righteousness and holiness, as we have been taught, and
are bound to follow, or else with hypocrisy to serve un-
righteousness : let us take good heed that we be found
faithful in the Lord's covenant, and true mem!)ers of his
church, in which through knowledge we are ingrafted ;
from which if we fall, by transgression with the common
sort of people, it will more straitly be required of us
than many yet do make account thereof. We cannot
serve two masters ; we may not halt on both sides, and
think to please God ; we must be fervent in God's cause,
or else he will cast us out from him. For by the first
commandment we are commanded to love God with all
our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength ;
but they are manifest transgressors of this command-
ment, who with their heart, mind, or bodrly power, do
communicate with a strange religion, contrary to the
word of God, in the papistical synagogue, which calleth
itself the church, and is not. As greatly do they of-
fend God now who so do, as the Israelites did in times
past by forsaking Jerusalem, the true church of God,
and by going to Bethel to serve God in a congi'egation
of their own setting up, and after their own imaginations
and traditions ; for which doing God utterly destroyed
all Israel, as all the prophets almost do testify. This
happened unto them for our ensaraple, that we might
beware of having any fellowship with any like congrega-
tion to our destruction.
" God hath one catholic church dispersed throughout
the world, and therefore we are taught in our Creed to be-
lieve one catholic church, and to have communion there-
with ; which catholic church is grounded upon the foun-
dation of the prophets, and of the apostles, and upon
none other, as St. Paul witnesseth to the Ephesians.
Therefore, wherever we perceive any people to worship
God truly after his word, there we may be certain the
church of Christ to be ; unto which we ought to asso-
ciate ourselves, and to desire with the prophet David, to
praise God in the midst of his church. But if we be-
hold through the iniquity of the time, spgregations to be
made with counterfeit religion, otherwise than the word
of God doth teach, we ought then, if we be required to
be companions tliereof, to say again with David, ' I have
hated the congregations of evil-doers, and will not sit
with the wicked.'
" In the book of Revelation the church of Ephesus
is highly commended, because she tried such as said
they were apostles, and were not in deed, and there-
fore would not abide the company of them. Further
God commanded his people that they should not seek
Bethel, neither enter into Gilgal, where idolatry was
used, by the mouth of his prophet Amos. Also we must
consider that our bodies are the temple of God, and
whosoever (as St. Paul teaches) doth profane the tem-
ple of God, him the Lord will destroy. May we then
take the temple of Christ, ajiu make it the member of a
harlot? All strange religion and idolatry is counted
whoredom by the prophets, and more detestable in the
sight of God than any other sin.
" Therefore the princes of the earth, in the Revelation
of St. John, are said to go a whoring, when they are in
love with false religion, and follow the same. How then
by any means may a christian man think it tolerable to
be present at the popish private mass (which is the very
profanation of the sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ) and at other idolatrous worshippings and rites.
■which are not after the word of God, but rather 'o th.e
derogation thereof, in setting man's traditions a'love
God's precepts, since God by hit word judgeth all strange
religion which is not according to his institution, for
whoredom and adultery .'
" Some fondly think that the presence of the body
is not material, so that the heart do not consent to their
wicked doings. But such persons little consider what
St. Paul said to the Corintliians, commanding them to
glorify God as well in body as in soul.
" Moreover, we can do no greater injury to the true
church of Christ, than to seem to have forsaken her, and
disallow her by cleaving to her adversary ; whereby it
appears to others who are weak, that we allow the same,
and so contrary to the word, do give a great offence to
the church of God, and do outwardly slander, as much
as men may, the truth of Clirist. But woe be unto him
by whom any such offence cometh. Better it were for
him to have a millstone tied about his neck, and to be
cast into the bottom of the sea ! Such are traitors to the
truth, like unto Judas, who with a kiss betrayed Christ.
Our God is a jealous God, and cannot be content that
we should be of any other than of that unsjjotted church,
whereof he is the only head, and wherein he hath plauted
us by baptism. This jealousy which God hath towards
us, will cry for vengeance in the day of vengeance,
against ail such as now have so large consciences to do
that which is contrary to God's glory, and the sincerity
of his word, except they do in time repent, and cleave
inseparably to the gospel of Christ, how much soever at
this present both men and women otherwise in their own
corrupt judgment, do flatter themselves. God wills us
to judge uprightly, and to allow and follow that which
is holy and acceptable in his sight, and to abstain from
all manner of evil, and therefore Christ commands us
in the gosjiel to beware of the leaven of the pharisees,
which is hypocrisy.
" St. Paul to the Hebrews saith, ' If any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we
are not of them who draw back unto perdition ; but of
them that believe to the saving of the soul.' St. John
in the Revelation tells us plainly that none of those, who
are written in the book of life, do receive the mark of
the beast, which is of the papistical synagogue, either in
their foreheads, or in their hands, that is, apparently or
obediently.
" St. Paul, in writing to the Philippians affirms, that
we may not have any fellowship with the works of dark-
ness, but in the midst of this wicked and tVoward gene-
ration we ought to shine like lights, upholding the word
of truth. Further he saith, that we ought not to touch
any unclean thing, which signifieth that our outward
conversation ought to be pure and undetiled, as well as
the inward, so that vvith a clean spirit and purified body
we might serve God in holiness and righteousness, all
the days of our life.
" Finally, in the 18th chapter of Revelation, God com-
mands us plainly to depart from the Babylonian syna-
gogue, and not to be partakers of her trespass. St.
Paul to the Thessalonians exhorts us, in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ ; to withdraw ourselves from every
brother that walks disorderly, and not according to the
institution whii-.h he hath received of him.
" Ponder ye therefore well, good brethren and sisters,
these scriptures, which are written for your instruction
and reformation, whereof one jot is not written in vain ;
wliich are utterly against all counterfeit illusion to be
used by us with the jjupists in their fantastical religion,
and be adversaries to all them that have so light con-
sciences in so doing ; and if they do not agree with this
adversary (T mean the word of God) which is contrary to
their attempts, he will (as signified in the gospel) deliver
them to the judge, which is Christ, and the judge will
deliver them to the executioner, that is, to the devil, and
the devil shall commit them to the horrible prison of
hfll tire (where is tlie portion of all hypocrites), where
there will bewailing and gnashing of teeth, world withoui
end. But yet manv will say for their vain excuse, God
is merciful, and his "mercy is over all. But the scripture
teaches us, that cursed is he that sinneth upon hope of
forgiveness. True it is, that the mercy of God is above
all his works, and yet but upon such as fear him ; for it
is written in the Psalms, ' The mercy of God is to them
886
A LETTER OF JOHN PHILPOT TO JOHN CARELESS.
[Book XI.
that fear him, and on such as put their trust in him.
Where we may learn, that tliey only put their trust in
God that serve him ; and to fear God, is to turn from
evil, and do what is good. So that such as do look to
be partakers in God's mercy, may not abide in that
which is known to be manifest evil, and detestable in the
sight of God.
" Another sort of persons do make them a cloak for
their sins, under tlie pretence of obedience to the magis-
trates, whom we ought to obey although they are wicked.
But such must learn of Christ to give to Csesar that
which is Cse sar's, and to God that which is due to God ;
and with St. Peter to obey the higher powers in the
Lord, although they are evil, if they command nothing
contrary to God's word, otherwise we ought not to
oijey their commandments, although we should suffer
death therefore, as we have the apostles for our examjjle,
who answered the magistrates as we ought to do in this
case, not obeying their wicked precepts, saying, 'Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more
than unto God, judge ye.'
" Also, Daniel chose rather to be cast into the den of
lions to be devoured, than to obey the king's wicked
commandments. If the blind lead the blind, both fall
into the ditch. There is no excuse for the transgression
of God's word, whether a man doth it voluntarily or at
commandment, although great damnation is to them, by
whom the offence coineth. Some others there are, that
for an extreme refuge in their evil doings, do run to
God's predestination and election, saying, that if I be
elected of God to salvation, I shall be saved, whatever I
do. But such are great tempters of God, and abomi-
nable blasphemers of God's holy election, and cast them-
selves down from the pinnacle of the temple in pre-
sumption, that God may preserve them by his angels
through predestination. Such verily may reckon them-
selves to be none of God's elect children, that will do
evil that good may come ; whose damnation is just, as
St. Paul saith. God's predestination and election ought
to be with a simple eye considered, to make us more
warily to walk in good and godly conversation according
to God's word, and not set ourselves up, and charge it
upon God to do wickedly as we will ; for the elect
children of God must walk in righteousness and holiness,
after that they are once called to the true knowledge of
the truth. For saith St. Paul to the Ephesians, (i. 4,)
' According as he hath chosen us in him before the foun-
(■ation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love.'
" Therefore, St. Peter exhorteth us through good
■works to make our calling and election sure to our-
selves, which we know not but by the good working of
God's Spirit in us, according to the rule of the gospel ;
and he that conformeth not himself to the same in godly
conversation, may justly tremble, and doubt that he is
none of the elect children of God, but of the viperous
generation, and a child of darkness. For the children of
light walk in the works of light and not of darkness ;
though they fall, they do not lie still.
" Let all vain excuses be set apart, and while ye have
light, as Christ commandeth, believe the light and abide
in the same, lest eternal darkness overtake you unawares.
The light is come into the world, but, alas ! men love
darkness more than light. God give us his pure eye-
salve to heal our blindness in this behalf. O that men
and women would be healed, and not seek to be wilfully
blinded ! The Lord open their eyes, that they may see
how dangerous a thing it is to decline from the know-
ledge of truth, contrary to their conscience.
" But what said I, conscience ! many affirm their
conscience will bear them well enough to do all that they
do, and to go to the idolatrous church to service ; whose
conscience is very large to satisfy man more than God.
And although their conscience can bear them so to do,
yet I am sure that a good conscience will not permit them
RO to do ; which caimot be good, unless it be directed
after the knowledge of God's word : and therefore in
Latin this feeling mind is called conscimtia, which
ugreeth by interpretation, as much as with knowledge.
" And therefore, if our conscience be led of herself,
and not after true knowledge, yet we are not so to be
excused, as St. Paul beareth witness, saying, ' AlthouL'h
my conscience accuseth me not, yet in this I am not
justified.' And he joineth a good conscience with these
three sisters, charity, a pure heart, and unfeigned faith.
Charity keepeth God's commandments, a pure he;irt
loves and fears God above all, and unfeigned faith is never
ashamed of the profession of the gospel, whatsoever
damage he shall suffer in body thereby. The Lord, who
hath revealed his holy will unto us by his word, grant
us never to be ashamed of it, and give us grace so
earnestly to cleave to his holy word and the true
church, that for no manner of worldly 'respect we be-
come partakers of the works of hypocrisy, which God
doth abhor ; so that we may be found faithful in the
Lord's testament to the end, both in heart, word, and
deed, to the glory of God and our everlasting salva-
tion. Amen.
" John Philpot, prisoner in the King's Bench
for the testimony of the truth. A.D 1555."
A Letter to John Careless, profitable to be read by all
them icho mourn m Re2Jentance for their Sins.
" The God of all comfort, and the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, send unto thee, my dear brother Careless,
the inward consolation of his Holy Spirit, in all the ma-
licious assaults and troublous temptations of our com-
mon adversary the devil. Amen.
" That God giveth you so contrite a heart for your
sins I cannot but rejoice to behold the lively mark of the
children of God, whose property is to think more lowly
and vilely of themselves than of any other, and often-
times do set their sins before them, that they might the
more be stirred to bring forth the fruits of repentance,
and learn to mourn in this world, that in another they
might be glad and rejoice. Such a broken heart is a
pleasant sacrifice unto God: O, that I had the like con-
trite heart ! God soften my stony heart, which lament-
eth not in such wise my former detestable iniquities.
Praised be God that he hath given you this sorrowful
heart in respect of righteousness, and I pray to be a
partaker of these godly sorrows for sin, which are the
testimony of the presence of the Holy Ghost. Did not
the sword of sorrow pierce the heart of the elect and
blessed mother of our Lord ? Did not Peter weep bit-
terly for his sins, who was so beloved of Christ ? Did
not Mary Magdalene wash the feet of our Saviour with
her tears, and received therewithal remission of her seven-
fold sins ?
" Be of good comfort, therefore, mine own dear heart,
in this thy sorrow, for it is the earnest of eternal con-
solation. In thy sorrow be joyful, for the Spirit of God
is with thee : ' Blessed are they (saith Christ) that
mourn, for they shall be comforted.' They who went
forth and wept, saith the projihet, such shall come again
having their hearts full of gladness. And although a
sorrowful heart, in consideration of our sins, is an ac-
ceptable sacrifice before God, whereby we are stirred up
to more thankfulness unto God, knowing that much is
forgiven us that we might love the more, yet the man of
God must keep a measure in the same, lest he be swal-
lowed up by over-much sorrow. St. Paul would not have
the Thessaloniarjs to be sorry as other men who have no
ho])e, such a sorrow is not commendable, but worketh
damnation, and is far from the children of God, who
are continually sorrowful in God when they look upon
their own unworthiness, with hope of forgiveness. For
God to this end by his Spirit setteth the sins of his elect
still before them, that where they perceive sin to abound,
there they might be assured that grace shall much more
abound, andbringcth them down unto hell that he might
lift them up with greater joy unto heaven. Wherefore,
mine own bowels in Christ, as long as you are not void
altogether of hope, be not dismayed through your pen-
sive heart for your sins, how huere soever they have been,
for God is able to forgive more than you are able to sin:
yea, and he will forgive him, who with hope is sorry for
his sins.
" But know, brother, that as often as we do about.
AD. 1555.]
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF JOHN PHILPOT.
887
by the help of God's Spirit, to do what is good, Satan lay-
eth linrd wait to turn the good unto evil, and goeth about
to mire with the detestable weed of desperation the
godly sorrow of a pure penitent heart. You are not
ignorant of his malicious subtlety, and how that con-
tinually he assaulteth that good which the grace of God
planteth. I see the battle betwixt you and him, but the
victory is yours, yea, and that daily : for you have laid
hold u))on the anchor of salvation, which is hope in
Christ, the which will not suffer you to be made
ashamed.
" Be not discontented that you have this conflict :
but be glad that God hath given you the same to try
your faith, and that you might ajtpear daily worthy of
the kingdom of God, for which you strive. God be-
holdt'th your striving faith against Satan, and is pleased
with your mighty resistance. The spirit, which is in
you, is mightier than all the adversary's power. Tempt
he may, and lie wait at your heels, to give you a fall
unawares ; but overcome he shall not : yea, he cannot,
for yon are sealed up already with a lively faith to be
the child of God for ever: and whom God hath once
sealed for his own, him he never utterly forsakes. The
just falleth seven times, but he riseth again. It is man's
frailty to fall, but it is the property of the devil's child
to lie still.
" This strife against sin is a sufficient testimony that
you are the child of God : for if you were not, you
should feel no such malice as he now troubleth you with.
When this strong Goliah hath the hold, all things are in
peace which he possesseth : and because he hath you
not, he will not suffer you to be unassaulted. But stand
fast, and hold out the buckler of faith, and with the
sword of God's promises smite him on the head: that he
may receive a deadly wound, and never be able to stand
against you any more. St. James telleth you that he is
but a coward, saying, ' Resist the devil, and he will fly
from you.' It is the will of God that he should thus
long tempt you, and not go away as yet, or else he had
done with you long ere this. He knoweth already that
he shall receive a defeat at your hands, and increase the
crown of your glory, for he that overcometh shall be
crowned. Therefore glory in your temptations, since
they shall turn to your felicity. Be not afraid of your
continual assaults, which are occasions of your daily
victory. The word of God abidetli for ever. In what
hour soever a sinner repents him of his sins, they are
forgiven. Who can lay any thing to the charge of God's
elect .'' Do you not perceive the manifest tokens of your
election ? First, your calling to the gospel, and after
your calling, the manifest gifts of the Spirit of God given
unto you above many others of your condition, with god-
liness which believeth and yieldeth to the authority of
the scriptures, and is zealous for the same ? Seeing you
are God's own child, who can hurt you? Be not cast
down for these temptations ; neither make your sincere
friends to be more sorrowful for you than need doth
require.
" Since God hath willed you at your baptism in Christ
to be careless, why do you make yourself careful ? Cast
all your care on him. Set the Lord before your eyes
always, for he is on your right hand, that you should not
be moved. Behold the goodness of God towards me !
I am careless, being fast closed in a pair of stocks,
which pinch me for very straitness ; and will you be
careful .' I would not have that unseemly addition to
your name. Be as your name pretendeth, for doubtless
you have no other cause but so to be. Pray, I beseech
you, that I may be still careless in my careful estate, as
you have cause to be careless in your easier condition.
Be thankful, and put away all care, and then I shall be
joyful in my strait present care. Commend me to all
our brethren, and desire them to pray for me, that I may
overcome my temptations : for the devil rageth against
me. 1 am put in the stocks in a place alone, because I
would not answer to such articles as they charged me
■with, in a corner, at the bishop's appointment, and
because I did not come to mass when the bishop sent
for me. i will lie all the days of my life in the stocks,
by God's grace, rather than I will consent to this wicked
generation. Praise God, and be joyful, that it hath
pleased him to make us worthy to suffe. somewhat for
his name sake. The devil must rage for ten days.
Commend me to Master F — , and thank him for his law
books : but neither law nor equity will take any place
among these blood-thirsty men ! I would, for your sake,
the unjust dealing were noted unto the parliament house,
if it might avail. God shorten these evil days. I have
answered the bishop very plain already, and I said to
him, if he will call me in open judgment, I will answer
him as plainly as he will require : otherwise I have re-
fused, because I fear they will condemn me in hugger
mugger. The peace of God be with you, my dear
brother. I can write no more for lack of light, and
what I have written I cannot read myself, and God
knoweth it is written with pain. I pray God you
may pick out some understanding of my mind towards
you.
" Written in a coal-house of darkness, out of a pair
of painful stocks, by thine own in Christ.
" John Philpot."
A Letter of John Philpot to certain Godly Brethren.
" The grace of God the Father, and the peace of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, his eternal Son, and the consola-
tion of the Holy Ghost, our comforter, strengthen your
hearts, and comfort your minds, that you may rejoice,
and live in the truth of Christ's gospel to the end,
Amen.
" I do much rejoice, dearly beloved in the Lord, to
hear of your constant faith in the word of God, which
you have so purely received ; which do not with the
worldlings decline from the purity thereof, although vou
suff"er grief and trouble thereby ; for vvhich 1 praise God
most heartily : and the Lord of all strength, who hath be-
gun this good work in you, make it perfect to the end,
as I doubt not but he will, for the faithful zeal you have
to his truth and to his afllicted church. Therefore, that
you may the better stand and bear the brunt of many
temptations, which you are all like to be assaulted with
in these wicked and stormy days ; I t nought it good, as
it is the duty of one christian man to exhort another la
the time of trouble, to put you in remembrance thereof,
and to desire you, with the wise man, to prepare your-
selves for temptations ; and to beware that ye, who yet
do stand by the goodness of God, may not fall from your
lively knowledge and hope. It is an easy thing to begin
to do well, but to continue in well doing is the j)eculiar
property of the children of God, and such as assuredly
shall be saved : for so saith our Saviour in his gospel,
blessed are they that persevere to the end.
" Let not, therefore, this certainty of your salvation,
which is continuance in the sincerity of faith, slide from
you. Esteem it more than all the riches and pleasures
of this world, for it is the most acceptable treasure of
eternal life. This is that precious stone, for which the
wise merchantman in the gospel doth sell all that he
hath, and buys the same. God, in the third chapter of
Revelations, doth signify to the church, that there shall
come a time of temptation upon the whole world, to try
the dwellers on the earth. From the danger of which
temptation all such shall be delivered as observe his
word : which word there, is called the word of patience ;
to give us to understand that we must be ready to suffer
all kind of injuries and slanders for the profession
thereof.
" Therefore, God commands us there to hold it fast,
that no man might deprive us of our crown of glory, and
St. Peter tells us, ' Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations : that the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.'
St. Paul to the Hebrews shews us that Christ our Sa-
viour was in his humanity made perfect by afflictions,
that we being called to perfection in him, might more
willingly sustain the troubles of the world, by which God
giveth all them that are exercised in the same for his
888
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF JOHN PHILPOT.
[Book XI.
sike, his holiness. And in the twelfth chapter of the
said epistle it is written, ' And ye have forgotten the ex-
hortation wliich speaketh unto you as unto children,
My son, despise not tiioii the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou are rebuked of him : for whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son
whom he receiveth,' &c. Christ, in the gospel of St.
John, cautions his disciples to look for afhietions, say-
ing, ' In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me
ye shall have peace.' And, therefore, in the midst of
their trouble, in the twenty-first of St. Luke he tells
them to look up, and lift up their heads, for their re-
demption drew nigh. And, in the twenty-second, he
saith to all such as are afflicted for him, ' Ye are they
■which have continued with me in my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath
appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and drink at my
tabic in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel.'
" Oh how glorious are the crosses of Christ, which
bring the bearers of them unto so blessed an end ! Shall
we not be glad to be partakers of such shame as may
bring us to so high a dignity .' God open our eyes to
see all things as they are, and to judge uprightly. Then,
doubtless, we should think with Moses, that it is better
to be afflicted with the people of God, than to be counted
the king of Egy))t's son. Then should we joyfully say
with David, in all our adversities and troubles, ' It is
good for me that I have been afflicted ; that I might
learn thy statutes.' Therefore St. Paul would not glory
in any other thing of the world, but in the cross
of Christ, and in his infirmities : we have the com-
mandment of Christ daily to take up his cross and fol-
low him. We have the godly examples of all his
apostles and holy martyrs, who with great joy and ex-
ultation have suffered the loss of all lands, goods, and
life for the hope of a better reward : which is laid up
for all those in heaven, that unfeignedly cleave to the
gosjiel, and are never ashamed thereof.
" Great is the felicity of the world to the outward
man, and very pleasant are the transitory delights there-
of; but the reward of the righteous, after the word of
(Jod, doth incomparably excel them all, insomuch that
St. P lul, in writing to the Romans, doth plainly affirm
that all the tribulations of this world cannot deserve
that glory which shall be shewed unto us.
" Let us therefore, good brethren and sisters, be
merry and glad in these troublesome days, which are
sent of God to declare our faith, and to bring us to the
end and fruition of that which we hope for. If we
v.ould enter into the Lord's sanctuary, and behold
what is prepared for us, we could not but desire
the Lord to hasten the day of our death, in which
we might set forth by true confession, his glory. Neither
should we be afraid to meet our adversaries, who so
earnestly seek our spoil and death, but do as Christ did
v.lieri Judas and that wicked company, came to appre-
hend him, saying, ' I am he whom ye seek.' It is com-
manded us in the gospel, not to fear them who kill the
body, but to fear God, who can cast both body and soul
into hell-tire. We are bound to observe this command-
ment as much as any other which God hath given us.
The Lord increase our faith, that we fear God more than
man. The Lord give us such love towards him and his
truth, that we may be content to forsake all and follow
him. Now will it ajipear what we love best ; for to that
we love we will adhere. There is none worthy to be
counted a christian, except he can find in his heart, for
Christ's sake, if the confession of his truth doth require
it, to renounce all which he hath and follow him ; and
in so doing he gaineth an hundredfold more in this life,
(as our Saviour said to Peter,) and in the life hereafter
eternal life. Behold, I pray you, what he loseth, who in
this life receiveth an hundred for one, with assurance of
eternal life. O, happy exchange ! Perchance your out-
ward man will say ; if I were sure of this great recom-
pence here, I could be glad to forsake all ; but where is
this hundredfold in this life to be found ? yes, truly ; for
instead of the worldly riches which thou do»t forsake,
which are but temporal, thou ha^t found the everlasting
riv'hes of heaven, which are glory, honour, and praise,
both belore God, angels, and men ; and, for an earthly
habitation, hast an eternal man^ion with Christ in
heaven ; for even now thou art of the city and household
of tiie saints with God, as it is said in the fourth chapter
to the Philii)pians. For worldly peace, which can last
but a while, thou dost possess the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding ; and for the loss of a few
friends, thou art made a fellow of the innumerable com-
pany of heaven, and a i)erpetual friend of all thoje ll.at
have died in the Lord, fnjm the beginning of the world.
Is not this more than an hundredfold } is not the j)eace
of God which we in this world have, through faithful imi-
tation of Christ (which the world cannot take from us),
ten thousandfold more, than those things which are most
highly esteemed in the world, without the peace of God ?
All the peace of the world is no peace, but a mere
anguish and a gnawing fury of hell : as of late God hath
set example before our eyes, to teach us how horrible an
evil it is to forsake the peace of Christ's truth, which
breedeth a worm in the conscience that never shall rest.
" O, that we would weigh this v>'ith impartial ba-
lances ! Then should we not be dismayed at this
trouolous time, neither sorrow after a worldly manner,
for the loss which we are now likely to sustain, as the
weak faithless persons do, who love their goods more
than God, and the things visible above those which are
invisible : but rather would heartily rejoice and be
thankful, that it pleased God to call us to be soldiers
in his cause against the works of hypocrisy, and to
make us like unto our Saviour Christ in suffering, where-
by we may assure ourselves of his eternal glory : for
blessed are they, saith Christ, that suffer persecution
for righteousness sake. And as St. Paul witnesseth to
Timothy : ' If we suffer, we shall also reign with him :
if we deny him, he also will deny us.'
" O, that we would enter into the veil of God's pro-
mises ! Then should we, as St. Paul says to the Phi-
lippians, reject all, and count all things but dross, so
that we may gain Christ. God who is the enlightener
of all darkness, and putter away of all blindness, anoint
our eyes with the true eye-salve, that we might behold
his glory, and our eternal felicity, which is hidden with
Christ, and prepared for us that do abide in his testa-
ment : for blessed is that servant, whom the master
when he cometh, as Christ said, doth find faithful. Let
us, therefore, watch and pray one for another, that we
yield not in any point of our religion to the antichristian
synagogue, and that we be not overthrown by these temp-
tations. Stand, therefore, and be no coivards in the
cause of your salvation ; for his spirit that is in us, is
stronger than he which is in the world, that doth now
rage against us. Let us not put out the Spiiit of God
from us, by whose might we shall overcome our enemies,
and then death shall be as great a gain to us as it was to
the blessed apostle St. Paul. Why, then, do ye mourn ?
why do ye weep ? why be ye so careful, as though God
hath forsaken you ? he is never more present with us,
than when we are in trouble, if we do not forsake him.
We are in his hands, and nobody can do us any injury
or wrong without his good-will and pleasure. He hath
commanded his angels to keep us, that we stumble not
at a stone, without his divine providence. The devil
cannot hurt any of us, and much less any of his minis-
ters, without the good-will of our eternal Father.
" Therefore let us be of good comfort, and continually
give thanks unto God for our estate, whatsoever it be ;
for if we murmur against the same, we murmur against
God, who sendeth the same : which if we do, we kick
but against the pricks, and provoke more and more the
wrath of God against us ; which, by patient suffering,
otherwise would sooner be turned into our favour, through
faithful prayer.
" 1 beseech you with St. Paul, to give your bodies
pure and holy sacrifices unto God. He hath given us
bodies to bestow unto his glory, and not after (jur own
desires. If many years God hath suffered us to use
our bodies, which are his temples, after the lust of
the flesh, in vain delights not according to his glory ; is
it not our duty in the latter end of our Ufe, the more
A.D. 1556.]
ARTICLES OBJECTED AGAINST THOMAS WHITTLE AND OTHERS-
889
willingly to yield unto God's glory our bodies, with all
that we have, in demonstration of true repentance of
that we have evil spent before ? Cannot the example of
the blessed man Job, when sorely afflicted, cause us to
I say, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away :
\ blessed be the name of the Lord.' Even as it hath
f pleasea the Lord, so is it come to pass. If we cast our
whole care likewise upon God, he will turn our misery
inco felicity, as well as he did to Job.
" God tempts us now as he did our father Abraham,
commanding him to slay his son Isaac in sacrifice to
! Liiu ; which Isaac, by interpretation, doth signify mirth
, and joy. Who by his obedience preserved Isaac unto
long life, and offered in his stead a ram that was tied by
the horns in the brambles. Likewise we are all com-
manded to sacrifice unto God our Isaac, which is our
joy and consolation ; which if we be ready to do, as
Abraham was, our joy shall not perish, but live, and be
increased, although our ram be sacrificed for our Isaac ;
which doth signify that the pride and desires of our flesh
intangled through sin, with the cares of this stinging
■world, must be mortified for the preservation and per-
fect augmentation of our mirth and joy, which is sealed
up for us in Christ.
" And to withstand these present temptations where-
with we are now encumbered, you cannot have a better
remedy than to set before your eyes how our Saviour
Christ overcame them in the desert, and to follow his
example.' that if the devil himself, or any other by him
desireth you to make stones bread, that is, to take such,
a worldly wise way, that you may have your fair houses,
lands, and goods to live on still ; you must say, that man
liveth not only by bread, but by every word that pro-
ceedeth out of the mouth of God.
" Again, if the devil counselleth you to cast yourselves
down to the earth, as to revoke your sincere belief and
godly conversation, and to be conformable to the learned
men of the world, pretending that God will be well
enough content therewith ; you must answer that it is
written, that a man shall not tempt the Lord his God.
" Further, if the devil offer you large promises of
honour, dignity, and possessions, so that you will wor-
ship idols in his synagogue, you must say, ' Get thee
hence, Satan ; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.'
" Finally, if your mothern brother, sister, wife, child,
kinsman, or friend, do seek of you to do otherwise than
the word of God hath taught you, you must say with
Christ, that they are your mothers, brothers, sisters,
wives, children, kinsmen, who do the will of God the
Father. To which will the Lord for his mercy conform
_ us all unfeignedly to the end. Amen.
■ " Your loving and faithful brother in Christ, in
f captivity, John Philpot, A.D. 1555."
The History of Seven Martyrs, who suffered together at
London, for the Testimony of Christ's Gospel.
The prelates of the pope's band being as yet not sa-
tisfied with their one year's bloody murdering of the
reverend, learned, and principal members of Christ's
church (of whom there were now very few, who either
were not consumed by most cruel fire, or else, for the
avoiding of their popish rage, compelled to flee their
country) continued still this next year also, which was
A.D. 1556, in no less cruelty towards the poor, simple,
and inferior sort of people (I mean in degree, though
God be praised, not in steadfastness) having yet some-
times amongst them such as were both learned and of
good estimation, as in this history shall appear.
In the beginning of this year, about the 27th day of
January, there were burned in Smithfield, at London,
seven persons, namely, Thomas Whittle, priest ; Bartlet
Green, gentleman ; John Tudson, John Went, Thomas
Browne, Isabel Foster, and Joan Warne.
All which seven, as they were burned together in one
fire, so they weie all upon one form of articles con-
demned in one day. However, as the gifts of God in
them were diverse, some more abounding in knowledge
than others, their dealings were also diverse, as will be
perceived in their several processes. And therefore, for
the better understanding hereof, I will first, (passing
over their private articles and examinations had at sun-
dry times in the bishop's house) .^et forth their general
examinations in the public consistory, upon the bishop's
articles there administered unto them, with tlieir answer>«
to them, according as they all agreed after one manner
together, as here by the words, both of the articles, and
their answers underwritten will appear.
The Form and Words of Bonner'' s Articles administered
to the seven Persons above-mentioned in his Consistory.
First, that thou N. hast firmly, steadfastly, and
constantly believed in times past, and so dost now be-
lieve at this present, that there is here on earth a ca-
tholic church, in which catholic church the faith and re-
ligion of Christ is truly professed, allowed, received,
kept, and retained of all faithful and true christian
people.
2. That thou the said N. in times past hast also be-
lieved, and so dost believe at this i)resent, that there are
in the catholic church seven sacraments, instituted and
ordained by God, and by the consent of the holy church
allowed, ap]u*oved, received, kept, and retained.
3. That thou the said N. wast in times past baptised
in the faith of the said catholic church, jjrofessing by
thy godfathers and godmothers the faith and religion of
Christ, and the observation thereof, renouncing there the
devil and all his pomps and works, and was, by the said
sacrament of baptism, incorporated into the catholic
church, and made a faithful member thereof.
4. That thou the said N. coming to the age of four-
teen years, and so to the age of discretion, didst not de-
part from the said profession and faith, nor didst dislike
any part of the same faith or doings ; but didst, like a
faithful christian person, abide and continue in all the
same by the space of certain years, ratifying and con-
firming all the same.
5. That thou the said N. notwithstanding the pre-
mises, hast of late, that is to say, within these two years
last past, within the city and diocese of London, swerved
at the least way from some part of the said catholic
faith and religion : and amongst other things thou hast
disliked and earnestly spoken against the sacrifice of the
mass, the sacrament of the altar, and the unity of the
church, railing and maligning the authority of the see
of Rome, and the faith observed in the same.
6. That thou the said N. hast heretofore refused, and
dost refuse at this present to be reconciled again to the
unity of the church, not acknowledging and confessing
the authority of the said see of Rome to be lawful.
7. That thou the said N. disliking the sacrifice of the
mass, and the sacrament of the altar, hast refused to
come to thy parish church to hear mass, and to receive
the said sacrament, and hast also expressly said, that in
the said sacrament of the altar, there is not the very
body and blood of our Saviour Christ, really, substan-
tially, and truly, but hast affirmed expressly, that the
mass is idolatry and abomination, and that, in the sacra-
ment of the altar, there is none other substance, but only
material bread, and material wine, which are tokens of
Christ's body and blood only, and that the substance of
Christ's body and blood is in no wise in the said sacra-
ment of the altar.
8. That thou the said N. being brought before certain
judges or commissioners, for thy disorder herein, and
being found obstinate, wilful, and heady, wast by their
commandment sent unto me and my prison, to be ex-
amined by me, and process to be made against thee for
thy offence therein.
9. That all and sing\dar the premises have been, and
are true and manifest, and thyself not only infamed and
suspected thereof, but also culpable therein ; and by
reason of the same, thou wast and art of the jiu-isdiction
of me, Edmund, bishop of London, and before me, ac-
cording to the order of the ecclesiastical laws, are to
be convented, and also by me to be punished nnd »••
formed.
890
ACCOUNT OF THOMAS WHITTLE.
[Book XI,
Here follow Ukevise their Answers, in general, made to
the Articles above rehearsed.
To the first article tl>ey altogether agrecin<?, affirmed
the same to be true : Jolm Tud.son and Thomas Brown,
further adding, that the church of England, as it was at
that time used, was no part of the true catliolic church.
To the second article they answered, that they ac-
knowledged but only two sacraments in Christ's catholic
church, that is to say, baptism, and the supper of the
Lord ; John Went and Tudson affirming, that the sacra-
ment of the altar, as it is used, is an idol, and no sacra-
ment at all.
To tlie third article they all agreed, and confessed it
to be true, that they were baptised in the faith of Christ,
and of the cliurch then taught ; and afterward during the
time of king Edward VI. they hearing the gospel preached,
and the truth opened, followed the order of the religion
and doctrine then used and set forth in the reign of the
said King Edward.
To this fourth article they granted also and agreed ;
John Went adding moreover, that about seven years
past, he then being about twenty years of age, began to
dislike certain things used in the church of England, as
the administration of the sacrament of the altar ; like-
wise all the ceremonies of the said church, and did like-
wise at that present time dislike the same as they were
used, although his godfathers and godmothers promised
for him the contrary.
John Tudson added also nearly in the same manner,
and said, that when he came to the years of discretion,
that is about nine years past, being about eighteen years
of age, he did dislike the doctrine and religion then
taught and set forth in the church of England, saving in
King Edward's time, in whose time the gospel was truly
set forth : and further said, that the doctrine set forth
in the queen's reign was not agreeable to God's word,
uor yet to the true catholic church that Christ speaks
of, &c.
Isabel Foster with others granted, adding likewise, and
saying to the said four articles, that she continued in the
same faith and religion which she was baptised in, after
she came to the years of discretion as other common
people did ; however, blindly and without knowledge,
till the reign of King Edward VI : at which time she
hearing the gospel truly preached and opened to the
people, received thereupon the faith and religion then
taught and set forth, &c.
To the fifth article, tliey answered the same to be true,
according to the contents thereof: l^homas Whittle ad-
ding, moreover, that he had swerved and gone away,
and not in whole but in part, not from the old catholic
church, but from the church of Rome, in speaking
against the mass, the sacrifice thereof, and the see of
Rome.
Joan Lashford (alias Joan Warne) added, moreover,
that she never went away from any part of Christ's
catholic faith and religion ; but that from the time she
was eleven years of age, she hath disliked the sacrifice of
the mass, the sacrament of the altar, and the authority
of the see of Rome, with the doctrine thereof, because
they are against Christ's catholic church, and the right
faith of the same.
To the si.xth article they answer and confess the same
to be true, because, say they, the church and doctrine
therein set forth and taught, disagrees from the unity of
Christ's word, and the true catholic faith, &c.
Bartlet Green added, that he is contented to be re-
conciled to the unity of Christ's catholic church, but not
to the church of Rome.
To the seventh article they answer and confess the
contents thereof to be true, giving withal the reason
and cause of this their so doing, for that the mass with
the sacrament thereof, as it was then used and set forth
in the church of England, is opjiosed to the word of God
and the teaching of the people, &c.
John Went farther said, as concerning the mass, that
be believes no less but the mass, which he c;ills the sup-
per of the Lord, as it is now used in the realm of Eng-
land, is naught, full of idolatry, and against God's word,
so far as he sees it ; howbeit, he saith that since the
queen's coronation by chance he hath been present
where the mass hath been said, whereof he is sorry.
Isabel Foster also answering to the said articles, with
the others confessed moreover, that since Queen Mary's
reign she hath not heard mass, nor received the sacra-
ment, but hath refused to come into the place where it
was administered ; for she knoweth no such sacrament.
And being demanded of her belief in the same, she saitli,
that there is but only material bread, and material wine,
and not the real substance of the body of Christ in the
same sacrament ; for so she hath been taught to believe
by the preachers in the time of King Edward, whom she
believes to have preached the truth in that behalf.
To the eighth article they grant the same and the con-
tents to be true.
John Went said, that Doctor Stoiy, Queen Mary's
commissioner, examined him upon the sacrament, and
because he denied the real presence, he presented him
to the bishop.
To the ninth article they confess and say, that as they
believe the premises before by them confessed to be true,
so they deny not the same, and that they are of the juris-
diction of London.
And thus having expressed their articles, with their
answers jointly, it remains furthermore fuliv to give the
histories, and handling of all the seven aforesaid martyrs
severally and particularly by themselves, first beginning
with Thomas Whittle.
An Acconnt of Thomas Whittle, who frst recanted, but
returned ayain, and with great constancy and forti-
tude stood to the defence of Christ's Doctrine against
the Papists.
In the history of John Philpot, mention was made
before of a married priest, whom he found in the coal-
house at his first coming tliither, in heaviness of mind
and great sorrow, for recanting the doctrine which he
had taught in King Edward's days, whose name was
Thomas Whittle, of Essex. This Thomas Whittle, after
he had been expelled from the place in Essex, where he
served his cure, went abroad, preaching and sowing the
gospel of Christ- At length he was brought as a prisoner
before the bishop of Winchester, who was lately fallen
sick of a disease, of which not long after he died : then
he was carried a prisoner to the bishop of London, by
whom he was beaten and buffeted about the face, as ap-
pears from his own narration in a letter sent unto his
friend.
" Upon the tenth of January, the bishop of London
sent for me, Thomas M'hittle, minister, out of the por-
ter's lodge, where I had been all night lying upon the
earth upon a pallet, where I had as painful a night of
sickness as ever I had, God be thanked. And when I
came before him, he talked with me about many things
of the sacrament so grossly, as is not fit to be rehearsed.
And amongst other things, he asked me if I would have
come to mass that morning if he had sent for me ? I
answered, that I would have come to him at his com-
mandment, but to your mass I have little affection. At
which answer he was much displeased, and said, I should
be fed with bread and water. And as I followed him
through the great hall, he turned back and beat me with
his fist, first on the one cheek, and then on the other, as
the mark of my beating for many days appeared. And
then he led me into a little salt-house, where I had no
straw nor bed, but lay two nights on a table, and slept
soundly, I thank God.
" Then, upon the Friday next after, I was brought to
my lord, and then he gave me many fair words, and said
he would be good to me. And so going to Fulham, he
committed me to Doctor Harpsfield, that he and I in
that afternoon should comi une together, and draw out
certain articles, to wliic^h if I would subscribe, I should
be dismissed. Hut Doctor Harpsfield sent not for me
till night, and then persuaded me very much to forsake
my oj)inions. 1 answered, I held nothing but the truth,
and therefore I could not so lightly turn from it. So I
thought 1 should at chat time have had no more ado : but
A.D. 1556.]
PERSECUTION OF BARTLET GREEN.
891
he had made a certain bill, which the register pulled out of
his bosom, and read it. The bill indeed was very easily
made, and therefore more dangerous ; for the effect of it
was, to detest all errors and heresies against the sacrament
of the altar, and other sacraments, and to believe the faith
of the catholic church, and live accordingly.
" To this bill I did indeed set my hand, being much
desired and counselled so to do ; and the flesh being
always desirous to have liberty, I considered not tho-
roughly the inconvenience that might come by it. Now
when I had so done, I had little joy of it. For by and
by my mind and conscience told me, by God's word, that
I had done evil, to shake off the sweet cross of Christ :
and ^'et it was not my seeking, as God knows, but alto-
gether came of them. Oh ! the crafty subtlety of Satan
m his members 1 Let every man that God shall deliver
into their hands, take good heed, and cleave fast to Christ :
for they will leave no corner of his conscience unsought,
but will attempt all guileful and subtle means to corrupt
him, to fall both from God and his truth. But yet let
no man despair of God's help, for Peter did fall and rise
again. And David saith, Psalm x.\xvii. 2.i, 24, ' The
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he
delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be
utterly cast down ; for the Lord upholdeth him with his
hand.' For I for my part have felt my infirmities, and
yet have I found God's present help and comfort in time
of need, for which I thank him.
" The night after I had subscribed, I was sore grieved,
and for sorrow of conscience could not sleep. For in
the deliverance of my body out of bonds, which I might
have had, I could find no joy nor comfort, but still was
in my conscience tormented more and more, being as-
sured by God's Spirit and his word, that I through evil
counsel had done amiss. And both with disquietness
of mind, and with my other cruel handling, I was sickly,
lying upon the ground when the keeper came ; and so I
desired him to pray Doctor Harpsfield to come to me,
and so he did.
"And when he came, and the register with him, I
told him that 1 was not well at ease, but especially I
told him I was grieved very much in my conscience and
mind, because I had subscribed. And I said, that my
conscience had so accused me, through the just judg-
ment of God and his word, that I had felt hell in my
conscience, and Satan ready to devour me ; and there-
fore I pray you, Master Harpsfield, said I, let me have
the bill again, for I will not stand to it. So he gently
commanded it to be brought, and gave it me, and suffered
me to put out my name : I was right glad when I had
done so, although death should foUow. And hereby I
had experience of God's providence and mercy towards
me, who tries his people, and suffers them to fall, but
not to be lost ; for in the midst of this temptation and
trouble, he gave me warning of my deed, and also de-
livered me, his name be praised for evermore. Amen.
" Neither devil nor cruel tyrant can pluck any of
Christ's sheep out of his hand. Of which flock of Christ's
sheep, I trust, undoubtedly I am one, by means of his
death and blood -shedding, who shall at the last day
stand at his right hand, and receive, with others, his
blessed benediction. And now being condemned to die,
my conscience and mind, I praise God, is quiet in Christ,
and I, by his grace, am very well willing and content to
give over this body to death, for the testimony of his
truth and pure religion, against antichrist and all his
false religion and doctrine. They that report other-
wise of me, speak not truly. And as for Fountain, I
saw him not all this while.
" By me, Thomas Whittle, minister."
Concerning the words and answers of Thomas WHiittle
at his last examination before the bishop, on the 14th
of January: Bonner, with others sitting in his consistory,
first called Thomas Whittle, with whom he began in
effect as follows. " Because you are a priest," said he,
" as 1 and other bishops here are, and did receive the
order of priesthood, after the right and form of the ca-
tholic churcb. ' ou shall not think but I wiU administer
justice as well to you as to others." And then Bonner
charged him, that where in times past he had said mass
according to the order then used, the same Whittle now
of late had spoken and railed against the same, saying
that it was idolatry and abomination. Whereunto
Thomas Whittle answering again said, that he was
then ignorant, &c. adding that the elevation of the
sacrament at the mass, gives occasion of idolatry to the
ignorant and unlearned.
After this the bishop came to this article, " That thou
wast in times past baptised in the faith of the catholic
church."
To this WHiittle answered, " I was baptised in the
faith of the catholic church, although 1 forsake the
church of Rome. And you, my lord, call these heresies,
that are no heresies, and charge me therewith as heretic,
and you ground yourself upon that religion, which is not
agreeable to God's word," &c.
Then the victorious soldier and servant of our Saviour,
constant in the truth, was again admonished, and with
persuasions intreated by the bishop ; and because be
would not agree, the bishop forthwith proceeded, first to
his actual degradation, that is, to unpriest him of all his
priestly trinkets and clerkly habit. Then Whittle, in the
midst of the ceremonies, when he saw them so busy in
degrading him, after their father the pope's pontifical
fashion, said to them, " St. Paul and Titus had not so
much to do with their priests and bishops." And
further, speaking to the bishop, he said to him, " My
lord, your religion stands with the church of Rome, and
not with the catholic church of Christ."
The bishop after this, according to his accustomed
proceedings, tried him yet again with words rather than
with substantial arguments, to conform him to his re-
ligion ; but Whittle refusing to do so, said, " As for
your religion, I cannot be persuaded that it is according
to God's word."
The bishop then asked what fault he found in the ad-
ministration of the sacrament of the altar.
Whittle said, "It is not used according to Christ's
institution, in that it is privately and not openly done.
And also it is administered but in one kind to the lay
people, which is against Christ's ordinance. Further,
Christ never commanded it to be elevated nor adored :
For the adoration and elevation cannot be proved by
scripture."
" Well," said Bonner, " my lords here, and other
learned men, have shewed great zeal for thy conver-
sion ; wherefore if thou wilt yet return to the faith
and religion of the catholic church, I will receive tiiee,
and not commit thee to the secular power," &c. To
make short. Whittle, strengthened with the grace of
the Lord, stood strong and immovable. Whereiore tl'.e
sentence being read, the ne.xt day following he was com-
mitted to the secular power, and so in a few days after
was brought to the fire, sealing the testimony "f his
doctrine with his blood, which he wilhngiy and cheer-
fully gave for witness of the truth.
The History of Bart let Green, Gentleman.
After the history of Thomas Whittle, next follows
Bartlet Green, who, the day after, was likewise con-
demned. Bartlet Green was of a good family, whose
parents both favoured learning, and were also desirous
to bring up their child in the same. He was sent to the
University of Oxford; where, through exercise and dill-
gent study, he so profited, that in a short time he at-
tained, as well to the knowledge of sundry sciences, as
also now in his last years to the godly understanding
of divinity. He was at the first an utter enemy to the
gospel, until such time as God in his mercy opened his
eyes, by his often repairing to the lectures of Peter
Martyr, reader of the divinity lecture in the Univer-
sity.
When he had once tasted of it, it became to him as
the fountain of living water that our Saviour Christ
spake of to the woman of Samaria, so that he never
thirsted any more, but had a well springing up to ever-
lasting life. So that when he was called by his fnends
from the University, and was placed in the Templs at
892
PERSECUTION OF BARTLET GREEN,
[Book XI.
London, to attain to the Ivnowledge of the common laws
of the realm, he continued still in his former study and
earnest profession of the gospel. However, such is the
frailty of our corrupt nature, without the special assist-
ance of God's Holy Spirit, through the continual fellow-
ship of such worldly young gentlemen as are commonly
in that and the like houses, he became by little and little
a partner of their follies and youlhful vanities, in his
apparel, and also in banquetings, and other excesses;
which he afterward sore lamented and bewailed, as ap-
pears by his own testimony, left in a book of a friend of
bis, a little before his death.
For the better maintenance of himself in his studies
and his other affairs, he had a large exhibition from his
grandfather. Doctor Bartlet, who during the time of
Green's imprisonment made to him large offers of great
livings, if he would recant, and forsake the truth, and
gospel of Christ, and come again to the church and syna-
gogue of Rome. But those persuasions, the Lord be
praised, took small effect on his faithful heart, as the
sequel declared. He was a man beloved of all men,
except of the papists, who love none that love the truth :
for he was of a meek, humble, discreet, and of a most
gentle behaviour to all. He was injurious to none, be-
neficial to many, especially to those who were of the
household of faith ; as appears amongst other things, by
his friendly dealing with Christopher Goodman, at that
time a poor exile beyond the seas. With whom this
Bartlet Green had often associated in Oxford, in the
days of good King Edward.
The cause of all his troubles was a letter which Green
wrote to Goodman, containing the report of certain
questions, which were circulated in London, and also
an answer to a question of Christopher Goodman, en-
quiring into the report which was generally spread
amongst them, on the other side of the seas, that the
queen was dead.
These letters, with many others, written to several of
the godly exiles by their friends here in England, being
delivered to a messenger to carry over, came by the
apprehension of the bearer, to the hands of the king and
queen's council, who perused the whole of the letters, and
amongst them saw this letter of Master Green's, written to
his friend Christopher Goodman : in which, amongst other
news and private matters, they found these words; " the
queen is not yet dead." Which words were only written
as an answer, to certify Master Goodman of the truth of
his former demand. However, to the council, they
seemed very heinous words, yea, treason they would have
made them, if the law would have suffered. So they
examined him upon his faith in religion.
His answers little pleased them, and therefore, after
they had detained him in prison in the Tower of Lon-
don, and elsewhere, they sent him at last to Bonner, to
be ordered according to his ecclesiastical law ; as appears
by their letters to the bishop.
Now that you may better understand his handling,
after coming into Bonner's custody, I have thought it
good to give his own letter, containing at large an ac-
count of it. Which letter he wrote to John Philpot,
but was prevented sending it ; for it came to the bishop's
hands, and being delivered to his register, was found in
one of his books of record.
After a conference between Master Green and Master
Welch, the bishop perceiving Green's learning and con-
stancy to be such, as neither he, nor any of hi* doctors
or chaplains could by the scriptures refute, began to ob-
ject and put in practice his chief and strongest argu-
ujcnt, which was the rigour of the law, and cruelty of
execution ; an argument, I assure you, which, without
the special grace of our God, to flesh is insupportable.
And tlierefore, using the law as a cloak to his tyranny,
on the 28th of November, the bishop examined him
upon certain points of christian religion.
Many other conferences and public examinations after
this they brought him unto. But in the end (seeing his
steadfastness of faith to be such, that neither their
threatenings nor yet their flattering promises could
prevail), on the l.ith of January the bishop caused
him to be brought into the consistory in St. Paul's ;
where, being set in his judgment seat, he called for
Bartlet Green, and began as follows :
" Honourable audience, I think it best to open imto
you the conversation of this man, called Bartlet Green.
And because you shall not charge me, that I go about
to seek any man's blood, here you shall hear the coun-
cil's letters, which they sent with him to me. The ef.
feet whereof is, tliat whereas he had been of long time in
the Tower of London for heresy, they have now sent him
to me to be ordered according as the laws provide. And
now to thee, Bartlet Green, I propose these nine arti-
cles." Then he read the articles above-mentioned, which
were generally objected to by all the seven prisoners.
But when Master Green would have answered* them
particularly, he was put to silence, with a promise that he
should have time to answer, and therefore tlie bishop,
proceeding, said, that when Green came first to his
house, he desired to have the books of the ancient doc-
tors of the church to read, which he said he granted
him.
Whereunto Green answered and said, that if the
doctors were with unprejudiced judgment weighed, they
made a great deal more with him, than they did witli them.
After this a long conference began between Green
and Fecknam, which ended thus :
Bonner. — " When St. Augustine saw what inconveni-
ences followed of that commandment, he wrote to the
temporal rulers, commanding them to punish the bodies
of the heretics."
Green. — ' ' But he did not order them tobeput to death."
Bonner. — " He bade punish them."
Green.— " Yea, but not put them to death."
Bonner. — " That they should be piuiished.''
This talk ended, he asked Green if he would recant,
and return to their Romish mother. Which, when he
refused, the bishop pronounced sentence against him,
and so committed him to the sheriffs of London, who ,
caused him to be carried to Newgate.
And as he was going thither, there met him two gen-
tlemen, his especial friends, minding to comfort their
persecuted brother ; but at their meeting, their loving
and friendly hearts, not able any longer to hide tliem-
selves, were manifested by the abundance of their tears.
To whom, when Green saw them, he said in these or like
words : " Ah, my friends ! is this your comfort you are
come to give me, on this my occasion of heaviness .-'
Must I, who needed to have comfort administered to
me, become now a comforter of you ?" And thus de-
claring his most quiet and peaceable mind and con-
science, he cheerfully spake to them and others, until
he came to the prison door, into which he joyfally
entered, and there remained, engaged either in prayer, or
else in some other godly meditations and exercises, to
the 27th of January, when he went most cheerfully to
the place of suffering, often singing, as well by the way,
as also at the stake, a Latin hymn.
So great and admirable was the gift of modesty
grafted in his nature, so far abhorring from all pride
and arrogancy, that as he could not abide any thing
that was spoken to his advancement or praise, so
neither did there ajipear in him any shew in those things
wherein he might justly glory. When he was beaten
and scourged with rods by Bishop Bonner, he greatly
rejoiced in it, and yet his n'odesty was such, that never
would he make any mention of it, lest he should seem
to glory too much in himself.
Thomas Brown was born in the parish of Histon, in
the diocese of Ely ; he came to London, and dwelt in
the parish of St. Bride's, in Fleet-street ; he was a mar-
ried man, abotit thirty-seven years of age ; who, because
he came not to his parish church, was presented by the
constalile of the parish to Bonner. He was required
ujjon Thursday, the 2<)th of September, to come to the
chapel to hear mass, which he refused to do. For this
he was charged by the bishop, as for an heinous offence,
because he said it was done in despite and contempt of
their mass, which seemed to the bishop and his cliap-
lains no small offence. At length, being brought to his
last examination before the bishop, on the loth of
A.D. 1556.]
SEVEN MARTYRS LURNED AT LONDON.
893
January, there to hear sentence definitive against hiin,
he was iiitreated with many fair words and promises to
revoke his doctrine.
BDuiicr then proceeded to the articles, and after he
bid re id them to him again, asked him whether he was
content and willing to relinquish those his heresies and
erro!ieous opinions, as he called tliein, and return again
to the unity of the catholic faith, lie made answer,
saying, " If they were heresies, he would forsake them."
" They are heresies,'' said the hishop.
" Ho>v will you prove it?'' said Brown ; " for I will
not go from mine answer, except you can prove them to
be heresies, which you can never do. For that which
you call heresy, is no heresy."
Alter this Bonner read the sentence against him. He
was then committed to the sheriffs, and burned on the
2/th oi' January, constantly abiding the torments for tlie
true confession of his christian faith.
Cii the same day was also produced John Tudson to
the nice condemnation. John Tudson was born in Ips-
. wicU, and was an apprentice in London, dwelling in the
p irish of St. Mary Botolph.
\tVer the articles and interrogatories were administered to
l.i.ii, lie was brought to the consistory ; where this blessed
a;nl true servant of the Lord was moved with many per-
siisi lus to go from his opinion, but he, constantly per-
s:-viiig in that which he had received by the preachers in
King Edward's time, refused, saying, there was no
heresy in his answers. The bishop still used his accus-
, tomed persuasions to move him, and promised that all
his olTences and errors, as he called them, should befor-
, given, if he would return, &c. " No," said Tudson, "I
have not offended ; and ye pretend charity, but it appears
j not in your works.''
Tnus, after a few words, the bishop promulgated
I against him sentence of condemnation ; and the godly
' and constant martyr was committed to the secular power,
\ and so with much patience finished this life on the 27th
' of January.
John Went was bora in Langham in Essex, in the
diocese of London; he was of the age of 27 years, and
first was examined by Dr. Story upon the sacrament of
I bis popish altar ; and because the poor man did not ac-
1 cord with him in the real presence of the body and
I blood of Christ, Story sent him up to Bonner ; who
j tempted him to recant. Went said, " He would not,
but that, by the grace of God, he would stand firm and
j constant in what he had said." And when the bishop
urged him with words and fair promises to give himself
to their opinions, he could get no other answer but this,
" No, I say as I have said," &c. Whereupon being
condemned by the bishop, he was committed to the
sheriffs, and brought to his martyrdom, which he suf-
fered with constancy to the end.
With the five persons above mentioned were also con-
demned at the same time two women, and likewise
burned for the same cause ; the one a wife called Isabel
Foster, the other a maiden, named Joan Warne, or other-
wise Lashford.
This Isabel was born in Grafestock, in the diocese of
Carlisle, and married to one John Foster, cutler, in the
parish of St. Bride's, in Fleet-street. For not coming to
the church she was sent to Bonner, and imprisoned;
she was several times examined by the bishop, but never
overcome, nor moved from the constant confession of
Christ's gospel.
At length, when brought to her final examination be-
fore the bishop in the consistory, she was moved again,
whether she would yet go from her former answers. She
gave a resolute answer in few words : "I will not go
from them, by God's grace.'' She was neither cast
down by the menacing threats of the bishop, nor yet
yielded through his alluring enticements, who promised
her both life and liberty if she would associate herself in
the unity of the catholic church. She said, "That she
trusted she was never out of the catholic church,' ' &c. , and
80 continued constant till the sentence was pronounced,
and then she was committed to the secular power, and
brought a few days after to the stake, on the 27tli of
January ; where she, like a faithful witness of the Lord's
truth, ended her troubles here, to find a better rest in
the kingdom of Christ our Saviour.
In a previous part of this history of martyrs, mention
was made of one Elizabeth Warne, who, with her bus-
banil John Warne, in the beginning of Queen .Mary's
reign, was ajjiirehended in Bow church-yard ; and suf-
fered, first the man in the month of May, then the
wife in July after; and now the daughter, in the month
of January, followed her parents in the same martyrdom.
Joan Lashtbrd was born in tiie parish of Little All-
hallows, in Thames-street, and was the daughter of
one Robert Lashford, cutler, and of the aforesaid Eliza-
beth, who afterwards was married to Joliii Warne. She
was about the age of twenty years, and when ministering
to her father and mother in prison, she was susj)ected
and known to be of the same doctrine and religion, so
she was sent to Bonner, and committed to the Compter,
where she remained five weeks, and from thence to New-
gate, where she continued for the space of some months.
After that her confession was, that the whole twelve
months before, and more, she came to no popish mass-
service in the church, nor received the sacrament of the
akar, or confessed, because her conscience would not
suffer her to do so ; protesting, that in the sacrament
of the altar, there is not the real presence of Christ's
body and blood ; nor that auricular confession or ab-
solution after the popish sort was necessary ; nor the
mass to be good, or according to the scripture, but said
that both the sacrament, confession, absolution, and the
mass, with all others their superfluous sacraments, cere-
monies, and divine service, as then used in this realm of
England, were most vile, and contrary to Christ's word
and institution. This godly damsel, feeble and of tender
age, yet strong by grace, in this her confession and
faith stood so firm, that neither the flattering promises,
nor the violent threats of the bishops could turn her,
but being moved and exhorted by Bonner to return to
the catholic unity of the church, said boldly to him,
"If ye will leave off your abomiuaaous I will return,
but otherwise I will not."
The bishop again promised her pardon of all her errors,
as he called them, if she would be conformed, but she
answered, " Do as it pleases j'ou, and I pray God that
you may do that which may please God."
And thus, she constantly persevering in the Lord's
holy truth, was condemned and committed to the sheriffs,
by whom, on the 27th of January, she was brought to
the stake, and there washed her robes in the blood of
the Lamb, dying most constantly for his word and truth,
to whom most lovingly she espoused herself.
And thus much concerning the life and condemnation
of these seven holy martyrs.
Five Martyrs in Canterbury, four Women and one Man
burned together.
After these seven were martyred together in Smithfield,
shortly after in the same month, namely, on the 31st of
January, followed another like fellowship of godly martyrs
at Canterbury, four women and one man, viz. : John
Lomas, Anne Allbright, Joan Catmer, Agnes Snoth, and
Joan Sole.
John Lomas, of the parish of Tenterden, being pre-
sented for that religion which the papists call heresy,
was cited to appear at Canterbury, and examined there
of the first article, whether he believed the catholic
church or not? he answered thus : " that he believed so
much as is contained in God's book, and no more."
Then being assigned to appear again on the next Wed-
nesday, which was the 17th of January, Lomas was ex-
amined whether he would be confessed to a priest or
not, he answered: " that he found it not written that be
should be confessed to any priest in God's book, neither
would he be confessed, unless he were accused of sin."
Again, when examined whether he believed the body of
894
AN ACCOUNT OF DR. CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
[Book XI.
Christ to be in the sacrament of the altar, really under
the forms of bread and wine after the consecration or
not, he answered, " That he believed no reality of Christ's
body to be in the sacrament." Being then demanded
whether he believed that there is a catholic church or
not, and whether he would be content to be a member
of the same, he answered, " that he believed so much as
was written in God's book ;" and other answer lie re-
fused to give, &c. Sentence was pronounced against him
on the 18th of January, when he was committed to the se-
cular jKuver, and suffered with great constancy for the
conscience of a true faith, in company with the four
women above named.
Agnes Snoth, widow, of the parish of Smarden, was
likewise accused and cited for the true profession of
Christ's religion. When examined, she was compelled
to answer to such articles and interrogatories as should
be administered to her. First she refused to be con-
fessed to a priest ; but she refused not to confess her
offences as one to another, but not auricularly to any
j)riest. And as to the sacrament of the altar, she pro-
tested that if she or any other received the sacrament as
Christ, and his apostles after him, delivered it, then she
and they received it to their comfort : but as it is now
used in the church, she said that no man could other-
wise receive it than to his damnation. Afterwards being
examined concerning penance, whether it were a sacra-
ment or not, she plainly denied it, and said that the popish
manner of absolution was not consonant to the word of
God. Tlie sentence being read, she was committed to
the sheriffs of Canterbury, and suffered martyrdom, de-
claring herself a constant witness of Christ and of his
truth.
Against Anne Albright, ahas Champnes, it was also
objected concerning the matter of confession. She
answered, saying, " That she would not be confessed of
a priest," and added, speaking to the priests, "You
priests are the children of perdition, and can do no good
by your confession." And likewise, speaking to the
judge and his assistants, she told them that they were
subverters of Christ's truth.
As to the sacrament of the altar, she said it was a
naughty and abominable idol, and so utterly denied the
same as a sacrament. Thus persisting in her opinion, she
was condemned on the 18th of January, with the others
above mentioned ; with whom also she suffered quietly,
and with great comfort, for Cln-ist's religion.
In like manner Joan Sole, of the parish of Ilorton,
was coiidemned by the priests, for not allowing auricular
confession, and for denying the real presence and sub-
stance of Christ to be in the sacrament of the altar ;
who, after their sentence was promulgated, was brought
by the sheriffs to the stake with the other four, and sus-
tained the like martyrdom with them, through the
assistance of God's holy grace and Spirit, mightily
working in her, to the glory of his name, and confir-
mation of his truth.
The fifth and last of this heavenly company of martyrs
was Joan Catmer, of the parish of Hithe, wife of George
Catmer, who was burned before. Being asked what she
said to confession made to a priest, she refused to be
confessed to any priest. And the judge, speaking of the
sacrament of the altar, she said and affirmed. That she
believed not in that sacrament, as it was then used, for
that it was made a very idol; for which, sentence of
condemnation was passed upon her, and she suffered
with the other fellow martyrs, ratifying and confessing
with their blood the true knowledge and doctrine of the
glorious gospel of Christ Jesus our Saviour.
These five persons v.-ere burnt together at Canterbury,
at two stakes, but in one fire ; who, when the fire was
flaming about their ears, did sing psalms.
The Life, Acts, and History of the Reverend Pastor
and Prelate, Thomas Cranmer, Arc/iljisfioj) of Can-
terbury, burned at Oxford, for the Confession of
ChrisVs true Doctrine, under Queen Mary. Match
21, A.D. 1556.
As concerning the life and estate of that most reve.
rend father in God, and worthy prelate of godly me-
mory, Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Canterbury,
and of the original cause and occasion of his preferment
unto his archiepiscojial dignity ; it is first to be ob-
served, that Thomas Cranmer came of an ancient pa-
rentage, from the Conquest. He was born in a village
called Arselacton, in Nottinghamshire ; and, being from
his infancy kept at school, and brought up, not without
much civility, he came in process of time to the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, azid there prospering in knowledge,
amongst the better sort of students, he became Master
of Arts, and was chosen Fellow of Jesus College, in
Cambridge. Having married a gentleman's daughter,
he lost and gave over his fellowship there, and became
the reader in Buckingham College.
Whilst ( ranmer continued as reader in Buckingham
College, his wife died in childbed. After whose death,
the masters and fellows of Jesus College, desirous of
again having their old comj)anion, for his learning, chose
him again fellow of the college. Where, he remaining
at his study, became in a few years after, the reader of
the divinity lecture in the same college, and was held in
such estimation and reputation with the whole univer-
sity, that being Doctor of Divinity, he was commonly
appointed one of the heads to examine such as yearly
proceed in commencement, either as Bachelors or Doctors
of Divinity, by whose approbation the whole university
licenses them to proceed to their degree.
Now Cranmer much favoured the knowledge of the
scripture, and would never admit any to proceed in
divinity, unless they were substantially versed in the
history of the Bible ; by which certain friars, and other
monkish persons, who were principally brought up in
the study of school authors, without regard to the au-
thority of the scriptures, were rejected by him ; so that
for his severe examination he was much hated, aiid had
in great indignation among the monks : and yet it came
to pass in the end, that some of them, being thus com-
pelled to study the scriptures, became afterwards well
learned and well affected.
As he was neither in fame unknown, nor in knowledge
obscure, so he was greatly solicited by Doctor Capon
to become one of the fellows in the foundation of Car-
dinal Wolsey's College, in Oxford, which he utterly
refused.
At this time Cardinal Campegio and Cardinal Wolsey,
being in commission from the pope, to hear and deter-
mine that great cause in controversy between King
Henry VIII. and the Queen, delayed hearing the cause
all the summer, till August. When August was come,
the cardinals, little desiring to proceed to the sentence,
took occasion to finish their commission, and not further
to determine therein, pretending that it was not per-
mitted by the laws to keep courts of ecclesiastical mat-
ters in harvest time : which sudden stoppage of the
commission so much moved the king, that he, taking it
as a mock at the cardinals' hands, commanded the dukes
of Norfolk and Suffolk to dispatch forthwith Cardinal
Campegio home again to Rome ; and so in haste he
removed himself from London to Waltham for a night
or two, while his household removed to Greenwich : by
means of which it chanced that the harbingers. Doctor
Stephens, secretary, and Doctor Foxe, almoner, lodged
in the house of Master Cressey, where Cranmer also
lodged. When supper time came, the three doctors met
together ; Doctor Stephens, and Doctor Foxe much
marvelling at Doctor Cranmer's being there ; who de-
clared to them the cause of his lodging there, namely,
that the plague was in Cambridge. And as they were
of old acquaintance, so the secretary and the almoner
right well entertained Cranmer, minding to understand
his opinion touching the great business they liad in
hand. So while they were at supper, they conferred
with Cranmer concerning the king's cause, requesting
his judgment and opinion, what he thought therein.
Cranmer answered, that he could say but little to the
I age SOo.
A.D. 1556.] AN ACCOUNT OF DR. CRANMER ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
S9S
matter, for that be had not studied nor looked for it.
Notwithstanding he said to them, that in his opinion
thev made more ado in prosecuting the ecclesiastical law
than needed. " It were better, as I suppose," said
Cranmer, " that the question. Whether a man may
marry his brother's wife, or not ? were decided and
discussed by the divines, and by the authority of the
word of God, by which the conscience of the prince
might be better satisfied and quieted, than thus from
year to year to prolong tlie time by delays, leaving the
truth of the matter untouched by the word of God.
There is but one truth in it, which the scripture will
soon declare, being well handled by learned men, and
that may be as well done in England, in the univer-
sities here, as at Rome ; or elsewhere in any foreign
nation, and therefore, as I take it, you might this way
have made an end of the matter long since." When
Doctor Cranmer had thus ended, the other two liked his
advice, and wished that they had so proceeded before,
and they resolved so to advise the king, who was then
minded to send to Rome for a new commission.
On the next day, when the king removed to Green-
wich, he called to him his principal! advisers in his
cause, namely. Doctor Stephens and Doctor Foxe, say-
ing to them, " What now, my masters, shall we do in
this endless cause of mine ? I see there must be a new
commission procured from Rome, and when we shall
have an end, God knoweth, and not I."
When the king had thus spoken. Doctor Foxe said,
" We trust that there shall be a better way devised for
your majesty, than to travel so far as Rome any more in
your highness' cause, which by chance was put into our
heads, at Waltham." The kina: being very desirous to
understand his meaning, said, " Who hath taken in hand
to instruct you by any better or shorter way to proceed
in our said cause ?" Then said Doctor Foxe, " It
chanced us to lodge at Waltham, in IMaster Cressey's
house, where we met with an old acquaintance of ours,
named Doctor Cranmer, with whom having conference
concerning your highness's cavise, he thought that the
best way to instruct and quiet your majesty's conscience
was by trying your highness's question out by the au-
thority of the word of God, and thereupon to proceed to
a final sentence."
The king then said, " Where is this Doctor Cranmer.'
Is he still at Waltham ?" They answered, that they
left him there. " Marry," said the king, " I will surely
speak with him, and therefore let him be sent for. I
perceive," continued the king, " that that man hath the
sow by the right ear. And if I had known this device
but two years ago, it had been in my way a great piece of
money, and had also rid me out of much disquietness."
Cranmer was accordingly sent for, he being removed
from Waltham to Cambridge, and so towards his friends
in Nottinghamshire, an express went for him. But when
he came to London, he began to quarrel with his two ac-
quaintances, that he by their means was thus troubled
and brought thither, to be cumbered in a matter in which
he had not studied ; and therefore intreated them that
they would make his excuse, so that he might not be
required to come into the king's presence. They pro-
mised, and took the matter upon them, if by any means
they might compass it ; but all was in vain ; for the
more they began to excuse Cranmer's absence, the more
the king chid with them, so that no excuse serving, he
was obliged to come to court to the king. \Mien Cran-
mer was introduced, the prince demanded his name, and
said to him, " Were you not at Waltham such a time,
in the company of my secretary and my almoner?"
Cranmer assenting; the king said, " Had you not con-
ference with them concerning our matter of divorce,
after this sort?" repeating the manner and order of it.
" That is true, if it please your highness," said Cranmer.
" Well," said the king, " I well perceive that you have
the right scope of this matter. You must understand,
that I have been long troubled in conscience, and now I
perceive that by this means I might have been long ago
relieved one way or other, if we had so proceeded. And
therefore, Master Doctor, I pray you, and because you
are a subject, I charge and command you to take pains
to see this my cause furthered, as much as it may lie in
you, so that I may shortly understand what I may trust.
For this I protest before God and the world, that I seek
not to be divorced from the queen, if by any means I
might justly be persuaded that this our matrimony were
inviolable, and not against the laws of God ; for other-
wise there was never cause to move me to seek any such
extremity. Neitlier was there ever prince had a more
gentle, a more obedient and loving companion and wife,
than the queen is, nor did I ever fancy woman in all
respects better, if this doubt had not arisen ; assuring
you that for the singular virtues wherewith she is indued,
besides the consideration of her noble family, I cnuld be
right well contented still to remain with her, if so it
would stand with the will and pleasure of Almighty
God." And thus greatly commending her many and
singular qualities, the king said, " I therefore pray you
with an impartial eye, and with as much dexterity as
lieth in you, that you for your part do handle the matter
for the discharging of both our consciences."
Cranmer excused himself to meddle in so weighty a
matter, and besought the king's highness to cominit the
trial and examining of this matter by the word of (lod,
to the best learned men of both his universities, Cam-
bridge and Oxford. "You say well," said the king,
" and I am content. But yet I will have you especially
to write your mind therein." And so calling the earl of
Wiltshire to him, said, " I pray you, my lord, let
Doctor Cranmer have entertainment in your house at
Durham-place for a time, that he may be there quiet to
accomplish my request, and let him lack neither books,
nor any thing requisite for his study." And thus after
the king's departure, Cranmer went with my lord of
Wiltshire to his house, and he wrote his mind concern-
ing the king's question; adding, besides the authorities
of the scriptures, of general councils, and of ancient
writers, also his opinion, which was this : " That the
bishop of Rome had no such authority, as that he might
dispense with the word of God and the scriptures.''
When Cranmer had made this book, and committed it
to the king, the king said to him: "Will you abide
by this that you have here written before the bisliop of
Rome?" "That will I do, by God's grace,'' an-
swered Cranmer, " if your majesty do send me there.''
" Marry," said the king ; " I will send you even to him
in a sure embassage.'' And thus by means of Cranmer,
not only certain learned men were sent abroad to the
most part of the universities in Christendom, to dispute
the question, but also the same being by commission
disputed by the divines in both the universities of Cam-
bridge and Oxford, it was there concluded, that no such
matrimony was by the word of God lawful.
Upon this a solemn embassage was prepared and
sent to the bishop of Rome — viz. the earl of Wiltshire,
Doctor Cranmer, Doctor Stokesley, Doctor Carne, Doc-
tor Bennet, and other learned men.
When the time came that they should come before
the bishop of Rome to declare the cause of their embas-
sage, he, sitting on high in his cloth of state, and in
his rich apparel, with his sandals on his feet, offered his
foot to be kissed by the ambassadors ; the earl of Wilt-
shire (who stood first) disdaining to do so, stood still, so
that all the rest kept themselves from that idolatry.
They offered on the king's behalf to defend, that no
man, Ju7-e Divino, could or ought to marry his brother's
wife, and that the bishop of Rome by no means ought to
dispense to the contrary. Promises were made, and
days appointed, in which the question should have been
disputed, and when our embassage was ready to answer,
no man appeared to dispute against tliem. So in the
end, the pope, shewing to our ambassadors good coun-
tenance, and gratifying Cranmer with the office of the
penitentiaryship, dismissed them.
Upon this, the earl of Wiltshire, and the other com-
missioners, except Cranmer, returned into England.
And forthwith Cranmer went to the emperor, to answer
such learned men of the emjieror's council, as would or
could say any thing against the divorce. Amongst the
rest, was Cornelius Agrippa. a high officer in the
emperor's court, who having private conference with
3 M
896
AN ACCOUNT OF DOCTOR CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. [Book XI.
Cranmer on the question, was so fully resolved and sa-
tisfied in the matter, that there was never disputation
openly offered to Cranmer in tliat belialf.
This matter thus prospering, Warham, then arch-
bisliop of Canterbur)', departed this transitory life, by
whieh that dignity being in the king's gift and disposal,
was immediately given to Cranmer.
At tiie time of the Six Articles, mention was made be-
fore in the history of King Henry VI II. how adventur-
ously Cranmer opjiosed himself, standing, as it were,
alone, against tlie whole parliament, disputing and reply-
ing three days together against the said articles. Inso-
much, that the king, when neither lie could dislike his
reasons, and yet would needs have these articles to pass,
required him to absent himself for the time out of the
chamber, while the act should pass.
After the apprehension of the lord Cromwell, when
the adversaries of the gospel thought all things sure on
their side, it was so arranged amongst them, that ten or
twelve bishops, and other learned men, joined together
in commission, came to the archbishop of Canterbury
for the establishing of certain articles of our religion,
which the papists then thought to win to their purpose
against the archbishop. For Lord Cromwell, being
gone, they thought all things safe and sure for ever ;
but Cranmer stood alone against them all in the defence
of the truth ; and those that he most trusted to, namely,
Bishop Heath, and Bishop Skip left him, and so turned
against him, that they took upon them to persuade him
to their purpose ; and taking him from the rest of tlie
commissioners into his garden at Lambeth, there by all
manner of persuasions they intreated him to incline to
the king's intentions, who was fully determined to have
it. When those two, with other friends, had used all
their eloquence and policy, he said to them —
" You make much ado to have me come to your pur-
pose, alleging that it is the king's pleasure to have the
articles enforced as you have devised them ; and now
that you perceive his highness to be bent that way, you
think it convenient to apply to his highness' mind.
You are my friends both. Beware what you do. There
is but one truth in our articles to be concluded upon,
which if you do hide from his highness, by consenting to
a contrary doctrine, and then in process of time, when
the truth cannot be hid from him, his highness shall
perceive how you have dealt with him, I icnow his grace's
nature so well, that he will never after trust and credit
you, or put any good confidence in you. And as you
are both my friends, so therefore I wish you to beware
in time, and discharge your consciences in maintenance
of the truth." All this would not serve, for they still
persisted ; but Cranmer discharged his conscience and
declared the truth unto the king, and God so wrought with
the king, that his highness joined with him against the
rest, so that the book of articles passed on his side, con-
trary to all their expectations.
Notwithstanding, not long after that, certain of the
council, whose names need not be repeated, by the
enticement and provocation of his ancient enemy the
bishop of Winchester, and others of the same sect, en-
deavoured to prejudice the king against him, declaring
plainly, th!;t the realm was so infected with heresies
and heretics, that it was dangerous for his highness far-
ther to permit it unreformed, lest peradventure by long
suffering, such contention should arise, and ensue in the
realm among his subjects, that thereby might spring
horrible commotions, and uproars, as in some parts of
Germany it did not long ago. The enormity whereof
they could not impute to any so much, as to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury, who by his own preaching, and
his chaplains, had filled the whole realm full of many
pernicious heresies. The king desired to know his ac-
cusers. They answered that as he was a counsellor, no
man durst take upon him to accuse him ; but if it would
please his highness to commH him to the Tower for a
time, there would be accusations and proofs enough
against him, for otherwise just testimony and witness
against him, would not appear, and therefore your high-
ness, said they, must needs give us liberty and leave to
commit him to prison.
, The king, perceiving their importonate suit against
the archbishop, (but yet not intending to have him
wronged, and utterly given over into their hands,)
granted to them that they should the next day commit
him to the Tower to take his trial. When night came,
the king sent Sir Anthony Deny about midnight to
Lambeth to the archbishop, desiring him forthwith to
resort to him at the court. The archbishop speedily
attended at the court, and coming into the gallery
where the king walked, and tarried for him, his highness
said, " Ah, my lord of Canterbury, I can tell you news !
For weighty considerations it is determined by me, and
the council, that you to-morrow at nine of the clock
shall be committed to the Tower, for you and your
chaplains (as information is given us) have taught and
preached, and thereby sown witliin the realm such a
number of execrable heresies, that it is feared the whole
realm being infected, no small contentions, and com-
motions will arise amongst my subjects, as of late has
occurred in many parts of Germany ; and tlierefore the
council have requested me, for the trial of the matter, to
suffer them to commit you to the Tower.''
When the king had spoken, tlie archbishop kneeled
down and said, " I am content, if it jilease your grace,
with all my heart, to go thither at the command of your
highness, and I most humbly thank your majesty for an
opportunity to come to my trial ; for there are those
that have slandered me, and now 1 hope to prove myself
not worthy of such report."
The king, perceiving the mans righteousness, joined
with such sim]ilicity, said, " O Lord 1 what manner of
man are you ? What simplicity is in you ? 1 had thought
that you would rather have sued to us to have taken the
pains to have heard you and your accusers together for
your trial, without any such imprisonment. Do you i ot
know, what state you are in with the whole world, and
how many gi'eat enemies you liave .' Do you not con-
sider what an easy tiling it is to procure three or four
false knaves to witness against you .-' Think you to have
better luck that way than your master Christ had .' I see
by it you will run lieadloiig to your undoing, if I would
suff'er you. Your enemies shall not so prevail against you,
for I have otherwise devised with myself to keep you out
of their hands. Yet notwithstanding, to-morrow, when
the council shall sit, and send lor you, resort to them, and
if in charging you with tliis matter, they commit you to
the Tower, require of them, because you are one of them,
a counsellor, that you may have your accusers brought
before them without any further imprisonment, and use
for yourself as good persuasions that way as you may
devise ; and if no intreaty or reasonable reijuest will serve,
then deliver to them this my ring (which then the king
delivered unto the archbishop) and say to them, if
there be no remedy, my lords, but that 1 must needs go
to the Tower, then I revoke my cause from you, and
appeal to the king's own person by this his token to you
all; for," said the king then to the archbishop, "so
soon as they shall see this my ring, they know it so well,
that they shall understand that I have resumed the,
whole cause into mine own hands and determination,
and that I have discharged them thereof."
The archbishop perceiving the king's benignity towards
him, had much ado to forbear tears. " Well," said tlie
king, " Go your ways, my lord, and do as I have bidden
you.' Cranmer then with thanks took his leave of the
king's highness for that night.
On the morrow, the council sent a gentleman usher
for the archbishop, who, when he came to the council
chamber-door, could not be let in ; but of purpose (as
it seemed) was compelled there to wait among the pages,
lacques, and serving men all alone. Shortly, the arch-
bishop was called into the council-chamber. The arch-
bishop answered as the king had advised him, and in the
end, when he perceived that no manner of persuasion
could serve, he delivered the king's ring, rel'erring his
cause into the king's hands. The whole council, being
somewhat amazed, immediately arose, and carried to the
king his ring, surrendering the matter, as the custom
was, into his own hands.
When they were all come into the king's presence, his
highness, with a severe countenance, said to them, "Ah,
my lords,, I thought I had had wiser men of my council
1556.]
AN ACCOUNT OF DOCTOR CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
897
than now I find you. WTiat discretion was this in you,
thus to make the primate of the realm, and one of you in
office, to wait at tlie council chamber-door amongst
serving men ? You might have considered that he was
a counsellor as well as you, and you had no such com-
mission of me so to handle him. I was content that you
should try him as a counsellor, and not as a mean sub-
ject. But now I well perceive that things are done
against him maliciously, and if some of you could have
had your wish, you would have tried him to the utmost.
But I do you all to wit, and protest, that if a prince may
be beholden to his subject (and so, solemnly laying his
hand upon his breast) said, by the faith I owe to God, I
take this man here, my lord of Canterbury, to be of all
others a most faithful subject unto us, and one to whom
we are much beholden. ' Then one or two of tiie leaders
of the council, making their excuse, declared, that in re-
questing his imprisonment, it was rather meant for his
trial, and his purgation against the common fame and
slander of the world, than for any malice conceived
against him. "Well, well, my lords," said the king,
" take him and use him well, as he is worthy." "With
that every man caught him by the hand. But his ene-
mies were determined to work his ruin with the king, if
possible. And therefore it was procured by his ancient
enemies, that not only the prebendaries of his cathedral
church in Canterbury, but also the most famous justices
of peace in the shire should accuse him ; which in very
deed was brought to pass, and the articles were delivered
to the king in such a manner as that there must needs
follow to the archbishop, both indignation of the prince,
and condign punishment for his grievous offence com-
mitted by him and his chaplains, in preaching such erro-
neous doctrine within his diocese of Canterbury. This
accusation was delivered to the king by some of the
council. When the king had perused the document, he
wrapt it up, and put it in his sleeve, and finding occa-
sion to solace himself upon the Thames, came with his
barge, fuiuished with his musicians, along by Lambeth
bridge. The noise of the musicians induced the arch-
bishop to resort to the bridge to salute his prince. When
the king perceived him standing at the bridge, he com-
manded the watermen to draw towards the shore, and
BO came straight to the bridge.
" Ah, my chaplain," said the king to the archbishop,
'' come into the barge to me." The archbishop de-
clared to his highness that he would take his own barge
and wait upon his majesty. " No," said the king, "you
must come into my barge, for I have to talk with you."
When the king and the archbishop were set together in the
barge, the king said, " I have news out of Kent for you,
my lord." The archbishop answered, "Good, I hope, if
it please your highness." " Marry (said the king) they
are so good, that I know now the greatest heretic in
Kent," and with that he pulled out of his sleeve the
articles against the archbishop and his preachers, and
gave them to him, desiring him to peruse them. When
the archbishop had read the articles, and saw himself so
uncourteously handled by his own church (I mean of
the prebendaries of his cathedral church, and of such of
his neighbours as he had many ways obliged, I mean
the justices of the peace), it much grieved him. Not-
withstanding, he kneeled down to the king, and besought
his majesty to grant out a commission to whomsoever it
pleased his highness, to ti-y the truth of this accusation.
" In very deed," said the king, " I do so mean, and you
yourself shall be chief commissioner, joined with two or
three more, as you shall think good yourself." " Then
it will be thought," said the archbishop to the king,
" that it is not impartial, if it please your grace, that I
rfiould be mine own judge, and my chaplains also."
After three weeks, it was seen that nothing could be
done, and that the whole was a popish confederacy
against the archbishop, so the king appointed the arch-
bishop to name him a dozen or sixteen of his officers and
gentlemen, such as had discretion, wisdom, and courage,
to whom he gave commission, to search the purses,
chests, and chambers of all those that were suspected
to be of this confederacy, both within the cathedral
church and without, and such letters or writings as they
could find about them, to bring them to the archbishop
and the king.
These men thus appointed, proceeded immediately to
the persons' houses and places, that they were appointed
unto ; and within four hours afterwards the whole con-
spiracy was disclosed, by finding of letters, some from the
bishop of Winchester, some from Doctor London, at
Oxford, and from justices of the shire, with others ; so
that the first beginning, tiie proceeding, and what should
have been the end of their conspiracy, was now made
manifest. Certain chambers and chests of gentlemen of
the sliire were also searched, where also were found let-
ters serving to this jiurpose. Amongst all others, two
letters came into Cranmer's hands, one from the suffragan
of Dover, and another from Doctor Barber, a civilian,
whom tlie archbishop continually retained with him in
his household, as a counsellor in the law. These two
men having been promoted by the archbishop, he had
ever held them in such intimacy, that when the suffragan,
being a prebend of Canterbury, came to him, he always
set him and Barber at his own table, as men in whom
he had much delight and comfort.
When Cranmer had got their letters into his hands,
one day, when the suffragan chanced to come to his
house, he called him into his study, with Doctor Barber,
saying, " Come your ways with me, for I must have
your advice in a matter." When they were with him
in his study, he said to them, " You are men in whom I
have had much confidence, you must now give me some
good counsel, for I am shamefully abused by one or
two to whom I have sliewed all my secrets from time to
time, and trusted them as myself. The matter is so now
fallen out, that they not only have disclosed my secrets,
but also have taken upon them to accuse me of heresy,
and are become witnesses against me. I require, there-
fore, your good advice how I shall behave myself towards
them. You are both my friends, and such as I always
have used when I needed counsel. What say you to the
matter?"
"Marry," quoth Doctor Barber, " such villains and
knaves vrere worthy to be hanged out of hand without
any other law." " Hanging were too good," quoth the
suffragan, " and if there lacked one to do execution, I
would be hangman myself."
At these words the archbishop cast np his hands to
heaven, and said, " Oh Lord, most merciful God, whom
may a man trust now-a-days .-' It is most true which is
said, " Cursed is man that trusteth in man." There
was never man handled as I am : but, O Lord, thou
hast evermore defended me, and given me one great
friend and master (meaning the king), without whose
protection I were not able to stand upright one day ; I
praise thy holy name therefore." And with that he
pulled out of his bosom their two letters, and said,
" Know ye these letters, my masters .-'" With that they
fell down upon their knees, and desired forgiveness, de-
claring how they a year before were tempted to do the
same, and so very lamentably weeping and bewailing
their doings, besought his grace to pardon and forgive
them. "Well," said the gentle archbishop, "God
make you both good men ; I never deserved this at your
hands : but ask God forgiveness, against whom you have
highly offended. If such men as you are not to be
trusted, what should I do alive ? I perceive now, that
there is no fidelity or trust amongst men. I am brought
to this point now, that I fear my left hand will accuse
my right hand. I need not much marvel hereat, for our
Saviour Christ truly prophesied of such a world to come
in the latter days. 1 beseech him of his great mercy to
finish that time shortly." And so departing, he dismissed
them both with gentle and comfortable words. This
was the last attempt tliat was made against the arch-
bishop in King Henry Vlll.'s days: for never after
durst any man move against him. Also, after the death
of King Henry Vlll. under the government of his son,
King Edward VI., the estate of Cranmer (who was god-
father to the young king) was nothing impaired, but
rather more advanced.
During all the time of King Henry, until the entering
of King Edward, it seemed that Cranmer was scarcely
898
AN ACCOUNT OF DR. CRANMEK, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
[Book XI.
yet thoroughly persuaded in the right views of the sacra-
ment, but shortly afterwards, being more confirmed by
conference with Bishop Ridley, he so profited, that at
last he took upon him the defence of that whole doctrine,
that is, to refute first the corporeal presence ; secondly,
the fanciful transubstantiation ; thirdly, the idolatrous
adoration; fourthly, the false error of the papists, that
•wicked men can eat the natural body of Christ ; and,
lastly, the blasphemous sacrifice of the mass. In con-
clusion, he wrote five books for the public instruction
of the church of England, which instruction yet stands
to this day, and is received in this church of England.
Airainst these five books of the archbishop, Stephen
Gardiner, the arch-enemy of the gospel, attempted an
answer.
The archbishop of Canterbury learnedly and copiously
replied to this, and published it abroad to the eyes and
judgments of all men, in print.
Afterwards, King Edward falling sick, wlien he per-
ceived that his death was at hand, and knowing that his
sister Mary was wholly wedded to the popish religion,
bequeathed the succession of this realm to the lady Jane
Grey, a lady of great birth, but of greater learning, being
niece to King Henry VIII. by his sister, with the con-
sent of the council and lawyers of this realm. To this
testament of the king, when all the nobles of the realm,
states and judges had subscribed, they sent for the arch-
bishop, and required him that he also would subscribe.
But he excused himself, saying, that it was otherwise in
the testament of King Henry, his father, and that he
had sworn to the succession of IVIary, as then the next
heir, by which oath he was so bound, that without mani-
fest perjury he could not go from it. The council an-
swered, that they were not ignorant of that, and that
they had a conscience as well as he, and moreover, that
they were sworn to that testament, and therefore he
should not think there was any danger in it, or that he
should be in more peril of perjury than the rest.
To this the archbishop answered, that he was judge
of no man's conscience but his own; and, therefore, as
he would not prejudge others, so he would not commit
his conscience to other men, seeing that every man
should give account of his own conscience, and not of
other men's. And as to subscription, before he had
spoken with the king himself, he utterly refused to do it.
The king, therefore, being asked by the archbishop
concerning this matter, said, that the nobles and lawyers
of the realm counselled him to it, and persuaded him
that the bond of the first testament could not prevent
but that this lady Jane might succeed him as heir, and
the people acknowledge her as their queen. Then de-
manding leave of the king, that he might first talk with
some lawyers that were in the court ; when they all
agreed that by the law of the realm it might be so, he
returned to the king, and subscribed the testament.
Not long after this. King Edward died, being almost
sixteen years old, to the great sorrow, but greater ca-
lamity of the whole realm. After whose decease imme-
diately it was commanded that the lady Jane, who was
very unwilling, should be proclaimed queen. To this
the common ])eople were much opposed, not that they
favoured Mary, but for the hatred they conceived against
some of the lady Jane's supporters.
Besides this, other causes of discord happened be-
tween the nobles and the commons at the same time,
for injuries of commons and enclosures, with other in-
ordinate pollings and uncharitable dealing between the
landlords and tenants. In short, thus the matter fell
out, that Mary hearing of the death of her brother, was
so assisted by the commons, that she soon prevailed,
and being established in the possession of the realm, not
long afcer came to London, and caused the lady Jane,
though tender in age, and innocent from this crime, after
she could by no means be turned from the constancy of
her faith, to be beheaded, together with her husband, as
is before narrated in this history.
The nobles, except the dukes of Northumberland
and Suffolk, on j)aying fines, were forgiven, the arch-
bishop of Canterbury only excepted. Who, though he
desired pardon could obtain none ; insomuch that the
queen would not vouchsafe to see him. For the old
grudge against the archbishop for the divorce of her
mother, still remained rankling in her breast. Besides
this divorce, she remembered the state of religion, all
which was imputed to tlie archbishop as the cause.
Wliile these things were doing, a rumour was exten-
sively spread, that the archbishop, to curry favour with
the queen, had promised to say a dirge mass for the
funeral of King Edward. Neither wanted there some
who reported that he had already said mass at Canter-
bury. To stop this rumour, Cranmer sent forth a writ-
ing, the tenor of which being before expressed, I need
not here recite.
Some copies of this came into the hands of the bishops,
who brought it to the council, and they having sent
it to the commissioners, the matter was known, and
Cranmer w-as commanded to appear.
The archbishop accordingly appeared before the com-
missioners, bringing an inventory, as he was commanded,
of all his goods. That done, a bishop of the queen's
privy council, being one of the commissioners, after the
inventory was received, mentioned the writing : "My
lord," said he, " there is a bill put forth in your name,
wherein you seem to be aggrieved with setting up the
mass again ; we doubt not but you are sorry that it is
gone abroad."
To whom the archbishop answered again, saying, " As
I do not deny myself to be the very author of that bill
or letter, so I must confess to you that I am sorry that
it went from me as it did. For when I had written it.
Master Story got the copy, and it is now come abroad, and
as 1 understand, the city is full of it. For which I am
sorry, that it so passed my hands : for I had intended
otherwise to have made it in a more large and ample
manner, and minded to have set it on St. Paul's church
door, and on the doors of all the churches in London,
with mine own seal joined to it."
At which words, when they saw the constancj' of the
man, they dismissed him, affirming they had no more
at present to say to him, but that shortly he should hear
further. Not long after this, he was sent to the Tower,
and soon after condemned for treason. Notwithstand-
ing the queen, when she could not honestly deny him
his pardon, seeing all the rest were discharged, and
especially seeing he last, of all others, subscribed to King
Edward's request, and that against his own will, released
him from the charge of treason, and accused him only of
heresy ; which pleased the archbishop right well, be-
cause the cause was not his own, but Christ's ; not the
queen's, but the church's. Thus stood the cause of
Cranmer, tiU at length it was determined by the queen
and the council, that he should be removed from the
Tower, where he was prisoner, to Oxford, there to dis-
pute with the doctors and divines. And word was
sent before to them of Oxford to prepare themselves,
and make them ready to dispute. And although the
queen and the bishops had concluded before what should
become of him, yet it pleased them that the matter
should be debated with arguments, that under some
show of disputation t'ne murder of the man might be
covered.
What this disputation was, and how it was handled,
what were the questions and reasons on both sides, and
also touching his condemnation by the university and
the prolocutor, sufficient has been before declared. We
now, therefore, proceed to liis final judgment and order
of condemnation, which was on the 12th of September,
A.D. 15').5, and seven days before the condemnation of i.
Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer. The account here
follows, faithfully corrected by the report and narration
of one, who, being both present at it, and also a devout
favourer of the see and faction of Rome, cannot but be
credited by the members of that phurch.
After the disputations in Oxford between the doctors of
both universities, and Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, you
heard how sentence condemnatory was passed against :
them, by which they were judged to be heretics, and com-
mitted to the mayor and sheriffs of Oxford. But as the
sentence was void in law, for at that time the authority '
of the pope was not yet received into the laud, thevcfor-j
I
A.D. 1556.]
THE FAITH AND PROTESTATION OF DR. CRANMER,
899
a new commission was sent from Rome, and a new pro-
cess tVaiTied for the conviction of these reverend and
godly men.
At the coming down of the commissioners, which was
on Thursday, tlie 12tii of September, A.D. 1555, in the
church of St. Mary, and in the east end of the church
at the high altur, was erected a solemn scaffold for
Bishop Br oks, re])resenting the pope, ten feet high.
The s.Mt was made that he might sit under the sacra-
mj!nt of the altar ; and on the right hand of the pope's
delegate, beneath him, sat Doctor iNIartin, and on the
left hand sat Dr. Story, the king and cp.ieen's commis-
sioners, who were both doctors of the civil law, and un-
derneath them other doctors, scribes, and Pharisees
also, with the pope's collector, and a number of such
like officials.
And tlius these bishops, being placed in their pontifical
robes, the archbishop of Canterbury was sent for. He
came out of the prison to the church of St. Mary, sur-
rounded with armed men, for fear he should escape ;
being clothed in a black gown, with his hood on both
shoulders, such as doctors of divinity in the university
use to wear. After he was come into the clinrch, and
saw them sitting in their pontifical robes, he did not
put oft" his cap to any of them, but stood still till he was
called. Then one of the proctors for the pope called
for Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, to appear and
make answer to what should be laid to his charge ; that
is to say, for blasphemy, incontinency, and heresy.
Upon this, he was brought nearer to the scaffold,
where the bishop, who represented the pope, sat ; he
tiien first viewed the place of judgment, and seeing
where the king and queen's majesties' proctors were,
putting off his cap, he first humbly bowing his knee to
the ground, made reverence to the one, and afterwards
to the other.
That done, looking the bishop in the face, he put on
his bonnet again, making no token of obedience to him
at all. The bishop being offended, said to him, that it
might become him, weighing the authority he repre-
sented, to do his duty to him. Doctor Cranmer answered,
" That he had once taken a solemn oath, never to con-
sent to the admitting of the bishop of Rome's authority
into this realm of England ; and that he had done it ad-
visedly, and meant, by God's grace, to keep it ; and
therefore would commit nothing, either by sign or token,
which might argue his consent to the receiving of it ;
and so he desired the bishop to judge of him, and that
he did it not for any contempt to his person, which he
could have been content to have ionoured as well as any
other, if his commission had come from as good an
authority as theirs.'' Thif; he answered botli modestly,
wisely, and patiently, with his cap on his head, not once
bowing or making any reverence to him that represented
the pope's person, which was greatly marked by the
people that were there present.
When they perceived that the archbishop would not
move his bonnet, the bishop proceeded as follows : —
" ily lord, at this present we are come to you as
commissioners, and for you, not intruding ourselves by
our own authority, but sent by commission, partly from
the pope's holiness, partly from the king and queen's
most excellent majesties, not to your utter discomfort,
but to your comfort if you will yourself. We come not
to judge you, but to put you in remembrance of what
you have been, and shall be. Neither come we to dis-
])ute with you, but to examine you in certain matters ;
which being done, to make relation to him that has
power to judge you." And then this bishop proceeded
to exhort Cranmer to return to the church of Rome, and
revoke the opinions he had taught. After him, Dr. Mar-
tin also addressed Cranmer ou the distinction between
the civil and ecclesiastical power.
When Doctor ]Martin had ended his oration, the
archbishop began, as follows : —
Craimier. — " Shall I then make my answer ?''
Martin. — " As you think good, no man shall hinder
you."
Here the archbishop, kneeling down on both knees
towards the west, said first the Lord's prayer, then
rising up he recited the articles of the creed, which done,
he commenced with his protestation in form as follows ;
The Faith and Protestation of Doctor Cranmer, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, before the Commissioners.
" Tliis I do profess concerning my faith, and make my
protestation, which I desire you to note. I will never
consent that the bishop of Rome shall have any jurisdic-
tion within this realm.''
Story. — " Take a note of that."
Martin. — " Mark how you answer. You refuse him,
by whose laws you remain in life, being otherwise at-
tainted of high treason."
Cranmer. — " I protest, before God, I was no traitor,
but at my arraignment I pleaded guilty to more than was
true."
Martin. — " That is not to be reasoned about at pre-
sent. You know you were condemned for a traitor ; but
proceed."
Cranmer. — " I will never consent to the supremacy of
the bishop of Rome ; for I have made an oath to the
king, and I must obey the king, by God's laws. By the
scripture the king is chief, and no foreign person in bis
realm is sbove him. There is no subject but to a king.
I am a subject ; I owe my fidelity to the crown. The
pope is contrary to the crown. I cannot obey both ;
for no man can serve twci masters at once ; as you in
the beginning of your oration declared by the sword and
keys, attributing the keys to the pope, and the sword to
the king. But I say the king has both. Therefore, he
that is subject to Rome, and the laws of Rome, is a per-
jured man ; for the laws of the pope and the judges aie
contrary to each other. A priest breaking the laws
of the realm, shall be sued before a temporal judge ; by
the pope's laws the contrary is settled. The jjope does
the king injury, in that he hath his power from the pope.
The king is head in his own realm : but the pope
claims all bishops, priests, curates, ike. So the pope in
every realm has a realm.
" Again, by the laws of Rome the benefice must be
given by the bishop ; by the laws of the realm, the
patron gives the benefice. Here the laws are as contrary
as fire and water.
" No man can by the laws of Rome proceed in aprce-
mvnire, and thus the law of the realm is expelled, and
the king stands accursed in maintaniing has own laws.
" The bishop of Rome is contrary to God, and in-
jurious to his laws ; for God commands all men to be
diligent in the knowledge of his law ; and therefore has
appointed one holy day in the week at the least, for all
people to come to church and hear the word of God ex-
pounded to them, and that they might the better un-
derstand it, to hear it in their mother tongue which they
know. The pope does the contrary ; for he commands
the service to be said in the Latin tongue, which they do
not understand. God would have it understood ; the
pope will not. When the priest gives thanks, God would
that the people should do so too, and God wills them to
confess altogether ; the pope will not.
" Now, as concerning the sacrament, I have taught no
false doctrine respecting the sacrament of the altar : for
if it can be proved by any doctor within a thousand years
after Christ, that Christ's body is there really present, I
will give over. My book was written seven years ago,
and no man has brought any authors against it. I be-
lieve that whoso eateth and drinketh that sacrament,
Christ is in them, a whole Christ, his nativity, passion,
resurrection, and ascension ; but not that corporeally
which sitteth in heaven.
" Now, Christ commands all to drink of the cup ; the
pope takes it away from the laymen. Christ enjoin? us
to obey the king. The bishop of Rome directs us to obey
him ; therefore, unless he be antichrist, I cannot tell
what to make of him ; for if I should obey him, I cannot
obey Christ.
" He is like the devil in his doings ; for the devil said
to Christ ; if thou wilt fall down and worship me, I will
give thee all the kingdoms of the world. Thus he took
upon him to give that which was net Lis own. Even
900
INTERROGATORIES OBJECTED AGAINST DR. CRANMER.
[Book, XI.
so, the bishop of Rome gives princes their crowns, being
none of his to give ; for where princes, either by election,
or by succession, or by inheritance, obtain their crown,
he saith that tliey should have it from him.
" Christ saith, that antichrist shall appear. And who
shall he be ? He that advances himself above all other
creatures. Now, if there be no one already that has ad-
vanced himself after such sort, besides the pope, then in
the mean time let him be antichrist."
Story. — " Pleases it you to make an end?"
Cranmer. — " For he will be the vicar of Christ, he
will dispense with the Old and New Testament also, yea,
and with apostasy.
" Now I have declared why I cannot, with my con-
science, obey the pope. 1 speak not this from any hatred
I bear to him who now supplies his place ; for I know
him not. I pray God to give him grace not to follow
his ancestors. Neither say I this for my defence ; but
to declare my conscience for the zeal that I bear to God s
word, trodden under foot by the bishop of Rome. I cast
fear apart, for Christ said to his apostles, that in the
latter days they should suffer much sorrow, and be put
to death for his name's sake : ' fear not them,' saith he,
' which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul :
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell.' Also Christ saith, ' Whosoever will
save his life shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his
life for my sake shall find it.' Moreover, he tells us to
' confess him before men, and be not afraid; for if we do
so, he will stand with us ; if we shrink from him he will
shrink from us.' This* is a comfortable and terrible
saying, this makes me to set all fear apart. I say, there-
fore, the bishop of Rome treads under foot God's laws
and the king's.
" The pope would give bishoprics ; so would the
king. But at last the king got the upper hand, and so
are all bishops perjured ; first to the pope, and then
to the king.
" The crown has nothing to do with the clergy ! If a
clerk come before a judge, and the judge shall make
process against him, but not to execute any laws ! If
the judge should put him to exe.";ution, then is the king
accursed in mainta.ning his own laws ! Therefore, I
say, that he is neither true to God nor true to the king,
that first received the pope. But I shall heartily pray
for such counsellors as may inform the queen the truth ;
for the king and queen, if they be well informed, will do
well.''
Martin. — " As you understand, then, if they maintain
the supremacy of Rome, they cannot maintain England
too."
Cranmer. — " I require you to declare to the king and
queen what I have said, and how their oaths stand with
the realm and the pope. St. Gregory saith, he that
taketh upon him to be head of the universal church, is
worse than the antichrist. If any man can shew me
that it is not against God's word to hold his stirrup
when he takes his horse, and kiss his feet, as kings do,
then will I kiss his feet also. And you, for your part,
my lord, are perjured ; for now you sit as judge for the
pope, and yet you did receive your bishoprick from the
king. You have taken an oath to be an adversary to the
realin ; for the pope's laws are contrary to the laws of
the realm."
Gloucester. — " You were the cause that I forsook the
pope, and did swear that he ought not to be supreme
head, and gave it to King Henry VIII. ; this you made
me to do."
Cranmer. — "To that I answer; you report me ill,
and say not the truth, and I will prove it here before
you all. The truth is, that my i)redecessor, bishop
Warham, gave the supremacy to King Henry VIII.,
and said that he ought to have it before the bishop of
Rome, and that God's word would justify him. And
men were sent to both the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, to know what the word of God would say
concerning the supremacy, and it was reasoned upon,
and argued at length. So at last both the universities
agreed, and set to their seals, and sent it to King Henry
to the court, that he ought to be supreme head, and not
the pope. You were then doctor of divinity at that
time, aud your consent was given to it, as by your hand
appears. Therefore you misreport me, that I was the
cause of your falling away from the pope ; for it was
your own act. All this was in Bishoj) Warham's time,
aud whilst he was alive : so that it was three quarters of
a year before I had the archbishopric of Canterbury in
my hands, and before I could do any thing. So that here
you have reported of me that which you cannot prove."
Gloucester. — " We come to examine you, and you, me-
think, examine us."
Story.—" Pleaseth it your lordship, because it hath
pleased the king and queen's majesties to appoint my
coinpauion and me to hear the examination of this man
before your lordship, to give me leave somewhat to talk
in that behalf. Although I know that in talk with here-
tics there cometh hurt to all men ; for it wearieth the
steadfast, troubleth the doubtful, and taketh in snare the
weak aud simple : yet, because he saith he is not bound
to answer your lordship sitting for the pope's holiness,
because of a prcenmnire, and the word of God as he
termeth it ; I think good to say somewhat, that all meu
may see how he runneth out of his race of reason into
the rage of common talk, such as here I trust hath done
much good. And as the king and queen's majesties will
be glad to hear of your most charitable deaUng with
him ; so will they be weary to hear the blundering of
this stubborn heretic. And where he allegeth divinity,
mingling./rt* nefasque together, he should not have been
heard. He hath alleged many matters against the su-
premacy of the pope, maliciously. Y'ou say that the
king in his realm is supreme head of the church. Well,
sir, vou will grant me that there was a perfect catholic
church before any king was christened. Then, if it were
a perfect church, it must needs have ahead, which must
needs be before any king was member thereof; for you
know Constantiue the emperor was the first christened
king that ever was. And although you are bound (as
St. Paul saith) to oboy your rulers, and Icings have rule
over the j)eople, yet doth it not follow that they have
cure of souls : for, a Joriiori, the head may do wliat the
minister cannot do ; but the priest may consecrate, and
the king cannot, therefore the king is not head.
" Now as concerning that talk of your conscience,
that is no conscience that you profess ; and as yet for all
your babble, you have not proved by God's laws that
you ought not to answer the pope's holiness.''
This Doctor Story said much more to the same effect,
as did also Doctor Martin, after which certain inter-
rogatories were administered by the commissioners.
Inte.rrofjatories objected to the Archbishop, with his
Answers.
First it was objected, that he, the aforesaid Thomas
Cranmer, being yet free, and before he entered into holy
orders, married one Joan, surnamed Black, or Brown,
dwelling at the sign of the dolphin, in Cambridge.
Whereunto he answered, that whether she was called
Black or Brown, he knew not, but that he married there
one Joan, that he granted.
2. That after the death of the aforesaid wife, he en-
tered into holy orders, and after that was made arch-
bishop by the pope.
He received, he said, a certain bull of the pope,
which he delivered unto the king, and was made arch-
bishop by him.
.{. That he, being in holy orders, married another
woman as his second wife, named Anne, aud so was
twice married.
To this he acknowledged.
4. In the time of King Henry VIII. he kept the said
wife secretly, and had children by her.
Hereunto he also granted ; affirming that it was better
for him to have his own, than to do like other priests,
holding and keeping other men's wives.
5. In the time of King Edward VI., he brought out
the said wife openly, aflfirming and professing publicly
the same to be his wife.
He denied not but he so did, and lawfully might do
I
A.D. 1556.]
INTERROGATORIES OBJECTED AGAINST DOCTOR CRANMER.
901
the same, forasmuch as the laws of the veahn did so per-
mit him.
6. That he was not ashamed openly to glory that he
had his wife in secret many years.
And though he so did, he said, there was no cause
why lie should be ashamed thereof.
7. Tliat the said Thomas Cranmer falling afterwards
into the deep bottom of errors, did fly and refuse the
authority of the church, did hold and follow the heresy
concerning the sacrament of the altar, and also did com-
pile, and cause to be set abroad several books.
Whereuato when the names of the books were recited
to him, he denied no such books which he was the author
of. As to"ching the treatise of Peter Martyr upon the
sacrament, he denied that he ever saw it before it was
abroad, yet did approve and like the same. As for the
Catechism, the IBook of Articles, with the other book
against Winchester, he granted the same to be his
doings.
8. That he compelled many against tlieir wills to sub-
scribe to the same articles.
He exhorted (he said) such as were willing to sub-
scribe ; but against their wills he compelled none.
9. Forsomuch as he ceased not to perjietuate enormous
and inordinate crimes, he was therefore cast into the
Tower, and from thence was brouglit to Oxford, at what
time it was commonly thought that the parliament there
should be holnen.
To this he said, that he knew no such enormous and
inordinate crimes that ever he committed.
10. That in the said city of Oxford he did openly
maintain his heresy, and there was convicted upon the
same.
He defended, he said, there, the cause of the sacrament,
but that he was convicted in the same, that he denied.
11. When he persevered still in the same, he was by
the public censure of the University pronounced a here-
tic, and his books to be heretical.
That he was so denounced, he denied not; but that he
was a heretic, or his books heretical, that he denied.
12. That he was and is notoriously a promoter of
schism, as one who not only himself receded from the
Catholic church and the see of Rome, but also moved the
king and subjects of this realm to the same.
As touching the receding, that he freely granted ; but
that receding or departing (said he) was only from the
see of Rome, and had in it no matter of any schism.
l.S. That he had been twice sworn to the pope; and
Doctor Martin brought out the instrument of the public
notary, wherein was contained his protestation made
when he should be consecrated, asking if he had pro-
tested any thing else.
He answered, that he did nothing but by the laws of
the realm.
14. That he, the said archbishop of Canterbury, did
not only offend in the premises, but also in taking upon
him the authority of the see of Rome, in that vs'ithout
leave or licence from the said see, he consecrated bishops
and priests. ,
He granted, that he did execute such things as were
wont to be referred to the pope, at the time when it was
permitted to him by the public laws and determination of
the realm.
15. That when the whole realm had subscribed to the
authority of the pope, he only still persisted in his error.
That he did not admit the pope's authority, he con-
fessed to be true, but that he erred in the same, that he
denied.
16. That all and singular the premises are true.
That likewise he granted, excepting those things
whereunto he had now answered.
After he had thus answered to the objections, the
judges and commissioners, as having now accomplished
that for which they came, were about to rise up and
depart. But the bishop of Gloucester thinking it not
the best so to dismiss the people, being somewhat stirred
with the words of the archbishop, began in the hearing of
the people, thus to declaim:
"Master Cranmer, (I cannot otherwise term you,
considering your obstinacy) I am right sorry, I am right
heartily sorry to hear such words escape your mouth so
unadvisedly. 1 had conceived a right good hope of your
amendment. 1 supposed that this obstinacy of yours
came not of a vain glory, but rather of a corrupt con-
science, which was the occasion that I hoped so well of
your return. But now I perceive by your foolish babble,
that it is far otherwise. You are so puffed up with vain
glory, there is such a heresy crept into your conscience,
that 1 am clean void of hope, and my hope is turned into
perdition.
" Although I would of myself reason with you, to
satisfy tliis audience, yet may I not by our com-
mission, neitlier can I tind how I may do it by the
Scriptures : for the apostle doth command that such a
one should not only not be talked with, but also shunned
and avoided.
"Nevertheless, although I do not intend to reason with
you, but to give you up as an al)ject and outcast from
God's favour, yet because you have uttered, to the an-
noyance of the people, such pestilent heresies as may do
harm among some who are rude and uidearned, 1 think
meet to say somewhat; not because I hope to have any
good at your hands, which I would willingly wish, but
that I may establish the simple people which are here
present, lest they, being seduced by your diabolical doc-
trine, may perish thereby."
He then endeavoured to vindicate his own proceed-
ing, and when he ceased, Dr. Martin said:
"You, master Cranmer, have made a goodly pro-
cess concerning your heretical oath made to the king,
but you forget your oath made to the see apostolic.
As concerning your oath made to the king, if you
made it to him only, it came to an end by his
death, and so you are released from it; if you made
it to his successors, the true successors have the
empire, and they desire you to dissolve the same, and
become a member of Christ's church again, and it stands
well with charity.''
To this the archbishop answered, but the reporter,
being a papist, has omitted the answer and returns to
the words of Doctor Story, who imperiously turning to
the archbishop said:
" Hold your peace, sir, and so shall it right well be-
come you, considering that I gave you license before to
say your fancy. Your oath was no oath : for it lacked
the three points of an oath."
They then proceeded with the form of examining wit-
nesses, and the archbishop was commanded again to the
place from whence he came. At his departing, as at his
coming in, he made obeisance to Doctor Martin, and to
Doctor Story, the queen's commissioners. Then Doctor
Story pointing to him the bishop of Gloucester who
represented the pope, said that he ought rather to give
reverence to him. But the archbishop departing without
giving any obeisance to the bishop, all the others rose up,
and went every one to his own residence. And thus
broke up the session for that day.
During the examination Doctor Martin had demanded
of him, who was the supreme head of the church of
England?
"Marry," said my lord of Canterbury, " Christ is head
of this member, as he is of the whole body oi the uni-
versal church."
"Why,'" replied Dr. Martin, "you made king Heniy
VIII. supreme head of the church.''
"Yea," said the Archbishop, "of all the people of
England, as well ecclesiastical as temporal."
"And not of the church.' ' said Martin.
"No,'" said he, "for Christ is only the head of his
church, and of the faith and religion of the same : the
kins is head and governor of his people, which are the
visible church."
"■What, ' said Martin, "you never durst tell the king
so."
"Yes, that I durst,'' replied Cranmer, "and did in
the pubhcation of his style, wherein he was named
supreme head of the church, there was never other thing
meant. '
902
SENTENCE OF DEGRADATION PASSED ON CRANMER.
[Book XI.
Doctor Thirlehj, and Doctor Bonner , appointed as a new
Commission to sit upon the Archbishop, on the Wth day
of February.
The letter or sentence definitive of the pope, was dated
about the first day of January, and was delivered here
in England about the middle of February. Upon the
receipt of which another session was appointed, and the
archbishop summoned to appear on the 14th day of
February, before certain commissioners directed down
by the queen ; the chief of whom was the bisho]) of Ely,
Doctor Thirleby. Concerning which Doctor Thirlcy it
is here to be observed, that although he was not the arch-
bishop's household chaplain, yet he was so familiarly
acquainted with him, so dearly beloved, so inwardly ac-
cepted and advanced by him (not like a chaplain, but
rather like a brother) that there was never any thing in
the archbishop's house so dear, were it plate, jewel,
horse, maps, books, or any thing else, but if Thirley did
ever so little commend it, the archbishop by and by, either
gave it to him, or else sent it after him to his house. So
greatly was the archbishop attached to him, that whoever
would obtain any thing of him, most commonly would
uiake their suit first to Doctor Thirleby.
With the bishop- of Ely, was also assigned in the same
commission, Bonner, bishop of London, who coming to
Oxford upon St. Valentine's day, as the pope's delegates,
with a new commission from Rome, commanded the
archbishop to come before them, in the choir of Christ's-
church, before the high altar, where they sat in their
pontifical robes. They first began, as the custom was,
to read their commission : wherein it was contained, how
that in the court of Rome all things being examined,
both the articles laid to his charge, with tlie answers
made to them, and witnesses examined on both parts,
and council heard as well on the king and queen's behalf,
as on the behalf of Thomas Cranmer, so that he wanted
nothing appertaining to his necessary defence, &c. as it
was in reading: " Oh," said the archbishop, "what lies
are these, that I being continually in prison, and never
suffered to have council or advocate at home, should
produce witness and appoint my council at Rome ? God
must needs punish this open and shameless lying."' They
read on the commission, Plenitudine protestatis, sup-
plying all manner of defects in law or process, and giving
them full authority to proceed to deprivation and de-
gradation, and so upon excommunication to deliver him
up to the secular power, without any appeal.
When the commission was read, they proceeded to his
degradation ; they first clothed and disguised him, put-
ting on him a surplice, and then an albe ; after that the
vestment of a subdeacon, and every other furniture, as a
priest ready to mass.
When they had apparelled him so far ; " What," said
he, " I think I shall say mass."
" Yea," said Cousins, one of Bonner's chaplains,
" My lord, I trust to see you say mass for all this."
" Do you so ?" said he, " that shall you never see,
nor will I ever do it."
Then they invested him with all manner of robes used
by a bishop and archbishop, at their installation, saving
that as every thing then is most rich and costly, so every
thing on this occasion was canvas and old cloth, with a
mitre and a pall of die same kind put on him in mockery,
and then the crosier-staff was put in his hand.
This done after the pope's pontifical form and manner,
Bonner, who by the space of many years had borne as it
seemed, no great good will towards him, and now re-
joiced to see this day wherein he mit;ht triumph over him,
and take his jjleasure at full, began to use all his elo-
quence, making his oration to the assembly after this
manner.
" This is the man that hath ever despised the pope's
holiness, and now is to be judged by him. This is the
man that hath pulled down so many churches, and now
is come to be judged in a church. This is the man that
contemned the blessed sacrament of the altar, and now
is come to be condemned before that blessed sacrament
honging over the altar. This is the man that, like Luci-
fer, sat iu the place of Christ upou au altar to judge
others, and now is come before an altar to be judged
himself."
After all this mockery was finished, they began to de-
grade him, and first proceeded to take from him his
crosier staff out of his hands, which he held fast and re-
fused to deliver, and imitating the example of Martin
Luther, pulled an apjjcal out of his left sleeve under the
wrist, which he there and then delivered to them, saying,
I appeal to the next general council ; and herein I have
comprehended my cause and form of it, which I desire
may be admitted ; and prayed divers of the standers by,
by name, to be witnesses.
This appeal being put up to the bishop of Ely, he said,
" jNIy lord, our commission is to proceed against you,
without any appeal, and therefore we cannot admit it."
" Why," said he, " then you do me the more wrong:
for my case is not as every private man's case. The
matter is between the pope and me, and none other :
and I think no man ought to be a judge in his own
cause."
" Well," replied Ely, " if it may be admitted it
shall," and so he received it from him. And then he
began to persuade earnestly with the archbishop to con-
sider his state, and to weigh it well, while there was time,
promising to become a suitor to the king and queen for
him ; and so protested his great love and friendship that
had been between them, heartily weeping, so thjlt for
a time he could not go on. The archbishop gently re-
plied, he was very well content, and so they proceeded
to his degradation : the perfect form whereof, with all
the rites and ceremonies, was taken out of the pope's
pontifical.
When they came to take off his pall (which is a solemn
vesture of an archbishoj)) Cranmer said, " \^ hich of
you has a pall, to take off my pall ?" Which imported as
much as that they being his inferiors, could not degrade
him. One of them said, in that as they were but bishops,
they were his inferiors, and not competent judges : but
being the pope's delegates, they might take his j)all, and
so forthwith they took every thing from him. Then a
barber clipped his hair round about, and the bishop
scraped the tops of his fingers where he had been
anointed, wherein bishop Bonner behaved himself as
roughly and unmannerly as the other bishop was soft and
gentle. Last of all they stripped him out of his gown to
his jacket, and put upon him a poor yeoman beadle's
gown, both bare and slovenly made as one could see,
and a towns-man's cap on his head, and so delivered him
to the secular j)ower.
After this pageant of degradation, and all was finished,
then spake loid Bonner, '• Now are you no lord any
more :" and so whenever he sjiake to the people of him
he used this term, " This gentleman here, &c." Thus
attired, Cranmer was conveyed to ])rison, exciting the
comjiassion and pity of every beholder.
While the archbishop was in prison, (where he had
been kept now for almost the space of three years) the
doctors and divines of Oxford busied themselves about
him to induce him to i-ecant, trying by all crafty practices
and allurements how they might bring their purpose to
pass. And to the intent they might win him easily, they
invited him to the dean's house of Cbrist's-church, in the
university, where lie lacked no delicate fare, played at
the bowls, had his pleasure for walking, and all other
things that might bring him from Christ. Over and be-
sides all this, they secretly suborned men, who when
they could not refute him by arguments and dispu-
tation, should by entreaty and fair promises, or any
other means allure liim to recant ; perceiving otherwise
what a great wound tluy would receive, if the archbishop
stood steadfast in his jirofession : and, again, on the
other side, how great profit they would get, if he, as the
principal standard-bearer, should be overthrown. By
reason of which the wily jjajiists flocked about him, with
threatening, flattering, intrtating, jiromising, and all
other means.
First, they set forth how acceptable it would be both
to the king and queen, and especially how gainful to
him, and for his soul's health the same would be. Tiiey
added, moreover, how the council and the noblciuen.
A.D, IS^iC]
THE RECANTATION OF DOCTOR CRANMER.
SOS
bore him good will. They put him in hope, that he
should not only have his life, but also be restored to his
ancient dignity, saying, it was but a small matter, and
so easy that they required him to do, only tiiat he would
subscribe to a few words wilh his own hand ; which if
he did. there should be nothing in the realm that the
fiueen would not easily grant him, whether he would
liive riches or dignity, or else if he had rather live a pri-
rate life in retirement, in whatsoever place he desired,
cithout any public ministry, only that he would set his
name in two words to a little leaf of paper ; but if he re-
fused, there was no hope of pardon : for the queen was
so j)urposed, that she would have Cranmer a catholic,
or else no Cranmer at all. Therefore he should choose
whether he thought it better to end his life shortly in the
flames now ready to be kindled, than with much honour
to prolong his life, until the course of nature did call
Lim, for there was no middle way.
Moreover, they exhorted him that he would look to
his wealth, his estimation and quietness, saying, that he
was not so old, but that many years might yet remain to
him in this life ; and if he would not do it in respect of
the queen, yet he might do it for his own sake, and not
suffer that other men should be more careful for his
health, than he was himself ; saying, that this was agree-
able to his notable learning and virtues ; vthich being
joined with his life would be profitable both to himself
and to many others ; but being extinct by death, would
be fruitful to no man : that he should take good heed
that he went not too far ; yet there was time enough
safely to restore all things, and nothing was wanting, if
he wanted not to himself. Therefore they exhorted him
to lay hold upon the occasion of his health while it was
offered, lest if he now refused it while offered, he might
hereafter seek it when he could not have it.
Finally, if the desire of life did nothing move him, yet
he should remember that to die is grievous at all times,
especially in these his years and flower of dignity it
were more grievous : but to die in the fire and such tor-
ments, is most grievous of all. "With these and like
persuasions these fair flatterers ceased not to solicit and
urge him, using all means they could to draw him to
their side ; whose force his manly constancy did a great
while resist. But at last when they made no end of call-
ing and enticing him, the archbishop being overcome,
whether through their importunity, or by his own imbe-
cility, or of what mind I cannot tell, at length put
his hand to his recantation ; of which the following is a
copy.
"I, Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Canterbury,
do renounce, abhor, and detest all manner of heresies
and errors of Luther and Zuinglius, and all other teach-
ings which are contrary to sound and true doctrine.
And I believe most constantly in my heart, and with my
mouth I confess one holy and catholic church visible,
without which there is no salvation ; and thereof I ac-
knowledge the bishop of Rome to be supreme head in
earth, whom I acknowledge to be the highest bishop and
pope, and Christ's vicar, unto whom all christian people
ought to be subject.
" And as concerning the sacraments, I believe and
worship in the sacrament of the altar the very body and
blood of Christ, being contained most truly under the
forms of bread and wine ; the bread tlirough the mighty
power of God being turned into the body of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, and tiie wine into his blood.
" And in the other si.x sacraments also (like as in this)
I believe and hold as the universal churcli holdeth, and
the church of Rome judgeth and deterniineth.
" Furthermore, I believe that there is a place of pur-
gatory, where souls departed are punished for a time, for
whom the church doth godly and wholesomely pray, like
as it doth honour saints and make prayers to them.
" Finally, in all things I profess, that 1 do not other-
wise believe, than the catholic church and church of
Rome holds and teaches. 1 am sorry that ever I held
or thought otherwise. And I beseech Almighty God,
that of his mercy he will vouchsafe to forgive me, what-
soever I have offended against God or his church, and
also I desire and beseech all christian people to pray
for me.
" And all such as have been deceived either by my ex-
ample or doctrine, I require them by the blood of Jesus
Christ, that they will return to the unity of the ciiurch,
that we may be all of one mind, without schism or
division.
" And to conclude, as I submit myself to the catho-
lic church of Christ, and to t}\e supreme head thereof,
so I submit myself unto the most excellent majesties of
Philip and IMary, King and Queen of this realm of Eng-
land, &c. and to all other their laws and ordinances,
being ready always as a faithful subject ever to obey
tlieiii. And God is my witness, that I have not done
this for favour or fear of any person, but willingly and of
mine own mind, as well to the discharge of my own con-
science, as to the instruction of others."
This recantation of the archbishop was no sooner
written, than the doctors and prelates without delay
caused it to be printed, and sent abroad in all men's
hands. The queen, having now got a time to revenge
her old grief, received his recantation very gladly : but
of her purpose to put him to death she would not relent.
Cranmer was now in a miserable state, neither in-
wardly had he any quietness in his own conscience, nor
yet outwardly any help in his adversaries.
Besides this, on one side was praise, on the other side
scorn, on both sides danger, so that he could neither die
honestly, nor yet dishonestly live. And where he sought
profit, he fell into double disprofit, so that neither with
good men could he avoid secret shame, nor yet with evil
men the note of dissimulation.
In the mean time, the queen taking secret counsel,
how to dispatch Cranmer out of the way, appointed
Dr. Cole, and secretly gave him in commandment, that
against the 21st of March, he should prepare a funeral
sermon for Cranmer's burning.
Soon after, the Lord Williams of Tame, and the Lord
Chaudois, Sir Thomas Bridges, and Sir John Brown
were sent for, with other worshipful men and justices,
who were commanded in the queen's name to be at Ox-
ford at the same day, with their servants and retinue,
lest Cranmer's death should raise there any tumult.
Cole, charged by the queen's commandment, returned
to Oxford, who as the day of execution drew near, even
the day before, came into the prison to Cranmer ; to try
whether he abode in the catholic faith wherein before
he had left him. To whom, when Cranmer had answered,
that by God's grace he would daily be more confirmed in
the catholic faith ; Cole departed for that time. On the
next day he repaired to the archbishop again, giving no
signification as yet of his death that he was prepared : and
therefore in the morning, which was the 21st day of
March appointed for Cranmer's execution. Cole, com-
ing to him, asked if he had any money. To whom when
he answered that he had none, he delivered him fifteen
crowns to give to the poor to whom he would : and after
exhorting him as much as he could to constancy in faith,
departed.
By this, and other like arguments, the archbishop be-
gan more and more to surmise what they went about.
Then because the day was not far past, and the lords
and knights that were looked for were not yet come,
there came to him the Spanish friar, a witness of his re-
cantation, bringing a jiaper with articles, which Cranmer
should only profess in his recantation before the people,
earnestly desiring him to write the document \uth the
articles with his own hand, and sign it w itli his name :
which, when he had done, the friar desired him to write
another copy which should remain with him, and that he
did also. The archbishop, however, not being ignorant
whereto their secret devices tended, and thinking that the
time was at hand in which he could no longer dissemble
the profession of his faith with Christ's people, he put
secretly in his bosom his prayer with his exhortation
written in another paper, which he minded to recite to
the people before he should make the last profession of
904
DOCTOR COLE'S FUNERAL SERMON BEFORE CRANMER'S DEATH. [Book XI,
his faith, fearing lest if they had heard the confession of
bis faith first, tliev would not afterwards have suflered
him to exhort tUe peojile.
Soon after nine o'clock, the Lord Williams, Sir Tho-
mas Bridges, Sir John Browne, and the other justices,
with certain other noblemen, that were sent by the
queen's council, came to Oxford with a great train.
There was also a great concourse of people of botli par-
ties, filled with great expectation. Fur first of all, they
that were of the pope's side were in great hope that day
to hear something of Cranmer that should establish their
opinion : the other part, who were endued with a better
mind, could not yet believe, that he who by cot\tinual
study and labour for so many years, had set forth tlie doc-
trine of the gospel, either would or could now in the last
act of his life forsake his religion. Briefly, as every
man's will inclined, either to this part or to that, so
according to the diversity of their desires, every man
wished and hojied for that which he was gathered thither
to hear and behold.
Cranmer at length, because it was afoul and rainy day,
■was brought from prison unto St. Mary's church, the
chief church in the university, in tliis order. The
mayor went before, next to him tlie aldermen in their
place and degree ; after them was Cranmer, placed be-
tween two friars, who saying to and fro certain psalms in
the streets, answered one another until they came to the
church door, and there they began the song of Simeon,
and entering into the church, the psalm-saying friars
brought him to his standing, and there left him. There
was a stage set over against the pulpit, where Cranmer
had his standing, waiting until Cole was ready with his
sermon.
The lamentable case of this man gave a sorrowful
spectacle to all christian eyes that beheld him. He that
late was archbishop, metropolitan, and primate of Eng-
land, and the king's privy counsellor, being now in a
bare and ragged gown, with an old square cap, exposed
to the contempt of all men, did admonish men not only
of his own calamity, but also of their state and fortune.
For who would not pity his case and bewail his fortune,
and might not fear his own liability, to see such a prelate,
so grave a councillor, and of so long continued honour,
after so many dignities, in his old years to be deprived of
his estate, adjudged to die, and in so painful a death to
end his life ; and also to descend from such shewy and
costly ornaments, to such vile and ragged apparel }
In this habit, when he had stood a good while upon the
stage, turning to a pillar near adjoining, he lifted up his
hands to heaven, and prayed to God once or twice, till at
length Doctor Cole coming into the pulpit, began his
sermon.
It were too long to detail this sermon, which con-
Huded with a reference to Cranmer's recantation. He
f irified God much in it, because it appeared to be only
G :d's work, declaring what conference had been with
hill to convert him, and all prevailed not, till it pleased
G id of his mercy to reclaim him, and call him home.
1 I discoursing of which place, he much commended
Cranmer, and qualified his former doings, thus temper-
ing his judgment and talk of him, that all the time, said
he, he flowed in riches and honour, he was unworthy of
his life : atid now that he might not live, he was un-
worthy of death. But lest he should carry with him no
comfoit he would diligently labour, he said, and also he
did promise in the name of all the priests that were pre-
sent, that immediately after his death there should be
dirses, masses, and funerals executed for him in all the
churdies of Oxford for the succour of his soul.
With what great grief of mind Cranmer stood all the
time hearing tliis sermon, the outward motions of his
body and countenance better expressed than any man can
declare ; at one time lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven,
and then again for shame letting them down to the
earth. A man might have seen the very image of per-
fect sotrow lively ex]iressed in him. More than twenty
distinct times the tears flowed abundantly, dropping
down from his fatherly lace. Those who were present,
do testify that they never saw in any child more tears,
than burst out from him at that time, auring all the ser-
mon ; but especially when they recited his prayer before
the people. It is marvellous what commiseration and
pity moved all men's hearts, that beheld so heavy a coun-
tenance, and such abundance of tears in an old man of so
reverend dignity.
Cole, after he had ended his sermon, called back the
people that were ready to depart to prayers. " Brethren,"
said he, " lest any man should doubt of this man's
earnest conversion and repentance, you shall lunr him
speak before you ; and therefore I jiray you. Master
Cranmer, that you will now perform what you promised
not long ago ; namely, that you would openly exjiress the
true and undoubted profession of your faith, that you
may take away all suspicion from men, and that all men
may understand that you are a catholic indeed." " I will
do it," said the archbishop, " and that with a good will,''
who by and by rising up, and putting off his cap, began
to speak thus unto the people.
" I desire you, well beloved brethren in the Lord,
that you will pray to God for me, to forgive me my sins,
which above all men, both in number and greatness, I
have committed. But among all the rest, there is one
off'ence which most of all at this time doth vex and trou-
ble me, whereof in process of my talk you shall hear
more in its proper jilace ;'' and then putting his hand
into his bosom, he diew forth his prayer, and added,
"Good christian people, my dearly beloved brethren
and sisters in Christ, I beseech you most heartily to pray
for me to Almighty God, that he will forgive me all my
sins and offences, which are without number, and great
above measure. But yet one thing grieveth my con-
science more than all the rest, whereof, God willing, I
intend to speak more hereafter. But how great and how
many soever my sins are, I beseech you to pray God of
his mercy to pardon and forgive them all."
And here kneeling down, he said :
" O Father of heaven, O Son of God, Redeemer of
the world ; O Holy Ghost, three Persons and one God,
have mercy upon me, most wretched and miserable
sinner. I have offended both against heaven and earth,
more than my tongue can express. Whither then may
I go, or whither shall I flee ? To heaven 1 may be
ashamed to lift up mine eyes, and in earth I find no
place of refuge or succour. To thee, therefore, O Lord,
do I run ; to thee do I humble myself, saying, O Lord
my God, my sins are great, but yet have mercy upon me
for thy great mercy. The great mystery that God
became man, was not wrought for little or few offences.
Thou didst not give thy Son, O heavenly Father, unto
death for small sins only, but for all the gieatest sins of
the world, so that the sinner return to thee with his
whole heart, as I do here at this present. Wherefore
have mercy on me, O God, whose property is always to
have mercy, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great
mercy. I crave nothing for mine ovin merits, but for
thy name's sake, that it may be hallowed thereby, and
for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. And now, there-
fore, Our Father of heaven, hallowed be thy name, &c."
And then he rising, said ;
" Every man, good jieople, desireth at the time of his
death to give some good exhortation that others may re-
member the same before their death, and be the better
thereby : so 1 beseech God to grant me grace, that I
may speak something at this my departing, whereby
God may be glorified, and you edified.
" First, it is a cause of much grief to see that so
many folk so much dote upon the love of this false world,
and are so careful for it, while they seem to care very
little or nothing for the love of God, or the world to
come. Therefore this shall be my first exhortation :
' That you set not your minds overmuch upon this
deceiving world, but upon God, and upon the world to
come, and to learn to know what this lesson meaneth,
which St. John teacheth, That the love of this world is
hatred against God.'
" The second exhortation is, 'That next under God
you obey your king and queen willingly and gladly,
without murmuring or grudging ; not for fear of them
A.D. 1556.] EXHORTATION AND CONFESSION OF CRANMER BEFORE IIIS DEATH.
905
only, but much more for the fear of God ; knowing that
they are God's ministers, appointed by God to rule and
govern you : and therefore whosoever resisteth them, re-
; sisteth the ordinance of God.'
I " The third exhortation is, Tliat you love altogether
like brethren and sisters. For, alas! pity it is to see what
contention and hatred one christian man beareth to
another, not taking each other as brother and sister, but
ra:her as strangers and mortal enemies. But I pray you
learn and practise well this one lesson, ' To do good
unto all men, as much as in you lieth, and to hurt no
man, no more than you would liurt your own natural
loving brother or sister.' For this you may be sure of,
I that whosoever hateth any person, and goeth about
j maliciously to hinder or hurt him, surely, and without
[ all doubt, God is not with that man, although he think
himself never so much in God's favour.
" The fourth exhortation shall be to them that have
great substance and riches of this world, that they
will well consider and weigh three sayings of the
scripture. One is of our Saviour Christ himself, who
saith, ' How hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God !' — (Luke, xviii. 24.) A sore
saying, and yet spoken of him that knoweth the truth.
"The second is from St. John, who says, ' But
whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from
him, howdwelleth the love of God in him ?' 1 John, iii. 17.
" The third is from St. James, who speaketh to the
covetous rich men after this manner, ' Go to now, ye
rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall
come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your
garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is can-
kered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you,
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped
treasure together for the last days.' (James, v. 1 — 3.)
Let them that are rich ponder well these three sentences :
for if they ever had occasion to shew their charity, they
have It now at this present, the poor people being so
many, and victuals so dear.
" And now, forasmuch as I am come to the last end
of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life past, and all
my life to come, either to live with my master Christ for
ever in joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked
devils in hell, and I see before mine eyes presently
either heaven ready to receive me, or else hell ready to
swallow me up : I shall therefore declare unto you my
very faith how I believe, without any colour of dissimu-
lation : for now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I
have said or written in times past.
" First, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker
of heaven and earth, &c. And I believe every article of
the catholic faith, every word, and sentence taught by
our Saviour Jesus Christ, his apostles and propliets, in
the new and old testament.
" And now I come to the great thing, which so much
troubleth my conscience, more than any thing that ever
1 did or said in my whole life, and that is the setting
abroad of a writing contrary to the truth ; which novv
here I renounce and refuse, as things written with my
hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart,
and written for fear of death, and to save my life if it
might be, and that is, all such bills and papers which I
have written or signed witli my hand since my degrada-
tion ; wherein I have written many things untrue. And
forasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my
heart, my hand shall first be punished for it : for when
I come to the fire it shall be first burned.
" And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy
and antichrist, with all his false doctrine.
"And as for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught
in my book against the bishop of Winchester, which
book teacheth so true a doctrine of the sacrament, that
it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God,
where the papistical doctrine shall be ashamed to shew
her face."
Here the standers by were all astonished, marvelled,
were amazed, and did look one upon another, whose expec-
tation he had so notably deceived. Some began to admonish
him of his recantation, and to accuse him of falsehood.
Briefly, it was a victory to see the doctors oeguiied of
so great a hope. I think there was never cruelty more
strikingly or better in time deluded and deceived. For
it is not to be doubted but they looked for a glorious
victory, and a perpetual triumph, by Cranmer's recan-
tation.
As soon, therefore, as the popish party heard these
things, they began to rage, fret, and fume ; and so much
the more, because they could not revenge their grief :
for they could now no longer threaten or hurt him.
The most miserable man in the world can die but once :
and whereas of necessity he must needs die that day,
though the papists had been never so well pleased ; now
being never so much off'eiuled with him, yet he could not
be twice killed. And so when they could do nothing
else, yet lest they should say nothing, tliey ceased not to
object to him his falsehood and dissimulation.
To which accusation, he answered, " Ah, my masters,
do not you take it so. Always since I lived hitherto, I
have been a hater of falsehood, and a lover of simplicity,
and never before the time of my recantation have 1 dis-
sembled ;'' and in saying this, all the tears that remained
in his body appeared in his eyes. And when he began to
speak more of the sacrament and of the ]iapacy, some
of them began to cry out, and especially Cole cried out
upon him, " Stop the heretic's mouth, and take him away.''
And then Cranmer, being pulled down from the -stage,
was led to the fire, accompanied with those friars, vexing,
troubling, and threatening him most cruelly. " What
madness," said they, " Lath brought thee again into
this error, by which thou wilt draw innumerable souls
with thee into hell ?" To whom he answered nothing,
but directed all his talk to the people, saving that to one
troubling him in the way, he spake, and exhorted him to
get him hometo his study, and apply to his book diligently,
saying, if he did diligently call upon God, by reading
more he would get knowledge.
But when he came to the place where the holy bishops
and martyrs of God, Hugh Latimer and Ridley, were
burnt before him for the confession of the truth, he
kneeled down and prayed to God ; but did not tarry
long in his prayers, for he put off his garments to his
shirt, and prepared himself for death. His shirt was
made long down to his feet, which were bare ; and his
head, when both his caps were off, was so bare, that one
hair could not be seen upon it. His beard was long and
thick, covering his face with marvellous gravity. Such
a countenance of gravitj' moved tlie hearts both of his
friends, and of his enemies.
Then an iron chain was tied about Cranmer, and
when they perceived him to be more steadfast than to be
moved from his sentence, they commanded the fire to be
set to him.
And wlien the wood was kindled, and the fire began to
burn near liim, stretching out his arm, he i)ut his right
hand into the flame, which he held so steadfast and im-
movable, that all men miuht see his hand burned before
his body was touched. His body did so abide the burning
of the flame with such constancy and steadfastness, that
standing always in one jdace without moving his body,
he seemed to move no more than the stake to which he
was bound ; his eyes were lifted up to heaven, and
oftentimes he repeated " this unworthy right hand ;'' so
long as his voice would sufiVr him ; and using often the
words of Stephen, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' in
the greatness of the flame he gave up the ghost.
This was the end of this learned archbishop, whom,
lest by evil subscribing he should have perished, by well
recanting God preserved ; and lest he should liave lived
longer with shame and reproof, it pleased God rather to
take him away, to the glory of his name, and profit of
his church. So good was the Lord both to his church,
in fortifying with it the testimony and blood of such a
martyr ; and so good also to the man with this cross of
tribulation, to purge his offences in this world, not only
of his recantation, but also of his standing against John
Lambert, and Master Allen, or if there were any others,
with whose burning and blood his hands had been
polluted. But especially he had to rejoice, that dying in
such a cause, he was numbered amongst Christ's martjrs.
806
CRANMER'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN.
[Book XI.
Archbishop Cranmer''s Letter to the Queen's Highness.
"It may please your majesty to pardon my presump-
tion, that I daie be so bold to write to your highness. But
very necessity constraiiieth me, that your majesty may
know my mind, rather by mine own wiitiiin;, than by
Other men's reports. So it is that upon Wednesday,
being the 12th day of this month, I was cited to ajjpiar
at Rome on the eightieth day after, there to make answer
to such matters as should be objected against me upon
the behalf of the king and your most excellent majesty;
which matters, the Thursday following were objected
against me by Doctor Martin and Doctor Story, your
majesty s proctors before the bishop of Gloucester, sit-
ting in judgment by commission from Rome. But,
alas 1 it cannot but grieve the heart of a natural sub-
ject, to be accused by the king and (jueen of his own
realm ; and especially before a foreign jud;^e, or by au-
thority coming from any person out of this realm :
where the king and queen, as if they were subjects within
their own realm, shall complain and require justice at a
stranger's hands against their own subject, being already
condemned to death by their own laws. As though the
king and que-en could not do or have justice within their
own realms, against their own subjects, but they must
jieek it at a stranger's hands in a strange land ; the like
whereof, I think, was never seen. I would have wished
to have had some meaner adversaries: and, I think, that
deatii sh:dl not grieve me much more, than to have my
most dread and most gracious sovereign lord and lad}',
to whom, under God, I do owe all obedience, to be mine
accusers in judgment within their own realm, before any
Stranger and foreign power. But forasmuch as in the
time of the prince of most famous memory, King Henry
VIII. your grace's father, I was sworn never to* consent
that the bis'.iop of Rome should have or exercise any
acthority or jurisdiction in this realm of England,
therel'yre, lest I should allow his authority, contrary
to miiie own oath, 1 refused to make answer to the
bishop of Gloucester sitting here in judgment by the
pope s authority, lest I should run into perjury.
" Another cause why I refused the pope's authority,
is this ; that his authority, as he claimeth it, is repugnant
to the crown imjierial of this realm, and to the laws of
the same; which every true subject is bound to defend.
First, because the pope saith, that all manner of power, as
well temporal as spiritual, is given first to him of God ;
and that the temporal power he giveth unto emperors and
kings, to use it under him, but so as it be always at his
command and beck.
"But contrary to this claim, the imperial crown and
temporal jurisdiction of this realm is taken immediately
from God, to be used under him only, and is subject
unto none, but to God alone.
" Moreover, to the imperial laws and customs of this
realm the king in his coronation, and all justices when
they receive their offices, are sworn, and all the whole
realm is bound to defend and maintain. But contrary
hereunto, the pope by his authority maketli void, and
commandeth to blot out of our books, all laws and cus-
toms being repugnant to his laws, and declareth accursed
all rulers and governors, all the makers, writers, and
executors of all such laws or customs ; as it appeareth
by many of the pope's laws, whereof one or two I shall
rehearse. In the decrees, Dist. 10, is written thus, 'The
constitutions or statutes enacted against the canons and
decrees of the bishops of Rome or their good customs,
are of none effect.' Also, ' We excommunicate all
heretics of both sexes, what name soever they be called
by, and their fathers, and preceptors, and defenders ;
and also them that shall hereafter cause to be observed
the statutes and customs made against the liberty of the
church, except they cause the same to be put out of their
records and chapters within two months after the pub-
lication thereof. Also we excommunicate the statute-
makers and writers of those statutes, and all the poten-
tates, consuls, governors and counsellors of places, where
such statutes and customs shall be made or kejjt ; and also
those that shall presume to give judgment according to
them, or shall notify in publicform the matter so adjudged.'
" Now by these laws, if the bishop of Rome's authority,
which he claimeth by God, be lawful, all your grace's
laws, and customs of your realm, being contrary co the
l)0|)e s laws, are naught, and as well your majesty, as
your judges, justices, and all other executors of the same,
stand accursed amongst heretics, which God forbid ! And
yet this curse can never be avoided (if the pope have such
power as he claimeth), until such times as the laws and
customs of this realm (being contrary to his laws) are
taken away, and blotted out of the law books. And al-
tiiough there are many laws of this realm contrary to the
laws of Rome, yet I named but a few; as to convict a
clerk before any tem])oral judge of this realm for debt,
felony, niurder, or for any other crime; whicli clerks, by
the pope's laws, are so exempt from the king's laws, that
tiiey cm he no where sued, but before their ordinary.
" Also the pojje, by his laws, may give all l>ishoprics
and benefices spiritual ; which, by the laws of this realm,
can be given only by the king and other patrons of the
same, except they fall into the lapse.
" By tliC pope s laws, the rights of the patron shall be
sued only before the ecclesiastical judge; but, by the
laws of the realm, it shall be sued before the temporal
judge.
"And to be short, the laws of this realm do agree
with the pope's laws like fire and water. And yet the
kings of this realm have provided for their laws by the
pro'iniinire ; so that if any man has hindered the execu-
tion of the laws of tliis realm, by any authority from the
see of Rome, he falleth into pra^mmiire.
"But to meet with this, the popes have provided for
their laws by cursing. For whosoever hinders the pope's
laws to have full course within this realm, by the j)ope'3
power standeth accursed. So that the popes power tread-
eth all the laws and customs of this realm under his feet,
cursing all that execute them, until such time as they do
give place unto iiis laws.
"But it may be said, that notwithstanding all the
pope's decrees, yet we do execute still the laws and
customs of this realm. Nay, not all quietly without any
interruption of the pope. And where we do execute
them, yet we do it unjustly, if the pope's power be of
force, and for the same we stand excommunicate, and
shall do, until we leave the execution of our own laws and
customs. Thus we are well reconciled to Rome, allowing
such authority, whereby the realm stands accursed before
God, if the pope have any such authority.
"These things, as I suppose, were not fully opened
in the ))arliament house, when the pope's authority was
received again within this realm ; for if they had, I do
not believe that either the king or queen's majesty, or
the nobles of this realm, or the commons of the same,
would ever have consented to receive again such a foreign
authority, so injurious, hurtful, and prejudicial as well
to the crown as to the laws and customs and state of this
realm, as whereby they must needs acknowledge them-
selves to be accursed. But none could open this matter
well but the clergy, and such of them as had read the
pope's laws, whereby the pope had made himself as it were
a god. These seek to maintain the pope, whom they de-
sire to have their chief head, to the intent they might
have as it were a kingdom and laws within themselves,
distinct from the laws of the crown, and wherewith the
crown may not meddle ; and so, being exempted from the
laws of the realm, might live in this realm like lords and
kings, without damage or fear of any man, so that they
])lease their high and supreme head at Rome. For this
consideration, 1 suppose, some that knew the truth, held
their peace in the parliament ; whereas, if they had done
their duty to the crown and whole realm, they would have
oj)ened their mouths, declared the truth, and shewed the
|>erils and dangers that might ensue to the crown and
realm.
" And if I should agree to allow such authority within
this realm, whereby I must needs confess, that your
most gracious highness, and also your realm should ever
continue accursed, until you shall cease from the execution
of your own laws and customs of your realm ; I could
not think mysilf true, either to your highness, or to this
uiv natural country, knowing that I do know. Iguo>
A.D. 15oa.]
CRANMER'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN.
907
laiice, I know, may excuse other men; but be tbat
knoweth bow prejudicial and injurious tbe power and
authority, wbicli the Pope chailengeth every where, is to
the crown, laws, and customs of this realm, and yet will
allow the same, I cannot see in anywise how he can keep
his due allegiance, fidelity, and truth to the crown and
state of this realm.
"Another cause I alleged, why I could not allow tbe
authority of the pope, which is this ; That by bis autho-
rity be subverteth not only tbe laws of this realm, but
also tbe laws of God: so tbat whosoever are under bis
authority, he suffereth them not to be under Christ's
religion purely, as Christ did command. And for one
example I brought forth, tbat whereas by God's laws all
christian people are bound diligently to learn bis word,
tbat they may know bow to believe and live accordingly,
for that purpose be ordained holidays, when they ought,
leaving apart all other business, to give themselves wholly
to know and serve God. Therefore, God's will and com-
mandment is, that when the people are gathered together,
ministers should use such language as the people may
understand and take profit thereby, or else hold their
peace. For as an harp or lute, if it give no certain
sound that men may know what is stricken, who can
dance after it? for all the sound is in vain ; so is it in
Tain, and profitetb nothing, saith Almighty God by the
mouth of St. Paul, if the priest speak to tbe people in a
language which they know not; 'for though be may edify
himself, he edifieth not the people,' saith St. Paul.
But herein I was answered thus ; that St. Paul spake
only of preaching, that the preacher should preach
in a tongue which tbe people did know, or else
his preaching availetb nothing : but if preaching avail-
eth nothing, being spoken in a language which the
people understand not, how should any other service
avail them, being spoken in the same language ? And
yet tbat St. Paul meant not only of preaching, it appears
plainly by bis own words. For be speaks by name ex-
pressly of praying, singing, and thanking of God, and of
aU other things which the priests say in tbe churches,
whereunto the people say Amen ; which they use not
in preaching, but in other divine service ; that whether
the priests rehearse the wonderful works of God, or the
great benefits of God unto mankind above all other crea-
tures, or give thanks unto God, or make open profession
of their faith, or bumble confession of their sins, w'ith
earnest request of mercy and forgiveness, or make suit
or request unto God for any thing; then all tbe people,
understanding what tbe priests say, might give their
minds and voices with them, and say Amen ; that is to
say, allow what tbe priests say ; that the rehearsal of
God's universal works and benefits, tbe giving of thanks,
the profession of faith, the confession of sins, and the
requests and petitions of the priests and of the people
might ascend up into the ears of God altogether, and be
as a sweet savour, odour, and incense before him, and
thus was it used many hundred years after Christ's
ascension. But tbe aforesaid things cannot be done
when tbe priests speak to tbe people in a language not
known, and so they (or their clerk in their name) say
Amen, but they cannot tell whereunto. Whereas St.
Paul saith ; how can the people say Amen, to thy
giving of tlianks, seeing they understand not what thou
sayest .' And thus was St. Paul understood by all in-
terpreters, both Greek and Latin, old and new, school
authors and otliers that I have read, untit about thirty
years past. At which time one Eckius, with others of
bis sort, began to devise a new exposition, understanding
St. Paul of preaching only.
" But when a good number of the best learned men
reputed in this realm, some favouring tbe old, some the
new learning, as they term it, (where indeed that which
they call tbe old, is the new, and that which they call the
new, is indeed the old) but when a great number of such
learned men of both sorts, were gathered together at
Windsor, for the reformation of tbe service of tbe church,
it was agreed by both, without controversy (not one
saying contrary) that the service of the church ought to
be in the mother tongue : and that St. Paul, in the four-
teenth chapter of Corinthians, was so to be understood.
And so is St. Paul to be understood in the civil law,
more than a thousand years past, where Justinian, a most
godly emperor in a synod, writes on this manner : ' We
command tbat all bishops and priests celebrate tbe holy
oblation and prayer used in holy baptism, not after a
still and close manner, but with a clear loud voice, that
they may be plainly heard of the faithful people, so as
the hearers' minds may be lifted up thereby with the
greater devotion, in uttering tbe praises of tbe Lord
God. For St. Paul teacheth also in the first epistle to the
Corinthians, xiv. lb", 17, ' Else when thou sbalt bless
with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of
tbe unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing
he understandeth not what thou sayest ? For thou verily
givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.' And not
only tbe civil law, and all other writers for more than a
thousand and five hundred years, have expounded St.
Paul not of preaching only, but of other service said in
the church ; but also reason testifies tbe same, that if
men be commanded to bear any thing, it must be sjjoken
in a language which the hearers understand, or else (as
St. Paul saith) what availetb it to bear ? So that the
pope giving a contrary commandment, that tbe people
coming to the church shall hear they know not what,
and shall answer they know not whereto, taketh upon
him to command, not only against reason, but also
directly against God.
" And again 1 said, whereas our Saviour Christ
ordained the sacrament of bis most precious body and
blood to be received of all christian people under the forms
of bread and wine, and said of tbe cup, ' Drink ye all of
it :' the pope giveth quite a contrary commandment, that
no layman shall drink of the cuj) of their salvation ; as
though the cup of salvation by the blood of (Christ per-
tained not to laymen. ,\nd whereas Theophilus AKxan-
drinus (whose work St. Jerome did translate about elever»
hundred years past) saith, ' That if Christ had been
crucified for the devils, bis cup sliould not be denied
them;' yet the pope denieth tbe cup of Christ to chris-
tian people, for whom Christ was crucified. So that if
I should obey the pope in these things, I must needs
disobey my Saviour Christ.
"But I was answered hereunto (as commonly the papists
do answer) that under the form of bread is contained tbe
whole of Christ's flesh and blood: so that whosoever re-
ceives the form of bread, receives as well Christ's blood as
bis flesh. Let it be so, yet in tbe form of bread only,
Christ's blood is not drank, but eaten ; nor is it received in
the cup in tbe form of wine, as Christ commanded, but
eaten with the flesh under the form of bread. And, more-
over, the bread is not tbe sacrament of his blood, but of his
flesh only ; nor is tbe cup the sacrament of his flesh, but
of his blood only. And so the pope keepeth from all
lay persons, tbe sacrament of their redemption by
Christ's blood, which Christ commandeth to be given unto
them.
" And furthermore, Christ ordained the sacrament in
two kinds, tbe one separated from tbe other, to be a re-
presentation of bis death, where bis blood was separated
from bis flesh, which is not represented in one kind
alone : so that the lay people receive not the whole
sacrament whereby Christ's death is represented, as he
commanded.
" Moreover, as the pope takes upon him to give the
temporal sword, by royal and imperial power, to kings
and princes : so doth he likewise take upon him to de-
pose them from their imperial states, if they be disobe-
dient to him, and commandeth tbe subjects to disobey
their princes, absolving the subjects as well of their obe-
dience, as of their lawful oaths made unto their true
kings and princes, directly contrary to God's command-
ment, who commandeth all siibjects to obey their, kings,
or their rulers under them.
" One John, patriarch of Constantinople, in the time
of St. Gregory, claimed superiority above all other
bishops. To whom St. Gregory writes, that therein he
did injury to his three brethren, who were equal with
him, tbat is to say, tbe bishop of Rome, the bishop of
Alexandria, and of Antioch : which three were patri-
archal sees, as weU as Constantinople, and were brcthreu
908
CRANMER'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN.
[Book XI.
one to another. But, saith St. Gregory, if any one shall
exalt himself above all the rest, to be the universal
bishop, the same passeth in pride. But now the bishop
of Rome exalteth himself not only above all kings and
emperors, and above all the whole world, but takes upon
him to give and take away, to set up and pull down, as he
shall think good. And as the devil, having no such au-
thority, yet took upon him to give unto Christ all the
kingdoms of theworkl, if he would fall down and worship
him : in like manner the pope takes upon him to give
empires and kingdoms, being none of his, to such as will
fall down and worship him, and kiss his feet.
'• And moreover, his lawyers and followers so flatter
liim, tliat they pretend he may command emperors and
kiiiu:s to hold his stirrup when he lighteth from his horse,
and to be liis footmen : and that if any emperors or
kings give him any thing, they give him nothing but what
is his own, and that he may dispense against God's
word, against both the old and new testament, against
St. Paul's epistles, and against the gospel. And further
more, whatever he dotli, although he draw innumerable
people with him into hell, yet may not mortal man re-
prove him, t)ecause he being judge of all men, may be
judged of no man. And thus he sitteth in the temple of
God, as if he were a god, and nameth himself God's
vicar, and yet he dispenseth against God. If this be not
to play antichrist's part, I cannot tell what is anti-
christ, wliich is to say, he is Christ's enemy and adver-
sary, who shall sit in the temple of God, advancing
himself above all others, yet by hypocrisy and feigned re-
ligion, shall subvert the true religion of Christ, and under
presence and colour of Christ's religion shall work against
Christ, and tlierefore hatli the name of antichrist. Now,
if any man lift himself higher than the pope hath done,
who lifteth himself above all the world ; or can be a greater
adversary to Christ, than to dispense against God's laws;
and where Christ hath given any commandment, to com-
mand directly the contrary, that man must needs be
taken for antichrist. But until the time that such a per-
son may be found, men may easily conjecture where to
find antichrist.
" Wlierefore, seeing the pope thus overthrows both
God's laws and man's laws, takes upon him to make em-
perors and kings to be vassals and subjects to him,
especially the crown of this realm, with the laws and
customs of the same ; I see no means how I may con-
sent to admit his usurped power within this realm, con-
trary to mine oath, mine obedience to God's laws, mine
allegiance and duty to your majesty, and my love and
affection to this realm.
" This that I have spoken against the power and au-
thority of the pope, I have not spoken (I take God to
record and judge) for any malice I owe to the pope's
person, whom I know not, but I shall pray to God to
give him grace, that he may seek above all things to pro-
mote God's honour and glory, and not to follow the foot-
steps of his predecessors in these latter days.
" Nor have I spoken it for fear of punishment, and to
avoid the same, thinking it rather an occasion to aggra-
vate than to diminish my trouble ; but I have spoken it
for my most bounden duty to the crown, liberties, laws,
and customs of this realm of England, but most especially
to discharge my conscience in uttering the truth, to God's
glory ; casting away all fear, by the comfort which I have
in Christ, who saith, 'Fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.' He
that for fear to lose this life will forsake the truth,
shall lose everlasting life : and he that for the truth's
sake will spend his life, shall find everlasting life. And
Christ promises to stand fast with them before his Father,
vpho will stand fast with him here. Which comfort is so
great, that whoever hath his eyes fixed upon Christ, cannot
greatly value this life, knowing that he may be sure to
have Christ stand by him in the presence of his Father in
heaven.
" And as touching the sacrament, I said ; forasmuch
as the whole matter standeth in the understanding of
these words of Christ : ' This is my body, this is my
blood,' I said that Christ in these words made demon-
stration of the bread and wine, and spake fig\iratively
calling bread his body, and wine his blood ; because he
ordained them to be sacraments of his body and blood.
And where the papists say in those two points contrary
to me, that Christ called not bread his body, but an un-
certain substance, nor spake figuratively : herein I said, I
would be judged by the old church, and which doctrine
could be proved the elder, that 1 would stand to. And
forasmuch as I have alleged in my book many old au-
thors, both Greek and Latin, who above a thousand
years after Christ continually taught as I do : if they
could bring forth but one old author, that saith in these
two points as they say, I offered six or seven years ago,
and do offer still, that I will give jilace to them.
" But when I bring forth any author that saith in most
plain terms as I do, yet saith the otlier part, that the au-
thor meant not so ; as who sliould say, that the author
spake one thing, and meant clean contrary. And upon
the other part, when they cannot find any one author,
that saith in words as they say ; yet say they, that the
author meant as they say. Now, whether I or they speak
more to the purpose herein, I refer to the judgment of
all impartial hearers ; yea, the old church of Rome,
above a thousand years together, neither believed nor
used the sacrament, as the church of Rome hath done
of late years.
" For in the beginning, the church of Rome taught a
pure and sound doctrine of the sacrament. But after
that the church of Rome fell into a new doctrine of
transubstantiation ; with the doctrine they changed the
useof the sacrament, contrary to what Christ commanded,
and the old church of Rome used above a thousand
years. And yet to deface the old, they say that the new
is the old : wherein for my part I am content to stand to
the trial. But tlieir doctrine is so fond and uncomfortable,
that I marvel tliat any man would allow it, if he knew what
it is. But however they hold the people in hand, that
which they write in their books hath neither truth nor
comfort.
" For by their doctrine, of one body of Christ is made
two bodies ; one natural, having distinction of members,
with form and [iroportion of man's perfect body, and
this body is in heaven : but the body of Christ in the
sacrament, by their own doctrine, must needs be a mon-
strous body, having neither distinction of members, nor
form, fashion or proportion of a man's natural body.
And such a body is in the sacrament they teach, and
goeth into the mouth with the form of bread, and entereth
no further than the form of bread goeth, nor tarrieth no ,
longer than the form of bread is by natural heat in di-
gesting. So that when the form of bread is digested,
the body of Christ is gone. And forasmuch as evil
men are as long m digesting as good men, the body
of Christ (by their doctrine) entereth as far, and tarrieth
as long in wicked men as in godly men. And what
comfort can be herein to any christian man, to receive
Christ's unshapen body, and it to enter no further than
the stomach, and to depart by and by as soon as the bread
is consumed ?
" It seems to me a more sound and comfortable doc-
trine, that Christ hath but one body, and that hath form
and fashion of a man's true body : which body spiritually
entereth into the whole man, body and soul : and though
the sacrament be consumed, yet the whole Christ re-
maineth, antyeedeth the receiver unto eternal life, if he
continue in godliness, and never departeth until the re-
ceiver forsake him. And as for the wicked, they have
not Christ within them at all, for he cannot be where
Belial is. And this is my faith, and seemeth to me a
sound doctrine, according to God's word, and sufficient
for a christian to believe in that matter. And if it can
be shewed unto me, that the pope's authority is not
prejudicial to the things before mentioned, or tliat my
docrine in the sacrament is erroneous (which 1 think
cannot be shewed), then I never was nor will be so jjcr-
verse as to stand wilfully in mine own opinion, but I shall
with all humility submit myself unto the pope, and wil-
lingly kiss his feet.
" Another cause why I refused to take the bishop of
Gloucester for my judge, was on account of his own
A.D. 1556.]
FIVE MARTYRS BURNED.
909
person, being more than once perjured First, for that
lie being, divers times, sworn never to consent that the
bisliop of Rome should have any jurisdiction within this
realm, but to take the king and his successors for supreme
heads of this realm, as by God s laws they 6e; contrary to
that lawful oath, the said bishop sat then in judgment
by authority from Rome, wherein he was perjured, and
not worthy to sit as a judge.
" The second perjury \vas, that he took his bishopric
both of the queen's majesty and of the pope, making to
each of them a solemn oath, which oaths are so contrary
that the one must needs be perjured. And furthermore,
in swearing to the pope to maintain his lavvs, decrees,
I constitutions, ordinances, reservations, and provisions,
i he dcclareth himself an enemy to the imperial crown,
! and to the laws and state of this realm, whereby he de-
clareth himself not worthy to sit as a judge within this
realm. And for these considerations I refused to take
him for my judge."
An Account of Agnes Potten, and Joan Trunchjield.
In the history of Robert Samuel, mention was made
of two godly women of Ipswich, who suffered likewise,
and obtained the crown of martyrdom ; namely, Agnes
Potten, and the wife of one Trunchfield, a shoemaker ;
who, about the time that Cranmer was burned at Ox-
ford, suftered in Ipswich.
Their opinion was, that the sacrament was the me-
morial only of Christ's death and passion : for (said
they) Jesus Christ is ascended into heaven, and is on
the right hand of God the Father, according to the scrip-
tures, and not in the sacrament.
For this they were burned. Their constancy in suf-
fering was greatly wondered at, though but women, they
so manfully stood to the confession of God's word, that
when they had prepared and undressed themselves for
the fire, with comfortable words of the scripture they
earnestly required the people to lay hold on the word of
God, and not upon man's devices and inventions, de-
spising the ordinances and institutions of the Romish
antichrist, with all his superstitions and false religion ;
and while in the midst of the fire, they held up their
hands, and called unto God constantly, so long as life
endured.
After these two women of Ipswich, succeeded three
men, who were burnt in the same month, at one fire, in
Salisbury ; who spared not their bodies, to bring their
souls to the celestial felicity, of which they were
thoroughly assured in Christ Jesus, by his promises, as
soon as the furious flames of fire had put their body and
souls asunder. Their names were, John Spicer, Wil-
liam Coberley, and John Maundrel.
John INIaundrel was from his childhood brought up in
husbandry, and after he came to man's estate, dwelt in
Buchampton, in the parish of Kevil, in Wiltshire,
where he had a wife and children, of good name and
fame. After that the scripture was translated into
English by William Tindal.he became a diligent hearer,
and a fervent embracer of God's true religion ; so that
he delighced in nothing so much as to hear and speak
of God's word, never being without the New Testament
about him, although he could not read himself. Wlien
he came into any company that could read, his book
was always ready, having a very good memory ; so that
he could recite by heart most places of the New Testa-
ment. His conversation and living also were honest
and charitable.
In the days of King Henry VIII., when Doctor Tri-
gonion and Doctor Lee, visited the abbeys, John Maun-
drel was brought before Doctor Trigonion at an abbey
called Edyngton, where he was accused that he had
spoken against the holy water and holy bread, and such
ceremonies, and for this was obliged to wear a white
sheet, bearing a candle in his hand, about the market,
in the town of Devizes.
In the days of Queen Mary, when popery was re-
stored, and God's true religion put to silence, John
Maundrel left his house, and departed into Gloucester-
shire, and into the north part of Wiltshire, wandering
from one to another, to such men as he knew feared
God. But after a t'me, he returned to his county, and
coming to Anthony Clee, had conference with him aljont
returning home. .\nd wlien the other exhorted him by
the words of scripture, to fly from one city to anotlier,
he replied again by the words in the 21st chai)ter of the
book of Revelations, of them that be " fearful," &c.,
said, that he needs must go home, and so he did.
Where he, vvith .Spicer and Coberley, used at times to
resort and confer together.
At length \\\)on the Sunday they agreed to go to the
parish church called Kevil, where seeing the parisliioners
in tlie jjrocession follow and worshi]) the idol, tliey ad-
vised them to turn to the living God. After this, the
vicar (uime into the puljiit, who there being about to
read his bead-roll, and to pray for tlie souls in purgatory,
John Maundrel, speaking with an audible voice, said,
that that was the pope's pinfold, the other two affirm-
ing the same. After which, by command of the priest,
they were had to the stocks, where they remained till
the service was done, and then they were brought before
a justice of peace, and the next day carried to Sali.-bury,
and presented before bisliop Capon, and W. Jetlrey,
being chancellor of the diocese ; by whom they were
imprisoned, and often examined about their faith.
They answered, they believed in God the Father, and
in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, the twelve artic^ies of
the creed, the holy scripture from the first of Genesis
to the last of the Revelations.
But that faith the chancellor would not allow ; so lie
opposed them in particular articles : first, whether they
did not believe that in the sacrament of the altar, after
the words of consecration spoken by the priest at mass,
there remained no substance of bread nor wine, but
C;hrist's body, flesh and blood, as he was born of the
Virgin IMary. They answered, saying, "That the
popish mass was abominable idolatry, and injurious to
the blood of Chiist; but confessing that in a faithful
congregation, receiving the sacrament of Christ's body
and blood, being duly administered according to Christ's
institution, Christ's body and blood is spiritually re-
ceived by the faithful believer."
Also, being asked whether the pope was supreme
head of the church, and Christ's vicar on earth? they
answered, that the bishop of Rome usurps over empe-
rors and kings, being antichrist and God's enemy.
The chancellor said, " Will you have the church
without a head ?"
Tliey answered, " Christ was head of his church, and
under Christ the queen's majesty." " What," said the
chancellor, " a woman head of the church !'' " Yea,"
said they, " within her grace's dominions."
Also, whether the souls in purgatory w-ere delivered
by the pope's pardons, and the suffrages of the church.
They said, " They believed faithfully that the blood of
Christ had purged their sins, and the sins of them that
were saved, unto the end of the world, so that they
feared not the pope's purgatory, nor esteemed his par-
dons."
Also, whether images were necessary to be in the •
churches, as laymen's books, and saints to be prayed to
and worshipped.
John Maundrel answered, "That wooden images
were good to roast a shoulder of mutton, but were bad
in the church ; whereby idolatry was committed."
Those articles thus answered, the chancellor read
their condemnation, and so delivered them to the sherifl".
Then spake John Spicer, saying, " Oh, master Sheriff!
now must you be their butcher, that you may be guilty
also with them of innocent blood before the Lord."
This was the 23rd day of March, A.D. 1556, and on
the 24th day of the same month they were carried out
of the common gaol to a place between Salisbury and
Wilton, where were two posts set for them to be burnt
at. On coming to the place, they kneeled down, and
offered their prayers secretly together, and then being
undressed to their shirts, John Maundrel spoke with
a loud voice, " Not for all Salisbury ;" which words
men judged to be an answer to the sheriff, who offered
him the queen's pardon if he would recant. And after
910
THE EXAMINATION OF RICHARD SPURGE, GEORGE AMBROSE, &c.
[Book XI.
that, in like manner, spake John Spicer, saying, "This
is the most joyful day that ever I saw." Thus were
these three godly men burnt at two stakes : where most
constantly they gave their bodies to the fire, and their
souls to the Lord, for testimony of his truth.
As to William Coberley, this is to be noted, that his
wife also, called Alice, being apprehended, was detained
in the keeper's house while her husband was in prison ;
where the keeper's wife, named Agnes Pcnicote, had
secretly heated a key in the fire, and laid it in the grass.
She then requested Alice Coberley to fetch lier the key in
all haste ; so Alice went, and taking up the key in haste
severely burned her hand ; and when she cried out at
the sudden burning of her hand, the other said, "Ah,
thou drab ! thou tliat canst not abide the burning of
the key, how wilt thou be able to abide burning thy
whole body ?" and so she afterwards recanted. But to
return again to the story of Coberley, who at the stake
was somewhat long in burning: after his body was
scorched, and his left arm drawn and taken from him by
the violence of the fire, so that the flesh was burnt to
the white bone, at length he stooped over the chain, and,
with the right hand, knocked upon his breast softly, the
blood and matter issuing out of his mouth.
About the 2.3rd day of April, (A.D. 15.")6,) were
burned in Smithfield at one fire, six constant martyrs of
Christ, who suffered for the profession of the gos-
pel, viz.
Robert Drakes, minister ; William Tyms, curate ;
Richard Spurge, sheerman ; Thomas Spurge, fuller ;
John Cavel, weaver ; and George Ambrose, fuller.
They were all of Essex, and consequently of the diocese
of London, and were sent up, some by the lord Rich and
others, to Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, then
lord chancellor of England, about the 22nd of March,
A.D. 1.5.T0 ; who, after examination, sent them, some
to the King's-bencli, and otliers to the marshalsea, where
they remained almost all the whole year, until the death
of the bishop of Winchester. After Doctor Heath, arch-
bishop of York, was chosen to the office of lord chancel-
lorship, four of these persecuted brethren, being now
weary of their long imprisonment, made a supplication to
Doctor Heath, for their deliverance : the copy whereof
is as follows.
To the right reverend Father Thomas, archbishop of
York, Lord Chancellor of England.
" May it please your honourable good lordship, for
the love of God, to tender the humble suit of your lord-
ship's poor petitioners whose names are subscribed, who
have lain in great misery in the marshalsea, by the space
often months and more, at the commandment of the late
lord chancellor, to their utter undoing, with their wives
and children. In consideration whereof, your lordship's
said ])etitioners do most humbly pray and beseech your
good lordship, to suffer them to be brought before your
honour ; and there, if any man of good conscience can
lay any thing to our charge, we trust either to declare
•ur innocency against their accusations, or if otherwise
their accusations can be proved true, and we faulty, we
are ready (God helping us) with our condign punish-
ments to satisfy the law, according to your wise judg-
ment, as we hojje, full of fatherly mercy towards us and
all men, according to your godly office, in the which we
pray for your godly success to the good pleasure of God,
Amen."
Upon the recei])t of this petition. Sir Richard Read,
knight, on the 16th of Jan., was sent to the marshalsea
to examine the four prisoners ; and therefore, beginning
with Richard S|)urge, received his answers : the effect
of which was, that he with others were complained of by
the parson of Bocking to the lord Rich, for that they
came not unto their parish church of Bocking, where
they resided ; and for this were sent to the late lord
chancellor. And farther, he said, that he came not to
the church since the first alteration of the English ser-
vice into Latin, because he disliked both it and the
mass also, as not consonant and agreeing with God's
holy word.
Thomas Spurge being next examined, made the satre
answer in etiect that che other had done ; confessing,
that he absented himself from the church, because the
word of God was not there truly taught, nor the sacra-
ments of Christ duly administered in such sort as was
prescribed by the same word. And being farther exa-
mined of his belief concerning the sacrament of the altar,
he said, That if any could accuse him in it, he would
make answer as God had given him knowledge.
The like answer made George Ambrose, adding, that
after he had read the late bishop of Winchester's book,
iniitled, " De vera obedientia,^' with Bonner's preface,
inveighing against the authority of the bishop of Rome,
he was much less influenced by their doings than
before.
John Cavel answered, that the cause why he forbore
coming to the church, was, that the parson there had
preached two contrary doctrines. For, first, in a ser-
mon that he made at the queen's first entry to the crown,
he exhorted the people to believe the gospel ; for it was
the truth, and if they did not believe it, they should be
damned. But in a second sermon, he preached tliat the
testament was false in forty })laces, which contrariety
was one cause amongst others, for his absenting from
the church.
Robert Drakes also was examined, he was parson of
Thundersley in Essex, and had there remained for the
space of three years. He was first made deacon by Dec-
tor Taylor of Hadley, at the command of Doctor Cran-
mer, late archbishop of Canterbury. x\nd within one
year after, he was by the archbishop and Doctor Ridley,
bishop of London, admitted minister of God's holy word
and sacraments, and presented to the benefice of Thun-
dersley by Lord Rich. At his coming to the bishop of
Winciiester, he wa-> by him demanded whether he would
conform himself to the laws of this realm then in force.
To which he said he would obey all laws that stood with
the laws of God ; and was committed to prison.
Now remains likewise to declare the examination of
William Tyms, deacon and curate of Hockley in Essex.
But before 1 come to his examination, first here is to be
opened and set forth the order and manner of his trouble,
how and by whom he was first ai)prehended in Essex,
and from thence sent up to London.
There were at Hockley in Queen Mary's days two ser-
mons preached in the woods, called Plumborough-wood,
and Beches- wood, and there was at the sermons an
honest man, called John Gye, and his wife. Shortly after
it was known to Master Tyrel, who owned the woods,
how that his woods were polluted with sermons being
preached in them, he took it very ill. Shortly after
Master Tyrel came to Hockley to sift the matter, and to
know who was at the preachings. Well, there were found
many faulty ; for it is supposed there were an hundred
persons at the least. So it pleased him to begin first
with John Gye, and he asked him where that naughty
fellow was that served their parish, one Tyms ; ".for it
is told me," said he, " that he is the cause of bringing
these fellows into the countiy. Therefore I charge thee,
Gye, to fetch me this fellow Tyms, for thou knowest
where he is." " No," said Gye, " I do not know."
Then stepped forth another of Master Tyrel's men,
whose name was Richard Sheriff, and said to his Master ;
" Sir, I know where he is." " Well," said Master
Tyrel, " go to the constables, and charge them to bring
him to me."
So this sheriff being diligent, made sure work, and
had him brought before his master with the constables,
when he came. Master Tyrel commanded all men to de-
part ; and it was wisely done, for he was not able to
open his mouth against Tyms, and there he kept him
about three hours. Some that listened, heard INIaster
Tyrel say to Tyms :
" Methinks," said he, " that when I see the blessed
crucifix, it makes me think of God.''
" Why, Sir," said Tyms, " if an idol, that is made
with man's hands, doth make you remember God ; how
much more ought the creatures of God, as man being his
workmanship, or the grass, or the trees that bring forth
fruit, make you remember God?''
A.D. 1556.]
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM TYMS.
911
Tyrel ended his talk with Tyms, as it appears, in a
heat, for he burst out and called hiizi traitorly knave.
" Why, Sir,'" said Tyms, " in king Edward's days
von affirm the truth which I do now.'"
" Affirm !" quotli Tyrel, " nay, by God's body, I
never thought it with my heart."
" V/ell," said Tyms, " then I pray you Master Tyrel
bear with me, for I have been a traitor only a while, but
you have been a traitor six years."
After this Tyms was sent to London to the bishop,
and from him to the bishop of Winchester, and so from
him to the King's bench.
When Tyms came before the bishop of London, there
•was with him at the time the bishop of liatli, and Wil-
liam Tyms was examined before them both. So mightily
God wrought with this true hearted man, that he had
wherewith to answer them both ; for the constables that
brought him before the bishop, said, that they never
heard the like.
Both the bishops waxed weary of him, for he had
troubled them aljout six or seven hours. Then the
bishops began to flatter him, saying, " Ah, good fellow,
thou art bold, and thou hast a good fresh spirit, we would
thou hadst learning to thy spirit." " I thank you, my
lords,'' said Tyms, " both you are learned, and I
would you had a good spirit to your learning." So thus
they broke up.
William Tyms was placed together and cou))led with
the other five martyrs above named, and with them
brought together to public examination before Bonner,
on the 21st of March, first in the bishop's palace of
London, where the bishop after his accustomed manner
proceeding against them, inquired of them their faith
upon the sacrament of the altar. To v.hom they an-
swered, that the body of Christ was not in the sacrament
of the altar really and corporeally, after the words of
consecration spoken by the priest.
On the 23rd of March, the bishop sent again for Tyms
and Drakes, and objected to them certain articles. On
the 26th, he sent tor the other four, ministering to them
also tlie same articles.
But in conclusion, on the 2Sth, A^'illiam Tyms, and
Robert Drakes, with the others, were brought to the
open consistory in St. Paul's, before Bonner, to be con-
demned for heresy.
The bishop began in this sort ; " Tyms," said he, " I
will begin with thee first, for thou art and hast been the
ringleader of these thy companions ; thou hast taught
them heresies, and confirmed them in their erroneous
opinions, and hast endeavoured, as much as in thee lieth,
to make them like thyself. If thy fault had not tended
to the hurt of others, I would then have used thee more
charitably, and not have brought thee to this open re-
buke. I would, according to the rule of Christ in the
yviii. of Matthew, have told thee thy fault betvi'een me
and thee ; if thou wouldst not have heard me, I would
not so have left thee, but I with two or three others
would have exhorted thee ; if that would not have served,
then would I have told the church, &c. But because
thy fault is open and manifest to the world, and thou
thyself remainest in thine error, this charitable dealing
is not to be extended towards thee : I have therefore
thought good to proceed by another rule, of which St.
Paul speaks, 1 Timothy v. 20. — ' Them that sin, rebuke
before all, that others also may fear.' For this cause
thou art brought before me in the face of this people, to
receive judgment according to thy deserts. Let me see
what thou canst say, why I should not proceed against
thee as thine ordinary."
" My lord," said Tyms, " will you now give me leave
to speak ?"
" Yea," said the bishop.
Then said Tyms, " My lord, I marvel that you will
begin with a lie. You call me the ringleader and
teacher of this company, but how untruly you have said,
shall shortly appear ; for there is none of all these my
brethren, who are brought hither as prisoners, but when
they were at liberty and out of prison, they dissented
from you and your doings, as much as they do at this
present ; and for that cause they are now prisoners. So |
it is evident, that they learned not their religion in
prison. And as for me, I never knew them, until I by
your romniandment was made a pris-mer with them ;
iiow could I then he their ringleader and teacher ? So
that all the world may see how untruly you have spoken.
And as for my fault which you make so grievous, what-
ever you judge of me, I am well assured that I hold none
other religion than Christ preached ; tlie apostles wit-
nessed ; the primitive church received, and now of late
the apostolical and evangelical preachers of this realm
have faithfully taught ; for which you have cruelly
burned them, and now you seek our blood also. Proceed
by what rule you will ; I force not, I do not refuse you
for my ordinary."
Then said the bishop, " I perceive thou wilt not be
counted their ringleader. How sayest thou, wilt thou
submit thyself to the catholic church as an obedient child .'
in so doing thou shalt be received, and do well enough ;
otherwise thou shalt have judgment as rn heretic."
Then one of the prisoners said; " ?<ry lord, you are
no u])right judge, for you judge after your own will. But
if you will judge us according to the holy testament of
Christ, which is the word of truth, we will submit to your
judgment ; for to that word we wholly submit ourselves.
But as for your judgment, without the truth, God shall
condemn it."
With this the bishop was offended, calling him, " busy
knave," and commanded him to hold his tongue, or else
he should be had away to prison.
Then Tyms answered and said, " My lord, I doubt
not but I am of the catholic church, whatever you judge
of me. But as for your church, you have before this
day renounced it, and by corporeal oath promised never
to consent to it. Contrary to which, you have received
into this realm the pope's authority, and therefore you
are falsely forsworn. Besides this, you have botli sjioken
and written very earnestly against that usurped power,
and now you burn men who will not acknowledge the
pope to be supreme head."
" Have I ?" replied the bishop, "Where have I writ-
ten any thing against the church of Rome?''
" My lord," quoth Tyms, " the bishop of Winches-
ter wrote a very learned oration, entitled, ' De vera obe-
dientin,' which contains worthy matttr against the
Romish authority, to which book you made a preface,
inveighing against the bishop of Rome, reproving his
tyranny and falsehood, calling his power false and pre-
tended. The book is extant, and you cannot deny it."
Then the bishop was somewhat abashed, and looking
upon such as were present, spake very gently, saying ;
" Lo, here is a goodly matter indeed. My lord of Win-
chester, being a great learned man, did write a book
against the supremacy of the pope's holiness, and I
also did write a preface before this book, tending to the
same effect. And thus did we, because of the perilous
world that then was. For then it was made treason, by
the laws of this realm, to maintain the pope's authority,
and it was great danger to be suspected as a favourer of
the see of Rome ; and therefore fear compelled us to bear
with the time, for otherwise there had been no way but
one. You know when any uttered his conscience in
maintaining the pope's authority, he sufl'ered death
for it."
And then turning his tale to Tyms, he said; " But
since that time, even since the coming in of the queen's
majesty, when we might behold to speak our conscience,
we have acknowledged our faults, and my lord of Win-
chester himself was not ashamed to recant, at St. Paul s
cross. And also, thou thyself seest that I stand not in
it, but willingly have submitted mj'self. Do thou also
as we have done."
" My lord," said Tyms, " that which you have written
against the supremacy of the pope, may be well proved
by the scriptures. But that which you now do, is against
the word of God, as I can well prove."
Then Doctor Cooke said ; " Tyms, I pray thee let
me talk with thee a little, for I think we two are learned
alike. Thou speakest much of the scripture, and yet
understandest it not. I will tell thee to whom thou
mayest be compared. Thou art like to one -who intend-
3n ■
S12
A GODLY LETTER OF \VILLL\M TYMS.
LBocK XI.
ing to go on hunting, riseth up early in the morning,
taketh his hounds, and forth he; goeth, up to the hills,
and down into the vallies ; he passeth over the fields,
over hedge and ditch, he searcheth the woods and
thickets ; thus lahoureth he all the whole day, without
finding any game. At night liome he cometh, weary of
liis travel, not having caught any thing at all ; and thus
faretli it with thee. Thou labourest in reading of the
scriptures, thou takest the letter, but the meaning thou
knowest not, and tlius thy reading is as unprofitable
unto thee, as hunting was unto the man I spake of even
now."
" Sir," said Tyms, " you have not well applied your
similitude ; for 1, praise God, 1 have not read the scrip-
tures unprofitably : but God, I thank him, hath revealed
unto me so much as I doubt not is sufficient for my sal-
vation."
Then said the bishop ; " You boast much of know-
ledge, and yet you know nothing : you speak much of
scripture, and you know not what scripture is. I pray
thee tell me : How knowest thou that thing to be the
word of God, which thou callest scripture ?''
To this answered Robert Drakes, that he did know
it to be the word of God, for " it shews unto men their
salvation in Christ, and calls back all men from wicked
life, to a pure and undefiled conversation."
The bishop replied, that the heathen writers have
taught precepts of good living, as well as the scripture,
and yet their writings are not esteemed to be God s
word.
To this Tyms answered, saying; "The old testament
bears witness of those things which are written in the
new, for there is nothing taught in the new testament,
but was foreshewed in the law and the prophets."
" I will deny all," said the bishop, " I will deny all ;
what sayest thou then ?" Then he spake to Doctor Pen-
dleton, saying,
" Master doctor, I pray you say somewhat to these
folks that may do them some good." Then Doctor
Pendleton covered his face with both his hands, that he
might the more quietly devise what to say ; but other
talk was presently ministered, so that for that time he
said nothing.
Then the bishop, proceeding at length in form of law,
caused both his articles and answers to be openly read.
After this, the bishop began to entreat and persuade
him to revoke his heresies (as he termed them), and to
conform himself to the church of Rome, and not to stick
60 much to the literal sense of the scriptures, but to use
the interpretation of the old fathers.
To which Tyms answered, " I will not conform my-
self-thereto. And I thank God, for this day ; for I trust
he w'ill turn your cursings into blessings."
And asking this question, he said ; " And what have
you to maintain the real presence of Christ in the sacra-
ment, but only the bare letter ?"
" We have," said the bishop, " the cathoHc church."
" No," said Tyms, " you have the popish church of
Rome for you, and the see of Rome is the see of anti-
christ ; and therefore to that church I will not conform
myself, nor once consent to it."
Then the bishop, seeing his constant boldness, proceed-
ing to his condemnation, pronounced sentence upon him,
and gave him over to the secular power.
Afterwards Bonner called for Robert Drakes, and
used towards him the like manner of exhortation. Drakes
said ; " As for your church of Rome, I utterly dt-fy and
refuse it, with ail the works thereof, even as I refuse the
devil and all his works."
The bishop then using his accustomed order of law, at
last pronounced sentence upon him, and so charged the
sheriff with him.
Thomas Spurge being next demanded if he would re-
turn to the catholic church, said as follows ; " As for
your church of Rome, I do utterly deny it : but to the
true catholic church I am content to return, and con-
tinue in the same, whereof I believe the church of Rome
to be no part or member." Then calling the rest in
their order, and upon the like demands receiving the
like answers, the bishop pronounced on them their bcve-
ral judgments, and so committed them to the sheriffs of
London, who sent them to Newgate, whither they went
all most joyfully, abiding there the Lord's good time,
till tiiey should seal this their faith with the shedding of
their blood ; which they most firmly and willingly per-
formed, on the lull day of April.
A Letter of William Tyms to his faithful Sister in the
Lord, Parishioner in the town of Hockley, named
Af/nes Glascock.
" The grace, mercy, and peace of God our Father,
through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, with the
sweet comfort of his holy and mighty Sj)irit, to the per-
formance of his will, to your everlasting comfort, be with
you, my dear sister Glascock, both now and evermore,
Amen.
" My most dear and entirely beloved sister, yea,
mother I might rightly well call you, for the motherly care
which you have always had for me, I have me most
heartily commended unto you, giving God most hearty
thanks for you, that he hath given you so loving a heart
to Christ's poor gospel, and his poor afflicted dock for
the same : and as you have full godly begun, so T be-
seech God to give you jjower to go forward in the same,
and never more to look back, fearing neither fire, nei-
ther sword ; and then I warrant you, you have not far
to run.
" And now, (my dear heart,) remember well what I *
have taught you when I was present with you, and also
written being absent, and no doubt we shall shortly meet
again with a most joyful meeting. I go upon Friday
next to the bishop of London's coal-house, which is the
20th of March, where I think it will be hard for any of
my friends to speak with me. Howbeit I trust I shall
not long tarry there, but shortly afterwards be carried up
after my dear brethren and sisters, which are gone before
me into heaven in a fiery chariot : therefore now I take
my leave of you, till we meet in heaven ; and hasten you
after. I have tarried a great while for you, and seeing
you are so long a making ready, 1 will tarry no longer
for you. You shall find me merrily singing. Holy, holy,
holy. Lord God of Sabaoth, at my journey's end. There-
fore now, my dear heart, make good haste, and loiter
not by the way, lest night take you. and so you be shut
out of the gate with the foolish virgins. And now, (my
sister,) in witness that I have taught you nothing but the
truth, here I write my name with my blood, for a testi-
mony unto you that I will seal the simple doctrine
which I have taught you, with the rest. And thus fare
you well : and God defend you from antichrist, and all
his ministers, the false priests, Amen.''
These words following were written with his own
blood.
" Continue in prayer. By me, William Tyms, in the
" Ask in Faith. King's-bench for the
" And obtain your desire. gospel of Christ."'
Another Letter to his Sisters Colfox and Agnes
Glascock,
" Grace and peace from Gojl the Father of all mercy,
through the merits of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ, be
perceived and felt in the hearts of you, my dearly be-
loved sisters in the Lord, by the mighty working of the
Holy Ghost the comforter, both now and evermore.
Amen.
" My most dear and entirely heloved sisters in the
Lord, after my most hearty commendations, according
to my most bounden duty, 1 do as I am accustomed, or
at least bound to do, that is, 1 give you warning of your
enemies, who are the papists, and take good heed to
them, for they serve a crafty master ; yea, and as St.
Peter saith, he sleepeth not, but goeth about like a roar-
ing lion, seeking whom he may devour. For your old
familiar friends, or worldly companions, when they see
that you will not run to the idols' temple with them, it
will seem a strange thing unto them, that ye run not to
the same excess of riot, as St. Peter saith, and therefore
they will speak evil of you, rail on you, and persecute you.
A.D. 1556,]
AN EXHORTATORY LETTER OF WILLIAM TYMS.
313
" But, my dear sisters, let it not trouble you, tor it is
but to try you, and let it not seem a strange thing unto
you. But when they do so, remember wherefore it is,
and for whose sake, even because you will not forsake
(4od as tliey do. For the hatred they bear you, is for the
word of God, and then it is God's cause, and I tell you
he will revenge it. And therefore if you be railed on,
and troubled for his sake, think yourselves most happy.
For if you suffer with the patriarchs, jirophets, and apos-
tles, tlien shall ye be sure to be partakers of the same
joy that they are in. Yea, you have heard by the word
of God, how cruelly the tyrants always have persecuted
the true members of Christ, as he himself hath promised
that they shall do unto the end of the world.
" By the way I will bring to your remembrance the
holy martyr St. Stephen, who, for favouring, maintaining
and defending the same doctrine that we now suffer for,
was called a blasphemer, and stoned to death at Jerusa-
lem. And Christ's apostles were variously afflicted all
the world over for the same cause, by this evil generation.
Antipas, the faithful witness of Christ, was slain at Perga-
mos. Jason, for receiving of Paul and Silas, with other
disciples and teachers of the gospel, was brought before
the council at Thessalonica, and accused for a seditious
traitor against Csesar. No marvel, therefore, that at
this day we are vexed on the same sort, for maintaining
the same cause, and favouring the teachers thereof. Is
there any other reward following the true servants of
God now, than hath been afore-times ? No, surely, for
so hath Christ promised. And if they have persecuted
him, they must needs persecute his members ; if they
have called the master of the house Beelzebub, so will
they do his household ; ' Y'^ou shall be hated of all men
(saith Christ), for my name's sake.'
•' It is no new thing, my dear hearts, to see the true
members of Christ handled as in our days they are, as it
is not unknown to you how they are cruelly treated,
and blasphemed without any reasonable cause. For
heretics must they be taken, who follow not their tradi-
tions. And then they may as well call Christ a here-
tic, for he never allowed their dirty ceremonies. He
never went in a procession with a cope, cross, or candle-
stick. He never sensed image, nor sang Latin service.
He never sat in confession. He never preached of pur-
gatory, nor of the pope's pardons. He never honoured
saints, nor prayed for the dead. He never said mass,
mattins, nor evensong. He never commanded to fast
Friday nor Vigil, Lent nor Advent. He never hallowed
church nor chalice, ashes nor palm>, candles nor bells.
He never made holy water nor holy br jad, with such like.
But such dumb ceremonies, not having the express com-
mandment of God, he calleth the leaven of the pharisees,
and damnable hypocrisy ; admonishing his disciples to
beware of them. He curseth all those that add to his
word such beggarly shadows, wiping their names out of
the book of life. St. Paul saith, they have no portion
with Christ, who entangle themselves again with such
yokes of bondage.
" Therefore, my dear hearts, seeing that our good
God bath, by the light of his holy word, delivered us
from all such dark, blind, dumb, beggarly traditions of
men, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made you free, and entangle not yourselves again in the
yoke of bondage But let us always be ready, looking
for the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who , as St. Peter saith, ' will come as a thief in the night I '
And our captain Christ saith, ' If the good man of the
house had known in what watch the thief would come,
ne would have watched, and would not have suffered his
house to be broken in.'
" Therefore, my dear hearts, be of good comfort, al-
though the world rage never so sore against you. And
for your comfort mark well the great mercy of God, who,
according to his promise for the weakness of our nature,
hath so assuaged the heat of the fire, that our dear breth-
ren who are gone before us, in the sight of all men, have
found it rather to be joy than pain. And think you
surely God will be as merciful unto you, as he hath been
unto them ; and say with St. Paul, Rorn. viii. .35 — 37.
* Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword .' As it is written, for tiiy
sake we are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us.'
" Therefort-, (my dear sisters,) if to save your lives,
any dissembling gospellers would have you to go to the
idols' temple witli them, say unto them; No, for my
master Christ saith, ' lie that would save his life, shall
lose it.' And in another place, to comfort us he saith,
There shall not one hair fall from our head, without
it be our heavenly Father's will. And therefore say
that you will not be of that sort, who are neither
hot nor cold, lest God should utterly reject you.
But make them this answer, saying as St. Paul saith,
2 Cor. vi. 1-1 — 18 ' Be ye not uneijually yoked toge-
ther with unbelievers : for what fellowship hath right-
eousness with unrighteousness? and what (communion
hath light with darkness? And what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols ? for ye are the temple of the living
God ; as God hath said, 1 will dwell in them, and walk
in them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be
ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing ; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the
Lord Almighty.'
" Thus, mine own bowels in the Lord, as I began, so
make I an end, bidding you beware of your enemies, and
take up your cross, and follow your captain Christ in at
the narrow gate here by persecution, and then you shall
be sure to reign and rejoice with him in his everlasting
kingdom, which he himself hath purchased with his own
most precious blood : to whom with the Father and the
Holy Ghost, be all honour both now and for ever, Amen.
" By me, William Tvms."
About this time, there came down certain commis-
sioners to Norfolk and Suftolk, to enquire of matters of
religion: to which commissioners there was a supplica-
tion then exhibited by some good and well disposed mea
dwelling about those parts, well worthy the perusal of
every christian man, as here follows ; shewing the godly
nature of the reformatiou wrought in king Edward's
days.
A Supplication exhibited by certain Inhabitants of the
County of Norfolk, to the Commissioners.
"Inmost humble and lowly wise, we beseech your
honours, right honourable commissioners, to tender and
pity the humble suit of us poor men, and true, faithful,
and obedient subjects, who as we have ever heretofore,
so intend we, with God's grace, to continue in christian
obedience unto the end, (and according to the word of
God) with all reverend fear of God, to do our bounden
duty to all those superior powers, whom God hath ap-
pointed over us, doing as St. Paul saith, Romans xiii,
1,2,' Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God : the powers that be
are ordained of God. \Miosoevcr therefore resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God : and they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation.' These
lessons, right honourable commissioners, we have learned
from the holy word of God, in our mother tongue.
" First, That the authority of a king, queen, lord, and
other their officers under them, is no tyrannical usurpa-
tion, but a just, holy, lawful, and necessary estate for.
man to be governed by, and that the same is of God, the
fountain and author of righteousness.
" Secondly, That to obey the same in all things not
against God, is to obey God ; and to resist them, is to
resist God. Therefore, as to obey God in his ministers
and magistrates bringeth life; so to resist God in them,
bringeth punishment and death. The same lesson have we
learned of St. Peter, 1 Pet. ii. I.'5 — lb. saying, 'Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man tor the Lord's sake •
whether it be to the king, as supreme ; or unto gover-
914 PEOPLE OF NORFOLK'S SUPPLICATION TO THE QUEEN'S COMMISSIONERS. [Book XI.
nors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punish-
ment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do
well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye
may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men : As free
and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God.'
" Wherefore considering with ourselves, both that the
magistrate's power is of God, and that for the Lord's
sake we are bound to christian obedience untolthem,
having now presently a commandment, as though it were
from the queen's majesty ; with all humble obedience due
to the regal power and authority ordained of God, which
we acknowledge to stand wholly and perfectly in her
grace, and with due reverence unto you her grace's com-
missioners, we humbly beseech you with patience and
j)ity to receive this our answer unto this commandment,
now given unto us.
" First, right honourable commissioners, we have
considered ourselves to be not only Englishmen, but
also Christians, and therefore bound by the holy vow
made to God in our baptism, to prefer God's honour in
all things, and that all obedience (not only of us mortal
men, but even of the very angels and heavenly spirits)
is due xmto God's word ; insomuch that no obedience
can be true and perfect, either before God or man, that
wholly and fully agreeth not with God's word.
" Then have we weighed the commandment concern-
ing the restitution of the late abolished Latin service,
and believe it to dissent and disagree from God's word,
and to command manifest impiety, and the overthrow of
godliness and true religon, and to impart a subversion of
the regal power of this our native country and realm of
England, with the bringing in of the Romish bishop's
supremacy, with all errors, superstitions, and idolatry,
wasting of our goods and bodies, destroying of our souls,
cringing with it nothing but the severe wrath of God,
which we already feel, and fear lest the same shall be
more tiercely kindled upon us. M'herefore we humbly
protest, that we cannot be persuaded, that the same
wicked commandment should, come from the cpieen's
majesty, but rather from some other j)erson, abusing the
queen's goodness and favour, and studying to work some
design against the queen, her crown, and the realm, and
to please the Roman bishop, at whose hands the same
thiuketh hereafter to be advanced.
" As Haman wrought maliciously against the noble king,
Ahasuerus, and as the princes of Babel wrought against
the good king Darius : so we think the queen's most
gentle heart is abused by some, who seeking themselves
and their own vain glory, procure such commandments
as are against the glory of God. For we cannot have so
evil an opinion of her majesty, that she should subvert
the most godly and holy religion (so according to God's
word set forth by the most noble, virtuous, and innocent
king, a very saint of God, our late most dear king Edward,
her grace's brother) except she were wonderfully abused ;
but the authors of this commandment hating reformation,
will rather the destruction of all others, than acknowledge
their errors, and conform according to God's word. For
truly, the religion lately set forth by king Edward,
is such as every christian man is bound to confess to
be the truth of God, and every member of Christ's
church here in England must needs embrace the same in
heart, and confess it with mouth, and if need require,
lose and forsake, not only house, land and possessions,
riches, wife, children and friends ; but also, if God will
so call them, gladly to suffer all manner of persecution,
and lose their lives in the defence of God's word and
truth set out amongst us. For our Saviour, Christ, requir-
eth the same of us, saying, ' Whosoever therefore shall
be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous
and sinful generation ; of him also shall the Son of man
be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father
with the holy angels.' Mark viii. ;?8. And again, saith
he, ' Whosoever therefore .shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father wjiich is in
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will 1 also deny before my Father whicli is in heaven.'
Matt. X. 32, 33. ' And whosoever speaketh a word
Rgainst the Son of man, it shall be forgiven liim ; but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy l5host, it shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the
world to come.' Matt. xii. 32.
" We humbly beseech the queen's majesty, and you
her honourable commissioners, be not offended with U3
for confessing this truth of God, so straitly given us in
charge by Christ ; neither bring upon us, that great sin
that never shall be forgiven, and shall cause our Saviour
Jesus Christ, in the great day of judgment, before his
heavenly Father and all his angels, to deny us, and to take
from us the blessed price and ransom of his bloodshed -
ding, wherewith we are redeemed.
" For in that day, neither the queen's highness,
neither you, nor any man shall be able to excuse us, nor
to purchase a pardon of Christ for this horrible sin and
blasphemy of casting aside and condemning his word.
We cannot agree nor consent unto this so horrible a sin ;
but we beseech God for his mercy to give us and all men
grace, most earnestly to flee from it, and rather, if the
will of God be so, to suffer all extremity and punish-
ment in this world, rather than to incur such damnation
before God.
" Manasseh, who restored again the wickedness of
idolatrous religion (before put down by Hezekiah his
father) brought the wrath of God upon the people : as
the scripture saith. ' Notwithstanding the Lord turned
not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his
anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the pro-
vocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And
the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight,
as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Je-
rusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which
I said, my name shall be there." — 2 Kings xxiii.
26, 27. Jeroboam, who at Bethel and Dan erected up a
new found service of God, not only siimed himself,
but also made all Israel to sin with him, so that not only
he was damned for commanding, but the wrath of God
came upon all Israel for obeying that his imgodly com-
mandment : yet it was not so heinous an offence to bring
in an idolatry never yet heard of, as after reformation
made by the godly kings and princes, by the virtuous and
holy bishops, by the prophets and servants of God, to
reject and cast off the word and true religion of God,
and to receive again a damned impiety.
" This most heinous offence is now offered to us,
although the same be painted and coloured witli the name
of reformation, restoring of religion, ancient faith, with
the name of the catholic church, of unity, catholic
truth, and with the cloak of feigned holiness. These
are sheepskins, under which, as Christ saith, ravening
wolves cover themselves. But Christ desires us to look
upon their fruits, whereby we may know them ; and
truly that is no good fruit, to cast aside God's word, and
to banish the English service out of the churches, and
in the place of it to bring in a Latin tongue unknown to
the people. Which, as it editieth no man, so it hath been
the occasion of all blindness and error among the people.
For before the blessed reformation begun by the most
noble prince of godly memory, the queen's good father ;
and finished by our late holy and innocent king, her good
brother ; it is not unknown what blindness and error we
were all in ; when not one n'ftin in all this realm, unlearned
in the Latin, could say in English the Lord's prayer, or
knew any one article of his belief, or rehearse any one of
the ten commandments. And that ignorance, mother of
mischief, was the very root and well-spring of all idolatry,
unclean monkery, and immorality of unmarried priests,
of all vice, drunkenness, covetousness, swearing and
blasphemy, with all other wicked sinful living. These
brought in the severe wrath and vengeance of God,
j)lagueing us with famine and pestilence ; and at last the
sword consumed and avenged all their impiety and wicked
living. As it is greatly to be feared the same or more
grievous plagues shall now again follow.
"We cannot therefore consent nor agree that the word
of God and prayers in our English tongue, which we under-
stand, should be taken away from us, and for it a Latin
service, we know not what (for none of us understand
it) to be again brought in amongst us, specially seeing
that Christ hath said, ' My sheep hear my voice, and
A.D. 155fi.] PEOPLE OF NORFOLK'S SUPPLICATION TO THE QUEEN'S CO:\IMISSIONERS. 915
follow me, and I give to them everlasting life.' The ser-
vice in English teaches us, that we are the Lord's people,
and the sheep of his pasture, and conuuands that we
harden not our hearts, as when they provoked the
Lord's wrath in the wilderness, lest he sware unto us,
as he did sware unto them, that they should not enter
into his rest.
" The service in Latin is a confused noise ; which if
it be good, (as they say it is) yet unto us that lack under-
standing, what goodness can it bring ? St. Paul com-
mands, that in the churches all things should be done
to edifying, which we are sure is God's commandment.
But in the Latin service nothing is done to edifying, but
contrary all to destroy those that are already edified, and
to drive us from God s word and truth, and from believ-
ing of the same, and so to bring us to believe lies and
fables, that tempting and provoking God, we should be
brought into that judgment that St. Paul speaks of,
saying : ' Even him, whose coming is after the working
of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them
that perish ; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they rcight be saved. And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie : that they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.' 2
Thess. ii. 9—12.
" Thus, altogether drawn from God, we shall fall into
his wrath through unbelief, till he swear unto us as he
did unto the unfaithful Jews, that such infidels shall not
enter into his rest.
" In the administration of the Lord's supper, which
we confess to be the holy commvinion, and partaking
with Christ and his holy congregation, we have learned
God's holy commandments, and at the rehearsal of
every one of them to ask God mercy for our most grievous
transgressions against them, and to ask grace of God, to
keep them in time to come, that the same may not only
outwardly sound in our ears, but also inwardly by the
Holy Ghost be written in our hearts.
" We have learned also the holy prayer made for the
queen's majesty ; wherein we learn that her power and
authority is of God, therefore we pray to God for her,
that she and all magistrates under her, may rule accord-
ing to God's word, and we her subjects obey according to
the same.
" Truly most honourable commissioners, we cannot
think these things evil, but think them most worthy to
be retained in our churches, and we should think our-
selves not to have the hearts of true subjects if we
should go about to put away such godly prayers, as put
us perpetually in memory of our bounden obedience and
duty to God and our rulers. For, as we think, at this
present the unquiet multitude have more need to have
these things more often and earnestly inculcated upon
them, specially given, as they are in many places to stir and
trouble, than to take from them that blessed doctrine,
whereby only, they may to their salvation be kept in quiet.
" Furthermore, we cannot forsake that blessed jiartak-
ing of the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ's
institution, administered with such godly prayers, exhor-
tations and admonitions, teaching us the knowledge of
God, the exceeding love and charity of our loving Re-
deemer Christ, breaking his body upon the cross for our
sins, and shedding his most precious blood for our re-
demption : which we in eating of that blessed bread, and
drinking of the blessed cup, assuredly believe that we
receive, and are perfectly joined with Christ and his
holy catholic church irito one body, and into one unity
and brotherly love, whereby each member faithfully em-
braces another. We must needs confess this institution
of Christ to be most holy and godly, whereof we have
the only comfort in conscience against sin and damna-
tion, with the assurance of salvation, and whereof hath
ensued reformation of many heinous sins, much quarrelling,
strife, and contention is ended ; drunkenness, and other
vices, reformed in some, goodness and virtue increased
and nourished
" In the Latin mass we never had such edifying, but
only we saw a great many ceremonies and strange
gestures ; as turning of the priest, crossings, blessings,
breathings, washing of hands, and spreading abroad of
his arniK, with like ceremonies that we understand not.
And concerning the Latin tongue, wherein the priest
prayeth, we know not whether he blesses or curses us.
We are not partakers of the sacrament, as Christ's insti-
tution appointeth we should be.
" In the administering of tlie sacrament, the priests
alter the institution of Christ, committing theft and
sacrilege, robbing us of the cup of Christ's blood, con-
trary to Christ's commandment, saying, Drink ye all of this.
" They rob us also of God's word, speaking all things
in Latin, which nothing edifieth us either in faith or
manners. Christ commandeth not that his supper should
be administered in an unknown tongue : but forasmuch
as faith cometh by hearing, and hearing coineth of God's
word, how can we believe Christ's word and promise
made unto us in his holy sacrament, saying, ' This is my
body broken for you, and this is my blood of the new
testament, which is shed for you, for the remission of
sins,' if the same ])romises of Christ either be not at all
recited, or else so recited in Latin, that the congregation
understand not, and hear not what is spoken ? St.
Paul saith thus, reciting the saying of Isaiah, ' As
I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God.' Also he saith, 'All
tongues must confess, that Jesus Christ is the Lord, unto
the glory of God the Father.' The Holy Ghost came upoa
the apostles in fiery tongues, so that they spake the tongues
of all nations under heaven. St. Paul administered to
the Corinthians, and preached to them in their own
mother tongue, and rebuked the bringing in of strange
tongues into the congregation. We cannot think that
to be well, which so holy an apostle rebuked. And
whatsoever virtue tlie Latin tongue hath to such as under-
stand it, to us Englishmen not understanding it, it is
altogether without virtue and edifying, and therefore
unmeet for our churches.
" The priests complain that we laymen love them not,
nor iiave them in honour, but it is their own fault : for
how should we love them, that only seek to keep us in
blindness and ignorance, to damn our souls, to destroy
our bodies, to rob and spoil our goods and substance,
under a colour of pretended holiness ? We know, right
honourable commissioners, what honour is due to such
wolves, and how by the authority of God's word, such
are to be fled from, as pestilences to the Lord's lambs,
whom they miserably daily murder.
" But we have rather chosen by this our meek suppli-
cation, humbly to desire the queen's majesty, and you
her honourable commissioners, to render God's word
again unto the churches, and to permit us freely to
enjoy the same. For we certainly know, that the whole
religion lately set out by the holy saint of God, our late
most dear King Edward, is Christ's true religion written
in the holy scripture of God, and by Christ and his
apostles taught unto his church. Wherefore we cannot
allow with safe consciences this refusal of it, and casting
of it out of our churches ; forasmuch as to refuse, cast
off, and to reject it, is to cast off Christ himself, and
to refuse our part in his blessed body broken for our sins,
and his blood shed for our redemption. Which thing
whoso doth, the same without repentance can look for
no sacrifice for his sins, but most fearfully wait for the
judgment, and for that vehement fire which shall destroy
Christ's adversaries. For if he that despised the law of
Moses, was without mercy put to death under two or three
witnesses, how much more grievous torments shall he
suffer that treadeth under foot the Son of God, and
esteemeth the blood of the testament (whereby he was
sanctified) as a profane thing, and contumeliously useth
the spirit of grace ?
" Wherefore, we most humbly pray and beseech the
queen's gracious majesty, to have mercy and pity upon
us her poor and faithful subjects, and not to compel us
to do the thing that is against our consciences, and shall
so incurably wound us in heart, by bringing into the
church the Latin mass and service, that nothing edifieth
us, and casting out of Christ's holy communion and
English service, so cavising us to sin against our
916 PEOPLE OF NORFOLK'S SUPPLICATION TO THE QUEEN'S COMMISSIONERS. [Book XI.
Redeemer. For such as willingly and wittingly against
their consciences shall so do (as it is to be fe ired many a
one doth) they are in a miserable state, until tlie mercy
of God turn them ; which it' he do not, we certainly be-
lieve, that they shall eternally be damned : and as in this
world thev deny Christ's holy word and communion be-
fore men.'so shall Christ deny them before his heavenly
Father and his angels.
" And whereas it is very earnestly required, that we
should go in procession (as they call it) at which time
the priests say in Latin such things as we are ignorant of,
the same editieth nothing at all unto godliness, and we
have learned that to follow Christ's cross, is another
matter, namely, to take up our cross, and to follow
Christ in patient sutfering for his love, tribulations,
sickness, poverty, prison, or any other adversity, when-
soever God's holy will and pleasure is to lay the same
upon us. The triumphant passion and death of Christ,
whereby in his own person he conquered death, sin, and
hell, hath most lively been preached unto us, and the
glory of Christ's cross declared by our preachers ;
whereby we have learned the causes and effects of the
same more lively in one sermon, than in all the pro-
cessions that ever we went in, or ever shall go in.
" When we worshipped the divine Trinity kneeling,
and in the Litany invocating the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, asking mercy for our sins, and desiring
such petitions as the need of our frail estate and this
mortal Life requireth, we were editied, botli to know unto
whom all christian prayers should be directed, and also
to know that of God's hand we receive all things, as well
to the salvation of our souls, as to the relief of our
mortal necessities. And we humbly beseech the queen's
majesty, that the same most holy prayers may be con-
tinued amongst us ; that our niinisters praying in our
mother-tongue, and we und8rstanding their prayers and
petitions, may answer A.men, unto them. At evening
service we understood our minister's prayers, we were
taught and admonishti by the scriptures then read;
which, in the Latin evei^-song is all gone.
" At the ministration of holy bajitism, we learned
what league and covenant God had made with us, and
what vows and promises we upon our part had made,
namely, to believe in him, to forsake Satan and his
works, and to walk in the way of God's holy word and
commandments.
" The christian catechism continually taught and called
to remembrance the same, whereas before no man knew
any thing at all ; and many good men of forty years,
that had been godfathers to thirty children, knew no
more of the godfather's office, but to wash their hands
ere they departed the church, or else to fast live Fridays
with bread and water.
" O, merciful God ! have pity upon us. Shall we be
altogether cast from thy presence ? we may well lament
our miserable estate, to receive such a commandment,
to reject and cast out of our churches all these most
godly prayers, instructions, admonitions and doctrines ;
and thus to be compelled to deny God, and Christ our
Saviour, his holy word, and all his doctrine of our sal-
vation, the candle to our feet, and the light to our steps,
the bread coming down from heaven that giveth life ;
which whoso eateth, it shall be in him a well-spring,
streaming unto eternal life ; whereby we have learned all
righteousness, all true religion, all true obedience to-
wards our governors, all charity one towards another,
all good works that God would us to walk in, what
punishment abideth the wicked, and what heavenly
reward God will give to those that reverently walk in his
■ways and commandments.
" Wherefore, right honourable commissioners, we can-
not without- impiety refuse and cast from us the holy
word of God which we have received, or condemn ai\y
thing set forth by our most godly late king Edward,
and his virtuous proceedings, so agreeal)le to God's
word. And our most humble suit is that this command-
ment may be revoked, so that we be not constrained
thereunto. For we protest before God, we tliink if the
holy word of God had not taken some root amongst us,
we could nok in times past have done that poor duty of
ours, which we did in assisting the queen, our most dear
sovereign, against her grace's mortal foe, that then sought
her destruction. It was our bounden duty, and we thank
God for the knowledge of his word and grace, that we
then did some j)art of our bounden service.
"And we meekly pray and beseech the queen's majesty,
for the dear passion of Jesus Christ, that the same word
he not taken away out of her churches, nor from us her
loving, faithful and true subjects ; lest, if the like neces-
sity should hereafter chance (which God for his mercy's
sake forbid, and ever save and defend her grace, and
us all) the want of knowledge and due remembrance of
God's word may be occasion of great ruin to an infinite
number of her grace's true subjects. And truly we judge
tliis to be one subtle part of the devil, enemy to all
godly peace and quietness, that by taking God's word
from among us, and planting ignorance, he may make
a way to all mischief and wickedness ; and by banisliing
the holy gospel of peace, he may bring upon us the
heavy wrath of God, with all manner of plagues; as
death, strange sickness, jiestilence, murrain, most terrible
uproars, commotions and seditions. These things did
the Lord threaten unto the Jews for refusing his word,
saying, ' Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but
understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make
tlie heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut tlieir eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and
hear with tluir ears, and understand with their heart,
and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how
long ? And he answered, until the cities be wasted
without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the
land be utterly desolate.' Isaiah vi. y — 11. And tlie pro-
phet Micah, considering the contempt of God's word
among the Israelites, threatened them thus, ' The day of
thy watr.hmen and thy visitation cometh, now shall be
their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye
not confidence in a guide ; keep the doors of thy
mouth fiom her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son
dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against
her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-
law : a man's enemies are the men of his own house.'
Micah vii. 4 — (i. The same plague Christ threatened unto
the Jews, for refusing his peace proffered them in the gos-
pel, and he wept over the city Jerusalem, which murdered
the prophets, and stoned such as were sent unto her.
" The same plagues, we are afraid, will also fall upon
us. For whereas heretofore, with the receiving of Christ's
word and peaceable gosfjcl, we had great benedictions of
God, especially this christian concord and holy peace,
so that all were at a full and perfect stay in religion, no
man offended witli another, but as the sons pf peace,
each of us with christian charity embraced other : now
alas for pity, the devil (riding upon the red horse,
showed unto St. John in the Revelation,) is come forth,
and power is given unto him to take peace from the
earth. For now a man can go to no place, but malici-
ous busy-bodies curiously search out his deeds, mark his
words, and if he agree not with them in despising God's
word, then will they spitefully and hatefully rail against
him and it, calling it error and heresy, and the profes-
sors thereof heretics and schismatics, witii other odious
and spiteful names, as traitors and not the queen's
friends, not favourers of the queen's proceedings; as if
to love God's word were heresy, and as though to talk
of Christ, were to be schismatic ; as though none could
be true to the queen, that were not false to God ; as
though none were the queen's friends, but such as de-
spitef'uUy rail on her grace's father and brother, and
on God's word that they get forth ; as though none
favoured the queen's majesty, but such as hate all godly
knowledge.
" And in very deed these things that all this turmoil
is made for, are mere inventions of po])es, brought into
the church of their own imaginations, without command-
ment or ensample either of Christ, or of his apostles ;
and there is not one word in the Bible, that being truly
alleged maintaineth them, nor any doctor of antifpiity
before St. Augustine's days, as it hath been divers times
sufficiently proved, before all the whole parliament and
convocation of this realm. Yet these, being mere tra-
A.D. 1556.] PEOPLE OF NORFOLK'S SUPPLICATION TO THE QUEEN'S COMMISSIONERS.
',17
ditions of bishops, are set out for God's commandments;
and the queen's authority (given to her of God to main-
tain his word) must be abused to put down God's word.
.\nd you, right honourable justi<:es, and keepers of laws
md righteousness, are also abused and made the bishops
ajijjarators, to set forth such Romish trash as is to
Christ's dishonour, and against the supreme authority
of the regal estate of this realm. And we poor subjects,
for speaking of that which is truth, and our bounden
allegiance, are daily punished, railed upon, and noted for
seditious, and not the queen's friends.
" But God who is blessed for ever, knoweth that they
slander us, and jjuU the thorn out of their own foot, and
j)Ut it in ours : for the searcher of hearts knoweth, that
we bear a faithful and true heart unto her grace, and
unto all her proceedings, that are not against God and
his holy word. And we daily pray unto the heavenly
Father, to enlighten her grace's royal heart with the
glorious light of the gospel, that she may establish and
confirm that religion, that her grace's brother, our most
dear king, did set out amongst us ; and so governing
and ruling this her realm in the fear and true way of
God, she may long live, and with prosperity, peace, and
honour reign over us.
" But we cannot think that those men do seek either
God's honour, or her grace's prosperity, or wealth of the
realm, that take from her grace's faithful subjects God's
word, which only is the root of all love and faithful
obedience under her grace, and of all honesty, good life,
and virtuous concord among her commons. And this we
fear, lest the root being taken away, the branches will
soon wither and be fruitless. And when the Philistines
have stopped up the well-spring, the fair streams that
should flow shall soon be dried up. All our watchmen,
our true preachers, have taught us, that as long as we
retained God's word, we should have God our gracious
merciful Father ; but if we refused and cast off the
Lord's yoke of his doctrine, then shall we look for the
Lord's wrath and severe visitation to plague us, as he
did the Jews for the like offences. And St. Paul saith,
Rom. .\i. 8. ' God hath given them the spirit of slum-
ber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they
should not hear unto this day.' And as David said ;
Psal. Lvix. 22, 2.'5. ' Let their table become a snare
before them : and that which should have been for their
welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be dark-
ened that they see not, and make their loins continually
to shake.'
" O, merciful God ! all this is now come upon us, and
daily more and more increased, and we fear at last it will
so bow down our backs, that we shall utterly be de-
stroyed ; the troublesome spirit of uproars and disquiet-
ness daily troubleth men's hearts, and worketh such dis-
quietness in all places, that no man that loveth quietness,
can tell where to place himself. Men have eyes, and see
not how grievous an offence it is to cast off the yoke of
God's doctrine, and to bear the heavy burden that unfaith-
ful hypocrites lay upon us. We have ears, and hear
not the warning of God's word, calling us to true re-
pentance, nor his threats against our impiety. Our most
sweet table of Christ's word and most holy communion,
is taken away, and turned to a most perilous snare,
through the brawling disputations of men. And, as the
idol of abomination betokened final subversion unto the
Jewish nation ; so we fear, this setting aside of the gos-
pel and holy communion of Christ, and the placing in
of a Romish religion, betokeneth desolation of this noble
realm of England to be at hand.
" For the plagues of hunger, jiestilence and sword,
cannot long tarry ; but except we repent, and turn again
to the Lord, our backs shall be so bowed, that the like
horrible plagues were never seen. And no marvel : for
the like otlence was never committed, as to reject and
cast off Christ and his word, and in plain English to say.
We will not have him to reign over us. O Lord, how
terrible is it that foUoweth in the gospel ? ' Those mine
enemies which would not that I should reign over them,
bring them hither, and slay them before me,' Luke xix.
27. God be merciful unto us, and move the queeu's
majesty's heart, and the hearts of her honourable council,
and your hearts, right honourable commissioners, to
weigh these dangers in due time ; and to call God's
word into your council, and then you shall see how it
agreeth with this bishop-like commandment ; and to be
as wary to avoid the contempt of the eternal God, and
dangers of the same, as you are prudent and wise in
matters of this world, lest if the Almighty be contemned,
he stretch forth his arm, which no man can turn, and
kindle his wrath, that no man can quench.
" We have humbly opened unto you our consciences,
doubtless sore wounded and grieved by this command-
ment ; and we meekly pray and beseech the queen's
majesty, for the precious death and blood-shedding of
Jesus Christ our Saviour, to have mercy and pity upon
us, her grace's poor commons, faithful and true subjects,
members of the same body politic, whereof her grace is
supreme head. All our bodies, goods, lands and lives,
are ready to do her grace faithful obedience, and true
service of all commandments that are not against God
and his word : but in things that import a denial of
Christ, and refusal of his word and holy communion, we
cannot consent nor agree unto it. For we have bound
ourselves in baptism to be Christ's disciples, and to keep
his holy word and ordinances. And if we deny hina
before men, he Till deny us before his heavenly Father
and his holy gels, in the day of judgment : which we
trust her benig<i grace will not require of us.
*' And we humbly beseech her majesty, that we be not
enforced unto it ; but as we serve her grace with body
and goods, and due obedience, according to God's com-
mandment : so we may be permitted freely to serve God,
and Christ our Saviour, and keep unto him our souls,
which he hath with his precious blood redeemed, that
so as Christ teacheth, we may render to Caesar that
which is due to Csesar, and to God that which is due
to God.
" For we think it no true obedience unto the queen'i
highness, or to any other magistrate ordained of God
under her, to obey in the things contrary to God's word,
although the same be ever so straitly charged in her
grace's name. The bishop of \\'inchester hath truly
taught on that point, in his book ' Of True Obedience,'
that true obedience is in the Lord, and not against the
Lord ; as the apostles answered before the council at Jeru-
salem, commanding them never more to preach in the
name of the Lord Jesus. ' Whether it be right,' said
they, 'in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more
than unto God, judge ye.' And again they said, ' We
must obey God rather than man.' Wherefore we learn,
that true obedience is to obey God, King of all kings, and
Lord of all lords ; and for him, in him, and not against
him and his word, to obey the princes and magistrates of
this world, who are not truly obeyed when God is dis-
obeyed, nor yet disobeyed when God is faithfully
obeyed.
" Tobias disobeyed not his king, although contrary to
his commandment, and contrary to the usage of all
others, when they went to Dan and Bethel, he went unto
Jerusalem, and worshipped in the temple of the Lord.
The three young men in Babylon, refusing Nebuchad-
nezzar's commandment, pleased God more than the
whole multitude that obeyed. And Daniel, who prayed
to the God of heaven, contrary to king Darius's com-
mandment, bare a more true and faithful heart to the
king than those wicked councillors who procured that
wicked law, or those that for fear or flattery obeyed
it. Which two pestilences — fear and flattery — have ever
destroyed true obedience to God and man; when wicked,
godless men, who care not if the desil were worshipped,
so they might get and obtain riches, promotions, and
dignity, and worldly glory — turn to and fro, as every
wind bloweth ; and weak and frail men, fearing loss of
goods, punishment, or death, do outwardly in body that
thing that their hearts and consciences inwardly abhor-
reth ; and so outwardly disobey God, and in heart dissem.
ble with man, which dissimulation we think worthy the
hatred of all men, and most uncomely for christian men.
" Wherefore, we humbly beseech the queen's majesty,
with pity and mercy to tender the lamentable suit of us
her poor subjects, who are by this commandment sore
»8
SIX PERSONS MARTYRED AT COLCHESTER.
[Book XI.
hurt, and wounded in our consciences, and driven to many
miseries, and by the malicious attempts of wicked men suf-
fer great wrongs and injuries, slanders, loss of goods, and
bodily vexations. We tliink not good, by any unlawful
Stir or commotion to seek remedy ; but intend, by God's
grace, to obey her majesty in all things not against God
and his holy word. But unto such ungoilly command-
ments as are against God, \ve answer with the apostles —
God must be obeyed rather than man. If persecution
shall ensue, which some threaten us with, we desire our
heavenly Father, according to his piomise, to look from
heaven, to hear our cry, to judge between us and our
adversaries, and to give us faith, strength and jiatience
to continue faithful unto the end, and to shorten these
evil days, for his chosen's sake ; and so we faithfully be-
lieve he will.
" Notwithstanding, we trust the queen's gracious and
merciful heart will not suffer such tyranny to be done
against her poor, innocent, faithful and obedient subjects,
that daily pray unto God for her ; who have no remedy
in this world, but to sue unto her highness, our most
gracious and benign sovereign ; whom we pruy and be-
seech, for the dear blood of Christ, to pity our lamentable
case and hurt of conscience, and to call back all such
commandments as are against God's honour, as the good
kings Darius, Ahasuerus, Trajan, Theodosius, and divers
others have done, and permit the holy word of God and
true religion — set forth by our most holy and innocent
king Edward, a very saint of God, to be restored again
unto our churches, to be frequented amongst us. So
shall we grow and increase in the knowledge of God and
of Christ, in true repentance and amendment of life ; so
shall we exhibit true obedience to our lawful magistrates,
and all superiors ordained of God ; so shall love and
charity, of late through this commandment so decayed,
be again restored, the honour of her regal estate the more
confirmed and established, and godliness and virtuous life
among her loving subjects increased and maintained.
" And we most heartily pray you — the right honoura-
ble commissioners — to be means unto the queen's high-
ness, and to her honourable council, that this our humble
suit may be favourably tendered, and graciously heard
and granted. And we shall not cease day and night to
pray unto the heavenly Father long to preserve her grace
and all other magistrates in his fear and love, and in
prosperous peace and wealth, with long life and honour,
Amen.
" Your poor suppliants, the lovers of Christ's true
religion, in Norfolk and Suffolk."
An Account of John Harpole and Joan Beach.
Joan Beach, widov?, of Tunbridge, and John Harpole,
of Rochester, were examined by Rlaurice, bishop of the
diocese, who condemned them both together to death, by
one form of sentence. And thus these two christian
martyrs joined in one confession, being condemned by
the bishop, suffered together at one fire, in the town of
Rochester, where they ended their lives about the first day
of April.
Next after these followed the martyrdom of John
Hullier, minister, who first being brought up in the
school of hton, was afterwards scholar, and, in the king's
college at Cambridge suffered under Doctor Thirleby,
bishop of Ely, and his chancellor, for the sincere setting
out of the light of God's gracious gospel revealed in these
our days. In whose behalf tliis is to be lamented, that
among so many fresh wits and stirring pens in that uni-
versity, so little is left as to the process of his judgment
and order of his suffering, who so innocently gave his
life in such a cause among the midst of them. By cer-
tain letters which he himself left behind, it apjtears that
he was zealous and earnest in the doctrine of truth,
which every true christian man ought to embrace. His
martyrdom was about tiie 2d of April.
The Martyrdom of si.r yodly Profensors of Chriat at
Colchester.
Not long after the death of Robert Drakes, ^^■illiara
Tyms, and the other Essex martyrs, executed in Smilhfield,
as before mentioned, followed the martyrdom, at one fire
in Colchester, of six other blessed martyrs, namely : —
Ciiristopher Lyster, husbandman ; John Mace, apo-
thecary ; John Spencer, weaver ; Simon Joyne, sawyer ;
Richard Nichols, weaver ; and John Hamond, tanner.
With these six was also joined another, whose name
was Roger Grasbroke, but he afterwards submitted him-
self. Of these above named, the bishop, because he
now waxed weary, made a very quick dispatch : he
caused them to be brought to his house at Fulhani :
where in the open church, there were administered to them
the same articles that were propounded to others. To
which they made their several answers, agreeing alto-
gether in one truth, namely, that they believed that the
church of Rome is no part of Christ's catholic church ;
and that they believed, that in the true catholic church
of Christ there are but two sacraments ; that is to say,
the sacrament of baptism, and the sacrament of the body
and blood of Christ ; confessing that they were baptised
in the faith and belief of the catholic church, and that
their godfathers and godmothers had so professed and
promised for them ; and that they always were, and
yet did continue in the faith and profession wherein
they were baptised; and that they neither swerved nor
went away from the catholic faith of Christ. Howbeit
they confessd, that they had disliked, and earnestly spokea
against the sacrifice of the mass, and against the sacra-
ment of the altar, affirming that they would not come
to hear or be partakers of it, because they believed that
they were set forth and used contrary to God's word and
glory. And moreover, that they had spoken against
the usurped authority of the bishop of Rome, as an op-
pressor of Christ's church and gospel, and that he ought
not to have any authority in England, and that they
never refused, nor then did refuse to be reconciled
to the unity of Christ's catholic church : but they said
they had, and then did, and so ever would hereafter
utterly refuse to come to the church of Rome, or to
acknowledge its authority, for putting down the book
of God, the Bible, and setting up the Babylonish mass,
with all other of antichrist's mercluindize.
These answers being made by them, the bishop dis-
missed them till the afternoon. At which time, standing
most firmly to their christian profession, they were by
various ways and means tried if they would revoke their
professed faith, and return to the unity of antichrist's
church. Which when they refused, the bishop pro-
nounced the sentence of condemnation against them,
committing them to the temporal power. On the receipt
of the king and queen's writ, accordingly, they were sent
to Colchester, where, on the 28th of April, most cheer-
fully they ended their lives to the glory of God's holy
name, and the great encouragement of others.
An,Account of Hugh Laverock, an old man, and John
Apprice, a blind man, Martyrs.
In treating of this part of the history, I know not whether
more to marvel at the great and unsearchable mercies of
God, with whom there is no respect of persons, for he
cbooseth as well the poor, lame, and blind, as the rich,
mighty, and healthful, to set forth his glory, or else to
note the unreasonable, or rather unnatural doing of these
unmerciful papists, (I mean Bishop Bonner and his accom-
plices) in whom there was so little favour or mercy to
all conditions of men, that they sj)ared neither impotent
age, nor lame nor blind, as will ajjpear by the following
poor creatures, whose names were Hugh Laverock, of
the parish of Barking, painter, aged 68, a lame cripple ;
and John Aj)price, a IjHnd man.
These two poor and simple creatures being accused by
some neighbour of theirs to the bishop, were sent for by
their officer ; and so being delivered into the hands of
the bishop, were on the 1st day of May examined in his
palace at London : where he first propounded and objected
against them nine articles, similar to those administered
to Bartlet Green and many others, to which they answered
with all christian faithfulness.
Upon this they were again sent to prison, and beside
otiier times, on the yth oi the month, in the consistory
A.D. 1556.]
THREE WOMEN BURNED IN SMITHFIELD.
Sit'
of St. Paul's were again publicly produced, and there
laboured with to recant their opinions against the sacra-
ment of the altar.
Hugh Laverock said; " I will stand to mine answers,
and to what I have confessed; and I cannot find in the
scriptures, that the priests should lift up over their head
a cake of bread."
Tiie bishop then turned to John Apprice, and asked
what he would say.
He answered ; "Your doctrine that you set forth and
teach, is so agreeable with the world, and embraced by
the world, that it cannot be agreeable with the scriptures
of God. And you are not of the catholic church ; for
you make laws to kill men, and make the queen your
hangman."
At which words the bishop, somewhat irritated, and
therefore very loath to delay their condemnation any
longer, commanded that they should be brought after
him to Fuliiam, and there in the afternoon, after his
soleuin manner, in the open church, he pronounced the
sentence of condemnation against them, and so delivering
them into the hands of the temporal officer, thought to
rid himself of them, but could not so satisfy his con-
science before the judgment of God, from the guiltiness
of innocent blood.
The poor men, being now in the temporal officer's
hands, were not suflered to remain long there, and there-
fore on the 15th of IMay, very early in the morning, they
were carried from Newgate in a cart, to Stratford-le-Bow,
and most quietly in the fire yielding up their souls into
God's hands, praising him, through a lively faith in Jesus
Christ, whom to tiie end they most constantly confessed.
At their death, Hugh Laverock, after he was chained,
cast away his crutch, and comforting John Apprice his
fellow-martyr, said unto him ; " Be of good comfort,
my brother ; for my lord of London is our good physi-
ciai He will heal us both shortly ; thee of thy blind-
ness, aiid me of my lameness.'' And so patiently these
two good saints of God patiently suffered together.
T7iree Women humed in Smithfield.
The next day after the martyrdom of this lame and
blind man, were brought to the fire three women, with
■whom also was joined another, who being of the same
opinion and constancy with them, was likewise partaker
of the same condemnation. Their names were: Katha-
rine Hut, widow ; Joan Horns, maiden ; Elizabeth
Tackvell, maiden ; and Margaret Ellis, maiden.
When Bishop Bonner entered into an examination of
these four women, he objected the like articles to them
as he had used to administer, and are before expressed ;
to which the women likewise agreeing in the same unity
of spirit and doctrine, accorded in their answers, much
agreeing to the others before them, viz. They answered,
that matrimony, and baptism, and the Lord's Supper
were sacraments ordained in the church: but whether
the others specified in this were sacraments (as they
heard them called) ordained by God or not, they could
not tell. And they said, that they were baptised by their
godfathers and godmothers, which godfathers and god-
mothers did not then know so mucli ; but what their
godfathers and godmothers then promised in their names
they could not tell. They further answered and con-
fessed, that as to the mass, they knew no goodness in it;
and as to the sacrament of the altar, they believed that
Christ's natural body is in heaven, and not in the sacra-
ment of the altar, and as concerning the see of Rome,
they acknowleged no such supremacy in that see, neitlier
have they any thing to do with it. And they all refused
to be reconciled or united to the church of Rome, or any
other church, contrary to that in which they now stood,
and did profess. They answered likewise, that neither the
service in Latin, mass, matins, and evensong, nor the
sacraments were used and administered according to
God's word : And furthermore, that the mass is an idol,
neither is the true body and blood of Christ in the
sacrament of the altar, as they make men believe.
After their answers were received, they were produced
again about the 13th of April, and at length brought to
their final judgment ; where Katharine Hut, standing
before the bishop, boldly and constantly maintained that
which she had said before, neither yielding to his fair
promises, nor overthrow-n with his terror. Who being
required to speak her mind of the sacrament, and to return
to the fellowship of the church of Rome, openly protested,
saying, " 1 deny it to be God, because it is a dumb God,
and made with men's hands." Wherein this good and
faithful martyr of Christ firmly persisting, so received
her sentence, being condemned of Bonner to the fire ;
which she with great constancy sustained by the grace
and strength of the Lord, and did abide for tlie cause
and love of Christ.
Joan Horns, brought likewise to her judgment and
condemnation, with like firmness and christian fortitude
declared herself a true martyr and follower of Christ's
testament, giving no place to the adversary ; but being
charged that she did not believe the sacrament of Christ's
body and blood to be Christ himself, of which sacrament,
contrary to the nature of a sacrament, the adversaries
are wont to make an idol-service ; to this she protested
openly her mind, saying — " If you can make your God
to shed blood, or to shew any condition of a true lively
body, then will I believe you. And in the way which you
call heresy, I trust to serve my Lord God," &c.
And as to the Romish see, she said, ' My lord
(speaking to Bonner) I forsake all her abominations, and
from them good Lord deliver us." From this, her
stable and constant assertion, when the bishop was too
weak to remove her, and too ignorant to convince her,
he passed sentence upon her. And so this holy virgin
and martyr was committed to the secular power, and
was offered up with her fellows, a burnt-sacrifice to the
Lord.
As to Margaret Ellis, she likewise persevering in her
confession, and resisting the false errors and heresies of
the papists, was by Bonner adjudged and condemned ;
but before the time of her burning arrived, she died in
Newgate, and thus departed and slept in the Lord.
The same strength in the grace of the Lord appeared
in the other maiden Elizabeth Tackvell, whose heart
and mind the Lord had so confirmed in his truth, so
armed with patience, that as her adversaries could by
no sufficient knowledge of scripture convince her, so by
no forcible attempts could they remove her confession.
Whereupon she standing to the death, being in like sort
condemned, gave her life willingly and mildly for the
confirmation and sealing of the sincere truth of God's
word.
These three innocent and godly women, thus falsely
and wrongfully condemned for the just cause of God's
gospel, were conveyed to Smithfield on the Kith of May,
and there cruelly bound to the stake, giving their bodies
to the tormentors, but their spirits they recommended
to God. For whose glory they were willing and ready
to suffer whatever the cruel hands of their enemies
should work against them, dying more joyfully in the
flaming fire, than some of them that burned them did
in their beds. Such a Lord is God, glorious and won-
derful in all his saints.
An Accotint of Thomas Drowry and Thomas Croker.
You heard a little before of two men, the one blind ana
the other lame, who suffered about the 15th of May.
And here is not to be forgotten another as godly a couple,
who suffered the like martyrdom for the same cause of
religion at Gloucester ; of which two, the one was a
blind boy, named Thomas Drowry, mentioned before in
the history of bishop Hooper, whom the said virtuous
bishop confirmed then in the Lord, and in the doctrine
of his word.
With him also was burned another in the same place ;
and at the same fire in Gloucester, about the fifth of
INIay, whose name was Thomas Croker, bricklayer.
Concerning the blind boy, how long he was in prison,
I am not certain. At his examination and final con-
demnation, he was brought before Doctor Williams,
then chancellor of Gloucester, sitting judicially witU
the register in the consistoiy. Where the chancellor
920
PERSECUTIONS AT BECCLES IN SUFFOLK. AND AT LEWES.
[Book XI
administerecl to the boy the nsual articles ; amongst
which he chiefly urged the article of transubstantiation,
saying in effect as follows : —
" Dost thou not believe, that after the words of con-
secration spoken by the priest, there remaineth the very
real body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar ?"
Thomas. — " No, I do not."
Chancellor. — " Then thou art an heretic, and shall be
burned : but who has taught thee this heresy ?"
Thomas. — " Yourself, Master Chancellor."'
Chancellor. — " Where, I pray thee ?"
Tiiomas. — " Even in yonder place, (pointing with his
hand, and turning towards the pulpit, standing upon the
north side of the church.)
Ciiancellor. — " When did I teach thee so ?"
Thomas. — " When you preached there" (naming the
day) " a sermon to all men as well as to me, upon the
sacrament. You said the sacrament was to be received
spiritually by faith, and not carnally and really, as the
papists have heretofore taught."
Chancellor. — "Then do as I have done, and thou
shalt live as I live, and escape burning."
Thomas. — " Though you can so easily dispense with
yourself, and mock with God, the world, and your con-
science, yet will 1 not do so."
Chancellor. — " Then God have mercy upon thee ; for
I will read the condemnation sentence against thee."
Thomas.—" God's will be fulfilled."
The register being herewith somewhat moved, stood
up, and said to the chancellor : —
" Fie, for shame, man ; will you read the sentence
against him, and condemn yourself? Away, away,
and substitute some other to give sentence and judg-
ment."
Chancellor. — " No, register, I will obey the law, and
give sentence myself; according to mine office."
And so he read the sentence condemnatory against
the boy, delivering him over to the secular power. Who
on the fifth day of May, brought the blind boy to the
place of execution at Gloucester, together with one
Thomas Croker a bricklayer, condemned also for the
like testimony of the truth. Who both together, in one
fire, most constantly and joyfully yielded their souls into
the hands of the Lord Jesus.
Three Persons Inimt at Beccles.
After the death of those above mentioned, three men
were burnt at Beccles in Suffolk, in one fire, about the
21st May, namely, Thomas Spicer, John Denny, and
Edmund Poole.
Thomas Spicer was a single man, of the age of nine-
teen years, dwelling in Winston in Suffolk.
The occasion of his being taken was, that he would not
go to the popish church to hear mass, and receive their
idol at the command of Sir John Tyrrel, who sent both
him and the other two to a dungeon, till they were all
three together brought before the chancellor of Norwich,
y.nd the register at the town of Beccles.
And there the chancellor, after endeavouring all he
could to turn them from the truth, and could by no
means prevail, minding to give sentence, he burst out
into teirs, entreating them to remember themselves, and
to turn again to the holy mother church, for that they
were deceived and out of the truth, and that they should
not wilfully cast away themselves : with such like words.
Now as he was thus exhorting them, and seemed very
loath to read the sentence, the register sitting by, being
weary of tarrying, called upon the chancellor in haste to
rid them out of the way, and to make an end. At
which words the chancellor read the condemnation over
them with tears, and delivered them to the secular power.
The articles objected were, that they believed not the
pope of Rome to be the supreme head immediately under
Christ in earth of the universal catholic church. That
they believed not holy bread and holy water, ashes,
palms, and all other like ceremonies used in the church,
to be good and laudable for stirring up the i>eople to
devotion. That they believed not, after the words of
consecration spoken by the priest, the very natural body
of Christ, and no other substance of bread and wine to
be in the sacrament of the altar. That they believed it
to be idolatry to worship Christ in the sacrament of the
altar. That they took bread and wine in remembrance
of Christ's passion. That they would not follow the
cross in procession, nor be confessed to a jiriest. That
they affirmed no mortal man to have in himself free-will
to do good or evil. For this doctrine, these thrt* were
condemned, and committed to the seciiLir power. And
the next day they were all burnt together in the town of
Beccles.
While these good men were at the stake, and had
prayed, they said their belief; and whpn they came to
" the catholic church," Sir John Sillianl spake to them ;
" That is well said, sirs, I am glad to hear you say you
do believe in the catholic church. That is the best word
I have heard of you yet."
To which Edmund Poole answered, that " though
they believe in the catholic church, yet do they not
believe in the popish church, which is no jiart of Christ's
catholic church, and therefore no part of their belief."
When they arose from prayer, they all went joyfully
to the stake, and being bound, and the fire burning
about them, they praised God in such an audible voice,
that it was wonderful to all those who stood by and
heard them.
The Persecution in Suffolk.
By the procurement of Sir John Tyrrel, and others of
his colleagues, there were persecuted and driven out of
the town of Winston in Suffolk, thirteen persons, and out
of Mendlesham twenty-one persons, in this same year :
the charge against them was that they believed the holy
word of God to be sufficient to their salvation, and denied
the pope's usurped authority, and held all that church of
antichrist to be Christ's adversaries. And they refused
the abused sacraments, defied the mass, and all popish
service and ceremonies, saying, they robbed God of his
honour, and Christ of his death and glory. They held,
too, that the ministers of the church by God's word
might lawfully marry. And that they held the queen to
be as chief head, and wicked rulers to be a great plague
sent by God on account of sin. They denied man's free-
will, and held that the pope's church did err, and many
others'with them, in that point, rebuking their false con-
fidence in works, and their false trust in man's righteous-
ness.
The Death of William Sleech.
On the last day of May, 155(), William Sleech being
in prison for the doctrine of the Lord's gosjiel, and the
confession of his truth, died in the King's Bench, and
was buried at the back of the prison, for the Romish
spiritualty thought him not worthy to come within their
holy church-yards, in any christian burial.
Four Men Condemned at Levies.
In the following June, four martyrs suffered together
at Lewes : namely, Thomas Harland, John Oswald,
Thomas Avington, and Thomas Read.
To Thomas Ilarland I find it objected in the bishop of
London's registers, for not coming to church. He
answered, " "That after the mass was restored, he never
had will to hear the same, bec^ause, ' said he, " it was in
Latin, which he did not understand."
John Oswald, refused to answer any thing, until his
accusers should be brought face to face before him ; and
said, " That fire and fagots could not make him afraid :
but as the good preachers, who were in King Edward's
time, had suffered and gone before, so was he ready to
suffer and come after."
These four, after long imprisonment in the King's
Bench, were burned together at Lewes in Sussex, in one
fire, on the 6th of June.
In the same town of Lewes, were burned Thomas
Wood, minister, and Thomas Miles, about the 2'Jth of
A.D. 1556.]
THIRTEEN MARTYRS BURNED AT STRATFORD-LE-BOW.
921
the same month, for resisting the erroneous and heretical
doctrine of the pretended catholic church of Rome.
In which month also, William Adherall, minister, im-
prisoned in the King's Bench, there died and was buried
in the back of the prison. Also John Clement, wheel-
wright, who dying in the prison was buried in the same
way, on the 25th day of June.
The next day, we read of a young man, a merchants
servant, who suffered cruel persecution of the papists,
and was burnt at Leicester, on the 2fith day of June.
Not long after the death of this servant, there were
burned in one fire at Stratford-le-Bow, near London,
eleven men and two women, whose dwellings were in
sundry places in Essex.
To whom, on the Gth of June, Doctor Darbyshire,
Bonner's chancellor, ministered the usual articles, to
which they made their answers, in simplicity and in a
good conscience.
When these thirteen persons were condemned, and the
day appointed when they sliould suffer, which was the
27th of June, 1556, they were carried from Newgate to
Stratford-le-Bow, and there separated into two several
chambers. Afterwards, the sheriff came to one part,
and told them that the other had recanted, and their lives
therefore should be saved, exhorting them to do the like,
and not to cast away themselves. They answered, That
their faith was not built on man, but on Christ crucified.
Then the sheriff, perceiving no good to be done with
them, went to the other part, and said the same to them,
that they whom he had been with before, had recanted,
and should therefore not suffer death, counselling them
to do the like, and not wilfully to kill themselves, but to
act the part of wise men, &c. They answered as their
brethren had done before, that their faith was not built
on man, but on Christ and his word, &c. When he saw
it availed not to persuade (for they were, God be praised,
firmly grounded on the rock Jesus Christ) he then led
them to the place where they should suffer, and being
all there together, they earnestly prayed unto God, and
joyfully went to the stake, and embraced it very heartily.
The eleven men were tied to three stkes, but the two
women were loose in the midst, without any stake, and
so they were all burnt in one fire, with such love to each
other, and constancy in our Saviour Christ, that it made
all the lookers on to marvel. The Lord grant us the like
grace in the like need, according to the good pleasure of
his will ! Amen.
In ths company of these thirteen, were three more
condemned to die ; who answered to the articles that
were propounded to the thirteen, in effect as they did.
And being thus in the hands of the secular power. Car-
dinal Poole sent his dispensation for their lives, by means
of which they then escaped.
The Sunday after these sixteen were condemned,
Fecknam, dean of St. Paul's, preached at St. Paul's Cross,
■where he declared, that they had as many opinions as
they were persons. At hearing this sermon they drew
up their faith in writing, and signed their names, and di-
rected it to their friends and the faithful congregation, as
follows :
" Unto all our dearly belovedfriends, and the holy congre-
gation of Jesus Christ, even so many as love God,
grace be with you, and peace from God our Father,
and from our Lord Jesus Christ. So be it.
" Be it manifest to all by whom this our certificate
shall be seen, that where upon Saturday, being the thir-
teenth day of June, at Fuiham, before the bishop of Lon-
don, sixteen of us, whose names hereunder are sub-
scribed, were condemned to die for the most pure and
sincere truth of Christ's truth ; which most godly truth
hath been from the beginning by the wicked adver-
saries thereof continually defaced, and is, by the devil and
his agents, even at this present likewise daily slandered.
Upon this occasion, dearly beloved brethren, we are
moved, yea, constrained, in the ears of all men to mani-
fest our belief, and also briefly the ai tides whereof we
are condemned, for the avoiding of false reports and
slanderous tongues, which might happen, by the most
ungodly and uncharitable sermon lately preaclied at St.
Paul's Cross, on the fourteenth of the said month, being
Sunday, by Master Fecknam, now dean of the same
church; where he, in that most worthy audience, defamed
us to be in sixteen sundry opinions, which were a thing
prejudicial to all christian truth ; and for a testimonial
thereof, this hereunder written shall answer our cause,
and therefore we pray you that are of God to judge.
" First, we believe we were baptised in tiic faith of
Christ's church, and incorporate unto liiui, and made
members of his church ; in which faitli we continue.
And although we have erred for a certain time, yet the
root of faith was preserved in us by the Holy (Jhost, who
hath reduced us into a full certainty of the same, and we
do persist, and will, by God's assistance, to the end. Now
mark, that although tue minister were of the malignant
church, yet his wickedness did not Imrt us, fur he bap-
tised us in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost.
" There was both the word and the element, and our
godfathers and godmothers renouncing for us the devil
and all his works, and confessing the articles of the chris-
tian faith for us, and also witnesses that we are baptised,
not in the faith of the church of Rome, but in the faith
of Christ's church.
" There are but two sacraments in Christ's church,
that is, the sacrament of baptism, audtlie Lord's supper.
For in these are contained the faith of CiMi>t's cLurth ;
that is, the two testaments, the law and the gospel.
The effect of the law is repeniaace, and the effect of the
gospel remission of sins.
" 2. We believe that there is a visible church wherein
the word of God is preached, and the holy sacraments
truly administered, visible to the wicked world, although
it be not credited, and by the death of saints confirmed,
as it was in the time of Elijah the prophet, as well as
now.
" 3. The see of Rome is the see of antichrist, the con-
gregation of the wicked, &c., whereof the pope is head
under the devil.
" 4. The mass is not only a profanation of the Lord's
supper, but also a blasphemous idol.
" 5. God is neither spiritually nor corporeally in the
sacrament of the altar, and there remains no substance
in the same, but only the substance of bread and wine.
" For these the articles of our belief, we being con-
demned to die, do willingly offer our corruptible bodies
to be dissolved in the fire, all with one voice assenting
and consenting thereto, and in no point dissenting or
disagreeing from any of our former articles.
" Ap))arent also let it be and known, that being exa-
mined of the former articles before the bloody bishop, the
said day and time, we affirmed to believe all that he or
they would approve by the scripture. But he said that
he would not stand to prove it with heretics, but said
they themselves were the holy church, and that we
ought to believe them, or else to be cut off like withered
branches.
" Signed, Ralph Jackson. . Edmund Hurst.
Henry Adlington. Laurence Parnam.
Lyon Cawch. Thomas Bowyer.
William Halliwell. Elizabeth Pepper.
George Searles. Agnes George.
John Routh. Thomas Freeman.
John Derifall. William Stannard.
Henry Wye. William Adams."
In the diocese of Lichfield, about the 14th of June,
in the same year, John Colstock who was lately come
from London, and now dwelling at Wellington, though
he suffered no martyrdom, yet sustained some trouble,
being attached and examined by the bishop, especially
for two points ; in holding against the reality of Christ
in the sacrament, and against auricular confession to be
made to the priest. For which being compelled to re-
cant, he was enjoined, in the church of St. Cedde, to bear
a fagot before the cross, bare-beaded, having in the one
hand a taper, and in the other a pair of beads, &c.
922
THE EXAMINATION OF JOHN FORTUNE
[Book XI.
Amongst many others, who in the same diocese, and
at the same time were suspected and troubled for the
like, was Thomas Flier of Uttoxeter, Nicholas Ball of
Uttoxeter, Thomas Pyot of Chedull, and otliers.
In the same mouth there died in the prison of the
King's-bench in Southwark, one Thomas Parret, who
was buried in the back of the prison, on the 2rth of
June.
Also Martin Hunt, in the same prison, died through
huno-er, on the 29th. At which time likewise died in the
same prison, as 1 find recorded, one John Norice, and
after the same manner as the other, was buried at the
back of the prison.
After the death of Thomas Parret, ]\Iartin Hunt, and
John Norice, there were three martyred at St. Edmund's-
bury in Suffolk, in one fire, namely, Roger Bernard,
Adam Foster, and Robert Lawson.
When Roger Bernard came before the bishop, he was
asked whether he had been with the priest at Easter to
be absolved, and whether he had received the blessed
sacrament of the altar, or not .' Roger Bernard an-
swered, " No : I have not been with the priest, nor
confessed to him, but I have confessed my sins to Al-
mighty God, and I trust he hath forgiven me ; I shall
not need to go to the priest for s\ich matters, who cannot
help himself."
Bishop. — " Surely, Bernard, thou must needs go, and
confess thyself to him."
Roger. — " That shall I not do, by God's grace, while
I live."
Bishop. — " What a stout heretic is this ! How pertly
he answers '."
Roger.--" My lord, it grieveth me not to be called
heretic at your hands, for so your forefathers called
the prophets and confessors of Christ, long before this
time."
At these words the bishop rose up in a great passion,
and bade Bernard follow him. Then the bishop went
and kneeled before what they call the sacrament of the
altar, and as he was in his prayers kneeling, he looked
back, and asked Bernard why he came not, and did as
he did ? Bernard answered, " I cannot tell why I should
so do." "Why," quoth the bishop, "thou stupid
fellow, whom seest thou yonder?" pointing to the pix
over the altar.
Roger.—" I see no body there. Do you, my lord .'"
Bishop. — " Why, naughty man, dost thou not see thy
Maker ?"
Roger — " My Maker ! No, I see nothing but a few
clothes hanging together." With that the bishop rose
up sore displeased, and commanded the jailor to take
him away, and to lay irons enough on him. " For,"
said he, " I will tame him ere he go fram me," and so
he was carried away.
The next day Bernard was brought again before the
bishop, who asked him if he did not remember himself
since the day before, that he was before him ?
Roger. — " Yes, my lord, I have remembered myself
very well, for the same man I was yesterday, I am this
day, and I hope shall be all the days of my life, concern-
ing the matter you talked with me of."
Then one of the guard standing by, said, " My lord,
I pray you trouble not yourself any more with him, but
let me have the examining of him, I shall handle him
after another sort, 1 trust, and make him a fair child ere
he go, you shall see."
So he was committed to him, and then he brought
him to an inn, where were a great number of priests
assembled together, and there they commenced flatter-
ing him, and persuading him with enticing words, what
they could ; but when they could not prevail, for the
Lord assisted the good poor man, then they began to
threaten him with wliii)}>ing, stocking, burning, and such
like. Bernard said, " Friends, 1 am not better than my
master Christ and the prophets, which your fathers
served after such sort ; and 1, for his name's-sake, am
content to suffer the like at your hands, if God shall so
permit, trusting that he will strengthen me in the same
according to his promise, in spite of the devil and all
his ministers." So when they could not make him to
relent or yield, they carried him to the bishop, who im-
mediately condemned him as an heretic, and delivered
him to the secular power.
Adam Foster, of the age of six-and-twenty years, was
taken at home in his house, because he would not go to
church and hear mass, and receive at Easter, except he
might have it after Christ's holy ordinance. Accordingly,
he was sent to Norwich, and there condemned by bishop
Hopton.
Robert Lawson was a single man, of the age of thirty
years, and by vocation a linen weaver. He was appre-
hended, because he would not go to church to hear mass,
and receive their pojjish idol.
W^hen these three aforesaid martyrs were carried to
their deaths, at Edmund's-bury, after they had offered
their ])rayer at the stake, they most triumjihantly ended
their lives, in such hajipy and blessed condition, as did
notably set forth their constancy and joyful end, to the
great praise of (jod, and their commendation in him,
and also to the encouragement of others in the same
cause.
John Fortune, otherwise called Cutler, of llintlesham
in Suffolk, was by his occupation a blacksmith, w'lom
they had before them in examination a little before, on the
20th of April. In spirit he was zealous and ardent, in
the scriptures ready, in Christ's cause stout and valiant,
and no less patient in his wrongful suffering than con-
stant in his doctrine. Whether he was burned, or died
in prison, 1 cannot certainly find. Certain it is, how-
ever he was made away, he never yielded. What his
answers and examinations were before Doctor Parker
and Master Foster, you shall hear, written with his own
hand.
The E.eamination of John Fori ttne before Doctor Pmker
and ATaater Foster.
" First Doctor Parker asked me ' if I believed in the
catholic faith !'
" And I asked him ' which faith he meant ; whether
the faith that Stephen held, or the faith of them that
put Stephen to death ? '
" Doctor Parker being moved, said, ' What a naughty
fellow is this ! you shall soon see he will deny the blessed
sacrament of the altar.'
" Then said Master Foster, ' I know you well. You
are a busy merchant. How sayest thou by the blessed
mass ?'
" And I stood still, and made no answer.
" Then said Master Foster, ' why speakest thou not,
and makest the gentleman an answer.''
" And I said, ' Silence is a good answer to a foolish
question.'
" Then said the Doctor, ' I am sure he will deny the
blessed sacrament of the altar also.'
" And I said, ' 1 know none such, but only the sacra-
ment of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
" Then said he, ' you deny the order of the seven
sacraments. And why dost thou not believe in the
sacrament of the altar ?'
" And I said, ' because it is not written in God's
book,'
" Then said he, ' you will not believe unwritten
truths.'
" And I said, ' I will believe that those unwritten truths
that agree with the written truth are true : but those '
unwritten things that are of your own making, and in-
vented of your own brain, 1 do not befleve.'
" ' Well,' said Master Forster, ' ycu shall be whipped
and burned for this.'
" When I caine before the bishop of Norwich, he asked
me if I did not believe in the catholic church. I said I
believed in that church of which Christ is the head.
" Then the bishop said, ' Dost thini not beUeve thai
the pope is supreme head of the church ?' And I said,
' No, Christ is the head of the true church.'
A.D. 155C.]
THE PERSECUTION OF JULIUS PALMER, ETC,
923
" Bishop. — ' So do I believe also : but the pope is
God's vicar upon earth, and the head of the church, and
I believe that he hath power to forgive sins also.'
" Then said I, ' the pope is but a man, and the
prophet David saith. Psalm xlix. 7, 8, None of them can
by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a
ransom for him : for the redemption of their soul is pre-
cious, and it ceaseth for ever.'
" ' Well,' said he, ' what sayest thou to the ceremonies
of the church ?'
" And I answered, ' All things which my heavenly
Father hath not planted, shall be plucked up by the roots,'
saith Christ, ' for they are not from the beginning,
neither shall they continue to the end.'
" Bishop. — ' They are good and godly, and necessary
to be used.'
" ' Saint Paul called them weak and beggarly.'
" Bishop. — ' No, that is a lie.'
" I hearing that said, ' St. Paul writes thus to the
Galatians, Foolish Gnlatians who hath bewitched you,
that you seek to be in bondage to these weak and beggarly
ceremonies ? Now which of you do lie ? you or St. Paul.'
And also it is said, that works instituted, and enjoined
without the commandment of God, pertain not to the
worship of God, act;ording to the text, Matth. xv. 9. ' In
vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the com-
mandments of men.' And Christ openly rebuked the
scribes, lawyers, pharisees, doctors, priests, bishops, and
hypocrites, for making God's commandments of none
effect, to support their own tradition.'
" Bishop. — ' Thou liest, there is not such a word in all
the scriptures, thou naughty heretic, thou art worse than
all other heretics, fo\- Hooper and Bradford allowed them
to be good, and thou dost not. Away with him !'
" The bishop again asked, ' How believest thou in the
sacrament of the altar ? Dost thou not believe, that after
the consecration, there is the real substance of the body
of Christ?'
" And I answered him, ' That is the greatest plague
tliat ever came into England.'
" Bishop. — ' Why so ?'
" I said, 'if I were a bishop, and you a poor man as I
am, I should be ashamed to ask such a question. If it is
not God before the consecration, it is not God after : for
God is without beginning and without ending.'
" Then, said he, ' lo, what a stiff heretic is this ! He
hath denied all together : how sayest thou ? Is it ido-
latry to worship the blessed sacrament, or not ?'
" ' God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and
in truth.'
" Bishop. — ' I ask thee no such question : answer me
directly.'
" ' I answer that this is the God Muhuzzim, that robs
God of his honour.'
" Bishop. — ' It is a pity that the ground bears thee,
or that thou hast a tongue to speak. Away with him :
for he hath spoken too much.' "
In the register of Norwich I find, that his sentence
of condemnation was drawn and registered ; but whether
it was pronounced, is not expressed.
The Death of John Careless in the King''s Bench.
About the 1st of July, amongst other prisoners who
died in the same year in the King's-bench, was one
John Careless, of Coventry, a weaver. Who though he
were by the secret judgment of Almighty God prevented
by death, so that he came not to the full martyrdom of
his body, yet is he no less worthy to be counted in
honour and place among Christ's martyrs, than others
that suffered most cruel torments.
The Martyrdom of Julius Palmer, John Gwin, and
Thomas Askin.
About the Ifith of July, suffered three godly and
constant martyrs at Newbury, among whom was Julius
Palmer, sometime student and fellow of Magdalen
College in Oxford, and afterwards schoolmaster in the
town of Reading. There is no one example, in the
whole godly fellowship of martyrs, more to oe marked,
yea, more to be wondered at, than this, that one, A-ho
all King Edward's days was a papist in the University of
Oxford, and so obstinate that he utterly abhorred all
godly prayer, and sincere preaching, and almost by all
with whom he lived, was likewise abhorred, and (as I
nay say) pointed at with the finger, yet after, iu Queen
Mary's time, suffered most cruel death, at tlie hands of
the papists, at Newbury in Berkshire, for the zealous
profession of the blessed truth.
He was born in Coventry, where also his parents
dwelt. His f ither Iiad soinetinie been mayor of the city,
and followed merchandize. How he was brought up in
his young and tender years, we know not, but he wa3
sometime scholar to one Harley, who taught the free-
school of Magdalen College in Oxford ; he had a very
prompt and ready memory, and a sound and vigorous
judgment. He spake Latin with great facility of utter-
ance, and wanted not conipetent knowledge in tlie Greek
tongue ; so that many times he supplied the room of
the Greek readei- in his house. He was a subtle dis-
puter, both in the public schools, and also at home.
He used to say, that he was never so pleasantly occupied,
as when he came to the hard debating of profound ques-
tions in pliiIoso))hy ; so that he hrts oftentimes watched
and spent tlie whole night in the discussing and search-
ing out the truth of deep and abstruse questions ; he
greatly abhorred all cavilling, and all frivolous talk.
He was not captious, but would reason so soljerly and
with such probability, that even his adversaries would
no less marvel at the dexterity of his invention, than at
his propriety and decent behaviour. Although he ap-
plied to divinity very lately, it appears that he recom-
pensed the small time of his study with the greatness of
his diligence.
And somewhat to speak of his civil behaviour, he was
of courteous manners, without curiosity, of a cheerful
countenance, without high looks, of speech pleasant, with-
out affectation ; he was affable and humble as any child,
and yet quick spirited, and vehement in reasoning. He
practised no deceit towards any man, for he was of such
simplicity, that he was apter to be deceived, than to
deceive, and he was so great a contemner of all reproaches
and injuries, that he would say. None were to be counted
valiant, but such as could despise injury.
In private study he was so indefatigable, that he rose
ordinarily every morning at four o clock, and usually
went not to bed before ten at night. Insomuch, that as
he grew in years and understanding, so he came to be a
bachelor of arts, and at length, to a fellowship in Mag-
dalen College, where also he was admitted to the office
of a reader in logic, A.D. l.ioO. Now, if he had at the
first favoured sincere religion, ^0 much as he followed
his book, then we had the less matter to note in him.
But, indeed, he was so much addicted to the Romish
faith, that his company and conversation was altogether
with such as were utter enemies to the gospel of Christ,
If he came lo common prayer at any time, it was by
violence and compulsion, for otherwise he came not. He
would not hear sermons himself, nor yet suffer his scho-
lars to resort to them, for he was fully persuaded, that
they might be better occupied at home. The preachers
themselves he both disdained and despised, and all such
as were setters forth of sound doctrine. And so for his
popish pranks he was afterwards expelled the house.
After this, he was obliged, for his maintenance, to
apply himself to be a teacher of children in the house of
Sir Francis KnoUes, in which avocation he continued
till the coming in of Queen Mary. And when her
visitors were sent to Magdalen College, to displace the
fellows that were learned, and to put right catholics, as
they called them, in their rooms ; then came this Julius
Palmer, expecting to be restored to his living, of which
he had been deprived before, thinking that those would
restore him, whose faith and religion he did to the ut-
most of his power defend and maintain. And he obtained
the same. Then, after he was restored to his house in
Queen Mary's reign, God dealt so mercifully witli him,
that in the end he became from an obstinate papist, to
be an earnest and zealous gospeller.
924
THE PERSECUTION OF JULIUS PALMER.
[Book XL
■VMien he was restored to his college, although lie
ill something to favour and taste of God's truth, by
conference and company with certain godly and zealous
men; yet was he not thoroughly persuaded, but in most
points continued for a while either blind, or else doubtful.
But he was yet continually discussing in private rea-
soning from time to time, both in what points he was
fully resolved, and also of what points he doubted. For
such was his nature always, both in papistry and in the
gospel, utterly to detest all dissimulation, that by the
means of his plainness, he suflered much both in King
Edward's, and also in Queen Mary s time.
Now within a short space, God so wrought in his
heart, that he became very inquisitive, and careful to
liear and understand how the martyrs were apprehended,
what articles they died for, how they were used, and after
what sort they took their death. Insomuch that he
spared not at his own charges to send over one of his
scholars, in the company of a bachelor of that house, to
Gloucester, to see and understand the whole order of
bishop Hooper's death, and to bring him a true report,
which some think he did, because he was wont in King
Edward's time to say ; that none of them all would
stand to death for their religion. Thus he learned with
what great extreme and horrible cruelty the martyrs of
God were tried, and how valiantly they overcame all
kind of torments to the end. Of this he himself had more
experience afterwards, at the examination and death of
those holy confessors and martyrs who were burned at
Oxford before his eyes, so that the first hope whicii
the godly conceived of him, was at his return from the
burning of bishop Ridley, and bishop Latimer. When
in the hearing of his friends, he broke out into these
words and such like ; " Oh raging cruelty ! O tyranny
tragical, and more than barbarous !''
From that day forward he studiously sought to under-
stand the truth, and therefore with all speed he borrowed
Peter Martyr's commentaries, and other good books.
And so through hearty prayer, and diligent search and
meditation on the scriptures, at length he believed and
embraced the truth with great joy ; and so profited in it,
that he daily more and more declared it both in word
and deed.
At length through God's grace, he grew up to sucli
maturity and ripeness in the truth, that he spared not to
show it in his outward behaviour and doings. For
when he should keep his bowing measures at the Con-
fiteor, (as the custom was) in turning himself to and fro,
Bometime eastward, sometime westward, and afterwards
knock his breast at the elevation time, against these ido-
latrous adorations, his heart did so vehemently rise, that
sometimes he would absent himself from them, and
sometimes being there, h^ would, even at the sacring or
consecrating time (as they termed it) get him out of the
church, to avoid those ungodly gestures and idolatrous
adoration. To be short, seeing that his new life and old
Lving might not well nor quietly stand together, he re-
solved to depart the house. And being asked by a special
friend (who would gladly have persuaded him to stay
there longer) whither he would go, or how he would
live ? he made this answer, " The earth is the Lord's, and
the fulness thereof. Let the Lord work, I will commit
myself to God, and the wide world."
Shortly after he had yielded up his fellowship in Ox-
ford, he was through God's providence, who never faileth
them that first seek his glory, placed schoolmaster by
pate.it in the grammar-school of Reading, where he was
well accepted by all those that feared God, and favoured
his word, as well for his good learning and knowledge,
as also for his earnest zeal, and profession of the truth.
But Satan, the enemy of all godly attempts, envying his
good proceedings and prosperous success in the same,
would not suffer him there long to be quiet. Wherefore
he stirred up against him certain doubled faced hypo-
crites, who by dissimulation and crafty insinuation had
crept in, to understand his secrets, under jjretence of a
zeal to the Gospel. Which men, suspecting no deceit,
he joyfully embraced, making them privy to all his
doings. For as he himself was then fervently inflamed
with the love of heavenly doctrine, so he had a great
dc-sire by all means possible, to allure and encourage others
to the profession of the same.
These faithful and trusty brethren, so soon as they had
found good opportunity, spared not in his absence to
rifle his study of godly books and writings ; amongst
the which were with others, his arguments, written against
the popish proceedings, and especially against the unna-
tural and brutish tyranny, executed towards the martyrs
of God. When they had thus done, they were not
ashamed to threaten him that they would exhibit them
to the council, unless he would without delay de-
part out of their coasts, and give over the school to a
friend of theirs. The truth of this story appears in part
by a letter written with his own hand, out of prison, eight
days before he was burned.
Thus was this young man, to save his life, forced to
depart from Reading, aiid so he took his journey tou-ards
Ensham, where his mother dwelt, hoping to obtain at her
hands certain legacies due to him by his father's last will.
His mother understanding his state, as soon as she be-
held him on his knees, asking her blessing as he had
been accustomed to do, spake thus to him, " thou shalt
have Christ's curse and mine, wherever thou goest.''
He pausing a little, as one amazed at so heavy a greet-
ing, at length said, " Oh mother ! your ovin curse you
may give me, which God knoweth I never deserved ;
but God's curse you cannot give me, for he hath already
blessed me.'
" Nay," saith she, " thou wentest from God's blessing
into the warm sun, when thou wast banished for a here-
tic out of that worshipful house in Oxford, and now for
the like knavery, art driven out of Reading too."
" Alas, mother," said he, " you have been misin-
formed. I was not exi)elled nor driven away, but freely
resigned of mine own accord. And heretic I am none,
for I stand not stubbornly against any true doctrine, but
defend it to my power. And you may be sure, they use
not to expel nor banish, but to burn heretics as they term
them.''
" Well," replied she, " I am sure thou dost not be-
lieve as thy father and I, and all our forefathers have
done ; but as we were taught by the new law in King
Edward's days, which is damnable heresy."
" Indeed, I confess,'' said he, " that I believe that
doctrine which was taught in King Edward's time, which
is not heresy but truth, neither is it new, but as old as
Christ and his apostles."
" If thou be at that point," said she, " I require
thee to depart from my house, and out of my sight, and
never take me more for thy mother hereafter. As for
money and goods I have none of thine, thy father be-
queathed nought for heretics. Fagots I have to burn
thee ; more thou gettest not at my hands. "
" Mother," said he, " as you have cursed me, I pray
God to bless you, and prosper youall your life long," and
with sweet words and abundance of tears trickling down
his cheeks, he departed from her.
Thus poor Palmer, being destitute of worldly friend-
ship, knew not which way to turn his face. Soon after,
when he had bethought himself, it came to his mind to
return secretly to Magdalen college, upon the assured
trust and affiance, that he had a friend or two in that
house.
Afterwards, as he went along, musing and pondering
of matters, it came in his head (as he writes in an
epistle to one of his friends) to leave his appointed
journey, and return secretly to Reading, trusting there, by
the help of friends, to receive his quarter's stipend, and
convey his property to the custody of some trusty body.
He came not so secretly, but that his enemies had know-
ledge thereof, and without delay they laid their heads to-
gether, and consulted what way they might most safely
proceed against him. And soon it was concluded, that
one Master Hampton should resort to him under the
pretence of friendship.
Palmer, as he was a simple man, and without all collu-
sion, opened to him his whole intent. But Hampton
earnestly persuaded him to the contrary, and went away.
Palmer not suspecting mischief, called for his supper,
and went quietly to bed : but quietly he could not long
A.D.1556.]
PERSECUTION OF JULIUS PALMER.
925
rest there, for shortly after, the officers eame rushing in
with lanterns and bills, requiring him in the king and
queen's name to make ready himself, and quietly to
depart with them. So this young mm perceiving that
he was thus betrayed (without opening his lips) was
led away as a lamb to the slaughter, and w:».s com-
mitted to prison, whom the keeper, as a ravening wolf,
greedy for his prey, brought down into a vile, stinking,
and dark dungeon, prcjiared for thieves and murderers,
and there he left him for a time, hanging by the hands
and feet in a pair of stocks.
In this cave or dungeon he remained about ten da3'S,
under the tyranny of this unmerciful kee|)er.
After this he was brought before the mayor, and there
many grievous and enormous crimes were laid to ids
charge, as treason, sedition, surmised murder, and adultery.
Palmer answered, that if sucli horrible and heinous
crimes could be proved against him, he would patienrly
submit himself to all kinds of torments that could be
devised.
He so clearly overthrew their evidence, and defended his
own innocence, that the mayor himself was ashamed
that he had given credit to them, so that he sought means
how they might convey him out of the country privily.
Then his enemies, afraid he would escape their hands,
charged him with the letters and papers which had been
stolen from his study, and they accused him of heresy.
Thus Palmer was once again called out of the prison to
appear before the mayor, and two other justices, to
render an account of his faith, and to answer to such
articles as were laid against him. It was concluded that
he should be sent over to Newbury, to the visitation
about to be held there.
On the Ifith of July, four or five seats were prepared
in the choir of the parish church of Newbury for the
visitors, whose names were Doctor Jeffrey, for the bishop
of Sarum ; Sir Richard Abridges, knight, and then high-
sheriff of the sliire ; Sir William Ramsford, knight ;
John Winchcomb esquire, and the parson of Inglefield.
After the prisoners were presented, the commission read,
and other things done in order accordingly. Doctor
Jefi'rey called to Palmer, and said ; " Art thou that jolly
writer of three half-penny books that we hear of?"
Palmer. — "I know not what you mean."
Jeffrey. — " Have you taught Latin so long, that now
you understand not English ?''
To this he answered nothing.
Then Doctor Jeffrey standing up, said, "We have
received certain writings and articles against you, from
the right worshipful the mayor of Reading, and other
justices, whereby we understand, that you were convicted
of certain heresies. 1. That you deny the pope's holiness'
supremicy. 2. That you hold there are but two sacraments.
3. That the priest shews up an idol at mass ; and therefore
you went to no mass, since your first coming to Reading.
4. That there is no purgatory. 5. That you are a sower of
sedition, and have sought to divide the unity of the
queen's subjects. Tell me, Palmer,- art thou he that
wrcte t'.'.is volume ?"
Palmer. — " I wrote it indeed, and gathered it out of
the scripture.''
Je.Trey. — "Art thou not ashamed to own it? It
cuine of no good spirit, that thou didst both rail at the
dfead, and slander a learned and catholic man yet alive."
Palmer. — " If it be a slander, he hath slandered
himself; for I but report his own writing, and
expose the folly therein. And I reckon it no railing to
inveigh against Annas and Caiaphas being dead."
Jeffrey. — " Sayest thou so ? I wd! make thee recant it,
and wring peccavi out of your lying lips, ere I have
done with thee."
Palmer. — " But I know, that although of myself I
am not able to do any thing, yet if you and all mine
enemies, both bodily and spiritually, should do your worst,
you shall not be able to bring that to pass; neither shall
ye prevail against God's mighty Spirit, by whom we
understand the truth, and speak it so boldly.''
Jeffrey. — " Ah, are you full of the Spirit ? are you
inspired with the Holy Ghost ?"
Palmer. — "Sir, no man can believe, but by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, if I were
not a spiritual man, anil insjured with God's Holy Spirit,
I were not a true christian. ' He that hath not the
.Sjiirit of Christ, is none of his.' "
Jeffrey. — "I perceive you lack no words."
Palmer. — " Christ hath promised not only to give us
store of words necessary, but with them, such force of
matter, as the gates of hell shall not be able to confound,
or prevail against it."
Register. — " Sir, if you suffer him thus impudently
to trifle with you, he will never have done.''
Jeffrey. — " Well, ye shall understand, that I have it
not in commission at this present to dispute willi you,
neither were it meet that we should call again into
question such articles as are already discussed, and per-
fectly defined by our mother the holy church, whom we
ought to believe without why, or wherefore, as the creed
tells us. But the cause why ye are now called here, is
that ye might be examined upon such articles as are ad-
ministered against you, about your own hand-writing,
that it may be seen whether you will stand to it, or nay.
How say you to this ?"
Palmer. — " By your holy church you mean the syna-
gogue of Rome, which is not universal, but a particular
church. The catholic churcli I believe, yet not for her
own sake, but because she is holy, that is to say, a
church that has grounded her belief upon the word of
her spouse Christ."
Jeffrey. — "Answer me directly to my question —
Will you stand to your writing, or will you not?''
Palmer. — " If you prove any sentence therein com-
prised, not to stand with God's word, I will presently
recant it."
Jeffrey. — " Thou impudent fellow, have I not told
thee, that I came not to dispute with thee, but to
examine thee ?''
Here the parson of Inglefield, pointing to the pix, said,
" What seest thou yonder ?''
Palmer. — " A canopy of silk broidered with gold.''
Parson. — " Yea, but what is within it ?"
Palmer. — " A piece of bread."
Parson. — " Thou art as froward an heretic as ever I
talked withal !" (here there w-as much spoken concerning
confession, and other parts of the mass.)
Parson. — " Do you not believe that they who receive
the holy sacrament of the altar, do truly eat Christ's
natural body ?"
Palmer. — " If the sacrament of the Lord's Supper be
administered, as Christ did ordain it, the faithful re-
ceivers do indeed spiritually and truly eat and drink in
it Christ's very natural body and blood."
Parson. — " The faithful receivers ? You cannot blind
our eyes with such sophistry. Do not all manner of
receivers, good and bad, faithful and unfaithful, receive
the very natural body in form of bread ?"
Palmer. — " No, Sir."
Parson. — " How prove you that ?"
Palmer. — " By this place, 'He that eateth me, even
he shall live by me.' ''
Parson. — " See that fond fellow. Do you not read
likewise, ' Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord
shall be saved ?' Do none but the godly call upon him ?
Therefore mark how St. Paul answers you. He saith
that the wicked do eat the true body to their condemna-
tion."
Palmer. — " I say that St. Paul hath no such words."
Parson. — " See, the impudent fellow denieth tire plain
text. ' He that eateth and drinketh the body of the Lord
unworthily, &c.''
Palmer. — " I beseech you lend me your book.'
Parson. — "No. "
The Sheriff. — " I pray you lend him your book."
(So the book was given over to him.)
Palmer.—" Your own book hath, ' He that eateth
' this bread,' not ' this body: I have shut up your lips
with your own book.''
Jeffrey.—" It is no matter whether you write bread
or body, for we are able to prove that he meant the
body. And where you say, they eat it spiritually, that
is but a blind shift."
926
THE EXAMINATION OF JULIUS PALMER.
[EooK XI,
Palmer. — " What else should I say?"
Jeffrey.—" As holy church saith, really, carnally,
substantially."
Palmer.— " And with as good scripture, I may say
grossly or monstrously."
Jeffrey.— " Thou speakest wickedly. But tell me, is
Christ present in the sacrament or not.'"'
Palmer. — " He is present."
Jeffrey. — " How is he present?"
Palmer. — " The doctors say, in an ineffable way.
Therefore why do j'ou ask me?"
Sir Richard Abridges, the same day after dinner, sent
for him to his lodging, and there exhorted him to revoke
his opinions, to spare his young years, wit, and learning,
saying, " If thou wilt be conformable, and shew thyself
repentant, I promise thee I will give thee meat and
drink, and books, and tAi pounds yearly. And if thou
wilt set thy mind to marriage, I will procure thee a wife
and a farm, and help to furnish tliy farm for thee."
Palmer thanked him very courteously, and made an-
swer concerning his religion somewhat at large, but very
modestly and reverently, concluding in the end, that as
he had already in two i)laces renounced his living for
Christ's sake, so he would with God's grace, be ready to
surrender and yield up his life also for the same, when
God should send time.
Sir Richard. — •" Well, Palmer, then I perceive one of
us two shall be damned. For we are of two faiths, and
certain I am there is but one faith that leads to life aad
salvation."
Palmer. — " O, Sir, I hope that we both shall be saved."
Sir Richard. — " How may that be ?"
Palmer. — " Right well, Sir. For as it hath pleased
our merciful Saviour, according to the parable in the
gospel, to call me at the third hour of the day, at the
age of four-and twenty years, even so I trust he hath
called, and will call you at the eleventh hour of this your
old age, and give you everlasting life for your portion."
Sir Richard.— " Sayest thou so? Well, Palmer,
well, I would I might have thee but one month in my
house, I doubt not but I would convert thee, or thou
shouldst convert me."
Winchcomb. — "Take pity on thy golden years, and
pleasant flowers of youth, before it be too late."
Palmer.^-" Sir, 1 long for those springing flowers,
that shall never fade away.''
Winchcomb. — " If thou art at that point, I have done
■with thee."
The next morning, the IGth of July, Palmer was re-
quired to subscribe to certain articles, which they had
drawn out, as the cause of his condemnation : in the front
of which were collected together many heinous terms,
as " horrible, heretical, damnable, devilish and execra-
ble doctrine." To these words Palmer refused to sub-
scribe, affirming that the doctrine which he professed,
was not such, but good and sound doctrine.
Jeffrey. — " You may see, good people, what shifts these
heretics seek, to escape burning, when they see justice
administered to them. But I tell thee, this style is
agreeable to the law, and therefore I cannot alter it."
Palmer. — " Then I cannot subscribe to it."
Jeffrey. — " Wilt thou then crave mercy, if thou dost
not like justice, and revoke thy heresy ?"
Palmer. — " I forsake the pope, and his popelings,
with all popish heresy.''
Jeffrey. — " Then subscribe to the articles."
Palmer. — " Alter the epithets, and I will subscribe."
Jeffrey. — " Subscribe, and qualify the matter with
thine own pen.''
So he subscribed. Whereupon Doctor Jeffrey pro-
ceeded to read the popish sentence of his cruel condem-
nation, and so he was delivered to the charge of the
secular power, and was burned the same day in the
afternoon, about five o'clock, together with John Quin
and Thomas Askew.
Within one hour before they went to the place of
execution, Palmer, in the presence of many people, com-
forted his fellows with these words. " Brethren," said
he, " be of good cheer in the Lord, and faint not.
Remember the words of our Saviour Christ, where he
saith, ' Happy are you when men revile you aiul perse-
cute you for righteousness sake. Rejoice and be glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. Fear not thera that
kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul. God is
faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that
we are able to bear.' We shall not end our lives in the
fire, but make a change for a better life. Yea, for coals
we shall receive ])earls. For God's Holy Spirit certifies
our sj)irit, that he hath even now prepared for us a sweet
supper in heaven for his sake who suffered first for us."
With these and such like words, he not only com-
forted the hearts of his brethren that were with him,
appointed as sheep to be slain, but also drew out plen-
tiful tears from the eyes of many that heard him. And
as they were singing a psalm, the sheriff, .Sir Richard
Abridges, and the bailiffs of the town, came with a great
company of men in armour, to conduct them to the fire.
When they were come to the place where they should
suffer, they fell all three to the ground, and Palmer with
an audible voice jironounced the 31st psalm, but the
other two who were brought out with him from prison,
made their prayers secretly to Almighty God.
And as Palmer began to arise, there came behind him
two popish priests, exhorting him yet to recant and save
his soul. Palmer answered and said, " Away ! away !
tempt me no longer. Away! I say, from me all you that
work iniquity : for the Lord hath heard the voice of my
crying." And so forthwith they put off their raiment,
and went to the stake and kissed it. And when they
were bound to the post. Palmer said, " Good people,
pray for us, that we may persevere to the end. And for
Christ's sake beware of popish teachers, for they deceive
you."
As he spake this, a servant of one of the bailiffs, threw
a fagot at his face, so that the blood gushed out. For
which the sheriff' reviled him, calling him a cruel tor-
mentor, and with his walking staff' broke his head, that
the blood likewise ran about his ears. When the fire
was kindled, and began to take hold upon their bodies,
they lifted up their hands towards heaven, and quietly
and cheerfully, as though they had felt no smart, they
cried: " Lord Jesus, strengthen us. Lord Jesus assist
us. Lord Jesus receive our souls." And so tliey con-
tinued without any struggling, holding up their hand?,
and calling upon Jesus until they had ended their morial
lives.
An Account of a cruel and tyrannical Murder, done by
the pretended Catholics, upo7i three Women and an
Infant ,- to wit, the Mother, two Dauf/hters, and the
Child, in the Isle of Guernsei/, for Christ's true Re-
ligion, July Sih, A.D. 1556.
Amongst all the histories narrated in this book, though
there are many pitiful, several lamentable, others hor-
rible and tragical ; yet is there none to be compared
either for cruelty, or so far off from all compassion and
sense of humanity, as this merciless act of the papists,
done in the Isle of Guernsey, upon three women and an
infant ; namely, Katherine Cawches, the mother ; Wil-
lemine Gilbert, the daughter ; Perotine Massey, the
other daughter ; and an infant, the son of Perotine.
But before I come to the purpose of this history, it
may be necessary, for the better explanation of the
matter, to begin first with the origin of this tragical
cruelty ; the case was this :
On the 17th of May, A.D. 1556, in the Isleof Gueni-
sey, in a town there called St. Peter's Port, was a wicked
woman, named Vincent Gosset, who went to the house
of a person dwelling in the town, and entered into a
chamber, where she saw a cup of silver, and took it away.
Immediately after this act done, she brought the cup to
one Perotine Massey, an honest woman, dwelling in the
town, desiring her to lend her sixpence upon the same.
Perotine seeing the cup or goblet, and suspecting it to
be stolen, answered, that she would not take it : yet,
nevertheless, having knowledge of the owner thereof,
she took it to restore it again to whom it belonged ; and
that the woman should not carry it to another, she gave
her sixpence.
A.D. 1556.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF THREE WOMEN IN GUERNSEY.
927
The next day, the king's officers assembled the jus-
tices to enquire and examine, as well upon the act of
Vincent Gosset, as upon other things. So that after
declaration made by the officers and constable before the
justice, for the constable reported to have found the
vessel in the house of Perotine Massey, who then dwelt
with her mother, Catherine Cawches, and her sister,
Willemine Gilbert, their bodies upon the same were at-
tached, and put in prison, and their moveable goods
taken by inventory. Within a few days after, these three
women, abiding thus in confinement in the castle, made
their supplication to the justices to iiave justice adminis-
tered to them, if they had offended the law ; if not,
beseeching to grant them the benefit of subjects, &c.
Which supplication put up, thereupon they were ap-
pointed to come to their answer on the 5th day of June, in
the year aforesaid. Upon which day, after strait examin-
ing of the matter, it was proved that they lived truly and
honestly, as became christian women.
They were found by the neighbours not guilty of what
they were charged with, but had lived always as honest
women among them ; save only that to the command-
ments of holy church they had not been obedient, &c.
Upon this trial and verdict of their neighbours, it was
adjudged, first, that the said Vincent Gosset, being
attainted of felony, and condemned for the same, should
be whipped, and after her ear being nailed to the pillory,
should be banished out of the isle without further pun-
ishment. And as touching the three women, the mother
with her two daughters, for their not coming to the
church, they were returned prisoners again into the
castle, on the 1st of July. This is the true account in
every point as the case stood, according to the faithful
tenor and testimony of the Guernsey men, written with
their own hands both in the French and English tongue.
Wherein you see what false surmijed matter was pre-
tended against these women, and nothing proved, and
how by the attestation of their neighbours they were fully
cleared of the act, and would have been dismissed by
the temporal court, had not the clergy brought matter
of religion against them, exercising such extremity in
persecuting these four women, that in no case they shouid
escape their bloody hands, till at length they had brought
them (as you shall hear) to their final end. For after
the time of this declaration above mentioned, being
made known of their not coming to the church, they
were sent to the clergy, with letters of mandate under
their signets to the dean, as follows :
" Master dean and justices in your court and jurisdic-
tion, after all amicable recommendations, pieaseth you to
know that we are informed by the deposition of certain
honest men, passed before us in manner of an inquiry ;
in which inquiry Catherine Cawclies, and her two daugh-
ters, have submitted themselves in a certain matter
criminal : wherein we are informed that they have been
disobedient to the commandments and ordinances of the
church, in contemning and forsaking the mass, and the
ordinances of the same, against the will and command-
ment of our sovereign lord the king and the queen.
Whereof we send you the said matter, forasmuch as the
matter is spiritual, to the end you may proceed therein
after you: good discretions, and as briefly as you can
possible, and also that it pertained to your office, recom-
mending you to God, the which give you grace to do that
which pertaineth to right and justice. Written the first
day of the month of July, A.D. 1556."
After these letters, the women were again brought be-
fore the justice, with his assistants. In whose presence
they being examined of their faith, concerning the ordi-
nances of the Romish church, made their answers that
they would obey and keep the ordinances of the king and
queen, and the commandments of the church, notwith-
standing that they had said and done to the contrary in
the time of king Edward the sixth, in shewing obedience
to his ordinances and commandments. After which they
were returned again to prison. The dean and curate gave
their information touching the women, and delivered it
to the bailiff and jurats, condemning and reputing them
for heretics, the women neither hearing of any informa-
tion, nor yet being ever examined as to their faith and
religion. When the bailiff and jurats understood that
the dean and curates had not examined the women as to
their faith, they would not sit in judgment, but ordained
the women to come first before the dean and curates to
be examined of their faith. And so the officers at the
command of the justices, did present them before the
dean and curates. Which being accomplished, they
were examined severally one from another : after which
examination, they were returned again into prison.
Then on the fourteenth day of July, 1556, after exami-
nation, the dean and the curates delivered before the
justice, under the seal of the dean, and under the signs
of the curates, a certain act and sentence, the sum of
which was ; that Catherine Cawches and her two daugh-
ters were found heretics, and such they reputed them,
and have delivered them to justice, to do execution ac-
cording to the sentence.
When this was done, command was given to the
king's officers to go to the castle to bring the women,
to hear the sentence against them. And they said in the
ears of all the auditory, that they would see their ac-
cusers, and know them that had deposed against them,
for they knew not that they had offended the majesties of
the king and queen, nor of the church ; but entirely
would obey, serve, and keep the ordinances of the king
and queen, and of the church, as all good and true sub-
jects are bound to do ; notwithstanding which, the poor
women were condemned, and adjudged to be burned,
until they were consumed to ashes.
After sentence pronounced, the women appealed to the
king and queen, and their honourable council, saying.
That against reason and right they were condemned, and
for that cause they made their appeal ; notwithstanding
they could not be heard, but were delivered by the bailiif
to the king and queen's officers, to see the execution
done on them according to the sentence.
When the time arrived, that these three good servants
and holy saints of God, the innocent mother with her two
daughters, should suffer, there were three stakes set up
in the place where they were to consummate their mar-
tyrdom. At the middle post was the mother, the eldest
daughter on the right hand, the youngest on the other.
They were first strangled, but the rope broke before tl\py
were dead, and so the poor women fell into the fire.
Perotine, one of the daughters being then pregnant, to the
great horror of those who were present, gave birth to
an infant in the midst of the flames, who was taken out of
the fire by one W. House, and laid on the grass.
Then was the child carried to the provost, and from
him to the bailiff, who gave sentence that it should be
carried back again and cast into the fire. And so the
infant, baptised in his own blood, to fill up the number of
God's innocent saints, was both born and died a martvr,
leaving behind to the world, which it never saw, a spec-
tacle wherein all may see the Herodian cruelty of this
generation of popish tormentors.
Now, as this history, for the horrible strangeness of
the act, will be hardly believed by some, therefore, I
have annexed the supplication of the inhabitants of
Guernsey, and of the brother of the two sisters, complain-
ing to the queen and her commissioners, concerning the
horribleness of the act ; which supplication here follows :
To the Right Honourable, and the Queen')! Highness'
most gracious Commissioners, for the hearing and de-
termining of matters of Religion, and causes Eccle-
siastical.
" Most lamentably and woefully complaining, sheweth
unto your gracious and honourable lordships, your
poor and humble petitioner, Matthew Cawches, of the
isle of Guernsey, that whereas Jaques Amy, clerk, dean
of the isle aforesaid, assisted by the curates there, against
all order, law, and reason, by colour of a sentence of
heresy, pronounced against Catherine Cawches, the sis-
ter of your honours' said supplicant, and Perotine and
Willemine her two daughters, did cause the said Cathe-
rine, being a poor widow, and her said two daughters,
most cruelly to be burned, although the said persons, nor
any of them, did hold, maintain, or defend any thing
3o
928
FOUR PERSONS BURNED IN SUSSEX AND LEIChSTER
1.130CK XI.
directlyagainst the ecclesiastical laws then in being, under
the reign of the late queen Marj', but in all things sub-
mitted themselves obediently to the laws then in force :
and yet the cruelty of the said dean and his accomplices,
in perpetrating such luurdtr as aforesaid, raged so far,
that whereas, whilst the said persons did consume witli
violent fire, the said Purotine being burned, did
give birth to a goodly man-child, which by the offi-
cers was taken up and handled, and afterwards in
a most despiteful manner thrown into the tire, and there
also, with the holy mother, most cruelly burned. In
tender consideration whereof, and forasmuch as tliis inhu-
man murder was not in due order of any law, or in any
manner according to justice, but of mere malicious lia-
tred, as the true copy of the wliole proceedings in this
matter, by the said dean and his accomplices, here ready
to be shewed to your honours, will make very plain and
manifest: It may, therefore, please your good and gra-
cious lordships, of the zeal that you bear to justice, and
for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, to have due considera-
tion in justice of such horrible murder, so cruelly com-
mitted as aforesaid, according to the right demerit there-
of. And that it may please your honourable lordsliips
to order and decree also, that all the goods of all the said
parties, by pretence aforesaid wrongfully taken as confis-
cate, may be delivered to your said poor petitioner, to
whom of right they do belong. And your honours' said
supplicant will daily pray to God for your long preserva-
tion, to his glory, and your everlasting health."
This supplication being presented to the queen's
honourable commissioners, in the year 15(J2, such order
was taken, that the matter being returned again to
Guernsey, to be further examined, the dean was com-
mitted to prison, and dispossessed of all his livings. So
that in conclusion, both he, and all other partakers of
that inhuman murder, whether of conscience, or for fear
of the law, were driven not long after to acknowledge their
trespass, and to submit themselves to the Queen's par-
don. This submission is still on the rolls, and for which
submission they received the pardon of the queen for the
horrid act.
• Three Martyrs burned at Greensiead, in Sussex.
Near about the same time that these three women
with the infant were burned at Guernsey, there suffered
three others likewise at Greenstead, in Sussex, tv.o men
and one woman, on tlie 18th of July, ISatl; their names
were Thomas Dungate, John Foreman, and Mistress
Tree, who for rigliteousness sake submitted themselves
to death and torment of the fire, patiently abiding what
the furious rage of man could say or work against
them.
The burning of Thomas Moor, in Leicester.
As the rage of this persecution spared neither man,
woman nor child, wife nor maiden, lame, blind, nor crip-
ple ; as there was no difference either of age or sex con-
sidered, so neither was there any condition or quality
respected ; but whoever he were, that held not to the pope
and the sacrament of the altar, were he learned or un-
learned, wise, or unwise, all went to the fire, as may ap-
])ear by this simple and innocent creature, named Thomas
Moor, a servant in the town of Leicester, about the age
of twenty-four, who for speaking certain words, that his
Maker was in heaven, and not in the pix, was appre-
hended. Being brought before his ordinary, he was
asked, whether he did not believe his Maker to bo there,
pointing to the high altar. Which he denied.
Then asked the bishop, " How then," said he, " dost
thou believe ?"
The young man answered again; " as his creed did
teach him."
To whom the bishop said ; " And what is yonder that
thou seest above the altar ?" He answering, said; " I
cannot tell what you would have me to see. I see there
fine clothes, with golden tassels, and other gay trappings
hanging about the put.*'
" Why ? dost thou not believe,' said the bishop,
" Christ to be there, flesh, blood, and bone." " No
that 1 do not," said he.
Upon this, the ordinary making short with him, read
the sentence, and condemned this true and faitliful ser-
vant of Christ to death, in St. Margaret's church in
Leicester ; he was burnt, and suffered a joyful and glo-
rious martyrdom, for the testimony of righteousness,
about the 2(>th of June, 155().
To tills Thomas Moor, we have also annexed the
answers and examination of one John Jackson, before
Doctor Cook, one of tlie commissioners, for that it be-
longetli much unto the same time.
The Examinalinn nf John Jackson before Doctor
Cook, on the Wth of March, A.D. 155(j.
" First, when I came before him, he railed on me,
and called me heretic. I answered and said, ' I am no
heretic.'
" ' Yes,' said he. ' For Master Read told me, that
thou wast the rankest heretic of all in the King's-
bencii.'
" I said, ' I knew him not.'
" ' No,' said he. ' Why, heexamined thee at the King's
bench.'
" I answered him, and said, ' he examined five others,
but not me.'
" Cook. — Then answer me : ' what sayest thou to the
blessed sacrament of the altar .' tell me.'
" I answered, ' it is a difficult question, to ask me
at the first dash, you promising to deliver me.'
" ' What an heretic is this ? ' quoth he.
" I said, ' it is easier to call a man a heretic, than
to prove him one.'
" Then he said, ' What church art thou of?'
" ' What church?' quoth I, ' I am of the same church
that is built on the foundation of the prophets and the
apostles, Jesus Christ being tlie head corner-stone.'
" ' Thou art an heretic,' said he.
" ' Yea,' answered I, ' how can that be, seeing that
I am of that church ? 1 am sure that you will not say
that the prophets and apostles were heretics.'
" ' No,' quoth he, ' Keeper away with him.'
" Yet I tarried there long, and did talk witii him, and
I said, ' Sir, I can be content to be tractable, and obe-
dient to the word of God.'
" He answered and said to me, ' that I knew not what
the word of God meant, nor yet whether it were true or
not.'
" I answered, and said to him, ' yea, that I do.'
" ' Whereby ?' quoth he.
" ' Hereby,' said I. ' Our Saviour Christ saitli,
' Search the scriptures ; for in them you think you have
eternal life, and they are they that testify of me.'
" ' This is a wise proof,' answered he.
" ' Is it so ?' said I, ' What say you then to these
words that the prophet David said ? ' What man is he
that feareth the Lord ? him shall he teach in the way that
he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease ; and liis
seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is
with them that fear him ; and he will shew them his
covenant.' Psalm xxv. 12, 13, 14.
" Cook. — ' I pray thee tell me, who is the head of tiie
Church?'
" 1 answered, and said, ' Christ is the head.'
" ' But who is head in earth ?'
" I said, ' Christ hath members here in earth.'
" ' Who are they ?' said he.
" I replied, ' they, that are ruled by the woi'd of God.'
" ' You are a good fellow,' said he.
" ' I am that 1 am,' answered I.
" Then he said to my keeper, ' Have him to prisoa
again.'
" ' I am contented with that,' said I ; and so we
parted."
The Marty dom of Joan Waste, a blind woman.
On the first day of August, 1556, there suflFered like«
A.D. IJaC]
MARTYRDOM OF JOAN WASTE AND OTHERS.
929
wise at the town of Derby a certain poor lionest godly
woman, being blind from her birth, and unmarried, about
the age of twenty-two, named Joan Waste, of the parish
of Allhallows. Of them that sat upon this innocent
woman's blood, the chiefest was Ralpli liaine, bisliop of
the diocese, Doctor Draicot, his chancellor, with others.
After the bishop and Doctor Draicot had caused Joan
Waste to be apprehended in the town of Derby, suspect-
ing her to be guilty of certain heresies, she was privily
examined, as well in prison as out of j)rison. After that,
being brought to public examination before the bishop ;
was burnt in Derby.
This Joan Waste was the daughter of one William
Waste, an honest poor man ; she was born blind, and
continued with her father and mother, during their lives.
After whose death she lived with Roger Waste, her
brother, and in the time of King Edward VI., of
blessed memory, daily went to the church to hear divine
service read in the vulgar tongue. And thus by hearing
homilies and sermons, she became well affected to the
religion then taught. So at length having by her labour
gotten and saved so much money as would buy her a New
Testament, she caused one to be provided for her. And
though she was of herself unlearned, and by reason of
her blindness unable to read, yet for the great desire she
had to understand, and have imprinted in her memory
the sayings of the holy scriptures contained in the New
Testament, she acquainted herself chiefly with one John
Hurt, then prisoner in the common hall of Derby for
debts^
John Hurt being a sober grave man, of the age of
threescore and ten years, by her earnest entreaty, and
being prisoner, and many times idle and without com-
pany, did for his exercise daily read to her some chapter
of the New Testament. And if at any time he were
otherwise occupied or prevented through sickness, she
would repair to one John Pemerton clerk of the parish
church of All-Saints in Derby, or to some other person
who could read, and sometimes she would give a penny
or two to such persons as would not freely read to her,
appointing to them beforehand how many chapters of
the New Testament they should read, or how often they
should repeat one chapter for a price.
By which she so profited, that she was able not only to
recite many chapters of the New Testament without book,
but also could aptly reprove, by various places of scrip-
ture, as well sin, as such abuses in religion, as were
then too much in use in many persons.
Not long after, through the death of blessed King
Edward, followed the woeful ruin of religion, in the reign
of queen Mary his sister. In which alteration, notwith-
standing the general backsliding of the greater part of
the whole realm into the old papism again, yet this poor
blind woman continued in a constant conscience, being
zealous in that she had learned, and also refusing to
communicate in religion with those who taught contrary
doctrine to that she had learned in King Edward's time.
For which she was called before the bishop and Doc-
tor Draicot, who objected against her the usual articles.
She answered, that she believed so much as the holy
ecriptares taught her, and according to what she had
heard preached, by many learned men. Of whom some
Buffered imprisonment, and some suffered death for the
same doctrine, and she asked of them, if they would do so
for their doctrine : which if they would not, she desired
them for God's sake not to trouble her, being a blind,
poor, and unlearned woman, saying, that by God's as-
sistance she was ready to yield up her life in that faith.
And yet notwithstanding, being pressed by the bishop
and Doctor Draicot, with many arguments of Christ s
oranipotency, and many times being threatened with
grievous imprisonments, torments, and death ; the poor
woman, desirous to prolong her life, offered to the bishop
that if he would, before that company, take it upon his
conscience, that that doctrine which he would have her
to believe concerning the sacrament was true, and that
he would at the dreadful day of judgment answer for her
therein, she would then further answer them.
The bishop answered, " he would." But Doctor
Draicot his chancellor, hearing that, said, " My lord,
you know not what you do, you may in no case answer
for an heretic.'' And immediately he asked the poor
woman whether she would recant or not, and said she
should answer for herself.
The poor woman perceiving this, answered again,
that if they refused to take on their conscience that it
was true they would have her to believe, she would
answer no further, but desired them to do their pleasure ;
and so .\fter certain persuasions, they pronounced sen-
tence against her, and delivered her to the bailiffs of
Derby. Who, after they had kept her about a month or
five weeks, at len:,'th there came unto them a writ De
hseretico comburendo ; by virtue whereof they were ap-
pointed by the bishop to bring her to the parish church
of All Saints at a day appointed, where Doctor Draicot
should make a sermon.
When the day and time was come that this innocent
martyr should suffer, first comes to the church. Doctor
Draicot, accomjjanied with several gentlemen. — This
done, and all things now in readiness, at last the poor
blind servant of God was brought and set before the
pulpit, where the doctor having commenced his sermon,
and there inveighing against many matters, which he
called heresies, declared to the people that that woman
was condemned f<n- denying the sacrament of the altar
to be the very body and blood of Christ really and sub-
stantially, and was thereby cut off from the body of the
catholic church ; and said, that she was not only blind
of her bodily eyes, but also blind in the eyes of her soul.
And he said, that as her body should be presently con-
sumed with material fire, so her soul should be burned
in hell with everlasting fire, as soon as it shall be sepa-
rated from the body, and there remain world without
end, and said, it was not lawful for the people to pray
for her : and so with many terrible threats he made an
end of his sermon, and commanded the baiUffs and those
gentlemen to see her executed. And the sermon thus
ended, the blessed servant of God was carried away from
the church, to a place called the Windmill-pit, near the
town, and holding Roger Waste her brother by the hand,
she prepared herself, and desired the people to pray with
her, and said such prayers as she had learned, and cried
upon Christ to have mercy upon her, as long as life
served. In the mean season. Doctor Draicot went to
his inn, and there laid him down and slept, during all
the time of her execution.
About the beginning of the next month, which was
September, a certain godly, and devout person, and
zealous of the Lord's glory, born in Wiltshire, named
Edward Sharp, of the age of forty years or thereabouts,
was condemned at Bristol, to martyrdom, where he con-
stantly and manfully persisting in the just cause of
Christ's gospel, for disliking and renouncing the ordi-
nances of the Romish church, was tried as pure gold,
and made a lively sacrifice in the fire : in whose death,
as in the death of all his other saints, the Lord be glori-
fied and thanked for his great grace of constancy, to
whom be praise for ever. Amen.
Next after the martyrdom of Edward Sharp, followed
four, who suffered at Mayfitld, in Sussex, on the 24th
day of Sept., A.D. 1.556. Which four, being at the
place where they were to suffer, after they had made
their prayer, and were at the stake ready to abide the
force of the fire, they constantly and joyfully yielded
their lives for the testimony of the glorious gospel of
Jesus Christ, unto whom be pi'aise for ever and ever,
Amen.
The day after the martyrdom of these at Mayfield,
a young man was put to death, for the like testimony
of Jesus Christ, at Bristol, where he yielding himself to
the torments of the fire, gave up his life into the hands
of the Lord, with such joyful constancy and triumph, as
all the church of Christ have just cause to praise God
for him.
In the same month, were two more godly martyrs con-
sumed by fire at Wotton Underhedge in Glocestershire,
who died very gloriously in a constant faith, to the terror
930
FIVE PERSONS FAMISHED IN THE CASTLE OF CANTERBURY.
[Book XI.
of the wicked, and comfort of the godly. So gloriously did
the Lord work in them, that death to them was life, and
life with an evil conscience was death.
An affecting Account of the unmerciful handling of
William Dangerfield, and Joan his Wife, ivho with
their young infant of fourteen days old, were taken
out of their House, and laid in the common gaol
amongst thieves and murderers.
When I had written the history of the Guernsey
women, with the young infant burned with them, and
also had passed the burning of the poor blind woman
Joan Waste at Derby, I well hoped I should have found
no more such histories of unmerciful cruelty shewed
upon weak women, with their children and young in-
fants : but now coming to the persecution of Glocester-
shire, about the parts of Bristol, I find another story of
such unmercifulness shewed against another woman as
far from all charity and humanity, as has been in any
other history yet rehearsed.
In the parish of Wotton Underhedge, not far from
Bristol, was dwelling one William Dangerfield, a right
honest and godly poor man, who by Joan Dangerfield his
wife had nine cliildren, and she was then lying in child-
bed of tl)e tenth. This William, after he had been abroad
from his house a certain time, for fear of persecution,
licaring that his wife was brought to bed, repaired
home to visit her, and to see his children, she being
now delivered four days before.
The return of this man was no sooner known to some
of his unkind and uncharitable neighbours, but they, in-
censed with the spirit of pai)istry, beset the house, and
took William Dangerfield, and carried him to prison,
and at length he was brought to the bishop, called
Brooks, in whose cruel handling he remained so long,
till his legs almost were fretted off with irons.
After the apprehension of the husband, the wife like-
wise was taken, with her young child, being but four-
teen days old, and carried into the common gaol, and
there placed amongst thieves and murderers, where both
she and her poor innocent found so small charity amongst
the papists, that she never could come to any fire, but
was driven to warm the clothes that she put about the
child, in her bosom.
While they were thus confined in separate prisons,
the husband and the wife, the bishop begins to practise
not with the woman first, as the serpent did with Eve,
but with the man, craftily deceiving his simplicity with
fair glosing words, falsely persuading him that his wife
had recanted, and asking him, wherefore he should
stand more in his own conceit, than she, and so subtlely
drew out a form of recantation, wherewith he deceived
the simple soul. After he had once said that he would
consent, although he had not yet recanted, they suffered
him to go to his wife, where she lay in the common
gaol.
Then they with melting hearts opening their minds
one to another, when he saw his wife not released, and
perceiving that he had not done well, he declared to her
the whole matter, how falsely he was circumvented by
the subtle flatterings of the bishop, that certainly she
had recanted, and thus deceiving me, (said he) brought
this to me, and so plucked out of his bosom the copy of
the recantation. The wife hearing what her husband had
lone, was sorely grieved, and exclaimed, " Alas ! thus
long have we continued one, and hath Satan so prevailed,
to cause you to break your first vow made to Christ in
baptism ?" And so parted William and Joan his wife,
with what hearts the Lord knoweth. Then he began
not a little to bewail his promise made to the bishop,
and to make his prayer to Almighty God, desiring him
that he might not live so long as to call evil good, and
good evil ; or light darkness, and darkness liglit ; and so
he departed home towards his house : where, by the way
homeward, as it is affirmed, he took his death, and
shortly after departed, according to his prayer, after he
had endured in prison twelve weeks.
After this, Joan his wife continued still in prison with
ner tender infant, till at last she was brought before the
bishop to be examined. What her answers were, is not
known. However they pleased not the bishop, as ap-
peared by his increased anger against the poor woman,
and by her long continuance in the prison, together
with her tender babe, which also remained with
her in the gaol, a partaker of her martyrdom, so long aa
her milk would serve to give it suck, till at length the
child being starved for cold and famine, was sent away
when it was past all remedv, and so shortly after died :
and not long after the mother also followed. Besides,
the old woman, the mother of the husband, of the age
of eighty years and upward, who being left in the house
after their apprehension, for lack of comfort there
perished also.
And thus have you in one history the death of four
together ; first of the old woman, then of the husband,
after that of the innocent child, and lastly of the mother.
What became of the other nine children, I am not per-
fectly sure.
In the month of October following, was burned at
the town of Northampton, a shoemaker, a true witness
and disciple of the Lord, who according to the grace of
God given luito him, adhered firmly to the sound doc-
trine and preaching of God's word, and renounced the
false religion of the Romish see.
After whom, not long after in the same month of Oc-
tober, died also in the castle of Chiclu^ster, three godly
confessors, being there in bonds for the Uke cause of
Christ's gospel, who also should have suffered the like
martyrdom, had not their natural death, or rather the
cruel handling of the papists, made them away before,
and afterwards buried them in the fields.
I read moreover that in this present year, to wit, A.D.
1.").56", was burnt a person called Hooke, a true witness
of the Lord's truth at Chester.
A71 Account of five Persons famished in Canterbury
Castle.
As among all the bishops, Bonner, bishop of London,
principally excelled in persecuting the poor members
and saints of Christ ; so, of all archdeaconS; Nicholas
Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, was the sorest,
and of least compassion, (only Dunning of Norwich ex-
cepted) by whose unmerciful nature, very many were
put to death in the diocese of Canterbury, not only in
the time of Queen Mary, but some also in the blessed
beginning of this our most renowned Queen Elizabeth,
as by the grace of Christ hereafter shall appear.
Of those that suffered in Queen Mary's time within
the diocese of Canterbury, some are recited already,
with the order and form set down of such articles as then
were most commonly administered to them.
Now to proceed in order of time where we left, next
follows the month of November.
In the beginning of it, there were together in the
castle of Canterbury, fifteen godly and innocent martyrs,
of which number not one escaped with life, but eitiier
were burned, or else famished in prison. Of which two
sorts, which is the easier death, God knoweth, it is hard
to judge. Notwithstanding, the truth is, that of these
fifteen, ten were burned and suftered in the fire, of whom
in the next book more shall follow hereafter. The
other five were famished most unmercifully in prison.
The Persecution in the Diocese nf Lichfield.
The months of September, November, and December,
as they were troublesome to other places, and especially
to the diocese of Canterbury, by reason of the arch-
deacon ; so likewise they brought no little business in
the country to Lichfield and Coventry, by a cruel bishoj)
there, called Ralph Baine, and a more cruel chancellor
named Doctor Draicot, through the fierce incpnsition v,i
whom great stir was among the people, being called to
examination of their faith, and many caused to bear
fagots. Who, although they were not put to the torment
of death, yet because it may appear what a number there
is in the countries of England abroad, who iu their
1556.]
DEATH OF SIR JOHN CHEEKE.
931
hearts have a dislike of the pope's Romish laws and reli-
gion, if for fear they durst utter their minds, I thought
to make a rehearsal of the names of those who in the afore-
said diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, were taken in
suspicion, and examined for their religion.
And first amongst them that were detected and en-
joined to the popish penance, that is, to bear a fagot,
candle, and beads about in procession, were Agnes
Foreman, detected, examined, and by witness con-
victed, and bore a fagot on the 12th of September.
Likewise eight others for seldom coming to the church,
forgiving no reverence at the elevation of the sacrament,
but looking upon his book, &c. Besides them, there
were eleven priests deprived of their livings for the like
causes : —
Nicholas Cartwright, doctor ; Richard Juridan, priest ;
Edmund Crokel, priest ; Thomas Whitehead, priest ;
William Taylor, priest ; Anselme Sele, priest : Richard
Slav^;^, priest, married ; Edward Hawkes, priest, married ;
Robert Aston, priest, deprived ; Henry Tecka, priest,
deprived; Robert Massey, priest, married and de-
prived.
Besides these there were others, to the number of
thirty-three, who were detected, accused and examined,
although they bore no fagot, but were dismissed.
These persons, with many more following in the next
year, although they subscribed and recanted, through fear
of death ; yet I here recite them, that by them it might
appear, what a number there were, not only in the
county of Lichfield, but also in other parts, in heart set
against the pope's proceedings, if fear rather than con-
science had not compelled them to the contrary.
The Conclusion of this Eleventh Book.
And thus, christian reader, have you the whole persecu-
tion of the year 1556, and the fourth of Queen Mary's
reign, with the names and causes of all who suflFered
martyrdom within the compass of the year ; the number
of all slain and martyred in divers places of England
this year, came to above eighty-four persons, of whom
many were wives, widows, and maidens ; besides those
who otherwise by secret practice were made away or
driven out of goods and houses, or out of the realm, or
else within the realm were put to penance, and induced
by forcible violence to recant; save only that 1 have
omitted the account of Sir John Cheeke, knight, and ,
schoolmaster for some time of King Edward. The wor-
thiness of which man deserveth much to be said of him ;
but his fall should rather be covered in silence and obli-
vion. \Ve shall only note a word or two of a few things
which principally appertain to the present history.
First, Master Cheeke being in Germany, out of all
danger of persecution, with many more of his own
countrymen and acquaintance, was not only in safety,
but also esteemed among the Germans, and also well
placed in the city of Strasburg. Where, if he had re-
mained, rather giving place to time, than to presume
upon adventures, peradventure it had been better with
him. But what fatal instigation wrought in his mind I
know not. In the end so it fell, that he would needs
take his journey with Sir Peter Carew, from High Ger-
many unto Brussels. Having, as it is said. King Philip's
safe conduct to jiass and repass ; he came to Brussels to
s'je the Queen's ambassadors : and having brought the
Lord Paget on his way towards England, in returning,
between Brussels and Antwerp he was taken with Sir
Peter C'arew by the provost marshal, spoiled of their
horses ; and jjut into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies
tied with h:ilters to the body of the cart, and blindfolded.
They were then conveyed to a ship and put under the
hatches, and so brought to the Tower of London.
Tlius the good man being entrapped, and now in the
hands of his enemies had but one of these two ways to
take, eitlier to change his religion, or to change his Ufe,
other remedy with those papists there was none. Neither
could his conscience excuse him, nor truth defend him,
nor learning help him.
Although Master Fecknam, whether influenced by the
queen, or for his own friendship towards his old ac-
quaintance, took upon him the defence and commen-
dation of Master Cheeke, speaking in his behalf: yet no
mercy could be had with the queen, but he must needs
recant, and so he did.
Then after his recantation, he was, through the
crafty handling of the papists, allured first to dine
in company with them, at length drawn unawares to
sit in the council when the poor martyrs were brought be-
fore Bonner and other bishops to be condemned ; the
remorse he felt so mightily wrought in his heart, that
not long after he left this mortal life. Whose fall,
although it was full of infirmity, yet his rising again by
repentance was great, and his end comfortable, the Lord
be praised.
END OF THE ELEVENTH BOOK.
ACTS AND MONUMENTS.
BOOK XII.
COMPRISING
THE PERSECUTIONS AGAINST THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE SERVANTS OF CHRIST, FROM
THE BEGINNING OF JANUARY, 1557, AND THE FIFTH YEAR OF QUEEN MARY.
Cardinal Poolers Visitation in Cambrid(/p, with the con-
demuiiKj, taking vp, and burning the Bones and Books
of Bucer and Paulus Phagius, ^th January, 1557.
Cardinal Poole, three years after his return to Eng-
land, liaving somewhat witlulrawn his mind from other
affairs of the realm, and having in all points established
the Rcniish religion, began to have an eye to the univer-
sity of Cambridge, which place, among others, specially
seemed to have need of reformation, according to his
views. To perform the change, there were chosen Cuthbert
Scot, not long before consecrated bishop of Chester ; Ni-
cholas Ormanet, an Italian, arch-priest of the people of
Bodolon, in the diocese of Vernon, professed in both the
laws, and bearing the name of the pope's datary ; Thomas
Watson, bishop elect of Lincoln ; John Christopherson,
bishop elect of Chichester ; and Henry Cole, provost of
the college of Eton. There was good cause why the mat-
ter was especially committed to these persons. For Or-
manet was a man of much estimation with Julius III.,
at that time bishop of Rome, and was appointed to come
to England with Cardinal Poole, because without his
knowledge (as in whom he put his chief trust and confi-
dence) the bishop would have nothing done that was of
any importance.
These persons, thus appointed, (while the visitors were
preparing themselves for their journey,) sent their letters
with tiie cardinal's citation before to Dr. Andrew Pern,
Vice-chancellor of Cambridge, commanding him to warn
all the graduates of the university, in their name, to be
in readiness against the 11th day of January, 1557, be-
twixt eight and ten of the clock, ir. the church of St.
Mary the Virgin: requiring him especially to be there
himself, and also to set forward all the rest, to whose
charge it belonged, that they should search out all sta-
tutes, books, privileges, and monuments appertaining to
the university, or to any of the colleges, or finally, to any
of themselves, and to present them before them at the
day appointed, and every man to ap])ear there ])ersonally :
for they would not fail, but be there at the same time, to
lay before them such things as should seem necessary to
this charge of reforming tlie university.
This citation of the cardinal, being brought to Cam-
bridge by Master Bullock, was first exhibited in the con-
vocation house of regents, and there openly read by the
orator of the university, on the 11th of December 155C.
After this, on the 24th of December, the vice-chancellor,
with the heads of the houses, meeting together in ths
schools, it was there concluded, that the visitors' charges
should l)e borne by the university and colleges, and, also,
that no master of any college should suffer any of the
fellows, scholars, or ministers, to leave the town, but
to return before the visitation.
On Friday, the 8th of January, the queen's commis-
sioners sat together in the hall, and read the commission.
Then were all the high-constables called to bring in their
precepts, and sworn. Also two persons of every parish
of ten or twelve hundreds, were sworn to enquire of
heresy, Lollardy, conspiracy, seditious words, tales, and
nimours against the king and queen : also, for heretical
and seditious books ; for negligences and misdemeanours
in the church ; for observation of ceremonies ; for orna-
ments, and stock of the church.
We said that the cardinal thought the university to
have need of reformation. The reason why he thought
so, was either because it had cast off the yoke of the
bishop of Rome, and adhered to the wholesome doctrine
of the gospel ; or else, that both for the late schism, not
yet worn out of memory, and for the doctrine of Martin
Bucer, who not long ijefore o))enly in the university in-
terpreted the holy scriptures, they saw many so cor-
rupted and sjiotted with this infection, that (even as when
fire is spread in a town) unless a speedy remedy is ap-
))lied, it is not possible to quench it for many days after.
This took place in the year 1 55(i. To the intent, there-
fore, to make a salve for this sore, the in(iuisitors, of
whom we spoke before, came to Cambridge on the yth of
January, 1557. And as they were yet in their journey,
and far from the town, several of the masters and presi-
dents of the colleges met them, and brought them courte-
ously, first into the town, and afterwards to their lodgings.
This day, as it was toward evening ere they came, and
the sun was going down, nothing else was done. The
next day was s)ient in recreation after their journey.
Nevertheless, that it should not escape altogetiier with-
out doing something, they interdicted two churches,
namely, St. Mary's, where Bucer, and St. Michael's,
where I'aul Phagius lay buried.
These two men were dead a good while before ; Paul
' Phagius had scarcely shewed the proof of his wisdom and
A.D. 1557.]
VISITATION IN CAMBRIDGE.
933
learning, when he departed to God, 1549. Bucer lived
but a short time after. During which period, sometimes
by writing, but chiefly by reading and preaching openly,
this old man, being studious in the word of God, nevtr
spired himself, nor regarded his health, and brouglit all
men into such admiration of him, that neither his friends
could sufficiently praise him, nor his enemies in any
poirit find fault with his singular life and sincere doc-
trine.
From the burial of Bucer and Phagius, to the coming
of these visitors, were passed but a few years. And from
the time tliat that blessed king, Edwar(l VI., deceased, to
that day, the priests never ceased to celebrate their
masses, and other ceremonies in those churches, and that
without any scruple of conscience, as far as men could
perceive. But after the time that these commissioners
came, those things that before were accounted for sacred
and holy, be^an to be denounced for profane and un-
holy. For they commanded that all tliose assemblies
that should hereafter be made for the executing of holy
ceremonies, should be removed to the king's chapel,
which is a place fur more stately than all the others.
Now was come the 11th of January, in wliich tlie vice-
chancellor of the university, with the masters and presi-
dents of colleges, and all the graduates of every house,
were commanded to appear before the commissioners in
their habits. It was commanded that the scholars also
should come in their surplices, but that was not done.
They assembled in great numbers in Trinity College,
having the university cross borne before them ; and in
the gatehouse a forum was set and covered, with cushions,
and carpet on the ground for the visitors. Where the
vice-chancellor, having on his robes, sprinkled holy- water
on them, and purposed to incense them, but they refused
it there, which notwithstanding afterward, in the queen's
college, and elsewhere, they refused not.
There, master John Stokes, common orator of the uni-
versity, made an oration in the name of all the rest.
When he had made an end of speaking, the bishop of
Chester answered thereunto, " that they took in right
good part, that the university had made so open a decla-
ration of her good will : for which he gave most hearty
thanks. As concerning the good wills of the commission-
ers, there was no cause to mistrust. For their coming
thither was not to deal any thing roughly with such as
came to amendment : but both the cardinal himself, and •
they also, were fully minded to shew favour, devising how
to bring all things to peace and tranquillity, desiring no-
thing more earnestly than that they who had erred and
gone astray, should return into the right path again. The
right reverend father, the lord cardinal, whom he desired
to have seen present, wished the self-same thing also, de-
siring nothing so much as to sustain and hold up, now
ready to fall, or rather to raise up already fallen to the
ground, the university ; for he gladly takes upon him the
name and duty of her guardian, whom it greatly grieved,
that the infections of the times past had spread abroad
such grievous diseases, that even the university itself
was touched with the contagious air thereof. For he
■would more gladly have come hither to visit and salute
it, than to correct it, if the weighty affairs of the realm
would have permitted it. But now, seeing he could not
so do, he had appointed this commission, in which he
aad assigned them to be his deputies. The chief object
vhat they wished to attain was, that such as had erred
should confess their faults, and return into the right
way again. For they were in good forwardness of heal-
ing, that acknowledged themselves to have offended."
These things being finished, they were brought in pro-
cession to the king's college, by all the graduates of the
university, where was sung a mass of the Holy Ghost,
with great solemnity. In this place it was marked that
Nicholas Ormanet, commonly sirnamed Datary, (who,
though inferior in estate to Chester being a bishop, yet
■was superior to them all in authority,) while the mass
was celebrating, now standing, then sitting, and some-
times kneeling on his knees, observed certain ceremonies,
which afterwards were required to be observed by all
others.
From thence they attended all upon the legates to St.
Mary's church, which we stated before to have been in-
terdicted. In which place, owing to the interdict, al-
though no mass might be sung, yet there was a sermon
by Master Peacock, in Latin, against heresies and here-
tics, as Bilney, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, &c. Which
being ended, they proceeded to the visitation : where,
first. Dr. Harvey in the cardinal's name, exhibited the
commission to the bishop of Chester. Which being ac-
cepted, and openly read, then the vice-chancellor, with
an oration, exhibited the certificate under his seal of
office, with the cardinal's citation annexed, containing
every man's name in the university and colleges, with
the officers and all the masters of houses. Among whom
was also Robert Brassey, master of king's college, a
worthy old man, both for his wisdom and his hoary hairs :
who, hearing his own name recited next after the vice-
chancellor's, said. He was there present, as all the others
were; nevertheless, forasmuch as the reformation of his
house was wholly reserved to the discretion of the bishop
of Lincoln, not only by the king's letters patent, but also
by grant of confirmation from the bishop of Rome him-
self, under a penalty, if he should sutler any strangers
to intermeddle, he openly protested in discharge of his
duty, that unless their commission gave them authority
and jurisdiction upon the college, either by express words
or manifest sense, he utterly exempted himself from being
present. This his exception they took all in great dis-
pleasure ; alleging that they were fully authorised for the
order of the matter by the cardinal, out of whose juris-
diction no place nor persons was exempted : wherefore,
he had done evil to call into question their authority, so
well known to all men.
Much pomp and ceremony followed this, and at last
the time came for the visitation to go to mass ; which
being finished, with great solemnity, first they went to
the high altar of the church, and having there saluted
their god, and searching whether all were well about hin^
or not, they walked through all the inner chapels of the
church. The church goods, the crosses, the chalices, the
mass-books, the vestments, and whatever ornaments
were besides, were commanded to be brought out to
them. When they had sufficiently viewed all things, and
had called forth by name every fellow and scholar of the
house, they went to the master's lodging, where first
swearing them upon a book to answer to all such interro-
gatories as should be propounded to them, (as far as they
knew,) they examined first the master himself, and after-
wards all the rest, every man in his turn. But there
were some that refused to take this oath, because they
had given their faith to the college before, and, also, be-
cause they thought it against all right and reason to
swear against themselves : for it was contrary to all law,
that a man should be compelled to betray himself, and
not to be suffered to keep his conscience free, when there
was no manifest proof to be laid to his charge ; but much
more unjust is it, that a man should be constrained by
force to accuse himself. Nevertheless these persons
also, after such altercation, at length (conditionally that
their faith given before to the college were not impeached
thereby) were contented to be sworn.
The inquisition lasted three days. This was now the
third day of their coming, and it was thought that the
case of Bucer and Phagius, was delayed longer than
needed. For they looked to have had much altercation
and business about the matter. Now, forasmuch as the
present state of the case required great deliberation and
advice, the vice-chancellor and the masters of the colleges
assembled at the common schools, where every man
gave his verdict what he thought meet to be done in
this matter of Bucer. After much debating, they agreed
all together in this determination ; that forasmuch as
Martin Bucer, while he lived, had not only sowed per-
nicious and erroneous doctrine among them, but also
had himself been a sectary and famous heretic, erring
from the catholic church, and giving others occasion to
fall from the same likewise : a supplication should be
made to the lord commissioners, in the name of the
whole university, that his dead carcase might forthwith
be digged up, that inquisition might be made as to his
doctrine, which being brought in examination, if 't ■^■- •-
934
PROCESS AGAINST MARTIN BUCER AND PAUL PHAGIUS.
[Book XII.
not found to be good and wliolesome, the law might pro-
ceed against him ; for it was against the rule of the holy
canons, that his body should be buried in christian burial.
Yea, and besides that it was to the open derogation of
God s honour, and the violiting of his holy laws, with
the great peril of many men's souls, and the offence of
the faithful, especially in so diffieult and contagious a
time as that was. Wherefore it was not to be suffered,
that they, who utterly dissented from all other men in
their living, laws and customs, should have any part
witli them in the honour of burial. And therefore the glory
of God first and before all things ought to be defended,
the infamy which through this had arisen on them, with
all speed put away, no room at all left to those per-
sons to rest in, who even in the same places where they
lay, were injurious and noisome to tlte very elements,
but the place ought to be purged, and all things so or-
dered as might be to the satisfying of the consciences of
the weak. In executing of which, a notable example
ought to be given to all men, that no man hereafter
fihould be so bold to attempt the like.
They gave the same verdict by common assent, upon
Phagius also. To this writing they annexed another, by
which they lawfully authorised Andrew Perne, the vice-
chancellor, to be the common factor for the university.
He was a man meet for the purpose, both for the office
that he bare, and also because, by the testimony of Chris-
topiierson, he was deemed to be the most ]iopishly inclined
of all others. This supplication, confirmed by the con-
Bent of all the degrees of the university, and signed with
their common seal, the next day, which was the 13th of
January, the vice-chani;ellor put up to the commissioners.
Note here, good reader, what a feat of conveyance this
was, to suborn the university under a pretence to desire
this thing of them by way of petition ; as who should
8ay, if they had not done so, the other would never have
pone about it of themselves. But this gloss was soon
found out. For the commissioners had given the vice-
chancellor instructions in writing before. But now,
peradventure they thought by this means to remove the
envy of this act from themselves. Thus the vice-chan-
cellor came to the commissioners, according to ajjpoint-
ment. He had scarce declared the cause of his coming,
when he not only obtained his suit, but also at the same
time received the sentence of condemnation, for taking
up Bucer and Phagius, fairly copied out by Ormanet
Datary, himself. This was to be confirmed by the con-
8uit of the degrees of the university. Whereupon a
solemn convocation was appointed to be held, at nine
o'clock ; where the graduates beins: assembled togetlier,
the demand was propounded concerning the condemna-
tion of Bucer and Phagius, and the grace asked, which
was this : " Pleaseth it you that Martin Bucer, for the
heresies now recited, and many otliers by him written,
preached, and taught, wherein he died without repen-
tance, and was buried in Christian burial, may be ex-
humed and taken up again ?" &c. After this grace being
granted, then was the sentence of condemnation, drawn
by the datary, openly read, and immediately another grace
asked, that the same might be signed with the common
seal. Which request was very lightly and easily obtained.
And it was no marvel. For after the death of King
Edward, since the time that the government of the realm
came to the hand of Queen Mary, all such persons being
driven away as had rejected the Romish religion, in whom
well nigh alone rested whatever knowledge and learning
Was in the whole university, such a set were put in their
room, that all places now swarmed with unlearned chap-
lains : to whom nothing wis greater jdeasure, than to
cause all men to speak slander and reproach of Bucer.
The next day, namely, the 14th of January, the visi-
tors came to the king's college, first going into the
church, and there offering their )H-ayers, sitting all the
mass time, the company standing in their cojies, and
singing a solemn respond in honour of the visitors.
After the respond, the provost, arrayed in tlie best cope,
ma'le to them his protestation, to whom the bishop of
Chester made answer also in Latin, declaring that he
could not perceive to what purpose his protestation was,
notwithstanding they would accept it and bear with him
Then went they to mass, which ended, the visitors ap-
proached up to the altar, and took down the sacrament,
and searched the pix, but first the two bishojis cens< 1
the sacrament and examined afterwards the chalices, iVo.
The next day process went out to cite Bucer aiul
Phagius. This citation was fixed up in convenient
places, to wit, upon St. Mary's church door, the Uuor
of the common schools, and the cross in the market.
In this was specified, that whosoever would maintain
Bucer and Phagius, or stand in defence of their doctrine,
should at the eighteenth day of the month, stand forth
before the commissioners in St. Mary's church, which
was appointed the place of judgment, and there every
man should be sufficiently heard what he could say. la
the mean while Ormanet and Doctor Watson abode at
home in their lodging, to take the depositions against the
dead men.
As Ormanet was sitting at Trinity College, 'John
Dale, one of the queen's college, came to him, whom
he had commanded before to bring with him the pix,
wherein the bishop of Rome's god of bread is wont to
be enclosed. For Ormanet told them he had a precious
jewel (the same was a linen cloth that the pope had
consecrated with his own hands) which he promised to
bestow upon them for a gift. But Dale, misunderstand-
ing Ormanet, instead of the pix, brought a chalice and
the host, which he had wrapped up and put in his bosom.
When he was come, Ormanet demanded if he had
brought him the thing he sent him for. To whom he
ansivered, he had brought it. " Then give it me," said
lie. Dale pulled out the chalice and the cake, or host.
When Ormanet saw that, he stepped somewhat back, as
it had been in wonder, calling him a blockhead, and
little better than a madman, demanding what he meant
by those things, saying ; he desired him to bring none
of that gear, and that he was unworthy to enjoy so high
a benefit : yet, notwithstanding, as he had promised
before to give it to them, he would perform his promise.
Upon which, with great reverence and ceremony, he
pulled out the linen cloth and laid it in the chalice, and
the bread with it, commanding them, both for the holi-
ness of the thing, and also for the giver of it, to keep it
among them, vvith such due reverence as belonged to so
holy a relic.
About the same time, the commissioners had given
coininaiidment to the masters of the colleges, that every
man shoulil put in writing what books he had, with the
autiiors' names ; and to the intent that every man should
execute it without deceit, they took an oath of them.
This conim-uidment some executed exactly and diligently ;
others, as they deemed it wrong, executed it very re-
luctantly.
When the day for giving judgment came, namely, the
18th, and that neither Bucer nor Phagius would appear
at their call in the court, nor that any put himself forth
to defend them ; yet tiie courteous counnissioners would
not ]n-oceed to judgment, which nevertheless, for the con-
tumacy of these t.\0 dead men, in absenting themselves,
they might have done. But these men being bent altogether
toequity and mercy, had rather shew some favour, than to
do the utmost they iniglit by the law. Whereupon the se-
cond process was puf)lislied. Themeaningof which varied
not much from the first, but that it put ofi" the judgment
day to the 26th of the month. Upon wiiich day the vice-chan-
cellor was sent for, with whom they agreed concerning
the order of ])ublishiiig the sentence. And that tliire
should be wanting no solemnity in the matter, they com-
manded him to warn the mayor of the town to be tliere
at the day .-uipointed with all his burgesses, which the
vice-(;hancellor did with all readiness.
On the 2()th of January, all degrees of the mother
university, were assembled. And to fill up this jiageant,
thither came also the mayor and townsmen, and all met
together in St. Mary's church, to behold wliat should be
determined upon these men. After long attendance, at
length tiie commissioners came forth, and went u]) to a
scaffold that was somewhat higher than the rest, prepared
for the purpose. When they had taken their places,
Doctor Perne, the vice-chancellor, put on a grave ctnin-
tenance, and reached to them the process that was lately
A.D. 155?.]
MA.RTIN BUCER AND PAUL PHAGIUS CONDEMNED.
publisned, to cite them, saying these words : " I bring
forth again to you, right reverend father and commis-
sjioners of the most reverend my lord cardinal Poole, this
citJition, executed according to the purport and effect of
the same, &'c." When he had finished, the Ijisliop of
Chester, after he had a little viewed the people, began
as follows : —
'* You see,'' said he, " how sore the university
presses upon us, how earnest intercession it makes to us,
not only to denounce Buccr and Phagius, who these
certaiii years past have spread most pernicious doctrine
among you, to be lieretics, as they are indeed ; but also
tint we will command their dead carcases, which to this
day have obtained honourable burial among you, to be
digged up, and as it is excellently ordained by the canon
law, to be cast into fire, or whatever is more
grievous than fire, if any thing can be. For the degrees
of the university deal not slightly nor slackly with us in
this case ; but do so press upon us, and follow the suit
so earnestly, that they scarce give us any respite. And
I assure you, though this case of itself is such, that
even the unworthiness of those persons though there
were no further cause, ought to induce us to the doing
of it, much the rather moved with these so wholesome
petitions ; it is meet and convenient we should grant it.
For however we of ourselves are inclined to mercy in
our hearts, the which we protest there is nothing under
the sun to us more dear and acceptable ; yet notwith-
standing the very law rises up to revenge : so that the
common salvation of you all, which the law provides for,
must be preferred before the private charity of our minds.
Neitlier ought any such negligence to overtake us for
our Harts, that we, being scarce yet escaped out of the
shipvTjck of our former calamity, should now suffer
this inexpiable mischief to disquiet any longer the con-
sciences of the weak.
" Moreover, it is but reason that we should do some-
what at so earnest entreaty and suit of the university.
I need not to speak much of ourselves. For if we had
been cesirous to undertake this matter, it had been law-
ful, after the first citation, to have proceeded to judg-
ment ; but because we were willing that their defenders
should be heard, and that the matter should be denounced
and tried by law, we sent out the second process.
" If we had desired revenge, we might have shewed
cruelty upon them that are alive ; of which (alas, the
more pity) there are too many that embrace this doctrine.
If we thirsted for blood, it was not so ^o oe sought in
withered carcases and dry bones. Therefore, you may
■well perceive, it was no part of our wills that we now
came hither ; but partly induced at the entreaty of the
university, partly moved with the unworthiness of the
case itself: but es])ecially for the care and regard we
have of your health and salvation, which we covet by all
means to preserve.
" For you yourselves are the cause of this business ;
you gave occasion for this confession, among whom this
day ought to be a notable example, to remain as a me-
morial to them that shall come after, as in that which
you may learn, not only to shake off the filth which you
have taken of these persons ; but also to beware here-
after that you fall no more so shamefully as you have
done. But I trust, God will defend you, and give you
minds to keep yourselves from it.
" As concerning the parties themselves, whose case
now hangs in law, they bear about the name of the
gospel ; whereas, indeed, they wrought nothing else than
thievery and deceit. And so much the more wicked
were they, in that they sought to cover so shameful acts,
with the cloak of so fair and holy a name. Wherefore,
it is not to be doubted, but that God will punish this
despite, of itself wicked, to you pernicious ; but to the
authors thereof shameful and abominable.
" But if God, as he is slow to wrath and vengeance,
will wink at it for i\ time, yet notwithstanding, if we,
upon whom the charge of the Lord's flock leans, should
permit so execrable crimes to escape unpunished, we
should not live in quiet one hour."
When he had thus spoken, he recited the sentence out
jof 8 scroll, and condemned Bucer and Phagius for heresy.
After the sentence was read, the bishop commanded
their bodies to be digged out of their graves, and being
degraded from holy orders, delivered them into the bands
of the secular power. For it was not lawful for such
innocent persons as they were, abhorring all blood-shed,
and detesting all desire of murder, to put any man to
death !
They then sent letters to London, wherein they adver-
tised the cardinal how far they had proceeded in the
matter, and also desired his grace, that he would cause
to be sent to .Smith, the mayor of the town, the writ for
the burning of lieretics. For unless he had the queen's
warrant to save him harmless, he would not have any
thing to do in the matter.
While this pursuivant went on his journey, they com-
manded to be brought to them, the books which they
had ordered before to be searched out. For they deter-
mined to throw them into the fire, with the bones of
Bucer and Phagius.
About the same time, Doctor Watson, taking occasion
from the day, because it was high-feast, in which was
wont to be celebrated the memorial of the purification
of the blessed Virgin Mary, made a sermon to the
people ; in which he spake much reproach of Bucer
and Phagius, and of their doctrine. He said, that these
men, and all the heretics of our time, among other
things which they had perniciously put into men's heads,
taught to put away all ceremonies. Whereas, notwith-
standing, the apostle himself commanded all things to be
done in due order. And at the purification of the blessed
Virgin Mary and Joseph, which was done by them as
upon that day ; it was manifestly apparent, that they
with our Saviour, being tlien a little babe, observed these
rites and ceremonies for catholic men to teach. For
(he said) they came to the temple at the same time with
wax candles in their hands, after the manner of pro-
cession in good order, with much reverence and devo-
tion, and yet we were not ashamed to laugh and mock at
these things with the heretics and schismatics.
As he was telling his tale of Christ, Mary, and Joseph,
one of them that heard him, a pleasant and merry fellow,
turning himself to him that stood next him ; said,
" and if it be true, what this man preaches, which of
them I pray you bare the cross before them ? for that
ought not be missing in such solemn ceremonies." Not
only this man jested at the preacher's folly, but others
also laughed at his preaching these vain and foolish
superstitions.
WTieu the pursivant returned, who was sent to
London with the commissioners' letter, he brought
with him a warrant for burning Bucer and Pha-
gius. Upon the receipt of which, they appointed the
sixth day of February for the accomplishment of
the matter. When the day was come, the commis-
sioners sent for the vice-chanceUor, and taking with
him Marshall, the common notary, he went first to St.
Michael's church, where Phagius was buried. There he
called forth Andrew Smith, Henry Sawyer, and Henry
Adams, men of the same parish, and bound them with
an oath, to dig up Phagius's bones, and to bring them to
the place of execution. INIarshall took their oaths, re-
ceiving the like of Roger Smith and William Hasell, the
town sergeants, and of John Caper, warden of the same
church, for doing the like with Bucer. Smith, the
mayor of the town, who should be their executioner,
(for it was not lawful for them to intermeddle in cases of
blood) commanded certain of his townsmen to wait upon
him in armour, by whom the dead bodies were guarded ;
and being bound with ropes, and laid upon men's shoul-
ders, (for they were inclosed in chests, Bucer in the
same that he was buried, and Phagius in a new one)
they were borne into the midst of the market, with a great
train of people following them.
This place, was prepared before, a great post was set fast
in the ground to bind the carcases to, and a great heap
of wood was laid ready to burn them with. So when
they came thither, the chests were set on end, with the
dead bodies in them, and fastened on both sides with
stakes, and bound to the post with a long iron chain, as
if they had been alive. Fire beinp forthwith put to.
936
THE BONES OF BUCER AND PHAGIUS BURNT.
[Book XIL
as soon as it began to flame round about, a great
numlier of books that were condemned with them were
cast into it.
Tliore was that day gathered into the town a great
multitude of country folk (for it was market day), who
seeing men carried to execution, and learning by inquiry
that they were dead before, jiartly detested and abhorred
the extreme cruelty of the commissioners towards the
rotten carcases, and partly laughed at their folly in
making such jn-epnrations. For what neeils any weapons,
or armed men? said they. As if they were afraid that
the dead bodies, which felt them not, would do them
some harm. Or to what purpose serves that chain
wherewith they are tied, since they might be burnt loose,
for it was not to be feared that they would run away .'
Thus, every body tha.t stood by found fault with the
rruelty of the deed, either sharply or else lightly, ac-
cording to their different dispositions.
Tliis was the last act of this interlude, and yet there
remained a few things to be done, among which was the
reconciling of two churches ; of Our Lady, and of St.
Michael, which had been interdicted before.
Tiiis was done the next day by the bishop of Chester,
with as much solemnity as the law retpiired. But that
breaden god, whom Bucer's carcase had chased from
thence, was not yet turned there again ; nor was it law-
ful for him to come there any more, unless he were
brought there with great solemnity : during all the time
of his absence, this god was entertained by the com-
missioners at Trinity College, and there continued as a
sojourner. For all the graduates of the university came
there on the 8th of February with gentleness and cour-
tesy to bring him home again. The bishop of Chester
took and carried him, clad in a long rochet, and a large
tippet of sarcenet about his neck, in which he wrapped
up his little idol of bread.
When this idol or consecrated host was to return
home, he went not the straightest and nearest way, as other
folks are wont to go, but he fetched a compass about
the most part of the town, and roamed through so many
of the streets, that it was an hour and more ere he could
find the way into this church again. I believe the
ancient Romans observed a custom not much unlike this
in their i)rocession, when they made supplications at the
shrines of all their gods. The order of this procession
was as follows ; the masters' regents went before, singing
with a loud voice, Salre feste dies, <S.c. Next followed
the bishop of Chester ; on each side of him went Orma-
iiet and his fellow commissioners, with the masters of the
colleges, bearing every man a long taper light in his
hand. After whom, a little space off, followed other
degrees of the university. Lastly, came the mayor and
his townsmen. Before them all went the beadles,
crying to such as they met, that they should bow them-
selves humbly before the host. If any refused to do so,
they threatened to send them forthwith to prison. Their
god being led with this pomp, and pacified with the
sacrifice of Bucer and Phagius, at length settled himself
again in his accustomed place ! Then the bishop of Ches-
ter prayc'l, that that day might be fortunate to himself,
and to all that were present that from that day forward
(now that God's wrath was appeased, and all other
things set in good order) all men should make them-
selves conformable to peace and quietness, namely, in
matters ajipertaining to religion. After this, they be-
stowed a few days in punishing such as they thought had
deserved it. Some they sus])ended from giving voices
either to their own preferment, or to the preferment of
any other. Some they forbade to have the charge of
pupils, lest they should infect the tender youth with
corru)>t doctrine and heresy, others they chastised wrong-
fully without any desert, and many a one they punished,
contrary to all right and reason.
Last of all they set forth certain statutes, by which
they would have the university hereafter ordered.
Wherein they enacted many things as concerning the
election of their officers of the university, of keeping
and administering the goods of the university, and of
many other things. But esjiecially they handled all
religious matters very circumspectly, in which they
were so scrupulous, that they filled all things either with
open blasphemy, or witli ridiculous superstition. For
they prescribed how many masses every man should
attend at, day by day, and how many paternosters and
avies every man should say when he should enter into
the church ; and in his entrance, after what sort he should
bow iiimself to the altar, and how to the master of the
house ; what he should do there, and how long he should
tarry ; how many, and what prayers he should say, wl)Tt,
and how he should sing, what medit:UiiMis others should
use while the priest is in his mementa, mumbling se-
cretly to himself, what time of the mass a man should
stand, and when he shculd jit down, when he should
make curtesy, when exclusively, when inclusively,
and many other superstitious ceremonii s they decreed,
that it was a sport then to behold their superstitions,
and were tedious now to recite them.
Within two years after all this mummery and wicked-
ness, {5od beholding us with mercy, called Queen Mary
out of this life, the 17th of November, A. D. 1.558.
After whom, her sister Elizabeth succeeded to the king-
dom, and revived again the true religion. Upon which,
as the church of Christ began by little and little to
flourish, so the memory of Bucer and Phagius (although
their bones were burnt by cardinal Poole), was restored
again by this godly Queen Elizabeth. On which occa-
sion. Master Ackworth, the orator of the university,
delivered a great oration, in which he speaks largely of
the holy life and godly teaching of Martin Bucer, and
the sorrow that was felt at his death, after which he
continued thus : —
" As long as the ardent love of his religion (wherewith
we were inflamed) flourished, it wrought in our hearts an
incredible desire of his presence among us. But after
the time that the godly man ceased to be any more in
our sight, and in our eyes, that ardent and burning love
of religion by little and little waxed cold in our minds,
and according to the times that came after (which were
both miserable, and to our utter undoing), it began not by
little and little to be darkened, but it altogether vanished
away, and turned into nothing. For we fell again into
the popish doctrine ; the old rites and customs of the
Romish church were restored again, not to the beautify-
ing of the christian religion, but to the utter defacing,
violating, and defiling of it. Death was set before the
eyes of such as persevered in the christian doctrine that
they had learned before. Those were banished the
realm who would not conform themselves to the time, and
do as other men did : such as remained, were forced
either to dissemble, or to hide themselves, and creep into
corners, or else as it were by drinking of the charmed
cup of Circe, to be turned and altered, not only from
the nature of man into the nature of brute beasts, but
far worse and much more monstrous, from the likeness
of God and his angels, into the likeness of devils. And
all England was infected with this malady. We, con-
forming ourselves to those most filthy times, have most
shamefully yielded, like faint- hearted cowards, who had
not the fortitude to sustain the adversities of poverty,
banishment, and death. Who, in our living and con-
versation, kept neither the constancy taught us by philo-
sophy, nor yet the patience taught us by the holy scri])-
tures, and who have done all things at the commandment
of others.
" As in every place there vras now executed some singu-
lar kind of cruelty, so that there was no sort of punish-
ment that could be devised, but it was put in use in one
place or other, this was proper or jieculiar to Cambridge,
to exercise the cruelty upon the dead, which in other
places was extended only to the living. Oxford burnt the
right reverend fathers, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer ;
the noble witnesses of the light of the gospel. More-
over, at London perished those two lanterns of light,
Rogers and Bradford. In whom it is hard to say,
whether there were more force of eloquence and iitter-
ance in preaching, or more holiness of life and conversa-
tion. Many others without number, both there and in
other places were consumed to ashes for bearing record
to the truth. For what city is there that hath not
flamed, I say, not with burning of houses and buildings
A.T>. 1557.]
THE ORATION OF MASTER ACWORTH IN CAMBRIDGE, &c.
but with burning of holy bodies ? But Cambridge, after
there were no more left alive upon whom they might
vomit out their bitter poison, played the mad Bedlam
against the dead. The dead men, who, when alive, no
man was able to find fault with, whose doctrine no man
was able to reprove, were by false slanderous accusers
indicted, contrary to the laws of God and man. sued in
the law, condemned, their sepulchres violated and broken
up, and their carcases pulled out and burnt with fire
A thing surely incredible, if we had not seen it with our
eyes, and a thing that hath not lightly been heard of.
But the heinousness of this wicked act was spread abroad
as a common talk in every man's mouth, not onlv in
England, but through all Christendom. Bucer, by the
excellency of his wisdom and doctrine, was well known
to all men, of our countrymen in a manner besought,
of many others intreated and sent for, to the intent he
might instruct our Cambridge men in the sincere doc-
trine of the christian religion ; being spent with age, and
his strength utterly decayed, forsook his own country,
refused not the tediousness of that long journey, was not
afraid to adventure himself upon the sea, but had more
regard for the enlarging of the church of Christ, than of
all other things. So in conclusion he came, every man
received and welcomed him : afterward he lived in such
wise, as it might appear he came not hither for his own
sake, but for ours. For he sought not to drive away the
sickness that he had taken by troublesome travel of his
long journey : and although his strength were weakened
and apj)alled, yet he regarded not the recovery of his
health, but put himself to immoderate labour and into-
lerable pain, only to teach and instruct us. And to-
wards this so noble and worthy a person, while he lived,
were shewed all the tokens of humanity and gentleness,
reverence and courtesy that could be ; but when he was
dead, the most horrible cruelty that can be imagined.
For what can be so commendable, as to grant unto the
living, house and abiding place, and to the dead, burial ?
Or who is he that will find in his heart to give entertain-
ment, and to cherish that person in his house with all
kind of gentleness that he can devise, upon whom he
could not vouchsafe to bestow burial when he is dead ?
Again, what an inconstancy is it, with great oolemnity,
and with much adv cement and commendation of his
virtues, to bury a man honourably, and soon after to
break up his tomb, and pull him out spitefully, and
wrongfully to slander him being dead, who during his
life time always deserved praise .' All these things have
happened unto Bucer, who, whilst he lived, had free
access into the most gorgeous buildings and stately
palaces of the greatest princes, and when he was dead,
could not be suffered to enjoy so much as his poor grave.
Who being laid in the ground nobly, to his eternal fame,
was afterwards, to his utter defacing, spitefully taken up
and burned. Which things, although they did no harm
to the dead (for the dead carcases feel not pain, neither
doth the fame of godly persons depend upon the report
of vulgar people, and the light rumours of men, but
upon the rightful censure and just judgment of God)
yet it sheweth the extreme cruelty and insatiable desire
of revenge, in them who offer such utter wrong to the
dead. These persons therefore, whom they have pulled
out of their graves and burned, I believe (if they had
been alive) they would have cast out of house and home,
they would have driven out of all men's company, and in
the end with most cruel torments have torn them in
pieces, being nevertheless strangers and aliens, and being
also brought hither by us out of such a country, where,
they not only needed not to fear any punishment, but
contrariwise were always had in much reputation, as
well among the noble and honourable, as also among the
vulgar and common people. But yet how much more
gentle than these men was Bishop Gardiner, otherwise
an earnest defender of the popish doctrine ? who against
his own countrymen, let pass no cruelty whereby he
might extinguish with fire and sword the light of the
gospel : and yet he spared foreigners, because the right
of tlieui is so holy, that there was never nation so bar-
barous, that would violate the same. For when he had
in his power the renowned clerk, Peter Martyr, then
teaching at Oxford, he would not keep him to punish
him, but (as I have heard reported) when he wished to
go away, he gave him wherewith to bear his charges.
So that the thing which he thought he might of ri ;lit do
to his countrymen, he judged unlawful to do to strangers.
And though the law of God could not withhold him from
the wicked murdering of his own countrymen, yet did the
law of man bridle him from killing of stranger.^, which
hath ever appeased the most barbarous, and mitigited all
cruelty. Wherefore this cruelty hath far surmounted
cruelty of all others, which, to satisfy the insatiable
greediness thereof, drew to execution not only strangers,
brought hither at our entreaty and sending for, but even
the withered and rotten carcases digged out of their
graves ; to the intent that the immeasurable tiiirst which
could not be quenched with shedding the blood of them
that were alive, might at the least be satisfied in burning
of dead men's bones. These, my brethren, these, I say,
are the just causes which have so sore provoked tlie
wrath of God against us, because that in doing extreme
injury to the dead we have been prone and ready ; but in
putting the same away, we have been slow and back-
ward. For verily I believe, if 1 may have libertv to say
freely what I think, (ye shall bear with me, if l" chance
to speak any thing unadvisedly in the heat and hastv
discourse of my oration) that even this place, in which
we have so often assembled, being defiled with that new
kind of wickedness, such as man never heard of before,
is a hindrance unto us, when we call for the he!]) of God,
by means whereof our prayers are not accepted, which
we make to appease the Godhead, and to win him to be
favourable to us again.
" The blood of Abel shed by Cain, calh th and crieth
from the earth that sucked it up : likewise, the unde-
served burning of these bodies, calleth upon Almighty
God to punish us, and crieth, that not only the authors
of so great a wicktcfness, but also the ministers thereof
are impure, the places defiled, in which these things were
perpetrated, the air infected which we take into our
bodies, to the intent that by sundry diseases and sick
nf;.s.ses we may receive punishment for so execrable
wickedness."
T\'Tien Acworth, after much more godly exhortation
had made an end of his oration, Master James Pilking.
ton the queen's reader of the divinity lecture, going up
into the pulpit, made a sermon also, in which he enlarged
upon the long continued cruelties and persecutions by
the popes of Rome, and said, " In the condemnation
of Bucer and Phagius, they used too much cruelty, and
too much violence. For howsoever it went with the doc-
trine of Bucer, certainly they could find nothing whereof
to accuse Phagius, inasmuch as he wrote nothing that
came abroad, saving a few things that he had translated
out of the Hebrew and Chaldee tongues into Latin.
After his coming into the realm he never read, he never
disputed, he never preached, he never taught ; for he
died soon after, so that he could in that time give no
occasion for his adversaries to take hold on, whereby to
accuse him whom they never heard speak. In that they
hated Bucer so deadly, for the allowable marriage of the
clergy, it was their own malice conceived against him,
and a very slander raised by themselves. For he had
for his defence in that matter, (over and besides other
helps) the testimony of pope Pius 11., who in a certain
place saith, that upon weighty considerations, priests'
wives were taken from them, but for more weighty causes
were to be restored again. And also the statute of the
emperor, called the ' Interim,' by which it is enacted,
that such of the clergy as were married, shoukl not be
divorced from their wives.''
An Account of the conduct of the Papists towards Peter
Martyr's Wife at Ojford, taken vp from her yi ave,
and buried in a dunghill.
And that the one university should not mock the
other, similar cruelty was displayed upon the dead body
of Peter Martyr's wife, at Oxford, who was an hcnest,
grave, and sober matron, while she lived, and always a
938
PROCEEDINGS IN OXFORD AGAINST PETER MARTYR'S WIFE. [Book XII.
great helper of poor people. In the year 1552, she
departed this life, to the great sorrow of all those needy
persons, whose necessities she had often liberally relieved.
Now, when Brooks, bishop of Gloucester, Nicholas
Ormanet, datary ; Robert Morwen, president of Corpus
Christi College ; and Cole and Wright, doctors of the civil
law, came there as the cardinal's visitors, they among
other things had in commission to take up this good
woman again out of her grave, and to consume her car-
case with lire; not doubting but that she was of the same
religion that her husband had professed, when he read
the king's lecture there. And to make a shew that tliey
would do nothing disorderly, tliey called all those before
them that had any acquaintance with her or her husband.
They udmiiiistered an oath to them, that they should not
conceal whatever was demanded. In short, their answer
was, that they knew not what religion she was of, as they
understood not her language, being a German.
After these visitors had concluded the business they
came for, they went to the cardinal again, certifying him
that upon due inquisition made, they could learn nothing
upon which by the law they might burn her. Notwith-
standing, the cardinal did not leave the matter so, but
wrote his letters a good while after to Marshall, then
deau of Frideswide's, that he should dig her up, and lay
her out of christian burial, because she was interred nigh
to St. Frideswide's relics, had in great reverence in that
college. Doctor Marshall, calling his men witli spades
and mattocks together in the evening, caused her to be
taken up and buried in a dunghill.
However, when it pleased God under good Queen
Elizabeth, to give quietness to his church, which had
been so long persecuted ; then Doctor Parker, arch-
bishop of Canterbury ; Edmund Grindall, bishop of
London ; and Richard Goodrick, with others, her ma-
jesty's high commissioners in matters of religion, not
ignorant how far the adversaries of the truth had trans-
gressed the bounds of all humanity, in violating the
sepulchre or grave of that good and virtuous woman,
commanded certain of that college, in whicli this spiteful
deed was done, to take her out of that place wliere she
lay, and solemnly in the face of the whole town to bury
her again in a more decent monument. For though the
body being once dead, no great estimation were to be
had, how or where the bones were laid ; yet, was some
reverence to be used toward her for womanhood sake.
Besides, to say the truth, it was a great shame, that he j
who liad travelled so far at king Edward's request, from I
the place wherein he dwelt quietly, and had taken such
great pains, being an old man, in reading and setting
forth the truth all he could, with learning to teach and
instruct, and so well deserved of that university, should
be so rewarded as to have his wife laid in a dunghill ;
who though treated with such ingratitude was a godly wo-
man, a stranger, good to many, especially to the poor,
and hurtful to none, either in word or deed, without
ju.st deserving, and contrary to their own law.
To all good natures the act seemed odious, and by such
as were endued with humanity utterly to be abhorred.
Wherefore, Master Caltield, then sub-dean of the col-
lege, diligently provided, that from the dunghill she was
restored to her proper place again, yea, and he mixed
her with Frideswide's bones, that in case any cardinal
should be so mad hereafter to remove this woman's
bones again, it shall be hard for them to discern the
bones of her from the other.
And thus much touching the acts of this cardinal in
both universities ; to which it shall not be impertinent
here to adjoin the articles set out by him to be inquired
U[)on within his diocese of Canterbury, by which it may
the better appear, what yokes of fruitless traditions were
laid upon tiie poor flock of Christ, to entangle and
oppress them with loss of life and liberty. We omit
those that were concerning the clergy as too long, and
the following, which refer to the laity, will suffice to shew
the nature of this visitation. The following were to be
enquired into : —
Whether any manner of person, of what estate,
degree, or condition soever he be, do hold, maintain,
or affirm any heresies, errors, or erroneous opinions.
contrary to the laws ecclesiastical, and the unity of the
catholic church.
Whether any person do hold, affirm, or say, that in
the blessed sacrament of the altar, there is "not con-
tained the real and substantial presence of Christ ; or
by any manner of means do contemn and despise the
said blessed sacrament, or do refuse to do reverence
or worship thereunto.
Whether they do contemn or des])ise by any manner
of means any other of the sacraments, rites, or ceri--
monies of the church, or do refuse or deny auricular
confession.
Whether any do absent or refrain without urgent and
lawful impediment to come to the church, and reverently
to hear the divine service upon Sundays and holydays.
Whether being in the church, they do not u])ply them-
selves to hear the divine service, and to be contemplative
in holy prayer, and not to walk, jangle, or talk in the
time of divine service.
Whether the churches are sufficiently garnished and
adorned with all oranments and books necessary, and
whether they have a cross in their church of a decent
stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron
of the same cliurch.
Whether in the time of Easter last, any were not
confessed, or did not receive the blessed sacrament of
tlie altar, or did irreverently behave themselves in the
receiving thereof.
Whether any do keep any secret conventicles, preach-
ings, lectures, or readings in matters of religion, con-
trary to the laws.
Whether any do now not duly keep the fasting and
ember days.
Whether the altars in the churches are consecrated, or
not.
Whether the sicrament is carried devoutly to them
that fall sick, with light, and with a little sacring bell.
Whether there is a lamp or a candle burning before
the sacrament. And if there is not, that then it be pro-
vided for with expedition.
Whether any do keep, or have in their custody any
erroneous or unlavvful books.
Whether any have or do despise, or contemn the au-
tliority or jurisdiction of the pope's holiness, or the see
of Rome.
Ten Martyrs burned in the Diocese of Canterbury.
Mention was made a little before of the persecution in
Kent ; where we declared, that fifteen persons were con-
demned and im)>risoned in the castle of Canterbury, for
God's word. Of which fifteen, we shewed five to have
been famished to death in the castle, and buried in the
highway, about the beginning of November. The other
ten, in the month of January, which was 1557, were
committed to the fire, and there consumed to ashes, by
Thornton, called bishop or suffragan of Dover, and by
Nicholas Harpsfield, the arch-deacon of the province.
The names of these ten godly and christian martyrs
are these : —
John Philpot, of Tenterden ; William Waterer, of Bed-
dingden ; Stephen Kempe, of Norgate; William Hay, of
Hitlie ; Thomas Hudson, of Salenge ; Matt. Bradbridge,
of Tenterden ; Thomas Stevens, of Beddingden ; Nich.
Final, of Tenderden ; William Lowick, of Cranbroke ;
and Wm. Prowting, of Thornham.
Of these ten, six were burned at Canterbury, about the
15th of January. Two others at Wye, about the same
month : and two more were burned at Ashford, on the
l(Jth of January.
To the articles objected to them, they all agreed to-
gether in their answers, though not in the same form of
words, yet in effect : first granting the church of Christ,
and denying the church of Rome ; denying the seven sa-
craments ; refusing the mass, and the hearing of Latin
service ; praying to saints ; justification by works, &c.
The month following, which was February, came out
another commission from the king and queen, to kindle
up the fire of persecution, as though it were not hot
enough already ; the contents of which commissioa I
A.D. 1557.]
TWENTY-TWO PERSONS APPREHENDED AT COLCHESTER.
£39
thought propernot to omit: not for lack of matter, whereof
I have too much ; but that the reader may understand
how kings and princes of this world, as in the first per-
secutions of the primitive church under Valerian, Decius,
IMa.ximin, Dioclesian, Licinius, Ike, so now also in
these latter perilous days, have set out all their main
force and power, with laws, policy, and authority to the
uttermost they could devise against Christ and his blessed
gospel. And yet notwithstanding all these laws, consti-
tutions, injunctions, and terrible proclamations provided
against Christ and his gospel, Christ still continues,
his gospel flourishes, and truth prevails ; kings and em-
perors in their own purposes overthrown^ their devises
dissolved, their councils confounded ; as examples both
of this and of all times and ages make manifest. But
now let us hear the intent of this commission, as fol-
lows : —
A Commission given forth hy King Philip and Queen
Mary, to persecute the poor Members of Christ.
" Philip and Mary, by the grace of God king and
queen of England, &c. To the right reverend father in
God, our right trusty and well-beloved counsellor,
Thomas, bishop of Ely, &c. &c.
" Forasmuch as divers devilish and slanderous persons,
have not only invented and set forth many false rumours,
tales, and seditious slanders against us, but also have
sown many heresies and heretical opinions, and set forth
many seditious books within this our realm of England,
meaning thereby to stir up division, strife, contention,
and sedition, not only amongst our loving subjects, but
also betwixt us and our said subjects, with various other
outrageous misdemeanours, enormities, contempts, and
offences, daily committed and done, to the disquieting of
Us and our people, we, minding the due punishment of
such oftenders, and the repressing of such like offences,
enormities, and misbehaviours from henceforth, having
special trust and confidence in your fidelity, wisdom,
and discretion, have authorised, appointed, and as-
' signed you to be our commissioners, and by these pre-
sents do give full power and authority unto you, and
three of you, to inquire as well by the oaths of twelve
good and lawful men, as by witnesses and all other
means and politic ways you can devise, of all and singu-
lar heretical opinions, loUardies, heretical and seditious
books, concealments, contempts, conspiracies, and all
false rumours, tales, seditious and slanderous words or
sayings, raised, published, invented, or set forth against
us, or either of us, or against the quiet governance and
rule of our people and subjects, by books, lies, tales,
or otherwise, in any county, key, bowing, or other place
or places, within this our realm of England, or else-
where, in any place or places beyond the seas, and of the
bringers in, utterers, buyers, sellers, readers, keepers, or
conveyors of any such letter, book, rumour, and tale,
and of all and every their coadjutors, counsellors, com-
forters, procurers, abettors, and maintainers, giving unto
you and three of you, full power and authority by virtue
hereof, to search out and take into your hands and pos-
sessions, all manner of heretical and seditious books,
letters, and writings, wheresoever they or any of them
shall be found, as well in printers' houses and shops, as
elsewhere, willing you, and every of you, to search for
the same in all places according to your discretions.
"And also to inquire, hear, and determine all and
singular enormities, disturbances, misbehaviours, and
negligences committed in any church, chapel, or other
hallowed place within this realm, and also for and con-
cerning the taking away or withholding any lands, tene-
ments, goods, ornaments, stocks of money, or other
things belonging to any of the same churches and
chapels, and all accounts and reckonings concerning the
same.
" And also to inquire and search out all such persons
as obstinately do refuse to receive the blessed sacrament
of the altar, to hear mass, or to come to their jiarish
churches, or other convenient places appointed for divine
Bervice, and all such as refuse to go on procession, to
take holy bread, or holy water, or otherwise do misuse
themselves in any church or other hallowed place, where-
soever any of the same offences have been, or hereafter
shall be committed within this our said realm.
" Nevertheless, our will and pleasure is, that when,
and as often as any person or persons, hereafter being
called or brought before you, do obstinately persist, or
stand in any matter of heresy, or heretical opinion, that
then ye, or three of you do immediately take order, that
the same person or persons, so standing or persisting, be
delivered and committed to his ordinary, there to be used
according to tlie spiritual and ecclesiastical laws.
" And also v>e give unto you, or tliree of you, full
power and authority, to inquire and search out all vaga-
bonds, and masterless men, barettors, quarrellors, and
suspected persons, abiding within our city of London,
and ten miles compass of the same, and all assaults and
affrays done and committed within the same city and
comjiass.
" And farther, to search out all wastes, decays, and
ruins of churches, chancels, chapels, parsonages, and vi-
carages in the diocese of the same, being within this
realm, giving you and every of you full power and au-
thority by virtue hereof, to hear and determine the same,
and all other offences and matters above specified and
rehearsed, according to your wisdom, consciences, and
discretion, willing and commanding you, or tliree of you,
from time to time, to use and devise all sucli politic ways
and means, for the trial and searching out of the pre-
mises, as by you, or three of you. shall be thought most
expedient and necessary : and upon inquiry and due
proof had, known, perceived, and tried out, by the con-
fession of the parties, or by sufficient witnesses before
you, or three of you, concerning the premises or any
part thereof, or by any other ways or means requisite, to
give and award such ])unishment to the offenders, by fine,
imprisonment, or otherwise, and to take such order for
redress and reformation of the premises, as to your wis-
doms, or three of you, shall be thought meet and conve-
nient.
" Further willing and commanding you, and every
three of you, in case you shall find any person or per-
sons obstinate or disobedient, either in their appearance
before you, or three of you, at your calling or assign-
ment, or else in not accomplishing, or not obeying your
decrees, orders, and commandments in any thing or
things, touching the premises or any part thereof, to
commit the same j)erson or persons so offending to
ward, there to remain, till by you or three of you, he be
discharged or delivered, &c. And so forth with other
such like matter, as followeth : —
The Apprehensioti of tivo-and-ftcenty Prisoners at Col-
chester.
After this tyrannical proclamation or commission thus
given out at Loudon, whicli was on the 8th February, in
the third and fourth years of the king and queen's reign,
these new inquisitors, especially some of them, began to
take upon them not a little ; so that all quarters were
full of persecution, and prisons almost full of prisoners,
in the diocese of Canterbury.
In the meantime, about Colchester, the wind of perse-
cution began fiercely to rise ; so that three-and-twenty
together, men and women, were apprehended at one
time ; of which twenty-three, one escaped : the other
twenty-two were driven up like a flock of Christian
lambs to London, with two or three leaders with them at
most, ready to give their skins to be plucked off for the
gospel's sake. Notwithstanding the bishops, fearing to
put so many at once to death, sought means to deliver
them, and so they did, drawing out a very easy submis-
sion for them, or rather suffering them to draw it out
themselves ; notwithstanding which, several of them
afterward were taken again, and suffered, as hereafter ye
shall hear. Such as met them by the way coming up,
saw them in the fields, separated in such a manner, as
that they might easilv have escaped. And when they
entered into the towns, their keepers called them again
into array, to go two and two together, having a band or
#40
LETTER FROM BISHOP BONNER TO CARDINAL POOLE.
[Book XII.
line going between them, they holding it in their hands,
having another cord every one about his arm, as though
they were tied. And so were these fourteen men and
eight women carried up to London, the people by the
■way praying to God for them, to give them strength. At
their entering into London, they were pinioned, and so
came into the city.
The twenty-two prisoners thus sent from Colchester to
London, were brought at length to bishop Bonner. As
to tlie order and manner of their coming and bringing,
Bonner himself writes to Cardinal Pole as follows : —
" May it please your good grace, with my most humble
obedience, reverence, and duty, to understand, that
going to London on Thursday last, and thinking to be
troubled with Master Germaine's matter only, and such
other common matters as are accustomed, enough to
weary a right strong body, I had the day following to
comfort my heart with letters from Colchester, that either
that day, or the day following, I should have sent thence
twenty-two heretics, indicted before the commissioners,
and indeed so I had, and compelled to bear their charges
as I did of the other, which both stood me above twenty
nobles, a sum of money that I thought full evil bestowed.
And these heretics, notwithstanding they had honest
catholic keepers to conduct and bring them up to me,
and all the way from Colchester to Stratford-le-Bow did
go quietly and obediently, yet coming to Stratford they
began to take great liberty, and to do as pleased them-
selves, for they began to have their own guard, which
generally increased till they came to Aldgate, where
they were lodged on Friday night.
" And although I gave order that the said heretics should
be with me very early on Saturday morning, to the in-
tent they might quietly come and be examined by me, yet
it was between ten and "eleven o'clock before they would
come, p.nd no way would they take, but through Cheap-
side, so that they were brought to my house with about
a thousand persons. Which I took very strange, and
epoke to Sir John Gresham to tell the mayor and the
sheriffs that this thing was not well suffered in the city.
These naughty heretics, all the way they came through
Cheapside, both exhorted the people to take their part,
and had much comfort from the crowd, and being entered
into my house, and talked with, they shewed themselves
desjierate, and very obstinate ; yet I used all the honest
means I could to win them, causing some learned men
to talk with them ; finding, however, nothing in them
but pride and wilfulness. I thought to have had them all
to Fulham, and there to give sentence against them.
Nevertheless, perceiving by my last doing that your
grace was offended, I thought it my duty before I further
proceeded, to advertise your grace, and know your good
pleasure, which I beseech your grace I may do by this
trusty bearer. And thus most humbly I take my leave
of your good grace, beseeching Almighty God always to
preserve the same. At Fulham, December 26th, \[^r>6.
" Your grace's most bounden bedesman and servant,
"Edmund Bonner."
By this letter of Bishop Bonner's to the cardinal,
is to be understood, what good will was in this bishop to
have the blood of these men, and to have passed sen-
tence of condemnation against them, had not the
cardinal somewhat, a.s it seemed, stayed his cruelty. Con-
cerning the cardinal, although it cannot be denied by his
acts and writings, but that he was a professed enemy,
and no otherwise than a papist ; yet, again, he was none
of the bloody and cruel sort of papists, as may appear,
not only by staying the rage of this bishop, but also by
his letters written to Cranmer ; also by the complaints
of some papists accusing him to the pope, as the tole-
rator of the heretics, and by the pope's letters sent to
him, calling him up to Rome, and setting Friar Peto in
his place, had not Queen Mary by special entreaty, kept
him out of the pope's power ; and besides also, it is thoup;ht
of him that towards his latter end, a little before his
coming from Rome to England, he began somewhat to
favour the doctrine of Luther, and was no less suspected
at Rome. Yea, and furthermore, did there at Rome
convert a certain learned Spaniard from pojiery to
Luther's side ; notwithstanding the pomp and glory of
the world afterwards carried him away to play tlie papist
thus as he did. But to return to our account of this godly
company again. As to their confession, which they sent
up in writing, it were too tedious to recite the whole.
Briefly touching the article of the Lord's Supper, for
which they were chiefly troubled, they thus wrote :
The Supper of the Lord.
" ^^"llereas Christ at his last supper, took bread, and
when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his
disciples, and said, ' Take, eat, this is my body.' And
' likewise took the cup,' Ike. We understand it to be a
figurative speech, as the most part of his language was
in parables and dark sentences, that they who are carnally
minded, should see with their eyes, and not perceive ;
and hear with their ears, and not understand ; signifying
this, that as he did break the bread among them, being
but one loaf, and they were all partakers thereof, so we
through his body, in that it was broken, and offered upon
the cross for us, are all partakers thereof, and his blood
cleanseth us from all our sins, and hath pacified God's
wrath towards us, and made the atonement between
God and us, if we walk henceforth in the light, even as
he is the true light.
" And in that he said further, ' Do this in remem-
brance of me,' it is a memorial and token of the suffering
and death of Jesus Christ ; and he commandeth it for
this cause, that the congregation of Christ should come
together to shew his death, and to thank and laud him
for all his benefits, and magnify his holy name, and so
to break the bread, and drink the wine, in remembrance
that Christ hath given his body, and shed his blood
for us.
" Thus you may well perceive, though Christ called
the bread his body, and the wine his blood, yet it fol-
lows not, that the substance of his body should be in
the bread and wine ; as many places in scripture are
spoken by Christ and the apostles, in like phrase of
speech, as in John xv. ' I am the true vine.' Also in
John X. 'I am the door.' And as it is written in the
ninth to the Hebrews, and in Exodus xxiv., how Moses
took the blood of the calves, and sprinkled both the book
and all the people, saying, ' This is the blood of the co-
venant or testament.' And also in the fifth chapter of
Ezekiel, how the Lord said unto him concerning the
third part of his hair, saying, ' This is Jerusalem, &c.'
" Thus we see the Scriptures, how they are spoken in
figures, and ought to be spiritually examined, and not as
they would have us to say, that the bodily presence of
Christ is in the bread, which is a blasphemous under-
standing of the godly word, and is contrary to all holy
Scriptures. Also we see that great idolatry is sprung out
of the carnal understanding of the words of Christ, 'This
is my body ;' and yet daily springs up, to the great dis-
honour of God ; so that men worship a piece of bread
for God, yea, and hold that to be their maker."
After this confession of their faith and doctrine being
written and exhibited, they also devised a letter in the
form of a short sujiplication, or rather an admonition to
the judges and commissioners, requiring that justice and
judgment, after the rule of God's word, might be minis-
tered unto them.
But though the request of these men was so just, and
their doctrine so sound, yet all this could not prevail with
the bishop and other judijes, but that sentence should have
proceeded against them iinmediateJy, had not the goodness
ofthe Lord better provided for his servants, thanthebishop
had intended. For as they were now under the edge of
the axe, ready to be condemned by sentence, it was
thought otherwise by the cardinal, and some other wiser
heads ; fearing lest by the death of so many together,
some disturbance might arise among the people, and so
it was decreed among themselves, that they should rather
make some submission or confession, and so be sent
home again.
A.r. i.'io/-.]
PERSECUTION IN THE DIOCESE OF LONDON.
941
Five Godly Martyrs burned in Smitfifield.
To proceed further in this history of persecuted mar-
tyrs, next in order follow, five others burned at London,
i,n Sniitlifield, April 12th, 1.5.57, namely, Thomas
Loseby; Henry Ramsey; Thomas Thirtel ; Margaret
Hide ; and Agnes Stanley.
Who being apprehended for not coming to their parish
churches, were sent to Bonner, bishop of London, and
by his command on the 2'th of January, were examined
before Doctor Darbishire, then chancellor to the bishop,
upon the usual articles.
Their answers were, that as they confessed there was
one true and catholic church, in which they steadfastly
believed, and thought that the church of Rome was no
part or member of it ; so in the church they believe there
were but two sacraments, that is to say, baptism, and the
supper of the Lord. Moreover, they acknowledged
themselves to be baptised into the faith of that true
church. And here all men should mark the subtlety of
these popish divines, who intermixing certain points of
faith, and of the true church with the idolatrous and
superstitious mummery of their Romish synagogue, cause
the poor and simple people, for lack of knowledge, often
to fall into their crafty nets. For after they have made
them grant a true church, with the sacraments, though
not in such number as they would have them, and also,
that they were baptised into the faith of the church, that
is, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, they craftily descend from the faith of the
Trinity, to their idolatrous mass, and other superstitious
ceremonies, and would make them grant, that now in
denying these they have severed themselves from the
faith of the true church, into which they were baptised ;
which is most false. For though the true light of God's
gospel and holy word was marvellously darkened, and
in a manner utterly extinguished : yet the true faith of
the Trinity, by the merciful providence of God, was still
preserved, and into the faith of it were we baptised, and
not into the belief and profession of their idolatry and
vain ceremonies.
These things not being thoroughly weighed by these
poor, yet faithful, and true members of Christ, caused
some of them ignorantly to grant, that when they came
to the years of discretion, and understood the light of
the gospel, they did separate themselves from the faith
of the church, meaning none other, but only to separate
themselves from the popisli and erroneous trash which
now defiled the church of Christ, and not from their
faith received in baptism, which in express words in
their answerf ,o the other articles, they constantly
affirmed, declaring the mass and sacrament of the altar,
to be most wicked blasphemy against Christ Jesus, and
contrary to the truth of his gospel ; and therefore they
refused to assent and to be reconciled to it again.
These answers being taken by the chancellor, they
were for that time dismissed ; but the bishop, taking the
matter into his own hands, on the 6th of March, pro-
pounded to them other new articles : to which they all
answered severally, with faithfulness to the truth.
After this, on the 1st of April, they were again
brouglit before the bishop in his palace at London,
where little appears to have been done, except to know
whether they would stand to their answers, and whether
they would recant or not. But when they refused to
recant, the bishop caused them to be brought into the
open consistory, on the 8rd of April, where seeing their
constancy and steadfastness, he demanded particularly of
every one what they had to say, why he should not
pronounce the sentence of condemnation.
Thomas Loseby first answered, " God give me grace
and strength to stand against you, and your sentence, and
also against your law, which is a devouring law, for it
devours the flock of OSrist. And I perceive there is
no way with me but death, except I would consent to
your law, and believe in that idol the mass.''
Next answered Thomas Thirtel, saying, " My lord, I
say thus, if you make me a heretic, then you make
Christ and all the twelve apostles heretics : for I am in
the true faith and right belief, and I will stand in it>
for I know full well I shall have eternal life."
Henry Ramsey, said, " My lord, will you havi me
to go from the truth ? I say unto you, that my opinions
are the very truth, which I will stand to, and not go
from them ; and I say unto you further, that there are
two churches upon the earth, and we (meaning himself
and other true martyrs and professors of Christ) are of
the true church, and ye be not."
Margaret Hide, answered saying, " My lord, you
have no cause to give sentence against me : for 1 am in
the true faith and opinion, and will never forsake it ;
and I do wish that I were more strong in it than 1 am."
Last of all answered Agnes Stanley, and said, " I had
rather every hair of my head were burned, if it were
never so much worth, than that I should forsake my
faith and opinion, which is the true faith."
The time being now spent, they were commanded to
appear again in the afternoon in the same place : which
commandment being obeyed, the bishop first called for
Loseby, and after his accustomed manner conimanded
his articJes and answers to be read : in reading thereof,
when mention was made of the sacrament of the altar,
the bishop with his colleagues put off their capr. ; at
which Loseby said, " My lord, seeing you put off your
cap, I will put on my cap," which he accordingly did.
And afterwards, the bishop continuing in his accustomed
persuasions, Loseby said to him, " ]\Iy lord, I trust I
have the spirit of truth, which you detest and abhor, for
the wisdom of God is foolishness unto you.'' Then the
bishop pronounced the sentence of condemnation against
him ; and delivering liim to the sheriff, called for
Margaret Hide. She said," I will not depart from my say-
ings till I be burned : <?-nd my lord, I would see you instruct
me in some part of God's word, and not to give me
instructions about the holy bread and holy water, for it
is no part of the scripture." But he, to make short
w'ork, used his final reason, which was the sentence of
condemnation. Andtherefore putting her aside, called .'"or
Agnes Stanley, who, upon the bishop's like persuasions,
made this answer. " My lord, where you say I am
a heretic, I am none ; neither yet will I believe you,
nor any man that is wise will believe as you do. And
as for these that ye say are burnt for heresy, I believe
they are true martyrs before God : therefore I will not go
from my opinion and faith, as long as I live." She then
received the like sentence that the other had. And the
bishop then turning to Thomas Thirtell, received of him
likewise this final answer : " My lord, I will not hold
with your idolatrous ways, for I say, the mass is idolatry,
and will adhere to my faith and belief, so long as the
breath is in my body." Upon which words he was alsc-
condemned as a heretic. Last of all, was Henry
Ramsey demanded if he would stand to his answers, or
else recanting the same, come home again, and be a mem-
ber of their church. He answered, " I will not go from
my religion and belief as long as I live ; and my lord,
your doctrine is wrong, for it is not agreeable to God's
word.'' After these words, the bishop pronounced the
sentence of condemnation against him and the rest, and
charged the sheriffs of London with them : who being
thereunto commanded, on the r2th of April, brought
them into Smithfield, where, in one fire, they all most
joyfully and constantly ended their temporal lives, reci;iv-
ing the life eternal.
Three burned in Saint George' s-fields, in SotithuarJi.
After these, in the month of IMay followed tliree
others that suffered in St. George's- field, in Southwark ;
namely jWilliamMorant, Stephen Gratwick, and one King.
Among other histories of the persecuted and con-
demned saints of God, I find the condemnation of none
more strange nor unlawful than of this Stephen Gratwick;
for, first, he was condemned by the bishop of Winches-
ter, and the bishop of Rochester, who were not his ordi-
naries. 2. When he appealed from these incompetent
judges to his right ordinary, his appeal was not admitted.
3. When they had no other way to colour their proceed-
ings with, they suborned one of the priests to come in
942
THE EXAMINATION OF STEPHEN GRATWICK.
[Book XII.
for a counterfeit and a false ordinary, and sit upon him.
4. Being openly convinced and overturned in his own
arguments, yet the bishop of Winchester, Doctor White,
neither would yield to the force of truth, nor suffer any
of the audience once to say, ' God strengthen him.' 5.
As they brought in a false ordinary to sit upon him ; so
they pretended false articles against him, which were no
part of his examinations, but of iheir devising, to have
his blood. 6. And lastly, having no other ground nor
just matters against him, but only for saying these words ;
' Thac wliich I said, I have said,' they read the sentence
of death upon him.
And this was the dealing of these men, who would be
reputed for catholic fathers of the spiritualty, successors
of tlie a])ostIes, disciples of Christ, piUars of the holy
cliurch, and leaders of the people. Of whose doings
and proceedings, whether they were conformable to the
example of Christ and his apostles, I leave others to dis-
cuss, referring the decision to those who know the insti-
tution of Christ's religion and doctrine.
The account of this matter is written by Stephen
Gratwick himself, as follows.
" On the 2>5th of May, 1557, I came before the bishop
of Winchester, into St. George's church in Southwark,
and then he called me before him, and said :
" ' How standeth the matter with thee now ? Art
thou contented to revoke thy heresies, which thou
hast maintained and defended here within my dio-
cese ? and also upon Sunday last ye stood up in the
face of the whole church maintaining your heresies, so
that you have offended within my diocese ; and now
being your ordinary, you must answer to me directly,
whether you will revoke them or not ?'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, these articles which you have
objected against me, are not mine, but of your own mak-
ing, and therefore these are objections you lay against
me as snares to get my blood. Wherefore I desire you
to allow my lawful appeal to mine own ordinary ; for I
have nothing to do with you. And where you charge
me, that 1 have offended within your diocese, it is not
so : I have not attempted either to preach or teach with-
in your diocese, for I was apprehended by mine own
bishop, and sent prisoner into your diocese, by the con-
sent of the council and mine own ordinary, and therefore
you have no cause to prevent my lawful appeal.'
" And with that, in came the bishop of Rochester,
who was received by the bishop of Winchester with much
gladness. And next followed the archdeacon of Can-
terbury.
" Winchester. — ' Sir, I am very glad of your coming.
I or here I have one before me, who has appealed to you,
being his ordinary.'
" Archdeacon Canterbury. — ' I know this man very
■well. He has been several times before me.'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, I am not of his diocese, not
by five miles : I dwell in the diocese of the bishop of
Chichester ; and therefore I am not of his diocese.'
" Then the bishop of Winchester, the bishop of
Rochester, and the archdeacon of Canterbury, consulted
together, and laughed : and they said, ' my ordinary
would be here by and by,' they then sent for a counter-
feit instead of mine ordinary ; and then I saw them
laugh, so I spake to them and said :
" Gratwick. — ' Why do ye laugh? are ye confede-
rated together for my blood, and therein triumph ? you
have more cause to look weightily upon the matter : for
I stand here before you upon life and death. But you
declare yourselves what you are : for you are clothed
in lambs' apparel, but I would to God ye had coats
according to your assembly here, which is scarlet gowns,
for I do here perceive you are bent to have my blood.'
" Andthencarae rushing in the counterfeit bishop, who
was the hired servant to deliver me into the hands of the
high priest ; and the bishop hearing him come, inquired,
who was there : and he said, ' My lord of Chichester.'
Then the bishop with haste rose up and said :
" Winchester. — ' Ye are most heartily welcome,' and
required him to sit down ; and then the bishop of Win-
chester said to me, ' Lo, here is your ordinary, what have
you now to say unto him .'"
" Counterfeit. — ' Here you stand before my lords
and me on trial of your faith, and if you bring the truth,
we shall give place to you.'
" Then I demanded of him whether he meant by au-
thority, or by the judgment of the Spirit of God in his
members. And he answered me, by authority as well as
by the S|)irit.
" Tlien I said. ' Now will I turn your own argu-
ment upon you : for Christ came before the high priests,
scribes, and pliarisees, bringing the truth witli liim, be-
ing the very trutli himself, which truth cannot lie, yet
botli he and his trutii was condemned, and took no place
with them. And also the apostles, and all the martyrs
that died since Christ : therefore I turn your own argu-
ment upon you, answer it if you can.'
" Then he with a great heat of choler, said to the
bishop of \\'incliester, ' Object some articles against
him, for he is oljstinate, and would gladly get out of our
hands, therefore hold him to some particular.'
" Then spake the counterfeit ordinary again, and said,
' My lord, ask him what he saith to the sacrament of
the altar.' Then the bishop asked me, as he required
him.
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, I do believe that in the sacra-
ment of the supper of the Lord truly administered in
both kinds, according to the institution of Christ, to the
worthy receiver, he eateth mystically by faith the body
and drinketh the blood of Christ.' Then I asked him if it
were not the truth. And he said, ' Yes.' Then said I,
' Bear witness of the truth.'
" Then the bishop of Winchester, whose head being
subtlest, said, ' My lord, see you not how he creeps
away with his heresies, and covers them privily ? Note
how he here separates the sacrament of the altar from
the supper of the Lord, meaning it not to be the true
sacrament, and also how he condemns our administration
in one kind, and allows that the unworthy receiver does
not eat and drink the body and blood of Christ ; but he
shall answer directly. What sayest thou of the ad-
ministration of the priests every day for themselves, and
they administer in both kinds ?'
" 1 answered, ' You have two administrations, for I
am sure at Easter you minister but in one kind, and
therefore it is not according to the institution of Christ,
but after your own imaginations.'
" Winchester. — ' Why, then, what sayest thou to
these words, ' Take, eat, this is my body.' These are
the words of Christ. Wilt thou deny them ?'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, they are the words of scrip-
ture, I affirm them, and not deny them.'
" Rochester. — ' Why, then, thou dost confess in the
sacrament of the altar, there is a real presence, the self-
same body that was born of the Virgin Mary, and is as-
cended up into heaven.'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, what do you now mean ? do
you not also mean a visible body ' for it cannot be, but
of necessity, if it be a real presence, and a material
body, it must be a visible body also.'
" Winchester. — ' Nay, I say, it is a real presence,
and a material body, and an invisible body too.'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, then it must needs be a
fantastical body, for if it were a material and invisible
body, as you affirm, then it must needs be a fantastical
body, for it is apparent, that Christ's human body was
visible and seen.'
" Then the bishop brake out and said, ' When didst
thou see him .' I pray thee tell me.'
" To that I answered and said, ' That is a weak argu-
ment ; because our corporeal eyes cannot comprehend
Christ, does it follow that he is invisible, because we
cannot see him ?'
" And with that the bishop began to grow weary of his
argument, and removed his talk to Judas in eating the
sacrament, and said, ' He ate him wholly, as the apos-
tles did.' And then I asked him, ' if he meant Christ's
flesh and blood, of which he speaks in the sixth of John,
and saith, ' He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life in me.' To that he answered
and said, ' Yea.'
" ' Then,' said I. ' of necessity Judas must needs be
A.D. 155;.]
THE EXAMINATION OF STEPHEN GRATW^CK.
943
saved, because he did eat the flesh, and drink the blood
of Christ, as you have affirmed ; and also all the ungodly
tnat die without repentance, because they liave eaten
your sacrament, which you say is the flesh and blood of
Christ : therefore of necessity they shall receive the bene-
fit thereof, that is, eternal life. Which is a great absur-
dity to grant : and then of necessity it must follow, that
all that eat not, and drink not of your sacrament, shall
finally perish and be damned ; for Christ saith, ' Except
ye ea.t my flesh, and drink my blood, you can have no
life in you.' And you have said of your sacrament,
that it is the same flesh and blood tliat Christ speaketh
of: and here I prove, that all children who die under
age to receive the sacrament, by your own argument,
must be damned, which is horible blasphemy to speak.
Now here I turn your own argument upon you, answer it
if you can.'
" Winchester. — ' My lord, do you not see what deceit-
ful arguments he brings in here against us, mingled with
sophistry, and keeps himself in an advantage, so that we
can get no hold upon him ? But I say to thee, thou per-
verse heretic, I see now, thou art a perverse fellow. I
had a better opinion of thee, but now I see we lose our
time about thee, yet I answer thee, St. Paul opens the
sixth of John plainly, if thou wilt see : for he saith,
' They eat Christ's body, and drink his blood unworthily,'
and tliat was the cause of their damnation.'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, take heed ye do not add to
the text, for he that addeth unto the text, is accursed of
God, and I am sure here y(tu have brought more than
St. Paul hath spoken : for he saith not, because they have
eaten his body, and drank his blood unworthily ; but St.
Paul saith, ' Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink
this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
oody and blood of the Lord.' Note, my lord, he saith
not as you have affirmed, but quite the contrary.'
" And with that they were all in a great rage. The
bishop of Winchester said, 1 belied tiie text. And then
I called for the text. And he said, ' I asked thee even
now if thou understood Latin, and thou saidst, whether
I can or no, the people shall bear witness in English.'
And so I called again for the testament, whether it were
Latin or English, for the trial of the text. And then
when the bishop of Winchester saw that I cared not
which of the translations I had, he stood up, thinking to
beguile some simple man that had a book there, and
bade him that had an English testament to bring it in,
that he might get some hold on him that should bring a
testament : but God disappointed him, and so he began to
rail upon me, and said my subtle arguments should not
serve : for if I would not answer directly, I should never-
theless be excommunicated. ' For,' said he, ' I see a
mad toy in tliine head ; thou gloriest much in thy talk,
and thinkest now the people are come about thee, that
thou shalt encourage them with thy constant heretical
opinion. For on the last day when thou wast before me,
upon Sunday, in St. J.Iary Overy's church, thou there
reprovedst my sermon, and hadst a thousand by thee at
the least, to bid God strengthen thee : but now let me
see him here that dare open his mouth to bid God
strengthen thee ; he shall die the death that thou shalt
die.'
" To that I answered, ' My lord, I know your cruelty
doth extend more largely than your pity. Good experi-
ence I have to say so, for you keep men in prison a year
or two, taking their books from them, permitting them
not so much as a testament to look upon for their soul's
comfort, which all men ought to have : and so you treat
them more like brute beasts than christian men.'
" Winchester. — ' No, Sir, we will use you as we will
use the child ; for if the child will hurt himself with the
knife, we will keep the knife from him. So because you
will damn your souls with the word, therefore you shall
not have it.'
" Gratwick. — ' My lord, a foolish argument you bring
to maintain and cover your fault. Are you not ashamed
to make the word the cause of our damnation .' I never
knew any man but only you, that did not affirm our sins
to be the cause of our damnation, and not the word as
you say : and therefore if your argument be good, then
this is good also ; because that some men do abuse
drink, therefore the benefit of drink should be taken from
all men, or any other such like good gift '
" Wincliester. — ' My lords, here we lose much time,
for this fellow is perverse, speaking nothing but sophistry
and jjerverse questions : so that we can get no advantage
uj)on him.'
" Tlien spake my counterfeit ordinary, as one half
asleep all this while ; yet now with haste he said, ' Read
these articles against lum once more, and if he will not
answer tiieni, take him upon his first words ; 'That which
I said, that I have said.' '
"Wincliester. — 'Why, this fellow is perverted, and we
shall get no more at his hands than we have already ;
therefore let us pronounce sentence against him, for we
do but lose our time.'
" Gratwick. — ' Nay good, my lord, seeingyou will needs
have my blood, let me say a little more for myself.
Upon Sunday last, when I was bel'ore you, you preached
this which was a truth, and agreeable to the doctrine of
the apostle St. James, and said, ' If any man think him-
self a religious man, and bridle not his tongue, that
man's religion is vain ; and so, my lord, you standing
there in the pulpit, seduced your tongue to slander us
poor prisoners in iron bonds, burdening us with the sect
of Arians, and with the sect of Herodians, and with the
sect of Anabaptists, and with the sect of Sacramcntaries,
and with the sect of Pelagians. And when we stood up to
clear ourselves, you said you would cut out our tongues,
and cause us to be pulled out of the church by violence.
But there you gave yourself a shrewd blow, for your
tongue in the mean time slandered your neighbour. For
I, my lord, will give my life against all these heresies,
which you there burdened us with, even as I will give
my life against that wherein I now stand before you.'
" Winchester. — ' If thou wilt not yield, I will pronounce
sentence against thee,' and so he proceeded onward
apace, cursing and banning in Latin ; so that I told him,
' If the people might hear it in English, they would think
you an uncharitable bishop.' And then I said, ' Stay,
my lord, and note what you do : for you have neither
temporal law nor spiritual here against me in any cause.'
Then stepped forth a gentleman, and said unto my lord,
' Take heed what ye do : for he doth here say, that you
have no title nor cause why you should condemn him.'
Then the bishop looked about him again, and asked me
' if I would recant.' I asked him, ' what I should re-
cant.' At last his chaplains cried, ' Stop, stop, my
lord: for now he will recant.' And then the bishop
asked me again. And I answered and said, ' My lord,
my faith is grounded more steadfastly than to change in a
moment ; it is no process of time can alter me, unless my
faith were as the waves of the sea.' And so the bishop
made an end, and delivered me into the hands of the
sheriff, to be carried prisoner to the Marshalsea again.
And when I was condemned, I desired God with a loud
voice, that he would not lay my blood to their charge, if
it were his good will, and so then they refused my prayer,
and sent me away. Then I began to talk as I went,
and they cried, ' Cut out his tongue, or stop his mouth !'
so I was brought to the Marshalsea, and put in iron
bands. Therefore I pray unto God that they to whom this
present writing shall come, may take example by my
death. So be it.
" Byrne, Stephen Gratwick, condemned for
God's everlasting truth."
Thus this christian martyr, being wrongfully con-
demned by the bishop of Winchester, was burned with
W. Moraunt and one King, in St. George's-fields, about
the latter end of May.
Seven Martyrs burned at Maidstone.
After the proclamation was sent and set forth by the
king and queen in the month of February, the storm of
persecution began in all places, but yet in no place more
than in the diocese of Canterbury. On the 18th day of
June, there were seven christian and true faithful mar-
tyrs of Christ burned at Maidstone, namely : —
3p
944
THE EXAMINATION OF EDMUND ALLEN.
[Book XII.
Joan Bradbridge, of Staplehurst ; Walter Appleby, of
Maid-toue ; Petronil, his wife ; Edmund Allen, of Fry-
tenden ; Kdtherine, his wife ; John Manning's wife, of
Maidstone; and Elizabeth, a blind maiden.
The general articles, and the order of their condemna-
tion, differed not much from the usual manner, as also
their answers. Of which, I find not much come to hand,
save only of Edmund Allen.
The Examination of Edmund Allen.
This Allen was a miller, of the parish of Frytenden in
Kent, and in a year when many poor people were likely
to starve, he fed them, and sold his corn cheaper by
half than others did ; and did not that only, but also fed
them with the food of life, reading to them the scrip-
tures, and interpreting them. This being known to the
popish priests, he was soon complained of to the justices,
and brought before Sir John Baker, knight ; who com-
mitted both him and his wife to ward, but not long after
they were let out, I know not how, and so went over to
Calais ; where, after they had continued a certain time, he
began to be troubled in his conscience ; and shortly after-
wards he returned home, where was a cruel priest, called
John Tailor.
Tailor, being informed that Edmund Allen and his
wife were returned, and were not at mass-time in the
church ; as he was at the time in the midst of his mass,
upon a Sunday, a little before the elevation, even almost
at the lifting up of his Romish god, he turned to the
people in a great rage, and commanded them with all
speed to go to Allen's house, and apprehend them, and he
would come to them with as much haste as possible.
Which promise he well performed. For he had no
sooner made an end of the service, and the vest-
ments were off his back, but by and by he was at the
house, and there laying hands on Allen, caused him again
to be brought to Sir John Baker, with a grievous com-
plaint of his exhorting, and reading the scriptures to the
people ; and so Allen and his wife were sent to Maidstone
prison. They were no sooner in prison, than Sir John
Baker sent to their house certain of his men, and
thus good Edmund Allen and his wife, being maliciously
accused, wrongfully imprisoned, and cruelly spoiled and
robbed of their goods, were brought before Sir John
Baker, the justice, to be examined ; who taunting and
reviling him without all mercy and pity, asked him if
those were the fruits of his gospel, to have conventicles,
to gather people, to make conspiracies, to sow sedi-
tion and rebellion ; and thus he began to reason with
him.
Baker. — " Who gave thee authority to preach and in-
terpret ? Art thou a priest ? Art thou admitted thereto ?
Let me see thy licence ?"
Martin Collins, Sir John Baker's schoolmaster,
said, " Surely he is an errant heretic, and worthy to be
burned.''
Allen. — " And it may please your honour to give me
leave to answer in the cause of my faith, I am persuaded
that God hath given me this authority, as he hath given
to all otlier christians. Why are we called christians, if
we do not follow Christ, if we do not read his law, if we
do not interpret it to others that have not so much un-
derstanding? I snot Christ our father.' Shall not the
son follow the father's steps ? Is not Christ our master .'
and shall the scholar be prohibited to learn and preach
his precepts .' Is not Christ our redeemer ? and shall not
we praise his name, and serve him that hath redeemed
us from sin and damnation .' Did not Christ, being but
twelve years of age, dispute with the doctors, and inter-
pret the prophet Isaiah .' And yet, notwithstanding, he
was neither of the tribe of Levi, who were priests, but
of the royal tribe of Judah, neither had taken any out-
ward priesthood ; wherefore if we be christians, we must
do the same."
Collins. — " Observe, your honour, what a knave this
is, who compareth himself with Christ."
Baker. — " Let him alone, he will pump out anon an
infinite heap of heresies. Hast thou any more to say
for thyself ? Why didst thou teach the people, being no
priest?"
Allen. — " Because that we are all kings to rule our
affections, priests to preach out the virtues and word of
God, as Peter writeth, and lively stones to give light to
other. For as out of flint stones cometh forth, that is
able to set all the world on tire ; so out of christians
should spring the flame of the gospel, which should in-
flame all the world. If we must give a reckoning of our
faith to every man, and now to you demanding it, then
must we study the scriptures, and practise them. What
availeth it a man to have meat, if he eat none ; and
apparel, if he wear none ; or to have an occupation,
and to teach none ; or to be a lawyer, and utter none ?
Shall every artificer be suffered, yea, and commanded to
practise his faculty and science, and the christian for-
bidden to exercise his ? Doth not every lawyer practise
his law ? Is not every christian a follower of Christ ?
Shall ignorance, which is condemned in all sciences, be
practised of christians ? Doth not Saint Paul forbid any
man's spirit to be quenched ? Doth he prohibit any man
that hath any of those gifts, which he mentioHS in 1 Cor.
xiv. to praclise the same ? Only lie forbiddeth women,
but not men. The Jews never forbade any : read the
Acts of the Apostles. And the restraint was made by
Gregory IX. pope of that name, as I heard one, a learned
man, preach in King Edward's days."
Collins. — •' This villain is mad. By my priesthood, I
believe that he will s: y, that a priest hath no mpre au-
thority than another man. Doth not a priest bind and
loose ?"
Allen. — " No ; my sin bindeth me, and my repentance
looseth. God forgiveth sin only, and no priest. For
every christian, when he sinneth, bindeth himself, and
when he repenteth, looseth himself. And if any other
be loosed from his sin by my exhortation, I am said to
loose him ; and if he persevere in sin, notwithstanding
my exhortation, I am said to bind him, although it is
God that bindeth and looseth, and giveth the increase.
Therefore saith Christ; 'Verily I say unto you, what-
soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven :
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them.' Matt, xviii,
18, 20. Neither hath the pope any keys save the keys
of error ; for the key that openeth the lock to God's
mysteries and to salvation, is the key of faith and repen-
tance."
Then they reviled him, and laid him in the storks all
the night. Wherewith feome that were better minded,
being offended with such extremity, desired Allen to keep
his conscience to himself, and to follow Baruch's coun-
sel in the sixth chapter. " Wherefore, when ye see the
multitude of the people worshipping them, behind and
before, say ye in your hearts, O Lord, it is thou that
ought only to be worshipped.''
Wherewith he was persuaded to go to hear mass the
next day, and suddenly before the consecration went out,
and considered in the church-yard with himself, that
such a little cake between the priest's fingers could not
be Christ, nor a material body, neither to have soul, life,
sinews, bones, flesh, legs, head, arms, nor breast, and
lamented that he was seduced by the place of Baruch,
which his conscience gave him to be no scripture, or else
to have another meaning : and after this he was brought
again before Sir John Baker, who asked why he did re-
fuse to worship the blessed sacrament of the altar,
Allen. — " It is an idol."
Collins. — " It is God's body."
Allen. — " It is not."
Collins. — " By the mass it is.''
Allen. — " It is bread."
Collins. — " How provest thou that?"
Allen. — "When Christ sat at his supper, he gave
them bread to eat."
Collins. — " Bread ! knave ?"
Allen. — " Yea, bread, which you call Christ's body.
Sat he still at the table, or was he both in their mouths,
and at the table ? If he were in their mouths, and at
the table, then had he two bodies, or else had a fantasti-
cal body ; which is an absurdity."
Baker. — " Christ's body was glorified, and might be
in more places than one."
A.D. 1557,
^yga_ " Then he had more bodies than one, by your
own uLK:iiig ofiiiui." . , , , *i f
Collins.—" Thou ignorant ass ! the schoolmen say tliat
a glorified body may be every where."
tiilea. — " It" his body was not glorified till it rose
agaia, then was it not glorified at his last supper ; and,
therefore, was not at the table, and in their months, by
your own reason."
Collins. — " This rebel will believe nothing but scrip-
ture How knowest thou that it is the scripture, but by
the church ?"
Baker. — " Away with him."
Tlien he was carried to prison, and afterwards burned.
And tlius much touching the history of Edmund Allen
and his wife ; who, with live other martyrs, namely, five
women and two men, were burned together at Maidstone,
ua the 18th of June, 1557.
Seven Martyrs burned at Canterhury, three Men, and
four Women.
Among such infinite seas of troubles in these most
dangerous days, who can withhold himself from bitter
tears, to see the rage of these pretended catholics, who,
being never satisfied with blood to maintain their carnal
kingdom, presume so highly to violate the direct law of
God's commandments, in slaying the simple lambs of the
glorious church of Jesus Clirist, and that for the true testi-
mony of a good conscience, in confessing the immaculate
gospel of their salvation ? What heart will not lament
the murdering mischief of these men ? wlio, for want of
work, do so vent their cruelty on poor women, whose
imbecility the more strength it lacks by natural imper-
fection, the more it ought to be helped, or at least pitied,
and not oppressed by men that are stronger, and espe-
cially by priests that should be charitable.
But blessed be the Lord Omnipotent, who supernatu-
rally hath endowed from above such weak creatures with
such manly fortitude, so constantly to withstand the ut-
termost extremity of these pitiless persecutors : as here
may appear by the martyrdom of seven, of which were
four women and three men, burned together at Canter-
bury, the 30th of June. John Fishcock ; Nicholas
White; Nicholas Pardue; Barbara Final, widow; Brad-
bridges widow ; Wilson's wife ; Benden's wife.
As it were too tedious exactly and particularly to pro-
secute the several histories of every one of these godly
martyrs ; so I cannot pass over untouched the cruel and
unchristian handling of Alice Benden during her im-
prisonment, and partly also some doers in the matter,
being her own natural brethren.
Tlie tragical handling of Alice Benden.
First Alice Benden was brought before Master Roberts,
of Crambroke, in Kent, on the 14th of October, 1556, by
whom she was demanded why she would not go to the
church. And she answered, that she could not do so
with a good and clear conscience, because there was
much idolatry committed against the glory of God. For
which, with many mocks and taunts, she was sent to
prison, where she lay fourteen days.
Then the bishop called her before him, and asked her
if she would go home, and go to the church. She an-
swered ; " If I would have so done, I need not to have
come here." " Then wilt thou go home, and be shriven
of thy parish priest?" And she said, " No," she would
not.
'• Well," said he, " go thy ways home, and go to the
church when thou wilt." Whereunto she answered no-
thing. But a priest that stood by, said ; she saith, she
will, my lord. Wherefore he let her go, and she came
forthwith home.
On the Saturday following, her husband desired her to
go to church ; which she refused to do. Wherefore on
the Sunday, fourteen days after, he going to the church,
came into the company of several inhabitants of the
parish ; among whom, through his forward calk and be-
haviour, he procured her to be sent to Sir John Gilford,
who ordered her to prison again : yea, and the more to
THE PERSECUTION OF ALICE BENDEN.
945
utter his own shame, they said her husband took money
of the constable to carry her to prison, the price of his
wife's blood, meaning indeed to carry her to prison him-
self. But she ha\iug much more care of his honest and
good report, than he had regard of his own infamy, and
no less ashamed of his so rude and unnatural doings,
chose rather to commit herself willingly into the hands
of her enemies, than that the world should witness against
her husband of so wicked an act. Wherefore she went
to the constable, desiring him to go with her. But he
answered that he could not so do, but granted her his
boy to go with her, with wliom she went to prison,
namely, to the castie of Canterbury, according to the
commandment ; and afterwards she was placed in still
stricter confinement.
This prison was within a court, where the prebends'
chambers were, being a vault beneath the ground, and
being before tlie window enclosed with a pale, of about
four foot and a half in height, and distant irom the same
three foot, so that she looking from beneath, might only see
such as stood at the pale. After this, her brotlier sought
often for her, with no less danger of life than diligence.
But for the unknown situation of the place, it being also
but rarely used for a prison, and the matter as closely
kept, as it was secretly done, he could never come to
understand of her being there, until through God s mer-
ciful will and unsearchable providence, he coming there
very late in the morning, her keeper being then gone to
the church to ring, (for he was a bell-ringer,) chanced to
hear her voice, as she poured out unto God her sorrow-
ful complaints, saying the Psalms of David: and there
could he no otherwise relieve her, but by putting money
in a loaf of bread, and sticking the same on a pole, and,
so reached it to her ; for neither with meat nor drink,
could he sustain her. And this was five weeks after her
comino- here. All which time no creature was known to
come to her, more than her keeper.
While in that prison she lay only upon a little short
straw, between a pair of stocks and a stone wall ; being
allowed three farthings a day, that is, halfpenny bread,
and a farthing drink, neither could she get any more for
her money. Wherefore she desired to have her whole
allowance in bread, and used water for her drink.
Thus she lay nine weeks. During all which time she
never changed her apparel ; by which she became at the
last a most piteous creature to beiiold.
At her first coming into this place, she grievously be-
wailed with a great sorrow and lamentation, and rea-
soned witli herself ; why her Lord God did with his so
heavy justice suffer her'to be separated from her loving
fellows into so extreme misery.
In these dolorous mournings did she continue, till oa
a night as she was in her sorrowful supplications, re-
hearsing this verse of the Psalm ; " Why art thou cast
down, O my soul .'" And again, " The right hand of the
most high can cUange all :" she received comfort in the
midst of her miseries, and after that continued very joy-
ful until her delivery.
About the 25th of March, 1557, she was called before
the bishop, who demanded of her, whether she would
now o-o home, and go to the church or not, promising her
great favour, if she would be reformed and do as they
did. , ,
To whom she answered, " I am thoroughly persuaded,
by the great severity that you have already shewed me,
that you are not of God, neither can your doings be
godly; and I see that you seek my utter destruction,"
shewing how lame she then was by a cold taken, and for
lack of food, while she lay in that painful prison ; whereby
she was not able to move herself without great pain.
Then the bishop delivered her from that filthy hole,
and sent her to Westgate, where, after she had changed
her clothes, and for a while kept clean, her skin whoUy
peeled off. Here she continued till the latter end of
April. At which time they committed her to the prison
called the castle, where she continued tiU her martyr-
dom, which was on the lyth of June.
With this Alice Benden was burned also the other
blessed martyrs above named, being seven in number :
who, being brought to the place where they were t«
946
TEN MARTYRS BURNED AT LEWES.
[13ooK XII.
Buffer fjr the Lord's cause at Canterbury, undressed
themselves joyfully for the fire ; arid being ready, they
all, like the communion of saints, kneeled down, and
made their humble prayers unto the Lord, with such zeal
and affection, as even the enemies of the cross of Christ
could not but praise them. When they had made invo-
cation together, they rose and went to the stake, where,
in the midst of the flames, they yielded their souls and
lives gloriously into the hand of the Lord.
Bradbridge's wife had two children, named Patience
and Charity : when she was condemned by the bishop to
be burned, she said to him, that if he would needs
burn her, yet she trusted that he would take and keep
Patience and Charity, meaning her two children. " Nay,"
said tbe bishop, " by the faith of my body, I will meddle
with neither of them."
The Troubles of Matthew Plai.se.
To these holy martyrs of Kent above specified, whereof
seven suffered at Maidstone, and seven at Canterbury, 1
thouglit it not out of place to give the examination of
Matthew Plaise, a weaver, of the same county of Kent,
and a faithful christian ; who being apprehended and
imprisoned likewise for the testimony of a good con-
.science, in the castle of Canterbury, was brought to
examination before the bishop of Dover, and Harpsfield,
the archdeacon, as is to be read and seen in his own
writing. Tlie following are extracts from it : —
"Archdeacon. — 'What sayest thou to tlie catholic
church, which hath so long continued, except it were
nine or ten years, that this heresy hath sprung up here in
this realm V
" I said, no man can accuse me of any thing spoken'
against the catholic church of Christ.
" ' Then,' said the bishop, 'dost thou not believe the
creed ?'
" Plaise. — ' Yes, verily, 1 believe my creed, and all that
is written in the testament of Christ, with the rest of
the scriptures.'
" ' Then,' saith he, ' thou dost confess that there is a
catholic church, I am glad of that ; but tell me, is the
king and tpieen of that church, or not.''
" ' Well,' said I, 'now I perceive you go about to be
both mine accuser end also my judge, contrary to all
right. I confess Christ hath a church upon earth,
which is built upon the apostles and prophets, Christ
being the head thereof; and as toucliing the king and
queen, I answer, I have nothing to do witb any man's
faith but mine own : neither came 1 liither to judge ; for
I judge not myself, but the Lord must judge me.'
" * Tl)en,' said he : 'is there no part of that church
iere in England ?'
" Plaise. — ' Well, I perceive you would fain have
something to lay to my charge. I will tell you where.
Christ saith. Where two or three are gatliered together
in his name, there is he in the midst of them.'
" Then the commissary did ask me, if I did not
remember St. Paul, who rebuked the Corinthians for
their evil behaviour, and because they made no difference
of the Lord's body, and brought in to prove his matter,
how Jesus called himself bread, in the sixth of John.
So Paul said, ' So often as you eat of this bread unwor-
thily, you eat and drink your own damnation, because
you make no difference of the Lord's body.' For thus
said Christ, ' The bread that I will give you is my flesh.'
Now it is no bread, but it is his flesh. And thus he
alleged every scripture false, to make up the matter.
" Then I said, I did believe the words of St. Paul
very well, even as he had spoken them. For thus he
saith, ' He that eateth and drinketii unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body.'
" Commissary. — ' What is the cause that he eateth
his own damnation ? '
" I said, ' St. Paul declares it plainly with these words,
' If you had judged yourselves, you sliould not have been
judged of the Lord.'
"Then the archdeacon said, 'he marvelled why I
would not say, that he called the bread his body, seeing
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, with many others, called
it his body.' •
" I said, 'you have condemned them as heretics, and
you would have me say with them, because you would
kill me.'
" Then he said, ' in that they said it was his body,
they did say the truth.'
" I asked wherefore they were killed, seeing they said
the truth.''
" Then said the bishop, ' that he had all their answers,
and that they did not believe as they said.' For they
said, ' Christ called it his body, but it was not his
natural body : but thou shalt answer nie by and by,
whether it be his body or not, or else I will anger thee.'
" Then 1 said, ' I had answered him by the word
already, and did believe it also ; therefore, if he did con-
demn me for that, my life was not dear unto me, and
I was sure he should not escape punishment; for God
will be revenged upon such murderers.'
" Then the archdeacon began with Moses' rod, how
God commanded him to lay it down, and it was turned
into a serpent. Seeing that this was done by Moses be-
ing but a man, how much more Christ being both God and
man, took one thing, and gave to his disciples another.' '
" I said, ' his comparison was notiiing like, for Moses's
rod when it was laid down, he saw that it was turned
into a very serpent indeed ; but in this sacrament,
no man can see either quality or yet quantity to be
changed.'
" Then said the bishop, ' that mine opinion and faith,
was like unto the Capernaites.
" I said, ' theirs was more like their opinion than
mine.' ''
What became of this Matthew Plaise after, whether
he died in prison, or was executed, or delivered ; I have
no certain knowledge.'
Ten Martyrs burnt in one fire at Lewes.
In the town of Lewes, were ten faithful servants of
God put in one fire, the 22nd day of June, of whom six
were men, and four were women.
Of which immber, Richard Woodman was the first.
Concerning whose apprehension, first by his enemies,
and of his deliverance out of Bishop Bonner's hands ;
then of his second taking again by the procurement
of his father, brother,. kinsfolks, and friends, also of his
examinations and answers before the bishops ; and lastly
of Jiis condemnation, here foUow's, declared by his own
words : Richard Woodman, was about tliirty-one years
of age, and was by occupation, an iron maker, dwelling
in the parish of Warbleton, in the county of Sussex,
and diocese of Chichester. The occasion of his first
apprehension was this :
There was one Fairbanke, who sometimes had been
a married priest, and served the cure of Warbleton.
where he liad often persuaded the people not to credit
any other doctrine, but that which he then preached,
taught and set forth, in king Edward's days ; but
afterwards, in the beginning of queen Mary's reign,
Fairbanke preached quite contrary to that which he had
before taught.
Whereupon, Richard Woodman, hearing him in the
church of Warbleton, preach so contrary to himself,
admonished him of his inconsistency, how he had taught
them one thing, and now another, and desired him
to teach them the truth. For which words he was
apprehended, and brought before Master John Ashburn-
ham, and other justices of the peace in Sussex, and
by them committed to the King's-bench, where he con-
tinued from June, almost a year and a half; and from
thence, was transferred by Doctor Story, into Bonner's
coal-house, where he remained the space of a month
before he came to examination.
At length, the same day when Master Phili)ot was
burned, which was on the 18th of December, he, with
four other prisoners, was delivered and set at liberty
by Bonner himself. Notwithstanding, shortly aftei ne
was sought for again, and at last found out and taken by
means of his father, brother, and others, and so was
A.D. 1557.]
THE PERSECUTION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
947
gent up again to London to Bishop Bonner, "^-here he.
remained in the coal-house eight weeks. He was then
six times examined, and twentj'-six times before, so that
his examinations were in all thirty two, from his first
apprehension to his condemnation. Touching the whole
discourse, as the matter is something strange, you
shall henr himself speak and .testify both of the man-
ner of his troubles, and also his examinations re-
corded by himself.
A true Certificate written Ijy Richard Woodman, &;c.
" Gentle reader, here you shall perceive how the scrip-
tures are partly fulfilled on me, being one of the least
of God's poor lambs. First, vou shall understand, that
since I was delivered out of the bishop of London's
hands, which was in the year 13.5.5, and the same day
that Master Philpot was burned, which was the 18th of
December, I lay in his coal-house eight weeks, lacking
but one day : and before that I was almost a year and
a half in the King's bench after my first apprehension,
for reproving a preacher in the pulpit, in the parish of
Warbleton, where I dwelt. Wherefore I was at two
sessions before I was sent to prison, and carried to two
more sessions while I was in prison, twice before the
bishop of Chichester, and five times before the commis-
sioners ; and then sent to Bonner's coal-house, and
many times called before him, as appears by my exami-
nations which I have wrote, which examinations the
bishop of Chichester now has, for they were found in
my house when 1 was taken, wherein is contained all
the talk which I had before them. Also, there are in
London, those who had copies of the same of me, when
1 was in the coal-Viouse.
" And it pleased God to deliver me, with four more,
out of the bishop's hands, he requiring nothing else of
us but that we should be honest men, and members of
the true catholic church, that was built upon the pro-
phets and apostles, Christ being the head of the true
church: we all affirmed that we were members of the true
church, and purposed by God's help therein to die. And
hereupon we were delivered ; but he desired us many
times to speak good of him.
" After I was delivered, the papists said that I had
consented to them, whereof they made themselves glad ;
the which was the least part of my thought, as they well
perceived and knew the contrary within a while. For I
went from parish to parish, and talked with them, to the
number of thirteen or fourteen, and that of the chiefest
in all the country; and I vexed them so, that tliey with
the commissioners complained of me to the lord
chamberlain.
" Tiien within three days after, my lord sent to take
me, I being at the plough, right in the way as they were
coming to my house, came to them and spake to them,
asking them how they did. And they said, ' they
arrested me in the king and queen's name, and that
I must go with them to their master the lord chamber-
lain.' Which words made my flesh to tremble. But
I answered them, ' that I would go with them.' Yet I
desired them, ' that they would go to my house with me,
that I might break my fast, and put on other clothes,'
and they said, ' I should.' Then I remembered myself,
saying \xi my heart ; ' V.'hy am I thus afraid ? they can
lay no evil to my charge. If they kill me for well
doing, I may think myself happy. I remembered, how
I was coutented gladly before to die in that quarrel, and
so had continued ever since ; and should I now fear
to die ? God forbid that I should, for then were all my
labour in vain.'
" So by and by I was persuaded, I praise God, con-
sidering it V7as but the frailty of my flesh, which was
loath to forego my wife and children, and goods; for
I saw nothing but present death before mine eyes. And
£0 soon as I was persuaded in my mind to die, I had
regard of nothing in this world, but was as cheerful and
glad, and joyful, I praise God, as ever I was. This
battle lasted not a quarter of an hour ; but it was
sharper than death itself for the time.
" So when I had my breakfast, I desired them to
show their warrant, thinking thereby I should have seen
why I was arrested, that I might the better answer for
myself when I came before their master. And one of
them answered, they had not their warrant there.
Which words made me astonished, and it was put in my
mind that I need not go with them unless they had their
warrant. Then said 1 to them, 'That is a marvel, that
you will come to take a man without a warrant.'
" Then one of them said, ' We have not the warrant
here, but it is at my house ; the worst is, you can but
make us fetch it.' Then I said, ' Fetch it if you will ;
but if you come in my house before you have it, at your
hazard be it.' So I shut my door, and went my way out
at the other door. So they got helj) to watch my house,
whilst one of them brought the constable and many
more, thinking to have taken me in my house, and car-
ried me away with a licence ; but I was gone before, as
God would have it. Notwithstanding they sought every
corner of my house, but could not prevail. 1 suspected
they would search it again that night, and I kept
abroad ; and, indeed there came seven of his men and
the constable, and searched my house.
" Then I supposed that they would search a'l the coun-
try for me, and guard the sea-coast, lest I should go over ;
and then I thought they would not suppose I would dare
be nigh home. So I told my wife that 1 would make my
lodging in a wood, not more than a bow-shot from my house,
as 1 did indeed, even under a tree, and there had my
bible, my pen, and mine ink, and other necessaries, and
there continued six or seven weeks, my wife bringing me
meat daily, as I had need. Yea, I thought myself
blessed of God, that I was counted worthy to lie in the
woods for the name of Christ. Then there came word into
the country that I was seen and spoken to in Flanders ;
whereupon they left lying in wait for me : for they had
searched all the country for me, and the sea-coast from
Portsmouth to Dover, even as God put in my mind they
would.
" So when all was hushed, I went abroad among our
friends and brethren, and, at length, I went beyond sea,
both into Flanders and in France ; but I thought every
day seven years before I were at home again. So I re-
turned home as soon as it was possible. 1 was there but
three weeks ; but as soon as 1 was come home, and it
was once known among the priests, they could not abide
it, but procured out warrants against me, causing my
house to be searched sometimes twice in a week.
" My father and brethren, with whom I had some dif-
ference about property, informed the sheriff of my arrival
and they sent men to apprehend me.
" They hid taken a man of mine, and two of my child"
ren that were abroad in the land, and kept them with
them till their hour was appointed to come in ; and then
a little girl, one of my children, saw them come together,
and came running in, and cried, ' ]\Iother, mother, yon-
der cometh twenty men.' I, sitting in my bed, heard
the words, and suspected straightway that I was be-
trayed, I stirred out of my bed and whipped on my hose,
thinking to have gone out of the doors before they hart
been come. My wife, being amazed at the child's words,
looked out at the door, and they were hard by. Then
she clapped to the door, and barred it fast, even as I
came out of my chamber into the hall, and so barred the
other : so the house was beset round straightway, and
they bade open the doors , or else they would break them
in pieces. Then I had no shift, but'cither I must show
myself openly, or make some other remedy.
" Now there was a secret place in my house that was
never found, though it was searched at the least, I dare
sav, twenty times, and sometimes almost of twenty men,
both by night and by day. Into which place I went :
and assoon as I was in, my wife opened the door, where-
by they came and asked for me ; and she said 1 was not
at home ? They then asked her, wherefore she shut the
door, if I were not at home. She said, because she had
been made afraid several times with such as came to search
us ; and, therefore, she shut the door. ' For it is reported,
(sa'ith she,) that whoever can take my husband, shall
hang him or burn him straightway ; and therefore I
doubt they will serve me or my children so ; for I think
<)48
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
[Book XII.
they may do so unto us as well as to him.' ' Well,'
said they, ' we know he is in the house, and we must
search it, for we are the sheriff's men ; let us have a
candle. It is told us, there are many secret places in
your house.' So she lighted a caudle, and they sought
up and down, in every corner that tliey coukl find, and
had given over, and many of tliem were gone out of my
house into the cluirch-yard, and there talking with my
father, and witii sonu; that he ii.id brouglit with hau.
" Now when tliey could not find me, one of them
went to him tliat gave them word that I was at liome, and
said, ' We cannot find him.' Then he asked them,
whether they liad sought over a window tliat was in th ■
hall, for that same place I had told him of myself. For,
many times when I came home, I would send for him to
bear me com])auy ; yet, as it chanced, 1 had not told
liim the way into it. Then they began to search anew,
and so in the end I was t.iken."
And thus much touching tlie cause and effects of
the troubles of Richard Woodman. Now let us see his
e.xaminations, as written by himself.
" First, you sliall undrrst;uul, that I was sent from
the sheriffs to London, on llie 12th of April, lo,')?, and
oil the 14th, I was brought before the bishop of Chi-
chester, and Dr. Story, and Dr. Cooke. So tlie she-
riff's men delivered my warrant and me to the bishop.
Then the bishop asked me what my name was. ' ]\Iy
name, (said I,) is Richard Woodman.'
" So after a very lengthy examination he, at last, pro-
fessed great kindness for me.
" Chichester.—' I protest before God, I would you
should do as well as mine own soul and body. Be con-
tented to be reformed. God hath done his part on you.
Cast not yourself away. Remember your wife and chil-
dren, and tlie poor that lack your occupying. Follow
your vocation. Remember you are not called to be
a teaclier nor a preacher. St. Paul saith, ' Let every
man walk vvherein he is called, and therein abide.' Re-
member you are called to another vocation, for God's
sake walk therein. It is not your office to do as you
have done. You might do as much good as any man
might do in all the country, by your example ; and, if
you would follow the laws of the catholic cliurch, it
wo'dd bean occasion to bring a great many into the true
church, that are out, as you are.'
" Woodman. — ' I would not that you should say,
that I am out of the church of God, for I am not, but do
allow the church of God according to his word. Yea, if
I were abroad, and could win any into the true church,
that are out, by any means that 1 could, I v.-ouldbe very
glad. For God knoweth I love all people as myself.
And where you say I have been a preacher, it is not so.
I never took any such thing upon me, as it is well
known. But as for teaching, I cannot deny : for it
becomes every man to teach and instruct his household
in the fear of God, and all others as far as he can, that
desire it of him. And where you have blamed me for
reading the scriptures, and leaving my vocation, I left not
my vocation in reading the scriptures. For I trust I
followed my vocation the better for it. And the greatest
cause that I was compelled to read the scriptures, was,
becaiise the preachers and teachers were so change-
able.'
" Chichester. — ' No, did you not preach at a fair ?'
"Woodman. — ' No surely, but it was so reported. I was
at a fair indeed. While I was in prison, I had leave of the
council to go home and pay my debts, and then 1 went to a
fair to sell cattle, and tliere met some j)oor men that I
had set to work, and they from love asked me how I did,
and how I got away from imi)risonment. And I shewed
them how God had dealt with me, and how he would deal
with all them that put tluir trust in hiui ; and this they
called preaching. And since that, it hath been reported
that I have bajitised children and married folks, which I
never did, for I was never a minister. And if I had so
done, I had done contrary to the order of the apostles, as
God forbid I should.'
" C:hichester. — ' I have heard say the contrary.'
"Woodman. — ' I have shewed you the truth, and no
man hving shall be able to prove the contrary.'
" Chichester. — ' You said you did not disallow the
true catholic church.'
" Woodman. — ' No, that I do not.'
" Chichester. — • Why do you not then go to the
church ? You ccme not there, I am informed.'
" Woodman. — ' I trust I am in the true church every
day. But to tell you the truth. I come not to the cliurch
where the most resort. For if I should, I should offend,
and be otTended. For the last time I was there, I offended
many, and was offended myself. Wherefore, for con-
science sake I would not come there. Wherefore look
you to it, for I am now in your hands, and you ought to
be a house of defence against mine enemies. For if you
sutler them to kill me, my blood shall be required at
your hands. If you can find any just cause in me worthy
of deatli, by God's word, you may condemn me yourself,
and not off'end God : wherefore look to it. deUver me
not into their hands.'
" Chichester.—' I tell you truth, I can do little in the
matter ; but I will send for you and talk with you.'
"Then he desired the sheriffs men to tarry din-
ner with him ; but this man, said he, may dine with
me also : so we tarried diimer with him, and had no
further talk pertaining to me for the space of two hours
or more ; but he conversed with me, how 1 understood
many scriptures, and about bishops' and priests' marri-
ages, and whether St. Paul had a wife or not. I answered,
' It is a thing that I have little to do with, as concern-
ing marriage ; but I am very well content to talk with
you in the matter, as far as my poor learning will serve.'
So when he had talked with me of several scriptures, he
liked my remarks well. He asked me how I said of St.
Paul, whether he were married or not ? I answered, ' I
can prove by the scriptures that he was never married.' "
" Chichester. — ' How prove you tliat."
" Woodman. — ' I will jirove it well enough, by God's
help. But yet I will prove that St. Paul might have had a
wife, as well as the other apostles had.'
" Chichester. — ' \Miat, had the apostles wives ?'
" Woodman. — ' Yes, all, save Paul and Barnabas, as
I understand ir. For these are Paul's words, ' Am I not
an apostle ? am I not free ? have I not seen Jesus Christ
our Lord .' are not ye my work in the Lord .' if I be not
an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you ; for
the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine
answer to them that do examine me is this ; Have we not
power toeat and to drink ? have we not power to lead about
a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the bre-
thren of the Lord, and Cephas ? or I only and Barnabas,
have not we power to forbear working ?' 1 Cor. ix. 1 — 6.
So this text proves that Paul and Barnabas were un-
married. But Paul declares that the rest had wives, and
that they had power likewise so to have, but they found
no need of it. He also declares, in the seventh chapter
of the same epistle, tliat he that hath no power over his
own flesh, may marry ; ' For it is better to marry than
to burn.' ' Wherefore to avoid fornication,' saith he,
' let every man have his wife.' He saith, ' Let every man
have his wife, and every woman her husband.' By this
place of scripture I understand, that bisliops and priests
may have wives, because they are men. But I tliink
verily, he that can abstain,' having jiower over his own
will, doth best ; but if he marries he sinneth not.'
" So then he debated the scriptures with me, that a
bishop or a priest ought not to have a wife : but I proved
by several scriptures both in the old law and in the new,
that women were at first made for the help of men, which
was spoken generally to all men. ' Wherefore,' said I,
' every man may live with a woman, and sin not, in honest
matrimony, as well bislio))s and deacons, as other men,
which you call priests, if they are true ministers of
Jesus Christ, and of that order that bisliops and deacons
were in Paul's time. For Paul declares to Timothy, ' that
a bishop should be the iiusband of one wife,' and how
they should be honestly a])i)arelled, and how they should
bring up their children, and likewise the deacons. This,
said I, proves more plainly, that both bishops and deacons
had wives in the apostles' time, which he could not
deny. But then he alleged, that no bishop nor priest
I mi^ht take a wife, after he had taken upon Lim that offic«
A.D. 1557.]
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN,
949
but if he had a wife before he tooK the office, he miglit
keep his wife, and bring up his cliildreii according to St.
Paul's meaning to Timothy.
" Woodman. — ' I think Paul's meaning in that place,
was, that a man that has had two wives might not be made
a bishop nor a deacon. But that place makes not that a
bishop or a deacon may not marry, after they are made
bishops and deacons. For I am sure that Paul was in
the state of a bishop, when he said. He had power to lead
about a sister, a wife, as well as the other apostles had.
Here Paul declareth, that it was in his power to have a
wife, after he had the office of a bishop, which was not in
his jiower, if he had been forbidden of God. Thus have
I shewed you my mind in this behalf, both of Paul, and
also for the marriages of bishops and priests, as 1 under-
stand the scriptures. However, it is a thing which I
have little to do with ; but as you required me to give
you my mind in that matter, so I have done.
" Chichester. — ' I am glad that you have said as you
have done. Many affirm boldly, that Paul had a wife,
and yet cannot prove whether he had or not, by the scrip-
tures ; but you have said very well. I am glad that you
are contented to be ruled by God's word. And if you
will be contented likewise in other matters, no doubt you
shall do well ; therefore, gentle Woodman, be ruled.
God hath given you a good understanding. 1 protest be-
fore God, I would you should do as well as mine own
soul and my body, and so would all the worshipful men
ia the country, as they have reported to me.'
" Woodman, — ' Why, my lord, I take God to record,
whom I trust to serve, that I would be as glad to live in
rest and peace as any man in all the world, if I might.
And I am contented to be reformed of any thing that I
hold, if it can be proved that it be not agreeable to God's
word. And the truth is so, I have talked with a dozen
priests at least, since I was delivered out of prison, and
tney have not been able to certify me in any thing that I
have asked them ; and tlierefore they have complained
to the sheriff and justices, making tales and lies on me,
to turn me to displeasure. I promise you, there are as
many unlearned priests in your diocese, as in any one
diooesp m England I think, the more it is to be lamented.
" Chichester. — ' I promise you, I do much lament it
myself; for I hear say no less, and it is true what you say.
I would I could remedy it, but I cannot ; but 1 will do
the best that I can when I come into the country, and I
will be glad to talk with you some other time, when I am
somewhat better at ease. You see I am very tender now;
as I have been this half year and more. Come to dinner,
our dinner is ready. 1 caused you not to tarry for any
great cheer that you shall have, nor would 1 you should
think that I go about to win you with my meat. But
you are welcome with all my heart. Come sit down.'
" I thanked him and went to dinner ; and there dined
with him a merchant-man, one of the sheriffs men, and
I. and no more, and we had good cheer, God be praised.
We had no talk of the scriptures all the dinner while ;
but when dinner was done, the bishop said,
" Chichester. — ' Now call Doctor Story's man. For
the commissioners have committed you to prison : but I
will send for you before long, and I pray God I may do
you good. I would be very glad of it.'
" Woodman. — ' If it please you to send forme, I shall
be very glad to talk witli you, for I like your talk well.
And then if it jilease your lordship to examine me upon
any particular matter, I will shew you my mind therein,
by God's grace, without dissimulation. But I pray you
let me have nothing to do with Doctor Story, for he is a
man without reason.'
" Chichester. — ' Well, before vou go, how say you to
the seven sacraments ? Let me hear what you say to
them, that I may be the more willing to send for you
again.'
" Woodman. — ' I know not seven sacraments.'
" Chichester. — ' Then what shall I talk with you ?
How many do you know ?'
" Woodman. — ' I know but two; one the sacrament
of baptism, and the other the supper of the Lord. But
if you can justly prove by God's word, that there are
more than two, I stand to be convinced.'
" Chichester. — ' If I prove not seven by God's word»
then believe me not :' and so he bade me farewell.
" Then the sheriff's two men, and one of Doctor Story's
men, carried me to Doctor Cook, who commanded them to
carry me to the sheriff's prison ; saying, he shall be call-
ed before us again shortly and all his fellows, and
we shall dispatch them from troubling the country any
more.
"And so I was brought to theMarshalsea, where I now
am cheerful, God be praised, looking for the judgment of
my flesh ; for they intend to dispatch me shortly, if God
will gHve them leave ; but God hath their hearts in his
hands, and they can do nothing to me, but as God will
give them leave. Wherefore I commit my cause to God
only, and I am sure there shall not one hair of my head
perish without my heavenly Father's will, although I
bear never so much touble. For if we live, we live at
the Lord's will, and if we die, we die to the Lord's will,
so, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's, blessed be
his name there for.
" Wherefore, dear brethren and sisters, to whom this
my writing shall come, be of good cheer, and fear not
what man can do unto you. For they can but kill the
body ; but fear Him that hath power to kill both body
and soul. And yet once again I bid you be of good cheer.
For the sheriff, with several other gentlemen and priests,
whilst I was at the sheriff s house, said to me, that all the
heretics in the country hung on me, as the people did ia
times past upon St. Augustine or St. Ambrose, or such
like. ' Wherefore,' said they, ' look well to it, you have a
great thing to answer for.' To which I answered, ' I pray
that God may lay nothing more to my charge, than he
will do for heresy,' as I am sure he will not. For he
hath set my sins as far from me, as it is from the east to
the west : so that I am sure they shall never come near
to me any more ' It is their imagination and thought,
that if they might win me to them, they should win a
great many likewise: and thinking to kill me, if they
cannot win me, as I trust in God, and am sure they shall
never, by God' grace,if it were possible for them to kill me
ten times. For 1 am so linked to Christ in a chain by faith,
that it is impossible for men to lose us asunder, neither
for life nor death, for which I praise my Lord God. And no
doubt their full intent and purpose ii to kill me, thinking
thereby to make others afraid. Which death of my body
were best of all for me, if God were so pleased. But if
I may live for the comfort of others, his name be praised,
I know what he can do ; but what he will do I know not.
But if death be offered me, so that I cannot refuse it
without displeasing of God, I trust in God I shall not
offend my brethren in receiving of death, but shall be
rather an occasion of the strengthening of their faith, by
choosing and receiving of it, and that with joy. For as
Christ hath given his life for us, so ought we to give our
lives for the defence of the gospel, and comfort of our
brethren. And whereas the bishop saith, he will prove
seven sacraments, be you out of doubt he shall never be
able to do it, no more than he hath proved other argu-
ments with me already."
The second E.raminafion of Richard Woodman before
the Bishop of Chichester, tiro of his Chaplains; and
Doctor Story, on the 21 th of April.
" After this I was sent for on the 27th of April, to
the bishop of Chicliester ; and when we were in the
bishop's hall, we had not tarried long, when the bishop
sent for me : and when I came before him, 1 did my duty
to him as much as I could.
" Chichester. — ' You are welcome ; how do you do V
" Woodman. — ' Well, I praise God, thanking your
lordship for the gentle talk that you had with me at my
last departing from you.'
" Chichester.—' How say you respecting the seven
sacraments ? for there we left off, and there we will be-
giti agam. You said then tliere were but two. How
say you now to it .' will you deny all saving two ."
" Woodman. — ' I say now as I said then. You said
there are seven sacraments ; and I said, I knew but two ;
but if you could prove seven by God's word, when I came
950
THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
[Book XII.
before you again, I must needs grant them. And you
said, if you could not prove them by God's word, I should
not believe them ; and now I am come to see how well
you can prove them.' (With this he was moved to anger,
and all his cliaplaiiis.)
" Chichester. — ' By God and my truth I believe he
thinks I cannot prove them. How say you to the sacra-
ment of matrimony ?'
" Woodman. — ' Why, my lord, St. Paul s;iiti) toTitnn-
thy, a bishop should be faultless, and you use much
swearing, w-hich is a great fault in a bishop, of all others,
who should be an exauiple to the flock.' Then he and
his ])relates were in a great rage with me, because I re-
proved him for his swearing.
"Chichester. — 'What! I perceive this man is worse
than he was the last day : what, he takes ujion him to
teach me to speak, as though I could not tell what I had
to do.'
" Priest. — ' So methinks, my lord, he is as stout a
fellow indeed, as we have seen.'
" Woodman. — ' Yea, I am stout, because I do what
1 am commanded. I dare not for my life hold my
jieace : for I should bear your sin, which I will not do
lor any of you all, I tell you plainly.'
" Chichester. — ' Where find you that you are com-
manded to reprove me?'
" Woodman. — ' If thou see thy brother sin, reprove
him : if he repent, thou hast won thy brother.'
" Chichester. — ' I will never talk with him more. Go
call Doctor Story ; let him do with him what he will.
He hath been with his fellows in the Marshalsea, and now
he is worse than he was before. I had some hope in him
the other day, but now I see none.'
" Woodman. — ' No, I praise God, my faith hangs not
upon men, but upon God.'
" Priest. — ' Nay, my lord, I think he is not the worse
for them : but I fear they are the worse for him.'
" Woodman. — ' Well, my lord, look well to it : will
you deliver me to other men to shed my blood, and so
think to wash your hands of me, as Pilate did by Christ .'
Nay, you cannot be so discharged.'
" Chichester. — ' I have nothing to do with you ; but
of my gentleness 1 have sent for you, because you said
you would declaj-e your mind in any particular manner I
would demand of you.'
" Woodman. — ' Why, I do not refuse to do so, if you
demand it of me.'
" Chichester. — ' I am not consecrated yet : wlierefore,
my lord cardinal may examine you, and condemn you,
or ray lord of London ; for you are now in his diocese.'
" Woodman. — • Yea, my lord, is the matter even so .'
Then I perceive whereabout you go. You accuse me
to others, and they go about to kill me.'
" Chichester. — ' I go not about to kill you, but would
be glad to hear your mind on the sacraments, and if you
understand them not aright, I would be glad with all my
heart to show you how I understand them.'
"Woodman. — 'If you would talk with me to do me
good, 1 would be content to hear you, and show you my
mind : otherwise I would be loath.'
" Chichester. — ' Nay, I will promise you, if I can do
you no good, I will do you no harm. How say you to
the sacrament of matrimony .' is it a sacrament or not ?
How think you by it ?'
" Woodman.—' I think it is a holy institution ordained
of God in paradise, and so to continue to the world's
end.'
" Chichester. — ' Lo, now you .shall see how you are
deceived in that, as you are in all the rest. Come hither.
You can read Latin, I am sure.'
" Woodman. — 'Yea, I can read Latin, but I under-
stand very little.'
" Chichester — ' Come to me ; you shall see that St. Paul
calleth it a holy sacrament. For these are the words,
' For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,
and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be
one flesh. This is a great sacrament.' '
"Woodman. — 'I remember such a saying, but St.
Paul calls it not a sacrament. But he saith, ' It is a
great mystery.' '
" Chichester. — ' Where saith he so ? '
" Woodman. — ' I am not sure in what text it is, but
I am sure these are St. Paul's words, and that he calls
it not a sacrament in all his writings.'
" Chichester. — ' What ! the last day ye were full of
scriptures, — here it is written ! and there it is written !
We can rehearse the scriptures as well as you. Where-
fore, if we are sure it is written, it is no great matter for
the place. Come hither, I will shew you the place.'
" Woodman. — ' I looked, and it was written in the
Latin xacrameutum, and a great mystery in the English
translation.'
" Cliichester. — ' I grant it to be a mystery. What is a
mystery."
" Woodman. — 'A mystery is unseen : for Paul saith,
he speaks concerning Christ and the church. So the
great mystery that he speaks of, I take to be the faith of
ihem that are married, which is hid in Clirist, which we
see not, but Christ. But the deed which is in the church,
which is the outward marriage, we see, but the inward
marriage of the heart we see not. Wherefore Paul
calls it a mystery. And therefore, if it be a sacrament,
it is invisible to us ; it is not seen as other sacraments
are.'
" Chichester. — ' Nay, I tell you it is a visible sacra-
ment, seen as the others are ; for is not the marriage
seen ? are not the man and woman seen .''
" Woodman. — ' My lord, I pray you, what is a sacra-
ment ?'
" Chichester. — ' It is a sign of a holy thing.'
" 'W^oodman. — ' Methinks you have certified me very
well. There need not be a sign of a holy thing, where
the holy thing is itself present.' (Then his chaplains
would have interrujited me.) 'There nreds not be a
sign of a thing where the thing itself is present. Ma-
trimony is a holy thing itself, and is euae"d outwardly,
and needs no more signs but themselves ; wherefore it
cannot be a sacrament as others are.'
" Chichester. — ' Follovv your vocation ; you have a
little learning. We have an altar, whereof you may
not eat. What means St. Paul thereby .''
" Woodman. — ' There is no man so foolish as to eat
stones, I trow.'
" Chichester. — ' What a mocker and scorner you are,
to say no man will be so foolish as to eat stones ? It is
a plaiu mockery.'
" Woodman. — ' Why, my lord, you said I had no
learninsr, nor understanding. Wherefore it becomes you
to make things more plain to me, and not to ask me
such dark questions, and yet blame me too ; methinks
it is too much.'
" Chichester. — ' I dare say you know what it means
well enough. The greatest fool in my house will un-
derstand my meaning better than you do.'
" There stood some of his men not far off, talking to-
gether beside a window. He called one of them by his
name.
" Chichester. — ' Come hither. I say to thee, thou
shalt not eat of this table. What do I mean thereby .''
" The man. — ' My lord, you would not have me eat
of this table,' laying his hand upon it. With this an-
swer he made all them in the house to laugh, and I could
not refrain, b>it burst out with laughter and said : —
" ' He hath expounded the matter almost as well
as I.'
" Chichester. — ' He meaneth well enough, if you
would understand him. Answer me again, to make it
more ))lain. I say to thee, thou shalt not eat of this
table. What mean I thereby.''
" The Man. — ' That you would not have me eat this
table.'
" These words made them all laugh. Wherewith the
bishop was almost angry, because the answer proved no
better, and said —
"Chichester. — ' He means that I would not have him
eat any of the meat that is set upon this table. How
sayest thou .' Dost thou not mean so ?'
"The Man. — 'Yes, my lord, that was my meaning
indeed.'
" Woodman. — ' Yea, my lord, now you have told
A.D. 1507.1
THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
951
him what you mean, he can say so too ; and so couhl
I have done, as little wit as I have, if you had said, St.
Paul meant that no man might eat of that which was
offered upon the altar, but the jjriests.'
" Chichester. — ' Well, let this matter pass, and let us
turn to the principal again. How say you to the sacra-
ment of the altar ?'
" Woodman. — ' You mean the sacrament of the body
and blood of Jesus Christ.'
" Chichester. — ' I mean the sacrament of the altar,
and so I say.'
" Woodman. — ' You mean Christ to be the altar, do
you not ?'
" Chichester. — ' I mean the sacrament of the altar in
the church. What, is it so strange to you ?'
" M'oodmaii. — ' It is strange to me indeed, if you
mean tiie altar of stone.'
" Chichester. — ' It is that altar that I mean.'
"Woodman. — ' I understand not the altar so.'
" Chichester, — ' No, I think so indeed : and that is the
cause that you are deceived. I pray you, how do you
understand the altar then ?'
" Woodman. — ' If you will give me leave till I have
done, I will shew you how I understand the altar, and
where it is.'
" Chichester. — ' Yes, you shall have leave to say your
mind as much as you will.'
" Woodman. — ' It is written, ' That if any two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that ye shall
ask, it shall be done for you of my Father which is in
heaven. For where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' — Matt.
xviii. IS), 20. Agreeing with the fifth of Matthew
where Christ says, ' If thou bring thy gift to the altar,
and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught
against thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and
go tiiy way : first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and otTer thy gift.' (The priests would have in-
terrupted me, but the bishop bade them let me alone.)
' 1 pray you let me make an end, and then find fault with
me if you can. Now to the matter. In these two
places of scripture, I prove that Christ is the true altar,
whereon every true man and woman ought to come and
offer their gifts. First, wheresoever the people are
gathered together in Christ's name, there is he in the
midst ; and where he is, there is the altar, so that we
may be bold to come and offer our gift, if we are in love
and charity : if we are not, we must leave there our
offering, and go first and be reconciled to our brother,
and agree with him quickly, and so forth, and then come
and offer the gift. Say in thy heart, without dissi-
mulation, that thou askest God and all the world for-
giveness from the bottom of thy heart, intending never
to offend tliem any more. Then all such may be bold
to come and offer their gift, their prayer on the altar,
where the people of God are gathered together. Thus
have I shewed you my mind, both of the altar, and of
the offering, as I understand it.'
" Chichester. — ' Do you understand the offering and
the altar so ? T never heard any man understand it so,
no, not Luther the great heretic, who was condemned by
a general council, and his picture burned.'
" Woodman. — ' If he were a heretic, he understood
it not so indeed: but I am sure all christians ought to
understand it so.'
"Chichester. — 'Who shall be judge betwixt us in
this matter ?'
" Woodman. — ' The 12th of John declareth who shall
be judge in the last day.'
" Chichester. — ' You mean the word shall judge the
word. How can that be ?'
" Woodman. — ' St. Peter saith, the scripture hath no
private interpretation. But one scripture must be un-
derstood by another.'
" Chichester. — ' You will understand it one way, and
I will understand it another way : and who shall be
judge betwixt us then ?'
" Woodman. — ' The true church of God is able to
solve all doubts ; to whom I refer it.'
" Chichester. — ' I am glad you say so, if you will say
so indeed.'
" Woodman. — ' My lord, I never meant otherwise.'
" Cliidiester. — ' The church of God allows the sacra-
ment of the altar.'
" Woodman. — ' What do you offer now upon the
altar ?'
" Chichester. — ' We offer up in the blessed sacrament
of the altar, the body of Christ to pacify the wrath of
God the Father.'
" Woodman. — ' St. Paul saith to the Hebrews, in the
tenth cliapter. We are sanctified by the offering of the
body of Jesus Clirist upon the cross once for all ; and
every priest is daily ministering, and oftentimes offers
one manner of offering, which can never take away sins ;
and that is the offering tliat you use to offer. As far as
I can see, you are priests after the order of Aaron, who
offered up sacrifice for their own sins, and the sins of
the people.'
" Then they made a great laughing, and said ;
' This is an heretic, indeed, it is time he was burned.'
Which words moved my spirit, and I said to th€m,
' Judge not, lest you be judged. For as you judge me,
you shall be judged yourselves. For what you call heresy,
I serve God truly with, as you all shall well know, when
you shall be in hell, and have blood to drink, and shall
be compelled to say for pain, ' This was the man that we
jested on, and whose talk we thought foolishness, and
his end to be without honour : but now we may see how
he is counted among the saints of God, and we are
punished.' These words shall you say, being in hell, if
you repent not with speed, if you consent to the shed-
ding of my blood : wherefore look to it, I give you coun-
sel."
" Story. — ' I can say nothing to him, but he is a
heretic. I have heard him talk this hour and a half, and
can hear no reasonableness in him.'
" Woodman. — ' Judge not, lest you be judged : for as
you judge, you shall be judged yourself.'
"Story. — * W^hat, are you a preaching? you shall
preach at a stake shortly with your fellows. My lord,
trouble yourself no more with him.'
" With those words, one brought word that the abbot
of Westminster was come to dine with the bishop, and
many other gentlemen and ladies. Then there was
rushing away with speed to meet him. Then said Dr.
Story to my keeper :
" ' Carry him to the Marshalsea again, and let him
be kept close, and let nobody come to speak with
him.'
" And so they departed. Then one of the priests be-
gan to flatter me, and said, ' For God's sake remember
yourself. God hath given you a good wit : you have
read the scriptures well, and have borne them we'll in
memory. It were a great pity you should do amiss.'
"Woodman. — 'What a flatterer you are, to say my
wit is good, and that I have read the scriptures well ;
and but even now you said I was an heretic, and despised
me. If I be an heretic, I can have no good wit as you
have confessed. But I think your own conscience doth
accuse you. God give you grace to repent, if it be his
will.'
"After this, on the 12th of May, I was brought be-
fore Dr. Langdale, when we had a long conference, of
which the following was a part :
" Langdale. — ' What think you of them that have died
long ago, your grandfather, with their fathers before
you ? You judge them to be damned.'
"Woodman. — 'I judge no man. But the 12th of
John declares, who it is that judges, and who shall
judge at the last day. The father shall not bear the
son's offences, nor the son the father's oflences ; but that
soul that sinneth shall die, as saith the prophet. And
again, we may not follow a multitude to do evil, as saith
the prophet. And Christ saith in the 12th of Luke, that
his flock is a little flock.'
" Langdale.— ' What ! you are full of scriptures me-
thinks, and you call for your accusers, as though you
were afraid to utter your mind to me. But I would h»T«
952
THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
[Book XII.
you not to be afraid to talk with me ; for I mean no
more liurt to you, than I do to myself, I talce God to re-
cord.'
" Woodman. — ' I cannot tell, it is hard trusting to fair
wordi. When a man cannot trust his father nor brother,
nor others that have been bis familiar friends, bnt finds
they deceive him, a man may lawfully follow the e.xami>le
of Christ towards them that he never saw before, saying,
Be as wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Be-
ware of men, for they go about to betray you And it
makes me susjiect you much, because you blame me far
answering with the scrijjtures.' Then they entered into
a long examination respecting baptism, and afterwards
about the sacrament of the altar, as it was called.
" Langdale. — ' Well, how say you to the sacrament of
the altar?'
" Woodman. — ' I say, I know no such sacrament, un-
less Christ be the altar that you mean.'
" Langdale. —' Did not Judas eat the body of Christ ?
How say you ? Did he not ?'
" Woodman. — ' Well, how say you yourself? Did
Judas eat the body of Christ, or not ?'
" Langdale. — ' Yea, I say Judas did eat the bodv of
Christ.'
"Woodman. — 'Then it must needs follow, that Ju-
das hath everlasting life^ For Christ saith in the sixth of
John, ' Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
hath eternal life, and J will raise him up at the lust day.'
If Judas did eat Christ's body, I am sure you cannot
deny but that he did eat both his flesh, and drink his
blood, and then Judas is saved by Christ's own words.
Therefore, now you are compelled to say that it was not
Christ's body, or else that Judas is saved. Let us see
how you can avoid this argument.'
" Langdale. — ' Judas is damned, and yet he ate the
body of Christ : but he ate it unworthily ; and, therefore,
he is damned.'
" Woodman. — ' Where find you that Judas did eat the
body of Christ unworthily ?'
" Langdale. — ' They are St. Paul's words. 1 Cor.
chap, xi.'
" Woodman. — ' I desire you, for God's sake, mark my
words. If St. Paul speak any such words there, or in
any other place ; if there be any such words written in
the whole Bible, that ever man did eat the body of Christ
unworthily, then say that I am the falsest man that ever
you heard speak. These are the words of St. Paul,
Whoso eateth this bread, and drinketh this cup unwor-
thily, eateth and drinketh his own damnation, because he
discerneth not the Lord's body ; that is, because he pre-
sumes to eat the sacrament of the Lord's body without
faith, making no difference betwixt the sacrament and
other bread and drink. And that is St. Paul's meaning,
and not that any man doth or can eat the body of Christ
unworthily. For whoever eateth the body of Christ,
hath everlasting life, as is said in Xhe sixth of John.'
"Langdale. — ' I will never talk with him more; for
he is the most unreasonable man that ever I talked with
in all my life.'
After this he was dismissed, and again examined three
times : the last examination he thus details : —
"Be it known unto all men, by this present writing,
that I, Ricliard Woodman, sometime of the parish of
Warbleton, in the county of Sussex, was condemned for
God's everlasting trutli, July 16th, L').57, by the bishop
of Winchester, in the church of St. Mary Overy's, in
Souil wark, tliere sitting with him at the same time the
bishii)i of Chicliester, the archdeacon of Canterbury,
Doctor Langdale, Master Roper, with a fat priest, I
canTiot tell his name. All these consented to the shed-
ding of my blood, upon this occasion, as hereafter
follows.
" I affirmed, that Judas received the sacrament with
a sop and tlie devil at the same time ; and because I
would not be swnrn upon a book, to answer directly to
such articles as he would declare to me ; and because I
would not believe that there remained neither bread nor
wine after the words of consecration, and that the body
of Christ could not be received by any but the faithful ;
I was condemned.
" Winchester. — ' You were before us on Monday last
past ; and there you affirmed certain heresies. How say
you now ? Do you hold tliem still, or will you revoke
them ?'
" Woodman. — ' I held no heresies then, neither do I
now, as the Lord knoweth.'
" Winchester. — ' No. Did you not affirm, that Judas
received bread ? which is an heresy.'
" Woodman. — ' Is it heresy to say, Judas received
no more than bread ? I said, he ri'n,ivi;j nioiv tuau
bare bread, for he received the sacram.-nt that was pre-
pared to shew forth the Lord's death, and because he
presumed to eat without faith, he received the devil with
it, as the words of Christ declare ; after he ate the sop,
the devil entered into liim, as you cannot deny.'
" Winchester. — ' Hold him a book. 1 will have you
answer directly, whether Judas did eat the body of
Christ or not ?'
" Woodman. — ' I will answer no more, for I am not of
your diocese.'
" Chicliester. — ' I pray you let us hear your faitli.'
" Woodman. — ' I do believe in God the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things
visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jeius Christ, my
Saviour, very God, and very man. I believe in God the
Holy Ghost, the comforter of all God's elect people, and
that he is equal with the Father and the Son. I believe
in the true catholic church, and all the sacraments that
belong thereto. Thus have I rendered account of my
hope that I have of my salvation.'
" Winchester. — ' And how believe you in the blessed
sacrament of the altar ?'
" Woodman. — ' I pray you be contented, for I will not
answer to any more questions ; for I perceive you go
about to shed my blood.'
" Winchester. — 'No, hold him a book. If he refuse
to swear, he is an anabaptist, and shall be excommu-
nicated.'
" Woodman. — ' I will not swear for you, excommu-
nicate me if you will.'
" Winchester. — ' I will have to do with thee, and I
say thou art a strong heretic'
" Woodman. — ' Yea, all truth is heresy with you ; but
I am content to shew you my mind, how I believe in the
sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, with-
out flattering. I will not meddle with any other man's
belief on it.'
" Harpsfield. — ' Why, I am sure all men's faith ought
to be alike.'
"Woodman. — 'Y'ea, I grant you so, that all true
Christians' faith ought to be alike. But I will answer
for myself.'
" Harpsfiehl. — ' Well, let us hear what you say to it.'
" Woodn)an. — ' I do believe, that when I come to
receive the sac-ament of the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, if it be truly ministered according to Christ's
institution, I coming in faith, as I trust in God I will
whensoever I come to receive it, I believing that Christ
was born for me, and that he suffered death for the re-
mission of my sins, and that I shall be saved by his
death and blood-shedding, and do receive the sacrament
of bread and wine in that remembrance, that then I do
receive, mystically by faith, a whole Christ, God and
man : this is my belief on the sacrament.'
" Priest. — ' What a fool art thou, ' mystically by faith ?•
thou canst not tell what mystical is.'
" Woodman. — ' If I be a fool, so take me. But God
hath chosen such fools of this world to confound such
wise men as you are.'
" Priest. — ' I pray thee, what is mystically ?'
" Woodman. — ' I take mystically to be the faith that
is in us, that the world seeth not, but God only.'
" Winchester. — ' He cannot tell what he saith. Answer
to the sacrament of the altar, whether it is not the body
of Christ before it is received, and whether it is not the
body of Christ to all who receive it ? Tell me, or else
I will excommunicate thee.'
"Woodman. — ' I have said as much as I will say,
excommunicate me if you will. I am none of your
diocese. The bishop of Chichester is mine ordinary.
A.D.1557.1
THE LAST EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WOODMAN.
953
Let him do il, if you will needs have ni}' hlood, that it
may be required at his hands.'
" Chichester. — ' I am not consecrated yet, I told you
when you were with me.'
" Then spake the bishop of Winchester and the arch-
deacon of Canterbury, saying : ' We go not about to
condemn thee, but to save thy soul, if thou wilt be ruled,
and do as we would have thee.' ,
"Woodman. — 'To save niv soul? nay, you cannot
save my soul. My soul is saved already. I praise God
for it. There can no man save my soiil, but Jesus
Christ ; and he it is that has saved my soul, before the
foundation of the world was laid.'
" Priest. — ' What an heresy is that, my lord, here
is an heresy. He saith his soul was saved before the
foundations of the world were laid. Thou canst not tell
what thou sayest. Was thy soul saved before it was .''
" Woodman. — ' Yes. I praise God, I can tell what I
say, and I say the truth. Look in the first of the Ephe-
sians, and there you shall find it, wliere Paul saith,
' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, accordins; as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love.'
Ephesians i. 3, 4. These are the words of St. Paul, and I
believe they are most true. And therefore, it is my faith, in
and by Jesus Christ, that saves, and not you, or any man.'
" Priest. — ' What*? Faitli witliout works ? St. James
saith, ' Faith without works is dead,' and we have free
will to do good works.'
"Woodman. — ' I would not that any of you should
think, that I disallow good works. For a good faith
cannot be without good works.' Yet not of ourselves,
but it is the gift of God, as saith St. Paul to the Philip-
pians, ii. 1.'5, ' For it is God vshich worketh in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure.' '
"Winchester. — 'Make an end; answer to me. Here
is your ordinary, the archdeacon of Canterbury ; he is
made your ordinary by my lord cardinal, and he hath
authority to examine you of your faith upon a book, to
answer to such articles as he will lay to you. And I pray
you refuse it not ; for the danger is great if you do.'
" Woodman. — ' I know not so much. If you will give
me time to learn the truth of it, if it be as you say, I will
tell you my mind in any thing that he shall demandof me.'
" Priest. — ' All that my lord and we tell thee is truth.'
" Woodman. — ' I will believe none of you all, for
you are tui'ncoats and changelings, neither hot nor cold,
as saith St. John.'
" Winciiester. — ' What, are we turncoats and change-
lings, what meanest thou by that ?'
" Woodjuan. — ' I mean, that in King Edward's time
you taught the doctrine that was sent forth then, every
one of you, and now you teach the contrary ; and there-
fore I call you turncoats and changelings, as I may truly.'
" Winchester. — ' He is the naughtiest heretic that
ever I knew. I will read the sentence against him.'
"Woodman. — 'Will you? why will you? you have
no just cause to excommunicate me ; and therefore, if
you condemn me, you will be condemned in hell, if you
repent not : and I praise God, I am not afraid to die
for God's sake, if I had a hundred lives.'
" Winchester — ' Well, how say j'ou ? will you confess
that Judas received the body of Christ unworthily? tell
me plainly.'
" Woudraan. — ' My lord, if you, or any of you all can
prove before all this audience in all the bible, that any man
ever ate the body of Christ unworthily ; tlien I will argue
■with you in all things that you will demind of me ; of the
which matter I desire all this people to be witness.'
" Priest. — ' Will you ? that we shall agree well enough.
St. Paul SRith so.'
" Woodman. — ' I pray you where saith he so? rehearse
the words.'
" Piit-st. — ' In the 11th chapter of the first to the
Corintliians, he saith : ' Whoso eateth of this bread, and
drinketh of this cup unworthily, eateth and driiiketh
his own damnation, because he maketh no ditlereiice of
the Lord's body."
"Woodman. — ' Do these words prove that Judas ate
the body of Christ unworthily ? I pray you let me see
them. Tliese are the words you said : eood people
hearken well to them, 'Whoso eateth of tliis bread,
and drinketh of this cvp, unworthily. He saith
not, whoso eateth of this body unworthily, or drinketh
of this blood unworthily : But he saith ; whoso eateth
of this bread, and drinketh of this cup unworthily (which
is the sacrament) eateth and drinketh damnation to him-
self, because he makes no difference between the sacra-
ment which represents the Lord's body, and other
bread and drink. Here, good jieople, you may all see
they are not able to prove their sayings true.'
" Winchester. — ' Thou art a rank heretic indeed. Art
thou an expounder ? Now I will read sentence against
thee.'
" Woodman. — ' Judge not, lest you be judged. For
as you have judged me, you shall be judged yourself.'
Then he read the sentence. ' Why,' said I, ' will you
read the sentence against me, and cannot tell wherefore ?'
" Winchester. — ' Thou art an heretic, and therefore
thou shalt be excommunicated.'
" Woodman. — ' I am no heretic, I take heaven and
earth to witness, I reject all heretics ; and if you con-
demn me, you will be damned, if you repent not. But
God give you grace to repent all, if it be his will.'
" And so he read forth the sentence in Latin, but what
he said, Godknowetli, and not 1. God be judge between
them and me. When he had done, I would have spoken
my mind to them, but they cried, ' Away, away with
him.' So I was carried to the Marshalsea again."
Extracts from a Godly Letter of Richard Woodman.
" Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and
from his Son, our alone Saviour, Jesus Christ, by the
operation and working of the Holy Ghost, be multiplied
plenteously upon you, dear sister Roberts, that you may
the more joyfully bear the cross of Christ that you are
under, unto the end, to your only comfort and consola-
tion, and to all our brethren and sisters that are round
about you, both now and ever. Amen.
" In my most humble wise I commend me unto you,
and to all our brethren and sisters in those parts, that
love our Lord unfeignedly, certifying you, tliat I and all
my brethren with me are cheerful and joyful, for which
we praise God, looking daily to be liberated from these
our mortal bodies, according to the good pleasure of our
heavenly Father ; praising God also for your constancy,
and gentle benevolence, that you have shewed to God's
elect people, in this troublesome time of persecution,
which may be a sure pledge and token of God's good-
will and favour towards you, and to all others that hear
thereof. For blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy. Wherefore the fruits declare always, what
the tree is. For a good man or woman, out of the good
treasure of their heart, bring forth good things.
" Oh, may not all people well perceive now that this
is the time that our master Christ speaks of, that the
father should be against the son, and the son against the
father, and one brother against another ! that the brother
shall deliver the brother to death : yea, and that the
wicked shall say all manner of wicked sayings against
us for his name's sake ? which I have well found by
experience, I praise God therefore, that he huth given
me strength to bear it. For I think there can oe no evil
devised but it hath been imagined against me, and that
by my familiar friends, as David saith : but 1 praise my
Lord God, they are not able to prove any of their
sayings true.
" But my trust is, that all the people of God will be
ruled by tlie counsel of St. John, saying, My siieej) will
hear my voice, strangers will they not hear: meaning
thereby, that ye should not believe strangers, cuuuti.ifj
them strangers that go about to subveit tlie go.spe.l. For
I have no distrust, by God's help, but that all the world
shall see and know that my blood shall not be dear in
mine own sight, whenever it i^liall please God to give my
adversaries leave to slied it. I do earnestly beliv-ve, that
God who hath begun this good work in me, will perform
it to the end, as he hath given me grace aud will alway,
954
THE AIARTYRDOM OF RICHARD LUSH, &c. &c.
[Book XII.
to bear this easy yoke and light burden ; which I have
always found, I praise my Lord God.
" For when I have been in prison, wearing at one time
bolts, sometime shackles, other times lying on the bare
ground, sometimes sitting in the stoi;ks, sometimes bound
with cords, tiiat all my body hath been swoln, much
like to 1)6 overcome for the pain that hath been in my
flesh, sometimes obliged to lie witiiout in tiie woods and
fields, wandering to and fro, few I say, that durst keej)
my company for fear of the rulers ; sometimes brought
before the justices, sheriffs, lords, doctors, and bishojis ;
sometinu'S called dog, devil, heretic, traitor, tiiief, de-
ceiver, witii divers other such like ; yea, and even they
who did eat of my bread, and who should have been
most my friends by nature, have betrayed me. Yet for
all this I praise my Lord God, tliat hath sei)arated me
from my motiier's womb, all this that hath happened
unto me hath been easy, light, and most joyful of any
treasure that ever I possessed ; for I praise God tliey are
not able to prove one jot or tittle of their sayings true.
But in that way which they call heresy, I serve my Lord
(jod, and at all times before whomsoever I have been
brought, (jod hath given me mouth and wisdom, which
all my adversaries have not been able to resist. I praise
God for it.
" Wherefore, dear sister, be of good comfort, with all
your bretiiren and sisters, and take no thought what you
shall say, for it shall be given you the same hour, accord-
ing to the promises, as I have always found, and as you
and as all other of God's elect shall well find, wlien
the time is full come. And whereas I and many others
have hoped, that this persecution would have been at
an end ere this time, now I perceive, God will have
a further trial to root out all dissemblers, that no man
should rejoice in himself, but he that rejoiceth shall
rejoice in God.
" Wherefore, if prophecy should fail, and tongues
should cease, yet love must endure. For fear hath pain-
fulness, but a perfect love casteth out all fear : which
iove I have no distrust of, but God hath poured it upon
you so abundantly, that nothing in the world shall be
able to separate you from God. Neither high nor low,
rich nor po&r, life nor death, sludl be able to put you
from Christ, but by him I trust you shall enter into the
new Jerusalem, there to live for ever, beholding the glorv
of God with the same eyes that you now have, a'id all
other faithful people that continue to the ena. Give all
honour and glory to God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, to
be honoured now and ever, Amen."
After these examinations, Richard Woodman was
judged by sentence of condemnation, and so deprived of
his life ; with him also were burned nine others, five men
and four women, at Lewes, on the 22nd of June, 1557.
The Martyrdom of Richard Lush.
In the registers of Gilbert, bishop of Bath and W^ells,
I find a certificate made to king Philip and queen Mary,
of one Richard Lush, there condemned and given to the
secular power to be burned for heresy, whose affirma-
tions in the certificate are as follow : —
" I. For denying the verity of the body and blood of
Christ, in the sacrament of the altar.
" 2. For denying auricular confession to be made to
the priest.
" 3. For affirming only to be three sacraments ; name-
ly, of baptism, of the Lord's supper, and of matrimony.
" 4. For refusing to call the Lord's supper by the
name of the sacrament of the altar.
" ."). For denying purgatory, and saying that prayer and
alms, profit not the dead body.
" (j. That images are not to be suffered in tlie church ;
and that all who kneel to images are idolaters.
" 7 . That they which were burned of late, for religion,
died God's servants and good martyrs.
" 8. For condemning the single life of priests, and
other votaries.
" y. For denying the universal and catholic church ;
meaning, belike, the churob of Rome."
For these assertions he was condemned, and com-
mitted to the sheriffs ; and also a certificate was directed
by the bishop to tlie king and queen. Whereby we
have to understand, that Richard Lush, thus condemned
l)y Bishop Brown, was there burned and executed ; un-
less, peradventure, in the mean season he died, or was
made away in the prison.
Simon Miller, Martyr at Norwich.
In tlie month of July, ensued the martyrdom of Simon
Miller. Tliis Simon, was of the town of Lynn, a godly and
zealous man in the knowledge of the Lord and of his truth,
detesting and abhorring tlie contrary religion then set
forth: he came from Lynn to Norwich, where, standing in
the hearing of the i)tople, coming out from their popish
service in the church, he began to ask them, where he
might go to have the communion. At which words,
(many much marvelling to hear and see his boldness,)
one that was an evil disposed papist, said, that if he
would needs go to a communion, he would bring him
where he should be forwarded in his purjiose. Upon
which he was brought to the chancellor of Norwich, who,
after a few words, committed him to prison.
In the meanwhile as he was in examination, he had in
his shoe-his confession, written on paper ; a piece a^.-
pearing above his shoe, it was seen and taken out. 'J'iie
chancellor, asking if be would stand to the confession of
the faith therein contained, he constantly affirmed it.
Upon this, he was committed, till the time arrived for
examination, when he constantly continued in his pur-
pose, and defence of God's truth; so he was condeinncd
and committed to the fire, about the loth of July.
Elizabeth Cooper, Martyr.
With this Simon IMiller also was burned one Elizabeth
Cooper, a pewterer's wife, dwelling in St. Andrew's
parish, in Norwich, where she had before recanted ; and
being greatly troubled inwardly, at last she came to St.
Andrew's church, the people being at their jiopish ser-
vice, and there standing up, she revoked her recantation
before made in that place, and was heartily sorry that
she ever did it, desiring the people not to be deceived,
or to take her doings before for an example, &c. These
or such like words she spoke in the church.
Then cried one Bacon, saying, " Master sheril7, will
you suffer this?" and repeating the same, urged him uj
go from the church to her house ; at his knocking she
came down, and was taken and sent to prison.
This good woman being condemned, was at the stake
with Simon Miller to be burned, when the fire came to
her, she a little shrunk at it, with a voice crying, " ha !"
When Simon Miller heard her, he put his hand behind
him toward her, and bid her to be strong and of good
courage : " For, good sister," said he, " we shall have a
joyful and a sweet supper." At this she being, as it
seemed, strengthened, stood as still and as quiet as one
most glad to finisli that good work whicii she had
begun.
So, at last, she ended her life with her companion
joyfully, committing her soul into the hands of Almighty
God.
The Martyrdom oj" Jive Men and five Women, at Col'
Chester.
^Mention was made a little before of twenty-two who
were sent up prisoners together from Colchester to Lon-
don ; who, through a gentle submission, were afterwards
released and delivered.
In the number of these twenty-two, was William
Muiit, of Muchbentley, in Essex, husbandman, with
Alice, his wife, and Rose Allen, his daughter ; who, com-
ing home again to their house, refrained themselves
from the service of the popish church, and frequented
the company of good men and women, who gave them-
selves diligently to reading, invocating, and calling upon
the name of God through Christ : by which tliey so
fretted the priest of the town, called Thomas Tye, and
A.D. 1557].
PERSECUTION OF WILLIAM MUNT AND OTHERS.
955
others like him, that casting their heads together, they
resolved to persecute these godly people.
Therefore Thomas Tye sought out where the perse-
cuted met. For, in the beginning of queen Mary's
reign, for a twelvemonth and more he came not to the
church, but frequented the company of godly men and
women ; but the sequel shewed him to be a false brother.
So partly knowing the places, he further inquired of
others about them ; and being sufficiently instructed for
his purpose, he wrote secretly to Bonner, bishop of London,
the following letter.
A Letter to Bonner, Bix/iop of London, from Thomas
Tye, Priest.
•' Right honourable lord, after my bounden duty, done
in most humble wise, these shall be to signify unto your
lordshi|) the state of our parts, concerning religion. And
first, since the coming down of the twenty-two heretics
dismissed from you, the detestable sort of schismatics were
never so bold since the king and queen s majesty's reign,
as they now are at this pitjent. In Muchbentley, where
your lordship is patron of the church, since William
ilunt, and Alice, his wife, with Ruse Allen, her daughter,
came liouie, they do not only aiisent themselves from the
church and service of God, but do daily allure many
others away from it, who before did outwardly shew signs
and tokens of obedience.
" Tliey assemble together upon the Sabbath day, in the
rin^'e of divine service, sometimes in one house, and
fcometimes in another, and there keep their privy con-
venticles and schools of heresy. The jurates say, the
lords' commission is out, and they are discharged of
their oath. The quest-men in your archdeacon's visita-
tion allee;e, that forasmu(-h as they were once )n'esented
and now sent home, they have no more to do with them,
nor anv other. Your officers say, namely, J.Iaster Boswel,
that the council sent them not lionie without a great con-
sideration. I pray God, some of our officers are not fa-
vourers of heretics. The rebels are stout in the town of
Colchester.
" The ministers of the church are coughed at in the
open streets, and called knaves. The blessed sacrament
of the altar is blasphemed and railed upon, in every
house and tavern. Prayer and fasting is not regarded.
Seditious talks and news are rife, both in town and
country, in as ample and large manner, as though
no honourable lords and commissioners had been sent for
refoi-mation tliereof. The occasion riseth ])artly by rea-
son of John Love, of Colchester-heath (a perverse ))lace ;)
which John Love was twice indicted of heresy, and
thereu}>on lied with his wife and household, and his
goods seized within the town of Colchester, to the king
and queen's majesty's use. Nevertheless, the said John
is come home again, and nothing said or done to him.
Whereupon the heretics are wonderfully encouraged, to
the no little discomfort of good and catholic people, who
aaily pray to God for the profit, unity, and restoration of
his church again : which thing shall come the sooner to
pass, through the travel and pains of such honourable
lords and reverend fathers, as your lordship is, unto
whom I wish long life and continuance, with increase of
much honour. From Colchester, the 18th of December.
" Your humble bedesman,
" Thomas Tye, Priest.''
>Vhen, Judas-like, this wicked priest had thus wrought
his malice against the people of God, the storms began
to rise against them, and M'illiam Munt and his company
were forcfd to hide themselves. But soon after the
en<-mv surrounded the house, and went into the chamber
whete Munt and his wife lay. Mrs. Munt hearing that,
beinu^ very sick, desired that her daughter might first
fetcli her so. lie drink, for she was very ill. So her
daugnier. Rose Allen, took a stone vessel in one hand,
and a candle in the other, and went to draw drink for
her morht r : and as she came back again through the
house, Tyrrel met her, and desired her to give her father
and mother good counsel, and advertise them to be bet-
ter catholic people.
Rose. — '' Sir, they have a better instructor than I,
For the Holy Ghost teaches them, I hope, who I trust
will not suffer them to err."
Tyrrel. — "Why, art thou still in that mind, thou
naughty hussey ? It is time to look upon such heretics
indeed.''
Rose. — " Sir, with what you call heresy, I worship my
Lord God, I tell you the truth."
Tyri'el. — " Then I perceive you will burn, gossip, with
the rest, for company's sake."
Rose. — " No, sir, not for company's sake, but for my
Christ's sake, if so I be compelled, and I hope in his
mercy, if he call me to it, he will enable me to bear
it."
Tyrrel (turning to his company). — " Sirs, this gossip
will burn : do you not think it ?" " Marry, sir," said
one, " prove her, and you shall see what she will do by
and by."
Then Tyrrel, taking the candle from her, held her
wrist, and the burning candle under her hand, burning
cross-wise over the back of her hand, tUl the very sinews
cracked asunder.
In VN'hich time, he said often to her, " Why wilt thou
not cry ? Thou young hussey, wilt thou not cry ?'' To
which she always answered, that " she had no cause, she
thanked God, but rather to rejoice. He had more cause
to weep, than she, if he considered the matter well."
In the end, when the sinews broke, he then thrust her
from him violently, using very insulting language. But
she quietly suffering his rage for the time, at last said,
"Sir, have ye done what ye will do?" And he said,
" Yea, and if thou think it be not well, then mend
it."
Rose. — " Mend it ? nay, the Lord mend you and
give you repentance, if it be his will. And now if you
think it good, begin at the feet, and burn the head also.
For he that set you to work will pay you your wages one
day, I warrant you :" and so she went and carried her
mother drink, as she was comnmnded. After searching
the house for more company, they found one John Thurs-
ton, and Margaret his wife, there also, whom they car-
ried with the rest to Colchester castle immediately.
Rose Allen, when she was a prisoner, told a friend of
hers this cruel act of Tyrrel ; and shewing him the man-
ner, she said, " while my own hand was a burning, I
having a stone vessel in my other hand, might have
struck him on the face with it, if I would : but I thank
God, with all my heart, I did it not."
And that Tyrrel shall not go alone in this kind of
cruelty, another example of a blind harper's hand,
burned by Bishop Bonner, is testified by Valentine Ding-
ley, who declared, how Bonner, having this blind harper
before him, said, "That such blind abjects, who follow a
sort of heretical preachers, when they come to the feeling
of the fire, will be the first that will fly from it."
To whom the blind man said, " That if every joint of
him were burned, yet he trusted in the Lord not to fly."
'J'hen Bonner signifying privily to certain of his men about
him what they should do, they brought to him a burning
coal. Which coal being put into the poor man's hand,
they closed it fast again, and so was his hand piteously
burned. Amongst the doers of this act was the said
Valentine Dingley, who reports it.
But to return. With William Munt and his family,
was joined also, in the same prison at Colchester, ano-
ther faithful brother, named John Johnson, alias Aliker,
of Thorp, in the county of Essex, of the age of four-and-
thirty years.
The other six prisoners lay in Mote-hall, in Colches-
ter, whose names were : — William Bongeor, glazier ;
Thomas Benold, tallow-chandler ; W. Purcas, fuller, a
young man ; Agnes Silverside, alias Smith, widow ;
Helen Ewring, who was one of the twenty-two prisoners
mentioned before : the sixth of this company was Eliza-
beth Folks, a young maiden, of the age of twenty years.
These six were imprisoned in the town prison of Col-
chester, called Mote-hall, as the other four were, in the
castle.
There were several examinations of these good mea
before many justices, priests, and ofl&cers.
956
TEX MARTYRS CONDEMNED IN COLCHESTER.
[Boob. XII.
William Bongsor said, that the sacrament of the altar
was bread, is bread, and so remains bread. To tliis lie
stood, as also against all the rest of their papistical doc-
trine : and so had sentence read against him.
Thomas Benold, affirmed the same in effect ; and so
had sentence also read against him.
W. Purcas of Docking said, that when he received the
sacrament, he received bread for an holy use, that
teaches the remembrance that Ciirist died for him. To
this he stood, and against other their popish matters ;
and so also had sentence read against him.
Agnes Silverside, said, that she loved no consecration.
This good old woman, being sixty years of age, answered
with such sound judgment and boldness, to every thing,
that it rejoiced the hearts of many, and especially to see
the patience of such a reverend old age, against the
taunts and checks of her enemies. To this she also
stood, and had sentence read against her in like manner.
Helen Ewring answered the same in effect as the
other did, clearly denying all the laws set forth by the
pope, with her whole heart. Against her also was sen-
tence read.
Elizabeth Folks, the young maiden, being examined
whether she believed the jiresence of Christ's body to be
in the sacrament substantially and really, or no ; an-
swered that she believed that it was a substantial lie,
and a real lie. At which words the priests' and others
were very angry, and asked her again, whether after
the consecration there remained not the body of Christ
in the sacrament. And she answered, that before con-
secration and after, it is but bread. Then they exa-
mined her of confession to the priest, of going to church
to hear mass, of the authority of the bishop of Rome,
&c., to all which she answered, that she would neither
use nor frequent any of them, by the grace of God, but
utterly detest and abhor them from the bottom of her
heart, and all such trumpery.
Then read they the sentence of condemnation against
her. In which time Doctor Chadsey wept, that the
tears trickled down his cheeks. So the sentence being
read, she kneeled down on both her knees, lifting up her
hands and eyes unto heaven, with fervent prayer in
audible voice, praising God that ever she was born, to
see that most blessed and hap))y day, that the Lord
would count her worthy to surtVr for the testimony of
Christ : and Lord, said she, (if it be thy will) forgive
them that have done this against me, for they know not
what they do. Then rising up, she exhorted all those
on the bench to repentance. And in the end she told
them all, laying her hand upon the bar, if they did
not repent their wicked doings, that undoubtedly the
very bar, would be a witness against them at the day of
judgment, that they had that day shed innocent blood.
William Munt, of the age of sixty-one years, said, that
the sacrament of the altar was an abominable idol, and
that if he should observe any part of their popish pro-
ceedings, he should displease God, and bring his curse
upon him, and therefore for fear of his vengeance he
durst not do it. This good father was examined about
many things : but God be thanked, he stood to the
truth, and in the end he had sentence of condemnation
read against him. John Johnson made answer in such
sort, as the pa])ists counted him none of theirs, and
therefore condemned him with their bloody sentence, as
they had done the rest. John Johnson affirmed, that in
receiving the sacrament, according to Christ's institu-
tion, he receives the body of Christ spiritually, &c.
Alice Munt, being examined, said, and confirmed the
same in effect as her husband did, and was therefore
also condemned by their sentence in like manner.
Rose Allen, the daughter, at the age of twenty years,
being examined about auricular confession, going to the
church to hear mass, of the popish seven sacraments,
&c. answered stoutly, that they stank in the face of God,
and she durst not have to do with them for her life, nei-
ther was she, she said, any member of theirs ; for they
were the members of antichrist, and so should have (if
they repeated not) the reward of antichrist. Being
asked further, what she could say of the see of the
bishou of Rome, whether she would obey his authority
or no ; she answered boldly, that she was none of his.
" As for his see," quoth she, " it is for iiows, kites,
owls, and ravens to jly in ; for by the grace of (?od I
shall not live in that see, ncitlier will I have any thing to
do with it." Then read they the sentence of condemna-
tion against her, and so sent her unto prison again unto
the rest, where she sung with great joy, to the wonder
of many.
Thus these poor condemned lambs, being delivered
into the hands of the secular power, were committed
again, every one to the prison from whence they came,
where they remained with much joy and great comfort
in continual reading, and invocating the name of God,
ever looking and expecting the happy day of their disso-
lution. In which time the cruel papists left i\ot their
mischievous attempts against them. For Bonner, shortly
after got a writ for the burning of the good creatures.
The writ being received, the bailiffs a])pointtd the
day of the execution to be the second of August, it was
agreed among them, that they in Mote-hall should be
burned in the forenoon, and those at the castle, in the
afternoon.
The second day of August, I.i.t", betwixt six and
seven o'clock in the morning, was brought from Mote-
hall unto a plat of ground, hard by the town-wall of
Colchester, the six forenamed ; who being there, and all
things prepared for their martyrdom, kneeled down, and
made their humble prayers to God, but not as they
would, for the cruel tyrants would not suffer them.
When they had made their prayers, they rose, and made
themselves ready for the fire. And Elizabeth Folks, whea
she had plucked off her ))etticoat, would have given it to
her mother, who came and kissed her at the stake, and ex-
horted her to be strong in the Lord, but the wicked mea
would not suffer her to give it. Therefore taking the pet-
ticoat, she threw it away from her, saying, " Farewell all
the world, farewell faith, farewell hojje, (and so taking the
stake in her hand"), welcome charity:" being at the stake,
and one of the officers nailing the chain about her, in
the striking of the staple, he missed the jilace, and struck
her with a great stroke of the hammer on the shoulder
bone ; whereat she suddenly turned her head, lifting up
her eyes to the Lord, and prayed smilingly, and gave
herself to exhorting the people again.
When all the six were also nailed likewise at their
stakes, and the lire about them, they clapped their hands
for joy in the fire, that the standers by (who were by
estimation thousands) cried generally ; " The Lord
strengthen them, the Lord comfort them, the Lord pour
his mercies upon them," with such like words, as was
wonderful to hear.
Thus they yielded up their souls and bodies into the
Lord's hands, for the true testimony of his truth. The
Lord grant we may imitate the same in the like service,
for his mercy's sake. Amen.
In like manner, in the afternoon, was brought forth
into the castle-yard, to a place appointed for the same,
\\'illiam Munt, John Jolinson, Alice Munt, and Rose
Allen : which godly constant persons, after they had
made their juviyers, and were joyfully tied to the stakes,
calling upon the name of God, and exhorting the people
earnestly to flee from idolatry, suffered their martyrdom
with such triumph and joy, that the people did no less
rejoice to see it, than at the others that were burnt the
same day in the morning.
The Death of George Eagles Martyr.
Among other martyrs of singular virtue and constancy,
one George Eagles deserves admiration. Which man,
as before, in those most bright and clear days of king
Edward VI., he had preached the power of the Lord, so
afterward in the tempestuous time and fall of the church,
he expressed and uttered his manly spirit. For he,
wandering abroad into far countries, where he could find
any of his brethren, did there most earnestly encourage
and comfort them, now tarrying in this town, and some-
time abiding in that, certain months together, as occa-
sion served, lodging sometimes in the country, and
sometimes for fear living in fields and woods. Often-
A.D. 1557.]
THE EXAMINATION OF RICHARD CRASHFIELD.
957
times he lay abroad in the night without cover, spending
the most part of his time in devout and e;irne.st prayer.
Now when he had profi'ed Clirist's church in this sort,
by going about and preaching the go.spel a year or two,
and especially in Colchester, and the ipiirters there-
about ; his privy enemies lurked and laid wait for liim,
so that there were spies se'itout, who hid in command-
ment, wherever they found him, to bring him eitlier
alive or dead.
But vjhen tlieir attempt could not prevail, but all was
in vain, his adversaries went about another w-iy to com-
pass their euterprize of taking liim. For in the (|Ueen s
name a grievous edict was proclaimed throughout four
shires, Essex, SulFoIk, Kent, and Norfolk, promising the
party that took him, twenty pounds. So at length it
came to ))ass, that, being seen at Colchester, he was
pursued and taken.
The next day he was carried to London, and was then
brought down to Chelmsford to the sessions, and there
was indicted and accused of treason, because he had as-
sembled companies together, contrary to the laws and
statutes of the realm, in that case provided. For an edict
was ordained a little before, that if men should flock sec-
retly togetiier, above the number of six, they should be
attached of treason : so his indictment was for treason,
adding, " for that thou didst make thy prayer, that God
should turn queen Mary's heart, or else take her away."
He denied that he prayed that God should take her
away, but he confessed, he jirayed that God would turn
her heart, in his prayer. Well, notwithstanding, he was
condemned for a traitor, although the real cause 'was
religion.
The Martyrdom of Richard Crashf.eld.
About this time suffered at Norwieh, a godly man,
and a constant martyr of Christ, calknl Richard Crash-
field, whose examinations before the cliancellor, named
Dunning, he penned with his own hand.
' How say you, sirrah,' said the chancellor, ' to the
ceremovnes of the church ?'
" Then said I, ' What ceremonies?'
He said, ' do you not believe that all the ceremonies
of the church ure good and godly.'
My ausvvei was, ' I do believe so many as are
grounded in the frsstament of Jesus Christ.'
' Tush, said he, ' Do you believe in the sacrament
of the altar ?'
" I said, ' 1 knew no', what it was.'
♦' Then said he, ' Do you not believe that Christ took
bread, gave thanks, brake It, and said, Take, eat, this is
my body ?'
" ' Yes, verily,' said I, ' and even as Christ did speak,
so did he perform the work.'
" He said, ' Do you not believe this, that after the
words be spoken by the priest, there is the substance of
Christ's body, flesh and blood ? How say you, do you
not believe this ? speak man.'
" ' I do believe,' said I, ' That Christ's body was
broken for me upon the cross, and his blood shed for
my redemption, whereof the bread and the wine is a per-
petual memory, the pledge of his mercy, the ring and
Seal of his promise, and a perpetual memory for the
faithful unto the end of the world.' So then I was re-
manded into prison until the next day.
" The day following I was brought forth again. Then
the chancellor said unto me, ' Richard, how say you ?
Are you otherwise minded than you were yesterday :' I
answered, ' Yes.'
" Then said he, ' How say you, can you not find in
your heart, when you come to the church, to kneel down
before the crucifix, and make your prayer ?'
" I answered, and said, ' No,' rehearsing the com-
mandment of God forbidding it.
" He said, ' Have you not read or heard, that God
commanded an image to be made V
" 1 answered, ' What image .''
'* He said, ' The brazen serpent.'
" I said, ' Yes, I have heard it read, how that God
did command it to be made, and likewise to be broken
down.'
" Then Doctor Bridges said, ' Wherefore did God
command the seraphins and cherubins to be made ?'
" I said, ' I could not tell ; 1 would fain iearii."
" Then said the chancellor, ' But how say you to this ?
can you find in your Iseart to fall down before ihe pic-
ture of Ciirist, which is the crucifix ?'
" I said, ' No, I f"ar the curse of God : for it is writ-
ten that God curseth the hands that make them, yea and
the hands that make the tools wherewitli they are
carved.'
" Then said the chancellor, ' How say you to confes-
sion to the priest ? when were you confessed .''
" I said, ' I confess myself daily unto the eternal God,
whom I most grievously offend.'
" Then the chancellor said. ' Do you not then take
confession to the priest to be good ?'
" I answered, ' No, but rather wicked.'
" ' The singing, and playing on the organs ; is it not
good and godly ?'
" I said, ' 1 could perceive no godliness in it.'
" Then he said, ' Why, is it not written in the Psalms,
that we should praise God with hymns and spiritual
songs ?'
" I said, ' Yes, spiritual songs must be had : but yours
are of the flesh, and of the spirit of error. For to you it
is pleasant and glorious, but to the Lord it is bitttr and
odious.'
" Then said the chancellor, * Why, is it not written,
My house is a house of Prayer ?' Isaiah Ivi. 7.
" I said, ' Yes. It is witten also. That ye have made
it a den of thieves.' Luke xix. 4fa".
" With that, the chancellor looked and said, ' have
we ?'
" I answered and said, ' Christ said so.' Then was 1
remanded to prison.
" The Thursday next following Doctor Bridges p.as
sent to me to examine me of my faith. And he asked
me many questions concerning transubstantiation, at
last he said :
"'What did Christ give you? Was it bread, or
was it not ?'
" I said, ' Christ took bread, and gave thanks, and
gave it, and tnev took bread and did eat. And St.
Paul maketh it more manifest, where he saith, ' As often
as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the
Lord's death till he come.'-- 1 Cor. xi. 26. St. Paul
saith not here as you say ; for he saith, ' As often as ye
cat this bread.' He doth not say body.'
" What say you to the bread that Christ gave ? Let
me have your mind on that.'
" I answered, ' I have said my mind on it.'
" Then said the chancellor, 'No, we will have your
mind more plainly.'
" I said, ' My faith is fully grounded and established,
that Christ Jesus, the Easter Lamb, hath offered his
blessed body a sacrifice to God the Father, the price of
my redemption. For by that one sacrifice are qU the
faithful sanctified, and he is our only advocate and me-
diator, and hath made perfect our redemption. This
hath he done alone, without any of your daily oblations.'
"Then Doctor i5ridges started up, and said, 'Truth,
your words are true indeed. Y'ou take well the literal
sense ; but this you must understand, that like as you
said tb.at Christ offered his body upon the cross, which
was a bloody sacrifice, and a visible sacrifice ; so like-
wise we daily offer the self same body that was offered
upon the cross, but not bloody and visible, but invisible,
unto God the Father.'
" ' Do you off'er Christ's body ?' I said. ' Why then
Christ's sacrifice was not perfect. But Christ is true,
when all men are liars.'
" He answered and said, ' The church hath power to
do it.'
" I answered, ' Why, Christ saith, 'I lay down my
life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down, and I have power to take it again.'— Jolm
X. 17, 18, Therefore Christ the Son of God did ofl'er
958
THE MARTYRDOM OF MISTRESS LEWIS.
[Book XIT.
his body once for all. And if you will presume to offer
his body daily, then your power is above Christ's
power.' ''
This godly young man, not long after his condemna-
tion, was brought to the stake, where with much pa-
tience and constancy he entered his blessed martyrdom.
Fryer, and a Sister of George Eagle's.
About the same time and month, one named Fryer,
Tvith a woman who was the sister of George Eagles, suf-
fered the like martyrdom at Rochester, by the unrighteous
papists, whose tyranny the Lord of his mercy abate and
cut sliort, turning that wicked generation, if it be his
will, to a better mind.
The Death of Mistress Lewis.
Mistress Joyce Lewis, a gentlewoman born, was deli-
cately brought up in the pleasures of the world, having
delight in gay apparel, and such like foolishness ; she
was married to Thomas Lewis of Mancetter, in Warwick-
shire. In the beginning of queen Mary's time she went
to the church, and heard mass as others did, but when she
heard of the burningof that most godly and learned martyr
Laurence Sanders, who suffered in Coventry, she began co
take more heed to the matter, and enquired earnestly of
such as she knew fedred God, the cause of his death :
and when she perceived it was because he refused to re-
ceive the mass, she began to be troubled in conscience,
and waxed very unquiet. And because her house was
even hard by Master John Glover's house, of whom men-
tion was made before,* a man of blessed memory, and a
singular example of unfeigned godliness, she did often
resort to him, and desire him to tell her the faults that
were in the mass, and other things that at that time vvere
urged as necessary to salvation.
He perceiving both her unquiet mind, and also the
desire she had to know the truth, did most diligently
instruct her in the ways of the Lord. By which godly
counsel it happened that slie began to grow weary of the
world, and thoroughly sorrowful for her sins, being in-
flamed with the love of God, desirous to serve him ac-
cording to his word, purposing also to flee from those
things the which did displease the Lord her God. And
because she had learned the mass to be evil and abomi-
nable, she begao to hate it. And when at a time she
was compelled by the furiousness of her husband to
come to the church, at the same time when the holy
water was cast, she turned her back towards it, and
shewed herself to be displeased. Whereupon she was
accused before the bishop for the despising of their
sacraments.
Immediately, a citation was sent for her to her hus-
band's house, to appear before the bishop. The summoner
that brought the citation delivered it to her husband,
who looking upon it, and perceiving what it was, was
moved with anger, willing the summoner to take the
citation witli him again, or else he would make him to
eat it. The summoner refused to take it again, for he
thought no man durst have been so bold to trouble him.
But in tlie end Lewis compelled the said summoner to
eat the citation indeed, by setting a dagger to his heart ;
and when he had eaten it, he caused l.im to drink to it,
and so sent him away. But immediately after, Lewis
with his wife were commanded to appear before the
bishop, where Lewis submitted himself, and desiring the
bishop to be good to him, excused himself after the
best manner he could. Whereupon the bishop was con-
tent to receive his submission, with condition that his
wife should submit herself also. But she stoutly told
the bishop, that by refusing of the holy water she had
neither offended God, nor any part of his laws. At the
wfiich words the bishop being grievously offended, yet
because she was a gentlewoman, he would not take her
• In the account of Robert and John Glover, in pupe 814, tliey
are erroneously stated to have been of the town of MancJirsUr,
whereas they were of Mancester or Mancetter, a villaRc in War-
Trickshire, about twelve miles from Coventry, and the detailed
account of their suiferings, to which the reader was referred, is
at the worst, as he said, he gave her one month's respite,
binding her husband in one hundred pounds to bring her
again to him at the motuli's end, and so they were both
let go.
When they came to their own house. Mistress Lewis
gave herself to most diligent prayer, and invoking of the
name of God, resorting continually to Master John
Glover, who most diligently instructed her with God's
word.
When the month was now almost expired, her husband
carried her to the bishop, where she was examined, and
found more resolved than she was before death was
threatened. And to begin with, she was sent to such
a loathsome prison, that a maid who was appointed to
keep her company swooned in the prison.
Being thus kept in prison, and often examined, at
length she was brought in judgment, and pronounced an
heretic worthy to be burned. When the bishop rea-
soned with her, why she could not come to the mass,
and receive the saeraments and sacramentals of the Holy
Ghost, she answered, " Because I find not these things
in God's word, which you so urge and magnify, as things
most needful for men's salvation; if these things were
in the same word of God commanded, I would with all
my heart receive, esteem, and believe them.'' The
bishop answered, " If thou wilt believe no more than is
in the scripture, concerning matters of religion, thou
art in a damnable case." At which words she was won-
derfully amazed, and being moved by the Spirit of God,
told the bishop that his words vpere ungodly and wicked.
After her condemnation, she contiimed a whole
twelvemonth in prison, because she was committed
to the sheriff that was lately chosen, who could not
be compelled to put her to death in his time, as he
affirmed. All the time she was in prison, her beha-
viour was such both in words and deeds, that all they
that had any spark of godliness or honesty, greatly
lamented her case.
Now when the time drew near which God had ap-
pointed for her deliverance, the writ for burning he-'Ug
brought down from London, she desired certain o/ her
friends to come to her, with whom she consulted how she
might behave herself, that her death might be more
glorious to the name of God, comfortable to his people,
and also most discomfoi table to the enemies jf God. " As
for death," said she, " I do not greatlj heed it, when
I behold the amiable countenance of Christ, my dear
Saviour, the face of death doth not greatly trouble me."
In which time also she reasoned i;iost comfortably out
of God's word, of God's election and rejirobation.
In the evening, before the dsy of her suffering, two
of the priests of Lichfield came to the under-sheriff's
house where she lay, and seiit word to her by the she-
riff that they were come to hear her confession ; for they
would be sorry that she should die without that. She
sent them word she haJ made her confession to Christ
her Saviour, at whose hands she was sure to have for-
giveness of her sins. As concerning the cause for
which she should die, she had no cause to confess that,
but rather to give unto God the m.ost humble praise,
that he made her worthy to suffer death for his word.
And as concerning the absolution they were able to
give to her, being authorised by the pope, she rejected
it even from the bottom of her heart. Which when the
priests lieard, they said to the sherift', " Well, to-morrow
her resolution will be proved and tried, for although
she has now some friends that whisper in her ears, to-
morrow we will see who dare be so hardy as to come
near her." And so they went their ways with anger,
that their confession and absolution was set at nought.
All that night she was wonderfully cheerful and
happy, with a certain gravity, spending the time in
prayer, reading, and talking with them that were pur-
posely come to her, to comfort her with the word of
God.
About three of the clock in the morning, Satan, who
written, not by a Rev. Mr. Hitcfiin, Incumbent of Manrliester,
but by the Rev. Benjamin Uichings, Vicar of Mancetter, who hat
c Uocted a number of particulars of these martyrs, not recorded
by Foxe. — Ed,
A.D. 1557.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF .MISTRESS LEWIS, &c.
959
never sleepeth, especially when death is at hand, began
to stir himself busily, shooting at her that fiery dart
which he is wont to do against all that are at defiance
with him, questioning with her how she could tell that
she was ohosen to eternal life, and that (.'hrist died for
her ; I grant that he died, but that he died for thee how
canst thou tell ; with this suggestion when she was
troubled, they that were about her did counsel her to follow
the example of St. Paul, where he saith, " Who loved me,
and gave himself for me." — Gal. ii. 20. Also, that her
vocation and calling to the knowledge of God's word,
was a manifest token of God's love towards her, espe-
cially the Holy Spirit of God working in her heart, that
love and desire towards God to please him, and to be
justified by hiin through Christ, &c. By these and like
persuasions, and especially by the comfortable promises
of Christ, brought out of the scripture, Satan was put
to flight, and she comforted in Christ.
About eight o'clock, the Sheriff came to her into her
chamber, saying these words, " Mistress Lewis, I am
come to bring you tidings of the queen's pleasure, the
which is, that you shall live no longer than one hour in
this world ; therefore prepare yourself. At which words,
being so grossly uttered, and so suddenly by such an
oflScer as he was, she was somewhat abashed. Where-
fore one of her friends and acquaintance standing by,
said these words, "Mistress Lewis, you have great
cause to praise God, who will vouchsafe so speedily to
take you out of this world, and make you worthy to be
a witness of his truth, and to bear record unto Christ
that he is the only Saviour."
After which she said, " IMaster Sheriff, your message
is welcome to me, and I thank my God that he will
make me worthy to venture my life in his cause."
And thus Master Sheriff departed ; and within the space
of one hour he came again, with swords and staves ; and
when he came up into the chamber, one of her friends
desired him to give him leave to go with her to the stake,
and to comfort her, which the sheriff granted at that
time, but afterwards he was sore troubled for it when she
was dead.
Now, when she was brought through the town, a
great multitude of people being present, she being led
by two of her friends, was brought to the place of execu-
tion ; and because the place was far off, and the throng
of the people great, and she not accustomed to the
fresh air (being so long in prison,) one of her friends
sent a messeuger to the sheriff's house for some drink ;
and after she had prayed three several times, in which
prayer she desired God most instantly to abolish the
idolatrous mass, and to deliver this realm from papistry,
(at the end of the which prayers the most part of the
people cried Amen, yea, even the sheriff that stood by
her, ready to cast her in the fire for not allowing the
mass, at this her prayer, said with the rest of the people.
Amen ;) when she had thus prayed, slie took the cup
into her hands, saying, " I drink to all them that un-
feignedly love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and wish for
the abolishment of papistry." When she had drank,
they that were her friends drank also. After that a great
number, especially the women, drank with her ; who af-
terwards were put to open penance in the church by the
cruel papists, for drinking with her.
When she was tied to the stake with the chain
she shewed such cheerfulness, that it passed man's
reason, being so devoid of any fear, and so patient,
that the most part of them that had honest hearts
lamented, and even with tears bewailed the tyranny of
the papists. When the fire was set upon her, she
neither struggled nor stirred, but only lifted up her
hands towards heaven, being dead very speedily : for the
under-sheriff, at the request of her friends, had provided
such inflamniable stufi', that she was suddenly dispatched
out of this miserable world.
This amongst other things may not be forgotten, that
the papists had appointed some to rail upon her openly,
and to revile her, both as she went to the place of exe-
cution, and also when she came at the stake. Amongst
others there was an old priest, who had a pair of writing
tables to note both the names of the women that drank
of her cup, and also described her friends by their appa-
rel, for he could not learn their names, and afterwards
enquired for their names ; and so immediately after
process was sent out for them, both to Coventry
and other places ; but God, whose providence sleeps
not, did defend them from the hands of these cruel ty-
rants. Unto which God, with the Son and the Holy
Ghost, be honour and glory for ever, Amen.
T/io Marfi/rchm of Ralph All er ton, James An st on, Mar-
(jerrj Auntoo, and Richard Roth, burned at IsUntjton.
I find, that about the 17th day of Septeniber, were
burned at Islington, nigh unto London, these four con-
stant professors of Christ. Among whom it appears that
Ralph Allerton confessed that he coming into his parish
of Bentley, and seeing the people sitting there, either
gazing about, or else talking together, he exhorted them
that they should fall unto prayer, and meditation of
God's most holy word, and not sit idly ; they
willingly consented. Tlien after prayer was ended, he
read unto them a chapter of the New Testament, and
so departed.
In which exercise he continued until Candlemas, and
then being informed that he might not do so by the law,
for he was not priest or minister, he left off, and kept
himself close in his house. Afteiwards, certain men
sworn for the inquiry into such matters, came to his
house, and attached him for reading in the parish of
Welley. •
After his examimtion, he was sent up to' the council ;
and Bonner, by thi-eateniiigs and other subtle means, so
abused the simple heart of this man, that he made him
opeidy at Paul's cross recant his former profession ;
which yet brought such a bondage and terror of soul
and conscience, and so cast him down, that except the
Lord, wliose mercies are immeasurable, had supported
and lifted him up again, be had perished for ever. But
the Lord gave him not only hearty and unfeigned repent-
ance, but also a most constant boldness to profess again,
even to the death, his most holy name and glorious
gos])el, wherefore he was again apprehended, and sent
to Bonner, before whom he was the 8th day of April, and
other times examined.
The following articles were objected against him and
confessed by him.
" 1. That he was of the parish of Muchbentley, and
so of the diocese of London.
" 2. That the 10th day of January then last past,
when jMaster John Morant was preaching at St. Paul's,
the said Ralph Allerton did there openly submit him-
self unto the church of Rome, with the rites and
ceremonies thereof.
" 3. That he did consent and subscribe as well unto
the same submission, as also to one other bill, in the
which he granted, that if he should at any time turn
again unto his former opinions, it should be then lawful
for the bishop immediately to denounce and adjudge him
as an heretic.
" 4. That heliad subscribedtoa bill, wherein he affirmed,
that in the saci-ament, after the words of consecration
be spoken by the priest, there remaineth still material
bread and material wine ; and that he believeth that the
bread is the bread of thanksgiving, and the memorial of
Christ's death ; and that when he receiveth it, he re-
ceiveth the body of Christ spiritually in his soul, but
material bread in substance.
"5. That he had openly affirmed, and also advisedly
spoken that which is contained in the said former fourth
article, last before specified.
" 6. That he had spoken against the bishop of Rome,
with the church and see of the same, and also
against the seven sacraments and other ceremonies and
ordinances of the same church, used then within this
realm.
" 7. That he had allowed and commended the opinion
and faith of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, and others
of late burned within this realm, and believed that their
opinions were good and godly.
" 8 That be had divers times affirmed, that the
3a
960
EXAMINATION OF JAMES AUSTOO AND OTHERS.
[Book XII.
religion used within this realm, at the time of his ap-
prehension, was neither good, nor agreeable to God's
word, and tiiat he could not conform himself there-
unto.
" 9. That he had affirmed, that the book of common
prayer set forth in the reiijn of King Edward VI., was
in all parts good and godly ; and that the said Ralph and
his feUow prisoners, did d^iily use amongst themselves
in prison some part of the book.
" 10. That lie had affirmed, that if he were out of
prison, he woulil not come to mass, matins, nor even-
song, nor bear taper, candle, or palm, nor go in proces-
sion, nor would receive holy water, holy bread, ashes, or
pax, or any other ceremony of the church then used
within this realm.
"11. That he had affirmed, that if he were at liberty
he would not confess his sins to any priest, nor receive
absolution of him ; nor yet would receive the sacrament
of the altar, as it was then used.
" 12 That he had affirmed, that praj'ing to saints
and prayers for the dead, were neither good nor profit-
able, and that a man is not bound to fast and pray, but
at his own will and pleasure ; neither that it is lawful to
reserve the sacrament, or to worship it.
_ " 1.3. That the said AUerton hath, according to these
his affirmations, abstained and refused to come unto his
parish church ever since the 10th day of January last, or
to use, receive, or allow any ceremonies, sacraments, or
other rites then usedin the church."
To all these articles he answered affirmatively, denying
precisely none of them ; except to this clause, con-
tained in the twelfth article, that a man is not bound to
fast and pray but at his own will and pleasure, he said that
he had affirmed no such thing, but he confessed that he
had not fasted nor prayed so oft as he was bound to do.
And unto this answer he also subscribed in this sort.
" Except it be proved otherwise by the holy scripture,
I do affirm these articles to be true. By me
Ralph Allerton."
Other articles were afterwards objected, and when he
would not recant, Bishop Bonner pronounced the sentence
of condemnation, and so delivered him unto the tempo-
ral officers : who reserved him in their custody until tlie
17th day of September, at which time, both he and the
other three before mentioned, were all burned.
James Aitstoo, and Margery his Wife.
These two being once delivered into the pitiless hands
of Bonner, their examinations were not long deferred.
For on the 16"th day of July, l,5r>7, they were brought
before him. He demanded of James Austoo, amongst
other questions, where he had been confessed in Lent,
and whether he had received the sacrament of the altar
at Easter ?
He answered, " That indeed he had been confessed of
the curate of Allhallows, but that he had not received the
sacrament of the altar ; for he rejected it from the bot-
tom of his heart."
" Why," said the bishop, " dost thou not believe, that
in the sacrament of the altar there is the true body and
blood of Christ?"
'• No," said Austoo, " not in the sacrament of the
altar ; but in the supper of the Lord, to the faithful
receiver is the very body and blood of Christ by
faith."
Bonner, not well pleased with this talk, asked tlien the
wife, how she did like the religion that then was in Eng-
land ?
She answered, " That she believed it was not accord-
ing to God's word, but false and corrupted."
Then he again asked her, if she would go to the church
and hear mass ?
She said, "That she rejected the mass with all her
heart, and that she would not come into any church in
which there were idols."
After this the bishop objected unto them certain ar-
ticles, which being read, and their constancy in the faith
perceived, Bonner pronounced against them the sentence
of condemnation, and delivering them to the sheriff, rid
his hands of them.
Richard Roth.
Richard Roth, being apprehended, and brought to the
bishop of London, was examined on the 4th of .luly ; the
bishop earnestly laboured to induce him to believe that
there were seven sacraments in Christ's church, and that
in the sacrament of the altar after consecration, there
remained the very substance of Christ's body and blood,
and none other. He made, only this answer, "That if
the scripture did so teach him, and that he might be by
the same so persuaded, he would so believe, otherwise
not." But at anotlier examination he declared plainly,
" That in the sacrament of the altar, as it was then used,
there was not the very body and blood of Christ, but
that it was a dead God, and that the mass was detesta-
ble, and contrary to God's holy word and will, from
which faith and opinion he would not go or decline."
The bishop objected against him ; " That he was h
comforter of heretics ; and had written a letter to that
eflect to some that were burned at Colchester ;" as fol-
lows : —
A Letter written hy Richard Roth.
" O, dear brethren and sisters, how much have you to
rejoice in God, that lie hath given you such fiit'n to
overcome this blood-thirsty tyrant thus far! and no
doubt he that hath begun that good work in yon, w,!l
fulfil it unto the end. O, dear hearts in Christ, what a
crown of glory shall ye receive with Christ in the kin.sr-
dom of God ! O, that it had been the good will of God
that I had been ready lo have gone with you. For I
lie in my lord's prison in the day, and in the night 1 lie
in the coal-house, away from Ralph Allerton, or any
other : and we look every day when we shall be con-
demned. For he said, that I should be burned within ten
days before Easter ; but I lie still at the pool's biiiik, and
every man goeth in before me : but we wait patiently the
Lord's leisure, with many bonds, in fetters and stock <! ;
by the which we have received great joy in God. Aiid
now fare you well, dear brethren and sisters in tl;is
world, but I trust to see you in the heaven> face to face.
" Oh brother Munt, with your wife and my dear sistvr
Rose, how blessed are you in the Lord, that (^od hath
found you worthy to sufler for his sake ! with all the rest
of my dear brethren and sisters known and mikuovvn.
O, be joyful even unto death. Fear it not, saith Chri<t ;
for I have overcome death, saifh he. Oh dear iiearts 1
seeing that Jesus Christ will be our help, oh tarry you
the Lord's leisure. B.' strong, let your hearts be ;;f
good com''ort, and wait you stiil for the Lord. lie is at
hand. Yea, the angel of the Lord pitcheth his <cnt
round about them that fenr liim, and deliveretl: them
which way he seeth best. For o\ir lives are in the I (U'd's
hands ; and they can do nothing unto us before Gcd suf-
fer them. Therefore, give all thanks to God.
" Oh dear hearts ! you shall be clothed with Ion!;
white garments upon the mount Sion, with the muititui'e
of saints, and with Jesus Christ our Saviour, wiiieh will
never forsake us. Oh blessed virgins ! ye have played
the wise virgin's part, in that ye hnve talien oil in your
lamps, that ye may go in with the bridegroom, when he
Cometh, into the everlastinc: joy with him. But as for
the foolish, they shall be shut out, because they made
not themselves ready to sufiVr with Christ, neitiier go
about to take up his cross. Oh dear hearts ! hov.- pre-
cious shall your death be in the sight of the Lord ! for
dear is the death of his saints. O fare you well, and
pray. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
all. Amen, Amen. Pray, jiray, pray.
" By me, Rich.\rd Roth,
" written with my own blood."
This letter he confessed he had written with his blood,
having no ink, and that he meant to have sent it to such
as were condemned at Colchester for the gospel of Jesut
Christ, and were afterwards burned there.
A.D. 1557.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN NOTES AND OTHERS.
961
He was (as the rest before mentioned) condemned and
delivered to the sheriff, and the 17th day of September
they all most joyfully ended their lives in one fire, at
Islington, for the testimony of Christ.
Agnes Bcngeor, and Margaret Thvrsfon, tivn godly
Christian Women, burned at Colchester, for the sin-
cere Profession of Christ's Gospel.
A little before mention was made of ten that suffered
martyrdom at Colchester, at which time there were two
women, Margaret Thurston, and Agnes Bongeor, that
should have suffered with them, and were likewise con-
demned at the same time and place that the other ten
were : but Margaret Thurston was for that time de-
ferred.
Agnes Bongeor was also kept back at that time, be-
cause her name was wrong written in the writ.
But when she saw herself so separated from her prison
fellows, what piteous moans that good woman made, and
how bitterly she wept ; what strange thoughts came into
her mind ; how naked and desolate she esteemed herself,
and into what depth of despair and care her poor soul
was brought, it was ])iteous and wonderful to see : which
all came because she went not with them to give her life
in the defence of her Christ ; for of all things in the
world, life was least looked for at her hands.
However, in a short time a writ came from London
for burning them, which was executed the 17th day of
September.
When these good women were brought to the place in
Colchester, where they should sutler, they fell down
upon their knees, and made their humble prayers to the
Lord, which being done, they rose and went to the stake
joyfully, and were immediately chained ; and after the
fire had compassed them about, they with great joy and
glorious triumph gave up their souls, spirits, and lives,
into the hands of tlie Lord, under whose government and
protection, for Christ's sake, we beseech him to grant us
his holy defence and help for evermore. Amen.
John Kurde, Martyr.
John Kurde, a shoemaker, of the parish of Syrsam, in
Northamptonshire, wasiniprisoned in Northamptoncastle,
for denying the popish transubstantiation, for which they
pronounced sentence of death against him, in the church
of All Saints, in Northampton, in August, A.D. 1557.
And in September following, he was burned. A popish
priest standing by, whose name was John Rote, vicar of
St. Giles', in Northampton, declared to him, that if he
would recant, he was authorised to give him his pardon.
His answer was, that " he had his pardon by Jesus
Christ."
John Noyes, Martyr.
In the month of September suffered the blessed martyr
John Noyes.
Thomas Lovel, chief constable of Hoxton, in Suffolk,
and the under constables of Laxefield, and two others,
were commanded to be that day before the justices, and
high sheriff. And there having commandment of the
justices to inquire in their town if there were any that
would neglect to come to their service and mass ; and
further, to examine the cause why they would not come,
and thereupon to bring certificate to the justices, within
fourteen days then next ensuing : they therefore took
counsel how to attach John Noyes.
So they took him and carried him to the justices next
day. The justices and the sheriff cast him into the dun-
geon, and there he lay some time ; and then he was car-
ried to Norwich, before the bishop, where were minis-
tered to him these positions : —
" 1. Whether he believed that the ceremonies used in
the church were good and godly, to stir up men's minds
to devotion.
" 2. Whether he believed the pope to be supreme
head of the church here on earth.
" 3. Whether he believed the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ to be in the sacrament of the altar under the forms
of bread and wine, after the words of consecration."
Whereunto he answered, that he thought the natural
body of Christ to be only in heaven, and not in the sa-
crament, &c. For which answers sentence at last was
read by the bishop against him.
In the mean time his brother-in-law, one Nicholas
Fisk, of Dinnington, going to comfort him as he re-
mained prisoner in Norwich, after christian exhortation,
asked him if he feared death when the bishop gave judg-
ment against him, Noyes answered, " He thanked God
he feared deatii no more at that time, than he or any
other did, being at liberty." Then Nicholas required
him to shew the cause of his condemnation. Upon
which John Noyes wrot^e with his own hand as fol-
lows : —
" I said, that I could not believe, that in the sacra-
ment of the altar there is the natural body of Christ, that
same body that was born of the Virgin Mary ; but that
the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ is re-
ceived by christian people in the remembrance of Christ's
death, as a spiritual food, if it be ministered according to
Christ's institution. The bishop said, 'That the sacra-
ment was God, and must be worshipped as God.' So
said the chancellor also. Then answered I, my lord, I
cannot so believe."
He was sent to Laxefield to be burned, and on the
next morning was brought to the stake. The fire in
most places of the street was put out, saving a smoke
was espied by Thomas Lovel proceeding out from the top
of a chimney, to which house the sheriff went, and broke
open the door, and got fire, and brought it to the place
of execution. When John Noyes came to the place
where he was to be burned, he kneeled down and said
the 50th Psalm, with other prayers, and tlien they
bound him to the stake ; and being bound, John Noyes
said, " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to.
destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. x. 28.
When he saw his sister weeping and making moan for
him, he bade her that she should not weep for him, but
weep for her sins.
Then one Nicholas Cadman, a valiant champion in the
pope's aftairs, brought a fagot and set against him ; and
the said John Noyes took up the fagot and kissed it, and
said, '' Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come
to this."
Then he delivered his psalter to the imder-sheriff, de-
siring him to be good to his wife and children, and to
deliver to her that book ; and the sheriff promised he
would, notwithstanding he never performed his promise.
Then John Noyes said to the people, " They say they
can make God of a piece of bread, believe them not.''
Then said he, " Good people, bear witness that I do .
believe to be saved by the merits and passion of Jesus
Christ, and not by mine own deeds," and so the fire was
kindled, and burned about him, then he said, " Lord
have mercy upon me. Christ have mercy upon me.
Son of David have mercy upon me.''
A Letter that he sent to comfort his Wife as he lay in
Prison.
" You desired me that I would send you some tokens
that you might remember me. As I did read in the
New Testament, I thought it good to write unto you
certain places of the scripture for a remembrance. St.
Peter saith, ' Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you : But rejoice, inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that when his
glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with ex-
ceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth
upon you : on their part he is evil spoken of, but oa
your part he is glorified." — 1 Pet. iv. 12 — 14.
" ' For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye
suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.' — I Pet. iii. 17.
" ' But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a
thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's
3ci2
962
THE MARTYRDOM OF CECILY ORMES.
[Bo K XII.
matters. Yet if any man suffer as a christian, let him
not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the
house of God : and if it first begin at us, what shall the
end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ? And
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the un-
godly and the sinner appear ? Wherefore let them that
suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping
of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful
Creator.'— 1 Pet. iv. 15—19.
" ' St. Paul saith, ' Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' — 2 Tim. iii. 12.
" St. John saith, ' Love not the world, neither tlie
things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, tlie love of the Father is not in him. For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever.' — 1 John ii. 15 — 17.
" St. Paul saith, ' If then ye be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth.' — Col. iii. 1, 2.
" Our Saviour Christ saith, ' But whoso shall offend
one of these little ones which believe in me, it were bet-
ter for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.' —
Matt, xviii. 6.
'• The prophet David saith, 'The righteous cry, and
the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
troubles.' — Psal. xxxiv. 17.
" ' O fear the Lord, ye his saints : for there is no want
to them that fear him.' — Psal. xxxiv. 9.
" ' Evil shall slay the wicked : and they that hate the
righteous shall be desolate.' — Psal. xxxiv. 21.
" ' Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and
Israel had walked in my ways ; I should soon have sub-
dued their enemies, and turned my hand against their
adversaries.' — Psal. Ixxxi. V.i, 14.
" Our Saviour Christ saith, ' The disciple is not above
his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough
for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant
as his lord. If they have called the master of the house
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his
household.'— Matt. x. 24, 25.
" St. Paul saith, ' Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers : lor what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light
with darkness ? And what concord hath Christ with
Belial ? or what part hath he that believeth with an in-
fidel ? And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols .' for ye are the temple of the living God ; as
God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them ;
and I will be their God, and they sliall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye sepa-
rate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ;
and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.'— 2 Cor. vi. 14—18.
"' But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him.'
1 Cor. ii. 9.
" ' Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ;
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot.' — 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
" ' Neither is there salvation in any other : for there
is none othfr name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.' — Acts iv. 12.
" Christ saith, ' Therefore take no thought, saying,
what shall we eat? what shall we drink ? or, wherewithal
shall we be clothed ? (For after all these tilings do the
Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Fatlicr knoweth that
ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these
things shall be added unto you.' — Matt. vi. 31 — 33.
" So fare ye well, wife and children; and leave
worldly care, and see tliat ye be diligent to pray.''
T/ie Martyrdom and Suffering of Cecil;/ Ormes, htrnt at
Norwich for the Testimony and Witness of Christ's
Gospel.
About the 23d of September suffered at Norwich Cecily
Ormes, wife of Edmund Ormes, worsted weaver, in St.
Laurence parish in Norwich: she being of the age of 32
years or more, was taken at the death of Simon Miller
and Elizabeth Cooper, already described, for that she
said she would pledge them in the same cup that they
drank in. For so saying Corbet took her and sent her
to the chancellor. When she came before him, he
asked her what she said to the sacrament of Christ'?
body. And she said, she did beheve that it was the
sacrament of the body of Christ. Yea, said the chan-
cellor, but what is that that the priest holds over his
head ? She answered him and said, it is bread. At
which the chancellor sent her to the bishop's prison,
with many threatening and hot words.
The 23d day of July she was called before the chan-
cellor again, who sat in judgment with Master Bridges
and others. The chancellor offered her, if she would go
to the church and keep her tongue, she should be at
liberty, and beUeve as she would. But she told him she
would not consent ; for if she should, she said God
would surely plague her. Then, the chancellor told
her, he had shewed more favour to her than ever he
did to any, and that he was loath to condemn her,
considering that she was an ignorant, unlearned, and
foolish woman. But she, not weighing his words, told
him if he did, he should not be so desirous of her
sinful flesh, as she would, by God's grace, be content
to give it in so good a quarrel. Then he rose, and read
the bloody sentence of condemnation against her, and
so delivered her to the secular power of the sheriffs of
the city.
This Cecily Ormes was a very simple woman, but yet
zealous in the Lord's cause. She, a twelvemonth be-
fore she was taken, recanted, but never after was she
quiet in conscience, until she was utterly driven from
all their popery. Between the time that she recanted
and that she was taken, she had got a letter to give to
the chancellor, to let him know that she repented her
recantation from the bottom of her heart, and would
never do the like again while she lived. But before she
exhibited her bill, she was taken and sent to prison. She
was burnt the 23d day of September. When she
came to the stake, she kneeled down, and made her
prayers to God : that being done, she rose up and said
" Good people, I believe in God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one
God. This do I not, nor will I recant : but 1 recant
utterly from the bottom of my heart the doings of the
pope of Rome, and all his popish priests. I utterly
refuse and never will have to do with them again by
God's grace. And good people, I would you should
not think of me that 1 believe to be saved because I offer
myself here to death for the Lord's cause, but I believe
to be saved through the death and passion of Christ ;
and this my death is and shall be a witness of my
faith unto you all here present. Good people, as many
of you as believe as I believe, pray for me." Thea
she came to the stake, and laid her hand on it, and said,
" Welcome the cross of Christ."
Which being done, she looking on her hand, and see-
ing it black with the stake, she wiped it upon her clothes,
for she was burnt at the same stake that Simon Miller
and Elizabeth Cooper was burned at. Then after she
had touched it with her hand, she came and kissed it,
and said, " Welcome the sweet cross of Christ," and so
gave herself to be bound to it. After the tormentors
had kindled the fire, she said, " My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour,"
and in so saying, she set her hands togetlier right against
her breast, casting her eyes and head upward, and so
stood, heaving up her hands by little and little, till the
A.D. 1557.1
THE EXAMINATION OF THOMAS SPURDANCE.
963
very sinews of her arms yielded, and then they fell, but
she gave her life unto the Lord, as quietly as if she had
been in a slumber, or as one feeling no pain. So won-
derfully did the Lord work with her ; his name be praised
for evermore. Amen.
The Trouble and Disturbance amonfj good Men and
Women at Lichfield.
After the death and martyrdom of Mistress Joyce
Lewis, a little above specified, several good men and
women in Lichfield, eleven in number, were vexed and
in trouble before the bishop and his chancellor, for kiss-
ing Mistress Lewis, and drinking to her at the time of
her death ; they were adjudged for heretics, because they
prayed and drank with Mistress Lewis, but especially
Agnes Penifather sustained the most trouble, for she ac-
companied Mistress Lewis to her death. Agnes being
examined further by the bishop ; what words she had
spoken to two priests of the church of Lichfield, concerning
Mistress Lewis after her burning, said. That she being
asked by the two priests at her father's house in Lich-
field, why she did weep for such an heretic, whose soul
they said was in hell ; Agnes Penifather made this an-
swer, that she thought the blessed martyr to be in better
case than the two priests were.
With which wor^e being charged, and commanded to
submit herself to such penance as they should enjoin to
her, she refused, and therefore was commanded to close
prison, the sheriffs being charged with her under pain of
one hundred pounds, that none should have any access
unto her. At length, at the persuasion of her friends,
she was compelled to do as the others had done before.
The Persecution in the Diocese of Chichester.
And now from Lichfield to come to Chichester, no
little trouble and persecution raged there, as in other
countries. For what place was there in all the realm,
where the pope's ministers did not murder some or
other ; this plague of the pope's tyranny was general to
all parts of England, so in the diocese of Chichester,
many were condemned and martyred for the true testi-
mony of righteousness, within the compass of queen
Mary's reign. In the number of whom were these :
John Foreman, John Warner, Christian Grover,
Thomas Athoth, a priest, Thomas Avington, Dennis
Burgis, Thomas Ravensdale, John Milles, Nicholas
Holden, John Hart, Margery Morice, Anne Try, John
Oseward, Thomas Harland, James Morice, Thomas
Dougate, John Ashedon. All these were brought to the
stake and burned in the usual way.
The Examination nf TJiomas Sptirdance, one of Queen
Mary's Servants, before the Chancellor of Norwich.
" The bishop's chancellor asked me, ' if I had been
with the priest, and confessed my sins unto him ?'
" And I said, ' No, I had confessed my sins to God,
and God saith. In what hour soever a sinner doth re-
pent and be sorry for his sins, and ask him forgiveness,
he will no more reckon his sin unto him, and that is suf-
ficient for me.'
" Then said the chancellor, ' Thou deniest the sacra-
ment of penance.'
" I said, ' I deny not penance, but I deny that I
should shew my sins unto the priest.'
" Then said the chancellor, ' That is a denying of the
sacrament of penance.'
" ' Have you received the blessed sacrament of the
altar,' said he, ' at Easter ?'
" And I said, ' No.'
" ' And why have you not ?' saith he.
" I said, ' I dare not meddle with you in it, as you
use it.'
" ' Why, do we not use it truly ?' said he.
" I said, ' No : for the holy supper of the Lord ser-
veth for the christian congregation, and you are none
of Christ's members : and therefore 1 dare not meddle
vith you, lest 1 be like unto you.'
" ' Why are we none of Christ's members ?' said the
chancellor.
" 1 said, ' Because you teach laws contrary to God's
laws.'
" ' What laws are those .'' saith he.
" I said, ' These three articles that you swear the
people to be false and untrue, and you do evil to swci.r
the people unto them.'
" Then said he, ' Good people take no heed unto his
words : for he is a heretic, and teacheth you disobe-
dience :' and so he would no more sj)eak of that matter.
" Then said he, ' How believest thou in the blessed
sacrament of the altar : dost thou not believe that after
it is consecrated, it is the very same body that was bora
of the Virgin Mary .''
" I said, ' No, not the same body in substance ; for
the same body hath a substance in flesh, blood and bones,
and was a bloody sacrifice, and this is a dry sacrifice.'
" And I said, ' Is the mass a sacrifice .''
" Unto which a doctor that sat by him answered,
' It is a sacrifice both for the quick and the dead.'
" Then said I, ' No, it is no sacrifice : for St. Paul
saith, that Christ made one sacrifice once for all : and I
do believe in no other sacrifice, but only in that one
sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ made once for all.'
" Then said the doctor, ' That sacrifice that Christ
made, was a wet sacrifice, and the mass is a dry sacri-
fice.'
" Then said I, ' That same dry sacrifice is a sacrifice
of your own making, and it is your sacrifice, it is none of
mine.'
'' Then said the chancellor, ' He is a heretic, he de-
nieth the sacrament of the altar.'
" Then said I, ' Will ye know how 1 believe in the
holy supper of our Lord ?'
" And he said, ' Yes'
" Then said I, ' I believe that if I come rightly and
worthily as God hath commanded me, to the holy supper
of the Lord, I receive him by faith, by believing in him.
But the bread is not God, nor the bread that is yonder
in the pix is not God. God dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, neither will be worshipped with the
works of men's hands. And therefore you do very evil
to cause the people to kneel down and worship the
bread : for God did never bid you hold it above your
heads, neither had the apostles such use.'
" Then said the chancellor, ' He denieth the presence
in the sacrament. Write this article also. He is a very
heretic'
" Then said I, ' The servant is not greater than his
master. For your predecessors killed my master Christ,
the prophets and apostles, and holy virtuous men, and
now you also kill the servants of Christ, so that all the
righteous blood that hath been shed, even from righte-
ous Abel, until this day, shall be required at your
hands.'
" ' Well,' said the chancellor, ' have him away.' ''
At Another examination of Spttrdance, before the bishop
at his house, the folloiving passed.
" The bishop said, ' Sirrah, dost thou not believe in
the catholic faith of holy church ?'
" And I said, ' I believe Christ's catholic church.'
'* ' Yea,' said he, ' in Christ's church, of which the
pope is tlic head ? dost thou not believe that the pope is
supreme head of the catholic church ?'
" And I said, ' No. I believe not that he should be
above the apostles, if he take them to be his predeces-
sors. For when there came a thought among the apos-
tles, who should be the greatest when their master was
jjone, Christ answered them unto their thoughts, Tho
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; and
thev that exercise authority upon them are called bene-
factors. But ye shall not be so : but he that is greatest
among you, let him be as the younger ; and he that is
chief, as he that doth serve.— Luke xxii. 2."), 2(i. How is
it then, that tne pope will climb so high above his fellows ?
And also we were sworn in my master King Henry's
time, that we should to the uttermost of our power,
964
THE EXAMINATION OF THOMAS SPURDANCE.
[Book XII.
never consent to him again. And therefore as he hath
nothing to do here in England, so neither in his own
country, more than a bishop hath in his diocese.'
" ' Yea,' said the bishop, ' what of that .' We were
then in error and sin, now we are in the right way again,
and therefore thou must come home again with us, ac-
knowledge thy fault, and become a christian man, and be
sworn unto the pope as our supreme head. Wilt thou
be sworn to the pope ? How sayest thou ?'
" Then I said, ' No, I warrant you, by the grace of
God not as long as I live. For you cannot prove by the
scripture tliat the pope is head of the church.'
" ' No I' said he ; ' Yes, I think ; for as the bellwether
which weareth the bell, is head of the flock of sheep,
even so is the pope the head of the church of Christ.
And as the bees in the hive have a queen bee, when
they are gone out, to bring them home again to the
hive : even so tlie pope, when we be gone astray and
wandered from the fold, from the hive, &c. then is or-
dained our head by succession of Peter, to bring us home
again to the true church ; as thou now, my good fellow,
hast wandered long out of the way like a scattered sheep,
hear therefore that bellwether, and come home with
us to thy mother the church again.'
" Unto whom I answered, ' My lord, all this is but
natural reason, and no scripture : but since you cannot
prove the pope to be authorized by scripture, you an-
swer me not, as I thought you would.'
" ' Ha,' said he, ' 1 see well you are stout, and will
not be answered : therefore you shall be compelled by
law, whether ye will or not.'
" ' My lord,' said I, ' so did your forefathers treat
Christ and his apostles. They had a law, and by their
law they put him to death ; and so likewise, you have a
law which is tyranny, and by that would ye force me to
believe as you do : but the Lord I trust will assist me
against all your beggarly ceremonies, and make your
foolishness known to all the world one day.'
" Then said he, ' when were you at church and
went in procession, and did the ceremonies of the
church.'
*' And I said, ' Never since I was born.'
'* ' No,' said he ! ' how old are you ?'
" And 1 said. ' I think about forty.'
" ' Why,' said he, ' How did you use yourself at
church twenty years ago ?'
" I said, ' As you do now.'
" ' And even now,' said he, ' you said you did not use
the ceremonies since you were born.'
" ' No more I did,' said I, ' since I was born anew ;
as Christ said unto Nicodemus, Except ye be born
again, ye cannot enter into the kingilom of heaven.'
" Then said a doctor that sat by, ' he is a very ana-
baptist : for that is their opinion jilain.'
" ' No, sir, you say falsely,' said I, ' for I am no ana-
baptist : for they deny children to be baptised, and I do
not.'
" ' Well,' said the bishop, ' why dost thou not go to
the church, and do the ceremonies ?'
" And I said, ' Because they are contrary to God's
word and laws, as you yourself have taught : but now
you say it is good again : and I think if there were a re-
turn to morrow, you would say that false again which
you hold now. Tlierefore, I may well say, there is no
truth in you.'
" Then said the bishop, ' Thou art a stubborn fellow,
and an heretic, and a traitor.'
" ' No,' said I, ' I am no traitor, for 1 have done, I
think, better service to the imperial crown of England,
than you.'
" ' If you had done so good service,' said he, ' you
would be cbedient to the laws of the realm.'
" ' So am I,' said I, ' There is no man alive (I thank
God) that can accuse me justly that ever I was disobedi-
ent to any civil laws. But you must consider, my lord,
that I have a soul and a body, and my soul is none of
the queen's, but my body and my goods are the queen's.
And I must give God my soul, and all that bclongeth
onto it, thai-, is, I must do the laws and commandments
of God i and whosoever commandeth laws contrary to
God's laws, I may not do them for losing of my soul,
but must rather obey God than man.'
" And he said, ' Why dost thou not these laws then ?
are they not agreeable to God's law .-"
" And I said, ' No, you cannot prove them to be
God s laws.'
" ' Yes,' saith he, ' that I can.'
" ' Then,' said I, ' if you can prove by the word of
God that you should have any graven images made to set
in your churches for laymen's books, or to worship
God by them, or that you should have such ceremonies
in your churches as you have, prove them by the word
of God, and I will do them.'
" ' Then,' said he, ' it is a good and' decent order to
furnish the church : as when you shall go to dinner, you
have a cloth upon the table to furnish the table before
the meat shall come upon it, so are these ceremonies a
comely decent order to be in the church, among chris-
tian people.'
" ' These,' said I, ' are inventions and imaginations
out of your own brain, without any word of God to prove
them. For God saith. Look what you think good in
your own eyes, if I command the contrary, it is abomin-
able in my sight And these ceremonies are against God's
laws. For, St. Paul saith, they be weak and beggarly,
and rebuketh the Galatians for doing them.'
" ' Well,' said he, ' if you will not do them, seeing they
are tlie laws of the realm, you are an heretic and dis-
obedient : and therefore come home again and confess
your faults with us, that you have been in error, &c.
Will you do so ?'
" And I said, ' No, I have been in no error : for the spi-
ritual laws were never more truly set forth than in my
master King Edward's time, and I trust unto God I
shall never forsake them while I live.'
" ' Well, then have him away,' said the bishop.
This above named Thomas Spurdance was one of
Queen Mary's servants, and was taken by two of his
fellow servants, who carried him to one Master Gosnal,
and by him he was sent to Bury, where he remained in
prison, and afterwards was burned in the month of
November.
The Martyrdom of three Witnesses of Christ.
Not long after the martyrdom of the two good women
at Colcliester, were three faithful witnesses of the Lord's
Testament, tormented and put to death in Smithtield, at
London, the 18th of November: John Hallingdale,
William Sparrow, Richard Gibson.
Which three were produced before Bonner, bishop of
London, the 5th day of November, 1557, and had by
him and his officers the usual articles administered to
them.
John Hallingdale being demanded by Bonner, whether
he firmly believed that in the sacrament, commonly
called the sacrament of the altar, there is really and
truly the very body and blood of our Saviour Christ, or
no ; made answer, that he neither in the time of the
said King Edward VI., nor at that present did believe,
that in the sacrament there is really the very body and
blood of Christ. For he said, that if he had so believed,
he would (as others had done) have received the same,
wl.ich he did not, because he had and then did believe,
that the very body of Christ is only in heaven, and no
where else. And further, John Hallingdale said, that
Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and generally all
that of late have been burned for heretics, were no here-
tics at all, because they did preach truly the gospel :
upon whose preaching he grounded his faith and con-
science, as he said, according to the saying of St. John,
in Revelations xviii. 24, wliere he saith, that " the blood
of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were
slain upon the earth," was found in the Babylonical
church, by which, he said, is understood the church
where the pope is the head. Then Bonner read the
bloody sentence of condemnation.
Upon the same day was produced before the bishop,
William Sparrow, and had laid to him the usual articles.
He answered with constancy and faithfulness, and finally
A.D. 1557.]
ARTICLES OBJECTED AGAJNST UICHARD GIBSON.
965
said, that the laws now used (meaning the ecclesiastical
laws) are nought and abominable, and that the mass is
noui^htand abominable. The bishop immediately read the
sentence of condemnation upon him, and delivered him
to the secular power.
^^'itll tliese two, suffered also Richard Gibson, who
was accused to Bonner, for that in the prison he was
never confessed, nor received at the popish altar : so he
was called for, and sustained sundry conflicts and exami-
nations as to his faith and religion. First he seemed to
make a certain submission. He was not delivered
from prison till the day of his burning. The articles
first objected and administered unto him by the bishop,
were these: —
" 1. That the said Richard Gibson, prisoner in the
Compter, in the Poultry, in the diocese of London, hath
behaved himself othen\'ise than became a faithful chris-
tian man, and a good subject of this realm of England,
in words and deeds in divers conditions and points, con-
trary to the order, religion, and faith of Christ's catholic
church, and contrary to the order of this realm, to the
pernicious and evil example of the inhabitants of the
city of London, and the prisoners in the prison of the
said Compter in the Poultry, and greatly to the hurt and
damage of his own soul, offending especially in the
articles following. By reason whereof the said Richard
Gibson was, and is of the jurisdiction of the said bishop
of London, and subject to the said jurisdiction, to make
answer to his offences and transgressions underwritten,
according to the order of the law.
" 2. That the said Richard Gibson hath irreverently
spoken against the pope, and see, and church of Rome,
and likewise against the whole church of this realm
of England, and against the seven sacraments of the
catholic and whole church of Christendom, and
against the articles of the christian faith here ob-
served in this realm of England, and against the
commendable and laudable ceremonies of the catholic
church.
" 3. That the said Richard Gibson hath commended,
allowed, defended, and liked, both Cranmer, Latimer, Rid-
ley, and also all other heretics here in this realm of Eng-
land, according to the ecclesiastical laws condemned for
heretics, and also liked all their heretical and erroneous,
damnable and wicked opinions, especially against the
sacrament of the altar, and the authority of the pope and
see of Rome, with the whole religion thereof.
" 3. That the said Richard Gibson hath comforted,
aided, assisted, and maintained both by words, and
otherwise, heretics and erroneous persons, or at the least
suspected and infamed of heresy and errors condemned
by the catholic church, to contintie in their heretical and
erroneous opinions aforesaid, favouring and counselling
the same unto his power.
" 5. That the said Gibson hath aflSrmed and said,
that the religion and faith commonly observed, kept,
and used now here in this realm of England, is not good
and laudable, nor in any wise agreeable unto God's word
and commandment.
" 6. That the said Gibson hath affirmed, that the
English service, and the books, commonly called the
books of Communion, or Conunon Prayer, here set
forth in this realm of England, in the time of King
Edward VI., were in all parts and points good and godly,
and that the same only, and no other, ought to be ob-
served and kept in this realm of England.
" 7. That the said Gibson hath affirmed, that if he
may be once out of prison and at liberty, he will not
come to any parish church, or ecclesiastical place, to
hear matins, mass, evensong, or any divine service now
used in this realm of England, nor come to procession
upon times and days accustomed, nor bear at any time
any taper or candle, nor receive at any time ashes,
nor bear at any time palm, nor receive pax at mass
time, nor receive holy water nor holy bread, nor ob-
serve the ceremonies or usages of the catholic church,
here observed or kept commonly in the realm of
England.
"8. That the said Gibson hath affirmed, that he is
not bound at any time, though he have liberty, and the
presence of a priest convenient and meet, to confess his
sins to the said priest, nor to receive the absolution of his
sins at his hacds, not to receive of him the sacrament,
commonly called thj sacrament of the altar, after such
form as is now used within this realm of England.
" 9. That the said Gibson hath affirmed, that prayer
unto saints, or jirayers for the dead, are not laudable,
available or jjrofitable ; and that no man is bound at
any time or in any place to fast or pray, but only at his
own will and pleasure, and that it is not lawful to reserve
or keep the said sacrament of the altar, nor in anywise
to adore and worship it."
Such were the charges against him, but the greatest
matter which he was charged with, was for not coming
to confession, and for not receiving the sacrament of
the popish making, and upon these he was condemned
to be burned.
Thus this valiant soldier, fighting for the gospel and
sincere doctrine of Christ's truth and religion, against
falsehood and error, was committed, with his fellows, to
the secular power.
And so these three godly men, John Hallingdale,
William Sparrow, and Master Gibson, being thus ap-
pointed to the slaughter, were the twelfth day after their
condemnation, viz., on the I8th of Nov., burnt in Smith-
field, in London. And being brought to the stake, after
their prayers made, they were bound with chains, and
wood set unto them, and after wood, fire, in which being
compassed about, and the fiery flames consuming their
flesh, at last they yielded gloriously and joyfully their
souls and lives into the holy hands of the Lord, to whose
tuition and government I commend thee, good reader,
Amen.
The Martyrdom of John Hough, Minister, and Mar-
garet Mearing.
In this furious time of persecution, were also burned
these two constant and faithful martyrs of Christ, John
Rough, a minister, and Margaret Mearing.
This Rough was born in Scotland, who, because some
of his kinsfolk would have kept him from his right of
inheritance which he had to certain lands, did at the age
of seventeen years, in despite, and the rather to dis-
please his friends, profess himself into the order of the
Black friars at Sterling, in Scotland ; where he remained
the space of sixteen years, until such time as the Lord
Hamilton. Earl of Arran, and governor of the realm of
Scotland, got him out of his order, that, as a seciviar
priest, he might serve him for his chaplain.
Rough remained in the earl's service one whole yew:
during which time it pleased God to open his eyes, and to
give him some knowledge of his truth, and thereupon he
was by the governor sent to preach in Ayr, where he coU'
tinued four years, and then after the death of the car-
dinal of Scotland, he was appointed to abide at St.
Andrew's, and there had assigned unto him a yearly
pension of twenty pounds from King Henry VIII. At
last weighing with himself his own danger, and also
abhorring the idolatry and superstition of the country,
and hearing of the freedom of the gospel within this
realm of England, he determined not to tarry any lonj?er
there. And therefore, he came first to Carlisle,
and from thence to the duke of Somerset, then lord
protector of England, and by his assignment had ap-
pointed him out of the king's treasury twenty pounds of
yearly stipend, and was sent, as a preacher, to sei /e at
Carlisle, Berwick, and Newcastle. From whence, after
he had there, according to the laws of God, and
also of this realm, taken a countrywoman of his to wife,
he was called by the archbishop of York, that then was,
to a benefice in the town of Hull, where he cont.nued
until the death of that blessed and good king Edward VI.
But in the beginning of the reign of queen Mary, he
fled with his wife into Frizeland, and (Iwtlt there at a
place called Norden, labouring for his living, in knitting
of caps, hose, and such things, till about the end of the
month of October before his death. At which time,
lacking yarn, and other such necessary provision for the
maintenance of his occupation, he came over again to
966
TWO PERSONS BURNT IN SMITHFIELD.
[Book XII.
England, here to provide for the same, and the tenth day
of November arrived in London. Where, hearing of the
secret society, and holy congregation of God's chil-
dren there assembled, he joined himself to them, and
afterwards being elected their minister and preacher,
continued most virtuously exercised in that godly fellow-
ship, teaching and contirining them in the truth of the
gospel of Christ. But in the end, such was the providence
of God, who disposeth all things to the best, that on the
12th of December, he with Cuthbert Simson and others,
through the crafty and traitorous suggestion of a false
hypocrite and dissembling brother, were apprehended by
the vice-chambeilain of the cpieen's house, at tlie Sara-
cen's head in Islington ; where the congregation had
then pro])osed to assemble themselves for their godly and
accustomed exercises of prayer, and hearing the word
of God. Tlie vice-chamberlain, after he had appre-
hended them, carried Rough and Simson unto the
council, who charged them to have assembled together
to celebrate the communion or supper of the Lord,
and tlierefore after sundry examinations, they sei'.t the
said Rough unto Newgate ; but his examinations they
sent to the bishop of London.
Bonner now minding to make quick despatch, did
■within three days send for this Rough, and in his palace
at London, ministered unto him many articles, as
follows : —
" L That thou, John Rough, didst directly speak
against the seven sacraments, used commonly and re-
verently, as things of estimation and great worthiness
in the catholic church : and also didst reprove and con-
demn the substance of the said sacraments, but espe-
cially the sacrament of the altar, affirming that in that
same is not really and truly the very body and blood
of Christ : and that confession to the priest, and ab-
solution given by him, as the minister of Christ, for
sins, is not necessary or available in any wise.
" 2. Thou hast disliked and reproved the religion and
ecclesiastical service, as it is now used in this realm,
and hast allowed the religion and service used in the
latter years of King Edward VL, and so much as in
thee hath lain, hast by word, writing, and deed, set
forwards, taught, and preached tiie same openly, and
in sundry places affirmed, that the said English service
and doctrine therein contained, is agreeable in all points
to God's word, and unto the truth, condemning utterly
the Latin service now used in the queen's reign, and
inducing others by thine example to do the like.
" '.i. Thou hast in sundry places within this realm
commended and approved the opinion and doctrine of
Thomas Cranmer, late archbisiiop of Canterbury, Ni-
cholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, concerning the sacra-
ment of the altar, affirming that in the sacrament there
remaineth, after the words of consecration, material
bread, and material wine, without any transubstantiation.
" 4. Thou hast in sundry places of this realm, since
the queeu's reign, ministered and received the commu-
nion as it was used in the late days of King' Edward
TI., and thou knovvest. or credibly hast heard of divers,
that yet do keep books of the said communion, and used
the same in private houses out of the church, and en-
tertain op nions against the sacrament of the altar.
" .5. That thou in sundry places of this realm hast
spoken against the po])e of Rome, and his apostolic see,
and hast plainly contemned and despised the authority
of the same, disliking and not allowing the faith and
doctrine thereof, but directly speaking against it, and
by thine example hast indu(;ed others, the subjects of
this realm, to speak and do the like.
" 6. Thou dost know, and hast been conversant with
all, or a great part of such Englishmen as have fled
out of this realm for religion, and hast consented and
agreed with them in their opinions, and hast succoured,
maintained, and hel|)i'd them, and hast been a con-
veyer of their seditious letters and books into this
realm.' '
Upon these, and other similar articles he was ex-
amined, and was faithful and consistent in his confession
of tiie truth, concluding with these words : —
" That their orders were nothing at all, and that he,
being a priest, might lawfully marry, and that his chil-
dren which he had by his wife were lawful. And touching
the service then used, he utterly detested it, saying,
Tliat if he should live so long as Methusalem, yet he
would never come to the church to hear the abomi-
nable mass and other service, being as it was then."
Upon which words the bishop proceeded to the actual
degradation of Rough, exempting him from all the
benefits and privileges of their church, and after con-
demning him as an heretic, committed his body to the
secular power, who taking him into their charge, and
custody, carried him unto Newgate.
Moreover, as touching Master Rough, this is further
to be noted, that he said, he had lived thirty years,
and yet had never bowed his knee to Baal ; and being
before Bonner, he affirmed that he had been twice at
Rome, and there had seen plainly with his eyes, which
he had many times heard of before, namely, that the pope
was the very antichri^^t : for there he saw him carried on
men's shoulders, and the false -named sacrament borne
before hiin : yet was there more reverence given to
him, than to that which they counted to be their god.
When Bonner heard this, rising up, and making as
though he would have torn his garments. " llast thou,"
siid he, " been at Rome, and seen our holy father,
the pope, and dost thou blasidieme him after tliis sort,"
and with that flying upon him, he plucked off a piece
of his beard, and after making speedy haste to his death,
he burnt him half an hour before six- o'clock in the
morning.
Margaret Mearing, Martyr.
In the company of John Rough, was burned one Mar-
garet Mearing, who, as the register makes mention, was
at one time and day brought with Rough forth to exami-
iiation : where the bishop having no private matters to
charge her withal, did on the 18th of December object
against her those common articles. To which she an-
swered : —
" That there is here on earth a catholic church, and
that there is the true faith of Christ observed and kept
in the same church. That there were only two sacra-
ments in the church, namely, the sacrament of the body
and blood of Christ, and the sacrament of baptism.
That she was baptised in the faith and belief of the said
church, renouncing there, by her godfathers and god-
mothers, the devil and all his works. That when she
came to the age of fourteen years, she did not know what
her true belief was, because she was not then of discre-
tion to understand the same, neither yet was taught it.
That she had not gone from the catholic faith at any ;j
time : but she said that the mass was abominable before
the sight of God, and before the sight of all true chris-
tian people, and that it is the plain cup of fornication,
and the whore of Babylon. And as concerning the sa-
crament of the altar, she said, she believed there were no
such sacrament in the catholic church. Also she said.
That she utterly abhorred the authority of the bishop of
Rome, with all the religion observed in the same anti-
christ's church. That she had refused to come to her
parish church, because the true religion of Christ vv-as
not then used in the same : and further said. That she
had not come unto the church by the space of one year
and three-quarters then last past, neither yet did mean
any more to come unto the same in these idolatrous
days."
These answers being then registered, they were again
l)roi>()uiided against her on the '20th of December, and
there being demanded if she would stand to her answers,
she said, " I will stand to them unto the death ; for the
very angels of heaven do laugh you to scorn, to see your
aljomination that you use in the church." After v,hich
words, the bishop pronounced the sentence of condem-
nation against her ; and then delivering her to the
sheriffs, she was with John Rough carried to Newgate.
From whence they were both together led to Smithtield,
the 'iid day of the same month of December, and there
most joyfully gave their lives for the profession of
Clirist's gospel.
A.D. 1558.]
THE MARTYRDOM OF CUTHBERT SIMSON AND OTHERS.
967
The Suffering of Cuthhert Simson, Deacon of the Chris-
tian Church in London.
Next after the martyrdom of John Rough, minister of
the congregation above mentioned, succeeded in like
martyrdom the deacon also of that godly company or
congregation in London, named Cuthbert Simson, being
committed to the fire, in the year of our Lord 1558, the
28th day of March.
This Cuthbert Simson was a man of a faithful and
zealous heart to Christ and his true flock, insomuch that
he never ceased labouring, and studying most earnestly,
not only how to preserve them without corruption of the
popi.sh religion, but also his care was very vigilant, how
to keep them together without peril or danger of perse-
cution.
A true Report how he was used in the Tower of London,
beinr/ sent thither by the Council, the VSth day of De-
cember, written by himself.
" On the Thursday after I was called before the con-
stable of the Tower, and the recorder of London, Mr.
Cholmley : they commanded me to tell whom I desired
to come to the English service. I answered, I would
declare nothing. Whereupon I was set in a rack of iron,
the space of three hours.
" Then they asked me if I would tell them. I an-
swered as before. Then I was loosed, and carried to my
lodging again On the Sunday after I was brought into
the same place again, before the lieutenant and the re-
corder of London, and they examined me. I answered
as before. Then the lieutenant swore I should tell.
Then they bound my two fore-fingers together, and put
a small arrow betwixt them, and drew it through so fast
that the blood followed, and the arrow broke.
" Then they racked me twice. Then I was carried to
my lodging again, and ten days after the lieutenant asked
me if I would not confess that which they had asked me.
I said, I had said as much as I would. Then five weeks
after he sent me to the high-priest, where 1 was greatly
assaulted, and at whose hands I received the pope's curse,
for bearing witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And thus I commend you unto God, and to the word of
his grace, with all them that unfeignedly call upon the
name of Jesus, desiring God of his endless mercy,
through the merits of his dear Son, Jesus Christ, to bring
us all to his everlasting kingdom. Amen. I praise God
for his great mercy shewed unto us. Sing hosanna to
the Highest with me. God forgive me my sins. I ask
alltheworldtbrgiveness, and I do forgive all the world, and
thus I leave this world, in hope of a joyful resurrection.''
Now, this further is to be noted, that Bonner in his
consistory, speaking of Cuthbert Simson, gave this testi-
mony of him to the people, saying, " I say unto you,
that if he were not an heretic, he is a man of the great-
est patience that yet ever came before me : for I tell
you, he hath been thrice racked upon one day in the
Tower. Also in my house he hath felt some sorrow, and
yet I never saw his patience broken, &c."
With Simson was likewise apprehended, and also
suffered, Hugh Foxe and John Devenish. Who, being
brought to their examinations with Simson, before Bon-
ner, bishop of London, the 19th day of March, had the
usual articles ministered to them by the officer.
They all answered, " That the church is grounded
upon the prophets and apostles, Christ being the head
corner-stone. That in Christ's catholic church there are
but two sacraments, that is, baptism and the supper of
the Lord. That they will speak against the sacrifice of
the n;ass, the sacrament of the altar, and likewise against
the authority of the see of Rome. And they all refused
to acknowledge the authority of the see of Rome to be
lawful and good."
These three blessed witnesses of Jesus Christ, Sim-
son, Foxe, and Devenish, as they were together appre-
hendel at I^lington, so all three together suffered in
Smithfield, about the 28th day of March, in whose per-
fect constancy the same Lord, in whose cause and quar-
rel they suffered. Giver of all grace, and Governor of all
things, be exalted for ever, Amen.
The Martyrdom of William Nichol.
We find in all ages from the beginning, that Satan
hath not ceased at all times to molest the church of
Christ with one affliction or other, to the trial of their
faith ; but yet never so apparently at any time to all the
world, as when the Lord hath permitted him power over
the bodies of his saints, to the shedding of their blood,
and perverting of their religion ; for then he sleeps not
from the murdering of the same, unless they will fall
down with Ahab and Jezebel to worship him, and so
kill and poison their own souls eternally ; as in these
miserable days of queen Mary, we have felt, heard, and
seen practised upon God's people. Among whom we
find recorded an honest, good, simple poor man, one
William Nichol, who was apprehended by the champions
of the pope, for speaking certain words against the cruel
kingdom of antichrist, and on the 9th day of April, A.D.
1558, was butcherly burned and tormented at Haverford-
West, in Wales, where he ended his life in a most happy
and blessed state, and gloriously gave his soul into the
hands of the Lord, whose goodness be praised for ever,
Amen.
This William Nichol was so simple a good soul, that
many esteemed him half foolish. But what he was we
know not, but this we are sure, he died a good man, and
in a good cause, whatsoever they judge of him. And the
more simplicity and feebleness of wit appeared in him,
the more beastly and wretched doth it declare their cruel
and tyrannical conduct. The Lord give them repen-
tance, if it be his blessed will, Amen, Amen.
The Martyrdom of William Seaman, Thomas Carman,
and Thomas Hudson.
Immediately after William Nichol, succeeded in that
honourable and glorious vocation of martyrdom, three
constant godly men at Norwich, in Norfolk, who were
cruelly and tyrannically put to death for the true testi-
mony of Jesus Christ, on the 19th of May, A.D. 1558,
whose names are these : — William Seaman ; Thomas
Carman ; and Thomas Hudson. The said William Sea-
man was a husbandman, of the age of twenty-six years,
dwelling in Mendlesham, in the county of Suffolk, who
was sundry times sought for by the commandment of Sir
John Tyrrel, knight, and at last he was taken and
brought before his persecutor. Who, when he came,
asked him why he would not go to mass, and receive the
sacrament, and worship it .' William answered, denying
it to be a sacrament, but said it was an idol, and there-
fore he would not receive it. After which. Sir John Tyr-
rel sent him to Norwich, to Hopton the bishop, and
there after conference and examination had with him, the
bishop read his bloody sentence of condemnation against
him ; and delivered him to the secular power, who kept
him to the day of martyrdom.
This said William Seaman left behind him, when he
died, a wife and three children very young : and with
the young children his wife was persecuted out of the
town of Mendlesham, because she would not go to hear
mass, and all her corn and goods were seized and taken
away.
Thomas Carman (who, as is said, pledged Richard
Crashfield at his burning, and was apprehended for it)
being a prisoner in Norwich, was about the same time with
the rest examined and brought before the bisliop. who
answered no less in his master's cause than the other ;
and, therefore, had the like reward that the other had,
which was the bishop's condemnation, and delivered also
to the secular power, who kept him with the other until
the day of slaughter.
Thomas Hudson was of Hailes in Norfolk, thirty
years of age, by his occupation a glover, a vuy honest
poor man, having a wife and three children, iiibouring
always trulv and diligently in his vocation, and Inaring
so good a w'ill to the gospel, that he in the days of king
Edward VI., two years before queen Mary's reign,
968
THREE PERSONS BURNT AT COLCHESTER.
[Book XII.
learned to read English, in which he greatly profited
about the time of alteration of religion. For when
queen Mary came to reign, and had changed the service
in the church, he then avoiding all their ceremonies of
super-^tition, absented himself from his house, and went
into Suffolk a long time, and there remained travelling
from one place to another, as occasion offered. At last
he returned to Norfolk, to his house at Hailes, to
comfort his wife and children, who were troubled be-
cause of his absence.
Now wlien he came home, and perceived his continu-
ance tii: re would be dangerous, he and his wife devised
to make him a place among liis fagots to hide himself in,
where he remained all tlie clay, instead of his chamber,
reading and praying continually, for the space of half a
year, and his wife like an honest woman, being careful
for him, used herself faithfully and diligently towards
him.
In the mean time came the vicar of the town, named
Berry, who was one of the bishop's commissaries, a very
evil man, and inquired of Hudson's wife for her hus-
band. She answered, as not knowing where he was.
Then Berry rated her, and threatened to burn her, for
that she would not betray her husband where he was.
After that, when Hudson understood it, he waxed every
day more zealous, and continually read and sang psalms,
to the wonder of many, the ])eople openly resorting to
him. to hear his exhortations and vehement prayers.
At last he walked abroad for certain days openly in
the town, and the constables understanding the same,
went to catch him.
Now when Hudson saw them coming, he said ; " Now
mine hour is come. Welcome friends, welcome. You
are they that shall lead me to life in Christ. I thank
God ; and the Lord enable me theretoforhis mercy'ssake."
For his desire was, and he ever prayed, if it were the
Lord's will, that he miglit suffer for the gospel of Christ.
Then they took him, and led him to Berry the commis-
sary, who was vicar of the town, and Berry asked him
first, where he kept his church for four years before.
To which Hudson answered that " Wherever he was,
there was the church."
" Dost thou not believe," said Berry, " in the sacra-
ment of the altar .' What is it ?"
Hudson. — " It is worms' meat ; my belief is in Christ
crucified."
Berry. — " Dost thou not believe the mass to put away
sins ? ' '
Hudson. — " No, God forbid ; it is a patched monster,
and a disguised puppet.'' At which words Berry
stamped, fumed, and showed himself as a madman, and
said, " Well, thou villain, thou : 1 will write to the
bishop and trust to it, thou shalt be handled according
to thy deserts.'' " Oh, Sir," said Hudson, " there is
no Lord but God, though there be many Lords and
many Gods.'' With that Berry thrust him back with
his hand. And one Richard Cliffar standing by, said
" I pray you. Sir, be good to the poor man.'' At which
words Berry was more mad than before. Then he asked
Hudson whether he would recant, or no. Hudson said,
" the Lord forbid ; I had rather die many deaths than
to do so.''
These three christians and constant martyrs, William
Seaman, Thomas Carman, and Thomas Hudson, after
they were condemned, were carried out of prison on the
19th day of May, A.D. I").i8, to the place where they
should suffer, which was without Bishopsgate, at Norwich,
called Lollards' Pit. And being all there, they made
their humble petitions to the Lord. That being done,
they rose and went to the stake, and standing all three
with their chains about them, immediately Thomas Hud-
son came forth from them under the chain, to the great
wonder of many ; whereby divers feared and greatly
doubted of him ; for some thought he would have re-
canted, others judged rather that he went to ask further
delay, and to desire conference ; and some thought he
came forth to ask some of his parents' blessing. So
some thought one thing, and some another : but his two
companions at the stake cried out to comfort him as
they could, eihorting hira in the bowels of Christ to be
of good cheer, &c. But Hudson felt more in his heart
and conscience than they could conceive in him. For
alas, good soul, he was compassed (God knoweth) with
great dolour and grief of mind : and therefore, being
very careful, he humbly fell down upon his knees, and
prayed vehemently and earnestly unto the Lord, who at
the last, according to his old mercies, sent him comfort,
and then rose he with great joy, as a man new changed
even from death to life, and said : " Now I thank ('od
I am strong, and heed not what man can do untu me.''
So going to the stake to his fellows ajj.iin, in the end
they all suffered most joyfully, constantly, and manfully,
the death together, and were consumed in fire, to the
terror of the wicked, the comfort of (iod's children,
and the magnifying of the Lord's name, who be praised
therefore for ever, Amen.
After this commissary Berry made great stir about
others who were suspected in the town of Hailes, and
caused two hundred to go on their knees to the cross
at Pentecost, besides other punishments.
The Martyrdom of three Godly Persons hiirnt at
Colchester.
Thou hast heard (good reader) of the three that were
burnt at Norwich, whose blood quenched not the perse-
cuting thirst of the papists. For immediately after, even
the same month, upon the twenty-sixth day, was seen the
like murder also at Colchester of two men and a woman,
lying there in prison appointed to the slaughter ; who
were brought forth the same day, to a place prepared for
them to suffer, and accordingly gave their lives for the
testimony of the truth, whose names were, William
Harris, Richard Day, and Christiana George.
These three good souls were brought unto the stake,
and there joyfully and fervently had made their prayers
unto the Lord.
At the last, being settled in their places, and chained
to their posts, with the fire flaming fiercely round about
them, they like constant christians triumphantly praised
God, and offered up their bodies a lively sacrifice to his
holy Majesty ; in whose habitation they have now their
everlasting tabernacles : his name be praised for ever-
more. Amen.
In the month of June, came out the following procla-
mation, short but sharp, from the king and the queen,
against wholesome and godly books, which under the
false title of heresy and sedition, were wrongfully con-
demned in the proclamations.
Proclamation by the King and Queen,
" Whereas divers books, filled with heresy, sedition,
and treason, have of late, and are daily brought into this
realm out of foreign countries and places beyond the
seas, and some also covertly printed within this realm,
and cast abroad in sundry parts thereof, whereby not
only God is dishonoured, but also an encouragement
given to disobey lawful princes and governors. The
king and queen's majesties, for redress hereof, do by this
their present proclamation declare and publish to all
their subjects, that whosoever shall after the proclaiming
hereof, be found to have any of the said wicked and sedi-
tious books, or finding them, do not forthwith burn the
same, without showing or reading the same to any other .
person, shall in that case be reputed and taken for a
rebel, and shall without delay be executed for that of-
fence, according to the order of martial law.
*' Given at our Manor of St. James's, the fith day
of June. " John Cawood, Printer."
The taktny certain Godli/ Men and Women praying
together in the Fields about Islington.
Secretly in a back close in the field by the town of
Islington, were collected and assembled together a cer-
tain company of godly and innocent persons, to the num-
ber of forty, men and women. Who there sitting toge-
ther at prayer, and virtuously occupied in the meditation
of God's holy word, first comes a certain man unknown
A.D, 1558.]
TWENTY-TWO PROTESTANTS ARRESTED AT ISLINGTON.
S69
to them ; who looking over to them, stopped and
saluted thena, saying, that they looked like men that
meant no hurt. Then one of the company asked the
man, if he could tell whose close that was, and whether
they might be so bold to sit there. Yea, said he. for
that you seem to me such persons as intend no harm,
and so departed. Within a quarter of an hour after,
comes the constable of Islington, with six or seven
others, accompanying him in the same business, one
with a bow. another with a bill, and others with their
weapons likewise. Which six or seven persons the con-
stable left a little behind him in a close place, there to
be ready if need should be, while he with one with him,
should go and view them before. Who so doing, came
through them, looking and viewing what they were do-
ing, and what books they had ; and so going a little for-
ward, and returning back again, bade them deliver their
books. They understanding that he was constable, re-
fused not to do so. With that comes forth the rest of
his feiiows, who bade them stand, and not depart. They
answered again, they would be obedient and ready to go
whit?iersoever they would have them, and so were they
first carried to a brewhouse but a little way off, while
some of the soldiers ran to the justice next at hand. But
the justice was not at home ; whereupon they were had
to Sir Roger Cholmley. In the mean time some of
the women, being of the number of forty persons, es-
caped away from them, some in the close, some before
they came to the brewhouse. For so they were carried,
ten with one man, eight with another, and with some
more, with some less, in such sort as it was not hard for
them to escape that would. In fine, they that were car-
ried to Sir Roger Cholmley, were twenty-seven. Sir
Roger Cholmley and the recorder taking their names on
paper and calling them one by one, so many as answered to
their names, he sent to Newgate. The number of them
that answered, and that were sent to Newgate, was
twenty and two.
To whom word was sent by the keeper, that if
they would hear a mass, they should all be delivered ;
of these two and twenty, thirteen were burnt. In Smith-
field seven, at Brentford six. In prison two died in
Whitsun-week.
Seven of them who remained, escaped with their lives,
although not without much trouble, yet, as God would,
without burning.
The first seven were brought forth to examination be-
fore Bonner, and so having their condemnation, were
burnt in Smithfield. The other six followed not long
after, and suffered at Brentford.
Concerning the examination and condemnation of
these who were apprehended at Islington, seven first
were produced before Bonner, the 14th of June, to make
answer to such articles and interrogatories, as should be
ministered unto them.
Articles.
" 1. That you, being within the city and diocese of
London, have not, according to the common custom of
the catholic church of this realm of England, come to
your own parish church, nor yet to the cathedral church
of this city and diocese of London, to hear devoutly and
christianly the matins, the mass, the evensong, sung
or said there in the Latin tongue, after the common
usage and manner of the church of this realm.
" 2. That you have not come to any of the said
churches to pray, to go in procession, or to exercise
yourselves there in godly and laudable exercises.
" 3. That you have not conformed yourselves duly to
all the laudable customs, rites, and ceremonies of any
of the said cliurches.
"4. You have not been confessed at due times and
places to your own curate, of your sins.
" o. You have not received at your said curate's
hands (as of the minister of Christ) absolution of your
sins.
" 6. You have not at due times and places reverently
and duly received the sacrament of the altar of yoijr
curate.
" 7. You have not faithfully and truly believed, that
in the said sacrament of the altar, there is really and
truly the very body and blood of Christ.
" 8. You have not by your mouth, nor otherwise by
your deed, expressed or declared, in anywise, that you
without wavering or doubting do think and believe, that
the faith and religion now observed in the church of
England, is a true faith and religion in all points.
" 9. \ou have not made any signification that you do
indeed approve, or allow in anywise the common service
in Latin, here observed and kept in the church of this
realm of England.
" 10. You have not believed, nor do believe at this
present, that the service in Latin, commonly used and
observed in the church of this realm, is good and lawful,
and not against the word of God.
" 11. You have in times past, liked, allowed, and ap-
proved as good and godly, and so do like, allow, and
approve at this present, the service in English, the
books of common prayer, the books of communion, and
the religion set forth and used in the time of king Ed-
ward Vl., especially as it was set forth and used in the
latter days of the said king Edward.
" 12. You have in times past been very desirous, and
so are at this present, that the said English service, the
said book of common prayer, the said book of commu-
nion, and the said religion and faith so set forth and
used in king Edward's time, might now again be re-
stored, set forth and used, and yourself freely at your
liberty, without any restraint or hindrance to use it, and
also in all points and things to do therein, as you did,
especially in the latter days of Edward VI.
" 13. You have of late been charitably sent to from
me the bishop of London, and also by mouth exhorted,
that where of late you did leave your churches, and went
in the time of divine service into the fields and profane
places, to read English psalms, and certain English
books, you would leave off that, and being out of prison,
and at your liberty, come into your own parish churches,
there to hear matins, mass, and evensong, after the
common order of the churches of this realm, and to
make due confession of your sins to your own curate,
and receive at his hands (as of the minister of Christ,
having therein sufficient authority) absolution of your sins,
hear mass, receive the sacrament of the altar with a true
faith, according to the belief of the catholic church, and
observe all other the rites and customs of the said catho-
lic church used in this realm of England, as well in
going in procession after the cross, as also otherwise
generally.
" 14. You being so required, have refused, and do
refuse so to do, saying, amongst other vain and light
words, that forasmuch as you were imprisoned for the
si)ace of six weeks, not knowing wherewith you were
charged, your petition should be and was, that you might
first answer to your former cause, and then you would
be ready to answer me the said bishop to all that by me
should be laid to your charge."
After faithfully and courageously answering to all these
articles, they were remanded to prison till the day of
condt'uuiation, on which day the bishop dissevering them
one from another, proceeded with them severally, be-
ginning with Reiiiald Eastland, who there declared that
he had been uncharitably treated since his imprisonment.
Then being required to reconcile himself again to the
catholic faith, and go from his opinions ; he said, that
he knew nothing why he should recant ; and therefore
would not conform himself in that behalf, &;c., and so
the sentence was read against him, and he given to the
secular power.
After him was called in John Holiday, who likewise
being advertised to renounce his heresies, as they called
them, and to return to the unity of their church, said,
that he was no heretic, nor did hold any heresy, neither
any opinion contrary to the catholic faith, he likewise
persisting in the same, the sentence was pronounced
against him, condemning him to be burnt.
Next to him was condemned, with the like sentence.
Henry Pond, because he would not submit himself to the
Romish church, saying to Bonner, that he had done or
9/0
THE EXAMINATION AND ANSWERS OF ROGER HOLLAND.
[Book XII.
spoken nothing whereof he was or would be sorry, but
that he did hold the truth of God, and no heresy, &c.
After whom next followed John Floyd, who likewise
denied to be of the pope's church, and spoke his mind of
the Latin service, that the prayers made to saints is ido-
latry, and that the service in Latin is profitable to none,
but only to such as understand the Latin. Moreover,
being charged by Bonner of heresy, and saying, that
whatever he and such others now-a-days do, all is
heresy ; for this he was condemned with the same sen-
tence, and so by the secular power was sent away.
Tlien Robert Southam, after him Matthew Ricarby,
and last of all Roger Holland were severally produced.
This Roger Holland, with his fellows, standing to their
answers, and refusing to acknowledge the doctrine of the
Romish church, were altogether condemned, the sen-
tence being read against them, and so all seven by secu-
lar magistrates being sent away to Newgate, the 17th of
June, not long after, about the 27th of the month, they
were taken to Smithfield, and there ended their lives in
the glorious cause of Christ's gospel. \\'hose particular
examinations came not to our hands ; saving only the
examinations of R. Holland, which here follow as we
received them of certain, who were present at the
time.
Register. — " How sayest thou ? Wilt thou submit
thyself unto my lord, before thou art entered into the
book of contem])t ?"
Holland. — " I never meant but to submit myself to
the magistrate, as I learn of St. Paul to the Romans,
chap, xiii." and so he recited the text.
Chadsey. — " Then I see you are no anabaptist.''
Holland. — " I mean not yet to be a papist; for they
and the anabaptists agree on this point, not to submit
themselves to any other prince or magistrate, than those
who must first be sworn to maintain them and their do-
ings."
Bonner. — " I perceive thou wilt be ruled by no good
counsel, for any thing that either I, or your friends, or
any other can say."
Holland. — " I may say to you, my lord, as St. Paul
said to Felix, and unto the Jews. It is not unknown to
my master whom I am an ap))rentice with, that I was of
this your blind religion that now is taught, and therein
did obstinately and wilfully remain, until the latter end of
Edward's reign ; having that liberty under your auricular
confession, that I made no conscience of sin, but trusted
in the priest's absolution, he for money doing some
penance also for me : which after I had given, I cared
no further what offences 1 did, no more than he could
after he had my money, whether he tasted bread and water
for me or not ; so that swearing, and all other vices I ac-
counted no offence of danger, so long as I could have them
absolved for money. So straitly did I observe your
rules of religion, that I would Viave ashes upon Ash-
wednesday, though I had used ever so much wickedness
at night. And although I could not in conscience eat
flesh upon the Friday, yet in swearing, drinking, or
gambling all the night long, I made no conscience at all.
And thus was I brought u]), and herein have I continued
till now of late, that God has opened the light of his
word, and called me by his grace to repentance of my
former idolatry and wicked life. And now to your an-
tiquity, unity, and universality I am unlearned- I have
no sophistry to shift my reason with ; but the truth I
trust I have, which needs no painted colours to set her
forth. The antiquity of our church is not from pope
Nicholas, or pope Joan, but our church is from the be-
ginning, even from the time that God said unto Adam,
that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's
head ; and so to faithful Noah ; to Aoraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, to whom it was promised, that their seed should
multiply as the stars in the sky ; and so to Moses, David,
and all the holy fathers that were from the beginning,
unto the birth of our Saviour Christ. All they that be-
lieved these promises were of the church, though the
numbers were oftentimes but few and small, as in Elias's
time, when he thought there was none but he, that had
not bowed the knee to Baal, when God had reserved .=even
thousand that never had bowed their knees to that idol :
and I trust there are seven hundred thousand more than
I know of, that have not bowed their knees to the idol
your mass ; the upholding whereof is your bloody cruelty,
while you daily persecute Elias and the servants of God,
forcing them, as Daniel was in his chamber, secretly to
serve the Lord their God ; and even as we by your
cruelty are forced in the fields to pray to God, that his
holy word may be once again truly preached amongst us,
and that he would mitigate and shorten these idolatrous
and bloody days, wherein all cruelty reigns. Moreover,
in our church have been the apostles and evangelists, the
martyrs and confessors of Christ, that have at all times
and in all ages been persecuted for the testimony of the
word of God. But for tht^ upholding of your church and re-
ligion, what antiquity can you shew? yea, the mass, that
idol andchief pillarof yourreligion,is not yet four hundred
years old, and some of your masses are younger, as that mass
of Thomas a Becket the traitor, wherein you pray — that
you may be saved by the blood of St. Thomas. And as
for your Latin service, what are we of the laity the bet-
ter for it ? I think he that should hear your j)riests
mumble up their service, although he did well understand
Latin, yet should he understand only a few words, the
])riests do so champ them and chew them, and post so
fast, that neither they understand what they say, nor
they that hear them ; and in the mean time the people,
wlien they should pray with the priest, are set to their
beads to pray our Lady's Psalter. So crafty is Satan to
devise these his dreams, which you defend with fagot and
fire, to quench the light of the word of God : which, as
David saith, should be a lantern to our feet. And again,
wherein shall a young man direct his ways, but by the word
of God ? And yet you will hide it from us in a tongue
unknown. St. Paul had rather in the church to have five
words s])oken with understanding, than ten thousand
in an unknown tongue ; and yet will you have your Latin
service and praying in a strange tongue, whereof the
people are utterly ignorant, to be of such antiquity? The
Greek church, and a good part of Christendom besides,
never received your service in an unknown tongue, but
in their own natural language, which all the people un-
derstand ; neither yet your transubstantiation, your re-
ceiving the sacrament in one kind only, your purgatory,
your images, &c. As for the unity which is in your
church, what is it else but treason, murder, poisoning
one another, idolatry, superstition, wickedness ? What
unity was in your church, when there were three popes
at once ? Where was your head of unity when you had
a woman pope ?''
Here he was interrupted, and could not be suffered to
proceed ; but, said the bishop, " these thy words are very
blasphemy, and by the means of thy friends thou hast
been suffered to speak, and thou art over malapert to
teach any here. Therefore, keeper, take him away,"
The day that Henry Pond and the rest were brought
forth again to be examined, Doctor Chedsey said, " Hol-
land, 1 trust you have now better considered of the
church than you did before."
Holland. — " I consider thus much — that out of the
church there is no salvation, as the ancient doctors say."
Bonner. — " That is well said. But you mean, I trust,
the church of Rome ?''
Holland. — " I mean that church which hath Christ
for her head ; which also hath his words and his sacra-
ments according to his word and institution."
Chedsey. — " Is that a testament you have in your
hand ?"'
Holland. — " Yea, it is the New Testament. You will
find no fault with the translation. It is your own trans-
lation ; it is according to the great bible.'
Bonner. — ' How say you ? How do you know it is
the testament of Christ, but only by the church ? For
the church of Rome hath and doth preserve it, and out
of it has made decrees, ordinances, and true exposi-
tions."
Holland — " No, the church of Rome hath and doth
suppress the reading of the testament. And what a
true exposition, I pray you, did the pope make thereof,
when he set his foot on the emperor's neck, and said,
A.U. 1558.]
THE EXAMINATION AND ANSWERS OF ROGER HOLLAND.
971
' Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder ; the young
lion and tlie dragon shalt thou trample under feet.' " —
Psal. xci. 13.
Then said the bishop — " Such unlearned wild heads
as thou and others, would be expositors of the scripture
Would you then that the ancient and learned, as there
be some here as well as I, should be taught of you ?"
Holland. — " Youth delighteth in vanity. My wild-
ness hath been somewhat the more by your doctrine, than
eeer I learned out of this book of God. But, my lord,
I think some of the old doctors say, — If a poor layman
bring his reason and argument out of the word of
God, he is to be credited before the learned, though
they be never so great doctors. For the gift of know-
ledge was taken from the learned doctors, and given to
poor fishermen. Notwithstanding I am ready to be in-
structed by the church."
Bonner.—" That is very well said. But you must
understand that the church of Rome is the catholic
church.'
The last examination of Roger Holland was, when hn
with his fellow prisoners were brought into the consis-
tory, and there excommunicated, save Roger. i\ow the
bishop, hoping to win him with fair and flattering words,
began after this manner :
Bonner. — " I have divers time called thee to my house,
and have conferred with thee, and being not learned in
the Latin tongue, it appears to me thou art of good
memory, and of a very sensible talk, but something
overhasty, which is a natural failing to some men. And
surely they are not the worst natured men. For 1 myself
am now and then hasty, but mine anger is soon past.
So, I have a good opinion of you, that you will not cast
yourself headlong from the church of your parents and
your friends that are here, very good catholics, as is
reported to me. And as I mean thee good, so play the
wise man's part, and come home like the lost son, and
say, I have run into the church of schismatics and here-
tics, from the catholic church of Rome ; and you shall,
I warrant you, not only find favour at God's hands, but
the church that hath authority, shall absolve you, and
put new garments upon you, and kill the fatling to make
thee good cheer with, that is, in so doing, as meat doth
refresh and cherish the body, so shalt thou find as much
quietness of conscience in coming home to the church,
as did the hungry son that had been fed with the hogs,
as you have done with these heretics that sever them-
selves from the church. I give them a homely name, but
they are worse (putting his hand to his cap for reverence
sake) than hogs. For they know the church, and will
not follow it. If I should say thus much to a Turk, he
would, I think, believe me. But, if I did not bear thee
and thy friends good will, I would not have said so much
as I have done, but I would have let mine ordinary alone
with you. Well, how say you ? Do you not believe,
that after the priest hath spoken the words of consecra-
tion, there remains the body of Christ really and cor-
poreally under the forms of bread and wine ? I mean
the self- same body that was born of the Virgin Mary,
that was crucified upon the cross, that rose again the
third day ?''
Holland. — " Your lordship saith, the same body which
was born of the Virgin Mary, which was crucified upon
the cross, which rose again the third day : but you leave
out wliieh ascended into heaven ; and the scripture saith,
he shall there remain until he come to judge the quick
and the dead. Then he is not contained under the forms
of bread and wine.''
Bonner. — " I perceive my pains and good will will
not prevail, and if I should argue with thee, thou art so
wilful, that thou wouldst talk to no purpose this seven
years. Answer whether thou wilt confess the real and
corporeal presence of Christ's body in the sacrament?"
Holland. — " My lord, although God by his sufferance
hath here placed you, to set forth his truth and glory in
us his faithful servants; notwithstanding your meaning
is far from the zeal of Christ : and, notwithstan-ling all
four words, you have the same zeal that Annas and
Caiaphas had, trusting to their authority, traditions and
ceremonies, more than to the word of God."
Bonner. — " If I should suffer him, he would fall from
reasoning to raving, as a frantic heretic."
Holland. — " I beseech you all to bear witness with me,
for you shall do so before the judgment seat of God, what
I speak ; and you, my dear friends (turning to his kins-
men) I pray you shew my father what I do say, that he
may understand I am a christian man. I say and believe,
and am fully persuaded by the scriptures, that the sacra-
nient of the supper of our Lord, ministered in the holy
communion according to Christ's institution, I being
penitent and sorry for my sins, and minding to amend
and lead a new life, and so coming worthily unto God's
board in perfect love and charity, do there receive by
taith the body and blood of Ciu-ist. And though Christ,
in his human nature, sits at the right hand of his Father,
yet, by faith I say, his death, his j)assion, his merits are
mine, and by faith I dwell in him, and he in me. And
as for the mass, transubstantiation, and the worshipping
of the sacrament, they are mere impiety and honible
idolatry."
Boniit-r. — " I thought so much, how he would prove
a very blasphemous heretic as ever I heard. How ir-
reverently does he speak of the blessed mass .'"
And so he read his sentence of condemnation, adjudg-
ing him to be burned. All this while Roger was very
patient and quiet, and when he should depart, he said,
'• My lord, ] beseech you suffer me to speak two words."
The bishop would not hear him, but ordered him away.
Then Holland began to exhort his friends to repent-
ance, and to think well of them that suffered for the
testimony of the gospel, and with that the bishop came
back, charging the keeper that no man should sjieak to
them vvithcnit licence, and if they did, they should be
committed to prison. In the mean season, he spake
still to the people, exhorting them to stand in the truth;
adding, that God would shorten these cruel and evil days
for his elect's sake.
On the day they suffered, a proclamation was made,
that none should be so bold to speak a word to them, or
receive any thing of them, or to touch them, upon pain
of imprisonment, without either bail or mainprize ; with
other cruel threatening words, contained in the procla-
mation. Notwithstanding, the people cried out, desiring
God to strengthen them : and they likewise still prayed
for the people, and the restoring of his word. At length
Roger embracing the stake, and the reeds, said these
words : —
" Lord, I most humbly thank thy majesty, that thou
hast called me from the state of death, unto the light of
thy heavenly word, and now unto the fellowship of thy
saints, that I may sing and say, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God of Hosts. And Lord, into thy hands I commit my
spirit. Lord bless these thy people, and save them. from
idolatry."
And so he ended his life, looking up to heaven, pray-
ing and praising God, with the rest of his fellow saints.
For whose joyful constancy the Lord be praised.
The Martyrdom of six, who suffered at Brentford.
Not long after the death of the seven godly martyrs
that suffered in Smithfield, were six other faithful wit-
nesses of the Lord's true testament, martyred at Brent-
ford, seven miles from London, the 14th day of July,
1558, which six were of that company that were appre-
hended in a close hard by Islington, (as above specified)
and sent to prison, namely, Robert Mills ; Stephen Cot<
ton ; Robert Dynes ; Stephen Wight ; John Slade ; and
William Pikes.
These six martyrs had their articles ministered to them
by Thomas Darbyshire, Bonner's chancellor. At which
times, though they were severally examined, yet they had
all one manner of articles ministered to them, and the same
articles that were ministered to John Holiday, Henry
Pond, and their company.
They answered, that they had not, and would not
attend the churches where there was mass, and that as
972
SCOURGING OF THOMAS HINSHAW, &c,
[Book XII,
their rites, customs, and ceremonies are against the word
of God, so will they observe and keep no part of the same
That they will not come to church, nor allow their
religion, so long as the cross is crept to, and worshijjped,
and images are in the church. That there are not seven
sacraments, but only two sacraments, namely, baptism
and the supper of the Lord. That they do not
allow the popish service then set forth, because it is
against the truth, and in a strange language, which the
common people understand not. And that if they might
receive the sacrament as they did in king Edward Vlth's
days, they would with all their hearts do so.
When these good men were produced before Bonner's
chancellor, and had the articles administered to them,
and they had made answer to them, the chancellor com-
manded them to appear before him again on the eleventh
day of July after, at St. Paul's church. And when
they came, he required of them whether they would
turn from their opinions to the mother holy church ;
and if not, that then, whether there were any cause
to the contrary, but that he might proceed with the sen-
tence of condemnation. They all answered. That they
■would not go from the truth, nor relent while they lived.
Then he charged them to appear before him again the
next day in the afternoon, between one and two o'clock,
to hear the definitive sentence read against them, ac-
cording to the ecclesiastical laws then in force. At which
time, he sitting in judgment, condemned these good poor
Iambs, and delivered them over to the secular power,
who received and carried them to prison immediately,
and there kept them in safety till the day of their death.
The next day after was sent a writ to burn them at
Brentford, which accordingly was accomplished, the 14th
of July ; they being brought there, made their humble
prayers to the Lord Jesus, undressed themselves, went
joyfully to the stake, to which they were bound, and the
fire flaming about them, they yielded their souls, bodies,
and lives into the hands of the omnipotent Lord, for
•whose cause they suffered, and to whose protection I
commend the gentle reader, Amen.
The Scourging of Thomas Hinshaw.
In the godly number above mentioned, which were
apprehended at Islington while there congregated together,
for their exercise of prayer and reading, was Thomas
Hinshaw, a young man of the age of nineteen or twenty
years, apprentice in St. Paul's churchyard, who, with the
rest, was carried to the constables of Islington, and
there every one of them searched, and led forthwith to
the chief justice. Master Cholmley, dwelling in the Old
Bailey, in London, and by him, Thomas Hinshaw was
sent to Newgate, and there remaining prisoner about
eight weeks, at last was sent for to Bonner, bishop of
London, and by him, Harpsfield, and Cole, examined.
After which examination he was sent to Newgate again,
where he remained three weeks following. Which time
being passed, he was sent for again before the bishop,
the day being Saturday, and with him had much talk
to little purpose. The next day after, also, which
was Sunday, they persuaded with him very much in like
manner, and perceiving they could not bend him to their
will, in the afternoon the bishop going to Fulham, took
him with him, where immediately after his coming, he
was set in the stocks, remaining there all the first night
with bread and water.
The next morning the bishop came and examined
him himself, and perceiving no yielding to his mind, he
sent Harpsfield to talk with him ; who, after long talk,
in the end fell to raging words, calling Thomas Hinshaw
a peevish boy, and asked him whether he thought he went
about to damn his soul, or not, &c. To which Thomas
answered, that he was persuaded that they laboured to
maintain their dark and devilish kingdom, and not for
any love to truth. Then Harpsfield being in a mighty
rage, told the bishop. The bishop fumed and fretted,
that scarcely for anger being able to s])eak, he said,
" Uost thou answer my archdeacon so, thou naughty
boy? I shall handle thee well enough, be assured :" so
lie sent for a couple of rods, and caused him to kneel against
a long bench in an arbour in his garden, where Thomas,
without any force, offered himself to the beating, and
did abide the fury of Bonner, so long as the cruel
bishop could endure with breath, and till for weariness
he was obliged to cease. He had two willow rods, but
he wasted but one, and so left off.
Now. after this scourging, Thomas Hinshaw notwith-
standing, sustained many conflicts and examinations.
At last being brought before the bishop in his chapel at
Fulham, there he had procured witnesses, and gathered
articles against him, which the young man denied, and
would not aflirm, or consent to any interrogatory.
The articles were : — " Concerning palms, aslies, holy
bread, holy water, auricular confession, receiving the sa-
crament at Easter, hearing divine service then set forth,
&c. Whether he had received all these, or whether he
would receive them or not. Also, what he thouglit of
the service set forth in king Edward's time, in his latter
days, and in especial, what he thought of the verity of
Christ's body in the sacrament."
In all his answers he kept an upright conscience, and
entangled himself with none of their ceremonies.
Not long after his examination, he fell sick of a burn-
ing ague. The sickness endured a twelvemonth or more,
so that in the mean time queen Mary died. He shortly
after recovered, and thus escaped death.
The History of Richard Yeoman, Curate at Hadley.
This Richard Yeoman had been Dr. Taylor's curate, a
godly devout old man, of seventy years, who had many
years dwelt in Hadley, well versed in the scriptures, and
giving godly exhortations to the people. With him Dr.
Taylor left his cure at his desire. But as soon as Master
Newall had got the benefice, he drove away Yeoman,
and set in a (lopish curate to maintain and continue their
Romish religion. Then he wandered a long time from
place to place, moving and exhorting all men to stand ^|
faithfully to God's word, earnestly to give themselves to HI
prayer, with patience to bear the cross now laid upon ^
them for their trial, with boldness to confess the truth
before their adversaries, and with an undoubted hope to
wait for the crown and reward of eternal felicity. But
when he perceived his adversaries to lie in wait for him,
he went into Kent, and with a little packet of laces, pins,
and points, and such like things, he travelled from vil-
lage to village, selling such things, to sustain himself, his
poor wife and children.
At last a justice of Kent took poor Yeoman, and set
him in the stocks a day and a night, but having no evi-
dent matter to <:harge him with, he let him go again.
So he came secretly again to Hadley, and tarried with his
poor wife, who kept him secretly in a chamber of the
town house, commonly called the Guildhall, more than a
year. All which time the good old father abode in a
chamber locked up all the day, and spent his time in de-
vout prayer, and reading the scriptures, and in carding
wool which his wife spun. His wife also went and
begged bread and meat for herself and her children, and
by such poor means they sustained themselves. Thus
the saints of God sustained hunger and misery, while the
prophets of Baal lived in jollity, and were pampered at
Jezebel's table.
At the last, parson Newal perceived that Richard
Yeoman was so kept by his poor wife, and taking with
him the bailiff's deputies and servants, came in the night
time and seized him, and set him in the stocks untU it
was day.
After this they took Richard Yeoman and John Dale,
whom they had previously taken, pinioned and bound
them like thieves, set them on horseback, and bound
their legs under tlie horses' bellies, and so carried them
to the gaol at Bury, where they were bound in irons ;
and because they continually rebuked popery, they were
thrown into the lowest dungeon, where John Dale,
through sickness of the prison, and evil keeping, died in
prison, whose body, when he was dead, was thrown out
and buried in the fields. He was a man of forty-six
years of age, a weaver by his occupation, well learned in
the holy scriptures, faithful and honest in all his convei-
A.D. 1558.]
MARTYRDOM OF FOUR PERSONS AT BURY ST. EDMUNDS.
973
eation, steadfast in confession of the true doctrine of \
Christ, set forth in king Edward's time ; for which he
joyfully suffered prison and chains, and from this
worldly dungeon he departed in Christ to eternal glory,
and *lie blessed paradise of everlasting felicity.
After John Dale was dead, Richard Yeoman was re-
moved to Norwich prison, where he was examined of his
faith and religion. Then he boldly and constantly con-
fessed himself to be of the faith and confession that was
sent forth by the late king of blessed memory, holy king,
Edward VI., and from that he would not vary. Being
required to submit himself to the holy father the pope,
" I reject him," said he, " and all his detestable abomi-
nations : I will in no wise have to do with him, nor any
thing that appertains to him." The chief articles ob-
jected to him were his marriage, and the mass sacrifice.
When he continued steadfast in confession of the truth,
he was condemned, degraded, and not only burned, but
most cruelly tormented in the fire. So lie ended his
poor and miserable life, and entered into the blessed bo-
som of Abraham, enjoying with Lazarus the comfortable
quietness that God hath prepared for his elect saints.
The History of John Alcock.
There was also in Hadley a young man, named John
Alcock. This young man, after the martyrdom of Doc-
tor Taylor, and taking of Richard Yeoman, used first in
the church of Hadley to read the service in English. At
length, after the coming of parson Newall, when the par-
son came by with procession, he would not once move
his cap, nor shew any sign of reverence, but stood be-
hind the font. Newall perceiving this, when he was al-
most out of the church door, ran back again, and caught
him. and called for the constable.
Then came Robert Rolfe, with whom this young man
worked and asked " What has he done, that ye are in
such a rage with him ? ''
" He is a heretic and a traitor," said the parson,
" ajid de:;pises the queen's proceedings. Wherefore, I
command you, in the queen's name, have him to the
stocks, and see he be forthcoming."
"Well,"' said Rolfe, "he shall be forthcoming, pro-
ceed you in your business, and be quiet.'' " Have him
to the st cks," said the parson.
" I am constable,'' said Rolfe, " and may bail him,
and will oail him ; he shall not come in the stocks, but
he shall be forthcoming." So the parson went forth
with his holy procession, and so to mass.
After this Rolfe brought him to the parson, who at
the first asked him, " Fellow, what sayest thou to the
sacrameit of the altar ?''
" I say," said he, " as you use the matter, you make
a shameful idol of it, and you are false idolatrous priests,
all the sort of you."
" 1 told you," said the parson, " he was a stout here-
tic."
No after long talk, the parson committed him to prison,
aid the next day he rode up to London, and carried the
■ oung man with him, and so came the young man no
more again to Hadley ; but after long imprisonment in
Newgate, and after many examinations and troubles :
because he would not submit himself to ask forgiveness
of the pope, and be reconciled to the Romish religion, he
w^as cast into the lower dungeon, where with evil keeping
and sickness, he died in prison. Thus died he a martyr
for Christ's truth, which he heartily loved, and constantly
confessed, and received the garland of a well fought
battle at the hand of the Lord. His body was cast out,
and buried in a dunghill. For the papists would in all
things be like themselves : therefore they would not so
much as suffer the dead bodies to have honest and conve-
nient sepulture.
Thomas Benbridge, Martyr.
Thomas Benbridge, a gentleman, although he might
have lived a pleasant and gentleman's life in the wealthy
possessions of this world, yet to follow Christ he had
lather enter into the strait gate of persecution, to the
heavenly possession of life in the Lord's kingdom, than
here to enjoy present pleasures with unquietness of con-
science. Wherefore, manfully standing against the pa-
pists fpr the defence of the sincere doctrine of Christ's
gospel, he spared not himself to confirn. the doctrine of
the gospel. For which cause, he being apprehended as
an adversary of the Romish religion, was forthwith had
to examination before Doctor \\ hite, bishop of Win-
chester.
The usual articles were objected against liim, to all
which he answered as became a christian man, for which
he was condemned, and brought to the place of martyr-
dom by the sheriff. Where he, standing at the stake,
began to untie his po'nts, and prepare himself; then he
gave his gown to th. keeper. His jerkin was laid on
with gold lace, fair and brave, which he gave to Sir
Richard Pecksal, the high sheriff. His cap of velvet he
took off from his head, and threw it aw^ay. Then lifting
his mind to the Lord, he made his prayers.
That done, being now fastened to the stake, Doctor
Seaton wanted him to recant, and he should have his
pardon : but when he saw it prevailed not, the doctor
desired the people not to pray for him unless he would
recant, no more than they would pray for a dog.
Master Benbridge standing at the stake, with his hands
together, in such manner as the priest holds liis hands in
his memento. Doctor Seaton came to him again, and
exhorted him to recant: to whom he said, "Away, Ba-
bylonian, away !''
Then said one that stood by, " Sir, cut out his
tongue."
Then when they saw he would not yield, they bade the
tormentors to set to fire, and yet he was nothing like
covered with fagots. First, the fire took away a piece
of his beard, but he shrank not at all. Then it came
on the other side and took his legs, and the stockings of
his hose being leather, made the fire to pierce the
sharper, so that the intolerable heat made him to cry,
" I recant :" and suddenly he thrust the fire from him.
And having two or three of his friends by, that wished
his life, they stept to the fire, and helped to take him
from it ; who for their labour were sent to prison. The
sheriff also, of his own authority, took him from the
stake, and sent him to prison again ; for which he was
sent to the Fleet. But before he was taken from the
stake, Seaton wrote articles to have him to subscribe to
them, as to the pope, the sacrament, and such other
trash. But Master Benbridge made much ado ere he
would subscribe them, so that Doctor Seaton desired
them to set to fire again. Then with much pain and
grief of heart, he subscribed to them upon a man's back.
That being done, he had his gown given him again, and
so was led to prison. Being in prison, he wrote a letter
to Doctor Seaton, and recanted those words he spake at
the stake, to which he had subscribed : for he was
grieved that ever he subscribed to them. He was the
same day seven-night after burnt indeed, where the vile
tormentors did rather broil him than burn him. The
Lord give his enemies repentance.
The Martyrdom of four, burned at Bury St. Edmunds.
In this year, which was the last of Queen Mary's
reign. Doctor Hopton being bishop of Norwich, and
Doctor Spenser his chancellor, there were wrongfully
put to death four christian martyrs : John Cooke, a
sawyer; Robert Miles, alias Plummer, a shearman;
Alexander Lane, a wheelwright; and James Ashley.
The examination of these persons, before the bishop
of Norwich, and Sir Edward Walgrave, was partly upon
these articles following :
First, Sir Edward Walgrave called John Cooke to
him, and said, " How is it that you go not to church ?''
John Cooke said, " I have been there."
Sir Edward said, " what is the cause that you go not
thither now in these days ?"
John Cooke said, " because the sacrament of the altar
is an abominable idol, and (said he) the vengeance of
God will come upon all them that maintain it."
Sir Edward said, " O thou rank traitor if I bad aa
974
EXAMINATION OF ALEXANDER GOUCH AND ALICE DRIVER.
[Book XII.
good commission to cut out thy tongue, as I have to sit
here this day, thou shouldst be sure to have it cut out."
Then he commanded the constable to have him away,
saying, he was both a traitor and a rebel.
Then he called Robert Miles, and said, "how is it
that you go not to cnurch ?"
Robert Miles answered, "because I will follow no
false gods."
Then the bishop commanded him aside, and called
Alexander Lane before him, and asked him " how it
chanced, that he would not go to the church ?"
He said, " that his conscience would not permit him
so to do."
Then Sir Edward said, " how dost thou believe ?"
Then said Lane, " even as it is written in God's book."
Then Sir Edward commanded him to say iiis belief,
and Lane being somewhat abashed, said his belief, but
he missed unawares, ' born of the Virgin Mary.'
Then Sir Edward said, " whatl was he not born of
the Virgin Mary .'"
" Yes, (said Lane,) I would have said so."
" Nay," said Sir Edward, " you are one of Cooke's
scholars," and so commanded him away, and to come
before him the next day.
After the like manner they passed also with James
Ashley, whom they warned the next day likewise to
appear before them. So they appearing again, had their
condemnation. And thus these four blessed martyrs and
servants of Christ, innocently suffered together at St.
Edmund's Bury, about the beginning of August, not long
before the sickness of queen Mary.
The Martyrdom of Alexander Gouch and Alice Driver.
Master Noone, a Justice in Suffolk, hunting after good
men to apprehend them, had understanding of one
Gouch, of Woodbridge, and Driver's wife, of Gros-
borougli, to be at Grosborough together, a little from
his house, and immediately took his men with him, and
went thither, and made diligent search for them, where
the poor man and woman were compelled to step into a
hay loft to hide themselves from their cruelty. At the
last they came to search the hay for them, and by searching
it with pitchforks, at last found them : so they took them
and led them to Melton gaol, where they remaining a
time, at tlie length were carried to Bury against the
assize, and being there examined of matters of faith, did
boldly stand to confess Christ crucified, defying the
pope with all his papistical trash. And among other
things Driver's wife likened queen Mary in her perse-
sution, to Jezebel ; and so in that sense calling her
Jezebel, for which Sir Clement Higham, being chief
Judge there, adjudged her ears immediately to be cut off,
which was accomplished accordingly, and she joyfully
yielded herself to the punishment, and thought herself
happy that she was counted worthy to suffer any thing
for the name of Christ.
After the assize at Bury, they were carried to Melton
gaol again, where they remained a time. This Alexan-
der Gouch was a man thirty-six years of age, or there-
abouts, and by his occupation was a weaver of shredding
coverlets, dwelling at Woodbridge in Suffolk, and born
at Uxford in the same county. Driver's wife was a wo-
man about the age of thirty, and dwelt at Grosborough,
where they were taken, in Suffolk. Her husband used
husbandry. These two were carried from Melton gaol
to Ipswich, where they remained and were examined.
The Examination of Driver's Wife, before Doctor
Spenser, the Chancellor of Norwich.
First, she coming into the place where she was to be
examined, with a smiling countenance. Doctor Spenser
said, " Why, woman, dost thou laugh us to scorn ?"
Driver. — " Whether I do or not, I might well enough,
to see what fools you are."
Then the chancellor asked her wherefore she was
brought before him, and why she was laid in prison.
Driver. — "Wherefore? I think I need not tell you :
U'\ you know better than I."
Spenser. — "No, by my troth, woman, I know not
why."
Driver. — " Then have you done me much wrong, 'said
she, " thus to imprison me, and know no cause why : itx I
know no evil that I have done, I thank God, and I hope
there is no man that can accuse me of any notorious fact
that I have done."
Spenser. — " Woman, woman, what sayest thou to the
blessed sacrament of the altar.' Dost thou not believe
th It it is very flesh and blood, after the words of conse-
cration are spoken ?"
At those words she held her peace, and made no
answer. Then a great i)nest that stood by asked
her why she answered not the chancellor. With that
Driver's wife looked upon him austerely, and said,
" Why, priest, I come not to talk with thee, but I come
to talk with thy master; but if thou wilt I shall talk
with thee, command thy master to hold his peace." And
with that the jiriest put his nose in his cap, and spoke
never a word more. Then the chancellor bade her make
answer to that he demanded of her.
Driver. — "Sir," said she, "pardon me though I
make no answer, for I cannot tell what you mean : for
in all my life I never heard nor read of any such sacra-
ment in all the scripture.''
Spenser. — " Why, what scriptures have you read, I
pray you ?"
Driver. — " I have, I thank God, read God's book."
Spenser. — "Why, what manner of book is that you
call God's book .'"'
Driver.—" It is the Old and New Testament. What
do you call it ?"
Spenser. — "That is God's book, indeed, I cannot
deny.''
Driver. — " That same book have I read throughout,
but yet never could find any such sacrament there : and
for that cause I cannot make you answer to that thing
I know not. Notwithstanding, for all that I will grant
you a sacrament, called the Lord's supper : and there-
fore seeing I have granted you a sacrament, I pray you
shew me what a sacrament is."
"Spenser. — "It is a sign." And one Doctor Gas-
coine being by, confirmed the same, that it was the sign
of a holy thing.
Driver. — " You have said the truth. Sir, it is a sign
indeed : and therefore seeing it is a sign, it cannot be
the thing signified also. Thus far we agree : for I have
granted your own saying." Then stood up Gascoine,
and made an oration with many fair words, to little
purpose, but offensive and odious to the minds of the
godly. In the end of which, he asked her if she did not
believe the omnipotency of God, and that he was al-
mighty, and able to perform that he spake. She an-
swered, "yes," and said, "I do believe that God is
almighty, and able to perform what he spake and
promised."
Gascoine. — " Very well. When he said to his disci-
ples, ' Take, eat, this is my body,' he was able to per-
form that he spake, and God uses not to lie."
Driver. — " I pray you did he ever make any such pro-
mise to his disciples, that he would make the bread
his body ?"
Gascoine. — " Those are the words. Can you deny it?"
Driver. — " No, they are the very words indeed. I
cannot deny it ; but 1 pray you, was it not bread that
he gave to them ?"
Gascoine. — " No, it was his body."
Driver. — " Then was it his body that they eat over
night?"
Gascoine. — "Yea, it was his body."
Driver. — " What body was it then that was crucified
the next day?"
Gascoine. — " It was Christ's body."
Driver. — " How could that be, when the disciples had
eaten him over night ? except he had two bodies, as by
your argument he had ; one they did eat over night, and
he was crucified the next day. Such a doctor ! such
doctrine ! Are you not ashamed to teach the people
that Christ had two bodies? In Luke xxii. 19. it is
said, ' he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and
A.D. 1553.] MARTYRDOM OF ALICE DRIVER, ALEXANDER GOUCH, AND OTHERS.
975
gave -.into them, saying, this is my body vhich is given
for you : this do in remembrance of me.' Saint Paul
says, ' do this in remembrance of me : for as often as ye
eat tliis bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's
death till he come ;' 1 Cor. xi. 2fi, and therefore I
marvel you blush not before all this people." With
that, Gascoine held his peace, and made no answer.
Then the chancellor lift up his head off from his cushion,
and commanded the gaoler to take her away.
The next day she came before them again, and the
chancellor asked her what she said to the blessed sacra-
ment of the altar.
Driver. — " I will say nothing to it : for you will nei-
ther believe me nor yourselves. For yesterday I asked
you what a sacrament was, and you said, it was a sign,
and I said, that was true, confirming it by the scrip-
tures, so that I went not from your own words ; and
now you come and ask me again, of such a sacrament as
I told you I never read of in the scriptures."
Spenser. — "Thou liest, naughty woman, I did not say
that it was a sign."
Driver. — " Why, masters, be ye not the men that you
were yesterday .' Will you eat your own words ? Are
you not ashamed to lie before all this multitude here
present, who heard you speak the same?"
Then after much more, they were unable to answer,
she then said, "Have you no more to say ? God be
honoured. You are not able to resist the Spirit of God
in me, a poor woman. I was an honest poor man's
daughter, never brought up in the university, as you
have been, but I have driven the plough before my
father, many a time ; yet, notwithstanding, in the
defence of God's truth, and in the cause of my master
Christ, by his grace I will set my foot against the foot
of any of you all, in the mainteiiauce and defence of the
same, and if I had a thousand lives, they should go for
payment thereof.'' So the chancellor rose up, and read
the sentence of condemnation in Latin, and committed
her to the secular power, and so she went to prison again
as joyful as the bird of day, praising and glorifying the
name of God.
Alexander Govch, Martyr.
At which time Alexander Gouch also was examined,
chiefly of the sacrament and other ceremonies of the po-
pish church. And because his belief was, that Christ
was ascended into heaven, and there remains, and that
the sacrament was the remembrance of his death and
passion, and for refusing the mass, and the pope to be
supreme head of Christ's church, for these causes was he
condemned, and died with Alice Driver, at Ipswich, the
4th of November, 1558.
These two godly persons, being come to the place where
the stake was set, being in their jirayers, and singing of
psalms both of them together, Sir Kenry Dowell, the
sheriff, was very much offended witli them, and desired
the bailiffs of Ipswich to bid them make an end of
prayers, they kneeling upon a broom fagot ; when one of
the bailiffs commanded them to make an end, saying,
" On, on, have done; make an end, nail them to the
stake," yet they continued in prayer. Then Sir Henry
sent for one of his men, whose name was Richard Cove,
that they should make an end.
Then Gouch stood up and said to the sheriff, " I pray
you, master sheriff, let us pray a little while, for we have
but a little time to live here."
Then said the bailiff, " Come off, have them to the
fire."
Then Gouch and Alice Driver said, " Why, master
sheriff, and master bailiff, will you not suffer us to
pray ?''
" Away, (said Sir Henry,) to the stake with them."
Then tliey being tied to the stake, and the iron chain
being put about Alice Driver's neck, " O (said she)
here is a goodly neckerchief, blessed be God for it."
Then several persons came and took them by the
hands as they were bound standing at the stake. The
sheritT cried, " Lay hands on them, lay hands on them."
With that a great number ran to the stake. The sheriff
seeing that, let them all alone, so that there was not one
taken.
Three Persons hitmedat Bury.
Although our history hastens to the happy death of
queen Mary, yet she died not so soon, but that some
were burned before it, and more would have been burned
soon after, if God's provision had not prevented her
with death. In tlie number of them which suffered in
the same month when queen Mary died, were three that
were burned at Bury, whose names were these, Philip
Ilumfrey, John David, Henry David.
Concerning the burning af these three, here is to be
noted, that Sir Clement Higham, about a fortnight be-
fore the queen died, sued out a writ for the burning; of
these three godly and blessed martyrs, notwithsbf ( ing
that tlie queen was not known to be past remedy of her
sickness.
The Martyrdom of a Godly Woman, at Exeter.
Although in such an innumerable company of godly
martyrs, who in sundry quarters of this realm, were put
to torments of fire in queen Mary's time, it is hard so
exactly to recite every particular person that suffered,
but that some escape us either unknown, or omitted ;
yet I cannot pass over a certain poor woman, burned
under the queen's reign, in the city of Exeter.
During her examination she spoke with great boldness
and said, Do you not damn souls, (said she) when you
teach the people to worship idols, stocks and stones, the
work of men's hands ? and to worship a false god of
your own making of a piece of bread, and teach that the
pope is God's vicar, and hath power to forgive sins ? and
that there is a purgatory, when God's Son hath by his
passion purged all ? and say, you make God, and sacri-
fice him, when Christ's body was a sacrifice once for all.'
Do you not teach the people to number their sins in
your ears, and say they be damned, if they confess not
all : when God's word saith. Who can number his sins ?
Do you not promise them trentals and dirges, and
masses for souls, and sell your prayers for money, and
make them buy pardons, and trust to such foolish inventioiis
of your own imaginations ? Do you not work altogether
against God ? Do ye not teach us to pray upon beads,
and to pray unto saints, and say they can pray for us .•'
Do you not make holy-water and holy-bread to affright
devils ? Do you not a thousand more abominations ? and
yet you say, you come for my profit and to save my soul.
No, no one of you hath saved me. Farewell you, with
your salvation."
At length they condemned her, and delivered her over
to the secular power. The indictment being given and
read, which was, that she should go to the place whence
she came, and from thence be led to the place of exe-
cution, then and there to be burned with flames till she
was consumed ; she lifted up her voice and thanked God,
saying, " I thank thee my Lord God, this day have I
found that which I have long sought," But such outcries
and such mockings were never seen upon a poor silly
woman : all which she most patiently took. And yet
this favour they pretended after her judgment, that her
life should be spared, if she would turn and recant. "Nay,
that I will not, (said she :) God forbid that I should
lose the life eternal for this carnal and short life. 1 will
never turn from my heavenly husband, to my earthly hus-
band : from the fellowship of angels, to mortal children:
And if my husband and children be faithful, then am I
theirs ; God is my father, God is my mother, God is my
sister, my brother, my kinsman, God is my most faith-
ful friend."
Then she was delivered to the sheriff, nnd innumerable
people beholding her, she was led by the officers to the
place of execution, without the walls of Exeter, where
again these superstitious priests assaulted her ; and she
prayed them to have no more talk with her, but cried
still ; " God be merciful to me a sinner, God be merci-
ful to me a sinner." And so while they were tying her to
the stake, thus still she cried, and would give no answer
to them, but with much patience took her cruel death,
:i B
y/6
MARTYRDOM OF FIVE PERSONS AT CANTERBURY.
[Book XII.
and consumed it wa"s with the flames ami fire ; and so
ended this mortal life as constant a woman in the faith
of Christ, as erer was upon the earth. She was as sim-
ple a woman to see to as any man might behold ; of a
very little and short stature, somewhat thick, about fifty-
four years of age. She had a cheerful countenance, so
lively, as though she had been prepared for the day of
her marriage to meet the Lamb ; most jiatient of her
words and answers ; sober in apparel, meat and drink,
and would never be idle ; a great comfort to as many as
would talk with her ; good to the poor ; and in her trou-
ble, when money was offered her, she said, she would
take none ; for she said, "I am going to a city, wliere
money beareth no mastery ; while 1 am here God hath
promised to feed me." Thus was her mortal life ended.
For whose constancy God be everlastingly praised, Amen.
Martyrdom ofthreeMfnat Bristol.
In writing of the blessed saints who suftered in the
bloody days of queen Mary, I had almost passed over
the names and story of three godly martyrs, who with
their blood gave testimony likewise to the gospel of
Christ, being condemned and burnt in the town of Bristol.
The names of whom were these ; Richard Sharpe, Tho-
mas Benion, Thomas Hale.
First, Richard Sharpe, weaver of Bristol, was brought
the 9th day of March, A.D. 155(;, before Master Dalby,
chancellor of the town or city of Bristol, and after exa-
mination concerning the sacrament of the altar, was per-
suaded to recant, and the twenty-ninth of the month was
enjoined to make his recantation before the parishioners
in his parish church. Which when he had done, he felt
in his conscience such a tormenting hell, that he was not
able quietly to work in his occupation ; some time after,
upon Sunday he came into his parish church, called Tem-
ple, and after high mass, came to the choir door, and
said with aloud voice ; "Neighbours, bear me record that
yonder idol, (and pointed to the altar) is the greatest
and most abominable that ever was ; and I am sorry
that ever I denied my Lord God." Then the constables
were commanded to apprehend him, but none stepped
forth, but suffered him to go out of the chruch. After-
wards he was apprehended by night, and carried to New-
gate, and shortly after he was brought before the lord
chancellor, denying the sacrament of the altar to be the
body and blood of Christ, and said, it was an idol, and
therefore was condemned to be burned. He was burnt
the 7th of May 1557, and died godly, patiently, and
constantly, confessing the articles of our faith.
Tlie Thursday in the night before Easter. A.D. 1557,
came one David Herris, alderman, and John Stone,
to the house of one Thomas Hale, a shoemaker of Bris-
tol, and caused him to rise out of his bed, and brought
him forth of his door. Thomas Hale said, " You have
sought my blood these two years, and now much good do
you with it. Who being committed to the watchman,
was carried to Newgate, and brought before the chan-
cellor, and committed by him to prison, and after con-
demned to be burnt, for saying the sacrament of the altar
was an idol. He was burned the 7th of May with
Richard Sharp, and godly, patiently, and constantly
embraced the fire with his arms.
Richard Sharp and Thomas Hale were burned both
together in one fire, and bound back to back.
Thomas Benion, a weaver, at the command of the
commissioners, was brought by a constable the l.'?th day
of August, 1557, before Master Dalby, chancellor of
Bristol, who committed him to prison for saying there
was nothing but bread in the sacrament, as they used it.
Wherefore he was condemned to be burnt for denying
five of their sacraments, and affirming two, that is, the
sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and the sacra-
ment of baptism. He was burnt the 27th of the month,
and died godly, constantly, and patiently, confessing the
articles of our christian faith.
The Martyrdom of five Christians, ivho suffered the last
of all other in the time of Queen Mary.
The last that suffered in queen Mary's time, were five
at Canterbury, burned about six days before the death of
queen Mary, whose names follow hereunder written. John
Corneford, of Wortham ; Christopher Brown, of Maid-
stone; John Harst, of Ashford ; Alice Smith ; Katherine
Knight, otherwise called Katherine Tynley, an aged
woman,
These five, to close up the final rage of queen Mary's
persecution, for the testimony of that word for which
so many had died before, gave up their lives meekly and
patiently, suffering the violent malice of the papists.
Which papists, although they then might have either
well spared them, or else deferred their death, knowing
of the sickness of Queen Mary ; yet such was the im-
placable spite of that generation, that some there are
that say, the archdeacon of Canterbury being at London,
and understanding the danger of the queen, made all
haste home to dispatch these, whom he had in his cruel
custody.
The matter why they werejudged to the fire, was for
believing the body not to be in the sacrament of the altar,
unless it be received ; saying, moreover, that we receive
another thing also besides Christ's body, which we see,
and is a temporal thing, according to St. Paul, 'The things
that are seen, are temporal,' &c. ; also for saying that it
is idolatry to creep to the cross, and St. John forbidding
it, saith, ' Keep yourselves from idols,' also for confes-
sing that we should not pray to our lady, and other
saints, because they are not omnipotent.
For these and other such articles of christian doctrine,
these five were committed to the fire.
These godly martyrs, in their prayers, which they
made before their martyrdom, desired God that their
blood might be the last that should be shed, and so it
was.
Among such young women as were burned at Canter-
bury, it is recorded of a certain maid, and supposed to
be this Alice Smith, here mentioned, or else to be Agnes
Snoth, (for they were both burned,) that when she was
brought to be executed, she, being at the stake, called
for her godfather and godmothers. The justice, hearing
her, sent for them, but they durst not come. Notwith-
standing the justices willed the messenger to go again,
and to show them that they should incur no danger
thereof.
Then they, hearing that, came to know the matter of
their sending for. When the maid saw them, she asked
them what they had promised for her, and so she imme-
diately rehearsed her faith, and the commandments of
God, and required of them, if there were any more that
they had promised in her behalf, and they said " No."
'' Then, (said she,) I die a christian woman, bear wit-
ness of me,'' and so cruelly in fire was she consumed,
and gave joyfully her life up for the testimony of Christ's
gospel, to the terror of the wicked, and comfort of the
godly, and also to the stopping of the slanderous mouths
of such as falsely do quarrel against the faithful martyrs,
for going from that religion wherein by their godfathers
and godmothers they were first baptised.
The Condemnation of John Hunt and Richard White,
who were to be burnt, but by the death of Queen Mary
escaped.
Besides these martyrs, there were many in other
places of the realm imprisoned, of whom some were but
newly taken and not yet examined, some began to be exa-
mined, but were not yetcondemned, others were both exa-
mined and condemned, but for want of the writ escaped.
Others there were also, both condemned, and the writ
also brought down for their burning, and yet, by the
death of the chancellor, the bishop, and of queen Mary,
happening together about one time, they most happily
and marvellously were preserved, and lived many years
after. In the number of whom were John Hunt and
Richard White, imprisoned at Salisbury.
These two good men, and faithful servants of the Lord,
had remained in prison at Salisbury the space of two years
and more. During which time they were often called
to examination by the bishops and priests. All the exa-
minations I thought not necessary here to insert for the
length of them ; neither did I think' it good to leave no
A.D. 1558.]
THE EXAMINATION OF RICHARD WHITE.
977
memory at all of them, but to express some part, not
unworthy to be rehearsed.
The Examination of Richard White.
The bishop of Salisbury, at that time, was Dr. Capon ;
Viic bishop of Gloucester was Dr. Brookes. Tiiese,
V, ith Dr. Geffery the chancellor of Salisbury, and a
fjreat number of priests sitting in judgment, Richard
V> hite was brouglit before them.
Glo'icester. — " Is this the prisoner .'"
Chancellor.- — " Yea, ray lord."
Gloucester. — "Friend, wherefore earnest thou hither ?''
White. — " My lord, I trust to know the cause: for
the law saith, ' In the mouth of two or three witnesses
every word must be established.' ''
Dr. Capon. — " Did not I examine thee as to thy
faith when thou earnest hither .•' "
White. — " No, my lord, you did not examine me,
but commanded me to the Lollard's Tower, and that
no man should speak with me. And now I require
to know mine accuser.''
Geffery. — " Thou shalt confess thy faith ere thou
depart ; and therefore say thy mind freely, and be not
ashamed so to do."
White. — " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
because it is the power of God to salvation unto all that
believe ; and St. Peter saith, ' Be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear.' 1 Pet.
iii. 15. Who shall have the examination of me ?"
Gloucester. — " I will oppose thee upon certain arti-
cles, and principally upon the sacrament of the altar :
How dost thou believe of the blessed sacrament of the
altar .' Believest thou not the real, carnal, and corpo-
real presence of Christ in the same, even the very same
Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary, that was
hanged on the cross, and that suffered for our sins ? "
At these words they all put off their caps, and bowed
their bodies.
White. — " My Lord, what is a sacrament ? "
Gloucester. — " It is the thing itself which it repre-
senteth."
White. — " My Lord, that cannot be ; for he that re-
presenteth a prince, cannot be the prince himself."
Gloucester. — " How many sacraments findest thou in
the scriptures, called by the names of sacraments } ''
White. — " I find two sacraments in the scriptures, but
not called by the names of sacraments. But I think St.
Augustine gave them the first name of sacraments."
Gloucester. — " Then thou findest not that word sacra-
ment in the scriptures ? "
White. — " No, my Lord."
Gloucester. — " Did not Christ say, This is my body ?
and are not his words true .' ''
White. — " I am sure the words are true; but you
play by me as the Devil did by Christ ; for he said, ' If
thou be the son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is
written. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:
and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against a stone.' Matt. iv. 6. —
' Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder ; the young
lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.' Ps.
xci. 13. These words the devil left out, because they
were spoken against himself ; and even so do you cite
the scriptures."
Gloucester. — " Declare thy faith upon the sacrament .'"
White. — " In Christ are two natures, a divine and a
human nature ; so likewise in the sacraments of
Christ's body and blood there are two natures, which I
divide into two parts, that is, external and internal.
The external part is the element of bread and wine, ac-
cording to the saying of St. Augustine. The internal
part is the invisible grace, which by the same is repre-
sented. So is there an external receiving of the same
sacrament and an internal. The external is with the
hand, the eye, the mouth, and the ear. The internal is
by the Holy Ghost in the heart, which worketh in me by
faith. Whereby I apprehend all the merits of Christ,
applying myself wholly unto my salvation. If this be
true, believe it ; and if it be not reprove it."
Gloucester. — " Dost thou not believe, that after the
words of consecration there is the natural presence of
Christ's body ? "
White.— " My lord, I will answer you if you will an-
swer me to one question. Is not this an article of oui
belief, ' He sitteth at the right hand of God the Fathei
Almighty?' If he be come from thence to judgment,
say so."
Gloucester. — " No. But if thou wilt believe the
scriptures, I will prove to thee that Christ was both in
heaven and in earth at one time."
White. — " As he is (jod, he is in all places ; but as
for his manhood, he is but in one place.''
Gloucester. — " St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. xv. 8. ' Last of all
he was seen of me al.so, as one born out of due time.'
Here St. Paul saith he saw Christ, and St. Paul was not
in heaven.''
White. — " St. Paul's chief purpose was by this place
to prove the resurrection. But how do you prove that
Christ, when lie appeared to St. Paul, was not still in
heaven ; like as he was seen of Stephen, sitting at the
right hand of God ? St. Augustine saith, the head that
was in heaven, did cry for the body and members which
were on the earth, and said, ' Saul, Saul, why perse-
cutest thou me ? ' And was not Paul taken up into the
third heaven, where he might see Christ, as he witnes-
seth, 1 Cor. xv. 8. For there he only says he saw
Christ, but concerning the place he says nothing.
Wherefore t'nis place of scripture proves not that Christ
was both in heaven and ear-th at one time.''
Glout^ester. — " I told you before he would not be-
lieve. Here are three opinions, the Lutherans, the ffico-
lampadians, and we the catholics. If you the CEcolam-
padians have the truth ; then the Lutherans and we the
catholics are out of the way. If the Lutherans have the
truth, then you the GEcolanipadians and we the catho-
lics be out of the way. But if we the catholics have
the truth, as we have indeed, then the Lutherans and
you the (Ecolampadians are out of the way, as you
are indeed, for the Lutherans do call you heretics."
White. — " My lord, ye have troubled me greatly with
the scriptures."
Gloucester. — " Did I not tell you it was not possible
to remove him from his error. Away with him to the
Lollard's Tower, and dispatch him as soon as you can."
Then John Hunt and Richard White, after many
examinations and long captivity, at length were called
for, and brought before Dr. Getlery the bishop's chan-
cellor, to be condemned. The high-sheriff was one
named Sir Anthony Hungerford, who being then at the
sessions, was charged with these two condemned persons,
with other malefactors there condemned likewise at the
same time, to see the execution of death ministered to
them.
Not long after this came down the writ to burn the
above-named Richard MHiite, and John Hunt, but the
under-sheriff receiving the said writ, said ; "I will not be
guilty (quoth he) of these men's blood," and immediately
burnt the writing, and departed his way. Within four
days after the chancellor died ; and Richard White and
John Hunt, after the death of the chancellor, the bishop
also being dead a little before, continued still in prison
till the happy coming in of queen Elizabeth : and so
were set at liberty.
A Chapter or Treatise concerning such as were scourged
and whipped by the Pajnsts in the true cause of
Christ's Gospel.
And thus through the merciful assistance and favour-
able aid of Christ our Saviour, thou hast as in a general
register (good reader) the history, if not of all, yet of the
most part, or at least, not many I trust omitted of such
good saints and martyrs as have lost their lives, and
given their blood, or died in prison for the testimony of
Christ's true doctrine and sacraments, from the time of
the cruel statute first given out by king Henry IV, unto
this present time, and especially under the reign of
queen Mary. ,/-,,,
Now after this bloody slaughter of God s good saints
and servants, let us proceed to treat somewh*.* of such
3r2
978
THE SCOURGING OF RICHARD WILMOT AND THOMAS FAIREFAX. [Book XII
as for the same cause of religion have been, although not
put to death, yet whipped and scourged by the adversa-
ries of God's word, first beginning with Richard Wilmot
and Thomas Fairefax, who were pitifully rent and tor-
mented with scourges and stripes for their faithful stand-
ing to Christ and of his truth.
The Scourying of Richard Wilmot and Thomas Fairefax.
After the first recantation of Doctor Crome for his
sermon on the tenth chapter to the Hebrews, wherein
he proved very learnedly by the same place of scripture
and others, that Christ was the only and sufficient sacri-
fice unto God the Father for the sins of the whole world,
and that there was no more sacrifice to be offered for sin
by the priests, forasmuch as Christ had offered his body
on the cross, and shed his blood for the sins of the peo-
j)le, and that once for aU. For which sermon he was
apprehended by Bonner, and brought before Stephen
Gardiner and other of the council, where he promised
to recant his doctrine at St. Paul's Cross, the second
Sunday after Easter. And accordingly he was there
and preached, Bonner with all his doctors sitting be-
fore him : but he so preached and handled his matter,
that he rather verified his former saying, than denied
any part of that which he before had preached. For
■which the protestants praised God, and heartily rejoiced.
But Bishop Bonner with his champions were not
pleased, but yet notwithstanding they had him home
with them, and so handled him, that they made him
come to the cross again the next Sunday.
And because the magistrates should now hear him,
and be witness of his recantation, which was most blas-
phemous, to deny Christ's sacrifice to be sufficient for
penitent sinners, and to say that the sacrifice of the
mass was good, godly, and a holy sacrifice, propitiatory
and available both for the quick and the dead : because
(I say) that they would have the nobles to hear this
blasphemous doctrine, tlie generation of vipers procured
all the chief of the council to be present.
At this time, between his first sermon and the last,
and while Dr. Crome was in durance, in the month of
July, one Richard Wilmot, an api)rentice in Bow-lane,
aged eighteen years, was sitting at his work in his master's
shop, when one Lewis a Welchman, being one of the
guard, came into the shop.
One asked him what news at the court, and he an-
swered, that the old heretic Dr. Crome had recanted
before the council, and that he should on Sunday next be
at Paul's Cross again, and there declare it.
Then Wilmot sitting at his master's work, and hearing
him speak these words, and rejoice in the same, began to
speak to him, saying, that he was sorry to hear these
news. For (said he) if Crome should say otherwise than
he had said, then it is contrary to the truth of God's
word, and contrary to his own conscience, which shall
accuse him before God.
Lewis answered and said, that he had preached and
taught heresy ; and therefore it was meet that he should
in such a place revoke it.
Wilmot told him that he would not so say, neither
did he hear him preach any doctrine contrary to God's
word written, but tliat he proved his doctrine, and that
sufficiently by the scriptures.
Lewis tiien asked him how he knew that.
Wilmot answered, by the scriptures of God, wherein
he shall find God's will and pleasure, what he wills all
men to do, and what not to do ; and also by them he
should prove and try all doctrines, and the false doc-
trine from the true.
Lewis said, it was never merry since the bible was iu
English : and that he was both an heretic and a traitor
that caused it to be translated into English, (meaning
Cromwell) and therefore was rewarded according to his
deserts.
Wilmot answered, that he thought it pleased God to
raise up Cromwell from a low estate, and to ))lace liiin
in high authority, that he might do that which all the
bishops iu the realm never did, in restoring again God's
holy word, which being hid long before from the people
in a strange tongue, and now coming abroad amongst us,
will bring our bishops and priests in less estimation
among the people.
Lewis asked why so ?
Wilmot said, because their doctrine and living was
not according to his word.
Then said Lewis, I never heard but that all men
should learn of the bishops and priests, because they are
learned men, and have been brouglit up in learning all
the days' of their lives. Wherefore they must needs
know the truth, and our fathers believed their doctrine
and learning, and I think they did well, for the world
was far better then than it is now.
Wilmot answered, I will not say so : for we must not
believe them because they are bishops, neither because
they are learned, neither because our fathers followed
their doctrine. For I have read in God's book, how that
bishops and learned men have taught the people false
doctrine, and likewise the priests from time to time, and
indeed those people our forefathers believed ; as they
taught, and as they did think, so did the jieople think;
but for all this, Christ calls them false projihets, thieves,
and murderers, bUnd leaders of the blind, commanding
the people to take heed of them, lest they should both
fall into the ditch. JNloreover we read, that the bishops,
priests and learned men, have been commonly resisters
of the truth, from time to time, and have always per-
secuted the prophets in the old law, as their successors
did persecute our Saviour Christ and his disciples, in the
new law. We must take heed therefore, that we credit
them no further than God will have us, neither follow
them nor our forefathers otherwise than he commands
us. For Almighty God has given to all people, as well
to kings and princes, as bishops, priests, learned and un-
learned men, a commandment and law, to which he wills
all men to be obedient. Therefore if any bishop or
priest preach or teach, or prince or magistrate command
any thing contrary to his commandment, we must take
heed how we obey them. For it is better for us to obey
God than man.
" Marry, Sir," said Lewis, " you are a holy doctor
indeed. By God's blood if you were my man, I would
set you about your business a httle better, and not suffer
you to look upon books, and so would your master if he
were wise." And with that, in came his master, and a
young man with him, who was servant with Mr. Daub-
ney in W'atling-street.
His master asked what the matter was.
Lewis said, " that he had a knavish boy here for bis
servant, and how that if he were his, he would rather
hang him, than keep him in his house."
Then his master, being somewhat moved, asked his
fellows what was the matter.
They said, they began to talk about Dr. Crome.
Then his master "asked him what he had said, swear-
ing a great oath, that he would make him to tell him.
He said, " that he trusted he had said nothing, where-
by either he or Master Lewis may justly be offended.
I pray," said Wilmot, " ask him what 1 said."
"Marry," said Lewis, " this he said, 'that Dr. Crome
did preach and teach nothing but the truth, and how
that if he recant on Sunday next, he would be sorry to
hear it, and that if he do, he is made to do it against his
conscience.' And more he saitli, ' that we must not
follow o\ir bishops' doctrine and jueaching : for,' saith
he, ' they are hinderers of God's word, and persecutors;
and how Cromwell did more good (that traitor) in set-
ting forth the bible, than all our bishops have done these
hundred years.' "
"Then," said Wilmot, " that in many things he made
his tale worse than it was.'' His master hearing of this,
was in a great fury, aiul rated him, saying, " that either
he would be hanged or burned, swearing that he would
take away all his books and burn them."
A young man standing by hearing this, began to speak
on his part to Lewis ; and confirmed all the sayings of
the other.
This young man was learned, his name was Thomas
Fairefajx. Lewis hearing this man's talk as well as th«
other's, went his way in a rage to the court.
A.D. 155S.]
THE SCOURGING OF ROBERT WILMOT AND OTHERS.
979
On tlie morrow Wllmot and Fairefax were sent for,
to come to the Lord Mayor.
Sir Roger Cholmley. who was with the mayor, asked
him, " what say you to Dr. Crome's sermon made at tlie
cross the last day, heard you not that ?"
WUmot. — "Yes; and in that sermon he deceived a
great number of people."
Cholmley. — " How so ?"
Wilmot. — " They expected thathe should have recanted
his doctrine that he had taught before, and did not, but
rather confirmed it.''
Cholmley. — " Yea, Sir, but how say you now to him ?
for he recanted before the council ; and hath promised
on Sunday next to be at the cross again, how think ye in
that?"
Wilmot. — " Ifhesodid, I amthemore sorrytohearit."
Cholmley. — " But what say you .'' was his first sermon
heresy or not ?"
Wilmot. — " No ; I suppose it was no heresy. For if
it were, St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews was heresy,
and Paul an heretic that preached such doctrine, but
God forbid that any christian man should so think of the
holy apostle ; neither do I so think."
(Jholmley.- — " Why, how knowest thou that St. Paul
wrote those things that are in English now, to be true,
whereas Paul never wrote English or Latin ?"
Wilmot. — " I am certified that learned men of God,
that did seek to advance his word, did translate the same
out of the Greek and Hebrew into Latin and JCnglish,
and that they durst not presume to alter the sense of the
scripture of God, and last will and testament of Christ
Jesus."
Then the lord mayor, being in a great fury, asked him
■what he had to do to read such books, and said, " that
it was a pity that his master suffered him to do so, and
that he was not set better to work ; and, in fine, said
unto him, that he had spoken evil of my lord of Win-
chester and Bonner, those reverend and learned fathers
and councillor.^ of this realm, for which he saw no other
remedy but he must suffer."
At length through entreaty, he granted them thus
much favour, that they should not die, but should be
tied to a cart's tail, and be whipped three market days
through the city. Thus they came home that day, and
went another day, and the mayor and the wardens of the
company kneeled before them to have this public punish-
ment released, as they were servants of so worshipful a
company, and that they might be punished in their own
hall, before the wardens and the company. At length it
was granted with a condition, as some said, as shall be
hereafter declared.
Then were they sent before the masters the next day
to the hall, both their masters being also present, and
there were laid to their charge the heinous offences by
them committed, how they were both heretics and trai-
tors, and had deserved death for the same, and this was
declared with a long process by the master of the com-
pany, whose name was Master Brookes, declaring what
great labour and suit the mayor and the wardens had made
for them, to save them from death, which they (as he said)
had deserved, and from open shame, which they should
have had, being judged by the council to have been
whipped three days through the city at a cart's tail, and
from these two dangers had they laboured to deliver
them, but not without great suit and also charge.
For, saith he, the company hath promised to the council
for this their mercy and favour shewed towards them,
being of such a worshipful company, a hundred pounds,
notwithstanding we must see them punished in our hall
within ourselves, for those their offences. After these
and many other words he commanded them to prepare
themselves to receive their punishment.
Then they were put asunder, and stripped from the
waist upward one after another, and in the midst of the
hall, where they used to make their fire, there was a
great ring of iron, to which there was a rojie tied fast,
and one of their feet tied to it.
Tlien came two men, disguised in mummer's apparel,
with visors on their faces, and they beat them with great
rods until the blood flowed.
Tlins have we briefly rehearsed this little tra-^edv, in
which we may note the malice of tlie enemies at all times
to those which profess Christ, and take his part, of what
estate or degree soever they be, according to the apos-
tle's saying, " It is given unto you not only to believe, but
also to suffer with him." To whom be honour and glory,
Amen.
TTie Scourging of Thomas Green, as written by himself.
" In the reign of Queen Mary, I, Thomas Green,
being brought liefore Doctor Story, by my master, whose
name is John Wavland, a printer, for a book called Anti-
christ, whicli had been distributed to certain honest
men ; he asked me where I got the book, and said I was
a traitor. I told him I got the book from a Frenchman.
Then he asked me more questions, but I told him I
would tell him no more. Then he said. It was no heresy,
but treason, and that I should be hanged, drawn, and
quartered; and so he called for Cluny, the keeper of
the Lollard's-tower, and bade him set me fast in the
stocks.
" I was not in the Lollard's-tower two hours, when
Cluny came and took me out, and carried me to the
coal-house, and there I found a Frenchman lying in the
stocks, and he took him out, and put on my right leg a
bolt and a fetter, and on my left hand another, and so
he set me cross-fettered in the stocks, and took the
Frenchman away with him, and there I lay a day and a
night. On the morrow after he came and said, let us
shift your hand and your leg, that you may not be lame ;
and he made as thougli he pitied me, and said, tell me
the truth, and I will be your friend.
" And I said, I had told the truth, and would tell no
other. Then he put no more but my leg in the stocks,
and so went his way, and there I remained six days.
" Then Doctor Story sent for me, and asked whether I
would tell him the truth, where I got the book. I
said I had told him, of a Frenchman.
" Then Story scoffed at me and said, then there was,
' brother in Christ, and brother in Christ,' and reviled
me, and called me a heretic, and asked me if I had the
book from him in Newgate. I said no, and told him, as
I went on my business in the street I met him, and he
asked me how 1 did ; so falling in communication, he
shewed me that book, and I desired him that he would
let me have it.
" Then he called for Cluny, and bade him lay me fast
in the coal-house, saying, he would make me tell another
tale at my next coming ; and so I lay in the stocks day
and niglit, but only when I ate my meat, and there re-
mained ten days before I was called for again.
" Then Dr. Story sent for me again, and asked if I
would yet tell him the truth : I said, I could tell him no
other truth than I had, nor would. And while I was
there standing, there were two brought which I took to
be prisoners.
"Then Mrs. Story fell in a rage, and swore a great
oath, that it were a good deed to put a hundred or two
of these heretic knaves in a house, and I myself, said
she, would set it on fire. So I was committed to prison
again, where I remained fourteen days, and came to no
answer.
" After this being again brought forth, Story burdened
me with my faith, and said I was a heretic. Where-
upon the chaplain asked me how I did believe. Then
I began to rehearse the articles of my belief, but he bade
me let that alone. Then he asked me how I believed
in Christ. I made him answer, that I believed in Chnst
which died and rose again the third day, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father.
" Whereupon Story asked me mockingly, what is the
right hand of God ? I made him answer, I thought it
was his glory. Then said he, so they say all. And he
asked me when he would be weary of sitting there. Then
interfered my lord of Windsor's chaplain, asking me what
I said of the mass. J said, I never knew what it was, nor
what it meant, for I understood it not, because I never
learned any Latin, and since the time that I had any
knowledge, I had been brought up in nothing but 'in
980
THE TROUBLE AND DELIVERANCE OF JOHN LITHALL.
[Book XIL
reading of English, and with such men as have taught
the same; with many more questions, which I cannot
rehearse.
" Moreover he asked me if there were not the very
body of Christ, flesh, blood and bone, in the mass, after
the priest had consecrated it. And I made him answer,
as for the mass I cannot understand it ; but in the new
testament I read, that as the apostles stood looking after
the Lord when he ascended up into heaven, an angel said
to them, Even as you see him ascend up, so shall he
come again. And I told them another sentence, where
Christ saith, The poor shall you have always with you,
but me ye shall not have always.
" Then the chaplain put to me many questions more,
to the which I could make him no answer. Among all
other, he brought Chrysostom and Jerome for his ])urpose.
To whom I answered, that I neither minded nor was able
to answer their doctors, neither knew wliether they al-
leged them right, or no, but to that which is vvritten in
the new testament I would answer. Here they laughed
me to scorn, and called me fool, and said, they would
reason no more with me.
" Then Doctor Story called for Cluny, and bade him
take me away, and set me fast, and let no man speak
with me. So was I sent to the coal-house ; where I had
not been a week, before there came in fourteen prisoners :
but I was kept still alone without company, in a prison
called Salt- house, havitig upon my leg a bolt and a fetter,
and my hands manacled together with irons, and there
continued ten days, having nothing to lie on, but bare
stones or a board.
" In the end he commanded me to be stripped, he
standing by me, and called for two of the beadles and
the whips to whip me ; and the two beadles came with
a cord, and bound my hands together, and the one end
of the cord to a stone pillar. Then one of my friends,
called Nicholas Priestman, hearing them call for whips,
hurled in a bundle of rods, which seemed something to
pacify the mind of his cruelty ; and so they scourged me
with rods. But as they were whipping me, Stoi-y asked
me if I would go to my master attain, and I said nay.
And he said, I perceive now he will l)e worse than ever
ne was before : but let me alone, quoth he, I will find
him out if he be in England. And so with many other
things which I cannot rehearse, when they had done
whipping of me, they bade me pay my fees, and go my
ways."
Doctor Story commanded that he should have an hun-
dred stripes, but the gentlemen so intreated, that he had
not so many. Story saying, " if I might have my will, I
would surely cut out his tongue.''
The Scourging of James Harris.
In this society of the scourged professors of Christ,
was also one James Harris of Billericay, in Essex, a
stripling of the age of seventeen years : who being ap-
prehended and sent up to Bonner, was straitly exa-
mined. In which examinations he was charged with
not having come to his parish church for the space of
one year or more. He confessed, that once, for fear, he
had been at the church, and there had received the
popish sacrament of the altar, for which he was heartily
Borry, detesting the same with all his heart.
After this and such like answers, Bonner persuaded
him to go to confess and be absolved. The lad con-
sented to go. But when he came to the priest, he stood
still, and said nothing. Why, quoth the priest, sayest
thou nothing ? what shall I say ? said Harris. Thou
must confess thy sins, said the priest. My sins, saith
he, are so many, that they cannot be numbered. With
that the priest told Bonner what he had said, and he out
of his accustomed devotion, took the poor lad into his
garden, and there, with a rod, gathered out of a cherry-
tree, most cruelly whipped him.
The Whipping of a Beggar at Salisbury.
Unto tuese aoove specified, is also to be added the
miserable whipping of a certain poor starved beggar,
who, because he would not receive the sacrament at
Easter in the town of Colingborough, was brought to
Salisbury to the chancellor, Doctor Geffery, who cast
him into the dungeon, and after caused him miserably to
be whipped by two catchpoles. The sight made all
godly hearts to rue it, to see such tyranny shewed upon
such a simple poor man, for they who saw him have re-
ported, that they never saw a more simple creature, but
what pity can move the hearts of merciless papists ?
Besides these, many others also suffered the like
scourging and whippings in their bodies, for their faithful
standing in the truth. It would be too lengthy to recite
the detixils of more. Of whom it may be said, as it is
written of the apostles in the Acts, " Who departed from
the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to
suffer for the name of Jesus.''
TVeafise of such as being pursued in Queen Mary's time,
vere in great danger, and yet through the good Pro-
vidence of God, mercifully were preserved.
Although the secret purpose of Almighty God, who
disposeth all things, suffered a great number of his faith-
ful servants both men and women, and that of all ages
and degrees, to fall into the enemies hands, and to abide
the brunt of this persecution, to be tried with rods, with
whijis, with racks, with fetters, famine, with burning of
hands, with plucking off beards, with burning also both
hand, beard, and body, &c.
Yet notwithstanding some there were again, and that
a great number, who miraculously, by the merciful pro-
vidence of God, against all men's expectation, were
safely delivered out of the fiery rage of this persecution,
either by quitting the realm, or shifting of place, or the
Lord so blinding the eyes of the persecutors, or dispos-
ing the opportunity of time, or working some such means
or other for his servants, as not only ought to stir them
up to perpetual thanks, but also may move all men both
to behold and magnify the wondrous works of the
Almighty.
About the time it began to be known that queen
Mary was sick, several good men were in prison in vari-
ous quarters of the realm, amongst whom was William
Living, with his wife, and John Lithall, of whom some-
thing remains now to be touched.
The Trouble and Deliverance of John Lithal, Minister.
It happened that certain books were in the custody of
John Lilhall ; so the constable of the ward of Southwark,
with others of the queen's servants, were sent to his
house, who breaking up his doors and chests, took away
all his books, writings, and bills of debts, which he never
had again. All this while Lithall was not at home.
The next Saturday after, when he was returned, and
known to be at home, John. Avales and certain of the
queen's servants beset liis house all the night, with such
careful watch, that as he in the morning issued out of
doors, thinking to escape their hands, John Avales burst-
ing out upon him, cried, " Stop the traitor, stop the
traitor.'
And so John Avales came running to him, with others
that were with him, saying. Ah sirrah, you are a jiretty
traitorly fellow indeed, we have had somewhat to do to
get you. To whom he answered, that he was a truer
man to the queen's majesty than he. For you, said he,
are commanded by God to keep holy the Sabbath-dav,
and you seek to shed your neighbour's blood on the
Sabbath-day. Remember that you must answer there-
fore to God. But he said. Come on you villain, you must
go before the council. So was Lithall brought into
St. Paul's church-yard to the bishop's chancellor.
Among a gre:it deal of other matter in the examination
of Lithall by this chancellor, the following passed be-
tween them, as recorded by Lithall himself:
" Chancellor. — ' You boast much every one of you of
your faith and belief : let me hear therefore, the effect
how you believe.'
" Lithall. — ' I believe to be justified really by Christ
Jesus, according to the saying of St. Paul to the Ephe-
A.D. 1558.]
THE TROUBLE AND DELIVERANCE OF JOHN LITHALL.
981
sians, without either deeds or works, or any thing that
may be invented by man.'
•' Chancellor. — ' Faith cannot save without works.'
" Lithall. — 'That is contrary to the doctrine of the
apostles.'
" Chancellor. — ' Keeper ! have this fellow to prison.'
" Then John Avales, and Cluny, the keeper, had me
into Paul's, and would have me see the apostles' mass."
" Lithall. — ' I know none the apostles had, and there-
fore, I will see none.'
" Cluny and John Avales. — ' Come and kneel down
before the rood, and say a Paternoster, and an Ave in
the worship of the five wounds.'
" Lithall. — ' I am forbidden by God's own mouth to
kneel to any idol or image ; therefore, I will not.'
"Then they pulled me with great force, the one
having me by one arm, and the other by the other ; but
God gave me strength, his name be praised for it.
*' Then when they could not make me to kneel before
the rod, or witness the mass,' there gathered a great com-
pany about us, and all against me. Some spit on me,
and said, ' fie on thee heretic ; and others said, it was a
pity I was not burned already.'
" Then they carried me to LoUard's-tower, and
hanged me in a great pair of stocks, in which I lay
three days and three nights, till I was so lame that I
could neither stir nor move.
" Then I offered the keeper certain money and gold
that 1 had about me, to release me out of the stocks ;
and lie said, 1 would not be ruled by him, either to see
mass, or to kneel before the rood, and therefore, 1 should
lie there still. But I said, I would never do the thing
that should be against my conscience : and though you
have lamed my body, yet my conscience is whole, I
praise God for it. So shortly after he let me out of the
stocks, more for the love of my money, than for any
other affection, and within four or five days my wife got
leave of the chancellor to come to me, to bring me
such things as were needful for me, and there 1 lay five
weeks and odd days. In the which time, my neighbours
and friends made suit to the chancellor for my deliver-
ance : the bishop, as they said, at that time being at
Fulham, sick. So my neighbours being there, about
twenty of them, the chancellor sent for me out of the
Lollard's-tower to his own house, and said as foUoweth :
" Chancellor. — ' Here are some of thy neighbours which
have been with me to entreat for thee, and they have
informed me, that thou hast been a very honest and
quiet neighbour among them, and I think it be God's
will that 1 should deliver thee before my lord come home.
For if he come, and thou go home again, I will be
burned for thee : for I know his mind already in that
matter.'
" Lithall. — ' I give you hearty thanks for your gentle-
ness, and my neighbours for their good report.'
" Chancellor. — ' If thy neighbours will be bound for
thy forthcoming whensoever thou shalt be called for ;
and also if thou wilt be an obedient subject, I shall be
content to deliver thee.'
" Neighbours. — ' If it please your worship, we will be
bound for him in body and goods.'
" Chancellor. — ' I will require no such bond of you,
but that two of you will be bound in twenty pounds
a-piece, that he shall come to answer when he shall
be called.'
" Lithall. — ' WTiere find you, Mr. Chancellor, in all
the scriptures, that the church of God did bind any man
for the professi( n of his faith ? which profession you
have heard of me, that all our justification, righteous-
ness, and salvation cometh only and freely by the merits
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and all the inventions
and works of men, be they never so glorious, be alto-
gether vain, as the wise man saith.'
" Chancellor. — ' Lo, where he is now .' I put no such
matter to you ; for in that I believe as you do : but yet
St. James saith, ' That a man is justified by works.' '
*' Lithall. — " St. James spake to them that boasted
themselves of faith, and shewed no works of faith : But
O, Mr. Chancellor, remember I pray you, how all the
promises and prophecies of the holy scripture, even from
the first promise that God made to Adam, and so even to
the latter end of the Revelation of St. John, do testify
that in the name of Jesus, and only by his merits all
that believe shall be saved fiom all their sins and
offences. ' I am sought of them that asked not for me •
I am found of them that sought me not : I said, Behold
me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my
name. I have spread out my hands all the di,y unto a
rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not
good, after their own thoughts.' Isaiah L\v. 1, 2. And
when the gaoler asked St. Paul, what he should do to be
saved, the apostle said, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.' Acts
xvi. 31. Again, St. John saith in the Revelation, that
there was none, neither in heaven nor in earth, neither
under the earth, that was able to open the book nor the
seals thereof, but only the Lamb Jesus, our only Saviour.
And St. Paul saith, ' So Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him,
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salva-
tion.' Heb. i.t. 28.
" Chancellor. — ' With vain glory you rehearse much
scripture, as all the sort of you do ; but you have
no more understanding than sheep.'
" Then they made the bond and sealed to it, and
willed me that I should seal to it also ; and I said that I
would not, neither could I observe the bond, and there-
fore, I would not set to my hand.
" Chancellor. — ' It is a pity that thou hast so much
favour shewed thee : yet for these honest men's sakes, I
will discharge thee.' "
Notwithstanding all these dissembling words of the
chancellor, pretending for favour of his sureties, to
set him at liberty, it was no such thing, nor any zeal of
charity that moved him so to do ; but only fear of the
time, understanding the dangerous and unrecoverable
sickness of queen Mary, which then began somewhat to
assuage the cruel proceeding of these persecutors,
whereby they durst not do that they would.
William Browne.
William Browne, parson of Little Stanham, in the
county of Suffolk, made a sermon after the burial of our
good king Edward, and in his sermon he said, •' There
goeth a report that our good king is buried with a mass
by the bishop of Winchester, he having a mitre upon
his head. But if it were so, saith he, they are all traitors
that so do, because it is both against the truth, and the
laws of this realm, and it is great idolatry and blasphemy,
and against the glory of God ; and they are no friends
either to God, the king, or yet unco the realm, that so do.''
For this preaching, the bailiffs took men with them to the
parson's house, and in the night they took him, and with
watchmen they kept him until it was day. After a
while he got his liberty, but because he would not go to
mass, his living was taken away, and he and his wife
were constrained to fly here and there for his life and
conscience.
Elizabeth Young.
Elizabeth Young, coming from Emden to England,
brought with her certain books, and circulated them in
London; for which she was brought to examination
thirteen times, before the inquisitors of heretical pravity.
She was first brought before Hussy, who examined
her of many things ; First, where she was born, and who
was her father and mother.
Elizabeth Young. — " Sir, this is but vain talk, you
have not put me in prison to know who is my father and
mother. But I pray you go to the matter that I
came here for."
Hussy. — " Wherefore wentest thou out of the realm ? "
Elizabeth. — " To keep my conscience clean."
Hussy. — " When wast thou at mass?"
Elizabeth. — " Not these three years.'"
Hussy. — " Then wast thou not there three years before
that?"
Elizabeth.—" No, sir, nor three years before that."
Hussy.—" How old art thou? "
982
THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF ELIZABETH YOUNG.
[Book XII-
Elizabeth. — " Forty and upwards."
Hussy. — "Twenty of those years thou didst ijo to mass."
Elizabeth. — " Yea, and twenty more I might, and yet
come home as wise as I wi-nt, for I understand it not."
Hussy. — " Why wilt thou not go to the mass ? "
Elizabeth. — " Sir, my conscience will not suffer me :
for I had rather all the world should accuse me, than
mine own conscience.''
After this she was twice examined by Doctor Martin,
who used her very ill and insulted her, and then she was
brouglit before tlie bishop of London, and Sir Roger
Cliolmley and others.
Then said thebishop, " why wilt thou not .sw-ear before
a judge .' that is the right trade of tlie anabaptists."
Elizabeth. — " My lord, 1 will not swear that this hand
is mine."
" No ; " said tlie bisb.op ; " and why ? "
Elizabeth.— " My lord, Christ saith, 'That what-
soever is more than yea, yea, or nay, nay, it cometh
of evil,' and moreover, I know not what an oath is ; and
therefore, I will take no such thing upon me."
Cholmley. — " Twenty ])0unds, it is a man in a woman's
clothes ; twenty pounds, it is a man."
Bonner.— " Think you so, my lord ? "
Cholmley. — " Yea, my lord."
Elizabeth. — " My lord, I am a woman.''
Bishop. — '* Swear her upon a book, seeing it is but a
question asked."
Cholmley. — " 1 will lay twenty pounds, it is a man."
Then Doctor Cooke brought her a book, commanding
her to lay thereon her hand.
Elizabeth. — ''No, my lord, I will not swear; for
I know not what an oath is. But I say, that I am a
«roman, and have children."
Bishop. — " That know not we ; wherefore swear."
Cholmley. — " Lay thy hand upon the book ; I will lay
on mine : and so he laid his hand upon the book."
Elizabeth. — " So will not I mine."
Then the bisho]) spake a word in Latin, out of St.
Paul, concerning swearing.
Elizabeth. — " My lord, if you speak to nie of St.
Paul, then speak English, for I understand you not."
Bishop. — " I dare swear that thou dost not."
Elizabeth.—" My lord, St. Paul saith, ' that five
•words spoken in a language that may be understood, are
better than many in a foreign or strange tongue which is
unknown.' "
After this she was brought before the bishop's chan-
cellor, who required of her what age she was of.
Elizabeth. — " Forty years and upwards."
Chancellor. — " Why, thou art a woman of fair
years : what shouldest thou meddle with the scriptures .'
it is necessary for thee to believe, and that is enough. It
is more fit for tliee to meddle with thy distaff, than
to meddle with the scriptures. What is thy belief .> I
would hear it ; for it cannot be good."
Elizabeth.—" Sir, if it will please you to hear, I will
declare it to you. But I pray you that you will take
your pen and write it, and then examine it ; and if you
find any thing therein that is not fit for a christian
woman, then teach me better, and I will learn it."
Chancellor. — " Well said ; but who shall judge between
thee and me ? "
Elizabeth. — " The scripture."
Chancellor. — " Wilt thou stand by that.' "
Elizabeth. — " Yea. sir."
Chancellor. — " Well, go thy way out at the door a little
while, for I am busy, and I will call for thee anon again."
Then he called me again and said, now, woman,
the time is too long to write. Say thy mind, and I will
bear it in my head.
Then Elizabeth began, and declared her faith to him.
Chancellor. — " Woman, dost not thou believe, that
thou dost receive the body of Christ, really, corporeally,
and labstantially ? "
Elij-abeth. — "These words, really and corporeally, I
understand not : as for substantially, I take it, you mean
I should believe that I should receive his human bodv
(which is upon the ritcht hand of (lod, ami can occM)iy
no more places at oncej and that T do not believe.''
Chancellor. — " Thou must believe this, or else thou
art damned."
Elizabeth. — " Sir, can you give me belief or faith ?"
Chancellor. — "No, God must give it thee."
Elizabeth. — " God hath given me no such faith orbelief."
Chancellor. — "I could make thee believe, but that
thou hast a cankered heart, and will not believe."
Elizabeth. — " You said even now, that faith or belief
cometh of God."
Chancellor. — " Christ saith, ' For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.' '' John vi. 5.'».
Elizabeth. — " Christ preached, saying, ' Except ye eat
the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye shall
have no life in you.' John vi. 5.'i. And the Capernaites
murmured, at it. And his disciples also murmured,
saying among themselves, ' This is an hard saying ; who
can hear it ?' Christ understood tlieir meaning, and
said, ' Doth this offend you ? What, and if ye shall see
the son of man ascend up where he was before ? It is
the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing.*
John vi. 61 — 615. I pray you, sir, what meaneth Christ
by that?"
Chancellor. — " O, God forbid ! Would yon have me
to interpret the scriptures .'' We must leave that for our
old ancient fathers, who have studied scriptures a long
time, and have the Holy Ghost given unto them."
Elizabeth.— " Christ's flesh andblood is meat and drink
for my soul, the food of my soul. For whosoever
believeth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hath died
and shed his blood for his sins, his soul feedeth thereon
for ever."
Chancellor. — "When thou receivest the sacrament of
the altar, dost thou not believe that thou dost receive
Christ's hody ?"
Elizabeth. — " Sir, when I receive the sacrament which
Christ did institute and ordain the night before he was
betrayed, and left among bis disci]ites, as often (I say)
as 1 receive it, I believe, that spiritually, and by faith I
receive Christ. And of this sacrament, I know Christ
himself to be the author, and none but lie. And this
same sacrament is an estal)lishrnent to my conscience,
and an autrmenting to my faith."
Chancellor. — " Why, did not Christ take bread, and
give thanks, and brake it, and give it unto his disciples,
saying, 'Take eat, this is my body.' Did he give them
his body or no ?''
Elizabelh. — " He also took the cup, and gave thanks
to his Father, and gave it unto his disciples, saying,
' Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the new
testament, which is shed for many for the remis-
sion of sins.' Matt. xxvi. 'l~ , 28. Now I pray you, sir,
let me ask you one question : Did he give the cup the
name of his blood, or else the wine that was in the
cup ?''
Then was he very angry, and said : " Dost thou think
that thou hast an hedge-priest in hand .'"
Elizabeth. — " No, sir, I take you not to be an hedge-
priest. I take you for a doctor."
Chancellor. — " So me methinketh. Thou wilt take
upon thee to teach me."
Elizabeth. — " No, sir. But Christ said : ' This dove,
as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me ;' but a re-
membrance is not of a thing present, but absent. Also
St. Paul saith, ' As often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cu]), ye do shew the Lord's death till he conic'
1 Cor. xi. 2fi. Then we may not look for him here,
until his coming again at the latter day. Again, is not
this article of our belief true, ' He sitteth at the riglit
hand of God the Father Almighty ; from thence he sh-ill
come to judge both the quick and the dead ?' But if he
shall not come before he come to judgment, then how is
he here jiresent in your sacrament of the altar .'"
Chancellor. — " Vr'hat say you concerning prayer for
the dead ? is it not meet that if a man be dead, his friend
commenil his soul unto God.'"
Elizabeth. - " There is no christian man that will com-
mend his friend nor his foe to the devil. And whethi^r
it be good to pray for him when he is dead or no, I say
not, hut sure I am. that it is good when he is alive."
Chancellor. — " Then thou allowest not prayer to be
A.D. loaS.]
PERSECUTION OF ELIZABETH LAWSON.
9cr.5
Rood for them when they are dead, and lying in purga-
U.vy. Ts it not meet that prayer be made unto God tor
"^I'uzaheth —"Sir, I never heard in the scriptures of
,MU-atory, but in the scripture I have heard of heaven
""chancellor.—" Why, you have nothing but the skim-
r„in- of the scriptures. Our ancient fathers could find
o'lttn the bottom of the scriptures that there is a pur-
1.' itorv. Yea, tbey could find it in the new testament,
V'-a-l priest shall take the sacrament, and go to the
•il-ir ;ind make an oblation, and offer it up every day.
Elizabeth.—" Sir, that could never be found m the
Ir ble nor testament, as far as ever I could hear."
Chancellor.—" Whom dost thou hear read either the
bible or testament, but a sort of schismatics, and hedge-
priests (who have brought into the church a communion
which was never heard of in any place in the world but
here in Endand) who have deceived the king and all the
nobilitv, and all the whole realm .'" ^^
Elizabeth — " Sir, it is a vile name you give them all.
Chancellor.—" Where are all the hedge knaves now,
that they come not to their answer ?'•
Elizabeth.-" Answer ! why, they have answered both
with the scriptures, and also with their blood ; and then
where were you that you came not forth to answer in
their times ? I never knew any of you that were troubled,
but two. and that was not for God's word, it was for
their disobedience." ,
Chancellor.-" No, I pray you ? did you not know
that we were killed, hanged, burned and beheaded ?
Elizabeth.-" Sir, I never knew that any of you ever
was either hanged, killed, burned, or beheaded ?
Chancellor.-" No ? did you never hear that the
bishop of Rochester lost his head for the supremacy of
the bishops of Rome ?" „ ^ „ j ..
Elizabeth.-" Then he died not for God s word.
Chancellor.-" Well, thou wilt believe nothing but
that which is written in God's word. Where canst thou
find the sabbath written in the scripture, by the name of
the sabbath ? For the right sabbath day will I prove to
be Saturday. Or where canst thou find the articles of
the creed in the sc«pture by the name of the arocles .
Or where canst thou find in the scripture, that Christ
went down into hell ?" • 4. „ „„„
Elizabeth.—" What place or part in the scripture can
YOU find to disprove any of these things !"
Chancellor.-" Thou hast read a little in the bible or
testament, and thou thinkest that thou art able to reason
with a doctor that hath gone to school thirty years; 1
think if I had talked thus much with a Jew, as 1 have
done with thee, he would have turned ere this time. But
I may say by you as Christ said by Jerusa em., saying ;
' O Jeru.^alem, Jerusalem, how often would I have ga-
thered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not. And so
would we gather you together in one faith, and you will
not : and therefore your own blood be upon your own
heads ; for I can do no more but teach you Thou art
one of the rankest heretics that ever I heard ; for thou
believest nothing but what is in the scripture, and there-
fore thou art damned." ... • .i,„
Elizabeth — " I do believe all things written in the
scripture, and all things agreeable with the scripture
given bv the Holy Ghost unto the church of Christ, set
forth and taught by the church of Christ, and shall I be
damned because I believe the truth, and will not believe
an untruth ?" ,. ,, ^ ^,
Chancellor.-" Dost thou not beheve that the pope
of Rome is the supreme head of the church, immediately
under God in earth?" t,„„,i „f
Elizabeth.—" No, sir, no man can be the head ot
Chri.sfs church ; for Christ himself is the head and his
word is the governor of all that be of that church, where-
ever they be scattered abroad."
Chancellor — " Dost thou not believe that the bishop
of Rome can forgive thee all thy sins heretical, detes-
table, and damnable, that thou hast done from thine
infancy unto this day ?" . . ,
Elizabeth.—" Sir, the bishop of Rome is a sinner as I
am and no man can forgive me my sins, but he only
that is without sin, and that is Jesus Christ, who died
for my sins." . 1 • j /-. j . j r j
Chancellor.—" Hast thou not desired God to defend
thee from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his
detestable enormities ?"
Elizabeth.—" Yes, that I have. '
Chancellor.-" And art thou not sorry for it?"
Elizabeth.— " No, sir, not at all."
Chancellor — " Hast thou not said that the mass was
wicked, and the sacrament of the altar most abomi-.
nable ?"
Elizabeth.—" Yes, that I have.'
Chancellor.—" And art thou not sorry for it ?
Elizabeth.—" NV, sir."
Chancellor. — " Art thou not content to go to the
church, and hear mass ?■' , . -.i *
Elizabeth.—" 1 will not go to the church, either to
mass or matins, till I may hear it in a tongue that I can
understand : for I will be fed no longer in a strange
language." , . ,
Chancellor.—" Did my lord send for you by name,
and would you not go to mass ?''
Elizabeth.—" No, sir, I will nevtr go to mass, tiU 1
do understand it, by the leave of God." , ^, , .,
Chancellor.— " Understand it? Why, who the devil
can make thee to understand Latin, thou being so old ?
Suit was afterwards made by her friends for her, and
after giving sureties she was liberated.
Elizabeth Lawson.
In the town of Bedfield, in the county of Suffolk was
dwelling an ancient godly matron, named Ehzabeth Law-
son. about sixty years of age. This Elizabeth was
apprehended as an heretic by the constables of the same
town, named Robert Kitrich, and Thomas Lias, in the
year of our Lord 1556, because she would not go to
church to hear mass, and receive the sacrament, and
believe in it. 1 r. .1 *. „-u„.
First, they laid her in a dungeon, and after that she
was carried to Norwich, and from thence to Bury
gaol, where at last she was condemned to be burnt.
In the mean time, Sir John Sylliard had her liome
to his house, he being high-.heriff that year -here sl^
was hardly kept, and wrapped in irons, till at length,
when they by no means could move her to recant, she
was sent to prison again, with shameful revilmgs.
Thus she continue'd in prison the space of two years
and three quarters. In the mean time there w-as burnt
her son and many more, whereby she would often say:
" Good Lord, what is the cause that I may not yet come
to thee with thy children ? Well, good Lord, thy blessed
will be done, and not mine."
Not long ;fter this followed the death of queen Mary
after whom succeeded our queen that now is At which
time this Elizabeth Lawson remained still m Burypri.on
till at last she was bailed upon sureties, or else she
could not be delivered. For she being a condemned
person, neither the temporal, nor yet spiritual authority
would discharge her without sureties.
William Wood, of Kent.
The examination of William Wood, in the parish of
Stroud, in Kent, before Doctor Kenall, chancellor ot the
diocese of Rochester, Doctor Chedsey the mayor of
Rochester, and Master Robmson th^/enbe, the l^th day
of October, and in the second year of queen Mary, in St.
Nicholas church in Rochester, written by himselt.
"^ Robinson.-" You are P--uted, because you -U
not come to the church, nor receive the blessed sacra-
;:.ent o" the altar. How say you ? have you received, or
' WoU-" i' have not received it, nor dare I receive it,
^^sj:L^'s:^he;:tic. what i^^--^^^-
bast not received the blessed sacrament of the altar
Ani at tWs w4rd they all put off their caps and made low
obeisance.
984
THE EXAMINATION OF WILLIAM WOOD.
[Book XII.
Wood. — " There are three causes that make my con-
science afraid that I dare not receive it. The first is,
Christ delivered it to his twelve apostles and said, Take,
eat, and drink ye all of this, &c., and ye eat and drink it
up all alone. The second cause is : you command it to
be worshipped, contrary to God's commandment, Thou
shalt not bow down nor worship. The third cause is,
you minister it in a strange tongue, contrary to St. Paul's
doctrine, I had rather speak five words with understand-
ing, than ten thousand iu an unknown tongue ; by which
the people be igrioraut of the death of Ciirist."
Kenall. — " Thou heretic, wilt thou have any plainer
•words than these, Take, eat, this is my body ? Wilt thou
deny the scripture?"
Wood. — " I will not deny the holy scriptures, God
forbid, but with my heart 1 do faithfully believe them.
St. Paul saith, God calleth those things that are not, as
though they were ; and Christ saith, 1 am a vine ; I am
a door. St. Paul saith. The rock is Christ. All which
nre figurative speeches, wherein one thing is spoken, and
another thing is understood."
Robinson. — " You make a very long talk of this mat-
ter ; learn. Wood, learn."
Kenall. — " Nay, these heretics will not learn : Look
how tliis heretic glorieth in himself: Thou fool, art thou
wiser than the queen and her council, and all the learned
men of this realm ?"
Wood. — ■" I think you would be loath to have such
glory, to have your life and goods taken away. And
where you mock me, and say that I am wiser tlian the
queen and her council, St. Paul saith, 'The wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God. If any man among you
seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool,
that he may be wise,' — 1 Cor. iii. 18, 19."
Kenall. — " Dost not thou believe that after these
words spoken by a priest. This is my body, there re-
maineth no more bread and wine, but the very flesh and
blood of Christ, as he was born of the Virgin Mary,
really and substantially, in quantity, and quality as he
did hang upon the cross?"
Wood. — " I pray you, master chancellor, give me
leave, for my instruction, to ask you one question, and
I will answer you after."
Kenall. — ■" It is some wise question, I warrant you."
W'ood. — " God spake to the prophet Ezekiel, saying.
Thou son of man, take a rasor, and shave off the hair of
thy head and of thy beard, and take one part and cast
into the air, take the second part and put it into thy
lap, and take the third part and cast it into the fire :
and this is Jerusalem. I pray you, master chancellor, was
this hair that the prophet did cast into the fire, or was
it not Jerusalem ?"
Kenall. — " It signified Jerusalem."
Wood. — " Even so this word of Christ, This is
my body, is not to be understood, that Christ's carnal,
natural, and real body in quantity and quality, as
it was born of the Virgin Mary, and as he was cru-
cified upon the cross, is present or inclosed in the
sacrament ; but it doth signify Christ's body, as St.
Paul saith, ' As often as ye do eat this bread and drink
this cup, you do shew the Lord's death till he come.'
1 Cor. xi. 26. W^hat should the apostle mean by this
word, till he come, if he were here carnally, naturally, cor-
poreally, and really, in the same quantity and quahty as
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and as he hung on the
cross, as you say ? but St. Paul saith. You do shew the
Lord's death till he come. This proves that he is not
here, as you would have us to believe."
Doctor Chedsey. — " I will prove that Christ is here
present under the form of bread, but not in quantity and
quality."
Kenall said — "Yes, he is here present in quantity and
quality."
Chedsey. — " He is here present under a form, and not
in quantity and quality."
" Yes," said Kenall.
" No," said Chedsey.
■' I will prove him here in quantity and quality," said
Kenall.
" I will prove the contrary," said Chedsey,
And these two doctors were so earnest in this matter,
the one to affirm, the other to deny, contending and
raging so sore one at the other, that they foamed at the
mouth, and one was ready to spit in another's face, so
that in great fury and rage the two doctors rose up from
the judgment seat, and Doctor Kenall depaited out of
the church in great rage and fury immediately.
Wood. — "Behold, good people, they would have us to
believe, that Christ is naturally, really, in quantity and
quality, present in the sacrament, and yet tliey cannot
tell themselves, nor agree within themselves how he is
there."
At these words the people made a great shout, and
the mayor stood up and commanded tlie people to be
quiet, and to keep silence. And the God that delivered
St. Paul out of the hands of the high priests, by the con-
tention that was between the pharisees and sadducees,
did even so deliver him at that time out of the mouths of
the papists, by means of the contention of these two doc-
tors; blessed be the name of the Lord, who hath pro-
mised to lay no more upon his, than he will make them
able to bear, and in the midst of temptation he can make
a way for his to escape out of all dangers.
Many other like examples of God's helping hand have
been declared upon his elect saints and children, in de-
livering them out of danger by wonderful and miraculous
ways, some by one means, some by another.
The Presertmtion of the Lady Elizabeth, now Queen of
En(/laad,from extreme Calamity and Danger of Life,
in the time of Queen Mary.
W^hatever can be recited touching the admirable work-
ing of God's hand in defending and delivering any per-
son out of thraldom, never was there any example
wherein the Lord's mighty power hath more ailmirably
and blessedly shewed itself, to the glory of his own name, to
the comfort of all good hearts, and to the public felicity
of this whole realm, than in the escape of our sovereign
lady, now queen, then lady Elizabeth, in the time of
queen Mary, her sister.
First here is to be noted, that queen Mary before she
was crowned, would go no where, h^ would have her
by the hand, and send for her to dinner and supper ; but
after she was crowned, she never dined nor supped with
her, but kept her aloof from her. After this, upon the
rising of Sir Thomas Wyat as before mentioned, the lady
Elizabeth and the lord Courtney were charged with false
suspicion. Whereupon queen Mary, whether for that
surmise, or for what other cause I know not, being
offended with the lady Elizabeth, at that time living in
her house at Ashbridge, sent to her three of her coun-
sellors, to wit. Sir Richard Southwell, Sir Edward Hast-
ings, and Sir Thomas Cornwallis, with their retinue and
troop of horsemen, to the number of two hundred and
fifty, who at their sudden and unprovided coming, found
her sick in bed, and very feeble and weak of body.
When they came, ascending up to her grace's chamber,
they desired one of her ladies to declare to her grace,
that there were persons come from the court, who had a
message from the queen.
Her grace was right glad of their coming ; however,
being very sick, and the night far spent, she requested
them by the messenger, that they would resort there in
the morning. To this they answered, that they must
needs see her, in what state soever she were. The lady in
waiting being alarmed, went to shew her grace their
words, but they, hastily following her, came rushing into
her grace's chamber unbidden.
At their coming so suddenly into her bed-chamber,
her grace being not a little amazed, said to them, "Is the
haste such that it might not have pleased you to come
to-morrow in the morning ?"
They made answer, that they were sorry to see her in
that case. " And 1 (said she) am not glad to see you
here at this time of the night." They answered, that
they came from the queen to do their message and duty,
which was to this eftVct, that the queen's pleasure was,
that she should be at Loudon the 7th day of tlvit preseni
month. She said, " ivo creature more glad than I to
A.D. 1558.]
ARREST OF THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH.
985
come to her majesty, being sorry that I am not in a state
at this time to wait on her, as you yourselves see, and
can testify."
" Indeed we see it true," (said they,) " that you say ;
for which we are very sorry. But we let you understand,
that our commission is such, that we must needs bring
you with us, either quick or dead.'' She being amazed,
sorrowfully said, that their commission was very sore ;
but yet she hoped it to be otherwise, and not so peremp-
tory. " Yes, verily," said they. Whereupon they
calling for two physicians. Doctor Owen and Doctor
Wendy, demanded of them, whether she might be re-
moved from thence with life, or no. Wliose answer and
judgment was, that there was no impediment in their
judgment to the contrary, but that she might travel with-
out danger of life.
In conclusion, they required her to prepare against the
next morning at nine o'clock, to go witli them, declaring
that they had brought with them the queen's litter for
her. After much talk, the messengers declaring that
there was no prolonging of times and days, departed to
their chamber, being entertained and cheered, as apper-
tained to their worships.
On the next morrow at the time prescribed, they had
her forth as she was, very faint and feeble, and in such
case, that she was ready to swoon three or four times
between them. What should I speak here, that cannot
well be expressed, what a heavy house there was to be-
hold the unreverend dealing of these men, but especially
the bodily fear and captivity of their innocent lady and
mistress.
Now to proceed in her journey from Ashbridge, all
sick in the litter, she came to Redborne, where she was
guarded all night. From thence to St. Albans, to Sir
Ralph Rowlet's house, where she tarried that night, both
feeble in body and comfortless in mind. From that
place they passed to Master Dod's house, at Myms,
where also they remained that night ; and so from
thence she came to Highgate, where she being very sick,
tarried that night and the next day. During which time
of her abode, there came many pursuivants and messen-
gers from the court ; but for what purpose 1 cannot
tell.
From that place she was conveyed to the court, where
by the way came to meet her many gentlemen, to accom-
pany her highness, who were very sorry to see her in
that state. But especially a great multitude of people
there were standing by the way, who then flocked about
her litter, lamented and bewailed greatly her estate.
Now when she came to the court, her grace was there
straightways shut up, and kept as close prisoner a fort-
night, which was till Palm-Sunday, seeing neither king
nor queen, nor lord, nor friend, all that time, but only
the then lord chamberlain. Sir F. Gage, and the vice-
chamberlain, who were attendant to the doors. About
which time Sir William Sentlowe was called before the
council. To whose charge was laid, that he knew of
Wyat's rebellion. Which he firmly denied, protesting
he was a true man both to God and his prince, defying
all traitors and rebels, but being straitly examined, he
was in conclusion committed to the Tower.
The Friday before Palm-Sunday, the bishop of Win-
chester, with nineteen other of the council, came to her
grace from the queen's majesty, and charged her with
Wyat's conspiracy; which she utterly denied, affirming
that she was altogether guiltless. They not being con-
tented with this, charged her grace with the business made
by Sir Peter Carew, and the rest of the gentlemen of the
west country ; which also she utterly denying, cleared
her innocency therein.
In conclusion, after long debating of matters, they de-
clared to her that it was the queen's will and pleasure
that she should go to the Tower, whUe the matter were
further tried and examined.
At which, she being alarmed, said, that she trusted
the queen's majesty would be a more gracious lady to
her, and that her highness would not otherwise conceive
of her, but that she was a loyal woman ; declaring fur-
thermore to the lords, that she was innocent in all those
matters wherein they had charged her, and desired them,
therefore, to request of the queen her sister, that she
being a loyal woman in thought, word and deed, towards
her majesty, might not be committed to so notorious and
doleful a place, protesting that she would request no
favour at her hand, if she should be proved to have con-
sented to any such kind of matter as they laid to her
charge : and therefore, in fine, desired their lordships to
think of her what she was, and that she might not so ex-
tremely be dealt withal for her truth.
The lords answered, that " there was no remedy, for
that the queen's majesty was fully determined that slie
should go to the Tower." Wherewith the lords departed,
with theircapshangingovertheir eyes. But not long after,
within the space of an hour or little more, came four of
the lords of the council, the lord treasurer, the bishop
of Winchester, the lord steward, the earl of Sussex, with
the guard ; who, guarding the next chamber to her, se-
cluded all her gentlemen and yeomen, ladies and gentle-
women, except that for one gentleman usher, three gen-
tlewomen, and two grooms of her chamber, there were
appointed in their rooms three other men of the queen's,
and three waiting women, to give attendance upon her,
that none of her own household should have access to
her grace.
At which time there was a hundred of northern sol-
diers in white coats, watching and guarding about the
gardens all that night, a great fire being made in the
midst of the hall, and two certain lords watching there
also with their band and company.
Upon Saturday following, two lords of the council,
one was the earl of Sussex, came and certified her grace,
that she must go to the Tower, the barge being prepared
for her, and the tide now ready, which tarries for no-
body. In heavy mood her grace requested the lords that
she might tarry another tide, trusting that the next
would be better, and more comfortable. But one of the
lords replied, that neither time nor tide was to be de-
layed.
And when her grace requested him that she might be
suffered to write to the queen's majesty, he answered,
that he durst not permit that : adding, that in his judg-
ment it would rather hurt than profit her grace in so
doing.
But the other lord, more courteous and favourable,
(who was the earl of Sussex) kneeling down, told her
grace that she should have liberty to write, and as he
was a loyal man, he would deliver it to the queen's high-
ness, and bring an answer to the same, whatsoever came
thereof. Whereupon she wrote, but she could in no
case be suffered to speak with the queen, to her great
discomfort, being no offender against the queen's majesty.
And thus the time and tide passed away for that sea-
son, they privily appointing all things ready that she
should go the next tide, which fell about midnight ; but
for fear she should be taken by the way, they durst not.
So they remained till the next day, being Palm-Sunday,
when about nine of the clock these two returned again,
declaring that it was time for her grace to depart. She
answered, " if there is no remedy, I must be contented,"
desiring the lords to go on before. Being come forth
into the garden, she cast her eyes towards the window,
thinking to have seen the queen, which she could not.
She said, " she marvelled much what the nobility of the
realm meant, who in that sort would suffer her to be led
into captivity, the Lord knew whither, for she did not."
Jn the mean time commandment was given in all Lon-
don, that every one should keep the church, and carry
their palms, while in the mean time she might be con-
veyed without any concourse of people to the Tower.
After all this, she took her barge with the two lords,
three of the queen's gentlewomen, and three of her own ;
her gentleman usher, and two of her grooms, lying and
hovering upon the water a certain space, for that they
could not shoot the bridge, the bargemen being very un-
willing to shoot the same, so soon as they did, because
of the danger thereof ; for the stern of the boat struck
upon the ground, the fall was so great, and the water was
so shallow, that the boat being under the bridge, there
staid again a while. At landing she first stopped and
refused to land at those stairs, where all traitors and
986
THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH COMMITTED TO THE TOWER.
[Book XII.
offenders customarily used to land, neither well could
she, unless she should go over her shoes. The lords
were gone out of the boat before, and asked why she
came not. One of the lords went back again to her,
and brought word she would not come.
Then said one of the lords that she should not refuse ;
and because it rained he offered to her his cloak, which
she refused. So she coming out, having one foot upon
the stair, said, " Here landeth as true a subject, being
prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs : and before thee,
O God, I speak it, having no other friends but thee
alone."
To whom the same lord answered again, " Tliat if it were
so, it was the better for her." At her landing there was
a great multitude of their servants and warders standing
in their order. " What needed all this," said slie.
It is tlie use, said some, so to be when any prisoner
came thither. " And if it be," said she, " for my cause, I
beseech you that they may be dismissed." Whereat the
poor men kueelt-d down, and with one voice desired God
to preserve her grace, who the next day were released of
their cold coats.
After this, passing a little further, she sat down upon
a cold stone, and there rested herself. To whom the
lieutenant then being, said, " Madam, you were best to
come out of the rain, for you sit unwholesomely." She
then re()lying, answered again, " It is better sitting here,
than in a worse place ; for God knoweth, I know not
whither you will bring me." With that her gentleman
usher wept ; she demanding of him what he meant so
uncomfortably to use her, seeing she took him to be her
comfort, and not to dismay her, especially for that she
knew her truth to be such that no man should have
cause to weep for her. But forth she went into prison.
The doors were locked and bolted upon her, which did
not a little discomfort and dismay her grace. At tliat
time she called to her gentlewoman for her book, desir-
'.ng God not to suffer her to build her foundation upon
the sands, but upon the rocks, by which all storms
should have no power against her. The doors being
thus locked, and she close shut up, the lords had great
conference how to keep guard and watch, every man de-
claring his own opinion in that behalf, agreeing straitl'y
and circumspectly to keep her.
Then die lord of Sussex, swearing, said, " My lords,
let us take heed, and do no more than our commission
will bear us out in, whatsoever shall happen hereafter.
And, further, let us consider that she was the king our
master's daughter ; and, therefore, let us use such deal-
ing, that we may answer it hereafter, if it shall so hap-
pen ; for just dealing is always answerable :" whereunto
the other lords agreed that it was well said of him, and
thereupon departed. Being in the tower, within two
days, commandment was brought, that she should have
mass within lier house. One Master Young was then
her chaplain, and because there was none of her men so
well learned to help the priest to say mass, the mass was
stopped for that day.
The next day two of her yeomen, who had gone long
to school before, and were learned, had two A B C's
provided, and delivered them, so that upon the A B C's
they should help the priest. One of the said yeomen,
holding the ABC in his hand, pretending ignorance at
Kyrie Eleyson, set the priest, making as though he
could answer no farther.
It would make a pitiful and a strange history, here
by the way to touch and recite what examination and
rackings of i)Oor men there were to find out that knife
that should cut her throat ; what gaping among my lords
of the clergy, to see the day wherein they might wash
their goodly white rochets in her innocet>t blood ; but
espeLially the bisliop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner,
then lord-chancellor, ruler of the roast, who then within
five days after came to her, with many other of the
council, and examined her of the talk that was at Ash-
ridge, betwixt her and Sir James Acroft, concerning her
removing from thence to Dunnington castle, requiring
her to declare what she meant thereby.
At the first she being so suddenly asked, did not well
remember any such house ; but within a while, well ad-
vising herself, she said, " Indeed, I do now remem-
ber that 1 have such a place , but I never was in it in
all my life. And as for any that hath recommended me
thereunto, I do not remember."
Then to enforce the matter, they brought forth Sir
James Acroft. The bishop of Winchester demanded of her
what she said to that man. She answered, " That she
had little to say to him, or to the rest that were then
prisoners in the tower. " But, my lords," said she, " you
do examine every mean prisoner of me, wherein me
thinks you do me great injury. If they have done evil,
and offended the queen's majesty, let them answer to it
accordingly. I beseech you, my lords, join not me in
this sort with any of these offenders. And as concern-
ing my going to Dunnington castle, I do remember that
blaster Hobby and my officers, and you Sir James
Acroft, had such talk ; but what is that to the purpose,
my lords, but that I may go to my own houses at all
times .'"
The lord of Arundel kneeling down, said, "Your
grace saith true, and certainly we are very sorry that we
have so troubled you about so vain matters." She then
said, " My lords, you do sift me very narrowly; but well
I am assured, you shall not do more to me than God
hath appointed, and so God forgive you all."
At their departure Sir James Acroft kneeled down,
declaring that lie was sorry to see the day in which he
should be brought as a witness against her grace. " But
I assure your grace,'' said he, " I have been marvel-
lously tossed and examined touching your highness,
which the Lord knoweth is very strange to me. For I
take God to record, before all your honours, I do not
know any thing of that crime that you have laid to my
charge, and will thereupon take my death, if I should be
driven to so strict a trial."
That day some of her own officers, who had made
provision for her diet, brought it to the outer gate of the
tower, the common soldiers receiving it ; which was no
small grief to the gentlemen. Wherefore they required
to speak with the lord chamberlain, who was then con-
stable of the tower. Who, coming before his presence,
declared to his lordship, that they were much afraid to
bring her grace's diet, and to deliver it to such persons
as they were who received it, beseeching his honour to
consider her grace, and to give such order that her viands
might at all times be brought in by them who were ap-
pointed thereunto. " Yes, sirs," said he, " who ap-
pointed you this office ?" They answered, " her grace's
council." " Council," said he, " there is none of them
who hath to do either in that case, or any thing else
within this place ; and I assure you, that as she is a pri-
soner, she shall be served with the lieutenant's men, as
the otiier prisoners are." Whereat the gentlemen said,
" that they trusted for more favour at his hands, con-
sidering her personage ;" saying, " that they mistrusted
not but that the queen and her council would be better
to her grace than to do so ;" and therewith shewed them-
selves to be offended at the ungrateful words of the lord
chamberlain towards their lady and mistress.
At this he swore by God, striking himself upon his
breast, that if they did either frown or shrug at him, he
would set them where they should see neither sun nor
moon. Thus taking their leave, they desired God to
bring him into a better mind toward her grace, and de-
parted from him.
Upon the occasion whereof, her grace's officers made
great suit unto the queen's council, that some might be
appointed to bring her diet to her, and that it might no
more be delivered to the common soldiers of the tower,
which being reasonably considered, was by them granted.
.\nd there were appointed one of her gentlemen, her
clerk of her kitchen, and her two purveyors, to bring in
her provision once a day. All which was done, the
warders ever waiting upon the bringers tliereof.
The lord chamberlain himself being always with them,
circums))ectly and narrowly watched and searched what
they brought, and gave heed that they should have no
talk with any of her grace's waiting servants, and 60
guarded them both in and out.
After this sort, having remained a whole month in
A.D. 1558.]
THE TREATMENT OF PRINCESS ELIZABETH IN THE TOWER.
9ti7
close prison, and being very ill at ease, she sent for the
lord chamberlain and Lord Chandos, to come and speak
with her. She requested them, " that she might have
liberty to walk in some place, for that she felt herself not
well." They answered, " that they were sorry that they
could not satisfy her grace's request, for that they had
got commandment to the contrary, which they durst
not in any wise break." Furthermore, she desired of
them, " if that could not be granted, that she might walk
but into the queen's lodging." "No; nor yet that,"
they answered, " could by any means be obtained with-
out a further suit to the queen and her council."
" Well," said she, " my lords, if the matter be so hard,
that they must be sued for so small a thing, and that
friendship be so strict, God comfort me;" and so they
departed, she remaining in her old dungeon still, witli-
out any kind of comfort, but only God.
The next day the Lord Chandos came again to her
grace, declaring, that he had sued unto the council for
further liberty. Some of them consented, others dis-
sented, because there were so many prisoners in tlie
tower. But, in conclusion, they all agreed that her
grace might walk into those lodgings, on condition that
he and the lord chamberlain, and three of the queen's
gentlewomen did accompany her, the windows being
shut, and she not suffered to look out at any of them :
wherewith she contented herself, and gave him thanks
for his good will in that behalf.
Afterwards there was liberty granted to her grace to
walk in a little garden, the doors and gates being shut
up, which notwithstanding was as much discomfort unto
her, as the walk in the garden was pleasant and accept-
able. At which times of her walking there, the pri-
soners on that side were strictly commanded not to
speak or look out at the windows into the garden, till
her grace were gone out again. Thus her grace, with
this small liberty contented herself in God, to whom be
praise there for.
During this time, a little boy, a man's child in the
tower, was accustomed to resort to their chambers, and
many times to bring her grace flowers, which likewise he
did to the other prisoners that were there. Whereupon
naughty and suspicious heads, thinking to make and
wring out some matter thereof, called on a time the
child unto them, promising him figs and apples, and
asked of him when he had been with the earl of Devon-
shire, not ignorant of the child's wonted frequenting to
him. The boy answered, that he would go by and by
thither. Further, they demanded of him, when he was
with the lady Elizabeth's grace. He answered, every
day. Furthermore, they examined him, what the lord
of Devonshire, sent by him to her grace. The child
said, I will go and know what he will give to carry to
her. Such was the discretion of the child, being yet
but four years of age. " This same is a crafty boy,''
quoth the lord chamberlain. " How say you, my lord
Chandos?" " I pray you, my lord," quoththeboy, "give
me the figs you promised me." " No," quoth he, " thou
shalt be whipped if thou come any more to the lady
Elizabeth, or the lord Courtney." The boy answered,
" I will bring my lady, my mistress, more flowers."
Whereupon the child's father was commanded to permit
the boy no more to come up into their chambers.
The next day, as her grace was walking in the garden,
the child peeping in at a hole in the door, cried unto her,
saying; " Mistress, I can bring you no more flowers."
At which she smiled, but said nothing, understanding
what they had done.
The 5th day of May, the constable of the tower was
discharged of his office, and one Sir Henry Benifield
placed in his room, a man unknown to her grace, and
therefore the more feared ; which so sudden charge
was unto her no little amaze. He brought with him an
hundred soldiers in blue coats, wherewith she was mar-
vellouslv discomforted, and demanded of such as were
about her, whether the lady Jane Gray's scaffold were
taken away or no. Answer was made, that the scaffold
was taken away, and that her grace needed not to doubt
of any such tyranny ; for God would not suffer any such
treason against her person. Wherewith being contented,
but not altogether satisfied, she asked what Sir Henry
Benifield was, and whether he was of that conscience, or
no, that if her murdering were secretly committed to his
charge, he would see the execution thereof.
She was answered, that they were ignorant what man-
ner of man he was. However they persuaded her
that God would not suffer such wickedness to proceed.
" Well," quoth she, " God grant it be so. For thou, O
God, canst mollify all such tyrannous hearts, and disap.
point all such cruel pui'pose9; and 1 beseech thee to
hear me, thy creature, who am thy servant and at thy
commuidinent, trusting by thy grace ever so to re-
main."
On Trinity Sunday, being the 19th day of May, she
was removed from the tower, to Woodstock, where she
was enclosed, the soldiers guarding and warding both
within and without the walls, every day, to the number
of sixty, and in the night without the walls forty, duiing
the time of her imprisonment there.
At length she had gardens appointed for her walk,
which was very comfortable to her grace. But always
when she recreated herself therein, the doors were fast
locked up, in as strict manner as they were in the tower,
being at the least five or six locks between her lodging
and her walks ; Sir Henry himself keeping the keys,
and trusting no man therewith. Whereupon she called
him her gaoler ; and he kneeling down, desired her grace
not to call him so, for he was appointed there to be one
of her officers. " From such officers," said she, " good
Lord deliver me."
After her grace had been there a time, she made suit
to the council that she might be suffered to write to the
queen. Which at last was permitted : so Sir Henry
Benifield brought her pen, ink, and paper ; and stand-
ing by her while she wrote (which he straitly observed)
when she was weary, he would carry away her letters,
and bring them again when she called for them.
About this time, her grace was requested by a secret
friend, to submit herself to the queen's majesty. She
answered, that she would never submit herself to them
whom she never otfeiided. " For," said she, " if I have
offended and am guilty, 1 then crave no mercy, but the
law, which I am certain I should have had ere this, if it
could be proved against me. For I know myself to be
out of danger of it, wishing that I were as clear out of
the peril of my enemies, and then I am assured I should
not so be locked and bolted up within walls and doors as
I am. God give them a better mind when it pleaseth
him."
Thus this worthy lady, oppressed with continual sor-
row, was not permitted to have recourse to any friends
she had, but still in the hands of her enemies was left
desolate, and utterly destitute of all that might refresh a
sorrowful heart, fraught full of terror and thraldom. No
wonder that she hearing, upon a time, out of her garden
at Woodstock, a milk-maid singing pleasantly, wished
herself to be a milk-maid as she was, saying that her
case was better, and life more happy than was hers.
After these things, she was to be removed to Hampton
Court, Sir Henry Benifield and his soldiers, with the
lord of Tame, and Sir Ralph Chamberlane, guarding and
waiting upon her ; the first night from Woodstock she
came to Ricot. In which journey such a mighty wind
did blow, that her servants were fain to hold down her
clothes about her : insomuch that her hood was twice or
thrice blown from her head. Whereupon she desiring
to return to a certain gentleman's house there near,
was not suffered by Sir Henry Benifield so to do, but
was constrained under an hedge to trim her head as well
as she could.
After this, the next night they journeyed to Master
Dormer's, and so to Colebrook, where she stopped all
that night at the George, and by the way coming to Cole-
brook certain of her grace's gentlemen and yeomen met
her, to the number of threescore, much to all their
comforts, who had not seen her grace so long season be-
fore : notwithstanding, they were commanded in the
queen's name immediately to depart the town ; to both
their and her grace's no little heaviness, who was not suf-
fered once to speak with them. So that night all her mea
988
THE DEATH OF QUEEN MARY.
[Book XII.
were taken from her, saving her gentleman usher, three
gentlewomen, two grooms, and one of her wardrobe, the
soldiers watching and guarding about the house, and she
close shut up within her prison.
The next day following, her grace entered Hampton
Court, the doors being shut upon her, and she guarded
with soldiers, as before, and was there a fortnight at the
least, before any had recourse unto her : at length came
the lord WiUiam Haward, who honourably treated her
grace. Stephen Gardiner the bishop of Winchester also
came and kneeled down, and requested that she would
submit herself to the queen's grace, and in so doing he
had no doubt, but that her majesty would be good to
her. She made answer, " that rather than she would so
do, she would lie in prison all the days of her life ; add-
ing, that she craved no mercy at her majesty's hand, but
rather desired the law, if ever she did offend her majesty
in thought, word or deed : and besides this, in yielding
I should speak against myself, and confess myself to be
an offender, which I never was towards her majesty, by
occasion whereof the king and the queen might ever
hereafter conceive of me an evil opinion : and therefore
I say, my lords, it were better for me to lie in prison for
the trutli, than to be abroad and suspected by my
sovereign." And so they departed, promising to declare
her message to the queen.
On the next day the bishop of Winchester came again
to her grace, and kneeling down declared that the queen
marvelled that she would so stoutly use herself, not con-
fessing that she had offended : so that it should seem that
the queen's majesty had wrongfully imprisoned her
grace.
" Nay," quoth the lady Elizabeth, " it may please her
to punish me as she thinks good."
" Well," quoth Gardiner, " her majesty desireth me to
tell you, that you must tell another tale ere you be set at
liberty."
Her grace answered, " that she had as soon be in
prison with honesty and truth, as to be abroad, suspected
by her majesty ; and this that I have said, I will stand
to, for I will never belie myself."
A week after the queen sent for her grace, at ten
o'clock at night, to speak with her : for she had not
seen her for two years before. Yet for all that, she was
amazed at the sudden sending for, and thinking it had been
worse than afterwards it proved, desired her gentlemen
and gentlewomen to pray for her, because she could not
tell whether ever she should see them again or no.
When she was conducted to the queen's bed-chamber
where her majesty was, her grace kneeled down, and de-
sired God to preserve her majesty, not mistrusting but
that she should prove herself as true a subject towards
her majesty, as ever did any, and desired her majesty
even so to judge of her ; and said, that she should not
find her to the contrary, whatever report otherwise had
gone of her.
To whom the queen answered, " you will not confess
your offence, but stand stoutly to your truth ; I pray
God it may so fall out."
" If it doth not,'' said the lady Elizabeth, " I request
neither favour nor pardon at your majesty's hands."
" Well,'' said the queen, " you still persevere in your
truth, probably you will not confess but that you have
been wrongfully punished.''
" 1 must not say so (if it please your majesty) to
you.''
*' Why then," said the queen, " perhaps you will to
others."
" No, if it please your majesty, 1 have borne the bur-
den and must bear it. I humbly beseech your majesty
to have a good opinion of me, and to think me to be
your true subject, not only from the beginning, but for
ever, as long as life lasts :" and so they departed with
very few comfortable words of the queen, in English :
but what she said in Spanish, God knoweth. It is
thought that king Phihp was there behind a cloth, and
not seen, and that he shewed himself a friend in that
matter, iScc.
Tlius her grace departing, went lo her lodging again,
and that Uay week was released by Sir Henry Beniheld
her gaoler, as she termed him, and his soldiers, and so her
grace being set at liberty from imprisonment, went into
the country, and had appointed to go vv'ith her Sir Thomas
Po])e, one of queen Mary's counsellors, and one of her
gentlemen ushers, ^Master Gage : and thus narrowly was
she looked to all qu en Mary's time. And this is the
history of her highuess's imprisonment.
The Death of Queen Marij.
But of this matter enough, and too much. Now let
us return where we left before, which was at the death of
queen Mary. After whose decease succeeded her sister,
lady Elizabeth, to the right of the crown of England.
Mary being long sick before, upon the seventeenth of
November, at three or four o'clock in the morning,
yielded her life to nature, and her kingdom to queen
Elizabeth, her sister.
As touching the manner of her death, some say that
she died of a tympany, some (by her much sighing be-
fore her death) supposed she died of thought and sor-
row. Her council seeing her sighing, and desirous to
know the cause, to the end they might minister the more
ready consolation to her, feared, as they said, that she
took that thouf^ht for the king's majesty, her husband,
who was gone from her. To whom she answered again,
" Indeed that maybe one cause, but that is not the
greatest wound that pierces my oppressed mind;" but
what that was she would not express to them.
Afterward she opened her mind more plainly to
Master Rice and Mistress Clarentius, who then being
most familiar with her, and most bold about her, told
her that they feared she took thought for king
Philip's departing from her. " Not that only (said
she,) but when 1 am dead and opened, you shall find
Calais lying in my heart, &c." And here an end of
queen Mary and of her persecution.
Of which queen this may be truly affirmed, and left in
story for a perpetual memorial or epitaph for all kings
and queens tliat shall succeed her ; that, before her, was
never read in history of any king or queen of England
since the beginning of the kingdom, under whom, in time
of peace, by hanging, heading, burning, and prisoning, so
much christian blood, so many Englishmen's lives were
spilled within this realm, as under queen Mary for the
space of four vears, and 1 beseech the Lord never may
be seen hereafter.
When she first began to stand for the title of
the crown, and yet had wrought no resistance
against Christ and his gospel, but had promised her
faitli to the Suffolk men, to maintain the religion left by
king Edward her brother, so long God went with her,
and by means of the gospellers brought her to the pos-
session of the realm. But, after that, she breaking her
promise with God and man, began to take part with
Stephen Gardiner, and had given over her supremacy to
the pope, God's blessing left her, neither did any thing
well thrive with her afterward, during the whole time of
her reign.
She would needs bring in king Philip, and by her
strange marriage with him, make the whole realm of
England subject unto a stranger. And all that notwith-
standing, she could not bring to pass to set the
crown of England uj)on his head. With king Philip also
came in the pope and his popish mass ; with whom also
her purpose was to restore again the monks and nuns
unto their places, neither lacked there all kind of at-
tempts to the utmost of her ability : and yet God stop-
ped her of her will.
Furthermore, where other kings are wont to be re-
nowned by some worthy victory and prowess by them
achieved, let us now see what valiant victory was gotten
in this queen Mary's days. King Edward, her blessed
brother, how many rebellions did he suppress in Devon-
shire, in Norfolk, in Oxfordshire, and elsewhere ? What
a famous victory in his time was gotten in Scotland .'
King Edward the third, by princely puissance, obtained
Calais to England, which had been kept by the English
ever since, till at length came queen Mary, who lost Calais
from England again. The affairs of queen Mary have
had no great good success. But never was any woman
A.D. 1559.] CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE PAPISTS AND PROTESTANTS AT WESTxMINSTER. 989
more disappointed than queen Mary was in h^ hope of
children, for which she was so desirous, and of which the
nation was so often in expectation, from the accounts
which were given out from the court, and yet how
was all the realm deluded ? And, in the mean while,
where were all the prayers, the solemn processions, the
devout masses of the Catholic clergy ? why did they not
prevail with God, if their religion was so goodly as they
pretend ? If their masses ' Ex opere operato,' be able to
fetch Christ from heaven, and to reach down to purga-
tory, how chanced then they could not reach to the
queen's chamber, to help her in her travail, if she had
been with child indeed ? if not, how then came it to
pass, that all the popish church of England did so err,
and was so deeply deceived ? Queen Mary, after all
these manifold plagues and corrections, which might
sufficiently admonish her of God's disfavour provoked
against her, would not yet cease her persecution, but still
continued more and more to revenge her popish zeal
upon the Lord's faithful people, setting fire to their poor
bodies by dozens and half dozens. Whereupon God s
wrathful indignation increasing more and more against
her, ceased not to touch her more near with private mis-
fortunes and calamities. For after thtit he had taken
from her the fruit of children (which chiefly and abo've
all things she desired), then he bereft her of that, which,
of all earthly things, should have been her chief stay of
honour, and staff of comfort, that is, withdrew from her
the affection and company even of her own husband, by
whose marriage she had promised before to herself whole
heaps of such joy and felicity : but now the Omnipotent
Governor of all things so turned the wheel of her own
spinning against her, that her high buildings of sucli
joys and felicities came all to a castle come down ; her
hopes being confounded, her purposes disappointed, and
she now brought to desolation ; she seemed neither to
have the favour of God, nor the hearts of her subjects, nor
yet the love of her husband ; she neither had children
by him while she had him, neither could now enjoy him
whom she had married, neither yet was at liberty to
marry any other whom she might enjoy. Mark here,
(christian reader) the woeful adversity of this queen, and
learn withal what the Lord can do when man's wilfulness
will needs resist him, and will not be ruled.
At last, when all these admonitions would take no
place with the queen, nor remove her to revoke her
bloody laws, nor to stay the tyranny of her priests, nor
yet to spare her own subjects, but that the poor servants
of God were drawn daily by heaps most pitifully as
sheep to the slaughter, it so pleased the heavenly majesty
of Almighty God, when no other remedy would serve,
by death to cut her otf, who in her life so little regarded
the life of others, giving her throne which she abused to
the destruction of Christ's church and people, to ano-
ther, who more temperately and quietly could guide the
iiame, after she had reigned here the space of five years
and five months. The shortness of which years and
reign, we scarce find equalled in any other king or queen
since the Conquest, save only in king Richard III.
And thus much in the closing up of this story,
I thought to insert, touching the unlucky and rueful
reign of queen Mary : not for any detraction to her place
ana state royal, whereunto she was called of the Lord,
but to this only intent and effect, that forsomuch as she
would needs set herself so confidently to work and strive
against the Lord and his proceedings, all readers and
rulers may not only see how the Lord did work against
her therefore, but also by her may be advertised and
learned what a perilous thing it is for men and women in
authority, upon blind zeal and opinion, to stir up perse-
cution in Christ's church, to the effusion of christian
blood, lest it prove in the end with them (as it did here),
that while they think to persecute heretics, they stumble
at the same stone as did the Jews in persecuting Christ
and his true members to death, to their own confusion
and destruction.
Accession of Queen Elizabeth.
And now to enter on the time and history of queen
Elizabeth. In whose advancement and this her princely
governance, it cannot sufficiently be expressed what fe-
licity and blessed happiness this realm hath received, in
receiving her at the Lord's almighty and gracious hand.
For as there have been many king* and rulers over this
realm, yet I could never find in our English clironicles
what may be written of this our noble and woithy queen;
whose coming in was not only so calm, so joyful, and so
peaceable, without shedding any blood, but also her
reign hitherto (reigning now twenty-four years and more)
has been so quiet, that as yet (the Lord have all the
glory) to this present day, her sword is spotted and
polluted with no drop of blood.
Also I let pass the coronation of this our most noble
and christian princess, which was the 1.5tli of Januarv,
1559. To pass over also the triumphant passage and
honourable entertainment of our most dread sovereign,
througli the city of London, with such celebrity, prayers,
wishes, welcomings, cries, tender words, pageants, inter-
ludes, declamations and verses, as the like has not com-
monly been seen, arguing and declaring a wonderful
earnest afl'ection of loving hearts toward their sovereign.
These, I say, with many other things to let pass, we will
now begin with the conference at Westminster between
the popish bishops, and the learned men who had been
exiled to Germany in the days of Mary.
The Conference at Westminster, the last dm/ of March,
upon certain Questions or Articles of Religion pro-
posed, and the breaking up of the same, by the Papist*'
defaults, at the first beginning of Queen Elizabeth.
So it pleased the queen's most excellent majesty,
having heard of the diversity of ojiinions in certain mat-
ters of religion, amongst sundry of her loving subjects,
and being very desirous to have the same reduced to
some godly and christian concord (by the advice of the
lords and others of the privy council, as well for the
satisfaction of persons doub'tful, as also for the know-
ledge of the very truth in certain matters of difference)
to have a convenient chosen number of the best learned
of either part, to confer together their opinions and
reasons, and thereby to come to some good and chari-
table agreement. And hereupon, by her majesty's com-
mandment, certain of her privy council declared this
purpose to the archbishop of York (being also one of
the same privy council) and required him that he would
impart the same to some of the bishops, and to make
choice of eight, nine, or ten of them, and that there
should be the like number named of the other part.
And further also, they declared to him (as then was
supposed) what the matter should be. And as for the
time, it was thought meet to be as soon as possible
might be agreed upon. And then after certain days
past, it was signified by the said archbishop, that there
were appointed, by such of the bishops to whom he had
imparted this matter, nine persons, that is to say, five
bishops and four doctors. The names of whom here
follow under written : —
The Papists. The Protestants.
Bishop of Winchester, Bishop of Chichester,
Bishop of Lichfield, \)v. Coxe,
Bishop of Chester. Mr. Wliitehead,
Bishop of Carlisle, Mr. Grindall,
Bishop of Lincoln, Mr. Home,
Dr. Cole, Mr. D. Sands,
Dr. Harpsfield, Mr. Gest,
Dr. Langdale, Mr. Aehner,
Dr. Chedsey. Mr. Jewell.
Who were content, at the queen's majesty's command-
ment, to shew their opinions, and, as the said archbishop
termed it, render account of their faith in those mat-
ters which were mentioned, and that especially in writing,
although he said, they thought the same so determined,
as there was no cause to dispute upon them. The matter
which they should talk upon, was comprehended iu
these three propositions, hereunder specified.
1. It is against the word of God, and the custom of
the ancient church to use a tongue unknown to the
people in common prayer, and the administration of the
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sacraments. 2. Every church hath authority to appoint,
take away, and change ceremonies and ecclesiastical
rites, so the same be to edification. 3. It cannot b(!
proved by the word of God, that there is in the mass
offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the quick and the
dead.
It was hereupon fully resolved by the queen's ma-
jesty, with the advice aforesaid, that according to their
desire, it should be in writing on both parts, for avoid-
ing of much altercation in words ; and that the bishojis
would, because they were in authority of degree supe-
riors, first declare their minds and opinions on the
matter, with their reasons in writing. And the other
number, being also nine men of good degree in schools,
and some having been in dignity in the church of Eng-
land, if they had any thing to say to the contrary, should
the same day declare their opinions in like manner, and
so each of them should deliver their writings to the other,
to be considered what were to be improved therein, and
the same to declare again in writing at some other con-
venient day, and the like order to be kejit in all the rest
of the matters. All this was fully agreed upon with the
archbishop of York, and so also signified to both parties.
And immediately hereupon, many of the nobility and
states of the realm, understanding that such a meeting
and conference should be, and that in certain matters,
whereupon (the court of parliament consequently follow-
ing) some laws might be grounded ; they made earnest
means to her majesty, that the parties of this conference
might put and read their assertions in the English tongue,
and that in the presence of them of the nobility and
others of her parliament house, for the better satisfaction
and enabling of their own judgments, to treat and con-
clude of such laws as might depend hereujion.
This also, being thought very reasonable, was signified
to both parties, and so fully agreed upon, and the day
appointed for the lirst meeting to be the Friday in the
forenoon, being the last day of March, at Westminster
church. At which day and place, both for good order
and for the honour of the conference, by the queen's
commandment, the lords and others of the privy council
were present, and a great part of the nobility also. And
notwithstanding this former order appointed, and con-
sented to by both parties, yet the bishop of Winchester
and his colleagues alleged that they had mistaken that
their assertions and reasons should be written, and so
only recited out of the book, saying their book was not
then ready written, but they were ready to argue and
Jispute, and therefore they would for that time repeat
in speech, that which they had to say to the first pro-
bation.
This variation from the former order, and especially
from that which themselves had by the archbishop in
•writing before required, adding thereto the reason of the
apostle, that to contend with v^ords is profitable to
nothing, but to subversion of the hearer, seemed to the
queen's council somewhat strange, and yet was it per-
mitted without any great reprehension, because they
excused themselves with mistaking the order, and agreed
that they would not fail but put it in writing, and
according to the former order, delivered it to the other
part ; and so the bishop of Winchester and his colleagues
appointed doctor Cole, dean of St. Paul's, to be the
utterer of their minds ; who partly by speech only, and
partly by reading of authorities written, and at certain
times being informed by his colleagues what to say,
made a declaration of their meanings and their reasons
to their first proposition: which being ended, they were
asked by the privy council if any of them had any more
to be said, and they said, " No." So tlie other party
■was permitted to shew their minds, which they did
according to the first order, exhibiting all that which they
meant to be propounded, in a written book, which, after
prayer and invocation made most humbly to Almighty
God for the enduing of them with his Holy S])irit, and a
protestation also to stand to the doctrine of the catho-
lic church builded upon the scriptures, and the doctrine
of the prophets and the apostles, was distinctly read by
one Robert Home, bachelor in divinity, late dean of
Durhamf and afterwards bishop of Winchester. The
copy of which their protestation here followeth accord-
ing as it was by him penned and exhibited, with their
preface also before the same.
" Forasmuch as it is thought good unto tiit queen's
most excellent majesty (unto whom in the Lord all obe-
dience is due) that we should declare our judgment in
writing ujion certain propositions ; we, as becomcth us
to do herein, most gladly obey.
" Sceiiig that Christ is our only master, whom the Fa
ther hath commanded us to hear; and seeing also his
word is the truth, from which it is not lawful for us to
depart, no not one hair's breadth, and against which (as
the apostle saitli) we can do nothing; we do in all things
submit ourselves unto this truth, and do protest that Wb
will affirm nothing against the same.
" And forasmuch as we have for our mother the true
and catholic church of Christ, which is grounded upon
the doctiine of the a])0stles and prophets, and is of
Christ the head, in all things governed ; we do reverence
her judgment, we obey her authority as becometh chil-
dren ; and we do devoutly prcfess, and in all jioints fol-
low the faith which is contained in the three creeds, that
is to say, of the apostles, of the council of Nice, and of
Athanasius.
" And seeing that we never departed, neither from the
doctrine of God, which is contained in the holy canoni-
cal scriptures, nor yet from the faith of the true and
catholic church of Christ ; but have preached truly the
word of God, and have sincerely ministered the sacra-
ments according to the institution of Christ, unto which
our doctrine and faith the most part also of our adversa-
ries did subscribe not many years past (although now as
unnatural they are revolted from the same), we desire
that they render account of their backsliding, and shew
some cause wherefore they do not only resist that doc-
trine which they have before professed, but also persecute
the same by all means they can. We do not doubt, bat
through the equity of the queen's most excellent majesty,
we shall in these disputations be treated more gently
than in years late past, when we were handled most un-
justly and scantily after the common manner of men. Aj
for the judgment of the whole controversy, we refer unto
the most holy scriptures, and the catholic church ol
Christ (whose judgment unto us ought to be most sa-
cred ) : notwithstanding by the catholic church we imder-
stand not the Romish church, whereunto our adversaries
attribute such reverence, but that which St. Augustine
and other fathers affirm, ought to be sought in the holy
scriptures, and which is governed and led by the Spirit
of Christ.
" It is against the word of God, and the custom of the
primitive church, to use a tongue unknown to the people
in common prayers and administration of the sacraments.
" By these words, 'the word of God,' we mean only
the written word of God, or canonical scriptures.
" And by the custom of the primitive church, we mean
the order most generally used in the church for the space
of five hundred years after Christ, in which times lived
the most notable fathers, as Justin, Irenseus, Tertullian,
Cyprian, Basil, Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, Augus-
tine, &c.
" This assertion above written, hath two parts. First,
that the use of the tongue not understood of the people,
in common prayers of the church, or in the administra •
tion of the sacraments, is against God's word.
" The second, that the same is against the use of the
primitive church.
" The first part is most manifestly proved by the four-
teenth chapter of the epistle to the Corinthians, almost
throughout the whole chapter. In which chapter St.
Paul treats of this matter purposely. And although
some do cavil that St. Paul speaks uot in that chapter of
praying, but of preaching, yet is it most evident to any
impartial reader of understanding, and appeareth also
by the exposition of the best writers, that he jdainly
tiiere speaketh not only of preaching and prophesying,
but also of prayer and thanksgiving, and generally of all
other public actions, which require any speech in the
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church or congregation. For of praying he saith : I
will pray with my spirit, and I will pray with my under-
standing ; I will sing with my spirit, and I will sing with
my understanding. Andof thanksgiving (which is a kind
of prayer) ' thou givest thanks well, but the other is not
edified.' And ' how shall he which occupieth tlie room
of the unlearned, say Amen, to thy giving of thanks,
when he understandeth not what thou sayest ?' And in
the end, descending from particulars to a general propo-
sition, concludes, that ' all things ought to be done to
edification.' Thus much is clear by the very words of
St. Paul, and the ancient doctors Ambrose, Augustine,
Jerome, and others, do so understand this chapter, as it
shall appear by their testimonies, which shall follow
afterwards.
" Upon this chapter of St. Paul, we gather these rea-
sons following.
1. " All things done in the church or congregation,
ought so to be done that they may edify the same.
" But the use of an unknown tongue in public prayer
or administration of sacraments, doth not edify the con-
gregation.
" Therefore the use of an unknown tongue, in public
prayer or administration of sacraments, is not to be had
in the church.
" The first part of this reason is grounded upon St.
Paul's words, commanding all things to be done to
edification.
"The second part is also proved by St. Paul's plain
words. First, by this similitude. ' If the trumpet give
an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the
battle ; so likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue
words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what
is spoken, for ye shall speak into the air.' 1 Cor. xiv.
8, 9. That is to say, in vain, and consequently without
edifying.
" And afterwards in the same chapter he saith, ' how
shall he that occupieth the place of the unlearned, say
amen, at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth
not what thou sayest ? for thou verily givest thanks well,
but the other is not edified.' 1 Cor. xiv. 16, 17.
" These are St. Paul's words, plainly proving, that a
tongue not understood, doth not edify. And therefore,
both the parts of the reason being thus proved by St. Paul,
the conclusion followeth necessarily.
2. " Nothing is to be spoken in the congregation in
an unknown tongue, except it be interpreted to the
people, that it may be understood. For, saith Paul, ' if
there be no interpreter (to him that speaketh in an un-
known tongue,) let him keep silence in the church.'
And therefore the common prayers and administration
of sacraments, neither done in a known tongue, nor in-
terpreted, are against the commandment of Paul, and
not to be used.
3. " The minister in prayer or administration of sa-
craments, using language not understood by the hearers,
is to them barbarous and an alien, which by St. Paul is
accounted a great absurdity.
4. " It is not to be counted a christian common
prayer, where the people present declare not their as-
sent to it by saying Amen, wherein is implied all other
words of assent.
" But St. Paul affirms, that the people cannot declare
their assent in saying Amen, except they understand
what is said, as beforesaid.
"Therefore it is no christian common prayer, where
the people understand not what is said.
5. " St. Paul would not in his time, suffer a strange
tongue to be heard in the common prayer in the church,
notwithstanding that such a kind of speech was then a
miracle, and a singular gift of the Holy Ghost, whereby
infidels might be persuaded and brought to the faith ;
much less is it to be suffered now amcngst christian and
faithful men, especially being no miracle nor especial gift
of the Holy Ghost.
6. " Some wUl peradventure answer, that to use any
kind of tongue, in common prayer or administration of
sacraments, is a thing indifferent.
" But St. Paul says the contrary. For he command-
eth all things to be done to edification, he commandeth
to keep silence if there be no interpreter, and in the end
of the chapter he concludeth thus. ' If any man think
himself to be a prophet, or sjiiritual, let him acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you, are the command-
ments of tlie Lord.' And so shortly to conclude ; the
use of a strange tongue in prayer and administration is
against tlie word and commandment of God.
"To these reasons, grounded upon St. Paul's words,
which are the most firm foundation of tliis assertion,
divers other reasons may be joined, gathered out of the
scriptures and otherwise.
7. " In the Old Testament, all things pertaining to the
public prayer, benedictions, thanksgivings, or sacrifices,
were always in their vulgar and natural tongue. In the
2d Book of Chronicles, chap, xxix, it is written, that
Hezekiah commanded the Levites to praise God with the
Psalms of David, and Asaph the prophet, which doubt-
less were written in Hebrew, their vulgar tongue. If
they did so in the shadows of the law, much more ought
we to do the like, who (as Christ saitii) must pray, in
spirit and in truth.
S. " The final end of our prayer (as David saith) is
that the people may tell the name of God in Sion, and
his praises in Jerusalem.
" But the name and praises of God cannot be set forth
to the people, unless it be done in such a tongue as they
may understand, therefore common prayer must be had
in the vulgar tongue.
9. " The definition of public prayer out of the words of
St. Paul, is ' I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with
the understanding also,' common prayer is to lift up our
common desires to God with our minds, and to testify
the same outwardly with our tongues.
10. "The administration of the Lord's supper and bap-
tism, are as it were sermons of the death and resurrection
of Christ.
" But sermons to the people must be had in such
language as the people may perceive, otherwise they
should be had in vain.
11. " It is not lawful for a christian man to abuse the
gifts of God ; but he that prayeth in the church in a
strange tongue, abuseth the gifts of God. For the tongue
serveth only to express the mind of the speaker to the
hearer.
" The heathen and barbarous nations of all countries
and sorts of men, were they never so wilt'., evermore
made their prayers and sacrifices to their gods in their
own mother tongue. Which is a manifest declaration
that it is the very light and voice of nature.
"Thus much upon the ground of St. Paul and other
reasons out of the scriptures, joining therewith the com-
mon usage of all nations, as a testimony of the law of
nature.
" Now for the second part of the assertion, which is,
that the use of a strange tongue in public prayer and ad-
niini.-rtration of sacraments, is against the custom of the
primitive church ; it is a matter so clear, that the denial
(^f it must needs proceed either of great ignorance, or
else of wilful malice.
" For first of all Justin Martyr, describing the order
of the communion in his time, saith, ' upon the Sunday
assemblies are made both of the citizens and country
people, whereat the writings of the apostles and the pro'-
]ihets are read, as much as may be. Afterwards, when
the reader doth cease, the head minister maketh an ex-
hortation, exhorting them to follow these honest things.
After this, we rise altogether and offer prayers, which
being ended (as we have said) bread and water are
brought forth. Then the head minister ofl'ereth prayers
and thanksgivings, as much as he can, and the people
answer Amen.'
" These words of Justin, who lived about one hundred
and sixty years after Christ, declare plainly, that not
only the scriptures were read, but also that tlie pravers
and administration of the Lord's Supper were done in a
tongue understood.
" The liturgies both of Basil and Chrysostom declare,
that in the celebration of the communion, the people
were appointed to answer to the prayer of the minister,
sometimes 'Amen,' sometimes, ' Lord have mercy upon
3s
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us,' sometimes, 'and with thy spirit,' and, 'we lift up
our hearts unto the Lord,' &c. Which answers they
could not have made, if the prayer had not been made
in a tongue understood.
" Ami for further proof, let us hear what Basil writeth
in this matter to the clerks of Neocaesarea. ' As touch-
ing tliat is laid to our charge in psalmodies and songs,
wherewith our slanderers do fray the simjjle, I have thus
to say, that our customs and usages in all churches be
uniform, and agreeable. For in the night the people
with us riseth, goeth to the house 'of prayer, and in
travail, trioulation, and continual tears, they confess
themselves to God, and at the last, rising again, go to
their songs or psalmody, where being divided into two
parts, they sing by course together, both deeply weigh-
ing and confirming the matter of the heavenly sayings,
and also stirring up their attention and devotion of heart,
which by other means be alienated and jilucked away.
Then ajjpointing one to begin the song, the rest follow,
and so with divers songs and prayers passing over the
night ; at the dawning of the day, all together, even as
it were with one mouth and one heart, they sing unto
the Lord a song of confession, every man framing to
himself meet words of repentance.'
" If you will fly from us henceforth for these things,
ye must fly also the Egyptians, and both the Lybians,
ye must eschew the Thebans, Palestines, Arabians, the
Phoenicians, the Syrians, and those that dwell beside
Euphrates ; and to be short, all those with wliom watch-
ings, prayers, and common singing of psalms are had in
honour."
The following is the testimony of St. Ambrose, written
upon the fourteenth chapter of the 1st epistle to the
Corinthians, upon these words: " If thou bless or give
thanks with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the
room of the unlearned, say, Amen, at thy giving of
thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest ?"
" That is," saith Ambrose, " if thou speak the praise
of God in a tongue unknown to the hearers. For the
unlearned hearing that which he understandeth not,
knoweth not the end of the prayer, and he answereth
not. Amen. That is as much as to say (true) that the
blessing or thanksgiving may be confirmed. For the
confirmation of the prayer is fulfilled by them who do
answer. Amen. That all things spoken might be con-
firmed in the minds of the hearers, through the testimony
of the truth."
Afterward upon these words, " If one that believe not
or unlearned," he says: " For when he understandeth,
and is understood, hearing God to be praised and Christ
to be worshipped, he seeth perfectly that the religion is
true, and to be reverenced, wherein he seeth nothing to
be done colourably, nothing in darkness, as among the
heathen, whose eyes are covered, that they seeing not
the things which they call holy, might perceive them-
selves to be deluded with many vanities. For all false-
hood seeketh darkness, and sheweth false things for true.
Therefore with us nothing is done privily, nothing co-
vertly, but one God is simply praised, of whom are all
things, and one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things.
For if there be none who can understand, or of whom he
may be tried, he may say, there is some deceit and
vanity, which is therefore sung in tongues, (not under-
stood.) because it is a shame to open it."
" Then there are the testimonies out of St. Jerome,
upon that jilace of Paul, ' He that occupieth the place
of the unlearned, &c.'
" It is the layman," saith he, " whom Paul here un-
derstandeth to be in the place of the ignorant man, who
hath no ecclesiastical oflice. How shall he answer
Amen to the prayer that he understandeth not?"
And again Jerome says: — "This is Paul's meaning.
If any man speaketh in strange and unknown tongues,
his mind is not without fruit and profit to himself, but
he is not profited that heareth him."
And in the end of his commentatory upon the epistle to
the Galatians, he saith thus : — " That Amen significth
the consent of the hearer, and is the sealing up of the
truth. Paul in the first epistle to the Corinthians
teacheth, saying. ' But if thou shalt bless in spirit, who
supplieth the place of the ignorant, how shall he at thy
prayer answer Amen, seeing he knoweth not what thou
sayest ?' Whereby he declareth, that the unlearned
man cannot answer, that ihat which is spoken is true,
unless he understand what is said."
And again Chrysostom says : — " In prayers you xnay
see the people offer largely, both for the possessed and
tlie penitents. For the priests and the people pray jdto-
getlier commonly, and all one prayer, a prayer lull of
mercy and pity. And excluding out of the priest's limits
all such as cannot be partakers of the holy table, another
prayer must be made, and all after one way prostrate
themselves upon the earth, and all again after one way
rise up together. Now, when 'the peace' is given, we
all in like manner salute one another, and the priest in
the reverend mysteries wisheth well to the people, and
the people unto him: for, ' and with thy spirit,' is no-
thing else but this. All things that belong to the sacra-
ment of thanksgiving, are common to all. But he giveth
not thanks alone, but all the people with him."
" Hereby it may appear, that not the priest alone com-
municated nor prayed alone, nor had any peculiar prayer,
but such as was common to them all, such as they all
understood, and all were able to say with the priest,
which could not have been, if he had used a strange
tongue in the ministration of the sacraments.
" Dionysius describing the manner of the ministration
of the Lord's supper, saith, ' That hymns were said by
the whole multitude of the people.'
" Cyprian saith, ' The priest doth prepare the minds
of the brethren, with a preface before the prayer saying,
' Lift up your hearts :' that while the people answer,
' We have our hearts lifted up to the Lord,' they may be
admonished that they ought to think of none other than
of the Lord.'
" St. Augustine saith : ' We ought to understand what
this should be, that we may sing with reason of man, not
with chattering of birds. For owls, and jays, and ra-
vens, and magpies, and other such like birds, are taughl
by men to prate they know not what. But to sing with
understanding, is given by God's holy will to the nature
of man.'
"The same Augustine also saith, ' Tliere needeth no
speech when we pray, saving perhaps as the priests do,
to declare their meaning ; not that God, but that men may
hear them, and so, being put in remembrance by con-
senting with the priests, may hang upon God.'
"To these testimonies of the ancient writers, we will
join one constitution of Justinian the emperor, who
lived 527 years after Christ : ' We command that all
bishops and priests do celebrate the holy oblation, and
the prayers used in holy baptism, not speaking low, but
with a clear and audible voice, which may be heard by
the people, that thereby the minds of the hearers may bo
stirred up with greater devotion, in uttering the praises
of the Lord God. For so the holy apostle teacheth in
his first epistle to the Corinthians, saying, ' Truly, if
thou only bless or give thanks in spirit, how doth he
which occupieth the place of the unlearned say, amen,
at the giving of thanks unto God .-' for he understandeth
not what thou sayest. Thou verily givest thanks well,
but the other is not edified.' And again, in the epistle to
the Romans, he saith, 'With the heart a man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.' Therefore for these causes it is
convenient, that amongst other prayers those things also
which are spoken in the holy oblation, be uttered and
spoken by the most religious bishops and priests unto
our Lord Jesus Christ our (jod, with the Father and the
Holy Ghost, with a loud voice. And let the most reli-
gious priests know this, that if they neglect any of these
things, neither the dreadful judgment of the great God
and our Saviour Jesus Christ, neither will we when we
know it, rest, and leave it uarevenged.'
"Out of the constitution of Justinian the emperor,
three things are worthy to be noted.
" First, That the common prayer and ministration
done with a loud voice, so as may be heard and under-
stood by the people, is a mean to stir up devotion in tbo
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people, contrary to the common assertion of Eckius and
other aJversaries, who affirm that ignorance maketh a
great admiration and devotion.
" Secondly, That Justinian maketh this matter of not
ordering common ministration and prayers, so as it may
be understood of the people, not a matter of indifference,
hut such a thing as must be answered for at the day of
judgment.
" Thirdly, That this emperor, being a christian empe-
ror, doth not only make constitution of ecclesiastical
matters, but also threateneth revenge and sharp punish-
ment to the violators of the same.
" These are sufficient to prove that it is against God's
word, and the \ise of the primitive church, to use a lan-
guage not understood of the people, in common prayer
and ministration of the sacraments. Wherefore it is to
be marvelled at, not only how such an untruth and abuse
crept at the first into the church, but also how it
is maintained so stiffly at this day, and upon what
ground tliese, that will be thought guides and pastors of
Christ's church, are so loath to return to the first origi-
nal of St. Pauls doctrine, and the practice of ihe primi-
tive catholic church of Christ.
•' The God of patience and consolation, give us grace to
be like minded one towards another in Christ Jesus,
that we all agreeing together, may with one mouth
praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen."
(Signed by) John Scory, John Jewell,
Richard Coxe, Robert Home,
David Whitehead, John Aelmer,
Edmund Grindall, Edmund Gest.
And the same being ended with some likelihood, as it
seemed, that the same was very acceptable to the au-
dience ; some of the bishops began to say contrary to
their former answer, that they had now much more to
say to this matter, wherein although they might have
been well reprehended for such cavilling, yet for avoid-
ing of any more mistaking of orders in this conference,
and that they should utter all that which tliey had to say,
it was both ordered and agreed upon by both parties, in
the full audience, that upon the Monday following, the
bishops should bring their reasons in writing to the se-
cond assertion, and the last also if they could, and first
read the same ; and that done, the other party should
likewise bring theirs. And being read, each of them
should deliver to the other the writings. And in the mean-
time, the bishops should put in writing, not only .".11 that
which Doctor Cole had that day uttered, but all such
other matters as they any otherwise could think of for
the same : and as soon as they might possibly, to send
the book touching that first assertion to the other party,
and they should receive of them that writing which Mr.
Home had there read that day, and upon Monday it should
be agreed what day they should exhibit their answers
touching the first proposition. Thus both parties as-
Eented, and the assembly was quietly dismissed.
TTie Order of the Second Day's Conference.
The lord keeper of the great seal, the archbishop of
york, the duke of Norfolk, and all the council being set,
the bishops on the one side, and the protestants, that is,
the late banished preachers on the other side, thus began
the lord keeper : —
" My lords and masters, I am sure you remember well,
what order of talk and writing was appointed to Ijfe had
this day in this assembly, at our last meeting, which I
will not refuse now to repeat again for the shortness of
it, which was, that you appointed that on both sides you
should bring in English writing, what you had to say in
the second question, and in this place appointed to read
the same. Therefore begin my lords."
Winchester. — "I am determined for my part that
there shall be now read, that which we have to say for
the first question."
Lord Keeper. — "Will you not then proceed in the
order appointed you .'"
Winchester. — " I am, as I said, provided for the first
question or proposition ; and we should suffer prejudice,
if you permit us not to treat of that first, and so we
would come to the second question, and this is the order
we would use. I judge all my brethren are so minded."
Bishops. — " We are so determineU."
Lord Keeper. — " I know not what you would do for
your determined order : but you ought to look to what
order is appointed you to keep, which you by this means
do break, and little regard."
Winchester. — " Since our adversaries party, if it
please your grace and honours, have so confirmed their
assertion and purpose, we suffer a prejudice or damage,
if you permit us not the like." At this Doctor Watson,
bishop of Lincoln, being very desirous to have spoken,
said to the bishop of Witichester ; " I pray you let me
speak, (which was permitted him) : we are not used
impartially, since you allow us not to open in present
writing what we have to say for the declaration of the
first question, insomuch, as that which you take for the
information of the same, was meant nothing to that
purpose, for that which Master Cole spake in this last
assembly, was not prejiared to strengthen our cause, but
he made his oration of himself, and ex-tempore, that is,
with no fore-studied talk.''
At these bishojj's words the nobility and others of
the audience much frowned and grudged, since that they
all well knew, that Master Cole spake out of a writing
which he held in his hand, and often read out of the
same, and that in the same places which the bishops'
informed him, and appointed him unto with their
fingers ; all which things do well declare the matter
to be premeditated, and not done ex-tempore, for that
Master Cole was appointed by them to be their speaker.
Whereupon, this statement of the bishop of Lincoln was the
worse taken, notwithstanding, he went onward complain-
ing, and said, " We are also evil ordered as touching
the time, our adversaries part having warning long
before, and we were warned only two days before the
last assembly in this place. What with this business,
and other trouble we have been driven to, we have been
occupied the whole last night. For we may in nowise
betray the cause of God, nor will do, but sustain it
to the uttermost of our powers, as we ought so to
endeavour by all manner of means. But hereunto we
want now impartial using."
Lord Keeper. — " Take you heed that you deceive not
yourselves, when it shall come to just trial of the
matter, and that then it be not proved against you, that
you complain without cause, when the order and your
manner towards it shall be duly weighed. I am willing
and ready to hear you after the order taken and appointed
for you to reason therein, and further or contrary to that
I cannot deal with you."
Lichfield. — " Let us suffer no misorder or injury
herein, but be heard with that impartiality, that is conve-
nient and meet we should have here."
Lord Keeper. — " I pray you, sirs, hear me, and mark
it you well. It was concluded on by my lords of
the council, who you well know of, that their writing,
which you are now so willing to have heard, should have
been read the first day, and then did we understand that
Master Cole had said what you would have him, and
as much as you willed him to say, and upon that impar-
tiality among us, I judge you were asked in the end
of Master Cole's rehearsal, whether that which ho
spake, was it you would have him say, and you granted
it. Then, whether you would that he should say any
more in the matter, you answered, ' No,' whereupon
the other part was heard, which you hearing, then in-
deed, without all good impartiality or plain dealing, yet
pretended that you had more to say. So mark you with
how small equity you used yourselves."
Bishops. — " We had indeed more to say, if we might
have been fairly heard."
Lord Keeper. — " Give me leave I say, and look what
gains you should have if your present request should be
granted you, that call so much of impartial using, how
you should use those other men .' For many who are
here present, were then away, so would you have your
writing now read to them, which heard not this. Mark
you whether it bad not been more fit that you had pro*
994 CONFERENCE BETVi^EEN THE PAPISTS AND PROTESTANTS AT WESTMINSTER. [Book XII.
vided it against the first day, when they orderly read
theirs, since, to my knowledge, and as far as I have had
to do with the matter, you were of both sides, (I am
sure) warned at one time. Howbeit, to satisfy your
importunity and earnestness of this crying out to have
your first writing heard, 1 might well allow, if it so
pleased the rest of the queen's most honourable council,
that you dispatch the work of the second question,
appointed for this day, and give us up your writing for
the first, so that when the day cometh, that each of you
shall answer the other in confirmation of the first ques-
tion, then the same day you shall have time to read this
your first writing, which you would now so fain read." To
this order all the council willingly condescended.
Lichfield. — " Nay, my lords, they reading one, and we
two books in one day, we should not have time enough
to read them both. It would occupy too much time."
Lord Keeper. — " For my part I might well stay at the
hearing of them both, and so I judge would the rest
of the council, and likewise the whole audience." At
which saying there was a shout, crying on all siiles.
" Yea, yea, we would hear it gladly."
Lincoln. — " We cannot read them both at one time ;
for their writing. I am sure, would require an hour and
■A half, if so be it be so long as their last w^vs, and then
our answer would require no less time after the first
question."
" Lord Keeper. — " I have shewed you we cotvld be
well contented to tarry out the time, when it con\eth
thereunto. Therefore, you need not to be therein so
curious, and we granting you thus much, and yet
you will obey no orders ; I cannot tell what I shall say
unto you."
Lincoln. — " We have been wonderfully troubled in
the order of this disputation. For, first it was appointed
us by my lord the archbishop, that we should dispute,
and that in Latin, and then had we another command-
ment, that we should provide a Latin writing, and now
at last, we are desired to bring forth our writings in
English."
At these words the lord keeper of tlie great seal, the
archbishop, with all the council were much surprised, and
many murmured at such a wrong report of the order
which was plainly given. Whereupon, the lord keeper
answered ; "I marvel much of the using of yourself in
this point, since I am assured the order was never other-
wise taken, than that you should bring forth in English
writing what you had to say for your purpose."
Hereupon the bishops of Lichfield and Chichester,
to excuse my lord of Lincoln, said; " We so understood
the order, my lords."
Lord Keeper. — " How likely is that, since that it was
so plainly told you ? But to end these delays, I pray
you follow the order appointed, and begin to treat of the
second question."
Lichfield. — " We were appointed this day by your
honours, to bring in what we had to say in the first
question."
At which saying, the audience much grudged, who
heard the former talk, contrary to his report.
Lord Keeper. — " The order was given, for that your
writings were not ready the last time, that you should
yield the same to these men, (meaning the protestants)
as soon as you might, and upon the receipt of your wri-
tings, you should have theirs, and this day you should
treat of the second question, and of the third, if that
you had leisure enough. This was the order, my lords,
except my memory much fail me." The same all the
council affirmed.
Lincoln. — " We were desired then to bring in this day
our writing for the first question also."
Lord Keeper. — " Ah ! sirs, if you be so hard to be
satisfied, and to incline to the truth, let my lords here
say what was then determined."
Archbishop of York. — " You are to blame to stand in
this issue, for there was a plain decreed order given for
you to treat of the second question. Wherefore leave
you your contention herein, and shew what you have to
say in the second question."
Lord Keeper. — " Go to now, begin my lords."
Lichfield. — " It is contrary to the order in disputa-
tlons, that we should begin."
Chester. — " We have the negative, they the afiSr-
mative, therefore they must begin."
Lichfield. — " They must first speak what they can
bring in against us, since we are the defending part."
Chester. — " So is the school manner, and likewise the
manner in Westminster-hall is, that the plaintiffs part
should speak first, and then the accused party to
answer."
Lichfield. — " I pray you let the proposition be read,
and then let us see who hath the negative part, and so
let the other begin."
Lord Keeper. — " The order was given that you should
begin."
Lichfield. — " But then we should do against the school
order."
Lord Keeper. — " My masters, you enforce much the
school orders. I wonder much at it, since divers of
those orders are oftentimes taken for the exercise of
youth, and ought to maintain a fashion, and many
prescriptions, which we need not here to recite, much
less observe. We are come hither to keep the order of
God, and to set forth his truth, and hereunto we have
taken as good order as we might, which lieth not in me
to change."
Carlisle. — " We are of the catholic church, and abide
therein, and stand in the possession of the truth ; and
therefore must they say what tliey have to allege against
us, and so we to maintain and defend our cause."
Lichfield. — " Yea, even so must the matter be
ordered."
Chester. — " When they bring any thing against us, it
is suffi('ient for us to deny it. Therefore must they
begin."
Lichfield. — " And when they affirm any thing, and we
say nay, the proof belongeth to them, and so it behoveth
them to shew first what they affirm, and for what cause
and purpose."
Lord Keeper. — " Here resteth our purpose and whole
matter, whether you will begin, if they do not, since
it was determined you should begin."
Lichfield. — " We heard of no such order."
Lord Keeper. — " No ; yes, and in the first question
you began willingly. How cometh it to pass that jou
will not now do so ? "
Chester. — " Then had we the af&rmation, which since
that our adversaries have now, they should presently
begin."
This the protestants denied, saying, that they in the
first day had the negative, wherein they did not yet
refuse to begin.
Lord Keeper. — " If you have any tiling to say, my
lords, to the purpose, say on."
Lichfield. — " A particular sort of men c^n never break
an universal church, which we now maintain ; and as for
these men, our adversary part, I never thought that
they would have done so much as have named them-
selves to be of the catholic church, challenging the name
as well as we."
Protestants. — " We do so, and we are of the true
catholic church, and maintain the verity thereof."
Lincoln. — " Yet would you overthrow all catholic
order."
Home. — " I wonder that you so much stand who
should begin."
Lincoln. — " You count it requisite that we should
follow your orders, as we have taken the questions at
your hands, in that sort as you have assigned them."
Lichfield. — " Yea, even so we be driven to do now."
Lord Keeper. — " Nay, I judge if you mark the matter
well, the questions are neither of their propounding
them to you, nor of your device to them, but offered
equally to you both."
Home. — " Indeed, my lords of the queen's most
honourable council, these questions or propositions were
proposed unto us by your honours, and they then having
the pre-eminency, chose to themselves the negative, and
vet freely began first : now again why do they not the
like? "
k.T>. 1559.] CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE PAPISTS AND PROTESTANTS AT WESTMINSTER. 995
Lichfield being angry that Home should so straightly
speak against tliem, went quite from the matter, saying,
" My lord keeper of the great seal, and you the rest of
the queen's most horiourable council, I hope that you
all, and the queen's majesty herself, are inclined to
favour the verity in all things, and the truth of the
catholic church, which we must, will, or can do no other-
wise but earnestly maintain to the uttermost of our
power, and to this purpose let us now well weigh who
are of the true catholic church ; they, or we."
Lord Keeper. — " Stop ! you now go from the matter,
and make questions of your own."
Lichfield yet not straying from his digression,' said
thus ; ' We must needs go to work, and try that
first, what church they be of. For there are many
churches in Germany. Master Home, Master Horue,
I })ray you which of these churches are you of ? "
Home. — " I am of Christ's catholic church."
Lord Keeper. — " You ought not thus to run into
voluntary talk of your own inventing, nor to devise new
questions, of your own appointment, and thereby enter
into that talk ; you ought not so to do. But say on, if
you have any thing to say in this matter."
Lichfield. — " Nay, we must first thus go to work with
them as I have said, if that we will search a truth :
howbeit of the truth we have no doubt, for that we
assuredly stand in it. These men come in, and they
pretended to be doubtful. Therefore they should first
bring what they have to impugn or withstand us withal."
Winchester. — " Let them begin ; so will we go onward
with our matter."
Chester. — " Otherwise, my lords, if they should not
begin, but end the talk, then should the verity on our
sides be not so well marked ; for they should depart
speaking last, with the rejoicing triumph of the people."
Winchester. — " Therefore, I am resolved that they
shall begin ere that we say any thing."
Chester. — " I am sorry, my lords, that we should
so long stand in the matter with your honours, and make
so many words, and so much ado with you, whom we
ought to obey : howbeit there is no fairness if they begin
not ; and surely we think it meet, that they should
for their parts, give us place."
Lichfield. — " Yea, that they should, and ought to do,
where any fairness is used.''
Aelmer. — " We give you the place, do we not ? and
deprive you not of the pre-eminence, because you are
bishops; therefore, I pray you begin."
Bishops. — " A goodly giving of place, I assure you ;
yea, marry, you give place." Such words they used,
with more scoffs.
Lord Keeper. — " If you make this assembly gathered
in vain, and will not go to the matter, let us rise and
depart."
Winchester. — " Contented, let us be gone ; for we
wili not in this point give over. I pray you, my lords,
require not at our hands that we should be any cause of
hindrance or let to our religion, or give any such evil
example to our posterity, which we should do if we gave
over to them, which in no wise we may, or will do."
Lord Keeper. — " Let us then break up, if you be thus
minded." With these words the bishops were straight-
ways rising. But then said the lord keeper, " Let us see
whether every one of you be thus minded. How is it,
my lord of Winchester, will you not begin to read your
writing ? "
Winchester.—" No, surely, I am fully determined, and
fully at a point therein, howsoever my brethren do."
Then the lord keeper asked how the bishop was called,
who sat next to Winchester in order. It was the bishop
of Exeter, who being enquired his mind herein, an-
swered that he was none of them. Then the lord keeper
asked the other in order, and first Lincoln, who said
he was of the same mind that Winchester was of ; and
likewise answered Lichfield, Coventry, Dr. Cole, and Dr.
Chi^dsey. Then Chester, being asked his sentence, said,
" My lords, I say not that I will not read it, if you
command us; but we ought not to do it: yet I desire
your honours not so to take it, as though I would not
have read -it. I mean not so."
Lord Keeper. — " How say you to it, my lord of
Carlisle?"
Carlisle. — " If they should not read theirs this day,
so that our writing may be last read, so am I contented
that ours shall be first read."
Lord Keeper. — " So would you make orders your-
selves, and appoint that we should spend one day in hear-
ing you."
Then the abbot of Westminster was asked his mind ;
who said, " If it please your honours, I judge that my
lords here stay most on this point, that they fear when
they shall begin first, and the other answer thereupon,
there shall be no time given them to speak, which my
lord misliketh."
Lord Keeper. — " How can it otherwise be in talk
appointed in such assembly and audience ; think you
that there can be continued answering one another ?
when should it after that sort have an end ? "
Lichfield. — " It must be so in disputation to seek out
the truth."
Lord Keeper. — '• But how say you, my lord abbot, are
you of the mind it shall be read .' "
Abbot. — " Yea forsooth, my lord, I am very well
pleased withal." Harpsfield being inquired his mind,
thought as the other did.
Lord Keeper. — " jMy lords, since you are not willing,
but refuse to read your writing after the order taken, we
will break up and depart, and because you will not that
we should hear you, you may perhaps shortly hear
of us.''
Thus have we declared the order and manner of this
communication or conference at Westminster, between
these two parties, wherein if any law or order were bro-
ken, judge, good reader, where the fault was, and con-
sider withal what these papists are, from whom if ye
take away their sword and authority, you see all their
cunning, how soon it lieth in the dust, or else why would
they not abide the trial of writing .' why would they not,
or durst they not stand to the order agreed upon ? Whe-
ther should we say ignorance or stubbornness to be ia
them more, or both together ? Who first being gently
and favourably required to keep the order appointed,
they would not. Then being secondly (as appeared by
the lord keeper's words) pressed more earnestly, they
neither regarding the authority of that place, nor their
own reputation, nor the credit of the cause, utterly re-
fuse so to do. And finally, being again particularly
every of them apart distinctly by name required to
understand their opinions therein, they all saving one)
(which was the abbot of Westminster, having some more
consideration of order and his duty of obedience than the
other) utterly and plainly denied to have their book read,
some of them as more earnestly than others, so also some
other more indiscreetly and irreverently than others.
About this time, at the beginning of the flourishing
reign of queen Elizabeth, was a parliament summoned
and holden at Westminster, wherein was much debating
about matters touching religion, and great study on both
parts employed, the one to retain still, the other to im-
pugn the doctriie which before, in queen Mary's time,
had been established. But especially here is to be noted,
that though there lacked no industry on the papists' side,
to hold fast that which they most cruelly from time to
time had studied, and by all means practised to come by ;
yet notwithstanding, such was the providence of God at
that time, that for lack of the other bishops, whom the
Lord had taken away by death a little before, the resi-
due that there were left could do the less ; and in very
need, God be praised, did nothing at all in effect.
Although in this parliament there was some diversity
of judgment and opinion between parties, yet notwith-
standing, through the merciful goodness of the Lord, the
true cause of the gospel had the upper hand, the hopes
of the papists v.'ere frustrated, and their rage abated ;
the order and proceedings of king Edward's time con-
cerning religion was revived again ; the supremacy of
the pope abolished ; the articles and bloody statutes of
queen Mary repealed ; briefly, the furious fire-brands of
cruel persecution, which had consumed so many poor
men's bodies, were now extinct and quenched.
906
MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS.
[Book XII.
Finally, the old bishops were deposed, for they re-
fused the oath in renouncing the pojie, and not subscrib-
ing to the queen's just and lawful title. In whose rooms
and places, first for cardinal Poole, succeeded Doctor
Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury; in the
place of Heath, succeeded Doctor Young ; instead of
Bonner, Edmund Grindall was bishop of London ; for
Hopton, Thurlby, Tonstall, Pates, Christopherson, Peto,
Coates, Morgan, Feasie, White, Oglethorpe, &c. were
placed Doctor John Parkhurst, in Norwich ; Doctor
Coxe, in Ely; Jewell, in Salisbury; Pilkenton, in
Durham ; Doctor Sands, in Worcester ; Master Dow-
nam, in Westchester ; Bentam, in Coventry and Lich-
field ; David, in St. David's ; Ally, in Exeter ; Home,
in Winchester ; Story, in Hereford; Best, in Carlisle;
JJuUingham, in Lincoln ; Seamier, in Peterborough ;
Bartlet, in Bath ; Gest in Rochester ; and Barlo, in
Chichester, &c.
A hritf Note conceminq the horrible Massacre in France,
A.D. 1572.
Here, before the closing up of this book, in no case
should be unremembered the tragical and furious massa-
cre in France, wherein were murdered so many hundreds
and thousands of God's good martyrs. But because the
true narration of this lamentable story is set forth in
English at large, in a book by itself, and extant in print
already, it shall the less need now to,discourse that mat-
ter with any new repetition ; only a brief mention of sum-
mary notes for remembrance may suffice. And first for
brevity sake to pass by the massacre by the Romish
catholics in Orange, against the protestants, most fiercely
and unawares breaking into their houses, and there,
without mercy, killing man. woman, and child ; of whom
some being spoiled and naked, they threw out of their
lofts into the streets ; some they smotliered in their
houses with smoke, with sword and weapon sparing
none, the carcases of some they threw to dogs, &c. which
was A.D. 15/0, in the reign of Charles IX. Likewise
to pass over the cruel slaughter at Rome, where, the
protestants being at a sermon without the city walls, upon
the king's edict, the Roman catholics in fury ran upon
them coming home, and slew of them above forty at
least ; many more they wounded. This example at
Rome, stirred up the papists in Dieppe to practise the
like rage also, against the christians there returning from
the sermon ; whose slaughter had been the greater, had
they not more wisely before been jirovided with weapons
for their own defence in time of need. All which happened
about the same year aforesaid, A.D. 1570. But these,
■with such like, 1 briefly pass over, to enter now into tlie
matter above premised, that is, briefly to treat of the
horrible and most barbarous massacre wrought in Paris,
such as I suppose was never heard of before in any civil
dissension amongst the very heathen. In a few words to
touch the substance of the matter.
After long troubles in France, the Roman catholic
side, foreseeing no good to be done against the protest-
ants by open force, began to devise how by crafty means
to entrap them, and that by two manner of ways : The
one by pretending a power to be sent into the lower
country, whereof tlie admiral to be the captain ; not that
the king so meant indeed, but only to understand there-
by what power and force the admiral had under him,
■who they were, and what were their names. The second
was by a certain marriage suborned, between the prince
of Navarre, and the king's sister. To this i)retended
marriage, it was devised that all the chicfest protestants
of France should be invited, and meet in Paris. Among
whom first they began with the queen of Navarre, mo-
ther to the prince that should marry the king's sister,
attempting by all means possible to obtain her consent
thereunto. She being then at Rochelle, and allured by
many fair words to repair unto the king, consented at
length to come, and was received at Paris ; where she
after much ado, at length being won to the king's mind,
and providing for the marriage, shortly after fell sick,
uud within five days expired, not without suspicion, as
sorr^e said, of poison. But her body being opened, no
sign of poison could there be found, save only that a
certain apothecary boasted, that he had killed the
queen by certain venomous odours and smells confected
by him.
After this, the marriage still going forward, the admi-
ral, prince of Navarre, Conde, with divers other chief
men of the protestants, induced by the king's letters
and many fair promises, at last were brought to Paris.
Where with great solemnity they were received, but
es])ecially the admiral. To make the matter short,
the day of the marriage came, which was the 18th of
August, 1572. Which marriage being celebrated and
solemnized by the cardinal of Bourbon, upon a high
stage without the church walls, the prince of Navarre
and Conde came down, waiting for the king's sister, she
being then at nuss. This done, they resorted all toge-
ther to the bish p's palace to dinner. At evening they
were l;ad to a palace in the middle of Paris to supper.
Not long after this, being the 22nd of August, the admi-
ral coming from the council table, by the way was struck
with a discharge from a pistol, charged with three
pellets, in both his arms. He being thus ■wounded, and
yet still remaining in Paris, although the Vidam gave
liim counsel to flee away, it so fell out that certain sol-
diers were appointed in divers places of the citv to be
ready at a watch-word, at the commandment of the prince,
upon which watch-word given, they burst out to the
slaughter of the protestants, first beginning with the
edmiral himself, who being wounded with many sore
wounds, was cast out of the window into the street, where
his head being first struck off, was embalmed with spices
to be sent to the pope, the savage people raging against
him, cut off his arms, and so drawing him three days
through the streets of Paris, they dragged him unto the
place of execution out of the city, and there hanged him
up by his heels, to the greater show and scorn of him.
After the martyrdom of this good man, the armed
soldiers with rage and violence ran upon all other of the
same profession, slaying and killing all the protestants
they knew or could find within the city gates. This
bloody slaughter continued the space of many days, but
especially the greatest slaughter ■was in the three first
days, in which were numbered to be slain, as the history
writeth, above ten thousand, men, women, old and
young, of all sorts and conditions. The bodies of the
dead were carried in carts to be thrown into the river : so
that not only the river was all stained therewith, but also
whole streams in certain places of the city did run with
the blood of the slain bodies. So great was the out-
rage of that heathenish persecution, that not only the
protestants, but also certain, whom they thought indif-
ferent papists, they put to the sword instead of protes-
tants.
And not only within the walls of Paris this xiproar
was contained, but it extended further into other cities
and quarters of the realm, especially Lyons, Orleans,
Tovilouse, and Rouen: in which cities it is almost in-
credible, nor scarce ever heard of in any nation, what
cruelty was showed, what numbers of good men were de-
stroyed ; insomuch that within the space of one month,
thirty thousand at least of religious protestants are num-
bered to be slain.
Furthermore here is to be noted, that when the pope
first heard of this bloody stir, he with his cardinals made
such joy at Rome, with their procession, with their
firing guns, and singing of Te Deuin, that in honour of
that festival act, a jubilee was commanded by the pojic,
with great indulgences, and much solemnity. Whereby
thou hast here to discern and judge, with wliat spirit and
charity these Roman catholics are moved to maintain
their religion, which otherwise would fall to the ground
without all hope of recovery. Likewise in France, there
was no less rejoicing njion the 28th day of the said
month, the Xing commanding public ])rocessions to be
made throughout the whole city, with bonfires, ringing,
and singing ; where the king himself, with the queen his
mother, and his whole court resorting together to tha
church, gave thanks and laud to God, for that so worthj
victory achieved upon St. Bartholomew's day against
A.D. 1572— 1674.]-
THE PROTESTANTS BESIEGED IN ROCHELLE.
99?
the protestants, whom they thought to be utterly over-
thrown and vanquished in all the realm for ever.
And in very deed, to man's thinking it might appear
no less after such a great destruction of the protestants,
having lost so many worthy and noble captains as then
were cut off, whereupon many, for fear revoking their
religion, returned to the pope ; many fled out of the
realm ; such as would not turn, keeping themselves se-
cret, durst not be known nor seen ; so that it was past
all hojie of man, that the gospel should ever have any
more place in France. But such is the admirable work-
ing of the Lord, where man's help and hope most faileth,
there he most showeth his strength and help, as here is
to be seen and noted. For whereas the very small
remnant of the gospel side, being now brought to utter
desperation, were now ready to give over unto the king,
and many were gone already against conscience, yielding
to time, yet the Lord of his goodness so wrought, that
many were stayed and reclaimed again through the occa-
sion of those in Rochelle. Who, hearing of the cruel mas-
sacre ia Paris, and the slaughter at Toulouse, most con-
stantly with valiant hearts (the Lord so working) thought
to stand to their defence against the king's power, by
■whose example certain other cities hearing thereof, took
no little courage to do the like : who being confederate
together, exhorted one another to be circumspect, and
tiike good heed of the false dissembling practices of the
merciless papists, who intend nothing but blood and de-
struction.
These things thus passing at Rochelle, the king hearing
thereof, giveth in commandment to captains Strozzius
and Guardius to see to Rochelle. After this he sent a
nobleman, one Bironius, requiring of the Rochelle-men
to receive him for their governor under the king. Great
consultation being had, at length the Rochelle-men
began to condescend upon certain conditions ; which
being not easily granted, and especially they hearing in
the mean time what was done to others of their fellows,
who had submitted themselves, thought it better to
i stand to the defence of their lives and consciences, and
to adventure the worst. Whereupon a great siege and
battery began to be laid against Rochelle, both by land and
sea, which was A.D. 1572, about the fourth day of
December. It would require another volume to describe
all things, during the time of this siege, that passed on
either side, between the king's party, and the town of
Rochelle ; briefly to run over some parts of the matter :
In the beginning of the next year following, A.D. 1573,
in the month of January, commandment was given out
by the king to all and sundry nobles and peers of France,
upon great punishment, to address themselves in most
forcible wise to the assaulting of Rochelle. Whereupon
a great concourse of all the nobility, with the whole
power of France, was there assembled, amongst whom
was also the prince of Anjou, the king's brother, accom-
panied by his other brother, duke Alencon, Navarre,
Conde, and other a great number of states besides.
Thus the whole power of France being gathered against
one poor town, had not the mighty hand of the Lord
stood on their side, it had been impossible for them to
escape. During the time of this siege, which lasted
about seven months, what skirmishes and conflicts were
on both sides, it would require a long treatise. To make
short, seven principal assaults were made against the poor
town of Rochelle, with all the power that France could
make. In all which assaults the pope's side had always
the worst. Concerning the first assault I find it writ-
ten, that within the space of twenty-six days, there were
discharged against the walls and houses of Rochelle, to
the number of thirty thousand shot of iron bullets and
globes, whereby a great breach was made for the adver-
sary to invade the city : but such was the courage of
them within, not of the men only, but also of the women,
armed with spits, fire, and such other weapons as
came to hand, that the adversary was driven back, with
no small slaughter of their soldiers : and of the townsmen
there were slain and wounded only to the number of sixty
persons. Likewise in the second assault, the adversary
attempted to invade the town, but through the industry
of the soldiers and citizens, and also of the women and
maids, the invaders were forced at length to fly away
faster then they came. No better success had all the as-
saults that followed : whereby consider, gentle reader,
with thyself, in what great distress these good men were,
not of Rochelle only, but of other cities also, during
these seven months above mentioned, had not the
mighty hand of the Lord Almighty sustained them.
And especially at the siege of Sanser ; which city was
terribly battered and razed with gunshot of great cannons,
and field-pieces, having at one siege no less than three
thousand bullets and gunshots flying upon them, where-
with the crests of their helmets were pierced, their sleeves,
their hose, theirhats ])ierced, their weapons in their hands
broken, their walls shaken, their houses rent down; yet
not one person slain nor wounded with all this, save
only at the first, a certain maiden, with the blast of the
shot flying by her, was struck down, and died.
What number was lost on both sides during all this
seven months' war, it is not certainly known. Of the
king's camp, what number was slain, may be conjec-
tured by this, that 132 of their captains were killed.
To close up this tragical story, concerning the break-
ing up of this seven months' siege : thus it fell out that
shortly after the seventh assault given against Rochelle,
which was A.D. 1573, about the month of June, word
came to the camp, that duke Anjou the king's brother
was proclaimed king of Poland. Whereat great joy was
in the camp. By occasion whereof the new king, more
willing to have peace, entered into negotiation with them
of Rochelle : who, as he showed himself not ungentle to
them, so found he them again not unconformable to him.
Whereupon a certain pacificatory agreement was conclud-
ed between them upon certain conditions. Which agree-
ment the new Polish king soon preferred to the French
king his brother, not without some suit and intercession
to have it ratified. The king also himself, partly being
weary of these chargeable wars, was the more willing to
assent thereunto. And thus at length, through the
Lord's great work, the king's royal consent, under form
of an edict, was set down in writing, and confirmed by
the king, containing twenty-five articles. In which also
were included certain other cities of the protestants, grant-
ing to them the benefits of peace, and liberty of religion.
This edict or mandate sent down from the king, by his
herald at arms, Bironius, in the king's name caused to be
solemnly proclaimed at Rochelle, the iJth day of June,
A.D. 1573.
The year next following, 1574, for two things seemed
fatal and famous, viz. tlie death of Charles IXth., the French
king, also most of all for the deatli of Charles, cardinal of
Lorraine, brother to the duke of Guise. Of the manner
of the cardinal's death, I find little mention in histories.
Touching tlie king's death, although Richard Dinothus
saith nothing, for fear belike, because he, being a French-
man, his name is expressed and known : but another
history, (whom the said Dinothus doth follow) bearing
no name, saith thus '• That he died the 25th day of May,
upon Whitsun evening, being of the age of twenty-five
years.
The constant report so goeth, that his blood gushing
out at divers parts of his body, he tossed in his bed, and
casting out many horrible blasphemies, laid upon pillows
with his heels upward and head downward, voided so
much blood at his mouth, that in a few hours he died.
Which story, if it be true, as is recorded and testified,
may be a spectacle and example to all persecuting kings
and princes polluted with the blood of christian martyrs.
And thus much briefly touching the late terrible perse-
cution in France.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE WORK.
And thus to conclude, good christian reader, this pre-
sent history, not for lack of matter, but to shorten
rather the matter for the largeness of the volume, 1 here
stay for this present time, without further addition of
more discourse, either to over-weiir) thee with longer
998
CONCLUSION.
[Book XII,
tedionsness, or overcnarge the oook with longer prolix-
ity, having hitherto set forth the acts and proceedings
of the whole church of Christ, namely, of the church of
England, although not in such particular perfection,
that nothing hath surpa.«sed us ; yet in such general
sufficiency, that I trust not very much hath escaped us,
necessary to be known, touching the principal affairs,
doings and proceedings of the church and churchmen.
Wherein may be seen the whole state, order, descent,
course and continuance of the same, the increase and
decrease of true religion, the creeping in of superstition,
the horrible troubles of persecution, the wonderful assist-
ance of the Almighty in maintaining his truth, the glo-
rious constancy of Christ's martyrs, the rage of the
enemies, the alteration of times, the trials and troubles
of the church, from the first primitive age of Christ's
gospel, to the end of queen Mary, and the beginning of
this our gracious queen Elizabeth. During the time of
her happy reign, which hath hitherto continued (through
the gracious protection of the Lord) the space now of
twenty-four years, as my wish is, so I would be glad the
good will of the Lord were so, that no more matter
of such lamentable histories may ever be offered
hereafter to write upon. But so it is, I cannot tell how ;
the older the world waxeth, the longer it continueth, the
nearer it hasteneth to its end, the more Satan rageth,
giveth still new matter of writing books and volumes.
Insomuch, that if all were recorded and committed to
history, that within the said compass of this queen's
reign hitherto hath happened, in Scotland, Flanders,
France, Spain, Germany, besides this our own country
of England and Ireland, with other countries more, I
verily suppose one Eusebius or Polyhistor, whom Pliny
writeth of, wolud not suffice thereunto. But of these
incidents and occurrences more may be said hereafter,
as it shall please the Lord to give grace and space. In the
meantime, the grace of the Lord Jesus work with thee,
gentle reader, in all thy studious readings. And while thou
hast space, so employ thyself to read, that by reading
thou mayst learn daily to know that which may profit
thy soul ; may teach thee experience, may arm thee with
patience, and instruct thee in all spiritual knowledge
more and more, to thy perpetual comfort and salvation
in Christ Jesus our Lord ; to whom be all glory for
ever and ever, Amen.
I
APPENDIX I.
CONTAINING A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS ON ST. BAR-
THOLOMEW'S DAY IN PARIS, AND IN OTHER FRENCH CITIES.
0/" the coming of the Queen of Navarre to the City of I
Paris, with her Sickness and Death there. \
That noble and virtuous lady, Jane de Albert, queen
of Navarre, before she could be drawn to come to Paris
to solemnize the marriage of her son, the prince of
Navarre, with the sister of Charles IXth, then king of
France, received letters upon letters from the said king,
to accompany the prince her son in that solemnity : now,
whereas she had some doubts touching her son's mar-
riage with one of another religion, the king assured her
that all things should be so wrought, as should give her
good satisfaction and content : promising that he would
get a dispensation from the pope to that end. But
when the queen understood that the king was minded
to have this marriage solemnized at Paris, she would by
no means hear of it : " For I will not," said she, " put
any confidence in that so mutinous people, being the
sworn enemies both of myself and mine."
Still the king persisted in his suit for the obtaining of
the same at her hands. And also having intelligence by
some of his agents, that the queen of Navarre began a
little to waver, he solicited her yet once again to come,
assuring her that all things should be carried in such a
peaceful sort, that she should have no cause to complain.
At length the queen came from Rochelle to Elois, in the
month of March 1572, with great attendance, where it
is incredible to think what welcome she had on all sides,
especially from the king and his brethren, &c. who yet,
when all was done, could say to his mother, " Now,
madam, have I not quit myself well ? Let me alone, and
1 will bring them all into the net."
In April following, were the articles concluded con-
cerning the marriage of the prince of Navarre with
the king's sister. In the beginning of May the king
invites the queen of Navarre again to come to Paris,
for preparing the things fitting for this marriage ; which
slie accordingly yielded to, and departing from Blois on
the sixth of the said month, came to Paris on the fif-
teenth of the same. She immediately after became
suddenly ill and died in a few days, with some sus-
picion of being poisoned.
The Death of the Admiral at Paris, and the Massacre of
the Protestants.
After the death of the queen, certain princes were
solicited by the king to give their attendance at Paris for
the solemnizing the marriage of the prince of Navarre
(now made king by the death of his mother), according
to the ceremonies which were thereto appertaining.
Among the rest, letters were directed to the admiral by
the king himself, to come to this marriage ; which were
delivered unto him by Cavagues : wherein the king
assured him he would not tarry long after him ; willing
him not to be afraid of the fury of the Parisians, nor of
their threals which they had formerly uttered against
him. For he was not ignorant of the deadly hatred they
bare him, and therefore wrote unto the mayor of the city,
to look unto it at his peril, that the admiral had no
wrong offered him by the citizens, either at his entrance
or continuance in the city. For of all the cities in that
kingdom, it is the most superstitious, and easily moved
to sedition ; and therefore the admiral, being of a con-
trary religion, could expect but ill welcome at his coming
thither ; especially because at his solicitation, the cross
of Gastines was removed out of the street of St.
Dennis.
The queen-mother and the duke of Anjou wrote nnto
the mayor also, and likewise to the rest of the magis-
trates, to the same effect ; but especially to their ser-
vants, some whereof had a little light given them
touching that device. To be short, they endeavoured
to take all rubs out of his way, that he might with the
less mistrust fall into the same.
The admiral, not thinking any perils, resolved to take
his journey to Paris : although he lacked not sundry ad-
vertisements from his own followers, and otliers his
well wishers in the kingdom, who honoured him much,
desiring him, that although he had no sinister opinion
of the king, of his mother, or any of theirs, yet at the
least, he was to take into his consideration the place
whither he went, and amongst what enemies he was now
to venture himself. But he, always leaning upon the
testimony of a good conscience, and being confident in
God's providence, not moved by these advertisements,
took his journey to Paris with very few attendants.
Being come thither, he was honourably received by the
king, and of his brethren, and of the queen-mother, with
others also.
The marriage of the king of Navarre with the king's
sister being solemnized on the seventeenth and eighteenth
of August, 1572, and all the triumphs and feastings
accompanying the same being finished, the admiral de-
1000
APPENDIX I.— ATTACK UPON THE ADMIRAL AT PARIS.
termined to take his leave at court, and so to return
homewards; the deputies of the reformed churches
brought him their request on a sudden, to present the
same to the king, in regard of many wrongs the said
churches had sustained; and therefore they instantly
besought him, that he would not leave the court till
some order might be taken for redress thereof.
This, with other imi)ediments, were the occasions of
detaining him still there.
Mauravell coming to Paris whilst these feasts lasted,
having presented his service first to the king and his
mother, the duke of Anjou, and the d\ike of Guise ; after
some speech had with the king and cineen-inother, one
called Chain, had a command to direct him to the
house whence the blow should be given : who left him
with a woman in the «aid house, which woman was for-
bidden not only to ask his name, but also so much as to
enquire for what cause he was lodged there.
On Friday, the twenty-second of August, in the morn-
ing, he trimmed up his harquebus, watching secretly the
admiral's coming.
The admiral, at his going forth out of the Louvre,
meeting the king coming out of a chapel which is before
the same, passing thence to play at tetniis, he scarcely
had gone an hundred paces from the place, but as he re-
turned to his lodging on foot to dine there, attended on
by some twelve or fifteen gentlemen, reading a petition ;
out of the window of a lodging (where Villemur, tutor to
the duke of Guise usually lay) he was shot with an har-
quebus charged with three brass bullets, one of which
took off the fore finger of his right hand, and he was
hurt with another in his left arm. Feeling himself thus
wounded, he willed some of his followers to enter that
house, and to inquire who it was that had done that, or
who set him on work to do it : and then to advertise the
king thereof, giving him to understand how well his com-
mandment was observed.
Now whilst they were busy to force open the door, the
murderer fled out by a back way, escaping thence out of
the gate of St. Anthony ; where one attended him,
holding a Spanish gennet, brought out of the duke of
Guise's stable, whereon he galloped away, yet not
■without some difficulty : for, flying thus in some fear, he
fell off his horse twice or thrice.
A gentleman seeing the admiral hurt, came to support
his left arm, binding up the hurt thereon by his hand-
kerchief; and thus was he conducted to his lodging,
which was distant from thence some twenty paces. In
his passing a gentleman said, it was to be feared the bul-
lets were poisoned : to which the admiral replied, ■' All
must be as it pleaseth God.''
The king hearing of the admiral's hurt, left his game,
where he was playing till then with the duke of Guise,
and, throwing away his racket, as it seemed in an anger,
with a sad and heavy countenance withdrew himself into
his chamber, the duke of Guise following him within a
little while after.
The king of Navarre, the prince of Conde, with many
other of the protestant religion, having notice of theadmi-
ral's hurt, complained to the king of this untimely acci-
dent : entreating they might have leave to depart out of the
city, seeing they could expect little safety there. The king
made his moan to them of the mischance that had hap-
pened, swearing and protesting that he would execute
such impartial justice upon the offender, and on all his
accomplices, as should give the admiral and all his
friends content : only he willed them to stay, promising
ere long to provide for th(ir security.
The surgeons and physicians were presently sent for,
amongst whom was Ambrose Pare, the king's surgeon,
a man very expert. He began first with the admiral's
finger, which put him to much pain, in regard the scis-
sors were not sharp enough to cut it off at once ; be-
sides, he was fain to stop and open the wound thrice,
then he came to the left arm, making incisions in two
places into which the bullet had pierced. The admiral
enduied all this with an undaunted countenance, and
wonderful patience, whilst those which stood by and saw
him so mangled, could not refrain from tears. Caj)tain
Mouius held him with both his arms about the middle,
and Cornaton held his hands. He, seeing them asto-
nished, exclaimed, "My friends, why weep you? I
think myself happy to be thus handled in the cause of
God.'' And anon, casting his eyes upon a minister
called Merlin, he said, " Here ye see, my friends, God's
blessings. I am hurt indeed ; but I know it is come to
pass by the will of my Heavenly Father, humbly thank-
ing his Majesty that he is pleased to honour me so far as
to suffer any thing for his holy name. Let ns pray
unto him, that he would grant unto me the gift of perse-
verance.''
Tiien looking upon the said minister, who wept over
him. "Oh, Master Merlin, (saith he,) wlrit, will not you
comfort me?" " Yes, sir, (saith he,) for wljerein may
you take greater comfort, than in calling to mind how
greatly God hath always honoured you in esteeming you
worthy to suffer rebuke for his name's sake, and true re-
ligion ?" The admiral replied ; " Alas, if God should
de d with me according to my deserts, he might have put
me to worse torments than these. But blessed be his
holy name, in that he is pleased to take ])ity on me, his
poor and unworthy servant.'' " Be of good cheer, sir,
(then said another unto him,) for seeing God hath spared
your more nob)e part whole, you have cause therein to
magnify his goodness. In these wounds you have
received from God a testimony of his love, rather than
of his displeasure, seeing he hath preserved your head
and understanding safe.''
Then said Merlin. " Sir, you do well in turning your
thoughts away from him who hath committed this out-
rage upon you, in looking only unto God ; for no doubt
it is his hand that hath smitten you ; therefore, for the
present, cease to think on the malefactor.'' " I assure
you, (said the admiral,) I do freely forgive him from
the bottom of my heart, and those also that are his
abettors ; being fully persuaded that none of them all
could have done me the least hurt, no, though with vie-
lent hands they had put me to death. For what is
death itself to God's children, but an assured passage to
an eternal rest and life ? "
Now as the said minister declared how the evils which
happen to the children of God in this present life, do
often incite and quicken them up to pour out their
prayers into the bosom of the Almighty, the admiral
presently with a loud voice and ardent affection, prayed
thus :
" Lord God, and heavenly Father, have pity upon me
for thy goodness and mercy's sake ; remember not, Lord,
the sins of my past life, nor the offences which I have
committed against thee ; for if thou narrowly mark our
sins, the looseness of our behaviour and disloyalties in
transgressing thy holy commandments. Lord, who
shall stand .' Who is able to bear the weight of thy dis-
pleasure ? I renounce all idol gods ; 1 acknowledge
thee to be the only true God, and worship thee alone,
O Eternal Father, in thine eternal son, Jesus Christ. I
beseech thee for his sake, that thou wouldst give unto me
thy Holy Spirit, and tlverewithal the gift of patience. I
ptit my trust in thy free mercy : for therein consists the
stay and prop of all my hope, whether T die now at this
present, or live for the time to come. Behold, Lord,
here I am, do with me as it pleasest tliee ; having this
confidence in thee, that if I now depart hence, thou wilt
receive me into the blessed rest of thy kingdom. If it
please thee to lengthen out my days here on earth, O
heavenly Father, give me grace that 1 may spend the resi-
due thereof in setting forth the glory of thy holy name,
and in maintaining, to the utmost of my power, thy pure
worship and service. Amen.''
Having ended this prayer. Merlin asked him, if it
pleased him that the minister of Christ should now pray
with him and for him. To whom he said, " Yes ; with
all my heart : 1 pray you to begin." Whilst Merlin
pronounced the prayer, applying the same to the present
occasion, the admiral, with his eyes looking up to hea-
ven, expressed the ardency of his affection, in consent-
ing thereunto. Prayer being ended. Merlin began to
propound unto the admiral the examples of the martyrs,
showing that from Abel to Abraham, and subsequently
hitherto, whosoever earned themselves in any degree of
A.D. 1572.]
APPENDIX I.— ATTACK UPON THE ADMIRAL AT PARIS.
100]
faithfulness in the House of God, felt at one time or
other the smart of afflictions in divers kinds. The ad-
miral answered, that when he called to mind the suffer-
ings of the patriarchs and martyrs, it much comforted
him, and helped him somewhat to allay the sharpness of
liis affii-'ted estate.
The king of Navarre and the prince of Conde, having
bitterly bewailed this outrage committed upon the admi-
ral, (as you heard before,) about two o'clock in the af-
ternoon, the king, accompanied with the queen-mother,
his brother, and other of the lords, went to visit the
admiral.
The king with tears seemed to be exceeding sorry for
that which was to come to pass, promising him, with one
blasphemous oath upon another, to revenge the fact, no
less than if it had been committed upon his own person :
praying him to come and take up his lodging with him
in the Louvre, for his greater security and safety.
Whereupon the admiral, after some discourse made to
the king in secret, gave him most humble thanks for so
great a favour as to visit him in his own person.
Upon the motion made by the king, Mazilles his chief
physician was called, the king demanding of him, whe-
ther the admiral might safely be removed thence into
the Louvre or no ? his answer was, that it could not be
done without danger. Some of the admiral's friends
thought it fitting to request a guard of soldiers to be as-
signed by the king unto him, for his better security. The
king answered, he liked that device well, being fully
determined to provide for the admiral's safety as his own,
and would preserve him no less then the apple of his eye.
After the king called for the bullet of brass wherewith the
admiral was hurt, that he might see it, asking whether
he was not put to great pain when his finger was cut off,
as likewise touching the dressing of his arm. Now as
Cornaton shewed the bullet, having his sleeve all bloody,
(because he was appointed to hold the admiral's arm,
while it was in dressing) the king asked if that were of
the admiral's blood ? and whether so much blood issued out
of his wounds ? adding (after Cornaton's answer)he never
saw man in his life shew greater constancy and magnani-
mity of spirit than the admiral did.
Then was the queen-mother desirous to see the bullet,
saying, I am glad the bullet is taken out ; for I remem-
ber when the duke of Guise was killed before Orleans,
the physician told me, that if the bullet was gotten out,
there was no danger of death though it were poisoned.
Then Cornaton answered, we have foreseen that, ma-
dam ; for being careful to prevent that danger, the admi-
ral had a medicine given him to expel the poison, if per-
adventure any such thing should be.
The Saturday before the admiral was slain he began
to be somewhat cheered, so as the surgeons and physici-
ans gave out, that they would warrant the admiral's life ;
because his arm, having lost but little of its strength,
would soon be healed. This news was brought to the
king, who seemed to entertain the same joyfully. The
new married wife came also to visit the admiral. But
all this was but a shew before death. For that night
there was heard a great clattering of armour in the city,
and many torches lighted every where, borne by many of
the people. Some gentlemen, whose lodgings were nigh
to the admiral's, rose, and went out, asking some of
their acquaintance the reason why there were so many
up in arms at that hour of the night : they answered,
that the king much desired to see a castle assailed and
defended, devised only in sport, to give him content.
They passing yet further came to the Louvre, where they
likewise saw many torches lighted, and troops of armed
men.
The guard there could no longer contain themselves,
but began to pick a quarrel with them ; and as one of the
said gentlemen was about to speak, a Gascoine soldier
struck at him with a partizan, and then they fell upon
the rest. The noise hereof spreading, the queen-mother
said, seeing it is not possible to retain the fury of the
soldiers any longer from breaking out, let the bell of the
church of St. Germain be tolled, said she.
The admiral coming to the knowledge of this nproar
(though he had but few of his followers about him,) was
not much moved thereat ; trusting (as he often used to
say) upon the king's favour, whereof he had largeexperi-
ence. Also he knew that when the Parisians sliould un-
derstand how much the king disliked their folly, though
they had an intention to do him some mischief, yet
would they be quieted as soon as they saw Cosseins and
his guard.
This Cosseins was appointed by the duke of Anjou to
defend the admiral's lodging, wherein the old proverb
was verified, " That the woif was set to keep tlie slieep."
About break of day, August the '21th A.D. 1.t72, be-
ing St. Bartholomew's day, they began to knock at the
door where the admiral lay. La Bonne, who lay not far
from him, having the keys, perceiving that there were
some who came on a message from the king to tlie ad-
miral, came down quickly and opened tiie door ; pre-
sently Cosseins fell upon him and stabbed him with his
dagger, so that he died. Then with his harquebusiers
rushing into the house, killing such as they niet, others
fled. Cornaton, awaking with the noise that he he.ird at
the door (for he lay in the next chamber liy), ran thither,
causing the Swiss and other officers to fortify it. Cos-
seins hearing that, cried to him to ojjen it in the king's
name, and he so handled the matter, that with the help
he had, he forced the door open, and gained the stairs.
The admiral, and those that were with him, taking notice
how they shot ofl'pistols and guns, finding themselves in-
closed in their enemies' hands, fell to prayer, begging
pardon of God for their sins.
The admiral rising out of his bed, and putting on his
nightgown, commanded Merlin, the minister, to make
the prayer. He also, calling earnestly upon Jesus Christ,
his God and Saviour, commended his spirit into his
hands. He that testified these things and made report
thereof, coming into the chamber, and being asked by
the admiral what that tumult meant ; " Sir,'' saith he,
"God is now summoning us to look to our end.'' The ad-
miral seeing what would be the issue, answered, " I have
long since expected death ; save yourselves if it be pos-
sible, for you cannot secure me ; 1 commend my soul
into the hands of the merciful God." Those who were
present and escaped, have affirmed, that the admiral was
no more affrighted at death, which he saw present befors
his eves, than if there had been no likelihood thereof at
all.
Forthwith, every one in the chamber getting up to the
top of the house, and having found a window near the
roof, saved themselves there ; but the greater part, who
were beneath in the next room to the admiral, were slain,
others miraculously escaped. In the mean while, Cos-
seins having made his way, caused certain Swiss of the
duke of Anjou's guard to enter into the house.
Besine, Cosseins, and Sarlabour, with their targets in
one hand, and their naked swords in the other, broke
open the admiral's chamber door, and Besine (which
was afterwards slain himself by one Bertoville upon the
way, after he had escaped out of prison) coming towards
the admiral, holding the point of his sword to his
breast, said thus, " Art not thou the admiral ?" " I am
the man," said he, with an undaunted courage, as the
murderers afterwards confessed. Then beholding the
naked sword, " Young man,' said the admiral, "Thou
oughtest somewhat to respect my years, and my infirmity
of body, but it is not thou that canst shorten my days."
Besine desperately thrust the admiral through the body
with his sword, and then smote him therewith on the
head ; the rest had every one a blow at him, so as he pre-
sently fell down wounded to death.
Whilst this mischief was enacting, the duke of Guise
being below in the base court, with other Romish catholic
lords, cried to the murderer above, " Besine, hast thou
done?" " It is done," saith he. Then the duke re-
plied, " Monsieur, our knight (meaning king Henry's
bastard) will not believe it unless he see it with his eyes,
throw him down out of the window.''
Then Besine and Sarlabour, lifting up the body of the
admiral, cast him down unto them, where he lay naked
on the ground, exposed to all sorts of scorn and mocks
of the multitude, some trampling on him with their feet.
Now because the blow which Besine had giten the admi-
1002
APPENDIX I.— BUTCHERY OF THE PROTESTANTS IN PARIS.
ral on liis head, had so covered his face with blood issu-
ing thence, that his visage could not be discerned, the
duke of Guise stooping down, took his hankerchief, and
wiping his face therewith, said, " It is he, I know him
well enough:" and giving this poor dead body a spurn
on the head with his foot (whom all the murderers in
France feared whilst he lived) he passed thence, encou-
raging his soldiers, saying, " We have made a good be-
ginning ; now let us go on to the rest, for the king hath
so commanded, the king hath so commanded," repeat-
ing it over twice.
An Italian of the duke of Never's guard cut off the
admiral's head, and brought it to the king and queen-
mother, which being embalmed was sent to Rome to the
pope, and to the cardinal of Lorrain, being there at that
time. The common people on the Monday following, cut
off his hands, and then in this woeful plight being
dragged up and down three days in the channels through-
out the streets, he was at the last carried out of the city
to a gibbet in Mount Faucon, where they hanged him by
the feet, from whence some that were well disposed, go-
ing together in the night to this gibbet, took down the
body of the admiral ; the which they interred so secretly,
that the papists do what they could, they could never
find it out, but it lay buried still ; so as they were fain to
make a body of straw, and hung that up instead of the
body itself, rather than none at all.
This Sunday morning all that were popishly affected,
took liberty to kill and spoil ; it being credibly reported,
that the number of the slain that day and two other days
following, in the city of Paris, and in the suburbs, did
amount to above ten thousand ; counting lords, gentle-
men, presidents, counsellors, advocates, lawyers, scho-
lars, physicians, merchants, tradesmen, women, and
children. The streets were covered with dead bo-
dies, the river was dyed with blood, the gates and en-
trance into the king's palace painted with the same
colour: but the blood-thirsty were not yet satisfied.
But going from house to house with their associates,
where they thought to find any Huguenots, they brake
open the doors, then cruelly murdered whomsoever they
met, sparing neither sex nor age. Carts were laden
with dead bodies of young maidens, women, men and
children, which were discharged into the river, which was
covered in a manner all over with the slain, and dyed red
with their blood, which also streamed down the streets
from sundry parts thereof.
One of the massacrers having snatched up a little cliild
in his arms, the poor babe began to play with his beard,
and to smile upon him ; but instead of being moved to
compassion therewith, this barbarous wretch wounded it
with his dagger, and so cast it all wounded and bleeding
into the river.
To proceed on further and fully to relate all the tragi-
cal acts committed in this massacre at Paris, to set down
the thundering of guns and pistols, the lamentable voices
and outcries of the slain, the roarings and horrible blas-
phemies of these murderers and devils incarnate, were
enough to cause the paper whereon they should be de-
scribed, either to blush or weep.
Not to stay the reader therefore any longer in this,
having many things of the like nature to present unto thy
view, we will jjass from the dolorous city of Paris, to
other cities in France, and set before thee, as in a glass,
a company of horrible and rueful spectacles.
Massacres committed at Meaux in Brie.
Let us begin then with those of Meaux in Brie, which
is not above a day's journey from Paris.
The poor protestants in this city were destined to
drink this cup of martyrdom, after their brethren and
sisters in the city of Paris. Therefore, on the same Sun-
day, the 24th of August, about four o'clock in the after-
noon, a post was sent to Meaux with letters, accompa-
nied with a seditious fellow called Le Froid. Being
come thither, the packet was presented to Monsieur Louis
Cosset, the king's attorney there. Upon the receipt
whereof, this attorney hasted hither and thither in his
own person, to advertise such cut-throats as had had
their hands in pillaging and robbing those of the protes-
tant religion in the first, second, and third troubles, with
command that they should be ready to come from their
houses armed, at seven o'clock, and then cause the gates
of the city instantly to be shut.
The time prefi.\ed being come, which was about supper
time, the gates were shut, and then they began to exe-
cute their cruelties in sundry parts of the city. Thus
was that night passed, not without uproars and strange
events.
On the next day, Monday, about three o'clock in the
morning, these good catholics began to pillage the houses
of the protestants of the best things they had, which
continued till eight o'clock, they loved their trade so
well. But the principal of all the spoils were conveyed
into the court and house of Louis Cosset ; yet these were
only the beginning of sorrows.
After robbing and spoiling, they commenced shutting
up the protestants in prison : which being filled, the
murderers having Cosset for their captain (who usually
carried in each hand a pistol ready to discharge), went
into the prison on Tuesday, the 2()th of August, about
five or six o'clock at night, with swords, daggers, and
butchers knives.
Nigh to this prison there was a great court, enclosed
on every side, with walls and a very strong gate. In a
corner whereof is a large pair of winding stairs, contain-
ing five and twenty or thirty steps, by which they go up
to tlie judgment hall to the seat of justice. Into this
court were tiie murderers assembled ; which done. Cosset
went up into his seat. Then they had a scroll or bill,
containing the names of the prisoners there imprisoned ;
who were called over one by one to the number of two
hundred and upwards, as- some of the murderers have
since reported, when they impudently made their brags'
of these their horrible impieties and injustices.
Then the attorney laughing, began to call for the first
man named in the bill ; who being brought forth, and
seeing naked swords before him, falling down and crav-
ing forgiveness of his sins at the hands of God, was sud-
denly butchered by five or six.
One Quintin Croyer, an elder of the reformed church,
being called forth, and seeing many of his companions
massacred before his eyes, kneeled down, praying God to
pardon these murderers ; at which prayer they fell a
laughing, and not being able with their daggers to pierce
a jerkin of double buff which he wore, and which they
were loth to spoil, (for it was a good booty) they cut
asunder the points, and then gave him five or six stabs
with a dagger into his body ; and so this good man
wounded to death, calling upon God, rendered up his
spirit into the hands of him that gave it.
Faron Haren, a man zealously affected to religion,
who had been sheriff of the city in the first troubles,
having by his endeavours chased the mass out of Meaux
for a time, was mortally hated by these seditious papists ;
and therefore they were not contented simply to kill
him, but first cut off his nose, ears, and other parts, then
giving him many small thrusts into divers parts of the
body, they forced him to and fro among them, as if he
had gone through the pikes. But being weakened, and
not able any longer to hold out, from the loss of blood
that issued from all the parts of his body, he fell with
his face to the ground, and calling upon the name of the
Lord, received infinite gashes and wounds after he was
dead.
By this time it grew late ; therefore these bloodsuckers,
having almost wearied themselves in worrying these poor
lambs and sheep of Christ, deferred the execution of the
rest till after supper, as well to take some breathing and
refreshment, as also to murder the residue with the
greater alacrity. For inasmuch as the blood of the slain
was reeking yet upon the swords and arms of the mur-
derers, (their sleeves being tucked up) which something
hindered their proceeding , after they had drank wine to
their fill, they meant to return and make themselves
drunk with blood also ! which that they might shed the
more freely, they took with them butchers, great axes,
wherewith they smite down their oxen, and in the pre-
sence of this honest attorney felled these poor prisoners
A.D. 1572.]
APPENDIX I.— PERSECUTION AT TROYES.
1003
one after another, who called upon God, and crying so
loud for mercy, that all the city in a manner rung there-
of. This massacre lasted from nine o'clock at night till
it was midnight. And as there yet remained many pri-
soners alive, they deferred this their bloody business till
the next day.
But this may suffice to have been said as touching
this massacre at Meaux in Brie ; we will now pass on to the
city of Troyesin Champaign, and there ^take notice, as it
were by the way, what cruelties were executed in that
place.
Persecution of the Faithful at Troyes, in Champaign.
News coming to Troyes of the massacre executed at
Paris, the greater part of the judges and officers of the
king were sent to the bailiff of Troyes, with command-
ment diligently to make search for all those of the pro-
testant religion, from house to house, and to imprison as
many as they could meet with.
In this city there was a merchant called Peter Belin, a
man of a turbulent nature. This Belin was at the mas-
sacre in Paris, on St. Bartholomew's day ; from whence
he was sent with letters from the king dated the 28th of
August, to the mayor and sheriffs of Troyes, to cause all
these persecutions to cease, and the prisoners to be set
at liberty. On the 3rd of September he came to Troyes
with these two letters (which had been first published in
Paris) with commandment to deliver them to the fore-
said magistrates, to be proclaimed there also.
But at the first entrance into the city, he began to en-
quire, that all might hear him, whether they had not
executed the Huguenots there as they had done in Paris ;
which was his language through the streets till he came
home. But even some of the papists, who were not so
cruelly minded, demanded of Belin the contents of the
king's letters, whereof they had some inkling before.
But he, like a madman swelling with choler, sware that
whosoever said they contained any thing tending to paci-
fication, lied. Hasting therefore to the bailiflPs house,
at Troyes, after he had delivered him the packet and
whispered somewhat in his ear, he put him on to see this
execution done. Now that the same might pass the
better for lawful, the help of the executioner of Troyes
was requested, whose name was Charles.
Yet he, shewing himself more just and humane than
the rest, peremptorily refused to have his hand in an act
tending to so great cruelty ; answering, that it was con-
trary to his office to execute any man before sentence of
death had first been pronounced by the magistrates. If
they had such sentence to show against any of the pri-
soners, he was ready to do justice ; otherwise he would
not presume, without a warrant, to bereave any roan of
his life : and so with these words he returned home to
his house.
Now although this answer, proceeding from such a
kind of person, whose office and custom it was to shed
hlood, might somewhat have assuaged and taken off the
rage of the most barbarous tiger in the world ; yet the
bailiff slighting it, was the further enraged. Upon tliis
he sent for one of the gaolers of the prison who kept
those of the protestant religion ; but he, being sick of a
tertian ague, Martin de Bures was sent to know his
pleasure.
The bailiff, telling him at large what Belin had signified
to him in private, as also, that on a sudden all the pro-
testant prisoners must be put to deach, that so the
place might be purged of them : This, he said, you must
not fail to do. But, said the bailiff, that the blood may
not run into the streets, you shall cause a trench to be
digged in the midst of the prison, and at the two ends
thereof set certain vessels to receive the same.
But this De Bures for some considerations, as namely
thinking the king's letters, (whereof he had had some
intelligence) might be proclaimed, made no haste to per-
form his charge, acquainting no man with aught that had
passed between the bailiff and him ; no, not Perennet the
keeper, who then lay sick in his bed.
The next day, Tuesday, which was the 4th of Septem-
ber, the bailiff came into the prison about seven or eight
o'clock, and caUing for Perennet asked of him with e
smile, Perennet, is it done ? Perennet knowing nothing
more or less, asked of him what ? Then saith the bailiff,
Why, are not the prisoners dispatched ? and thereupon
was ready with his dagger to have stabbed him. But
coming a little better to himself, he told Perennet what
his purpose was, and how he was to behave himself con-
cerning the execution thereof; telling him by all means
not to forget to make the said trench. At which words,
this Perennet standing amazed, though otherwise he was
a fellow forward enough of himself to commit any out-
rages against the protestants, certified tlie bailitl', that
such an inhuman act could not be committed over to
him, fearing lest in the time to come justice might be
followed against him by the parents or allies of the pri-
soners. No, no, said the bailiff, fear not, I will stand
between you and all harm. Others of the justices have
consented thereto besides myself, and would you have
better security than that ?
Within a while after, the gaoler coming into the court
of the prison, where the prisoners were abroad recreat-
ing themselves, caused every one to resort to his cabin
or hole, because, said he, the bailiff will come by and by,
to see whether the keepers have done as he commanded
them : which they did. Then began these poor sheep to
fear they were destined to the slaughter, and therefore
went presently to prayer. Perennet instantly called his
companions about him, reporting to them what the bailiff
had given him in charge. Then they all took an oath, to
execute the same ; but approaching nigh to t-he prisoners,
they were so surprised with fear, and their hearts so
failed them, that they stood gazing one upon another,
having no courage to commit such a barbarous cruelty,
and so returned to the gaoler's lodge, whence they came,
without doing any thing.
But instead of layir.g this to heart, as an advertise-
ment and warning sent them from above ; as if of set
purpose they meant to resist the checks of their owa
consciences, and so kick against the pricks, they sent to
the tavern for sixteen pints of the best wine, Troyes mea-
sure, with sheep's tongues and other viands, and intoxi-
cating their brains with wine, they drew a list or cata-
logue of all the prisoners ; which they delivered to Nicho-
las Martin, one of their confederates, who was to call
them forth as he saw their names set down in the scroll ;
and thus as they came forth they massacred them.
Ludot, one of the prisoners, being called forth as his
turn came, presented himself before them with a cheer-
ful countenance, calling upon the name of the Lord. Now
as he was to receive the stroke of death from these des-
perate blood-spillers, he prayed them to forbear a little,
till he had put off his doublet, which he was wont to put
on when any tumult grew in the city : and having him-
self unlaced it, presenting his naked breast unto them,
he received the blow, and fell down dead.
But poor Meurs escaped not so cheap ; for his turn
being come, he was no sooner in their sight, than one of
them let drive at him with the point of his halbert, re-
peating the same often, to have killed him, yet could not.
The poor man seeing himself thus dealt with by the
caitiff, and no end made, took hold with his hands on
the point of the halbert, and himself pointing to the seat
of the heart, cried to the murderer with steadfast voice,
" Here, soldier, here, right at the heart, right at the
heart !'' and so finished this life.
However, in this massacre, these two just mentioned
are for brevity's sake only named, yet by that which
immediately follows, you may perceive there were not a
few who suffered in this tragedy.
The massacre being ended, the murderers made a
great pit at the back of the chapel of the prison, into
which they cast the bodies one upon another, some of
them yet breathing, so, that one called Maufere, lying in
the midst of them, was seen to raise up himself above his
fellow martyrs in this pit, upon whom they forthwith
throwing earth, stifled him, being but half dead. But
because the order which the bailiff set down was not ob-
served, namely, the making of a trench in the prison,
to receive the blood which was shed, it ran in such
abundance out at the prison door, and thence through •
1004
APPENDIX I.— MASSACRE AT ORLEANS
channel into a river nigh thereto, that it was turned into
the colour of blood. Which some of the papists them-
selves taking notice of, being ignorant of the fact, were
so terrified therewith, that they ran along the street, cry-
ing, end pointing at every one they met, to behold tliis
horrible and lamentable spectacle. Whereupon many
hastening to the prison, could conjecture no other but
that the prisoners had slain one another.
This was presently noised through the city, so that
some went to inform the lieutenant and bailiff thereof.
But it was as if they had run to the wolves to tell them
the sheep were devoured.
Whilst tliis savage cruelty was committed in the
prison, one Bartholomew Carlet, a cooper, prisoner there
for debt (who of all the troop of the murderers inTroyes
was one of the principal), having in the former troubles
exercised most notorious cruelties against those of the
protestant religion, was called in by these murderers to
be one of their associates ; who executed his part in so
bloody a manner, that (as himself afterwards often ac-
knowledged) he with his own hands slaughtered thirty of
these poor innocents : so far was he grown past shame or
common honesty. But this his cruel work was so pleas-
ing to certain of the popish religion at Troyes, that for a
recompence thereof they paid his debt, and set him free
out of prison ; which was done by making a collection
for him in certain parishes.
The next day after, which was the 5th of September,
tliis worshipful bailiff of Troyes, that he might apply the
plaister when the parties were dead, causes the king's
letters, wliich he had received the 30th of August before,
to be published in all the corners of the city, with sound
of trumpet. The bailiff was present in person at the
publication, and as the notary read the contents thereof
to him, he pronounced the same jeeringly, and not with
a full and audible voice, as matters of such consequence
ought to be read.
Of the Massacre at Orleans.
It now remains that we proceed unto the city of Or-
leans, and to take notice whether the papists there were
less cruel than those of Paris. But, saith the historian,
when I call to mind what hath been the report of those
that were present at that time in Orleans, it causeth the
hair to stand upright on my head : Yet forasmuch as it
is convenient that posterity may be acquainted with
the fury of these monsters in nature, we will commit
that to writing whereof we have credibly been in-
formed.
On Saturday, the 23rd of August, letters were sent
from the king to Orleans, unto Sieur de la Renic, presi-
dent of Dijon, to prevent all disorders, murders, &c.
with command, that he should advertise the citizens,
how the admiral was hurt, as also to assure the pro-
testants that ere long such justice should be executed on
the actors, as all France should take warning thereby not
to attempt the like.
This was carefully performed by the Sieur de la Renic
the same day, who caused those of the best rank of both
religions to be present at the publishing of the king's
mind. The faithful, thinking themselves secure, were
quiet, and on the sabbath day assembled in the place
appointed for their meeting, to the number of three
hundred persons, men, women, and children.
But on the same day, towards night, came a new or-
der to the justice, mayor, and sheriffs of the said city,
by which they were enjoined to be up in arms, and to
gather to them what strengh they could ; with express
charge to make havoc of those of the protestant religion.
To this purpose the captains of twelve companies were ap-
pointed to be the leaders to the rest, divided into forty-
eight squadrons.
One of these blood-suckers, called Texier, came with a
small troop to a counsellor's house of Orleans, whose
name was Dechampeaux, lord of Bonilli, inviting him-
self and his company to supper with him. Decham-
peaux bid them all kindly welcome, making them good
cheer, being ignorant of that which had happened at
Paris. But supper being ended, and all of them risen
from the table, Texier bade him deliver ais purse. De-
champeaux laughing thereat, thinking that he had beeu
but in jest, this cruel and unthankful guest, with blas-
phemous oaths, told him in few words what had hap]iened
in the city of Paris, and wliat preparation there was
among the Roman catholics of Orleans, to cut off and
root out the protestants there. Dechampeaux, seeing
there was no time now to contest with him, gave money
to this thief: who, to requite the courtesy and good en-
tertainment he had had, embrued his hands in the blood
of his host and neighbour, a man of as good and u])right
a carriage as was in all the city, and afterwards himself
with his troop pillaged the whole house.
The 26"th day of August following, the murderers be
gan the execution about the ramparts, after such q
strange manner, that he who had but a spark of huma-
nity left in him, out of compassion would be moved to
abhor and detest it. In these quarters there were many of
the protestant religion. All the night long was heard no-
thing but shooting off of guns and pistols, forcing open
of doors and windows, fearful outcries of men, women,
and little children, tram])ling of horses, and rumbling
of carts, hurrying of dead bodies to and fro ; the street
swarming with unwonted exclamations of those of the
common sort, with horrible blasphemies of the mur-
derers, laughing horribly at their furious exploits ; some
crying, " Kill them all, and then take the spoil ;'' others,
" Spoil not, but kill all."
On Wednesday the massacre began more fiercely, and
so continued to the end of the week, not sparing to
break these and the like jests upon the poor sufferers :
" Where is now your God ? What is become of all your
prayers, and psalms now ? Let your God, whom you
called upon, save you if he can." Yea, some of them,
who in times past had been professors of the same reli-
gion, whilst they were slaughtering the poor innocents,
durst sing unto them, in scorn, the beginning of the
forty-third psalm: " Judge nie, O God, and plead my
cause." Others striking them said, sing now, " Hava
mercy on me O God," which language they used to this
poor people in Paris and elsewhere. But these execra-
ble outrages no vvay daunted the courage of the faithful
from dying steadfast in the faith.
Touching the multitude of the slain, the murderers
boasted that in this city they caused more than twelve
thousand men to perish : also an hundred and fifty
women, with a great number of cliildren of nine years
old and upward. But, as some of themselves have since
reported, there were eighteen thousand murdered, be-
sides women and children. The manner of their death
was, first to shoot them with pistols, then to strip them
of their clothes, and either drowning or else burying the
dead bodies in pits, namely, such as dwelt a-bout the
walls. They were armed also with knives and poniards :
in like manner with javelins and partizans, wherewith
they murdered these poor, meek, and harmless crea-
tures.
On Tuesday, at night, certain of this bloody crew
came and knocked at the door of one that was a doctor
of the civil law, called Taillebous ; who opening a case-
ment, and understanding that they had somewhat to
say to him, came down immediately, and opened the
door to them. At the first greeting, they told him he
must die. Whereupon he fell to prayer, and that with
such constancy and affection, that the murderers being
astonished, and by a secret celestial power restrained,
contented themselves only with taking his purse, in
which there was fifteen crowns, and so left him, offering
him no more violence.
The day following, certain scholars resorting to his
lodging, requested of him that they might see his library,
into which having brought them, one asked this book
of him, and another another, the which he willingly gave
them. At length they told him they were not as yet
satisfied, their purpose being to kill him. He, prostrat-
ing himself upon the ground, and having ended his
prayer, willed them to kill him there. But they forced
liim out of his own house, whence he went on with an
undaunted courage, till in the way he lighted on the body
of a certain shoemaker, newly wounded, lying gasping
A.D. lor2.]
APPENDIX I.— MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS AT LYONS.
1005
for breath. At which sight, starting back as one some-
what appalled, he prayed them to kill him there ; yet
they would not, but constrained him to pass on forward.
Being come to the schools of the civil law, at least, said
he, let me die before this place, where 1 have taught so
long ; but they furiously repulsing him, more than before,
made him go further with them, where at length they
knocked him down.
A rich burgess of the city, called Nicholas Bougars
Sieur de Neva, a man of singular worth, and highly
esteemed of all, was at that time deadly sick. Some of the
murderers came into his chamber with a jiurpose to kill
him ; but seeing him in that case spared him : yet find-
ing there Noel Chaperon, an apothecary, who brought
him physic, they cut off one of his arms, then drew him
into the open market-place, where they made an end of
bim.
The next Jay there came one to the lodgings of him
that was sick, who was wont heretofore to visit him.
Now as he was entering in, he met the mother of the sick
party at the door, going unto mass, and coming up into
the chamber, he stabbed the said sick mat\ with a dagger
in many places, and so killed a dying man. Then, with
all silence, ,as if he had done no such act, wiping his dag-
ger, he went down stairs again, and meeting one at the
door who came to visit him that was sick, this fellow sa-
luting him passed along by him, without any change
either in his behaviour or countenance.
A cook, having hid himself three whole days, was
forced by hunger to come forth, for want of food. But
whilst he went about to escape one death, he fell into the
talons of these lions, who devoured him, and that forth-
with.
Francis Stample, a rich merchant, was threatened to
have his throat cut presently, if he gave not the mur-
derers money : but having none about him, being taken
by them out of his house, calling for pen and ink he
wrote a letter to his wife, willing her forthwith to send
him his ransom : he had no sooner sealed the letter, but
tue murderers deprived him thereof and his life toge-
tliiT, laughing at what they had done. And though they
got from his widow a round sum of money, yet she could
not obtain at their hands the body of her dead
husband.
But to fill up the measure of their cruelty, that those of
the protestant religion might taste thereof to the utmost,
the papists were not content to be murderers themselves,
but constredned such of the protestants as through fear
had revolted, to play the murderers also. Thus placing
these wicked revolters into the forefront of their compa-
nies, and arming them with weapons fit for the purpose,
they pressed them to march on before, and to give the
first onset, crying to them, " Smite them, smite them ;
are they not of your brethren and holy sisters ? " And
if they refused to do as they were commanded, their
turns were like to be next.
The m:;js<icres committed at Bourges and la Charite,
are the rather passed over in silence, because the history
requires at th's time to touch only upon such things as
are mc-t lemarkable, and shall after follow.
Yet one thing ought not to be forgotten, which fell out
i.i the city last-mentioned. There was one John Sarra-
zin, of the age of seventy years and above, who, for a long
time, had exercised the office of a deacon in the reformed
church ; which office he so faithfully performed, that he
was esteemed a father of the poor. This good old father
was set upon on Tuesday night, in his own house, the
4th of September, 15/2, and struck at with swords
by these furious murderers ; when he, with a venerable
and smiling countenance, looking upon them said, " My
friends, what will ye do with me .' Have I ever offended
any of you ? If I have, let him speak." But nothing
could prevail with these savage monsters to soften their
stony hearts. For with a more than brutish rage they
fell upon this grey head and poor withered carcase, who,
to fence ofT the blows, crept under his bed, where one of
these rake-hells, his next neighbour and godson, gave
him such a thrust with his sword into the belly, that his
bowels issued out.
The poor man, seeing himself thus wounded, and per-
ceiving who had done it, said, " Ah, godson, do vou
use me thus ? I never hurt you, but have done you
good." He languished of this hurt two days and two
nights : during which time, as we have learned from his
wife, who gave her attendance on him all the wliile, he
ceased not, with great zeal, to call upon God, thinking
liimself happy to have suffered that outrage for his name,
and so, not long after, yielded up his spirit into the handa
of God that gave it.
The horrible Massacre of the Faithful at Lyons, in
France.
On Wednesday, the 2"th of August, in the year 1672,
about six of the clock in the morning, Sieur Mandolet,
governor of Lyons, was informed of the massacre at Paris ;
and within an hour and a half after, a soldier, passing
through the streets, made it known to the people that
the admiral, and all the protestant princes were slain.
By and by the gates of the city were shut, and guards
of soldiers placed here and there.
But lest the protestant should be moved with such
an unwonted and an unexpected shutting up of the
gates, (as in the time of open war,) the Roman catholics
caused it to be reported, that all was done to secure the
protestants. To which report some gave too much
credit, (for besides the ordinary guard of the governor,
and that of the citadel, with the three hundred harque-
busiers of the city, which amounted to about a thou-
sand,) there were gathered to them many besides of the
city, with arms likewise ; with command that if they
descried any of the protestant religion coming abroaii,
though but with their swords girt unto them, forthwith
to cut them off with the rest also. But they, having
inured themselves to an incredible modesty and patience,
gave not the least appearance of defending themselves,
seeing a tempest now nigh at hand which they knew
could not arise without a special providence of God.
The day following, notwithstanding all these fair shews,
they evidently perceived that their lives were at the
mercy of the papists, who had sucked the blood of many
of them in the first troubles. For albeit they found no
more passage for them out of the city than they did the
day precedent, they might not now either freely go out
or come in upon their necessary occasions : if they pre-
sented themselves in the streets, they were clapped up
in prison ; for which cause they were obliged to keep
their houses. Night being come, they made a privy
search in their dwelling houses ; some they rifled, others
were ransomed, and the rest imprisoned. Many of them
never coming thither, were either killed in the corners of
the streets with daggers, or else cast into the river ;
whereof some (who were living when tliis history was in
writing) were saved by swimming, being carried down
with the current of the stream, half a mile beneath the city.
On Friday after there was a proclamation, with sound
of trumpets, in all the chief places of the city, the sum of
which was this, " that those of the protestant religion were
to appear before the governor at his house, there to be
informed what the king's pleasure was concerning them."
The greater part, being but too credulous, feared not to
make their appearance at the place assigned, whence
soon after they were committed to various; prisons. The
night following there were heard from all parts of the
city lamentable cries and shriekings, not only of such as
were massacred in their houses, but of others half
wounded to death, whom they haled to the river.
From that time forwards, there were such nmrders and
outrages committed throughout the city, that it seemed
hell was set open ; and the devils, in the likeness of men
coming from thence, ran roaring to and fro in the
streets.
On Sunday, which was the last of this month of Au-
gust, about eight o'clock in the morning, the rest, who
were not massacred the Friday before, were made an
end of then.
About one o'clock the same day, commandment was
given, that under every ancient, twenty-five armed men,
with twelve porters, should be gathered to conduct them
1006
APPENDIX I.-MARTi-RDOM OF FRANCIS LE BOSSU, &c.
to St. George's gate, which is by the archbishop's house,
in which were more than three hundred and fift)' priso-
ners ; in which place the great massacre was to be exe-
cuted. The keys of the archbishop's house, wherein so
many prisoners were inclosed, were delivered to this
murderous crew ; who joyfully offered themselves to per-
form so horrible a business ; which the ordinary execu-
tioner refused, and common soldiers abhorred to under-
take, when the same was first propounded unto them,
they answering peremptorily they would never do it.
The executioner alleged, "That if according to the
course of justice sentence of death had been denounced
against them, he knew what he had to do ; but for this their
purpose," he told them, " lie thought they might have
but too many executioners in the city to satisfy their de-
sire." The soldiers answered, " They thouglit it more
than inhuman, to cut the throats of such as never offended
them. But if the prisoners had made any insurrection
or sedition in the city, they then miglit have some co-
lour of reason to do it ; otherwise they meant not to stain
the honour of their profession (which is accompanied
with nobleness of spirit) with so villanous an act, more
befitting butchers than soldiers."
But Mandelot and his accomplices were not so scrupu-
lous ; for within three hours' after, Le Clou, captain of
the harquebusiers of the city, came witli an enraged
troop, &c., the greater part whereof were furnished with
short swords and hangers.
As soon as Le Clou entered into the great court, he
gave the prisoners to understand, with a loud voice,
" That they must die;" and turning him towards his
slaughtermen, he said, " On, on, go in, and to your
work :" but first he forgot not to demand the prisoners'
purses for his booty, which when he pocketed up, he got
into a gallery, tliere to satisfy his hellish lust in taking a
view of this rueful spectacle.
The murderers began to fall upon the poor prisoners,
with such barbarous cruelty, hacking and hewing them
in so furious a manner, that within less than an hour
they were all cut in pieces ; not so much as one escaped
their hands. All these for the most part were mas-
sacred kneeling on their knees, and lifting up their eyes
and hands to God for mercy, whilst they had their hands
and fingers cut off.
The Death and Martyrdom of Francis le Bossu, to-
e/ether with his two Sons,
Among all those that confessed the name of Jesus
Christ, and gave their lives for his truth, a certain mer-
chant of hats and caps, called Francis le Bossu, well de-
serves to be set in the first rank, with his two sons ; for
whilst he stood in the blood of his brethren, being be-
smeared therewith, and spirting as it were in his face, he
encouraged his children to take their death willingly and
patiently: using this speech, " Children, we are not to
learn now that it hath always been the portion of be-
lievers, to be hated, cruelly used, and devoured by unbe-
lievers ; as Christ's simple sheep, by ravening wolves : if
we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him. Let
not these drawn swords terrify us, they will be but as a
bridge whereby we shall pass over out of a miserable
life, into immortal blessedness. We have breathed and
lived long enough among the wicked, let us now go and
live with our God ; let us joyfully march after this great
company which is here gone before us, and let us make
way for them that shall follow after."
Wlien he saw the murderers come, he clasped his arms
about his two sons, and they likewise embraced their
father ; as if the father meant to be a buckler to his chil-
dren, and the children as if by the bond of nature (which
binds them to defend his life from whence they received
it) they meant to ward off the blows which were coming
towards their father, though with the loss of their own
lives ; who, when the massacre was ended, were all three
found dead, thus embracing one another.
Now after this furious assault, these impudent crea-
tures went up and down the city, shewing their white
doublets all besprinkled with blood ; boasting, that some
had killed a hundred, some more, some less. Fci th.viili
the great gates of the archbishop's house were set wide
open for all comers ; of whom surtly there was none
(were they of the devoutest Romanists) but must needs
have their hearts wounded and pierced within them, to
see so hideous a slaughter. And, indeed, some of them
were heard to say, when they beheld this so inhuman
and cruel an act, " That certainly they were not men,
but devils in the habit of men, that had done this."
The next morning, which was Monday, the first of
September, the remainder of the corpses, which were
cast into the water, were put into great boats, which
being rowed over to the other side of the river Saon,
were all cast on shore there ; the corpses being also
S]uead upon the ground nigh to the abbey of Esiiay, like,
dung upon the earth. Tlie monks would not allow them
to be buried in their church-yard, esteeming them un-
worthy of burial ; fearing also, that so many put to-
gether would be a means to infect the air, and therefore
gave them a sign to have them thrown into the river.
Now as *he multitude were dragging them in thither,
an apothecary came and informed them, that money
might be made of the grease that was taken out of their
bodies. Then were the most corpulent bodies presently
souglit out, which when they had ripped up, a great
quantity of that commodity being gotten thence, was
sold by these merchants for tliree shillings the pound.
And then not knowing how to wreak tlieir malice any
further upon tliem, after many derisions and scorns
which the standers by, but especially the Italians, had
done to these poor despised carcases, they were tumbled
into a great pit, and the rest thrown into the river.
Those of Dauphin)^ of Languedoc, and Provence,
were amazed to see so many bodies floating upon the
water, some dismembered, others fastened togetlier with
long poles, others lying on the shore, some having their
eyes put out, others their noses, ears, and hands cut off,
stabbed with daggers in every part of their bodies, so as
some among them had no human shape remaining. Yea,
so great a number of these mangled corpses presented
themselves on the port of Tournon, that the men and
women of the place began to make an outcry, as if the
enemies had been at their gates.
Not many months after, when all these bloody trage-
dies were ended, the pope sent a legate to the king,
called cardinal Ursin. This legate was received with
great solemnity at Lyons, and the streets hung with ta-
pestry. Now having heard mass at St. John's church,
and returning by the same door which he went in at, the
greatest number of the murderers attended his coming
there, and as he passed by, they all kneeled down for his
absolution. But the legate, not knowing the reason why
they kneeled so before him, one of the principal agents
kneeling there amongst them, told the legate that they
were those who had been the actors in the massacre. J
When the legate perceived that to be the cause, he ab- I
solved them all with making the sign of the cross. '
(
Persecution at Anglers, in France.
As soon as the massacre was begun at Paris, a gentle-
man of Paris, called Monsoreau, obtained a passport, with
letters to massacre those of the protestant religion at
Anglers. Who, being disappointed of his prey in one place,
came to the lodging of a reverend and learned minister, j
called John Mason, surnamed de Launay,Sieur of Riviere.
Meeting his wife at his entrance into the house, he sa-
luted her and kissed her, as it is the manner in France,
especially among the courtiers, and asked her where her
husband was ? She answered him, that he was walking in
his garden ; and then directed him the way unto him.
Monsoreau, having lovingly embraced La Riviere, said
unto him, " Do you know wherefore I am come? the
king hath conmianded me to kill you forthwith, and hath
given me express charge to do it, as you shall know by
liis letters. "After which words he shewed him a pistol ready
chari;c(l. Riviere replied, " That he knew not wherein
he had offended the king ; but seeing you seek my life,
give me a litile leave to cry to God for mercy, and to re-
cimimend my s))irit into his hands."
Having madt: a short prayer, he willingly presented his
A.D. 15;2.j
APPENDIX I,— PERSECUTION AT ROUEN, &c.
body to the murderer, who shot him with his pistol, and
he shortly died.
Not lon^ after the king sent Ptiygaillard, who drowned
nine or ten, and amongst others the wife of this minister,
de la Riviere, above named, who expressed a singular
constancy of faith even to her last breath.
This minister and martyr formerly mentioned, sur-
named Launay, was the eldest son of Sieur de Launay,
a man exceeding rich and wealthy, but an obstinate pa-
pist. When the old man saw how his son was inclined
to be a professor of the gospel, he threatened to disin-
herit him unless he would abjure, promising on the con-
trary to bestow great matters upon him, and to marry
him honourably if he would be ruled by him. All
which his son refusing, his father's love was turned into
hatred ; insomuch that the young man was forced to fly
to Paris, where in time he was called to be a minister of
the first reformed church planted in that city, under the
reign of king Henry the second : from which reformed
church other churches in divers cities in France fetched
their light.
Persecution at Rotten.
When the murderers began to play their parts in this
city, they counselled those of tlie protestant religion to get
themselves into the prisons, as into places of greatest se-
curity from the fury and rage of the people. But such as
followed this advice, found that they were there even
ready to be devoured, as poor sheep, by these greedy
■wolves at their pleasure.
Those who wfcre murdered in the city in a few days,
some in their houses, and others in the prisons, amounted
to six thousand, besides more than fifty women, upon
whom they exercised no less cruelty Ihan upon men.
Their names for brevity's s:ike are here omitted. The
dead bodies being piled together, were conveyed in dung-
carts out of the city, and thrown by heaps one upon an-
other into great pits digged for tliat purpose. Their
garments being washed in the river from their blood, by
certain poor women, were afterwards distributed here and
there to the poor by the papists, that they might seem
with their unjust cruelty to mingle some works of justice
and charity.
The Shameful fall of a Minister called Dii Rosier.
"Within a mile of Paris there is a place where the
protestants, which dwelt thereabouts, were wont to as-
Ecmble to hear sermons, and to participate of the sacra-
ments. Over this flock was Hughes Sureau (called Du
Rosier) placed as overseer.
Being in times past minister at Orleans, he was dis-
charged from thence, as one of a contentious spirit, and
given to affect novelties.
In process of time he came to be the established minis-
ter of this foresaid church, nigh unto Paris.
Hearing the news of the massacre, he fled with the
rest, for company. Being apprehended, he began to
waver, persuading many prisoners to revolt as he had
done ; which caused him afterwards, if his repentance
was sound, to utter these words in a book which I have,
wherein he bitterly lamented his woeful fall. " The
murderers, by their cruel hands murdered men's bodies,
whilst their souls escaped safe ; but I by my persuasions
have been a killer of souls, in turning them from the
truth which they before professed."
The judge who had him in bonds, sent letters to Paris,
to give notice of his apprehension, as also of some appa-
rent signs, which gave him hope of the minister's con-
version.
The king shortly after, seat for him, and being brought
into the king's presence, he subscribed instantly to an ab-
juration, with detestation of the Huguenot's profession,
before the king of Navarre and theprince of Conde, main-
tained the Romish religion, consented thereto with the
Sorbonists at that time there present ; against whom a
iew years before he had learnedly defended the truth.
In this abjuration he endeavoured to confute many
articles which were maintained by Calvin and Beza,
against the Romish religion. In these disputes, this
100?
minister being of a prompt wit, and having abilitv to ex-
press himself well, handled the matter so cunningly, that
the king of Navarre, the princess his sister, and the
prince of Conde so far yielded, that within five or six
days after they went to mass, and received absolution
of the cardinal of Bourbon.
Tiie points about which this Rosier disputed, were
these ; 1st. Concerning the marks of the church ;
2. Of the trinity of persons ; 3. Of the incarnation of
Jesus Christ ; 4. Of Christ's descent into hell ; ."). Of
orginalsin; <>. Of the providence of God ; 7. Of predesti-
nation and reprobation ; 8. Of man's freewill ; 9. Of
justification; 10. Of succession ; 11. Of intercession of
saints ; 12. C)f the sacrifice of the mass ; and lastly, of
transubstantiation. The Sorbonists caused this confes-
sion to be printed ; to which the ministers of the re-
formed religion would not vouchsafe an answer, knowing
that he who made it did it contrary to his own consci-
ence, adding nothing thereto which had not been con-
futed a thousand times.
All this upon his repentance he afterwards revoked,
as is to be seen by his book printed here in London, ia
the French tongue, in the year 157.'?, which confession
of his, contrary to his abjuration, I have in my custody.
Now touching the prince of Conde, the king pro-
pounded to him three things ; either to go to mass, to
die, or else perpetual prison ; and therefore to bethink
himself well which of the three he liked best. The
prince answered, as it is reported, " That by God's
grace he would never choose the first ; as for the two
latter, he referred himself to the king's pleasure."
A Massacre at Toulouse, in France.
On Sunday, which was the eighth day after the mas-
sacre of Paris, about eight o'clock in the morning, the
chief of the papists received intelligence of what had
passed, with letters directing them what they were to do.
Then a council was called, at the breaking up of which
the great gates of the city were shut, only the wickets
left open, at which there was set such to watch as they
thought fit. Soon after it was noised through all the
city, that the protestant lords and gentlemen were
massacred at Paris. Which the protestants at Tou-
louse noting, being gone forth about five o'clock in the
morning to hear the sermon at Castanet, some thought
it fit not to return, but to resort to some other place :
others resolv.ed to go back again, that they might take
order about their aflfairs. These being ill advised, were
suffered to enter in peaceably, leaving their swords and
daggers at the gate. At evening, soldiers were placed here
and there ; but as many counsellors and chief men of the
protestants were abroad (that they might the better entrap
them), the next day the gates were not so carefully looked
unto, but who would might come in, and go out at tl-.eir
leisure, without being questioned at all. This was done
to draw in the simple people who wandered up and
down the fields. The first president, called Dasis, a
subtle headed man, sent to the counsellors abroad to
come in, promising them their safety upon his word :
shewing that their absence did but incense the inhabi-
tants of Toulouse the more against them. It was granted
indeed, that there had been a massacre at Paris, but that
was upon some private quarrel, so as the king was not
minded for that to break his edict of ])acification.
Some of them were persuaded and returned ; others
apprehending danger, resolved to retire to Montauban,
Realmont, and elsewhere. On Tuesday following, that
they might hold tli£m whom they had gotten within the
walls, and draw in such as j'et kept themselves without,
they caused it to be published, with sound of trumpets,
that the king's will was that none of the protestant reli-
gion shouldbe molested. The presidents, with olliers, were
present at this proclamation, accompanied by a guard of
soldiers, which caused many of the protestants, especially
the counsellors, to suspect some treachery ; who there-
fore hastened to the first president to know what tliese
things meant. He answered, it was only to restrain the
people from making a tumult. But perceiving that they
could not by their cunning catch the birds who kept
3t
1008
APPENDIX I,— PERSECUTION IN THE CITY OF TOULOUSE, & 
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